Eight percent admit to downloading video illegally

LONDON (Reuters) - Eight percent of all consumers in Britain, France, Germany and the United States admit to downloading video illegally from the Internet, according to a survey, showing the scale of the ongoing fight against piracy.
Two-thirds of those surveyed in Britain often or sometimes watched TV, movies and video on their PC or laptop computer, with U.S. consumers not far behind. Of those, 15 percent did so illegally, the Futuresource Consulting survey showed.
"This widespread availability of illicit content presents a major obstacle to the development of online content services, and continues to heavily impact upon revenues, despite governments' and industry authorities' renewed attempts to tighten up the system," said the report published on Friday.
Most media companies are struggling to persuade consumers to pay for video, music or news online amid the widely held assumption that content on the Web is free. But attempts to fund free content by selling advertising are mostly falling short.
Governments around the world are trying to help media providers fight online piracy. The worst effects have so far been borne by the music industry, which is still struggling to compensate for an ongoing decline in CD sales.
In the United States, a woman was fined almost $2 million this week for illegal music sharing.
France's lower house of parliament approved a bill last month that will let authorities track illegal downloading over the Internet and disconnect repeat offenders.
And Britain's government proposed a range of measures this week to punish persistent illegal downloaders, including slowing down connections and eventually blocking Internet access.
But such measures are highly controversial as Internet access is increasingly perceived as something close to a human right by those who have it.
The survey found that 90 percent of those who watched video content online had never paid to watch news or recently-missed TV shows. Just over half had never paid to watch new movies. But most said they would or might be willing to pay in future.
Less than 1 percent said that an advertising reel placed before, during or after an old movie or TV show spoiled their online viewing, with 30 percent saying it had no impact and nearly half saying it only put them off a bit.
Futuresource carried out online surveys of more than 2,500 people to put together its report.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Victoria Bryan)

Source: Reuters

Will recession hit Warren Buffett lunch?

By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett is again raising money for charity by auctioning a chance to dine with him, though it remains to be seen if the global recession keeps the winning bid below last year's record $2.11 million.
The world's second-richest person is auctioning lunch for a 10th straight year to benefit the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that offers housing, job training, health and child care, and meals for the poor.
Last year, Zhao Danyang, who runs Hong Kong-based Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund, had the winning bid, which was more than three times the previous record $650,100.
"I would hope the same event is going to happen, but I'm not sure it's going to," the Rev. Cecil Williams, who founded Glide and leads its affiliated church, said in an interview. "But it is a good time for people to engage in compassion."
Buffett in February said the economy was in a "shambles." He is worth about $40 billion according to Forbes magazine, and built his fortune through his insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
As in recent years, the auction winner and up to seven friends may dine with Buffett at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York. Buffett began donating lunches after his first wife Susan introduced him to Glide. Susan Buffett died in 2004.
This year's auction will be held on eBay Inc's website June 21-26. The starting bid is $25,000. Previous auctions have raised more than $4 million.
Williams, 79, said he last spoke a week ago with Buffett, who is a year younger. "He laughs a lot with me, and I like that," he said. "He's a very good man, he's just good."
This year's auction comes as tough times strain Glide's resources, with the number of people seeking help up 20 percent and staffing down 10 percent, Williams said.
"The economy is affecting the poor and even the middle class, and more people we see are feeling shame," he said. "They need us to help them pick themselves up and feel that there is hope."
Buffett has pledged much of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by John Wallace)

Source: Reuters

Eco-activist rock musician thinks local, acts global

By Nick Olivari
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - It's a long way from rock and roll to eco-activist but Chuck Leavell, most recently keyboardist for The Rolling Stones, believes the two are anything but mutually exclusive.
Leavell, 57, said while the 60's are best known for the music and sexual revolutions, in a smaller but equally important way there was greater recognition that people had to start taking care of the environment.
His most recent incarnation is as a co-founder of The Mother Nature Network, an environmental news and information website that launched in January 2009.
As well as director of environmental affairs and a board member, he hosts two video series on mnn.com: "Love of the Land," in which he discusses sustainability and conservation issues, and "The Green Room," a series in which he interviews fellow celebrities about the environment and their philanthropic work.
"For a long time, Americans were apathetic to these issues, but people are waking up and there is a sincerity to making changes," Leavell said.
Leavell has long lived the environmental creed, with much of his personal commitment stemming from 1981 when his wife, Rose Lane, inherited family land in aptly named Twiggs County, about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
"I realized I had the responsibility to be a good steward of this land," Leavell said.
BALANCE AND SENSITIVITY
Studying what would be best for the property while continuing his career as a musician he settled on tree farming, doubling the property to 2500 acres over time with a focus on southern yellow pine, a pine native to the southeast United States.
His commitment has been such that Leavell and his wife were named Outstanding Tree Farmers in 1999 by the American Forest Foundation's Center for Family Forests.
"Trees are the most important resource we have," Leavell said. "We learn how to take care of then, they can take care of us."
Counting the benefits of trees, from use as building material through to natural filtration of air and water, he said experience with his own land led to the current advocacy work.
As an economic realist, Leavell emphasizes that environmental policy must be just one of many competing goals.
"It seems to me there has to be a balance between natural land and land we develop," he said. "a sensitivity in the way we run our municipalities and urban areas."
Though concerned that recession may put environmental issues on the back burner as happened in the 70s, Leavell suggested that this time there is a strong commitment from the nation's leaders to smart, strong and sustainable economic growth. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Glimmer of hope for fashion ahead of Milan menswear

