IM2COOL4U: 2009

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

Erin Andrews Nude Video

It's never been easy for female sports journalists. From Lisa Olson being sexually harassed while covering the New England Patriots to Suzy Kolber having to fend off the advances of a drunk Joe Namath on national television to MMA reporter Loretta Hunt being called an unacceptable name for women on camera by UFC president Dana White, women have had to overcome obstacles not faced by their male counterparts.

That doesn't even take into account that women on television are judged for not just what they know but what they look like. Most female sports journalists have dealt with these difficulties with aplomb. However, they were magnified considerably this week when ESPN reporter Erin Andrews became a victim of video voyeurism after someone shot video of her in a private moment through her hotel room peephole.In conjunction with ESPN and her attorney, Andrews is working with authorities to catch the perpetrators of this heinous act, but the damage has been done. Her privacy has been invaded, and the video of her naked body is out there. Most Web sites have deleted the video under threat of legal action, but that can't undo the fact that it was shot and posted in the first place.Nor will it change what could be a ripple effect on women working on-camera in sports. Until now, most of the attention around Andrews has been harmless fun. She is attractive, friendly and knowledgeable about sports, which made her a magnet for attention. Blogs were smart enough to take advantage of that. Her nickname is "Erin Pageviews" because any mention of her is an automatic traffic boost. That sort of attention wouldn't keep most women from working in sports. Sexual assault -- and, make no mistake, Andrews was assaulted -- will. Voyeurism isn't "boys will be boys," or realizing that men are ogling your (clothed) picture. Voyeurism is about taking safety and security from a victim in a place they should feel comfortable. Now that Andrews is a victim of this crime, why would a woman want to follow her on camera? That's not the sort of thing that ESPN co-workers Chris Berman or Stuart Scott have to worry about. It's crazy how much Andrews, and all female sports journo-types, get judged for what they look like, what they wear, even the food they eat, rather than simply the work they do. While that sort of scrutiny is unfair, it can be tolerated to a point. But for a woman to have her security and her dignity robbed from her because she is famous? That's unbearable, and might be too much for a young woman who dreams of working the sidelines to handle.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Son of Africa, Obama scolds forces of tyranny

ACCRA, Ghana – An American president who has "the blood of Africa within me" praised and scolded the continent of his ancestors Saturday, asserting forces of tyranny and corruption must yield if Africa is to achieve its promise.
"Yes you can," Barack Obama declared, brushing off his campaign slogan and adapting it for his foreign audience. Speaking to the Ghanaian Parliament, he called upon African societies to seize opportunities for peace, democracy and prosperity.
"This is a new moment of promise," he said. "To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential."
The son of a white woman from Kansas and a black goat herder-turned-academic from Kenya, Obama delivered an unsentimental account of squandered opportunities in postcolonial Africa. America's first black president spoke with a bluntness that perhaps could only come from a member of Africa's extended family.
"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said.
"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."
He added: "Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions."
Obama was on a 21-hour visit to the West African nation to highlight that country's democratic tradition and engagement with the West. His visit, his first to sub-Saharan Africa as president, was greeted as a "spiritual reunion" Saturday by Ghanian legislators.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The End Is Coming in '2012'?

Few people have destroyed the world more than Roland Emmerich. In his mega-hit "Independence Day," aliens laid waste to pretty much every metropolitan center on the planet, and in his eco-thriller "The Day After Tomorrow," much of the northern hemisphere finds itself buried under ice. In his third crack at presenting the apocalypse, this fall's "2012," Emmerich taps into the angst of thousands of astrologers, doomsday enthusiasts, and conspiracy theorists who fear that a massive cataclysm will strike the earth on December 21 of that year. Yet unlike previous dates tied to the Earth's expiration, this one has its roots in various sources throughout history including interpretations of the Mayan calendar, astrology, and the ancient Chinese fortune-telling text the "I-Ching."

The Mayan Calendar2012 gained the patina of doom with the best-selling 1966 book "The Maya" by Harvard archeologist Michael D. Coe. He noted that the Mayan culture's famously complex "Long Count" calendar simply ends on 12/21/12, speculating that civilization might come crashing down on that date. Other scholars argue, however, that the Mayan calendar would merely flip over like an odometer that reached 100,000 miles.

