Suicide car bomb kills 10 in southwest Pakistan

A suicide car bomber attacked Shia Muslims in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday as they were heading home after morning prayers at the start of an Islamic holiday. The blast killed 10 people, officials said.

The attack occurred in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Baluchistan is believed to be home to many Taliban militants who have targeted Shias in the past.

The bomber was apparently targeting a Shia mosque but could not get close enough because the road was blocked, said Quetta police chief Ahsan Mahboob.

Instead, he detonated his explosives in a parking lot nearby, Mr. Mahboob said.

It is unclear how many of the 10 people killed were Shia worshippers or others who were hit by the blast as they were passing by, said Mr. Mahboob. The blast also wounded at least 17 people and damaged nearby vehicles and buildings, he said.

The attack was a somber beginning to Eid al—Fitr, the Islamic holiday that comes at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. In Pakistan, the three—day holiday started Wednesday while in many other parts of the Muslim world it began on Tuesday.

Many analysts believe Baluchistan is home to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and fighters have used the province as a convenient gateway to attack foreign troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government has also fought a decades—long insurgency in Baluchistan waged by nationalists who demand a greater share of the province’s natural resources.

Somewhere Over The Taupe...

I think I may have found my go-to polish for A/W- Opi Over the Taupe. I bought this for Holly's Hen Do pt2 from ebay for £5 including p+p. Now for some reason I wanted a nail polish to kinda be a similiar colour to Mac Satin Taupe, however its not as purple based (if that makes sense), however regardless I am in love.

Now it needs to be noted that unlike most other Opi polishes this is very watery, and takes at least a good 2-3 coats to get a good finish. I won't lie I was initally disapointed when I initally put the first coat on, however after the second coat, all doubt had gone. I'll also warn you that regardless of how hard you try, the polish is going to dry (on the first coat) very streaky and uneven, however when you let the second coat to dry it evens itself out.

This colour reminds me of a darker version of Barry M Mushroom, but unlike Barry M, Over the Taupe lasted me a good 4 days without chipping (and thats without wearing a top coat). I also think this is the type of colour which looks fab on a night out, but its also work appropriate. Thanks to Laura I get my Opi polishes from the seller Beautyzone2007 on ebay. Way cheaper than over here and it only takes a week for delivery. You can also get Essie and China Glaze polishes from this seller too.

Over the Taupe?? Yey or Ney??

HTC EVO 3D smartphone launched in India for Rs. 35,990

At the Qualcomm signature event held in Mumbai, HTC officially launched the EVO 3D smartphone in India. This handset is based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S3 processor and allows consumers to take multimedia experience to a new level by providing the ability to not only capture and view, but also share data at fast speeds using glasses-free 3D technology.

The HTC EVO 3D with dual 5MP cameras

The HTC EVO 3D runs on Android 2.3 aka Gingerbread and is powered by a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The handset features a QHD 3D 4.3-inch LCD display and also sports dual 5MP cameras at the rear. These cameras can be used to capture both conventional as well as 3D images and videos for user generated content, social networking as well as streaming of videos.

Speaking at the unveiling of the HTC EVO 3D, Mr. Faisal Sidiqque, the Country Head of HTC in India said, “We are proud to collaborate with Qualcomm to present another technological breakthrough device from HTC, the EVO 3D-the first smartphone available in the Indian market offering a superior 3D viewing experience without glasses. We are confident that the HTC EVO 3D will set a benchmark for 3D viewing and our consumers will make best use of this offering.”

HTC claims that consumers can benefit from the EVO 3D’s dynamic ability to capture and playback videos in the following ways:



Real estate agents can create and share 3D virtual tours of homes that let out-of-town buyers “walk through” the house and experience the listings before they can see them live.
3D mapping of terrain will help build new and exciting features for navigation and hikers will be able to get aerial views of the topography of rivers and mountains while in the backcountry
Families can “relive” the excitement of their vacation and feel like they are there again.


Here's a quick look at some of the other features the HTC EVO 3D has to offer:

1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
3G Mobile Hotspot capability that supports up to 8 Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously
Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 1.2 GHz dual core processor
Corporate e-mail (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync), personal (POP and IMAP) e-mail and instant messaging
4GB Internal memory/ 1GB RAM
MicroSD slot (supports up to 32GB memory card)
Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n
Stereo Bluetooth
Integrated GPS
1730 mAh Lithium-ion battery


The HTC EVO 3D sells at a market operating price of Rs. 35,990 and is available at all authorized HTC resellers.

MapMyIndia enters tablet market with CarPad

NEW DELHI: MapMyIndia, one of the leading providers of digital maps and navigation services in the country, announced a 7-inch Android tablet. While CarPad looks like just any other Android tablet running Android 2.2, MapMyIndia has customized it for navigation purposes.

According to the company officials, CarPad comes with With Aura, MapMyIndia's latest navigation interface. It is loaded with comprehensive all-India maps, with over 5 million places, national-level maps for 5,79,000 towns and villages, street-level maps for 1200 cities, house-level maps for 18 cities and 3D landmarks and building footprints for major cities.

"We are excited to launch CarPad, which will revolutionize the way people travel in cars in India because of the simple, ingenious way in which it offers navigation, entertainment, connectivity and productivity to everyone in the car," said Rakesh Verma, managing director, MapMyIndia.

CarPad can also be used as a regular tablet. Though it doesn't come with a preloaded Google Market app, it supports phone functions like calls and messaging and can play videos and music. Android Market app can be downloaded by users separately to access Android apps.

MayMyIndia said that the device will sell for Rs 22,990. Apart from the device, it will also include an 8GB SD card memory and a car kit worth Rs 6,990.

daryl hannah | Daryl Hannah ARRESTED at the White House

Daryl Hannah donned a familiar accessory outside the White House today -- HANDCUFFS -- after she was arrested during an oil pipeline protest.

The actress-turned-activist was busted with several other protesters -- when they sat on the sidewalk in front of the White House and ignored three requests by police to move.

Daryl's an old pro when it comes to getting arrested -- saying, " Sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice your freedom for a greater freedom. And we want to be free from the horrible death and destruction that fossil fuels cause, and have a clean energy future."

Mr and Mrs...

So the big day had finally arived for the worlds most calm and collected bride on Saturday for Holly. I've put a couple of pictures on here, however I'll share more better ones when we get to see the official wedding pictures. Everything went to plan on Saturday- Holly was back in bed asleep at 10am on the morning as you do. Even though it was pouring down- the sun came out for her wedding photos. As you can see Holly looked stunning in her dress, and her husband David scrubbed up quite well too.

Cutting of the cake (part of the cake exploded before the meal).

Holly's rings- check out her gel nails (a post on that to come).

Holly and Me- what time is it?? Rose o Clock!!!

Israel lures Hollywood to film in the Holy Land

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is tired of Hollywood filming Jesus' crucifixion in Italy and the Crusader invasion of the Holy Land in Morocco.

So Israeli officials are promising better tax breaks, terror attack insurance and handouts of up to $400,000 to lure international movie producers to the holy city of Jerusalem. They want to cash in on the multibillion-dollar industry, and want the real Jerusalem on the silver screen — not Mediterranean stand-ins.

"It's absurd. Movies set in Jerusalem are filmed in Malta, Morocco and Greece," said Yoram Honig, an Israeli film director and 10th-generation Jerusalemite. He heads the Jerusalem Film Fund, which was set up three years ago to encourage more moviemaking in the city.

According to conventional wisdom in Hollywood, Jerusalem is too volatile to ensure smooth filming on location. International insurance companies have traditionally refused to provide terrorism risk coverage, or offered it at exorbitant prices.

