Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, March 22
(THE GLOBE)
Balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones were plucked from the Egyptian desert by a military helicopter on Sunday and flown back to this remote airstrip for an emotional meeting with officials and journalists.
Describing their record-setting 21-day flight as �the most amazing experience,� Jones said they ended their mission as extremely good friends and worst thing they had to endure was the cold.
The pair had spent six hours waiting by their deflated balloon in the desert heat as officials frantically tried to pinpoint their location and send out rescue vehicles and aircraft.
The huge Breitling Orbiter 3 craft, weighing nine tons and as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, bounced to a safe landing in the desert early on Sunday.
�The message from the balloon said �the Eagle has landed,� � deputy flight director Brian Smith told journalists in Geneva.
21-Day Flight Ends in Egypt
Piccard of Switzerland, whose father and grandfather also set records in the skies and under water, and Jones of Britain made history on Saturday when they crossed a �finish line� in northern Mauritania after a 21-day flight that took them more than 44,000 km (nearly 28,000 miles).
But they flew their balloon on eastwards across Algeria, into Libyan airspace and touched down in Egypt.
Answering journalists� questions in the VIP lounge at the tiny oasis airfield, they appeared drawn and thin. They wore blue flying suits and sipped Coke from wine glasses.
Jones said the most frightening moment occurred when the balloon got stuck over the Pacific.
�We were in the middle of nowhere and I think it then dawned on us on what mortality could be. Other than that I think the worst part of the flight was the cold...That was the hardest thing. It saps the spirit. It really does.�
Jones said there was a large element of luck in their success and at one point they doubted they had enough fuel to complete the mission.
�And it was almost as if my magic, almost as if something beyond us was helping us...I thought, watching the instruments, suddenly there was absolutely no doubt we were going to do it.�
Jones and Piccard Had �Down Moments�
He said he and Piccard had their �down moments� at different times and thus were able to support each other, and talking to their wives by radio helped them through difficult patches.
Asked about the state of the balloon, he replied: �it�s completely deflated, just like me really.�
Piccard, close to tears at several points, said: �It�s quite a big shock because Brian and I were for exactly three weeks alone in the balloon and six hours alone in the desert. And now we�re with people again, I�m very emotional...�
He said he look forward to sitting down with his family and his father �in front of a fire and to talk and to relax.�
The two men were due to fly to Cairo later on Sunday. In Geneva, flight spokesman Gerard Sermier said: �They are fine. There is absolutely no problem.�
He said they would not be able to return to Switzerland on Sunday as originally planned but would fly back for a news conference open to the public on Monday.
Brian Jones, left, and Bertrand Piccard celebrate their world record as they arrive at Dakhla Airport in Mut, Egypt, about 340 miles south of Cairo.
ALMATY, Mach 23
(THE GLOBE)
Gwyneth Paltrow, broke down in tears at Sunday night�s Oscar presentation while collecting this year�s award for Best Actress. �I don�t feel very deserving of this in your presence,� Paltrow said naming her fellow nominees.
Best Actress was just one of the seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, picked up by this year�s big winner, �Shakespeare in Love�. Whether or not it was swayed by the tremendous pre-award promotional campaign by Miramax, the Academy was clearly impressed by the witty romantic comedy. Even Dame Judi Dench picked up an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, despite performing for only 8 minutes in the film. �(Perhaps) I should only get a little bit of him�, she joked afterwards.
Considered the pre-favourite to collect �Best Picture� award, the war epic �Saving Private Ryan� received the nod for five Oscars. Director Steven Spielberg accumulated another award for Best Director. Accepting the award, Spielberg said that making the film was �one of the most extraordinary events of all our lives and the lives of all our families.� Thanking his father, who was sitting in the audience, Spielberg said: �thank you for showing me that there is honour in looking back and respecting the past.�
Best Foreign Film was awarded to �Life is Beautiful.� Director Roberto Benigni was also handed the Oscar for Best Actor. The former incidence provided the most entertaining moments of the night. Benigni elicted roars of laughter from the audience after leaping from seat top to seat top on way to collect the prize from Sophia Loren. After kissing Ms. Loren Benigni stated in a thick Italian accent, �this is a moment of joy, and I want to kiss everybody. I feel like now, really, dive in this ocean of generosity.� When receiving second Oscar for Best Actor, Benigni joked that he had already used all his English collecting his earlier prize. �My body is in tumult,� he said.
