Sep 7, 2007
Durai secures $25,000-a-month CEO job in Abu Dhabi
By Clarence Chang, Senior correspondent
FORMER National Kidney Foundation chief executive TT Durai - who was sentenced to 3 months' jail in June for deceiving the NKF, but is now appealing his conviction - has secured a new high-paying job.
The 59-year-old has accepted the position of CEO of a new subsidiary company under Singapore-based real estate management firm Property Facility Services (PFS) - a job which will pay him $25,000 a month.
After the conclusion of Durai's appeal and possible sentence, he will be based full-time in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This revelation came to light in Durai's affidavit tendered to the High Court on Friday morning during his request for permission to travel overseas while out on bail.
New pay, new perks
In a offer letter signed by PFS chairman Dr Albert Hong and director Dr Shaika Al Maskari dated 21 June this year - ironically, the same day Durai was sentenced to jail - PFS told Durai that he would also be paid a 15 per cent share of the new subsidiary company's annual net profits.
This new Abu Dhabi firm will be sponsored by Tricon Healthcare, a member of the Tricon group.
Durai's contract is scheduled to run for 5 years from 1 August. Some of his duties - to help PFS provide healthcare services, human resource consultancy, manpower recruitment and other business development projects in the Middle East region.
Besides the $25,000 monthly pay and a share of profits, some of Durai's other perks include housing expenses, the use of a company car and a reimbursement of his travel, accommodation and entertainment expenses.
Durai accepted PFS' offer on 27 August.
Can you start work now?
His lawyer also included in his affidavit a separate letter by PFS dated 13 August, informing Durai that it wants him to start work in Abu Dhabi "as soon as possible" - pending the outcome of his appeal.
In fact, until his appeal is settled, Durai's new employers have told him his immediate services are "required" in the UAE for at least 7 days straight every month, during which he would be paid a pro-rated salary.
The court granted Durai's request to travel to the UAE, with his $100,000 bail to remain.
"Confident" of appeal success
Durai also said in his affidavit that he feels upbeat about his chances in his upcoming appeal to overturn his conviction and 3-month jail term - arguing that this means he has no reason to flee the country.
He wrote: "I am advised by my Counsel and verily believe that there are good prospects of appeal against my conviction... I am confident of my prospects of success."
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Singapore's pension reform plans spark rare protest
Reuters - Thursday September 6, 7:23 PM
Singapore's pension reform plans spark rare protest
SINGAPORE, Sept 6 - Singaporeans have started a rare protest against the government's pension reform plans with an online petition and a planned public protest action.
An online petition against the pensions reform had drawn nearly 600 online signatures as of Thursday, while on Saturday, activists will test Singapore's ban on demonstrations by staging a symbolic "black T-shirt" protest at a popular downtown mall.
Any public protest is rare in Singapore, where all outdoor demonstrations are banned and any public gathering of more than four people requires a permit.
The protest takes aim at plans to make it mandatory for all Singaporeans under the age of 50 to buy annuities and which would impose restrictions on how pension savings are invested.
"People are quite unhappy, partly about way the announcements about the pension reforms were made," political commentator Leong Sze Hian told Reuters.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the pension reform in his National Day speech last month, saying there was no choice as "people are living longer".
To cope with a rapidly ageing population, the government is upping the retirement age from 62 years to 65 years by 2015, and up to 67 beyond that.
In recent weeks, government ministers have talked about several planned changes to the Central Provident Fund , a mandatory retirement savings scheme for all Singaporeans that pays a lump sum upon retirement and can be used to pay for flats.
"There is concern, but the public ought to wait for more specific details on the changes, to be out later this month," Member of Parliament Halimah Yaacob told Reuters.
Singaporeans have turned increasingly to cyberspace as an outlet for their dissatisfaction.
The latest petition -- on Petitiononline.com -- has drawn 580 signatures over two weeks. In the past two years, petitions against a pay-and-perks scandal at a national charity and against the introduction of casino gambling drew thousands of signatures.
Saturday's protest -- announced on political blogs and online forums -- is set to test Singapore's limits on freedom of assembly, as organisers merely suggest participants turn up at 4 p.m. at the Centrepoint mall, dressed "partly" in black.
Law student and online activist Choo Zheng Xi told Reuters he does not expect a strong turn-out, as other small-scale protest actions in the past months have drawn a massive police presence as well as plainsclothes policemen filming protesters.
Singapore's pension reform plans spark rare protest
SINGAPORE, Sept 6 - Singaporeans have started a rare protest against the government's pension reform plans with an online petition and a planned public protest action.
An online petition against the pensions reform had drawn nearly 600 online signatures as of Thursday, while on Saturday, activists will test Singapore's ban on demonstrations by staging a symbolic "black T-shirt" protest at a popular downtown mall.
Any public protest is rare in Singapore, where all outdoor demonstrations are banned and any public gathering of more than four people requires a permit.
The protest takes aim at plans to make it mandatory for all Singaporeans under the age of 50 to buy annuities and which would impose restrictions on how pension savings are invested.
"People are quite unhappy, partly about way the announcements about the pension reforms were made," political commentator Leong Sze Hian told Reuters.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the pension reform in his National Day speech last month, saying there was no choice as "people are living longer".