For a long time, it didn't make financial sense for the producers. While Israel in the 1980s attracted such star-studded productions as Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo 3" and Chuck Norris' "The Delta Force," it later lost out to other countries that started giving big tax incentives to producers.

"If they think it's expensive and dangerous, they won't want to come," Honig said.

That's why the Israeli government enacted a law in 2008 offering tax breaks to foreign film companies that choose to shoot in Israel. And earlier this year Israel introduced an insurance fund to provide coverage to a production in case of disruptions by acts of war or terrorism, said Zafrir Asas, manager of audio visual industries in Israel's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.

But the 2008 law has had little effect. Asas admits the tax incentives are far lower than what other countries provide.

Nava Levin, the Israeli representative to the Producers Guild of America, said the law actually creates obstacles to filmmakers, including a requirement that Israeli production companies purchase goods and services for the producers on their behalf. The law "is written in a way that is almost impossible to take advantage of it," Levin said.

Even Israeli producers have shied away from the city: Out of 600 some Israeli movies filmed since the country's founding, only about 30 have been filmed in Jerusalem, Honig said. That has begun to change recently, with some of Israel's most celebrated new films shot here with the fund's financial support, including Joseph Cedar's "Footnote," which was awarded best screenplay at this year's Cannes film festival.

Now the city is sweetening the pot for international filmmakers, offering cash incentives and a municipal department that will assist with filming permits and on-location logistics. Only four international productions are shot in Jerusalem each year, most of them European, Honig said.

Part of the push to get Jerusalem into movie theaters is to present a more positive image of the city than the conflict seen in the news — "the Jerusalem that more than 3.5 billion people of faith around the world wish to see," said Stephan Miller, spokesman for Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

Honig said the municipal fund is close to signing a contract with a German producer to shoot a film about the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, which took place in Jerusalem in 1961. An Italian producer has also proposed filming a comedy in the city about an Italian nun who falls in love with an ultra-Orthodox Jew.

Other projects the film fund is courting include an Indian-Israeli romance, and "Jerusalem, I Love You," an installment of producer Emmanuel Benbihy's Cities of Love series. A delegation of Bollywood producers also recently visited the city to scout out filming opportunities.

Tel Aviv and Haifa, too, are developing similar film funds to attract producers to those cities.

In the meantime, most major Hollywood productions have preferred to set up their movies about Jerusalem elsewhere.

Take "World War Z," the forthcoming multimillion-dollar zombie flick starring Brad Pitt. Part of the plot takes place in Jerusalem, but producers have replicated the city on the island of Malta, which offers hefty cash rebates for foreign film productions. Israeli actors have been flown in for the filming, Levin said.

"Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" opens with Kevin Costner escaping from a prison in Jerusalem — but the movie was filmed in England and France. Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was shot in Italy. In Steven Spielberg's "Munich," about Mossad assassinations of Palestinians who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, a Tel Aviv beach promenade scene was filmed in Malta.

Some films taking place in Jerusalem have even been filmed in Middle Eastern countries that don't have friendly relations with Israel. The Crusaders who storm Jerusalem in the 2005 action film "Kingdom of Heaven" were filmed in Morocco, which cut off diplomatic ties with Israel in 2000 when a Palestinian uprising erupted.

Monty Python's "Life of Brian" filmed scenes of Jerusalem in Tunisia, using part of the recreated Jerusalem set built for the Italian miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth." Tunisia only established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1996, but severed them in 2000.

The opposite is true, too. The 1991 thriller "Not Without My Daughter" starred Sally Fields as an American trapped in Iran, but it was filmed partially in Israel. The opening scene of the 1999 film "The Insider," when Al Pacino's character meets the founder of the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, was actually filmed in an Arab village in Israel.

Perry wins top award but Beyonce baby tops show

Beyonce and Jay-Z's offspring doesn't even have a name yet, but it was the indisputable breakout star of Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, upstaging everyone, even Katy Perry's win for video of the year.

Perry, who had the most nominations coming into the show with 10, came away with three moonman trophies, including video of the year for the inspirational clip "Firework."

"I feel like I'm doing something right when I sing that song," said Perry, conservatively dressed in a cotton-candy pink jacket, a skirt and something best described as a Green Bay Packers cheesehead decoration.

But the night's big news came from Beyonce, who stole the show before it even began when she announced on the black carpet that after more than three years of marriage, the dazzling couple had produced the ultimate all-star collaboration. Dressed in a loose-fitting, off-the-shoulder red gown, she clutched the baby bump that so many celeb-watchers had been predicting since the two wed.

Later, Beyonce performed "Love on Top," and if Twitter hadn't already spread the news, her outfit gave clues to her impending motherhood; instead of her typical sexy outfits, she dressed in conservative spangled tux — but still danced around in her signature stilettos.

Beyonce didn't utter a word about the pregnancy, but ended the number by taking off her jacket and rubbing her swollen belly; in the audience, an elated Jay-Z hooted and clapped for his wife as Kanye West hugged him.

In an instant, Beyonce and her soon-to-be child managed to overshadow the night's events. Lady Gaga's much-hyped opening number, during which she performed as a greasy, leather-jacketed male alter-ego during a performance of "You and I," became less interesting. So did the evening's meticulously planned wild moments, from Nicki Minaj's origami-like outfit to a dance-off between the members of Odd Future and Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Seth Rogen.

There was one apparently unscripted moment during Jay-Z's performance with Kanye West of "Otis," off their chart-topping joint album "Watch the Throne." Near the end of the song, someone tried to walk on the stage, but was quickly apprehended by a crew member as a bemused Jay-Z looked on. It was the second time Jay-Z had someone walk on unannounced during an MTV performance; two years ago, it was Lil Mama.

Britney Spears captured the night's first award, for best pop video, and later was honored with an MTV Video Vanguard award for her visual legacy. Lady Gaga, sticking to her gender-switch shtick, leered at Spears as she paid tribute to her.

"She's a pop music legend, and the industry would not be the same without her," Gaga said. "I used to hang pictures of her on my wall and touch myself when I was in bed."

Later, Gaga fished for a kiss, but as Spears leaned in, she quickly pulled back, reminding viewers, "I've done that before."

The show at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles had no official host, though comedian Kevin Hart delivered an opening monologue and was featured in a series of vignettes during the show.

Adele had perhaps the highlight of the night as the seven-time nominee delivered a powerfully understated performance of "Someone Like You," off her top-selling "21" album.

Chris Brown also wowed with an aerial number, soaring above the crowd in between high-stepping choreography.

Russell Brand provided the evening's rare poignant moment during a tribute to his late friend, Amy Winehouse, who died a month ago after struggling for years with drug and alcohol abuse. Brand urged people to remember the 28-year-old for her music, and urged others suffering to get help.

"A lot of people just get the disease, not many people get the incredible talent that Amy was blessed with," said Brand, who successfully battled drug addiction himself. "Let's remember there is a solution ... that solution is available."

Tony Bennett, who joined Winehouse in what is believed to be her last song on his upcoming "Duets II" album, showed the audience a clip of the pair singing "Body and Soul."

Moments later, Bruno Mars sang one of her hits, "Valerie," but closed the song out with the refrain, "Amy, we'll miss you baby," as a somber-faced audience looked on.

Bomber of Baghdad mosque disguised self as beggar

BAGHDAD (AP) — The suicide bomber who killed 29 people at Baghdad's largest Sunni mosque disguised himself as an injured beggar and attended prayers there for nearly a week, a senior religious figure said Monday.

The attack hit Sunnis praying at a special service Sunday night during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and appeared calculated to try to re-ignite widespread violence in Iraq just months before U.S. troops are to complete their withdrawal.