Also compelling was the controversial presentation of an Honorary Award to Elia Kazan. Kazan has admitted that during the McCarthy era of the 1950s, he informed authorities that several of his colleagues were members of the Communist Party. Many big Hollywood names such as Ed Harris and Nick Nolte conspicuously refused to stand for his ovation.
But neither moment could make up for the uninspired hosting of comic Whoopi Goldberg. Despite the fact that there was actually some suspense this year as to which movie would win the majority of the awards, ratings for Sunday night�s 4 hour presentation sank 18% from 1998�s total. With an average audience of 45.6 million viewers, this year�s event was the second-lowest rated Oscar broadcast since 1991.
BEST PICTURE: Shakespeare in Love,
ACTOR: Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful
ACTRESS: Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in Love
SUPPORTING ACTOR: James Coburn, Afflication
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Judi Dench, Shakespeare in Love
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan
FOREIGN FILM: Life is Beautiful
SCREENPLAY: Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare in Love
SCREENPLAY (based on material previously produced and published): Bill Condon, Gods and Monsters
ART DIRECTION: Shakespeare in Love
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Saving Private Ryan
SOUND: Saving Private Ryan
SOUND EFFECTS EDITING: Saving Private Ryan
ORIGINAL MUSICAL OR COMEDY SCORE: Shakespeare in Love, Stephen Warbeck
ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE: Life is Beautiful
ORIGINAL SONG: When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt, Stephen Schwartz
COSTUME: Shakespeare in Love
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: The Last Days
DOCUMENTARY (short subject): The Personals
FILM EDITING: Saving Private Ryan
MAKEUP: Elizabeth
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: Bunny
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: Election Night (Valgaften)
VISUAL EFFECTS: Previously announced Oscar winners this year:
Scientific and Technical Award: Avid Technology Inc.
Thalberg Award: Producer-director Norman F. Jewison
Honourary Award: Director Elia Kazan
By Alessandro RAIMONDI
LUGANO, March 21 (THE GLOBE)
A quake has been shaking the rather secluded world of elevators making when few days back it has been announced Schindler�s intention to acquire a German competitor.
The world, in fact, doesn�t list many producers of lifts and hoist equipments so that a news such as the one just mentioned may well be considered �the� event in this peculiar sector.
Schindler, which is already the world�s #2 manufacturers of lifts and similar devices, has formalized its willingness to make a strategic move: by absorbing Germany�s Haushahn it will strengthen its enviable position in terms of expansion, and will get rid of a somewhat disturbing competitor. Haushahn, in fact, is very active from its Stuttgart�s base in southern Germany and Austria, a basin that at Schindler is pretty much considered �their� domain.
The Swiss manufacturer in the meantime has received the approval to the operation by the German antitrust authority, and it will be only a matter of time before the take over takes place. However the extension of Schindler�s financial effort to absorb Haushahn has not been disclosed.
The operation is a sounding one since the German company generates a yearly turnover close to SF 320,000,000 and it employs a workforce of some 1,750.
In the next months Schindler will launch an unprecedented attack to the lucrative German elevators market once consolidated the acquisition of the reputed German firm.
Lifts making is a rather specialized activity and at world�s level only a limited number of manufacturers can catch up with the challenge represented by the globalization process: Otis, Kone and few others. With the latest move Schindler will be better equipped to do so.
Dear Valued Employee:
Re: Vacation Pay
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24/03/1874 - Harry Houdini was born (magician: the great Houdini, escape artist)
24/03/1882 - Professor Robert Koch announced in Berlin, Germany, the discovery of the tuberculosis germ. Though TB, a dreaded disease, was thought to be eradicated by the second half of the twentieth century, evidence suggested several cases of tuberculosis occurred in the United States in 1995, according to health officials at the Center for Disease Control.
24/03/1941 - Glenn Miller began work on his first motion picture for 20th Century Fox. The film was �Sun Valley Serenade�.
24/03/1944 In occupied Rome the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.
24/03/1958 Rock-and-roll singer Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tennessee.
25/03/1947 - Elton John was born (Reginald Kenneth Dwight) (musician, singer songwriter: Your Song, Honky Cat, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Bennie & The Jets, Daniel, Philadelphia Freedom; actor: Tommy)
24/03/1821 The Independence Day in Greece started from this day as they began rival against Turkish ego.
25/03/1965 The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol inrMontgomery, Alabama, to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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