Silver Scorpio - International News | Spot News | Top News | Flash News | Live News
London, Sep 14 (ANI): Supermarket giant Asda is set to launch an Asian clothing range, which will include the traditional Indian garments.
The store chain would sell garments such as salwar kameez suits and khurta tunics under the George range.
And the prices of the clothes would be starting at 7 pounds.
The George range is thought to be the first of its kind on the High Street.
“We are extremely proud,” The Daily Star quoted Fiona Lambert, brand director at George, as saying. (ANI)
London, Sep 10(ANI): A survey has found US President Barack Obama’s popularity is gaining massive support in European Union countries.
The German Marshall Fund, which conducted a study, said that 77 per cent of European citizens support Obama’s handling of international affairs, while only 19 per cent found former President George W Bush doing the same.
It also revealed that 75 per cent of Europeans have confidence in Obama’s ability to combat terrorism and two thirds now have a favourable view of America.
“We see a remarkable shift in trans-Atlantic opinion from the previous administration,” The Telegraph quoted Craig Kennedy, the president of the German Marshall Fund, as saying.
“With American leadership enjoying unprecedented modern popularity, partners on both sides of the Atlantic have an immense opportunity to co-operate on a range of economic and security issues,” he added.
The poll also found a drastic change in the attitude of European citizens to American leaders, as Obama enjoys an approval rating of 92 per cent, compared with only 12 per cent for Bush.
The survey also covered Turkey, where anti-American sentiment has grown markedly in recent years. Obama is far less popular among Turks than among Europeans, but he still enjoys a 50 per cent approval rating compared with only eight per cent for Bush. (ANI)
Washington, Sep 8 (ANI): Former Las Vegas cocktail waitress Sara Larson, who dated actor George Clooney in 2007, has turned into a private yoga instructor in Los Angeles.
There had been rumours earlier this year of Larson having her own Vegas-based reality show in the works, but it seems she has opted for a more spiritually satisfying lifestyle.
“I do yoga pretty much every day. I am a certified yoga instructor, so I actually teach yoga,” Fox News quoted Larson as saying at the recent Reality Cares’ Sizzles Charity Benefit in Los Angeles.
She also revealed that “all of a sudden” guys have started calling out of nowhere for private classes, and she’s now in talks to design her own yoga-inspired clothing line.
Larson, who has found herself a new love, says she doesn’t give a hoot about her ex’s romantic relations.
“Dating has its challenges and either two people connect or they don’t,” she said.
“There’s a lot of other factors that are involved as to whether it will be a long-term relationship or not, but everything for me right now is new.
“I’m not in touch with George at all. I don’t have any regrets,” she added. (ANI)
Washington, September 8 (ANI): Fallen pop star Boy George has reportedly turned to a strict diet of uncooked food to shed weight he gained as he served his sentence in jail.
The former Culture Club frontman, real name George O’Dowd, was also said to have resorted to a gruelling exercise routine to get back in shape.
“He’s on a raw food regime and doing an hour’s walking a day,” Contactmusic quoted friend of the star as saying.
“He’s also got some DJ shows lined up so hopefully things are back on track,” the friend added.
The ‘Karma Chameleon’ singer was jailed in January for falsely imprisoning a male escort in his flat and beating the 29-year-old after a drug-fuelled nude photo shoot in 2007.
The 48-year-old was granted early release in May for his good behaviour, but was let off with a curfew and an ankle monitoring tag that was recently removed. (ANI)
Washington, September 8 (ANI): Former Culture Club frontman Boy George is drawing plans to head back to the studio and resurrect his career just fourth months after he walked free from jail.
The fallen pop star, real name George O’Dowd, was jailed in January for falsely imprisoning a male escort in his flat and beating the 29-year-old after a drug-fuelled nude photo shoot in 2007.
The 48-year-old was granted early release in May for his good behaviour, but was let off with a curfew and an ankle monitoring tag that was recently removed.
And now, the singer has revealed that he is preparing material for a new album of cover songs.
“I’m choosing songs that speak to me and have lyrics that reflect my personal journey and experiences,” Contactmusic quoted him as telling British newspaper The People. (ANI)
Washington, Sep 2 (ANI): Brit singer Sir Paul McCartney has in an exclusive interview spoken out about the final days of ‘The Beatles’, and insisted that the group became victims of their own success when businessman Allen Klein took over their financial affairs.
According to music magazine Mojo, McCartney said that he and his bandmates struggled to come to terms with all the business decisions they were suddenly forced to make as they were recording their final album ‘Abbey Road’.
