India, Bangladesh jointly begin Tagore celebrations

The 150th Birth anniversary celebrations of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore were jointly inaugurated today by Vice President Hamid Ansari and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in Dhaka. Addressing the inaugural function at the Banga Bandhu International Conference Centre, the Vice President said today's celebration was a momentous occasion and first of its kind in the history of the two nations. He said, Rabindranath Tagore represented the common heritage that has influenced the intellectual and cultural ethos of the two nations in an enduring and distinctive manner.

Ansari said that the Bangladesh prime Minister's visit to India last year laid the road map for enhanced bilateral relations. He reiterated India's commitment to address the developmental priorities of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina stressed on the need for combined efforts in the South Asian region to eliminate poverty. She released four commemorative stamps on the occasion. She also presented the Vice President with the photographs of the Padma - Boat in which Tagore had produced some of his finest literary works during the time he spent in Bangladesh. Ansari in his inaugural speech said Tagore had closely associated himself with the toiling masses.

The inaugural ceremony also included cultural performances and lectures by artists and experts on Rabindranath Tagore from both India and Bangladesh. Immediately after the conclusion of inauguration ceremony, The Vice President left for New Delhi by a special flight. He was seen off at the airport by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr.Dipu moni.

The year-long celebrations will kick-off in New Delhi tomorrow. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will launch the celebrations in the presence of National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi and release a slew of ommemorative items including a pack of 6 DVDs of films based on Tagore’s stories.

India and Bangladesh had in 2010 decided to jointly celebrate the 150th anniversary of Tagore.

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Samsung, HTC and Apple Fuel Smartphone Market Growth [STUDY]

The worldwide smartphone market has grown 79.7% year over year, with smartphone vendors shipping a total of 99.6 million units in in the first quarter of 2011, market research firm IDC reports.

Although Nokia is still the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer, with a 24.3% market share, its decline has been amazingly fast – in Q1 2010, Nokia held over one third of the market, with a 38.3% share.

Although Nokia’s smartphone shipments have actually grown from 21.5 to 24.2 million units, everyone else has been growing much faster. Samsung’s market share increased from 4.3% to 10.8%, while HTC has grown from 4.9% to 8.9%. Samsung’s growth has been particularly impressive, with shipments increasing 350% – from 2.4 to 10.8 million units.

Apple is also showing steady growth, having captured an 18.7% market share in Q1 2011, compared to 15.7% in the same period last year. Research in Motion is holding third place overall with a 14% market share, but, like Nokia, it’s been growing much slower than everyone else, having increased shipments from 10.6 to 13.9 million units in Q1 2011

With Nokia looking at a tough period of transition from Symbian to Windows Phone 7, we can only see its market share declining in 2011, and we’re sure Android manufacturers, led by HTC and Samsung, as well as Apple will be there to grab it.

“The rise of Android as a prominent mobile operating system has allowed several suppliers to gain share quickly. Also, the relatively nascent state of smartphone adoption globally means there is ample room for several suppliers to comfortably co-exist, at least for the short term,” says Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

IDC recently predicted that the smartphone market will grow 49.2% in 2011, with Android dominating the smartphone OS market by 2015 with an overwhelming 45.4% share.

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Bollywood Buzz: The Khans go head-to-head....

If all goes well, it will be Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan in a triple Khan whammy for YRF in 2012, when they embark on the project to revive themselves as the numero uno banner in Bollywood.

Salman will feature in a Kabir Khan film, Aamir in Dhoom 3 and SRK in the Yash Chopra helmed project by Yash Raj Films.

In a stark comparison to the way they functioned earlier, but getting actors at cheap prices when they were doing very well, the Chopras are now churning out huge sums of money to sign on the stars.

Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan are being paid whopping sums of money to star in the films being made by YRF.

Salman in fact has seen the same contract that Aamir did with YRF to use it as a benchmark to create his contract. An unconfirmed story doing the rounds is that Priyanka Chopra refused to allot as many dates as Salman Khan and that she is supposed to be replaced by Katrina Kaif in the film opposite Sallu.

Kat may have split from Sallu but then she does not have big films in hand and hence is supposed to have given the nod to every condition imposed by YRF.

Kabir Khan, who is the fourth Khan in the Khan-daan, had asked his heroine from New York to fit in and she gladly responded.

