pastor Terry Jones canceled a plan to burn copies of the Koran at his obscure Florida church

A Christian pastor on Thursday canceled a plan to burn copies of the Koran at his obscure Florida church, which had drawn international condemnation and a warning from President Barack Obama that it could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings.Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Terry Jones, an obscure minister who heads the tiny Dove World Outreach Center church in the Florida town of Gainesville, to urge him not to go ahead, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates had expressed “grave concern” in the brief telephone call with Jones that the Koran burning “would put the lives of our forces at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.”Jones later told journalists outside his church that he was calling off his plan, which had caused worldwide alarm and raised tensions over this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

He confirmed Gates’ call but linked his decision to what he said was an agreement by Muslim leaders — which they denied — to relocate an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned close to the site of the September 11 attacks in New York.The proposed location has drawn opposition from many Americans who say it is insensitive to families of the victims of the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.”The imam has agreed to move the mosque, we have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday,” Jones said.

CONFUSION OVER MOSQUE “DEAL”

He said he would fly to New York on Saturday with Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida to meet the New York imam at the center of the controversy, Feisal Abdul Rauf.But Rauf said in a statement he was surprised by the announcement. “I am glad that Pastor Jones has decided not to burn any Korans. However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam Musri. I am surprised by their announcement,” he said.

“We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony,” he said.Sharif el-Gamal, the project developer for the New York mosque, said in a statement: “It is untrue that the community center known as park 51 in lower Manhattan is being moved. The project will proceed as planned. What is being reported in the media today is a falsehood.”Musri conceded to reporters: “This is not a done deal yet. This is a brokered deal,” he said. He said he had no fixed time for him and Jones to meet Rauf in New York.

INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

Earlier, world leaders had joined Obama in denouncing Jones’ plan to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.The international police agency Interpol warned governments worldwide of an increased risk of terrorist attacks if the burning went ahead, and the U.S. State Department issued a warning to Americans traveling overseas.

Jones has said Jesus would approve of his plan for “Burn a Koran Day,” which he called a reprisal for Islamist terrorism.The United States has powerful legal protections for the right to free speech and there was little law enforcement authorities could do to stop Jones from going ahead, other than citing him under local bylaws against public burning.Many people, both conservative and liberal, dismissed the threat as an attention-seeking stunt by the preacher.”This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda,” Obama said in an ABC television interview.

“You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan. This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities.The president, who has sought to improve relations with Muslims worldwide, spoke out in an effort to stop Jones from going ahead and head off growing anger among many Muslims.Insults to Islam, no matter their size or scope, have often been met with huge protests and violence around the world. One such outburst was sparked when a Danish newspaper published a cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad in 2005.

Pentagon spokesman Morrell said earlier in the day that there was intense debate within the administration over whether to call Jones. Officials feared of setting a precedent that could inspire copy-cat “extremists.”Jones’ plan was condemned by foreign governments, international church groups, U.S. religious and political leaders and military commanders.It also threatened to undermine Obama’s efforts to reach out to the world’s more than one billion Muslims at a time when he is trying to advance the Middle East peace process and build solidarity against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.(Reuters)

World Cup helps ESPN's expansion plans

NEW YORK ESPN marketers will fan out to bars in ethnic enclaves during World Cup matches to pass out schedules and posters, just one way the sports network is using the quadrennial event to build new audiences in both the U.S. and internationally.The network’s large presence of 300 staff members in South Africa for the soccer tournament could also be seen as a dry run to help a future Olympics bid.

Either ESPN, ESPN2 or corporate sister ABC is televising every one of the 64 scheduled matches in the first year the company has the American television rights to the tournament. ESPN leased rights to televise some games in 2006, covering some of the matches with announcing teams based in a Connecticut studio.

“We think it’s a chance to advance the notion that we are a global entity,” said John Skipper, the network’s executive vice president for content.One way to do that is to start at home. ESPN will promote itself heavily in areas where the network’s emphasis on American sports makes it less interesting to residents. The Greek enclave in Queens, N.Y., San Francisco’s Italian section, Boston’s Portuguese neighborhoods and Los Angeles’ Korean communities – all with fans keen on rooting on ancestral homelands – are among the areas that will get special attention.

