Art-house studios edge out majors at Oscars

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: Art-house studios Miramax Films and Paramount Vantage shared the corporate honors at the Academy Awards last night with six wins each, thanks to their collaborations on high-profile winners ''No Country For Old Men'' and ''There Will Be Blood.''

''No Country For Old Men'' won four awards, including best picture and director for the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. ''There Will Be Blood'' won two awards, including best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

The two films led the field with eight Oscar nominations each.

In all, Miramax received 21 nominations, followed by Paramount Vantage with 19. Miramax is a unit of Walt Disney Co Paramount Vantage is part of Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures.

Paramount Vantage released ''There Will Be Blood,'' the story of a misanthropic oilman, domestically, while Miramax is handling international responsibilities. The roles are reversed for ''No Country For Old Men,'' a tale of a cool-headed killer who cuts a swath of destruction across small-town Texas.

Neither film exactly enjoyed mainstream success. ''No Country For Old Men'' has earned $64 million after 16 weeks in North America, while ''There Will Be Blood'' has drawn 35 million dollars after nine weeks.

Universal was the most successful of the major studios, with four awards. ''The Bourne Ultimatum'' swept in all three of its technical categories, and ''Elizabeth: The Golden Age'' won for costume design. The studio is a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal.

Two studios owned by Time Warner Inc won a pair each. Art-house unit Picturehouse picked up two for ''La Vie En Rose,'' including best actress for Marion Cotillard. Warner Bros. Made the winners board with single wins each for ''Michael Clayton'' and ''Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.''

Fox Searchlight releases ''Juno'' and ''Once'' each won a statuette. The studio is a unit of News Corp. (AGENCIES)

Torture expose wins Oscars best documentary

HOLLYWOOD, Feb 25: A harrowing film throwing the spotlight on US interrogation techniques at military facilities won the Oscars best documentary prize.

Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side" investigates the death in custody of a Afghan taxi-driver, Dilawar, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2002.

An investigation into the death later found Dilawar had been repeatedly kicked and punched and was chained to the ceiling of his cell for days.

Gibney, who also produced hit documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room", said in his acceptance speech that his wife had wanted him to make a romantic comedy.

"But honestly after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition that simply wasn't possible," the film-maker said before dedicating the film to Dilawar, and his own father.

"This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver and my father a Navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury at what was being done to the rule of law.

"Let's hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and go back to the light." (AGENCIES)

Castro foes mark anniversary of shootdown near Cuba

MIAMI, Feb 25: As Cuba picked a new leader for the first time in half a century, a Cuban exile group flew to a spot near the Caribbean island where Cuban fighters shot down two of its planes and killed four of its members 12 years ago.

Jose Basulto, 68, who founded Brothers to the Rescue, which flew planes over the Florida Straits looking for rafters and boat people fleeing Cuba, said Cuban air traffic control threatened them but did not intercept their planes.

Three Cuban Americans and a Cuban exile, all companions of Basulto, were killed when Cuban government MiGs shot down two Brothers to the Rescue planes near Cuba on Feb 24, 1996.

''Fidel Castro and Raul Castro gave the orders and (should be) indicted for murder in the United States,'' said Basulto, who worked inside Cuba sending intelligence on troop movements by radio to exile forces during the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

Basulto piloted one of the Brothers to the Rescue planes that survived the 1996 shootdown.

He was on one of four small planes, carrying about 10 members of Brothers to the Rescue, that marked yesterday's anniversary by flying from Opa Locka airport outside Miami to the shootdown site known as Martyrs' Point.

One of the planes dropped flowers over the site as a prayer was said for the men who died.

''It is and it always was international waters. It was on Feb 24, 1996, and it is today,'' said Basulto. ''That's where they were shot down.''

Castro, 81, relinquished power temporarily to his brother after stomach surgery in July 2006. He resigned Tuesday and Raul Castro was named the new Cuban president yesterday.

The resignation prompted US Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-born Florida Republican, last week to demand Castro's indictment for the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown.

She said he had relinquished any potential legal immunity.

Legal experts say it is unlikely the ailing revolutionary, who survived not just the Bay of Pigs but repeated assassination attempts, will face charges in a US court.

But Basulto said, ''We want an indictment now.''

He dismissed the political events in Havana on Sunday as a ''rubber-stamp process'' and said the regime installed by Castro 49 years ago has kept its stranglehold on power.

''There is actually no change in Cuba taking place,'' he said. ''There's very little focus on the fact that our planes were shot down. We need truth and justice for what happened that day.''

(AGENCIES)

Mobile phone radiation 'affects human skin

LONDON, Feb 25: Cell phone use is already linked to an increased risk of brain tumour. Now, a new study claims that radiation from mobiles affects human skin too.

