Poor Kirstie Alley can’t catch a break on Dancing With the Stars . Last week she fell , and last night she lost a shoe. Click to about 3:18 in the above video to see it happen—as PopEater notes, “The camera crew had a choice to either follow [partner Maksim]…
Continue reading …A suspect has led police to more mass graves in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, bringing the total number of bodies uncovered since a raid on a rural ranch to 88. The suspect has confessed to taking part in the kidnapping and murder of bus passengers last month, CNN…
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Facebook founder faces more legal action surrounding the site’s ownership Mark Zuckerberg might have to create a “Don’t Like” button for people claiming they own all or a fraction of Facebook. Having seen off the Winklevoss twins on Monday, with whom he went to Harvard University and claimed he stole the idea for Facebook from him, now he faces a convicted fraudster who claims he has a contract giving him 84% of the giant social network. Paul Ceglia, from Wellsville, New York, said Zuckerberg signed a contract with him that shows he should be entitled to the lion’s share of the business – and late on Monday night released, through his lawyers in the US, a tranche of emails that purport to show him and the Facebook chief executive discussing, between July 2003 and July 2004, various matters relating to “thefacebook” – as the site was known in its early days. The case will be heard in federal court, following a ruling at the end of March that Ceglia and Zuckerberg live in different states – though the latter grew up in New York before going to Harvard, and then to California where he turned the company into the world-spanning social network, with around 600 million members. Ceglia claims in 2003 he hired Zuckerberg, then an 18-year-old first-year undergraduate at Harvard, to do some coding for a site called Streetfax (later Streetdelivery) that he was planning. Zuckerberg was paid $1,000 on a “work for hire” contract, Ceglia has contended in court, and then put to work on a project called “The Face Book” or “The Page Book” in which Ceglia invested $1,000. Certainly, when Facebook first launched, it was called “thefacebook” – but the other details are disputed by Facebook and Zuckerberg’s lawyers. Among the emails released by Ceglia through his lawyers, DLA Piper, is one in which Zuckerberg apparently tells Ceglia he is thinking of shutting the site down because it is having so little success, despite the payment made by Ceglia to keep it going. In response Facebook has said the emails, and the contract on which Ceglia claims to have Zuckerberg’s signature, are fakes – and point to Ceglia’s convictions on counts of fraud and past arrests. Ceglia was arrested and charged with criminal fraud and grand larceny in 2009, after the wood pellet company he and his wife run failed to deliver $200,000 worth of orders to customers in four adjoining states. A lawyer for the Ceglias then said the money had been invested in machinery, labour and subcontractors for the pellets. Ironically, Ceglia has also said that fraud charge was the reason he discovered his claim to Facebook – that it was only when looking through papers relating to those cases that he discovered the old contract with Zuckerberg. Ceglia first filed suit last summer, and has now added extra evidence in the form of the emails. DLA Piper has said that it performed “weeks” of due diligence on Ceglia’s claims to show that they stood up – including an “electronic analysis” of the contract where Ceglia signed up Zuckerberg. But the case is even more complicated. Andrew Logan, founder and chief executive of a company called StreetDelivery, claims that in 2003 Ceglia was working for him at the time he claims to have hired Zuckerberg to code Streetfax. That could mean that Ceglia’s hiring of Zuckerberg – and any intellectual property created there – actually reverts to Logan. For Ceglia, even if he wins he might lose. For Zuckerberg, though, it’s just another day proving that while failure is an orphan, success definitely has many, many parents. Facebook Internet Social networking Digital media Media business United States Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The United Nations torture watchdog is accusing the US of stonewalling him in his attempt to visit suspected Wikileaker Bradley Manning. “I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr. Manning,” said UN official Juan Mendez. “I am…
Continue reading …After her 8-year-old daughter came running home to tell her mother that a man had tried to kidnap her, the Florida mom jumped in her car to find the suspect and ended up chasing him while brandishing a heavy set of pliers, ABC News reports. The man was detained by…
Continue reading …“Society only likes dead artists,” John Lennon once wrote in a heartbreaking letter. “I’m afraid Yoko and myself cannot oblige.” That note was scooped up by a private collector for $13,000, but now some 200 other letters, postcards and doodles of Lennon’s will be published next year. Yoko Ono…