To cope with a rapidly ageing population, the government is upping the retirement age from 62 years to 65 years by 2015, and up to 67 beyond that.
In recent weeks, government ministers have talked about several planned changes to the Central Provident Fund , a mandatory retirement savings scheme for all Singaporeans that pays a lump sum upon retirement and can be used to pay for flats.
"There is concern, but the public ought to wait for more specific details on the changes, to be out later this month," Member of Parliament Halimah Yaacob told Reuters.
Singaporeans have turned increasingly to cyberspace as an outlet for their dissatisfaction.
The latest petition -- on Petitiononline.com -- has drawn 580 signatures over two weeks. In the past two years, petitions against a pay-and-perks scandal at a national charity and against the introduction of casino gambling drew thousands of signatures.
Saturday's protest -- announced on political blogs and online forums -- is set to test Singapore's limits on freedom of assembly, as organisers merely suggest participants turn up at 4 p.m. at the Centrepoint mall, dressed "partly" in black.
Law student and online activist Choo Zheng Xi told Reuters he does not expect a strong turn-out, as other small-scale protest actions in the past months have drawn a massive police presence as well as plainsclothes policemen filming protesters.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Italian tenor Pavarotti dies at age 71
Italian tenor Pavarotti dies at age 71
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
ROME - Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C's and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died Thursday. He was 71.
His manager, Terri Robson, told the AP in an e-mailed statement that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 a.m. local time. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and underwent further treatment in August.
"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness," the statement said.
Speaking from inside Pavarotti's home, which was guarded by police, Pavarotti's assistant Edwin Tinoco told Sky TG 24 television that Pavarotti's final days had been calm and spent at home.
For serious fans, the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of Pavarotti's voice made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and '70s when he first achieved stardom. For millions more, his charismatic performances of standards like "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot" came to represent what opera is all about.
In fact, "Nessun Dorma" was Pavarotti's last performance, sung at at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February 2006. His last full-scale concert was at Taipei in December 2005, and his farewell to opera was in Puccini's "Tosca" at New York's Metropolitan in March 2004.
It was the second monumental loss in the opera world in recent months. American soprano Beverly Sills, whose widespread popularity mirrored Pavarotti's, died July 2 at her home in New York. She was 78 and suffered from cancer.
Instantly recognizable from his charcoal black beard and tuxedo-busting girth, Pavarotti radiated an intangible magic that helped him win hearts in a way Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras — his partners in the "Three Tenors" concerts — never quite could.
"I always admired the God-given glory of his voice — that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range," Domingo said in a statement from Los Angeles.
"I also loved his wonderful sense of humor and on several occasions of our concerts with Jose Carreras — the so-called Three Tenors concerts — we had trouble remembering that we were giving a concert before a paying audience, because we had so much fun between ourselves," he said.
Pavarotti, who seemed equally at ease singing with soprano Joan Sutherland as with the Spice Girls, scoffed at accusations that he was sacrificing his art in favor of commercialism.
"The word commercial is exactly what we want," he said, after appearing in the widely publicized "Three Tenors" concerts. "We've reached 1.5 billion people with opera. If you want to use the word commercial, or something more derogatory, we don't care. Use whatever you want."
In the annals of that rare and coddled breed, the operatic tenor, it may well be said the 20th century began with Enrico Caruso and ended with Pavarotti. Other tenors — Domingo included — may have drawn more praise from critics for their artistic range and insights, but none could equal the combination of natural talent and personal charm that so endeared Pavarotti to audiences.
"Pavarotti is the biggest superstar of all," the late New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg once said. "He's correspondingly more spoiled than anybody else. They think they can get away with anything. Thanks to the glory of his voice, he probably can."
In his heyday, he was known as the "King of the High C's" for the ease with which he tossed off difficult top notes. In fact it was his ability to hit nine glorious high C's in quick succession that first turned him into an international superstar singing Tonio's aria "Ah! Mes amis," in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" at the Met in 1972.
In the 1990s, Pavarotti's teaming with Domingo and Carreras became a music business phenomenon and spawned copycats such as the Three Irish Tenors.
Pavarotti starred in a film called "Yes, Giorgio" (though its failure scuttled his hopes for a Hollywood career) and appeared in a filmed version of "Rigoletto." He wrote an autobiography, "I, Luciano Pavarotti," and made more than 90 recordings.
From Beijing to Buenos Aires, people immediately recognized his incandescent smile and lumbering bulk, clutching a white handkerchief as he sang arias and Neapolitan folk songs, pop numbers and Christmas carols for hundreds of thousands in outdoor concerts.
His name seemed to show up as much in gossip columns as serious music reviews, particularly after he split with Adua Veroni, his wife of 35 years and mother of their three daughters, and then took up with his 26-year-old secretary in 1996.
In late 2003, he married Nicoletta Mantovani in a lavish, star-studded ceremony. Pavarotti said their daughter Alice, nearly a year old at the time of the wedding, was the main reason he and Mantovani finally wed after years together.
In the latter part of his career, some music critics cited what they saw as an increasing tendency toward the vulgar and the commercial.
He came under fire for canceling performances or pandering to the lowest common denominator in his choice of programs, or for the Three Tenors tours and their millions of dollars in fees.
