India cheers rising tiger numbers amid habitat concerns

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By Matthias Williams

NEW DELHI | Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:41am EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - The number of Indian tigers living in the wild rose to 1,706 at the latest count, giving a boost to conservation efforts for the endangered species in the country with the world's largest population of the big cats.

But the government on Monday raised concern over a sharp decline in the habitat where tigers were found, which could shrink further if the government goes ahead with new development projects.

"We have a mixed bag," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at the release of the tiger census in New Delhi. "We have reason to feel satisfied with what we have done. But the threats are imminent."

The New Delhi government has for decades been fighting a losing battle to conserve tiger numbers against poaching, which feeds a lucrative cross-border trade in body parts, and the loss of natural habitat. Tiger numbers have plummeted 97 percent from 100,000 at the turn of the last century.

But the latest government data showed an increase to 1,636 cats tracked in 2010 from 1,411 three years ago, according to a census released on Monday. The census also added numbers from the Sunderbans region in West Bengal state for the first time, taking the total to 1,706.

"There's a lot of encouraging news in this survey," Jim Leape, Director General of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), told Reuters.

"In the areas where India has worked to have effective protection in tiger reserves and effective engagement in the surrounding landscapes you see tiger numbers improving."

HOT-BUTTON ISSUE

However, the total area where tigers were found has fallen to 72,800 sq km (28,100 sq miles) from 93,600 sq km (36,100 sq miles) over three years.

The rise in tiger numbers was good news for conservation efforts, though the surge could be partly down to better data, which was helped by hidden cameras in forests, said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"The bad news is the very alarming decline in tiger occupancy," she added.

Tiger conservation is a hot-button issue in India, which pits the need to preserve wildlife against the development needs of a country with blistering economic growth rates but hundreds of millions living below the poverty line.

Power shortages in particular are seen as a major constraint to faster economic growth, putting pressure on the environment ministry from vested interests to permit the development of coal mines and hydroelectric dams.

"We can deal with the poachers," said Ramesh, who has held up hundreds of projects over environmental concerns in defiance of concerns from other ministries.

"We can deal with the mafias, the real estate mafias and the mining mafias, but what is difficult to deal with is the development dynamic, because there is the need for higher and faster economic growth," he said.

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By Matthias Williams

NEW DELHI | Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:41am EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - The number of Indian tigers living in the wild rose to 1,706 at the latest count, giving a boost to conservation efforts for the endangered species in the country with the world's largest population of the big cats.

But the government on Monday raised concern over a sharp decline in the habitat where tigers were found, which could shrink further if the government goes ahead with new development projects.

"We have a mixed bag," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at the release of the tiger census in New Delhi. "We have reason to feel satisfied with what we have done. But the threats are imminent."

The New Delhi government has for decades been fighting a losing battle to conserve tiger numbers against poaching, which feeds a lucrative cross-border trade in body parts, and the loss of natural habitat. Tiger numbers have plummeted 97 percent from 100,000 at the turn of the last century.

But the latest government data showed an increase to 1,636 cats tracked in 2010 from 1,411 three years ago, according to a census released on Monday. The census also added numbers from the Sunderbans region in West Bengal state for the first time, taking the total to 1,706.

"There's a lot of encouraging news in this survey," Jim Leape, Director General of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), told Reuters.

"In the areas where India has worked to have effective protection in tiger reserves and effective engagement in the surrounding landscapes you see tiger numbers improving."

HOT-BUTTON ISSUE

However, the total area where tigers were found has fallen to 72,800 sq km (28,100 sq miles) from 93,600 sq km (36,100 sq miles) over three years.

The rise in tiger numbers was good news for conservation efforts, though the surge could be partly down to better data, which was helped by hidden cameras in forests, said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"The bad news is the very alarming decline in tiger occupancy," she added.

Tiger conservation is a hot-button issue in India, which pits the need to preserve wildlife against the development needs of a country with blistering economic growth rates but hundreds of millions living below the poverty line.

Power shortages in particular are seen as a major constraint to faster economic growth, putting pressure on the environment ministry from vested interests to permit the development of coal mines and hydroelectric dams.

"We can deal with the poachers," said Ramesh, who has held up hundreds of projects over environmental concerns in defiance of concerns from other ministries.

"We can deal with the mafias, the real estate mafias and the mining mafias, but what is difficult to deal with is the development dynamic, because there is the need for higher and faster economic growth," he said.

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No tears for Liz where Burton's body waits in vain

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The grave of the late actor Richard Burton is pictured in the old cemetery in Celigny, 20 km (12 miles) east of Geneva March 24, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

By Andrew Callus

CELIGNY, Switzerland | Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:25am EDT

CELIGNY, Switzerland (Reuters) - She survived him by a quarter of a century and sought the limelight he shunned, yet in their adopted Swiss village home, it is Elizabeth Taylor's leading man and husband Richard Burton who is best remembered.

According to celebrity folklore, the pair were to have been reunited in death, and Burton, the British actor she married and divorced twice, lies buried here in Celigny, Switzerland.

Yet when Taylor died last week of congestive heart failure she was laid to rest in Los Angeles, leaving Burton alone in his quiet rural grave a few hundred meters (yards) from Lake Geneva.

The villagers of pretty but unremarkable Celigny are not surprised.

"She didn't come here much," says Jaqueline Esseiva, 78, a lifelong resident of this village where the hard-drinking Burton died of a stroke in 1984.

"It wasn't elegant enough for her. Too simple. Him though, he was friendly. No airs and graces."

Esseiva's English-born postmistress mother used to chat with Burton, who spoke no French, but frequented the village's two main bars in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.

He was a popular figure with children, who were allowed to play with the electric windows on his black Cadillac. Locals say he once hit a wall near the square in the car after one of his famous drinking bouts. Taxi drivers remember him stumbling into their vehicles, while Swiss newspapers have reported restaurant owners recalling quarrels with Taylor over dinner.

It was while they worked as co-stars on the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra that Taylor and Burton began one of the most famous love affairs of the 20th Century. They married and divorced twice.

But back to the burial folklore.

According to his Wikipedia entry, Burton's last wife Sally Hay bought the empty plot next to his and made his grave big.

The entry says it was an apparent attempt to squeeze Taylor out of the burial tryst -- a pact that could have sealed their love affair and shut out her six other husbands and his three other wives.

The Welsh-born actor's resting place, in a gentle wooded valley backing onto a stream, is indeed wider than its neighbors, but there also seems to be room for another one beside it. That is all academic now.

Coming out the cemetery gate on a sunny spring day a few days after Taylor's death is Harley Decorvet, aged 88, who used to look after Burton's Celigny house and still tends his grave.

In his hand is a local newspaper, folded inside a clear plastic packet to show a photo of Taylor from her screen-siren days.

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The grave of the late actor Richard Burton is pictured in the old cemetery in Celigny, 20 km (12 miles) east of Geneva March 24, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

By Andrew Callus

CELIGNY, Switzerland | Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:25am EDT

CELIGNY, Switzerland (Reuters) - She survived him by a quarter of a century and sought the limelight he shunned, yet in their adopted Swiss village home, it is Elizabeth Taylor's leading man and husband Richard Burton who is best remembered.

