Judge settles Brown estate battle

A US judge has ended a bitter two-year battle over the late soul singer James Brown’s estate.

Judge Jack Early has ruled half of his assets will go to a charitable trust, a quarter to his wife and young son, and the rest to his six adult children.

Brown’s family and wife Tomi Rae Hynie Brown have fought over his fortune since he died of heart failure in 2006.

Judge Early wrote in his court report that the undisclosed settlement is “just and reasonable”.

‘Relieved and happy’

He added: “From the perspective of the charitable beneficiaries, the risks of not approving the settlement agreement are substantial.”

The settlement also establishes that Tomi Rae Hynie Brown is the star’s surviving spouse and her son is his child.

Last year, a US court ordered a DNA test to be carried out on the boy to prove Brown was his father, but that is no longer required.

In a statement to news agency The Associated Press, Brown’s widow said: “I am so relieved and happy that the court has approved this settlement.

“I want to be able to work with the trustees and other Brown family members to promote James Brown’s legacy.

“My son James and I are grateful to the judge and hope this nightmare is finally over.”

The judge has also ruled that Brown’s relatives will create a museum or some other memorial for the late singer.

Brown’s daughter, Deanna Brown, said: “It has been a struggle, but God has blessed us and we are thankful.

“We look forward to working towards the goals of our father by providing education scholarships for impoverished students and his own grandchildren, and making his home a museum for the world to come and see.”

Lawyers have said the soul singer’s accounts have little money in them.

Last July, some of his possessions were auctioned off, partly to pay off debts, however royalties from the musician’s music will continue to make future income.

UK broadband ‘notspots’ revealed

About three million homes in the UK have broadband speeds of less than two megabits per second (2Mbps) according to research commissioned by the BBC.

The government has promised to provide all homes in the UK with speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012.

The research revealed that so-called notspots are not limited to rural communities, with many in suburban areas and even streets in major towns.

The government has pledged a range of technologies to fill the gaps.

“We had assumed that these notspots were in remote parts of the countryside. That may be where the most vocal campaigners are but there is a high incidence of them in commuter belts,” said Alex Salter, co-founder of broadband website SamKnows.

No Twittering

The SamKnows map offers an insight into where the homes are that the government needs to reach out to and connect to faster broadband.

It was created by comparing a sample of UK postcodes with a database of information about which providers offered services in the 5,500 telephone exchanges around the UK.

By working out how far properties were from a particular exchange, a picture of the speed of services can be determined as line length is a crucial factor in determining how fast broadband services will operate.

To get speeds of 2Mbps or more homes need to be 4km or less from an exchange.

Click on the left hand map for more details of the NotSpots around the UK and on the right for broadband speed results in the UK.

KKR captain, coach not at fault: Ishant

Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Ishant Sharma on Wednesday refused to blame captain Brendon McCullum or coach John Buchanan for their IPL debacle and said the fact was that the team failed to deliver as a unit.

Knight Riders suffered the humiliation of losing eight matches in a row under the leadership of McCullum, who succeeded Sourav Ganguly, and celebrated former Australia coach Buchanan but Ishant said it would have met the same fate under anyone.

“Whoever would have been our captain and coach but the fact was that we failed to deliver as a team during the tournament. The captain is as good as his team,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Asked to compare Ganguly and McCullum, the 20-year-old said “They are different types of captain and both have different ways of handling the pressure”.

On the personal front, Ishant admitted IPL-II was the most difficult phase of his career.

“I have never seen my side losing so many matches at a stretch like what happened in the IPL in South Africa. It was certainly the toughest phase of my cricket career so far.

“Since the day I started playing cricket, I have never seen my side losing so many close matches for such a long period. But I think, it was a learning experience for the whole team as well,” the lanky bowler said.

However, the Delhiite is now ready shrug off the IPL’s hangover before going to the World T20 Championship in England and vehemently dismissed speculation that the 37-day event had tired the Indian players.

“I don’t think that there will be fatigue factor during the World Cup. We are professional cricketers and prepared to play that much cricket. We keep doing trainings and also look after ourself,” the 20-year-old cricketer said.

“The T20 cricket is all about momentum. If we continue with the right momentum like the team did last time, India can well defend the title,” Ishant exuded confidence.

“The couple of practice matches before the main event are going to be crucial from that point of view as they will give us the idea about the condition in England,” he added.

