Hollywood pros to launch online video site

When it debuts Tuesday on the Web, My Damn Channel will become the latest attempt by Hollywood professionals to cash in on the huge popularity of online video.

Comedian Harry Shearer, filmmaker David Wain and music producer Don Was, among others, also hope to find creative freedom seldom offered by traditional media companies.

The site is the brainchild of former MTV and CBS Radio executive Rob Barnett, who believes Internet audiences want to see professionally produced shows other than network TV fare.

"The old media companies don't know how to program for this medium," Barnett said. "There is a focus on reruns and outtakes, and I don't think that cuts it."

Shearer, who provides the voices for several characters on "The Simpsons" TV show, will produce a weekly political and pop-culture satire show for the site. Was, who has produced records for Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Bonnie Raitt, will host a music interview show with actor Paul Reiser.

Wain, writer and director of the upcoming film "The Ten," starring Jessica Alba and Paul Rudd, will produce 10 comedy shorts.

Barnett points to the buzz created by the Will Ferrell video "The Landlord," which helped launch Ferrell's Web site, "FunnyorDie.com," as an example of video Web opportunities.

According to the site, the video has been viewed more than 40 million times.

My Damn Channel will syndicate its videos on other Internet sites and collect revenue from advertising. The site has already signed a distribution deal with YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc.

The site is backed by Okapi Venture Capital. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Jupiter Media analyst David Card said there is a growing demand for amateur and professional video on the Web.

Still, even videos from pros must find an audience, which can be difficult without an enormous amount of promotion.

"You still need to cut through the clutter and sign some major distribution deals," Card said.

Shearer said the Web provides huge creative opportunities when compared to traditional networks and studios.

"If you walk into any of those places today, you will sooner or later be smothered by network creative input," Shearer said. "And unless you have made the studios about a billion dollars, your project will be creative inputted to death."

Gates sees no Google threat in phone software: report

Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates does not see Google Inc. becoming a successful competitor in the market for software for cellular phones, the New York Times reported on its Web site on Monday.

Gates told the Times it was unlikely that Google would be able to make inroads into Microsoft's share of the market for mobile phone software.

"How many products, of all the Google products that have been introduced, how many of them are profit-making products?" the Times quoted Gates as saying.

"They've introduced about 30 different products; they have one profit-making product. So you're now making a prediction without ever seeing the software that they're going to have the world's best phone and it's going to be free?" the paper quoted him as saying.

Google has been reported to be preparing to enter the cell phone market with its own software, the paper said. Microsoft has about 10 percent of that market, it said.

"The phone is becoming way more software intensive," Gates told the Times. "And to be able to say that there's some challenge for us in the phone market when its becoming software-intensive, I don't see that."

Microsoft and Google could not be reached immediately for comment.

King Khan Turns Hockey Coach

King Khan Turns Hockey Coach

Salam To The Great Indian Spirit!

This August 15 Shah Rukh Khan turns patriotic, more than ever, as he says ‘salam’ to Indian spirit with Chak De India — a first of its kind film based on our humble national game Hockey। King Khan plays a hockey coach who cheers up, boosts morals of an all-women hockey team that’s out to win the world cup।

Lets Prove, India Can Win!

No one has ever thought of making a film on Hockey in this nation of cricket-crazy fans. Shah Rukh says that its his effort is to bring into the limelight our national game and tell the world, we are very proud of it.

India Shining

Chak De India will hit the theatres on 10 August. The movie will have its world premiere on 9 August at Somerset House in London. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, has said, "It is a great honor for London to host this launch event for a film, which, like so many Bollywood blockbusters, will touch the hearts and minds of millions across the world."

Shah Rukh Plays a Muslim Coach

King Khan grew beard especially for this role to fit into the character of a Kabir—a Muslim coach in the film। He looks hefty and muscular as ever। In fact Shah Rukh Khan fans just can’t wait to see him in an all-new look, jazzy T-shirts and toned up muscles।

Leading An All-Women Team

A real-life goal-keeper, Lalhmingkimi Khiangte, is one of the 16 players of the low-profile Indian team that coach Shah Rukh Khan leads to World Cup victory on the silver screen। Shah Rukh plays former Indian goalkeeper Mir Ranjan Negi, who fell from the grace after conceding seven goals against Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games final, after which he was dropped from the side।

Killer of actress stabbed in prison

SAN FRANCISCO - The man convicted of stalking and killing actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 was stabbed repeatedly by another inmate in the prison where he is serving a life sentence, corrections officials said.

Robert John Bardo, 37, suffered 11 stab and puncture wounds Friday at Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County, authorities said. He was treated at University of California, Davis, Medical Center and returned to the prison, officials said.

"We have a number of high-notoriety cases, so we cannot jump to the conclusion as to whether his notoriety was a factor in the attack," said prison Sgt. Chris Weathersbee.

The slaying of Schaeffer, a former teenage model who co-starred in the 1980s sitcom "My Sister Sam," helped prompt anti-stalking laws. She was shot when she answered the door of her home in Los Angeles.

According to trial testimony, Bardo, then 19, was obsessed with Schaeffer, and sent her letters and tried to visit her. He obtained her address through a private detective, who got it from the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Bardo was housed in a maximum-security unit for inmates with sensitive needs, including former gang members, notorious prisoners and those convicted of sex crimes.

State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said he was stabbed in the prison yard while inmates were on their way to breakfast. Two inmate-made weapons were found at the scene. The suspect in the attack was identified as a man serving an 82-years-to-life sentence for second-degree murder.

China seizes 18,000 fake Viagra pills in raids

Chinese police have seized more than a ton of fake drugs for impotence, bird flu and malaria, including at least 18,000 fake Viagra tablets, state media reported on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Public Security, which launched the national crackdown on counterfeit goods in 2005, announced 10 of its top cases ranging from fake drugs to fake toothpaste on Tuesday, the Xinhua news agency said on its Web site.

More than 30 people were detained on suspicion of either making or selling the drugs.

Police in the eastern province of Zhejiang raided a gang making counterfeit Viagra and selling the tablets to 12 countries, including the United States and Holland, it said, adding that a total of 18,000 pills were seized.

In Guangdong, police had arrested 12 people and seized 1 ton of fake drugs and two production lines and large quantities of raw materials for making "sildenafil citrate," the scientific name of Viagra.

Police detained 19 suspects and shut down six factories in May last year for making fake Tamiflu, a bird flu drug, and selling it to the United States via the Internet, the agency said.

In April last year, police cracked a ring making and selling pirated toothpaste across the country and arrested five suspects, it said.

Chinese media report on scandals involving substandard or fake drug and food almost every day, and the issue burst into the international spotlight when tainted additives exported from China contaminated pet food in North America.

Public fears about food safety grew in China in 2004 when at least 13 babies died of malnutrition after they were fed fake milk power with no nutritional value.

Fake degrees prompt crackdown on online diplomas

South Korean police said Thursday they are questioning 13 private institute teachers and examining the academic qualifications of thousands of others, in a crackdown on forged degrees.

Police said the 13 in Daegu, 220 kilometres (136 miles) south of Seoul, were suspected of buying forged degrees through online diploma brokers.

"An investigation into private institute teachers is under way in Seoul and other big cities," a National Police Agency spokesman told AFP.

The crackdown came after Shin Jeong-Ah, a director of South Korea's largest contemporary art festival, the Gwangju Biennale, was found in early July to have forged her US university degrees.

A week later South Koreans were stunned again by the news that the host of a popular radio programme which taught English had forged her degrees from a British university.

Police are examining the academic records of some 3,000 private institute teachers in southern Seoul after reports that brokers sold forged degrees online for 1.5 million won (1,643 dollars) each.

Shortcomings in South Korea's state educational system, including a failure to teach English conversation and a reliance on rote learning, prompt students to enrol for expensive extra-curricular tutoring.

