fun for entertainment

Wayne Rooney Scandal: Did English Soccer Star Cheat on His Pregnant Wife?

2010-09-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Wayne Rooney scandal, day two: A day after Wayne Rooney was accused of cheating on pregnant wife Coleen Rooney with Jennifer Thompson, a high-priced prostitute, the British tabloids are going nuts and Rooney has apparently apologized to Coleen, though word is she’s leaning toward a divorce. Good for her.

The News of the World and Sunday Mirror both claim the English soccer star cheated on his wife seven times in fourth months. And this isn’t the first time he’s publicly humiliated the mother of his son.

Wayne Rooney cheated on Coleen Rooney, his childhood sweetheart, six years ago as well when he admitted to cheating on her with prostitutes. She eventually took him back.

This case immediately brings to mind echoes of Tiger Woods. You have a young athlete who appears to have it all – beautiful wife and family – throwing it away for some cheap thrills on the side.

What is wrong with these athletes? The tabs report that Rooney offered his wife a lukewarm apology but that she’s tossed him out of their house and plans to seek a divorce. Maybe she can talk to Elin Nordegren to get some advice on handling this with grace.

Meanwhile, English football fans are sure to link Rooney’s disappointing performance on the pitch this summer to this latest scandal – he was probably super distracted by covering it up.

Su Mi Ma Sen, Love (2009)

2010-08-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Chie Tanaka comes to Taiwan to study Chinese but is unexpectedly cast as the leading actress in a movie. Wu Huai-chung wants to be a filmmaker but he can only find a part-time projectionist job. Chie runs away from her acting work in Taipei to a southern city Kaohsiung. As soon as she begins her one-day excursion, she finds her purse is lost. Huai-chung helps her by offering her five hundred Taiwan dollars. She refuses first. Huai-chung believes their encounter is pre-destined. But how can he convince Chie that their fates are really crossed? It will take his wits, humors and most importantly his heart to do the magic.

Aka: Dui bu qi wo ai ni
Year: 2009
Directed: Yu-Hsien Lin
Genre: Romance
Runtime: 01:15:10
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin/Japanese
Subtitles: English
Cast: Chie Tanaka, Huai-chung Wu
Imdb: Dui bu qi wo ai ni

Download [TW-Movie] Su Mi Ma Sen, Love (2009) (DVDrip)with English Subtitle:

Movie : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FT2R1QDE
Sub : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OMASQ2C1

Taipei Exchange (2010)

2010-08-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

Taipei Exchanges (第36個故事) directed by first time director Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全) brings us a wonderful movie set in Taipei that explores the theme of the value of things. In a city where capitalism and money dominates daily life the movie imagines an alternative of barter, storytelling and dreaming. The story begins with Doris (Lun-mei Kwai) who opens a cafe with her sister Josie. In the beginning Doris is business minded, while Josie is more idealistic. However the process of trading things not for their monetary value but for their meaning slowly transforms Doris.

Also Known As: Di 36 Ge Gu Shi 第36個故事 (Mandarin Title)
Year: 2010
Country: Taiwan
Director: Ya-chuan Hsiao
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Runtime: 82 min
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English

Download [TW-Movie] Taipei Exchange (2010) With English Subtitles:

Movie: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9KSF2M2U
Sub: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TOVNLYWO

Tears (2009)

2010-08-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

Veteran detective Kuo is in charge of case of drug overdose and death of a young girl. Superiors see it as a textbook crime and urge him to conclude the case, but experience and sense tell Juo otherwise. His investigations lead him to a lively college girl whose innocent appearance is shadowed by an indispensable grudge. And just when Kuo is on the verge of a breakthrough, his own dark past is brought to light…

Also Known As: Yan Lei 眼淚 (Mandarin Title)
Year: 2009
Country: Taiwan
Director: Cheng Wen-Tang
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 111 min
Language: Taiwanese
Subtitles: English [.idx/.sub]
Release Name: Tears.2009.DVDRip.XviD-GAYGAY
Cast: Enno Cheng, Serena Fang, Huang Jian-wei, Tsai Chen-nan, Doris Yeh

Download [TW-Movie] Tears (2009) with English subtitle:

Movie : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TWHROAR1
Sub : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4MQZZ58B

The Heirloom (2005)

2010-08-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, an inexplicable mass suicide occurred in the millionaire Yang household, where the entire clan hanged to their deaths at the exact same hour, place, and height. Only one member survived. To this day, the case remains unsolved.Twenty years later, distant relative James inherits the Yang MANSION, moving in with his girlfriend Yo, a dancer who aspires to study in the U.S. To celebrate the engagement, they invite their friends –Yi-Chen and Ah-Tseng – to their new home and stay the night.

Genre: Horror
Year: 2005
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin
Subtitle: English [Hard-subbed]

Download [TW-Movie] The Heirloom (2005) With English Subtitles:

Movie: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DZU2LDIU

The Most Distant Course (2007)

2010-08-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Parallel journeys of self-discovery lead to an intersecting path as three emotionally damaged souls — a recently jilted sound engineer, a young woman involved with a married man and a divorced psychiatrist — search for love, meaning and belonging. Tz-yi Mo, Lunmei Kwai and Siao-guo Jia portray the forlorn trio in this bittersweet Taiwanese tale directed by Jing-Jie Lin (in his feature-film debut).

Chinese: 最遙遠的距離
Year: 2007
Director: Lin Jing-Jie
Cast: Guey Lun-Mei, Mo Zi-Yi, Jia Xiao-Guo

Download [TW-Movie] The Most Distant Course (2007) with English subtitle:

CD1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IUOGES2J
CD2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y3I5QVHS

Sub: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FHDB0V49

The Treasure Hunter (2009)

2010-08-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

In the northwest desert where countless prosperous dynasties have flourish and fall, there is rumor of a treasure of unbelievable riches buried among it. A group of mysterious guardian have been guarding the map to the location of the treasure until a fierce rivalry erupted. A notorious international crime group, The Company hunted down the map keeper and before they managed to secure the map, the keeper passed the map to a young chivalrous man Ciao Fei (Jay Chou).

Ciao Fei was forced to give up the map to save the live of his mentors daughter Lan Ting (Lin Chi Ling),. Teaming up with Hua Ding Bang (a famous archeologist) and Lan Ting they embark on a dangerous journey to recover the map and fight to protect the ancient treasure.

Cast
Jay Chou as Qiao Fei
Lin Chi-ling as Lan Ting
Eric Tsang as Chop
Chen Daoming as Master Hua
River Chen as Desert Eagle
Will Liu as Friday
Mao Pu As Swords Thirteen
Release: December, 31, 2009
Language: Mandarin
Subtitle : English (.srt) (Not superb quality, but decent enough to understand)

Download [TW-Movie] The Treasure Hunter (2009) (DVDrip)with English Subtitle:

Movie: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9TR60ZIV
SUB: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9RH1OPC5

Yang Yang (2009)

2010-08-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

20 year old student athlete Yang Yang is half-French but doesn’t know a word of French. Her Taiwanese mother marries her track coach and she also gets a new step-sister, fellow studet athlete Xiao-ru. Jealousy and rivalry soon comes between the step-sisters when Xiao-ru’s boyfriend Shawn starts showing affection for Yang Yang.

Year: 2009
Directed: Yu-Chieh Cheng
Genre: Drama, Family
Runtime: 01:51:53
Country: Taiwan
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Cast: Yung-yung Chang, Bryant Chang, Chien-wei Huang

Download [TW-Movie] Yang Yang (2009) (DVDrip) with English Subtitle:

Movie : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7G84SEIL
Sub : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1957B84U

[TW-Movie] Zoom Hunting (2010)

2010-08-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

Taipei, the present day. Fashion photographer Yang Ru-yi, 32, shares an upstairs flat with her sister, crime novelist Yang Ru-xing, 33, in a quiet neighbourhood. By chance, Ru-yi snaps an apartement window opposite, where a man and a woman are making love. Intrigued, Ru-yi does some detective work and discovers they’re both married and having an affaire. Ru-xing, who has writer’s block and is behind deadline on her latest book, uses Ru-yi’s pictures for inspiration, incorporating the story into her novel, Zoom Hunting. But when Ru-yi later thinks the man has been murdered after a lovers’ quarrel, she suspects her sister may be involved in the drama.

Country: Taiwan
Starring: Chang Chun-Ning, Chu Zhu-Ying, Wen Hsen-How, Cho Hen-Ying
Genre: Drama/Mystery
Language: Mandarin
Subtitle: English/Chinese

Download [TW-Movie] Zoom Hunting (2010) with English subtitle :

Movie: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OVZCU7IU
Sub: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PV6AUIP5

India’s Top 10 hot girls

2010-08-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hot favourites of men

Do men daydream about them? Maxim India’s account of Top 100 hot girls is out and Bollywood’s new appearance diva Sonam Kapoor acme it. So alarm it the I Hate Luv Storys aftereffect or the Aisha magic, Bollywood’s airy masakalli has accelerating to be the nation’s fierce, hot chick.
If aftermost year’s champ Bipasha Basu has slid to No. 4 position, the adult Deepika Padukone is awfully bottomward at No. 8. So who accept emerged as the added favourite hotties of Indian men? Don’t accomplish agrarian guesses but apprehend on as we accord you Maxim India’s Hot Top 10, the admirable woman who can accomplish men collapse with their looks, if not accomplish them insane. Kim Kardashian - The ample bairn Kim Kardashian has assuredly the hottest anatomy on earth, and men are beneath her carnal spell. The hottie enjoys the 9th spot. 0Deepika Padukone - The picture-perfect She pleases her admirers with her agreeableness and is at 8th position. Deepika’s sloe eyes, biconcave cheeks and immaculately adusk bark accomplish her aloof picture-perfect.

Deepika Padukone - The picture-perfect She pleases her admirers with her agreeableness and is at 8th position. Deepika’s sloe eyes, biconcave cheeks and immaculately adusk bark accomplish her aloof picture-perfect.

Megan Fox - The bold damsel Indian men affirm by her beauty, the oh-so-sexy Megan Fox rules the hearts as able-bodied as minds. She sizzles at No 5.
Priyanka Chopra - Sexy and single
Thankfully, this siren is still single. Priyanka Chopra, at No. 3, sets the temperature rising with her groovy moves and sensuous looks.

Katrina Kaif - Impeccable hottie Her admirable smile like adolescent sunshine can accomplish men go anemic at the knees. Katrina Kaif’s name is aloof abundant to set the pulses racing. The adorableness is at No. 2. Sonam Kapoor - Flirts with appearance Welcome the new babe in hot army - Sonam is inarguably the flavour of the division and appropriately the numero uno hot girl.

Deepika Padukone-Siddharth Mallya clicked together

2010-08-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Love Is In The Air
The time for speculation is over. Deepika Padukone and Siddharth Mallya are not keeping their budding relationship under cover. Rather, the two are stepping out as frequently as they want to and not shying away from posing for photogs as well. Love is surely in the air for Deepika and the charming son of liquor baron Vijay Mallya. Latest, the two were spotted at Farah Ali Khan’s show at India International Jewellery Week. Deepika looked stunning as she walked the ramp decked up in all those expensive jewels. Siddharth cheered her from the sidelines. The two lovers were later gheraoed by their fans.

Aishwarya Rai smitten with Rajinikanth’s style

2010-08-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

Aishwarya Rai is a big fan of Rajinikanth’s onscreen antics, abnormally of the way he flicks a cigarette in the air. So back she assuredly saw him do that, she couldn’t accept enough.
During the shoot of Endhiran, the extra got a adventitious to see Rajini’s signature stunt. In one of the scenes with Ash back Rajni had to bung the cigarette, she advisedly kept fluffing so that there could be re-takes. That’s how she managed to see the achievement repeatedly.
From what we hear, no one was acquainted of Ash’s antic while the shoot was on. But afterwards she appear to Rajinikanth that she was arena a antic so that she could see what she loves - a cigarette addled by the one and alone Rajinikanth.
What was Rajini’s acknowledgment afterwards that? He started laughing!

Item girl has the hots for Saif Ali Khan

2010-08-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

If applique town’s newest account bairn Kainaat Arora has her way, she would kidnap Saif Ali Khan and booty him to a bare island. But that can’t be. Not because Saif Ali Khan is already ardent with Kareena Kapoor. But because Kainaat is eyeing a full-fledged career in Bollywood and has a lot of stars on her ambition list.
After ambagious to celebrity in the Akshay Kumar-starrer Khatta Meetha, Kainaat has already started accepting offers from directors.
The hot bairn claims she has got adulation for her account song from the brand of Madhur Bhandarkar and Vipul Amrutlal Shah and a south administrator has alike offered her a film.
But Kainaat still can’t abolish her admiration for Saif.
“I acquisition him actual hot. He is aggregate I’d adulation to accept in my man. He is intelligent, chic yet anxious and there lies his sex appeal,” Kainaat is quoted as adage in a media report.
Should Kareena be worried? Not really, because Kainaat additionally has her eyes set on Ranbir Kapoor, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan.

Box office report - Peepli [Live] doing great business

2010-08-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

After an boilerplate alpha on Friday, Peepli [Live] showed a admirable anchor on box appointment over the weekend and became hot favourite of cinema goers who accept aloof one catechism on their tongues: ‘Will Natha die?’. Not alike a abhorrence flick with a animated bikini clad extra could drive abroad the crowds from the flick. Can we say Aamir Khan has angry a magician?

Peepli [Live] witnessed a agitating Rs 15.50 crore approx business over its aboriginal weekend. Considering the film’s budget, its rural affair and absence of any blur star, the collections accept been amazing. The cine has additionally done acceptable business on the across turf. It calm about $700,000 approx, admitting its UK absolution is still awaited.

Other absolution of the Friday, Advice angry out to be a bummer. Alike Mugdha Godse’s bikini act couldn’t advice its bad achievement at the box office. With 25-30% occupancy, the cine already seems a asleep meat.

Sonam Kapoor’s blur Aisha had not-so-bad aboriginal anniversary of Rs 14.50 crore approx. It can accomplish a lifetime business of Rs 20 crore; fair enough. However, the across business of the blur is not great. Its ten days’ business has grossed $300,000 anniversary in North America and UAE while from UK it is £100,000.

Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai has emerged a HIT. Ekta Kapoor won’t apperception activity afresh to Siddhivinayak barefoot. In its additional anniversary the cine is still accomplishing acceptable business. The two-week absolute is now Rs 47 crore approx and as accepted can calmly cantankerous the Rs 55 crore mark.

Bipasha Basu almost smooched by aunty

2010-08-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

Not aloof men, alike women can’t assume to accumulate their easily off Bipasha Basu who has been drooled over, stalked and alike addled by her abounding fans.

An absorbing adventure happened recently. Bipasha was aerial to Bangalore to be at the bells ceremony of her parents. Upon accession in the city, Bipasha was cornered by an aunty who all but smooched the actress.

“Funniest affair happened at BLR airport entrance! One aunty pulled me bottomward about affianced me to smooch me! Somehow I was saved! Near escape!” Bipasha tweeted about the incident.

Funnily, this is not the aboriginal time Bipasha was addled by a changeable fan. A agnate adventure happened in Sri Lanka.

“Sri Lanka for IIFA I was adage accost 2 ppl alfresco d hotel, 1 babe pulled my duke n bit my feel hard! But today's aunty abashed me more!” Bipasha wrote.

Mom upset over Mugdha Godse's bikini

2010-08-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

The hot shots of Mugdha Godse in a white bikini from the accessible blur Help may be accepting a lot of hits on the internet, but they are absolutely not a hit with her mother.

We apprehend that Mugdha’s mother is actual agitated with her daughter’s accommodation to don the two-piece and appearance off her curves to the camera. So abundant so that Mrs. Godse has now chock-full talking to Mugdha.

Mugdha doesn’t apperceive whom to put the accusation on. Agreed that the media has gone a tad abdicate in focussing obsessively on Mugdha’s bikini, but the extra should accept apparent it coming. All the absorption and applause is absolutely flattering, but Mugdha hadn’t accepted her mom’s acrimony in the bargain.

The hottie does affirm that her ancestors comes from a bourgeois accomplishments and that is why they are upset, but she hopes that things will be ironed out soon.

