CineAsia to Honor Intercontinental Group Holdings Limited’s Terry Lai and Rigo Jesu

Intercontinental Group Holdings Limited's Honorary Group chairman Terry Lai and adviser Rigo Jesu will be honored with the CineAsia lifetime achievement award in distribution at this year's convention.

The duo will be recognized at a Dec. 12 awards ceremony set to take place at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre.

"It is with great pleasure that we are able to honor Terry Lai and Rigo Jesu with the CineAsia 2013 lifetime achievement award in distribution," said Robert H. Sunshine, co-managing director of the annual convention. "Both Terry and Rigo have a long and acclaimed history that makes them a 'tour de force' in distribution, production, content creation, video, gaming and live performances."

Lai established Intercontinental Film Distributors (HK) Limitedin 1969 to produce and export Chinese films around the world. This success led to the establishment of Intercontinental Group Holdings Limited in 1996, which today is an organization more than 400 employees with a turnover in the HK$600 million range. Its businesses include film and video distribution, cinema operations, advertising and promotion services, video games distribution, e-commerce and character products merchandising.

Rigo began his career in entertainment at Capital Artists Limited, where he was promoted to the position of acting general manager in 1973. In 1980, he formed his own company, Jesu International Entertainment Limited, and later joined Intercontinental Film Distributors (H.K.) Limited, focusing mainly on the sourcing of foreign films and introducing them into Hong Kong. In 1985, he shuttered his business to focus on the growth and development of IFDL and its parent, Intercontinental Group Holdings Limited, as managing director. From 2005-11, he served as co-CEO of Intercontinental Group before shifting into the role of adviser.

CineAsia 2013 will take place from Dec. 10-12 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. It will feature screenings of upcoming Hollywood films, sponsored events, timely and informative seminars,and the CineAsia Trade Show.

CineAsia is produced by Prometheus Global Media, owner of The Hollywood Reporter.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/business/~3/uizC6PT9-wc/story01.htm
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Russian Internet Giant Yandex Acquires Top Movie Site KinoPoisk

MOSCOW – Russian internet giant Yandex has bought the country's most popular online movie site, KinoPoisk, for an undisclosed sum.

The move apes the business development model of Google and other popular global search engines on which it is modeled.

KinoPoisk -- known as the "IMDb of Russia," in a reference to the popular English-language online film domain -- attracts around 18 million visitors a month.

PHOTOS: THR Russian Edition Launch Party in Moscow

Like Google, Yandex is expanding and plans to merge its technical capabilities with KinoPoisk -- which means "cinema search" -- to create a video recommendation service, tips on where to see films locally, ticket and DVD purchasing options, and other services using its vast database and sophisticated algorithms.

The Russian search giant is understood to be in talks with all key Russian providers of premium video on-demand service to provide a one-stop shop for paid downloads.

The move comes at a time when Russian legislation is finally beginning to tackle Internet movie piracy and consumers are starting to demand better quality downloads than provided by the illegal "torrents" sites.

KinoPoisk, established in 2003 chiefly for a Russia's university student market, rapidly became a must for movie fans and is now one of the most popular sites on the Russian language internet, colloquially known as the "RuNet."

STORY: Russia's Search Engine Yandex Working on Video Control System

Like IMDb, KinoPoisk is based on aggregating film reviews, industry news and user-generated comments. The site has more than 100 million movie ratings and new ones are added at a rate of three million a month.

In a statement posted Tuesday on the site, founders, Vitaly Tatsiy, KinoPoisk's CEO, and Dmitry Sukhanov, its chief technical officer, said Yandex was "an industry leader that shares our values and way of thinking."

They promised fans of the site that the move marked "a new stage in the life" of the site and their "familiar and beloved KinoPoisk" would not disappear, but would "acquire new functions and features we are sure you will enjoy."

The terms of the deal have not been made public, but KinoPoisk is believed to be worth around $50 million, a sum revealed earlier this year when the site's chief backer AlloCine was looking to sell its 40 percent stake in the business.

Dmitry Stepanov, a spokesman for Yandex, said in a statement that the internet was increasingly where consumers turned for tips on which movies and TV shows to watch.

"In order to provide high-quality answers, we need to have a deep knowledge of the subject matter," Stepanov added.

"KinoPoisk has a huge collection of Russian-language information about films, serials, actors and directors, as well as user and expert reviews amassed over many years."

The site may retain its unique site and identity for a period, but industry observers in Moscow said Tuesday it was likely that its operating team, and possibly the site itself, would eventually be integrated into Yandex.

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/business/~3/Ir4PzcYEf1g/story01.htm
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US stocks edge higher as debt talks continue

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is edging higher as talks continue in Washington over ending a budget impasse that has partially shut down the government and threatened the U.S. with default.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61 points, or 0.4 percent, to 15,188 at midday Friday. The Dow surged 323 points on Thursday as investors hoped that signs of a compromise from House Republicans would defuse the standoff.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up six points, or 0.4 percent, at 1,698. The Nasdaq composite was up 18 points, 0.5 percent, at 3,778.

Safeway rose $2.03, or 6 percent, to $33.61 after saying it would sell its Chicago-area stores to focus on its more profitable businesses.

Gap fell $2.85, or 7 percent, to $36.63 after its sales fell in September.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-stocks-edge-higher-debt-talks-continue-155944395--finance.html
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Minor Lunar Eclipse to Grace Night Sky This Week

The moon will dive through Earth's shadow Friday evening (Oct. 18) in a lunar eclipse that will be visible to sharp-eyed skywatchers in much of the world.

Earth's natural satellite will pass through our planet's faint outer shadow, known as the penumbra, on Friday, with the time of deepest eclipse occurring at 7:50 p.m. EDT (2350 GMT). The effect of such a "penumbral eclipse" will be subtle compared to the dramatic spectacle of a total lunar eclipse, but it's still worth craning your neck skyward, experts say.

"Unusual shading on the southern half of the moon should be fairly plain," Sky and Telescope's Alan MacRobert wrote on Sunday (Oct. 13). "Look for the penumbral shadow to move from (celestial) east to west across the disc. You might be able to detect lesser traces of penumbral shading for about 45 minutes before and after mid-eclipse."

Weather permitting, observers in the eastern half of North America should get a good view of the eclipse. People in the Mountain and Pacific time zones won't be so lucky, however; for them, the deepest phase will occur in the late afternoon hours, before the moon rises. The striking penumbral lunar eclipse photos here show what the moon can look like during the event.

The penumbral eclipse will also be visible on Friday evening throughout the Caribbean and eastern South America, and successively later throughout the night and early morning hours in Europe, Africa and Asia, experts say.

Lunar eclipses occur when Earth's shadow blocks sunlight from reaching the moon. There are three different types of eclipse: total, partial and penumbral.

A total eclipse occurs when Earth's core (umbral) shadow falls across the moon, casting the entire satellite in shadow. During a partial eclipse, the umbra takes a bite out of part of the moon, while a penumbral eclipse involves only Earth's fainter outer shadow, causing a much less dramatic dimming.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing picture Friday's penumbral lunar eclipse or any other night sky view that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/minor-lunar-eclipse-grace-night-sky-week-111643344.html
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Mother of slain 'Baby Hope' says devastated by daughter's death in NYC: reports

By Chris Francescani

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The mother of "Baby Hope", who was murdered and packed in a cooler in 1991 and only recently identified, said she was devastated to hear about her daughter's death allegedly at the hands of a relative, according to news reports.

Margarita Castillo, 52, broke her silence on Monday, telling reporters from behind her Queens apartment door that she is "just waiting for justice" for Anjelica Castillo, who was four at the time of her death.

"We are not going to have peace," she said in Spanish, the New York Daily News reported. "You can't even describe a punishment."

Two sources close to the case told Reuters that a Manhattan grand jury is reviewing evidence against Conrado Juarez, 52, a relative of the victim on her father's side, who was arrested on Saturday in connection with the case.

Juarez confessed to the killing after more than 12 hours of interrogation, his court-appointed public defender, Michael Croce, said on Monday.

Juarez, who despite his age was Angelica's cousin, has been placed in protective custody on Riker's Island "for his own safety" Croce said, adding that Juarez "is in a state of shock."

