Glowing light show in American sky was actually astronaut pee

Melbourne, Sep 16 (ANI): The trail of light that sparkled through the American sky on Wednesday night was not a unique celestial show, but was actually astronaut piss.

While skygazers marvelled at the beauty of the glowing trail, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery were merely dumping water and urine out into space in preparation for a landing attempt on Thursday.

Although the astronauts had to postpone their landing due to poor weather, but the Discovery safely landed in California on Friday, reports the Courier Mail.

NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem said that the light show was due to an unusually large amount of water (about 150 pounds) being dumped all at once.

Discovery had just undocked from the International Space Station the day before, and had not been able to unload wastewater during the 10-day visit. (ANI)

MI5 warns that young Brits heading for terrorist training Somalia soaring

London, Sep.13 (ANI): British intelligence chiefs have targeted war-torn Somalia as the next major challenge to their efforts to repel Islamic terrorism, after receiving reports of scores of youths leaving the UK for “jihad training” in that failed African state.

According to The Independent, MI5 bosses have warned ministers that the number of young Britons travelling to Somalia to fight in a “holy war”, or train in terror training camps, has soared in recent years as the country has emerged as an alternative base for radical Islamic groups.

The number of young Britons following the trail every year has more than quadrupled to at least 100 since 2004 – and analysts warn that the true figure (which would include those who enter the country overland) will be much higher.

However, the British authorities are particularly concerned about the number of people with no direct family connection to Somalia who are travelling to fight and train there.

The diversity suggests Somalia is flourishing as a training ground for radical British Muslims, who could join the local terrorist militia al-Shabaab (“the youth”), go on to join conflicts including the Afghan campaign, or return home to pose a security threat to the UK. (ANI)

Moblies, digital cameras to feature in new WPI list

New Delhi, Sep. 8 (ANI): Moblie phones and digital cameras are among the 300 new items, which would figure in the new Wholesale Price Index (WPI).

Over 30 items would be taken off the new inflation series, which is expected to be out by December. Existing series has many obsolete items. They will not figure in the new series. There will be 25-30 articles which you will not see in the new index we are compiling,” an official said.

Most of the addition would be in the manufacturing products category and the primary items, which consist of food grains and milk, would remain unchanged, the official added.

There could be minor changes in the fuel, power light and lubricant group.

With the addition of new items, data reporting would be more representative and give a better picture of the price situation, he said.

The base year for the new index will be 2004-05 while the WPI is presently calculated on 1993-94 base.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which brings out the inflation data, has started a trial run of the new index and data is being collected.

In the trail index, data for 1,100 items are being collected, which would be eventually consolidated to about 700 articles, the official said.

In the existing series, the weight of primary articles is 22.02 per cent while manufactured products contribute 63.75 per cent.

The weight of fuel, power, light and lubricants in the index is about 14 per cent. (ANI)

Oil, trade was big part of Lockerbie bombers release deal, admits Straw

London, Sep 5 (ANI): Britain’s Justice secretary Jack Straw has admitted for the first time that trade and oil deals with Libya played a very big part in the handling of the Lockerbie bomber’s case.

He said trade was a major influence on his decision to include Abdelbaset Al Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya signed two years ago, just as BP was seeking a multi-billion pound deal there.

In January 2008, Libya ratified a $900 million (£551 million) oil deal with BP.

When asked in the interview if trade and BP were factors, Straw admits: “Yes, (it was) a very big part of that. I’m unapologetic about that… Libya was a rogue state.

“We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal.”

The admission directly contradicts Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s insistence only days ago that oil deals were not a factor in Megrahi’s release, The Telegraph reports.

Straw also suggested that Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, released the terminally ill bomber on compassionate grounds earlier than the British Government would have done.

Brown has been accused of putting Britain’s trade interests before justice for the Lockerbie victims.

Megrahi, who is suffering from prostate cancer, was freed last month by Scotland on compassionate grounds after it was said he was only months from death. Last night it emerged he has been moved out of intensive care.

Straw also claims that Brown had nothing to do with his change of heart over the prisoner transfer agreement, adding: “I certainly didn’t talk to the PM. There is no paper trail to suggest he was involved at all.”

