Caffeine not tied to worsening urinary incontinence

NEW YORK: Women with urinary incontinence who also enjoy their regular cup of coffee or tea don't have to worry about the extra caffeine making their condition worse, suggests a new study. The new research stands in contrast to the common recommendation that women with leaky bladders stay away from caffeinated foods and beverages. "If a woman feels she wants to abstain from caffeine that's completely fine, but based on our results, women with moderate incontinence shouldn't be concerned," said Mary Townsend, the study's lead author from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Still, the findings cannot say whether caffeine might have a shorter-term impact by making women need to urinate soon after eating or drinking something caffeinated. According to Townsend, there are some biological reasons for women with incontinence to stay away from caffeine -- such as that it increases the production of urine and may give some the urge to go. But it's been unclear whether a daily caffeine habit is tied to worsening incontinence over the long run. To try to answer that question, the researchers looked at data on about 21,500 women enrolled in two large studies, each of which tracked the long-term health of U.S. nurses through surveys starting in the 1970s or 1980s. Townsend and her colleagues selected women with moderate incontinence -- defined as leaking urine one to three times per month -- from participants who were asked about incontinence and caffeine consumption in 2002 or 2003. The women were questioned about how much caffeine they ate or drank in the form of coffee, tea, soda or chocolate over the previous few years. Two years later, when they were again surveyed about incontinence, about 20 percent of women said their symptoms had gotten worse and they now leaked urine at least once per week. That was consistent regardless of how much caffeine they'd reported eating and drinking. The researchers also didn't find a link between women who increased their caffeine consumption between the survey years and worsening urinary symptoms -- either for general incontinence or for overactive bladder in particular. Women can also suffer from stress and overflow incontinence, said Dr. Larissa Rodriguez, co-director of the division of female urology, reconstructive surgery and urodynamics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, in an email. Leaks related to stress incontinence can be brought on by any activity that puts stress on the bladder, like sneezing or laughing. Overflow incontinence occurs when the bladder does not empty properly, and urge incontinence or overactive bladder is the sudden need to go the bathroom. As for treatments, behavioral changes, weight loss and certain exercises may help, said Rodriguez, who wasn't involved in the new study. "There are not many effective medications but minimally invasive surgeries can be curative," she added. According to the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study, the majority of women can get relief without surgery. Townsend said most women in the study did not even tell their doctors about their incontinence. She also said the new findings, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, need to be confirmed with more research because there's a possibility that caffeine could make urinary symptoms worse over longer than a few years. The study was also limited because incontinence symptoms were reported by the women themselves and not measured by a doctor, and the researchers didn't take treatment for incontinence into consideration. (Reuters)

Getting married in SKorea needs big cash

SEOUL: The Beatles may have sung "all you need is love," but in South Korea a couple wanting to get married also needs cash, a lot of it - nearly $200,000, or more than four times the average annual income.

The sky-high costs stem from a combination of cultural traditions that mandate expensive pre-wedding gifts between families, such as mink coats and diamond rings, along with a decades-old custom that the groom must fork over money to provide a home.

The average cost for a wedding in 2011 rose about 270 percent from 1999, while the inflation during the same period rose 45.5 percent. Total costs far outstripped the average annual household income at around 48.3 million Korean won ($42,400), according to government data.

Thus, young couples seeking to unite in wedded bliss are forced to borrow from parents or take out loans. With candid discussions of money a cultural taboo in Korea, many are reluctant to speak about the high cost of exchanging vows.

"Korean society is very tightly knit, and people here are very concerned about how others view them," said Harris H. Kim, a sociology assistant professor at Ewha Womans University.

"The wedding works as a status symbol, like a marker of where you stand in the society," he added.

One 27-year-old woman working in the financial industry, who like many others asked to remain anonymous, said her parents paid nearly 90 percent of her 140 million won ($122,900) wedding costs.

"We had to use our parents' money, which probably came from the sacrifice of their own retirement savings," she said.

A 30-year old kindergarten teacher who would only give her surname, Kim, said her husband, whose income is 40 million won, took out a loan for 45 million won in addition to financial aid from their parents for a wedding with 600 guests. The couple didn't know half the people, who were their parents' friends.

Gift-giving also takes a hefty chunk of the cash. Traditionally, the bride and groom's families have exchanged gifts - good silk for new clothes and simple jewelry - as a way of thanking the other family. But these days the silk has turned into fur or luxury handbags, while the jewelry has morphed into a full set of gems.

But the biggest part of the wedding budget comes from soaring housing prices, according to data from couple.net, a matchmaking company. The money spent by happy couples for housing last year was 2.5 times higher than in 2000, making up nearly 70 percent of the total cost of a wedding.

"I've had many customers in the last five years who directly asked for a spouse who can at least afford to rent a house," said Sungmi Lee, a manager at couple.net.

Although most couples choose to spend the money, many are less than happy about it.

"None of that expensive jewelry is actually useful or beautiful, and you know you'll just regret using the money for that after you're actually married and need money for your married life," said Kisun Lee, a 29-year-old consultant. ($1 = 1138.6000 Korean won) (Reuters)

Apple courts EPIX for upcoming TV

LOS ANGELES: Apple Inc began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios, on devices including a long-anticipated TV, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations.
Apple, which now sells a $99 set-top box that hooks up to a television set and lets users stream online content from Netflix and the MLB channel, opened discussions with three-year-old EPIX, created by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, MGM and Viacom's Paramount Pictures.

One of the sources told Reuters that any discussions would apply to its set-top box and also to upcoming devices that stream content. Apple is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or in early 2013 to drive its next phase of growth and potentially revolutionize the industry.

Apple has been stymied for much of the past year in securing marquee Hollywood content. Talks with EPIX are in the preliminary stages and no agreement is considered near, the source said.

The talks could be complicated by EPIX's 2010 agreement with Netflix, which pays $200 million a year for the rights to stream movies to its 23.4 million U.S. clients. That deal gives Netflix exclusive streaming rights to EPIX movies through September - before Apple is expected to trot out its planned TV set.

Apple declined to comment on what it called "speculation." A Netflix spokesman had no immediate comment. An EPIX spokesman had no comment.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in an April 23 conference call with analysts that the DVD and streaming service was in a "broad range of discussions" with EPIX about "how to operate most effectively for both of us."

EPIX currently offers movies such as "Rango" and "The Lincoln Lawyer." It will soon add "Thor" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," Netflix said in a letter to investors.

Apple has become the world's most valuable corporation by dint of the popularity of its iPhone, which helped revolutionize the smartphone industry, and its more recent iPad.

But many on Wall Street say that with the death of visionary co-founder Steve Jobs, new CEO Tim Cook could take the company forward with a major new product, such as the much-speculated Apple TV.

Apple unsuccessfully tried last year to secure agreements with Hollywood studios for movies and TV shows that it could fashion into its own version of a TV service, according to studio executives who were contacted.

EPIX does not have agreements with larger cable operators like Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable or with satellite service DirecTV. It has contracts with the Dish satellite service, Cox Cable and other cable operators, it says on its website.

Shares in Netflix closed down 1.6 percent at $83.74 on the Nasdaq. Apple, which snapped a two-week losing streak this week after better-than-expected results, finished off 0.8 percent at $603. (Reuters) 

Clarke keeps lid on big Aussie hopes

ROSEAU: Michael Clarke celebrated a year in charge of Australia with a 75-run victory over West Indies in the third and final Test, but insisted his team is far from the finished article.

