French President Francois Hollande speaks to media upon his arrivals at a two-day European Union summit at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 18, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
With the next presidential elections slowly but surely approaching, French President Francois Hollande defended his economic and political credentials, saying he was "ready" to face the public's rising discontent and said he was "not afraid" to lose the race to the Elysee Palace. "Is there anyone who can do better? I'm not afraid to lose. I will not get frustrated and I do not blame the French," Hollande told L'Obs magazine. "As the presidential election is getting closer, French voters will be able to compare if I did what I had promised," he added. A recent Elabe poll for the news channel BFMTV showed 88 percent of voters disapprove of their Socialist leader with 72 percent of supporters of Left parties saying they were against Hollande's candidacy in the 2017 election. Hollande asked French people to judge him on his long-term bid to address the country's economic and financial problems. Taking office in 2012, the Socialist president inherited limp growth, a gaping trade deficit, 10 percent unemployment and strained public finances. Five years after, financial troubles were fixed, purchasing power had improved, industrial output gained momentum and economy recovered and started to create jobs, according to Hollande. "It is legitimate that I should be judged on this result," he stressed. Another poll released in September showed that Hollande would lose his bid for re-election in the first round of voting, adding he would garner between 11 and 15 percent of the vote. Haunted by poor public support and dogged by long-running unemployment, Hollande said he would decide whether to seek a second term or not in December. "I'll tirelessly continue to defend the policies I have chosen. I fully assume responsibility. I will not apologize or get rid of it," he noted. French voters handed a considerable win to the far-right party the National Front (FN) in local and European elections last year. FN head Marine Le Pen is almost certain to enter the second round of the presidential election, according to an Elabe survey released last month. Asked whether he will back his Conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy in a hypothetical face-off with Le Pen in a presidential runoff, Hollande said: "If there would be a necessity to vote Sarkozy, we would do so." The two rounds of French presidential elections are set for April 23 and May 7, 2017. Source: China.org.cn
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Narendra Modi resigns as Gujarat CM
Narendra Modi fought back tears again as he wished Gujarat to "surge ahead" after his departure from the state and sought forgiveness if he had done "anything wrong". Prime Minister-elect and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is presented a shawl by senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela during the special session of the state Assembly in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. The special session of the Assembly was called to bid farewell to Modi. (Source: PTI)
Prime Minister-elect and outgoing Chief Minister Narendra Modi submits his resignation letter to Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)
Prime Minister-elect and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is greeted by Speaker Vaju Vala during the special session of the state Assembly in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)
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Maria Crowned Miss Universe 2013
By Rafa Delfin: Venezuela's Maria Gabriela Isler, a 25-year-old accomplished flamenco dancer, was crowned Miss Universe 2013 Saturday night at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow, Russia. Her victory marks Venezuela's seventh Miss Universe crown (1979, 1981, 1986, 1996, 2008, 2009, 2013). Her court includes 1st runner-up Patricia Rodriguez of Spain, 2nd runner-up Constanza Baez of Ecuador, 3rd runner-up Ariella Arida of the Philippines, and 4th runner-up Jakelyne Oliveira of Brazil. Figuring in the top 10 were Yaritza Reyes of the Dominican Republic, Amy Willerton of Great Britain, Manasi Moghe of India, Olga Storozhenko of the Ukraine, and Erin Brady of the USA. Rounding up the top 16 were Jin Ye of China, Fabiana Granados of Costa Rica, Whulandary Herman of Indonesia, Nastassja Bolivar of Nicaragua, Monic Perez of Puerto Rico, and Dominique Rinderknecht of Switzerland. The show was co-hosted by NBC anchorperson and journalist Thomas Roberts and entertainer Mel B (formerly of the Spice Girls). Entertainment was provided by Azerbaijani singer Emin Agalarov, the pop group Panic! At The Disco, and Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, who also served as a judge. Besides Tyler, the other judges were American model and actress Carol Alt, fashion designer Marc Bouwer, Italian watchmaker Italo Fontana, retired American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, Japanese celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Farouk Systems founder Farouk Shami, and Russian model AnneVyalitsyna. A total of 86 countries competed in this year's edition. ***Note: the Miss Photogenic Universe award was won by Poland's Paulina Krupinska and the Miss Congeniality Universe went to China's Jin Ye. However, the awards were not distributed during the telecast to give way to Steven
The Top Five
Tyler's performance. My thoughts: For the first time since 1973, the pageant was not shown live on American soil, which distressed many pageant fans on the Eastern seaboard of the United States who are used to watching the telecast live. The live telecast from Moscow started promptly at 10 PM Moscow time, which would have been 1:00 PM on the U.S. East Coast. To those who did not want to wait for the delayed telecast on NBC at 9:00 PM, they could view the live stream from various independent sites. I happen to be one of those people who couldn't wait for 9 hours for the delayed telecast, so I opted to view the live stream from a Spanish-language TV station. The transmission was rather decent except for the annoying ads, but about 15 minutes towards the end of the show, the connection started to act up and my Internet froze. CB correspondent Hector Joaquin would later explain that the Internet connection at the Crocus City Hall Media Center had been mysteriously severed as soon as the five
The Critical Beauty Media Room (a/k/a my office) -featuring my laptop, my iPad, my PC. My iPhone took this picture!
