Toyota launched its new updated version of Corolla Altis

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) has launched an updated version of its Corolla Altis saloon.

The refreshed model now comes with new set of headlamps, refreshed grille and bumper, updated rear lamps. The interiors now feature darker mock wood trim.

The petrol engine has been tweaked and will now deliver 138bhp, 7bhp more than the earlier model.The updated Altis now is equipped with new gearbox options; the 5-speed manual is now replaced by a new 6-speed unit while the top-end automatic version gets a new 7-speed CVT unit. Diesel models will feature the same 6-speed manual gearbox.

The prices of the petrol version have gone up by Rs 15,000-24,000 while the diesel prices have been hiked by Rs 15,000-30,000 depending on model. The Altis petrol is now priced from Rs 10.53 lakh to Rs 14.77 lakh while the diesel variant starts at Rs 11.46 lakh to Rs 14.55 lakh; all prices ex-showroom Delhi.

Southwest plane skids off runway

A Southwest Airlines plane slid off a runway Tuesday during heavy rain at Chicago Midway International Airport. Southwest Flight 1919 had just landed in route from Denver when the Boeing 737-700 ran off the runway, the airline said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of injuries, it said.

The report is the latest in a series of embarrassing incidents for Southwest Airlines, which came under scrutiny earlier this month when a ruptured fuselage ripped a hole in one of its B-737s at 34,000 feet and then again when reports surfaced that one of its planes came within 176 yards of a small aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement it was investigating Tuesday's incident. There were 134 passengers and five crew members on board at the time of the incident, the NTSB said.

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American Airlines adding more flights in markets

American Airlines is adding more flights in existing markets and rolling out new international and domestic service to give customers more scheduling options. The airline said Tuesday that it will now have daily nonstop service between Los Angeles and Shanghai. It will have another daily nonstop route between New York and Budapest, Hungary. Flights between Chicago and Helsinki, Finland will start on May 1.

American affiliate American Eagle will provide new nonstop service to Albuquerque, N.M.; Boise, Idaho; El Paso, Texas; Houston Bush Intercontinental; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Sacramento, Calif. and Tucson, Ariz. All of the flights will depart from Los Angeles. American will increase its daily service from Miami to Madrid from one flight it two flights. It will also raise the number of flights between New York JFK and Barcelona to 11 weekly flights from seven. In addition, American will restart daily seasonal service between Boston and Paris; Chicago and Dublin, Ireland and New York and Manchester, England.

Railways have nearly Rs 200-cr losses due to Jat agitation

The Northern Railway has registered losses nearly Rs 200 crore due to Jat agitation. The Jat community had blocked railway tracks and also stopped the movement of the trains. Although the exact figure hasn't been released yet. The Jat agitation is still continuing in the neighbouring states.

The freight traffic has witnessed major losses and the transportation of perishables and on-time performance of the railways has got impacted. Moreover, supply of commodities such as vegetables, milk, coal and petroleum products were affected heavily.The Railways has bagged quantitative and qualitative losses. On March 16, 66 trains were cancelled. The Jat community has further stated that they will block all rail links between the city and other cities such as Agra, Kanpur and Ambala, from March 28.

Toyota Motor Q3 profit slumps, outlook lifted

October-December operating profit was 99.07 billion yen ($1.20 billion), down from 189.1 billion yen in the similar period a year earlier. Net profit fell 38.9 percent to 93.63 billion yen.

For the year to March 31 it lifted its working profit forecast to 550 billion yen ($6.68 billion) from 380 billion yen, after profits for the first nine months exceeded that figure.

It increased its global sales forecast to 7.48 million vehicles from 7.41 million, with domestic sales seen at 2.02 million vehicles compared with an earlier prediction of 1.99 million. Its U.S. forecast was unchanged at 2.09 million units

Tata Motors green bus: Hybrid buses to be used for public transportation

For a city that has for so long been at the forefront of adopting clean fuels for its public transportation, the Delhi Transport Corporation has now taken its 'going green' tag to an entirely different level with the recent introduction of four new CNG-Electric Hybrid Bus, courtesy Tata Motors.

This is the first time in Indian automobile history that hybrid buses will be used for public transportation. Coming into force at a time when the city's cry for logistic assistance is the loudest, the four Hybrid buses of Tata Motors will run in the city during the Commonwealth Games period. Tata Motors will also maintain the buses, as it does for the fleet of Tata low-floor CNG buses running in the city.

Gracing such a strategic move by Tata Motors at the advent of an even greater sporting event, Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, flagged off the hybrid buses in the presence of ministers, top Government of Delhi officers, senior DTC management, Tata Motors' Managing Director - India Operations, P M Telang, and the President -Commercial Vehicles, R Pisharody.

On behalf of the very first Indian OEM to ever manufacture a public transportation vehicle of this nature, Mr. Telang said, "The CNG- Electric Hybrid Tata Starbus is a result of Tata Motors' advances in alternate fuel technologies, including electric vehicles. We are grateful to the Government of Delhi and the DTC for giving us this opportunity of showcasing hybrid buses in the city of Delhi during the Commonwealth Games. We will eagerly look forward to the feedback of the DTC and passengers."

The Hybrid Tata Starbus has been built for intra-city transportation, and is powered by a parallel hybrid engine comprising of an internal combustion CNG engine and an electric motor using regenerative energy storage system. Offering substantial improvement in fuel economy compared to a conventional bus, this technology leads to lower emissions, thereby contributing to cleaner air and a more environment-friendly commercial passenger transportation application.

No. 8 Cornhuskers travel west to face Washington

The Cornhuskers spent the first two weeks of the season cleaning up on Western Kentucky and Idaho before a sea of red, piling up impressive stats on their way to a pair of blowouts.

