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203,596 | 9390814cef3a927ebd28e4c9d01d5acee800dd2a | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 01:02 EST, 9 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:20 EST, 9 March 2013 . At the time hopes for Skinny the 41-pound obese stray cat found roaming the streets of Texas last year didn't look so good. But in six months' time the orange tabby has shed a remarkable seven pounds while additionally taken into the permanent home and care of his veterinarian, Brittney Barton of Dallas. In a newly released photo of the tabby seen lounging around Dr. Barton’s home - as well as affectionately in her arms - she reports that Skinny is doing well while on a special diet to help lose weight and increase his metabolism. Check me out: Seen lounging in his new home in Dallas, Texas on Friday, Skinny the former 41-pound cat poses for pictures in his new 34-pound body . Dr Barton says she became attached to the cat - that weighed as much as an average 5-year-old child according to U.S. government growth charts - while treating him at an animal orphanage. Last month, after a campaign to find Skinny a new home, he became part of her family. Skinny now joins Dr Barton's husband, three children, a dog and another cat at her Dallas home. Barton says Skinny gets along great with the other animals, can jump up on a couch and runs - not waddles - to his food bag at feeding time. Before and after: Skinny is seen left while weighing in at 41-pounds while on Friday he was seen in the arms of his new owner Dr Brittney Barton while weighing seven pounds less . Too big: Skinny was photographed here after she was found wandering the streets of Dallas, morbidly obese . Kitty steps: Skinny, seen before his weight loss, was put on a strict diet allowing him to shed seven pounds without strenuous exercise . She says the house has long hallways that provide good exercise for Skinny. No doubt Skinny’s rapid and ongoing success is the perfect role model for other fat cats out there. Though Skinny weighed in an average of 25 pounds more than the average feline, he wasn’t the heaviest kitty on record. Himmy, the Australian cat, tipped the scales around 47 pounds, according to Guinness World Records, which retired the category to discourage the overfeeding of porky pets - The Dallas Morning News reported. | Orange tabby weighed as much as an average 4-year-old child according to U.S. government growth charts .
Skinny was put on a healthy diet allowing him to easily shed seven pounds without strenuous exercise . |
16,585 | 2f08d8888c80e66909c1c6985dc7b88e44ae2347 | Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama signed a sweeping overhaul of child nutrition standards Monday, enacting a law meant to encourage better eating habits in part by giving the federal government more authority to set standards for food sold in vending machines and elsewhere on school grounds. Among other things, the $4.5 billion measure provides more money to poor areas to subsidize free meals and requires schools to abide by health guidelines drafted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To help offset the higher cost of including more fruits and vegetables, the bill increases the reimbursement rate for school lunches. The bill is about "giving our kids the healthy futures they deserve," the president said during a bill signing ceremony at a Washington elementary school. "Right now across the country too many kids don't have access to school meals." Even when they do, he added, too often the meals aren't sufficiently nutritious. As a result, he said, one out of every three children in America is overweight or obese. Some Democrats had objected to the bill because it is funded in part by stripping $2.2 billion from the federal food stamp program. Congress also voted over the summer to take money from the program to fund legislation sending money to cash-strapped states to avoid teacher layoffs. The cuts largely negate a spending increase provided to the food stamp program by the 2009 economic stimulus plan. Administration officials reportedly have promised anxious liberals that they will work to find ways to restore the higher funding levels. The measure has been a top priority for first lady Michelle Obama, who has championed it as part of her "Let's Move" initiative to combat child obesity in the United States. "Had I not been able to get this bill passed, I would be sleeping on the couch," the president joked shortly before signing the measure into law. "We won't go into that," the first lady said. "Let's just say it got done. Don't have to go down that road." | President Obama signs a bill meant to encourage healthier eating habits among children .
The measure gives the government more power to set standards for schools .
The bill, which costs $4.5 billion, provides funding to subsidize meals for lower income children . |
211,587 | 9e006eab600c43a72550e9129e8f095a7511ec46 | Bullied and bruised: Brian Hudkins, 60, was reporting a suspected burglary when Officer T. Michael Wilson threw him to the ground and arrested him instead, unprovoked . An 'Officer of the Year' for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is now under investigation after security footage was released showing him attacking a 60-year-old man who was just reporting a burglary. Last September, victim Brian Hudkins was in town for a business conference. He was staying at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis with one of his employees, Andrew Davis. After dinner, the two went back to the hotel, but Davis was locked out of his room. He heard people behind the door and called Hudkins, believing it was a burglary. The two went downstairs to report the incident to hotel management and asked that they call the police. Officer . T. Michael Wilson responded to the call, and his exchange with the two men was recorded on hotel security camera footage obtained by WISH. After only 16 seconds . speaking to the two men, Officer Wilson tackled Mr Hudkins to the ground. Wilson . wrote in his report that Mr Hudkins was told to 'quiet' down and refused. The officer said he 'attempted to push Mr Hudkins backwards and away from the situation' but the man 'forcibly' pushed backwards. The surveillance footage shows quite a different story. Mr Hudkins couldn't possibly push back as his hands were behind his back the entire time. Officer Wilson not only pushes him to the ground once, but once arrested he pushes him to the ground again on the way out to the squad car. As for Mr Davis, he began to take footage on his camera and Officer Wilson told him to get on the ground as well or else he would taze him. Casual conversation: Officer T. Michael Wilson, left, speaks with Brian Hudkins (beige shirt) and Andrew Davis (blue shirt) about a suspected burglary in one of their rooms . Unprovoked: In his report, Officer Wilson said Mr Hudkins pushed him back - but the video shows the 60-year-old with his hands behind his back the entire time . On the ground: Officer Wilson pushes the man to the ground, to arrest him though even when he doesn't show resistance . Down again: Mr Hudkins is pushed to the ground again on the way to the squad car. He says it took him weeks to recover from the lacerations to his face . The two men spent the night in jail. Mr Hudkins missed most of the conference and it took him weeks to heal from he multiple lacerations on his face incurred in the attack. Officer Wilson was named 'Community Policing Support Officer of the Year' five months later in May. WISH showed the video to Police Chief Rick Hite, who said he had never seen the video before. The station later found out it was sent to the department five months ago. Hite promised to immediately start an internal investigation into the incident and the officer's behavior. 'I'm nor denying what we saw or what we've seen but we have a policy and a process in which we adjudicate each and every investigation,' he said. Since the incident, Hudkins has filed a lawsuit asking for $700,000 in damages. He says that he was forced to give a guilty plea the night he was arrested to get the charges off his record. They also made him promise to stay away from the hotel and donate $500 to a police charity. | Officer T. Michael Wilson is the focus of an internal affairs investigation after year-old security camera footage shows him throwing him a senior citizen to the ground .
The victim, Brian Hudkins, was reporting a suspected burglary .
Officer Wilson was awarded an 'Officer of the Year' award five months later . |
262,862 | e079006e3c8733782096801430074aa38d6a17e7 | PARIS, France (CNN) -- France bears responsibility for deporting Jews to their deaths in concentration camps during World War II, the country's highest court ruled Monday. Jews and foreigners are rounded up in Paris in May 1941. But, the Council of State said, "measures taken since the end of the Second World War have compensated for the damage." Northern France was directly occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II while the south of the country was ruled by the Vichy government that collaborated with Adolf Hitler. France's role in the deportation of its Jews was a taboo subject for decades after the war. The trial of Maurice Papon, a civil servant in the collaborationist Vichy government, for deporting Jews, forced the country to confront its role in the Holocaust. Papon was convicted in 1998 by a French court for complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in the deportation of 1,590 Jews from the city of Bordeaux. Most of the deportees later perished at the concentration camp at Auschwitz in modern day Poland. Papon died in February 2007, aged 96, after serving part of his term and then being freed on health grounds. There were approximately 350,000 Jews in France at the time of the country's defeat by Germany in 1940. At least half of those were refugees who had already fled Germany or countries already under Nazi occupation, according to the Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. At least 77,000 Jews were deported to their deaths from French transit camps between 1942 and the end of German occupation in December 1944. Of these, around a third were French citizens and more than 8,000 were children under 13. | Court: France bears responsibility for sending Jews to WWII concentration camps .
Court rules measures taken since end of war have compensated for damage .
France's role in deportation of its Jews taboo for decades after war .
At least 77,000 Jews deported from France during Nazi occupation . |
79,640 | e1d401493a7fb39dbdbb1784ca695b865261169a | Washington (CNN) -- Just before Lois Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions in front of a House committee investigating wrongdoing in the IRS tax-exempt office she ran, she gave an opening statement insisting her innocence. "I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules and regulations," said Lerner at the hearing. She has since been placed on administrative leave. But that statement angered Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and others on the committee, causing him Thursday to threaten to recall Lerner and force her to answer his questions, believing she had, in fact, waived her constitutional rights. What it means to take 'The Fifth' "She just testified. She just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege," South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said to applause during Wednesday's hearing. "You don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination. That's not the way it works." Issa agreed. "After consulting with counsel, Chairman Issa has concluded that Ms. Lerner's Fifth Amendment assertion is no longer valid. She remains under subpoena, the Committee is looking at recalling her for testimony," Oversight committee spokeswoman Becca Glover Watkins told CNN Thursday in a statement. Issa's office declined to explain what his counsel's legal basis was for deciding that her Fifth Amendment assertion is no longer valid. But Democrats and several legal experts think Issa was wrong. "I'm surprised that chairman Issa's taken that position," Ranking House Oversight Committee Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland told CNN on Thursday. "First, all the law that I've read says that she did not waive her right. As a lawyer I don't believe she waived her right. And I believe that we as a committee should honor one's right, and as a matter of fact." Some legal experts agree. "The only true ways to "lose" one's rights under the Fifth Amendment are, one, for a court to find that the claimant does not have a reasonable fear of prosecution, because nothing she says could in fact become a helpful link to a prosecution, or two, to get an order of immunity that guarantees that nothing she says will in fact be used to prosecute her," said Miguel A. Estrada, a conservative attorney who helps head the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's appellate and constitutional group and who was once nominated by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals. "The first is unlikely here, and no one is offering to do the second." It is true that high-profile congressional hearings are equal parts official proceeding and political spectacle. And the very act of being called to testify before Congress can create an impression of guilt in the court of public opinion, even though the congressional panel isn't issuing any kind of legal ruling. In these instances, it might be best to show up with an attorney for the benefit of appearances for the folks back at home watching on television, but plead the "Fifth" on sticky legal questions. But even in front of Congress, experts say, a witness doesn't necessarily lose Fifth Amendment protections by speaking first. "One can invoke the Fifth Amendment at any time. Giving a preamble or any kind of statement doesn't void that," said Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, an associate professor who teaches constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "Now does it look suspicious? Yes. Does it undermine the person's credibility? Yes." Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, retired Lt. Col. Oliver North, baseball player Mark McGwire and White House party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi all invoked Fifth Amendment privilege before Congress due to concerns that anything they may have said could have been used against them in court. And, like Lerner, many of them offered some type of statement before or after taking The Fifth. "I think what she did was unconventional," said Samidh Guha, a former federal prosecutor who now practices at the law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP. "But it's hyper technical to say she waived her Fifth Amendment privilege." CNN's Dana Bash and Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report. | Lawmakers, constitutional scholars debate whether Lois Learner waived the "Fifth"
GOP, some attorneys say rights were waived when she gave statement of innocence .
Democrats, many constitutional law experts say right not to self-incriminate stands .
Lerner was placed on administrative leave Thursday . |
289 | 00e2741c0cd0c660fcc241e79a2aedc0af5469e0 | (EW.com) -- As Jay Leno fights for his job, more people are opting to tune into the show that he's expected to lose. "The Tonight Show" just hit a seven-week high in total viewers with 3.52 million (his best since the week of January 28-February 1) and a four-week high in the 18-49 demo with 982,000 viewers (his best since February 18-22), according to Nielsen ratings. The ratings bump for the week of March 18-22 came as Leno began taking nightly jabs at his employers — like referring to them as snakes — as news hit that a succession plan was in the works to replace him with Jimmy Fallon. As it now stands, Leno has outranked "The Late Show with David Letterman" among 18-49 viewers for the last 18 weeks in a row while topping "Jimmy Kimmel Live" for nine of their 11 head-to-head weeks. In total viewers, Leno has averaged more than the Late Show for 22 weeks in a row and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" for 11 of 11 weeks. NBC has yet to confirm or comment on the succession plan, other than to say Fallon is getting a fancy new set in New York, where The Tonight Show is expected to move. Though plenty of industry watchers question whether it's the right time to bump Leno, speculation continues that Fallon may start as early as February, after the network's telecast of the Winter Olympics. Leno continued his war of words against NBC on Wednesday, with this joke about the network's Monday lineup. "'The Voice' and 'Revolution' moved NBC into the No. 2 position. You know what that means? Between Easter and Passover, this is truly the season of miracles. We're number two! We're number two! And I've been saying that for the last week — NBC is a big No. 2. Haven't I been saying that?" 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. | "The Tonight Show" hit a seven-week high in total viewers with 3.52 million .
As it now stands, Leno has outranked "Late Show with David Letterman"
The ratings bump came as Leno began taking nightly jabs at his employer . |
120,703 | 27fd55acb2c2902a12f3ca737eda9149cafcf854 | ZAM ZAM DISPLACEMENT CAMP, Sudan (CNN) -- Sudan's Darfur crisis has exploded on many fronts -- violence, hunger, displacement and looting -- but United Nations peacekeepers say the biggest issue now affecting the region is the systematic rape of women and children. UNAMID police officer Ajayi Funmi, left, educates Darfur women about rape. Thousands of women as young as 4 caught in the middle of the struggle between rebel forces and government-backed militias have become victims of rape, they say, with some aid groups claiming that it is being used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing. "That is one of the biggest issues in Darfur: the rapes, and crimes against women and children," said Michael Fryer, police commissioner of UNAMID, the United Nations peacekeeping force deployed to try to tackle the violence. Relief workers say they are powerless to stop the attacks and say that if they do speak out, they fear that the Sudanese government will tell them to leave the country. Humanitarian group Refugees International said in a report last year that rape was "an integral part of the pattern of violence that the government of Sudan is inflicting upon the targeted ethnic groups in Darfur." Some relief workers say that almost every woman living in aid camps has been raped or become a victim of gender-based violence. Many teenagers, while out running errands such as collecting firewood, are raped multiple times by militiamen, the workers say. Watch women face dangers in Darfur » . They say the situation has now become so bad that many women are now resigned to rape as a way of life and men are unwilling to accompany them because they fear that they will be killed if they try to defend them. But despite the extent of the abuse, the Sudanese government insists there is no problem, adding to the difficulties faced by the victims, who are often ostracized by their communities or fall afoul of a legal system seen as favoring their attackers. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos of Darfur . "There is no rape in Darfur," said Mohammad Hassan Awad, a Humanitarian Aid Commissioner for West Darfur, who accuses foreign aid workers of persuading people in refugee camps to make false claims. Although few aid workers dispute the extent of the attacks against women, they say survivors are unwilling to come forward. But those who do reveal shocking levels of abuse. "She said they removed their scarves and used it to tie them up and were taking turns to rape them. One is 13 years old; the other one is 16 years," Ajayi Funmi of the UNAMID police, who is trying to educate women, said after talking to two girls. Making matters worse, aid workers say scores of babies conceived through rape are being dumped by their mothers. "Abandoned babies are reported, but because of the stigma attached to it, there is no detailed report, because the women don't come forward," said Dr Naqib Safi of the U.N. children's body UNICEF. As many as 20 babies a month are being dumped in one camp of 22,000 people. With U.N. officials calling for more female officers to better educate women against rape and women saying they won't feel safe until the under-equipped and undermanned United Nations force is strong enough to protect them, the situation shows little sign of improving. | Women and girls as young as four face rape on daily basis in Darfur .
U.N. mission says rape now biggest issue facing troubled Sudanese region .
Aid workers says 100 percent of women in camps face gender-based abuse .
Sudanese government says there is no rape in Darfur . |
198,556 | 8d02979079ad5fb3f9877868dbd2f1a5edf28f49 | (CNN) -- Suzann Pettersen denied 16-year-old amateur Lydia Ko a fairtytale first major triumph as the Norwegian took the Evian Championship in France Sunday. The 32-year-old Norwegian carded a final round 68 to hold off Ko in the fifth and final major of the women's season. The tournament -- which was awarded major status for the first time this year -- had been reduced to 54 holes due to inclement weather conditions. Pettersen's 10-under-par total of 203 left her two shots clear of New Zealand's Ko, who was born in South Korea. Ko, a prodigious teenage talent, has already accumulated four wins on the professional LPGA Tour, but could not match her more experienced rival on the final day, carding a one-under 70. As overnight leader Mika Miyazato of Japan fell away to a 79, Ko hit the front with a birdie at the first hole. But Pettersen, one of the stars of Europe's Solheim Cup win last month, went ahead with a birdie at the eighth. She had a brief scare when finding the trees on the par four 17th but recovered to wrap up her second career major crown. "It's great to win another major and this one has definitely been well worth waiting for," Pettersen said. Ko, who broke records when she won the Canadian Open last year at 15 years and four months, refused to be downhearted. "It has been a great week," she said. "I didn't take all my chances but Suzann played really well." Another talented teen, American Lexi Thompson, carded a final round 68 to claim third place on six under. But World No.1 Park Inbee of South Korea, was never in serious contention as she strove to become the first player to win four majors in a season. Park, who won the first three majors of the season, finished tied 67th on eight over. On the men's European Tour, home player Joost Luiten captured the Dutch Open at Zandvoort after a playoff with evergreen Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez. It was Luiten's second win of the season and came after he tied with Jimenez on 12-under in regulation play. He only needed to two putt for a par at the first extra hole to seal an emotional triumph as 49-year-old Jimenez overhit his birdie attempt and missed the six-foot return. "Winning your home Open is like winning a major and this is how this win feels," said the 27-year-old Luiten . "I went close a few years ago in but to win now feels just unbelievable and I think it won't be later tonight when it all sinks in." Former three-time champion Simon Dyson finished in a tie for third with fellow Englishman Ross Fisher, Ireland's Damien McGrane and France's Gregory Havret -- three shots adrift. | Suzann Pettersen wins final major of women's golf season .
Norwegian claims Evian Championship in France .
Beats 16-year-old amateur Lydia Ko by two shots .
Joost Luiten claims Dutch Open after playoff with Miguel Angel Jimenez . |
166,195 | 62e3a2654b93fcf8dd26934eb232274affa896fc | (CNN) -- The great paddlewheel turned the Ohio River water to a froth as the Delta Queen steamboat, a floating National Historic Landmark, departed Cincinnati, Ohio, on its final scheduled voyage this week. The Delta Queen is the last running steam-driven, paddlewheeled overnight passenger boat. The boat is a throwback to the 1800s and the era of Mark Twain, when thousands of steam-driven paddlewheelers plied the Mississippi River system. The Delta Queen is the last of those operating as overnight passenger boats on U.S. waterways, giving riders a 19th-century experience on cruises complete with the carnival-like sounds of the steam-whistle calliope. But it will dock permanently if Congress doesn't grant a safety exemption. It left Cincinnati on Tuesday on a 10-day cruise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Memphis, Tennessee, where it will unload what could be its final passengers. "There are so few really authentic things left. Everything is a re-creation or a tied up old dusty museum," said Vicki Webster, leader of the grassroots Save the Delta Queen Campaign. "The Delta Queen is a breathing part of history and we have to keep as many of those as we can." The frequent riders and steamboat aficionados are being punished, Webster insists. Sherrin Kraus, 66, admires the Delta Queen as it passes by her home in Hanover, Indiana, each year. "I've been in love with this boat since I was 5 years old," Kraus told CNN affiliate WLWT-TV when the ship arrived in Cincinnati. iReport.com: Share your photos, videos and memories of the Delta Queen . Kraus and her husband Ken boarded the Delta Queen's possible final voyage to celebrate their 45th anniversary. They told WLWT they decided to celebrate the occasion early out of concern the ship would not get another exemption. "This was our 45th anniversary trip because we don't know what the future's going to bring, but we're worried," Kraus said. "If she doesn't survive this last onslaught, it's the end of an era." The Delta Queen will go out of service if Congress does not grant the ship another exemption from a 1960s federal law, the Safety at Seas Act, which bans boats made largely out of wood because of fire hazards. The current exemption, which expires at the end of October, has been given to the ship nine times over 40 years. See the Delta Queen's life in photos » . Supporters of the boat, which has roamed the nation's waterways since 1927 and helped the Navy ferry survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor to San Francisco hospitals in 1941, are hopeful the ship will not play its famed calliope for the last time. iReport.com: Watch the ship depart as a calliope concert plays . The grassroots campaign is gaining traction and the support of high ranking politicians. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement he would work with Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, to try to get an exemption granted if the House returns for a lame duck session to address economic issues following the election. Supporters, including several mayors, agree with Webster that granting an exemption to the Delta Queen would be a way to help stimulate the economy without it costing taxpayers a dime. Lee Powell, director of the Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus said the boat provides economic opportunities. By docking and unloading nearly 200 passengers up to a dozen times a year, the Delta Queen helps to pump money into small cities along the heartland's rivers that are not normally tourist destinations. Helena, Arkansas, which Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi "occupies one of the prettiest situations on the river," could suffer if the boat ceases operation. "There are places in Helena that are essentially at virtually the levels of a third world country," Powell said. "They were impoverished before and now with the economic suffering, to choke off one of the good things they have is ridiculous." The fight ahead is not uncharted territory for the Delta Queen, which fought down to the wire in 1970 to be given the exemption. Rep. James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who heads up the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has refused to support the exemption, claiming the boat, with a steel hull but largely wooden superstructure, is a fire hazard. Webster, who says she is "seething with anger" about the complaint, said the ship is outfitted with state-of-the-art fire safety equipment and a full fire crew on board. "The heat detectors are so sensitive in the rooms if you take a shower and forget to close your bathroom door, the heat detectors go off," Webster said. "It's ridiculous. You literally could not have a fire on the boat because it would be put out in seconds." Webster says the fight with Oberstar amounts to a labor dispute and that Oberstar is bowing to the Seafarers International Union which represented the boat's employees before it was bought by Majestic America Line. Oberstar and the union have both denied those accusations, but Webster insists simple politics are getting in the way of saving a national treasure. "They're holding her hostage," Webster said. "That's like punishing a child because his parents are bickering or tearing down the Statute of Liberty because of a dispute between the owners of the land and the snack shop." | Delta Queen paddlewheeler has been in service since 1927 .
Boat is last steam-powered paddlewheeler providing overnight passenger cruises .
Vessel needs new exemption from 1960s federal law .
Safety of Seas Act bars largely wooden ships from overnight cruises . |
153,949 | 52f6962a3a02bd8100bf7a355e830d67ddfe6690 | A Detroit-area couple who first met at a support group for weight loss surgery patients have married after losing an amazing combined total of 380 pounds. Crysta Danaher, 34, and Bill Anderson, 44, were married on Saturday at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, Michigan, where they both had bariatric surgery and later met. Anderson has gone from 459 pounds to about 250 pounds since his May 2008 operation and his new wife Danaher has lost about 180 pounds since her 2009 procedure. Crysta Danaher, 34, and Bill Anderson, 44, who first met at a support group for weight loss surgery patients, have married after losing an amazing combined total of 380 pounds . Anderson, left, has gone from 459 pounds to about 250 pounds since his bariatric surgery op in 2008, while Danaher, right, has lost about 180 pounds since 2009 . The surgery and support group have ‘changed everything,' said Anderson, who has since run two full marathons and more than a dozen half-marathons. ‘There isn't any aspect of my life it hasn't changed,’ he told The Detroit Free Press. ‘From being able to run to finding love, it's changed everything.’ The couple decided to get married on November 1 as is an important date in their relationship - they had their first date on November 1, 2011 and exactly two years later Anderson proposed to Danaher in Central Park, while in the city to run the New York City Marathon. When it came to choosing a venue, the couple couldn't think of anywhere more fitting than Multi Purpose Room A at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital. The couple wed in Multi Purpose Room A at the Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, the venue of their first meeting . Here comes the bride: November 1 as is a special date for the couple. They had their first date on November 1, 2011 and exactly two years later Anderson proposed to Danaher in Central Park . That is where they had first met in the support group where bariatric surgery patients could talk openly with others about their struggles to lose weight. The hospital has hosted weddings before in its chapel, but never in one of its meeting rooms. Although the hospital is in the middle of renovations, construction crews managed to finish the room in time for Bill and Crysta's big day. The ceremony was officiated by the couple's yoga teacher and about 100 friends and relatives managed to squeeze in on Saturday. A reception was held afterwards at the Italian American Hall in nearby Wyandotte. While their guests sat down to enjoy a traditional wedding fare, the happy couple had to be more careful about what they ate as the surgery shrinks has shrunk the size of their stomachs. The couple plan on honeymooning in Cancun, where Danaher admits they may indulge a little. 'We're probably both going to be hurting on the honeymoon because we'll try things we shouldn't,' she said. Saturday's wedding ceremony was officiated by the couple's yoga teacher and about 100 friends and relatives managed to squeeze in to the room at the hospital . | Crysta Danaher, 34, and Bill Anderson, 44, married on Saturday at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, Michigan, where they had first met .
Anderson has gone from 459 pounds to about 250 pounds since his bariatric surgery op in May 2008 .
Danaher has lost about 180 pounds since her 2009 procedure .
The couple's yoga teacher officiated the ceremony . |
163,104 | 5ee8b872e00fe649b81fe28ff0f57fe1edfe40e5 | FIFA presidential hopeful Jerome Champagne insists he is not being squeezed out of the race despite Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein entering the contest. Champagne, the French former FIFA deputy general secretary, has conceded that gaining the minimum five nominations may not be straightforward but rejected suggestions that the Jordanian prince's decision to run against Sepp Blatter has made things more difficult. He claimed that Europe is not united behind Prince Ali and pointed out that the Arab football world, lead by Asian confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, had already declared support for Blatter. Jerome Champagne is confident that he can become FIFA's next president and replace Sepp Blatter . Champagne told Press Association Sport: ' Prince Ali is not squeezing anyone - look at who the Arab leaders are supporting. 'I am not squeezed at all and Prince Ali has not issued any programme yet, just slogans. 'UEFA and [president] Michel Platini have made strong statements in favour of Prince Ali but Europe is not united, it is very diverse, and I don't feel the squeeze at all. 'I welcome Prince Ali's candidacy as it is important for the future of football to have an open, democratic process but I am the only one who has placed on the table a detailed, concrete and financially viable list of proposals.' Incumbent Blatter (right) poses with hopeful candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan (left) Champagne expanded on an interview last week in which he said it was easier to win 50 votes in a secret ballot than the five nominations, and said he was still working flat out on his campaign. Nominations for the presidency have to be in before January 29, with the election being held in Zurich on May 29. He added: 'I am in full activity and I am continuing the style of the campaign to convince people. I am speaking to a lot of federation presidents in order to explain my ideas and I feel very optimistic. Champagne believes he is the only presidential candidate to have laid out details and viable proposals . 78-year-old Blatter has overseen four terms as FIFA president since assuming the office in June 1998 . 'But I have said it is more difficult to gain five open published letters of nomination than 50 voters in secret ballot.' Champagne, 56, said this was due to all the confederations except CONCACAF, which represents football in north and central America and the Caribbean, having already taken a position in support of either Blatter or Prince Ali. UEFA has yet to formally declare their backing but its president Platini has made it clear he will not support 78-year-old Blatter for a fifth term. UEFA president Michel Platini has refused to give his backing to Sepp Blatter to oversee a fifth term . | Jerome Champagne insists he has a good chance of replacing Sepp Blatter .
Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan has also announced his candidacy .
Champagne says the prince will have trouble gaining European backing .
The FIFA presidential elections will be held in Zurich on May 29 . |
62,123 | b079995497ead63566db507e30ac4da1d921c5ca | (CNN) -- Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods will predictably be among the favorites for this week's Masters Tournament, but another name slipped into title contention on Sunday. Hunter Mahan's victory at the Houston Open lifted him up to fourth in the world rankings, higher than any other American who will be playing at the golf season's opening major at Augusta National. Mahan's one-shot victory over Sweden's Carl Petterson launched him to the top of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup standings, but more importantly he showed a new mental strength that may help him win one of the sport's four biggest events this year. "I felt like this week my mind was probably the strongest part of my game. That's a great thing to feel for sure," he told the PGA Tour's official website after becoming the first two-time winner of 2012, following up his victory at the World Match Play Championship in late February -- when he beat McIlroy in the final. "When you play a major, you're going to have to have all facets of the game, especially your mind has to be a strength. What I'm going to take from this week is that my mind was so strong, I was able to persevere through some ... you know, having the lead and doing something I haven't done before.'' The 29-year-old had won three PGA events before this year, but is perhaps best known for his emotional defeat in the final game of the 2010 Ryder Cup teams event when he broke down in tears after losing the decider to Europe's Graeme McDowell. "I felt like I could be a good player in this game, but to win twice this year and be fourth, it feels great, really does. It shows me what I can do, shows me what I'm capable of,'' Mahan said. "I wasn't reaching my potential, in a way. I think great players, when you see them, their head is always up. They never seem to get down. They might get upset over a shot, but don't get down on themselves over a shot. It just never seems to bother them. "You also watch Tiger ... I played with him last week. He's just got that confidence and that swagger back where it's just head up, chest back and ready to go play. You got to be positive in this game -- it's too hard. Hitting a good shot might be hitting it 30 feet (from the pin). You don't have to hit it (to) two feet for it to be a good shot.'' Mahan said he is enjoying the game more with his new approach. "I think I'm just tired of doing it the wrong way,'' he said. "What I was doing before, it stunk. It wasn't any fun. We play so many holes, play so many tournaments -- it just doesn't make sense to beat yourself up, you know, because the game is hard enough.'' Mahan said he had thought about skipping the Texas tournament, where he had finished in the top eight three times in five years. But the prospect of having to spend extra time at such a daunting place as Augusta, where he has twice made the top 10 in the last three years, made the decision to play at Redstone a simple one. "I didn't like the idea of spending so much time there before the tournament, and the hardest part of that tournament is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, because you're just sitting around and seeing the course. You can't wait to get started,'' he said. Mahan will seek to preserve a remarkable statistic in a sport where good putting is often the difference between success and failure -- he has not three-putted in 102 holes, more than five and a half rounds of golf. But one player missing from the Masters field is South Africa's three-time major champion Ernie Els. The 42-year-old, twice a runner-up at the Masters, needed to win in Houston to earn a starting place but finished six shots back and will not line up at Augusta for the first time since 1993. Petterson finished on 15-under 273, one shot ahead of 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, who fell away from contention with a 75. Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson tied for fourth on 276 in a group including 2011 PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley. | Hunter Mahan climbs up to a career-high fourth in golf's world rankings .
American becomes the PGA Tour's first two-time winner of the 2012 season .
His one-shot victory at the Houston Open boosts his hopes of a first major .
The 29-year-old goes into the Masters this week with a new mental approach . |
105,710 | 1452ebc3e2f80cc60ef48d66021fe923ab961568 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 20:00 EST, 3 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:10 EST, 4 November 2013 . She was described as a warm and caring young woman, with a love for children, a good Christian upbringing and plenty of friends. But a judge has ordered a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for Courtney Kathleen Addington, the 25-year-old who hid her pregnancy from those around her, stuffed her newborn baby in a garbage and left it under her bed until it died. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Sharon A. Lueras delivered a powerful and emotional speech when handing down her sentence after a 12-person jury found Addington guilty of first-degree murder. Addington secretly gave birth in the bedroom of her family home in Rosemont, California, earlier this year, hiding her pregnancy from those around her by telling them she had been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. The night before the birth she had done internet searches on signs of labor and water breakage. Then on the morning January 25, Addington's father found her bleeding profusely. Courtney Kathleen Addington, 25, said in her defense that she did not know she was pregnant and believed that the birth was a 'bowel movement', despite police discovering she had done internet searches on her phone about signs of labor and water breakage . Frail: Courtney Addington was motionless when her sentence was handed down in court. She was arrested about 8.45pm on January 25. She gave birth that morning in secret in her bedroom . Scene: Police searched Courtney Addington's home in Rosemont, Sacramento City, on the day of the birth following information reported by hospital staff. They found the body of her baby daughter in bag under the bed . She told him and emergency room personnel it was the result of a bowel movement. But staff at Mercy General Hospital determined she had recently given birth. The matter was reported to police, who searched Addington's house that night. Under the bed they found a white garbage with the lifeless body of a newborn inside, the umbilical chord and placenta still attached. In another bag they found some bloody towels. She had given birth to the seven-pound, eight-ounce girl who was later given the name Hayden Elaine Addington Minton. 'I have to stand here for Baby Hayden and let her know her life mattered, and her mother must (be held accountable) for ending her life in a cruel and callous way,' Judge Lueras told the court, according to the Sacramento Bee. 'I see this beautiful young woman, who by all accounts is a caring young woman. 'You don’t look like your typical defendant, sitting there. The thought of baby Hayden Elaine gasping for air, the judge said after pausing briefly to compose herself, is 'unconscionable and it’s haunting'. 'It was a live girl. She was 7 pounds,' Judge Lueras said. 'You put her in a plastic bag ... and you left that baby to die.' Courtney Addington (riight), pictured here with a friend, managed to hide her pregnancy by telling family and friends her swollen stomach was irritable bowel syndrome . Good Christian upbringing: Courtney Addington maintains she did not know she was pregnant . 'Heinous crime': Courtney Addington was found guilty of first-degree murder by a 12 person jury . Lueras said she wished she could put Addington on probation and recommend counseling. But her 'horrible choice' merited something far more severe – the maximum possible prison term of 25 years to life. The sentence came down in front of a packed, emotional courtroom audience. On one side sat Addington’s parents, friends and family, who maintained the young woman’s innocence in tearful testimonies before Lueras. 'I love her dearly, and this is so wrong,' her father, Darren Addington, said. 'It’ll be found out in the end.' On the other of the aisle sat the baby’s father, John Minton, and his family and friends. Several members of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department sat among them. Minton said he was not there to ask for a harsh penalty or leniency for his former girlfriend, who he said betrayed his trust. 'I ask only that we remember what brought us to where we are, and we remember my daughter Hayden Elaine,' he said, before returning to his seat and melting into quiet sobs. Minton posted on Facebook after the sentencing, thanking people for their supported and apologizing for his distant behavior. 'I wanted to say, that I am sorry to all of you who i have kept at arm's length over the course of this last year,' he wrote online. 'It has been a trying one, and the pain is not over for me. But the reason that i kept you all away from me these many months is linked below. I was unable to talk about it, but will answer any questions you have now. It's over. Hayden is resting in peace now.' The father: John Minton, Courtney Addington's ex-boyfriend and the father of baby Hayden, went on Facebook after the sentencing apologizing to friends for his distant behavior, saying he was not allowed to discuss the case but can now 'answer any questions' In representing Addington during the trial, attorney Jesse Ortiz said the woman did not know she was pregnant, lost consciousness because of heavy bleeding during the birth and bagged up the body believing it was the final remnants of her irritable bowel syndrome. On Friday, he continued his defense by filing a motion for a new trial, arguing that deputies illegally searched Addington’s home and that disturbing photos of the dead baby emotionally impacted jurors and hurt his client’s chances for a fair trial. When Lueras denied the motion and moved on to sentencing, Ortiz continued to stand by Addington. 'Ms. Addington is the good person that her family have described,' he said. 'I don’t think it is possible we’ll know specifically what happened on that day, but Ms. Addington didn’t do anything to harm that baby.' Lueras was not swayed. She lamented the difficult sentence she was about to impose, then handed it down and unceremoniously ended the hearing. A bailiff cleared the courtroom as Addington sat there still. | Courtney Kathleen Addington, 25, has received 25 years to life in prison for the first-degree murder of her baby daughter, Hayden .
