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0e7f4af26bb801d4ae7932c296426b9c4ca1c978 | They already own more of London than the Crown Estate. And Qatar’s royal family are now planning their own British palace in the capital as well. The Gulf state’s rulers have submitted plans to convert three prime properties in London’s Regent’s Park into a huge mansion, set to become the UK’s first £200million home. Scroll down for video . Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned - one of Qatar’s former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani's wives - bought 1, 2, and 3 Cornwall Terrace (pictured) last year and is converting the three into a palace . The garden sits at lower ground level, at the back of number 1 Cornwall Terrace, and is accessible by two sets of stairs. In the summer it can be dramatically lit to look like a ballroom . Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, 55, one of the three wives of Qatar’s former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, bought the homes for an estimated £120million last year. The Arab royal, who met the Queen at Windsor Palace in 2010, has now hired architects and lawyers to oversee a transformation of the properties into one 33,000 sq ft mansion, boasting a spa, heated swimming pool, beauty salon, butler and nanny quarters, a children’s floor, games rooms, powder rooms, massage areas, two lifts and a gymnasium. Her family also own the Shard, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, Harrods and the Olympic Village. The 13 bedroom palace will be the London home of Sheikh Hamad’s son and Qatar’s current emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, 34, who was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst. There, he will be able to relax in the mansion’s spa and sauna and dip in the pool, which is set in Portland stone. Heated kitchen seats will keep the family warm in the English winter and, for the summer, there are Italianate gardens dramatically lit to look like a ballroom. Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned (right), with husband Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani's (left) Guests are treated to a selection of bedrooms and can smoke with their host in a cigar room, and select drinks from a ‘wine cave’. Lights are controlled by an iPad and staff live in their own quarters in part of the building, which comprises of the two end properties on the terrace. When completed, the mansion is expected to be the most valuable residential property in London in private hands. It is likely to be worth more than the most high profile investments of recent times in the capital – including Dudley House on Park Lane, a grade II-listed mansion which was also bought and renovated by Sheikh Hamad, 62, and is valued at £200 million. It is expected to be worth about double the highest selling residential property in the UK - a penthouse at One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, which sold in May this year for about £140 million. The Qatari royal family bought the three properties - 1, 2 and 3 Cornwall Terrace - last year. The Grade 1 listed buildings were designed and built in the 1820s by Decimus Burton, the protégé of John Nash, the architect who designed Buckingham Palace. It was named after King George IV, whose titles included the Duke of Cornwall. The homes were badly damaged in the Blitz. After refurbishment, one of the properties was the official residence of the New Zealand High Commissioner from 1955 until the seventies, with lavish parties for royalty, celebrities and ambassadors. It was subsequently overtaken by hippy squatters in 1975 and was hailed as a ‘temple’ for the ‘Rainbow People’ and ‘Divine Light Mission’ - before being redeveloped in 2007 by a property company and sold. The 33,000sq ft mansion will boast a spa, heated swimming pool, beauty salon, butler and nanny quarters, a children’s floor, games rooms, powder rooms, massage areas, two lifts and a gymnasium . Representatives of the Qatar royal family said after joining the houses together, the new single mansion ‘will be ordered through a series of zones creating a sense of hierarchy’. Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, when she met the Queen at Windsor Palace in 2010 . Plans suggest the ground floor of the neoclassical house will be used for a reception area and lobby, leading through on one side to a large dining room and on the other to the family’s main kitchen, living room and breakfast rooms. The first floor boasts formal sitting areas, a cigar lounge and three entertainment rooms. The living areas are above, with the second floor featuring a huge master bedroom, with two adjoining ‘dressing rooms’, a master bathroom and a bedroom pantry. The third floor is set aside for the children, with boys and girls wings, games rooms, playroom, pantry and a kids’ lift. The nanny lodgings are also on this floor, with an en suite bathroom. The lower ground floor, meanwhile, is to boast the heated swimming pool and gym areas, which are to be separated by a glass wall ‘to create a sense of light and space’, as well as massage rooms, another ‘entertainment area’ and a hair salon. Another part of the floor will serve as staff quarters, with a catering kitchen, wine cave and a security office controlling a system of state of the art cameras protecting the property. Fittings for the mansion will be made from the most sought after materials, including a carrara marble and champagne gold metal fireplace. The bathrooms will be provided with a minimum of 3 air changes per hour, while each room’s temperature can be controlled individually. The ideal temparatures have been specified for the family at 23C in living areas, 22C in bedrooms and between 25C and 30C in the pool area. The 13 bedroom palace will be the London home of the couple's son - Qatar’s current emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, 34, who was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst . In its current form, one Cornwall Terrace alone has seven bedrooms, 11 reception rooms, nine bathrooms, a private gym and a garage with number-plate recognition that can accommodate two limousines. The adjoining property – formed by already combining 2 and 3 Cornwall Terrace – has six bedrooms. Its dining room, restored to its former Regency glory, seats 16. Extensive works to be done include, structural realignment, part excavation of the lower ground floor, corridors to connect the properties and a ‘secret’ passage linking the new dining room and study. The state of Qatar has been ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-19th century. It is an absolute monarchy, which means the monarch has unrestricted political power over the state and its people. The current head of state is 34-year-old emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and there has been eight rulers in total since the House of Thani was established in 1850. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani handed power over to his son - one of his 24 children - in June 2013. He was the first ruler, in a succession of three Qatari rulers to ascend to power without resorting to a coup, following his father's seizure of power from his own father in 1995. Sheikh Tamim married his second cousin in 2005 and had four children, and then married his second wife - the daughter of the Qatari Ambassador to Jordan - in 2009 and has a daughter and a son. Oil was discovered in the country in 1940, transforming its economy and it is now the world's third largest natural gas reserves and oil - in excess of 25 billion barrels. The country now has a high standard of living, with no income tax and one of the lowest tax rates in the world and less than one per cent of the population is unemployed. ‘These are to be occupied and used by the same, large family who has the long leasehold interest in both properties. They intend to use these properties as their London home,’ the planning application states. For almost 150 years, Qatar has been ruled by the Al Thani family. Sheikh Hamad was the ruling Emir of Qatar from 1995, when he seized power from his father Sheikh Khalifa in a bloodless palace coup d’état supported by the armed forces, cabinet and neighbouring states. He has more than 20 children from three wives, a fortune of £1.5billion and his family’s huge state investment fund owns more of London than the Crown Estate. His son Tamim took over last year after being educated in the UK at Sherborne School, Harrow and Sandhurst Military Academy. While not always in line for the title, the boy replaced his own brother as crown prince in 2003. He continues to outlaw all political parties and govern according to sharia principles. In Qatar, gay people face the death penalty and women are considered second-class citizens. Some of Qatar's residents are accused of acting duplicitously over jihadist terror – supporting allied efforts against Islamic State but also supposedly funding Sunni militants. There has also notoriously been much controversy over alleged corruption in the country’s successful bid to host the World Cup in 2022. Qatar has been accused of treating foreign workers with horrendous cruelty, depriving them of pay, any rights and confiscating passports. In recent years, Qataris are thought to have bought almost one in 30 homes in London worth more than £2million. Qatar owns buildings including the Shard, the UK’s biggest skyscraper. Qatar own several London buildings including the Shard (pictured), the Olympic Village and 30 homes . The Qatari royal family also used its sovereign wealth fund to buy London department store Harrods in 2010 . After Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund bought Harrods for £1.5billion in 2010, Sheikh Hamad said: ‘We are investing everywhere. Even your Harrods - we took it.’ The Qatari royal family saved almost £6million by buying the properties before last week’s stamp duty changes. They will have paid £8.4million in stamp duty when buying the properties for an estimated £120million. Had they bought the properties now, stamp duty alone would have cost them £14,227,500. | Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned bought homes for £120m last year .
She's one of Qatar’s former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani wives .
Her family also own the Shard - tallest skyscraper in Europe - and Harrods .
They've submitted plans to convert three properties into huge mansion .
Home boasts spa, heated pool, salon, children's floor and massages areas .
13-bedroom palace will be home of Sheik Hamad's son - the current emir . |
0e80c07b47e142f0fccafc093c539d55c8a2a155 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 15:40 EST, 8 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:45 EST, 9 May 2013 . A Polish man has been left critically injured after he allegedly blew up his house when he realised his wife and children had gone on a picnic without him. Czeslaw Kaminski, 69, was believed to have been so incensed when he woke to find a note from his wife to say that she had gone away for the day with the children that he decided to destroy the family home to teach her a lesson. He allegedly started a fire in the basement of his home and threw two gas cylinders on top of the property in the village of Chechlo Drugie, near Lodz, in central Poland. A Polish man was critically injured after he decided to blow up his house when he realised his wife and children had gone on a picnic without him . Czeslaw Kaminski allegedly started a fire in the basement and threw two gas cylinders on top of the property . The 69-year-old failed to leave in time and was caught in the blast . But he failed to leave in time and was caught in the blast when the house was blown up. He was taken to hospital by an air ambulance where his condition was described as critical. Hospital spokesman Bozena Kozanecka said he was in a coma in intensive care. The man's wife Grazyna said: 'He called me on the mobile home and demanded that I go home, but when I refused he said he was going to get revenge. 'I did not take him seriously and then I returned home to find this.' Neighbours told local media that the couple's relationship was excitable and that there was often heated arguments. Rubble and damaged items could be seen splayed across the lawn at the home following the explosion . Mr Kaminski was taken to hospital by an air ambulance where his condition was described as critical . Part of the house appeared to have collapsed following the explosion. Rubble and damaged items could be seen splayed across the lawn at the home. Teams of emergency workers were also seen at the house making their way through the damaged property. | Czeslaw Kaminski allegedly started fire in basement of his home .
But he failed to leave in time and was caught in the blast .
Was left angered when woke to find a note from his wife . |
0e83a7d81072c29f343bb3730eac65e91471fe6a | 'Spider': John Coffey (pictured) was at head of a traveller family which avoided paying taxes and falsely claimed benefits totalling £600,000 . Five members of a traveller family who avoided paying £500,000 in taxes and fraudulently claimed £100,000 in benefits were sentenced today. Husband and wife John and Brigid Coffey, and their children Michael, Mary and Helen were earning millions of pounds from two resurfacing and block paving businesses. While John and Michael Coffey deliberately laundered the money to avoid paying taxes, the female members of the family claimed thousands of pounds in benefits. This was despite the family owning valuable real estate and a number of expensive cars. John Coffey, 49, sat alongside Brigid, 51, Mary, 28, Helen 26, and Michael, 23, at Bristol Crown Court after pleading guilty to 20 tax evasion and other fraud offences between 2001 and 2008. The court heard the family, who lived in South Wales and Gloucestershire, dealt mostly in cash, with John and Michael Coffey only declaring an income of £250 a week between them. During a police interview, John Coffey claimed their money came from block paving, horses and 'general wheeling and dealing'. Judge David Ticehurst jailed John Coffey, whose tax evasion amounted to £450,000, for two years and nine months and was told he must repay the amount in full within 28 days. Michael Coffey, who avoided paying £50,000 in tax, was handed a sentence of 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years. He was also told he would have to repay the money. 'It’s individuals like you that give the travelling community a bad name,' Judge Ticehurst said. 'Criminal conduct like yours brings your community into disrepute and reinforces prejudice. None of us like paying taxes, but society functions on the fact that people pay money to the revenue. 'These taxes are used to fund hospitals, schools, nurses and roads. You, however, choose not to pay tax and to falsely claim benefits of which you were not entitled. 'What is overwhelmingly clear in this case is that each one of you is dishonest. There can be no excuses for your behaviour.' Lavish: The Coffey family's property portfolio included Ton Y Pill farm, which has tall gates and CCTV cameras . Conning the public purse: John Coffey (pictured, left, outside Bristol Crown Court) and his son Michael Coffey (right) laundered money from their paving and resurfacing businesses to avoid paying £500,000 in taxes . The court heard Brigid Coffey claimed £39,789 in benefits, while Helen Coffey claimed £14,544.40 and Mary Coffey a sum of £53,893.44. Brigid Coffey was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Helen Coffey was handed a 12-month prison sentence also suspended for 18 months. She was told to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. Mary Coffey was given a suspended sentence of 12 months imprisonment and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. Compensation . orders were made in the amounts claimed by Brigid and Helen Coffey . while Judge Ticehurst adjourned making an order against Mary Coffey for . further representations to be made. 'Dishonest': Michael Coffey, pictured carrying a large holdall, was given a suspended prison sentence . Opening the case, Don Tait, prosecuting, said: 'All of the defendants in this case are members of the travelling community, living predominantly in South Wales and Gloucestershire. 'It is the Crown’s case that the family as a whole operated for most of their life on the fringe of society.' The family, who owned two Mercedes, an . Audi and a Mitsubishi pick-up, were able to pass almost £2million . through their 35 bank accounts by using false names and documents. In . one fraudulent house transfer, John Coffey hired two sets of solicitors . and acted the roles of both seller and purchaser simultaneously in . order to transfer property around the family in different names - making . it unclear who owned what. A . number of properties, including two farms in Peterstone Wentlooge, . Cardiff, a £500,000 house in West Drayton, Middlesex, and two houses in . Rumney, Cardiff, were registered to the family. Spared jail: Wife Brigid Coffey, who tried to conceal her identity (right) was given an 12-month suspended prison sentence for falsely claiming nearly £40,000 in benefits . They lived in Ton Y Pill Farm - a walled property, which boasted high gates and CCTV cameras. But the court heard it was not clear where the funds to buy the properties came from. The family also owned and used two plots at the Mount View Caravan Site in Naas Lane, Brookthorpe, near Gloucester. The properties were mostly paid for by cash or banker’s draft with no mortgages. The family ran two companies, B&B Welsh Paving and Sunset Drives and Landscapes Ltd, which provided driveway resurfacing services. Walked free: Helen Coffey (left) and her sister Mary (right) were given 12-month suspended prison sentences after fraudulently claiming £14,544.40 and £53,893.44 respectively . The latter was set up in 2006 as a front to deliberately conceal the extent of their business revenues, Mr Tait said. But investigations into the family’s bank accounts showed a vast turnover of money. 'The . family appeared to be awash with cash, invested in real estate and . vehicles, yet the female family members were claiming benefits using . subterfuge and non-declaration, said Mr Tait. The . family looked to invest in Spanish properties in the Costa del Sol and . Riviera del Sol, although they never completed on any of their plans to . buy. John Coffey was described by the judge as the 'spider' at the centre of a web of deceit. The court was told his son was just 12 years old when the family fraud began and 17 when he was first arrested in 2007. Addressing . the judge, Raymond Tully, defending Michael Coffey, said: 'It goes . almost without saying you are sentencing a son for crimes committed . together with his father at a time when he was of very tender years.' While the men avoided paying tax, the family women fraudulently claimed £100,000 in benefits. Unwelcome publicity: Helen Coffey, 26, makes an offensive gesture as she hides her face from photographers . The three women told authorities they had no savings or assets and claimed income support, housing and council tax benefit and money from a Social Fund Budgeting Loan. They used a variety of names and stories, on occasion claiming to be single parents who needed the money to buy clothing and footwear. Prithvijit Hoon, defending Brigid Coffey, said: 'One of the ethos of the travel community is the status of the wife being deferential towards her husband.' Christopher Quinlan, mitigating for John Coffey, said: 'Mr Coffey was running a business in respect to which work was done and money was paid. He did not declare that income in terms of tax. 'Mr Coffey is an industrious, hard-working man and the Revenue have got their money through his hard work.' The court heard £500,000 has already been restrained from the family’s bank accounts and is now subject to confiscation proceedings. In 2010 John Coffey and Michael Coffey pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulently taking steps to divert money from HM Treasury or to deprive HM Treasury of money to which it was entitled. John Coffey also admitted two counts of knowingly using a false Irish driving licence. Facing justice: Mary Coffey (left) and Brigid Coffey (centre) outside Bristol Crown Court, where they were sentenced . Brigid Coffey pleaded guilty to five counts of making a false statement to obtain benefits, while mother-of-five Mary Coffey pleaded guilty to seven counts of making false statements. Helen Coffey, a mother of one, pleaded guilty in respect of an ongoing claim for income support, failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of her bank accounts with positive balances, and the fact that she was married. She also admitted making a false statement to obtain a Social Fund Budgeting Loan and two counts of providing the false name Helen Delaney to Cardiff Magistrates’ Court in October 2005 and April 2006. Officers from five police forces, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions worked together to bring the Coffeys to justice. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Shorrock, who led the investigation for Gloucestershire Police, said: 'The sentencing of the Coffey family marks the culmination of many years of work by literally hundreds of officers and officials. Covered up: Defendants John Coffey (left) and Helen Coffey (right) tried to hide their faces outside court . 'This family had been engaging in questionable financial and business activities for many years, until we collectively caught up with them.' Simon De Kayne, assistant director of criminal investigation, HM Revenue and Customs, said: 'The Coffeys blatantly evaded UK tax laws to selfishly steal around £500,000 of taxpayers’ money to fund their criminally gained lifestyles and expanding property portfolio. 'The sentencing shows HMRC, along with our partner agencies, will not only pursue and prosecute tax fraudsters but also seek to reclaim the proceeds of their crimes.' Andrew Biker, of CPS central fraud division, said: 'No income was ever declared by John Coffey to the Inland Revenue despite him working all his life in the tarmac and block paving industries. 'Even more money was made buying and selling cars and trading horses. 'The sheer number of bank accounts operated by the family and their ability to transfer significant funds between them fly in the face of their claims of illiteracy and ignorance of matters such as income tax. 'No matter how you earn money, paying tax matters. But denying the honest British public of their contribution to tax was not enough for the Coffeys who went further by setting out to take funds set aside for those who most need them. 'People can rest assured that the CPS will do all it can to deprive these criminals of their assets and put the money back where it belongs - into the public purse.' | Kingpin John Coffey, 49, avoided £450,000 in taxes between 2001 and 2008 .
He was described by judge as the 'spider' at the centre of a web of deceit .
He and son Michael Coffey laundered money from resurfacing businesses .
Meanwhile, wife Brigid and their two daughters claimed £100,000 in benefits .
Judge: 'It’s individuals like you that give travelling community a bad name' |
0e83f1baa310e5d43a478fa595ba3c4fa920100d | (CNN) -- The girlfriend of self-avowed National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote that she was "adrift in a sea of chaos" after he spilled government secrets and decamped to Hong Kong. In a post on her blog, Lindsay Mills -- who described herself as a "pole-dancing superhero" -- said she was typing on a "tear-streaked keyboard." "For those of you that know me without my super hero cape, you can probably understand why I'll be refraining from blog posts for awhile. My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass," she wrote Monday, a day after American and British newspapers published Snowden's identity as the source behind their reports on the U.S. surveillance programs. No sign of NSA leaker as U.S. investigation builds steam . "Surely there will be villainous pirates, distracting mermaids, and tides of change in this new open water chapter of my journey. But at the moment all I can feel is alone. And for the first time in my life I feel strong enough to be on my own. Though I never imagined my hand would be so forced." The same day, on the photo-sharing website Flickr, Mills wrote, "I have lost my compass and find myself adrift in a sea of chaos. Goodbye my friends. I'll see you when the waves calmly set my vessel back on dry land." Her blog has since been taken down. Snowden, 29, touched off a Washington firestorm when he leaked classified documents that revealed the scope of the NSA's collection of telephone and Internet data. There is no evidence that Mills knew of Snowden's actions. Is Snowden a hero or a traitor? Her father spoke to reporters Tuesday outside his home in Laurel, Maryland. He described Snowden as "nice, shy, reserved." His daughter and Snowden dated for four to five years. "He's always had strong convictions of right and wrong, and it kind of makes sense, but (I'm) still shocked," Jonathan Mills said. Julian Assange to Snowden: 'Go to Latin America' He wished Snowden good luck: "He's got my love." Snowden told the British newspaper the Guardian, one of the two outlets that broke stories on the programs last week, that he left his job with an NSA contractor in Hawaii without telling either his family or Mills. "My family does not know what is happening," he said. "My primary fear is that they will come after my family, my friends, my partner. Anyone I have a relationship with ... I will have to live with that for the rest of my life." What next for Snowden? | NEW: Girlfriend's father says he's shocked by Snowden's actions .
Lindsay Mills describes herself as a "pole-dancing superhero"
She took to her blog after her boyfriend came forward as the leaker behind Guardian, Post stories .
"My world has opened and closed all at once," she wrote Monday . |
0e841929bcf7379bac663554aeaa5e17abd07e1d | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 18:26 EST, 4 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 06:10 EST, 5 November 2013 . The mother of the heaviest baby born in the U.S. this year recalls her painful final weeks, when she could barely leave her bed. Utah mother Sara Brandon gave birth to son Joel Brandon Jr (nicknamed J.J.) on May 9 at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem and she and her husband were shocked when he weighed in at 14lbs. For comparison, that's the weight of a typical Thanksgiving Turkey. 'It's painful let me tell ya,' she told Good Morning America today. 'My last couple weeks I really couldn't get out of bed.' Scroll down for video . Bath time: Utah mom Sara Brandon gave birth to son J.J. in May and he weighed 14lbs - the heaviest born this year in the U.S. Not an easy birth: The mother of Joel Brandon Jr says her final weeks of pregnancy were so painful she could barely get out of bed . Not what we were expecting: Both parents were 'shocked' by the weight of their baby . Now six months old, J.J. has nearly doubled in weight to 24 lbs - just two pounds shy of his two-year-old sisters. While J.J. isn't the biggest baby born in the world this year, he has been confirmed as the heaviest baby born in the U.S. The largest all-around baby is believed to be England's George King who weighed 15 pounds 7 ounces. 'It really was just a big surprise for us - how large he was,' J.J.'s father said. Because of his size, he needed two doctors to help with the caesarian-section birth, rather than one, and required special maneuvering as he was 'so big and crammed in there', she told the Huffington Post. Big bundle: His mother expected J.J. to weight closer to 11lbs . Big brother: Six months later, J.J. is just two pounds shy of his older sisters . Losing the baby fat: Doctors say that J.J. will slim in his toddler years . In a league of his own: J.J.'s father says 'he's on his own scale' After he was born, he suffered respiratory problems and needed to spend a week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. But he has since returned home and is in good health, his mother said. At his last check-up, J.J.'s doctor said he was in the 150th percentile for height and weight for his age group - and he's so big that he is wearing the same sized diapers of his twin sisters, aged 2. KSL reported that his size could be because of his mother's Type 1 diabetes or simply because of her family's history of big babies and her husband's height. But doctors said that as J.J. grows and becomes a toddler he'll slim down closer to average size. Together: His mom said his big sisters love to play with him - but he's too big for them to hold on their own . Better now: J.J. suffered respiratory problems after his birth but recovered after a week in the NICU . Comparison: 14 pounds is about the average weight of a Thanksgiving turkey . Big son, little daughters: On the other side of the scale are J.J.'s older sisters who were only 4lbs when born . 'He's just on his own little scale,' his father said. 'You just have to accept that.' 'This big bubba melts my heart,' Brandon said. 'I love him more than I ever imagined I could love a sweet baby boy. He is my squishy cuddle bug.' Brandon joked that she doesn't think she can have normal sized babies as her two-year-old twins were born weighing just 4lbs each. She added that the girls love to play with him - although they can't hold him on their own. | J.J. Brandon was 14lbs and 22 inches long when he was born in May .
Baby was confirmed to be the heaviest born in the U.S. this year .
His mom Sara says his large size could be because of her Type 1 diabetes or simply a family history of big babies . |
0e844818ee0ed490830cb401886d90714d98f738 | (CNN) -- Major League Baseball on Monday suspended 13 players, including New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, after an investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The league suspended Rodriguez for 211 regular-season games through the 2014 season, but the 38-year-old slugger said he planned to appeal. Twelve other players have accepted 50-game suspensions without pay. A-Rod and the other players are accused of having ties to the now-shuttered Biogenesis anti-aging clinic in south Florida and taking performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez has denied the accusation. "I'm fighting for my life. I have to defend myself. If I don't defend myself, no one else will," he told reporters after the league announced its decision. Twitter reaction to A-Rod ban . The last seven months have been a "nightmare," he said. It "has been probably the worst time of my life for sure," said Rodriguez, "obviously for the circumstances that are at hand and also dealing with a very tough surgery and a rehab program, and being 38." Asked directly whether he had used performance-enhancing drugs, he declined -- repeatedly -- to comment. "I think we'll have a forum to discuss all of that, and we'll talk about it then," Rodriguez said. Earlier in a written statement, he said that he was disappointed with the penalty and intends to appeal. He thanked family, friends and fans for their support and stressed that he was eager to get back on the field with his teammates. Timeline of Alex Rodriguez's rise and fall . His suspension is set to go into effect on Thursday, the league said. But officials also said that Rodriguez could keep playing if he appeals. He arrived Monday in Chicago, where he played in a night game against the White Sox. The Yankees' roster listed him in the starting lineup, batting fourth and playing third base. At his first at-bat, Rodriguez was met with boos and some cheers from the crowd. He hit a single to left field. Before the game started, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Rodriguez's suspension wouldn't affect the team. "He's here. He's going to play," Girardi told reporters. "It really doesn't change anything for us." What's next for A-Rod? Major League Baseball's sweeping investigation shows a change in how officials handle performance-enhancing drugs, CNN sports reporter Rachel Nichols said. "It used to be that baseball protected its own," she said. "And now we're seeing other people in the clubhouse, from managers to the players, saying, 'You know what? Go after these guys. We don't want them in the game.'" On Monday, Commissioner Bud Selig said the league had no choice but to investigate the allegations in order to "maintain integrity, fairness and a level playing field." "Despite the challenges this situation has created during a great season on the field," he said, "we pursued this matter because it was not only the right thing to do, but the only thing to do." Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter described the suspension of Rodriguez as "unprecedented." "The sheer magnitude of the suspension is just one we've never seen before," he said. Union: 'We agree with his decision to fight his suspension' The league said Rodriguez's punishment is based on his alleged use and possession of banned performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone and human growth hormone, for multiple years. Officials also accuse him of "engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct or frustrate" their investigation into the matter. The Major League Baseball Players Association said Monday that it's standing behind Rodriguez. "We agree with his decision to fight his suspension," the union said in a written statement, adding that it believed the league's commissioner "has not acted appropriately." Rodriguez's lawyer, David Cornwell, criticized the league. "Major League Baseball has gone well beyond the authority granted it in its Joint Drug Agreement and the Basic Agreement," he said. "Consequently, we will appeal the discipline and pursue all legal remedies available to Alex." Opinion: A-Rod got off light . Before Monday's announcement, the Biogenesis scandal had already ensnared one star: 2011 National League MVP and Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. Last month, Braun was suspended without pay for the rest of this season for violating the league's drug policy. Yankees: We're "focused on playing baseball" The New York Yankees declined to comment on Rodriguez's suspension until the completion of the appeal process. "In the meantime," the team said in a written statement, "the Yankees remain focused on playing baseball." The team did say it was disappointed by the suspension of Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli, who was one of the 12 players who agreed to the 50-game suspension. "It's clear that he used bad judgment," the Yankees said. Major League Baseball issued a statement saying that Rodriguez was being disciplined under both baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and the players' collective bargaining agreement. Under the drug program, "Rodriguez's suspension will be stayed until the completion of his appeal if Rodriguez files a grievance challenging his discipline," the MLB statement said. That is also the usual case for suspensions related to drug offenses under the collective bargaining agreement, but the statement did not specifically address that aspect. Rich contract may be adding on to A-Rod's woes . Impressive record . Rodriguez is considered one of the game's greatest sluggers. He has 647 home runs -- the fifth most ever -- in 19 seasons. In 2009, he had an outstanding postseason as he helped the Yankees win their most recent World Series title. He holds the largest contract ever in American sports, signing with the Yankees in 2007 for $275 million over 10 years. Rodriguez said Friday he believes his contract makes him an attractive target for a baseball ban or suspension. "There's more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field -- and that's not my teammates and it's not the Yankees fans," he said. Rodriguez has missed the entire 2013 season so far after undergoing hip surgery. Other players suspended . The other players suspended by Major League Baseball Monday are: . Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Antonio Bastardo . San Diego Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera . New York Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli . Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz . Padres pitcher Fautino De Los Santos . Houston Astros pitcher Sergio Escalona . Yankees outfielder Fernando Martinez . Seattle Mariners catcher Jesus Montero . Free agent pitcher Jordan Norberto . Detroit Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta . New York Mets outfielder Cesar Puello . Mets infielder/outfielder Jordany Valdespin . De Los Santos, Escalona, Martinez, Montero, Puello and Valdespin are currently on minor league rosters. In written statements, several teams said they backed the league's decision. Cruz said he had made an "error in judgment" after an infection left him concerned about whether he would be physically able to play. "Faced with this situation, I made an error in judgment that I deeply regret, and I accept full responsibility for that error. I should have handled the situation differently, and my illness was no excuse," he said. "I look forward to regaining the trust and respect of the Rangers organization, my teammates, and the great Rangers' fans, and I am grateful for the opportunity to rejoin the team for the playoffs." Opinion: Don't let teens follow A-Rod's example . War of words between A-Rod and Yankees . CNN's Adam Reiss reported from New York, CNN's Jason Carroll reported from Chicago and CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta. CNN's Steve Almasy and David Close contributed to this report. | NEW: The New York Yankees star is booed at Monday night's game .
Rodriguez describes the last seven months as a "nightmare"
Major League Baseball suspends Rodriguez for 211 games .
12 other players agree to 50-game suspensions without pay . |
0e84f31b595a95a6effa9e455ea423c0bd120f92 | (CNN) -- The body of a boy was found Friday afternoon near the wreckage of a plane crash in Lake Wales, Florida, raising the final death toll to six, officials said. The plane, which was carrying a husband, wife and their four children, went down Thursday. The other bodies had already been recovered. "We can tell you that none are now unaccounted for," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "It's just a tragic event of monumental proportion, but we're pleased that we're at least reuniting the entire family." The last victim to be found was in thick underbrush about half a mile southwest of the main wreckage, Judd said. The flight originated at Treasure Cay Airport in the Bahamas and landed at St. Lucie County Airport at 10:15 a.m. Thursday to clear customs. The plane left St. Lucie just after noon, and the first 911 call came in at 12:36 p.m., said Judd. Its final destination was Junction City, Kansas. The plane began to break apart and crashed, going down in a remote, palmetto-covered stretch near Lake-Walk-In-The-Water that is not easily accessible, officials said. Rescuers and investigators used all-terrain vehicles to get to the scene. Plane parts were reported as far as four miles away. The cause of the crash is not clear but is under investigation, said Tim Monville, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. "We have parts structurally separated. I don't know what that means yet. We'll have to investigate. That's what we're here for," he said. The Polk County Sheriff's Office identified the family as Ronald Bramlage, 45; his wife, Rebecca Bramlage, 43; and their children, Brandon, 15; Boston, 13; Beau, 11; and Roxanne, 8. Boston was believed to be the last one found. The plane is a Pilatus PC-12/47 owned by Roadside Ventures LLC of Junction City. The Bramlage family is well-known in the Kansas State University community. Ronald and Rebecca Bramlage were both graduates, and Fred Bramlage, Ronald's father, was the lead contributor to the Bramlage Coliseum, a multipurpose arena that is home to the men's and women's basketball teams. | The sixth and final body is recovered .
Sheriff: "We're pleased that we're at least reuniting the entire family"
Family was flying from the Bahamas .
It had connections to Kansas State University . |
0e85117761908cee82b5634e8684a3e97d913121 | By . Matt Blake . and David Mccormack . PUBLISHED: . 19:20 EST, 17 January 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 06:08 EST, 18 January 2013 . A federal judge refused to set bail on Thursday for a New Jersey man charged in the notorious ‘cannibal cop’ case after a prosecutor said he discussed raping an infant during an online chat. Michael Van Hise, 22, told an unidentified person he met online that he wanted to ‘do the newborn,’ Manhattan federal prosecutor Randall Jackson said. Federal Judge William Pauley III said . the allegations against Van Hise represented ‘really shocking, . depraved and violent conduct.’ Michael Van Hise (left) and . 'Cannibal Cop' Gilberto Valle (right) meet via a fetish website. Van Hise is charged with offering Valle $5,000 to kidnap a woman for him to rape and murder . ‘The conduct is so far beyond the pale, and presents such a great danger to the community, that there is no set of conditions the court can conceive of that could be set for bail for the defendant,' he said. Defense lawyer Alice Fontier had attempted to explain away Van Hise's online conversations as pure fantasy and not something he ever intended to act upon, reports the New York Post. Fontier told the judge on that Van Hise didn't mean anything he wrote on the darkfetishnet.com website that he frequently visited. She also noted that after signing up to the website, which has more than 37,000 members, she had received a barrage of emails from people ‘offering to hang me, torture me, rape me, eat me.’ It was unclear if the child allegedly discussed during the chat was one of Van Hise's own. He and his wife, Bolice, have a 2-year-old son and a daughter born last month. Van Hise is charged with offering . NYPD cop Gilberto Valle $5,000 to kidnap a woman so he could rape and . murder her after they met on the site. A federal judge has denied Van Hise (pictured with wife Bolise) bail after hearing allegations that he discussed raping an infant during an online chat . Valle, 28, was denied bail by a federal appeals court on Tuesday. Charged with conspiring to rape, kill and eat women, he is now set for trial next month. Further gruesome details about Van Hise's plans were revealed at a magistrates hearing earlier this month. U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman heard how Van Hise had sent a photo of his wife’s seven-year-old niece to two people in an internet chat room, offering her and her nine-year-old sister for rape. Prosecutor Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Jackson alleged that Van Hise had similar plans for his own stepdaughter, whose identity has not been revealed for legal reasons. Referring to the online message, posted on Yahoo.com, Jackson said: 'The three-year-old (stepdaughter) he wants to keep as his sex slave.' 'Cannibal cop' Gilberto Valle was denied bail by a federal appeals court on Tuesday and is now set for trial next month . He allegedly also posted the street in Hamilton, New Jersey, on which the girls live, adding: 'We can engage in other activities [with them]', the court was told. Jackson said Van Hise told an FBI agent that he and Valle were 'serious' about their plans to kidnap and rape a woman before admitting he was sexually aroused around children. Van Hise's estranged wife, Bolise, 22, defended him as a 'big teddy bear', adding: 'They make him out to be a monster. He’s not. He’s as hard-core as a baby.' The alleged plot was unearthed after Valle's estranged wife Kathleen Mangan, 28, tipped off police when she found sick internet messages detailing plans to abduct, rape, cook and eat 100 female victims. The alleged plot was unearthed after Valle's estranged wife Kathleen Mangan (pictured together) tipped off police when she found sick internet messages detailing plans to abduct, rape, cook and eat 100 female victims . Files found on the father of one’s computer included one titled: ‘Abducting and Cooking Victim I: A Blueprint’. It listed materials required including chloroform and rope as well as chronicling the practicalities of fitting a victim into an oven – her legs, he noted, would have to be bent. Valle also expressed a desire to cook one particular victim slowly – ‘tying her onto some form of apparatus’ and trying to ‘keep her alive as long as possible’. In a particularly chilling section of the internet transcripts read out in Manhattan Federal Court during his bail hearing, Valle shared his hunger for ‘girl meat’ on Thanksgiving in an email exchange with an alleged co-conspirator. His defense maintain these were nothing but fantasies and have pointed out that no women were hurt, although among his named ‘victims’ are women whom the FBI have established did indeed know Valle. Two of them claim to have been ‘stalked in an intimidating way’ by the police officer, who served in Harlem for six years. Valle plead not guilty to all charges, including illegally accessing the National Criminal Database to search out potential victims. He has been held without bail and if convicted faces life imprisonment. | Michael Van Hise has been denied bail in federal court .
He is accused of offering .
NYPD 'Cannibal cop' Gilberto Valle $5,000 to kidnap a woman so he could rape and .
murder her .
Van Hise had also discussed raping an infant during an online chat on a fetish website .
His wife has defended him as a 'big teddy bear' and 'as hard-core as baby' |
0e85f054b39cdbcc7ba2dbeb6cc623838e2bb7f5 | By . Liz Hull . When Martha Payne started posting pictures of her miserable school dinners online, she realised it may ruffle a few feathers. But the nine-year-old never expected her blog to spark a full-scale internet revolt after council bureaucrats tried to ban her from telling the truth about her canteen meals. The young campaigner also could not have predicted the blog's huge popularity would generate more than £60,000 in donations to help feed impoverished children around the world. However, angry about the headlines Martha’s ‘NeverSeconds’ blog was generating, officials at Argyll and Bute council ordered teachers to stop her from photographing her dinners and rating them online. Good cause: Martha's blog, Never Seconds, has raised more than £60,000 since she first started it . Victory! Martha Payne, 9, and her father David were all smiles after the council's decision to make a u-turn on banning her food blog . Blog over: Last night Martha posted a goodbye message . In a post headed ‘Goodbye,’ she wrote: ‘This morning in maths I got . taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. ‘I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners.’ But the officials seriously underestimated the youngster’s internet . following and thousands of people, led by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, . took to Twitter to criticise their decision, leading to a humiliating . U-turn by the council. Within hours of Oliver tweeting to Martha to ‘stay strong’ and urging . his 2.3million followers to re-post his message, the schoolgirl’s blog . became one of the top subjects discussed on the site worldwide. Critics . lined up to accuse the council of ‘bullying’ Martha by trying to . ‘silence her freedom of expression’ and thousands signed a petition to . get them to overturn the ban. Back for more: The council had tried to shut the blog down before a Twitter bakclash forced a U-turn . Supporters inundated council phonelines with complaints and also pledged . thousands of pounds to the Third World children’s charity linked to . Martha’s blog, smashing her £7,000 target. Donations, from supporters all over the world, including Canada, Germany, America, New Zealand and Australia, now stand at £61,519.07. The decision also angered Scottish Education Secretary Mike Russell, whose intervention forced the council to perform a U-turn. Council leader Roddy McCuish announced they would be withdrawing the ban . with immediate effect. He said: ‘It’s a good thing to do, to change . your mind, and I’ve certainly done that.’ Last night Martha’s father, Dave Payne, 39, said common sense had . prevailed. ‘Martha is beaming,’ he said. ‘She came home from school with . a big smile on her face. ‘She is delighted she can carry on blogging, but more so about the money . being raised for the charity. People have been very, very generous. The . way the world reacted to the ban is very revealing, it’s just fantastic . that common sense has prevailed.’ Food for thought: Martha posted this picture on an internet blog and began to add daily snaps of her lunches, rating and commenting on them . Grim grub: Martha's photos of her school dinner has turned her into an overnight internet sensation . Martha's miserable school dinners look set to spark an outcry over nutrition for the nation's children . The saga began seven weeks ago when Martha, with permission from . teachers at Lochgilphead Primary School, started taking pictures of her . £2 school dinners and commenting on them as part of a writing project. Because Martha’s home is on the west coast of Scotland, however, . standards for school meals differ and widespread improvements in the . rest of Britain appear not to have been applied. Her first post included a photo of a measly slice of pizza and a lonely . potato croquette, alongside a sprinkling of sweetcorn, a cupcake for . dessert and a lot of empty space. Alongside the photo, the schoolgirl wrote: ‘The pizza in the first pic . was alright but I’d have enjoyed more than one croquette. I’m a growing . kid and I need to concentrate all afternoon and I can’t do it on one . croquette. Do any of you think you could?’ Beside a photograph of a limp looking cheeseburger, two potato croquets, . a few rings of cucumber and a rocket ice lolly, Martha wrote: ‘Today’s . meal was on the menu as Cheeseburger and ice cream/biscuit but as you . can see I got an ice lolly. I prefer ice cream. I wish they had stuck to . the menu.’ Over the next two months her daily snaps gathered an impressive . following, with more than two million people throughout the world . logging on and sending in their own pictures for her site. After seeing the photographs, Oliver, a veteran school food campaigner, . sent a tweet to her father, which read: ‘Shocking but inspirational . blog. Keep going. Big love from Jamie x.’ Martha later posted that the celebrity chef had sent her a copy of his . Jamie’s Great Britain cookbook in which he wrote: ‘Dear Martha, great . work!!! Clever girl. Lots of love. Jamie O. XXX Keep it up!!’ But on Thursday, Martha, whose mother is a GP, revealed that teachers . wanted her to stop taking the photographs. The council said the decision . was made after an article published in a tabloid newspaper, under the . headline ‘Time to fire the dinner ladies’, left some members of staff at . the school in tears. In an ill-judged 500-plus word statement, they accused Martha’s blog of . being ‘misleading’ and attacked her father for refusing to put an end to . it. Mr Payne, who runs a smallholding, correctly predicted the move was an . ‘own goal’ which would serve only to generate more criticism because . ‘the pictures tell the story about how good the food is’. Last night the Argyll-based Mary’s Meals, the charity supported by . Martha’s blog, revealed she had raised enough to build several kitchens . for starving children in Malawi. The charity said: ‘Martha’s support for Mary’s Meals has been amazing . and we are extremely grateful for everything that she has done to help . us reach some of the hungriest children in the world.’ Internet hit: Martha's fearless exposé of daily fare at her (unnamed) school prompted global discussion about shockingly unhealthy food being served . Martha's NeverSeconds blog has chalked up a million hits. She is supervised by her father David (left) | Martha Payne was originally told to stop taking photos of food in the school canteen .
Argyll and Bute Council issued a statement claiming media coverage of the blog had led catering staff to fear for their jobs .
But controversial ban was lifted following a storm of protest on the internet .
Martha Payne started the NeverSeconds blog six weeks ago .
Uses it to post images and opinions about what she had been served for lunch at her school’s cafeteria in Lochgilphead, Argyll .
Blog has also raised more than £60,000 for a charity supporting impoverished children around the world . |
0e862f042060778670ba9d9955c5e1246ef547c6 | (CNN) -- Double winners Chelsea began the defense of their English Premier League title with a 6-0 drubbing of West Brom, while another promoted club provided the shock of the day as Blackpool thrashed Wigan 4-0. Didier Drogba scored a hat-trick as Chelsea bounced back from last weekend's 3-1 Community Shield defeat by main rivals Manchester United, who take on the third promoted side, Newcastle, on Monday evening. Florent Malouda put the London team ahead in the sixth minute on Saturday evening after West Brom goalkeeper Scott Carson spilled Drogba's free-kick, and the Ivory Coast striker made it 2-0 on the stroke of halftime when he curled another set-piece through a poorly-assembled defensive wall. Ten minutes after the break, Drogba scrambled in his second after John Terry's header was blocked on the line, and midfielder Frank Lampard slotted in on 63 after England teammate Ashley Cole squared the ball into his path. Drogba was the Premier League's top scorer last season with 29 goals, and is on target to repeat that feat after his 68th-minute shot was deflected past Carson off the head of defender Gabriel Tamas. English Premier League preview . It lifted him up to sixth on the club's all-time scoring list with 133 goals, putting him above Jimmy Greaves, who played for Chelsea from 1957-61. France winger Malouda sealed a miserable day for West Brom manager Roberto Di Matteo, a former Chelsea player, as he beat the offside trap and fired in off the post in the 90th minute. It was the biggest opening-day win since the Premier League began in 1992. Blackpool, unable to pay their players bonuses for winning promotion via the playoffs until this month, took a 3-0 lead at halftime against Wigan as striker Gary Taylor-Fletcher netted before a double from new signing Marlon Harewood. Goalkeeper Chris Kirkland was at fault for both Harewood' efforts, and was again exposed in the second half as he was beaten at the near post by Alex Baptiste's shot from the touchline. It was a remarkable day for Blackpool, overwhelming favorites to be relegated in the club's first season in the top flight since 1971, as they ended the day second in the table despite a fruitless summer in the transfer market that finally saw free agent Harewood and three little-known Frenchmen arrive this week. "I will take a photograph of the table and then retire," manager Ian Holloway said. "It has been a horrible summer and I am quite worn out. This is quite a scary place to be." In the opening match of the season, Tottenham drew 0-0 with big-spending Manchester City in an early-afternoon battle between last season's fourth and fifth-placed teams. City boss Roberto Mancini fielded three of his five new signings in Yaya Toure, David Silva and Aleksandar Kolarov, but needed young England goalkeeper Joe Hart -- starting ahead of last season's first choice Shay Given -- to keep out a wave of Tottenham attacks. The London side, who face Swiss side Young Boys Berne in the final round of Champions League qualifiers next week, also hit the post through Gareth Bale. City lost Serbia defender Kolarov to injury at halftime, but should have taken the lead through Shaun Wright-Phillips as the winger lost the ball in front of goal. Both sides had several half-chances before Bale also squandered a great chance, and the game petered out in a draw despite a raft of substitutions as Spurs brought on forwards Robbie Keane, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Giovani Dos Santos while City introduced Adam Johnson and Emmanuel Adebayor. Aston Villa, still seeking to replace departed manager Martin O'Neill, crushed West Ham 3-0 in Avram Grant's first Premier League match in charge of the London team. Stewart Downing and Stiliyan Petrov gave the home team a 2-0 lead, then James Milner sealed victory with a 66th-minute strike in what could be the England midfielder's final game for Villa before joining Manchester City. The 24-year-old was given a standing ovation by the crowd when he was substituted late in the game. Blackburn won 1-0 at home to Everton as young Croatian striker Nikola Kalinic took advantage of a mistake by United States goalkeeper Tim Howard to score the 15th-minute winner. Birmingham came from 2-0 down to secure a draw at Sunderland, who had new captain Lee Cattermole sent off in the first half. The home side led in the 24th minute with a penalty from last season's top scorer Darren Bent, then midfielder Cattermole received two yellow cards before defender Stephen Carr -- who had conceded the spot-kick -- headed into his own net 11 minutes into the second half. Scott Dann pulled one back with a header on 78 then defender Gary Ridgewell earned a point two minutes from time. Wolverhampton beat Stoke 2-1 as the visitors lost record signing Kenwyne Jones to injury. Jones, a $12 million buy from Sunderland, hit the crossbar early on but needs a scan after suffering an ankle problem soon after. Wolves took a 2-0 lead at halftime as David Jones and new strike Steven Fletcher scored just before the break, then Abdoulaye Faye gave Stoke hope with a header 10 minutes after the restart. Fulham drew 0-0 at Bolton in manager Mark Hughes' first game in charge, with the home side hitting the post through U.S. midfielder Stuart Holden in the second half. Hughes did not pick veteran Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who handed in a transfer request during the week as he seek to join Arsenal. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger signed a new three-year contract ahead of his team's opening match of the season at Liverpool on Sunday. The 60-year-old, the club's longest-serving manager after joining in 1996, is now tied to the London side until June 2014. | English champions Chelsea begin title defense with 6-0 thrashing of West Brom .