GM ponders future as deal fails

General Motors’ battle to avoid bankruptcy has suffered a blow as bondholders have rejected a key part of the carmaker’s restructuring plan.

The board will now meet to discuss its “next steps” after a large number of investors refused to exchange their debt for company shares.

Meanwhile, the German government is set to begin a series of meetings later to consider bids for GM’s European arm.

Four bidders are in the running for its Opel and Vauxhall operations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to meet GM representatives and US government officials at 2000BST on Wednesday night.

Although GM’s Detroit headquarters have the ultimate decision, Germany’s preference is crucial as the government is being asked to put up hefty loan guarantees for the winning bidder for GM Europe.

Setback

GM has been trying to do a deal with bondholders, under which they would trade in $27bn in debt for a 10% stake in the recapitalised company.

The failure of the offer is a significant set back for the US car giant, which is trying to avoid having to seek bankruptcy protection ahead of a US-government imposed 1 June deadline.

The failure was not unexpected, though. The majority of bondholders had been against the deal from the start, believing that the stake being offered was too small.

The other key part of the restructuring, an agreement with unions, had been more successful. The powerful United Auto Workers union agreed to take a 20% stake in GM, down from the 39% in the original plan.

Bidding war

The German government had been expected to name its preferred bidder after a series of meetings which are predicted to stretch late into the night on Wednesday.

But a government spokesperson suggested it was “much more probable that talks will be continued with at least two investors after today’s meeting”.

That would be in line with the wishes of the UK government. A spokesperson for UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said GM wanted to keep talking with all bidders.

All had committed to maintain Vauxhall production in the UK, he added, where the carmaker employs 5000 people: 1200 at the Luton van plant, and 2000 at Ellesmere Port making Astras.

Derek Simpson, general secretary of the Unite union in the UK, fears the German government will support a bid which offers no protection to British workers.

Jobs at stake

Opel has its headquarters in Germany, and 25,000 of the firm’s 50,000 workers are employed in the country.

The four bidders for GM Europe are Italy’s Fiat, Canada’s Magna, Belgium’s RHJ and China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC).

With an election looming, Berlin does not want to see too many job losses arising from the takeover.

Magna says it will lay off 2,500 workers in Germany, while Fiat says it will cut 10,000 jobs across Europe, including 2,000 in Germany.

BAIC, however, says it will not cut any jobs for at least two years. The German government is considering the bid from the Chinese carmaker, a spokesperson said, although it would not be present at Wednesday’s meetings.

Huge blast rocks Pakistani city

Rescuers are searching the rubble of a police building in the Pakistani city of Lahore after a bomb attack killed at least 23 people and injured 200.

Gunmen reportedly opened fire on guards before detonating a car bomb which flattened the emergency response building at police HQ.

Nearby offices of the ISI intelligence service were also damaged.

The interior ministry chief linked the attack to Taliban insurgents whom troops are battling in the Swat valley.

Enemies of Pakistan who want to destabilise the country are coming here after their defeat in Swat,” Rehman Malik said.

“There is a war and this is a war for our survival,” he added.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack but the authorities have been worried about possible retaliation for their offensive in Swat, the BBC’s Barbara Plett reports.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna condemned the attack and sent condolences to the bereaved.

“We hope that Pakistan and India would join hands together to fight this terror,” he said in Delhi.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the “atrocity” in Lahore and said Britain was “committed to standing shoulder by shoulder with Pakistan in days of need”.

‘They started firing’

Up to 30 people were killed when the bomb went off mid-morning local time, reports say.

Imran Khan jumps off a plan

Bollywood’s celebrity action director Allan Amin made actor Imran Khan jump off a plane onto a moving train in the forthcoming movie Luck.

“In Luck, Imran would be seen jumping from an airplane onto a moving train. It was a brave scene and was shot in Bangkok,” Amin said.

Imran, who won many hearts with his debut Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Ya, said it was an important scene, but refused to divulge any details about it.

“It is a major scene in the film and we will most probably use it for the promotion of the film. It will be a major part of the film’s publicity campaign so I don’t want to reveal much about the scene,” said Imran.

The scene might bear resemblance to Anil Kapoor’s famous jump in the 1993 movie Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja as well as Hrithik Roshan’s anti-gravity stunt in Dhoom 2 (2006).