Galactic AlignmentAstrologers have also pointed out that during the winter solstice of 2012, the orbital planes of the solar system and the twelve Zodiacal constellations will intersect with the "Dark Rift" -- a black bit of the Milky Way located next to Sagittarius. Some argue this intersection is precisely why the Mayans -- who were brilliant astronomers -- ended their calendar when they did. But other astrologers believe that this conjunction will usher in a great shift in consciousness.

Timewave ZeroAnd then there's ounterculture thinker Terence McKenna whose Timewave Zero theory -- drawing off of elements from the "I-Ching," the teachings of philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, and modern fractal mathematics -- which determined that 12/21/12 is, you guessed it, the exact date of a profound change in world. Roughly speaking, the Mayans, astrologers and McKenna are all predicting global doom or the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

Sunspots and Pole ProblemsSo if the apocalypse is set just in time for holiday shopping season three years from now, how exactly will the world end? One theory that actually has some traction in the scientific community is that a solar flare will cause a sudden shift in the magnetic orientation of the Earth's poles, causing all kinds of planetary problems like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. NASA is predicting strong solar activity around 2012 and there's evidence that the magnetic poles are slowly weakening, something that reportedly presages a reversal. Of course, most scientists think that this reversal will take centuries, not days, to occur.

So how does Roland Emmerich end the world in his upcoming epic "2012"? "Pole reversal," he said in an interview this week. "All kinds of stuff going on. But it's basically major earthquakes and volcano eruptions which kind of cause this global flood."
"We found this obscure theory of 'Earth crust displacement,' written in the '50s by someone called Professor Hapgood. Albert Einstein wrote the foreword to his book. It pretty much [says] every X number of years the whole Earth's crust shifts, all together. We thought that that was a great underlining theory that can explain why there can be a flood."
And what is the director going to do in preparation for that fated date? When asked he said, "I'm a pretty down to earth guy. Even [though] I made movies about aliens, I don't believe in aliens. And I don't believe that the world will come to an end in 2012, but it's a great scenario."
To get a peek at the devastation Emmerich is bringing to the screen in "2012," which he says has more visual effects than any of his previous films, watch the exclusive trailer below.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Iranian opposition leader calls for rally Thursday