Didier Drogba scores hat-trick and Florent Malouda nets twice against promoted team .
Unfancied Blackpool shock critics by going second with 4-0 drubbing of Wigan .
Tottenham draw 0-0 with big-spending Manchester City in opening match of season . |
0e8763d276b9be574fa62a0c587691be86d366a9 | A British soldier has been sent home from Afghanistan and faces disciplinary action after filming a foul-mouthed rap criticising the government and posting it on the internet. Olly Carpenter, 25, of the Royal Engineers, uploaded the two-minute clip – in which he says ‘half of this Government needs to be quarantined’ and the country is ‘run by p***ks’ – to his Facebook page earlier this month and the video went viral. An MoD spokeswoman said: ‘All Service personnel are expected to uphold the strict values of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. 'Anyone found to not be compliant can expect to face appropriate action.’ Olly Carpenter, 25, of the Royal Engineers, uploaded the two-minute clip to his Facebook page earlier this month and the video went viral (file picture) | Olly Carpenter, 25, uploaded the foul-mouthed rap to Facebook .
The two-minute protest song by the soldier criticised the government .
Mr Carpenter, of the Royal Engineers, was sent home after it went viral . |
0e87f893debb10ccb3f11d2f5cc536d9d4e7ce37 | (CNN) -- Sit! Shake! Quit barking! Get off the couch! Go find your toy! Ever wonder what your dog is thinking as it gazes at you while you are barking commands? Duke University's Canine Cognition Center in Durham, North Carolina, is one of the few labs in the country focused on how dogs think. "We're excited about describing the psychology of our dogs," says professor Brian Hare, the lab's director. "Different dogs solve different problems differently. And what we want to understand is: What is it that either makes dogs remarkable as a species or what is it that constrains the ability of dogs to solve problems?" To test the dogs' ability, Hare and a team of graduate students put dogs through a variety of games similar to those you might play with young children. "We don't want to look at cute pet tricks. What we want to know is, what does the dog understand about its world?" Hare said. Hare has been analyzing our four-legged friends for about 15 years. He says dogs have figured out how to read human behavior and human gestures better than any other species has, even chimpanzees. "The way they think about their world is that people are superimportant and they can solve almost any problem if they rely on people," says Hare. Children start relying on adults' gestures when they're about a year old. That's about the same age that dogs start to recognize and rely on humans, too, Hare says. When both I and Hare tried to direct Hare's dog Tazzie to a cup that had a treat in it, Tazzie took his master's cue and went toward the cup. I was a stranger to Tazzie, so the dog didn't rely on my information. "He's grown up with me," says Hare. "We do lots of stuff together. He's never met you before, so he's saying, look, if they're both telling me where to go, I'm going to trust the guy who I'm with all the time." According to Hare, this proves dogs are complex social animals who understand they have different relationships with different people. "They really narrow in and pay attention to you and they want to know what it is about the world that you can help them with," he says. Researchers at Duke are studying dogs to better understand their limitations. If they can identify why dogs make mistakes, they believe they can help them improve. That could mean making dogs better at working with people with disabilities or better at working with the military. "They are a very different species and they think about the world differently than we do. And we need to figure out what are the constraints on how they solve problems, how is it that they think differently from us. And I think that we're going to be able to have a much, even richer relationship with dogs than we already do if we figure all that out," says Hare. The professor says even though domestication has made dogs smarter, they are not perfect. Still, they're so smart, he says, that they can understand the principle of connectivity. "They know they're connected on a leash and [dogs reason] 'Well, now I have to listen, because if I don't do what you say you can stop me. Where if I'm ... not on a leash, well, yeah, I know the command but I don't have to listen to you now,'" explains Hare. And just like children, dogs also understand that if you turn your back, they can misbehave, especially after their owners have told them not to do something. "Your dog takes the food you just told it not to take, and you're really upset because your dog disobeyed you, and you think that your dog is not obedient. Well, no, no, no, your dog was obedient but it realized that it could get away with it," says Hare. At the end of the day, dogs may rely on humans, but they also use their skills to manipulate their owners and the world they live in. And even though dog owners like to think they're in command, the professor says it may actually be Fido who is really in charge. Watch Anderson Cooper . 360° weeknights 8pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here. | Brian Hare and a team of graduate students at Duke University study how dogs think .
Domestication has made dogs more intelligent, but they're still not perfect, Hare says .
Dogs are social and understand the different relationships they have with different people .
Hare: "They can solve almost any problem if they rely on people" |
0e89b38a3cb15e44bfa0be4c4db332a5d387962d | Whistleblower: Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency claims he tried to complain 10 times to his superiors . NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden claims that he tried 10 times to make formal complaints about government spy programs but no one listened to him. According to testimony given to the European Parliament released on Friday the former NSA contractor claims that as a contractor, rather than a government worker, he was not protected from raising concerns and decided to take matters into his own hands. Instead of benefiting from Obama's Presidential Policy Directive 19, under which federal employees can question classified programs, Snowden felt that 'individuals like me were left with no proper channels.' 'As an employee of a private company rather than a direct employee of the U.S. government, I was not protected by U.S. whistle-blower laws, and I would not have been protected from retaliation and legal sanction for revealing classified information about lawbreaking in accordance with the recommended process,' Snowden said in his testimony according to the Washington Post. Snowden previously worked for the CIA before joining the NSA in Hawaii as a contractor from Booz Allen Hamilton. Private: The Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp office building is seen in McLean, Virginia June 11, 2013. Contracting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp fired Edward Snowden, after he admitted to releasing information on the U.S. government's broad monitoring of American's phone and Internet data . It was from there that he leaked information about the extent of NSA spying programs to the press before fleeing to Hong Kong and then seeking asylum in Russia. In his testimopny Snowden claimed that he was warned that his concerns were dangerous for his career and that he should keep his head down and maintain a low profile. 'The first were well-meaning but hushed warnings not to 'rock the boat,' for fear of the sort of retaliation that befell former NSA whistle-blowers like Wiebe, Binney, and Drake,' he said, according to the Post, before adding that the other responses were suggestions that he, 'let the issue be someone else's problem.' Snowden said that the culture of silence at the NSA was all-pervasive. Snowden testified, 'there was a unanimous desire to avoid being associated with such a complaint in any form.' The NSA disputes this account, telling The Washington Post that, 'after extensive investigation, including interviews with his former NSA supervisors and co-workers, we have not found any evidence to support Mr. Snowden’s contention that he brought these matters to anyone’s attention.' 'Everyone in the intelligence community is aware of what happens to people who report concerns about unlawful but authorized operations,' he wrote. In the past, Snowden has mentioned that he tried to take four of his superiors to task over the spying program. 'I asked these people, ‘What do you think the public would do if this was on the front page?' he said. 'How is that not reporting it? How is that not raising it?' Controversial: A float displaying giant likenesses of US President Barack Obama (L) and US Intelligence leaker Edward Snowden (R) makes its way during the traditional Rose Monday parade in Duesseldorf, western Germany . Snowden said that no one wanted to be associated with any complaints at the NSA. 'Even among the most senior individuals to whom I reported my concerns,” he continued, “no one at N.S.A. could ever recall an instance where an official complaint had resulted in an unlawful program being ended, but there was a unanimous desire to avoid being associated with such a complaint in any form.' The Justice Department has charged Mr. Snowden with violating the Espionage Act and the fugitiver reiterated his claim that he has taken no documents with his to Russia. 'I didn’t take any documents with me from Hong Kong, and while I’m sure they were disappointed, it doesn’t take long for an intelligence service to realize when they’re out of luck,' he said. 'I would also add, for the record, that the United States government has repeatedly acknowledged that there is no evidence at all of any relationship between myself and the Russian intelligence service,' Mr. Snowden said. | Edward Snowden claimed that a damaging culture of silence exists at the NSA .
In testimony to the European Parliament said that he tried to complain ten times about their spying programs to superiors .
Was advised to keep quiet and to maintain a low profile .
Said that as a contractor with no legal protection from complaining was left with no choice but to leak the information to the press . |
0e89d6601f31532948cd5471d77d48fc8a3ab4a3 | (CNN) -- Throughout Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's campaign for New York's top political act, his backup band seemed to overshadow the headliner. His son Dante, a sophomore at a public high school in Brooklyn, appeared prominently in campaign ads, his soaring Afro a topic of conversation in political circles. Daughter Chiara, a college freshman, out-danced the rest of the telegenic family at the West Indian Day Parade with a move they called "The Smackdown." Watch the de Blasios dance "The Smackdown" A virtual unknown nationally despite 25 years in New York politics, de Blasio defied critics who questioned whether his experience as a city councilman from Brooklyn and, most recently, as public advocate -- a sort of civic watchdog -- sufficiently prepared him to run the Big Apple. He also ran Hillary Clinton's first U.S. Senate campaign. But his biracial family's increasing visibility resonated with residents of a city coping with a 21% poverty rate and increasing racial divisiveness brought on by the controversial "stop-and-frisk" policy allowing police to search people in high-crime areas. "His family, just because of the racial mix, represents a big and increasingly large part of the city and speaks to certain sensibilities," said Harold Ickes, a veteran Democratic Party operative who advised the campaign and has known de Blasio for two decades. "The family is very important to Bill... From the outside, this family represents a part of the city not represented in city government." The de Blasio clan was featured prominently in commercials and campaign events. Dante, then 15, appeared in his own ad over the summer that highlighted his father's stance against "stop-and-frisk." Dante and his hair immediately became a social media sensation -- and de Blasio began to surge in the polls. In addition, Chirlane McCray, a political activist who once identified herself as lesbian before marrying de Blasio, emerged as a top campaign strategist. 5 things to know about New York's new mayor . DeBlasio, 52, portrayed himself as the "unapologetically progressive alternative to the Bloomberg era," saying that the current mayor's polices favor the rich. He repeatedly used the Dickensian phrase "a tale of two cities" to describe New York City under billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The wealth inequality message appeared to have struck home with minority and low-income voters on Tuesday, giving de Blasio an advantage over Republican candidate Joe Lhota among black and Latino voters compared to white voters. "The city is much more racially mixed than when Bloomberg took office," Ickes said. "A lot of people having a hard time economically are black, Hispanic and Asian and Bill spoke elegantly to that." De Blasio's critics accused him of dividing the city along economic and racial lines, and credited "stop-and-frisk" with a sharp crime reduction during Bloomberg's tenure. Appearing on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper on Wednesday, Bloomberg said he had a meeting with de Blasio and vowed to help with the transition. "Keep in mind, I have a big vested interest in making Bill de Blasio an even better mayor than I was," Bloomberg said. "We built a lot. We've given them a lot to work with... But the bottom line is, I'm going to live in New York City and I want Bill de Blasio's administration to be successful and our administration to do everything to transfer everything we've been doing over." De Blasio, who has a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's in international and public affairs from Columbia University, met McCray while working in the administration of David Dinkins, the city's first black mayor. When de Blasio delivered his acceptance speech late on Election Day, he was surrounded, like most of the campaign, by his family. The strapping politician, the first Democratic mayor in the largely-Democratic city in two decades, hugged son and daughter and planted a firm kiss on the lips of his wife before going on to thank the many people behind his triumph. "The people I'm most grateful to and most grateful for are standing next to me," he said amid cheers and applause. "My partner in life, my best friend in the world: she is brilliant and every bit as compassionate as she is tough, the love of my life Chirlane McCray." He added, "Of everything I have to feel fortunate about, I am most lucky, most blessed to be the father of two extraordinary children: Chiara and Dante. They make me proud every single day. And, my fellow New Yorkers, they are very stylish." De Blasio greeted his supporters in both Spanish and Italian. McCray introduced him: "From our family to your family, I give you the next mayor of New York City." | Not everyone is a fan, though Mayor Bloomberg vows to help with the transition .
Biracial family of New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio influences his campaign .
Increasing visibility of de Blasio clan resonates with New Yorkers . |
0e8a8e1e312e5288a8b48fd67b98c48279e07967 | (EW.com) -- In the final weekend before Iron Man 3 kicks off the summer movie season in earnest, Michael Bay's R-rated action comedy Pain & Gain topped a slow weekend at the box office with $20 million from 3,277 theaters, giving it an average of $6,103 per location. The Paramount film achieved only a fraction of the opening weekend grosses of Bay's Transformers films, but it only cost a fraction — just $26 million — of those films as well. It's well on its way to profitability. Pain & Gain, which stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, redeemed both stars following unimpressive box office results for action films earlier this year. Wahlberg's Broken City petered out with just $19.7 million, while Johnson's Snitch fared only slightly better, grossing $42.1 million. While both those films had darker, more serious tones, Pain & Gain was marketed as a sunny, over-the-top black comedy. Unfortunately, audience reaction wasn't particularly sunny. Polled moviegoers issued Pain & Gain a dreadful "C+" CinemaScore. In second place, Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure Oblivion, which last week debuted with $37.1 million, dropped 53 percent to $17.4 million, giving it a 10-day total of $64.7 million. While the Universal film seems unlikely to reach Cruise's one-time benchmark of $100 million domestically, its $134.1 million international total lifts prospects considerably. Still, a $198.8 million worldwide total versus a $120 million budget isn't an incredible result after accounting for distribution and marketing costs. Warner Bros.' $40 million Jackie Robinson drama 42 scored another $10.7 million in its third weekend, representing a 40 percent decline. With a cumulative gross of $69.1 million so far, 42 is a big winner for Warner Bros., which badly needed a hit following flops like Beautiful Creatures, Bullet to the Head, and Jack the Giant Slayer. Yet most analysts expected the film, which earned an "A+" CinemaScore grade, to reach $100 million. That no longer seems plausible. 'Rocky' musical headed to Broadway in '14 . Star-studded romantic comedy The Big Wedding flopped in its opening weekend, with just $7.5 million from 2,633 theaters, giving it a sad $2,848 per theater average. The $35 million Lionsgate release got off to a weaker start than other recent wedding titles like The Five-Year Engagement, License to Wed, and The Wedding Date — and all of those were considered misfires upon release. The Big Wedding, which features performances by Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace, and Ben Barnes, garnered wretched reviews from most critics, and audiences, which were 77 percent female and 66 percent above the age of 30, gave it an ugly "C+" CinemaScore. D.C. dinner: Spacey, Spielberg in spoofs . The Croods spent its sixth weekend in the Top 5 with $6.6 million (a 29 percent drop), lifting the colorful Stone Age comedy to $163 million total. The Fox-distributed film, produced by DreamWorks Animation for $135 million, has carried even more cash into its cave internationally, and this weekend it passed the $300 million mark. Worldwide, The Croods has earned a terrific $471 million, and it will zoom right past the half-billion mark some time in the next two weeks. Unsurprisingly, a sequel is already in the works. 1. Pain & Gain -- $20 million . 2. Oblivion -- $17.4 million . 3. 42 -- $10.7 million . 4. The Big Wedding -- $7.5 million . 5. The Croods -- $6.6 million . Despite the success of films like The Croods, Identity Thief, and Oz The Great and Powerful, the first third of 2013 hasn't been a particularly good one at the box office. For the year to date, both attendance and revenue at the U.S. box office are down 12 percent, and Hollywood is now turning its attention to potential blockbusters like Iron Man 3, Fast & Furious 6, and Man of Steel to turn this year's prospects around. Iron Man 3, at least, seems like a safe bet. The superhero sequel debuted this weekend in 42 overseas territories (about 79 percent of the international market), where it earned an incredible $195.3 million — a higher figure than The Avengers' $185.1 million start. That figure is even more impressive when your realize that Iron Man 3 has yet to open in powerhouse territories like China, Russia, and Germany. Iron Man 3 achieved the best opening weekend ever in a number of Asian countries (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore), which is a testament to the continent's booming box offices, but perhaps also to Disney's efforts to tailor the picture to better appeal to Asian filmgoers. The film opens in the U.S. on Friday and is expected to open above $150 million. See the original article at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. | "Pain & Gain" did well after unimpressive box office results for action films earlier this year .
Tom Cruise's "Oblivion" came in second .
"The Big Wedding" flopped in its opening weekend . |
0e8a9a96f1980052d1db27debfa7e06ed17022ce | By . James Salmon . Follow @@JamesSalmon79 . Emails and phone messages between foul-mouthed Barclays traders in New York reveal how they bragged about rigging energy prices in America to make huge profits. Critics yesterday said the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the ‘rotten culture of casino banking’ that built up under disgraced former boss Bob Diamond. The bank faces a £270million fine by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allegedly manipulating the energy market across Western America between November 2006 and 2008. Emails and phone messages between foul-mouthed Barclays traders in New York reveal how they bragged about rigging energy prices in America to make huge profits . Four traders are accused of conspiring to sell electricity at a loss to drive prices down. This would enable simultaneous bets on falling energy prices to reap huge profits, leading to losses of £86million for other investors and pensions funds. It is alleged to have taken place at four electricity-trading hubs across the western US – Mid Columbia in Washington State, Palo Verde in Phoenix, Arizona, and South Path 15 and North Path 15 in California. These hubs are where electricity is channelled, stored and then distributed around the region. Barclays and other banks trade in complicated financial instruments which bet on electricity price movements at these hubs. The accused Barclays traders – Daniel Brin, Scott Connelly, Karen Levine and Ryan Smith – face penalties totalling £11million. The bank faces a £270million fine by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allegedly manipulating the energy market across Western America between November 2006 and 2008 . Connelly was described as ‘the leader of the manipulative scheme’ and the highest paid. He faces a £9.3million fine. The bank was also ordered to pay back £22million in profits made from the alleged energy manipulation scam. But, in arguably a more devastating blow to Barclays, the US regulator published a series of emails and phone messages sent by the bank’s traders. In a series of messages dated November 3, 2006, Ryan Smith bragged to a colleague that he had managed to manipulate the energy markets. He said: ‘I totally f****** with the Palo market today,’ adding: ‘I just started lifting the p*** out of the palo.’ Smith continued: ‘was fun. Need to do that more often.’ In a separate exchange on December 7, 2006, he said: ‘I’m going to c*** on the NP light and it should drive the SP light lower.’ Critics said the crude messages reinforced the immoral, profit-crazed image that Barclays has desperately tried to shed since new chief executive Antony Jenkins took over in August. Critics say the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the 'rotten culture of casino banking' that built up under disgraced former boss of Barclays, Bob Diamond, left . John Mann, who sits on the Treasury select committee of MPs, said: ‘This just shows how the rotten culture of casino banking that was built up under Bob Diamond went all the way through Barclays. Traders were clearly programmed to do anything to make a profit.’ The emails sent by Barclays’ American traders have echoes of the brash messages sent by their counterparts in London who boasted about rigging key interest rates. These were published in June when Barclays was fined £290million by UK and US regulators over the scandal. This led to the departure of Diamond and several other top executives. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said: ‘The American authorities’ allegations of Enron-style rigging of electricity prices shows what a toxic trail Bob Diamond left behind him.’ All four traders accused of rigging the energy markets are thought to have left the bank, although none are understood to have been fired. Barclays has been given 30 days to appeal and said it intends to do so. It said it ‘strongly disagrees with the allegations’, adding: ‘We believe that our trading was legitimate and above board and intend to vigorously defend this matter.’ Barclays is likely to argue that it did not have big enough positions in the energy market to be able to manipulate prices. | Critics said the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the 'rotten culture of casino banking' that built up under Bob Diamond .
Bank faces £270million fine for allegedly manipulating energy market in US . |
0e8b32774485e118206996e6e1ec9646a65bd771 | The door is an angry shade of purple, like every other door in the seven-storey block. It has no handle, and no name beside the buzzer – just a heavy lock, and spyhole for checking out unwelcome callers. The building is a vast and seemingly impenetrable concrete warren divided into some 600 apartments – or perhaps ‘boxes’ would be a better term, given their cramped proportions. Surrounded by dozens of similarly forbidding, state-owned monstrosities housing some 10,000 Muslims, the vast majority of North African origin, this is the grim Parisian enclave where Cherif Kouachi was radicalised – and is believed to have plotted the horrific magazine massacre. Scroll down for video . A history of violence: Youths set cars ablaze and roam the streets as they battled police in Paris in 2005 . From the Marais, the chic quarter where Charlie Hebdo’s offices are situated, it took my taxi barely 20 minutes to reach his seventh-floor flat in the northern suburb of Gennevilliers yesterday. Though it is just seven miles from the scene of the carnage, once you pass beneath the thundering Peripherique ring-road and enter this soulless district, you have reached a parallel universe. Half a century ago, Gennevilliers was an archetypically French community, as illustrated by the charming sepia photographs hanging in the Brazza brasserie, opposite the town hall, showing people dining on shady terraces, and riding bicycles in their berets. Then, the faces were almost all Gallic. Today, you can walk the length of a crowded boulevard here without seeing a solitary white Frenchman, and the idyllic ambience lives only in the memory of the very few older residents who remain. It has been replaced by a menacing edginess, and – when approached by a British reporter seeking to understand why young French-Arabs are turning to Islamic extremism, apparently in ever increasing numbers – a deeply ingrained sense of mistrust. A decade ago, after the incendiary Parisian race riots of 2005, I ventured to another of these seething ‘banlieues’, to be greeted with extraordinary courtesy by youths who had, a few hours earlier, been hurling petrol bombs. Then, they were eager to air their deep sense of disaffection. Yesterday, in the Arab café and kebab shop Cherif frequented, I met with shrugs of indifference and hostile stares. It was left to Mohammed Benali, president of his local mosque where 3,000 people worship each Friday, to explain why, for ‘a tiny minority’ of young French Muslims, violence was their chosen path. A car burns during clashes almost a decade ago in the Parisian suburb of Aulnay sur Bois during riots . During the Sixties and Seventies, he said, when immigrant labourers from Morocco, Algeria and Senegal were shipped in to rebuild post-war France, suburbs such as Gennevilliers (where they worked mainly in car factories and heavy industrial plants) were utterly transformed. Yet for this first generation – well-paid and comparatively well accommodated in the vast new tower blocks built to house them – life was satisfactory enough. However, it was not the French policy even to attempt to integrate or educate them. On the contrary, they were pushed to the margins, to be tolerated rather than welcomed, and among the indigenous French population the level of discrimination was beyond anything we have witnessed in Britain. The problem manifested itself in the second generation – to which Cherif, an adopted, French-Algerian orphan born in the mid-Eighties, belonged. ‘They saw how their parents were treated and felt deeply resentful,’ M. Benali told me. ‘After the 2005 riots I was among a Muslim delegation who met Nicolas Sarkozy (then interior minister) and I’ll never forget his words. The seven-storey block is where suspect Cherif Kouachi (pictured) was radicalised - and is believed to have plotted the horrific magazine massacre . ‘He told me that “to humiliate is to radicalise” – and that is exactly what came to pass. This second generation felt excluded, discriminated against, and most of all, humiliated. Added to which, they were deeply mixed up – they spoke and felt French, but were regarded as Arabic; they were culturally confused.’ Among the elders at his mosque, he said there had been lengthy discussions about the offensive Charlie Hebdo cartoons, and whenever they were published feelings ran high. Yet, he maintained, worshippers – particularly the younger ones – were encouraged to accept the principle of free speech, and embrace French values along with their Islamic beliefs. But Cherif – an occasional worshipper at the mosque – was among a handful who refused to follow this instruction, he said. ‘When the imam told everyone to enrol on the register of electors so they could take part in elections, and play their part in society, he refused. He said he wasn’t a French citizen and wanted nothing to do with the democratic process. He then walked out of the mosque. But these beliefs didn’t come from the imams who teach here. He had been who knows where. He was using the internet. He was crazy; brainwashed. He was beyond our reach.’ Perhaps so, yet according to one friend, a surly young man who lived in his block who agreed to speak anonymously yesterday, Cherif was an unlikely killer. The sort who would walk up five flights of stairs rather than share the tiny, often uncomfortably crowded lift in his apartment block. However, to Eric Badday, a 60-year-old Tunisian-born writer who has lived next door to him for seven years – and saw Cherif’s young wife being led away in handcuffs on Wednesday afternoon – it came as no surprise that he is being hunted. ‘Cherif wore Western clothes, unlike his wife who dressed traditionally, but he was the type who believes Allah is the cure for all life’s ills, from social problems to depression,’ he told me. ‘You could just tell he was a fanatic.’ A . ccording to Professor Olivier Roy, a French expert on political Islam, this impression fits perfectly with the stereotype of a frightening new breed of alienated young French-Arabs living in the shadowy margins of Gallic society. Young men who have been ‘radicalised through de-culturisation’, as he puts it. A vast block in Gennevilliers, which is a seemingly impenetrable concrete warren divided into some 600 apartments . ‘These are second or third generation descendants of immigrants,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘They don’t speak Arabic; they don’t wear traditional Arab clothes or eat traditional Arab food or listen to traditional Arab music. They do not speak the language of their parents and have not been educated in religion by them. ‘They have the sense that they are living in a disenfranchised ghetto and then there is a process of self-radicalisation... it is a form of Islam totally opposed to any culture, Eastern or Western, and has its own set of explicit order – do this, don’t do that. The partner of Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier wept last night as she paid tribute to her ‘hero’. Jeannette Bougrab, 41, said: ‘There will be a before and an after but I have lost Stephane.’ The lawyer and ex-government minister hailed the cartoonist, nicknamed Charb, and his colleagues, saying: ‘They were heroes. I was with a hero that I loved.’ She added: ‘He was executed because he was defending secularism ... they fought for principles and freedoms that we forgot to defend. ‘They died so that we can remain free in this country.’ ‘These young people are out of reach of the traditional Muslim authorities. They don’t care what the imams say or the leader of the Grand Mosque in Paris. They radicalise between themselves.’ For years, it seems, Cherif maintained a low profile, living on casual work and, like many young Muslims (who claim with some justification to be last in the queue for jobs), on welfare handouts. His disenchantment hardened into radicalism, and an 18-month spell in jail. Given that 80 per cent of French prisoners are Muslims, yet no attempt is made to de-radicalise the fundamentalists among them, he emerged festering with even more anger. Nothing can fully explain the depths of hatred and cold-blooded barbarism that motivated those three young Frenchmen on Wednesday morning, of course. But visiting Gennevilliers offers a chilling glimpse into the minds of the killers – and you leave with the sombre conviction that, fomenting in those dreadful tower blocks, there are plenty of others who will regard them not as evil monsters. But as heroes. | Seven-storey block is where suspect Cherif Kouachi was radicalised .
It lies in Gennevilliers - just seven miles from the Charlie Hebdo office .
Half a century ago it was an archetypically French community .
Now you can walk street without seeing a solitary white Frenchman . |
0e8df4ac255370dba35350321376e87bf71decaf | By . Ruth Styles . PUBLISHED: . 06:32 EST, 14 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:27 EST, 15 July 2013 . As she walked down the aisle in a bespoke Armani dress that had taken the Italian atelier an astonishing 2,500 hours to create, Charlene Wittstock, now Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco, looked anything but the happy bride. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she exchanged vows with the principality's ruler, Prince Albert II, in front of a global audience of millions. But her tears weren't, as reported, the result of a series of rows over her fiance's womanising ways and a failed escape attempt in the days leading up to her wedding. In a rare interview, the South African former swimmer has revealed that they were tears of happiness and has described the speculation as 'categorical lies'. Happily married: Princess Charlene pictured with her husband Prince Albert II of Monaco on Saturday . Overwhelmed: Charlene was pictured with tears streaming down her face but says they were happy ones . 'Everything was just so overwhelming and there were all the mixed emotions because of the rumours, and obviously the tension built up and I burst into tears [immediately after the ceremony]. 'And then I burst into tears some more because I was thinking "Oh no, now the whole world has seen me cry"'. Despite the slew of negative headlines that marred her big day, Europe's newest royal wife has happy memories of her wedding. 'It was such a wonderful three days,' she told the Times Weekend Magazine. 'Even months afterwards I would get flashbacks and think, "Oh my goodness, did I really have the Eagles playing at my wedding?" 'I think back and wonder how we managed to pull it off. There was a lot going on. It was beautiful; it was sentimental, showing my most intimate moment to the world.' Princess Charlene says she has happy memories of her wedding day and describes speculation as 'lies' Enjoying life: Princess Charlene on the arm of her husband at a society party in Monaco earlier this month . Princess to be: Charlene was a professional swimmer before her marriage . Since her 2011 nuptials, Charlene has thrown herself into her new role, building relationships with other European royals and working on her charitable foundation which encourages French and Monégasque children to learn to swim. 'My cousin drowned when he was five years old,' she says. 'He went to swim in a neighbour's pool and fell in. 'Thousands of people drown in France every year... and I want to spearhead this water safety project of mine, giving people access to someone to teach them to swim free.' She's working on smoothing the gap between the designer clad children of the super-rich and everyone else and is currently setting up a competition that will encourage Monégasque children to design their own school uniforms. She also speaks warmly of her work with Dior designer Raf Simons who recently staged a show in the principality. 'I worked for two years on that,' she explains. 'I had a vision to arrange a fashion show between Cannes Film Festival and the [Monaco] Grand Prix, because everybody is here. 'I thought it would work out and people would love to see Raf Simons' line. I mean, he's the number one designer in the world! I'm still smiling about it.' Another person who makes her smile is . the Netherland's new queen, Maxima. 'Maxima has been unbelievably . supportive if I need help with anything,' reveals Charlene. 'Because . she came from Argentina and moved to Holland, we have made similar . lifestyle choices. She has given me advice that I identified with.' Relaxed: Princess Charlene was pictured enjoying a holiday with friends in Portofino earlier this month . Support: Queen Maxima has been a fount of good advice while the Duchess of Cambridge is 'lovely' And Maxima isn't the only fellow royal to meet with Princess Charlene's approval. The Duchess of Cambridge, married just months before Charlene, has also proved a friendly source of support. 'She's very sweet and lovely,' says Charlene. 'I can understand it must be difficult for everyone being in this situation when you're not born into it.' But as the Duchess of Cambridge, now a day overdue, prepares for the birth of her first child, does she hope for a little prince or princess of her own? 'Look, I'm not going to put myself under any pressure,' she says. 'I just got married. I'm just settling into this enormous place and getting used to having huge responsibilities. 'You know,' she adds, 'we travel a lot, so it's going to take time. But as I said, I'm not going to put myself under any pressure. It will happen; it will happen.' Read the full interview at the Times website . | Charlene married Prince Albert II of Monaco in a £68 million ceremony in 2011 .
Rumoured to have tried to call it off after rows with her fiance .
According to Charlene, reports of altercations are 'categorical lies'
The princess also revealed that she plans to have children in the future . |
0e8eb0980781d1fe3d84509b0f9325515a07feac | Islamic State militants have 'massacred' at least 80 Yazidis after they refused to convert to Islam, it has been claimed. The insurgents allegedly stormed into the small village of Kojo in northern Iraq, where they spent five days trying to persuade villagers to take up their religion. When they refused, the male members of the ancient sect were reportedly rounded up and shot dead, while more than 100 women and girls were kidnapped. Scroll down for video . Terrified: Islamic State militants have 'massacred' at least 80 Yazidis after they refused to convert to Islam, it has been claimed. Above, displaced Yazidis shelter are seen at a park near the Turkey-Iraq border yesterday . 'They arrived in vehicles and they . started their killing this afternoon,' senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar . Zebari told Reuters yesterday. 'We believe it's because of their creed: convert or . be killed.' The women and girls abducted from the village, situated around 12 miles south of Sinjar, were being taken to the ISIS-controlled cities of Mosul and Tal Afar, the official said. It comes as the Islamic State's continued push to the border with the Kurdish region has sparked a series of U.S. airstrikes and sent tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians fleeing for their lives. Yesterday, Yazidi parliamentarian Mahama Khalil said the alleged massacre had taken place during a one-hour period. Waiting: Members of Yazidi community rest as they try to cross to Turkey, in Zakho, 300 miles north of Baghdad . Injured: The insurgents allegedly stormed into the small village of Kojo in northern Iraq yesterday, before spending five days trying to persuade villagers to take up their religion. Above, an injured Yazidi boy . Meanwhile, the resident of a nearby village claimed to have been told details of the bloodshed by an Islamic State fighter. 'He told me that the Islamic State . had spent five days trying to persuade villagers to convert to Islam and . that a long lecture was delivered about the subject today,' said the . villager. 'He then said the men were gathered . and shot dead. The women and girls were probably taken to Tal Afar . because that is where the foreign fighters are.' However, the account could not be independently confirmed. Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, according to Iraq's human rights minister. Panic: It comes as the Islamic State's continued push to the border with the Kurdish region has sparked a series of U.S. airstrikes and sent tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians fleeing for their lives . Hidden away: Yazidis who fled the violence from ISIS forces in Sinjar shelter on Mount Sinjar earlier this week . Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Sunni militants had also buried some of their victims alive, including women and children. Some 300 women were kidnapped as slaves, he added. Meanwhile, American military officials last night claimed airstrikes from drones destroyed two . armed vehicles south of the Iraqi town of Sinjar. In a statement, U.S. Central Command said Kurdish forces had . reported that Islamic State militants were attacking civilians in the . village of Kawju. Officials said remotely piloted aircraft identified and then followed an . armed vehicle to a roadside area near Sanjar, before striking and destroying two vehicles in the area. Sick: British jihadist Nasser Muthana posted this claim on his Twitter account saying that he and other Islamic State fighters had captured hundreds of Yazidi and were holding them hostage in Syria . Jihadist: Nasser Muthana is a 20-year-old former Cardiff schoolboy who featured prominently in the Islamic State's first professionally produced English language propaganda video . It comes just days after a British jihadist made sick claims on Twitter that Islamic State militants are holding hundreds of Iraqi women as slaves in Syria. Former Cardiff schoolboy Nasser Muthana appeared to refer to reports that 300 women were snatched from the Yazidi community near Mount Sinjar, where ISIS cornered thousands of refugees in a ten-day siege. The tweet also alluded to claims that the women were intended to be given to young jihadists as wives. It read: 'I can confirm that we have hundreds of yazidi slave women now in Syria, how about that for news!' Before: Former Cardiff schoolboy Nasser Muthana uploaded images with the stark warning: 'Army base buildings before and after, I'm getting good with these bombs' When his claims were questioned by a known sympathiser, he sounded more sincere. Da Masked Avenger asked him: 'In all seriousness. What's the truth of this matter?' Muthana replied: 'I'm not lying.' The message was posted on Wednesday, but has since been deleted and his claims cannot be independently verified. Fears are now growing for the captured women amid claims they could be used to bear children to break up the Kurdish-speaking group's bloodline. After: The young jihadist, who describes himself on Twitter as a 'soldier of the Islamic State', said last month the UK government should be 'afraid' of his bomb-making skills . The minority group is originally Aryan . and has retained a fairer complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes by only . marrying within the community. But in a furious bid to convert all non-Muslims, ISIS jihadists have vowed to impregnate the hostages. Addressing . the kidnapping, Adnan Kochar, chairman of the Kurdish Cultural Centre . in London, told MailOnline: 'The Kurds and Yazidis are originally . Aryans. 'But because . the Yazidis are such a closed community they have retained a fairer . complexion, blonder hair and bluer eyes. They don't marry non-Yazidis. 'ISIS . have taken around 300 women from Sinjar to give to jihadists to marry . and make pregnant to have a Muslim child. If they can't kill all . Yazidis, they will try to smash the blond bloodline.' Threat: Nasser Muthana posted a message on Twitter last month warning that the UK government should be afraid of him returning to the country with his new bomb making skills . Find: Muthana claims to have found this prayer mat inside the army base. He says it offers devotion to the Prophet Mohammed's daughter and is therefore in breach of Islamic law as evidence of practicing idolatry . Muthana . - who featured in a chilling ISIS recruitment video - has been a . prolific user of social media in recent months, posting horrific . pictures of mutilated Iraqi soldiers and other taunting claims about the . Islamic State's uprising in Iraq. He has previously warned that ISIS fighters would slaughter any Yazidi men they captured in northern Iraq and would enslave their women and children. 'Kuffar [non-believers] are afraid we . will slaughter Yazidis, our deen [religious path] is clear we will kill . their men, take their women and children as slaves insha Allah,' he posted on Twitter. He also posted a message on Twitter warning that . the UK government should be afraid of him returning to the country with . his new bomb making skills. Friends: Reyaad Khan (left), who is also from Cardiff, appeared alongside Muthana (right) in the ISIS propaganda video, urging other young Muslims in the West to join them in jihad . The 20-year-old's boast about the Yazidi . women came just days after he uploaded before and after images of a . military building being destroyed by one of homemade bombs. They appeared on his new Twitter page under the username Abul Muthanna@abulmuthanna313 after deleting his previous profile last month. He . was reportedly unhappy with the high levels of attention it received . following his appearance in the Islamic State's recruitment video. Formerly . a prospective medical student, Muthana was joined in Syria by his . younger brother Aseel, 17, who has now spoken of his willingness to die . fighting for ISIS. The . Muthana brothers, who grew up in Cardiff after their father moved there . from Yemen as a teenager, are among hundreds of young men from Britain . who have flown to Syria to join the rebels. Their friend Reyaad Khan, 20, also from Cardiff, said he had 'fireworks' for the U.S. if they returned to fight in Iraq. Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana are among the British jihadists fighting with ISIS in Iraq that are using social networking sites to lure young Muslim teenagers from the UK into joining the Islamic State fanatics. The extremists, who boast of ‘slaughtering’ innocent Yazidis and ‘taking their women as slaves’, are advising 15-year-olds that they are ‘not too young’ to die fighting for Allah. Asked by a British 18-year-old girl if she is too young to join, one of them replied: ‘I know sisters younger than you. I heard of maybe 16-year-olds being here from UK. You aren’t too young.’ Before they fled: Jihadists Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana (circled) hand out food to the needy in Cardiff last year. Both have been tweeting about their involvement with IS while on the front line . They are informing their British ‘brothers and sisters’ every day how to make their way to Iraq, claiming they are ‘ordered’ to defy their parents and fight jihad. The British IS fighters, who refer to themselves as the ‘Baadiya Boys’ after their original base in Syria, include Khan and Muthana. The former Catholic college students have been joined on the frontline by young Muslim men and women from across the UK, including a group of five friends from Portsmouth, two of whom have already been killed. | Militants allegedly stormed into the small village of Kojo in northern Iraq .
They 'spent five days trying to persuade villages to take up their religion'
When they refused, male members of the sect were reportedly shot dead .
Women and girls were allegedly kidnapped during the one-hour 'massacre'
Comes as U.S. airstrikes have have destroyed two armed vehicles in Iraq .
ISIS's push to border has sent tens of thousands of Yazidis fleeing for lives .
On Wednesday, British jihadist claimed women being held as slaves in Syria .
Nasser Muthana, 20, previously featured in chilling ISIS recruitment video .
Appeared with friend Reyaad Khan attempting to recruit Western Muslims . |
0e8eb82fcdd0d2e2577014595a2c0199049275b1 | The ObamaCare website is 'easy' to hack, critics say, and has become the focus of security concerns as the second year of enrolment approaches. The healthcare site is one of the largest federal collections of personal information ever assembled in the U.S., containing the first and last names, home address, social security number and payment information - including credit card data - of people who enrol. President Barack Obama's ObamaCare website is 'easy' to hack, say critics who are drawing attention to data security concerns as the second year of enrolment approaches . The website was hacked on July 8, but the security breach wasn't spotted until August 25 . Lamar Smith, chair of a congressional committee looking after the security of the website, said there had been hearings on the 'lack of security' around the website. He told Fox News: 'What we've discovered is that it seems to be easy to be hacked, the security is not secure.' For example, the website was hacked on July 8 but the security breach wasn't discovered until August 25. Last month, a Government Accountability Office report said, 'Until these weaknesses are fully addressed, increased and unnecessary risks remain.' But officials say they have met 19 of 22 GAO recommendations. The healthcare website is one of the largest federal collection of personal information ever assembled and requires those enrolling o supply their first and last name, home address, social security number and payment information - including credit card data . One security specialist, David Kennedy, warned that hacking cases had risen 400 per cent this year, saying 'it's a mess out there right now'. Congressman Smith had concerns last fall, but the former chief technology officer to the president, Todd Park, testified last November that he knew nothing about security problems. Mr Smith contends that problems were known but ignored, and is issuing a subpoena to force Mr Park to testify again. There is no law that requires the federal government to notify anyone that their personal information has been hacked. About 20 million Americans have gained medical insurance under the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare, since it was signed into law in 2010. The law was designed to make health insurance simpler and more available to Americans, but critics have lambasted it as a waste of money. | Government Accountability Office has identified security 'weaknesses'
Site was hacked on July 8, and breach wasn't discovered for seven weeks .
Critics say the site is too easy to hack .
The website contains personal and financial details of millions of people . |
0e8ec54ce036405f22022aab3ed74b78eaee721a | Nixon calls his future wife Patricia Ryan 'dearest heart' and daydreams about their future together . Letters go on display this Friday at California museum to celebrate 100th birthday of Nixon's wife . By . Rachel Rickard Straus . PUBLISHED: . 06:54 EST, 12 March 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 14:09 EST, 12 March 2012 . Richard Nixon is remembered for many things – but very rarely for being a softy. However a series of love letters penned to his future wife long before his rise to power and fall from grace, reveal that at one time he was just another man in love. Decades before he became known to some as ‘Tricky Dick’, it was Nixon making up the nicknames – sweet ones to his future bride in gushy love notes that reveal a surprisingly soft and romantic side of the man taken down by Watergate. Young love: Then attorney Richard Nixon and his bride pose with their newly acquired marriage license in in front of a fireplace at the Mission Inn. They wed in the inn's wedding chapel on June 12, 1940 . Love token: This delicately written letter from Pat Nixon to her husband is part of the display . ‘Dearest heart’, he addresses her, while recalling their first meeting in flowery prose and daydreaming about their future together. During their two-year courtship Nixon and his wife Patricia Ryan exchanged dozens of letters, six of which will be unveiled Friday at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, California, as part of an exhibit celebrating the 100th birthday of the woman Nixon playfully called his ‘Irish gypsy.’ ‘Every day and every night I want to see you and be with you. Yet I have no feeling of selfish ownership or jealousy,’ Nixon writes in one undated letter. ‘Let's go for a long ride Sunday; let's go to the mountains weekends; let's read books in front of fires; most of all, let's really grow together and find the happiness we know is ours.’ Eighteen years after his death, the correspondence offers a tiny window into a fiercely private side of Nixon that almost no one ever saw. ‘These letters are fabulous,’ said supervisory museum curator Olivia Anastasiadis. ‘It's a totally different person from the Watergate tapes that people know. President Nixon started out as an idealistic young man ready to conquer the world and with Pat Ryan he knew he could do it. There's a lot of hope, there's a lot of tenderness and it's very poetic. United: Richard Nixon and his wife Pat pose for photos while campaigning at the Rockefeller Center in New York in 1960 . Tender: The highly personal letters reveal a totally different side to Nixon . Richard Nixon was secretly seeing a psychiatrist during the height of his political career, a new book has claimed. The former US president began seeing Dr Arnold Hutschnecker in 1952 with a string of complaints he thought were all in his mind, like back and neck pain and insomnia. ‘The Gumshoe and the Shrink’ claims that Nixon continued seeing the doctor for at least a decade including during the fateful 1960 election which he lost to John F Kennedy. Should the disclosures have been made public at the time, it is questionable whether voters would have allowed such an unstable man to become president. Author David Robb also reveals that in a foreshadowing of Watergate Nixon once hired a private eye to look into Kennedy’s health. According to the book, in 1960 Nixon’s team got into offices belonging to two doctors treating Kennedy looking for dirt that he was actually secretly ill. When Kennedy found this out his father bizarrely asked his friend Frank Sinatra to find the best investigator around so they could do their own digging. ‘He loved her, he was absolutely enthralled by her and that's all he thought about.’ The letters stand in stark contrast to the grim-faced leader forced to resign in 1974, disgraced. Instead, Nixon comes across as an ardent and persistent suitor in the letters, which date from 1938 to just before the couple's marriage in June 1940. The two met while auditioning for ‘The Dark Tower’ in the Southern California town of Whittier and dated for two years until Nixon proposed on the south Orange County cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He later delivered her engagement ring in a small basket overflowing with mayflowers. The romantic touch and chivalry that Nixon brought to his seaside proposal comes through in the letters as well. In two of the handwritten notes, . Nixon — raised a Quaker — uses ‘thee’ instead of ‘you’ to refer to his . future bride, a pronoun that signals a special closeness in the Quaker . tradition. He also writes about himself in the third person, referring . to himself as a ‘prosaic person’ whose heart was nonetheless ‘filled . with that grand poetic music’ upon knowing her. ‘Somehow . on Tuesday there was something electric in the usually almost stifling . air in Whittier. And now I know. An Irish gypsy who radiates all that is . happy and beautiful was there,’ he wrote in one letter. ‘She left . behind her a note addressed to a struggling barrister who looks from a . window and dreams. And in that note he found sunshine and flowers, and a . great spirit which only great ladies can inspire. Someday let me see . you again? In September? Maybe?’ A . much more practical - and somewhat less impulsive — Pat Ryan replies in . one short note: ‘In case I don't see you before why don't you come . early Wednesday - and I'll see if I can burn a hamburger for you.’ The . object of Nixon's affection was slower to come around, but eventually . was just as smitten with Nixon as he was with her, said Ed Nixon, . Nixon's youngest brother. Exhibition: Six love letters go on display on Friday at the Richard Nixon Presidential . ‘She was quite an independent young lady and she was very cautious about anyone she met and if they couldn't smile, she wouldn't want to do too much unless she could make them smile. That captured Dick's imagination,’ the younger Nixon said. ‘She was challenging. She challenged me and I think she challenged Dick.’ Nixon's presidency began to unravel in 1972 when burglars who were later tied to his re-election committee broke into the Democratic headquarters to get dirt on his political adversaries. Nixon denied knowing about plans for the break-in beforehand, but an 18 1/2 minute gap in a recording of a post-Watergate White House meeting led many to suspect a cover-up. Secret shrink: A new book details the presidential campaign of Richard Nixon against John F Kennedy and how Nixon was secretly seeing a psychiatrist . Faced with impeachment and a possible criminal indictment, Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974 and retreated to his native California. The following month he was granted a pardon by President Gerald Ford. Pat Nixon never doubted her husband and stood by him until she died in 1993, a day after their 53rd wedding anniversary, said Robert Bostock, a consultant to the Richard Nixon Foundation, which is co-sponsoring the exhibit, and a former aide to Nixon after he left the White House. Her loyalty and spirit was a . testament to their love and part of what bound them together from the . earliest days of their courtship in Whittier, when he was a young . attorney and she a high school stenography teacher fresh out of college. ‘She . was with him the whole way; she never lost faith in him. Her feeling . was that it was the country's loss when he had to resign, that he had . accomplished so much good and had so much more good to accomplish,’ Mr . Bostock said. ‘Her favourite saying was, 'Onward and upward.' She spent . no time looking back. She was always looking forward.’ Revelations: British journalist David Frost (left) interviewed Richard Nixon in a series in 1977 that ended in one of 20th century television's most dramatic confessions . | Nixon calls his future wife Patricia Ryan 'dearest heart' and daydreams about their future together .
