-
Australia, Telstra Sign Broadband Deal
more
SYDNEY--Telstra Corp. said Sunday it has agreed to participate in the Australian government's planned new national broadband network by allowing access to its infrastructure and traffic, a move that will deliver the telecommunications company a net 11 billion Australian dollars (US$9.57 billion).
The deal, with the final contract to be negotiated in coming months, follows a year of wrangling between Telstra and the Labor government and will be viewed as an important stepping stone in the government's plan to roll out a new, A$43 billion "fiber-to-the-home" broadband network across Australia through its National Broadband Network Co. -
Gia Carangi: Beautiful New York Model Succumbs to Death from AIDS...!
Angelina Jolie was a really amazing in role in Gia Carangi. Jolie portrayed the role of gorgeouis Gia Carangi, born in 1960, as a victim of AIDS who wound up succumbing to death at the young age of 26 years old.In order to stake her claim in the world, Gia Carangi decided to become a model back in 1970’s in the city of New York. However, as she begins to become successful at modeling, she becomes addicting to the club life which includes drinking and drugs.
Gia Carangi and her addictions to drugs and alcohol begin to negatively affect her career as well as her personal life, until she gets overtaken by AIDS. Gia died on November 18, 1986.
Angelina Jolie starred in Gia Carangi along with Mercedes Ruehl, Elizabeth Mitchell and Faye Dunaway. The sentimental show about dying of AIDS, starred tonight on Lifetime at 9 p.m.
more -
'Toy Story 3' lives up to buzz with $41M opener
more
LOS ANGELES – "Toy Story 3" has become the favorite plaything for moviegoers as the animated sequel heads to a $100-million-plus opening weekend.
The latest hit from Disney's Pixar Animation took in $41 million in its first day Friday, according to studio estimates.
That puts "Toy Story 3" on track to join "Shrek 2" and "Shrek the Third" as the only animated films to top $100 million in their debut weekends.
Reuniting voice stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, "Toy Story 3" will easily pass Pixar's previous best opening of $70.5 million for "The Incredibles." -
Gunman targets stepdaughter's family in San Bernardino restaurant; 3 dead
more
A 56-year-old man opened fire in a San Bernardino Del Taco restaurant Saturday afternoon, killing his stepdaughter's husband and one of their two young sons before fatally shooting himself in the head, police said. The man also critically wounded his stepdaughter and her 5-year-old son.
The San Bernardino Police Department late Saturday identified the gunman as Jimmy Schlager. It has not released the identities of the victims. -
'Jonah Hex' Star Josh Brolin Calls Horse-Mounted Gatling Gun 'Funny'
more
In the first "Jonah Hex" trailer, there's one particular item that should give fans a pretty clear sense of whether or not this comic book adaptation is something they'll find interest in. I'm speaking, of course, about the horse-mounted gatling gun, one of the most absurd pieces of weaponry seen on film in the past several years. It's not a concept that everybody can get behind — but it's certainly one that lead actor Josh Brolin was very amused by!
"The gatling gun, man," the actor laughed when MTV News asked him to recount his favorite and most absurd weapons featured in "Jonah Hex." "It's not funny to anybody else, but it's always funny to me."
Brolin revealed that the initial idea for the gatling gun had more than a few design flaws to reconcile.
"The gatling gun was designed under the horse," he explained. "I was like, 'Does anybody realize that when these gatling guns go off, the horse's front legs are going to be shot off? You realize that, right? You're going to have to change horses every time you use the gatling gun!' Our props guy came up with a design that was functional, to say the least." -
Yemeni militants kill 11 in brazen jailbreak
more
SAN'A, Yemen – Four suspected al-Qaida gunmen blasted their way into the intelligence headquarters of Yemen's second largest city Saturday and freed several detainees in the group's most spectacular operation since a U.S.-backed government crackdown began late last year.
The attack on the heavily protected security complex killed 11 and further bolstered U.S. concerns that Yemen's weak central government may not be up to tackling an increasingly effective foe seemingly able to strike anywhere inside or outside the country.
"We were hit where we least expected it," Yemeni Information Minister Hassan al-Lozy told the Al-Arabiya news channel. "This is a serious escalation from these terrorist elements." -
3 children killed, 23 people hurt in Afghanistan
more
KABUL, Afghanistan – Two explosions minutes apart rocked a provincial capital in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing a child and wounding at least 19 other people.