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
MILAN (Reuters Life!) - Designers will show off their menswear creations for next spring starting Saturday as Milan fashion week kicks off amid hopes of a recovery for the sector.
After a "frosty" start to the year -- when there were fewer shows at the January Autumn/Winter 2009-2010 menswear fashion week -- there are some positive signals emerging, according to Italy's National Chamber of Fashion.
"(Italy's fashion industry) has been hit by a U-shaped crisis. We are going back up but how we go back up makes the difference," the body's Chairman Mario Boselli said this week.
Italy's fashion sector, which earlier this year called for government help as the economic crisis hit demand, will see turnover fall again in 2009 -- down 6.5 percent to 62.176 billion euros ($86.55 billion), according to chamber forecasts.
Smaller companies which are in debt are seen to be more at risk in the recession, experts say.
But Boselli said there were positive signs for the industry such as a 1.1 percent increase in industrial production.
While sales in fashion boutiques have fallen in the last two months, those for outlets rose, he said.
"This means that people still want designer brands but are no longer able to pay the full price," he said.
Some luxury goods brands have taken specific measures in the crisis -- from holding discreet sales to shaving price tags.
Dolce & Gabbana -- whose menswear models will include Jesus Luz, whose name has been linked to Madonna -- were quoted this week saying they would cut prices by between 10 and 20 percent.
During the June 20-23 fashion week, 93 collections will be presented -- 15 percent more compared to January, Boselli said.
There are around 40 catwalk shows, but only Giorgio Armani and Prada are holding two shows.
Ermenegildo Zegna will kick off and close the week with the signature brand showing on Saturday and Z Zegna on June 23 while Dolce & Gabbana, who for the last few seasons showed off calendar, are back on the chamber's official agenda.
U.S. designer Marc Jacobs is a new name on the calendar, with presentations.
"All the big fashion names will be present," Boselli said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Irish to use tea and celebrity to get Lisbon through

By Carmel Crimmins
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Campaigners for the European Union's reform treaty will use celebrity endorsements, Facebook and persuasive chats over cups of tea to encourage Irish voters to give the charter the thumbs up in a second referendum.
Ireland's government cleared the way for an autumn plebiscite on Friday when it secured legal guarantees that the Lisbon Treaty would not affect its sovereignty on sensitive issues such as taxation, abortion and neutrality.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen is hoping the assurances, together with a more dynamic government campaign, will ensure the treaty will be passed and give the 27-member bloc a more influential role in world affairs.
But after last year's shock "No" result and Cowen's own subterranean popularity levels, pro-Lisbon forces in Ireland are not leaving it up to the government.
"The political establishment in the country has obviously taken a knock in recent months and I think that there is a real need for a genuine campaign," said Bart Storan, one of the founders of Generation Yes, a movement of young people created in the aftermath of last year's "No" vote.
Around 1,200 people have signed up to follow Generation Yes's campaign on social networking site Facebook and the group's website has a section entitled "Fight the Lies" to shoot down what they call false arguments against the treaty.
Storan, a recent graduate, says they are targeting voters from 18 to 30 years of age.
"There are an awful lot of people around the country who are genuinely interested in getting involved just because they see this as a vital step for our country going forward," said the 23-year-old.
VIGOROUS DEBATE
Recent opinion polls show a majority of Irish people are now in favor of the treaty, which is intended to streamline decision-making in the EU and give the bloc a permanent president and a diplomatic corps.
Ireland's stunning transformation from financial "Celtic Tiger" to the worst performing economy in western Europe has warmed voters' view of Brussels, which is seen as a safety net against an Icelandic-style meltdown.
But Cowen cannot rely on the economy and his legal guarantees to ensure a smooth passage for Lisbon 2.
The government's support levels are at record lows amid widespread anger at Ireland's economic crisis and there has been criticism of Cowen's communications style; his public persona is gruff despite a penchant for bar-room ballads among friends.
Irish people are largely pro-European but there are concerns about a loss of sovereignty to Brussels and suspicions about the EU's democratic credentials, which "No" campaigners, who range from the far left to the Catholic right, will seek to exploit.
Last year, the anti-Lisbon campaign outshone the government's half-hearted efforts by focusing on emotive single issues, some of which, including an allegation that the charter would result in conscription to a European army, were untrue. Continued...
Source: Reuters

British WWI veteran becomes world's oldest man

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - British World War One veteran Henry Allingham is the world's oldest man at 113 following the death of the previous holder of the title, Japan's Tomoji Tanabe, Guinness World Records said on Friday.
"Henry Allingham is now officially the oldest man in the world," said a spokeswoman for the organization widely recognized as the authority on record-breakers.
Tanabe, who ate mostly vegetables and believed the key to his longevity was not drinking alcohol, died on Friday aged 113 and had held the record for the oldest living male since January, 2007.
Allingham was born in London on June 6, 1896, and took the British title on January 19, 2007 aged 110 years 227 days, Guinness World Records said in a statement.
"We're pleased to see an English man take the world record -- the last time someone from England held the title was Frederick Butterfield, who died on March 9, 1974, aged 110," said Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief of Guinness World Records.
Allingham is one of only two surviving World War One veterans in the United Kingdom and the last surviving founder member of the Royal Air Force, according to British media.
His friend and chaperone, Dennis Goodwin, said: "It's staggering. He is philosophical. He will take it in his stride, like he does everything else."
Allingham's life has spanned three centuries and six monarchs, starting with Queen Victoria. He has five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild.
Guinness World Records said the oldest living person is American Gertrude Baines, 115, who was born on April 6, 1894.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)

Source: Reuters

Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Trieste, Italy

By Nigel Tutt
TRIESTE, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Got 48 hours to explore the central European melting pot which is the Italian port city of Trieste?
A Reuters correspondent with local knowledge helps visitors to get the most out of a visit to the city that only became definitively part of Italy in 1954 and where James Joyce wrote part of "Ulysses."
FRIDAY
8 p.m. - Drive down past cliffs and trees into the city of 200,000 people, a northeastern outpost of Italy with the Slovenian and Croatian borders not far away.
Drive past the rail station and just beyond the city center to L'Albero Nascosto. The small homely hotel, not from the seafront, boasts large rooms and breakfasts of cheese, bread and jams.
9 p.m. - Take a stroll along the seafront to get your bearings. Be ready for the wind, called the Bora, which often blows gustily across the city, sometimes at up to 160 km (100 miles) an hour.
Along the seafront a series of restaurants beckon. Upmarket is the Nastro Azzurro, which offers fish in traditional surroundings.
For those with tighter budgets, or with a more Germanic taste, there is a beer hall, the Birreria Lowenbrau, with a range of German-style beers, sausage and other meaty dishes.
SATURDAY
9 a.m. - To get a feel for the city's commercial roots in the 1800s, try the Museo Revoltella. Baron Pasquale Revoltella was a leader in making the city a center for trade and for insurance companies. His imposing home is a museum and the library, ballroom and sculptured entrance are particularly impressive. A modern art gallery is on the same site.
11 a.m. - Time for coffee and cake. Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia is the center of the city and home to Austrian-style coffee bars such as Caffe degli Specchi and the nearby Caffe Tommaseo with a ready array of creamy cakes. Coffee has to be the local Illy brand.
The piazza itself is a treasure and one of the largest three-sided squares facing the sea.
Noon - The tourist office in Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia offers a walking tour with audio guide which takes in all the important city center locations. They include squares, churches, museums, the San Giusto castle, the Roman theater, and the old Jewish ghetto.
The tourist office also offers a guided tour in the footsteps of Joyce, who lived in Trieste from 1904 to 1915 and taught English there. One of his students was Italo Svevo, who became one of Italy's leading modern writers.
Joyce returned after World War One, when the city had been transferred from Austria-Hungary to Italy, and lived there from 1919 to 1920. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Travel Picks: Notorious hotel rooms