The bomber, who pretended to be a beggar, had attended prayers for six straight days at the Um al-Qura mosque in western Baghdad, said Sheik Ahmed Abdul Gafur al-Samarraie, head of an endowment that oversees all Sunni religious sites nationwide.

He said the bomber had a bandaged hand and appeared to pose no threat.

"When his face became familiar to the guards they didn't search him last night," al-Samarraie told reporters at the mosque, where blood still stained the marble floors and stairs.

He said guards first became suspicious when they saw the man moving through the crowd trying to get close to al-Samarraie and took him outside. But the man returned through a back door and blew himself up when he was a few steps away from al-Samarraie.

Under deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, Iraq's Shiite majority was persecuted and repressed. Shiites took power after his ouster, stoking Sunni resentment. A 2006 attack on a Shiite shrine in the Sunni city of Samarra escalated widespread sectarian violence in Iraq and nearly ignited a nationwide civil war.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing, but suicide attacks generally are a hallmark of al-Qaida, which is dominated by Sunnis. Intelligence officials have speculated that al-Qaida will do almost anything to spark new sectarian violence, but the group recently had focused on attacking Iraqi security forces and the government to punish their alliance with Americans.

With attacks like the mosque bombing, they also aim to show how unstable Iraq remains as U.S. forces prepare to leave by Dec. 31. Iraqi political leaders are weighing whether to ask some U.S. troops to stay beyond the withdrawal deadline.

Al-Samarraie said he was confident the attack would not rupture the already uneasy peace across Iraq or stoke further violence in the way the 2006 Samarra bombing did.

"We will not turn back or retreat," he said, adding the best retaliation was "solidarity and unity."

Two security officials and medics at two hospitals put the casualty toll at 29, with 38 wounded. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. Al-Samarraie said only six people died and 12 were wounded. Conflicting death tolls are common immediately after large-scale attacks in Iraq.

On Baghdad's streets, weeping relatives and friends held funeral processions for the slain worshippers, including one for a father and his 5-year-old son. Wrapped with blankets, victims' caskets were carried on minibuses while women wailed and beat their chests.

In a statement early Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on Iraqis to stand strong against terrorists and "pursue them wherever they are."

"Solidarity and unity, and standing as one line behind the army and the police, are the only way to eliminate this danger, which does not differentiate between the Iraqis and targets all of us," al-Maliki said.

The government-backed Sunni Endowment provides security inside the mosque, where it is headquartered. At least one Iraqi security official raised the possibility that the bomber had inside help.

Foes of Libya's Gaddafi advance on his hometown

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan forces converged on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Monday, hoping to seal their revolution by seizing the last bastions of a fallen but perhaps still dangerous strongman.

Gaddafi's whereabouts have been unknown since Tripoli fell to his foes and his 42-year-old rule collapsed a week ago.

Residents in the capital, hit by shortages of food, fuel and water, ventured out to shop ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"Thank God this Eid has a special flavor. This Eid we have freedom," said Adel Kashad, 47, an oil firm computer specialist who was at a vegetable market. "Libya has a new dawn."

Sporadic gunfire still echoed across Tripoli as residents tried to pick up their lives amid the stink of burning rubbish.

Rejoicing at Gaddafi's fall is not universal.

"You media don't tell the truth, you're all traitors, spies," shouted an enraged taxi driver in a loyalist district, not caring that anti-Gaddafi fighters were nearby.

Gaddafi strongholds in Sirte and some towns deep in the southern desert remain a challenge for Libya's new rulers, who have vowed to take them by force, if negotiations fail.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), asked NATO to pursue its five-month-old air campaign, which has given essential firepower to ragtag rebels who rose against Gaddafi in February.

"I call for continued protection from NATO and its allies from this tyrant," he said in Qatar, a tiny but wealthy Gulf Arab state that has backed the revolt. "He is still a threat, not just for Libyans but for the entire world."

Abdel Jalil was speaking at a meeting of defense ministers from countries that have supported the anti-Gaddafi movement.

A NATO commander pledged to pursue the alliance's mission, at least until its internal mandate expires on September 27.

"We believe the Gaddafi regime is near collapse, and we're committed to seeing the operation through to its conclusion," U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, who heads NATO's Joint Operations Command, told a news conference in the Qatari capital, Doha.

"Pockets of pro-Gaddafi forces are being reduced day by day. The regime no longer has the capacity to mount a decisive operation," he said, adding that NATO air raids had destroyed 5,000 military targets in Libya.

NATO warplanes struck at Sirte, on the Mediterranean coast, for a third day on Sunday, a NATO spokesman said in Brussels. Britain said its aircraft also attacked artillery fired by Gaddafi forces near Sidra, west of the oil town of Ras Lanuf.

TRIBAL SUPPORT

Whether or not Gaddafi makes a last stand in Sirte, the city is a strategic and symbolic prize for Libya's new rulers as they tighten their grip on the vast North African country.

The NTC has offered a $1.3 million reward and amnesty from prosecution for anyone who kills or captures Gaddafi.

Its forces have advanced toward Sirte from east and west, even as contacts continue for its surrender.

Jamal Tunally, a commander in Misrata, to the west, told Reuters: "The front line is 30 km from Sirte. We think the Sirte situation will be resolved peacefully, God willing."

"Now we just need to find Gaddafi. I think he is still hiding beneath Bab al-Aziziya like a rat," he said, referring to Gaddafi's Tripoli compound, which was overrun last Tuesday.

On the coastal highway east of Tripoli, transporters carried Soviet-designed T-55 tanks toward Sirte. Fighters said they had seized the tanks from an abandoned base in Zlitan.

Libyan forces advancing from the east pushed 7 km past the village of Bin Jawad and secured the Nawfaliya junction, a spokesman said. "We're going slowly," Mohammad Zawawi added.

"We want to give more time for negotiations, to give a chance for those people trying to persuade the people inside Sirte to surrender and open their city."

Mindful of preserving their image to the world and stung by accounts that captured Gaddafi loyalists have been found dead with their hands tied behind their backs, NTC leaders sent a text message urging followers not to abuse prisoners.

"Remember when you arrest any follower of Gaddafi that he is like you, that he has dignity like you, that his dignity is your own dignity, and that it is enough humiliation for him that he is already a prisoner," it said.

TRAIL OF CORPSES

NTC military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Bani has said around 40,000 people detained by Gaddafi forces remain missing, saying some might still be held in underground bunkers in Tripoli.

The Khamis Brigade, a military unit commanded by and named after one of Gaddafi's sons, appears to have killed dozens of detainees in a warehouse in a neighborhood adjoining the Yarmouk military base south of Tripoli last week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Three days later the warehouse, used as a makeshift prison, was set on fire but the cause was unknown. HRW said it had seen the charred skeletal remains of about 45 smoldering bodies on Saturday. At least two more corpses lay outside unburned.

"Sadly this is not the first gruesome report of what appears to be the summary execution of detainees in the final days of the Gaddafi government's control of Tripoli," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW Middle East and North Africa director.

The NTC, recognized as Libya's legitimate authority by more than 40 nations, has sought to establish control in Tripoli after days of chaos and clashes with diehard Gaddafi loyalists.

The council, whose leaders plan to move to Tripoli from Benghazi this week, is trying to impose security, restore basic services and revive the energy-based economy.

The chief executive of Italian oil firm Eni, the largest foreign oil producer in Libya before the conflict, was meeting officials in Benghazi on Monday, an NTC spokesman said.