Apart from this particular act in Luck, the action director has also choreographed an underwater action scene set in South Africa with Imran and his leading lady Shruti Haasan - the two will be seen swimming with sharks.

Sanjay Dutt, who is also a part of the Soham Shah directed project, will be seen in a spectacular stunt in which he is supposed to run towards fast moving trains - something we saw Aamir Khan doing in Ghulam.

Amin has been in the film industry for the last 25 years and says more actors now prefer to do their own stunts instead of asking for a body double.

“A lot of actors today want to do their stunts for the excitement. Not only the younger lot, even experienced actors like Amitabh Bachchan likes to do stunts on their own. I made Amitabh do one in Aks where he had to jump through a waterfall,” said Amin, who has directed stunts in actioners like Dhoom, Dus, Kaal and Main Hoon Na.

In 2005, he got the Filmfare Award for directing action sequences in Mission Kashmir, which had Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik in lead roles.

Amin is now excited about being a judge on reality show for MTV, where he has to select, train and judge 10 passionate bikers to perform stunts.

“The channel approached me for the show and after being in the industry for so long, I thought this would be something new for me and something very close to my heart - so I agreed. I will be more than happy to teach young kids how to do stunts properly without harming themselves in any way,” he said.

“A lot of youngsters have a passion for bikes and related stunts, but they should first be brave and positive to be able to carry off a stunt well. And then it is my job to make the stunt spectacular and safe,” Amin added.

Final list of ministers sent to President

The waiting game is over. After several meetings, negotiations and much tough talking over the past few days, Manmohan Singh’s Council of Ministers is taking shape. The Prime Minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have finalised the ministerial berths and the final list has been sent to the President.

Some big omissions are HR Bharadwaj and Shivraj Patil. Rahul Gandhi seems to have had his say. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and Sachin Pilot will be inducted as ministers of state. Shashi Tharoor will also be sworn in. Vilasrao Deshmukh could also be inducted into the Cabinet.

The new government will have 34 Cabinet ministers which means 14 more will be inducted in the next round of swearing-in on Thursday. Seven ministers of state will hold independent charge and there will be other ministers of state. The total number of ministers is not known.

Those who got calls from PM, Sonia:

Sachin Pilot
Shashi Tharoor
Mallikarjun Kharge
K H Munniapa
Virbhadra Singh
Dayanidhi maran
Farooq Abdullah
Ajay Maken
G K Vasan
D Purandeshwari
Pallam Raju
Jiten Prasada
Sri Prakash Jaiswal

Big omissions:
HR Bharadwaj
Shivraj Pati

Katrina refused Salman’s proposal: Reports

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Girls, romance and controversy are three things Salman Khan will never be rid of.

Rumours of Salman’s alleged affairs with his London Dreams co-star Asin and with the German supermodel Claudia Ciesla, have now taken a new turn.

Recent reports claim that Salman Khan has finally popped the question to his girlfriend of four years, Katrina Kaif.

Salman has been pitched as the most eligible bachelor in the country, even at age 42, and many have wondered when he will finally tie the knot.

Out of all his relationships, the one with Katrina has lasted the longest despite the nearly 20-year age difference, and therefore most people presumed that Katrina will be the chosen one, and now it seems she is.

However, the good news has not made headlines yet because Katrina has reportedly refused to marry Salman, and not just now, but many a times.

Katrina has said that she wants to focus on her career which is going great guns as she is delivering one hit after another, and she doesn’t want her private life to get in the way of that. What she is probably implying is that the appeal of married women is relatively reduced in Bollywood (with the exception of a few like Aishwarya Rai), and so early in her career, she doesn’t want to give it all up.

Let’s hope things work out for them, and Katrina’s repeated refusals don’t push Sallu towards many of the women who would be only too happy to be the arm candy of one of Bollywood’s biggest stars.

Gilchrist rightly replaced Laxman in IPL: Afridi

Pakistan’s hard-hitting batsman Shahid Afridi says the appointment of former Australian Test wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist as Deccan Chargers captain played a big part in the team’s victory in the second edition of the Indian Premier League.

“VVS Laxman was a defensive captain (last year) and the management rightly changed him with Adam Gilchrist,” Afridi was quoted in leading Urdu language newspaper Daily Jang on Tuesday.

Deccan Chargers became the 2009 IPL champions after Gilchrist led the team to a six-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in Sunday’s final at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium.