A spokesman for BP said the company had raised concerns with the Government about the slow progress in concluding the PTA, but denied mentioning Megrahi. (ANI)

Scientists identify ‘tipping points’ at which sudden shifts to new conditions occur

Washington, September 3 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have identified ‘tipping points’ at which sudden shifts to new conditions occur in the world.

The research was done by Martin Scheffer of Wageningen University in The Netherlands and co-authors, including William Brock and Stephen Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

They found that abrupt changes in ocean circulation and Earth’s climate, shifts in wildlife populations and ecosystems, the global finance market and its system-wide crashes, and asthma attacks and epileptic seizures share generic early-warning signals that indicate a critical threshold of change dead ahead.

The team found that similar symptoms occur in many systems as they approach a critical state of transition.

“It’s increasingly clear that many complex systems have critical thresholds – ‘tipping points’ – at which these systems shift abruptly from one state to another,” according to the scientists.

Especially relevant, they discovered, is that “catastrophic bifurcations,” a diverging of the ways, propel a system toward a new state once a certain threshold is exceeded.

A system follows a trail for so long, then often comes to a switchpoint at which it will strike out in a completely new direction.

That system may be as tiny as the alveoli in human lungs or as large as global climate.

“These are compelling insights into the transitions in human and natural systems,” said Henry Gholz, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Environmental Biology, which supported the research along with NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences.

“The information comes at a critical time – a time when Earth’s and, our fragility, have been highlighted by global financial collapses, debates over health care reform, and concern about rapid change in climate and ecological systems,” he added.

It all comes down to what scientists call “squealing,” or “variance amplification near critical points,” when a system moves back and forth between two states.

“A system may shift permanently to an altered state if an underlying slow change in conditions persists, moving it to a new situation,” said Carpenter.

According to scientists, “In systems in which we can observe transitions repeatedly, such as lakes, ranges or fields, and such as human physiology, we may discover where the thresholds are.”

“If we have reason to suspect the possibility of a critical transition, early-warning signals may be a significant step forward in judging whether the probability of an event is increasing,” they added. (ANI)

MI5 spent over 10 yrs in fruitless hunt for Nazi Martin Bormann

London, Sept 1 (ANI): British agents spent more than 10 years in the fruitless hunt for Adolf Hitler’s trusted private secretary, Martin Bormann, following false reports that he survived the war, secret intelligence files have revealed.

Bormann’s whereabouts was one of the biggest mysteries after the Second World War, reports Times Online.

MI5 believed that he died trying to escape the Reich Chancellery in Berlin after Hitler committed suicide in April 1945.

However, no remains were found until 1972 and rumours persisted for years that Fuhrer’s private secretary was still alive.

The senior Nazi, who was also head of the Party Chancellery, was sentenced to death in absentia at the Nuremberg trials in 1946.

The files show how intelligence chiefs were bombarded with alleged sightings of Bormann for years afterwards.

Among the places where he was allegedly spotted were various towns in Switzerland, a Franciscan monastery in Italy and even a mountainside in Brazil.

One man who approached the British Embassy in Paris in 1947 even claimed that Hitler was alive and living with monks in Tibet.

Documents and memos from the security services, released by The National Archives, trace the Bormann trail until 1958, with members of MI5 pouring scorn on increasingly unlikely sightings and press reports.

Possible hideouts also included the Middle East and Russia, where he was said to have defected.

Bormann’s remains were, however, cremated in 1999, a year after DNA tests finally convinced doubters that he had died more than five decades earlier. (ANI)

British wartime agents foiled Nazi plot before D-Day

London, Sep.1 (ANI): British agents foiled a desperate German plot to monitor troop movements just days before D-Day, according to newly-released MI5 files on the Nazis.

During the Second World War, Iceland became tactically important for both sides and Germany sent a series of spies to gather weather information about the area to send back to the Luftwaffe.

But by May 1944 they had become convinced that any naval assault on their forces would be launched from Iceland, MI5 files released on Tuesday by the National Archives in Kew show.

According to The Telegraph, the Germans put together a hurried plan to send three spies to the country to monitor troop movements in a bid to foil Allied attempts to liberate France.

Three Allied forces agents, named Miller, Hoan and Frick, were having dinner in their hotel in Seydisfjordur, Iceland, on the evening of May 5, 1944, when they got wind of the scheme.

