Berlin film festival looks east, hot topics in frame

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - The Berlin film festival looks east this year with six of 19 competition entries either made or based behind the old Iron Curtain, while two star-studded U.S. movies tackle big business - energy and pharmaceuticals.

Iran's record on human rights will be in the frame during the two-week cinema showcase starting on February 7, while the Flintstones make way for "The Croods", a prehistoric family at the centre of a new 3D animation from DreamWorks.

The annual Berlinale, now in its 63rd year, is one of Europe's most important film festivals, and alongside it runs a large-scale marketplace for trading new features and documentaries and discussing those under development.

While unable to attract the number of stars and blockbusters as similar events in Cannes and Toronto, Berlin is an early introduction each year to what global cinema has to offer and enjoys a reputation for tough films tackling hot topic issues.

"When you come into the New Year, it's important that there be a major international festival that lays the groundwork for the year," said Michael Barker, head of Sony Pictures Classics which has "Before Midnight" in Berlin.

"I don't think it's a conflict with the Oscars or with Sundance, because Sundance is a very different type of festival," he told Reuters, referring to the festival held in Utah in January that has a greater emphasis on U.S. cinema.

Eastern Europe is in the Berlin spotlight, with competition films from the region including "Child's Pose" which examines corruption and class in Romania through the story of a wealthy mother seeking to buy her convicted son his freedom.

"Harmony Lessons" is Kazakh filmmaker Emir Baigazin's feature drama debut, while "In the Name of..." from Poland broaches the sensitive topic of homsexuality in the Roman Catholic priesthood.

U.S. actor Shia LaBeouf plays Charlie in "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman", about a young man who travels to Romania and gets embroiled in a dangerous rivalry with a mafia drug cartel.

POLITICS, BUSINESS ON SCREEN

Among the topical movies in Berlin in 2013 will be "Promised Land", about the controversial drilling technique for extracting gas known as "fracking" which stars Matt Damon and is directed by his "Good Will Hunting" collaborator Gus Van Sant.

Steven Soderberg's "Side Effects" is in part a critique of the pharmaceutical industry, although online reviews stress it is as much a murder mystery and boasts Jude Law, Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the cast.

Soderbergh, an Oscar winner for his 2000 narcotics drama "Traffic", has announced it will be his final big-screen feature film, at least for the forseeable future.

Arguably the most politically charged picture at the festival will be "Closed Curtain", co-directed by acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi who made it in defiance of a 20-year ban on film making imposed by authorities at home.

Convicted of making anti-government propaganda, Panahi has nevertheless managed to make two movies since being placed under house arrest in 2010.

In 2011 "This Is Not a Film", about a day in his life, was transported out of Iran on a USB stick hidden inside a cake, and has since been shown to the world.

"Before Midnight", the third part in Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's long-running love story, is not eligible for awards at the festival's closing ceremony on February 16, when the coveted Golden Bear for best picture is handed out.

Also in the main lineup but out of competition is "The Croods", featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds, and "Dark Blood", which River Phoenix was filming when he died aged 23 in 1993.

Nearly 20 years later, after saving the footage from being destroyed, director George Sluizer decided to finish the film by reading aloud off-screen the missing scenes from the screenplay.

The Berlinale opens on February 7 with the international premiere of martial arts epic "The Grandmaster" directed by Hong Kong's Wong Kar Wai, who is also president of this year's jury. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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Wage negotiations still on with employees: Jet Airways

Jet Airways , which recently faced labour unrest from a section of its technicians on wage issues, today said it was in discussion with the employees for wage revision.

"We are still in negotiations with the employees. We have not completed that (exercise) but hope to get it completed shortly," company's Vice-president for Commercial Strategy and Investor Relations K G Vishwanath said at a post-earnings conference call.

Vishwanath's assertion comes a day ahead of the airline management inviting its pilots for a meet on the issue.

The airline is in the final stages of sealing a stake sale deal with the Gulf carrier Etihad Airways. The pilots have long been demanding wage hike besides payment of arrears running into crores of rupees, pending since 2011. The airline had recently given hike of up to Rs 18,000 per month to a section of its ground staff.

On attrition, Vishwanath said the airline has seen exodus of 1,139 employees year-on-year till the December quarter, mainly from cabin crew and ground handling, adding, "these segments traditionally have higher attrition rate."