Kabir is trying to cajole Salman Khan to work in the film from October onwards even though Salman has given dates to Kick and Sher Khan. 

Priyan’s Octo-opus

Priyadarshan is now one sought after filmmaker. He is busy with many films both commercial as well as the arty types that give vent to his creative juices.

And at the same time the actor is also shooting various commercials that give him the money to take his life ahead.

Priyan has been shooting an ad film for a brand called Mannapuram Gold. Priyan had already shot an ad with Akshay Kumar earlier for this. But this one is an Octopurse.

Priyan will be making eight times the money because he is shooting an ad in eight languages for this finance company from the South.

The ad which is about a loan in exchange for gold has Akshay Kumar (in Hindi), Venkatesh (in Telugu), Puneet Rajkumar (in Kannada), Vikram (in Tamil), Mohanlal (in Malayalam), Mithun Chakraborty (in Bangla), Sachin Khedekar (in Marathi) and Uttam Kumar (in Oriya). 

All these actors are flying in to Mumbai from different parts of the world to work in the ad film.

Abhay and Dibakar again

Abhay Deol is not exactly churning out hits, but then that has not stopped filmmakers from signing on the actor for their movies.

A lot of people who are signing Abhay on for their films nowadays are first timers or people who have worked with him before.

Navdeep Singh who made Manorama Six Feet Under is repeating him in another venture for iRock Films.

The film is titled ‘Shaadi of The Dead’. Dibakar Banerjee made ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’ with Abhay Deol and is repeating him in the film ‘Shanghai Express’ which also stars serial kisser Emraan Hashmi in it.

It is being said that Abhay and Dibakar were having a long discussion on films and scripts when this new subject came up and the two decided to give it one shot. Dibakar who has made films earlier like ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’ was recently in the news when starlet Payal Rohatgi accused him on behaving indecently with her by asking her to expose her tummy in private.

Payal has been doing more than her share of exposure in public and was perhaps surprised at being asked to expose in private.

Coming back to Abhay, the film he and Dibakar are discussing is a fresh take on the underworld with him playing the central character in the film. 

Prakash's diva-stating canine! 

Back in Mumbai after completing shooting for Prakash Jha's upcoming film 'Aarakshan' — based on the Indian government's reservation policy — which is now in post-production, the counting of the monies has begun. And production manager was in for a shock.

The budget and expenditure for the Bhopal-based shoot sky rocketed, all thanks to Jha's pricy, and rumour has it, sexy, Diva! Our source reveals Prakash is very fond of his black "bitch" (relax, it really is a dog!).

"She looks damn sexy. She is named Diva. While the production manager was finishing up accounts, he discovered the expenditure on Jha's favourite Diva turned out to be exorbitant. She had enjoyed luxury of all sorts with the lavish lifestyle of a star!" says the source. 

Diva is a cross breed between a spaniel and a poodle. The canine is being taken care of by Jha's daughter. "Diva is with them for almost one year now. She visited Prakash's production house before going on shoot to Bhopal. But once there, the four-legged was never denied any luxuries. Diva's daily food routine comprised of milk, biscuits, juices and her favourite food bones.

Surprisingly, Diva is also fond of fresh juices," adds the source who couldn't believe his own eyes looking at the amount which was spent on her.

Meantime, Jha loved shooting in Bhopal but refused to comment on his pet, which he thought might stir up controversy. He said, "People are really very good. Shooting on a huge canvas with a large crowd was not difficult — no one disturbed my shoot. I find the people of Bhopal decent enough. Yes, I am busy with the routine post production work at the moment."

The movie stars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Saif Ali Khan, Manoj Bajpai and Prateik Babbar and is slated for an August release.

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ShahRukh Khan turns lyricist for new movie

Multi-tasking is the new byword in Bollywood. With actors turning producers, and directors making a shift to the other side of the camera, lines of professional distinction seem to be blurring in B-town.

Take Shah Rukh Khan for example. After scaling multiple heights in acting and production, and also having dipped his toes in singing with Apun bola from Josh, King Khan is now all set to turn lyricist for his upcoming film Always Kabhi Kabhi.

SRK has penned a peppy, youthful number in keeping with the movie's theme, which will be composed by Pritam, and will also perform an item number on the track. The film marks the directorial debut of television host Roshan Abbas.

