Thousands heed Pakistan cleric's call for anti-graft protest

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Pakistanis converged on the capital Islamabad on Monday to back a Sufi cleric's call for an indefinite delay to elections and a crackdown on government corruption.

The cleric, Muhammad Tahirul Qadri, has shot to fame since he returned home from Canada weeks ago and demanded an interim government to root out corrupt and incompetent officials blamed for chronic energy shortages, stunted economic growth, flourishing crime and a failing campaign against the Taliban.

Many of the protesters were from a middle class that is being squeezed by soaring prices. They included police officers, teachers, civil servants, domestic workers and students.

The complaints were numerous and familiar: not enough jobs, poor schools and understaffed hospitals, no security and rampant corruption.

"It's a shame for us," said civil servant Huma Cheema, an earnest 30-year-old who wore glasses, a grey headscarf and a badge with Qadri's portrait. "When I came to this job, people were so surprised they could do something without paying me."

Cheema said people in her department demanded a kick-back for every file they handled.

A policeman said his colleagues took money to let criminals go and more if an innocent person wanted to file a case.

Qadri says he wants the judiciary to bar corrupt politicians from running for office and that the army could play a role in the formation of a caretaker government to manage the run-up to elections this spring.

Qadri's call has divided Pakistanis. Some see him as a champion of reform, like 25-year-old Gulshan Irshad, a state school teacher in the central Punjabi town of Gujranwala who said she had not been paid in two years.

"Officials want a bribe for releasing my salary but I won't give in to corruption," she said. "He (Qadri) is the first person who wants to change the whole corrupt system."

Others see Qadri as a possible stooge of the military, which has a history of coups and interfering in elections. They say his demands are unconstitutional and that replacing an elected government with an unelected one will not help accountability.

Leading television anchors have questioned the source of his funds for a lavish media campaign and fleets of buses to transport supporters. Qadri said most of the money was donated by people fed up with the current administration.

He had promised to bring a million people on to the streets to protest, but only a fraction of that number had joined the march in Islamabad by 1500 GMT.

"CHANGE PAKISTAN"

Activists set up microphones on a stage and handed out soup to demonstrators. Police in full riot gear were stationed on street corners and shipping containers had been placed across roads leading to government offices and embassies.

Organizers separated male and female protesters near the stage, which was guarded by riot police, coils of barbed wire and barricades.

"I brought blankets and food with me, believing we will stay and protest for two or three days," said Qamar Ghazi, 30, from the northern town of Mianwali.

As they waited for Qadri to arrive, some in the crowd, wrapped in blankets and waving Pakistani flags, voiced fear that their families would go hungry unless the economy improved.

"I've got three younger brothers and elderly parents," said Mohammed Safraz, a bakery assistant who was worried at the rising price of flour. "I'm here to change Pakistan for them."

Some in the march said they hoped to pressure the government to fire corrupt senior officials by closing down a swathe of the capital. It could hurt Qadri politically to go home without any concessions, said one politician at the event.

"This whole show can't be for nothing," said Ayaz Amir of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N. "That would be utter defeat."

(Additional reporting by Katharine Houreld and Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-heed-pakistan-clerics-call-anti-graft-protest-171330026.html

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Russian Princess Kristina Kovalenko Puts NYC ... - AOL Real Estate

Kristina Kovalenko, princess of the tiny Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (don't worry, it's not just you; we've never heard of it either), sure knows how to live like royalty in America. She's just put her posh New York City condo on the market, and it's worth every penny of the $8 million asking price.

Well, Kovalenko hopes it is, anyway, because she bought the glam pad for only $4.2 million in 2009 -- so she'd be turning quite the profit, The New York Observer reported. The location doesn't hurt the inflated price: Kovalenko's "palace" is just a half-block from Central Park, a coveted locale that all New Yorkers would kill for.

