Hamilton won in Malaysian Grand Prix

Rosberg completes 2nd, Mercedes one-two; Vettel finishes third

Lewis Hamilton led from pole position to win the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes show of strength.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was third ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

It was a demonstration by Mercedes who have now won the season’s two opening Formula One races and secured a first one-two since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton cruised to his 23rd grand prix victory while Rosberg enjoyed another podium place after winning the season opener in Australia two weeks ago.

Red Bull were boosted by Vettel’s podium finish but team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s race was ruined by a late tyre change blunder.

Hamilton took the chequered flag 17.133 seconds ahead of his team-mate, with Vettel 24.334 seconds back. It was the Briton’s first win since Hungarian GP in July and his first in Malaysia.

The remaining places in the top 10 were taken by Nico Huelkenberg (Force India), Jenson Button (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Kevin Magnusson (McLaren) and Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso).

Heavy rain forecast for the start of the race at the Sepang International Circuit held off and Hamilton was able to get away cleanly from Rosberg, who moved past Vettel at the start.

Ricciardo also began well, overtaking Alonso and Vettel, before slipping back behind the German on lap four.

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen was handed a five-second stop-go penalty for hitting Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, causing a puncture, while Force India’s Sergio Perez failed to start due to a software problem.

Engine reliability proved a problem for Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, who was forced to retire, while Toro Ross’s Jean-Eric Vergne retired reporting a lack of power, and both Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez also pulled out in quick succession.

Hamilton was untroubled at the front, building up a lead of around 10 seconds by the half-way mark, with only the threat of rain a possible concern for the 2008 world champion.

Ricciardo was lying fourth when he pitted with 15 laps to go, but mechanics failed to secure his left front tyre properly and the Australian had to stop in the pit lane and be pushed back for the tyre to be fixed.

He then almost immediately had to return to the pits with a broken front wing and was then punished with a 10-second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release in the first pit stop before he finally retired with four laps remaining.

As skies darkened, drivers reported drops of rain with some 20 laps of the 56 laps to go, but the feared downpour failed to materialise and any potential late drama was avoided.

Djokovic beats Nadal and Serena beats Li Na for Miami title

Novak Djokovic won his fourth career title at the Miami Masters on Sunday with a 6—3, 6—3 defeat of top seed Rafael Nadal.

The trophy comes in addition to titles in 2007, 2011, 2012 and marked the third win in a row in the series in which Djokovic now stands 18 wins and 22 defeats.

The second seed also completed the March Masters 1000 title double, winning Indian Wells (over Roger Federer) and Miami.

WOMENS

 Serena Williams won a record seventh Key Biscayne title on Saturday when she overcame a slow start and a set point to beat Li Na 7-5, 6-1 at the Sony Open.

Williams surpassed the tournament record of six titles she shared with Andre Agassi. By beating Li, she extended her winning streak against top-10 opponents to 15 matches.

21 pygmy hog nests found in Manas National Park

Sushanta Talukdar

The smallest and rarest wild pig has been listed as critically-endangered

A survey conducted by the Assam Forest Department in the Manas National Park (MNP) has detected an estimated 21 nests of the critically-endangered pygmy hog (Porcula salvania).

The nests of pygmy hog — the smallest and rarest wild pig — were found in three separate locations. The survey also found pellets of the Hispid hare (Caprolagus hispidus) in almost all of 17 camp site locations, where the study was conducted for grassland species from March 18 to March 22.

Deputy Director of Manas Tiger Reserve Sonali Ghosh told The Hindu that Manas is known to be the last remaining wild habitat of the pygmy hog in the world.

“The finding of the survey is highly encouraging as the number of pygmy hogs was thought to be declining in number at the Park. Both Pygmy hog and Hispid Hare are Schedule I species. The pygmy hog nests were live with indications of the activity of this highly-endangered species, including droppings of the species,” said Dr. Ghosh, who was also a member of the survey team. Schedule I and Schedule II species are given absolute protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and offences against them attract heavy penalties.

Dr. Ghosh said pygmy hogs captured from Manas and captive-bred at Pygmy Hog Conservation Centre at Basistha in Guwahati had been released into the Orang National Park, Sonai Rupai wildlife sanctuary and Nameri Tiger Reserve in the State.

