Israel has authorised the building of 112 new apartments in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. This comes as US Vice-President Joe Biden flies to the region, becoming the highest ranking US official to visit since Barack Obama took office. On Sunday, Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank agreed to indirect talks with Israel. Israel had promised a 10-month pause in settlement building in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem. The announcement will place strain on the already fragile agreement to talk, Palestinian negotiators say. US Envoy George Mitchell is in the region to mediate in what's referred to as "proximity talks". But other Palestinian groups based in Syria, including the Islamist Hamas movement which runs the Gaza Strip, rejected the talks. They said the talks were bowing to pressure from Israel and the US. 'Grudging' The planned apartments are in the settlement of Beitar Illit, which has a mostly Orthodox Jewish population. Tim Franks, BBC News, Jerusalem The line from Israel's defence ministry is they needed to plug a potentially dangerous gap between steeply raked apartment buildings. They have decided that the best way to do this is to fill in the space with 112 new apartments. Palestinian officials see this only as further evidence of the flimsiness of Israel's current, self-declared settlement "freeze". As it is, there is plenty of construction carrying on inside these settlements, on buildings which were started just before the curb on new approvals came into effect at the end of last year. In the meantime, the Americans are hoping this week that Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region will coincide with an announcement that indirect talks will start between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. But shuttle diplomacy, brokered by the US, can only go so far. As the latest news shows, both sides have such a low opinion of each other's intentions that the prospect of direct negotiations - let alone agreement - remains remote. Israeli ministers said the buildings would be allowed to go ahead because of what they termed called "safety issues". A statement from the Defence Ministry said the building was needed to plug a potentially dangerous 40-yard gap between two existing buildings. "Beitar Illit is an exceptional permit that came about following safety problems in the infrastructure," the statement said. The building permits were issued under the previous government of Ehud Olmert and before the pause was announced the settlement said. The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank had demanded a complete stop to settlement building as a precondition to re-engaging in talks which broke down more than a year ago. They agreed "grudgingly" reports said, and came after many months of shuttle diplomacy from Mr Mitchell. The talks should be limited to four months, Palestinian officials said. Under heavy US pressure, the Israeli government agreed in November to a temporary and partial pause in building. It said that work which had already started on 3,000 homes should be allowed to continue, and further exceptions to the pause were possible. Israel has refused to stop building in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians say they want as the location of a future capital of a Palestinian state. In February the Israeli government revealed that work had been continuing in many settlements despite the promise of a pause. 'Exception' Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move put the talks at risk. US Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Israel "If the Israeli government wants to sabotage Mitchell's efforts by taking such steps, let's talk to Mitchell about may be not doing this if the price is so high," he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. Israeli Environment Minister Gilad Erdan said the settlement was "an exception" to the building pause. "At the end of last year the government decided to freeze construction, but this decision provided for exceptions in cases of safety problems for infrastructure projects started before the freeze," he told Army Radio. Peace Now, an Israeli group, said the announcement raised questions about Israel's commitment to the peace process. "The Israeli government is welcoming the US Vice-President by demonstrating, to our regret, that it has no genuine intention to advance the peace process," the group's settlement expert Hagit Ofran told AP. All settlements in the the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.Israel 'risking peace talks' with West Bank building
Barbra Streisand announced Sunday night that the Oscar went to Kathryn Bigelow for her direction of the Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker." The audience in the Kodak Theatre rose and cheered. Shortly afterward, Tom Hanks quickly told the audience that the prize for best picture went to "The Hurt Locker." Again, the audience rose and cheered. Again, Bigelow went to the stage to give a speech. On both occasions, she made no mention of her former husband, James Cameron. The Kodak Theatre was decked out in resplendent color, including an overhanging curtain containing 100,000 crystals with ever-changing colors. The hosts were two stalwarts, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. They attracted a few laughs but weren't up to their usual brilliance. Lauren Bacall was in the audience and graciously responded to applause acknowledging her honorary Oscar. But the statuette was actually presented last fall at a special dinner. Is the Academy not responding to the longtime stars? Jeff Bridges received an accolade with his win as best actor in "Crazy Heart." He spoke long and heartfelt of his devotion to his father, Lloyd Bridges, who was famed for his appearance in the TV series "Sea Hunt." Finally, what's the verdict on this year's return to 10 contenders for best picture, the first time since 1943? The show now requires 10 trailers for the movies fighting for the Oscar. These are scattered throughout the evening, and they are hit or miss. Maybe the academy's Board of Governors should take another look at the new (old?) system of sorting out the winners. But I doubt that will happen.