Besides sending people to gathering places where the games are being watched, ESPN commissioned a South African artist to make posters honoring each of the participating countries, mixing historical and soccer themes. The U.S. poster, for example, commemorates George Washington crossing the Delaware, with soccer players standing in for his troops.

The network has equipped food trucks with a giant TV on the roof, passing out specialty foods from some of the participating countries in New York and Los Angeles, said Seth Ader, the network’s sports marketing senior director.Online and on ESPN Radio, the company will give fans the option of hearing broadcasts in different languages, including Chinese, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese.

In the U.S., Univision has the rights to Spanish-language broadcasts of the matches. Although ESPN can’t offer Spanish-language broadcasts of the matches, it is moving into the territory by offering 10 hours a day of studio-based Spanish content on its ESPN Deportes network.

Getting an identification as a destination for soccer fans “is a long-term business proposition for us,” Ader said. Showing the World Cup telecast can drum up interest in U.S.-based professional soccer, which ESPN has rights to televise. World Cup soccer is also expected to be a draw for ESPN’s mobile business, too.

Soccer is also key to ESPN’s efforts to expand in international markets. The network made a big move last year by purchasing the rights to show some games in England’s Barclays Premier League.”In order to get a foothold in a number of international markets, they need to get soccer content,” said David Joyce, an analyst for Miller Tabak & Co.

Having a home team helps ESPN but isn’t vital to success, the network’s executives believe. ESPN’s experience covering the European championship in 2008 was instructive: There was no U.S. team for which to root, but ethnic pockets of fans helped the network draw a strong audience, Ader said.

For ESPN, there’s another important audience that will be watching. Following NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, rights to future games are up for grabs, and ESPN is expected to be interested. A strong performance at the World Cup could show doubting Olympics officials that ESPN would be up to covering a large, multifaceted event.

“I never think of this as a dress rehearsal,” ESPN’s Skipper said. “We think this entity is special enough as itself to merit this sort of attention. If there were no such thing as the Olympics, we would do the same thing. Having said that, we do believe this will demonstrate to people what we can do with a big quadrennial event. That’s an ancillary benefit.” (AP)

Feds may sue over Arizona immigration law

Washington Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the Justice Department was considering a federal lawsuit against Arizona’s new immigration law. “We are considering all of our options. One possibility is filing a lawsuit,” Holder told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Possible grounds for the lawsuit would be whether the Arizona law could lead to civil rights violations, he said. The recently enacted Arizona law initially allowed police to ask anyone for proof of legal U.S. residency, based solely on a police officer’s suspicion that the person might be in the country illegally.

Arizona lawmakers soon amended the law so that officers could check a person’s status only if the person had been stopped or arrested for another reason. Critics say the law will lead to racial profiling, while supporters say it involves no racial profiling and is needed to crack down on increasing crime involving illegal immigrants. In Arizona , the city councils of Tucson and Flagstaff have decided to challenge the new immigration law in court. Holder told ABC’s “This Week” program that one concern about the Arizona law is that “you’ll end up in a situation where people are racially profiled, and that could lead to a wedge drawn between certain communities and law enforcement, which leads to the problem of people in those communities not willing to interact with people in law enforcement, not willing to share information, not willing to be witnesses where law enforcement needs them.”

“I think we could potentially get on a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done, and that is, I think, something that we have to try to avoid at all costs,” Holder added. Holder said comprehensive federal immigration reform is the best approach for the problem of illegal immigrants crossing U.S. borders. His stance echoed the approach favored by President Obama, who last week criticized the Arizona law and said he wants Congress to work on the issue this year.

