Thursday, June 25, 2009

Cambridge eyes anti-war poet Sassoon`s archives

LONDON (Reuters) - Cambridge University launched a campaign on Thursday to buy an important collection of personal papers belonging to Siegfried Sassoon, the British anti-war poet noted for his bravery in battle.
The archive of manuscripts includes a draft copy of the 1917 "A Soldier`s Declaration," in which Sassoon argued that World War One was being "deliberately prolonged" by those in power.
The declaration, which he sent to his commanding officer, was read out in parliament and caused a storm of controversy.
Sassoon was subsequently taken to Craiglockhart hospital in Scotland where he was treated for shell-shock and met fellow war poet Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action just before the conflict ended.
Sassoon was credited with helping to change people`s perception of the Great War, doing away with patriotic propaganda and conveying the horror and agony of life and death in the trenches for thousands of young men.
His realist verse also made him a pioneer of modernist poetry.
Max Egremont, Sassoon`s official biographer who is leading the campaign to purchase the archives, has said that the poet`s war journals and autobiographical writings convey:
"... a vision so haunting that 20th century British warfare still seems to be defined by futile offensives, exhausted men impaled upon wire or trapped in mud before an immovable enemy a mere few yards away."
Sotheby`s, which is handling the private sale of the archives, called them "unquestionably the most valuable collection of Sassoon`s papers ever to be offered for sale."
Cambridge has valued the archive, comprising seven boxes of material, at 1.25 million pounds ($2.0 million).
It includes Sassoon`s journals, pocket notebooks compiled on the Western Front, poetry books, photographs and love letters to his wife Hester.
"These journals make up one of the most important literary and documentary records of trench warfare in existence," Sotheby`s said.
The papers also include 34 volumes of journals dated 1920-1959, many unpublished, documenting Sassoon`s post-war life including his affair with aristocrat Stephen Tennant.
Cambridge University already holds several sets of letters and manuscripts by Sassoon, and if successful in acquiring the archive, says it would own the "most significant collection of Sassoon manuscripts anywhere in the world.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)
Original article

Workplace theft saps Cuba`s state-run economy

By Tom Brown
HAVANA (Reuters) - In a cramped apartment just behind the renowned Partagas cigar factory in central Havana, the factory worker displayed his wares.
Shiny wooden boxes of Cohiba, Montecristo and Partagas cigars -- considered among the finest in the world -- emerged from a duffel bag as the worker, who gave his name as Jose but asked not to be identified further, offered them at a steep discount to those on sale in the Partagas store.
"This isn`t stealing. We do it to survive," said Jose, who explained that his wage in the factory amounted to less than $20 a month. Without slipping cigars out of the state-run business and selling them to tourists, he and his family would not get by, Jose said.
Cuba`s communist authorities take a dim view of such "survival" tactics, which have existed for years in some form or other in a society whose citizens often wryly joke "if it`s not illegal, it`s prohibited."
A popular Sunday night drama on state television highlights the crimes and punishment -- including long jail terms -- meted out to Cubans responsible for "counterrevolutionary" acts such as black market sales of goods, such as beef, cigars and rum.
"I could get in a lot of trouble just for talking to you ... I could go to prison," said the Partagas worker.
He and three fellow workers reaped just 20 percent of the revenues from the "bolsa negra" or black market deals, Jose said. Plant managers and foremen keep the other 80 percent and split it among themselves and police or Interior Ministry officials who turn a blind eye to the illicit sales, he said.
Former President Fidel Castro complained bitterly about theft from the workplace in a speech in November 2005. But he fell ill not long after that, and little seems to have been done about a problem so commonplace that Castro described it as having created a class of "nuevos ricos" or new rich which he said threatened the very lifeblood of the Cuban Revolution.
The government routinely blames many of Cuba`s economic problems on the U.S. trade embargo against the island that which has been in place since 1962.
"ESCAPE VALVE"
But the problem of theft from state-owned businesses is an embarrassment for a government that has long prided itself on socialist egalitarianism and a sense of ethical superiority.
President Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing elder brother Fidel last year, has called for more efficiency, austerity and sacrifice as the global recession squeezes the centralized Cuban economy with dips in foreign currency earners such as tourism and nickel.
Nevertheless, many Cubans see themselves as victims of a flawed economy and say workplace theft is one of the things still keeping the Cuban Revolution alive.
"It`s sort of our escape valve," said one taxi driver, who asked not to be named. "If they were to take that away people could get pretty angry and things might get out of hand."
Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, whose wry comments about daily life in Cuba have won her international acclaim, described pilfering from the workplace as "a socially accepted way of breaking the law" in a website posting this week.  Continued...
Original article

Just a Minute With: French actress Marion Cotillard

By Alex Dobuzinskis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - French actress Marion Cotillard has gone from playing singing legend Edith Piaf to portraying the girlfriend of another kind of popular hero, bank robber John Dillinger.
In the movie "Public Enemies" opening on July 1, Cotillard plays Billie Frechette, a woman who fell in love with Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp, during his ill-fated cops-and-robbers war with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in the 1930s.
Cotillard won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Piaf in 2007 movie "La Vie en Rose." Her role in "Public Enemies" as the daughter of a Frenchman and an American Indian is her first since winning the Academy Award.
She spoke to Reuters in French from Chicago about her character Billie Frechette, her love of the Windy City and her upbringing in France in a family of actors.
Q: What did Billie Frechette see in John Dillinger that attracted her to him?
A: "At a young age, she was sent to a boarding school, and it was a very difficult place where they tried to erase everything that was Indian in her. And I think that she encountered there a great injustice, and she shared with Dillinger a suspicion of authority. I think the two of them saw that in each other and they fell in love immediately, and there was a very strong connection between them."
Q: Growing up in a household of actors, did you often practice scenes with your parents?
A: "Yes, because my parents were actors and theater directors. And my father was a director for children`s theater after having been a mime for a long time. So, seeing actors rehearse was something very familiar to me."
Q: Did that influence you as an actress?
A: "I was absolutely fascinated that you could make a living telling other people`s stories by imparting your emotion to them. And I always wanted to be an actress. My first work as an actress was when I was about five years-old."
Q: You played in a scene that young?
A: "I made two small movies for television. And before that I remember acting in a play with my mother, and it was very disorienting because I played the daughter of another actress. They were telling me that she was my mom, but I knew she wasn`t. In fact, my real mom was also on stage. I remember being very disoriented by that."
Q: How did you prepare for your English-speaking role in this movie?
A: "I worked with a speech coach for several months, and I had to relearn how to use my face and my body, because the way of saying certain letters is so different in French than in English, and it was very hard to train myself in that."
Q: What did you do for fun while you were shooting this movie in Chicago?  Continued...
Original article