The fight between them over cash and contracts really became a huge burden.
“We were musicians, we were kids from Liverpool, we’d gone to grammar schools, we’d done Hamburg – we kind of knew all that,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.
“But the idea that you were going to get this money and someone was going to take it off you…
“I think we all just thought, ‘You get the money, you put it in a bank, and it gradually gets bigger,’ and you say, ‘Thank you very much, and you live happily ever after.’ Then you suddenly get with accountants and they say, ‘No, you can’t just sit there’.
“Then there’s tax, and some business person is on a raid – it was a huge upheaval,” he said.
McCartney also admitted that the group’s business woes were poured into their new songs.
“George (Harrison) would write Piggies, and I knew exactly what he was talking about, and he wrote Taxman when we first found out about the tax system,” he said.
The rift between the group eventually led to a court battle before the band broke up, with many fans blaming Klein for contributing to the group’s split.
McCartney refused to be drawn into talking about Klein, but hinted that he still had not forgiven the businessman for things that would remain unspoken.
“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” he added.
Klein passed away in New York earlier this summer, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. (ANI)
London, Aug 31 (ANI): George Clooney may soon walk down the aisle with his Italian girlfriend, Elisabetta Canalis.
According to sources, the actor has asked his lover to move into his main home Studio City pad in LA.
“George has really fallen for Eli and wants her back with him in LA on a permanent basis,” the Daily Express quoted a source as saying.
The insider added: “It’s obviously a big step, particularly as George has been such a free spirit for so long. But it seems she really could be the one for him. Whether she goes along with the idea remains to be seen.”
Canalis is already known to have become a near-permanent resident at his Lake Como home.
She is said to have given her approval to his new abode on the Adriatic.
Clooney parted ways with his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Larson, last year. (ANI)
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 29 (ANI): A week after Kerala business tycoon Paul Muthoot was found murdered, his family has refuted Kerala Police’s road rage claim saying that there’s something more creepy behind his death.
Jnanamma Thomas, Muthoot’s grandmother refuted Kerala police’s road rage angle, alleging a cover-up of a brutal murder of her grandson .
“They did not tell us there was an accident angle to it in the beginning. But only they told there was an accident,” she said.
George P Easo, a family member said, “Politicians are changing their statements every other day. We don’t know whom to believe.”
Earlier, Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has dismissed opposition Congress charge that his son had links in connection with the recent murder of Muthoot group scion Paul M George.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Balakrishnan said, “My son (Beenish Kodiyeri) has no relation with the case whatsoever. The allegation that Beenish had connections with wanted gangsters was to create a ‘mystery’ over the case.”
Rejecting the charge that the Home Department was trying to interfere in the investigation process, he said a deliberate attempt was being made by vested interests to hamper the probe.
The government had nothing to hide in the case and was open to “any sort of investigation”, he added.
Balakrishnan also announced that a special investigation team had been constituted under the leadership of Inspector General of Police Vinson M. Paul to probe the murder of the Paul Muthoot George.
He said that the team was constituted as the inter-district ramifications of the case and deeper links would have to be probed in detail. The investigation would cover links of Muthoot George with goonda elements.
According to the police theory, a gang of nearly 22 men was behind the murder of Paul.
Paul was killed last Friday night on the Alappuzha-Changanassery road. A friend who was with him was injured and is in hospital; both were stabbed.
Paul, who was based in Delhi, had recently returned to Kerala to take charge of the leisure and hospitality arm. He was returning from an under-construction resort at Mararikulam when he was stabbed to death.
On Sunday, police arrested 12 persons, including notorious criminals, identified as Om Prakash and Rajesh. (ANI)
Washington, Aug 25 (ANI): In a new study, researchers at George Mason University and Oklahoma State University showed that apologizing for negative outcomes could lead to more favourable verdicts for auditors in court.
Assistant accounting professors Rick Warne of Mason and Robert Cornell of OSU found that remedial tactics such as apologizing or first-person justification can result in lower frequencies of negligence verdicts in cases against auditors when compared to a control group receiving no remedial tactic.
Apologies allow the accused wrongdoer to express sorrow or regret about a situation without admitting guilt.
Alternatively, a first-person justification allows the accused to indicate the appropriateness of decisions given the information available when decisions were made.
“We found that apologies reduce the jurors’ need to assign blame to the auditor for any negative outcomes to the client. It also appears that a first-person justification influences the jurors impression that the auditor’s actions were reasonable and in accordance with professional standards,” Warne said.
The researchers administered several versions of a mock trial involving a lawsuit against an auditor whose actions had negative consequences on a client.
