daryllorette's webcam video September 8, 2011 01:33 AM

Publisher of The National Enquirer to file for Ch 11

(Reuters) – American Media Inc, publisher of The National Enquirer, said it will file for a prepackaged bankruptcy in about two weeks to cut debt and improve cash flows.

In a statement, the company said that more than 80 percent of its bondholders had supported a debt-for-equity restructuring plan and that it plans to emerge from bankruptcy in less than 60 days.

"The reorganization should not affect American Media's operations. Publications will function seamlessly, staff will be unaffected by the reorganization and customers should not notice any difference during the 60-day process," Chief Executive David Pecker said.

In prearranged bankruptcies, companies and their creditors agree on a reorganization plan prior to the filing, finding it an efficient way to get through the court process.

Companies that make prepackaged filings are often able to exit court protection in 30-90 days.

"Carmo" a Brazil road-trip movie not worth taking

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – "Carmo, Hit the Road" takes the road-movie concept to grungy extremes.

Writer-director Murilo Pasta's Brazilian feature concerns two troubled characters -- Carmo (Mariana Loureiro), desperate to escape the clutches of her backwater town and repressive Catholic mother, and Marco (Fele Martinez), a paraplegic smuggler who, after saving her from a violent lowlife, reluctantly lets her hitch a ride in his ramshackle truck.

Shot in the least picturesque highways and back roads of Brazil and Bolivia, the episodic film depicts the pair's run-ins with an endless amount of bad guys, most of whom are as much interested in raping at least one of the two as in stealing their merchandise. Along the way, the mismatched pair develops a burgeoning if uneasy relationship, not the least reason for which is that they find themselves in a life-threatening situation every few minutes.

Although the characters display intriguing aspects -- Marco is the rare screen paraplegic seriously capable of kicking butt, and Carmo is not above exploiting her potent (and amply displayed) sexuality -- the story line runs out of gas long before they do.

To enliven the proceedings, the filmmaker resorts to stylistic tricks, ranging from the color-saturated cinematography of the bleak landscape to the cutesy explanatory captions that show up onscreen with the introduction of new characters. Less appealing is the frequent display of gross bodily functions, including enough vomiting to induce similar reactions from viewers.

The charismatic leads display an undeniable chemistry, but it's not enough to offset the overall shallowness of the proceedings. The First Run Features film opened in limited release on October 15.

Conservatives ahead in Colombia vote

BOGOTA — Conservatives were on track to keep their majority in Colombia's congress, early results showed Monday, as US ally President Alvaro Uribe's government complained the count's slow pace undercut the vote's credibility.

With 93.8 percent of polling stations reporting, the parties that make up Uribe's ruling coalition received more than 53 percent of the vote, compared to 15.8 percent for the main opposition Liberal Party, according to the results.

With the legislative elections out of the way the parties were expected to turn to the business of choosing candidates for the May 30 presidential election.

Former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos, 58, appeared strengthened in his bid to become the conservative standard bearer after his Social National Unity Party, a strong Uribe backer, led the vote count with 25.17 percent.

Besides Santos, other conservatives vying to succeed Uribe were ex-foreign affairs minister Noemi Sanin, 61 and former senator German Vargas Lleras, 48.

Opposition presidential hopefuls include Rafael Pardo, 47, an economist and former defense minister from the once-powerful Liberal Party, and Gustavo Petro, 50, a former senator, ex-M19 guerrilla and economist from the leftist Democratic Alternative.

Uribe's ruling Conservative Party and its allies were widely expected to firm up their majority in both chambers of Congress, despite 12 pro-Uribe legislators being convicted on charges linked to right-wing paramilitary death squads.

Polls closed in Colombia late Sunday, following a largely peaceful day of balloting that allowed 29.8 million registered voters to pick 102 senators and 166 House members.

The manual vote count, beset by what was described as "grave" communication problems, was proceeding slowly, and final results were not expected soon.

