Singer Chris Brown ordered by Los Angeles judge into 90 days of rehab

A Los Angeles judge on Wednesday ordered R&B singer Chris Brown to complete a 90-day substance abuse and anger management program, capping a probation hearing that followed the Grammy winner's assault charge in Washington, D.C., last month.
The judge also requested more information about the arrest to determine whether the 24-year-old singer had violated the terms of his probation. Brown was placed on five years' probation as part of his 2009 sentence for assaulting fellow R&B singer and girlfriend Rihanna.
He also was ordered then to perform 180 days of community service and undergo domestic violence counseling. In addition to the latest order for rehab, Brown will have to serve at least 24 hours of community service a week, submit to periodic drug testing and take prescribed medication, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Brandlin ordered.
The singer responded "yes" when the judge asked if he accepted the modified terms of probation. While Brown is to remain in Los Angeles County, the judge said the performer would be allowed to travel to Washington for court dates related to the assault charge, the next of which is set for Monday.
Brown pleaded not guilty in October to misdemeanor assault stemming from an incident in which police said both he and his bodyguard both punched a man in the face outside a Washington hotel, where Brown had a nightclub appearance.
The singer served a voluntary two-week stay in a rehabilitation facility for anger management after his arrest. Brown has had several highly publicized altercations in recent years, including a brawl between his entourage and that of rapper Drake at a New York night club and a parking lot fracas with R&B singer Frank Ocean in January in West Hollywood.
Brown's probation was revoked in May in relation to a hit-and-run traffic accident. It was reinstated in August after he agreed to complete 1,000 additional hours of community service.
In February, he was accused by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office of cutting corners in this community service sentence, which he was allowed to complete in his home state of Virginia.
Prosecutors alleged that Brown was not at the recorded location of his community service but was instead performing or traveling, once on a private jet bound for Cancun, Mexico. Judge Brandlin set the next probation hearing for Dec. 16.

Harry Potter and the philatelists' moan

His own letters arrive by owl but the character of Harry Potter is now at the centre of a row involving some of America's most influential philatelists. The US Postal Service is releasing 100 million stamps featuring the boy wizard, his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and a myriad monsters and villains created by J K Rowling.
But the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, which was set up 56 years ago and helps the postal service decide what to put on America's stamps, is outraged. Its members recently walked out of a meeting and wrote a letter of complaint to the Postmaster General, saying they had not been consulted.
Their ire has been stirred by a number of factors including that Harry Potter is a British rather than American creation and that the stamps feature stills from the Potter films rather than illustrations. Opponents of the decision to use Potter believe it is symptomatic of a move towards celebrities featuring on stamps in place of national parks and bucolic scenes.
The Postal Service suffered losses of $5 billion (pounds 3.1 billion) last year and is hoping to use stamp sales to recoup some of that, including encouraging younger collectors such as Harry Potter fans. Its most popular release came two decades ago when it put Elvis Presley on a stamp.
John Hotchner, former president of the American Philatelic Society and a former committee member, told the Washington Post: "Harry Potter is not American. It's foreign, and it's so blatantly commercial it's off the charts. The Postal Service knows what will sell, but that's not what stamps ought to be about."
The Postal Service said: "Harry Potter's story begins when he receives a letter and a visitor that change his life. The stamps capture the magic of Harry's world." A spokesman added: "We are excited about the future of stamps in America." 

Madonna named highest-paid musician by Forbes

Pop star Madonna has pipped the likes of Lady Gaga to the title of highest-paid musician in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
The 55-year-old earned $125 million from June 2012 to May 2013 thanks to her sell-out MDMA Tour, while Gaga earned $80 million, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
Rockers Bon Jovi and country singer Toby Keith take the third and fourth spot in the list, with Coldplay occupying the fifth place.
The top ten was rounded out by Justin Bieber ($58 million), Taylor Swift ($55 million) and Elton John ($54 million), followed by Beyonce Knowles and Kenny Chesney, both of whom brought home $53 million each.

