Northern Irish paramilitaries hijacking flag protests – police federation

BELFAST (Reuters) – Pro-British militant groups are instigating and exploiting the riots that have rocked the Northern Irish capital Belfast in the past month, a police officers‘ representative said on Sunday.

The violence, which stems from Loyalist protests over the removal of the British flag over Belfast City Hall, is among the worst in the province since a 1998 peace accord ended three decades of sectarian conflict.

Shots were fired at police on Saturday during a third successive day of street battles in which rioters attacked officers with petrol bombs, bricks and other missiles.

Police said on Sunday that 70 people have been arrested, including a 38-year-old man on Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder over the shooting.

Police had said that members of pro-British militant groups helped orchestrate and took part in the first wave of violence in early December. The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) said the recent attacks showed this was now clearly the case.

“What it quite clearly demonstrates is the fact that paramilitaries have hijacked this flags protest issue and they have now turned their guns on the police,” federation chairman Terry Spence told BBC radio.

“It is very clear that there are leading members of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force), who are exploiting this and are organising and orchestrating this violence against police officers who are out there trying to uphold the law and prevent anarchy on our streets.”

Both the UVF and Northern Ireland‘s other main loyalist militant group the Ulster Freedom Fighters ceased hostilities in 2007 and decommissioned their stocks of weapons following the signing of the peace deal.

At least 3,600 people were killed in the 30 years of violence as Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland fought British security forces and mainly Protestant loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.

In scenes that recalled that earlier strife, pro-British loyalists began rioting in early December after a vote by mostly nationalist pro-Irish councillors to end the century-old tradition of flying Britain’s Union flag from the city hall.

“NO STOMACH FOR THIS”

Analysts said that although the violence was worrying, the small numbers of protestors indicated they might unable to develop any strength.

“Clearly the violence is a step up in terms of what’s happened more recently but they’re simply not getting people out on the street,” said Peter Shirlow, a professor at Queen’s University who has spoken with 0protestors in recent days.

“Protestants are annoyed about the flag but they’re even more annoyed about the violence. There’s no stomach for this, that mass mobilisation is just not there anymore.”

The police federation’s Spence said however it was the most challenging time for police in a decade.

Militant nationalists, responsible for the killings of three police officers and two soldiers since an increase in tensions from 2009, have also not reacted violently to the flag protests, limiting any threat to the 15 years of peace.

The British-controlled province’s first minister, Peter Robinson, said on Friday that rioters were playing into the hands of nationalist groups who would seek to exploit every opportunity “to further their terror aims”.

The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) party said on Sunday that shots were fired using a ball-bearings gun at the house of one its councillors in Belfast, shattering windows.

(Writing by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Northern Irish paramilitaries hijacking flag protests – police federation
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/northern-irish-paramilitaries-hijacking-flag-protests-police-federation/
Link To Post : Northern Irish paramilitaries hijacking flag protests – police federation
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Analysts predicting slow start for ‘ultra-HD’ TVs

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ultra high definition TVs are set to be the talk of International CES, the gadget show kicking off this week, but they aren’t likely to account for much of the market even four years down the road.

That is the conclusion of analysts of the show’s host, a day before TV makers such as Samsung, LG and Sony attempt to wow conference attendees with their latest models.

Ultra-HD TVs, with four times as many pixels as HD TVs, are expected to account for only 1.4 million units sold in the U.S. in 2016, or about 5 percent of the entire market. Sales in the rest of the world are expected to be smaller.

The analysts blamed high prices and low availability for the slow start.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Analysts predicting slow start for ‘ultra-HD’ TVs
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/analysts-predicting-slow-start-for-ultra-hd-tvs/
Link To Post : Analysts predicting slow start for ‘ultra-HD’ TVs
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Schwarzenegger is back, and Hollywood hopes he’s still a star

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – As he famously droned on-screen in his signature “Terminator” movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back.

A year after leaving the California governor’s office and becoming tabloid fodder for fathering a boy with his family’s housekeeper and splitting with his wife, Maria Shriver, the 65-year old former bodybuilder will star in no less than three Hollywood movies over the next 12 months.