The college grad hid her pregnancy and secretly gave birth in her bedroom, putting the newborn in a garbage bag under the bed .
She was taken to hospital bleeding profusely, with alarmed staff reporting her to police .
Sacremento judge described the act as 'unconscionable', 'haunting', 'cruel' and 'callous' before handing down the penalty .
Father of the baby posts online, saying: 'The pain is not over.' |
130,794 | 352576732b18f33a54148d4cdb0f8d60e8b4f488 | A swarm of bees caused a stir when they clustered around the nether regions of a statue in a busy city centre. Thousands of the insects settled on the figure of Talos in the crowded centre of Cambridge. Two police officers were sent to keep people away and a nearby restaurant closed its doors and windows as a precaution. A swarm of bees clustered around the nether regions of a statue in the centre of Cambridge . Thousands of the insects settled on the figure of Talos in the crowded city centre . Filipa Goncalves, 23, who works at a nearby YO! Sushi, said the bees arrived around noon on Sunday. She said: 'The bees were spread out all over the place. Then they started moving to the statue. The customers were a bit concerned so we closed the doors. 'I have seen lots of people taking photos. I think it has raised people’s curiosity as they have landed around the crotch. It looks like a pair of pants.' Call the Midwife star Stephen McGann tweeted a joke about Talos’ 'bee codpiece'. Two police officers were sent to keep people away and a nearby restaurant closed its doors and windows as a precaution . A beekeeper eventually arrived to remove the swarm. In Greek mythology, Talos protected Crete from pirates and invaders. The scare came two days after a swarm of bees sent shoppers fleeing from a London branch of Topshop, while another caused alarm at a shopping centre in Bournemouth. | Thousands of bees settled on the statue of Talos in Cambridge city centre .
Two police officers were sent to keep people away from the swarm of bees .
A nearby restaurant also closed its doors and windows as a precaution . |
172,592 | 6b5d0930d368de9fc822572ae9ad2c8ae9c4f41c | By . Victoria Woollaston . and Sarah Griffiths . As the UK basks in a heatwave, a charity has found a way to put the sweat caused by the enjoyable results of the hot summer weather to good use - by turning it into clean, drinkable water. UNICEF has created the Sweat Machine that squeezes the sweat from people's clothes and then purifies the liquid to create drinking water. It was developed and built as part of UNICEF Sweden's campaign to raise awareness of the lack of clean water in many parts of the world. Children's charity UNICEF has created the Sweat Machine (pictured) that squeezes sweat from people's clothes, filters it and turns it into purified drinking water . Charity staff unveiled the machine during the opening of the the world’s biggest international youth football tournament, the Gothia Cup. Players and visitors were encouraged to hand over their sweat-drenched clothes, or to accept the challenge of drinking a glass of water from the Sweat Machine. On average, one sweaty football shirt produced 10 millilitres of drinking water. While many people might be squeamish about the idea of drinking water derived from human sweat, the machine proved surprisingly popular, with a number of celebrities having a tipple. Swedish footballers Mohammed Ali Khan and Tobias Hysén were the first people to sample the refreshments on offer at the tournament. The campaign was designed to raise awareness of 780 million people's lack of access to drinking water. While many people might be squeamish about the idea of drinking water derived from human sweat, the machine proved surprisingly popular. Swedish footballers Mohammed Ali Khan (left) and Tobias Hysén (right) were the first people to sample the refreshments on offer at the tournament . Around 125 million children currently do not have safe water to drink and thousands die each day as a result. UNICEF works with governments and local organisations in more than 90 countries with the aim of giving every child access to clean water and toilets in schools and local communities around the world. Per Westberg of UNICEF Sweden, said: 'We wanted to raise this subject in a new, playful and engaging way. 'Our Sweat Machine is a reminder that we . all share the same water. We all drink and sweat in the same way, . regardless of how we look or what language we speak. 'Water is everyone's . responsibility and should be everyone’s concern.' The concept was dreamed up by the . charity, the Gothia Cup, creative agency Deportiv0 and celebrity . engineer Andreas Hammar, but the machine has its limitations. Mattias Ronge of Deportiv0, said: 'People haven't produced as much sweat as we hoped - right now the weather in Gothenburg is lousy.' 'We've installed exercise bikes alongside the machine and volunteers are cycling like crazy, but even so, the demand for sweat is greater than the supply.' There are no plans for the machine to be mass produced as the charity uses better solutions such as water purifying pills in places where clean water is in short supply. It costs £21 to buy 5,000 water purification tablets for people with no access to drinking water. | UNICEF's Sweat Machine squeezes the sweat from people's clothes and then purifies the liquid to create drinking water .
Was created to highlight the lack of clean water in many parts of the world .
Sweaty football shirts produced 10ml of clean drinking water each . |
102,988 | 10bff7c36ed8fa82e170be617a1f417f3722a18c | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 07:45 EST, 14 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:45 EST, 14 August 2013 . A police officer was paid more than £6,000 by his force after being bitten by one of their own police dogs. The policeman sued for compensation after the police dog sunk its teeth into the Pc's leg during a raid. South Wales Police paid out £6,250 compensation to the officer after he was forced to go on sick leave to recover from the bite wound. And the force was left to pick up a £3,650 bill for legal fees accrued while settling the injured officer's claim. A police officer at South Wales Police has received a compensation pay out of more than £6,000 after he was bitten by one of the force's police dogs during a raid (stock image) South Wales Police today defended the pay out - one of 11 compensation settlements to officers totalling more than £55,000 in the last year. Assistant Chief Constable Richard Lewis said: 'The very nature of policing and the challenging situations our officers face on a daily basis will inevitably result in accidents from time to time. 'Officers . are occasionally involved in accidents which result in jury. 'The . challenge of policing almost 500,000 incidents every year means that our . officers face difficult and unexpected situations on a daily basis.' More... Firefighters rescue a TEENAGER stuck in a BABY SWING… by tipping her upside down . Middle aged couple 'steal £12,000 of designer glasses' moments after being pictured trying on different pairs . Payouts by the force to their officers in the last year reached £55,399 for trips and road accidents as well as the incident with the police dog. The constabulary - which employs more than 3,000 staff - spent another £31,000 in legal fees fighting the compensation claims. South Wales Police did not reveal the details of the dog attack because of confidentiality agreements. But Mr Lewis added: 'We continue to review our practices to ensure we make the working environment as safe as possible for all our staff - and reduce the likelihood of staff being injured while on duty.' It comes after shocking figures released under the Freedom of Information in June revealed police forces across the country have shelled out hundreds of thousands of pounds to settle compensation claims lodged by officers. Nottinghamshire Police has paid out £450,000 in the last five years, while Humberside Police has paid £63,189 to officers and staff who have been hurt in the past three years. Forces have paid out hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation to officers (stock image) Other compensation claims by police officers across the UK, include: . An employee at Nottinghamshire Police was handed £18,400 for injuring their back after falling off a chair. A police officer was awarded £16,610 in compensation after he fell over a pile of blankets while chasing a suspect. Another received £8,130 from the force after falling over photocopying paper. Another worker was awarded £10,615 after . they were burnt by boiling water and another got £4,450 for slipping on . an empty bottle in a car park. But the biggest payout was a staggering £43,000 for an employee who slipped on ice in a loading bay and injured their back. In Humberside, the highest payout . of £11,450 went to a police officer who suffered a wrist sprain after . tripping on a bag, which had been left in a corridor. In April the Mail Online revealed a policeman in Birmingham was paid £8,000 compensation after being bitten by fleas at work. Another sued the force and received £600 for being exposed to loud noise. A policeman sued Suffolk Police and . was handed more than £13,000 compensation after injuring his big toe - . during health and safety training. | Police dog sunk its teeth into Pc's leg .
South Wales Police paid £6,250 compensation settlement to the officer .
Claim was one of 11 to officers totalling more than £55,000 last year . |
103,206 | 1111aa7ca9b7dc45aa78d0f52b3e9226971f23ff | By . Hugo Duncan . Last updated at 12:57 AM on 4th August 2011 . A massive £35billion was wiped off the value of Britain’s biggest companies yesterday as the global economy sunk deeper into crisis. Stock markets around the world fell as the debt storm in America blew back across the Atlantic to Europe and threatened to engulf Italy and Spain. Panicked investors were also rattled by signs of a severe slowdown in the United States, the world’s biggest economy, as it edged closer to a double-dip recession. 'Bumpy ride': The FTSE sank to it's lowest point this year with a 132 point drop . In New York, the Dow Jones index of American stocks recovered only slightly after falling for eight straight days. The loss of confidence on financial . markets threatens to destroy momentum in the world economy and send . unemployment soaring. A renewed global slump would be devastating for . Britain and could tip the economy back into recession. The . number of Britons who will never find work has risen by as much as half . a million as a result of damage done during the recession, leading . economists say. Even when the economy has recovered around two million will still be jobless. Research . by the Institute of Economic and Social Research and the International . Monetary Fund said unemployment has fallen in recently but is still at . 7.7 per cent, or 2.45million. The NIESR expects it to peak at 8.3 per . cent next year. It . estimated that so-called structural unemployment, which remains after . the economy recovers, has risen from 5.2 per cent before the crisis to . 6.2 per cent today. That . means the number of permanently unemployed has increased from . 1.66million to 1.98million. The IMF puts the figure at 2.18 million. In . its last forecast in May it predicted growth of 1.4% but it said today . that weaker spending will 'hinder any meaningful recovery' this year. NIESR today repeated its call for 'a modest loosening in fiscal policy' to improve prospects for output and employment. The FTSE 100 index tumbled 133.88 . points to 5584.51– slashing the value of Britain’s blue chip companies . by £35billion. It is the worst fall for nine months. London’s index of leading shares has . lost £75billion of value in the past four days and is down more than 500 . points, or £135billion, since its 2011 high in February. Louise Cooper, an analyst at broker . BGC Partners in London, said: ‘Everybody is phenomenally nervous. There . is a lot of fear out there.’ The carnage in London was mirrored in . Europe where the debt crisis sweeping the single currency bloc pushed . Italy and Spain closer to the brink. More than £1.2trillion has been . erased from the value of global shares in the past week amid concern the . economic recovery is faltering. Falls of this magnitude affect . millions of families as well as investors because workers’ pension funds . are tied up in the stock market. David Jones, chief market strategist . at IG Index, said: ‘It has been an ugly day for shares. It is the now . familiar double-whammy of sovereign debt and a stumbling recovery that . has smashed sentiment once again. ‘It really is bounce or bust time for . markets at the moment, but it is difficult to see what the positive . news could be that pulls stock markets back from the brink.’ A succession of crises has battered . the global economy in recent months, from violent uprisings in the . Middle East, to the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent threat of nuclear . meltdown in Japan. The Eurozone debt crisis that flattened Greece, Portugal and Ireland hurtled across the Atlantic to America. The U.S. was only saved from an . unprecedented default by 11th-hour deal to raise the $14.3trillion debt . ceiling on Tuesday night. With political leaders heading away . for their summer holidays, analysts warned the global economy faces its . biggest crisis since the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers in . 2008. Spooked investors: Obama's deal on the U.S. debt ceiling has done nothing to instil confidence in the markets . Simon Derrick, chief currency . strategist at BNY Mellon Global Markets in London, said: ‘It feels as if . the past few days have seen global markets reach a tipping point.’ It came as the White House insisted . the U.S. is not in danger of a double-dip recession even though the . services sector – which employs nearly 90 per cent of U.S. workers – had . its worst month for 17 months. Barack Obama held an emergency . cabinet meeting last night to discuss the economy. The President also . admitted that wrangling over the country’s debts has caused unnecessary . damage. Italian Prime Minister Silvio . Berlusconi, 74, last night tried to calm jitters that Italy was heading . into the financial abyss, insisting the economy was ‘solid’. European leaders defended the single . currency bloc amid fears that Italy and Spain will follow Greece, . Ireland and Portugal towards collapse. European Commission president Jose . Manuel Barros said the treatment of Spain and Italy was ‘a cause of deep . concern’ and blamed the financial markets for the crisis – rather than . towering debts across the Eurozone. Fading fortunes: The FTSE 100 looked like it was set for a summer of gains but is now heading for its lowest point in five months . With . more eurozone economies apparently set to follow Greece, Portugal and . Ireland on the road to debt crisis, we ask how the euro is managing hold . its own against the pound? Still strong: Despite the financial turmoil in the Eurozone the currency itself is holding up well . What is happening with the pound versus the euro?The . pound is currently worth 1.147euros, down from this year’s high of . 1.202euros, but above this year's low of 1.107euros. The pound was last . worth 1.30euros in early 2008. Why is the euro so strong?The . euro isn’t so much strong – it is just not as weak as the pound. The . severity of the UK recession – compared to France and Germany - combined . with the shock remedies of record low interest rates and quantitative . easing, all served to weaken the pound against both the dollar and the . euro from 2008 onwards. The dollar has recently been kept weak by the US . debt crisis and the threat from the Federal Reserve of more . quantitative easing. Why do low rates and QE weaken a currency?Higher . UK interest rates mean higher returns on assets that international . investors hold in the UK, so more money will flow into the country and . more sterling will be bought on the global currency markets. Quantitative easing, by flooding the economy with more money and . increasing the supply of sterling, devalues the price of that currency . in terms of rival currencies. But why has the euro-zone crisis not swung things back in sterling’s favour?With . Chancellor George Osborne unswerving in his commitment to cutting the . UK budget deficit, you might think that the worsening problems in . several euro-zone economies would mean the pound should be in favour . over the euro. But two . things have worked against that. One, the commitment of the stronger . euro zone economies like France and Germany to propping up the single . currency and the ailing second-tier economies has shored up confidence . in the euro. More . importantly, the European Central Bank has raised interest rates twice . this year to 1.5 per cent, while the Bank of England has kept rates at a . rock-bottom 0.5 per cent: this has opened up an interest rate gap . between the UK and the continent, which means investors’ money is more . likely to drift into euros. And the prospects for the rest of the year?More . of the same: the ECB has warned it is likely to raise rates again, . while the outlook for UK rates is that they will not go up until next . year. If the euro, dollar and pound are all weak – who is strong?The . Swiss franc has been the big beneficiary as a safe haven from the . turmoil in the US and Europe recently. And over the last year or so the . Canadian and Australian dollars have done well. | Index drops by 132 points to 5,585.74 .
That is down 2.5% after third consecutive day of drops . |
162,052 | 5d88283faed037b7085ec3b6199d80528008f828 | Haunting and beautiful, the work of poets such as Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen continues to fascinate almost 100 years after the war began. But while Owen's vivid images of suffering in the trenches still strike a chord today, not every war poet is remembered quite so well. Now those poets, among them dashing Julian Grenfell and the gentle, nature-loving Edward Thomas, are to star in a new book that brings their work back to life. Dashing: Julian Grenfell (inset) wrote Into Battle, a poem that finally made it into print after his death in 1915 . In his new book, Some Desperate Glory, historian Max Egremont tells the stories of these half-forgotten poets - many of whom offered a take on war that couldn't have been more different from the miserablist approach taken by Owen. One who certainly didn't was Julian Grenfell, a glamorous Oxford-educated sportsman who served in the Royal Dragoons, a cavalry regiment. Arriving in France with the first cohort of British soldiers to go into battle, Grenfell was pleased to be there. 'French and Belgian civilians cheered Grenfell and his men, making him think that the locals were "wonderful",' writes Egremont. 'At first he felt lost in the fog of marching and counter-marching where "only the virtue of the Christian faith emerges triumphant". But "it is all the most wonderful fun; better fun than anyone can imagine. I hope it goes on for a long time".' Early days: British troops, Grenfell among them, were cheered by civilians when they first arrived . Hard: Despite the setbacks of Mons (pictured) and the Marne, Grenfell never lost his taste for fighting . The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood . This Eastertide call into mind the men, . Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should . Have gathered them and will do never again. He later wrote that he 'adored war', describing it as a 'big picnic but without the objectiveness of a picnic'. But letters weren't all that he was writing. While serving in the British Army during the battles of the Marne, Mons and Ypres, Grenfell was also writing poetry. Unsurprisingly, Grenfell's work glories in the dirty business of fighting, describing the exhilaration of streaming over the top of the trenches and running at the German lines. His most famous work, Into Battle, was even published in the Times the year it was written. Sadly for Grenfell, however, he wasn't alive to see it. Fighting in the second battle of Ypres, he was hit in the head by a splinter from a shell and died of his wounds 13 days later. He was just 27 years old. Gentle: Edward Thomas was 39 when he was killed at Arras while serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery . Brave: Thomas signed up after being sent a mocking poem by his friend, American poet Robert Frost . Unlike the more famous names who would follow him into the annals of poetry as the war continued, Grenfell never became disillusioned with war. Fellow poet Edward Thomas, however, never really wanted to be there at all, only signing up after being sent a mocking poem by his friend, the American poet Robert Frost. Thomas, a grammar-school educated writer, couldn't have been more different from the aristocratic Grenfell. A gentle man with a passion for nature, he spent most of his life in the Kent, then Gloucestershire countryside, where he lived with his wife Helen and three children. When war broke out, Thomas, then aged 36, could have avoided the draft but eventually joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in November 1916. By early 1917, Thomas was in France and serving with his unit near Arras. While he was there, he composed his heartbreaking piece, In Memoriam, a four-line poem that movingly decried the loss of millions of young men. Sadly, Thomas would become one of them. On the 9th April 1917, he was killed by the concussive blast of one of the last shells fired during the Battle of Arras. He was just 39 years old. Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew by Max Egremont, £20, is published by Picador . | Royal Dragoon Julian Grenfell was 27 when he died fighting near Ypres .
His most famous work, Into Battle, appeared in the papers shortly after .
Another little-remembered poet is the gentle, nature-loving Edward Thomas .
Thomas, who was 38 when he joined up, was killed at the battle of Arras .
Both men appear in a new book written by historian Max Egremont . |
53,079 | 968fce2764fbd7ee1bed118a071adb4597196b21 | By . Sarah Griffiths . From creepy clowns to demonic serial killers, ‘possessed’ dolls have been the subject of many a horror film. Now an animatronic life-sized doll with a scary face and even more frightening dance moves might give you nightmares. The unnamed robotic dancer features in a New York-based art installation and gyrates to music while staring at onlookers - perhaps challenging the popular notion that gyrating and grinding are sexy dance moves. Scroll down for video . The unnamed robotic dancer (pictured) features in a New York-based art installation and gyrates to music while staring at onlookers using facial recognition technology . Name: Unknown. Location: David Zwirner Art Gallery, New York. Dance Moves: Gyrating, grinding and swiveling plus expressive hand gestures demonstrating cutting-edge animatronics. Eye contact: The doll uses facial recognition technology so its eyes can follow a viewer around the gallery. Voice: It lip-syncs to songs by Robin Thicke and Lady Gaga and also says phrases using the voice of its creator - 33-year-old artist Jordan Wolfson. Support: A metal pole fixed to a mirror lets the doll dance fluidly. The doll was created by artist Jordan Wolfson with help from Spectral Motion effects studio in Los Angeles and is on display at the David Zwirner Art Gallery until April 19. The humanoid’s movements are convincingly realistic and fluid and it is able to stay upright thanks to a metal pole connecting it to a mirror. It uses facial recognition technology to . seek out viewers in the gallery and stare at them with its terrifying . green, masked face. It even follows people with its gaze if they move . across the room. It wears a skimpy white dress, boots and haunting witch-like mask with its geared shoulders plainly on view, while other body parts are convincingly realistic from a short distance away. The supporting pole allows the exotic dancer to gyrate and swivel while staring at the reflections of onlookers, iO9 reported. The doll uses facial recognition technology to seek out viewers in the gallery and stare at them with its terrifying green, masked face. It even follows people with its gaze if they move across the room . It is assumed that the doll follows people with its terrible eyes to make them feel uncomfortable if they are trying to view it as a sexual object. The animatronic doll dances along to distorted versions of songs including Robin Thicke’s hit, Blurred Lines, which features a number of scantily clad girls dancing in white outfits in the controversial video. However, the robot is far less glamorous as ‘she’ appears to be slightly grubby and has a mask capable of unnerving most adults. The animatronic doll (pictured) lip-syncs to songs by Lady Gaga and Paul Simon and challenges viewers to close their eyes and stop watching it using the artist's deep voice . Now that's pole dancing: The animatronic doll dances along to . distorted versions of songs including Robin Thicke’s hit, Blurred Lines and is held upright by a metal pole secured to its abdomen that just out from the mirror. It is pictured performing different 'sexy' moves left and right its in grubby white dress . It also lip-syncs to songs by Lady Gaga and Paul Simon and challenges viewers to close their eyes and stop watching it, according to a report by Gallerist. The doll’s deep voice is that of Wolfson’s and juxtaposes with the doll’s femininity and exotic dancer attire. Its realistic hand gestures – a feature of cutting edge animatronics - make the experience of watching it move even more unnerving. The 33-year-old artist told Blouinartinfo via iO9 that the work is not a comment on women but is simply designed to engage with art gallery visitors one-on-one. | The unnamed robotic dancer features in a New York-based exhibition by 33-year-old artist Jordan Wolfson .
It uses face recognition technology to follow viewers around the gallery with its gaze, which is reflected in a large mirror .
The robot is supported by a pole fixed to a mirror, allowing it to gyrate to songs by Lady Gaga and Robin Thicke as well speaking and lip-syncing . |
207,928 | 9934a9b1e6914dc53b09972f0e31ab96fe0d2359 | Winger Manu Vatuvei scored two tries as New Zealand beat defending champions Australia 22-18 on Saturday in the final of rugby league's Four Nations Championship. The Kiwis ended the tournament unbeaten after defeating Australia, England and Samoa in round-robin play to claim their first Four Nations title since 2010. Their victory on Saturday, after their 30-12 win over the Kangaroos in the opening match of the tournament, gave them consecutive test victories over Australia for the first time since 1953. New Zealand players celebrate after Manu Vatuvei scores a try during the Four Nations final . The New Zealand team celebrate with the trophy after winning the Four Nations for the first time since 2010 . The Kiwis recorded back-to-back wins against Australia for the first time since 1953 . Vatuvei scored a try in each half to become New Zealand's leading tryscorer in tests with 20. Jason Nightingale opened the Kiwis' scoring with his fifth try of the tournament and five eighths Shaun Johnson scored a try and kicked three goals. Australia opened the scoring with a try to winger Michael Jennings which capped a dominant first 10 minutes. But New Zealand then took charge and outplayed the world champions, scoring tries through wingers Nightingale and Vatuvei and adding a penalty to Johnson to take a 14-6 lead to half time. Shaun Johnson (centre) celebrates at the final whistle as New Zealand are crowned Four Nations champions . Man of the match Johnson (right) of New Zealand beats the defence of Cooper Cronk . New Zealand: Hiku, Nightingale, Kenny-Dowall, Whare, Vatuvei, Foran, Johnson, Bromwich, Luke, Blair, Mannering (captain), Proctor, Taumalolo. Replacements: Brown, Eastwood, Taupau, Harris . Tries: Vatuvei 2, Nightingale, Johnson . Goals: Johnson 3 . Australia: Inglis, Mansour, Jennings, Walker, Mata'utia, Cherry-Evans, Cronk, Woods, Smith (captain), Papalii, Thaiday, Bird, Parker. Replacements: Cordner, Hunt, Jackson, Klemmer . Tries: Jennings, Mata'utia, Hunt . Goals: Smith 3 . Nightingale finished in the right corner after a long break by Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Vatuvei scored in the left, grazing the corner flag, from a long pass by Johnson who converted both tries. Australia missed 19 tackles in the first spell and wasn't able to match New Zealand's 88 percent completion rate. But the Kangaroos came out strongly in the second half and scored after only two minutes through Sione Mata'utia, who became Australia's youngest test player at 18 when he debuted earlier in the tournament. That cut the lead to 14-12 but New Zealand responded with tries to Johnson and Vatuvei in the 58th and 62nd minutes to open a decisive 10-point lead. Johnson made an outstanding solo break for a try which clinched the man of the match award and Vatuvei scored his record-breaking 20th test try off a Johnson pass. Kiwis' defence catch Australia's centre Dylan Walker (centre) during the final of the Four Nations . Australia's prop Aaron Woods (centre) is stopped in his tracks by the Kiwi defence . Australia still weren't finished and scored in the 76th through Ben Hunt to cut the lead to four points, giving themselves a faint chance of vicotry. They attacked through the final minutes of the match but a forward pass with seconds remaining allowed the Kiwis to hold on. 'Our boys put everything they could into this tournament and it paid dividends tonight,' New Zealand captain Simon Mannering said. 'The Aussies had a great tournament, showed their real still steel after a tough first game and showed what a quality team they are tonight.' | New Zealand ended Four Nations Championship unbeaten .
Kiwis beat Australia, England and Samoa in round-robin play .
New Zealand recorded back-to-back wins against Australia for first time since 1953 . |
209,492 | 9b473728addb9f3219502cc2105eebbb9f3b62a6 | A televised confession this week detailing a life of illegal gambling and paid-for sex has capped the dramatic fall from grace of one of China's most high-profile social media celebrities and socialites. Guo Meimei, 23, best known for showing off her wealth, looks and extravagant lifestyle on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, appeared on state television without make up and in orange prison garb after being detained by police last month for operating an illegal gambling den. Guo said that she also made money by working as a call girl. She told police she would charge no less than 100,000 yuan ($17,400) for every encounter. "I'm really not short of those who want to keep me as mistress," she said. "There are many who would spend money to sleep with me for a night, no matter the price." Guo's Weibo account, which has almost two million followers, shows pictures of her posing by a jet ski in a bikini, and by a Lamborghini. She was also starring in a film about her life called "I am Guo Meimei." Guo invested in the project herself and production began last year. It was careless posts to her followers that tipped off police about her illicit activities. Last month, she was arrested for breaching China's strict gambling laws after boasting about her winnings from betting on World Cup matches. She also admitted operating an illegal gambling venue at a one-room apartment in Beijing with her ex-boyfriend. Guo's startling confession has been splashed over front pages and gossip magazines but critics have warned that her trial by media may be premature, given that she has not yet appeared in court. Some social media users said her case was being used to draw attention away from bad news stories such as an earthquake in southwestern China and a deadly factory explosion. She first gained notoriety in 2011 after she posted photos of herself posing with luxury sports cars and designer bags on a Weibo account that identified her as a commercial general manager for the Chinese Red Cross. Her ostentatious photos sparked widespread outrage about how a charity worker could sustain such a lavish lifestyle, leading to a big drop off in donations the following year, even though the Red Cross denied any connection with Guo. In her confession, Guo apologized to the Red Cross and the public for fabricating her affiliation with the charity. "Because of my vanity, I've made a very big mistake", she said. "I'd like to sincerely apologize to Red Cross, also to the people and especially to those who need to receive help but haven't." On Monday, the charity called on donors to "please forget Guo Meimei" and provide help to people affected by the earthquake in Yunnan that has killed almost 600 people. | Guo Meimei is one of China's most high-profile social media celebrities .
Socialite made a startling televised confession this week after her arrest last month .
She detailed a life of illicit sex and gambling . |
134,303 | 39a9ae634300a697333ce05fb1aea6d465d6f146 | (CNN) -- Saudi King Abdullah has appointed a woman to the council of ministers for the first time as part of a Cabinet reshuffle, networks including Saudi state-run Channel One reported Saturday. Saudi King Abdullah has appointed a woman to his council of ministers for the first time. King Abdullah announced a new supreme court chief, minister of health, justice minister and information minister as part of the reshuffling, according to Channel One. King Abdullah appointed Noor Al-Fayez to the Saudi Council of Ministers. She will serve in a new position as deputy minister for women's education. "I'm very proud to be nominated and selected for such a prestigious position," Al-Faiz told CNN on Saturday. "I hope that other ladies, females, will follow in the future." "People are very excited about this," said Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, an English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia. "This sends a clear signal that the King means business. Instead of appointing some bureaucrat, he appointed a woman." Jamal Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of the Al-Watan Daily newspaper, told CNN the reshuffle signals a major change in his country. "This is a huge step forward, in education, women's place in society," said Khashoggi. Al-Faiz said she's confident she won't just be a token member of the council. "I think by being the second person after the minister, I think I have enough power to work in the improvement of girls' education," she said. The new appointments are the largest council shakeup since King Abdullah took power in 2005. Maeena also said the other new appointments by King Abdullah were very "progressive" moves. Some other new appointments were: . CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report. | Saudi King Abdullah appoints a woman to council of ministers for first time .
King appoints Noor Al-Fayez as deputy minister for women's education .
Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, says people "excited" by move . |
57,182 | a207fe3f81dbe331454f5f0412bfe1b47bc606a6 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:32 EST, 17 May 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 05:30 EST, 18 May 2012 . Marc Kirvin leaves Manchester Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to stealing the handbag of a woman knocked down and decapitated by a lorry . A thief stole the handbag of a hit-and-run victim as her decapitated body lay in the road, a court heard yesterday. Marc Kirvin, 46, picked up the bag, which contained £1,600 in cash, minutes after grandmother Sawari Ashraf, 62, was hit by a lorry. The impact propelled Mrs Ashraf’s bag 400ft from her body and Kirvin claimed he did not know an accident had occurred. He told police he was looking for work that day and had taken the money ‘because of greed’. His arrest came after CCTV pictures were published of the theft – during which he also took the dead woman’s shoes – on March 29 in Longsight, Manchester. The grisly nature of the incident also led to ghoulish onlookers taking sick pictures of the scene and posting them on the internet. Jennifer Baines, prosecuting, said she accepted it was plausible that Kirvin, who was travelling in a different lorry, may not have been aware of the crash as there had been little reaction by motorists in that area and there had been no obvious debris. She added: ‘The most aggravating feature in this case is because he took the handbag, police had no identification and the lady’s family weren’t aware for two days that their mother and their grandmother had been taken from them.’ Officers had to trawl missing persons’ records and issue several public appeals for information before finally identifying Mrs Ashraf’s remains. Opportunist: Kirvin clutches the handbag containing £1,600 as he approaches one of the dead woman's shoes lying on the ground . Grasping: Kirvin reaches down for Mrs Ashraf's handbag, which was thrown some 130 metres from her body after she was hit by the lorry . Shameless: Marc Kirvin, 46, is seen on CCTV carrying the decapitated woman's shoes. A witness said a man calmly picked up the footwear and handbag - which where catapulted 100 yards from her body . Sarwari Ashraf, 62, was killed instantly on when she was struck by the lorry in Manchester . Since the family are Muslim, they were said to be deeply troubled at the fact they could not bury her body as soon as possible, which is traditional. Their statement concluded: ‘Our family cannot express the stress, anxiety, heartache and sadness this has caused.’ Manchester magistrates’ court heard Kirvin was arrested after an appeal on Crimestoppers was answered. His wife Alison said he felt guilty taking the money and was going to spend it on their children at Christmas, but she said she had persuaded him to hand it in to the police, which he planned to do. Kirvin, of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, yesterday admitted theft and was warned he faced imprisonment. District Judge Wendy Lloyd adjourned the case until June 20 for reports. She said: ‘The defendant must have known that losing that sum of cash would be massively distressing to anyone. He must be prepared for the worst.’ A lorry driver was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving but has been freed on bail pending further inquiries. Search: Forensic officers searching a logistics lorry on a industrial park in Newton Heath, Manchester . Scene: Police Officers at the scene where the remains of a woman's body were found in the middle of the road . | Marc Kirvin, 46, grabbed shoes and handbag after woman was killed by lorry .
Split £1,600 with friend and was going to use it to take wife on holiday .
Admits theft and told by judge he faces jail when he is sentenced next month . |
126,094 | 2efcba9e54d7995537bfeb5a10a79f44945f04f8 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 08:08 EST, 28 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 16:15 EST, 28 August 2012 . A high school math teacher in Tennessee was caught in an affair with a student after her husband turned over to police a camera with sexually explicit pictures of his wife and the 16-year-old. Sherri Lynn Baffa, 37, was sentenced to serve eight years in prison on Monday after taking a plea deal in which she accepted the charges but, did not admit she was guilty. But, in a bizarre twist, her now-ex-husband who turned her in, has also been arrested -- charged with seven counts of aiding and promoting the illicit relationship. Doing time: Sherri Lynn Baffa, 37, will serve every day of her eight year sentence, according to her plea deal . The photos, which prosecutors say showed Baffa and the student naked and having sex, were taken February 2007, when the student was 16, the Kingsport Times. The gender of the student was not revealed. It is also unknown whether the teen was in Baffa's classes. Ex-husband: Michael Hunter Campbell, who turned his wife in to police, was later arrested, as well . Baffa's then-husband, Michael Hunter Campbell, 38, turned the images over to police in May 2011. Baffa taught algebra and geometry at Sullivan East High School in Bluff City, Tennessee, before she resigned earlier this year. She turned herself in after a grand jury indicted her in August. Baffa was charged with seven counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor. The former student is now 20 years old. It is unclear how long the relationship lasted. As part of the deal, Baffa will have . to register as a sex offender for at least ten years after she gets out . of jail. She must also serve every day of her eight year prison . sentence. Prosecutors won't say what led to the charges against Campbell, who divorced Baffa. He was indicted by a grand jury in May. The . indictment alleges he 'promoted, employed, used, assisted, transported, . or permitted a minor to participate in the performance of, or in the . production of, acts or material which includes the minor engaging in . sexual activity.' Trusted: Baffa taught algebra and geometry at Sullivan East High School before she resigned in the wake of the charges . | Sherri Lynn Baffa will serve eight years in prison after taking plea deal .
Under the deal, Baffa did not admit guilt but is not contesting the charges .
Husband who turned over photos was later charged with aiding the promoting the relationship . |
274,138 | ef128edab026f65750506d17915ddd520e14f717 | By . Tom Gardner . PUBLISHED: . 10:31 EST, 31 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 10:32 EST, 31 May 2013 . Tragic: Karl Josiah, pictured, lay undiscovered at the crash scene for four days despite frantic searches by his family . A young man lay undiscovered for four days after his car plunged down a motorway embankment, an inquest has heard. Karl Josiah’s body was not found for days after the fatal crash as his car had landed in trees and bushes, undetectable from the roadside, or even from the air. Has family and friends had launched a desperate search for the 23-year-old after they were initially unable to convince police that Karl was missing. Once officers joined the search for Karl his Renault Clio, borrowed from his mother, was found on a patch of wasteland, obscured by trees and bushes after it had rolled down the roadside gully, and hit a concrete culvert before coming to its final position. An inquest into Karl’s death heard how he had journeyed from his home in Bromley, Kent, on January 18 this year to visit his girlfriend, Sarah Foster, who lived in Newbury, Berks. The pair had gone out for the evening before Karl dropped Sarah off at around 3.15am the following morning and set off for home. He had sent her a text at 3.39am telling her he was 'drowsy', and she warned him to stay awake. At around 5.30am, when she had not heard from Karl but expected him to be home, Sarah tried calling him but found his phone was off. Sarah and her mother joined in the search for Karl along the side of the M4 through Berkshire. 'The family were searching, there were frequent trips along the road,' read Berkshire coroner from Sarah’s statement. 'It wasn’t until January 23 you describe being out searching with your mum, there were police on the hard shoulder and the awful truth was revealed.' Discovery: Mr Josiah was discovered after Highways Agency officers noticed marks between junctions 6 and 5 of the M4, at Slough, which led down a grass verge to undergrowth which hid the car . Sarah said that she had not seen Karl take any drugs and that she was not aware that he did take drugs. However, she did say that he had drunk around a pint and a quarter of beer. A post mortem examination showed that Karl had consumed cannabis, cocaine and a small amount of alcohol prior to his death. However, the inquest heard that it was unlikely he was under the influence of any substance - although the come down from the cocaine may have caused him to feel drowsy and tired. His cause of death was given as multiple injuries, caused by the impact of the crash. Karl was discovered at around 1.06pm on January 23 after Highways Agency officers noticed marks between junctions 6 and 5 of the M4, at Slough, which led down a grass verge to undergrowth which hid the car. Earlier a helicopter had been deployed to look for Karl, although it had been unable to spot him through the greenery. Fatal: Collision investigator Tony Reading said the car had gone down the grass verge and hit a concrete drainage culvert after leaving the road between junctions 6 and 5 of the M4, pictured . Collision investigator Tony Reading . said the car had gone down the grass verge and hit a concrete drainage . culvert, which caused it to bounce off, and land on its side, around 15 . metres below the motorway level. There . had been heavy snow that day, and although there was snow on the verge . and possibly on the hard shoulder, the road itself had been clear. Mr . Reading said that the car had been travelling at 'a speed of at least . 70mph', and that Karl had failed to negotiate a gentle bend. He said that Karl had not attempted to steer the car, or applied the brakes, which implied he had fallen asleep at the wheel. 'Millions of cars travel round that bend every day, that’s the first time this has happened,' Mr Reading said. 'If you’re awake you drive round the bend, if you’re asleep you carry on in a straight line. 'Unfortunately that’s what Karl has done, he’s carried on straight with no steering input, which is why he’s left the road.' Karl’s father David Joseph asked Mr Reading why police had taken so long to start looking for Karl. 'It was four days before they started looking,' Mr Josiah said. Collision: Investigators found Mr Josiah had been travelling at 'a speed of at least 70mph', and that he had failed to negotiate a gentle bend. (File photo) 'They wouldn’t even look, we had to send people to Newbury to verify he was even there. 'We got four witnesses to prove he was in the area, after that they agreed they would check his phone which came up at junction 10. 'They said they did not have the manpower or money to search for a young man who might have gone off to a hotel with someone.' Mr Reading said that Thames Valley Police had been informed that Karl was missing by the Metropolitan police on January 23, and they had commenced their search immediately. Mr Bedford said that Karl could have pulled over and taken a rest break if he had been tired. 'We have the fact that by his own acknowledgment he was drowsy, the fact he deliberately embarked on a long journey in the early hours of the morning,' he said. 'He was impaired by the substances in his system. 'Karl must have driven past not on but two service stations giving him the opportunity to pull over and take a break, which is well documented in the Highway Code.' Verdict: misadventure . | Karl Josiah's family launched a frantic search for him after went missing .
