SocietyStyle

Briton says "best job in world" no holiday

2009-07-01T14:54:00.000+04:00

(WORLD, TOURISM, AUSTRALIAN, SOUTHALL, CAMPAIGN, QUEENSLAND)

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - It may sound like a paid holiday, but the winner of "best job in the world" said he intends to work hard promoting tourism to an Australian state as he set off for his first day in the office: a tropical island.
Briton Ben Southall flew out on Wednesday to Hamilton Island, in the Great Barrier Reef, to start his six-month caretaker duties, for which he will be paid A$150,000 ($121,000).
Southall, 34, was picked from 16 finalists in a highly publicised contest that was part of an innovative marketing campaign by Tourism Queensland which attracted almost 35,000 video entries from some 200 countries.
"Everyone`s promoting this as the ultimate six month`s hammock time," Southall told Australian media.
"To me and to the rest of Tourism Queensland we know that it`s a job. We know it`s a real position and there is a lot of hard work to come. I`ve got to be an ambassador for Queensland, selling it to the world."
Southall`s duties include exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef and reporting back to Tourism Queensland and the world via blogs, a photo diary, video updates and interviews.
If he wants, he can also clean the pool and feed the fish.
Southall, accompanied by his girlfriend, said he was looking forward to living on a "nice piece of paradise," but added he would miss his mother`s cooking.
"I probably will miss my mum`s Sunday roasts, but I`m going to be learning new foods on the barbecue, I suppose," he said.
The "Best Job in the World" campaign began in January, and within days was one of the most popular items on the Internet, highlighting the marketing potential of social networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook.
Tourism Queensland hailed the advertising campaign as an enormous success, calculating the $1.7 million spent had reaped almost $200 million in global publicity.
The campaign also set a record at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in June when it took out an unprecedented three Grand Prix awards in recognition of the global media exposure it generated.
($1=1.240 Australian dollar)
(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Original article

Wining and dining still popular in downturn

2009-07-01T14:42:00.000+04:00

(MASTERCARD, PERCENT, PEOPLE, PACIFIC, AFRICA, SPENDING)

By Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - The economic downturn appears to go down better with a meal and a glass of wine, with a survey showing consumers outside Europe and the United States do not intend to cut back on dining out and having fun.
The poll, conducted by MasterCard and released on Wednesday, said nearly 70 percent of people surveyed in 21 countries in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa see dining and entertainment to be their top spending priority in the next six months.
Fashion and accessories, fitness and wellness, children`s extra-curricular education and electronic goods rounded up the top-five non-essential, or discretionary, purchasing priorities for the majority of more than 9,200 people surveyed.
"Socializing is important in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and it`s a relatively small expenditure that`s affordable in this global recession," Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, MasterCard`s Asia-Pacific economic adviser, told reporters.
"Having dinner and drinks is not buying a car."
According to the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Purchasing Priorities, just over half the consumers said they would continue to spend on non-essential items over the next six months.
But nearly two-thirds said they would cut back on buying extras, with an overall 72 percent planning to increase their precautionary savings, or money set aside for lean times.
China, whose economy has not been as badly hit by the downturn as other nations, had the highest number of people still willing to spend at the same levels, followed by the oil-rich Gulf Arab countries of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Overall, a minority -- or under 10 percent in Asia Pacific and less than 12 percent in the Middle East and Africa -- were splurging more during these tough times.
"People are still spending on small and big-ticket items, but they`re spending less, and are attracted by bargains," Hedrick-Wong said. "Belt-tightening is the order of the day."
The survey was conducted in March and April in Australia, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
Original article

Life in North Korea: lies, potatoes and cable TV

2009-07-01T14:31:00.000+04:00

(NORTH, THEIR, PEOPLE, STATE, REFUGEES, GENERAL)

By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Koreans who recently arrived in the South live in a world of contradictions where their upbringing instills them with reverence for Kim Jong-il but their daily struggle leads them to believe he is a brutal despot.
By all accounts, they say North Korea is gradually spiralling out of control, its economy dysfunctional while people are suspicious of one another because of a network of informants.
They also speak of a sense of normalcy in the North. Most left for the chance of a better life in the South but they are uncertain if they can find their way in the competitive capitalist state.
The following is a snapshot of life in North Korea, compiled from accounts given by refugees who recently arrived in the South. Their identities are not disclosed because they fear persecution for family and relatives back home.
"SAD TO SEE THE DEAR GENERAL SO FEEBLE"
It is a political crime to talk about the family of leader Kim Jong-il but many recently arrived refugees said the average North Korean is probably aware of foreign media reports that Kim`s youngest son Jong-un may likely take over. Most North Koreans have no idea that Kim, 67 and thought to have suffered a stroke a year ago, has three sons.
"In Pyongyang, you take it for granted that leadership will be inherited," one refugee Park said, adding she knew Kim Jong-il had two daughters and a son and his name was Jong-nam. That is the portly and oldest of Kim`s three known sons, believed to have fallen from his father`s favor years ago after being arrested for trying to enter Japan on a forged passport.
"I don`t want to say Kim Jong-il is bad," another refugee Choi said. "It`s the people who report to him who are not doing their job right. They make false reports." Choi said she knew from experience that crop production is something that gets most often falsified "so as not to make the General worry."
Most refugees still call Kim Jong-il the "General" as has been taught to them by state propaganda and have bought into, at least partially, his carefully crafted cult of personality.
Park said she knows Kim often stays up at night worried about the lives of the people. "It is true that he has sacrificed so much for the people," she said. "The general has aged a lot," she said of her impression of seeing recent pictures of Kim looking frail and perhaps debilitated by the stroke.
"SOLDIERS FOR FIGHTING? NOT HERE"
North Korea is the world`s most militarized state compared to its population with a standing army of more than 1.1 million. Service is mandatory and can be as long as 10 years. The might of the army is "invincible," according to state media but the refugees are rather cynical about the ill equipped force.
"When I look at them, the army that I`ve seen will be busy running away from a war," another refugee Kim said. "Maybe they have the real army for war kept away at some other place."
Low morale and corruption in the military are so widespread that it is the norm rather than the exception for soldiers to be extorting bribes from merchants crossing the Chinese border.
"We say something is wrong with you if you did not save enough in 10 years of service at the border to go home, get married and start a family," Kim said. Continued...
Original article

Book Talk: Author Adichie doesn`t mind her own business

2009-07-01T14:20:00.000+04:00

(ADICHIE, NOVEL, FICTION, STORIES, ABOUT, STORY)

By Pauline Askin
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a professional eavesdropper: she admits a lot of what she writes is based on what she`s overheard.
Adichie, whose second novel "Half of a Yellow Sun" won her the Orange Prize for fiction in 2007, says that while most of her characters are inspired by the stories her family tell, she`s also heard some incredible tales at cafes in the United States or while shopping at markets back home.
She recently released a collection of short stories, "The Thing Around Your Neck," that tell even more tales -- deceptively simple stories set in Nigeria and abroad that explore complex themes such as loneliness, cultural alienation and relationships.
Born in Nigeria in 1977, Adichie grew up in the university town of Nsukka. She moved to the United States to attend college, graduating with a major in communication and also holds masters degrees in creative writing and African studies.
Adichie`s first novel, 2003`s "Purple Hibiscus," earned her rave reviews, the Best First Book award in the Commonwealth Writers` Prize and comparisons with renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, author of the widely read "Things Fall Apart."
Adichie, who was in Sydney recently to attend a writers` festival, spoke to Reuters about the art of telling stories:
Q: You are praised for your story-telling abilities. How different is a story-teller from an author?
A: "I don`t know really. I think of myself as a story teller. I think there are writers that are less interested in stories in the conventional sense and more interested in using words to create atmosphere or mood."
Q: So what inspired the stories in your book?
A: "I love eavesdropping! For me fiction is using stories I have heard or read or seen, so I`m very much an eavesdropper. I never mind my business and I ask people personal questions and I use it in my fiction, but I make changes to it. So a lot of my fiction starts from that, from real stories. Not necessarily about myself, I don`t like writing about myself."
Q: What do you find attractive about the short story format compared to the novels you`ve written?
A: "I like both forms really. Sometimes there`s a sense when people talk about short stories as somehow they are the less accomplished sibling of the novel. I think both are complete forms and both difficult to write."
Q: What does the title of your book signify?
A: "`The Thing Around Your Neck` is the title of one of the stories in the book. It`s about immigration, about the alienation one feels when one leaves home and goes to a different place. In some ways most of the stories are about that, so it seemed right to make sense to call it that."
Q: What other themes run through your book? Continued...
Original article

Cheap is the new cool but will America stay thrifty?

2009-07-01T09:26:00.000+04:00

(YEAGER, THEIR, CONSUMER, SPENDING, SAVING, MONEY)

By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Jeff Yeager`s book "The Ultimate Cheapskate" came out 18 months ago, he felt like a voice crying in the wilderness telling people to ditch their cell phones, hoard their pennies and pay off the mortgage.
Now the Internet abounds with self-proclaimed penny-pinchers offering tips on living frugally as the recession bites into America`s shop-`til-you-drop lifestyle.
The rise of thrift may be bad news for a U.S. economy where in 2006 consumer spending accounted for 70 percent of gross domestic product.
"Cheap is the new cool," said Yeager, who also has a blog called "The Ultimate Cheapskate" offering advice on enjoying life more by spending less. An Internet search for "cheapskate" finds a string of similar blogs.
"When the book came out, it and I were viewed as quaint little novelties, but now it`s being taken much more seriously," Yeager said.
When he advised people to focus on paying off their mortgage as soon as possible and stay in their first home forever, Yeager said his publisher warned him to tone down his "radical" ideas.
Now the subprime mortgage crisis has shown the fallacy of acting as if house prices always go up and people are saving like rarely before. Official data last week showed that U.S. savings jumped to a record annual rate of $768.8 billion, the highest level since records began in 1959, and the saving rate climbed to a 15-year high of 6.9 percent of income.
Yeager said it was discouraging that hopes of an economic recovery are pinned on consumer spending rather than manufacturing and production.
"Some of the lessons we should be taking away from this -- like we can`t live on borrowed money, we can`t live beyond our means -- part of the solution being put forward for getting out of this mess goes back to that," Yeager said.
It is a paradox that Lauren Weber, a journalist and author of the forthcoming book "In Cheap We Trust," a history of thrift in America, said is part of the national character.
Thrift, hard work and simple living were deeply embedded in America`s early values, embraced by the Puritans and founding father Benjamin Franklin whose aphorism "a penny saved is a penny earned" is often invoked today.
"We`re very confused," Weber said. "We`re told that saving money is good for the soul, it`s virtuous to save money. On the other hand, we`re told it`s basically unpatriotic, it`s like burning the flag, to cut up your credit cards."
Credit card debt soared 25 percent in the past decade as consumers were flooded with offers of easy money, pushing spending up at rates that far exceeded wage growth.
In the last decade, American households piled on $8 trillion in debt, an increase of 137 percent, taking total consumer debt to around $14 trillion by late 2008, including home mortgages, credit and store cards and auto loans.
With the collapse of home prices and stock investments, consumers are changing their ways, at least for now. Continued...
Original article

New book spotlights black America in Obama era

2009-07-01T03:06:00.000+04:00

(BLACK, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN, THEIR, SUCCESS, SIEGEL)

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters Life!) - A new book attempts to dig beneath the euphoria that swept black America when Barack Obama became president to ask the question: what, if anything, actually changed?
"Family Affair: What it Means to be African American Today" is a collection of short, autobiographical essays in which 76 black professionals detail how their families played a role in their success, either as springboards, or barriers to be overcome.
It`s one of a slew of books published since the November election in which authors examine the changes in U.S. society that allowed Obama, the first African American president, to run successfully.
In essay after essay in "Family Affair", the short answer to the `what changed?` question comes through: everything and nothing.
Many of the contributors argue that Obama`s election -- and their own success -- reflect changes brought about by the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
A number credit self-belief in their success, while some also cite their reliance on the classic American virtues of hard work and self-reliance.
"The idea was to provide a platform for African Americans to discuss their issues on their own terms. The black community is often at times framed through someone else`s lens," said editor Gil Robertson.
"It was high time that we take control of how that identity is and how it is seen," he said in an interview.
"MORE OPEN CLIMATE" TO DISCUSS RACE
The book`s contributors include actors, singers, models and business leaders, but surrounding them is the sense that they have emerged from a community that struggles.
Black Americans, who represent around 13 percent of the U.S. population, lag national averages in terms of income, life expectancy, infant mortality, education and health.
Max Siegel, who grew up in an abusive and unstable household and is now an influential sports executive, attributes his success to high self-esteem promoted by some of those who brought him up, despite the challenges.
"They constantly reassured us that we were special and good and that we should be comfortable with that," said Siegel, who is now president of global operations at Dale Earnhardt, the top motor sports franchise in the NASCAR (North American Stock Car Auto Racing).
Siegel argued that the increasing openness to dialogue about misunderstandings between racial groups was one benefit of last year`s election that would have a lasting impact.
"As a society, even though we have a long way to go, the climate is such that we can talk about some of these issues more openly," he said in an interview. Continued...
Original article

First $1 million find for U.S. Antiques Roadshow

2009-06-30T22:28:00.000+04:00

(MILLION, APPRAISAL, ANTIQUES, ROADSHOW, RECORD, STATEMENT)

By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman who inherited some Chinese carved jade from her father has scored the first $1 million appraisal from experts on the U.S. television program "Antiques Roadshow," the producers said on Monday.
In a record for the show, four pieces of Chinese carved jade and celadon from the Chien Lung Dynasty (1736-1795), including a large bowl crafted for the Emperor, were given a conservative auction estimate of up to $1.07 million.
"For 13 years, we`ve been hoping to feature a million-dollar appraisal on `Antiques Roadshow;` it`s been our `Great White Whale,`" executive producer Marsha Bemko said.
"We`re thrilled that, despite this year`s slow economy, `Roadshow` finally captured this elusive trophy," she said in a statement released by Boston-based production company WGBH, which licensed the format from the British show of the same name produced by the BBC.
On both shows, members of the public bring in items to be appraised by professionals in the hope of discovering that junk from the attic is actually a valuable treasure.
A spokeswoman said the appraisal was a record for the U.S. show, which is not affiliated with the BBC original. According to British media, the BBC`s version had its first million pound appraisal ($1.655 million) last November -- a scale model of Anthony Gormley`s artwork, "The Angel of the North."
The statement said the owner of the jade inherited the collection from her father, who bought the objects in the 1930s and 1940s, while stationed in China as a military liaison.
She brought them to an "Antiques Roadshow" event in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday.
Asian arts appraiser James Callahan said the fine quality of the pieces indicated they were not made for tourists.
"He was rewarded by finding a mark on the bottom of the jade bowl that translates as `by Imperial order,`" the statement said.
The previous highest appraisal on the show was a 1937 painting by American Abstract Expressionist artist Clyfford Still, found in Palm Springs, California, in 2008. The painting had been given a retail estimate of $500,000.
The appraisal of the jade items will be shown in the next series of "Antiques Roadshow" starting January 4 on PBS, the producers said.
Original article

Rockers go green at Denmark`s Roskilde festival

2009-06-30T22:16:00.000+04:00

(ROSKILDE, FESTIVAL, CAMPSITE, CLIMATE, COMMUNITY, GREEN)

By Henriette Jacobsen
ROSKILDE (Reuters Life!) - Music and partying are the main ingredients to a good rock festival, but Denmark`s Roskilde Festival also aims to encourage guests to save the planet.
One of Europe`s largest rock music extravaganzas has created an environmentally friendly campsite for this year`s event which starts on Thursday and comes six months before the United Nations` climate conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
"We have created this Climate Community because we want our visitors to take a stand on climate changes and especially the consequences of the changes in the third world countries," spokesman Esben Danielsen told Reuters.
Campers are encouraged to recycle their garbage, and to hop on wired exercise bikes to generate electricity to recharge their mobile phones or iPods.
Only low-energy LED lighting and recycled materials are being used at the campsite.
To join Climate Community guests need to create profiles on a festival website and prove they have taken "green footsteps," such as throwing a green Roskilde pre-party, making a green dinner, riding a bike or public transport to the festival.
Visitors who have got three footsteps out of 10 choices will get special bracelets entitling them to reserve a spot at the campsite and take part in activities at the camp.
The activities include CO2 limbo dancing, where the bar is low for low-carbon nations and high for the industrial West, and a silent disco where dancing makes the dance floor light up.
Spokespeople from various non-governmental organizations and climate scientists will give lectures on climate change.
"It`s important to combine fun and serious elements," the festival`s spokesman said.
To be a climate role model the festival has bought its own wind turbine, bought carbon dioxide emissions quotas and made a deal with an energy company to get most of its electricity from wind turbines.
The organizers hope that 65,000 people will visit the festival this year and that more than a thousand of them will stay at the Climate Community camp.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Original article

Koons, with eye for pop, brings Popeye show to UK

2009-06-30T21:40:00.000+04:00

(KOONS, SERIES, POPEYE, SYMBOL, INFLATABLE, THROUGH)

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Artist Jeff Koons has presented a series of Popeye paintings in London, saying the cartoon hero born of the 1929 Depression was a symbol of self confidence, before adding enigmatically: "May be art is the spinach."
The 54-year-old American, one of the world`s most successful artists dubbed the "king of kitsch" for his shiny, balloon-like creations and references to pop culture, is marking the first major survey of his work to be held in a public English gallery.
"Jeff Koons: Popeye Series" opens at the Serpentine Gallery in London on July 2 and runs until September 13.
As well as the Popeye canvases, it features a series of Koons`s trademark casts of inflatable toys in the shape of lobsters, walruses, turtles and monkeys.
Some of them appear to be pushing through wire fencing or garden chairs in what some critics see as a symbol of people determined to get through the recession.
"I always see a little bit of my father in Popeye," Koons told reporters at a preview of the show.
"But something that`s not so personal is that it`s `I yam what I yam`, and it`s this self-acceptance.
"And for art to function ... you first have to trust in yourself and when you trust in yourself you can follow your interests and follow them on a profound level."
Speaking of his fascination for inflatable animals, which he reproduces in minute detail using aluminum and paint, he added:
"In our own life we`re inflatables. We take a breath as a symbol of optimism, we exhale and it`s a symbol of death. We`re in a permanent state of being optimistic."
"FEEL-GOOD ART"
Koons said he wanted his art to make the viewer feel good about life.
"Art`s this vehicle that connects you with human history and that`s what these works are about. I want the viewer to come into contact with the work and to feel that everything about their life to that moment is perfect, absolutely perfect."
Another recurring theme in the show is the inflatable lobster, a reference to surrealist Salvador Dali`s use of the animal in his art as well as his elongated mustache.
In the 2003 canvas "Elvis," the creature is painted over two images of a semi-naked woman staring voluptuously at the viewer, a sexual reference that also runs through Koons` art. Continued...
Original article

Jewish museum to be built on site of Warsaw Ghetto

2009-06-30T21:15:00.000+04:00

(WARSAW, POLES, MUSEUM, POLAND, JEWISH, TRUTH)

