A new poll published after President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule on November 3, 2007 shows that two-thirds of Pakistanis want him to quit while 70% feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Conducted by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, the poll casts a harsh spotlight on Musharraf with 67% calling for the Pakistan President to resign.

The emergency rule declared by Musharraf drew overwhelming criticism with 70% opposing the measure and 57% strongly opposing it.

Pakistani voters also opposed the various measures that accompanied the emergency declaration:

* 71% opposed suspension of the constitution;
* 77% opposed detention of former Supreme Court justices;
* 76% opposed closure of TV news channels;
* 73% opposed swearing in of new Supreme Court justices;
* 70% opposed ban on political rallies; and
* 76% opposed crackdown on lawyers and civil society and house arrest of opposition leaders.

In what must be a worrying sign to Musharraf, 62% of Pakistanis supported the ongoing protests against the state of emergency while only 35% opposed it.

Musharraf is expected to lift the emergency on Saturday.

Tiny Norwegian browser company Opera has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission charging Microsoft with abusing its dominant position by tying its Internet Explorer browser to the Windows operating system and hindering interoperability by not following accepted web standards.

Opera wants the EC to compel Microsoft to give consumers a real choice and support open standards in the IE browser. Specifically, Opera is asking that Microsoft unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop.

Opera also wants Microsoft to follow open web standards accepted by the web-authoring communities.

Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner did not mince his words on Thursday:

We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them. In addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, we are a champion of open Web standards and cross-platform innovation. We cannot rest until we’ve brought fair and equitable options to consumers worldwide.

Opera has less than 1% share of the browser market Continue Reading…

Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace social networking web site is chasing after Bollywood stars as it expands into new geographies.

Today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that MySpace is sending its employees to meet with Bollywood folks in hopes of getting the stars to create profiles and share news and videos with fans.

MySpace’s Bollywood mission is part of its strategy to raise its profile in India as it gears up to launch a custom version of its web site for the Indian market next year.

But as the WSJ story notes making headway in new geographies is not going to be easy for MySpace:

Expanding its global footprint is a top priority for MySpace, fighting intensifying competition from rivals such as Facebook Inc. While MySpace retains a big lead in the U.S., Facebook is growing quickly. And outside the U.S., Facebook has passed MySpace — drawing 55 million unique non-U.S. visitors in October to MySpace’s 45 million, according to comScore Inc.

While MySpace has a strong lead over Facebook in Europe, Facebook is the No. 1 social-networking site in a combined category for Africa and the Middle East, according to comScore. And Facebook is likely to become a bigger threat elsewhere: The company also has announced it is translating the site into new languages.

But with the power of Murdoch’s News Corp (parent company of MySpace) behind it, it’s safe to say MySpace will give Facebook, Google’s Orkut and other social networking upstarts a run for their money in Asia and Africa as well.