LOS ANGELES - Napster Inc. begins selling MP3s Tuesday, a move the online music service hopes will lure iPod users and turn around Napster’s sliding fortunes.

The company is the latest to make the switch to the unrestricted file format, which makes it music tracks compatible with virtually any music player or other device.

“It’s great that we have finally gotten here,” said Chris Gorog, Napster’s chairman and chief executive. “It is really the beginning of a level playing field, which I think is essential for Napster, but also for the health of the digital music business in general.”

Tracks downloaded as part of Napster’s subscription service will continue to have copyright restrictions.

For much of the decade, major record labels refused to license their music for downloading as MP3s. But steep annual declines in CD sales and the growing dominance of Apple Inc.’s iPod music players and its iTunes Music Store led the labels to ease that position last year to remain competitive.

Read more

written by Andrew

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and promised prosecution of a U.S. soldier accused of using a copy of the Koran for target practice, Iraq’s government said on Tuesday.

It said in a statement Bush had tendered a personal apology in a telephone call with Maliki.

U.S. military commanders in Iraq had already apologized to Iraqi leaders after a copy of the Muslim holy book was found riddled with more than 10 bullet holes at a shooting range near Baghdad on May 11.

The soldier accused of carrying out the shooting has been disciplined and ordered out of Iraq. The U.S. military has not said whether he will face a court martial.

“The American president apologized on behalf of the United States … promising to present the soldier to the courts,” the Iraqi cabinet said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy said she was unaware of the telephone call and the White House was not immediately available for comment.

(Writing by Ross Colvin, edited by Richard Meares)

Source: yahoo news

written by Andrew

written by Andrew

Protejarea în timpul actului sexual şi evitarea folosirii în comun a periuţei de dinţi sunt metode de a ţine hepatita departe

În ţara noastră aproape un milion de persoane suferă de hepatită cronică B. Boala este o inflamaţie a ficatului şi în 75 la sută din cazuri nu are simptome.

Directorul Institutului NaÅ£ional de Boli InfecÅ£ioase Matei BalÅŸ din BucureÅŸti, prof. dr. Adrian Streinu-Cercel, spune că cea mai sigură cale de prevenÅ£ie a contactării virusului hepatic este vaccinarea. „Un copil care a fost vaccinat la naÅŸtere va realiza următorul vaccin în jurul vârstei de 20 de ani”, a explicat prof. dr. Adrian Streinu-Cercel. ÃŽn situaÅ£ia în care vârsta începerii vieÅ£ii sexuale este tot mai mică, respectiv 10-12 ani, specialistul atrage atenÅ£ia asupra importanÅ£ei realizării unei educaÅ£ii sexuale de la o vârstă fragedă, ÅŸapte-opt ani. De asemenea, acesta afirmă că la începutul unei relaÅ£ii este important ca ambii parteneri să efectueze un control medical.

Citeste tot articolul

written by Andrew

Aflat la a treia ediţie, Festivalul Românesc de la Torino se desfăşoară în perioada 16 mai-15 iunie. Duminică a urcat pe scenă formaţia Paraziţii.

Timp de aproape două ore, trupa a animat mulţimea de tineri fani. Atmosfera a fost caldă, iar spectatorii, câteva sute, au participat cu entuziasm.

Două au fost incidentele din timpul spectacolului: un buchet de trandafiri aruncat pe scenă de către o admiratoare şi încercările insistente ale unui spectator de a urca pe scenă pentru a cânta împreună cu trupa.
Primul incident a fost încheiat prin replica unuia dintre soliÅŸti: „Cred că ai greÅŸit trupa”. Al doilea însă s-a încheiat cu intervenÅ£ia în forţă, violentă, a agenÅ£ilor de ordine locali.

Citeste tot articolul

written by Andrew

Beijing says last week’s earthquake has resulted in $9.5 billion in direct losses for companies.

BEIJING (AP) — Companies suffered $9.5 billion in damage in last week’s quake in central China, the government said Monday.

Some 14,207 companies in Sichuan province and surrounding areas were damaged by the May 12 quake and 1,387 of their employees killed, a deputy industry minister, Xi Guohua, said at a news conference.

Independent estimates have put total losses at up to $20 billion after lost future output is taken into account.

