James Cameron’s 3-D science fiction movie ”Avatar” has grossed USD 2.039 billion surpassing the USD 2 billion mark held by Titanic by the same director.

The movie’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, released the figures on Sunday. Fox declined to forecast where the film would end up, since it expected Tuesday morning’s Oscar nominations to spur a new wave of interest, Reuters said.

Avatar last Monday smashed the USD 1.843 billion record set in 1998 by Titanic. Fox did predict that Avatar would break Titanic’s North American record of USD 601 million by Wednesday.

The foreign collection stands at USD 1.45 billion after a USD 95 million weekend from 120 countries. It remained No 1 in many of them, including France, China, Australia and Brazil.

The movie could pull in so much money because ticket prices were considerably higher for 3 D screenings.

The monks of Buckfast Abbey have defended their product in a statement today saying it was “hard to see” how the wine could be “held responsible for all the social ills” of Strathclyde.

The possible link between the wine and crime emerged after a Freedom of Information request by BBC Scotland.  Buckfast Tonic Wine was mentioned in 5,638 crime reports from 2006 to 2009, Strathclyde Police said.  One in 10 of those offences were violent and the bottle was used as a weapon 114 times in that period leading to Supt Bob Hamilton, of Strathclyde Police, stating that is was “clear from the figures that there is an association there”.

Buckfast have issued a statement defending the wine, which its distributors say has just 0.5% of Scotland’s alcohol market  “Has anyone considered that the misuse of this wine by some could be seen as a symptom rather than a cause of such problems?”

There have been calls for the wine to be banned by the EU, but South West Conservative MEP Ashley Fox said banning Buckfast would “destroy years of Devon heritage”.  He said: “Do people honestly think that if Buckfast wine is banned, hooligans will start drinking tea?”.

"Rage Against the Machine for Christmas no.1" forced to use 'back-up' web page

There were all sorts of allegations flying across the web when Jon Morter’s Facebook creation, ‘Rage Against the Machine for Christmas no.1′, which carries over 800,000 members went down for the nth time in a mere  48 hours.

The page which hopes to propel Rage Against the Machine’s first UK single, Killing in the name, to Christmas number 1 in the UK charts, has been in and out of action more frequently than rumours of Danni Minogue’s X Factor career ending. Fans claimed ’sabotage’ while Jon Morter, creator of the Facebook page communicated with concerned members that through contact held with the PR team at Facebook, a “bug” had caused the upset.

The site had been disappearing through various points in the day. (arguably during peak times in a Facebook day.) The issue currently remains, with the main site page only accessable late night  through to early afternoon.

The page’s creator, Jon Morter was not only concerned that about the site problem creating a slump in sales, he had also noticed a significant slump in contributions towards Shelter, the charity which fans and members are able to donate to through justgiving.co.uk. The charity has already amassed £40,000 in the past four days through donations given by those hoping to see ’Killing in the name’ chart at the top spot this weekend.

Wasting no time at all a back up page was created, noticeably only carrying an 8th of the members the original page boasted.

Tonight however, radical action has been taken. Jon posted  up a message on the Facebook wall of the back up site letting concerned enthusiasts know what was had happened. Within seconds of posting members were offering suggestions on how to overcome the site’s difficulty. It was decided, that the best option, for the moment, was to withdraw members ability of wall posting on the original site in order to let the site remain operational for all intended purposes.

Now the task at hand is to promote the “official back up site” as the main port of call for all people looking to join; as well as those looking for information on downloading the track, all eligible download sites and rule and regulations of downloading – of which there are many!

Morter also complemented Facebook for their continued telephone contact with him over the past two nights, and stated that it had been a “frustrating time for us all”. He went on to remind members, it is “vital to keep going”, commenting, ”We don’t want to get this far and fail at the end!” as there are only three days left of purchasing til the christmas number 1 is revealed.

Rage Against the Machine – ‘Killing in the name’ currently reside top spot in the singles chart, however, it is still expected that sales figures of X Factor winner, Joe McElderry’s cover of ‘The climb’ will catch up and soon overtake as Wednesday saw the release of 500,00 CD singles.

The track is available to download from various websites including, HMV.com, iTunes, amazon, Play.com and Tesco Digital.

Scottish charities face a bleak future since The Lloyd’s TSB Foundation closed its doors to new funding applications, said Chief Executive of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisation Martin Sime. 

The foundation provided more than £6 million to Scottish charities in 2008, across large established charities and smaller community based projects. 

Nearly 1000 charities will lose a major source of income as a result of the foundation’s action.

Funding for the foundation comes from Lloyd’s TSB in the form of 1% of its pre-tax profits.  However, the recent financial crisis has reduced the available funds to practically nothing.

“The independence of the Foundation’s Board is very important. Their sensitive work has helped thousands of charities through supporting innovation, small acts of kindness and solidarity which are the hallmark of a civilised country” he said.

Mary Craig, Chief Executive of the foundation said “We remain uncertain as to when we will next receive sufficient money under the terms of our agreement to enable us to continue our grant making activities”

Funding for the foundation comes from Lloyd’s TSB in the form of 1% of its pre-tax profits.  However, the recent financial crisis has reduced the available funds to practically nothing.

Lucy McTernan, Deputy Chief of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations said; “This is terrible news which comes at a time when the voluntary sector and charities in Scotland are already experiencing huge funding squeezes such as the loss of cash to the London Olympics and reduced access to European Structural Fund money.  Many organisations are struggling to meet the demand for their services which is growing due to the impact of the recession.”

One charity that has suffered because of the losses is the Leith based Edinburgh Community Food Initiative, which works to promote healthier eating.  It currently receives a grant from the Lloyd’s TSB foundation.

A representative of the charity said; “we have a funding agreement with Lloy’ds TSB which lasts for three years.  We are currently in our first year and Lloyd’s TSB have confirmed that current grant agreements will be honoured.”

“We’re not immediately affected by it, but in the long term it’s a big issue.  We have to look for longer term funding all the time and begin transitioning into social enterprising.” he continued.

Although the foundation has stopped taking on new applicants it has not yet closed down for good.  Foundation head Mary Craig, said “Lloyds Banking Group has put money on the table to get the Foundation through the next few years until the Group returns to profit.”

An autism charity has condemned the Home Secretary’s decision to extradite Gary McKinnon to the US to face computer hacking charges.

Glasgow-born McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome,is alleged to have caused $700,000 of damage to Pentagon military computers. McKinnon maintains he was simply searching for evidence on UFO sightings.

The Home Secretary Alan Johnson rejected an appeal to block the extradition, saying he saw no reason to believe McKinnon’s human rights would be violated.

But the National Austistic Society has warned the extradition proceedings could excarbate McKinnon’s health problems.

Asperger Syndrome, which is an Austistic Specturm Disorder, is a condition that can affect sufferers’ social and communication skills.

It can also be seen in some sufferers in their restricted and repetitive patterns and interests.

NAS Chief Executive Mark Lever expressed his concerns, saying: “We are bitterly disappointed by the Home Secretary’s decision and feel hugely sympathetic towards Gary and his family who have been living under extreme stress for a prolonged period of time.”

He added: “People with Asperger syndrome are often much more vulnerable than appearances would suggest and can be highly susceptible to additional mental health problems.”