In the scenario utilized by the researchers, the auditor performed an appropriate audit, yet the audited company eventually went into bankruptcy.
The researchers examined whether a defendant making an apology, offering a justification, utilizing both techniques or remaining silent led to the most favorable verdicts.
Research in psychology, management and medicine concludes that remedial tactics are effective when expressed directly to injured parties.
However, the new research expands upon prior findings by examining the effects remedial tactics have on jurors who are indirectly involved and cannot directly forgive the accused.
“We know victims often respond favourably to an apology, but our findings suggest that even unharmed jurors react in a similar manner. Offering an apology though is not synonymous with admitting guilt,” Cornell said.
The study will be available in a forthcoming issue of Contemporary Accounting Research, published by the Canadian Academic Accounting Association. (ANI)
New Delhi, Aug. 24 (ANI): The murder case of Kerala businessman Paul Muthoot George has been solved, Kerala Police claimed on Monday.
According to the police theory, a gang of nearly 22 men was behind the murder of Paul, 30, who was heading the Muthoot M George Group’s hospitality business.
The hired man who stabbed Paul has not been arrested so far, police said
Paul was killed last Friday night on the Alappuzha-Changanassery road. A friend who was with him was injured and is in hospital; both were stabbed.
On Sunday, police arrested 12 persons, including notorious criminals, identified as Om Prakash and Rajesh.
A team led by the IGP, Ernakulam Range, Vinson Paul, is interrogating the suspects.
The Muthoot Group is a major player in the financial services business in Kerala and has been slowly expanding its reach to other parts of the country. Paul is the chairman’s second son.
Earlier, media reports had suggested business rivalry could be a reason. Involvement of persons related to the narcotics trade was also not being ruled out.
The dead man and his friend were found by the roadside on Friday night. The vehicle they were travelling in was missing. The vehicle, a Ford Endeavour, was found abandoned this morning at Kollam, 40 km away.
Paul, who was based in Delhi, had recently returned to Kerala to take charge of the leisure and hospitality arm.
He was returning from an under-construction resort at Mararikulam when he was stabbed to death.
Paul was Chairman M G George Muthoot’s second son, while his two brothers, George Muthoot George and Alexander George Muthoot, are also associated with the group as executive director and as a director, respectively.
In addition, four of Paul’s cousins are part of the fourth generation of Muthoot directors, who had been inducted into the group. (ANI)
Melbourne, August 24 (ANI): A homeless man in Sydney earns up to 50,000 dollars a year by begging.
According to reports, Ken Johnson, 52, makes his living at George and Market St, outside the Myer store in Sydney’s CBD, where he sits for up to 16 hours daily, seven days a week.
He says that he earns around 400 dollars from generous passers-by on a good day.
And even on slower days, he manages to pick up between 75 dollars and 150 dollars.
“I’d be really disappointed if I did a long Friday and I only had $250,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Johnson, who has been living on the streets “since the late ’90s”, as saying.
“I knock off when I feel like it, or if I’ve done brilliantly. But on those good days, you might be on such a high that you go for a few more hours and get a bit more money,” he added.
While Johnson did not reveal how much begging earned him last year, he did say that the donated money was stashed in a safe place, before being deposited in his bank account several times a week.
He said that some of the money was given to a friend.
The man who does not smoke, drink, or do drugs revealed that he was raising money to help the friend who needed a liver transplant.
He displays a sign that reads: “Needing support for major family exp(enses) including just heaps for medicine. Paying up is a big grind. Please leave me alone, if you are the abusive nasty sort.”
Johnson refuses to draw welfare because “it makes you feel like a cripple”.
An Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) spokeswoman said that many homeless people turned to begging because government welfare did not cover costs, and “for those who do receive income support, payments may be inadequate to meet the costs of temporary accommodation and food.”
“Of those who do sleep on the street, only a tiny minority choose to do so, as a lifestyle choice. For most people who are homeless, there is no choice,” she said. (ANI)
London, July 11 (ANI): An American al-Qaeda member, who is serving a 30-year sentence for conspiring to commit various terrorist acts including the murder of then President George W Bush, was banned from reading two books written by Barack Obama, as they were “potentially detrimental to national security.”
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an inmate at America’s most secure federal prison, was informed that specific pages were objectionable, singling out a page in ‘Dreams from My Father’ and page 22 in ‘The Audacity of Hope ‘.
Abu Ali requested last year before Obama’s election to read his biographical ‘Dreams from My Father’ and the more policy-oriented ‘The Audacity of Hope’.