Since succeeding Ricky Ponting as skipper, Clarke has built an impressive record with nine wins, three draws and just two defeats in 14 Tests.

"A lot more grey hairs, but I've really enjoyed it," said Clarke, after Australia wrapped-up their Caribbean series 2-0.

"I've been very lucky to have some other great leaders around me, wonderful support staff who have played a part in me having success. And the captain is only as good as his stock.

"Come our next tour to England, the one-day series, we'll be looking to continue to play some really good cricket and keep Australian cricket in the right direction."

Clarke has been through the mill during his time in charge, with a series of great highs and embarrassing lows.

He led Australia to an impressive 4-0 home win over India, scoring 626 runs at an average of 125.20.

He also became only the third player after Don Bradman and Wally Hammond to have made a triple century and a double century in the same series.

But he also saw his team bowled out for just 47 by South Africa in Cape Town, before squaring the series in Johannesburg just days later.

Then came the shock defeat to New Zealand in Hobart in December last year.

Those ups and downs have forced Clarke not to get too carried away by making predictions over what the future may hold for Australia.

"Cape Town showed us how quickly things can change for the worse and then to be able to pull off a win in Jo'burg -- and we're talking about a very strong Test team in their own back yard -- so to be able to level that series was a great learning curve for us.

"And we continue to learn, especially, from those two games, Cape Town and Hobart.

"I still think we're a way off the number one spot. We have a lot of improvement to become the number one team. It's not just about one series or one summer. It's about consistency over a period of time."

Australia's South African coach Mickey Arthur praised the contributions of Matthew Wade, who made a maiden Test century here and spinner Nathan Lyon, who was his team's leading wicket-taker in the series with 13.

Ed Cowan also won plaudits from Arthur after the opener made a battling 55 in the first innings of the final Test.

"It's been excellent for the development of a lot of players who haven't played out of Australia before. I'm thinking of the likes of Matthew Wade, Ed Cowan, Nathan Lyon," said Arthur.

"I think we've played solid cricket, we've had a lot of young players that are playing in these conditions for the first time and I think they all go back to Australia better players.

"We go back to Australia with a lot of answers as to where we're going as a squad and I'm very, very happy that we're just creating depth within our structures because with the amount of cricket we play these days there's going to be injuries and we've got guys that are going to be match-hardened and ready to step up to the plate." (AFP)

Spanish economy in "huge crisis"

MADRID: Spain's sickly economy faces a "crisis of huge proportions", a minister said on Friday, as unemployment hit its highest level in almost two decades and Standard and Poor's downgraded the government's debt by two notches.

Unemployment shot up to 24 percent in the first quarter, one of the worst jobless figures in the developed world. Retail sales slumped for the twenty-first consecutive month as a recession cuts into consumer spending.

"The figures are terrible for everyone and terrible for the government ... Spain is in a crisis of huge proportions," Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said in a radio interview.

Standard and Poor's cited risks of an increase in bad loans at Spanish banks and called on Europe to take action to encourage growth.

The downgrade spooked financial markets, raising the interest rate fellow euro zone struggler Italy was forced to pay to sell 10-year bonds at auction. The yield was its highest since January as investors worried about the economic outlook in the bloc's indebted states.

Analysts said the 5.95 billion euro Italian auction went well under the circumstances, but Rabobank strategist Richard McGuire said the 5.84 percent 10-year yield "leaves a question mark over how long Italy will be able to finance itself at levels that can be deemed sustainable".

Italy's main banking association said the economy may contract by 1.4 percent this year, more than the government's 1.2 percent forecast.

Spain's country risk, as measured by the spread on yields between Spanish and German benchmark government bonds, spiked before leveling off to around 420 basis points.

Spain has slipped into its second recession in three years and fears that it cannot hit harsh deficit cutting targets this year have put it back in the centre of the debt crisis storm, pushing up its borrowing costs.

Recovery and job creation are still two years off, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Friday in a news conference where he forecast 0.2 percent growth in the gross domestic product next year and 1.4 percent growth in 2014.

De Guindos also said Spain would increase the value-added tax and other indirect taxes next year, but would seek to reduce payroll taxes. Spain has a low VAT compared with other European countries even after raising it in 2010.

The government has already rescued a number of banks that were too exposed to a decade-long construction boom that crashed in 2008, and investors fear vulnerable lenders will be hit by another wave of loan defaults due to the slowing economy.

"It's a very challenging situation. I don't think that the banks are cornered yet, but the government must come out soon to say how they will address them," said Gilles Moec, an economist with Deutsche Bank.

DEFICIT TARGETS DOOMED

S&P's head of European ratings, Moritz Kraemer, told Reuters Insider television that Spanish banks could need state aid and the country faced further downgrades if its debt troubles continue to escalate.

"It is not going to be an easy job for most Spanish banks to find funding in the market. So the state may be called for at some point. But that, for now at least, is something the Spanish government seems to be unwilling to contemplate," he said.

Spain has ruled out any use of European funds to recapitalize its banks, weighed down by bad property loans. Economy Secretary Fernando Jimenez Latorre said Spain had sufficient financial capacity to handle a rescue itself in case of need.

The government is considering whether to create a holding company for the banks' toxic real estate assets after three rounds of forced clean-ups and consolidations in the financial sector have failed to draw a line under the problem.

Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, in office since December, has passed an austerity budget and introduced new laws to try to make the economy more competitive, such as by reducing costs for companies to lay off workers. He has also agreed with Brussels a higher deficit target for this year.

But he has not convinced investors, and Spain's borrowing costs have shot up recently as the effect of a flow of cheap loans from the European Central Bank has worn off.

On Thursday Rajoy said he was determined to stick to austerity measures even though they are aggravating the economic slump and calls for growth measures are mounting around Europe.

The treasury ministry estimated the increase of 365,900 jobless people in the first quarter meant a loss of 953 million euros in tax income, making deficit cutting even harder.

The unemployment rate was up from 22.9 percent in the last quarter of 2011 and was worse than economists had forecast. Half of Spain's youth are out of work, and figures are unlikely to improve for some time as the government slashes spending by 42 billion euros this year, some 4 percent of economic output.

EUROPEAN ACTION NEEDED

S&P now has Spain on a BBB+ rating, which means "adequate payment capacity" and is only a few notches above a junk rating. Fitch and Moody's still rate Spain's sovereign with a "strong payment capacity".

The ratings agency called on euro zone countries to better manage the sovereign debt crisis.

Standard & Poor's said the euro zone should implement growth-promoting structural measures, feeding into the mounting debate in Europe about the self-defeating nature of austerity-only or austerity-first measures.

S&P said steps to restore financial confidence should "include a greater pooling of fiscal resources and obligations, possibly direct bank support mechanisms to weaken the sovereign-bank links, and a consolidation of banking supervision or a greater harmonization of labor and wage policies."

The call for a Europe-wide system to resolve and underpin banks echoed similar comments from the ECB's Executive Board members Joerg Asmussen and Benoit Coeure. (Reuters)

Smoking teddy bear a hit at CinemaCon

LOS ANGELES: Universal brought Snow White, Bourne and a battleship to CinemaCon on Thursday in the hopes of astonishing theater owners, but all it really needed to pack was a pot-smoking teddy bear.

With a reported budget of $65 million, Seth MacFarlane's "Ted" was made for a fraction of what it cost to blow up half the Navy in "Battleship," but the resounding laughter that greeted the extended footage indicates the studio might have a huge R-rated hit on its hands.