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The first man in space features heavily in Russian cosmonauts’ pre-mission rituals. Tell us what superstitions you follow It was 50 years ago today that Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space. But as we celebrate the anniversary of this feat of human ingenuity, some may not be aware that an industry defined by precision and cutting edge technology is also one of superstition and ritual. The legacy of Gagarin himself is the backdrop to many of the rituals performed by Russian cosmonauts before they embark on a mission . They leave a red carnation at his memorial wall, visit his old office and ask permission from his ghost before launch. More bizarre is the tradition of male cosmonauts urinating on the right rear wheel of the bus used to transfer them to the launch site (women have the option of dashing a cup of their own urine on the wheel too). And while Nasa astronauts are apparently more reserved, they’ll still always eat a breakfast of steak and scrambled eggs on the morning of lift-off. What little rituals do you have before setting off on a big adventure or important task? Are you the superstitious type? Space Yuri Gagarin Russia Nasa guardian.co.uk
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British government accused of betrayal over decision to allow Libya’s former foreign minister to attend Doha conference Families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have accused the British government of “betrayal” after it allowed Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister , to leave the UK to attend an international conference. Koussa, who defected to Britain at the end of last month, was en route to Doha in Qatar on Tuesday, where an international conference on the future of Libya is to be held with representatives from the Benghazi-based opposition. He is expected to return to the UK after the conference, but is free to travel as he pleases. Brian Flynn, the brother of JP Flynn, who died in the 1988 attack and now organises the Victims of Pan Am 103 Incorporated campaign group in New York, said the UK authorities had “crossed a line” by allowing Koussa to attend the conference and thereby suggest he is a peace negotiator rather than, as they believe, a key instigator of the bombing. “I think the British are being played by him … he has convinced them he can be valuable in this process, but he is not the suave diplomat in the suit sitting on the sidelines, he is one of the key guys who mastermined [the bombing of] Pan Am flight 103,” Flynn said. “He is a stated enemy of the British government. Our feeling is that the British government gave a nod to Lockerbie by questioning him two days before this conference, but that feels disingenuous. The Scottish and American prosecutors on Lockerbie are being betrayed by the politicians and the diplomats. Cameron has been good on Libya, but this sounds an awful lot like Tony Blair is back in charge.” Flynn’s organisation, the largest victims’ group in the US, seeks to discover the truth behind the bombing and win justice for those who died. He said the families believed the decision to allow Koussa to travel to the meeting in Qatar was part of a British strategy to encourage other defectors to flee to Britain from Gaddafi’s regime, as there was no way either the rebels or the regime would trust him as an intermediary. “He blatantly betrayed the Libyan regime and for more than 25 years he betrayed the Libyan people, so why is this the guy we are sending [to the talks]?” said Flynn. Koussa is said to be travelling to Doha in order to establish whether he has a role to play in the rebel movement along with other senior defectors from the Gaddafi regime – perhaps by brokering a deal between Tripoli and Benghazi. It is believed he has links with some leading rebel figures, including the opposition leader, Mahmoud Jibril. It is understood Koussa spent a week being debriefed by MI6 at a safehouse before being allowed to go free. He was questioned by Dumfries and Galloway police about the 1988 bombing, in which 270 people died, though was he was not a suspect. William Hague, the foreign secretary, had insisted that Koussa would not be given immunity from prosecution. He was helped to defect by MI6 after leaving Tripoli for Tunisia on what was initially described as a private visit. The hope in Whitehall is that Koussa’s lenient treatment by the UK authorities will send a positive signal to other would-be Libyan defectors. On Monday Koussa made his first public statement since leaving Libya 12 days ago. “I ask everybody to avoid taking Libya into civil war,” he told the BBC. “This would lead to so much blood and Libya would be a new Somalia. More than that, we refuse to divide Libya. The unity of Libya is essential to any solution and settlement.” Speaking in Arabic, Koussa made no reference in his statement to questions about his past and any knowledge or involvement in the Lockerbie bombing . It is understood he has a lawyer representing him. Jean Berkley, co-ordinator of the UK Families Flight 103 group, who lost her 29-year old son Alistair when the Pan Am flight was blown up in mid-air, said she was mystified by the decision to let Koussa travel. “It is very unexpected,” she said. “Is he the basis of a new Libyan opposition, or what? He doesn’t seem a very suitable person. Our aim is always to get more of the truth and we want a full public inquiry. Koussa must have some interesting knowledge. It is hard to know what to make of it. We will wait and see and watch with interest.” Robert Halfon, a Conservative MP, said the British people would be “very concerned that our country is being used as a transit lounge for alleged war criminals”. He added: “This sends the wrong signal to Gaddafi and those complicit in dictatorships everywhere. It should not be forgotten that Moussa Koussa was allegedly behind many IRA outrages, the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher. He should be here in the UK or facing trial in the international courts for