Aishwarya Rai To Attend Cannes 2012 Amidst Baby Weight Gain Controversy [PHOTOS]

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2011

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2011

Photo: Reuters

Fitch Affirms Romania's Long Term Currency Ratings

RTTNews - Friday, Fitch Ratings affirmed Romania's long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating or IDR at 'BB+' and long-term local currency IDR at 'BBB-', both with negative outlooks.

The rating agency also affirmed the country ceiling and the short-term foreign currency IDR at 'BBB' and 'B', respectively.

Romania had secured a US$26.4 billion international support package in May 2009, including a two-year US$17.1 billion IMF stand-by arrangement. The agency said its creditworthiness is supported by IMF-backed adjustment programme. But the authorities' ability to adhere to the tough policy strategy needed under the plan will be crucial.

Director in Fitch's Sovereigns Group, Andrew Colquhoun said The outlook for the world economy has deteriorated significantly since the ratings were downgraded last November, adding to the risks facing Romania as its economy adjusts to weaker net private sector capital inflows.

The IMF backed adjustment programme calls for a fiscal deficit of 5% of GDP in 2009. This will force the nation to adopt tight fiscal tightening of possibly around 3% of GDP in cyclically adjusted terms in the midst of severe recession.

Romania is one of the nations that are most exposed to external financing risk among 11 economies assessed in Fitch's May 2009 report.

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Photo: Reuters

AUDUSD stays above the rising trend line on daily chart

AUDUSD stays above the rising trend line on daily chart and remains in uptrend from 0.6284. The pullback from 0.8263 is more likely consolidation of uptrend. Further fall to test the support of the rising trend line is possible next week, as long as the trend line support holds, we'd expect the uptrend to resume, and one more rise towards 0.8500 is still possible. However, below the trend line support will indicate that the uptrend from 0.6284 has completed at 0.8263 level already. For long term analysis, AUDUSD has formed a cycle bottom at 0.6008 (2008 low) level on monthly chart. Further rise to 0.8300-0.8500 area is expected.

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2010

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2009

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2009

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2008

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2007

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2006

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2005

Photo: Photo: vikingrivercruises/hand

Viking River Cruises introduces four next generation vessels for 2012

As part of its $250 million fleet development program, Viking River Cruises unveiled details of its four, state-of-the-art vessels set to launch at the start of its 2012 sailing season.

The four vessels, namely, Viking Freya, Viking Idun, Viking Njord and Viking Odin are the first of Viking's Longships, a new class of vessel within the fleet that is marked by sophisticated and inviting design coupled with high-tech and patent-pending features.

Designed by renowned maritime architects Yran and Storbraaten, the new ships have been crafted like ancient Scandinavian vessels and were named after key members of the Norse pantheon.

For our 2012 new builds, we have stretched ourselves creatively and technologically, evaluating every aspect of the guest's cruising experience and asking ourselves how we can surpass it, stated Torstein Hagen, Chairman and CEO of Viking River Cruises.

By shifting the corridor one meter and reorienting the staterooms to create additional space, the new Viking Longships will boast the largest real suites in Europe.

There will be separate sleeping and living rooms in each of its Explorer Suites and Veranda Suites as well as more full-size rooms and full-size verandas than other European river cruise vessels. In addition, three-quarters of staterooms will feature a veranda, French balcony or both.

Photo: Photo: vikingrivercruises/hand

Obama marks 65th D-Day anniversary in Normandy

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday marked the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings on France's Normandy beaches, an important World War Two breakthrough in the battle against Nazi Germany.

Residents in Normandy towns decked their streets in U.S. and French flags in preparation for Obama's visit. Posters welcoming Obama read: Yes, we ca(e)n, a cross between Obama's election campaign slogan and the city, Caen which British and Canadian troops captured in 1944 after two months of bitter fighting.

Before taking part in the anniversary ceremony, Obama will hold talks in nearby Caen with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Among the issues on the agenda will be Iran's nuclear programme which Sarkozy discussed with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki when they met in Paris this week.

French officials said Mottaki brought a message from Tehran that the Iranians were putting the finishing touches to a counter-proposal to a package of incentives offered by France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia and China that seeks to encourage Iran to halt uranium enrichment.

The two leaders will then attend the anniversary event at the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, next to one of the D-Day landing sites, codenamed Omaha beach, where thousands of white stone crosses mark the graves of the U.S. war dead.

Obama has been seeking to repair ties with France and other European states who were alienated by his predecessor George W. Bush's go-it-alone diplomacy, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and his policies on climate change.

Obama will likely use his speech at the ceremony to say the United States and Europe are stalwart allies that need to work together to face global challenges including the financial crisis, terrorism along with the war in Afghanistan.

Obama's presence at the D-Day ceremony has almost overshadowed the event, to the point that Sarkozy's failure to invite Britain's Queen Elizabeth prompted accusations that he was trying to make space for himself next to Obama.

Paris said it had respected protocol. Britain said the queen had expected an invitation but had taken no offence, and London is sending Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prince Charles.

OMAHA BEACH

It is a tradition for American presidents to visit the landing beaches at Normandy where the June 6, 1944, invasion by British, U.S., Canadian and other troops began a rollback of the Nazi war machine entrenched in Western Europe and helped end World War Two the following year.

Ronald Reagan went to the D-Day beaches the 40th anniversary in 1984, Bill Clinton was there in 1994 for the 50th and George W. Bush was there in 2002, and in 2004 for the 60th anniversary.

Obama's visit to France is the final leg of a brief tour that has taken him to the Middle East and Germany, during which he has spoken about the relations between the Palestinians and Israel as well as his country's ties with the Muslim world.

In a landmark speech in Cairo Thursday Obama called for a new beginning in ties, and in Germany he toured the World War Two concentration camp at Buchenwald which he called a ultimate rebuke to Holocaust deniers.

Obama's great uncle Charles Payne, who was involved in the liberation of Buchenwald as a U.S. soldier but did not visit the camp with Obama, would be among the war veterans at the commemoration, a White House official said.

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2003

Photo: Reuters

Aishwarya Rai's Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet Looks

2002