According to celebrity folklore, the pair were to have been reunited in death, and Burton, the British actor she married and divorced twice, lies buried here in Celigny, Switzerland.

Yet when Taylor died last week of congestive heart failure she was laid to rest in Los Angeles, leaving Burton alone in his quiet rural grave a few hundred meters (yards) from Lake Geneva.

The villagers of pretty but unremarkable Celigny are not surprised.

"She didn't come here much," says Jaqueline Esseiva, 78, a lifelong resident of this village where the hard-drinking Burton died of a stroke in 1984.

"It wasn't elegant enough for her. Too simple. Him though, he was friendly. No airs and graces."

Esseiva's English-born postmistress mother used to chat with Burton, who spoke no French, but frequented the village's two main bars in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.

He was a popular figure with children, who were allowed to play with the electric windows on his black Cadillac. Locals say he once hit a wall near the square in the car after one of his famous drinking bouts. Taxi drivers remember him stumbling into their vehicles, while Swiss newspapers have reported restaurant owners recalling quarrels with Taylor over dinner.

It was while they worked as co-stars on the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra that Taylor and Burton began one of the most famous love affairs of the 20th Century. They married and divorced twice.

But back to the burial folklore.

According to his Wikipedia entry, Burton's last wife Sally Hay bought the empty plot next to his and made his grave big.

The entry says it was an apparent attempt to squeeze Taylor out of the burial tryst -- a pact that could have sealed their love affair and shut out her six other husbands and his three other wives.

The Welsh-born actor's resting place, in a gentle wooded valley backing onto a stream, is indeed wider than its neighbors, but there also seems to be room for another one beside it. That is all academic now.

Coming out the cemetery gate on a sunny spring day a few days after Taylor's death is Harley Decorvet, aged 88, who used to look after Burton's Celigny house and still tends his grave.

In his hand is a local newspaper, folded inside a clear plastic packet to show a photo of Taylor from her screen-siren days.

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UK police aim to prevent royal wedding riots

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Britain's Prince William and his fiancee, Kate Middleton, speak to a wedding florist, during a visit to the Greenmount Agriculture & Food College, in Antrim, Northern Ireland March 8, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Paul Faith/Pool

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON | Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:19am EDT

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - British police said on Monday they were considering tough measures to prevent disorder at next month's royal wedding amid fears anarchists will target the event following rioting at a weekend protest in London.

Black-clad, masked youths smashed the fronts of shops, banks and the exclusive Ritz hotel and battled riot police during a rampage across the capital, leaving 84 people injured including 31 officers while there were more than 200 arrests.

The anarchist groups had split from a huge protest of more than 250,000 people organized by trade unions against the British government's austerity measures, and there is concern that they will now target Prince William's wedding on April 29.

William is to marry long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton at London's Westminster Abbey, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to take to the streets to watch the procession through the capital in the glare of the world's media.

There has been some talk of disrupting the wedding on anarchist websites, generating concern that there could be a repeat of the trouble seen at Saturday's protest especially as the marriage will take place on the May Day bank holiday weekend when there has been disorder in the past.

"TIE THE KNOT"

One website has a picture of William and Kate with nooses around their necks under the headline, "Time To Tie The Knot."

"I'm sure the activist community will want to make sure the happy couple remember their special day," it adds.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who is responsible for the policing operation on the day of the wedding and for next year's London Olympics, said police were considering expanding the use of stop and search powers at future events to prevent violence.

"We are looking specifically at the royal wedding and what we can to do prevent Saturday's disorder and violence creeping in to that event," Broadhurst told BBC radio.

Asked if that could involve searching tourists and well-wishers on their way to central London for the wedding he replied: "We always look at our powers to try to quell violence before it happens."

A massive security operation has already been planned as Britain is currently at its second highest threat level of "severe," meaning an attack from militants is considered highly likely, and the wedding is considered an obvious target.

"For the wedding, we will be looking from terrorism downwards," Broadhurst said.

"You are looking at a different type of threat -- the threat to the wedding is a threat to principals, it is a threat to democracy."

Police Minister Nick Herbert said they wanted to ensure that the wedding passed off peacefully and would back the police over measures they took to avoid trouble.

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Britain's Prince William and his fiancee, Kate Middleton, speak to a wedding florist, during a visit to the Greenmount Agriculture & Food College, in Antrim, Northern Ireland March 8, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Paul Faith/Pool

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON | Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:19am EDT

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - British police said on Monday they were considering tough measures to prevent disorder at next month's royal wedding amid fears anarchists will target the event following rioting at a weekend protest in London.

Black-clad, masked youths smashed the fronts of shops, banks and the exclusive Ritz hotel and battled riot police during a rampage across the capital, leaving 84 people injured including 31 officers while there were more than 200 arrests.

The anarchist groups had split from a huge protest of more than 250,000 people organized by trade unions against the British government's austerity measures, and there is concern that they will now target Prince William's wedding on April 29.

William is to marry long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton at London's Westminster Abbey, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to take to the streets to watch the procession through the capital in the glare of the world's media.

There has been some talk of disrupting the wedding on anarchist websites, generating concern that there could be a repeat of the trouble seen at Saturday's protest especially as the marriage will take place on the May Day bank holiday weekend when there has been disorder in the past.

"TIE THE KNOT"

One website has a picture of William and Kate with nooses around their necks under the headline, "Time To Tie The Knot."

"I'm sure the activist community will want to make sure the happy couple remember their special day," it adds.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who is responsible for the policing operation on the day of the wedding and for next year's London Olympics, said police were considering expanding the use of stop and search powers at future events to prevent violence.

"We are looking specifically at the royal wedding and what we can to do prevent Saturday's disorder and violence creeping in to that event," Broadhurst told BBC radio.

Asked if that could involve searching tourists and well-wishers on their way to central London for the wedding he replied: "We always look at our powers to try to quell violence before it happens."

A massive security operation has already been planned as Britain is currently at its second highest threat level of "severe," meaning an attack from militants is considered highly likely, and the wedding is considered an obvious target.

"For the wedding, we will be looking from terrorism downwards," Broadhurst said.

"You are looking at a different type of threat -- the threat to the wedding is a threat to principals, it is a threat to democracy."

Police Minister Nick Herbert said they wanted to ensure that the wedding passed off peacefully and would back the police over measures they took to avoid trouble.

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AntiGravity Yoga a fun approach to fitness

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AntiGravity Yoga Wings class at Crunch fitness center, New York City, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Crunch/Handout

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK | Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:59am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - An AntiGravity Yoga class looks more like circus play than an ancient practice, as people dangle head-first like bats or flip weightlessly through the air.

But if the anti-gravity component stands yoga on its head, as an exhilarating group fitness experience, it has legs.

"AntiGravity Yoga involves a mix of yoga, Pilates, calisthenics, aerial arts, dance," said Illaria Cutolo, AntiGravity Yoga coordinator for Crunch, the national chain of fitness centers. "People come for the flying effect, and the playground aspect."

The concept grew out of AntiGravity, an acrobatic performance troupe founded in 1990 by Christopher Harrison, an aficionado of yoga, who designed the fitness regimen around hammocks.