He was criticized for lip-synching at a concert in Modena, Italy, his hometown. An artist accused him of copying her works from a how-to-draw book and selling the paintings.
The son of a baker who was an amateur singer, Pavarotti was born Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena. He had a meager upbringing, though he said it was rich with happiness.
"Our family had very little, but I couldn't imagine one could have any more," Pavarotti said.
As a boy, Pavarotti showed more interest in soccer than his studies, but he also was fond of listening to his father's recordings of tenor greats like Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Jussi Bjoerling and Giuseppe Di Stefano, his favorite.
Among his close childhood friends was Mirella Freni, who would eventually become a soprano and an opera great herself. The two studied singing together and years later ended up making records and concerts together, according to Elvio Giudici, an Italian opera critic.
In his teens, Pavarotti joined his father, also a tenor, in the church choir and local opera chorus. He was influenced by the American movie actor-singer Mario Lanza.
"In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror," Pavarotti said.
Singing was still nothing more than a passion while Pavarotti trained to become a teacher and began working in a school.
But at 20, he traveled with his chorus to an international music competition in Wales. The Modena group won first place, and Pavarotti began to dedicate himself to singing.
With the encouragement of his then fiancee, Adua Veroni, he started lessons, selling insurance to pay for them. He studied with Arrigo Pola and later Ettore Campogalliani.
In 1961, Pavarotti won a local voice competition and with it a debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme."
He followed with a series of successes in small opera houses throughout Europe before his 1963 debut at Covent Garden in London, where he stood in for Di Stefano as Rodolfo.
Having impressed conductor Richard Bonynge, Pavarotti was given a role opposite Bonynge's wife, soprano Joan Sutherland, in a Miami production of "Lucia di Lamermoor." They subsequently signed him for a 14-week tour of Australia.
It was the recognition Pavarotti needed to launch his career. He also credited Sutherland with teaching him how to breathe correctly.
In the following years, Pavarotti made a series of major debuts, appearing at La Scala in Milan in 1965, San Francisco in 1967 and New York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1968. Other early venues included Vienna, Paris and Chicago.
Throughout his career, Pavarotti struggled with a much-publicized weight problem. His love of food caused him to balloon to a reported high of 396 pounds in 1978.
"Maybe this time I'll really do it and keep it up," he said during one of his constant attempts at dieting.
Pavarotti, who had been trained as a lyric tenor, began taking on heavier dramatic tenor roles, such as Manrico in Verdi's "Trovatore" and the title role in "Otello."
Pavarotti often drew comparisons with Domingo, his most notable contemporary. Aficionados judged Domingo the more complete and consistent musician, but he never captured the public imagination like Pavarotti.
Though there appeared to be professional jealousy between the great singers, Pavarotti claimed he preferred to judge himself only against his earlier performances.
In the mid-1970s, Pavarotti became a true media star. He appeared in television commercials and began appearing in hugely lucrative mega-concerts outdoors and in stadiums around the world. Soon came joint concerts with pop stars. A concert in New York's Central Park in 1993 drew 500,000 fans.
Pavarotti's recording of "Volare" went platinum in 1988.
In 1990, he appeared with Domingo and Carreras in a concert at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome for the end of soccer's World Cup. The concert was a huge success, and the record known as "The Three Tenors" was a best-seller and was nominated for two Grammy awards. The video sold over 750,000 copies.
The three-tenor extravaganza became a mini-industry. With a follow-up album recorded at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in 1994, the three have outsold every other performer of classical music. A 1996 tour earned each tenor an estimated $10 million.
Pavarotti liked to mingle with pop stars in his series of charity concerts, "Pavarotti & Friends," held annually in Modena. He performed with artists as varied as Ricky Martin, James Brown and the Spice Girls.
The performances raised some eyebrows but he always shrugged off the criticism.
Some say the "word pop is a derogatory word to say 'not important' — I do not accept that," Pavarotti said in a 2004 interview with the AP. "If the word classic is the word to say 'boring,' I do not accept. There is good and bad music."
It was not just his annual extravaganza that saw Pavarotti involved in humanitarian work.
During the 1992-95 Bosnia war, he collected humanitarian aid along with U2 lead singer Bono, and after the war he financed and established the Pavarotti Music Center in the southern city of Mostar to offer Bosnia's artists the opportunity to develop their skills.
He performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as an earthquake in December 1988 that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia.
Pavarotti was also dogged by accusations of tax evasion, and in 2000 he agreed to pay nearly roughly $12 million to the Italian state after he had unsuccessfully claimed that the tax haven of Monte Carlo rather than Italy was his official residence.
He had been accused in 1996 of filing false tax returns for 1989-91.
Pavarotti always denied wrongdoing, saying he paid taxes wherever he performed. But, upon agreeing to the settlement, he said: "I cannot live being thought not a good person."
Pavarotti was preparing to leave New York in July 2006 to resume a farewell tour when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass, his manager Robson said at the time. He underwent surgery in a New York hospital, and all his remaining 2006 concerts were canceled.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, though doctors said the surgery offered improved hopes for survival.
"I was a fortunate and happy man," Pavarotti told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published about a month after the surgery. "After that, this blow arrived."
"And now I am paying the penalty for this fortune and happiness," he told the newspaper.
