Storied Park Gets Italian Face-Lift

ALTAVILLA VICENTINA, ITALY — Alberto Zamperla sweeps through the cavernous workshop here where his amusement rides are made while workers measure and bang and solder enormous platforms, oddly shaped beams and assorted fiberglass vehicles.

Spring is a busy time for his company, and attractions are being prepared for the summer season that is about to open in theme parks around the world.

This year, however, one destination has Mr. Zamperla racing against the clock: Coney Island in New York City, where in a few weeks he will present a new amusement park featuring 22 rides, including the Tickler, a family-oriented roller coaster; the whirly Mega Disko; and Air Race, a heart-gulping aerobatic experience.

Coney Island is the largest investment yet in the 50-year history of Zamperla Group. Zamperla is the majority shareholder of Central Amusement International, or C.A.I., a New Jersey company that signed an agreement in February with the city of New York to build and manage the amusement area. C.A.I. has spent $15 million on the refurbishment of the park, about half of the $30 million it expects to invest.

“Ride manufacturers have been operating rides in parks or fairgrounds for many years,” said Andreas Veilstrup Andersen, executive director of the European office of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. “However, a project as big as Coney Island is very unusual.”

Time has been tight, with the park’s opening set for the end of May.

“We had a pretty good idea of what we could produce on time,” said Mr. Zamperla, the chief executive. “There’s a lot of pressure, because all eyes are on us. Things just can’t be good, they have to be perfect.”

Luigi De Vita, managing director of the company, added: “When we’re under pressure, we give the best of ourselves.”

Theme parks and amusement parks have a global lure, with about 758 million visitors worldwide in 2007, according to the latest study from PricewaterhouseCoopers on the outlook for entertainment and media. Worldwide revenue in 2007 was $24 billion, the study said.

Zamperla, according to industry experts, is ranked among the top five manufacturers of amusement park rides.

The Coney Island project will be called Luna Park, after the original playground that stood there until World War II. Drawings for the new main gate on Surf Avenue meticulously mimic the original design, albeit in a flashier revamp.

The park at Coney Island “had its glory but lacked an innovative spirit,” Mr. Zamperla said of a site that in recent decades had become a little down at heel. In February, C.A.I. won the bid on a 10-year lease to build and operate the park, which sits on a city-owned lot.

“Their specific proposal was a nice blend of honoring the history of Coney Island, while developing it as a modern 21st-century amusement park,” said Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp.

Zamperla was chosen because it had a sound track record in operating amusement parks, including the Victorian Gardens, a children’s amusement area in Central Park in New York. And it was known as the producer of “some of the most exciting rides in the world,” Mr. Pinksy said.

The Zamperla family has been building amusement park attractions at Altavilla Vicentina since the early 1960s.

Alberto’s grandfather, Umberto Zamperla, opened one of the first movie houses in Italy, then moved into carnival attractions. His father, Antonio Zamperla, worked in traveling shows before deciding to settle in this Veneto town to start inventing and manufacturing rides.

Alberto Zamperla, 58, the eldest of five children, took the show on the road, so to speak, and there are now factories or sales offices in several countries, including the United States, China, Russia and Dubai. His group sells to customers in more than 90 countries and now exports about 95 percent of its products.

There are about 185 employees in Italy, with an additional 270 around the world.The nuts and bolts of the business — its administration as well as its main manufacturing activities — are at the headquarters near Vicenza, an industrial district that is the third-largest exporting center in Italy, according to the local chamber of commerce. The area produces goods including gold, textiles and furniture.

Carmine Tripodi, who teaches strategic and entrepreneurial management at Bocconi University in Milan, said Zamperla was representative of Veneto’s fertile manufacturing tradition only “up to a certain point,” as it had taken the leap into the international market. “That is not so common,” Mr. Tripodi said, “and one of the great challenges is the measure by which these businesses are able to be protagonists in other markets.”

A stroll though the headquarters at Altavilla Vicentina hints at the complexity of producing amusement park rides for the world’s major theme parks, including various Disney Parks (“In our business, it’s the best reference you can have,” Mr. Zamperla said), Six Flags theme parks and malls worldwide. Even the late Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate has Zamperla rides.

On average, the company spends about €1 million, or $1.33 million, a year designing new products. Attractions are designed using complicated computer algorithms and mathematical models and then built and tested here. Zamperla has dozens of patents on items like merry-go-round decorations and roller coaster seats.

“This is where ideas are born,” Mr. Zamperla beamed as he looked at the Moto Coaster, a ride being prepared for a dinosaur theme park in Changzhou, China. Each ride requires about a year from design to delivery, he said, and can cost anywhere from €20,000 to €6 million. The Moto Coaster sells for €3.5 million and will be one of the new attractions at Coney Island next year.

Safety, and compliance with international standards, is an obvious priority. Accidents are rare, but they do happen, and Zamperla has not been spared. “You build as safely as you possibly can — the laws regulating amusement rides are more severe than for automobiles,” Mr. Zamperla said.

The global economic turmoil has been felt in the amusement ride industry, though in 2009 the effects were felt less in Europe than in other parts of the world, said Mr. Andersen, of the amusement park association. Last year, about 4.5 million people visited amusement parks in Europe.

“There’s money to spend on investments,” Mr. Andersen said, which makes him optimistic about the industry’s future. “It’s a resilient business that has proven it can reinvent itself over the last 80 and 90 years, and I am confident it will continue to do so,” he said.

Demand is growing in new markets, too, especially in the Middle and Far East. Zamperla has a factory and sales offices in Suzhou, China, to serve the fast-growing Chinese market. “We’re not going to make the mistake of underestimating the Chinese,” he said.

The factory in China produces about €4 million worth of rides for the Chinese market. He exports about the same amount from Italy to China and hopes to reach €20 million in sales in two years.

And in well-established markets like the United States, long-term success in the amusement ride industry depends on novelty, Mr. Andersen said.

This year, for example, Coney Island will see the debut of Air Race, an airborne experience that the company describes as “the ultimate thrill ride,” alongside more placid family fare. Next year, new rides are expected in the Scream Zone, an addition to the park that will feature several Zamperla roller coasters intended mostly for teenagers.

“In the end, all we want to do is build rides that people will enjoy,” Mr. Zamperla said. And Coney Island, he said, “will be the perfect showcase” for the company.

Greece Calls for Activation of Financial Rescue

ATHENS — Describing his country’s economy as “a sinking ship,” Greece’s prime minister formally requested Friday an international bailout, testing the solidarity of the European Union as never before.“We drew up a plan, we took difficult and painful measures,” Prime Minister George A. Papandreou said in a nationally televised address. “But the markets did not respond.”

Worries about Greece’s runaway debt — its budget deficit last year added an estimated 13.6 percent of gross domestic product to an overall debt that already exceeded 100 percent of G.D.P. — have pushed interest rates on Greek bonds above those of emerging countries like India and the Philippines that are generally considered riskier.