Suspended about three feet (one meter) off the floor and attached at two overhead points, the fabric hammocks act like a swing or soft trapeze.

"Christopher wanted the spirit of yoga to shine through," Cutolo said. "We remind students to come to place of presence in their breath, bodies and mind. A lot of the moves we do come from yoga."

Gentle warm-ups, sun salutations, breath awareness techniques and strength training comprise the pre-flight protocol of most classes.

Unlike traditional yoga the inversions, going upside in an AntiGravity class is weightless.

"There's zero compression of cervical spine, so it's very therapeutic," Cutolo said.

Floating through the air, said Cutolo, has informed her own yoga practice.

"I've gained a lot more balance in my handstand and in general. It's also a way for me to crosstrain by using muscles I don't normally use."

Jessica Matthews, spokesperson for the American Council of Exercise, sees AntiGravity Yoga differently.

"It is based first and foremost on love of acrobatics, fused with exercises and poses you see in yoga and Pilates," said Matthews. "As a yoga instructor myself, it's difficult for me to say it's a yoga class."

Matthews said the class can build core strength and improve flexibility, and is enthusiastic about the rewards of being upside down.

"Headstands, handstands, any inversion changes the way the blood flows through the body," she said, adding that AntiGravity might be just what the yogi ordered for the reluctant, the fearful and the averse.

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AntiGravity Yoga Wings class at Crunch fitness center, New York City, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Crunch/Handout

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK | Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:59am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - An AntiGravity Yoga class looks more like circus play than an ancient practice, as people dangle head-first like bats or flip weightlessly through the air.

But if the anti-gravity component stands yoga on its head, as an exhilarating group fitness experience, it has legs.

"AntiGravity Yoga involves a mix of yoga, Pilates, calisthenics, aerial arts, dance," said Illaria Cutolo, AntiGravity Yoga coordinator for Crunch, the national chain of fitness centers. "People come for the flying effect, and the playground aspect."

The concept grew out of AntiGravity, an acrobatic performance troupe founded in 1990 by Christopher Harrison, an aficionado of yoga, who designed the fitness regimen around hammocks.

Suspended about three feet (one meter) off the floor and attached at two overhead points, the fabric hammocks act like a swing or soft trapeze.

"Christopher wanted the spirit of yoga to shine through," Cutolo said. "We remind students to come to place of presence in their breath, bodies and mind. A lot of the moves we do come from yoga."

Gentle warm-ups, sun salutations, breath awareness techniques and strength training comprise the pre-flight protocol of most classes.

Unlike traditional yoga the inversions, going upside in an AntiGravity class is weightless.

"There's zero compression of cervical spine, so it's very therapeutic," Cutolo said.

Floating through the air, said Cutolo, has informed her own yoga practice.

"I've gained a lot more balance in my handstand and in general. It's also a way for me to crosstrain by using muscles I don't normally use."

Jessica Matthews, spokesperson for the American Council of Exercise, sees AntiGravity Yoga differently.

"It is based first and foremost on love of acrobatics, fused with exercises and poses you see in yoga and Pilates," said Matthews. "As a yoga instructor myself, it's difficult for me to say it's a yoga class."

Matthews said the class can build core strength and improve flexibility, and is enthusiastic about the rewards of being upside down.

"Headstands, handstands, any inversion changes the way the blood flows through the body," she said, adding that AntiGravity might be just what the yogi ordered for the reluctant, the fearful and the averse.

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Men more likely to overrule satnavs than women

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LONDON | Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:04am EDT

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Men are more likely to ignore directions given by their satellite navigation systems than women, a survey has found, confirming the old stereotype that men hate asking for directions.

While 83 percent of male drivers regularly rebel against their sat navs, less than three-quarters of women disobey the devices which UK drivers branded as "untrustworthy" and "inaccurate" in the study by insurance retailer Swinton.

"A sat nav should aid your own navigational abilities rather than replace them," said Steve Chelton, Insurance Development Manager at Swinton, which found drivers were often right to mistrust the global positioning systems.

Over one third of drivers said their navigation system had led them between one and five miles astray, while more than half said directions provided by global positioning systems had triggered an argument with a passenger.

Of 3,000 motorists surveyed, almost two-thirds said they kept a route map in their vehicles "just in case."

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)

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LONDON | Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:04am EDT

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Men are more likely to ignore directions given by their satellite navigation systems than women, a survey has found, confirming the old stereotype that men hate asking for directions.

While 83 percent of male drivers regularly rebel against their sat navs, less than three-quarters of women disobey the devices which UK drivers branded as "untrustworthy" and "inaccurate" in the study by insurance retailer Swinton.

"A sat nav should aid your own navigational abilities rather than replace them," said Steve Chelton, Insurance Development Manager at Swinton, which found drivers were often right to mistrust the global positioning systems.

Over one third of drivers said their navigation system had led them between one and five miles astray, while more than half said directions provided by global positioning systems had triggered an argument with a passenger.

Of 3,000 motorists surveyed, almost two-thirds said they kept a route map in their vehicles "just in case."

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)

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New app lets parents read to children from afar

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LONDON | Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:15am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Parents whose hectic schedules mean they can't be at home when their children go to bed can now buy an app which enables them to read their youngsters a goodnight story or sing them a lullaby from afar.

"Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime" allows iPad and iPhone 4 users to read their children tales and rhymes like Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice from their office desks or anywhere else they may be so their children don't miss out on their bedtime ritual.

"In a frantic modern world where business trips, expeditions and sometime separations draw parents further from their children, Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime brings them back together," said Chris Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of digital book publisher Atomic Antelope, which created the app together with digital design studio ustwo.

Parents and children synch their iPhones or iPads by signing into Game Center -- Apple's online gaming portal -- so they can interact on their screens in real time, with parents able to guide children through the book or watch as their children turn the pages.

"They can have a conversation on an audio level and a connection on a visual level," Steve Bittan, Marketing and Communications Manager at ustwo, told Reuters.

Now available on the App Store, the interactive book simulates gravity so that scenes from the nursery rhymes and stories react when children touch or shake their iPhone or iPad.

The app, which costs 2.39 pounds ($3.83), was the number one selling iPad book last week, Bittan said.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)

($1=.6243 Pound)

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LONDON | Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:15am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Parents whose hectic schedules mean they can't be at home when their children go to bed can now buy an app which enables them to read their youngsters a goodnight story or sing them a lullaby from afar.

"Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime" allows iPad and iPhone 4 users to read their children tales and rhymes like Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice from their office desks or anywhere else they may be so their children don't miss out on their bedtime ritual.

"In a frantic modern world where business trips, expeditions and sometime separations draw parents further from their children, Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime brings them back together," said Chris Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of digital book publisher Atomic Antelope, which created the app together with digital design studio ustwo.

Parents and children synch their iPhones or iPads by signing into Game Center -- Apple's online gaming portal -- so they can interact on their screens in real time, with parents able to guide children through the book or watch as their children turn the pages.

"They can have a conversation on an audio level and a connection on a visual level," Steve Bittan, Marketing and Communications Manager at ustwo, told Reuters.