Kebab shop murder jury still out

The jury in the trial of a takeaway boss accused of killing a schoolgirl and joking she had "gone into the kebabs" has resumed its deliberations.

Iyad Albattikhi, 29, is accused of having sex with Charlene Downes, before she was "chopped up" and disposed of. No trace of the 14-year-old from Blackpool has ever been found.

The trial, now in its tenth week at Preston Crown Court, has heard Albattikhi owned Funny Boyz fast food shop in Blackpool.

Charlene was one a number of young white girls said to have had sex with older men who worked in the town's fast food shops.

Charlene spent her time hanging around shops on the Blackpool Promenade and was last seen on the early evening of Saturday November 1 2003.

After kissing her mother goodbye she went off on her own - and vanished off the face of the earth, the jury has heard.

A missing persons inquiry began, but police later launched a murder investigation after information "leaked out" that the girl had been "killed and chopped up".

Police bugged the defendant's flat and gathered tapes where he is alleged to have talked about having sex with Charlene, killing her and the body being eaten.

Albattikhi, a Jordanian immigrant, denies murder. His business partner and landlord Mohammed Reveshi, 50, originally from Iran, denies helping to dispose of the body.

Both men told the court they never knew Charlene.

The jury was sent home until Wednesday when it will resume its deliberation.

Troubled Lindsay Lohan arrested for drunk-driving again

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Lindsay Lohan was busted for drunk driving and drug possession on Tuesday, just days after completing an alcohol treatment program following her arrest in May for similar charges, police said.

The 21-year-old Hollywood star of "Georgia Rule" and "Herbie Fully Loaded" was pulled over by officers in Santa Monica early Tuesday and booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.

Lohan -- who has been voluntarily wearing an alcohol monitoring bracelet since completing rehab on July 13 -- was released after posting 25,000 dollars bail, police added.

Lieutenant Alex Padilla told a news briefing Lohan was arrested after being involved in a high-speed chase with the mother of her personal assistant.

"She was chasing after another car," Padilla said. "The other car was being driven by the mother of her personal assistant, who had just quit her job earlier ... probably about a couple of hours before the incident occurred.

"She was trying to catch the mother of her personal assistant. Why she was trying to catch her, we don't know," describing the woman being chased by Lohan as "afraid."

Police searched Lohan after she was taken into custody and found a small amount of cocaine in her possession, Padilla said. She was later charged with drug possession.

Padilla that Lohan's blood alcohol level was between 0.12 and 0.13, well above California's legal limit of 0.8.

Lohan's representative Leslie Sloane declined to comment on the arrest but a statement from the actress's lawyers said she was undergoing treatment at a medical facility Tuesday.

"Addiction is a terrible and vicious disease," said lawyer Blair Berk, adding that he had been made aware Lohan suffered a relapse late on Monday but was now "safe, out of custody and receiving medical care."

Lohan, who starred in the 1998 film "The Parent Trap" and 2003's "Freaky Friday", was arrested in May after crashing her Mercedes in Beverly Hills and was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and of possession of illegal drugs.

Lohan is due to appear in court August 24 to face those charges.

Tuesday's arrest is the latest twist to hit Lohan, who has steadily become more famous as a paparazzi target rather than her work in movies.

She was arrested on May 26 after smashing her black Mercedes into a curb in Beverly Hills before later being charged with driving under the influence.

Within days, Lohan had enrolled in a detox program at the Promises rehabilitation center in Malibu.

It was her second stint in rehab of 2007; she was admitted for treatment in January after reportedly being discovered passed out in a hotel corridor following the Golden Globes awards.

Within 24 hours of completing her latest spell in rehab however she was seen partying at famous Las Vegas nightclub Pure.

But Sloane issued a statement saying that Lohan's only tipple was a non-alcohol energy drink.

The statement said Lohan would also wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet in order to squash speculation about whether she was drinking whenever she was photographed at night-spots.