"Pritam, and Roshan were stuck for the right punch lines for the song and Shah Rukh spontaneously came up with some brilliant lyrics," said a source. With his track record, we are sure Khan will be hitting all the right notes in this field as well.

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iPhone software update squashes location-data 'bugs'

(WIRED) -- On Wednesday, Apple released a software update for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices, fixing a flawed location-storage method that raised privacy concerns last month.
The update, iOS version 4.3.3, reduces the size of the file that stores geodata on iOS devices -- meaning it will no longer contain a history of location data going back as far as one year ago.
Additionally, with the update installed, iTunes won't back up the iOS device's location database file, meaning the geodata will no longer be stored on your computer.
Last, when customers disable the Location Services setting on their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, it deletes all the information stored in the location file, according to Apple.
The software update comes in response to a security issue illuminated by two data scientists, who discovered that an unprotected file inside Apple's iOS software stores a log of geodata accompanied with time stamps, creating a digital trail of a customer's general moves for the past year.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that even when location services were turned off on the iPhone, the device was still collecting geodata.
Apple eventually explained that iOS devices are not actually tracking a customer's precise movements, but rather, iOS devices are collecting information about nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi access points, which helps speed up location services.
The company added that "bugs" caused iOS devices to continue storing location data even when location services were turned off. Apple also said it made a mistake by making the location database file too large.
The iOS 4.3.3 update is a free download available through iTunes. The download is 666 megabytes large.

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Manchester United through to face Barcelona in final

(CNN) -- Manchester United will face Barcelona in the Champions League final after the English Premier League side thrashed Schalke 4-1 at Old Trafford on Wednesday for a comfortable 6-1 aggregate win.
Leading 2-0 from the first leg in Gelsenkirchen last week, Alex Ferguson's side were always in control against their German Bundesliga opponents and will now take on tournament favorites Barca at Wembley on May 28 in a repeat of the 2009 final in Rome -- when the Spanish giants ran out 2-0 winners.
United opened the scoring in the 26th minute when Darron Gibson's defence-splitting pass found Antonio Valencia free on the right, and the winger slotted the ball past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Barcelona held but go through to final
And the same two players combined for the second goal six minutes later, this time Valencia laid the ball on for Irishman Gibson, whose shot went in off the post following a fumble by the highly-rated Neuer.
Schalke pulled a goal back before half-time when Jose Manuel Jurado fired home a fine strike from the edge of the penalty area.
The players I brought in did me and the club proud, it is fantastic to reach the final again
That meant Schalke needed three second-half goals to progress, but they never looked like troubling United and a quickfire double from midfielder Anderson saw the home side complete the job in style.
First the Brazilian turned in the area to finish off Nani's pass from the right in the 72nd minute.
Then, just four minutes later, Anderson added his second when he was left unmarked in the area to convert Dimitar Berbatov's cross from the right.
The result vindicated Ferguson's decision to make nine changes to his side, with one eye on Sunday's crucial match at home to Chelsea, where a victory will virtually clinch the Premier League title.
Ferguson told ITV Sport: "The players I brought in did me and the club proud, it is fantastic to reach the final again. I have always said that our record in Europe is not good enough for a club of our size but reaching our third final in four years is going some way to changing that."

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New Intel tech will create smaller, faster microchips