finalists were announced. My favorite for the crown was Olga Storozhenko of the Ukraine (photo, below). This woman could do no wrong. I had never seen any unflattering pictures of her from the moment she arrived in Moscow until the finals. Her Hollywood goddess face, her regal and polished bearing, her sultry voice, her perfectly well-toned soft body - I was really hoping that the Ukraine would have its first Miss Universe crown after having sent so many strong and beautiful girls in previous years. But the more I analyzed her images and videos - and her performance in the preliminaries - it dawned on me that she would be just too perfect or "aristocratic" to be Miss Universe. I couldn't imagine her "getting down and dirty" or being surrounded by
 underprivileged children or sick people. Some fans perceived her as icy cold, with which I disagree, especially after having seen her quirky side in the video interview. I didn't have any other favorites after the prelims, but when Olga was shut out of the Top 5, I found myself cheering and rooting for Miss Spain Patricia Rodriguez, whom I thought was the most facially beautiful. But she lacked energy and was less radiant than the others. Avid fans now realize that girls who had competed previously in Miss World, like Patricia, will never win Miss Universe as long as Donald Trump runs the pageant. Ada Aimee de la Cruz of the Dominican Republic (who was 1st runner-up in Miss Universe 2009), had competed in Miss World 2007. Yendi Phillips of Jamaica (who was 1st runner-up in Miss Universe 2010) was a Top 16 semifinalist in Miss World 2007. Gabrielle Walcott of Trinidad & Tobago (who was 2nd runner-up in Miss World 2008), did not even place in Miss Universe 2011. Three girls who competed in Miss World 2013 - Russia, South Africa and Namibia - were all shut out in Miss Universe 2013. Trump realizes the importance of protecting the Miss Universe brand, so any reference to Miss World would simply diminish the prestige of his brand. Take note of that, national directors! Back to the top five assessment. Miss Brazil Jakelyne Oliveira made the cut because she had the best swimsuit body (she's your typical tanned, sexy Brazilian beach garota) but I found her face a little odd (maybe it's her pug nose). Miss Ecuador Constanza Baez was off my radar until she wowed me in the swimsuit competition, but she's a regular butterface and her mint-colored frilly gown didn't do justice to her fabulous figure. She would also fix her hair once in a while, which annoyed me. Miss Philippines Ariella Arida - who won the 16th semifinal stop via online voting - had the most beautiful hair, so silky and bouncy, but her bright sunny yellow strapless gown was more appropriate for a high school prom (although the color perfectly suited her dusky complexion). Her facial expressions were also bland. Miss Venezuela Gabriela Isler gave a strong and consistent performance throughout the entire competition; she was not in my top five list (Spain, Ukraine, Great Britain, USA, Dominican Republic), but she's Miss Venezuela, and that's good enough for the judges to crown her in her iridescent silver gown. Like all past Venezuelan representatives, Gabriela emitted an effervescent personality and remarkable stage projection. Though compared to her predecessor, Gabriela's beauty is ordinary. It's easy to get tired of  looking at her. Other delegates that made an impression on me included Amy Willerton of Great Britain (photo, left). If there is one contestant who epitomized the old Hollywood glamour à la Veronica Lake, it would be Amy. Her top 10 placement is the best one that her country (Great Britain/United Kingdom/England) has ever had since Karen Lesley Moore placed 4th runner-up in 1983 (exactly 30 years ago!). All that hair-tossing, that sexy-strutting and stunning Jessica-Rabbitesque glitzy red dress paid off for this hot Brit. Then we have Miss China Jin Ye, whose slick hairdo and top model strut in swimsuit made her stand out from the rest. Initially, I was underwhelmed by Miss Dominican Republic Yaritza Reyes's performance during the prelims, but she blew me away with her outstanding performance in both swimsuit and evening gown segments of the finals. Remember, this was the same girl who fell into a hole on stage during the Yamamay fashion show two weeks ago; she quickly recovered and brilliantly finished her routine as if nothing had happened. They say that the Q & A segment determines the results. They say that your answer can either make you or break you. That may be true, but not in this year's competition. Four of the finalists (Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Venezuela) relied on an interpreter. Here's the full transcript: Question for Ecuador from judge Philip Kirkorov : What would happen to the world if we could no longer use the internet? Ecuador: I believe that computers themselves as one of the technologies nowadays. It has its advantages and disadvantages and one of the disadvantages is that we are no longer as close together with our families. I would like to use this moment to tell the teenagers and everybody that we should use the methodology of computers and the Internet in a positive way. It is never too late to start. Let us start right now. Question for Brazil from judge Carol Alt: What is your opinion in places that do not allow women to vote, travel abroad, or drive cars? Brazil: Good evening everybody! In my opinion, we