A team of researchers in Finland has carried out the study and found that living tissue responds to mobile phone radiation which alters protein expression in people, the 'BMC Genomics' journal reported.

According to lead researcher Dariusz Leszczynski of Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, "Mobile phone radiation has some biological effect. Even if the changes are small, they still exist."

In the study, a small area of forearm's skin in ten volunteers was exposed to GSM signal for one hour. After that, skin biopsies were collected from exposed and non-exposed areas of skin and all extractable proteins were examined.

After the analysis of nearly 580 proteins, the researchers identified eight proteins which were statistically significantly affected.

According to Leszczynski, it is much too early to say will these changes induced by the mobile phone radiation have any effect on health.

"The aim of this project was not detecting any possible health effects, but to find out whether living human skin responds to mobile phone radiation and whether proteomics approach is useful in sorting out this issue," he said.

A more extensive study with 50-100 volunteers is now planned at STUK. The research is expected to begin in 2009.

Earlier studies have shown that mobile phone radiation changes protein expression and activity in human endothelial cell line. (PTI)

High cost of living drives expats away from Gulf

DUBAI, Feb 25: High cost of living and no savings are driving expatriate workers away from the Gulf as the oil rich nation find it difficult to get hands from Asia for a variety of jobs ranging from construction to teaching to nursing.

An online survey, conducted by job site Bayt.Com and market research specialist YouGovSiraj, showed that 37 per cent of the respondents are considering leaving the UAE to work elsewhere and improve their finances.

The survey polled 15,000 employees in six GCC countries, covering 20 industry sectors, which included automotive, finance, advertising, information technology and pharmaceuticals.

It was found that the spiralling cost of living in the region has far outstripped the wage increases granted by companies across the GCC in various sectors, driving workers to explore better opportunities elsewhere.

The disparity was most pronounced in Qatar, with a perceived average cost of living spike of 38 per cent, 22 per cent higher than salary increases. In Dubai, living expenses were alleged to have risen by 37 per cent, representing a gap of 20 per cent, the study said.

Lenny, a worker in Al Quoz, said she is planning to quit her job because her income is hardly enough to cope with the growing cost of housing, transportation and food in Dubai.

Considering the number of workers planning to relocate or quit their current jobs, the pinch will also be felt by businesses themselves, said chief executive officer Nassim Ghrayeb of YouGovSiraj.

''The story here is not just about employees, these results reveal just how much of a headache the spiralling cost of living and weak dollar is having on employers, who also need to consider their margins,'' said Mr Ghrayeb.

According to the study, about 40 per cent of the UAE workers said rising expenses might force them to resign and look for a better job in the same industry while 24 per cent thought of switching to another industry.

In Saudi Arabia, corresponding figures were 45 and 19 per cent. Only 15 per cent of people in Qatar and 20 per cent in Oman said they would consider changing industries, the Gulf News said.

Qatar had the most number of disgruntled workers, with 50 per cent saying they considered relocating to another country or returning home. Oman came second with 47 per cent, while Kuwait saw the lowest number of professionals planning to relocate abroad, at 32 per cent.

Bayt.Com chief executive officer Rabea Ataya said around 70 per cent of the respondents said they have held two or more jobs in the past five years.

She said people switch jobs about once over a two-year period, while those whose salaries have been increased tend to stay loyal to the company.

''Employers who do not close the gap between earnings and living expenses will have difficulty attracting and retaining people,'' Ms Ataya said.

On the positive side, the study found that employees in the UAE and Qatar were the highest paid last year. The two countries, as well as Bahrain, also enjoyed the highest annual pay increases in the region, with Qatar averaging 16 per cent a year and the UAE and Bahrain both coming in at 17 per cent, compared to 12 per cent in Saudi Arabia, the region's lowest.

(UNI)

Woman suspected of bird flu

BEIJING, Feb 25: A 44-year-old woman is suspected to have been infected with bird flu in south China's Guangdong province, the provincial health department said.

The migrant worker, surnamed Zhang, was found to have had contact with poultry that died of illness, official Xinhua news agency said.

She has developed symptoms of fever and cough, the department said.

Two persons have died of H5N1 strain of bird flu in China in the past couple of days.

A 45-year-old man died in Nanning city in Guangxi Autonomous Region last week, two days after a 22-year-old youth succumbed to the deadly disease in the central Hunan province.

China has recorded 19 human deaths due to bird flu since 2003.

With the world's biggest poultry population, China is in the forefront in the fight against the bird flu. (PTI)

Saturn 'may be surrounded by undiscovered, near-visible rings'

NEW YORK, Feb 25: Astronomers have spotted gaps in the soup of high-energy particles near the orbits of two of Saturn's tiny moons, which they claim indicate that the planet is surrounded by undiscovered, near-invisible partial rings.

