”Greetings to all my beloved sweet fans,
I have come to know that a song which I have written for Manmadhan Ambu has hurt the feelings of the Hindus. The Censor Board who has censored this film has also permitted this song since this does not have any lines that would hurt the feelings of anyone. This song was also telecast in Vijay TV three times and had a good reception. I would have released this film with the song with the Censor Board certification if the film was produced by me. This is Red Giant Movies film. Since this film is being produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin and should be viewed by members of all religions, we had come forward to delete this song though thousands of people have enjoyed this song.
In my family there are Vaishnavites, Saivites, Muslims and Christians. Most of them are believers. They are not like me. I am a rationalist and atheist. It is like that and it will continue to be so.
Manmadhan Ambu is a business. That also it is another person’s business. I am only an artist. I am not new to political obstacles. This film was made with the intention to entertain. So I have made this decision to sacrifice this song for it should not die in this turbulence of religion and politics.
Kamal Haasan”
The searches were conducted hours after Rajinder Singh Rana, member of the Bar Council of India, was detained by the CBI in New Delhi on Monday night in connection with a corruption case. Both Dhanapal Raj and Rana are members of the council's Legal Education Committee. Apart from the office/residence of Raj, searches were also conducted in the house of his relative. A total of Rs.74 lakh were seized during the operation that concluded late on Tuesday, the sources added.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted interim anticipatory bail for four weeks to Dhanapal Raj and his brother-in-law, A. Chandrasekar, in connection with the case of corruption registered against them.
Justice Aruna Jagadeesan granted the interim advance bail on a petition by the two who said that they apprehended arrest by CBI for a case registered under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) IPC and Sections 7,8, 12, 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act. The petitioners submitted that during searches in Mr. Raj's house on Monday, Rs.28.50 lakh was found in a bag with a Bar Council member, Adikesavulu, and Rs.60,000 was found in a bedroom. A sum of Rs.45 lakh was seized from the residence of his brother-in-law.
They said they were innocent. They had sufficient proof to submit that the currency seized was accounted for. It was kept for the purchase of land. The money recovered from Mr. Chandrasekar's residence belonged to his family members. There were proper accounts to show valid possession. The other records had nothing to do with the case registered. The petitioners were ready to offer explanation to the CBI. They would cooperate with the investigating agency.
Mr. Dhanapal Raj said he had put in 30 years of experience at the Bar and held several dignified posts. Further, he was appearing as prosecutor for many Central and State Government agencies.
The petitioners said they were ready to abide by any conditions that would be imposed by the court.
In her order, Ms. Justice Aruna Jagadeesan said the petitioners should be released on bail in the event of their arrest or their appearance before the CMM, Egmore, on their executing a personal bond each for Rs.50,000.
Within four weeks, they should appear before the concerned court of jurisdiction for anticipatory bail. They should not tamper with the two bank lockers which were yet to be opened. The other conditions included that they should not leave the country without the court's permission. They should make themselves available for interrogation.
By 31 Dec 2010, Indian Army is expecting information on Infantry Assault Rifles from manufacturers. Indian Army is looking for a modern rifle for its F-INSAS programme. For the Integrated Sighting System, it is looking at the options of luminous tipped Flip-up iron sights, Holographic Sight / Reflex Sight, Visible Laser Target Pointer / Laser Illuminator and Telescopic Sight.
The rifle is expected to be required with Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL).
For keeping it light for the soldier, the rifle required is modular and should facilitate replacement of sub assemblies without the use of any specialist tools. IA is also asking is it can have multi caliber barrel change capability. The calibers it is looking at is (aa) 5.56 X 45mm, (ab) 7.62 X 39mm, (ac) 7.62 X 51mm, (ad) 6.8 X 43mm and (ae) 6.5 Grendel.
The rifle should be ambidextrous. It will make the weapon easy to use with either hands. The Picatinny Rails is being sought at 3 O’clock, 6 O’clock and 9 O’clock position in addition to the regular 12 O’clock position.
Other important aspects are flash suppressor, multipurpose bayonet attachment, trigger compatibility with cold climate gloves, types of butt stock, sling attachment points, multi point vertical forehand grip, construction, maintainability, range and safety.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Meron Reuben has submitted a complaint to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the UN Security Council over Tuesday's Qassam rocket attack in which a teenage girl was lightly wounded in the Ashkelon area, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.
Reuben said that Israel held the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip responsible for the rocket fire and he called on the international community to send a "clear and resolute" message that such rocket attacks were unacceptable.
On Tuesday morning, a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza exploded in an open field near a kindergarten in the Ashkelon area and a teenage girl was lightly wounded in a nearby building.
Some 13 rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel over the last several days.
Responsibility for Tuesday's rocket attack on the Ashkelon area was claimed by a group calling itself the Army of Islam, which has the same "global jihad" ideology as the Al- Qaida movement. It said it was responding "to the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy."
The Israel Air Force responded to the rocket attack with an airstrike later on Tuesday on a Hamas 'terror center' in the Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF spokesman's office, over 200 Grad missiles, Qassam rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory this year.
The leaders of Britain, the United States, France and China preceded Medvedev's arrival Tuesday with acknowledgments of India's growing global stature and strong bids to take advantage of its booming economy.
Accompanied by large business delegations, they have struck deals to supply India with energy and military equipment. They have also sought ways to more fully integrate Asia's third-largest economy into the world economy and have promoted India's role in the governance of the global financial system.
President Obama left India with more than $10 billion worth of deals to help create jobs in the United States; Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, last week claimed $16 billion worth of new business during a three-day visit to New Delhi.
In return for such deals, the leaders of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have offered recognition of India's standing as the world's largest democracy and pledged support for a greater role for New Delhi in multilateral institutions - in particular, a future seat on the Security Council.
Describing Russia as a "major energy power," Medvedev on Tuesday stressed his country's role as a key energy supplier. Among the 15 agreements that he and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed were a pact to align India's oil and gas companies with powerful Russian state-owned energy companies such as Gazprom and an agreement to cooperate in developing two nuclear reactors.
Like his peers, Medvedev spoke of the ways in which his country's economy complemented India's; he also pushed for "modern" engagement across sectors, including pharmaceuticals, defense and space technology.
"I believe that trade between us does not nearly reflect our privileged partnership," Medvedev said. "India is a comfortable partner, especially in energy."
He and Singh agreed to work toward doubling bilateral trade to $20 billion within five years to reenergize ties forged in the decades after India's independence. Those ties face stiff competition from India's warming relationships with Western powers and from the regional dominance of the Chinese economy.
Obama, in a genially received address to the Indian Parliament, described India as an "emerged" power and market rather than an emerging one.
The succession of visitors also addressed India's concerns about security in South Asia and the threats of extremism and terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The top-level bilateral engagement was spearheaded by Singh, who enjoys a high international standing as a statesman and a development economist.