Let's go inside, shall we? Though Kovalenko (pictured at left with actor Michael Nouri) bought the home as a four-bedroom condo, she transformed one of the bedrooms into a walk-in closet (collective sigh and hurling of jealousy-fueled insults). The gigantic, "dramatic" living room off a gallery entry foyer gets astounding view of Manhattan. The master bedroom has a gas fireplace and marble en suite bathroom. Juliet balconies adorn the outside of the home. There's a chef's kitchen, hardwood floors, barrel vaulted ceilings, and the home is steps away from NYC's famous Lincoln Center.

We can't talk about this anymore, it hurts us. Natalia Gavrilov of Douglas Elliman Real Estate has the listing.

Find even more fabulous homes for sale in New York, N.Y., or search listings in your area.

See more Houses of the Day on AOL Real Estate.

Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email krisanne.alcantara@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to reply to each submission.)

More on AOL Real Estate:
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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/01/15/kristina-kovalenko-condo-for-sale/

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Pakistani clericTahirul Qadri: catalyst for change or military stooge?

(Muhammad Tahirul Qadri (C) , leader of Mihaj-ul-Quran movement speaks before a protest march from Lahore to Islamabad January 13, 2013.? REUTERS/Mani Rana)

A month ago, Muhammad Tahirul Qadri was living quietly in Canada, immersed in the affairs of his Islamic charity and seemingly far removed from the pre-election power games shaping the fate of politicians in his native Pakistan.

In the past three weeks, he has returned home to lead a call for electoral reforms that has earned him instant celebrity, sent a stab of anxiety through the ruling class and raised fears of trouble at a planned rally in Islamabad on Monday.

?Our agenda is just democratic electoral reforms,? Qadri told Reuters in the eastern city of Lahore, the headquarters of his Minhaj-ul-Quran religious foundation. ?We don?t want the law-breakers to become our lawmakers.?

Qadri?s platform hinges on a demand that the judiciary bars corrupt politicians from running for office and that the army plays a possible role in the formation of a caretaker government which is due to manage the run-up to elections this spring.

But his sudden ascent has prompted speculation that the military, which ruled Pakistan for decades, may be using him as a proxy to delay the polls and install a compliant interim administration to serve at the generals? pleasure.
Read the full story by Matthew Green and Mubasher Bukhari here.
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Source: http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2013/01/13/pakistani-clerictahirul-qadri-catalyst-for-change-or-military-stooge/

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Union minister busts Air India ticketing scam

Mail Today: A prompt minister has unearthed an anomaly that Air India authorities ? overlooked? for years. Minister of state for civil aviation K. C. Venugopal, while flying on an Air India flight, detected a ticket scam and virtually busted it singlehandedly.
Venugopal was travelling to Kochi on a Delhi- Kochi- Thiruvananthapuram flight on January 4. The minister noticed as many as 23 vacant seats on the flight. Suspecting something amiss, he asked for the passenger manifest but the crew failed to produce one. Venugopal then instructed his office to file a formal complaint with the chairman and managing director of the airline, Rohit Nandan, and it did so promptly.

Air India launched an inquiry into the complaint and by January 10, two officers from customer service ? Kalyani Atre and Marie Bernascone ? were suspended from duty. Interestingly, the Air India Employees? Guild has not asked for the revocation of the suspension of the two officers, but complained to the labour commissioner to go deep into the racket as it suspects the involvement of top officials of the airline in the malpractice. Venugopal decided to inquire into the reason behind the vacant seats as a Kerala minister was denied a seat on the same flight due to ? non- availability of tickets?.

Confirming the incident, Venugopal said many passengers were waitlisted due to overbooking. ? I inquired about the occupancy after seeing the vacant seats. I asked my office to lodge a complaint and ask for an inquiry.? He said it is possible that bulk bookings of unknown persons may have been done by manipulating the computer system. ? Air India promptly ordered an inquiry,? the minister told.

Sources said the cost of an Air India ticket on Delhi- Kochi- Thiruvananthapuram flight on that day was ` 30,000 and hence the airline lost ` 6.9 lakh on that particular flight. Upset over the losses, Venugopal, sources said, has now decided to examine the history of old bookings. The ticket ? inconvenience?, suspected to be caused deliberately by officials of the government airline to benefit private carriers, has been a regular phenomenon with Air India flights. Jitendra Bhargava, former executive director, Air India, said it could be due to a technical glitch in online booking.

