1. China's Bo Xilai turns on 'insane' wife, denies
embezzlement charges
CNN August 24, 2013 -
Bo Xilai defends himself in court
·
NEW: Bo admits to extramarital affair, accuses wife of
lying
·
Bo Xilai
trial enters third day Saturday in Jinan
·
The former
top official has mounted a tough defense against bribery charges
·
So far, Bo
has stolen the show, attacking prosecution's case and ridiculing testimony
Jinan, China
(CNN) -- The trial of former political
heavyweight Bo Xilai stretched
into a third day Saturday, as observers reveled in the intimate details of the
extravagant life of an estranged couple once called "the Kennedys of
China."
The former Communist
Party chief of sprawling metropolis Chongqing kept up his vigorous defense
against embezzlement charges Saturday morning and, as he did Friday on
corruption charges, dismissed video testimony from his jailed wife as a
desperate attempt to reduce her own sentencing.
Gu Kailai is currently
serving a suspended death sentence for murdering British businessman Neil
Heywood in a hotel room in November 2011. She gave her testimony to the court
via video and has said that Bo was well aware of multi-million dollar dealings
to fund their -- and their son's -- jet-setting lifestyle.
"I have feelings
for Gu Kailai," Bo was quoted as saying in a court-released transcript,
after admitting to an extramarital affair. "She is a vulnerable woman...
and who else could she turn in? That's why all accusations against me originated
from her."BXBo Xilai faces threat of death
penalty
Prosecutors allege Bo
received five million renminbi ($820,000) of public funds from a local urban
planning official in Dalian, Liaoning province in the early 2000s when he was
mayor and later the provincial governor.
Bo slammed the
allegations as "contradictory" and denied that he needed to take the
money as his wife made an adequate income from her five law firms.
Details of the final
charge -- abuse of power -- started being heard late Saturday.
2.
How
India got its funk
India’s
economy is in its tightest spot since 1991. Now, as then, the answer is to be
bold
The Economist Aug. 24th 2013
IN MAY
America’s Federal Reserve hinted that it would soon start to reduce its vast
purchases of Treasury bonds. As global investors adjusted to a world without
ultra-cheap money, there has been a great sucking of funds from emerging
markets. Currencies and shares have tumbled, from Brazil to Indonesia, but one
country has been particularly badly hit.
Not so
long ago India was celebrated as an economic miracle. In 2008 Manmohan Singh,
the prime minister, said growth of 8-9% was India’s new cruising speed. He even
predicted the end of the “chronic poverty, ignorance and disease, which has
been the fate of millions of our countrymen for centuries”. Today he admits the
outlook is difficult. The rupee has tumbled by 13% in three months. The
stockmarket is down by a quarter in dollar terms. Borrowing rates are at levels
last seen after Lehman Brothers’ demise. Bank shares have sunk.
On August 14th jumpy officials tightened capital controls in an
attempt to stop locals taking money out of the country (seearticle). That
scared foreign investors, who worry that India may freeze their funds too. The
risk now is of a credit crunch and a self-fulfilling panic that pushes the
rupee down much further, fuelling inflation. Policymakers recognise that the
country is in its tightest spot since the balance-of-payments crisis of 1991.
3.
Why shouldn't Marissa Mayer look
hot?
Special
to CNN August 23, 2013
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's photo spread in Vogue magazine has proven controversial, with some saying it detracts from
the 3,000-word article that focuses on her successes and vision in a
male-dominated tech world. The profile describes Mayer as an "unusually
stylish geek." Take a look at other photos of her through the years.
Marissa Mayer: Proud geek
·
Peggy Drexler: Talk of Marissa
Mayer's Vogue piece focused on her appearance
·
Drexler: We can't blame Mayer,
or Vogue, for society's obsession with appearance.
·
She says Mayer has no say over
the fact that looks matter, pretty people succeed more
·
But it's unfair, she says, to
expect Mayer to sit for a photo that wasn't going to be flattering
(CNN) --
Yes --- Marissa Mayer posed for Vogue. Her skin is creamy, her hair perfect.
She looks gorgeous. It's not surprising; it's Vogue.
