Kylie Minogue has claimed a UK chart-topping album for the fifth time with her latest release Aphrodite.
The Australian pop star scored her first number one album in the same week 22 years ago.
The singer displaced rap star Eminem from pole position, while the only other new entry in the top 10 was Enrique Iglesias’s album Euphoria.
JLS scored the third number one single of their career with This Club Is Alive, displacing Katy Perry.
Ecstatic
Other new songs to make the top 10 included We No Speak Americano by Yolanda Be Cool vs D Cup at number five, and My First Kiss by 30H3 feat Kesha at seven.
Kylie, meanwhile, saw All The Lovers – the first single from her hit album – slide six places to number nine.
The singer said it was “the most amazing news” that her latest release had gone to number one.
“I am ecstatic! My hopes for this album were that people would be moved, that the songs could bring about emotion.
“The euphoric heart of this album has taken flight and the response has been nothing short of incredible.
“My thanks as always to the many talented and dedicated people with whom I work and the fans who have been so supportive all these years,” she added.
Her other number one albums to attain the number one spot were Enjoy Yourself (1989), a greatest hits collection in 1992 and Fever in 2001.
The 42-year-old star performed a set for fans in the early hours of Sunday morning at London’s G-A-Y nightclub.

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni got engaged to his childhood friend Sakshi Singh Rawat at a private function in a hotel in Dehradun with just family members and close friends present. The marriage is likely to take place after India’s home series against Australia in October. The engagement for Dhoni, one of India’s most successful captain, comes just four days before his 29th birthday. Text: PTI Photo: BCCL

AK Azad and Jasim Uddin bagged 21 out of 28 posts of directors who were elected though polls of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Saturday.
The newly elected directors, along with 16 other nominated directors, are expected to elect today the president and two vice-presidents of the country’s apex trade body for the next two-year term.
The business community do not foresee any intense competition this year for the top post of the FBCCI as, so far, only one aspirant is there for the post of president.
AK Azad, chairman of Ha-Meem Group and publisher of Bengali daily Shamokal, was nominated from BCI and has been the lone contender for the FBCCI president. Sources in business circle said Salman F Rahman, a former FBCCI president and the private sector advisor to the Prime Minister, is backing the Azad panel.
The co-leader of Azad panel, Jasim Uddin, is so far the only contestant for the post of first vice-president while Momtaz Uddin or Nazibur Rahman or Monowara Hakim Ali or Nagibul Islam would be contes-ting for the post of
second vice-president, allocated for the chamber group.
In total, 341 out of 351 voters of the chamber group and 1,199 out of 1,340 of the association group cast their votes in FBCCI polls held Saturday. On early Sunday, counting of votes ended and the FBCCI Election Board chairman announced the results.
According to results, Azad-Jasim panel members were elected in 13 out of 14 director posts allocated for the chamber group.
The panel members elected are : Momtaz Uddin of Bogra Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mostafa Azad Chowdhury of Rangpur chamber, Ahmed Jamal of Faridpur chamber, Shamsul Haque of Naogaon chamber, Nurul Huda of Japmalpur chamber, Abdus Shahid of Kishoreganj chamber, Serajul Haque of Lalmonirhat chamber, Jalal Uddin Yamin of Madaripur chamber, Monowara Hakim Ali of Chittagong Womens Chamber, Jahangir Akond Selim of Chandpur chamber, Nazibur Rahman of Rajbari chamber, Golam Mostafa Talukder of Patuakhali chamber and Nagibul Islam of Netrokona chamber.
Aminul Haque from the opposition panel was elected while his panel leader, Dewan Sultan, became unsuccessful.
Azad backed panel members were elected in eight out of 14 posts allocated seats for association group. The elected directors are Mir Nizam Uddin Ahmed of Bangladesh Electrical Association, Jasim Uddin of Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Khondker Ruhul Amin of Restaurant Owners Association, Abdur Razzaque of Engineering Industries Owners Association, Harun Ur Rashid of Specialized Textiles Mills Association, Helal Uddin of Shop Owners Association, KM Akhtaruzzaman of Furniture Manufacturers Association, MA Momen of Ink Manufacturers Association.
Six members of the opposition Democratic Panel led by Abu Alam Chowhdury were elected also elected directors.
The elected members are Abu Alam from Bangladesh Crafts Exporters Association, Abdul Haque of Reconditioned Car Importers and Associa-tion, Obaidur Rahman of Aluminum Wares Manufacturers Associa-tion, Jalal Uddin of Bread and Biscuits Manufacturers Associa-tion, Anwar Hossain of Jewelry Exporters Association, Rabbani Jabber of Printing Industries Association. No member from Democratic Oikkya Parishad, led by Delwar Hossain, was elected. But FBCCI sources said their votes prevented Azad panel from securing more posts in association group directorship.
Six directors– eight from chamber group and eight from association group– have already been selected through nomination. Nominated directors from the chamber group are : AK Azad of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, SM Nurul Hoque of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hossain Khaled of Dhaka Chamber, Shaharuzzaman Mortoza of Khulna Chamber, Golam Mainuddin of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hasen Ali of Rajshahi Chamber, Haseen Ahmed of Sylhet Chamber. Nomination from
Barisal chamber has been disputed.
The association group nominated directors are : AKM Nurul Fazal of Bangladesh Association of Banks, Abdul Muktadir of Aushad Shilpa Samity, Maqsudur Rahman of Frozen Foods Exporters Association, KM Zaman of Garment Exporters’ Association, Nizamuddin Ahmed of Insurance Association, Najmul Huq of Jute Mills Association, Fazlul Hoque of Knit-wear Exporters Associa-tion and Abdul Hai Sarker of Textile Mills Association

