No cover-up in disclosing names of people having Swiss bank accounts: Antony

                                      

LONDON: Names of 2,000 secret Swiss account holders, including individuals and corporates from Asia, US and Britain, were on Monday handed over by a former Swiss banker to WikiLeaks for being made public. 

There was no indication whether any Indian account holder figure in the list since WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who received the two discs containing the documents, said that he would make it public in the future. 

Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of Swiss-based Bank Julius Baer, said the account holders include celebrities, business leaders and lawmakers. 

Assange, fighting cases to extradite him to Sweden to face sex charges, appeared alongside Elmer said he will expose attempts by these business leaders, corporations and lawmakers to evade tax payments. 

"We will treat this information like all other information we get," Assange said. "There will be a full revelation." 

According to a report in Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag, the data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009. 

"The one thing on which I am absolutely clear is that the banks know, and the big boys know, that money is being secreted away for tax evasion purposes," Elmer told Observer newspaper. 

He said the files being handed over to whistle-blower site WikiLeaks exposed activities in offshore financial centres. 

At the press briefing, Assange said that, with his organisation focussed on the publication of its cache of about 250,000 diplomatic cables, it could be several weeks before Elmer's files are reviewed and posted in the WikiLeaks website. 

The Swiss banker has previously leaked banking documents to the secret-spilling site and told journalists that he wanted to expose the offshore banking system. 

"I want to let society know how this system works," he said. "It's damaging society." 

The banker released the files two days before he is due to appear before a Zurich regional court to answer charges of coercion and violating Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws. 

Elmer said he would not reveal what specifically was in the documents, and would not disclose "individual companies or individual names" of the account holders. 

If Restaurants Functioned Like Microsoft

Patron: Waiter!

Waiter: Hi, my name is Bill, and I'll be your Support Waiter. What seems to be the problem?

Patron: There's a fly in my soup!

Waiter: Try again, maybe the fly won't be there this time.

Patron: No, it's still there.

Waiter: Maybe it's the way you're using the soup; try eating it with a fork instead.

Patron: Even when I use the fork, the fly is still there.

Waiter: Maybe the soup is incompatible with the bowl; what kind of bowl are you using?

Patron: A SOUP bowl!

Waiter: Hmmm, that should work. Maybe it's a configuration problem; how was the bowl set up?

Patron: You brought it to me on a saucer; what has that to do with the fly in my soup?!

Waiter: Can you remember everything you did before you noticed the fly in your soup?

Patron: I sat down and ordered the Soup of the Day!

Waiter: Have you considered upgrading to the latest Soup of the Day?

Patron: You have more than one Soup of the Day each day??

Waiter: Yes, the Soup of the Day is changed every hour.

Patron: Well, what is the Soup of the Day now?

Right To Left :)

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns

from his Middle East assignment.

A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Arabs?"

The salesman explained, "When I got posted in the Middle East,

I was very confident that I will makes a good sales pitch

as Cola is virtually unknown there.

But, I had a problem I didn't know to speak Arabic.

So, I planned to convey the message through 3 posters...

First poster, a man crawling through the hot desert sand...

Totally exhausted and panting.

Second poster, the man is drinking our Cola and

Third, our man is now totally refreshed.

Then these posters were pasted all over the place"

"That should have worked," said the friend.

The salesman replied, "Well, not only did I not speak Arabic,

I also didn't realise that Arabs Read from Right to Left..."

DHOBI GHAT(Mumbai diaries)

Director: Kiran Rao

Starring: Aamir Khan, Prateik, Monica Dogra

Rating: 

Some movies knock you out with a punch, others gently lay you down, soothe your fevered brow and lull you into a dream. Movies about Mumbai tend to do the former. But Kiran Rao's deeply personal Dhobi Ghat takes you by the hand, leads you to its doorstep and then leaves you to gawk, with pleasure. At Shai Edulji's (Monica Dogra) unknowingly selfish world, where her little indulgence can be someone else's life-altering experience. At Arun's (Aamir Khan) self-absorbed existence, divided between his art and his brooding. At Yasmin's (Kriti Malhotra) video letters to her brother in Malihabad, full of yearning but edged with sadness.

And of Munna's (Prateik) silent ambition, evident in the glistening worked-upon body he admires in a mirror dotted with Salman Khan cut outs. We know enough from Alejandro Inarritu's works that these separate characters will eventually have overlapping lives, but when they do, it is not with a bang but with the steady shimmer of Mumbai's ever-present rain. Rao's actors are fresh, even Khan, who shocks us mildly by using words like f*** and a******. It's an acutely observed and unhurried film. Munna bathing by the side of the railway tracks under cover of darkness, the colours on Arun's canvas melting into the meat frying in the stalls of Mohammad Ali road, begum Akhtar's voice filling the void of a flat, the domestic's daughter proudly reciting tennyson's brook. Arun's drawing the one he's falling in love with, Shai's photographing the one she's becoming obsessed with. One woman's art is another man's reason for living.

Healthy Teeth's

Will Kolkata's Prince be Kochi king?

KOLKATA: Eleven days after the auctioneer brought down his hammer for the last time at IPL players' auction in Bangalore, a ray of hope has emerged for Sourav Ganguly, who was ignored by all the 10 franchises. Team Kochi, which will be making its IPL debut in the ensuing T20 event, have belatedly realised their folly and are keen to take Ganguly on board. The Kochi management, who clearly showed no aptitude for team composition and failed to net a single capped Indian batsman other than VVS Laxman, have approached the Governing Council to allow them to sign the former India captain. However, they can do so only if the other nine franchises raise no objection to this out-of-auction deal. 

The BCCI, on its part, has no objection. "If the franchises have no objection, why should we stand in any player's way to play in the IPL? However, there is no question of bending the rule or making an exception," said a Governing Council member. 

IPL rules state that capped players put up for auction, can only be bought through an open bidding process. Ganguly, along with Mumbai captain Wasim Jaffer and Punjab pacer VRV Singh were the only three Indian players to remain unsold at the end of the two-day auction.