None are likely to win Schwarzenegger an Oscar. Indeed, the movies, and Schwarzenegger‘s own fee, are low-budget compared with his global blockbusters of yore. But studio executives are betting that overseas fans especially will once again respond to a personality whose 24 films generated worldwide ticket sales of $ 3.9 billion, according to boxoffice.com.

“He is still a worldwide star who resonates with action audiences around the world,” said Rob Friedman, the co-chairman of the Lionsgate motion picture group, which is scheduled to release his next two films. “The Last Stand” will open on January 18, and “The Tomb” in September.

“Ten,” the third film, is scheduled for release in January 2014 by Open Road Films, a joint venture of the AMC and Regal Theater chains.

“When you have left the movie business for seven years, it’s kind of a scary thing to come back because you don’t know if you’re accepted or not,” Schwarzenegger said at a Saturday press event for “The Last Stand.”

“There could be a whole new generation of action stars that come up in the meantime.”

The actor said he was “very pleasantly surprised” by what he called a “great reaction” to his cameo in the 2010 action film “The Expendables,” which featured fellow action stars Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham. The film grossed $ 103.1 million in U.S. ticket sales and $ 274.5 million worldwide.

Since then, Schwarzenegger appeared in a second “Expendables” and says he will join a fifth installment of the “Terminator” if it is made.

Comcast’s Universal Pictures wants to “do a bunch” of new films based on the 30-year-old “Conan The Barbarian” movie, said Schwarzenegger, in which he would reprise his role as a barbarian.

He added that Universal, after 10 years of prodding by Schwarzenegger, also wants to do a sequel to the 1988 comedy “Twins,” in which he and Danny DeVito played mismatched twins, to be called “Triplets.”

Schwarzenegger no longer commands the $ 25 million paychecks he cashed in his heyday and will get between $ 8 and $ 10 million for each of his next three films, according to two people with knowledge of his salary but who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. He also gets a percentage of the profits, according to one of the people.

The new Schwarzenegger calculus banks on his films doing outsized business overseas while operating within budgets that are a fraction of the $ 200 million cost of his last action film, the 2003 “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” The budget for “The Last Stand” is estimated at $ 50 million, according to movie resource site IMDB.com.

“He has significant value outside the United States and Canada, where he is still revered by people who have grown up with him throughout the years,” said Jere Hausfater, chief operating officer of film production company Aldamisa International, which hopes to do a film with Schwarzenegger in the future.

What audiences will see is a aging star who isn’t afraid of showing his drooping muscles and widening paunch, or of making fun of being past his prime. In the “The Last Stand,” a less than rock hard Schwarzenegger plays a retired Los Angeles policeman who becomes the sheriff of a small border town and is then called on to stop a violent drug lord from crossing.

In “Ten” he plays an aging drug agent, and in “The Tomb” an older prison inmate.

“We all go through the same dramas, we look at the mirror and say, what happened? You once had muscles and slowly they are deteriorating,” said Schwarzenegger at “The Last Stand” press event.

“The great thing in the movie is that they we’re not trying to play me as the 35-year-old action hero but the one who is about to retire, and all of a sudden there is this challenge where he really needs to get his act together.”

The one-time muscle man compares his career metamorphosis to that of his friend Clint Eastwood, who transitioned from his Dirty Harry days to a wiser person who’s not afraid to make fun of his slipping abilities in recent films like “Trouble with the Curve.”

“That’s called evolution,” said Sylvester Stallone, who stars with Schwarzenegger as aging inmates in “The Tomb.” “There are no more wooly mammoths. Things change, but the one thing you cannot replace is charisma. Certain people have it, and will have it until the day they die.”

Schwarzenegger‘s infamy in fathering a son outside of his high-profile marriage to Shriver initially seemed to hurt his popular appeal. Within weeks of the disclosure, “The Governator,” a comic book that would feature his likeness, was canceled.

Ultimately, though, moviegoers will be less interested in Schwarzenegger‘s political adventures and personal scandals than in what he puts on the screen, says Peter Sealey, founder of The Sausalito Group and a former Columbia Pictures president of marketing and distribution.

“The movie-going audience really don’t care about things like infidelity, DUIs,” added publicist Howard Bragman, vice-chairman of the firm called Reputation. “They overlook a lot. Ultimately, it remains, how are the movies? Is he credible? Is he going to be a joke?”