Other members of the survey team included grassland experts — Dr. Bibhuti Lahkar from Aaranyak, Dr. Gitanjali Banerji from Zoological Society of London, and Dr. Kaushik Deuti from the Zoological Survey of India besides researchers working in the World Heritage Site.

GPS-based method used

Dr. Ghosh said that GPS-based sign survey method was used in Bansbari and Bhuyanpara ranges of MNP to look for indirect signs such as pygmy hog droppings, nests and Hispid hare pellets and feeding signs.

Dr. Bibhuti Lahkar stated that wet alluvial grasslands dominated by Barenga (Saccharum narenga), Ulu (Imperata cylindrica) species under the two ranges were critical for survival of pygmy hog. These grasses must be protected by taking suitable measures such as early mosaic burning and systematic removal of anthropogenic pressure such as grazing domestic animal from nearby villages and the spread of invasive species, Dr. Lahkar said.

During the rapid survey, direct evidence was also obtained for other grassland species such as hog deer (Hyelaphus porcinus), swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii), and Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis), he added.

Chelsea routs Arsenal 6-0 in Arsenal manager Wenger's 1,000th game

Referee Andre Marriner has apologised for sending off Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs by mistake during the Gunners' 6-0 defeat by league leaders Chelsea.

Chelsea handed Arsene Wenger one his most demoralizing defeats as Arsenal manager as is 1,000th game ended in a 6—0 rout on Saturday, and the referee also endured embarrassment at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea earned its biggest league victory under Jose Mourinho and was up 2—0 after just seven minutes through goals from Samuel Eto’o and Andre Schuerrle. Referee Andre Marriner then provided the London derby’s big talking point by sending off the wrong Arsenal player after 15 minutes.

Although Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain blatantly handled to keep out Eden Hazard’s shot, it was Kieran Gibbs who was dismissed despite his teammate’s protests. Hazard scored Chelsea’s third from the resulting penalty, before Oscar netted twice and Mohamed Salah completed Wenger’s misery with his first goal for the leaders.

Arsenal saw its title ambitions seriously dented at it fell seven points behind Chelsea, and faced being dislodged from third place by Manchester City, which hosted Fulham later in the day.

For Wenger the margin of defeat matched the previous low-point of his 18-year reign an 8—2 loss at Manchester United. And the humbling only served to justify Mourinho’s recent gibe that Wenger is a “specialist in failure” as the Frenchman went an 11th game without beating his Portuguese rival.

“Two-nil after seven minutes and the game is over, because we were too strong for them,” Mourinho said.

Chelsea took control of the game from a counterattack straight after goalkeeper Petr Cech had denied Olivier Giroud.

Schuerrle ran through the centre from the halfway line and passed to Eto’o on the edge of the penalty area, and the Cameroon striker controlled the ball before curling it past the diving Wojciech Szczesny in the fifth minute.

In a near replica move, Arsenal’s defense crumbled again inside two minutes as the provider turned scorer. Nemanja Matic seized possession around the halfway line and fed Schuerrle, who went past Laurent Koscielny before scoring.

Although Eto’o was forced off injured in the 10th minute and replaced by Fernando Torres he had already provided a key contribution to this joyous day for Chelsea.

“Arsene Wenger we want you to stay,” Chelsea fans taunted.

It was to get a lot worse for Wenger’s side and the referee when Hazard’s shot was tipped away, not by Szczesny, but by Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Despite the clearest of diving saves by an outfield player, Marriner somehow managed to identify Gibbs as the offender despite Oxlade-Chamberlain being seen admitting to the referee: “It was me.”

Just before halftime, Schuerrle released Torres, who squared into the centre for Oscar to scoop in from close range. Oscar’s second in the 66th was in part down to a goalkeeping blunder as Szczesny allowed his curling shot from outside the area to slip through his hands.

And Szczesny allowed Salah’s shot to roll under him four minutes later to cap an all-around dismal performance by the visitors.

Image of this Week: Chaharshanbe Souri

A man lights fireworks during the Chaharshanbe Souri (Wednesday Feast) celebration marking the eve of the last Wednesday of the solar Persian year during festivities in Tehran, Iran.

Weird ‘chicken from hell’ dinosaur discovered

the skeleton of the dinosaur Anzu wyliei.

Scientists have discovered a weird sharp-clawed bird-like dinosaur that roamed the Earth with the dreaded T-rex 66 million years ago and is being described as a “chicken from hell”.

