Odd couple 50 CENT and BETTE MIDLER teamed up on Monday (03Nov08) to cut the ribbon on a new community garden in the rapper's native Queens, New York.Midler, a long time Big Apple conservationist, joined the rapper, and admitted she was a big fan, at the launch of the Foch Boulevard Community Garden.
Midler reveals her conservation group bought the site but needed a big name to help renovate the garden - and discovered 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, was willing to help out.

At the launch, she told reporters, "We looked all over town for a group that was interested in these sort of things. We found G-Unity, which is Curtis' foundation. They were interested. This garden is mainly for kids, and they do a lot of things with kids."50 Cent adds, "It's exciting. It was an opportunity for me to do something for the kids in the community."This a hell of a opportunity, for me to collaborate with Bette... We're gonna make it happen."

Read the rest of this entry »

 /www.currencybits.com     Dollar gains versus most majors in safe have bid
* U.S. factory activity shrinks further in October
* U.S. election a key focus
(Recasts, updates prices)
By Nick Olivar  The dollar rose against the yen and trimmed losses against the euro to trade little changed on Monday as weak U.S. economic data prompted some investors to buy the currency as a safe haven.
U.S. factory activity shrank further in October to its lowest in 26 years, according to an industry report released on Monday.

Thin trading added to market volatility with some investors waiting for big news events later in the week such as the U.S. Presidential election, central bank decisions from the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Reserve Bank of Australia, and the U.S. jobs report on Friday before placing big bets.
"It's counterintuitive, but this may help support the dollar even as it undermines confidence in the U.S. economy," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist Bank of New York-Mellon of the manufacturing report "The dollar has been the beneficiary in this global financial crisis."

Read the rest of this entry »

www.Businessaholic .com  Nicolas Sarkozy may be pushing for a new financial order but Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have beaten him to it.While the French President dreams of global economic cooperation ahead of the G20 summit in Washington, the Fed is quietly becoming central bank to the world, backed by the full might of the U.S. Treasury and a teflon-coated greenback.

Last week saw a new program added to the barrage of bailouts, backstops and stimuli announced by the United States -- US$30-billion currency swap lines for Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore. This is on top of the unlimited supply of greenbacks the United States has provided to the major economies.The United States will swap wons for greenbacks, allowing South Korean banks to fulfill local demand for U.S. dollars, which had been starved by the freeze-up in the inter-bank lending markets. Banks can then provide those greenbacks to their local customers to allow them to carry out international business.

In April, South Korea will swap its wons back, for a fee of course. David Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch was quick to pick up on the irony. "The U.S. was supposedly the basket case nation with the massive deficits whose currency was destined to lose its reserve status and whose credit rating was going to get cut at some point," he said in a note last week. "It is the U.S. that is being called upon to provide unlimited swap lines with Europe one day, and funding for emerging markets the next."Marc Chandler, chief foreign exchange strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York said the emerging market swap lines mark a new step in the evolution of the response to the credit crisis.

Read the rest of this entry »

www.Internets Life.com    For a nation that prides itself as a high-tech utopia, the land of fancy third-generation (3G) phones, wireless broadband and citizen-driven media, it's amazing how South Korea continues to invent new ways to be held hostage by a single corporation ― Microsoft. t's now old news that Korean users of Chrome, Firefox, Opera and other non-Internet explorer browsers can't bank or purchase products online and are even disabled from interacting with e-government sites, since all encrypted transactions on the Web must be done through Microsoft's ``Active-X'' controls.

The government has been facing growing pressure to break the virtual monopoly, but if its new policy for online verification systems is any indication, the intention for change seems almost non-existent. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, will enforce new rules in December that will allow users to subscribe to Internet sites without submitting their resident registration numbers, the Korean equivalent of social security numbers.

Read the rest of this entry »

www.Fashion Trail.com    When Sacha Baron Cohen tried to invade the Versace show during Milan Fashion Week as his alter ego Bruno, Italian fashion authorities were pissed. Security blocked him from Versace and the Italian Chamber of Fashion sent out a press release urging designers not to let anyone affiliated with his production company into their shows. When he managed to walk the runway at Agatha Luiz de la Prada's show, security chased him down and the lights were dimmed.