Letters go on display this Friday at California museum to celebrate 100th birthday of Nixon's wife . |
0e901383a9b4beb65706cf6efdc54dcaee252725 | (CNN) -- All eyes this week are on North Korea, which looks set to move forward with a provocative long-range missile launch. Last month, Pyongyang announced it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite sometime between Thursday and April 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of its founder, Kim Il Sung. Japan, the United States and South Korea see the launch -- which would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions -- as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test. And a South Korean intelligence report says it's likely to precede a nuclear test, as it did in 2006 and 2009. Pyongyang insists its intentions are good and have invited foreign journalists, including CNN correspondent Stan Grant, to view the secret launch site. CNN on Monday interviewed Jim Walsh, an international security analyst from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on "Starting Point" to help explain the tense situation: . CNN: This whole parading the journalists through -- letting people see -- is this Kim Jong Un bragging internally? Is it sending a message to the international community? Both? Jim Walsh: It's a good question. Often when North Korea acts out, its purpose is to communicate with the broader world, communicate to the United States or to Japan or South Korea. This is really about internal messaging, being able to go to its own public and say, "Look, all these Western journalists are here, we're really important, we're really a big deal." And why do I say it's internally driven? Because they are going through a political transition. This young guy, this 20-something-year-old, has taken over for his father (Kim Jong Il), and he's in the middle of trying to consolidate his position. And it's the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. ... They've been planning big events for years now for this. So this is all about regime legitimacy and talking to the North Korean people and the military, the elites in the military. CNN: CNN saw what appears to be a satellite. I think most of the media there agree that there definitely is a satellite for this rocket, to launch this satellite into space. ... We also know that this is a country that has nuclear ambitions, no matter how nascent it is or successful it might be. Walsh: Yes, well, you know, this missile is not the greatest missile in the world. There are two characteristics if you have a modern missile program: One is solid fuel, and the other is a modern-guidance system. This missile has neither of those. And four tests, four long-range missile tests over like 15 years, is not a very active missile program. It's more like a tube filled with gasoline than it is anything else. The big worry is they're going to fire it up there, and it will get wobbly on them and start to veer off course like the last two did. That's the real concern I have: not the missile itself but that the missile might stray into foreign airspace and that Japan or South Korea might feel inclined to shoot it down and then suddenly we're off to the races with an international incident. CNN: Are we looking at a scenario where we're going to see a couple of missiles get launched or troops marching down to the (demilitarized zone)? Should people be legitimately scared about this? ... Walsh: Well, I think it is about trying to impress the family and the military. I don't think they're going to march a lot of people toward the DMZ. I think that would be provocative. Certainly, you could see other missile tests. That's a good question. They've done that in the past, short-range missiles. But I'm afraid what we're really looking at here, further down the road, is there's going to be the missile test, then there's going to be international reaction, and then (North Korea) is going to have to push back. So I would not rule out a nuclear test sometime later this year if this continues to ratchet up. CNN: This is obviously very provocative behavior by the North Koreans, even after there was just this highly publicized deal for food for this starving country. So what's the point? What are they trying to do? Walsh: That's the $100,000 question, and we really don't have an answer here. Now I know lot of people who have been following this over the years. They sort of think this is the same old, same old -- that we cut a deal and they've broken the deal; they got something, but they didn't live up to their promises. Well, that's not what's happening here. There was a deal, and we really hadn't given them anything yet. We haven't given them the food aid. So that tells me one (of) two things happened. Either there was some misunderstanding about the contents of that deal -- the Americans thought one thing, the North Koreans the other -- or maybe that deal got back to Pyongyang and then ran into trouble there. Maybe the military pushed back, or there was something else going on. But at this point, we don't know the reason. If we had an answer to that question, that would tell us what's going on inside North Korea. It's the most opaque society in the world -- more than Iran, more than any other place on Earth -- so we really don't know what's going on. | North Korea appears moving ahead with plans to launch a long-range missile .
Analyst Jim Walsh discusses Pyongyang's possible motivations .
Walsh sees some posturing going on, legitimacy building for North Korea's new leader .
He says he thinks situation could escalate into a nuclear test like it did in 2006 and 2009 . |
0e906ee9c2c6f28be945c6175a8e17be006582fe | (CNN)The U.S. is turning to a familiar -- but some would say unexpected -- name to lead its team at the next Ryder Cup: Davis Love III. Yes, even though Love was the losing captain as Europe rallied in 2012 in the Miracle at Medinah in Illinois, the 50-year-old will succeed Tom Watson at the 2016 edition at Hazeltine in Minnesota. He'll go up against Darren Clarke, who last week got the nod for Europe. Love was unveiled Tuesday, about five months after the PGA of America set up a Ryder Cup task force in the wake of another loss to Europe in golf's most prestigious team event. Love himself was part of the 11-person committee, joining the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and past captains Tom Lehman and Raymond Floyd. Love named Lehman as a vice-captain. "I am here with the same goal as in 2012 but not as the same captain," Love told reporters. "It is a great honor to be in the position to help build the team, but our mission doesn't end there. What we accomplish in 2016 at Hazeltine must serve as the foundation for future USA Ryder Cup teams," Love said separately in a statement. The 2012 Ryder Cup will no doubt serve as motivation. With the U.S. seemingly coasting to victory -- holding a 10-6 lead entering the final day -- Europe won eight of the last 12 matches to eke out a 14 1/2-13 1/2 win. And when the U.S. was unable to overturn its skid last year at Gleneagles in Scotland, it meant a sixth defeat in the last seven Ryder Cups. Given the record it's not surprising that criticism followed, but no one quite expected Mickelson to lay into Watson -- who was yards away -- at a post series press conference. Mickelson attended Tuesday's press conference with Love. Woods skipped the 2014 Ryder Cup as he recovered from a back injury and who knows if the slumping 14-time major champion will return next year. He's currently taking a break from golf. He, though, gave his backing to Love. "I want to congratulate Davis on his selection," Woods said in a statement. "I have great respect for him as a person, player and captain. I know he'll do an outstanding job leading the 2016 U.S. team. "I'm proud of what the task force accomplished, making substantive changes in the Captain's selection process and qualifying system." As a player, Love played in six Ryder Cups and compiled a singles record of three wins and a loss, halving two matches. | Davis Love III to captain the U.S. at the 2016 Ryder Cup .
Love was the losing captain in the Miracle at Medinah in 2012 .
Europe has won six of the last seven Ryder Cups .
Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke was last week named Europe's captain . |
0e907ac0dd02b47f4a0726790d01f0c57037ec2f | (CNN) -- A photo that conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart claims shows the naked genitals of Rep. Anthony Weiner made its way to the Internet on Wednesday. Breitbart, appearing on the "Opie and Anthony" show on the Sirius XM radio network, showed the picture on his cell phone during the interview, according to Breitbart and the show's hosts. A television camera recorded the image of the cell phone with the picture on its screen, and that image was then sent out on Twitter by the show host known as Opie, whose real name is Gregg Hughes. According to Breitbart, he got the photo from a woman who communicated with Weiner online. The woman told Breitbart that Weiner sent her the photo. Dems privately urge Weiner to resign . On Monday, Breitbart told reporters he had an "X-rated" photo that had been sent to a woman by Weiner. Breitbart said then he wasn't going to release it publicly for now. Democrats offer Weiner advice . When asked by a reporter later Monday if he could deny Breitbart's claim that an X-rated photo existed, Weiner said: "No, I cannot." Both Breitbart and the "Opie and Anthony" hosts said Wednesday that the public release of the photo occurred without Breitbart's knowledge. In a video posted on YouTube explaining what happened, Hughes said a viewer using screen-capture technology sent co-host Anthony Cumia the televised image of Breitbart's phone showing the photo. What was Weiner thinking? Hughes said he then took a cellphone photo of Cumia's cellphone showing the screen-captured image of Breitbart's cellphone with the photo on its screen. iReport: Should Weiner resign? "At that point, it was race to see who could tweet the picture the fastest, and that's exactly what we did," Hughes said in the YouTube video. "I'm convinced that Andrew Breitbart did not want this picture to be released at this time," Hughes continued. "Unfortunately it was. What're you going to do? In his own statement, Breitbart said he regretted the photo had entered the public domain. | The photo is tweeted by a satellite radio host .
A conservative blogger claims it shows Rep. Weiner's genitals .
Weiner has acknowledged an X-rated photo exists . |
0e90b9f0f6b7decc6192444515e6f516ee75bce5 | (CNN) -- I am a mother who watched her mother bury her only son. Mothers who do this wear an excruciatingly blank look of sorrow and disorientation. Their eyes grow dim and damp. They move slowly, laboring to adjust to a horrific new reality. Not only does the heart of a mother split open when a child dies, but time itself breaks in two, reordered into the time before his death and the time after. I know the empty eyes well. My mother had them for years after the death of my 17-year-old brother, Eddie. Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and Valerie Bell, Sean Bell's mother, have appeared on in news interviews in recent days. They still have those eyes. Now Lesley McSpadden, Michael Brown's mother, has the gruesome, unnatural task of burying her baby boy, a devastating detail often lost amid the aggressive noise surrounding the trauma in Ferguson, Missouri. Complete coverage of Ferguson shooting and protests . The mothers of Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin and now Michael Brown are in a particularly sad sorority. Not only do they have to negotiate life without their sons, but they must conduct the rough rituals of mourning under the incredible burden of the violence, systemic racism, hidden history and injustice that brought them to this place. There's a dignity that comes with losing sons as soldiers, and there's a sympathy that comes to mothers who lose them to illness or a tragic accident, as was the case of my brother. But these other mothers have none of that relief; their sons were healthy, surefooted and unarmed. Now these women are thrust into spotlights, tasked with asking for prayers and patience and peace in the street -- when their own peace won't come. We mothers who watch these wounded women go through this, pull our own young men closer and strategize how to keep them from this fate. It's an unfair burden. In fact, every time a high-profile killing of an unarmed black male by law enforcement hits the news, black parents again have "the talk" with their sons about what to do, and perhaps more critically, what not to do when encountering police. And every time it's infuriating to reach for this desperate yet fatally flawed strategy: a one-sided instruction to help save them in a two-sided, potentially deadly relationship. Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend who is a Hollywood producer with two sons living in an affluent neighborhood in Los Angeles. She told me that the details of her "talk" may be different from mothers in low-income communities, but she's clear that wealth does not protect her sons from dangerous encounters with the police. Indeed, she told me that some high-income mothers are so acutely aware of the way police view black men in California, that a group of the mothers got together and invited a high-ranking police officer over for tea to introduce him to their sons. The intent? "Officer, meet my son. He's not a thug, a thief or a threat. If you see him in a fancy car or walking down the street wearing sporty teen boy gear, please don't kill him, OK?" It's a clever tactic (as pathetic as it is that there is a need for it) and a step in the right direction. Consider: Black mothers and fathers all over the country for generations have been telling their kids how to act around law enforcement, but who is instructing law enforcement about how to act when encountering our boys? It is painfully evident that much of law enforcement is ignorant of black youth culture. Police are armed with ready guns, misinformed stereotypes and irrational fear. They obviously have not engaged enough with our youth to know about them. Many police officers have no imagination to allow black teens the adolescent recklessness they instinctively give white youth. If no one institutes a plan to reform the culture of policing by educating police about the culture of black youth, this lopsided relationship will continue to produce tragedies such as what we're witnessing in Ferguson. The burden has far too long been shouldered by black parents and kids, requiring them to adjust to the injustice of excessive force, police brutality and ignorance. Police officers must become more responsible for knowing the community they're hired to protect and serve (even fast food workers are trained to know their customers). The residents of Ferguson and cities all over America have been grossly underserved and fatally misunderstood. We should not be asking outraged mothers, fathers, families and communities to stop hollering. We should be asking trained law enforcement to put down their guns and listen up. Magazine: The Aftermath in Ferguson . Read more about the flash point in the Heartland at CNN.com/US . | Michaela Davis: Moms who lose sons wear blank look of sorrow. Michael Brown's does now .
She says they are thrust into spotlight to call for peace as they process private trauma .
She says moms looking on renew 'the talk' with their sons. Why should they have to do this?
Davis: Police are ones who must be educated to deal with young men, not the other way around . |
0e91693e7b0d07e4fc1cbadd0570a5e2d462568f | For years, modelling has been one of the few industries where women's pay has far exceeded that of men. But the new breed of male models could be about to change that. Thanks to social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, men who get paid to pose for a living are racking up tens of thousands of followers. Scroll down for video . Henrik Fallenius @h_fallenius has almost 10,000 followers on Instagram. He is one of a growing number of male models who are active on social media . These lusting fans are the key to big modelling campaigns in this tech-savvy age. Female models like Cara Delevingne and Miranda Kerr cottoned on early in the game and have long been using their looks as a marketing tool, making them doubly attractive to big advertisers. When a model with millions of followers posts an advert they have posed for onto their Instagram or Facebook page, the product is beamed onto huge numbers of phones and computers across the world, with no extra expense to the company. So the model with more followers is of more use to the advertisers and can charge a higher fee for their work. What does this mean for us? More and more photos of male models - which is surely only a good thing. Some of the most popular male models from across the globe here: . Nicolas Ripoll @nicolasripoll has almost 5000 followers on Instagram . Nathan Webb @nwebb42 has 9,379 followers on Instagram . Chris Ladewig @thechrisvibe has just 242 followers on Instagram . Ben Dahlhaus has almost 20,000 fans of his official Facebook Page . Rob Evans @robjamesevans has 99,250 followers on Instagram . Stephen James @whoiselijah 213,300 followers on Instagram . Nick Bateman @nick__bateman has 1,046,440 followers on Instagram . Christopher Mason @christophermason_ has 9,475 followers on Instagram . Garrett Neff @gwneff has 58,443 followers on Instagram . Broderick Hunter @broderickhunter has 42,143 followers on Instagram . Austin Davis @austindavis94 has 19,097 followers on Instagram . Baptiste Giabiconi @b_giabiconi has 478,329 followers on Instagram . Adonis Bosso @adonisbosso has 14,996 followers on Instagram . Chuck Junior Achike @_chuckjunior has 36,326 followers on Instagram . Marlon Teixeira @marlontx has 162,346 followers on Instagram . | Modelling is one of the few industries where women's pay exceeds men's .
A model with a big following on social media is a big plus for advertisers .
It means more and more male models are active on Instagram and Facebook .
Femail introduces some of the fellas with big followings . |
0e91c46ecec1a2c32a5bbe730851f34190af27b3 | Tom Daley has opened up about his gay relationship for the first time, admitting that it was him who made the first move with his boyfriend. While the 19-year-old Olympic diver did not confirm the identity of his beau, rumoured to be American screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, he said during the interview on The Jonathan Ross Show that it was 'love at first sight'. But Tom also revealed that making the decision to come out and reveal his sexuality was 'terrifying'. Love at first sight: Tom Daley tells Jonathan Ross that he knew his boyfriend was the one when he first saw him . Speaking about his new love, Tom said: 'I’d never felt like anything like it . before. We were at a party and I hadn’t even spoken to him all night. I . didn’t know what to do or if he was gay at first.' But though the young sportsman may have been slightly unsure of himself, that didn't stop him from making his intentions clear with the object of his affection. Dating? Dustin Lance Black and Tom were spotted together in LA back in October . He said: 'I typed "call me" in his notes with a smiley face on this phone and the next day he texted. He makes me feel safe and happy, right now I couldn’t be happier.' On the ITV show - that will be aired on Saturday 7th December - Tom said: 'I’d never felt the feeling of love, it happened so quickly, I was completely overwhelmed by it to the point I can’t get him out of my head all the time. I’ve never had it before where I love someone and they love me just as much.' Neither Tom nor Milk screenwriter Dustin have confirmed or denied their union, but The . Sun newspaper reports that they met at London's Soho Hotel in the . springtime. Later in October this year, Tom and . Dustin were spotted grabbing coffee together from a cafe in Los Angeles, . where the Oscar-winning writer lives. Asked why he hasn't identified his beau, Tom said: 'At the moment, I wouldn’t like anything to change. 'I hope it doesn’t get ruined by the media attention, everyone has been so supportive and I hope it continues that way.' Tom also revealed that he didn't come out straight away because he felt his new found sexuality . was 'like a dirty little secret' that made him feel 'alone and trapped', . but by telling his best friend Sophie, the weight was lifted off his . shoulders. He said: 'I felt like there was . something wrong with me, I didn’t know other people out there felt that . way, I felt so alone, so locked away and couldn’t say anything. 'Now that everyone knows, I have . nothing to hide, those chains that I felt wrapped around me are gone and . I can carry on with my life as normal and be happy.' Emotional interview: The British diver opened his heart on the ITV chat show . Weight lifted: Tom says he feels so much better now he's not hiding his 'dirty little secret' Still a mystery: The athlete's personal life was thrust into the limelight when he posted a video on Monday, saying he was dating a man . And of his family's reaction to his news, Tom added: 'My family will always want to look out for me and not want me to get hurt but they were worried what the reaction would be like in case people would be horrible to me in the streets. “Now that it’s all happened they couldn’t be happier, the support of the public has been an added bonus, it makes me smile to think about it - my life at the moment is perfect.' Tom also credits his new beau for . making him fall back in love with diving, having been disappointed by . his performance at the London 2012 Olympics. 'He saved me from not wanting to dive . anymore,' Tom said. 'After the Olympics I was down in the . dumps, as it’s such a hard way to get back into everything, but he gave . me the extra motivation and made me work harder and that is exactly . what I need.' But while he's happy in his gay relationship, Tom says he doesn't want to label himself just yet. No labels: Though he is in a relationship with a man, Daley is not worried about calling himself gay or bisexual right now . Best of British: Ellie Goulding, Professor Brian Cox, Tom, Olivia Colman and Jack Dee appear on the Saturday night talk show . Experiments: Tom even joins Professor Brian Cox and Jonathan for some science-based fun on the show . He . added: 'Everything is all pretty new so I don’t see any point in . putting a label on it - gay, bi, straight, any of those kind of . labels. 'All that I . feel happy about at the moment is that I’m dating a guy and couldn’t be . happier, it shouldn’t matter who I’m dating and I hope people can be . happy for me.' The interview with Jonathan marks the first time Tom has spoken about his sexuality, aside from the YouTube video message he posted earlier this week revealing his relationship. And of announcing the news via the video-sharing . site, Tom said: 'It was a terrifying decision to make, I didn’t know . what the reaction was going to be like, I didn’t know how it was going . to go but I felt I needed to say something. 'I wanted to say something in my own words and from the heart, I didn’t know what else to do.' Upcoming: The Jonathan Ross Show will air on ITV, on Saturday 7th December . Now . a role model for young teenagers who are confused about their . sexuality, Tom offered them advice by saying: 'Tell one person. Tell . your story, how you feel. I’ve had people send some lovely Twitter . messages with people telling me they’ve since come out to their parents, . that they’ve had some hope, it shouldn’t matter who I’m dating in this . day and age. Be who you want to be.' Also filming interviews for Saturday night's show were Jack Dee, Olivia Colman, Ellie Goulding and Professor Brian Cox. The Jonathan Ross Show airs on ITV1 on Saturday night. | Olympic diver, 19, did not confirm the identity of his boyfriend .
Said he was 'terrified' before posting the video message revealing his sexuality earlier this week .
But now Tom says he couldn't be happier, and that his life is now 'perfect' |
0e92292c80058e3d78814401873dd9c6b13a1889 | By . Emily Crane For Daily Mail Australia . A Mongols bikie member will be extradited from the US this week where he has been living the high life with his pregnant girlfriend to face murder charges. Wade Yates-Taui is charged with the unlawful killing of rival Bandidos bikie associate Max Waller on the Gold Coast in June last year. The 22-year-old is expected to face a Gold Coast court on Friday, but police have refused to confirm his arrival time back in Australia, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports. Wade Yates-Taui is charged with the unlawful killing of rival Bandidos bikie associate Max Waller on the Gold Coast in June last year . Police allege Yates-Taui was involved in the stabbing death of Mr Waller, who was found outside a Broadbeach apartment complex with 28 stab wounds on June 23 last year. Yates-Taui was arrested by US Marshals in the Californian mountain resort of Big Bear Lake in April and has been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles ever since. He had been partying with chapters of bikie gangs in Thailand and the US since Mr Waller's death. The 22-year-old is expected to face a Gold Coast court on Friday, but police have refused to confirm his arrival time back in Australia . US Marshals tracked Yates-Taui and his girlfriend, model Raquel Petit, in the US via their Facebook posts . An LA court was told Yates-Taui agreed to 'expedited extradition' and would remain in US custody until Australian police could pick him up. Yates-Taui fled the Gold Coast on December 10, just a day before he was due before a Crime and Misconduct Commission into his alleged involvement in Mr Waller's death, according to court documents. A warrant for his arrest was issued on April 7 by the Coolangatta Magistrates Court at Broadbeach. Police allege Yates-Taui was involved in the stabbing death of Mr Waller (pictured), who was found outside a Broadbeach apartment complex with 28 stab wounds on June 23 last year . Yates-Taui had fled Australia with his pregnant model girlfriend, Raquel Petit, in December . US Marshals tracked Yates-Taui and his girlfriend, model Raquel Petit, in the US via their Facebook postings and eventually arrested him at Big Bear. At his first LA court appearance on April 30 Petit yelled out 'I love you' as Yates-Taui was being led out of court. 'I love you too. Don't talk to anyone,' Yates-Taui replied. A warrant for Yates-Taui's arrest was issued on April 7 by the Coolangatta Magistrates Court at Broadbeach . Yates-Taui fled the Gold Coast on December 10, just a day before he was due before a Crime and Misconduct Commission into his alleged involvement in Mr Waller's (pictured) death . Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Wade Yates-Taui is charged with unlawful killing of rival bikie associate Max Waller on the Gold Coast last June .
The 22-year-old is expected to face court on Friday but police won't confirm when he is due to arrive back in Australia .
He was arrested over the alleged murder at a Californian resort in April .
Yates-Taui agreed to be extradited back to Australia, a court said . |
0e92b11988288ca0b60944b66e795250a4fec31b | The dramatic moment an uncle carried his terrified and bloodied niece to safety after she was kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned Louisiana house was caught on camera today. Bethany Arceneaux was taken hostage on Wednesday evening by Scott Thomas, her ex-boyfriend and father of her child. A few hours after Marcus Arceneaux was pictured carrying his niece from a vacant house in Duson, a police swat team entered the building and Thomas was found shot dead. Rescued: Marcus Arceneaux carries his niece, Bethany, to safety after she was kidnapped and stabbed in an abandoned house . Hostage: Scott Thomas grabbed Bethany Arceneaux, the mother of his child, on Wednesday evening . The 29-year-old mother had been stabbed and slashed but is expected to survive, her family told KLFY. She has been taken to hospital and is in a stable condition. She was rescued on Friday afternoon when a search party of family and friends confronted Thomas and managed to grab his victim. Police who were also searching nearby rushed to the scene and quickly surrounded the house in a tense stand off that lasted a couple of hours. Lafayette Police Corporal Paul . Mouton told MailOnline the swat team entered the house, 'shots were fired and the suspect was deceased' at about 3pm (CST) on Friday. Thomas died of injuries he sustained during the confrontation with Miss Arceneaux's relatives, according to reports. According to Captain Kip Judice, of Lafayette Parish Sheriff's office, the victim's family had shot Thomas as they tried to free her from his clutches. 'Family members are walking through a pasture with an abandoned home ... and heard a yell from inside the home,' he said. Saved: Bethany Arceneaux was rescued when a search party of friends and family heard her yell out . 'Those family members entered the . home and confronted Mr Scott Thomas ... who began to harm the victim. At . that point, a confrontation ensued between the family member and Mr . Thomas.' He added that when a swat team later entered the house they found the body of the kidnapper. Miss Arceneaux's ordeal began at 5.20pm on Wednesday when Thomas grabbed her from outside a day care center. The . 29-year-old was seen forcing his victim into a Buick LeSabre before . driving off with her, leaving the victim's child abandoned in her car. The . getaway car was found later that day in Anderson Road, Duson, but it . wasn't until Friday that Miss Arceneaux was rescued from an abandoned . house on the same street. Relatives told KATC TV-3 gunfire was . exchanged between the family and the alleged kidnapper but police could . not confirm that. Mr Arceneaux, the victim's uncle, said: 'We found my niece Bethany, she's OK. I'd like to thank everybody who came out and helped us search.' Stand off: Police use their car as a shield as they surround the house Scott Thomas was hiding in . Search party: Police creep up on the house after the victim's family helped her break free . 'Friends and family actually came . into contact with the victim and the suspect in or out of the house,' Lafayette Police Corporal Paul . Mouton told KPEL. 'There was a confrontation at that point. During that . confrontation, the victim was freed,' he said, adding that Miss Arceneaux was said to be in 'good condition other than some injuries that she had received'. The couple have a violent history revealed in several police reports, according to KATC 3. She had filed several reports alleging domestic abuse and also filed a restraining order against Thomas. | Victim's family claim they shot dead Scott Thomas during rescue attempt .
Bethany Arceneaux was grabbed on Wednesday as she collected her child from a day care center .
29-year-old mother allegedly had restraining order against kidnapper Thomas . |
0e92b1f2183d6cf02bf92ee32828004ce9effee6 | By . Ray Massey, Transport Editor . PUBLISHED: . 22:54 EST, 23 April 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 10:46 EST, 24 April 2012 . The iconic British MGB sports car that brought affordable sports car motoring to the masses is to be reborn in the 21st century – designed by Britons but built in China. The new MG Icon was unveiled as one of the undoubted stars of the Beijing Motor Show and is a modern take on a much loved classic which is still seen widely on the road today. It was unveiled by the MG company which is now part of the giant Shanghai Automotive industry Corporation (SAIC) which also owns Rover following the collapse of MG Rover under the controversial stewardship of the ‘Phoenix Four’ led by John Towers. Back on the road: MG's Chinese owners showed off the company's new sports car, the Icon, at the 2012 Beijing motor show . The modern-day take on the classic British sports car is expected to be launched in 2014 . Its British design team said they had taken cues from the original MGB to create a modern take on the sports car. Although the show model is a coupe, a soft-top roadster is also set to follow. But the Chinese love of British sports cars carried through to the MG stand itself which proudly bore the company badge. Alongside mini-skirted Chinese girls were references to ‘Morris Garage’ from which the letters are said to derive, pictures of the company’s founder Cecil Kimber and a giant map of the United Kingdom painted as a patriotic Union Flag in red white and blue. There were even photographs of Spitfires on the walls. Insiders say the car is likely to go on . sale around 2014 at a price of around £16,000. Although it will be . manufactured in China, it is possible that some could be sent to the UK . in kit form for final assembly at MG’s Longbridge factory in . Birmingham. Interior: Although the model on show was a coupe, a soft-top roadster is also set to follow . Rear view: According to the car's British designer the rear haunches were inspired by the firm's 1955 model the MGA . Pledge: Although it will be manufactured in China, it is possible that . some cars could be sent to the UK in kit form for final assembly at . MG's Longbridge factory in Birmingham . The MG Icon project’s chief designer, Birmingham born Steve Harper, 53, who started as an Austin Rover apprentice and also worked on the MG Metro and MGF sports car during his 35 year career, said: ’MG in China is seen as a young person’s brand. It’s also a global brand. 'We didn’t want to create a retro car. But we wanted to show how the MGB would have developed had its production not been ended in 1980. It’s sporty, small but practical. 'There are two seats in the back if you need to take the kids. We’re showing a coupe. But why not a roadster?’ And Anthony Williams-Kenny, 37, who is global director of design for all of the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) said: ’We set out to create a modern car, not a retro car. Southampton-born father of two Mr Williams-Kenny, who studied automotive design at Coventry University and worked himself for seven years for the MG Rover group at Longbridge, added: ’Since we took the covers off we’ve had so many people from around the world come up to us and say "we used to have an MGB". It’s struck a chord', he said. Head turner: The car was one of the undeniable stars of the Beijing Motor Show . Sleek: An artist's impression of what the interior of the new roadster version will look like . Unlike the original the roadster will offer ample space for four and a generous boot . The original MGB was launched as a soft-top roadster in 1962, with a fixed-head coupe following three years later in 1965. It was built until October 1980 at MG’s factory at Abingdon in under the umbrella of MG, the British Motor Corporation and its successors, British Motor Holdings and British Leyland Motor Corporation. More than half a million were built altogether over the 18 year lifespan, of which more than 125,000 are the hard-topped MGB GT coupes. Work on a successor for the MGB had been undertaken as long ago as 1968, but British Leyland had pulled the plug on that project by the end of 1970. When the Abingdon factory finally closed in the autumn of 1980, British Leyland did not replace it. But second hand versions of both the GT and Roaster versions of the MGB continue to provide affordable sporty motoring for many and sell for between £1,500 and more than £9,000 depending on condition. MG cars were the creation of Cecil . Kimber, general manager of Morris Garages in Oxford, who, in 1923, . fitted special sports bodies onto standard Morris chassis. After . years as part of British Leyland and its many incarnations, it has . undergone a tumultuous few years - having been sold to Germany's BMW; . who then offloaded it with the blessing of the last Labour Government' to the infamous 'Phoenix Four' directors led by John Towers, before it . went bust, sparking a major scandal inquiry. It was then snapped up for a song by the . Chinese and is now owned by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation . (SAIC) which also owns Rover, which it has renamed ‘Roewe’ for the . Chinese market, and runs the MG factory at Longbridge in Birmingham . which assembles some cars such as the MG6 from kits supplied from . China. Heyday: The original MGB was launched as a soft-top roadster in 1962, with a fixed-head coupe following three years later in 1965. Production ended in 1980 . Cool customer: An advert for the MGB GT sports car taken from a British Leyland brochure in the 1970s . MG and Rover were bought for just £10 after BMW, which bought it in 1994, decided to off-load the loss-making company in 2000 following six years of controversy and rising costs and after a potential sale to venture capital company Alchemy - opposed by unions and many Labour MPs - fell through. Ministers were pleased by the rival Phoenix consortium deal because it kept Rover alive in the run up to he 2001 General Election at a time when its failure would have been acutely damaging in key West Midland marginal seats. When the firm finally went bust with a loss of 6,300 jobs in April 2005 just before that year's General Election - and with dozens of marginal seats at risk - the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Chancellor Gordon Brown rushed to Birmingham to appear hands-on during the crisis which saw the Chinese picking up the company for a song from the receivers. MG was initially bought from the administrators in 2005 by Nanjing Automotive Company (NAC) which in turn was taken over by Shanghai Automotive in a merger 'encouraged' by the Chinese Government. The Phoenix directors made around £40million from their stewardship of the car firm but have always denied charges of 'asset-stripping'. But one senior BMW boss described the 'Phoenix Four' directors as 'the unacceptable face of capitalism'. The Longbridge factory sprang back to life under Chinese ownership in August 2008 to re-start production of a two-seater MG sports car, the two-seater MG TF LE500 sports car. | Chinese owners to offer new model in 2014 from £16,000 . |
0e93d7e52d2987fb54ff0baef949b99484eb07e3 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:33 EST, 9 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 12:46 EST, 9 January 2014 . A Florida trucker found himself frozen to the ground beneath his massive rig while stopped in Indiana on Monday morning, but despite all odds has lived to tell the tale after voice command allowed him to call for help. Tim Rutledge of Orlando pulled over at a truck stop near Indianapolis after his brakes became frozen by the historic -40F wind chills. When he climbed beneath his truck to try and fix them, the vehicle shifted and pinned Rutledge to the ground for nearly eight hours. Scroll down for video . 'Nobody could hear me': Long haul trucker Tim Rutledge became pinned beneath his truck in the middle of Monday's historic wind chills and dip in temperature near Indianapolis . 'My left arm was pinned by the axle': Rutledge's brakes had frozen and he stopped at a truck stop to crawl beneath and try to fix them. That's when the massive rig shifted in the snow and pinned him to the cold pavement . 'It caught my left side and my left arm was pinned by the axle of the truck,' Rutledge said. Unable to move, Rutledge lay there helplessly as arctic winds blasted him--eventually freezing his body to the pavement. 'As I got colder and colder, I was yelling but nobody could hear me,' he told Fox59. The virtually deserted Pilot station was in the grip of the Polar Vortex and, like people in much of the nation, locals had sought shelter indoors. 'As I got colder and colder, I was yelling': Rutledge desperately cried for help but everyone was indoors at this Pilot station near Indianapolis, where wind chills Monday hit -40F . 'That's the only morning he never really called me': Rutledge had been a truck driver for years and when he didn't call his wife Lisa, she became worried and frantically dialed his number--which eventually saved his life . In the numbing cold, all Rutledge could feel was the incessant vibration of his cell phone ringing in his pocket. It was his wife and she was desperate to know where Rutledge was. 'That's the only morning he never really called me, so I just still can't believe that he didn't,' a relieved Lisa told WOFL. But Rutledge couldn't get to the phone. It feels like a miracle, then, that all those unanswered phone calls actually saved Rutledge's life. The vibrations eventually made the phone fall out of the desperate man's pocket. 'When the phone did finally come out, it came in front of me instead of behind me,' Rutledge said. Despite all the hope the phone gave him, Rutledge was far too cold to dial anyone's number. Miracle: Lisa's frantic calls were causing her husband's phone to vibrate in his pocket as he lay frozen to the ground. Eventually it tumbled out . Through biting winds and despite all odds, Rutledge was able to use the phone's voice activation function to get the phone to make a call, but he wasn't even sure who it was. It turned out to be his employers. After a day and at the verge of death, he would be saved. 'I remember saying, I said "Whoever this is, whatever you do, don’t hang up the phone,"' Rutledge said. His boss and other employees called 911 and were able to locate Rutledge, who thinks he may have blacked out just as his location was found. 'I said, "I just can’t hold on any longer" and that was the last thing I remember saying,' Rutledge said. Rutledge was saved, however. And as he lay in a hospital bed very nearly well enough to go home, he sent out his thanks to everyone who helped keep him alive. 'Thank you very much to every person involved, especially the people there at the Pilot store and the EMS people that crawled under there in the freezing weather and dug me out,' Rutledge said. Saved: Rutledge was too frozen to dial a number but somehow managed to reach his employers, who helped locate and rescue him. 'I just can¿t hold on any longer,¿ is the final thing he remembers saying . | Tim Rutledge was at an Indiana truck stop on Monday morning .
While fixing his brakes, the massive truck shifted, pinning him to the ground which he eventually froze to .
Frantic calls from his wife made his phone vibrate out of his pocket, saving him . |
0e9402ec956c51764a3644950467955bee438eba | By . Anna Hodgekiss . A doctor who was the the first to climb the highest mountains on every continent has survived a brain hemorrhage because of his hobby. Dr Alistair Sutcliffe is only alive because his body had become used to being starved of oxygen at heights of up to 30,000ft. Being at such high altitudes had forced open an artery that normally closes down at birth. Had it not been open, he would have died. Dr Alistair Sutcliffe is only alive today because his body had become used to being starved of oxygen at heights of up to 30,000ft . Dr Sutcliffe at the summit of Mount Vinson - the highest mountain in Antarctic. Being at such high altitudes had forced open an artery that normally closes down at birth. Had it not been open, he would have died . After successfully summiting the seven highest mountains of the world, he was suddenly struck by the subarachnoid brain haemorrhage, and his family was told he would not survive. But despite going into a coma as his body began to shut down, Dr Sutcliffe saved his own life in an extraordinary twist of fate. The 49-year-old said: 'I suddenly felt an odd fast-creeping spasm over my lower neck. 'The neck pain moved swiftly to head pain and I began to fear I was having a brain haemorrhage. 'My vision was affected, most things appeared hazy, and I thought I was going to die.' Dr Sutcliffe’s interest in mountain climbing began aged 11, when he met Chris Bonington - the first British person to successfully summit Mount Everest. Dr Sutcliffe on the Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest - the most dangerous part of the climb. After successfully summiting the seven highest mountains of the world, he was suddenly struck by the subarachnoid brain haemorrhage, and his family was told he would not survive . Within seven years, he made it to the top of Mont Blanc, Aconcagua, Vinson, Denali, Everest, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus and the Carstensz Pyramid, before facing his hardest climb to date - fighting for survival. 'From the minute I met Chris Bonington I was hooked,' he said. 'It made me want to know what it felt like to stand on top of the world and how people can get so high without being in a plane. 'I thought to myself, one day I want to answer those questions. 'I climbed Mont Blanc in France in 2002 and went on to climb the highest mountains in the world over the next five years.' Dr Sutcliffe with his wife Claire. He said: 'I suddenly felt an odd fast-creeping spasm over my lower neck' During his explorations around the world, Dr Sutcliffe, from Whitby, North Yorkshire, endured sub-zero temperatures, watched climbers fall to their death coming and was even held at gunpoint. He said: 'It was now or never for Everest, but we picked the worst year for fatalities. Seventeen people died, and three of those were on a trek an hour ahead of us. 'It was actually the morning that we left an hour late or we would have been caught up with them. 'On another climb, we were taken hostage for 13 hours on a bus floor as raiders tried to extract as much money from us as possible. At the summit of Elbrus in Russia. Dr Sutcliffe's interest in mountain climbing began aged 11, when he met Chris Bonington - the first British person to successfully summit Mount Everest . 'They would have shot us if we had tried to move, but we did what they said until they let us go.' But his toughest challenge was yet to come, and it was thanks to his gruelling crusades to date that saved him from death. 'I had a brain haemorrhage which should have killed me, but a blood vessel opened which ultimately saved my life,' said Dr. Sutcliffe. 'Had it not been open, it would have just burst. Most people would have died within 20 minutes, but my brain had become used to coping with as little as 40 per cent oxygen. “My brain had been stressed and the blood vessel reopened. Rather than the brain being cut off, it was directed to the areas that needed the blood and most of the functions regained. Dr Sutcliffe climbing Everest. He said: 'If I had not been climbing, my brain would not have developed an extra vessel, so I would have died' 'Altitude does odd things to the body. Oxygen deprivation occurs noticeably above six thousand feet, producing an aching in the muscle tissues and a streaming cold similar to a mild influenza. “Exercising and breathing feels constrained, as if you have a plastic bag over your head, but in the long run these are the things that saved my life. 'If I had not been climbing, my brain would not have developed an extra vessel so I would have died.' With a medical background, Dr Sutcliffe realised he was having a brain hamorrhage and called his surgeon wife Clare, 41. After arriving at hospital, he called his parents to say goodbye before drifting into a coma. Earlier this year awarded the British Empire Medal by the Queen for his bravery and skill . Dr Sutcliffe said: 'I could hear the consultant and I could hear what was going on around me - they were telling my family I was going to die and discussing organ donation with Clare. 'They found out it was a tumour which usually ends in death, and when I awoke from the coma I lost my sight, which they said was likely never to return. 'Luckily after about six hours it did, but as I was recovering I was so worried about losing my memory and forgetting about my amazing experiences so I decided to write them down.' Dr Sutcliffe has since written a book about his mountain climbing and the medical miracle that saved his life - titled The Hardest Climb. Dr Sutcliffe (pictured right at At the summit of the Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia) said: 'I have no idea how I got my medal, but I am incredibly honoured. Someone must have nominated me' And, earlier this year awarded the British Empire Medal by the Queen for his bravery and skill. He said: 'I have no idea how I got my medal, but I am incredibly honoured. Someone must have nominated me. 'It’s the medal that’s awarded to people that have done the stuff themselves. It’s a really nice one to have. 'I’ve been through some really amazing life changing events and it’s been great being part of these climbs. 'There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think I’m incredibly fortunate. I live with that in the knowledge that I’m still here. 'The reason I’m still alive is because I know when to stop.' | Dr Alistair Sutcliffe, 49, has climbed the highest mountains in every continent .
As a result, his body had become used to being starved of oxygen .
High altitudes had also forced open an artery that usually closes at birth .