The film centers on a boy whose Christmas wish comes true after his teddy bear comes to life. But that dream turns more nightmarish when the pair grows up.

Universal highlighted the stuffed bear, played by McFarlane in a motion-capture suit, hanging out with prostitutes, taking hits from a bong and humping a cash register - all activities that would be pretty foreign to, say, Winnie the Pooh.

Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis star along with MacFarlane. The reaction was so enthusiastic that Adam Fogelson, Universal Pictures chairman who was emceeing the event, probably did not mind when he found himself the target of MacFarlane's raunchy zingers.

"You have the boyish charm of Rick Santorum," MacFarlane told Fogelson.

Later, MacFarlane dared the studio chief to expose himself. Fogelson opted to keep his appendage in trou.

Universal also screened footage of "Snow White and the Huntsman," bringing out stars Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron to preview an extended trailer that has the title character leading a band of knights and dwarves to battle against the wicked queen.

The film is a spectacular epic, directed by a first-time talent, Rupert Sanders, who spun a world of mythical creatures, an imperiously evil Theron and a dark look that is miles removed from the rococo Snow White picture from Relativity, "Mirror, Mirror."

The studio also gave exhibitors a look at "Battleship," which hits these shores on May 18, but has already debuted in many foreign territories. It has grossed north of $150 million, so something must work, but it just seemed to pummel convention-goers into submission with its pyrotechnics and jingoism.

More interesting were "The Savages," a dark thriller that Fogelson said would return director Oliver Stone to the ultra-violent territory he covered in his script for "Scarface" and "Natural Born Killers." The movie, which centers on two pot dealers whose mutual girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel, looks to ride the knife's edge. Salma Hayek plays a drug lord, while John Travolta plays a crooked D.E.A. agent.

Travolta came on stage and said he had never worked with "...such decent people doing such awful things." As for the Bourne franchise, Fogelson said that after Matt Damon passed on a fourth installment, the studio wanted to open up the paranoid world of the thrillers without recasting the lead.

He said that Universal had decided to let Bourne swim off into the Hudson, his memory restored, "for now," holding out the possibility that Damon could be in for a big payday down the road.

"The Bourne Legacy" sees Jeremy Renner taking over as another super-assassin on the run from the government. Based on the early footage, he is equally adept at turning from prey to predator and single-handedly tearing through an intelligence agency.

Looking farther ahead, Universal also previewed glimpses of its winter and spring slate, including footage from the "This is 40," which centers on the "Knocked Up" characters played by Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd; "Les Misérables" with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman flexing their singing voices; and the 3D martial arts adventure "47 Ronin." (Reuters)

Blind China activist escapes housearrest

BEIJING: Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, one of China's most prominent human rights advocates, has escaped from home imprisonment, activists said on Friday, but uncertainty over his whereabouts and fears about his health have worried supporters.

Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail.

His confinement and relentless surveillance with his family fanned protests by Chinese sympathizers and criticism from foreign governments and activist groups.

Chen's reported escape and the furor it has unleashed could add to the headaches of China's ruling Communist Party, which is striving to ensure stability and authority ahead of a leadership transition later this year.

Bob Fu, president of the Texas-based religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid, said in a statement that Chen was in Beijing and "100 percent safe".

"There is speculation that Chen is in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing," the group added. The U.S. Embassy and China's Foreign Ministry both said they had no immediate comment.

In a video posted on YouTube, Chen confirmed he had escaped, and asked Premier Wen Jiabao to order an investigation in the maltreatment of him and his family by local officials.

"It was not at all easy, but I have escaped," he said in the video. "Everything that was said on the Internet about the violence directed against me by Linyi, I'm here to say that it was all true."

Chen did not say where he was nor what his plans were.

"I want Premier Wen to open a probe into this corrupt behavior. The money paid by the people in taxes should not be wasted by corrupt local officials to hurt us," he added.

While Reuters was not able to authenticate the video, there was scant doubt it was Chen, wearing his trademark dark glasses and speaking in his halting, Shandong-accented Mandarin Chinese.

Fu earlier said in a telephone interview that Chen's wife, daughter and mother were still at the family's village home, which was surrounded by authorities after they discovered Chen had disappeared.

"The entire village and government leaders were stunned by the developments when Chen Guangcheng was not found. So they are surrounding his home," he said.

"SCARED OF REVENGE"

Another activist, He Peirong, told Reuters that Chen had talked with her.

"His spirits are okay, but he is passing blood and is very weak," she said. "His hands won't stop shaking."

She said Chen was worried about his family.

"He is really worried about his wife, child and mother now he has escaped. He is scared the guards will take revenge now he has escaped. The guards have beaten his old mother this year. They broke some of his wife's bones which have yet to heal."

Chen's fate has become a test of wills, pitting a crackdown on dissent against rights activists who have rallied around his cause and that of artist Ai Weiwei.

Officials in Shandong did not comment immediately on Chen's escape.

The news was widely discussed on China's popular Twitter-like service Weibo, with users referring to him as "the blind man" to avoid censorship of his name, reflecting his status as a Chinese cult hero.

"He has escaped from the clutches of the devil," wrote "Brave to speak".

"Never has the fate of single blind man moved the hearts of an entire nation," added "Jing Huili".

Phelim Kine, Senior Asia Researcher for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, expressed concern about Chen's health.

"If Chen has successfully escaped, it comes not a moment too soon as there have been reports that Chen has been in extremely poor health due to severe multiple beatings by his captors," Kine said in an email.

Chen angered Shandong officials in 2005 by exposing a programme of forced abortions as part of China's one-child policy. He was formally released in September 2010 after four years in jail on a charge of "blocking traffic".

Chen and his wife endured a "brutal four-hour beating" by local authorities last July, ChinaAid has said.

Last year, dozens of supporters were blocked from visiting Chen. Many of them were beaten by men in plain clothes.

In December, Hollywood actor and "Batman" star Christian Bale was roughed up by security guards while trying to visit Chen. Bale had been in China to promote a movie with Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

Guo Yushan, a Beijing-based researcher who has campaigned for Chen's release, said he believed Chen remained free as of midday on Friday. (Reuters)

The Dirt in Your Mind

Vidya in a still from The Dirty

The irony is writ large. For a film that has won the National Award, ‘The Dirty Picture’ was blacked out from television broadcast yesterday, the government deeming it unfit for viewing during prime time. The filmmakers went through 59 cuts and two months of negotiations to get a U/A certificate that as per the law makes the film fully legit for broadcast. More importantly, a last minute cancellation means lakhs (if not crores) of advertising cash wasted going down the drain.

So where does this fear of broadcasting something risqué come from? Ostensibly, this ban has been pushed by bureaucratic babus who believe that broadcasting the film will taint the sanctity of the home. In this age of the internet (with which the government has also been at loggerheads), pirated DVDs, MMS clips and reality television the children of a nuclear family are already atomic. It is a delusion to imagine that censorship is going to protect your children from what they really want to see. If they want to see it, they will find it.

Also, were you to see regular programming on TV, you’d notice a phenomenon that is truly repressed and vulgar. The talent show, in which pre-pubescent kids shimmy to pelvic thrusts and what have you over Bollywood songs while Archana Puran Singh & co cackle in approval. How okay is it to cast pre-pubescent kids in such a sexualized mould in which they mimic the repressed adults of Independent India? What about reality TV in which crass is the new cool? What is the last John Carpenter horror flick your kid might have seen when you were out on a Saturday night? There is a lot of stuff out there on cable tv.