Using images from Cassini, the astronomers have detected two peculiar breaks in the near-constant rain of high energy electrons that bombard the spacecraft when near Saturn, the NASA said.

The gaping holes fall along the orbits of two newly discovered moons, Methone and Anthe. Both moons are located between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus.

According to lead astronomer Elias Roussos of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, "These observations tell us even Saturn's smallest moons could be a source of dust in the Saturnian system."

However, the gaps Cassini saw at Methone and Anthe are so wide, about 1,000 to 3,000 kilometres across, that they cannot be explained solely by the presence of such tiny moons.

Instead, the measurements may indicate that the two moons are losing dust from their surface, building up one or more arcs of material along their orbits. Each ring arc is expected to be a few thousand kilometres wide and to comprise large dust grains or dust clumps.

"The released material may develop into ring arcs due to the gravitational 'tug of war' between Saturn's larger moons, such as Mimas. A similar process has been found to take place at the arc within Saturn's G-ring," Roussos was quoted by the 'ScienceDaily' as saying.

According to the astronomers, meteoroid impacts on Methone and Anthe are the most likely cause of the release of this material from their surfaces. The same process is thought to have formed Jupiter's faint rings at the orbits of the moons Amalthea, Thebe, Metis and Adrastea.

The same situation might be happening at Saturn. In fact, rings of similar origin have also recently been detected in Cassini images along the orbits of the Saturnian moons Janus, Epimetheus and Pallene.

"What's odd is that these inferred ring arcs still remain undetected in Cassini images, while the rings at Janus, Epimetheus and Pallene orbits, thought to form under the same process, are visible.

"This means the dust grains making up these two different classes of rings have different characteristics and sizes. However the reason behind this difference is a mystery," Roussos said. (PTI)

Sarkozy "get lost" video becomes Internet hit

PARIS, Feb 25: A video of French President Nicolas Sarkozy telling a bystander to ''get lost'' has become a hit on the Internet.

Sarkozy was filmed by a journalist from the daily Le Parisien on a walkabout at the annual farm fair in Paris on Saturday.

Sarkozy offered his hand to a man who said: ''Don't touch me, you are soiling me.'' In reply, Sarkozy said, without dropping his smile: ''Get lost, dumb ass.''

The video was posted on Le Parisien's website www.Leparisien.Fr.On and by midday on Sunday it had been seen by more than 350,000 people, a spokeswoman for the newspaper said.

''It has created quite a controversy,'' she said. The video is the first to come up when searching for Sarkozy on Dailymotion and YouTube.

Sarkozy's popularity ratings are in freefall and his hands-on style of government is attracting growing criticism.

In November, Sarkozy had a heated exchange with fishermen during protests against rising fuel costs. The president challenged a fisherman who had insulted him.

''Come down and say that,'' Sarkozy, elected in May, was quoted as saying. ''Don't think that by insulting me you will solve fishermen's problems.''

After the incident, Sarkozy said he refused to have insults hurled at him and would only accept a dialogue between ''civilised people.''

Francois Hollande, head of the Socialist party, said Sarkozy was not behaving like a head of state and called on him to improve his behaviour.

''One should not get into a brawl...One does not call down a fisherman or a worker to explain what he said, one does not get into a fight with someone who does not want to shake your hand,'' Hollande said on pay-TV channel Canal plus.

Sarkozy's spokesman, David Martinon, declined to comment on the fair incident.

The number of people satisfied with the president fell 9 percentage points in a month to 38 percent, according to an Ifop poll in the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche. (AGENCIES)

Saudi Arabia brings down job quota for its nationals

DUBAI, Feb 25: Inability to find local workers has forced Saudi Arabia to reduce the job quota for its nationals in certain sectors.

Jobs reserved for Saudis have been reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent in industries like foodstuffs, beverages, textiles, readymade garments, shoes, furniture and paper.

The decision taken last week by the Saudi Minister of Labour Ghazi Al-Gosaibi also requires that the quota of Saudis working in these factories does not fall below 15 per cent in the first two years of operation, or three years from the date of licensing.

Deputy Minister of Labour Abdulwahed Al-Humaid said the decision to reduce the number of Saudis expected to work at these factories was necessary to fulfill labour market demands, Arab news reported today.

A factory manager said he has never been able to employ more than 24 per cent Saudis.

"Saudization is a national demand, I agree, but dealing with unqualified Saudi labour in a downstream industrial project can be costly," he said, adding locals refuse to work in inconvenient shifts.

The government had set "Saudization" targets making it mandatory for industries to recruit a certain minimum number of Saudi nationals to check unemployment in the kingdom where a large number of workers come from abroad. (PTI)

High-tech clothes to monitor health

LONDON, Feb 25: The day doesn't seem very far when high-tech clothes to monitor our health will occupy a place of pride in our wardrobe.