Citing guidance from the FBI, the authorities at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, decided that both books contained information that could jeopardise national security.
Officials mentioned specific pages, but not passages that were objectionable. Half of them were in a chapter devoted to foreign affairs, The Telegraph reports.
Abu Ali later went on hunger strike in protest against his treatment, and prison officials said on Thursday that the books were subsequently deemed appropriate following a review of their contents.
However, evidence of their original ban has been included in court papers relating to Abu Ali’s re-sentencing hearing next month.
Joshua Dratel, his lawyer, said the rejection was an example of the harsh conditions imposed on inmates at the Supermax prison.
The rejections, as well as other restrictions on family visits, prompted a hunger strike by Abu Ali that has since ended, according to Dratel.
Inmates at the supposedly impregnable prison are usually kept in their cells in solitary confinement for 22 or 23 hours a day. (ANI)
New Delhi, May 28 (ANI): President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate Timothy J. Roemer as the new U.S. Ambassador to India.
Announcing nominations to several key administration posts on May 27, the President said “I am grateful that these distinguished Americans have agreed to help represent the United States and strengthen our partnerships abroad at this critical time for our nation and the world. I am confident they will advance American diplomacy as we work to meet the challenges of the 21st century. I look forward to working with them in the years and months ahead.”
A statement issued by the US Embassy in New Delhi said Roemer is President of the Center for National Policy (CNP) in Washington, D.C.
Before joining the CNP, he represented the 3rd District of Indiana for six terms as a U.S. Congressman, from 1991 to 2003.
Congressman Roemer served as a member of the 9/11 Commission, as well as the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism. He currently serves on the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Presidential Task Force on Combating the Ideology of Radical Extremism, and the National Parks Second Century Commission.
As a distinguished scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Congressman Roemer works with Members of Congress and staff to improve public policy outcomes by teaching on the legislative branch and policy analysis.
Congressman Roemer holds a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and a M.A. and PhD. from the University of Notre Dame.(ANI)
New Delhi, May 24 (ANI): US President Barrack Obama has extended an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh to visit Washington during a conversation on Saturday night. He also congratulated him on his re election as premier.
Earlier, Obama described Dr.Singh as a wise man and expressed his intention to visit India soon.
Indian Prime Minister shared very warm relationship with Obama’s predecessor George W bush and a good chemistry seems to be building up with Obama.
During the telephonic conversation on Saturday both leaders also recalled their warm meeting in London on April 2 and discussed their mutual desire to strengthen U.S.-India relations and work together to address common global challenges, such as the economic downturn, climate change, and counterterrorism.
With Indo-US civil nuclear deal as a cornerstone the strategic relationship between the two countries peaked during the last five years. Despite the apprehensions raised by UPA coalition partner Left parties which have ideological differences with the US, Dr Singh steered the relations smoothly.
Now With the fresh mandat when left parties out of the way , Indo-US relationship is expected to reach a new high in Dr Sing second innings.
The mains reasons why New Delhi has become even more valued partner for Obama in the current times because India is playing a crucial role in his Af Pak policy as a regional contact partner, In these difficult times of economic stress Washington also see great potential in the field of nuclear energy in India and is also bidding for the big ticket 40 billion dollars defence deal which includes the purchase of 126 fighters planes ,this deal is touted as one of the world’s biggest current arms deals.
The two leaders are expected to meet on the margins of July G 8 summit that is going to take place in Italy. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)
London, May 22 (ANI): Hollywood hunk George Clooney has reportedly fallen for another cocktail waitress.
After his split from Sarah Larson, whom he met while she worked at a Las Vegas club a year back, the Ocean’s Eleven star is said to be dating a Florida-based waitress and aspiring model Lucy Wolvert.
The pair has been dating in secret for weeks, reports The Daily Star.
“Her crush may have gotten the best of her. George asked Lucy to be discreet, but she’s told friends and they’ve started talking,” the Daily Express quoted a source as telling Us Weekly magazine.
Meanwhile, Clooney has been roped in to play an assassin in a new film titled ‘A Very Private Gentleman’.
The big screen adaptation of the Martin Booth novel will be directed by Anton Corbijn.
The story of the film revolves around an assassin who hides out in an idyllic Italian town before carrying out a final assignment. He resists his usual aversion to human interaction, and his friendships and romantic entanglements complicate his mission. (ANI)
Washington, May 20 (ANI): The analysis of a 47-million-year-old fossil, dubbed “Ida”, has led paleontologists to suggest that it is a critical “missing link” species in primate evolution, which connects humans and lemurs.