Piaf`s fiery love letters to cyclist sold in Paris

Piaf`s fiery love letters to cyclist sold in ParisBy Sophie Hardach
PARIS (Reuters Life!) - Dozens of love letters from singer Edith Piaf to a French cyclist, in which she describes her sexual fantasies and vows to quit drinking for him, fetched 55,000 euros ($77,400) at auction in Paris on Thursday.
Piaf, almost as famous for her many love affairs and addictions as for her songs, wrote the previously unseen letters to championship cyclist Louis Gerardin in 1951 and 1952, dedicating her song "Plus bleu que tes yeux" to him.
The collection also includes telegrams, a quick note and even a letter from Gerardin`s wife, Bichette, to her husband, calling Piaf a "little monster."
"My darling, I want to tell you that no other man has taken me as much as you, and I truly believe I am making love for the first time," Piaf, who died of cancer at the age of 47 in 1963, wrote in one of the letters.
In others, she vows to give up her wild lifestyle for Gerardin, her "Mr. My Marvel," and turn into a "docile" woman.
"I made an oath in Church that if you came I would never touch another glass of alcohol in my life," she wrote in the series of letters, which end with her marriage to another man, the singer Jacques Pills.
Earlier this year, an equally ardent love letter by Piaf to a Greek actor, telling him "don`t let my heart die," sold for 1,500 euros at auction in Greece.
In her letters to Gerardin, she mixes that passionate love with sexual desire, praising the cyclist`s thighs and buttocks.
"I would like to see you naked on the bed and I would lie down between your beautiful thighs...and well-entwined by the limbs that are normally only used for walking and sitting down," Piaf writes in one of the letters.
"I would like to stay there for a long time without moving and let my dreams come true."
Fans of Piaf`s husky voice and hits such as "La Vie en Rose" and "Non, je ne regrette rien" crowded the auction room at Christie`s in the heart of Paris. The set was snapped up by a French bidder over the phone.
Gerardin himself reportedly said of his mistress: "Forty eight hours with Piaf are more tiring than a lap in the Tour de France."
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Original article

Health games become serious business

Health games become serious businessBy John Gaudiosi
RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters Life!) - Videogames were once blamed for rising obesity rates but are now being championed by the medical industry and for use by government departments for their health benefits.
Games like Electronic Arts` "EA Sports Active" and Nintendo`s "Wii Fit" have got players of all ages moving -- and game developers and investors looking for hot new titles to cash in on this booming segment of the market.
Big John Games` upcoming "Butt Kicker" Nintendo DSi game will provide an action-based environment in which players fight against cigarettes and "Karate Bears" for Wii teaches players real karate routines using the Wii`s motion-sensor controllers.
With interest in health games rising, the fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston expanded to 390 people this year from 100, including developers, investors and medical experts, while numbers at many other conferences are down up to 40 percent.
"Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term," said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of The Games for Health Project.
"If you add up the 18 month sales of "Wii Fit" and the sales of "EA Sports Active," Konami`s "Dance Dance Revolution" and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion."
Dr. Michael Levine, executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop which fosters innovation in children`s learning, has just released a report looking at how digital games can play a beneficial and educational role in health care.
"The White House should launch a national initiative to promote research and development of proven games," said Levine.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whose mission is to improve the health and healthcare of all Americans, has also called for a public engagement campaign supported by the president, Congress and the federal agencies to teach parents, teachers and health providers about the healthy side of gaming.
"States` governors should direct their school technology officers to look at innovations like "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Wii Fit" as a way to extend the reach of physical education and comprehensive health education," said Dr. Debra Lieberman, director of Health Games Research for the foundation.
The Games for Health Conference also showcased how videogames are being used to help doctors and patients alike.
Serious games developer Virtual Heroes is working on a new first-person shooter sequel for Hope Lab`s popular "Re-Mission" game, which has been distributed to cancer patients in 81 countries since 2006.
"We`re taking their existing concept and trying to raise the fun bar and creating more lifelike and enjoyable environments within the human body," explained Jerry Heneghan, CEO of Virtual Heroes.
"Players will take control of Roxy, the protagonist, and have new weapons to battle cancer with thanks to input from cancer patients."
Virtual Heroes is also updating its HumanSim technology with a new human physiology engine, technology has been used by Duke Medical Center`s nursing school to train nurses virtually.  Continued...
Original article

Generation Y makes waves in workplace

Generation Y makes waves in workplaceBy Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - They might wear flip flops to the office and address colleagues as "dude," but the youngest generation of workers brings fresh creativity and openness to the workplace.
The challenge of managing Generation Y, or the Millennials -- born between 1980 and 1999 -- has spawned a small industry of expertise and literature, including "Keeping the Millennials," new this month, and "Y in the Workplace," due out in July.
Both books argue that the newest generation is making waves in the office that must be addressed and tended. Some 40 million Millennials work in corporate America, a figure expected to hit 58 million by 2014.
Tech-savvy and fast-working, Millennials are also impatient and indulged, the product of hovering parents and educations that never let them fail, the books say.
And they communicate differently from the rest of us -- tweeting and texting and writing "CYL" for "see you later."
"Y in the Workplace" (Career Press, $15.99) cites an impasse between a Generation Y worker, working at home, and her older boss. "I`m only texting today, not talking on the phone," she wrote. He replied: "Well, I`m only talking on the phone."
"WHINERS, BABIES, BRATS"
Older managers tend to generalize that all younger workers are alike, said Joanne Sujansky, co-author with Jan Ferri-Reed of "Keeping the Millennials" (Wiley, $24.95).
"The mistake we make is we don`t listen, and we have them stereotyped to be whiners, babies, brats," she said. They may expect more praise, feedback and flexibility than their older colleagues, but those needs aren`t all bad, she added.
"If we try to meet some of their needs, we make a workplace that is attractive to other generations also," she said.
The recession is hitting Millennials -- a protected generation -- particularly hard, said Nicole Lipkin, who coauthored "Y in the Workplace" with April Perrymore as a guide for managing the "me first" generation.
Taught to take their time deciding what to do in life and to job-hop if things get tough, they don`t have coping skills for hard economic times, she said. "Life isn`t like they thought it was going to be," she said.
But they have also been taught to speak their minds and say what they want, she added.
"Obviously it`s going to annoy some people here and there, but I think that`s a really good quality," she said.
THE `ME FIRST` GENERATION  Continued...
Original article

Trains of thought: philosophy goes underground

Trains of thought: philosophy goes undergroundBy Avril Ormsby
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Service announcements on the London Underground are no longer restricted to "Mind the Gap," but have been broadened to include the words of great thinkers such as Einstein and Goethe.
Passengers on the Piccadilly Line will be able to hear a range of philosophical, political and historical quotes from their drivers as they rattle through rail tunnels deep under the city.
The quotes, compiled by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, are part of a series of arts projects on the subway.
Staff are encouraged to use the quotes to talk directly to passengers, building a rapport and adding unexpected wit or insight during the commute, rather than relying on pre-recorded announcements.
"They are not doing it incessantly, but choosing their times deliberately," said Sarah McLean, spokeswoman for "Art on the Underground."
"When they need to make an announcement, they will look to use an appropriate quote."
The booklet "What is the City but the People," includes the following quotes:
"To live is to dream," Friedrich Schiller.
"Life is one long process of getting tired," Samuel Butler.
"There is more to life than increasing at speed," Mahatma Gandhi.
And most-aptly: "Hell is other people," Jean-Paul Sartre.
Take-up among drivers has been varied since its launch in March.
"Some have absolutely loved it, while some have absolutely not," McLean added.
"Those who have agreed to do it have had a great response, with some passengers coming up to the driver`s cab and tapping on the window saying it had been wonderful. One driver was given a bunch of flowers as a `thank you`.
"I`ve not heard of any negative feedback."  Continued...
Original article