Now available on the App Store, the interactive book simulates gravity so that scenes from the nursery rhymes and stories react when children touch or shake their iPhone or iPad.

The app, which costs 2.39 pounds ($3.83), was the number one selling iPad book last week, Bittan said.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)

($1=.6243 Pound)

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Epilepsy killed celebrity polar bear Knut: report

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A photograph showing polar bear Knut is set up next to a book of condolence at the Berlin zoo, March 21, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Tobias Schwarz

FRANKFURT | Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:16pm EDT

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Knut, the celebrity orphan polar bear who drew thousands of visitors to Berlin zoo, died after an epileptic fit, according to neurologists quoted by Focus magazine.

A CAT scan had revealed abormalities in the brain of the bear, who may have inherited epilepsy from his father Lars, also a sufferer.

Four year-old Knut, who won global fame as he grew from a cute cub but grew into a 200 kg predator, died in front of horrified visitors at the zoo last weekend.

Neurologists said the fit was triggered by a brain disorder yet to be identified. The magazine said Knut's brain is now being studied at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wild Animal Research (IZW).

Knut shot to fame when he was rejected by his mother and was hand-reared instead by his keeper Thomas Doerflein.

Visitors came to watch keeper and cub playing together. The German post office produced a stamp in Knut's honor and the bear appeared on the cover of numerous publications, including the German edition of Vanity Fair.

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A photograph showing polar bear Knut is set up next to a book of condolence at the Berlin zoo, March 21, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Tobias Schwarz

FRANKFURT | Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:16pm EDT

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Knut, the celebrity orphan polar bear who drew thousands of visitors to Berlin zoo, died after an epileptic fit, according to neurologists quoted by Focus magazine.

A CAT scan had revealed abormalities in the brain of the bear, who may have inherited epilepsy from his father Lars, also a sufferer.

Four year-old Knut, who won global fame as he grew from a cute cub but grew into a 200 kg predator, died in front of horrified visitors at the zoo last weekend.

Neurologists said the fit was triggered by a brain disorder yet to be identified. The magazine said Knut's brain is now being studied at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wild Animal Research (IZW).

Knut shot to fame when he was rejected by his mother and was hand-reared instead by his keeper Thomas Doerflein.

Visitors came to watch keeper and cub playing together. The German post office produced a stamp in Knut's honor and the bear appeared on the cover of numerous publications, including the German edition of Vanity Fair.

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Woody Allen jazzes it up for Rome Catholic hospital

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U.S. film director Woody Allen plays the clarinet during a concert with The New Orleans Jazz Band at the inauguration ceremony of the Niemeyer Center in Aviles, north of Spain, March 25, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Eloy Alonso

By Philip Pullella

ROME | Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:32am EDT

ROME (Reuters Life!) - What's a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn doing helping to raise money for a Catholic hospital owned by the Vatican in a city where until 1870 the papacy required Jews to live in a ghetto?

If that nice Jewish boy is Woody Allen, the conundrum is resolved by a four-letter word: Jazz.

"Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band" charmed a packed house in Rome's Conciliazione Auditorium three blocks from the Vatican and just across the Tiber River from Rome's synagogue.

The band, made up of Allen on clarinet and six other top-notch jazz musicians steeped in the New Orleans tradition, belted out more than a dozen tunes over nearly two hours at the benefit for the Bambino Gesu, Italy's top children's hospital.

"We love to play jazz music and we are always thrilled when anyone comes to hear us -- thrilled and surprised, actually," he told the audience in his trademark self-deprecating style.

That was it for one-liners, almost as if he wanted to step out of the shoes of Woody Allen the actor/director/comedian and into those of Woody Allen the musician.

"We are going to play songs from New Orleans from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s -- songs that were popular in the churches, parades, brothels and dance halls of New Orleans so sit back and we will do our best to entertain you," he said.

And entertain they did, with numbers such as Louis Armstrong's "Someday You'll Be Sorry," "Muskrat Ramble" by Kid Ory, "At The Jazz Band Ball," "That's A Plenty," and "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet."

There was also a sublime and moving rendition of the spiritual "Take My Hand Precious Lord" -- fittingly, perhaps, if one considers that the world's largest church -- St. Peter's Basilica -- was just down the street.

As a testimony to the band's wide appeal, the capacity audience on Saturday night ranged in age from teenagers in torn jeans who arrived on scooters to elderly couples in elegant black whose limousines were double-parked outside.

Less better dressed was the band itself. While Allen wore his trademark casual style of pants and an open shirt, the rest of the band had to forego their usual dress jackets because their luggage had been lost in transit from Spain.

The audience, which included composer Nicola Piovani -- who won the 1998 Oscar for best score for the film "Life is Beautiful" -- did not notice or care about how the band was dressed. They howled for more and were rewarded with a long encore of three more songs that almost seemed like a second act.

The band further endeared itself to the local public by playing swinging New Orleans-style renditions of "Ariverderci Roma" and "Bella Ciao," the World War Two anti-Fascist resistance ballad that is almost part of the national psyche.

Besides Allen, the concert offered exuberant, uplifting performances by Jerry Zigmont on trombone, Simon Wettenhall on trumpet, Conal Fowkes on piano, John Gill on drums, Greg Cohen on bass and musical director Eddy Davis on banjo.

"We play a new program every night so the experience is highly creative and spontaneous," Zigmont told Reuters. "We love to come back to Rome and play. Every time we perform here, the people are warm and generous and that makes us play our best."

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U.S. film director Woody Allen plays the clarinet during a concert with The New Orleans Jazz Band at the inauguration ceremony of the Niemeyer Center in Aviles, north of Spain, March 25, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Eloy Alonso

By Philip Pullella

ROME | Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:32am EDT

ROME (Reuters Life!) - What's a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn doing helping to raise money for a Catholic hospital owned by the Vatican in a city where until 1870 the papacy required Jews to live in a ghetto?

If that nice Jewish boy is Woody Allen, the conundrum is resolved by a four-letter word: Jazz.

"Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band" charmed a packed house in Rome's Conciliazione Auditorium three blocks from the Vatican and just across the Tiber River from Rome's synagogue.

The band, made up of Allen on clarinet and six other top-notch jazz musicians steeped in the New Orleans tradition, belted out more than a dozen tunes over nearly two hours at the benefit for the Bambino Gesu, Italy's top children's hospital.

"We love to play jazz music and we are always thrilled when anyone comes to hear us -- thrilled and surprised, actually," he told the audience in his trademark self-deprecating style.

That was it for one-liners, almost as if he wanted to step out of the shoes of Woody Allen the actor/director/comedian and into those of Woody Allen the musician.

"We are going to play songs from New Orleans from the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s -- songs that were popular in the churches, parades, brothels and dance halls of New Orleans so sit back and we will do our best to entertain you," he said.

And entertain they did, with numbers such as Louis Armstrong's "Someday You'll Be Sorry," "Muskrat Ramble" by Kid Ory, "At The Jazz Band Ball," "That's A Plenty," and "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet."

There was also a sublime and moving rendition of the spiritual "Take My Hand Precious Lord" -- fittingly, perhaps, if one considers that the world's largest church -- St. Peter's Basilica -- was just down the street.

