Simon Cowell 'in talks to reinstate Cheryl Cole'

Simon Cowell is in talks with US X Factor producers to get Cheryl Cole reinstated as a judge, his publicist has told the BBC News website.

Max Clifford said discussions were going on "at the highest level" between Cowell, FremantleMedia and Fox TV.

"Simon's position is clear - he wants her to be on the show if that's possible," Clifford said.

It was reported last week Cole had been dropped from the US show, although it was not officially confirmed.

"The reason Simon hasn't said anything is because he has been working to try and make sure she is on the show," Clifford said.

"But obviously there's other important people involved in this decision in America and they've all got to be happy.

"Hopefully the situation will be clarified as soon as possible, because it's been as clear as mud for the last week - but talking to him a couple of hours ago, I think that's a pretty fair summary of where we are," he added.

The News of the World reported on Sunday that Cole would be returning to the US judging panel later this week.

However a spokesman for the singer told the BBC he had "no comment to make" on the claim.

'No publicity stunt'

Clifford said that although Cowell wanted Cole on the show, he did not have the final say and "in two or three hours time it could change and they could announce she's not going to be on it".

The publicist also denied the uncertainty over the Girls Aloud singer's position on the judging panel was a publicity stunt.

"It's not a good publicity stunt and you don't need it," he said.

"When you've got such a hot show and so much at stake you really don't need [this publicity] because if it looks as if there's a weak link or problems, it doesn't excite and have the desired effect."

"Right now the last thing Cheryl Cole would have wanted would have been all of this," he added.

After months of speculation, it was confirmed last month that Cole had landed the coveted spot on the judging panel alongside Cowell, former American Idol judge Paula Abdul and music producer Antonio LA Reid.

However entertainment website TMZ said sources claimed producers dropped the singer amid concerns her Newcastle accent was too strong for US audiences.

more info : BBC

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25 killed in Syrian cities

A large protest in the northwest of Syria was the latest to turn off this, Syrian security forces arrested 25 people killed, a human rights organization said Sunday.
Protest against al-Jisr Shag Jam to attract thousands of people on Saturday, said an activist. Syrian troops fired on demonstrators, activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The group, which is regularly in touch with activists in different parts of the country, said 25 people were confirmed dead following the Saturday incident.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA, meanwhile, said four policemen were killed and more than 20 other people were wounded by "armed terrorist groups" that attacked buildings in the city.

The groups were seen using "various types of weapons," the report said. "The terrorist groups spread fear in the hearts of citizens who called upon the competent authorities to interfere forcefully to protect them and bring back security and stability."

Throughout the Syrian uprising, the government has described protesters as "terrorists" and "armed criminals."

The number of people killed in the government's crackdown on demonstrators has exceeded 1,000, according to the United Nations.

Despite international calls to halt its aggression and sanctions by the United States, Syria has shown no sign of backing down.

At least 51 children have been killed by security forces since the anti-government protests started in mid-March, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.

"Violence against children must stop and children's safety must be upheld at all times," said Marta Santos Pais, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative on violence against children.

more info : CNN

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Cisco predicts internet device boom

The number of internet connected devices is set to explode in the next four years to over 15 billion - twice the world's population by 2015.

Technology giant Cisco predicts the proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, connected appliances and other smart machines will drive this growth.

The company said consumer video will continue to dominate internet traffic.

It predicts that by 2015, one million minutes of video will be watched online every second.

The predictions come from Cisco's fifth annual forecast of upcoming trends.

Cisco's Visual Networking Index also estimated that at the same time more than 40% of the world's projected population will be online, a total of nearly three billion people.

The networking giant forecast that by 2015 internet traffic will reach 966 exabytes a year.

An exabyte is equal to one quintillion bytes. In 2004, global monthly internet traffic passed one exabyte for the first time.

But Cisco said alongside this quadrupling of traffic comes a number of very real concerns.

"What you are seeing is this massive growth in devices, the way devices are being used and are connected to the internet and what users expect them to do," said Suraj Shetty, Cisco vice president for global marketing.

"All this is putting a lot of pressure on the internet and the next generation internet faces issues handling not just the proliferation of these devices but how they are going to grow and be intelligent enough to be connected to you.

"The most important question we face is how to manage all this traffic intelligently," Mr Shetty added.

'Consumer riot'

Cisco's report underlines a very real problem the internet as a whole faces as it runs out of what is known as internet protocol version 4 or IPv4 addresses.

Every device needs one of these IPv4 addresses to send and receive data online.

When IPv4 was created in 1977, it was thought that its pool of 4.3 billion addresses would be enough to go around.

The rise in the number of mobile devices, laptops and connected machines has helped exhaust that stock.