NATO on the boardwalk: allies chill out at Afghan base

By Peter Graff
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Down on the boardwalk, a knot of Romanian soldiers are sitting under the umbrellas at the French patisserie, sipping non-alcoholic Becks beer in the shade.
At Tom Hortons, the Canadian donut place, U.S. airmen are drinking coffee, surfing on the wireless internet on their laptops and listening to Beyonce on British Forces Radio.
The only people sitting in the scorching sun are the bright pink British officers, a dazzling glare shining off one sweaty bald pate.
Super-secret special forces guys stroll by, glowering coolly in baggy shorts, T-shirts and floppy sun hats, "under cover" in their tell-tale woolly beards.
Welcome to Kandahar Air Field, or KAF, the most cosmopolitan NATO base ever assembled inside a combat zone, where troops from a host of countries relax after missions on a boardwalk that feels like a multi-national beachside resort.
The United States and many of its allies have been fighting shoulder-to-shoulder in Afghanistan and, to a lesser degree Iraq, for almost eight years.
In both war zones, large bases are usually run by a single country, bringing restaurants, shops and amenities to make the troops feel like home.
But the headquarters for NATO forces in southern Afghanistan is a bona fide alliance mish-mash.
Command rotates every nine months between generals from the Netherlands, Britain and Canada. Troops from more than a dozen countries work here full time.
The United States is represented of course -- not just by the Army, Air Force and the Marines, but also by Subway, Pizza Hut and Burger King.
But Americans are far from the majority on the boardwalk, built in the center of the base in a square about 90 meters (100 yards) on each side.
It is covered by a wooden awning that provides shade.
In the sandy center are two volleyball nets, a beach-style soccer field and the large wooden hockey rink, with bold red Canadian maple leaf emblems, in case anyone might wonder who plays hockey in Afghanistan.
Like any good boardwalk, it`s cool even in the hot part of the day.
The smells of its various fast food shops waft pleasantly -- except for a few times a day when the wind blows from the direction of the camp`s giant septic pit, known as "poo pond."  Continued...
Original article

Terrorism, prejudice in India filmmaker`s "New York"

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar
MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) - Indian filmmaker Kabir Khan can`t seem to get the September 11, 2001 attacks out of his head: his first film, 2006`s "Kabul Express" was set in Afghanistan just as the militant Taliban were fleeing the U.S.-led invasion.
Three years later, the documentary-turned-feature filmmaker is back with "New York," made on a budget $4.6 million and which tells the story of three friends who live in the city before, during and after the 9/11 attacks.
The film, starring John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, and Irrfan Khan, will be released worldwide on Friday.
Khan, who was in New York when the attacks happened, spoke to Reuters recently about making movies in New York and how Bollywood needs a dose of reality:
Q: Bollywood isn`t really known for its hard-hitting themes. Yet, you have made two films on international terrorism. Why?
A: "I think for too long, our films have been set in la-la land. There is no social context, no political context. Terrorism has become the in-your-face, dominant issue across the world, and the danger is that it also lends itself to a lot of abuse and misuse because it is inherently larger than life. It allows itself to be treated in a romanticized manner. It is a subject that needs to be explored."
Q: Terrorism as a theme may have made it into Indian cinema, but not many have explored international terrorism have they?
A: "My previous film "Kabul Express" was about the rise of the Taliban and "New York" also deals with international terrorism. We are all living in a time when we all look at each other with mistrust. We all have stereotypes about each other. "New York," in a way, touches on that. Once you start dealing with prejudices, then there is no logic. It becomes very ugly."
Q: Is 9/11 an integral part of the storyline?
A: "In a nutshell, it is the story of three friends who start out studying at New York State University, and over the span of nine years, how their relationship with each other, with the outside world, changes with the changing landscape of New York. I try and desist from calling it a 9/11 film or a terrorism film because essentially it is about three friends, about emotions, but 9/11 is definitely an integral part of the backdrop."
Q: What sowed the seed for the story of this film? A: "I was in the U.S. when 9/11 happened. I came in two days before and stayed on for 30, 40 days after that. I saw how people`s attitudes were changing and insecurities were creeping in. The actual story of "New York" was a one line story given to me by (film producer) Aditya Chopra. I then did a lot of research on 9/11, illegal detainees, how things were being constructed by the Bush administration. It took a long time, almost 10 to 11 months to develop the script."
Q: What was it like, shooting in New York?
A: "We shot in both New York and Philadelphia and our experience in New York, was great. The authorities are organised and it forces you to work in the same planned, organised manner. Our schedule went like clockwork and we finished five days before time, which is a rarity in Indian cinema. Philadelphia is a much cheaper city, and easier to shoot in. To shut down entire roads in New York is very difficult and very expensive. So when we were shooting action scenes, we had to do that Philadelphia."
Q: As a city, what does New York lend to your film?
A: "New York is like a character in the film. It is a story that could only have happened in New York and therefore the city very much lends itself to the inherent storyline. New York is one of the most exciting cities in the world. It is still a very accepting, buzzing city. In terms of filming, it is also a delight. And how many other cities in the U.S. would an Indian audience be able to identify, except perhaps for San Francisco?"  Continued...
Original article

Expats in Asia best paid, but U.S. and UK-based suffer: poll

Expats in Asia best paid, but U.S. and UK-based suffer: pollBy Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Want the good life despite the dire economy? Head east, according to a survey showing some of the world`s highest-paid expatriates live in Asia and the Middle East.
A third of all expats in Russia -- the highest proportion in the world -- earn more than $250,000 a year, followed closely by expats in Japan and Qatar, according to the 2009 Expat Explorer survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International, the offshore financial services arm of HSBC Holdings.
Between a third and a quarter of foreigners working in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and India earned annual wages of more than $200,000, while countries such as Malaysia, China and India, were ranked among the cheapest for accommodation.
"Asia is home to the highest paid expats in the world, with one in four expats earning more than $200,000 per year," said the survey (here).
Russia was ranked the number one country overall for expats in terms of wealth. The rest of the top nine were all in Asia and the Middle East.
Building a nest egg is one of the perks of expat life for many people, and the survey showed that Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, India and the United Arab Emirates were the top five countries where people have increased their savings.
But the global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on expats in Britain and the United States, where close to a quarter are considering returning home, compared to just 15 percent overall, due to the high cost of living, lack of savings and lower wages.
Generous salaries are also relatively scarce in Australia and Belgium, the survey showed. More than 60 percent of expats in both countries earn under $100,000, making them the poorest expats wage-wise when compared to a global average of 35 percent.
LARGEST SURVEY
"We have seen some interesting trends in terms of how expats are reacting to the credit crunch, but what is also interesting to see is that they remain a wealthy group of individuals," Paul Say, head of marketing and communications for HSBC Bank International, said in a statement.
"Over half the expats surveyed are actually earning $100,000 and over -- no mean feat particularly in the current climate."
Expat Explorer, now in its second year, surveyed more than 3,100 expats from various nationalities living in 26 countries. HSBC said it was the largest survey of its kind.
More than two-thirds of expatriates worldwide said the credit crisis had changed the way they spend their money, with luxuries and day-to-day spending the most affected. Nearly 40 percent said they were saving more for a rainy day.
Over half of the expats in Japan -- the highest globally at 53 percent -- said they were cutting back on holidays and other perks, while almost one in two expats in Thailand and Hong Kong -- the second and third globally, were also scaling back.
In contrast, two-thirds of expats living in Qatar said the global financial crisis would not change their spending attitudes at all, followed by more than half of those living in Bahrain, which HSBC said indicated that some oil-rich Gulf Arab states have not been hit as hard by the downturn.  Continued...
Original article

