Whitney Was “Fine” and in “Great Mood” says Ricky Minor, Whitney Houston’s longtime musical director

By Roger Friedman

TrendPK.com: EXCLUSIVE Ricky Minor, Whitney Houston’s longtime musical director, tells me that he met with her on Thursday morning here at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. “She’d just been swimming. It was before 9am. She loves to swim. She had wet hair and she was getting it all over me.”

Minor was getting ready to rehearse Brandy and Monica for a medley of Supremes songs for Clive Davis’s dinner–being held now, only three hours after Whitney’s tragic death. “She stayed, gave the girls advice. She was singing along from the theater. She said, Can I have a mike? And I said No, this is their show,” Minor said, remembering that he was joking. He is in shock he says.

While we spoke, another member of the Davis team came along and said “I spoke to her yesterday. She was fine.” Minor tells me Whitney showed him her athletic arms from swimming, and was “very proud” of her athletic condition. “She said she was very excited about producing Sparkle and wanted to produce more films. It’s unbelievable.”

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European protest controversial pact

 

Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.

 

Some 41,000 people rallied in Germany, including 16,000 in Munich and 10,000 in Berlin, against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was negotiated between the 27-nation European Union and 10 other countries.

 

Many brandishing “Stop ACTA” banners and wearing Guy Fawkes masks — a symbol of hacker-led rallies — the mostly young protestors also braved subzero temperatures to mass in cities such as Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava, Prague, Paris, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius and Vienna.

 

ACTA is awaiting ratification from several governments, but intense opposition led by Internet users has forced some EU states including Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to freeze their ratification process.

 

“We see the suspension of ratification as a victory, but we cannot over-estimate it,” said the vice-president of the Czech Republic s pirate party, Mikulas Ferjencik.

 

In Sofia, more than 3,000 demonstrators marched along major downtown boulevards, booing at the buildings of government and parliament.

 

Shouting “No to ACTA” and “Mafia”, they accused the government of signing the agreement secretly and without consulting the public.

 

In Tallinn, where about 1,500 turned out, lawmakers widened their criticism of ACTA to an attack on the country s leadership.

 

“Estonia s PM Ansip has often demonstrated that government decisions in Estonia are born somewhere in hidden cellars,” charged lawmaker Juku-Kalle Raid, whose party governs with Andrus Ansip s Reform Party.

 

The European Commission meanwhile published a document detailing the negotiation process of the pact, as it sought to defend itself against accusations of opacity.

 

“The EU strongly denies having provided any kind of preferential access to information to any group of stakeholders,” it said.

 

ACTA was signed last year in Tokyo, and aims to bolster international standards for intellectual property protection, for example by doing more to fight counterfeit medicine and other goods.

 

But its attempt to attack illegal downloading and Internet file-sharing has sparked charges that it compromises online freedom.

 

“I am here because I am against censorship on the Internet, against the attempts to limit the freedom of information and against corporate interests which trample on human rights,” Maya Nikolova, 27, told AFP in Sofia.

 

Many Bulgarian musicians were also among the crowd, claiming that they rarely get copyright royalties anyway but were ready to sacrifice whatever little they do earn for the sake of Internet freedom.

 

Meanwhile, some on Facebook chose to protest through blood donations.

 

“Blood is a life-giving power, just as information and ideas are for the web. Join our symbolic way to show that sharing is not a crime but has vital importance,” its organisers said.

 

Besides the EU, other ACTA signatories are Australia, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States.
 

Expat French get internet vote

 

French citizens will for the first time this year be able to vote in a parliamentary election over the Internet, an experiment that could be extended to other elections if successful.

 

Edouard Courtial, the junior minister for French living abroad, told journalists on Friday that French expatriates would be able to choose their 11 MPs by Internet during June s two-round parliamentary vote.

 

The estimated one million French citizens living abroad were previously only allowed to vote in presidential elections but this year they will have 11 deputies representing their interests in parliament, also a first.

 

“Internet voting allows us to overcome the obstacle of distance and to take part in an easy and secure way from one s home,” said Courtial.
 

India probes Google over forex transaction

 

Indian authorities are probing whether online giant Google broke domestic foreign-exchange transactions rules while shifting funds abroad, the Press Trust of India reported on Friday.

 

Quoting unidentified sources, the news agency said India s Directorate of Enforcement, which monitors foreign exchange dealings, has informed Google about the probe.