The Renault Clio, borrowed from his mother, rolled behind trees after massive crash .
Highways Agency officers noticed marks leading down a grass verge to undergrowth which hid the car .
The 23-year-old sent a text saying he felt 'drowsy' before the fatal collision, inquest told . |
68,560 | c26515593b545a32dc290d990a88431357ac6165 | (CNN) -- The European Court of Human Rights condemned Ireland's laws on abortion Thursday, ruling the country violated the human rights of a woman forced to go abroad to end her pregnancy. It did not, however, recommend a change to Irish law, which prohibits abortion in all cases. The woman, a Lithuanian national who was not named, was in remission from a rare form of cancer and unaware she was pregnant when she had a series of check-ups that are not advised during pregnancy, the court said. She felt the pregnancy would cause a relapse of her cancer and was also concerned about the health of the fetus if she continued to term. She claimed she could not obtain clear advice about her options, so she decided in 2005 to have an abortion in England. The woman said she suffered medical complications on her return to Ireland. Having an abortion in Ireland carries a penalty of life imprisonment. Women in Ireland are permitted to travel abroad for abortions and obtain information about their options for doing so. The Irish Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that abortion is lawful in Ireland if there is a risk to the mother's life, but the Irish Parliament has never passed a law guaranteeing that right. The European court, located in Strasbourg, France, ruled that, by failing to allow the woman to have a lawful abortion in Ireland, the country violated her right to respect for her physical and psychological integrity, which falls under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. At the same time, the court ruled Article 8 cannot be interpreted as conferring a right to abortion, which may come as a relief to defenders of the Irish ban. It had been thought a more serious ruling by the court could have challenged the country's laws on abortion. The court ordered Ireland to pay the woman 15,000 euros ($19,800) in damages. While the court condemned the Irish ban, it rejected the complaints of two Irish women who sued along with the Lithuanian national, saying there had been no violation of their human rights. It also dismissed the rest of the Lithuanian woman's complaints, which fell under Articles 2 and 3 of the human rights convention and concerned the right to life and prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment. Proving that her pregnancy posed a risk to her life required the Lithuanian woman to establish it either with her doctor or through the courts. The court said going to her doctor was "ineffective," however, because the criminality of abortion posed a "significant chilling factor" in any discussions about it. "They both ran a risk of a serious criminal conviction and imprisonment if an initial doctor's opinion that abortion was an option, as it posed a risk to the woman's health, was later found to be against the Irish constitution," the court found. "Ireland's failure to legislate to protect the rights of women has been clearly exposed by the European Court of Human Rights today," said Mark Kelly, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, in a statement. "It is imperative that the government legislate swiftly to ensure that women are able to exercise their existing Constitutional rights. "Yet again, it has required international intervention to remind our legislature of their domestic responsibilities," said Kelly, who is in Washington attending a global civil rights leaders meeting. "If Ireland wishes to reassert its sovereignty and its standing in the international community, it must start by fully respecting the human rights of people at home." Irish Health Minister Mary Harney said in a statement Thursday that the government will have to legislate on the issue in the wake of the court's ruling. The government "will have to come forward with proposals, but it will take time," Harney said in an interview, according to the Irish government's website. She added it was a "highly complex area," but said she felt the ruling was a "binding judgment." The Irish government argued the woman should have tried to go through the Irish court system to prove her pregnancy was a risk to her life, but the court said that would have been ineffective because it would be "inappropriate" to ask a woman to go through complex constitutional proceedings if her life was at risk. The constitutional courts are also not able to determine whether a woman qualifies for a lawful abortion, the court said. Neither avenue, therefore, allowed the woman effective and accessible ways to establish her right to a lawful abortion in Ireland, the court said. The court also lamented the fact that a woman's right to an abortion in Ireland if her health is at risk has never been put into law. Human Rights Watch praised the ruling as a "wake-up call to the Irish government" to regulate access to abortion. "This morning the European Court established that this is not just tragic, it is a violation of human rights. And it must end now," said Marianne Mollmann, women's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. A January 2010 report from the human rights group says Irish women face financial, logistical, physical, and emotional burdens imposed by the laws of Ireland that force them to seek abortions abroad, without support from the state. The three women who brought the case in Strasbourg had personally suffered these ordeals, the group said. "It is time for the government to end their ostrich mentality regarding abortion and start delivering on women's human rights," Mollmann said. | The European Court of Human Rights rules the ban violated a woman's human rights .
She was forced to travel abroad for an abortion in 2005 .
The court did not recommend a change in Irish law . |
177,267 | 717b25768b203b7032bea2db8da052e3def56b7f | An Alabama judge has dismissed a second lawsuit filed by a man who says his penis was amputated during a circumcision gone awry. Circuit Judge Jim Hughey in Birmingham issued an order Wednesday throwing out the lawsuit filed by Johnny Lee Banks Jr, 56, and his wife against Princeton Baptist Medical Center and doctors he claims injured him. It is the second lawsuit Banks has filed in the incident. Judge Hughey tossed Banks' original lawsuit in August. Hughey ruled it was not specific enough under Alabama's malpractice law. Hughey's ruling on the second lawsuit cites similar reasons. But he left the door open for a third lawsuit. Banks, a wheelchair-bound double amputee and a diabetic, says he awoke from what should have been a routine circumcision to realize that his sex organ had been chopped down to about an inch. The hospital and doctors have denied any wrongdoing. Court documents show Banks has numerous health problems. Michael Florie, an attorney representing the doctors named in Banks' now-defunct lawsuit, has dismissed the allegations as 'completely false.' In August, Florie said Banks had a history of 'diabetic wet gangrene,' which led to dead tissue accumulation in the patient's lower extremities, according to AL.com. At the time of the first lawsuit's dismissal two months ago, Banks' attorney said the physical evidence in the case should be sufficient. The 'proof is in the pudding,' he told AL.com. Banks' wife Zelda, 55, also sued for loss of consortium due to the bungled operation. In the amended lawsuit filed in September, Banks' attorney, John Graves, changed the date of the procedure from June to February 2014, and also named Dr Meil Duggan Jr as the surgeon who 'may have performed the circumcision,' the local TV station Alabama's 13 reported. According to the patient and his attorney, the penis amputation was performed without consent or explanation of the operation's medical necessity. In response, the lawyer representing the doctors in the case accused his counterpart of ignoring the medical records. 'In the complaint filed last month, this patient claimed that he awoke to find his penis missing in June,' Michael Florie said in September. 'Now he alleges that he awoke to find it missing in February.' | Johnny Lee Banks Jr., 56, claims he went in for the routine procedure but woke up without his privates .
A judge ruled Banks' lawsuit was not specific enough under Alabama's malpractice law .
Attorneys for the hospital said the wheel-bound man suffered from 'diabetic wet gangrene' that led to dead tissue accumulation in his lower extremities . |
274,732 | efe4af56af4eda42ee3a88eadeb7f53f74ef3f3e | The Hollywood studio behind the Spider-Man and James Bond films says hackers have crippled its computer network and stole the private information of stars including Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie. Staff at Sony Pictures Entertainment have been forced to 'sit at their desks trying to do their jobs with pen and paper' since the attack, by a hacking collective called 'Guardians of Peace', five days ago. And today employees were told they may have to wait up to three weeks for the breach to be cleared. Crippled: Staff at Sony Pictures Entertainment have been forced to 'sit at their desks trying to do their jobs with pen and paper' since the attack, by a hacking collective called 'Guardians of Peace', five days ago . Before Sony Pictures' computers went dark on Monday, the screens displayed an image of a red skeleton with the phrase 'Hacked By #GOP,' according to the Los Angeles Times. The hackers warned the unit of Sony Corp that they had obtained 'secrets' that they would leak on the Web and released a list of files that it claimed it had stolen, including one called 'Cameron Diaz - passport' and another named Angelina Jolie passport'. Other files they claimed they had taken included, 'media budgets', deals' as well as 'security breach course of action'. It is also believed they may have taken production schedules and passwords. 'We've already warned you, and this is just a beginning. We continue till our request be met,' said a message that popped up on the computer screens, according to the L.A. Times. Sensitive: The hackers released a list of files that it claimed it had stolen, including one called 'Cameron Diaz - passport' and another named Angelina Jolie passport' Sticky situation: Sony Pictures is the studio behind the Spider Man and James Bond movie franchises . One security expert told The Times newspaper that Sony may be a target because 'many perceive it to have an attitude problem with their eagerness to sue hackers'. A souce at Sony told The Times: You go to work and there are people sitting at their desks trying to do their job with pen and paper. It's the same all over the world. 'They're pretending its just an IT problem but its 100 per cent not ... The tech guys I know said files were wiped.' Sony Pictures spokeswoman Jean Guerin said the company's network was down as it dealt with 'a system disruption' and that technicians were 'working diligently' to resolve the issue. She did not give any details of the reported cyberattack. Emails sent to Sony Pictures on Tuesday were kicked back with an explanation that its 'email system is currently experiencing a disruption.' The Los Angeles Times said Sony Pictures employees had to resort to using pencil and paper to get their work done on Monday. It was unclear if the problem would affect the company's plans for upcoming holiday films, such as 'Annie,' or regular television programs including 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy!' Sony Corp has been a target of hackers in the past. In 2011, its video game online network suffered a major attack resulting in the theft of data belonging to 77 million users, one of the breaches to date. | Hackers from 'Guardians of Peace' group struck Sony systems on Monday .
Staff forced to 'sit at their desks trying to do their jobs with pen and paper'
Screens displayed image of red skeleton with phrase 'Hacked By #GOP .
Then words: 'We've already warned you, and this is just a beginning'
Files taken include 'Cameron Diaz - passport' and 'Angelina Jolie passport' |
232,111 | b8921ecdc798bb4547ecd5c1d006d2b2ed0a71be | (CNN) -- If Amy Joanne Lawson followed all of the advice she got about online dating, her username would be "ShoeDonut." Lawson, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, checked out a library book about online dating before creating her profile. The first step to creating the perfect profile is choosing a user name that reflects your personality, the book said. It suggested she combine two of her favorite things or activities. "Shoes and doughnuts," Lawson said. "Those are two things I feel passionate about." But she didn't think "ShoeDonut" would strike the right chord. So she chose "SewBeachy." "Then I realized it sounded like, "So B****y." So began Lawson's adventures in online dating where selecting a user name is only the beginning of an often unpredictable journey. Online dating and a formula for love . The online dating industry claims it's working. One in six recently married couples met on an online dating site, according to a study commissioned by Match.com in 2009. That year, more than twice as many marriages occurred between people who met on an online dating site than between people who met in bars, clubs and other social events, the study reported. But of course, all matches don't lead to the altar. After the world learned that Notre Dame linebacker Manti T'eo's online girlfriend never existed, CNN invited readers to share their own online dating ups and downs. While none were quite as dramatic as the T'eo scandal, readers agreed: When looking for love in cyberspace, prepare for an adventure. Lawson began online dating at the end of 2011 when she realized she wasn't meeting anyone her own age in Gainesville, Florida. The lost art of offline dating . "When you're 43, it's tough," she said. "I had no idea where to meet anyone my own age in a college town." So she turned to the Internet. She was serious about potentially finding a match, but she was willing to give most people a chance ... and have a sense of humor about it. "I probably think about 'Star Wars' more than anyone should," Lawson wrote in her OKCupid profile. Lawson remembers one date with a news director (or so she thought) with vivid detail. After talking to the man for a few weeks via text and e-mail, she decided to meet him at a sports bar. Even though they ordered the same kind of beer, Lawson did not think they were a match made in heaven. "So the waitress brings our beers, and he reached around and he said, 'Oh I forgot my wallet,'" she said. "Thank God I had money in my account at that point." Online dating: Messages you shouldn't send . When they walked out to the parking lot at the end of the date, he told her he didn't have a car. As Lawson drove him home, he also admitted he was unemployed. "I'm really not materialistic, but I just didn't think it would work out," she said. Lawson said her favorite part of the date was when she texted him later to tell him she didn't think it would work out between them. The text he sent her back read: "To think I gave you points for not wearing flip flops." Shannan White met her ex-husband on a computer bulletin board in the 1990s when she still used a dial-up modem. In 2007, White ended up online again without any romantic intentions. How technology has changed romance . She started playing the Lord of the Rings online game using an audio-only option on Skype. White got close to one of the players whom she had never met. He was her shoulder to cry on as she was going through a divorce. "Finally just one day on Skype, everybody else had kind of hung up and I said you know, I think I love you," she said. White and her husband, James, got married in 2011, and she attributes her success to the fact that they told each other the truth. "We got to know the real us, because we never lied," White wrote in her iReport. "I woke up and realized I was in love with a man that I knew better than anyone, yet never laid eyes on." Though her experience had a happy ending, she's heard plenty of stories that did not work out well. White advised to be protective with personal information because it's easy to lie online. "I've had tons of friends that have fallen for scams or had quote unquote 'buddies' who died and magically came back from the dead," White said. "It happens way more often than you realize. It's kind of ridiculous -- after 20 years, when I hear somebody [online] say, 'I have cancer' or whatever, my first instinct is 'Hmm, wonder if that's true.' If you fall for it, it's because you want fall for it."Â Â . Within 24 hours of registering on Match.com in 2010, Barbara Hassan had three matches "who by all accounts were intelligent, good looking and well off." Too good to be true, she thought. And she was right. Opinion: What we don't know about love and loneliness . One of her matches said he was "an architect/construction manager who built and designed a building in Nigeria for orphans," Hassan, a 48-year-old divorcee in Texas, wrote in her iReport. They corresponded online for a few months, until the man asked Hassan to pay for his ticket to the United States. The total would only come out to $2,700. When she saw the e-mail asking for money, she had a good laugh. Hassan had become suspicious long before he asked for money. When she asked the man, who claimed he was an engineer, a physics question, he got it wrong. "He thought he had me hooked but little did he know," she said. "After I realized he was a scammer, I decided a little taste of his own medicine was due. So I let him get to the 'ask for money' part and then I shut the door on him." But just when Hassan thought she was done with online dating, she met her husband in 2011. "He looked at my profile, and I sent him a smiley face," she said. "Three days later, we had lunch." They bonded over their online dating scammer stories and got married 14 months later. Even though Hassan was the victim of a scam, she said she was "extremely blessed" to have found her husband online. "For some reason I kept that one profile up and now I have a wonderful man in my life," she said. Psychologists highlight pitfalls of online dating . Whether people are looking to find their soul mate or just to have some fun, Lawson said it helps to go into online dating with a sense of humor. "In online dating and in life, it's nice to have thick skin, let things roll of your back and move on," she said. "You have to be patient. You won't put your profile up and be struck by lightning with the perfect person for you." Do you have online dating horror stories? Share them in the comments below. | CNN readers shared their ups and downs of online dating .
They agree: Expect the unexpected when you're involved with online dating .
Some of these matches might lead to the altar .
Be ready for curve balls -- "I forgot my wallet," one date said . |
245,665 | c9f85efe9d01687326486fdb0ba14e639bb2fbbf | (CNN) -- T.J. Lane didn't belong to any particular clique in the schools he attended, fellow students said. Those who knew him described him as quiet, someone who was guarded and rarely spoke about his tumultuous family life. But they never would have thought that he'd be described as a killer -- until Monday, when students say they saw Lane walk up to a table in the cafeteria of Ohio's Chardon High School with a gun. Police have not named the alleged gunman, a juvenile, but many witnesses have identified the attacker as Lane. One victim died Monday. Two others were declared dead on Tuesday. One other remained hospitalized Tuesday. A fifth victim was released, officials said. Lane made an initial juvenile court appearance Tuesday afternoon, during which he was ordered to remain in custody. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Tuesday that the suspect would likely be tried as an adult. Prosecutor David Joyce predicted that the 17-year-old sophomore will face three counts of aggravated murder "as well as other counts." He said Lane has admitted taking a .22-caliber gun and a knife into Chardon High School on Monday morning and firing 10 rounds, choosing his victims randomly. All Chardon schools closed Tuesday; counselors on hand . Teresa Hunt said her niece rode the school bus each day with Lane, and he displayed no warning signs of the violence allegedly to come. "He was a really nice kid to her," Hunt said. "He wouldn't start up a conversation, but if she talked to him, he would hold the conversation with her. She said her niece noted no personality changes in Lane in the weeks leading up to Monday's shooting. Haley Kovacik, a friend who talked with Lane a few times a week, said the violence left her and others who knew him in "complete shock." "He seemed like a very normal, just teenage boy," Kovacik said of Lane. "He did have a sad look in his eyes a lot of the time, but he talked normally, he never said anything strange." Yet for all their talks, Kovacik noted there was a lot she didn't know about Lane. Lane lived with his grandparents and was slow to open up about his personal life, according to friends. While he was known by many around Chardon High School, located 30 miles east of Cleveland, at the time of the shooting he was there to be transported to Lake Academy Alternative School in nearby Willoughby. The school describes itself as a place for "at risk" students who are "reluctant learners" struggling with problems such as "substance abuse /chemical dependency, anger issues, mental health issues, truancy, delinquency, difficulties with attention/organization, and academic deficiencies." Lane may have been dealing with his own family problems, according to reports by The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland. Lane's father, Thomas Lane Jr., has been arrested several times for violent crimes against female acquaintances, including Lane's mother, the newspaper reported citing court documents. Between 1995 and 1997, the first two years of Lane's life, his father and his mother were both arrested for domestic violence against each other, the paper reported. His father also served prison time for assaulting a police officer and he also was charged with holding a different woman under running water and bashing her head into a wall, the newspaper reported. It was unclear how much contact Lane had with his father. He rarely opened up about his family, some said. "I've asked him once or twice, but he never would go into detail. He just said he had family trouble," Kovacik said . Evan Erasmus, who said his family knew Lane's family, was among several students who said what happened Monday took them totally by surprise. "I was really shocked when I found out it was him," Erasmus said. "He was quiet, but was one of the nicest kids there. You could talk to him really easily. He was funny." According to Kovacik, Lane told her that "he enjoyed hunting, he enjoyed video games, just normal things." "Everybody was in disbelief. Nobody could believe that T.J. (shot the students)," Kovacik said. Recent posts on Lane's Facebook page show him sharing links to music videos from groups like Grimes and Blood on the Dance Floor, listing his sister in his profile and uploading photos of himself. Yet one long, poetic rant, from December 30, appears to be darker. The post refers to "a quaint lonely town, (where there) sits a man with a frown (who) longed for only one thing, the world to bow at his feet." "He was better than the rest, all those ones he detests, within their castles, so vain," he wrote. Lane then writes about going through "the castle ... like an ominous breeze through the trees," past guards -- all leading up to the post's dramatic conclusion. "Feel death, not just mocking you. Not just stalking you but inside of you," he writes. "Wriggle and writhe. Feel smaller beneath my might. Seizure in the Pestilence that is my scythe. Die, all of you." After getting three positive reviews, Lane wrote: "much obliged to all who 'liked' this. Wrote it myself in class one day ..." CNN's Martin Savidge and Lisa Sylvester contributed to this report. | The motive behind the shooting remains unclear, police chief says .
A newspaper reports that Lane's father was arrested for violent crimes .
Witnesses say T.J. Lane shot 5 people, 3 fatally .
"He never would go into detail. He just said he had family trouble," a friend says . |
132,638 | 3785559ddd61a846168029eb6939078634ea2929 | Melvin Clary was a man obsessed with everything about the ocean. A deep sea fisherman from Livermore, California, 'Mel' loved to go abalone hunting with his two sons and explore the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve with the rest of the family. So when he passed away earlier this month, he not only wanted to be laid to rest in the ocean - he wanted his memory to be cast out to sea. And so on August 17, Mel's loved ones bottled up a message written on his behalf in a special airtight container, according to My Modern Met. After spreading his ashes in Half Moon Bay, the bottle was sent out on the waves. Much-loved: Melvin Clary is seen here i hospital surrounded by his family before his death . Heartwarming: The family of Melvin Clary wanted to do something special in his honor . Out to sea: His ashes were dropped into the ocean at Half Moon Bay in California . Next: The all-important message in the bottle - written on Mel's behalf - is prepared for its launch . Joyous: The Clary family celebrate sending off the bottle in memory of their beloved Melvin . Inside, the note read: . My name is Mel, I have 3 beautiful kids and a beautiful wife of almost 54 years when I passed. I love the ocean, deep sea fishing , abalone hinting with my 2 son's and visitng the tide pools with the whole family. Today my family is laying me to rest in a place that I love ... the ocean. So, this starts my journey. If you find this message in a bottle please go to my Facebook page - Melvin's Journey - post a pic of yourself and where you found me, and send me back on my journey. Thanks and God Bless . Mel's family . And, sure, enough, after a view days, the bottle turned ashore about seven miles south at Francis Beach. Ahoy: The bottle first was found by a young local, Willie Tang, last Sunday, a few days after it was cast off . Cracking it: The finders used a cork screw to pop over the top lid, which then has a cork underneath to keep water from getting in . Inside was the message, complete with the date the bottle was set off . Special: The note asks anyone who should find the bottle to take a picture and post it to a Facebook page called Melvin's Journey . The bottle was found by a local, Willie Tang, who discovered it while fishing at Francis Beach. As the note asked, Tang posted his pictures to Facebook. He then set the bottle back on its way. The Clary family are hoping many more people are able to be touched by the message and then share their experience online. Special: Willie Tang holds up the bottle he found. The Clary family are excited for who else might find the treasure . | Deep sea fisherman Melvin Clary, of Livermore, California, passed away earlier this month .
To commemorate him, his family spread his ashed at sea and sent out a message in a bottle from Half Moon Bay .
The note asks anyone who finds it to take a picture to post to Facebook and set the bottle back on its 'journey'
One fisherman in Francis Bay, California, came across the bottle last weekend . |
64,553 | b75284dea229534f549e82ec4cb9ec93aef1ef58 | All 50 states of America will see snow this week as the nation is plunged into the coldest month for decades. For the first time since 2010, meteorologists predict two snow storms barreling through the country in the next seven days will engulf Florida - a usually snow-less state. It comes as cold weather records continue to fall across the country, with February declared the coldest month in New York for 81 years. The average temperature in the Big Apple over the last four weeks has been 24F - 11 degrees below normal. New York joins other metropolitan areas such as Chicago and Pittsburgh, which have also experienced their most frigid February in decades. As the mercury continues to plummet, ice breakers are being deployed by the US Coast Guard to create ferry and shipping lanes along the Hudson River in New York and the Delaware in Philadelphia. Scroll down for video . Let it snow! A mother and son sled down a snowy overpass in Oklahoma on Saturday as all 50 states are set to see snow this week . Richard Hample of Albuquerque took out his skis to get some exercise near Silver and Harvard on Saturday morning . As fog rolls in, Emily Martinez makes a snow angel on freshly fallen snow as a a storm out of the Pacific Northwest brings snow to the San Bernardino Mountains on Saturday, in Green Valley Lake, California . Ploughing through: Travelers walk with their luggage to the airport due to impassable roads in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Saturday . A lone duck swims in a small creek in Hurst, Texas, on Saturday. The area received almost two inches of snow and freezing rain . A John Deere tractor is obscured by heavy snowfall in Enid, Oklahoma, as the nation experiences one of the coldest months on record . A horse looks for grass underneath the snow and ice in a field in Reno, Texas, west of Fort Worth, on Saturday . According to The New York Times, it has not been this frigid in New York since February 1934. That month it averaged 19.9F. On February 9 of that year, the mercury sank to 15 degrees below zero - the lowest daily reading in the city's history. The only other February on record that was cold than this past month was in 1885 - when the average daily temperature was 22.7 degrees . Jay Engle, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, told The Times: 'It was like the most sick month you can think of.' As the records continue to tumble - with almost 500 daily low-points being beaten in the last month - forecasters predict there's more on the way. Richard Adams, of Albuquerque, walks with his two dogs Bulka and Rizhik on Saturday morning in the Nob Hill of Albuquerque, N.M. A coyote pauses to look around while walking through an open field at Albuquerque's Nature Center Saturday morning . Record-breaking: Ice chunks form underneath the snow-covered Brooklyn Bridge in New York City at the end of the coldest February in more than 80 years - and two more snow storms are expected to hit the region over the next few days . Frozen: The mercury has not fallen this low in the city since 1934. Pictured are fire fighter working to tackle a blaze in sub-zero climes . Duties continue: The tug Arabian Sea pushes a barge through the icy waters of the Hudson River on Friday, near Rhinecliff, in Upstate New York. With the prolonged cold winter weather, the Coast Guard has been busy clearing shipping lanes . This next winter storm will begin to take shape Saturday in California as a disturbance digs into the Southwest, bringing rain in the lower elevations and snow in the mountains. Snow, sleet and ice will then spread eastward across the Plains, Midwest and Northeast through midweek. Texas has already seen six inches of snow as a result of the storm, with Oklahoma - seven inches - and New Mexico - one foot - also suffering from the wintry downpours. Boston's all-time winter weather record is also at risk, after 102 inches of snow fell on the city in the space of a month. Making a path: The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse lies in the background as ice breakers make their way along the Hudson River, New York . Insurance companies in the area are getting a historic number of claims from homeowners whose properties have been damaged by the weight of the snow. Experts say that popping, creaking, or cracking noises can be signs of a stressed roof that could be about to collapse. Residents are warned to leave immediately in those cases. Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, told the Boston Globe: 'If you are hearing loud cracking, like cracking wood, there is something going on up there. But if it’s just a variety of sounds, don’t automatically get everyone out of the building.' Wintry conditions also caused chaos across the southeastern United States this week as the area saw an unprecedented amount of snowfall. Wet, heavy snow snapped tree limbs and cut power lines in North Carolina leaving more than 200,000 Duke Energy customers without electricity at one point. Nearly a foot of snow fell in parts of Alabama - closing roads, schools and businesses. A volunteer who works with the National Weather Service measured 11 inches of snow in the Guntersville area in the morning. Authorities said 8.5 inches of snow fell in the Athens area, with similar amounts reported in other towns and cities across northern Alabama. School's out: Children make snow angels in Richardson, Texas. A winter storm that dumped several inches of snow in Texas on Friday closed schools, snarled travel and forced a main highway into Oklahoma to shut down after nearly 20 vehicles slid off the road . Mack Donohue, who has been homeless since 2008, washes car windows for tips in Boston, Massachusetts. Donahue spent his nights on the streets and not in shelters this winter until about two weeks ago, even though Boston has had over 100 inches of snow this winter . Whiteout: Helena Burns, center, walks in Pioneer Plaza with her mother, Sandra, left, and Hanna Vampola, all of Omaha, Nebraska, . Play: Stephanie Hord, left, Miranda Zepeda and Jessica Spurgers play in the snow at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas . | Average daily temperature in the city as been 24F - 11 degrees below normal- the coldest since February 1934 .
Joins metropolitan areas such as Chicago and Pittsburgh which have experienced most frigid period in decades .
Two more snow storms are expected to sweep the country over the weekend and into next week .
More than 100 inches of snow have fallen on Boston this month with residents fearing their homes are damaged .
Wintry conditions caused chaos in the Southern states this week - leaving thousands without power . |
41 | 0021eb1696f522ae0605ba630568bed5f655b740 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . A website has been ordered to remove a claim that the MMR jab could cause autism in children by the Advertising Standards Agency. The children’s immunisation service, babyjabs.co.uk, claimed experts believe the vaccine 'could be causing autism in up to 10% of . autistic children in the UK'. It also said: 'Most experts now agree that the . large rise (in autism) has been caused partly by increased diagnosis, but . also by a real increase in the number of children with autism.' The babyjabs website says it enables parents to make an 'informed choice' about child vaccinations . It added that parental fears the jab caused autism . were 'supported' by the fact that the the vaccine strain measles had . been found in the guts and brains of some autistic children. However, the ASA said both the World Health Organisation and the Department of Health have found no evidence of a causal link between MMR and autism. The ASA ruled: 'Consumers were likely to infer from the claim, that the ‘real increase in the number of children with autism’ was not just down to increased diagnosis, but the vaccine might have played a role in bringing about that increase.' They added: 'Because we had not seen supporting evidence that that was the case, and understood that that position was also contradicted by general medical opinion, we concluded that the claim was misleading.' BabyJabs Ltd denied a breach citing previous scientific research which had concluded: 'We cannot rule out the existence of a susceptible subgroup with an increased risk of autism if vaccinated'. But the ASA said: 'The Cochrane review, looking at the general evidence available, could find no significant association between MMR immunisation and autism. 'We noted that the evidence provided by the advertiser included studies and an article which looked at the increased prevalence of autism, but did not include evidence that any increase was due to the MMR vaccine.' They added: 'We considered that consumers would understand from the (advert) that the MMR vaccine was likely to have caused autism in up to 10% of autistic children in the UK, namely between 300 and 400 children a year. 'We noted we had not seen any evidence, such as a clinical trial or study, which actively showed that the MMR vaccine was likely to cause autism in between 300 and 400 children a year. 'Because we did not consider that we had seen sufficient evidence to support the claim we concluded it was misleading.' | The World Health Organisation and the Department of Health have found no evidence of a causal link between MMR and autism . |
36,285 | 66e87c626a105e88277e91418215b152a383961e | By . Tom Worden In Barcelona . Last updated at 4:32 PM on 23rd September 2011 . It is a sport that has come to symbolise Spain - but from this weekend it may come to represent political divisions in the country. This weekend Catalonia becomes the first region on the Spanish mainland to ban bullfighting. Barcelona's famous bullring El Monumental will host its final bullfight on Sunday evening in front of 20,000 spectators. While some see this as a victory for animal rights activists, there are those who say the ban is politically motivated as the region strives for autonomy. El Monumental bullring in Barcelona will host the last bullfight in Catalonia this Saturday before it is banned . The iconic Barcelona landmark will likely be used to host rock concerts . Jose Tomas, 36, the country's most popular matador, will perform at his favourite bullring, drawing to close almost 100 years of history in the impressive building. Catalonia's regional government voted in July last year to ban bullfighting on the grounds it is outdated and cruel, in response to demands from animal rights activists. Supporters of bullfighting accused . Catalan nationalists of hijacking the anti-bullfighting campaign for . political purposes, to highlight their independence from Madrid. They . point out that other popular events involving bulls, called . 'correbous', still take place legally in Catalonia, one of 17 autonomous . regions in Spain. And they hope to overturn the ban on bullfighting on constitutional grounds. Jose Tomas is caught by a bull during a bullfight at El Monumental in 2009. The matador will be taking part in the last such spectacle in the bullring this weekend . The historic vote was sparked when campaign group Prou! ('Enough!' in Catalan) collected 180,000 signatures calling for a ban in the north-eastern region. Celebrities including Pamela Anderson and Ricky Gervais backed the bid to outlaw the practice. The parliamentary debate was closely fought, with 68 votes for the ban, 55 against and nine abstentions. The law comes into force on 1 January next year but Sunday's bullfight is the final one in the season scheduled at El Monumental - Catalonia's last functioning bullring. Tickets for the event are selling for up to 3,500 euros on the black market on the internet. Catalan . bullfighting fan David Guillem said: 'It's a surreal feeling, I can't . quite believe it. It's like the sensation you have when someone you know . dies and you can't quite accept it.' A worker puts up a poster by Balearic artist . Miquel Barcelo, painted for his bullfighter friend Jose Tomas to mark . the last bullfight in Catalonia. While elsewhere the event is well advertised . El Monumental has been hosting bullfights for almost 100 years . In recent years El Monumental, inaugurated in 1914, held only around 15 bullfights a year out of 1,000 around Spain. It was often half empty during bullfights, which are not popular with younger people in Catalonia. By contrast Las Ventas bullring in Madrid often sells out its 25,000 capacity and holds 350 bullfights a year. Discussions are still going on over the future of El Monumental, which could become a concert venue. It has previously hosted concerts by groups including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Animal rights campaigners hope the Catalonia ban will spark further campaigns around the country. The Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the north west coast of Africa, banned bullfighting in 1991, but it was never popular there. Spanish matador Daniel Luque performs at Las Ventas bullring in Madrid, which holds 350 bullfights a year . In contrast to the Barcelona arena, Madrid's bullring is regularly sold out . Spanish matador Jose Tomas will be appearing int he last ever bullfight at El Monumental . Many supporters of bullfighting regard it as a deeply ingrained, integral part of their national cultures. Rather . than a competitive sport, the bullfight is more of a ritual which is . judged by aficionados based on artistic impression . and command. Ernest . Hemingway said of it in his 1932 non-fiction book Death in the . Afternoon: 'Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in . danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance . is left to the fighter's honour.' While . there is usually no doubt about the outcome, the bull is not viewed as a . sacrificial victim—it is instead seen by the audience as a worthy . adversary, deserving of respect in its own right. On the other hand those . who oppose bullfighting maintain it is a . cowardly, sadistic tradition of slowly torturing, humiliating and . finally murdering a terrified, dying bull. who . vomits blood, bellows in agony, and desperately seeks his escape amid . pomp and pageantry of unashamed people who applaud when he finally . collapses and then is killed. | Region is first on mainland Spain to stop bullfighting .
