One of a kind

After a restrained start, the opening night of Stewart Lee’s comedy heroes series certainly made its mark. Lee compered with his slow-burn satire and support act Simon Munnery garnered respectable giggles as punk pamphleteer Alan Parker but it was Johnny Vegas who ignited proceedings by diving into the audience.

The slimmer, newly divorced Vegas showed no sign of ring-rustiness. Despite his success, he was still the same savage tornado of shameless self-loathing, bitterness and regret that rocketed him to prominence in the Nineties. Only his trademark pottery wheel was missing............................

For more details - CLICK HERE

News-Clip Courtesy : By Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard

Wendy's chain bought for $2.3bn

Burger chain Wendy's is to be bought by Triarc, the parent firm of Arby's restaurants for $2.34bn (£1.18bn).

The news came after Wendy's saw a 72% fall in first quarter profits to $4.14m from $14.7m a year earlier. Wendy's said the deal would help to cut costs.

Wendy's and fellow fast-food chain Arby's will remain as separate brands.



News-clip courtesy : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7365500.stm

Five Hollywood studios join to start video-on-demand service

News Clip LOS ANGELES:

Viacom Inc. and five Hollywood studios are joining forces to create a television channel and video-on-demand service.

The companies said Sunday that the new venture will combine movies and television series from Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate, starting in fall 2009.

It will also have access during the pay-per-view television window to recent movie releases from the studios, including 'Iron Man','Star Trek', and 'Love Guru' 'Movies from the studios' archive libraries and new TV series created by the studios also will be featured.

Viacom will provide marketing and other operational support through its MTV Networks division.

Al Gore Caught Warming Globe To Increase Box Office Profits

This is quite an old one but a good one......

With due apologies Al

Dozens of eyewitness reports indicated that former vice president Al Gore deliberately attempted to raise the earth's temperature in order to boost box office receipts for An Inconvenient Truth, his documentary film about global warming that was released in May.

DESPERATE MEASURES




Former vice president Al Gore takes a flamethrower to the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to boost weekend ticket sales for An Inconvenient Truth.

"We have accounts from concerned citizens that Mr. Gore purchased a Cadillac Escalade SUV several months before [his film] opened in theaters," said Kimberly Blume, spokeswoman for the California-based environmental group Friends Of The Earth. "Not only did Mr. Gore use his new gas-guzzler to make short trips to the grocery store, he also left the vehicle running 24 hours a day in the driveway of his Tennessee home with the air-conditioning on full-blast."

In the weeks following the film's release, witnesses reported additional sightings of Gore engaging in activities such as discharging can after can of 1980s-era, CFC-laden aerosol into the air, and single-handedly clear-cutting over 6,000 acres of Amazon rain forest.

Gore is also rumored to have set a four-acre tire fire outside Akron, OH, and ordered his Secret Service detail to shoot on sight anyone who attempts to put it out.

"It's sad to see a man we thought was a passionate defender of the environment despoiling it for his own monetary gain," Blume said.

Blume said that she and many environmentalists had momentarily expressed relief in late November when Gore appeared to cease his months-long practice of dismantling old refrigerators in order to release ozone-destroying freon into the atmosphere. Blume soon learned, however, that Gore had resumed the activity in Antarctica, where the earth's ozone layer is most fragile.

Environmental groups have called for the federal government to step in and put a stop to Gore's actions, but officials say they do not have the power to stop him.

"There is no legal recourse anyone can take against the former vice president," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said. "Mr. Gore is well within the emissions standards set by the current administration."

By year's end, Gore failed to slow his assault on the planet's delicately balanced climate systems. Satellite surveillance revealed what many believe to be a snowshoed Gore jumping up and down on an ice shelf in Greenland, chainsawing glaciers in the Alaskan wild, and urinating in the Gulf Stream waters off the coast of Newfoundland.

News Clip From Onion.Com [December 18, 2006 | Issue 42•51 ]

Craigslist - From Little Idea Into Big Money

The website devouring the classified industry could hit $100 million in revenue in 2009 with a couple of minor changes, with the old-line newspaper industry helplessly watching from the sidelines.

Craigslist looks like what it is, a site launched years ago as a personal project that never forgot its users.

Though the powers that be at Craigslist, founder and customer service rep Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster, aren't commenting on the story from industry analysts Classified Intelligence (CI), they are pulling in an appreciable amount of money on the famously minimalist site. They could do even better.

CI said in its report on Craigslist that the implementation of its $25 job listing fee in three more locations could boost the company's revenue into nine-digit territory. Through assessment of Craigslist postings in January and March, CI pegs 2008 revenue for Craigslist at $81 million.