 

The department is scrutinising the shifting of money by Google to its foreign entities and also its receipt of funds from abroad, the news agency said.

 

Google did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.

 

But the Press Trust quoted a company spokeswoman as saying that Google s tax structure “is compliant with the tax rules in all the countries where we operate”.

 

The reported investigation comes as Google, which employs close to 2,000 people in India, is embroiled in a controversy involving Internet censorship in India.

 

Google and social networking site Facebook said earlier this month they had removed allegedly offensive content on their Indian sites as part of a court case seen as a test for Internet control and censorship.

 

Indian regulations oblige Internet companies to remove material that is “grossly harmful” or “ethnically objectionable”.

 

The two companies have been named alongside another 19 Internet firms in cases being heard in a New Delhi court which will determine whether they can be held responsible for obscene material generated online by users.

 

The groups, including Yahoo and Microsoft, have appealed to the Delhi High Court asking for the case to be quashed on the basis that they cannot be held responsible for the actions of users of their platforms.

 

Communications Minister Kapil Sibal in December pledged a crackdown on “unacceptable” online content, saying Internet service providers had ignored India s demands to screen images and data before they were uploaded.

 

Critics have said such demands cannot be enforced and smack of state censorship.
 

Grammys to be headlined by Rihanna, Chris

LOS ANGELES: Chris Brown will perform at this Sunday’s Grammy Awards for the first time since beating his then girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 on the eve of the music industry’s biggest night, which threatened to derail his music career.

Rihanna also is among the stars performing live at the event, and rumors have flown among fans and celebrity watchers in recent weeks that the pair may be secretly dating again — speculation Brown’s representatives have dismissed.

Grammy organizers said on Tuesday that Brown, who has three nominations including best R&B singer for his album “F.A.M.E.”, had been added to the line-up for the February 12 awards show in Los Angeles.

They said Brown will join Foo Fighters, Lil Wayne, David Guetta and deadmau 5 for a performance highlighting dance and electronica music for the first time on the Grammy Awards show stage.

Organizers said last month that Rihanna, who has four nominations including album of the year for “Loud”, will sing with Coldplay on the Grammy stage.

Brown, 22, has skipped the Grammys since launching a violent attack on Rihanna in 2009, leaving her battered and bruised and Brown in the custody of police.

Brown publicly apologized, admitted to criminal assault in court. A judge sentenced him to five years probation, six months community service and anger management counseling. But his clean-cut image took a major blow.

Rihanna’s career on the other hand soared, and she scored hits with songs like “Man Down” and “Love the Way You Lie”, which dealt with violence against women.

The pair appeared to have gone their separate ways but in recent months, speculation buzzed that they had reunited after they were spotted at the same Los Angeles nightclub and put out a series of cryptic messages on Twitter.

But Brown’s spokesman said in January that Brown and Rihanna were “just friends”. AGENCIES

Software apps help boost US economy

WASHINGTON: The explosion of software applications for smartphones, tablet computers and Facebook has created nearly 500,000 jobs in the United States since 2007, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The study, sponsored by TechNet, a bipartisan organization of top technology executives, found that the “App Economy” employs 466,000 people in the United States.

“The incredibly rapid rise of smartphones, tablets, and social media, and the applications — apps — that run on them, is perhaps the biggest economic and technological phenomenon today,” the study said. “Almost a million apps have been created for the iPhone, iPad and Android alone.

“On an economic level, each app represents jobs — for programmers, for user interface designers, for marketers, for managers, for support staff,” it said.

California tops the list of US states with app-related jobs, according to the study performed by Michael Mandel, a Harvard-educated economist with the consulting firm South Mountain Economics.

One in every four “App Economy” jobs is located in California. New York is the top metropolitan area for app-related jobs although the number of jobs in San Francisco and San Jose, California, combined exceeds those in New York.

Rey Ramsey, president and chief executive of TechNet, said the rise of the App Economy, “demonstrates that we can quickly create economic value and jobs through cutting-edge innovation.

“Today, the App Economy is creating jobs in every part of America, employing hundreds of thousands of US workers today and even more in the years to come,” Ramsey said.

The study dates the rise of the App Economy to Apple’s 2007 introduction of the iPhone and noted that the California gadget-maker’s App Store now offers more than 500,000 applications.