20,000 spectators expected at El Monumental on Sunday . |
102,060 | 0f87cad8a66954576cdaef19369db59ec4e75ae0 | This is the moment CCTV cameras caught a heroin addict just before he attacked three women with a claw hammer in a hotel room and then left with a large suitcase of stolen goods. Cameras tracked Philip Spence's journey to the Cumberland hotel in London and his escape after the attack. Spence, 32, admits grievous bodily harm against the three women in the early hours of April 6 but denies attempted murder. Dressed in a t-shirt with a distinctive logo on the front, a dark blazer and a brown leather jacket, he concealed the hammer in his clothing. He entered the hotel at around 1.09am and can be seen striding through the spacious white lobby moments before launching his savage attack. At 1.36am, he walks back out of the hotel through the lobby with a dark brown suitcase in his hand and turns left to go to Marble Arch. The court was shown CCTV of Philip Spence in the entrance area at the Cumberland Hotel at 1.13am on April 6 . CCTV shows Philip Spence with a suitcase on the upper deck of a route N16 bus, at 1.38am on April 6 . Spence ditched the hammer out of a seventh floor fire escape window, jurors at Southwark Crown Court heard. Philip Spence admits grievous bodily harm but denies attempted murder . Two minutes later, Spence is seen running towards the N16 night bus to Victoria, breathing heavily and boarding. The footage showed him climbing the stairs to the empty upper deck and sitting on the back row with a large suitcase before travelling to co-defendant Thomas Efremi's flat in north London. He is seen getting off a second bus almost an hour after he is seen exiting the Cumberland Hotel. Spence then walked to Efremi's flat and within minutes Efremi, 57, left his flat in possession of the stolen bank cards and withdrew £5000 in cash. Khulood Al Najjar, 36, and her sisters Ohoud, 34, and Fatima, 31, from the United Arab Emirates, suffered fractured skulls and life-threatening injuries in the 'vicious and sustained attack' at the four-star hotel. Southwark Crown Court heard that when he was arrested on April 10, Spence told police: 'There ain't no blood on the hammer. I licked it all off, it went down my throat, yeah.' He was also said to have asked officers: 'Why so many of you involved? Are the Arabs paying you to catch me?' Efremi is later seen on CCTV shopping at various locations including the Vodafone store in Angel, north London. The court heard that following the attack Spence made several visits to Emma Moss, whose brother James, of Stroud Green in north London, has admitted handling stolen goods in relation to the case. A CCTV still of Thomas Efremi paying cash for his purchase at a Vodafone Store in Islington, London, on April 8 . The court heard Spence told police there was 'no blood on the hammer. I licked it all off, it went down my throat' The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods last week after police found a significant amount of the stolen property in his home. A stash of the victims' property was found hidden in Moss's cellar and the stolen brown suitcase was discovered in an Amazon cardboard box. Officers found a prayer mat, a Gucci bag and some gold earrings belonging to 19-year-old Sheika Al-Mheiri. There was also a Chanel compact, sunglasses, a camera, five mobile phones and three iPads concealed in a TopShop bag. But valuables worth thousands of pounds were never recovered including two gold rings and two gold bracelets, one by designer Louis Vuitton, which were never found. James Moss, left, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods last week and Thomas Efremi, 57, denies conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary . A Louis Vuitton necklace and gold earrings and a rose gold solitaire diamond ring have not been seen again. Black Gucci sunglasses, cash and bank cards were also among the items which were not recovered after the attack. In a police statement read out in court, Ms Moss said: 'I have known Philip Spence since I was 10 years old. My family and his family are long-time friends. 'I have never been in a relationship with Philip and we have no sort of relationship because of his drug addiction. I believe he uses crack cocaine and heroin. 'He doesn't have a home and stays with different people. The last address he was at was in south-east London. 'I know Philip to be a criminal who commits burglaries and robberies and he has told me he has stolen from hotels before. 'He is also someone who exaggerates and tells lies.' The court heard that on the evening of April 6, Spence turned up at Ms Moss's home. Kahlood al-Najar told Southwark Crown Court that she was woken to the sound of Spence shouting 'give me the f****** money' before he hit her over the head 'around 30 times' Spence burst in on three wealthy Arab sisters sleeping at the Cumberland Hotel off London's Oxford Street . In her statement to police, she said: 'He was hyperactive and told me about getting £50,000 worth of jewellery, BlackBerrys, iPods, bags and perfume. 'He told me he got them from a hotel room. I knew he had done something bad but he often tells tales.' Ms Moss said Spence was on crack but that she thought nothing more of what he had told her. The following day he returned and appeared to be 'paranoid', telling Ms Moss that his friends were trying to set him up and he was in 'big trouble'. She said Spence told her what had happened with the hammer, adding: 'Philip always carries a hammer with him. 'Philip told me that he had left the hammer there (at the hotel). He was crying but I believe this was about himself, not the women.' The court also heard Spence has a history of violence including an attempted hammer attack on his landlord. Simon Mayo QC, for the prosecution, told a jury of seven women and five men that Spence had been convicted twice for ABH, twice for affray, five times for burglary and once for theft, amongst other offences. The violence included attacks on a female council office worker, care home staff and passers-by on the street, and Spence also threatened to kill a man he met on an online dating site. Explaining the previous incident with a hammer, Mr Mayo said: 'On November 13 2007, Spence threatened his landlord at Forest Road in Walthamstow regarding rent. 'Spence became abusive and took a hammer from his landlord's handyman bag and chased the victim. 'He then used the hammer to attack the door to get at the victim, smashing a glass panel. 'Spence left the building briefly before returning to attack the door a second time.' Spence had also threatened to kill a man he had met through an online dating site before committing burglary at the victim's house, the court heard. Inside: The spacious white lobby of the Cumberland Hotel near Marble Arch Underground station in London (file) Four-star hotel: One of the luxury rooms inside the Cumberland Hotel in central London (file) Mr Mayo told the court: 'Spence was in contact with a Mr Pasquarelli through an online dating site. When Mr Pasquarelli refused to meet him, Spence telephoned him and became abusive. 'On one occasion, overheard by police, Spence telephoned him and became abusive, threatening to kill the victim by stabbing him. 'Spence also admitted breaking into the victim's house in Peckham Grove.' He was sentenced over the matter in September 2010 for sending a menacing message and burglary. In April 2007 the defendant was sentenced for punching a female employee unconscious at Islington Borough Council offices in north London, the court heard. Mr Mayo said: 'He was complaining about problems with his accommodation and shouted 'You will deal with this now' at a female member of staff. 'He punched her in the face, causing her to lose conciousness. She woke with serious head pain and later attended A&E.' Spence was also said to have become violent towards staff at a care home for homeless people where he was staying. He was sentenced in June 2011 for throwing a glass of water at one employee at the home before threatening staff that he would 'f*** (them) up'. And in April 2011, he was convicted for kicking a box at a man before spitting at him, punching him and biting his life shoulder whilst walking along Conway Road in north London. Spence, from north-west London, is also standing trial for conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary alongside Thomas Efremi, 57, from Islington in north London. While he was being held at Islington police station, Spence told officers: 'You know the only person you should be holding is Tom.' Efremi, who denies the conspiracy charge but has admitted one count of fraud in relation to the case, shook his head in the dock as the statement was read out and looked away from Spence, who stared straight ahead. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Philip Spence, 32, attacked three wealthy Arab women in their luxury hotel .
CCTV footage caught him in the entrance of the hotel and minutes after the attack, boarding a bus with a large suitcase of stolen goods .
He admits grievous bodily harm but denies attempted murder on April 6 .
Southwark Crown Court heard Spence, from north west London, is a crack cocaine and heroin addict .
Court also heard he told police: 'There ain't no blood on the hammer. I licked it all off, it went down my throat'
Ohoud, Kohloud and Fatima Al-Najar had spent the day visiting Buckingham Palace and the London Aquarium before falling asleep at four-star hotel .
One had her head smashed 'like an egg' with a claw hammer on April 6 .
Her sisters sustained fractured skulls during the late-night assault .
Their children witnessed the attack as they were staying in the same rooms .
Following attack, Spence visited Emma Moss, who says he was 'hyperactive'
He told her he taken jewellery, BlackBerrys, iPods, bags and perfume worth £50,000 from the hotel room . |
82,973 | eb4b5de8a65df89e90040a6c8079b975a2fc9b64 | A pensioner has become the oldest woman in the world to climb the highest mountains on every continent. Carol Masheter, 65, reached the summit of Australia’s Mount Kosciuszko on March 17, to complete a mammoth undertaking lasting over five years. Against her family’s wishes, she braved soaring heights, plunging temperatures and even went blind for 10 hours descending Mount Everest. Determined: Carol poses at the 7,310 feet Kosciuszko summit in Australia, the final part of her goal to climb the world's highest mountains . 'I should be learning how to knit and play bridge and doing things that are more age appropriate to people my age, but that’s just not me,' she said. At age 60, Carol first conquered the 22,841 feet Aconcagua, South America’s highest peak in Argentina, before topping the 19,340 feet peak of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, the highest peak in Africa, at age 61. Next she would take on Asia’s and the world’s highest mountain, reaching the summit of the mighty 29,035 feet Mount Everest in Nepal, age 61, on May 24, 2008. Unswerving Carol then mastered the highest peak in North America at age 63 by topping the 20,360 feet Denali in Alaska, USA., also known as Mount McKinley. She next scaled Europe’s 18,510 feet Elbrus in Russia, age 64, before this year moving on to Antarctica’s 16,077 feet Vinson Massif in January following her 65th birthday. Her final climb was the smallest at 7,310 feet Kosciuszko in Australia’s Snowy Mountains, New South Wales. Carol started high-altitude mountaineering at age 50 to cope with grief and anger . Victory: At the 29,035 feet summit of Mount Everest in Nepal, the world's highest mountain . Atop the 19,340 feet Kilimanjaro summit in Africa. Carol tackled Kilimanjaro in preparation for Everest . Amazingly, a series of harsh personal events prompted her to make her world record bid. Carol said: 'When I turned 50, my life fell apart. Within 18 months, I lost a job I loved, I learned the man I loved was involved with someone else, my mother died, and my own health deteriorated. 'To cope with grief, anger, and stress, I went to the Bolivian Andes for high-altitude mountaineering training, summitting seven peaks over 17,000 feet. I found I was a pretty good at it, and felt my best in the mountains. 'It led me to later climb Cho Oyu, the sixth highest mountain in the world in China in 2005. I could see the summit of Everest from the summit and thought: "I don’t want to die without knowing whether I could climb Everest because I didn’t try."' In preparation for Everest, she tackled Kilimanjaro, and after reaching the top of Everest set her sights on the 'Seven Summits' - the highest peak on each continent. Carol is in the process of having her record validated and will take the record currently held by Kay LeClaire who completed the feat aged 60. At the 20,360 feet Denali ridge in Alaska. Carol was 63 . Aged 64, Carol climbed the Elbrus summit, the highest peak in Europe at 18,510 feet . Climbing a glacier towards the Kilimanjaro summit . | Carol Masheter reached the summit of Australia's Mount Kosciuszko on 17 March to complete challenge .
'I should be learning how to knit and .
play bridge, but that’s just not me,' she said . |
223,750 | adb532570974adbe483f6fff3dcd7077fbebdd0d | By . James Chapman . PUBLISHED: . 19:22 EST, 20 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:29 EST, 21 June 2013 . Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will bring back the practice of writing the names of the responsible doctor and nurse above every bed so families know 'where the buck stops' Eight patients die needlessly every day because of a ‘silent scandal’ of NHS errors, the Health Secretary said today. Jeremy Hunt will bring back the practice of writing the names of the responsible doctor and nurse above every bed so families know ‘where the buck stops’. The NHS should also publish better safety information, such as the likelihood of emerging unscathed from each hospital across the country, he said. In a speech at University College . Hospital, London, arranged before the scandal of watchdogs hiding baby . deaths broke, Mr Hunt said nearly 500,000 patients were harmed . unnecessarily and 3,000 died last year. In 2011/12, there were 326 so-called ‘never events’ – events so unacceptable they should never happen. ‘The . ones we know about include 161 people with foreign objects left in . their bodies, like swabs or surgical tools; 70 people suffering . wrong-site surgery, where the wrong part of the body or even the wrong . patient was operated on; and 41 people given incorrect implants or . prostheses,’ Mr Hunt said. ‘Put another way – every other day we . leave a foreign object in someone’s body, every week we operate on the . wrong part of someone’s body, and every fortnight we insert the wrong . implant. This is the silent scandal of our NHS.’ The NHS sees nearly three million . people a week. About 0.4 per cent suffer harm and 0.003 per cent die – . better rates than France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and the US. But . pointing to scandals in Mid Staffs and Morecambe Bay, Mr Hunt said a . ‘grim fatalism’ blunts ‘the anger we should feel about every single . individual we let down’. ‘We have allowed ourselves to settle for levels of patient harm that are simply unacceptable.’ Mr Hunt today visited University College Hospital HQ and Education Centre, London where Clinton John demonstrated a robotic da Vinci Surgical System . Pointing to scandals in Mid Staffs and Morecambe Bay, Mr Hunt will say a 'grim fatalism' blunts 'the anger we should feel about every single individual we let down' Mr Hunt called on the NHS to improve reporting of errors. It will become the first healthcare system to publish information on the likelihood of a ‘harm-free’ experience across every hospital in the country. The Health Secretary added: ‘The NHS fails too many times. But it also holds the keys to becoming the world’s safest health system.’ Professor Norman Williams, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: ‘Any preventable harm is unacceptable. However rare these incidents are, never should mean never.’ Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, added: ‘Every patient should have a named consultant responsible for their care. We welcome this call from the Health Secretary, and we believe it will help to improve patient experience.’ | In 2011/12, there were 326 so-called ‘never events’ – events so unacceptable they should never happen .
NHS should 'publish better safety .
information, such as the likelihood of emerging unscathed from each .
hospital across the country' |
217,998 | a64265af0966a5f74eee3c1e78d2380812cd25fa | A school governors' chairman says he was forced to quit his post after joining Ukip because they political party's policies are 'against it's ethos.' Mike Ward claims he was asked to step down from his role as Head of Governors at Eskdale School in Whitby, North Yorkshire after he became a member of Ukip. The Scarborough councillor, 70, who had previously stood as an independent, said he was invited to a meeting with headteacher Sue Whelan after his political switch was reported in local media. Resigned: Mike Ward (left) claims he was asked to step down from his role as Head of Governors at Eskdale School in Whitby, North Yorkshire, by headteacher Sue Whelan (right) after he became a member of Ukip . 'I had been a governor at Eskdale School for eight years and chair for five years when, as a Scarborough Councillor, I recently joined Ukip,' said the retired teacher. 'After this was reported in the local paper I was called in to school to see the head. She then asked me to resign saying Ukip’s policies were against the ethos of the school. 'I was astonished as politics had never played a part in my time as a governor but after some soul searching over the weekend and not wishing to cause the school any further issues I tendered my resignation which she accepted. 'Dedicated': Mr Ward has been a governor at Eskdale School for eight years, and chairman of the board for the past five years. He says politics had 'never played a part' in his time at the school . Desire for change: Mr Ward said the school's pupils 'must come first', and says he is 'neither extremist or racist', but is 'strongly advocating change' 'The pupils must come first. 'I am neither extremist or racist. I have always been independent, strongly advocating change. 'Ukip is fully committed to putting residents, their wishes and needs, first. 'More common sense must be applied to local decision making. It is the party for change, neither left or right but rather right from wrong.' Party leader Nigel Farage said it was 'atrocious' that Mr Ward had been asked to resign. 'It’s atrocious that Cllr Mike Ward a long standing, conscientious and dedicated School Governor has been forced to resign as a Governor of Eskdale School, a school he deeply cares for, just because he is a member of Ukip,' said Mr Farage. Anger: Party leader Nigel Farage (pictured) said it was 'atrocious' that Mr Ward had been asked to resign . 'Mike is a decent and honourable man who has always had the interests of the School and the wider community at the forefront of his mind and it is absolutely disgraceful that he has been treated in this way. 'This is discrimination pure and simple and I find it astounding that the head teacher has taken it upon herself to oust him. Questions need to be asked about why this has happened. 'In the meantime I stand with Mike and I can only hope the School sees sense and reinstates him.' Mr Ward stepped down from the governing panel claiming his decision made him 'persona non grata' at the school, which Ofsted inspectors ruled earlier this year requires improvement, having previously branded it 'outstanding'. Inquiry: Ukip deputy leader Paul Nuttall has called for a full independent inquiry into Mr Ward's resignation, and says he should be reinstated . Mr Ward has been a school governor at Eskdale for eight years and chairman for the last five. His teaching career included a two year stint in Filey. A complaint by a member of the public about his resignation has led to an internal investigation by the school into his resignation. But Ukip has now called for a full independent inquiry - and for Mr Ward to be reinstated, despite his resignation. 'This is an outrage, Mike has been a dedicated governor for years and it is totally unacceptable that membership of UKIP should be considered to be incompatible with being a governor,' said the party's deputy leader Paul Nuttall. 'This is discrimination against a conscientious man who has worked tirelessly for the school and it is a disgrace that the head teacher has taken it upon herself to oust him. He purely has the interests of the school and local youngsters at heart. 'There must be a full independent inquiry into this debacle and Mike should be re-instated. He is a former teacher and university lecturer and I'm sure his fellow governors had no problems with his completely unrelated political membership. 'Everyone is entitled to their own political views and I'm sure the other governors have theirs and possibly even belong to a political party but like Mike just concentrate on seeking the best for Eskdale School.' Despite initially vowing to carry out a full investigation, North Yorkshire County Council has now distanced itself from any inquiry. A council spokesperson said: 'North Yorkshire County Council has received a complaint from a member of the public about the resignation of the chair of governors at Eskdale School in Whitby. 'This is a matter for consideration not by the County Council but by the school's governing body. 'We understand that the governing body is taking this complaint seriously and will respond to the complainant.' A school spokesman told MailOnline today that Mrs Whelan would not be commenting on Mr Ward's claims. | Mike Ward claims he was asked to stand down after he joined Ukip .
Councillor had previously stood as an independent but switched to Ukip .
Retired teacher was a governor at Eskdale School in Whitby for eight years .
Says he was asked to attend a meeting headteacher Sue Whelan .
Claims he was asked to resign as policies are 'against school's ethos'
Nigel Farage says it is 'atrocious' that Mr Ward was asked to resign .
School has launched investigation but Ukip calls for independent inquiry . |
46,452 | 82de4a1070703646286fc5b8f386b79df7a8773d | By . Charles Walford and Damien Gayle . UPDATED: . 21:43 EST, 11 January 2012 . Graham Snowden was stabbed to death at a party on Saturday night . A teenager was charged last night with murdering a blind man who was found stabbed to death at a house party. Jordan Flattery, 19, was accused of killing Graham Snowden, by detectives from the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit. The 36-year-old victim died in hospital from a stab wound to the chest after an incident at a property in Milestone Road, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, in the early hours of Sunday. A 15-year-old boy arrested in connection with the inquiry on Sunday was freed on police bail to return to Stevenage police station on a date in February. Flattery, of West Close, Hitchin, will appear before magistrates in Hatfield today. Neighbours reported hearing 'banging . and screaming' shortly before the incident. Paramedics rushed Mr Snowden . to hospital, but doctors could not save his life. Officers arrested a teenager and cordoned off a house in Milestone Road after the incident at about 2am last night. Today Detective Inspector Tim Redfearn . from the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: 'We are . still very much in the early stages of this investigation and would . appeal to anyone who may have information in connection with this . incident to come forward.' A post-mortem examination was carried out today, which established the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest. Mr Snowden had two young daughters. He . was left partially blind and has to walk with a stick following a road . accident a few years ago. A family liaison officer was said to . be comforting his family at their home. Police said the arrested boy and . Mr Snowden were not related, but wouldn't be drawn on if they knew each . other. The youth will return to answer bail at Stevenage police station on February 17 . Police were called to the house in the early hours of Sunday morning following reports of a man being stabbed. 'There was some sort of ruckus going . on and a punch up,' a neighbours said. 'Then it all went quiet and a . short while later the police turned up.' By the time officers arrived an . ambulance crew was already at the scene. Mr Snowden was taken to the . Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where he later died. Police cordoned off the house in . Milestone Road, which belongs to an unnamed single mother, as a forensic . investigation got underway. Another house in nearby Westmill Road was . also sealed off. Herts & Beds Major Crime Unit have launched a murder investigation. Detective Chief Inspector Steve Collin said: 'Firstly, my thoughts are with the man's family at this distressing time. Tributes have been left at the scene while police continue to investigate Mr Snowden's death . 'Whilst an arrest has been made, I would l still like to appeal for witnesses in connection with this incident. If you were in the area at the time and have information about what happened, I would urge you to make contact with police as soon as possible.' A post-mortem examination has established that the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest. Neighbours said the dead man lived in the nearby village of Stondon. One said: 'He was known as Snowy and he had two young daughters, although the relationship with the children's mother was over.' She added: 'Some years ago he was involved in a nasty car accident on the A505 in North Herts and, as a result, he was left partially sighted and he walked with the aid of a stick.' Graham Snowden was killed after a row at a party on Milestone Road, in Hitchin . Another neighbour, Steve Dilley, told local reporters: 'I got a knock at about four in the morning, from police. I was in bed when it happened, and the bedrooms are at the back, so I didn’t hear much. 'Obviously, we are all shocked. You don’t expect it to happen on your doorstep, in your own street. It’s a fairly quiet street normally.' Steve Williamson, another resident, added: 'I was very shocked. It brings it all home. There’s never normally any trouble on this street, it makes you think whether you are safe walking about at night.' One neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, was awake when the incident happened: 'I heard some noise, then it all went quiet. 'Then the police turned up. There were seven police cars, an ambulance and a dog unit, nine in total.' Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons. | Victim named as Graham Snowden, who had been left partially sighted in road accident . |
32,715 | 5cfa33d2be52eb2b3770f09f1af89d67a4c848fa | The story of the greatest escape of World War II has been told for the first time. The audacious breakout saw dozens of Allied prisoners of war scale the wire at a camp deep in Nazi Germany using four huge ladders they had made and disguised as bookshelves. During the breakout 32 prisoners got out and legendary pilot Douglas Bader, who was a prisoner in Oflag VI-B camp near Warburg, described it as the most daring escape of the war. One of the ladders laying across the fences the day after the escape on August 31 1942, photographed by German camp guards . It was overshadowed by the famous tunnel Great Escape which was immortalised in a Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. But a new book describes the incredible breakout two years earlier and pays tribute to the unsung heroes behind it. They were led by Major Tom Stallard, a charismatic 37-year-old from Bath, Somerset, who was one of the most determined escape artists in captivity. After repeated failures with tunnels - which camp guards kept finding - he decided to go over the wire. He initially planned to get 250 men out but in the end had to settle on 40. A young Scottish lieutenant, Jock Hamilton-Baillie, 23, then came up with the idea of making the folding ladders to scale the twin 12-foot high perimeter fences, which stood six feet apart. Major Stallard launched Operation Olympian, so-called because it was an international effort involving men from all over the Commonwealth, which took five months to plan. The 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry (pictured) in September 1939 - Major Tom Stallard is third from the right on the front row . The ladders were made of two 11ft long sections, each with seven rungs which would open and form a right-angled bridge up and across the fence. The wood was plundered from a hut the vengeful camp guards had wrecked after finding yet another attempted escape tunnel. The first ladder was made in the camp's music room where the prisoners had relatively free rein and the sawing and hammering could be hidden by the sounds of instruments. The two sections were stood against the wall and disguised as new shelving units and filled with sheet music and other literature. They even fooled the despised camp's chief security officer, Hauptmann Rademacher, who inspected them and praised them for being well made. In the meantime the prisoners had discovered how to short the perimeter floodlights thanks to an electrical fault deliberately left by forced labourers who built the camp. Maurice Few's hand-drawn map of the section of camp where the plan unfolded - it shows the planned routes of the four escape teams . As the ladders were built, a forging department dubbed 'Thomas Cook' produced the documents the escapees would need. They were led by RAF Flt Lt Gilbert 'Tim' Walenn, an ace forger who was the basis for Donald Pleasance's character in The Great Escape film. Walenn took part in the real Great Escape from Stalag Luft III in 1944 and was among the 50 executed in cold blood on Hitler's orders. Zero Hour for the escape was set for 9.30pm on August 30 1942 and 40 Allied prisoners gathered in two huts near the perimeter. Each man carried 12lbs of food to last him between 18-21 days, plus washing kit, tinned cigarettes, basic medical kit, spare socks and underwear. Maps were made on very fine tissue paper and compasses were smuggled into the camp in Red Cross parcels by MI9, the specialist 'escape' arm of military intelligence in London. The lights were knocked out and a short distance away two homemade grappling hooks left hidden by the wire were pulled by unseen hands to distract the nearest sentry, who was standing 50 yards away. Two white painted ladders had been left leaning against the fence, adding to the bluff and a stream of fake orders were shouted in the air by two German-speaking British officers. Another view of the ladders left behind by the prisoners and photographed by German camp authorities the day after the escape . At the same time, in the music room other prisoners were gleefully playing instruments as loudly as possible to add to the general confusion. The diversions worked perfectly as the four 10-man teams darted from the huts carrying their ladders ‘like firemen’, and hit the fence. Four men quickly erected the ladders and locked the 'bridge' section in place and the teams poured over the wire. Unluckily, ladder number four collapsed after just two men had managed to climb over, but the other three ladders worked like clockwork and in just 40 seconds a total of 32 men were free. Belatedly, the guards realised what was happening and began shooting into the dark with their rifles and machine guns. Incredibly, just one Allied prisoner was hit by the hail of bullets, when one ricocheted into his heel - but it failed to stop him. Six of the escapees were quickly recaptured, but by dawn 26 PoWs were free. Back in the camp, in cheeky reference to the Allies' narrow escape from Dunkirk a year earlier, a sign had appeared against the ladders: 'Another British evacuation.' Jock Hamilton-Baillie's identity card from Colditz Castle, where he was sent following the Warburg Wire Job and Eichstatt Tunnel . Of the 26 escapees remaining, just three successfully had a 'home run' and got back to Britain via Spain. They were later awarded the Military Cross and have all since died. Author Mark Felton, a military historian, said: 'The escape itself was one of the first mass escapes and the to my mind the most daring of the war. 'What struck me was the nature of it - the sheer audacity of it. 'This was slightly suicidal - the idea of charging the wire and running into the night - and rather unique. 'If the distractions hadn't been so successful it would have ended in disaster and a great many of the prisoners would have been shot. As it was, 32 made it over the wire.' He added: 'This kind of escape could really only be done once. 'Later in the war the Germans were more inclined to shoot those who were recaptured, as they did with the Great Escapers.' 'Zero Night, The Untold Story of World War Two's Most Daring Great Escape', by Mark Felton is published by Icon Books. | Daring escape code named Operation Olympian took five months to plan and allowed 32 Allied prisoners escape .
Prisoners built four huge ladders they disguised as bookshelves under the nose of Nazi prison guards .
The wood was plundered from a hut the Germans had broken after discovering yet another Allied escape tunnel .
Prisoners set up a series of distractions and four 10-man teams ran from the huts carrying ladders and hit the fence .
Six escapees were quickly recaptured but by dawn 26 PoWs were free - although only three managed to get home .
Despite being overshadowed by the Great Escape, Olympian has been described as the most daring escape of the war . |
107,145 | 162df03648e8fd435e5864ae1e4e02b77aeff37c | It was half past midnight on Saturday when David Moyes made his way to the Real Sociedad team bus after his post-match press conference and admitted: ‘Normally I would have watched Match of the Day and gone to bed by now.’ One of the culture shocks for anyone new to La Liga is that just as the rest of Europe is going to sleep, the Saturday night late kick-off in Spain is just going into injury time. Moyes had just seen his team secure a point against Deportivo La Coruna. It wasn’t the win Terry Venables, Sir Bobby Robson and Howard Kendall all managed on their La Liga debuts, but it did match the point John Toshack picked up in his first game in charge of Real Sociedad, and he went on to win the Copa del Rey there, so the omens are not all bad. David Moyes took charge of his first game since becoming Real Sociedad boss earlier in November . Moyes looked focus as he entered the Riazor Stadium as his Sociedad side travelled to Deportivo La Coruna . The 51-year-old gave a wave to the cameras as he prepared for his first game managing in Spain's top flight . Moyes was involved in a heated exchange with Deportivo assistant Roberto Cabellud in the first half . Sociedad winger Chory Castro (right) dribbles past two Deportivo defenders during the La Liga clash . Real Sociedad had the better of the first half with former Arsenal forward Carlos Vela and one-time QPR midfielder Esteban Granero both going close. The visitors didn’t have it all their own way, though, and goalkeeper Enaut Zubikarai was called on to keep out efforts from Deportivo left back Luisinho and on-loan Real Madrid midfielder Jose Rodriguez. Moyes’s side tired after a testing second period, desperately throwing their bodies in front of shots to earn a draw. But Moyes was positive that the 90-minute intensity he demands from his teams will come. ‘Some people might think you will only find the tiki-taka style here but there is an intensity to the Spanish game, too,’ said Moyes (above). ‘You see that with Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona. As well as moving up the all-time scoring charts during Real Madrid’s 4-0 win, Ronaldo reached 20 league goals before the end of November — becoming the fastest player ever to reach the total, taking just 11 games. It was the 11th consecutive game in which he’d scored and at this rate he would finish with around 70 for the season, beating Messi’s record of 50 in 2012-13. Elsewhere in La Liga, champions Atletico Madrid beat Malaga 3-1 in a fiery encounter at the Vicente Calderon, in which both sides had a man sent off. The result keeps them within four points of top spot. ‘I have some incredibly talented footballers here and the playing style is good, but they also want to play with intensity and pressing and they also don’t have a problem with hitting a longer pass when it is right to do so.’ Progress will become easier as Moyes spends more time with his squad. He admitted after his first game: ‘It is not easy at the start because the players probably aren’t even understanding how I’m shouting their names at the moment.’ He was also looking to the future when he said he hoped to turn several members of his squad into Spain internationals, emulating the success he had with individual players as Everton coach. At Goodison Park he helped players such as Seamus Coleman, Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka and Leon Osman earn call-ups for their countries, and the Scot said: ‘I would like to think that my reputation for making players better, and in some cases, converting them into internationals, is pretty good. ‘I have some good young players here and the academy here is really good. (Ruben) Pardo is a good young player and Inigo Martinez is another. Cristiano Ronaldo reached 20 league goals before the end of November becoming the fastest player to do so . ‘My challenge is to turn them into international players in the coming 18 months. I have done it with one or two others so hopefully I can do it with them as well.’ His debut wasn’t quite the winning starts Venables, Robson and Kendall achieved at Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao respectively, though it did represent Real Sociedad’s first clean sheet since April. It was also memorable from the moment the team plane touched down...and then took off again at La Coruna’s airport on Saturday morning. ‘The weather was so bad the plane couldn’t land — it came down and went back up again twice,’ said Moyes. ‘We ended up having to land at a different airport.’ PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEKEND . Lionel Messi breaks records at such a rate that it’s easy to get blasé, but this one really is special. His hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Sevilla brought him to 253 goals in 289 league matches, beating Telmo Zarra’s league record of 251. Zarrra, whose mark for Athletic Bilbao lasted 59 years, played until he was 36...Messi is 27. Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, with two goals against Eibar on Saturday, moved to 197 La Liga goals — ninth on the all-time list. The Real Madrid man is two years Messi’s senior but has achieved his total in around half the time as the Argentine. Lionel Messi is thrown into the air by his team-mates after he broke Telmo Zarra’s league record of 251 goals . | Real Sociedad had the better of the first half with Carlos Vela and Esteban Granero both going close .
David Moyes confident that the 90-minute intensity he demands from his team will come .
Lionel Messi's hat-trick in Barca's 5-1 win over Sevilla brought him to 253 goals in 289 league matches, beating Telmo Zarra’s league record of 251 .
Cristiano Ronaldo reached 20 league goals before the end of November . |
112,318 | 1ce41951369158bd591d4f6bcf948c6e527cabb3 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 08:28 EST, 8 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:29 EST, 8 August 2013 . A stork launches a dirty bomb at a flying sparrow - scoring a direct hit with its own faeces. The startled little bird is seen flying beneath the stork's nest, only to get lashings of poo on its head. The sparrow was sent spiralling off course by the blast but soon recovered and escaped. A stork defecates on a sparrow from its nest in Lubbecke, Germany and hits it right on target . Photographer Martin Nobbe, from Lubbecke, Germany, managed to capture the hilarious moment. Mr Nobbe said a family of sparrows had been sharing the stork's nest as 'subtenants' until things turned ugly. One of the three storks chose the exact moment the unsuspecting swallow passed under its nest to do a number two - and the poor swallow got it right on the head. The startled little bird is seen flying beneath the stork's nest, only to get lashings of poo on its head making it spiral off course . If the sparrow had flown by just a few seconds later the kamikaze toilet attack would have been avoided . A long white stream of bird poo can be seen headed directly for the tiny sparrow - and if it had flown by just a few seconds later the kamikaze toilet attack would have been avoided. Mr Nobbe said: 'The little sparrow who was hit could fly unharmed afterwards - but he must certainly have learned a lesson.' | Stork hilariously managed to target a sparrow when he did a number two .
The sparrow was sent spiralling off course by the blast but soon escaped .
Photographer Martin Nobbe, from Lubbecke, Germany, managed to capture the moment . |
149,241 | 4cfa0c4cbc89d21f7b3dca528b06de2ef158ccc8 | Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An anti-insurgent provincial governor who had survived Taliban assassination attempts was among 20 people who died Friday in an explosion at a northern Afghan mosque during prayers, a government official said. The blast in Afghanistan's Takhar province killed Kunduz provincial governor Mohammad Omar, who recently sounded an alarm about the threat of insurgents during an interview with CNN. The bombing also wounded 35 others, with most of those killed and injured engaged in prayer, said Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashari. "It is a terrible incident," said Bashari, who said police were trying to find out more details about the strike and who is responsible. The NATO-led command condemned the attack, saying that "it's unconscionable that anyone would attack a mosque." "It's clear the insurgents have no respect for the most holy of Islamic places," said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Greg Smith, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul deplored the act, saying "whoever was responsible" for striking a house of worship "has demonstrated a clear lack of disregard for the Afghan people and for the peaceful religion they practice." The mosque was bloodied and its roof was shattered, eyewitness Mujib Rahman said, but there were different early accounts on how the strike was carried out. Gen. Daoud Daoud, commander of the Afghan Interior Ministry's northern zone, said a suicide attacker apparently sitting next to the governor detonated a bomb. Faiz Mohammad Powhidi, a Takhar governor spokesman, told CNN that a pre-placed mine exploded. He explained that governor had been visiting his family and attending Friday prayers weekly in his native province of Takhar, which borders Kunduz. Omar, who was a Pashtun, had survived several assassination attempts by the Taliban, and his brother was slain a few months ago. He told CNN on Sunday that for the last two years, the security situation has deteriorated in Kunduz because insurgents decided to destabilize northern Afghanistan, which, until recently, had been relatively stable during the nine-year-old Afghan conflict. The Takhar blast and the Thursday killing of a German soldier in the north illustrates a growing unrest that contrasts with the first years after the Taliban's collapse in 2001. In those days, the north was much more secure than the predominantly ethnic Pashtun south and east of the country. Omar told CNN that the insurgents were trying to use Kunduz as a launchpad to destabilize northern Afghanistan and the wider Central Asian region and lamented the lack of police available to battle insurgents. "Currently 40 percent of Kunduz province is under Taliban control," he said. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle conveyed his regrets to the Afghan government in a letter. "Yesterday we suffered the death of a Bundeswehr soldier," he said. "Today the news reaches us of another attack in which the governor of Kunduz, Mohammad Omar, was killed. I wanted to express my condolences on the part of the federal government." Other violence rippled across the country on Friday. Three coalition soldiers in southern Afghanistan were killed: one in an insurgent attack and two others in improvised explosive device attacks. NATO does not give the nationalities of service members who are killed, but the British Defence Ministry said one of its soldiers was killed in Helmand province in the south Friday. NATO-led forces killed five armed men in eastern Afghanistan's Khost province. The command is investigating allegations of civilian casualties in the latter incident, ISAF said. | NEW: NATO, U.S. Germans condemn attack .
The slain Kunduz governor previously survived assassination attempts .
The mosque is bloodied and its roof is shattered .