Photographs of Lohan wearing the bracelet, a bikini and high heels, appeared in celebrity press on Monday.

Lohan's party-going lifestyle has been a source of constant tension in her professional life.

During filming of "Georgia Rule" last year, studio boss James G. Robinson took the unusual step of releasing a public letter to the actress criticizing her conduct after she complained of "heat exhaustion."

"You have acted like a spoiled child and in so doing have alienated many of your co-workers and endangered the quality of this picture," Robinson fumed.

New HIV infections outpace treatment

SYDNEY, Australia - Access to life-extending HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries has improved during the past three years, but new infections still dramatically outpace efforts to bring treatment to patients, health officials said Monday.

Three years ago, fewer than 300,000 people in the developing world were receiving the anti-retroviral drugs that help treat the virus. Last year, 2.2 million people in developing countries received the drugs, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"However, for every one person that you put in therapy, six new people get infected. So we're losing that game, the numbers game," Fauci told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

In many parts of the developing world where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still growing exponentially, effective prevention strategies — such as condom distribution, needle exchanges and basic education about the disease — reach less than 15 percent of the population.

"The proven prevention modalities are not accessible to any substantial proportion of the people who need them," said Fauci, one of the keynote speakers at the Fourth International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Sydney, Australia, which runs through Wednesday.

"Although we are making major improvements in the access to drugs, clearly prevention must be addressed in a very forceful way," he added.

According to recent World Health Organization statistics, only 28 percent of the world's HIV/AIDS patients are receiving anti-retroviral drugs.

Dr. Brian Gazzard, chairman of the British HIV Association, said that while great advances have been made in extending access to anti-retrovirals, the disease is still running rampant in parts of Asia and Africa.

"The HIV epidemic is essentially uncontrolled, uncontrolled in Africa, uncontrolled completely in Asia right now," he told reporters at the conference, which has drawn 5,000 delegates from 133 countries. "The epidemic still is in an exponential growth phase ... and I think that is likely to continue."

Sex education creates storm in AIDS-stricken India

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Moves to bring sex out of the closet in largely conservative India have kicked up a morality debate between educators who say sex education will reduce HIV rates, and critics who fear it will corrupt young minds.

It's an emotive issue pitting modernists against conservatives in a country with the world's highest number of HIV cases at about 5.7 million, a figure that experts say may balloon to over 20 million by 2010.

Biology teacher Thelma Seqeira infuriates conservatives in India every time she tells her students about masturbation, condoms and homosexuality.

Seqeira is doing exactly what India's federal government wants the country's 29 states and seven federally-administered regions to do -- fight the exponential spread of HIV/AIDS with information on safe sex.

"Sex education is the best way to prepare my students for adolescence and protect them from HIV/AIDS," said Seqeira, who teaches at a private school in Maharashtra state, western India.

But the governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh don't agree. They have banned sex education at public schools because they say the learning modules are too explicit, and some pictures are too graphic.

Private schools are able to continue the lessons, but many have watered them down to avoid controversy.

The southern states of Kerala and Karnataka -- considered among India's progressive states with high literacy rates -- are also considering bans.

The Indian government has been unable to stop these bans even as it seeks to curb the spread of HIV. In India, about 86 percent of HIV infections occur through sexual intercourse, one key reason being that migrant workers in cities visit prostitutes and infect their wives when they return home.

KAMA SUTRA

Ignorance about sex is widespread in the land of the Kama Sutra, where explicit sex acts are celebrated in ancient temple architecture.

But at home, mothers hesitate to talk to daughters about something as simple as menstruation, and even the basics of the human reproductive system are taught with much embarrassment in schools.

Experts are calling for a change in prudish attitudes to help counter the spread of HIV/AIDS. They say the winds of change must first blow through the country's schools.

"Sex education does not mean you are encouraging sex which is how it's interpreted," Renuka Chowdhury, India's minister for women and child development, told Reuters last month.

"Sex education is an insurance for your child. It will protect your child."