San Francisco (CNN) -- When Intel's drive to shrink its processors while maintaining speed began to hit a brick wall, its silicon-chip wizards rethought conventional design wisdom.
The result of a decade of research is a processor called Ivy Bridge, which will be smaller, faster and -- perhaps most important in this mobile world -- more energy-efficient.
Intel demonstrated prototype desktops, laptops and servers running the new chip at a news conference Wednesday. It won't be ready for mass production until later this year or early next year, executives said.
The company declined to name potential hardware partners, but Intel is the largest provider of processors to PCs and laptops, including those from Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard.
Intel has virtually no presence in smartphones and tablets, which are among the fastest-growing electronics sectors. This new design is expected to propel the company into the mobile arena, executives said.
Inside Intel's new 3-D transistor
ARM Holdings, a British company chip developer, dominates much of the mobile market, thanks to its efficient processors that require little battery power. Nvidia, another chip maker, has also ramped up development of mobile processors.
Unlike Intel, ARM doesn't manufacture its own chips to sell in volume. Apple, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and others license ARM's chip designs for their products. Many gadget makers that pay to use ARM's designs also buy Intel chips for their computers and servers.
Despite promises, Intel has failed to deliver a low-power chip suited to miniature gadgets like phones and tablet computers, with their relatively tiny batteries. Partner electronics makers and investors are getting restless.
The development Intel showed Wednesday was a decade in the making, said Mark Bohr, an Intel senior fellow.
It employs a three-dimensional structure to pack more processing channels into each transistor, the microscopic unit that amplifies electronic signals and is a building block of all electronic devices.
Traditionally, transistor channels have been situated flat on a surface. Intel engineers took these channels, which serve as the neurons for a computer's brain, and realigned them to fit into smaller spaces.
Intel called the design "a fundamental departure" from the two-dimensional transistor structure that has powered electronics within computers, cars, household appliances and other devices for decades.
Intel said the 3-D transistors are so small that more than 100 million could fit on the head of a pin. The original transistor, built by Bell Labs in 1947, was large enough to be pieced together by hand.
"Transistors have entered the third dimension," Bohr said onstage.
He said the new design will help the company push the limits of Moore's Law, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's theory that the number of transistors able to fit on a microchip doubles every two years or so.
The chip architecture used in Ivy Bridge, a version designed for full-powered computers and servers, will make its way into other areas, such as Intel's mobile-focused Atom processor, said Dadi Perlmutter, a vice president for Intel's architecture group.
"This is one of the fundamental things that we believe is going to keep us extremely competitive," Perlmutter said, "and definitely going to help us to move ahead of the ARM system because we have this advantage in processing technology."
An Atom processor using the new 3-D transistor layout could come as early as mid- to late 2012, said David Kanter, a technology analyst.
"The smartphone market is just sort of emerging," Kanter said. In processor research and development, "Intel has a one-year lead over everyone, and now it's widening."
The increase in performance with Ivy Bridge compared with previous generational improvements in processors is "really, really big in context," Kanter said.
Ivy Bridge is 37% more efficient than current top-of-the-line Intel chips at low voltage, making this Intel's "most significant technology announcement of the year," a spokesman said.
Bohr, the Intel fellow, acknowledged as much, saying: "We've never achieved that sort of performance gain on low-voltage on any previous technology."
Being able to use the 3-D method to mass produce chips could give Intel a three-year lead over competitors, Bohr said. The concept was first demonstrated by Intel in 2002.

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Bin Laden's theology a radical break with traditional Islam

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor

(CNN) – Osama bin Laden wore the mantle of a religious leader. He looked the part and talked a good game, but his theology was a radical departure from traditional orthodox Islam.

The pitch to join al Qaeda did not start with an invitation to put on a suicide vest but, like other religious splinter groups and cults, took advantage of disenfranchisement and poverty.

Bin Laden had no official religious training but developed his own theology of Islam.

"We don't know that (bin Laden) was ever exposed to orthodox Islamic teachings," said Ebrahim Moosa, a professor of religion and Islamic studies at Duke University.

The writing of ideologues in the Muslim Brotherhood influenced bin Laden heavily, Moosa said.

"He takes scriptural imperatives at their face value and believes this is the only instruction and command God has given him - unmediated by history, unmediated by understanding, unmediated by human experience. Now that's a difference between Muslim orthodoxy and what I would call uber- or hyperscripturalists," Moosa said.

The vast majority of Islamic scholars and imams say the teaching of the Prophet Mohammed happened in historical context that needs to be understood when reading and interpreting the Quran.

"If the likes of bin Laden, if they had spent one day or maybe one month possibly, in a madrassa (Muslim religious school) and understood how the canonical tradition is interpreted, they would not go onto this kind of destructive path they go on," Moosa said.

In the entire leadership structure of al Qaeda, "no one has had any sort of formal religious training from any seminary," said Aftab Malik, a global expert on Muslim affairs at the United Nations Alliance of Civilization. He is researching a Ph.D. on al Qaeda.

"What you had was an engineer and a doctor leading a global jihad against the whole world," Malik said. "That would never happen in normative Islam. It's just such an aberration."

John Esposito, a professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, said bin Laden "appropriates Islam ... to legitimate and mobilize people."

"If you look at bin Laden's early statements and arguments, his interview with Peter Bergen on CNN ... lots of people would see it as something that would go down very well not just with many Muslims but among many analysts when he talks about longstanding political grievances," Esposito said.

