22-year-old Mexico woman has won the Miss Universe ,Jimena Navarrete of Guadalajara

LAS VEGAS A 22-year-old Mexico woman has won the Miss Universe pageant after donning a flowing red gown and telling an audience that it’s important to teach kids family values.Jimena Navarrete of Guadalajara was first to answer an interview question Monday night and the last of 83 contestants standing in the headline-grabbing pageant on the Las Vegas Strip.Her one-strap gown flowed behind her while she walked as she held it out like a cape. Earlier, she smiled in a violet bikini as she confidently strutted across the stage.

Asked by Olympic gold-medal figure skater Evan Lysacek how she felt about unsupervised Internet use, she said the Internet is important but parents need to be careful and watch over their kids.”I do believe that Internet is and indispensable, necessary tool for the present time,” she said. “We must be sure to teach them the values that we learned as a family.”First runner-up was Miss Jamaica Yendi Phillipps, while second runner-up was Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell.Navarrete is Mexico’s second Miss Universe; Lupita Jones of Mexico won the title in 1991. She replaces Miss Universe 2009 Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela.Navarrete’s win thwarted Miss Venezuela Marelisa Gibson from giving the South American country a third consecutive win. Neither Gibson nor Miss USA Rima Fakih made the top 15 finalists.

Navarrete won a package of prizes including an undisclosed salary, a luxury New York apartment with living expenses, a one-year scholarship to the New York Film Academy with housing after her reign, plus jewelry, clothes and shoes fit for a beauty champion.Campbell won the Miss Congeniality Universe award. Miss Thailand Fonthip Watcharatrakul won Miss Photogenic Universe and a second award for having the best national costume.(AP)

Arizona's new immigration law could cost the Phoenix area a whopping $90 million in lost revenue

Backlash from Arizona’s new immigration law could cost the Phoenix area a whopping $90 million in lost revenue.Four major events have been canceled as calls for a boycott grow louder in protest of a strict law that lets police ask people for their citizenship papers, city officials toldThe Arizona Republic newspaper.

“We have an image and public relations problem of what might be unprecedented proportions,” said deputy city managerDavid Krietor.He’s keeping an eye on 19 events at city-run venues, including the Phoenix Convention Center and the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, that bring in about $90 million.

Four event sponsors have already canceled, including one scheduled for 2015, and several others have expressed concern over the legislation.Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the oldest African American Greek-lettered frat in the country, planned to hold its annual convention in July. Instead the expected 5,000 attendees will now head to Las Vegas.Also at risk is the 2011 All-Star Game. Several politicians and even a few players are urging Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to change the venue in protest.

Two members of Congress are now calling for Major League Baseball to either move the All-Star game out of Phoenix, or for players to boycott the game.Nearly 30% of major-league players were born outside the United States, according to MLB. But Selig brushed off the idea in a recent interview with Phoenix’s 12 News.”We’re a social institution and I’ll rest my case on the fact that baseball has been remarkably socially active over the last 50 years,” he said.

John Ruiz Retirement

LAS VEGAS, U.S. heavyweight boxing, John Ruiz decided to withdraw from the boxing ring, KO month after he was beaten by British WBA champion David Haye.Ruiz, 38, never became world heavyweight boxing champion WBA veris twice. As he retreated to fight a record 44 wins, nine defeats and one time series. Ruiz also recorded 30 victories by KO.

In a written statement on Monday (4/26/2010), Ruiz said he will retire after serving over 18-year career. In his career, Ruiz has defeated big names like Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman and Tony Tucker. he also fought 12 times for the title.

In his last fight, Ruiz was hit down four times by David Haye in the struggle for world title fight WBA version in Manchester. The coach finally decided throw in the towel when entering ninth round.Ruiz plans to move from Las Vegas to Boston and opened a boxing camp.

olivia boeree/liv 'Iron Maiden' wins £1m in poker tournament

As a model, TV presenter and astrophysics graduate, there are many strings to Liv Boeree’s bow But now she can add a new one   poker ace The 25-year-old brunette beat 1,240 contestants at a major tournament to win a cool £1.1millionShe paid only 500 euros to enter the European Poker Tour and scooped the life-changing sum with just a pair of fives, seeing off a tough professional rival.

