At first those selected for the deliberately multiethnic teams were rising stars a few rungs below the top, but the programme has now been extended to executives such as Mr Banavar, a former head of IBM's research in India who is now chief technology officer for the firm's global public-sector business.

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The timing of the announcement comes the day after the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced that no former players were selected for induction from a ballot that included some stars who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

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"jOBS" stars Ashton Kutcher in the title role and dramatizes selected highlights of Jobs' life, from his formative months at Reed College to the 1984 debut of the Macintosh to the triumphant unveiling of the iPod in 2001.

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The explosive wicketkeeper-batsman was one of England's stars in their World Twenty20 success last month and has been selected ahead of Matt Prior.

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In many cases, it's because they know someone on the inside and that's not to say that they were unfairly selected, but when you have - I work, for instance, with stars, very high quality talent, so they know other high quality talent.

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The list of competitors is unusually full of Hollywood movies, with stars like Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron and Richard Gere all appearing in films selected to play in competition.

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