"What bin Laden ends up doing is saying anyone who disagrees with him, any Muslim, is in fact an apostate," he said. That includes Muslims who would not join his fight, he said. "It's a distortion of the traditional teaching, and it just extends the parameters and the consequences in order to legitimate how when you're fighting on the ground you're fighting against your own people."

Malik said, "The key issue is of apostasy," referring to when a person leaves a faith. "One of the things Osama bin Laden deviates from is calling those people who do not implement Sharia, or God's law, on the planet as apostates. If they did not implement Sharia, they deserved death. This is a major departure from normative Islam."

"The second major deviation is the targeting of noncombatants. Even when you read in the Quran there are injunctions for fighting. But before and after the injunctions for fighting are calls for restraint. 'Do not attack monks, do not attack women, do not attack children.' And these are numerated heavily in the Hadith, which are uncontested," Malik said, referring to the sayings of the prophet and his close companions.

"What bin Laden has done is ignored those injunctions," he said. "The reason he has ignored them, in Osama bin Laden's theology it's basically a theology of anarchy.

"Once you let the genie out of the bottle you can't put it back in, and that's the big difference between al Qaeda theology and normative Islam. Normative Islam has heavy constraints - very, very heavy."

Bin Laden's theology is waning greatly in influence, Esposito said, in part because of the rise of the Arab Spring, the revolts of people on the street across the Middle East that have overthrown regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

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Obama's no-win decision on bin Laden photos

Editor's note: Rick "Ozzie" Nelson is the director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization.
(CNN) -- President Barack Obama faced a no-win decision over whether to release photographs of Osama bin Laden's corpse. In the short term, the president was right not to make public the graphic images, because doing so might inflame public opinion in Muslim-majority countries and actually feed support for al Qaeda's agenda.
In the longer term, however, Obama may be forced to release the photos -- with time, conspiracy theories are likely to mount, and the photos may eventually be leaked anyway. And, of course, visual proof of bin Laden's death would serve as a powerful endpoint in this chapter of American history.
There were compelling arguments on both sides of this issue. Releasing the photos would have mitigated skepticism about bin Laden's death, hopefully snuffing out any nascent conspiracy theories about the late al Qaeda leader's fate. For a president who has already been forced to dignify inane and insulting charges about his origins, the chance to avoid another round of absurdity must have been tempting.
Releasing the photos also may have had the less obvious benefit of deterrence if the images had a visceral effect on other terrorists, militants and rogue leaders. It is entirely possible that seeing the photos could lead such individuals truly to understand that their murderous ways place their lives at risk.
Bin Laden photos won't be released Bin Laden's final moments Remembering the fallen

Another view: William Bennett offers 4 reasons for releasing bin Laden photos
Finally, precedence also exists in these matters. Images of Saddam Hussein's brutal and inhumane sons, Qusay and Uday, were released during the Iraq war -- although the bodies were somewhat cleaned up -- as were photos of the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
On the other hand, there were significant downsides to releasing the photos. For supporters of al Qaeda, images of a bloodied and disfigured bin Laden may have become a cause for additional terrorist attacks. The photos also may have angered Muslims who do not support al Qaeda, potentially making these individuals less inclined to support U.S. counterterrorism objectives.
The Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy relies on engaging the vast majority of Muslims who do not support extremist violence. Muslim anger at the U.S. would have weakened this strategy.
In the short term, the costs of releasing the photos outweighed the benefits precisely because doing so would have posed unacceptable national security risks to the U.S. Ultimately, the president's job is to keep Americans safe, and right now, this necessitates that the photos be kept under wraps.
In the coming months, though, mounting pressures are likely to test this position. Growing skepticism over bin Laden's fate could force the White House to spend valuable time defending the fact of the al Qaeda leader's death. Al Qaeda sympathizers may come to believe that bin Laden is not truly dead, thus bolstering their conviction in al Qaeda's cause.
One of the chief outcomes of bin Laden's death will be its psychological impact on both al Qaeda's opponents and supporters. Lingering doubts only serve to weaken the resolve of the former group and buoy that of the latter.
In the end, Obama made the right decision given short-term national security priorities. But we should not be surprised to see his decision come under increasing pressure in the next few months.