His reception of world leaders has left him looking more assured in the face of a raft of domestic graft scandals that have paralyzed Parliament and threatened to tarnish his clean image. The opposition has been in an uproar over the alleged mishandling of telecommunications licenses that an official audit claimed had cost $39 billion in potential state revenue.
"It's a shame that when India is doing so well in the world, we have this crisis at home," one top Indian diplomat said.
A 67-28 procedural vote yesterday limited debate and demonstrated that the administration has enough support to reach the constitutional threshold of a two-thirds Senate majority for treaty approval.
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the U.S. Capitol before the vote, meeting with Arizona Republican Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl in an effort to resolve their remaining objections and win with a margin more in keeping with previous arms-control treaties. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, predicted a final vote today following consideration of the last amendments.
A lobbying push that incorporated a classified briefing and calls and letters from Obama and his top advisers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, helped drive support over the minimum needed in a chamber where Democrats control 58 votes.
Eleven Republicans joined 54 Democrats and two independents in yesterday’s vote to proceed to final action on the treaty.
“This was a bipartisan vote,” Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee and the first in his party to back the treaty, told reporters after the procedural vote. “I’m hopeful Republicans will contribute more votes on final passage.”
Russia’s parliament is ready to start the ratification process this week, said Andrei Klimov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house, or State Duma.
If the Senate passes the accord as is, the Duma may approve it on Dec. 24, its last session of the year, Klimov said by phone today. The treaty also needs the approval of the upper house, or Federation Council, which probably won’t happen until after the January holidays, Klimov said. Russia’s first working day of 2011 is Jan. 11.
“I don’t see any problem per se with ratification,” Klimov said. “This is not a political but a technical issue.”
The Senate approved ratification of the original Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1992 by a vote of 93-6. Four years later, START II won approval, 87-4. The 2002 Moscow Treaty, which drew on the same verification procedures as in START, was approved by the Senate 95-0.
‘Rigorous’ Inspection
New START, as the current accord is known, would limit each side’s strategic warheads to no more than 1,550, from 2,200 allowed previously, and sets a maximum of 800 land-, air- and sea-based launchers. A program enabling each side to verify the other’s nuclear arsenal was suspended when the previous treaty expired in December 2009.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said New START would improve security. Its terms require lower numbers of weapons, provide a “rigorous” inspection system and offer the flexibility the U.S. needs to pursue missile defenses against attacks from potential adversaries, such as Iran.
“This treaty stands on its merits, and its prompt ratification will strengthen U.S. national security,” Gates said in a statement yesterday.
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the accord in April as part of a push to restore relations between the two nations and reduce the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide.
Missile Defense
In more than a dozen public hearings and classified briefings, the administration has struggled to gain the support of Senate Republicans. The opposition has been led by Jon Kyl of Arizona.
Citing concerns such as treaty language that they said would limit U.S. options for developing a missile-defense system, opponents pushed to delay a vote until next year and reopen negotiations with Russia.
Any delay would have forced the Obama administration to win over a Senate with a slimmer Democratic majority, based on election results last month. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has ruled out any additional negotiations on the pact.
Missile defense was the primary subject of an amendment that McCain and Kyl were co-sponsoring with Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mark Kirk of Illinois.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said much of McCain’s proposal is already addressed in the resolution of ratification that lawmakers will consider in the final vote.
‘Reasonable Way’
“There is a lot in the McCain amendment that we are prepared to accept,” Kerry, who met separately with Biden and Clinton, told reporters. It will be “up to him to decide whether it accomplishes his goal,” Kerry said.
Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Democrats Evan Bayh of Indiana and Ron Wyden of Oregon weren’t present for yesterday’s vote and will be in favor of ratification today, giving the treaty at least 70 supporters, Kerry said.
“In today’s Washington and today’s Senate, 70 votes is yesterday’s 95,” Kerry said.
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Senate’s No. 3 Republican, helped tip the balance yesterday when he announced his support in a Senate.
Alexander said he was persuaded in part by the president’s commitment to an $85 billion program to modernize the U.S. nuclear-weapons arsenal. In a failed effort to win support from Kyl, the administration added $5 billion in recent weeks to its 10-year, $80 billion plan unveiled earlier this year.
“It leaves our country with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come,” Alexander said.
In addition to Alexander, the Republicans who supported the treaty yesterday were Lugar, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Robert Bennett of Utah, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and George Voinovich of Ohio.
--With assistance from Kate Andersen Brower, Mark Drajem, Ryan Donmoyer, Roger Runningen, Flavia Krause-Jackson, David Lerman and Nicholas Johnston in Washington, Balazs Penz in Budapest and Henry Meyer in Moscow. Editors: Steven Komarow, Robin Meszoly.
10. "Tangled"
Walt Disney Animated released their best animated film in years with this Rapunzel (the film's original title) tale, and it proved to be just as big a hit with boys and big kids as with its girl target audience. Starring the voice of Mandy Moore as Rapunzel, the latest Disney princess film has a strong male protagonist, too, in Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi), a rogue thief who becomes entangled with the long-haired beauty and her hunch that her destiny lay somewhere in a land far, far away that releases magical lanterns in the sky once a year. Alan Menken triumphantly returns to the Disney animated duties as the film's composer, and Donna Murphy lends her stage performing experience to enhance the film's Broadway sensibilities. Nearly galloping away with the show is an expressive horse named Maximus, who turns in the best non-speaking movie role of the year.
9. "Black Swan"
Sure, it's that sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis that has people buzzing, but in truth, that's only one of the many provocative moments in writer-director Darren Aronofsky's searing psychological drama that keeps you on your toes. The visually gifted filmmaker, who showed incredible restraint with the Mickey Rourke drama "The Wrestler," once again pulled some trippy tricks out of his hat to tell the dark tale of a prima ballerina (Portman) dangerously obsessed with perfection as she tackles the dual role of the White Swan and Black Swan in "Swan Lake," and the dark underbelly of a prestigious ballet company in New York City.
8. "Toy Story 3"
More than 15 years after the debut of the original, Pixar Animation Studios saved their best "Toy Story" for last. Like its predecessors, "Toy Story 3" is colorful and incredibly detailed, right down to the ripples in the cardboard boxes that hold Woody (voice of Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) as their owner, Andy (John Morris) prepares to move away to college. Andy's transition from childhood to adulthood gives the film its poignancy -- and the sort of emotion that most adult viewers have felt at one point in their lives. The saving grace is, if you hold dear the memories of your favorite toys as kids, the memories of "Toy Story 3" will likely remain with you forever, too. It's hardly a piece of throwaway entertainment.