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi issued a direct challenge Wednesday to the country's supreme leader and cleric-led system, calling for a mass rally to protest disputed election results and violence against his followers.
A crackdown on dissent continued, with more arrests of opposition figures reported, and the country's most powerful military force — the Revolutionary Guard — saying that Iranian Web sites and bloggers must remove any materials that "create tension" or face legal action.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told Mousavi to pursue his demands through the electoral system and called for Iranians to unite behind their Islamic government, an extraordinary appeal in response to tensions over the presidential vote. But Mousavi appears unwilling to back down, issuing on his Web site a call for a mass demonstration Thursday.
"We want a peaceful rally to protest the unhealthy trend of the election and realize our goal of annulling the results," Mousavi said.
He called for his followers to wear or carry black in mourning for the alleged election fraud and the deaths of protesters, and said there should be "a new presidential election that will not repeat the shameful fraud from the previous election."
Web sites associated with Mousavi and the reformists called for at least one rally later Wednesday but the opposition leader made no reference to the gathering in his official statement.
Mousavi and his supporters accuse the government of rigging the June 12 election to declare hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the overwhelming winner. Their street protests, paired with dissent from powerful clerical and political figures, have presented one of the gravest threats to Iran's complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Election tensions appeared to be spreading further into the Iranian political and religious classes — and even into the realm of sports.
Five Iranian soccer players, including captain Ali Karimi, wore green wristbands in an apparent sign of support for Mousavi at a World Cup Asian qualifying match in South Korea. State television showed the players wearing them for the entire first half, but the bands were gone by the time the second half started. During the demonstrations, Mousavi supporters have been wearing green — the signature color of his movement.
Blogs and Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been vital conduits for Iranians to inform the world about protests and violence.
The Web became more essential after the government barred foreign media Tuesday from leaving their offices to report on demonstrations on the streets of Tehran.
Mousavi condemned the government for blocking Web sites, saying the government did not tolerate the voice of the opposition.
The violence has left at least seven people dead, according to Iran's state media, although videos and photos posted by people inside Iran show scenes of violence that have not been reported through official channels. The new media restrictions make it virtually impossible to independently verify much of the information, which includes dramatic images of street clashes and wounded demonstrators.
Much of the imagery has been posted anonymously. In other cases, those who have posted have declined to be identified due to fear of government retaliation, or cannot be reached due to government restrictions on the Internet and mobile phones.
The Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force answering to Khamenei, said through the state news service that its investigators have taken action against "deviant news sites" that encouraged public disturbances. The Guard is a separate military with enormous domestic influence and control of Iran's most important defense programs. It is one of the key sources of power for the ruling establishment.
The statement alleged that dissident Web sites were backed by Canadian, U.S. and British interests, a frequent charge levied by hard-liners against the opposition.
"Legal action will be very strong and call on them to remove such materials," it said.
The semiofficial ISNA news agency and the private ILNA news agency reported that scuffles broke out between two legislators — one a reformist and the other a hard-liner — in an open session of parliament after they argued about the election.
The agencies said hard-liner Ruhollah Jani Abbaspour attacked reformer Amir Taherkhani after a parliamentary committee probing the protests met Mousavi and the speaker of parliament gave a report on the probe.
Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, said widespread vote fraud had undermined the legitimacy of the ruling Islamic system and that "no sound mind" would accept the results.
"A government that is based on intervening in (people's) vote has no political or religious legitimacy," said Montazeri, who had once been set to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader until he was ousted because of criticisms of the revolution.
State media said Khamenei would deliver the sermon at Friday prayers, the most important religious address of the week. The supreme leader generally leads Friday prayers only two or three times a year.
Unlike past student-led demonstrations against the Islamic establishment, Mousavi has the ability to press his case with Iran's highest authorities and could gain powerful allies. Some influential clerics have expressed concern about possible election irregularities, and a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, is part of the ruling establishment.
Iranian TV showed pictures of Faezeh Hashemi, Rafsanjani's daughter, speaking to hundreds of Mousavi supporters, carrying pictures of Khomeini and others.
The U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said that several dozen noted figures associated with the reform movement have been arrested, among them politicians, intellectuals, activists and journalists.
Tehran-based analyst Saeed Leilaz, who is often quoted by Western media, was arrested Wednesday by plainclothes security officers who came to his home, said his wife, Sepehrnaz Panahi.
At least 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election, Reporters Without Borders said, and a Web site run by former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said the reformist had been arrested.
Prominent reformer Saeed Hajjarian has also been detained, Hajjarian's wife, Vajiheh Masousi, told The Associated Press. Hajjarian is a close aide to former President Mohammad Khatami.
To try to placate the opposition, the main electoral authority has said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. The recount would be overseen by the Guardian Council, an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Khamenei.
Mousavi charges the Guardian Council is not neutral and has already indicated it supports Ahmadinejad. He and the two other candidates who ran against Ahmadinejad are calling for an independent investigation.
His representative, reformist cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, said after a meeting with the council Tuesday the number of votes in counted in 70 districts was higher than the population in those districts. He also said many polling stations were closed sooner than scheduled on election night while people were still lining up.
On Tuesday, the government organized a large rally in Tehran to show it too can bring supporters into the streets. Speakers urged Iranians to accept the results showing Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a landslide.
The appeal for unity failed to calm passions, and a large column of Mousavi supporters marched peacefully in north Tehran, according to amateur video.
A witness told the AP that the pro-Mousavi rally stretched more than a mile (1.5 kilometers) along Vali Asr Avenue, from Vanak Square to Iranian state TV headquarters.
Security forces did not interfere, the witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.
Ahmadinejad, who has dismissed the unrest as little more than "passions after a soccer match," attended a summit Tuesday in Russia that was delayed a day by the unrest. He returned to Iran and held a cabinet meeting, saying on state television Wednesday that people had voted for his "policies of justice."
In Washington, President Barack Obama expressed "deep concerns" about the legitimacy of the election and post-voting crackdowns.