Fans were still waiting for a public appearance a year after his surgery. In the summer, Pavarotti taught a group of selected students and worked on a recording of sacred songs, a work expected to be released in early 2008, according to his manager. He mostly divided his time between his home town, Modena, and his villa in the Adriatic seaside resort of Pesaro.
Just this week, the Italian government honored him with an award for "excellence in Italian culture," and La Scala and Modena's theater announced a joint Luciano Pavarotti award.
In his final statement, Pavarotti said the awards gave him "the opportunity to continue to celebrate the magic of a life dedicated to the arts and it fills me with pride and joy to have been able to promote my magnificent country abroad."
Faced with speculation that the tenor was near death, Mantovani, his second wife, told Italian newspaper La Stampa in July 2007: "He's fighting like a lion and he has never lost his heart."
Pavarotti had three daughters with his first wife, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana; and one, Alice, with his second wife.
At his side when he died were his wife, Nicoletta; his four daughters; his sister, Gabriela; his nephews and close relatives and friends, Robson said.
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
ROME - Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C's and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died Thursday. He was 71.
His manager, Terri Robson, told the AP in an e-mailed statement that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 a.m. local time. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and underwent further treatment in August.
"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness," the statement said.
Speaking from inside Pavarotti's home, which was guarded by police, Pavarotti's assistant Edwin Tinoco told Sky TG 24 television that Pavarotti's final days had been calm and spent at home.
For serious fans, the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of Pavarotti's voice made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and '70s when he first achieved stardom. For millions more, his charismatic performances of standards like "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot" came to represent what opera is all about.
In fact, "Nessun Dorma" was Pavarotti's last performance, sung at at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February 2006. His last full-scale concert was at Taipei in December 2005, and his farewell to opera was in Puccini's "Tosca" at New York's Metropolitan in March 2004.
It was the second monumental loss in the opera world in recent months. American soprano Beverly Sills, whose widespread popularity mirrored Pavarotti's, died July 2 at her home in New York. She was 78 and suffered from cancer.
Instantly recognizable from his charcoal black beard and tuxedo-busting girth, Pavarotti radiated an intangible magic that helped him win hearts in a way Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras — his partners in the "Three Tenors" concerts — never quite could.
"I always admired the God-given glory of his voice — that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range," Domingo said in a statement from Los Angeles.
"I also loved his wonderful sense of humor and on several occasions of our concerts with Jose Carreras — the so-called Three Tenors concerts — we had trouble remembering that we were giving a concert before a paying audience, because we had so much fun between ourselves," he said.
Pavarotti, who seemed equally at ease singing with soprano Joan Sutherland as with the Spice Girls, scoffed at accusations that he was sacrificing his art in favor of commercialism.
"The word commercial is exactly what we want," he said, after appearing in the widely publicized "Three Tenors" concerts. "We've reached 1.5 billion people with opera. If you want to use the word commercial, or something more derogatory, we don't care. Use whatever you want."
In the annals of that rare and coddled breed, the operatic tenor, it may well be said the 20th century began with Enrico Caruso and ended with Pavarotti. Other tenors — Domingo included — may have drawn more praise from critics for their artistic range and insights, but none could equal the combination of natural talent and personal charm that so endeared Pavarotti to audiences.
"Pavarotti is the biggest superstar of all," the late New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg once said. "He's correspondingly more spoiled than anybody else. They think they can get away with anything. Thanks to the glory of his voice, he probably can."
In his heyday, he was known as the "King of the High C's" for the ease with which he tossed off difficult top notes. In fact it was his ability to hit nine glorious high C's in quick succession that first turned him into an international superstar singing Tonio's aria "Ah! Mes amis," in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" at the Met in 1972.
In the 1990s, Pavarotti's teaming with Domingo and Carreras became a music business phenomenon and spawned copycats such as the Three Irish Tenors.
Pavarotti starred in a film called "Yes, Giorgio" (though its failure scuttled his hopes for a Hollywood career) and appeared in a filmed version of "Rigoletto." He wrote an autobiography, "I, Luciano Pavarotti," and made more than 90 recordings.
From Beijing to Buenos Aires, people immediately recognized his incandescent smile and lumbering bulk, clutching a white handkerchief as he sang arias and Neapolitan folk songs, pop numbers and Christmas carols for hundreds of thousands in outdoor concerts.
His name seemed to show up as much in gossip columns as serious music reviews, particularly after he split with Adua Veroni, his wife of 35 years and mother of their three daughters, and then took up with his 26-year-old secretary in 1996.
In late 2003, he married Nicoletta Mantovani in a lavish, star-studded ceremony. Pavarotti said their daughter Alice, nearly a year old at the time of the wedding, was the main reason he and Mantovani finally wed after years together.
In the latter part of his career, some music critics cited what they saw as an increasing tendency toward the vulgar and the commercial.
He came under fire for canceling performances or pandering to the lowest common denominator in his choice of programs, or for the Three Tenors tours and their millions of dollars in fees.
He was criticized for lip-synching at a concert in Modena, Italy, his hometown. An artist accused him of copying her works from a how-to-draw book and selling the paintings.
The son of a baker who was an amateur singer, Pavarotti was born Oct. 12, 1935, in Modena. He had a meager upbringing, though he said it was rich with happiness.
