WASHINGTON: A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck various parts of Pakistan, the US Geological Survey reported on Tuesday.

It said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.3, was very shallow at a depth of 6.3 miles (10 km). It struck 34 miles (55 km) west of Dalbandin at 1:23 a.m. local time on Wednesday (2023 GMT on Tuesday).

The Pacific Tsunami Center said the onshore quake had not triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

A major quake of this magnitude is capable of causing widespread and heavy damage.

By now you’ve no doubt heard about the new zodiac signs 2011. We’re not quite sure how this works, but somebody decided that people’s horoscopes needed to be changed, even adding a new zodiac sign.

So you’re asking yourself what is my new zodiac sign? Well, look no further.

* Why Did the Zodiac Signs Change?

Here are the new zodiac dates:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11
Pisces: March 11-April 18
Aries: April 18-May 13
Taurus: May 13-June 21
Gemini: June 21-July 20
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20

This rumor is spreading all across the web that facebook would shut down its operations on March 15, 2011.

This news initiated from Twitter and later on got published on various blogs and news websites. The source mentioned everywhere is a press conference conducted by March Mark Zuckerberg outside his Palo Alto office.

Zuckerberg was quoted as “Facebook has gotten out of control, and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”

Zuckerberg went on to explain that starting March 15th, users will no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts.

Not only this, there are comments of Vice President of Technical Affairs at Facebook “Mr. Avrat Humarthi” as well saying “After March 15th the whole website shuts down, So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the internet. You won’t be able to get them back once Facebook goes out of business”.

The news quite obviously seems a rumor, since Mark himself is fond of posting such astounding things on his Facebook page, as last time we saw the Time Magazine update on his page.

“I don’t care about the money,” said Zuckerberg. “I just want my old life back.”

The way different sources have posted his “I Don’t Care attitude” about the billions of money he is earning from Facebook does not give a very realistic picture. The truth on the other hand is that it is not at all easy to wind up such immensely growing business. The website with over 500 million active users no doubt looks difficult to manage, but instead of shutting it down every sane would definitely think of selling it out to get max benefit possible.

Anyhow, The Facebook Corporation suggests that users remove all of their personal information from the website before March 15th. After that date, all photos, notes, links, and videos will be permanently erased.

More on Google News

In a report published by PTA, on SMS traffic trends in local and global markets, says that a total of 151.6385 billion text messages were exchanged by Pakistani cellular subscribers in fiscal year 2009-10, generating a revenue of Rs. 40.76 billion.

This figure translates into 1532 SMS per subscriber in an year or 128 SMS per subscriber in one month. Average price of one SMS is said to be at 27 paisas.

Report says that four billion mobile subscribers use SMS service around the world, who sent five trillion messages in 2009 i.e. approximately 105 sms per person per month.

Pakistan is ranked Number four for average number of SMS sent per subscriber in a month.

By 2013 the volume of messages will double to 10 trillion, according to Portio Research. That is, the SMS traffic will grow double in coming four years. The forward prediction can be seen in following figure:

According to ITU, SMS traffic is generating an estimated revenue of USD 812,000 every minute (or around USD 14,000 every second) for the cellular companies from 5.3Billion users.

In 2009, SMS revenue accounted for 12% of China’s largest mobile operator’s total revenue. The Philippines and the United States combined accounted for 35% of all SMS sent in 2009.

SMS Traffic in Recent Years:

In Pakistan, SMS traffic over past few years is reported as following:

* 2006 PK Messaging: Approximately 8.7 Billion messages
* 2007 PK Messaging: Approximately 22.6 Billion messages
* 2008 PK Messaging: Approximately 61 Billion messages
* 2009 PK Messaging: Approximately 151.7 Billion messages

Report says that SMS traffic in Pakistan was exchanged at an average rate of 27 Paisa (Rs. 027) per SMS in the year 2009.

Report said that 80 percent of SMS traffic utilized SMS bundles offered by cellular companies, while rest of 20 percent SMS were sent using flat rate of Rs.1/sms.

An average bundled package of 700-SMS/ Month is approximately for Rs. 60. According to these two rates, the revenue for SMS-traffic is calculated to be approximately 40.76 Billion.

Operator Wise Details:

Zong and Mobilink has more outgoing traffic than the incoming traffic. Ufone has the highest SMS traffic on the network. The out and incoming traffic of Mobilink is almost balanced in each month respectively. Telenor has quite high incoming than its outgoing.

Following is the dissection of the traffic of all the operators network.

According to Mobilink, it has highest difference in exchange of traffic with Ufone. Incoming traffic from Ufone is more than the sent traffic. Similarly its receiving more SMS messages from Zong than the sent messages. Where as its sending more messages to Telenor and Warid.

Ufone SMS traffic is the highest landing traffic at the Telenor network. Zong is also sending more traffic to Telenor than is receiving from it. It is interesting to note here that he incoming traffic to telenor from all other networks, except warid, is more than its outgoing to all the networks.

Zong is sending more SMS to all the operators than receiving The difference in exchange of traffic is highest with Warid, followed by Mobilink then Telenor and Ufone.

*Download Complete Report – Report by ProPakistani.PK

The Secretary Cabinet Division, Mr. Abdur Rauf Chaudhry has said that 3G services would hopefully be available to the Pakistan mobile users by the end of 2011, while it is expected that the Policy for auction of 3G services licenses would soon be presented to the government and Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for discussion and approval.

He said this while speaking at a seminar organized by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaborat0ion with Qualcomm and Central Asian Cellular Forum (CACF) at Islamabad on 3G mobile services.

The theme was “Opportunities for All: Development of 3G Devices in Pakistan”.

Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, moderated the ceremony. Delegates from Board of Investment, Pakistan Engineering Council, Ministry of IT, Representatives from Qualcomm, IT & telecom Industry experts, CEOs of telecom companies, International Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Local Investors, Mobile Distributors, Academia and media representatives attended the seminar. The Secretary said that the local manufacturing of 3G handsets is very important and govt would consider the recommendations given by the Industry during the seminar.

On this occasion, Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen said that by the end of this quarter we will be able to roll out plans for 3G services once the Policy is approved by the Government. He said that handset manufacturing is a vital segment of mobile Eco System, by the end of 2011, there will be an estimated sales volume of 300 million 3G mobile handset around the globe. Pakistan offers an excellent opportunity for investment in 3G handset manufacturing with availability of skilled manpower and upward growth of mobile market. He said that creation of a favorable climate for high value added, low cost R&D, production and marketing will certainly instigate investment window in the country.

During the seminar Chairman PTA also delivered a comprehensive presentation to highlight the worldwide practices regarding 3G manufacturing. He presented various investment incentives offered in various countries. Chairman also highlighted the present 3G handset market in Pakistan with necessary future roadmap to promote handset manufacturing industry in the country.

Mr. Raheel Kamal, Mr. Sanjeet Pandit and Mr. Hani Yassin of Qualcomm also made presentations highlighting magnitude and importance of 3G Manufacturing in Pakistan. During the seminar speakers of International fame focused on the pre-requisites for handset manufacturing proliferation such as incentives, mutual coordination, infrastructure development and technology research.

Mobile phone has become the biggest platform available today with almost 5 billion wireless subscribers, of which there are more than 1 billion 3G subscribers in the world. The 3G number is expected to grow to 2.8 billion by 2014. With upcoming 3G auction in Pakistan and network rollouts in the near future, the industry would be benefited from the data growth and exciting applications and services on the 3G networks. Various full-featured mobile operating systems such as Android, Windows, Java, Brew MP, etc., continue to drive the proliferation of mass-market Smartphones offering thousands of applications, services and mobile content.