20 are dead and 35 are wounded from the attack . |
142,134 | 43cbb916e3ed7f46a4e29fc9d9f9520f18e1001f | (CNN) -- In a second Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address delivered on behalf of Tea Party activists Tuesday night, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann asserted that "Instead of a leaner, smarter government, we bought a bureaucracy that tells us which light bulbs to buy, and which may put 16,500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama's health care bill." Fact Check: Will 16,500 Internal Revenue Service agents police the health care bill? The number seems to have originated in a GOP committee report last spring, based on a preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that between $5 billion and $10 billion would be required to administer the health care bill. Working backward from the higher CBO number, the Republicans asserted that the money would be spent on 16,500 new IRS employees, including "additional auditors, agents and other employees ..." But IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman testified to Congress in March 2010 that the IRS would not audit taxpayers to make sure they have bought health insurance. Instead, he said IRS employees would be focused on making sure the public knew about tax incentives in the legislation. Shulman conceded that some new employees would be required to support the agency's work on the health care bill. But he said during an appearance at the National Press Club in April that he didn't know yet how many. The most recent data from the IRS, from 2009, shows that the service has 93,337 employees, of whom 14,264 are revenue agents and an additional 2,725 are special agents. That's a current total of 16,989 agents to handle all investigations and taxpayer audits conducted by the IRS. And Bachmann went further than asserting that 16,500 employees would be hired -- she said 16,500 IRS agents may be "in charge of policing" the health care bill. But the health care bill specifically says that taxpayers who do not buy insurance "shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect to such failure." And 16,500 agents would require the IRS to almost double its force of agents or divert nearly all its current agents from their existing audit and investigative duties. Either seems far-fetched, given the provisions of the health care bill that prohibit criminal prosecution or penalty of taxpayers who do not meet its provisions. Bottom line: . Congresswoman Bachmann's assertion is, at best, misleading. CNN's Richard Griffiths and Katie Glaeser contributed to this report. | Bachmann says an army of IRS agents will be used to enforce the health care law .
The head of the IRS told Congress that no taxpayers will be audited under the law . |
57,740 | a3a891fdfd8455a7f9705cd1687ebc308ce3bbe0 | More deaths were reported in Eastern Europe on Thursday as the region continued to shiver in the grip of unusually frigid weather. The coldest temperatures continued to chill the Eastern European countries of Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, where Thursday was the coldest day yet for many. In Ukraine, 65 people have died since the bad weather started this week, according to the Ukranian Emergency Ministry. Of those, 47 were homeless. Others died in their homes or in hospitals as a result of frostbite and hypothermia. Health officials say that more than 1,100 people have sought help for hypothermia and frostbite over the past six days, the state-run Ukrinform news agency reported, and more than 900 of them have been treated in hospitals. The authorities have opened more than 2,200 heated tents for people who do not have heating in their homes. Most schools in the capital, Kiev, are closed through the weekend. Temperatures there dipped to 25.5 degrees below zero Celsius (13.9 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) Thursday, the coldest night in 83 years, according to Ukrinform. Conditions in eastern Ukraine are among the toughest because high winds are common there, and it is a poor area. Many homes still have a Soviet-era heating system, which is prone to break down. Temperatures are expected to drop as low as 35 degrees below zero Celsius (31 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) overnight Thursday to Friday in parts of the country. CNN International meteorologist Jennifer Delgado said eastern and central Europe are being hammered by a ridge of high pressure that is pulling in cold Siberian air. The trend will continue Friday, she said. In Poland, 29 people have died as a result of the freeze, the publicly funded Polish Radio's news website reported, up from only half that number a day earlier. Temperatures plummeted to 34 degrees below zero Celsius (29 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) in the Bieszczady mountains in southeastern Poland overnight, the website said. The country's southern, eastern and central provinces are most affected by the cold, with temperatures expected to fall even lower overnight into Friday. Some schools are closed because their heating is inadequate to cope with the conditions. Katarzyna Najorczyk, vice principal of a high school in Bydgoszcz, said, "Kids' safety and health is the most important." Police are continuing to search for homeless people to take them to shelters. In Szczecin, Arkadiusz Oryszewski of the Phenix Association said, "During the last days of cold weather, our team had to go out to bring new people every two hours. Only tonight, seven people were brought, and this morning we have three men so far." Six people have died from the cold in Serbia, and one is missing and presumed dead, the Serbian state-run news agency Tanjug quoted emergencies official Predrag Maric, of the country's interior ministry, as saying. About 11,500 people have been cut off from the world by heavy snowfall, and a state of emergency has been declared in 14 municipalities, Maric told the agency. More icy rainfall and snow is expected. Temperatures in Bucharest, Romania, dropped below 21 degrees below zero Celsius (minus-6 Fahrenheit) for the fifth consecutive night Wednesday into Thursday, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said. Romanian Transport Minister Anca Boagiu said, "It's a moment when we cannot play games with nature, but we have to respect the force of nature. We have to protect ourselves and our families." In western Turkey, heavy snow is expected to continue through Friday morning. Some city administrations sent workers home. Temperatures in the capital, Ankara, dipped to 19 degrees below zero Celsius (minus-2 Fahrenheit), and snow continued to fall there as well as in Istanbul. Farther west, much of central and northern Italy has been blanketed by unusually heavy snowfall. Air and road travel has been disrupted, and many professional soccer games have been canceled because of the bad weather. CNN iReporter Luca Martini said heavy snow had fallen in the northern Italian city of Ferrara. The 12-centimeter (5-inch) snowfall is quite unusual for the area, he said, and is causing traffic problems. Miller said a strong high-pressure area -- named "Dieter" by the Free University of Berlin, which has responsibility for naming highs and lows in Europe -- is currently bringing down the frigid Siberian air and keeping Europe in the teeth of its worst cold spell in years. The heart of the cold air is now migrating slightly to the north, he said, and the most extreme temperatures will probably be found in the Baltic states and eastern Scandinavia as the week goes on. An area of low pressure moving in from the Mediterranean will help the temperatures rebound somewhat in eastern and southeastern Europe, Miller said, but the system will bring heavy snow and storms, which will make travel even more treacherous. | Kiev has its coldest night in 83 years .
65 people have died in Ukraine as a result of the cold, emergency officials say .
At least six people have died from the cold in Serbia, state media report .
Frigid air from Siberia is to blame for the unusually cold weather in Eastern Europe . |
213,941 | a111ed0db7f77b97392895d6fb3e977ccf31aa7d | (CNN) -- Lawmakers on Thursday are getting their first chance to grill BP CEO Tony Hayward, the man fighting to save his and his company's reputation as BP tries to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Hayward is testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which is chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan. The hearing is examining what caused the April explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig and the oil disaster. A letter to Hayward from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-California, says a congressional investigation alleges that the besieged oil company took a low-cost, speedy approach to drilling the now-broken deepwater well responsible for the growing spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The hearing comes a day after Hayward met with President Obama, who last week said that if it were up to him, Hayward would have been fired. In his opening remarks, Hayward struck an emotional tone, acknowledging the loss of life and reminding the Gulf Coast's residents of the company's longstanding commitment to the region. "I want to speak directly to the people who live and work in the Gulf region: I know that this incident has had a profound impact on your lives and caused great turmoil, and I deeply regret that," Hayward said. Addressing the anger and frustration coming from the public, Hayward said, "I know that these sentiments will continue until the leak is stopped and until we prove through our actions that we are doing the right thing." CNNMoney: BP's Hayward strikes emotional tone . In the eight weeks since the rig explosion, Hayward has become the punching bag for Gulf Coast residents who are furious that the oil is still spewing. BP's costly public-relations campaign features an apologetic Hayward detailing cleanup efforts and promising, "We will get this done. We will get this right." But the company's effort to repair its image has been countered by its inability to contain the oil and Hayward's penchant for gaffes. A month after the rig sank, Hayward told Sky News that the environmental impact of the disaster would likely be "very, very modest." He later described the oil spill as an "environmental catastrophe." Fortune: Tony Hayward's most memorable quotes . Hayward also took heat for telling The Guardian that the size of the spill is "relatively tiny" in comparison to the "very big ocean." BP's top man faced the most criticism from his poorly worded apology for the disruption the largest oil spill in U.S. history has caused. "There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back," he said. In response to Hayward's comment, Christopher Jones, a brother of one of the 11 workers killed in the oil rig explosion, told the Senate Judiciary Committee, "Mr. Hayward, I want my brother's life back." Hayward issued another apology for what he said was a "hurtful and thoughtless comment." "When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident," he said on his Facebook page. In the past two months, Tony Hayward has become a media fixture and a household name. Hayward, a 53-year-old Briton, grew up outside London and started at BP as a geologist in 1982. He held technical and commercial jobs in Europe, Asia and South America in the 1990s, according to his bio from BP. By 1997, he was on the executive committee, and in May 2007, he was named CEO. Hayward replaced Lord John Browne, who resigned three months earlier than planned after a judge cleared the way for a newspaper to publish details about an alleged homosexual relationship that Browne had. When Hayward took over, BP was still recovering from the March 2005 explosion at a Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 workers and a spill in Alaska the following year that was blamed partially on poor maintenance of pipelines. Hayward vowed to turn the company around. Pressed on how he'd be different from his predecessor, Hayward reportedly replied, "John Browne was John Browne. I'll be me. There is not a lot more I can say." Before April, there had been no major disasters for the company since the Alaskan pipeline incident. Financially, the company has increased revenues every year since Hayward took over, with the exception of 2009, a year plagued by the recession. Profits have been strong, but up and down. Last year, Hayward made $6 million. Despite calls for him to quit, Hayward insists he has no plans to step down. Asked if the president trusts Hayward, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told CNN, "It's not about trusting Tony Hayward or anybody at BP. It is about ensuring that they live up to each and every responsibility that they have and that's exactly what the president and everybody in this administration will do." This month, BP's stock hit a 14-year-low. Since the oil disaster began, the company has lost half of its market value. CNN's Dana Bash and CNNMoney's Steve Hargreaves and Christine Romans contributed to this report. | BP CEO Tony Hayward testifying before House Energy and Commerce subcommittee .
Hearing comes a day after Hayward met with President Obama for the first time .
In the eight weeks since the oil disaster, Hayward has made numerous gaffes .
In BP ad, Hayward promises, "We will get this done. We will get this right" |
189,011 | 80c88f409c5f14662574d5b90ec405f29443b1c5 | Rustenburg, South Africa (CNN) -- Dozens of South African miners defied orders to work Friday after a deadline arrived for management to respond to their list of grievances. About 100 workers at Anglo American Platinum in Rustenburg refused to work and demanded that the company address the list submitted a week ago. The miners resumed work after management held talks with six people selected to represent the workers, the company said in a statement. The two sides plan to continue working on a resolution. What's behind the Marikana massacre? "We are pleased that the meeting ended on a positive note and would like to applaud our employees for acting in a manner that assured their safety and that of their colleagues," the company said in a statement. It did not say whether the talks yielded any results. The incident marks the latest labor discontent in the nation's mining heartland in the northwest. South Africans held memorial services nationwide Thursday for victims of clashes at the Lonmin Marikana mine. The strikes started as protests demanding higher wages, but escalated into one of the worst incidents of violence in post-apartheid South Africa. The clashes left 44 people dead, including 34 killed when police opened fire on charging protesters on August 16. An additional 10 people, including police officers, died in days leading up to that. A rivalry between two unions that wield a lot of power and influence in the nation added to the tension. The unions, accused of trying to outdo each other in negotiating wages, denied instigating the clashes. In addition to the two companies, there are signs of labor discontent at nearby Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine. About 1,000 workers protested this week to voice their discontent over wages. They resumed work after a day. Fears of instability spread to other South African mines . | NEW: Workers at another South African mine return to work .
NEW: They resume after the company starts talks to address their list of grievances .
The incident marks the latest labor discontent in the nation's mining heartland .
South Africans held memorial services Thursday for 44 killed in clashes at the Lonmin mine . |
196,783 | 8aa76d6c4454201f90c986281c1d8c7ebabe3dd9 | Legendary skateboarder Shogo Kubo has died while paddle boarding by himself off the coast of Hawai'i Kai, Honolulu. Kubo, 54, passed away on Tuesday after witnesses saw him struggling in the water in an area known as 'Seconds' off Portlock Point and people swam out to bring him to the shore, authorities said. Emergency responders tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead on the beach, TMZ Sports reported. Authorities are not calling the death suspicious. Kubo, a married father, was an original member of the Zephyr surf shop's Z-Boys skateboarding team, which was formed in Venice, California in 1975. Scroll down for video . Loss: Skateboarding legend Shogo Kubo died on Tuesday after struggling as he went paddle boarding . Kubo and the rest of the Z-Boys team is credited with inspiring a new wave of skateboarders with their tricks, some of which had been taken from surfing . The team is credited with inspiring a new wave of skateboarders with their tricks, some of which had been taken from surfing, the Star Advertiser explained. The group featured in the 2001 film 'Dogtown and Z-Boys', a documentary made by Stacy Peralta, who was in the original skateboarding team. Peralta won a best director nod at the Sundance Film Festival with the movie. The documentary was later made into a 2005 Hollywood move, 'Lords of Dogtown,' which starred the late Heath Ledger. Kubo's character was played by skateboarder Don Nguyen. Jim Muir, the founder of Dogtown Skateboard, told TMZ Sports: 'He was a friend and a brother and he passed away doing what he loved.' As well as Muir, the other original members included Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Bob Biniak, Chris Cahill, Paul Constantineau, Peggy Oki, Stacy Peralta, Nathan Pratt, Wentzle Ruml IV and Allen Sarlo. Talented: Kubo was part of the Z-Boys team, who were immortalized in a 2001 documentary and credited with inspiring a new wave of skateboarders with their tricks . The team were known for skating in empty swimming pools. 'All that I can say is that with reverence my heart is heavy in the loss of Shogo, a brother with a big heart,' Oki told ESPN. One of Z-Boys co-founder, Skip Engblom, said when he saw Kubo skate, he knew he wanted him on the team. 'The guys just saw him around and said, "This guy's unreal," and he was in,' Engblom said. "He had a really clean and efficient style, and I think he was really underrated. 'Tony and Jay and Stacy got all the attention, because Shogo wasn't one of those "look at me" guys. He just quietly went about his business of destroying every pool that he found.' Star: A Hollywood movie that was released in 2005, Lords of Dogtown, told the story of the team's humble beginnings in the 1970s. Professional skater, Don Nguyen (seen sitting in the pool right) played Kubo . Struggle: Kubo struggled in the water in an area known as 'Seconds' off Portlock Point in Hawai'i Kai . In an interview in 2002, Kubo explained: 'We were aggressive and confident and stood out because we were so . different, like beach bums.' After news of his death, tributes and condolences flooded in for the skateboarder. Engblom said: 'I'm really trying to process the fact that he's gone, because the last time I saw him he was so unbelievably healthy and active. I'm glad he went out doing something he loved doing.' Younger skaters would think of him as a massive influence, curator of the Morro Bay Skatelab Skateboard Museum Jack Smith said. In their own tribute, Quicksilver.com added that Kubo was known as . the 'layback master' whose aerial and sliding skate moves were the basis . for today's aerial skateboading. Kubo was an original member of the Zephyr surf shop's Z-Boys skateboarding team, which was formed in Venice, California, in 1975 . | Kubo, a married father, was pulled to shore by witnesses who saw him struggling in the water off the coast of Hawai'i Kai, Honolulu on Tuesday .
He could not be revived and was pronounced dead .
He had been an original member of the Zephyr surf shop's Z-Boys, which was formed in Venice, California in 1975 .
The team are credited with inspiring a new wave of skateboarders with their never-before-seen tricks .
They starred in a 2001 documentary, which was turned into a 2005 movie starring Heath Ledger and Emile Hirsh, 'Lords of Dogtown' |
277,679 | f3b671c09a4d9c44b495c923d5ab6ad7d4024439 | (CNN) -- One man's fund-raising efforts to publish a book on "getting awesome with women" raked in thousands of dollars, but also allegations that it is a guide to sexual assault. Ken Hoinsky describes his book as a self-help book for men seeking advice on interacting with the opposite sex. "It is a guide for men to get better with women," he explains in a video on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter, which he used to raise funds. Hoinsky, who lives in Connecticut, according to his online profile, raised more than $16,000 to publish his book, but the contents have also provoked ire from those who call it a how-to guide for would-be rapists. He writes in the book: "The concept of 'waiting for signs' or 'indicators of interest' was commonplace in older pickup theory. It is 100% garbage and needs to be erased from the face of the planet." "From now on you must assume that she is attracted to you and wants to be ravished," the book continues. "Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don't ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances." People turned to Twitter and other social media to criticize not just Hoinsky's project, but also Kickstarter for having hosted it. An online petition demanding that Kickstarter remove the project garnered nearly 30,000 signatures by Wednesday evening. "'Disgusting' doesn't even begin to describe it: basically, it's a how-to guide on sexually assaulting women," the petition states. But Kickstarter says it will not delete Hoinsky's crowd-funding project. "Some of this material is abhorrent and inconsistent with our values as people and as an organization," Kickstarter said in a statement. "Based on our current guidelines, however, the material on Reddit did not warrant the irreversible action of canceling the project." The website said the controversy will lead to reviews of their policies, but didn't elaborate. Hoinsky denies that his book is a tool for would-be attackers. He is "devastated and troubled" by the allegations, Hoinsky said in a statement. The book excerpts that critics are sharing are taken out of context, he said. They come from a later chapter on physical escalation that follows clear advice that "no means no," he said. "The gist of the controversial advice is, 'Don't wait for signs before you make your move. Let her be the one who rejects your advances. If she says no, stop immediately and tell her you don't want to do anything that would make her uncomfortable,'" Hoinsky said. According to his Kickstarter page, because he raised much more than his stated fund-raising goal, Hoinsky is going to take his theories on the road. He plans to host free seminars in New York and San Francisco. | Ken Hoinsky raised funds for what he calls a self-help book .
Others say it is a guide for would-be rapists .
An online protest petition has 30,000 signatures .
Hoinsky says his message is being distorted . |
99,121 | 0bad9feb671d0bd84d8d0a6503beaae689036a8b | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA Director Leon Panetta recently testified to Congress that the agency concealed information and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001, according to a letter from seven House Democrats to Panetta made public Wednesday. Seven House Democrats say CIA Director Leon Panetta recently testified that the CIA has misled Congress. The letter to Panetta, dated June 26, was published on the Web site of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California. "Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from all members of Congress, and misled members for a number of years from 2001 to this week," said the letter, signed by Eshoo and six other House Democrats -- Reps. John Tierney of Massachusetts, Mike Thompson of California, Rush Holt of New Jersey, Alcee Hastings of Florida, Adam Smith of Washington and Janice Schakowsky of Illinois. Read the signed letter on Rep. Eshoo's Web site . The letter contained no details about what information the CIA officials allegedly concealed or how they purportedly misled members of Congress. On February 11, 2003, CIA Director George Tenet told a Senate committee that U.S. intelligence indicated al Qaeda planned to attack targets in the United States and in the Middle East, perhaps with chemical weapons or radioactive materials. On May 15 of this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of misleading Congress in a secret briefing she received in 2002. Pelosi said the CIA failed to inform her and others at the briefing about harsh interrogation techniques being used on terrorism suspects. The CIA responded that Pelosi was told about the harsh techniques, including waterboarding, at the classified 2002 briefing. However, the June 26 letter from the seven House Democrats noted that Panetta told CIA employees in a letter dated May 15 -- in response to the Pelosi allegation -- that it was not CIA policy to mislead Congress. "Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress. That is against our laws and values," the House Democrats quoted Panetta's letter as saying. The letter from the House Democrats asked Panetta to correct his May 15 statement "in light of your testimony." Asked about the Democrats' letter, CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta "stands by his May 15 statement." "This agency and this director believe it is vital to keep the Congress fully and currently informed. Director Panetta's actions back that up," Little said in a statement. "As the letter from these ... representatives notes, it was the CIA itself that took the initiative to notify the oversight committees." The Democrats' letter became public the night before the House is scheduled to vote on an intelligence spending measure that includes a provision to expand the number of House and Senate members privy to the kind of secret briefing that Pelosi received. The White House opposes the provision to expand the number of briefing participants from the current eight to 40 members of Congress. A White House memo warned President Obama's senior advisers would recommend a veto of the bill if it contained the expanded briefing provision. CNN's Deirdre Walsh, Bob Kovach and Pam Benson contributed to this report. | Letter from 7 House Democrats to CIA Director Leon Panetta posted on Web site .
In letter, they say Panetta testified CIA repeatedly misled Congress since 2001 .
Earlier, Rep. Nancy Pelosi had said CIA misled her; Panetta rebutted statement .
CIA spokesman: Panetta stands by rebuttal statement involving Pelosi . |
19,007 | 35ce4abc133a0448227997eee54adf9a1e877f39 | By . Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor . PUBLISHED: . 09:12 EST, 9 January 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:51 EST, 9 January 2013 . British pensioners who live abroad could be the first to lose their winter fuel allowance under government plans to save millions of pounds from the welfare bill. Officials have been ordered to find a way to claw back up to £16million paid to people living outside the UK to help with their fuel bills. It comes as senior minister Ken Clarke signalled that the Tory pledge to protect universal benefits is likely to be ditched in the next election manifesto. Ministers want to stop expat pensioners living in hot parts of Europe like the Costa del Sol from claiming help with winter fuel bills . Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith yesterday suggested future generations of pensioners could lose some of their universal benefits like winter fuel allowance, free TV licences and bus passes. He has vowed to honour David Cameron’s pre-election pledge to protect the benefits until 2015, because pensioners are less able to increase their income than someone in work if benefits are suddenly cut. But he suggested that beyond 2015 new pensioners might not enjoy the same perks. Mr Duncan Smith is understood to be furious at a European Court of Justice ruling that will hugely increase the bill for Britons who live abroad claiming winter fuel allowance. Under current rules it can only be claimed by someone who moves overseas after turning 60. But the ruling said that anyone could claim it regardless of when they left the UK. Latest figures show that in 2011-12, £16million was paid to in winter fuel allowance to people not living in the UK. Today it emerged that officials are considering setting a qualifying threshold based on an average winter temperature, so that people living in Britain would qualify even if there was a mild spell. ‘Clearly it is a crazy idea that pensioners living in hot places abroad in Europe should be receiving winter fuel payments,’ a source said. ‘We are looking into seeing if there is something we can do around setting an average temperature in order to get round the European Court of Justice ruling. It is important that taxpayers’ money is used to help pensioners here. ‘An average temperature rule would ensure people here get it regardless.’ Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith (left) wants to stop people who live outside Britain from claiming the winter fuel allowance as minister Ken Clarke warns cutting all pensioner benefits will be an 'agenda item' in discussions on the next Tory manifesto . The winter fuel allowance is worth £200 for single pensioners, rising to £300 for the over 80s. Around 12million people receive it each year. But critics have said it should be limited to poorer people who need extra help with their fuel bills. Last week former Lib Dem minister Paul Burstow suggested just the 2million poorest should be eligible, saving around £1.5billion. Senior ministers are pushing Mr Cameron to ditch his pledge to protect the allowance. Mr Clarke today suggested the Tory leader had been rushed into promising not to cut them, and it would be an ‘agenda’ item for the next Conservative manifesto. Mr Clarke said: ‘Before the election the Labour party started putting out leaflets accusing us of planning to take away benefits from pensioners. ‘Very rapidly a promise was given that we wouldn’t reduce benefits to pensioners,’ he told BBC Radio 4. "We actually tied ourselves down for this parliament not addressing them. They, I’m sure, when we get round, which we haven’t yet, contemplating our manifesto for the next election they’ll be an agenda item.’ | European Court Ruling will increase the number of Brits abroad who can claim winter fuel allowance .
Government condemns 'crazy' idea as officials consider average temperature test so only those in UK are eligible .
Ken Clarke admits slashing pensioner benefits will be an 'agenda item' for next Tory manifesto . |
181,349 | 76c53b9e7b7c40ac9bb9620a863649a37d2eda24 | NSW Police have reported that two men were found dead in the male toilets of a train at Sydney's Central Railway Station on Friday afternoon. A police spokesperson reported that the men may have died from a drug overdose, reported news.com.au. The men are believed to have caught a train together from the NSW Central Coast. Emergency services responded to an alert shortly after the country train terminated at Central Station, and officers found an unconscious man inside a toilet cubicle on board the train. NSW Police have reported that two men were found dead in the male toilets of a train at Sydney's Central Railway Station on Friday afternoon . Emergency services responded to an alert shortly after the country train terminated at Central Station, and officers found an unconscious man inside a toilet cubicle on board the train . Several attempts were made to revive the 40-year-old man, but he died at the scene. The body of a second 40-year-old man was discovered in the male toilet's of the station's country concourse, said police. Attempts to revive this man were also unsuccessful. The two men are believed to have known each other before boarding the train together at Woy Woy Railway Station. Early investigations indicate the deaths were not suspicious and post mortems will be conducted to determine how they died, reported police. | Two 40-year-old men were discovered unconscious at Central Railway Station on Friday afternoon .
Attempts were made to revive the men but were unsuccessful .
The men are believed to have known each other .
The deaths are not being treated as suspicious but post mortems will be conducted to determine how they died . |
50,876 | 8ff6ff2292759985276711b83aa9c84459213c8b | By . Ryan Gorman . Al-Qaeda is now on Twitter. Under the guise of its Shamukh al-Islam website, the official website of the terror organization, the terror group has now fired up its own Twitter feed, possibly in response to the effectiveness of terrorists live-tweeting the Kenya mall attack. Having already issued 29 tweets ranging in topics from death tallies to religious proclamations, @shomokhalislam has almost 1,800 followers as of early Saturday morning. The account’s opening signals a shift in the terror organization’s outreach, propaganda and basic communications efforts, according to experts. Terrifying: al-Qaeda has started its own Twitter account . ‘We’ve seen terrorist groups make increasingly effective use of social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, in recent years,’ Patrick Poole, a counterterrorism expert, told the Washington Times. ‘Not only is this important for propaganda purposes but also recruitment.’ The Twitter account is not locked or kept private, and its followers appear mostly to be journalists and curious gawkers. The website is closed to the public. Some of the postings, translated to English, are accounts of operations. Others are religious decrees and links to statements on the Shamukh al-Islam website and YouTube videos. 'Dear Brothers, the Mujahideen today are going through a period of great scrutiny and trial Be them good Nassara, and certain after God,’ read one tweet. Potential recruiting tool: New recruits belonging to Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebel group march during a passing out parade . 'Peshawar from New burn under the feet of the servants of worshipers of the cross, the explosive device was detonated now targeting Bus least the staff of the Ministry of Interior of Pakistan in Peshawar,' read another, before giving a death toll of 17, with 35 injured in the attack. 'The attack killed more than 17 people dead and inflicted 35 wounded in the initial toll expected to rise .. Source Brother Fadil Abu Maaz Kouhati,' said the most recent tweet sent from the account. Though likely subject to intense intelligence community scrutiny, the account may seek to spread a more general message. Despite well-known power struggles among different al-Qaeda factions, the Twitter account's administrator has pledged to remain neutral and focus on spreading the terror group's message, according to the Times. Spreading the word: An Al Qaeda Fighter shows his AK-47 machine gun with Arabic language professing allegiance to 'al-Qaeda' organization . 'We’ve also seen divisions within these groups played out in social media, the most obvious example being the criticism on Twitter and YouTube directed at Al Shabaab leaders by former member American jihadi Omar Hammami, who had helped them develop their social media presence,' said Mr Poole . Twitter has yet to suspend the account as it did multiple al-Shabaab accounts during the Kenya mall attack. By allowing the feed to remain up, argues another expert, Twitter is allowing al-Qaeda to further decentralize its powerbase and further streamline its communications. 'If the dissemination of official releases is no longer to be done centrally, it has the potential to make the forums obsolete and usher in a new era whereby jihadi activists primarily rely on social media platforms to interact with one another,' Aaron Zelin, a counterterrorism analyst, told the Times. | The launch comes only days after the Kenyan mall attack was live tweeted by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab .
Followers are mostly journalists and curious onlookers .
Analysts feel it is a shift in strategy for the terror group . |
250,170 | cfc5b644bf39ae755f176043242e95fae8094244 | (CNN) -- A lawyer for a Roma couple accused of abducting the girl found living with them says the pair adopted the child from her biological mother. In a case that has generated huge interest in Greece, authorities have charged the couple with abducting the child they call "Maria." They appeared in court Monday and were remanded into custody pending a trial. Authorities released photos of the child, possibly 4 or 5 years old, last week and sought public tips on her birth identity. Kostas Katsavos, one of the couple's lawyers, told the Reuters news agency that they adopted Maria with the permission of her biological mother. He conceded that the adoption was "non-legal." But he said he believes the biological mother will be located soon and will verify the couple's claims. "They love her, and they took care as their own child," Katsavos said. Haralambos Dimitriou, head of the local Roma community, said the couple took the girl in because her Bulgarian mother couldn't keep her. He said Maria was raised like a "normal" child. Video provided by the Roma and shown to the media in the Roma settlement near Larissa does appear to show Maria dancing with a woman who is believed to be the same person now charged with abducting her. The Roma offered the video to demonstrate that Maria was happy and in good care. 1,000 years of Roma discrimination . Police suspicions . Police say they are suspicious of the records the couple provided for the child and for other children in their care. In addition to the abduction charge, the couple are accused of falsifying official documents. Authorities asked questions about Maria because she has fair skin and blonde hair while her parents have darker complexions typical of Roma, also known as gypsies, a race descended from Indian nomads who face widespread discrimination in Europe. Thousands of calls poured into Greece after authorities released photos of the girl last week. Authorities released photos of the two adults Monday, hoping the publicity will reach someone who can provide more information about them. Child 'doing much better' A spokesman for the charity taking care of Maria said Sunday that she is in a group home where "she is doing much better." Smile of the Child spokesman Panagiotis Pardalis said the girl was found in "bad living conditions, poor hygiene." The child was found Thursday in the Roma community near Larissa in central Greece. Authorities said the blonde child looked nothing like the man and woman with her, and DNA testing confirmed that they were not her biological parents. A police statement said the couple "changed repeatedly their story about how they got the child." The government news agency said police found suspicious birth and baptism records as well as family registrations that claimed the woman was mother to 10 children and the man was the father of four more. Marietta Palavra, another attorney representing the couple, said DNA tests will show that five of the children belong to the man claiming to be their father but that there aren't conclusive results for the others. She would not elaborate. Europe's Roma discrimination shame . Prejudice against the Roma . Prejudice and discrimination against the Roma are widespread in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, Amnesty International says. Maria's case plays into old prejudices about them stealing children for forced labor. Pardalis mentioned such a possibility, saying, "We don't have any other information if this girl was forced to work or to beg on streets." And the government news agency raised "the possibility of the existence of a ring bringing pregnant women to Greece from Bulgaria and then taking their children for sale." The agency also cited past "reports" that empty coffins were found for infants who supposedly were stillborn to foreign mothers in Athens. Photo blog: The plight of the Roma . Journalist Elina Labropoulou contributed to this report. | NEW: The Roma couple charged with abducting a child are remanded into custody .
NEW: Video appears to show the girl dancing with the woman now charged .
Couple adopted" Maria" with the biological mother's permission, their attorney says .
The case plays into old prejudices against Roma, also known as gypsies . |
198,851 | 8d67fa6a095cbc3ec4e6596db157746991e95ab4 | Keegan Brown will head straight back to his day job as a lab assistant on Monday morning having beaten three-time world champion John Part in the opening match of the World Darts Championship. The 22-year-old world youth champion from the Isle of Wight raced into a two-set lead, winning the opening seven legs, before watching his Canadian opponent come storming back to level the score at 2-2. But Brown held his nerve in the final set to clinch a 3-2 victory over Part at Alexandra Palace and set up a potential second-round meeting with two-time world champion Adrian Lewis on Sunday, December 28. Keegan Brown will head straight back to his day job as a lab assistant on Monday morning after this win . Brown beat three-time world champion John Part in the opening match of the World Darts Championship . After his victory on Thursday night, Brown said: ‘I’ve got to juggle work and practicing now. ‘I will be going back to work on Monday morning as a lab assistant and be working on Christmas Day and Boxing Day as planned - then I’ll be back here a week on Sunday. ‘If someone told me that I was going to play against a former world champion in the first match on the opening night of the World Championships I would have ripped their two arms and two legs off. This is what dreams are made of.’ Brown after his win: ‘I will be going back to work on Monday morning as a lab assistant and be working on Christmas Day and Boxing Day as planned' | 22-year-old Keegan Brown works as a lab assistant for his day job .
Brown beat three-time world champion John Part in Thursday's opener .
He is likely to return to play Adrian Lewis on Sunday . |
251,475 | d1806081d4132fa70145f0c25be96d6e2a9693eb | By . Daniel Bates . PUBLISHED: . 13:13 EST, 5 September 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 14:02 EST, 5 September 2012 . He has been criticised for being too distant and too cold. But now Barack Obama has revealed that he is just being honest with people - because that’s the way he really is. The President said that he refused to fake emotions as he wanted to be ‘authentic’ with the American people. I am who I am: President Obama, pictured in August, revealed he refuses to fake emotions as he wanted to be 'authentic' with the American people . Routine: He always wears the same thing every day - blue or grey suits - to save brain power for other matters . If people think he is too detached then...that’s because he is too detached, he admitted. In an interview Mr Obama also claimed he is so focused his job that he has delegated even the most basic tasks - like deciding what he eats. He always wears the same thing every day - blue or grey suits - to save brain power, like Jeff Goldblum’s character Seth Brundle in the 1986 sci-fi horror The Fly. Since the President took office, commentators have repeatedly criticised him for his inability to connect with voters and claimed he is too cerebral. He has been compared unfavourably to former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush who most people would feel more comfortable going for a beer with. Authentic: The president said 'I'm absolutely positive that I'm serving the American people better if I'm maintaining my authenticity' Speaking to Vanity Fair magazine, however, Mr Obama said he would be lying to himself and everyone else if he tried to be too emotional. He said: ‘I feel it is an insult to the people I’m dealing with. For me to feign outrage, for example, feels to me like I’m not taking the American people seriously. 'I'm absolutely positive that I'm serving the American people better if I'm maintaining my authenticity. I'm at my best when I believe what I am saying.' ‘I’m absolutely positive that I’m serving the American people better if I’m maintaining my authenticity. ‘And that’s an overused word. And these days people practice being authentic. But I’m at my best when I believe what I am saying.’ Mr Obama, who is known for his love of basketball and golf, said that he has to exercise ‘or at some point you’ll just break down’. He said that day-to-day he has to ‘routinize’ himself so as not to waste brain power on the little things so keeps lists of things he needs to get done. He said: ‘I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Unwinding: Mr Obama, pictured playing with family dog Bo on the White House lawn in 2009, said he needs to unwind by exercising . ‘Because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy.‘You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia’. The Obamas’ first night in the White House was bizarre, he added, and that it took him a week to get his head around it. Me and Obama: The entire interview appears in the latest issue of Vanity Fair . Mr Obama said: ‘The first night you sleep in the White House, you’re thinking, All right. I’m in the White House. And I’m sleeping here. ‘There’s a time in the middle of the night when you just kind of startle awake. There’s a little bit of a sense of absurdity. ‘There is such an element of randomness in who gets this job. What am I here for? Why am I walking around the Lincoln Bedroom? That doesn’t last long.’ Being president comes with a high price, and Mr Obama misses being able to ‘wander around’ without an entourage of Secret Service bodyguards. He and wife Michelle love to sit out on the balcony as it is the closest they come to being normal people. Mr Obama said: ‘It’s much harder to be surprised. You don’t have those moments of serendipity. You don’t bump into a friend in a restaurant you haven’t seen in years. ‘The loss of anonymity and the loss of surprise is an unnatural state. You adapt to it, but you don’t get used to it - at least I don’t.’ Another bizarre side-effect of being President is that he has got used to ‘a character people see out there called Barack Obama’ that isn’t him. Mr Obama said that the strange duality forced him to filter some things out, but not so much that he ended up living in a ‘fantasy land’. | President said in Vanity Fair interview that he must be 'authentic'
He added that feigning outrage or any other emotion would be fake .