"Our family had very little, but I couldn't imagine one could have any more," Pavarotti said.
As a boy, Pavarotti showed more interest in soccer than his studies, but he also was fond of listening to his father's recordings of tenor greats like Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Jussi Bjoerling and Giuseppe Di Stefano, his favorite.
Among his close childhood friends was Mirella Freni, who would eventually become a soprano and an opera great herself. The two studied singing together and years later ended up making records and concerts together, according to Elvio Giudici, an Italian opera critic.
In his teens, Pavarotti joined his father, also a tenor, in the church choir and local opera chorus. He was influenced by the American movie actor-singer Mario Lanza.
"In my teens I used to go to Mario Lanza movies and then come home and imitate him in the mirror," Pavarotti said.
Singing was still nothing more than a passion while Pavarotti trained to become a teacher and began working in a school.
But at 20, he traveled with his chorus to an international music competition in Wales. The Modena group won first place, and Pavarotti began to dedicate himself to singing.
With the encouragement of his then fiancee, Adua Veroni, he started lessons, selling insurance to pay for them. He studied with Arrigo Pola and later Ettore Campogalliani.
In 1961, Pavarotti won a local voice competition and with it a debut as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La Boheme."
He followed with a series of successes in small opera houses throughout Europe before his 1963 debut at Covent Garden in London, where he stood in for Di Stefano as Rodolfo.
Having impressed conductor Richard Bonynge, Pavarotti was given a role opposite Bonynge's wife, soprano Joan Sutherland, in a Miami production of "Lucia di Lamermoor." They subsequently signed him for a 14-week tour of Australia.
It was the recognition Pavarotti needed to launch his career. He also credited Sutherland with teaching him how to breathe correctly.
In the following years, Pavarotti made a series of major debuts, appearing at La Scala in Milan in 1965, San Francisco in 1967 and New York's Metropolitan Opera House in 1968. Other early venues included Vienna, Paris and Chicago.
Throughout his career, Pavarotti struggled with a much-publicized weight problem. His love of food caused him to balloon to a reported high of 396 pounds in 1978.
"Maybe this time I'll really do it and keep it up," he said during one of his constant attempts at dieting.
Pavarotti, who had been trained as a lyric tenor, began taking on heavier dramatic tenor roles, such as Manrico in Verdi's "Trovatore" and the title role in "Otello."
Pavarotti often drew comparisons with Domingo, his most notable contemporary. Aficionados judged Domingo the more complete and consistent musician, but he never captured the public imagination like Pavarotti.
Though there appeared to be professional jealousy between the great singers, Pavarotti claimed he preferred to judge himself only against his earlier performances.
In the mid-1970s, Pavarotti became a true media star. He appeared in television commercials and began appearing in hugely lucrative mega-concerts outdoors and in stadiums around the world. Soon came joint concerts with pop stars. A concert in New York's Central Park in 1993 drew 500,000 fans.
Pavarotti's recording of "Volare" went platinum in 1988.
In 1990, he appeared with Domingo and Carreras in a concert at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome for the end of soccer's World Cup. The concert was a huge success, and the record known as "The Three Tenors" was a best-seller and was nominated for two Grammy awards. The video sold over 750,000 copies.
The three-tenor extravaganza became a mini-industry. With a follow-up album recorded at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in 1994, the three have outsold every other performer of classical music. A 1996 tour earned each tenor an estimated $10 million.
Pavarotti liked to mingle with pop stars in his series of charity concerts, "Pavarotti & Friends," held annually in Modena. He performed with artists as varied as Ricky Martin, James Brown and the Spice Girls.
The performances raised some eyebrows but he always shrugged off the criticism.
Some say the "word pop is a derogatory word to say 'not important' — I do not accept that," Pavarotti said in a 2004 interview with the AP. "If the word classic is the word to say 'boring,' I do not accept. There is good and bad music."
It was not just his annual extravaganza that saw Pavarotti involved in humanitarian work.
During the 1992-95 Bosnia war, he collected humanitarian aid along with U2 lead singer Bono, and after the war he financed and established the Pavarotti Music Center in the southern city of Mostar to offer Bosnia's artists the opportunity to develop their skills.
He performed at benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies such as an earthquake in December 1988 that killed 25,000 people in northern Armenia.
Pavarotti was also dogged by accusations of tax evasion, and in 2000 he agreed to pay nearly roughly $12 million to the Italian state after he had unsuccessfully claimed that the tax haven of Monte Carlo rather than Italy was his official residence.
He had been accused in 1996 of filing false tax returns for 1989-91.
Pavarotti always denied wrongdoing, saying he paid taxes wherever he performed. But, upon agreeing to the settlement, he said: "I cannot live being thought not a good person."
Pavarotti was preparing to leave New York in July 2006 to resume a farewell tour when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass, his manager Robson said at the time. He underwent surgery in a New York hospital, and all his remaining 2006 concerts were canceled.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, though doctors said the surgery offered improved hopes for survival.
"I was a fortunate and happy man," Pavarotti told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published about a month after the surgery. "After that, this blow arrived."
"And now I am paying the penalty for this fortune and happiness," he told the newspaper.