By Gareth Jones
WARSAW (Reuters Life!) - With psalms, poems and popular Yiddish songs, Poles and Jews celebrated on Tuesday the start of construction of a new museum that will chronicle Poland`s rich and colorful Jewish heritage.
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, set for completion in 2011, is being built on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, razed by the Nazis in 1943 after an abortive Jewish uprising.
"This is going to be a living museum located in a place scarred by death," Warsaw`s mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, said at a ground-breaking ceremony also attended by Poland`s culture minister, foreign ambassadors and U.S. Jewish groups.
For centuries, Poland was home to one of the world`s largest Jewish communities, providing a climate of relative tolerance for Jews fleeing persecution elsewhere in Europe.
Most of Poland`s 3.5 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War Two.
Organizers say the five-storey, multi-media museum, which will include a library, a cinema, a concert hall and cafes, is intended to document a millennium of Jewish life in Poland. Only a relatively small section will cover the time of the Holocaust.
"There are already a number of museums devoted to the Holocaust. But this museum is going to show the civilization and culture that the Holocaust destroyed," said Marcin Swiecicki, chairman of the Polish committee supporting the museum.
"This museum aims to show the importance of pluralism as well as allowing visitors to see how their ancestors lived."
The museum will tap into a revival of interest among Poles in their Jewish heritage, providing "virtual journeys" through time that will explore how Jews, Poles and other ethnic and religious groups lived together and interacted.
SEEKING TRUTH
Organizers said the museum would also encourage discussion and debate and not lay down a single view of the past.
"This museum will show the truth about how Jewish life flourished here, the truth also about how there were problems here," Michael Schudrich, chief rabbi of Poland, told Reuters, adding that he would welcome lively debate.
"The point about dialogue is understanding what causes pain to the other side. As long as we remember that, there is a chance we can get closer to the truth... A nation that does not have truth can`t really know its past or build for its future,"
After the ground-breaking ceremony, cantors -- singers of liturgical chants at Jewish religious services -- gave a performance next to the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Here, in 1970, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt famously kneeled during a visit to then-communist Poland in an act of silent repentance and apology for the atrocities committed by his countrymen against Jews and Poles. Continued...
Original article

EU health chief proposes stricter laws on smoking

2009-06-30T21:03:00.000+04:00

(SMOKING, PUBLIC, WORKPLACES, TOBACCO, SMOKE, VASSILIOU)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union`s health chief proposed on Tuesday that uniform laws be drafted for all 27 countries in the bloc to regulate smoking more strictly in public areas and workplaces.
Many EU countries have laws limiting exposure to second-hand, or passive, smoking. The rules are strictest in Britain and Ireland, where smoking is banned in enclosed public places, public transport and workplaces, including restaurants and bars.
"Each and every European should be entitled to full protection from tobacco smoke," EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told a news conference.
The recommendation calls on all member states to implement laws that will limit exposure to tobacco smoke in public places, workplaces and public transport, and aims to protect children.
"We have come a long way from the days when smoking was considered glamorous," Vassiliou said.
She said in countries with looser regulations on smoking, nearly one in five people were exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace.
Second-hand, or passive, smoke has been linked to heart disease and lung cancer. According to estimates given by Vassiliou, 19,000 non-smokers in the EU died due to second-hand smoke at home and in workplaces in 2002.
Member states decide the level of their smoking restrictions. In Belgium, for example, smoking is allowed in restaurants in separate rooms where no food is served, and smoking is banned in all enclosed workplaces.
Greece, Europe`s heaviest smoking nation, is to introduce a ban on tobacco in indoor public places from Wednesday. The country breaks all European records, with more than 40 percent of the population smoking and six out of 10 being exposed to smoking at work, according to an EU poll.
Only 10 member states have comprehensive laws, Vassiliou said.
A poll last year by EU survey group Eurobarometer said 84 percent of respondents supported smoke-free offices and other indoor workplaces, 77 percent were in favor of smoke-free restaurants, and 61 percent supported smoke-free bars and pubs.
(Reporting by Caroline Linton, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Original article

Faulty British coins a cash bonanza for finders

2009-06-30T20:52:00.000+04:00

(POUNDS, BRITISH, PENCE, WHICH, BATCH, CIRCULATION)

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A specialist coin dealing firm has offered to pay 50 pounds ($82.93) to finders of faulty British 20 pence coins, sending people scrambling.
However, other coin dealers have advised people who find one of the approximately 50,000 undated coins to hold on, because they may be worth as much as 300 pounds in the next decade.
Specialist coin company the London Mint Office made its offer for 20 pence pieces which had been cast with a new design that resulted in a batch of coins with no date on them.
The letters "F.D." have been printed where the date "2008" should have been.
A coin with mismatched sides is known as a "mule" and they are extremely rare. The last time one appeared in circulation was during the reign of Charles II more than 300 years ago.
The 20 pence coins first appeared at the end of 2008, after a batch which included between 50,000 and 200,000 of the faulty 20 pence coins entered circulation.
The last time a mistake was made on the casting of a coin was in 1983, when a batch of 2 pence coins went into circulation with the words "New Pence" rather than "Two Pence" on the reverse side. These coins fetched up to 650 pounds in top condition.
The Royal Mint, which produces Britain`s coin, has stated that the coins are legal tender, but has not made any further comment on their current or potential value.
Modern-day British currency includes coins for one pence, two pence, five pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, one pound and two pounds. 100 pence make up 1 British pound.
(Reporting by Nat Arkwright; Editing by Stefano Ambrogi and Paul Casciato)
Original article

French restaurants prepare for VAT cut

2009-06-30T20:40:00.000+04:00

(RESTAURANTS, PRICES, LOWER, PARTNERS, WHICH, WOULD)

By James Mackenzie
PARIS (Reuters) - French restaurants prepared to cut prices on meals and soft drinks ahead of a new lower sales tax rate that comes into effect on Wednesday after years of lobbying European partners by successive governments.
Value added tax on restaurants and cafes will fall to 5.5 percent from July 1 from 19.6 percent previously after a deal hammered out with European Union partners in March following a 7 year-long campaign by Paris.
As part of the deal, restaurant trade bodies signed up to a so-called "contract for the future" under which they agreed to step up hiring and create 40,000 new jobs over the next two years including 20,000 apprentice positions.
They also pledged to cut prices of many items from a cup of coffee to entrees, "plats du jours" (daily specials), desserts and soft drinks, by 11.8 percent.
"This contract is based on confidence and the responsibility that restaurants are assuming in price, employment and the quality of service," Economy Minister Christine Lagarde told reporters on Tuesday.
The lower VAT rate comes as a welcome boost to the restaurant sector, which has complained of falling sales and the impact of a ban on smoking that came into effect at the beginning of last year.
"We`ve already seen a strong rise in sales," said Barbara Cohen, owner of "La Grange aux Dimes," a restaurant in Wissous, south of Paris where she cut prices earlier this month ahead of the official start of the new rates.
"We`ve been seeing clients who would come four or five times a month now coming seven times a month. It`s really impressive."
LONG BATTLE
France`s rich culinary tradition has made the issue of restaurant VAT particularly symbolic but the sector is also one of the country`s big employers.
According to government figures, France has a total of some 180,000 restaurants and cafes of all types and more than 80,000 canteens and employs some 680,000 people.
"This is a unique opportunity for the sector to play its part as an industrial jobs motor," said Dominique Giraudier, head of Groupe Flo, one of France`s biggest restaurant operators, which employs more than 5,200 people.
Lagarde said government inspectors would be monitoring price announcements to ensure that restaurants which advertised reduced prices really offered them but she said people would naturally avoid restaurants that did not pass on lower costs.
"The customer will be the best judge," she said. "The state will be vigilant but customers will be the ones that make the difference."
Former French President Jacques Chirac pushed hard for the cut but was blocked by EU partners including Germany, which feared it would lose out in cross-border trade to French restaurants and was reluctant to match the proposed cuts because of budget ramifications. Continued...
Original article

Anxious Japan new hires opt for overtime over dates

2009-06-30T17:08:00.000+04:00

(OVERTIME, SURVEY, SHOWED, ABOUT, PERCENT, EMPLOYEES)

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Most newly hired Japanese would opt for overtime rather than a date, a survey showed, reflecting growing anxiety about employment in the country`s recession-hit economy.
Japan`s jobless rate rose to 5.2 percent, the highest since September 2003, data released on Tuesday showed, while the jobs-to-applicants ratio slid to 0.44, meaning only about four jobs were available for every nine applicants. That ratio was the lowest since the data started in 1963.
A survey by the Japan Productivity Center, a private think tank, showed that more than 80 per cent of newly recruited employees would choose overtime over a date.
"The financial and economic recession and fears of corporate restructuring and bankruptcy are motivating new employees to prioritize work over private life," Tetsu Takano, an official at the think tank told Reuters.
The trend was more pronounced among women, of whom 88 percent favored overtime over romance, compared to 78 percent for men.
Eighty-four per cent of respondents agreed with the statement "the era of lifetime employment is over. I cannot depend on my company," and 46 percent expressed worry about future lay-offs.
The survey covered about 3,200 new recruits, of which 40 percent work for large corporations with more than 5,000 employees.
(Reporting by Yumi Otagaki, editing by Miral Fahmy)
Original article

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Downturn creates more working mothers in Asia

Bendy cucumbers, strange leeks return to EU shops

2009-06-30T16:56:00.000+04:00

(SHAPE, THOSE, FRUIT, VEGETABLES, RULES, STANDARDS)

By Jeremy Smith
BRUSSELS (Reuters Life!) - Bendy cucumbers, strangely shaped turnips and carrots. The stuff of EU myth and legend returns to real shops this week. All those wonky fruit and curiously sized vegetables will be back on supermarket shelves from July 1 after the European Union scrapped longstanding rules that control minimum size and shape standards for household fruit and vegetables.
EU marketing standards are standard fodder for one of the most popular jibes about EU over-regulation, where desk-bound European Commission bureaucrats are portrayed as zealous to set permitted sizes, lengths and "bendiness" for farm produce.
Now, the Commission has sliced through the red tape to get rid of what it calls "unnecessary marketing standards."
"July 1st marks the return to our shelves of the curved cucumber and the knobbly carrot," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said.
"More seriously, this is a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape. We don`t need to regulate this sort of thing at EU level ... It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away just because they are the `wrong` size and shape."
EU rules defining minimum shapes and sizes will be repealed for 26 fruits and vegetables -- including apricots, aubergines, cherries, garlic, leeks, peas, spinach and watermelons.
Ten standards will remain, including those for apples, citrus fruit, kiwi, peaches, pears, table grapes and tomatoes. Those 10 account for three-quarters of the value of EU cross-border fruit and vegetable trade. But even for these 10 categories, countries will be able to allow shops -- for the first time -- to sell products that do not meet the EU standards, provided they are labeled to set them apart from `extra`, `class I` and `class II` fruit.
"In other words, the new rules will allow national authorities to permit the sale of all fruit and vegetables, regardless of their size and shape," the Commission said.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Original article

Corsican wines fight their corner for survival

2009-06-30T16:45:00.000+04:00

(CORSICAN, ISLAND, PRODUCTION, HECTOLITERS, PERCENT, THERE)

By Marcel Michelson
BORDEAUX (Reuters Life!) - Corsican wine growers are seeking recognition beyond their faithful band of followers as European Union uprooting plans and high transport costs in crisis times threaten to sound a death knell for the sector.
Corsica is the third wine producing island in the Mediterranean, behind Sicily and Sardinia of Italy and its production of some 350,000 hectoliters (9 million U.S. gallons) of wines make up just a few percentages of the total French production. But the sector is the biggest export activity in value and volume of the island and, together with the tourism sector, one of the pillars of an insular economy.
According to Bernard Sonnet, the director of the Corsican winemakers organization CIV Corse, demand for Corsican wines tops at least 500,000 hectoliters a year, but prices are relatively low -- most are below 10 euros ($14) a bottle, many below 5 euros.
That is partly the fault of the Corsicans themselves.
In the 1960s, Algerian independence saw many Corsicans flock back to the island, where a race to production ensued and the island made some two million hectoliters of wines a year. Not all of it was of good quality.
More recently, however, there has been a lot of attention to quality and there are now nine AOC wines (appelation d`origine controllee) that have to adhere to quality guidelines.
The production of the year 2007-2008, at 340,340 hectoliters, was for one third in AOC and two thirds in vins de pays and vins de cepages.
"There is too much wine in Europe and France and the decision by the European Union to impose uprooting campaigns has reduced our production," Sonnet said, adding that another 10 percent of the wine growing area was set to be cleared.
And there lies a danger -- the average production of the past five years was 370,000 hectoliters which comes down to 54 hectoliters per 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of vines and that, according to CIV Corse, is the absolute critical economic floor below they should not descend.
"My biggest challenge is to make the wines of Corsica known," said CIV Corse president Jean-Marc Venturi told Reuters at Vinexpo -- the big wine and spirits industry fair held every two years in Bordeaux.
The Corsicans were out in force at the fair with a big tented restaurant where star Corsican chefs prepared meals and guests could taste the many different Corsican wines.
The people from the island claim they have been making wines for at least 20 centuries, with a specific climate of high and snowy peaks and a record sunny hours for France, at 2,885 hours per year.
There are 950 wine growers, often still family-owned operations as specific tax exemptions given by Napoleon to his birth island mean that the land owners do not pay death tax. Some 1,500 people work in the sector that has annual sales of 120 million euros.
The Corsicans drink about half of their wine themselves, at 44 percent, another 28 percent goes to the rest of France and there remains 28 percent for export to countries such as Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Of the AOC wines, 56 percent is rose and the rose wines are experiencing a bit of a trend at the moment. The reds make up 33 percent and the whites 11 percent. Continued...
Original article

Finland`s Saariaho: "Music is mystery - like love"

2009-06-30T16:33:00.000+04:00

(COMPOSER, MUSIC, OPERA, ABOUT, THERE, BECAUSE)

By Michael Roddy
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho`s music has taken the opera houses, concert halls and audiences of the world by storm. Just don`t ask her why.
"I think music is really one of the big mysteries in our life and for me it`s in the same category as love," Saariaho, who is 56 and whose music has been described as "dreamlike" and haunting, told Reuters in an interview.
"Music has enormous powers and it`s part of everybody`s life in some form -- so I cannot answer that question, really."
The slender, bright-eyed, elfin Saariaho spoke on the eve of the London premiere of "L`Amour de Loin" (Love from afar), an opera for three singers and chorus based on a true story about an unconsummated "courtly" love affair between the pining troubadour Jaufre Rudel from France and Clemence, the Countess of Tripoli, in whose arms he dies after a voyage to see her.
The opera had its premiere in Salzburg in 2000 and has had many productions since, but the version at the English National Opera is one Saariaho admits she would not have permitted nine years ago. It will be sung in English, instead of the original French, and will have acrobats from Cirque du Soleil on stage.
"Well, yes, there seem to be people who are quite acrobatic...but this thing about the director`s view, I`ve gotten used to it because this is the seventh production so there have been...very different kinds of `L`Amour de Loins`.
"It is living its own life so I told myself, `Why not?`" Here`s what else she had to say about her music, her influences, and why living in France is good therapy for a Finn.
Q: Your music is described as a "dreamscape" or as having an "icy beauty." Would you subscribe to any of that?
A: "When one says `dreamlike` it`s often like `dreamy` and if that`s a description I don`t like it because there is so much more. If you think about your dreams, they can be very violent and they can be very sweet and they can be painful and if you think about all these characteristics and you say, `Your music is like that`, then I like it. It depends on definitions."
Q: You once said you would never write an opera but there will be three soon -- or four, if you count your oratorio about the French Jewish philosopher Simone Weil. Do you see yourself as an opera composer, and if so, with a feminist viewpoint?
A: "Why not? I`m a woman and of course I choose the subjects that interest me...and I pick different things than some of my male colleagues. But no, I don`t consider myself to be an opera composer, I love to do different kinds of things. But opera is interesting because...it`s like a meeting point with other artists. Plus the other thing is that the musicians must stay with your music a long time and the singers need to learn the music by heart, so it takes the music to another level."
Q: You`ve said of "L`Amour de Loin" that the writing of it somehow allowed you to reconcile being a woman with being a composer -- that you joined two parts. How so?
A: "At one point I understood why I was so intrigued by this story because there is (the troubadour) and the lady Clemence who has left her country and there is the destiny of the pilgrim who wants to bring them together and I had a feeling that I was drawn into that story because I wanted to be both -- I wanted to bring them together too."
Q: When you were young and realised what Mozart had done by the time he was your age, you almost gave up -- but you didn`t. What are the big influences on your musical palette?
A: "Mozart, Debussy, Messiaen`s (opera) `St. Francois d`Assise` -- that and one billion other pieces. Stravinsky, Sibelius, Berlioz...Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday...There is Bach...Is there any composer or musician who doesn`t love Bach? It`s unfair to pick out one or two because there`s so much." Continued...
Original article

El Bulli chef branches out into the art world

2009-06-30T16:11:00.000+04:00

(RESTAURANT, ADRIA, BOOKING, BULLI, TABLE, WOULD)

By Tim Castle
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Reservations are so tight at the world`s best restaurant that even head chef Ferran Adria is unable to get a booking for friends at short notice.
Only open for half the year, Spain`s El Bulli restaurant on the Barcelona coast is fully booked for months in advance, even at the 300 euros ($415) per person cost of its 30-40 course menu.
Adria says that even if a Nobel Peace Prize winner called for a table he could only make room in the 50-head establishment if there was a cancellation. And those are few and far between.
"If you had a booking and you couldn`t come, what would you do?" Adria, 46, told Reuters in an interview.
"You would ring a friend of yours and you would say, `I have a booking at El Bulli`. So this is what happens, we have no cancellations."
Voted best restaurant in the world four times in a row by Restaurant Magazine, El Bulli serves its guests a stream of micro-sized dishes, each exquisitely presented and the result of months of culinary experimentation. Some call it molecular gastronomy.
Adria and his team of 70 staff use tools such as liquid nitrogen, centrifuges and precision scales to create hot jellies, grilled fruit and novelties such as melon caviar.
The dishes are designed to entertain as much as to nourish, while some are deliberately provocative.
An innocent-looking wafer called "Electric Milk," made from the flower of a Sichuan pepper, delivers a numbing shock to the tongue akin to licking the two poles of a battery.
"Never in your life have you had that sensation in your palate," said Adria.
A new book recording the experiences of diners at El Bulli reveals that some found the provocation too much.
In "Food for Thought, Thought for Food," American journalist Bill Buford said his wife had almost walked out after the unexpected blast delivered by the Sichuan dish.
"That thing had just incinerated her tongue," he told a round table discussion of critics who had been invited to eat at El Bulli.
The book details how El Bulli became for 100 days in 2007 an official outpost of the international art festival "documenta" held every five years in Kassel, Germany.
Each day two people were chosen at random from the exhibition halls and flown to El Bulli for their evening meal. Continued...
Original article

India`s "silent" village of deaf-mutes

2009-06-30T15:59:00.000+04:00

(INDIA, VILLAGE, BIRTH, CHILD, THERE, HEALTH)