Take the job recruiting fee of $25 Craigslist charges in a handful of major metropolitan areas. Kick it up to $75 across the board (that's the price in San Francisco), and revenue for 2009 should climb to $150 million for a company based in a Victorian-style house that looks like it saw much better days a half-century ago.

The customer service credo of Craigslist, and its modest appointments both in headquarters and in site design, stand in stark contrast to the glassy offices of the newspapers that bore the brunt of the no frills, no fee approach to classifieds that are a hallmark of the site. Craigslist looks like what it is, a site launched years ago as a personal project that never forgot its users.

Some feel like Craigslist should do more, namely the bombastic VP and general manager of eBay's classifieds competitor, Kijiji, Jacob Aqraou. He doesn't care for the dated look of Craigslist, or the English-only listings that have only branched out into other languages in recent months.

As CI noted, the sniping comes across as odd, since eBay happens to own a 25 percent stake in Craigslist. The competition is real, however, with Kijiji, Freecycle, and the Village Voice's Backpage all trying to present themselves as a better classifieds option.

Although some may dispute Craigslist's real impact on newspaper classified revenue, one publishing professional cited by CI called Craigslist a catalyst that forced newspapers to reconsider their business models.

There isn't one cause for newspaper fortunes to be in decline. Craigslist is a popular target, especially since CI said in 2004 that San Francisco newspapers lost as much as $65 million in recruitment ad revenue alone due to the site.

Craigslist simply found a niche where demand existed, and they make as much money as they care to earn. One can imagine how much they would make if they tossed an AdSense ad unit into their templates. But to Newmark and company, such a prospect looks unfathomable.


News Clip Courtesy : David Utter
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business and can be reached at dutter @ webpronews dot com

Bottomline :
Craig Newmark's story is inspiring. He took a little email project and turned it into a multi-million dollar headache for the newspaper industry. Even after all the success, craigslist remains humble, simple, and end-user focused.

Spanish police detain 76 in major Internet fraud probe

Police in Spain have detained 76 people across the country as part of what they described Sunday as their biggest-ever probe into Internet fraud.

The suspects defrauded their victims of over three million euros (four million US dollars), police said in a statement.

Part of the suspects allegedly offered big-ticket items like television sets or cars for sale online and then disappeared with the money without ever delivering the goods. Other suspects are believed to have illegally obtained the codes of online bank accounts and then carried out money transfers in their favour.

The majority of those who were detained, 47, were Spaniards. Five Ukrainian nationals, five Guineans, four Romanians, two Russians and two Moroccans were among the remaining detained suspects.

Police said Internet fraud was rising rapidly due to the weak penalties applied and the little equipment that is needed to carry it out and they urged great caution with online transactions and purchases.

News Clip - 1st April, 2008.

Yahoo, Google, MySpace form OpenSocial Foundation

Yahoo said on Tuesday that it is backing a program by rival Google to make software work fluidly across different social networks, and will create a joint foundation to promote the effort.

The normally fierce competitors are working together in the OpenSocial network, which Google formed in November to lure web software developers and other social network sites away from the emerging market leader in social networks, Facebook.

Many social networks — including News Corp's MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIn — support OpenSocial, a set of technical specifications that lets software developers build applications such as games and photo shows that can run on any social network, expanding the audience for such software.

However, neither Facebook nor Microsoft, which gave Facebook $240m (£120m) in backing last year, has signed up to support OpenSocial. Microsoft, which has mounted a $42bn hostile takeover bid for Yahoo, also has an agreement to sell advertising on Facebook's site.

One industry analyst says OpenSocial is in catch-up mode.

"There is only one place developers go right now, and that is Facebook," Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said.

"OpenSocial makes it easier for everybody else to get in the game," said Li.

The scope of OpenSocial is increasing and OpenSocial applications reach more than 200 million users, Joe Kraus, a Google director of product management, said in a conference call. Supporter MySpace alone counts 110 million active users.

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together," Kraus said of the OpenSocial effort, which is currently endorsed by more than 15 companies.

Kraus founded JotSpot, a maker of software for building small group websites, which Google acquired last year.

Yahoo, Google and MySpace also said on Tuesday that they will create the OpenSocial Foundation to maintain a neutral, community-governed forum for developing applications. It will be set up as a not-for-profit entity, with assets to be assigned to the new organisation by 1 July.

In a show of Yahoo's willingness to work with Google, a potential ally in its attempt to fend off Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid, Yahoo vice president of platforms Wade Chambers took the unprecedented step of posting the news on an official Google corporate blog aimed at developers.