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4 reasons to release bin Laden photos

Editor's note: William J. Bennett is the Washington fellow of the Claremont Institute. He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and was director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.
(CNN) -- There are several good reasons to release the photographs of Osama bin Laden's body: First, to end the debate in the world of conspiracy theory, one the administration's countervailing story lines have helped fuel.
As Charles Krauthammer recently said, "The Middle East is a place where conspiracies live. This summer there were shark attacks in the Red Sea. The Egyptian press blamed it on the Israelis. You have to show a picture. That was the whole point of the operation: proof of death. Do it now and don't dither."
Second, for a better sense of closure on the bin Laden file. Michael Rubin has argued, "We must make terrorists understand that if they mess with us, they won't get diplomatic legitimacy; rather, they will simply sign their own death sentences."
Third, because not releasing the photos carves out an exception in our history of documenting major world events. We have shown pictures and video of the death of Saddam Hussein, his sons, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and also the pictures and video of terrible horror -- from the Holocaust to Cambodia to the beheadings of our own citizens.
Bin Laden photos won't be released Bin Laden's final moments Remembering the fallen
Another view: Obama made the right call
As I've argued for showing more scenes and imagery from September 11, 2001, as well as imagery of various horrific attacks against Americans, it would be an odd disposition to be calling exclusively for scenes of our defeat while suppressing proofs of our victories.
But beyond all this, there has been an argument made that releasing the photographs will endanger Americans and our troops abroad, that it will enflame Islamist rage and inspire revenge killings. This is the most serious objection.
But I think it is worth pointing out there is little we do or can do that does not catalyze such rage. What, after all, was our offense on September 10, 2001?
What inspires jihadist attacks against Americans and non-Islamists are speeches by the pope, cartoons, documentaries, nuns walking down the streets of Africa and almost every other exercise of human and civil rights.
The argument that we should not release the photos in the hope that it will calm violence against innocents is to grant jihadists a veto on our public policy, and it is a veto that can never be satisfied, that will never be powerful enough.
We should not defer our rights and liberties and policies to the threats of madmen, nihilists or fascists.
--William J. Bennett
It is, after all, our very existence that troubles our enemies, not the specifics of our actions -- those serve only as an excuse.
To accept this veto would be to hobble everything a free people should stand for, from the exercise of free speech and religious freedom to the right to walk down the street peaceably. We should not defer our rights and liberties and policies to the threats of madmen, nihilists or fascists. It doesn't work anyway.

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Godfather' prequel novel arriving in 2012

How did “The Godfather’s” Vito Corleone become Don Corleone? A new prequel to the best-selling novel aims to answer that question. (Well, presumably whatever questions are still left after "Godfather II.")

“The Family Corleone,” to be published by Grand Central Publishing, will be based on an unproduced screenplay written by “Godfather” author Mario Puzo, who passed away in 1999.

This novel will be written by novelist and playwright Ed Falco (who also happens to be the uncle of former “Sopranos” star Edie Falco, according to the Los Angeles Times.)

Puzo’s son Tony commends Falco for writing “a novel that is true to Mario Puzo’s legacy, and will be cherished by all ‘Godfather’ fans.” Adds publisher Jamie Raab, "Ed Falco thrillingly brings back Puzo’s classic characters in a prequel that both honors the original, and stands on its own as a 'Godfather' novel for a new generation of readers.”

We'll have to wait until June 2012 to see if they're right.

Set in 1933, “The Family Corleone” will explore the “unknown history” of the mafia don, prior to Corleone's rise to power, but it's not the first time another writer has taken a stab at the series. In 2004, the novel "The Godfather Returns" by Mark Winegardner was published and told the backstory of Vito's youngest son and successor, Michael Corleone.

The original “Godfather” was published in 1969 and went on to sell more than 21 million copies

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Catherine Middleton's flowery wedding day perfume sells out

(PEOPLE.com) -- As Catherine Middleton walked down the aisle in Westminster Abbey last Friday, she smelled like a vase of white flowers quivering in the breeze.
Well, at least, her perfume did.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore White Gardenia Petals, a scent by Illuminum, on her big day -- and already, the fine fragrance is sold out worldwide. The perfume contains notes of coconut, muguet (a.k.a. lily of the valley), ylang ylang, amber wood and jasmine, and retails for $140 (Americans can pre-order at luckyscent.com).
Michelle Obama is also a fan of the brand, started by hairdresser Michael Boadi, former stylist to stars like Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.
"I am both thrilled and honoured that [Kate] chose to wear White Gardenia Petals," Boadi said in a statement, "as she embodies the fresh, British beauty that inspired its creation."
A rep for Illuminum tells PEOPLE that Kate chose White Gardenia Petals from a selection of fragrances, but why she went with this particular scent was a personal decision. Though that fragrance was just for her, the bride wanted her wedding guests to have a pleasant olfactory experience, as well.
The Daily Mail reports that Kate stocked Abbey bathrooms with her favorite scented candles and toiletries from Jo Malone on Friday, giving guests whiffs of orange blossom, grapefruit, and lime, basil and mandarin.
When asked for comment, the company played coy, simply stating, "Jo Malone is honoured to have been involved with the Royal Wedding.

