Love This Album! What an album This Is! Or should i say, THIS IS US!
1. "Straight Through My Heart" 5/5 (Peppy, Catchy, Superb!)
2. "Bigger" 5/5 (Smooth and slow, great tune)
3. "Bye Bye Love" 5/5 (Another Hottie, upbeat tune)
4. "All of Your Life (You Need Love)" (4/5 Really Nice one as well)
5. "If I Knew Then" (4/5 R&B Tune, lush music, A.J's voice so great in this one....!)
6. "This Is Us" (5/5 The perfect song in terms of defining the album, great harmony of voices, as always!)
7. "PDA" (4/5 The funky-tuned song , typical disco beats and catchy rhymes)
8. "Masquerade" (5/5 Another great song....disco tune, along with typical BSB rockin'!)
9. "She's a Dream" (5/5 Another one of those BSB beauties, that sound different and are still are lyrically and musically peppy!)
10. "Shattered" (5/5 My most favorite song from the album, remind you of old BSB along with the tunes of this modern era, The modern derivation of Show Me The Meaning....
11. "Undone" (5/5 You get typical 'George Michael' feel when you listen to this and the music is so good that it crawls and grows on you, you can feel the song on yourself when you listen to it. Nick sounds so matured in this one and you can feel it. Not just he, A.J, Brian and Howie all sound great as always.....)
12. “International Luv” (4/5 A very up-to-the-beat song, with some seriously cool music!)
Hope you like it...
KTBSPA!
© Zeeshan Ahmed
LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, defined in equal parts as the world's greatest entertainer and perhaps its most enigmatic figure, was about to attempt one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then his life was cut shockingly — and so far, mysteriously — short.
The 50-year-old musical superstar died Thursday, just as he was preparing for what would be a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 at London's famed 02 arena. Jackson had been spending hours and hours toiling with a team of dancers for a performance he and his fans hoped would restore his tarnished legacy to its proper place in pop.
An autopsy was planned for Friday, though results were not likely to be final until toxicology tests could be completed, a process that could take several days and sometimes weeks. However, if a cause can be determined by the autopsy, they will announce the results, said Los Angeles County Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben.
Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.
Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.
"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said.
Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.
Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.
His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.
As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.
"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."
The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of theJackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."
He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.
"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," saidQuincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."
Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie. Jackson's sudden death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.
"I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible," Lisa Marie Presley said in a statement. "I am heartbroken for his children who I know were everything to him and for his family. This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me."
As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."
"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."
Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.
In 2005, he was cleared of charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.
The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.
Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.
The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."
The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."
The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.
During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.
He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.
Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.
Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, now 12; and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.
Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II. Now 7, Jackson said the boy nicknamed Blanket as a baby was his biological child born from a surrogate mother.
Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."
Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.
"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."
__
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch and AP writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou, Anthony McCartney and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles; and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.
Link : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090626/ap_en_ot/us_obit_michael_jackson
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Michael Jackson is dead after suffering a cardiac arrest, sending shockwaves sweeping across the world and tributes pouring in Friday for the tortured music icon revered as the "King of Pop."
Jackson, 50, collapsed at his rented mansion in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills and was rushed to hospital by paramedics before being pronounced dead at 2:26 pm (2126 GMT) on Thursday.
One of the most influential figures in pop history whose career included the highest-selling album of all-time, "Thriller," Jackson had been preparing for a concert comeback in London next month he had dubbed "the final curtain."
News of his death triggered an outpouring of grief as shocked celebrities, foreign governments and devoted fans from Beijing to Beverly Hills paid tribute to the troubled star.
Lieutenant Fred Corral, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, said an autopsy would likely be carried out on Friday and would not speculate on the exact cause of death.
Jackson's brother Jermaine, the family's official spokesman, later revealed physicians had battled for more than an hour to revive the star after his arrival at the UCLA Medical Center before he was pronounced dead.
"Our family requests that the media please respect our privacy during this tough time," Jermaine Jackson said. "May Allah be with you, Michael, always."
As the sun began to sink over Los Angeles, a coroner's office helicopter bearing Jackson's body took off from the UCLA Medical Center, where hundreds of media and fans had gathered throughout the day.
