Top Stories –
That’s a lot of chocolate –
Despite a campaign by the Daily Mail to “Keep Cadbury British”, the confectionery company finally accepted a takeover bid from Craft food in a deal worth $19 billion.
More than a wee dram, then –
Adults in Scotland are drinking the equivalent of 46 bottles of vodka each in a year, a study has suggested. The research based on industry sales data and analysed by NHS Health Scotland showed an average of 12.2 litres of pure alcohol per person over the age of 18.
Top Video –
New York City Portrait
New York city portrait, HD time lapse, April 2006, music by Moby from Max Moos on Vimeo.
Top List –
Top 100 films of the Noughties (2000-2009)
List from Daily Telegraph By David Gritten, Tim Robey and Sukhdev Sandhu
Part 9 – 20-11
- 20 Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola, 2003: Dreamy not-quite romance, about a young American girl wandering through Tokyo with a faded actor, made Scarlett Johansson a star.
- 19 Capote
Bennett Miller, 2005: Genuine biopic gold, thanks to its sober elegance and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s masterclass in falsetto self-love.
- 18 Mamma Mia!
Phyllida Lloyd, 2008: This cheerful version of Abba’s greatest hits became the highest-grossing British movie of all time. Indifferently sung, clumsily directed – but for millions of people, it was a grand night out.
- 17 4 Months, 3 weeks, and 2 days
Cristian Mungiu, 2007: Romanian cinema was a powerhouse in the second half of the decade; this gripping drama about abortion and female friendship was a standout.
- 16 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Michel Gondry, 2004: The dream team of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry broke our hearts with this ineffable, wildly clever valentine to sundered romance.
- 15 Before Sunset
Richard Linklater, 2004: Before Sunrise’s Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reunited for a dream-parade through Parisian boulevards in the decade’s most gorgeous and affectingly romantic film.
- 14 Saw
James Wan, 2004, £9.78: The decade of Abu Ghraib found its cinematic equivalent in the torture porn aesthetics of this and the Hostel series.
- 13 West of the Tracks
Wang Bing, 2003, DVD: Nine hours long with not a minute wasted, this portrait of a dying industrial district in China is a towering, epoch-defining masterpiece.
- 12 Amelie
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001: France’s biggest-ever global hit – an idealised view of Paris, and a star vehicle for Audrey Tautou as a young do-gooder. Its droll tone and tricksy style almost mask its heroine’s solitude and tristesse.
- 11 The Lives of Others
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006: Emotional, intellectual and immeasurably compelling drama about a Cold War surveillance operator who warms to the radical theatre director on whom he’s spying.
Top News –
- A teacher and a student from Chung Ling High School were killed and four others were missing in the dragon boat tragedy in Penang. The Star
- Computer modelling shows that the Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier, once described as a major “tipping point” for the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the embayment of the Amundsen Sea, has reached their own tipping points for eventual collapse, likely to lead to a sea level rise of up to 52 cm over the next century. New Scientist
- Aftermath of 2010 Haiti earthquake: Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade offers “voluntary repatriation” to each of his Haitian “sons and daughters of Africa”. (BBC)
- Indian communist patriarch Jyoti Basu, the longest-serving Chief Minister of West Bengal who declined the post of Prime Minister in 1996, dies at the age of 95. (Reuters) (Indian Express) (The Hindu) (Hindustan Times) (The Canadian Press) (BBC)
- Iran suspends pilgrimages to holy sites in Saudi Arabia after it called on the Saudi religious police to stop their “appalling behaviour” towards Iranian Shiite pilgrims. (Times of India) (Ennahar)
- Former Iraqi minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, is sentenced to death for the Halabja poison gas attack. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Pope Benedict XVI makes a controversial visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome. (BBC)
- Ukrainian voters go to the polls to elect a new president. (Kyiv Post) (BBC)
- Sebastián Piñera is elected President of Chile in the second round of the presidential election. (BBC) (UPI)
- Former Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, tells The Sunday Timesthat the conduct of his wife, politician Iris Robinson, with her young lover has led him to shake hands with deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Féin) for the first time. (BBC) (Ireland Online) (RTÉ)
- Prince William of Wales arrives in New Zealand for a three-day tour, including the opening of its new Supreme Courtbuilding, his first official overseas trip representing Elizabeth II. (BBC) (The Independent) (The Daily Telegraph)
- A U.S. drone attack kills 15 alleged militants in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan. (BBC)
News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource