Rihanna is Vogue's latest cover girl

Rihanna performs during the halftime show
at the NBA basketball All-Star Game.

Popstar Rihanna has become the youngest black woman to be on the cover of US Vogue. The 'Rude Boy' hitmaker is the cover girl of the April edition which celebrates the 10th anniversary of the magazine's Shape issue.
The Bajan beauty is pictured in a sheer floral dress with flowers covering her modesty on the cover of the fashion bible, reported People magazine.
Her bright red hair, which partially covers her face, is complemented by bright red lips against the blue sunset background in the cover shot by Annie Leibovitz.
Rihanna is renowned for her outlandish wig collection and her 'hair architect' recently divulged his ideas behind the star's ever-changing hair.
Ursula Stephen said that she uses wigs on the 23-year-old because they are better to style with rollers and hot irons, while preserving the health of her natural hair.
Stephen said that Rihanna loves making a statement with her hair and her style changes with her mood.
"It's about the style you want first. You have to have your vision, then you go and find the piece," said the expert.

Former minister chiranjibi wagle convicted: One of the first to go corrupt

KATHMANDU-  Former minister and leader of the Nepali Congress (NC), Chiranjivi Wagle, 58, is probably the first among a breed of Nepali politicians who earned a marked level of notoriety by abusing power in the 1990s.

Wagley is also the first former minister to be convicted of corruption after 1990.

With the party turning a deaf ear to his wrong deeds and the judiciary failing to deliver speedy justice, Wagle continued to use money and the muscles that he gathered in the past. Born into a middle class family in the hilly district of Gorkha, Wagle was quick enough to amass wealth by abusing power when he was Minister for Information and Communication in the Girija Prasad Koirala-led government in 1991.

Wagle joined politics as a student leader in the early 1970s and participated in the democratic movement. During Krishna Prasad Bhattarai’s tenure as the party president, Wagle became a CWC member for the first time in 1981. He served his party as a CC member for over two decades. He had already become a controversial figure then, but the NC leadership was reluctant to suspend him.

Wagle was elected lawmaker in the first general elections held after the restoration of democracy in 1990. Though he was inducted in the Koirala Cabinet, he was kicked out after six months as factional politics in NC peaked. That made him a Koirala rival. Wagle became Minister for Physical Planning and Works in the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government in 2002.

57 Nepalis rescued, head for Tokyo

KATHMANDU-  Over 57 Nepalis have been relocated from areas in Japan hit by the tsunami and nuclear radiation, mostly from Fukushima and Sendai.

A team formed in Japan by the Nepali mission has rescued 44 Nepalis from Sendai and 14 from Fukushima in buses. They have already headed for Tokyo. Of the 13, six were students, six cooks and a lady holding a dependent visa. Fukushima is the hardest hit by the nuclear leakage.

According to the Nepali mission in Tokyo, it is estimated that over 200 Nepali citizens needed to be evacuated from Fukushima and Sendai to either Tokyo or other safer places in buses and vans. “We have sought help from the central as well as the provincial government to bring them back,” the Nepali mission said. In this respect, Nepali Ambassador to Japan Ganesh Yonjan and Deputy Chief of Mission, Durga Bahadur Thapa, met officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and discussed Nepal’s token aid and shared the missing list of Nepali nationals.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu on Wednesday expressed its sincere appreciation for the “warm support” to Japan. “We would love to show our sincere appreciation for your warm support for our country suffering from a huge disaster,” a statement issued by the embassy on Wednesday said.

Donation for tsunami-hit

The embassy also provided details of bank account numbers for anyone wishing to donate for the tsunami-hit people. According to the statement, those donating in US dollars and Nepali rupees can deposit the amount in account numbers 8047670 of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s Ginza branch and 01-0002089-71 of Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd, Lazimpat branch, for Nepali rupees respectively. Those who wish to donate in cash can hand over the amount to the Nepal Red Cross Society, Kalimati.

India didn’t want PLA in NA, cables reveal

KATHMANDU- Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had told the then General Secretary of the CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal that the government of Nepal should not, “under any circumstances, integrate Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army.”

Additional US diplomatic cables sent by the US embassy and released jointly by the Hindu and wikileaks further revealed that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was more blunt with MK Nepal, warning him to be wary of the Maoists.”

