Bollywood should come to Brazil, says director

Toronto, Bollywood movies should come to Brazil “in a big way”, says veteran Brazilian filmmaker Suzana Amaral, describing herself as a fan of Hindi movies from the 1970s.

“Our two great nations should start forging deeper cultural ties. I want Bollywood to come Brazil in a big way. Their films are gorgeous and we can learn a lot from them,” the 77-year-old said in an interview here.

Amaral’s movie “Hotel Altantico” was premiered last week at the Toronto International Film Festival. She was probably the oldest film director at the festival.

“I used to watch every Bollywood film when I was studying film direction at New York University in the mid-1970s. There used to be a theatre on 56th Street which screened only Bollywood films. I never missed one,” the Rio de Janeiro-based filmmaker told IANS.

“India and Brazil are the next superpowers. Future belongs to us. We used to be called underdeveloped, but not any more.”

She added that she would love to have her films screened at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, a former Portuguese enclave.

A veteran of 56 films, she won the Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1986 for her film “The Hour of the Star”.

Amaral praises Indian audiences for supporting the Indian film industry.

“I salute Bollywood and Indian audiences for supporting their film industry. That’s why it is the biggest in terms of number of films produced each year while we in Brazil produce only about 80 films.”

Amaral has been invited to a film festival in Kerala in December. But she said she would not be able attend because of family commitments.

“I have nine children, and (they have) large families. I have to be with them for Christmas, though I am not Christian. But I look forward being in India some time later.”

A practising Buddhist, she said she would love to interact not only with Bollywood directors while in India but also the Dalai Lama.

“How far is Dharamshala from the Indian capital? I would love to see the Dalai Lama when I am there,” she said, referring to the Indian hill town where the Tibetan spiritual leader is based. “I meditate daily and live by Buddhism principles.”

Her film “Hotel Atlantico” is a manifestation of her Buddhist beliefs. In the film, an unnamed character – played by upcoming star Julio Andrade – wanders through life without any destination, allowing fate to decide his course.

“For me this film is semi-autobiographical. Being a Buddhist, I take life as it comes, so does the protagonist of this film. I live in the present moment. I don’t bother about what will happen next or what happened in the past,” she said.

In between, Amaral has thrown in a lot of humour and sexuality in the film. “Hotel Atlantico”, well received in Toronto, opens in Brazil in November.

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World will need 70pc more food in 2050

Rome—World food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050, to nourish a human population then likely to be 9.1 billion, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation forecast Wednesday.

“FAO is cautiously optimistic about the world’s potential to feed itself by 2050,” said FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem. However, he stressed that feeding everyone in the world by then “will not be automatic and several significant challenges have to be met.”

The agency is preparing for a high-level expert forum in Rome on October 12-13 on “How to Feed the World in 2050” and plans to gather 300 specialists from academic, non-governmental and private sector institutions.

This forum will pave the way for a World Summit on Food Security in Rome on November 16-18. The world population is expected to grow from 6.8 billion today to 9.1 billion in 2050, according to the latest UN forecast. “Nearly all of the population growth will occur in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is expected to grow the fastest (up 108 percent, 910 million people), and East and South East Asia’s the slowest (up 11 percent, 228 million).

“Around 70 percent of the world population will live in cities or urban areas by 2050, up from 49 percent today,” the document said. The demand for food is expected to grow as a result of rising incomes as well as population growth, the discussion paper added. Cereal production will have to increase by almost a billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and meat production will have to grow by more than 200 million tonnes to reach a total of 470 million tonnes in 2050.

The FAO estimated that the “production of biofuels could also increase the demand for agricultural commodities, depending on energy prices and government policies.” More land will be needed for crops “despite the fact that 90 percent of the growth in crop production is projected to come from higher yields and increased cropping intensity.”

The FAO estimated that “arable land will have to expand by around 120 million hectares in developing countries,” mainly in Africa and Latin America, while “arable land in use in developed countries is expected to decline by some 50 million hectares, although this could be changed by the demand for biofuels.”—AFP

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Jackson mother granted estate say

Michael Jackson's mother can challenge the administrators of his estate without losing her share in a family trust, a Los Angeles judge has ruled.

Katherine Jackson's lawyers had said she wanted more say in the estate even though Jackson's will contained a "no contest" clause to the family trust.