Paolo Scaroni is the first oil chief to visit Libya since Gaddafi's fall, in a move widely seen as an effort to secure Eni's stake in Libya, a former Italian colony which has Africa's biggest oil reserves.

"He is in Benghazi and meeting with the head of the National Oil Company. They are discussing Eni's interests in Libya," NTC spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said.

Eni, keen to make up for hesitant Italian support for the uprising in its early stages, is expected to offer emergency fuel supplies to Libya, which a Western diplomatic source said would be paid for from the $8 billion of Libyan assets that Italy froze as part of sanctions against Gaddafi.

The reopening of the main border crossing from Tunisia on Sunday should help relieve shortfalls in the Libyan capital.

Many in the capital were stoical ahead of the Eid holiday, however. Zeid al-Akari, 60, was shopping at a Tripoli market. He said: "It's OK if we have shortages, if we have to sacrifice for this day, which is a day of freedom."

Irene: Wet, deadly and expensive, but no monster

NEW YORK (AP) — The storm that had been Hurricane Irene crossed into Canada overnight but wasn't yet through with the U.S., where flood waters threatened Vermont towns and New Yorkers who returned to work had to make do with a slowly reopening transit system.

The storm left millions without power across much of the Eastern Seaboard, left at least two dozen dead and forced airlines to cancel about 9,000 flights. It never became the big-city nightmare forecasters and public officials had warned about, but it still had the ability to surprise.

Many of the worst effects arose from rains that fell inland, not the highly anticipated storm surge along the coasts. Residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey nervously watched waters rise as hours' worth of rain funneled into rivers and creeks. Normally narrow ribbons of water turned into raging torrents in Vermont and upstate New York late Sunday, tumbling with tree limbs, cars and parts of bridges.

"This is not over," President Barack Obama said from the Rose Garden.

Hundreds of Vermonters were told to leave their homes after Irene dumped several inches of rain on the landlocked state. Video posted on Facebook showed a 141-year-old covered bridge in Rockingham swept away by the roiling, muddy Williams River. In another video, an empty car somersaulted down a river in Bennington.

"It's pretty fierce. I've never seen anything like it," said Michelle Guevin, who spoke from a Brattleboro restaurant after leaving her home in nearby Newfane. She said the fast-moving Rock River was washing out the road to her house.

Green Mountain Power decided against flooding Montpelier, the capital, to save the earthen Marshfield Dam, about 20 miles up the Winooski River to the northeast. Water levels had stabilized Monday morning but engineers were continuing to monitor the situation, said spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure.

Residents of 350 households were asked to leave as a precaution.

Daily dose of chocolate healthy for heart

Here's good news for all chocolate lovers - a research has indicated that a daily dose of chocolate could slash the risk of developing heart disease by a third.

Scientists have known for some time that a small amount of cocoa-rich dark chocolate can be good for you because of its high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

But now a review of seven previous studies has suggested that the benefits may be more widespread.

Researchers analysed the studies of more than 100,000 participants with and without existing heart disease.

For each study, they compared the group with the highest chocolate consumption against the group with the lowest consumption.

Five studies reported a beneficial link between higher levels of chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiovascular problems.

They found that the "highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37 per cent reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29 per cent reduction in stroke compared with lowest levels," reports the Daily Express .

Researcher Dr Oscar Franco, from the University of Cambridge, said just how eating chocolate affects your heart remains unclear. He said further studies were needed to test if chocolate causes the reduction or if it can be explained by some other factor.

Apple Inc's former CEO Steve Jobs reigned in a kingdom of altered landscapes

This year, I wrote a column about the publishing industry's resistance to the terms Apple was imposing for subscriptions on the iPad. Soon after, an email was followed by a phone call and Steve Jobs was on the line to straighten me out.

At the time, publishers were profoundly unhappy. Apple was not only proposing to take a third of the revenues, but it was also requiring that the transaction go through Apple, meaning publishers would get none of the consumer data that had such high value to advertisers.

Jobs was friendly enough - I can recall a less pleasant conversation about the criminal case involving a stolen iPhone prototype - but he thought it was silly for publishers to whine about sales without data. After all, he said, they already did a tremendous business on the physical newsstand that did not provide a lick of data about their buyers.

The exchange we had was more of an example of Jobs as micromanager than as technological visionary. But the perspective it showed is indicative of a pattern for Apple and Jobs. Again and again, he would step up to entrenched players in the media with calcified business models and explain their business to them in ways they did not recognize from the inside.

Apple is a technology company, but as someone who writes about the insular kingdom of media, I can't think of a bigger player on the board in the last 10 years. In music, in movies, in publishing - television has been another story, so far, though there are rumors that the company is turning its guns on television in a big way - Apple has upended long-standing paradigms and altered the media landscape.

So what secret tunnel did he use to bypass and overcome traditional media businesses? One carved by consumers. By placing sexy, irresistible devices in the hands of the public, he reverse-engineered the business model of the industries that produce the content for Apple's gorgeous hardware.

When the iPod and iTunes were unveiled in 2001, the music industry was under siege from piracy, with sites like Napster thriving on the free use of its content. Jobs' take-it-or-leave it deal gave Apple control over pricing, data, distribution and platform, a proposal of towering hubris. But the industry, kicking and screaming all the way, eventually went along, and 10 billion song downloads later, digital revenue is a fundamental part of the business.

In the process, Apple brought a practical end to the album format - allowing people to buy individual songs and create their own playlists.

ITunes not only supplied a legitimate, easy-to-use alternative to piracy, it created a runway for services like Pandora and Spotify.

"He took a locked system, one that was controlled by the record companies, and cracked it open," said Jim Guerinot, the longtime manager of The Offspring, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, and Gwen Stefani. "That disruption created opportunities for everything that has happened since."

Jobs did not so much see around corners; he saw things in plain sight that others did not. "It's not the consumer's job to know what they want," he explained.

tyler the creator | Tyler the Creator wins best new artist, disses Bruno Mars

Crisis averted. Tyler the Creator, winner of the MTV VMA best new artist for 2011, won't be killing himself Sunday (Aug. 28).

Let's back up: During the pre-show, when Tyler realized he was at the bottom of MTV's gimmicky Tweet Tracker while Bruno Mars was up top, he told MTV host Sway that that Mars' music "sucked." Not only that, but that if he lost the best new artist award to Mars, Tyler said, "I might kill myself."

The Twitterverse was quick to point out that Tyler's winning single, "Yonkers," contains potentially homophobic lyrics.

"140 characters is but a fraction of what is required to express my contempt for the misogynist, homophobic mess that is Tyler 'the Creator," tweeted @planethitthesun.

Others noted that most of his acceptance speech was indecipherable since it was mostly bleeped out:

sabi | Cobra Starship, Sabi Make The VMA Black Carpet 'Feel' Good

Cobra Starship And Sabi Perform 'You Make Me Feel' At The 2011 VMA Pre-Show.

Cobra Starship And Sabi Perform 'You Make Me Feel' At The 2011 VMA Pre-Show.

Then on Saturday, Cobra Starship, Joe Jonas and Miguel are set to perform at mtvU's VMA Concert to Benefit Lifebeat – Music Fights HIV. Cobra Starship, along with special guest Sabi, will perform their track "You Make Me Feel" during the black carpet

Then on Saturday, Cobra Starship, Joe Jonas and Miguel are set to perform at mtvU's VMA Concert to Benefit Lifebeat – Music Fights HIV. Cobra Starship, along with special guest Sabi, will perform their track "You Make Me Feel" during the black carpet

Cobra Starship with Sabi performed You Make Me Feel on the MTV VMAs preshow. Watch it below:

jonah hill | Jonah Hill Directing Sara Bareilles Music Video?

onah Hill is directing his first music video with Sara Bareilles, the singer/songwriter behind the radio-dominating singles “Love Song” and “King of Anything.”