In comparison to the bouquet of options available on cable tv, Bollywood itself has been significantly lobotomized by our Censor Board. It is a morality that has done this nation a great disservice culturally and sociologically. This sort of repression vis-à-vis pop culture consumption has created a nation that has a rather disturbing relationship to sex. Sex, if crass and vulgar and leery, is alright. The Dirty Picture itself is a case in point, though that doesn’t mean it needs to be banned from prime time TV. Sexuality in a more authentic format, sex for sex’s sake is a strict no-no on our screens. As a result, the films we have that push the carnal pedal are mainly sleazy erotic thrillers, the Bhatts leading the way with this genre. But how wonderful it might have been if the Karan Johars and Yash Chopras and the Rohit Shettys of the world had not been corseted by our Censor Board.

A former colleague of mine who was just finding her bearings in Bombay city with a new job had taken up paying guest accommodation close to work. So one evening I checked with her if some of us from work could go to her place for an after-work get-together. To this, she replied, “No, women paying guests are not allowed to bring home men to their rooms, I’ve strictly been told by my landlady.” “But why?” I couldn’t help asking.  To this, she laughed and replied: “Because as Indians, we’re not supposed to be having sex.” For a nation of a billion and still ticking, one can understand the anxiety. But it’s already too late in the day, one might add. Our minds, after years of repression, are already too dirty. And The Dirty Picture is not going to change that.

Smaug is the richest dragon in fiction

NEW YORK: A smart and savvy dragon, an aged vampire and a Beverly Hillbilly are among the richest fictional characters, according to a new ranking.

Smaug, a hyper-intelligent, short-tempered dragon and the star of the upcoming "Lord of the Rings" prequel whose estimated worth is a hefty $62 billion, headed the list of Forbes' "Fictional 15" wealthiest imaginary characters, it said on Monday.

The rich dragon distrusts banks, Wall Street and "swears by 'plunder and hoard' investment style," according to Michael Noer and David Ewalt, the editors who compiled the annual list.

But for all his fire-breathing showmanship, Smaug was still not as rich as Carlos Slim Helu, the real-life Mexican magnate and chairman and CEO of Telmex and América Móvil and the world's richest man with a net worth estimated at $69 billion.

Flintheart Glomgold, the Scottish-South African diamond mining magnate and nemesis of misery Scrooge McDuck, wasn't far behind on the list with a $51.9 billion fortune, built through "mining and theft," Forbes said.

Glomgold deposed Scrooge McDuck, who was among last year's top earners, after the two engaged in a winner-takes-all, round-the-world race.

With vampire-themed franchises showing no signs mortality, Carlisle Cullen, the 371-year-old vampire from the "Twilight" books and films who has been accruing interest on a small savings account since 1670, placed third with $36.3 billion, up $100 million since last year.

Jed Clampett, the patriarch of the oil-rich "Beverly Hillbillies" clan in the popular 1960s television show was fourth with a fortune estimated at $9.8 billion.

Newcomers included Tony Stark, the engineering whiz and part-time superhero from the "Iron Man" franchise, who rounded out the top five with a $9.3 billion fortune.

Another first-timer was Lisbeth Salandar from the Stieg Larsson novels and hit film "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," with a reported wealth of $2.4 billion. She placed eleventh.

To qualify for the list the characters must be known in their fictional stories and by their audiences for being rich.

Forbes based the net worth estimates on an analysis of the character's source material and valued it against known real-world commodity and share price movements.

Forbes editors have compiled the list since 2005, using methods similar to those used to calculate real billionaires like Bill Gates. (Reuters)

Bangalore outplay Rajasthan by 46 runs

JAIPUR: Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Rajasthan Royals by 46 runs in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Monday.

Chasing an improbable target of 190 runs, Rajasthan Royals batsmen failed to meet the challenge and were restricted to 143 for seven in 20 overs.

Only captain Rahul Dravid batted sensibly to make 58 with eight fours. The second highest scorer was Stuart Binny who was 20 not out.

Left-arm spinner KP Appanna captured four wickets for 19 runs and Harshal Patel took two for 32.

Earlier, Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and put royal Challengers Bangalore into bat who amassed 189 runs for the loss of only three wickets in the allotted 20 overs.

All credit for this huge total went to a big unbeaten fourth wicket partnership of 122 runs between Tillekaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka and AB de Villiers of South Africa.

Dilshan remained not out on 76, scored off 58 balls with ten fours and a six while de Villiers smashed five towering sixes and three boundaries in a breezy innings of 59 from just 23 balls.

For Bangalore, Australian left-arm spinner Brad Hogg claimed two wickets for 39.

This match was shown live by Geo Super, the premier sports tv channel of Pakistan.

PASSCO wheat procural starts from May 1

LAHORE: Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) has announced to commence wheat procurement drive from May 1 while the distribution of gunny bags will be started from April 28.

`Though it was scheduled to launch its wheat procurement drive earlier than this yet the recent spell of rain and higher moisture content in wheat has forced to delay its procurement drive for a few days,' said a spokesman of the Corporation here on Monday.

PASSCO sources said the corporation would launch its procurement drive simultaneously in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan and all arrangements to buy two million tons of wheat had also been finalized.

About 65 percent of required gunny bags have been sent at procurement centres set up in its designated areas by the corporation and rest of 35 per cent will reach their destination within the next few days.

Farmers will be paid Rs 1,050 per 40 kilograms at the procurement centres besides Rs 7 per bag as delivery charges.

Corporation will buy wheat in 15 tehsils of Punjab including Hafizabad, Pindi Bhattian, Gojra, Okara including Renala Khurd, Pakpattan, Mailsi, Burewala, Mian Channu, Lodhran, Kehror Pucca, Bahawalnagar, Minchanabad, Alipur including Jatoi, Khanpur and Layyah. PASSCO has set up 200 procurement centres in these areas of the Punjab province to facilitate growers.

It has set up 11 procurement centres in Sindh area of Sobo Dero, Kund Yaro and Sukrund while nine procurement centres have been established in Naseerabad and Jafferabad tehsils of Balochistan.

PASSCO administration is taking all-out steps to provide an exemplary service to growers for procurement of wheat and its timely payment has devised a transparent, effective and farmer-friendly procurement policy this year as well. It will ensure provision of gunny bags to growers having 12 acres or less land during first 15 days of the procurement drive.

In case of any complaint growers can contact corporation's zonal heads including general manager (fields) whose numbers are displayed outside every procurement center.

Canadian cow produces most milk ever

OTTAWA: A Holstein cow named Smurf from a farm just east of Canada's capital has set a new world record for the most milk produced in a lifetime -- a whopping 216,891 kg (478,163 pounds) over 15 years.
And she's still producing.

"That's the equivalent of more than one million glasses of milk," said Smurf's owner Eric Patenaude, a sixth generation Canadian dairy farmer.

Guinness World Records confirmed the record to AFP on Monday. It previously belonged to a cow in the US state of Michigan.

The average dairy cow yields about 35,000 kilograms (33,981 liters) of milk in a lifetime, or less than 50 liters per day. Smurf produces approximately the same daily amount, but has lived three times longer than most dairy cows.

It's her "longevity and consistency" that won her the prize, which also earned Smurf "Udder Accolades" from a local newspaper, said Patenaude. "That's how she's produced so much milk."

It also helps that she's got good genes: Smurf's father was a stud named Emperor from Wisconsin and her mother, Murphy, was also a "good milker," said a herder at La Ferme Gillette in Embrun, Ontario.

