Obama meets Dalai Lama despite China's warning

China has responded angrily to a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese foreign ministry described the meeting in Washington as a gross interference in China's internal affairs.

The White House said the talks underscored President Obama's strong support for the preservation of what it called Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity.

Muthoot Finance to offer loans against gold ETF units

Muthoot Finance Ltd, which claims to be the largest gold finance NBFC in India, on Friday said it will now offer loans against Gold ETF (Exchange Traded Funds) units as security.

Launching the service, Muthoot Finance Ltd Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot told reporters here that the loans against gold ETF units was a scheme through which Muthoot Finance plans to venture into a totally new segment of gold financing, which would not only add value, but also enable the company to service the financial requirements of newer customer segments.

The new scheme would come into force by this month end and would enable the customers to avail finance at the rate of 15 per cent interest against their Gold ETF units to the extent of 85 per cent of the Net Asset Value of ETFs.

Muthoot has tied up with Benchmark, for offering the service, which would be available at 30 branches of Muthoot all over the country in the first phase and would be later extended to all 3,000 of its branches.

He said the company expects to extend up to Rs 1,000 crore worth of loans this fiscal.

Gold ETFs have seen a progressive rise in popularity throughout the country over the past two to three years, attaining a whopping size of over Rs 5,000 crore as of June this year, resulting out of active investments from over 320,000 investors, according to National Stock Exchange Assistant Vice-President and Southern Region Head Sunita Anand.

Benchmark Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd National Head-Sales Anil Desai said the golf ETF loan scheme by Muthoot Finance Ltd would act as a source for investors in gold ETFs to raise funds against their investment units during times of need, instead of selling those units.

Commonly referred as ‘paper gold’, gold ETFs are mutual fund units issued by asset management companies against 99.5 per cent purity physical gold deposited with a SEBI-registered custodian.

Gold ETFs are listed and traded on stock exchanges and can be bought and sold like stocks on a real time basis.

These funds are passively managed and mirror domestic gold prices. By enabling investors to invest in gold without holding it in physical form, gold ETFs offer a rather unique investment opportunity to investors.

Facebook bans Google+ ad

Ingenuity is surely something to be admired. Commercial ingenuity is something to be revered.

Sometimes, though, it seems that certain tech companies only revere their own ingenuity. That seems to be the case with Facebook, which, as reported by TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld, has removed a piece of fine commercial ingenuity from its site.

App developer Michael Lee Johnson, conscious of the need to be big on Google+ or be nobody, wondered what the best way to levitate his Google+ circles might be. He hit upon a fine idea: he placed an ad on Facebook. It was a simple thing that was headlined: "Add Michael to Google+."

The copy read: "If you're lucky enough to have a Google+ account, add Michael Lee Johnson, Internet Geek, App Developer, Technological Virtuoso."

If those words weren't enough to persuade Facebook users that Johnson was a must for their Google+, he added a fine picture of himself wearing a jaunty cap.

You're not guessing what happened with the ad, are you? You know what happened, don't you? Facebook didn't, according to Johnson, merely erase this heinous horse of Troy from its pages. It reportedly banned all his other campaigns too.

The message he received read as follows: "Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions."

Because my life's purpose is to be helpful, I scanned Facebook's Terms of Use and Advertising just to see what specific clause might have been besmirched by Johnson's chutzpah.

Perhaps it was Clause 11 in the "Special Provisions Applicable to Advertisers" section: "You will not issue any press release or make public statements about your relationship with Facebook without written permission." Johnson had shamefully declared on Google+ that he was placing the ad.

Perhaps it was Clause 4d of Facebook's Advertising Guidelines: "Ads cannot insult, harass, or threaten a user." He was, some might say, harrassing and insulting Facebook loyalists by his mere suggestion that there might be another place to socially network.

Or perhaps Facebook, its nose feeling tweaked, merely decided to reach for 6a of the same Advertising Guidelines: "We may refuse ads at any time for any reason, including our determination that they promote competing products or services or negatively affect our business or relationship with our users."

Still, ejecting all of Johnson's campaigns seems a touch cruel. Perhaps Johnson will consider an action against Facebook for emotional distress and, well, damage to his reputation.

This he will have to place, so Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities tells me, in a court in Santa Clara County. For now, Johnson's only public statements have been: "LOL." Oh, and "Facebook. You Suck."

1,460 people currently have Johnson in their Google+ circles. I cannot find Google+'s No. 1 personality, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, among them.

Casey Anthony walks free after acquittal in daughter's death

(CNN) -- Casey Anthony walked free from a Florida jail early Sunday morning, three years and one day after she was first arrested for her role in the disappearance and, eventually, death of her 2-year-old daughter.

Anthony, wearing a pink T-shirt and sweatpants, walked out of the front door of the Orange County jail at 12:08 a.m. with her lawyer by her side and two sheriff's deputies accompanying them.

Anthony and her lawyer, Jose Baez, then climbed into a dark-colored sports utility vehicle that headed eastbound on I-4.

Given the threats that have been made against her life by those furious at the not-guilty verdict, Anthony's lawyers have not said where she will go next.