"Openness is in the Internet's DNA and it's also a major aspect of our culture here at Yahoo," Chambers posted on the Google blog.

Chambers declined, on the joint conference call, to give specific examples of how Yahoo plans to use OpenSocial applications.

Yahoo executives have showcased new versions of their flagship email service, Yahoo Mail, and software for using the internet on mobile phones that have deeply integrated social-networking features. A key stated goal of Yahoo is to become a primary starting point for web users, not just to reach Yahoo's own media properties but also other social networks and sites.

Facebook, which has had the greatest momentum among social networks in attracting new users over the past year, has remained aloof from OpenSocial. It offers its own simple set of technical specifications for application developers.

Independent developers have built 19,000 applications that run inside Facebook, which now has 67 million active users.

Yahoo's Chambers said it would welcome Microsoft or any other company that wants to sign on.

"Any large player should be open to participate," Chambers said.

News Clip Courtesy : Reuters, 26 Mar, 2008

Fibre goes green at fashion week

News Clip, NEW DELHI:

The so-called 'shallow' fashion fraternity is becoming environment conscious - as many as nine designers will showcase eco-friendly collections during the India Fashion Week.

The 11th edition of the fashion extravaganza is scheduled for March 12-16 at Pragati Maidan.

Intending to contribute their bit in protecting the planet, designers Charu Parashar, Shubhra, Khushali Kumar, Amit GT, Rahul Reddy, Abhijeet Khanna, Ekta and Ruchira, Alpana & Neeraj of the label 'Azara' and Ashish, Viral and Vikrant of 'Virtues' will display outfits made up of Birla Cellulose, an environment-friendly fibre.

"We have always innovated fibres which are in harmony with nature. Designers using heavy metal free fibres for their collections would promote eco-fashion," said Vijay Kaul, chief marketing officer, Fibre Business, Aditya Birla Group.

"It would encourage more designers to embrace green fashion across the country and help conserve the environment," Kaul said. Their fibre is biodegradable.

Though eco-fashion will burn a deeper hole in the pockets of customers, style gurus say the fibre will be a huge hit.

"For such a vital cause - saving mother earth - money becomes secondary. When one doesn't mind splurging on other luxury items, why not for a cause of the highest order?" asked Parashar.

"Moreover the fabric is just magical, it falls beautifully and is very comfortable. Apart from silhouettes I have also done a lot of furnishings. There is an array of choices for customers and I am sure they will fall in love with it," she added.

Said Kumar: "It is interesting to experiment with fabrics."

The creative experts said that the 'magic fibre' promises good business.

"Natural fabrics are a huge hit abroad. Contrary to synthetic ones they find them more exotic. I am sure it would attract lots of international buyers," said Alpana.

"Because of threats like global warming, people are reverting to their roots and sporting eco-fashion. In our country also it is catching up. Also, there is a great demand for cruise wear and resort wear. So I am expecting good business," she added.

Last year as well, designers Siddartha Tytler, Deepika Govind and Anita Dongre displayed eco-friendly collections to convey the message that the environment needs to be protected.

And in the exhibition area, Anita Ahuja's stall stood tall, offering eco-friendly, colourful and trendy accessories and bags made out of recycled plastic.

Commenting on the steps taken by the fashion fraternity to protect the environment, Rathi Vinay Jha, director general of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), said: "It is wonderful to see that Indian designers are increasingly getting involved in working on issues of social and environmental concern.

"This is in line with the FDCI's objective of generating environment-friendly products and increasing the use of recycled material."

Quit-Smoking Drug May Raise Suicide Risk

News Clip Courtesy : Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- There's increasing evidence that the smoking-cessation drug Chantix is linked to serious "neuropsychiatric" side effects, including agitation, depressed mood and even suicide, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked Chantix's manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., to make the warning about these potential problems more prominent on prescribing information and on the drug's label. The agency is also working with Pfizer to produce a Medication Guide for patients, officials said.

"We have become increasingly concerned as we have seen a number of compelling cases that truly look as if they are the result of exposure to the drug and not to other causes," Dr. Bob Rappaport, director of the FDA's Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Rheumatology Products, said during an afternoon teleconference.

"These cases involve abnormal behaviors, changes in mood, and suicidal ideation and suicide," Rappaport said.

The FDA knows of 491 cases of suicidal behavior associated with Chantix, said Dr. Celia Winchell, a team leader in the FDA's Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Rheumatology Products.

"Of these, 420 are from the United States," Winchell said. "There are 39 that involve completed suicides, 34 in the United States."

According to Pfizer, 5 million patients have taken Chantix, whose generic name is varenicline.