North Korea warns US of 'thousand-fold' military action

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea warned Wednesday of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked, the latest threat in a drumbeat of rhetoric in defense of its rogue nuclear program.
Japanese and South Korean news reports said North Korea is preparing an additional site for test-firing a long-range missile that experts say could be capable of striking the United States. Russia's deputy defense minister reportedly said it would shoot down any missile headed its way.
The warning of a military strike, carried by the North's state media, came hours after President Barack Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that recent U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.
Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington Tuesday for a landmark summit in which the two leaders agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang claims its nuclear bombs are a deterrent against the United States and accuses Washington of plotting with Seoul to topple its secretive regime — led by the unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il who is reportedly preparing to hand over power to his 26-year-old youngest son.
"If the U.S. and its followers infringe upon our republic's sovereignty even a bit, our military and people will launch a one hundred- or one thousand-fold retaliation with merciless military strike," the government-run Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary.
The commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, also called Obama "a hypocrite" for advocating a nuclear-free world while making "frantic efforts" to develop new nuclear weapons at home.
"The nuclear program is not the monopoly of the U.S.," it said.
The report did not mention the Obama-Lee summit.
Attention has been focused on North Korea since it conducted a nuclear test, its second, on May 25 in defiance of the United Nations. The U.N. Security Council responded by toughening an arms embargo, authorizing ship searches for nuclear and ballistic missile cargo and depriving the regime of the financing used to build its nuclear program.
South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday that the North has begun withdrawing money from its bank accounts in the Chinese territory of Macau and elsewhere, for fear they would be frozen under the U.N. sanctions.
But Lim Eul-chul, a research professor at South Korea's Kyungnam University and an expert on North Korea, cast doubt on the report. He said the North likely had decreased its exposure to banks in Macau sharply after its funds were previously frozen there under U.S. sanctions.
"They know how to keep and secure their money," Lim said, adding that North Korea can effectively hide funds in accounts in mainland China opened in the name of third parties such as local Chinese companies and ethnic Korean Chinese citizens.
Separately, Japan's Sankei newspaper said Wednesday that the North has been showing signs of preparing two sites — the Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast and the Musudan-ni site on the northeastern coast — from where a long-range missile could be launched.
It was earlier thought that any launch would come only from the northwest.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper also carried a similar report Wednesday, quoting an unidentified government official as saying that a special train that carried a long-range missile to the northwestern site has recently moved to the northeastern site.
But South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has been running an empty cargo train from a weapons factory to the two sites.
Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official as saying the movement is aimed at "confusing" foreign intelligence agencies.
Still, Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul, said the possibility of the North conducting a long-range missile test is high unless tension with the U.S. "is dramatically reduced."
In Moscow, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Popovkin as saying that if a North Korean missile comes toward Russia "we will see it and shoot it down."
South Korea's Unification Ministry, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the reports on money withdrawals or on the missiles, which ostensibly can carry a nuclear warhead. It remains unclear whether they have developed a nuclear device small enough to be carried on a missile.
North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. It revealed last week that it is also producing enriched uranium. The two materials are key ingredients for making atomic bombs.
Some analysts believe that the North's rhetoric is aimed at showing people at home that their government can defy the powerful U.S., and eventually to give credit for it to Kim's reported heir apparent, Kim Jong Un. The analysts say this would make Jong Un's ascent to the top acceptable to the North Koreans.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