Beautiful women university graduates in the UK has won more than one million pounds  in a poker tournament in San Remo, Italy. Olivia Boeree, 25, became the third woman ever to win the European Poker tour (EPT) and capable of beating 1240 other players and reached 1.25 million Euros fantastic prizes.

Olivia, whose nickname is Liv, who majored in astrophysics at the University of Manchester, admitted could not believe it when the beat Jakob Carlsson, a Swedish professional poker player. “I can hardly believe it can overcome the most difficult situations in my life. EPT tournaments I’ve won, and won a fantastic prize,” he said. “Unbelievable, I am a scientist but could win the EPT tournament. It’s really a strange feeling,” she wrote on her Twitter page.

In addition to the nickname, she also has a popular name Iron Maiden. This name at Liv, because his favorite types of heavy metal music. Liv never took part in a reality show on Channel 5. While electric guitar, he sang songs of heavy metal.After leaving university, she took part in, and won, a number of TV game shows. Following one appearance, she was approached by Channel 4 and invited to audition for Carol Vorderman’s spot on Countdown.

She didn’t get the job, but her big break came when she was asked to take part in a Channel 5 programme called Ultimate Poker Showdown and was taught to play the game that has made her a millionaireSince then, she has worked as a TV presenter on poker channels, hosted an MTV heavy metal music awards programme and modelled for men’s magazines Loaded and Maxim, as well as appearing on the covers of gambling magazinesOver the past three years, she estimates she has won a total of £1.8million in tournaments across Europe, Australia and America, and is now ranked ninth in the league of top poker players.

The biggest prize ever won when the prize was given 30 000 Pounds Eupean Ladies tournament. Liv’s total revenues from various tournament that followed around 1.3 Million Ponds (USD 17 Billion). Currently only one dream Liv, EPT tournament in Monte Carlo. Prize money will be invested to purchase the property. “I will invest to buy a property in Las Vegas and London. I really like with these two cities,” he said.

She claims her best weapon against opponents is her trademark ‘Liv Stare’, which she uses to rattle their nerves.Despite her success, she still lives at home in Milstead, a small village near Sittingbourne, Kent, with her mother Elaine Cross, 54, who runs a business selling suitcases and handbags, and stepfather Tony Cross, 53, a retired police constable.

Mrs Cross said: ‘She’s not really a gambler, that’s the irony of it. She’s very sensible and extremely careful with her money.’She added that her daughter had a ‘ mathematical brain and an incredible poker face’, saying: ‘I don’t play her at Scrabble any more. She’s very competitive, she always has to win.’Miss Boeree’s father, publisher Chris Boeree, 60, said: ‘She looks a million dollars and other players must be fazed by her.’

airlines that leave passengers stranded on a tarmac in a delayed plane for three hours or more can face a hefty fine under new rules adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation

airlines that leave passengers stranded on a tarmac in a delayed plane for three hours or more can face a hefty fine under new rules adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation.If carriers don’t let passengers out of the plane before the three-hour mark, the agency can fine them up to $27,500 per customer.

At least three domestic airlines have announced plans to avoid the penalties. But that won’t necessarily cut down on delays.US Airways and Continental Airlines have both unveiled procedures to return the plane to the gate if it can’t take off before the three-hour limit.American Airlines Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said his carrier the nation’s second-largest has modified a previous plan to unload passengers stranded four hours or longer.

US Airways, the sixth-largest domestic carrier, announced its plans in an employee newsletter last week.For example, if a US Airways flight is delayed 90 minutes, the crew offers drinks and snacks to avoid a fine that applies if fliers are delayed for two hours without food and water.