In this image taken from TV showing a victim laying in hospital after surviving the inter-faith violence in the town of Dogo Nahawa, Nigeria, about five kilometers south of the city of Jos, 7 Mar 2010. Rioters armed with machetes slaughtered hundreds of people on Sunday, many of them women and children.Sectarian Violence Leaves Hundreds Dead in Nigeria
Photo: AP/NTA TV
A security meeting in Abuja is begging held as authorities in Jos bury hundreds of hacked bodies of victims, mostly women and children, in mass graves.
A spokesman for the state government, Gregory Nianlong, says at least 500 people were slaughtered in a night raid on three villages near Jos, capital of Plateau state. There was no independent confirmation of the figure.
Several more victims are being treated while about 100 suspects have been arrested.
Security forces have been ordered to hunt down those behind the clashes. Lagos-based political analyst, George Eke, says the lack of opportunities, and the extreme poverty it breeds, is responsible for the unending crises in Jos.
"A lot of these problems are caused by politicians," he said. "Nigeria has been classified, particularly the north, has been classified as a place where al-Qaida could go and pick people to do their operations. Why? Because there is lack of education there. Governments in-out, in-out, each administration, is doing nothing to lift these children up."
Clashes between rival ethnic and religious groups in January left 320 dead in Jos, according to the police. Religious and human-rights activists put the overall toll at more than 500.
Soldiers have been deployed to the affected area, but some residents have criticized the authorities for doing nothing to prevent the bloodshed.
Sectarian violence in central Nigeria has left thousands dead over the past decade.
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve could retain oversight of large bank holding companies under a scaled-back regulatory reform plan being considered by key senators, but important questions remained unanswered, lobbyists said on Sunday. In a retreat from a bold proposal to streamline a patchwork bank regulatory system, lawmakers were considering keeping supervision of companies such as Citigroup and Bank of at the Fed, as Reuters reported in February. It was still unclear, lobbyists said, if the Fed under the evolving plan would be an "umbrella supervisor," continuing to rely on other agencies for detailed bank exams, and how many companies might be put under the Fed. One option, they said, was to assign holding companies with assets of $100 billion and up to the Fed, which would include nearly two dozen major firms. Other, more expansive options were also being considered, with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd expected to unveil legislation as soon as this week after months of negotiations with fellow Democrats and Republicans. Regulatory reform is a top domestic priority of President Barack Obama, who wants to crack down on banks and capital markets following the worst financial crisis in decades. Dodd in November called the Fed's past performance as a banking supervisor and consumer protection watchdog an "abysmal failure." When he made that remark, he proposed consolidating bank supervision into a super-cop for the industry to be called the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, or FIRA. But the FIRA proposal has unraveled as Dodd has discussed a range of compromises with Republicans and moved closer to embracing regulatory reforms watered down from a sweeping bill approved in December by the U.S. House of Representatives. The FIRA would have streamlined the bank oversight duties of the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and other agencies. The Fed in recent weeks has pushed hard to preserve its role as a supervisor. Senators are discussing doing that up to a point, but stripping the Fed of its job as supervisor of a large number of state-chartered banks. Dodd was said to be leaning toward reassigning those banks to the FDIC, which already examines many other state-chartered banks not in the Fed system, lobbyists said, Dodd also plans to call for closing the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates thrift institutions. On Friday, Dodd said he was uncertain whether bipartisan support for a compromise reform bill could be achieved.Senators wrestle with Fed bank oversight issues
