Home Depot, Walmart, grocers get boost from Irene

NEW YORK — Hurricane Irene sent east coast shoppers into stores to stock up on essentials this week, instead of the clothes, notebooks and other supplies that retailers were counting on selling as parents prepare to send their children back to school.

Chains such as Home Depot Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc were doing brisk business on Friday, selling water, flashlights, batteries and other goods in states standing in Irene’s potential track from the Carolinas to Massachusetts.

“Most probably, the biggest demand right now is for generators, obviously,” said Suzanne Roche, manager of a Sears store in Wilmington, North Carolina. “We have got customers calling nonstop about the generators.”

Irene is due to make its first U.S. landfall in North Carolina on Saturday. The storm, which battered Atlantic and Caribbean islands including the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, is then expected to head to the densely-populated Northeast.

Those who were not trying to squeeze in one last summer stay on the New Jersey shore or Long Island beaches may have been planning to go to shopping malls to buy clothes, shoes and other items for children that will soon head back to school. Now, those plans will be on hold.

“Nobody is going to go to a mall to buy a pair of jeans,” said Richard Hastings, consumer strategist at Global Hunter Securities.

The back-to-school shopping season is the second-largest spending time for U.S. shoppers behind the winter holidays.

 The storm may dent the upcoming index of August sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, by 1.5 percentage points, Hastings said.

About two dozen retailers, including department stores and apparel chains, are due to report their monthly tallies on September 1. Analysts were expecting a 4.8 percent rise in August same-store sales, Thomson Reuters said on Friday.

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The storm could hurt retailers like Saks Inc and Tiffany & Co if airports stay closed for too long or people cancel trips, said Morningstar analyst Paul Swinand. The hurricane hitting on a weekend worsens its impact, he added.

Thousands gather at India Gate to celebrate Anna’s victory

NEW DELHI: ‘Anna has pulled off a miracle’, was the unanimous cry from Hazare supporters who thronged the India Gate in thousands following anti-corruption crusader’s call to celebrate their victory.

Cutting across the barriers of age and gender, people looked into a mode of celebration while dancing on the tunes of bands, doing Bhangra, singing patriotic songs, raising impromptu slogans, flying kites names after Anna, waving Indian flags, and some even distributing free sweets and chocolates among themselves.

“Anna has awakened the nation”, said 80-year-old Retd. Army Officer Shiv Kumar Sharma, who had come with his wife and friends to the India Gate.

“I don’t think that Lokpal alone will eradicate corruption from India. However, I do feel that Anna Hazare through his movement has woken up the nation… The whole country has stood up against corruption and I think this is the biggest achievement of this movement,” Sharma said.

Though, Lokpal is not the whole answer to the problem, it is a very good beginning, said R S Yadav, a retd Colonel.

Amidst huge media presence and police deployment, people sang patriotic songs and waved Indian flags while some were seen getting their face painted in the colours of tricolour.

“I am proud to be an Indian today,” said 22-year-old Sunil, who is pursuing his MBA in Delhi.

Mohan Aggarwal, a businessman, had come with a group of 40 people from Vaishali, and was seen distributing free sweets and chocolates among the people gathered at the India Gate.

“It’s our way of celebrating by distributing sweets. Only a God can do what Anna has done through his struggle. We had never imagined in our dreams that one day the whole country would stand up against corruption… He has done a miracle,” said Aggarwal.

Some were not “satisfied” with the government’s response to the whole movement.

“Though I am not fully satisfied with the government’s response, at least something is being done to rid this country of corruption. Anna has shown us a path and now it’s our responsibility to follow it… At least I won’t give or accept bribes from now on,” said Yudhishter Singh, a Customs Manager, who had come all the way from Ethiopia to be a part of the movement.

Hollywood does not fascinate me: Imran Khan

Actor Imran Khan says it like it is. Aamir’s nephew has no qualms in admitting that he is not fascinated by Hollywood.

In a chat with TOI, Imran revealed, “Its very important to understand the sensibility and culture of the film industry you work in. American films are made for an American audience and thus it will always be difficult for Indians to not get stereotyped in those films. I definitely don’t intend to play a scientist or a taxi driver in Hollywood films. I’d rather give my all to Hindi films. I understand this culture and it will always give me a better platform than anything else.”

As much as we’d like to agree with you Imran, this all seems a tad unbelievable, considering you happen to be an American citizen

Johnny Depp to star in ‘The Rum Diary’

Johnny Depp is all set to join the cast of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson”s upcoming movie ‘The Rum Diary’.

The movie tells of the exploits that journalist Paul Kemp (Depp) had to face after moving to Puerto Rico in the 1950s to work for a San Juan newspaper, Contactmusic reported.

His editor immediately informs him that he regrets hiring him, but he finds himself on an island full of sun, sea and unusually high proof rum.

Depp previously also played a character based on Hunter S. Thompson after starring in Terry Gilliam’s 1998 adaptation of ‘Fear And Loathing’ In Las Vegas.