Stating that the current quarter has seen some "robust bookings" mainly on the international sectors, Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan said, "we are comfortable what they (the bookings) are today."

"On the domestic routes, we are now into the traditionally weaker quarter. However, we don't see any room for concern at this stage," he said.

Jet will be receiving back all its wide-body 777 planes, which are on lease currently, Vishwanath said.

"But we have not yet decided whether we should operate them or put on lease again," he said.

On the debt repayment plan, Vishwanath said the airline will retire USD 400 million of debt in the next financial year while it had already repaid around USD 400 million this year.

The airline's total debt stood at USD 2.16 billion as of December against USD 2.6 billion as of March last year.

The Naresh Goyal-owned domestic private carrier last Friday reported a net profit of Rs 85 crore for the quarter ended December against a net loss of Rs 101.22 crore in the year ago quarter.

Meanwhile, the airline in a statement said it has signed a global maintenance agreement with the European turboprop aircraft manufacturer ATR worth USD 48 million.

This new agreement extends the existing pact by another seven years and covers the supply of spare parts and maintenance services for its fleet of ATRs.

Jet Airways, including its low-cost subsidiary Jet Konnect, currently operates 16 ATR 72-500 and one ATR 72-600s, and will add four more ATR 72-600s into its fleet, thus becoming the first domestic operator to have these new series aircraft.

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Sistema says Indian licences extended until March 11

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema said on Monday the licences of its Indian mobile subsidiary had been extended until a further Supreme Court hearing on March 11.

The court last year ordered the cancellation of 122 telecoms licences held by eight operators, including Sistema's SSTL, because of alleged irregularities in the way they were awarded in 2008, but Sistema asked to court to review the order.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Douglas Busvine)

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Injured Agarkar to miss Irani tie

Mumbai, Feb 4 (PTI) Newly-crowned Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai will be without their captain Ajit Agarkar for the Irani Cup tie against the Rest of India because of a groin injury. "Agarkar has been ruled out of the match because of a groin injury, which he picked up during the final. The team will be led by Abhishek Nayar, but there won't be any replacement for Ajit," said Mumbai Cricket Association's joint secretary Nitin Dalal. The Irani Cup will commence at the Wankhede Stadium on February 6. Agarkar bowled an inspired spell, along with junior pace partner Dhawal Kulkarni, in the second innings of Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede Stadium on January 28 to power Mumbai to their 40th crown. Rest of India will be led by Virender Sehwag. PTI SSR NP AT PM PTP

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Wall Street opens lower after recent gains

US stocks opened lower on Monday, dipping after a recent rally that took the S&P 500 to a five-year high and the Dow to 14,000 for the first time since October 2007.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 58.67 points, or 0.42 percent, at 13,951.12. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 6.84 points, or 0.45 percent, at 1,506.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 18.33 points, or 0.58 percent, at 3,160.77.

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22 killed in UAE road collision - police

DUBAI (Reuters) - At least 22 people were killed when a truck laden with gravel collided with a bus carrying 46 Asian migrant workers in the oasis town of al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates, police said on Monday.

The truck driver lost control of his vehicle, causing it to land on top of the bus and trap its passengers under the cargo of gravel, police said of Sunday's incident.

Twenty-four people were injured, at least five critically, officials from two hospitals in al-Ain said. The police did not disclose the nationalities of the dead, but Dubai-based Gulf News daily reported they were mostly from Bangladesh.

The per capita death toll on UAE roads is among the highest in the world, according to World Health Organisation data. The UAE is a federation made up of seven emirates that include trade and tourism hub Dubai and oil-rich Abu Dhabi.

(Writing by Mahmoud Habboush, Editing by William Maclean and Jon Boyle)

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Global shares slip from highs; Spain, Italy pressure euro

By Wanfeng Zhou

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major stock markets fell on Monday as investors booked profits on recent strong gains, while the euro slipped from multi-month highs against the dollar and yen on political uncertainty in Spain and Italy.

Oil prices retreated from 4-1/2-month highs as investors paused for breath after a rally powered by signs of an improving global economic outlook and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

U.S. stocks moved lower in early trade. The S&P 500 rose to a five-year high and the Dow to 14,000 for the first time since October 2007 last week after jobs and manufacturing data showed the U.S. economy's recovery remained on track.