Heads of top U.S. companies snub blogs, Facebook: study

Heads of top U.S. companies snub blogs, Facebook: studyNEW YORK (Reuters) - The heads of the top U.S. companies might be engaged in the boardroom, but they`re switched off when it comes to social media, according to a new study that said CEOs should be more connected to their customers.
Research conducted by the blog UberCEO.com looked at Fortune`s 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs to determine how many were using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, or had a blog -- and found they were mostly absent from the rapidly growing social media community.
The study found only two CEOs had Twitter accounts and 81 percent of CEOs did not have a personal Facebook page.
Only 13 CEOs had profiles on the professional networking site LinkedIn. Three CEOs stood out with more than 80 connections but they were all from technology companies -- Michael Dell from computer maker Dell Inc., Gregory Spierkel from technology products distributor Ingram Micro Inc., and John Chambers from Cisco Systems Ltd.
Three quarters of the CEOs did have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those had limited or outdated information such as incorrect titles, or lacked sources.
Not one Fortune 100 CEO had a blog.
"It`s shocking that the top CEOs can appear to be so disconnected from the way their own customers are communicating. They`re giving the impression that they`re disconnected, disengaged and disinterested," said Sharon Barclay, editor at UberCEO.com who runs executive PR firm Blue Trumpet Group.
"No doubt regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Reg-FD make CEOs cautious about communicating freely, but they`re missing a fabulous opportunity to connect with their target audience and raise their company`s visibility," Barclay said, referring to financial reporting regulations aimed at protecting investors.
Social networking sites are booming, with the latest figures by Nielsen Online showing the number of minutes spent on them in the United Sates doubling over the past year.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Original article

Asians say cheers to Sotheby`s wine auctions

HONG KONG (Reuters Life!) - Asian vintage lovers helped boost auction house Sotheby`s wine sales so far this year to $19.2 million, far exceeding estimates and defying the downturn.
Some 97 percent of all lots at the nine wine auctions held in the first half of the year were sold at prices that far surpassed the top-end estimate of $14.6 million for the sales, Sotheby`s said in a statement.
Asians clients were the most active at auctions held in New York, London and Hong Kong, constituting nearly 60 percent of all Sotheby`s buyers.
"We are excited to be able to report such strong results," Serena Sutcliffe, head of Sotheby`s International Wine department, said in the statement. "These results particularly show our client relationships in Asia, where buyers are currently driving the recent rebound in prices."
Several U.S.-based auctioneers have said that Asian buyers were saving the fine wine market, helping prices that had fallen by as much as 40 percent in the last half of 2008 to rebound by some 20 percent.
Sotheby`s said the highlight of the auctions in New York and Hong Kong was the two-part sale of some 9,000 bottles of fine vintages from the cellars of a top American wine collector who wanted to remain anonymous.
The sale netted some $8.6 million, the second-highest total ever achieved at a Sotheby`s wine auction. All lots in the Hong Kong auction were sold, underscoring the city`s aspirations to become Asia`s main wine hub following the abolition of wine duties in 2008.
Sotheby`s launch of a combination of online bidding with a live audio and video feel helped boost sales in the past six months, the auction house said, with some of the top buyers participated online, including the sixth-largest buyer by value.
Asia is not traditionally a wine drinking region, but that is changing fast, as growing ranks of affluent, young and often Westernized professionals make it their beverage of choice.
Wine imports into Hong Kong have grown year-on-year to $387 million and the city has hosted several wine auctions by international houses, which although they haven`t matched pre-crisis levels, have been robust.
(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Original article

Slum walls raise suspicion in Rio

Slum walls raise suspicion in RioBy Ana Nicolaci da Costa
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - When residents of Rio de Janeiro`s mammoth Rocinha slum heard of government plans to build a wall around parts of their community, opposition to the idea quickly mounted.
The wall would be an "ecobarrier" aimed at curbing the unchecked and damaging expansion of the "favela" slums into Rio`s lush tropical forest, state officials told them.
But in the Brazilian city tainted by inequality and violence and sharply divided between hillside slum dwellers and middle-class residents, many in Rocinha saw something more sinister in the plan for a 9.8-foot-high (3-meter-high) barrier.
"The wall represents a ghetto, an apartheid, the end of the communication between people, so we started to fight against the wall," said Antonio Ferreira de Mello, the head of a Rocinha residents` association. "There are other ways to prevent the growth of favelas into the forest."
Fierce opposition in Rocinha forced officials to scale back the planned wall there, but plans are in place to build more than 8.7 miles of walls around Rocinha and the other 12 slums identified as endangering nearby forests.
Construction began in March on one section and so far a few hundred yards (meters) has been completed.
Critics have drawn parallels with the Berlin and Israel-Palestine walls, saying it is the latest step in a security policy that criminalizes the slum dwellers who make up about a fifth of Rio`s population of 6 million.
Brazil`s Secretary of Human Rights Paulo Vannuchi said that "the idea of a wall is never a good idea."
Some argue environmental concerns are masking the government`s security agenda and lack of a coherent policy to contain the rapid expansion of Rio`s favelas in recent years.
The population of Rio`s slums grew by nearly a quarter from 1991 to a little over 1 million in 2000, the latest data available from the IBGE national statistics office showed.
"The fundamental issues of these communities will never be resolved through walls. To the contrary, the issues will only be resolved through the slum`s integration into the city," said Jorge Luiz Barbosa, a professor at Fluminense Federal University who also heads a favela support group.
HIDDEN AGENDA?
Many of Rio`s hundreds of slums are controlled by heavily armed drug gangs that have further alienated them from the rest of the beach-side city. Despite regular, violent raids on slums, police have largely failed to bring them under control. The city`s forest is sometimes used by gangs as a refuge and as a training ground, adding to suspicions that security is the main reason for the walls.
Recommendations by some officials in 2004 to build walls for security purposes triggered a public outcry.
The choice of location for the walls has also raised some eyebrows. Of the 13 communities, 12 are in the wealthy southern district, home to the city`s glitziest homes, restaurants and its famous beaches. Walls are only planned for one community in the city`s western zone, even though analysts say those slums are expanding at an even faster pace.  Continued...
Original article

