Archive
Reuters blog archive
from Amlan Chakraborty:
Scandal engulfs Indian cricket; web of players, bookies faces scrutiny
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It wasn't a typical photo opportunity for Indian cricketer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth as he stood outside a New Delhi court in a pair of faded jeans and a dark blue full-sleeve tee-shirt.
Flanked by two policemen and his face covered with a black cloth, one of the most recognisable sportsmen in India kept his head bowed as newspaper photographers clicked away.
The slim, 30-year old, who can hurl the ball at speeds of up to 145 km per hour (90 mph) at opposing batsmen, was arrested ten days ago, police said, for receiving 4 million rupees ($71,000) from bookies for underperforming in a match in the multi-billion dollar Indian Premier League (IPL), the sport's richest tournament. He and two other players were provisionally charged with cheating, fraud and breach of trust.
In a statement to media through his lawyer, Sreesanth denied any wrongdoing and said he was confident he would be proven innocent "and my honour and dignity will be vindicated and restored". The two other players and 11 bookies, who are also in custody, have not commented on the allegations.
from India Insight:
Collaboration key to Bollywood’s global appeal – Irrfan
Irrfan is no stranger to Hollywood. The Indian actor, who uses only his first name, has been part of critically acclaimed films such as "Life of Pi", "The Namesake" and "A Mighty Heart".
The 40-something actor is doing his bit to help Indian films reach more audiences worldwide. Irrfan says he's goading local movie producers to collaborate, find new markets and swap its Bollywood image for a more universal language of cinema.
from Photographers Blog:
Finding the face of France’s unemployed
Florange, France
By Vincent Kessler
The name “Valley of the Angels” is derived from the last four-letters, “ange” meaning “angel” in English, which is found in the names of many cities in the Lorraine valley of northeastern France. This valley, also known as Fensch Valley for the river which flows through it, was long home to forges and steelmaking which grew out of the mining of iron ore. The mines and steel foundries forged the culture of a people and the landscape they live in.
The decline of this industry started at the end of the seventies with major social conflicts and demonstrations in other nearby valleys in the region, also involved with the steel industry. For 20 years now the valley has faced closures of industrial sites, mines, furnaces, all contrary to the steel tradition of the region. When I headed there last week, I first photographed the imprint of the past and present on the valley. And like anybody, I was initially taken by the kind of “gloomy” atmosphere you will find in any industrial area.
from Shashank Chouhan:
Collaboration key to Bollywood’s global appeal – Irrfan
Irrfan is no stranger to Hollywood. The Indian actor, who uses only his first name, has been part of critically acclaimed films such as "Life of Pi", "The Namesake" and "A Mighty Heart".
The 40-something actor is doing his bit to help Indian films reach more audiences worldwide. Irrfan says he's goading local movie producers to collaborate, find new markets and swap its Bollywood image for a more universal language of cinema.
from David Rohde:
Obama’s overdue step on drones
President Obama’s decision to restrict drone strikes and again try to close the Guantanamo Bay prison are overdue steps in the right direction. Myself and many other analysts have called for these very measures over the last year.
Obama must actually follow through on implementation of his proposals, including pressuring Congress to close Guantanamo. And he should fully enact changes that can be carried out by the executive branch, such as handing over responsibility for drones strikes to the U.S. military and making them fully public.
from Jack Shafer:
What war on the press?
President Barack Obama has declared war on the press, say writers at Slate, the Daily Beast, Reason, the Washington Post (Jennifer Rubin, Dana Milbank and Leonard Downie Jr.), Commentary, National Journal (Ron Fournier), the New York Times editorial page, CBS News, Fox News (Roger Ailes) and even Techdirt. Scores of other scribes and commentators have filed similar dispatches about this or that federal prosecution "chilling" the press and pulping the First Amendment. Downie, who could open an aquatics center with the leaks his reporters collected during his 17 years as executive editor of the Washington Post, calls the "war on leaks ... the most militant I have seen since the Nixon administration."
The most recent casualties in the alleged press war are Fox News Channel and the Associated Press. The phone records of reporters at these outlets were subpoenaed by federal investigators after the organizations published national security secrets. Then you have New York Times reporter James Risen. Federal prosecutors have been trying to force Risen onto the stand in the trial of alleged leaker-to-the-media Jeffrey Sterling (CIA) since the latter days of the Bush administration. When media strumming on the free-press topic reaches full volume, reporters and their defenders include the leak prosecutions of Thomas Drake (National Security Agency) and John Kiriakou (CIA), even though no journalist (or journalist record) appears to have suffered a subpoena in these cases. (However, the indictments in both the Drake and Kiriakou cases cite email communications with journalists.)
from FaithWorld:
Church of England unveils plan for women bishops in 2015
(Church-goers arrive for a Christmas carol service at Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, England, December 23, 2009. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett )
The Church of England published a plan on Friday to approve the ordination of women bishops by 2015, a widely supported reform it just missed passing last November after two decades of divisive debate.
from India Insight:
Tracking Sensex: Top five losers, gainers this week
By Sankalp Phartiyal and Aditya Kalra
It was a tough week for Indian shares as the BSE Sensex fell nearly 3 percent and the Nifty lost 3.3 percent as U.S. Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s suggestion that stimulus measures may be scaled back at one of their next few meetings dented sentiment.
Weak factory output data from China also spooked global markets, with the Nikkei plummeting more than 7 percent on Thursday.
from FaithWorld:
Turkey bans alcohol ads and curbs sales, secularists critical
(Members of a Mehter team, an Ottoman-style millitary band, join pro-Islamic demonstrators during a protest near TV headquarters in Istanbul January 9, 2011. Turkish protesters were angry over the depiction of an Ottoman sultan drinking alcohol and wooing women in a new television series. REUTERS/Murad Sezer)
Turkey banned alcohol advertising and tightened restrictions on its sale on Friday, drawing criticism from secular Turks as well as the country's brewing industry.
from Alison Frankel:
The 6th Circuit splits with 2nd and 9th, lowers bar for securities claims
Federal courts in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan may soon be seeing an influx of securities class actions claiming strict liability under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933, thanks to a ruling Thursday by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Indiana State District Council of Laborers v. Omnicare. Judge Guy Cole, writing for a panel that also included Judge Richard Griffin and U.S. District Judge James Gwin of Cleveland, found that shareholders asserting Section 11 claims for misrepresentations in offering documents need not show that defendants knew the statements to be false.
"Under Section 11," Cole wrote, "if the defendant discloses information that includes a material misstatement, that is sufficient and a complaint may survive a motion to dismiss without pleading knowledge of falsity." The panel explicitly noted that its reasoning is at odds with the 9th Circuit's ruling in the 2009 case Rubke v. Capitol Bancorp and the 2nd Circuit's oft-cited 2011 decision in Fait v. Regions Financial.