Among the course elements that have generated much heat are discussions on homosexuality and descriptions of sex acts, including masturbation.

Proponents of the ban say the sex education course -- modeled on those taught in many Western countries, will make students imbibe "decadent western morality."

They point to polls showing that an increasing number of young people -- mostly India's moneyed youngsters that live in cities -- have postponed marriage, but not sex.

An India Today poll revealed one in four Indian women between 18 and 30 in 11 cities had sex before marriage. One in three said she was open to having a sexual relationship even if she was not in love.

"AIDS is spreading because of cultural decadence and sexual anarchy," said Shajar Khan, a prominent student leader who opposes sex education at schools.

Analysts say conservative political parties, such as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, India's main opposition group, are panning sex education courses at least partly to make political capital out of opposing the West.

But for parents bringing up children in rapidly modernizing India, sex education may be a matter of life and death.

"The argument that if you teach about sex the children are going to run out and have sex is very unfounded," said Roshni Behuria, a mother of two girls.

"Killing the education bit won't reduce the propensity towards sex. But it just might end up killing safe-sex ignorant young people."

Restored Saturn V rocket unveiled

HOUSTON - Dwarfed by the Saturn V rocket's immense size, 10-year-old Adam Brauscum stood in awe as his father described how such massive machinery carried man to the moon.

"It's so big," Adam said earlier this week as visitors around him snapped photographs of the newly refurbished rocket. "It's hard to imagine that took men to the moon."

The Saturn V on display outside Johnson Space Center for two decades would be 30 stories high if stood upright. But the rocket, one of the most powerful ever built, was no match for the city's stifling humidity. A two-year, $5 million restoration was culminating in reopening ceremonies Friday — 38 years to the day after men first walked on the moon.

The rocket, which is already open to visitors, is now housed inside a climate-controlled, barn-like building near the entrance to the space center. Posters alongside the rocket's different sections explain their function to visitors.

Former astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the moon in 1969 on the Apollo 12 mission, said preserving the rocket was important because it is a symbol of America's success in space exploration and the country's innovative spirit.

"It's inspirational to look at it and think that human beings just like us conceived it, designed it and built it," he said. "It shows human beings at their best."

Saturn V rockets were launched 13 times from 1967 to 1973. Eight missions traveled to the moon, and six landed there. A Saturn V also put Skylab, America's first space station, into orbit in 1973.

Houston's moist air and rain began rotting the aluminum underside of the Johnson Space Center rocket, which is on loan from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum collection. Owls and other animals moved in to the gaping holes left by rust, mold and mildew.

"It was in poor condition and it was getting much worse," said Allan Needell, curator of the Apollo Collection at the National Air and Space Museum. "It was to the point where if we didn't intervene now, future attempts to save it would require replacing a lot of the original materials. We wanted to save as much of the original material as possible."

The rocket never launched because its mission, Apollo 18, was canceled. It is one of only three on display, the others being at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"Probably nothing really symbolizes the uniqueness of scale and enterprise involved with the space program as much as the Saturn V rocket," Needell said. "It would be tragic if people could understand the scale of it only through pictures or movies. There is nothing like looking at the real thing."

Int'l space station ticket price climbs

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - When it comes to complaining about poor exchange rates for the U.S. dollar, American tourists traveling to Europe have nothing on tourists headed into space. The cost of flying to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship has increased from $25 million earlier this year to $30 million. Trips planned in 2008 and 2009 will cost $40 million.

"It's mostly because of the fallen dollar," Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, said Wednesday. His company brokers the trips with Russia's space agency.

A U.S. dollar currently is worth about 25 1/2 Russian rubles, compared with 32 rubles in 2002.

Five space tourists have paid $20 million to $25 million to visit the space station via the Soyuz vehicles through trips arranged by Space Adventures. The company announced Wednesday that two more Soyuz seats have been purchased for tourists to fly in 2008 and 2009.

Anderson said the space tourists flying in the two new seats likely would be an American and an Asian, but he offered no details. Prospective space tourists must put down a 20 percent deposit, pass physical examinations and later undergo training at a Russian space facility.