By Sunil Kataria
DADHKAI, India (Reuters Life!) - Silence reigns in the sleepy village of Dadhkai, nestled high up in the Himalayan mountains in northern India and where the majority of residents are either deaf or mute.
Each of the 47 families in this village in Jammu and Kashmir state have a least one member who can neither hear nor speak. The first reported case dates back to 1931 and now the numbers have swelled to 82.
"The birth of a child is a very happy occasion, meant to be celebrated. But here the birth of a child leads to harassment not only for the parents but for the entire village," said Hashmiddin, a village elder who only goes by one name.
"A deaf and mute child only aggravates problems and increases miseries," he told Reuters Television.
The village with a picture-postcard setting stands in isolation from the rest of the region, as there are no roads, and no transport connecting it to the outside world. A river cuts it from the neighboring region.
Three years ago, a team of scientists and doctors came from an Indian health institute to study the village`s case, but no conclusive findings have been made public so far.
Some villagers blame it on pollution in the water or air, while others believe they could be cursed, as adjoining villages have not reported any similar disorders.
But an age-old custom of marrying within the community, coupled with lack of access to medical facilities and immunization, probably led to the large number of deaf and mute cases, says Jan Mohammed, an instructor for the deaf.
"I think it is because of a genetic problem," Mohammed said. "Close relatives marry here. In the past there was no immunization given and also there is a lack of iodine and salt."
Lack of education, and hearing aids, has left many locals disillusioned about the future.
"These days it is so difficult to find matches for well educated normal girls, how will I get my deaf and dumb daughters married," says Lal Hussain, who has two daughters.
But there have been a lucky few.
Bano Begum, who is not hearing impaired, was married to a deaf and mute man and said their relationship was initially a huge struggle as they could not communicated with each other.
But the couple gave birth to three normal children and learnt to communicate with each other through sign language.
Some experts say the locals should be forced to marry outside their village, which the community rejects. India`s Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad recently said another health team would be sent to the village soon.
(Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Miral Fahmy)
Original article

Green triumphs over mean in global car choice survey

2009-06-30T12:46:00.000+04:00

(GREEN, SURVEY, PEOPLE, WOULD, RESPONDENTS, PERCENT)

By Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Is green becoming mainstream? A new global survey shows nearly six in 10 people would choose an environment-friendly car over a petrol-powered one, even if they had all the money in the world.
The survey of 13,500 city dwellers in 18 countries, by market research firm Synovate, also showed that over a third of respondents said they would either use public transport, walk, or cycle more often this year, partly to save on fuel costs but also for the sake of the environment.
"More and more, owning a car may not be viewed as that responsible," said Scott Miller, CEO of Synovate Motoresearch. "But car makers are producing more and more options that will appeal to this fast-growing group of green-inclined people.
"Cars are freedom, and people value freedom. If they continue to enjoy guilt-free freedom, the car will stay a large part of daily lives for many people," he said in a statement.
The survey asked respondents to forget about cost and choose between "green" or "dream" -- that is an electric or hybrid car versus a luxury, powerful sports car.
The survey, conducted in March, included the world`s top passenger car markets, China and the United States.
Even with money being no object, nearly 40 percent of respondents said green would be their preferred purchase. An additional 20 percent said green cars were their "dream" car.
More than 70 percent of Chinese said they would buy a green car, compared with 42 percent of Americans, the survey showed.
Chinese, at nearly 40 percent, were also the people most likely to take public transport more often in the next year, while Americans -- at 2 percent -- were among the least.
The nation most likely to choose green cars over petrol-powered ones, regardless, was Germany, with nearly two-thirds choosing the environment over their dream cars.
The environment, however, meant little to a third of all respondents, which the survey showed would choose the car they desired the most, green-be-damned.
The majority of these buyers were in South Africa and India, where cars are regarded as a status symbol, Synovate said.
Overall, 15 percent of respondents said they would buy a new car in the next 12 months, despite the economic downturn.
The new car would-be buyers were topped by India, Egypt and Turkey, which Synovate said showed developing countries presented a good opportunity for car manufacturers.
Least likely to be buying a new car were Australians and Germans, while 6 percent of overall respondents say they would buy a used car in the next year. Continued...
Original article

Urban hunters kill, grill shrimp in Taipei

2009-06-30T11:21:00.000+04:00

(TAIPEI, SHRIMP, FISHING, WHICH, PEOPLE, HUNTING)

By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters Life!) - America`s Wild West motto of "you kill it, we grill it" has come to life in the densely populated east Asian capital of Taiwan. The prey? Shrimp.
About 50 largely indoor fishing ranges in and around Taipei give customers rods and bait to catch live shrimp that is bred in shallow pools, and then roasted on site, often with beers.
Fishing is a pastime many aspire to, but few have time for, in fast-paced Taipei, which makes these city ranges very convenient for wannabe fishermen -- or hunters.
There is also a website dedicated to this sort of shrimp fishing, fish.esheng.com.tw/, which has logged nearly 2 million visits mainly from people asking for hunting buddies.
The tradition began in fishing-intensive southern Taiwan more than 20 years ago, and worked its way indoors, with shrimp replacing harder-to-get fish to satisfy time-poor urbanites.
"It`s cheap, there`s some fun and something to eat. It`s nicer than a roadside restaurant," said Liu Wen-chung, 41, who runs an advertising firm and takes some of his clients shrimp hunting at a poolside in central Taipei.
"You don`t have to go out and get sun-burned," he said.
And even though its contrived, hunters like Liu can still experience the thrill of the chase: although shrimp carpet the pool bottom, they can`t always see bait, so the line must be jostled periodically to get their attention.
When the bob suddenly sinks, it means a shrimp has bitten, and some claw back with the strength of a small fish.
Shrimp farms usually charge the equivalent of $6 to $9 per hour, and it`s all-you-can catch. Grills are provided for free at the dingy but spacious grounds, some of which have outdoor areas, and most stay open till 2 a.m. -- if they close at all.
Some Taiwanese say shrimp hunting peaked five years ago and call it a low-class sport associated with excessive drinking. But it remains popular, with several farms seeing good business.
At Chuan Chia Leh, a 19-year-old downtown Taipei shrimp range, owner Tsai Yao-cheng said all kinds of people have come through to try their luck.
"Taiwanese people like to fish, but it can be problem to go to the coast for fishing," Tsai said. The coast is an hour away.
The Bamboo Shoot Shrimp Farm outside Taipei sees a few dozen customers per day, mostly younger people just off work, said a manager surnamed Lin. "The coast is more remote," she said.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Original article

In U.S. scandals, wives don`t stand by their men

2009-06-30T11:09:00.000+04:00

(WOMEN, PUBLIC, HUSBAND, AFFAIR, ABOUT, EDWARDS)

By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Standing by your man suddenly seems to be going out of fashion for some American women in the public eye.
This month, the wives of at least two famous men caught cheating -- sexually and financially -- very openly declared that their spouses` behavior was actually quite scandalous.
Ruth Madoff, reacting to her husband Bernard being sentenced to 150 years in prison for bilking investors with a massive Ponzi scheme, said she felt "embarrassed," "ashamed" and "betrayed" by a man she had known for half a century.
"The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years," she said in a statement shortly after her husband`s sentencing on Monday.
Last week, after South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford tearfully admitted to an affair with a woman in Argentina, his wife Jenny -- who was not by his side at his public confession -- left little doubt about her feelings.
"His career is not a concern of mine," she told reporters at a vacation home. "He`s going to have to worry about that. I`m worried about my family and the character of my children."
Political analysts said the new attitude reflects generational and social change -- at least for some women in the United States.
"The old model didn`t work," said Karlyn Bowman, an analyst of U.S. public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute.
The image of the tearful wife, hiding behind sunglasses, next to her husband while he unloaded his sins to the world, was "intensely embarrassing" and some women are deciding they do not have to follow that path, she said.
"It may be that women just feel that they can do whatever they want," Bowman said.
Of course, the quiet, supportive wife remains a public pillar for many scandal-hit men -- just look at former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer`s wife Silda, whose wordless turn at his side last year when he admitted visiting prostitutes drew some sharp commentary.
And it wasn`t that long ago when Hillary Clinton, then first lady, weathered the storm beside her husband, President Bill Clinton, over his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky in the White House in the late 1990s.
More recently, Elizabeth Edwards, whose husband John Edwards ran for president as a Democrat last year, publicly spoke out about his infidelity while promoting her memoir "Resilience."
Edwards, who is battling cancer, told talk show host Oprah Winfrey of her shock at hearing from her husband that he had continued an affair with campaign worker Rielle Hunter after telling her in December 2006 he had slept with another woman.
"All the work we`d done, all the trust we had tried to build in the past year-plus, all thrown out the window," she said.
(Editing by John O`Callaghan)
Original article

Police question Michael Jackson`s doctor

2009-06-30T10:33:00.000+04:00

(MICHAEL, JACKSON, ANGELES, POLICE, DEATH, MURRAY)

Michael Jackson, the King of pop
Michael Jackson - pop music legend
Russia had special romance with Michael Jackson - expert
Fans sing Michael Jackson’s songs on Los Angeles streets
MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - Los Angeles police have held an "extensive interview" with the cardiologist who tried to resuscitate Michael Jackson before his death, amid uncertainty over the causes of the pop legend`s cardiac arrest.
Dr Conrad Murray reportedly disappeared several hours after Jackson`s death at the age of 50 on Thursday, and failed to sign a death certificate.
"Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician who was with Michael Jackson at the time of his collapse, voluntarily contacted the Los Angeles Police Department," a police statement released on Saturday night said.
Detectives "met with Dr. Murray and conducted an extensive interview. Dr. Murray was cooperative and provided information which will aid the investigation."
The death of the `King of Pop` has dominated the global media over the past three days, and social networking and video sites have been flooded with tributes. While grieving fans have been celebrating Jackson`s musical legacy, several questions have arisen over the circumstances of his death.
The Rev Jesse Jackson, a long-serving politician who has been maintaining close contact with Michael Jackson`s family, told reporters that the doctor had failed to speak to relatives after the death, and that many questions remained unanswered.
"When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did he inject him? If so, with what? Was he on the scene twice? Did he use the Demerol? It`s a very powerful drug. Was he injected once? Was he injected twice?"
However, a lawyer for Murray insisted that his client was not being treated as a suspect in Jackson`s death.
"It`s a human tragedy and he`s upset obviously over the loss of Mr. Jackson. But he is not a suspect in the death of Mr. Jackson," Matthew Alford said

Original article

Lightning kills 2 after graduation ball in Russia`s Far East

2009-06-30T10:21:00.000+04:00

(STUDENTS, GRADUATION, LIGHTNING, POLICE, PRIMORYE, OFFICER)

VLADIVOSTOK, June 27 (RIA Novosti) - Two students celebrating their high school graduation died early on Saturday morning in Russia`s Far East when they were struck by lightning, local police said.
One boy and one girl were killed in the lightning strike in the village of Zarubino in the Primorye Territory`s Khasansky region, while another girl and a policeman suffered burns and were taken to a local hospital.
"The tragedy occurred on Saturday at 5 a.m. Vladivostok time [19:00 GMT on Friday]. After a graduation ball 15 students went to the beach to watch the sun rise. They were accompanied by a police officer, who was keeping order," a Primorye police source told RIA Novosti.
"A loud rumble of thunder was heard, and lightning flashed. Two students - a boy and a girl - died at the scene. Another girl and the police officer were hospitalized with burns," he added.
The source said the lightning struck as the group passed near overhead electric power lines.
He added that several other graduation balls in area passed without incident, and all had police officers present to ensure order.

Original article

Police in west Urals search for security guard who stole $8 mln

2009-06-30T10:08:00.000+04:00

(POLICE, GUARD, MILLION, RUSSIA, LARGEST, SHURMAN)

NIZHNY NOVGORD, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Police in the west Urals are searching for a security guard who stole 250 million rubles ($8 million), a local police spokesman said on Friday.
The theft, one of Russia`s largest, took place at about 12:00 p.m. local time (06:00 GMT) on Thursday. Alexander Shurman, 36, was one of three guards carrying cash for Russia`s largest bank Sberbank.
Threatening to shoot his colleagues, he forced them to stop the vehicle in a forest, and transferred the money to another vehicle driven by accomplices.
"A search is underway," the spokesman said.
A $10,000 reward has been announced for any information leading to Shurman`s arrest, and an investigation has been launched. Over 50 police investigators are involved in the hunt.
A police source told the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid that Sberbank security guards had had their wages cut last month.
"Carrying huge sums daily and hardly making ends meet - anyone would go nuts," the source said.
Neighbors said Shurman, who has two children, one with a second wife, did not drink or smoke and played tennis and went running every morning.

Original article

Russian authorities order Stalin billboards removed

2009-06-30T09:56:00.000+04:00

(BILLBOARDS, STALIN, PAPER, COMMUNIST, ADVERTISING, GREAT)

MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - Authorities in the central Russian city of Voronezh have ordered the removal of billboards bearing the image of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, a paper said on Thursday.
The authorities said the billboards, which were put up by the Communist Party and show Stalin wearing a military uniform next to the slogan "Victory will be ours!", violated advertising laws, Kommersant reported.
The city`s chief advertising official said on Wednesday billboards should be used for advertising purposes only, including "social" advertising.
And Vadim Nechui-Veter, a lawyer specializing in advertising, told the paper: "Adverts should portray objects - goods or services, i.e. something that can be sold." He added that politicians could only be shown on billboards during election campaigns.
The Communist Party countered that in this case images of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Voronezh`s mayor should also be removed from the city`s streets, the paper said.
The billboards were to commemorate the start on June 22 of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, the term Russia and other ex-Soviet states use to call WWII. This year also marks the 130th anniversary of Stalin`s birth.
The leader of Voronezh`s Communists said, as quoted by Russian media, that some advertising agencies in the city had refused to take the order for the ten Stalin billboards.
"We made preparations for June 22, the start of the war, where Stalin played an important role," Sergei Rudakov said.
"We wanted to underline, with the help of the billboards, that we support reforms, but we can only move forward with the positive things we had in Stalin`s time before and after the war...when the country became a great power," Rudakov said.
While Stalin`s personality cult and his purges have been officially condemned in Russia, many Russians still view the dictator as a great statesman.
The exact number of those killed or imprisoned during Stalin`s purges is not known, although estimates are as high as 20 million.

Original article

Deluxe hotel beckons on Shanghai`s Bund in downturn

2009-06-30T09:44:00.000+04:00

(LUXURY, SHANGHAI, TRAVELERS, PENINSULA, FIRST, WHICH)

By Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Luxury may be taboo these days, but it`s a choice The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd group wants travelers to have, despite the downturn, when it opens a Peninsula hotel in Shanghai this year.
The Peninsula Shanghai`s 3 billion yuan ($439 million) complex includes a 235-room deluxe hotel, a shopping arcade, a residential tower -- and is the first building to rise on the city`s historic Bund waterfront in 60 years.
The hotel, due to open in October, is the ninth property in the portfolio of a group renowned for its bespoke fleet of Rolls-Royce limousines and unabashed dedication to the good life: the Peninsula has a team of engineers that develop guest-friendly gadgets and tests the features in each room before it is built.
General Manager Paul Tchen said that while the financial crisis would probably keep high-end leisure and business travelers away for now, the downturn would not last forever, and the hotel was built with the future in mind.
"Unfortunately, in today`s economy, luxury hotels are not very fashionable," Tchen told Reuters.
"But we open hotels for the next generation, we are cautious about what we invest in, and during these times, we can stand the pain more than other companies," he said during a visit to Singapore to promote the new hotel.
Asia`s multi-billion dollar tourism business has been hit hard by the shortage of well-heeled tourists and corporate travelers due to the slowdown, with hotel room rates falling this year for the first time in years and airlines suffering.
Average hotel room revenues across Asia and Australia fell by a third in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier, according to Deloitte, which also said that occupancy levels across the region dropped by 15 percent. In Shanghai, hotel room revenues have fallen by almost 40 percent.
Tchen said the hotel was, for now, marketing itself within China, which has been affected, but not too much, by the economic downturn, as well as in other parts of Asia where there is still an appetite for luxury.
Room rates have also been discounted for the first few months after opening, and now start at 2,009 yuan ($294) a night, including breakfast and airport transfers, compared to the rack rate of 3,200 yuan ($468).
"We`re heavily targeting the one market that`s not so badly affected, and that`s our domestic market. We want to bring back the fun, the excitement of staying at a luxury hotel, turn the experience into an escape for locals and for other business travelers from the region," Tchen said.
In homage to Shanghai`s colonial heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, when it was dubbed the Paris of the East, the Peninsula Shanghai is designed in an art deco style, but with high-tech, modern facilities and luxurious fittings.
The hotel has sweeping terraces, and views, of the city and it also plans to host ballroom dancing afternoon tea events.
Shanghai, which is hosting the 2010 World Expo, is spending more than $700 million to spruce up the Bund -- whose name comes from an Anglo-Indian term for a river embankment -- and turn the area into a pedestrian-only zone.
The 2-km (1.24-mile) strip is famous for its art deco buildings, many of which have been restored to their former glory after having been allowed to fall into disrepair when the Communists came to power in 1949. Continued...
Original article

Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote

2009-06-30T03:27:00.000+04:00

(NEW, STATE, YORK, MARRIAGE, RIGHTS, DEMOCRATS, PARADE)

By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York`s annual Gay Pride parade was a colorful celebration of 40 years of progress toward civil rights for gays, but once the dust settled, gay couples who wish to marry in New York state remain thwarted.
A bill to legalize gay marriage in the state that saw the dawn of the gay rights movement is mired in political stalemate in the state capital Albany, where Democrats and Republicans are battling over control of the state Senate.
"I had hoped today`s march would have been a bit of a wedding march. It`s not," Christine Quinn, the gay speaker of the New York City Council, said at Sunday`s Gay Pride parade. Held annually, this year`s event marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York`s Greenwich Village, which triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement.
"We are disappointed. ... But I know there have been other times our community has been disappointed and you need to keep fighting," Quinn said at the start of the parade, which organizers said drew more than a million people.
Gay couples can marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa and will be allowed marry in Vermont starting in September and in New Hampshire from January. Other states offer same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage.
Forty-two U.S. states explicitly prohibit gay marriage, including 29 with constitutional amendments, according to Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group.
In May, the New York state Assembly, where Democrats hold a majority, voted by a wide margin to legalize gay marriage.
On June 8, state Senate Republicans engineered a coup by getting two Democrats to switch allegiance and vote in a new leadership, effectively erasing the slim 32-30 majority the Democrats won in the November 2008 election.
But Democrats have refused to recognize the leadership vote and one of the senators has since rejoined the Democrats, creating an even 31-31 split in the chamber.
New York Governor David Paterson has vowed to bring gay marriage to a state Senate vote before the end of the current legislative session -- which has already been extended due to the deadlock. But Paterson can not force a vote, and it is not clear if it would pass, or even if such a vote would be legal.
Even the state`s main gay rights organization has called on the Senate to resolve the leadership dispute first and not treat gay marriage as "a political football." With no immediate prospect of a resolution to the crisis, supporters of the bill are left wondering if it will come to a vote this year.
"There certainly have been moments of high adrenaline and great disappointment ... but I`m always optimistic," said Senator Tom Duane, the bill`s sponsor, at Sunday`s parade.
Many at Sunday`s parade said they thought gay marriage was inevitable in New York.
"I think every year we see great advances. I mean, this year New Hampshire passed gay marriage and Iowa, of all places," said Brent Hayrynen, 63. "We`ll get there."
(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Claudia Parsons and Todd Eastham)
Original article