"We are requesting that the (electoral board) do whatever it possibly can to take essential steps to make possible swifter tallying in national voting," the Interior and Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The slow pace of the vote count Monday "is generating serious political tensions" and "throws into question the legitimacy of the process," the statement warned, noting that could only bode ill ahead of the coming presidential vote.

But the elections were by historical measures on the uneventful side.

"These are the most peaceful elections we have had on our national territory in the last 25 years," said General Orlando Paez Baron, a security official.

Observers warned that the main threat to the election's credibility was vote-buying.

"The most sensitive issues... is not violence, but rather vote-buying," Organization of American States observer mission head Enrique Correa told AFP.

He said voters in the northern Bolivar region were paid for their votes inside the polling station.

The Conservative Party, also part of the ruling coalition, was trailing the National Social Unity party with 20.63 percent of the vote, according to the latest early results.

The pro-Uribe National Integration Party, some of whose candidates have been linked to former paramilitary groups, was the surprise of these elections, rising to become the fourth most-voted party with 8.14 percent.

The leading opposition Liberal Party was netting 15.83 percent of the vote, results show.

Leftist opposition force the Alternative Democratic Axis brought in 7.62 percent.

The Radical Change party of former Uribe ally German Vargas Lleras drew 7.98 percent of the vote.

The Green Party saw a surge in its support to 4.77 percent. It now has five Senate seats up from zero.

The Uribe administration is the top regional US ally in the fight against drug trafficking and attempts to contain the influence of leftist-populist President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

Under Colombian law, Uribe, who already has served two terms, cannot stand for reelection.

Despite being hugely popular for shepherding the country's economy to a strong performance and cracking down on the FARC, his bid for a third term was blocked by a Constitutional Court ruling.

William Broyles Jr. to adapt "Edgar Sawtelle"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Screenwriter William Broyles Jr., who was Oscar-nominated for "Apollo 13," will adapt the bestselling novel "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" for Universal Pictures.

Based on the novel by David Wroblewski, the story centers on a mute teenager, who, after the mysterious death of his father, runs away into the backwoods of Wisconsin with three of the extraordinary dogs his family raises and trains.

Universal picked up the rights to the 2008 novel last year. Tom Hanks and his Playtone partner Gary Goetzman are producing, while Oprah Winfrey and Kate Forte are producing via Harpo Films.

Broyles worked with Playtone on "Castaway," "Apollo 13" and "The Polar Express." Other credits include "Flags of our Fathers," "Jarhead" and "Unfaithful."

Three charged over Egypt Coptic attack

NAGAA HAMMADI, Egypt — Egyptian police on Saturday charged three men with premeditated murder over the shooting deaths of six Coptic Christians in a Christmas Eve attack, a judicial source said.

North Qena prosecutor has charged the three suspects with "premeditated murder, putting the life of citizens in danger and damage to public and private property," a judicial source said.

Police arrested the three on Friday after the shooting in the southern town of Nagaa Hammadi in which six Coptic Christians and one Muslim policeman were killed.

The alleged gunmen, all Muslims, raked pedestrians with gunfire along a stretch of road that houses two churches and many shops in an attack that sparked sectarian clashes in neighbouring villages.

On Saturday, police also announced the arrest of 20 Muslims and Christians in the neighbouring town of Bahgura, where Christian houses and shops had been set on fire the day before.

Wednesday's attack in Nagaa Hammadi was the deadliest since 20 Copts were killed in sectarian clashes in 2000, also in southern Egypt.

Copts, who account for up to 10 percent of Egypt's population of 80 million, complain or routine harassment and systematic discrimination.

In the capital on Saturday, around 600 people demonstrated against the sectarian clashes in the south, brandishing placards denouncing "the shocking silence of the authorities" and demanding "security for all Egyptians."

A judicial source said a group of Copts, Muslims and opposition Kefaya members had also filed an official complaint against the security services, accusing them of failing to protect religious buildings.

9-11 named 'defining moment' of 21st century's first decade

OTTAWA — A new survey suggests the first decade of the new century will be remembered for one cataclysmic event - the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

A Canadian Press-Harris Decima poll finds 43 per cent of Canadians naming the attacks as the defining moment of the decade, twice as many who chose the election of America's first black president in 2008.