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Some hotels are renowned for their views or for their service. Others are famed for the outrageous, flamboyant or destructive behavior of their guests.
Travel website travelandleisure (here
s-hotel-rooms) has come up with a list of 8 of some of the world 's most notorious hotel rooms. Reuters has not endorsed this list:
1. The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, Florida
During the Prohibition in the 1920s, Al Capone ran a speakeasy out of the Biltmore Hotel while camped out in the 13th-floor Everglades suite. The Al Capone Suite was where hit-man Thomas "Fats" Walsh was fatally shot in 1929.
2. Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, California
Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes racked up millions of dollars in hotel bills while staying on and off for 30 years at the four bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel from 1942 onwards. He'd order pineapple upside down cake from his personal chef at 3 a.m. and dance with young starlets.
3. Holiday Inn, Flint, Michigan
The Who drummer Keith Moon, who gained notoriety for his destructive lifestyle, celebrated his 21st birthday in 1967 at the Holiday Inn, in Flint, Michigan, by upsetting a cake, removing his clothes, shattering a tooth, and allegedly driving a Lincoln Continental into the pool.
4. Sunset Tower Hotel, West Hollywood
John Wayne reportedly brought a dairy cow to the balcony of his penthouse at the Sunset Tower Hotel, a 1929 Art Deco landmark, so that he would always have fresh milk.
5. Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Florida
TV evangelist Jim Bakker checked into Room 538 of this hotel with former church secretary turned Playboy model Jessica Hahn in December, 1980. The sex scandal, with allegations of rape and hush money, brought down Bakker's ministry empire.
6. Hotel Chelsea, New York
Sex Pistol Sid Vicious awoke in Room 100 of New York's Hotel Chelsea in 1978 to find girlfriend Nancy Spungen on the bathroom floor, dead from a stab wound. Vicious was charged with her murder but while out on bail he died of a heroin overdose.
7. Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin Continued...
Source: Reuters

UK tennis fans court tradition for Nadal club match

By Catherine Bosley
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Smartly dressed spectators crowded around the main court at London's Hurlingham club, sipping champagne and eating cucumber sandwiches, to watch world no. 1 Rafael Nadal and other players warm up for Wimbledon.
Each year the century-old private club, which sits on acres of manicured lawns in west London, hosts grass court exhibition matches for top professional players and a tournament for former champions like Greg Rusedski and Pat Cash.
Several men watching Australian Lleyton Hewitt trounce current Wimbledon champion Nadal 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday wore flowers in their lapels, while some women donned oversized sunglasses and large-brimmed hats despite the intermittently cloudy weather.
"This is so old school Britain - everyone's with their Pimm's and they're having tea - it's quite quaint," said Sophie, 22, standing on a sidewalk edged with roses.
Nadal is scheduled to play another match on Friday, though his participation at Wimbledon next week remains unclear due to a knee injury.
"As much as I believed Nadal would win, Hewitt had the edge. It was an amazing match," said spectator Nadia Deadman, as she surveyed a group of women in floral dresses.
Waiters in uniforms balanced silver trays, and on a nearby sign, the club proposed a dinner menu of lobster and wild boar with apple sauce, followed by strawberries and cream.
FUN AND SCARY
Young tennis fans accompanied their parents in the stands, clamored for autographs, or helped out as ball-girls on court. As it has for the past decade or so, Hurlingham selected its 22 ball girls from London's St. Paul's school.
"It's fun but scary when they're serving straight at you," Victoria, 14, wearing the navy blue skirt and polo shirt uniform for ball girls at the tournament, told Reuters.
Nadal's serves routinely clock in at about 180 km (112 miles) per hour, while Marat Safin, who in Thursday's other match lost to Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-4 blasts off aces faster than than 200 km.
But Kate Machemer, who supervises the ball girls, said that even though some of the girls had been hit by balls, the fear of getting whacked by an errant forehand was outweighed by the excitement of the event.
"This is all of their first tournament," she said. "It's been fantastic for them."
Later, young boys in tennis whites flocked around former Wimbled winner Cash in his trademark black chequered bandana, still breathless from his doubles match with Mansour Bahrami, eager for an autographed tennis ball.
"We're auctioning that on eBay," one boy's mother called out to her husband, seeing her son had gotten his hands on a signed ball.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

Malaysians bridle at day off for Indonesian maids

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Proposals to give the hundreds of thousands of Indonesian maids working in Malaysia a compulsory day off a week have drawn ire from both employers and business groups who believe households will break down.
While Filipino maids are generally given a day off each week, the 370,000 Indonesian maids who work in this Southeast Asian country of 27 million people are generally not given time off.
The government had proposed the day off after a series of high profile cases involving mistreatment of Indonesian maids by employers, most recently a case in which a maid was assaulted with hot water, a hammer and scissors.
Indonesia is considering a moratorium on sending workers to Malaysia following the cases of violence, Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Friday.
An SMS poll for Malaysia's Star newspaper published on Friday showed that 76 percent of 585 respondents believed that giving maids the day off was a bad idea.
"I feel that by giving a weekly day off to the maid will expose them to unwanted activities such as dating boyfriends and bringing guys back when the bosses are at work," Noora Mat Rifin wrote in a letter to the Star Friday.
"They might neglect the children and other responsibilities because they will have too many friends and too many phone calls. This will result in more stress to the bosses when more conflicts are created."
The starting salary for a live-in Indonesian maid would typically be 550 ringgit ($155) a month in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
"We will listen to the views of all parties and I believe this matter will also be discussed in the cabinet," deputy minister Maznah Mazlan said, according to the Star, after hearing objections from business groups.
Indonesia's minister of manpower, Erman Suparno, was quoted by state news agency Antara Thursday as saying he planned to meet his Malaysian counterpart in mid July to review the current terms for Indonesian workers, including pay increases.
"If we can't reach an agreement to improve the protection of Indonesian workers then we will consider a temporary halt on sending them," he told Antara, adding that several ministries would discuss the implications of a moratorium next week.
Overseas Indonesian workers in countries such as Malaysia and in the Middle East are a big source of foreign exchange remittances.
($1 = 3.531 Malaysian Ringgit)
(Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuw in Jakarta)
(Reporting by David Chance; Editing by David Fox)