as women achieved our independence through time. Unfortunately, nowadays we still have some problems with our independence as women. But we need to keep our open minds because nowadays we are homemakers, we are out there in the work force. In my country, we have a female president. We are capable of everything. Question for Spain from judge Anne Vyalitsyna: What is the most significant thing we can do to help elect more women to political offices around the world? Spain: I believe in order to select a good woman, she must possess good qualities in order to perform a good job – discipline, knows how to adapt herself, how to respond with her work, her performance and fulfilling her job. Question for Philippines from judge Tara Lipinski: What can be done about the lack of jobs for young people starting their careers around the world? Philippines: For the people who have lack of jobs, I do believe that we people should invest in education and that is my primary advocacy, because we all know that if everyone of us is educated and well aware of what we are 
doing, we could land into jobs and we could land a good career in the future. So education is the primary source and a ticket for a better future. Question for Venezuela from judge Steven Tyler: What is your biggest fear and how do you plan to overcome it? Venezuela: I believe that one may have a lot of fears but nonetheless this is not something negative. I believe we should overcome all our fears and this in turn would make us much stronger. As soon as we overcome our fears and we're sure of ourselves, we can face any challenge. Even though no one stammered or choked, none of the finalists really answered their respective question. Their answers were either safe or general and sometimes poorly delivered, especially that of Spain's. It is this kind of answers that makes potential pageant contestants spend lesser and lesser time practicing with their interviews - falsely assuming that they can still place and win with a safe answer. Did anyone notice that there were only five questions in the bowl? And did anyone notice, too, that the five judges who had been chosen to ask the questions were all highly prominent celebrities? And most importantly, why was the number of judges an even number (8)? What would have happened if there had been a tie, and who would have been obliged to break the tie? Trump himself? Considering that Miss Philippines was the only one to answer in English, this justifies the controversial statement that she expressed during a TV interview in which she had commented that "Latinas can't even speak a sentence in English" - which, by the way, was taken out of context. Expect Latinas to rely on interpreters next year, and the following year... infinity. To those of you who did not see the live stream on the Internet, you missed the part when Gabriela did not realize that she had actually won. Even Miss Spain was confused. Watch: NBC edited the delayed telecast by cutting out the "confusing" episode. I really wish they stop announcing the winner first before the 1st runner-up. This avoids confusion, especially between the last two girls standing whose native language is not English. Poor Miss Spain was not given a proper "whisk" (usually the whisker would let her pose for the cameras for a few seconds before being pulled completely aside). Everything felt too rushed. There had been many occasions when the last two girls were from countries that did not speak English and there had never been any confusion. Why? Because they stuck to the pattern of announcing the 1st runner-up first before the winner. You don't need a translator. All the hosts have to do was to announce the name of the country. Perhaps if the hosts had positioned themselves closer to the two girls, then the girls wouldn't have been too confused. I miss former hosts Bob Barber and Bob Goen calling the 1st runner-up first and even pointing at the winner to avoid confusion. Gabriela's crowning moment was messed up by poor stage direction and by the fact that her crown slipped off her head three times. I have to say that the stage is probably the most majestic stage that I have ever seen. And this beautiful picture featuring a replica of the Kremlin is what I'd like for the pageant in Moscow to be remembered for, and not the ugly politics behind it or these eerie Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls):
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7 Billionaires & Their Crazy-Ingenious Ideas
By Mother Nature Network, Let's make lots of money: Billionaires are known for being an eccentric lot. Of course, having more money than could possibly be spent in a lifetime probably has something to do with that. But for many of the world's billionaires, it was their wacky ideas that made them so rich in the first place. It's worth keeping tabs on the ingenious concepts backed by the world's richest people, so here's our roundup. (Text: Bryan Nelson) Related Links: (2) Most millionaires weren't born that way; (2) Pets that inherited a fortune. 1. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic: Founder of the Virgin Group (which includes companies like Virgin Records and Virgin
Photo: Phil Stafford / Shutterstock
Atlantic), Richard Branson is known for his sense of adventure. Perhaps the most significant embodiment of that spirit is his company Virgin Galactic, which is designed to corner the market on space tourism.