After 2 1/2 hours, the airline’s operations center makes a decision: Either return the plane to the gate or, if a takeoff is imminent, keep it in line on the tarmac.In 2009, US Airways alone had 193 flights that were delayed more than three hours. If each had an average of 200 passengers, under the new rules the fines could add up to more than $1 billion.It is unclear what happens to a flight after it returns to the gate, but American’s Arpey predicted bad news for passengers: “Most certainly, it will result in more cancellations.”

Costliest city is still New York

If you can afford to stay in New York, you can afford to stay anywhere.The 2010 rankings for the most expensive cities for business travelers put New York at the top again, with the average daily cost for food, hotel and a car rental totaling $622.The results came from the annual survey of hotel, restaurant and car rental costs by the Business Travel News, a publication for business travel managers, of 100 U.S. travel destinations. New York topped the list last year and in 2008 as well.

White Plains, N.Y., and Detroit inched up in the list, with hotel and car rental prices rising in both cities.Las Vegas, on the other hand, dropped on the list.Last year, Sin City ranked as the nation’s 30th most expensive city to visit. It fell to 45th this year, below such cities as Oakland, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.Honolulu ranked ninth in the 2009 survey but dropped to 20th this year, below Minneapolis, Austin and Detroit.

Most hospitality experts blame what they call the “AIG affect” for the drop in hotel and restaurant prices at cities with a reputation for luxury and frivolity.After the insurance giant American International Group Inc.took a federal bailout in 2008, it hosted a junket for senior executives at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort and was then stung by public outrage. Since then, image-conscious executives have avoided holding corporate meetings in places known for fun and opulence.

“There is still a huge residual from the AIG affect,” said Carl Winston, the director of the hospitality and tourism management program at San Diego State University.Los Angeles dropped to 16th on the list this year from 13th in 2009, based on cheaper car rental rates.Prank tells guests to break windowYou are asleep in a hotel room, and a frantic caller warns you that the building is on fire, instructing you to pull the fire alarm and break the window.

The American Hotel & Lodging Assn. has issued a warning, telling hotel guests to think twice before following such instructions. Prank callers have been victimizing hotel guests in California, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Nebraska, the trade group warned.The group advises hotel guests who get such a call to phone the front desk to see if the emergency is legitimate.In Orlando, Fla., the victim of such a prank busted a hotel window with part of a toilet after his wife took the call. “When I broke the window, I got suspicious,” the hotel guest told the Orlando Sentinel. “It didn’t seem right, but she was panicking, so I continued.”

Kathryn Grayson has died in Los Angeles aged 88.Born in 1922

Kathryn Grayson, the singer and movie star best known for her roles in such MGM musicals as Kiss Me Kate and Show Boat, has died in Los Angeles aged 88.Born in 1922, the classically trained soprano had planned a career in opera but was persuaded when she was 15 to sign a contract with MGM instead. Her male co-stars during her time at the studio included Howard Keel, Gene Kelly, Mario Lanza and Frank Sinatra. When her screen career began to wane, she switched from film to the stage. In 1962 she replaced Julie Andrews in the Broadway production of Camelot, going on to tour the show for over a year. She also toured with Keel in Man of La Mancha and appeared with him in Las Vegas. Born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Grayson made her film debut in 1941 opposite Mickey Rooney in Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary.However, she remains best known for playing the temperamental Lilli Vanessi in 1953’s Kiss Me Kate, a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Other films in which she appeared included Anchors Aweigh with Kelly and Sinatra, and The Desert Song opposite Gordon McRae. Her last film was 1956’s The Vagabond King, though she went on to appear in some TV shows including Baretta and Murder, She Wrote. Grayson died on Wednesday at her Los Angeles home, her long-time secretary and companion Sally Sherman announced. “She was a lady of class and quality, with the greatest sense of humour conceivable,” Sherman said.