Source: Reuters

Aussie author Winton wins top award for surfing novel

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Australian author Tim Winton has won the nation's most prestigious literary prize for a record fourth time, taking the 2009 Miles Franklin award for his novel "Breath" that is centered around his passion -- surfing.
Winton, 48, an lifelong surfer and environmentalist, won his first Miles Franklin award 25 years ago for "Shallows." He also won the annual accolade in 1992 for "Cloudstreet" and in 2002 for "Dirt Music."
Winton, who has twice been shortlisted for the Booker prize, said the Miles Franklin award has tried to do its part to stiffen the resolve and bolster the confidence of Australian writers and their readers.
The award, which comes with prize money of $42,000, recognizes novels which "present Australian life in any of its phases."
"It's endured to be a part of the global success our literary culture has enjoyed in recent years," said Winton, who lives in Western Australia.
But Winton used a pre-recorded acceptance speech to blast an Australian proposal to cut territorial copyright after 12 months and allow cheaper books to be imported into Australia.
He said territorial copyright was the unheralded reason for the success of Australia's literary world and scrapping this would ruin Australian writers' livelihoods.
"Aussie rights are the bedrock of fair play. They're the only hope we have of making a living here in our own country. But thanks to an agency of our own government, Aussie rights are now in grave jeopardy," he said.
"Australians have outgrown colonialism, but the loss of territorial copyright will return us to a colonial relationship - in literary terms - to London and New York. What a squalid surrender. What a waste of cultural capital that would be."
Winton is the only author to win the Miles Franklin award four times solo. Thea Astley won it four times but shared two of her wins with other authors.
Other writers shortlisted for the 2009 prize were Christos Tsoilkas for "The Slap," screenwriter and playwright Louis Nowra for "Ice," Murray Bail for "The Pages" and Richard Flanagan for "Wanting."
The winner, "Breath," is the story of two boys who will do anything for a dare and move into the world of surfing as they become teenagers, discovering a new world of danger as they believe they are immortal.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

Singapore to host own version of "Night at the Museum"

By Candida Ng
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Do museum exhibits really come to life at night?
Art-lovers and film buffs alike will get to compare real life with the reel comedy "Night at the Museum" when three Singapore museums keep their doors open into the small hours of the morning as part of the city-state's upcoming Night Festival in July.
Into its second year, the weekend-long event aims to bring life and vibrancy into nocturnal Singapore and bring the arts closer to the masses in a more interactive and intimate manner.
"Singaporeans love to hang out at night. It makes sense as it's much cooler and more relaxed," explained Lee Chor Lin, director of the National Museum of Singapore.
This year's event in the tropical Southeast Asian country has been scaled down from the inaugural festival last year which spanned two weekends, a casualty of the global downturn.
With half the budget compared to its predecessor, organizers decided to focus on promoting local acts.
Opening the festival is Bersama Hijau, featuring more than 80 dancers and performers in a multicultural showcase mixing different genres of dance, music and theater.
Dancers twirling four-meter-long silk ribbons to Japanese taiko drum music will mix with the crowd, who will also be entertained by fire-twirlers and performers of Kathakali, a classical form of Indian dance theater.
"I wish to engage Singaporeans to be more spontaneous... Hopefully we will get them dancing in this recession and in this fear of all these diseases," said Aaron Khek, Bersama Hijaus choreographer, referring to the H1N1 flu.
Five public art installations, three specially commissioned for the festival, will include local art and design network FARMs The Tree, an interpretation of a banyan tree made of steel, timber and LED light tubes.
The lighting of the installation will glow and dim in reaction to the surrounding environment's noise levels, which are picked up by microphones hanging in the trees as a simulation of the banyan's aerial roots.
With free admission to the festivals, organizers are targeting a turnout of about 50,000 visitors in a city-state eager to shed its image as a cultural wasteland.
"It does attract Singaporeans who may not want to stay the whole day in the air-conditioned malls and it's on the weekend, so you also have the excuse to stay up late," said Lee.
The Night Festival, which will also include live music performances and outdoor film screenings, will be held from July 10 to 11.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

Alaska polar bear numbers declining: U.S. agency

By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Polar bear populations in and around Alaska are declining due to continued melting of sea ice and Russian poaching, according to reports released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Fewer polar bears have survived in the southern Beaufort Sea, which extends from northern Alaska to parts of Canada, and in the Chukchi and Bering Seas between northwestern Alaska and Russia, the agency's draft population assessments show.
Officials say the drop among the Chukchi and Bering bears is likely steeper than for those in the Beaufort, due to a more dramatic melt of sea ice -- which the bears need to travel and forage for food -- and an illegal Russian hunt believed to be killing 150 to 250 bears a year.
The assessments, though incomplete, are disturbing, said an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned and later sued the federal government to add polar bears and walruses to the U.S. Endangered Species Act list.
"That information, when you look at it, paints a pretty grim picture for the species," attorney Brendan Cummings said.
The United States officially recognized polar bears as an endangered species last year as a result of the warming Arctic climate, which has wiped out much of the summer sea ice critical to the animals' survival.
Russian poaching, believed to be spurred by a market for bear hides, represents what the Fish and Wildlife Service describes as a potential compounding threat to the population, said Bruce Woods, the agency's spokesman in Alaska.
"Of course, since it's illegal hunting, it's very difficult to quantify," Woods said.
There was an estimated 0.3 percent annual decline in the polar bear population in the southern Beaufort Sea between 2001 and 2007, with the total numbers likely hovering between 1,397 and 1,526 animals, according to the draft assessments.
It has been more difficult to study the Chukchi and Bering population, which stretches across the border, although the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined the minimum population there is about 2,000 animals, according to the assessments.
The worldwide polar bear population is generally believed to be about 20,000 to 25,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which lists the species as "vulnerable".
The recent declines in the Alaska area follow decades of growth and stability that started in 1972 when the United States outlawed sport-hunting of polar bears. Prior to the ban, sportsmen killed hundreds of Alaskan polar bears annually, often using aircraft to track the animals.
The Fish and Wildlife Service also issued on Thursday preliminary population information showing the Pacific walrus, another marine mammal dependent on sea ice, had been impacted by habitat warming.
A reliable overall population estimate for the Pacific walrus, under consideration for Endangered Species Act protection, is expected to be released by early 2010, Woods said.
Cummings, however, expressed frustration at the delay. Continued...
Source: Reuters

