The ultimate computer game that banishes handheld controls and allows players’ gestures to dictate the action on screen is to be launched by Microsoft.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 uses 3-D camera technology, and is aimed at challenging the dominance of the Nintendo Wii, reports The Times.

Allowing users to kick a virtual football, drive a car or practise dance moves with a computer-generated partner simply by monitoring an individual’s movements, the entertainment system will become a must-have for any child or even a youngster.
The Microsoft camera, which is the first to be able to sense 3-D motion, is based on technology developed by 3DV Systems, an Israeli company recently acquired by Microsoft. It uses infrared light to detect real-life gestures and the players’ distance from the camera. This information is then converted into a related movement on screen.

A source close to the Microsoft project said: “By taking away the controls altogether the game becomes so easy to operate that even your grandmother can master it.”

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Police have started investigating the authenticity of a note actress Jang Ja-yeon allegedly left before committing suicide on March 8. The note said she was unable to withstand the pressure of entertaining and having sex with program directors and corporate and media executives.

The former manager of the 30-year-old actress made public her alleged handwritten letters. Jang, who recently starred in the hit drama " Boys Over Flowers '' was found dead in an apparent suicide at her home in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province.

According to the Bundang Police Station, Jang's letter said she was beaten, forced to serve drinks, act as an escort at golf matches and coerced into sex with several program directors, CEOs and media executives.

Police said they obtained the list of names mentioned in the document but would decide on making them public after confirming whether the document in question is ``authentic.''

The police searched nine places including Jang's former and current agencies and her residence and seized the document from a broadcasting station, Saturday. The document will first go through a graphology test to confirm her handwriting and then police will investigate the content.

The letter also had some 10 names of program directors and other VIPs, but the police said they must conduct further investigation to verify the credibility of the document before summoning those mentioned.

``The document had thumbprints and a social security number and seems to have been written by Jang,'' a police officer said.

Her family members first opposed revealing the document but changed their minds and asked for further investigation since some contents of the letter had already been disclosed.

Yoo Jang-ho, Jang's former manager and head of management agency Hoyaspotainment, were in possession of the document and first leaked it to the public. He was hospitalized after a failed suicide attempt, Friday.

However, police said they are not sure whether the document they have found is the one Yoo disclosed and presumed the possibility of the existence of more than one document. Yoo said he burnt the letter in front of Jang's family and does not have any copies of the letter.

Kim Sung-hoon, head of Jang's last agency, was quoted as claiming that the documents are fabricated, adding that Jang's former manager ``fabricated'' the letters out of his disgruntlement over four criminal and civil lawsuits filed against him.

Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) will provide standardized contract forms to entertainment agencies in the first half of the year.

``Jang's letter aroused concern toward the unfairness of entertainers' contracts once again,'' a FTC official said. ``We found several unfair contracts at big agencies last year, but it's almost impossible to investigate hundreds of small- and medium-sized companies.''

The FTC will continuously supervise management agencies to rid them of unfair contracts in addition to the enforcement of standard contract terms.

Korean Actress Close Up: Jang Ja-yeon

Cool info on Jang Ja-yeon, including pictures, videos, news, biography, photos, stats, and wallpapers.

Name: 장자연, Jang Ja Yun, Jang Ja Yeon
Profession: Model, actress
Birthdate: 1982-Dec-08
Death: 2009-Mar-07 (suicide)
Height: 168cm

TV Series

Boys Before Flowers (KBS2, 2009)
My Lovely Fool (SBS, 2006)

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London : Kelly Brook must have faced lot of public humiliation after being axed from ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, but the actress has claimed that now she’s happily playing what she really is—a B-list actress.

The actress had to bid adieu to the show within days of landing the job as a fourth judge, but the TV beauty has said that it was the best thing to have happened to her, as she’s busier than ever.

Brook is doing ITV comedy-drama ‘Moving Wallpaper’ with funnyman Ben Miller, and has even landed her first-ever Vogue shoot.

In an appearance on ‘This Morning’ with Ben, the actress said that she was playing herself — a B-movie actress!

According to the Sun, when host Phillip Schofield commented: “I think Simon Cowell did you a favour, freeing you up to do all these great things.”

She replied: “Yes, life goes on and I’m really happy.”

When asked about her Vogue shoot, she said: “I’m so excited, it’s the first time I’ve done the magazine.” (ANI)

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Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter is on life support after she was found with her neck on a treadmill cable Monday, police said.

Exodus Tyson's 7-year-old brother found her on a treadmill with her neck on a cable attached to the exercise machine at their Phoenix home, police Sgt. Andy Hill said, calling it a "tragic accident."

The boy told Exodus' mother, who was in another room. She took Exodus off the cable, called 911 and tried to revive her.

Responding officers and firefighters performed CPR on Exodus as they rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was in "extremely critical condition" and on life support, Hill said.

"Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console - it's kind of a loop," Hill said. "Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose, and she was obviously unable to get herself off of it."

-- Jockey Rene Douglas might be paralyzed after being thrown from his mount during a Saturday race at Arlington Park, his agent said.

Dennis Cooper said doctors told him his client could not feel his lower limbs.

Douglas was aboard Born to Be when the horse clipped hooves with another horse and fell at the top of the stretch. Born to Be flipped and tossed Douglas, then landed on him.

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Yesterday Harvard Business School joined the likes of Stanford GSB and MIT Sloan when it announced that its general two-year MBA program will starting accepting the GRE from applicants this fall. This move comes after the HBS 2+2 Program announced in March that it would accept both the GRE and the GMAT this year. While this won't affect your plans if you have already taken (or are about to take) the GMAT, it will potentially attract a bigger and more diverse applicant pool to Harvard's two-year MBA program.

In an HBS press release, director of admissions Dee Leopold said, "We are pleased to widen our requirements to give all MBA candidates the option of submitting results from either the GRE or GMAT exams. Since many HBS applicants are also considering graduate programs besides the MBA, there is now no need for them to take the GMAT if they have already taken the GRE. We believe that both the GMAT and the GRE meet our expectations of what a standardized test can tell us about a candidate's ability to thrive in our MBA Program."

This is consistent with the school's push (of which the HBS 2+2 Program is an important part) to find more business leaders outside of the traditional MBA program feeders, such as business-oriented college programs, investment banks, and consulting firms. It also marks another win for ETS in its push to position the GRE as a credible competitor to the GMAT in assessing MBA applicants' abilities. With a handful of top-ten schools already accepting the GRE, we expect more schools will soon follow suit.

With ETS making slow but steady progress in winning over the top business schools, it's no wonder that the Graduate Management Admission Council has started to make noise about producing a next-generation GMAT exam, due to reach the market by 2013.

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SEOUL, May 26 (Reuters) - North Korea's nuclear test on Monday sparked international condemnation. Following are some questions and answers about why the North went ahead with the test and why it came sooner than analysts had expected.

WHY DID NORTH KOREA CHOOSE TO TEST NOW?

North Korea likely concluded that no concessions would flow from U.S. President Barack Obama, especially after his strongly worded response to Pyongyang's rocket launch last month that regional powers say was a long-range missile test. To North Korea, this probably signalled Washington was in no mood for direct negotiations, something long sought by Pyongyang.

The North may have also felt it needed to boost its leverage by conducting a follow-up nuclear test after its only other test nearly three years ago was considered just a partial success.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, perhaps pressured by an ailing economy and questions about succession, may be trying to lure Washington into making a quick deal that would boost his standing at home.

Monday was the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, and the test follows a pattern of Pyongyang's provocations timed for U.S. national holidays. The 2006 test of North Korea's long-range Taepodong-2 missile came on the U.S. Independence Day holiday.

ARE THERE DOMESTIC FACTORS AT PLAY?

Kim is returning to the centre stage in Pyongyang after a long absence from the public view following a suspected stroke last August. His illness has focused attention on who might take over in Asia's only communist dynasty. [ID:nSEO168410]

Analysts said the recent demonstrations of military strength might make it easier for Kim to introduce one of his three sons as a successor when most of the North Korean public is unaware he even has children. The recent sabre rattling could also divert attention from the country's economic malaise.

North Korea says it has been on a 150-day "battle" leading up to the Oct. 10 anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party, and the nuclear test has been a major part of the propaganda campaign.

There is a possibility the North will follow up with an additional nuclear test before the 150-day campaign is over, although this would risk depleting its meagre stockpile of fissile material.

Nuclear experts say at least as many as half a dozen nuclear tests are needed to accomplish the technology for a stable and workable nuclear device and it may take years for the North to build a weapon it could mount on a ballistic missile.

DOES NORTH KOREA WANT TO BE A NUCLEAR STATE?

It appears so. For a country with a battered economy and food shortages that make it reliant on outside aid to feed its people, a nuclear arms programme is the ultimate bargaining chip to win concessions from the United States and regional powers.

The more nuclear advances it makes, the greater the payoff it expects in negotiations with countries willing to pay for the North's eventual disarmament, if that ever happens.

South Korea, Japan and the United States say they will never recognise the North as a nuclear state and consider its moves to achieve such a status a grave threat to regional security.

SO WILL NORTH KOREA RETURN TO DISARMAMENT TALKS?

This is unlikely at the moment. North Korea has said six-way disarmament talks are over because U.N. sanctions against its April rocket launch infringed its sovereignty and nullified all deals reached under the multilateral talks, which began in 2003.

Officials in Seoul and analysts have expressed concern that the six-way talks among the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China may indeed be over in their current form.

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