Former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson was eliminated from television’s “Dancing With the Stars” competition on Tuesday, leaving just five celebrities in the running for the finale.

Anderson, 42, who had finished in the bottom two several times this season despite mostly good reviews from the judges, received the lowest votes from the public this week for her fairy-tale waltz with professional partner Damian Andrews.

Popular ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews also found herself at risk of elimination on Tuesday after ending in the bottom two in a shock result that judge Len Goodman called “absolutely heartbreaking.”

Canadian-born Anderson, a former Playboy model, found worldwide fame as a buxom lifeguard in the 1990s TV series “Baywatch”.

But the almost 20 million viewers for ABC television’s “Dancing With the Stars” never seemed to take to her, despite performances on the show in which she emulated other famous blondes including Marilyn Monroe and Dolly Parton.

Anderson, along with eliminated contestants astronaut Buzz Aldrin and TV reality mother of eight Kate Gosselin, has helped the 10th season of “Dancing With the Stars” to its biggest audiences ever.

The remaining five celebrities are Pussycat Dolls singer and favourite Nicole Scherzinger, Olympic ice skater Evan Lysacek, Andrews, actress and “Clean House” host Niecy Nash and footballer Chad Ochocinco.

Pop band The Scissor Sisters have revealed they scrapped an album they had been working on for 18 months.
Singer Jake Shears said they ditched songs destined for their third album last summer and started from scratch.
He said: “If it wasn’t something we could fully get behind and believe in, I think the band was going to be over.
“If we put out anything sub-standard it was curtains for Scissor Sisters.” They have written a completely new album, Night Work, which is out in June.
Their new single, Fire With Fire, a slow-building, 70s-style pop anthem, premiered on Radio One on Friday morning.
Shears said: “We worked on a record for about a year and a half but we shelved it. We shelved it about a year ago.
“I ended up moving to Berlin for a couple of months and we decided to start a new record from scratch, and we started it last June. So this record was written very quickly.”
Referring to the collection of songs originally intended for the third album, Shears said: “In my heart I knew it wasn’t right, I didn’t really know what it was trying to say. It left me a little bit cold.” (By Ian Youngs BBC)

A gauge of online demand for labor in the United States rose in April for a third straight month and posted its largest year-on-year percentage gain since July 2007, a private research group said on Thursday.

Monster Worldwide Inc (MWW.N), an online careers and recruiting firm, said its employment index rose to 133 points in April from 125 in March and is 10.8 percent above the 120 level a year ago.
The index peaked at 189 in May 2007 and April’s reading is the highest since the 143 hit in November 2008. This month’s yearly percentage gain is the highest since the 10.9 percent gain posted July 2007.
The monthly rise in April jobs demand was due in part to growth in job offerings from mining and energy-related companies, Monster said.
“The positive momentum in the index is consistent with other economic indicators suggesting that we may be in the early stages of an economic recovery,” said Jesse Harriott, chief knowledge officer at Monster.
The data adds to signs of a rebound in the labor market, as reports showed on Wednesday a growing trend of job demand from private companies, while plans for layoffs fell to their lowest level in four years.
“From a forward-looking perspective we would hope this could be a solid indicator… that we would also see (growth) in the future months with the payroll numbers,” said Jeff Quinn, senior director of research at Monster.
The U.S. government’s closely watched non-farm payrolls report is scheduled for Friday. A Reuters poll shows economists expect to see 200,000 non-farm jobs were created in April.
The Monster index registered increases in 17 of 20 industries and 21 of 23 occupations monitored last month.
Online job demand was higher in all nine U.S. census regions, with the Mid Atlantic and New England areas registering the largest increases.
The report also comes ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s release of weekly initial claims for unemployment benefits, due later on Thursday and expected at 440,000 according to a Reuters poll.
The Monster Employment index is a monthly analysis based on a selection of corporate career sites and job boards. The margin of error is approximately plus or minus 1 percent.
( Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama : Reuters )

With the sunrise, the Bangalees left behind all their sorrows of loss and unfulfilled expectations and geared up for better days.