Smurf turns 16 in September and is expecting her eleventh calf in the coming weeks. So far she has only had one female offspring to continue on the milk-making tradition. (AFP)

Panetta doubts Iran replicating US drone

BOGOTA: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday dismissed claims by Iran that it had gleaned data from a downed US drone and was now building a copy of the robotic spycraft.

"I can tell you from my experience that I would seriously question their ability to do what they said they've done," Panetta, a former CIA director, told reporters before landing in Bogota.

The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' aerospatial division, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said on Sunday that Iran had discovered "codes" from the bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel that fell into Tehran's hands in December.

Panetta scoffed at Iran's account but said he could not discuss details of such a sensitive subject.

"It's, obviously, a classified program. I don't want to get into the particulars," he said during a briefing on his flight to Bogota, at the start of a Latin American tour.

Iran's gleeful military proudly displayed the unmanned Sentinel drone on state television apparently intact, though with what appeared to be damage to one of its wings.

Iran claimed one of its cyberwarfare team hacked the drone's controls by confusing its GPS guidance system, and has since claimed it would reverse-engineer the drone.

US officials acknowledged losing the drone on a spying mission over Iran, but asserted the stealth aircraft came down because of a technical problem, not any Iranian intervention.

Panetta, in his first visit to Latin America as Pentagon chief, said the United States was concerned about the Guards' alleged attempts to expand their influence in the Middle East as well as in South America.

"That in my book relates to expanding terrorism, and I think that's one of the areas we're all concerned about," he said.

Speaking later at a joint press conference in Bogota with his Colombian counterpart Juan Carlos Pinzon, the US defense secretary announced the sale of 10 military helicopters to Colombia, including five Black Hawks, to help the government in its fight with FARC leftist rebels. (AFP)

Rover, Beckham unveil Range Rover Evoque

BEIJING: Land Rover and Victoria Beckham tonight unveiled a new bespoke luxurious, hand-finished Range Rover Evoque Special Edition. The exclusively designed Range Rover Evoque Special Edition is the result of a collaboration between Land Rover Design, led by Gerry McGovern with Victoria Beckham, winner of the coveted Designer Brand of the Year award at the 2011 British Fashion Awards. Quintessential British luxury is a hallmark of both the Land Rover and Victoria Beckham brands. This Special Edition allows that impression to be further heightened through the use of the finest quality materials and craftsmanship, which highlight the already ultra-premium interior ambience of the Evoque. The Range Rover Evoque Special Edition with Victoria Beckham is limited to just 200 vehicles to be sold worldwide. The vehicle is a four-seat coupe, powered by the muscular 240PS 2.0-litre petrol engine and will be hand- finished at Land Rover's Engineering to Order division (ETO),Gaydon, Warwickshire.

Tennis: Azarenka, Sharapova lead charge in Stuttgart

STUTTGART: World number one Victoria Azarenka, second-ranked Maria Sharapova and number three Petra Kvitova begin their French Open build-up on Monday at the star-studded $740,000 Stuttgart tournament. Belarusian Azarenka, the Australian Open champion, returns to action for the first time since losing her 26-match winning streak to Marion Bartoli in the quarter-finals of the Miami hardcourt event. That loss came after a breath-taking start to 2012 in which the 22-year-old had captured four titles, including her first Grand Slam crown. Sharapova, who turned 25 on Thursday, was beaten by Azarenka in the Melbourne final and in the Indian Wells title match before losing in the Miami final. The Russian star, who has yet to make the final of the French Open, falling in the semi-finals twice, believes she has developed a better understanding of claycourt tennis as her career has progressed. "I feel like I've improved with every year that I have been playing on it and I enjoy it," she said. "I feel like you learn so much about the construction of the points and the games -- such a cat-and-mouse game. I didn't necessarily like that many years back, but I feel like I'm much better at it and I have improved physically as well." After local favourite Julia Goerges won the 2011 Stuttgart title, world number 11 Andrea Petkovic is the top-ranked German for this week's tournament. China's Li Na, eighth in the world, Australia's Samantha Stosur, fifth, and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark are all part of the powerful line-up. With Germany desperate for a new star since Steffi Graf dominated women's tennis in the 1990s, Petkovic is leading Germany's tennis revolution. She reached the last eight at the Australian Open in 2011, the first German to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since 2006. The 24-year-old followed that up by reaching the quarters of the French and US Opens, the only player all year to make the final eight at three of the four Slams. Having started 2011 ranked 32nd in the world, she reached a high of ninth in December and is back playing after a back injury robbed her of three month of tennis since injury struck in January. Goerges followed Petkovic in the German revival by overpowering Wozniacki in the final here last year with huge serves and groundstrokes on her way to collecting her first Premier title. "I had goosebumps at match point," Goerges said of the Stuttgart final. "It was an unbelievable feeling playing the final with so many people watching." (AFP)

Euro eases after first round of French vote

TOKYO: The euro eased against the dollar and yen in Asia on Monday as investors digested news that the Socialist challenger had beaten Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of France's presidential election. The euro inched down to $1.3192 and 107.34 yen in Tokyo morning trade from $1.3216 and 107.77 yen in New York late Friday. The dollar fell to 81.37 yen from 81.52 yen. A triggering of stop-loss sell orders observed above $1.3150 for the euro could see the common currency fall further, possibly testing support at $1.3114, said Junichi Ishikawa, forex analyst at IG Market Securities. On the upside, sell orders eyed above $1.3250 will also act as resistance, he said. "We'll have to wait and see how the European markets will react to the results of France's election," he told Dow Jones Newswires. As expected, Socialist contender Francois Hollande and the wounded right-wing incumbent will now face off in the May 6 second-round. The dollar/yen was tipped in a 81.30-82.30 band during Asian trading as the pair awaits this week's policy meetings by the US and Japanese central banks for cues, said a senior trader at a major Japanese trust bank. "It won't move much before the events," he said. The policy-making Federal Open Market Committee is to start a two-day meeting on Tuesday while the Bank of Japan is to hold a policy meeting on Friday amid hopes for monetary easing. (AFP)

Clashes in Bangladesh as leader misses

DHAKA: Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of opposition activists in Bangladesh on Sunday as a nationwide strike over the disappearance of a senior politician brought daily life to a halt.

More than a dozen people were injured, four of them seriously, police said, as violence erupted in the northeastern city of Sylhet, home to opposition leader Ilias Ali who has been missing for five days.

Rights groups have blamed security agencies for the disappearance of dozens of opposition activists over the past two years, alleging the victims have been abducted on government orders.

Police found Ali's car abandoned in an upmarket district of Dhaka on Tuesday night. His driver is also missing.

Ali, a regional head of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is the highest profile opposition politician to have "disappeared" since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took power in January 2009.

The BNP has accused the elite Rapid Action Battalion of abducting Ali, an allegation it has rejected.

Police in Sylhet said clashes broke out after they were attacked by 800 opposition activists, forcing officers to retaliate with rubber bullets and tear gas.

"We've fired more than 50 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas shells. But the clashes are still going on," deputy commissioner of Sylhet police Abdullah Al Azad said, adding more than a dozen people were injured.

There was also unrest in the northwestern city of Rajshahi, where police beat BNP activists with batons as they marched through the streets, television pictures showed.

In the capital Dhaka, streets were empty, businesses and schools were closed as around 10,000 policemen were on patrol to prevent violence, Dhaka police spokesman Masud Ahmed said.