California gay marriage fight goes to Chinatown

By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The path to gay marriage in California may start in Chinatown.
After a double defeat at the voting booth and in court, gay advocates are reassessing their plans to push for legal same-sex marriage in the most populous U.S. state.
The new drive, focused on getting the issue on the ballot again as soon as November 2010, is more personal and reaches farther beyond the liberal confines of San Francisco's Castro or Los Angeles' gay heartland West Hollywood.
Lost in the 2009 election wreckage for gays was the marriage campaign's relative success in Asian communities, which have swung toward support of same-sex marriage at a faster rate than the rest of California and have become a model for other groups.
Asian Americans have been building grass-roots support in Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Filipinotown for four years. Gays, lesbians and straight allies have talked about the often-taboo topic of homosexuality, set up booths at festivals, harangued non-English language media to change coverage and lobbied elected officials for support.
"What we felt we had to do is talk to people who aren't on our side. So that's why we do these crazy things like walk through the streets of Chinatown as part of the New Year's Parade. That's why we go out to festivals from Little India to Little Tokyo and talk to complete strangers," said Marshall Wong, co-chair of Asia Pacific Islander group API Equality.
From California Controller John Chiang to Star Trek's Mr. Sulu -- actor George Takei -- and dismissed U.S. Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, who said he cannot stay silent about his sexuality, Asian community heavyweights have come out in support of gay marriage.
CHANGING VIEWS OF MARRIAGE
Californians voted to ban gay marriage last November, ending same-sex nuptials a few months after the top court legalized it. The same court in May backed the new ban.
The margin of victory for the ban fell to 4 percent in 2008 from 18 percent in 2000, when a similar vote was held (and later thrown out by the court).
Together ethnic groups can dominate elections. White non-Hispanics have dropped to 43 percent of the population in California, compared with 66 percent nationwide. Asians are 12 percent of Californians, blacks 7 percent and Latinos 36 percent.
Polls of ethnic groups are often controversial because of small survey sizes. But polls of Asians by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center showed a 36 point margin of victory for the ban in 2000, falling to 6 points in 2008. The decline in support was clearly faster than in the state overall, the center said.
Arnold Pamplona, president of the Philippine American Bar Association, said his group was goaded into supporting gay marriage even though it did not seem like a Filipino issue.
"That wasn't something we were going to touch, because being Filipino American, a great majority of our members are Roman Catholic," he said.
Gay groups lobbied hard and said past discrimination against the Filipino community was similar to what gays faced, eventually closing the deal on an endorsement from the group -- and many other ethnic bar associations and alliances. Continued...
Source: Reuters

CIA seeks laid-off bankers in N.Y. recruitment drive

By Frederick H. Katayama
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Laid off from Wall Street? The CIA wants you -- as long as you can pass a lie detector test and show that you are motivated by service to your country rather than your wallet.
The Central Intelligence Agency has been advertising for recruits and will be holding interviews on June 22 at a secret location in New York.
"Economics, finance and business professionals, if the quest for the bottom line is just not enough for you, the Central Intelligence Agency has a mission like no other," one radio advertisement for the agency says.
"Join CIA's directorate of intelligence and be a part of our global mission as an economic or financial analyst. Make a difference in your career and for your nation," it says.
Ron Patrick, a spokesman for recruitment and retention at the CIA, told Reuters Television the agency had received several hundred resumes so far from applicants ranging from people just out of graduate school to laid-off bankers.
"It's going to be a very different use of their skill set than perhaps they've used on Wall Street," Patrick said.
Recruits will have to pass rigorous background and medical checks, as well as a polygraph, or lie-detector test.
Starting salaries range from around $60,000 for a new graduate to $100,000 for somebody with more experience, and top out at $160,000. Generous benefits are included.
Patrick said the agency would welcome worthy applicants from Wall Street, whose reputation has been tarnished by the financial crisis and revelations of lavish lifestyles and multi-million dollar bonuses at banks blamed for the meltdown.
"Typically the people that come to the CIA want to serve the government, they want to serve their countries. It's a different mindset perhaps than serving a company or serving profit as a bottom line," he said.
"As long as they can make that attitude switch from profit being the motivator to serving their country, I think they'll fit in very well with us."
(Writing by Claudia Parsons; editing by Paul Simao)

Source: Reuters

Wedgwood Museum wins $160,000-Art Fund Prize

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The Wedgwood Museum in Stoke-on-Trent, which celebrates the famous name in British ceramics, has won the 100,000-pound ($160,000) Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries.
The panel of judges, which included the Turner Prize-winning, cross-dressing potter Grayson Perry, praised the museum for using its collection to take visitors on a "250-year tour of British social, design and industrial history."
"This Museum is extraordinary for so many reasons and we were all but unanimous in our decision," said David Puttnam, the chair of judges, at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.
"The Wedgwood Museum brilliantly highlights the marriage of art, design, manufacturing and commerce; a marriage that resonates more today than at possibly any time in the intervening years.
"In every respect it fully meets our criteria of what a 21st century museum should aspire to be." The award caps a tumultuous few months for the Wedgwood name.
The company, founded 250 years ago by Josiah Wedgwood, one of the fathers of the industrial revolution, merged with Waterford of Ireland, but had to call in the receivers in January. The following month, U.S. private equity group KPS Capital Partners said it would buy some of the group's assets.
Andrew Macdonald, acting director of The Art Fund, said the prize could prove a morale booster at a difficult time for the company and the region.
"It is a richly deserving winner of this prize, and its victory could not have come at a better time for the area, after all the uncertainty there has been over the future of the factory which still operates alongside the museum."
This year the public was also a judge in the first ever People's Choice poll. More than 27,000 people voted, also choosing The Wedgwood Museum as their winner.
Three other museums were shortlisted for the Art Fund Prize: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, for its Center of New Enlightenment; Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham and Ruthin Craft Center in North Wales.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