Many investors are convinced that Athens, facing years of fiscal austerity and potential economic stagnation, will ultimately be required to reschedule its debts and renegotiate terms with lenders, a step short of a full default.

“This clearly buys Greece quite a lot of time,” said Julian Callow, chief economist at Barclays Capital in London.

But further out, Mr. Callow added, perhaps beyond 2011, “this doesn’t rule out some kind of rescheduling.”

That would involve negotiations with banks and bondholders in which Athens might try to reduce its obligations or push repayments further into the future.

The urgency in the Greek request was suggested from the fact that Mr. Papandreou was speaking from the Aegean island of Megisti rather than the capital. “The time has come for us to ask our partners in the E.U. to activate the mechanism we formulated together.”

He was referring to an emergency aid package arranged two weeks ago in Brussels. The plan foresees up to €30 billion, or $40 billion, in loans from Greece’s euro-zone partners, and up to €15 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

The activation of the E.U.-I.M.F. rescue plan, Mr. Papandreou said, “will send a strong message to the markets that the E.U. is not playing their game and will not leave its currency at risk.”

The announcement means that money from the I.M.F. can be released once the board of the fund has approved the terms.

“We are prepared to move expeditiously on this request,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the I.M.F. managing director, said in a statement issued in Washington, where a meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers is taking place.

The loans pledged by Greece’s euro-zone partners are still awaiting approval by legislators in some countries. That includes Germany, which has the euro-area’s most important economy. Athens may end up receiving its money in bits and pieces from its partners rather than in a single check, said an E.U. official, who was not permitted to speak publicly.

The idea of bailing out Greece has been highly unpopular with German voters and may still face a legal challenge before that country’s Constitutional Court.

But the Finance Ministry in Berlin said the German government was “ready to act” to clear the way in Parliament.

“We in Germany are pledged to solidarity and we will show it,” Michael Offer, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry, said. “We’re doing this to stabilize the euro, which means it’s also in our own national interest.”

French and German banks are among the biggest holders of Greece’s sovereign debt, and a default would weigh heavily on their balance sheets.

Still, with an important regional election approaching at home, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the aid would be granted only after Greece had negotiated a new austerity program with the Union, the European Central Bank and the I.M.F. — and after they had determined that Greece had no other options.

Those talks began this week in Athens and are expected to conclude in a matter of days.

“Only when these steps have been taken can we talk about aid as well as the kind of aid and amounts,” she said in Berlin. “It is not direct help from the government budget, but rather guarantees.”Mr. Papandreou did not mention any new budget cuts in his speech. The government has already implemented two austerity packages aimed at cutting spending and increasing revenue, which have fueled unrest from unions.Greece has near-term financing pressures. It requires up to €10 billion in May to cover redemptions, coupon payments and its primary government deficit, according to investors.

The Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, insisted that the money would be there, “without a doubt,” and that Athens would be able to repay bonds coming due on May 19.

“Greece will have no borrowing problems on May 19,” he said in Athens before leaving for Washington.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Greek government bonds initially fell to 8.1 percent Friday after the reports, before rising again to 8.7 percent. On Thursday, it touched a new high of close to 9 percent.

The euro rose against the dollar after briefly touching the lowest point in a year early in the day, but then dipped again amid uncertainty over the timing of the aid.

The Athens composite share closed down 0.2 percent, reversing early gains of almost 4 percent.

More broadly, some investors fear that the Greek crisis has opened fault lines for the currency bloc that might be difficult to close.

“At some stage the euro area will arrive at a fork in the road,” said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London, “as some economies are structurally different to others.”

For Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal, the financial crisis has highlighted the constraints of euro membership. Unable to devalue their currencies to help regain industrial competitiveness, and impelled by E.U. fiscal agreements to meet certain budget targets, they are facing years of belt-tightening just when their economies could use a lift from additional spending.

Other countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Austria have kept deficits down while retaining an edge in global markets, in part of by restraining domestic wage increases. France lies somewhere between the two camps.

Mr. Lyons said the long-term choices for the euro area appeared stark: either push on toward a political union, handing budgetary power to a central authority, or form a “two-speed” block.

Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group, said Greece “should get some benefit of doubt as the I.M.F. program gets under way.”

He added that markets “will remain nervous and will most likely require to see several months of track record of successful adjustment before becoming more confident that debt sustainability is within reach and a restructuring can be avoided.”

The bailout package has raised a host of technical as well as political issues for the euro area, because the euro’s founding treaties insisted that no such step could be taken.

Berlin will raise its share of the money on the markets through KfW, the state development bank. Guarantees for those loans require approval by lawmakers.

In France, which is making the next-biggest contribution, the government has revised its 2010 budget to authorize a loan of up to €6.3 billion this year. French lawmakers will discuss the contribution next month.

“The process is under way,” the French economy minister, Christine Lagarde, said in Washington. “Everybody has to do their homework now.”

California utility plows ahead with midsize solar

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric got approval for an initiative that seeks to ramp up solar-power production but sidestep the permitting hurdles of large-scale solar and the expense of rooftop panels.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a five-year program where PG&E will install solar photovoltaic arrays between 1 megawatt and 20 megawatts in size. In all, the installations will have a capacity of 500 megawatts worth of solar, enough to power 150,000 homes, according to PG&E.The approach is to build midsize solar arrays and locate them near power substations, which means that no new transmissions lines will need to be built. Constructing smaller, distributed units also simplifies the environmental permitting process, another serious hurdle to building power plant-size solar projects."Smaller scale projects can avoid many of the pitfalls that have plagued larger renewable projects in California, including permitting and transmission challenges," CPUC president Michael Peevey said in a statement.
California has a renewable portfolio standard where utilities need to get 20 percent of their electricity by the end of this year. PG&E will own and operate about half of the installations and purchase power from independent developers, it said.
The technology used for these projects will be familiar solar photovoltaic panels, but the program could also see the use of concentrating photovoltaic arrays, where mirrors concentrate light to draw more electricity from high-end solar cells. Amonix, a company in that field, raised $129 million earlier this week to pursue the utility business.

KSE-100 Index gains 11 points

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed a weak day as stock prices fluctuated throughout the session on Monday.

The benchmark KSE 100-share Index gained 11 points to finish the first trading day of the week at 10,669.

Today’s trade began with positive numbers and the major Index was, at one stage, seen floating at 10,691 points level. However, later profit taking in energy stocks took away the earlier gains, leaving the Index only with 11 points up.

The trade volume was recorded at 160 million shares with Lotte Pakistan topping the list of actives which an increase of paisas 30 to close at Rs12.40.

Power tariff need to be increased: Dr Hafeez

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's Finance Adviser Dr Hafeez Shaikh said if power tariff was not increased we would need to arrange more money to reduce deficit and satisfy World Bank and International Monetary Fund to get $ 900 million for curbing energy crisis.