Tate show takes wry look at habits of collecting

Tate show takes wry look at habits of collectingBy Julie Mollins
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The first of seven rooms containing a new exhibition at London`s Tate Britain museum is filled with the loud clackety-clack of 39 metronomes placed around its perimeter.
The racket from Martin Creed`s installation, cryptically titled "Work No. 112" and created over a nine-year period between 1995 and 2004, introduces the eclecticism of "Classified," on show until August 23.
Works by 15 contemporary artists including Damien Hirst, Simon Starling, Rebecca Warren, Jake and Dinos Chapman, feature mundane objects from everyday life, with their meaning and significance reinterpreted in the gallery setting.
"It`s about the order of things and how artists make sense of the world around them to accomplish that," said Clarrie Wallis, a curator of contemporary British art.
"It is about collecting and how you group things together."
Hirst`s "Pharmacy," a self-contained room featuring glass-enclosed cabinets of medicine, makes a connection between the method of organizing medicine with the display of art.
"He draws links between belief systems and our relationship to medicine," Wallis said.
"There is also the sense of us trying to make sense of the world -- there`s an irony about it."
The exhibit also highlights the museum`s own role in collecting, classifying and displaying art objects, particularly with 34 wooden carvings in "The Chapman Family Collection."
Incense wafts amid the carvings, which sit on individual plinths to give the installation the mood of a traditional display of ethnographic objects in a museum at first glance.
It soon becomes apparent that the exhibit is a parody.
A carved representation of Ronald McDonald, the mascot of restaurant chain McDonald`s, pokes fun at the exploitation of so-called primitive art and methods of displaying it in a museum setting purely for its aesthetic value -- distanced from its sociological and religious function.
Starling`s "Work, Made-ready, Les Baux de Provence (Mountain Bike)" shows steps in the process of constructing an aluminum mountain bike, drawing attention to modernist notions of the alienating affect of mass production.
(Reporting by Julie Mollins; Editing by Steve Addison)
Original article

Plot thickens for versatile Serena

Plot thickens for versatile SerenaBy Paul Majendie
LONDON (Reuters) - Serena Williams spent less than an hour blasting her way into the third round at Wimbledon on Wednesday. That left plenty of time to work on her TV script.
Serena has been a fashion designer, actress and now it seems a writer as well. It is a miracle the American has managed to cram 10 grand slam titles into her busy schedule.
Sister Venus gave Serena a "How To" book on script-writing. It has clearly paid dividends.
After breezing past Australian Jarmila Groth on Court One, Serena, twice a Wimbledon women`s singles winner, revealed:
"I`m writing my script. You`ll be excited to know I wrote three parts already. I call it my treatment."
"I just love to write. Hopefully, it will be good," she said, eager to follow up script-writing after making a cameo acting appearance in the TV medical drama ER.
So what is the script all about?
"It`s a mixture between some of my favorite shows like Desperate Housewives, Sex in the City and actually Family Guy. It`s kind of those put together in one, if you can imagine."
Serena has also been writing her autobiography with the help of a ghostwriter.
"It has been an interesting process. Again, I love writing and it was just the right time. It was something I was actually working on for at least three years. It just all came together within the last year."
So what about the tennis?
Second seed Serena hardly needed to get into second gear to dispose of her overwhelmed Australian opponent 6-2 6-1.
But, ever the perfectionist, she said:
"For me there`s always room for improvement. I still think I could have returned better, came to the net a little bit more. That`s exciting to think I can do better."
Serena was full of sympathy for former champion Maria Sharapova, knocked out of Wimbledon earlier on Wednesday.  Continued...
Original article

Economic woes to bite into July 4th travel

Economic woes to bite into July 4th travelNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. travel over the Independence Day holiday weekend will drop 1.9 percent this year compared to 2008, a casualty of higher fuel prices and economic worries, travel and auto group AAA projected on Wednesday.
Approximately 37.1 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, typically the busiest time for auto travel in the U.S., down from 37.8 million last year.
"Many Americans remain cautious about the outlook for their personal finances and these attitudes are reflected in the slight decline in travel we are forecasting for the upcoming holiday weekend," said AAA Chief Executive Robert L. Darbelnet.
Ongoing fears about the state of the economy coupled with increasing joblessness and falling incomes are major factors in reducing Fourth of July travel, AAA said.
Auto travel, which will account for 88 percent of total travel, will drop 2.6 percent from last year`s levels due to higher fuel prices. But air travel, which will account for just 5 percent of Fourth of July travel, will increase 4.9 percent due to lower fares and pent-up demand. Other modes of travel will account for the remaining 7 percent of travelers.
Gasoline prices are more than 30 percent lower than they were a year ago, but recent increases at the pump will steer Americans away from road trips, AAA said.
Attractive airfares are also likely to contribute to less auto travel, AAA said.
On Tuesday, average U.S. retail gasoline prices were $2.68 a gallon, about 11 percent higher than a month ago, although they have steadied in the last ten days, according to AAA.
Travel for the rest of the summer will hinge in part on whether gasoline prices continue to rise or level off, according to AAA.
"We`re at a critical juncture for the travel industry in terms of its economic well-being for the rest of the summer," Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA, said.
AAA had forecast that gasoline prices would reach a high of $2.50 a gallon this summer in its Memorial Day forecast, but later revised the forecasted summer high to $2.75 a gallon as higher oil prices boosted prices for gasoline.
AAA`s forecast for the July 4 weekend is the opposite of the forecast for the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May, when AAA predicted a 1.5 percent increase in travel from 2008 levels, with automobile trips increasing 2.7 percent and air travel dipping 1 percent.
Despite the gloomy news keeping more Americans at home this summer, those who do venture out on vacation will find some good bargains.
The lowest average published airfares over the holiday weekend are expected to decrease 16 percent from last year and hotel rates are also expected to be cheaper than last year.
"Those who do vacation this summer will find a plethora of attractive discounts," Darbelnet said. "If you can afford to go, this summer is a smart time to travel."
(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
Original article