Comprehensive immigration reform would include continuing government efforts to secure borders from illegal immigrants, as well as steps to crack down on businesses that employ them, Obama said at a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House. In addition, he said, those living illegally in the United States would have to pay a penalty and any taxes they owe, learn English and “make themselves right with the law” before starting the process of gaining U.S. citizenship.(CNN)

Internet Addiction make Parents lost them baby .Jae-Beom Kim and Kim Yun-jeong,

SEOUL  The Korean government south  was initiated new legislation to reduce the rampant opium use internet, following the death of a child aged three months for negligent parents. Jae-Beom Kim and Kim Yun-jeong, they threatened to jail for being guilty of neglecting her daughter who was three months. Her son died of malnutrition. Apparently, his parents rarely fed him for being too busy dwelling on the Internet. That couples prefer to keep the child in a virtual online gaming rather than maintaining their own biological child. All this is because both have been addicted to playing online.

“This is a big enough phenomenon that occurred throughout the history of the internet in South Korea. Addictions are almost the same with drink and drugs addiction, such as a requirement that makes the person back again to the internet many times,” said Professor of Clinical Forensic Psychology at Monash University James Ogloff, was quoted by ABC Net, Monday (12/4/2010). South Korean government predicts there is approximately two million Internet users, or approximately 9 percent of the total number of South Korean Internet users, who fall into the category of addiction.

Jae-beom and Yun-jeong reportedly often visit the center online game named PC Bang in Seoul, almost similar to an internet cafe. In Seoul, the popularity of the PC Bang is pretty big. Even the South Korean government plans to introduce software that is capable of handling approximately 8.8 percent of internet users are addicted. One software includes programs to turn off the internet when consultation is not required, and another one is software that can create an online gamer to feel exhausted after a few minutes to play internet.

Academy Awards night is one of the most glamorous of the year

Academy Awards night is one of the most glamorous of the year, but the ceremony does far more than offer up red carpet glitz and golden statuettes.Those three-plus hours of television also fund a year’s worth of philanthropic endeavors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

With the license fee somewhere north of $65 million that ABC pays for the rights to air the Oscars, the academy funds an entire year’s worth of projects that fulfill the organization’s original mission: to promote the art and science of filmmaking.

“The awards are one night; the place goes on for 364 more days,” says academy President Tom Sherak, pointing out that the nonprofit organization doesn’t fund-raise throughout the year. “That award night pays for the entire organization.”

A year’s worth of concerns for the group include preserving film history, screening films for the public, developing young talent and keeping up with the technologies of the future.

Sherak, whose four-year term started just last year, says that among his chief concerns for the industry are film preservation and the changeover to digital cinema. The organization, he points out, recently funded a study on digital storage that looks at the compatibility and reliability of the technology in terms of what issues might arise down the road.

“Decisions we make today are going to be the ones that are going to last for decades,” he says.While many eyes are on the future of the business, safeguarding the past is of equal importance. In addition to retaining prints of nearly every best picture Oscar winner since the ceremony started in 1929, the academy has literally millions of film-related items dating to the industry’s inception.

“The academy has 10 million photographs, 100 million press-clip files, 80,000 screenplays, 34,000 movie posters — stuff that never should be allowed to die,” Sherak says.

Stuff that should, in fact, probably be in a museum. Although in 2007 the organization consulted an architect and drew up plans for an 8-acre campus adjacent to the existing Pickford Center in Hollywood, the Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been put on indefinite hold, until the needed construction funds can be raised.

“You can’t have a future without a past or a present. You can’t forget the people that have come before you,” Sherak says. “The board believes that the history of our business is something that will interest people. We are going to build a museum, [but] right now it’s on hold.”In the meantime, the academy has plenty of philanthropic programs to keep its members busy, the most prestigious of which is the Don and Gee Nicholls Fellowships in Screenwriting. Offered to screenwriters who have earned less than $5,000 writing for film or TV, the Nicholls Fellowship gives $30,000 to five writers a year and counts Allison Anders (“Mi vida loca”)and “Erin Brockovich” screenwriter Susannah Grant among its previous recipients.