Two small bombs were exploded in the city, but no one was injured. (AFP)

India to declare tea national drink

NEW DELHI: India is to declare tea as its national drink to celebrate the life of a pioneering tea-planter who was hanged by British colonial rulers for taking part in the rebellion of 1857.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday announced the decision while on a visit to Assam, the tea-producing northeastern state that borders on Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Assam was the home state of Maniram Dewan, who is celebrated for introducing commercial tea production to the region and for his role in a plot to throw the British out of Assam during the 1857 mutiny.

The uprising, which is often called the Sepoy Mutiny, started in Meerut, a city close to New Delhi, and spread across northern India before being brutally crushed by British forces with many Indian soldiers and civilians killed.

"The drink would be accorded national drink status by April 17 next year to coincide with the 212th birth anniversary of first Assamese tea-planter and Sepoy Mutiny leader Maniram Dewan," Ahluwalia said.

He added that tea should also be celebrated as "half of the tea industry labour comprises women and is the largest employer in the organised sector".

The Asian Age reported that awarding tea the status of national drink may stir up trouble among "naturopaths" who suggest popular Indian beverages such as coconut water, lemon water and yoghurt-based lassi are healthier options.

Tea is generally served in India with milk and plenty of sugar, and often spiced with cardamom.

Coffee, which is grown in the southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, is becoming rapidly more popular among young urban Indians. (AFP)

Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet

WASHINGTON: For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.

"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get 'page not found' and think the Internet is broken."

On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn't enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.

Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem." And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.

This is what happened:

Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.

The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address - such as www.ap.org - into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.

The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.

When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.

The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

FBI officials said they organized an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the Internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won't be the last.

"This is the future of what we will be doing," said Eric Strom, a unit chief in the FBI's Cyber Division. "Until there is a change in legal system, both inside and outside the United States, to get up to speed with the cyber problem, we will have to go down these paths, trail-blazing if you will, on these types of investigations."

Now, he said, every time the agency gets near the end of a cyber case, "we get to the point where we say, how are we going to do this, how are we going to clean the system" without creating a bigger mess than before. (AP)

1st death anniversary of Moin Akhtar

ISLAMABAD: First death anniversary of Moin Akhtar, one of the most beloved comics, hosts and actors ever to grace the stage and television screens of Pakistan, was being observed today across the country.

He is an inspiration for the generations to come and is one of the few that stands out so distinguishably. A personality which still lives in hearts of millions.

Moin Akhtar was born on December 24, 1950 in Karachi. Moin was highly dynamic and versatile performer, he made his debut for television on September 6, 1966, in a variety show held on PTV to celebrate the first defense day of Pakistan. Since then, he has performed several roles in TV plays/shows, later making a team with Anwar Maqsood and Bushra Ansari.

He was a film and stage actor, as well as a humorist, comedian, impersonator, and a host. He was also a play writer, singer, film director and a producer.

He was beloved for providing humor for people of all ages and with an etiquette that remains unmatched. His attempts to avoid vulgarity in his humor rendered him a favourite amongst family audiences.

Akhtar was fluent in several languages, including English, Bengali, Sindhi, Punjabi, Memon, Pashto, Gujarati and Urdu. He performed not only in Pakistan but played in several stage shows like Bakra Qiston Pe and Buddha Ghar Pe Hai with Umer Sharif in India too.

Akhtar was awarded with Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan.

He was awarded honorary citizenship of Dallas in 1996 for his achievements.

Moin Akhtar died on April 22, 2011 in Karachi after suffering from a heart attack. (APP)

Passenger plane makes emergency landing

KARACHI: More than 100 passengers on-board an Islamabad-Karachi fight on Sunday escaped unhurt, as the plane of a private airline made an emergency landing here at Jinnah International Airport on Sunday.

The incident took place just two days after all the 127 passengers on board a plane of Bhoja Airlines flying to Islamabad from Karachi perished when it crashed few kilometers from Benazir International Airport.

According to reports, Boeing 737-400 of Shaheen Air caused a loud bursting sound as it touched the ground for landing at Karachi Airport and the plane tilted towards left.

Conflicting reports are being received about the plane's fault. One report says the landing gear of the plane was broken on touchdown while the other report claims that the plane's tyres burst at the moment they hit the ground.

According to the latest reports the plane in question leaned on its left wing that was touching the ground while technical team was at work to cool down its engine.

Teams of rescue services had also rushed to the scene to cope with any contingencies.

After the incident, one of the runways of the airport had to be closed for operations and meanwhile the flights used an alternative runway.

Later, at Lahore's Allama Iqbal International Airport, another Shaheen Air plane had to be brought back seconds before takeoff after it was found out that it was leaking fuel.

Apple's new iPad goes on sale in S Korea

SEOUL: Hundreds of customers lined up Friday at Apple stores as the new iPad went on sale in tech-savvy South Korea, about one month after it made its international debut.

Four of Apple's stores in Seoul opened early to sell the tablet computer, and there were also queues outside branches in the city of network providers KT and SK Telecom, the two distributors of iPhones and iPads.

First in line at KT was university student Lim Jun-Hong, 21, who slept overnight on the pavement to be the first to get his hands on the tablet.

"Got my new iPad! Hooray!" wrote one Twitter user.

Apple is selling the gadget with WiFi at 620,000 won ($545) to 860,000 won ($755), depending on memory size. The cost is slightly higher for models with both WiFi and 4G.

South Korean users, at least for now, will use 3G instead of 4G. The faster connection speed is currently unavailable locally due to differences in frequencies.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Apple's biggest rival worldwide, introduced its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in February last year, only four months after launching the series.

Apple's latest iPad has a more powerful processor and a screen resolution called retina display, which it says is the sharpest ever on a mobile device.

The company said it sold three million over the course of its first weekend on the market last month.

The latest iPad is also going on sale in 10 other countries on Friday and Apple says it plans for the best-selling tablet to be available in more than 50 nations by the end of the month. (AFP)

'Mr Guitar' Bert Weedon dies at 91

LONDON: British guitarist Bert Weedon, who inspired a generation -- including some of the world's best-known players -- to pick up the string instrument, died at the age of 91 on Friday, a close friend announced.

Nicknamed "Mr Guitar", Weedon, whose "Play In A Day" tutorial books sold millions, was an in-demand session player who backed stars such as Frank Sinatra.

The Beatles' George Harrison, John Lennon as well as Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Queen guitarist Brian May and Pete Townshend of The Who were all among those who started out with Weedon's books. The Shadows also dedicated a song to him.

His friend John Adrian said Weedon died at his home in Beaconsfield, west of London.

"He had been poorly for a while but, even so, this was sudden," he said, adding: "He was one of my dearest friends."

Weedon was born in east London and aged 12 he persuaded his father to buy a battered guitar from a street market.

He started out playing with big bands before embarking on a solo career which saw him notch up hits including "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" and "Nashville Boogie".

The arrival of rock 'n' roll provided him with a new role as a top session man who played with stars including Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney and Cliff Richard.

His first "Play In A Day" book was published in 1957.

Clapton once said he had "never met a player of any consequence" who had not learned from the books.

Weedon is survived by his wife and two sons. (AFP)

South Korean bullfighting for bulls only

CHEONGDO, South Korea: There is no blood, nor much gore. No matador, either, or even his colorful cloak. In South Korea, bull fights bull.

Weighing in at 600 kg to over 800 kg (1,322 to over 1,764 lb), dun-colored Korean Hanwoo bulls clash heads and horns in a sand bullring under the warm sunshine of Cheongdo, a rural town in the hills about two hours from the capital of Seoul.