Hill tweeted a picture of himself at a shoot today, which shows the actor in what looks like a grocery store. The actor is directing the video for Bareilles’ next single “Gonna Get Over You,” which has a guest spot from Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. The video doesn’t have a release date yet.

For Hill, the decision to direct the pop-friendly Bareilles seems weird, considering his on-screen apparel (Pixies and Beirut t-shirts) and enthusiasm for the Mars Volta in Get Him to the Greek. But time will have to tell what the potty-mouthed comedian will bring to Bareilles’ video.

Campaigns find that some truths are inconvenient

NEW YORK (AP) — Corporations are people. The fundamentals of the economy are strong. I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.

From Mitt Romney this month to John McCain in 2008 and John Kerry four years earlier, presidential candidates have created problems for themselves by blurting out words that are at once factual but politically ill-advised.

Voters say they want straight-talking candidates. But voters also tend to punish candidates who veer too far off script or who make assertions that, while true, cause people to cringe and question whether these politicians are out of touch with those they seek to represent.

Consider Romney who recently confronted a heckler demanding higher taxes on corporations.

"Corporations are people, my friend," the GOP presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts governor shot back. "Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people."

Corporations are made up of the people who work for them and stockholders who benefit from their profits. The Supreme Court said as much last year when it eased restrictions on campaign spending by corporations.

But was it smart for Romney to say, given the nation's mood? Probably not.

Massachusetts Sen. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, learned a hard lesson about reinforcing an existing story line. He opposed money for the war in Iraq and voted against the legislation when it came up for final consideration. But he had gone along with an earlier version.

At one point, he told supporters: "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." He was trying to explain that he wanted to ensure troops had the necessary equipment, but at the same time hoped to convey a message of opposition to the war.

The result was that Republicans cast Kerry as a flip-flopper.

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, created some problems for his campaign after the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank at the outset of the global finance meltdown.

"The fundamentals of the economy are strong," McCain said, trying to reassure a jittery nation. Few probably would disagree with that explanation, but as the stock market tanked his sound bite sounded jarringly off base.

It was a searing misstatement for the Arizona senator who'd never seemed comfortable discussing the economy.

Hurricane Irene poised to hit New York hard

Local forecasters said the path of Irene was shifting westward, putting the city squarely on the wrong side of the storm and raising the prospect of 10-foot storm surges. By 1 a.m. ET the city's Central Park had already gotten two inches of rain, with much more expected.

If the forecasts bear out, it would lend some support to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's order for the evacuation of low-lying areas such as Manhattan's financial district. Just across the Hudson River from the district in Hoboken, New Jersey, an evacuation shelter had to be evacuated itself due to flooding.

"Conditions are expected to deteriorate rapidly," a tired-looking Bloomberg told a news conference late on Saturday, urging people to stay indoors. "The storm is now finally hitting New York City. The winds will increase, the rain will increase and the tidal surge will increase."

By all accounts, most heeded his plea to shelter in place, but Times Square still proved irresistible to some tourists who had nothing better to do.

"We just came to see how few people are in Times Square and then we're going back," said Cheryl Gibson, an Edmonton, Canada, resident who has been on vacation in the city for a week and had been planning to go to the other side of the Hudson River on Sunday.

"We can't get to New Jersey and I'm not sure it's any better there," she said.

Further up the street, on a pedestrian mall, a group of firefighters from Vancouver in town for the World Police and Fire Games played an impromptu game of street hockey.

Despite the pouring rain, many played bare-chested, but the game did not last -- approximately 20 New York police officers broke up the game with no arrests.

NO SHELTER

By mid-evening, one of the many umbrella sellers who pop up all over New York whenever it rains was sold out -- he said it had been a good day for sales, but he was not planning to take shelter from the storm.

"My shelter used to be on the trains but now they stopped that," said the man, who declined to give his real name but said "Call me Motown."

"This is what keeps me going," he added, pointing to the small portable radio playing music in his cart. "Hey, listen, it's 'Walking in the rain,'" he said with a laugh.

While Motown was in good cheer despite the storm, the situation grew increasingly serious overnight. At least 8,000 customers were already without electricity in the city, hours before the worst of the wind and rain hit. Most were in Staten Island though at least one was also out in Manhattan.

Both the Henry Hudson Parkway on Manhattan's west side and FDR Drive to the island's east were starting to flood, with heavy pooling and tow trucks strategically idling on the sides of the road. The city's mass transit system, including subways, was shut down from the middle of Saturday.

After Bloomberg ordered the unprecedented evacuation of 370,000 people living in neighborhoods near the water's edge, more than 3,700 took refuge in the city's shelters, thousands more fled to the homes of friends or relatives and others defiantly stayed behind.

A smattering of food and liquor stores stayed open while the public transit system that moves 8.5 million people each weekday halted operations, also a first.

The giant 580-mile (930-km)-wide storm unleashed 8O miles per hour (130 km per hour) winds, grounding aircraft all along the heavily populated eastern seaboard.

While shelters were mostly empty, others such as the John Adams High School in Queens overflowed.

At the Brooklyn Tech High School shelter, evacuees watched weather reports on a large television screen in the auditorium while others dined on mozzarella sticks, string beans, milk and apple sauce.

"I didn't want to leave (home), I wanted to stay, but I feared for my life. I didn't want to get stuck in the dark and in the flood," said Margie Robledo, 58, of Coney Island, who just arrived in New York from Puerto Rico, where the storm had hit days earlier.

CALM IN THE DANGER ZONE

Others defied the evacuation order after Bloomberg announced police would not enforce it. Despite the persistent warnings and ominous skies, the neighborhood around Brooklyn's Coney Island -- within the danger zone -- was calm. Parked cars lined the streets, and there was no sign of a mass exodus.

"They are right, we should be evacuating, but we are not," said John Visconti, 47, who owns an auto repair business and lives on the ground floor of his building in the nearby Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. "We just want to stay home and hope for the best. We should be OK."

The evacuation zones included shiny apartment buildings in Manhattan's wealthy Battery Park City, working class Red Hook in Brooklyn and run-down public housing in Coney Island -- all neighborhoods at the water's edge.

"If the neighborhood is eventually legitimately flooded, I have food and books and whiskey," said attorney Neal D'Amato, 31, sipping a beer at the Red Hook Bait and Tackle shop bar.

He said he would ride out the storm in his fourth-floor apartment.

Supporters gather at Ramlila Maidan; Anna to end fast

Hundreds of supporters have started descending at the historic Ram Lila Maidan in New Delhi, where anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare will break his 12 day-long fast at 10am on Sunday. After 12 days that had India on the edge, Anna Hazare is poised to end his fast,
capping a day of highs and lows that saw a historic Parliament debate a possible anti-corruption legislation that ended with the broad acceptance of key demands of the social reformer.

The eight-hour debate, called on a weekend, saw parliamentarians pack both houses to dissect an issue that has held the nation in thrall since Aug 16, when 74-year-old Hazare began his fast for a strong bill to have a Lokpal institution to tackle pervasive corruption, prompting tens of thousands of people across the country take to the streets and bringing the government virtually to its knees.

Around 4,000 people stayed overnight at the protest venue while hundreds of others have started arriving early in the morning.

"I started at around 5 am as I wanted to ensure that I could be in the front row, so that I could witness Anna breaking his fast," said 37-year-old Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Ghaziabad who claims to be a die-hard Anna supporter.