The singer appointed his long-time lawyer John Branca and music executive John McClain as executors.

The family trust gives Mrs Jackson more than $1m (£606,000) a year.

The money from the estate is to be used to support herself and her son's three children.

The amount was approved by a judge in Los Angeles in August. Michael Jackson's estate is estimated to be worth $400m (£246m).

Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled on Friday that Katherine Jackson would not violate the "no contest" clause if she were to challenge decisions of the estate's administrators.

Court cases

Michael Jackson is thought to have left about $400m (£246m) in debt when he died in June but his assets are estimated to outweigh considerably his debts.

The singer had partial ownership of the Sony/ATV music catalogue and many Beatles songs.

The singer's three children also receive a monthly allowance of $60,000 (£37,000). Various charities also benefit.

After his death, Michael Jackson's children went to live with their grandmother at the family home in north Los Angeles.

They are still living there and Katherine Jackson has been granted permanent guardianship.

Judge Beckloff has been presiding over a string of court cases regarding the unravelling of Michael Jackson's estate, his business dealings and the wrangling over future earnings.

There are plans to produce a wide range of Michael Jackson memorabilia and a movie including footage from rehearsals for his planned comeback tour will be released in late October.

Branca and McClain have said they expect the merchandising to have boosted the late singer's estate by $200m (£123m) by the end of 2009.

Michael Jackson died from high levels of drugs in his body including the powerful anaesthetic propofol, more commonly used on hospital patients before surgery.

A police investigation into how he procured the drug has focussed on his personal physician Dr Conrad Murray. No charges have yet been brought in relation to the singer's death.

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Jermaine Jackson: 'I wish it was me'

NEW YORK (AP) — Jermaine Jackson says he would like to see Neverland Ranch as his brother Michael's final resting place.

In an interview broadcast Thursday on NBC's "Today" show, Jermaine Jackson also said he wishes he had died instead of his younger brother, and that Michael was "a gift from Allah."
» Click to enlarge image
In an interview broadcast Thursday on NBC's "Today" show, Jermaine Jackson said he wishes he had died instead of his younger brother, and that Michael was "a gift from Allah."
(AP Photo/ Matt Sayles, File)


"He went too soon. I don't know how people are going to take this, but I wish it was me," Jermaine Jackson said.

When asked why he felt that way, Jermaine Jackson said he always felt that he was Michael's "backbone."

"Someone to be there for him. I was there and he was sort of like Moses. Things he couldn't say, I would say them. During the trials, during everything ..."

Jermaine Jackson said that when he rushed to UCLA Medical Center last Thursday, where the 50-year-old pop singer was pronounced dead, "I wanted to see Michael, and I wanted to see my brother, and seeing him there lifeless and breathless was very emotional for me, but I held myself together because I know he's very much alive."

"His spirit is, and that was just a shell, but I kissed him on his forehead and I hugged him, and I touched him and I said, 'Michael, I'll never leave you. You'll never leave me.'"

On Wednesday, Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine said a public memorial was in the works but it wouldn't be held at Neverland.

A person familiar with the situation told the AP that permits for a burial at the sprawling Santa Barbara, Calif., estate could not be arranged in time. The person was not authorized to speak for the family and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Jackson said Neverland was Michael's home.

"He created this. Why wouldn't he be here? I feel his presence."

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Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden dead at 97

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage, screen and television made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 97.

Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He served as the academy's president from 1989-92.

"Karl lived a rich, full life," Academy president Sid Ganis said. "He has the greatest and most loving family; a career that has spanned the spectrum of the arts from theater to film and television, to some very famous commercial work."

While he tackled a variety of characters over the years, he was often seen in working-class garb or military uniform. His authenticity in grittier roles came naturally: He was the son of a Czech mother and a Serbian father, and worked for a time in the steel mills of Gary, Ind., after dropping out of college.

Malden said he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football, joking that he was "the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking." He liked to say he had "an open-hearth face."

Malden won a supporting actor Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois' naive suitor Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" - a role he also played on Broadway.

He was nominated again as best supporting actor in 1954 for his performance as Father Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the-workingman priest in "On the Waterfront." In both movies, he costarred with Marlon Brando.