He was addressing a seminar held at National University of Science and Technology.

He stressed the need to bridge the supply and demand gap of electricity. 'Six-point agenda has been chalked out to overcome energy crisis.'

International donors will not help until power theft is stopped, the advisor said.

Aviation industry suffers $200 million daily

LONDON: The aviation industry sharply criticized European governments on Monday for their handling of airport closures, saying there was ``no coordination and no leadership'' in the volcanic ash crisis that shut down European airports for a fifth straight day.

The International Air Transport Association says the airport lockdowns are costing the aviation industry at least $200 million a day and affecting millions of travelers since the volcano in Iceland begun erupting Wednesday.

Some smaller airports reopened, and European officials had hoped that flights could return to about 50 percent of normal on Monday ifthe skies were clearing.

But authorities in Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands home to three of Europe's largest airports said their air space was still closed. Britain said it was keeping flight restrictions on through until at least early Tuesday, while Italy briefly lifted restrictions in the north then quickly closed again Monday after conditions worsened.

Pakistani July-March c/a deficit narrows 68pc

KARACHI: Pakistan's current account deficit in the first nine months of the 2009/10 fiscal year was a provisional $2.702 billion, the central bank said on Monday.

That compared with a deficit of $8.379 billion in the same period last year, the State Bank of Pakistan said.

"Higher export receipts were the key reason behind the narrowing of the current account deficit," said Asif Qureshi, director at Invisor Securities Ltd.

The trade deficit for the July to March period of the 2009/10 fiscal year was $10.92 billion compared with $12.74 billion in the same period last year.

Pakistan recorded a provisional current account deficit of $40 million in March compared with a provisional $50 million in February.

In a quarterly report on the economy released last month, the central bank lowered its forecast for the 2009/10 current account deficit to 3.2-3.8 percent of gross domestic product, from previous estimates of 3.7-4.7 percent.

Analysts, however, said there could be some widening in the current account deficit.

"The current trend may not be sustained for long if oil prices continue to hold above $80, so we may see some deficit widening in coming months," said Qureshi.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) emergency loan package of $7.6 billion agreed in November 2008 helped avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.

The IMF increased the loan to $11.3 billion in July and the central bank received a fourth tranche of $1.2 billion on Dec. 28.

The IMF has assured Pakistan it will approve the release of the next tranche at a board meeting on May 3, the country's prime minister's office said last week. The next tranche is of $1.2 billion.

Govt set to impose VAT from July

ISLAMABAD: Government of Pakistan is all set to enforce the Value-added Tax (VAT) regime from July 1 across the country amid widespread concerns among economists and traders.

The traders said the Tax would directly hit the common man.

The FBR is planning to enforce the GST Amended bill as a part of Plan-B under which the existing tax exemptions will be waived off as it seems reluctant to enforce VAT, because its staff is not so far given training on VAT and retailers are also not in a mood to pay VAT, as they have not been educated by the FBR on how to maintain their documents after the VAT is enforced.

The VAT would be received in proportion to the value hike in the products and services; thus, the Tax would be included in the price of a product from its production phase to the phase of supply to the consumers.

Only the consumer would be bound to pay the price of it all.

If 15 percent VAT is enforced, it would entail Rs125 billion in additional revenues in the first year of its promulgation; the Tax would not be applicable to the business that sells less than Rs7.5 million.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said the VAT would not push up the prices of edibles, as General Sales Tax (GST) is already imposed on them and some essential commodities i.e. daal and atta would be exempted from it.

The economic analysts said VAT is also an indirect tax which would affect common man; contrarily, the government should impose tax on the direct income to receive the revenues.

Besides, burden of price hike should be shifted from the poor to tax-evaders by widening the tax net, they urged.

Dieting can cause cancer: study

WASHINGTON: Going on a diet could increase your risk of developing potentially deadly conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, a study has revealed.

It found that those who controlled their calorie intake produced higher levels of the harmful stress hormone cortisol.

And it claimed that exposure to the hormone actually made some dieters put on weight, which could explain why so many Britons fail to shed fat despite slashing their food intake.

The researchers also warned that far from making people feel better about themselves, dieting could actually damage their mental health. Many suffered increased psychological stress when they were constantly forced to count calories and monitor what they ate.

Doctors should think twice before putting their patients on strict diets because of the possible long-term damage to their health, they said.

Multivitamins bad for pregnant moms

LONDON: Despite the general belief, taking multivitamin supplements late in pregnancy can place expectant mothers at an increased risk of premature labor.

Previous studies had pointed out the beneficial effects of the over-the-counter prenatal supplements for mums-to-be particularly those living in developing countries.

According to a study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, babies born to well-nourished women who continue taking prenatal pills into their third trimester are at a tripled risk of premature birth, defined as before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

Taking such multivitamins at any point during pregnancy, however, did not increase the risk of giving birth to a low birth weight baby.

The possible interactions found between different vitamins and minerals may be responsible for the reduced levels of the nutrients required for the growing fetus, the study found.

Scientists concluded that following a healthy diet is sufficient for expectant mothers to have a normal pregnancy.

Fathers can help cut smoking in teens

LONDON: One of the strongest protective factors for reducing the risk of experimenting with smoking in early adolescence is how often fathers talk with their children about ''things that matter'', scientists have pointed out. Dr James White from Cardiff University's School of Medicine undertook a three-year-study, involving some 3,500 11 to 15 year-olds, as part of the British Youth Panel Survey - a self report survey of children in the British Household Panel survey. Dr White, who will present his finding to the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference today, said: "This study suggests that a greater awareness of parents'' and especially fathers'' potential impact upon their teenagers'' choices about whether to smoke is needed. Fathers should be encouraged and supported to improve the quality and frequency of communication with their children during adolescence. "The impact of teenager parenting is relatively un-researched and further research is very much needed." Only children who had never smoked at the time the study began took part. As well as their smoking, the children were also asked about the frequency of parental communication, arguments with family members and the frequency of family meals. The frequency of family arguments and family meals did not have a significant effect. After three years, the responses of children who had remained non-smokers were compared to those who said they had experimented with smoking at some point. Recognised risk factors for smoking, such as age, participant sex, household income, parental monitoring and parental smoking, were all taken into account during analysis of the study’s findings.

President signs 18th Amendment Bill into law

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Bill of Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment today, after which it became part of the Constitution, Geo News reported.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, cabinet members, PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, Chairman Constitutional Reforms Committee of the Parliament Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, Chief Ministers and governors of the provinces attended the ceremony held at the Presidential House.

The President, congratulating the parliamentarians, members of PCCR and the nation, claimed the passage of the 18th amendment bill has closed doors to dictatorship forever.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani congratulated all the members of parliament and the entire nation on the occasion of signing of the 18th amendment bill.

“This crowning achievement will be remembered for all times to come,” he said. Let’s uphold the democratic values, he added.

The government is making every possible effort to overcome the challenges such as power shortage, poverty, rural and urban backwardness and unemployment.