As a testimony to the band's wide appeal, the capacity audience on Saturday night ranged in age from teenagers in torn jeans who arrived on scooters to elderly couples in elegant black whose limousines were double-parked outside.

Less better dressed was the band itself. While Allen wore his trademark casual style of pants and an open shirt, the rest of the band had to forego their usual dress jackets because their luggage had been lost in transit from Spain.

The audience, which included composer Nicola Piovani -- who won the 1998 Oscar for best score for the film "Life is Beautiful" -- did not notice or care about how the band was dressed. They howled for more and were rewarded with a long encore of three more songs that almost seemed like a second act.

The band further endeared itself to the local public by playing swinging New Orleans-style renditions of "Ariverderci Roma" and "Bella Ciao," the World War Two anti-Fascist resistance ballad that is almost part of the national psyche.

Besides Allen, the concert offered exuberant, uplifting performances by Jerry Zigmont on trombone, Simon Wettenhall on trumpet, Conal Fowkes on piano, John Gill on drums, Greg Cohen on bass and musical director Eddy Davis on banjo.

"We play a new program every night so the experience is highly creative and spontaneous," Zigmont told Reuters. "We love to come back to Rome and play. Every time we perform here, the people are warm and generous and that makes us play our best."

Baloane

Scenic Japan road is now Tsunami Highway

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By Jon Herskovitz

KIRIKIRI, Japan | Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:50am EDT

KIRIKIRI, Japan (Reuters) - The signs posted at intervals along the coastal road in northeast Japan read "End of Estimated Tsunami Inundation Zone." The obliterated landscape beyond shows the estimations were badly out.

Route 45 was once one of Japan's more scenic drives, hugging the coast for hundreds of kilometers, but the earthquake on March 11 unleashed a wall of water that tore through the region, leaving a path of destruction behind it.

Police, fire fighters and the inevitable disaster sightseers now travel the road from the northern city of Miyako, where an elaborate sea wall system proved helpless against waves as high as four-storey buildings, south to the area around a crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture.

The road scampers up mountains and into cities nestled in the hills that had their centers ripped out by the tsunami, leaving surreal scenes of destruction.

Ships are stacked on cars and buildings; cars have ended up in hotel lobbies; fishing gear is wrapped around a power pole that crashed through the window of a convenience store, which was also hit by a floating house.

Sightseers stop in the parking lot of the heavily damaged Namizaka Tourist Hotel along the coast, where someone's home came to rest a few metres from the entrance.

"These aren't the towns that were once here. It's terrible. It's so tough to see," said Misato Chiba in the car park overlooking the sea. "Route 45 is all ripped up now. The towns are a mess and it's just dangerous."

MASS GRAVES

The road passes through towns few even in Japan had heard of until the tsunami. It has mostly reopened now, except for stretches where the death and destruction were most concentrated, in cities such as Otsuchi, still covered by vast plains of mud-covered debris in which hundreds of people died.

Car navigation systems can easily falter here, with drivers directed on to bits of road that are obstructed by the wreckage or simply don't exist any more.

Troops with construction equipment have been preparing mass graves for victims to be laid to rest at the ravaged Jorakuji Temple, near where Route 45 is closed in Otsuchi. The hastily built cemetery at the Buddhist temple can be found just above the "Tsunami Evacuation Point" sign.

The dynamics of destruction are all about elevation here.

Almost everything 15 metres above sea level escaped and everything below was hit by a fast-moving wall of water that uprooted houses and slammed trucks together in a darkening soup, dumping them haphazardly when the giant wave receded.

In the town of Kirikiri, built up into hills, more homes survived. In the city of Rikuzentakata, where the land is flat along the coast, the tsunami erased vast areas where rescue workers are still finding bodies.

Tens of thousands of homeless people have been moved to schools along the road, where they squeeze into gymnasiums and classrooms, using portable toilets and yearning for a bit of privacy.

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Baloane

By Jon Herskovitz

KIRIKIRI, Japan | Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:50am EDT

KIRIKIRI, Japan (Reuters) - The signs posted at intervals along the coastal road in northeast Japan read "End of Estimated Tsunami Inundation Zone." The obliterated landscape beyond shows the estimations were badly out.

Route 45 was once one of Japan's more scenic drives, hugging the coast for hundreds of kilometers, but the earthquake on March 11 unleashed a wall of water that tore through the region, leaving a path of destruction behind it.

Police, fire fighters and the inevitable disaster sightseers now travel the road from the northern city of Miyako, where an elaborate sea wall system proved helpless against waves as high as four-storey buildings, south to the area around a crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture.

The road scampers up mountains and into cities nestled in the hills that had their centers ripped out by the tsunami, leaving surreal scenes of destruction.

Ships are stacked on cars and buildings; cars have ended up in hotel lobbies; fishing gear is wrapped around a power pole that crashed through the window of a convenience store, which was also hit by a floating house.

Sightseers stop in the parking lot of the heavily damaged Namizaka Tourist Hotel along the coast, where someone's home came to rest a few metres from the entrance.

"These aren't the towns that were once here. It's terrible. It's so tough to see," said Misato Chiba in the car park overlooking the sea. "Route 45 is all ripped up now. The towns are a mess and it's just dangerous."

MASS GRAVES

The road passes through towns few even in Japan had heard of until the tsunami. It has mostly reopened now, except for stretches where the death and destruction were most concentrated, in cities such as Otsuchi, still covered by vast plains of mud-covered debris in which hundreds of people died.

Car navigation systems can easily falter here, with drivers directed on to bits of road that are obstructed by the wreckage or simply don't exist any more.

Troops with construction equipment have been preparing mass graves for victims to be laid to rest at the ravaged Jorakuji Temple, near where Route 45 is closed in Otsuchi. The hastily built cemetery at the Buddhist temple can be found just above the "Tsunami Evacuation Point" sign.

The dynamics of destruction are all about elevation here.

Almost everything 15 metres above sea level escaped and everything below was hit by a fast-moving wall of water that uprooted houses and slammed trucks together in a darkening soup, dumping them haphazardly when the giant wave receded.

In the town of Kirikiri, built up into hills, more homes survived. In the city of Rikuzentakata, where the land is flat along the coast, the tsunami erased vast areas where rescue workers are still finding bodies.

Tens of thousands of homeless people have been moved to schools along the road, where they squeeze into gymnasiums and classrooms, using portable toilets and yearning for a bit of privacy.

Baloane

Blooming of Tokyo cherries shadowed by disaster, nuclear crisis

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TOKYO | Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:14am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Tokyo's cherry trees officially bloomed on Monday, but the usual joy that prompts parties and merrymaking was absent as Japan struggles with the aftermath of a mammoth quake and tsunami as well as the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant.

The fragile pink blooms, said to evoke the brevity of life, arrived six days later than usual and nearly three weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 27,000 people dead or missing and devastated Japan's northeast.

In normal years, the announcement sets off a frenzy of celebrations beneath the blossoms, with the often reserved Japanese eating, drinking and sometimes singing in raucous groups.

Amid a general mood of moderation, with sports and fashion events canceled and even Disneyland shuttered due to rolling power cuts, some Tokyo residents thought of cancelling their planned cherry blossom events, fearing they would seem insensitive toward survivors struggling to rebuild their lives up north.