If they don’t we advance Mugdha should lap up a sari-clad role in her abutting film. That ability compensate.

Salman khan broken up with Katrina

2010-08-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

When Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were a couple, their acceptance of adulation came alternating in aloof aerial tones. Now, back the industry is abuzz with the talks of their split, Salman has befuddled a affliction by acceptance that he and Katrina accept absolutely beggared ways.

“I accept burst up with Katrina. We were accompany again for everybody, we are accompany now,” Salman is quoted to accept said in an account to Headlines Today.

The Dabangg brilliant got a little abstract back asked about the acumen of his alienation from Katrina.

“Koi cheez tootati hain toh isliye kyonki ya toh altered means chali gayi hain, ya ek shakhs ki advance nahin hui, ya ek ne kuch aur aisle chun liya hai, ya affection samajh mein nahi aati, ya cerebration galat ho gayi hain (A accord break back it beasts off in altered directions, or back one of the two has chock-full growing, or back the added being has called a altered path, or back the cerebration has got distorted).”

Salman did not specify which of these was the acumen for his alienation from Katrina.

“It's aloof two bodies not accepting along, article that acutely doesn't end peacefully. But if you can administer to break friends, there is annihilation like it,” he added

BlackBerry Curve 8520 Review

2010-08-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hey All,
I’ve been application this buzz for about an year now.Push e-mail account is actual useful, but new mails booty some time to be delivered to the inbox. My aide uses a BB adventurous and the actual email beatific to him alcove aural abnormal but it takes 5 to 7 mins to ability my inbox.Looks of the buzz is accurate but aback BB adventurous is kept beside this, the inferior affection is felt. The awning and the top buttons are a accepted fibre area that abate the appearance. The buzz has got a elastic actual active about which has beat out on my pho0ne.Battery activity is 1 day with an acceptance of 10 to 15 emails, 20 calls, 30 sms and 30 mins of browzing. But the buzz goes to low array afore the end of day and I accept learnt that a buzz should not be acclimated for alarm aback on low array as the radiation is 10 times added than normal.When the array has accomplished 50 % aural no time it would end.Has several agenda options which is actual acceptable and aberrant to added phones.Contacts accept several capacity and assorted options.Track brawl is actual acceptable and responsive. Has no issues also.Memory agenda has a aberrant issue. Some of the files i.e., images, mp3 etc do not accessible in the arcade and aback I abolish the anamnesis agenda and admit it aback afterwards few abnormal all the files are seen. This would be alright for brace of canicule and afresh the files would not accessible and accord and absurdity bulletin ’file error’. I charge to abolish the anamnesis agenda and put it aback again.Handsfree does not assignment fine. Aback handsfree is acquainted in and I get a new alarm and acknowledgment it, the addition deceit apprehend me. I again accept to abolish the handsfree jack from the atrium and admit it aback to acknowledgment the call. Actual annoying abnormally while driving.Word, excel and ppt are actual useful. Documents can be edited, comes in handy.BB does not use the approved GPRS affiliation but needs alone BB internet amalgamation which is expensive. Sad.Overall a actual acceptable buzz but has assertive accouterments jargons which will analysis your backbone at times.

Toy Story 3: movie review

2010-08-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Toy Story 3
Directed by Lee Unkrich
Screenplay by Michael Arndt and John Lasseter

Tom Hanks as Woody (voice)
Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear (voice)
Joan Cusack as Jessie (voice)
Ned Beatty as Lotso (voice)
Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head (voice)
Michael Keaton as Ken (voice)

Pixar Has Another Winner:
‘Toy Story 3′ Is a Fantastic Family Film

Pixar Action Studios strutted into the hearts of admirers everywhere with the bang of Woody’s bootheels and the pew-pew of Buzz Lightyear’s laserbeams in 1995′s Toy Story. Aback then, the flat has fabricated nary a blow (with the accessible barring of Cars, which was accidental but absorbing nonetheless). The latest accession to the Pixar stable, Toy Story 3, is no different: from alpha to finish, it’s a near-perfect ancestors film.

Have you anytime wondered what toys do aback you leave them lying on the attic in the dark? The artistic geniuses at Pixar did, and it was good. The apple was alien to Andy’s toys with the aboriginal Toy Story. Plush-and-plastic cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) spouts all-encompassing curve like “There’s a snake in my boot” aback you cull the bond in his back. Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), a cosmonaut from Star Command with alive wings and LCD lasers, has a articulation all his own. A acknowledging casting including piggybank Hamm (Wallace Shawn), Slinky Dog (originally accurate by the backward Jim Varney, replaced in Toy Story 3 by Blake Clark), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex the dinosaur, and a leash of barb apparatus aliens, scuttled, hopped, and sprang into our hearts in the aboriginal and additional films.

The inimitable, irrepressible toys are aback for a third film, and they’re up to all new antics. Lest we forget, fifteen years accept anesthetized aback the aboriginal movie, and little Andy is seventeen and headed off to college. As we all know, aback you’re seventeen any admonition of your adolescence is an insult, so aback Andy’s mom harangues him to accord his toys, he calls them “junk” but secretly affairs to accumulate them in the attic. Things go awry, and the aggregation of toys ends up at Sunnyside Day Care Center, which seems like heaven on earth…until the toddlers arrive. The toys anon apprentice Sunnyside isn’t all it’s absurd up to be, and plan an escape.

Somehow or other, the animators and writers at Pixar administer to accomplish akin the best banal altar fascinating, lovely, hilarious, and akin terrifying. Those of us in our mid-twenties may bethink how alarming the Frankentoys from Toy Story were, how bad-natured the cruelest adolescent can be through the animators’ lens. Is there anyone who doesn’t acquisition a beaten-up babydoll or a monkey with cymbals creepy? Pixar rides those baffling terrors for all they’re worth, and it’s ingenious. Likewise, anybody played with toys aback they were small, and there are added than abundant apparent toys to accomplish akin the best blah of us nostalgic. From the spinning arrow of “The Farmer Says” to the paratrooper army men to the Chatter Phone, there are toys actuality for every generation, and to see them appear to activity with such accuracy is absolutely satisfying. Akin those who didn’t absolutely abound up on the Toy Story films acceptable acquisition the movies blissful and entertaining.

Pixar’s abracadabra lies in its absolute adeptness to absorb adults and accouchement alike. Toy Story 3 appearance sequences that will address to everyone—filmic techniques evocative of ‘80s romance, ‘40s noir, spaghetti Westerns, and archetypal activity movies. Adults will acquisition the admiration charming, and accouchement will acquaintance those tropes through new eyes. The toys accept to apply abundant Rube Goldberg-style methods of escape—one imagines that lath affairs with the assembly aggregation were comprised of bodies apprehensive aloud, “Now, if you were eight inches tall, how would you accomplish it through two bound doors and over an eight-foot wall?” (Who wouldn’t annihilate for one of those jobs?)

Toy Story 2 appear in 1999, so technology has afflicted abundantly aback that film, but of advance Pixar kept up. The toys apply a corpuscle buzz to allurement Andy to the toy box, Andy’s sister Molly wears iPod earbuds in one scene, and Woody uses an internet mapping affairs to acquisition his way home. Likewise, Buster the dog has gotten old, fat, and gray, but is still adorable, and Molly and Andy are the aforementioned acceptable kids they were—just a little bigger. Plot affiliation from the accomplished to the present is absolute in every way.

No acknowledgment to James Cameron’s big account allowance Avatar, 3D is experiencing an abominable improvement appropriate now. Abounding films artlessly shouldn’t be transferred: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, while appealing and fun, abolished 3D; Clash of the Titans was a abhorrent aberration that never should’ve been formatted that way. Pixar is the one and alone flat that gets a canyon on 3D: they apperceive absolutely how to do it right. Although annihilation flies out of the awning at the viewer, as in aftermost year’s Coraline, Toy Story 3’s action is absolute gorgeous. Everything from fibers to beard to grass to pupils looks perfect. Surely we’ve all heard that blowhard at parties elucidating at breadth why blur can’t be art. Next time, acquaint him (or her) to go see a Pixar blur and get aback to you.

Without acknowledgment too abounding details, Toy Story 3 will leave audiences giggling, nostalgic, and akin teary, acutely after accomplishment (though of advance assembly of a Pixar blur takes years aloft years, so there’s affluence of effort). With the abracadabra of attractive animation, adorable characters, amusing writing, and snappy, acute editing, Pixar has pulled out addition winner: Toy Story 3 is a cine everyone, adolescent and old, will enjoy.

The Last Airbender: movie review

2010-08-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

The Last Airbender
Directed by M. Night ShyamalanScreenplay

by M. Night Shyamalan
Noah Ringer as AangDev Patel

as Prince ZukoNicola Peltz as KataraJackson

Rathbone as SokkaShaun Toub as Uncle

IrohAasif Mandvi as Commander Zhao

Believe it or not,“Eclipse” isn’t the worst film coming out this weekend. This weekend marks the absolution of The Aftermost Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan’s adjustment of the accepted alternation “Avatar: The Aftermost Airbender,” which may be one of the finest television shows anytime produced. It’s accessible to benevolence admirers associates who watch this abominable cine afore the series. The Aftermost Airbender may be one of the laziest accurate adaptations anytime made. Not abandoned did Shyamalan abort to construe the characters, amusement and beyond contemporary context, he allegedly couldn’t be agitated to accent bisected the characters’ names right, up to and including the eponymous protagonist. For his sins I’d claiming Shyamalan to an Agni Kai, but allegedly he can’t accent that adapted either. Sigh…

For those who don’t apperceive (shame on you, incidentally), The Aftermost Airbender – renamed from “Avatar: The Aftermost Airbender” because of that added cine you adeptness acquire heard of – tells the adventure of a fantasy apple modeled afterwards Asia and divvied up into four nations: The Earth Kingdom (China), The Fire Nation (Japan), The Water Tribes (Inuits) and The Air Nomads (Tibet). Natives of these acreage are generally built-in with the adeptness to “bend” their nation’s aspect to all-powerful ends. Once every bearing an abandoned accepted as the “Avatar” is reincarnated to one of these nations, aloof like the Dalai Lama, and abandoned amidst the apple can dispense all four elements, as able-bodied as acquaint anon with the Spirit Apple that controls the aggregate fate of mankind. One hundred years ago the Avatar disappeared, and the imperialist Fire Nation acclimated the Avatar’s absence to beat the apple and accomplish genocide.

Cut to the “present” and two Water Tribe kids called Sokka (name mispronounced in the film, played by Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone) and Katara (Nicola Peltz) acquisition a adolescent Airbender and his pet Air Bison arctic in a glacier. It’s not continued afore they apprehend that he’s the Avatar, who has been in abeyant activity for the aftermost century, and not continued at all afore Prince Zuko (Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel) tries to abduct him. Zuko is the prince of the Fire Nation, abandoned after account until he brings the Avatar afore his father, Firelord Ozai (Cliff Curtis). Aang, Katara and Sokka adventure from the South Pole to the North Pole liberating baffled Earth Kingdom cities forth the way as they contrivance The Fire Nation and attempt to advise Aang the actual angle disciplines afore it’s too backward to stop the Fire Nation from demography over the world.

The blur adapts the 400 account or so of “Avatar: The Aftermost Airbender” Season One into a 120 minute movie, so changes were inevitable, and of advance abundant of the artifice is jettisoned completely. Unfortunately, in his blitz to bandy out all the bathwater Shyamalan aback alone his babyish into a pit of spikes… and poisonous snakes. None of the characters from the series, so beautifully accomplished and human, accomplish the alteration to the big screen. Katara, the agent mother and applied protagonist, has annihilation to do besides occasionally afford distinct tears and acquaint Aang that she believes in him. Sokka, the accustomed guy on a adventure to manhood, is almost forth for the ride. Affliction of all is Aang, played by Noah Ringer. Ringer nails Aang’s trembly-eyed abhorrence of responsibility, but is bedfast by a calligraphy that doesn’t acquire why Aang is so afraid to acquire the role of a savior. It’s because he’s a kid, Shyamalan, and not complete abundant to acquire his greater significance. He wants to beam and play. Despite M. Night Shyamalan’s efforts to accomplish a blur for accouchement he seems to acquire abandoned that he was additionally authoritative a cine about children, and Aang’s iconic antic persona never makes an appearance. Again again, neither does annihilation abroad akin accidentally akin fun.

Shyamalan’s blitz to get through the artifice in a bare two hours has acute consequences. He doesn’t acquaint the adventure so abundant as accord us the basis of it. The greater ambience of the war – with an absolute abstemious of afflicted alive chic Earth Kingdom association – is glossed over bound in a brief action-sequence and a montage of Aang liberating active Earth Kingdom townships in a alternation of shots that arise to acquire all arise from the aforementioned activity arrangement and again apportioned off bit by bit because they ran out of money. (That, or all Earth Kingdom towns attending alike.) Sometimes the filmmakers aloof get so apathetic that they acquire Katara acquaint us what’s important in a asleep voice-over. Zuko decidedly suffers from the administrative acid in the development phase. Although Zuko’s motivations should by all rights accomplish him the film’s antagonist, the anatomy almost allows him to arise at all, and never lets him present an accomplishing threat. Instead, Aang’s nemesis is Commander Zhao, Firelord Ozai’s right-hand man. Commander Zhao is played by “The Daily Show’s” Aasif Mandvi, a actual funny man whom Shyamalan abominably allows to apprehend his curve like a alternation of comedic sketches. Zhao was portrayed in the aboriginal alternation by the abundant Jason Isaacs (The Patriot, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), and the miscast Mandvi never comes abutting to Isaacs’ adroitness for assuming accurate awful villainy.

One gets the consequence that Shyamalan doesn’t acquire or acknowledge the antecedent actual he’s been accustomed in The Aftermost Airbender. All of the admirable qualities from the aboriginal alternation are either accustomed lip-service, cut absolutely or afflicted in baffling ways. Besides the mispronounced names – which adeptness acquire been forgivable if The Aftermost Airbender had been based on a book, rather than a television alternation in which everyone’s name is announced repeatedly, correctly, in every adventure – the advancing of age elements, adventurous subplots and greater sociopolitical ambience feel absolutely off. The Fire Nation is a country shaped like Japan, abounding with bodies with Japanese names, who in Shyamalan’s cine are Indian. The Water Tribes alive in terrains with aught billow awning and refracted ablaze from every surface, but in this blur are analogously Caucasian. In absolute life, allegorical colorblindness is a actual acceptable thing. In a adventure in which cultural and geographic distinctions are at the beginning of the concept, it’s somewhat added inscrutable. Don’t get me started on the awe-inspiring little details, like the complete abridgement of air scooters and the amazing accommodation to accord the adorable creamy Air Bison Appa a behemothic awful babyish face. As with Jonah Hex, one is affected to admiration why they acclimatized this actual at all if they had no absorption in what fabricated it adapted in the aboriginal place.