Book Talk: Journey back in time with Jake Arnott

By Michael Taylor
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Homosexual gangsters, movie directors and glam rock stars are all characters that best-selling writer Jake Arnott has used to dazzling affect in his books.
Taking the reader to a bygone era and blurring the lines between fact and fiction, has won Arnott many plaudits and several television adaptations.
His latest novel "The Devil`s Paintbrush" has a plot that includes both distinguished British Empire hero Sir Hector Macdonald and occultist Aleister Crowley.
London-based Arnott, who counts David Bowie as a fan, spoke to Reuters about legal dangers, future projects and his disappointing acting career.
Q: Your novels are often a mix of fiction and history. How did you choose the subjects for The Devils Paintbrush? A: When you start to write a novel, you don`t quite know whether it`s achievable. I always feel like I`m going off on some sort of fishing trip and seeing what will turn up. It`s not an academic project, as I don`t have to stick to any kind of brief. With Devils Paintbrush...I was interested in looking at high Empire and the contradictions, particularly around sexuality and the emotional life of the great empire men. It is strangely untouched. For the past 10 years, the idea of writing about this period has developed in my head. But finding a character (Hector McDonald), who has sort of been forgotten with huge gaps in what we know about him, that to me called out.
Q: Your novel "Johnny Come Home" about a 1970s glam rock star had to be withdrawn due to legal issues. Has this experience made you more cautious?
A: One of the things about Devils Paintbrush is because you can`t libel the dead, no one is going to come after me! With Johnny Come Home, I feel it was like poetic justice because I had sailed close to the wind previously. It was completely unintentional and by accident. I happened to give the name of this character, the name of somebody who is still around in the music business and could have had grounds to sue me. It`s a fair cop but what aren`t fair, are the libel laws in this country. We withdrew the book and eventually got very little change out of 25,000 pounds...it was quite a business, and I wouldn`t recommend it. But it`s iron in the soul - you survive that and go onto the next thing."
Q: "The Long Firm" is a 1960s based crime story loosely based on infamous London gangsters, the Kray twins. Did you get any unwelcome attention from the underworld, after its publication?
A: Not really. It`s often the other extreme. A lot of people in that world, they quite enjoy the attention sometimes. I had someone approach me at a party, who is still around and quite a serious London gangster but very intelligent and cultivated. He wanted to know if I knew anyone at Channel Four because he wanted a (television) network! They`ve all got their own book deals and projects. That was what I was looking at in (third novel) "truecrime," a sort of satire on that.
Q: The Long Firm was made into a BBC drama starring Hollywood actor Mark Strong, while "He Kills Coppers" has also been adapted for the small screen. Any similar plans?
A: No plans at the moment. Because of the way things are (economically), television drama and films in this country are not having such a happy time. It was BBC with Long Firm and it worked really well. Very, very good casting. Mark Strong was fantastic - he hasn`t got a contemporary who has such a wide range. Mark has a fantastic way of summoning up melancholy and deep, deep romantic despair! He brought something I wasn`t expecting. He Kills Coppers was a very different experience, it happened very quickly...and had a very different feel to it.
Q: Are we likely to see gangster Harry Stark, who features in your first three novels, appear in print again?
A: That`s it really. There is always a danger of diminishing returns. I did decide to write a trilogy of books that would burn all the boats on the beach so I can`t go back. I like the idea of things to link my work but I don`t want to get stuck. In the Long Firm he gets a fair old crack of the whip. He is different things to different people.
Q: Any other books currently in the pipeline?
A: I`m chewing over something in my head at the moment. It`ll be 20th century again and it`ll be vaguely historical. It will look at the notions of utopia and dystopia in the 20th century, both in the popular imagination and what happened. There is something very interesting going on in literature, as well as anything else, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Imagining new worlds. It`s something that takes up from some of what I leave off in the Devil`s Paintbrush - the notion of what is coming in the century. Q: You had a small part in the movie "The Mummy." Any more acting roles on the horizon?  Continued...
Original article

Dissidents finalize new Anglican alliance

By Ed Stoddard
PLANO, Texas (Reuters) - Conservatives who have left the U.S. Episcopal Church over issues like gay clergy finalized the formation of a rival church on Wednesday, the latest chapter in a saga that has split Anglicans worldwide.
The new Anglican Church in North America, which says it has 100,000 followers, ratified its constitution this week and installed Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh as its first archbishop on Wednesday evening.
"Across the church people are re-embracing scripture`s authority," Duncan said, a reference to the conservative belief that liberals have strayed from the Bible.
"We are oriented toward a hopeful future. We are not turning back to the hurts of our past," Duncan, who will serve a five-year term, said.
The Episcopal Church, which is the main U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion with over 2 million followers, has declined to comment on the proceedings. The ACNA says four of the 28 dioceses under its roof are locked in property disputes with the Episcopal Church.
Some Canadian congregations are also fighting legal battles over assets with the Anglican Church of Canada.
Long-standing divisions between liberals and conservatives had already undermined Episcopal Church unity by 2003 when it consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of Anglican history.
The ACNA wants to formally join the Anglican Communion which numbers close to 80 million people worldwide.
Acceptance would put the breakaway church on an equal footing with the Episcopal Church but the process could take years if it happens at all.
It requires approval from two-thirds of the primates -- the heads of national churches -- in the Anglican Communion and recognition from the Anglican Consultative Council, another church body.
The new alliance believes its orthodoxy has an appeal for young people, many of whom have been attracted to fast-growing evangelical denominations.
"The Episcopal Church is in decline ... But we are growing and planting new churches. And 20 percent of our delegates this week were under the age of 25," Martyn Minns, one of ACNA`s founding bishops, told Reuters.
Duncan struck an evangelical tone at his installation service, calling on his flock to plant 1,000 new churches over the next five years.
Original article

Survey reveals infidelity best kept off the mobile

Survey reveals infidelity best kept off the mobileBy Pauline Askin
SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Having an affair? It pays to keep it low-tech, with a new Australian survey finding that a quarter of mobile phone users had discovered their partner, or heard that someone else`s, was cheating because of text messages.
The poll, conducted by dominant phone company Telstra Corp, also showed that one in five had sent a text message meant for their partner or lover to somebody else by mistake.
The "State of the Nation Report," which surveyed more than 1,200 mobile phone users in May, revealed that Australians were addicted Australians texting, with 30 percent saying SMSes were their preferred method of communication.
"Texting has become an indispensable part of our everyday lives," Glenice Maclellan, Telstra consumer executive director, said in a statement that added that the trend of prolific texting seems to be causing trouble when it comes to romance.
"This is an interesting reflection of Australia`s wider lifestyle trends," added social researcher Mark McCrindle in the statement accompanying the report.
"The fact that one in three prefer texting to other communication forms signals the natural fit of this technology to our increasingly time poor, busy lifestyles."
The survey showed that four in 10 mobile users send up to seven texts a day, with the bulk going to family and friends. Women, in particular, valued mobile phones because they enabled them to stay in touch with loved ones.
And Australians are not shy to text about anything, anywhere and at any time, with one in four using SMSes to announce a birth and nearly a fifth using it broadcast a job promotion.
Fifteen percent admitted they would text at a funeral, a wedding or a christening ceremony while 14 percent said they texted in church.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Original article

Pressured by sex workers, Taiwan OKs prostitution

Pressured by sex workers, Taiwan OKs prostitutionTAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan began a process of legalizing prostitution Wednesday making the island the latest place in the world to decriminalize the world`s oldest profession.
In six months, authorities will stop punishing Taiwan sex workers after prostitutes successfully campaigned to be given the same protection as their clients, a government spokesman said.
"Now the client gets off free, but the prostitute gets punished, and that`s not fair," spokesman Su Jun-pin said.
Taiwan`s cabinet will issue regulations within six months, when new regulations take effect, covering locations in Taiwan approved for prostitution.
"It`s like fishing," Su said. "The activity may be legal, but in some places you can`t do it."
Taiwan outlawed prostitution 11 years ago, but older sections of the capital Taipei still teem with underground sex workers in bars and night clubs on the upper floors of high-rise buildings.
The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, a Taipei-based advocacy group, estimates that 600,000 people are involved in sex-related jobs.
"It`s something the public has wanted for 12 years," said Collective CEO Chung Chun-tsu. "More and more people are agreeing with this consensus."
Local religious groups, however, have opposed the move.
Taiwan is the latest place to legalise prostitution.
New Zealand allowed brothels to operate freely in 2003, when parliament narrowly voted to overturn 100-year-old sex laws. A court in Bangladesh decriminalized the trade in 2000, but for women only.
(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Original article