A seal hunter had spotted three strangers behaving suspiciously near Borgarfjordur.

The agents tried to alert an Allied ship anchored off the coast in that area but were told it could take hours before it got up enough steam to sail, by which time the men could be deep into the Icelandic wilderness.

So they persuaded the seal hunter to be their guide, borrowed a boat and in the early hours of the morning landed near where the men had been seen.

They hiked across the snow, through the night, following the faint trail left by the spies until finally, at 6 a.m. the following day, they spotted them.

Their report notes: “We cocked our pistols and quickened our pace.”

They surrounded the men, who very quickly confessed to being German soldiers, but claimed they had been sent only to gather meteorological information.

Ernst Fresenius, an avowed Nazi loyalist, was in fact the only German. The other two men, Hjalti Bjornsson and Sigurdur Juliusson, were Icelanders who had been hired as mercenaries by the Nazi military.

They were frogmarched to a farmhouse two miles away where Miller and Frick kept them prisoner while Hoan went back to find the radio transmitter the men had hidden.

A search revealed that the men had 9,000 pounds of sterling, dollars and German marks on them.

It took six interrogation sessions back in UK to establish that the arrested men were in fact trained spies looking for information on troop and naval movements and ships in fjords.

All three were handed over to the American forces and their file ends with a report from the interrogation camp. (ANI)

Sandra Bullock thinks stalking men is best way to get a date

New Delhi, Aug 31 (ANI): Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock insists that the best way to find men to date is to stalk them.

In an interview to Parade magazine, the ‘All about Steve’ star said that one needed to secretly follow potential suitors to find out what they like, reports the China Daily.

“How else do you get dates? I learned that you have to stalk and then make it look very innocent,” she joked.

“Then once you get them you sort of shred receipts and you do things that sort of cover the paper trail of your stalking. I think it’s a necessary evil to sort of lure in your prey,” she added.

In ‘All About Steve’, Bullock plays the role of Mary Horowitz, who becomes obsessed with a man – played by Bradley Cooper – after going out on a blind date with him.

Although the 45-year-old beauty also revealed that she is terrible at crosswords, but she loves seeing her name appear in puzzles.I can barely spell. I so admire people who just whiz through them,” she said.

“My name has been in several crosswords, so I guess that’s the only thing that really connects me. I always get the clue when I’m seven across or whatever. I get very excited, ‘I got that one. It’s me,’” she added. (ANI)

Palin described as Alaska’s lipstick wearing pit-bull and a `Little Shop of Horrors’

Washington, June 30 (ANI): A longtime friend and campaign trail companion of John McCain, the vanquished 2008 GOP presidential nominee, has described his vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin as Alaska’s lipstick-wearing pit-bull and as a “Little Shop of Horrors.”

This comment appears in the August edition of Vanity Fair, reports the New York Daily News.

Several senior members of McCain’s campaign team contacted by Vanity Fair said they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be.”

During the campaign, there were reports of anonymous McCain aides describing Palin, the governor of Alaska, as a “diva” and a “whack job.”

The Vanity Fair article recounts how strained Palin’s relationship was with McCain advisers.

She, on the other hand, maintained “only the barest level of civil discourse” with Tucker Eskew, the operative assigned to be her chief minder, the magazine reports.

She believed Steve Schmidt, McCain’s top strategist, had lied to her about conducting polling in Alaska – that was a “belief she conveyed to anyone who would listen,” the magazine reported.

According to the magazine, Palin was so intent on delivering her own concession speech on Election Night that she wouldn’t accept advisers telling her that McCain had decided he would be the only one to speak.

She took the issue up with McCain himself, discussing it on the walk from his hotel suite to the farewell rally. Palin did not speak on Election Night. Only McCain addressed the crowd and the nation.

Palin has refused to comment for Vanity Fair. (ANI)

Canadian mum saves daughter from cougar attack with bare hands

London, June 19 (ANI): A Canadian mother saved her three-year old daughter from a cougar using nothing but her quick wit and bare hands.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that the child, named Maya, escaped with only superficial wounds after the attack on Tuesday night near the town of Brackendale, 40 miles north of the western city of Vancouver.

Maya, and her mother, Maureen Lee, were walking on a wooded trail with their dog when the cougar pounced.

