Minnesota governor sees special session for NFL stadium
The Vikings earlier this year unveiled a proposed plan for a $1.1 billion stadium, backed by Ramsey County officials, in a northern Twin Cities suburb on the site of a former U.S. Army munitions plant.The proposed agreement between the Vikings and Ramsey County officials would include $300 million of funding from the state of Minnesota for such things as environmental cleanup and road improvements that requires legislative support.Under the team-supported proposal, the Vikings would contribute more than $400 million toward the project and Ramsey County $350 million using a countywide sales tax. The Vikings would be the key tenant and the site later could include offices, retail, hotels and restaurants.Dayton said he was neutral about where to build a stadium, but needed guarantees on the public portion of the project and planned to talk Wednesday with the Vikings about “their willingness to pay for the additional costs that may be associated with a further delay in the timetable.”The Vikings have long lobbied for a stadium to replace the Metrodome where the team has played since 1982. The Metrodome lease expires at the end of this year and the Vikings have said no extension will be signed until a stadium deal is reached.Last year, the inflatable Metrodome roof collapsed in a snowstorm, forcing the Vikings to play a home game in Detroit and a second at the University of Minnesota’s stadium. The stadium was repaired in time for the current season.Discussions about a new football stadium took a backseat to a budget impasse that led to a three-week state government shutdown this summer. Dayton said the special session, if one is called, would end November 23, the day before Thanksgiving.The governor met Monday with Republican leaders who control the state Senate and House and has meetings this week with NFL leaders and the Vikings owners.Afterward, House Speaker Kurt Zellers said Minnesota was in tough economic times and a funding solution could not be a tax on a certain group of people, activity or product.”The state of Minnesota writing out a check for $300 million, I don’t think you have heard anyone saying that is a good idea,” Zellers said.Last week, a study on the Arden Hills, Minnesota, proposal said the stadium likely would open a year or two later than the planned 2015, with a potential increase of costs of $46 million per year.Dayton ordered the Metropolitan Council study on the site. He has said the state’s funding should be capped at $300 million, including road improvements.
Police and demonstrators clash in Rome, teargas fired
Police repeatedly fired teargas and water cannons in attempts to disperse them but the clashes with hard-core demonstrators continued hours after tens of thousands of people in Rome joined a global “day of rage” against bankers and politicians.Discontent is running high in Italy over high unemployment, political paralysis and 60 billion euros ($83 billion) of austerity measures that have raised taxes and the cost of health care.The violence at times resembled urban guerrilla warfare as protesters hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police, who responded by repeatedly charging the demonstrators.At least two demonstrators were injured and one was reported to be in critical condition. At least 30 policemen were injured.At one point demonstrators surrounded a police van, pelted it with rock and bottles, and set it on fire. The two occupants managed to escape, television footage showed.Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno ordered all public museums in the capital closed for security reasons as the violent demonstrators continued to run amok hours after the protest began.The demonstration began peacefully but suddenly turned violent when hundreds of hooded radicals known as “black blocs,” who had infiltrated the group, set cars and garbage bins on fire.They then went on a rampage on several streets around the Colosseum, trashing windows of stores and banks.One building, believed to be an annex of the Defense Ministry, caught fire after the flames spread from a car.The protesters had earlier forced their way into the annex and trashed the offices.The protest was one of many staged around the world on Saturday to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States, venting anger over years of economic and financial crisis since a global credit boom went bust in 2007.Italy’s fractious coalition government has been forced to push through austerity measures to try to stop the economy — the euro zone’s third largest and one of its heaviest debtors — from being sucked into the bloc’s debt crisis.Hours after the demonstration began police were still firing teargas canisters and training water canon on violent demonstrators in Piazza San Giovanni, the terminus of the demonstration, where a final rally was due to be held.Masked demonstrators attacked police vans with rocks, bottles and clubs in the San Giovanni area, which was full of tear gas.Some of the peaceful demonstrators tried to take refuge on the steps of St. John’s Basilica, one of the largest churches in Rome and Pope Benedict’s basilica in his capacity as bishop of Rome.The streets of central Rome were littered with rocks, bottles and garbage bins that had been overturned in the protest and fire brigades drove around the city trying to put out the fires.Peaceful demonstrators also clashed with the militants and turned some of them over to police.Politicians across the political spectrum condemned the violence.”Unacceptable violence and devastation is happening right now on the streets of Rome,” said Pierluigi Bersani, head of the Democratic Party, the largest in the opposition.”Those who are carrying out what is nothing less than urban guerrilla warfare are hurting the cause of people around the world who are trying to freely express their discontent with the world economic situation,” he said.Alemanno, noting that the demonstrators had called themselves “the indignant ones,” said: “Those who are really indignant are the citizens of Rome.”