"When you worked with him, he was the character," said Eva Marie Saint, who garnered a supporting actress Oscar for her role in "Waterfront." ''He was the consummate actor and he loved acting. He was dear and smart. Whatever he did he enjoyed life."

Among his other memorable roles were: "Birdman of Alcatraz" opposite Burt Lancaster; "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift; "How the West Was Won;" and "The Cincinnati Kid" opposite Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson.

His more than 50 credits included "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, "Pollyanna," ''Fear Strikes Out," ''The Sting II," ''Bombers B-52," ''Cheyenne Autumn," and "All Fall Down."

One of his most controversial films was "Baby Doll" in 1956, in which he played a dullard husband whose child bride is exploited by a businessman. It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its "carnal suggestiveness." The story was by "Streetcar" author Tennessee Williams.

Malden gained perhaps his greatest fame as Lt. Mike Stone in the 1970s television show "The Streets of San Francisco," in which Michael Douglas played the veteran detective's junior partner.

Douglas was 28 when he earned his first major break on the detective series with Malden, who was 60. Douglas saluted Malden last month as a key mentor when the older actor received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, an event to be televised July 19 on the TV Land channel.

"He was fantastic. He just had a tremendous discipline, tremendous ethics," Douglas told AP Television News about a month before the ceremony. "He insisted that next's week's script would be there when we were shooting that week's script. Every time between setups, between breaks, we'd go in the trailer and run lines for the next's week's show. That's the kind of discipline, training I got from Karl."

In the '70s, Malden gained a lucrative 21-year sideline and a place in pop culture with his "Don't leave home without them" ads for American Express travelers checks.

"The Streets of San Francisco" earned him five Emmy nominations. He won one for his role as a murder victim's father out to bring his former son-in-law to justice in the 1985 miniseries "Fatal Vision." He and Saint played husband and wife.

Malden played Barbra Streisand's stepfather in the 1987 film "Nuts;" Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. in the 1988 TV film "My Father, My Son;" and Leon Klinghoffer, the cruise ship passenger murdered by terrorists in 1985, in the 1989 TV film "The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro."

He acted sparingly in recent years, appearing in 2000 in a small role on TV's "The West Wing."

In 2004, Malden received the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, telling the group in his acceptance speech that "this is the peak for me." He served on the acting union's national board from 1963-72.

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Russia-US summit a chance to jumpstart ties

MOSCOW - Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will likely sign a stack of agreements during their Moscow summit, but their chief goal may be for the United States and Russia to stop acting like adversaries _ even if they can't be friends.

Over the past year, already tense ties have been strained to the breaking point over Russia's war with Georgia and U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Moscow's backyard.

With the first full-fledged U.S-Russia summit since 2002, the two presidents have a chance to put an end to years of suspicion and rancor.

"This will be a very important meeting which will basically answer the question of whether the U.S. and Russia can work together," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, a think tank.

There's a packed agenda: Extension and expansion of the START 1 nuclear arms control treaty, Iran, North Korea, a proposed U.S. defensive missile system for Europe and Russia's disputed claims of having a privileged interest in the affairs of its former Soviet satellites.

Experts expect the two sides to agree on over flights of U.S. weaponry to Afghanistan, to pledge to agree to cuts in nuclear arsenals, and to set up a new presidential-level commission to expand cultural and trade programs.

The two-day summit isn't likely to have the impact of the 1945 Yalta conference, which preceded the division of Europe and led to the creation of the United Nations.

Neither is it expected to produce the fireworks of, say, the 1959 "Kitchen debate," when Vice President Richard Nixon came to Moscow and clashed over the relative advantages of communism and capitalism with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

But analysts still see the meeting as crucial to smooth relations between the two countries that control nine out of ten of the world's nuclear warheads.

First summits count. When U.S. President George W. Bush first met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia in June 2001, Bush looked Putin in the eye and liked what he saw.

"I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue," Bush said at the time. "I was able to get a sense of his soul."

But after a brief post-Sept. 11 honeymoon, the U.S.-Russia relationship suffered a long and bitter break-up.

Trenin and other experts say the planned summit has already achieved one of the White House's chief objectives: to end the hostile rhetoric between Washington and Moscow.