So what interventions get the most bang for the buck in raising the status of women around the world? What is most helpful in overcoming injustices such as human trafficking and acid attacks? I’d welcome your ideas below, but let me toss out a few of my suggestions for most effective interventions: First, I think girls’ education may be the single most cost-effective kind of aid work. It’s cheap, it opens minds, it gives girls new career opportunities and ways to generate cash, it leads them to have fewer children and invest more in those children, and it tends to bring women from the shadows into the formal economy and society. It’s not a panacea, of course. Lebanon and Sri Lanka were leaders in girls’ education, and both ended up torn apart by conflict. In India, the state of Kerala has done a fine job in girls’ education, but its state economy is still a mess and dependent on remittances. But overall, educating girls probably has a greater transformative effect on a country than anything else one can do. Second, I’d argue for deworming and micronutrients. These may not sound like they’re “women’s issues,” but in a sense they are. For example, iodine deficiency particularly affects female fetuses, for reasons that we don’t fully understand. Insufficient iodine in the first trimester of pregnancy costs that child 10 to 15 I.Q. points for the rest of his or her life, and yet iodized salt programs that prevent the problem cost less than 5 cents per person reached. There are still tens of millions of girls out there with cognitive deficits because so much salt in poor countries is still not iodized. Likewise, women and girls disproportionately suffer from anemia, partly because of menstruation. In the United States, if a woman showed up at an E.R. with a hemoglobin level of, say, 9, she might get an immediate blood transfusion, and lower levels are rarely seen. In contrast, hemoglobin levels of 5 and 6 are routinely seen among women in poor countries – just unheard of in the United States. Deworming would help them, because worms cause anemia, and costs only about 50 cents per person and lasts a year (deworming is backed by groups like Deworm the World). So would iron supplements, which likewise are very cheap and can be given in particular to high school girls and to women expecting to become pregnant. Family planning likewise falls in this category: an intervention that is relatively cheap, pays for itself, and is vastly underfunded. Third, we need more support for women starting businesses. These can be microsavings and microlending programs, or training in entrepreneurship.BRAC and Grameen have done great work in this area, as has Injaz in the Middle East. Such programs lead women to bring in incomes, and that gives them more weight in the home and society. Moreover, they tend to invest the income in their children, so there’s a broader effect in fighting poverty. Lots of aid groups implement these kinds of approaches, including the big ones like CARE, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and so on. So do small ones; Camfed, for example, is focused on girls’ education in Africa. I’d welcome your thoughts below both on what interventions are most cost-effective, and on the organizations you recommend to others. So many Americans are looking for good aid groups to support, and here’s your chance to recommend some to other readers.Three Proven Steps to Advance the World’s Women, on International Women’s Day
Today is International Women’s Day, and in fact the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. It’s a date that is much better known abroad but is beginning to get more traction in the U.S. as well.
Visit by U.S. vice president culminates effort to restart stalled peace negotiations; indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders begin U.S. Vice President Joe Biden upon arrival at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. Biden's five-day Middle East tour is the highest-level visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories to date by an Obama administration official, 08 Mar 2010 Biden's visit culminates an intense effort by Washington to restart stalled peace negotiations. That effort is led by special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who has been in Israel since Saturday. Biden in Mideast as Peace Process Appears to Pick Up Momentum
Photo: AP
"We look forward to what we hope will be a credible, serious, constructive process that will accomplish the objective which we all share: comprehensive peace in the Middle East," Mitchell said.
That process has begun to move forward in the past few days. On Sunday, the Palestinians agreed to begin indirect negotiations, according to a plan that was endorsed last week by the Arab League. Israel also approved holding indirect talks.
Mitchell met Sunday and Monday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Israel wanted direct talks, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said what matters most is that negotiations, even indirect ones, get under way.
"If there is a desire to get to direct talks through a corridor, then I think the sooner the better we cross that corridor and get to substantive negotiations, indirect negotiations," Mr. Netanyahu said.
The U.S. push for a restart of the talks, and the apparent progress in resuming the negotiations, is occurring despite a flare-up of violence during the past few weeks.
Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Hebron were triggered by Israel's recent decision to include two West Bank sites, holy to both Jews and Muslims, on the Israeli list of national heritage sites.