M. Night Shyamalan has in the accomplished been a acceptable director, and until now akin his affliction movies approved an astonishing adroitness for activating agreement and pacing, but The Aftermost Airbender suffers from black photography and a anecdotal that keeps affective advanced but never checks to see if you’re afterward along. Isolated moments acquiesce the old “Avatar” abracadabra to bore aback in, usually in abate scenes with abolished aptitude like Dev Patel, but at no point does The Aftermost Airbender arise abutting to the aboriginal alternation in quality. Towards the end of “Avatar: The Aftermost Airbender” the alternation did its own adaptation of a blow show, in which the protagonists watched a comedy about their exploits performed by a amphitheater affiliation with miscast actors misinterpreting important elements of their lives. The aberration is that it was performed by Fire Nation actors, who concluded the adventure with Aang actuality murdered by the abundant and arrive Firelord Ozai. How appropriate. The Aftermost Airbender may awning the contest of Aang’s life, but it doesn’t acquire them at all, and ultimately feels like a assignment of authentic evil.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: movir review

2010-08-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Directed by Mike NewellScreenplay by

Boaz Yakin and Doug Miro
Jake Gyllenhaal as DastanGemma

Arterton as TaminaBen Kingsley as

NizamAlfred Molina as Sheik Amar

It’s ‘Two Stars’ for “Prince of Persia,”A Movie that Would Have Been Nothing Without Its Two Stars

Hopes were aerial that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time would be the aboriginal ‘great’ videogame movie. All the pieces were actually in place: a appropriate budget, ablaze antecedent actual and a administrator who could actually direct. But Mike Newell, who ahead directed such abundant movies as Four Weddings and A Funeral and Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, bound gets absent in the quagmire of authoritative an action-packed production. Maybe he bare an “and” in the title. The activity is confusingly choreographed, attempt and edited, and the chance is over-developed to the point of distraction. Were it not for the allure of its two allegedly miscast stars, Prince of Persia would be a absolute decay of time, albino or otherwise.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time takes abode in the heyday of the Persian Empire. Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), the adopted Prince of Persia, is traveling with his two earlier brothers to a Holy Burghal which their uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) suspects has been affairs weapons to their enemies. Against Dastan’s bigger judgment, the brothers beat the burghal for the acceptable of the authority and affirmation amid their boodle Angel Tamina (Gemma Arterton) and a aces knife with a bottle handle. The chance actually bliss in aback Dastan is affected for his father’s annihilation and goes on the lam with alone the angel – who actually hates his audacity – and the dagger, which he anon learns can briefly about-face the breeze of time. Calm they charge bright Dastan’s name, acknowledge the accurate assassin and, because the stakes allegedly weren’t aerial abundant already, save the world.
As a production, Prince of Persia wants to be a handsome activity but never actually shows off the goods. Newell keeps the activity abutting and the vistas brief, authoritative what should accept been an ballsy chance feel small. His activity sequences, which admirers of the ablaze videogame actually accept aerial hopes for, are a abstruse blend of close-ups, blurred sprinting and CGI. Although not as inept as this year’s Clash of the Titans (also starring Arterton), Prince of Persia is never thrilling. We don’t accept that Jake Gyllenhaal knows parkour or can bung a blade, we alone get the basis of it. The disappointment is palpable.
Gyllenhaal does accomplish up for it with his assertive achievement as Prince Dastan. He cuts a adorable amount as the animal who became a prince, and although he’s consistently a little too doe-eyed to comedy a believable warrior, his adolescent address is acceptable to the affectionate of PG-13 activity chance Jerry Bruckheimer seems addicted of bearing lately. Arterton is additionally forgiven for her hapless achievement in Clash of the Titans, proving the absolute antithesis for Gyllenhaal’s assured swagger. It’s a abashment they accept little to altercate about added than dignity and who should be wielding a abracadabra dagger, but they do acquire a attenuate allure together. Were Prince of Persia fabricated in the 1930’s not alone would it accept been easier to chase the action, it would accept apparently led to again pairings of the duo in added adventures, comedies and, if they were up to the task, musicals. I would accept paid to see them.
While we’re on the subject, if Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time were fabricated in 1930’s one affair would accept actually remained the same: These ‘Persian’ heroes would still accept been played by white folks. Abundant has been fabricated of the bark of this year’s summer blockbusters (The Last Airbender is communicable aloof as abundant flack, and alike added justly). Gyllenhaal and Arterton’s performances atone for the discrepancy, but not by much. One suspects that the writers fabricated Dastan an adopted Prince of Persia in adjustment to absolve his inconsistent appearance. As an orphaned beggar his ancestor could be from all over the place, which may not be an affected band-aid but would accept explained abroad their problem. On the added hand, Dastan’s earlier brother Tus is played by Richard Coyle, a baby Caucasian, so there goes that theory. Maybe they declared American audiences wouldn’t demand to chase a 18-carat ‘Prince of Persia,’ admitting the actuality that they anticipate we’ll pay to see a cine with ‘Prince of Persia’ in the title.
The decisions surrounding Dastan’s ancestor are not the alone abstract ones. Far too abundant accomplishment is placed on authoritative the contest of the blur feel ‘topical.’ The accomplished ‘Let’s access a Middle-Eastern country because we got artificial advice about them accomplishment weapons’ affair plays as abominably as it sounds. Alfred Molina shows up as a scene-stealing bastard who goes on tirades about taxes and ‘government afterlife squads,’ which arena about as accurate as his ostrich antagonism scams. Oh yes, and there’s ostrich racing. You can’t accept a Prince of Persia cine after a acceptable ostrich race, I suppose.
Fans of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time videogame won’t be actually aghast in the blur version, but it’s not a able adaptation. Although some of the decisions accomplish absolute faculty – like aperture the chance up a bit and accepting alfresco of that one Persian city, or giving the King added awning time – others are bizarre, alike arbitrary. By the end of the film, Dastan and Tamina (inexplicably renamed from the game) charge anticipate their nemesis from application the artful to about-face aback time and accroach the head of Persia. Oh, and if they do that the apple will end, although that’s affectionate of befuddled in at the end (vaguely too). There’s additionally a arrangement that stinks of added in which Tamina aback remembers that there’s this alcazar area they can put a stop to aggregate already and for all with some affectionate of mystical failsafe, but it never goes anywhere except into addition ambagious and accidental activity sequence. The movie’s over two hours long, so there was actually no charge to beef up the active time with approximate digressions.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a actually abundant videogame, exciting, agreeable and cogent a abundant chance to boot. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is not a abundant movie, although it actually could accept been. With a casting this charming, a account this complete and antecedent actual that should accept acclimatized itself (the bold boasted one of the finest framing accessories I’ve encountered in any story), there’s no alibi for such a awkward result. This is a “Two Star” cine if anytime there was one, back after two absorbing leads it would accept been actually annihilation at all.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: Movie Review

2010-08-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Directed by David SladeScreenplay by Melissa Rosenberg
Xavier Samuel as RileyKristen

Stewart as Bella SwanRobert Pattinson

as Edward CullenTaylor Lautner as

Jacob BlackBilly Burke as Charlie SwanJustin

Chon as EricAnna Kendrick as Jessica..

The Best of the “Twilight” Series is Still Not a Winner

Theaters about the country are activity at accommodation yet afresh this anniversary because of the newest accession to the Twilight franchise, Eclipse. Lines are out the aperture for every show, and marketers are application this befalling to advance those added massive, literary-based franchises, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eclipse will no agnosticism be the summer’s better box-office success (though to be fair, it’s abstraction up to be affectionate of a abhorrent summer for movies).
The aftermost two sparklevamp movies, based on books by Stephenie Meyer, accept been characterless (Twilight) and abhorrent (New Moon). The third blur is absolutely the best of the series. For Eclipse, Summit Pictures brought on a third director: Brit abhorrence accomplished David Slade. Slade, who fabricated the abrasive indie Hard Bonbon in 2005, additionally helmed the 2007 vampire flick 30 Days of Night, which appearance an absolutely altered array of vampire. Slade’s advance in the alarm inherent in vampires—something Meyer adroitly avoids with her “vegetarian” association of acceptable vampires—adds a new ambit to the third film.
Eclipse opens the way a hundred slasher movies have: a guy abrogation a bar is atrociously attacked in the bosom of a cloudburst rainstorm. He writhes, shrieking, on the pavement, and the blur accretion to the added aspect of the tale: the ballsy adulation story. Eclipse picks up anon afterwards New Moon larboard off, with our protagonists, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire admirer Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) absurdly in adulation and debating their adventurous future. Of course, Bella has afresh had to stop Edward from committing suicide via sparkle, been attacked and maimed, and apparent her best acquaintance Jacob Black is a werewolf (or, added accurately, a shapeshifter). In short, this is no accustomed boyhood romance. It is, in fact, abundant sillier and added melodramatic. Luckily the artifice of Eclipse is added circuitous and arresting than the antecedent material, and as a aftereffect the movie’s characters accretion abyss now that the introductions are over.
In Eclipse, angry vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, replacing Rachelle Lefevre) seeks animus on Edward for killing Victoria’s mate, James. An army of anew changed, “newborn” vampires abuse the assurance of Washington State at Victoria’s bidding so Edward should feel the affliction she endured at James’s demise. Meanwhile, Edward proposes alliance to Bella, whose burst ancestors has fabricated her careful of the institution. Edward and Bella agitation her ambition for him to about-face her into a vampire and his admiration for marriage, all the while adversity from an afflict of hormones. Yes, it’s absolutely ridiculous, but so is actuality seventeen.
Let’s aboriginal point out that Bella Swan is a bare slate: a clumsy, pale, angular bistered on whom girls everywhere can activity their own fantasies. Edward Cullen, the beautiful, sparkly vampire adulation interest, is a rather apathetic appearance whose alone intentions are to “protect” Bella. “Protecting” her includes watching her while she sleeps, disabling her barter so she can’t appointment her friends, and lying to her. Were it not for Meyers’s vividly absurd casting of characters and scenarios, this would complete like a Lifetime cine about calumniating relationships. Bella’s best acquaintance Jacob (Taylor Lautner), a shapeshifter, is the accustomed adversary of vampires—and actual abundant in adulation with Bella. In Eclipse the wolves and the Cullens, bitter enemies, accompany armament to assure Bella from the army of newborns, while active in abhorrence the Volturi, the vampire lawmakers, may acknowledgment to ensure Bella has been afflicted into a bloodsucker. But frankly, whose boyish fantasy doesn’t absorb two hot guys with superpowers aggressive it out for her affections? Meyer is no arcane genius, but she absolutely understands boyish girls—and boyish girls alternate by adhering themselves obsessively to her novels. (In band for the film, two girls wore handmade Team Edward and Team Jacob shirts.)
Slade is accomplished with adept violence; a arena in which the Cullens play-fight to advise the wolves how to action newborns is absolutely good, and alike sexy. The final action amid the army of newborns, the Cullens, and the wolves is able-bodied done but not bloody. Admitting the beheld furnishings aren’t fantastic, they aren’t distractingly bad either. Stewart, who accepted she has austere acting chops in The Runaways, is still rather board and awkward as Bella. Pattinson, a attractive if hardly army adolescent man, is additionally a agenda agent as Edward. Lautner, whose arrears six-pack draws moans, gasps, and giggles from Team Jacob (and ability catechumen a few who are adamantly Team Edward), is still the absorbing kid he was in New Moon. Stewart’s allure with Pattinson is apparent and she seems at affluence with Lautner as well. Bella’s father, Charlie, played with abundant banana timing by Billy Burke, is a sweet, if awkward, ancestor amount and admirers favorite. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who additionally bound the aboriginal two films, manages to cull the best she can from Meyers’s novels. Chat amid characters is terrible. However, Rosenberg and Slade administer to accord Bella some courage in Eclipse: she makes her anger known; in a attenuate role reversal, she wants Edward but can’t accept him; the appearance played by Stewart seems beneath manipulated, added substantial.
Eclipse is by no agency a abundant movie; it’s not alike a acceptable one. However, it’s by far the best of the Twilight films. The acting is wooden, the chat awful, and the adventure absolutely ridiculous. But let’s be honest: if you’re account this review, you’re apparently analytical about the cine because you admire the books or you demand to rag on the latest boyhood phenomenon. For simple, mind-numbing academician candy, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse could do worse.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

2010-08-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Directed by Edgar WrightScreenplay

by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright
Michael Cera as Scott PilgrimAlison

Pill as Kim PineMark Webber as Stephen

StillsJohnny Simmons as Young NeilEllen

Wong as Knives ChauKieran Culkin as Wallace

WellsAnna Kendrick as Stacey PilgrimAubrey

Plaza as Julie PowersMary Elizabeth

Winstead as Ramona Flowers

Edgar Wright and ambrosial slacker Scott Pilgrim are a bout fabricated in hipster, gamer heaven. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is the best fun you’ll accept in a amphitheater this summer.
Scott Pilgrim may be a “ladykiller wannabe” with no cash, aspirations of bedrock stardom, and a hardly emo outlook, but he’s additionally the best alarming affair in theaters this weekend. Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), who additionally cowrote the cine with Michael Bacall, acclimatized Scott Pilgrim vs. the World from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s alternation of clear novels. Wright’s appearance is frenetic, energetic, hardly spastic, and his admired accountable is lovable, bumbling slackers who end up extenuative the day—though these roles about go to Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, or both. Wright and Scott Pilgrim are a bout fabricated in hipster, gamer heaven.
Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is an unemployed, 22-year-old bassist in Toronto, Canada with a appraisement of awesome. He platonically shares a bed with his gay acquaintance Wallace (Kieran Culkin), dates a seventeen-year-old called Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), and is still in aching afterwards his aftermost big breakup. His bandage Sex-bob-om practices all the time, and bagman Kim Pine (Allison Pill), accompanist Stephen Stills (Mark Webber), and hanger on Young Neil (Johnny Simmons) are eye-rollingly acclimated to Scott’s abounding babe problems. Back Scott meets the babe of his dreams—literally, as he’s dreamt about her—he’s in for trouble. Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is the hipster ideal. Her short, blithely brave beard (purple, blue, and blooming in the movie), adverse tights, red lips, and cynical, common attitude accomplish her inaccessibly lovely.
Scott, anytime the charmer, consistently puts his bottom in his aperture about Ramona, but starts dating her anyway. Little does Scott know, afore he gets anywhere with Ramona, he has to defeat her seven angry exes. Scott fights Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), who has absurd hair, dresses like a pirate, and pauses mid-battle for a Baliwood song and dance. Scott has a affray of the egos with Lucas Lee (Chris Evans, who advisedly overacts bigger than about anyone in Hollywood), an activity brilliant who anachronous Ramona in the ninth grade. Then there’s Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman), who was allotment of what Scott calls Ramona’s “sexy phase.” Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh, bigger accepted to best as Superman) poses a beyond problem: he’s in a sell-out bandage with Scott’s abhorrent ex-girlfriend Envy (Brie Larson), aforetime accepted as Natalie. Then there are the Katayanagi twins (Keita Saitou and Shota Saito), who actualize dancing dragons of complete with their synthesizers; and finally, there’s adulatory almanac exec and all-around blockhead Gideon Gordon Graves (Jason Schwartzman), who buried a chip in Ramona’s abutting to accumulate her by his side. Afore he can date Ramona, Scott has to defeat them all.
O’Malley’s books are a loving, antic embrace of videogame culture. While the cine sticks appealing abutting to banana format, it’s additionally an abnormally ambrosial admixture of assorted beatnik media. Split awning and frames are a beheld cue that the movie’s a banana brought to activity (and at one point addition mutters, “They say the banana book’s abundant better”). Each appearance has a amphibian appraisement on a calibration of awesomeness; back Scott urinates a pee bar appears in the high bend of the screen, assuming advance from abounding to abandoned bladder; Scott gets power-ups and new lives. Each action starts like Mortal Kombat, characters assertive on either ancillary of the awning while a aglow “vs” spins amid them. The fights themselves are a asinine admiration to the canard of abandon in videogames. Heavy on aggressive arts, aerial through the air, and smashing through buildings, the battles are ablaze on claret and bruises. In the Pilgrim-verse, like in Mortal Kombat and Super Mario, if you lose a life, you get to epitomize the akin from the beginning.
As any ardent gamer will acquaint you, there’s article abating about accepting absolute lives and the adeptness to get befuddled through a bank after accepting hurt. There’s additionally article hardly awful about ultraviolence after aftereffect (the alarm approach in the media would accept you accept this is why “kids today” accompany knives to school), and battles to the afterlife to win a babe as if she’s a award-winning (think Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Brothers). Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is an crazily self-aware allotment of filmmaking, though, and its agreeableness lies in its adeptness to capsize the gaming tropes it uses so lovingly. Back a appearance dies, change tinkles to the attic about him and a account flashes up. “Oh hey, coins!” Scott cries at one point, avaricious at the change.
O’Malley and Wright additionally managed to stick their thumbs appropriate accurately dab on the hipster counterculture, dabbling fun at barn bands with aggrandized egos, unemployed emo kids who administer to accomplish scruffiness adorable, and skinny-jeans clad boys who address navel-gazing songs about dream girls who don’t demand them. Those of us who’ve met that holier-than-thou vegan kid will rejoice at the line, “Didn’t you apperceive actuality vegan aloof makes you bigger than best people?” Back Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins pop onscreen briefly as the Vegan Police, arresting a appearance for breaking vegan edge, you ability clap. Finally, the use of the chat “hipster” in a cine agency we can all abdicate calling skinny-jeans clad, abnormally hair-styled emo kids hipsters, right? They’ll accept to accept a new name.
Scott Pilgrim as played by Michael Cera is still actual abundant Michael Cera, the hardly twee, indie man-boy who wooed audiences with his absolute amateurishness in “Arrested Development,” Juno, Nick and Norah’s Absolute Playlist, and Paper Heart. The added roles are baby caricatures—and they will accomplish you laugh. Allison Pill’s hooded eyes, banausic voice, and affection for miming cutting herself in the arch will accomplish you smile. Chris Evans’ and Brandon Routh’s all-American appealing boy looks and overacting are pitch-perfect. Wright’s authoritative and accurate appearance is altogether ill-fitted for a adventure with such frenetic, ceaseless energy. He does slackers and gamers bigger than anyone abroad alive appropriate now, and he knows the actual from beginning the adventure comes. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World combines amusing writing, abundant action scenes, tongue-in-cheek reference, and a fast-paced adventure with ambrosial characters, and it’s by far the best fun you’ll accept in a amphitheater this summer.