Fans were still waiting for a public appearance a year after his surgery. In the summer, Pavarotti taught a group of selected students and worked on a recording of sacred songs, a work expected to be released in early 2008, according to his manager. He mostly divided his time between his home town, Modena, and his villa in the Adriatic seaside resort of Pesaro.
Just this week, the Italian government honored him with an award for "excellence in Italian culture," and La Scala and Modena's theater announced a joint Luciano Pavarotti award.
In his final statement, Pavarotti said the awards gave him "the opportunity to continue to celebrate the magic of a life dedicated to the arts and it fills me with pride and joy to have been able to promote my magnificent country abroad."
Faced with speculation that the tenor was near death, Mantovani, his second wife, told Italian newspaper La Stampa in July 2007: "He's fighting like a lion and he has never lost his heart."
Pavarotti had three daughters with his first wife, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana; and one, Alice, with his second wife.
At his side when he died were his wife, Nicoletta; his four daughters; his sister, Gabriela; his nephews and close relatives and friends, Robson said.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
China hacked into Pentagon computer network: report
Sep 4, 2007
China hacked into Pentagon computer network: report
BEIJING - CHINA'S military successfully hacked into the Pentagon's computer network, raising fears it could disrupt the US defence department's systems, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese military's cyber attack was carried out in June following months of efforts, the London-based newspaper said, citing unnamed current and former US officials.
While the Pentagon declined to say who was behind the hacking, which led to the shutdown of a computer system serving the office of Defence Secretary Robert Gates, officials told the paper it was China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).
'The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system,' the paper quoted a former US official as saying.
One senior US official reportedly said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origin of the attack.
The paper quoted another person familiar with the event as saying there was a 'very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty' that the PLA was responsible.
The paper said both the US and Chinese militaries were widely assumed to conduct computer espionage on each other.
'But US officials said the penetration in June raised concerns to a new level because of fears that China had shown it could disrupt systems at critical times,' the Financial Times reported.
A spokesman for the Chinese defence ministry declined to comment on the report. China's foreign ministry also declined to comment immediately, asking for questions to be faxed through.
Reports of China hacking into German government systems were also raised last week between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported that espionage programmes traced to the PLA had been detected in computer systems at Dr Merkel's office, the foreign ministry and other government agencies in Berlin.
'We in the government took (the reports) as a matter of grave concern,' Mr Wen said after meeting Dr Merkel
China hacked into Pentagon computer network: report
BEIJING - CHINA'S military successfully hacked into the Pentagon's computer network, raising fears it could disrupt the US defence department's systems, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese military's cyber attack was carried out in June following months of efforts, the London-based newspaper said, citing unnamed current and former US officials.
While the Pentagon declined to say who was behind the hacking, which led to the shutdown of a computer system serving the office of Defence Secretary Robert Gates, officials told the paper it was China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).
'The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system,' the paper quoted a former US official as saying.
One senior US official reportedly said the Pentagon had pinpointed the exact origin of the attack.
The paper quoted another person familiar with the event as saying there was a 'very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty' that the PLA was responsible.
The paper said both the US and Chinese militaries were widely assumed to conduct computer espionage on each other.
'But US officials said the penetration in June raised concerns to a new level because of fears that China had shown it could disrupt systems at critical times,' the Financial Times reported.
A spokesman for the Chinese defence ministry declined to comment on the report. China's foreign ministry also declined to comment immediately, asking for questions to be faxed through.
Reports of China hacking into German government systems were also raised last week between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported that espionage programmes traced to the PLA had been detected in computer systems at Dr Merkel's office, the foreign ministry and other government agencies in Berlin.
'We in the government took (the reports) as a matter of grave concern,' Mr Wen said after meeting Dr Merkel
ODEX caught with pants down.
Subtitles must be done accurately: Censors
Letter form Tan Lee Cheng, Senior Asst Director (Film Standards), Board of Film Censors
We refer to the article "Japanese anime firms close ranks with Odex" (Aug 31).
Mr Peter Go, managing director of Odex, is said to have commented that the subtitles of some of his anime series had to be tweaked to conform to the Board of Film Censors' (BFC) requirements.
This statement is not correct and the BFC would like to take this opportunity to clarify its position.
Subtitles are usually provided by distributors to reach out to a wider audience or to translate content that may be in a foreign language (example, Japanese anime). There are occasions when the quality of translation may be the cause of poor subtitling. This has nothing to do with the classification process but it is still worthwhile for distributors to address as consumers would expect to have accurate translation of purchased works.
It is also the distributor's responsibility to ensure that subtitles reflect the true content of an anime (that is, animation) especially its dialogue and commentary. If subtitles are not accurate, they can mislead the viewer and also make it difficult for the BFC to classify an anime accurately.
The BFC has never asked for subtitles to be tweaked. We require that subtitles accurately reflect the content of a film or video so that we can classify the content accurately. Inaccurate subtitles also do no service to the community or to the young who may be misled into thinking that an anime is suitable for them when it could be meant for a higher age group.
As the ratings for videos (including anime) range from G to M18, there is sufficient leeway to allow for the subtitling of mature content without subtitles having to be tweaked.
We urge all distributors to translate and subtitle their content accurately so that they can provide an informative service to viewers.