Friday's warning follows a Nov. 20 FDA statement that the agency was "evaluating post-marketing adverse event reports on Chantix related to changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and actual suicidal behavior."

At that time, Pfizer said there had never been a cause-and-effect relationship shown between Chantix and these symptoms. The company also said that part of the problem may be due to nicotine withdrawal.

Last month, Pfizer agreed, after consulting with the FDA, to update packages of Chantix sold in the United States to more prominently display a warning that users should be monitored for suicidal behavior, depressed mood, and other mental health symptoms.

The FDA approved Chantix in May 2006 as a smoking-cessation drug. It acts in areas of the brain affected by nicotine and may ease withdrawal symptoms and block the effects of nicotine if users resume smoking.

On Friday, FDA officials advised patients to tell their doctor about any history of psychiatric illness before starting Chantix. The drug can cause current psychiatric illness to get worse even if it is under control. Chantix may also cause the recurrence of an old psychiatric illness, the officials warned.

Patients should also report changes in mood and behavior to their doctor. Symptoms to look out for include anxiety, nervousness, tension, depressed mood, unusual behaviors and thinking about or attempting suicide, the FDA officials said.

In most cases, these symptoms developed while taking Chantix, but they can also appear after stopping the drug, the officials noted.

"We are continuing with the review process over the next several months as we try to pin down to what extent these problems are being seen with Chantix," Rappaport said.

Vivid, unusual, or strange dreams may occur while taking the drug. Patients may also experience impaired ability to drive or operate heavy machinery, the officials said.

More information

For more on quitting smoking, visit Smokefree.gov.

Santana's total deal exceeds $150M

Johan Santana reached a preliminary agreement with the Mets Friday night on a record contract, according to a major-league source, all but completing the trade that will send the two-time Cy Young Award winner from Minnesota to New York in exchange for four young players.

The Mets locked up Santana for the next seven years, signing him to a six-year, $137.5 million extension on top of the final year of his current deal, which is valued at $13.25 million. The total value of the package is $150.75 million, making his new average salary more than $21.5 million — a record for a pitcher on a long-term contract.

Santana, who turns 29 on March 13, needs only to pass a physical to make the trade official. But the most difficult elements of the transaction — the trade and contract negotiations — are finally complete. Santana is scheduled to take his physical Saturday morning, Twins GM Bill Smith said, according to The Associated Press.

The Mets needed Major League Baseball to grant a two-hour extension of the 72-hour negotiating window to persuade Santana to waive his no-trade clause, forsake free agency at the end of the season and approve the deal.

Without a new deal, Santana, who will turn 29 next month, could have become a free agent after the World Series. Minnesota offered him an $80 million, four-year extension this offseason, but he turned it down.

Santana was present for the final stages of the talks, according to two sources close to the negotiations. He was adamant that he deserved a vastly superior deal to Giants lefty Barry Zito, who signed a seven-year, $126 million contract as a free agent last off-season.

In return for Santana, who was eligible for free agency at the end of the season, the Twins will receive outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra.

Cubs right-hander Carlos Zambrano held the previous salary record for a pitcher under a multi-year deal — $18.3 million per season over five years. Zito is earning $18 million per season in his deal with the Giants.

Santana's new average trumps both of those numbers, leaving Indians left-hander C.C. Sabathia — who is eligible for free agency at the end of the season — as the next in line for a monster score.

The only players with larger packages are New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez ($275 million), Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter ($189 million), Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez ($160 million) and Colorado first baseman Todd Helton ($141.5 million).

Santana is 93-44 with a 3.22 ERA in eight major league seasons, winning the AL Cy Young Award in 2004 and 2006 with the Twins. He has been less successful in the playoffs, going 1-3 with a 3.97 ERA.

The left-hander slipped a bit last year, finishing with a 15-13 record that included marks of 0-5 against AL Central champion Cleveland and 1-3 vs. Detroit. He dropped seven of his final 11 decisions as his ERA rose from 2.60 to 3.33 ERA, his highest since 2001. He also allowed a career-high 33 homers — most in the AL.

He joins a rotation that includes three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez, right-hander Orlando Hernandez and a pair of 15-game winners from last season: John Maine and Oliver Perez.

The Mets also agreed to a $1,025,000, one-year deal with left-handed reliever Pedro Feliciano that avoided an arbitration hearing. A key member of the bullpen, Feliciano was 2-2 with a 3.09 ERA and two saves in 78 appearances last season. He asked for $1.2 million in arbitration and the Mets offered $880,000.