Meanwhile police motorcycle riders surrounded Jackson's gated mansion as crowds of tourists and fans congregated.
Pop diva Madonna was among dozens of celebrities who struggled to cope. "I can't stop crying over the sad news," the singer said in a statement. "The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever!"
The star's first wife Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, said his death had left her speechless.
"I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible. I am heartbroken for his children, who I know were everything to him, and for his family," Presley told MTV News in a statement.
Political figures also paid their tributes.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lamented the loss of "one of the most influential and iconic figures in the music industry."
But the most visible emotion came in spontaneous gatherings of fans here and across the world.
In Los Angeles Lana Brown, a 49-year-old tourist from Dallas, broke down in tears as she digested the news. "I can't believe we might have lost the best entertainer this world has ever seen," she told AFP.
In New York's Times Square, Chantal de Roy van Zuydewijn watched a giant screen broadcasting the news of Jackson's death with tears running down her cheeks.
"He is a legend. He is a genius," said the 28-year-old Dutch tourist, who had a ticket to the pop legend's scheduled comeback tour in July.
Jackson's death came as the singer prepared to make a keenly anticipated concert comeback in London, his first series of shows in more than a decade.
Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman said he had harbored concerns over the singer's condition, revealing that he had been taking prescription medication as he prepared for his comeback.
Oxman compared Jackson's fate to the overdose death of Playboy centerfold Anna-Nicole Smith, voicing concern over "enablers" in his entourage.
"The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him... if you think that the case of Anna-Nicole Smith was an abuse, it was nothing to what we have seen in Michael Jackson's life," Oxman told CNN.
While Jackson ruled the charts and dazzled audiences with electric dance moves like the backwards "moonwalk" in the 1980s, his once-stellar career was overshadowed by his colorful public behavior, his startling physical transformation and multiple allegations of child abuse.
He lived as a virtual recluse following his 2005 acquittal on charges including child molestation and plotting to kidnap his young accuser.
Despite his acquittal, the trial was a body blow from which the pop music superstar, who named his ranch after Peter Pan's "Neverland" of perpetual childhood and furnished it with Disney-inspired rides, struggled to recover.
Born on August 29, 1958, Jackson made his show business debut with four of his elder brothers in the Jackson Five pop group, and went on to lead the stage clan with a piping soprano and dazzling dance moves.
In 1979, Quincy Jones produced Jackson's first solo album for Epic, "Off the Wall," a huge disco-oriented success that sold 10 million copies.
They teamed up again in 1982 for what would be Jackson's breakthrough album as a composer and co-producer, "Thriller," which became the top-selling album of all time, with sales exceeding 41 million.
Jones reacted with shock after being informed of Jackson's death Thursday.
"I'm absolutely devastated at this news," he said. "I just don't have the words. Divinity brought our souls together and allowed us to do what we could do through the '80s," Jones said.
Tommy Mottola, the former head of Sony Music who released Jackson's records for 16 years, said the singer had a place in the pantheon of American music icons, alongside Elvis and Frank Sinatra.
"It's one of the greatest losses," Mottola told the Los Angeles Times.
Crowds continued to throng near the UCLA Medical Center and Jackson's home late Thursday, while street vendors selling hastily designed commemorative T-shirts for 25 dollars sought to cash in.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Link : http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5go1jWJqQJPMaRYQ0Am_wb0n1Kyyg
The ICL has accepted the resignations of Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq, paving the way for their return to official cricket, possibly as early as Pakistan's tour of Sri Lanka which starts in late June.
While some national boards have set a 'cooling period' before players associated with the ICL are considered for selection, the PCB is accepting both players into official cricket immediately. "They are available for selection now and that is a good thing," Wasim Bari, director HR of the PCB, who has been handling the ICL cases, told Cricinfo. "Cooling period doesn't come into it."
Yousuf had signed up with the ICL in 2007 but was lured out of the contract by the PCB administration of the day. However, legal wrangles denied him an IPL contract in 2008 and he rejoined the ICL in November. That virtually ended his career with Pakistan, but the latest development could see him back in national colours in little more than a month's time.