Consumers indulge to lift spirits, food makers say

2009-06-30T03:14:00.000+04:00

(MORE, CHOCOLATE, SALES, CHEESE, TRADE, PEOPLE, YOU`RE)

By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Specialty-food makers showcasing wares this week say anxious consumers are consoling themselves, and buoying the gourmet industry, by seeking solace in tasty treats from chocolate sushi to lavender-laced cheese.
Fancy-food makers, more than 2,000 of which were exhibiting at the annual trade show in New York, say consumers may not buy big-ticket items amid the recession but they will allow themselves smaller indulgences.
"People may not be buying flat-screen TVs, but they will buy lobster mac and cheese," said Cal Hancock, whose Maine-based Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co. sells the frozen delicacy. "It`s the ultimate comfort food."
Paul Ioanidis, of Jer`s Handmade Chocolates in Solana Beach, California, said sales are strong. "People will indulge a little bit to feel better, and premium chocolates are a pretty inexpensive way to feel good," he said.
The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, which sponsors the trade show, said the industry had $60 billion in U.S. sales in 2008. Fifty-eight percent of its manufacturers reported a drop in sales last year, due to economic pressures.
The research also found that a downturn in restaurant sales has helped specialty foods as consumers cook more at home. That move away from restaurant dining has been evident in sales trends, several vendors said.
`YOU USE MORE SEASONING`
"If you`re going to save money, you`re not going to eat in restaurants so much. If you`re cooking at home, you use more seasoning," said Joe Walker of Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning, based in Ville Platte, Louisiana.
Hoping to woo the more selective, less extravagant consumer with smaller, less expensive products, Chuao Chocolatier of Carlsbad, California, makes versions of its candy, such as dark chocolate with chipotle, that retail for 99 cents.
"This is our answer to the economy," said Brooke Feldman, communications manager. "It`s chocolate for the people."
Some retailers opted for a twist on traditional favorites.
Rogue Creamery of Central Point, Oregon, offered cheddar cheese flavored with lavender, Das Foods of Highwood, Illinois, had lollipops flavored with maple and bacon, and Romanicos Chocolate of Miami offered candies shaped like sushi.
Others are backing basics, such as Woeber Mustard Manufacturing Co of Springfield, Ohio, where horseradish sauce remains the strongest seller.
"We`ve seen high-end products go down, and more basic products increase," said Christopher Woeber, project manager at the 104-year-old family business.
(Editing by Will Dunham)
Original article

Reggaeton fever shakes up Cuba`s culture

2009-06-30T03:02:00.000+04:00

(REGGAETON, CUBAN, MUSIC, OFFICIAL, LATIN, CULTURAL, CUBA`S)

By Esteban Israel
HAVANA (Reuters) - To record his next hit El Micha, one of the rising stars of Cuba`s reggaeton music blending reggae, Latin and electronic rhythms, just has to knock on his neighbor`s door.
A microphone plugged into an old computer in an apartment in Havana`s working-class suburb of Reparto Electrico serves as the studio where some of Cuba`s most successful reggaeton songs are recorded.
"Reggaeton is unstoppable because it is recorded at home. It is totally independent," says Michael "El Micha" Sierra, 27, a former basketball player whose bottom row of gold teeth flash when he gives one of his frequent broad smiles.
With little official support or air time on state-controlled radio, the songs Cuban reggaeton artists record in makeshift studios lined with egg cartons for sound insulation are mostly transmitted though homemade CDs and on computer flash memory sticks.
That is how the tropical fever of reggaeton is sweeping communist-ruled Cuba, captivating its youth and enraging a cultural establishment alarmed by the vulgarity of some of its lyrics, which include phrases like "Coge mi tubo" ("Grab my pipe") and "Metela" ("Stick it in").
"Cubans know about music and if they picked reggaeton they have to be respected. The people are the ones who decide," said Sierra.
Reggaeton, a cocktail of reggae, Latin and electronic rhythms, first emerged in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s and has
spread rapidly though Latin America. In Cuba, it is played on crowded buses, shakes neighborhood windows with its throbbing bass and packs discos night after night.
Its vibrations even seem to be shaking Cuba`s cultural establishment, decades after the island shook the entertainment music world with its native-born mambo and cha cha cha.
Like hip hop, its relative, reggaeton chronicles real life in the streets. But its popularity stems from a catchy, sensual rhythm that is perfectly suited for dance-crazy Cubans.
OFFICIAL ALARM OVER "NEOLIBERAL" MUSIC
"Teachers and family cannot be naive regarding this matter," warned state-controlled TV as it showed 6-year-olds doing covers of Puerto Rican reggaeton megastar Daddy Yankee.
That was the latest sign of official alarm over what the authorities see as a vulgarization of Cuban culture.
The official daily Juventud Rebelde called reggaeton a reflection of "neoliberal thinking" and Culture Minister Abel Prieto said it should be "pushed away."
"In the cultural world there is concern about the excessive popularity of reggaeton," Julian Gonzalez, president of the National Council for Visual Arts, told Reuters. Continued...
Original article

Queen Elizabeth faces wait for palace repairs

2009-06-29T23:46:00.000+04:00

(MILLION, ROYAL, PALACE, POUNDS, GOVERNMENT, BUCKINGHAM, WOULD)

By Tim Castle
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Queen Elizabeth faces a long wait for repairs to the roof of Buckingham Palace unless the government stumps up extra cash, royal accounts showed on Monday.
Her treasurer, Alan Reid, said a backlog of "essential" maintenance would reach 40 million pounds over the next decade if there is no increase in annual funding.
Key projects facing at least a 10-year wait include the 13 million pounds renewal of lead and slate roofs at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and the 4.5 million pound refurbishment of state rooms at both properties.
Also facing a decade of delays are replacements to the palace`s heating and electricity services, as well as the replacement of aging cast iron and lead Victorian water mains at the castle.
Reid, known as the Keeper of the Privy Purse, said royal officials would continue to negotiate with the government "to improve the assessment of the additional funding required."
The government would have to increase support to 19 million pounds a year from 15 million to avoid the backlog, a senior Buckingham Palace source told Reuters.
But with Britain suffering its most severe economic downturn for 60 years, extra taxpayer funds for the royals may be hard for the government to justify.
A parliamentary committee said earlier this month the queen should open Buckingham Palace more often to tourists to help raise money for repairs, a recommendation royal officials are studying.
The government covers the cost of the royal family`s official duties in return for the queen surrendering the revenue from royal property held by Crown Estate and other hereditary sources, which reached 211 million pounds in 2007.
Royal expenditure rose 1.5 percent to 41.5 million pounds in the last financial year, after allowing for inflation.
Reid said this was equivalent to just 69 pence per person in Britain, a rise of 3 pence over the year before.
But anti-monarchist pressure group Republic said the comparison was meaningless, adding that the published expenditure did not include the cost of security.
"Every year the palace press office tries to justify the cost of the monarchy by dividing the official figure by 60 million," said Republic spokesman Graham Smith.
"With that sort of accounting you can justify pretty much anything."
(Editing by Steve Addison)
Original article

Centenarians show it`s never too late to tweet

2009-06-29T19:30:00.000+04:00

(PERCENT, CENTENARIANS, NEW, EVERCARE, THEIR, WOULD, LONGEVITY)

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Celebrities and hip adults aren`t the only people flocking to Twitter, the social-networking site. Even centenarians have learned to tweet.
Three percent of U.S. centenarians questioned in a new survey said they use the service that allows users to send short text messages, or tweets, of up to 140 characters at least once a week to keep in touch with their friends and family.
Another 10 percent sent emails to stay connected, 12 percent shared photos on the Internet and four percent downloaded music from the web.
"They are using new technologies, staying abreast of news and current events, and engaging in social networking -- all of which help to prevent chronic illnesses and contribute to greater longevity," said Dr Mark Leenay, the senior medical director and vice president of clinical affairs at Evercare, said in a statement.
The results of the survey of 100 centenarians commissioned by Evercare, one of the nation`s largest care coordination programs, challenge the stereotypes of aging.
Forget passing the day in a rocking chair. Fifty percent of centenarians keep fit by walking or hiking, eight percent prefer cycling and three percent break into a jog or run. One percent said they have tried Nintendo`s Wii Fit.
More than a quarter said they chatted on a cell phone at least once a week.
To keep their minds as agile as their bodies, 19 percent played a musical instrument or turned to a musical video game for entertainment or a mental workout.
Nearly 65 percent would dine with comedian Bill Cosby if given the opportunity to invite a celebrity to dinner.
If stranded on a desert island, two percent said they would want an iPod with them.
Evercare said the findings support the belief that a person`s longevity is based primarily on a person`s lifestyle rather than genetics.
More than 84,000 centenarians are living in the United States today. The number is expected to increase to 580,000 by 2040, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Original article

Ancient Westminster Abbey may be crowned

2009-06-29T19:18:00.000+04:00

(THERE, ABBEY, WHICH, PLANS, CORONATION, QUEEN, GALLERY)

By Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON (Reuters) - Almost every British and English monarch has been crowned there since 1066 and now, if architects have their way, London`s Westminster Abbey could have a crowning glory all of its own.
Radicaldesign plans unveiled Monday by the Dean of the ancient church include building a large crown-shaped structure, or corona, on the roof of the abbey right over the coronation spot in front of the high altar.
Founded in 960 AD by Saint Dunstan, the medieval abbey has seen extensive additions and alterations ever since, but remains in parts unfinished.
The latest proposals, which the Dean of Westminster the Very Reverend John Hall says are dramatic, are the most significant changes to the national monument in some 250 years.
The corona would replace the small plain pyramid roof on top of the "lantern" which was rebuilt in 1958 to repair war damage.
"No one ever got round to doing anything over the lantern. They asked the question; they drew up designs: there was going to be a tower and a spire at one point -- that was Christopher Wren," Hall told BBC Radio.
"There was going to be a sort of great pepper pot -- that was Nicholas Hawksmoor, and George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century had other ideas as well," said Hall who has been in touch with Queen and Buckingham Place over the plans.
"The abbey was never complete -- there is nothing above there apart from a stumpy little tower, which doesn`t do any honor to this extraordinary place," he said.
Hall said he wanted the new architectural feature to reflect the coronation underneath "that would lift the eye and lift the spirits and floodlight down into the space" where kings and queens are crowned.
It is hoped the structure will be ready in time to mark the diamond jubilee of the Queen`s coronation in 2013.
Building proposals also include provision for a lift on the south face of the Abbey outside Poets Corner to give visitors access to the upper gallery for the first time.
The gallery, known as the Triforium, will house a new museum and display many of its unseen treasures and artefacts.
English poet John Betjeman once described the view from there as the best in Europe. T
The British public are being invited to comment on the plans, which are estimated to cost 23 million pounds.
(Editing by Steve Addison)
Original article

Aficionados shop for world`s most exclusive watches

2009-06-29T19:06:00.000+04:00

(WATCHES, WATCH, COLLECTORS, FINE, BETHUNE, EXCLUSIVE, LUXURY)

By David Brough
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Collectors gathered on Monday to shop for some of the world`s most unique watches in an event organized by a group of blogging enthusiasts.
Dozens of watch aficionados came from around the world to William & Son, a luxury boutique in London`s elegant Mayfair district, to admire the world`s most exclusive watch specimens, with some on offer at well over 100,000 pounds ($165,000) each.
The typical ultra-wealthy buyer of exclusive brands such as De Bethune, F.P. Journe, Romain Gauthier and Moser, has "graduated" from major watch brands like Rolex and Omega and now seeks something rarer, collectors attending the event said.
"The watches collector has a Bentley in his garage and a Picasso on his wall, but when he walks into the office, he wants to wear something unique, a work of art," said David Witkover, North American agent for Swiss-based De Bethune.
"It is understated elegance."
He showed off the platinum-cased De Bethune Dream Watch 1, featured as "Best of the Best" in the June edition of luxury magazine the Robb Report.
The $123,600 DW1`s balance wheel is made of silicon ringed with platinum, an innovation delivering high performance.
FINE WATCHES, FINE WINES
Nicolas Fondaneche of PuristSPro.com, which showcases blogs on top watches and helped organize the event, said collecting superb watches is similar to connoisseurship of fine wines.
"When you begin to try wine, you may love it, but you can`t tell the difference between a 50-euro wine and a 5,000-euro wine," he said.
The global recession has hit demand for exclusive timepieces, but serious collectors will never lose interest, and it is up to manufacturers to price watches competitively, said Daniel Zimmermann, sales director of H. Moser & Cie.
"The market place has become more difficult," he said.
"The previous two years (of boom) were crazy," he added, in a reference to the spending spree led by finance industry professionals before the banking crisis hit hard.
William Asprey, owner of William & Son, which has emerged in the decade since luxury group Aspreys was sold, demonstrated watches owned by him and his forebears, including a gold Patek Philippe pocket watch, a 1920s Reverso that belonged to his grandfather, and a 1960s Audemars Piguet skeleton watch.
These were not for sale, but caught the collectors` eye. Continued...
Original article

Giant metal "scribble" fills London`s Tate gallery

2009-06-29T18:54:00.000+04:00

(DUVEEN, GALLERIES, FLOOR, WHICH, WOULD, CORNERS, OFFER)

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Last year it was a runner sprinting the length of the neo-Classical Duveen Galleries every minute at London`s Tate Britain museum.
This year`s Duveens Commission, by Irish-born artist Eva Rothschild, takes the form of a giant, 80-meter (263 ft) long tangle of black metal triangles which move across the gallery floor and soars above its stone columns.
Likened variously to a giant spider, bolt of lightning and angular scribble, viewers can walk around, through and under the 26 towering triangles, which barely touch the floor and are connected to each other with minimal contact.
"I wanted to produce something elevated and open that would not block the space, but would offer an alternative experience of these stately galleries," Rothschild said of her biggest work to date, called "Cold Corners."
"I want the piece to have a presence that combines clarity and confusion. It should offer itself to the eye as both whole and disparate, its skinny blackness agitating the architecture with a spidering sense of activity and strength."
Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, said the work was "monumental in scale, yet light in form" and contrasted with the "solidity" of the Duveen Galleries.
The Duveens Commission, a contemporary sculpture series, is sponsored by auctioneer Sotheby`s. It was launched in 2000 and became an annual event in 2008.
"Cold Corners" will be open to the public for free from June 30 to November29.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
Original article

Confused about fitness regimens? Poll tracks trends

2009-06-29T17:41:00.000+04:00

(FITNESS, TRAINING, ACSM, THOMPSON, SURVEY, PROFESSIONALS, ABOUT)

By Dorene Internicola
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) Pilates or yoga? Kettlebells or free weights? Running or spinning?
If you are dizzy from trying to choose among all the fitness regimens out there a new survey of fitness and health experts, who were asked to identity the top trends, may help.
Experienced fitness professionals topped the list while strength training, core work, special fitness programs for older adults, pilates and balance training also made the top ten.
"We give the fitness professional some idea of what they`re going to see," said Dr. Walter Thompson, of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) which conducted the poll.
The ACSM, a nonprofit sports medicine and exercise science organization, tracks trends for the fitness industry and gives the public a heads-up about what they are likely to face at the gym, the doctor`s office and the workplace.
Thompson said 1,540 ACSM-certified fitness professionals from Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, North America and South America took part in the online survey.
"We really wanted to look at trends," Thompson, a professor of Exercise Science at Georgia State University, explained. "We instructed the respondents to ignore fads, like the devices you see on late-night TV infomercials."
So you won`t discover anything about those contraptions that promise miracle abs for 30 minutes` work a week.
Thompson said it was no surprise that experienced fitness professionals and personal trainers captured the first and third spots in the survey.
"The fitness industry has increased exponentially," Thompson said, but at a price. "There has to be some policing. People are getting hurt by trainers who just don`t have the qualifications."
Personal training, introduced about 10 years ago and once a luxury for movie stars, is now provided by all gyms.
Children and obesity came in second in the poll, thanks largely to the development of more programs to attack the growing problem.
"For the first time in history the next generation of young people may not live as long as their parents or grandparents," the ACSM said in a statement.
Strength training, increasingly a part of most regimens, and core training, which strengthens and conditions the stabilizing muscles of the abdomen and back, rounded out the top five.
The stability ball, which came in at number eight, did not even make the top 20 in an ACSM survey in 2007. Continued...
Original article

Young, Springsteen give Hyde Park rock masterclass

2009-06-29T17:28:00.000+04:00

(YOUNG, SPRINGSTEEN, STAGE, LONDON, PLAYED, VERSION, SONGS)

By Angus MacSwan
LONDON (Reuters) - If Mount Rushmore featured rock `n` rollers instead of U.S. presidents, the faces of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen would surely be carved there.
The two elder statesmen showed just why they are venerated by fans of all ages at the Hard Rock Calling festival in central London`s Hyde Park this weekend in performances brimming with passion, energy and timeless songs.
To cap it all, Sir Paul McCartney joined Young on stage for his encore, literally bowing at his feet as the Canadian played a feedback-drenched version of the Beatles "A Day in the Life."
Now aged 63 and 59, neither Young nor Springsteen has let up the pace in recent years. Both have released new albums in the past several months which had their moments even if they did not reach the heights of past classics.
They each took prominent positions against former U.S. President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Springsteen campaigned hard for Barack Obama and played at his presidential inauguration.
Politics was largely absent from the Hyde Park shows though as they focused on entertaining the summer crowds in London, after headlining the Glastonbury Festival earlier in the week.
Young took to the stage on Saturday night looking like an old mountain man seeking shelter from a storm, with his bedraggled, thinning hair, craggy features and muttonchop sideburns. Not known for indulging his audiences, he played a crowd-pleasing set which drew heavily on "Harvest," his best-known album, and the guitar-heavy "Everybody Knows this is Nowhere."
He kicked off in his "Godfather of Grunge" persona with a crunching version of "Hey, Hey, My, My" and its refrain "it`s better to burn out than to fade away." He then stormed though a number of hard rockers, delighting rapturous fans, before switching to a mellow mood with a run of country-flavored numbers including "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man," as night fell on the park.
Young finished with a blazing version of "Rockin` in the Free World," uncharacteristically leading the crowd in a bout of arm-waving and leaving his black guitar wailing feedback, its strings shredded.
McCartney, an old friend, bounded on stage to join Young for the encore of "A Day in the Life," hugging Young and dancing around him. The two were clearly having fun.
Among the crowd was Beth Harley, a 26-year-old archaeologist, who had just arrived from Turkey on Saturday morning to see Young. She said she had grown up listening to his music as her parents played it all the time.
"It`s got a lot of edge. The songs don`t seem to age. It still seems relevant to what`s going on now," she said.
If Young is a willful eccentric, Springsteen is the great showman who delivers every time.
Taking the stage with the mighty, black-clad E. Street band, he launched into The Clash song "London Calling," bellowing its refrain "we live by the river" loud enough to be heard just down the road at Buckingham Palace. He then moved into more familiar territory with "Badlands" and the pace didn`t let up for the next three hours.
Springsteen ran around the stage, danced, and strutted along a special platform to get close to the fans and collect signs with song requests. He sang plenty of old favorites, switching from songs on the dreams and struggles of the working man to joyful sing-alongs. Continued...
Original article