The young girl was killed and at least 14 other people were wounded in the first blast in front of a bank in southern Lashkar Gah city, said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor in Helmand province.
Five people, including an Afghan soldier, were injured in the second explosion near a high school, he said. -
BP Chief Draws Outrage for Attending Yacht Race
more
BP officials on Saturday scrambled yet again to respond to another public relations challenge when their embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, spent the day off the coast of England watching his yacht compete in one of the world’s largest races.
Two days after Mr. Hayward angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill with his refusal to provide details during testimony about the worst offshore oil spill in United States history, and one day after BP’s chairman said the chief executive would not be as involved in daily operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Hayward sparked new controversy from afar.
“He is having some rare private time with his son,” a BP spokeswoman, Sheila Williams, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.
But Rahm Emanuel, -
Turkey looks east and makes waves
more
The Muslim nation is in NATO and a candidate to join the European Union. But it's busy making inroads to the east, a region looking for and suspicious of fresh leadership.
Turkey has long been a map of possibility — its eastern fringes touching Iraq and its western borders brushing Europe, a place where the music of Beethoven played amid the call to prayer.
This predominantly Muslim nation is a member of NATO and a candidate, although an unwelcome one, to join the European Union. But Turkey is peering east, dispatching financial brokers, pistachio merchants and diplomats across a restless region that is both looking for and suspicious of any gleam of fresh leadership.
By default and through its own designs, Turkey has gained stature in a Middle East where old Arab powers are fading and gulf states are preoccupied with the global financial crisis and the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strengthened relations with former enemy Syria, improved ties with Iran and, to the agitation of Egypt, arisen as a provocative Muslim voice for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. -
Cleanups of Spill and an Agency Test Salazar
more
When President Obama boasted in his televised address on Tuesday about his team of leaders fighting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he spoke glowingly of his energy secretary, his Coast Guard commander, even his Navy secretary.
Then he turned to Ken Salazar, his interior secretary. “When Ken Salazar became my secretary of the interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency,” Mr. Obama said, referring to Mr. Salazar’s oversight of the Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for regulating offshore drilling. “But it’s now clear that the problem there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow.” -
Workers At Idled Toyota Tianjin Auto Plant To Return Monday
more
Toyota Motor Corp. (TM, 7203.TO) said Sunday that it will resume operations at an auto assembly plant in China starting Monday as a strike at a local parts plant was settled Saturday amid labor disputes spreading at automobile factories in the world's biggest auto market.
The Japanese car maker will restart operations at its car plant in Tianjin after a shortage of certain plastic interior parts from the parts producer, where workers walked off the job Thursday, started disrupting operations at the car plant Thursday night, a Toyota spokesman said. All three production lines at the Tianjin auto plant were idled by Friday afternoon.
Toyota halted production temporarily at a crucial time for the auto maker, which saw a relatively moderate growth in sales in China of 21% to 700,900 vehicles last year compared to a nearly 50% surge in the country's overall market to about 13 million vehicles.
The auto plant in Tianjin is one of Toyota's largest in China, with an annual production capacity of 400,000 vehicles.
Labour disputes over pay are spreading in China in the auto and some other industrial sectors.
Among the companies recently hit by strikes in China, Honda Motor Co. (HMC, 7267.TO) is facing a string of disputes at auto parts factories that pushed Honda to suspend temporarily its auto assembly production from late last month to early this month.
Toyota was forced to halt auto production as it was unable to procure sufficient parts from one of Toyoda Gosei Co.'s joint auto parts production ventures due to the strike. Toyota owns a 42 % stake in Toyota Gosei. The venture is called Tianjin Toyoda Gosei Co..
Toyoda Gosei wasn't immediately available for comment. -
As oil spews in Gulf, BP chief at UK yacht race
LONDON – BP chief executive Tony Hayward, often criticized for being tone-deaf to American concerns about the worst oil spill in U.S. history, took time off Saturday to attend a glitzy yacht race off England's Isle of Wight.more
Spokeswoman Sheila Williams said Hayward took a break from overseeing BP efforts to stem the undersea gusher in Gulf of Mexico to watch his boat "Bob" participate in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race.
