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It’s near 11 p.m. on a breezy night in the Mediterranean resort town of Fethiye. Oguz Bagriyanik turned up the music and smiled at a couple taking seats in the Main Bar, looking satisfied.

“The night is just beginning,” said Bagriyanik, who is in his 30s and running the small pub in the Destina Hotel this summer as a sideline to his gold jewelry business in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

“I earn more here than in Ankara, the profit from drinks is higher and there are plenty of customers,” he said cheerfully, “And it’s fun to work here, to enjoy the sunshine, the sea, and to meet friends from so many countries.”

Bagriyanik is not the only one to benefit from Turkey’s relatively resilient tourism sector as international visitors slashed spending and shelved holiday plans. What makes vacations in Turkey good value is the country’s cheap currency, which has weakened continuously against the euro and sterling and attracts cash-strapped tourists from more expensive sunshine beaches in rival countries in the euro-zone like Spain and Italy.

The euro and the British pound have rallied more than 20 percent and 10 percent respectively against the Turkish lira in the past year. The lira now trades above 2.14 per euro and 2.44 per sterling.

Destina Hotel manager Serdar Engin said their business had not been much affected by the recession. “There are more British tourists coming this year to our hotel,” said Engin, who is sitting in a sofa at the hotel lobby and greeting every guest walking in with grins.

“The euro has been strengthening against the lira. That makes everything cheaper here than elsewhere,” he said.

In the first seven months of this year, the number of foreign visitors rose 1.1 percent from the same period of 2008 to 15 million, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said Monday. That was against a backdrop of drastic slumps across the global tourism arena under the impact of the credit crunch, rising unemployment and A/H1N1 flu.

In the first four months of the year, international tourism arrivals decreased 8 percent from the same period last year, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said in a June report.

In that period, the Middle East recorded the biggest decline of18 percent and Europe saw the second-biggest contraction of 10 percent, while the UNWTO predicted international tourism to decrease by between 4 and 6 percent in 2009.

During the January-April period, the number of arriving foreigners in Turkey declined only 0.5 percent year-on-year, official data shows. In July, the number of foreign visitors to Turkey rose 6.32 percent year-on-year to 4.34 million after two months of decline, signaling a revival of tourism before August, the busiest tourism month of the year.

“If euro is not so strong against lira, the English wouldn’t have come here,” said Bagriyanik. At Destina Hotel where Bagriyanik operates his pub, nearly all of about 250 beds have been filled, forcing Bagriyanik, whose father owned the hotel, to sleep in the hotel office.

Like at Destina, most tourists in Fethiye are British. Walking downtown in the evening, one would feel like wandering in a United Kingdom community with the English speaking crowds and the “Full English Breakfast” signs at restaurants.

Fethiye is emblematic of the popularity of Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean beaches among sun-seeking Europeans, who have fueled strong tourism growth in recent years.

In the Mugla Province where Fethiye is located, 1.45 million tourists arrived in the first seven months, only after the southern Mediterranean province of Antalya and Turkey’s largest city Istanbul.

Turkey’s tourism revenues neared 22 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 18.5 percent year-on-year and taking up 3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

PRESSURE REMAINS

For some in the business, it’s too early to celebrate. Rising expenses due to Turkey’s chronically high inflation and declining prices offered to bargain-hunting tourists could squeeze the profit room, according to Engin.

“We have reduced hotel rates a little,” he said, “Other hotels and travel agencies have also been lowering prices to keep customers coming,” he said.

The strategy, combined with the appreciation of euro and sterling, proves effective. During the busy time, it takes a while to find space or empty seats in the swimming pool and cafe at the hotel, which is surrounded by blossoming plants on the hillside.

Onur Bagriyanik, who is the brother of Oguz and helps run the family’s hotel, said he expected this year’s guests to reach around 25,000, nearly double the 14,000 of last year, with profit to stand between 25 percent and 30 percent.

With a slight growth in the number of foreign visitors in the seven months, some tourism businesses still felt a chill compared with a robust 13 percent increase of the number in 2008.

A worker calling himself Ahmet from the Galaxy boat trip company in Fethiye said the prices are down this summer but business is still quieter than last year.

“I could never book a room here in August before, but this year,I managed to order two rooms,” said business traveler Ahmet Cemal Bafli, who stayed at the Iberotel Sarigerme Park resort hotel in Dalaman, Mugla.

Despite the resilience in visitor number, these tourists have curtailed spending significantly, resulting in a 9.6 percent year-on-year decline in tourism revenues to 4.2 billion U.S. dollars inthe second quarter, the Turkish Statistical Institute said late last month.