7. "Kick-Ass"
The superhero movie genre is given a kick in the, well, ass, with director Matthew Vaughn's unflinching look at enterprising teen Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who decides the world would be a much better place if he'd at least attempt to fight crime, a la his favorite comic book heroes. Real-life comic book nerd Nicolas Cage is a natural as the avenging patriarch of a father-and-daughter team compelled to act by bravery (and stupidity) of Dave, an uber-nerd who dubs his superhero alter-ego "Kick-Ass." The revelation in the film is Chloe Grace Moretz as Cage's hard-hitting, trash-talking 14-year-old daughter, Mindy, who more than lives up to her superhero identity, Hit Girl.
6. "The King's Speech"
Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter turn in stellar acting performances in the seldom-told story of Britain's King George VI (Firth) and his nearly debilitating battle with his speech impediment -- a major roadblock that threatens to give his country a voice in the crucial time leading up to World War II. The trio delivers three distinctly different performances which, along with small turns like Timothy Spall's Winston Churchill, adds up to one uniquely entertaining and inspiring movie that avoids being stuffy.
5. "True Grit"
Breaking from their definitive brand of quirk, Coen brothers Joel and Ethan masterfully restore the classic Western genre to its former glory with their bold remake of the John Wayne classic that finds Jeff Bridges snugly fitting into the saddle of Rooster Cogburn. While Bridges makes the iconic lawman character his own in the remake with his grumbled demeanor, looming presence and haggard looks, it's relative newcomer Hailee Steinfeld -- who plays Mattie Ross, a whip-smart 14-year-old girl who vows to bring her father's killer to justice -- who steals the show. Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are second and third on the bill, but they're never a match for Steinfeld, one of the most dynamic young performers to come along in years.
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4. "127 Hours"
James Franco is riveting as hiker Aron Ralston, the real-life hiker forced to amputate his right hand after it was crushed under a bolder during a canyon expedition in Utah in 2003. Even though the film mostly takes place between "A Rock and a Hard Place" (the title of Ralston's memoir of the incident), Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle keeps the film moving with flashbacks, premonitions and the tech-savvy Ralston's own video documentation of his quest for survival. The amputation scene is incredibly difficult to watch, but a necessary evil to drive the film's point home.
3. "The Fighter"
Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo all put up their dukes in this knock-down, drag-out true-life boxing drama about the volatile relationship between "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his half-brother/trainer Dicky (Bale). While Wahlberg (who lives his role as Mickey) is the top-billed star of the film, it's Bale who delivers the knock-out punch as the crack-addicted former welterweight star stuck in the memories of his former glory. "Frozen River" Oscar nominee Leo proves she isn't a fluke with a gutsy performance as the brothers' hard-nosed mom, Alice; and Adams sports fists of fury as Mickey's ballsy girlfriend, Charlene. The unsung hero of the film is director David O. Russell, who pulls no punches in the often-depressing portrayal of a battered but not completely broken family.
2. "The Social Network"
Director David Fincher delves into the suspicious beginnings of Facebook -- and the biggest irony we discover is that the young founder of the social network, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is anti-social. The film is full of revelatory performances, including Andrew Garfield as Zuckerberg's estranged business partner, Eduardo Saverin, and Justin Timberlake as high-rolling Napster founder Shawn Parker. But Eisenberg tops them all with a performance that is so uncomfortably scummy it makes your skin crawl. Even if a quarter of what the film says about Zuckerberg is true, the revolutionary techie comes off as hateful at best. The inherent drama between the conniving Zuckerberg, the sandbagged Saverin and the maligned Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) makes "The Social Network" hard not to (tap on that little thumb-up icon now) like.
1."Inception"
Writer-director Christopher Nolan's mind-bending masterpiece is a dream both literally and figuratively. Thanks to its cliff-hanging complexities, engaging characters and daring new dreamscapes, the inventive heist thriller is easily the most original movie of the year. It's not often, if ever, where confusion in a movie is a good thing, but with "Inception," that's half the fun. Just like the human subconscious, the answers are buried deep within the film, but only repeat viewings will help you peel back all of the layers. Sure, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and a haunting Marion Cotillard command your attention, but ultimately, there's more to "Inception" than what meets the (mind's) eye.
Honorable Mentions::
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1" proved to be, far and away, the best of the film series yet … "Cyrus" was one of the sharpest comedies of the year, thanks to a funny -- and scary -- performance by Jonah Hill … "Red" showed how your older actors – including Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren -- could pack heat with the best of them … "Despicable Me" was a surprisingly touching animated comedy thanks to deliciously devious voice performance by Steve Carrel and a story about a trio of orphans that rips at your heart-strings … the true story of "Secretariat" literally put you on the track with the legendary horse and won the feel-good movie of the year prize by several lengths … the animated adventure "How to Train Your Dragon" had ferocious heart and stunning visuals, including some breathtaking flying scenes ... "Kick-Ass" star found the soul of a young John Lennon in "Nowhere Boy," a poignant look at the legendary musician's life with the Quarrymen and the formation of The Beatles.
James Cameron's Avatar is the number one pirated movie of 2010, according to new BitTorrent stats.
The movies that were downloaded illegally in the past year pretty much adhere to what were the big movies of the last 12 months but there are a few notable exceptions.
Toy Story 3 isn't in the top 10, despite its massive box-office success, and neither is Alice In Wonderland.
Pirates life for me
Three movies which had critical success but only moderate takings at the box office did make the list. These were: Kick-Ass (2), Green Zone (7) and The Hurt Locker (9).
The remainder of the flicks that got pirated the most were: Inception (3), Shutter Island (4), Iron Man 2 (5), Clash of the Titans (6), Sherlock Holmes (8) and Salt (10).
The folks behind Oscar winner The Hurt Locker know all about piracy – its producers are currently trying to sue those who uploaded the movie illegally to the internet.
The movie topped box office sales in the U.S. the weekend it opened, with US$44 million. It generated mixed reviews. Here’s a review roundup, thanks to WSJ Speakeasy:
* The whole thing is a sea of sensory stimulation, a deadly efficient machine for merchandising toys, video games, theme-park rides and yes, even movie tickets. The film discharges its stylistic debts to its source material with rigid devotion, while offering a few surprises along the way. [Joe Morgenstern, WSJ]
* “The mildly surprising news, then, is that there are aspects of Tron: Legacy that are actually rather cool. Granted, these mostly fall within the realms of architecture, interior design and advanced motor racing techniques, but they are blessed compensations nevertheless. The fact that you get two (or three, depending upon how you count) incarnations of Jeff Bridges isn’t a bad deal either, although it all ends up being a half-hour too much of a just okay thing. Like the original, the follow-up should do decent business, especially in 3D engagements, where the dynamic staging of the action scenes will be be seen to greatest effect, but fall short of the box office Nirvana achieved by top-drawer sci-fi and fantasy films.” [Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter]
* “The cult of “Tron” is hardly so big that you could accuse “Tron: Legacy” of being a cynical attempt to cash in on a franchise. (More than just a bomb, the first “Tron” was a major embarrassment for Disney; out-of-print DVD copies are now about as hard to hunt down as VHS head cleaners.) That said, the studio has had a long time to ponder its mistake, and “Tron: Legacy” unlike its predecessor, really does make novelty look cool. It’s a sleeker, sharper, far more visually intoxicating machine dream of a movie, with a darkly liquid electronic texture all its own.” [Owen Gleiberman, EW]
* “The whole point of the story and the aesthetics are that they’re meant to convey an immersive experience. We’re supposed to feel just as trapped inside this challenging and dangerous electronic realm as the film’s characters. And at over two hours, we are indeed trapped — there is no justifiable reason for such a lengthy running time, especially given that the original got in, did what it had to do and got out in about an hour and a half. While director Joseph Kosinski’s feature film debut is thrilling and cool-looking for about the first half, its races, games and visuals eventually grow repetitive, which only draws attention to how flimsy and preposterous the script is from Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.” [Christy Lemire, AP]
Pakistan wants the “peaceful resolution of all issues with India”, including Kashmir to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in South Asia, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.
