Monday, August 30, 2010

Emmy Awards 2010 - Best Supporting Actress

British actress wins Emmy Award


30.08.10

It was left to Archie Panjabi to fly the flag for British acting talent at this year's Emmy Awards.
The London-born actress picked up best supporting actress for her role in the The Good Wife as the US honoured stars of the small screen at a lavish LA ceremony.
But elsewhere it was disappointment for thespians hailing from this side of the pond.
Michael Sheen, Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench were among the high profile nominees who failed to take to the stage and pick up a coveted gong.
Panjabi, who made her name in British hit films East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, won an Emmy for her role as a law firm's in-house private investigator in her hit TV show.
The 38-year-old triumphed over fellow The Good Wife actress Christine Baranski and Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss.
Sheen was nominated for best actor in a miniseries or TV movie for The Special Relationship, a film in which he reprised his role as Tony Blair.
But he lost out to acting great Al Pacino, who won a rare TV gong for You Don't Know Jack. Sir Ian also missed out to Pacino in the category.
Maggie Smith and Dame Judi were both nominated in the female equivalent section. But they lost out as Claire Danes who was given the nod for her performance in Temple Grandin.
Hugh Laurie missed out yet again on an Emmy. The comedian turned actor went home empty handed as Bryan Cranston took the title of outstanding actor in a drama for his performance in Breaking Bad.

Amjad Khan to leave Kent

27.08.10

Fast bowler Amjad Khan will leave Kent when his contract expires at the end of the season.
Leaving: Amjad Khan has so far taken 248 wickets in first-class cricket
The 29-year-old Copenhagen-born player burst onto the county scene in his first full season with Kent in 2002, claiming 63 wickets, and made his Test debut for England against West Indieslast year.
Kent chief executive Jamie Clifford said: "Amjad has been with the club for nine seasons and we are very sorry to see him leave. These are financially difficult times for the club and sadly we are not currently in a position to make Amjad a meaningful offer.
"This has been a very hard decision; however we believe that it is the right one given the financial context. I am sure the club's members and supporters will join me in thanking Amjad for all his efforts and wish him the very best as he moves on."
Khan, who has so far taken 248 wickets in first-class cricket, said: "I am sorry to be leaving having been with the club since 2002. Ideally I would have liked to have continued my career with Kent but it is not to be.
"I sympathise with Kent's off-field financial pressures and know that that the key people wanted me to stay. I look forward to new challenges with renewed vigour and believe I have what it takes to put myself back in the England frame."

London gears up for two-wheeled revolution

Alice Ritchie

July 30, 2010

The sprawling, congested city of London speeds towards a greener, nimbler future Friday with the launch of a new bike hire scheme aimed at kick-starting a cycling revolution ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
Commuters and tourists infuriated by heavy traffic and often overcrowded, unreliable public transport finally have a two-wheeled alternative, similar to schemes already in place in Paris, Shanghai and dozens of cities worldwide.
From Friday, they can pick up one of 6,000 bicycles from 400 docking stations in central London -- including at the British Museum and Buckingham Palace -- then pedal to their destination and drop it off, all for a small fee.
At least that's the plan. In Paris, a similar scheme is hugely popular but has also been marred by vandalism and theft, with organisers having to replace the entire bike fleet just two years after its launch.
Introduced by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, a keen cyclist himself, the project is intended to boost the number of bicycle journeys ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in the capital.
"It's part of a programme of things that are going to change the urban landscape, what it's like to live in and move around in London," Johnson told reporters earlier this month.
"In the run-up to the Olympics, it's part of our vision of a cleaner, greener, safer city, where you have a cycling revolution."
The London 2012 organisers want 100 percent of the spectators attending the Games to arrive having taken public transport, walked or cycled, and are investing heavily in the subway network and trains to make it happen.
A congestion charge introduced in 2003 has helped ease the pressure on city roads, but International Olympic Committee official Denis Oswald warned this month that despite progress in preparations so far, "traffic is an issue".
Introduced alongside the new cycle scheme will be a spider-like network of "superhighways" to carry cyclists safely in and out of central London from the suburbs. The route that will pass the Olympic site is due to open next year.
The programme has been dubbed the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme after its main sponsor, but organisers hope the city's residents will come up with something a little more imaginative when it gets going.
More than 10,000 people had signed up for a subscription to the bike hire scheme before it went live, and the mayor's transport advisor, Kulveer Ranger, told AFP: "We think the scheme is going to be very popular."
The mayor wants to increase the percentage of journeys made by bicycle in the city from the current level of about two percent to five percent, and cycle campaigner Tom Bogdanovicz said this was easily achievable.
"There is an appetite out there, it's just the conditions need to be right," Bogdanovicz, campaigns manager at the London Cycle Campaign, told AFP.
Surveys have suggested a third of Londoners would like to try cycling, he said, adding that they just needed a push -- the new scheme was "a great step".
Customers can chose from either a daily, weekly or monthly subscription, costing one pound (1.5 US dollars, 1.1 euros), five pounds or 45 pounds respectively, and the first 30 minutes of any journey they make is free.
Thereafter they will be charged on a rapidly increasing scale, while they must leave a deposit in case they do not return the bike or they leave it damaged -- a problem that has hit the Paris scheme.
Advertising giant JCDecaux, which runs the Paris scheme along with more than 60 across the world, was forced to replace 16,000 bicycles after they were returned with twisted handlebars, torn baskets and crushed wheels.
Another 8,000 disappeared, some of them turning up in Eastern Europe.
© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.