* Stock release to start “today at the earliest”

* Oil products include gasoline, diesel for automobiles

* 2 mln bbls crude, 1.46 mln bbls refined fuel to be
released

* S. Korea holds 75.8M bbls crude stocks, 11.8M bbls oil
products

(Adds more details and quotes)

By Cho Mee-young

SEOUL, June 28 (Reuters) – South Korea will start to release
3.46 million barrels of oil by “today at the earliest” as part
of an IEA-coordinated effort to tame high global oil prices, a
source at the economy ministry said on Tuesday.

Two million barrels of crude and 1.46 million barrels of
refined fuel products, gasoline and diesel for automobiles, will
be released as soon as deals are signed, the ministry source
said.

“If a contract with a refiner is signed, the release will
start from today at the earliest … which crude oil to be
released has not been decided yet,” the ministry source told
Reuters by phone.

South Korea holds 75.8 million barrels of crude oil in
reserve, equalling about 36 days of consumption, and 11.8
million barrels of oil products, or about 5.5 days of use, the
source said, adding that the crude oil release is near an
average day of demand of about 2.1 million barrels, while the
fuel products cover less than a day of normal use.

The release is expected to ease tight supplies of oil
products in Asia’s fourth-largest economy ahead of the early
July expiry of a retail price cut by refiners made in April.

State-run Korean National Oil Corp (KNOC) had said last
Friday that the world’s fifth-largest crude oil importer would
offer 3.46 million barrels of crude and oil products from
strategic stocks under the International Energy Agency (IEA)
coordinated release.

Crude oil prices dropped sharply on the IEA move on
Thursday, but have gained for a second straight day in early
Asian trade on Tuesday.

Brent crude hit a high above $127 a barrel in April this
year from a 2010 close of just below $95 and is now hovering
around $106.

In Asia, Japan led the move to make more oil and products
available to the market by cutting the reserve requirements for
oil companies by 7.9 million barrels over the next 30 days,
effective from Monday.

“We’re looking at the Korean situation as KNOC will release
stocks to Korean refiners,” a North Asian oil trader said.
“I’ve heard from the market that KNOC mainly stocks up Basrah
and Oman. There are limited buyers for Basrah light so it’s
still a tough month for sellers.”

“Most of the Middle Eastern cargoes for August loading have
moved but the market is still digesting the impact of a SPR (The
U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve) release,” he said.

Europe will release mostly oil industry refined products in
contrast with a U.S. government crude reserves release, the
West’s energy watchdog, the IEA, said on Monday.

INFLATION

Like other Asian countries, South Korea, heavily dependent
on energy and commodities imports, has been battling to curb
inflation.

In April, South Korea’s four refiners cut gasoline and
diesel retail prices by 100 Korean Won ($0.092) per litre for
three months from April 7, in the face of government pressure to
help tame inflation.

“GS Caltex and SK Energy will definitely prefer oil products
instead of crude oil as they can sell immediately,” a
Seoul-based oil trader said, also referring the country’s
largest crude oil refiner which fully owned by SK Innovation
.

South Korea’s second-largest refiner GS Caltex said last
Wednesday that it had asked KNOC to release 870,000 barrels of
diesel from a reserve to cover an unscheduled outage at
diesel-producing unit, which is a separate from the IEA effort.

GS Caltex — owned by GS Holdings Corp and
Chevron Corp <CVX.N > — at that time said that there was also
an unusual demand spike ahead of the domestic retail price cut
expiry by refiners on July 6.

South Korea has two more refiners including No.3 S-Oil
and smallest, unlisted Hyundai Oilbank.

South Korea’s Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan last week
expressed concern that consumer inflation is not easing as
quickly as the government had expected and could remain high for
longer than anticipated.

The country’s May consumer price inflation eased to 4.1
percent versus a year earlier from 4.2 percent in April, after
hitting a 29-month high at 4.7 percent in March.

The government is due to release June consumer inflation
figures on July 1.

South Korea said on Monday, it will resume imports of
Canadian beef that it suspended in 2003 after an outbreak of mad
cow disease, and will allow meat from cows younger than 30
months old, like which a wider choice of commodity imports may
help tame inflation, according to analysts.

($1 = 1083.600 Korean won)

(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by
Ed Lane)

Originally Published On: www.reuters.com – Original Article Here

Nawal could not believe that she has been singing for the past twenty years and felt that the years had flown by so fast. She added that her absence from the scenes in the recent period is due to her preoccupation with her latest album “Ma’rafshi Leeh” (I don’t Knw why), which was recently released in stores, in addition to a number of family problems.

Originally Published On: www.albawaba.com – Original Article Here

Haal e dil, a song from Amitabh Bachchan’s forthcoming film Bbuddah…Hoga Tera Baap is the latest Bollywood song to be leaked online.

The megastar has requested his fans not to download the pirated version and wait for the official music launch.

"Hey! Song from #BHTBaap got leaked and can be heard!! Its Haal e Dil…now nothing can be done its gone out! [sic]," Bachchan tweeted.

The 68-year-old said that the song features him and veteran actress Hema Malini.

Article continues below

"Someone leaked song from #BHTBaap ... its called ‘Haal e Dil’ .. Hema ji and my theme, just heard it at www.wix.com/bbuddah/hogaterrabaap#!songs," he posted.

Originally Published On: gulfnews.com – Original Article Here

LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) – European neuroscientists said on
Tuesday that the withdrawal by some big drugmakers from research
into illnesses like depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s
could halt the discovery of new drugs.