The beaked dinosaur, Anzu wyliei, was almost 5 feet tall at the hip, measured 11.5 feet long and weighed up to 300 kg and had very sharp claws.

“It was a giant raptor, but with a chicken-like head and presumably feathers. The animal stood about 10 feet tall, so it would be scary as well as absurd to encounter,” said Emma Schachner from the University of Utah, a co-author of study.

“We jokingly call this thing the ‘chicken from hell,’ and I think that’s pretty appropriate,” said Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, the study’s lead author.

Three partial skeletons of the dinosaur — almost making up a full skeleton — were excavated from the uppermost level of the Hell Creek rock formation in North and South Dakota — a formation known for abundant fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops.

Anzu is also “one of the youngest oviraptorosaurs known, meaning it lived very close to the dinosaur extinction event” blamed on an asteroid striking Earth 65 million years ago, Schachner said.

The researchers believe Anzu, with large sharp claws, was an omnivore, eating vegetation, small animals and perhaps eggs while living on a wet floodplain. The dinosaur apparently got into some scrapes.

“Two of the specimens display evidence of pathology. One appears to have a broken and healed rib, and the other has evidence of some sort of trauma to a toe,” Schachner said.

Having a nearly complete skeleton of Anzu wyliei sheds light on a category of oviraptorosaur theropod dinosaurs named caenagnathids, which have been known for a century, but only from limited fossil evidence.

Like many “new” dinosaurs, Anzu wyliei fossils were discovered some years ago, and it took more time for researchers to study the fossils and write and publish a formal scientific description.

The finding was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

A Tibetan mastiff puppy has been sold for $2 million

A Tibetan mastiff puppy has been sold in China for almost $2 million, a report said Wednesday, in what could be the most expensive dog sale ever. 

A property developer paid 12 million yuan ($1.9 million) for the one-year-old golden-haired mastiff at a "luxury pet" fair Tuesday in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the Qianjiang Evening News reported. 

"They have lion's blood and are top-of-the-range mastiff studs," the dog's breeder Zhang Gengyun was quoted as telling the paper, adding that another red-haired canine had sold for 6 million yuan. 

Enormous and sometimes ferocious, with round manes lending them a passing resemblance to lions, Tibetan mastiffs have become a prized status symbol among China's wealthy, sending prices skyrocketing.

The golden-haired animal was 80 centimetres (31 inches) tall, and weighed 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds), Zhang said, adding that he was sad to sell the animals. Neither was named in the report.

"Pure Tibetan mastiffs are very rare, just like our nationally treasured pandas, so the prices are so high," he said. 

One red mastiff named "Big Splash" reportedly sold for 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in 2011, in the most expensive dog sale then recorded. 

The buyer at the Zhejiang expo was said to be a 56-year-old property developer from Qingdao who hopes to breed dogs himself, according to the report. 

The newspaper quoted the owner of a mastiff breeding website as saying that last year one animal sold for 27 million yuan at a fair in Beijing. 

But an industry insider surnamed Xu told the paper that the high prices may be the result of insider agreements among breeders to boost their dogs' worth.

"A lot of the sky-high priced deals are just breeders hyping each other up, and no money actually changes hands," Xu said. 

Owners say the mastiffs, descendants of dogs used for hunting by nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet, are fiercely loyal and protective.

First tremors of Big Bang detected

--Stuart Clark

Scientists have heralded a “whole new era” in physics with the detection of “primordial gravitational waves” — the first tremors of the big bang. 

The minuscule ripples in space-time are the last prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1916 general theory of relativity to be verified. Until now, there has only been circumstantial evidence of their existence. The discovery also provides a deep connection between general relativity and quantum mechanics, another central pillar of physics.

“This is a genuine breakthrough,” says Dr Andrew Pontzen, a cosmologist from University College London who was not involved in the work. “It represents a whole new era in cosmology and physics as well.” If the discovery is confirmed, it will almost certainly lead to a Nobel Prize.

The detection, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, was announced on Monday at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and comes from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 (Bicep2) experiment — a telescope at the South Pole.

The detection also provides the first direct evidence for a long-held hypothesis called inflation. This states that a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe was driven to expand hugely. Without this sudden growth spurt, the gravitational waves would not have been amplified enough to be visible.