Letter form Tan Lee Cheng, Senior Asst Director (Film Standards), Board of Film Censors
We refer to the article "Japanese anime firms close ranks with Odex" (Aug 31).
Mr Peter Go, managing director of Odex, is said to have commented that the subtitles of some of his anime series had to be tweaked to conform to the Board of Film Censors' (BFC) requirements.
This statement is not correct and the BFC would like to take this opportunity to clarify its position.
Subtitles are usually provided by distributors to reach out to a wider audience or to translate content that may be in a foreign language (example, Japanese anime). There are occasions when the quality of translation may be the cause of poor subtitling. This has nothing to do with the classification process but it is still worthwhile for distributors to address as consumers would expect to have accurate translation of purchased works.
It is also the distributor's responsibility to ensure that subtitles reflect the true content of an anime (that is, animation) especially its dialogue and commentary. If subtitles are not accurate, they can mislead the viewer and also make it difficult for the BFC to classify an anime accurately.
The BFC has never asked for subtitles to be tweaked. We require that subtitles accurately reflect the content of a film or video so that we can classify the content accurately. Inaccurate subtitles also do no service to the community or to the young who may be misled into thinking that an anime is suitable for them when it could be meant for a higher age group.
As the ratings for videos (including anime) range from G to M18, there is sufficient leeway to allow for the subtitling of mature content without subtitles having to be tweaked.
We urge all distributors to translate and subtitle their content accurately so that they can provide an informative service to viewers.
Japanese, Korean anime are booming, not ailing
Sep 4, 2007
Japanese, Korean anime are booming, not ailing
I WRITE to correct the claims made by Odex director Peter Go in the article, 'StarHub must give names of illegal anime downloaders' (ST, Aug 14).
Quoting from the article: 'Mr Go said the South Korean anime market, once the largest after Japan, collapsed several years ago due to piracy problems. This prompted Japanese studios making anime to band together to mount the crackdown here as they were worried Singapore, although not as big a market, would end up the same way.' And 'illegal downloads, available online since the late 1990s, have cut deeply into the profits of producers and distributors'.
However, this is false.
According to the December 2006 issue of Reason magazine (twice named one of the United States' 50 Best Magazines by the Chicago Tribune): 'The global sales of Japan's animation industry reached an astonishing $80 billion in 2004, 10 times what they were a decade before. It has won this worldwide success in part because Japanese media companies paid little attention to the kinds of grassroots activities - call it piracy, unauthorised duplication and circulation, or simply file-sharing.'
These activities, claimed by Odex to be illegal and piracy, are widely known as 'fansubbing', or the distribution of Japanese anime with amateur translation and subtitling by fans. They have proven to be a free and far-reaching source of promotion by exposing people to anime, which would have been costly and risky if done by commercial distributors.
A great example is The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi, which shot to worldwide popularity due to fansubs. It is reasonable to say that fansubs have contributed to the continuous and massive growth of the Japanese animation industry.
The Korean animation industry is also very much alive. According to recent articles this year by PRZoom and ee-
ProductCenter, the 'South Korean animation industry is the third largest behind the US and Japan' and 'it accounts for 30 per cent of the total output in the global animation market'. The sheer size of the Korean animation industry shows it is far from collapse.
Chen Liang
Japanese, Korean anime are booming, not ailing
I WRITE to correct the claims made by Odex director Peter Go in the article, 'StarHub must give names of illegal anime downloaders' (ST, Aug 14).
Quoting from the article: 'Mr Go said the South Korean anime market, once the largest after Japan, collapsed several years ago due to piracy problems. This prompted Japanese studios making anime to band together to mount the crackdown here as they were worried Singapore, although not as big a market, would end up the same way.' And 'illegal downloads, available online since the late 1990s, have cut deeply into the profits of producers and distributors'.
However, this is false.
According to the December 2006 issue of Reason magazine (twice named one of the United States' 50 Best Magazines by the Chicago Tribune): 'The global sales of Japan's animation industry reached an astonishing $80 billion in 2004, 10 times what they were a decade before. It has won this worldwide success in part because Japanese media companies paid little attention to the kinds of grassroots activities - call it piracy, unauthorised duplication and circulation, or simply file-sharing.'
These activities, claimed by Odex to be illegal and piracy, are widely known as 'fansubbing', or the distribution of Japanese anime with amateur translation and subtitling by fans. They have proven to be a free and far-reaching source of promotion by exposing people to anime, which would have been costly and risky if done by commercial distributors.
A great example is The Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi, which shot to worldwide popularity due to fansubs. It is reasonable to say that fansubs have contributed to the continuous and massive growth of the Japanese animation industry.
The Korean animation industry is also very much alive. According to recent articles this year by PRZoom and ee-
ProductCenter, the 'South Korean animation industry is the third largest behind the US and Japan' and 'it accounts for 30 per cent of the total output in the global animation market'. The sheer size of the Korean animation industry shows it is far from collapse.
Chen Liang
Saturday, September 1, 2007
ODEX: Poor subtitles because of censorship laws
Poor subtitles because of censorship laws
By Liew Hanqing
September 01, 2007
THE subtitles were tweaked because of Singapore's censorship laws.
Click to see larger image
That's one of the reasons why subtitles on some of its anime series are not accurate, said managing director Peter Go of local anime distributor Odex.