Microsoft will soon launch a new generation of Internet Explorer (IE), IE9 next month

WASHINGTON Microsoft will soon launch a new generation of Internet Explorer (IE), IE9 next month. According to schedule, will be introduced at the IE9 annual conference Micorosoft MIX 10, which will dihelat at 15 to March 17, 2010 in Las Vegas. At the conference, which became the focus of Microsoft’s mobile platforms IE9 and the latest generation of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7. Unfortunately Microsoft still reluctant to mention a more detailed specification of IE9. In his blog, Microsoft promised to announce more details when IE9 conference in Las Vegas next month. Softpedia launched, Wednesday (17/2/2010), as General Manager, Dean Hachamovitch responsible for the development and release of IE. So no wonder, he was appointed as one of the speakers at the MIX10 event, especially for IE9 present.

“Dean will discuss the changes and development that has made Microsoft the PDC IE9 since 2009 some time ago. There will be many surprises at the launch later,” wrote one of the team MIX 10 in his blog. Microsoft IE9 demonstrate for the first time on the PDC 2009, November 2009. At that time, Microsoft is showing the early development of these browsers and announced the main objectives IE9 release. Dean never mentions, IE9 intended to provide better support for modern web standards, improve performance especially when used for JavaScript, as well as supporting hardware speeds. At PDC 2009, the developers only shown IE9 demo. At MIX 10 conference later, Microsoft promised a free download IE9, so the browser can immediately taste.

world celebrations for the new years

Taipei 101

PARIS jazzed up the Eiffel Tower with a multicolored, disco-style light display as the world basked in New Year’s festivities with hopes that 2010 and beyond will bring more peace and prosperity.From fireworks over Sydney’s famous bridge to balloons sent aloft in Tokyo, revelers across the globe at least temporarily shelved worries about the future to bid farewell to “The Noughties” – a bitter-tinged nickname for the first decade of the 21st century playing on a term for “zero” and evoking the word naughty.In New York City, hundreds of thousands of revelers gathered in chilly weather in Times Square to usher in the new decade. Organizers were preparing 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms) of confetti that will be scattered when the New Year’s Eve crystal ball drops at midnight.Fireworks were set off at about 6 p.m. and the gigantic ball was lowered into place in preparation for midnight. Many people wore conical party hats and 2010 glasses that blinked colorfully, and some were jumping up and down to keep warm – the National Weather Service said the temperature will be in the low 30s and forecast snow for around midnight.Las Vegas prepared to welcome some 315,000 revelers with fireworks from casino rooftops, a traffic-free Las Vegas Strip and toasts at nightclubs from celebrities including actress Eva Longoria and rapper 50 Cent.

Sydney Harbour

Even as some major stock market indexes rose in 2009, the financial downturn hit hard, sending many industrial economies into recession, tossing millions out of work and out of their homes as foreclosures rose dramatically in some countries.”The year that is ending has been difficult for everybody. No continent, no country, no sector has been spared,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on national TV in a New Year’s Eve address. “Even if the tests are unfinished, 2010 will be a year of renewal,” he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her people that the start of the new decade won’t herald immediate relief from the global economic ills. South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, was more ebullient, saying the World Cup is set to make 2010 the country’s most important year since the end of apartheid in 1994.At midnight in Rio de Janeiro, about 2 million people gathered along the 2.5-mile (4 kilometer) Copacabana beach to watch a huge fireworks display and listen to dozens of music acts and DJs.

The multitudes came mostly dressed in traditional white clothing, a nod to the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomble but a custom followed by nearly everyone as it is thought to bring peace and good luck for the coming year.Officials said about 12,000 police were on duty during the New Year’s Eve party in and around Copacabana to provide security.Dressed in white and holding a glass of champagne in his hand, visitor Chad Bissonnette, 27, a nongovernmental group’s director from Washington, D.C., said, “This year was the toughest I’ve experienced – for the first time as an American I saw many friends lose jobs and businesses in my neighborhood close regularly.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hailed events in 2009 like the inauguration of the United States’ first black president, and international attempts to grapple with climate change and the global financial crisis.”The great message from 2009 is that because we’ve been all in this together, we’ve all worked together,” Rudd said in a New Year’s message.Australia got the some of the festivities rolling, as Sydney draped its skies with explosive bursts of crimson, purple and blue to the delight of more than 1 million New Year revelers near the harbor bridge.Concerns that global warming might raise sea levels and cause other environmental problems were on the minds of some as the year ended.