There is a festive atmosphere at the ground, as people are singing and dancing to the tune of drums and celebrating "victory" of Hazare.

Another supporter Vijay Gupta, who had come along with his family from Lucknow said, he was "happy to be part of history in making."

"I am extremely happy that the government has conceded to the demand of Anna Hazare, the corruption is affecting everybody in the society and we want a very strong Lokpal Bill," he said amid chanting of slogans.

Meanwhile, heavy deployment of police personnel have been made in and around the venue.

People are hoisting flags and chanting slogans making the atmosphere festive and jubilant.

Demanding passing of Janlokpal Bill by the Parliament, Hazare went on fast from August 16.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Closed

BALTIMORE — The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (US 50/301) was sealed about 7:35 p.m. Saturday as a outcome of serious winds and vulnerable pushing conditions due to Hurricane Irene.

The overpass is experiencing postulated winds of more than 62 mph and breeze gusts of 72-80 mph and will sojourn sealed until conditions are deemed protected for vehicles to cross.Citizens are speedy not to transport unless positively necessary. For motorists roving from the Eastern Shore toward Baltimore or other points west, an swap track for the Bay Bridge is northbound US 113, US thirteen or DE 1 through Delaware, to southbound I-95 in Maryland.MDTA’s 4 one more bridges together with the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge (US 301), the Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695), the Tydings Memorial Bridge (I-95) and the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge (US 40) are handling underneath breeze warnings.

Gov. Martin O’Malley pronounced Hurricane Irene will be nearing in the beach review locale of Ocean City progressing than officials had expected.O’Malley pronounced at a headlines discussion Saturday at the Maryland Emergency Management group in Reisterstown that authorities expect that the eye of the storm will pass “pretty well directly over Ocean City” about midnight Saturday, a integrate hours progressing than had been predicted.Stay with WBALTV.com and WBAL-TV eleven News for updates.

bourbon | Jayhawks’ Bourbon ready to perform

J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH The Wichita Eagle LAWRENCE — One of the biggest victories of Turner Gill's first year at Kansas came on January 31, 2010, when Potosi (Mo.) running back Brandon Bourbon switched his commitment from Stanford to KU just days before Signing Day. Bourbon, rated a four-star prospect and the No. 6 player in Missouri by Rivals.com, chose the Jayhawks over Missouri, Kansas State and Notre Dame, among others — a positive sign that Gill and his staff knew what they were doing on the recruiting trail. Given the type of programs that were pursuing Bourbon, a bigger back at 6-foot-1 and 208 pounds, it wasn't a very big jump to expect him to contribute right away at Kansas. But, ever since Bourbon arrived in Lawrence, his coaches and teammates have had to wait patiently to see what he can do. Bourbon, who had to adjust to the transition from a Class 3A high school to a Big 12 program, redshirted last season. Then he suffered a lower leg injury in the spring that stripped him of a valuable learning opportunity. Bourbon returned for fall camp but still was being hampered by minor injuries. So to see him putting on a show during Saturday's scrimmage at Memorial Stadium, rushing for two touchdowns, was an exciting moment for the Jayhawks. "That was his best day that I've ever seen," Gill said. "He ran hard. He ran with a purpose. He ran to hit somebody. He also made people miss, showed some good acceleration in the hole and some power. It was good to see that. We really didn't know. It was a question mark. We thought he had some skills, but he's always been banged up." For Bourbon, a quiet kid from a town of 2,700 people, his breakout performance in the scrimmage was more than a year in the making. "I just knew all along I could do it," Bourbon said. "It was just something that I finally got to show my teammates that I can come out and play at this level. It made me feel really good." Bourbon is competing for playing time with sophomore James Sims and true freshmen Darrian Miller and Anthony Pierson. Bourbon says the coaches told the group on Tuesday that the starting job was still up for grabs, and KU offensive coordinator Chuck Long says Bourbon is in the thick of what will probably be running back by committee to start the season. "We've been challenging Brandon the whole camp, and he's been off and on injured," Long said. "We really came away with a great feeling about him at the scrimmage. We'd like to get him some carries in a football game." Perhaps the most impressive thing about Bourbon is the way he's overcome injuries during the last four months. "I'm surprised just how quick he came back from his injury and how he's pushing through it," KU linebacker Steven Johnson said. "He works hard. Doesn't talk a lot, but he produces on the field." Bourbon is excited for the practices leading up to KU's opener against McNeese State on Sept. 3. "It's extremely important," Bourbon said. "I feel like I've kind of got some guys' attention. I need to come out and be consistent and make sure everyone knows I'm going to do the same things when the games start." Check J. Brady McCollough's KU blog at blogs.kansas.com/jayhawk. Reach him at .

Barry Bonds' conviction upheld by judge

Barry Bonds' obstruction of justice conviction has been upheld by a federal judge, who denied the home run king's motion for a new trial or acquittal on the charge.

More than four months after the verdict and one day after hearing oral arguments, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued a 20-page order Friday refusing to overturn the only unanimous decision reached by the jury.

Jurors failed to reach a verdict on three counts charging the seven-time NL MVP with making false statements to a grand jury in 2003 when he denied receiving steroids and human growth hormone from trainer Greg Anderson, and when he said he allowed only doctors to inject him. Bonds was convicted of giving an evasive, rambling reply when asked whether he received drugs that required a syringe.

"Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, the record supports a finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the question was material to the grand jury's investigation of BALCO and Greg Anderson for unlawfully distributing performance enhancing drugs, and that defendant endeavored to obstruct the grand jury by not answering it when it was first asked," Illston wrote. "The conviction can be upheld if (the) defendant endeavored to obstruct justice, even if he did not succeed."

Bonds is likely to appeal Illston's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prosecutors have not yet said whether they plan to retry him on the three deadlocked counts. Josh Eaton, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in San Francisco, declined comment on the decision.

"I haven't spoken to Barry yet and therefore won't have any reaction statement tonight," Bonds' lead lawyer, Allen Ruby, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Illston's ruling marked a victory for federal prosecutors, who have been involved in two cases this year against former baseball stars accused of lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In a Washington, D.C., court room in July, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ordered a mistrial in the case against Roger Clemens, saying prosecutors introduced evidence he had banned as prejudicial.

The decision was far from the San Francisco Giants' minds, with players more concerned about the pennant race than the team's former star.

"I don't know anything about anything," pitcher Matt Cain said. "I haven't paid attention, and I don't know what half the words mean."

Bonds was among the biggest stars convicted as a result of an investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroids ring, a probe headed by federal agent Jeff Novitzky. Novitzky also is at the forefront of a different grand jury investigation into whether seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong used drugs to get an illicit boost in his victories.

Following a 12-day trial and on the fourth day of deliberations, the Bonds jury unanimously voted that the slugger gave the grand jury an evasive answer under oath. Rather than say "yes" or "no" to the question about receiving drugs that required a syringe, Bonds responded, in part, "I became a celebrity child with a famous father."

Bonds' lawyers argued that the answer wasn't relevant to the grand jury, and that in any case he answered a question that was essentially the same later during that session.

Illston did not agree.

"(The) defendant repeatedly provided nonresponsive answers to questions about whether Anderson had ever provided him with injectables, resulting in the prosecuting attorneys asking clarifying question after clarifying question, and even once resulting in one prosecutor interrupting another who was about to move on to a new topic in order to clarify defendant's mixed responses," she wrote in her decision, issued late Friday night. "An evasive answer about an issue material to the grand jury is not necessarily rendered immaterial by the later provision of a direct answer, even if that direct answer is true."

Illston said Bonds' answer to questions later in his testimony did not make up for his initial evasion, especially because there he was asked about being injected by Anderson.