The city puts on a festive look, and, from the early morning, people in traditional attires throng Ramna Batamul and other programme venues in the city and elsewhere in the country to celebrate the fist day of the Bangla year.

The centres of celebration in the capital, Ramna Park, Suhrawardy Udyan, Shahbagh and Dhaka University campus, are under multi-tier security net.

The festivity in the city begins after sunrise with the gathering of thousands of people under the banyan tree at Ramna Udyan where artistes of cultural organisation Chhayanaut sing the traditional Pahela Baishakh song of Rabindranath Tagore–”Esho hey Baishakh”–to welcome the day.

Mangal Shobhajatra, a procession seeking well-being of all, sets off from the Institute of Fine Arts in the morning.

The carnival goers flock to Baishakhi Mela (fair), a major feature of the celebration. They will be enjoying food like Panta Bhat (rice soaked in water) with hilsha fry, lentil and smoked chilli at places of Baishakhi congregations.

The Bangla year with its first month Baishakh was introduced during the rule of Mughal Emperor Akbar from 1556-1605AD.

Today is a public holiday. Social, political and cultural organisations have taken up elaborate programmes to celebrate the day.

President Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia in separate messages yesterday greeted the nation on the occasion.

Bangladesh Betar and all television channels air special programmes while newspapers publish special supplements.

Those, at least, are the indications from a tally of 21 groups that have announced prizes for the best films and performances. The critics’ choices are often early indicators of the Oscar vibe. And if they’re wrong, no big deal. It’s not even Christmas yet.

December is that most wonderful time of the year, when Santa perches all the little boy and girl critics on his knee and warmly whispers, “You matter.” All the other months, we’re dog food. But when the winter solstice nears, and movie reviewers convene to vote for their favorites of the year, we suddenly become valuable to the studios. The news stories about the winners provide free publicity for Oscar-yearning pictures, copy for the movie industry’s trade ads and balm for its needy ego. The honor roll also gives members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences hints as to which DVDs, of the dozens, hundreds, of recent films they’ve been sent, should be pulled out of the freebie pile and watched. See, we critics have a higher mission after all. We’re the Oscar voters’ touts.

We’re also an additive, or corrective, to the nominations for the Golden Globes. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, it’s always worth saying, is more an annual TV show than a critics’ group. Most of them don’t review movies at all; they’re show business reporters for foreign papers. As such, they want access to movie stars, and they get it by throwing a dinner for celebrities; the party favors are nationwide attention and maybe an award. To get on their guest list, it helps to be famous; note that The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner, who finished third in our critics’ tally, was not nominated for a Golden Globe. But we’re betting he has an aisle seat on Oscar night.

To get a sense of the 2009 critical consensus, I kept tabs on the winners as voted by 21 groups: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Florida, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle, the New York Online Critics, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Satellite Film Critics, Southeastern, St. Louis, Toronto, Utah and Washington, D.C. Not included are the Gotham Awards, which don’t divide acting prizes by gender or the size of the role, or the National Society of Film Critics, the one organization I know of that doesn’t vote until January. The venerable NBR is not so much a critics’ society, more a group of concerned citizens. They’re included here because they’ve anticipated the top Oscar winners the past two years, and because they throw the best awards banquet this side of the Golden Globes.

In each category, the winner from each group received one point; if the vote was tied, or two prizes were given, the winners got a half-point each. Not all groups vote prizes in every category. And now, with briefest commentary, here are the totals:
Top 10 Movies

1. The Princess and the Frog
2. Up
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. The Hurt Locker
5. Up in the Air
6. The White Ribbon
7. A Single Man
8. Of Time and the City
9. District 9
10. Thirst

“This fair is an annual event. The main purpose of holding this fair is to promote books among the masses and to encourage them to develop reading habits,” said Suhita Sultana, assistant director, National Book Centre.

This theme of this year’s book fair is: “Books for Change.”

“We hope that such events will provide the local readers with an opportunity to check out foreign publications,” Sultana added.

Apart from books, added attractions at the fair are discussions and cultural programmes. The discussions were attended by leading experts and intellectuals. So far the fair featured discussions on folk, the future of the publication industry of Bangladesh, copyright issues and more.