In the first quarter, Turkey’s tourism income shed 11.2 percentfrom the same period last year, as the country’s total GDP contracted by 13.8 percent, the steepest quarterly decline since 1945.

Hotel runners also fret over a recent decision by the Finance Ministry to hike the value-added tax on tourism back to 18 percent after cutting the rate from to 8 percent at the beginning of 2008,the Turkish Hurriyet Daily news reported last month.

For all the adverse factors, at Destina Hotel, the cheap lira plays the ultimate role in securing a hefty profit. “The financial crisis is terrible, but it turns out not that bad for us,” says Oguz Bagriyanik.

The year’s not even over, but Billboard already knows who its woman of the year is — Beyonce (Bee-AHN’-say).

The superstar will be honored by the industry publication at its annual Women in Music event.

Past “Woman of the Year” honorees were Ciara (SEE-ehr-ah) and Reba McEntire.

Beyonce will be on hand to accept her award at the Oct. 2 event in New York City. It’s been yet another big year for the entertainer. She had the smash hit “Single Ladies,” sang at President Obama’s inauguration, had a No. 1 movie with “Obsessed” and embarked on an arena tour.

Sweden’s popular file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay, closed on Tuesday after a local court ordered its Internet provider to stop serving the site.

The Stockholm District Court on Monday threatened to fine the provider, Black Internet, 500,000 kronor (about 70,000 U.S. dollars) if it did not end its service.

The court has ordered the ban to remain till a court case between the website and the U.S. film and music industry is decided.

In April, four men behind The Pirate Bay were found guilty of promoting copyright infringement by running the website and sentenced them to imprisonment of one year. The four have appealed the verdicts.

The Pirate Bay, founded in 2003, is one of the world’s most popular file-sharing websites. It makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.

The pace of life and the competitive nature of modern society brings its pressures. People find different ways to release the strain. Some have developed a strange and perhaps annoying habit.
Supermarkets are supposed to be a place for shopping but some are here for a different reason.

A supermarket salesperson said, “Some people crumble the food, such as biscuits, into pieces. We find so much crumbled food that we can fill a big case everyday.”

Experts say most of these people are white collar workers in big and medium sized cities, a group that most frequently faces the competitive pressures of modern times.

But their method of relieving stress has triggered criticism from supermarkets and other customers.

A customer said, “One should adjust to relieve pressure, not to do things like this. This behavior harms themselves and others.”

The concern about crumblers is justified. Psychologists say the behavior could develop into criminal activities that would hurt others. They suggest the crumblers make a change before it is too late.

Mr. Ma, director of Beijing Yanyuanbosi Pschology Center, said, “They can find some better ways to release pressure, such as jogging, music, or going to bars.”

So crumblers be warned. It’s time to find another way to relax and abandon the harmful behavior.

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs wants you - a music star of the Facebook generation. He does not want a performer who can only sing, dance, or look good on TV, but one who can do all that and social network.

On Aug. 16, Combs launched a new TV competition show on the MTV cable network called “P. Diddy’s Starmaker” that, like “American Idol,” aims to find an unknown singer who has the stuff to become a star.

But heading into a new decade of the 21st century, winning fame and fortune as a performer is far different from when the rapper, music producer, clothing maker and all-around music impresario first became a star his own right during the 1990s.

“The game has changed,” Combs said. “You have to understand how to be able to brand yourself,” he said. “Before, it was just at live shows, now you have to be able to do a great live show, you have to be able to do a great online interview, you need to have a great Facebook page, you have to have a great television performance.”

“P. Diddy’s Starmaker,” which premiered Sunday with 14 contestants, runs through September and has a format similar to “American Idol” and other TV talent contests by eliminating performers who fail to make the cut until a winner is crowned.

Combs said his show is different from a “voyeuristic standpoint” because it gives behind-the-scenes footage of the contestants interacting with each other and watching from backstage as their rivals perform.

There’s a dollar value for every college degree in today’s job market.

After four years of classes, study sessions and all-nighters, members of the Class of 2009 emerged from graduation holding a diploma–and facing a recession. But recent studies reveal good news for those embarking on a career: Starting salaries haven’t significantly decreased and are even on the rise for some.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently conducted a nationwide survey of nearly 200 colleges, noting the number of jobs and salaries offered to graduates of specific majors. Overall, it found that the average starting salary for this year’s graduates is $49,307, down less than 1% from 2008.

“Of course it all depends on which field graduates enter,” says John Noble, director of the office of career counseling at Williams College. “Humanities and the arts do not correlate very well to any specific field; psych majors aren’t necessarily doing anything different than the history majors. They’re all kind of in the same boat when it comes to job hunting.”