News Clip : The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tiger wins Buick in a rout to tie Palmer

SAN DIEGO - Tiger Woods joined the King, and left everyone else at the Buick Invitational feeling like paupers. In his most dominant start to a season, Woods built an 11-shot lead Sunday until his game and the fickle weather turned cold on the back nine. A birdie on the last hole gave him a 1-under 71 and an eight-shot victory, giving him 62 for his career to tie Arnold Palmer on the PGA Tour list. "I'm sure that there are many, many more coming in the future," Palmer said. "There isn't any question about that."

Just like there was no question about the outcome.

Woods opened with a 40-foot birdie putt, threw in a 60-foot birdie just to keep a four-deep gallery from falling asleep, and only looked mortal when he made three straight bogeys toward the end of his round.

All that did was affect the final margin, not the name on the trophy.

Woods finished at 19-under 269 to win the Buick Invitational for the fourth consecutive year, tying a PGA Tour record for consecutive wins in a single tournament. Woods is the only player to own such a streak at two events, having also won four in a row at Bay Hill.

Ryuji Imada matched the best score of the final round with a 67 and was the runner-up.

Woods returns to Torrey Pines in June for the U.S. Open, and if this week was any indication, it could be another long week for his peers. The world's No. 1 player now has won six times as a pro at Torrey Pines, and his comment that the Grand Slam is "easily within reason" looked every bit of that.

"What he's going to do is screw the U.S. Open up for everyone else," Fred Couples said. "If he had shot 10 or 11 under, the USGA would have said, 'Well, maybe we have it in the right spot.' Now, they may have to regroup a little."

Then again, it might not matter.

Woods has won his last two PGA Tour events by eight shots, and this was the ninth time in his career he has won by at least eight.

"I wanted to go out there and make no bogeys and shoot something under par," Woods said. "I got half of it right."

The 71 ended Woods' streak of 14 consecutive rounds in the 60s, dating to the second round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. He has finished no worse than second since the British Open in July, when he tied for 12th at Carnoustie.

Woods planned to leave Sunday night for the Dubai Desert Classic, and he likely won't return to the PGA Tour until the end of February at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Next in line on the career list is Ben Hogan with 64 victories, and each win moves Woods closer to the record 82 won by Sam Snead.

"You'd like to think it's surprising, but it's not," Charles Howell III said. "It's Tiger."

Woods is 6-of-12 in his PGA Tour debuts, but he has never won with such ease. He went back to work after the holidays, and it was as if last year never ended.

The only surprise was the weather, a pleasant one at that.

The forecast was for heavy rain overnight and into Sunday, with the possibility of a Monday finish. But the clouds cleared as Woods was warming up, and he played the front nine under brilliant blue skies. Only on the back nine did clouds return and temperatures plunge. He closed out his victory under a mixture of rain and clouds, and smile that showed all was right in his world.

"He's just much better," said Couples, who posted his first top-10 finish since the 2006 Masters. "It's fun to see. I've been on tour for 28 years, and I've never seen this stuff."

Imada birdied his last two holes to finish alone in second at 11-under 277 and was thrilled.

"This is the Tiger Woods Invitational, isn't it?" he said. "I thought he was the host."

The Buick Invitational is the third PGA Tour event Woods has won six times. The others are the Bridgestone Invitational and the CA Championship, both World Golf Championship events.

"My goal going into today was to finish second," Imada said. "That's almost like winning the golf tournament to me."

Rory Sabbatini also had a 67 to tie for third with Stewark Cink (73), who joined Joe Durant in the final group and were along for the ride. On the opening hole, with fans lining both sides of the fairway from tee-to-green, Cink and Durant found a fairway bunker and took three shots to reach the green. Woods played safely to the middle, and his 40-foot birdie fell on the final turn.

"I'd say this is the best I've seen him play," Cink said. "The last couple days, off the tee, the control he had was just really very impressive. The Tiger that we saw a year and two years ago, hitting it sort of all over the place, I think that's a thing of the past. He's got it geared down and he came out and played really well."

Justin Leonard closed with a 72 to finish alone in fifth, 12 shots behind. Phil Mickelson also made his 2008 debut this week, but was slowed by illness and was never a factor. He shot 71 on Sunday and tied for sixth with Durant (75).

"Nobody thought too much about winning," Mickelson said.

Divots: Woods won in California for the 12th time, the most of any state. Florida is second with 10 victories. ... Kevin Streelman, who played in the final group Saturday as the final alternate to get in the Buick Invitational, went 75-77 on the weekend and tied for 29th. ... Only seven players broke par in the final round.