Taliban did not kill Afghan president’s brother: NATO
Investigations following the death of Ahmad Wali Karzai at his Kandahar home in July showed that the employee who killed him had learned he would be disciplined for misconduct and shot Karzai to avoid being publicly shamed, the official said.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, as part of a string of high-profile assassinations in recent months that underlined their reach even as a surge of foreign troops made gains in their southern heartlands.Other victims have included former president and government peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, a top police commander for the north, and the governor of Kunduz province. The NATO official did not question the Taliban’s role in these other killings.”It was a murder, not an assassination,” the NATO official said of Karzai’s killing, in a briefing to unveil NATO statistics showing a fall in Taliban attacks. “It wasn’t politically motivated and it wasn’t an insurgent masterstroke.”The NATO official said the killer, a guard force commander who ran checkpoints in the Kandahar area, had been reported to Karzai for his alleged mistreatment of local people.INFILTRATION CLAIMS QUESTIONEDThe official also played down Taliban claims that insurgent fighters and sympathizers were behind attacks by Afghan police or soldiers on foreign troops mentoring or working with them, that have killed dozens in recent years.”This is a gun culture, we’ve studied infiltrations and in the majority of cases there are no Taliban ties … insurgents will always claim every attack,” the official said.In the majority of “rogue” attacks, the gunmen were suffering from stress due to personal problems and had no connection with the Taliban.Some insurgents acquired police or army uniforms to evade security when targeting Afghans and foreigners, but were not actually members of the security forces, he added.Over the first nine months of the year, insurgent attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) rose 6 percent compared with the same period of 2010, but the overall number of attacks by insurgents fell around 8 percent over the same period, the official said.ISAF intelligence suggested they had switched to using roadside bombs to avoid losses on the battlefield and were fully aware that more civilian casualties would be incurred.Many insurgents were unable to pull off most of the attacks their leaders had called for, the official added.”There’s a disconnect between what they said they wanted to do and what they were actually able to do,” he said. He conceded however that the Taliban was a “adaptable and resilient” and gains made by coalition forces could easily be undone.”This is progress, it’s real progress, but I still classify it as fragile,” he said. “If we don’t continue the pressure, it will be reversible and durability will be in question.”Data compiled by the United Nations, however, showed a sharp rise in security incidents and higher numbers of civilian casualties over the first eight months of the year.