Pollster Doug Anderson says 9-11 is the one event that Canadians likely remember exactly where they were when it occurred.

And he says it is a moment that still impacts Canadian lives today since it directly led to the war in Afghanistan, where Canadians still are fighting.

Canadians named social networking the technological innovation of decade, and the police procedural, CSI, the decade's top TV show.

Iraq sends forces to oil well seized by Iran

BAGHDAD — Iraq deployed security forces Saturday near a remote oil well seized by Iran, officials said, and its government pressed Tehran to withdraw its forces from the area along their disputed southern border.

U.S. officials applauded Iraq for standing its ground against Iran — an uneasy ally that analysts said was aiming to remind its neighbor of its economic and political pull in its takeover of the oil well Thursday. The site is located in one of the largest oil fields in Iraq and has about 1.5 billion barrels in reserves.

The standoff was a dramatic display of the occasionally tense relations between the two oil-rich nations that fought an eight-year war in the 1980s but now share common ground in Shiite-led governments.

"Again, we ask Iran to be committed to the good relations that they announced with Iraq and its nation, and to withdraw its forces immediately," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiyah TV. "This is the demand of Iraq, and we call Iran to be committed with that."

Iran, however, appeared undeterred.

In a statement, the Iranian military denied it violated Iraq's sovereignty and cited a 1975 border agreement in claiming the oil well as part of Iran's territory.

"Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran," the Iranian military said in a statement to Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.

Iraqi army and police reinforcements were sent to a staging ground about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from well No. 4 at the al-Fakkah oil field, according to two Iraqi officials close to the site. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

One of the Iraqi officials said Iranian soldiers came and went from the oil well throughout Saturday. They were gone by the evening, leaving behind an Iranian flag mounted at the well, the official said.

The oil field, parts of which both countries claim as theirs, is located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear how many troops were involved, and Iraqi forces barred journalists from approaching the area.

The standoff spurred an emergency meeting of Iraq's national security council and high-level diplomatic talks between Baghdad and Tehran. U.S. officials, already worried about Iran's growing influence in the region, praised what they described as Baghdad's quick but measured response to the dispute.

"It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told reporters.

Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, said he would use "diplomatic and technical mechanisms" to soothe tensions. And a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry accused foreign media of trying to "disrupt good relations" between Tehran and Baghdad.

Experts said it is doubtful that Iran is seeking to provoke Iraq, its only other Shiite-led ally in the Middle East.

Instead, Iran appears to be reasserting its place as having the world's second-largest oil reserves at a time when Iraq is looking to cash in on their own, said Alex Vatanka of the Mideast Institute, a Washington think-tank.

Oil fields along the disputed border have been frozen for years because of Iraq's longtime inability to entice investors to drill. Iraq is planning to open some oil fields over the next decade and has held two rounds of bidding this year — the first since the war — to develop some sites. Al-Fakkah was among three fields that were combined in one offer in the first round of bidding in June, but the proposal fell through.

At the same time, Iran's leaders may be feeling more isolated as the result of its domestic political unrest and international disapproval of its nuclear program.

"They are not looking for conflict — this is their way of projecting power," Vatanka said. "They are saying, 'Because we're isolated, because we have internal problems, it doesn't mean you can go in here and sign a deal on an oil field that is very close to our border without consulting us.'"

Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, albeit tenuous, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. military officials say Iran continues to fund and train fighters in Iraq and send weapons and equipment over the border — although less frequently now than in the past.

Adm. Mike Mullen, America's top military official said the oil well incident must be resolved between Iran and Iraq, and there were no plans by the United States to intervene.

In Baghdad during a two-day visit to Iraq, Mullen said Saturday that he remains worried about Iran's influence in the Middle East.