But at the last minute, some -- like 45-year-old Chieko Komuro -- decided to go ahead and celebrate what happiness they could get for now, coming with her children to be photographed beneath the blossoms.

"We had been planning this for the past three months and hesitated initially to follow through, but I wanted to capture my daughter's smile and to make great memories," she said.

Others found solace in the arrival of spring and having something to look forward to.

"There is no point in being depressed all the time, so I think we should all just take a walk outside as it cheers you up," said 68-year-old Mitsue Yamazaki, who was strolling in the park near the Imperial palace where some early trees were already in bloom.

Tokyo's cherries are declared in bloom by the Meterological Agency when official "benchmark" trees flower, even if other trees have already burst into full bloom. Tokyo's benchmark trees are on the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine.

Ryuichi Oda, a photographer taking pictures of Komuro and her children, said he felt the flower represented Japan.

"I think the Japanese see the cherry blossoms as symbolizing the need to get back to basics in life," he added.

(Reporting by Royston Chan; Editing by Elaine Lies)

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Baloane

TOKYO | Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:14am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Tokyo's cherry trees officially bloomed on Monday, but the usual joy that prompts parties and merrymaking was absent as Japan struggles with the aftermath of a mammoth quake and tsunami as well as the crisis at a stricken nuclear plant.

The fragile pink blooms, said to evoke the brevity of life, arrived six days later than usual and nearly three weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 27,000 people dead or missing and devastated Japan's northeast.

In normal years, the announcement sets off a frenzy of celebrations beneath the blossoms, with the often reserved Japanese eating, drinking and sometimes singing in raucous groups.

Amid a general mood of moderation, with sports and fashion events canceled and even Disneyland shuttered due to rolling power cuts, some Tokyo residents thought of cancelling their planned cherry blossom events, fearing they would seem insensitive toward survivors struggling to rebuild their lives up north.

But at the last minute, some -- like 45-year-old Chieko Komuro -- decided to go ahead and celebrate what happiness they could get for now, coming with her children to be photographed beneath the blossoms.

"We had been planning this for the past three months and hesitated initially to follow through, but I wanted to capture my daughter's smile and to make great memories," she said.

Others found solace in the arrival of spring and having something to look forward to.

"There is no point in being depressed all the time, so I think we should all just take a walk outside as it cheers you up," said 68-year-old Mitsue Yamazaki, who was strolling in the park near the Imperial palace where some early trees were already in bloom.

Tokyo's cherries are declared in bloom by the Meterological Agency when official "benchmark" trees flower, even if other trees have already burst into full bloom. Tokyo's benchmark trees are on the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine.

Ryuichi Oda, a photographer taking pictures of Komuro and her children, said he felt the flower represented Japan.

"I think the Japanese see the cherry blossoms as symbolizing the need to get back to basics in life," he added.

(Reporting by Royston Chan; Editing by Elaine Lies)

Baloane

Major record labels join for Japan relief album

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Lead singer Bono of Irish rock band U2 performs during their 360 Degree Tour at the La Cartuja stadium in the Andalusian capital of Seville September 30, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Marcelo del Pozo

LONDON | Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:41pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's four leading record labels have lent hit tracks to an album released on Friday to raise funds for the Japanese Red Cross Society following this month's earthquake and tsunami.

What started off as an initiative by Universal Music, the world's biggest record company, has turned into an industry-wide collaboration. The result is the 38-track "Songs for Japan."

Universal said it was handling the servicing of the digital album, while Sony Music would produce a physical version provisionally set to hit stores on April 4.

Featured on the album, available on the iTunes Store for $9.99, are artists including John Lennon ("Imagine"), U2 ("Walk On"), Bob Dylan ("Shelter From the Storm"), Lady Gaga ("Born This Way") and Bruce Springsteen ("Human Touch").

Participating artists, music labels and music publishers have waived their royalties and proceeds from global sales, and iTunes has also said it would donate its proceeds from the album to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

The 9.0 magnitude quake on March 11 and giant waves it triggered left more than 10,000 people dead and 17,500 missing.

Following is the full track listing:

- John Lennon/"Imagine"

- U2/"Walk On"

- Bob Dylan/"Shelter From The Storm"

- Red Hot Chili Peppers/"Around The World"

- Lady Gaga/"Born This Way"

- Beyonce/"Irreplaceable"

- Bruno Mars/"Talking To The Moon"

- Katy Perry/"Firework"

- Rihanna/"Only Girl (In The World)"

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Royal wedding snapshots: Charles for king, composer snubbed

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n">(Reuters) - Following is a selection of stories related to the forthcoming April 29th royal wedding of Britain's Prince William that have appeared in newspapers and on websites in the last week.

(Reuters does not vouch for the accuracy of reports from other publications.) -- Britons want Charles not William as next king - poll

More Britons want Prince Charles to become Britain's next monarch than his son William despite the huge interest in William's upcoming wedding and previous suggestions he was the popular choice, a poll said.

Shortly after William's engagement to girlfriend Kate Middleton was announced last November, two polls showed a majority of Britons thought he should succeed the Queen and not heir-to-the-throne Charles.

However, according to a YouGov survey for Prospect Magazine released on Thursday, that that sentiment has now been reversed.

The poll of 2,409 people found the British public would prefer Charles to be their next king by a 45 to 37 margin, a reversal of a similar survey in 2005 which backed William by 41-37.

(Source: Reuters, March 24)

-- Nothing says "Congratulations!" like a doughnut

So the chefs at Dunkin' Donuts have dreamed up a "royal wedding donut" to honor the future Mr. and Mrs. William Windsor.

The heart-shaped confection is filled with jelly, and topped with vanilla icing and a chocolate drizzle. Dunkin' Donuts franchises throughout the U.S. will offer the limited edition doughnut from April 24 until April 29 -- the day the young lovers finally tie the knot.

And while love don't cost a thing, this deep-fried snack will set you back at least 89 cents.

(Source: Time, March 24)

-- Royal wedding recording to be online within hours

The official recording of the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29 will be available to download within hours of the service finishing.

Decca Records, part of the Universal Music label which also released the recordings of Prince Charles's wedding in 1981 and Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, will have a recording of the royal nuptials for sale on the net within hours and then release the official album of the marriage ceremony on May 5.

(Source: Reuters, March 23) -- Royal bride to arrive in car attacked by students

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Japan activist warns another "nuclear quake" looms

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Protesters take part in an anti-nuclear rally in Tokyo March 27, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Toru Hanai

By Edmund Klamann

TOKYO | Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:29am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - The nuclear safety crisis entering its third week in Japan was not exactly the disaster that long-term activist and author Takashi Hirose foresaw in his book last summer, "Nuclear Reactor Time Bomb."

But except for the location -- Hirose had predicted an imminent megaquake and nuclear accident at the Hamaoka plant 200 km southwest of Tokyo, not the Fukushima Daiichi plant 240 km northeast -- the scenario depicted in his first book on nuclear power in 15 years has proved eerily prescient.

Japanese authorities evacuated workers on Sunday from a reactor building they were working in after high doses of radiation were detected at a crippled nuclear power plant.