(Reporting by Ronald Grover and Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Cynthia Osterman)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Schwarzenegger is back, and Hollywood hopes he’s still a star
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/schwarzenegger-is-back-and-hollywood-hopes-hes-still-a-star/
Link To Post : Schwarzenegger is back, and Hollywood hopes he’s still a star
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Saturated fats tied to falling sperm counts in Danes: study

(Reuters) – Saturated fats, like those found in rich cheeses and meats, may do more than weigh men down after a meal – a Danish study also links them to dwindling sperm counts.

Researchers, whose report appeared in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that young Danish men who ate the most saturated fats had a 38 percent lower concentration of sperm, and 41 percent lower sperm counts in their semen, than those who ate the least fat.

“We cannot say that it has a causal effect, but I think other studies have shown that saturated fat intake has shown a connection to other problems and now also for sperm count,” said Tina Jensen, the study’s lead author from Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, the Danish capital.

The research is not the first to connect diet and other lifestyle factors to sperm production and quality. In 2011, Brazilian researchers found that eating more grains – such as wheat, oats or barley – was associated with improved sperm concentration and mobility, and fruit was also linked to a speed and agility boost in sperm.

But that study and most others looked at these associations using data on men seeking fertility treatments, which may not be representative of all men.

For their study, Jensen and her colleagues surveyed and examined 701 young Danish men who were about 20 years old and getting checkups for the military between 2008 and 2010.

They were asked about the food they ate over the prior three months, and then asked for a semen sample. The researchers then broke the results into four groups, depending on how much of the men’s energy intake came from saturated fats, and compared how much sperm the men in each group produced.

The men who got less than 11.2 percent of their energy from saturated fats had an average sperm concentration of 50 million per milliliter of semen and a total sperm count of about 163 million.

That compared to 45 million sperm per milliliter of semen and a 128 million count in men who got more than 15 percent of their energy from saturated fats.

The World Health Organization defines anything over 15 million sperm per milliliter of semen as normal. In the study, 13 percent of men in the lowest-fat group and 18 percent of men in the highest-fat group fell below that level.

Although the study cannot determine whether other lifestyle factors might account for the link, Jensen said her team’s findings may partially explain studies that have found sperm counts decreasing around the world.

Last year, French researchers reported the number of sperm in one milliliter of the average 35-year-old Frenchman’s semen fell from about 74 million in 1989 to about 50 million in 2005.

“I think obesity is another cause, but (saturated fats) could also be a possible explanation,” Jensen said.

She said that the next step is to find the mechanism by which saturated fat could influence sperm count, and then to see whether sperm counts improve when men cut down on saturated fat in their diets. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/UL3VhP

(Reporting by Elaine Lies)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Saturated fats tied to falling sperm counts in Danes: study
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/saturated-fats-tied-to-falling-sperm-counts-in-danes-study/
Link To Post : Saturated fats tied to falling sperm counts in Danes: study
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Regulators ease bank asset rules

6 January 2013 Last updated at 14:46 ET

International financial regulators have eased rules on minimum quantities of cash and liquid assets all banks must hold, set to take effect in 2015.

The agreement, by the body that oversees the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, is an attempt to make banks less vulnerable to runs.

The new “liquidity coverage ratio” will be phased in from 2015 and take full effect four years later.

Analysts say the rules just announced are more flexible than a draft version.

The new rules are part of efforts to prevent financial shocks such as those prompted by the 2007 run on Northern Rock in the UK, or by the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers in the US.

Banks will have to hold enough cash and easily sellable assets, to tide them over during an acute 30-day crisis.

The final version of the rules updates a draft version put forward more than two years ago.

Continue reading the main story

Perhaps the most striking characteristics of today’s agreement – which amends a draft first published in 2010 – is that banks will be allowed to include corporate bonds, some shares and high-quality residential mortgage backed securities in their permitted stocks of liquid assets.

This goes against the grain of central banking and regulatory orthodoxy. In particular, the inclusion of mortgage-backed securities will be seen by some as odd, since these proved to be wholly illiquid and unsellable in the summer of 2007.

