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Nikkei gains 1.7 pct as banks, high-techs lead

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Banks climb amid growing hope US lenders stabilising

* High-tech exporters up on industry hopes after Google, Nokia

* Nippon Steel surges on smaller-than-expected price cut

TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei average rose 1.7 percent on Friday as financial stocks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) climbed after reassuring earnings results from JPMorgan (JPM.N) fuelled hopes that the banking sector is stabilising.

Sony Corp (6758.T) and other high-tech shares gained after Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) quarterly profit topped expectations, while the world’s top cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) said it saw signs of stabilising demand in the handset market. [ID:nN16272680] [ID:nLG183354]

Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) surged after a newspaper said the steelmaker and its peers had agreed with Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) to cut steel prices by more than 10 percent this business year, a smaller-than-expected price cut. [ID:nT286976]

“Investors are beginning to harbour hopes that the high-tech industry may be bottoming out. Although demand hasn’t exactly turned positive, there are signs that contractions are slowing,” said Takahiko Murai, general manager at Nozomi Securities.

“At least until the announcement of the results of (bank) ‘stress tests’ on May 4, the market probably won’t sell off bank shares. Also, considering what we have seen so far about U.S. banks earnings, the market doesn’t expect Citigroup to post surprisingly bad figures.”

Citigroup (C.N) is due to post quarterly results on Friday.

A U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Thursday that results of “stress tests” designed to see how the 19 largest U.S. banks would fare should the recession prove unexpectedly severe, would be made public on May 4. [ID:nN16267186]

The benchmark Nikkei .N225 climbed 146.70 points to 8,901.96, while the broader Topix .TOPIX added 1.5 percent to 844.53.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index .SPX climbed 1.6 percent after JPMorgan’s results beat analysts’ expectations as debt trading and underwriting revenue surged. [ID:nN16542451]

That added to a string of encouraging results from other banks, including Wells Fargo’s (WFC.N) strong preliminary figures last week.

Japan’s banking shares gained, with top lender Mitsubishi UFJ advancing 2 percent to 515 yen and No.2 Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T) rising 1 percent to 194 yen.

Nomura Holdings (8604.T), the top brokerage, added 1.7 percent to 592 yen.

Exporters gained after Google’s (GOOG.O) results, though Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the economic environment remains tough with users still searching but buying less.

Sony Corp (6758.T) jumped 4.5 percent to 2,555 yen, after Google’s YouTube said it had reached a deal to post Sony films and TV shows and was talking with other big studios to ramp up content and attract more advertising. [ID:nN16520771]

Canon Inc (7751.T) advanced 2.2 percent to 3,050 yen, while Panasonic Corp (6752.T) gained 2.4 percent to 1,343 yen.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) gained 3 percent to 3,820 yen and Honda Motor Co (7267.T) also rose 3 percent to 2,780 yen.

Shares of Nippon Steel shot up 8 percent to 338 yen. (Reporting by Aiko Hayashi)

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Britney to be sawed in half on Circus tour

February 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): Britney Spears is leaving no stone unturned to make her ‘Circus’ tour a real entertainment treat for audience, and she will have herself sliced in half for one of the stunts during her shows.

According to reports, the pop sensation will be doing a number with illusionist-comedian Ed Alonzo, known as “the Misfit of Magic”, at each performance. Right away, she got into the boxes and into the magic contraptions to learn the stuff, and she’s so excited about this tour and all the elements that are in it,” Us magazine quoted Alonzo as saying.

He added: “We’re going to be doing the classics of magic but a little high-tech. We’ll be doing a little dissection, transposition, a vanish, an appearance.

The ‘Womaniser’ hitmaker will be playing Alonzo’s assistant during the bit, and will be part of many of his tricks.

“If I do a trick, she doesn’t just hold the props, she’s actually getting inside the big boxes or I am slicing her up,” Alonzo said.

“(I) made (the tricks) really easy for her, but there are some complicated things that she is doing that you would think a contortionist would have to do, or a trained magician’s assistant. But because she’s a dancer, it really makes sense to put her in the magic, and it works and she’s really, really good at it,” Alonzo added.

Although Alonzo did not reveal which of the Spears’ song would go with their joint performance, but revealed the three-ring circus set helps them get into character.

“It’s like watching a big Cirque du Soleil high-tech circus, but with a really focused star in the middle of all of this. It’s going to be an amazing concert for people to watch,” he said. (ANI)

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Indian speaker offers to train Bangladesh MPs

February 22, 2009 By Dinesh Leave a Comment

Dhaka, Feb 22 (IANS) Indian Parliament Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has offered to train Bangladesh MPs as he praised the restoration of democracy in the eastern neighbouring country as a ‘positive development’ for South Asia.

Chatterjee, who arrived here Saturday on a three-day visit, praised the landslide victory of the centrist and Left-of-centre grand alliance led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

‘People of the whole world are happy over the victory of the grand alliance that leads the country in restoring democracy,’ the speaker of the Indian parliament’s lower house was quoted as saying after his arrival here at the head of a six-member parliamentary delegation.

Chatterjee and his colleagues are here at the invitation of Speaker Abdul Hamid of the Bangladeshi Parliament.