As Hirose watches what he believes is a bungled response by the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which runs the plant, his fears are as strong as ever that a repeat is set to hit on the other side of the Japanese capital.

"I think it will definitely occur soon," he said, citing geological research on earthquake cycles suggesting that a massive quake may be imminent in the Tokai region near the Hamaoka plant.

"I've looked at the entire country, and there's not a single reactor that's safe."

Japan, at the crossroads of four tectonic plates, is the site of one-fifth of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more. The massive magnitude-9.0 quake that struck northeast Japan two weeks ago left an estimated 27,000 dead or missing and was the world's fourth largest since 1900.

The possibility of an imminent magnitude 8-plus earthquake in the Tokai region near the Hamaoka plant was brought to the public's attention by geologist Ishibashi Katsuhiko in the 1970s and a government report has estimated there is an 87 percent chance of such an earthquake within the next 30 years.

"The Pacific plate is moving, and we shouldn't be expecting that the other plates are just sitting quietly," Hirose said, in between lectures to a Tokyo citizen's group on the Fukushima crisis and living with the threat of radiation.

Hirose, 68, a prominent anti-nuclear power activist in the 1980s who wrote prolifically on the topic and became a regular fixture on TV talk shows after the Chernobyl accident, lamented the relative lack of concern about the issue over the last decade or so.

"There's been something wrong with Japanese media for the past 15 years," he said.

"There used to be a time when newspaper reporters and TV would use people like me, let us have our say. I don't know where they've gone. They're not allowing the Japanese people to think."

Now Hirose is back on TV and his book is in demand, selling out at Kinokuniya, one of the nation's top book retailers, and Amazon's Japan web site.

Nuclear power has come under renewed scrutiny since the Fukushima accident, and Chubu Electric Power Co, which serves central Japan including the flagship factories of Toyota Motor Co, has said it would delay construction of a new reactor at Hamaoka.

But Hirose remains on guard and hoped that overseas criticism of Japan's nuclear programme as a result of the current crisis will help his cause.

"I'd like to see political pressure from America, and the whole world," he said."If they do that, the Japanese people will realize what's going on."

(Editing by Elaine Lies)

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Management Tip of the Day: How to Quit Your Job Gracefully

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BOSTON | Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:56pm EDT

BOSTON (Reuters Life!) - There might be fifty ways to leave your lover, but there are also at least three tips to keep in mind when you are thinking of leaving your job, according to Harvard Business Review.

The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org (http:\\www.hbr.org). Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.

"If you're thinking about leaving your job, remember that how you quit can be just as important as where you go next. Here are three tips for gracefully making your departure:

1. Be positive. When you give the news to your boss, avoid ranting and raving. You may feel better but it won't help your career. If you do have constructive feedback, schedule a separate meeting to discuss it.

2. Find your replacement. Don't leave your team or manager in the lurch. Do what you can to find someone qualified. Offer to stay on to help that person transition into the position.

3. Keep in touch. Don't sever all ties with the company even if you had a bad experience. Former colleagues and managers may be assets to you in the future."

-Today's management tip was adapted from "How to Quit Your Job" by Jodi Glickman.

(For the full post, see: here)

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Time no longer the essence for luxury watchmakers

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Visitors walk past the Chronoswiss showcase at Baselworld fair in Basel March 24, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Christian Hartmann

By Astrid Wendlandt and Silke Koltrowitz

PARIS | Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:21am EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - Time is up for oversize and flashy luxury watches that actually tell you the hour.

The new status symbol for bankers and Russian oligarchs is a sober, featherlike timepiece made from carbon fibre, magnesium or aluminum, executives at Basel's annual watch fair said

Real luxury is now the ability to stop time. This week Luc Perramond, chief executive of Hermes's watch division, presented the "temps suspendu" (suspended time) model, starting at 18,000 Swiss francs ($19,700), which stops time at the press of a button and brings it back again.

For 240,000 Swiss francs you can pick up an Hublot watch whose time can be slowed or sped up and another which is all black, making it difficult to tell the time at all.

That luxury can set you back upwards of 15,000 Swiss francs.

"The value of a watch is not to give you time," Hublot Chief Executive Jean-Claude Biver told Reuters.

"Any five dollar watch can do that. What we are offering is the ability for example to stop time or make it disappear... Time is a prison and people want to get out of it sometimes."

Those embracing the trend for new materials include Hublot, one of the fastest-growing brands, and its younger rival Richard Mille, whose barrel-shaped watches, starting at 60,000 euros ($85,000), are regarded as some of the most expensive.

"The trend now is light and new materials," Biver said, adding that Hublot last week bought a carbon fibre plant to secure supplies and is investing in new methods of dyeing metals and various materials.

In the world of watch fashion, experts say black dominates, followed by grey and matt colors. And minimalism is the style motto, in contrast to the pre-crisis days of 2007 and 2008 when big, multi-functional sporty watches were in vogue.

This watch trend matches the somber mood of Paris Fashion Week earlier this month, expressed at Chanel with its moonwalk collection and at Balenciaga and Celine with much use of dark fabrics and research into the use of new materials.

But the watch industry is also being pushed into redeveloping classic models, encouraged by Chinese demand.

As a result, many brands are re-fashioning old models such as Tag Heuer which last year launched a new version of its classic Carrera model, endorsed by actor Steve McQueen, which starts at 2,000 euros.

"Chinese prefer classic watches, watches with a heritage," Guy Semon, Tag Heuer's vice president for sciences and engineering, told Reuters in an interview.

"And as they have become major customers, this has helped drive the brand to return to some of its historical models."

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No tears for Liz where Burton's body waits in vain

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The grave of the late actor Richard Burton is pictured in the old cemetery in Celigny, 20 km (12 miles) east of Geneva March 24, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

By Andrew Callus

CELIGNY, Switzerland | Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:25am EDT

CELIGNY, Switzerland (Reuters) - She survived him by a quarter of a century and sought the limelight he shunned, yet in their adopted Swiss village home, it is Elizabeth Taylor's leading man and husband Richard Burton who is best remembered.

According to celebrity folklore, the pair were to have been reunited in death, and Burton, the British actor she married and divorced twice, lies buried here in Celigny, Switzerland.

Yet when Taylor died last week of congestive heart failure she was laid to rest in Los Angeles, leaving Burton alone in his quiet rural grave a few hundred meters (yards) from Lake Geneva.

The villagers of pretty but unremarkable Celigny are not surprised.

"She didn't come here much," says Jaqueline Esseiva, 78, a lifelong resident of this village where the hard-drinking Burton died of a stroke in 1984.

"It wasn't elegant enough for her. Too simple. Him though, he was friendly. No airs and graces."

Esseiva's English-born postmistress mother used to chat with Burton, who spoke no French, but frequented the village's two main bars in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.

He was a popular figure with children, who were allowed to play with the electric windows on his black Cadillac. Locals say he once hit a wall near the square in the car after one of his famous drinking bouts. Taxi drivers remember him stumbling into their vehicles, while Swiss newspapers have reported restaurant owners recalling quarrels with Taylor over dinner.

It was while they worked as co-stars on the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra that Taylor and Burton began one of the most famous love affairs of the 20th Century. They married and divorced twice.