It's also not surprising that the
conversation about Mayer's Vogue piece -- the first major profile she agreed to
since becoming CEO of Yahoo -- has remained squarely focused on how she looks
in the accompanying photograph.
Most criticisms, my own included,
have examined Mayer's role in this: At a time when women in the workplace
desperately need role models, why did she allow herself to be depicted in a
manner so far removed from most women's realities?
On CNN.com, Pepper Schwartz writes that "a significant number of
women ... were less than thrilled at the idea of one of the few women of real
power still needing the affirmation of a Vogue fashion shoot," and
"here's a woman who has made it to the top because of her brains, does she
still need to self-validate by having a beautiful fashion gig?"
But what's so inexcusable about a
woman wanting to look her best? How is it self-validating to let a respectable
magazine profile you in the way they know how? Or is the issue more about the
audacity of a powerful woman sitting for a portrait that might be -- gasp -- flattering?
The truth is that we can't blame
Mayer, or Vogue, for society's obsession with, and response to, appearance.
Women, especially women who happen to be both beautiful and brilliant like
Mayer, are very often reduced to, or at least measured by, their looks. This
was a reality before Mayer's Vogue spread, and it will be a reality after. The
debate over Mayer's culpability in agreeing to be sexed up for a fashion
magazine implies that she has some power over the fact, some ability to change
the truth, that looks matter, and that pretty people succeed more.
Because they do, with or without
the "affirmation of a Vogue fashion shoot."
4.
Ben Affleck
to play Batman in 2015 Superman sequel
BBC 23 August 2013
Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in a forthcoming Superman
sequel, bringing together the two superheroes in one film for the first time.
The
41-year-old will star opposite British actor Henry Cavill, who will reprise his
role as Superman from the most recent film, Man of Steel.
Director
Zack Snyder revealed the big screen superhero mash-up at a comic convention in
San Diego last month.
Production
is expected to begin next year for release in the summer of 2015.
"We
knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics' most enduringly
popular super heroes, and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill and then
some," Warner Bros President Greg Silverman said in a statement.
Mr
Snyder, who also directed Man of Steel, said in a statement that Mr. Affleck
will provide an "interesting counter-balance" to 31-year old Cavill's
Clark Kent.
"(Affleck)
has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and
wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but
retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne," said
Snyder. "I can't wait to work with him."
The
sequel - which has yet to be given a title - will reunite Man of Steel stars
Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) and Diane Lane (Martha
Kent).
Christian
Bale most recently played Batman in director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight
trilogy.
Michael
Keaton and George Clooney have also donned the black mask and cape in previous
Batman films.
Ben
Affleck's film Argo, which he starred in and directed, won an Academy Award for
best picture earlier this year.
5. Consider the Gua Bao
The
wall Street Journal August 24, 2013
Taiwan’s well-traveled,
yet unsung, gua bao has made it onto menus from New York to
London.
Consider the Taiwanese gua
bao: pork belly, preserved mustard greens, peanuts crushed with
sugar and a few sprigs of cilantro stuffed into a fluffy steamed bun. The gua
bao is sweet, sour
and salty, irresistibly sloppy and richly meaty, but sized to satisfy, not
overwhelm. Swaddled in paper or plastic, it fits snugly in the palm — an ideal
on-the-go nosh and a near-perfect street food.
Yet despite its merits, the gua
bao is unknown in too
many quarters. Like Taipei, a street-food hub that’s often overlooked in favor
of other Asian cities like Singapore and Bangkok, it languishes in the shadow
of Taiwan’s more famous xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and niu
rou mian (beef
noodles).
It shouldn’t be so. After all, the Taiwanese
specialty is delicious enough to have inspired numerous variations abroad. In
New York, Korean-American chef David Chang caused
a sensation several years ago when he began serving a gua
bao-like bun smeared with hoisin sauce and stuffed with pork belly,
cucumbers and scallions at his Ssam Bar. Later, Taiwanese-American chef Eddie
Huang’s Baohaus and his Chairman Bao, which substitutes housemade relish for gua
bao’s preserved mustard, helped launch a career and land a book
deal. More recently, the gua bao has turned up deconstructed — buns
served in a steamer for diners to stuff for themselves with mustard and
miso-braised pork belly and pickled apple – at new London restaurant Flesh
& Buns.
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