? This kind of situation where a passenger is denied a seat on a flight has been there for a while and I have faced it myself. Much of this is to be blamed on systems error, which is often corrected by personal intervention and monitoring. I, too, had sorted out requests from passengers in the First Class category when they were denied seats citing ? booked status?, but in reality the seats were all unoccupied. The corrections were made possible only with direct checking.? Bhargava, however, did not rule out a ? foul play? by agents and said they should be thoroughly probed and if found guilty, should be blacklisted. ? It could be possible that some agents are diverting the traffic to other airlines for incentives and a malaise within Air India cannot be overlooked completely? it needs to be examined to the roots.?

The former executive director complimented the minister for highlighting the issue and taking disciplinary action. Kapil Kaul , CEO, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, South Asia, favoured a probe into the anomaly. ? Seat racket is rare in the current multi- carrier scenario. It was a usual thing when government- run carriers were monopolising the skies. I am surprised if it has happened when there are too many seats chasing the passengers. Although there can be a possibility when an entire group opted out at the last minute, but there should have been a correction by the airline in its system and for current seat status.

Nothing can be ruled out though? a thorough probe will only clear the picture.? Aviation experts smelt a racket behind the ticket non- availability. ? The minister may have accidently stumbled upon the racket on that particular day. What about other days? Hundreds of flights may have taken off with empty seats causing loss of crores of rupees to the national exchequer,? said an analyst. The national carrier has been bleeding at a time when private carriers in the country are making a killing. Official figures show that Air India suffered an average loss of ` 404 crore every month from March to October in 2012.

The figure was revealed recently when civil aviation minister Ajit Singh reviewed the functioning of the national carrier. An audit of the airline?s books showed that the company had a cash inflow of ` 1,348 crore per month while the outflow due to high fuel cost was ` 1,752 crore, leading to the cash deficit. Air India is currently reeling under an accumulated loss of over ` 28,000 crore.

Reproduced From Mail Today. Copyright 2013. MTNPL. All rights reserved.

Source: http://forum.santabanta.com/showthread.htm?311814-Union-minister-busts-Air-India-ticketing-scam&goto=newpost

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Police shoot armed man in Calif. movie theater

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Moviegoers at a San Diego theater ducked for cover as police stormed in during a movie and shot and wounded an armed domestic violence suspect pretending to be a patron.

The lights came on suddenly during a Saturday matinee screening of "Les Miserables" at Reading Cinemas Carmel Mountain in northern San Diego and two officers who had been going theater-to-theater spotted their suspect among the approximately 15 moviegoers, most of whom quickly hit the floor and started inching toward exits, police and witnesses said.

The suspect, Tom Billodeaux of Escondido, 20, at first obeyed the officer who approached him and put his empty hands up, but then "lowered them into his lap ... raised a handgun, and turned it toward the officer," police said in a statement.

The officer, who has been with the department for about 18 months, shot Billodeaux in the chest and arm, police said.

No one else, including the domestic violence victim in the initial incident, was hurt, police Lt. Ernie Herbert said.

Billodeaux was at a hospital Sunday morning and is expected to survive the shooting. He will be booked into county jail on his release, police said.

Officers reached by phone did not know if he has an attorney, and contact information could not be found for Billodeaux, his family or friends.

Billodeaux became the target of an intense police search after witnesses reported seeing him get into a fight with his girlfriend at her workplace across the street from the theater's surrounding shopping plaza, Lt. Ernie Herbert said.

Co-workers and witnesses helped the woman get away safely, but Billodeaux threatened them with a gun and ran to the shopping plaza, police said.

The owner of a business next to the Cineplex said police shut down the shopping center's parking lot and stopped every car to look for the man. Officers with dogs checked each store, while a police helicopter hovered above.

"There were 20 police cars blocking the entrance, then the fire truck and the ambulance rushed in," Steve Krongard, the owner of the Nickel City arcade, said. "Then we saw seven cops with what looked like rifles, then paramedics went into the theater."