Mr. Gilani made the remarks while addressing a luncheon he hosted in honour of the visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
He also said Pakistan would oppose any policy aimed at impeding peace in the region.
“We desire a peaceful environment in our region in the interest of our development and to raise the living standards of our people.
“Consistent with this aspiration, we seek peaceful resolution of all issues with India, including the longstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Mr. Gilani said.
“Success in this endeavour would usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in South Asia.
“Similarly, a stable Afghanistan will open up vast opportunities for Pakistan and indeed for the regional countries,” he said.
Mr. Gilani said Pakistan is “opposed to any policy which aims at containing progress or impeding peace and development in the region”.
Pakistan and China “share the ideals of a safe, secure and prosperous neighbourhood with our region free from strife and conflict” and want this vision to be translated into reality, he added.
A “unique characteristic” of the Pakistan-China relationship, Mr. Gilani contended, is that it is “not directed against any country”.
He said: “Peace and stability in our region is inextricably linked to the constructive role being played by China”.
In his remarks, Mr. Wen said both countries had marched ahead through thick and thin and stood the test of time.
Their relationship has “gone beyond bilateral ties and moved into the strategic sphere,” he said.
Mr. Wen assured Pakistan of China’s support in agriculture, infrastructure and energy.
He said the two sides will hold a series of events next year to further cement their ties.
During their talks on Friday, the two premiers agreed to further strengthen their strategic relationship by enhancing cooperation in fields like energy, technology and infrastructure.
The two sides will sign agreements worth a total of $24 billion during Mr. Wen’s visit, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has said.
NEW DELHI: India is "very keen" to get information and technology from the US for counter-terrorism efforts but provides "little in return", says a US embassy cable made public by WikiLeaks .
The cable, dated Feb 23, 2007 and reproduced by The Guardian, also came down heavily on Indian security forces, calling them corrupt and poorly trained and said they did not "conduct solid forensic investigations".
The cable explained the American assessment of why New Delhi remained a distant partner vis-a-vis the US on counter-terrorism efforts.
"India's lingering zero-sum suspicion of US policies towards Pakistan, its fiercely independent foreign policy stance, its traditional go-it-alone strategy toward its security, and its domestic political sensitivities over the sentiments of its large Muslim population, have all contributed to India's caution in working with us on a joint counter-terrorism strategy," the cable said.
It pointed out that while "India has been very keen to receive information and technology from us to further its counter-terrorism efforts, India provides little in return, despite our belief that the country should be an equal partner in this relationship.
"India frequently rebuffs our offers of support for their police investigations of terrorist attacks and our offers of training and support are often met with a stalled logistical pace."
Making another point, the cable said it had to be kept in mind that "our perception of India's lack of cooperation on US CT (Counter Terrorism) concerns often stems in part from India's lack of capacity to manage these issues bureaucratically".
It said that Indian police and security forces were "overworked and hampered by bad police practices, including the widespread use of torture in interrogations, rampant corruption, poor training, and a general inability to conduct solid forensic investigations.
"India's most elite security forces also regularly cut corners to avoid working through India's lagging justice system, which has approximately 13 judges per million people.
"Thus Indian police officials often do not respond to our requests for information about attacks or our offers of support because they are covering up poor practices, rather than rejecting our help outright."
"She presents an intriguing enigma of a warm private personality that remains concealed and is available only to her closest confidants and family members.
Veteran batsman Rahul Dravid and off—colour pacer Irfan Pathan failed to find a place in India’s 30—strong list of probables announced on Saturday for next year’s ODI cricket World Cup in the sub—continent.
In a squad which didn’t offer any major surprises, youngsters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were included along with established stars such as Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
The squad would be pruned to half by next month and chairman of selectors Kris Srikkanth said whatever be the final combination, it would do well at the quadrennial mega—event starting February 19 and to be played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
“As you know there are no big surprises. This is a probable’s team and everyone selects himself. There is one more month to go to select the final team and we will sit down and think calmly before finalising the team,” Srikkanth told reporters here after a meeting of the selection panel.
“I am confident that the team will do well in the World Cup. They have been doing well in one—day cricket. The World Cup is happening in the sub—continent and I am confident that the team will do well,” he added.
Apart from the omission of the 37—year—old Dravid, who has not played an ODI since September last year, and Pathan, on the sidelines since February 2009 in ODIs, there aren’t any surprise selections.
The batting list expectedly features Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.
The 22—year—old Pujara along with Virat Kohli are among the youngsters picked in at least the preliminary squad.
The bowling line—up is also on the expected lines with the pace attack led by Zaheer Khan featuring Ashish Nehra, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma.
The spin department has the experienced Harbhajan Singh along with Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin.
Apart from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the probables list has three other wicketkeepers in Parthiv Patel, Wriddhiman Saha and Dinesh Karthik.
List of probables for World Cup: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, M Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Parthiv Patel, R Ashwin, Wriddhimaan Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar.
Britain, France, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands called on Saturday for the EU budget to be frozen until at least 2020, in a joint letter to the European Commission.
The letter, addressed to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, said that the European Union's joint budget should not grow faster than the rate of inflation in the bloc's post-2013 long-term budget.
"European public spending cannot be exempted from member states' considerable efforts to get their public spending under control," the letter, which was released by the French presidency, said.
The EU's 27 countries will start talks in mid-2011 on the long-term budget, which runs from 2014 until 2020 or longer.
Next year's budget is worth 126.5 billion euros ($166.8 billion), with more than 40 percent of it going on agriculture and a third on aid to poor regions.
The joint letter was signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Finnish Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi.
Cameron used an EU summit in Brussels on Friday to drum up support for a leaner budget, telling reporters that the bloc "needed real budgetary restraint."