This was clearly not a joke to the Italians.But it was to the French! Bruno met a far different fate in Paris, easily infiltrating Stella McCartney and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac's shows. McCartney seemed to be in on the joke, though she pretended she wasn't. "I love his work in fashion," she told WWD. Bruno's production company called De Castelbajac the day before the show and told him Jude Law was coming. Alas, Bruno showed up clad entirely in leather.“When my security asked if he should be removed,

Read the rest of this entry »

www.Best Buys.com   Happen to have an extra $800 lying around and don’t know what to do with it? Maybe you should wander over to the local Best Buy and nab a Nokia N96 smartphone. It’s unlocked, not connected to any carrier in particular, and is ready for all of your multimedia pleasures.It seems that Best Buy Mobile has recently picked up the latest hotness to come out of Finland. As you recall, the Nokia N96 comes equipped with 16GB of internal memory, a dual-slider design, 5 megapixel Zeiss camera, and Symbian S60 FP2. The N96 is apparently out in the open too, so feel free to fondle the display unit.If Symbian and QWERTY-less styling isn’t your cup of tea, you can blow your $800 at CompUSA for an unlocked BlackBerry Bold instead. 

Read the rest of this entry »

www.Ice Creams.com   When it comes to ice cream trends and innovations, nothing does it better than Nestlé Ice Cream.Known for its unparalleled innovative efforts in creating delicious ice creams, Nestlé Ice Cream has perfected both the science and art of developing ice cream flavors that always win the hearts of many Filipinos.We just love surprising our consumers by making flavor innovations,” says Karen Alba, Consumer Marketing manager, Nestlé Ice Cream Take-Home Category.

According to Alba, Nestlé is inspired by popular Filipino desserts, pastries, chocolates, refreshments, among other cross-categories, and even lifestyle influences, in producing ice cream for every season.This claim is reflected on Nestlé’s two newest Limited Edition flavors – Banoffee Surprise and Chewy Choco Crinkle.Nestlé came up with these two flavors by taking on a very popular pastry treat and at the same time, experimenting on one of the latest food trends to introduce something truly new in the market.With Banoffee Surprise, you can satisfy both your cravings for ice cream and delicious banoffee pie.

Read the rest of this entry »

www.Cooking Age.com   Debra Elliott collects cookbooks and now has more than 300 in her Danville home. But one of her latest edditions is a special one. Elliott was selected to have her “That Broccoli Casserole” recipe featured in the Christmas Kitchen cookbook published by Gooseberry Patch. “It was the first recipe I ever submitted to a magazine, book or anything, and I just did it as an afterthought,” Elliott said. “I sent them the broccoli casserole recipe and never thought any more about it,” Elliott said. “I never heard anything from it, and I thought, ‘Okay, they won’t use it.’”

Three months later, Gooseberry Patch contacted her about the recipe. “I’d forgotten about it, and they contacted me by e-mail, and they said we’re interested in this recipe,” she said. After Elliott and Gooseberry Patch set the amounts of the ingredients and cleared up some confusion with the steps, the company made a batch at their test kitchen. Then a company representative called, saying they enjoyed the dish and wanted to print the recipe in their Christmas Kitchen cookbook.

“I think that it’s very different from your traditional broccoli casserole, and I think that people would enjoy it. It’s very much a comfort food, and people are getting back to comfort foods,” Elliott said. She added that one of the advantages of the recipe is how interchangeable the ingredients can be.

Read the rest of this entry »

Governor says govt providing safeguards to foreign investment

Says strong Pakistan to ensure peace in South Asia

LAHORE: It is Pakistan’s right to access international markets and the assistance of friendly countries is necessary to help its economy improve through an increase of exports, Governor Salmaan Taseer said on Sunday.Talking to Korean Ambassador in Pakistan Shin Un, Taseer said that the government was providing all possible safeguards to foreign investment and it was also helping investors through a one-window operation.He said that there was a wide scope for investment in Pakistani business sectors, such as engineering, sports, oil and gas, construction and food processing.

The governor also highlighted the steps taken to encourage foreign investment in Punjab.Concerning Pakistan’s role in the war on terror, the governor said, “Pakistan is a peace-loving nation, which has no extremist inclinations. Pakistan has given more sacrifices than any other partner in the war against terrorism. Strong Pakistan: “A strong Pakistan to ensure regional peace is in the world’s interest. The government will not compromise with terrorists. The operation against them will continue until their elimination.“The population is united on national issues and the government has the support of the masses on the war on terror, which is Pakistan’s war,” the governor said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise’s two-year-old daughter Suri is a big Broadway fan, as she was overzealous to watch musical play ‘Hairspray’.The ‘Vanilla Sky’ actor, who was spotted with his daughter at the Broadway musical, couldn’t get the little tot to sit down on the seat, as she was jumping with excitement, reports the New York Daily News.

Though the doting father and daughter duo was not accompanied by mom Katie Holmes, Tom’s sister Cass Cruise gave them company.The two-year-old wearing a little frock even clapped along with few songs.Tom’s tot is apparently a big fan of the “

Hairspray” film starring Nikki Blonsky, so her parents took her to the musical earlier this year. The family even went back stage to pay compliments to the cast. (ANI)

Read the rest of this entry »