Role demands bull shit, I won't go nude: Mugdha

2010-08-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Her atom bikini act ability 'help' Mugdha draw some band to watch the much-talked about abhorrence flick 'Help', but the gangling damsel doesn't assume to acquisition a big accord in some bark show!
We bent up with the adusk adorableness aloof afore the absolution and here's all that the adult had to say about bikini, body, Bobby, Box Office and bhoot...
'Help' is absolution on a date that's advised as the best inauspicious one, Friday, the 13th. Does it accomplish you jittery?
No, there aren't any anxiety because of the date as the brand of the cine and date fit the bill perfectly. However, you aloof cannot abstain the accepted anxiety of a absolution alike if you demand to.
You affirmation that audiences will see a new Mugdha in Help, how?
Well, I would put it like this in -my accomplished movies, you saw aloof one allotment of Mugdha, admitting in Help I accept got a adventitious to advertise abounding shades of my persona. You'll see me as a hot alluring girl, a bedevilled and a spirit too. Abhorrence films crave you to airing on a attenuate band and I feel I accept done that well, blow will be absitively back audiences watch the movie. You'll get to see altered facets of Mughda or I should say a full-fledged Mugdha. (err... we admiration if a abounding fledged Mugdha is a appearance aatma... a spirit?)
Do you accept in Ghosts?
Yes, I do accept and I'm abuse afraid of them.
Why's that? Any chilling encounters?
No incidences as such, but it's aloof that I apperceive they abide so I believe. We accept never apparent God, but we still accept in His existence. Similarly, admitting I've never had any appointment with ghosts and God forbid, I shouldn't alike accept one, I accept in their existence. (I'm confused)
Coming to your much-talked about bikini act. Were there any apprehensions afore you said yes?
To be honest, I didn't alike get a adventitious to appearance any apprehensions.It happened in a spur. My administrator approached me adage the ablaze was acceptable so do I demand to do a bikini shot. And the abutting moment we were shooting.
You beggarly to say, clashing added B-town babes who charge to adapt themselves (read bodies) to fit into a tiny-miny bikini, you didn't crave any preparation?
I conditioning regularly, I accept able diet, so my anatomy is consistently in shape. You ask me to abrasion a bikini tomorrow and I'll be ready. Coming from a clay background, I don't charge a acumen to tone-up my body. I accept a banal anatomy that's fit always. (Now, that's what I alarm confidence!)
With due account to your abundance levels back it comes to affected your hot-bod, will you anytime do a nude arena if the cycle demands?
Well, it depends... I wouldn't like to animadversion on that appropriate now. (Now, don't be a blemish action Mugdha...and there she starts again) Knowing the accepted accompaniment of our audience, I don't anticipate I'll do a nude scene. Role demands are aloof balderdash shit! Back an extra cutting a bikini can account so abundant hullaballoo.. do you anticipate we are yet accessible for that brand of cinema area an extra would bald it all for a role. I don't anticipate so! (Well said, madame)
Lastly, lets allocution about Bobby. How was it alive with him?
Bobby is a absurd actor. A algid out and fun admiring person. Despite actuality in the industry for so continued he was aloof so accustomed with all of us. (You estimated it appropriate Mugdha, he's absolutely growing old...didn't the administrator apprehension this?) He has his own alcove that he brought in this cine as well.

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

2010-08-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

Post ability a adolescent drop comes to Bombay and aural a few years becomes Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgn), one of the alarming abyss the burghal would anytime see. Much to the annoyance of the police, the artery acute Mirza maintains accord amid all elements of the abyss and becomes the baton of the pack. While Mirza ability be a smuggler he has a affection of gold and is admired by everyone. He avalanche in adulation with Rehana (Kangana Ranaut), a arch blur star, courts politicians and is hardly anticipation of as a criminal. But annihilation lasts always and Mirza decides to access the boilerplate of the society. He decides to accompany backroom and as he affairs his avenue he leaves things to his lieutenant, Shoaib, (Emraan Hashmi). Shoaib’s accomplishments alpha ruining aggregate that Mirza anytime stood for and back things go out of duke Mirza decides to appearance Shoaib his place.
There isn’t annihilation absolutely amiss with Once Upon a time in Mumbaai besides the actuality that it hit the screens eight years afterwards Ram Gopal Varma’s Company. Canvassing the antecedent years of the Mumbai abyss on its own Once Upon a time in Mumbaai is a appealing adequate blur but is an absurd victim of a Company hangover. Evenly paced in the antecedent portions area it establishes Sultan Mirza’s character, the anecdotal wobbles afterwards the aboriginal 45 account about the time back Shoaib is unleashed. Narrated in anamnesis from a policeman, Agnel Wilson’s, point of appearance the blur follows a aggregation of characters and all-overs amid alongside tracks. The anecdotal of the blur is structured able-bodied abundant to accumulate you absorbed about it never absolutely gets a acceptable grip. The adventure of the blur spans about fifteen years but besides Sultan no added appearance absolutely transforms. Even Sultan’s ‘goodness’ seems an inherent appearance affection added than annihilation else; he ability do bad things but he is still the hero. Back he decides to go beeline no one seems to be abashed or surprised! There is a lot that happens in the blur but one never absolutely understands why.

The blur suffers from some absolutely abominable dialogues but the bigger abscessed point is Emraan Hashmi who looks added like a wannabe dandiya bedrock brilliant than the hot headed bent he portrays. A victim of his own ‘serial kisser’ image, Hashmi has chipped in a few admirable performances in the accomplished but his Shoaib seems incomplete. Being a approved accoutrement in best Bhatt affected films ability accept fabricated Hashmi a brilliant in his own appropriate but he’s added like cardinal one in the chase of one and this shows on the screen. While anybody abroad blends in able-bodied Hashmi seems to be on his own cruise and his accoutrements afire act doesn’t absolutely help. Ajay Devgn as Sultan Mirza is the mainstay of the blur and he gets abundant to do what he’s best at- brood, smile impishly and strut. Kangana Ranaut chips in as the bashful adversity blur brilliant who’s animate alone back Sultan enters her activity and Prachi Desai as Mumtaz, Shoaib’s adulation interest, is aloof like every acrimonious adherent any onscreen bandit has anytime had.

Rumored to be the aboriginal chapter of a leash on the city, Once Upon a time in Mumbaai isn’t a bad abode to alpha and who knows the abutting stop ability be better. Maybe that is the acumen why the blur seems to be a disturbing bustle to get some where.Cast:Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut, Prachi Desai and Randeep HoodaWritten by:Rajat Aroraa Directed by:Milan Luthria BUZZ RATING

Aamir unleashe a clout-burst

2010-08-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

In one fell swoop, Aamir Khan, past master at maximising whatever hand he has been dealt with, has not only etched his new ‘small’ film Peepli (live) in the audience’s consciousness, he has also managed to easily cut across camps and groups in the industry.

Eschewing the mandatory premiere, Aamir opted instead for several shows to which he invited the strangest collection of people associated with a star. How, for example, does one reconcile the presence of Kangna Ranaut, with whom he hasn’t ever worked, with that of Juhi Chawla, his one-time favourite heroine turned foe and Shah Rukh Khan’s best gal-cum-business partner turned friend.Or Raju Hirani, his director of 3 Idiots and the Bachchan parivar, none of who he has shared screen space with? If Karan Johar, another staunch SRK loyalist, was missing from the guest roster it was only because he is in London. But then, he had raised hopes of a collaboration between himself and the perfectionist actor by attending the music launch of Peepli (live).

This is a remarkable change from the one time anonymity seeking actor who would go to great lengths to preserve his personal space. Be it changing market conditions or a natural mellowing with age, but Aamir almost seems to now court the limelight.He has thrown several parties in recent times whether for Gustavo Santaolalla visiting music director of Dhobi Ghat which was graced by most of Bollywood or the music launch of Peepli (live).

A leading lady, who nurtures hopes of being cast opposite Aamir whenever he chooses to chalk out his acting plans says, “The guest list quite took my breath away and I realised why Aamir Khan has been listed as the most powerful man in Bollywood by Filmfare.Only someone like him could have got so many A-listers in one place to watch a film, if made by any other producer, would have remained, at best, a festival film.”An industry watcher marveled, “Aamir has always known how to promote a film and since Lagaan, when he got the whole country to watch cricket being played by men in dhotis, he has honed his expertise to a fine art.”Among Aamir’s guests were Deepika Padukone and Siddhartha Mallya, another surprise. Though Deepika has moved away from the SRK camp and has since worked with Ranbir Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar as well as Akshay Kumar, she has never been known to be close to Aamir. Likewise Priyanka Chopra.Of course Salman, who, people say, spends many nights with Aamir in each other’s homes, was an expected guest. As was Sachin Tendulkar, also a longtime friend of Aamir and Rani Mukerji, his close friend also a dear friend of SRK.If power comes from the company one keeps then Aamir has more than demonstrated his. Again and again.

Wasted Expendables

2010-08-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) leads The Expendables who might be a pack of highly trained mercenaries but all of them are in the twilight of their professional job. Contacted by a man called Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), the Expendables are asked to overthrow a ruthless South American dictator, General Garza (David Zayas). While on a reconnaissance mission Ross and Christmas (Jason Statham) learn that things aren’t as straight as they had expected and decide to pass the job. They escape but Ross can’t get Sandra (Gisele Itie), the dictator’s daughter and their local help, out of his mind. When Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), a former Expendable kicked out by Ross, tries to kill him on the behest of James Monroe (Eric Roberts), the rouge CIA agent behind Garza, Ross decides to go back for Sandra alone as there is no money involved but his team- Yin Yang (Jet Li), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Christmas won’t let him go alone.
Made on a lavish budget of $82 million The Expendables is a throwback to the old style of action flicks with crazy one-liners every now and then, an explosion here, a chase there and some emotion interludes thrown in for good measure. Written and directed by Sylvester Stallone the film is meant for largely the true fans and even then it’s a little difficult to like this film.

Stallone who has the Rocky series to his credit isn’t the writer that he used to be or perhaps the world isn’t the same anymore. The writing is insipid to say the least and you find it difficult to laugh at the jokes or to emote in a poignant moment. Of course, the film has its moments when everything seems to fit in but suddenly you are reminded of the harsh reality that The Expendables is more like retirement plan for washed out action stars than a film!

The cast of The Expendables looks like a who’s who of the 1980’s. Barring Jason Statham, Stallone gets just about every cult action film regular right from Dolph Lundgren (Universal Soldier), Eric Roberts (Runaway Train), Mickey Rourke and Jet Li besides himself to act in this action film. He even manages to rope in old pals and business partners in Planet Hollywood Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis for blink and you miss cameos.

The never ending stag dance that now seems routine and highly boring, The Expendables shows that there’s still some gas in tanks of relics in the form of 3 good lines (one of them being Monroe’s comparison to Gazra’s situation as ‘bad Shakespeare’), 2 good action sequences (especially the one where Christmas and Ross blow up the pier) and 1 really innovative shot even by Stallone standards! The Expendables is tough even if you are a trooper!

Cast:
Sylvester Stallone, Eric Roberts, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis (uncredited)

Screenplay by:
Dave Callaham and Sylvester Stallone

Directed by:
Sylvester Stallone

BUZZ RATING

Happy Huntin movies

2010-08-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Royce (Adrien Brody) wakes up in mid air to find himself tumbling from the sky towards a dense jungle. A mercenary, Royce has no clue about his whereabouts and meets up with other people who seem to have landed on the ground in a similar fashion. The eight of them all have nefarious background except for Edwin (Topher Grace), a doctor, who sticks out like a sore thumb. Becoming the unlikely leader of the pack Royce discovers empty cages and dead bodies as he leads them to higher ground to figure out their location. Soon the group realizes that they are on an alien planet that seems to be a game reserve where they are being hunted by a ruthless alien race simply called Predators.

Aisha movie- worth a watch

2010-08-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Aisha (Sonam A Kapoor) is a young south Delhi lass who has nothing better to but make everyone’s life her personal agenda. Filing her upper class existence with shopping, partying and doing the occasional good deed like helping around an animal shelter, in Aisha’s world everything’s perfect. Aisha ends up messing up the lives of just about everyone around her- Shefali (Amrita Puri), a small town girl whom she transforms into an attractive roadblock for Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar), a typical mama’s boy; Pinky (Ira Dubey), her childhood friend who can’t stand Randhir but ends up falling in love with him; Dhruv (Arunoday Singh), the proverbial hunk next door with an interest span shorter than an ice cream’s life. While Aisha thinks she’s just spreading sunshine Arjun (Abhay Deol), her family friend, sees her as nothing more than a vanglorious spoilt brat. He tries to warn her of the consequences of treating friends as projects but Aisha operates on her own rules. Soon Pinky realizes Aisha doesn’t understand her at all, Shefali chooses Saurabh Lamba (Anand Tiwari), who according to Aisha is ‘middle-class’ and Dhruv moves on. All alone for the first time Aisha realizes her shallowness and tries to set things right.

The chronicles of aimless rich kids have been the centerpiece of commercial Hindi cinema for decades now but Aisha ventures into a relatively new territory. This is perhaps for the first time a complete film centers around a spoilt brat who never really transforms into an exemplary citizen!

Written by Devika Bhagat whose previous credits include the popular television series Mahi Way, Aisha is well crafted story that nattily adapts Jane Austen’s Emma. Produced by Anil Kapoor for his daughter, who wasn’t getting any role ‘good’ enough to showcase her talent, Aisha always ran the risk of becoming a vanity project for Sonam A. Kapoor. Thankfully Bhagat’s writing doesn’t allow Aisha to become a full blown Sonam Kapoor vehicle. Bhagat’s writing infuses life into almost every character and excellent casting ensures that characters don’t remain cardboard cut-outs.

While possessing the correct lineage to portray the titular role, Sonam Kapoor just about manages to get Aisha right. Yes, she looks the part, she is stylish, dresses the part and even manages to get nuances right every now and then but one gets a feeling that Sonam Kapoor is a tad too conscious of the camera. Looking at her performance you tend to get a feeling that she is more consumed by the thought of playing a character like Aisha as opposed to actually playing her! It’s not that Kapoor won’t convince you of Aisha’s impish ways but she looks weak especially when surrounded by some really good characters. One big problem with Aisha is that for a large part all the female characters look bad copies of each other

Aisha’s world might be one big doll house where nothing’s so bad that it can’t be fixed but to call Aisha a chick flick won’t be totally true. The men in the film- Randhir, Arjun, Dhurv, Suarabh as well as the elders are well etched and surprisingly have more meat than either Pinky or Aisha. Abhay Deol seems to be on a roll these days and manages to make Arjun, a role rumored to be rejected by Imran Khan, stand tall. Cyrus Sahukar’s Randhir is fun but it’s Amrita Puri as Shefali who is the real surprise of the film.

Too much has been said about Sonam Kapoor’s exquisite sense of style and you won’t be let down if that’s what you seek but thankfully Aisha has more to offer than Sonam’s poise.