Analysts had warned that over-stringent standards could reduce lending and stifle economic growth.

The new version allows banks to hold a broader range of eligible assets, including some shares, corporate bonds, and high-quality residential mortgage backed securities.

It also gives them more time to comply with the new standards.

The head of oversight body’s head, Mervyn King, said the timeframe ensures the rules “will in no way hinder the ability of the global banking system to finance the recovery”.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says the oddity is that most banks currently hold considerably more than the new minimum requirement – because leading central banks have injected massive amounts of liquidity into the financial system through “quantitative easing”.

But this simply reflects the depressed times we live in, our correspondents says.

The new rules would force banks to hold vastly more liquid assets than they did in 2007 when big banks barely had enough cash to meet demands for repayment from relatively small numbers of depositors and creditors, our correspondent adds.

They are part of the broader “Basel III” package of reforms, which will require lenders to set aside more capital to absorb losses.

The Basel Committee brings together representatives regulators from 27 nations.

BBC News – Business

Title Post: Regulators ease bank asset rules
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/regulators-ease-bank-asset-rules/
Link To Post : Regulators ease bank asset rules
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

India gang-rape victim’s friend recounts attack

NEW DELHI (AP) — Passers-by refused to stop to help a naked, bleeding gang-rape victim after she was dumped from a bus onto a New Delhi street, and police delayed taking her to a hospital for 30 minutes, the woman’s male companion said in an interview. It was his first public account of the gruesome attack that killed the 23-year-old student and prompted demands for reform of a law enforcement culture seen as lax in crimes against women.

The gang-rape victim’s brother blamed a delay in medical treatment of nearly two hours for her death last week in a Singapore hospital.

The woman’s male companion, who has not been named, sat in a wheelchair with a broken leg in his interview aired Friday on Indian TV station Zee News. He recounted the 2 ½ hour rape and beating by a group of men on a bus, which the pair had boarded as they were returning from seeing a movie together.

“I gave a tough fight to three of them. I punched them hard. But then two others hit me with an iron rod,” he said. The woman tried to call the police using her mobile phone, but the men took it away from her, he said. They then took her to the rear seats of the bus and one-by-one began raping her, beating and violating her with an iron rod.

Afterward, he overheard some of the attackers saying the woman was dead before dumping both onto the street, he said.

On Saturday, police officer Vivek Gogia denied the companion’s assertion that police officers debated jurisdiction for 30 minutes before taking the rape victim and her friend to a hospital.

In a statement, Gogia said police vans reached the spot where the rape victim and her friend were dumped within three minutes of receiving the alert. “Police vans left the spot for hospital with the victims within 12 minutes,” he said.

That time was spent in borrowing bed sheets from a neighboring hotel to cover the naked rape victim and her friend, he said.

Also Saturday, a court asked police to produce five men accused of raping the student for pre-trial proceedings on Monday. Police have charged them with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty.

A sixth suspect, listed as a 17-year-old, was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said the summary received from Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore said the rape victim’s death was caused by septicemia and multiple-organ failure, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

He also told Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal that the DNA test confirmed that the blood of the victim tallied with the blood stains found on the clothes of all the accused.

Meanwhile, the rape victim’s brother said the delay in providing medical treatment led to complications which perhaps caused her death.

“She told me that after the incident she had asked passers-by for help but to no avail, and it was only after the highway patrol alerted the police that she was rushed to hospital, but it had taken almost two hours,” the Press Trust of India quoted the brother as saying in his ancestral village, Medawara Kala, in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

“By then a lot of blood was lost,” he said.

The 23-year-old woman died last weekend from massive internal injuries suffered during the attack.

On the night of the attack, the woman and her companion had just finished watching the movie “Life of Pi” at an upscale mall and were looking for a ride home. An autorickshaw driver declined to take them, so they boarded the private bus with the six assailants inside, the companion told Zee News.

After the pair were on the bus for a while, the men started harassing and attacking them.

“The attack was so brutal I can’t even tell you … even animals don’t behave like that,” the man said.

The men dumped their bleeding and naked bodies under an overpass. The woman’s companion waved to passersby on bikes, in autorickshaws and in cars for help, but no one stopped. “They slowed down, looked at our naked bodies and left,” he said.