However, efforts to agree a tighter budget are likely to run up against stiff opposition from poorer eastern European countries that currently benefit most from EU largesse and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country would resist cuts.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock benchmarks Friday extended gains to a third-straight week after a lackluster session highlighted by upbeat reports from Oracle Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd.
After brief forays into positive turf, the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (DJIA 11,492, -7.34, -0.06%) closed off 7.34 points, or 0.1%, at 11,491.91, with its 17 of its 30 components lower. Disappointment over the outcome of a European Union summit, which bolstered the U.S. dollar, weighed on the index.
The S&P 500 /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,244, +1.04, +0.08%) ended up 1.04 points, or 0.1%, at 1,243.91, with materials the best performer and telecommunications the weakest of its 10 industry groups. It was the benchmark’s highest close since September 2008.
“The market is saying, ‘We’re going to wrap it up for the year,’ and today we’re meandering around zero,” said John Canally, an analyst at LPL Financial.
Friday’s quarterly options and futures expiration had the possibility of adding volatility to the market as traders closed out positions, analysts said, although as the afternoon progressed, that did not appear to be the case.
he Nasdaq Composite /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp (COMP 2,643, +5.66, +0.21%) climbed 5.66 points, or 0.2%, to 2,642.97.
For the week, the Dow gained 0.7%, the S&P 500 added 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.2%. It was the third-straight week of gains for the Dow and the S&P 500 and the fourth for the Nasdaq Composite.
For every seven stocks on the decline, eight were rising on the New York Stock Exchange, where 2 billion shares traded hands.
Signaling the recovery should pick up steam early next year, the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators in November made its biggest jump in eight months. Read more about leading indicators.
The index, which tracks data including orders for new goods, climbed 1.1%, as economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected.
Moody's downgrades Irish debt
The ratings agency downgrades Ireland's sovereign debt, impacting markets and the euro.
Concerns from overseas were again in play after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Ireland’s government-bond rating by five notches and said the country had a weak economic outlook.
Technology offered investors a bit of bullish momentum, with quarterly results from software giant Oracle /quotes/comstock/15*!orcl/quotes/nls/orcl (ORCL 31.46, +1.19, +3.94%) and Blackberry maker Research In Motion /quotes/comstock/15*!rimm/quotes/nls/rimm (RIMM 60.20, +0.96, +1.62%) topping Wall Street’s expectations late Thursday. Oracle shares ended up 3.9%, while Research in Motion’s U.S. shares gained 1.6%.
Ahead of Wall Street’s open, the Bank of Montreal said it would buy Wisconsin-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!mi/quotes/nls/mi (MI 6.85, +1.06, +18.31%) for $4.1 billion in stock, triggering a rally in regional bank stocks. Read more about M&I deal.
On Friday, President Barack Obama signed a bipartisan tax package, extending Bush-era tax cuts for virtually all American workers for another two years. The U.S. House passed the legislation Thursday nigh
Pongal 2011 is getting overcrowded, as four big films are trying to get theatre dates Vijay's Kaavalan, Dhanush's Aadukalam, Karthi's Siruthai and PA Vijay's Ilanjian which is scripted by Chief Minister Karunanidhi.
As of now Sun Pictures have confirmed the maximum number of screens for their Vetrimaran directed Aadukalam. Ilanjian as per the grapevine has been taken over for marketing by Red Giants, which will ensure theatres.
Studio Green's Gjnavel Raja and his Siruthai has the first mover advantage as he confirmed many screens in November.
Now Kaavalan has not even started booking screens, at a time when all the best theatres have already been blocked by others.
Today a big film releases in around 250 to 300 screens in Tamil Nadu, which claims to have around 1500 screens. But in reality there are only 925 screens fit for screening.
In short Aadukalam, Siruthai and Ilanjian will corner all prime screens especially in small towns like Madurai, Salem or Tirunelveli.
Added to that Kamal Haasan's Manmadhan Ambu, Red Giant's own home production is releasing for Christmas on December 23.
In major centers the film cannot be stopped 21 days after its release to accommodate Pongal biggies. That means theatres will find it even more difficult to give dates to Kaavalan.
Meanwhile Sakthi Chidambaram the man who is marketing Kaavalan has to sort out many unresolved issues with theatre association in Tamil Nadu.
The Malayalam producer of Bodyguard Johnny Sagirika has also filed legal complaint that he has not been paid for the remake rights in Tamil (Kaavalan is a remake of Bodyguard) by its director Siddique.
Kaavalan's cup of woes is overflowing at the moment. But in cinema industry the tide can change in a few minutes, and if all goes well the film has an outside chance to make it for Pongal .
The year 2010 saw the release of 150 films till now and still 25 movies are waiting to be released. One problem that the producers face today is the non-availability of theatres.
Many small budget movies which come out with a minimum of eight and a maximum of 25 prints find it difficult to procure a theatre. This has resulted in the pathetic state of running a film for just a day or two.
Some small budget movie producers are eager to have their films released by 2010-end so that they would be eligible for the 7-lakh subvention from the government of Tamil Nadu.
Yet another reason is the Cricket World Cup which is scheduled in March 2011. The World Cup season is considered to be a very bleak season for Tamil cinema as the audiences would be more interested in cricket rather than movies.
This paves way for a mad scramble among the filmmakers to have their films released at least for a day or two before the year ends.
One of the best music director-lyricist combos of Tamil cinema, Illayaraja and Vairamuthu, parted ways more than a decade ago due to some difference in opinion.
From then on, both travelled on different boats and attained great heights in individual capacities. Now that the Kaviperarasu is getting ready to release his 1000 best songs, he expects the presence of the Isaignani at the function.
“Because, he was the one who had first composed tune for my lyrics. He was a great source of strength behind my growth. I will surely invite him for the function,” says Vairamuthu.
“I had also invited him for the wedding of my son some time ago. But he failed to turn up. I will be very happy if he attends the book release function,” he concludes. Poongaatru Thirumbuma
At one point Iranian cinema, pushed to the wall by a ruthless regime that did not believe in giving artistic freedom, had to make mostly movies with children or about children. There were a few who did dare to stick their necks out, and paid the price. Jafer Panahi is a classic case. Arrested, he spent a long time in prison, and was later confined to his home. He still is, and is not being allowed to travel.
At the ongoing Dubai International Film Festival, I noticed that Iranian directors had cleverly found a way out of the prevailing repressiveness. They have begun to make a cinema that while seemingly talking about people trapped in challenging situations was actually underlining issues that had far wider ramifications. Yes, these are never overtly told,
Gautaman Bhaskaran
Gautaman Bhaskaran
but are conveyed in disguised and guarded manner.
Sepideh Farsi’s The House Under The Water follows two teens who cause the accidental drowning of a child. One of them goes to jail, and it is only 30 years later that he is freed, but only to find himself a suspect in another drowning death.