A report published by the European College of
Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) said brain diseases and mental
disorders like depression, dementia and addiction account for
more a third of the burden of disease in Europe, but public and
corporate research and development (R&D) funding is being cut.

“These are dark days for brain science,” David Nutt, a
professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London
and a former president of the ECNP told a briefing in London.

Some European big pharma companies such as GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK.L) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L) have in recent years backed away
from brain research, citing the difficulty and expense of
finding new drug candidates. [ID:nLDE62019Q], [ID:nLDE6601CT]

The ECNP report said public funding for research in Europe
into disorders of the brain lags significantly behind similar
investment in the United States.

Yet experts estimate that in any given year, almost 80
million Europeans, or 27 percent of the European Union’s
population, are affected by disorders of the brain.

“The issue here is not just that a very key part of Europe’s
knowledge economy is under serious threat, it’s that the
withdrawal of research resources means the slowdown, and even
outright cessation in some areas, of new treatments being
developed,” said Guy Goodwin, a co-author of the report and head
of Oxford University’s psychiatry department.

“This will inevitably affect patient well-being.”

Nutt and Goodwin said a major part of the problem in
persuading public and private organisations to fund research
into mental illness is the stigma that it carries.

Unlike research into cancer or heart disease, they said,
which commands huge public support and can return a swifter
profit to drugmakers who find successful treatments, research
into brain diseases is seen as difficult, expensive and
ultimately less fruitful.

According to the report, the economic cost to the EU region
of brain diseases and mental disorders was conservatively
estimated at 386 billion euros ($555 billion) a year in 2005,
the last time a full costing analysis was done. That cost, the
authors said, far exceeds the cost to the region of any other
disease area, including heart disease and cancer.

“The human cost, in terms of illness-related work
disability, social role failure and premature death, is
similarly immense,” they wrote. And as Europe’s population ages,
those costs are likely to rise further.

Alastair Benbow, executive director of the European Brain
Council, said the report showed the urgency of the region’s
funding crisis in neuropsychiatric drug discovery.

“If steps aren’t taken now … to stimulate research and
investment in both the public and private sector, the field
could really suffer lasting damage,” he said.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Originally Published On: www.reuters.com – Original Article Here

When it comes to attitude, there’s no beating Bollywood icon Salman Khan. He calls a press conference at 2pm in Dubai, but saunters in 90 minutes late. No apologies. Just a string of flippant remarks on marriage and movies. Does he get away with it? Yes, he does. Because he can.

After having acted in more than 70 films — several of which were blockbusters such as Maine Pyaar Kiya (I Fell In Love, 1989) and Dabangg (Fearless, 2010) — Khan, 45, is one of the few actors whose star power is enough to lure the crowds to the cinemas. But post-Dabangg, Khan seems to have turned over a new leaf. Uncharacteristically ambitious, the famously laid-back star reveals a streak of aggressiveness when he says that he hopes Ready, his latest film, does better than Aamir Khan blockbuster 3 Idiots. He even declares that he has become more cautious with his career choices.

On the dating front, his list of women, including Somi Ali, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Katrina Kaif, make the men in the Bold And The Beautiful look like saints. tabloid! sat down for an exclusive interview with the notorious Casanova to get down to the bottom of it all.

I am done with acting in bad films:

"Whenever you make a film, you’ll feel that it’s the best movie ever made. But sometimes, you can go wrong with the script or sometimes your equation with the director can go wrong. And what happens is that the film doesn’t match up to expectations. One of the best examples is Andaaz Apna Apna (To Each His Own, 1994) which Aamir [Khan] and I did. Nobody knew about it, because the publicity of the film sucked."

I am turning producer:

"I will be launching eight or 10 new faces on July 8 with Chillar Party. It’s my first production as a part of SKBH (Salman Khan Being Human) and it’s dear to me. It’s a children’s feature along with UTV Spotboy. I will only be producing these films, but not acting in them."

I am done with making career choices based on friendships:

"Not any more. Earlier, I’d rather work with a friend with a fantastic script. But now, if there is a person who gives me a good script, I will take it on — even if it means I have never worked with that person in the past. It’s not about friendships alone."

I should set a good example as a role model:

"I am not aware of the fine [Khan was slapped with a fine for smoking in public last week]. But even when I take a drag, I ensure that the young people don’t see me. It’s not good for the younger generation. If they see it in my hands, they may try one too. It will be better if the whole matter is dabaoed [suppressed] so that it doesn’t get publicity among children."

My brothers are happy in their space now:

"Arbaaz was never that keen on acting, he always wanted to be a director. Like me, he was pushed into acting, but his main goal was to direct. First he produced Dabangg, now he wants to direct Dabangg 2. Sohail is also doing very well for himself as a producer-director. He has his own entertainment company. We are all happy about where we have reached. And I will always be their elder brother."

Dubai is the perfect blend:

"I don’t know whether we will shoot in Dubai for Dabangg 2 [some scenes in the original were shot in Dubai]. It depends on how the script develops. I have lots of friends here. It’s just a quick flight from India and I love all the shopping options."

Just eat right:

"That’s the only way to get the fittest body."

You guys will know first when I get married:

"I think I will be the last one to know about it. Only when reporters will call me for clarifications, I may have to turn to my partner and ask: ‘Achcha, toh shaadi ho gayi [so did I get married?] and if she says yes, I will confirm it."

Originally Published On: gulfnews.com – Original Article Here