NEW YORK (Billboard) – In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, September 14, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was signing autographs after his band performed at upstate New York’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival when a burly young fan approached him with a length of industrial strap. Coyne recognized it as one of his own, used for tying down equipment like the large cannons that shoot confetti into the crowd throughout the band’s stage show. The fan told Coyne the strap had been shot out of the cannon and hit him in the chest, but he calmly handed it…
Business
Flaming Lips dial down the whimsy on “Embryonic”
Business
Spoof shows turn tables on celebrity obsession
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Watch out Britney, Octomom and Paris! Shows spoofing your fame are piling up faster than celebrity magazines in a hair salon, and they include a stage musical and animated TV programs.”Popzilla,” the latest show to declare open season on Hollywood celebrities and their reality TV kissing cousins, will premiere on cable television’s MTV on Monday.The acerbic newcomers are putting a new twist on the public appetite for celebrity news. Nearly 55 million Americans visited an entertainment news site in May, digital tracking firm comScore said.”Popzilla” was conceived to match the fast-paced, often raunchy celebrity TV news…
Business
Iran defiant in nuclear row ahead of Geneva talks
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran voiced defiance on Saturday in the face of Western condemnation over a new nuclear fuel plant, with a senior official saying the facility would soon be operational and make the “enemies blind.”U.S. President Barack Obama demanded on Friday that Iran come clean about its nuclear program or risk “sanctions that bite” after the disclosure of the new uranium enrichment plant under construction southwest of Tehran.On Saturday, Obama said the discovery of the facility showed a “disturbing pattern” of evasion by Tehran which added urgency to its planned talks with world powers in Geneva on Thursday.The West…
Business
Tripura cheers Somdev’s Davis Cup victory
On September 21, 2009, Biscuits broke, people danced in the streets and boxes of candy was passed around – it was time to party in Agartala on Monday as residents cheered the tennis sensation and local hero Somdev Devvarman victory in South Africa, which took India to the world group Davis Cup for the first time in 11 years.Sports fans across age, welcomed Somdev sensational victory over South African Rik De Voest in singles play-off in Johannesburg on Sunday. Somdev Devvarman Pravanjan father, a former Commissioner of Income Tax, said: “We are very proud of him. He took a very…
Business
Ramzan ends, Eid celebrations begin
Eid arrives: Vendors sell sewai on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr festival at Jama Masjid, in New Delhi on Sunday.After the sighting of the ‘Shawwal’ crescent on Sunday, September 20, it was decided that Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated actoss the country on Monday, September 21.
Business
Hafiz Saeed should be interrogated for 26/11 attacks: Chidambaram
CHENNAI: Home minister P Chidambaram on Monday demanded that Pakistan interrogate JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed for the Mumbai terror attacks asall the evidence against him was on its soil.Reacting to reports that Saeed has been placed under house arrest, Chidambaram said he has no objection even if it was a “face-saving technique” by Pakistan. “My demand is that now that he has been arrested he should be interrogated on the 26/11 incidents. His role in the 26/11 attacks must be investigated,” he told reporters here on the sidelines of a function here. “Evidence is in Pakistani soil. When Pakistan…
Business
Major earthquake shakes parts of Assam
There has been an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale iin Assam. A low intensity quake was felt in Delhi too.The tremor in Assam on Monday was the fifth in the last one month and was of a longer duration than the others. The epicentre of the quake was in Bhutan.The regional meteorological office at Kolkata said the tremor was felt at latitude 27.3 degrees north and longitude 91.5 degrees east in the region centering Bhutan. A report from Coochbehar in North Bengal said people rushed out of their houses as doors and windows rattled for about 20 seconds.There…
Business
Minefinders reports 360,722oz gold, 4.82Moz silver at La Bolsa – Mexico
Vancouver-based Minefinders (TSX, Amex: MFL) reported that the first NI 43-101 compliant resource for its La Bolsa property in Mexico shows 360,722oz gold and 4.82Moz silver in the measured and indicated categories. The ounces are contained in 15.9Mt of ore grading 0.71g/t gold and 9.4g/t silver based on a 0.25g/t gold cut-off, Minefinders said in a statement. At the same cutoff, indicated resources amount to 2.84Mt grading 0.52g/t gold and 5.3g/t silver, or 47,436oz gold and 480,029oz silver. The calculations are based on the results from 165 drill holes. Further drilling is underway on the project, and a prefeasibility study…
Business
Rail stations to get facelift soon
Railway stations across the country are set to get a facelift with the railway ministry set to begin work on multi-functional stations and also carry forward the earlier plans of world class stations. These are some of the recommendations in the first report of the expert committee on railways led by Amit Mitra, which was submitted to railway minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday. The minister assured that these will be acted upon and said, “Rail Board will take care of their implementation.” The expert panel has identified 64 stations which will be turned into multi functional complexes with facilities like…
Business
IBM, ISB ties up for service science research centre
IBM and the Indian School of Business (ISB) on Monday said they have established a research “collaboratory” at the ISB campus for furthering research in service science. IBM and ISB have been working closely on service science research for last few years. This collaboratory marks the beginning of a new phase of an expanded relationship between the two organisations. An IBM collaboratory is a laboratory where IBM researchers co-locate with a university, the government, or commercial partner to share skills, assets, and resources to achieve a common research goal. The new collaboratory will initially have a team of 10 full-time…
Business
REC negotiating $200 mln Aflac loan-exec
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian state-run lender Rural Electrification Corp (REC) is negotiating with U.S. insurer Aflac Inc for a $200 million loan, a senior company official said on Monday. The loan is part of a $500 million overseas borrowing plan of the company, H.D. Khunteta, REC’s Finance Director told Reuters over telephone. “We are likely to get an offer from Aflac. They are more or less agreeable,” he said. Khunteta said company officials plan to visit the United States to discuss the loan with Aflac, the world’s largest seller of supplemental disability insurance, and would also meet other U.S.…
Business
Magna sees Opel paying back state loans by 2015
FRANKFURT/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Magna will cut about 10,500 Opel jobs in Europe, the bulk in Germany, as it acts to return the carmaker to profit and pay back 4.5 billion euros ($6.55 billion) in state aid, its co-chief executive said. The Canadian auto parts supplier aims to sign a deal with former Opel parent General Motors within two weeks to buy a 55 percent stake together with Russian partner Sberbank, Siegfried Wolf said on Monday. “By 2015 we want to pay back the government-guaranteed loans. Opel will be profitable before that, however,” Wolf told a news conference. Around 4,000…
