One of the organizers of the first National Tea Party Convention is steamed about criticism of this week's event. Judson and Sherry Phillips, creators of Tea Party Nation, have been under fire for weeks over their convention, which opens Thursday at the Opryland hotel and features Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker at its closing banquet Saturday night. Some former supporters have objected to Palin's speaking fee -- reported to be around $100,000 -- and the $549 price of a convention ticket, saying they run counter to the grassroots nature of the Tea Party movement.

Sherry Phillips fired off a mass e-mail Saturday and posted the message on her husband's blog. She offered explanations for the withdrawal of some sponsoring groups and said two of the movement's GOP heroines in Congress -- Reps. Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn -- backed out because of confusion over ethics rules.

Phillips lashed out at certain former members of her group, saying they'd been "banned ... for reasons running the gamut from antagonism to passing on confidential information." And she denied claims that her husband wants to make big money from the Tea Party movement. Although Tea Party Nation is a for-profit corporation, Phillips said, their plan is for the convention to just break even, with "a few thousand dollars to cover local operating costs."

Read the complete story

“I want to say sorry to the whole nation for what I did today,î said Pakistan’s stand-in captain after he led his team to a two-wicket defeat against Australia in their final One-day International in Perth, where the hosts completed a 5-0 clean sweep of the ODI series.

“I’m really embarrassed over the whole incident. I don’t know why it happened but it did and I’m sorry,” stressed the senior allrounder, who has been tipped to take over as Pakistanís long-term captain.

But what happened in Perth on Sunday could jeopardise his possible future as Pakistan’s next captain.

“I was just trying to help us win our first match (on this tour),” Afridi said, adding “I still believe that we are a talented team and just need a win to lift ourselves.”

Afridi, 29, has not only admitted that he was involved in ball-tampering but might have also landed himself in deeper trouble by claiming that all international teams are involved in ball-tampering.

“All teams do it (ball-tampering). It’s just that I did it in a different way and was caught,” he said. Afridi, who is Pakistan’s Twenty20 skipper, will miss his team’s tour-ending Twenty20 International against Australia at the MCG on February 5.

Internet giant, Google is still running under controversies over its bid to secure digital rights to millions of books. Its rivals want to block a revised legal settlement that would unlock a vast e-library. Google's $125 million (£77.5 million) tie-up with US publishers and authors would put a stop to the competition and drive up prices in the upcoming electronic book market.

The opponents also urged that the e-books will give Google a chance to create more traffic and develop its leadership in the Internet’s lucrative search and advertising market. Google defies the critics and argues that the agreement will benefit society by making it easier to see and potentially buy hard-to-find books that have only been available in print in a few of libraries.

The final hearing of this case will be held on February 18. The Department of Justice warned the original settlement probably would violate anti-trust and copyright laws so the government should file its opinion about the revised settlement by February 4.

"Controversies in Art," the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s four-week reading group, will focus on the most pressing controversies in the art and museum communities. The group will meet on Wednesdays, Feb. 3, 10, 17, and 24, at 7 p.m., at the Clark. Books are available for purchase from the museum shop. Free; space is limited. RSVP to 413-458-0524.

Participants will discuss a range of subjects including the impact of war and the disputed nature of cultural property. Books to be discussed are "The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities - From Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums," 2007, by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, on Feb. 3; "The Rape of Europa:

Read the complete story

As the administration approaches its 100th day in office, yet another polling body has given the President a middling approval rating amid a slew of controversy. The study by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), to be published Wednesday, rates President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s popularity at 68.9 percent.

The report comes on the heels of a finding by another polling body, Indobarometer, which gave Yudhoyono an approval rating of 75 percent — a 15 percent drop from its August 2009 survey. Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political analyst Arbi Sanit said the President had steered clear of the Bank Century fallout, since the investigation into the bailout was still underway.

“There are indications [he may be implicated], but the evidence isn’t strong enough,” he said. “He hasn’t been proven guilty.” Yudhoyono, he added, had also struck a chord with the public by reinstating Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, who had been suspended for alleged bribery.