Liberal arts and computer science areas saw their average salaries drop less than 1%. Business majors saw a small increase of less than 1%. And graduates of engineering schools are seeing salary offers up 3.7% from last year.

Some of the lowest starting salaries were listed for those holding liberal arts majors; English majors fetch an average $34,704, and sociology $33,280. The highest wages by far are awarded to graduates with engineering degrees, with petroleum engineers leading the way at $83,121, followed by chemical engineers at $64,902.

But history and psychology majors alike can take hope in another study released by PayScale, Inc., which surveyed 1.2 million people across the U.S. It shows that while engineering graduates may benefit from the highest starting salaries, in general wage prospects even out after 10 to 15 years of work experience.

“For starting salaries, engineering and things like nursing are pretty strong,” says Dr. Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. “But the list reorders further into people’s careers. Music doesn’t pay very well, however the top 10% earns more than the average accountant. If you looked at the pay of people 15 years out, philosophy is actually in the top 10%.”

Together, these studies stress the importance of a major in landing a first job, but suggest that a degree does not determine pay down the line. Engineers largely do not benefit from the top-earner salaries of an economics or music major, degrees that can lead to lucrative leadership positions in their respective fields.

Both Noble and Lee studied philosophy as undergraduates, as a major and minor respectively. They are proof that a college major is not necessarily a pipeline into a certain career–and income tax bracket–but rather a useful forecast for that first paycheck.

In the concrete jungle of New York City, ice cream trucks in the summer time are as common as the delayed subway trains and the curious smells that emanate from below.

This year, vendors are churning out creative tricks and gimmicks to attract customers against the backdrop of an economic recession, negative press over drugs and turf wars, and downright lousy weather.

Muggy and rainy, the unseasonable lull in New York’s typically hot summers has played havoc on ice cream sales this year, according to just about everyone Xinhua spoke to for this article.

And, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. In dire need, New York City’s unique entrepreneurs have taken a creative approach to ice cream, said Mike Johnston, the president-elect of the International Association of Ice Cream Vendors (IAICV).

Johnston told Xinhua in a phone interview on Wednesday that New York used to be a fleet market many years ago. Now, it’s an industry of independent entrepreneurs taking to the streets their own spin on an American tradition.

The San Francisco Ballet (SFB) will debut in China with several performances of the timeless classic Swan Lake from Sept 22 to Oct 3.

The oldest professional ballet company in the United States will hold four performances at Shanghai Grand Theater, including an opening night gala featuring a mixed repertory and three performances of Swan Lake on the following nights.

SFB, which in 1940 became the first ballet company to perform a complete production of the musical in the United States, will take to the stage once more at Suzhou Grand Theater (Sept 28) then finish off with three shows at Beijing Poly Theater (Oct 1, 2 and 3).

Artistic Director Helgi Thomason said she hopes to bring a new flavor to the Chinese edition after spending the past quarter of a century working with the troupe.

The China tour forms part of the official celebrations commemorating the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China as well as the 30th year of Sino-US ties.

“On the occasion of these two historic and landmark anniversaries, we are very honored to participate in the country’s celebrations by performing my production of Swan Lake and a mixed-repertory program that not only showcases the talent of the Company, but also demonstrates the diversity of our repertory,” said Tomasson. “The invitation confirms San Francisco’s international reputation as a center for the arts. We are particularly proud to be representing our community.”

“Many editions of Swan Lake have been staged at Shanghai Grand Theater, including one from the local Shanghai Ballet, but Tomasson’s version is quite different,” said Wu Liangyu, a spokesman for the tour’s sponsor.

“New York Times art critic Anna Kisselgoff described her version as the most beautiful ever made,” he said. “She removed the break between the third and fourth scenes and added a duet between the prince and the white swan by borrowing Tchaikovsky’s Serenade Melancolique, which never fails to please ballet aficionados.”

Shanghainese dancer Tan Yuanyuan will perform the lead role on Sept 23 and 25. Although this is the first time the SFB has toured China, Tan performs in the city almost every year. The 35-year-old is currently working with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon on Ghost, a new piece set to premier next year.

“He is creating the Pas De Duex for me and Damian Smith. It is really hard, but breathtaking,” wrote Tan in her online journal.

The morning after Michael Jackson died, literary agent Joy Harris began getting the e-mails: when, publishers wanted to know, would Jackson’s memoir “Moonwalk” be returned to print?

“It did seem abrupt to me,” Harris said. “But when I thought about it, it didn’t surprise me, in the way that everything is so immediate these days.”