Mohsen Abdolvahab weaves three stories into his Please Do Not Disturb. In one, we see a woman beaten by her husband hesitating to formally complain to the police. In the second, a clergyman begins a negotiation with a thief, and the last segment focuses on an elderly couple scared to open the door to a young mechanic, who has to come to repair their broken television set.
The Hunter from Rafi Pitts turns a murderer after his wife and six-year-old child are killed in the run-up to Iran’s disputed 2009 elections.
We see in these movies a strong underlying moral dilemma of the individual, but on a closer look, it is apparent that the helmers are in effect talking about how State authority has been interfering in the personal freedom and liberty of the man and the woman on the street.
One is not sure whether these films would ultimately find screening spaces in Iran. Or, much like the others of their ilk be confined to foreign festival circuits, appreciated and applauded, even feted and celebrated. Sadly though the ordinary Iranian might never get around watching movies that tell his story.
Google's popular search engine service now warns users about possibly hacked or otherwise dangerous websites that make it into its search results.
The new warning system was announced on Google's Official Blog on Friday. If Google's system detects any signs that a website has been compromised by hackers, spammed or defaced in some way that may make it a threat to the searcher, it will add a small message reading, "This site may be compromised" directly under the search result.
"We use a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of hacking as quickly as possible," wrote Google director of product management Mike Cassidy. "In addition to protecting users, these notices will also help webmasters more quickly discover when someone is abusing their sites."
Once the problem has been fixed at the suspicious website, the warning message will be automatically removed from the search results, according to Google. The company also announced the addition of new languages and domains to its Instant search feature, and made several upgrades to the Google Translate system.
All the Web and My Blog Log are also reported to be on the list of Yahoo "sunset" products being considered for elimination.
Before there was Google, there was AltaVista and, according to a leaked slide from Yahoo that surfaced this week, AltaVista is expected to fade from view soon.
The pioneering search service, begun in the early 1990s by researchers at the Digital Equipment, is included in a photo of Yahoo "sunset" products that apparently are under consideration for elimination by Yahoo. Other Yahoo "sunset" products include its popular Delicious bookmarking solution, news aggregator Yahoo! Buzz, and another search feature, AlltheWeb.
According to media reports, the "sunset" information was leaked by Eric Marcoullier, founder of MyBlogLog, yet another Yahoo property that also is listed in the "sunset" slide.
Yahoo, which recently announced another round of layoffs, didn't announce the closing of the sites, but the firm did state: "Part of our organizational streamlining involves cutting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond. We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months such as Yahoo! Buzz, our Traffic APIs, and others. We will communicate specific plans when appropriate."
The DEC researchers at the firm's Western Research Lab created AltaVista in an effort to find files on the rapidly-growing Internet. "We could have been Google," said Paul Cormier, who was quoted in a 2007 article in InformationWeek. "We should have been Google."
Full-page Internet searches in subsecond response times were established by the Digital Equipment team as well as other pathfinding search features. DEC tried to take the company public in the mid-1900s, but the company was dealing with business turmoil and management upheaval at the time. A later owner, CMGI, also tried and failed to launch an AltaVista IPO, leaving a wide open field for newcomer Google.
Naughty Dog have released the first set of screenshots from actual gameplay of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and they look outstanding.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception will have our favourite heroes Drake and Sully scour the world for the trail of TE Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, and the Atlantis of the Sands.
The screenshots show both Drake and Sully traversing and fighting their way out of a burning building. From lush green vines to red hot flames, Uncharted 3 is already looking fantastic considering there's still another year before its release.
Just as the screenshots show, Drake will be able to take on more than one bad guy at a time!
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is due November 1, 2011! Here's a direct feed clip to the gameplay debut previously aired on the Jimmy Fallon show.
Dec 18 (Reuters) - Bank of America was quoted as saying late on Friday that it was joining other financial institutions in declining to process payments to WikiLeaks, which has angered U.S. authorities with the mass release of U.S. diplomatic cables.
"Bank of America joins in the actions previously announced by MasterCard, PayPal, Visa Europe and others and will not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for WikiLeaks," the bank said in a statement, quoted by McClatchy Newspapers.
No one at Bank of America was immediately available to comment.
WikiLeaks has said it will release documents early next year that will point to "unethical practices" at a major U.S. bank, widely thought to be Bank of America.
Several companies have ended services to WikiLeaks after the website teamed up with major newspapers to publish thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables that have caused tension between Washington and some of its allies.
"This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments," the Bank of America statement added.
WikiLeaks later issued a message on Twitter urging its supporters to leave the bank.
"We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America," it said on the social networking medium.
"Does your business do business with Bank of America? Our advice is to place your funds somewhere safer," WikiLeaks said in a subsequent tweet.
In a backlash against organizations that have cut off WikiLeaks, cyber activists have been targeting companies seen as foes of the website.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released on bail this week from a jail in Britain, where he is fighting extradition to Sweden over alleged sexual offenses.
Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, said on Friday that he was the target of an aggressive U.S. investigation and feared extradition to the United States was "increasingly likely."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said his government was considering using the U.S. Espionage Act, under which it is illegal to obtain national defense information for the purpose of harming the United States, as well as other laws to prosecute the release of sensitive government information by WikiLeaks.
Google Dec. 16 launched Ngram Viewer, an experiment to let lay users and researchers search and study the waxing and waning of phrase instances over the last 500 years.
As Google is trying to gain traction selling books, a free software tool that helps scholars analyze what words and phrases were popular several centuries is wowing researchers and media.
Google Dec. 16 launched Google Books Ngram Viewer, a data visualization tool that crawls 500 billion words culled from 5.2 million books published between 1500 and 2008 that Google has indexed in its cloud computing system.
Users may access the tool here and type up to 5 words to see a typical Google graph that counts the words' and phrases' use each year over the last several hundred years. The words come from books published in Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.
Google in one example shows how the tool can compare instances of musical instruments in English literature from 1750 to 2008. Note how the drum and trumpet, in particular, seemed to trade places in popularity over the last two hundred years.
While any bystander with a computer may access the tool it is largely geared to help scholars and researchers studying philosophy, pop culture, religion, politics, art and language to conduct their research. Google said it is also making the datasets supporting the Ngram Viewer freely downloadable so that scholars can replicate the work.
The datasets were used in research project led by Harvard University's Jean-Baptiste Michel and Erez Lieberman Aiden, along with several Googlers, said Jon Orwant, Google Books engineering manager.
"Their work provides several examples of how quantitative methods can provide insights into topics as diverse as the spread of innovations, the effects of youth and profession on fame, and trends in censorship," Orwant said.
Unlike most Google Labs projects, media curiosity has been piqued by Ngram viewer.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal spotlighted it, while top tech blogs such as ReadWriteWeb dedicated not one but two positive posts to it here andhere.