But back to the burial folklore.

According to his Wikipedia entry, Burton's last wife Sally Hay bought the empty plot next to his and made his grave big.

The entry says it was an apparent attempt to squeeze Taylor out of the burial tryst -- a pact that could have sealed their love affair and shut out her six other husbands and his three other wives.

The Welsh-born actor's resting place, in a gentle wooded valley backing onto a stream, is indeed wider than its neighbors, but there also seems to be room for another one beside it. That is all academic now.

Coming out the cemetery gate on a sunny spring day a few days after Taylor's death is Harley Decorvet, aged 88, who used to look after Burton's Celigny house and still tends his grave.

In his hand is a local newspaper, folded inside a clear plastic packet to show a photo of Taylor from her screen-siren days.

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ANRMAP a găsit nereguli la achiziţia amortizorilor de şoc de la Cernavodă

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Vote!

Autoritatea pentru Reglementarea Achiziţiilor Publice (ANRMAP) a anunţat astăzi că în 2009, la solicitarea Consiliului Suprem de Apărare al Ţării (CSAT) a verificat procedurile de licitaţie privind achiziţia unor amortizori de şoc pentru centrala nucleară de la Cernavodă....

citeste tot articolul...

Sursa: Bursa - Azi

StiriVote! Traian Băsescu cere verificarea achiziţiilor de la Cernavodă RRA (Azi) - Preşedintele Traian Băsescu a anunţat, într+un interviu la Realitatea TV că a cerut SRI să... Vote! Ce loc ocupă Cernavodă în lume din punct de vedere al siguranţei de exploatare Mediafax (Azi) - Centrala nucleară de la Cernavodă ocupă locul 15 între toate centralele nucleare din lume şi... Vote! CNE Cernavodă, ferită de pericolul nuclear japonez. RL (Ieri) - Reprezentantii Centralei Nuclearelectrice de la Cernavoda au explicat ieri de ce un accident similar cu... Vote! Cernavodă, locul 50 în lume în clasamentul siguranţei. Şefii centralei se tem mai mult de scandalul mediatic Gandul (Ieri) - Centrala de la Cernavodă e proiectată să reziste la cutremure de 8 grade pe scara... Vote! În anul 2011, Ministerul Sănătăţii va aloca 5 milioane de lei pentru achiziţia de lapte praf Bursa (Ieri) - Direcţiile de sănătate publică vor primi, în perioada următoarea, fonduri pentru a demara achiziţia de... Vote! Alro Slatina, controlat de investitori rusi, a atras fonduri europene de 4,1 milioane euro pentru achiziţia de utilaje ZF (Ieri) - Producătorul de aluminiu Alro Slatina (ALR), controlat de investitori ruşi prin intermediul companiei Vimetco, a... Vote! În 2011, MS va aloca 5 milioane de lei pentru achiziţia de lapte praf Amos News (Ieri) - Direcţiile de sănătate publică vor primi, în perioada următoarea, fonduri pentru a demara achiziţia de... Vote! Centrala Nuclear-Electrică Cernavodă este sigură în exploatare şi rezistentă la riscuri seismice AgerPress (Ieri) - Directorul general al CNE Cernavodă, Ionel Bucur, a precizat miercuri, într-o conferinţă de presă, că... Vote! Ministerul Sănătăţii va aloca în acest an 5 milioane de lei pentru achiziţia de lapte praf AgerPress Magazin (Ieri) - Direcţiile de sănătate publică vor primi, în perioada următoarea, fonduri pentru a demara achiziţia de... Vote! Reprezentantii centralei de la Cernavoda se apara de acuzatiile din presa Ziare.com Business (Ieri) - Conducerea centralei de la Cernavoda a reactionat, miercuri, la acuzatiile aparute in presa, cum ca... Vote! Nuclearelectrica: Nu avem probleme de securitate nucleară ZF (Ieri) - Ionel Bucur, director al CNE Cernavodă, a dat asigurări că centrala nucleară de la Cernavodă... Vote! Conducerea centralei de la Cernavodă respinge acuzaţiile privind nesiguranţa exploatării Bursa (Ieri) - Conducerea centralei nuclearoelectrice de la Cernavodă a respins, astăzi, într-o conferinţă, acuzaţiile privind nesiguranţa în... Vote! Traian Băsescu: Nu există riscul ca un cutremur să pună în nesiguranţă funcţionarea reactoarelor de la Cernavodă VideoNews (Ieri) - Centrala de la Cernavodă nu ar fi afectată de un eventual cutremur major, a dat... Vote! Licitaţie controversată la centrala de la Cernavodă EVZ (2 zile in urma) - Compania de stat Nuclearelectrica a fost acuzată de nereguli la achiziţia unor amortizori de şoc... Vote! Băsescu: Centrala de la Cernavodă e sigură. RL (2 zile in urma) - Presedintele Traian Basescu a declarat ca are "toate informatiile ca centrala de la Cernavoda este...

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Cezar Preda: Basescu si Boc nu mai sunt locomotive pentru PD-L - TV Ziare.com

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Cezar Preda, vicepresedintele PD-L, este de parere ca Emil Boc si Traian Basescu nu mai sunt "locomotivele" PD-L, capabile sa traga inainte partidul la alegeri. Acesta considera ca Vasile Blaga este un "lider veritabil", care poate ajuta partidul "sa redevina ce a fost"....

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StiriVote! Razboi in Libia: Implicarea Romaniei in calitate de mebru NATO, obligatorie - TV Ziare.com Ziare.com Extern (Ieri) - In calitate de membru NATO, Romania trebuie sa se implice in razboiul din Libia, a... Vote! Cezar Preda: Declaraţiile de susţinere pentru Boc, cel mai iubit fiu din PDL, sunt penibile Pagina Politica (Ieri) -   Nu mai există nicio îndoială că jocurile în PDL se fac după anumite reguli... Vote! Cezar Preda: Declaraţiile de solidaritate ale organizaţiilor pentru cel mai iubit fiu Boc, jenante Gandul (Ieri) - Vicepreşedintele PDL Cezar Preda a declarat, miercuri, pentru MEDIAFAX, că "este jenant" ceea ce se... Vote! SRI î?i prezintă bilan?ul pe 2010 e-politic (Ieri) - Pre?edintele Traian Băsescu participă miercuri la prezentarea bilanţului Serviciului Român de Informaţii pe anul 2010.... Vote! Codrin Ştefănescu (PRM): Preda şi Macovei ar trebui să ceară demisia unor grei din PDL AgerPress Politic (2 zile in urma) - Vicepreşedintele Partidului România Mare, Codrin Ştefănescu, susţine că, înainte de a se exprima în cazul... Vote! Preda: Nu mă miră că Boureanu îl apără pe Severin e-politic (2 zile in urma) - Europarlamentarul PDL Cristian Preda nu omite,  într-o postare făcută luni pe blogul personal, în contextul... Vote! SRI preda dosare CNSAS inainte de bilantul cu Basescu Corect (3 zile in urma) - Cu 2 zile inainte ca Presedintele Traian Basescu sa participe la Bilant, Serviciul Roman...

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