Illston did not address Bonds' lawyers argument that his conviction was barred by a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Bronston, that declared in a perjury case "a jury should not be permitted to engage in conjecture whether an unresponsive answer, true and complete on its face, was intended to mislead or divert."

Bonds has not been sentenced, with Illston preferring to first rule on the motions to throw out the verdict.

His conviction carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, yet federal guidelines call for 15-21 months. For similar offenses in the BALCO steroids ring case, Illston sentenced cyclist Tammy Thomas to six months of home confinement and track coach Trevor Graham to one year of home confinement.

Jurors said their final votes were 8-4 to acquit Bonds of lying about steroids and 9-3 to acquit him on lying about HGH use. The panel voted 11-1 to convict him of lying when he denied receiving an injection from someone other than his doctor.

Now 47, Bonds holds baseball's season (73) and career (762) records for home runs. He testified before a grand jury that Anderson told him the substances he was giving Bonds were flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, and that Bonds didn't know they were designer steroids.

"Did Greg ever give you anything that required a syringe to inject yourself with?" Bonds was asked.

"That's what keeps our friendship," Bonds said in the part of his answer the government charged was a crime. "You know, I am sorry, but that — you know, that — I was a celebrity child, not just in baseball by my own instincts. I became a celebrity child with a famous father. I just don't get into other people's business because of my father's situation, you see."

The jury instructions said that for Bonds to be convicted, jurors had to find Bonds' answer "obstructed, influenced or impeded, or endeavored to obstruct, influence, or impede" the grand jury "by knowingly giving material testimony that was intentionally evasive, false or misleading."

New award proving popular at VMAs

NEW YORK (AP) — When Chicago-based rock act Rise Against began writing a song about suicide among gay teens, the band's lead singer tried to block out the event that inspired the tune — the death of a gay friend.

"His loss was something big to me," said Tim McIlrath.

But the band members wanted to get out the message, so they made a gripping video for "Make It Stop (September's Children)" featuring three teens bullied and at the brink of suicide.

Now the video is competing in a new category at the MTV Video Music Awards: the best video with a message award. It highlights music videos sending messages of positivity and self-empowerment and raising awareness about social issues that affect today's youth.

"I hope that category sticks around and I hope it gives artists something to aim for," said McIlrath, who teamed with the It Gets Better Project for the music video.

MTV President Stephen Friedman says the new category is proving popular among voters this year.

"I have to tell you in the voting, this category catapulted. It was among the top three or four categories — millions and millions of people voted on this," Friedman said. "It shows not only an interest from the artist, but also more importantly for the audience."

Other nominees in the category include Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," Taylor Swift's "Mean," Katy Perry's "Firework," Pink's "(Expletive) Perfect," and Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie."

Friedman says he hopes "this will be an ongoing category from here on out."

McIlrath said he thought about writing "Make It Stop" when a gay fan told him she wasn't sure where the band stood on gay rights.

McIlrath says the song — and the MTV nomination — is helping raise their profile.

"We're not a band who really aims for the VMAs, I'll be honest. Like, we're not really a band that traffics on the Billboard chart and MTV and VMAs and that kind of thing, we never really relied on that," he said. "When the video came out, CNN called me and Fox had me on, NBC had me on, like these little news blips, and I've never even done that type of stuff before."

Dave Meyers, the music video director of the Pink and Perry videos nominated in the new category, said making a video with a message can be difficult.

"What's challenging for me is I don't want to seem like I'm talking down to the audience — that I'm not preaching the message, that I'm asking them to come on a ride that is not one-dimensional," he said. "Sometimes I think message-y videos can be too message-y."

Meyers, who has directed videos for Missy Elliott, Dave Matthews Band and Britney Spears, says taking home the moon man for the message award would be more gratifying than some of his other wins.

"After 15 years of nominations and countless wins, this actually has a lot of meaning to me," Meyers said. "This is MTV saying, 'We as an organization think these videos deserve special acknowledgment' versus a popularity contest, which is what a lot of the other categories tend to be."

The Perry, Eminem and Lady Gaga videos nominated for best video with a message are also up for other awards. Perry leads the pack with 10 nominations at Sunday's show, which will be held in Los Angeles.

Mel Gibson and ex-girlfriend reach settlement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mel Gibson and his Russian ex-girlfriend have reached a financial and custody settlement of a bitter dispute that spawned a criminal case and left the Academy Award winner's reputation damaged.

Los Angeles Superior Court officials said in a statement late Friday that Gibson and musician Oksana Grigorieva had reached an agreement after days of negotiation. Terms and conditions of the settlement were not announced, but a hearing Wednesday will be held to discuss the financial terms.

The equally contentious issue of custody of the couple's infant daughter will be handled in closed session, the court announced.

Gibson's spokesman Alan Nierob confirmed the settlement and said the actor-director appreciated the judge's help in mediating the case.

Grigorieva spokesman Stephen Jaffe declined comment.

The former couple have sparred for more than a year over custody and financial issues in a mostly-secret court proceeding in Los Angeles. In June 2010, Gibson's attorney Stephen Kolodny said that his client had provided his ex-girlfriend with a four-bedroom, multimillion dollar home, vehicle and tens of thousands of dollars a month.

It is unclear exactly how much Grigorieva has been receiving since then.

The "Braveheart" star was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery as a result of a January 2010 fight with Grigorieva and pleaded no contest earlier this year. The actor-director entered his plea in a way in which he admitted no guilt, and Grigorieva cannot use the outcome in a civil case.

He was ordered to undergo counseling and recently completed his community service by volunteering with a children's charity in Guatemala.

The case became an international story after recordings of racist and sexist rants by Gibson were leaked to the celebrity website RadarOnline.com. Sheriff's officials took possession of the recordings as part of their criminal investigation, but Grigorieva's attorney announced in May that he would no longer seek to use them against the former Hollywood superstar in the custody case.

The coming days could prove crucial for Gibson to resolve some of the messiness of his personal life in recent years.

Gibson, 55, recently reached a divorce settlement with his estranged wife, Robyn, and his attorney announced in June that the case should be finalized by Tuesday.

Robyn Gibson filed to end her nearly 28-year marriage in April 2009, just months before Grigorieva gave birth. The divorce has been a mostly private affair, in sharp contrast to Gibson's fight with Grigorieva.

Gibson announced Grigorieva's pregnancy to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show," but their relationship sputtered after the girl's birth.

In recent months, both have appeared multiple times in court for hearings and meetings with a judge handling their case. Gibson has not publicly spoken about the case.

The leaked conversations recorded by Grigorieva were the latest scandal for Gibson, who was arrested in 2006 for drunken driving; a deputy's report revealed he made a series of anti-Semitic and sexist slurs while in custody.

Despite positive reviews for his performance as a deeply depressed man who can only communicate through a puppet, Gibson's return to the big screen in "The Beaver" earlier this year failed to catch on with audiences.

Judge allows Loughner's forcible medication

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that prison doctors may continue to forcibly medicate the man accused in the deadly Arizona shooting rampage, saying he refused to second-guess medical experts who concluded that the suspect's condition deteriorated.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said Jared Lee Loughner kept himself awake for 50 hours straight after an appeals court stopped the forced medication on July 1. Loughner walked in circles until he developed sores and then declined antibiotics to treat an infected foot. Already thin, he stopped eating and shed nine pounds.

The prison's decision to resume medication on July 18 "seems entirely appropriate and reasonable to me," Burns said.

Loughner's attorneys argued unsuccessfully that a court should review whether the forcible medications could resume.