These clever textiles embedded with tiny sensors collect information about the wearer's movements and vital signs like respiration, heart rate, surface and core temperature, which are monitored remotely using embedded GPRS transmitters.

These smart clothes already exist and are all set to capture a market niche especially in the elite sport and health care, European researchers said.

People with heart conditions or undergoing rehabilitation that require constant monitoring, athletes, newborns and people with sleep apnoea stand to benefit from such clothes.

These sensitive garments provide location-based services (LBS) which could also help keep soldiers and emergency crews safe in extreme conditions, researchers working on Wealthy and MyHeart projects said.

''Such clothes have a vast number of applications and the garment would need to be customised for each task,'' said Rita Paradiso of Smartex, a textile firm which hopes to launch these attire soon.

This new line of clothing do more than look stylish and keep the cold out. It looks great and can keep you healthy and active at the same time, a recent article in the Wired Magazine said. (UNI)

Not just an Indian summer

PARIS, Feb 25: New Delhi-based fashion designer Manish Arora summed it up succinctly: "It’s great to be an Indian right now. And I can tell you, Indians have a lot of money."

With the credit crunch and threatened recession in the United States and Europe, luxury fashion houses courting new customers in the boom nations of China and India may find that Asian designers are not willing to be outmanoeuvred.

Arora, when he became the first Indian to show in ready-to-wear week in Paris last season, made it clear this was no Indian summer: he intended to make it all year round in the world’s fashion capital.

This weekend, as the shows for next autumn-winter got under way, he was joined by fellow countryman Rajesh Pratap Singh from Rajasthan, who developed his label in Italy but has now decided to show here.

"I have a lot of friends in Paris, my clothes are already sold here. It was only natural," he said.

Both events created a buzz, indicating the likelihood that they will carve out more prominent spots in the calendar in future.

Arora was inspired by warrior women, drawing on costume through the ages and cultures from gladiators, medieval knights in shining armour and Samurai to futuristic gear straight out of "Star Wars".

His models wore fearsome face masks, all glinting sharp points, with gauntlets to the elbow and thigh-high boots.

Their lurex-spangled chainmail tunics and togas had 1980s power-dressing padded shoulders and double cap-sleeves, but exquisitely embroidered with witty designs by Japanese avant-garde artist Kelichi Tanami or even Walt Disney cartoons in Arora’s signature garish fluorescent palette.(AGENCIES)

Coens ‘no country for old men’ wins four Oscars

LOS ANGELES, Feb 25: The Coen brothers completed their journey from the fringes to Hollywood’s mainstream, their crime saga "No Country for Old Men" winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavour.

Europeans swept the acting categories last night. British actor Daniel Day-Lewis and France’s Marion Cotillard were best lead actor and actress. The supporting actor and actress prizes went to Spain’s Javier Bardem and British actress Tilda Swinton.

Bardem won for supporting actor in "No Country," which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best-picture honour as producers.

Accepting the directing honour alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they were making films since childhood, including one at the Minneapolis airport called "Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go."

"What we do now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then," Joel Coen said. "We’re very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox."

Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Academy Award for the oil-boom epic "There Will Be Blood," while "La Vie En Rose" star Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over British screen legend Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for "Away From Her."

Swinton won for her portrayal as a malevolent attorney in "Michael Clayton."

As a raging, conniving, acquisitive petroleum pioneer caught up in California’s oil boom of the early 20^{th century, Day-Lewis won for a part that could scarcely have been more different than his understated role as a waiter with severe cerebral palsy in 1989’s "My Left Foot"}

^{"My deepest thanks to the academy for hacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town," Day-Lewis said.}

^{Day-Lewis walked up the steps to accept his trophy from Helen Mirren, then went down on one knee before her, head bowed. Mirren, last year’s best actress winner for "The Queen," picked up his cue, touching Lewis’s Oscar to his shoulders as she could royal sword.}

^{"That’s the closest I’ll ever come to getting a knighthood," the Englishman said.}

^{The Coens missed out on a chance to make Oscar history-four wins for a single film-when they lost the editing prize, for which they were nominated under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes.}

^{"The Bourne Ultimatum" won the editing Oscar and swept all three categories in which it was nominated, including sound editing and sound mixing.}

^{Past winners for their screenplay to 1996’s "Fargo," Joel and Ethan Coen joined an elite list of filmmakers to win three Oscars in a single night, including Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather Part II"), James Cameron ("Titanic") and Billy Wilder ("The Apartment").}

^{Cotillard, the first winner ever for a French-language performance, tearfully thanked her director, Olivier Dahan.}

^{"Maestro Olivier, you rocked my life. You have truly rocked my life," said Cotillard. (AGENCIES)}