About a dozen prospective space tourists are in the process of reserving flights to the space station, even as the number of available seats on the three-man Soyuz vehicles is likely to diminish after space shuttles are grounded in 2010.

NASA is going to rely on the Soyuz vehicles to deliver astronauts to the space station between the end of the shuttle program in 2010 and the expected first manned flight in 2015 of the next-generation spacecraft, Orion, which NASA hopes takes astronauts back to the moon by 2020. Additionally, the three-member space station crew, consisting of U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, is expected to double in size in 2009.

"We're certainly working out ways to get more seats," Anderson said. "With the competition at that point, it becomes more difficult."

Xbox 360 repairs will cost Microsoft $1B

SEATTLE - In another setback for Microsoft Corp.'s unprofitable entertainment and devices division, the company says it is planning to spend at least $1 billion to repair serious problems with its Xbox 360 video game console.

Microsoft declined to detail the problems that have caused an onslaught of "general hardware failures" in recent months but said Thursday it will extend the warranty on the consoles to three years.

The glitches, and the bad publicity, could weigh the company down as it claws for market share in the highly competitive console market. In May, the Xbox 360 ranked No. 2 in unit sales behind Nintendo's Wii, but still beat out Sony's Playstation 3, according to data from NPD Group.

"We don't think we've been getting the job done," said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, which also makes the Zune digital music player, a distant competitor to Apple Inc.'s powerhouse iPod. "In the past few months, we have been having to make Xbox 360 console repairs at a rate too high for our liking."

Bach said the company made some manufacturing and production changes that he expects will reduce Xbox 360 hardware lockups, but he declined to identify the problems or say which others might remain. Microsoft said it will record a charge of up to $1.15 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, to cover the additional costs associated with the warranty extension.

The news comes just days before the video game industry descends on Santa Monica, Calif., for its annual E3 conference, and it could overshadow Microsoft's plans to build buzz for holiday season video game releases and "Halo 3," a much-anticipated shoot-'em-up for the Xbox 360 set to launch in September.

The software maker also said Thursday that sales of the game console fell short of expectations for the fiscal year that just ended.

Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the independent research group Directions on Microsoft, estimates that Microsoft's entertainment and devices division has lost more than $6 billion since 2002.

Microsoft has written down larger amounts in the past — more than $10 billion in the late 1990s related to investments in telecommunications companies, and more than $5 billion related to antitrust issues — but a $1 billion write-down for one division in one quarter is significant.

"It suggests the problem is pretty widespread," Rosoff said.

Microsoft will pay for shipping and repairs for three years, worldwide, for consoles that experience hardware failure, which is usually indicated by three flashing red lights on the front of the console, something gamers sometimes refer to as "the red ring of death."

This isn't the first time Microsoft has made changes to the Xbox 360 repair plan. Last December, the company extended the warranty from 90 days to one year for U.S. customers. In Europe, the warranty previously expired after two years.

Microsoft also will reimburse the "small number" of Xbox 360 owners who have paid for shipping and repairs on out-of-warranty consoles, Bach said.

In June, bloggers speculated that the Xbox 360 return problem was getting so severe that the company was running out of "coffins," or special return-shipping boxes Microsoft provides to gamers with dead consoles. "We'll make sure we have plenty of boxes to go back and forth," Bach said in an interview.

Chris Liddell, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said in a conference call that the company sold 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles since the product's November 2005 launch, missing a target for 12 million units by the end of the fiscal year.

Xbox 360 prices range from $299 to $479, depending on their configuration.

Microsoft's entertainment and devices division reported an operating loss of $315 million on $929 million in sales for the three-month period that ended in March. Microsoft has said it expects the division to post a profit in fiscal 2008.

Microsoft announced the warranty extension after markets closed Thursday. Microsoft shares fell 11 cents to $29.88 in extended trading after falling 3 cents to $29.99 in the regular session.