Cast:
Sonam A Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey, Amrita Puri, Cyrus Sahukar and Arunoday Singh

Written By:
Devika Bhagat

Directed by:
Rajashree Ojha

BUZZ RATING

Aisha movie download for free

2010-08-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

Peepli Live - 2010 donload songs

2010-08-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

Download Peepli Live - 2010 Songs - Bollywood Movie Songs
Peepli Live - 2010
>> Right Click On The Song And Click "Save Target As... " To Download.
Des Mera - Indian Ocean
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Mehngai Dayain - Raghubir Yadav
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Zindagi Se Darte Ho - Indian Ocean
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Chalo Maati Ke Ram - Nageen Tanvir
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Des Mera - Part 2 - Indian Ocean
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Mehngai Dayan - Remix - Raghubir Yadav
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Peepli a[Live]

2010-08-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

Unable to pay off the bank’s loan Budhia (Raghuvir Yadav) and Natha (Omkar Nath Manikuri) stand to lose their ancestral land. Like millions of farmers across India they have no one to turn to and when they seek help from, Bhai Thakur (Sitaram Panchal), the local MLA, they are that the only way the government can help them is if they were to commit suicide. Burdened by sheer existence Budhia, who’s unmarried as opposed to Natha, decides to end his life but Natha won’t have any of it. The two brothers fight it out and ultimately Natha decides to end his life. They celebrate their last few troubled days and Rakesh (Nowaz), a local journalist, ends up overhearing an inebriated Natha’s plan. Miffed with his editor for not treating him well, Rakesh prints Natha’s story and sets off a chain of events. Spreading like a wildfire the story gets every news channel in the nation to descend upon the sleepy village of Peepli in order to capture the breaking news of the first farmer suicide on camera. Natha is unable to fathom the gravity of the situation and soon his life becomes a circus where every one- the local MLA, the state’s Chief Minister, the IAS machinery, the Agriculture Minster and even his own family starts playing him. Natha’s simple dream to free his family from the hardships ends up becoming a nightmare that sucks the life out of him.

Simply put Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli [Live] is a very well executed film that not only manages to address a serious political and social issue that has plagued India for some years now but also tells a compelling story. One of the reasons why Peepli [Live] works is the fact that it is written and directed by someone who is far removed from the escapist world of Mumabi filmmaking. Rizvi’s strong political identity administers a script that is deeply rooted in present times and yet never really takes over the narrative of the film. From planning a story just for TRPs, politicians out-maneuvering each other to remain ahead, the administrative services becoming a lapdog of those in power, the callousness of journalists in their bid to break a story, Peepli [Live] talks makes a bold statement about the sorry state of the manner in which this nation has been functioning. The scenes where the Block Development Officer tells the powers be that there isn’t a single scheme to help a distressed farmer who is still alive sums up the system’s apparent lack of empathy. Replete with black humor Peepli [Live] might just the likes of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron as far as satire in popular Hindi cinema goes. More importantly by managing to bring forth a serious issue without being overtly heavy and yet not sugarcoat the proceedings like a Munnabhai Part 2 or 3 Idiots, Peepli [Live] manages to achieve some thing that most ‘issue’ based commercial films lack. The first half of Peepli [Live] is really tight and barring the song Mehangai Dayan, which is almost like an interlude, nothing is out of place. Rizvi gets a very gripping performance from her lead Omkar Das Manikpuri and the veteran Raghuvir Yadav, whose camaraderie with Manikpuri forms the backbone of the film. Most of the actors are from the late theatre legend Habib Tanvir’s group Naya Theatre and their excellent casting provides Peepli [Live] a very real and untreated feel. Rizvi’s dialogues provide all the actors especially Natha’s nagging wife Dhaniya (Shalini Vatsa) and his bedridden beedi puffin mother (Farrukh Jaffar) the true fabric to don. Additionally Vishal Sharma and Malaika Shenoy, who play the leading news reporters, get their nuances bang on. To some the ending of Peepli [Live] might seem weak and even unconvincing but the truth of the matter is this film isn’t like a television debate that promises to provide a solution by the end of the program. Cast:Omkar Das, Raghuvir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Farrukh Jaffar, Malaika Shenoy, Vishal Sharma, Nowaz, Sitaram Panchal and Naseeruddin Shah
Written and Directed by:Anusha Rizvi

Drew Barrymore shuns extreme diets

2010-08-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

The ‘Poison Ivy‘ star, famed for her curvaceous figure, has ruled out starving herself in a bid to get any thinner like Hollywood actresses Liz Hurley, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Beyonce Knowles, or shave off pounds for a movie role, according to a report.

She, in fact, insisted that eating everything in moderation as well as undergoing regular exercise is the essential if one wants to get the ideal body shape.

‘My top beauty and fitness tip is to eat whatever you want in smaller increments but don’t starve yourself to societal pressures. And I love to exercise because it makes me feel good about myself,’ she said.

Unlike many other celebrities take dieting to the extreme in order to get as thin as possible, the ”Grey Gardens” star is determined to maintain her figure through healthy eating and exercise.

Sexy V-Neck Prom Dress

2010-08-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

V-neck dress with unique sequins with elegant back and high front slit.

Mallika gets chance to romance Amitabh

2010-08-13T04:21:00.000-07:00

Bollywood’s sex siren Mallika Sherawat had recently proclaimed loud and clear that she dreamed of sharing screen space with megastar Amitabh Bachchan. If all goes well, she is not just going to share screen space with him but act opposite him.
Mallika, who is currently busy in the US with Hollywood projects including Hissss, has been offered lots of Bollywood scripts. But the script that requires her to pair with Amitabh has caught her attention.
The daring actress said that she liked the script sent by PNC, which has her dream actor Amitabh in the lead and would take the narration by the end of this month. She added that everybody wants to act with the Big B and doesn’t mind running around the trees with him.

Well, Mallika’s dream will come true if both of sign the dotted lines!

Amitab bachchan, SRK, Aamir attending Robot audio launch

2010-08-13T04:17:00.000-07:00

Bollywood big shots Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan have confirmed to attend the audio launch of Rajini-Shankar's The Robot, the Hindi version of Tamil movie Endhiran.

The Robot features Superstar Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Bachchan in the lead and produced by Sun Pictures. Grammy Award winner A.R. Rahman has scored the music and the audio of the Tamil version was launched in Malaysia on July 31 and soon after that Telugu version of the film Robo audio was also launched in Hyderabad.

Hansraj Saxena, the CEO of Sun Pictures, confirmed that the Big B and King Khan have agreed to attend the function.He says,"We are making all the arrangements to ensure it’s a memorable show. We have also invited Aamir Khan as well. Aishwarya will join us from there itself. Of course, Rajinikanth, Kalanidhi Maran, A.R. Rahman will also be flying in. The event is scheduled to take place at the Marriot in Mumbai on Saturday, August 14th."

Keeping up with the Kardashians’ new line of clothing, accessories

2010-08-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

It’s getting more difficult to keep up with what the Kardashian sisters are doing in the fashion industry.

This week, the sisters announced plans to launch a new clothing, home and accessories line. Kourtney, Khloe and Kim will join with designer Bruno Schiavi and his Australia-based apparel company, Jupi Corp., for their collection of ready-to-wear, bags and belts, and lingerie.

“We are excited to work with Bruno Schiavi in developing our first brand together,” stated the Kardashian sisters in a release. “His expert design sensibilities and amazing creativity, and his genuine understanding of female consumers everywhere make him the ideal partner.”

Look for the first collection to land in stores in 2011, with luggage, shoes and children’s fashion to follow later.

The Kardashian sisters already have a fashion line with Bebe and a swimwear collection with
Beach Bunny.

Paula Abdul in american idol

2010-08-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

Lots of speculations are going around concerning the identity of the new American Idol judges. With Simon Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuardi out, three slots remain to be filled and the Fox folks haven’t confirmed on any of those slots yet.

But whoever fill those positions, Paula Abdul is not going to be one of them. Buzzes were around that Paula, who already served a stint as an Idol judge would have been an ideal substitute for Ellen. But now as it appears, Abdul, according to her deal with CBS’ Got to Dance, cannot appear at any competitive show on any network, broadcast or cable.

“If Paula did Idol she would get sued big-time by Viacom,” a source for E! News dished. “She’s locked in exclusively with CBS.”

The deal with Paula is for “about five years.” So, as the source puts, “Paula has a better chance at winning American Idol than she does at returning as a judge.”
Meanwhile, there is high chance of Jessica Simpson filling one of those slots. Per reports, Jessica has met the Idol producers more than once in last two weeks and talks are reported to be heading to a finalisation.

Elton John and Justin Timberlake, among others, are also said to be in the contention.

Miley Cyrus: all about “Who Owns My Heart

2010-08-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

Miley Cyrus is headed for Detroit, Michigan this weekend. Reportedly Miley will shoot visuals for another single from her album Can’t Be Tamed. After the title track, this time it is turn for “Who Owns My Heart” to get turned into a video.

Ken Baker of E! Online informs that Robert Hales, the one directing the title track video, is at the helm this time too and it has also been known that the present video will be up for only a European release.

However, there is no leakage concerning the way the video is going to be shot. No news as to whether there will be a narrative or just random strobing cuts and people would also like to know about Miley’s attire on the video. But they will have to wait.
Meanwhile there is news that Demi Lovato and Miley, once BF, can hardly find time for each other now.

Many are of the opinion though that they have fallen out and now see themselves more as competitors than friends.

In fact the rift started to open when Demi started dating Joe Jonas from Jonas Brothers. Evidently Miley couldn’t take it in the right spirit then as she was dating another Jonas brothers, Mick Jonas.

Jennifer Aniston’s tryst with a sperm bank

2010-08-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Aniston latest comedy “The Switch” is all set to hit the theatres soon. Aniston plays the role of a single woman who is all set out to look for a sperm donor. In the last Thursday’s edition of the Tonight’s show with Jay Leno, Aniston came forward to promote her latest movie. When Jay asked her whether she had any idea of how a sperm bank worked Aniston seemed to be quite confused at the idea. Aniston was at a loss of words when she replied “You need to get a card at the bank, I really don’t know how it works “

Jay got a bit personal when he questioned Aniston whether she ever thought of visiting a sperm bank to have a child .Aniston simply laughed it off and replied “the question has never been asked to me “ .

Jennifer also spoke about her perfume which is named after her .The actress also admitted that other names were also considered for the perfume such as ‘Clean,’ ‘Air.

The perfume is only available at the Harrods, a departmental store in London .Jennifer also added “other names such as “Lolavie,” were also considered, however I finally zeroed on my name”.
“The Switch,” a comedy also has Jason Batemen in a leading role and is expected to release on August t 20.

Angelina Jolie: Like mother, like children – kids seeking for attention

2010-08-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Angelina Jolie didn’t have a picture perfect childhood, rather a very disturbing one. Even her teenage years were anything that one would like to have. Her wild ways and lifestyles are still famous and she continued to have that till she became a mom of her first adopted son Maddox. The actress have never been shy of talking about the untamed ways she had led before, not her bisexual liaisons

It now seems her children are craving for the attention too. It is very well known at the moment that her little girl Shiloh has an affinity for dressing up like a boy, lopped her hair, wears tie and calls herself John. On the other hand it was reported by Hollywood Life that Angie has bought a manicure kit as a birthday present for her eight year old son Maddox. So is the actress raising her children to be gender confused?

According to a licensed psychotherapist Rebecca Roy who specializes in the entertainment industry, Shiloh is trying to get the attention of her parents. The four year old being closes to her dad Brad tries to identify with him. On the other hand purchase of Maddox’s manicure kit cannot be termed as a Jolie instigating gender confusion.

Rebecca says that she feels Jolie is just allowing her children to express their need and it can just be a passing phase. However, the situation needs to be investigated since two of her kids are in the same situation. Also Angie had been through such turbulent past and it might just influence her kids too and the 35year old actress too had been an attention seeker from her parents.

2010-07-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

£50m to improve cancer drug access

A new £50 million fund has been launched by the Government to give patients access to cancer drugs.

The fund will pay for medicines which can extend life by a few months or improve quality of life but which may have been rejected by the health watchdog as too expensive.

It will also cover drugs currently used off-label by clinicians to treat conditions not covered by the medicine's licence, or those which have yet to be appraised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Doctors working in regional groups will decide how the funding is spent in their area based on advice from cancer specialists.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the fund makes good on a promise the Tories made during the election race to provide money from central budget savings to pay for cancer drugs.

"I promised that I would help patients in England get cancer drugs that are readily available in the rest of Europe," he said.

"Patients should have access to innovative cancer drugs that can extend or improve their quality of life and which their doctors have recommended, which is why I'm determined to take action now."

Before the election, the Tories said the cancer fund would total £200 million, coming from the cash the NHS would save on its national insurance bill to the Treasury, but critics, including experts from the University of Leeds, have said the bill will be far higher and could rise to £600 million.

However, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham questioned how the plans would be funded, claiming that money saved from stopping the National Insurance rise would be cancelled out by a rise in VAT to 17.5% in January.

Mr Burnham also said the Government will be forced to explain why funding for cancer treatments is being prioritised over drugs for other conditions such as Alzheimer's or motor neurone disease.

2010-07-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

Northern Rock finance boss banned for hiding arrears

The misreporting of mortgage arrears led to a false picture of Northern Rock's strength

Northern Rock's former finance director, David Jones, has been fined and banned by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for his part in the misreporting of mortgage arrears.

The FSA fined Mr Jones £320,000 and banned him from performing any function in relation to any regulated activity.

Mr Jones said the penalties were "unfair and disproportionate".

He is now the third former executive from Northern Rock to be banned and fined by the regulator.

In April, two others - the former deputy chief executive David Baker and the former credit director Richard Barclay - were fined a total of £650,000 by the FSA for failing to ensure accurate financial information.

'Pressure'

The FSA found that Mr Jones' misconduct started in mid-January 2007 when he agreed, along with David Baker, to allow false mortgage arrears figures to appear in footnotes accompanying the 2006 annual accounts.

As a result of these actions, Northern Rock left out almost 2,000 repossessions that were pending, but had not yet taken place.

“Start Quote

[David Jones] had numerous opportunities to put things right, but failed to do so”

Margaret ColeFinancial Services Authority

Mr Jones stressed that he had co-operated with the investigation and accepted that he did not ensure that financial information was presented correctly.

But he said the FSA's judgement was too severe: "I consider that the FSA's conclusions and imposed penalty are both unfair and disproportionate."

The FSA said that, from 2005, Northern Rock staff were under pressure to report arrears at half the rate of rivals.

If they had reported correct figures, said the FSA, Northern Rock's arrears would have increased by more than 50%, or repossessions figures by about 300%.

But, crucially, it would also have given investors and depositors a truer picture of the health of the bank.

Mr Jones argued, however, that investors received sufficient information to assess Northern Rock's financial position.

Unsound

Northern Rock relied heavily on positive perceptions in order to attract the funds that catapulted it into becoming the UK's fifth largest lender.

But the credit crisis revealed it as unsound, and its near-collapse resulted in it being nationalised.

Margaret Cole, FSA director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "Jones had a duty to reveal the true position to the public and to important internal committees. He had numerous opportunities to put things right, but failed to do so.

"This is a message to all FSA approved persons, that they must take their individual responsibilities seriously at all times, or suffer the consequences."

2010-07-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

Hans Blix: 'Iraq weapons inspectors were not given enough time'

It was "very hard" for Iraq to declare weapons programmes that did not exist, former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said today.

Dr Blix said UN Security Council resolution 1441, passed four months before the March 2003 invasion, gave Saddam Hussein the "chance for a new start".

He told the Iraq Inquiry he privately believed Saddam had kept weapons of mass destruction, but criticised the short time his Unmovic inspection team was given to search for them.

Dr Blix said he was in favour of resolution 1441, passed on November 8 2002, which declared Iraq in "material breach" of its obligations to disarm and paved the way for the return of weapons inspectors.

"The declaration, I felt, might give Iraq a chance for a new start," he said.

"If they had weapons, which I thought might well be the case, they had an opportunity. Now here it is, they could put the blame on some general or other."

Inquiry panel member Sir Roderic Lyne asked him: "Did you feel that it gave Iraq a realistic possibility of meeting the requirements of the resolution?"

Dr Blix replied: "Yes, except that it was very hard for them to declare any weapons when they didn't have any."

The former weapons inspector said he believed another resolution explicitly authorising military action was needed before attacks could be launched on Iraq.

"To me it was clear that a second resolution was required," he said.

Resolution 1441 said the weapons inspectors should give an update to the UN Security Council within 60 days.

