Saturday, May 10, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Could the Clinton/Obama fight to secure the presidential nomination be clinched by a Karaoke sing-a-long? For when Democratic delegates meet in Denver from 25 to 28 August, they will be treated to $200,000 worth of “participatory” art commissioned by the city and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) host committee.
Seth Goldenberg, director of the DNC public programme Dialog:City, has asked ten artists to create work which will take place across Denver and focus on political issues. Daniel Peltz will present a Karaoke sing-along of presidential candidate speeches in bars, clubs and restaurants. The DNC has given $200,000 towards the commissions.
AUSTRALIA is likely to abandon its $1 million attempt to take Japan to the international court over whaling after New Zealand gave up plans to use legal action to stop the cull. The Rudd Government embraced the use of the UN’s international court soon after the election, using aircraft and ships to gather evidence against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.
But the New Zealand Government has since discovered “significant difficulties” with taking Japan to the international court and has abandoned the tactic.
The hunt for evidence against Japan in its “scientific hunt” for whales became highly contentious when the crew of the environmental crusader ship Sea Shepherd was accused of piracy and violence after activists threw bottles of “acid” and boarded a Japanese whaling ship.
Ahead of official visits to Japan by Kevin Rudd next month and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith this week, expectation is growing that Australia’s aggressive attempt to take Japan to court over whaling will lapse.
Last night, Mr Smith told The Australian the Government would make a final decision on whether to pursue Japan in an international court “at an appropriate time” based on legal advice and the evidence gathered by the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking.
Speaking from South Korea, he said the Government would make its decision on legal action “in dialogue with the Japanese Government”.
The likelihood of a resolution without going to an international court has increased after the New Zealand Government dropped its plans to build an international case against Japan over whaling.
PAKISTAN today successfully tested a nuclear-capable, air-launched cruise missile with a range of 350km, the military said, a day after India tested a long-range missile.
The Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad) missile has been developed exclusively for launch from aircraft, a military statement said.
“It has enabled Pakistan to achieve a greater strategic stand-off capability on land and at sea,” it said.
The indigenously developed missile also had special stealth capabilities and could deliver all types of warheads with great accuracy, the military said.
India yesterday tested a nuclear-capable missile with a range of more than 3000km.
The south Asian neighbours, who have fought three wars since their independence in 1947, routinely test missiles in spite of a peace process launched in 2004 that has led to better relations.
Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998, days after old rival India conducted similar tests.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
This evening’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s New York totaled $277,276,000/£140,749,239/€178,887,742, Christie’s third highest result ever for the category. The auction featured particularly strong results for both 19th and 20th century paintings and sculpture created by some of the leading masters of art history. The sale was 82% sold by value, 76% sold by lot.
“We saw very strong prices in many areas this evening as the global market responded positively, and we are pleased with the overall result for the sale. Christie’s set new auction records for major masters, and it was particularly gratifying to note sculpture continued its ascent in the marketplace, and now commands prices equivalent to great pictures,” said Marc Porter, President of Christie’s Americas.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Senator Barack Obama captured a decisive victory in the North Carolina primary on Tuesday, fending off a challenge from his opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was leading in the night’s other contest in Indiana.
Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, today announced the appointment of Franklin Kelly as the deputy director and chief curator, effective October 1, 2008. Currently senior curator of American and British Paintings, a post he has held since 2002, Kelly will succeed Alan Shestack, who has been deputy director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Art since December 1993.
“Alan Shestack has had a stellar career of 43 years of leadership and service to some of America’s finest museums and has overseen major developments during his 15 years at the National Gallery of Art,” said Powell. “Franklin Kelly’s scholarship, curatorial expertise, and knowledge of the Gallery and the art world have prepared him well for his new role as deputy director and chief curator.”
Rebels who have stepped up attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry in the last month said on Sunday they were considering a ceasefire appeal by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has launched five attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta since it resumed a campaign of violence in April, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to shut more than 164,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
“The MEND command is seriously considering a temporary ceasefire appeal by Senator Barack Obama. Obama is someone we respect and hold in high esteem,” the militant group said in an e-mailed statement
Civilians are completely at the mercy of armed groups in Somalia, says human rights group Amnesty International.
It says the situation is “dire” in the centre and the south with government troops, their Ethiopian allies and Islamist insurgents “out of control”.
They carry out killings, torture, rape, beatings, arbitrary detention and forced disappearances, a report says.
The Ethiopian government has dismissed the report as a “total fabrication” and demanded an apology.
“We have said repeatedly that our soldiers are the most disciplined soldiers in the world,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wahide Belaye.
“They have never cut anybody’s throat, never gang-raped any women, never deliberately shot civilians in Somalia.”
In Mogadishu, hundreds of people have stormed through the Bakara market area, hurling stones at cars and shops and setting fire to tyres in protest at rising food prices and fake currency.
Troops shot two people dead on Monday in similar protests.
People who have visited the capital, Mogadishu, recently say parts of it are a ghost town, but Amnesty says residents fleeing the city are prey for armed bandits on the road who rape women and girls and steal whatever they have taken with them.
The military government in Myanmar have raised their death toll to 22,500 with another 41,000 missing after a cyclone ripped through the Irrawaddy delta.
The first bit of food aid from the UN was handed out today in Yangon, while the first foreign aid arrived in Thailand.
It is reported another several hundred thousand are homeless.
The disaster comes right before the junta-run Myanmar, formerly known as Burma before a coup, was to go to the polls for a referendum on a new constitution that foreign watchdogs say will do little to nothing for the struggling country.