News Clip Courtesy : Doug Fergusom

Kenya death toll rises to 103

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan police battled thousands of opposition supporters enraged over President Mwai Kibaki's allegedly fraudulent re-election, firing tear gas and live ammunition as the death toll from the violence rose to 103, officers and witnesses said.

Several officers said they had orders to shoot to kill, while opposition supporters said they would risk death to protest what they called a stolen election. Demonstrators were beaten back with tear gas and water cannons, and police fired live rounds over their heads in Nairobi's burning slums.

"We have been rigged out, we are not going to accept defeat," said 24-year-old James Onyango, who lives in Nairobi's Kibera slum. "We are ready to die and we're ready for serious killings."

Raila Odinga, the fiery opposition leader who came in second according to the official results, compared Kibaki to a military dictator who "seized power through the barrel of the gun," and called on 1 million people to gather Thursday in Nairobi's Uhuru Park — where protesters gathered to demand multiparty democracy in the early 1990s.

"We are calling for mass action," said Odinga, who had been leading early results and public opinion polls. "We will inform police of the march. We will march wearing black arm bands because we are mourning."

An Associated Press reporter saw a man who had been shot in the head being carried in a blanket. Men around him said he had been shot by police. Police were not immediately available for comment.

Teams of riot police fired shots into the air and tear gas into homes and businesses; in one home, a woman and her four young children ran out, retching.

"We were just hiding from the shots," said Dorothy Nyangasi, frantically pouring water over the eyes of her 6-month-old old son Daniel.

Opposition supporters blocked a road into Nairobi's city center with burning refuse. Police with batons and riot shields hit and detained opposition supporters in Kibera.

There, 14-year-old Selina Angeyo said police had shot her brother and another man in the stomach. Shortly after she spoke to reporters she was arrested and taken away crying in a marked police vehicle.

The violence has killed at least 103 people since Saturday across the country, police and witnesses said, although the tally was likely far higher. Three police officers told The Associated Press independently that they had been ordered to shoot to kill to stop the rioters.

A government spokesman denied such an order was given.

Odinga postponed a rally planned for Uhuru Park Monday after police warned the opposition not to hold it.

The United States said it was concerned over "serious problems" during the counting of votes.

"Those alleging vote tampering may pursue legal remedies and should be able, consistent with respect for freedom of speech, to make their case publicly. We call on the judiciary to play its role expeditiously," the U.S. embassy in Kenya said.

Kibaki, 76, was sworn in almost immediately after the results were announced. Within minutes, the slums exploded into fresh violence.

Suspicions over rigging were fueled by the fact that the opposition took most of the parliamentary seats in Thursday's vote, but Kibaki still won the election.

Kenya is one of the most developed countries in Africa, with a booming tourism industry and one of the continent's highest growth rates. Many observers saw the campaign as the greatest test of this young, multiparty democracy and expressed great disappointment as the process descended into chaos.

Some Kibera residents said that they had not been able to find food since shops closed for elections on Thursday and trouble began over the delayed vote-counting. A woman shouted "hungry! hungry!" at passing journalists.

Kibaki's supporters say he has turned Kenya's economy into an east African powerhouse, with an average annual growth rate of 5 percent. He won by a landslide in 2002, ending 24 years in power by the notoriously corrupt Daniel arap Moi. But Kibaki's anti-graft campaign has largely been seen as a failure, and the country still struggles with tribalism and poverty.

The election violence had a disturbing tribal undertone in the slums, where youths shouted ethnic slurs. Kibaki, from the Kikuyu tribe, has been accused of maintaining the tribal patronage system of the Moi years. Odinga is a Luo, another major tribe.


News Clip Courtesy : KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Tom Maliti also contributed to this report.

Sheitan.....movies

The great Vincent Cassel is too unpredictable an actor to make a boring film..

Outright bad movies, however, are entirely another matter and this misshapen comedy-horror veers close.

Self-producing young punk collective director Kim Chapiron, Cassel at least secures himself a typically loony tune lead role, as an inbred, leering shepherd with a satanic pact, preying on some visiting teens.

Neither funny nor scary enough it’s a brio-fuelled mess, but as long as crazy Vince is centre stage, never entirely dull.

News Clip Courtesy.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A20053964

From rags-to-riches...

AHMEDABAD..

Maltiben Chaudhary can barely speak English or Hindi, has studied only up to Class IV and belongs to a remote village, Pratapur, in Mehsana district of Gujarat.

But, the money spinners of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) were all ears to her rags-to-riches story when she visited the institute.