Venice revelers rang in the New Year with wet feet as high tide on its archipelago peaked just before midnight to flood low-lying parts of the city – including the St. Mark’s Square.The last year also offered its reminders of the decade’s fight against terrorism, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently, rising militant violence in Pakistan.Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, in a statement Wednesday, suggested that terrorism book-ended the decade, with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, and foiled plot by a Nigerian man to set off explosives on a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Eve.

“In late December we were reminded at this decade’s end, just as we were at its beginning, that there is a terrorist threat which puts our safety and security at risk and which requires us to take on al-Qaeda and the Taliban at the epicentre of global terrorism,” he said.

The American Embassy in Indonesia warned of a possible terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali on New Year’s Eve, citing information from the island’s governor – though local security officials said they were unaware of a threat.In a more upbeat theme, the Eiffel Tower was decked out for its 120th anniversary year with hundreds of multicolored lights along its latticework. It was seemingly retro in style, but decidedly 21st century as it showered the Iron Lady in a light show billed as more energy-saving than its usual sparkling lights.

Police blocked off the Champs-Elysees to vehicle traffic as partygoers popped champagne, exchanged la bise – the traditional French cheek to cheek peck – or more amorous kisses to celebrate the New Year.Spain rang in the start of its six-month presidency of the European Union with a sound and light show illuminating Sol square in Madrid and images from the 27 member states projected onto the central post office building.Partiers braved the cold – and a shower from sparkling cava wine bottles – in traditional style by eating 12 grapes, one with each tolling of the city hall bell.Despite frigid temperatures, thousands gathered along the River Thames for fireworks were fired from the London Eye attraction just as Big Ben struck midnight – an hour after continental western Europe.

Europe and the Americas may have partied harder than Asia. Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan use a different calendar; China will mark the new year in February.Still, in Shanghai, some people paid 518 yuan ($75) to ring the bell at the Longhua Temple at midnight and wish for new-year luck. In Chinese, saying “518” sounds like the phrase “I want prosperity.”

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries where New Year’s Eve is not celebrated publicly. Clerics in the ultraconservative country say Muslims can only observe their faith’s feasts of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. For them, any other occasions are considered innovations that Islam rejects.Unlike many Islamic countries where pigs are considered unclean, New Year’s in Austria just isn’t complete without a pig-shaped lucky charm – and stalls selling the little porkers did a good business Thursday. Some are made of marzipan or chocolate; others come in glass, wood, rubber or soap.

Herbert Nikitsch of the University of Vienna’s Institute of European Ethnology said the porcine phylactery may originate from the fact that pigs represented food and sustenance for farmers in preindustrial times.Some festivities went awry.In the Philippines, hundreds of people were injured by firecrackers and celebratory gunfire during the celebrations. Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year’s celebrations drive away evil and misfortune – but some carry that belief to extremes.At Zojoji, one of Tokyo’s oldest and biggest Buddhist temples, thousands of worshippers released clear, helium-filled balloons to mark the new year. Nearby Tokyo Tower twinkled with white lights, while a large “2010” sign glowed from the center.

Tokyo’s Shibuya area, known as a magnet of youth culture, exploded with emotion at the stroke of midnight. Strangers embraced spontaneously as revelers jumped and sang.In Istanbul, Turkish authorities deployed some 2,000 police around Taksim Square to prevent pickpockets and the molestation of women that have marred New Year celebrations in the past. Some officers were under cover, disguised as street vendors or “even in Santa Claus dress,” Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said.In Stonehaven, on Scotland’s east coast, the fireballs festival – a tradition for a century and a half – saw in the New Year. The pagan festival is observed by marchers swinging large, flaming balls around their heads. The flames are believed to either ensure sunshine or banish harmful influences.In contrast to many galas worldwide, the Stonehaven Fireballs Association warned those attending not to wear their best clothes – because “there will be sparks flying along with smoke and even whisky.” (AP)