He said presence of the President, Prime Minister, Parliamentarians, chief ministers and the entire opposition at one place is unprecedented in the history of Pakistan.

Senator and Chairman Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) Raza Rabbani paid tributes to all the members of the committee for what he said their “political maturity, political sagacity and rising above interest” for making possible the finalization of the 18th amendment.

He also paid tributes to the political leaders, saying without their guidance the Parliamentary Committee could not move ahead with the kind of open mindedness that was required for the uphill task.

Raza Rabbani said the 18th amendment bill is unique in three ways. First, it is for the first time that a duly elected president is giving his powers willingly to the prime minister and the parliament.

The constitution was mutilated by the dictators who aimed to perpetuate their power. The 18th amendment bill does away with the name of Zia-ul-Haq; it does away with the wastages of Musharraf by repealing the 17th amendment bill.

The question of provincial autonomy ‘to some extent’ has been solved, Raza Rabbani said.

The PCCR knew that it cannot amend the basic fundamentals of the Constitution. We have maintained its Islamic character and that it continues remain a democratic constitution in a true sense, he said.

The 18th amendment bill has been passed without a dissenting note, which, he said, shows that institutions are strong.

“The Constitution returns as nearly as possible to the principles of the 1973 constitution,” Raza Rabbani announced with satisfaction.

CMs, experts assembled to discuss power crisis

ISLAMABAD: Chiefs ministers of all four provinces today pledged to implement the strategy being devised to end the lingering power crisis in the country.

They expressed this commitment at a two-day conference chaired by Water and Power Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf here on Monday.

Ashraf opened the conference and sought proposals from the participants to find a durable solution of the issue.

Punjab’s Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif presented a nine-point agenda to overcome the electricity crisis.

The conference is being attended by PEPCO, KESC, Alternate Energy Board, experts of power sector, and representatives of World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The conference will continue on Tuesday.

Bomber’s head found: police

PESHAWAR: Police have found the head of a suspected suicide bomber, who blew himself up in crowded Qissa Khwani market, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozen others. Shafqat Malik, the head of bomb disposal squad, said that the bomber, aged between 15 to 16, used 6 kg of explosives in the attack.

War to continue till elimination of terrorists: minister

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, strongly condemning the Qissa Khawani blast, said Monday that even presence of security forces in a large number could not prevent the tragic incident.

“I, therefore, appeal to people not to gather in a large number at one place, which gives an opportunity to terrorists to strike,” he said.

An undeclared third world war has begun, he said, adding that the government is paying full attention to get rid of militancy.

Hussain said that war against terrorism would continue till the complete elimimination of terrorists.

“Terrorists have no faith, no religion as they don’t spare even children, women and innocent people,” he said

'Magadheera' Pair Back Again

Yes Ram Charan Tej and Kajal are pairing again for a new movie that will be on floors next month.

Mega Supergood Films have announced their next project with Ram Charan Tej and confirmed the presence of Kajal in the movie. Director Bharani who directed ‘Bangaram’ with Pawan Kalyan will be directing this new movie that is supposedly a mass action entertainer. Music will be handled by youth sensation Devi Sri Prasad.

The makers of the movie plan to start the movie on May 31st, as soon as Ram Charan Tej completes his shooting formalities for his current project ‘Orange’ that is being shot in Melbourne, Australia.

'Badmaash' to complete soon

Music director Vande Mataram Srinivas is making his debut as a director in ‘Badmaash’ that will be completed soon. New comers Naga Sidarth and Ektha are the lead pair in this movie which according to sources is a family entertainer. Sources close to the film unit say that the movie is being shot at a very speedy pace. Besides direction, Vande Mataram Srinivas is also composing music. The movie is expected to release soon.

Bramhalokam to Yamalokam..: Movie Progress

‘Bramhalokam to Yamalokam Via Bhoolokam’, the comedy flick starring comedy king Rajendra Prasad, Sivaji and Happy Days Sonia is progressing fast. Directed by Gollapati Nageswara Rao who has directed comedy movies before is making this hilarious flick by making Rajendra Prasad act in the role of Bramha, and including many comedy artists in the movie. Sivaji will be paired opposite the curly haired Sonia who was seen in Happy Days and Vinaykudu. Talking about the progress of the movie, the makers of the film say that it is fast progressing in the post-production state with visual effects and other editing activities being carried out. They also added that the movie contains high dosage of comedy and will entertain all sections of the audience. Produced by Bekkem Venugopal and Rupesh D Gohil, the movie also has Kalyani and Aarthi Agarwal in important roles.

Vadivelu’s appeal

Vadivelu’s advocate on Friday made an appeal to a Sessions Court Judge in Chennai not to grant anticipatory bail to the actor’s one-time close aide Singamuthu in a threat case. Vadivelu and Singamuthu who had worked together in several films have been accusing each other over buying of a property. A complaint was also registered at Chennai Crime Branch and investigations are on. And a case is reportedly pending before Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Saidapet. Meanwhile Singamuthu, according to reports, filed an anticipatory bail plea with a Sessions Court in Chennai. When the petition came up for hearing Friday, counsel for Singamuthu stated that all allegations levelled against him were false. However, Vadivelu’s counsel Paul Kanagaraj denied the charges and said the bail plea should be rejected.

Daniel Balaji now assistant director

Daniel Balaji is one of the realistic actors who excelled in anti hero roles in Tamil cinema. The talented youngster made a smooth transition from television to big screen and got plum negative roles. Daniel did not let the opportunities go and performed his character very well to be remembered. Be it as a stylish medic psycho in ‘Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu’ or the arrogant brother to an underworld don in ‘Pollathavan’ Balaji did the roles very convincingly to be still remembered. But Balaji first passion had always been is direction. Even after becoming a successful actor Balaji hasn’t lost his passion to direct. But he was particular that he will direct a film only after learning the trade thoroughly. So to get trained the right way Balaji approached many a directors. But all of them showed him only the doors. Not losing heart he finally approached Gautham Menon who gave him his most memorable role ever as a serial killer in ‘Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu’. Gautham took him with a condition. Balaji should work for at least three films as an assistant. A more than happy Balaji immediately joined him and is at present working for the thriller Gautham is directing with his assistant as the hero.

Navya Nair is back

Actress Navya Nair's love for acting has not diminished even after marriage. Navya Nair got married to Santhosh Narayana Menon in January this year and announced she is quitting films for good. Now after four months of marriage Navya Nair is returning to acting. Navya who settled in Mumbai after marriage has told her media friends that Mumbai is boring and she wants to return to Chennai or Thruvananthapuram. So, there by to acting as well. The charming actress has got her first offer post marriage and she will make her reentry through a Kannada film. She is also considering Tamil and Malayalam offers. There is a buzz saying Navya will be doing a crucial role in her good friend Cheran's forthcoming directorial venture. Cheran will start that after he finishes his acting assignment in 'Yutham Sei'. The homely Navya took off to fame with the Malayalam film ‘Ishtam’ in 2001 and went on to do memorable roles in all south Indian languages. Her films in Tamil ‘Azhagiya Theeye’, ‘Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy’, ‘Mayakkannadi’, ‘Aadum Koothu’ and ‘Raman Thediya Seethai’ all got her much critical acclaim. Her last release in Tamil was the recent ‘Rasikkum Seemane’ opposite Srikanth.