“Detecting this signal is one of the most important goals in cosmology today. A lot of work by a lot of people has led up to this point,” said Dr John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who leads the BICEP2 collaboration.

The primordial gravitational waves were visible because they created a twisting pattern called polarisation in light from the Big Bang. Polarisation is the direction in which a light wave oscillates. It is invisible to human eyes, which only register brightness and colour. Sunglasses made from polaroid sheets work by blocking out all light waves except those with a specific polarisation.

Light from the Big Bang has been turned into microwaves by its passage across space. These microwaves were discovered in 1964 and are known as the cosmic microwave background radiation. Bicep2 was designed to measure their polarisation.

Rumours began last Friday that the detection of primordial gravitational waves would be announced. It had been thought that a gravitational wave signal would have to be surprisingly strong to be detected by the current technology used in ground-based detectors.

The Bicep2 team have spent three years analysing the signal in order to be certain. “This has been like looking for a needle in a haystack, but instead we found a crowbar,” said co-leader Dr Clem Pryke of the University of Minnesota.

Nevertheless, the signal will have to be confirmed. “I think a lot of people will be looking very critically at this,” said Dr Pontzen.

Confirmation could come as early as August. The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite has been looking for this same signal and is due to announce its findings.

Whereas Bicep2 has only looked at part of the sky visible from the south pole, Planck has mapped the whole sky.

If it confirms the signal and its strength then cosmologists will be presented with an extraordinarily rich seam of data about the conditions immediately after the Big Bang. “We are going to be able to measure all sorts of subtle details to start pinning down how physics operates in those utterly extreme conditions,” said Dr Pontzen.

This could reveal the interface between the two great theories of physics: general relativity and quantum mechanics. Despite almost a century of effort, the world’s physicists have not been able to show how these theories work together. The primordial gravitational waves that produced the signal seen by Bicep2 were produced in interactions that took place at a trillion times the energies that can be produced in the Large Hadron Collider at Cern.

“This is like turning the whole universe into a particle physics experiment,” said Dr Hiranya Peiris, a cosmologist from University College London.

It could even show them the way to join the two theories together, producing what is sometimes called “the theory of everything”.

“Gravitational waves emitted at the time of the Big Bang can tell us how the universe came to exist,” said Dr Ed Daw, an astronomer at the University of Sheffield. “If these results prove correct, we will have new key information on the very early universe, information that is hard to get from any other source.

“Gravitational waves are a new frontier in astrophysics and cosmology. If today’s (Monday’s) findings are accurate then it will further strengthen our understanding of how the universe formed.”

 © Guardian News & Media 2014

Sony unveils virtual reality headset for PS4

The Japanese electronics and gaming giant, Sony, unveiled a prototype virtual reality headset to be used in conjunction with its PlayStation 4 (PS4) video game console during a Tuesday talk at the Game Developers Conference.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, showed off the slick black-and-white headset at the annual gathering of game designers. He said Sony has been working on the technology for more than three years.

The adjustable device is codenamed Project Morpheus and features a head-mounted display with 1080p resolution and a 90-degree field of view. Sensors built into the headset can track a wearer’s head movement in concert with a PS4 camera.

“This prototype is by no means final,” said Mr. Yoshida. “We will continue to work on this to improve it, but we believe it’s a good representation of how PlayStation will deliver VR.”

Anton Mikhailov, a senior software engineer working on Project Morpheus, said the current version of the technology must be attached to a PS4 console with a cord that’s about 15 feet (4.5 meters) long, and users’ virtual perspectives can be simultaneously broadcast on a television screen. “The experience can be shared, and that’s only going to allow it to spread,” said Mr. Mikhailov. “I think that’s going to be the key. Once people see someone else interacting in VR, they’re going to want to put it on and try it next.”

Mr. Mikhailov said users will be able to interact with the virtual world displayed on the headset with the gesture-detecting PlayStation Move controller, as well as the standard DualShock 4. He declined to specify when the headset would be released or how much it would cost.

Project Morpheus will be available for demonstration beginning Wednesday for conference attendees on the conference’s expo floor with four games-diving cage simulators “The Deep,” medieval combat game “The Castle,” sci-fi dogfighter “EVE- Valkyrie” and a VR rendition of the stealthy action-adventure title “Thief.”

While Sony Corp. has released other head-mounted display units, Project Morpheus marks the company’s first foray into VR with PlayStation.