Scanners force trade-off between privacy, security

the security gate at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO  As Ronak Ray hunted for his flight gate, he prepared for the prospect of a security guard peering through his clothes with a full body scanner. But Ray doesn’t mind: what he gives up in privacy he gets back in security.”I think it’s necessary,” said Ray, a 23-year-old graduate student who was at San Francisco International Airport to fly to India. “Our lives are far more important than how we’re being searched.”Despite controversy surrounding the scans, Ray’s position was typical of several travelers interviewed at various airports Wednesday by The Associated Press.Airports in five other U.S. cities are also using full body scanners at specific checkpoints instead of metal detectors. In addition, the scanners are used at 13 other airports for random checks and so-called secondary screenings of passengers who set off detectors.

But many more air travelers may have to get used to the idea soon. The Transportation Security Administration has ordered 150 more full body scanners to be installed in airports throughout the country in early 2010, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said.Dutch security officials have said they believe such scanners could have detected the explosive materials Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria is accused of trying to ignite aboard a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight Christmas Day.Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has 15 full body scanners, but none were used to scan Abdulmutallab when he boarded. In Europe and the U.S., privacy concerns over the scanners’ ability to see through clothing have kept them from widespread use.

The technology was first used about two years ago to make it easier for airport security to do body searches without making physical contact with passengers.The idea of an electronic strip search did not bother Judy Yeager, 62, of Sarasota, Fla., as she prepared to depart Las Vegas. She stood in the full-body scanner Wednesday afternoon and held her arms up as a security official guided her through the gray closet-sized booth.”If it’s going to protect a whole airplane of people, who gives a flying you-know-what if they see my boob whatever,” Yeager said. “That’s the way I feel, honest to God.”George Hyde, of Birmingham, Ala., who was flying out of Salt Lake City with his wife, Patsy, on Wednesday after visiting their children and grandchildren in Park City, Utah.”I’d rather be safe than be embarrassed,” Hyde said. Neither he nor his wife had been through a body scanner before.”We’re very modest people but we’d be willing to go through that for security.”

Trevino said the TSA has worked with privacy advocates and the scanners’ manufacturers to develop software that blurs the faces and genital areas of passengers being scanned. In all cases, passengers are not required to be scanned by the machine but can opt for a full body pat-down instead.At Salt Lake City International Airport, fewer than 1 percent of passengers subjected to the scanner chose the pat-down since the machine was installed in March, said Dwane Baird, a TSA spokesman in Salt Lake City.On Tuesday, some 1,900 people went through the scanner and just three chose not to, he said.Critics of the scanners said the option to opt out was not enough.”The question is should they be used indiscriminately on little children and grandmothers,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California. McClintock co-sponsored a bill approved by the House 310-118 in June prohibiting the use of full body scanners for primary screenings. The bill is pending in the Senate.

He said the devices raised serious concerns regarding constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.”There’s no practical distinction between a full body scan and being pulled into a side room and being ordered to strip your clothing.”To further protect passenger privacy, security officers looking at the images are in a different part of the airport and are not allowed to take any recording devices into the room with them, Trevino said. The images captured by the scanners cannot be stored, transmitted or printed in any way.But the TSA still has some public relations work ahead of it, judging by the reactions of passengers in Albuquerque, N.M., who were worried about what would happen to their images once they were scanned.”Are they going to be recorded or do they just scan them and that’s the end of them? How are these TSA people going to be using them? That’s a real concern for me,” said Courtney Best-Trujillo of Santa Fe, N.M., who was flying to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The six airports where full body scanners are being used for what TSA calls “primary screenings” are: Albuquerque, N.M.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Miami, Fla.; San Francisco; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Tulsa, Okla.The remainder of the machines are being used for secondary screenings in Atlanta, Ga.; Baltimore/Washington; Denver, Colo.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Indianapolis, Ind.; Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.; Los Angeles; Phoenix, Ariz.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Ronald Reagan Washington National; and Detroit, Mich.