Karan Johar’s wait for ‘naam karan’

Well, the naming ceremony is actually for his film that is currently happening online, on ‘Twitter’. Karan Johar in fact is in dilemma as to what name he should give to his Kajol-Kareena Kapoor-Arjun Rampal starrer – which is the remake of Hollywood flick ‘Stepmom’. To solve his problem, the filmmaker has put a tweet for help saying: “Hey all...any title suggestions for our official Stepmom adaptation film. Hindi titles preferably. Will be grateful forever if any of u can help.” Similarly, Arjun is also playing his part to help KJo by asking suggestions from his followers on the website. To make it more interesting the actor added to say that he will take the winner for dinner and the private screening. Anyone gotta a title there?

Beautiful Kat, Beautiful Deed

Katrina Kaif is what they call a beautiful saviour. Along with her mother Sussanne Turquotte, Katrina is playing mom to several babies especially girls, through Sussanne’s organisation Relief Projects India (RPI) in Chennai. Under this comes Claretian Mercy Home which works towards eradicating female infanticide and shelter abandoned aged people and girl babies. The mother and star daughter are seriously working over poverty-stricken Azhagusirai village, situated in Tamil Nadu, 29-km from Madurai. Generally the people here carry an aversion towards female child, due to the dowry practice. Claretian Mercy Home takes in the abandoned girls and takes overall care and love until they are ready for adoption. Reports say that Katrina and Sussanne have supervised the construction of a neo-natal and baby care centre in Azhagusurai that receives abandoned babies who are cared for by locals under the supervision of the RPI and a Rev Fr. Franz Xavier Dirberger from Germany who founded the Claretian Mercy Home in 1986. Kat said to be putting her heart and soul into this organisation and recently opened a special department ‘Little Darlings’. This is said to be dedicated to provide skill development facilities to toddlers. The actress is now planning to start a similar organisation closer home in Mumbai. Interestingly the ma-beti jodi are planning to go global by collaborating with some charitable organisations. Stated Kat, “It is my constant effort to help my mother’s charity and make it stronger with each passing day. We have plans to expand globally because the more people know about our work, the more support we will get. In India, we’ve got a lot of support from people as well as the government.” Our best wishes to you and your mummy, Katrina! Keep up the good work!

Lara’s Special Day

She is suave, she is hot. She is confident, she is on top. She is Lara Dutta. The former Miss Universe Lara Dutta made a niche in the tinsel town with poise and distinct style.

Besides the prestigious crown, Dutta enjoys the responsibility of being a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador.

Although she has done different genres of film, comedies have always worked for Lara.

‘Masti’, ‘No Entry’, ‘Partner’, ‘Bhagam Bhag’ - are some of her light-hearted flicks which clicked among the audience. The beauty is thus confidently looking forward to the release of Sajid Khan’s comedy caper ‘Housefull’. If one takes notice, most of her films are multi-starrer. And with ‘Housefull’ having striking stars like Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal and Jiah Khan, we are sure Lara will earn another brownie in her career kitty.

Come join IndiaGlitz to wish her all luck and success, for the diva celebrates her 32nd birthday today. Hearty Birthday Wishes Lara!

Sania Mirza Reception

Vidhu chale Beverley Hills

Vidhu Vinod Chopra created blockbuster films, garnering acclaims from all over the world. His recent hit ‘3 Idiots’ rocketed the producer to a star status, making a global face. So much that he decided to own a house in the famous high-profiled Hollywood area, Beverly Hills! According to sources, the posh home is located just opposite the Beverley Hills Hotel. When Vidhu saw the property opposite Hotel, he immediately wanted to finalise the deal. Besides, the producer is currently working on a project titled ‘Broken Horses’. He wanted to finalise the house so that he could start the shooting on September 13 in New Mexico. Thus, Vidhu said to live 15 days in India and 15 days in his new Beverly Hills home. And guess who Vidhu’s neighbours are? Jennifer Aniston, Pamela Anderson, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy and Sylvester Stallone are among the Hollywood stars who are said to be living within the circle. Sources further revealed that a huge set is being put up in one of the desert areas on the USA-Mexico border for ‘Broken Horses’. Our heart wishes to the producer for his new house!

Sangeet ceremony of Sania Mirza

Tennis Ace Sania Mirza after her wedding, had a Sangeeth function with kith and kin being invited.

Shoiab the groom was all smiles through out the party. Bollywood actress Neha along with friends came and graced the occassion.

Sania looked beautiful in her attire and had jasmine flowers round her hair. The noticeable sight was her Mehendi that was a foot long.

Ashutosh on a hunt for Buddha

Most of his films have created fine impressions in the minds of audience with unique concept and striking star cast. Ashutosh Gowariker is the one who camouflaged the star status of actors like SRK, Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan to wrap them in distinct characters. Even in his forthcoming film, ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey’, he has moulded Abhishek Bachchan into a character which is quite realistic and classic. After this the filmmaker is bringing on yet another inspiring film, for which Gowariker doesn’t want to feature any popular actor. Titled ‘Buddha’, the film is said to carry an epic story that will appeal to young as well as a mature audience worldwide. Sources reveal that after several discussions with producer, the director felt that only a newcomer can do justice to the role. He didn’t want any established actor for the film as he didn’t want a star’s image to come in the way of the character, Siddhartha. And for this Gowariker has announced an online audition for the role. He stated that he needs a fresh actor who can portray the innocence of Prince Siddhartha and the compassion of the enlightened one. This is why they have this worldwide search, Ashutosh explained to sources.