Banderas back with Almodovar for “Skin I Live In”
The Oscar-winning writer and director cast Banderas in his first film, 1982’s “Labyrinth of Passion,” and since then the actor has starred in Almodovar’s “Matador,” “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”In the director’s latest movie, “The Skin I Live In,” which opens in Los Angeles and New York on Friday and expands around the U.S. later this month, the 51-year-old Banderas portrays an amoral plastic surgeon who takes terrifying revenge on the young man who rapes his daughter.Banderas recently spoke with Reuters about making the film, working with Almodovar, his upcoming movie “Puss in Boots” and the secret of his long marriage to actress Melanie Griffith.Q: On the surface, “The Skin I Live In” is like a crazy modern opera — there’s sex, murder, rape, revenge — and plastic surgery. But there are also serious themes at work.A: “Yes, it reflects Pedro’s interest in the nature of identity. It’s about creation, and ultimately about survival. It’s a claustrophobic story about this doctor who tries this very disturbing experiment, and the subject of this experiment is a human being. And it takes you on a very, very rocky path of different emotions in a world and universe that belongs to a guy called Pedro Almodovar, who’s a genre to himself.”Q: You usually play warm, humorous characters, close to your own personality, but you’re as cold as ice in this. Was that a challenge?A: “It was one of the main comments that came up in rehearsals with Pedro. He said, ‘Forget about all the fun characters you’ve played for years, even the ones you played for me. In this, we start from zero. I want you to be almost soulless, with a total disaffection for anyone’s pain. You’re playing a semi-god, a creator.’ Which basically makes him a monster. But at the same time he’s an artist.”Q: You got your start with Pedro and worked with him on many of his best-known films. But you hadn’t worked with him since 1990 and “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down.” What happened? Didn’t he want to use you anymore?A: (Laughs) “No, nothing like that. In fact he called me twice about being in a film with him, but I was under contract in Hollywood to shoot other projects and I couldn’t get out of them. But we’ve always stayed in touch and are great friends.”Q: Has Pedro changed much since you first worked with him back in 1982?A: “Yes, of course. We’re older and he’s matured as a director and as a person. He’s become more austere — almost Japanese. He’s become more profound, more complex.”Q: You have some very energetic sex scenes with your co-star, Elena Anaya. How awkward is that for an actor?A: (Laughs) “For me it’s no problem at all! And they’re actually both very frustrated in the film, as they never actually get to finish making love. It’s always just sex interrupted. As I was doing the scenes, I was thinking, ‘What would Leonardo da Vinci have thought if he could have gone to bed with the Mona Lisa!‘“Q: Your next film, “Puss in Boots,” couldn’t be more different. It’s animated, fun, a spin-off from “Shrek.”A: “It’s the complete opposite of “Skin.” They’re further apart than L.A. and Moscow. This is the fourth film I’ve done as Puss in Boots and I love him. It’s got a great cast. Salma Hayek plays Kitty Softpaws and Zach Galifinakis is Humpty Dumpty, and in such a violent world, it’s great to be able to make kids and families laugh.”Q: Speaking of kids and families. You and Melanie have been married for 15 years now. What’s your secret?A: “It’s very complex and also very simple — we love each other. That’s the secret. Michael Caine very funnily once said the secret to a happy marriage is separate bathrooms, but we’re still in the same bathroom and the same bedroom.”Q: And you have two children, stepdaughter, Dakota, and your biological daughter, Stella. Are they following in their parents’ footsteps and trying acting?A: “Dakota, who’s 22 now, is doing quite a bit. She was in ‘The Social Network’ and she’s done a couple of independent movies. She’s a good actress.”
Sri Lanka People’s Leasing: good foreign interest in IPO
The leasing arm of People’s Bank is offering 390 million
shares for 18 rupees each, the biggest IPO since top mobile
operator Dialog Axiata offered $85 million in July
2005.”We are very optimistic that we are getting that 30 percent
subscribed from foreigners,” People Leasing Company’s CEO and
General Manager D.P Kumarage told reporters. “We have already
gone to Singapore, Hong Kong and India the results are very
encouraging.”
The island nation is increasingly looking for more longer tenure
offshore investments amid foreign outflows in stock market.NDB Investment Bank, a subsidiary of National Development
Bank that is one of the two IPO managers, said it had
arranged a road show with 25 high net worth investors in
Singapore, through new partner DBS Bank .However, Kumarage declined to elaborate on whether any
foreign investors have committed already.Since the government won a long-running civil war in 2009,
institutional investors have been looking for exposure to Sri
Lanka’s post-war rebound.The best option so far for most has been investing in
government securities, which has more on offer than the Colombo
Stock Exchange, which has a relatively small free float.Although the bourse was Asia’s best performer in 2009 and
2010, foreign investors were net sellers in both years, and the
exchange has recorded a net foreign outflow of 16.8 billion Sri
Lanka rupees ($152.5 million) this year.The central bank last week said the $50 billion economy has
commitments totalling $1 billion from Asian investors into the
share and corporate debt markets before year’s end. But it has
declined to give specifics.Kumarage also said that the company will allow a 22.5
percent allocation for retail investors, 37.5 percent for
institutional investors, and 10 percent for the firm’s
employees.The company said the proceeds will be used in part to
finance loan disbursements made to customers during the
remaining period of the current financial year.
($1 = 110.150 Sri Lanka Rupees)