Within days, Harris had forwarded the e-mails to Jackson’s attorneys and soon the real discussions began. “Moonwalk,” originally acquired by then-Doubleday editor Jackie Kennedy and published in 1988, will be reissued in October by Random House Inc with a first printing of 100,000 copies and a new introduction from a Jackson friend who has not been identified.

Jackson’s representatives wanted to act quickly. Just a week after his death, executors of the singer’s estate filed papers in a Los Angeles court stating that book deals should be reached “as soon as possible” in order to capitalize on “the notoriety surrounding Michael Jackson’s unexpected death” and ensure that “profits for the estate will be maximized.”

According to Harris, several United States publishers were interested in the memoir but — assuming the price was right — both Harris and the lawyers who had handled Jackson’s book wanted to stay with his original editor, Shaye Areheart. Her Harmony imprint at Random House will handle the release. (Kennedy died of cancer in 1994.)

“She was professional with Michael and she was respectful,” Harris, who declined to offer financial details for the new edition, said of Areheart. “She had worked for Jackie a long time and she was comfortable around celebrity.”

The book is also coming out in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

“Moonwalk” was a classic celebrity project. It was not written or even conceived by Jackson. The contents were kept secret right up to the moment of release. Around the printing plant the book had the code name “Neil Armstrong.” It topped The New York Times hardcover nonfiction list, but within a few years was forgotten and out of print.

The idea began in the mid-1980s, when “Thriller” was at the top of the charts and the singer at the height of his fame. Jackie Kennedy, a celebrity at least as famous and even more secretive as Jackson, admired him, was fascinated by him and wanted him to tell his story.

Kennedy and fellow editor Areheart met Jackson at his home in Encino, California. Areheart remembered Jackson as “smart and funny and gracious,” without any symptoms of the tabloid target he would become over the following two decades.

“He was just a lively, in-touch guy,” she said. “And he did have his act together.”

Other publishers were interested but Jackson was equally in awe of Kennedy and wanted to publish with her. “They got along very well,” Areheart said. “She thought he was so sweet.”

Much of the field work was done by Areheart. Over the next few years, she would fly out to California and meet with Jackson at his Encino home, often in a large study that had a fireplace, and ask questions that he would answer by speaking into a tape recorder.

The project took longer than Areheart had anticipated, not because Jackson was uncooperative, but because he was busy touring, recording and otherwise being Michael Jackson.

“His time was constantly not his own,” she said.

“Moonwalk” was released in the spring of 1988. Reviewing the book in The New York Times, music critic Ken Tucker called “Moonwalk” eccentric, contradictory and helplessly revealing. Jackson, he wrote, was “a master of deadpan banality,” slipping out “significant information between the lines of psychobabble.”

Along with common statements about fame (”It hurts to be mobbed”) and the media (”What happened to truth? Did it go out of style?”), Jackson confided to being physically beaten by his father, to having twice had his nose changed by plastic surgery and to wearing just one glove because “two gloves seemed so ordinary.”

The book was dedicated to Fred Astaire and included a brief note from Kennedy, who asked, “What can one say about Michael Jackson?”

Doubleday printed 300,000 copies and eventually sold around 500,000, according to the current publisher, Harmony. The promotional budget was US$150,000, a lot of money for 1988.

Jacqueline Deval, then the book’s publicist and now publisher of Hearst Books, said she had just one conversation with Jackson. She could not persuade him to give interviews, but he was very eager to discuss a possible promotional spot.

“He had this fabulous idea for a TV commercial for the book,” she said. “There would be music playing and a camera would show his feet, his steps moving to the beat. And then a major celebrity friend, such as Elizabeth Taylor, would say something about Michael Jackson.

“Then the camera would pan up to his knees, and there would be another celebrity talking about him. And so on, until we finally see his face. I think it would have been fabulous, but it was way beyond the budget of any book publisher.”

Nineteen months after Heath Ledger’s sudden passing, his directorial debut of Modest Mouse’s music video for “King Rat” has been released online at WeAreTheMasses.com. The song is a bonus track from their 2007 album, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.”

The animated indie collaboration concludes with a dedication to Heath which reads, “This began with our friend, a great defender of life, and was completed in his spirit.”

While Heath began the project in 2007, the music video had not yet been completed at the time of his death on January 22, 2008. The partner company, Enter The Masses, completed the work on the project.

In 2007, Modest Mouse frontman Issac Brock spoke to VH1 about how his partnership with Heath started.

“Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea,” he said. “The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it.”

The video raises awareness of the commercial, illegal whale hunts conducted off the coast of Australia.

All proceeds from the U.S. iTunes store during the music video’s first month of release will go to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to marine life preservation.