Throngs of television camera crews and a crowd of about 1,000 people were at hand outside the jail to witness the release.

Most of those who waved placards in the jail parking lot were there to voice their opposition to Anthony's release, but they did so peacefully.

Police, some on horseback, kept a wary eye.

As the pair left, the demonstrators shouted and jeered.

The Orlando woman's release comes 12 days after a jury acquitted her on murder and child neglect charges. That verdict brought an abrupt end to a six-week trial that drew intense media hype for its elements of family drama and the continued mystery over what happened to young Caylee Anthony.

While Anthony was cleared on the more serious charges, the jury of seven women and five men did convict her on four counts of misleading law enforcement agents who were investigating Caylee's whereabouts.

Orange County Superior Court Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr. gave Anthony credit for time served in determining the release date. She was initially taken into custody July 16, 2008, and had been jailed -- with some brief exceptions, having been freed on bail on multiple occasions -- for most of the past three years.

Her toddler girl's skeletal remains were eventually found in a wooded field not far from the home of Casey Anthony's parents in December 2008, seven months after she was last seen.

Prosecutors tried, unsuccessfully, to convince jurors that the mother used chloroform to render her daughter unconscious and then duct-taped her mouth and nose to suffocate her. Her defense lawyers, meanwhile, painted Caylee's death as an accident, claiming that she'd drowned accidentally at the family pool and that Casey and her father George Anthony both covered it up.

The questions about how Caylee died, and who was responsible, remain open. But a more immediate issue is what happens next to the girl's mother, who attracted intense anger, revulsion and even sympathy from a public that she will once again be a part of.

While there have been cash donations to her jailhouse account, the more widespread sentiment is against Casey Anthony, with many feeling she killed her daughter and got away with it. This fury has led to speculation that the polarizing subject of the "I Hate Casey Anthony" Facebook page -- and the source of ire for its more than 40,000 fans -- might change her name and appearance and move someplace far away.

"If her attorneys are doing the right thing and are doing their jobs, they're going to have to explain to her that there is real hatred out there for her, that there have been death threats, that she cannot just walk amongst the population," HLN legal contributor Sunny Hostin said. "That is not just going to happen."

Florida corrections officials, and Anthony's lawyers, have offered few details about what will happen to her once she's out. That's in part likely due to the intense emotions Anthony's release has generated.

"I know it's bad God Forgive me but i hope someone wipes that smirk off her face. With a mack truck," one poster on the "I Hate Casey Anthony" Facebook page wrote.

Visiting the Orlando site where Caylee's remains were found, Rebecca Stone said she believed her mother "put her here" -- even if the jury did not reach the same conclusion.

When asked about what's next for Casey Anthony, the Flowery Branch, Georgia, mother of two told CNN, "I don't think she will be alive for long."

An Oklahoma woman said she has already faced the kind of ire Anthony may face when she's no longer behind the protective walls of the Orange County Jail.

Sammy Blackwell told CNN affiliate KOTV that a woman who mistook her for Anthony on July 8 rammed her car twice, flipping it over.

"She said that I was trying to hurt babies, I was killing babies and she was going to stop it before it happened again," Blackwell told the station.

As it happens, Blackwell has a daughter named Caylee too, but that's the end of the similarities. She says she really doesn't even look that much like Anthony and worries for women who do.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said Tuesday that investigators are assessing threats to Anthony's safety. While he said the department was not aware of any credible threats to her life, it's a concern that was clearly on his mind.

"Nobody has a right to take the law in their own hands," he said. "Casey Anthony had her day in court and the jury made a decision. I would hope people would step back and would not go out and commit another crime."

It's also a concern for her attorneys.

"Myself and other members of the team are concerned for her safety, very much so," one of her attorneys, Dorothy Sims, told HLN.

What Anthony will do after her release is unclear.

"If I knew at this point, I'm sure you can appreciate that I wouldn't tell you," Sims said. "I don't believe that that has been resolved. My hope for her would be that she would be left alone and her privacy would be respected."

Hostin said on CNN that she's heard reports that Anthony will go into hiding, live under an assumed name or get plastic surgery.

"But I think we are going to hear her story, because people have offered her a million dollars already for her story," she said.

Anthony also still has legal issues to deal with.

Her criminal team is appealing her convictions for misleading police, and she is being sued in two separate actions in civil court. One is filed by a woman with the same name Anthony gave to investigators as the name of her daughter's fictitious nanny. The other involves a search group that wants Anthony to repay expenses they incurred looking for Caylee.

Anthony may be offered money for book and movie deals, but one offer won't be on the table.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told CNN's Piers Morgan that the magazine won't be offering Anthony a pictorial.

"I wouldn't reward someone like that for what has happened," Hefner said.

Defense attorney J. Cheney Mason, who once said he thought of Anthony as a granddaughter, said he doesn't know what life holds in store for his client, but has hopes.

"She is only 25 years old. A decade from now, hopefully, she'll have some stability in her life and maybe a husband, and they can be somewhere in Montana and start over," he said.