His team-mate Razzaq hasn't played for Pakistan in more than two years, and had even announced his international retirement in August 2007 after being excluded from the national side for the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa. He had signed up with the ICL then, but earlier this month he said he was ready to pledge his future to Pakistan.
© Cricinfo
Link : http://content.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/406520.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
Gul and Afridi demolish Australia
Umar Gul took a wicket first ball, Shahid Afridi took two in his first two balls, and Australia imploded bizarrely after a flying start from Shane Watson. From 42 for 0 in four overs Australia went to 73 for 5 and 108 all out, a target Pakistan chased down easily after an early wobble. Australia had fielded almost a second XI, and played like that.
The first innings of the match was as frenetically eventful as the second was assured and sedate. Gul's 4-0-8-4 was just one run off the best-ever figures in Twenty20 internationals. Afridi followed his double-wicket maiden with another wicket and nine more runs in the next two overs, as the Australian batsmen kept playing for the non-existent spin. The collapse was just as spectacular as Watson's onslaught on Shoaib Akhtar and Sohail Tanvir. It was ironically a missed inside edge by Aleem Dar that started the slide.
No less a bizarre innings would have been fit for a day when the match started one-and-a-half hours after the toss while waiting for Dubai's Sheikh, an esteemed guest for the match. A day when Younis Khan pulled out at the 11th hour because of fever. A day when Misbah-ul-Haq, the stand-in captain, said at the toss that Younis stepped down to give Fawad Alam an opportunity.
The delayed start didn't affect Watson, who seemed to be carrying on from his century in the final one-dayer. He started the match with an outside-edged boundary off Shoaib, didn't get much strike for the next three overs, and exploded in the fourth. He carted Tanvir for back-to-back boundaries through midwicket, and pulled the next to deep backward square leg. In four overs, Watson had reached 33 off 13 deliveries, with Misbah seeming out of sorts.
He was in complete control, though, hurrying the introduction of perhaps the best Twenty20 bowler in international cricket. With his first ball Gul went level with Daniel Vettori, with most wickets in Twenty20 internationals. The ball swung in late, hitting Watson in front, but for the inside edge that Dar missed. Gul would soon go past Vettori.
The breakthrough achieved, Misbah took Gul off and turned to his spinners, who have troubled Australia all series. James Hopes went for a slog sweep off Afridi first ball, and missed. Andrew Symonds saw Afridi running in to him as soon as he lifted his head after taking guard. This one was a straighter one too, and Symonds was clearly late in a half-hearted prod.
In Afirdi's next over, Hussey went on to cut a fullish topspinner and played it on. When Australia's new captain, Brad Haddin, chipped Shoaib Malik straight to long-on, Australia were in absolute tatters. The lower half had the small matter of Saeed Ajmal and Malik's doosras and Gul's reverse-swing to negotiate, but there was always going to be one winner.
Gul took three wickets in his second spell, bowling Brett Lee and Marcus North with perfect late inswingers. Between them Gul and Afridi took 7 for 22, and the last 16 overs yielded just 66.
The only hope then for Australia was that the pitch was a touch double-paced, and they raised hopes of a close match by removing the Pakistan openers for 23 in four overs. But without a target to build pressure, the spinners were always going to find it tough. Kamran Akmal, just like Watson, carried forward the good form from his match-winning century in the last ODI, and Misbah finished a perfect night as captain with a responsible 24.
Nothing about Kamran suggested there was any panic in the air. The third ball he faced he square-drove Brett Lee powerfully for four, and his stability thereon ended the contest. His occasional square-cut boundaries kept Pakistan ahead of the modest run-rate required, and it was not until the 14th over - with just 32 required - that he had some fun. Hopes was the unfortunate bowler pulled over long-on and scooped over fine leg for consecutive sixes. When he reached his half-century, Kamran - a new father - celebrated with a baby-rocking gesture; he had played with the responsibility that befits a father.
Hauritz finished the match with a wide down the leg side, and Australia were yet to beat Pakistan in Twenty20 internationals: they lost their first meeting too, during the World Twenty20 in 2007.
Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo
© Cricinfo
NEW YORK – At last, a new Dan Brown novel is coming.
Six years after the release of his mega-selling "The Da Vinci Code," the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced that Brown's "The Lost Symbol," a thriller set during a 12-hour period and featuring "Da Vinci Code" symbolist Robert Langdon, will come out in September.
"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," Brown said in a statement issued Monday by his publisher. "Weaving five years of research into the story's twelve-hour time frame was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."
The first printing will be 5 million copies, Knopf Doubleday said Monday, a modest number considering that "The Da Vinci Code" has sold more than 80 million worldwide and inspired a spin-off community of travel books, diet books, parodies and religious works.
A film version, starring Tom Hanks, came out in 2006 and made more than $700 million at the box office. Hanks will again be seen as Langdon when the adaptation of Brown's "Angels & Demons" debuts in May.
Brown, 44, had kept his readers and the struggling book industry in suspense as year after year passed without a new novel. As far back as 2004, Doubleday had hinted that a follow up was coming, tentatively titled "The Solomon Key" and widely believed to be about Freemasons in Washington, D.C. (Brown has been spotted over the years in Washington, researching Masonic temples.)
Monday's announcement did not say where the story was set or who it would be about, and Doubleday spokeswoman Suzanne Herz declined to offer further information. In "The Da Vinci Code," a murder at the Louvre museum in Paris sets Langdon on an investigation that includes secret religious cults and speculation that Jesus had fathered a child with Mary Magdalene — a scenario that enraged scholars, critics and religious officials, all of it only bringing the book more readers.
Eager for success, but unprepared for obsession, Brown became increasingly reluctant to make public appearances or talk to the media. His reserve was only magnified by a copyright infringement lawsuit that was decided in his favor, but not before Brown was forced to testify in London and prepare an in-depth brief about his career, writing process and the fury he faced when promoting "The Da Vinci Code."
"I recall feeling defenseless because more than a year had passed since I'd researched and written the novel, and the precise names, dates, places and facts had faded somewhat in my memory," Brown wrote.
The trial, too, only made his book sell more.
Inspired in part by the commercial fiction of Sidney Sheldon, Brown is an Amherst College graduate who has said he long gave up on the idea of being a literary writer and instead wanted to write novels read by many. But neither the author nor his publisher nor booksellers expected such a boom for "The Da Vinci Code," his fourth novel, which remained on best-seller lists for more than three years and made million sellers out of such previous books as "Deception Point" and "Angels & Demons."
The long silence after "The Da Vinci Code," far longer than the time spent between his previous books, led to speculation that Brown was hopelessly blocked, as staggered by fame as "Forever Amber" author Kathleen Winsor or Grace Metalious of "Peyton Place," novelists who never again approached the heights of their controversial best sellers.
Brown is a native of Exeter, N.H., who still lives in his home state with his wife, Blythe Brown, whom the novelist cited during the London trial as a virtual co-author, an energetic researcher who brought an invaluable "female perspective" to a book immersed in "the sacred feminine, goddess worship and the feminine aspect of spiritually."
Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.
Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.
Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.
Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.
At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.
Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.
Link : http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/128643/beware-conficker-worm-come-april-1/
LONDON – Jade Goody, a dental assistant turned reality-TV star whose whirlwind journey from poverty to celebrity to tragedy became a national soap opera and morality tale in Britain, has died. The 27-year-old had cancer and died in her sleep early Sunday at her home in Essex, southeast England, her publicist Max Clifford said.
Goody gained fame at 21 in 2002, when she joined the reality television show "Big Brother," in which contestants live together for weeks and are constantly filmed. Loud and brash, she became a highly divisive star — initially mocked as an ignorant slob, then celebrated as a forthright everywoman by a hungry tabloid press.
It was a pattern of praise and condemnation that followed her for the rest of her life. Goody became a national touchstone who sparked debate about race, class and celebrity in Britain.
For some, Goody was a survivor who had overcome a tough childhood on a London housing estate. Her father was absent and often in jail, and her mother struggled with drug addiction.