Also reveals feelings on strange routines of the presidency . |
264,685 | e2d6ef2363f94def271a421ece2a505c9dfbba52 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . A Texas mother is facing possible charges after a pet raccoon attacked her two-week-old infant. Officers were called to a mobile home in Kountze where they found Brittany Darby, 19, holding her baby boy, who was bleeding profusely from lacerations across his left eye and the top of his head. The newborn was flown to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston where he was treated for two days before he was released into the care of his mother. Wild animal: Two pet raccoons were euthanized after one attacked a newborn baby boy, causing lacerations to his face (stock image) Precaution: The baby's mother is facing charges from police for endangering her baby, and also Texas Parks and Wildlife for keeping the raccoons without a permit . The animal and another raccoon kept as pets in the home were euthanized on the scene as a safety precaution. According to KBMT, the animals were being kept without a proper license or permit. Police say a preliminary investigation indicates the baby was left inside the home with the two raccoons. Darby's . boyfriend entered the home after hearing the baby screaming and found . one of the raccoons 'slapping the baby in the face,' reports KBMT. Combative: Members of the Darby family became aggressive when reporters questioned them about the incident outside their home . Wild: Mature raccoons can act aggressively, especially during the mating season, and experts do not recommend the animals are kept as pets . Darby's family became combative when local reporters attempted to speak to them about the incident . 'Go talk to the game warden. Ask him why dogs are running around, but domesticated animals no more harmful than a baby itself was killed,' said one family member. Both raccoons tested negative for rabies. Matt Fortenberry of Beaumont Animal Services told KBMT that if people choose to have raccoons as pets, they risk attack from the creatures. 'You can not take the wild animal out of it,' he said. 'Once it reaches maturity sometimes they will turn and can harm a person.' Darby faces charges of abandoning or endangering a child. She may also face charges from Texas Parks and Wildlife for housing the raccoons without a license. | A two-week-old baby was attacked by a pet raccoon in Texas .
The boy received lacerations to his face and was treated in hospital .
The mother, Brittany Darby, is facing charges of child endangerment or abandonment .
Two pet raccoons were euthanized at the scene .
Darby may also face charges for keeping the animals without a permit . |
263,892 | e1c694b8e720d9f2c8c9f506a26a8d2ad47fc40f | The owner of the hotel where a young woman was murdered in a reported act of cannibalism has spoken of the moment she walked in to find the blood-spattered killer leaning over and staring at his mutilated victim. Mandy Miles, who owns the Sirhowy Arms Hotel in Argoed, south Wales, said she looked into Matthew Williams's 'black eyes' and would have attacked him with a fire extinguisher had Cerys Yemm, 22, still been alive. Mrs Miles said she had gone up to the room because her son told her Williams, 34, had a woman in there, which is against the hotel's rules. Scroll down for video . Mandy Miles outside the Sirhowy Arms Hotel where Cerys Yemm was brutally murdered and cannibalised last week has described the horrific moment she walked in on the killer and his mutilated victim . Loss: Cerys Yemm, 22, was killed and mutilated by Matthew Williams, 34, at the Argoed hotel . Little could she have imagined the sickening sight when she opened the door to confront him. She said: 'The amount of blood and the stillness of her, there were no signs of life at that point. 'I said to Matthew "do you know what you're doing to that girl?" His chilling reply? 'That's no girl.' Mrs Miles, who is studying for a degree in criminology and psychology, said : 'He was leaning over her. Miss Yemm, who worked in sales at Next, is believed to have met Williams through mutual friends . 'Who in their right mind would just carry on leaning and looking down? 'With me walking in would make you stand up, it would make you lift your head. That told me he didn't know what he was doing.' And she said that she was given no information about Williams by the authorities before he moved in. Ms Yemm died in the hotel in Argoed, near Blackwood, last week. She had substantial injuries. Williams also died at the scene after he was Tasered by police. Mrs Miles said she saw broken china in the room and injuries to Miss Yemm's neck and jaw . Williams had taken a cocktail of mind-bending drugs and told friends he was hearing voices and hallucinating before attacking Miss Yemm and reportedly biting off parts of her face. Miss Yemm, who worked in sales at Next, is believed to have met Williams through mutual friends. Mrs Miles said she saw broken china in the room and injuries to Miss Yemm's neck and jaw. 'I had to decide what the hell was going on and then I had residents behind me in danger,' she added. 'I rang 999 and I made damn well sure he couldn't get out of that room. It was the fear of what he was capable of. He didn't recognise me and he didn't recognise what he was doing. 'I was holding onto the door knob so he couldn't get out. I couldn't let him flee the scene. 'The police then came upstairs and took over. 'If that girl had been alive, I couldn't have closed the door, I would've had to attack Matthew with the fire extinguisher.' Mrs Miles added that Williams had told her he had been in prison for theft, rather than assaulting an ex-partner and has now called for more information to be shared between agencies so that she knows people's backgrounds before she accepts them as residents. 'It's worrying, it's terrifying,' she added. 'I need to know who is walking through my door. Someone needs to give me a bit of a heads up and people's backgrounds. 'If they've come from prison, I think I personally should be told what's happened.' Mrs Miles also said she plans to seal off the room as no one will ever want to stay there. She added: 'I can never use that room again. Not for anything. I'm going to have the door removed, it'll be an open room. I wouldn't expect anyone to want to be in that room.' A Home Office pathologist has carried out initial tests on the victim and have indicated the cause of Ms Yemm's death as headwounds. But they are continuing to carry out a series of further tests on Cerys before an inquest is heard. A Gwent police spokeswoman said: 'The initial post-mortem results for Cerys Yemm indicate that she died from head injuries. 'However it may take a number of weeks before the post-mortem is completed.' | Mandy Miles said she would have attacked Matthew Williams, 34, with a fire extinguisher if she believed she could have saved Cerys Yemm, 22 .
She said: 'Do you know what you're doing to that girl?
'That's no girl,' replied the drug-crazed murderer .
She went to the room to confront killer as guests are not allowed in room .
When she opened the door she found the man hunched over his victim .
Williams, who died after being Tasered, was staring with 'black eyes'
Mrs Miles now plans to seal off the room in the south Wales hotel . |
130,919 | 354e64b9364d5227c8b05bdca85ec9ab3c6aec13 | (CNN) -- Proving that the Wii's motion-sensing controls weren't a fad, both Sony's PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect had strong holiday seasons, suggesting a growing appetite for active video games. Sony and Microsoft sold more than 4.1 million and 8 million units over the holidays, respectively, on the strength of titles like "Sports Champions" and "Dance Central." And as a host of new compatible offerings illustrate, both these and other manufacturers hope to further expand the market for gesture-tracking gaming systems throughout 2011 and beyond. Here's a look at what's coming in the months ahead. PlayStation Move . Like the Wii, the Move system features a wand-like controller that gamers wave about to control their avatars onscreen. Angling to entice hard-core players as well as casual game enthusiasts, Sony's upcoming 3D TV-enabled sci-fi shooter "Killzone 3" and military-themed blaster "SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs" both will feature PlayStation Move support. Each offers more intuitive aiming through physical gestures, and looks to make a case for how well this new tech can integrate with more die-hard gameplay experiences. Titles with a more mainstream focus like "MLB 11: The Show" (batting), "PlayStation Move Heroes" (arcade mini-games), "LittleBigPlanet 2" (platform hopping) and "Sorcery" (spell casting via a plastic wand) are also planned. And nearly 50 titles in all genres, from adventure to sports to downloadable PlayStation Network games and third-party outings such as "Time Crisis: Razing Storm," are now available for the Move. Kinect . Microsoft's hit system, which uses cameras to read players' full-body movements and translate them into action or sports games, will extend its immediate focus to a range of social applications. Announced at CES, the company's new Kinect Avatar service utilizes the hands-free controller to allow real-time mapping of facial movements onto a digital character. When you raise your eyebrow, so does your avatar. Up to eight virtual avatars, all reflecting their users' actual facial expressions, can hang out in virtual chat rooms -- including performance stages and other imaginative environments -- via Xbox Live. You can even record videos of their conversations. The Kinect also will feature such motion-controlled entertainment options as casual videoconferencing and, come spring, the ability to use hand gestures and voice commands to enjoy streaming video from Netflix and Hulu Plus. New upcoming titles for the Kinect, which cover a range of interests and play styles, include psychedelic shooter "Child of Eden," automotive epic "Forza Motorsport 4" and the humorous trivia game "You Don't Know Jack." Tablets, PCs and handheld 3-D . New gyroscope-equipped tablet PCs such as Motorola's Xoom, Acer's new Android slate and Apple's rumored iPad 2 also promise potential new ways to bring motion controls to handheld gaming. Expect more titles that, like some popular iPhone games, let you tilt to steer on-screen vehicles, pilot dogfighting planes or aim virtual cross hairs. Motion controls manufacturer Softkinetic also plans to offer controller-free games shortly through its proprietary "iisu" 3-D gesture-recognition technology. PC gamers can soon enjoy motion control capability outside of racing chairs and plastic putting simulators. Sixense's Hydra controller, which uses a magnetic field to detect your movements, is due in April, packaged with the popular puzzle game "Portal 2." The Nintendo 3DS, a handheld gaming system capable of producing three-dimensional special effects without the need for special glasses, will include touchscreen controls and dozens of custom games when it arrives March 27. From touch-sensing Android smartphones to gesture-tracking TV remotes and accessories like Nyko's Power Shot, which transforms the PlayStation Move into a plastic rifle, motion controls will be everywhere in 2011. What's next for these technologies appears to be a broader range of everyday uses that more inventively tap into the power of your own body -- the most intuitive controller of all. | Sony's PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect systems had strong holiday seasons .
Sales suggest a growing appetite for active video games with motion controls .
Manufacturers are angling to entice hard-core players as well as casual game enthusiasts . |
84,942 | f0f7630aa8091045bcba581e97e70ebe8e393b3f | By . Daniel Martin . UPDATED: . 04:43 EST, 1 October 2011 . An alliance of European countries is rebelling against EU plans to make Britain open its doors to thousands of ‘benefit tourists’. Ministers have joined forces with 12 other nations – including France, Germany and Denmark – angry at the European Commission’s threat to take the UK to court over rules which limit foreigners’ ability to claim benefits. If the Commission gets its way, Britain could be hit with an extra £2.5billion in welfare payments, making it even harder to tackle our huge deficit. Present rules: Currently, the UK says EU immigrants must have worked here previously, or have a decent chance of getting a job, before they can claim benefits . Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith warned that the move was just the latest example of ‘unelectable and unaccountable’ European institutions’ desire to grab power from national parliaments. The row comes as Tories gather for their annual conference in Manchester amid a growing clamour from Eurosceptic backbenchers to use the eurozone crisis as a lever to get Brussels powers returned to Britain. Last night former Cabinet minister John Redwood said the issue showed why Foreign Secretary William Hague should enter into negotiations with EU leaders to get powers handed back to Britain. He wrote on his blog: ‘What is he doing about it? Why won’t he get on with renegotiating the UK position? ‘Most UK electors want a trade agreement but do not want to be bossed around by a high spending legislature poking its nose into our domestic affairs.’ Diktat: The European Commission in Brussels gave the UK two months to scrap the rules, saying they infringe the 'human rights' of EU citizens . Concerns: It is feared the change could open the door to tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans who are currently deterred from coming here . At present the UK says that EU immigrants must have worked here previously, or have a decent chance of getting a job, before they can claim benefits. But on Thursday Brussels gave the UK two months to scrap the rules, saying they infringe the ‘human rights’ of EU citizens. It is feared the change could open the door to tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans who are currently deterred from coming here. Benefits are much more generous in the West than among the former Soviet-dominated countries of the East. 'Out of order': Iain Duncan Smith said Europe was encroaching on social security . For example, a person who has been . unemployed for more than three months in Poland gets a dole of just £110 . a month. This is less than half the £270 or so he would get if he moved . to the UK. So far only Britain has been threatened with court action, but yesterday an EU official warned that other countries could be next if their residence rules are deemed too strict. Chris Grayling, the Employment Minister, revealed growing anger among European governments and said he would be bringing up the issue at a meeting of ministers in Brussels in three weeks’ time. His alliance is made up of prosperous Western European countries which are also worried about an influx from former Communist states if they are forced to change their rules. They, too, face huge costs if they have to tighten up their rules. France, for example, will currently not pay out benefits unless migrants have worked in the country for at least four months. Mr Grayling told the BBC: ‘There is a very definite difference of opinion between us and the Commission over this. I don’t think somebody coming from another EU state should be able to access benefit simply by turning up here and saying, “I am going to live in the UK from now on”. ‘The truth is European law is all over the place at the moment. We had a case three months ago in which we were instructed by the European Court to make disability payments to a British citizen, a young woman living in Spain. 'This kind of land grab has the potential to cause mayhem... we will fight it' ‘We can’t be responsible both for benefits to be paid to our citizens overseas and to citizens of other countries in the UK. What we have ended up with is a mess and it is not a mess that simply faces the UK – it is one that affects several other states.’ Mr Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail: ‘This is out of order. Social security was always considered to be a national responsibility, but now Europe is encroaching on these areas. ‘This kind of land grab from the EU has the potential to cause mayhem to nation states, and we will fight it.’ It emerged yesterday that Nick Clegg told EC president Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday that Britain would fight any attempt to force us to pay benefits to workless EU migrants. The Lib Dems’ support for the Government on this issue is in contrast to their refusal to join the Tories in opposing the extension of employment rights to agency workers. A source close to Mr Clegg said: ‘Nick thinks this is a really bad idea. It is one thing to look after European citizens who have worked over here and paid taxes, but it is quite another to start writing cheques to anyone and everyone who turns up.’ A spokesman for the European Commission said the UK was being targeted first because complaints had been received about the rule here. But she warned that other countries would be next.She said: ‘We have issues with other countries but the UK case is much more advanced.’ | Alliance to rebel against EU plans to make Britain open its doors to 'benefits tourists'
Britain could be hit with an extra £2.5billion in welfare payments . |
281,620 | f8d0f634eb08c2dc35fffa19fffc6d6fa65ba630 | An explosive row has erupted between diplomats and Ministers over their reluctance to help a British man on death row in Ethiopia. A series of extraordinary emails, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, reveal officials’ increasing frustration at political inaction over Andargachew Tsege. Tsege, 59, a father-of-three from London, was snatched at an airport in Yemen last June and illegally rendered to Ethiopia. There are concerns he may have been tortured. Family torn apart: Kidnapped Briton Andargachew Tsege with wife Yemi and their children, before his abduction . Yet Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond's office said he could not ‘find time’ for a phone call to raise the issue and did not want to send a ‘negative’ letter. In one email, an exasperated official asks: ‘Don’t we need to do more than give them a stern talking to?’ Tsege, who has lived in the UK since 1979, has been called Ethiopia’s Nelson Mandela. Tsege fell out with his university friend ex-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, after he exposed government corruption and helped establish a pro-democracy party. In 2009, he was sentenced to death in his absence for allegedly plotting a coup and planning to kill Ethiopian officials – claims he denies. He was abducted on June 23 while en route to Eritrea, emerging two weeks later in Ethiopia, where he has since been paraded on TV. It is not known where he is being held. The diplomatic exchanges disclose how officials were dismayed when British Ministers rejected requests to raise the case with Ethiopia in a firm and robust manner. ‘I feel so shocked and let down,’ said Tsege’s wife Yemi Hailemariam. ‘I thought Britain was a nation driven by fairness but it seems my husband’s life is simply not valued.’ The series of emails begins on July 1, with Foreign Office officials confirming his capture: ‘His detention in Yemen is significant news, and could get complicated for the UK.’ Yemi Hailemariam is campaigning for the release of her husband . Diplomats noted that neither Yemen nor Ethiopia informed Britain about the rendition of its citizen. ‘It feels a bit like I’m throwing the kitchen sink at the Yemenis but I want them to think twice before they do this again,’ wrote one senior figure at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa. He also noted that a prominent Ethiopian minister had given assurances over Tsege’s treatment –‘but I wouldn’t take them with complete confidence’. Ethiopia has claimed Tsege tried to recruit other Britons to become involved in terrorism. But the regime has used anti-terror laws to jail journalists and silence political rivals, and UK officials had not seen credible evidence. One diplomatic cable says: ‘All we have seen are a few pictures of him standing in an Eritrean village – hardly proof that he was engaged in terrorist training.’ Three weeks after Tsege’s kidnap, the Foreign Office’s Africa director wrote that Ministers ‘have so far shied away from talking about consequences... their tone has been relatively comfortable’. On July 21, Hammond’s office was still reluctant to talk to his Ethiopian counterpart on the phone. ‘I don’t think we are going to be able to find time for that at the moment,’ wrote his private secretary. He also turned down sending a ‘negative’ letter, asking for it to be rewritten ‘setting out areas of co-operation. It can end with a paragraph on the Tsege case.’ Despite concerns over Ethiopia’s human rights record, the nation receives £376 million a year in UK aid. One farmer there is suing Britain, claiming the money was used to usurp him from his land. Hammond is believed to have finally called his counterpart at the end of July, one month after the kidnap. It is understood he focused on requesting consular access rather than condemning the capture. Reprieve, which campaigns against the death penalty said: ‘These shocking emails show the Foreign Secretary appears to have blocked any meaningful action that could potentially bring this British father home to his family, unharmed.’ The Foreign Office said they were ‘deeply concerned’ by Tsege’s detention and were lobbying for further consular access as well as seeking confirmation the death penalty would not be carried out. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he could not ‘find time’ for a phone call to raise the issue and did not want to send a ‘negative’ letter . | Andargachew Tsege was snatched by officials at Yemen airport last June .
The 59-year-old was transferred to Ethiopia where he is thought to remain .
Father-of-three moved to London in 1979 from native African country .
He was dubbed 'Ethiopian Mandela' after exposing government corruption .
Leaked emails revealed British officials' frustration at political inaction . |
9,784 | 1bb94a16956b67ca66bc0f19c4beab20db291664 | Super-agent Jorge Mendes has heaped praise on Cristiano Ronaldo by claiming the Ballon d'Or winner is a great role model for kids. Ronaldo picked up yet another award on Monday when he beat off competition from Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer to win the prestigious title for the third time. Mendes, who helped Ronaldo seal moves to Manchester United and Real Madrid in 2003 and 2009 respectively, believes the 29-year-old's ambition to reach the top will have a positive influence on youngsters. Cristiano Ronaldo - pictured with his son - is a great role model, according to his agent Jorge Mendes . The 29-year-old superstar gives his son Cristiano Ronaldo Jnr a kiss during the Ballon d'Or Gala . Speaking after the Ballon d'Or ceremony, Mendes said: 'He is a great professional and that is fundamental today for a player to perform better on the pitch. Cristiano is a professor. 'Cristiano is an example for the boys who want to triumph, who want to go on to become the best in the world. He is also a great example for our society and our country, to make us more determined, more ambitious. He is an example for the youngsters and the adults. 'He has never stood with his arms folded. He always wanted to be better and he has that same ambition today.' Portuguese football agent Mendes, who advises the likes of Angel di Maria, James Rodriguez and David de Gea, insists fellow countryman Ronaldo is the 'best player in history'. 'At the age of 16, he was the best in the world for his age. At 17, too. He has always been the best,' added Mendes. 'People say he is so good because he is strong now physically but, at the age of 16, he was already doing all those amazing dribbles he does, taking on players. He had so much quality. 'He is the best player in history and there will never be another one like him.' Ronaldo beat off competition from Lionel Messi (left) and Manuel Neuer to win his third Ballon d'Or . | Jorge Mendes believes Cristiano Ronaldo is the perfect role model .
Ronaldo beat Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer to win third Ballon d'Or title .
Mendes played major role in helping Ronaldo seal moves to Manchester United and Real Madrid . |
28,601 | 51208864a29ded10e4fef9abae9ef6112929487b | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 19:05 EST, 26 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 19:05 EST, 26 November 2012 . Half of patients are 'too scared' to challenge medical advice given by doctors, even when they think it's wrong . Millions of patients are too scared to challenge medical advice given by hospital doctors and family GPs. New figures out today show nearly one in two are frightened to question a doctor’s opinion, more than patients in 12 other countries. A poll of more than 2,000 Britons suggest millions lack the confidence to tackle their GP or hospital consultant even when they believe the advice given is wrong. Now a leading patient’s charity has helped create a leaflet explaining how patients can challenge their doctor and demand more information. The Patients Association has teamed up with private healthcare provider Bupa, who commissioned the poll, to ensure patients are not railroaded into treatment and do not have their health concerns ignored. The poll comes less than a week after it emerged that a baby boy died of meningitis after doctors ignored his mothers’ pleas to take his condition more seriously. The parents of 13 month-old Bobby Bushell, from Doncaster, were paid a five-figure sum in damages by the hospital trust involved after a nurse told parents to wheel their son around the waiting room to stifle his screams as he was 'a bit loud'. Experts say patients are reluctant to question hospital doctors and GPs because of the authority they command, however, the number of web sites offering medical advice could be changing that. Dr Annabel Bentley, medical director for Bupa Health and Wellbeing said: 'The days of doctor knows best are over. We are in an era of patient knows best. 'Doctors may have had academic training but the point is only the patient knows how they feel and how a treatment effects them personally and will effect their lifestyle and any decisions need to be based on this.' The leaflet entitled ‘Constructive Conversations’ tells patients to challenge their doctor if told they need tests or treatments. This includes asking: ‘Why are you recommending this test for me?’ and ‘ How accurate is this test and what are the chances of it being wrong’ as well as ‘Are there any alternative treatments and what do they involve?’ The Bupa Health Pulse Survey questioned 15,000 people in 13 countries including Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. They found those living in Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the most likely to question medical advice with three out of four saying they would challenge their doctor. The poll comes less than a week after it emerged that Bobby Bushell (pictured) died of meningitis after doctors ignored his mothers' pleas to take his condition more seriously . Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association said: 'Patients too often feel they are passive recipients of treatment and care. They want to be more involved; to ask questions or to discuss options but lack confidence and the tools to do so. This booklet goes some way in helping people get the most from the limited time they may have with healthcare professionals.' In recent years the explosion of health websites has led more and more people to self-diagnose or become expert on conditions they already have. But this has led to problems as many internet sites offer vague or sometimes dramatic answers for symptoms that are everday. This has led doctors to face a barrage of ‘worried-well’ patients demanding treatments that might not be relevant to their actual condition. The Bupa poll showed that 82 per cent of Britons look to the internet for medical advice but only half check that the website they are searching is a credible source of information. | Poll of more than 2,000 Britons suggests millions lack the confidence to tackle their GP or hospital consultant .
50% are too frightened to question a doctor’s opinion - more than patients in 12 other countries .
Patients Association has helped create a leaflet explaining how patients can challenge their doctor . |
221,919 | ab3f198ef26557783b6839cf9a5744db6e5106b2 | Winter Olympic skeleton gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold is set for a return to competitive action this week as she continues the defence of her World Cup title in Altenberg, Germany. The 26-year-old from Kent was forced to miss the second race of the season last month after experiencing dizziness during her victory at the season opener in Lake Placid. But she has linked up with the British squad ahead of this Friday's heats and is relishing her return. Lizzy Yarnold poses outside Windsor Castle after being awarded an MBE by the Queen . Yarnold crosses the line to win gold at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 . 'I always enjoy competing in Europe as the tracks are varied and always challenging, the atmosphere is brilliant and lots of family and friends come out to support me which I love,' she said on British Skeleton's official website. 'I'm preparing for race three of the World Cup at the moment and there's lots more yet to come from all the Brits. 'We'll soon be in Igls, Austria (the seventh race of the season), where I won my first race in 2010 so I'd love to win another medal there.' The reigning world and Olympic champion missed the second World Cup race but returns to action on Friday . Yarnold will be hoping to be as dominant in 2015 as she has been in the last 12 months - a year that saw her claim a historic Olympic and World Cup double. In her absence in Calgary, British compatriot Laura Deas claimed her maiden medal at a World Cup with a second-place finish. | Lizzy Yarnold won opening World Cup race of the season in Lake Placid .
Olympic champion missed the second one after complaining of dizziness .
But Yarnold returns for the third World Cup race in Altenberg, Germany . |
205,271 | 95b88c56824ae5ef6e365c19593462b144198a01 | U.S. health officials are warning a widespread drug used to treat gonorrhea has been rendered ineffective, leaving only one drug option to defend against one of the most rampant sexually transmitted diseases in America. The bacteria that causes gonorrhea has become resistant to antibiotics used to treat the condition, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC's announcement echos concerns raised by the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this summer, that sounded the alarm that a widespread treatment for the disease was not longer viable. Dwindling treatment options: Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, has become resistant to antibiotics used to treat the condition, according to a new report from the CDC . Roughly 700,000 cases of gonorrhea occur in the U.S. annually, of the estimated 106 million people each year who are infected worldwide. In the U.S., it is most prevalent among African Americans and sexually active teenagers and young adults. Since 2007, the Atlanta-based agency has recommended cefixime, an oral medication under the brand name Suprax, as the first line of defense to combat the spread of the infection. But now the CDC believes cefixime is not adequately treating the condition and patients can no longer rely on it as a viable option. The CDC will review potential treatment alternatives but fear research and development for gonorrhea drugs will be a tough sell to pharmaceutical companies . With cefixime no longer being recommended, only one . treatment is left available to those suffering from the disease, . commonly referred to as 'The Clap.' Instead, patients with the condition are advised to receive an antibiotic delivered by injection, known as ceftriaxone. Gonorrhea . is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea and spreads through . sexual activity, but has been known at times to spread from an untreated . mother to her baby during childbirth. The . sexually transmitted disease (STD) can grow easily in the warm, moist . areas of the reproductive tract, including the cervix, uterus, and . fallopian tubes in women, and in the urethra in both women and men. Those . infected, particularly women, can show no symptoms. Symptoms for men . include a burning sensation when urinating, or colored discharge. Complications . from the disease can include infertility and chronic pelvic pain in women and in men. In . most patients, a urine test can be used to test for gonorrhea. This change could become problematic because the shot is not typically stocked in a doctor's office and usually only found in STD clinics. Patients also tend to prefer pills to injections and might be less likely to seek the injectable option. With only one treatment deemed effective, health officials also fear the infection will eventually develop a resistance against ceftriaxone. 'Gonorrhea is becoming a major public health challenge, due to the high incidence of infections accompanied by dwindling treatment options,' Dr Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan, from the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO, said in a statement in June. 'The available data only shows the tip of the iceberg. Without adequate surveillance we won't know the extent of resistance to gonorrhea and without research into new antimicrobial agents, there could soon be no effective treatment for patients.' The CDC and National Institutes of Health will review potential treatment alternatives but fear research and development for gonorrhea drugs will be a tough sell to pharmaceutical companies. | An estimated 700,000 cases of gonorrhea occur in the U.S. annually, of 106 million people each year who are infected worldwide . |
83,960 | ee2929009bc49cfb419e32fc662e484b21a027d2 | They had come to see their favorite band perform, but a couple of concert-goers attempted to upstage a punk rock band by stripping off onstage and performing sex acts on one another. The obscene sex act was performed during a January 15 show featuring seminal hardcore-punk band the Dead Kennedy's. The incident took place at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach in San Diego, right in front of the audience, while the band were playing their set. Scroll down for video . On stage: A couple were engaged in an explicit sex act during a Dead Kenney's concert in California . Side show: A number of people took photos of the couple. Many then went back to listening to the band . The woman was fully exposed while the man performed a lewd act on her, yet the band played on regardless. The local sheriff's department has been determining whether the couple could face charges, however they are unlikely to do so as so far no complaints have been received. Exposing yourself in a public place is only an offence if other people are 'offended or annoyed' by it under Californian law, however it could be that the sex act was a violation of the business and professions code. The two people involved in the incident were eventually thrown out. Management at Belly Up Tavern have released a statement to KGTV: . 'Of course, we don't condone this activity in our establishment and security stopped it right away. This is certainly a first for us.' Numerous concert-goers at the Belly Up Tavern took photos of what was happening on stage as the woman was laying on her back. Others also watched for a few seconds before going back to listening to the band. Statement: 'Of course, we don't condone this activity in our establishment and security stopped it right away. This is certainly a first for us' said management at the Belly Up Tavern . And the band played on: The sheriff’s department said there were no official complaints so it is unlikely that any charges will be brought, however it could be a violation of the business and professions code. Read more: . 10 News: Sex act performed at Dead Kennedys concert: Was it criminal? | It happened Thursday during a Dead Kennedy's concert near San Diego .
Sheriff’s department say no charges will be brought against the couple unless there are complaints . |
146,762 | 49c9a81478100db5a29fc577a299f5a5305fc07d | Diana, Princess of Wales was as well known for philanthropy and kindness as she was for her unerring sense of style. And now, one of the late royal's favourite dressers has opened up about working with the style icon. Jacques Azagury was introduced to the princess by Anna Harvey, who was deputy editor of British Vogue and a style consultant to the royal. Scroll down for video . Style icon: One of Diana's favourite dressers, Jacques Azagury, whose dresses she can be seen wearing, left, on her 36th birthday and, right, on a trip to Venice, chatted to FEMAIL about all things fashion . They went on to develop a strong bond and became great friends, working together right up until her untimely death in 1997. 'My favourite memory of Princess Diana was her presence,' Jacques tells us. 'Another great memory was the sheer fun we had together, especially when it came to choosing her next look. 'Diana had such a modern look rather than being very formal.' Thanks to his expertise, Moroccan-born Azagury worked with Naomi Watts, who starred as Diana in the recent biopic. He created dresses for the film and used the exact same material that he had left over from creating Diana's original pieces for some of the garments. 'Naomi was a delight to work with,' he said. 'From the moment she walked in, she just completely understood I was dressing her like Diana, we worked very fast together and it was such an easy and enjoyable job.' So would Jacques ever consider dressing the Duchess of Cambridge? 'Like any other designer, I would love to dress Kate,' he said. Azagury is famed for his red-carpet 'pret-a-couture' and currently dresses some of the most glamorous women in the world - everyone from rock stars to royalty, BAFTA winners to burlesque dancers. His current clients include Kelly Brook, Sheridan Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, and Naomi Watts to name just a few. So what's his secret formula? 'I just love making a woman look great. I would never send a women out on the red carpet looking like someone from the army or a Japanese soldier, she has to look glamorous and sexy. 'I love all of the women I dress, they are from all different backgrounds.' Royal team: Diana's butler Paul Burrell (left) with fashion designer Jacques Azagury . One of his clients, Dame Helen Mirren, has become a postergirl for mature style. 'My advice for looking that good is try not to look like your 15-year-old daughter. Dress age appropriate but not boring,' says the designer. And it isn't just in the design world that he's made waves; Azagury also has a fragrance range to boast, which he has just added six new scents to. The Azagury fragrances serve as an extension of his fashion range and aim to reflect the true design philosophy of the brand. Modern muses: Myleene Klass, left, and Kelly Brook love wearing Jacques's feminine designs to award shows and showbiz events . He has spent three years working on the range of fragrances and was inspired, in part, by his travels in France, Italy and Peru. 'This is a natural extension of my couture line, I constructed it in the same way as my dresses. 'The scents are colour coded rather than named so it leaves it up to the wearer to experiment. Sometimes a name might shape and influence what we feel for a scent,' he explained. Notable scents in the new collection include Green (with notes of lime, ginger, carnation, vanilla, sandalwood and white musk), and Black, which has rich notes of plum, orange, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, and sandalwood. Sharing his top tips for selecting the perfect scent and making it your own, he advised: 'Choose one that doesn't arrive ten minutes before you do.' Sweet smell of success: The Azagury fragrances serve as an extension of his fashion range and aim to reflect the true design philosophy of the brand . | Jacques Azagury dressed Diana countless times .
Forged close friendship and he created dresses for Naomi Watts in biopic .
Dame Helen Mirren, Kelly Brook and Myleene Klass love his dresses .
Has unveiled fragrance range as extension to his fashion line . |
2,354 | 06e1006cc2fe8751f7b3f66e37165648234c0496 | (Mashable) -- Android smartphone market share trails iPhone market share by a scant 9 percentage points in a recent study from analysis giant Nielsen. According to statistics on overall U.S. market share, Android is the single fastest-growing mobile platform. By contrast, Apple's iOS shows an ever-so-slight decline. Other operating systems, including BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, show sharp declines over the past quarter. Still, BlackBerry is the top mobile OS by the numbers, with around 30 percent of the total market share. Last month, Nielsen's stats showed that Android was the preferred platform of new smartphone buyers, suggesting that big-budget marketing campaigns for devices such as the Droid lineup and HTC's Evo were paying off. In fact, Androids outsold iPhones for the first time ever in the first half of 2010. Nevertheless, these stats still show iOS devices as the leading smartphones in the Android-versus-iPhone battle. Today, Android has 19 percent of the mobile OS market, while Apple's iOS smartphones have 28 percent. Age also plays a role in which device a given smartphone user is likely to choose. Members of the under-35 crowd were more likely to be seen with an Android than were older folks. And BlackBerry held sway with users over 45. Apple dominated when it came to smartphone users ages 44 and under. Based on these trends, we fully expect BlackBerry devices to sink below iPhones in popularity within the next quarter. And we're sure it won't be too long before Android and iOS are neck-and-neck in competing for smartphone dominance. Do you think the consumer actions behind these trends are based more on device performance and facts or more on personal bias and marketing? We'd love to get your opinions in the comments. © 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved. | Android market share trails iPhone by scant 9 percent, says Nielsen .
Apple's iOS shows an ever-so-slight decline .