Had the artery been closed, he would have died . |
0e9734a77b5df35cd77f45e74584c2fbb69d0913 | By . SIMON JONES . Victor Wanyama wants to follow Mauricio Pochettino from Southampton to Tottenham. The Kenyan midfielder made it clear his week that he felt Saints should have done more to keep the Argentinian boss. Wanyama has benefited under Pochettino's coaching where he has been used as a defensive screen in midfield and has notably reduced the number of goals Southampton concede when in the side. Earning his Spurs? Victor Wanyama (left) may follow his former boss Mauricio Pochettino to Tottenham . And could use Suso as part of deal with Sevilla . He joined for £12million last summer and has struggled to settle though Pochettino has become a key figure in his career. Tottenham have question marks over the future of Chelsea target Paulinho, Sandro and Etienne Capoue who are both being considered by Napoli . Wanyama said: 'I learnt a lot from him, he taught me more and that's why I have grown as a player and there is a big difference compared to when I was at Celtic. Talking to Capital Sport, he added: 'He played a big role in my career development. 'I wanted him to remain because he had the passion for the club and I think the owners should not have let him go because the team can do better next season. It's a big blow because he had good connection with the players.' Gone: Mauricio Pochettino left Southampton to take charge at St Mary's this week . Southampton already have offers for Luke . Shaw and Adam Lallana while Jay Rodriguez, Dejan Lovren, Morgan . Schneiderlin, Calum Chambers and Rickie Lambert are all attracting . attention from other clubs too. Southampton's board cannot afford to let . all of them go despite the temptation and that could affect Wanyama's . hopes. The 22-year-old had also been the subject of interest from Manchester City earlier in the season but they have been looking at other targets and a move to White Hart Lane would be his ideal. Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger said: 'We are in control of all the player transfers. All the top players are under long term contracts. Any transfers that take place will be under our terms. We will decide the terms to potential transfers in and out of the club. 'We will involve the manager. That is important for everybody to know. That's why we have been able to not agree to any transfers to date, because we have control of the situation, and anybody who is saying anything else doesn't understand that we are in a strong position with the Saints.' Erik Lamela will not be allowed to leave Tottenham on loan but the club are willing to sell for around £25million. That's the information being . circulated around Italian clubs at the moment and was reported on Sky . Italia on Thursday. Lamela's fortunes may change though under the tutelage of . Mauricio Pochettino, who knows the player well. Spurs misfit . Roberto Soldado remains keen to go with Atletico Madrid very much in the . frame. They have an interest in Romelu Lukaku but the Chelsea striker . is understood to be reluctant to go to Spain. Franco Baldini's role at Tottenham remains under question. Ending their White Hart pain: Erik Lamela can leave Spurs for £25m, while Atletico want Roberto Soldado . Manchester City have taken encouragement in developments with Mehdi Benatia at Roma. Sportsmail reported City's interest in Benatia earlier this month as an alternative to Eiaquim Mangala of Porto who has declared a desire to join Chelsea. Benatia, 27, is facing a fine from his club after an outburst in the Italian papers regarding the club's contract offer. The France-born Morocco defender said: 'I never said I want to leave. But Roma have not kept their promises. They had told me that they would make me a new contract offer if I had a great season. 'My agent is doing his job, I could go away but I could also stay and finish my career in Roma. But I was disappointed (with the new wage offer), I deserved more respect. 'I have received an unacceptable proposal, less than €3million per season. I replied that I would not sign it. Developments: Manchester City target Mehdi Benatia is unhappy with Roma's contract offer . 'I'm in love with Roma, I'm very fine here but my mistake was to be too correct with the club and too honest.' Regarding speculation about him leaving, he added: 'I only said that anyone dreams of teams like Real, Bayern and City. 'My agent is doing his job, I could leave but I could also stay and finish my career in Roma. But I was disappointed (with the new wage offer), I deserved more respect.' City remain interested in Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero also as competition for Joe Hart with Costel Pantilimon ready to look at a new club with Arsenal among those to have shown interest - although they have a few names on their list. City are also understood to be exploring the possibility of . signing David Villa for their New York City franchise. Villa, 32, has . just won the Spanish league title and is looking at his next challenge. City's franchise will be ready next year and they are recruiting big . names now. Carles Puyol and Xavi have also been mooted with . both players keen on the MLS project. Sportsmail revealed that David . Beckham was keen to get Xavi involved in his Miami franchise but that . may be too far ahead for the 34-year-old. Xavi is due to hold . talks over his future with new coach Luis Enrique prior to making his . decision. Big cheese in the Big Apple: Manchester City want David Villa (left) to join their New York franchise . Wigan . are showing an interest in Chelsea midfielder George Saville. The . 20-year-old is in the final year of his contract Stamford Bridge and . they are ready to sell rather than loan him out again. Saville had a . successful loan spell at Brentford last season and Uwe Rosler has kept . him mind ahead of his plans for the Championship next season. The German is keen to stay at the DW Stadium and build for promotion again after going so close this year. Saville . is also attracting interest from Wolves and Chelsea would be looking . for around £750,000 with the price eventually rising to £1million. Road to Wigan: Chelsea's George Saville, here on loan at Brentford, is wanted by Uwe Rosler at the DW . Former Liverpool and Oldham . goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis will return to Australia after signing a . two-year A-League deal with the Western Sydney Wanderers. The 23-year-old has spent the past seven years playing in Europe and joins the fledgling club from Carlisle. Bouzanis . moved abroad in 2007 to link up with Liverpool and will join up with . former Crystal Palace defender-turned-coach Tony Popovic. He said: 'I've seen how good a coach Popa is with the results that he's got, and it all just went from there.' Going Down Under: Goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, here playing for Oldham, is heading back to Australia . Premier League and Championship clubs are keeping a check on St Patrick's Athletic winger Christopher Forrester. Scouts are expected at Friday night's game in Dublin with Derry City and the 21-year-old is understood to be the main attraction. Everton and Sunderland have a long-held interest but West Ham and Leeds have also checked on his progress. He has chipped in with some spectacular goals notably a 35-yard lob against Drogheda last month and St Patrick's rate him at around £200,000. | Wanyama wants to follow his ex-Southampton boss Pochettino to Spurs .
Move to Tottenham would be ideal for Kenyan midfielder .
Lamela and Roberto Soldado could be allowed to leave Spurs .
Manchester City in encouraging talks with Mehdi Benatia .
City also want David Villa to join their New York side .
Wigan set to bid for Chelsea midfielder George Saville . |
0e980809964f6e6627882e5b87ec73e45340ebe6 | New York (CNN) -- As a 9/11 widow, I understood my role on the memorial jury to have both a personal and a public component. At no time was the confluence of those roles more clear to me than when we discussed the placement of victims' names on the memorial. And nothing had a more profound effect on my feelings of closure than the decision to use the concept of "meaningful adjacencies" to determine the placement of those names. When I first heard the phrase "meaningful adjacencies," I had no idea how powerful the concept would prove to be. At the time, in 2004, those of us who had the honor of serving on the jury that selected the winning design for the 9/11 Memorial had been struggling hard with how best to display the names. It was clear that arranging the names alphabetically or by company would be too cold and dispassionate, as if this were a listing you'd see in a building directory posted near the elevator. The alternative, displaying the names randomly, seemed at first to make more sense. After all, it was random, wasn't it, who lived and who died on that terrible morning 10 years ago? But ultimately, we realized, a random arrangement felt wrong, too. The deaths of our loved ones may have been random, but their lives were not. In the concept of meaningful adjacencies, we had at last found a powerful response to the senselessness of our loved ones' deaths. Placing names in thoughtful proximity to one another would give us the opportunity to bear witness to the shared care and concern, the labor and joy that bound these people together while they were alive -- whether as siblings or colleagues, as friends or family, or even as former strangers who turned to one another for comfort at that moment of cataclysm. In a profound way, we realized that meaningful adjacencies would convey both the disturbing appearance of randomness with a comforting underlying truth: We are all connected. The idea captured us all. Michael Arad, the designer of the memorial, came up with this simple yet powerful concept. I will always remember how he explained it to the jury: A memorial is a monument unless it lists the names of those lost. It was crucial that the names on this memorial be displayed, and displayed with purpose. And so although it would be a Herculean task to get the needed input from family members, we all felt strongly that the effort to evoke this underlying network of connections would elegantly and simply convey not only the way in which these precious lives were lost but, perhaps more importantly, how these precious lives were lived. It would be upon us, the family members, to decide who to list our loved ones near, and it would come from knowledge that only we could supply. When the 9/11 Memorial sent personalized letters to victims' next of kin across the globe, there were more than 1,200 meaningful adjacency requests. All of them were honored. Powerfully calling to mind the image of an invisible web linking those who perished, the reasons for some adjacencies will be fairly obvious to the general public. The Hanson family — Sue, Peter, and their 2-year-old daughter Christine, the youngest victim on September 11 — died together on Flight 175 and will be listed together. Their names might have been adjacent even in an alphabetical listing. But then there is a family that died on Flight 77 — Charles Falkenberg and Leslie Whittington, married for 17 years, and their children Zoe and Dana — whose names would have been separated by a simple alphabetical order. And then there are adjacencies that express connections that are more hidden, and yet profound. Abigail Ross Goodman lost both her father, Richard Ross, on Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower, and her best friend, Stacey Leigh Sanders, who was working that morning in the North Tower on the 96th floor. For Abigail Ross Goodman, the names of these two loved ones will forever be linked in her memory and now also at the memorial. It's important to note that the memorial also launched a Memorial Guide, a digital tool to help family members and visitors locate any name. Not only does the guide show the exact place where a person's name will be, but it also provides background information on all of the victims and lists any adjacencies. People will be able to locate a name in advance via the 9/11 Memorial's website or use an on-site kiosk to find a loved one or learn more about any of the victims. In the case of my husband, David Berry, I requested that he and his trusted colleague and friend, Thomas Theurkauf, be listed near each other. Although we will never know for certain, Tom's widow and I are convinced that our husbands died together. There is no more powerful testament to the special bonds that could not be broken by the murderous attacks of that day. We are comforted to know that their names will be kept close, reflecting how they stood together on the morning of September 11. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paula Grant Berry. | Paula Grant Berry was one of the jurors who selected the memorial design .
Architect Michael Arad had an idea for listing names by "meaningful adjacencies"
Those who lived or died together are listed together if families wish .
Berry: The deaths of our loved ones may have been random, but their lives were not. |
0e9823b3822b97b9bac46bba8fe2ac38f418fbd3 | A couple booking a two-week holiday to Greece were left £600 out of pocket after they paid extra for a holiday bungalow, only to be put in a hotel room on arrival. Ken Marlow, 68, and his wife Dorothy, 58, wanted to stay at the Belvedere Hotel on the Greek island of Skiathos, but were disappointed to be told by Thomas Cook that the rooms were fully booked. Instead, the holiday company offered the couple, from Moorside, Sunderland, a stay in a bungalow on the property for £578.86 more. Ken and Dorothy Marlow have received a full refund after they were overcharged by more than half of the overall booking for a bungalow they never even got to stay in . However, when the couple arrived at the resort, they were told the bungalows were fully booked and they would instead be placed in a double room. The Marlows complained when they got home and despite admitting the brochure was 'confusing', Thomas Cook initially refused to refund the full amount. Mr Marlow was contacted by Thomas Cook's customer relations department which admitted the brochure description was 'really confusing.' The pensioner was offered just £260 in vouchers or £209 in cash in a full and final settlement but neither amount covered what he had been overcharged. However, after local newspapers took up the battle, the couple have now been given an apology, refund, and compensation from Thomas Cook. The couple have accepted £700 after the company blamed a 'technical fault' for charging too much. The Marlows have been given a full refund, plus compensation after the booking blunder . Mr Marlow said: 'I went to the Thomas Cook shop to book a holiday with a twin/double room at the Belvedere Hotel & Bungalows at Achladies, Skiathos, Greece. 'The sales assistant told me no twin/double rooms were available on our chosen dates. 'There was, however, a family bungalow for three or four persons but I would have to pay extra for under occupancy. 'Having studied the brochure we decided the Belvedere was where we wanted to stay, so I agreed, and looked forward to having a bit more room to spread out.' On arrival, however, it was a completely different story. Mr Marlow, said: 'We were told that no bungalows were available and that we would have to stay in a double room. 'This, of course, was what we had wanted all along but a holiday that should have cost £1,118 cost me, somehow, £1,696.86, meaning I was overcharged by £578.86. 'It seems Thomas Cook and the Belvedere were not using the same data and, therefore, there was wrong information in the brochure.' The company admitted in email correspondence that the brochure was 'confusing' but refused to compensate to the amount Mr Marlow had been overcharged. The Marlows, from Sunderland, arrived at the Belvedere Hotel & Bungalows at Achladies, Skiathos, Greece to be told their booking for a bungalow was not possible . A spokesman for the company said: 'At Thomas Cook we pride ourselves on offering the best value holidays in the market. We would like to express our apologies to Mr Marlow for the inconvenience of additional charges incurred while on holiday. 'These were due to a pricing discrepancy caused by a technical fault at the time of booking. 'Thomas Cook would like to reassure customers that such pricing errors are rare and a full investigation has been carried out to ensure that there are no further issues of this nature. 'We can confirm that Mr Marlow has now accepted a full refund for the extra costs and has stated that he is looking forward to booking his next holiday with Thomas Cook.' Thomas Cook said that that the difference between what Mr Marlow was charged and what he should have been charged had been fully refunded - despite the earlier refusal - and they had also offered a gesture of goodwill by way of apology. Mr Marlow said he was delighted with the result. 'They have refunded what I wanted all along and rounded the amount up to £700,' he added. | The Marlows booked holiday bungalow with Thomas Cook .
Pensioners were given a double room on arrival in resort in Skiathos .
Marlows asked for a full refund but were initially given vouchers .
Thomas Cook has now given couple a full refund blaming technical glitch . |
0e983ee75b47509844fddf43d06a989b3448376f | By . Alex Thomson . PUBLISHED: . 19:30 EST, 17 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 12:47 EST, 18 November 2012 . Israeli jets hit Hamas targets in Gaza last night as 75,000 reservists were mobilised and tanks massed on the border in readiness for a ground war. It followed a day of air strikes aimed at government buildings in the Gaza strip, including the prime minister’s office – in response, says Israel, to Palestinian rockets targeted at major population centres. Hamas militants continued to trade fire with Israel, with one rocket smashing into an apartment building in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, injuring five people. Two long-range missiles aimed at Tel Aviv forced residents on the bustling beachfront to run for cover. Scroll down for video . Blast: Smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza. Alex Thomson, of Channel 4 News, says explosions go off 'every five minutes' Fire: An explosion and smoke are seen after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City. Hamas says 41 have been killed in air strikes, half of them civilians, including eight children and a pregnant woman . Cheers rang out as one was intercepted before reaching the city, shot down by a newly-installed battery of Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence system. The other crashed harmlessly into the Mediterranean. Hamas, the Islamist hardliners who run the Palestinian enclave, said Israeli air strikes hit 200 sites in Gaza, wrecking the office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh – scene of a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart on Friday. The strikes also destroyed a police headquarters and the building housing the interior ministry. Officials said 41 Palestinians – nearly half of them civilians including eight children and a pregnant woman – had been killed since Israel began its air strikes on Wednesday. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a Hamas rocket the next day. In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian missile on Friday for the first time in four decades, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on its usually placid pace of life. Steel: Israeli soldiers prepare tanks near the border with the Gaza Strip. Israel's Cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists . On Friday, the border at Erez opened unexpectedly and my team of three from Channel 4 News were the last journalists to enter the outskirts of Gaza City. We had to sign waiver forms to enter the official war zone because of the real risk of injury or death. For ten terrifying minutes we sped through no-man’s land along unlit, empty streets on the much-shelled Gazan side with only the sound of crickets and rumble of shelling in the background. We came across 18-year-old Zachariya Salah, whose house was blown up a few hours earlier. His right eye was half-closed and he had blood seeping from cuts and a hole in the back of his head. He could not remember anything except waking on Friday in Gaza Hospital. Intercept: Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system blasts a Hamas rocket out of the sky . His home had been hit because his father, Abu Hassan Salah, who was not at home, is a senior security official in Hamas and had been targeted by the Israeli Defence Force. The house and those either side of it were obliterated. Five children, neighbours of the family, were also being treated at the hospital. Surgeon and Health Minister Dr Mufeed Mkhallalati said: ‘They know this area is really populated – they know they are going to kill women and children. 'It is deliberate. Totally deliberate.’ An explosion seemed to go off every five minutes – even through the night – in Gaza. They rattled the windows and rocked the hotel in which we are staying. We taped our windows for blast protection and slept on mattresses on the floor. Meanwhile, Gazans sit and wait. The Israeli tank commanders massed on the border also wait. If a land invasion comes, the force will again be overwhelming – but the result will only increase the ranks of young men willing to fight for Hamas. Victory for Israel will be bloody for civilians in Gaza – but at what cost for Israel? | Government buildings targeted by Israeli jets .
Gaza says 41 dead from air strikes, half of them civilians .
Tanks and troops mass on border as total war looms . |
0e9950fab9430dc6a438c857040aa649177f3312 | By . Chloe Lambert . Did you have breakfast today? If not, you're putting yourself in grave danger - at least, that's according to a slew of recent reports which link skipping breakfast to obesity, diabetes and even catching flu. In the latest study, US researchers found men who don't have breakfast are 27 per cent more likely to suffer heart attacks or heart disease. The team at the Harvard School of Public Health said missing the meal put an 'extra strain' on the body. So is a morning meal really so crucial to health - and what's the healthiest thing to have? Breakfast blues: Men who don't eat the meal are 27% more likely to suffer heart attacks or heart disease . There is nothing magical about breakfast that makes it particularly important for health, says Dr Susan Jebb, head of diet and population health at the Medical Research Council. 'I suspect you'd get the same risks - such as weight gain - with skipping lunch or dinner, but it's a less common behaviour, so people don't study it.' The pro-breakfast brigade would dispute this, pointing out that metabolic rate - the rate at which we burn calories - drops during sleep, and eating breakfast 'kick-starts' it again. Yet the evidence for this is not convincing, says Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at Glasgow University. 'In trials like this recent one on heart disease, you have to ask - does skipping breakfast put you at risk of heart attack, or are people who skip breakfast simply more likely to have unhealthy characteristics and be disorganised and mindless about eating?' Blame your genes: If you struggle to eat in the hours after waking, it may have to do with your biological clock . If you struggle to eat in the hours after waking, it could be down to your biological clock, which is determined in part by your genes. Around 10 per cent of the population inherit genes that mean their clock is set a little slower, so they struggle to wake up in the morning, and this can affect appetite, says sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley. 'When we wake, a number of processes begin to get the body ready for daytime, including the release of hormones that make us feel hungry. 'But if you're an “owl” - who likes to stay up late but finds it hard to get up in the morning - you won't wake up feeling hungry, and the idea of breakfast will be difficult. 'So don't force yourself to eat when you wake up at 7am. You'll probably find you start feeling hungry around 9am or 10am when you get to the office, so you could have something then.' However, Dr Stanley says irregular bedtimes can also cause your clock to be out of sync, so try going to bed at the same time each night and you might start feeling hungry in the mornings. Some experts question the importance attached to eating breakfast above all other meals, but a number of studies have shown that doing so protects against obesity. This may not be because it's breakfast as such, but because it's one of three important daily meals. 'If you don't eat breakfast you'll be starving by mid-morning so you'll snack - then you won't eat a proper lunch and you'll be hungry again mid-afternoon and need to snack, and so on,' explains Jane Ogden, professor of health psychology at the University of Surrey. Skipping breakfast can also influence the food choices we make throughout the day. Last year, a team at Imperial College London presented the results of a study involving 21 men and women, all around the age of 25, who skipped breakfast one day but then had it the next. On the day they skipped breakfast, not only did they eat 20 per cent more at lunch, but they were more likely to seek unhealthier, high-calorie foods. The researchers scanned volunteers' brains while showing them pictures of food and found activity in the orbitofrontal cortex - which is linked to feelings of reward - was especially responsive to foods such as pizza and chocolate. Dr Tony Goldstone, who led the research, said humans were primed to seek sugary, fatty foods after a period of fasting. However, while people who skip breakfast are statistically more likely to be overweight, eating it won't necessarily help you shed pounds. In a recent study at the University of Missouri, a group of teenage girls who usually skipped breakfast were observed as they started eating breakfast over three weeks. Although they felt less hungry through the day and had lower levels of hormones such as ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, the girls ate more calories overall when they ate breakfast. Overweight: People who skip breakfast are more likely to pile on the pounds . Ever tuck into a hearty full English in the morning, believing you'll eat less for lunch? Stop fooling yourself. A 2011 study published in Nutrition Journal found people eat the same at lunch and dinner, regardless of what they have for breakfast. Dr Susan Jebb and her team at the Medical Research Council recently gave 33 overweight men and women breakfast three times - one contained around 700 calories, another was 20 per cent smaller and the third was almost half the size, at 300 calories. They found that the volunteers ate the same amount post breakfast each time. In other words, if you're trying to lose weight, a small 300 calorie breakfast should be enough to stop you overeating later. Examples of breakfasts that come in under 300 calories include a bowl of porridge with honey, a bowl of Special K cereal with milk, and a boiled egg with a slice of wholemeal toast. Dietitian Catherine Collins, who eats toast with spreadable butter and coffee for breakfast, offers a warning about seemingly-innocuous muesli. 'Be mindful of your portion,' she says. 'As mueslis and granola take up less room in the bowl than flakes, it would be easy to pour yourself 50g - which is actually a lot of calories.' The worst ways to start the day include sugary cereals, pastries and white bread - which will cause a spike in blood sugar levels. If you have breakfast but nevertheless find your belly is rumbling again by 11am - and you're overweight - it could be a sign of insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, says Catherine Collins. Insulin converts sugar to energy in the body, but if your body has become resistant to the hormone, the insulin doesn't work as effectively, so the body has to produce even more. 'This means once the sugar from your breakfast has been metabolised there'll be a bit of insulin left hanging around, which keeps lowering your blood sugar, so you feel hungry again,' she says. 'If you're experiencing this and other symptoms of insulin resistance such as weight gain, especially around the middle, and feeling tired, see your doctor and make an effort to lose some weight, as this can stop it developing into full-blown diabetes.' Learn to love it: If you eat Weetabix for a while and expose your tastebuds to it, you'll start to enjoy it . Perhaps you'd love to start the day more healthily, but the idea of a bowl of Weetabix makes you want to stay under the duvet. David Katz, director of Yale University Prevention Research Center, has some advice: 'Tastebuds are malleable little fellows. 'If you soak them in sugary and salty foods, they'll lose their sensitivity to it and you'll start to need more all the time. Conversely, if you change your food choices, little by little you'll rehabilitate them and within weeks you'll start to love foods that love you back.' Professor Sattar backs him up. 'I used to love Frosties, until I discovered both my parents had diabetes and I had to change my diet. If you eat Weetabix for a while, and expose your tastebuds to it, you'll start to enjoy it.' The idea of many fasting diets such as the 5:2 plan - where you dramatically cut your calories for two days each week - is to find a routine that suits you. Dr Michael Mosley, author of The Fast Diet, says skipping breakfast is fine if that's what works for you. 'Some people on the diet do like to skip breakfast but I prefer to skip lunch so that I can eat in the mornings and evenings with my family.' A new fasting plan actually encourages you to skip breakfast. The Mini-Fast Diet, devised by Julian Whitaker, a U.S. physician, suggests fasting all morning and exercising before eating your first meal of the day at noon. You then eat sensibly for the rest of the day. The theory is because you only have to fast for a morning, and not a full day as you do on diets such as the 5:2, you'll find it easier to eat sensibly. Whitaker claims that in a trial of his diet, volunteers lost an average nine pounds after 12 weeks. | Men who don't eat breakfast are 27% more likely to suffer heart attacks .
Eating a meal in the morning may protect against obesity .
But having a full English doesn't mean you'll eat less at lunch . |
0e998f83cfabcc03841d893b9b54f8f1aacbb09d | By . Joshua Gardner . A Florida woman has revealed that she spent nearly a year eating free rotisserie chickens from area Publix grocery stores by taking advantage of a store policy promising all sales be priced as advertised or taken off the bill. Janet Feldman, a 57-year-old who designs stripper costumes, first demanded the so-called 'Publix promise' after realizing many of the stores birds didn't meet the listed 2-pound minimum weight. A year and 300 free chickens later, the Davie woman portrays herself as a sort of Robin Hood of poultry. Scroll down for video . Chicken lady: Janet Feldman of Davie, Florida discovered the Publix was selling underweight chickens about a year ago and his been taking advantage of their 'Publix Promise' to refund all money paid for for items for which the scanned price doesn't match the posted price--in this case, 'two-pound' birds for $7.59 weren't meeting the minimum weight . Major haul: Feldman's biggest haul came during a recent trip to 11 Broward County Publix stores in which she managed to get 47 free chickens . 'When I see a wrong,' she told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 'I right the wrong.' But Feldman never had to steal from anyone and gave most of meat, not to the poor, but to homeless dogs and cats she works with at local rescue organizations. Feldman's oddball hobby began one day as she shopped at a Publix and noticed some scrawny chickens. She actually weighed one over in the produce department and found it was under the two-pound minimum. She checked out, but thought better of it. She took the issue to the manager and was promptly refunded her $7.59. When Feldman tried her trick again, it worked just the same. It also worked every time thereafter. All 300 times. And it only got easier. 'I could do it blindfolded,' she told the Tampa Bay Times. Poultry apology: Publix responded after news of Feldman's chicken spree broke and released a statement blaming their supplier and promising to weigh birds in the future . Eventually, Feldman says the thrill of the hunt turned to concern as she realized some of the people buying the underweight chickens sold as two-pounders could be poor and that they were therefor taken advantage of. To right the wrong, Feldman made up her mind to take her biggest haul ever. She went out into the shopping plaza-filled stretches of Broward County and hit up 11 Publix stores for a grand total of 47 chickens. She then took her story, and the mouth-watering evidence, to the Sun-Sentinel. 'Publix delis have been informed to weigh rotisserie chickens that seem underweight and price them appropriately, or use those chickens in other deli recipes,' Publix spokeswoman Nicole Krauss told the Sun-Sentinel in response. According to Krauss, Publix chicken suppliers were sending them underweight birds because of a terribly cold winter and the resulting puny poultry. Thanks to Feldman, Publix has now promised to rectify the issue. 'You can’t ever stay silent,' she said. 'Everybody’s got to speak up, even if it’s about chickens.' | Janet Feldman, 57, of Davie, Florida says she was given chickens free when they failed to live up to their advertised weight .
The stripper-wear designer has gotten around 300 free rotisserie birds .
The South Florida Publix stores were bound to hand over the poultry because of their so-called 'Publix Promise' |
0e9a70b91768b5ed1672d8b3d3486ac9ddd69d8d | (Mental Floss) -- Perhaps your history teachers failed to alert you to these Civil War facts: Jefferson Davis nearly got mugged by an angry female mob; Abraham Lincoln loved the Confederate anthem "Dixie," and Paul Revere was a Civil War casualty. "Dixie" was was a huge hit across the country and quickly became one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite tunes. The Civil War, in addition to being among the defining moments of U.S. history, is also the source of some bizarre and surprisingly cool trivia. 1. Lincoln's first solution to slavery was a fiasco . Early in his presidency, Abe was convinced that white Americans would never accept black Americans. "You and we are different races," the president told a committee of "colored" leaders in August 1862. "...But for your race among us there could not be war...It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated." Lincoln proposed voluntary emigration to Central America, seeing it as a more convenient destination than Liberia. This idea didn't sit well with leaders like Frederick Douglass, who considered colonization to be "a safety valve...for white racism." Luckily for Douglass (and the country), colonization failed spectacularly. One of the first attempts was on Île à Vache, a.k.a. Cow Island, a small isle off the coast of Haiti. The island was owned by land developer Bernard Kock, who claimed he had approved a black American colony with the Haitian government. No one bothered to call him on that claim. Following a smallpox outbreak on the boat ride down, hundreds of black colonizers were abandoned on the island with no housing prepared for them, as Kock had promised. To make matters worse, the soil on Cow Island was too poor for any serious agriculture. In January 1864, the Navy rescued the survivors from the ripoff colony. Once Île à Vache fell through, Lincoln never spoke of colonization again.Mental Floss: 6 Historical Events People Love to Reenact . 2. Hungry ladies effectively mugged Jefferson Davis . The Confederacy's image hinged on the notion that the rebellious states made up a unified, stable nation. However, the hard times of war exposed just how much disunity there was in Dixieland. Civilians in both the North and South had to cope with scarcity and increased food prices, but the food situation was especially bad in the South because outcomes on the battlefield were directly linked to the CSA's currency -- rising food prices were hard enough to deal with without wild fluctuations in what the money in your pocket could buy. Invading northern troops, of course, poured salt on the wounds of scarcity, burning crops and killing livestock. But in Richmond, Virginia, those who couldn't afford the increasingly pricey food blamed the Confederate government. Hungry protesters, most of whom were women, led a march "to see the governor" in April 1863 that quickly turned violent. They overturned carts, smashed windows, and drew out Governor John Letcher and President Jefferson Davis. Davis threw money at the protesters, trying to get them to clear out, but the violence continued. So, he threatened to order the militia to open fire, which settled things down pretty quickly. 3. The Union used hot air balloons and submarines . The balloons, directed by aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe, were used to spot enemy soldiers and coordinate Federal troop movements. During his first battlefield flight, at First Bull Run, Lowe landed behind Confederate lines, but he was rescued. The Union Army Balloon Corps got no respect from military officials, and Lowe resigned when he was assigned to serve, at a lower pay grade, under the director of the Army Corps of Engineers. In all, the balloonists were active for a little under two years. Mental Floss: 7 Modern Flying Car Designs . In contrast, the paddle-powered Alligator submarine saw exactly zero days of combat (which is why it can't officially be called the U.S.S. Alligator). It suffered from some early testing setbacks, but after some speed-boosting tweaks, it was dispatched for Port Royal, South Carolina, with an eye towards aiding in the sack of Charleston. It was to be towed south by the U.S.S. Sumpter, but it had to be cut loose off of North Carolina on April 2, 1863, when bad weather struck. Divers and historians are still looking for the Alligator today. But the undersea capers don't end there. A few months after the loss of the Alligator, the CSA launched their own submarine, the H.L. Hunley, named after its inventor. The Hunley attacked and sank the U.S.S. Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, making it the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship. The only problem is that it also sank soon afterwards, and all eight crewmen drowned. 4. "Dixie" was only a northern song . The precise details of when composer Dan Emmett wrote "Dixie" seemed to change every time he told the story (and some even dispute that Emmett was the author in the first place). But he first performed it in New York City in 1859, with the title "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land." Emmett was a member of a blackface troupe known as the Bryant's Minstrels, but he was indignant when he found out that his song had become an unofficial anthem of the Confederacy. He went on to write a musicians' marching manual for the Northern army. Before and during the war, the song was a huge hit in New York and across the country, and quickly became one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite tunes. The day after the Surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln told a crowd of Northern revelers, "I have always thought 'Dixie' was one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it." He then asked a nearby band to play it in celebration. 5. Paul Revere was at Gettysburg . Paul Joseph Revere, that is the famous Paul Revere's grandson. Unfortunately for fans of the first Revere and his partly mythical Ride, PJR was in the infantry, not the cavalry, with the 20th Massachusetts. He and his brother Edward were captured at the Battle of Ball's Bluff in October 1861. After being released in a prisoner exchange, the Reveres rejoined the fight. Paul was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in September, 1862, shortly before he was wounded in the brutal Battle of Antietam (a.k.a. the Battle of Sharpsburg). Edward, however, wasn't so lucky -- he was one of more than 2,000 Union soldiers who didn't make it out of Sharpsburg, Maryland, alive. By the following year, Paul was promoted again to Colonel, leading the 20th Massachusetts at Chancellorsville and, in his final days, at Gettysburg. On July 3, 1863, he was mortally wounded by a shell fragment that pierced his lung, and he died the next day. He was posthumously promoted again to Brigadier General, and is buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Mental Floss: 10 Things to Remember About Memorial Day . 6. Mark Twain fired one shot and then left . At least, that's what he claimed in "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed," a semi-fictional short story published in 1885, after The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but before A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In it, he recounts a whopping two weeks spent in 1861 with a Confederate militia in Marion County, Missouri. But he introduces the tale by saying that even the people who enlisted at the start of the war, and then left permanently, "ought at least be allowed to state why they didn't do anything and also to explain the process by which they didn't do anything. Surely this kind of light must have some sort of value." Twain writes that there were fifteen men in the rebel militia, the "Marion Rangers," and he was the second lieutenant, even though they had no first lieutenant. After Twain's character shoots and kills a Northern horseback rider, he is overwhelmed by the sensation of being a murderer, "that I had killed a man, a man who had never done me any harm. That was the coldest sensation that ever went through my marrow." However, his grief is slightly eased by the realization that six men had fired their guns, and only one had been able to hit the moving target. 7. The armies weren't all-male . Hundreds of women on both sides pulled a Mulan, assuming male identities and appearances so that they might fight for their respective nations. Some of them did it for adventure, but many did it for monetary reasons: the pay for a male soldier was about $13 month, which was close to double what a woman could make in any profession at the time. Also, being a man gave someone a lot more freedoms than just being able to wear pants. Remember, this was still more than half a century away from women's suffrage and being a man meant that you could manage your monthly $13 wages independently. So it should come as no surprise that many of these women kept up their aliases long after the war had ended, some even to the grave. Their presence in soldiers' ranks wasn't the best-kept secret. Some servicewomen kept up correspondence with the home front after they changed their identities, and for decades after the war newspapers ran article after article chronicling the stories of woman soldiers, and speculating on why they might break from the accepted gender norms. Perhaps not surprisingly, in 1909 the U.S. Army denied that "any woman was ever enlisted in the military service of the United States as a member of any organization of the Regular or Volunteer Army at any time during the period of the civil war." For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved. | Hundreds of women in both armies dressed as men so they could serve .
Confederate anthem "Dixie" was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln's .
Confederate President Jefferson Davis was effectively mugged by a gang of women .
Paul Revere's grandson fought at the Battle of Gettysburg . |
0e9a89c2b7534a068f551e891e6eaed4d484f4f3 | The arrival of hundreds of fire-wielding Vikings would usually cause some serious and legitimate concern. But this particular procession of armoured warriors in the Shetland Islands marked an annual tradition dating back to the 1800's - the Up Helly Aa festival. Dozens of 'squads' descended on the small town of Lerwick in a proud nod to the archipelago's Norse heritage. They dragged a specially made Viking Galley through the town's streets and eventually set it ablaze, before indulging in night of partying. Scroll down for video . Up Helly Aa: Hundreds of men dressed up as Vikings to celebrate in a nod to the Shetland Islands' Norse heritage . Procession: Hundreds of men - known as guizers for the day - paraded through the streets with fiery torches . Tradition: At the end of the route, all the marching guizers surround a specially-made Viking galley which they have dragged through Lerwick . One of a kind: A host of volunteers toil from October to construct the galley as well as the thousands of torches being carried . Fiery end: After the singing of the Up Helly Aa song, the guizers throw their torches into the galley . Spectacle: Once the galley has burned and the flames die down, guizers sing the traditional song 'The Norseman's Home' before indulging in a night of partying . Stunning: Fireworks erupt over Lerwick as the Viking galley below is set ablaze by hundreds of men dressed as vikings . Hundreds of play-actors known as 'guizers' follow the main man known as a Jarl, who on this occasion was Neil Robertson. After nightfall, all other squads would follow his with torches in hand, dragging with them a massive Viking ship. When all the torch-bearers arrive at the route's end, they form a circle around the galley and singe the traditional Up Helly Aa song. Once the song is complete, all the guizers throw their torches into the galley in a beautiful, fiery nod to their Norse heritage. The sing another traditional song known as 'the Norseman's Home' before descending on the town for a night of drinking - and more singing. A host of volunteers are responsible for the building both the galley and producing over 1,000 torches. The real deal: The guizers (pictured) adorn special Viking helmets and armour to participate in the festival . Leader: The guizers led by a single man known as a 'Jarl', which on this occasion was Neil Robertson (pictured, top) Roaring success: Hundreds of men, wearing beautifully prepared armour, sang and screamed as they dragged a massive galley . Leading the way: The Jarl's squad (pictured) is tasked with leading dozens of others through the streets of Lerwick . Glory: The Jarl's squad (pictured) will lead the procession as they drag the galley on which they stand to its fiery end . Heritage: Up Helly Aa is a chance for multiple generations on the Shetland Isles to celebrate their Norse heritage . Work begins as early as October to ensure that everything is ready in time for the celebrations which often continue until 8am the following day. It may seem dangerous but the celebration as it happens evolved from the genuinely hazardous tradition of 'tar barrelling'. It is thought squads of young men would drag barrels of burning tar through the town on sledges, before it was abolished between 1874 and 1880. Permission was eventually granted to carry torches with the first procession taking place in 1876 and the first Up Helly Aa parade in 1881. | Dozens of 'squads' of men dressed as Nordic warriors paraded through the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands .
They carried torches and dragged specially-made galley through the town's streets to celebrate Up Helly Aa festival .
At the end of the route, they set the longboat ablaze and sing a traditional song, before partying through to morning . |
0e9ac817b2ac548d9a061fb04207b84ab5abeb3d | By . Lucy Waterlow . PUBLISHED: . 13:07 EST, 30 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 13:07 EST, 30 August 2013 . It's still another 116 days till Christmas but one High Street store are ensuring customers can get organised early by already selling festive goods. Shoppers were shocked to big red stockings and reindeer toys on sale at The Mamas & Papas store in Cardiff this August. The children's chain also has table full of Christmas presents and gift ideas - even though pupils haven't yet gone back to school after the summer holidays. A spokesman for the retailer said the displays will be going up in their other shops across the UK in the next fortnight. Deck the halls, already: Mamas&Papas in Cardiff are selling festive products . Father-of-two Barry Evans, 36, said: 'People talk about Christmas coming early but this is ridiculous. 'I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things - August isn't even out yet and they're trying to make us feel all festive. 'Shops seem to start their big Christmas push earlier each year, I think it spoils what's so special about it. 'I don't know how people can think about getting Christmas presents when the children haven't even finished their summer holidays yet.' The Christmas products were spotted at the Mamas & Papas store at the St David's shopping centre in Cardiff. Christmas comes early: Shoppers were stunned to see the festive display before children have even gone back to school . The display features teddies, nativity kits and cuddly elves holding candy canes. Pregnant Caroline Brown, 41, who already has two young boys and has a third on the way, said she was 'appalled' by the festive display. She said: 'I felt like it was exploiting my children. I walked in to get a push chair and now all my boys have been talking about is Christmas. 'They keep asking how many sleeps is it to go, when Santa is going to come and if they've been good this year.' Only 116 days to go! A spokesman for the retailer said they wanted to give customers plenty of time to stock up for Christmas . Mamas & Papas, who have more than 60 stores across the UK, specialise in prams, pushchairs, car seats, cots, highchairs, nursery furniture, bedding and toys. A spokeswoman for the retailer said: 'With us being a parenting store we consider planning a very important thing. We want to give our customers plenty of time to make their choices and budget for what can be a very busy time. 'We are in the process of rolling this out across the UK over the next fortnight.' But Mamas & Papas aren't the only ones who are feeling the Christmas spirit already. How lovely our your branches: Christmas lights have been switched on in Tenterden, Kent . A small market town in Kent has already put up and turned on its festive lights. But the Chamber of Commerce in Tenterden, Kent, have claimed the stunt is just an experiment in a bid to find ways to reduce the running costs of their Christmas celebrations. Chamber events officer Jonathan Medes said: 'The lights are timed to come on at 9.15pm and go off at 11.30pm. This is a sample tree and if we like it, we can get working on others.' | Mama&Papas in Cardiff have stockings and reindeer toys on sale this week .
They also have table full of present ideas .
A father said the Christmas display is 'ridiculous'
One mother said she feels like they are 'exploiting' her children . |
0e9b57004eb707dcd8edf8fe8409b33d1823f9f4 | (CNN) -- There was something odd about the 30 suitcases that showed up on a flight from Venezuela. The colorful bags weren't registered to any of the passengers on the plane. When French officials opened them up, they discovered why -- 1.3 tons of pure cocaine were stuffed inside the anonymous bags. The street value of the stash? About 200 million euros, or $270 million. $2.6 million in cocaine found in British woman's luggage . The catch was made on September 11, but French authorities didn't publicize the find until Saturday. On Sunday, Venezuela's Public Ministry said that authorities had detained three members of the National Guard in connection with the incident. It wasn't immediately clear exactly what they are accused of doing. Woman busted in Spain for cocaine in breast implants . The suitcases came from Caracas aboard an Air France flight to Paris, but did not match any of the passengers on board, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. "Several" people have been taken in custody, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told reporters Saturday. Authorities worked with Spanish, British and Dutch police on the investigation, BFMTV said. This case "illustrates the importance of strengthening International cooperation in the fight against traffickers," Valls said. Venezuelan authorities are also investigating. The Public Ministry said prosecutors will investigate, along with the Counterdrug Command of the National Guard in Simon Bolivar International Airport, to see if any criminal activity took place. Suspected drug smugglers sail to jail . CNN's Christabelle Fombu and Nelson Quinones contributed to this report. | NEW: Venezuela says it has detained three members of the National Guard .
The cocaine traveled in 30 colorful suitcases from Venezuela to France .
The bags weren't registered to any of the passengers on the flight .
Several people have been taken into custody, France's interior minister said . |
0e9c45eb536d5704fd348b805266d1e5914ebc47 | The open enrollment period for federal Obamacare plans will begin more than a month later than it did last year, with this year's start date coming after the midterm elections. In 2013 consumers could begin signing up for plans on Oct. 1. This year they were scheduled to start their applications on Oct. 15. But the Obama administration announced late last year that the second enrollment period would instead begin on Nov. 15 - a full week and a half after the consequential federal elections taking place on Nov. 4. Both the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services have said politics aren't at play. The enrollment date was delayed this year to give insurers more time to calculate rates and consumers more time to familiarize themselves with healthcare plans available to them, they've said. A man receives information about health insurance options last Friday in Paterson, New Jersey. Americans enrolling in Obamacare through the federal exchanges have a month and a half longer to review their options this year than they did last year . Still, the move has the added convenience of allowing insurers to keep next year's rates a secret until voters have already cast their ballots for or against Democrats who voted for or support the health care law. At a news briefing last fall, then-White House Press Jay Carney confirmed the postponement of the fiscal year 2015 and denied that the timing of the midterm elections factored into the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services' decision. 'The fact is, we're doing it because it make sense for insurers to have as clear a sense of the pool of consumers they gain in the market this year, before setting rates for next year,' the White House spokesman said. CMS is the division of HHS that is responsible for implementing the health care law. An HHS official told Fox News at the time of the announcement that the purpose of the revised enrollment schedule was to give insurers 'the benefit of more time to evaluate their experiences during the 2014 plan year,' particularly after glitches with healthcare.gov caused numerous delays in the first enrollment period. The government was supposed to cut consumers off on March 31 but ended up allowing them to sign up for coverage well into April. Fox's HHS source tried to frame the fall 2014 delay as 'good news for consumers' because they 'will have more time to learn about plans before enrolling.' However, Republicans are crying foul. The way they see it, the administration is purposefully trying keep the true costs of Obamacare from Americans until after November's congressional elections. 'If premiums go through the roof in the first year of Obamacare, no one will know about it until after the election,' Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said when CMS announced the postponement a year ago. The federal health care site has been under construction since the last open enrollment period for Obamacare ended in April. Among the changes to the site is a simplified application that only asks customers 16 pages of questions instead of 76. Glitches that caused the site to crash during peak traffic times have also been resolved, HHS told the Associated Press, and more than 125,000 people will be able to access the site at the same time. The next open enrollment period begins on Nov. 15. and ends Feb. 15. The Congressional Budget Office expects roughly 13 million Americans to sign up for Obamacare in fiscal year 2015, up from the eight million people who signed up last year. In a statement released last Friday Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips claimed, 'the President sold ObamaCare to the American people on the false promise that it would make health care more accessible and more affordable for those who needed it most. 'Sadly, ObamaCare has actually put affordable health care even further out of reach for millions of Americans,' the conservative non-profit head claimed.The administration’s decision to withhold the costs of this law until after Election Day is just more proof that ObamaCare is a bad deal for Americans.' Obamacare continues to be unpopular with many Americans, and Democrats should be concerned, if they already are not, that Americans facing sticker shock on their health care plans could take their anger out at the ballot box. Alaska, Iowa and Louisiana are all set to see premium hikes next year, and the Democratic Senators representing all three states are in danger of being knocked off by their Republican challengers. In Alaska two insurers, Premera Blue Cross and Moda Health, are planning double-digit rate increases, according to the Washington Times. The Times reports that 88 percent of Alaskans won't be dramatically effected by the rate hike because they qualify for government subsidies. However that hasn't stopped the Republican candidate in the state's senate race, Dan Sullivan, from using the news as a cudgel against incumbent Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat who voted for Obamacare. 'Did you lose your coverage due to ObamaCare? Are your premiums set to skyrocket? Follow the link to share your ObamaCare story and stand up to the elected leaders in D.C. who sold Alaskans out,' Sullivan said in a Facebook post on Sept. 12. While Obamacare has taken a backseat to other prominent issues in this year's elections such as immigration, jobs and the economy and the war against the Islamic State, Republican Senate candidates in Iowa and Louisiana have also made the health care reform law a central issue in their campaigns. CMS didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from MailOnline on Republican's accusations that the 2015 enrollment period was pushed back for political reasons. | In 2013 consumers could begin signing up for plans on Oct. 1; this year they were scheduled to start their applications on Oct. 15.
The Obama administration delayed the fiscal year 2015 enrollment period to a week and a half after the federal elections taking place on Nov. 4 .
The White House and the Health and Human Services Department have said politics aren't at play .
But the move has the convenience of allowing insurers to keep next year's rates a secret until after voters have cast their ballots . |
0e9cb0cb79c8ee3e2c7bf714529a34bb85bbe5c5 | (CNN) -- While all about him were losing their heads, Roger Federer kept his cool. In a week when grand slam champions have been falling like flies at the Australian Open, the old master survived a fourth-set fightback to defeat world No. 4 Andy Murray 6-3 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3. Federer's win means he advances to the last four in Melbourne for the 11th year in a row, with his archrival Rafael Nadal standing between him and a sixth final. Top seed Nadal had beaten Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov earlier on Wednesday to continue his bid for a 14th grand slam title. Federer and Nadal met in the semifinals two years ago, the latter emerging victorious, while the Spaniard holds a 22-10 winning record over the Swiss star having won the last four matches between them. "He's been tough to play against, no doubt," Federer told reporters when asked about Nadal. "I'm happy I get a chance to play him in a grand slam again. I don't remember the last time we played." Federer recently recruited six-time grand slam winner Stefan Edberg to his coaching team, with the Swede set to spent 10 weeks working with the former world No. 1 throughout the season. With Edberg now onside, Federer is hoping he can reverse his fortunes against Nadal. "The head-to-head record is in his favor," the 32-year-old told reporters. "I'm looking forward to speaking to Stefan, because when we spoke together, you know, when he came to Dubai and we spoke about the game, we clearly spoke about playing Rafa, as well. "He thought he had some good ideas, so I'm looking forward to what he has to say." Nadal narrowly avoided joining second seed Novak Djokovic -- beaten by Federer's compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka on Tuesday -- on the sidelines, eventually overcoming Dimitrov, the Bulgarian's cheering section and a nasty blister on the Spaniard's left palm. The world No. 1 prevailed 3-6 7-6 7-6 6-2, saving three set points in the third set. "I was so lucky," Nadal said in an on-court interview. "I felt anything could happen in the third set. "A lot of Bulgarians here today. Thanks everyone for supporting -- it was a great atmosphere. I hope you enjoyed it. I suffered a lot." Nadal said the blister, which troubled him in the previous round, particularly affects him on serve and he duly struck three double faults in one game. But it was Dimitrov -- the man, now to his dismay, still being compared to Federer because of their similar styles -- who faltered on the key points. He missed a makeable forehand and return on two of his three set points in the third. His backers were frequently out of their chairs chanting his name throughout the three-and-a-half-hour encounter, prompting one fan to counter, "Shut up and sit down." Dimitrov left the court in tears and then became emotional when speaking to reporters. "It should hurt, and it does hurt," said the Bulgarian. | Roger Federer beats Andy Murray to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open .