On December 23, a discussion on ‘Pancho Kabir Gaan’ (song of the five poets — Rabindranath, Nazrul, Rajnikant, Atul Prasad and D.L. Roy) was held at the fair premises. Professor Karunamaya Goswami was the main discussant at the event. Mita Haque, Lily Islam, Shahid Kabir Polash and Azizur Rahman Tuhin performed songs of the five poets at the programme.

According to the booksellers, the turnout, however, was not as high as they had expected.

“For a book fair of this magnitude the turnout is not satisfactory. We expected more visitors,” said Amjad Hossain, a vendor at the Oitijhya stall.

“One of the main reasons behind the inadequate turnout can be attributed to the lack of publicity. The organisers could have taken better initiatives for publicity of the fair, people simply don’t know that this fair is being held!” Amjad Hossain added.

Another seller Omar Faruk, at The Sky Publishers stall, said, “Each year the fair is held at a different venue, so people actually do not know where this event is being held. I have seen no effort to publicise the fair.”

Calling the ticket system “an obstacle”, Rafiqul Islam at the Tamrolipi stall said, “Even the Ekushey Book Fair is open to all! All book fairs should be open to all!” The organisers are charging Taka 5 for entry at the fair.

Similar views were shared at stalls of Ankur Publications, Shahitya Prokash, The Royal Publishers, Shahitya Katha and more.

The booksellers also suggested maintaining a gap of at least six months between the Ekushey Book Fair and the International Book Fair.

Even though majority of the vendors were disappointed, stalls offering books and other items for children and adolescents had a different view.

Naqibul Hassan of Panjeri Publications said, “There seems to be a good demand for comic books among the young visitors. Comic books such as ‘Basic Ali’, ‘Laily’ as well as ‘Stories of Birbal’, ‘Molla Nasiruddin’ and ‘Gopal Bhar’ sold well.”

“Mohammad Zafar Iqbal’s ‘Meyetir Naam Narina’, a novel for adolescents, is selling quite well at the fair,” said Md. Faruk Hossain of Pearl Publication.

About the fair, Bratin Dey, assistant editor of National Book Trust from India, said, “We have noticed a growing popularity of Indian books among the Bangladeshi readers. At this fair we are not selling books. We are only displaying our books to inform the people of the latest Indian publications.”

“The response from the people has been very positive. NBT is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India. NBT will be holding the New Delhi World Book Fair, from January 30 to February 7, 2010. Publication houses from all over the world will be participating at the fair,” Dey informed.

The Al Huda International Publication stall featured Iranian publications on Imam Khomeini, Islamic Calligraphy and other subjects.

Another stall featuring Iranian books were set up by the office of the Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of Iran in Dhaka. The stall featured translations of Iranian and Islamic books.

Today the fair opens at 11 am. The closing ceremony will be held at 4:30 pm. Promod Mankin, State Minister for Cultural Affairs, is expected to be present as the chief guest.

The event, meant to showcase the make-up sophistry of Farzana Shakil, as well as to introduce the special services of the Kaya Skin Clinic, featured make up by Farzana Shakil, and choreography by Shahrukh Amin.

The program, MC’d by Mishu Rahman and Azra Mahmud featured a colour based theme, where a set of designers worked with a specific colour. Saris in jamdani, katan, and silk hit the catwalk as Ruby Ghuznavi of Arannya Crafts and Chondona Dewan of Chondan’s opened with the Blue queue, which was followed by White, featuring the works of Almira, Anokhee, and Virgo. The common feature of this particular line happened to be in long hemlines, although the overall cuts varied between Mughal chic and a-line. Emdad Hoque, Jatra and Shadakalo came next with Black and Grey, bringing panjabis, fotua-and-trouser ensembles, and kurti and skirt combos, all in indigenous fabrics. This made way for a rather flamboyant Green queue, featuring the works of Panam, Rang, Shabana Ali, and Tootlie Rahman. Peacock feathers fluttered on fans and fancy updo’s as the models strutted their stuff in a variety of shades, ranging from dark olive, to cool watery chartreuse, and bright emeralds. Pride and Tangail Shari Kutir upped the ante with their Pink and Purple lines in silk and jamdani respectively. The final Red queue featured work by Bibi Russel, Maheen Khan, Aneela Haque and Kuhu, each of whom presented her signature style, leaving no doubt in the minds of the audience that they belonged to the A-list in the scene here.

The show was followed by a raffle draw, where 6 lucky winners walked away with a copy of Farzana Shakil’s “Looks”, right before dinner, and ended on an explosive note with the energetic Mila treating the guests to a rocking time.