Rock legends form new band, call it Chickenfoot

2009-06-29T17:16:00.000+04:00

(CHICKENFOOT, HAGAR, SMITH, CHART, WE`RE, CHILI, PEPPERS)

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters) - Some of the biggest names in rock have banded together to form a new supergroup. They call it Chickenfoot, a name they readily admit is "silly."
While the name may not be to everyone`s taste, Van Halen veterans Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani rose high in the U.S. charts with their eponymous debut album this month.
"We called ourselves Chickenfoot as a kind of a joke, and people started digging it, and so Chad`s going, `Let`s start a real band`," Hagar said during a boisterous interview with the band in London, where they performed during a European tour.
"Joe had a band called the Squares -- all of a sudden Chickenfoot sounded like a really good name," Hagar joked.
Hagar and Anthony used to jam together at Hagar`s club in Mexico, and when Smith joined them, they gelled. Smith, who still plays for the Chili Peppers, suggested forming a group, and Satriani was invited as the final piece in the jigsaw.
The four members of Chickenfoot have sold tens of millions of records and played thousands of gigs between them over the years, but the childlike enthusiasm for their latest venture comes from starting all over again.
"We`re a new band, even though we`ve got names, we`ve all been in other bands," Hagar told Reuters. "So we have to kind of let the world know who Chickenfoot is, I think."
Bass player Anthony added that he took exception to the term "supergroup."
"For me, when I hear the name supergroup I think of some pre-fab type of thing ... If the chemistry is not there you can be the best musicians, best players there are, it`s not going to come out the way I think this came out.
"This was born out of friendship, it was more organic in that sense."
The band has played a series of small gigs in the United States before flying to Europe for a tour, and returns to North America winding up its travels at the end of September.
"We`re a new band and when you`re a new band you start and play clubs and you play to your fans," said Smith. "We`re not playing stuff from Van Halen, or Joe, or Chili Peppers, we`re just playing Chickenfoot."
CHART SUCCESS
Chickenfoot`s debut album, released earlier in June, opened at No. 4 in the U.S. pop chart and No. 1 in the independent music chart. It maintained its position in the main chart the following week before slipping to No. 7 in the latest list.
"It`s the first time I`ve ever been up in that territory, above the clouds," said Satriani, who is embroiled in a copyright infringement suit with British band Coldplay over its hit single "Viva La Vida." Continued...
Original article

Downturn creates more working mothers in Asia

2009-06-29T12:35:00.000+04:00

(WOMEN, THEIR, FAMILY, MOTHER, HARISH, CHILDREN, SURVEY)

By Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - The economic crisis is turning more Asian women into CFOs, or chief family officers, according to a new survey, juggling work and childcare as they try to boost the family income.
Three in four people in Asia believe women are capable of juggling work and family successfully, the massive survey of 33,000 people in 16 countries showed.
Asian women have long been part of the region`s workforce, but the global economic downturn has made having a job a necessity for most, according to the "Eye on Asia" poll by global marketing communications firm Grey Group.
"This, however, has put a lot of pressure on many women, who in addition to having a career, must also take on the role of chief family officer," Charu Harish, regional communications planning director for Grey Group Asia Pacific, told Reuters.
"Because of the traditional attitudes, women feel they must be the picture-perfect wife, mother and employee, which puts them in an unfair, and little recognized, position."
According to the survey, one of the largest snapshots of opinions and trends in the region, nearly 90 percent said it was necessary for mothers to work to contribute to the family income, especially in the current economic climate.
The same survey found that a majority -- 86 percent -- of Asia Pacific respondents worry about their finances and were saving for the future.
Over three-quarters believed women were capable of doing both -- taking care of the family and having a job at the same time -- even though, given a choice, many mothers would prefer to stay at home and watch their children grow up, Harish said.
Some 81 percent of mothers surveyed said they felt so busy these days that they did not spend enough time with their children, which Harish said, led to many mums over-indulging their children to assuage their guilt.
This was particularly the case in the fast-paced economies of Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, but less so in developing countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam.
"In many ways, women have evolved, while many men still maintain a traditional attitude and do not acknowledge that they need to take part in the child-minding and running the house," Harish said.
Overall, nearly two-thirds of Asians said they felt society supported working mothers, which, in many cases, meant grandparents taking care of the children.
Harish said that while this was the most convenient child-care solution, it was creating tension in families due to the generational gap. "The older generations believe in stronger discipline, while the parents tend to be more liberal, and their children even more so," she explained.
The survey polled 33,000 people in 16 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. For more details click on www.greyeyeon.asia
(Editing by Valerie Lee)
Original article

Politics bars Dead Sea from World Wonders contest

2009-06-28T18:55:00.000+04:00

By Douglas Hamilton and Ali Sawafta
JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) - The Dead Sea will be eliminated next week from a contest to choose the seven natural wonders of the world, because of a Palestinian boycott over the participation of an Israeli settler council.
Its almost certain exclusion from a competition which it had good chances of winning underline how the bitter politics of the Middle East conflict permeates every aspect of Palestinian life, no matter how harmless or even beneficial it may seem.
The New 7 Wonders of Nature is a global Internet contest under the slogan: "If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it." In 2007 it chose the new seven man-made wonders of the world.
Its rules state that if a nominee site is located in more than one country, all countries in which it is located must form an Official Supporting Committee (OSC) by July 7.
Israel and Jordan have both done so for the Dead Sea, which they share, but the Palestinian Authority has decided against.
For the Dead Sea, a win would highlight the environmental threat to a unique lake which has shrunk dramatically in the past 30 years due to human exploitation of the Jordan River feed waters and Dead Sea mineral extraction.
"We will not be forming a committee," Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Douaibes told Reuters, because the Israeli committee "has been consulting with settler councilmen on occupied land and this contravenes international law."
"Therefore, we are not interested in the issue," she said reflecting a view that renders the contest and its potential benefits insignificant next to the Palestinians` long struggle against Jewish settlers in their midst.
LAST-MINUTE REVERSAL?
Jordanian officials declined comment. But sources in Amman said the contest had become politicized, in that it could be exploited by Israel to gloss over the settlement issue, on which Jordan sympathizes with the Palestinians.
Unless there is a last-minute rethink by the Palestinians, the decision means the famously buoyant lake at the lowest point on Earth cannot advance to the next stage of the contest.
That is when Internet voters worldwide narrow down the field of 261 to 77, from which the final shortlist of 21 will be chosen ahead of the final vote in 2011, in which N7W predicts one billion electronic votes will be cast.
Jordan benefited handsomely after the ancient ruins at Petra were voted a man-made Wonder of the World in 2007. Visits to Petra have more than doubled since it won the contest.
Live rankings on the contest website www.new7wonders.com list 7 "nature" categories, including islands, mountains, forests and seascapes. The Kalahari Desert, the Galapagos Islands and Lake Titicaca are among current favorites.
"New7Wonders completely understands that political sensitivities about involved settler communities around the Dead Sea may be causing concerns among the Palestinian authorities here, although they have not directly communicated this to us," spokeswoman Tia Viering told Reuters on Sunday. Continued...
Original article

"One, two, three...": Queen orders count of swans

2009-06-28T14:03:00.000+04:00

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Quiet please -- Queen Elizabeth is preparing to have her swans counted.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the annual Swan Upping, a tradition dating back to the 12th century which involves a census of the swan population on the River Thames, will be conducted by the queen`s official Swan Marker from July 20-24.
"With the assistance of the Queen`s Swan Warden, Professor Christopher Perrins of the University of Oxford, the swans and young cygnets are also assessed for any signs of injury or disease," Buckingham Palace said in announcing the count.
The process involves the Swan Marker, David Barber, rowing up the Thames for five days with the Swan Warden in traditional skiffs while wearing special scarlet uniforms and counting, weighing and measuring swans and cygnets.
It may seem eccentric, but it is very important to the queen.
According to custom, Britain`s sovereign owns all unmarked, mute swans in open water, but the queen now exercises the right only on stretches of the Thames and its nearby tributaries.
In medieval times, the Swan Marker would not only travel up the river counting the swans, but would catch as many as possible as they were sought-after for banquets and feasts.
This year, the Swan Marker and the Swan Warden are particularly keen to discover how much damage is being caused to swans and cygnets by attacks from dogs and from discarded fishing tackle.
It is also an important year because the Queen has decided to join her team of Swan Uppers for part of the census.
She will follow them up the river and visit a local school project on the whole subject of swans, cygnets and the Thames.
"Education and conservation are essential to the role of Swan Upping and the involvement of school children is always a rewarding experience," Buckingham Palace said.
(Reporting by Luke Baker)
Original article

Moon-lovers remember Apollo with radio chit-chat

2009-06-28T09:11:00.000+04:00

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Radio hams and amateur astronomers around the world spent the weekend bouncing radio conversations off the Moon to one another in commemoration of the Apollo 11 landings 40 years ago, organizers in Australia said Sunday.
Although they had some clear and extensive conversations, they had to be patient. It takes around 2.5 seconds for a radio signal to reach the Moon and bounce back to another part of the Earth, so it took around five seconds to get a reply.
Initiated a few months ago by science buffs in Australia and the United States, `Moonbounce` was just winding up on Sunday Australian time after a 24-hour special event that organizers hope will become annual.
It brought together hundreds of amateur radio hams around the world, event co-founder Robert Brand told Reuters, some armed with their own radio dishes.
It was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary next month of the Apollo 11 landings on July 20, 1969. But as the Moon does not orbit directly around the Earth`s equator, this was the nearest weekend organizers could arrange for practical reasons.
Among those taking part was Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, one of the first men to orbit around the Moon, who took a famous photograph of Earth from space now known as "Earthrise."
While most were amateurs, institutions lent equipment to the event, including a 26-meter dish at Mount Pleasant in Tasmania and a 45-meter dish at Stanford University in the United States.
"The signals go up from these dishes in a tight beam to the Moon. They actually hit the ground and at an atomic level `shake` all the atoms on the surface of the Moon," said Brand.
"It is still taking place as we speak."
Around 1,000 people around the world are thought to have the kind of equipment to do this kind of messaging and Brand, who as a 17-year-old played a minor role in the Apollo missions by helping install telecommunications installations used by NASA in Australia, said the results were remarkably clear.
There was "very little difference quality-wise" to some common radios, he said.
Original article

Pastor defends video of exorcism of gay man

2009-06-27T01:13:00.000+04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A U.S. pastor defended a video posted on YouTube of an exorcism of a gay man, saying the Manifested Glory Ministries church does not hate gay people, it just does not believe in their lifestyle.
The video, which has sparked outrage among gay rights advocates, shows a young man writhing around on the floor at the Stamford, Connecticut, church.
The video, which was taken six or seven months ago, has been removed from the website. It is not clear who posted it.
Pastor Patricia McKinney said the man told the church "he did not want to live this way."
"Every Sunday we call people up to the altar who want to be delivered from any spirit that causes them to not be able to function," she told the CNN television network. "We were just beginning to worship the Lord and all of a sudden he hit the floor."
She described the unnamed man as very religious and spiritual.
"Manifested Glory Ministries is not against homosexuality. We do not hate them. We do not come up against them. We do just not believe in their lifestyle," McKinney explained.
One expert said he understood the man`s situation because he went through the same experience.
"(The Manifested Glory Ministries) were acting out of ignorance by equating homosexuality to demon possession," Rev. Roland Stringfellow, of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry of Berkeley, California, told Reuters in an interview.
Stringfellow said he was exorcised twice at a different church when he asked for help to deal with his own homosexuality.
"This young man who obviously went for help ended up being damaged I believe," he said. "I am concerned about the emotional and spiritual scars he has. I felt what they were doing was casting not a demon out, but casting shame."
The uproar over the video coincides with gay pride week, marking the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City`s Greenwich Village that triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement. The annual march through Manhattan is set for Sunday.
A push for gay marriage to be legalized has gathered momentum around the United States and is already allowed Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa. Gay couples will be allowed to marry in Vermont starting in September and New Hampshire in January.
Some states provide for same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage. Forty-two U.S. states explicitly prohibit gay marriage, including 29 with constitutional amendments, according to Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Patricia Reaney)
Original article

Portugal village worth its salt with the tourists

2009-06-26T20:36:00.000+04:00

By Andrei Khalip
SALINAS, Portugal (Reuters Life!) - Shoveling drying salt in a pit under scorching sun while tourists and fellow villagers drink beer and look on from above may sound like a miserable experience, but not in Salinas, Portugal.
The presence of tourists in the cafes on the ancient wall above the salt pit in this tiny Portuguese village some 100 km (62.14 miles) north of Portugal`s capital Lisbon is more than welcome and causes no consternation.
"One thing works with the other. Without tourism, the salt business would probably collapse, and vice versa," said Casimiro Froes Ferreira, 82, and the head of the Salinas cooperative.
The village has been extracting salt since at least 1170, when the local ruler sold part of the pit to the Knights Templar -- the first known record of Salinas.
In the middle of a pool in the salt pit lies a deep well of water heavily laden with salt -- Portugal`s only natural saltworks. The water is pumped to shallow cells in the pool where it dries up over a few days, leaving a layer of salt.
"We work seven days a week between May and October when the weather is good and when salt needs to be dried and removed -- practically the same way our ancestors did. After work everyone just joins the crowd in the bars overhead," Froes Ferreira said.
Most of the village`s old salt depots and stores -- made entirely of wood, including door locks to avoid corrosion from salt -- have been transformed into souvenir shops and bars, where one can try a local cheese baked in salt.
Even the local bikers club is headquartered in such a hut.
"It`s really cool, it`s kind of like one of those medieval fairs, but you know it`s for real, and the people are real," said Eliza Castro from Lisbon, who stopped in Salinas with her two children for a meal and some sightseeing after visiting the ancient castle of Obidos nearby.
Some larger, newer depots are also made of wood, as cement and metals are easily corroded by the mineral.
Maria Luisa Santos Dias, 74, who like most workers here is a member of the cooperative and owns a plot in the huge 28,000 square meter (301,400 sq ft) pit, swaps periods of work in the sun with rest in the diner. Here she grabs a snack, chats to neighbors and helpfully provides directions to visitors.
"I feel good here in the pit, I started at seven in the morning today, before anyone got here," said the woman, who is wearing heavy rubber shoes to protect her feet from salt. "I married a salter many years back and got to liking this work." Her son, Jose Antonio, 37, and 16-year-old granddaughter Ines often work alongside her.
"When I was six I started coming here and played with a wooden shovel. I`m no longer a little girl, but I still like coming here to work," said Ines, who is a student.
The cooperative was formed in 1979 after a crisis caused by growing imports, which nearly killed off the salt industry in Salinas and put an end to small private salt depots.
Although hardly prospering, it now makes ends meet thanks to its "all-natural" salt production, including manual collection and cleaning, which have attracted eco-conscious consumers in Germany. Only a small part of the work is done with the help of machinery, mainly lifting the salt from the pit. Continued...
Original article

World mourns Michael Jackson, hails "heir to Elvis"

2009-06-26T20:11:00.000+04:00

By Bob Tourtellotte and Mike Collett-White
LOS ANGELES/LONDON (Reuters) - Michael Jackson`s death dominated news bulletins, radio airwaves and social networking sites the world over on Friday as tributes poured in for a man called the "King of Pop" and "natural heir to Elvis."
The 50-year-old, whose towering musical legacy was tarnished by often bizarre behavior and sex scandals, was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. PDT (2126 GMT) on Thursday after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest.
"King of pop is dead. Black day for music," was the simple message left by "johnyvergosa" on the Twitter messaging site, where Jackson accounted for four of the five top topics. Actress Farrah Fawcett, who also died on Thursday, was the fifth.
Other online contributors expressed disbelief at the suddenness of Jackson`s death, less than three weeks before he was due to launch a series of comeback concerts in London.
The singer`s lasting appeal, despite life as a virtual recluse since his acquittal of child abuse charges at a 2005 trial, was underlined when 750,000 fans of all ages snapped up tickets for the sellout gigs.
From "Thriller" to "Billie Jean" and "Rock With You" to "The Way You Make Me Feel," Jackson`s hits filled the airwaves.
Local politics and global affairs were bumped off the front pages of newspapers, trading rooms were abuzz with the news and entertainment websites saw a surge in traffic.
"The King of Pop is Dead" read the main headline of Britain`s Independent newspaper, below a full-page portrait.
Rina Masaoka, a 21-year-old college student in Japan, said: "This will probably be as shocking as Princess Diana`s death."
Ray Cordeiro, an octogenarian radio disc jockey in Hong Kong who has been on air for around half a century, called Jackson "a genius" and a "legend in our lifetime."
Former Beatle Paul McCartney said in a statement: "It`s so sad and shocking. I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael. He was a massively talented boy man with a gentle soul. His music will be remembered forever."
FLAWED GENIUS
Commentators reflecting on Jackson`s life focused on his flaws as well as his global fame and musical flair.
"Broken and broke: the child star haunted by fame and scandal" read a profile in the Guardian newspaper, which called him "the natural successor to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley."
Jackson sold an estimated 750 million records, a figure that is likely to rise with the expected posthumous re-release of his hits. "Thriller," which came out in 1982, remains the best-selling album of all time. Continued...
Original article

Sri Lanka arrests astrologer over political prediction

2009-06-26T19:59:00.000+04:00

By Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO (Reuters) - A popular Sri Lankan astrologer was unable to foresee his own arrest after his family said on Friday he had been taken into custody by police for making an unfavorable political prediction against the president.
The police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested astrologer Chandrasiri Bandara after he predicted political changes unfavorable to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a meeting of the main opposition United National Party.
"He is being questioned over a political statement he made," police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said, without elaborating.
Given that many Sri Lankans give credence to astrological predictions, astrologers can play a role in influencing decisions at the voting booth and have done so in the past.
Sri Lankans from all walks of life follow astrology very closely, and politicians frequently consult personal astrologers to help them decide the most auspicious day, hour and minute to do anything from facing elections to assuming office.
Bandara writes a popular astrology column, hosts TV and radio shows discussing horoscopes and gives private readings for a fee.
"He has been questioned for the last three days and he was taken into custody by the CID," a family member told Reuters, asking not to be named out of fear of reprisal.
Rajapaksa`s opponents say his administration has been intolerant of criticism, and has not stopped assaults and murders of journalists critical of his government. Rajapaksa has vowed to catch those responsible.
This week, a coalition of media and rights groups urged him to reconsider a decision to reinstate the long-unused Press Council, which has the power to jail and fine journalists.
"A media culture cannot be based on slapping charges against journalists, fining them or sending them to jail," the group said in a statement.
The government said the move was made on a parliamentary committee recommendation that it should be reinstated since the council`s staff and office rent was still being paid despite the fact it was doing no work.
"It was a directive by a parliamentary committee which some opposition members are also on," said A. Dissanayake, secretary of the Ministry of Mass Media and Information.
Sri Lanka has a decades-long history of violence against journalists, with killings, abductions and assaults being carried out and the perpetrators rarely being captured.
Dozens of journalists have fled Sri Lanka after receiving threats by unidentified groups since the end of the 25-year war against the Tamil Tiger separatists last month.
Security officials have warned they will arrest and prosecute for treason journalists they say have been on the Tigers` payroll in the last few years of the war.
(Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
Original article

Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Jakarta for history buffs

2009-06-26T17:49:00.000+04:00

By Jennifer Henderson
JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - Got 48 hours to explore the history of Jakarta? Reuters correspondents with local knowledge help visitors with a penchant for the past enjoy Indonesia`s bustling capital.
FRIDAY
6 p.m. - Step back in time to 1800s Indonesia at Bunga Rampai Restaurant, Menteng. Let your tastebuds tingle with some spicy nasi buketan -- pandan-flavored rice, served with meat, shredded omelet and chilli -- as you dine in elegant, white surroundings reminiscent of the Dutch colonial period.
SATURDAY
5 a.m. - Start early to escape the morning rush hour, and head north to Kota or Old Jakarta, the original settlement from which the modern city grew. Ensure you have one-thousand rupiah (10 U.S. cent) notes as most of the museums charge a small fee.
5.30 a.m. - Head to the docks to watch the sunrise over the Javenese sea at Sunda Kelapa. The 500-year-old port, and the village around it, once served as a trading point between the Portuguese and Hindu Kingdom of Pajajaran, it was later used by the Dutch. Tours are available from the tourist hut on the dock.
7 a.m.- For the very adventurous, try to eat at one of the local warungs or food stalls east of the dock.
8 a.m. - Take a bicycle taxi or `sepeda ontel` to the nearby Pasar Ikan fish market. Even though the auction is long over (it takes place at 3 a.m.), it is still bustling with activity.
9 a.m.- Stroll to the old spice warehouse nearby that is now the Maritime Museum. Typical of many of Jakarta`s museums, the buildings are not always in the best of repair and there is little direction for tourists, but this adds to the adventure, as you climb creaky dusty wooden staircases. Climb the harbor watchman tower near the museum for a bird`s-eye view, and see the large Dutch East Indies Company logo still visible on buildings.
10 a.m.- Head to Fatahillah square, and the many museums there. The fastest way to beat the traffic is by motorbike taxi (ojek) or a noisy three-wheeled "bajaj."
11 a.m.- Watch a traditional performance at the Wayang Museum, on the site of an old Dutch building on the square. Wayang puppets are an integral part of Indonesian culture and the museum has an extensive collection from across the archipelago.
12 p.m. - Lunch is but a stroll away at the adjacent Batavia Cafe. The old teak wood furniture and sweeping 1920s decor give the cafe a relaxed, breezy atmosphere. The 19th century building was re-opened in 1993.
1 p.m.- Lock yourself in the cramped prison cells at the bottom of the Jakarta History Museum. The museum in the former city hall of Batavia, now Jakarta, is home to grand rooms filled with antique furniture, such as a ceiling-high glass fronted filing cabinet and dining tables once laden with colonial feasts.
2 p.m.- One of the better-kept museums is the Fine Art and Ceramics Museum across the street from Taman Fatahillah.
3.30 p.m.- Discover the hidden Candra Naya, a Chinese mansion enclosed in the shell of an apartment block under construction and which was saved from the developers. Continued...
Original article

Henry VIII`s flagship secures new hi-tech home

2009-06-26T14:47:00.000+04:00

By Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - King Henry VIII`s flagship the Mary Rose, a Tudor time capsule likened to a British Pompeii, has won crucial funding for a hi-tech museum to house the fabled warship and its previously unseen treasures.
One of the first vessels capable of firing a broadside, it went down in the Solent in 1545 during an engagement with the French fleet, with the loss of more than 400 crew.
The sinking is thought to have been an accident, but exactly what happened has vexed British naval historians for years.
Did the ship capsize during a sharp turn when water entered the open gun ports? Was there a fatal lack of understanding between the English officers and the largely foreign crew?
The vessel was spectacularly raised from its watery grave in front of a global audience of some 60 million people in 1982.
What remains of the hull has been on public view behind glass ever since, along with a selection of perfectly preserved artifacts at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on England`s southern coast.
It is the only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world, according to the Mary Rose Trust.
Now the Trust has secured 21 million pounds ($35 million) from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the body which distributes a share of the income from Britain`s national lottery to heritage projects.
The money will go toward conservation and to the 35 million-pound planned museum which will display all the 19,000 finds raised with the ship.
"When better to celebrate than during the month which marks the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII`s accession? We think he would have been delighted," said Trust chief executive John Lippiett.
The new museum will resemble a finely crafted, wooden jewelry box, clad in timber planks invoking the structure of the original ship, its designers say.
Some of the money will also be used to continue spraying the hull with a special water-based wax preservative -- polyethylene glycol -- until 2011 before it is carefully dried for full open-air display in 2016.
Funding for the museum, which should open in time for the 2012 Olympic Games, was coincidentally announced 500 years to the day since Henry was crowned in 1509.
Items recovered from the wreck site and which will be on permanent display include Tudor tankards, wooden and pewter plates, nit combs, longbows and arrows, musical instruments and even bleeding bowls.
These were used to collect blood during bloodletting -- a practice once carried out to treat a wide range of diseases and medical conditions. Continued...
Original article

Toyota chief`s dilemma: to race or not to race

2009-06-26T14:35:00.000+04:00

By Chang-Ran Kim, Asia autos correspondent
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor, wants speedy reforms at the world`s biggest carmaker but many want him out of the fast lane.
Toyoda, 53, is an ardent racing fan who last month took part in the 24-hour endurance race on Germany`s notoriously dangerous Nurburgring track for the third consecutive year.
Asked if he would continue to race, putting his safety at risk, the head of Japan`s biggest company wouldn`t give a conclusive answer, but revealed his passion for speed.
"The folks here are pleading with me to stop," Toyoda said, motioning toward his deputies who were at a news conference on Thursday where he sketched out plans for Toyota to become a leaner and more focused carmaker.
"But there`s a reason why I participate in these races. First, it`s because it`s Nurburgring. Second, it`s 24 hours. And third, it has a lot to do with the development of cars."
"Put another way, you can say that I`m staking my life to come up with a better product," he said.
Toyoda, who has said he wants to be a president "closest to the front lines," went on to describe the smooth tracks he`s driven on in Japan and the demanding surface of Nurburgring.
Toyoda took over the helm of the company his grandfather established 71 years ago earlier this week.
As an amateur racer in a competition comprised mostly of professionals, Toyoda said he was experiencing driving from a standpoint "closest to a regular customer."
Toyoda, who races under the pseudonym "Morizo" on the Gazoo Racing team, had related similar thoughts in a blog he writes under the same name on www.Gazoo.com, the Toyota-operated marketing website he helped set up.
In a 2007 entry, Morizo -- whose identity is only ostensibly anonymous -- writes about running into Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez, who was also at Nurburgring to race despite strong objections from his staff.
"It`s because there`s someone like this at the top that the company can come up with an emotional sports car like the Vantage. That was the feeling I got as an employee at a carmaker," Morizo wrote on the Japanese-language blog.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Original article

Travel Picks: World`s 10 most legendary bars

2009-06-26T12:58:00.000+04:00

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Bars, pubs, and taverns of the world can hold as much history as any museum and present as much drama as any theater.
Members and editors of travel website VirtualTourist.com (www.virtualtourist.com) have come up with a list of the world`s 10 most legendary bars. This list is not endorsed by Reuters.
"Generally speaking, bars aren`t the first stop on most tourists` lists of places to see, but when you learn about the people they inspired and the events for which they were the backdrop, they become incredibly culturally significant," said VirtualTourist.com`s General manager Giampiero Ambrosi.
1. Harry`s Bar; Venice, Italy
Since opening in 1931, Harry`s Bar has been frequented by famous people such as Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Noel Coward, Orson Wells, Charlie Chaplin, and Peggy Guggenheim. The bar also claims credit for inventing the Bellini and Carpaccio.
2. The Blind Beggar; London, England
The Blind Beggar in Whitechapel, built in 1894, is known as the site on which The Salvation Army started but became even more notorious when, in 1966, London gangster Ronnie Kray shot rival George Cornell as he sat at the bar.
3. White Horse Tavern; New York City, New York
A favorite of New York`s literati set, The White Horse has seen everyone from Jack Kerouac to Norman Mailer pass through its doors but is perhaps best known as being the bar that served the 18 whiskeys said to have killed Dylan Thomas.
4. Garota de Ipanema; Rio de Janerio, Brazil
When a fifteen-year-old girl made a stroll past the Veloso bar part of her daily walk to the beach, legend has it she inspired two song-writing patrons to pen possibly the most famous bossa nova tune in history -- "The Girl from Ipanema." Not surprisingly, the bar`s owners made the wise decision to capitalize on the success by re-naming the business.
5. The Pub; Valletta, Malta
The walls of this simple bar are covered in pictures, newspaper clippings, and impromptu tributes to British actor Oliver Reed who was said to have died just after consuming vast amounts of alcohol there while on location for the movie "Gladiator." A sign outside the bar reads "Ollie`s Last Pub."
6. Heinolds` First and Last Chance Bar; Oakland, California
The slanted floors and stopped clock in Jack London`s favorite haunt are a result of the devastating 1906 earthquake that virtually leveled nearby San Francisco. A 10-year-old London is said to have used the bar as a place to study, planting himself at tables still used by the bar today.
7. Long Bar; Raffles Hotel, Singapore Continued...
Original article

U.S. pastor defends video of exorcism of gay man

2009-06-26T03:23:00.000+04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - A U.S. pastor defended a video posted on YouTube of an exorcism of a gay man, saying the Manifested Glory Ministries church does not hate gay people, it just does not believe in their lifestyle.
The video, which has sparked outrage among gay rights advocates, shows a young man writhing around on the floor at the Stamford, Connecticut church.
The video, which was taken six or seven months ago, has been removed from the website. It is not clear who posted it.
Pastor Patricia McKinney said the man told the church "he did not want to live this way."
"Every Sunday we call people up to the altar who want to be delivered from any spirit that causes them to not be able to function," she told the CNN television network. "We were just beginning to worship the Lord and all of a sudden he hit the floor."
She described the unnamed man as very religious and spiritual.
"Manifested Glory Ministries is not against homosexuality. We do not hate them. We do not come up against them. We do just not believe in their lifestyle," McKinney explained.
A spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said he understood the man`s situation because he went through the same experience.
"(The Manifested Glory Ministries) were acting out of ignorance by equating homosexuality to demon possession," Rev. Roland Stringfellow, of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Berkeley, California, told Reuters in an interview.
Stringfellow said he was exorcised twice at a different church when he asked for help to deal with his own homosexuality.
"This young man who obviously went for help ended up being damaged I believe," he said. "I am concerned about the emotional and spiritual scars he has. I felt what they were doing was casting not a demon out, but casting shame."
The uproar over the video coincides with gay pride week, marking the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City`s Greenwich Village that triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement. The annual march through Manhattan is set for Sunday.
A push for gay marriage to be legalized has gathered momentum around the United States and is already allowed Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa. Gay couples will be allowed to marry in Vermont starting in September and New Hampshire in January.
Some states provide for same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage. Forty-two U.S. states explicitly prohibit gay marriage, including 29 with constitutional amendments, according to Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Patricia Reaney)
Original article

UNESCO strips Dresden of World Heritage site title

2009-06-26T02:35:00.000+04:00

By Sarah Marsh
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany`s picturesque Dresden Elbe Valley was formally dropped as a U.N. World Heritage site Thursday, making it only the second landmark ever to be removed from the prestigious list.
The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said it de-listed Dresden after a three-year battle -- for ignoring objections and building a four-lane motorway bridge over the river that would irreversibly damage the landscape.
"Every time we fail to preserve a site we share the pain," said Maria Jesus San Segundo, chair of the session of the World Heritage Committee that met in Seville, Spain, in a statement on its website (www.www.33whc.sevilla2009.es/de).
Dresden was awarded the title of World Heritage site in 2004 for its valley of 18th and 19th century landscape that extends 18 km (11 miles) along the Elbe. It includes central Dresden, baroque palaces and gardens.
"We`ve got to accept this decision with regret," said Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz.
The city, once dubbed the Florence of northern Europe for its architectural jewels, was reduced to ruins by Allied bombing raids near the end of World War Two.
Since the restoration of many monuments to their former glory, including the landmark Frauenkirche in 2005, the capital of Saxony has drawn visitors from far and wide.
UNESCO warned German authorities in 2006 it would de-list Dresden Elbe Valley unless plans to build the bridge in the middle of the heritage zone were scrapped.
The German government even intervened, offering Dresden federal aid to build a tunnel under the river to avoid the threatened de-listing.
"It`s more than regrettable that the two sides weren`t able to find a compromise," said German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann. "The federal government did everything it could to find a solution."
But local authorities, backed by strong local support in a referendum, allowed work to go ahead on the Waldschloesschen Bridge at the end of 2007. The bridge is now half finished and expected to be completed by 2010.
UNESCO has only removed one other site -- a wildlife sanctuary in Oman -- from the World Heritage List, which includes cultural landmarks such as the Great Wall of China and the leaning Tower of Pisa.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
Original article

Cambridge eyes anti-war poet Sassoon`s archives

2009-06-25T23:45:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T23:21:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T22:57:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T20:08:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T19:44:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T19:19:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T16:30:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T16:06:00.000+04:00

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"

2009-06-25T14:54:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T14:29:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T13:41:00.000+04:00

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)
Original article

Asians say cheers to Sotheby`s wine auctions

2009-06-25T13:17:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T12:53:00.000+04:00

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...
Original article

Tate show takes wry look at habits of collecting

2009-06-25T12:29:00.000+04:00

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)
Original article

Plot thickens for versatile Serena

2009-06-25T12:05:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T11:41:00.000+04:00

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)
Original article

Book Talk: Journey back in time with Jake Arnott

2009-06-25T11:17:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T10:52:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T10:28:00.000+04:00

By 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

2009-06-25T10:04:00.000+04:00

TAIPEI (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

2009-06-25T07:13:00.001+04:00

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

2009-06-25T07:13:00.000+04:00

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

2009-06-25T05:13:00.003+04:00

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

2009-06-25T05:13:00.002+04:00

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

2009-06-25T05:13:00.001+04:00

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

2009-06-25T05:13:00.000+04:00

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

Survey reveals infidelity best kept off the mobile

2009-06-24T13:13:00.000+04:00

By 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)

Source: Reuters

Asians worry about money, but still indulge

2009-06-24T11:13:00.000+04:00

By Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Times are tough these days and money is a worry, but many Asians believe the best way to weather the global economic crisis is to indulge in little luxuries, according to a new regional survey.
The economic downturn started a long way away from Asia, but it has caused 86 percent of people in the world's most populous region to worry about their finances, and spurred 80 percent to save for the future, according to the annual "Eye on Asia" survey, by global marketing communications firm Grey Group.
But 82 percent of respondents also believe that indulgence was the best way to beat the stress of modern life, and that spending time with family, short holidays, spa sessions and small luxury items were among their favorite ways to relax.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents said life should contain as many luxuries as possible.
"There's no more taking a month off and spending it at a luxury resort," Charu Harish, regional communications planning director for Grey Group Asia Pacific, told Reuters.
"People are looking for as many little luxuries as possible to beat the stress, and that involves more short breaks, most likely with the family, and a bigger focus on luxury."
The survey is one of the largest snapshots of opinions and trends in Asia, polling more than 33,000 people from 16 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
While the poll found that an overall 76 percent of Asians were optimistic about the future and some 40 percent believe their household finances will improve in the next year, the regional averages did not reflect discrepancies between developed and developing countries -- or nations that have been hit badly, and not so badly, by the credit crisis.
While nearly 40 percent of Asians polled said they were less content than a year ago, Harish said people from India, China and Vietnam were the most likely to shrug off the downturn, while respondents from the more developed Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Japan were the least positive about the future.
"But what this shows is that Asia, overall, remains a huge opportunity for marketers," she explained.
"People here are not as skeptical as in the West, nor as negative. Asians are keen for more fun," she said, adding the survey showed 90 percent wished their life had more fun.
The survey, which also looked at shopping habits in the downturn, divided the Asians polled into five retail "tribes." Nearly a quarter said they sought value-for-money products now, while just over a fifth, especially in China and India, want new brands, variety and a distinctive retail experience.
The least number -- 16 percent -- put function first.
Not surprisingly, 90 percent of the new-brand seekers regard shopping as therapy, closely followed by status-seekers who want their goods to reflect their wealth and social standing.
"People overall are being more choosy on what they spend on, as they are saving for the future," Harish said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Zurich tops Copenhagen as most livable city: index

2009-06-24T07:14:00.002+04:00

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Switzerland's financial capital, Zurich, has beaten Copenhagen to take top place in an annual index of the world's top 25 most livable cities.
In its third annual quality of life index, London-based global affairs magazine Monocle found that the Swiss city was the number one urban location to call home, pushing last year's winner Copenhagen into second place.
Tokyo came in third place while Munich -- which topped the first index in 2007 -- fell to fourth position, followed by Helsinki.
Rounding out the top 10 were Stockholm, Vienna, Paris, Melbourne and Berlin.
Monocle editor-in-chief Tyler Brule said it was a tight race, and admitted Zurich did not jump ahead for its nightlife.
"I think people need to remember that this is a quality of life survey. This is not a survey about the sexiest city or the best business hub in the world, or the world's cultural centers. This is about true livability," he told Reuters Television.
He said the index was based on a number of measures, including investment in public transport, public safety, health, education, and the number of cinema screens in a city.
"We also look at the relationship a city has with its small and medium-size enterprises and Zurich scores incredibly high across all of those areas," he said.
Brule said it was forward-looking investment in Zurich's transportation infrastructure that ultimately pushed it to the top of the 2009 index -- and a relative scarcity of chain stores was also a mark in its favor.
In a 2009 survey of the cities with the best quality of life conducted by management consultancy Mercer, Zurich came second in the list, behind Vienna and ahead of Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland.
However in a list of "most livable cities" by the Economist magazine's Intelligence Unit, Vancouver takes top slot with Zurich coming in ninth.
(Reporting by Matt Cowan, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Source: Reuters