"We should get a pullback. Markets have been on a tear and they have been on a tear for good, sound economic and earnings-driven reasons," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Political uncertainty in Europe also weighed on shares and the euro and drove peripheral bond yields sharply higher.

In Spain, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was facing calls to resign over a corruption scandal in which he denies any wrongdoing.

"The prospect of Rajoy's resignation has roiled the markets," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York.

"Any fresh political instability in (the) euro zone's most important periphery economy could undermine the sense of investor confidence and send Spanish yields higher, making it much more difficult for the government to implement its austerity measures."

In Italy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the top candidates in this month's general election, is seeing a resurgence in popularity, which threatens the reforms implemented by the outgoing technocrat government.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 112.34 points, or 0.80 percent, at 13,897.45. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 10.47 points, or 0.69 percent, at 1,502.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 16.31 points, or 0.51 percent, at 3,162.78.

MSCI's world equity index fell 0.8 percent to 354.98. The FTSEurofirst 300 lost 1.1 percent to 1,155.34, led by euro zone banks after weak results from Commerzbank.

Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose 20 basis points to 5.42 percent while Italian yields were 9 bps higher at 4.42 percent.

The euro traded at $1.3571, down 0.5 percent on the day, having hit a session low of $1.3547. It had risen to $1.3711 on Friday, a level unseen since late 2011.

But the euro's dip may prove temporary, strategists said, and it could resume its move up if the European Central Bank, which meets on Thursday, expresses no concern about the currency's recent gains.

Against the yen, the euro was down 0.7 percent at 125.88 yen, off a 33-month high of 126.96 yen struck last week. The dollar was little changed at 92.67 yen.

In commodities trading, Brent oil fell $1.22 to a low of $115.54 per barrel before recovering slightly to around $115.86, down 90 cents. Brent had risen for three straight weeks.

U.S. crude dropped $1.36 to a low of $96.41 per barrel after rising for eight consecutive weeks, the longest such winning streak since July-August 2004.

"The market is long due a correction," VTB Capital oil and commodities markets strategist Andrey Kryuchenkov said. "The market is firmly in an uptrend, but so over-bought."

Spot gold was little changed at $1,666.54 an ounce.

U.S. Treasuries prices rose as bargain-minded investors emerged and pushed benchmark yields back below 2 percent after they climbed overnight to their highest levels in over nine months.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 12/32, the yield at 1.9799 percent.

Overnight, Asian shares climbed to 18-month highs. China added to the optimism about the global economy by reporting on Sunday that its services sector had grown for a fourth straight month in January, although the slim gain also signaled that the global recovery underway is a modest one.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Nick Olivari in New York and Christopher Johnson and Richard Hubbard in London; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Bounding up the Empire State Building step by step

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is standard advice to get fit but some athletes and charity runners take it to the extreme with the run up the 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building.

For runners who will be racing up the New York landmark on Wednesday, experts advise them to pace themselves.

"People get excited and blast through those stairs," said Eric Talve of the New York Road Runners, which organizes the Empire State Building Run-up, now in its 36th year.

"The main thing is to run smartly - not to get out too fast and tire out."

Research has shown that normal stair climbing is an aerobic exercise that works the lower body and core and can burn calories two to three times faster than walking briskly on a level surface.

Gary Liguori, an expert in exercise science with the American College of Sports Medicine, recommends at least three months of preparation, such as squatting, lunging, running and stair running to prepare for a climb like the Empire State Building.

"I don't think you can just hop in and do a run-up," Liguori said. "It carries more risk than (running on a) flat surface and is much higher intensity."

Rick Feinstein, 69, of Jericho, New York, did the run-up twice about 25 years ago and thinks it will be harder and slower for him this time.

A triathlete who runs and swims five times a week, Feinstein had planned to train for the so-called vertical marathon by running vertically.

"I had ambitious plans that once a week I would run up a 40-story building. It hasn't happened," said Feinstein, who also has run 33 New York City Marathons. "And now I figure it's too late. Like everything else, I'll have to tough it out."

Twenty-five years ago Feinstein charged to the deck in 14 minutes. These days he said a great time would be under 20 minutes and a realistic one between 22 and 24.