In February, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority handed out the last batch of these addresses. Industry experts believe they could be all used up as early as August.

The solution is an alternative addressing standard approved in 1998 called IPv6.

There are trillions of these addresses but persuading companies to move to IPv6 has been a slow process.

"We are running out of IPv4 addresses and the adoption of IPv6 is going to be front and centre of everything for the next several years," Mr Shetty told BBC News.

"The implication for vendors like Cisco is that we have to come up with a platform that can help scale the internet to handle a lot of the traffic and to do it smartly.

"If you want to keep adding billions and billions of devices, the only answer is IPv6."

On 8 June, on what has been dubbed World IPv6 Day, Cisco will be joined by telecom giant Verizon, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, TimeWarner, Comcast and many others in testing IPv6.

This will allow everyone to check out the compatibility of websites and associated networking technologies with IPv6.

"It is clear that the move to IPv6 will be critical in supporting the total number of devices on the global internet going forward and it will be crucial for service providers and enterprises to start migrating to IPv6," said Ed Horely, co-chair of the California IPv6 task force.

"They need to do this to be able to meet the needs and demands of all the existing devices like cell phones, iPads and PC's but also all the future devices that we will want connected to the internet.

"IPv6 will be critical in avoiding the potential consumer riot due to lack of internet addresses for their portable devices to gain access to the internet and many of the cloud services being deployed today," Mr Horely said.

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Owen feels he still has 'a lot to offer' United

Manchester United striker Michael Owen feels he still has 'a lot to offer' after signing one-year contract extension.

Former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle United forward claims he is happy to play a bit-part role in a successful side rather than be part of a "poor team".

Manchester United striker Michael Owen feels that he still has "a lot to offer" manage Sir Alex Ferguson despite struggling for games last season.

The former England striker earned a place on the bench for the Champions League final defeat to Barcelona ahead of Dimitar Berbatov, but didn't feature and made just 11 Premier League appearances - only just qualifying for a winners’ medal as United secured a record breaking 19th league crown.

However, the 31-year-old, who signed a new one-year deal at Old Trafford on Wednesday, has maintained that he is happy with his role at United, insisting that the environment of success at the club ensures that he maintains his own performance levels.

“Training every day at a high standard keeps you performing at a high level. I'm sure I have a lot to offer and so does the boss, he Tweeted.

The former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle United man also revealed that he is enjoying being a part of a successful team, insisting that he would rather play a bit-part role for the Premier League champions than every game for less successful side.

“[I] prefer playing less often in a top team than every game in a poor team. Been there and didn't enjoy it,” he added.

more info : Goal

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UN accuses both sides of war crimes

Libya conflict: UN accuses both sides of war crimes

UN investigators have accused government forces in Libya of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Rights experts said they had found evidence of crimes including murder and torture, in a pattern suggesting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was behind them.

The UN mission also said opposition forces were guilty of abuses that would constitute war crimes, although they were not as numerous.

Earlier, Nato extended its mission in Libya by a further 90 days.

The UN investigators' report, released on Wednesday in Geneva, was carried out by a team of three human rights experts.

Migrant workers 'tortured'

The trio travelled to Libya to carry out the investigation, and met both sides in the conflict, as well as human rights groups and medical professionals, and families of those detained.

It based its findings on interviews with 350 people in government- and rebel-held areas of the country, as well as in refugee camps outside its borders.

"In accordance with its mandate to look also at crimes committed in Libya, the commission has... reached the conclusion that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed by the government forces of Libya," the commission said in a statement.

"The commission received fewer reports of facts which would amount to the commission of international crimes by opposition forces, however, did find some acts which would constitute war crimes."

The report raised concerns about alleged acts by Libyan rebels of torture and cruel treatment, particularly against migrant workers.

It will be debated by the UN human rights council in Geneva on Monday.

Earlier on Wednesday at a meeting in Brussels, 28 Nato member states unanimously agreed to prolong the alliance's mission in Libya.

The Libyan intervention was mandated by the UN - and led by France, Britain and the US until 31 March - when Nato took over.

It was given an initial 90 days, which would have run out on 27 June.

Aside from Nato members, the talks at alliance headquarters included ambassadors from the five non-Nato countries participating in the Libya campaign - Jordan, Qatar, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.

The decision was seen as practical in part - to accommodate the military planners of the contributing forces - but correspondents say it also aims to send a message of support to the rebels.

Nato intervened in Libya after the UN passed a resolution for the protection of civilians, amid a two-month revolt inspired by other uprisings in the Arab world.

It has intensified raids in recent weeks with attacks on command-and-control structures in the capital Tripoli.

source : BBC

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