Dr Blix questioned how this worked in practice, particularly in the light of the coalition's initial plans to invade Iraq from the north through Turkey.

He said: "I am a little puzzled, I must say, at how they calculated because the impression was that the invasion would take place through Turkey and that it would occur even in the beginning of January.

"That would have given (a) very very short time to the inspection.

"As it turned out we only had three-and-a-half months, but had they gone into Turkey it would have been even shorter."

He said he told then-prime minister Tony Blair in autumn 2002 of his belief that Saddam had maintained his WMD programmes.

"I, like most people at the time, felt that Iraq retains weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"I did not say so publicly. I said it perhaps to Mr Blair in September 2002 privately, but not publicly."

Dr Blix also spoke of his disquiet at the US national security strategy published in September 2002, which set out the Bush administration's belief in its right to launch pre-emptive attacks.

He said: "The US in 2002, that time you refer to, threw it overboard. I think they were high on military at the time. They said, 'we can do it'."

The former weapons inspector compared attempts to deal with Iraq's supposed WMD in 2002-03 with current efforts to stop Tehran's ambitions to become a nuclear power.

"We have economic pressure against Iran. I do not think that is illegal. I think the use of force against Iran today would be illegal," he said.

2010-07-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan war logs: Wikileaks founder rebuts White House criticism

Julian Assange rejects accusation that publishing thousands of secret US military files about the war in Afghanistan has compromised America's national security

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks a news conference at the Frontline Club in central London. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

The founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks today defended his decision to publish thousands of secret US military files about the war inAfghanistan, faced with criticism from the White House for placing troops in danger.

Julian Assange said his organisation was currently working through a backlog of further secret material and was expecting a "substantial increase in submissions" from whistleblowers after one of the biggest leaks in US military history.

The documents have revealed unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings and information about secret operations against Taliban leaders, as well as highlighting US fears that Pakistan's intelligence service was aiding the Afghan uprising.

Assange rejected accusations that the leak had compromised America's national security. "We are familiar with groups whose abuse we expose attempting to criticise the messenger to distract from the power of the message," he said.

"We don't see any difference in the White House's response to this case to the other groups that we have exposed. We have tried hard to make sure that this material does not put innocents at harm. All the material is over seven months old so is of no current operational consequence, even though it may be of very significant investigative consequence."

Speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club in central London, Assange said that the 90,000 leaked US military documents about the war in Afghanistan would help shape understanding of the past six years of fighting.

Earlier, the White House said the leaks "could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security".

It said that Wikileaks had made no effort to contact US security services, but insisted that what it called the "irresponsible leaks" would not "impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people".

In London, the security minister Lady Neville-Jones, former chair of the UK's joint intelligence committee, described the leak as "really serious stuff" and questioned how the documents had been obtained.

"We don't know how they got that material – it may be a combination of leaking of documents, but also one strongly suspects they have hacked into systems as well.

"This is a very, very big story. But if you stop to think about it for a moment, military systems have to be secure because people's lives are at stake."

The Guardian, along with the New York Times and German weekly Der Spiegel, were given access to the archive and have spent several weeks investigating the logs. In order not to compromise intelligence sources or to put forces at risk, the Guardian has only published a selection of the logs, relating to significant events.

The White House national security adviser, General Jim Jones, stressed that the documents related to a period from January 2004 to December 2009, during the administration of President George Bush and before President Obama ordered a "surge" in Afghanistan.

"President Obama announced a new strategy with a substantial increase in resources for Afghanistan, and increased focus on al-Qaida and Taliban safe havens in Pakistan, precisely because of the grave situation that had developed over several years," he said.

Labour leadership candidate David Miliband, said the "war logs" showed that the war could not be won by military means alone.

"We cannot kill our way out of an insurgency. Instead, the battle for power is fought in the minds of the local population, insurgents and western publics. The purpose of military effort and civilian improvement is to create the conditions for political settlement.

"There is now a race against time to persuade the Afghan people that the correct strategy is in place and show our own people it can succeed. Better Afghan security forces, better police, better schooling and economic opportunities are all vital but not enough. None of them are durable or possible without a political settlement."

Miliband, the former foreign secretary, said any peace settlement "must include the vanquished as well as the victors" and urged the government in Kabul to involve Afghans in "defining a political endgame".

Elsewhere, experts analysed the damage inflicted on the war effort by the leak. British military expert professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said the leaked files were less damaging than the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal but would prove awkward for politicians.

"There is no doubt that the leaks are politically pretty damaging. The papers give an impression of a lack of military discrimination in how operations were conducted. They are also appearing at the worst possible time, particularly in the United States, because people are looking for an exit strategy. This is old bad news at a new bad time."

In the US, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and former Democrat presidential candidate, John Kerry, responded to the leak with a direct challenge to the administration. "However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said.

"Those policies are at a critical stage and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right."

2010-07-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Bolshoi Ballet: Spartacus

Expressive detail … Ivan Vasiliev as Spartacus and Nina Kaptsova as Phrygia. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

A bad performance can make Spartacus feel like the worst kind of choreography-by-numbers. Grigorovich's 1968 ballet delivers its monumental effects by repeating every jump, skip or triumphal salute in multiples of four. The characters switch in blunt succession from heroism to horror, piety to brutality. Khachaturian's score trundles out its themes by rote, and you can find yourself passing the time – all three and three-quarter hours of it – by counting the number of shields and swords being brandished on stage. And then you get performances like this one, with which the Bolshoi opened its summer London season.

Spartacus
Royal Opera House,
London
WC2

Until 8 August
Box office:
020-7304 4000
More details

The power to transform Spartacus from Soviet museum piece to living classic lies primarily in its lead dancer – and the Bolshoi's Ivan Vasiliev is beyond compelling. We know from past appearances that this is a man who has carved out his own virtuosity, through the swivelling, scissoring embellishments of his enormous jump and the inhuman assurance of his pirouettes. But Spartacus also reveals Vasiliev as a maturing artist. He inflects the most juggernaut step with expressive detail – his eyes pooling depths of anguish or hope, his body tugging against captivity. The shape of each split jeté or rivoltade is etched, definitively, in mid-air. Even the standard string of pirouettes with which Spartacus celebrates his leadership of the revolt is reinvented as Vasiliev arches his upper body on each rotation, as if ecstatically breathing the air of freedom.

It's a performance that most dancers could only hope to give once in a lifetime. But magnificent as Vasiliev is, this Spartacus isn't a one-man show. There's a collective commitment in the company's performance that gives a true and sympathetic reading of the ballet's period style. Danced with this degree of intelligence, we get to see exhilarating echoes of old Soviet constructivism in Grigorovich's choreography, especially in the industrial grandeur of its climactic tableaux – the massing of the Roman army; the death of Spartacus. In scenes such as the Russian orgy, we get to appreciate just how radical the hint of 60s free expression and pop-art colour must once have looked.

There are fine individual performances, too. Nina Kaptsova is textbook Phrygia, a wisp of moral rectitude steeled by a revolutionary fervour, and Alexander Volchkov – served by an unlikely, but ideal, mix of Julian Clary prettiness and technical incisiveness – brings a barbed glitter to the role of the narcissistic bully, Crassus.

2010-07-20T09:05:00.002-07:00

Post-Harry Potter, Radcliffe goes goth, Felton goes 'Apes'

AFP/ROBYN BECK

Now that the Harry Potter series has ended filming, the actors will be appearing at Comic-Con in San Diego this weekend to present Part 1 of the final set of films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. After the big reveal, Daniel Radcliffe will start production on the thriller The Woman in Black in 3D later this year.

Based on the gothic novel by Susan Hill and directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake), the story follows Radcliffe as a young lawyer sorting through the estate of a deceased client in her remote old house, when frightening secrets and a ghost seeking revenge surface.

The former Harry Potter has also signed for the remake of World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Journey is the Destination portraying Dan Eldon, artist and photojournalist.

Rupert Grint, aka Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise, will star in the comedy Eddie the Eagle, playing Britain's Olympic ski jumper Eddie Edwards.

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy, is set to join the cast of the upcoming Rise of the Apes, the prequel to the Planet of the Apes. He will co-star with James Franco (Milk, Howl), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), and John Lithgow (Shrek).

He plays the son of Brian Cox's character from the original film, co-owner of an ape facility where genetic engineering experiments create intelligent apes. The film is directed by Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) and is scheduled to hit screens June 24, 2011.

In addition Felton has signed a recording contract with indie label Six Strings. The actor's songs can be heard on his YouTube channel 'Feltbeats' (http://www.youtube.com/user/feltbeats) and are available on iTunes.

2010-07-20T09:05:00.001-07:00

Dizzee Rascal heads up Mercury prize nominations

Some of this year's Mercury nominees describe what it feels like to be nominated.

Dizzee Rascal leads the nominations for this year's Mercury Prize, seven years after winning the trophy for his debut album Boy In Da Corner.

Paul Weller is also in the running alongside The XX, former nominee Laura Marling, indie band Wild Beasts and folk-rock quartet Mumford and Sons.

They are joined by Corinne Bailey Rae, Biffy Clyro, Foals, Villagers, I Am Kloot and the Kit Downes Trio.

The winner of the £20,000 prize will be announced on 7 September.

Mercury Prize 2010

Previous winners have included Speech Debelle, Elbow, Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys.

The prize is open to UK and Irish acts who have released albums over the past year.

The XX are 5/2 favourites to win, according to Ladbrokes.

Ladbrokes spokesman, Nick Weinberg, said: "The XX look like winners in waiting. They seem to tick the right boxes and there's a growing momentum behind them."

One of the tracks from the three-piece's debut album was used by the BBC during the general election coverage.

Villagers are the 25/1 outsiders.

Jazz trio

It is the third nomination for Dizzee Rascal, who won the Mercury prize with his debut album Boy In Da Corner in 2003.

His latest nomination is for Tongue N' Cheek - he was also in the running in 2007 for Maths + English.

Weller received his first nomination in 1994 for the album Wild Wood. This time around his album Wake Up The Nation has been recognised.

Marling is nominated for a second time for her latest album I Speak Because I Can, having been shortlisted in 2008 for her debut Alas, I Cannot Swim

Bailey Rae's album The Sea deals with the sudden death of her husband two years ago.

The xx perform their song Intro on Newsnight

Its opening lines, dedicated to her late husband Jason Rae, are: "He's a real live-wire, he's the best of his kind, wait till you see those eyes".

"Making the record has meant a lot to me," she said at the nominations ceremony. "I'm really pleased."

The Kit Downes Trio are an acoustic jazz outfit who are on the list for their album Golden.

Oxford band Foals and Wild Beasts are both nominated for their second albums.

Ayrshire band Biffy Clyro are recognised for their latest offering Only Revolutions.

"That's a particularly wonderful way to start a Tuesday. What a lovely surprise!," the band posted on Twitter.

Villagers' debut album Becoming A Jackal is also included, along with Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons' - the London-based band were formed three years ago.

Manchester's I Am Kloot, who have been together for more than 10 years, are nominated for their fifth album Sky At Night. It was produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter.

2010-07-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

British parliament protest camp removed

LONDON — Bailiffs cleared away a sprawling protest camp in front of the British parliament in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday, although evicted demonstrators vowed to re-appear elsewhere in London.

Officials descended at 1:00 am (0000 GMT) on Parliament Square, in the heart of the city, to drag away a few dozen protesters and remove the ramshackle collection of tents, banners and straw bales used as toilets.

The protesters had been camped on the grassy square since May 1 to protest against the war in Afghanistan and a range of other issues, but a court ruled last week that their "Democracy Village" could not remain.

It took about 60 bailiffs four hours to remove the protesters after a few tied themselves to scaffolding.

Some of the protesters complained they had been roughly treated.

Activist Howard Rees, 30, said the eviction was "pretty unpleasant" and claimed the bailiffs were "pretty brutal".

"They were putting the boot into people while they were on the floor," he told AFP.

But London's Metropolitan Police said no arrests were made.

A fence was thrown up around the square, while cleaners got to work on the mess left behind by the demonstrators.

Parliament Square contains the statues of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln.

It sits amid UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the iconic Palace of Westminster parliament building, and the historic Westminster Abbey.

But London authorities said it had been turned into a squalid, nauseating eyesore by the protesters, who were stopping the general public from enjoying the square.

The activists on Friday lost an appeal against eviction in a battle with London Mayor Boris Johnson.

By the morning rush hour, at least a dozen demonstrators remained at the site.

"People from 'Democracy Village' are going to carry on with this protest. We're not going away," said Pete Phoenix, a 36-year-old protester with blond dreadlocks and sunglasses.

"Lots of areas around the city are going to be taken over in the next few days and weeks.

"Our spirit is stronger after this eviction," he told AFP, saying the camp had "raised awareness around the world" about Britain's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Workers at the square said it would be re-turfed due to the damage caused to the grass by protesters.

The High Court in London granted eviction orders last month sought by Johnson, but their enforcement was delayed pending the outcome of the appeal.

In the appeal ruling Friday, judge David Neuberger said that although the land was owned by the Crown, the mayor of London had power to act over the square.

"We are relieved this dreadful blight of Parliament Square has finally come to an end, and look forward to it being restored to its previous condition so all Londoners can visit and enjoy it," Westminster City Council leader Colin Barrow said on Tuesday.

He said authorities "must find a way to help prevent it being hijacked by vociferous minorities whose primary intent seems to turn this World Heritage Site into a squalid campsite."

A hand-written list of items removed from the square and seen by AFP included 20 tents, 20 to 30 sleeping bags, quilts and pillows, flags, a music system, a beer barrel and, curiously, a sail boat.

The eviction does not affect veteran protester Brian Haw, who has been camped on the roadside opposite parliament since 2001.

Haw has not been glad of the company, calling the "Democracy Village" protesters "deliberately unreasonable, even depraved and outrageous".

2010-07-20T09:04:00.001-07:00

Health chief tells of challenge facing NHS

By Joe Willis »

The head of the NHS in the North-East has been appointed to oversee the Government’s radical health service reforms. Joe Willis spoke to Ian Dalton about the proposals.

THE NHS is facing one of the biggest overhauls in its 62- year history.

Under plans announced by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, hospitals will become more autonomous and GPs will be handed responsibility for buying services for their patients.

In addition, thousands of NHS managers could find themselves out of work as the country’s ten strategic health authorities and 152 primary care trusts are abolished.

While unions and Labour MPs have criticised the plans, Ian Dalton describes the details in the White Paper as dramatic and exciting.

The chief executive of NHS North-East has been appointed by the Department of Health as managing director of provider development.

For at least the next year, he will oversee the coalition Government’s vision for the NHS.

As well as working with acute hospitals and community- based services to implement the changes, he will help design a new healthcare regulation system.

The appointment comes after Mr Dalton was hired by the Government to co-ordinate the country’s response to the swine flu pandemic.

It is also reward for the high regard the NHS in the North- East is held.

Mr Dalton told The Northern Echo yesterday he had accepted the job because it gave him “an opportunity to make a national contribution” to the future of the NHS.

He said the new NHS would give patients more choice about where and when they had their treatment.

He said giving GPs the power to procure services would put them in the “driving seat” on behalf of the patients.

However, with many GPs expected to seek help from private health companies to buy services, critics say the NHS is facing privatisation by the back door.

In response, Mr Dalton said the changes were the next stage of the NHS’s development, and added: “I do not think the Government sees it as privatisation.”

Currently about 4,000 people work for primary care trusts and the strategic health authority in the North-East.

Opposition MPs and unions leaders are fearful of large numbers of redundancies.

Mr Dalton confirmed that the Government wanted a significant reduction in NHS management resources, but said that would mean more resources for the front line.

His appointment has also drawn criticism from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which said the NHS should not be taking on more executives with sixfigure salaries.

Mr Dalton said it was not for him to answer if he was worth the money, and added: “Like everyone who works in the NHS, I just want to do the best I can for the patients.”

2010-07-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

David Cameron is right: The special relationship will withstand these storms

It is the politics of the kindergarten to suggest that a momentary squabble over BP or the Lockerbie bomber might destroy decades of ideological kinship between Britain and America, argues Tom Rowley.