The sixth seed appears in the last four for the 11th year in a row .
17-time grand slam winner Federer advances to a meeting with top seed Rafael Nadal .
World No. 1 Nadal defeats Grigor Dimitrov in his quarterfinal . |
0e9cebe13bff5ecd2f03f28094414aaaa3cfcdb4 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . and Reuters Reporter . Beleaguered cable network CNN faces a new challenge as competitors try to loosen their grip on the airport television market. A new television display created by rival Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings will threaten CNN’s dominance, as they have had unmatched usage of the television sets hanging in front of passengers at departure gates for much of the past two decades. The two companies will be competing for the attention of travel-weary passengers, and advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor has signed deals with major TV networks like Fox, CBS and NBC to provide competitive content on their new hanging displays. Monopoly: For the past 21 years, CNN has ruled the airport television airwaves and now an advertising company is going to placing entertainment-filled displays in the same waiting lounges causing competition . The service provided by Clear Channel Outdoor, the second-largest outdoor advertising company behind JC Decaux, will use their deals with the entertainment networks to fuel their 'ClearVision' service. Toby Sturek, Clear Channel's head of airports, said the company is in discussions with about 20 airports including some large ones where CNN has its TVs, though the first airport ClearVision will enter in November is Raleigh-Durham International in North Carolina, where CNN does not have a presence. 'The airports want something that's different and they want something where they can have a variety of content that they can provide the passengers,' Mr Sturek said. Mr Sturek said Clear Channel previously had agreements to sell advertising with CNN in a handful of airports in the United States, and that advertisers did not see the value in CNN's offering. In response, a CNN spokeswoman said that its airport network has been 'a valued brand for over 21 years' and a 'reliable source of current news programming and localized custom content for busy, on-the-go travelers.' CNN's screens can be seen in 49 of the busiest U.S. airports, including Chicago O'Hare and Dallas/Fort Worth. CNN said it reaches 248 million customers every year in airports. Keeping travelers in touch: CNN won't lose their presence, but they will be threatened by further competition . This is just the latest in a string of blows for CNN, as their ratings this year have steadily lagged behind theirs of years past. While airport advertising is not as big a business as cable TV, it makes more than $10million a year for CNN, according to a source familiar with the situation. Any setback will hurt the reach of CNN, which has lagged in the ratings behind News Corp's Fox News and Comcast Corp's MSNBC. CNN is searching for a new president after its longtime chief Jim Walton said he would depart by the end of the year. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes singled out CNN last quarter for being a weak spot. Mr Sturek said Clear Channel will initially roll out in mid-sized airports. To try to win over customers, ClearVision will offer a wider array of programming and air shows ranging from comedies to CNBC's morning business updates. CNN mainly focuses on pulling news and programming from its networks CNN, HLN, CNN International and some local segments. Both companies said they are able to show live sports. Clear Channel also aims to stand out by letting travelers connect their mobile devices wirelessly to the TV sets starting in the first quarter of next year, so travelers can watch the airport programs on their own screens while they are waiting. Eventually, travelers will be able to select from different channels. 'So, one traveler can watch news while a person sitting next to them can watch America's Got Talent,' Mr Sturek said. | CNN has been the only TV provider in U.S. airports for two decades .
Now an advertising network is partnering with entertainment shows to install more displays near boarding gates to give travelers options .
Comes as CNN's ratings have been sliding all year . |
0e9dd81c54121041174040259030f67390db8834 | A 4.4-magnitude earthquake shook the Los Angeles area on Monday morning, jolting some people awake just before sunrise but bringing no immediate reports of serious damage. The quake, centered about 6 miles north-northwest of Westwood and about 15 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, happened at 6:25 a.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. "I sort of sat up in bed, waited a second, then put my head down for a bit. I wasn't really afraid," a man walking his dog in downtown Los Angeles less than an hour after the quake told CNN affiliate KTLA. He didn't provide his name. CNN's Alan Duke said he was half awake in his Hollywood Hills home when he felt a jolt that lasted a few seconds. "It just served as a rude awakening," Duke said. "The sliding-glass doors were just rattling like somebody had slammed into them. Nothing fell off the walls." The USGS's online ShakeMap showed that strong to moderate shaking would have been felt near the epicenter, with lighter vibrations felt in Los Angeles proper. Geophysicist Paul Caruso said that significant damage or casualties generally wouldn't be expected with earthquakes weaker than a 5.5 magnitude, though results vary by region, often depending on construction codes and types of rock that exist underground. At least six aftershocks followed the quake Monday morning, the strongest of which was a magnitude 2.7, said Egill Hauksson, a California Institute of Technology seismologist. Measuring the magnitude of earthquakes . The place where two earthquakes hit every hour . | Los Angeles resident: "I sort of sat up in bed, waited a second, then put my head down"
Quake happened at 6:25 a.m., before sunrise.
Shaking "served as a rude awakening," CNN's Alan Duke says . |
0e9ebfe7614dba1863afc67e7d3b9255c8c40973 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 13:59 EST, 2 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:00 EST, 2 October 2013 . A 24-year-old woman has died today after a gun wedged in the waistband of her boyfriend's pants went off and shot her. The woman, who has not been identified, was reportedly hugging her 18-year-old partner at the time when the weapon discharged. She had complained that the gun was making her feel uncomfortable and as her boyfriend removed the weapon, she was shot. Scroll down for video . Tragic: An 18-year-old man is believed to have accidentally shot dead his 24-year-old girlfriend at this Arizona home on Tuesday . The woman was taken to hospital in Phoenix, Arizona but later died, according to local police. It happened Tuesday morning at a home near 86th Avenue and Camelback Road in an Arizona suburb. Sgt Tommy Thompson told kpho.com that the shooting appeared to be a tragic accident although they would investigating. Maricopa County Attorney's Office is reviewing the incident. MailOnline was awaiting a response from the Phoenix Police Department. The shooting happened on Tuesday morning at a home near 86th Avenue and Camelback Road in Phoenix, Arizona . | Girlfriend has embracing her partner, 18, when the gun fired on Tuesday .
The 24-year-old was pronounced dead at hospital in Phoenix, Arizona . |
0e9f8cd480d4124b93d1d35b44aaf570c03f1d69 | (CNN) -- Peru will face either Argentina or Uruguay in the Copa America semifinals after claiming a shock 2-0 last eight victory over Colombia on Saturday. After a goalless 90 minutes, Peru scored the opening goal 11 minuites into extra time when Carlos Lobaton reacted first to fire the ball home after goalkeeper Luis Martinez fumbled an attempted punched clearance. And they sealed their victory six minutes into the second period when Paolo Guerrero set Juan Vargas free on the counter-attack -- and the Fiorentina star drilled home the decisive second goal. Colombia went into the match as firm favorites to progess after winning their group ahead of Argentina, while Peru scraped through as a best third-placed finisher from the group section. However, they missed a host of chances to win the match in extra time, notably when highly-rated Porto striker Radamel Falcao fired a penalty wide. Dayro Moreno hit the post and Fredy Guarin the crossbar as Colombia did everything but score during regulation time. And they were made to pay for those misses as Peru netted twice in extra time to reach the semifinals for the first time since 1997. | Peru shock Colombia 2-0 top reach the semifinals of the Copa America .
Two goals in extra time sink Colombia for whom Radamel Falcao missed a penalty .
Peru will now face either hosts Argentina or Uruguay for a place in the final . |
0ea0380359b7d6c495f0de88bd5de1001befdd35 | (CNN) -- Free elections 20 years ago this week in Poland marked the unraveling of the Soviet bloc of Eastern European nations and the beginning of market reforms. Shipyard workers hold Solidarity trade union flags on the anniversary of free elections in Poland. The events of June 1989 also marked the turning point for companies like KGHM, which has grown into a global player in the world's copper market and one of Poland's largest companies with 18,000 employees. "A lot of changes have happened since that moment, since 1989," said Zbigniew Klich, a development engineer who has worked at a company copper smelter near Lubin for more than 30 years. "This is the Poland of my dreams," Klich said. "Even though I will probably retire in the next few months I feel so fortunate to have seen the last 20 years in my professional career." The financial crisis has had minimal impact on the company so far. "In comparison to other sectors of the Polish economy, the commodity business has been doing quite well," said Jarek Romanowski, sales director of KGHM. Poland's export prowess has led the nation to become one of the great success stories of former communist bloc economies. In 2008, it ranked 22nd in the world with more than $190 billion in exports, ahead of Australia and India, according to the CIA Factbook. The country's economy has grown every year since 1992, and bucked the recessionary trend of other European Union nations by expanding its economy by just under 1 percent in the first quarter of this year. "Poland is not an island and we are very much linked to other EU countries so a lot depends on the performance of the German economy," said Dominik Radziwill, Poland's deputy finance minister. "But even with the current forecasts which are really pessimistic for the German economy, we still think Poland should be doing relatively OK." Leszek Balcerowicz was the country's first Finance Minister after the fall of communism and initiated Poland's free market reforms. "Socialism (was) a very bad system and everybody knew that it was a bad system without any hope for a better life," he said. "Transition to a better system is sometimes difficult but you have to overcome these difficulties on the way to a better regime." One industry that exploded was Poland's once state-run media industry, which now includes eight daily national newspapers plus dozens of television channels and radio stations. "The transformation had many phases in Poland. The state totally withdrew from the press market and step-by-step, private TV stations appeared," said Polish journalist Adam Mischnik. "So, today we have a pluralist media which represents very different tendencies." Janusz Weychert and Mariusz Walter founded the ITI group, a leading private media company in Poland with television stations - including the influential news network TVN24 - as well as a home video, new media and theatrical production operations. "Under one umbrella there's various projects put together," Weychert said. "The advantage it gives us is the free flow of content and information between all the platforms." Communism and absolute media control may have only been twenty years ago - but in Poland today, certainly for the country's youth and the media, it's a lifetime. Maciej Popowicz set up "Nasza-Klasa" - Poland's equivalent to Facebook -- with three friends in 2006. Its success made 25-year-old Popowicz one of Poland's youngest millionaires. He's also too young to remember what life was like under Communism. "I'm very glad that I live in these times because we have so many more opportunities than our older friends so for example, you couldn't manage your own business twenty years ago, now there is an opportunity to do that," Popowicz said. "So you can develop your ideas, create your own firms." But market reforms haven't been kind to the historic shipyards of Gdansk, where the Solidarity Union movement began with union leader and future Polish president, Lech Walesa. Marching with him was Brunom Baranowski, a shipyard worker for more than 30 years who spent nearly a year in jail for civil disobedience for his role in the union. In the 20 years since the end of communism, he's seen the shipyard workforce shrink from 18,000 to about 2,700 today. The shipyard, in danger of going bankrupt, was given a lifeline this week when Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition, met with Polish officials and told the press an EU bailout of the shipyard was likely. Still, Baranowski said "shipyard workers don't have much reason to be happy. Over the past 20 years we have been trying to save our jobs." While the fortune of his nation improved, he still lives in the same tiny apartment as he did in 1989 and has the same worries about his job. But Brunom says it was all worth the fight. "Of course it's much better. In the old days all you could get at the shop was vinegar and mustard. To get anything else you had to know people. Now everything is available," he said. CNN's Fred Pleitgen and Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report. | Twenty years after democracy Poland has strongest economy in former Soviet bloc .
The country's economy has grown every year since 1992 .
By export it ranks 22nd in the world, ahead of Australia and India .
Shipyards like Gdansk, home of the democracy movement, struggle to survive . |
0ea1274a8ffb96506d14daafebccc7c1fab8c46e | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 10:46 EST, 12 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 13:04 EST, 12 November 2013 . A Muslim man has been charged with assault after he attacked his own sister and her lesbian partner with a crowbar. Ahmed Mohammed Tuma, 20, was arrested on November 8 after he allegedly beat his 22-year-old sister and her fiancée along with accomplice Nathan Marks. Tuma has also been charged with terrorism and hate crime charges in Lincoln, Nebraska. Muslim Ahmed Mohammed Tuma (left) and accomplice Nathan Marks allegedly beat his sister and her lesbian partner with a crowbar because he does not approve of their relationship . Marks faces charges of aiding and abetting terroristic threats and aiding and abetting the use of a weapon to commit a felony. Tuma reportedly turned up at his sister's home in Lincoln last week armed with a crowbar. The victim, who did not want her or her partner identified, told opposingviews.com: 'At first I didn't know who it was. 'Then I finally realized it was my brother... he had a crowbar in his hand, he tried to hit me with it.' The two women were attacked with a crowbar in this quiet street in Lincoln, Nebraska . The two women managed to escape their attackers and get into their car. The men then hit the car with the bar and tried to push them into oncoming traffic. It is believed that Tuma assaulted his sister because he feels her relationship is a 'disgrace' to their Muslim family. Both Tuma and Marks are being held in police custody. | Ahmed Mohammed Tuma, 20, was arrested on November 8 after he allegedly beat his 22-year-old sister and her fiancée in Lincoln, Nebraska . |
0ea1c2a1cdd1734f66eaa113e3d1c39673440fbc | Srinagar, Indian-Controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- One person was killed and four others injured Sunday when Indian security forces opened fire on a violent mob that tried to torch a paramilitary bunker in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. The incident occurred during the funeral of a youth who died in the hospital Saturday night after he was allegedly beaten by members of the Indian paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force during violent protests last week. The family of 25-year-old Rafiq Bangroo said CRPF troopers struck him on the head with gun butts, causing a fatal skull injury. The CRPF has denied the allegation, saying Bangroo died after he was pelted with stones. Bangroo's body was handed over to relatives. As it was being carried for burial Sunday, angry mobs charged at a bunker of the CRPF and attempted to burn it, police said. The CRPF troopers manning the bunker opened fire on the crowd. Five people were injured, and one, a 26-year-old man, later died. "They tried to torch the bunker after damaging it. Our soldiers opened fire in self-defense," CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi told CNN. As the clashes started spreading Sunday, Indian security forces were rushed to the area to enforce an undeclared curfew. Hundreds shouting "We want freedom" joined the funeral procession. Bangroo's death triggered impromptu protests in various parts of the city. Police and paramilitary troops used tear gas and baton charges and fired warning shots in the air in some spots to break up the angry protesters, according to authorities. The Kashmiri separatist group All Parties Hurriyat Conference has called for a Kashmir-wide shutdown Monday to protest the killings. Srinagar has been tense over the past week following the killing of another youth, a 17-year-old student who died June 11 after being struck in the head by a police-fired tear smoke shell. Kashmir been in the throes of a violent separatist campaign for over two decades and has been a source of conflict between India and Pakistan. The mounting toll in the region's two-decade-old insurgency is placed at over 43,000 by officials, while various rights groups and NGOs put the figure at twice the official number. | Indian security forces open fire on protesters .
Authorities say group was attempting to torch paramilitary bunker .
Violence erupts during funeral of youth who died .
Youth's family claims he was killed by police; authorities deny allegation . |
0ea2cd2334ef576027b31f24fedd99ee26cedc41 | MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed Cuban President Raul Castro to Moscow on Thursday, marking the first time any Cuban leader has visited Russia's capital since Fidel Castro made a trip there 22 years ago at the end of the Cold War. Cuban President Raul Castro reviews honor guards after arriving Wednesday in Moscow, Russia. The two presidents appeared together on Russian state television in an informal meeting in which the Cuban leader spoke fondly of his last trip to Moscow almost 30 years ago. Medvedev and Raul Castro will discuss bilateral issues Friday during their official meeting at the Kremlin. "We plan to reach the signing of a number of agreements aimed at the promotion of interaction of our countries in the trade-economic, financial-investment and cultural-humanitarian areas at the talks," Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov told Prensa Latina in an interview posted on the official ministry Web site. "In general, there is no doubt that Castro's visit will contribute to the strengthening of the Russian-Cuban partnership." The last time Medvedev and Castro spoke face to face was in November when Medvedev traveled to Latin America, including a stop in Cuba. The visit, during which Medvedev also met with Raul's ailing brother, Fidel Castro, was part of a regional tour to Venezuela and Brazil, sending a poignant message to the United States that Russia is quickly gaining support in its backyard. After the collapse of Soviet Union, ties between communist Cuba and ex-communist Russia cooled. In 2001, then-Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Havana, Cuba, to begin new talks with the former Cold War ally. Besides discussing the world's hot spots and the global financial crisis, Medvedev and Raul Castro will "focus on solving the issue of lifting the blockade from Cuba under the new U.S. administration," Lavrov said, referring to the decades-old U.S. embargo against the Caribbean island nation. "We hope that the joint position of the vast majority of members of the international community on this issue will finally contribute to revising U.S. approaches in a realistic manner," Lavrov told the interviewers. "On our side, we are ready to decisively pursue our line aimed at canceling the blockade, in which we can see a relic of the past era." Castro's visit is due to last until Wednesday. | Cuban president's trip intended to strengthen ties with Russia .
Relations between the two countries cooled when Cold War ended .
Solving lifting of U.S. trade embargo on Cuba among items on agenda .
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Cuba in November . |
0ea2da8f388a5a569c32cd4ecc0ddea40a82927e | Christmas celebrations has been cut short for a group of five people after a woman reportedly had her arm severed in a balcony collapse. Five people fell about three to four metres from the first floor of a home on The Citadel at Manyana, south coast of NSW at about 6pm on Tuesday. Three women, a 79-year-old, a 41-year-old and a 43-year-old and were airlifted to Sydney hospitals in a serious condition from the collapse. Scroll down for video . Paramedics at the scene believe the balcony fall was about three to four metres . One woman was taken to Liverpool Hospital in Sydney's south-west with a severed arm and two were flown to St George Hospital, south of Sydney, reports 9News. But a NSW police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia that they could not confirm the women's arm has been severed but added that her arm was seriously injured. A 43-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman were taken by ambulance to hospital with minor injuries. Police from Shoalhaven Local Area Command are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and a crime scene has been established. More to come . Emergency services were called to a Manyana home at The Citadel, south coast of NSW at 6pm on Tuesday . Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a balcony collapse that left five people injured . Three women were airlifted to Liverpool Hospital and St George Hospital in a serious condition . Police from Shoalhaven Local Area Command are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident . | Five people were injured at a Manyana home, south coast of NSW .
Three women aged 79, 41 and 43 were airlifted to hospital in a serious condition .
A 43-year-old man and 42-year-old women received minor injuries .
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident . |
0ea316c61a31a96b394007df84daf041ae15ee67 | (CNN) -- UEFA president Michel Platini claims that goal-line technology is not needed in soccer, stating it would lead to "PlayStation football." World governing body FIFA will test possible goal-line systems in the coming months after reversing its stance on the widely-debated issue, but the head of the sport in Europe is not in favor of the prospective changes. When asked about the potential use of goal-line technology during a visit to the city of Glasgow, the Frenchman referred to the popular video-game console when he told the Scottish FA website: "Then we will have PlayStation football." Platini, one of the world's top footballers during the 1980s, believes more help should instead be offered to referees, highlighting the use of two extra match officials in this season's Champion's League as a better way forward. "The referee has to be helped by clubs, fans, players, media and authorities," Platini said on Monday. "It is why we have added two assistants for Champions League games. "One referee is not enough, not in the modern era where you have 20 cameras." The 55-year-old also said the high media presence at modern-day games does not help match officials, with television cameras able to instantly see when mistakes have been made by referees. "It is unfair -- the cameras can see everything but the referee only has one pair of eyes. Every time he makes a mistake, those cameras are there to focus on it. "It is why for the past 10 years I have asked to change the job of the referee, to help improve the situation and to give the referees better support." The subject of goal-line technology has long been hotly-debated within football, and the issue came to the fore once again at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when England's Frank Lampard had a goal not given against Germany despite the ball crossing the line. | Michel Platini questions plans to experiment with goal-line technology .
The head of European ruling body UEFA believes it would lead to "PlayStation football"
The Frenchman instead backs the use of extra officials in matches to help referees .
He says high media presence at football matches makes it more difficult for officials . |
0ea43c2568698a7f6d4b47d59eef8324a0560291 | The captain of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 received a two-minute call shortly before take-off from a mystery woman using a mobile phone number obtained under a false identity. It was one of the last calls made to or from the mobile of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the hours before his Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur 16 days ago. Investigators are treating it as potentially significant because anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Malaysia has to fill out a form giving their identity card or passport number. Scroll down for video . Family man: Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah with his wife Faizah Khan and two of their three children . Introduced as an anti-terrorism measure following 9/11, this ensures that every number is registered to a traceable person. But . in this case police traced the number to a shop selling SIM cards in . Kuala Lumpur. They found that it had been bought ‘very recently’ by . someone who gave a woman’s name – but was using a false identity. The . discovery raises fears of a possible link between Captain Zaharie, 53, . and terror groups whose members routinely use untraceable SIM cards. Everyone else who spoke to the pilot on his phone in the hours before . the flight took off has already been interviewed. Hunt: The mystery object in a Chinese satellite image, inset, some 80 miles from the previous search zone . Today, . planes and ships were scrambled to find a pallet and other debris . in a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean as the search resumed . for the missing jet. The . pallet was spotted by a search plane yesterday, but has not been closely . examined. Wooden pallets are commonly used in shipping, but can also be . used in cargo containers carried on planes. It . was the latest in a series of clues experts and searchers are trying to . pin down to solve the mystery of what happened to Flight 370 when it . disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board. In . a separate development, The Mail on Sunday has learned that . investigators are now poised to question Captain Shah’s estranged wife . in detail. They have waited two weeks out of respect, but will now begin formally interviewing Faizah Khan following pressure from FBI agents assisting the inquiry. Searching: Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss (right) and Dan Gillis, senior search and rescue officer involved in the search, look at monitors at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's centre in Canberra . Although the couple – who have three children – were separated, they had been living under the same roof. A source said: ‘Faizah has been spoken to gently by officers but she has not been questioned in detail to establish her husband’s behaviour and state of mind in the days leading to the incident. The latest release of a war-themed computer game – centred on a passenger plane that crashes on to a desert island in the South China Sea – has been delayed as the search for missing flight MH370 continues. Battlefield 4 Naval Strike, an update for the Battlefield 4 game which has sold millions of copies worldwide, was due for release last week – but has now been put back until Tuesday. ‘This is partly for cultural reasons. It is not considered appropriate in Malaysia to subject people in situations of terrible bereavement to the stress of intensive questioning.’ The softly-softly approach has been challenged by the team of FBI agents working with Malaysian police. They have pointed out that she may hold ‘vital clues and information’ to Zaharie’s mental state. ‘The whole world is looking for this missing plane and the person who arguably knows most about the state of mind of the man who captained the plane is being left alone,’ said a source close to the FBI team. The source added: ‘If we want to eliminate the chief pilot from the inquiry, we must interview her in detail to find out what his state of mind was.’ The mystery caller emerged when Malaysian investigators examined the phone records of both Zaharie and his co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid. Investigators were keen to trace the caller and interview them, although they have stressed that the fact the SIM card was registered to a non-existent ID card does not necessarily indicate a criminal or terrorist connection. Political activists in Malaysia sometimes use SIM cards bought with bogus identity cards if they fear that their phones may be bugged by the country’s authoritarian ruling party. Up and away: A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion takes off at RAAF Pearce Base to join the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in Perth, Australia . Looking: Crew on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, searching for the missing flight in the southern Indian Ocean . The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Zaharie is an avid supporter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a distant relative, and may have attended a controversial court hearing where Anwar was jailed for five years. It took place only a few hours before the flight. 'The whole world is looking for this missing plane and the person who arguably knows most about the state of mind of the man who captained the plane is being left alone' Source close to FBI team . The timing of the call has intensified scrutiny on Zaharie as investigators struggle to establish whether the cockpit crew, a catastrophic accident or hijackers are to blame for Flight MH370’s disappearance. Meanwhile FBI experts in the US are continuing to examine the hard drive of a flight simulator seized from Zaharie’s home after it emerged that programs he used on it had been deleted. Zaharie used the home flight simulator to practise extreme landings, including on remote Indian Ocean islands such as the US air base in Diego Garcia, investigators have revealed. Good luck: Ground crew members wave to a Japanese Maritime Defense Force P3C patrol plane as it leaves the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Subang heading for Australia to join the search and rescue operation . Looking: This graphic shows the approximate position of the objects seen floating in a Chinese satellite image in the southern Indian Ocean on which the AMSA is concentrating its search . The hard drive was flown to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, at the end of last week after Malaysian investigators failed to retrieve the deleted files, which they suspect may have been ‘buried’ in an elaborate process to cover the user’s tracks. The delay in handing the computer hard drive to the FBI has proved to be a source of friction between the Malaysian and US investigators, the source close to the FBI said, adding: ‘We have the technology to do this work quickly and effectively and they simply don’t.’ Malaysia’s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday said investigators are coming under increasing pressure as they are aware that time is running out – the black box voice and data recorder only transmits an electronic signal for about 30 days before its battery runs out. But he claimed a thorough investigation of the plane’s cargo manifest had not shown ‘any link to anything that may have contribution to the plane’s disappearance’. By IAN GALLAGHER . A mystery object has been spotted in the Indian Ocean search zone – 80 miles from an earlier sighting of debris. Measuring 74ft by 42ft, the object appears in a new image taken by a Chinese satellite.Ships have been sent to investigate but a ferocious cyclone was yesterday hampering efforts to locate the possible wreckage. The news came two days after debris was detected 1,550 miles south-west of Perth in Australia. An Australian Orion aircraft was sent to scour area where satellite imagery pinpointed possible debris . The satellite picture of the possible debris was handed over by China and given a new focal point for search . Since the announcement, Australian search teams scouring the remote area reported seeing a number of small objects including a wooden pallet. Malaysia¿s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein revealed the image at a press conference . A Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion plane with specialist electro-optic observation equipment was diverted to the location, arriving after the first aircraft left, but reported sighting only clumps of seaweed. The Chinese satellite discovery was revealed yesterday by Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein at a press conference. He made the announcement after being handed a handwritten note. He said: ‘The Chinese ambassador has received satellite images of floating objects in the southern corridor and they will be sending ships to investigate.’ China is one of 26 nations involved in the search for flight MH370. Most of those on board the aircraft were Chinese nationals. The Xinhua state news agency said the latest image was taken by China’s Gaofen-1 satellite at about 4am GMT on March 18 and showed objects some 80 miles ‘south by west’ from the first site. The announcement came after the first Australian Orion aircraft to make a sortie over the target zone returned without success. Flying Officer Peter Moore, the Orion’s captain, said a combination of ‘less than ideal’ weather and sea conditions had closed in on the flight. He said they covered their entire search area but had not seen any evidence of wreckage. | Call was made to Captain Shah just hours before he took off in MH370 .
Pay-as-you-go phone which made the call was bought with fake ID .
Fake ID was used to get around security measures put in place after 9/11 .
Increases fears Captain Shah may have links to terrorism .
Investigators will soon question the captain's estranged wife in detail . |
0ea43e9250cfc32a7ad10c6fb2cbb6159518cd94 | Out for walkies, tiny Tyson's little legs don't look like they'll get him too far. But the energetic chihuahua and Ihasa cross's miniature frame could well put him in the running for the title of Britain's smallest dog. The five-month-old pup weighs 13oz and stands 4in tall to the shoulder. His owner Rosemarie McLinden cannot find a collar to fit him - so took him for a walk on a ferret harness. Scroll down for video . Tyson the puppy going for his first walk with owner Rosemarie McLinden in Keal, Lincolnshire. At just 4in tall, the chihuahua Ihasa cross is thought to be Britain's smallest dog . 'He is so delicate he doesn't run around as much as other puppies but he still does like to give a chew toy a good bashing,' she said. Tyson was rejected by his siblings at birth and struggled to get his mother's attention, so Mrs McLinden, 46, of Keal, Lincolnshire, fed him by hand. The mother-of-four said: 'We had to take him from the litter...they think of him as a squeaky toy.' She and her husband Anthony, 47, a bus driver, believe Tyson is the smallest dog in Britain but have yet to contact Guinness World Records about him. The puppy, pictured with the McLinden family's golden retriever, weighs just 13oz and was rejected by his litter at birth . The tiny dog, who shrinks when he is wet, had to be fed by hand by Mrs McLinden who has four children . Unable to find a collar to fit him, Mrs McLinden walked the puppy in a ferret's harness near her home in Keal . When he was born the pup was treated 'like a squeaky toy' by the rest of the litter, Mrs McLinden said . While the family has not yet contacted the Guinness World Records, they are confident Tyson is the smallest dog in Britain . 'He hasn't grown any taller although he's filled out,' Mrs McLinden said. 'When he's bathed he shrinks to nothing because he is all fur.' But Tyson is still bigger than the world's smallest living dog, a female chihuahua called Miracle Milly, who is 3.8in tall and weighs 1lb. She sleeps in a doll's crib at her owner's home in Dorado, Puerto Rico. | Tyson, the chihuahua and Ihasa cross is just 4in tall and weighs 13oz .
Was taken in by owner after being rejected by the rest of his litter .
Strapped in a ferret harness, the puppy took its first walk in Keal, Lincolnshire . |
0ea450d929d3b2e6bbc8c37fcaaf162cb71e483d | By . Anna Hodgekiss . PUBLISHED: . 07:49 EST, 11 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:49 EST, 11 July 2013 . The A&E unit at the birthplace of the NHS will be axed, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed today . The A&E unit at the birthplace of the NHS will be axed, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed today. Campaigners have fiercely opposed the closure of the A&E unit at Trafford General Hospital in Manchester. But following a review of the plan, Mr Hunt confirmed that the closure can go ahead - provided that nearby A&E departments consistently meet national waiting time targets. Last week celebrations were held at the . hospital to mark the 65th anniversary of the NHS. Trafford General is . known as the birthplace of the health service as it treated the first . NHS patient in 1948. But health bosses said the hospital has the . second smallest A&E department in the country, with an average of . six to 12 people using the service between midnight and 8am. At its busiest hour on an average day the unit is only treating seven people. The minister told the House of Commons that changes are 'necessary to provide safe and sustainable healthcare in the North West'. Health bosses in the region said the way services are delivered in Trafford and Manchester needs to be fundamentally resigned. The plans involve the removal of A&E services at Trafford General between midnight and 8am, and for the rest of the time the unit will be downgraded to an urgent care centre. It will eventually be downgraded to a minor injuries unit. Emergency surgery will no longer be provided at the site and the intensive care unit will shut. Campaign group Save Trafford General has said the move makes 'no sense'. Local councillors also appealed to Mr . Hunt to review the decision, saying they were concerned the plans were . 'principally financially motivated' and could put pressure on other . hospital sites. Campaigners have fiercely opposed the closure of the A&E unit at Trafford General Hospital in Manchester. But following a review of the plan, Mr Hunt confirmed that the closure can go ahead - provided that nearby A&E departments consistently meet national waiting time targets . Mr Hunt referred the matter to the independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP), which concluded that the 'clinical case for change is clear', MPs heard. The New Health Deal for Trafford, the consultation document outlining the changes, says most patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries are taken directly to Salford Royal Hospital, Wythenshawe Hospital or Manchester Royal Infirmary. It also says some services at the hospital are 'not clinically sustainable' and could 'become unsafe in the future'. It says that a safe intensive care unit needs to treat a minimum of 200 patients each year, but Trafford General Hospital only admitted 93 patients for intensive care in 2010/11. | Trafford General Hospital in Manchester is .
known as the birthplace of the health service as it treated the first .
NHS patient in 1948 .
Campaigners have fiercely opposed the closure of the A&E unit, but Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed today it will close .
Hospital has the .
second smallest A&E department in the country, with an average of .
six to 12 people using the service between midnight and 8am . |
0ea46f4ec04715d2abe78905386cdfaded9b7c58 | (CNN)The divers initially thought the gleaming object they noticed on the seafloor off the Israeli coast was a toy coin from a game. But they quickly realized they had stumbled across something a whole lot more valuable in the ancient Mediterranean harbor of Caesarea. Their chance discovery a few weeks ago led to a trove of nearly 2,000 gold coins that had languished at the bottom of the sea for about 1,000 years, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday. It's the biggest hoard of gold coins ever discovered in Israel -- and it could lead to further archaeological finds. "There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected," said Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the antiquities authority. He offered other theories about the origin of the treasure. Perhaps the coins were meant to pay the salaries of a military garrison in Caesarea, Sharvit speculated, or came from a merchant ship that sank while traveling from port to port along the Mediterranean coast. Marine archaeologists are planning to carry out salvage work at the site to find out more. The coins themselves come in several different denominations and are very well preserved, the antiquities authority said. The oldest of them is a quarter dinar minted in Palermo, Sicily, in the second half of the ninth century. Most of the pieces, though, are from the Fatimid Caliphate, the Shiite Muslim empire that ruled large parts of North Africa and the Middle East around the turn of the first millennium. Sharvit said he believed the coins, of various dimensions and weights, had been uncovered by winter storms. He thanked the people who found the treasure -- members of a local diving club -- for quickly reporting their discovery rather than trying to keep the coins for themselves. "These divers are model citizens," he said. "They discovered the gold and have a heart of gold that loves the country and its history." | Nearly 2,000 gold coins had sat at the bottom of the sea for around 1,000 years .
Divers exploring the ancient harbor of Caesarea came across the treasure .
Most of the coins are from the Fatimid Caliphate that once ruled parts of the region . |
0ea4c9b787de515f6fd84afa5273920458bbc588 | By . Larisa Brown and Sam Adams . PUBLISHED: . 09:03 EST, 13 September 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 01:41 EST, 14 September 2012 . Naked Rambler Stephen Gough - who has spent years in solitary confinement in a Scottish jail - was branded arrogant and self-indulgent by a sheriff after refusing to get dressed and go home to England. Gough, from Hampshire, was brought into a draughty courtroom naked but for a pair of handcuffs today to be quizzed on why he had refused social work and psychiatric help. The ex-marine was jailed for five months at Kirkcaldy Sheriff's Court, Fife, for committing a breach of the peace. Gough arrives at John O' Groats in 2004 after completing a 900-mile walk naked. Over the course of the journey Gough was arrested numerous times . He was found guilty of the offence last month after strolling naked near a swing park . where children were playing in Dunfermline, also in Fife, and refusing to . put on clothes. Sentence had been deferred for social workers to assess . whether he needed psychiatric intervention. His arrest in July came just three days after he had been freed from . prison in Perth, 30 miles to the north, after spending six years in . solitary for previous offences involving nakedness. Gough, 53, who insists he is not a naturist and claims his naked rambles . are 'a protest,' was initially removed from the dock after only five . minutes when he refused to sit down so his privates were hidden by the . wooden dock. He said: 'I just want to be treated like anybody else.' After he was brought back in, and agreed to sit, the court heard he had . refused to meet social workers and so no assessment was available. Prosecutor Brian Robertson said the Crown was prepared to help him go back to England if he co-operated. Mr Robertson said: 'The authorities are prepared to facilitate his . return home if his behaviour doesn’t cause alarm to the public.' Pictured behind bars in the nude: Gough leaving Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in July. He decided to represent himself rather than have a solicitor at his trial . Determined: Gough (pictured here with his girlfriend Melanie Roberts) has been jailed for five months for committing a breach of the peace . Sheriff James Williamson told Gough, who has refused legal . representation, said that he was concerned that he had not met or co-operated . with social workers drawing up the background report ordered. The sheriff said: 'Will you meet with them and assist them?' When Gough responded, 'No, not really', Sheriff Williamson said he had been left with no choice but to jail him for five months. The sentence was backdated until July 20th, the date of his arrest, . meaning Gough will be freed again before Christmas. If he wins 50 . percent time off for good behaviour - unlikely unless he drops his . protest - he could be out in three weeks. He is likely to serve his sentence in Edinburgh’s tough Saughton Prison. Sheriff Williamson told Gough he realised his motives for refusing to . get dressed were not 'sinister,' but slammed him for his refusal to . co-operate with the preparation of a social background report. He said: 'I had hoped it [the report] would assist me in dealing with . you without sending you back to prison - but you leave me no choice. 'The police officers who arrested you told you that if you carried on . your journey you would pass a playground occupied by children. Unshaven: Gough pictured in July as he arrived at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court after being arrested for walking around naked . 'You were given three options - one, change direction, two, cover your . private parts, or three, enter a police van which would take you around . the playpark and release you on your way at the other side. 'Despite that, you refused, which showed disregard for other members of . the public, in particular children who have the right not to see naked . men. 'It shows arrogance. 'That self-indulgence carries on today. 'I have no other alternative option but to impose a custodial sentence.' Gough, of Chamberlain Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire, now has 18 convictions for nakedness. He first achieved notoriety during a naked walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2003. He went on to be repeatedly arrested and jailed for walking naked, and refusing to get dressed. He had tasted only minutes of freedom - usually being re-arrested at the . prison gates for being naked - until his release from on July 17th. Earlier this month Gough’s former partner Alison Ward, the mother to his . two children, Kiana, 16 and Yarin, 14, said she could not comprehend why he had given up family life, and knowing his children, simply to . walk around naked. She said: 'I don’t think Steve is a bad person, but he’s made bad decisions. 'I feel very sad for him, for what he’s given up. 'He lost his . relationship with me. He has two beautiful children who are a real joy, . but he hasn’t been a father to them. 'The price he’s paid for his determination to go naked is too high. 'When I told Steve, ‘You can’t see the kids if you’re going to go naked’, he said, ‘Right, I won’t see them. 'He chose his cause over his children and he’s continued to do so.' A Crown Office spokesman said: 'The actions of the accused made his arrest and prosecution necessary. 'Mr Gough intentionally caused shock and alarm to children and their parents. 'The evidence in this case clearly established that despite repeated police requests not to do so, he was determined to deliberately walk naked past a busy children's play-park in Fife. 'He knew that in doing so he would provoke anger and upset. The sheriff held that his conduct constituted the crime of breach of the peace.' The spokesman said the police had gone to great lengths to to preven further offences being committed by Mr Gough. 'For example,' he said, 'on release from HMP Edinburgh in 2007, police officers offered to take Gough to an address of his choosing in Yorkshire. 'Although he originally agreed to go with them, he changed his mind and attempted to walk from the prison along the A71 when he was arrested again. 'The authorities are prepared to facilitate his return home providing his behaviour does not, as in the current case, cause public alarm and necessitate arrest to protect the public. | Stephen Gough found guilty of breaching the peace after strolling naked near swing park .
where children were playing .
Arrest in July came just three days after he had been freed from .
prison in Perth, 30 miles to the north .
Former marine remained naked throughout his trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff's Court in Fife .
He has been jailed for five months for breaching the peace . |
0ea4ff773f10cbaf85e55ca4472f997056030bcc | There aren’t many coaches whose team barely musters a noticeable support for home games and has the measly total of only five home goals all season — whose predecessor was just ‘sold’ for €4million to a Chinese team — who is sufficiently confident the day before facing the reigning European champions to claim: ‘I really don’t think I’m far off coaching Real Madrid’. But the fact is that Quique Sanchez Flores is a bit special. A quality which will need to be flooding out of him like a river in spate if the beleaguered mob he’s just taken charge of, Getafe, are not to feel the whiplash of a displeased Madrid side facing their third derby match in less than a fortnight. Perhaps, if your memory is elephantine, you may recall Quique for his Getafe side beating the Galáctico Real Madrid of Iker Casillas, Roberto Carlos, Raúl, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Michael Owen just short of 10 years ago during his previous single season in charge of this club. Much more likely is that you know Quique for having seeded the Atletico Madrid revolution. Goalkeeper David de Gea was given his big break at Atletico Madrid by Quique Sanchez Flores . He gave Diego Costa his debut, was brave enough to establish 19-year-old David de Gea as first-choice keeper, won the Europa League in 2010, knocking out Sporting, Valencia, Liverpool and then beating Fulham in the final — plus his Rojiblancos then defeated treble-holders Inter Milan for the European Supercup. It ended in tears. Doesn’t it always? But notwithstanding Diego Simeone’s brilliance, the Argentinian largely inherited a ‘made’ squad when he succeeded Quique three years ago. So, the 49-year-old carries a bit of Madrileño football baggage into this lunchtime’s derby match at the Alfonso Pérez Coliseum (Sky Sports 5, 10.55am). But the fact is that he’s actually a minor royal in the Real Madrid dynasty. To explain. Quique’s father (Isidro) was a quadruple Spanish title-winner with the almighty Real of di Stéfano, Gento, Puskas and del Sol. Quique’s mother (Carmen) and aunt (‘Lola of Spain’) were both massively famous singers, flamenco dancers and movie stars. Chelsea striker Diego Costa was another player to flourish under Flores at Atletico Madrid . And as far as children of the 1960’s go, there could barely be a better Godfather than Don Alfredo di Stéfano — the legendary Blond Arrow himself. Quique’s cousins all became famous in music, television or cinema, such that the family Sanchez/Flores must, at times, have felt that ‘Spain belongs to us ... Spain loves us’. Little wonder that Quique isn’t short of some natural assurance. His stock is both gypsy, and thoroughbred — his life has been spent in the elite. Not spent without trials and tribulations however. Just as he was performing well enough as a full-back to be picked for Spain [he went to Italia ’90] Atlético tried to sign him from Valencia — coached by none other than di Stéfano. Things went a bit Pete Tong as di Stéfano warned Valencia he’d quit if they sold the boy. It became a national cause célèbre as Quique’s mother Carmen put in a two-footed, studs-up challenge — demanding to her husband’s best pal, di Stéfano, that her son should be allowed to better himself (and return to the family home in Spain’s capital). ‘That row over Atlético trying to sign me really stunned me,’ Quique revealed years later. ‘My mother got involved in the furore because I wasn’t around and she felt someone had to say something. Because she’s so famous, it had more repercussions. I felt embarrassed. Getafe coach Quique Sanchez Flores will seek to beat Real Madrid in Sunday's derby match . ‘I try to dodge the celebrity magazines which are meat and drink to the rest of my family.’ Then, when Quique won his only trophy as Madrid’s starting right-back, it was blemished with family tragedy. It was 20 years ago and Real were about to break Barcelona’s ‘Dream Team’ run of four straight championships under Johan Cruyff. Just at that theoretically sweet moment his aunt, Lola, died of cancer. Massive parts of the nation just adored her, so Spain had barely finished mourning, 15 days later, when her son Antonio (Quique’s cousin) was found dead at home from a drug and alcohol overdose. The Spanish title which Madrid and Quique lifted the following week was a sombre triumph for him. Perhaps being pitted against the biggest club of his career at this stage is too soon to expect a win. But if he really expects to coach Real in the near future, then what better way to attract their attention? | Quique Sanchez Flores takes charge of Getafe for Sunday's derby match .
In his previous spell in charge he masterminded victory over Real Madrid side featuring Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane .
Diego Simeone largely inherited Flores' squad at Atletico Madrid . |
0ea701fb9e052dc38c1b7c057a7f79498b8f41b6 | With its walls left to crumble, and ivy winding its way through grandiose halls and staircases, it's easy to imagine how Overstone Hall might have fallen into disrepair because of a lack of funds for its upkeep. However, the Northamptonshire stately home's troubles run far deeper than that. Right from its first owner - Lord Overstone - it has been a resolutely unloved place and, since a fire ravaged the upper floors a decade ago, it has been up for sale for a mere £1million but without any interest. Scroll down for video . Overstone Hall in Northamptonshire was hated by Lord Overstone whose wife commissioned the vast property in 1860 and has never been wanted by any of its owners . The stately home boasts 114 rooms, occupying 20,000sq ft and sits on 50 acres of country parkland in Overstone, Northamptonshire . The 19th century stately home boasts 114 rooms in 50 acres of country parkland in Overstone, Northamptonshire. Lady Overstone commissioned the Elizabethan and Renaissance style building in 1860, but didn't live to see it finished. Unfortunately her husband Lord Overstone hated the design, built by architect William Milford Teulon, and even declared his contempt in a letter to friends. 'The new house, I regret to say, is a cause of unmitigated and disappointment and vexation,' wrote Lord Overstone. 'It is an utter failure, although very large and full of pretension - it has neither taste, comfort nor convenience. I am utterly ashamed of it.' Lord Overstone despised it so much that he refused to live in it for the remainder of his life, leaving it to his daughter Lady Wantage on his death in 1883. The lounge inside Overstone Hall in the 1920s when it was owned by Sir Philip Stott who used it as a training base for Conservative party members . Sir Philip Stott who wanted to turn it into a training base for the Conservative Party disliked the imposing building and condemned his scheme as an 'abject failure' in 1928, before it was sold to the Charlotte Mason Schools Company . Lord Overstone (left) declared that he did not like the mansion his wife had designed and gave it to his daughter Lady Wantage (right) on his death in 1883 . Lady Overstone commissioned the Victorian hodgepodge of Elizabethan and Renaissance architectural style in 1860, but didn't live to see it finished . The mansion has now fallen into disrepair and has been reclaimed by nature with ivy and foliage growing through all the rooms in the house . A fire ripped through the top floor destroying 60 per cent of the property in April 2001, including all of the principal rooms and the impressive carved staircase . Lady Wantage also spent minimal time at the property, only occasionally using it for winter hunting parties, so it was sold in 1920 . In 1979 the school closed and was sold privately for £701,000 and used by the New Testament Church of God as its UK headquarters . Lady Wantage also spent minimal time at the property, only occasionally using it for winter hunting parties. After she died in 1920, the property was sold to Sir Philip Stott who intended to use it as a training base for Conservative party members. However he condemned the scheme as an 'abject failure' in 1928. It was privately sold to Charlotte Mason Schools Company in 1929 where part of the massive building was run as a girls' boarding school. Lord Overstone hated the house so much that he refused to live there, saying: 'It is a cause of unmitigated and disappointment and vexation' The property was listed in 2010 for £1million but the property didn't sell and is still owned by the New Testament Church of God, which is asking for the same price . Lord Overstone's daughter, Harriet, inherited the house after his death . Overstone Park was acquired by Lewis Loyd, father of Samuel Jones-Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone, for £117,500 in 1832. On the death of Lewis Loyd in 1858, the house and 10,000 acres of land became Lord Overstone’s property. The banker and politician had married Harriet, daughter of Conservative politician Ichabod Wright, in 1829. Together they had one son, who died as an infant, and a daughter The Honourable Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd in 1829. In 1860 Lady Overstone decided to engage the architect William Milford Teulon to replace the existing house with something more in keeping with their taste. She was keen to have a property fitting with their status and so her husband decided to rebuild on a grand scale. But she commissioned a design with a mixture of Elizabethan and Renaissance features which led to one of the most derided houses created in the Victorian era. Lady Overstone died before the house was completed in November 1864 and left her husband a widower. He hated the house and remarked in a letter to a friend: 'The New House, I regret to say, is a cause of unmitigated disappointment and vexation. It is an utter failure although very large and full of pretension, it has neither taste, comfort, nor convenience.' He refused to live there in his later years and left the house and extensive fortune to his daughter Harriet on his death in 1883, . One of the most revered heiresses of her time, she was a noted philanthropist, and greatly interested in hospital and nursing work. In November 1858 she married Robert James Lindsay, who assumed the name of Loyd-Lindsay by deed poll. Early on, they became the owners of two fine country places - Overstone Park, Northampton, and Lockinge House, Wantage, where the couple chiefly resided. She only used the Overstone estate occasionally for winter hunting parties, as her main home was in Oxfordshire. With her husband, a former distinguished soldier and Victoria Cross hero, she was instrumental in establishing the National Aid Society, which was really the forerunner of the British Red Cross Society. Photographer Mathew Growcoot, 25, who entered the property described his experience as surreal and haunting, saying it has been reclaimed by nature . Lord Overstone despised the house so much that he refused to live in it for the remainder of his life, leaving it to his daughter Lady Wantage on his death in 1883 . In 1979 the school closed and was sold privately for £701,000 and used by the New Testament Church of God as its UK headquarters. A fire ripped through the top floor in April 2001, destroying 60 per cent of the property including all of the principal rooms and the impressive carved staircase. Photographer Mathew Growcoot, 25, who entered the property described his experience as surreal and haunting. He said: 'I've never been to anywhere like it, it is such an enormous, imposing house that has been reclaimed by nature. 'I can understand why it was never wanted by any of its owners, the main tower looks distinctly unfriendly. It's hard to judge the interior because there's so little of it left but the few rooms that did remain were far too big and drafty. 'It was totally surreal being there and I did feel on edge because of the constants noises and flutterings, I actually had to remind myself that I don't believe in ghosts.' The property was listed in 2010 for £1million but the property didn't sell and is still owned by the New Testament Church of God. A buyer is presently being sought. It was privately sold to Charlotte Mason Schools Company in 1929 where part of the massive building was ran as a girls' boarding school . The property is still owned by the New Testament Church of God and the organisation is hoping it will sell for more than £1million . Ivy and creepers have started growing through the windows and up the walls of the stately home in Northamptonshire since the fire in 2001 . | Overstone Hall in Northamptonshire has been reclaimed by nature after a devastating fire in 2001 .
It was commissioned in 1860 by Lady Overstone, but was never wanted or admired by its owners .
The Victorian stately home is now up for sale and boasts 114 rooms, occupying 20,000sq ft in 50 acres .
It did not sell when it went on the market in 2010 for £1million, but the owners are asking for the same amount .
Photographer Mathew Growcoot, 25, described the 19th century building as 'surreal and haunting' |
0ea7142f901d9be88fe1d0d58ea2d12b20961f4c | Biblical names are out and pop culture is in for America's newborns - if this year's list of most popular baby names are anything to go by. The once hearty trend of parents naming their babies after Biblical scripture has shown a steady decline in recent years according to an annual baby name report by BabyCenter.com. What can be gathered in supplement shows a perhaps surprising uptick in inspiration from pop culture such as erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, TV show Downton Abbey and even Apple electronics. Inspired: Beyonce's newborn baby Blue Ivy, pictured with her here, may be behind the slight jump in the same names for babies born this year along with other pop culture references . Among names taken from the Bible for 2012 there were just three boys' names among the list of top 10 - Ethan, Noah and Jacob - while none made the top 10 list for girls. TOP 10 BOYS NAMES: . TOP 10 GIRLS NAMES: . That's a stark contrast from 12 years ago when Biblical names dominated the top 10 list, in 2000 it being: Michael, Jacob, Matthew, Joseph, Joshua, and Andrew. For girls in 2000 it was Hannah, Sarah and Elizabeth. If any trend can be seen this year one could blame at least one other book Americans are reading right now. From EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, first name Grey shot up 155 spots. Anastasia rose 43 spots and Elliot - Christian Grey's brother - went up by 14 per cent. If any Downtown Abbey fans received visits from the Stork this year, they may be mutually held responsible for an increase in the names Branson (by 32 per cent), Charlie (23 per cent), Elsie (29 per cent), and Daisy (27 per cent). Names Edith, Sybil, Robert, Cora, Isobel and Violet also rose. TV admirers: Names featured in the hit TV show Downtown Abbey also showed a spike with the name Branson, like the character named Tom Branson pictured, seeing a rise by 32 per cent . Perhaps further showing the times - contrasting back when actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay musician Chris Martin named their baby 'Apple' surprising many who had never heard of the fruit and widespread computer manufacturer used as a name - Apple rose 15 per cent this year. Adding to the Apple iPhone, iPad, iMac buzz, the name Siri – Apple’s computer generated assistant - climbed by 5 per cent while Mac for boys jumped by 12 per cent. All three names are still deep down on the list, however, with Apple taking 3,204th place, Siri taking 1,427th, and Mac taking 624. Surprise ending: The names Grey, Anastasia and Elliot, featured in the erotic book Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James, pictured, also saw a rise among newborns . Musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z's uniquely named Blue Ivy Carter also perhaps stirred a rise in names Blue and Ivy which both saw an increase this year - Blue by 51 per cent and Ivy by 27 per cent. Though Blue is still down on the list hitting 2,571th place, Ivy rose to 157th place. Among this year's most popular names, Aiden tops list of top 10 for the eight year in a row while Sophia continues to hold her own among the girls' 10 for the fifth year running. | Other names gaining popularity are found mirroring those in erotic book Fifty Shades of Grey and TV show Downton Abbey . |
0ea787291a4831d752b362900d565ffe04f3a90a | By . Daniel Martin . PUBLISHED: . 17:26 EST, 15 April 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 02:35 EST, 16 April 2012 . MPs are fighting to keep 12 fig trees in their offices, even though it costs the taxpayer £32,500 a year. They say removing the trees from an entrance hall in a parliamentary office block would make the place too hot and noisy. More than £400,000 has been spent on the rental and upkeep of the trees since they were installed 11 years ago. Not giving a fig: Politicians say this entrance at Portcullis House in Westminister would become overheated if the trees were removed . Despite this, MPs are suggesting they be kept – claiming that uprooting the trees would make the glass-roofed atrium of Portcullis House, in Westminster, uncomfortably hot in the summer and would decrease the quality of air that MPs breathe. They also claim that removing the trees would result in ‘higher ambient noise levels’, making it harder for parliamentarians to do their job. In February, John Bercow said he was 'horrified' to discover that parliamentary authorities had signed the contract and called for it to be scrapped . The option of keeping the trees will be discussed at a meeting of Commons officials next week. In February, Speaker John Bercow said he was ‘horrified’ to discover that parliamentary authorities had signed the contract, which began in 2001, and called for it to be scrapped to save taxpayers’ money. But it has now emerged that the House of Commons Commission, which runs the parliamentary estate, is suggesting that getting rid of the trees could be more trouble than it is worth. Instead, they will try to reduce the cost to taxpayers by renegotiating with the rental firm Plant Care. The information was revealed by Anne . Main, Tory MP for St Albans, after she tabled a parliamentary question . to the House of Commons Commission. She . asked whether the body had ‘given consideration to the use of the space . previously occupied by the fig trees in Portcullis House in the event . that the trees are removed’. John . Thurso, a Lib Dem MP who sits on the board of the Commission, replied: . ‘No. The Commission agreed on February 27 that the contract for the hire . and upkeep of trees should be renegotiated at the earliest opportunity . with the aim of reducing the cost significantly. ‘Removal of the trees would lead to a . noticeable increase in noise levels and reduced levels of shade . (especially in summer, where the glass roof would probably lead to a . requirement for additional cooling). The trees also improve air . quality.’ The option of keeping the trees inside Portcullis House, pictured, will be discussed at a meeting of Commons officials next week . Mr Thurso added: ‘The removal of the trees would result in higher ambient noise levels.’ A spokesman for the House of Commons Commission said no decision would be taken on what to do with the trees until next week. A spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘Despite all the warm words from Westminster, it appears MPs are all talk when it comes to rooting out wasteful spending. ‘Taxpayers are getting a terrible deal from renting this opulent greenery. Parliament should do the right thing and find a more affordable solution. ‘Politicians shouldn’t shy away from ditching wasteful contracts.’ Not giving a fig: Politicians say this entrance would become overheated . | More than £400,000 has been spent on the rental and upkeep of the trees since 2001 .
MPs say removing the trees would make their office hot and noisy . |
0ea7ab457030b7b2d4dfa493d3311876a7ef78c5 | By . Anna Hodgekiss . PUBLISHED: . 09:40 EST, 14 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 11:01 EST, 14 November 2012 . Wu Qiang was suffering from diagnosed with hemangiomas, benign tumors of the cells that line blood vessels. The tumours had even grown over his eyes, leaving him virtually blind . A Chinese man is recovering from surgery to remove huge, disfiguring facial tumours. Wu Qiang, 33, was born with a small bump on his face. But in 2005 the bump started to grow quickly and just a few years later his face was completely covered in unsightly tumours. They had even grown over his eyes, leaving him virtually blind. Mr Qiang was later diagnosed with hemangiomas - benign tumors of the endothelial cells that line blood vessels. About 30 per cent of hemangiomas are present at birth, with the rest appearing in the first several months of life. They usually disappear by the age of 10. Mr Qiang does not work because he rarely left the house due to his appearance. He was able to have surgery to remove the facial tumours thanks to donations from the public. Speaking about Mr Qiang's surgery, chief . surgeon Zhou Fei said: 'He now can feel vague lights, which is good . for him. We'll try our best to let him have a normal life.' Mr Qiang added: 'My biggest hope is to support my family and be a volunteer to help others after my recovery.' Hemangiomas may be either in the top or deep layers of skin - or a mixture of both. Mr Qiang is recovering in hospital after surgery to remove the disfiguring facial tumours. He was able to have surgery thanks to donations from the public . Occasionally, a hemangioma can break down . and develop a sore. This can lead to pain, bleeding, scarring or . infection. In severe cases, such as Mr Qiang's, they can also interfere with breathing, feeding, or other vital functions and so must be treated. | Wu Qiang, 33, was born with a small bump on his face .
Seven years ago it began growing and his face became covered in tumours .
Diagnosed with hemangiomas - benign tumors of cells that line blood vessels .
Recently had surgery after they left him unable to see or breathe properly . |
0ea7e50474d0ddff37eee33077f5bf11b8c67952 | By . Paul Thompson . UPDATED: . 06:43 EST, 7 September 2011 . The pilot of Air Force One has revealed for the first time how they feared the presidential jet would be rammed by hijacked jet in the hours after the 9/11 terror attack. Colonel Mark Tillman said he and his crew received a radio message saying 'Angel is next' as America reeled from the attack on the twin towers. Angel was the secret call sign for Air Force One as it left Sarasota, Florida, where President Bush had been told about the attacks on the Twin Towers. Warning: Colonel Mark Tillman said he and his crew received a radio message saying 'Angel is next' Under threat: President Bush and staffers look out at fighter jets accompanying Air Force One en route from Sarasota, Florida, to Shreveport, Louisiana . Tillman revealed air traffic controllers also gave them an ominous warning that another passenger jet was close to them that was not responding to calls. 'As we got over Gainesville, Fla., we got the word from Jacksonville Center. They said, "Air Force One you have traffic behind you and basically above you that is descending into you, we are not in contact with them - they have shut their responder off". 'And at that time it kind of led us to believe maybe someone was coming into us in Sarasota, they saw us take off, they just stayed high and are following us at this point. 'We had no idea what the capabilities of the terrorist were at that point.' Tillman said he flew the specially adapted Boeing 747 out into the Gulf of Mexico to see if the other plane would follow. Safe: President Bush walks down the steps of Air Force One as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on 9/11 . Concern: President Bush speaks to vice president Dick Cheney by phone aboard Air Force One on September 11 . When the other jet continued on its route he was later told it was an airliner that had lost its transponder -which sends out an electronic identification signal - and the pilots had failed to switch to a new radio frequency. Tillman said the threat remained and he received the message:'We got word from the vice president and the staff that 'Angel was next,' Angel being the classified call sign of Air Force One.' 'Once we got into the Gulf and they passed to us that 'Angel was next,' at that point I asked for fighter support. If an airliner was part of the attack, it would be good to have fighters on the wing to go ahead and take care of us.' The senior pilot said President Bush's plans to fly to Washington DC were scrapped and he landed at air force bases in Louisiana and Nebraska from where the president addressed the nation. Tillman said he was fearful Air Force One would be attacked when he brought the plane back to Andrews Air Force base in Washington DC. Message: President Bush is told news of the 9/11 terror attacks . Escort: A F-16 fighter flies just off the wing of the presidential aircraft Air Force One on a flight back to Washington on 9/11 . 'All along, everybody knew I was bringing him home, so my fear was they've done all of this, they know Air Force One is eventually going to come back to Washington, D.C.; they are sitting there, they're waiting for us,' he said. Tillman, who now flies a corporate jet after retiring from his duties with Air Force One in 2009, said he fears terrorists will launch another attack. He told Fox News:'I'm a strong believer that there will be other attacks. 'They caught us with our pants down, they attacked our country, they attacked from within... You got to assume right now that they're going to go ahead and infiltrate us and they're going to go ahead, take advantage of everything we offer to them.' He added:'I think President Bush did a great job making sure the American people realize our safety is important, but we've got to go ahead and protect each and every one of us, take care of each other and change the way we do business so the terrorists won't take advantage of us anymore.' | Air traffic controllers warned another jet was approaching and not responding to calls .
Pilot flew the Boeing 747 out into the Gulf of Mexico but the other plane did not follow . |
0ea7fc6adfb0b8c7d1814a29999bace73d9f3248 | By . Thomas Burrows for MailOnline . These stunning aerial photos reveal the new shape of London thanks to a mainline railway that will run through the heart of the capital. The £6.5 billion Thameslink rail project will connect multiple regional destinations on either side of the city for the first time with Tube-like service frequency. When complete in 2018, the railway will link Brighton and Gatwick Airport with central London and stations north of the Thames, including Luton Airport and Bedford. The current Brighton-to-Bedford route will add Cambridge, King's Lynn, Ashford and Eastbourne as destinations. Scroll down for video . A view of the Shard and London Bridge station with existing platforms (right) and new platforms (left) under construction as part of the £6.5 billion Thameslink rail project . The Thameslink rail project will connect multiple regional destinations on either side of the city for the first time with Tube-like service frequency . At the heart of the programme is the complete rebuilding of London Bridge, that will have the largest concourse in the country when finished . A view of King's Cross (centre left), St Pancras (centre) and Euston (large square roof right) and the new Thameslink Canal tunnel under construction . The redevelopment of small tunnel entrance at Bermondsey, south London, that is part of the £6.5 billion Thameslink rail project . A picture showing the Bermondsey small tunnel entrance - trains will run through London every two to three minutes and improve connections to more destinations . The programme includes a rebuilding of London Bridge and will link Brighton and Gatwick Airport with central London and stations north of the Thames, including Luton Airport and Bedford. The current Brighton-to-Bedford route will add Cambridge, King's Lynn, Ashford and Eastbourne as destinations when completed in 2018 . At the heart of the programme is Britain's biggest station redevelopment - the complete rebuilding of London Bridge. In the shadow of the imposing 306m high Shard, London's fourth-busiest station is currently until Monday. As a result, more than 50,000 passengers who normally travel into London Bridge in the morning peak hours are having to find alternative routes to work. Once finished, the station will have the largest concourse in the country - bigger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium. A view of Gatwick Airport - when complete in 2018, the railway will link the airport with central London and stations north of the Thames . A view of Brighton station in East Sussex, which will form part of the £6.5 billion Thameslink rail project, which connects the station with central London . The Ouse Valley viaduct, also called Balcombe viaduct in Sussex, which will be used to connect the area with London and stations north of the River Thames . The Thameslink programme was first proposed in the 1980s. In 2005 – with work yet to begin – the then transport secretary Alistair Darling admitted that the original name - the Thameslink 2000 - was 'a bit of a joke'. Since then Network Rail have referred to the project as the Thameslink Programme. A more detailed look at the routes in London (in black) that the £6.5 billion Thameslink rail project will go to - the railway runs through the heart of the capital . The map shows the planned rail routes once the programme is completed in 2018. There is already an existing rail network that was finished in July 2007 . | The project will connect many regional destinations on either side of London for the first time when complete in 2018 .
At the heart of the programme is Britain's biggest redevelopment - the complete rebuilding of London Bridge .
Once finished, the station will have the largest concourse in the country - bigger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium . |
0ea8962dff160a4e69c05d1a12ca025443678531 | By . Rebecca Evans . PUBLISHED: . 14:17 EST, 24 July 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 19:23 EST, 24 July 2012 . Wellington College housemaster Bruce Roth, pictured arriving at Reading Crown Court, where he was convicted of all 17 sex abuse charges . A housemaster at one of Britain’s most prestigious public schools was jailed for 11 years today after being found guilty of sexually assaulting five young boys during a ‘20-year campaign of abuse’. Predatory paedophile Bruce Roth, 46, would sneak into the dormitory of £30,000-a-year Wellington College to molest his victims as they slept. He was also convicted of assaulting two eight-year-old boys at £26,000-a-year King’s School, in Kent, where he worked before his recent post at the Berkshire boarding school. Throughout the trial, the court heard that ‘highly manipulative’ maths teacher Roth had performed sex acts on some of the boys and had encouraged one child to do the same to him. He was initially investigated and suspended at Rochester’s King’s School, where he worked between 1987 and 1994, after relatives of the two pupils reported him to staff. But following an internal inquiry, Roth, a former singer with 80s pop band The Housemartins, was exonerated after a teacher decided it was his word against that of a pupil. His reign of abuse did not end until one of his victims phoned children’s charity ChildLine and he was finally arrested in October 2010. Roth vehemently denied the charges . against him - accusing his victims of conspiring against him because . they did not like him as a teacher. He even went as far as to brand one of them a ‘fantasist’ with a ‘sinister’ side. But today, he was convicted of 17 counts of sexual offences against children after month-long week trial at Reading Crown Court. The £30,000-a-year Wellington College in Berkshire, where Roth abused his victims as they slept . Roth was also convicted of assaulting two eight-year-old boys at £26,000-a-year King's School, in Kent . Ruth was sentenced to 11 years in jail for his 20 years of abuse against male students . As the jury returned their verdicts, Roth, who was dressed in a smart grey suit and tie, stood in the dock and shook his head in disbelief. As the foreman read the guilty counts, a woman was heard sobbing in the public gallery. Prosecutor . Daniel Fugallo said: ‘Over a period of 20 years, from the late 1980s . through to 2009, he has abused his position of trust as a teacher by . touching five boys in his care for his own sexual gratification. ‘These boys were at the time these offences took place, say the prosecution, between eight and 15 years old. ‘They are now all young men in their late 20s and 30s.’ Earlier in the trial the jury had . visited Wellington College, whose master is Tony Blair’s biographer . Anthony Seldon, to be shown the corridors and dorms where pupils alleged . they were abused. After the sentencing, Mr Seldon said he was ‘sickened and appalled by his employee’s vile crimes.’ He . added: 'The whole staff at Wellington, who work tirelessly to nurture and protect the pupils at the college, are angered and saddened that a staff member could have committed these vile crimes.'This abuse represents a terrible betrayal of trust - that Roth could have preyed on vulnerable boys who were in his care is unforgivable.'As head of this school which is trying to provide education and care of the highest standard, I am deeply sickened and appalled by what has happened.'The very day a former pupil of the college came forward with his accusations, we immediately suspended Mr Roth and reported our concerns to the police and social services. Master of Wellington College Anthony . Seldon, left, a biographer of Tony Blair, said he was sickened by what . Roth had done. Impressionist Rory Bremner, right, was a pupil at the . school before Roth taught there . 'During the subsequent investigations we . have worked closely with the authorities to ensure that no stone has . been left unturned and that the police managed to gather sufficient . evidence to lead to a conviction. 'Indeed the police have publicly . acknowledged Wellington's actions and responsiveness throughout the . course of their investigations. 'Unfortunately, no vetting system can . ever guarantee that every paedophile is identified. I am happy that . Wellington offers the greatest possible protection to its pupils. We . have been praised in the highest possible terms for our pastoral care.' The elite school also counts broadcaster Peter Snow, comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner, pop star Will Young, journalist and author Sebastian Faulks among its alumni. Former pupils of King’s School include ex-Conservative cabinet minister John Gummer and former Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong. The court heard that one of Roth’s first victims contacted him years later on Facebook to ask if he was a paedophile after remembering how he had touched his groin. The boy recalled how Roth, who has toured with DJ Fat Boy Slim (Norman Cook), would often punish boys by making then strip to their underwear and run laps, or lie on their backs and memorise constellations, the court heard. Historic: Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh meet staff at Wellington College in 1959, one of several royal visits to the school . Another former pupil told how Roth would enter his dormitory in the middle of the night to sit on his bed. He would tell him not to move as he carried out his vile attack. One of his victims was so traumatised that he later tried to kill himself. The court also heard that shooting enthusiast Roth’s computer was analysed by police and it was discovered that he had typed ‘teen boy sex’ into a search engine. On sentencing, Judge Simon Davis described Roth as a ‘plausible, intelligent man’, who was capable of being highly manipulative. He said his crimes at Wellington College may have been shaped by his being cleared of wrongdoing at his previous school in Kent. He said: ‘You set about abusing your privileged surroundings and position of trust in a truly grave manner. I have no doubt you carefully chose your targets.’ Roth denied all 17 charges against him, four of indecent assault on a male person under 16, four counts of sexual activity with a child, three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in a sexual activity and six counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust. All of the charges related to incidents between 1987 and 2009. | Maths teacher Bruce Roth, a former pop singer, abused five boys at two different public schools .
The 46 year-old was jailed for 11 years for the 'truly grave' abuse .
He denied the charges and claimed his victims had conspired against him .
Headteacher of £30,000-a-year Wellington College said he was 'sickened' by the news . |
0ea8ae63b8546355d103a64d377b442ba456d824 | By . Nick Fagge . UPDATED: . 20:01 EST, 25 December 2011 . Britain has been deposed by Brazil as the sixth largest economy in the world, latest figures show. In a dramatic illustration of changing global economic fortunes, the UK has fallen behind a South American nation for the first time. The figures, from the Centre for Economic and Business Research’s annual world economic league table, show Britain is now the seventh richest country in the world. New money: The economy of Brazil. Latin America's largest country, has surged because of vast reserves of natural resources and a rapidly growing - and cash-rich - middle class . Falling behind: The UK languishes in the grip of a national debt crisis and lack of bank credit . The U.S., China, Japan, Germany and France occupy the top five places. More often associated with football and dirt-poor shanty towns known as favelas, Brazil is fast becoming one of the powerhouses of the global economy. The largest country in Latin America, its economy has surged because of vast reserves of natural resources and a rapidly growing, and cash-rich, middle class. At the same time the UK languishes in the grip of a national debt crisis and lack of bank credit. Britons continue to be better off and enjoy a far higher standard of living than the vast majority of people in Brazil but the latter’s 203million population provides huge economic clout. ‘The punching power of Brazil as a whole has overtaken Britain because of the huge economic potential of people who live there,’ Peter Slowe, a former government economic policy advisor, told the Daily Mail. ‘Brazil has a variety of natural resources to rely on including gold and silver as well as oil off-shore and minerals in the Amazon. ‘By contrast the UK economy is affected by the problems of the eurozone.’ Brazil’s stable political situation also attracts investors. Its hard-won democracy also provides foreign investors with the peace of mind that the status quo is unlikely to be overturned by a popular revolution. Brazil floundered under a number of military dictatorships throughout the 20th century until civilian control was established in 1985. The rapid economic development in the huge South American state is likely to come at the expense of the Amazon – and its indigenous people, animals and extraordinary forests. Dr Slowe said: ‘Brazil, unlike China, is a democracy which is much more attractive to investors. ‘This means the country is unlikely to undergo prolonged civil unrest which is likely to occur at some time in China. ‘The country has huge potential but the vast majority of their resources are in Amazon basin. ‘And the cost of exploiting this mineral wealth is the loss of the habitat and the traditions of indigenous tribes who have lived the same way since the Stone Age.’ The relegation to sixth spot is the latest blow to the British economy. In the middle of a prolonged economic downturn and dragged into the euro crisis because of its trade relations with the Continent, the UK has also been involved in an unseemly spat with France. London has come under sustained attack from French ministers over which country has the best economic prospects. Although the latest figures from the CEBR would suggest the French are ahead, they also predict that Britain will leapfrog France by 2020. The CEBR says that by then the UK economy will be the eighth largest in the world, one ahead of France and two behind Brazil. By ALEX BRUMMER . Carnival: Brazil can celebrate . Britons have long been proud of the economic success of a nation that has punched well above its weight in the world. So news that our output has fallen below that of Brazil will come as something of a jolt. After all, the British empire – and its engineers and financiers – were behind the building of much of the infrastructure of Latin America, a legacy that endures today. But rather than viewing our decline vis-à-vis Brazil and other fast-growing economies as a blow to our prestige, we should see it as an opportunity. The tectonic plates of the global economy have shifted dramatically in the past decade with the relentless rise of Russia, India and China, as well as Brazil. Other emerging market nations from South Africa to Indonesia, from Korea to Malaysia and Singapore are pushing for places at the top table. The Group of Seven rich industrial nations, which excluded the new wealth creators, was expanded in 2009 – at the height of the financial crisis – to include many of the new powers to create the G20. That has become the world’s top economic decision-making body. The events triggering Britain’s fall down the global league table are partly predictable. Britain’s economy has failed to expand since the 2008-09 financial crisis and output remains 4 per cent below its pre-crash peak. In contrast Brazil, which accounts for approximately two-thirds of the output of Latin America, has been enjoying a boom based on soaring prices for resources including oil, agricultural products and metals such as iron and bauxite-aluminium. Unlike the economies of the Northern hemisphere, Brazil also managed to avoid being caught up in the United States sub-prime crisis of 2007-09 and the sovereign debt catastrophe that has turned much of Southern Europe into a basket case. Good news? Economist Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs believes the rise of the newly wealthy nations provides a huge break for Britain . Leading economists – notably Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs – believe the rise of the newly wealthy nations provides a huge break for Britain. With the current slow growth in the sclerotic eurozone, which is likely to persist for years, it is a chance for the Government and UK companies to direct their operations away from the over-regulated single currency area to new markets. Despite a decline in manufacturing in recent decades Britain still has leading-edge companies in aerospace and pharmaceuticals that are already making serious inroads in Asia. DIAGEO, distiller of Johnny Walker and the world’s largest spirits group, has conducted a series of lightning raids on newly wealthy countries from China to Africa and Latin America (it sponsors the Brazilian Grand Prix). Its goal is that within a few years up to 50 per cent of its earnings will come from these regions. Most importantly, however, Britain has an edge in service provision. This extends beyond banking and insurance activities where the City of London is a world leader, to other key areas of expertise including legal activities, accounting and consulting.Mr O’Neill and others believe that these technical services together with architecture and engineering consulting, as well as advice on energy, infrastructure and water projects, offer a new dawn for Britain. So instead of seeing the rise of Brazil and other emerging markets as a challenge to our national prestige we should exploit it for our own benefit. It is time to jettison our focus on the European Union, the keystone of our economic and trade policy since our entry into the Common Market in 1973, and restore Britain’s historic ties to Asia, Latin America and Africa where the growth markets are orientated. Brazil should not be regarded as a competitor for economic hegemony but a vast market to be exploited. | Figures show a dramatic illustration of changing global fortunes .
China, Japan, Germany, France and the U.S. occupy the top five places .
Brazil fast-becoming one of the powerhouses of the global economy . |
0ea97c326e5647f66f43e99b03cec99e277be5ff | By . Steve Nolan . PUBLISHED: . 01:17 EST, 18 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:36 EST, 18 June 2013 . Junk food manufacturers are still bypassing rules on advertising unhealthy products to children and fueling the UK's obesity epidemic, a new report has claimed. The World Health Organisation has called for tighter regulations after it said that attempts to crack down on children being targeted by TV advertising by British regulators have fallen short. Although there are tough rules protecting youngsters from being targeted by such advertising during children's TV programmes, there are no restrictions on shows such as ITV's Britain's Got Talent and the X Factor. Vulnerable: Despite a crackdown by regulators, children are still being targeted by junk food marketing, according to the World Health Organisation (file picture) Research shows that those programmes are widely enjoyed by young viewers. Youngsters are also increasingly being targeted on social media websites, through mobile phones or through 'advergames' on food company websites. According to The Guardian, the WHO calls for further regulations to be put in place across Europe to stop children being targeted by marketing promoting foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt. Zsuzsanna Jakab, regional director of WHO Europe, said: 'Policy must simply catch up and address the reality of an obese childhood in the 21st century. 'Children are surrounded by adverts urging them to consume high fat, high sugar, high salt foods, even when they are in places where they should be protected, such as schools and sports facilities.' Only five countries in Europe - Denmark, France, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden - have fully implemented EU rules on restricting marketing to children but the UK has done more than many nations. Popular with children: Although there are advertising restrictions preventing certain types of adverts during children's television programmes, there are no rules relating to shows such as Britain's Got Talent . Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has said that junk food advertising during children's television programmes dropped by almost 40 per cent between 2005 and 2009. There has been an increase in junk food advertising at other times of the day, however. But cutting out television advertising does not go far enough to protect young people, says the report. In 2009, online advertising overtook television advertising in the UK and with two thirds of five to seven year olds and 85 per cent of eight to 11 year olds accessing the web through home computers, they are susceptible to seeing junk food adverts. Many food companies are now said to be developing websites that appeal to children and feature games advertising their products and there is no restriction on the use of cartoon characters such as Kellogg's Tony the Tiger to promote products. | World Health Organisation calls for tighter regulations to be introduced .
A damning report claims that a UK crackdown on adverts has fallen short .
The WHO says adverts targeting children are fueling childhood obesity . |
0eaa3e2e8b8f80f5db4ed47b46a75f93fdd74465 | Read Martin Samuel's take on the Messi and Ronaldo debate . Lionel Messi is a 'bigger genius' than Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, according to Fabio Capello. The Real Madrid star made it a hat-trick of wins in the FIFA awards gala in Zurich on Monday, beating Messi to the coveted prize. However, Capello reckons Barcelona ace Messi, who won the gong FOUR years in a row, is a better player as speculation over his future at the Camp Nou rumbles on. Lionel Messi is a 'bigger genius' than Cristiano Ronaldo, despite his Ballon d'Or snub, says Fabio Capello . Ronaldo poses with his trophy after picking up his third Ballon d'Or in Zurich on Monday . The Italian told COPE: 'Can Ronaldo win more Ballons d'Or than Messi? It's a very interesting battle. Messi is a bigger genius than Ronaldo, but he is having some problems at his club and that could cause some problems. 'Cristiano is very solid and mentally very strong. He wants to become the best ever and plays in an amazing team. 'All his team-mates help him and he in turn helps out the team as well. It's crucial to have the respect of all your team-mates and to always train well.' Barcelona must keep hold of Messi as speculation over his future rumbles on . Messi still has three years to run on his contract at Barcelona but has been linked with a move away. However, former Three Lions chief Capello insists they must pull out all the stops to keep the Argentine in Spain. He added: 'Barcelona should never sell Messi. How can you sell someone like Messi? 'I saw him play at the weekend. He didn't have a good start and did not seem to be enjoying himself. And then all of a sudden he awoke and put in a superb performance. Barcelona simply cannot sell a player like him.' Former England boss Fabio Capello reckons Messi is better than Ronaldo . | Fabio Capello has his say on the Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo debate .
Former England boss says Messi is 'bigger genius' than Ronaldo .
Barcelona star was pipped to Ballon d'Or by his La Liga rival . |
0eaa62fc64c7cbc7ff738ae8091b83408ca30901 | By . Rebecca Evans and Chloe Thomas . PUBLISHED: . 19:32 EST, 7 December 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 19:38 EST, 7 December 2012 . Almost half of all TV programmes shown on the four main channels during Christmas week will be repeats. During the festive period, viewers can expect an experience of deja vu as they’re faced with a re-run of vintage shows such as Only Fools And Horses, The Vicar Of Dibley and Dad’s Army. The worst offender is BBC2 – with eight out of ten programmes being repeats. Vintage viewing: Dad's Army is one of the TV programmes which will be re-run during the festive period . Meanwhile, those expecting blockbuster film premieres will be left disappointed as three-quarters of all the films being broadcast have been shown before. With more than 98 films hitting the screens, only 23 are network premieres, whereas 75 (77 per cent) are old. Among the selection of tried and tested family films are Toy Story, Wallace And Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, Gremlins, Singin’ In The Rain and A Christmas Carol. Worst offender: Re-runs of The Vicar of Dibley will also be played. The worst offender is BBC2, with eight out of ten programmes being repeats . Research on the long-awaited Christmas TV schedule conducted by the Mail shows that from Saturday, December 22, to Friday, December 28, 49 per cent of all programmes are repeats on the four main terrestrial channels – BBC1, BBC2, ITV1 and Channel 4. The channel with the most new shows is BBC1, with 18 per cent of the 172 programmes being repeats. For ITV1, a third of all their shows are repeats, followed by 60 per cent for Channel 4. But out of the 155 programmes on BBC2, some 127 are recycled Christmas offerings. There are growing concerns that broadcasters are failing to offer enough variety during the festive period. In terms of film premieres, ITV1 has the least with only two out of 22 on offer, these being Tangled and Couples Retreat on Christmas Day. Channel 4 has the most with nine out of its 27 films, including all of the Swedish Millennium trilogy – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest. A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘In peak time on BBC1 over 90 per cent of programmes have never been seen before, including Christmas specials for Doctor Who, Call The Midwife, Mrs Brown’s Boys, The Royle Family and Miranda. ‘In addition to a wide range of brand-new programmes on BBC2, many of its repeats are of classic shows including Morecambe And Wise, Victoria Wood, Blackadder, and a tribute to Ronnie Barker.’ | The worst offender is BBC2, with eight out of ten programmes being repeats .
Three-quarters of all films being broadcast have been shown before . |
0eaace0faa560fb5e3039bd8e9d5062c3ee53a4c | By . Eleanor Gower . UPDATED: . 19:15 EST, 30 August 2012 . Ahead of tonight's premiere of the second season of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, questions have finally been answered about whether Russell Armstrong will feature in the show, following his suicide three weeks ago. The show's executive producer Douglas Ross confirmed on this morning's edition of The Today Show that the late, estranged husband of star Taylor Armstrong would not be appearing in the first few episodes. His comments came as three cast members Adrienne Maloof, Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump, spoke out for the first time since Russell's death. Re-edit: Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Executive Producer Douglas Ross discussed Russell Armstrong's suicide with sstars Lisa Vanderpump, Kyle Richards and Adrienne Maloof on The Today Show this morning . 'In . the first few episodes that we've finished editing, Russell is not . included in these episodes,' Ross said during the appearance. 'But it is important to know . that Taylor's story is told throughout the season.' Media reports had suggested that the . initial cut of the series premiere featured some elements of the . couple's deteriorating relationship. Ross confirmed Bravo had made 'some adjustments' in order to be 'respectful and responsible.' Meanwhile, Adrienne, Lisa and Kyle revealed they had recently spoken to Taylor. Reaction: The reality show stars will also appear in an interview ahead of tonight's premiere episode of the show's second season . Sad reality: The demise of Taylor and Russell Armstrong's marriage is likely to be detailed in the second season of the hit show . 'She was very beside herself,' said Adrienne. 'I think her concern is her little girl now. It's heart breaking.' 'We spent a couple of evenings with her this week,' said Lisa. 'She's trying to . digest everything. 'We've tried to be as supportive as possible but her . priority is her little girl. It's been very very sad. Very difficult,' she added, referring to Taylor and Russell's five-year-old daughter Kennedy. And Kyle said news of Russell's death was a 'complete shock.' She said: 'I always saw him as being reserved and . quiet. I knew that they had their issues. But no-one could have . anticipated something like that.' But all three housewives were adamant when asked by Today show host Savannah Guthrie if appearing on the reality show had 'racked up the pressure' on Russell. 'We lead and they follow,' said Lisa. 'We create and they document. I've never felt any responsibility to bring drama. 'If you follow the lives of six people over a year, and we've all had some major issues in the last year and a half, they just tell the accurate story.' 'It's basically documenting our lives. It's reality TV and it's very real,' added Adrienne, . They also admitted there was some thought about whether the season would go ahead. 'I think we all had to reflect at some point,' admitted Adrienne. Their responses came just days after Russell's mother John Ann . Hotchkiss released a statement expressing her dissatisfaction that the season would not be delayed following her son's death by hanging at a friend's house in L.A. on August 15. Difficult: Lisa Vanderpump revealed she had spent a few evenings with cast mate Taylor Armstrong, who had been 'trying to digest' the events of the past few weeks . Speaking out: Kyle came to the defence of the reality show, saying that Russell Armstrong had signed up for season two, while Adrienne said they had to 'reflect' following the tragedy . 'When I was informed of this, I thought, "I hope Bravo will take the . high road and keep it tasteful. Let's not murder my son twice." She . said: "I began to notice things starting to fray when the television . thing came into being, and I was very concerned. The programme itself . really brought him down.' However Kyle reiterated that Russell had 'signed up for season one and came back for season two.' She . added: 'When we started the show, they cast six women and they didn't . really know anything about our story. Not appearing: Russell Armstrong, seen here in a first season episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, will not be seen in the first few episodes of the new season . 'They didn't know in season one . that Kelsey was going to leave Camille or the issues between my sister . (Kim) and me. They certainly didn't know the troubles that he had.' 'This show is about . six strong, aggressive, successful beautiful women and their stories,' added Ross. 'And although Taylor and Russell's story is a part of it, it's not the . whole show. 'But we did want to address it appropriately and that's why . tonight's episode gets the entire cast together to sit down and . reflect and talk about their feelings of sadness and grief and try to . put the season we shot six months ago in perspective.' Controversial: Tonight's season premiere of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills will go ahead as planned despite the Armstrong tragedy . Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy . | Bravo spokesperson says Russell Armstrong will NOT be shown in early episodes . |
0eaaf5f10251d88c25e3b6b8e0c0c26655da2754 | The Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars this morning, making India the first Asian nation to reach the red planet. The Mars Orbiter Mission cost £45 million ($74 million), or about three-quarters the amount to make the Oscar-winning movie Gravity about astronauts stranded in space. It arrived in orbit around the red planet after a tense 300-day marathon travelling more than 420 million miles (670 million km). Scroll down for videos . Thumbs up: India's low-cost mission to Mars successfully entered the red planet's orbit on this morning. Pictured are Indian staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrating the success of the mission . Just an hour after reaching the orbit, India's space agency, ISRO, received the first photographic data of the red planet’s terrain, which will be unveiled later this afternoon. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mom) crowned a 'near impossible' push to become the only country to complete the trip on its maiden attempt. Both Russia and the US failed their first attempts to Mars, while the Chinese mission to Mars, dubbed Yinghuo-1 mission failed in 2011 and the Japanese mission to Mars ran out of fuel. 'History has been created today,' said Modi at the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) when it was announced the mission had been accomplished. Big spenders: A comparison of how much countries have spent on their attempts to reach Mars. Both Russia and the US failed their first attempts to Mars, while the Chinese mission to Mars, dubbed Yinghuo-1 mission failed in 2011 and the Japanese mission to Mars ran out of fuel . Race to the red planet: The Mangalyaan spacecraft (artist's impression pictured) successfully entered orbit around Mars this morning, making India the first Asian nation to reach the red planet . Jubilant: Indian PM Narendra Modi is seen on a screen as he addresses scientists alongside a graphic of the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, after the spacecraft successfully entered into the Mars orbit, at the Indian Space Research Organisation's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore on Wednesday . This graphic reveals the trajectory and plans for India's Mars Orbiter Mission. ISRO successfully ignited the main 440 Newton liquid engineand eight small thrusters that fired for 24 minutes and trimmedthe speed of the craft to allow smooth orbit insertion under Mars' shadow . On average, it lies 141.6 million miles from the sun. With a diameter of 4,222 miles, it’s around half the size of the Earth and has an average temperature of -85F (-65C). Gravity is much less powerful - slightly less than 40 per cent of ours. The atmosphere is desperately thin – one per cent of Earth’s pressure – and 95 per cent of it is carbon dioxide. It boasts the solar system’s biggest mountain – Olympus Mons, a dead volcano. It measures 335 miles across and rises to a height of 88,000ft, which is almost three times higher than Everest.Mars has two cosmic sidekicks – the moons Deimos and Phobos. Mars’s red colouring comes from the iron oxide that coats its surface. Mars has huge amounts of ice at its polar caps.If they melted, it would cover the whole planet in water 11-metres deep, according to Nasa. 'We have dared to reach out into the unknown and haveachieved the near impossible,' said Modi, wearing a symbolic redwaistcoat at the space command centre in the southern city of Bangalore. Modi has said he wants to expand the country's . five-decade-old space programme. With a spacecraft around Mars, India joins a small group of . nations - the United States, Russia and Europe - that have . successfully sent probes to orbit or land on Mars. ISRO successfully ignited the main 440 Newton liquid engine . and eight small thrusters that fired for 24 minutes and trimmed . the speed of the craft to allow smooth orbit insertion under . Mars' shadow. A confirmation of orbit entry was received at . around 8 a.m. India time. After completing the journey in more than 10 months, the Mangalyaan spacecraft ('Mars craft' in Hindi) will now study the red planet's surface and scan its atmosphere . for chemical methane. It will be examining Mars for methane, a key chemical in life processes on Earth that could also come from geological processes. None of the instruments will send back enough data to answer these questions definitively, but experts say the data will help them better understand how planets form and what conditions might make life possible. Scientists said it was helpful that Mangalyaan's data will reflect the same time period as data being collected by Nasa's newest Maven mission, allowing the two data sets to be compared for better understanding. The U.S. has two more satellites circling the planet at the moment, as well as two rovers rolling across the rocky Martian surface. The official Twitter account of Nasa's Curiosity Rover - which has been on the Martian surface since 2012, tweeted: 'Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India’s first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit. Mangalyaan’s Twitter account replied: 'Howdy @MarsCuriosity ? Keep in touch. I’ll be around.' The technological triumph is fortuitously timed for Modi - . he will be able to flaunt the achievement on a trip to the . United States starting on Friday that includes an address to the . United Nations. Nasa's Curiosity Rover Twitter account tweeted a congratulations message to ISRO's Mars Orbiter, to which it replied 'Keep in touch. I'll be around' Vigilant: Indian scientists and engineers from the Indian Space Research Organisation monitor India's Mars Orbiter Mission . As India makes makes space history on Mars, Russia is hoping to do the same on the moon by 2030. The head of Roscomsos, Oleg Ostapenko, said plans were underway for a manned spacecraft to reach the moon by the end of the next decade. The system will deliver cargo and cosmonauts to the moon, and someday also into the deep space, according to Ostapenko. 'Based on the results of lunar surface exploration by unmanned space probes, we will designate [the] most promising places for lunar expeditions and lunar bases,' Ostapenko said. 'The success of our space programme is a shining symbol of . what we are capable of as a nation. Our space programme has been . an example of achievement,' said the nationalist prime minister. Modi also holds the additional charge as India's minister of . space, and in June endorsed the low-cost of the project, saying . it cost even less than the budget 'Gravity'. The Hollywood . blockbuster cost about $100 million to make. India’s Mars, however, has faced some criticism by critics, who have said the country could not afford to indulge in such a mission when a third of the population have no access to electricity. The country's space programme was launched in the early . 1960s and India developed its own rocket technology after . Western powers imposed sanctions for a nuclear weapons test in . 1974. Still, the country remains a small player in the global space industry that grew to £191 billion ($314 billion) in revenues and government budgets in 2013. Experts say Mars mission success can help change that. 'ISRO will now hopefully attract a lot of business,' said Mayank Vahia, a scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. With 30 Indian and 40 foreign satellite launches so far, its nearest cheap competition would be China, which is armed with bigger space launchers. ISRO signed an agreement with China National Space Administration on Friday to cooperate in research and development of various satellites. Keen minds: Indian scientists and engineers of Indian Space Research Organization look at a model of the Mars Orbiter Mission at the tracking centre in Bangalore . Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June endorsed the low-cost of the project, saying it cost even less than the budget 'Gravity' (pictured). The Hollywood blockbuster cost about $100 million to make . Having a blast: A rocket carrying the Indian Mars orbiter taking off from the east-coast island of Sriharikota, India, on November 5, 2013 . | Mars Orbiter cost £45 million ($74 million), three-quarters that of Gravity .