But she also was reviled in the press during her stint on "Big Brother" for her weight, her big mouth and her apparent lack of general knowledge — she branded the English region of East Anglia "East Angular," and asked whether it was abroad.
She didn't win the show, but she did become a celebrity, earning millions through television and magazine appearances, an autobiography, a perfume and a series of exercise videos.
It was during a follow-up stint on a celebrity version of "Big Brother" in 2007 that Goody was labeled a racist bully for her treatment of another contestant, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Goody bad-mouthed Shetty's cooking of Indian food, mocked her accent and referred to her as "Shilpa Poppadom." While complaints against the show skyrocketed, so did ratings.
Goody's treatment of Shetty sparked anger in India and Britain — even becoming the topic of debate during a House of Commons question-and-answer session with then Prime Minister Tony Blair. A major sponsor suspended its advertising deal with "Celebrity Big Brother," and a chain of perfume shops pulled a Goody-endorsed fragrance, ironically named "Shh..."
After television viewers voted to evict Goody from the show, Goody — herself of mixed race — insisted she wasn't a racist. "I argue like that with everybody. It wasn't just because of the color of her skin that I was that aggressive," she said during an interview on Britain's GMTV.
After the eviction, the Indian Tourism Office invited Goody to travel to the country. She did, visiting charity projects and later agreeing to appear on an Indian version of the show.
"The people of India have only seen a small part of me and I'd like to show them that there is more to me," Goody said. "I'm a mother of two, a businesswoman. I can't be all that bad."
It was during filming of the show in the summer of 2008 that Goody received a diagnosis of cervical cancer by telephone from a doctor in Britain. The camera captured the deeply personal moment, which was shown repeatedly on TV in Britain, though not in India.
The progress of her illness was chronicled in detail in the tabloid press and weekly magazines, to the unease of many.
"Goody isn't rich or famous because she won the lottery: she's rich and famous because we bought all those papers and magazines and ghosted books with her on the cover, because we watched her television series, because we cheered when she was good and booed when she was bad, because we sat around discussing her over lunch," wrote columnist India Knight in The Sunday Times. "Now she's dying, she's making us all feel bad so we want her to go away, like a broken toy that's stopped being fun."
In February, a bald and frail Goody, married fiancee Jack Tweed in an elaborate event staged at an elegant countryside hotel outside London. She reportedly sold the photos for more than $1 million.
Goody defended being paid for interviews and photo shoots.
"People will say I'm doing this for money," she said. "And they're right, I am. But not to buy flash cars or big houses — it's for my sons' future if I'm not here. I don't want my kids to have the same miserable, drug-blighted, poverty-stricken childhood I did."
Before her rise to fame, Goody worked for a period as a dental nurse. She had an unhappy childhood in a poor south London neighborhood. Her father was a heroin addict who served jail time for robbery and died in 2005, her mother a former crack addict who lost the use of an arm in a motorcycle accident.
While many empathized with Goody as she underwent surgery and chemotherapy in the public eye — filming part of the experience for another television series — she still inspired vitriol in others. A Web site was even set up, devoted to predicting when she would die.
In February 2009 Goody's publicist said the cancer had spread to her liver, bowel and groin.
Goody is survived by Tweed and her two sons Bobby and Freddie, with an ex-boyfriend, television presenter Jeff Brazier. She also is survived by her mother, Jackiey Budden.
Budden told reporters Sunday: "Family and friends would like privacy at last.
Ever wondered?
When you see pain in front of your eyes, when you look at people dying, when you see children crying, when you look into the mirror and ask, "Who Am I to think about that?"
The world is nothing but a web of webs of thoughts. We all are linked together, all of us.
Is that weeping child your relative? Then why are you feeling his sorrow deep inside yourself? Is that old lady, who just tipped over, urged you to help her, make her stand again, ask if she's alright.
My dear friends, that's nothing but your connection to these souls.
Without even knowing the person, why are you urged to help them, this explains the most amazing phenomenon, a beautiful phenomenon that is overlooked by us.