Maltiben, 62, runs a successful milk business as part of the Mehsana Milk Cooperative, Gujarat, and earns a cool Rs 80,000 a month. The students of IIM-A's flagship postgraduate programme (PGP) and one-year executive course were engrossed in her exemplary lecture on entrepreneurial skills during 'Understanding creativity, innovation knowledge network and entrepreneurship' programme on Wednesday.

"Her entrepreneurship attitude was quite visible and she had an authority in her voice while speaking on the subject. Innovation and knowledge is not only a prerogative of rich and educated, knowledge also lies at the bottom of the pyramid, "said Kumar Rahul Roushan, final year student of PGP.

Maltiben said,"Due to financial constraints in my family, I thought of doing something on my own but at that time I did not have any money to start a business. I stitched clothes for village women and saved a meagre Rs 80. I bought two famished buffaloes from the money way back in 1971 and started a milk business."

I fed the buffaloes nutritious fodder, Maltiben said. And to everbody's surprise, the buffaloes won the first prize during a Doodhsagar dairy rally in Mehsana, giving 29 litres of milk a day.

Then on, Maltiben never looked back. She now supplies 300 litres of milk daily to milk cooperative.


News Clip Courtesy: Kumar Manish

Taliban suicide blast in Kabul kills 30

News Clip, Afghanistan -

A Taliban suicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform set off a huge explosion Saturday while trying to board a military bus in the capital, killing 30 people, most of them soldiers, officials said. Hours later, the Afghan president offered to meet personally with the Taliban leader for peace talks and give the militants a position in government.

Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency the last several weeks, President Hamid Karzai said he was willing to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.

"If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I'll personally go there and get in touch with them," Karzai said. "Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?"

Karzai said he has contacts with Taliban militants through tribal elders but that there are no direct and open government communication channels with the fighters.

"If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, 'President, we want a department in this or in that ministry or we want a position as deputy minister ... and we don't want to fight anymore... If there will be a demand and a request like that to me, I will accept it because I want conflicts and fighting to end in Afghanistan," Karzai said.

"I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position," he said.

Four employees with the International Committee of the Red Cross, kidnapped earlier this week while negotiating the release of a German hostage, were freed in good health Saturday, said Mohabullah, the police director of criminal investigations of the Sayad Abad district where the four were taken. He had no news about the German.

The number of kidnappings in Afghanistan has spiked in recent months after the Taliban secured the release of five insurgent prisoners in exchange for a captive Italian journalist in March — a heavily criticized swap that many feared would encourage abductions.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans in July, a hostage crisis that scored the militants face-to-face talks with South Korean government delegates. Two of the Koreans were killed; 21 were eventually released.

Karzai earlier this month renewed a call for talks with the Taliban, and a spokesman for the militant group initially said the fighters might be open to negotiations. But spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi later said foreign troops must first leave the country — a demand Karzai said Saturday he would not meet.

"It should be very clear until all our roads are paved, until we have good electricity and good water, and also until we have a better Afghan national army and national police, I don't want any foreigners to leave Afghanistan," he said.

He said he still wanted negotiations with Taliban militants of Afghan origin "for peace and security." He ruled out talks with al-Qaida and other foreign fighters.

NATO and the United Nations have said an increasing number of Taliban fighters are interested in laying down their arms. NATO's ambassador to Afghanistan, Daan Everts, said this month that NATO would look into the possibility of talks.

More than 4,500 fighters have taken part in a two-year reconciliation process, but the Taliban have launched more than 100 suicide attacks this year, a record pace.

Saturday's explosion ripped off the roof of the bus and tore out its sides, leaving a charred hull of burnt metal. It was reminiscent of the deadliest insurgent attack in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 — when a bomber boarded a police academy bus at Kabul's busiest transportation hub in June and killed 35 people.

Dozens of civilians and police officers searched for bodies. Police and soldiers climbed trees to retrieve some body parts. Nearby businesses also were damaged.

"For 10 or 15 seconds, it was like an atom bomb — fire, smoke and dust everywhere," said Mohammad Azim, a police officer who witnessed the explosion.

Karzai said 30 people were killed — 28 soldiers and two civilians. The Health Ministry said another 30 were wounded.

"It was a terrible tragedy, no doubt an act of extreme cowardice," Karzai said. "Whoever did this was against people, against humanity, definitely against Islam. A man who calls himself Muslim will not blow up innocent people in the middle of Ramadan," the Muslim holy month.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed the militant group was responsible for the blast in a text message to The Associated Press. Mujahid said the bomber was a Kabul resident named Azizullah.

The bus had stopped in front of a movie theater to pick up soldiers when a bomber wearing a military uniform tried to board around 6:45 a.m. local time, army spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.