“All of a sudden it just flew on her, rolled her a couple of times and grabbed her,” the Telegraph quoted Lee as telling CBC.

“She was on her back and (the cougar) had his paws on her head, and I just knew I had to react quick.

“So I just jumped in there and wedged myself between the cougar and her on the ground.

Then, “I just got up and threw it off my back and grabbed (Maya) and (ran),” she added.

Maya suffered puncture wounds to her left arm and head, but is said to be recovering well. (ANI)

‘Pup’ Clarke in no hurry to be top dog

Abu Dhabi (UAE), May 3 (ANI): Stand -in Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke has enhanced his status with a one-day series victory against Pakistan, but says that he is in no hurry to inherit the job permanently from incumbent Ricky Ponting.

An unbeatable 3-1 lead against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, culminating in his unbeaten century in Abu Dhabi on Friday night, has enhanced his position beyond doubt, but Clarke says he looks forward to Ponting’s return at the helm of affairs.

Clarke has hardly put a foot wrong with his captaincy. He has kept team spirits high despite the pressure they faced after being skittled by Pakistan’s spinners in the series-opener to continue what had been a disappointing recent one-day record.

He has had to manage pacemen being rotated in and out of the side on spin-friendly pitches and draw the best from a squad with numerous stars on the comeback trail and several other players new to international cricket.

His field placements and bowling changes have mostly worked beautifully, most notably in game three when Australia engineered a Pakistan collapse of 10-76 to snatch a pivotal win.

Clarke was also in charge last time Australia won a one-day series, against Bangladesh in Darwin last September.

“Every single time I get the chance to captain Australia I love it, it’s wonderful. But for me it’s about playing as well, it’s about being in this team. The feeling in the group this whole tour has been wonderful,” The Age quoted Clarke, as saying.

“It’s not about the captaincy for me, I’ve enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t wait to get our skipper back. I’ve always said and I’ll continue to say I hope he’s my captain for the rest of my career, because if that’s the case our No.3 batter is a brilliant player,” he added.

Coach Tim Nielsen said Clarke’s “brilliant” efforts confirmed his status as a team leader, regardless of the captaincy tag.

“It’s confirmed for everybody what we thought we knew. He’s had success in the past when he’d filled in for Ricky as a captain, both in Twenty20 and one-day cricket, and we were very confident he would have success as a leader here,” Nielsen said.

Clarke said while thankful for the leadership experience, the series win outweighed any personal gains.

Australia will be looking to continue their winning streak in Sunday’s dead rubber in Abu Dhabi. (ANI)

Australia faces sanctions by refusing to play in India

Sydney – Multiple Davis Cup champion Australia faces unprecedented sanctions including a temporary ban from the competition after refusing Saturday to send a team into what it considers a danger zone. Australia declared Saturday it would boycott next month’s Davis Cup tie against India in Chennai over security concerns after the London-based International Tennis Federation (ITF) rejected its request for a neutral venue like Singapore.

The ITF insisted the May 8-10 matches go ahead, warning Tennis Australia (TA) of sanctions if its team stayed home.

TA head Geoff Pollard said it was “unreasonable” to expect the team to play in India during elections.

“We asked for the tie to be moved because we have major security concerns for the players, particularly during the election,” Pollard said. “The ITF decision has left us with no other option – we cannot send the team. It is extremely disappointing.”

Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald also criticized the ITF, saying “some thought must be given to the players’ safety.”

“I believe they say the [Indian] election is not a cause for concern, and that an ATP tournament is held in January shows it is safe to play in Chennai,” Fitzgerald said.

“So what about the fact that dozens of people are being killed along the campaign trail of the election? A train was hijacked this week, but that does not alter their thoughts?

“The ATP event involved no national teams and was held three months prior to the election. This decision makes no sense. We have worked so hard to get back in to World Group contention, to have it snatched away like this is gut-wrenching,” he said.

Pollard demanded a security cordon for his players, “reasonably close to what you would give to a head of state.”

Australia said its team, led by Lleyton Hewitt, is disappointed and is hoping for a change of heart from the IFT.

Australian sports teams have a reputation for being easily spooked by security concerns.

After the 2005 London bus and train bombings, rugby players urged administrators to cancel tours to Britain for fear of putting themselves in danger. (dpa)

Political parties bank on Bollywood star ‘power’

Mumbai, Apr 29 (ANI): A host of Bollywood celebrities have hit the hot and sultry campaign trail to support political candidates in Mumbai.