Speaking at a function, the Lok Sabha speaker said the relations between India and Bangladesh were rooted in a ‘shared cultural, economic and political history’.

Both had worked together with common goals and aspirations in the past and should continue to do so, he said.

During a meeting with Hasina, Chatterjee offered to train Bangladesh’s parliamentarians, many of them first termers.

He said that in a parliamentary democracy, the legislatures had the ‘immense responsibility’ of guiding the destiny of their nations and remained at the centrestage of their democratic polities, according to a statement issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat in New Delhi.

Chatterjee, who Thursday strongly reprimanded Lok Sabha members for their unruly behaviour back home, said the members should ‘show respect to the presiding officer who is the custodian of their rights and privileges’.

The speaker said: ‘Restoring the trust of the people in a parliamentary democracy, when there is a crisis of credibility of its institutions is the biggest challenge before us today.’

‘The legislature needs to operate within the framework of well-defined benchmarks with due respect to the representative character of the legislatures, thereby ensuring their independence, effectiveness and accountability,’ he said.

Both the South Asian neighbours have common parliamentary traditions, following the Westminster-style parliamentary democracy.

Save aberrations like brief periods of presidential system and military-led or military-guided regimes, Bangladesh has retained the parliamentary system.

There was no parliament for two years, between November 2006 and December 2008, when the country was ruled by a military-backed caretaker government.

Chatterjee informed the Bangladesh parliamentarians about the key initiatives he had taken as the speaker, including the setting up of the 24-hour Lok Sabha TV, the high-tech Parliament Museum, the Parliamentary Forums, and lecture series for MPs.

The Bangladesh prime minister and speaker also addressed the function.
Indo Asian News Service

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POP Start Michael Jackson may have only six months to live

January 9, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Jan 08 (ANI): Michael Jackson may have only six months to live, as he is suffering from a deadly genetic disorder, according to a new report.

Showbizspy has learnt that the ‘Thriller’ hitmaker’s health is deteriorating rapidly because of a crippling addiction to painkillers and alcohol.

“It”s tragic. His condition is just so far gone, I”d be surprised if he lasts six months,” the Courier Mail quoted a source, as saying.

“Painkillers and booze have caught up with him. The only way he was able to cope with the stress of sex scandals and his roller-coaster life was to mask the pain with substance abuse,” the source added.

Michael got addicted to medication 25 years ago, when he burnt his hair while shooting a Pepsi advert, due to which his health has deteriorated, reports National Enquirer.

“But the end result is an addiction that will kill him. His dependency on drugs dates back to when his hair was burned making a Pepsi commercial 25-years-ago. The drugs simply have ravaged him,” a source said.

“He”s in really, really bad shape. He”s been sick for six to eight months and he just keeps getting worse, His muscles and lungs are deteriorating, and he”s bedridden much of the time. He can walk, but not for very long,” the source added.

It is being said that Michael’s pals are extremely worried about his failing condition. (ANI)

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Pitt’s digital transformation for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’

January 9, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta 1 Comment

Washington, January 8 (ANI): Technical finesse helped Brad Pitt to play his 80-something character transform into an infant in his latest flick ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.

The film, that tells the story of a man born in his 80s and who then physically grows younger, used a totally computer generated version of Pitt as Benjamin – from the neck-up.

“For all intents and purposes, we effectively created a digital puppet of Brad that Brad could operate,” CBS News quoted Ed Ulbrich, executive VP of production at Los Angeles” Digital Domain, as saying.

The high-tech transformation included using 3-D computer models to record the actor’s various expressions that were later aged and uploaded accordingly.

Pitt said: “You just spend the day being a jackass doing this or doing this. Trying to map all my facial expressions, muscles. We did that for a few days.”

Ulbrich added: “What was important to us in this process was that the emotions that Brad carries as an actor come through Benjamin.” (ANI)

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Now, a mirror panel that can give 360 degree view of your head!

January 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Jan 2 (ANI): It may not be high-tech but has provided solution to a problem that”s been bugging ladies for ever – please put your hands together for the ultimate vanity mirror that gives a 360 degree view of its users” head!

The invention, which is the answer to every woman”s prayers, is made up of seven individual mirrored panels that wrap right around the body giving a perfect view.

One main mirror is fixed to the wall and the others are attached to two extendable arms on either side, reports the Telegraph.

Each of the six inch arms have a concertina mechanism that helps them to bend around the person who stands in the middle. When opened out, the seven panels, which are four inches high, display every single angle of their head – including the very back.

The mirror can them be folded back up like an accordion and into the main panel for storage.

The 360 Mirror, which costs 18 pounds, lights up and can be screwed to the wall or stuck on bathroom tiles with suction pads.

It can be bought via the internet and shipped to Britain by distributing company Old Fashioned Values, based in Kansas City, US.

Sam Marcos, from Old Fashioned Values, said: “The target audience for this product is mainly women but men do like it as well.” (ANI)

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Britney to be sawed in half on Circus tour

Indian speaker offers to train Bangladesh MPs

POP Start Michael Jackson may have only six months to live

Pitt’s digital transformation for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’

Now, a mirror panel that can give 360 degree view of your head!

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