BlackBerry is the top mobile OS, with around 30 percent of total market share . |
181,660 | 77322c3fd077b1db66d1b2542af24c5aee606496 | By . Associated Press Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 16:36 EST, 25 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:18 EST, 26 July 2013 . Four Russian nationals and a Ukrainian have been charged with running a sophisticated hacking organization that penetrated computer networks of more than a dozen major American and international corporations over seven years, stealing and selling at least 160 million credit and debit card numbers, resulting in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. Indictments were announced Thursday in Newark, where U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman called the case the largest hacking and data breach scheme ever prosecuted in the United States. Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems Inc., which processes credit and debit cards for small to mid-sized businesses, was identified as taking the biggest hit in a scheme starting in 2007 — the theft of more than 130 million card numbers at a loss of about $200 million. Scroll down for video . Dmitriy Smilianets, left, is in U.S. custody and expected to appear in federal court next week, while Albert Gonzalez, right, is currently serving 20 years for stealing credit card numbers . Atlanta-based Global Payment Systems, another major payment processing company, had nearly one million card numbers stolen, with losses of nearly $93 million, prosecutors said. The indictment did not put a loss figure on the thefts at some other major corporations, including Commidea Ltd., a European provider of electronic payment processing for retailers. The government said hackers in 2008 covertly removed about 30 million card numbers from its computer network. About 800,000 card numbers were stolen in an attack on the Visa network, but the indictment did not cite any loss figure. Not all the companies the hackers infected over the years with malicious computer software suffered financial losses. Customer log-in credentials were stolen from Nasdaq and Dow Jones Inc., the indictment said, though prosecutors said Nasdaq's trading platform was not affected. The indictment said the suspects sent each other instant messages as they took control of the corporate data, telling each other, for instance: 'NASDAQ is owned.' At least one man told others that he used Google news alerts to learn whether his hacks had been discovered, according to the court filing. The defendants were identified as Vladimir Drinkman, 32, of Syktyvkar, Russia (PDF), and Moscow; Aleksander Kalinin, 26, of St. Petersburg, Russia (PDF); Roman Kotov, 32, of Moscow; Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, of Moscow; and Mikhail Rytikov, 26, of Odessa, Ukraine. Smilianets is in U.S. custody and was expected to appear in federal court next week. His New York-based lawyer, Bruce Provda, said Smilianets was in the U.S. ‘sightseeing’ when he was arrested. ‘It's a rather complex international charge of hacking,’ Provda said. ‘If it goes to trial, it's going to be a lengthy trial.’ Drinkman is being held in the Netherlands pending extradition, prosecutors said. His lawyer there, Bart Stapert, did not immediately return a message. The other three defendants remained at large. Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems was identified as taking the biggest hit ¿ the theft of more than 130 million card numbers at a loss of about $200 million . The prosecution builds on the 2009 case that resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for Albert Gonzalez of Miami, who often used the screen name 'soupnazi' and is identified in the new complaint as an unindicted co-conspirator. Other unindicted co-conspirators were also named. In the Gonzalez case, which focused on the theft from Heartland - at the time the biggest breach of its kind ever discovered in the U.S. - Kalinin and Drinkman were charged as 'Hacker 1' and 'Hacker 2.' Prosecutors identified the two as sophisticated hackers who specialized in penetrating the computer networks of multinational corporations, financial institutions and payment processors. Kotov's specialty was harvesting data from the networks after they had been penetrated, and Rytikov provided anonymous web-hosting services that were used to hack into computer networks and covertly remove data, the indictment said. Smilianets was the information salesman, the government said. All five are charged with taking part in a computer hacking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The four Russian nationals are also charged with multiple counts of unauthorized computer access and wire fraud. The individuals who purchased the credit and debit card numbers and associated data from the hacking organization resold them through online forums or directly to others known as 'cashers,' the indictment said. Atlanta-based Global Payment Systems had nearly one million card numbers stolen, with losses of nearly $93 million . According to the indictment, U.S. credit card numbers sold for about $10 each; Canadian numbers were $15 and better-encrypted European ones $50. The data was stored on computer servers all over the world, including in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands, Bahamas, Ukraine, Panama and Germany. The cashers would encode the information onto the magnetic strips of blank plastic cards and cash out the value, by either withdrawing money from ATMs in the case of debit cards, or running up charges and purchasing goods in the case of credit cards. The charging documents unsealed Thursday show instant message chats between Gonzalez and Kalinin about hacking into Hannaford's systems. When Kalinin jokes about the breach being reported on TV news, Gonzalez advises him to set up Google news alerts, like Gonzalez says he has, for 'data breach' 'credit card fraud' 'debit card fraud' 'atm fraud' and 'hackers.' The gang stole about 800,000 card numbers in an attack on the Visa network . 'It's how I find out when my hacks are found,' Gonzalez says. Gonzalez jokes, 'Hannaford will spend millions to upgrade their security!! Lol' And Kalinin replies: 'they would better pay us to not hack them again.' Kalinin was also charged, along with another Russian man, in a separate indictment unsealed in New York on Thursday. The men are accused of hacking into computer systems at Citibank and PNC Bank and giving co-conspirators information who encrypted blank ATM cards that were used to withdraw $4.2 million from customer accounts in 2006 and 2007. Kalinin is also accused in that indictment of installing malicious software on Nasdaq computers. Prosecutors say the breach did not affect securities trading. | Four Russians and a Ukrainian have been charged with running sophisticated hacking organization over seven year period .
One company - Heartland Payment Systems - suffered losses of about $200 million .
One defendant is in U.S. custody, another is in the Netherlands and the other three remain at large .
Albert Gonzalez, currently serving 20 years for stealing credit card numbers, was named as a collaborator in the complex scheme . |
14,079 | 27f50068655bab57b18870584fd4c0430822fcad | By . Tamara Abraham . PUBLISHED: . 10:33 EST, 31 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 10:43 EST, 31 October 2013 . A visit to any costume store this fall will reveal the huge volume of sexy Halloween costumes for women on offer. But for those who prefer not to expose so much skin, there is little alternative. Now feminist writer Suzanne Scoggins is addressing the growing issue with her website TakeBackHalloween.org. Bursting with ideas for female costumes that don't put sex appeal front and center, the site seems to be filling a much-needed gap in the market. Inspiring women: The costume inspiration website Takebackhalloween.org offers a link to headwear (left) that would form part of a costume based on aviator Amelia Earhart (right) Snakes on the brain: A Medusa hat (left) is part of a costume inspired by Uma Thurman's role in 2010 film Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (right) 'You go into a party store and the only astronaut costume is in the male . sections in large sizes,' Ms Scoggins . told Today.com. Taking back Halloween: Suzanne Scoggins' site provides an alternative to the usual sexy costumes on offer . 'If a girl wants to be Sally Ride, the message . is she can’t. If there‘s a girl costume, it’s an orange tube dress that . looks like a Hooters waitress. . . or a sexy policewoman or sexy firefighter. It makes me feel like we’re back in the 60’s. The message we’re giving . our daughters and sons is incredible. . . Sexy . costumes for women went from being an option to a requirement.' Ms Scoggins, who runs her site with a team of volunteers, is well-placed to offer guidance in costume design. She trained as a historian before turning to theater where she worked as both an actor and in costume design. She says the idea for the site was born because her friends couldn’t find anything appropriate to wear for trick or treating in with their . kids. 'Even college girls feel under pressure to be sexy,' she said. 'They didn’t . feel free to wear regular costumes and step outside that very narrow . uniform. I don’t have a problem with sexy, I just want a full range of . options.' Take Back Halloween offers DIY guides and stockist links for ensembles based on inspiring women that readers can create at home, avoiding suggestions that require a needle and thread. Many of the ideas take a lead from . legends, royalty and old Hollywood. Users can browse posts on Amelia . Earhart, Frida Kahlo, Jezebel and Mae West. Looking to the Forties: Rita Hayworth as Gilda is a sexy suggestion without baring too much skin (left) while a costume for Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is distinctive and fun to recreate (right) A last minute section even features a post on bedsheet costume ideas. Alongside each post is a brief history lesson on the character so that the wearer is well-informed when a fellow party-goer asks, 'Who are you?' - but they are so informative that she says some educators turn to the site in history lesson plans. Ms Scoggins says that the site needs funding to meed demand from its millions of users, and there is currently a campaign running on Kickstarter to raise money for much-needed technological upgrades. | The Take Back Halloween website offers DIY guides for costumes inspired by legendary women, such as Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo and Medusa . |
27,587 | 4e2e70ef3f8d76dec7955f7115ab7cc4579941b7 | By . David Mccormack . PUBLISHED: . 21:15 EST, 3 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:18 EST, 4 September 2013 . Every megastar worth their salt travels with an entourage and LeBron James is no except. Since the basketball season ended in June, the sporting legend has been taking a well-deserved vacation, traveling around on Europe with not only finance Savannah Brinson, but also his mom Gloria James and an extended entourage of other hangers on. Someone else who has blagged his way onto the all expenses trip is an obscure rapper who goes by the name of Da Real Lambo. Nice work if you can get it: Da Real Lambo, 31, is currently dating LeBron's mom, 42, and clearly enjoying all the perks that come with being a member of the basketball star's inner circle . Hanging with the big boys: Da Real Lambo's Instagram account is packed of photos flaunting the fact that he's dating LeBron James's mom. This photo sees him hanging with LeBron and teammate Dwayne Wade, right, in Miami . The 31-year-old from Miami, Florida, is currently dating LeBron’s mom, 42, and clearly enjoying all the perks that come with being a member of the basketball star’s inner circle. Clearly an avid social media fan, Toyboy Lambo isn’t shy either about flaunting LeBron’s tremendous wealth, reports Black Sports Online. His Instagram account is full of pictures of him living the high life as LeBron’s posse travels some of Europe’s most exclusive resorts including San Tropez, traveling by private jet and sailing the Mediterranean in a massive yacht. The relationship between the rapper and superstar’s mom is clearly going very well. LeBron James and his entourage are enjoying a lavish vacation in Europe's finest resorts and hanger-on Da Real Lambo isn't shy about flaunting it on his Instagram account . Da Real Lambo, center and top images, models Lebron's latest championship ring . As well as being invited on their European jaunt, other photos show Lambo hanging out in Miami with LeBron and his teammate Dwyane Wade on the beach and modelling LeBron’s latest championship ring. In his caption to that particular pic, he explains that has to use two fingers to wear the ring. Elsewhere he refers to Momma James as his ‘wifey’ and describes his potential stepson as his ‘role model’ - even though LeBron at 28 is three years younger than him. Another photo shows the posse in Switzerland or ‘Swissland’ as Lambo refers to it in his caption. Judging by the many photos that fill his Instagram account, he seems have settled in very comfortably to becoming a member of the James entourage who clearly been enjoying a fun-filled vacation. Back in June, the Miami Heat were crowned champions for a second year in a row and James was named series MVP for the second year in a row. For more videos, please go to Lambonation100 . Living the dream: Da Real Lambo posts a photo of him posing on the wing of a private jet paid for by his 'wifey's' son LeBron James . Da Real Lambo refers to Gloria James as his 'wifey' and describes his potential stepson as his 'role model' - even though LeBron at 28 is three years younger than him . | Da Real Lambo, 31, is currently dating LeBron James's mom Gloria, 42 .
The pair have been part of the basketball legend's entourage as he travels around Europe on vacation .
The rapper turned toyboy has posted countless photos on his Instagram account which show them living the high life . |
38,400 | 6c9515debefa13233ba5b80738be2d930f35ce71 | The one billionth download of a digital single in the UK took place last night. According to the Official Charts Company, the UK reached the milestone thanks to artists such as Adele and Maroon 5. The company's figures show that Adele's Someone Like You is the most downloaded track ever in the UK - it has been downloaded 1.46 million times. Adele's Someone Like You is the most downloaded song ever in the UK - it has been downloaded 1.46 million times . Official Charts Company managing director, Martin Talbot, says that 16 tracks have now been downloaded more than a million times . 1. Someone Like You - Adele . 2. Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera . 3. Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye feat. Kimbra . 4. I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas . 5. We Found Love - Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris . 6. Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon . 7. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen . 8. Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock . 9. Just The Way You Are (Amazing) - Bruno Mars . 10. Price Tag - Jessie J . Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera with Moves Like Jagger is the second most downloaded song ever in the UK - it has been downloaded 1.4 million times. Gotye featuring Kimbra with Somebody That I used To Know is the third most downloaded track in the UK - 1.38 million downloads - and the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling is fourth with 1.34 million downloads. We Found Love by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris, Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, and Price Tag by Jessie J also made the top ten. As did Just The Way You Are (Amazing) by Bruno Mars and Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock. Downloading took off in a big way in 2004, the same year that a separate sales chart was launched, and figures went on to be included in the main singles chart the following year. More than three million singles are now downloaded each week in the UK. Chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, Geoff Taylor, said: ‘The digital music revolution has made it easy to buy any song you like, instantly, for half the price of a coffee. Downloading took off in a big way in 2004 and now more than three million singles are downloaded each week in the UK . ‘As fans increasingly download music on the move, tablets, smartphones and connected cars will drive another phase in digital music's expansion.’ Official Charts Company managing director, Martin Talbot, added: ‘The explosion in download sales over the past nine years means we are genuinely now living in the digital music age - with Adele as our queen. ‘Over the nine years of legitimate digital music, more than 16 new tracks have sold one million copies, which emphasises just how popular digital music is in the modern age.’ Official Charts Company managing director, Martin Talbot, says that 16 tracks have now been downloaded more than a million times . | The one billionth download of a digital single in the UK took place last night .
The most downloaded track ever in the UK is Adele's Someone Like You .
Second is Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera with Moves Like Jagger . |
240,912 | c3e32dcff21111fff2bf484a3b94a5c17ce88516 | As the title winners Manchester City go toe-to-toe with FA Cup holders Arsenal at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, a glittering array of stars will be on show at the home of English football. From David Silva and Yaya Toure to Aaron Ramsey and Alexis Sanchez, this will be a meeting of some of the finest footballers in the Barclays Premier League. But who comes out on top in the head-to-head battles? Sportsmail runs the rule over these two teams... Goalkeeper . Joe Hart . A shaky start to last season culminated in the England No 1 find himself on the bench for an extended spell in the winter. Turned out to be smart management by Manuel Pellegrini and Hart demonstrated his class in the second half of the season with several match-winning saves. Will face competition from new signing Willy Caballero, mind. England's No 1: Joe Hart got better as last season went on after a shaky start . Wojciech Szczesny . Last season, the Polish stopper eliminated much of the rash decision-making that had previously blotted his copybook to enjoy his finest campaign so far. All smiles: Wojciech Szczesny will hope Arsenal can build on their FA Cup triumph . Verdict: Joe Hart. A proven winner, having won two titles in three years, and a powerful voice in the Manchester City dressing room. Expect him to step up once more with Caballero in town. Right Back . Pablo Zabaleta . Relentless up and down the right flank, he is an immensely likeable character, firm in the tackle and a menace going forward. Offers a regular threat making those overlapping runs. Mathieu Debuchy . The summer signing from Newcastle always tend to appear to be a better player in the blue of France than the black and white stripes in the North East. Enjoyed an impressive World Cup but has work to do to convince in the Premier League. Strong at the back: Pablo Zabaleta pips Arsenal new boy Mathieu Debuchy to the best right back . Verdict: Pablo Zabaleta. Along with Philip Lahm, Zabaleta is seen as the finest full-back in world football and he’d walk into any team in the Barclays Premier League. Centre-Back . Vincent Kompany . The Belgian centre-half is City’s most important player. The captain – who is currently discussing a new contract – is an inspirational leader and an outstanding defender. Leader of men: Vincent Kompany guided Manchester City to the Premier League title last season . Calum Chambers . The new £12m signing will get his first experience of what it is like playing for Arsenal in a cup final. The test will be for him to keep the composure he showed at Southampton now that he is in the big time. Step up: Calum Chambers will be out to prove he can take his form from Southampton to Arsenal . Verdict: Vincent Kompany. Chambers is a talented young defender with plenty of potential but Kompany has proved for several years that he is the most complete centre-back in English football. Centre-back . Martin Demichelis . The Argentine struggled in his early days at Manchester City but has emerged through that tricky spell and demonstrated his credentials as an accomplished centre-half. Part of the Argentina side that reached the World Cup final. New look: Martin Demichelis is back at City with a new short back and sides after the World Cup . Laurent Koscielny . Koscielny’s more impulsive tendencies harnessed well with Mertesacker’s more serene approach last season. The Frenchman is quick, powerful and is also a threat at set-pieces. Getting stuck in: Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud fight for the ball in training . Verdict: Laurent Koscielny. The 28-year-old has matured into an excellent defender under Wenger’s guidance and he only seems to be getting better. Demichelis’ lack of pace remains a concern, underlined by Manuel Pellegrini’s pursuit of Eliaquim Mangala. Left-back . Gael Clichy . Prone to the odd mistake and his concentration can lapse from time to time. Good energy and offers pace in the attacking third. Kieran Gibbs . The Englishman was one of Arsenal’s most consistent performers last season and if this country were not so blessed in the left-back position – Gibbs had to compete with Ashley Cole, Luke Shaw and Leighton Baines – he would have been a shoe-in for the World Cup in Brazil. Defending the left: Gael Clichy will come up against his former club and Kieran Gibbs . Verdict: Kieran Gibbs. With Ashley Cole now out of the picture, Gibbs can press for an England place and continue to star for Arsenal. Central Midfield . Fernandinho . The Brazilian was magnificent in his debut season, complementing Yaya Toure in the central acres and dominating the midfield. Incredible energy levels and sets the tempo. Interesting to see if he can recover his confidence after Brazil’s traumatic World Cup campaign. Commanding: Fernandinho (left) impressed during his first season with Manchester City . Welsh wizard: Aaron Ramsey had a good season before his injury last season . Aaron Ramsey . The Welshman emerged as the division’s best player in the first half of last season, scoring 13 goals before the end of November. An injury set him back in the second half of the season but reclaimed the spotlight with the winning goal in the FA Cup final against Hull. Verdict: Aaron Ramey. A difficult one but if Ramsey replicates the form he showed this time last year, Arsenal have one of the world’s most talented midfield players on their hands. Central midfield . Yaya Toure . Birthday cakes and summer shenanigans aside, Toure is the best midfielder in the country. He is a match-winner, scoring 24 goals as City won the title last season. Keep lighting those candles, City fans, because Yaya is irreplaceable. Pass master: Yaya Toure helped City win the Premier League title last season . Middle man: Jack Wilshere will hope to have an injury free season . Jack Wilshere . Career has stagnated after such a blistering start and the images that emerged of Wilshere smoking on holiday did little to correct the feeling that this player could be taking his opportunity more seriously. Has to score more goals and repay the faith that Wenger continues to show in him this season. Verdict: Yaya Toure. Wilshere’s most valuable asset is potential while Toure is proven at the highest level. Attacking midfield . Samir Nasri . His national team harshly overlooked the Frenchman for the World Cup, particularly after such an impressive campaign last season. City, however, have a very gifted footballer who has had a nice long break this summer. Former Arsenal man may feel he has something to prove to his old employers. Exile: Samir Nasri was left out of the France World Cup squad despite a good season for City . Big money move: A lot will be expected from Alexis Sanchez after his arrival this summer . Alexis Sanchez . The Chilean was one of the stars at the World Cup and represents a major coup for Arsenal. An explosive forward blessed with pace, skill and goals. Verdict: Alexis Sanchez. The former Barcelona man is the most exciting player to be signed by a Premier League club this summer. Expect Nasri to have another good season, though. Attacking Midfield . David Silva . The Spaniard is City’s conductor, pulling strings most players can’t even see. His touch is immaculate and his passing is deeply intelligent. Such a wonderful player to watch. On the attack: David Silva was key for City last season and Mesut Ozil impressed in his debut season . Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain . Oxlade-Chamberlain had a stop-start season last time around picking up a cruciate knee ligament injury on the opening day before returning in good form in January, only to be troubled by a groin problem at the end of the campaign. Verdict: As impressive as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when injury free, you have to go for David Silva for his sheer consistency in a Manchester City shirt. Attacking midfield . Stevan Jovetic . Only made two Premier League starts amid a plague of injuries last season but he has been City’s star performer in pre-season and he believes he is now ready to become a key man. May get the nod over Sergio Aguero due to the Argentine's late return for pre-season. Back from injury: Stevan Jovetic made only just two Premier League starts last season due to injury . Bright future: Santi Cazorla has proved to be one of the more exciting players in the Premier League . Santi Cazorla . Arsenal have resisted interest from Atletico Madrid for the talented midfielder and he will light up the Premier League once more this season. On his day, Cazorla is a real joy to behold. Verdict: Santi Cazorla. Cazorla has proven himself in the Premier League over several seasons. The same cannot be said of Jovetic. Yet. Striker . Edin Dzeko . The Bosnian stepped up when Alvaro Negredo lost his goalscoring touch last season, hitting over 25 goals for Manuel Pellegrini to prove his importance to the City cause. Clinical finisher: Edin Dzeko has proved to be lethal in front of goal for City . Gunner be a star: Yaya Sanogo has looked good in pre-season for Arsenal . Yaya Sanogo . Arsene Wenger has suggested that this game may come too soon for Olivier Giroud. Sanogo scored four goals against Benfica last season after a tricky first season in the first-team last time out. Verdict: Edin Dzeko. The Bosnian is a clinical finisher and powerful in the air. Provides City with something different in the final third. Overall verdict . Manchester City 6-5 Arsenal . VIDEO Arsenal entering new era - Wenger . | Champions Manchester City face FA Cup holders Arsenal for the first silverware of the season .
Alexis Sanchez set to make his competitive debut for Arsenal .
Samir Nasri set to play for City against former club after missing out on France World Cup squad . |
46,671 | 837e246678b753b9b6477d40a6b4181ff7b062e1 | (CNN) -- A strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck Sunday off the coast of Antarctica, prompting a warning that there was a "small possibility" it could trigger a tsunami. The tremor was centered in waters south of South America's southern tip, about 334 miles (539 kilometers) west of Coronation Island and 388 miles northeast of Palmer Station in Antarctica, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It hit at 9:40 a.m. local time (8:40 a.m. ET) on Sunday, according to the federal agency, and had an estimated depth of 6.2 miles. Afterward, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center released a statement saying that there appears to be no threat of "destructive widespread tsunami" because of the quake. But the agency did state "there is a small possibility of a local or regional tsunami that could affect coasts located usually no more than a few hundred kilometers from the earthquake epicenter. "Authorities in the region near the epicenter should be made aware of this possibility," the warning center added. | The quake struck Sunday morning near Antarctica's Shetland Islands .
The USGS reports it struck at a depth of 6.2 miles .
A U.S. agency warns there's a "small possibility of a ... regional tsunami" |
123,887 | 2c2764c46e189701d2b263c296777516968b1ba8 | An artisan chocolate shop serving Irn Bru eclairs, Cranachan Truffles and Horlicks Ganache has been named one of the best in Europe. Oban Chocolate Co., based in Corran Esplanade in the Scottish west coast town of Oban, made the list of the 10 most delicious chocolate shops in Europe. The shop's chocolatiers create new flavours every month, inventing unusual and 'weird' chocolates to sit alongside classic choices. Oban Chocolate Co. based in Corran Esplanade in the Scottish west coast town made the list of the 10 most delicious chocolate shops in Europe. The chocolatiers is run by Helen (pictured) and Stewart Mackechnie . The shop offers unique creations such as an Irn Bru eclairs (pictured) and Cranachan truffles . Berlin-based travel site GoEuro compiled the list with Oban Chocolate Co. the only British shop to gain the honour. The company was founded by husband and wife team Helen and Stewart Mackechnie in 2003. Mrs Mackechnie, 35 said: 'I can't believe it. 'It is a lovely feeling, just because we started from absolutely nothing. It will be our 11th birthday next month. 'We got a really good response on Facebook, we got a lot of congratulations from customers.' A visit to the Margaret River Chocolate Company in Perth, Western Australia inspired the couple to start their own business. Oban Chocolate Co. also sells classics like coffee creams, chocolate lollipops and fresh cream truffles . 1. Oban Chocolate Co, Scotland . 2. Goldhelm, Germany . 3. The Chocolat Line, Belgium . 4. Sweet Sisters, Netherlands . 5. Chocolates Valor, Spain . 6. Guido Gobino, Italy . 7. Francois Pralus, France . 8. Zotter Schokofabrik, Austria . 9. Chocolateria Delícia, Portugal . 10. E.Wedel Chocolate Lounge, Poland . 'It was a case of "that looks like a good idea - that could work in Oban",' Mrs Mackechnie continued. 'It's so nice to create a business that makes people happy. 'The locals are fantastic at supporting us over the winter [when] we close down in January for a month or so.' As well as offering unique creations such as an Irn Bru eclairs, Cranachan truffles and Horlicks ganache the chocolate shops also sells classics like coffee creams, chocolate lollipops and fresh cream truffles. 'We make over 50 kinds of chocolate, inventing a new one every month. There are quite a few we have been making for the 11 years - its good to have a balance of unusual and weird and classic chocolates,' Mrs Mackechnie said. Visitors to the chocolate shop can also watch staff handcraft every single one of their chocolate delights. | Oban Chocolate Co. appeared on travel site GoEuro's top ten list .
Owners Helen and Stewart Mackechnie started chocolatiers in 2003 .
Artisan creations include Cranachan Truffles and Horlicks Ganache . |
243,949 | c7bfdf4d86fb6d658c45562c0d902a12ed5228aa | An air traffic controller has been suspended after leaving his control tower unattended as a flight was approaching the airport in Guyana, South America. The Ministry of Transport in Guyana said the controller and two other staff members have been suspended pending an investigation. The controller abandoned his post ten minutes before a Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 from Trinidad was due to land at the airport. An air traffic controller has been suspended after leaving his control tower ten minutes before a Caribbean Airlines flight from Trinidad was due to land at Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana (stock picture) According to the Jamaica Observer, the flight had to circle Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Georgetown until a manager was able to guide the flight safely from the tower. A Guyana Ministry of Transport spokesman said on Tuesday that the other two staff members who were suspended were a supervisor and a co-worker who had been scheduled to relieve the controller. The controller walked off the job apparently out of frustration that his co-worker did not show up to relieve him of his duties last Friday. At the time, a Caribbean Airways Boeing 737 with about 100 people on board was ten minutes from landing. A manager went to the tower and took over. The flight had to circle Cheddi Jagan International Airport (pictured) in Georgetown until a manager was able to guide the flight safely from the tower . Separately, the U.S. Embassy in Guyana warned last month that it had received 'unconfirmed threat information' about Caribbean Airlines flights from the South American country to the United States. Americans were subsequently told to avoid using the carrier until the issue is resolved. The warning about the unconfirmed threats was posted on the embassy's website, but no specific details have been released. | The government in Guyana announced the controller has been suspended .
Two other staff members have been suspended pending an investigation .
The controller abandoned his post ten minutes before a Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737 from Trinidad was due to land at the aiport . |
17,083 | 3061e9ea294bbb58e7f1c157ee30aa7f66564aa9 | (CNN) -- When I was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, I was told it wasn't going to be a big deal. Things may change, but hopefully not much. Unfortunately, my form of the genetic disorder has caused thousands of tumors throughout my body, and pain that I never thought possible. I spent more than 180 days in a hospital room 1,000 miles from home and have had basically every plan in my life change. But through these immense trials, when I was ready to give up, when I wanted to let go, my family, my community and my doctors were there to fight for me. When I first heard what my brother Chad's friend Brendan Hanrahan had come up with, I thought it was hilarious, and would surely get them arrested. But leave it to them to make it actually work. I mean, it is incredible really, what the Cupid's Undie Run team has been able to do in three years. This year alone, the events raised more than $1.3 million for neurofibromatosis research. Who would have thought that running around in your underwear could do such good? Seemingly every day, I am reminded how amazing and dedicated our friends are. Hanrahan, his fiancee, Tamara Forys, and Bobby Gill, to name just a few, take hours and hours of their spare time to make this race work. They get nothing in return, other than the joy of seeing a good idea make a difference in people's lives. I'm just lucky to be one of those people. Since my brother joined the Children's Tumor Foundation to raise money for research and increase awareness of neurofibromatosis, I have been prescribed the off-label use of a cancer drug to shrink my tumors, and the results have been nothing short of miraculous. Cupid's Undie Run: Benefiting the Children's Tumor Foundation sans pants . I have gone from being bedridden to driving, from a regiment of pain killers to almost none, and now I'm planning to go back to school to become a math teacher. I would never have chosen to have this disorder or to fight this fight, but it does give a unique opportunity to see the best in people. This year, Cupid's was held in 18 cities, with countless volunteers dedicating their free time. People often tell me that I'm an "inspiration," but to me, these volunteers, this team -- they are my inspiration. Neurofibromatosis is a terrible thing, but with an organization like the Children's Tumor Foundation, and with people like those who make Cupid's possible, I have an unwavering belief that nothing will stop us from ending this disease. The neurofibromatosis community will be forever grateful for their gift, and all I can do is say thank you. | Drew Leathers says he has faced "immense trials" living with neurofibromatosis .
His brother and friends have founded the Cupid's Undie Run team to raise funds .
The run this year raised $1.3 million for neurofibromatosis research, Leathers says . |
99,850 | 0ca5b0a1dc147c15e6664bca8a4eaea585228219 | By . Paul Bentley . Last updated at 8:11 PM on 11th July 2011 . The controversial Casey Anthony lawyer slammed for brashly celebrating her court victory with champagne and a finger up to the public has spoken out in defence of his client, insisting she never killed her two-year-old daughter Caylee. Cheney Mason, who has used his moment in the limelight following Anthony's dramatic six-week trial to slam those who have dared to criticise the verdict, said he has not 'for one minute' doubted the integrity of his client. He also took the opportunity to attack the 'stalker' at whom he infamously stuck up his middle finger, saying the man was 'lucky' he was protected at that moment by the walls of the bar he was outside. Scroll down for video . Spotlight: Attorney Cheney Mason has come under fire for his behaviour after the trial . In a spectacular turn of events for a . woman who was facing the death penalty, Casey Anthony was on Tuesday acquitted of charges that she killed her two-year-old daughter Caylee. The jury at court in Orange County found her not . guilty of first degree murder, aggravated murder and aggravated child . abuse. She was found guilty of four lesser charges of lying to police but she will . walk free from from jail on June 16 because of time already served and . good behaviour. In the wake of furious public backlash to the case's outcome, with repeated death threats sent to Anthony, her parents and her defence team, Mason took the opportunity to speak up for the reviled former murder suspect. Wink: Mason shares a glance with Casey Anthony during the dramatic six-week trial . Asked if he believed Anthony was innocent, Mason told NBC: 'I do believe her story. I . believed it from the first time I met her. Several weeks before I . formerly was on the team I went to her home, her room where all the . photographs are and talked to her. 'I have never for one minute had . any doubt at all. She did not kill her child. Period.' He added that while Anthony has a history of lying, he believes her story on Caylee's supposed accidental death was true. 'I don't think her story has changed since the very beginning,' he insisted. 'There's no . question that she told a lot of stories to friends for protective . mechanism and I think we presented evidence for that.' Uncouth: Mason flicks the bird at a 'stalker', left, while toasting his team's sensational court victory . Casey's . parents George and Cindy, who have been married for 30 years, publicly . supported their daughter from her initial arrest in 2008 to the . start of the murder trial. But on the opening day in court, . the defence dropped a bombshell that Caylee was never missing but had . drowned in an accident in the family's pool on June 16. More . shocking was the accusation that George Anthony had sexually abused his . daughter when she was a child, and suggested the dysfunctional . relationship explained Anthony's behaviour after Caylee's death. Tragic: Two-year-old Caylee died but no one has been convicted of murder . Defence . lawyer Jose Baez suggested this was why Casey had lied so frequently at first - to protect her dysfunctional family. He said Mr Anthony had a role in disposing the body . and bullied his daughter, who he had molested from aged eight, into . keeping it all secret. The family have denied the defence's account of events that Caylee drowned in their pool. In . court, Cindy Anthony dismissed claims that she had left a ladder to the . pool in place and George Anthony denied that he had ever sexually . abused his daughter. Mason insisted that Casey has, in fact, coped remarkably well under huge stress. 'She's under a lot of pressure,' he told NBC. 'Just imagine 23 hours a day for three years [in a solitary cell]. Most people would be drooling. 'She's a very intelligent person. And independent. 'We tried to keep her emotions down which is pretty . hard to do when your family is testifying against you and people are . calling for your blood like a lynch mob.' The attorney added that he was afraid for her safety in the wake of the trial. Asked where she would go after her release next weekend, he said: 'I don't know and if I did I wouldn't tell you.' He added: 'We're all concerned about her safety and her future. I don't know that anything is ever beyond repair. [but] I think with her parents that's pretty well burned. Appearance: Cheney Mason made the comments in defence of Casey Anthony . 'It's as much her country as anybody else's. She just needs some time and counselling and to be reintroduced into society.' Mason came under fire last week for celebrating the court victory with a champagne party at a local bar. In an apparent moment of madness, he turned to one camera pointed at him and rudely flipped his middle finger. Instead . of defending the action, however, Mason said he was gesturing towards a . 'stalker' who he threatened was lucky he did not come out to confront . him properly. Torn apart: Casey Anthony, left, has become estranged from mum Cindy after allegations of rape and incest . Behind bars: Casey Anthony will walk free from Orange County jail on Sunday 17 July . 'My frustrations were not with the news media itself or in general,' he explained. 'There . was one particular stalker that had been stalking our defence team . morning noon and night every day of the trial, yelling obsenities and . threatening and trying to embarrass and expose Mr Baez, myself and the . others on the team. '[He] went so far as to even ask some of the women on our team on the street if they were on their periods. 'That little non-human person deserved what he got and he's fortunate he wasn't in the room,' he added. Watch the video . Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy . | Cheney Mason says he 'never for one minute' doubted Casey's innocence .
Praises Casey for 'intelligence' and 'strength' saying others under pressure she faced would be 'drooling'
Insists she has right to freedom, saying the U.S. is 'as much her country as anyone else's'
Threatens 'stalker' he gave finger to, saying 'he's lucky he wasn't in the room' |
187,357 | 7ea77483375dd9b29e62695720cf95d49c911d54 | Former AFL player Daniel Chicks has released a video from his archives showing ex-Eagles teammate Ben Cousins diving into a crocodile-infested river during a dare. Daniel 'Chicky' Chicks posted the now-video to social media under the caption 'Here is a classic Cuzzy [Ben Cousins] & Chicky moment back in 2006/7'. In the footage shot shortly after the West Coast Eagles premiership win in 2006, Cousins jumps into a river in Kunanarra, Western Australia, despite at least one crocodile clearly visible in the video. Scroll down for video . Daniel 'Chicky' Chicks posted the video on social media under the caption 'Here is a classic Cuzzy [Ben Cousins] & Chicky moment back in 2006/7' Cousins and Chicks were in the Kimberley region 'for a promotion and autograph session and our hosts took us out House boating one day,' Chicks said. Chicks said that a 'croc kept sneaking up taking a look at us and we asked about it and our Hosts told us he is the resident fresh water croc'. 'Cuzzy decided he wanted to wrestle a small Crocodile after we had a few beers - it was fresh water but i give him credit for his courage i must say !!' he wrote in the videos description. Cousins, who played for the West Coast Eagles and Richmond Tigers during his AFL career, can be seen jumping into the water, and quickly gets back on the boat, before jumping back in again, while Chicks can be seen laughing with a beer in his hand. Chicks said that a 'croc kept sneaking up taking a look at us and we asked about it and our Hosts told us he is the resident fresh water croc' 'Cuzzy decided he wanted to wrestle a small Crocodile after we had a few beers - it was fresh water but i give him credit for his courage i must say !!' he wrote in the videos description . 'Cuzzy decided to dive in and have a go but as you see the Croc saw him coming and moved as he dived and made a splash which cuzzy saw no doubt,' Chicks said. 'Then without touching the water he was back on Board the House Boat,' he said. When Cousins jumps in the second time, Chicks pushes his head back under the water as he tries to get back on the deck of the vessel, as his fellow travellers look on. Chicks wrote under the video that 'I was really concerned my great mate was about to get eaten'. Ben Cousins (left) and Daniel Chicks (right) played for the West Coast Eagles AFL team . The video has gone viral since Chicks posted it to social media, garnering nearly 15,000 views . Cousins and Chicks were in the Kimberley region 'for a promotion and autograph session and our hosts took us out House boating one day' One social media user labelled the antics 'Great fun with good friends, doesn't get any better than that,' while another said it was 'awesome and yeah he has balls that's for sure' The video has gone viral since Chicks posted it to social media, garnering nearly 15,000 views. Chicks, who was well-known for having his left ring finger amputated in order that he could continue playing football, commented on the attention, saying that he and Cousins 'sure can pull a crowd when we get to together hey - I wish I had footage of all the other funny things we got up to'. One social media user labelled the antics 'Great fun with good friends, doesn't get any better than that,' while another said it was 'awesome and yeah he has balls that's for sure'. Another social media user said that it 'looked like you were having fun but crocs are bad they eat you... but looked like great times with cuz just like the whole 06 team gave us supporters.' Chicky said that the video was 'just two mates having some fun'. Chicks played AFL for the West Coast Eagles with Ben Cousins . | Former AFL player Daniel Chicks posted a video of teammate Ben Cousins .
Cousins is filmed jumping into a croc-infested river in Western Australia .
He quickly jumps out but dives back in a second time .
Chicks jokingly pushes Cousins' head back under the water .