“My friend was grievously injured and bleeding profusely,” he said. “Cars, autos and bikes slowed down and sped away. I kept waving for help. The ones who stopped stared at us, discussing what could have happened. Nobody did anything.”

After about 20 minutes, three police vans arrived, but the officers argued over who had jurisdiction over the crime as the man pleaded for clothes and an ambulance, he said.

Finally, he said, they were taken to a hospital.

The man said he was given no medical care. He then spent four days at the police station helping police investigate the crime. He said he visited his friend in the hospital, told her the attackers were arrested and promised to fight for her.

Authorities have not named the man because of the sensitivity of the case. Zee News also declined to give his name, although it did show his face during the interview.

Indian law prohibits the disclosure of the identity of victims in rape cases, and police have opened an investigation into the TV station for broadcasting the interview, New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said Saturday. Violators of the law can face up to two years in prison and a fine.

The woman’s companion said he gave the TV interview because he hopes it will encourage rape victims to come forward and speak about their ordeals without shame.

He said his friend was determined to see that the attackers were punished. “She gave all details of the crime to the magistrate — things we can’t even talk about,” he said. “She told me that the culprits should be burnt alive.”

He added, “People should move ahead in the struggle to prevent a similar crime happening again as a tribute to her.”

Most people in India are reluctant to get involved in police business because once they become witnesses, they can be dragged into legal cases that can go on for years. Also, Indian police are often seen less as protectors and more as harassers.

On Friday, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde called for changes in the law and the way police investigate cases so justice can be swiftly delivered. Many rape cases are bogged down in India’s overburdened and sluggish court system for years.

In the wake of the rape, several petitioners appealed to the Supreme Court to take an active role in the issue of women’s safety.

On Friday, the court dismissed a petition asking it to suspend Indian lawmakers accused of crimes against women, saying it doesn’t have jurisdiction, according to the Press Trust of India. The Association for Democratic Reforms, an organization that tracks officials’ criminal records, said six state lawmakers are facing rape prosecutions and two national parliamentarians are facing charges of crimes against women that fall short of rape.

However, the court did agree to look into the widespread creation of more fast-track courts for accused rapists across the country.

___

Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgT99obFvvw

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: India gang-rape victim’s friend recounts attack
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/india-gang-rape-victims-friend-recounts-attack/
Link To Post : India gang-rape victim’s friend recounts attack
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

We Salute the First Baby Senator

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

RELATED: Claire McCaskill and How to Attack the Opponent You’re Rooting For

Here’s our suggestion to improve the (already pretty hilarious) swearing-in process for U.S. Senators: Each new member of Congress must bring a cute baby.

RELATED: Rand Paul Doesn’t Want You to Go to Jail for Smoking Pot

RELATED: Larry David’s Two-Minute Guide to Etiquette

Apparently the BBC has decided to market a line of lunch boxes specifically made for hungry polar bears. They are still working out the kinks: 

RELATED: Homer Simpson, Fox News Pundit; Books After Dark

RELATED: Bo Obama Stays On Message; Sarah Palin Can See HBO in Her House

The Golden Globes will be bittersweet this year. Don’t get us wrong — we’re really excited to watch Amy Poehler and Tina Fey entertain us. But we’ll also be also really sad when this thing is over because it means the end of these promos:

And finally, it’s Friday. And it’s time to dance. Enjoy your weekend. 

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: We Salute the First Baby Senator
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/we-salute-the-first-baby-senator/
Link To Post : We Salute the First Baby Senator
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

HBO’s Liberace film aims to humanize through love story

PASADENA, California (Reuters) – Michael Douglas takes on larger-than-life entertainer Liberace as he plays the singer in an HBO film about a secret love affair in the 1970s that Douglas on Friday called “a great love story.”

Director Steven Soderbergh said he chose to tell Liberace’s story through the lens of his romance with Scott Thorson – a young man who walked into the singer’s Las Vegas dressing room in the summer of 1977 – in part to expand public perception beyond his outsized personality and lavish lifestyle.

“I was very anxious that we not make a caricature of either of their characters or the relationship,” Soderbergh told reporters at a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

“The discussions they’re having are discussions every couple has. We take the relationship very seriously,” he said.