This connection breaks when we overlook those souls, when we just ignore a dying person by saying "Who is that? I don't know him…"
You can always break a physical connection, but can you break a connection that is spiritual, the existence of which is not in a form that we can touch, but only feel...?
It does not matter if you recognize and feel the link, but it does matter when you ignore it...
Think about it...!
(Click the above Image to Read The Article)
(Click the above Image to Read The Article)Earlier this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country would end four decades of self-imposed isolation and return to Nato's military command.
Here, the BBC's Allan Little reflects on France's long journey to reconcile itself with one of the darkest chapters in its history and its difficult relationship with the US and the UK.
There is a story about a conversation between General de Gaulle, who, as president of the French Republic, telephoned his American counterpart Lyndon B Johnson, to inform him that France had decided to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty alliance.
Since its foundation nearly two decades earlier, Nato had had its headquarters in France. Now Nato would have to move.
Furthermore, de Gaulle added, it was his intention that all American service personnel should be removed from French soil.
"Does that include," Johnson is said to have replied, "those buried in it?"
Ouch.
Anti-Americanism
But go to the cemeteries of Normandy and you see what an Anglo-Saxon business the D-Day landings - and the liberation of France - really were.
The historian Andrew Roberts has calculated that of the 4,572 allied servicemen who died on that day on which, in retrospect, so much of human history seems now to have pivoted - only 19 were French. That is 0.4%.
Of the rest, 37 were Norwegians, and one was Belgian. The rest were from the English speaking world - two New Zealanders, 13 Australians, 359 Canadians, 1,641 Britons and, most decisively of all, 2,500 Americans.
After the disastrous Suez crisis in 1956, it fell to Harold MacMillan as UK prime minister to move Britain from the Age of Empire to the Age of Europe.
But his attempts to take the United Kingdom into what was then called the Common Market fell foul of General de Gaulle's famous vetoes.
 Harold MacMillan spoke of the strained relationship with France |
Twice Monsieur Non listened politely to Britain's plea, and twice he slammed the door.
De Gaulle saw in British membership the Trojan Horse of American imperialism in Europe.
After Algeria won its independence from France in the early 1960s, de Gaulle was fond of saying that he had not granted freedom to one country only to sit by and watch France lose its independence to the Americans.
MacMillan, in old age, spoke ruefully of France's almost psychotic relationship with its Anglo-Saxon allies.
France, he said, had made peace with Germany, had forgiven Germany for the brutality of invasion and the humiliation of four years of occupation, but it could never - never - forgive the British and Americans for the liberation.
French anti-Americanism has a long pedigree. The 18th Century philosophers of the European Enlightenment believed the New World to be self evidently inferior.
They spoke - and wrote, prolifically - of the degeneration of plant and animal life in America.
They believed America had emerged from the ocean millennia after the old continents; and that accounted for the cultural inferiority of civilisations that tried to plant themselves there.
Self-liberation
I was living in Paris when France celebrated the 60th anniversary of its liberation.
 In Paris the French Resistance received back-up from US soldiers |
I went to the beaches of Normandy on the 60th anniversary of D-Day and watched veterans assembling one last time, old men, heads held high, marching past blown up photographs of themselves as young liberators.
France's ambivalence - the same neurosis that Harold MacMillan spoke of - was evident.
Paris launched a series of events to mark the 60th anniversary of its own liberation in August 2004.
The city's mayor had given the celebrations the title Paris Se Libere! - Paris Liberates Herself!
One of the newspapers published a 48-page commemorative issue. There was no mention of the allies until page 18.
Building a myth
An English friend of mine, in town that weekend, had remarked how empty Paris felt in August, the month the city empties out as its residents head for their annual sojourn in the countryside.
"I see," he said "that Paris was liberated in August. I guess the Parisians didn't find out about it till September, when they came back."
Again - ouch. The caustic Anglo-Saxon wit stings.
 President Sarkozy has taken his country back into the Atlantic fold |
It stings because the tale that France told itself after the war was built around a lie. Paris se libere.
The words were first spoken by de Gaulle himself at the Hotel de Ville on the evening of 25 August 1944.