It took 300 days to travel more than 420 million miles (670 million km)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed it 'near impossible' success .
The spacecraft, called Mangalyaan, will now study red planet's surface .
Spacecraft will study Mars for methane, a key chemical for life on Earth .
Data will help scientists better understand how planets and life evolved . |
0eabba5ded3f1d4d0ecb3b4afef66e5faec102c8 | Brendan Rodgers admits that he will have to win a trophy to be considered a success at Liverpool following last season’s title heartbreak. Liverpool achieved their aim of qualifying for the Champions League but suffered a late stumble in the Premier League title race and lost out to Manchester City on the final day. Rodgers insists the pain of that experience will drive his players on to go one better this season, but has warned that they will be judged on the trophies they win. Wants a trophy: Brendan Rodgers is looking to lead Liverpool to success after last season's slip-up . Team spirit: But the boss insists that means no extra pressure for his side, lead by Steven Gerrard . ‘I want a trophy this year,’ he said. ‘My sole aim in the first three years was to get us into the Champions League. I knew what it meant to the city and the supporters, so my drive in that period was to get us back. ‘Now I want the club to win the big trophies again. That’s what I said to the players. The expectancy this season is continual improvement. We want to win. To be successful is winning trophies. ‘I don’t think it puts pressure on us. We were ahead of schedule last year. I just think there is a real excitement, not pressure of last year. We know we can do it now. We embrace it and I am looking forward to this year. ‘We’ve got players who have had disappointments in their careers and picked themselves up again. We went so close but it is only the beginning for us. I’m super hungry to be a champion and succeed and in the short period of time we have shown we have the credentials to do that. ‘The Premier League is going to be as competitive as ever and we’ve got the belief behind us from the early stages of the season we can win it.’ Agonising: Liverpool - and Gerrard - slipped up at vital times last season, particularly against Chelsea . Dark times: Gerrard has retired from international football to focus on the task ahead with Liverpool . Rodgers believes Liverpool can take heart from Manchester United’s success in the 1990s after Sir Alex Ferguson’s team lost out to Leeds in the race for the old First Division title. ‘If you look at the history of the winning teams they have always come close,’ he added. ‘The United team that won it in 1993, they came close in 1992 when they lost it to Leeds. They came back the following year and won it. That set up an era of winning for them. It has made us even more unified and stronger to be more successful in the future.’ There are concerns about how Liverpool will cope with the loss of Luis Suarez, but Rodgers refuted suggestions that they would be perceived as a selling club after agreeing to let the Uruguay striker join Barcelona for £75million. Moving on: Rodgers insists Liverpool are not a selling club despite Luis Suarez leaving for Barcelona . Step up: Lazar Markovic will be one of those tasked with replacing the Uruguayan forward this season . Loving life: Rodgers oversees a training session during Liverpool's tour of the USA . ‘Liverpool is not a selling club, that’s for sure,’ he said. ‘The big clubs lose the big players at some point. That’s reality. It’s not due to any lack of ambition. Sometimes you lose your best player and the key is planning your success beyond that. ‘Luis had his time here and has looked to move on. He will be in Spain for a time and then end up back in South America. ‘We’re in a really healthy position now. The conversations we’ve had with players and agents is showing the power of the club is back again.’ | Liverpool slipped up in Premier League title race last season .
Rodgers admits they need a trophy this year to be considered successful .
Club have enjoyed successful tour of USA this summer .
Rodgers insists Luis Suarez departure doesn't mean they are selling club .
Uruguayan striker joined Barcelona in record deal . |
0eabcd2b988c310433edde7bd9a694123af1b67b | (CNN) -- Jeff Probst was a bit of a travel late bloomer, but the "Survivor" host has more than made up for lost time. Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, "I was never a foreign exchange student and didn't even have a passport until 'Survivor,' " says Probst, 52. The show has been "a life-changing experience." Since the competitive reality series debuted on CBS in 2000, the Emmy-winning host and executive producer hasn't stopped traveling all over the world. "I've been underwater at 60 feet with a shark and found myself sitting out in an Africa game reserve with zebras running past me," says Probst. "I really began to understand simultaneously how unique I am and how I'm one grain of sand in this giant beach we live on. It really did help shape me." The 28th "Survivor" season finale airs live on Wednesday, May 21. The cast and crew work hard, shooting two seasons of the CBS series over 78 days of the 95 days they're on location. Anytime there's a break, "we play hard," says Probst. And where they get to play is pretty spectacular. Probst shared his top 10 favorite spots in the world with CNN, some of which are places the show took him. Others may surprise you. 1. Palau . Anytime he had a break during shooting "Survivor" seasons 10 and 16 on Palau, an island nation in the western Pacific Ocean, Probst headed to the water to scuba dive. "Of all the places we traveled, if you're into ocean and scuba diving or just snorkeling, it's one of the greatest spots in the world," he says. Blue Corner, a popular (and advanced) diving spot where you can descend at least 20 feet and clip onto a rock, is a favorite dive. "You don't go anywhere," he says. "The entire sea world goes past you, and it's the most amazing aquarium in the world." Another favorite spot is Jellyfish Lake, the home of hundreds of thousands of jellyfish that have lost the need to sting because they don't have to fight predators. "You're swimming with these jellyfish, and it's like being on a psychedelic trip," he says. 2. Kenya . Stargazing and waking up to wildlife outside his tent at the Shaba National Reserve in Kenya were two of Probst's favorite memories of season three. "You've never seen stars like you see in Africa," he says. "There's no ambient light ... when you really see what's up there, it's mind-blowing." He'd head back into his tent to sleep. Come morning, he would open his tent zipper one click at a time. "You didn't want to scare off the wildlife that you hoped was waiting outside your tent. It was not uncommon to find zebra and giraffes." "A lion chased a zebra through our protective fence into camp and killed the zebra, and two other lions came to help with the kill," he says. 3. Cook Islands . Looking for a remote desert island? "Survivor" location scouts found a perfect spot in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific for season 13. The Polynesian culture of the islands celebrates the sea and offers a relaxed way of life. Known especially for coral reef lagoons, kayaking and beaches, the islands also offered Probst and the crew a chance to know the locals. "The majority of our crew lived with local families. You could eat (at work) or you could eat with them." Probst picked up a bit of the relaxed local attitude. "You can't help but be impacted by a different lifestyle. You do realize there are lots of ways to live." World's best new skyscraper is ... 4. Kona, Hawaii . Formerly a retreat for Hawaiian royalty, Kona is now the Probst family's vacation spot during spring break. That's because Probst married Lisa Russell, who had two children from a previous marriage, in 2011. They all often head to Kona when the children, Michael, 10, and Ava, 7, are on spring break. "There's something about Kona," he says. "I feel so at home and grounded and connected to the earth (there). I love the weather and the water. It's so peaceful. Lisa and I have talked about if we ever lived somewhere else, this would be the place." 5. Amazon, Brazil . Every season in the Amazon, it rains so much that the water levels rise and drop by 40 feet in a matter of weeks, says Probst. The season six crew stayed at the Ariau Amazon Towers, a hotel built on stilts. When they arrived, there was no water around the hotel. During the shoot, it rained so much they ended up surrounded by water, by design. Probst says the Amazon is the spookiest place he has been, and not just because of his childhood fear of crocodiles. "There are more insects and snakes and weird animals--I didn't know what they were—than I've ever seen before. And there are piranha in the water." And those crocodiles? Traveling to the Tribal Council -- the ceremony where players are eliminated -- required traveling down a river in a skinny, motor-equipped canoe. "We would take these canoes, and I'd shine a flashlight on the shore and see pairs of red (crocodile) eyes dotting it," he says. "I'd be almost petrified the canoe would tip over." Don't worry about him, though. "I like being out of my comfort zone," he says. "I don't know that I would ever visit again, but it's on the kids' bucket list." That means he'll probably be back. 6. Australian outback . "Survivor" season two took the cast and crew into the outback, where Probst often woke to a family of kangaroos outside his tent. "We think of them as friendly, but know they are lethal and massive," he says. "One could literally kill me with one kick to my head while yawning." Absorbing a bit of Australian culture, Probst also returned home to Los Angeles worrying less about everything. "Australians have a different way of living: 'No worries' comes from a place of truth. They don't worry nearly as much about things as we do." "It's had the greatest impact on my life, how I raise my kids and how the show works," he says. "Anyone who has hung out in Australia knows what I mean. Of course I care and am competitive, but I am also going to do it while tossing back a beer." Weirdest rock formations around the United States . 7. Vail, Colorado . Growing up in Kansas, Probst's family piled into the family station wagon for an annual ski vacation in Vail, Colorado. There's something about the Rockies that's completely familiar to him, down to the expressions on his parents' faces as they waited in line to rent skis. "Our parents did that trip every year, and I can remember my dad telling me years later that family adventures and vacations are a lot of work ... but they are never not worth it," Probst says. "I can remember all the times we loaded up in our station wagon to drive through the snow-covered mountains so we could have family vacations." 8. El Toro Bay, Samoa . When Probst performed his parents' vow renewal ceremony for their 50th anniversary in Samoa in 2009, he had no idea he'd be returning for a similarly important event two years later. That's when he flew Lisa and her children to Samoa, where he was shooting season 19. When they arrived at El Toro Bay, he took Michael and Ava aside to let them know he was asking their mother to marry him and to ask for their help. The children quickly changed clothes and helped to lead her to Probst, who proposed. They married four months later. 9. Venice, California . While Probst spends a good amount of time traveling, he also very much appreciates what's available in his own backyard of Los Angeles, especially the beaches. "There's such a fun vibe on the (Venice) boardwalk with some great people-watching," he says. "All kinds of people show up: businessmen, surfers, moms, kids, all creating a crazy rhythm. The rings in Venice are a great little escape ... I just chalk up and swing away." 10. Around the world . You'd think Probst and his family would be tired of him traveling when he gets home from shooting halfway around the world. You'd be wrong. Standing in front of the 10-foot by 6-foot map in their hallway, with pushpins marking where everyone has been, the family keeps talking about taking a month to go around the world. Where would they stop? For sure, Rome, London and Switzerland. The rest of the trip is still up in the air. While he knows there's plenty he hasn't yet explored at home, "the other view is we have just one shot, and let's say by plane, by train, by bus, by car, by scooter, by skateboard, we're going to experience the world," he says. "Do we learn something we want to bring back home? Or did we find we are perfectly happy with the way things are?" Where do you think Jeff Probst and the cast and crew of "Survivor" should go next season? Share your thoughts in the comments below. | "Survivor" host has shot 28 seasons all over the world .
Australia, Asia, Africa and South America are among his location shoots .
One of his favorite spots is Colorado, where he traveled yearly as a child .
His dream vacation of a lifetime involves much more than one location . |
0eac5ea92cd5e6c03bc529eac285dccb20271824 | Martin O'Neill says he completely understands Roy Keane's decision to step down as Aston Villa assistant manager but is delighted he has further pledged his commitment to his role with the Republic of Ireland. Keane, who is O'Neill's No 2 at Ireland, decided to step down to concentrate more on his international duties. The former Sunderland and Ipswich manager had been involved in training on Thursday and only informed Villa manager Paul Lambert of his decision on Friday morning. Roy Keane had joined Paul Lambert as assistant manager at Aston Villa in July, but quit after just six months . Keane was still taking training on Thursday ahead of the shock announcement on Friday morning . Keane has left Villa to focus on his role as Republic of Ireland manager Martin O'Neill's assistant . Keane walks down the touchdown after his final game at the club, a 1-1 draw at home to Southampton . VIDEO Keane leaves Aston Villa . After a supremely successful playing career with Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Celtic, Keane has had a turbulent time as a manager: . August 2006: Takes over as Sunderland manager . May 2007: Sunderland promoted to Premier League, Keane named 'Championship manager of the year' 2007-08: Keeps Sunderland in the Premier League, finishing 15th . December 2008: Resigns as Sunderland boss following disputes with Ellis Short and Niall Quinn . April 2009: Appointed Ipswich Town manager. Finishes 15th in Championship in first full season. January 2011: Sacked by Ipswich with the club 21st in the Championship. November 2013: Joins Republic of Ireland management team as assistant to Martin O'Neill . July 2014: Becomes Aston Villa assistant manager, alongside work with Ireland . November 2014: Quits as Villa No 2 . O'Neill says he understands why Keane has stepped down from his role at the Premier League side, but has never had any issues with his commitment with him at Ireland so far. He told FAI TV : 'We had a brief discussion at the last international get together and I think Roy was more concerned about having that full commitment to the Aston Villa club job and ourselves. 'I never had a problem about his commitment to the Republic of Ireland though and I'm sure Paul (Lambert) didn't at Villa either. 'Everything I have expected him to bring to the table so far he has done - his commitment, enthusiasm and the strong desire that we know he possesses. 'Eventually those kind of things catch up with you either before or after Christmas though. 'Roy, being the perfectionist he is, wants to give everything to every single cause, and he was worried about this commitment issue of carrying both roles.' In a statement Keane explained his reasons for stepping down saying: . 'Ultimately, my roles with Villa and Ireland and combining my commitment to these have become too much. 'It isn't fair to either Villa or Ireland, so I've made this decision. The Irish assistant looks pensive on the bench alongside Lambert before the Southampton clash . Keane, seen in training on Thursday, said he did not feel it was fair to either employer to keep doing both jobs . Keane joined Villa in July to serve as assistant to Lambert, and the pair had a good start together . Keane was a combative midfielder in his player career, but has struggled to hold down management jobs . 'I'd like to thank Paul for giving me a great opportunity to come to a brilliant football club, I've really enjoyed my experiences at Villa and I wish the management team, the players, the supporters and the club nothing but the best going forward.' Villa manager Lambert praised Keane's impact at the club, and said he totally respected the decision. 'Roy came to me this morning and he informed me that, ultimately, the difficulty of combining both roles has prompted his decision, which I respect totally. 'In the brief period we have worked together he has been great in the role and I understand his reasons for leaving.' The club thanked Keane for his contribution over the past six months, and said they were now focused on finding his replacement. Aston Villa won three of their first four league games with Keane at the club, but haven't won any since . Keane has been in his role with Ireland for a year, and took the Villa job in July on top of that . Manchester United legend Keane was once billed as a potential successor to Sir Alex Ferguson . | Roy Keane has stepped down from his role as Aston Villa assistant manager to focus on his job with Republic of Ireland .
Keane said the two jobs at the same time had 'become too much'
Martin O'Neill delighted that Keane's priority was the national side .
O'Neill says Keane was worried about his commitment for both roles .
The Ireland boss very impressed with Keane's passion and desire .
Paul Lambert thanks former assistant, says he understands the decision . |
0ead132968c60314031bbb999ed0d0e50529e665 | David Price was delighted to be taken the distance for the first time in four years on Saturday night. The British heavyweight won his third successive fight since losing twice to Tony Thompson last year. Price comfortably outpointed Yaroslav Zavorotnyi over 10 rounds in Germany. Hard hitting: Price was a comfortable winner on the night but was pleased to be taken all the way . Upper cut: The British boxer landed some heavy blows but was unable to knock out his Ukrainian opponent . Strong defence: Zavorotnyi proved a tough opponent for Price but he eventually triumphed . ‘I was pleased with my performance,’ he said. ‘It was great to get ten rounds in the bank. 'I’ve been a pro for five years but this was the first time I’ve gone ten rounds, so it was a good learning experience for me. Power hitting: this was the first time that Price had been taken the distance in his five year career . Victory: Price's win was his third in a row since losing to Tony Thompson twice last year . ‘Zavorotnyi was an awkward opponent. He kept his hands up, chin down and made himself difficult to hit. I may not have got the knockout but I stayed focused and did what I had to do to get the win.’ | Price pleased to be taken the distance for first time .
British heavyweight secures his third win in a row .
Price lost twice to Tony Thompson last year but comfortably won against Zavorotnyi on points . |
0ead8a0fb42b940ce24447b02abcdb90e7614c6e | By . Sam Shead . PUBLISHED: . 16:46 EST, 8 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 16:46 EST, 8 August 2012 . A ten-year-old boy has been charged with aggravated assault after he attacked his Vietnamese neighbour with sticks, stones and a skipping rope after months of tormenting her. Minh Tran, 51, was found cowering in the backyard of her home in Juniata Park, Philadelphia. According to Tran's landlords, the . boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had frequently made fun of her for being 'dumb and . fat'. Minh Tran, pictured left during an interview with American television channel NBC, was attacked in her home . The child recruited his younger friends, thought to be aged seven and nine, on Monday evening for the sickening attack. 'To have such a young offender committing such a violent crime - it's almost a shock to my system,' said Captain John Gallagher of Philadelphia Police East Detectives yesterday. The ten-year-old, who lives one block away from Tran, has been charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault, criminal trespass, and related offenses, according to the District Attorney's Office. The boy's mother handed him over to the police but the identities of the other two boys are still being investigated by Gallagher's unit. 'This ten-year-old torments her in the neighborhood,' said Gallagher. 'He's tried to do things to her before in terms of harassments and threats. 'He chases her and confronts her.' Tran lives on her own on East Luzerne Street in an apartment next door to owner Pastor Dao Tien of Vietnamese Alliance Church. The apartment was converted from a garage when Tien's family took in Tran. Tien said the harassment became routine but was unable to pinpoint when or why it started. Captain John Gallagher said the boy had previously chased and confrotned Minh Tran . The young boys also targeted Tien's family and would often come through the fence into their garden to cause general destruction and turn on the outdoor taps. As recently as 8pm on Saturday, Tien's mother-in-law called the police because the boys were running back and forth outside the house, pounding on the doors. But Tran suffered the worst of the abuse. At around 5.50pm on Monday, the youngsters entered her home through her open front door. 'They saw a chance to get in,' Gallagher said. Once inside, they attacked Tran. One boy even took a plant and threw it at her. Unable to speak English, Tran told a reporter through Tien that she was feeling physically all right. Initially, she anxiously avoided saying what had happened before reluctantly stating that 'they came and they beat me up.' Minh Tran lives on her own on East Luzerne Street, pictured in an apartment next door to owner Pastor Dao Tien of Vietnamese Alliance Church . Tran gestured with the skipping rope how one boy stood over her and whipped her with it before pointing to a broken stick in an attempt to explain that it had also been used during the attack. The boys proceeded to rifle through Tran's cabinets in the hunt for money before eventually settling for her purse and $20. Tran's screams were heard by another family on the property who alerted the boy's mother. The mother called the police without hesitation and explained how she suspects him of other crimes in the neighbourhood. Tran suffered cuts and bruises to her face and cuts and scrapes to her legs, and complained of head and chest pain, police said. Tien said, he took her to Temple University Hospital for treatment later on Monday night. The 10-year-old was being held Tuesday night at the Youth Study Center with a hearing scheduled for Aug 27 in Family Court. In addition to aggravated assault and criminal trespass, the boy was charged with simple assault, conspiracy, possession of an instrument of crime, theft, recklessly endangering another person, robbery, and burglary, according to Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams. According to Jamerson, Pennsylvania allows for the criminal prosecution of children under 10 only in cases of murder. | Minh Tran was assaulted by a trio of pre-teens after they entered her Philadelphia home .
Boy also pestered family of Tran's landlord .
One boy even took a plant pot and threw it at victim . |
0eade7a73862feadb61691e01fc9fc0ee07ca16a | By . Steve Nolan . PUBLISHED: . 05:01 EST, 24 April 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:27 EST, 26 April 2013 . A video posted on the Facebook page of a British-trained doctor appears to show victims of a Syrian regime assault on Aleppo foaming at the mouth and showing symptoms consistent with a chemical weapons attack. Experts believe that chemical weapons may have been dropped on Kurdish residents of Aleppo's Sheikh Massoud region during an attack which saw two babies and a woman killed earlier this month. It is thought that the April 13 assault may have been in revenge for residents' decision to defect to support the rebels. Scroll down for video . Injured: A video posted on Facebook and YouTube appears to show victims of a Syrian regime assault on Aleppo foaming at the mouth . Graphic: The video was posted on the Facebook page of British-trained doctor Niazi Habash, who treated some of the Aleppo victims . Horrific: Experts believe that the injuries shown in the video are consistent with those sustained after a chemical weapon attack . Destruction: Parts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo have been destroyed during the bitter civil war. The aftermath of a separate assault by the Syrian regime on the city is pictured . Revenge: Syrian rebel fighters standing amid sandbags in a damaged section of the Umayyad Mosque complex. It's thought the April 13 assault was in retaliation for Kurdish backing of the rebels . VIDEO: WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT . Claims that the regime has regularly used banned materials against rebels were also made by Israeli general, Brigadier General Itai Brun, according to the Daily Telegraph. The video was posted on the Facebook page of British-trained doctor Niazi Habash, who treated some of the Aleppo victims. He said that they displayed symptoms of chemical exposure including foaming at the mouth, constricted pupils and difficulty breathing. Warning: President Bashar al-Assad had been warned by Western leaders that using chemical weapons would be crossing a 'red line' They were treated using chemical weapons antidote Atropine, Dr Habash claims. Experts claim that their injuries appear to be similar to those suffered by victims of an attack on Khan al-Assad, near Aleppo. In the April 13 assault, 15 people were injured. Four-month-old Yehia, 18-month-old Abu Bakr Younis and adult Ghadeer Neddaf all died from their injuries. The most likely chemical to have been used is sarin according to former British Army specialist and director Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. He told the Telegraph: From what we've seen and the descriptions of the containers being dropped from the air, it certainly seems that the regime is using sarin in an unprepared state in these attacks. 'But, as in the Tokyo subway bombings, sarin does not need to be weaponised and placed in missiles to kill. 'It is still lethal when people are exposed to it.' US President Barack Obama and Western leaders had warned Bashar al-Assad that using chemical weapons would be crossing a 'red line'. But the latest claim that such weapons have been deployed by the regime is the fourth in recent months. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague revealed last week that a soil sample taken from Khan al-Assad had tested positive for a chemical agent. Devastating: 15 people were injured and three people killed in the assault on the Sheikh Massoud area on April 13 . Victim: A woman is treated for what appears to be breathing difficulties at a clinic in the north of Aleppo . Mr Hague said that the UK will try and tear up an EU arms embargo next month so that weapons can be supplied to Syrian rebels and said that both Britain and France want to be able to 'take urgent action' should future atrocities take place. The UK will send 34 vehicles, including five armoured 4x4s and 20 sets of body armour to those seeking to overthrow dictator Bashar al-Assad. But critics warned that arming the rebels will be especially problematic because many opposition groups have been hijacked by Al Qaeda supporters. The Obama administration opposes directly arming Syrian opposition fighters, in part out of fear that the weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. And Syria's president al-Assad warned the West will pay a price 'in the heart' of Europe and the U.S. for their alleged backing Islamic fundamentalists in his country's civil war. Deadly: Three people, including two children are said to have been killed in the attack on April 13, 15 more were injured . The European Union's security chief has also warned today that young Europeans fighting alongside rebels to bring down President Assad, will be 'radicalised' and could pose a 'serious threat' to national security when they return home. It is feared some will become members of groups with links to al-Qaeda before launching terror attacks at home. Syria is thought by the CIA to have a large stockpile of chemical weapons and both the rebels and Assad's regime have accused each other of using them. Fears have grown in recent months for the safety of the stockpile, thought to include sarin and mustard gas that can be deployed using aircraft, ballistic missiles and artillery rocket. It is also believed that Syria has attempted to develop more toxic nerve agents. Sarin is a more sophisticated successor to Zyklon B which was used by the Nazis in the extermination of millions of Jews in Hitler's death camps. It is like some farm pesticides but does not occur naturally and cannot occur naturally. Saddam Hussein used it in the late 80s against Kurdish rebels and it was behind the death of the entire population of Halabja. United Nations agents destroy chemical weapons stockpiled by Saddam Hussein in 1998 . It is so toxic that a drop the size of a pin prick is enough to kill and it is heavier than air so it hovers close to the ground maximising casualties. Fumes from the colourless, odourless liquid last longer the warmer the environment so the constant 25°C on Tokyo's subway provided the perfect condition. Sarin attacks the vegal nervous system and victims die within minutes either through respiratory failure or a heart attack as they choke on their own mucus or saliva. | The video was posted on Facebook by British-trained doctor Niazi Habash .
It claims to show victims of an April 13 Syrian regime assault on Aleppo .
Israeli general claims that the regime has regularly used banned weapons . |
0eae5673a064bab16ebbe48b6216729042f705d0 | (CNN) -- A year after leaving Syria, and I had almost forgotten how it feels to be under pressure and terrified all the time. How so easily you can become one of the nameless victims, considered lucky if you were even counted among the dead. But a year after fleeing from the civil war, I have come back -- to a place dominated by fear and chaos, one governed by the force of arms and of bombs. Why did I choose to come back to all this? The main reason is professional -- I am now working for Save the Children. But there is another reason -- a desire to see the country I left 12 months ago, and to see the situation and devastation through my own eyes, not through the filter of the media. Like most of my Syrian colleagues, I wasn't an aid worker before the conflict. This is a new field of work for many of us, but in it I feel that I have a responsibility to those Syrians who are trapped inside this never-ending conflict. Each time I interview a child or a mother, I have a responsibility to share their story and ensure the world does not forget them. Before I came back, I thought that perhaps people wouldn't want to speak to me -- that they would be scared to share their experiences. But actually, everyone was just relieved that there were people outside Syria who still cared. On my first day I was on the border, and stretched out before me I could see camps filled with tents and thousands of displaced people. I cannot imagine how these families are coping in these conditions, families like mine who are now collecting water in a jerry can and relying on food rations. And then I started to notice other things, smaller details that show how much life in Syria has changed. For example, I noticed that many of the cars were driving around without license plates. Why? Well I guess they don't need to -- who will fine drivers for their defiance? Anyway, now even the smallest problems are solved by weapons, and people feel they need bigger weapons and stronger connections to stay alive. Another change -- all of the men I saw had long beards. I was surprised to see even local people had them. I asked the people I am traveling with if this was common in this area before the war, and they tell me that it was not. That this is "conflict fashion." Fashion? Since when was conflict ever associated with fashion? I have seen destroyed buildings and war zones on TV and in the news, but returning here was the first time I had seen such destruction in real life. At first you can't believe your eyes, and you have to remind yourself that you are not watching an apocalyptic movie, but real life. It eventually dawns on you that this is not a film set, that there is life and there are families living in the remnants of these half-destroyed buildings. I wonder how these people do it. How do people who grew up like me adapt to a situation where virtually everything has been taken away? The answer is that when there is nowhere left to run, you simply have no choice but to find a way to survive. There are airstrikes so people create their own local warning siren. There is no electricity, so people make candles and rig up their own power systems using batteries. But I am shaken out of my thoughts by the shouts of a friend who is asking everyone to turn off the lights. It's evening, and the locals have heard that there may be an attack on the village we are in. We all move quickly to turn everything off and sit to listen to the reports on the radio. There is mention of a village just a couple of miles from us. My friend tells me this village might be attacked and we should stay on the floor. Then I hear the name of the village we are in. Then silence again. I look at the faces of my friends; pale, ironically smiling, feigned bravado. None of us say a word, and I swear I can hear our hearts beating. We all know tonight it could be us that are the next nameless victims. I spend most of the night in a state of paralyzed fear, until finally, at some point, we all fall asleep. The next day people wake as if nothing had happened. That is what life in Syria is like now -- you lived, you are lucky. Now you just have to get on with your day and hope that you will be so fortunate again. | Naeem: After leaving Syria, I forgot how it was to be constantly terrified .
Returning was the first time he had seen real-life destruction .
In Syria now, if you live, you are lucky, he says . |
0eae663918433679d736dfd895c15697f868dc6d | Military chiefs failed to calculate the potential dangers and the size of the forces needed for the war in Afghanistan, General Sir Peter Wall admitted yesterday, . The former Chief of the General Staff made the damning statement in a BBC documentary ahead of the upcoming withdrawal of Western troops from the country after 13 years of war. Another senior military commander said the UK was ‘under-prepared, under-resourced’ and had no clear strategy to succeed in the conflict. A senior military commander said the UK was ‘under-prepared, under-resourced’ and had no clear strategy to succeed in Afghanistan conflict. File picture . In a scathing critique of the UK’s involvement in Afghanistan, a series of British military commanders admitted a failure to appreciate the size of the task and that mistakes were made in the build-up to the fight. At times, troops were so stretched there was a risk they would be ‘massacred’, it was claimed. Sir Peter, who retired this year, said: ‘We had put forward a plan… saying that… for the limited objectives that we had set ourselves, this was a reasonable force. And I freely admit now, that calculus was wrong.’ The two programmes analyse the muddled decision-making process that led the British government to send 3,300 troops to the country as part of the Nato force in 2006. The documentary revealed that the British military was fully aware it could not wage more than one campaign for any length of time. The documentary revealed that the British military was fully aware it could not wage more than one campaign for any length of time . But, despite being already heavily engaged in Iraq, the UK pressed ahead with a decision to step up its commitment in Afghanistan. In a two-part programme entitled The Lion’s Last Roar?, Brigadier Ed Butler, Commander of the British Forces in Helmand in 2006, said: ‘We were under-prepared, we were under-resourced, and most importantly, we didn’t have a clear and achievable strategy to deliver success.’ His comments reveal a marked difference from his view in 2006 – as the UK stepped up their campaign against the Taliban – when he said that British forces were ‘well-prepared and well-equipped’ to deal with the insurgency. General Lord Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff, added: ‘We knew that we were heading for two considerable size operations and we really only had the organisation and manpower for one. Therefore perhaps we should have revisited the decision…We didn’t do that.’ In the summer of 2006, some British forces in Afghanistan found themselves effectively stranded in a number of outposts in the north of Helmand province. ‘There was a real danger… that we would find a platoon cut off and potentially massacred,’ said Lord Dannatt. In 2012, David Cameron announced Britain would withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. General Lord Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff, said he had fought against the decision to announce this. He said: ‘I felt a deadline of that nature was too trusting in our ability to deliver the outcome required.’ The conflict has raised doubts over whether Britain will take part in similar military operations. Bruce Riedel, an adviser to President Obama in 2009, said: ‘The US has a better appreciation after the war in Afghanistan of the limits on British power. It will be interesting to see if Afghanistan marks the end of Britain as a global military power.’ Soldiers carrying equipment towards a helicopter during the closure of Observation Post Sterga 2 in Afghanistan's Helmand Province . | UK was ‘under-prepared, under-resourced’ and had no clear strategy .
Troops were so stretched there was a risk they would be ‘massacred’
The British government sent 3,300 troops to the country in 2006 . |
0eaef4c6fb4e96ba83b3c9ac836ba95ec77f0867 | Scientists have mapped the quietest places in America, as well as some of the noisiest. Researchers from the National Park Service collected more than 1.5million hours of acoustical monitoring data from around the country and found that the quietest areas were in national parks. The team found sound levels that are as quiet as before European colonization in some wild places of the country, according to Science. Scientists from the National Park Service used a computer program to map the noise levels throughout the entire country. This map shows the combined decibel levels from both natural and human-made noise, which ranged from below 30 decibels to above 60 . National parks, such as Yellowstone in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, were the quietest places in the entire country, with low levels of human noise . While the most peaceful places saw less than 20 decibels of background noise on a typical summer day, places such as New York City can average up to 60 decibels. The map shows a stark difference between the noisy eastern half of the country and the West, where large swaths of land see measurements below 30 decibels. Noise is measured logarithmically in decibels, with a jet engine around 100 decibels, an office environment measured at about 60 and a whisper at 20. The quietest places in the US are found at the Rockies and westward, with secluded areas such as Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado leading the way. Haleakalā National Park in Hawaii was also among the quietest, lead author Dr Daniel Mennitt told Daily Mail Online. Urban environments and towns along the interstate system got the noisiest ratings, according to maps from a study by Dr Mennitt, Dr Ken Fristrup and Dr Lisa Nelson. Researchers have previously pointed out how long-term exposure to loud background noise can cause health problems. Dr Fristrup has said that constant noise may be creating a 'deaf generation' that is unable to use our bodies' ability to hear sounds far away. The researchers also made a map of the country's noise if humans were taken out of the equation (above). Large amounts of natural noise, which was mapped on a smaller scale than the total noise, was found in areas with rivers and insects, such as the Southeast . The naturally noisiest parts of the country include the area around the Mississippi River (pictured) while naturally quiet places were generally high,dry shrubland . However, the difference between the bustling East and the more peaceful West was not only limited to areas with large amounts of human development. A map of sounds created by natural sources, where scientists redid the map as if there were no people, also shows a country split in half. Warm areas in the Southeast and interior Midwest saw high values and appear in yellow, though the scale for the amount of noise is smaller than for when human sounds are included. Non-human noise came mostly from running water, rain and 'wind-induced vegetation sounds'. The wetlands and area around the Mississippi River also support a huge amount of wildlife and the constant buzz of insects can be heard even in areas with few or no people. Humans' contribution to the noise levels were mapped by subtracting the natural levels from the soundscape (seen above). Even areas without large human populations saw man-made noise from roads and airplanes flying overhead . Big cities such as New York (pictured) can see background noise levels as high as 60 decibels, roughly the same as an office environment or a conversation in a restaurant . The quietest places in terms of natural sounds were high, dry shrubland and barren, flat terrain'. Dr Mennitt and his team then measured the affect that humans have on the soundscape by finding the difference between the total noise and natural noise levels. Even remote spots saw some man-made noise, with the rumble of aircraft overheard destroying the natural stillness. Other patches of would-be quiet were also broken up by roads or other transportation networks. One aircraft can be heard 25 miles from from its path and cars can be heard six miles from the road, the study said. The largest areas without large amounts of unnatural noise were the Adirondacks in northern New York state and parts of the Rocky Mountains. Half of 'low impact' areas were in protected lands. The scientists were unable to collect data from every point in the entire country, and used Random Forest, a 'tree-based machine learning algorithm' to create their maps. Though the researchers originally began looking just at the country's national parks, their more recent research has included data from urban areas and airports. The noise study's combined map bears a striking resemblance to NASA's map of nighttime light, with much of the activity clustered around humans in big cities . | National Park Service scientists created maps of human and natural noise .
Quietest places are national parks such as Yellowstone; cities are loudest .
Some areas can be as quiet as they were before European colonization .
Large amounts of natural noise from water and insects heard in Southeast . |
0eb05b4c725a80b27810341bb4fd26500cbae854 | Jockey Andrea Atzeni will be used ahead of Jamie Spencer on two-year-olds owned by Qatar Racing for the remainder of the season in order to familiarise himself with their string ahead of taking over as No 1 jockey next year. David Redvers, racing manager to Sheik Fahad Al Thani’s organisation, has confirmed the arrangement, which will also involve handing two-year-old rides where possible to Oisin Murphy, Atzeni’s Qatar Racing understudy in 2015. But Redvers emphasised that Spencer will continue to be the first choice on the team’s older horses until his retirement at the end of the season. Andrea Atzeni is replacing Jamie Spencer as No 1 jockey at Qatar Racing from next season . David Redvers, racing manager to Sheik Fahad Al Thani’s organisation, has confirmed the recent news . Talented Irish rider Oisin Murphy will also be handed two-year-old rides where possible . Spencer will ride Side Glance as he returns to Australia, where he won last year’s Mackinnon Stakes, and be the pick for a Breeders’ Cup squad which could include Just The Judge, Trade Storm and Secret Gesture. Atzeni, arguably the jockey of the season and due to ride his St Leger winner Kingston Hill in Sunday’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, was on board the Sheik’s new purchase Elm Park, winner of the Group Two Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday. The Group One Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on October 25 could now be on the agenda for the Andrew Balding-trained colt. Redvers said: ‘There is no doubt Andrea is a young jockey going forward at a fast rate. He has lots of confidence and his ride on Elm Park, who wasn’t going anywhere three furlongs out showed great maturity. Atzeni pictured riding Elm Park wins The Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket racecourse . Spencer is retiring from as first jockey at Qatar Racing, allowing Atzeni to come in . ‘Our intention is to give Andrea and Oisin as much experience as possible of the two-year-olds going into the winter as their commitments allow.’ Qatar Racing’s Derby fourth Arod, who hasn’t run since his fifth to Australia in the International Stakes at York in August and was forced to miss Friday’s Joel Stakes at Newmarket, is being lined up for the Group One Queen Elizabeth, his first run at a mile since his debut last year. Redvers said: ‘It was bizarre, Arod choked eating some straw and in the process he broke a tooth. There was some serious inflammation and he had to be treated with antibiotics. ‘It was a shame as we would have like to have tried him over a mile before the QEII. After the Derby, we thought he was a mile and a half horse but he has got stronger and quicker as he has got older and they just have not been going quick enough in his races. ‘We hope dropping back to a mile will be the key to him.’ OL MAN RIVER is a 10-1 shot for the 2015 Derby with Coral after a clear-cut two-and-three-quarter-length win in the Group Two Beresford Stakes at the Curragh. Trainer Aidan O’Brien said the impeccably-bred colt could run again this season. He holds entries in the Dewhurst Stakes and Racing Post Trophy. | Andrea Atzeni will take priority over Jamie Spencer for the rest of the season and be used on the two-year olds owned by Qatar Racing .
Atzeni will take over as No 1 jockey at Qatar Racing when Spencer retires at the end of the current campaign .
Oisin Murphy will also be handed two-year-old rides where possible as he prepares to be Atzen's Qatar Racing understudy in 2015 . |
0eb09e2b21cb6f8c7940929a6082aa7e63ff68d5 | (CNN)The United States has launched a fresh drone strike on Yemen and closed its embassy to the public, days after the U.S.-backed government crumbled under an uprising from Shiite Houthi rebels. The drone strike -- the latest in a long string of them by the Obama administration -- is the first since last week's dramatic events in the capital, Sanaa. Three U.S. officials tell CNN the CIA conducted a drone strike in Marib, which is east of Sanaa. It is not thought that any major leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were targeted in the latest U.S. strike. The CIA itself did not comment. The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, announced what was happening with the embassy. "Due to the recent resignation of the Yemeni president, prime minister, and cabinet, and the ongoing security concerns, the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa is unable to provide routine consular services and will have very limited ability to assist with emergency cases involving U.S. citizens," the department said in a statement Monday. "The U.S. Embassy will be closed to the public until further notice out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting the Embassy. We are continuously analyzing the security conditions and will resume consular operations as soon as our analysis indicates we are able to do so safely." | The CIA launched a drone strike on Yemen, three U.S. officials tell CNN .
The U.S. Embassy is closing to the public, the State Department says . |
0eb1afe96afc1fe8af55f925321a6a508b5fa3bd | There's nothing more awkward than rocking up to an event in the same outfit as someone else and luckily for the stars at Sunday night's Oscars, they managed to avoid such a mishap. But for Jennifer Lopez and actor and director Robert Duvall's wife, Luciana Pedraza, it was a near miss. Whilst the two stars didn't wear the exact same dress, the styles of their frocks were so similar, they may as well have. Scroll down for video . Jennifer Lopez, let, and actor and director Robert Duvall's wife, Luciana Pedraza, right, looked strikingly similar in pretty peach gowns on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday night . The two red carpet beauties looked pretty in peach wearing strikingly similar gowns on the red carpet last night. Jennifer Lopez, 45, looked the vision of youth in a dazzling Elie Saab Haute Couture gown, which came complete with hand-embellished crystal detailing. Pedraza, 43, meanwhile, looked remarkably similar to Lopez in a Jad Ghandor number. Both gowns were slashed to the midriff, revealing ample cleavage, and came with showstopping tulle skirts. The duo even accessorised in sync, both carrying boxy clutches and wearing diamond drop earrings. Adhering to the red carpet trend for up 'dos, both ladies wore their brunette locks slicked back in a sophisticated style. Jennifer Lopez, 45, wowed in a dazzling hand-embellished Elie Saab Haute Couture gown on the red carpet . Pedraza, 43, pictured with her husband of ten years, Robert Duvall, looked remarkably similar to Lopez in a Jad Ghandor number . She may oozed glamour but Lopez's voluminous gown presented some technical difficulties of its own. The star suffered a bit of a train trip after presenting the Best Costume Award to The Grand Budapest Hotel's Milena Canonero with Chris Pine, but fortunately the Star Trek actor saved her from making an even more embarrassing misstep. Jennifer's heels appeared to have gotten caught in the cascading material as the pair walked off the stage at The Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California. Earlier in the evening, the singer-dancer-entrepreneur needed a helping hand from the valets when exiting her limousine. Speaking to Lara Spencer on the red carpet, Jennifer explained she has a tried and tested formula for walking the red carpet. She said: 'I knew it would be a challenge, but I like a challenge. I have a whole technique. I got this. I’m used to it. I’ve done it so many times.' The duo even accessorised in sync, both carrying boxy clutches and diamond drop earrings . As she arrived at the event, Lopez needed a helping hand from the valets when exiting her limousine . | Jennifer Lopez, 45, dazzled in an Elie Saab Haute Couture gown .
Pedraza, 43, looked remarkably similar in a Jad Ghandor number .
Both gowns were slashed to the midriff and stars accessorised the same . |
0eb1b7f0519a61fb97e39b21880b980d93bb4131 | By . Hayley Dixon . PUBLISHED: . 05:40 EST, 30 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 06:36 EST, 30 November 2012 . A small bronze sculpture that was dismissed as a 'humble' paperweight for decades has been confirmed as an £80,000 Barbara Hepworth. The 1965 work, called Oval Form, sat on the headteacher's desk at St Ives School for years and was originally used as a house prize when students performed well. But was revealed as 'probably the most expensive paperweight in the world' by stunned experts on BBC's Antiques Roadshow on Sunday. The £80,000 sculpture Oval Form, pictured, was originally used as a prize for academic achievement before it became one of the world's most expensive paperweights . David Harris, St Ives School head, said the paperweight would not leave the school in Cornwall, despite its value. He said: 'It's sitting on my desk so it's probably the most expensive paperweight in the world. Dame Barbara Hepworth, pictured, was a governor at St Ives School in Cornwall and gave the sculpture as a gift. She died in 1975 . 'We have links to the art scene because we live and work in St Ives so we knew it was valuable but we'd not had it valued. We didn't know it was that valuable. 'Not that it is of any consequence because it's the school's and it will remain the school's. It's a fabulous piece of work and it's something which we do treasure.' Mr Harris said Oval Form was given to the school by the artist - who used to be a governor there - many years ago as a gift. It was used as a prize for the house that achieved the most academic merits each term. St Ives School librarian Jan Wardman took the 'paperweight' to show experts on the popular BBC show in Falmouth and beamed as she was told the news. Visibly excited Rupert Maas, an expert in ceramics and glass, told the show: 'It's by Barbara Hepworth. 'This is English Modernism, you know, you cannot confuse it with anything else. 'It is very tactile and made of bronze. It's worth £60,000 to £80,000. And it's a very important thing. It's a seriously exciting find. 'There's a lovely sense to it and turning it around is quite fun because it looks completely different from all angles. 'It's easy to forget that here in Cornwall we're actually at the cutting edge of Modernism really. Barbara Hepworth was really at the forefront of British Modernism.' Tourists flock to St Ives to see Barbara Hepworth's large bronze Modernist sculptures in the Hepworth Memorial Garden. Another sculpture sits outside the . Guildhall, home to St Ives Town Council but this smaller example of her . work is not widely known. TV antiques expert Rupert Maas, pictured, described the piece as a 'seriously exciting find' and said it was worth up to £80,000 . The staggering valuation of the bronze was a surprise to the school, who expected it to be worth considerably less. Mr Harris added: 'It's not something we let out of our sight now. 'The guy on Antiques Roadshow said it will be in the upper reaches because it's such a beautiful domestic piece. 'For them it was a significant find. It did look lovely on the television with the light catching it. It is beautiful and a very tactile piece.' The school is now considering creating imitations of the original to hand out as school prizes. Oval Form is in good company at the school, which has two Leonard Fuller paintings and a Hyman Segal sculpture. | Sculpture was originally used as a prize for academic achievement .
St Ives School in Cornwall has vowed to keep artwork despite its value .
It was gifted by the artist herself who was a governor at the school . |
0eb2975c02da6b326f021acf8a0580bacad8ece7 | (CNN) -- Democratic leaders took the initiative Monday to go after one of their own, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, hours after he admitted to lying about posting an explicit photo on his Twitter account and carrying on inappropriate relationships with women he'd met online. Two Democratic sources said that Weiner, in a brief telephone conversation Monday with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, made it abundantly clear that he was not going to resign. At his press conference later that day, the New York Democrat said that Pelosi was "not happy" but "also told me that she loved me and wanted us to ... pull through this." Pelosi, D-California, who until last January was House speaker, reacted by calling for the chamber's Ethics Commission to open an investigation into the seven-term congressman "to determine whether any official resources were used or any other violation of House rules occurred." Weiner apologizes for lying, 'terrible mistakes' Such a probe is rare, especially when called by a member of one's own party, the Democratic sources said. One question that is sure to be central to such an investigation is whether Weiner used congressional resources while sending -- as he admitted -- explicit photos and messages to "about six women" over a three-year period. The New York Democrat claimed that his BlackBerry device is not paid for by the government, and added, "I don't believe that I used any government resources" in conducting the illicit, largely electronic affairs. iReport.com: Share your reaction to Rep. Weiner's press conference . In a statement, Weiner said he will "welcome and will fully cooperate with an investigation by the House Ethics Committee." Other Democrats, many of whom initially rallied behind Weiner and his initial claim that his Twitter account had been hacked, backed Pelosi's call for an investigation. Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, chastised his fellow New Yorker for what he called "a deep personal failure and inappropriate behavior that embarrassed himself, his family and the House." He threw his support behind the ethics probe "to remove all remaining doubt about this situation." Katie Grant, the spokeswoman for House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, told CNN that "if there have been any questions regarding ethics that have been raised in the public sphere that the Ethics Committee should look at them." But while some Democrats are touting the ethics probe as a bold and significant step, one Republican source calls it "hollow." The GOP source said it is noteworthy that Pelosi called for an investigation but did not demand Weiner step down -- as happened with former Rep. Chris Lee. The married Republican from western New York resigned in February, following a report that he had tried to meet a woman on Craigslist. CNN's Kate Bolduan, Deirdre Walsh and Dana Bash contributed to this report. | House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calls for an ethics probe into Rep. Anthony Weiner's behavior .