Further, New Delhi had expected Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula to do more to address the security situation, particularly the “Maoist abuses,” the cables revealed.

They also said New Delhi was sceptical of the Maoist intentions and had begun taking a tough approach towards their abuses and even denying their request to visit Delhi—concluding that communicating with them “would only reward bad behaviour.”

In a cable sent by the then US Ambassador to Nepal, James F. Moriarty, on June 18, 2007, he refers to his extensive discussion with the then Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee.

“… Government of India (GOI) was increasingly concerned with the deteriorating security situation in Nepal. Maoist abuses needed to be punished. Foreign Minister Mukherjee had told MK Nepal that the seven parties in the governing coalition needed to stay united and take clear steps to prepare for free and fair elections in November.

This was the only way, FM Mukherjee had opined, to keep the Maoists in the political process. The Foreign Minister had also made it clear to MK Nepal that the GON should not, under any circumstances, integrate Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army,” Moriarty wrote to Washington.

“According to the Indian political counsellor, Prime Minister Monmohan Singh was even blunter with MK Nepal, warning him to be wary of the Maoists and urging him to work with Prime Minister Koirala,” the cable said.

It appears that both the US and India were pushing for free and fair elections and hints at New Delhi’s leverage over armed groups in the Tarai.

“He (Mukherjee) also noted that the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (“People’s Terai Liberation Front”) (JTMM) should be brought into discussions and convinced to declare a “revolutionary ceasefire” to save face. Mukherjee told the Ambassador that the GOI would do “everything in its power” to address the situation if the JTMM tried to derail the Constituent Assembly election,” the cable further said.

In a clear sign that the Indian position was beginning to harden on the Maoists around June in 2007, the cable reports that India had refused Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s request to visit Delhi.

“… Ambassador Mukherjee said that officials in New Delhi had refused the informal requests for a visit they had received from Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda). According to Mukherjee, Dahal’s go-betweens were told by the Indian Embassy that it was not the time for a visit to New Delhi because the Maoists had continued to break their commitments to the peace process,” the cable reported.

India also appears to have closed its clandestine channel of communications with the Maoists, and instead insisted that the Maoists communicate to Delhi via the Indian embassy in Kathmandu. The Maoists had reportedly lamented the fact that they had “lost their former channels” of communication to New Delhi. In response, GOI officials had made it clear that since the Maoists had joined the interim government, the intelligence community was no longer their conduit. “‘We are the conduit now,’ Mukherjee noted, referring to his embassy,” the cable said.

Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma said there was no truth in the allegations, adding that not all wikileaks releases are necessarily credible. “We have had contacts with Indian political leaders, but we haven’t dealt with any clandestine agencies,” Sharma said.

Singers protest over opera fees

La Boheme opened at the 35-seat Cock Tavern pub theatre
in London in December 2009

An award-winning opera company is facing complaints from performers in its latest production, who were not paid for taking part.

OperaUpClose's version of La Boheme was named best new opera at the prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards on Sunday.

Members of the chorus were not paid and have contacted actors' union Equity.

OperaUpClose said principal performers were paid but parts in the chorus were advertised as volunteer positions to gain industry experience.

The company specialises in staging operas in intimate venues. La Boheme began in the 35-seat Cock Tavern in north London before moving to the Soho Theatre.

"It has always been our intent and our practice to serve the dual purposes of presenting fine operatic productions while serving as a training ground and a stepping stone for the next generation of performers," a statement from the producers said.

'Extremely proud'

With no public funding, the company said it would be unable to use a chorus if it did not call upon volunteers.

"We stand by our accomplishments; indeed we are extremely proud of them," the statement added.

Equity has held a meeting with chorus members and said discussions between the two sides were "ongoing".

An Equity spokesman said: "We are concerned about the now Olivier Award-winning OperaUpClose production of La Boheme not paying the members of their chorus.

"We have been approached by members on this. We have been talking to both OperaUpClose and the Soho Theatre to seek a resolution to that unhappiness."

La Boheme beat productions from the Royal Opera House, London Coliseum and Young Vic to the Olivier Award.

Speaking at the ceremony on Sunday, director Robin Norton-Hale said: "It's hard because you're asking singers who've trained for a decade to come and do a show where they're not going to get paid at the rate they would get at the ROH or ENO.