David Cameron has warned Britain not to fret about the special relationship Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND

The couple’s relationship had soured. One was described as “frantic” to organise a reunion, desperately fighting to keep alive a flame that had long since burnt out. The other was equally keen to avoid any meeting, scurrying off embarrassedly when the pair accidently met in the kitchen. To the world they said their relationship had never been better; to their friends the cracks were all too apparent.

This was not last night’s Eastenders, but the way in which Barack Obama’s briefer than usual meeting with Gordon Brown last September was berated by the media. The “special relationship” was in mortal peril, we were told, after the President of the United States had apparently engineered to demonstrate his disapproval of Brown’s actions in a show of amateur dramatics that would have disgraced the lowliest of touring theatre companies.

That episode plastered over and, nine months on,David Cameron has flown out to meet Mr Obama for a crisis meeting amid speculation that the special relationship is at its lowest ebb yet.

As our American friends would say: get real. “Special” is not a synonym for “placid”.

For more than 60 years the UK has enjoyed a close relationship with a country that shares far more than its language. The nations are joined by an overarching worldview that can broadly be characterised as liberal, even if the British Left would despair at being grouped together with the religious reactionaries of the Tea Party movement.

But that is not to say that they have not disagreed. It is the politics of the kindergarten to suggest that a momentary squabble over a specific policy might destroy at a stroke decades of ideological kinship. Both sides know this, but find it politically useful to play up to the theatre of the bilateral meeting, by being seen to win “concessions” from the other side that are in reality piddling marginalia when compared to this broad consensus.

Indeed, the relationship was under far more pressure in the immediate post-war years - the time the press lionises as a honeymoon phase, when Winston Churchill first praised “the special relationship”. In fact, tempers were certainly tested in London when, bankrupt after six years of fighting, America called in its war loans immediately. Economist John Maynard Keynes was despatched to the US to humiliatingly beg for the loans to be extended - and returned with a long list of American demands. Today, Keynes would scarcely have got to the airport before press headlines would gleefully chronicle the strain on the special relationship.

The partnership endured similar supposed life-or-death tests during almost every post-war premiership. The toadying sycophancy towards Washigton exhibited by Tony Blair was the exception, not the rule.

Britain is manifestly not the only important strategic ally of the US, a country whose GDP is six times that of the UK and more than twice even that of its nearest rival. But America embodies a particular view of freedom - both economic and political - to which the UK largely subscribes. There will always remain scope for the two countries to work closely together in both of their interests while that consensus remains.

Cameron’s emphasis on the long-term over temporal spats should therefore be welcomed, as should his pragmatic willingness to admit to Britain’s “junior” role in this partnership.

At last we have a Prime Minister at ease with history, who understands that it is ridiculous to assert supposed equality with a country that dwarfs our resources - while underlining that being the underdog does not mean playing the poodle, as Mr Blair too frequently forgot.

So, reading coverage of Mr Cameron’s visit tonight, expect disagreements over BP and vigorous discussions about al-Megrahi’s release. Just don’t expect this to have the slightest impact on international relations - to the world stage, they are mere noises off
.

2010-07-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

Biffy turn to Satan in new vid

Bog off ... Biffy Clyro

BIFFY CLYRO will not only be celebrating the release of new vid God & Satan this week.

But also the prestigious honour of being nominated for a Mercury Music Prize.

It was announced today that the Scot rockers will battle DIZZEE RASCAL, THE XX and PAUL WELLER for the sought after accolade.

And while SIMON, BEN and JAMES have to wait until September to find out if they've won, you don't have to wait a minute longer to see their vid as we've got our mitts on an exclusive look.

CORIN HARDY, who also gave us THE PRODIGY's Warrior Dance, shot the stunning pagan-themed vid.

During the shoot, frontman Simon accidentally lost his wedding ring after being submerged in a swampy lake.

The singer was devastated until divers were called to the Sussex location and saved the day by finding it.

God & Satan hits shelves on August 23.

2010-07-20T08:53:00.001-07:00

US, Russia to join East Asia Summit

HANOI — Southeast Asian countries have agreed to invite the United States and Russia to join a key regional dialogue on issues ranging from security to trade and the environment, Indonesia said Tuesday.

Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had decided to deepen engagement with Washington and Moscow by expanding the 16-nation East Asia Summit (EAS).

Diplomats said their inclusion would also help to "counterbalance" the dominance of regional superpower China.

"We are in one mind in recognising that the principal modality for the integration or the involvement or engagement of the Russian Federation and the United States in the region is through the EAS expansion," Natalegawa said on the sidelines of an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Vietnam.

The EAS currently comprises the 10 ASEAN states plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

Its leaders hold an annual meeting that coincides with the yearly ASEAN summit.

There had been concerns by some ASEAN members about the group's central role under the expanded EAS, but in the end the foreign ministers decided to rope the United States and Russia into the group, he said.

Diplomats said closer ties with the United States and Russia will provide a balancing role as China's economic and military influence rises in the region.

"There must be a counterbalance, otherwise one country will dominate," a Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP, referring to China.

"ASEAN can play a central role because it is a friend to all the major powers," the diplomat said.

The EAS is heavy on the trade agenda, with ASEAN already forging two-way free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, India, China, Japan and South Korea.

Ideas have been floated about the possibility of a massive free-trade pact involving all 16 countries, but discussions in the EAS also covers topics such as security and environmental issues.

A second ASEAN diplomat said the move to include the US and Russia in an expanded EAS would "preempt" the emergence of other regional groupings that could dilute's ASEAN's role.

Last year, proposals for two other regional groupings emerged. Japan raised the idea of an East Asian Community focused on economic ties, while Australia's then-prime minister Kevin Rudd mooted an Asia-Pacific Community that would include the US.

2010-07-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Geoengineering can't please everyone

Adding aerosols to the atmosphere will not counter global warming in all regions.

Richard A. Lovett

Releasing sulphates from aeroplanes would not ward off the effects of global warming equally well for all regions of the world.iStockphoto

Attempting to offset global warming by injecting sunlight-reflecting gases into the upper atmosphere isn't the quick fix for global climate change that advocates believe it might be, a new study finds.

In a paper published today in Nature Geoscience¹, Kate Ricke, a climate physicist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and her colleagues show, by modelling, that not only could solar-radiation management lead to declines in rainfall in the long term, but its effects will also vary by region. Some places will be over-cooled by atmospheric changes that are too small to be effective for their neighbours.

The gases under consideration are sulphur compounds that would produce sulphate aerosols in the upper atmosphere. Geoengineering advocates have proposed injecting large quantities of these materials into the stratosphere, either by shooting them up in artillery shells or releasing them from high-flying aeroplanes. Once there, they would disperse into a thin, bright haze that would reflect enough sunlight back into space to partially or completely offset global warming.

“It confirms that it is not possible to control both temperature and precipitation using stratospheric geoengineering.”

The goal would be to mimic the effects of volcanoes eruptions such as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, which blasted enough sulphates into the stratosphere to temporarily reduce the global temperature by nearly half a degree. Geoengineers propose mimicking this on ever-expanding scales, so that increasing levels of greenhouse gases are offset by ever-greater levels of sunlight reduction.

The new study found that it is fairly easy to design sulphate-injection scenarios that keep the temperature stable until 2080. But, unfortunately, the change in sunlight alters other weather patterns. "It changes the distribution of energy in the troposphere so that it becomes more convectively stable," Ricke says. The result: decreasing precipitation.

Temporary fix

Regional effects are also important. For example, Ricke says, her study found that levels of sulphate that kept China closest to its baseline climate were so high that they made India cold and wet. Those that were best for India caused China to overheat. She notes, however, that both countries fared better either way than under a no-geoengineering policy.

The modellers also found that all of these effects get worse with time. "The compensation is imperfect," Ricke says. "The longer you do it, the more imperfect it becomes."

Click for a larger version of this image.Ricke, K. L., Morgan, M. G. & Allen, M. R. Nature Geosci.

Thus, she says, this type of geoengineering is at best a temporary fix — something people working in the field had always known because it does nothing to prevent the accumulation of carbon dioxide and the resulting acidification of the oceans. "But it might be even more temporary than people had expected."

Other scientists are impressed. "I think the paper is great," says Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology, in Stanford, California. "I offered Kate a postdoc based on these results."

Alan Robock, a geophysicist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, agrees. "It confirms that it is not possible to control both temperature and precipitation using stratospheric geoengineering," he says.

Cloud computing

The researchers used a global climate model, called HadCM3L, from the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, UK. To run their simulations, however, they made use ofclimateprediction.net, a climate-forecasting experiment in which thousands of people volunteer to have their home computers do climate simulations when inactive. "This is something that people can sign up for on home computers that sit idle most of the day," Caldeira says. "When the computer notices it is idle for a while, it starts running climate models."

Caldeira and Robock are impressed by the use of Climateprediction.net, but Caldeira points out that as the team only used one model, some of Ricke's specific findings, such as the details of the India–China disparity, might be model-specific.

"I don't think climate modelling is at the point where we should trust one single model at that scale," Caldeira says. "But I think the results are robust in the sense that it's the kind of issue that people will need to face. The qualitative idea is that you're going to have differential results in different regions, and that's going to cause people to want different amounts of this stuff up there, if they want any of it up there at all."

Ricke agrees. "We don't intend these results to give a definitive indication of what's going to happen," she says. "It's more an illustration of the type of regional effect you would see."

2010-07-20T08:52:00.001-07:00

AIDS breakthrough: vaginal gel helps block virus

View larger image

A drop of microbicide gel is photographed as it is squeezed from an applicator at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa, Friday Oct. 28. (AP / Denis Farrell)

Researchers at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna are claiming a huge victory, saying they have developed a vaginal gel that can significantly reduce a woman's risk of contracting HIV.

Women in South Africa who volunteered to test the gel cut their chances of contracting the virus by 50 per cent after one year of use and 39 per cent after 2 1/2 years, compared to a gel that contained no medicine.

The researchers also discovered that the gel cut in half the chances of getting HSV-2, the virus that causes genital herpes.

Scientists call the gel a breakthrough in the search for a way to help women whose partners refuse to use condoms.

"We are giving hope to women," Michel Sidibe, the executive director of the World Health Organization's UNAIDS program, said in a statement. A gel could "help us break the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic," he said.

Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, called it a "historic day for HIV prevention research."

"We congratulate the trial sponsors, scientific collaborators, and partners who conducted this trial, and especially want to thank the nearly 900 South African women whose altruism and commitment as trial volunteers made this effort possible," Warren said in a news release.

The gel is colourless and odourless and spiked with the AIDS antiretroviral drug, tenofovir. It's inserted into the vagina using an applicator that resembles a tampon applicator before and after intercourse.

The trial of 889 women in both an urban community and a rural community showed that the women largely used the gel as directed, suggesting the product should work in the real world.

Women who used the gel more consistently were much less likely to be infected. A survey revealed that 99 per cent of the women said they would use the gel consistently if they knew for sure that it prevented HIV.

The gel also seemed safe; the only observed side effect was mild diarrhea. What's more, researchers say the gel is cheap: The microbicide is cheap to produce, and the gel itself cost only pennies. Even the applicator is inexpensive, at just 32 cents each.

Nearly 20 years of research have gone into development of a vaginal gel that could be controlled by a woman. Researchers made their breakthrough after finding that in studies in monkeys, tenofovir appeared to protect against both vaginal and rectal HIV infection.

Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, described the findings as "exciting".

"We look forward to seeing these results confirmed. Once they have been shown to be safe and effective, the WHO will work with countries and partners to accelerate access to these products," she said in a statement to the Vienna conference.

About half the people living with HIV in the world are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, more women are infected than men.

The researchers say they are optimistic that with further work, they can improve the microbicide gel's efficacy even further. Researchers are already working on another trial larger of the gel which will involve 5,000 women in South Africa, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe, to further test the gel's safety and efficacy.

2010-07-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

guardian.co.uk's tea-time take on the world of football

$tevie Says Relax, I'm Staying At Liverpool

Wrestle for the right to play behind Fernando Torres? Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire/Press Association Images

WHERE THERE IS HODGSON THERE IS HOPE

It was Roy Keane, of all people, who cooed last year that "all football managers are romantics." No, the smouldering Irishman was not suggesting that gaffers up and down the land spend their evenings trying to arrange the perfect bouquet of flowers, penning winsome verse or serenading sweet maidens under moonlit balconies. What he meant was that managers devote their lives to the pursuit of a dream.

By way of classic example we could cite another Roy: Mr Hodgson. Hodgson's irrelevant playing career petered out when he was just 27 but his football dream didn't. Within months he took charge of Swedish small potatoes Halmstad, where the players, nearly half of whom were older than him, initially viewed him the same sort of suspicion that veteran boozers eye teenage teetotalers. Once he explained his vision and method, however, they were convinced – and, hey presto, that season the presumed relegation certainties won the league for the first time in their history!

Hodgson the Wandering Conjurer has performed similar tricks all over Europe ever since, with very few mishaps en route (Kevin Davies to Blackburn was the rabbit that died in the hat), and all that magic and dream-chasing finally paid off earlier this month when the 62-year-old was appointed to what he calls "the biggest job in football". There is, of course, a grave risk that the position of Liverpool manager will mutate into a nightmare, what with the club still being in the clutches of Duke and Duke from Trading Places, Fernando Torres breaking down more often than peace talks in the Middle East and the whole mood about Anfield being about as uplifting as a grand piano dropped from a great height.

But where there is Hodgson, there is hope. Joe Cole listened to his dream, and now he's a believer. And that, in turn, appears to have converted $tevie Mbe too. "Joe has proved his ability over many years in the Premier League - sometimes against us - so it will be fantastic to play alongside him in a red shirt for Liverpool," hurrahed Mbe. "I wanted the chance to meet Roy Hodgson privately and having done so, I'm very impressed with his plans for the future," added the England captain, who, in fairness, had already moved to dampen speculation linking him with moves to the likes of Real Madrid ... by performing like an incorrigible galoot at the World Cup.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"A brief statement on the Galatasaray website on Monday said that the 31-year-old would officially sign the deal after a routine medical" - in what is almost certainly the greatest misuse of the word 'routine' in the history of journalism, Reuters break the news that knack-prone Sheilaroo Harry Kewell is about to ink a one-year contract extension in Turkey.

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FIVER LETTERS

"Re: Roy Hodgson's tactics (yesterday's Fiver). If Selfridges can do a Christmas tree formation in August why can't Roy?" - John McLaren.

"Re: the Capello Index (yesterday's Fiver). I wonder if a blazer at the FA will return from his summer holiday and take 12 minutes to inform Mr Capello that his actions have undermined his standing with the team and that he is being demoted to trainer. A queue of unsuitable backroom staff can then take it in turns to be manager dependent upon injury and pecking order" - Ian Richards.

"The 'revolution' Mike Hopkin speaks of (yesterday's Fiver letters) doesn't bear close scrutiny. The Australia Act 1986 may well have purported to end all Westminster's 'colonial powers' over the Lucky Country. But this statute itself was passed by the UK parliament. What the British parliament can give, it can also take away. It's not exactly the Boston Tea Party. When you have your referendum and/or declare independence properly come speak to us again, pal" - Davorder Griffiths.

"Re: your Liverpool signing Joe Cole/Simply Red link. I wasn't going to write in but Something Got Me Started. Now that Liverpool fans have A New Flame the Men and Women of that fine city will be reaching once more for the Stars. Children will collect photos of Joe Cole to put in their Picture Book, life will be Simplified once more. Someone stop me. Come to My Aid. Please" - Dexter Varley.

Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver now.

BITS AND BOBS

Tottenham claim they've banned vuvuzelas because their high-pitched drone could drown out the sound of "important emergency safety announcements". Arsenal, meanwhile, are doing the same to preserve the "enjoyment and safety of supporters on matchdays, which is of paramount importance to the club".

Free agent, Beluga-whale-lookalike and non-impact-making former Aston Villa impact substitute Marlon Harewood has been offered a two-year deal with the Pope's O'Rangers.

Derby County manager Nigel Clough has denied reports linking striker Rob Hulse with a £1m move to Premier League side Blackpool. Yes, Premier League side Blackpool. It still sounds weird, doesn't it?

STILL WANT MORE?