The datasets in Ngram viewer constitute merely a third of the 15 million works Google has scanned online since 2004 as part of its Google Books project.
High-octane math and algorithms aside, the work has been complicated thanks to contentious battles over copyright, particularly related to orphan works, where rightholders are deceased or cannot be found.
The court system is still sussing this matter out, though Google this month went ahead and launched its eBookstore to compete with Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble in selling books online.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration and Latino rights groups Friday made an 11th-hour plea to lawmakers as the Senate prepared to vote on a contentious immigration bill that could provide citizenship to foreign-born immigrants.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to hold a Senate vote on a procedural measure today to cut off a Republican filibuster and move the so-called DREAM Act to the full Senate for approval.
Supporters of the bill concede they lack the 60 votes needed to cut off debate, but they spent the waning hours making telephone calls to more than a half dozen Senate Republicans seeking their support for the bill.
Seeking support
President Barack Obama was calling lawmakers, urging them to vote for the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
"He's talking with those whose votes are tremendously important," Gibbs told a group of regional reporters.
Obama did not contact Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both Republicans, who vocally oppose the DREAM Act and are targeted by immigration activists lobbying them to change their vote.
Hutchison, through a spokeswoman, claims the DREAM Act would expand the number of illegal immigrants eligible for citizenship beyond the children it was initially meant to help.
Republicans argue that the bill would create a "chain migration" and "amnesty" for illegal immigrant relatives and spouses.
Supporters argue that if the so-called DREAMers meet all the requirements for eventual citizenship, they will be awarded conditional residency for a period of 10 years, during which they must complete two years of college or military service and stay out of trouble.
After becoming a permanent resident, the applicant must wait an additional three years before applying for citizenship.
Once U.S. citizens - which could be 15 to 20 years after they first applied under the act - DREAMers could petition for parents or siblings to gain legal status.
The House voted mostly along party lines last week to pass the bill, 216-198.
As the Senate vote neared, Obama administration officials sought to dismiss Republican concerns and highlight aspects of the bill.
Brought by parents
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the nation needs the contributions of thousands of youth who go to college or the military, but who were brought to this country by illegal immigrant parents.
"DREAM Act students are in a bind. It goes against the basic American sense of fairness to punish children for the choices of their parents," Duncan said.
Duncan estimates that the DREAM Act would provide legal status for 65,000 high school graduates a year.
Opponents, meanwhile, cited a report by the Center for Immigration Studies saying the law would result in 1 million illegal immigrants entering state universities and colleges at cost to taxpayers of $6.2 billion a year.
Those eligible for eventual citizenship under the law would have to be under age 30, brought to this country before age 16, have lived here for more than five years, graduated from high school and willing to spend two years in college or serve two years in the military.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An official of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s top spy organization, angrily denied on Saturday that it was responsible for revealing the name of the Central Intelligence Agency’s top clandestine officer in Pakistan. “We absolutely deny this accusation, which is totally unsubstantiated and based on nothing but conjecture,” a senior ISI official said in a background briefing at the headquarters of the spy organization in Islamabad.
The top C.I.A. officer in Pakistan was removed yesterday after American officials said the C.I.A. station chief had received a number of death threats since being publicly identified in a legal complaint sent to the Pakistani police this week by the family of victims of earlier drone campaigns.
“This organization has immense tolerance. We have cooperated to the hilt despite constant allegations leveled against us. But this story is the biggest bomb shell,”the official said referring to the article published in The New York Times yesterday.
Claiming that the allegation had greater implications, the official said that the article seemed “intended to create rifts between the ISI and C.I.A.”
Some American officials had said that they strongly suspected that operatives of Pakistan’s powerful spy service had a hand in revealing the C.I.A. officer’s identity, possibly in retaliation for a civil lawsuit filed in Brooklyn last month implicating the ISI chief in the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008. The American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not immediately provide details to support their suspicions.
The ISI officials, in turn, pointedly denied these accusations.
The briefing by two senior officials included a litany of complaints as the officials accused western news organization, and specifically the New York Times, of continuously publishing news reports that “cast aspersions on the credibility of the spy organization.”
Both officials claimed in the briefing that ISI had an excellent working relationship with their counterparts in the C.I.A. “We regularly deal with the C.I.A. and it has never communicated to us that they have doubts on our sincerity and credibility,” said one official. “Such accusations and insinuations only appear in media.”
In the briefing, the officials suggested that the conduct of C.I.A.’s top officer might itself have been responsible for blowing the agent’s cover. “Americans have a vast access in Pakistan. They openly interact with civil society members, attend dinners and meetings,” one official said.
Four newly appointed to Board of Regents
BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal has named Joe Farr of Monroe one of four new members to the Board of Regents, the coordinating board for higher education.
Jindal also named two new members of the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors.
Reappointed were Joseph Wiley of Gonzales to the Regents and Carl Shetler of Lake Charles to another term on the UL Board.
Farr, who represents the 5th Congressional District, replaces Scott Brame of Alexandria. Farr is a co-owner of Thomas & Farr Agency, Inc, a large independent insurance agency.
"I think higher education is key to Louisiana moving forward, and everybody's got to come together to put the best foot forward," Farr said.
"Education to me is the key to economic development and bringing the kind of jobs that will keep our young people here."
The others appointed by Jindal to the Board of Regents are Ed Antie of Lafayette, Scott Ballard of Covington and Chris Gorman of Shreveport.
The new members named to the UL Board are Jimmy Faircloth of Alexandria and John LeTard of Zachary.
In appointing Antie to the board, Jindal ended the long-time service of Richard D'Aquin of Lafayette, who has been a regent since the board was established in 1975. Before the creation of the Board of Regents by the 1974 state constitution, D'Aquin served on the Louisiana Board of Education, which oversaw education at all levels.
Atie, who will represent the 7th Congressional District, founded Louisiana Communications, a support facility to Motorola Communications and Electronics. He later sold that company and established Central Telephone Corporation and organized Network USA, a provider of specialized transmission facilities and digital communications circuits.
Ballard, who replaces Ingrid Labat of New Orleans, is the co-president and chief financial officer of WOW Café & Wingery Franchising Account; CEO of New Orleans Brew; and CEO, member of the board of directors and principle of PJ's Coffee. He will represent the 1st Congressional District.
Gorman, the representative of the 4th Congressional District, will replace Artis Terrell of Shreveport, former chairman of the Board of Regents.
Gorman, the executive vice president of Tango Transport, received a B.A.A.S. degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of North Texas and attended the Harvard Executive MBA program.
The Board of Regents consists of 16 members, including a student member.
The UL Board also consists of 16 members, including a student.
Faircloth is the founder of the Faircloth Law Group and was the former executive council to the governor. He will be appointed to represent the 5th Congressional District, replacing Mildred Gallot of Grambling.