Heads of top U.S. companies snub blogs, Facebook: study

Heads of top U.S. companies snub blogs, Facebook: study
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The heads of the top U.S. companies might be engaged in the boardroom, but they're switched off when it comes to social media, according to a new study that said CEOs should be more connected to their customers.
Research conducted by the blog UberCEO.com looked at Fortune's 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs to determine how many were using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, or had a blog -- and found they were mostly absent from the rapidly growing social media community.
The study found only two CEOs had Twitter accounts and 81 percent of CEOs did not have a personal Facebook page.
Only 13 CEOs had profiles on the professional networking site LinkedIn. Three CEOs stood out with more than 80 connections but they were all from technology companies -- Michael Dell from computer maker Dell Inc., Gregory Spierkel from technology products distributor Ingram Micro Inc., and John Chambers from Cisco Systems Ltd.
Three quarters of the CEOs did have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those had limited or outdated information such as incorrect titles, or lacked sources.
Not one Fortune 100 CEO had a blog.
"It's shocking that the top CEOs can appear to be so disconnected from the way their own customers are communicating. They're giving the impression that they're disconnected, disengaged and disinterested," said Sharon Barclay, editor at UberCEO.com who runs executive PR firm Blue Trumpet Group.
"No doubt regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Reg-FD make CEOs cautious about communicating freely, but they're missing a fabulous opportunity to connect with their target audience and raise their company's visibility," Barclay said, referring to financial reporting regulations aimed at protecting investors.
Social networking sites are booming, with the latest figures by Nielsen Online showing the number of minutes spent on them in the United Sates doubling over the past year.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

Dissidents finalize new Anglican alliance

By Ed Stoddard
PLANO, Texas (Reuters) - Conservatives who have left the U.S. Episcopal Church over issues like gay clergy finalized the formation of a rival church on Wednesday, the latest chapter in a saga that has split Anglicans worldwide.
The new Anglican Church in North America, which says it has 100,000 followers, ratified its constitution this week and installed Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh as its first archbishop on Wednesday evening.
"Across the church people are re-embracing scripture's authority," Duncan said, a reference to the conservative belief that liberals have strayed from the Bible.
"We are oriented toward a hopeful future. We are not turning back to the hurts of our past," Duncan, who will serve a five-year term, said.
The Episcopal Church, which is the main U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion with over 2 million followers, has declined to comment on the proceedings. The ACNA says four of the 28 dioceses under its roof are locked in property disputes with the Episcopal Church.
Some Canadian congregations are also fighting legal battles over assets with the Anglican Church of Canada.
Long-standing divisions between liberals and conservatives had already undermined Episcopal Church unity by 2003 when it consecrated Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of Anglican history.
The ACNA wants to formally join the Anglican Communion which numbers close to 80 million people worldwide.
Acceptance would put the breakaway church on an equal footing with the Episcopal Church but the process could take years if it happens at all.
It requires approval from two-thirds of the primates -- the heads of national churches -- in the Anglican Communion and recognition from the Anglican Consultative Council, another church body.
The new alliance believes its orthodoxy has an appeal for young people, many of whom have been attracted to fast-growing evangelical denominations.
"The Episcopal Church is in decline ... But we are growing and planting new churches. And 20 percent of our delegates this week were under the age of 25," Martyn Minns, one of ACNA's founding bishops, told Reuters.
Duncan struck an evangelical tone at his installation service, calling on his flock to plant 1,000 new churches over the next five years.

Source: Reuters

Slum walls raise suspicion in Rio

Slum walls raise suspicion in Rio
By Ana Nicolaci da Costa
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - When residents of Rio de Janeiro's mammoth Rocinha slum heard of government plans to build a wall around parts of their community, opposition to the idea quickly mounted.
The wall would be an "ecobarrier" aimed at curbing the unchecked and damaging expansion of the "favela" slums into Rio's lush tropical forest, state officials told them.
But in the Brazilian city tainted by inequality and violence and sharply divided between hillside slum dwellers and middle-class residents, many in Rocinha saw something more sinister in the plan for a 9.8-foot-high (3-meter-high) barrier.
"The wall represents a ghetto, an apartheid, the end of the communication between people, so we started to fight against the wall," said Antonio Ferreira de Mello, the head of a Rocinha residents' association. "There are other ways to prevent the growth of favelas into the forest."
Fierce opposition in Rocinha forced officials to scale back the planned wall there, but plans are in place to build more than 8.7 miles of walls around Rocinha and the other 12 slums identified as endangering nearby forests.
Construction began in March on one section and so far a few hundred yards (meters) has been completed.
Critics have drawn parallels with the Berlin and Israel-Palestine walls, saying it is the latest step in a security policy that criminalizes the slum dwellers who make up about a fifth of Rio's population of 6 million.
Brazil's Secretary of Human Rights Paulo Vannuchi said that "the idea of a wall is never a good idea."
Some argue environmental concerns are masking the government's security agenda and lack of a coherent policy to contain the rapid expansion of Rio's favelas in recent years.
The population of Rio's slums grew by nearly a quarter from 1991 to a little over 1 million in 2000, the latest data available from the IBGE national statistics office showed.
"The fundamental issues of these communities will never be resolved through walls. To the contrary, the issues will only be resolved through the slum's integration into the city," said Jorge Luiz Barbosa, a professor at Fluminense Federal University who also heads a favela support group.
HIDDEN AGENDA?
Many of Rio's hundreds of slums are controlled by heavily armed drug gangs that have further alienated them from the rest of the beach-side city. Despite regular, violent raids on slums, police have largely failed to bring them under control. The city's forest is sometimes used by gangs as a refuge and as a training ground, adding to suspicions that security is the main reason for the walls.
Recommendations by some officials in 2004 to build walls for security purposes triggered a public outcry.
The choice of location for the walls has also raised some eyebrows. Of the 13 communities, 12 are in the wealthy southern district, home to the city's glitziest homes, restaurants and its famous beaches. Walls are only planned for one community in the city's western zone, even though analysts say those slums are expanding at an even faster pace. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Tate show takes wry look at habits of collecting

By Julie Mollins
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The first of seven rooms containing a new exhibition at London's Tate Britain museum is filled with the loud clackety-clack of 39 metronomes placed around its perimeter.
The racket from Martin Creed's installation, cryptically titled "Work No. 112" and created over a nine-year period between 1995 and 2004, introduces the eclecticism of "Classified," on show until August 23.
Works by 15 contemporary artists including Damien Hirst, Simon Starling, Rebecca Warren, Jake and Dinos Chapman, feature mundane objects from everyday life, with their meaning and significance reinterpreted in the gallery setting.
"It's about the order of things and how artists make sense of the world around them to accomplish that," said Clarrie Wallis, a curator of contemporary British art.
"It is about collecting and how you group things together."
Hirst's "Pharmacy," a self-contained room featuring glass-enclosed cabinets of medicine, makes a connection between the method of organizing medicine with the display of art.
"He draws links between belief systems and our relationship to medicine," Wallis said.
"There is also the sense of us trying to make sense of the world -- there's an irony about it."
The exhibit also highlights the museum's own role in collecting, classifying and displaying art objects, particularly with 34 wooden carvings in "The Chapman Family Collection."
Incense wafts amid the carvings, which sit on individual plinths to give the installation the mood of a traditional display of ethnographic objects in a museum at first glance.
It soon becomes apparent that the exhibit is a parody.
A carved representation of Ronald McDonald, the mascot of restaurant chain McDonald's, pokes fun at the exploitation of so-called primitive art and methods of displaying it in a museum setting purely for its aesthetic value -- distanced from its sociological and religious function.
Starling's "Work, Made-ready, Les Baux de Provence (Mountain Bike)" shows steps in the process of constructing an aluminum mountain bike, drawing attention to modernist notions of the alienating affect of mass production.
(Reporting by Julie Mollins; Editing by Steve Addison)