Though most passengers interviewed by The Associated Press felt security trumped other concerns, Bruna Martina, 48, a physician from the coast of Venezuela, said the scanners still made her feel uncomfortable.”I think there has to be another way to control people, or to scan them, but not like this,” she said as she headed back home after a vacation in Miami with her husband and two sons. She also does not think the scanners will thwart another attack.”They’ll find another way,” Martina said. “There is always somebody cleverer than the rest.”(Ap)

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport for $2.1 million

You want to buy a camera? We can pit it against three others with nearly indistinguishable features, no problem. Blu-ray players? We’ll compile a three-axis matrix that triangulates the perfect combination of image quality, connected functionality and price. But if you’re considering the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, we can’t do much for you.Comparing it to any other car is pointless, because there is nothing else in its $2.1-million (based on current exchange rates) class. That same cash-filled briefcase could buy seven Ferrari 599s or every single 2009 model Mercedes. You could snap up a top-shelf Maybach and employ a chauffeur until well past the apocalypse. Hell, in this economy, $2.1 million is probably enough to make you a one-man special-interest group with some serious Washington clout.But don’t. Buy a Grand Sport. Even if there were another 253-mph drop-top with more luxury appointments than a Bond villain’s boudoir, you wouldn’t want it. You’d want this exact car, because more than being a blast to drive, it is the greatest gasoline-powered vehicle that has ever been, or will ever be, built. Seriously. Take a moment and consider what Bugatti has done: Because a handful of billionaires demanded that the fastest car in the world be available topless, the Volkswagen-owned ultra-luxury automaker essentially broke the laws of physics. Again.The first Veyron is an engineering marvel. That’s the one with the massively reinforced roof that helped keep the rest of the body from deforming into an amoebic tangle of graphite composite and exotic metal under the joint stresses of lateral acceleration, horsepower and wind. It stands as one of the greatest achievements of the petroleum age. It required the intellectual might of one of the largest and arguably smartest car companies in the world to birth a car that was not only faster than anything on the road, but easy enough to pilot that anyone could drive it. (“It killed my husband” is not the kind of country-club buzz that sells cars.) To make the Grand Sport, Bugatti’s engineers had to do the same thing, only with a giant hole in the middle. It was like designing a picture frame to break rocks.

They had to bolster the floor, doors and B pillars (where the back edges of the windows rest) with acres of carbon fiber. They had to turn the topside air scoops into structural supports for protection during a rollover. Then they had to sacrifice 100 virgins and have the production facility in Molsheim, France, blessed by druids.The result is the most structurally rigid convertible in the world, which, miraculously, weighs no more and goes no slower than the coupe on which it is based. With the transparent roof removed, air resistance limits the Grand Sport to 217 mph, but you’d want that roof on for a top-speed run anyway; the wind could rip your face off at around 245.

By now, the Veyron’s stats are legendary: 1,001 horsepower from a mid-mounted, 8.0-liter, 16-cylinder engine that gets air stuffed down its ravenous gullet by four massive turbochargers. All-wheel drive. A seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission that switches gears faster than a state staffer ducking questions about the Appalachian Trail. Depending on how you define “production car,” it is the fastest in the world. In the quickest Lamborghini ever produced, the Murcielago LP640, you can hit 60 mph in 3.2 seconds. In the Grand Sport it takes a hair under 2.5. How does it feel to command that pace? Godlike.The acceleration is so immediate you can feel your eyeballs deform under the G-forces. It’s a sensation of isolationist joy, an out-of-body awareness that you’re moving faster than the world can react. Bystanders vaguely remember seeing a flash of expensive paint a few seconds after you disappear over the horizon; entire generations of insects die on your prow. Passing other motorists becomes a dangerous entitlement that has you resenting oncoming traffic for hogging your “VIP lane” — especially when you realize that you can outrun not only the 5-0’s cruisers, but their helicopters, too. If they wanna catch you, they’re gonna have to dust off Airwolf and drag Jan Michael Vincent out of rehab.
But this isn’t just some dumb auto-jock that takes off from stoplights in a hail of shredded asphalt, molten Michelins and screaming revs. If anything, the exhaust note is a bit tame, and the power is manageable. Unlike driving, say, a Viper SRT-10, you’re not in constant fear of accidentally going around a turn ass-end first because you blipped the go-pedal a half-inch too deep. Though the Veyron has almost twice as much power as the super-snake, its all-wheel-drive and 14-inch-wide tires grip the ground with the tenacity of a junkie clutching a five-dollar bill.