That's right: space tourism. The company hopes to be the first to provide suborbital space flights for tourists. The tickets won't be cheap: The first flight will cost passengers a whopping US$250,000. Even so, people have been lining up to board. Related Link: Richard Branson vows to give away half his wealth to charitable causes. 2. Jeff Bezos' 10,000-year clock: Jeff Bezos made his fortune
Photo: Steve Jurvetson/Flickr
by founding Amazon.com. Now he wants to build the world's most perfect clock, designed to keep flawless time for 10,000 years. The timepiece, called the Clock of the Long Now, will be located on Bezos' and in Texas. Aside
from keeping time, Bezos hopes the clock will change lthe way humanity thinks about time. According to a website for the Long Now Foundation: "Ideally, it would do for thinking about time what the photographs of Earth from space have done for thinking about the environment. Such icons reframe the way people think." Related Link: Amazon CEO's expedition raises Apollo rockets from seafloor. 3. Elon Musk's Hyperloop: Elon Musk is a
Photo: OnInnovation/Flickr
man known for being unafraid to put his money behind his big ideas. He already has staked a great deal of his fortune on the visionary space transport company, SpaceX. He also founded Tesla Motors, an electric car company. His next big idea sounds like something straight out of a futuristic sci-fi flick: "hyperloop." Musk bills it as the world's upcoming "fifth mode of transportation" (after
planes, trains, automobiles and boats). It works by propelling passenger pods through low-pressure tubes. Since the pods would ride on a cushion of air rather then wheels or rails, they would reach incredible speeds. Initial models project at speeds of about 760 mph!If implemented, the hyperloop would certainly revolutionize travel.Related Link: 6 ways Elon Musk is changing the world. 4. Peter Thiel's Floating Cities: Many of
Photo: Fortune Live Media/Flickr
the world's richest people are known for moving their money to tax havens, which are countries that do not tax. Several of the island nations of the Caribbean are examples. Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal,
wants to take that idea to the extreme. He wants to build giant floating cities in the world's oceans - a concept referred to as "seasteading." These floating cities would serve as independent colonies, free from the laws of land-based nations. It sounds like a wacky idea, but the first settlement is already being funded, and could be built within five years. Related Link: Peter Thiel pays kids not to go to college. 5. Yuri Milner's Global Brain: Yuri Milner has made much of his fortune by investing in
Photo: Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz/Flickr
Internet companies such as Facebook, Zynga and Groupon. These have been wise investments, but for Milner they're more than just financial ventures. They're the embryonic beginnings of the development of a global
Photo: Smit/Shutterstock
brain. A global brain? It sounds very much like something out of "The Matrix." Milner believes an inevitable consequence of the Internet age is that all of the knowledge exchanged by humanity and machines will eventually coalesce into a supreme artificial superintelligence - a global brain. Whether this global intelligence will be benevolent remains to be seen. We're guessing, probably not. Related Link: Stephen Hawking wins $3M physics prize from Yuri Milner's foundation. 6. Nicolas Berggruen, world's richest minimalist: Say what you will about billionaires, but
Photo: Hubert Burda Media/Flickr
they're rarely characterized by their humility. Nicolas Berggruen might be the exception. In some circles, he's called the "homeless billionaire." The investor and financier does not own a home, and says he can fit all of his possessions into a paper bag. Berggruen is undoubtedly the world's richest minimalist. He acknowledges that whatever he owns is only temporary, and regularly
Photo: warmer/Shutterstock
speaks out about the spiritual bankruptcy of consumerism. He hopes to impact the world positively by bringing about political change, rather than by accumulating possessions. Of course, it's probably a lot easier to be a minimalist when you've got a few billion in the bank. But Berggruen at least earns points for not letting his money consume him. Related Link: 'The Minimalists' share their journey to a simpler life (Hint: One step at a time). 7. Clive Palmer's Titanic II: Australian billionaire Clive Palmer must have been
one of those people who saw James Cameron's iconic film "Titanic" multiple times. He has funded plans to build a replica of the famous, ill-fated vessel, aptly called Titanic II. It should be set to sail in 2016. "It is going to be
designed so it won't sink,'' he told the BBC. Now where have we heard that before? Related Link: 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic [Photos] [Source: Mother Nature Network. Edited.]. Source: http://alizul2.blogspot.com/
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