Nico Rosberg won the Australian Grand Prix

James Maasdorp

Nico Rosberg won the Australian Grand Prix, holding off local hope Daniel Ricciardo and rookie Kevin Magnussen in the opening race of the Formula One season in Melbourne.

The German Mercedes driver's win came after team-mate Lewis Hamilton retired early in the race with engine problems, around the same time defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull also exited out of contention.

The retirements meant both Rosberg and Ricciardo rocketed to the forefront of race contention, having qualified in second and third position.

Rosberg had built up a 14-second lead after 32 laps and even with a pit-stop still to make on Ricciardo, extended that to over 16 seconds by the 43rd lap.

Ultimately, Rosberg finished 24 seconds ahead of the Australian, in a formidable title warning of the capabilities of Mercedes' W05 car to the rest of the chasing pack field.

"Brilliant guys. What a car you gave me, what a car," an elated Rosberg bellowed over Mercedes' team radio.

Ricciardo's second-place finish meant a first time on a Formula One podium for the 24-year-old Red Bull deputy and also the first time a local had finished in a podium place at the Australian Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, McLaren's Magnussen remarkably became the first Danish driver in history to claim a Formula One podium finish, all in his debut season.

"Thanks guys, it's all a bit of a blur right now," Ricciardo said over the radio, to which his engineer replied: "That's brilliant mate, I think we can see your smile from here."

McLaren's Jenson Button finished fourth, while Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five.

Mercedes' superior preseason preparations for F1's technical revolution paid dividends in Rosberg's huge victory margin, with championship rival Red Bull struggling through winter testing to get to grips with the new V6 turbocharged hybrid engines.

Those problems continued for a number of teams, as only 14 of the 22 cars finished on the Albert Park circuit.

First-lap crash, Hamilton and Vettel retirements ignite Albert Park

The race started in spectacular fashion as Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi - on his return to Formula One - clipped Williams' Felipe Massa on the first corner, sending both drivers sprawling into the gravel and out of the race.

Pole-sitter Hamilton was forced to retire with an engine complaint in just the third lap, before Vettel pulled into the pits to retire soon after, having struggled with power problems from the first lap.

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas also pushed too hard coming out of turn 10, hitting the wall hard and breaking his rear rim, losing the wheel two corners later.

Bottas's lost wheel forced the Finn down the grid and also brought out the safety car, prompting early, strategic pit-stops from the race leaders during the 12th lap.

Twenty laps in, Ricciardo was still trailing Rosberg by about five seconds, before being told over the Red Bull radio he no longer needed to conserve fuel, prompting an aggressive push from the Australian.

McLaren's Jenson Button pitted to take on medium tyres after 32 laps, allowing the Briton the remainder of the race without stops after using both tyre compounds.

Applause then emerged from the Williams garage when Bottas - having lost his tyre so early in the race - temporarily moved up to fifth place, having made use of the safety car superbly to repair the damage to his wheel.

Having narrowed the gap between second and third to 1.1 seconds on the 49th lap, Kevin Magnussen received orders to put the pressure on Ricciardo, who looked to be struggling with eight laps to go.

But with the race all but Rosberg's, Ricciardo showed tremendous poise to hold off the hyper-talented 

Magnussen and secure the runner-up spot.

A beaming Ricciardo thanked the enthusiastic crowd - which erupted in applause when he lifted his second-place silverware - for the "overwhelming" support.

"Just two or three weeks ago, I would bet everything I have that we would not be standing up here," Ricciardo said on the podium.

"Full credit to the team for an unbelievable turn around. I don't understand how they did it, but they did.

"And thanks to the Aussie fans. The support has been completely overwhelming."

Race winner Rosberg praised his Mercedes team, saying the Melbourne win will lay the foundations for a real tilt at the drivers' and constructors' championships.

"It has been an amazing time in Melbourne. The support has been fantastic, Daniel got more support than me, but that's normal," he said.

"It has been an amazing day. Everyone has worked so hard over the weather and to have such an amazing [W05] Silver Arrow is unbelievable.

"The reliability was good and it's the perfect start to the season."

300: Rise of an Empire - Real history

Before seeing this movie we need to know about some history of Greece then only we can understand this movie.
 