Industry insiders say collections figures of Krrish 3 are exaggerated

A leading financial paper reported: Krrish 3 is fastest film to enter Rs200-cr club with its box-office collections putting in shade Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express.
A reputed weekly national magazine said: The film has beaten the lifetime collection of Ek Tha Tiger and 3 Idiots, thus becoming the second highest grosser of all time after Chennai Express.
A website of a news channel claimed: According to trade, the film has entered the Rs200-crore club thanks to its collections in India alone.
Truth? “No,” says a trade analyst who doesn’t wish to be named. The Roshans’ latest film (now running in its third week) has upset Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman Khan as the trade figures given out are inflated and K3 is being touted the highest domestic Bollywood grosser of all time.
While the fact is that while the figures are correct they are gross figures, not net (like the Khans’ films) and also these figures include earnings from Hindi, Tamil, Telugu versions. While the figures of the three films named are net collections, only Hindi and only national. So if you calculate Krrish 3’s collections that way, the net figure is at Rs183 crore (only in Hindi) and Rs194 all three languages in India till Tuesday.
Says an industry source, “The Roshans were in a hurry to prove that Krrish3 broke all records including Aamir’s 3 Idiots (Rs 202 crore), Salman’s Ek Tha Tiger (Rs197.14 crore) and Chennai Express (Rs 227 crore). CE remains the all-time highest grosser and also the highest opening day grosser in India.”
Rakesh Roshan says, “Till Tuesday the all India net collection was Rs237 crore while the international was Rs54 crore. I don’t know about Krrish 3 breaking the records of Chennai Express but I know my figures and I feel elated. We have put in so much of honesty and sincerity in the film. I am sure other films will break our records too but that doesn’t matter. It gives me an incentive to make better films, that’s all.”
Reacting to the accusation that the box-office figures are not as accurate as they have been presented, Roshan says, “I’m not in a position to fudge the figures by Rs40-50 crore. People don’t know the exact figures but I get all the figures from all over India in the morning. People just go by assumptions and know only 70% box-office while I know 100%. We opened at 4,300 screens.”

Zopo's ZP998 octa-core smartphone retails for just US$300

(Credit: Zopo)

Claiming to be the world’s first eight-core smartphone running on MediaTek’s Octa-Core 6592, the Zopo ZP998 from the Chinese manufacturer has now been listed on the Zoposhop e-commerce portal.

While Zopo is no Xiaomi, the manufacturer offers a smartphone that, spec-wise, is comparable if not more impressive than Xiaomi’s Mi-3 and even the Samsung Galaxy S4. Zopo has managed to keep the device at a price tag of US$300 for the 5.5 inch, 9.1mm thin phablet. The ZP998 sports a full-HD display with a pixel density count of 404ppi and is also the first of its kind to support full-HD, HEVC/H 265, and Google VP9 video compression standards for improved media playback.

Photo junkies will be glad to see that the ZP998 supports a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

Zopo’s eight-core smartphone is powered by the 1.7GHz Cortex-A7 8-core processor devised from MediaTek and AMD’s partnership. While the high-performance processor can provide superior performance compared to that of competing smartphones, it’s up to the app developers to take advantage of the eight-core chip. Without octa-core optimized apps, the ZP998 with the eight-core processor is technically speaking, a battery-saving smartphone but not much else.

The ZP998 has the standard 2GB of RAM found in most top-tier smartphones today, and packs a Mali-450MP4 GPU that clocks in at 700 MHz. The device comes with 32GB of internal memory, but can be expanded to 64GB through a microSD slot. The ZP998 looks to be a great gaming device.

Packing a 2,400mAh battery, Zopo says its handset has a standby time of 270 hours thanks to the octa-core chip, but we'll have to wait for a review unit to judge the battery life for ourselves.

While the octa-core processor is the centerpiece of Zopo’s latest smartphone, the ZP998 manages to stand on its own based on both specs and price.