"Typically there are people checking the IDs of soldiers who want to board the bus," Azimi said. "While they were checking the IDs the bomber tried to get on the bus and blew himself up there."

News Clip Courtesy : Associated Press reporters Rahim Faiez, Amir Shah and Alisa Tang.

In Pawar land, cricketers get preference over farmers

News Clip, New Delhi:

While money is pouring in for our cricketers, it's quite the opposite for the farmers in Maharashtra'a Kohlapur district. In union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's home state, farmers were attacked and beaten up by local goons on Friday.

The reason – the farmers had asked for their dues from a local sugarcane cooperative. The farmers allege that the cooperative refused to pay them the second installment for their produce.

The goons were allegedly hired by the sugarcane cooperative factory who beat up farmers in the presence of the police. Farmers say no FIR was registered despite protests.

One of the farmer's unions - Shetkari Sanghatana has now organised protests all over the district and has demanded severe action be taken against the attackers. Reportedly, Congress MLA Prakash Avade was also present at the site.

Indian news broadcasters form new association

Major news broadcasters in India have formed the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) to address problems of radio and television news broadcasters. The broadcasters who have formed the association include TV Today Network, NDTV Limited, Times Global Broadcasting Company, TV18 Group, Star News, India TV and Zee News.

The President of the Association, G Krishnan, said the Association has been set up to address issues that are specific to news broadcasters in radio and television who work in a 24×7 environment and cannot necessarily be addressed by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation.

The Indian government's recent draft proposal for a Content Code has been strongly opposed by the broadcasters.

News Clip Source: Commonwealth Broadcasting Association

Nokia ties up with Malayala Manorama to launch news portal on mobile

Nokia ties up with Malayala Manorama to launch news portal on mobileexchange4media

Nokia has announced the launch of the industry's first vernacular newsportal with Malayala Manorama.

With this offering, all Nokia GPRS enabled handsets users in Kerala will be able to get national and international news in Malayalam across various categories of news likesports, travel, music, astrology and movies, among others.

Speaking at the launch of this service, Devinder Kishore, Director-Marketing, Nokia India, said, "Ease of use is a key Nokia proposition. As the leader, we are continuously working towards providing featuresand services that simplify the lives of our users. We have once againlaunched a path breaking application -- vernacular news portal -- amobile newspaper in the palm, that enables users to view news updatesin there native languages at their convenience. "Kishore added, "Currently, the Internet penetration is still very low,especially in smaller cities and rural areas.

Services such as themobile newspaper will ride on the larger penetration of mobile phonesand bring the Internet revolution to the masses. With the launch ofthis service, we are transcending the language barriers and extendingthe benefits of the Data services over mobiles to the people who arenot conversant with English."Mariam Mammen Mathew, COO, Manorama Online, said "As the industryl eader in this category, we are pleased to partner with Nokia for thisinitiative.

We are committed to provide our readers newer and innovative way to consume news, and this will help us to further our bond with our consumers. True to the Manorama tradition, we will strive to reach out to all Malayalis, wherever they are -- inside or outside India, on a desktop or on the move.

Additionally with the launch of this mobile newspaper' Nokia bringsthe benefits of all value-added services for the first time in 10 vernacular languages. These include Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya,Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, in association with leading media houses across India.

This application also supports'search' and 'mobile advertising' , while making the Internet and the'search' facility available to the non-English literates for the first time in the country.

News Clip

Arrested journalist sent to jail in Jhalakati

News Clip

The Daily Star [Bangladesh] reported that a court here yesterday sent a journalist arrested by joint forces for extortion.

Hasan Mahmud Talukder alias Ripon, district correspondent of Bangla Vision, daily Khabarpatra and Karotoa was caught red handed on Sunday evening while he was taking Tk 5,000 as toll from Kirtipasha UP chairman Abdus Shukur Mollah at Polash Hotel in the town.

Mollah said Ripon threatened to report against him if he fails to pay him Tk 50,000. Later, he agreed to pay Tk 5,000 and informed the joint forces, Mollah added.

He filed an extortion case against Ripon. Police said Ripon will be tried in the Speedy Trial Tribunal court.

Aerosol Arabic Mohammed is back

News Clip By Tess Langley

OK, so you’ve got graffiti, and then you’ve got Islamic art... What happens when you mix the two?

I caught up with Mohammed Ali, an Islamic graffiti artist who does just that. The 28 year old Brummie has been into graffiti since a young age and now incorporates his faith into his work.

"Art was my passion," he said, "when I found religion I changed direction and combined the two together." For Mohammed, the fusion between Islamic art and graffiti was more than just experimenting with different styles...

For more details... CLICK HERE