Meet Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar lady

One would be familiar with Imtiaz Ali’s forthcoming venture ‘Rockstar’ which has Ranbir Kapoor in lead. After giving hit films like ‘Jab We Met’ and ‘Love Aaj Kal’ which presented strong female characters, one would have been wondered whom will the director choose for Rockstar’s leading lady. Well, here we have the answer… Our birdies have caught this tittle-tattle in the industry that the filmmaker has roped in a fresh face for the film. And she is a well-known model, Diana Penty… This beauty said to have done an ad film for a mobile service provider and that too with Ranbir! Diana who is a noted face in the fashion world was short listed before she was finalised for ‘Rockstar’. We wish the new gal the very best and hope she rocks through the film…

Akshay loves to play

Well Well, Bollywood’s lovable action hero is really a player and he loves doing it. He conquered with his death defying stunts in those blockbusters, even defeated the WWF champ ‘The Undertaker’ in one of his action packed films and then ruled the hearts with his simple humour. His unique combo of simplicity, honesty with dashes of humour made him the choice of the nation while he incidentally shaped the careers of those London beauty in Bollywood duties like Katrina who after sharing screen with him in couple of films became the Numero Uno in her field. The reigning Bollywood superstar soon became the first choice of NRI’s after SRK when he proudly said, “Singh Is King”. His wife and his mother-in-law demand a National Award for him but he says that he is a loser. Shocking …… isn’t it….. Yes, yesterday at a press meet organized for the promotion of his forthcoming mad caper ‘Housefull’ and announcement of its tie –up with IPL, Akshay in his humorous best said that, “I play a loser in the film and I love to play.” When asked how it feels to be surrounded with three B-town lovelies, and whether anything as such has happened to him in real life, Akshay replied, “Not been so lucky.” Immediately, he asked the journo humorously, “Now you want to be in my shoes.” Needless to say everybody burst out laughing. That’s the ‘Khiladi’ Akshay for you… Always ready to entertain as he loves to play. We urge the khiladi (read player) to keep playing…

Faces of Health Care Debate Point to New Law’s Complexity

WASHINGTON — They were the human faces of the nation’s wrenching, yearlong health care debate.
Natoma Canfield of Medina, Ohio, sent a letter to President Obama about no longer being able to afford her health coverage, and he read it aloud to a group of insurance executives at the White House. Then Ms. Canfield learned she had leukemia, helping Mr. Obama illustrate the life-and-death stakes of the often mind-numbing policy fight.

Marcelas Owens, an 11-year-old boy from Seattle, whose mother could not get some treatment for lack of insurance and died at age 27 from pulmonary hypertension, met Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, at a rally and ended up by the president’s side at the bill-signing ceremony. “I don’t want any other kids to go through the pain our family has gone through,” Marcelas said.

And Molly Secours, a filmmaker from Nashville, who battled uterine cancer, nearly lost her home because of medical bills — even though she had health insurance. Told that she would need a radical hysterectomy, chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Ms. Secours said, “I was consumed with the fear that I’ll have to declare bankruptcy.”

But if their stories helped the Democrats pass the health care overhaul, a more complicated question is: What will the health care law do for them?

Revisiting their cases illustrates both the enormous potential benefits of the new law, which seeks to insure some 32 million people, and also how the complexity of the health system will continue to pose a formidable challenge for patients and health care providers in the months and years ahead.

Of the cast of Americans who made appearances in the health care debate, Ms. Canfield, who is undergoing chemotherapy and preparing for a bone marrow transplant at the Cleveland Clinic, may have had the biggest role.

Her story led Mr. Obama to hold a rally in Ohio, not far from her home, which helped secure the vote of Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a Democrat who had opposed the bill. Then, Ms. Canfield’s congressman, Representative John Boccieri, a freshman Democrat, cited her in announcing that he, too, would support the bill.

As it turns out, Ms. Canfield’s grave illness means that her time as one of the roughly 50 million uninsured Americans was brief. In recent days, she was approved for Social Security disability benefits and Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income people.

“She is no longer able to work,” said her sister, Connie Anderson. “She has kind of dropped down into a different category.”

Supporters of the legislation say that proves one of their main points — the existing system provides little help until catastrophe strikes and, even then, it entails a maze of bureaucracy.

But for some critics, the Cleveland Clinic’s quick reassurance that Ms. Canfield need not worry about losing her home to medical costs showed that Mr. Obama exaggerated her case. On Fox News, Sean Hannity accused Mr. Obama of lying about Ms. Canfield’s situation.

Ms. Canfield got a break. Her local hospital, Medina General, was taken over last year by the Cleveland Clinic, a prominent hospital system with a sophisticated patient-support structure.

In interviews, Ms. Canfield and her sister credited the hospital with helping secure government aid. Leukemia is on Social Security’s list of “compassionate allowances” for an expedited disability ruling. Were she not disabled, Ms. Canfield could not qualify for Medicaid in Ohio under current rules even though she earned well below the federal poverty limit.

That will change as a result of the new law, which will expand Medicaid in 2014. Between now and then, Ohio residents may benefit from the creation of a high-risk insurance pool, either at the state or national level. While other states already have such programs, Ohio does not.

But while the bill provides $5 billion to create or expand such programs, it is not clear how they will work. Premiums are often expensive, and payment rates for providers have not been set. That makes it impossible for a hospital to know if it would be paid more by a high-risk policy or by the state’s existing Hospital Care Assurance Program, which reimburses for care of the uninsured.

In the current system, Lyman Sornberger, the executive director of patient financial services at the Cleveland Clinic, said that Ms. Canfield had good reason to worry about being forced to sell her home to pay medical bills.

“Facilities or health care systems have an option to decide what their charity care is,” Mr. Sornberger said. “They could put a lien against her home. They could harm her credit. They could ask her to sell all of her assets and sell her home and pay that bill off to that health care system before they agree to give her any charity.”

Even with Medicaid paying the hospital bills, Ms. Canfield’s sister said she was worried about how she would pay her basic expenses, like property taxes and utility bills. Her disability payments do not begin until July, and even then will not cover all her expenses, Ms. Anderson said.

In the case of Marcelas Owens’s mother, Tiffany Owens, it is unclear that the health care legislation would have prevented her from falling into a gap in coverage that prompted her to forgo treatment and may have contributed to her death.

Ms. Owens briefly had private insurance through her restaurant management job. But in October 2006, when she could no longer work because she was sick, she lost both her job and her benefits.

She applied for Medicaid but was rejected because she had earned too much earlier in the year. She was told to reapply in January, but by then she was hospitalized. Six months later, she was dead.

“There was that lapse of time where the sickness was still progressing and there was nothing she could do until she could go back and reapply again,” said Gina Owens, her mother. “It’s just crazy that people fall through the cracks.”

It is not clear if the new health care law will help when a person’s employment, insurance and health status change so rapidly.

Beginning in 2014, low-income Americans who do not qualify for Medicaid could get subsidies to help buy private insurance. But a new system could have pitfalls.

For Marcelas himself, the most immediate benefit of the new law may be a provision barring states from cutting Medicaid rolls. Even when his mother was alive, Marcelas and his two sisters were on Medicaid.

Under the new law, primary care doctors will be paid higher rates to treat Medicaid patients for at least two years. The bill will also provide billions of dollars in additional aid to community health centers, like the Seattle Indian Health Board, where Marcelas gets his pediatric care.

In Nashville, Molly Secours thought she had the system figured out. She had health insurance from Blue Cross, a house and a film company. But after uterine cancer left her with huge bills, she nearly lost her home.

Congress came to the rescue, not with legislation but in the form of Representative Jim Cooper, Democrat of Tennessee, who helped her negotiate a new mortgage. Ms. Secours joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a news conference at the Capitol in July.