Herbert said police then learned that an armed man had ducked into the Cineplex.

Capt. Terry McManus told U-T San Diego that police searched theater by theater and evacuated moviegoers until two officers spotted him in the sparsely attended showing of "Les Miserables."

The officers thought their lives were threatened, he said, "and more importantly, they thought the lives of others were in jeopardy."

McManus said the gunman never made any threats to others in the theater. He said the man had left a suicide note at his Escondido home before going to his girlfriend's workplace to confront her.

Just a day earlier at a movie theater in nearby San Marcos, someone fired a shot during a parking-lot fight that went through the lobby window and hit a woman working concessions in the arm, sheriff's officials said. No one has been arrested in that case.

The incidents came at the end of a week that brought a renewed focus on the July 20 shootings in a movie theater in Auroroa, Colo. that left 12 dead and 70 injured.

Suspect James Holmes, 25, was ordered on Thursday to stand trial.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-shoot-armed-man-calif-movie-theater-185758498.html

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Where Was Bailey's Wedding Filmed on Grey's Anatomy?

The circumstances around Bailey's (Chandra Wilson) wedding were less than ideal on Grey's Anatomy Season 9 (to put it mildly), but we can't be the only ones drooling over the actual location.

So, where was it filmed?

According to Jerrika Hinton (intern Stephanie), the answer is Calamigos Ranch, which is located in Malibu, CA, and hosts wedding, conferences, banquets, etc. in real life.

Sooo ... anyone else have a new location for their dream wedding?

Catch the next new episode of Grey?s Anatomy on Thursday, January 17, 2013, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Source: @hellojerrika

Source: http://feeds.wetpaint.com/~r/wetpaint/latest/excerpt/~3/SkW4qCXQhxc/where-was-baileys-wedding-filmed-on-greys-anatomy

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It's 'Dexter' vs. 'True Blood' this summer

Randy Tepper/Showtime

Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan.

By Anna Chan, TODAY

PASADENA, Calif. -- TV's favorite serial killer is coming back sooner than expected. David Nevins, Showtime's president of entertainment, announced Saturday to reporters at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour that "Dexter" would be premiering its eighth season on June 30 instead of its usual fall start.

"For the first time ever, we will move ?Dexter? to a new premiere spot in June," Nevins said. " ?Dexter? has already proven its value as a launch pad for 'Homeland.' ... Our plan is to harness the strength of these two shows to launch the next generation of great dramas on Showtime."

"Dexter," which will air at 9 p.m., will be the lead in to new drama "Ray Donovan" starring Liev Schrieber.

Though "Dexter" will be premiering several months earlier than usual, Nevins said that the show is prepared for a summer return.

"Dexter is coming back early, but they had a lot of advance warning," he said. "They?ve known where they were going. No less production time, a little less vacation time between seasons."?

Though producers and writers may know where the story's headed, Nevins wouldn't say whether this eighth season would be the show's last. "There?s a clear endgame in place. I can?t talk about it just yet," he said. "The decision of when to end 'Dexter' is ultimately a creative decision." He added that an announcement about the show's fate would be made before it returns.?

But "Dexter" will have some tough competition in its new time slot. HBO's "True Blood" also airs at 9 p.m. Sundays during the summer. (The network hasn't announced a premiere date yet for the vampire saga, but it generally kicks off in June) Nevins isn't worried.

"Sixty-five percent of the people who watch ?Dexter? are watching after that Sunday 9 o?clock, even when it was on in the fall," he said, and also pointed out that airing opposite Sunday Night Football in the fall was even tougher. "I think ('Dexter' and 'True Blood') do probably have overlapping audiences, and people will find them both. We?ve been through that before, the same way that people watch 'Homeland' and 'Boardwalk Empire.' They figure out how to do it. It reruns, and there?s DVR,? there?s on demand .... people don?t have to watch it in its time period."

What do you think about "Dexter's" earlier return? Will you be watching "Dexter" or "True Blood" at 9 p.m. Sundays? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/01/12/16483213-dexter-is-returning-this-summer?lite

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