complicity in the Gaddafi regime.” Koussa’s links to the UK go back to the period when he was deputy foreign minister in the mid-1990s and was involved in talks that revealed the Gaddafi regime’s past support for the IRA. He was head of Libya’s foreign intelligence service in the 1990s – after the Lockerbie bombing. He was also involved in still inconclusive talks about the 1984 murder of Constable Fletcher. In 2003 he played a pivotal role in talks about surrendering Libya’s programme for weapons of mass destruction – the decision which paved the way for Gaddafi’s temporary rehabilitation with the west. In 2009 he took part in negotiations over the controversial return home of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. In the early 1980s, when he headed the London embassy, Koussa was thrown out of the UK after announcing plans to kill anti-Gaddafi dissidents. Lockerbie plane bombing Global terrorism UK security and terrorism Scotland Air transport Moussa Koussa Libya Middle East Robert Booth Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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The skyscraper has ruined London’s skyline and our lack of complaint suggests we’ve become blind to architectural ugliness Someone has to speak up for the London skyline. It is being viciously attacked, invaded by philistines, and a nation stunned into acceptance of every monstrosity so long as we are told it is modern seems happy to see taste, style and proportion go out of the window. Why are we putting up with the Shard ? There should be protests, tormented editorials, parliamentary questions about the monster skyscraper that is unstoppably rising up near London Bridge. But compared with the controversies that greeted the infinitely superior Gherkin there appears to be general passivity, even enthusiasm, for this far more arrogant structure. From the sunny top of Primrose Hill at the weekend, London spread out in blue and silver glory. The London Eye, the rounded, elegant form of Norman Foster’s 30 St Mary Axe (said Gherkin) and the dome of St Paul’s all dance together nicely in that urban masque. Modern architecture can work beautifully among the old streets and buildings that define London. But architectural conservatives have long said otherwise. In the aftermath of their falsely grounded scepticism about fine modern buildings, it is understandable that people decide the new is always good. The same has happened in art. After years of wrongly denouncing everything new in art, the entire British media at some point rolled over on its back and gave up. There is no public debate about art any more, because everyone seeking admittance to the elite is scared to look old-fashioned. It is so British, this inability to decide visual cases on their own merits. People who have no natural feel for art judge it ideologically. I fear we are not a very visual nation at all. Compared with other countries, we seem totally incapable of appreciating, say, an urban public space. We think a healthy piazza life is the crowded carnival that Trafalgar Square has become . And we cannot tell the difference between a beautiful modern building that adds to the visual interest of London, and an aggressive, bombastic distortion of the skyline. The Shard is grotesquely out of scale with other London landmarks: it is so big that it demands a massive skyscraper forest around itself. In other words, as you read this, the future history of London is being decided. This city, which grew gradually over centuries, will not keep its character in our century. It will become an anonymous maze of corporate citadels, a Houston-on-Thames , as the Shard generates copies and rivals. Skyscrapers can be ugly. They can also be beautiful. The British fear of modernity once refused to see their beauty. But it invited a backlash that now seems blind to their potential ugliness. Competing polemics produce an insensitive society. London has been enriched by new architecture in recent years. But the Shard and the unneeded grandiosity it will unleash can only impoverish a great city. Future generations may see this building as the most significant in London in our time – but they will not thank us for it. Architecture Design London Jonathan Jones guardian.co.uk
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When Carlos Saldanha’s 3D animation opened on the first warm weekend of 2011, there was only ever going to be one winner … The wipeout Sunny skies are the mortal enemy of cinemagoing in the UK, and that’s never truer than on the first properly sunny weekend of the year. Most people choose parks and gardens over darkened multiplexes on any fine day, but when it’s the first to come along in many months, it’s really no contest. The executives at 20th Century Fox will be cursing the weather gods now that the weekend numbers are in for Rio, the studio’s big animation of 2011, which took £1.52m including £109,000 in previews. That’s by no means a flop, but hopes will have been much higher for a talking-animal 3D animation overseen by Carlos Saldanha, who directed or co-directed all three Ice Age movies. The first Ice Age – which, like Rio, did not have the advantage of a built-in audience established by previous films – debuted with £3.03m back in 2002. Its sequels, The Meltdown (2006, £9.78m) and Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009, £7.64m) opened with significantly bigger numbers. (All figures include preview takings.) Even the less appealing Robots, likewise from Fox’s Blue Sky Studios, managed a £2.62m debut back in 2005, and that film didn’t