#IranElection

"Tiananmen + Twitter = Tehran"
Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb cites a comment he's seen highlighting the similarities between the violence in China's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago and the melee in Iran today, with the addition of one thing: the Internet.
Iranian authorities issued an order Tuesday restricting all journalists, including Iranians, working for foreign media from reporting from the streets of Tehran. The edict forces reporters to work only from their offices and limits them to conducting telephone interviews and citing official sources from state television reports.
With the ban on media, users on social networking sites like Twitter have upped their efforts to provide first-hand, real-time news.
The Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London said in a statement:
"They've cut off telephone, e-mail, texting, and for foreign press issued a letter saying nobody can report without permission…Twitter is the one thing being used. It’s a sign of crackdown. They don’t want people outside Iran to see what’s going on there."
As the embattled regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seemingly cuts off Iran from the rest of the world, Iranians are working around the restrictions by blogging, posting to Facebook, and organizing protests on Twitter.Twitterers post messages with the term #IranElection, allowing users to search all tweets on the subject. #IranElection is now a top trending topic and Twitter was registering about 30 news posts a minute with that tag, according to The New York Times.The feed "mousavi1388" (named for Ahmadinajad’s leading opposition candidate Hussein Moussavi) has more than 11,000 followers and is filled with protest news, links to photos and encouragement to keep fighting, both in English and Farsi.One poster wrote:
"We have no national press coverage in Iran, everyone should help spread Moussavi’s message. One Person = One Broadcaster. #IranElection"
And Twitter is well aware of the importance of its site. The San Francisco-based social networking service delayed a planned upgrade, citing "the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran."Mousavi himself has used text messages, Facebook, and Twitter to reach out to voters. His Facebook page has attracted more than 54,000 fans, and his slogan during the election was "Every citizen is the media."A highly computer-literate society with a large number of bloggers and hackers (see this video about the importance of Iran's bloggers), the people of Iran have used Tweets, blog posts, photos, and raw video to give themselves a voice. A Washington Times editorial opines:
"What we are seeing is the flickering flame of freedom…The people of Iran are exercising their sovereign right as a people to stand before their rulers and say 'No more.' They are commanding the attention of a world that seeks to make deals with their oppressors. Iranians are telling us that they yearn to be free."
Commanding the attention of the world in 140 characters or less ... that's power to the people.

The Twitter Revolution

Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb cites a comment he's seen highlighting the similarities between the violence in China's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago and the melee in Iran today, with the addition of one thing: the Internet.
Iranian authorities issued an order Tuesday restricting all journalists, including Iranians, working for foreign media from reporting from the streets of Tehran. The edict forces reporters to work only from their offices and limits them to conducting telephone interviews and citing official sources from state television reports.
With the ban on media, users on social networking sites like Twitter have upped their efforts to provide first-hand, real-time news.
The Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London said in a statement:
"They've cut off telephone, e-mail, texting, and for foreign press issued a letter saying nobody can report without permission…Twitter is the one thing being used. It’s a sign of crackdown. They don’t want people outside Iran to see what’s going on there."
As the embattled regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seemingly cuts off Iran from the rest of the world, Iranians are working around the restrictions by blogging, posting to Facebook, and organizing protests on Twitter.Twitterers post messages with the term #IranElection, allowing users to search all tweets on the subject. #IranElection is now a top trending topic and Twitter was registering about 30 news posts a minute with that tag, according to The New York Times.The feed "mousavi1388" (named for Ahmadinajad’s leading opposition candidate Hussein Moussavi) has more than 11,000 followers and is filled with protest news, links to photos and encouragement to keep fighting, both in English and Farsi.One poster wrote:
"We have no national press coverage in Iran, everyone should help spread Moussavi’s message. One Person = One Broadcaster. #IranElection"
And Twitter is well aware of the importance of its site. The San Francisco-based social networking service delayed a planned upgrade, citing "the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran."Mousavi himself has used text messages, Facebook, and Twitter to reach out to voters. His Facebook page has attracted more than 54,000 fans, and his slogan during the election was "Every citizen is the media."A highly computer-literate society with a large number of bloggers and hackers (see this video about the importance of Iran's bloggers), the people of Iran have used Tweets, blog posts, photos, and raw video to give themselves a voice. A Washington Times editorial opines:
"What we are seeing is the flickering flame of freedom…The people of Iran are exercising their sovereign right as a people to stand before their rulers and say 'No more.' They are commanding the attention of a world that seeks to make deals with their oppressors. Iranians are telling us that they yearn to be free."
Commanding the attention of the world in 140 characters or less ... that's power to the people.

-Allison Louie-Garcia
Yahoo! News bloggers compile the best news content from our providers and scour the Web for the most interesting news stories so you don't have to.

