| Business News |
Markets await Bernanke as central bankers gather
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke tackles financial stability in a key speech on
Friday but economists doubt he will provide solid clues about
future policy action to calm the credit crunch.
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Fannie and Freddie debt gains, deep share dive abates
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Investors' growing belief in the
likelihood of a federal bailout of home-funding giants Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac triggered a rally in the
debt prices of the two companies on Thursday while a steep fall
in their shares prices abated.
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Oil up 5 percent on global tensions, soft dollar
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Oil prices rose nearly 5 percent on
Thursday, the biggest percentage gain in more than two months,
driven by rising tensions between the United States and energy
behemoth Russia.
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Three big banks settle with NY state over ARS
(Reuters)
Reuters - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
on Thursday said Merrill Lynch & Co Inc , Deutsche Bank
(DBKGn.DE) and Goldman Sachs have agreed to settlements
regarding their auction rate security sales practices.
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FINRA probes 40 firms on auction rate securities: source
(Reuters)
Reuters - Financial industry enforcement agents
will review the auction-rate debt operations of about 40 firms
industrywide starting next week, sources familiar with the
investigation said on Thursday.
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Trends & Innovations - Wednesday
(Investor's Business Daily)
Investor's Business Daily - The proportion of working-age Americans facing medical debt rose to 72 mil or 41% last year, up from 58 mil or 34% in '05, according to a new survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund. About half of those facing health debt have up to $2,000 in bills, while 12% have more than $4,000 in debt and another 12% have more than $8,000. The survey also found most of those with medical debt said they had exhausted their savings, with some also tapping into credit cards, home equity or cutting back on food or heat to cover health care costs.
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| "Brideshead" not worth revisiting - 22, Jul 2008 |
By Michael Rechtshaffen
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Brideshead Revisited," the acclaimed 1981 miniseries starring Jeremy Irons, is coming to theaters on Friday courtesy of Miramax and the director of "Becoming Jane."
A solid cast and striking production values add Merchant Ivory-worthy luster to Evelyn Waugh's examination of class, Catholicism and the pursuit of individualism .
But in distilling the 330-page novel into a two-hour film, director Julian Jarrold, along with screenwriters Andrew Davies ("Bridget Jones's Diary") and Jeremy Brock ("The Last King of Scotland"), have taken some liberties that will likely upset purists and leave others feeling merely unsatisfied.
Although it has its involving moments, the watered-down Waugh fails to make any kind of lasting connection, giving this midsummer counterprogrammer just a moderate shot of scoring with the Brit Lit crowd.
At least on the surface, Matthew Goode ("Match Point") makes for a convincing Charles Ryder, the highly impressionable middle-class atheist who gets in tight with the aristocratic and very Catholic Marchmain family -- first through his close friendship with the swishy Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) and then via a considerably more passionate arrangement with his spirited sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell).
Maybe it's because Ryder is such a reactive character through so much of the film that when he makes the transition from passive observer to decisive man of action in the third act, it proves to be an unconvincing transformation.
There's still something hollow at the core of Goode's performance and the film as a whole that makes it hard to embrace.
Whishaw and Atwell fare better in their corners of this curious triangle, though this edition of "Brideshead Revisited" belongs to Emma Thompson, who, as the Marchmain's coolly controlling matriarch, capably manages to combine a staunch religious morality with a tangible charm and trace of vulnerability.
(c) 2008 Reuters
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| TAGS: Diversified media |
| Other news from Entertainment category: |
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British comedian Steve Coogan's specialty is over-the-top characters. In Britain, he gained notoriety as radio personality Alan Partridge, and in the United States, he currently appears in Hollywood action flick send-up "Tropic Thu
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Disgraced rock star Gary Glitter left Bangkok for London where he is due to arrive on Friday, an airline official said.
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tobacco promotions and depictions of smoking in movies cause teenagers to start smoking, according to a sweeping report on tobacco in the media released on Thursday.
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Disgraced glam rocker Gary Glitter returned to Bangkok on Thursday after Hong Kong barred him from entering following his release from three years' prison in Vietnam for child sex abuse.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Madonna kicks off her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday, the latest test of her enduring appeal just a week after her 50th birthday.
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki of Oscar-winning animated film "Spirited Away" has captured the hearts of Japanese movie goers again, this time with a tale of a mermaid which will soon be seen around the world.
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Disgraced glam rocker Gary Glitter returned to Bangkok on Thursday after Hong Kong barred him from entering following his release from three years' prison in Vietnam for child sex abuse.
More
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood studios are nearing the end of their summer of superheroes with domestic box office receipts expected to roughly match last year's record $4.18 billion sum despite lower movie attendance.
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Disgraced British glam rocker Gary Glitter has been refused entry to Hong Kong after arriving from Thailand where he was also barred, a British foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When she first set foot on a movie set as a child, Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, knew she wanted to be a part of the "family business," even though she didn't fit the image of a Hollywood celebrity.
More
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| Software News |
Microsoft enlists Seinfeld for ad campaign: source
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will star
in a $300 million marketing campaign for Microsoft Corp aimed
at burnishing the image of its computer operating system, a
person familiar with the effort said on Thursday.
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Photosynth Stitches Photos Into a 3-D Web Canvas
(NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - Microsoft's name has never been synonymous with photography, visual imaging or innovative online applications. But its release Wednesday of Photosynth -- a hybrid software/service that allows users to create 3-D environments by stitching multiple photographs together -- suggests the company has more than a few cards up its sleeve.
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Apple tries to de-bug iPhone
(USATODAY.com)
USATODAY.com - Apple acknowledged that a software update for the iPhone partly fixes the connection snags that have caused a global firestorm for the new iPhone 3G.
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Salesforce.com stock drops on cautious outlook
(AP)
AP - Salesforce.com Inc. kept its financial guidance within the range of analyst estimates Wednesday, disappointing investors who expected a more bullish forecast from one of the Internet's most popular software services.
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Microsoft Eases Server-Virtualization Restrictions
(NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - Microsoft has elected to jettison certain licensing restrictions that previously discouraged its customers from moving the software giant's server applications within a server farm at will.
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Google Invites Security Researchers To Debug Android
(NewsFactor)
 NewsFactor - In a move that could help it avoid an iPhone 3G-like software drama, Google wants bug hunters to test its Android mobile platform. On Monday, the Android Security Team posted a message to introduce itself to the security research and vulnerability communities.
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