Paris had been liberated by her own people, he declared, "with the help of the armies of France, with the help and support of the whole of France, that is to say of fighting France, the true France, the eternal France."
France knew, in its heart, even in 1944, that that was not true. It took until the 1980s for a generation of historians properly to re-examine the darkest chapter of France's 20th Century history.
When I was living in Paris, it struck me that Sarkozy - not yet president - had the potential to be France's first post-Gaullist leader.
His enemies called him "Sarkozy the American" in the hope that this would make him unelectable. It did not work.
And now he has taken his country back into the Atlanticist fold.
It seems to me another step in a long journey, in which France - in its mature, disputatious, entrenched democracy - is growing reconciled to the history that is now challenging the myths.
Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7942086.stm
Terror struck at the heart of cricket when masked gunmen attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Five cricketers, including Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, and his deputy Kumar Sangakkara, received minor injuries. The attack also left six security men and two civilians dead.
Ijaz Butt, the PCB chief, said the Test has been called off. Salman Tasheer, the Punjab governor, said a helicopter will soon evacuate the Sri Lankan players from Gaddafi Stadium and take them to a nearby airbase from where the team will fly back to Sri Lanka. Duleep Mendis, the Sri Lanka Cricket chief, said that they were "getting the team back [to Sri Lanka] today".
Mahinda Rajapakse, Sri Lanka's president, condemned the attack and asked foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama to fly to Pakistan to oversee the evacuation of the Sri Lankan players.
There have been terror strikes on the peripheries of cricket, but this is the first time players have been directly targeted. The Sri Lankans were on their way to the Gaddafi Stadium when their bus was attacked by five armed terrorists near Liberty market. Habibur Rehman, chief commissioner of police, said 12 masked terrorists fired at the Sri Lankan team bus. The gunmen shot at the wheels of the bus and also injured the driver. A grenade was also thrown at the bus but it missed.
Jayawardene received a cut to the ankle while Sangakkara was injured in the shoulder. Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paravitarana were the ones most seriously injured; Samaraweera received shrapnel in the leg and Paravitarana in the chest. Ajantha Mendis received shrapnel in the neck and scalp.
"The bus came under attack as we were driving to the stadium, the gunmen targeted the wheels of the bus first and then the bus," Mahela Jayawardene told Cricinfo. "We all dived to the floor to take cover. About five players have been injured and also Paul Farbrace [a member of the support staff], but most of the injuries appear to be minor at this stage and caused by debris."
Sangakkara told CNN-IBN that "all the players are out of danger". "We are shocked, but apart from that everyone is okay. Thilan [Samaraweera] has a shrapnel wound in his leg, but he is fine. [Tharanga] Paranavitana had shrapnel in his chest, but thank God it wasn't very deep and just on the surface.
"I had shrapnel injuries in my shoulder, but they have all been removed and I'm okay now. Ajantha [Mendis] had shrapnel in his neck and scalp, but he too has had medical attention and is fine. Everyone else is perfectly all right.
"It's very unfortunate that this has happened... I don't regret coming here to play cricket because that's what we have been doing all our lives. That is our profession. But... all we want to do now is to go back home to our families, get back home and be safe," he said.
Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, confirmed that the remainder of the tour had been cancelled. "We note with dismay and regret the events of this morning in Lahore and we condemn this attack without reservation.
"It is a source of great sadness that there have been a number of fatalities in this attack and it is also very upsetting for the wider cricket family that some of the Sri Lanka players and one match official have been injured in this attack. At this time our thoughts and prayers are with the injured people and also the families of those who have died."
Television footage of several gunmen creeping through the trees, crouching to aim their kalashnikovs then running onto the next target were aired by Pakistan's private channel Geo.
Chamra Ranavira, third secretary and press secretary at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Islamabad, said Samaraweera and Paranavitana had been admitted to hospital, but were out of danger now. "We are communicating with the Pakistan Cricket Board and the high commission has taken action to send the cricket team back home as soon as possible," he said.