The power grid suffered US$950 million in damage, Xi said. He gave no other details, but earlier reports said factories, coal mines, toll roads, office buildings, chemical plants and other facilities were damaged or destroyed.

The magnitude 7.9 quake killed at least 34,000 people and officials say they expect the death toll to surpass 50,000.

Analysts say the long-term effect on China’s fast-growing economy should be limited. Sichuan, in the mountainous central part of the country, is a major source of coal and natural gas, but has limited manufacturing, finance and other industries.

On Monday, residents of three counties were still without power a week after the quake damaged generating stations and the power grid, a Cabinet spokesman, Hua Qing, said at the news conference.

Read more

written by Andrew

(Tribune Media Services) — It’s well past the kids’ bedtime, but no one is nagging the preschoolers and kindergartners to brush their teeth and go to sleep.

Instead, they’re dressed to the nines (the girls, anyway) in full princess regalia before heading to a poolside pirate party, complete with fireworks, to get up close and personal with Goofy and all of his pirate friends aboard the Disney Wonder. Others are busy in the shipboard Oceaneer Club playing the latest video games, watching movies in seats designed to look like clam shells and climbing on the pirate ship play structure.

All of this is after they’ve seen a brand-new Broadway-style show — “Toy Story: The Musical,” featuring all of their favorite characters from the popular film — and dined like royalty at dinner where the waiters not only knew their names but also performed magic tricks and were happy to get them anything they liked at no extra charge (a side of salmon with your chicken fingers … no problem!)

When my 5-year-old cousin Ethan Sitzman and his 3-year-old sister Hannah finally got back to their stateroom, they were thrilled that the steward, Pacifer Ticao, himself a young father from the Philippines, had fashioned a PJ Party with the kids’ stuffed animals and a monkey he had made out of towels. The kids truly thought they’d arrived in vacation heaven.

Read more

written by Andrew

CANNES, France (AP) — Indiana Jones received louder applause going in than he did coming out.

His latest adventure, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” earned a respectful — though far from glowing — reception Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, avoiding the sort of thrashing the event’s harsh critics gave to “The Da Vinci Code” two years ago.

Yet Indy’s fourth big-screen romp is not likely to go down as one of the most memorable.

Some viewers at its first press screening loved it, some called it slick and enjoyable though formulaic, some said it was not worth the 19-year wait since Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford made the last film.

“They should have left well enough alone,” said J. Sperling Reich, who writes for FilmStew.com. “It really looked like they were going through the motions. It really looked like no one had their heart in it.”

Alain Spira of French magazine Paris Match found “Crystal Skull” a perfectly acceptable “Indiana Jones” tale, a sentiment echoed by the solid applause the movie received as the final credits rolled.

“It’s good. It’s a product that is polished, industrial, we’re not getting ripped off in terms of quality,” Spira said. “You know what you’re going to see, you see what you get, and when you leave you’re happy.”

The applause was louder at the outset, though. Fans at the early afternoon showing, which preceded the film’s glitzy formal premiere with cast and crew Sunday night, cheered and clapped wildly at an announcement that the screening was about to start. Some even hummed the Indiana Jones fanfare as the lights went down.

Read more

written by Andrew

(CNN) — If Nintendo has their way your living room could be the new big thing in exercise.

With its new game “Wii Fit” hitting stores Monday, Nintendo is looking to bring exercise into the home, making people more aware of their bodies and starting to create a comfortable, fun environment to get healthy.

Personal trainer and fitness expert Robert Dothard said making exercise available and enjoyable in your home means reaching an audience of people who often feel embarrassed walking in to a traditional gym.

“I had a real difficult time training people in front of what I called ‘God and everybody’ — with the whole gym looking,” he said. “If someone is not in good shape you know and they are in the public gym and they’re not performing well it’s an uncomfortable feeling.”

“Wii Fit” which retails for $90, comes with the game and a “balance board” which is used to calculate your Body Mass Index, weight and measure shifts in your balance at the beginning of each session. Users then choose different workouts from the categories of strength training, aerobics, yoga and balance. Each area features different short workouts ranging from a minute to upwards of 10 minutes including push-ups and side planks, skiing, jogging and seeing how many times you can spin Hula Hoops.

Read more

written by Andrew