Bollywood actress Mahima Chaudhary was a crowd puller at a road show for ationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominee Sanjay Patil in Mumbai’s North-East constituency.
“All my wishes for Sanjay Patil. I think he is young, energetic and has a family history of serving people. All the people around seem to love him,” said Chaudhary.

Chaudhary had been campaigning for a various political parties in the past few weeks in different parts of the country as well.

The state’s ruling NCP headed by Sharad Pawar has also roped in Govinda, another popular star, to garner support for its candidate Vasant Davkhare in Thane constituency on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Govinda said that he would campaign for his friends whenever they needed him.

“During a tough phase in my life, Vasant Davkhare stood beside me as a friend. I respect him and his family a lot. I had been to Pune to give support. I am here as well and will be in all the places hopefully,” said Govinda.

Earlier, actor-turned-politician Sanjay Dutt , who is now a top functionary of the Samajwadi Party, and senior leader Amar Singh campaigned for Ramchandra R. Patil in Bhiwandi constituency near Mumbai. (ANI)

Obama has done nothing for Darfur people, says Mia Farrow

Washington, April 28 (ANI): Mia Farrow thinks that U.S. president Barack Obama has not done enough for the people of Darfur.

Farrow, who started her three-week hunger strike on Monday to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, says Obama has not kept the promises he made during the elections.

“During the campaign trail both he (Obama) and Biden made a lot of promises to help the region of Darfur, and nobody voted for him more excitedly than I but nothing has been done,” Fox News quoted her as saying.

“Before, there were pre-election promises from Obama concerning the people of Darfur; this was before the expulsion of the aid workers. He even visited the refugee camps in Eastern Chad; he knows very well what the situation is.

“I fully appreciate that his plate is overflowing, but he could have appointed an envoy much earlier, he didn’t apply an envoy until really late in the game and so the envoy went over and said ‘I’m here to listen and learn’.

“I just found that extremely dispiriting, while it’s commendable to listen and learn, one would have hoped our envoy could have hit the ground running and already done his learning before he arrived in Sudan,” she added. (ANI)

Candidates of various political parties file their nomination papers

Gurdaspur/Ludhiana/Chennai, Apr 25 (ANI): Candidates of different political parties across India filed their nomination papers from their respective constituencies to contest in the ongoing elections to the Lok Sabha.

For instance, actor turned politician, Vinod Khanna filed his nomination to contest from Gurdaspur in Punjab.

The actor also happens to be the sitting parliamentarian from Gurdaspur from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Khanna sounded confident of his poll prospects and expressed his desire to serve the people of Gurdaspur once again.

“I have always believed that I am in love with the people of Gurdaspur and this land. This is the land of Gurus and I am Guru’s worker. I have come here to serve the people. I feel that this time I would win by the maximum margin of votes, and the people will give me a chance to serve them once again,” he said.

He was accompanied by his wife Kavita and BJP’s national general secretary Balbir Punj.

Khanna, joined the BJP in 1997, and defeated three-time parliamentarian Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, a political heavyweight to get elected to the Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur.

Meanwhile, Ravindra Kumar Sabharwal, an independent candidate, also filed his nomination papers from Ludhiana.ontroversy surrounds the candidature of Sabharwal since he is facing a trail on charges of murder.

However, he termed his involvement in the case as politically motivated by his opponents.

“The murder case against me is politically motivated. To finish that game, I have decided to contest the elections,” said Sabharwal.

It was nomination day in Southern India as well.

Dayanidhi Maran, son of Murasoli Maran, filed his nomination from Central Chennai constituency in Tamil Nadu.

Maran will be contesting the general elections for the second time on the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) party ticket.

Dayanidhi Maran has declared that he has moveable and immoveable properties worth nearly 20 million rupees in his name and that of his wife and two children.

Maran lauded the State Government of Tamil Nadu that is ruled by his party and elaborated on the numerous pro-poor schemes initiated by it.

“The Tamil Nadu Government has been performing very well. We have been giving a kg of rice for one rupee, which is not there in any other parts of the country. We have been distributing free colour televisions. By end of this year, we would have distributed ten million and six hundred thousand colour television to the ration card holders. We are coming up with various medical schemes which would be implemented after the elections, which our leaders have announced, where the premium would be paid by the government,” said Dayanidhi Maran.