Before Alexander born there are 7 kingdoms in Greece, in that Spartans and Athenians are two countries. Spartan is under "King Leonidas" who shown in previous movie 300. Another kingdom Athenians is a democracy rule in that Themistocles (hero) is a Army General. During 'War of Marathon', Persian (now Turkey) king Darius invaded Greece but in that war Darius was killed. Xerxes (Persian king) was son of Darius; on revenge his father killed he invaded Greece in that two parts are of army divided in that Artemisia (the women commander) takes navy team and Xerxex take Army team. Here Xerxex takes war in Thermopylae against 300 Spartans men’s (last part movie). Parallel Artemisia takes her navy ships towards Athenians Kingdom here this movie story starts.
 

This movie is fully a navy war story to take a war action movie based on navy background is very tough but director handle this movie very perfectly. Compare to 300 the action sequence is less but this movie doesn't disappoints us in action stuffs. Still wait 3rd part will come. History continues......
 

Remember, this is not a SEQUEL MOVIE (like continues part) and not a PREQUEL MOVIE (X-Men First Class), this movie “300: Rise of an Emperor” is a SIDEQUEL MOVIE this storyline travels parallel along with previous part 300.

New York City building collapses after explosion in Harlem

An explosion caused the swift and entire collapse of a building in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York on Wednesday, causing at least one death and 16 injuries.

Smoke poured from a building site at 116th Street and Park Avenue as first responders investigated the chaotic scene. The site is next to train tracks and blocks away from the north border of Central Park.

The New York fire department said it had sent 168 firefighters from 39 units to the scene. The Associated Press said one person with “serious trauma” was being treated at the nearby Harlem hospital . More injured people were expected, said Lamarr Nelson, a hospital spokesman.

At least 16 people with minor injuries were treated at the scene, and the New York Police Department confirmed one person had died. No further details were available.

Residents heard a large explosion around 9am. One five-story building was reduced to rubble, and a second building also was significantly damaged. The power company, Con Edison, said it had been responding to reports of a smell of gas when the explosion happened.

Metro-North train service was suspended in both directions. The Metropolitan Transit Authority said: “All train service into and out of Grand Central terminal is temporarily suspended until further notice due to a building explosion adjacent to our tracks.”

 

The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, was due to hold a press conference at the scene at 12 noon ET

86th Academy Awards winners

86th Academy Awards winners

Nokia unveils there X-family mobiles runs with Android OS; but no Google Play support

Nokia has announced its first-ever smartphones based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), that can run Android apps and are powered by Microsoft and Nokia services.

Nokia X and Nokia X+ are dual-SIM phones that come with 4-inch 480x800 displays and are powered by 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. Both have identical 4GB internal storage, with expandable support up to 32GB via microSD card, and are powered by a 1500mAh battery. While the Nokia X comes with 512MB RAM, the Nokia X+ comes with 768MB RAM. Both phones have a 3-megapixel rear camera, but no front shooter. They are powered by a 1500mAh battery.

Nokia XL comes with a 5-inch 480x800 display, a 5-megapixel camera, a 720p front camera, 768MB RAM and a 2000mAh battery, while sharing other specifications with its younger siblings.

All three phones come with 3G support and take Micro-SIMs instead of regular ones.

The Nokia X will go on sale immediately, starting at EUR 89 (approximately Rs. 7,500 not including duties and taxes) in Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The Nokia X+ and Nokia XL are expected to roll out in these markets starting early second quarter, priced at EUR 99 (approximately Rs. 8,400 not including duties and taxes) and EUR 109 (approximately Rs. 9,300 not including duties and taxes), respectively.

The highlight of the three devices of course is the highly customised version of Android, with its Metro-inspired UI and access to Nokia's own store. While there's no access to Google's Play Store, users can side-load Android apps from any third-party source. Nokia has used AOSP corresponding to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as the baseline for its operating system.

All devices come with free access to Here Maps, with offline maps and integrated turn-by-turn navigation, and Nokia MixRadio for free music streaming and downloadable playlists. All devices are also pre-loaded with a variety of third-party apps and games.

Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL come with free cloud storage from Microsoft's OneDrive (earlier called SkyDrive). With the purchase of any Nokia X family smartphone in select markets, people will get one month of Skype's Unlimited World Subscription for a limited time.

Both the Nokia X and Nokia X+ will be available in bright green, bright red, cyan, yellow, black and white. The Nokia XL will be available in bright green, orange, cyan, yellow, black and white. Colour availability may vary across regions.