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Oil leads commodities price plunge

(FT.COM) -- A record plunge in oil prices led the sharpest sell-off in commodities in two years as investors fled the market amid mounting concern over the strength of the global recovery.
Investors on Thursday dumped dollar-denominated commodities that would benefit from rising inflation after weaker-than-expected jobs figures were released in the U.S. and Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, signaled that an interest rate increase was unlikely in June, sending the euro lower.
Traders who had bought oil to benefit from a fall in the dollar were flushed out, helping send brent crude, the oil benchmark, down more than $12 a barrel -- its biggest fall in absolute terms.
Steep slides in everything from cocoa and copper to silver and gold could mark an end to a bull run that has taken the prices of many materials to record highs.
"This is one for the books," said Edward Meir, commodities analyst at broker MF Global in New York. "Across the board you're seeing a general unwinding of the commodity trade."
The sell-off came a day after Glencore, the world's biggest commodities trader, unveiled details of its multibillion-dollar flotation. Some investors drew comparisons with the initial public offerings of Goldman Sachs and private equity group Blackstone, which marked the top of their respective markets.
The benchmark Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a basket of commodities, fell 5 per cent, its biggest one-day percentage fall since the financial crisis and the fifth steepest on record. Brent fell to a session low of $109.02 a barrel, down $12.17 or 10%. U.S. crude prices sank below $100 for the first time since March.
Thursday's "horrendous" sell-off, as described by one analyst, began in silver, which last week flirted with an all-time high of $50 per troy ounce after a 175% run-up in less than a year. Small investors, who had piled into the precious metal for months, scrambled to sell their holdings, fearing heavy losses. Silver fell 12.9 per cent on Thursday to below $35, bringing its losses in the past week to 31 per cent. Gold dropped 3.6 per cent.
"You want to be the first one out the door because the trip down can be even faster than the trip up," said Douglas Hepworth, director of research at commodities manager Gresham Investment Management.
Some analysts said markets could rebound rapidly, as they have done after similar corrections over the past year. While high prices are denting demand, miners, oil groups and farmers have struggled to boost supply to resolve tightness in the market.

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Al Qaeda dealt battlefield, court setbacks with 2 dead, 1 guilty plea

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda suffered setbacks on the battlefield and in court Thursday, with two mid-level leaders being killed in southern Yemen, that country's state-run media reported.

Meanwhile, a 25-year-old German national pleaded guilty in Frankfurt to charges of belonging to an al Qaeda terror cell that trained him in Pakistan, a court spokesman told CNN.

In Yemen, the brothers who were al Qaeda leaders, Musaed and Abdullah al-Harad, were killed in Shabwa, where security forces were hunting for them, a security source told Yemen's state-run 26sep.net website.

The two had been involved in several terrorist operations in the past, the source told the digital media outlet.

In Germany, al Qaeda operative Rami Makenesi provided a confession to all charges in exchange for a prison sentence of no more than five years, the spokesman said.

Makenesi traveled to Pakistan in March 2009 and joined al Qaeda after a stay in a terrorist training camp, according to a statement by the office of the federal prosecutor. Makenesi also participated in combat operations in Pakistan, the prosecutor said.

On Makenesi's request, a high-ranking al Qaeda leader released him from further participation in combat operations and ordered him to support the cause by collecting funds in Europe, the prosecutor's statement said. Makenesi was also ordered to be available for other, unspecified missions, the prosecutor said.

Makenesi had to raise 20,000 euros (more than $29,000) every six months and was supposed to act as a contact in Germany, the prosecutor said.

Makenesi was arrested in Pakistan on his way back to Germany last June by Pakistani security forces and was transferred to the German authorities in August, authorities said.

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