She is still paying off some bills to Baptist Hospital, but her home is secure. As someone with a pre-existing medical condition, Ms. Secours, under the new law, is assured of being able to find coverage. And as someone who buys her policy on the individual market, she may find better insurance or at least more options.

“People like me who have a major diagnosis aren’t going to get turned down because they had cancer,” she said.

Ms. Secours said she hoped to one day be able to take advantage of tax credits that the new health care law will give to small businesses to help them provide insurance to employees. “A couple of years from now I might be able to hire people and offer them something,” she said.

Behavior: Few Young Men Counseled on Sexual Health, Study Finds

Despite repeated recommendations to provide reproductive health services to teenage boys as well as girls, few adolescent males are getting the information they need to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, a new study reports.
Fewer than one-quarter of boys ages 15 to 19 were counseled about sexually transmitted diseases or HIV by a health care provider during the previous year, according to a national survey of 1,121 young men done in 2002, representing no significant change since 1995, when a similar proportion received such counseling, the study found.

Young men who had three or more female partners or engaged in oral or anal sex with male partners were more likely to have received counseling; about one third said they had been counseled about sexually transmitted diseases in 2002. But a similar proportion of those engaging in risky sexual activities received counseling in 1995, the study found.

Even fewer young men were counseled about birth control: fewer than one-fifth discussed contraception with a health care provider, the 2002 study reported. Almost two-thirds of sexually active young women have received such services, other reports indicate.

“The medical system is really set up to serve women and maternal-child health in ways that aren’t addressing young men’s needs,” said Dr. Arik Marcell, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the paper, which appeared in The Journal of Adolescent Health. Some of the young men may not have even seen a health care provider during the previous year, he noted.

Twitter Loses Its Scrappy Start-Up Status

Twitter’s first developer conference, held this week in San Francisco, served as a coming-out party for the four-year-old service. Twitter the start-up is becoming Twitter the big company, with more polish, controversy, competition and revenue.
At the conference, called Chirp, Twitter announced several new features that will make it more useful, including geo-location services, a database of places and additional metadata for posts. It also offered details about @anywhere, a new service that lets people gain access to Twitter from elsewhere on the Web.

These new features could expand Twitter’s reach, but it also pits the company against other popular Web companies, including Facebook and Foursquare.

“They’ve gone from a data play to a platform play,” said Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at Altimeter Group, a digital strategy consulting firm. “You’re seeing the same behavior that Facebook, Google and other online communities have done. This is a natural evolution of a Web company.”

As evidence of its growth, Twitter revealed some previously undisclosed numbers. It has 106 million registered users and is adding new users at the rate of 300,000 a day. Those customers write 55 million daily posts, and 180 million people log on to Twitter.com each month to read them.

Despite the growth, Twitter has a pressing need to make the service easier to understand for new users, said Evan Williams, its chief executive. “It’s amazing it’s grown so fast given how hard it is to use.”

One of the new features Twitter announced is called points of interest. People on Twitter have been able to include their general location. But now they will be able to reveal exactly where they are. People will be able to search for a certain location, like a concert hall or hotel, and see all the posts written from that spot.

This is similar to the check-ins on Foursquare, Gowalla and other services that people use to share their location. Mr. Williams said that Twitter was not trying to duplicate those services but rather provide Twitter users with more relevant content.

“Where you are defines what you’re interested in,” he said.

Twitter and its developers will build a database of places — parks, restaurants, hospitals and the like — across the world so people can refer to them in posts.

Another new tool is called annotations. Already, individual posts show which app someone used to write the post and the date, time and (if users choose to make it public) location. With annotations, software developers will be able to add other material, which Twitter calls metadata, to Twitter posts.

This could significantly expand the amount of information a post includes, beyond its 140 characters, and could enhance the way Twitter is used.

Posts could include the name of the restaurant where a post was written and its star rating on Yelp, for instance. Then, someone could find Twitter posts about restaurants nearby with five stars. Or developers could add a way to make a payment and purchase, so retailers could sell items from within a post.

Twitter does not know what developers will decide to do with the tool, said Ryan Sarver, who manages the Twitter platform. “The underlying idea is think big, push yourself.”

Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer, gave details about @anywhere, which was first announced at the South by Southwest conference. (Initial partners include more than a dozen news sites, including The New York Times Company.) Similar to Facebook Connect, @anywhere will allow people to log in to Twitter from other Web sites.

When visiting a magazine Web site, for instance, a user could sign in to Twitter, hover the cursor over a writer’s byline and follow the writer on Twitter or write a post without leaving the page. The magazine could also suggest other writers that the reader should follow on Twitter.

Twitter also said it would incorporate more outside services — including an Android app and a link shortener — into its own service, either by acquiring start-ups or building its own tools.

This added to the unease that many software developers have felt since last week, when Twitter announced its own iPhone and BlackBerry apps. Developers who make these types of apps worry that Twitter could put them out of business.

Twitter tried to reassure developers, by emphasizing how crucial they have been to Twitter’s success.

Developers have built more than 100,000 Twitter apps, and 75 percent of Twitter’s traffic comes from people using these apps instead of Twitter.com.

Web Coupons Know a Lot About You, and They Tell

For decades, shoppers have taken advantage of coupons. Now, the coupons are taking advantage of the shoppers.

A new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, is packed with information about the customer who uses it. While the coupons look standard, their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place.

And all that information follows that customer into the mall. For example, if a man walks into a Filene’s Basement to buy a suit for his wedding and shows a coupon he retrieved online, the company’s marketing agency can figure out whether he used the search terms “Hugo Boss suit” or “discount wedding clothes” to research his purchase (just don’t tell his fiancée).

Coupons from the Internet are the fastest-growing part of the coupon world — their redemption increased 263 percent to about 50 million coupons in 2009, according to the coupon-processing company Inmar. Using coupons to link Internet behavior with in-store shopping lets retailers figure out which ad slogans or online product promotions work best, how long someone waits between searching and shopping, even what offers a shopper will respond to or ignore.

The coupons can, in some cases, be tracked not just to an anonymous shopper but to an identifiable person: a retailer could know that Amy Smith printed a 15 percent-off coupon after searching for appliance discounts at Ebates.com on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and redeemed it later that afternoon at the store.

“You can really key into who they are,” said Don Batsford Jr., who works on online advertising for the tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt, whose coupons include search information. “It’s almost like being able to read their mind, because they’re confessing to the search engine what they’re looking for.”

While companies once had a slim dossier on each consumer, they now have databases packed with information. And every time a person goes shopping, visits a Web site or buys something, the database gets another entry.

“There is a feeling that anonymity in this space is kind of dead,” said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s information privacy programs.

None of the tracking is visible to consumers. The coupons, for companies as diverse as Ruby Tuesday and Lord & Taylor, are handled by a company called RevTrax, which displays them on the retailers’ sites or on coupon Web sites, not its own site.