“I’ve been on the board for six years now, and I went to my first Nicholls award winners dinner this year. I listened to the stories about the adversities they went through and their passion for writing, and I realized just how much we do as an organization,” Sherak says.

The academy reaches out to the community at large as well, offering retrospectives, lectures and exhibitions to film enthusiasts (usually free or for a nominal fee).

For instance, the group premiered a restored print of “Citizen Kane” as part of a sold-out tribute to visual-effects pioneer Linwood Dunn. And with an eye toward the academy’s decision to have 10 best picture nominees this year, the Grand Lobby Gallery at academy headquarters is exhibiting posters from an eclectic mix of best picture nominees from 1936 through ’43, when the number of nominees was anywhere from three to 12.

Other public services include providing grants to film festivals and colleges, creating film-related internships for college students — such as this year’s position at Pixar Animation Studios — and reaching out to high schoolers to create a broader media literacy.

During past president Sid Ganis’ term, the outreach went worldwide, including sending members of different branches to learn about such far-flung film industries as those in Iran and Vietnam and inviting foreign filmmakers to the U.S. The Iranian exchange culminated in a five-night screening and discussion series.

“They’re not political, we’re not political, so it makes it really comfortable to express ideas about the movie business,” Sherak says. “It makes us whole; it makes us who we want to be.”

Force must be option for Iran

nuclear weapons

WASHINGTON Military force would have only limited effect in stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons but must remain an option, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.Tehran shows no signs of backing down in the standoff over what the United States and other countries say is its drive for a nuclear bomb, Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, told his staff in an annual assessment of the nation’s risks and priorities.

“My belief remains that political means are the best tools to attain regional security and that military force will have limited results,” Mullen wrote. “However, should the president call for military options, we must have them ready.”

Iran denies that its nuclear program is aimed at producing a weapon. The Mideast nation says it is developing nuclear energy.In the past two or three years the United States had all but ruled out an attack on Iran’s known nuclear facilities as too risky, because of the backlash it might unleash.

“Most critically, Iran’s internal unrest, unpredictable leadership and sponsorship of terrorism make it a regional and global concern,” heightened by what Mullen called “its determined pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

Mullen and other military leaders have suggested that if Iran was determined to build a weapon, an attack would probably fail to completely stop that effort. Mullen has tried to dissuade Israel from launching its own attack on Iran, whose leaders have called for Israel’s destruction.

Mullen’s annual review says nothing about what kind of military force he wants at hand, but any attack would presumably be done by air.

President Barack Obama has set a rough deadline of the end of this year for Iran to respond to an offer of dialogue and to show that it will allay fears of weapons development. The Obama administration is working with allies to ready a new set of international economic sanctions on Iran for repeatedly defying international demands to halt questionable activities and come clean about the nature and extent of the program.

On Monday, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona voiced support for attempting economic pressure against Iran before considering military action. “Sanctions have to be tried before we explore the last option,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

But McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wondered whether other countries such as Israel have the patience to see if sanctions will work.

Mullen, the president’s chief military adviser, had said separately on Sunday that he is worried about Iran’s intentions and said the clock is running on Obama’s offer of engagement.

“I’ve said for a long time we don’t need another conflict in that part of the world,” he told reporters traveling with him on a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. “I’m not predicting that would happen, but I think they’ve got to get to a position where they are a constructive force and not a destabilizing force.”

In his assessment released Monday, Mullen also wrote that the main effort in Afghanistan must be to push forces into the war zone quickly, including the shifting of some personnel from Iraq. His year-end message serves as general marching orders for the coming year for his large staff of planners and others.

“Afghanistan has deteriorated in the last year, but reversing the Taliban ‘s momentum is achievable,” Mullen wrote.

As to Iraq, he said security improvements mean the planned U.S. withdrawal can go ahead.

“We must finish well in Iraq,” he wrote.

Mullen listed several other threats and concerns, including threats that aren’t identified with a given country such as terrorism, piracy and cyber attacks.

“The United States has given more thought and resources to the cyber threat,” he wrote, “but “impeded progress here is a serious risk to our national security posture.”