The Kremlin's main objective, experts say, was to get the U.S. to acknowledge that post-Soviet Russia still has a major role to play in global affairs. The Bush administration sometimes seemed to regard Russia as at best a regional power.

"Russia has been made a priority" for the United States again, said Angela Stent of Georgetown University, and a former member of the National Intelligence Council.

While courting Russia, analysts said, the White House has put NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia on the back burner and throttled back on construction of an anti-missile system in Central Europe. Both projects angered the Kremlin.

Russia, meanwhile, has dropped talk of building military bases in the Caribbean and targeting its missiles on Europe. Moscow also swiftly agreed to tough new U.N. sanctions against North Korea following its May 25 nuclear test, after years of resisting increased pressure on Pyongyang.

Some leaders of Russia's liberal democratic opposition believe the Obama administration may be trying too hard to please the Kremlin.

"Stop making out that by dealing with Putin and Medvedev you are dealing with democratically-elected leaders," said Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader. "They are leaders of an authoritarian country in which democracy has been destroyed."

But Obama is expected to meet with some Kremlin foes Tuesday. He is also expected to raise the issue of slain journalists with Medvedev, including the 2004 slaying of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov.

While many differences between Russia and the U.S. have been set aside, they have not disappeared.

Both sides remain divided on a host of issues. The White House has slowed but not abandoned the missile defense system, suggesting it could still be built if it proves affordable and effective. Neither has Russia signaled a willingness to bring pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear program, as the U.S. has long sought.

While Washington is no longer pushing NATO expansion into Ukraine and Georgia, it hasn't repudiated the policy. Neither has Medvedev abandon his claim that the former Soviet states are part of Russia's "zone of privileged interest," where Moscow intends to maintain its dominant influence.

A breakthrough on any of these issues would be a major achievement.

Despite the warming of relations, though, Moscow and Washington won't exactly be headed into a summer of love.

Obama will face suspicion in the labyrinthine halls of the Kremlin, where some top government officials regard the U.S. as a determined foe and NATO as a threat to Russia's existence.

"Russia has a deep distrust of the U.S. and of the West in general," said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank.

Every U.S. president has tried to reach out to the Russian people, in hopes of influencing their leaders. And Obama is no exception.

After his official meetings Tuesday, Obama plans to talk with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, give a speech at the Higher School of Economics, and meet with business leaders, human rights activists as well as the political opposition.

"As we reset relations with the Russian government, we also want to reset relations with Russian society," said Michael McFaul, Obama chief adviser on Russia and the former Soviet Union. Obama, he said, hopes to "establish a direct relationship with the Russian people."

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Obama cites Michael Jackson as entertainment icon

President Barack Obama called Michael Jackson a brilliant performer whose talents were paired with a tragic personal life

"I'm glad to see that he is being remembered primarily for the great joy that he brought to a lot of people through his extraordinary gifts as an entertainer," Obama said in an AP interview on Thursday.

Obama said he didn't see any controversy in the fact that he did not issue a formal public statement upon Jackson's death, and said he was unaware of any dissatisfaction in the black community with his response.

"I know a lot of people in the black community and I haven't heard that," Obama said.

The president said he grew up on Jackson's music and "I still have all his stuff on my iPod."

"I think that Michael Jackson will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers," Obama said. "His brilliance as a performance also was paired with a tragic and in many ways, sad personal life."

Jackson died June 25 at age 50.

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Pakistani police say bomb kills 6 near capital

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle slammed into a bus carrying defense department employees on Thursday, killing at least six people, police said.

The attack, the latest in a string of deadly bombings in Pakistan, happened in Rawalpindi, a garrison city and home to the headquarters of Pakistan's military.

City police chief Nasir Durrani said at least six people died in the blast and around 20 more were injured.

"Apparently it was a suicide attack, and the attacker was on a motorcycle," Durrani said, adding that the blast targeted a government bus.

A senior intelligence official told The Associated Press that the bus was carrying employees of the Pakistani military's weapons-making department.

An AP reporter at the scene saw pieces of a charred motorbike lying on the ground, as well as a damaged bus, car and van. Shattered glass and twisted metal littered the road.

One witness, Mohammed Amin, said the motorcycle sped toward the bus before it detonated.