Castillo, meanwhile, is cooperating with investigators, one of the two sources told Reuters on Monday.

ANONYMOUS TIP

The extraordinary brutality of the "Baby Hope" case shocked New Yorkers as news accounts cited investigators' findings about her final days.

Her bound, asphyxiated body was found packed beneath soda cans inside a cooler along a Manhattan highway in July 1991. She had been starved and sexually abused in the days preceding her death, investigators said.

New York detectives on the case for years had called the nameless child "Baby Hope" and paid for her funeral and burial when no one came forward to identify her - and vowed never to give up their pursuit of her killer.

A fresh lead emerged last summer after police cold case investigators launched a publicity campaign tied to the 22nd anniversary of the gruesome 1991 discovery.

A tip from the dead child's older stepsister led police to Castillo, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an unidentified law enforcement source late on Monday. Soon investigators approached Juarez, a dish washer at a Greenwich Village restaurant.

LINGERING QUESTIONS

Still, crucial questions surrounding the child's disappearance remain unanswered.

Chief among those is why no one - including her mother, father, other relatives, neighbors or any of Castillo's nine other children by three different men - ever reported the child missing.

On Monday, Castillo declined to answer that question, the Daily News reported.

A law enforcement source involved in the case said Castillo, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, may have feared deportation if she drew authorities' attention to her family.

The two sources close to the case told Reuters that Anjelica's parents split up in the late 1980s. Her father took Anjelica and two other daughters by Castillo to live with his niece and other relatives in another section of Queens.

Soon after the split, people familiar with the case said, Castillo went to the relative's apartment to retrieve her daughters, but only came away with one.

Anjelica and another sister stayed with their father and his relatives, until the father returned to his native Mexico. The two sisters were left with the relatives, the sources said.

Sometime soon after that, Anjelica disappeared from the apartment. Castillo told investigators that when she began to inquire about her daughter's whereabouts with the relatives the child had been left with, she was told that Anjelica was no longer living there, but little more, according to a law enforcement source.

Investigators are continuing to question Juarez and other relatives about the case.

(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Ken Wills)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mother-slain-baby-hope-says-devastated-daughters-death-235136497.html
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PS3 USB headsets won't work with PS4 at launch, patch to come 'in the future'

If you were planning to use a PlayStation Pulse headset with your PS4 at launch, Sony has some bad news. Until there's a system update "in the future" (still time to fix it before November, guys!) you won't be able to use any of the firm's USB headsets with the PlayStation 4, the company told Game Informer. However, any headset that uses a TOSlink cable to feed audio data -- meaning, most cans over $100 -- will still work. You won't be able to use said headphones or Bluetooth to chat, although Astro said it will patch the former in later. Apparently, if you want the PS4 experience to be as or more talkative than the PS3's, you'll have to resort to the pack-in earbud kit.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/10/ps4-headset-compatibility?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000589
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Is Miley Cyrus Directing a Porn Movie?

By Victoria Moorhouse

A lover of Mad Men, #ManicureMondays, statement shoes, and anything Boy Meets World.

Miley Cyrus has been known to shock (i.e. her nude attempt at swinging on a wrecking ball and that, well, suggestive photoshoot with Terry Richardson), but could a porn deal really be in the works? According to TMZ, the star could have an interesting offer from the adult entertainment biz.

OK! News: Here’s Where You Should Listen to Every Song on Miley Cyrus’ New Album, Bangerz

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But if you’re thinking Miley’s supposed offer included a starring role in a scandalous vid, (with lots of nude, vinyl undies) you’re wrong. TMZ reports that the company GameLink has reached out to Miley and has proposed the position of the director. Shocked? If this is true, that means Miley would possibly in charge of the vision of a porn flick.

Watch: 4 Semi-Scandalous Things Miley Cyrus Said to Matt Lauer

So how much would she be taking to the bank? TMZ reports that the company offered up the sum of $1,000,000. That’s right, folks. A million bucks!

Hmm.. Thoughts? Do we think this could really be?

Tweet your thoughts @OKMagazine and leave a comment below.

 

Source: http://okmagazine.com/get-scoop/is-miley-cyrus-directing-a-porn-movie/
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