AC Milan eyeing shock Balotelli/Lukaku Chelsea swap deal

A sensational transfer swap deal involving Mario Balotelli and Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku could still come to fruition, with reports suggesting that AC Milan may be open to such a deal.

Portuguese newspaper A Bola cites reports from France which suggest that Jose Mourinho is still following Balotelli after becoming frustrated with the efforts of Demba Ba, Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto'o at Stamford Bridge.

The same reports suggest that Lukaku is a player who would be appreciated by AC Milan and that the Serie A giants have not closed the door on a potential swap.

20-year-old Lukaku - who recently helped Belgium to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - was not deemed surplus to requirements by returning Chelsea manager Mourinho during the summer and was subsequently sent to Premier League rivals Everton on a season-long loan deal.

Such a move proved unpopular with Chelsea fans and Lukaku has since given Mourinho cause for considerable regret by netting five goals in nine games under Roberto Martinez at Goodison Park.

Balotelli, meanwhile, moved to AC Milan from Premier League title hopefuls Manchester City back in January.

The controversial Italian frontman - who is renowned for his off-field antics as well as his penalty box prowess - has had mixed success back in his native land, scoring an impressive 15 league goals but also seeing his temperament again called into question.

This is not the first time Balotelli has been linked with a switch to Chelsea, with AC Milan boss Massimiliano Allegri having dismissed such speculation only last month.

Going ahead: Government elaborates privatisation methodology

Minister of State for Commerce and Textile Industry Engineer Khurram Dastagir Khan addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday. PHOTO: PID

ISLAMABAD: 

The government has decided to consider the future revenue streams of public entities in the price determination methodology for privatisation purposes, as heavy losses incurred by the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) have reduced chances of getting a good price if reliance was only made on traditional benchmarks.

The government will not use a simplistic evaluation methodology for determining the prices of entities which will be offered for privatisation, as it will also consider future streams of payments, said Minister of State for Privatisation, Engineer Khurram Dastgir while addressing a news conference. He added that the government has the requisite expertise for evaluating public entities for privatisation.

It was for the first time that any senior government functionary openly appeared to sell the government’s privatisation policy in a bid to address increasing concerns about the prospects of selling about three dozen entities, and the future of their employees.

The accumulative losses of PSM and PIA have increased to Rs358 billion, said the minister. PIA’s accumulative losses are Rs250 billion, while the PSM’s accumulative losses stand at Rs108 billion, he added.

Dastgir said the government does not have the resources to make the necessary investment in PSM and PIA.

“These institutions cannot be run in the present condition, and, if the bleeding continues, the coming governments will not have resources to meet social obligations,” said Dastgir, while reiterating his government’s commitment to the privatisation policy.

He said that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) had in the past years approved 65 entities for privatisation.  The government has identified 10 to 12 entities that will be offered either for strategic partnership or be taken to the capital markets in the first phase, said Dastgir.

He said these entities will be placed before the CCI again and a meeting will be called shortly. Dastgir said the first phase of privatisation will be completed within a year.

In response to a question, Dastgir maintained that CCI’s past decisions were legally intact unless the newly-constituted CCI decides to revisit them.

The Privatisation Commission (PC) Board will decide to hire financial advisors in the next month for the identified entities, said the minister. These advisors will be responsible for evaluating each entity, said Dastgir, but added the board could disagree with their evaluation and ask them to work out the base price again. He said the appointments of financial advisors and commitment to reforms were critical for the success of the privatisation process.

The IMF has also imposed a condition on the government to appoint six financial advisors in this fiscal year.

He said the government decided to transfer 26% of the shares along with the management control of the entities where applicable. “It is not privatisation but a public private partnership to stop hemorrhaging,” he added.

Dastgir said the availability of liquidity in any particular sector will determine the numbers of transactions in that sector.

“The IMF’s interest was not what steps the government takes rather it were concerned about whether the government was taking right steps to make sure that Pakistan returns its loans on time”, he added.  He said the IMF has found the PSE’s losses to be the largest black hole in the budget