Once a regular village entertainment in South Korea, bullfighting nearly died out as the nation rapidly industrialized, but festivals like the annual Cheongdo Bullfighting Festival help keep the cherished tradition alive.

"When I wake up, the first thing I do is train my bulls, letting them drag tires. Then, I feed them with nutritious porridge," said Lee Jin-gu, a 59-year old rancher who has trained fighting bulls for seven years.

"I once stayed in the pens, sleeping next to my bulls for a week," said Lee, who had four of his prize Korean bulls fighting their way through to the quarter-finals.

In all, 96 bulls are competing for the title of strongest bull during the festival, held April 18-22, for the top prize of 7 million won ($6,200).

In one bout, last year's champion, "Fighting", clashed with "Ggoltong", which means "Dullard," bellowing as he entered the ring and spectators cheered.

After about three minutes of shoving amid the clattering of horns, billowing dust and shouting fans, their duel was finished. "Fighting" made it through to the next round as his defeated opponent gave way and trotted from the ring.

The festival in its current form has been going on since 1999, although North Gyeongsang province has a history of the sport going back a thousand years.

Traditionally, a bull would have been the prized possession of a well-off Korean farmer.

"I was fearful if our bull lost the fight because my parents would scold me," says Son Mal-jook, 68, who used to take fodder to the creatures when she was a young girl.

Cheongdo says that its bullfights are more humane than those in Spain because the bull is not killed by a matador.

"Spain's bullfight is between man and bull and assumes that men will defeat bulls," said Lee Joong Geun, county executive of Cheongdo. "But Cheongdo's bullfighting is an energetic fight between two bulls."

A carnival atmosphere prevails at the festival with cheerleaders and drummers prancing by the ring and a traditional band playing in a frenzy of gongs, drums and strings. Beer and local beef are sold at snack stands.

One U.S. spectator admitted to being initially bemused by the concept of a clash of the bulls, but appeared to have been won over.

"In the (United) States, I have seen rodeo, bronco riding, bull riding and also roping. But I have never seen two bulls fighting each other before," said Maria Oliveira.

Lee Jin-gu, Fighting's owner, confessed to a deep affection for his animal.

"It is a stronger devotion than parents might have towards their sons and daughters," he said. (Reuters)

Bhoja Airline's crashes near Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Bhoja Airline's Islamabad-bound maiden flight # B4-213 carrying 125 people has crashed near the Chaklala airbase, Geo News reported.
The fateful Boeing 737 with 116 passengers and nine crew members on board, which flew from Karachi at 5:00 PM was supposed to land in Islamabad at 6:50 PM, crashed just before touchdown.

At least 110 dead bodies have been recovered from the crash site.

According to sources in Civil Aviation Authority, the flight was given clearance to land but it lost contact with the control tower at 6:40 PM.

Rescuers say the plane's wreck was ablaze when they arrived at the site with mangled dead bodies, severed body parts, burnt luggage, and small parts of the fuselage strewn over all over the place in roughly one square kilometer area.

Saifur Rehman, an official from the police rescue team said the plane came down in Hussain Abad village, about three kilometers (two miles) from the main Islamabad highway.

"Fire erupted after the crash. The wreckage is on fire, the plane is completely destroyed. We have come with teams of firefighters and searchlights and more rescuers are coming," Rehman told Geo television.

An expert said that it appeared as if a lightning bolt struck the aircraft as the electrical activity in the thunderclouds above was in full swing, which may have caused the crash.

Residents said they had seen a ball of fire in the sky when the plane crashed. Parts of the plane smashed into electricity poles, blanketing the area in darkness, they added.

Local residents have also volunteered for the rescue work.

"Owing to nightfall as well as a heavy overcast, it's pitch black out there, making rescue work extremely difficult", rescuers said.

Reportedly Bhoja Airlines had bought this 27.4 years old aircraft from Shaheen Airlines after it was scrapped by the latter for its compromised flight-worthiness.

Ministry of Defence and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have confirmed the reports of crash.

Inclement weather has been held responsible for the crash.

Airplane's flight data recorder (Black Box) has been recovered as well.

All hospitals in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have been put on high alert after the crash.

Benazir Bhutto Airport, which was earlier closed for operations has been now been opened.

In Karachi, hundreds of people are gathered outside the airport to inquire about relatives who had departed on the flight to Islamabad.

Women, men and children were seen crying after finding the names of loved ones on the list of passengers displayed by the airline.

President Zardari has ordered to arrange a chartered plane to bring the relatives of the plane crash to Islambad.

Torn fragments of the fuselage, including a large section bearing the airline's logo, could be seen in television footage.

Rescue crews combed through the charred wreckage of the plane as passengers' belongings -- clothes, shoes, jewellery -- ripped from their luggage, lay strewn on the ground.

Bhoja Air relaunched domestic operations with a fleet of five 737s in March, according to newspaper reports, when the airline was planning to start flights connecting Karachi, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore and Islamabad.

The Civil Aviation Authorities amid financial difficulties had grounded Bhoja in 2000, the reports said.

The worst aviation tragedy on Pakistani soil came in July 2010 when an Airbus 321 passenger jet operated by the private airline Airblue crashed into hills overlooking Islamabad while coming in to land after a flight from Karachi.

All 152 people on board were killed in the accident, which occurred amid heavy rain and poor visibility.

Another deadly civilian plane crash involving a Pakistani jet came to pass in 1992 when a PIA Airbus A300 crashed into a cloud-covered hillside on its approach to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, killing 167 people

Gayle, de Villiers help Bangalore win

MOHALI: The 131-run fourth wicket partnership between Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers paved the way for an easy five-wicket win for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Kings XI Punjab in the 25th match of the Indian Premier League – V here at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium on Friday.

Chasing 164, Bangalore completed their third victory in 19.3 overs after Gayle and de Villiers hit half-centuries.

Gayle made 87 off 56 balls with four sixes and eight fours while de Villiers scored 52 from 39 balls with six boundaries.

Their partnership was the fourth century stand and the highest for any wicket so far in the tournament.

For Punjab, medium-pacer Parvinder Awana captured four wickets for 34 runs.

Earlier, Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori won the toss and put Punjab into bat who scored 163 for six in the allotted 20 overs.

Main scorers were Australiann batsman David Hussey hit 41 and Pakistan-born English county allrounder Azhar Mahmood, who was playing his first match in the tournament, remained not out on 33.

Seamers Zaheer Khan and Andrew McDonald claimed two wickets each for Bangalore.

Pakistan’s first sports tv channel Geo Super televised this match live from Mohali.

Cricketers "take runs" on the "catwalk"

KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricket captain Younis Khan and paceman Umar Gul turned heads at a bridal fashion show this weekend with a rare turn on the catwalk.

Wearing a blackish grey shirwani -- a long suit worn by grooms in Pakistan -- Younis smiled all down the runway in his first-ever appearance in a fashion show in Karachi on Saturday, while Gul wore an off-white shirwani.

Fashion show regular Hina Sheikh gave the players a resounding thumbs up.

"It was delightful to watch cricketers on the ramp," said Ms Sheikh.

"Younis was more confident and although Gul was a bit reserved and shaky at the start, he finished the job well.

"Both looked stunning."

Gul said he enjoyed the experience but had no intention of swapping the wicket for the catwalk.

"A friend had invited me to walk on the ramp and although I enjoyed it but I have no plans to join modelling in future because my focus is only on cricket," he said.