have the benefit of Rio’s 3D or its Angry Birds app marketing tie-in. Although Rio has yet to release in the US, it opened in 72 countries internationally at the weekend, grossing $55m. Considering the UK is traditionally a buoyant market for Blue Sky and animation in general, Fox will be disappointed that the territory delivered less than $2.5m (just over 4%) of that total. Russia contributed $10.4m, Brazil $8.3m (the biggest animated opening of all time, although in fairness the film is set there), and Mexico $5.3m. Several major territories, including France and Italy, have yet to open. Fox will be hoping for better things – much better – now that many UK schools have broken up for the Easter holidays. The losers Overall, the market posted the worst tally since June 2010, when World Cup football persuaded all the major studios to give plexes a full body swerve, resulting in a couple of consecutive weekends that delivered the lowest grosses in five years. That month saw the likes of Killers, Letters to Juliet and Death at a Funeral dumped into a blockbuster-free zone, and the current frame also has its share of unappealing titles, including three Hollywood offerings released on a combined 700-plus screens, grossing a collective total of £320,000. Sony’s The Roommate, an update on the Single White Female formula starring Leighton Meester and Cam Gigandet, limped across the finish line with £120,000 from 227 venues. Disney animation Mars Needs Moms (retitled for the UK as Mars Needs Mums) took £114,000 from 303 cinemas; shockingly, this dismal figure benefits from £70,000 in previews, mostly grossed the previous Saturday and Sunday. Paramount’s teen action flick Tomorrow, When the War Began, which has the alibi of an Australian setting and unknown cast, kicked off with £86,000 from 205 cinemas. These results confirm the oft-observed phenomenon that while audiences will ignore the rival temptation of sunny skies if there is a film they have an urgent need to see, lesser attractions are particularly vulnerable to warm weather. If it’s not a must-see, why rush? According to virtually everybody, The Roommate, Mars Needs Mums and Tomorrow, When the War Began are not must-see movies. The steady holders Most weekends, respective falls of 35% and 39% for Source Code and Limitless would hardly merit comment. But with audiences shunning cinemas in general, and drops of 56% and 57% for Hop and Sucker Punch, those numbers look positively heroic. Duncan Jones’s Jake Gyllenhaal sci-fi has now taken a robust £2.99m in 10 days, while the Bradley Cooper thriller has posted an even more impressive £5.74m in 19 days, confirming The Hangover star’s status as a leading man capable of opening a movie. Also doing better than expected is Adam Deacon’s urban comedy Anuvahood, with a nifty £1.88m so far, clearly on course for a lifetime total of four times its opening weekend – considered a good multiple for this traditionally front-loaded genre. The big faller Plenty of films are plummeting down the chart, but notable among them is Killing Bono, based on the comic memoir of Neil McCormick. Shedding two thirds of its initial extravagant rollout of 253 cinemas, the Nick Hamm-directed flick collapsed by 81%, and is surely set to suffer another brutal purge of screens and showtimes this weekend. The niche hit Although the current market lacks a major new arthouse hit (Submarine at number 15, Cave of Forgotten Dreams at 19 and Oranges and Sunshine at 23 are the sector’s brightest spots), Bollywood flick Thank You is thriving in limited release. Its opening gross of £160,000 is hardly stellar for the genre, but in today’s depressed climate that’s good enough to earn seventh place, and its screen average of £2,967 is the highest of any film on release. The Akshay Kumar comedy also earns the distinction of achieving the weekend’s top engagement (Cineworld Feltham), and also its fifth (Cineworld Ilford). Overall, the top engagement chart is dominated by Rio, with 21 of the top 30 and 51 of the top 100. The indie sector is flat, with best results coming from Source Code at the Electric Notting Hill and Hampstead Everyman, unless you count Sucker Punch at the BFI Imax. The future For the sixth week in a row, the market lags significantly behind the equivalent frame from 2010, on this occasion by a troubling 46%. The exhibition sector has got some serious catching up to do, and hopes will be pinned on this week’s fresh crop, which include Scream 4, James Franco in Your Highness, Amanda Seyfried in Red Riding Hood and a new Winnie the Pooh from Disney. Cinema owners will be praying for dreary weather throughout the Easter holiday. Top 10 films 1. Rio, £1,515,853 from 522 sites (New) 2. Source Code, £848,366 from 416 sites. Total: £2,990,826 3. Limitless, £737,417 from 394 sites. Total: £5,744,993 4. Hop, £611,367 from 499 sites. Total: £2,623,612 5. Sucker Punch, £346,399 from 392 sites. Total: £1,633,285 6. The Eagle £181,823 from 342 sites. Total: £2,504,508 7. Thank You, £160,191 from 54 sites (New) 8. Unknown, £135,025 from 207 sites. Total: £6,225,112 9. The Roommate, £120,365 from 227 sites (New) 10. Mars Needs Mums, £113,559 from 303 sites (New) Other openers Tomorrow, When the War Began, 205 screens, £85,841 The Silent House, 11 screens, £8,539 Before the Revolution, three screens, £5,146 + £549 preview Snap, six screens, £4,418 Urumi, five screens, £2,981 Armadillo, four screens, £2,213 Rubber, one screen, £829 Animation Film industry Drama Science fiction and fantasy Charles Gant guardian.co.uk
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