Anime fans have long criticised Odex's products saying they are inaccurately subtitled.
He was speaking at a press conference to announce the support of the Japanese copyright owners in its appeal against its case against Pacific Internet.
It has successfully obtained court orders to force SingNet and StarHub to reveal alleged illegal downloaders' identities, but its case against Pacific Internet was thrown out of court.
The company, which began a widespread crackdown on illegal anime downloading in May, has got flak from netizens for the quality of its anime subtitling.
Netizens have posted screen captures of illegal anime fansubs (fan-subtitled anime), comparing their subtitles to those on Odex's 'inaccurately subtitled' anime releases.
But why the discrepancy?
Mr Go said the subtitles of certain anime series had to be tweaked to conform with the Board of Film Censors' requirements.
He cited the example of popular anime series Fruits Basket, which contained content deemed too risque.
'We need to abide by the board's regulations - the series cannot have certain religious connotations, be too violent or touch on issues like homosexuality,' he said.
So Odex had no choice but to tweak the themes slightly.
In an earlier interview with The New Paper, Mr Go said that in response to the escalating popularity of fansubs relative to Odex products, the company decided to hire fansubbers (or fans who subtitle illegal copies of anime) to do subtitling work for their products.
But that backfired after fansubbers turned in sub-standard work, with inaccurate translations and grammatical errors.
At a press conference yesterday, Mr Go and Odex director Stephen Sing stood by the quality of their DVDs, which they say local anime focus groups have trouble distinguishing from the same titles released in Japan.
The main reason for its loss of more than 60 per cent of its sales since 2005, it says, is rampant illegal downloading here.
According to data collected by BayTSP, the US company hired by Odex to identify the IP addresses of illegal anime downloaders, Singapore has the highest per capita rate - one in 10 - of illegal anime downloading in the world.
Odex has used this data in its ongoing attempt to get local ISPs to reveal the identities of those identified by BayTSP as illegal downloaders.
Yesterday, Japanese copyright owners, including Media International Corporation, Toei Animation Enterprises Ltd and TV Tokyo Medianet Co Ltd gave Odex letters of authorisation, granting it permission to act on their behalf against illegal downloaders.
Representatives of the Japanese companies said they were prepared to act individually in support of Odex's appeal if the court required them to do so.
Said Mr Yukio Kawasaki, manager of the content business division of TV Tokyo Corporation: 'The best way to solve the problem (of illegal downloading) is through our licensees in each country.
'This is because the licensees can take action quickly. In this case, Odex is a very important partner to us.'
By Liew Hanqing
September 01, 2007
THE subtitles were tweaked because of Singapore's censorship laws.
Click to see larger image
That's one of the reasons why subtitles on some of its anime series are not accurate, said managing director Peter Go of local anime distributor Odex.
Anime fans have long criticised Odex's products saying they are inaccurately subtitled.
He was speaking at a press conference to announce the support of the Japanese copyright owners in its appeal against its case against Pacific Internet.
It has successfully obtained court orders to force SingNet and StarHub to reveal alleged illegal downloaders' identities, but its case against Pacific Internet was thrown out of court.
The company, which began a widespread crackdown on illegal anime downloading in May, has got flak from netizens for the quality of its anime subtitling.
Netizens have posted screen captures of illegal anime fansubs (fan-subtitled anime), comparing their subtitles to those on Odex's 'inaccurately subtitled' anime releases.
But why the discrepancy?
Mr Go said the subtitles of certain anime series had to be tweaked to conform with the Board of Film Censors' requirements.
He cited the example of popular anime series Fruits Basket, which contained content deemed too risque.
'We need to abide by the board's regulations - the series cannot have certain religious connotations, be too violent or touch on issues like homosexuality,' he said.
So Odex had no choice but to tweak the themes slightly.
In an earlier interview with The New Paper, Mr Go said that in response to the escalating popularity of fansubs relative to Odex products, the company decided to hire fansubbers (or fans who subtitle illegal copies of anime) to do subtitling work for their products.
But that backfired after fansubbers turned in sub-standard work, with inaccurate translations and grammatical errors.
At a press conference yesterday, Mr Go and Odex director Stephen Sing stood by the quality of their DVDs, which they say local anime focus groups have trouble distinguishing from the same titles released in Japan.
The main reason for its loss of more than 60 per cent of its sales since 2005, it says, is rampant illegal downloading here.
According to data collected by BayTSP, the US company hired by Odex to identify the IP addresses of illegal anime downloaders, Singapore has the highest per capita rate - one in 10 - of illegal anime downloading in the world.
Odex has used this data in its ongoing attempt to get local ISPs to reveal the identities of those identified by BayTSP as illegal downloaders.
Yesterday, Japanese copyright owners, including Media International Corporation, Toei Animation Enterprises Ltd and TV Tokyo Medianet Co Ltd gave Odex letters of authorisation, granting it permission to act on their behalf against illegal downloaders.
Representatives of the Japanese companies said they were prepared to act individually in support of Odex's appeal if the court required them to do so.
Said Mr Yukio Kawasaki, manager of the content business division of TV Tokyo Corporation: 'The best way to solve the problem (of illegal downloading) is through our licensees in each country.
'This is because the licensees can take action quickly. In this case, Odex is a very important partner to us.'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