Read the complete story

Somewhere just after 12:30 p.m. on a cold Wednesday this month, the image of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as a Western pragmatist and wily political deal-maker evaporated in a cloud of heated rhetoric.

After months of doing battle with the oil and gas industry, the typically cautious Salazar lost his cool in a media call Jan. 6, blasting companies for acting like they were "kings of the world" and treating the country's public lands as their own personal "candy store."

If energy companies didn't know it already, the Bush era of free-wheeling oil and gas drilling across the West was officially over.A year into his tenure as the 50th secretary of the interior, Salazar has surprised both fans and critics.

Read the complete story

“We have decided to raise the [IPL snub] issue before the International Cricket Council (ICC) against India for not picking any of our players, who are Twenty20 world champions,” Sports Minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, after meeting the PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt here at the NCA, told reporters on Friday.

Both held media conferences separately after their meeting during which the PCB chairman gave a detailed presentation on different cricket-related matters to the sports minister. Asked when the BCCI officials had said they had no control over the IPL since it was a commercial organisation what the ICC could do to help Pakistan, Ijaz Butt said: “After all we should do something to build pressure on the IPL.”

On Pakistan’s possible boycott of the hockey World Cup to be held in New Delhi next month, the minister said the event couldn’t be avoided. “Since the World Cup is an international commitment and the IPL is a separate case, we should go to India to play in the [hockey] World Cup,” he said. “We should beat India in the opening match [of the World Cup] which will be the best way to respond.”

Read the complete story

Pakistan has cancelled a visit to India of its parliamentarians after all of its players were left unsold in a lucrative cricket tournament in India. A group of 11 Pakistan players who were supposed to take part in the event had made themselves available for the auction in Mumbai yesterday, but none of them were bought. Speaker National Assembly Ms Fahmida Mirza announced cancellation of a visit to India after opposition leader said that opposition lawmakers will not join the delegation as protest.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, leader of the opposition Muslim League-N party told the House that his party MPs would not travel to India as protest. The Speaker announced that the visit has been cancelled. The country’s cricket board welcomed the National Assembly Speaker Dr. Fehmida Mirza’s decision of not sending any parliamentary delegation to India in response to the treatment meted out to Pakistani Cricketers in the auction.

“I thank the Speaker and the august House for the Solidarity shown with our players”, said Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Mr. Ijaz Butt. “This decision will show the world that we support our National Heroes and that we stand together as a nation” Last year Pakistan's players were not allowed to travel to India for the last edition of the IPL because of the Mumbai terror attacks and, although the tournament was moved to South Africa, they were still barred from participating.

Before the start of the second edition of the tournament last year, franchises who had Pakistan players in their squads were advised to either terminate their contracts or suspend them. But contracts for all players were terminated in December last year when IPL chairman Lalit Modi revealed the players had failed to meet a deadline to submit clearances. Nisar said that PML-N will continue boycott of Indian visits until the issue is resolved.

Within hours of a massive earthquake that devastated much of western Haiti on January 12, charities, government officials, and celebrities responded by announcing various ways in which people might help.

Millions of dollars was sent by global citizens via cell phone text message to the American Red Cross and Yele Haiti Foundation, while tens of millions more was quickly raised by World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International, Oxfam, Unicef, Mercy Corps, and other organizations through various website, television, and radio appeals.

Read the complete story

I don’t react to provocative questions like I used to. Call it maturity,” smiles Salman Khan enigmatically as he veered the thread of conversation towards his new film Veer. And away from his personal loves and pet hates.

As the roar of his adoring fans echoed around him in the closed confines of a multiplex in the City, almost threatening to escalate into a stampede, Salman kept his equanimity and talked about his latest film

“It is an epic set in a turbulent period of Indian history complete with kings, armies, blood thirsty wars and a larger than life hero,” he says. Of course, there is the beautiful princess too, the new and much touted Zarine Khan already famous for her uncanny resemblance to Katrina Kaif.

Read the complete story