A lot of factors contribute to this prodigious hunker-down: the aforementioned tires (Michelin developed them specifically to accommodate the Veyron’s top speed) and AWD; the giant mid-mounted engine, placed to provide perfect 45/55 weight distribution; the insanely advanced aerodynamics and suspension, which automatically change the shape and ride-height of the car to provide an extra 800 pounds of downforce when you exceed 137 miles per hour (they’d be illegal in Formula 1 competition, incidentally). And then there’s the sheer mass: Though its power-to-weight ratio bests the Ferrari F430 by almost 50 percent, the Veyron, at 4,400 pounds, is still more than half a ton heavier. And gravity is one tenacious bitch. This car sticks to the ground like 1,000-horsepower gum.

Push the Grand Sport hard, and the rear-biased AWD will start to feel looser, making the car light and nimble through the twisties. But even when attacking some seriously hairy turns from deep in triple digits, the Veyron never gave up its grip. And when we almost blew it on a butt-puckering downhill double-apex, the all-wheel-drive system put power in just the right place to pull the car back in line. All while we sat comfortably in bucket seats that made our couch seem fit only for the waiting room of the DMV.

Bugatti offers seven different seat shapes, to accommodate the seven known varieties of billionaire: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Each is based around a carbon-fiber shell and available in whatever animal skin the laws of your kingdom permit. Our test car was fitted with caramel-colored leather. It was nice, but the light hue reflected quite a bit of glare off the steep rake of the windshield. Other luxury touches include a stereo, we’re told. The CD player is custom-designed by Burmeister to operate skip-free at 250 miles per hour. We never turned it on. With the carbon fiber and polycarbonate roof removed, you have the only soundtrack you need: the engine’s growl (could be louder) and the roar of the twin air intakes, which suck air like a two rolls of quarters quart of sterno Las vegas.There’s also a navigation system. It might be the finest example of passive aggression ever assembled; Bugatti’s engineers clearly don’t want you to use it. You can only program the system with a separate, 2005-vintage PDA. If you can stomach the Windows Mobile interface long enough to set your destination, you get to view your route guidance in a tiny screen in the rearview mirror. Theoretically. As long as it’s nighttime. It’s invisible in the daylight, and the Grand Sport is a convertible.But even if its nav system shouted insults at you, it would be hard to complain about this machine. It is not perfect — no car will ever be. But it’s close. And it will likely remain as close as a car with a gasoline-burning engine will ever get. We’re at the end of the petroleum era, the end of a golden age of supercars where speed can be sought regardless of consequence. It’s highly unlikely that a major automaker will ever be able to justify spending the time and money to develop a fossil-fuel-powered car that can top the Veyron’s combination of power, speed, handling, driveability and flat-out luxury. The Grand Sport is the worthy successor to the Ferrari F40, the Lamborghini Diablo, the McLaren F1 and every other Texas tea-drinker that ever owned the title “world’s fastest.” And its high-level swank takes that prize with style points nonpareil.Maybe we’ll idolize maglevs next. Maybe Tesla will have its day on a Trapper Keeper with a juice box that tops 250. But whatever we’re drooling over next year, whatever makes its way onto the dorm-room walls and man-children’s screen-savers, it won’t run on petrol. Unless it’s still a Veyron: the last king of the gas-guzzlers, forever the greatest.