Russia's Hermitage museum opens Amsterdam branch

By Gilbert Kreijger
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Paintings of Russian tsars and robes decorated with gold will be on display at the new Dutch branch of the Hermitage on Friday, part of a bid to underline links between the two countries and boost interest in the parent museum.
Located along the Amstel River in Amsterdam city center, a former nursing home has been transformed into a museum to show art from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
"Czar Peter the Great would be happy with this museum. It all started with Czar Peter," State Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky told a news conference.
Peter the Great, who ruled Russia from 1672-1725, visited Amsterdam in 1696 and took Amsterdam's canals as an inspiration for the city that bears his name, St. Petersburg. He started the tsars' tradition of collecting art.
Czar Peter saw the Netherlands, which wants to become a gas hub for Europe, as the most advanced European country in terms of culture and technology, Piotrovsky said.
Paintings of Tsarina Catharine and her family, royal dresses, and china are on display in the building, which is less than a tenth in size of the original Hermitage.
Dutch Queen Beatrix, whose ancestors date back to Czar Alexander I's sister, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will open the museum on Friday.
Paint was still drying Thursday and workers were laying the last stones outside the museum, which was renovated for about 40 million euros ($55.82 million). It features a bright interior of white walls, and floors of grey natural stone and light brown oak.
The Amsterdam branch of the Hermitage was not about improving the image of Russia but to give a more complex image of the country, Piotrovsky said.
"We want to tell and show how Russia is part of Europe and how it is different from Europe," Piotrovsky told Reuters.
The Amsterdam branch was also part of Hermitage's ambition to show its collection around the world, Piotrovsky said.
Hermitage currently has exhibitions in several countries such as Japan and Germany, and a permanent branch in the Russian city of Kazan. It also cooperates with a research center in Italy, where it has temporary exhibitions of part of its collection.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: Reuters

"Poetry for the soul" in first Afghan national park

By Peter Graff
BAND-E-AMIR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - If you want to see the stunning blue lakes of Afghanistan's first national park right now, it helps to get the U.S. military to fly you there in a Chinook helicopter with the American ambassador.
It's worth it.
The U.S. embassy flew a small group of reporters on Thursday to Band-e-Amir, a vast expanse of amazingly blue lakes set in austere desert cliffs, nearly 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) high in the Hindu Kush mountains, to attend the opening of Afghanistan's first national park.
For now, any foreign tourists who might want to visit would have to defy their embassy's warnings of kidnappings and war, and drive more than 10 hours from Kabul on treacherous mountain roads that barely exist.
But the park, which was a tourist destination in peacetime back in the 1970s, is in a part of Afghanistan that has been comparatively stable for years. And the U.S. government is funding a new road that should reduce the drive by two-thirds.
"Look at this. It is poetry for the eyes. Poetry for the soul. Poetry for the spirit," said Prince Mostapha Zaher, grandson of Afghanistan's last king and now head of its environment agency, gesturing to the cliffs behind one of the lakes.
"Afghanistan will become again the tourist destination for Central Asia, for Americans, Europeans, for people of all the world. You can hold me to that. In five years. You can grab me by the tie and hold me to it."
The lakes -- flat as pool tables and blue as the late evening sky -- are suspended improbably over lower parts of the valley, held back by natural dams that were formed over eons by calcium deposits called travertine. Although created entirely by nature, they look like a marvel of human engineering.
An ancient legend, written down by a British diplomat more than 150 years ago and still believed by the Shi'ite Hazara tribes in the area, says that the dams were built by magic by Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad, who knelt in the valley to pray. A modest mud-brick shrine marks the spot.
Beneath it, after the park's dedication ceremony, Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili, a visibly delighted U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry and other senior Afghan officials paddled around the lake in swan-shaped paddle boats.
They tossed granola to teeming schools of silvery fish, who leapt out of the lake to gobble it up. (The new national park's rules ban the Afghan practice of fishing with hand grenades.)
Eikenberry said diplomats from his embassy still remember picnicking on the lake's shores in the 1970s, before three decades of war put it off-limits.
The park is in Afghanistan's central Bamiyan province, an area of extraordinary natural beauty even by the stunning standards of Afghanistan, but also a place that suffered perhaps the harshest treatment of any area under the Taliban.
The people of the province are mainly Shi'ite Muslims, who long resisted the Sunni Taliban and were punished with mass killings and sectarian repression when they finally succumbed.
A few hours' drive from the park are the vast cliff caves that housed ancient giant statues of the Buddha, blown up by the militant Islamists in 2001 at a time when they set out to destroy all of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic religious artifacts. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Old Hound Dogs Leiber & Stoller up to new tricks

By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - If Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had not become two of the most influential songwriters in pop music, they could have earned a decent living as a stand-up comedy duo.
Almost 60 years after an awkward first meeting that set them on the road to vast fame and fortune through such tunes as "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand By Me" and "Poison Ivy," the pair have developed a finely honed routine.
Stoller supplies the anecdotes, and Leiber, the lyricist, injects the spicy wit. The system worked well for their new memoir, "Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography," in which the boogie-woogie boys trade old war stories.
In a recent conversation with Reuters, the 76-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees were asked if the project exposed divergent, Rashomon-style memories of the same event.
"Constantly, all the time," said Stoller. "That's because I have a very good memory. And he doesn't."
"But I have a very fertile imagination," countered Leiber.
"You bet," replied Stoller.
"And that makes up for what I cannot remember," Leiber concluded.
The back-and-forth goes on for 300 pages in their book, with collaborator David Ritz playing referee.
"They're like Catskill comics. I didn't have to do much," said Ritz, who has previously co-authored memoirs for the likes of Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. "They're used to arguing, so I got in there and began arguing with them. The arguments, for the most part, were positive."
ELVIS, BEATLES
The sparks that have flown between Leiber and Stoller also ignited the career of the Coasters, for whom they wrote and produced all of the doo-wop act's hits, including "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones."
Elvis Presley, the Drifters, Ben E. King and Peggy Lee were also among their many satisfied clients. Their 200-plus tunes have also been covered by everyone from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Joni Mitchell and Liza Minnelli.
Raised on the East Coast, Leiber and Stoller came to Los Angeles with their families during the 1940s. They met in 1950 when they were 17. Leiber phoned Stoller and suggested they work together. Stoller was reluctant, but was inadvertently mesmerized when Leiber showed up at his doorstep.
"He had one blue eye and one brown eye," Stoller said. "I'd never seen that before ... I forgot to say anything for a long time. I was just staring at him." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Federal gay marriage challenge has Hollywood style