Associated Press Writers Anne Gearan and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Miss World: Gibraltar's Kaiane Aldorino crowned

JOHANNESBURG — Kaiane Aldorino from Gibraltar was named the new Miss World at a glittering two-hour pageant that put South Africa in the spotlight and featured traditional dancers and drummers.

The leggy brunette, dressed in white-lace evening gown, was crowned as silver confetti rained down onstage around her. She clapped her hands to her mouth when her name was announced.

"I have no words," she said when asked to describe how she felt. "I am really happy."

The 23-year-old administrative clerk from the British territory on the tip of the Iberian peninsula was a crowd favorite after winning the swimsuit competition.

She joined seven other contestants in the final round of the show. The loudest cheers were reserved for Miss South Africa, Tatum Keshwar who was the second runner-up.

First runner-up was Miss Mexico, Perla Beltran Acosta.

Aldorino did not give an indication of what her immediate plans were now that she had won the prestigious title.

"I will try to do the best that I can now that I have opportunity and advantage," she said in a brief interview with The Associated Press after the event.

Gibraltar, known as The Rock, is a quirky, multicultural British outpost of 30,000 people, most of whom speak perfect Spanish and even own property along Spain's southern Mediterranean coast. An estimated 12,000 people cross over from Spain daily to work and many more to visit.

Spain ceded sovereignty of Gibraltar to Britain in a 1713 treaty, but has persistently sought its return, claiming the territory as a natural and historic part of its geography. The outcropping is in the Strait of Gibraltar, for centuries a strategic waterway linking the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Wearing her crown of tiny jeweled blue flowers, Aldorino said had been impressed with South Africa, which was hosting its seventh Miss World final.

"It has a lot to offer," she said.

South Africa is taking advantage of the world's attention as the country gears up to host the World Cup in June.

Saturday's show, which was televised across the world, gave a taste of South Africa's rich cultural heritage and natural attractions.

The 112 contestants were welcomed at the start by Zulu dancers and the ululating African female performers. There were clips from the finalists time in South Africa — showing the beauties cuddling cheetahs and lions, on pristine white beaches and even playing soccer.

"It is a wonderful opportunity for South Africa to showcase that they can host a world-class event and also a great tourist opportunity to show off the best that South Africa has in store," Keshwar said.

Netanyahu: Building halt proves Israel wants peace

JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister on Sunday criticized the Palestinians' rejection of his West Bank settlement freeze, saying it raised questions about their commitment to peace.

Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the freeze, while painful, shows the world that Israel is serious about pursuing a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu announced the 10-month freeze on building new homes in West Bank settlements in an attempt to restart peace talks, which broke down a year ago.

The Palestinians say the Israeli move is not genuine, since it does not include east Jerusalem or 3,000 homes already under construction in the West Bank. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem as parts of a future independent state. They say they will not resume talks until all settlement construction ceases.

While failing to please the Palestinians, the settlement freeze has also infuriated Jewish settlers and their backers in Netanyahu's hard-line coalition. In new unrest Sunday, police said they were pelted with eggs when they tried to enter the settlement of Kedumim in the northern West Bank to search for unauthorized construction.

Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu noted that he had met with settler leaders last week to try to ease tensions.

"This is not an easy decision for them (the settlers), it is not an easy decision for us," he said. "The decision was taken because we see it as serving the wider interests of Israel and today it is also clear — to whomever it was not yet clear already — who wants peace and who today is acting as if they are opposed to peace. The state of Israel wants peace in the clearest possible sense."

Seeking to calm the concerns of Israeli hard-liners, Netanyahu repeated his stance that the freeze is a "one-time, temporary decision," and that construction will continue in full afterward. "This suspension is for its stated timeframe and not beyond. In the Cabinet decision, we made it clear that upon the conclusion of the period of suspension, construction will resume," Netanyahu said.

Some 300,000 settlers live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Jewish Israelis living in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed soon after.

The settlers have been struggling to regain their strength since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, uprooting all 8,000 settlers who were living there.

The settlers perceive the construction freeze as a betrayal by Netanyahu, a former ally. At the same time, they are wary of being portrayed as violent extremists.