The reserve umpire Ahsan Raza was also injured in the attack. Nadeem Ghauri, the TV umpire, who was traveling in a bus behind the Sri Lanka team bus said the firing continued for some time. Umpire Steve Davis, who was on the team bus, called the terrorist attack "terrible". "I'm lost for words," he said.
Speaking from Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya said that it was an "extremely unfortunate incident. "We've never had this kind of problem," Jayasuriya told CNN-IBN. "They are all safe, that's the good news I got when I spoke to Kumar. I don't think they'll stay back and play. I think they will come back as soon as possible. Depends on the injuries."
Speaking on Geo TV, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain, said: "This is the first time that a cricket team has been seriously targeted... Pakistan's image will be hit and only time will tell how much damage has been done to Pakistan cricket. The World Cup too might be affected... no country would want to come now to Pakistan... I am worried where Pakistan will get a chance to play, not only in Pakistan but outside as well. This is all so sad."
The Indian cricket board, which called off a scheduled tour of Pakistan last December, expressed its sorrow over the attack. "We pray for the speedy recovery of the injured cricketers, and sympathise with their families and compatriots," BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan said in New Delhi. "The BCCI stands alongside Sri Lanka Cricket in this hour of crisis."
The Sri Lankan team had stepped in after the Indian government had barred the Indian team from touring Pakistan after the terror attack in Mumbai.
Link : http://content-www.cricinfo.com/pakvsl/content/story/393212.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
In the end the pitch won. Pakistan created late excitement by knocking out five top-order wickets but they didn't have enough time to pull off the minor miracle. After four-and-a-half dreary days dominated by the bat, the game sprang alive in a dramatic fashion on the final evening when Umar Gul and Danish Kaneria struck in rapid succession to leave Sri Lanka struggling at 120 for 5. Thilan Samaraweera and Prasanna Jayawardene however, pulled the shutter down with some cautious batting to ensure there would not be any further drama.
The final day began with all the attention centered on whether Younis Khan would go past Brian Lara's record of 400 not out, but he couldn't. He fell after adding only seven runs to his overnight score of 306, cleaned up by Dilhara Fernando. But Kamran Akmal continued Pakistan's strong reply on the flattest of pitches, scoring an unbeaten 158 to give Pakistan a 121-run lead.
There was little to play for when Sri Lanka began their second innings, and they even altered the batting line-up, sending Dilshan ahead of Jayawardene. But some careless cricket put them in discomfort.
Umar Gul lifted Pakistan with an early strike, inducing an edge from Malinda Warnapura. Tharanga Paranavitana missed out for the second time in this game, run out by a direct hit from Yasir Arafat. The Pakistan seamers bowled with more purpose, and sent down several short balls. Dilshan pulled one such bouncer from Gul straight to deep square leg.. Jayawardene turned Danish Kaneria lazily straight to short leg and Sangakkara was caught in front, trying to play across the line.
Younis began the day 31 runs short of Hanif Mohammad's 337, the highest individual score by a Pakistan batsman. He started slowly, nudging around, but was surprised by the movement from Fernando. The ball landed short of a length outside off stump before cutting back in quickly to beat the defensive poke and crashed into the off stump.
As Younis walked back, he was congratulated by most of the Sri Lankan fielders. Pakistan sighed in disappointment but Brian Lara's fans in the Caribbean would have been relieved. Younis batted for 836 minutes, the third longest Test innings in terms of minutes behind Hanif (970) and Gary Kirsten (878).
Akmal carried on unperturbed, helping himself to an easy century on the batting paradise. Sri Lanka relaxed after Younis left and bowled an assortment of irregular bowlers like Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratane Dilshan, Malinda Warnapura and Mahela Jayawardene. Akmal scored 98 runs off the irregular bowlers and reached 158 off only 184 balls before Younis finally declared on 765.
Despite the late excitement, it was a predictable and a just result on the placid pitch. Neither team finished their first innings completely and had to declare - not the perfect advertisement for the longer version of the game, especially considering that this was Pakistan's first home Test in 16 months. The attention now shifts to the second Test, starting on March 1 at Lahore.
Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinfo
Link : http://content-www.cricinfo.com/pakvsl/content/story/392143.html?CMP=OTC-RSS