By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The story of two famous U.S. lawyers from opposite ends of the political spectrum banding together to launch a bold and unexpected fight for gay marriage sounds like it could have been written in Hollywood.
In many ways, it is.
A handful of political filmmakers led by a Democratic consultant have crafted a gay rights challenge they hope will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case which has its first hearing in a federal San Francisco court on July 2 could quickly make gay marriage a national right, or, some veteran gay rights advocates fear, cripple the movement.
The team has political experience, winning referenda in California in particular, and has brought together real-world firepower in the form of Ted Olson and David Boies, the lawyers who faced off in the 2000 election vote recount that led to George W. Bush's presidency.
What sets them apart is the willingness to take on a court case that advocates steeped in the cause have avoided.
"Patience is a virtue I've quite frankly never possessed -- if patience is a virtue," said Chad Griffin, 35, who began his career in the political big leagues more than a decade ago as the youngest person to work on a president's West Wing staff.
"History is on our side, law is on our side," added Griffin, who is gay.
Rob Reiner, the "When Harry Met Sally" director and advocate for children's health, and Bruce Cohen, the producer of "Milk," a film about the first openly gay elected politician in California, are two of the six-member board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, founded for the court challenge.
HIGH STAKES
Despite losses in California courts and at the ballot box, gay rights advocates have made major strides in recent months with marriage and domestic partner rights in a number of states, especially in the Northeast.
President Barack Obama's Justice Department this week argued in a federal case against recognizing same-sex marriage, but Obama on Wednesday extended some federal rights to gay partners of federal workers in what he called a first step to end discrimination against gays and lesbians.
The federal judiciary is widely seen as conservative, and gay rights movement leaders have argued that a gradual approach to change public opinion and win in states would be crucial preparation for a challenge in the Supreme Court, which gauges public opinion in such morality-linked cases.
But with a swing vote in the nine-member Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, already ruling in favor of gays in two important cases -- and no signs of court conservatives retiring soon -- the Los Angeles-based filmmaker group decided to act.
"You get into the habit, which I think is a good one, of going for it," said Cohen. "From the political world we bring the knowledge that there is no such thing as a sure thing. From the Hollywood world, everything is a one in a million chance." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Larry David takes acting turn for Woody Allen

By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - While many A-list stars list Woody Allen as the director they most want to work with, comedian Larry David was not fawning for a chance to collaborate with the creator of such hits as "Annie Hall," "Manhattan" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
"It wasn't really a burning ambition. Acting is not the top of my list of things to do," said David, who made his name as co-creator and writer of the hit 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld" and now improvises a self-caricature in the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Indeed, the 61-year-old said he thought Allen was making a mistake by casting him in Allen's new film, "Whatever Works."
"I was a little intimidated at first, I didn't want to be the guy to screw up Woody Allen's movie," David said, insisting he is not really an actor at all. "I called him up and I said, 'I think you are making a mistake.'"
While David calls the movie a Woody Allen "gem" and insists he is "very pleased and satisfied" with it, few critics agree.
"On the plus side, Allen avoids the creepy ventriloquist effect of a younger actor mouthing his words and intonations by choosing as raucously individualistic a performer as David," Variety wrote of the film, which opens on Friday.
"But by forcing David, a total improviser who rarely delivers scripted lines, to incant impossibly long monologues ... Allen the director loses sight of what works."
David has completed filming and is now editing the seventh season of his television show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which starts up on HBO in September. He said he does not know if this season will be its last.
During its upcoming season, he says he fights with Rosie O'Donnell and has episodes with top stars of "Seinfeld."
David says the rude, abrasive character he plays on his show is him, but without the social boundaries of real life, and that people often mistake him for his TV incarnation.
That, he says, gives his liberty to behave like his TV character. "I can be a little more honest. If they treat me like the character, they will get the character," he says.
People often tell him funny things that happened to them, thinking it would be great material for his show.
"They are never any good," he said. "Now I just tell people, 'Don't tell me, I don't want to know,' and they think I'm rude."
(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Source: Reuters

Greece to open long-awaited new Acropolis Museum

By Dina Kyriakidou
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece opens the gates of the long-awaited Acropolis Museum on Saturday, hoping the modern glass and concrete building will help bring back the Classical Parthenon sculptures from Britain.
Dignitaries from around the world will attend the ceremony at the foot of the Acropolis, the epitome of the Golden Age of Athens, and visitors can begin touring some of the world's most stunning art for 1 euro ($1.40) from Sunday.
"This museum is a catalyst for the repatriation of the marbles that were plundered 200 years ago," Culture Minister Antonis Samaras told reporters.
Greece has campaigned for decades to get back the carvings removed from the Parthenon in 1806 by Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman empire. Among British Museum arguments was that Greece had no proper place to put them and the Acropolis Museum now addresses that.
"This is a symbol of modern Greece which pays homage to its past ... the duty of a nation to its cultural heritage," Samaras said.
The 14,000 square meter (150,000 square foot) museum will be able to host over 10,000 visitors a day.
Plagued by protests and bureaucratic delays for decades, the museum designed by architect Bernard Tschumi exploits natural light and boasts panoramic views of the Greek capital from almost every hall.
Planned to remind visitors of the 5th century BC monument visible across the street, its top floor layout mimics the main temple of the Acropolis, the Parthenon, whose 2,500-year-old sculptures are displayed with the missing pieces clearly marked.
"Tragic fate has forced them apart but their creators meant them to be together," museum director Dimitris Pantermalis told reporters on a sneak preview of the building.
White plaster moulds of Olympian gods, heroes and animals, fill in the gaps of slabs now in London. Some pieces have gone missing forever, victims of wars and natural disasters.
Visitors enter large halls and walk up a wide staircase, reminiscent of the monumental Propylaia entrance that ancient Greeks had to climb to reach their sacred temples.
The museum pays tribute to all ages of the Acropolis, with pre-Classical art works given prominence on the second floor, before reaching the Parthenon marbles. Below it, visitors walk over archaeological excavations, visible through glass floors.
(Editing by Charles Dick)