Afridi represented Deccan Chargers in the inaugural edition of the IPL last year, when they finished at the bottom of the points table in the eight-team competition. His IPL contract was canceled this year after the Pakistan government refused to allow its players to compete in the lucrative Indian Twenty20 tournament in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai.

“The real problem (with Deccan Chargers) was the quality of leadership,” Afridi told Jang.

“Gilchrist was a bold captain in this year’s tournament and led from the front.”

Afridi said it was sad he could not represent his team this year, “but I am happy that they won the tournament.”

Gilchrist finished with 495 runs from 16 matches in the tournament - second behind his former Australian teammate Matthew Hayden (572).

Laxman had a poor run of form in South Africa and managed only 19 runs from five matches.

“I haven’t seen many captains (like Gilchrist) who not only encourages other players, but his own performance is an example for others,” Afridi said.

Vidic ready to win at all costs

Nemanja Vidic is sure Manchester United will beat Barcelona in the Champions League final - and does not care about the style in which they do it.

Wednesday’s match in Rome pits holders United against the team regarded as the most attractive in Europe this season.

But United defender Vidic, 27, told BBC Sport: “All that matters is the result, you’ll quickly forget about the style.

“Football is not about the style - it’s about the winning and we have the confidence and belief to do it.”

The Serbia international added: “I don’t think we are arrogant - we respect Barcelona but we believe in ourselves and in the players we have.

“We won the league and have reached the Champions League final so we have to believe we can win it. We know it’s going to be a hard game and have big jobs to do but we are excited and we will try to hurt them.”

Unlike Vidic, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson conceded he would like to win in a manner that will earn his team plaudits and insisted: “We have our own style and hope we can express ourselves the way we want to on Wednesday.”

The Scot acknowledged that with the opposition being Barca many fans would expect an attractive final and he hoped United could play their part in delivering that.

“Football is always needing a boost,” he said. “We have negatives in the game that surface every year in all different ways.

“But when we get a game of football that paints the real story of football then we’re all lifted by it. I think Barcelona and Manchester United can do that in this final.

“There is a strong possibility it will be a very good final.”

Barca have scored 104 league goals this season, setting Spain and Europe alight with their unique brand of attacking football.

It has taken them to within touching distance of becoming the first club to win La Liga, the Copa del Rey and European Cup in one season.

At times this season Pep Guardiola’s side have looked unstoppable, not least during their 6-2 demolition of title rivals Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, but Ferguson said Chelsea’s semi-final performance against the Catalans gave him reason to be cheerful.

The Blues held Barca to a 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp and in the second leg, a dominant performance resulted in Chelsea entering stoppage time 1-0 up before the visitors equalised to go through on away goals.

“I watched their game against Real Madrid and it was an absolutely magnificent performance,” stated Ferguson.

“I said to myself, ‘Christ, we might have to play them’ but then Chelsea showed that they can be beaten so I take some encouragement from that.”

United have won three, lost two and drawn four of their nine previous meetings with Barca.

The pair met at the semi-final stage last season, playing out a 0-0 draw in the first leg before a spectacular strike by Paul Scholes gave United a 1-0 win in the return.

Ferguson’s men went on to beat Chelsea in the final and are bidding to become the first side to win back-to-back Champions League titles.

Victory would mean United would join Real Madrid, AC Milan, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Ajax in the group of clubs to have won four or more European Cups.

“I’m well aware of how special it is but sometimes it’s more about getting the job done than and the small details of winning the game over what surrounds the occasion,” commented United midfielder Michael Carrick.

“People keep mentioning about winning it twice along with the league and everything else. Hopefully on Thursday we can sit back and appreciate it but until then it really is about getting the job done and winning the game.”

Carrick was pleased to see Barca edge past Chelsea to reach the Rome showpiece and set up a meeting with United, who beat Arsenal 4-1 on aggregate in the other semi-final.

“I wouldn’t say I’m glad it’s not Chelsea but now that it’s Barcelona it really feels like it’s a special European final,” said the 27-year-old. “They are a massive club and have something special about them.

“To meet them at this time as well - with both of us at the top of our leagues - the time is right for a good game of football and a real test for both teams.

“We’re confident for the same reason as them. Of course we respect them and appreciate the likes of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta - they’re special players and there’s no doubt about that.

“But we’re good enough to win, we’ve been there, we’re the champions and we’ve done it before. That gives you enough confidence to believe you can do it again.”

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