There will still be plenty of red inside Husky Stadium on Saturday, but facing Washington on the road is clearly the first challenge of Nebraska's season.

"We need to play well Saturday. I can tell you that. We expect to play very well Saturday, and I think we've been a pretty good road team," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. "I like our approach on the road. I like the way our team comes out and the attitude they take. This will be a different kind of challenge going farther away, but I think our guys are ready to play. Our guys are looking forward to this game."

Saturday's intersectional matchup will help determine whether the Cornhuskers (2-0) are worthy of their lofty early season ranking. A true assessment won't arrive until Big 12 play starts next month, after Nebraska closes out its nonconference slate next week at home against South Dakota State.

That makes facing Washington (1-1) the lone opportunity for getting a true gauge of the Cornhuskers. Are they the dominant force that scored 87 points in their first two games with redshirt freshman quarterback Taylor Martinez darting around the field like Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier in years past? Is this the same team that in its last game versus a BCS conference opponent shutout Arizona 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl last December?

Or will it be the team that hasn't won a road game against a BCS conference team, outside the Big 12, since a 2007 win at Wake Forest?

"The first two opponents were good teams, but going against a team like Washington, we're really going to see how far we've come and what we're made of," Nebraska defensive tackle Jared Crick said. "It's going to be a great challenge. If we can come out of there with a 'W,' it's going to tell a lot of things for us."

Washington also has a streak it would like to see end and has a bit of eerie similarity on its side. Take away a 2007 win over Boise State and a handful of Pac-10 victories and the Huskies have not beaten a ranked team from the other five power conferences - plus Notre Dame - since a 2001 win over Michigan to open the season. They're 0-9 during that stretch with losses to Ohio State (twice), Oklahoma (twice) and Miami, to name a few.

The Huskies got attention with their upset of then No. 3 Southern California a year ago. A win over Nebraska could return even more respect.

UPDATE 2-Borders posts loss as sales continue to fall

Borders Group Inc (BGP.N) reported a quarterly loss as the second-largest U.S. book store chain cut prices and continued to grapple with lower sales amid a shift to electronic books.

Like its larger bricks-and-mortar rival Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N), Borders has had to contend with fierce competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) whose Kindle, introduced in 2007, has helped it garner a commanding position in the growing digital books market.

But Borders has been much slower than Barnes & Noble, which introduced its Nook e-reader last year, to attack the e-books market and only launched its own e-bookstore in early July.

Borders' sales fell 11.5 percent to $526.1 million. Sales at its superstores open at least a year, or same-store sales, fell 6.8 percent, which follows a 17 percent decline in the year-ago quarter.

Underscoring how much ground Borders has to make up, the retailer said sales on its website had risen 56.2 percent to $15.5 million, but that only represents 3 percent of sales. At Barnes & Noble, they make up about one-tenth of sales.

As part of its strategy to catch up, Borders has cut the prices on some of the e-readers it sells.

In contrast to Barnes & Noble, Borders opted not to design its own e-reader, preferring to offer as many devices as possible to lure shoppers. It currently sells six e-readers, including a co-branded device with Kobo, and said it would add others in the coming weeks.

Borders reported a net loss of $46.7 million, or 67 cents a share, for the second quarter ended July 31, compared with a loss of $45.6 million, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier.

Transportation branch speaks Transportation branch speaks Salt Lake airfares are high-ceilinged

The investigate support of the U.S. Department of Transportation has establish that for passengers airborne out of the Salt Lake City International Airport, airfares augmented by 12.1 percent in the first sector of this year compared with the first part of last year.

The standard charge from January to March in Salt Lake was $338.83, up from $302.39 in the first part of 2009, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics data unconfined Wednesday. Salt Lake fares were advanced than the national regular of $328.

National fares augmented during the first quarter, too, rising 4.7 percent from the preceding year. The fares are not familiar for inflation. Nationally, from March 2009 to March 2010, prices enlarged by 2.3 percent. That means that airfares amplified at a greater pace than price rises.

The average tariff estimate considers domestic flights, both round-trip and one way, as well as taxes and fees such as airport usage fees, but not baggage fees. The bureau does not issue in tickets bought with frequent-flier benefits or free tickets given by airlines. Some extremely high fares are also disqualified from the averages.

Optical Transport and Infrastructure Management Solutions demonstrated by MRV in Germany to military service

MRV Communication announced, it will contribute in seven military technology expos prearranged by National Conference Services throughout Germany between July 20 and July 30. MRV Communications, Inc. is a foremost provider of optical communication and IT infrastructure management solutions to overhaul providers and enterprises around the world.

Through this two-week tour, MRV will display case its Fiber Driver and Lambda Driver optical transport systems, which distribute the flexible optical networking with the recital and scalability needed to build high speed safe and sound backbone networks to meet the demands of today's military organizations. The company will also showcase its LX Series out-of-band network management solution for secure remote service port access and remote power control of devices in a military organization's networks and infrastructures.

MRV's optical network solutions are planned to exploit the scale of the network and make available a true "any-protocol-over-fiber" operating environment. The systems embrace copper and fiber edge demarcation platforms and wave division optical transport solutions. MRV's out-of-band solutions present secure IP intelligence for the command, control, and defense of operational support infrastructure, by providing real-time awareness and state change event notification. They have also been used in military sensor management applications for both wet and dry contact alarms and sensors.

"MRV provides a wide range of technologies for today's military organizations, together with the Fiber Driver, Lambda Driver and LX Series, which provide the flexibility to easily scale networks as well as act in response to network issues in a timely manner," said Dilip Singh, chief executive officer of MRV.."

MRV's Fiber Driver optical multi overhaul product line provides a full range services demarcation, media conversion, signal repeating and fiber-optimization solutions, counting coarse and dense WDM capabilities.