LeTard is the owner of Medical Pharmacy for more than 40 years and is the vice chair of the Louisiana Independent Pharmacies Association. He will represent the 6th Congressional District, replacing Jeff Jenkins.
Gloucester —
Another turning point is approaching for the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School on Dec. 21. The 21st marks the date when the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will determine whether the charter school has satisfactorily met the terms of its probation.
In September the charter school was placed on probation by the state with concerns including the loss of a head of school; decreased enrollment and its affect on financial viability; the violation of laws relating to the construction of its building; and a delayed opening. The school was given until Dec. 21 to meet 12 requirements or face or closure by the state.
“I am pleased that we have met all the requirements of the Department of Education within the designated time lines. I anticipate a positive review,” said Amy Ballin, chairman of the charter school board. “With the hopes that we have restored confidence with the Department of Education, we look forward to moving off probation and focusing our energies on building a high quality school.”
According to an update on the Massachusetts Department of Education website, the charter school, as of Dec. 10, has met many of its requirements but the update does not hint at a final “verdict” as to whether the school will stay open. (The update can be viewed on the Department of Education website: http://www.doe.mass.edu/boe/docs/1210/item6.html).
The DOE website also does not address in detail some of the complaints and questions brought forth by critics of the charter school. One complaint, brought forth by Jason Grow, charges that the charter school violated an open meeting law in November.
In a letter dated Dec. 15 to the BESE, Grow states, “As an illustration of their (the charter school board and administration) continued inability to take seriously their situation, less than a week after receiving in-depth Open Meeting Law training from representatives of the Attorney General’s office, the charter school tried to justify holding an illegal ‘emergency’ meeting simply because they failed to properly post and schedule their meeting.”
Grow’s complaint is pending with the Attorney General’s office in addition to earlier complaint filed by Kathy Clancy also relating to an alleged violation of the open meeting law.
In response to the allegations, Blackman said in an interview with the Beacon, “That is not the case. The school has not held an emergency meeting without notice. We’ll wait to see what the Attorney General has to say.”
Another concern brought forth by Grow in his letter to the BESE described the charter school’s “wildly fluctuating enrollment numbers.” As of Dec. 14, Blackman said 75 children were enrolled at the school. He noted that 64 children were enrolled on opening day in September, and 69 children were reported as enrolled to SIMS on October 1. SIMS is the Student Information Management System which tracks enrollment in Massachusetts schools.
“Commissioner Chester’s letter in September caused enrollment to drop from 80 to 64 which resulted in a very lean budget,” said Blackman. “However we are already back to 75 students and I have no doubt our enrollment will continue to grow.”
Blackman was referring to statements made by State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester in mid September that the charter school was not viable and “if parents continued to enroll their students in that charter school…they are risking putting their children in a non-publicly-funded school.”
Despite the tumultuous road and the threat of closure, last week the charter school moved into its newly renovated location inside the former Cape Ann Medical Center. Previously the school was operating in temporary modulars just outside the medical center. Renovation costs were estimated at more than $2 million and were paid for by Mick Lafata, the owner of the charter school property. Lafata will be paid back by the school over a long term lease.
The charter board’s process for choosing Lafata’s property was found to be in violation of the state’s procurement and bidding laws by the Attorney General’s office; the charter board has signed a consent order and is working to resolve the issue as part of its BESE probation.
As part of the agreement with the Attorney General’s office, both Lafata and the Charter School officials had to agree that all state procurement laws must now be followed. It is both the responsibility of the landlord (Lafata) and the school to ensure that any construction project over a certain dollar amount must go out to bid.
“There are two more classrooms we must build as part of our lease,” said Lafata. “And we will follow the law as agreed.”
When asked if his construction workers were paid at prevailing wages, Lafata responded, “We were not in a prevailing wage agreement. The contractors were of course, paid. The agreement we have now is about our actions moving forward, not after the fact. The Attorney General has never asked me to change anything from the past, but I had to agree to the procurement laws in my future work at the school.”
Lafata went on to say that the contractors he employed have not approached him with any complaints and most of them have worked with him for a long time. “Also, most of my other tenants are medical, industrial and commercial, not in government,” said Lafata. “This is my first major job working with a charter school, and I treated it as one my regular tenants. As I said, going forward we will pay special attention to procurement laws.”
According to Blackman, Lafata and the charter school were asked by the Attorney General to amend the lease and the essentially put in writing that they both would follow procurement laws and recognize the past non-adherence to the law. “We just sent our lease amendment to the AG’s office,” said Blackman. “After some nine days of procurement training, I have learned a lot.”
“I am thrilled the students are out of the modulars and into their classrooms,” said Lafata. “The architect did a great job with design and color schemes.”
When asked if he was concerned about the potential closing of the charter school, Lafata responded, “I am confident that the school has met its probation requirements. Should the school close, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
In a tour of the school with the Beacon, Blackman pointed out the various bright spaces and ongoing activities of the students. In one room children sang and performed holiday songs; in another, a study of Italian culture; and in one classroom, a mock trial helped students practice their public speaking skills.
“It has been a long road getting here,” said Blackman as he observed the students. “On Dec. 21, I hope we can look to the future, instead of the past. I am hoping for the best, for the sake of these kids.”
Gloucester School Committee Chairman Val Gilman is planning to speak at the Dec. 21 meeting, and believes the BESE should set a high standard while deliberating the future of the charter school. In an email to the Beacon, Gilman stated, “The probationary compliance plan requested of the charter school board is nothing short of expectations set for governance, transparency and accountability for any public school board. In light of this reality as well as the financial burden that this school will have on our school district, the BESE should demand nothing short of an A+ rating on performance.”
A program error caused a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket to deviate from its course and lose a booster carrying three Glonass-M satellites, a source in the Russian space industry said on Monday.
Sunday's launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket was supposed to deliver satellites for the completion of Russia's Glonass satellite navigation system.
However, the rocket, which blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, deviated from its course by 8 degrees, resulting in the loss of the DM-3 booster with the satellites. According to unofficial reports, the spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean to the northwest of Hawaii.
"According to preliminary information, there were no technical problems with the Proton itself during lift-off. A range of specialists consider that program errors in Proton's onboard computer led to the engines failing to function as normal, giving the rocket an extra boost and taking it into the wrong orbit," the source said.
The Proton's onboard computer was developed by specialists of the Russian Pilyugin space equipment construction center, he said.
Glonass is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.
Russia currently has a total of 26 Glonass satellites in orbit, and all but three are operational. The three lost Glonass-M satellites would have allowed Russia to operate a complete Glonass network of 24 operational satellites and have several satellites in reserve.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev demanded an investigation into the loss of the satellites and ordered Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to carry out a check on spending on the Glonass system.