The Palestinians broke off negotiations last year in response to Israel's assault on Gaza. They said they would not continue talks until Israel stopped construction on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.
Palestinian officials say although they will engage in indirect talks, they will not give up their demands.
Senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo told Palestinian radio the success of the talks will depend on whether Washington is able to pressure Israel into stopping settlement expansion.
He said it will be a surprise if the United States deals with Israel and its long-held position. The aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said this could be the biggest disappointment and perhaps the death of the peace process.
Israel again angered the Palestinians by announcing the construction of more than 100 new apartments inside the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit. Israeli leaders declared a partial, temporary freeze on new construction last year. Officials said their decision Monday was an exception, due to what they described as safety and infrastructure issues.
Israeli commentators are calling Biden's visit significant. He is perceived here as a powerful figure within the Obama administration, one who is well-acquainted with Middle East politics, having known every Israeli prime minister for the past four decades.
Aside from the peace process, the agenda for Vice President Biden's visit includes discussions on Iran's nuclear program. Israel has been lobbying the international community for tougher action on Iran and what Israeli leaders believe is Tehran's intention to develop nuclear weapons for use against the Jewish State.
Biden is due to meet Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to meet with Tony Blair, the envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, and will travel to the West Bank town of Ramallah to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad.
Thursday, Biden is to travel to Amman to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah.
wake up sid bollywood movie
wake up sid bollywood movie
Bollywood music is making waves across the globe, from a club in Stanford to the Kodak Theatre
It's a YouTube clipping you're unlikely to run if you're not an ice-skating fan. Yet, it went viral. People from Silicon Valley to Chennai, most with no interest in ice-dancing, have been forwarding it with a “This you've got to see!”shouting from the subject box. It has racked up 2,10,000 views, a mega count for a figure-skating programme.
Flip it on and you know why. The movements of skaters Meryl Davis and Charlie White are Bollywood tango, and the music is from “Devdas”. Anju Rajendra, who combines Bollywood music and dance with exercise at her BollyFit studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is credited with showing them the Indian dance style and suggesting the music. Couldn't have chosen a better tune to enlarge the fan base, Meryl told an interviewer.
Bollywood music has broken the ice barrier. But, that's just one more platform for this brand that went international when Raj Kapoor doffed his lal topi to Russians. Since then, Bollywood's original and re-mixed — but readily identifiable — strains have been heard everywhere, from a club in Stanford to the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Jai Ho!
Young Germany wrote about it in its India Special edition titling it Germany Grooves to Bollywood's Beat. Bollywood devotees from all over Europe have been making a yearly pilgrimage to Stuttgart for the July Fest since it kicked off in 2004, it said. Read more...
Golden quotes from Oscar winners, KATHRYN BIGELOW, BEST DIRECTOR FOR THE HURT LOCKER
Golden quotes from Oscar winners, KATHRYN BIGELOW, BEST DIRECTOR FOR THE HURT LOCKER 
KATHRYN BIGELOW, BEST DIRECTOR FOR THE HURT LOCKER
There's no other way to describe it – it's the moment of a lifetime. I'd just like to dedicate this to the whttp://women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world, and may they come home safe."
Backstage, when asked how it felt to be the first woman director to win an Oscar she said, "I hope I'm the first of many and of course I'd love to think of myself as just a filmmaker and that (in the future)...the modifier would be a moot point, but I'm also happy to be an inspiration."
JEFF BRIDGES, BEST ACTOR FOR CRAZY HEART
"Thank you Mom and Dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession."
Backstage, when asked about career ups and downs, Bridges said, "As the dude says, it's all strikes and gutters. That's about it," referring to his wildly popular character in The Big Lebowski.
SANDRA BULLOCK, BEST ACTRESS FOR THE BLIND SIDE
"Did I really earn this, or did I just wear you down?"
Backstage she joked about the fact she had earned a worst actress Razzie one day earlier for her role in All About Steve. "They're going to sit side by side as they should. We're in the entertainment business and that's what we're supposed to do – take the good with the not so good. It's the great equalizer. Nothing too good happens before something chops me off at the knees. They'll be near each other... but the Razzie will be lower." Read more...
