Anna Hazare Protests Against Corruption

Anna Hazare, who led India's largest street protests against corruption in decades, said on Tuesday he plans a hunger strike against the ruling Congress party during state elections in Uttar Pradesh next year if the anti-graft Jan Lokpal Billis not quickly passed. Millions of mainly middle class Indians supported a near two-week fast in August by veteran self-styled Gandhian campaigner, forcing the centre-left government to bow to many of his demands for tougher laws to fight graft.

The 74-year-old Hazare said he would campaign against Congress before the polls in Uttar Pradesh if the government does not approve his anti-graft proposals. The state elections are a stepping-stone before the general election in 2014 and a major test for possible prime  ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi, the emerging leader from India's most famous family dynasty who is personally leading the Uttar Pradesh vote campaign.

After his last hunger strike, the government partially agreed to Hazare's demand that an anti-corruption agency should have the power to investigate the prime minister, judges and civil servants.

In India Danger of collapsing Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal will collapse within five years unless urgent action is taken to fix its rotting foundations, campaigners warn. The 358-year-old marble mausoleum is India's most famous tourist attraction, bringing four million visitors a year to the northern city of Agra. But the river crucial to its survival is being blighted by pollution, industry and deforestation. Campaigners believe the foundations have become brittle and are disintegrating. Cracks appeared last year in parts of the tomb, and the four minarets, which surround the monument, are showing signs of tilting.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mogul emperor Shah Jahan, who was grief-stricken by the death of his wife Mumtaz Mahal in childbirth. A campaign group of historians, environmentalists and politicians say time is running out to prevent a 'looming crisis'.

"If the crisis is not tackled on a war-footing, the Taj Mahal will cave in between two and five years," the Daily Mail quoted Ramshankar Katheria, the MP for Agra who is leading the campaign, as saying. "The architectural wonder of the world is losing its shine, and if this persists the minarets may also collapse since the wooden foundation - beneath the wells - is rotting due to lack of water. 

"No one has been allowed to go into the foundations for the last three decades. If everything is fine, what have they got to hide?" Professor Ram Nath, a historian who is one of the world's leading authorities on the Taj, said: "The Taj stands just on the edge of the river Yamuna which has now dried up. "This was never anticipated by its builders. The river is a constituent of its architectural design and if the river dies, the Taj cannot survive," 

Microsoft CEO

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Ballmer, 55, got a bonus of $682,500 for the latest fiscal year, matching his annual salary, according to a filing with securities regulators on Monday. Under his bonus scheme, he was eligible to receive between zero and double his salary. The long-time CEO, who took over from Bill Gates in 2000, has been a lightning rod for criticism of the former technology leader's static share price. One prominent shareholder called for his ouster this year, but he shows no signs of stepping down.

Last year, Ballmer also received a bonus equaling his salary, and was faulted for the failure of the Kin phone and keeping up with new forms of computing.Microsoft's latest filing said Ballmer's performance review for fiscal 2011 -- which ended June 30 -- took into account lower than expected sales of Windows Phone 7 software and "the need for further progress in new form factors," a reference to Microsoft's inability to counter runaway sales of Apple Inc's iPad.

Ballmer has long requested that he receive no stock compensation, which might otherwise boost his pay packet. He already owns 3.95 percent of the company's shares and is the 33rd richest person in the world with a fortune of $14.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Overall, Ballmer's compensation rose only about 2 percent from last year to $1.38 million, making him one of the lowest-paid leaders of a major U.S. company.

Microsoft's filing pegs Ballmer's maximum possible compensation -- if he had received twice his salary in bonus -- at about $2 million, compared to an average of $15.8 million for CEOs of peer companies. In the filing, Microsoft said its board believes Ballmer is "underpaid for his role and performance," but accepted his request to receive no stock.