The film called “Beyond the Candelabra” debuts this spring on Time Warner Inc-owned HBO. It is based on Thorson’s book of the same name about their relationship, which ended in a bitter breakup. Matt Damon plays Thorson.

The idea for the film was budding 12 years ago, when Soderbergh and the “Wall Street” actor were working on the 2000 movie “Traffic.” Soderbergh randomly asked Douglas if he had ever thought of playing Liberace.

Douglas said he thought “is this guy messing with me?,” but launched into an impersonation that stuck with Soderbergh years later when he began envisioning the Liberace film.

The movie depicts “a great love story,” Douglas said.

“This is a couple that felt for each other. There’s a lot of joyful moments; there is humor to it,” until their emotional split, he said.

Liberace tried to keep his relationship with Thorson from the public. When Thorson sued Liberace for palimony after their breakup, the entertainer denied that he was gay or that the two had been lovers.

“It’s unfortunate to see the movie through a contemporary lens and know they were not allowed to be as open back then as people are today,” Soderbergh said.

Liberace died in 1987 at age 67.

The filmmakers used locations and props directly from Liberace’s life. Scenes were filmed at the musician’s Los Angeles penthouse and on the stage at the Las Vegas Hilton where Liberace performed. The filmmakers also reunited his trademark, matching “Dueling Pianos.”

The movie’s costume designers worked to recreate his elaborate costumes. In one of the star’s dramatic entrances, the real-life Liberace wore a $ 300,000 white virgin fox coat, lined with $ 100,000 worth of Austrian crystals, that weighed 100 lbs (45 kg). In the film, Douglas wears a replica made of fake fur that weighs much less.

Damon also got to wear his share of flashy outfits. While he said he normally doesn’t pay too much attention to wardrobe fittings, he said he embraced the glamorous costumes in the Liberace film.

“I probably spent more time in wardrobe fittings in this thing than I have in the previous 15 projects,” he said. “I really enjoyed it.”

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine, editing by Jill Serjeant and Lisa Shumaker)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: HBO’s Liberace film aims to humanize through love story
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/hbos-liberace-film-aims-to-humanize-through-love-story/
Link To Post : HBO’s Liberace film aims to humanize through love story
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Canada meets key aboriginal demand amid blockades

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada‘s prime minister will meet with native leaders next week to discuss social and economic issues, an olive branch to an angry aboriginal movement that has blockaded rail lines and threatened to close Canada’s borders with the United States.

Stephen Harper made no mention of the aboriginal protests in a statement on Friday announcing the January 11 meeting.

But the meeting is a key demand from native Chief Theresa Spence, who has been on a hunger strike for 25 days on an island within sight of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

Spence’s spokesman Danny Metatawabin told reporters, on the snowy ground outside her traditional teepee, that she would continue her hunger strike until she was satisfied with the outcome of next week’s meeting.

Spence’s hunger strike has been one of the most visible signs of a protest movement called Idle No More, which had announced plans for blockades on Saturday all along the U.S.-Canadian border.

It was not clear if these blockades would now be called off, or if there would be any disruptions at the border crossings between the two big trading partners.

The movement is not centrally organized, and Metatawabin said he would not tell others what to do. Several hours after Harper’s announcement, the Idle No More website still had a call up for blockades on Saturday.

Demonstrators blocked a Canadian National Railway Co line in Sarnia, Ontario, for about two weeks until Wednesday, and there were shorter blockades elsewhere in the country, including one that delayed passenger trains between Montreal and Toronto for several hours on Sunday.

Harper said next Friday’s meeting would address economic development, aboriginal rights and the treaty relationship between the government and native groups. He described it as a follow-up to a meeting with aboriginal leaders last January as well as talks in November with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.

“While some progress has been made, there is more that must be done to improve outcomes for First Nations communities across Canada,” Harper said in a statement.

DISMAL CONDITIONS

Many of Canada’s 1.2 million aboriginals live on reserves where conditions are often dismal, with high rates of poverty, addiction and suicide.

Treaties with Ottawa signed a century ago finance their health and education in a way that many experts say is now dysfunctional.