He admits to having inappropriate relationships with women and lying about it .
Other Democrats have said they welcome such a probe, as does Weiner .
But a Republican calls Pelosi's move "hollow," saying she should have told him to resign . |
0eb2e9c0d36044809a42045a3e9126f0d01936b6 | (CNN) -- Green Day's Jason White has tonsil cancer, the band reported on its website. "We have some news to report regarding our brother Jason White, and wanted you to hear it from us before word spread," the post read. "Jason recently underwent a routine tonsillectomy, and his doctors discovered a treatable form of tonsil cancer. Thankfully they caught it early and he should make a full and speedy recovery." White, 41, has been an official part of the band since 1999, when he joined them on tour as a guitarist. However, he's been friends with the band members much longer, having been guitarist in Pinhead Gunpowder -- another band fronted by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong -- and Armstrong's partner in running Adeline Records. The band, known for such albums as "Dookie" and "American Idiot," asks that fans "join us in sending him love and positive healing vibes during this time." Green Day is among the nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2015. | Green Day's Jason White was diagnosed with tonsil cancer .
White has been part of the group since the late '90s .
Green Day is best known for "Dookie," "American Idiot" |
0eb40551ed5477a7c942b8f95a09dee34a7013cf | By . John Stevens . PUBLISHED: . 17:48 EST, 28 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 17:49 EST, 28 July 2013 . For more than a decade, John Maxse was the suave face of the biggest organisations in British horseracing. But that face was looking rather less suave yesterday following an alleged attack by one of the Queen’s riders in what is believed to have been a fight over a woman. In fact, Mr Maxse – former PR director at both the Jockey Club and the British Horseracing Authority, appeared to be sporting a black eye and a number of cuts and bruises. John Maxse (left) suffered 'serious injuries' and required hospital treatment following the alleged attack in Newmarket last Sunday. Jonathan Nolan (right) has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent . The 45-year-old former jockey, who now works for the Qatari Royal Family, suffered ‘serious injuries’ and required hospital treatment for a suspected broken eye socket, broken collarbone and broken nose following the alleged attack in Newmarket last Sunday. Jonathan Nolan, 32, who is a work rider for the Queen’s trainer Sir Michael Stoute, has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent. Officers were called to an address in the Suffolk town – considered the global home of horseracing – at about 11.30pm following a call from a member of the public. Mr Maxse, who splits his time between properties in London and Newmarket, later wrote on Twitter: ‘You know those times when you live through something potentially life changing but it’s just a bit too “big & heavy” for Twitter?’ He went on to joke about how he looked like film character Rocky Balboa. Yesterday he added on the social media site: ‘Said my Sunday morning goodbye to Newmarket &, for a change, good riddance; on account of some of the toxic people who live there.’ When asked by the Mail if he believed the attack was because of him having an alleged relationship with Nolan’s girlfriend, Mr Maxse was keen to stress that the woman involved was Nolan’s ex-girlfriend. Mr Maxse, the former PR director at both the Jockey Club and the British Horseracing Authority, now works as a communications consultant for Qatar Racing, the horse investment firm owned by the Qatari Royal Family . He added: ‘There was no argument on the night, there was no fight.’ But he refused to comment further, saying it would ‘cause too much pain to other people’. Mr Maxse is a prominent figure in horseracing and was the public face of the British Horseracing Authority and Jockey Club when he worked at both as PR director. He was the Jockey Club’s head of PR during the BBC Panorama programme’s damaging investigation into racing a decade ago. He now works as a communications consultant for Qatar Racing, the horse investment firm owned by the Qatari Royal Family. He also rides out regularly for Newmarket trainer Michael Bell. 'You know those times when you live . through something potentially life changing but it’s just a bit too “big . & heavy” for Twitter?' - John Maxse, writing on Twitter . Nolan is a work rider at Sir Michael Stoute’s Freemason Lodge Stables in Newmarket. He used to ride the Queen’s horse Carlton House when it was trained there. A work rider generally undertakes daily duties that include mucking out, exercising, grooming, feeding, watering, rugging up and bedding down horses. Earlier this year, Sir Michael trained the Queen’s horse Estimate to Gold Cup victory at Royal Ascot. It was the first time in the race’s 207-year history that it was won by a reigning monarch. Nolan appeared in court in Bury St Edmunds on Tuesday charged with grievous bodily harm with intent and was bailed to a later date. Newmarket is dominated by horseracing and one in three jobs in the area is estimated to be related to the sport. There are just 15,000 people but more than 3,000 racehorses in the town, which boasts two large racetracks – The Rowley Mile and The July Course. Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons. | John Maxse required hospital treatment following alleged attack .
Jockey Jonathan Nolan charged with grievous bodily harm with intent .
Officers called to address in Newmarket following call from member of public . |
0eb41802c7374a25ff8321541c67ae10aee8e429 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 16:21 EST, 6 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:33 EST, 6 November 2013 . Disgraced TV chef Paula Deen's marriage is reportedly on the rocks after she confronted her husband of nine years about his alleged cheating. According to the National Enquirer, the 66-year-old Southern cooking queen questioned tugboat captain Michael Groover, 57, whom she met 11 years ago and lives with in Savannah, Georgia, after a friend told her he had a secret mistress. A source quoted in the report claims Deen 'went on the warpath' when she heard about the alleged affair and though he adamantly denied it, the rumors 'pushed their marriage to breaking point.' Alleged affair: According to the National Enquirer, the 66-year-old Southern cooking queen, left, questioned tugboat captain Michael Groover, 57, right, whom she met 11 years ago, after a friend told her he had a secret mistress . 'She had an explosive argument with Michael that ended with him storming out of the house,' the source said. According to the Enquirer, the mistress is a 'sexy middle-age brunette' who lives nearby and has known Groover and his family for years. The woman allegedly entertained her lover once a week for more than a year at her Wilmington Island home, and on occasion they went out for drinks. 'It was no secret they were having an affair,' the source reportedly told the Enquirer. Innocent: After both of them calmed down, Groover, right, allegedly returned home, and swore his innocence and allegiance to Deen, left . 'It went on for more than a year and the only surprise is that it took Paula so long to find out about it.' But when she did find out, she confronted her husband immediately, the Enquirer reports. 'He denied cheating, but she wasn't satisfied he was telling the truth and needled him relentlessly. Finally, Michael got fed up and took off in a huff,' the source claimed. After both of them calmed down, Groover allegedly returned home, and swore his innocence and allegiance to Deen. But the source told the magazine, 'she still isn't convinced he's being completely honest.' | According to the National Enquirer, the disgraced TV chef quizzed tugboat captain Michael Groover, 57, after a friend told her he had a secret mistress .
A source quoted in the report claims Deen 'went on the warpath' when she heard about the alleged affair though he adamantly denied it .
After both of them calmed down, Groover allegedly returned home, and swore his innocence and allegiance to Deen . |
0eb4c8980c75fe22133d6e869043a464a38a0dc8 | (CNN) -- Stocks on key Asian exchanges dropped modestly early Monday on what is likely to be an eventful day in world markets, following Standard and Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. In early Tokyo trading, the Nikkei index fell 124 points, or 1.3%. South Korea's KOSPI index slipped 1.6%. In Australia, the All Ordinaries index lost 0.7%. The Shanghai composite started 0.8% lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 2.6% at the open. Similarly, U.S. stock futures fell around 1.7% in early electronic trading Sunday. The futures were the first U.S. gauge of investor sentiment following Friday night's downgrade, removing the United States' AAA status for the first time. They give an indication of how investors will react when regular-hours U.S. trading begins at 9:30 a.m. ET Monday. Besides the U.S. downgrade, investors are concerned about the debt crisis in some European nations, though actions on the part of the G7 and the European Central Bank Sunday helped to allay some of those fears. Financial representatives of leading industrial nations said they are committed to taking "all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth in a spirit of close cooperation and confidence." They welcomed the "decisive actions taken in the U.S. and Europe" and "the additional policy measures announced by Italy and Spain to strengthen fiscal discipline and underpin the recovery in economic activity and job creation." "We are committed to taking coordinated action where needed, to ensuring liquidity, and to supporting financial market functioning, financial stability and economic growth," G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said in a Sunday night statement. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had been expected to take part in a conference call with representatives of the other G7 nations to discuss the downgraded U.S. credit rating, a G7 official told CNN. The G7 nations are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United States. Similarly, the European Central Bank made a bid to calm markets Sunday. It said it would implement a bond-purchase program and welcomed announcements by Italy and Spain on new measures meant to reduce their deficits. It told the governments of those countries that a "decisive and swift implementation" of reforms is "essential." The move represents an escalation in the official response to Europe's debt crisis, which is now more than a year old and until recently was contained to smaller economies like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde cheered the announcements. "I welcome the statements from the European Central Bank, from the leaders of Germany and France as well as from the G7, and their renewed commitment to take all necessary action in a coordinated way to ensure stability and liquidity in the financial markets. This cooperation will contribute to maintaining confidence and spurring global economic growth," she said in a statement. Middle Eastern markets, the first to open since the downgrade, were sharply lower on Sunday. Israel's market temporarily halted trading at one point and finished down more than 6%, while the Dubai Financial Market General Index fell 3.7%. The General Index on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange was down more than 2.5%, while in Saudi Arabia, the Tadawul All-Share Index dropped nearly 5.5% in trading Saturday. U.S. officials are talking to a "wide range of investors" about the downgrade by the credit agency to try to "mitigate" any short-term negative impact from Friday's announcement, a Treasury official told CNN. Top Standard & Poor's officials said Sunday that the downgraded credit rating for the United States was both a call for political consensus on significant deficit reduction and a warning of possible further credit problems down the road. "We have a negative outlook on the rating and that means that we think the risks currently on the rating are to the downside," said David Beers, the S&P global head of sovereign ratings, on "Fox News Sunday." However, Beers said markets were reacting to the debt crises in some European countries and fears of a global economic slump, rather than the U.S. credit downgrade alone. John Chambers, the S&P head of sovereign ratings, told ABC's "This Week" program Saturday that it could take years for the United States to return to AAA status. "Well, if history is a guide, it could take a while," Chambers said. "We've had five governments that lost their AAA that got it back. The amount of time that it took for those five range from nine years to 18 years, so it takes a while." The agency's concerns "are centered on the political side and on the fiscal side," Chambers said. "So it would take a stabilization of the debt as a share of the economy and eventual decline," he said. "And it would take, I think, more ability to reach consensus in Washington than what we're observing now." Both Beers and Bill Miller, chairman and chief investment officer at Legg Mason Capital Management, told the Fox program that they don't expect the U.S. downgrade to cause a spike in interest rates, one of the possible results of the higher risk now attached to U.S. debt. "I don't think we'll pay more in interest," Miller said, calling the downgrade more of a symbolic event than an economic event. However, he warned of continuing market volatility in coming days driven by uncertainty. Rating agencies such as S&P, Moody's and Fitch analyze risk and give debt a grade that is supposed to reflect the borrower's ability to repay its loans. The safest bets are stamped AAA. That's where the U.S. debt has stood for years. Moody's first assigned the United States an AAA rating in 1917. Fitch and Moody's, the other two main credit ratings agencies, maintained the AAA rating for the United States after last week's debt deal, though Moody's lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to "negative." A negative outlook indicates the possibility that Moody's could downgrade the country's sovereign credit rating within a year or two. U.S. Treasury officials received S&P's analysis Friday afternoon and alerted the agency to an error that inflated U.S. deficits by $2 trillion, said an administration official, who was not authorized to speak for attribution. The agency acknowledged the mistake, but said it was sticking with its decision. The administration official called it "a facts-be-damned decision ... Their analysis was way off, but they wouldn't budge." Saturday, Gene Sperling, director of Obama's National Economic Council, criticized S&P's call. "The magnitude of their error and the amateurism it displayed, combined with their willingness to simply change on the spot their lead rationale in their press release once the error was pointed out, was breathtaking. It smacked of an institution starting with a conclusion and shaping any arguments to fit it," he said. But Beers defended his agency's move on Sunday, telling the Fox program: "The underlying debt burden of the U.S. government is rising and will continue to rise over the next decade." CNN's Tom Cohen, Kyung Lah and Mark Meinero contributed to this report. | Losses are modest in Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Shanghai .
Investors are weighing both the downgrade and the European debt crisis .
G7 leaders say they are committed to taking "all necessary measures"
U.S. stock futures tumble around 1.7% in early electronic trading . |
0eb616df757c4ed70ba03375625587c020582f1d | PUBLISHED: . 11:28 EST, 29 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 19:57 EST, 29 May 2013 . A heavily pregnant nurse lost her baby when she went to hospital with an agonising infection – but was sent home with painkillers. Lekha James says she knew she had a urinary tract infection but a doctor and midwives refused to listen. Instead of giving her antibiotics that could have dealt with the problem, they prescribed the painkiller cocodamol. Three days later the 34-year-old nurse was rushed back with life-threatening septicaemia and medical staff could not find a heartbeat for her baby son.He was stillborn after labour was induced. 'Incredibly stressful and sad': Nurse Lekha James, 34, pictured with her husband Santhosh Mathew, 39, says she knew she had a urinary tract infection but claims staff at St Mary's Hospital 'wouldn't listen' Last night Mrs James and her husband Santhosh Mathew condemned St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, which has admitted negligence in failing to diagnose and treat the infection that led to the death of baby Aidan. An investigation has also exposed a ‘staff attitude problem’ and inadequate clinical assessment. Mrs James, who lives with her husband in Manchester with their daughter Tia, six, and new baby son Aiden, said she ‘instinctively’ knew something was wrong when she went to hospital with pain in her stomach, abdomen and hips. ‘I thought that I had a urinary tract infection but no one was listening to me,’ she said. ‘I did not want to leave the hospital but I felt I was not being given a choice. ‘When I returned to the hospital a second time, I was seriously ill and I now know that I almost died because the infection had become so severe. ‘We then discovered that our baby’s heart had stopped beating as a consequence of the infection.’ Compensation: The couple, from Gorton, are pursuing a compensation claim against Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs St Mary's . Mrs James, a cardiac nurse at the Manchester Royal Infirmary – adjacent to St Mary’s – added: ‘As a nurse myself, I would never ignore what a patient tells me. ‘I knew I had a urinary tract infection but they weren’t listening, talking over us as if we were illiterate people. ‘I wasn’t happy to be sent home and the pain was so bad I needed a wheelchair. It was only when I was semi-conscious in labour I realised what had happened – it has been incredibly stressful and sad. ‘We had been trying for a baby for some time when I became pregnant, and our precious baby son was much longed for. ‘We now have another son, who we have called Aiden, but nothing can replace our baby who died.’ Mrs James, who is also a qualified midwife, hopes others will be prevented from going through the same trouble they experienced in March last year. ‘We will never fully get over our loss, but we are desperate to try to ensure that lessons are learned from our case so that hopefully we can prevent other parents from going through the same ordeal,’ she said. Her husband, a catering supervisor who also works at the Royal Infirmary, added: ‘I don’t know how I managed to control myself when the doctor told me our baby had died. ‘We cannot describe the pain we have been through, we just want to make sure this never happens to anyone else.’ The couple are now pursuing a claim for compensation against the NHS foundation trust that runs St Mary’s and have also submitted a formal complaint to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Their solicitor Beth Reay, who is pursuing the legal claim for the couple, said health staff had made ‘catastrophic failures’ that led to the baby’s death. The care team, including an agency doctor, failed to spot that the infection posed a significant risk to the unborn child, which was almost full-term, she said. ‘There appeared to be a culture amongst staff that allowed them to ignore some quite basic clinical factors which has led to the death of their son,’ she added. ‘A urinary tract infection is not uncommon for women to get, especially in the later stages of pregnancy. Warning signs were there but further tests on Lekha were not carried out before she was discharged.’ The solicitor said the trust had accepted that a course of antibiotics would have avoided the death of the baby and had written a letter of apology. ‘While I am pleased to secure this admission of negligence, Mr and Mrs James need assurances that every possible step will be taken to ensure no other parents have to live through the same distressing ordeal,’ she added. Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has launched an internal investigation into the complaint surrounding the treatment at St Mary’s and has published a 17-page report. However, Mrs James and her husband claim they were not told about its release. The report states there were ‘staff attitude problems’ as well as ‘inadequate clinical assessment by the doctor, highlighting learning needs’. ‘Staff need to be aware of how their behaviour is perceived by patients,’ it adds. ‘Lack of thought was given to the quality of care and patient experience.’ A trust spokesman said: ‘Unfortunately as this is an ongoing legal case we are unable to confirm any details.’ | Lekha James, 34, claims she knew she had a urinary tract infection .
Heavily pregnant nurse sent home by medics at St Mary's Hospital .
Three days later she lost consciousness and lost her baby .
Trust in Manchester has admitted negligence led to baby's death .
She and her husband seeking compensation from the trust . |
0eb8e5740eecc2098cd862cb5d1ff41f9aa97eb5 | A starving four-month-old foal was left to die alone in freezing conditions after being dumped near a caravan park. The sweet piebald cob called Gizmo is battling to survive after he was found without his mother and seriously underweight near Ridgewell Caravan Park in Essex on Tuesday. He has been left so weak he can barely stand and was suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and pneumonia when he was rescued by the RSPCA along with police and veterinary staff. Gizmo, the four-month-old foal, was left abandoned in freezing conditions and dumped by a caravan park . He was rescued by the RSPCA on Tuesday and underwent an operation at Catley Cross Veterinary Clinic, where he is continuing to fight for his life . Sarah Elmy, from the charity, said: 'Poor Gizmo was just abandoned without his mum and left to die by the side of the road. 'He was so weak he was just collapsed and couldn't - and still can't - stand, and you can see every bone in his body, he's so thin. 'We had to carry him to the van on a rug. He was so keen to live, though, bless him. 'Even though he was lying flat out, he was trying to reach forward and crawl himself along the ground to get to grass. He was suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and pneumonia and could barely stand when he was found . Gizmo was so weak he had to be carried to the rescue van on a rug (pictured) 'As soon as we propped him up he was nibbling, trying to eat from our hand. It was so heartbreaking. I just really hope he pulls through - he's certainly trying his best.' An Essex Police spokesperson said: 'We assisted the RSPCA in recovering a sick horse in Yeldham Road in Ridgewell on February 17.' Gizmo underwent surgery at Catley Cross Veterinary Clinic and following a post on its Facebook page, people have stepped in to raise £11,000 to cover his care. Veterinary surgeon, Carolyn Wise, from the centre, said: 'It is touch and go at the moment. Gizmo is walking a fine line. 'But he is eating and trying to live so we have everything crossed he will pull through - he is such a lovely foal. He has melted all our hearts. 'It seems we are not the only ones as we have been overwhelmed by people phoning us wanting to help, after we put up a short appeal on our Facebook page. 'We are so grateful for such a heartwarming response. It just shows you how much people care.' More than £3,000 has already donated by 220 well-wishers in less than 24 hours, which already covers more than half his medical costs. The RSPCA, which has more than 600 horses in its care nationally, says any surplus funds will be used for the rescue and treatment of other horses in a similar situation. To donate towards battling Gizmo's care call 0300 123 0346 or visit justgiving.com/gizmothefoal. Anyone with information about how Gizmo was dumped should call 0300 123 8018. | Gizmo is fighting for his life after he was rescued by RSCPA on Tuesday .
He was found suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and pneumonia .
His mother was nowhere to be seen at the site of where he was dumped .
Veterinary clinic put out Facebook post and campaign was set up for him .
So far, it has raised more than £3,000 to cover costs of his medical care . |
0eb9aef24749f6b8746d83d7e1d204e48a4d51db | The Government’s controversial £50billion high-speed rail project has been given a damning ‘amber-red’ warning - meaning it is at serious risk of failure. Spending watchdogs say successful delivery of the flagship 330-mile HS2 line, which will run from London to Birmingham and then onwards to the North, remains ‘in doubt’ They claim there are ‘major risks in a number of areas’ which require ‘urgent action’ if the scheme is to be saved. At risk: The Government's £50billion high-speed rail project has been given an 'amber-red' warning - meaning it is at serious risk of failure. Above, the HS2 line will run from London to Birmingham, and then on to the North . The alarming assessment by the . watchdog Major Projects Authority (MPA) appeared in its second annual . report published by the Cabinet Office. The report covers 199 projects across Whitehall departments - totalling what ministers admit is an ‘eye-watering’ £400billion of taxpayers’ money over their lifetimes. It rates the projects on a five tier traffic light system from red for ‘unachievable’ to ‘green’ for success being ‘highly likely.’ The delivery of two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers was rated as 'red' for a second year in a row, while the controversial Universal . Credit scheme was excluded from the review after it was 'reset' by Work . and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. HS2's 'amber-red' rating follows an earlier row over the Government’s refusal to publish documents relating to an earlier damning assessment on the scheme. Controversial: Spending watchdogs claim there are 'major risks in a number of areas' which require 'urgent action' if the scheme is to be saved. Above, the Birmingham and Fazeley viaduct, part of the planned HS2 route . Angry: The alarming assessment by the watchdog Major Projects Authority (MPA) appeared in its second annual report published by the Cabinet Office. Above, a protest sign is pictured in Middleton, Staffordshire . The Information Commission is currently taking legal action to force the disclosure of those documents. The new MPA assessment - covering the period from July to September last year - was welcomed by opponents of HS2, who have condemned the project as a ‘white elephant’ and an expensive ‘vanity project.’ But they also criticised the timing of the report’s release – the day after the local government and European elections as votes were still being counted – as ‘a good day to bury bad news’ and another example of Government ‘spin’. In the foreword to the report, Francis Maude said the Government must identify and address problems early on before they become an issue . The 'amber-red' grading, the second worst of the five possible levels, means: ’Successful delivery of the project is in doubt, with major risks or issues apparent in a number of key areas. Urgent action is needed to ensure these are addressed, and whether resolution is feasible.’ The MPA report states: ‘The amber/red delivery confidence assessment on HS2, like other projects with a similar assessment, indicates that the focused attention that is being applied to addressing the remaining issues must continue.’ It adds: ‘High Speed Rail (HS2) is a high-profile example of a project that displays many of these challenges. It is not unusual for projects of this scale to have a lower delivery confidence assessment early in their project life, highlighting the substantial issues that inevitably remain to be resolved. ‘Significant progress has been made in the last year on HS2, for example in depositing the High Speed Rail Bill in Parliament and securing successful second reading in the Commons.’ But Penny Gaines who chairs campaign group Stop HS2 said: ‘The MPA have kept giving HS2 amber/red ratings. The Department for Transport may claim that it is a project in excellent shape, but the evidence says otherwise.’ And Richard Houghton of HS2Action Alliance said: ‘It’s no surprise the report concludes HS2 is at risk of failure. This project is running out of control.’ The Bill for HS2 recently survived its second reading - despite fury and a backbench rebellion by dozens of Tory backbenchers. But a Department for Transport spokesman . said: ‘As the MPA itself makes clear, HS2 has made significant progress . in the eight months since the evidence for this report was gathered, . most recently with MPs voting 452 to 41 in favour of the Second Reading . of the hybrid Bill. ‘We have met all major milestones and are on track to have spades in the ground in 2017 as planned. Protest: The new MPA assessment - covering the period from July to September last year - was welcomed by opponents of HS2, who have condemned the project as a 'white elephant' and an expensive 'vanity project' 'HS2 is a vital part of the Government’s long term economic plan and we are determined to ensure Britain will benefit from the jobs, skills and extra capacity it will provide.’ In the foreword to the MPA report, Cabinet Office Secretary Francis Maude admits the budgets are ‘eyewatering’, but insists: ’Delivering projects will never be easy – they are some of the biggest and most complex things the Government will do. 'But we must not pretend problems don’t exist. Instead, we must identify and address them early on before they become an issue.’ And Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, wrote: ‘The Treasury remains committed to the important work that this Government is undertaking to improve the delivery of our most important projects.’ Speaking out: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said the Treasury 'remains committed to the important work that this Government is undertaking to improve the delivery of our most important projects' The report's publication comes as . campaigners have been fighting for months to have details of earlier . internal correspondence between ministers and HS2 Ltd made public. In . April, Britain’s freedom of information tsar announced he was to launch . an ‘unprecedented’ High Court challenge against the Government after . ministers used a wartime veto to censor embarrassing details about the . controversial HS2 high speed rail project. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said he was seeking a judicial review of Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s decision to block publication of secret internal report highlighting official fears that the proposed £50billion project could fail – saying such censorship was ‘unlawful’. The Government's controversial Universal Credit scheme was excluded from the MPA report after it was 'reset' by Iain Duncan Smith . Mr Graham said he had 'not taken the decision lightly’, but that a fundamental point of principle is at stake. He added that ministers have acted unfairly and unreasonably in banning publication, despite there being ‘no demonstrable flaw in fact or law.’ The furious confrontation began in January when Transport Secretary Mr McLoughlin invoked rare emergency veto powers to ban publication of a damning Whitehall Project Assessment Report into the Government’s controversial HS2 high speed rail. The banned report is also believed to have put an ‘amber-red’ rating on the scheme, suggesting it was in danger of failing. Six months earlier, the Information Commissioner had already ruled that the Government had to disclose the controversial HS2 report. But the Government refused to comply. And after first appealing against the decision. Ministers subsequently withdrew their appeal and in January, imposed a blanket veto of the kind issued in wartime. Ministers argued the report into the Y-shaped line from London to Birmingham and beyond to the North, was private and confidential advice from civil servants to them, so shouldn’t be published. The veto aimed to ensure that. New figures revealed last week that taxpayer spending on consultants for the controversial high speed HS2 project is accelerating 86per cent and £87million over budget. Expert analysis of the Department for Transport’s spending to the end of February 2014 by construction magazine Building reveals that the Whitehall-run firm set up to manage the project - HS2 Ltd - has overshot its allocated £101m budget by £87million for four lots of professional services contracts. That takes total spending on consultants to £188m – or 86per cent over budget. Preparatory work on HS2 is set to start in 2016, ahead of building work in 2017. The first phase from London Euston to Birmingham will be completed by 2026, with an ‘accelerated’ section to Crewe finished the following year. The full route to Manchester and Leeds is expected to be completed by 2030. | Spending watchdogs say successful delivery of HS2 remains 'in doubt'
Claim there are 'major risks in number of areas' requiring 'urgent action'
Damning assessment was made by watchdog Major Projects Authority .
Published in report covering 199 Whitehall schemes by Cabinet Office .
HS2's 'amber-red' warning is the second worst of five possible grades .
High-speed line will run from London to Birmingham, then on to North . |
0ebb4d502da4fe25afb8f8f18d063b377567b092 | A common viral infection could increase a person's risk of developing diabetes later in life - and they may not even realise they have contracted it. The Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is part of the herpes family and can be sexually-transmitted. It can also be spread via coughs and sneezes and it is estimated around half of all adults have been infected. The virus tends to remain dormant and most people don't exhibit any symptoms, but if they do they are similar to flu. Around half of people in the UK are thought to be infected with the Cytomegalovirus . However, new research from Leiden University and the University of Tubingen in Germany suggests it is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes in the elderly. They found adults aged 85 and over who were infected with cytomegalovirus were about twice as likely to have type 2 diabetes compared with those not infected. The team analysed information from more than 500 elderly adults in the Netherlands. Around 80 per cent were infected with cytomegalovirus and 15 per cent had type 2 diabetes. While 17 percent of those infected with cytomegalovirus had type 2 diabetes, only 7.9 per cent of those without the virus had the condition. People with type 2 diabetes tend to have their blood glucose levels checked every two to six months . Obesity and aging are known to be associated with insulin resistance, one of the first signs of type 2 diabetes. However, only a third of these people go on to develop the condition. Those who develop type 2 diabetes usually have raised levels of biological markers for inflammation such . as larger numbers of active white blood cells. The researchers found chronic infections including CMV can 'stress' the immune system. They suggested the virus could be acting directly on pancreatic cells or indirectly by causing the immune system to attack the pancreas. The study appears in BioMed Central's open access journal Immunity and Ageing. | The Cytomegalovirus is part of the herpes family and tends to remain dormant . |
0ebd300c6c1720f277f91916993f0a9482d6c8f5 | The man whose office romp with a junior went viral this week is a senior insurance broker in his late 40s, Daily Mail Australia can reveal. The man involved in the Christchurch office sex romp with a woman almost half his age is a regional manager at Marsh Ltd insurance firm, and is married with a 15-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter. He had a steamy encounter with a company secretary in her 20s in the Marsh Ltd office at Papanui Road, while patrons from the Carlton Bar across the street cheered them on after unexpectedly getting front-row seats for the action. Scroll down for video . The man at the centre of the New Zealand office sex romp which went viral has been revealed as a husband and father of two aged in his late 40s . Video footage and photographs by the revellers caused an online phenomenon that was watched by millions worldwide. Unfortunately one of the people who saw the frolics on social media was the man’s wife who reportedly found out about the devastating affair on Facebook. A friend of the man’s brother, who is a glazer in the city, said that when the brother heard about the office romp he texted him about it, not knowing that he was the one actually involved. ‘When he heard what happened he never thought that it was him. He actually texted him straightaway to find out who in the office it was,’ the friend said. ‘After he didn’t reply he even asked, ‘It’s not you is it?’ He was pretty shocked when he admitted that it was.’ When the Daily Mail Australia called at the regional manager’s house in the affluent Christchurch suburb of Sumner to speak with him on Saturday, the man refused to open his door or answer any questions. The couple's office sex scandal which took place last Friday night went viral after patrons at the pub across the road captured the intimate moment . It took place in this office (inside the window on the right) and neither party has returned to work since the incident . The man's wife only found out about the affair when it went viral on Facebook, and is said to be devastated by the revelations . ‘Get off these premises, get off these premises,’ was all he said from behind his front door. He then refused to reply to questions at all. The man appeared to be home alone despite it being the Waitangi Day weekend bank holiday. However, when the Daily Mail Australia visited the premises the day before it was his wife that answered the door. She said that her husband was not at home and would not comment on the incident. ‘I’ve got nothing to say. He’s not here,’ she said. The wife's friends were supporting her, a neighbour said. It’s clear the marriage has an uncertain future. A neighbour that lived a few houses away and who claimed he'd known the family for years, was shocked at what had happened and had 'no explanation' for the senior manager's behaviour. Patrons at the Carlton Bar and Eatery captured the scandalous behaviour last Friday evening . There are reports the senior broker has been sacked over the incident, but the firm claims the internal investigation is still ongoing . The man, aged in his 40s, would not answer questions and appeared to be home alone this weekend . ‘It’s all come as a bit of a shock. I still can’t believe it has happened. I’ve no explanation for it at all,’ the neighbour said. ‘It’s very, very sad. He’s a lovely guy. I’ve no idea why he would do it. He and his wife have been very good to me over the years and are a lovely couple.’ Earlier this week the ex-fiancé of the woman involved in the sex romp said their engagement was already over before the incident, and that it's sad 'for everyone involved'. Identifying himself only as ‘Josh’ he told The Edge radio station on Friday morning that they were no longer engaged and had split up weeks before the erotic encounter. He said he knew the other man who appeared in the video, but had never met him. ‘I think for everyone involved it's quite sad,’ he said. An insurance industry insider said that the man had been sacked from his job over the incident. But the firm has only confirmed that an internal investigation is still ongoing. The secretary's ex-fiance spoke a few days ago, saying they had split a few weeks prior . | Man involved in Christchurch office romp has been revealed as a father .
He is a senior member of the Marsh Ltd insurance firm, aged in his late 40s .
He was filmed having sex with company secretary in mid-20s last week .
The romp was filmed by patrons at Carlton Bar across street .
The man's wife found out about the incident after she saw it on Facebook .
Secretary had recently split from her fiance, and has not yet been identified .
An insider said the man had been sacked from his position over incident . |
0ebd8b78de6cdbafe42d808545adf61974c66e67 | Police in Phoenix have ended the 1,800-mile reign of terror of a bank robber who killed an officer in Tupelo, Mississippi, and wounded another. The robber was shot dead by a Phoenix police detective during a gun battle with cops on Saturday after they intercepted him when he robbed a bank there - his third heist in just a week. The violence ended a week of mayhem that began Monday morning in Atlanta, Georgia, and sparked a nationwide manhunt. FBI agents are confident that the man who died in Phoenix was also responsible for the robberies in Atlanta and Tupelo because his cell phone records show he was in those places at the times of the crimes. His clothing and behavior at the previous robberies also match the Phoenix heist. Twice in one day: Police believe that Mario Edward Garnett is pictured here and is suspected of robbing a Bancorp South bank in Tupelo, Mississippi and another in Atlanta, Georgia . Not scared: The man is filmed walking up to the teller to demand money but is ultimately unsuccessful in robbing the bank . Reign of terror: The robber pulled off two heists in one day before traveling 1,800 miles to Phoenix, where he was killed . The suspect, whose name has not been . released, is believed to be the same man who opened fire on Officers . Kevin Gale Stauffer and Joseph Maher, in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Monday . when they tried to stop him as he fled a BancorpSouth robbery in . town. Stauffer, an Iraq War veteran and father of two, was killed. Maher was wounded and is expected to survive. Stauffer's widow Beth publicly thanked Phoenix police for stopping the man who killed her husband. 'Gale would be proud. Today is another very emotional day in the life of our family. We can truly begin the healing process,' she said. 'We know we have not been going through this alone. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for shining a light in this time of darkness.' Surveillance footage show the same . suspect entering a Bank of America branch in Atlanta, armed with a . semi-automatic handgun and wearing a black ski mask. In a wanted poster, the suspect was described as 5-foot-8 to 6 feet tall with a slender build. Police first started chasing the suspect on Monday when he conducted a robbery at a BankcorpSouth branch two states away in Tupelo, several hours after the Atlanta incident. When . the man failed again to get money from the teller, he decided to rob a customer using an ATM and that's when police intervened. Wanted man: Police had a reward of $200,000 on the suspect, who is believed to now be dead . A BancorpSouth surveillance screen shot from Monday of a man holding up the bank with a handgun . Cpl Kevin Gale Stauffer, 38 and fellow officer Joseph Maher, 27, tried to stop the suspect and an accomplice as they were leaving in a grey sedan. Both officers were shot by one of the suspects, but Cpl Stauffer was killed. Officer Maher was injured and taken to North Mississippi Medical Center for treatment but was able to leave by Friday. A widow's tears: Beth Stauffer praised Phoenix police for stopping the man who is believed to have killed her husband . Killed and injured: Cpl Kevin Gale Stauffer (left) and fellow police Officer Joseph Maher (right) were shot by the two suspects as they fled the Tupelo bank in a car. Cpl Stauffer died while Officer Maher was treated for non life-threatening injuries . CCTV . footage released to the public, showed one of the . suspects in a convenience store wearing khaki trousers, white Converse . trainers, a long-sleeved jacket and a blue ski mask. A team of more than 100 law enforcement staff worked over Christmas Day and Boxing Day to trace the gang. Police . previously released a surveillance image of another 'person of . interest; wearing a hoodie at a convenience store just minutes before . the Tupelo robbery. Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre spoke at the vigil, praising Cpl Stauffer, who worked for the department for eight years. The FBI set a reward for information from $152,000 to $162,500 . Authorities have released a photograph of a man in a hoodie at a convenience store shortly before the robbery . Cpl Stauffer, a 38-year-old father of two, was laid to rest Friday in a ceremony attended by policeman from accross the South. On . Christmas Day, a candlelit vigil was held in the town centre for Mr . Stauffer, a combat veteran of the Louisiana Army National Guard with . whom he served a tour in Iraq. Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton praised Cpl Stauffer, who 'made the ultimate sacrifice for his community' Grieving wife Beth Stauffer told WTVA-TV: 'I have my moments. But, I'm at peace with Gale because I know he died doing something he loved. 'The way he was at work as a leader is what he was like at home. His mother, Debbie Brangenberg, thanked . the dozens that attended the memorial service on Wednesday, saying the . strength of the community keeps the family strong. She added: 'Everybody has been so wonderful to us through this week. 'And, the overwhelming love and support that this community has given us has helped us make it through.' Memorial: Dozens attended a candlelit vigil in Tupelo, Mississippi on Christmas Day for the father-of-two . Shaken: Members of the community also held a silence for Officer Joseph Maher, 27, who was also shot by the suspects and remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition . | FBI believe the wanted man has now been shot dead while trying to carry out another heist in Arizona on Saturday .
Authorities announced that the man suspected of killing a police officer in a bank robbery in Tupelo, Mississippi, on Monday tried to rob a bank just hours earlier in Atlanta .
After failing to rob the bank in Atlanta, the man drove two states away to Tupelo and still couldn't get a teller to give him money .
Police intervened when the suspect and one other were driving away from the Tupelo branch, and one of them shot both responding officers .
Cpl Kevin Gale Stauffer, an Iraq war veteran, was killed and fellow Officer Joseph Maher was injured .
Cpl Stauffer was laid to rest on Friday - the same day Officer Maher was allowed to leave the hospital . |
0ebddbbd26094d1945692a2f558455335c464bc8 | Scroll down for video . Texas Republican Representative Ralph Hall, 90, spent more than $33,000 in campaign donations on high-end hams and chocolates. According to Federal Election Commission records, Hall, the oldest serving member of Congress, spent more than $14,000 on HoneyBaked hams around the holiday season in 2012 and 2013, and a further $19,000 at Godiva in December 2013. During the holiday season, many constituents receive gifts from their members of Congress such as cards, ornaments or trinkets from the House gift shop. Hamming it up: Congressman Ralph Hall gives very tasty gifts to his supporters . Campaign money may be spent on gifts for constituents, though the House Ethics Committee states that the items should be 'of a nominal value.' 'Such gifts,' the Ethics Committee guidance states, 'may include the relatively inexpensive House or Capitol souvenir items sold by the House gift store or the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, and thus a Member may use campaign funds to purchase such nominal-value gifts for the Member’s supporters or contributors.' It's unclear whether Belgian Godiva chocolates and seven-pound hams are considered nominal-value gifts. Sweet nothings: The gifts were sent out to constituents over the holiday seasons of 2012 and 2013 . No hard feelings: Hall even sent a ham to his rival John Ratcliffe . 'These are gifts that the congressman has been giving out for years to constituents,' said Ed Valentine, one of Hall’s campaign advisers, reports BuzzFeed. 'They’re Christmas gifts. They’re birthday gifts. That’s how Ralph works. He likes Christmas.' Hall even sent a ham to former U.S. Attorney John Ratcliffe, who is running against the nonagenarian. A spokesman for Ratcliffe said Hall sent the Tea Party member a seven-pound baked ham after he announced he was running against the incumbent. 'After six votes to increase the debt ceiling, and support for bloated farm bills, cash for clunkers and billions in earmarks, this level of questionable spending from Ralph Hall is unfortunately not surprising,' Ratcliffe spokesperson Daniel Kroese told BuzzFeed. | Republican Representative Ralph Hall spent more than $33,000 in donations on HoneyBaked hams and Godiva chocolates between 2012 and 2013 .
The gourmet treats were gift to constituents .
Members of Congress often send gifts such as cards or trinkets to constituents over the holiday season .
Hall even sent a ham to his rival John Ratcliffe . |
0ebe0f5d3476cf350f409ddc14a18615cfd68d04 | This is the heart-wrenching moment a mother-of-two married her childhood sweetheart three days before dying - and just a month after she discovered she had cancer. Kate Wiggin, 29, of Walsall, West Midlands, decided to marry the father of her two young children, 32-year-old childhood sweetheart Gary, when she was told that she had just weeks to live. She was told by doctors she had gallstones after complaining of stomach pains for 18 months. But she found on February 13 that she had terminal cancer - and died three weeks later on March 9. Tragic: Kate Wiggin, 29, of Walsall, West Midlands, decided to marry the father of her two young children, 32-year-old childhood sweetheart Gary, when she was told that she had just weeks to live . Family: From left, father of the bride Tony, mother of the bride Janet Cleaver, Kate Wiggin, Mollie Wiggin, Lewis Wiggin, Gary Wiggin, and Mr Wiggin's mother and father, whose names are not known . Brave: Gary and Kate Wiggin on their wedding day with their son Lewis, bearing the ring for his mother . Wedding photo: From left, father of the bride Tony, Kate Wiggin, Mollie Wiggin, Lewis Wiggin, Gary Wiggin, and mother of the bride Janet Cleaver . Special moment: Mr and Mrs Wiggin kiss on their wedding day, just 72 hours before she tragically died . Mother of two: Mrs Wiggin on her wedding day earlier this month with her children Mollie and Lewis . Her mother Janet Cleaver, 54, said: ‘Kate . had been having stomach trouble for a while, but the doctors kept . telling her they thought she had gallstones. ‘It . went on for a while, and then they thought it was a bacterial . infection. But when she started getting little lumps popping out of her . skin, a nurse at the GP’s referred her to the hospital. ‘Then . she was told she had a very rare form of cancer, and it was terminal. Kate was such a strong person, she wouldn’t let us cry. She just set . about arranging her wedding to Gary.’ Mrs . Wiggin married Mr Wiggin at a hotel with children, Molly, eight, and . Lewis, 10, standing by on March 6, after family and friends organised a . wedding - just 72 hours before she passed away. Family: Mrs Wiggin was told by doctors she had after complaining of stomach pains for more than 18 months . Two children and a husband: Mrs Wiggin with her family. Around 600 mourners attended her funeral . Tribute: Mrs Wiggin's mother Janet Cleaver said her daughter was 'the strongest person I've ever met' Sad: Mrs Wiggin with her father Tony (left), and with her sister Claire when she was seven (right, in right photo) Ms Cleaver added: ‘The wedding was absolutely lovely. There was an ambulance on standby with a team because they were worried she would be too weak, but Kate was determined to say her vows. ‘She couldn’t walk, and was struggling to . catch her breath, but she did it. I am so proud of her. She lived for . her children and for Gary. She was the strongest person I’ve ever met. She didn’t drink or smoke, and was always helping out at the children’s . school. 'Kate was determined to say her vows. She couldn’t walk, and was struggling to catch her breath, but she did it. I am so proud of her' Janet Cleaver, mother . 'Everyone was brilliant on the day, the hotel rolled out a red carpet, and the photographer processed the images within 24 hours so she that could see them.’ Mrs Wiggin had been with her partner for 13 years and was a pupil at TP Riley Comprehensive School in the Bloxwich area of Walsall, which has since been demolished. When Mrs Wiggin died, she was surrounded by her family and listening to the Katy Perry and John Mayer song Who You Love, reported the Wolverhampton Express & Star. Around 600 mourners attended her funeral last Friday at Blakenall Heath Christ Church in Walsall. | Mother-of-two had been complaining about stomach pains for 18 months .
Found out last month she had terminal cancer and died three weeks later .
Kate Wiggin, 29, of Walsall, married Gary, 32, three days before her death .
Listened to Katy Perry and John Mayer song Who You Love as she died . |
0ebe11452f560458d8207f57945620cf0bb5e283 | Five grands prix will start an hour earlier this season in the wake of recommendations passed on following Jules Bianchi's horrific accident in Japan last year. The Frenchman's life-threatening crash in fading light and heavy rain in his Marussia resulted in the swift formation of the FIA Accident Panel, with luminaries such as Ross Brawn, Stefano Domenicali and Emerson Fittipaldi on board. One of the Panel's suggestions was that of the four-hour rule whereby 'the start time of an event shall not be less than four hours before either sunset or dusk, except in the case of night races'. Jules Bianchi was involved in a horrific incident at the Japanese F1 in October . Bianchi's car pictured during a rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix before his horror crash . In the past, a number of races have started in mid-to-late afternoon to accommodate early morning television audiences across Europe. But given Bianchi's accident, and following negotiations with the circuits involved, the races in Australia, Malaysia, China, Japan and Russia have all been brought back an hour. The release of the FIA's start-time information means the season-opener at Melbourne's Albert Park will now begin at 16.00 local time (05.00 GMT), with the Malaysian Grand Prix starting at 15.00 local (07.00 GMT). The other three grands prix in China, Japan and Russia will commence at 14.00 local time, resulting in respective GMT times of 06.00, 05.00 and 11.00. F1 races in Australia, Malaysia, China, Japan and Russia have all been brought back an hour . The Marussia team still displayed Bianchi's named above their garage at the Russian Grand Prix in October . | Jules Bianchi was involved in life-threatening crash in October .
The Frenchman crashed in fading light and heavy rain in Japan .
Formula One bosses are keen to avoid repeat of accident .
Australia, Malaysia, China, Japan and Russia have all been brought back . |
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