According to a report in National Geographic News, in a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil, suggests that the fossil bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs.
“This is the first link to all humans,” said Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway. “Ida represents the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor,” he added.
Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy.
The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs.
“This specimen looks like a really early fossil monkey that belongs to the group that includes us,” said Brian Richmond, a biological anthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Richmond noted that there’s a big gap in the fossil record from this time period.
Researchers are unsure when and where the primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans split from the other group of primates that includes lemurs.
“Ida is one of the important branching points on the evolutionary tree, but it’s not the only branching point,” Richmond said.
At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution.
“From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there,” Richmond explained.
“So you can’t say a whole lot of what that (type of fossil) represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology,” he added.
In Ida’s case, scientists were able to examine fossil evidence of fur and soft tissue and even picked through the remains of her last meal: fruits, seeds, and leaves.
What’s more, the newly described fossil was unearthed in Germany’s Messel Pit.
According to Richmond, Ida’s European origins are intriguing, because they could suggest-contrary to common assumptions-that the continent was an important area for primate evolution. (ANI)
London, May 12 (ANI): Brit singer-songwriter Boy George ordered a huge bumper of cakes, coffee, and bagels to be delivered to his house after he was released from jail.
The 47-year-old, whose real name is George Alan O’Dowd, was welcomed by a friend outside the north London pad with a meal of tofu sausage casserole with a tofu steak and seaweed salad.
“It’s great to be out. It’s a bit daunting, but it’s nice. It went fine,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.
However, the homecoming celebrations would not have any booze involved.
“We don’t drink, so there’s definitely not going to be any of that kind of celebrating going on,” his brother Kevin added.
George, who looked slimmer and healthier after serving four months of a 15-month sentence for falsely imprisoning a male escort, will have an electronic tag fitted to serve the remaining months under curfew. (ANI)
Washington, May 10 (ANI): New data from Mexico and case numbers so far suggest that if the spread of H1N1 “swine flu” continues elsewhere as it has in the Americas, the virus could infect more than a billion people by July.
The data also suggests that summer temperatures in temperate countries may not slow the virus. However, it spreads slowly enough to respond to the “social distancing” measures used in Mexico.
H1N1 has been circulating, geneticists estimate, since last autumn, but it was first recognised in Mexico in April, New Scientist reports.
New data released by the Mexican health ministry (pdf) reveals disturbing similarities with the last H1N1 pandemic, in 1918.
Health officials have expressed hopes that summer weather in the northern hemisphere will stop H1N1, as it does ordinary flu. But “pandemic flu doesn’t seem to be as sensitive to warm weather,” says Lone Simonsen of George Washington University in Washington, DC.
A relatively mild first wave of the 1918 pandemic spread through the northern hemisphere in the spring and summer. (ANI)
London, May 10 (ANI): Boy George will soon be freed from prison after serving just four months of his 15-month sentence.
The fallen pop idol will reportedly have an ankle tag and curfew when he walks out of Edmunds Hill jail in Suffolk.
The former Culture Club star was said to have entered the good books of the staff with his hard work as a 15-pound-a-week pot washer.
But his fellow inmates alleged the 47-year-old was getting special treatment due to his celebrity status.
“George is getting out of here in the shortest possible time,” News of the World quoted one lag as saying.
“He’s been a good prisoner like a lot of us, but he does seem to have been treated with kid gloves and it’s caused jealousy,” the lag added.
The Prison Service said: “We don’t comment on the release date of individual prisoners.”
The singer was sentenced to prison in January for falsely imprisoning a male escort in his East London flat and beating the 29-year-old after a drug-fuelled nude photo shoot. (ANI)
London, May 2 (ANI): Late Beatles member George Harrison is said to have once forged the signatures of other band members, just to make a dying fan’s wish come true.
Harrison forged the signatures of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on photos sent to leukaemia victim Ann Bartlett, 16.
Ann and a pal, living in Barnet, North London, in the mid 1960s, had given the drawings of their idols to a neighbour, who happened to be the group’s dentist.
Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001, is thought to have realised he could not get all the signatures in time and so copied them himself.
“I’d heard in London that George was the master forger of the group,” the Sun quoted Ann’s dad Harry, now in Rickinghall, Norfolk, as saying.
And yesterday the two black-and-white pictures fetched 1,300 pounds to boost research into the disease.
“It adds a certain something and it’s actually quite nice,” Andrew Bullock, of auctioneers Keys in Aylsham, added. (ANI)
Copyright © 2013 · eleven40 theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in