Deepa Mehta to shoot Midnight's Children in Sri Lanka

Oscar nominated director Deepa Mehta and multi-award-winning author Salman Rushdie's screen adaptation of his extraordinary multi award-winning international bestselling novel Midnight's Children will commence shooting in Sri Lanka in January 2011.

Shabana Azmi, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Nandita Das, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Seema Biswas will star in the English language film.
The film is being shot in Sri Lanka because Mehta has sworn off India following her nightmare experience shooting Water at Varanasi locations. Water was subsequently shot in Sri Lanka. But Midnight's Children could yet run into problems because in the late 1990s the BBC was planning to film a five-part mini-series of the novel with Rahul Bose in the lead, but due to pressure from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, the filming permit was revoked and the project was cancelled.

Mehta and Rushdie have been working together on the screenplay for the past two years. International sales agents FilmNation are handling the film and have already concluded distribution deals with E1 in the UK and UGC in France.

FilmNation CEO Glen Basner said, "At once epic, comic and magical, Midnight's Children conjures images and characters as rich and unforgettable as India herself. It's a wonderful project and we are humbled that we have been chosen to represent it."

Midnight's Children is the riveting personal story of Saleem, and his changeling twin Shiva, who are both born right at midnight on August 15, 1947, just as India gained its independence from the British Raj. We learn about other children born close to Independence Midnight who, like Saleem, possess special powers and can communicate with each other telepathically. He is not alone. The lives of all the Midnight's Children are magically tied to the fate of Mother India. Saleem grows up in the shadow of the Raj, in a former British compound. His romantic nature (and his ability to "dial up" his Midnight's Children comrades telepathically) keeps him afloat. Then shattering revelations about his true identity and a forbidden love send him spinning. Wars and terrible hardships overwhelm Saleem and the other Midnight's Children but through it all, a bruised and hard-earned sense of hope and renewal is restored.

Midnight's Children won both the 1981 Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. It was awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. Midnight's Children is also the only Indian novel on Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels since it's founding in 1923.

Mehta said of her passion for the novel, "I am intrigued by epic stories with complex people who have many layers and secrets, and tricks up their sleeves. This great novel of Rushdie's is one of the most famous examples of this kind of generous storytelling, and had an instantaneous appeal for me."
Speaking of his relationship with Mehta, Rushdie said, "Deepa asked me who had the rights to Midnight's Children, and I told her that I did. She said "Can I do it?" and I said "Yes." When asked why this was a such quick, sure decision for him, "Because her work has great beauty, and I always follow the passion."

Midnight's Children is produced by David Hamilton with Executive Producers Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding from Echo Lake Entertainment and Steven Silver and Neil Tabatznik from Blue Ice Entertainment.

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Facebook to add own e-mail service - report

Facebook is expected to unveil a revamped set of communications services that will include an e-mail system in which users will have addresses with the facebook.com suffix, two people briefed on Facebook's plans told the New York Times. Facebook has invited reporters to a press conference on 15 November, but has refused to say what it plans to announce. The company declined to comment on any unannounced communications services.

Facebook already offers an online chat service and an internal message system between Facebook users. The new communications services would not be meant to be used on their own, like other e-mail systems. Instead, they would be tightly coupled with Facebook's other services.

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West cannot defeat al-Qaeda, says UK forces chief

The West can only contain, not defeat, militant groups such as al-Qaeda, the head of the UK's armed forces has said. General Sir David Richards, a former Nato commander in Afghanistan, said Islamist militancy would pose a threat to the UK for at least 30 years.

But he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show a clear-cut victory over militants was not achievable. The BBC's Frank Gardner said the comments reflect a "new realism" in UK and US counter-terrorism circles.
Our security correspondent said such an admission five years ago might have been considered outrageous and defeatist.

'Secure lives'
Before he was due to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph as part of the UK's Remembrance Sunday commemorations, Gen Richards told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show it was important to get the balance of remembrance right.