Speaking on the Lankan issue, Maran stated that the DMK wanted an immediate cease-fire so as to save the Lankan Tamils and if the demand of cease-fire is not met, then India should snap diplomatic ties with the island country. (ANI)

Final assault against LTTE chief Prabhakaran begins

Colombo, Apr.21 (ANI): The Sri Lankan Army has begun its final assault on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Puthumattalam on Tuesday after Army’s deadline for surrender of LTTE Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran ended at noon.

Puthumattalam is the last LTTE sand bund to be captured by Sri Lanka Army.

Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Gotbaya Rajapakse categorically said today the Prabhakaran will now have to surrender or perish.

“If he surrenders it is good, otherwise, he can commit suicide. If he tries to fight, he will perish. If he surrenders we will take him in custody. We will have a genuine trail, he said.

Rajapakse also said that New Delhi is being kept informed about the military offensive on the Tamil Tigers.

“We have kept Indian government in brief. In a daily basis we have very good relations between the National Security Advisor (M.K.Narayanan) and Foreign secretary (Shiv Shankar Menon) and I constantly speak to them,” he said.

“I appeal to other countries especially Western and international community that we can solve our own problems. Don’t put hands in our internal problem and they have no rights to do that. Let them mind their own business,” Rajapakse said.

The spokesman for the military, Brigadier Udayan Nanayakkara, said: “The onus is on Prabhakaran to avert mass murder. There is no question of mercy for Prabhakaran. We are being very careful. Our main concern is to free civilians.”

The Tamil Tiger Chief now has fewer options before him. He can seek an amnesty deal with the Sri Lankan Government or use Sri Lankan hostages as a bargaining chip with government. In an extreme step, he may flee to India or to other foreign countries, or may surrender before the International Court of Justice.
Prabhakaran and his forces have been locked in a major offensive with the Sri Lankan Army for more than six months and lives of civilians being used as human shields by the Tamil Tigers have also been lost in the crossfire.

Monday saw a mass exodus of about 35,000 Tamil civilians fleeing the no-fire zones, a move looked upon by the country’s govt as a sign of rebellion and thus signalling the LTTE’s end.
the Indian government is in constant touch with their Sri Lankan counterparts to resolve the crisis.

The Sri Lankan envoy to India Jaisinghe is keeping New Delhi in the loop about the ground situation in Sri Lanka and India’s envoy to Sri Lanka Alok Prasad is in touch with New Delhi briefing the Foreign Ministry on the ground situation. (ANI)

Da Vinci Code sequel gets September date

London, Apr 21 (ANI): After becoming one of the world’s most read authors courtesy The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown is geared up to release its much-anticipated sequel.

‘The Lost Symbol’, which Brown describes as “a strange and wonderful journey”, will see the main protagonist Robert Langdon’s journey through a 12-hour frame.

It will be published on the September 15th 2009.

While ‘The Da Vinci Code’ saw symbologist Langdon investigating a murder in The Louvre museum in Paris, a trail that led him into the murky waters of Christian history, the sequel has “a masterful and unexpected new landscape”, according to Brown’s editor Jason Kaufman.

“Weaving five years of research into the story’s 12-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon’s life clearly moves a lot faster than mine,” The BBC quoted Brown, as saying.

The Da Vinci Code sold 81 million copies around the world and was also made into a motion picture featuring Tom Hanks in the lead role. (ANI)

Matthew McCanaughey still pals with his 1st lover

Washington, Apr 20 (ANI): Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey is incredible, when it comes to staying tough with his exes, as he still is in touch with the girl he fell in love with when he was just 4 years old.

The Ed TV actor revealed that he is still in talking terms with his 1st lover Julliane and she is happily married.

“Julianne was a little faster than me; she was five. Julianne is good; I know her. My mother still talks with her mother and she’s back there in south Texas, happily married,” Contactmusic quoted Matthew, as saying.

Matthew, who has a child with lover Camila Alves, also remembers his 1st kiss and has really fond memories of it.