"I saw a motorcycle getting closer to the bus, and I thought it would be crushed under the bus, but suddenly it exploded," said Amin, who was standing nearby. "I saw flames and dust blowing up and people were crying for help."

Islamist militants have carried out scores of bombing across Pakistan in recent years often targeting government security forces.

Rawalpindi lies about 7 miles (12 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad.

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Medvedev raps Russia shipmaker over late India deal

SEVERODVINSK, Russia (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday lashed out at Russian shipbuilder Sevmash for delays on a landmark contract with India, traditionally a close trading partner.

Arms exports, which exceeded $8 billion last year, are a key source of revenue for Russia. India and China account for the bulk of Russia's defence industry sales.

In a $1.6 billion deal signed in 2004, Russia was to modernise the Admiral Gorshkov at Sevmash, in the northern port of Severodvinsk, and deliver the aircraft carrier by 2008.

After delays from the Russian side, the delivery was pushed back to 2012 and its price nearly doubled to $2.8 billion. The contract has become a painful issue in India-Russia relations.

"Now we all have to make excuses to one another," Medvedev told Sevmash general director Nikolai Kalistratov during their meeting in Severodvinsk on the White Sea.

"You have to make excuses to me, I have to make excuses to the Indian partners," a visibly irritated Medvedev added.

The modernisation of Admiral Gorshkov, was expected to lead on to other lucrative contracts, including tanks, aircraft and warships.

The ship, already renamed INS Vikramaditya, was first launched in 1982 and was decommissioned in 1996. Smaller than U.S. carriers and powered by steam engines rather than nuclear reactors, it originally carried helicopters and vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

Russian engineers have had to lengthen the runway and build up a proper springboard to allow conventional warplanes to reach take-off speed.

"We have failed to assess correctly the scale and the complexity of works," Sevmash's Kalistratov told Medvedev. "We in Russia are doing this for the first time."

He said the ship would be handed over to India in late 2012. "We can't make it earlier than that," he said.

"Let's consider this the first and most difficult experience," Medvedev said.

"You need to complete (the ship) and hand it over to partners. Otherwise we will only see bad consequences."

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Russian man kills girlfriend after learning she was born male

A Russian man has shot his girlfriend dead and tried to commit suicide after learning that his beloved was a male by birth, police said on Wednesday.

Vladimir of southern Russian city of Volgograd shot Kamilla dead near a railway station after he learned that his partner had undergone sexual reassignment surgery at an Australian clinic, they said.

"I can not forgive such betrayal. I must leave. For two years I've been devoted to her, my beloved Kamilla, and he betrayed me," Vladimir wrote in his note before slitting his veins in a suicide attempt.

The couple lived happily for two years before Vladimir, 33, proposed marriage to his 30-year-old girlfriend Kamilla but, when Kamilla rejected his proposal, it made the man jealous and he began to spy on her, RIA Novosti reported.

He cracked the password to access Kamilla's e-mail account and was surprised to find out that almost all her friends addressed the woman by Kirill, a male name. Vladimir started exchanging letters with Kamilla's friends using her e-mail account and got to know that Kirill had undergone a surgery for gender-change, the report said.

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Taliban, not India, Biggest threat to Pak: Zardari

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that terrorism, not India, is the greatest "threat" to his country, a significant shift in Islamabad's view of its neighbour that provoked controversy back home.

During a meeting with EU officials in Brussels on Wednesday Zardari said, "I do not consider India a military threat, India is a reality, Pakistan is a reality, but Taliban are a threat, an international threat to our way of life and at the moment, I'm focused on the Taliban."

"It's something that has been going on for a long time and of course went unchecked under the dictatorial rule of the last president," he had said.

The statement marks a significant shift in Islamabad's view of its traditional rival, the Daily Telegraph said.

The comments provoked an immediate controversy, with members of the National Assembly raising the issue and several leading Pakistani newspapers criticising him, the paper said.

According to the report, his comments represent a victory for British and American diplomats, who have been trying to persuade Zardari and his army chiefs to concentrate their efforts on confronting the Taliban rather than India.

Diplomatic work intensified after the Mumbai terror attack that heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, with senior Pakistani army officers saying they would switch their forces away from fighting Islamist militants to reinforce defences along their border with India, it said.

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Wheel Chair dnace must be see

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