Speaking to reporters in Oakville, Ontario, Harper sidestepped a question on whether he had agreed to the meeting because of Spence’s hunger strike and fear the protests could snowball like last year’s Occupy Movement.

Asked about the demonstrations, he said: “People have the right in our country to demonstrate and express their points of view peacefully as long as they obey the law, but I think the Canadian population expects everyone will obey the law in holding such protests.”

Idle No More was sparked by legislation that activists say Harper rushed through Parliament without proper consultation with native groups and which affects their land and treaty rights. But it has broadened into a complaint about conditions in general for native Canadians.

In her meeting with reporters after Harper’s announcement, Spence said she planned to attend the meeting in person along with three of her supporters and she wanted the governor general – Queen Elizabeth’s representative – and the Ontario premier to attend as well.

She stood flanked by her daughter and several supporters, some of them holding up feathers. There were several minutes of drumming and singing before she and her spokesman began talking.

When asked what she needed to hear from the prime minister in order to start eating again, she said, “a positive result because there’s a lot of issues we need to discuss” and that they should discuss the issues as equal partners.

(Additional reporting by Cameron French in Oakville, Ontario; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Eric Beech)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Canada meets key aboriginal demand amid blockades
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/canada-meets-key-aboriginal-demand-amid-blockades/
Link To Post : Canada meets key aboriginal demand amid blockades
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

France won’t buy troubled Petroplus refinery: Hollande

VAL-DE-REUIL, France (Reuters) – France will not take over insolvent Swiss refiner Petroplus‘ oil refinery in Normandy, but could help the plant financially once a suitable buyer is found, President Francois Hollande said on Saturday.

About 500 jobs at the 161,000 barrels-a-day Petit-Couronne refinery are at risk, the latest industrial headache for the Socialist leader who has vowed to stem rising unemployment by the end of the year.

“It’s difficult to find a serious buyer. We must do everything to find one,” Hollande told reporters after meeting union leaders in Val-De-Reuil, a town about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north-west of Paris.

“The state will do its duty, but it cannot take the plant over, and the workers know that,” he said.

He added the state could at some point provide financing.

Petroplus poses a major test for Hollande’s government after it faced criticism over the tactics it used in a two-month battle over the future of ArcelorMittal’s Florange steel plant, which unnerved investors in the euro zone’s second largest economy and confused France’s unions.

His administration is struggling to stop a haemorrhage of industrial jobs which has helped push unemployment to 15-year highs, while curbing public spending and raising taxes to help slash debt in a stagnant economy.

A French court set a deadline of February 5 for interested parties to submit bids for the Petit-Couronne refinery.

Shell , which had a six-month oil processing deal with the troubled plant running to mid-December, has not extended its contract, making the refinery less attractive for buyers due to expensive restart costs.

So far only NetOil, a company led by Middle Eastern businessman Roger Tamraz, has submitted an offer while 7 others have filed letters of intent to buy France’s oldest refinery.

Net Oil’s offer includes an oil supply deal with BP and an agreement with Hyundai to upgrade the plant.

Union spokesman Yvon Scornet told reporters after the meeting that Hollande had promised to do everything possible to push the project forward, but had given no guarantees.

TAKING CHARGE

Hollande is trying to win back voters who are increasingly unhappy over the government’s handling of the economy and disillusioned by communication gaffes.

A survey by BVA for I>Tele on Friday showed two-thirds of respondents were not convinced by Hollande’s New Year’s address aimed at reassuring the country over his policies.

Approval ratings for Hollande and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault hit new lows in December.

Hollande, seen as letting his ministers lead the fight, has been compared unfavourably with his pugnacious, micro-managing predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

However, the president, who appointed a new communications advisor on Thursday, appears to have decided to put himself directly in the firing line promising to carry out at least one visit a week across France to show his commitment to battling the economic crisis.

“Today, I have to be more present on the ground,” he said. “I have to set the example as I am the first to blame. I am not delegating to anybody else the responsibility of explaining to the French the policies that I am pushing through.”

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and John Irish; writing by John Irish; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: France won’t buy troubled Petroplus refinery: Hollande
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/france-wont-buy-troubled-petroplus-refinery-hollande/
Link To Post : France won’t buy troubled Petroplus refinery: Hollande
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..