The ruling came in a three-hour pretrial hearing that offered insights into Loughner's fragile condition at federal prison in Springfield, Mo., where he is on suicide watch.

Christina Pietz, a psychologist who is treating him at the prison, testified by phone that Loughner is "less psychotic" than in the past and that she is now more concerned about depression.

She worried that videotaping her sessions with him — as Loughner's lawyers requested — would only exacerbate his ills. She said he turned "almost defeated" and withdrawn when she broached the idea on Wednesday.

"He feels as though he has no control about what's going on around him, and this is just one more element," she said.

Pietz said Loughner sobs uncontrollably at times and steps aside during their meetings to cover his face.

Burns reaffirmed his earlier ruling to prohibit the videotaping, even after Loughner's attorneys agreed to limit their request. He said it would add to Loughner's stress and impair the psychological evaluation.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, at a meet-and-greet event held by the congresswoman outside a Tucson grocery store.

Loughner has been at the Missouri prison since late May after mental health experts determined he suffers from schizophrenia. Burns ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial.

He was forcibly medicated between June 21 and July 1 after prison doctors found he was a danger to others. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals halted the medications while it considered an appeal of Burns' decision to allow the drugs. The appeals court has scheduled a hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The prison decided to resume the forced medications July 18 after doctors found Loughner's condition has significantly worsened and that he was a danger to himself. Defense attorneys argued that the prison was violating the 9th Circuit's order but the appeals court refused to step in.

Friday's hearing was held in San Diego, where Burns is based. He was appointed to the case after all federal judges in Arizona recused themselves. John Roll, the chief federal judge for Arizona, died in the January rampage.

Burns disagreed with prosecutors that Loughner's attorneys broke court rules by issuing a subpoena on a Tucson apartment complex in a bid to get a lease agreement for someone who lived there.

Nation's biggest subway system to stop for Irene

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's largest subway system and arriving flights at the five main New York City-area airports were preparing to shut down Saturday as Hurricane Irene spun its way up the Eastern Seaboard, forcing more than 300,000 evacuations and dimming lights at Citi Field and on Broadway.

By deciding to shut down the transit system by noon, millions of carless New Yorkers from the Bronx's most distant reaches down through Manhattan and out to the beaches of Brooklyn and Queens will be faced with the question of where to go and how to get there.

They include New Yorkers like 82-year-old Abe Feinstein, who has lived since the early 1960s on the eighth floor of a building that overlooks the famed boardwalk of Coney Island, which is in the evacuation zone and was alive with giddy visitors Friday.

"How can I get out of Coney Island? What am I going to do? Run with this walker?" he said.

But Feinstein also wasn't too worried.

He recalled watching a hurricane in 1985 from an apartment down the street from where he lives now.

"I think I have nothing to worry about," Feinstein said. "I've been through bad weather before. It's just not going to be a problem for us."

Bridges and tunnels also could be closed as the storm approaches, clogging traffic in an already congested city.

The five main New York City-area airports were scheduled to close at noon Saturday for arriving domestic and international flights. Three of them, John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, are among the nation's busiest airports.

Officials hoped most residents would stay with family and friends, and for the rest the city opened nearly 100 shelters with a capacity of 71,000 people.

Irene was expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday, then roll up the Interstate 95 corridor reaching New York on Sunday. A hurricane warning was issued for the city Friday afternoon, the first time that's happened since Gloria in 1985.

If the storm stays on its current path, skyscraper windows could shatter, tree limbs would fall and debris would be tossed around. Streets in the southern tip of the city could be under a few feet of water, and police readied rescue boats but said they wouldn't go out if conditions were poor.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident people would get out of the storm's way.

"We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes," he said. "Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people might die."

Nevertheless, he said for those who don't heed the warnings, police officers would use loudspeakers on patrol vehicles to spread the word about the evacuation Saturday.

Several New York landmarks were under the evacuation order, including the Battery Park City area, where tourists catch ferries to the Statue of Liberty. Construction was stopping throughout the city, and workers at the World Trade Center site were dismantling a crane and securing equipment. Bloomberg said there would be no effect on the Sept. 11 memorial opening the day after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

But sporting events, concerts and even Broadway were going dark.

New flood gates were put in place outside Citi Field as a precaution, but Major League Baseball took no chances. The Braves-Mets games on Saturday and Sunday were postponed, to be made up as a doubleheader on Sept. 8.

All Broadway musicals and plays were canceled for Saturday and Sunday, as well as "Zarkana" by Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall and Lincoln Center Theater's "War Horse." It's the first time Broadway has shut down for an emergency since the blackout in 2003.

In lower Manhattan, Milton Melendez and partner Shea Collins were headed uptown to a neighborhood north of Little Italy. Melendez, who survived Hurricane David as a child in the Dominican Republic, was worried about their apartment windows being blown out. Collins was a little more blasé.

"This is the same thing as a snowstorm," she said. "They say there's going to be 10 feet and there's four inches."

Bloomberg weathered criticism after a Dec. 26 storm dumped nearly two feet of snow that seemed to catch officials by surprise. Subway trains, buses and ambulances got stuck in the snow, some for hours, and streets were impassable for days. Bloomberg ultimately called it an "inadequate and unacceptable" response.

This time officials weren't taking any chances. Transit officials said they can't run once sustained winds reach 39 mph, and they need eight hours to move trains and equipment to safety.

The subway system won't reopen until at least Monday, after pumps remove water from flooded stations. Even on a dry day, about 200 pump rooms remove 13 million to 15 million gallons of water that seep into the tunnels deep underground.

About 1.6 million people live in Manhattan, and about 6.8 million live in the city's other four boroughs.

For those with cars, parking was available at the city's evacuation centers. From there, each family will be assigned to a shelter and taken there by bus.

In the Queens community of the Rockaways, more than 111,000 people live on a barrier peninsula connected to the city by two bridges and to Long Island to the west.

The city's public transit system carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday, and the entire system has never before been halted because of a natural disaster. It was seriously hobbled by an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. And it was shut down after the 9/11 attacks and during a 2005 strike.

In the last 200 years, New York has seen only a few significant hurricanes. In September 1821, a hurricane raised tides by 13 feet in an hour and flooded the southernmost tip of Manhattan in an area that now includes Wall Street and the World Trade Center memorial. In 1938, a storm dubbed the Long Island Express came ashore about 75 miles east of the city on neighboring Long Island and then hit New England, killing 700 people and leaving 63,000 homeless.

And in 1944, Midtown was flooded, where Times Square, Broadway theaters and the Empire State Building are located.

Hazare fast enters 12th day; doctors worried

As Anna Hazare’s fast spilled over to the 12th day, doctors today raised concerns over his health saying they are more worried as the Gandhian’s blood pressure has dipped while heart beat has increased.

More doctors have been stationed at Ramlila Maidan to keep a watch on the health of the 74-year-old Gandhian, whose hunger strike for a strong Lokpal has crossed 260 hours.

Dr. Naresh Trehan, whose team is monitoring Mr. Hazare’s health during the fast, said “We have more concerns than last night. His blood pressure has decreased while heart beats have increased.

“The blood pressure was going steady but it has come down. We have taken blood samples. Due to his weight loss, there is energy loss also,” he said.

He said since blood pressure has decreased, they have doubled the number of doctors at the Maidan to attend to him.

Team Anna sources said doctors were really worried and they fear that his internal organs have started getting affected due to the fast.

Mr. Hazare has lost more than seven kilos since August 16 when he sat on a hunger strike for a strong Lokpal Bill.

Last night, Mr. Trehan said, “There are concerns though his blood pressure and heart beat are okay. He has been asked to take more rest and not to strain himself.”