"It's something we've got to be very careful about... there's a lot of dwelling on death as opposed to what those people who have died achieved in their sadly too often too brief lives, but those people have done immense things that are good and I think we need to focus a bit more on that," he said.

Britain has lost 343 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001.

But Gen Richards told the BBC it was not possible to defeat the Taliban or al-Qaeda militarily.

"You can't. We've all said this. David Petraeus has said it, I've said it.

"The trick is the balance of things that you're doing and I say that the military are just about, you know, there.

"The biggest problem's been ensuring that the governance and all the development side can keep up with it within a time frame and these things take generations sometimes within a time frame that is acceptable to domestic, public and political opinion," he said.

He said extremist Islamism could not be eradicated as an idea.

"I don't think you can probably defeat an idea, it's something we need to battle back against as necessary, but in its milder forms why shouldn't they be allowed to have that sort of philosophy underpinning their lives.

"It's how it manifests itself that is the key and can we contain that manifestation - and quite clearly al-Qaeda is an unacceptable manifestation of it," he said.
 

Security lapse

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy told the BBC Gen Richards was "right" that there was no purely military solution and said there would be "no white flag surrender moment".
Gen Sir David Richards Gen Sir David Richards is currently head of the British army

"This is a complicated issue. It will be for the long haul. It's got to do with history.

"But I think he's right to talk about the different ways that this has got to be taken on - militarily yes but diplomatically and in a peaceful sense of nation building in Afghanistan is also important," he said.

Former British Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, agreed warfare had entered a new era and needed the support of development programmes.

"In conventional wars, you talk about winning and losing.

"What we're trying to do here is succeed sufficiently to put Afghanistan as a sufficiently stable state that can look after itself and doesn't become ungoverned space into which al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups could reoccupy," he said.

Gen Richards comments came as the Foreign Office apologised to a group of MPs after a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan had to be called off because of a security lapse.

Next week's visit by members of the Commons defence select committee was cancelled after an unencrypted e-mail was sent out by an embassy official in Kabul, prompting fears that the MPs' safety may have been compromised.

The Foreign Office said it would be trying to rearrange a visit for the MPs.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have offered our apologies for this regrettable lapse in our procedures and have assured the committee that we will do all we can to arrange a successful visit in the future."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11751888

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Private Leisure International Enters Sri Lanka

Private Leisure International is now ready to establish its presence in Sri Lanka. To fill up its portfolio, the company is now inviting villa owners to list their villa. However, acceptance is subject to strict quality control.



 

Focusing itself in providing privacy as the sixth star to 5-star luxury accommodation, Private Leisure International (PLI) has been successfully deliver businesses to villa owners in key Asian tropical destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Lombok, Koh Samui, Krabi, Vietnam, and Malaysia.



Quality control is the key to its success in attracting up-market holiday makers which traditionally is the captive market of 5-star resort hotels, a success which then turns into lucrative business feeder for property owners. By establishing professional management as required by PLI, villa owners are making lucrative income in addition to price gain of their property investment.



Its rapid expansion program is now bringing PLI to Sri Lanka. The company is preparing itself to offer its

holiday rental clients private villa accommodation in the destination blessed with both historic heritage as well as natural beauty. Apparently, the key offerings are similar to other Asian tropical destinations: sea, sand, and sun. But Sri Lanka has even more than those.



Villa owners are invited to list their property in PLI''s portfolio and include them in all relevant online marketing instruments managed by the company. In addition to websites dedicated solely for Sri Lanka villas, the company also manages creative cross-destinations online marketing programs involving hundred of websites.



Running business in multiple destinations allows PLI to enjoy huge cross-destination market directed to villa owners it represent. It is its key distinction that make the company different from local villa rental players.

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Colombo under water after record rain

COLOMBO, Thursday 11 November 2010 (AFP) - Floods following the heaviest rains in 18 years brought parts of Sri Lanka's capital to a standstill on Thursday, officials said.

Boats were deployed by the navy to help marooned residents and police said thousands of houses were under water but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Telephones and Internet connections were also downed through lightening damage and the authorities shut most public schools and also cancelled a national examination for school children.