Avtar and The hurt luckers leads the 2010 pack with 9 oscar nomination each
Avtar and The hurt luckers leads the 2010 pack with 9 oscar nomination each
For the record, we (I) hate calling them the 2010 Oscar awards. They're for the films that came out in 2009. So in 10 years from now when you're asking who won the 2010 Oscars, you're probably going to be thinking about the films that came out in 2010, not 2009. Just sayin'.
We didn't do predictions for this year's 82 Annual Academy Awards because many of them seemed obvious and set and stone and as everyone expected, James Cameron's "Avatar," Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," Jason Reitman's "Up In The Air," Lee Daniels' "Precious" and Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," all scored Best Director and Best Picture nods for their respective films. "Avatar" and somewhat surprisingly, "The Hurt Locker" lead the nominations with 9 slots each. Trailing these two polar opposite films which seem to be poised to showdown at the Oscars (and the directors are ex-husband and wife to make it that much more fun), were "Inglourious Basterds," with 8 nominations, and "Up In The Air" and "Precious' with 6 nominations each. The five aforementioned films should be seen as the real Oscar 5 with the others sort of filling out the newly added, additional five Best Picture slots (i.e. it's pretty to have them there, but they have zero shot at winning).
However, in big surprises, "The Blind Side" took a Best Picture nomination that caught everyone off guard, Matt Damon scored a nomination for his supporting role in "Invictus." The big snubs seemed to be "Invictus" and "Star Trek" but we'll get into those in a bit.
Oscar 2010 Roundup: Hits and misses
Oscar 2010 roundup: hits and misses
Set in Iraq, it follows a bomb disposal unit and captures the tension and danger as they seek to defuse explosives in cars, under dirt and strapped on people.
Apart from best picture and direction, it won four more golden statuettes for sound editing, sound mixing, original screenplay as well as editing. It won an equal number of awards at the 2010 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards earlier this year.
Bigelow over the challenge posed by ex-husband James Cameron's 3D sci-fi epic Avatar, which was the other leading contender for Oscar glory with nine nominations.
DPA reports that Avatar, the most successful film in history with more than $2 billion in ticket sales, won just three awards for visual effects, art direction and cinematography.
According to pundits, ticket sales for The Hurt Locker was just $21 million, making it the lowest-grossing best-picture winner ever.
Another winner was the inspirational Precious, which racked up three wins, including a supporting actress award for Mo'Nique.
"Sometimes you have to forego doing what's popular in order to do what's right," she said while accepting her prize.
Jeff Bridges won the best actor prize for his role as a washed up country singer in the film Crazy Heart. He dedicated his prize to his parents.
"Thank you, mom and dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession," he said. "They loved showbiz so much and I feel an extension of them."
Sandra Bullock was named the best actress for "The Blind Side", in which she plays a high society woman who takes in an impoverished black kid and turns him into a football star.
She dedicated her win to her mother who taught her that "there's no race, no religion, no class system, no colour, nothing, no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. We are all deserving of love".
American director Gregg Helvey's India-themed 19-minute film Kavi, about a young Indian boy forced to work in a brick kiln, lost out the best short film award to The New Tenants by Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson.
Pete Docter's Up was adjudged the best animated feature film and Crazy Heart won the Oscar for best original song.
Christopher Waltz won the best actor in a supporting role award for playing the scheming Col. Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", a film based on World War II.
The award for the best animated short film went to Logorama and The Cove by Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens was judged the best documentary feature film.
Music by Prudence by Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett took away the Oscar for best documentary on a short subject.
Argentine film "The Secret in Their Eyes", about a retired criminal prosecutor Benjamin Esposito's quest for writing a novel, won the best foreign language film at the star-studded gala.
According to DPA, the event started with all 10 nominees for best actor and best actress taking the stage, before hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were introduced in a spectacular comedic song-and-dance number.
The show's producers attempted to perk up Oscar ratings after years of falling ratings and featured young stars like Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus in the show. Read more...