‘The Rum Diary’ was penned down in the 1960s and was first published in 1998.

Depp, who was said to be passionate about the project for some time, has been credited as a producer.

Brad Pitt saves a woman on movie set

Actor Brad Pitt saved a woman from being trampled on while shooting for his new film ” World War Z”.

The 47-year-old actor was shooting battle scenes for the horror apocalypse movie in Glasgow with 700 extras when the actress fell to the ground in the melee.

Pitt quickly scooped her up in his arms and put her back on her feet before she faced the risk of getting badly injured.

“Lots of people hurt themselves and Brad (Pitt) came to the rescue of one woman who slipped. I don’t think she could believe it when Brad picked her up. He didn’t have time to speak to her as it was mid-shoot. But she said afterwards how grateful she was, despite having a grazed knee,” femalefirst.co.ukquoted a source as saying.

Michael Schumacher last on grid for Belgian Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher will start last for today’s Belgian GP after crashing out of a disastrous qualifying session at Spa.

A string of celebrations were arranged by Mercedes to mark the 20th anniversary of his debut here in 1991. But there was little to cheer yesterday.

The seven-time champion became the first to skid out of qualifying after a rear wheel fell off on his first lap. Yet Schumacher was able to crack a joke that harked back to the year he crashed into the back of David Coulthard, ripping off a front wheel in Spa’s infamous spray.

He said: “It is difficult to drive on three wheels, even if I have the experience to do so at Spa.

“There is no reason to blame anyone. We are all human.”

Pak-India football series in Oct

LAHORE – With no official word coming from TouchSky Sports, the followers of soccer in Pakistan and across the border believe that the Pakistan and India will be facing each other in a friendly at Pride Park stadium in Derbyshire, England, most probably in October. The game has been planned to promote peace between the two South Asian neighbours and raise the profile of Asian football.
But the event organisers postponed the series at the last moment citing 40 day mourning period as the reason for the deferment of the series. The series was dedicated to the three Pakistanis who were victims of the last month’s riots in England. The matches were originally scheduled from September 3 but were postponed.
However, the marketing experts believe that the organisers failed to meet the desired target and in view of that they bought some time to rehash the series to raise suitable finance. All India Football Federation (AIFF) website said that organisers TouchSky Sports decided to delay the game after speaking to the families of Haroon Jahan, 21, and brothers Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, aged 31.
The match will be held after the mourning period of 40 days is over. The matches were expected to attract huge Asian community in Britain and were being billed officially as ‘The Clash of the Titans, India Pakistan UK tour’. Pakistani footballer Zesh Rehman was quoted by ESPN soccernet that he would love to play. “The rivalry between India and Pakistan is always fierce,” he added. India and Pakistan have both crashed out of the 2014 Soccer World Cup qualifiers. Pakistan, ranked 170 in FIFA rankings, lost to Bangladesh while India were eliminated by the UAE

PCB to search Waqar’s replacement after Eid

Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board will start their search for a coach to replace Waqar Younis immediately after Eid and the whole process will be handled by a special committee to be constituted by the Board.

A PCB official also made it clear that the option of hiring a foreign coach cannot be ruled out as the idea was to find the best candidate to work with the national team.

“Whether it is Dav Whatmore or any other foreign coach we are not discounting out anyone. Whatmore is working in India but obviously we can have talks with him,” chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad said.
He said Pakistan cricket had plenty of experience with foreign coaches in the past so it would be nothing new but the whole decision would rest on the committee that will be tasked with the job of shortlisting suitable candidates.

“Obviously we have until early October to finalise things after which the national team has an hectic international schedule starting with the Sri Lankan series in the UAE,” he noted.

Waqar has announced that he will step down as coach of the national team after the tour to Zimbabwe.

The former Test captain whose work has generally been appreciated in the Pakistan cricket circles barring a few exceptions has cited personal and health reasons for his decision to resign before completing his contract with the board.

While Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and senior batsman Younis Khan have been all praise for Waqar’s work as coach with the team, former captains Shahid Afridi and Moin Khan have been among his critics.

Moin, a former wicketkeeper-batsman, infact on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Waqar terming him as a “yes man” of the board instead of being coach.

“A coach is supposed to work with the team and built team spirit not indulge in politics like Waqar did,” Moin told Geo TV.

The PCB official also refuted reports that the board had got in touch with former captain Javed Miandad for the coaching position.

“No we have not had talks with Miandad on this topic and obviously when the committee sits down to short list candidates they can consider him as well.”

Miandad has previously had three terms with the national team as coach but every time has stepped down or been told to step down in acrimonious circumstances by the board.

Pakistan have employed foreign coaches including Richard Pybus, Bob Woolmer and Geoff Lawson in the past.

Lawson, in fact, had recently said that Pakistan should go for a foreign coach but the PCB official said these were his personal views.