Popular allrounder Shahid Afridi was also invited but was unable to attend.

Younis, Gul and Afridi all hail from the deeply conservative northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where modelling and acting in films are not seen as decent occupations.

All three have modelled in various advertisements in Pakistan, with Afridi commanding the highest fees among recent and former players, advertising products ranging from soft drinks to mobile phones and shampoo. (APP)

Google fined $25,000 for impeding probe

WASHINGTON: Google Inc has been fined $25,000 for impeding a US investigation into the Web search leader's data collection for its Street View project, which allows users to see street level images when they map a location.

The Federal Communications Commission imposed the fine late on Friday, saying Google had collected personal information without permission and had then deliberately not cooperated with the FCC's investigation.

"Google refused to identify any employees or produce any e-mails. The company could not supply compliant declarations without identifying employees it preferred not to identify," according to an FCC order dated April 13.

"Misconduct of this nature threatens to compromise the commission's ability to effectively investigate possible violations of the Communications Act and the commission's rules."

Google said in a statement said it turned over information to the agency and challenged the finding that it was uncooperative.

"As the FCC notes in their report, we provided all the materials the regulators felt they needed to conclude their investigation and we were not found to have violated any laws," the company said in a statement.

"We disagree with the FCC's characterization of our cooperation in their investigation and will be filing a response."

Between May 2007 and May 2010, Google collected data from wi-fi networks throughout the United States and across the world as part of its Street View project, which gives users of Google Map and Google Earth the ability to view street-level images of structures and land adjacent to roads and highways.

But Google also collected passwords, Internet usage history and other sensitive personal data that was not needed for its location database project, the FCC said.

Google publicly acknowledged in May 2010 that it had collected the so-called payload data, leading to an FCC investigation on whether it had violated the Communications Act. (Reuters)

Slain Briton upsets Chinese politics

CHONGQING, China: The British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader's wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said.

It was the first time a specific motive has been revealed for Neil Heywood's murder last November, a death which ended Chinese leader Bo Xilai's hopes of emerging as a top central leader and threw off balance the Communist Party's looming leadership succession.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.

She accused him of being greedy and hatched a plan to kill him after he said he could expose her dealings, one of the sources said, summarizing the police case. Both sources have spoken to investigators in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese city where Heywood was killed and where Bo had cast himself as a crime-fighting Communist Party leader.

Gu is in police custody on suspicion of committing or arranging Heywood's murder, though no details of the motive or the crime itself have been publicly released, other than a general comment from Chinese state media that he was killed after a financial dispute.

The sources have close ties to Chinese police and said they were given details of the investigation.

They said Heywood - formerly a close friend of Gu and who had been helping her with her overseas financial dealings - was killed after he threatened to expose what she was doing.

"Heywood told her that if she thought he was being too greedy, then he didn't need to become involved and wouldn't take a penny of the money, but he also said he could also expose it," the first source said.

The sources said police suspect the 41-year-old was poisoned by a drink. They did not know precisely where he died in Chongqing. But they and other sources with access to official information say they believe Heywood was killed at a secluded hilltop retreat, the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel, which is also marketed as the Lucky Holiday Hotel.

The sources said Gu and Heywood, who had lived in China since the early 1990s, shared a long and close personal relationship, but were not romantically involved.

The sources did not know details of the offshore transactions that Heywood facilitated for Gu, but said exposure of the deals would have imperiled her and her ambitious husband, who was campaigning for promotion to the top ranks of China's leadership. Bo has since been ousted over the scandal.

"After Gu Kailai found that Heywood wouldn't agree to go along and was even resisting with threats - that he could expose this money with unknown provenance - then that was a major risk to Gu Kailai and Bo Xilai," said the first source, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

It was not possible to get official confirmation of the case police are building against Gu. The Chinese government did not respond to faxed questions about the case. Some of Bo's leftist supporters have said the case could be a campaign to discredit him.

Gu, who is in custody and facing a possible death sentence for murder, and Bo could not be reached for comment. Bo has not been seen since appearing at parliament in March, when he held a news conference decrying the "filth" being poured on his family.

Efforts to contact Heywood's mother and sister at their homes in London were unsuccessful. The door to the mother's home carried a note saying she would not speak to reporters.

HEYWOOD WAS GU'S 'SOULMATE'

Heywood had spent his last week in Chongqing in Nan'an district, an area politically loyal to Bo, and stayed at two hotels: the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel and the Sheraton hotel.

Staff at each hotel said they knew nothing of a British man dying there. A guard was barring access to an apparently empty row of villas within the grounds of the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel on Sunday and Monday, saying a meeting was going on.

Heywood's falling-out with Gu followed a period in which she had grown distant from her ambitious, perpetually busy husband and she had turned to Heywood as a soulmate, sources said.

"Bo and Gu Kailai had not been a proper husband and wife for years ... Gu Kailai and Heywood had a deep personal relationship and she took the break between them deeply to heart," said Wang Kang, a well-connected Chongqing businessman who has learned some details of the case from Chinese officials.

"Her mentality was 'you betrayed me, and so I'll get my revenge'," Wang said in his office, decorated with pictures of himself meeting senior officials, including Bo's late father, the revolutionary veteran Bo Yibo, a comrade of Mao Zedong.

Heywood got to know the powerful family when Bo Xilai was mayor of Dalian in the 1990s. Heywood helped with getting the couple's son, Bo Guagua, into an exclusive British school, Harrow, said one of the sources with police contacts.

The scandal over Heywood's death broke in February when Bo's former police chief, Wang Lijun, fled to a U.S. consulate after he had confronted Bo with allegations of Gu's involvement. He spent about 24 hours inside the consulate before he left into the hands of Chinese central government authorities.

Bo was stripped of all his party positions last week, ending his bid to join the upper echelons of the Chinese leadership at a Party Congress late this year, and opening the door to jockeying among rivals to get a place in the new lineup.

It was not immediately clear how Heywood would have helped Gu shift large sums of money offshore, though China's capital controls pose a formidable barrier to anyone trying to move large sums of yuan out of the country.

Chinese leaders' salaries are not extravagant and there have been questions about how Bo managed to fund the expensive Western schooling and lifestyle for his son, Bo Guagua, who also studied at Oxford university and is enrolled at Harvard. Bo said in March the schools were funded by scholarships.

The sources said there had been no sign of any dispute between Gu and Heywood until October and November when the argument over funds began. The lack of a paper trail made it difficult for police to determine how much money was involved, they added.

Police suspect Heywood took a poisoned drink, according to one of the sources, and died on November 15. Both sources said Gu was not present at the scene.

The sources said Heywood had stayed at the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel, a secluded complex of rooms and villas in green hills overlooking Chongqing that Gu Kailai had visited in the past. Staff there said they had no knowledge of the death of a British man at the hotel in November. (Reuters)

US will continue to press Pak on Haqqani

BRASILIA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that she will continue to urge Pakistan to squeeze the Haqqani network.

Recalling that she pressed Pakistan to "squeeze" the Haqqani network when she visited Islamabad last October, Clinton told reporters in Brasilia that she will "continue to make that point, press it hard."

She added that "there are already indications of Haqqani involvement" in the weekend attacks on Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, adding that the "Haqqani network is a very determined foe."

Clinton recalled that she had told Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in a telephone call from Brazil on Monday that she "expressed my strong conviction that there has to be concerted effort" in fighting extremism.

She said such effort must involves the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. (AFP)