Thousands return to streets of Iran's capital

TEHRAN, Iran – Thousands of Iranians swarmed the streets of Tehran on Tuesday in rival demonstrations over the country's disputed presidential election, pushing a deep crisis into its fourth day despite a government attempt to placate the opposition by recounting a limited number of ballots.
Iran's supreme ruler drew a firm line against any threats to the regime, warning Iranians to unite behind the country's Islamic system as authorities imposed severe restrictions on independent media.
After days of dramatic images of Iranians protesting the declaration of victory for hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the government said employees of foreign media could only cover events authorized and announced by the government.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made an extraordinary appeal in response to tensions over the disputed election, which has presented one of the gravest threats to Iran's complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged from the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"In the elections, voters had different tendencies, but they equally believe in the ruling system and support the Islamic Republic," Khamenei said at a meeting with representatives of the four presidential candidates. "Nobody should take any action that would create tension, and all have to explicitly say they are against tension and riots."
A day after a massive opposition rally that ended in deadly clashes with pro-government militiamen, Iran's main electoral authority said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities took place.
Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has called the election an "astonishing charade," demanding it be canceled and held again.
His representative, reformist cleric Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, reiterated that demand Tuesday after a meeting of the Guardian Council, calling along with representatives of two other candidates for an independent investigation of voting irregularities. The Guardian Council is an unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to the supreme leader and seen as supportive of Ahmadinejad.
Mousavi said Monday he believes the council is not neutral and has already indicated support for Ahmadinejad.
"If the whole people become aware, avoid violent measures and continue their civil confrontation with that, they will win. No power can stand up to people's will," Mohtashamipour said. "I do not think that the Guardian Council will have the courage to stand against people."
A spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, did not rule out the possibility of canceling the results, saying that is within the council's powers, although nullifying an election would be an unprecedented step.
In the afternoon, the government organized a large rally in Tehran, as if to demonstrate it also can bring people into the streets. Thousands waved Iranian flags and pictures of the supreme leader, thrusting their fists into the air and cheering as speakers denounced "rioters" and urged Iranians to accept the results showing Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a landslide Friday.
"This nation will protect and defend its revolution in any way," Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a prominent lawmaker and Ahmadinejad supporter, told the pro-government crowd in Vali Asr Square.
He called on Mousavi's supporters to accept the results and press their complaints through legal means.
"After all, in all elections there will be losers and winners, naturally," he said. "This should not cause a rift between the people."
The appeal for unity failed to calm passions, and a large column of Mousavi supporters — some of them with green headbands and their faces masked against tear gas or to hide their identities — marched peacefully along a central avenue in north Tehran, according to amateur video.
A witness told The Associated Press that the pro-Mousavi rally stretched more than a mile (1.5 kilometers) along Vali Asr avenue, from Vanak Square to the headquarters of Iranian state television.
Security forces did not interfere, the witness said, and the protest lasted from about 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Other witnesses told the AP that about 100 people continued the protest in front of state TV past 9:45 p.m. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.
Mousavi appeared to be trying to harness the days of street rage into a more carefully directed campaign of civil disobedience. In a message on his Web site, he said he would not attend Tuesday's demonstration and urged his supporters not to resort to violence.
The Web site said Mousavi and his supporters planned another large demonstration along the path of Monday's massive protest, for Wednesday afternoon. It said they have asked the Interior Ministry for permission but didn't say whether they got a response or if they would go ahead if rejected.
Ahmadinejad, who has dismissed the unrest as little more than "passions after a soccer match," attended a summit meeting in Russia that was delayed a day by the unrest in Tehran. That allowed him to project an image as Iran's rightful president, welcomed by other world leaders.
In Washington, President Barack Obama expressed "deep concerns" about the legitimacy of the election and post-voting crackdowns but declined to term Ahmadinejad's re-election a fraud.
"I do believe that something has happened in Iran," with Iranians more willing to question the government's "antagonistic postures" toward the world, Obama said. "There are people who want to see greater openness, greater debate, greater democracy."
After images were shown around the world of Monday's mass protests and violence, authorities said foreign media, including Iranian employees, could only work from their offices, conduct telephone interviews and monitor official sources such as state television.
The rules prevent media outlets, including The Associated Press, from sending independent photos or video of street protests or rallies.
Also Tuesday, foreign reporters in Iran to cover last week's elections began leaving the country. Iranian officials said they will not extend their visas.
At least 10 Iranian journalists have been arrested since the election, "and we are very worried about them, we don't know where they have been detained," Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders told AP Television News in Paris. He added that some people who took pictures with cell phones also were arrested.
A Web site run by former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said the reformist had been arrested.
Saeed Hajjarian, a prominent reformer, also has been detained, Hajjarian's wife, Vajiheh Masousi, told the AP. Hajjarian is a close aide of former President Mohammad Khatami.
Iranian state radio said seven people were killed in Monday's protests — the first confirmation of deaths from the demonstrations that started Saturday after the election results were announced. It said people were killed during an "unauthorized gathering" at a mass rally after protesters "tried to attack a military location."
___
Keyser reported from Cairo. AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan in Washington and AP writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Yekaterinburg, Russia, contributed to this story.