“It was with Amy Mitchell on the nature trail and she had braces… It was not a great kiss. There was almost blood, but it was big night. I was high for, like, two months. I think I was 13 or 14,” Matthew added. (ANI)

Bush, Clinton White House spokespersons find jobs in Canada

Washington, April 17 (IANS) Two former White House spokespersons have been hired by the Canadian government to spruce up its image in the US.

According to reports, Michael McCurry, a former press secretary to Bill Clinton, and Ari Fleischer, one of George W. Bush’s press secretaries, have been hired by the Canadian government to secure Prime Minister Stephen Harper interviews with US media outlets.

While Fleisher coordinated the prime minister’s interviews during the recent G-20 meeting in Britain, McCurry is arranging interviews for this week’s Summit of the Americas.

The Canadian prime minister, who rarely interacts with his own national media, has suddenly opened himself to the US media, giving interviews to CNN and other major outlets.

‘They are two individuals with experience that is unparalleled in working with the US media…I think it serves Canada well to have some of the basic facts of our relationship better known in the United States,’ said Kory Teneycke, communications director for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), in Ottawa.

‘It is really appropriate for the prime minister to blaze that trail in helping get that story out, and there a number of others who can play a supporting role in communicating in the US,’ according to the PMO communications director.

‘To view the US government as simply the administration is to not fully understand how the system works. It is also about communicating to governors, the broader US business community, to congressional representatives as well. And Canada is well-served by having these things understood more broadly.’

The Canadian prime minister is reportedly eager to tout the country’s banking system – the only one among G-8 nations to remain untouched by the global meltdown – and highlight the importance of Canadian energy to Americans and the world.

Canadian vote could decide carbon tax’s future

British Columbia campaign officially starts

* Seen as test on economy and carbon tax

* Candidates must compete with NHL playoffs

By Allan Dowd

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 14 (Reuters) – Politicians on Canada’s Pacific Coast hit the campaign trail on Tuesday for the start of a provincial election that could decide the fate of North America’s first comprehensive carbon tax.

British Columbia is the first province to hold an election since Canada slid into recession, although polls indicate the governing Liberal Party is headed for another victory over the New Democratic Party when voters cast their ballots on May 12.

NDP leader Carole James called on voters to punish Premier Gordon Campbell’s Liberals for mishandling the economic downturn, which has pushed unemployment in the province’s largely resource-based economy to 7.4 percent.

“British Columbia has had the worst job losses in the country. We need a change,” James told a rally near Vancouver.

The Liberals, who have governed the province since 2001, say the New Democrats mismanaged British Columbia’s finances when the economy was doing well in the 1990s and cannot be trusted to handle it now when times are tough.

“British Columbians know this election is critical to their future and that the progress we have made could all be lost in a heartbeat if they make the wrong choice on May 12,” Campbell said in a written statement.

A survey released by research firm Mustel Group showed the right-of-center Liberals with 52 percent support among decided voters, compared with 35 percent for the left-leaning NDP and 12 percent for the Green Party.

The campaign has created an unusual dilemma for the province’s environmental activists. They have traditionally sided with the New Democrats but now object to the NDP’s plans to scrap the carbon tax launched by the Liberals last year.

The tax applies to nearly all fossil fuels, including gasoline and home heating fuel, starting at C$10 per tonne of carbon emissions in 2008 and increasing by C$5 a tonne annually for four years.

The tax became a lightning rod for criticism when it was launched in July, when energy prices were already at record highs and drivers began paying an additional 2.41 Canadian cents on a litre of gasoline (about 9.13 cents per U.S. gallon).

The NDP’s “Axe the Tax” campaign coincided with a rise in the polls that briefly had them neck and neck with the Liberals in November, garnering particular support in rural areas of the province.

The NDP plans to replace the carbon tax with other caps on emissions aimed at industrial sources, but environmental groups complain that will do little to reduce greenhouse gasses and could end up costing jobs.

British Columbia is already part of the Western Climate Initiative, a coalition of U.S. states and Canadian provinces that have agreed to adopt a cap and trade system for carbon emissions starting in 2012.

Candidates from both main parties will also have to compete for voters attention with a high-profile, non-political distraction: the Vancouver Canucks begin their National Hockey League playoffs this week in a quest for the Stanley Cup.

($1=$1.21 Canadian) (Reporting Allan Dowd, editing by Rob Wilson)