WikiLeaks seeks more media partners

WikiLeaks hopes to enlist as many as 60 news organizations from around the world in a bid to help speed the publication of its massive trove of secret U.S. diplomatic memos, the site’s founder said Tuesday.
Julian Assange told The Associated Press that he was making an effort to reach beyond the major newspapers — such as The New York Times and The Guardian — that worked with him on earlier releases, saying that he already has about 20 media partners, and could triple that number within the next three months.

Rahman in Oscar run again with two nominations for ’127 Hours’

Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman has done it again! He received two nominations Tuesday for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards for the original score in Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours” as well as original song “If I Rise” for the same movie.
The composer, who won a double Oscar for his work in “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2009, is now vying for the golden statuette for the original score with John Powell (“How To Train Your Dragon”), Hans Zimmer (“Inception”), Alexandre Desplat (“The King’s Speech”), Trent Rezmor and Atticus Ross (“The Social Network”) in the original music

Rain washes out NZ v Pakistan second ODI

Rain washed out the second one-day international between New Zealand and Pakistan at the Queenstown Events Centre on Wednesday.
Constant drizzle delayed the start of play by an hour before the match began at 1200 (2300 GMT) and was reduced to 48 overs each.
Pakistan made a breezy start to their innings, reaching 31 without loss off 4.2 overs with Ahmed Shahzad racing to 25 off 16 balls and Mohammad Hafeez on four, when rain forced them off again less than 20 minutes after play began.

Australia seeks ‘first map’ from Britain

Australia used its national holiday on Wednesday to call for Britain to hand over a map drawn by explorer Matthew Flinders in 1804 that depicted the vast continent under its modern name for the first time.
Calling the map Australia’s “birth certificate”, Liberal MP Greg Hunt launched an online petition to Britain’s House of Commons urging the country to donate it for display Down Under by 2014, the bicentenary of Flinders’ death.
Drafted 16 years after the British first landed, it was the first sketch to label the continent “Australia”, departing from

Google to hire more than 6,200 workers this year

Google Inc. plans to hire more than 6,200 workers this year — boosting its work force by at least a quarter — in the biggest expansion yet by the Internet’s most profitable company.
The hiring spree comes as President Barack Obama emphasized the need for more jobs during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt was among a group of business leaders who met with Obama last month to discuss ways to bolster the economy.