A few extra pounds can add years to your life: study

2009-06-24T07:14:00.001+04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Carrying a little extra weight may actually be good for you, according to a Canadian study that showed a few pounds appear to protect people from an early death.
Researchers found that while underweight and extremely obese people die earlier than people of a normal weight, people who are slightly overweight actually live longer than those of a normal weight.
The findings of the new study were published online in the journal Obesity by researchers at Statistics Canada, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University, and McGill University.
"It's not surprising that extreme underweight and extreme obesity increase the risk of dying, but it is surprising that carrying a little extra weight may give people a longevity advantage," researcher David Feeny from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research said in a statement.
But fellow researcher Mark Kaplan, professor of Community Health at Portland State University, said while a few extra pounds may protect older people as their health declines, that did not mean people of normal weight should try to add bulk.
"Our study only looked at mortality, not at quality of life, and there are many negative health consequences associated with obesity, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes," said Kaplan.
The study was based on examining the relationship between body mass index and death among 11,326 adults in Canada over a 12-year period using data from the National Population Health Survey.
During the study period, from 1994/1995 through 2006/2007, underweight people were 70 percent more likely than people of normal weight to die, and extremely obese people were 36 percent more likely to die.
But overweight individuals were 17 percent less likely to die. The relative risk for obese people was nearly the same as for people of normal weight.
The researchers said this was the first large Canadian study to show that people who are overweight may actually live longer than those of normal weight. An earlier study, conducted in the United States and published in 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed similar results.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

Relics of old Afghanistan reveal Jewish past

2009-06-24T07:14:00.000+04:00

By Golnar Motevalli
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Behind a parade of old mud brick shops, through narrow winding alleys, a tiny door opens onto a sundrenched courtyard, where school children giggle and play alongside the ghosts of Afghanistan's Jewish past.
The Yu Aw is one of four synagogues in the old quarter of Herat city in west Afghanistan, which after decades of abandonment and neglect, has been restored to provide desperately-needed space for an infant school.
When Israel was founded in 1948, the estimated 280 Jewish families that lived in Herat began leaving. Today, there are no Jews left in the city and only one left in the entire country, the last remnant of a community that dates back some 2,500 years.
"Before this was a community center and school it was a synagogue for the Jewish families who lived in the area," said Fatemeh Nezary, a teacher and supervisor of the school.
"The children don't know, they are too young to understand right now," she said, pointing toward her small class of doe-eyed five-year old girls and boys.
The Herat synagogue, over a century old, is comprised of a modest stone courtyard framed by a series of small rooms including a main prayer room which still has a raised platform where the torah would have been read.
Parts of the prayer room's high ceilings are decorated in painted Persian-style floral patterns and motifs.
The "mikvah," an echoey underground chamber underneath the courtyard, has also been restored. Decades of rubbish was gutted from its cavity to reveal a natural pool of water which is thought to have been used for bathing rituals.
"Wherever possible we try and put back the elements. We can't put back what we don't find, some of the buildings have been stripped," said Jolyon Leslie, a South African architect who leads restoration projects in Herat's old city on behalf of the Agha Khan Trust for Culture.
"What we're trying to do is protect as many old historical monuments as possible. Whether it's a mosque whether it's an ex-synagogue like this or whether it's a hamam, to try and put them in public use," Leslie said.
"It's important that Heratis understand for future generations that this was a very rich society in the sense of its religious diversity and it's pluralism," he added.
Where Jewish prayers once rang out, now Afghan children chant nursery rhymes. The platform where the torah would have been read is left undisturbed to bask in warm sunshine which floods through wide, arched bay windows.
"There's a huge shortage of classes in this part of the city and some 60,000 people (here) and some 20,000 of those are children ... we really wanted to invest both in protecting the historic monument but also in having a new use," Leslie said.
"It's a mixture of conservation and social development."
Three other synagogues in the same neighborhood are being renovated. Two will also be used as schools for children living in the neighborhood. The third is now a mosque for the residents who live in a cluster of simple, centuries-old abodes. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Pop culture items fetch high prices at NY auction

2009-06-24T03:13:00.000+04:00

By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Sgt. Pepper's souvenir poster signed by the four Beatles sold for $52,500 at a Christie's auction of pop culture memorabilia on Tuesday, along with an array of rock, punk and grunge-era items that fetched strong prices.
The sale of some 300 items, from handwritten Bob Dylan lyrics to actor Bob Crane's leather jacket from the 1960s television comedy "Hogan's Heroes" took in a total of $650,863, including the auction house's commission.
Some 70 percent of the offerings found buyers, Christie's said.
Items from grunge and early punk rock days did especially well, said Simeon Lipman, Christie's head of pop culture.
Kurt Cobain's Sears bass guitar sold for $43,750, while a classic black leather motorcycle jacket signed by members of Nirvana and Soundgarden fetched $12,500, more than half again its high pre-sale estimate.
A pair of AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott's handwritten lyric notebooks from the late 1970s was bid up to $35,000.
"With memorabilia, nostalgia really drives the prices. Even in an unstable economy you'll see peaks for certain pieces," said Lipman, who cited Crane's jacket, which sold for $40,000 or twice its high estimate, as an example.
Offbeat items also fetched high prices, like a five-pair set of handcuffs and keys owned by escape artist Harry Houdini which sold for $25,000.
The prop scissorhands used by actor Johnny Depp in the film "Edward Scissorhands" went for $16,250, while Marlon Brando's signed "Godfather" script fetched $10,625.
Handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan from "With God on Our Side" sold for $25,000.
Despite the five-figure prices, there were bargains as well. A full outfit consisting of leather blazer, shirt, trousers, belt, shoes and glasses worn by actor Peter Dinklage in the 2007 film "Death at a Funeral" sold for just $25.

Source: Reuters

Murray trails Federer in fashion stakes

2009-06-23T23:13:00.000+04:00

By Miles Evans
LONDON (Reuters) - Andy Murray may be snapping at Roger Federer's heels in the world rankings but the Briton still has a good deal to learn from the Swiss maestro when it comes to making an eye-catching entrance.
Federer was the talk of the opening day at Wimbledon on Monday with his military-style jacket and slacks which had the British press comparing him to anything from an extra on Miami Vice to a backing singer for a mediocre eighties tribute band.
Murray, seeking to end Britain's 73-year wait since Fred Perry won the men's singles title, proved a far more sheepish clothes horse for his grand entry on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old made his eagerly awaited arrival on Center Court for his first-round match against Robert Kendrick sporting the latest kit from the sponsor that bears Perry's name, a sleek tracksuit-style top with a white-collared T-shirt and shorts.
An awkward wave to all corners of the crowd, third-seed Murray then quickly removed his top and began to focus on his tricky opening encounter against the American.
LITTLE SURPRISE
Ever since the aloof Scot hit the public eye, he has been a shade uncomfortable in the limelight and it comes as little surprise that he looked slightly ill at ease on the plush green turf-cum-catwalk.
Murray struck you as the kind of schoolboy who ruffled his hair the moment he left the barbers, the roguish youth who untucked his shirt once out of sight of his home.
It is a sign of his meteoric rise in the game, though, that his reluctance to engage in the commercial aspects of the sport have clearly diminished.
However, Murray would gladly trade all the retro T-shirts in the world for the chance to emulate Perry and succeed him as a home champion of the world's biggest tournament on July 5.

Source: Reuters

Pre-Raphaelites back with London show

2009-06-23T21:13:00.004+04:00

By Mike Collett-White
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Victorian art is making a comeback in London this summer with a major exhibition, and the biggest retrospective to date, of works by John William Waterhouse, who died in 1917.
The exhibition at the Royal Academy, which runs from June 27 to September 13, is seen by critics as the latest step in a broader movement to re-establish the reputation of Waterhouse and the genre he is most closely associated with -- the Pre-Raphaelites.
"After years in the wilderness, the Pre-Raphaelites are again in the spotlight, and quite rightly," wrote Franny Moyle in Britain's Telegraph newspaper.
Waterhouse was born in Rome to British parents in 1849, and the same year the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood -- William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- delivered their manifesto challenging the "official" art promoted by the Royal Academy.
Waterhouse inherited their taste for Tennyson, Keats and Shakespeare, and the escapist, dreamlike quality of his works was also common to the school, perhaps most famously represented by Millais' ghostly "Ophelia."
But he also developed an interest in classical mythology through Homer and Ovid, whose works he interpreted in his eerie, atmospheric paintings, and his brushwork had moved away from the meticulous realism of the original Pre-Raphaelites.
STRIVING TO BE NOTICED
From early in his career, Waterhouse was striving to be noticed in a crowded arena.
His choice of subjects from ancient history, for example, including "The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius" or "St. Eulalia" from the 1880s, was seen as a bold choice.
Although in the tradition of great painters, it was not particularly popular with the art establishment at the time.
"So Waterhouse is doing something quite daring -- he's measuring himself up against the great painters (of the Renaissance)," said co-curator Elizabeth Prettejohn.
His St. Eulalia, depicting a 12-year-old Christian girl martyred in Roman Spain in the 4th century, was a theme more closely associated with French painting than British.
"This is a very unusual thing to find at the Royal Academy," said Prettejohn. "He gets maximum impact out of it."
With the help of the Academy and its shows, Waterhouse's reputation grew and by the 1880s he was at the center of the British art establishment.
His works also became increasingly preoccupied with mystical, powerful female figures ranging from nymphs to mermaids to the Lady of Shalott. Continued...
Source: Reuters

French wine courts India and China

2009-06-23T21:13:00.003+04:00

By Marcel Michelson
BORDEAUX (Reuters Life!) - Caught napping by a consumer crisis after a series of record years, the French wine trade is lusting after the potentially huge markets of China and India as an outlet for Old World wine sales.
But this may not prevent a restructuring of the cozy grand family-oriented traditional wine industry with its myriad of chateaux still on show at the opening day of the twice-a-year Vinexpo world wine and spirits industry fair.
While such European winemakers are eager to export their wares to China, where sales are still small but growing fast, Chinese capital appears keener on buying into Bordeaux.
That message was clear from the announcement that Hong Kong firm A&A International was taking a majority stake in Chateau Richelieu in Fronsac.
Fronsac is a well-known French wine area which does not carry the same reputation as Medoc, but includes such wines as Pauillac, Margeaux, Saint-Estephe and others.
The current owner is former Dutch airline pilot Arjen Pen. For the "in-crowd' of the Bordelais wine families, Chateau Richelieu, one of the eldest, had already fallen into foreign hands and was no longer in the ownership of a "dynasty."
But then many of the local dynasties have had foreign infusions, be it in blood or capital, as the Rothschild families or the Suntory group can testify.
Simon Bradford, export director at traders Ballade & Meneret said the crisis will cut Bordeaux prices down to a level that will make them attractive to more consumers, but might also be the final, impassable obstacle for houses with shaky finances.
"It is not a big disaster for the Bordeaux sector, but for some houses with stretched finances it could be the last straw," he told Reuters.
The top names in Bordeaux and Burgundy, and in Italy or Spain for that matter, will be able to weather the storm. But smaller firms in the lower price ranges have found an urgent need to associate themselves with partners and underline their "unique selling point" in a world that is awash with wine.
There were many examples present at the Vinexpo fair, where the number of visitors was noticeably lower than in 2007, such as the Alienors grouping of 12 female wine growers.
With unity comes strength and shared costs, even though they produce different wines. At a group tasting there were several Chinese professionals interested in, for example, the Entre-Deux Mers white wine from Veronique Barthe.
"No. no, I do not give discounts for big volume, I produce for quality not for volume," she told a potential female Chinese buyer, while drinks were poured for the assembled visitors. "And no, I cannot give you exclusivity for all of the mainland."
Another way to catch the eye of the buyers is by playing the sustainable development card such as the Val d'Orbieu brand which is based in Narbonne in southern France.
"We wanted to act now and not wait until the climate changes are irreversible, and it applies to all what we do," export director Roland Olvers said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Milan shows colorful, firm spring man

2009-06-23T21:13:00.002+04:00

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
MILAN (Reuters) - From soft suits to sporty leisure wear, designers at Milan's fashion week sought more to reassure rather than provoke with easy, familiar styles and vibrant colors for men next spring.
The trend at the spring/summer 2010 menswear shows -- which ended on Tuesday -- was for a mix of tailoring and dressed down, with roomy bags and sportswear shoes evoking a travel theme.
A neat and firm silhouette was evident -- shoulders were defined, while waists and trousers were slim at Gianfranco Ferre and Roberto Cavalli. Bottega Veneta had V-shape trousers -- full on top and narrow below -- with crisp shirts and jackets.
Trousers, usually slim, were to the ankle.
As the warm season brings out more skin, several top names made sure to show off men's bodies -- with revealing vests at Cavalli and open tops tucked into tiny tight swimming trunks at Dolce & Gabbana, also seen at Versace.
Not known as one to go with trends, Miuccia Prada cut out the color seen elsewhere and stuck to greys, black and white for an urban collection shown against a monochrome backdrop.
Prada presented knit waistcoats or armless buttoned gilets over armless collarless shifts of shirts. Tops, some in a flexible wetlook fabric, had holes. Trousers with tiny black and white checks or tweed-like narrowed at the ankle.
"I wanted it to be contemporary, wearable," she said.
The theme was also urban at Emporio Armani -- for which designer Giorgio Armani got a standing ovation from some of the crowd. Armani, looking to city connections, presented suits in cool shades of grey with a fitted cut and defined shoulders and trousers with small darts at the front and turn-ups.
"It is city smart but also comfortable," Armani said in show notes. He also turned to Asia with jackets in techno mesh and put in dabs of orange on jackets, fleeces and accessories.
For his Giorgio Armani line, he went for classicism -- suits were chequered or striped, shirts had oversized patterns.
HERE COME THE MEN IN WHITE
Armani also put out white suits with sky blue patterned tops. White was also evident at Salvatore Ferragamo and Ferre which had a "free and easy yet ever impeccable mood."
Versace and Gucci, whose mood was "resolutely optimistic," started their shows with men dressed in white or pale creams.
Versace also showed comfort with unbuttoned tunics and safari-like jackets, also seen at Ermenegildo Zegna and Ferre which had sparkly tops underneath. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Mallmann grills the Argentine way

2009-06-23T21:13:00.001+04:00

By Nick Zieminski
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - If you're going to grill the Argentine way, it helps to have a hunger for meat, a big wood fire, and plenty of open space.
Patagonia will do.
Argentine chef Francis Mallmann, who runs three highly-regarded restaurants in Argentina and Uruguay, was raised in the Patagonia region and credits its culture and style for inspiring his cooking.
His television show airs across Latin America, and he may launch a program for U.S. audiences to help fight a trend toward overly complicated recipes.
Mallmann, who spoke with Reuters this month, aims to inspire American cooks with the simple, unpretentious food in his new cookbook, "Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way."
Q: Yours may be the only cookbook to include a recipe for grilling an entire cow. Who is your audience?
A: "The idea was to adapt all the Argentine ways of cooking into a home, where you can do these things in the backyard or a kitchen even if you don't want to light a fire. You can still achieve good things on a stove, the burned orange with rosemary, burned tomato with oregano, the smashed beet with the goat cheese and garlic chips. You can't do the cow inside."
Q: What defines Argentine cooking?
A: "It has to do with our culture, our idiosyncrasies. We are a bleeding country, economically, socially, but there is a huge beauty in that adversity. That struggle makes you creative. That goes into cooking, into tango, into soccer."
Q: Why is it often important to burn the food a little?
A: "I like the taste of burned. In some things it works really well, like with tomatoes or oranges. Lamb is good slightly charred. I don't believe in harmony when you eat, I like contrasts. Charred meat has that bite, but there's a boundary, it can't be black."
Q: You say in the book food shouldn't be too pretty. Why?
A: "I believe that you cook, and when it's ready you just put in on the plate. Don't touch it, don't move it around. Cooking is a craft, it's not an art. I don't believe in decoration. (On my TV show) I only cook outside in beautiful places with fires and it's very simple. I do it to fight this trend in the world of cooking of complicated recipes. I just have a couple of eggs in my pocket and I chop an onion on my knee and cook something on a stick."
Q: Is cooking never an art?
A: "Never. The only reason to eat and drink well is to have better conversations with peers. It's arrogant to think that cooking is an art. It shouldn't be like going to a cathedral." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Speed dating... for winemakers

2009-06-23T21:13:00.000+04:00

By Leslie Gevirtz
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - There was the promise of passion, finesse, elegance - and that was just the wine.
"What do you want to try first?" asked Pierre-Jean Sauvion at a speed-dating French winemakers' event.
In a tone that was almost as seductive and playful as his Muscadet, Sauvion, 31, declared, "I am a pleasure maker. I don't make blends. I make marriage. I'm a winemaker from the Loire."
Like speed-dating French winemakers were given 30 minutes to promote themselves. But instead of assessing a potential life partner, the winemakers tried to impress some of the top U.S. wine writers with their latest vintages at a French restaurant.
Sauvion, the manager and chief winemaker at his family's vineyards, compared his job to that of a chef.
"I'm like that. I choose the grapes I want, the methods that I use, to make the wines that I want. And I want my wines to give pleasure to everyone who drinks them," he said.
He offered his Sauvion Muscadet Sevre et Maine 2007 explaining that when he made this wine of Melon de Bourgogne grapes, he had in mind two people sitting on a terrace on a sunny afternoon.
"This wine is perfect for that. It is round, but not huge and it is fresh and fruity and I make this wine because I want to introduce myself. To get the conversation going," Sauvion said.
Before quickly moving on to the next person, he poured what some would call his signature wine - Sauvion Haute Culture - Chateau du Cleray 2007, Muscadet Sevre et Maine sur lie. It is also 100 percent Melon de Bourgogne, but the difference between the two is astounding.
The wine spends six months on the lees - dead yeast particles - that give the crisp wine complexity, structure, and the aromas of a flower-filled garden.
"The lees feed the wine. They also give it a fizziness when you first taste it. It makes you feel happy ... and we keep the wines on the lees because the yeast prevents oxidation and keeps the wine fresh," he said.
Next up was Vincent Cruege, the 44-year-old winemaker in charge of Andre Lurton's white wines from the Pessac-Leognan appellation of Bordeaux.
Though both men come from winemaking families their styles couldn't be more different.
While Sauvion concentrates on single varietals, Cruege is a matchmaker -- someone who marries Semillon with Sauvignon Blanc and a bit of Muscadet to capture what could be called Andre Lurton's trademark white: Chateau Bonnet Blanc, 2008.
"When you drink this wine you are in the meadow, the smell of white flowers just fills the nose. You can drink the sunshine," he said, unscrewing the top. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Nibble your Nibchoc guilt free