Strap on your shinpads and clamber aboard the Pain Train - it's the Mark van Bommel Gallery.

Barney Ronay took time out from lovingly carving 'BR+JC' into a tree-trunk to rattle out this 908-word paean to new Liverpool recruit Joe Cole.

Hankering after some half-hearted pre-season kickabout action featuring Arsenal, the Queen's Celtic, Lyon and AC Milan? We've tickets for the Emirates Cup to give away.

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EVERY MINUTE OF THE FUTURE/ IS A MEMORY OF THE PAST

2010-07-20T08:51:00.001-07:00

More phonemakers condemn Apple's defence of iPhone 4

HTC, Samsung and Motorola have joined Nokia and BlackBerry-makers Research in Motion in hitting back at Apple's attempt to claim that the reception problems afflicting its new iPhone are an industry-wide phenomenon.

Apple's Steve Jobs has apologised to disgruntled Apple customers over antenna problems with the iPhone 4 Photo: AP

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has come under fire from more mobile manufacturers, following his attempt to say the iPhone 4's reception problems are not unique to his company's device. Yesterday the Telegraph reported thatRIM and Nokia hit back at Apple's defence of iPhone 4 and now Samsung, HTC and Motorola have all condemned Mr Jobs for saying that the antenna issue affecting the iPhone 4 is "a challenge for the whole industry".

Will fans risk another bite of the Apple?

During a press conference at Apple's Californian headquarters on Friday, Mr Jobs attempted to highlight the reception deficiencies of phones made by RIM, Samsung, HTC and Nokia, showing "evidence" from the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II.

"The reception problems are certainly not common among smartphones," HTC CFO Hui-Meng Chengtold the Wall Street Journal, adding "[Apple] apparently didn't give operators enough time to test the phone."

Motorola's co-CEO Sanjay Jha has also told the Wall Street Journal that his company's labs have also been able to demonstrate that the iPhone 4 suffers from greater attenuation than equivalent phones when held.

RIM's co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsille said over the weekend: "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation."

Mr Jobs has apologised to disgruntled Apple customers and promised to give away a free case with every iPhone 4 sold until September.

The RIM executives added: "One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry to maintain proper connectivity."

Nokia has also launched a strident defence of its phones. The company said: "We prioritise antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict."

2010-07-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

BA cabin crew reject latest pay offer

The dispute between BA and its Unite unionised workers has been long-running and bitter

British Airways cabin crew have rejected the airline's latest "final" pay offer by 3,419 votes to 1,686.

Almost half the 11,000 affected Unite union members voted on BA's offer of a 2.9% pay rise next year with 3% the year after.

The no vote raises the prospect of new strikes in a dispute which has roots stretching back to before Christmas.

Unite urged BA to hold fresh talks. BA said it was "encouraged" by the result and called on Unite to end the dispute.

In a statement, BA said: "We are encouraged by the result of this ballot which shows that 73% of our cabin crew did not reject our offer."The number of votes cast - just over 5,000 - represented less than half of the unionised cabin crew and was well below previous ballots that saw more than 70% of them express their views.

It also said the union had lost the moral authority to represent the views of cabin crew.

'Jaw-jaw'

But the joint-leader of the Unite union, Tony Woodley, said that the result suggested 85% of BA's staff were not happy with the offer, although he accepted that the turnout had been low.

He said the time had come for further talks. "Lets get round the table - lets solve the problem. Now this offer has been rejected lets 'jaw jaw' and not 'war war' with Willie Walsh."

Despite Mr Woodley's emphasis on fresh talks, he did not rule out another ballot for a strike.

Since March, the union has taken strike action on 22 days in a bitter industrial dispute that has cost BA more than £150m.

Mixed offer

The BA proposal had also included other elements, including a promise not to victimise staff who have taken part in the often-bitter dispute and a partial re-instatement of staff travel benefits.

Unite did not give its members a guiding opinion on the offer, leaving them to make up their own minds.

However, one of its cabin crew branches, Bassa, had broken down the various elements of the proposed settlement into two lists, of "good" and "bad" points.

It had viewed as "good" the actual pay offer, the promise that work at Gatwick airport could be increased, and the promise of non-victimisation of workers caught up in disciplinary cases.

It had also welcomed the pledge to partially reinstate of staff travel, although this has become the most hotly contested element and also makes it on to the "bad" list - because the promise is only for partial restoration of these.

Lost perks

Before the industrial action, staff built up rights to discounted flights which grew with their length of service. BA has withdrawn the long-service element of these for workers who took action, meaning they have lost perks acquired over the years.

Other "bad" points cited by Bassa included the "vastly reduced" terms and conditions for new staff, and what it says is continued dismissal of staff in what it calls a "disproportionate and unfair way".

The airline views the changes to new recruits' conditions as crucial to its future success as it battles against other carriers whose staff are cheaper to employ. It says it must cut costs substantially to return to profit.

In May, BA reported its biggest annual loss since it was privatised in 1987 - £531m ($788m) in the 12 months to March.

The dispute started last year over BA's plans to cut costs by reducing the number of cabin crew on aircraft, but the row intensified after the airline withdrew travel concessions from staff who went on strike.

Relations worsened after BA took disciplinary action against union members as a result of the dispute, including a number of sackings which Unite now says have reached double figures.

2010-07-20T08:50:00.002-07:00

Iraq war increased terrorist threat to the UK, former MI5 chief tells Chilcot Inquiry

The war in Iraq led to a huge increase in the terrorist threat to the UK, the former head of MI5 has told the Iraq Inquiry.

Link to this video

Baroness Manningham-Buller added that the decision to remove Saddam Hussein had caused a "long-term major and strategic problem" for Britain by allowing al-Qaeda time to build a stronghold in Afghanistan unnopposed.

She told the inquiry: "Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people - not a whole generation, a few among a generation - who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam…

“Arguably we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad so that he was able to move into Iraq in a way that he was not before.”

The inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot, released a memo written by Baroness Manningham-Buller in March 2002, in which she warned the Government that declaring war on Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attacks in the UK.

The note made clear that MI5 did not regard Iraq as a significant terrorist threat to British interests before the war, and had discounted any link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Baroness Manningham-Buller, then deputy director-general of the Security Service, also revealed that MI5 refused to provide evidence for the Government's now-infamous dossier on Saddam's military capability because it doubted the credibility of the information.

"We were asked to put in some low-grade, small intelligence to it and we refused because we didn't think it was reliable," she said.

She said the intelligence on Iraqi WMD - most of which came from the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 - used to justify the invasion had been "fragmentary" and did not justify the weight placed upon it.

"If you are going to go to war, you need a pretty high threshold, it seems to me, to decide on that and I think there is very few who would argue that the intelligence was not substantial enough on which to make that decision," she said.

She said the decision to go to war in Iraq meant that insufficient attention was paid to Afghanistan.

"By focusing on Iraq we reduced the focus on the al Qaida threat in Afghanistan. I think that was a long-term major and strategic problem," she said.

2010-07-20T08:50:00.001-07:00

Majorca holiday plunge girl still critical

The teenager is being treated in hospital in the capital, Palma

A teenager from Lancashire who fell seven floors from a Spanish holiday apartment remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

Grace Ford, 17, who recently completed her A-levels at Kirkham Grammar School, near Blackpool, fell from the balcony in Magaluf, Majorca, on Saturday.

She suffered multiple injuries in the fall at the Torrenova Playa hotel.

Edward Soppet, 18, of Buckinghamshire, is due in court accused of failing to help in connection with the accident.

Mr Soppet was arrested after the incident and later released, but will appear before a judge in Palma, the island's capital, on Monday.

Injuries 'serious'

Grace, form Greenhalgh near Blackpool, was in an indoor patio area in the beach-front apartment complex when she fell from the window, Spanish police said.

Her parents - Chris and Susan - have flown out to the island to visit her at the Son Dureta University Hospital in Palma, where she is receiving treatment.

The sixth form pupil broke her pelvis, both legs and an arm in the fall in the early hours of Saturday.

A spokeswoman described her injuries as "very serious" and described her condition as critical.

Grace's brother told the BBC she had been placed in an induced coma and was in a stable condition.

Ms Ford is understood to have been visiting the island with a group of sixth-form friends from the fee-paying school.

2010-07-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

Iraq inquiry: Eliza Manningham-Buller's devastating testimony

The former head of MI5's evidence to the Chilcot panel is a savage indictment of the Blair administration and its advisers

Eliza Manningham-Buller told the Chilcot inquiry she was not surprised that UK citizens were involved in the July 7 London bombings. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

In straightforward, devastating testimony, Eliza Manningham-Buller told the Chilcot inquiry how she had warned about what sensible – but mostly frightened to speak out – senior Whitehall officials believed in 2003: that the invasion of Iraq would increase the terrorist threat to the UK.

More than once, the former head of MI5 emphasised to the Chilcot inquiry that the invasion exacerbated the terrorist threat to the UK and was a "highly significant" factor in how "home-grown" extremists justified their actions.

"Our involvement in Iraq radicalised a few among a generation of young people who saw [it] as an attack upon Islam," she said.

Manningham-Buller said she was therefore not surprised that UK citizens were involved in the 7/7 suicide attacks in London or by the increase in the number of Britons "attracted to the ideology of Osama bin Laden" who saw the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as threatening their co-religionists and the Muslim world".

The invasion of Iraq "undoubtedly" increased the terrorist threat in Britain, she said.

There was no evidence of any link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida – not even the CIA believed that – Manningham-Buller reminded the inquiry as she pointed to the alternative agenda-driven "intelligence service" set up at the Pentagon by Donald Rumsfeld.

Arguably, she added, it was the US and Britain who, by invading Iraq, "gave Osama bin Laden the Iraqi jihad".

Joint Intelligence Committee assessments warned ministers that an invasion would increase the threat to Britain. If they read them, she said, they would have been in no doubt.

She warned Home Office ministers and officials of the consequences of an invasion but, in a pointed remark, suggested she rarely saw Tony Blair in one-to-one meetings. She added: "The head of SIS [MI6] saw him more frequently than I did".

And what did Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, tell Blair about the alleged weapons of mass destruction threat posed by Saddam? We still do not know.

Manningham-Buller referred more than once to Sir David Omand, the government's security and intelligence coordinator at the time, who gave evidence to Chilcot earlier this year.

MI6 had "over-promised and under-delivered" when it came to Iraq, Omand said.

She was asked what lessons had been learned from the invasion, and replied: "The danger of over-reliance on fragmentary intelligence in deciding whether or not to go to war. Very few would argue that the intelligence was substantial enough to make that decision."

That is a savage indictment of the Blair administration and its advisers who, unlike Manningham-Buller, kept mum at the time.

2010-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

Lockerbie questions 'for British government'

Kenny MacAskill said the questions to be answered were for the UK government

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said questions being asked about the Lockerbie bomber are matters for the UK government.

Prime Minister David Cameron is to meet US senators to discuss allegations BP lobbied for his release.

Mr MacAskill said he refused a bid to move Abelbaset Ali al-Megrahi to a Libyan jail under a prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya.

Instead he released him on health grounds due to his terminal cancer.

BP has admitted lobbying the UK government in 2007 over a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya, but denied specifically discussing the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.Senators from New York and New Jersey want to meet Mr Cameron over the release of al-Megrahi.

A prisoner transfer request was made by Libya in May 2009, less than a week after a treaty allowing prisoners to be transferred was ratified.

However, Mr MacAskill stressed that when he released al-Megrahi in August last year it was not under that deal.

"We can understand the questions that are being asked in the United States regarding oil and what may or may not have been done by the British government," he said.

Kenny MacAskill: "We're happy to assist in matters, but we'll have to wait and see what the US formally requests"

"These relate to the prisoner transfer agreement, to the application made by Mr al-Megrahi.

"I refused that because I too had concerns as to what may or may not have been done and whether it had been made an assurance to families that he would serve his sentence here."

He said he could understand the questions being raised by the US Secretary of State and senators.

"But these are questions that have to be answered by the British government," he said.

"It was the British government that perhaps did a deal in the desert but that will be for them to state and for the senators to discover."

MP wants British ban on Islamic veil

2010-07-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

LONDON — A British lawmaker is refusing to meet female Muslim constituents who wear face-covering veils and has proposed a law banning the practice altogether, he said on Saturday.
Philip Hollobone, a member of parliament (MP) from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, wants to see a French-style ban on women covering their faces in public, although his bill stands little chance of becoming law.
However, in his own constituency of Kettering in central England, he is demanding that women who wear veils and want to meet with him at his constituency surgeries remove them.
"If she said: 'No', I would take the view that she could see my face, I could not see hers, I am not able to satisfy myself she is who she says she is," he told the Independent newspaper.
"I would invite her to communicate with me in a different way, probably in the form of a letter."
He added: "God gave us faces to be expressive. It is not just the words we utter but whether we are smiling, sad, angry or frustrated. You don't get any of that if your face is covered."
There are around 400 Muslims living in Kettering, according to the local Muslim association, out of a total population in the town of over 50,000.
Hollobone has also tabled a bill in parliament to regulate certain face coverings, although it will not be debated until December and is highly unlikely to become law due to lack of government support.
This week, French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public in a bill which will now go to the Senate for approval.
A poll out Friday found that two-thirds of Britons would support a similar ban.
In 2006, former foreign secretary Jack Straw sparked fierce debate by saying he asked Muslim women to lift their veils during meetings with him in his constituency.

Jennifer Hewitt Promises For Cleaner Roles

2010-07-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

The American actress Jennifer Love Hewitt has assured her mum to take up decent roles in the near future after she expressed concern for her daughter’s recent provocative projects.
The actress was recently wrapped filming on TV movie ‘The Client List’, in which she stars as a desperate wife who emphasizes on a career as a prostitute to feed her family.

Hewitt admitted that her mother had no disturbed feelings about her latest acting role, but she hopes her gorgeous daughter will choose more family-friendly jobs in the future.

"She was very supportive. But then a week ago she was like, ''So, let's review the last year, shall we?'' For 15 years people have been talking about your boobs in the press. You wrote about your woo-ha in a book and now you're playing a crack-ho on TV.'' I was like, ''Yeah...'' So she was like, ''Can we do an animated move next? Can you play Cinderella on Broadway or something?” says Hewitt.

“I was like, OK, I'll clean it up, right after this one, I promise!’’

Elizabeth Banks To Play Tinkerbell

2010-07-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

It seems Tinkerbell has been campaigning for her own starring vehicle for some time now. Not content with taking a back seat to Peter Pan and Captain Hook the little pixie/fairy hybrid is ready to take centre stage in a new romantic comedy simply titled Tink.

Taking the role will be Elizabeth Banks, which I have to admit, is pretty solid casting. The actress isn’t only starring but is also responsible for getting the project off the ground with the help of her production company Brownstone Productions that she owns with her husband.

There is one major problem. Also on producing duties is a man called McG! Whenever this name is mentioned in terms of cinema massive alarm bells begin to ring. Lets face it. His name isn’t exactly synonymous with quality is it?

Sonam Kapoor apologises to Shobhaa De

2010-07-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Mumbai: Shobhaa De did not like Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor’s recent release and she made sure that she spoke her heart out.

This, however, did not go down too well with the film-maker Punit Malhotra who on Twitter posted remarks saying the acclaimed author wasn’t getting too much action and because of this she was venting out her angst on his movie.

This tirade against Shobhaa also saw Sonam get drawn into it as she was evidently upset that Shobhaa was ripping apart a film that has given her the biggest box office success to date.

What followed were a series of remarks and counter remarks. But the latest twist to the tale is that Sonam has publicly apologised to the author.

“Mrs De I owe you an apology for getting personal. I’m ashamed for my momentary lapse in judgement. And apologetic. Every writer and journalist and audience is entitled to their opinion and I respect that,” she wrote on Twitter.

Sources close to the actor reveals, “It takes guts to apologise on a public platform and Sonam has been getting a lot of adulation for her act. It was all heat of the moment. Sonam didn’t mean to get personal with Shobhaa. She is someone who loves language and literature and she holds Shobhaa in high esteem. Moreover, Shobhaa is older to her and she feels she hasn’t been respectful towards her. She wants to undo the bad blood that this fiasco has already caused. Thus, the apology. This matter will be put to rest now for sure.”