“The committee has to decide what is best for Pakistan cricket. Our team is in a transition phase and we need to have a long term arrangement,” Ahmad said.

Battered al-Qa’ida down but not out

GOVERNMENT officials refer to it blandly as the SSE, or Sensitive Site Exploitation. That’s their oblique term for the extraordinary cache of evidence that was carried away from Osama bin Laden’s compound the night the al-Qa’ida leader was killed.

With the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks two weeks away, it’s possible to use this evidence to sketch a vivid portrait of al-Qa’ida, drawing on material contained in more than 100 computer storage devices, including thumb drives, DVDs and CDs, and more than a dozen computers or hard drives – all collected during the May 2 raid.

US officials say three strong themes emerge from their reading of the files, most of which were communications between bin Laden and his top deputy, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Indeed, because the Libyan-born Atiyah was the boss’s key link with the outside, officials see him as more important than bin Laden’s nominal successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

*Bin Laden retained until his death a passion to launch a significant attack against the US, ideally linked to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. He and Atiyah communicated often about who might carry out such a strike, with Atiyah proposing names and bin Laden rejecting them. Bin Laden was still looking for a history-changing attack on big, economically important targets – one that would match, if not outdo, the impact of 9/11. Zawahiri, by contrast, favoured an opportunistic strategy of smaller strikes.

*Bin Laden was a hands-on chief executive officer, with a role in operations planning and personnel decisions, rather than the detached senior leader that US analysts had hypothesised. Zawahiri, whom the analysts had imagined as the day-to-day leader, was actually quite isolated – and remains so, despite a dozen communications this year. Zawahiri suffers from mistrust between his Egyptian faction of al-Qa’ida and other operatives, such as Atiyah.

*Bin Laden was suffering badly from drone attacks on al-Qa’ida’s base in the tribal areas of Pakistan. He called this the “intelligence war”, and said it was “the only weapon that’s hurting us”. His cadres complained that they couldn’t train in the tribal areas, couldn’t communicate, couldn’t travel easily and couldn’t draw new recruits to what amounted to a free-fire zone. Bin Laden discussed moving al-Qa’ida’s base to another location, but he never took action.

Analysts did not find in the material any smoking gun to suggest Pakistani government complicity in bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. And it’s clear he was paranoid about being found and killed. He ordered his men to restrict movements to help preserve what remained of al-Qa’ida in Pakistan. Fear of being discovered was a subject of regular conversation between Bin Laden, Atiyah, Zawahiri and others.

Bin Laden worried that al-Qa’ida’s status among Muslims was dwindling, and that the West had partially succeeded in distancing al-Qa’ida’s message from Islamic values. He counselled affiliates in North Africa and Yemen to hold back on their efforts to develop a local Islamic extremist state in favour of attacking the US and its interests.

This fear that al-Qa’ida’s tactics were alienating Muslims was also the theme of a message that Atiyah sent in 2005 to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the murderous chief of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Atiyah warned that fomenting Sunni-Shiite violence, a Zarqawi trademark, was potentially ruinous.

The al-Qa’ida that emerges from these documents is a battered and disoriented group. The June 3 death of Ilyas Kashmiri in a drone attack illustrates the organisation’s continuing vulnerability. Kashmiri was a ruthless operator who planned the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and was plotting attacks on Europe last winter that were stopped only because of aggressive counter-terrorism work.

When top US officials summarise their view of al-Qa’ida, they describe an organisation that is down but certainly not out. They don’t know of any specific plots targeting the US, 10 years on. But they’re looking, pulsing every channel they know. They recognise that it’s what we still don’t know about al-Qa’ida that’s most dangerous.

Arab body sends envoy to Syria

THE Arab League is to send its secretary-general, Nabil El Arabi, to Syria to ask President Bashar al-Assad to end the unrest in the country.Arab League foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo, said they were ”upset and worried” about events in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed or injured. The envoy would travel to Syria urgently, the ministers said yesterday, without giving a date for the visit.

Syrian security forces attacked demonstrators at the weekend in suburbs of the capital, Damascus, in the eastern town of Deir al-Zour, in the central city of Homs and in Nawa, said Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights.

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Syrian forces used nail grenades to disperse protesters in Daraa, where the uprising began, Al Arabiya reported yesterday, citing activists. At least four people were killed in Aleppo, it said.

US President Barack Obama earlier this month joined European leaders in calling for Mr Assad to step down and let Syrians decide their own future.

The Arab foreign ministers also called for ”respecting the right of the Syrian people to live in security and respecting their legitimate aspirations for political and social reforms”.

The Arab League has been accused of being soft on Mr Assad, who has pledged reforms but keeps trying to quell the uprising. Iran’s foreign minister yesterday called on Mr Assad to ”pay heed to the legitimate demands of his people” and warned that a potential power vacuum in Damascus ”would bring about unpredictable consequences” for the region.

Tens of thousands protested across the country after gathering for weekly Friday prayers.