MTV Admits 'Bruno' Stunt Was Staged

On Sunday night, when Sacha Baron Cohen's alter-ego Bruno descended from the rafters and landed fanny-first on Eminem's head, most folks figured that the rapper's rage was the real deal. Suckers! Not only was Eminem in on the joke, he and Baron Cohen rehearsed it to make sure it would all go according to plan.Suspicions over the legitimacy of "butt-gate" had been brewing for days, but it wasn't until a writer for the MTV Movie Awards confessed that we all knew for sure. On his blog, head writer Scott Aukerman wrote that the incident was staged. "They rehearsed it at dress (rehearsal) and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show." Wow. Let it never be said that Eminem isn't a team player.
According to the New York Daily News, Eminem wasn't Baron Cohen's first choice for the joke. That honor, which was tragically declined, went to Paris Hilton. Just imagine the buzz had that happened. Still, Eminem did a great job of selling the stunt considering he "may not have been briefed on just how naked Baron Cohen's flying 'Bruno' would be when he agreed." What a pro.
Even before the writer's admission that the crash landing was planned, the searches had a suspicious slant. Throughout Monday, lookups on " was the eminem bruno stunt staged" and "eminem bruno joke" posted strong gains. Blogs, like this one from the Chicago Tribune, raised the possibility that the audience had just been played.
Now that the joke has been confirmed, queries are surging on "bruno eminem fake stunt." We'd say we feel used, but we're too busy laughing.

Rihanna

Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), who performs under the mononym Rihanna (pronounced /riːˈɑːnə/), is a Barbadian singer, model, and beauty queen. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna relocated to the United States at the age of sixteen to pursue a recording career, under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers. She subsequently signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for then-label head Jay-Z.
In 2005, Rihanna released her debut studio album, Music of the Sun, which peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200 and features the Billboard Hot 100 hit single "Pon de Replay". Less than a year later, she released her second studio album, A Girl Like Me, which peaked within the top five of the Billboard albums chart, and produced her first number one single, "SOS". Rihanna's third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), peaking at number two on the Billboard 200, released three US number one hit singles—"Umbrella", "Take a Bow", and "Disturbia", and the worldwide hit "Don't Stop the Music". The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella", which features Jay-Z.
Rihanna has sold over twelve million albums worldwide and has received several accolades, including the 2007 World Music Awards for World's Best-Selling Pop Female Artist and Female Entertainer of the Year, as well as the 2008 American Music Awards for Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. She also serves as one of Barbados' cultural ambassadors.

Biography

1988–2004: Early life and recording contract
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados, to Ronald and Monica Fenty. She has two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Barbadian and Irish. She began singing at around the age of seven. Her parents then divorced when she was fourteen years old.Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004, she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant. At the age of fifteen she formed a girl group with two of her classmates. In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." While auditioning for Rogers, Rihanna sang Destiny's Child's cover of "Emotion". Over the next year, Rihanna and her mom shuttled back and forth to Rogers home in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, shortly after turning 16, she relocated to the U.S. and moved in with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken, helped Rihanna record a four-song demo, which included the ballad “Last Time,” a cover of Whitney Houston’s hit, “For The Love Of You” and what would become her first hit, "Pon de Replay" to send to various recording companies. She mentioned that it took a year to record the demos, because she going to school, and would only record during summer and Christmas school breaks. Rihanna's demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label's then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her.

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