Source: Reuters

Argentine show makes serious fun of politics

By Fiona Ortiz
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters Life!) - Marcelo Tinelli, the host of Argentina's top-rated television show, says he's just having some fun with his new political satire, but he could influence a close congressional race on June 28.
Last year, Tinelli ran a racy pole-dancing contest that sent ratings for his "Showmatch" variety show through the ceiling.
Now, he has shifted gears and put political leaders on the defensive with "Big Brother-in-Law," a parody featuring impersonate prominent politicians.
The show lampoons President Cristina Fernandez, her husband Nestor Kirchner who preceded her in office and is now running for Congress, Kirchner's main opponent Francisco de Narvaez, and others.
Media critics and analysts say the show could shape the outcome of the tight race between Kirchner and De Narvaez in the key province Buenos Aires, home to more than a third of Argentines, although it is unclear in which direction.
If the opposition does well in the mid-term it will try to put the brakes on Fernandez's policies of increasing state intervention in businesses and financial markets.
"Without a doubt, Tinelli is a high priest of opinion. His comments on the candidates are very important, they influence opinion, especially the undecided voters, and there are lots of them," said Fernando Ruiz, a specialist on journalism and democracy at the Austral University in Buenos Aires.
MILLIONS OF VIEWERS
The political humor segment is just part of Tinelli's mix -- often criticized as low-brow -- of spoofs on sports history and society, celebrity interviews and performances, sexy showgirls, and talent contests.
Tinelli, who pitches everything from cough syrup to Volkswagens between segments, told Reuters he is not trying to sway voters on "Big Brother-in-Law," which is a revival of a political show he did previously.
But he does admit the show is influential, especially since the candidates have asked to appear live with their imitators.
"The fact that they come on the program clearly shows it's important to them," said Tinelli, 49, who started as a sportscaster and now works with the country's top comedians and comic writers.
More than 5.5 million Argentines watch "Showmatch," which has been on the air for 20 years. Even people who don't tune in know what happened on the show, because it is all over the newspapers and daytime talk shows the next day.
Advertising on "Showmatch" costs about $1,100 per second, one of the highest rates in Argentine television.
President Fernandez's Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa, who acts as a spokesman for her government and is also running for Congress, and Buenos Aires Province Governor Daniel Scioli are the only ruling party politicians who have come on so far. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Edinburgh festival kicks off with Mendes film

By Ian MacKenzie
EDINBURGH (Reuters Life!) - The Edinburgh International Film Festival kicked off its 11-day season on Wednesday night with the international premiere of a comedy directed by British Oscar-winner Sam Mendes, "Away We Go."
The festival, in its 63rd year after being born alongside the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe in 1947, is putting on 135 films, ranging from full-length features to documentaries and shorts.
Its artistic director Hannah McGill said one of its major aims was to discover and encourage new talent.
The feature line-up includes Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience," David Mackenzie's "Spread" starring Ashton Kutcher and "Le Donk" from Shane Meadows, winner of the festival's 2008 Michael Powell award for best new British feature film for "Somers Town."
Away We Go stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as a slightly chaotic unmarried couple who are awaiting their first baby.
They set out around North America, from Montreal to Arizona to Florida, to meet old friends and kin and decide on where to settle and raise a family.
A form of road movie, the film abounds with zany characters and black humor, with Maggie Gyllenhaal providing one of the cameo appearances.
Mendes, whose previous films include "American Beauty," "Road to Perdition" and "Revolutionary Road," told a news conference that a theme running through his movies was the central characters being lost and trying to find their way.
He said he had not wanted to launch "Away We Go" at the recent Cannes Film Festival because he preferred Edinburgh to the razzmatazz and media scrum of the French Riviera.
Early critical reception to the film has been lukewarm.
Alistair Harkness of the Scotsman newspaper panned the film in a two-star review, calling it "an unbearably precious road movie...
"It's the kind of movie that wallows in winsomeness, kooky characters and the overbearing use of Nick Drake-style songs on the soundtrack ... what a disappointing start to the festival."
The Times critic Damon Wise awarded the film three out of five stars, describing it as "a dry but entertaining crowd pleaser, but from Mendes it feels like pastiche."
(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

French woman given 8-1/2 years for banker's murder

By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The woman who killed banker Edouard Stern, a banking scion and one of France's richest men, after sado-masochistic sex and an argument over $1 million was sentenced on Thursday to 8-1/2 years in prison for murder.
Cecile Brossard, 40, has served four years in preventive custody since confessing to shooting dead her long-time lover in a crime that rocked Geneva's staid financial circles.
"The court sentences Cecile Brossard to eight years and six months in prison for murder," Judge Alessandra Cambi said.
Brossard's defense team said it was "virtually certain" it would not appeal the sentencing that followed a one-week trial that revealed intimate details of the couple's tumultuous relationship. Under Swiss law, she could be granted conditional release in 17 months, at the end of 2010.
Stern, 50, was found dead on March 1, 2005, in his luxury Geneva flat littered with sex toys. Four bullets were lodged in his body which was dressed in a head-to-toe flesh-colored latex outfit from the previous night.
Brossard confessed to killing Stern with his own revolver following an argument over $1 million he put into her Swiss bank account, funds she had demanded as "proof of his love for her."
The artist testified that she shot her masked lover between the eyes after he told her: "One million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a whore." He was shot twice in the head and twice in the torso.
COURTROOM APOLOGIES
A jury of six women and six men concluded that Stern had sometimes been "humiliating, tormenting and even cruel" to Brossard, but said her deed was "particularly cowardly" given that Stern had not been armed and had little chance of survival.
It took into account her courtroom apologies to his ex-wife Beatrice and three adult children in setting her sentence, saying the chances of a repeat offence were "practically nil."
"The jury clearly said that it was not a crime committed by a mercenary woman looking for money. The jury recognized her as a woman who loved Edouard Stern, and that is what counted most for her," defense lawyer Pascal Maurer told reporters.
Brossard admitted to having cleaned up the crime scene and thrown the murder weapon -- which was later recovered -- into Lake Geneva before fleeing to Italy and then Australia.
The jury rejected the defense's argument that she committed a crime of passion in a moment of extreme distress, noting that she had been deliberate in trying to cover her tracks.
However, it recognized a "slightly reduced responsibility" on the part of Brossard, whom a psychiatrist testified has a borderline personality and suffered sexual abuse as a child.
Geneva's chief prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, had asked for an 11-year prison sentence. The maximum sentence was 20 years. Continued...
Source: Reuters