Several vehicles were stuck in flooded streets causing traffic chaos.

The met department said 435 mm (17.12 inches) of rain fell on the capital within 14 hours overnight making it the worst since June 1992, when 497 mm of rain fell.

"Heavy rains are due to intermonsoonal activity and we can expect more rain," met chief G. D. Samarasinghe said.

Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation but the seasonal downpours frequently cause loss of life and damage to property in low-lying areas.

The island's two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February and rains in between are called inter-monsoon activity.

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Leading mobile phone makers lose market share

The Galaxy S from Samsung (right)
and Apple's iPhone 3G,
being demonstrated in South Korea

The world's leading mobile phone makers are losing market share to non-brand manufacturers, according to research. Analysts at Gartner say smaller, Asian companies accounted for a third of worldwide handset sales in July, August and September. Nokia is still the biggest seller of mobiles, followed by Samsung and LG.

Meanwhile, Google's Android operating system has sharply increased its share and is now the second most popular mobile operating system after Symbian.

Rising Sales

Gartner says 417 million phones were sold globally during the period - an increase of 35% from the year before.

All of the large manufacturers, except Apple, lost market share to companies that make handsets without a brand.

Apple leapfrogged Research In Motion, which makes Blackberry, to fourth place.

"White-box manufacturers continued to expand their reach outside of China into markets such as India, Russia, Africa and Latin America," said Carolina Milanesi from Gartner.

"We firmly believe this phenomenon will not be short-lived as we still see a continued need for non-3G devices."

China's Huawei and ZTE increased their share of sales, as did HTC of Taiwan.

The number of phones which use Google's Android operating system has been rising rapidly, challenging established rivals.

Android was on 25% of all phones sold during the period, overtaking Microsoft Windows Mobile and Apple's iOS.

Last year, the equivalent figure was 3.5%.

"Google is maintaining a fast pace," said the Gartner report. "Each version brings new features and polish to Android, and the level of innovation is a major innovator."



Courtesy : BBC

Top mobile phone makers

• 1. Nokia


• 2. Samsung


• 3. LG


• 4. Apple


• 5. Research In Motion

Source: Gartner

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SRI LANKA CO-HOSTS ICC WORLD CUP 2011

In 2011 Sri Lanka will host the world’s most prestigious event in the cricket calendar, the International Cricket Council World Cup. The games played in February and March will take place in stadiums located in the colonial capital, Colombo, the Southern coastal city of Hambantota and the ancient capital, Kandy. Sri Lanka is currently 2nd in the world cup rankings, closely followed by England in 5th place. As potential favourites to go through to the Quarter and Semi Finals, the England cricket team may have the opportunity to play at one of these venues.

The R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo is the county’s largest cricket ground, which is capable of holding 35,000 cricket fans. The Pallekele Stadium in Kandy is capable of holding 25,000 visitors. The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa, Hambantota is being built exclusively for the ICC world cup in order to increase the capacity of Sri Lanka’s stadiums. Sri Lanka will host a total of twelve matches in these three venues raising Sri Lanka’s profile amongst international sport hosts.
 In celebration of this event, the Sri Lankan Tourism is planning to offer special promotional packages to cricket lovers. The packages include accommodation and ground transportation including domestic scenic air travel to the matches in Hambantota and Kandy from Colombo for day and extended tours at the visitor’s request. The packages will include stays in the Mahoora Luxury Safari Camps in the wilderness. Guests can also stay in nearby Yala National Park which has the highest concentration of Leopards in the world, only half an hour by car from Hambantota. In these safari camps, guests will experience life in the jungle in a luxury setting with themed evening meals. The newly launched webpage with the ‘Visit Sri Lanka
2011’ branding includes further details of the packages on offer to visitors at http://www.srilanka.travel/cricket.

The island will provide the perfect backdrop to the ICC world cup as cricket is Sri Lanka’s national sport. The world cup which first began in 1975, taking place every four years has had nine editions to date. 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the event which is set to be one of the largest celebrations to date.





      

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