Source: Reuters

Economic woes to bite into July 4th travel

Economic woes to bite into July 4th travel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. travel over the Independence Day holiday weekend will drop 1.9 percent this year compared to 2008, a casualty of higher fuel prices and economic worries, travel and auto group AAA projected on Wednesday.
Approximately 37.1 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, typically the busiest time for auto travel in the U.S., down from 37.8 million last year.
"Many Americans remain cautious about the outlook for their personal finances and these attitudes are reflected in the slight decline in travel we are forecasting for the upcoming holiday weekend," said AAA Chief Executive Robert L. Darbelnet.
Ongoing fears about the state of the economy coupled with increasing joblessness and falling incomes are major factors in reducing Fourth of July travel, AAA said.
Auto travel, which will account for 88 percent of total travel, will drop 2.6 percent from last year's levels due to higher fuel prices. But air travel, which will account for just 5 percent of Fourth of July travel, will increase 4.9 percent due to lower fares and pent-up demand. Other modes of travel will account for the remaining 7 percent of travelers.
Gasoline prices are more than 30 percent lower than they were a year ago, but recent increases at the pump will steer Americans away from road trips, AAA said.
Attractive airfares are also likely to contribute to less auto travel, AAA said.
On Tuesday, average U.S. retail gasoline prices were $2.68 a gallon, about 11 percent higher than a month ago, although they have steadied in the last ten days, according to AAA.
Travel for the rest of the summer will hinge in part on whether gasoline prices continue to rise or level off, according to AAA.
"We're at a critical juncture for the travel industry in terms of its economic well-being for the rest of the summer," Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA, said.
AAA had forecast that gasoline prices would reach a high of $2.50 a gallon this summer in its Memorial Day forecast, but later revised the forecasted summer high to $2.75 a gallon as higher oil prices boosted prices for gasoline.
AAA's forecast for the July 4 weekend is the opposite of the forecast for the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May, when AAA predicted a 1.5 percent increase in travel from 2008 levels, with automobile trips increasing 2.7 percent and air travel dipping 1 percent.
Despite the gloomy news keeping more Americans at home this summer, those who do venture out on vacation will find some good bargains.
The lowest average published airfares over the holiday weekend are expected to decrease 16 percent from last year and hotel rates are also expected to be cheaper than last year.
"Those who do vacation this summer will find a plethora of attractive discounts," Darbelnet said. "If you can afford to go, this summer is a smart time to travel."
(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

Source: Reuters

Book Talk: Journey back in time with Jake Arnott

By Michael Taylor
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Homosexual gangsters, movie directors and glam rock stars are all characters that best-selling writer Jake Arnott has used to dazzling affect in his books.
Taking the reader to a bygone era and blurring the lines between fact and fiction, has won Arnott many plaudits and several television adaptations.
His latest novel "The Devil's Paintbrush" has a plot that includes both distinguished British Empire hero Sir Hector Macdonald and occultist Aleister Crowley.
London-based Arnott, who counts David Bowie as a fan, spoke to Reuters about legal dangers, future projects and his disappointing acting career.
Q: Your novels are often a mix of fiction and history. How did you choose the subjects for The Devils Paintbrush? A: When you start to write a novel, you don't quite know whether it's achievable. I always feel like I'm going off on some sort of fishing trip and seeing what will turn up. It's not an academic project, as I don't have to stick to any kind of brief. With Devils Paintbrush...I was interested in looking at high Empire and the contradictions, particularly around sexuality and the emotional life of the great empire men. It is strangely untouched. For the past 10 years, the idea of writing about this period has developed in my head. But finding a character (Hector McDonald), who has sort of been forgotten with huge gaps in what we know about him, that to me called out.
Q: Your novel "Johnny Come Home" about a 1970s glam rock star had to be withdrawn due to legal issues. Has this experience made you more cautious?
A: One of the things about Devils Paintbrush is because you can't libel the dead, no one is going to come after me! With Johnny Come Home, I feel it was like poetic justice because I had sailed close to the wind previously. It was completely unintentional and by accident. I happened to give the name of this character, the name of somebody who is still around in the music business and could have had grounds to sue me. It's a fair cop but what aren't fair, are the libel laws in this country. We withdrew the book and eventually got very little change out of 25,000 pounds...it was quite a business, and I wouldn't recommend it. But it's iron in the soul - you survive that and go onto the next thing."
Q: "The Long Firm" is a 1960s based crime story loosely based on infamous London gangsters, the Kray twins. Did you get any unwelcome attention from the underworld, after its publication?
A: Not really. It's often the other extreme. A lot of people in that world, they quite enjoy the attention sometimes. I had someone approach me at a party, who is still around and quite a serious London gangster but very intelligent and cultivated. He wanted to know if I knew anyone at Channel Four because he wanted a (television) network! They've all got their own book deals and projects. That was what I was looking at in (third novel) "truecrime," a sort of satire on that.
Q: The Long Firm was made into a BBC drama starring Hollywood actor Mark Strong, while "He Kills Coppers" has also been adapted for the small screen. Any similar plans?
A: No plans at the moment. Because of the way things are (economically), television drama and films in this country are not having such a happy time. It was BBC with Long Firm and it worked really well. Very, very good casting. Mark Strong was fantastic - he hasn't got a contemporary who has such a wide range. Mark has a fantastic way of summoning up melancholy and deep, deep romantic despair! He brought something I wasn't expecting. He Kills Coppers was a very different experience, it happened very quickly...and had a very different feel to it.
Q: Are we likely to see gangster Harry Stark, who features in your first three novels, appear in print again?
A: That's it really. There is always a danger of diminishing returns. I did decide to write a trilogy of books that would burn all the boats on the beach so I can't go back. I like the idea of things to link my work but I don't want to get stuck. In the Long Firm he gets a fair old crack of the whip. He is different things to different people.
Q: Any other books currently in the pipeline?
A: I'm chewing over something in my head at the moment. It'll be 20th century again and it'll be vaguely historical. It will look at the notions of utopia and dystopia in the 20th century, both in the popular imagination and what happened. There is something very interesting going on in literature, as well as anything else, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Imagining new worlds. It's something that takes up from some of what I leave off in the Devil's Paintbrush - the notion of what is coming in the century. Q: You had a small part in the movie "The Mummy." Any more acting roles on the horizon? Continued...
Source: Reuters
 

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