"We are lucky to have had such great audiences, so we've been able to get away with it. We've proved that opera can be artistically and commercially successful - and we deserve funding."

Riccardo Muti wins $1m Birgit Nilsson Prize

Riccardo Muti is currently conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Italian conductor Riccardo Muti has been awarded the $1 million (£624,000) Birgit Nilsson Prize - the biggest prize in classical music.

Muti, currently the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was recognised "for his extraordinary contributions in opera and concert".

The 69-year-old said he was "deeply touched" when he heard he had been chosen for the "distinguished" award.

Muti will receive the prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on 13 October.

The conductor is the second recipient of the prize awarded by a foundation established after the death of opera singer Birgit Nilsson.

Winners are chosen by the foundation and a jury of at least five members, which this year included the president of the Vienna Philharmonic, the co-director of the Bayreuth Festival and The Daily Telegraph's opera critic Rupert Christiansen.

'Incomparable musician'

"Maestro Muti is being recognised for his extraordinary contributions in opera and concert, as well as his enormous influence in the music world both on and off the stage," the jury said.

Foundation president Rutbert Reisch said he did not believe Nilsson and Muti ever worked together, but that the two "had a lot of respect for each other's work".

In a statement, Muti said: "I was deeply touched by the jury's accolade, all the more so given my profound admiration for this unique and extraordinary artist, both as an incomparable musician and as a great interpreter."

Muti has also been conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Teatro alla Scala.

Last week, the conductor defied doctors' advice and took to the stage at Rome's Teatro dell'Opera just five weeks after heart surgery following a fall from the podium while rehearsing in Chicago.

The Birgit Nilsson Prize was first awarded in 2009 to Spanish tenor Placido Domingo.

Child abuse 'big business online'

There are around 450 criminal gangs around the world making money from images of child sex abuse, the UK's Internet Watch Foundation has said.

The watchdog's annual report says that the 10 most prolific of these account for more than 650 web pages.

But despite these gangs being well-established online, the IWF says the the industry is not growing.

Such groups are, however, finding new ways to distribute images, the report adds.

Smaller social networks, image-sharing sites, free website hosting platforms and hacked websites are increasingly being used by content distributors desperate to avoid detection.

To help obscure their movements, they move their distribution networks regularly between different providers and countries.

Most of the gangs operate a pay-per-view system, charging a monthly fee of around £55 for access to images and videos.

Much of the material that becomes available commercially was originally traded privately between sex offenders.

The IWF, which enable people to report illegal content online via its website, estimates that about half of the child abuse images available online are commercial.

Publicly available websites hosting such content tend to be taken down very quickly but when one pops up, it illustrates the demand for such images.

One, hosted briefly in the UK in 2009, had over 25,000 visitors in the few days it was available.

Efforts to stay ahead of the gangs are difficult but they are being kept under control, the IWF said.

"Although internet usage and the volume of content continue to rise globally, we are not seeing a proportionate rise in commercial child sexual abuse material which instead appears to have remained fairly static over recent years," said Peter Robbins, chief executive of the IWF.

He puts that down to increased international co-operation.

Ineffective

To increase this effort, the IWF will for the first time tell international providers about illegal content it has identified.

It hopes that the tactics it employs will be mirrored in other countries.

"Nothing can be done on a national basis, we have to have every country adopting the tactics we use such as removing content at source, deregistering domain names and blocking content," said Ms Robertson.

The IWF received over 38,000 reports about illegal content in 2009. The majority of this was either hosted abroad or outside its remit.

Some 8,844 web pages were identified as containing images of child sexual abuse. Most were outside of the UK and were passed to one of the IWF's 35 sister organisations or to the relevant police authorities.

In the UK, the IWF issued 40 take-down notices on having images removed from the web.

Critics have accused the IWF of being ineffective, partly because it is separate from the police and partly because much of the illegal material online does not originate from the UK.

IWF spokeswoman Sarah Robertson admits that it is not a policing body but denies that means it cannot act.

"The amount of child abuse content hosted in the UK has fallen from 18% to 1% in the last seven years," she said.

"We don't feel we are fighting an impossible battle."

It is important to remember the serious nature of the content the IWF polices, she said, and that behind every image is a child being abused.

Some 44% of the content highlighted to the IWF last year depicted the rape of a child and 23% of it featured children below the age of six.