2009-06-23T19:13:00.001+04:00

By Eleanor McCausland
OXFORD (Reuters Life!) - A new business in Oxford claims to have found a healthy alternative to the sugar- and dairy-laden chocolate bars often blamed for contributing to a growing obesity crisis in the wealthy Western world.
Nibchoc, a cacao bar marketed as "more than chocolate, without the guilt" is designed in a way that retains the nutritious properties of cacao that are lost in commercial dairy chocolate-making.
Its inventor, Rachel Niblock, was inspired to create the product after working in the NHS.
"My background always involved thinking holistically about what people need," she said. "One of the things which really concerned me was the 'healthy' claim of some products that actually contained a lot of refined sugar and fats, and didn't taste very nice. I don't want to have a healthy product that tastes rubbish."
Nibchoc is designed to provide a satisfying "chocolate hit" without any of the additives found in chocolate. It is made with cacao nibs, from the fruit of the Theobroma Cacao tree, which in their raw state contain over 300 chemical compounds that render them highly nutritious.
However, this nutritional power is diluted in the manufacture of chocolate, which adds dairy and refined sugars.
Nibchoc preserves the benefits of the cacao nib by using healthier alternatives. The bars are sweetened with agave nectar, a low-GI naturally occurring sweetener, and bound together with coconut oil, which has been found to promote the formation of so-called 'good cholesterol' in the body. Because of these natural sugars, most of Nibchoc's products are suitable for diabetics, vegans and coeliacs.
After experimenting with raw cacao in her own kitchen, making bars and wrapping them in cling film, Niblock began selling it to small delis around Oxford. Eight months ago, she left her job to work at Nibchoc full time.
"I've needed every single minute of the day, it's been very busy," she said. "Mail order is really starting to grow. We've sent out to Europe as a result of people being in Oxford having picked up a bar."
The business is expanding rapidly, mainly through appearing at farmers' markets throughout Britain and through mail order from the Nibchoc website: www.nibchoc.com .
All the ingredients used in Nibchoc are organic where available, and the cacao nibs are high-quality imports from Ecuador.
"We know that what we're using is the best we're able to use," Niblock said. "We've had several chocolatiers tasting the cacao nib and saying it's a very good one."
Nibchoc is currently available in nine flavors, including ginger, chilli and coffee. Niblock is working on a healthy alternative to chocolate spread that can also be used in cooking.
"We're always coming up with new ideas. We always want to be open to feedback, because that's the most important part. Nibchoc has grown because of people's ideas, and that's been our biggest motivation," she said.
She hopes that Nibchoc will appeal to all ages as a replacement for chocolate and high-sugar snack foods. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Pre-Raphaelites return with new London show

2009-06-23T19:13:00.000+04:00

Heirs race to find Nazi-looted art

2009-06-23T17:13:00.002+04:00

By Sarah Marsh
VIENNA (Reuters) - Eighty-one-year old Thomas Selldorff, who fled Austria with his family before it was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, hopes an upcoming international conference will bolster efforts to return Nazi-looted art.
The Nazi's seized over 200 artworks owned by his grandfather, an avid art collector, as part of a policy of seizing Jewish property. So far, Selldorff has been able to retrieve only two of the lost paintings.
"I want to be able to pass these things on to my family ... I want them to have the link and an appreciation for some of the things my grandfather was involved with," said Selldorff, who lives in the United States and wants to exhibit the altar pieces by Austrian baroque artist Kremser Schmidt in a museum.
Some 65 years after World War Two, experts say thousands of artworks confiscated by the Nazis, including masterpieces by art nouveau master Gustav Klimt and expressionist Egon Schiele, still need to be restituted to their rightful owners.
Government officials from around 49 countries, dozens of non-governmental groups and Jewish representatives will meet in Prague this week to review current practices. They are likely to sign a new agreement to step up restitution efforts.
Some participants hope the conference will lead to the creation of a central body responsible for publishing updates on countries' progress, which could prompt them to do more.
The task of restituting Nazi-looted works is an epic one. The Nazis formed a bureaucracy devoted to looting and they plundered a total of 650,000 art and religious objects from Jews and other victims, the Jewish Claims Conference estimates.
Artworks were auctioned off, handed over to national museums or top Nazi officials, or stashed away for a Fuehrer museum Adolf Hitler was planning to build in the Austrian town of Linz, where he spent a part of his youth.
"This is one way that Jews were made to pay for their own elimination," said art restitution expert Sophie Lillie.
At the end of World War Two, some works were returned but many continued to circulate on the international art market or stayed put in museums, and it was only in the 1990s that there was a new burst of Holocaust restitution.
PATCHY RECORD
Austria is considered among the leaders of art restitution efforts, putting its larger neighbor Germany to shame. The Alpine Republic in 1998 passed a law governing art restitution and has since returned over 10,000 artworks.
"There are a handful of countries that have achieved a lot," said Anne Webber, co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, citing Austria, Holland and Britain.
Austria's Belvedere Gallery has had to restitute 10 paintings by Gustav Klimt, including two portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which are among the artist's most famous works.
"Most countries have not even undertaken the work which was endorsed in Washington in 1998," said Webber, referring to the non-binding Washington Principles agreed by 44 countries in 1998 as the framework for returning looted art. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Wyclef Jean stands in for Lauryn Hill at Montreux

2009-06-23T17:13:00.001+04:00

By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - Haitian-born rap star Wyclef Jean will stand in at the Montreux Jazz Festival for Lauryn Hill, who has canceled her European bookings, organisers said on Tuesday.
Organisers scrambled to replace the American Grammy-winner, who has already canceled tour dates in Japan. "Europe now has to face the disappointment of missing out on the fantastic Lauryn Hill," the festival said in a statement.
"We were told she was cancelling her European tour," Montreux festival spokeswoman Pauline Lalondrelle told Reuters.
Wyclef founded the hip-hop group Fugees along with Hill and Pras Michel. They recorded the 1996 Grammy-winning album "The Score," which sold some 17 million copies worldwide.
He takes the stage at Stravinski Auditorium on July 11 after an homage to American civil rights activist, soul singer and songwriter Nina Simone, featuring Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo.
"His new album, which features Akon and TI, is set for release this autumn and we can expect many of the songs to be debuted on July 11th," the statement said.
New Yorker Eric Lewis aka ELEW, whom it called "a slightly mad pianist with an equally astounding amount of technical and improvisional talent," will be playing the same night next-door at the famed Miles Davis Hall, followed by bass virtuosos trio SMV: Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten.
"Chances of the night ending in a jam session are very strong," it said.
Chaka Khan has also booked a return engagement on July 6, teaming up with George Duke's trio for a jazz concert at Miles Davis Hall, according to the statement. The Black Eyed Peas remain booked that night at Stravinski Auditorium.
More than 1,000 musicians are to perform at the 43rd annual festival along Lake Geneva, one of Europe's most prestigious summer music events, between July 3-18.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: Reuters

Dog-loving Japan baying for canine blood donors

2009-06-23T17:13:00.000+04:00

By Chris Meyers
KAWASAKI, Japan (Reuters Life!) - One of Japan's largest animal medical centres is calling on blood donors of a different breed to help provide dogs with top-notch care.
Japan is a canine-crazy nation, with more than 6 million dogs registered as pets. Many provide company for the growing number of elderly people or sometimes replace children in a nation with one of the world's lowest birth-rates.
Many people expect their dogs, like themselves, to live to a ripe old age, and that means more blood is needed for the rise in the number of surgeries that often accompany growing older.
"Due to both the increase in number and elderly population of animals, there has been an increase in medical complications," said Hiroyuki Ogawa, executive director of the Japan Animal Referral Medical Center in Kawasaki, on the outskirts of Tokyo.
"The most common use of transfusions is for blood loss, but the amount we use for cancer treatments has also increased."
Many dog owners in Japan have no qualms about spending a small fortune on their pet's health, but dog blood donation drives are rare, and complicated for many reasons.
There is no animal equivalent of the human blood bank in Japan, so hospitals and clinics must sort out any blood required for surgery beforehand.
Canine blood can only be stored for up to a month, after which it has to be thrown out, and each dog can only donate twice a year. Bigger dogs are also preferred over smaller ones because the average amount of blood they are asked to donate is about 200 ml (7 fl oz). There are 13 blood types too, which means there is a need for a variety of donors.
"There's no recognized blood bank, and as such, we can't stockpile blood. It is allowed for individual hospitals to conduct their own donation drives. But they cannot re-sell or redistribute that blood," Ogawa said.
To help raise awareness about the issue, the Japan Animal Referral Medical Center has enlisted the help of pet grooming salons and training centres.
And there's also a perk -- once dogs donate, they get a free blood checkup, which can detect possible diseases early.
Some veterinarians say before dog blood donations can be widely accepted, clinics will need to educate pet owners about the system and also explain that donations are safe.
Tokyo resident Yuka Torihama spends about $1,500 a year on healthcare for her two dogs, but like many other pet owners, had never taken her pets in to donate blood, mainly because she didn't know she could.
"I'm willing to donate my dog's blood as long as the donation system is safe. It's just that a lot of pet owners still don't know about the system and therefore, are sceptical about it," said Torihama. "Though I think it's extremely important, you never know when your dog might be in need of blood."
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

HK school helps young drug addicts kick the habit

2009-06-23T13:16:00.000+04:00

By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters Life!) - Ng Ka-chun was 13 when friends in Hong Kong introduced him to marijuana, psychotropic drugs and then ecstasy. But his world changed a year later, after he was sent to a school and drug rehabilitation center.
"I remember thinking it (marijuana) wasn't any different from a cigarette and then I tried ecstasy and ketamine. It was the same logic, they were quite the same as marijuana, they seemed less serious than heroin," said Ng, who was caught stealing.
Apart from learning to play the piano and guitar at the Christian Zheng Sheng College, he is now adept at handling audio-visual equipment and hopes to finish secondary school.
"I will be here for another two years to finish my secondary school and serve the rest of my probation ... I will study as much as I can, I want to be a trainer, outward bound teacher."
The use of psychotropic drugs has soared in Hong Kong in recent years with social workers and academics encountering addicts as young as nine years of age.
The spartan Zheng Sheng College stands alone on a small hilly island in Hong Kong. There are only eight toilets for its 120 students and a small shed serves as a canteen, classroom and study area at different times of the day.
Its principal Alman Chan, who is fighting to get a bigger premise for his students, believes that education is the only way to get young people back on track.
"We have so many young people involved in drugs in Hong Kong. They have to be educated ... schooling gives them a chance at life, empowering them, reconnecting them with society. Schooling creates a new status, they are students, not inmates," Chan said.
Some of Chan's students get to finish secondary school and some obtain accountancy qualifications, which means they can find jobs afterwards.
PEER PRESSURE, AIMLESSNESS
There were 8,306 reported psychotropic drug users in 2008 in Hong Kong, up from 6,335 in 2005. Most of them primarily abuse ketamine, an animal tranquilizer that is produced illegally in China and Hong Kong.
The social problem gained prominence in recent weeks after groups of students were found dazed and unconscious at beaches and in parks. According to local newspapers, 20 percent of Hong Kong's more than 500 secondary schools had sought help on how to manage students with drug problems.
Experts have offered a host of reasons to explain Hong Kong's worsening drug addiction problem, from their easy availability to aimlessness among the young and peer pressure.
"My schoolmates gave it (ketamine) to me. I did it to socialise with my friends," said Kwan Wang-yuen, who had his first encounter with drugs when he was just 12.
Now a student at Zheng Sheng, 14-year-old Kwan hopes to finish school and take up a pastoral vocation later on. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Bangalore restaurants offer expats a taste of home

2009-06-23T13:15:00.000+04:00

By Ajay Kamalakaran
BANGALORE (Reuters Life!) - Fancy sushi or kimchi? How about some central Asian kebabs or borsch? Many foreigners in India's information technology capital Bangalore now find it easier to get a taste of home.
With a burgeoning population of resident foreigners, several restaurants, run by expatriates, have recently opened in the city to sate the appetite of the homesick.
"Our restaurant is especially popular during Korean festivals and when it's a Korean person's birthday," says Eam Hie Yong, the Korean owner of Korean restaurant Soo Ra Sang.
Eam, who came to Bangalore to do a doctoral degree, estimates the Korean community in the city to number around 1,000.
Besides serving the pickled and peppered cabbage that is kimchi, traditional noodle soups and an array of grilled food -- with all the necessary side dishes -- Soo Ra Sang also has a karaoke bar, where a mix of students, missionaries and businessmen belt out popular Korean and Western songs.
"I love the spicy biriyanis you get in Bangalore but it's hard to go without Korean food for long," says Kim Min Jung, a yoga student from Busan and a regular customer.
For Bangalore resident Tatiana Shahmatova, Rolls United Cafe is the place to go, and take Indian friends, for a taste of her home country Russia.
"Bangaloreans don't know how diverse Russian cuisine actually is," says Shahmatova, who works as a technical writer in a multinational company. "For me, it's nice to occasionally get a taste of home, living 5,000 kilometres away."
Elena Bannerjee, who hails from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, runs Rolls United Cafe. She says the restaurant caters to the Bangalore's growing appetite for foreign cuisines, but admits that it's the Russians residents -- and the Indians who studied in Russia -- that keep her in business.
"A large section of our clientele are home-sick Russians who craving for blinis, Russian salads and pelmenis," says Bannerjee, who is married to an Indian.
In addition to the pelmenis, or steamed meat dumplings, the restaurant also serves central Asian specialties such as shashlik, skewered lamb kebabs, and golubsti, or cabbage rolls.
Harima, a restaurant owned by Osaka-native Hiroshi Sujimoto, is the popular haunt of the city's Japanese business community.
The restaurant, which has a tatami room, serves traditional food such as fermented soybeans to go with the sake, ramen noodles, sushi, tempura and miso soup.
Sayaka Natsui, a freelance writer who has been living in Bangalore for over three years, says she often brings visiting friends and relatives to the restaurant.
She believes the familiar taste and presentation of the food along with the Japanese-style interiors, tend to calm her guests and offer a respite from the chaos outside.
"I am so used to the sounds, smells and color of India that I couldn't live without it... but when friends visit, the culture shock can be overbearing," Natsui says.

Source: Reuters

Martin Luther King books, sermons to be published again

2009-06-23T09:14:00.000+04:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Out-of-print books and writings by Martin Luther King will be brought back onto the shelves from next year under a deal between a U.S. publisher and the African-American civil right leader's family.
Beacon Press said it will print new editions of previously published King titles and compile his writings, sermons, orations, lectures, and prayers into new editions with introductions by scholars in a series called "The King Legacy."
King, who pioneered efforts to deliver racial equality through civil disobedience and other non-violent means, was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, aged 39.
"His vision and his message are more essential than ever in a world where, despite great gains, the global aspects of the radical inequities Dr. King devoted his life to exposing and addressing are all too apparent," said Helene Atwan, director of independent publisher Beacon Press, in a statement.
King's youngest son, Dexter Scott King, representing the Nobel Peace Prize winner's estate, said Boston-based Beacon Press would be the dedicated public outlet for his father's work.
"(This) will help bring his urgently needed teachings of nonviolence and human dignity, and his dream of freedom and equality to a new global audience," King said in a statement.
The first titles in the series will be published on the Martin Luther King holiday in the United States in January next year when he would have turned 80, with the Beacon Press planning on publishing two to three new works each year.
The first books to be republished after being unavailable since the 1990s will be:
* "Stride Toward Freedom," about the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 that opposed racial segregation on the public transit system and that was first published in 1958.
* "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?," King's last book published in 1967 in which he analyzed the state of American race relations and the movement after a decade of U.S. civil rights struggles.
* "Trumpet of Conscience," five lectures delivered by King in November and December 1967.
* "Strength of Love" a collection of his sermons delivered in the late 1950s and 1960s that was published in 1963.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source: Reuters

Rolls-Royce devotees undeterred by recession

2009-06-23T05:17:00.000+04:00

By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Grim economy be damned. How glum can you be when surrounded by stately, polished automobile royalty?
There's little to celebrate elsewhere in the car world. On top of that, U.S. stocks are still languishing and the country's jobless rate is at a 26-year high.
But the mood was buoyant at the Rolls-Royce Owners Club, where some 500 members of the U.S.-based club, which also welcomes Bentley enthusiasts, tended their Silver Ghosts and Phantom Vs at the Louisiana Superdome on Saturday.
Judges surveyed rows of gleaming automobiles -- some of them almost a century old. Members sipped champagne and kept their expensive chariots free of fingerprints and dust.
Julius Cohn of White Plains, New York, has spent a fortune restoring and maintaining his 1952 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn.
"Only 111 of these were made in the left-hand driving type, with a stick shift," Cohn boasted.
Some of the vehicles on display are valued at more than $1 million, but Cohn said pricetags are irrelevant.
"We hope enough people imbue in their children the appreciation of nice things that these cars will always be preserved," he said.
Cohn and others have poured thousands into the vehicles.
Rolls owner Hamilton Dixon of Rome, Georgia, said he once spent $250,000 restoring a Phantom V that he later sold for $95,000. "It costs way more to restore it than what you get for it," Dixon said with a chuckle.
Dixon and his wife, Jane, brought a pristine 1954 Silver Wraith, James Young touring limousine to this year's show.
"It's the same model used for years by the Queen of England," Dixon said. His wife likes to ride in the limousine's plush back seat so she can mimic Queen Elizabeth's genteel wave, he said.
DOLDRUMS IN AUTOS WORLD
The opulence on display contrasted with the doldrums that have hit the autos world -- Chrysler and General Motors collapsed into bankruptcy in the last two months -- amid the global recession, including in the market for new luxury vehicles.
Luxury car manufacturers like Rolls-Royce, owned by Germany's BMW, prospered in the last decade as easy credit prompted U.S. consumers to go on a buying spree that many in the industry thought would last for years. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Asians snap up fine wine in soft auction market

2009-06-23T05:15:00.000+04:00

By Leslie Gevirtz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Asia is saving the fine wine auction market.
Asian buyers bought the three highest grossing lots at Christie's June 6 auction in South Hampton, New York, including spending $16,900 for a 12-bottle case of 1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild.
And at Sotheby's New York auction, it was an Asian collector who bought a case of 1990 Le Pin for $48,400, more than double its pre-sale estimate of $12,000 to $20,000.
Jeff Zacharia, president of Zachys auction house, viewed the wine auction market as "an early indicator that the worst is over. The prices seem to have bottomed out at the beginning of the year and now there seems to be an upward momentum."
Zachys' Hong Kong sale saw two cases of 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion, which had been expected to sell for no more than HK$100,000 ($12,900), go under the hammer at HK$114,950. ($14,831).
Prices, which had been off as much as 40 percent in the last half of 2008, are coming back, according to Jamie Ritchie, head of wines at Sotheby's New York.
"They're now down between 20 and 25 percent, so they've recovered a bit. And we're seeing fierce competition in Asia," he said.
American and British collectors were credited with running up Bordeaux prices in the years just prior to the global recession.
But the price plunge in the fine wine market coincided with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and a $750 billion bailout of U.S. banks.
"Distress sales of private collections were evident in the post-Lehman period last year, but have been less prevalent in 2009," said Jack Hibberd, research manager for Liv-Ex, the London-based fine wine exchange.
The worldwide auction market for fine wines, a rarefied sliver of global wine sales, is estimated at roughly $300 million annually by Wine Spectator magazine.
"The market has stabilized and prices continue to creep upward," said Paul Hart, of the Chicago's Hart Davis Hart auction house. HDH's June 9 auction sold all of its lots for $1.9 million, surpassing its pre-sale high estimate of $1.8 million.
"The market has shown increased stability in 2009, with a gradual rise in both prices and trading activity," Hibberd said. "There is certainly little evidence of the sharp price falls we saw toward the back end of last year.
"Whether we have passed the bottom is more difficult to call, however," Hibberd said. The Liv-Ex 100 Fine Wine Index as of the end of May was up 4.5 percent since the beginning of January, but down 17.2 percent from year-ago levels.
Bloomsbury Auctions in New York City, better known for its sales of books and fine art, held its first wine auction on June 19. More than 80 percent of the almost 800 lots on offer sold for a total of $1.35 million. Continued...
Source: Reuters