According to a study published in September, the ecosystem of applications built for Facebook alone has created at least 182,000 jobs.

The study by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business said using “more aggressive estimates” the Facebook “App Economy” has created a total of 235,644 jobs.

The Palo Alto, California-based Facebook has 850 million members and tens of thousands of applications have been developed by third parties to run on top of the social network. AGENCIES

Singer, actress Khursheed Mirza’s anniversary today

TrendPK.com
KARACHI: Great singing and acting talent, Khursheed Mirza is being remembered on her death anniversary today (Wednesday).

She was a great film actress and singer in 30’s and 40’s. She acted and rendered her voice in a lot of films in India.

Mirza was born on 4th March 1918  and grew up in Aligarh. It was Mirza’s second film ‘Bhabhi’ which made her famous. Its success led to other films, like ‘Naya Sansar’, ‘Sahara’, ‘Samrat Chandragupta’ and ‘Ghulami’. Working in films, writes Mirza, was the most productive and creative period in her life.

Mirza had no qualms in giving up fame and films at the age of 26, when asked by her husband, a police officer, to join him in Nainital where he was posted.

Neither did she hesitate in going to Pakistan when he decided to migrate in 1947. There, she joined hands with the wife of Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, to help displaced, destitute and traumatized women arriving from India.

Mirza decided to complete her education and went on to do her BA, and then MA, in English in 1963.

She also wrote short stories for prestigious Urdu magazines and plays for Radio Pakistan.

The coming of Pakistan TV in the mid-1970s gave her talent a fresh impetus and made her one of the best-known TV actors of that time having worked in landmark dramas like Uncle Urfi, Parchchain, Zer Zabar pesh and Afshan.

Mirza died in 1989. TrendPK

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SC adopts PM’s plea for hearing on Thursday

TrendPK.com

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court on Wednesday formally adopted for hearing Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s appeal against contempt notice on Thursday, TrendPK reports.

Earlier in the day, PM Gilani appealed against the apex court’s show-cause notice summons to face contempt indictment for his failure to pursue money-laundering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari by writing to Switzerland authorities on court directives.

If convicted of contempt, the prime minister could be jailed for up to six months and disqualified from public office.

Gilani’s lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said he based the appeal on precedents set by top courts in Australia, Britain, France, India and the United States. TrendPK

FIFA pays $250K to families of Egypt riot victims

 

FIFA is giving $250,000 in aid to the families of victims of the Egyptian football stadium disaster last week.

 

FIFA says it will pay the money into a charitable account opened by the Al-Ahly club.

 

Fans of the Cairo club were among more than 70 people who died in a violent rampage and stampede after a league match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in Port Said.

 

FIFA President Sepp Blatter says “many of the victims were so young. They were also a crucial support for their families, who now need help.”

 

Police have been accused of failing to protect Al-Ahly fans, who helped lead protests last year against the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

 

The stadium tragedy fueled renewed protests against Egypt s military rulers.
 

2012 Olympics: UK warns of Internet breakdowns

LONDON: British businesses are being warned of possible Internet breakdowns, data caps and “unavoidable” mobile phone problems during the London 2012 Olympics, in official advice from the Games organizers

In a document on the Games website entitled “Preparing your business for the Games”, the document warns that Internet connections could be lost due to surges in the numbers of people logging on at peak times.

“It is possible that Internet services may be slower during the Games or, in very severe cases, there may be drop-outs due to an increased number of people accessing the Internet,” it warns.

“In addition, Internet service providers may introduce data caps during peak times to try and spread the loading and give a more equal service to their entire customer base. However, this has not yet been confirmed by these ISPs and we hope to have more information nearer to Games time.”

Mobile phone coverage could also be disrupted, the document warns.

“Additional capacity and coverage for mobile phone networks is being put in around Games venues. This will overlay the existing coverage provision and existing customers can expect a ‘normal’ service during Games-time,” it says.

“However, at times of peak demand it is unavoidable that mobile networks may be slowed down by higher volumes of traffic. Voice, email and low-data traffic are unlikely to be affected, but it may be difficult to download larger content such as files or images.”

The government has encouraged London businesses to let staff work from home or stagger their shifts to ease congestion on the transport network during the Games, which will take place from July 27 to August 12.

But more people working at home could lead to the risk of them being less effective due to Internet traffic problems, some experts have warned.

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