Even if consumers could figure out that RevTrax was creating the coupons, it does not have a privacy policy on its site — RevTrax says that is because it handles data for the retailers and does not directly interact with consumers. RevTrax can also include retailers’ own client identification numbers (Amy Smith might be client No. 2458230), then the retailer can connect that with the actual person if it wants to, for example, to send a follow-up offer or a thank-you note.

Using coupons also lets the retailers get around Google hurdles. Google allows its search advertisers to see reports on which keywords are working well as a whole but not on how each person is responding to each slogan.

“We’ve built privacy protections into all Google services and report Web site trends only in aggregate, without identifying individual users,” Sandra Heikkinen, a spokeswoman for Google, said in an e-mail message.

The retailers, however, can get to an individual level by sending different keyword searches to different Web addresses. The distinct Web addresses are invisible to the consumer, who usually sees just a Web page with a simple address at the top of it.

So clicking on an ad for Jackson Hewitt after searching for “new 2010 deductions” would send someone to a different behind-the-scenes URL than after searching for “Jackson Hewitt 2010,” though the Web pages and addresses might look identical. This data could be coded onto a coupon.

RevTrax works as closely with image-rich display ads, with coupons also signaling what ad a person saw and on what site.

“Wherever we provide a link, whether it’s on search or banner, that thing you click can include actual keywords,” said Rob O’Neil, director of online marketing at Tag New Media, which works with Filene’s. “There’s some trickery.”

The companies argue that the coupon strategy gives them direct feedback on how well their marketing is working.

Once the shopper prints an online coupon or sends it to his cellphone and then goes to a store, the clerk scans it. The bar code information is sent to RevTrax, which, with the ad agency, analyzes it.

As Cellular Service Expands in Subways, Thefts Rise

BOSTON — Nashira Muniz was sending a text message on her cellphone the other day when the phone rang. “I just texted you!” she said to the caller. Nothing unusual about that, except Ms. Muniz, 25, was deep underground, riding the subway.
She then checked on her child at home, made a banking transaction, received a few Facebook notices and arranged to meet another friend — all from the subterranean depths.

Last month, Boston completed installation of cellphone service — at least for T-Mobile subscribers — along all 11 miles of the Orange line, the first of its four subway lines to have end-to-end coverage. But the service has highlighted a problem, and it is not the expected one of fellow passengers yakking loudly.

The bigger problem, transit officials said, is cellphone theft, a growing concern throughout the country. Thefts occur even in subway systems that do not have cellular coverage because passengers display their phones as they read or listen to music and hope to catch the occasional signal that leaks through a street grate or when the train goes above ground.

The rise in thefts could correlate to the spread of high-end smart phones, transit officials said. Ordinary phones have little resale value, especially because victims usually turn off their service once the phone is stolen. But some phones can be reactivated by replacing the personal identity card.

Still, as underground coverage expands, transit officials are concerned that even more phones will be on display, tempting thieves.

The snatching of phones in Boston’s subway system, known as the T, jumped 70 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the first three months of last year (46 stolen phones compared with 27). In 2009, the number of thefts in the Metro system in Washington rose 65 percent (to 894 from 581) over 2008, a spokesman said, and most of those were cellphones.

Of the 14 underground subway systems in urban areas in the United States, many by now provide some cellular coverage. A glaring exception is the New York City subway system, by far the country’s largest, where the lack of underground service often leaves passengers standing in stairwells to finish a call before heading down to the trains.

(The planned wiring of New York’s underground stations, but not the tunnels, which was announced in 2007, has not materialized; a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the plan was “under review.”)

Boston, which has the nation’s oldest subway system, has had cellphone coverage at four downtown stations since 2007. The entire system is to have coverage by the end of next year and will include more providers, including AT&T, which is to begin testing its service on the Orange line next week.

When transit officials announced the wiring of the Orange line last month, they simultaneously announced a public education program urging passengers to be alert to thieves.

“Do you own a cellphone?” a male voice blares over the public address system in some T stations. “Of course you do.” The voice goes on to instruct passengers to “protect your phone from curious onlookers.” Placards warn: “Show how smart you are: don’t show off your smart phone.”

The police say most thefts occur when passengers are sitting or standing in the subway near the door and paying more attention to their phones than to their surroundings. The thief snatches the phone and darts out of the train just as the doors shut.

“It’s taken right from the hand,” said Deputy Chief Joseph O’Connor of the transit police. “People looking to steal them will take advantage of the relaxed customer.”

Philadelphia has also stepped up its fight against cellphone thefts, as part of a larger program to curb juvenile crime. When school lets out, around 3:15 p.m., the police force in the subways is doubled, said Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia’s regional transit system. Thefts on the subways, 80 percent of which involve cellphones, she said, are down this year.

On a recent afternoon here, after school was out and rush hour had started, it seemed that at least half of the passengers in several cars were staring into their phones, many of them sending text messages and reading e-mail messages.

A few said they worried about their phones being stolen, but more were like Josh Ernstoff, 30, a business analyst, who shrugged: “Cellphones are a dime a dozen. If I lose it, I’ll turn it off and get another one.”

Seeded players advance in Monte Carlo Masters Tennis

MONTE CARLO: Success of seeded players continued in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters Tennis here on Thursday as Rafael Nadal has also reached the fourth round after top seed Novak Djokovic.

Former world number one Nadal easily won his second round against Michael Berrer of Germany 6-0, 6-1 he proving his beat form in the event.

In other matches, Novak Djokovic of Serbia beating Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4, David Ferrer of Spain outplaying Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-0, 7-6 (7/4) and Fernando Verdasco of Spain defeating Tomas Berdych of Czechoslovakia 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 have reached fourth round.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, Tomas Berdych, Ivan Ljubicic and Marin Cilic of Croatia have been ousted from the event.

ICC chief leaves for Dubai

KARACHI: International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat has left for Dubai after a brief visit to Karachi.

ICC chief executive was in Pakistan to unveil the trophy of T20 World Cup. He also visited several stadiums of the metropolis.

Talking to Geo News after visiting Asghar Ali Shah Stadium, Lorgat said the stadium reflects how much Pakistani people are crazy for cricket. He also visited Shahid Afridi cricket ground in North Karachi and termed Afridi as a role model for youth.

Lorgat is the first high-profile international cricket official to tour Pakistan since gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team bus at Lahore last year, leaving six police officials and a van driver dead.

Shoania wedding reception begins

HYDERABAD DECCAN: The arrival of guests at the wedding reception of cricketer Shoaib Malik and tennis star Sania Mirza is underway here on Thursday.

The reception has been arranged at luxurious Taj Krishna Hotel of Hyderabad Deccan.

Federal Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, singer Waris Baig and cricketer Suhail Tanvir are among the prominent Pakistani guests in the reception.

Federal Minster Firdous Ashiq Awan presented a gold crown to Sania.

Shoaib Malik is dressed in off-white sherwani while Sania is wearing a golden traditional shalwar Kami