Spain’s top paper begins laying off journalists
SPAIN: Spain’s top daily newspaper El Pais began delivering
redundancy notices on Monday to nearly one-third of its staff including
some of the paper’s best-known writers.
Last month El Pais, part of heavily indebted Spanish media group
Prisa, announced there would be 129 layoffs and 20 early retirements,
bringing the total number of job cuts to 149 out of about 460 staff.
All remaining staff are being forced to take a 15-percent pay cut as
the paper struggles against a slump in advertising and the rise of
Internet news, where profits are hard to come by.
On Monday, the journalists began to hear who will be forced to depart
the newspaper, born in 1976 during Spain’s transition to democracy after
the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Prisa reported a loss of 31.45 million euros ($40 million) in the
first nine months of 2012, including a provision related to a legal row
with cable company ONO. A year earlier it made a profit of 17.93 million
euros.
AFP
Jermaine Jackson comes clean on name tweak
FRANCE: Michael Jackson’s older brother Jermaine explained Monday he
had registered the name “Jacksun” as an official pseudonym because he
loves the sun -- but that his legal name remained unchanged.
“I didn’t change my name,” Jermaine Jackson told a press conference
in Paris when asked about reports he petitioned a US court last week to
let him tweak the spelling of his famous surname to “Jermaine Jacksun”.
“I just changed one letter because I love the sun. The sound is the
same,” he explained, based on a French translation of his comments.
AFP
Cray supercomputer named world’s fastest
US: A Cray supercomputer at the US government’s Oak Ridge National
Laboratory was named Monday the world’s fastest, overtaking an IBM
supercomputer at another American research center.
The ranking released by researchers from the United States and
Germany found that Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at Oak Ridge in
Tennessee, achieved 17.59 petaflops, or quadrillions of calculations per
second.
Titan, which gets funding from the US Department of Energy, is used
for research in energy, climate change, efficient engines, materials and
other scientific research.
AFP
Sesame Street puppeteer denies claim
US: The puppeteer behind Elmo on “Sesame Street” said Monday he was
taking time out from the US children’s TV show to fight a “defamatory”
claim he had a sexual relationship with an underage boy.
Kevin Clash, the man behind the furry red character’s high-pitched
voice and frenetic gestures, admitted he had a relationship with his
accuser, who claims he was 16 years old when they started dating,
according to studio officials.
But Clash said the accuser was not under the age of consent, which is
17 in New York, where the show is made.
AFP
Eric Clapton watch sells for $3.6m at auction
SWITZERLAND: A platinum wristwatch belonging to British guitarist
Eric Clapton sold for 3.4 million Swiss francs ($3.6 million, 2.9
million euros) in Geneva Monday, auction house Christie’s said.
The “exceptionally rare” watch made by Patek Philippe in 1987 was
snapped up by an anonymous Asian buyer, Christie’s spokesman Christiano
De Lorenzo told AFP, adding that the price was in the middle of the
estimate.
The only other time the platinum perpetual calendar chronograph
wristwatch with moon phases was on auction, in 1989, it sold for just
$250,999.
Clapton, 67, known for his work with rock bands Cream and the
Yardbirds and for songs including “Crossroads”, “Layla” and “Tears in
Heaven”, had purchased the luxury timepiece privately after that auction
for an undisclosed price, De Lorenzo said.
AFP
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