"Someone used to say running up the Empire State Building is the equivalent of a hard 2-mile (3.2 km) race," he said. "While it's a tough race, it's just one hill. And you have handrails you can reach out and grab on both sides."

Feinstein is looking forward to the run-up, although with some anxiety.

The 700 to 750 men and women expected to scale the building's 86 floors range from elite athletes who scurry up skyscrapers around the world, to marathoners going vertical, to the approximately 200 entrants running for charities.

With such a wide range of abilities, Talve said, preparation is an individual matter.

"You can practice on a Stairmaster but it's not quite the same," he said.

The Empire State Building Run-up was the brainchild of New York City Marathon founder Fred Lebow. The inaugural Run-Up in 1978 was won by Gary Muhrcke, who won the first New York City Marathon in 1970.

The fastest runners take about 10 minutes to climb the nearly quarter-mile (.4 km) of steps, round the Observation deck of the iconic skyscraper and finish the evening run.

"We have wide mix of people who apply," Talve said.

Feinstein calls it the quintessential New York City race.

"You start in the lobby and everyone races through this narrow doorway," he explained. "It's like running for the subway." (Editing by Patricia Reaney and Bill Trott)

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NTPC disinvestment: EGoM to decide OFS price on Tuesday

The empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) chaired by Finance Minister P Chidambaram is expected to meet on Tuesday to decide on time and price of 9.5% stake sale in power firm NTPC Ltd which could fetch Rs.12,000 crore to the exchequer.

"The EGoM on stake sale in NTPC will be held tomorrow," an official said. The government, he said, was proposing to offload its stake in NTPC later in the week through the offer for sale (OFS) route.

The department of disinvestment (DoD) had successfully completed 10% stake sale in Oil India Ltd ( OIL ) through the auction route last week raising over Rs.3,113 crore for the government.

The DoD has already conducted international roadshows for disinvestment of NTPC.

With OIL stake sale going through, the government has raised over Rs.10,000 crore though public sector unit (PSU) stake sale so far this fiscal. This include Rs.6,000 crore from stake sale in NMDC Ltd , Rs.800 crore from HCL Technologies Ltd and Rs.125 crore from NBCC .

Disinvestment secretary Ravi Mathur had said earlier that the government will be able to raise Rs.27,000 crore through disinvestment in the current fiscal, lower than the budgeted Rs.30,000 crore.

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App helps bring strangers together over meals

By Natasha Baker

TORONTO (Reuters) - Looking for new friends or dinner partners? A new smartphone app is designed to help people connect to others to set up groups for dinners.

The app, GrubTonight, links hungry and adventurous smartphone users for dinners, fun evenings and friendship.

"We wanted to build a real-time spontaneous app where any night of the week you could go out and eat, because you need to eat anyway, and also have a social outing," said Eddy Lu, CEO and co-founder of Grubwithus Inc, an online community for group meals based in Los Angeles, California.

Users can browse group dinners through the app, which works with restaurants to fill open seats. Each night there are three prix-fixe group dinners available. Bookings for the meals, which average about $20, are made through the app. The meal includes a shared appetizer, entree and a drink.

GrubTonight is available in Los Angeles but the company's other app, Grubwithus, is worldwide and enables users to attend group dinners that are planned several days in advance and revolve around themes.

Users are also able to organize their own public or private group dinners using the app.

"When you want to create an event you just select one of our partner restaurants and the menu is already taken care of," said Lu.

"People need efficient ways just to meet people. It's a good social way to come together and you need to eat three times a day," he said, adding that most users are between 20 and 35 years old.

The company has organized meals in more than 50 cities worldwide but the app has been most popular in San Francisco, New York and Chicago.

The motivation for Grubwithus, according to Lu, came from the difficulty he faced in meeting new friends and people to do things with in Chicago.

"When you go to dinner parties and meet friends of friends that's when you really connect with people because you're sitting beside them for an hour," he said. "We thought that dinner was just such a good way to connect with people and build meaningful friendships."

Although it is not a dating app, Lu said that it has played a part in bringing some couples together.

GrubTonight is available for iPhones, but web and Android apps are being developed and the company plans to expand GrubTonight to other U.S. cities. (Editing by Patricia Reaney)

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