He posted it under the heading 'classic Cuzzy & Chicky moment'
The video has gone viral, with nearly 15,000 views . |
17,695 | 3221954fc7fcdf762ae359847ab6bfcdee4258f0 | By . Bianca London . PUBLISHED: . 04:54 EST, 7 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 04:54 EST, 7 May 2013 . Countless celebrities have gorged on creepy crawlies and bizarre sea food as part of torturous tasks on ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. But . what was once viewed as something of a punishment may become a culinary treat if Ángel León's new menu is anything to go by. The chef from a tiny beachside village near Cádiz in Spain has created a new menu based on his life-long obsession with the ocean. His main ingredient? Plankton. Would YOU eat this? A chef (R) from Spain has introduced a new 21-course tasting menu using plankton (L) as the main ingredient . While plankton is most commonly known as a mealtime treat for fish and whales, Ángel León has created a 21 course tasting menu based on the sea-based bacteria, which he is serving up at his Michelin-starred restaurant for a tasty 105 euros. Unsurprisingly, plankton isn't recommended for human consumption and even León has made himself sick when cooking with it in the past. Speaking to Modern Farmer about his bizarre culinary experiment, he said: 'Ever since I started cooking, plankton has been on my mind and it has always been a challenge to recreate its flavors for my dishes.' The self-proclaimed 'Chef of the Sea' teamed up with scientist Carlos Unamunzaga back in 2007 to begin cultivating plankton. Experimentation: The self-proclaimed 'chef of the sea' believes that plankton have a vital role in the food chain and make the fish that eat it tastier. (R) An example of one of his quirky seafood dishes . León reveals that the secret to culinary success is to keep the alga lyophilized (freeze-dried) and then bound with sterilized sea water just before served to keep it fresh. Plankton are any organisms that live in the sea and can't swim against a current . They are a vital food source for fish and whales . These organisms include drifting animals, archaea, algae, or bacteria . Many plankton are microscopic in size but some are as large as jellyfish . One of his new signature dishes is Alkalinity- a recreation of oyster and lemon but his quirky interpretation replaces the oyster with plankton. León's experimentation's with plankton have led him to champion its role in the food chain because he believes fish that eat plankton have a fuller flavour. Feeding fish with plankton also puts less pressure on the environment. And León isn't stopping at just plankton. The adventurous chef is determined to open our tastebuds to a new variety of fish, including species that are usually thrown back into the ocean called 'bycatch.' He added: 'I’ve always been obsessed by the sea and I have been on many different kinds of fishing boats. 'It was on one of them that I was struck by the amount of fish that were thrown into the sea for not having a trade name, which led me to start working to bring these poor "no-name" fish to haute cuisine.' | Ángel León has created a 105€ tasting menu based on the bacteria .
Plankton isn't recommended for human consumption .
Even León made himself sick when cooking with it .
Signature dish is oyster and lemon but replaces the oyster with plankton . |
112,078 | 1c90e41e6c7a48a4bebbb3745959597e1a0b18e8 | President Barack Obama, responding to concerns over the use of military-style equipment during protests in Ferguson, Missouri over the summer, is asking aides to prepare an executive order that would better track the weapons and gear flowing from the federal government to local police departments around the nation. The order, which he's expected to preview Monday afternoon during a meeting with law enforcement and local government officials, would mandate federal agencies review the way they provide U.S. police with heavy equipment like tanks and aircraft. A report issued by the White House found the vast majority of material coming from the Department of Defense to police departments wasn't military-style: it included office supplies, furniture and tents. But 4% of the Pentagon's output to police departments is military grade, including 92,442 small arms, 5,235 Humvees, 617 mine resistant vehicles and 616 aircraft. Other agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, also provide police with equipment and funds. The executive action, which was described by White House officials ahead of Obama's announcement, is the conclusion of a review process Obama launched in August following the heavily armed response to protesters in Ferguson. Images of tear-gassed filled streets patrolled by police in tanks sparked concern that local departments were treating citizens like enemy combatants. Officials said following the reviews, agencies could require better tracking of the equipment that ends up with police, require training for officers, and mandate reviews following "significant" incidents in which the equipment is used. But officials said the president wouldn't tamp down on the flow of equipment from the Pentagon to police departments since the bulk of the gear isn't military grade. Instead, they said Obama would convene a task force on policing, focused on combating crime while building public trust in local law enforcement agencies. Charles Ramsey, the police commissioner of Philadelphia, will head the panel. The White House will also ask for $263 million to provide police departments with body cameras, which advocates say would provide a clearer picture of confrontations like the incident in Ferguson, in which a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. The funds would also go toward training. As White House tackles Ferguson tensions, what solutions will it find? | Obama is planning an executive order on police militarization .
Concerns have been expressed about level of response to Ferguson protests .
Obama won't call for end to flow of equipment to police department . |
63,153 | b36b3bf13772ecad96759967547119fed67ed174 | (CNN) -- "The British aren't coming! The British aren't coming!" screams the headline of New York's Daily News, describing Britain as "normally reliable" but now a surprising let-down for U.S. President Barack Obama. Following a lengthy debate in the UK parliament Thursday, a majority voted against the government's motion to militarily intervene in Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack by the Assad regime. The result of the emergency meeting has been described in the press as a humiliating defeat for both UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Obama. The New York Times says Cameron's intentions were hasty and the result of the vote was a "blow" to the U.S. president. "Like nearly all presidents since the Vietnam War, he has relied on Britain to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington in any serious military or security engagement," it said. Writing for Canada's National Post, author Kelly McParland criticizes U.S. President Barack Obama's approach as slow and indecisive. "Syria's government can only feel fortunate that so grievous a violation of international norms has provoked so uncertain and disjointed a response," she concludes. Al Jazeera reports UK finance minister George Osborne's view that the result will diminish Britain's position in the world and fray the bond it has with the U.S. Russia's weekly newspaper the Moscow News says the debate is "a stunning defeat" for Cameron. They also add that the White House has said Thursday's U.N. Security Council permanent member meeting, which failed to reach a conclusion, was another effort by Russia to not hold the Syrian regime accountable for the use of chemical weapons. Russia's English-speaking daily, Moscow Times, says there are eight issues that must be considered before carrying out an attack on Syria. It says the main point is that Western leaders are not thinking about the bigger picture, such as whether military intervention will actually prevent further use of chemical weapons. The paper also suggests pushing for diplomatic instead of military resolutions. The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson writes: "The prime minister has lost control of his own foreign and defence policy and as a result he will cut a diminished figure on the international stage." He adds that the prime minister's defeat will be mostly felt within his own party. UK's daily newspaper The Independent said Cameron's military plans were "shot down in a dramatic Commons vote" and that "foreign policy is in disarray." It adds that the prime minister's "humiliating defeat" questions his leadership. The paper also claimed the loss was a win for opposition leader Ed Miliband, who supported military intervention but then spoke firmly against it. According to the paper, some Tory ministers were quite confused. In the British political television program Newsnight, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond twice referred to the need to deter "Saddam Hussein" from chemical warfare. British tabloid newspaper The Mirror also claims that UK politicians cannot pin Damascus on a map. "One person picked Texas - hopefully they were joking," quips the paper. Britain's Daily Mail newspaper suggests Cameron has shot himself in the foot, describing him as the "Grand Old Duke of York" attempting to march his men to the top of the hill. "He now discovers that he has charged up his own hill while the majority of the British people and indeed a majority of their MPs remain stubbornly at the bottom." Time Magazine reminds readers in its blog that the British government's desire to take action in Syria is nothing new, including numerous warnings to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop attacks on his own people. French news outlet France 24 expresses shock at the result of the vote, claiming that the nation's President Francois Hollande will maintain his firm stance in support of military intervention. Unlike in the UK, the French leader does not need a vote in parliament to back his actions. Hollande is also quoted as saying that Britain's agreement is not needed: "Each country is sovereign to participate or not in an operation. That is valid for Britain as it is for France." The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong reflects on the Iraq War -- the memory of which clouded the debate in parliament and gave rise to concerns from politicians who remember the invasion only too vividly, it says. However, unlike the uncertain grounds of that war, the paper points to the strong evidence of the use of chemical weapons. "Unlike Iraq in 2003, the triggering event in Syria a decade later is not a shaky argument that the government possesses weapons of mass destruction, but a rocket assault that left hundreds of victims convulsing and gasping for breath, glassy-eyed and foaming at the mouth -- all classic symptoms of a reaction to poison gas." However, some feel excluded from the debate altogether. The online version of the Israeli Haaretz Newspaper claims that Israel should have been a part of the discussion: "During the lengthy debate in the British parliament over a possible military intervention in Syria on Thursday, Israel barely featured." | British members of parliament voted against military intervention in Syria .
The decision goes against the government's motion and U.S. President Barack Obama's intentions . |
264,431 | e27e4ea0f84948c5286b25e30df248fb3bf32671 | These pictures show the tense moment a tiny field mouse confronted and appeared to taunt a cat before making a lucky escape. The rodent, locked in an intense stare with its feline foe, appears to square up to the cat, raising its front feet into the air. As the pet moggy moved in for the kill, the plucky mouse turned its tail and made a speedy getaway. Scroll down for video . Man or mouse? The tiny rodent squares up to Bastet the cat in a garden in Brittany, France . The real Tom and Jerry: The cat and mouse are locked in an intense stare as predator and prey plot their next moves . The encounter between predator and prey was captured by French nutrition student Enora Lebosse in her garden in Brittany. The 20-year-old said: 'My pet cat, Bastet, was hot on the heels of a little field mouse. 'Her mother gave her a little mouse to play with, but it was very fast and managed to escape. 'I was watching my cats play in the garden and when I saw the mouse I quickly fetched my camera. 'It was like the mouse was talking to Bastet, almost as if they were telling secrets to each other. I was really happy I was able to capture this moment.' Standing just two metres away, Miss Lebosse watched as the field mouse escaped, darting from the garden. Cat got your tongue: A sheepish Bastet looks on after the mouse made a speedy escape from the cat's clutches . The moment was captured by student Enora Lebosse, who watched the encounter from just metres away . After the mouse made its speedy getaway, Bastet licked her lips and began searching for a new meal. Miss Lebosse added: 'When people see these photographs, most of them feel surprised and are incredulous. 'Fortunately, the mouse escaped and so the story has a happy ending, but I was very lucky to capture the moment. I guess I was just in the right place at the right time.' | Pictures show an intense encounter between a cat and a brave mouse .
Tiny rodent appears to square up to the moggy as they face off in a garden .
As the cat contemplated its next move, the mouse made a speedy getaway .
Photographs were taken in Brittany, France, by student Enora Lebosse . |
59,084 | a7b87b26ea59dacf4556a09d62092501fc5fdac6 | By . James Chapman . Last updated at 8:25 AM on 1st February 2012 . Pledge: Andrew Lansley, pictured outside No 10 yesterday, will today pledge to give 1m extra people access to an NHS dentist . NHS dentists are to treat an extra million patients following a shake-up in funding. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will today pledge that everyone who lost their NHS dentist since 2006 will now have access to one. The Coalition has set aside £28million, trimmed from the NHS budget via efficiency savings, to pay for the new patients. The funding will be given to primary care trusts, who have bid for the cash by setting out proposals to expand local services. They will fund new dentists, increase the number of appointments with existing ones, or provide care in people’s homes for patients who cannot travel to a surgery. Between 2006 and 2008, a million Britons lost access to an NHS dentist. The collapse in coverage followed a disastrous reform of dentists’ contracts by the Labour government. It also led to a sharp increase in emergency hospital admissions from people carrying out DIY tooth extractions. Mr Lansley told the Daily Mail: ‘Labour politicians let down families across the country who were no longer able to see an NHS dentist because of their failed policies. Cutbacks: 1million people lost access to an NHS dentist between 2006 and 2008 after a disastrous reform of contracts by the Labour Government . ‘Giving those people back their NHS dentist is a key priority of mine so I am delighted that we have been able to find more money for dentistry because of our successful programme of efficiency savings in the NHS. ‘This is a great example of how the money we are saving by working more efficiently, cutting bureaucracy and rooting out waste in the NHS is being reinvested in frontline services for patients.’ The Coalition launched trials of a new dental contract, particularly focused on improving children’s oral health, last year. Dentists will be paid for the number of patients they care for and the health results, rather than the number of courses of treatment performed. | Coalition set aside £28million to expand services .
1m people who lost access to NHS dentist under Labour will get it back . |
131,885 | 3686d0fdd399295a671f5b8bdfbe46212f75c84c | Shoe and accessories designer Vince Camuto has died at the age of 78, after battling cancer. According to WWD.com, the fashion veteran, who founded his eponymous label in 2005, passed away at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Wednesday, surrounded by his wife Louise and his five children. Mrs Camuto, who serves as the creative director of her husband's company, broke the devastating news to the company's 1,300 employees in an email last night, paying tribute to her husband's wonderful spirit and praising his extraordinary work ethic. She promised that his legacy - and his work - will live on for years to come. Scroll down for video . Fashion legend: Designer Vince Camuto passed away at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut yesterday . Legacy: Mr Camuto is survived by his wife Louise (pictured) and their five children . Mr Camuto has long-been recognized as one of the fashion industry's leading lights when it comes to shoes and accessories, having co-founded popular shoe brand Nine West in 1978, before going on to launch his eponymous fashion house the Camuto Group in 2001, which was followed by his globally-successful label Vince Camuto in 2005. The father-of-five also helped to launch singer Jessica Simpson's multi-million dollar brand in 2005, acting as her mentor throughout much of the last ten years and helping her to achieve phenomenal success with the label. Ms Simpson, 34, posted a heartbreaking tribute to her long-time friend and business partner on Instagram last night, shortly after learning about his death. Alongside a picture of herself posing with Mr Camuto and his wife Louise, she shared an inspirational quote from the designer, commenting: '"It is never about one person. It’s the teams you put in place. Without the right people, you’re nowhere” - Vince Camuto' She then added a touching message of her own, saying: 'Thank you, Vince, for the humble power that has taken me everywhere. Touching tribute: Singer Jessica Simson (center) took to Instagram to pay tribute to Mr Camuto, who helped her to launch her own fashion label, describing the designer as 'her mentor, her family' Celebrity favorite: Mr Camuto's designs were worn by some of Hollywood's hottest stars, from Julianne Hough (L), who collaborated with him on a collection for Sole Society in 2013, to Olivia Wilde (R) 'You are my mentor, my family, the creator of all my dreams. I will forever walk in your shoes…you made them. #brokenheart' Many other members of the industry quickly followed in her footsteps, taking to social media in order to share their sadness at the loss of the revered fashion designer. Alexis Maybank, founder of online fashion retailer Gilt, paid tribute to Mr Camuto's long and successful career, tweeting: 'Sad to learn of the passing of Vince Camuto - an early entrepreneur and longstanding fixture in the fashion and accessories world.' Fashion editor Julio Reyes shared a picture of himself with Mr Camuto at a recent event on Twitter, saying: 'Saddened by the news of Vince Camuto's passing. A truly creative man whom I was honored to have met & made me laugh!' He added in a second tweet: 'Camuto's life, accomplishments & business savvy were unparalleled. Completely hands on [with] EVERYTHING. Trailblazer.' The designer's colleagues also posted a tribute to their beloved boss on the company's Instagram account, posting an image of Mr Camuto alongside a touching quote from him. Fan favorite: Emily Blunt (L) and Jennifer Lopez (R) are both long-time supporters of Mr Camuto's label . It read: '"Life is an adventure. Seize the opportunity and find your passion" - Vince Camuto 1936-2015' Earlier this year, Mr Camuto spoke to WWD.com about his plans for the future of his company, telling the fashion website about his determination to keep growing a business that his wife, his children and his employees would be proud to be a part of. 'My children are my proudest accomplishment,' he said in 2013, shortly after launching his men's lifestyle label. 'Even at the office, I feel like everyone is family. Family is what is most important to me.' Mr Camuto's designs, from his shoes to his clothing, were loved by a number of Hollywood's hottest stars, from Olivia Wilde and Jennifer Lopez, to Julianne Hough and Emily Blunt, and were frequently showcased on the red carpet. In February 2013, Miss Hough actually collaborated with Mr Camuto on a collection for popular shoe label Sole Society. At the time, the Dancing With The Stars judge told Racked of her design partner: 'I feel so privileged and lucky to be in this partnership because I'm a huge fan. 'I feel super fortunate that I've been able to step out of my comfort zone with all the colors, and try really fun things that maybe I was a little nervous or hesitant about before.' | The father-of-five passed away at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Wednesday, following a battle with cancer .
He is survived by his wife Louise and his five children .
The designer's business partner, singer Jessica Simpson, led a series of tributes on social media, describing Mr Camuto as 'her mentor, her family'
Dozens of his fashion industry colleagues took to Twitter to mourn his death and celebrate his incredible career .
Mr Camuto co-founded Nine West in 1978, before launching his own eponymous fashion label in 2005 . |
56,978 | a15ccc8f5084abb48725d2b9b1be4777526d8d1b | Walmart today announced it is raising wages for 40percent of its 1.3 million employees as the embattled company tries to reshape the image that its stores offer dead-end jobs. The company - the biggest private employer in the nation - announced on Thursday that it is funneling $1 billion into how it pays and trains its workers. As part of the changes, entry level wages will be raised to at least $9 an hour by April - which is $1.75 above the federal minimum wage - and then $10 by next February. But while the changes are a move in the right direction, they fall far short of demands by labor groups, which have long protested for Walmart to raise its starting hourly wages to $15 and give employees more consistent hours. Scroll down for video . Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon is pictured during an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday as he announces the company's plans to spend $1 billion to change how it pays and trains staff . With the changes, the average full-time wage for workers will be $13 an hour, up from $12.85, the Associated Press reported. For part-time workers, the hourly wage will be $10, up from $9.48. That's below the $14.65 average that hourly retail workers in a non-supervisory role earn, according to government data that includes people who work at auto dealers and other outlets that would likely pay more than discounters like Walmart. But it's also above the $9.93 average hourly pay for cashiers and low level retail sales staff, according to Hay Group's survey of 140 retailers with annual sales of $500 million. About 500,000 workers will receive the raises as part of the company's $1 billion investment. On Thursday, OUR Walmart, which has long been protesting for the company to give its employees full-time hours and a wage of $15 an hour, responded to the news on its Facebook page. 'Big day for OUR Walmart!' it wrote. 'Today Walmart responded to our call for higher pay and more consistent schedules. They are committing to raise pay for 500,000 associates by raising the minimum pay to $9 per hour this year and $10 next year and and also raising the floor and ceiling for most current pay bands. 'This doesn't get most of us to $15 and FT (full-time) but it shows that by standing together and taking action we can make big change at Walmart. Ongoing battle: People can be seen protesting low wages outside a Walmart store in Chicago last November . 'Today when we go to work let's tell our co-workers what we have accomplished and invite them to join us in making even bigger change at Walmart.' Walmart follows other retailers that have boosted hourly pay recently, but because it's the nation's largest private employer, the impact of its move will be more closely watched. In addition to raises, Walmart said it plans to make changes to how workers are scheduled and add training programs for sales staff so that employees can more easily map out their future at the company. 'We are trying to create a meritocracy where you can start somewhere and end up just as high as your hard work and your capacity will enable you to go,' CEO Doug McMillon told the AP during an interview this week at the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. The changes, which Wal-Mart announced on Thursday as it reported fourth quarter results, come at a time when there's growing concern for the plight of the nation's hourly workers. Thousands of hourly workers and their supporters have staged protests across the country in the past couple of years to call attention to their financial struggles. Business groups and politicians have jumped into the fray, debating a proposal by President Obama to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. And a new Associated Press-GfK poll found that most Americans support increasing the minimum wage. At the same time, the competition for retail workers is becoming increasingly stiff. As shoppers get more mobile savvy, retailers are seeking sales staff that's more skilled at customer service. But in the improving economy, the most desirable retail workers feel more confident in hopping from job to job. Wal-Mart, which has struggled for two years with sluggish sales, follows other big retailers that have announced plans to increase pay for its workers. Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea this year gave thousands of workers at its U.S. division a 17 percent average raise to $10.76 an hour. And clothing chain Gap Inc. raised its minimum hourly wage of employees to $9 last year and $10 this year. Ed Lazear, a Stanford University economics professor who served as an informal adviser to Wal-Mart during the past year for the program, applauded Wal-Mart's moves. 'It's positioning itself to be competitive,' he said. 'This is a step in the right direction.' | Walmart is spending $1 billion to make changes to how it pays and trains its hourly workers in its biggest ever overhaul .
It will boost wages for 40 percent of its 1.3 million employees and entry wages will be raised to $9 by April - which is $1.75 above minimum wage .
It has long faced pressure from labor groups to raise the starting hourly wages to $15 - but the move falls short of their demands .
Still, labor group OUR Walmart applauded the company for making a move in the right direction .
Programs will be rolled out for fixed schedules and hands-on training . |
99,984 | 0cd557e8c067628037e2522b0b4b0c257ab43bb8 | From baby turtles scuttling across the beach to the northern lights glowing in the Icelandic sky, these are just some of the hundreds of entries to the Living Planet photo competition. Both professional and amateur photographers were asked to submit images that captured life on the planet in its broadest form. The winner of the competition, run by The Society of Nature and Wildlife Photographers, was a beautifully colourful shot of a ladybird crawling over a yellow flower. First place: David Bladon's ladybird crawling over a yellow flower won the prestigious photography competition which captured the world in all its glory . It was taken by David Bladon from Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. Mr Bladon, 40, who has just started his own photography business, said: 'Basically, the weather kept going from sun to showers and I was a bit bored. 'Every time the sun broke through I’d search for insects and creatures that would make a decent macro shot. When I saw the ladybird and the colours, I snapped away.' Runner-up was Debashis Mukherjee, 50, a photography graduate from Kolkata in India for his baby turtle picture. He said: 'I took this photograph at Rishikulya Sea Beach in Ganjam district, Odisha, India. 'When I was touring in that area I heard that hatching of Olive Ridley sea turtles was happening and I rushed to that spot at 3.30am. After sunrise I got this shot. Second place: Runner-up was Debashis Mukherjee, 50, a photography graduate from Kolkata in India who took this shot of baby turtles . 'The east facing coast of this peninsular of India has the honour of hosting the yearly ritual of ‘arribada’ meaning mass arrival in Spanish of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtles for their nesting, usually found in the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic oceans. 'Due to trawling and offshore drilling for oil and gas in those oceans these turtles have now been listed under the Endangered Species Act by the US. 'The footprints left behind by these new born little species reflect an emotional track for them to come back for nesting when they again are mothers.' And in third place was Violetta Nowak from Lubuskie, Poland, with her shot of a hedgehog nestling in the autumn leaves. Several Brits were highly commended, including Bill Doherty for a shot of a grebe eating a fish and Robin Lowry for two separate shots of owls. Third place: Violetta Nowak from Lubuskie, Poland, was awarded for her shot of a hedgehog nestling in the autumn . Mr Doherty, 57, from Ashington in Northumberland works with people with learning disabilities. He said: 'The image is of a juvenile great crested grebe taken in Northumberland. The parent bird had caught this fish and given it to the youngster, with no thought of a knife and fork to cut it up into smaller, more manageable pieces. The chick however did manage to consume the fish, after a bit of a struggle.' Robin Lowry, 48, from Billericay in Essex took pictures of a tawny owl and a barn owl which were both highly commended. He said: 'I call the first shot Autumn Gold. I wanted to create a warm intimate portrait of this owl, and this was one of those times when everything fell into place. Nature: Several photographers from Britain were commended including Bill Doherty, with his shot of a grebe eating a fish . In Essex where this picture was taken, with the warm Autumn tones of the leaves still on the trees, the milky early morning sun diffused by light patchy cloud, and the owl posing so nicely, I knew this was going to be a good image.' Of the barn owl, the CGI Creative Director added: 'For this image I used a captive Barn owl. I wanted to get that moment where the owl was getting ready to land but it still took a few goes to get this one where I wanted it to be, with the face and wings in the right position.' Philip Bird, from East Grinstead in West Sussex was highly commended for his amazing shot of a snowstorm coming in. Also in colder climes, a shot of the northern lights in Iceland by local photographer Rafn Sigurbjvrnsson made it onto the highly commended list. Stunning: Robin Lowry, 48, from Billericay in Essex took pictures of a tawny owl and a barn owl which were both highly commended . In full flight: Robin Lowry's Barn Owl captured the judges attention and he was commended in the photography contest . Philip Bird, from East Grinstead in West Sussex was highly commended for his amazing shot of a snowstorm coming in . Wonder: Rafn Sigurbjvrnsson took this dramatic photo of the northern lights in Iceland . At one with nature: Marek Szkolnicki from London was also highly commended for his picture of a deer besieged by birds . Mr Bird, 64, a retired bank manager, . said: 'I was taking some landscape shots at the base of the Grand Teton . mountain range in Wyoming when asnowstorm came over the crest of the . mountains and poured down to the plain where I was standing. A few . minutes later I couldn’t see a thing.' Marcos Sobral was commended for his mountain in snow and a beach shot by Barton Harper also made it on the list . Rafn, 58, from Vogar in Iceland, is a freelance photographer who also works as a tour guide and runs his own travel agency. He . said of his shot: 'On a cold winter night I went to a deserted . farmhouse near my home called Sslheimar. It was a beautiful night and . the lights weredancing in the sky.' Builder . Marek Szkolnicki, 47, from London was also highly commended for his . picture of a deer besieged by birds, and Marcos Sobral with his mountain . in snow and a beach shot by Barton Harper also made it on the list. Sicillian . cellist and photographer Domenico Guddo, 47, was highly commended for . his picture called Survival, of a cow enduring a hot day on Domenico’s . native island. He said: 'It was taken in Sicily . during a hot day. I was in the arid countryside of Gibellina and I saw . this skinny cow in this strange place, almost with theaim of drinking . from her udders.' As well as the winning shot, insects featured heavily in the highly commended images. There . was Joe Lenton’s Common Darter Dragonfly taken by the 35-year-old while . out on a walk at Hickling Broad, Norfolk and Paul Dooley’s leaf beetle . snapped by the 53 year old retail manager at Old Moore Nature Reserve at . Retford in Nottinghamshire. Hatchery . manager Allan Black, 50, snapped a highly commended blue dragonfly . whilst walking his dog at Roydon near Diss in Norfolk and Peter Preece, . retired, from Studley in Warwickshire, captured a blue Damoisel in . Spain. From further afield, Varun Jain, 23, from Chennai in India, got these damsel flies making a heart shape. He said: 'I took it around 6.30 am in the morning. I often go out in the morning to capture the dew drops, flowers and insects when everything is undisturbed. 'That day, in middle of long grasses, I observed these damselflies mating and appearing like formation of a heart which caught my eyes.' And a French professional photographer who calls himself Loriental was also highly commended for his arty seagull picture. He said: 'The picture was taken at Cancale, Brittany. I have been anticipating the flight of this seagull, prepared my manual settings, and took the shootat the moment the bird was flying above my head.' Phil Jones, The Societies CEO said: 'This is another bumper crop of stunning images, and we are delighted with the winner with David’s bright, colourful and eye catching image which portrays the sprit of the competition.' Hatchery manager Allan Black, 50, snapped a highly commended blue dragonfly while walking his dog at Roydon near Diss in Norfolk . Sicillian cellist and photographer Domenico Guddo was highly commended for his picture called Survival of a cow enduring a hot day on Domenico's native island . A French professional photographer who calls himself Loriental was also highly commended for his arty seagull picture . Peter Preece, retired, from Studley in Warwickshire, captured a blue Damoisel in Spain . Wild: A beach shot by Barton Harper also made it on to the commended list in the photography competition . Beautiful: Varun Jain, 23, from Chennai in India, captured these damsel flies making a heart shape which was highly commended in the contest . Paul Dooley's leaf beetle snapped by the 53-year-old retail manager at Old Moore Nature Reserve at Retford in Nottinghamshire . Detail: Joe Lenton's Common Darter Dragonfly taken by the 35-year-old while out on a walk at Hickling Broad, Norfolk . | The competition was run by The Society of Nature and Wildlife Photographers .
The winning shot was a beautifully colourful shot of a ladybird crawling over a yellow flower .
It was taken by David Bladon from Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland .
Runner-up was Debashis Mukherjee, 50, a photography graduate from Kolkata in India for his baby turtle picture . |
232,560 | b91e39a39e153a2229c86455136467aee02754bc | By . Sarah Griffiths . PUBLISHED: . 18:16 EST, 31 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 21:27 EST, 31 July 2013 . The traditional living room has been turned into a media zone where the household watches television while using tablets and smartphones, according to new research. Ofcom's annual State of the Nation report revealed that households are increasingly reverting to sitting around a TV set and watching shows together again - a habit that harks back to the bygone days of the 1950s. However, around half of viewers now spend this time multi-tasking, streaming videos, sending instant messages, tweeting and posting to Facebook. The bygone days of the 1950s where families watched TV together, pictured, may be making a comeback. Around 91 per cent of adults now sit and watch television in their living room each week . According to research from Leiden University, six out of ten meals in British homes are now eaten while watching TV. Yet researchers found that eating on a sofa while watching your favourite show could be making you fat. In a series of experiments, Dutch researchers made diners carry out complicated memory tests while eating food that was either salty, sweet, or sour. The study found that those who were distracted by the mental task were more likely to perceive the food as bland. Another experiment found they consumed more food in order to obtain the same taste level and were less aware of how much they ate. This has also lead to the rise in what's been dubbed 'media meshing' where people use these devices to virtually discuss the programme they are watching. Ofcom said a quarter of viewers 'mesh' while watching TV and during . this year's Wimbledon men's tennis final, for example, a total of 1.1 million people . worldwide tweeted 2.6 million times using hashtags relating to the match. Half of telly addicts instead 'media stack', which is when they use their phones or tablets to carry out activities not related in anyway to the show they're watching. This includes liking and commenting on Facebook posts and shopping online. The rise of the 'digital hub' has been caused by an increase in sales of smartphones and tablets. According to the report, the average household now owns more than . three types of internet-enabled device. While one in five families have six or . more gadgets in their home that can be connected to the web. Despite watching TV together, a rise in phone and tablet sales means people are doing so while tweeting, shopping and streaming videos turning living rooms into digital hubs, pictured. Second TVs are also being replaced in favour of 'jumbo' sets around 43 inches big . Half of adults now have a smartphone, and the amount of tablets have more than doubled - last year a total of 11 per cent of homes owned a tablet, this is now around a quarter. During the 1990s and 2000s, second television sets became more popular, especially with children watching TV in their bedrooms. This trend is being replaced with families buying just one bigger, so-called 'jumbo' TV sets measuring 43 inches or more. More than 41 per cent of homes now just have the single set compared to last year with sales of larger screens increasing from 4.3 per cent. The number of five to 15-year-olds with a . television in their bedroom has dropped from 69 per cent in 2007 to 52 . per cent in the first quarter of this year. | Study finds 91% of adults watch TV in their living room each week .
Popularity of smartphones and tablets has led to rise in .
'media meshing' where people use devices to discuss the .
programme they are watching .
Half of viewers spend this TV time multi-tasking, streaming videos, sending instant messages, tweeting and posting to Facebook . |
90,712 | 00a982a2663b11b752dc68a0e4e245762f13c446 | By . Sara Malm . PUBLISHED: . 20:41 EST, 27 December 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 15:22 EST, 28 December 2013 . Fresh out of a cocaine scandal, a divorce and public attacks by her former personal assistants, Nigella Lawson has said she is 'averse to conflict'. The 'domestic goddess' told how she avoids confrontation in an interview with Radio Times interview to promote the new season of The Taste. Nigella's acrimonious split from Charles Saatchi has hogged the headlines, alongside her confession in court that she has used cocaine seven times in her life and accusations by the Grillo sisters that she 'let her children smoke cannabis'. Scroll down to see promo . Not confrontational: Nigella Lawson has said she is 'averse to conflict' and that as a cook, she is different from professional chefs . Talking about her US TV show, which has been described as MasterChef meets The Voice, she told the magazine: ‘What I liked, not being terribly confrontational as a person, is that because you taste everything blind, you're never making any judgments on a person and you're just talking about the food.’ Lawson, who is also an executive producer on the show, added: ‘So much of reality TV is the theatre of humiliation or in some sense the culture of the breast-heaving back story, so to have a food competition that is actually about the food is... rather pleasant.’ Asked what the difference is between professional chefs and cooks like her, she added: ‘What I would say - and this is not about the food, it is about the personality - is that, as a general rule, chefs are conflict-driven, they are perfectionist, they are risk-takers. All about The Taste: Nigella said she seeks to 'use food to bring harmony - for whatever reason' In charge: Nigella, pictured alongside her fellow chefs Ludo Lefebrve, Marcus Samuelsson and Anthony Bourdain is both a judge and the show's executive produces . ‘Whereas home cooks tend to be conflict-averse - well, I am - not necessarily risk-takers, and we seek to use food to bring harmony - for whatever reason.’ Lawson added that she had felt ‘incredibly frightened’ about going to Los Angeles to do the show. The interview, which took place six weeks before allegations of Lawson's drug use emerged in the fraud trial of her former personal assistants, Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, . The sisters were acquitted and Lawson admitted during the trial that she took cocaine with her late husband John Diamond when he found out he had terminal cancer, and in 2010 when she claimed she was being ‘subjected to intimate terrorism’ by her former husband Mr Saatchi. Police are to review her admission that she took the Class A drug. The Taste is being broadcast in the UK on Channel 4. | 'Domestic goddess' Nigella Lawson says she is 'not confrontational'
Opened up in interview about new season of US show The Taste .
Nigella said she 'seek to use food to bring harmony - for whatever reason' |
64,869 | b836f2dd86c727ee1596df34c6bd746f7568af50 | Bryan Barkley, who staged a solo protest against same sex marriage in March . A volunteer has been dismissed from the British Red Cross for protesting against gay marriage. Bryan Barkley, 71, was told he is no longer welcome at the charity because his views are incompatible with its values. The church-going pensioner received his dismissal letter after holding a one-man protest outside his local cathedral. He held up a placard saying ‘No same sex marriage’ and ‘No redefinition of marriage’. Yesterday his supporters said the charity’s action was shocking and it was punishing volunteers for their thoughts and views. Mr Barkley, who has worked for 20 years as a senior Red Cross volunteer, is appealing against his dismissal which he calls ‘unfair and without justification’. The grandfather, who has been married for 42 years, joined the organisation after taking early retirement from his job as a civil engineer and had recently represented it at a Buckingham Palace garden party. He said yesterday: ‘What have I done wrong? I passionately believe that the institution of marriage is between a man and a woman and is the cornerstone of our society. Why is it wrong to say so in public? ‘Freedom of expression is being stifled in this country. I have nothing against homosexuals. But I don’t believe Parliament was representing the views of the people when it changed the definition of marriage.’ Mr Barkley, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, worked for the charity’s international tracing service helping reunite families in Britain with relatives in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He staged his protest outside Wakefield Cathedral in March. It was reported in the local press and Pink News but his link to the Red Cross was not mentioned. However, in May he received a letter from Andy Peers, director of operations for the charity in Yorkshire, summoning him to a disciplinary hearing. The letter said it was to discuss his protest in relation to the ‘fundamental principles of the Red Cross, Red Crescent Movement and the values of the British Red Cross’. During the meeting, Mr Peers told Mr Barkley that the British Red Cross does not have a view on same sex marriage because as a charity it is impartial and neutral. Yet on August 8, Mr Barkley was told the charity was withdrawing his ‘opportunity to volunteer’ with immediate effect. The letter of dismissal accused him of breaching its principles. Coalition for Marriage, which co-ordinated opposition to gay marriage, is providing Mr Barkley with legal advice. Its director, Colin Hart, said: ‘This is a shocking case. Mr Barkley held the protest outside his local cathedral in Wakefield earlier this year . ‘For nearly two decades Bryan helped reunite people with lost family members. ‘Yet after voicing his opposition to the Government’s plans to rip up the traditional definition of marriage he was fired. ‘His only crime seems to be that he was one of millions of ordinary people who opposed this change. What will disturb most people is that the Red Cross says it is not his actions but his thoughts and views that were the problem. ‘Is it now official policy of the Red Cross that any volunteer who holds traditional views on marriage will face the sack?’ The Red Cross said: ‘We are committed to and bound by our fundamental principles which... do not take sides in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature. ‘We have to consider the compatibility of people’s publicly expressed views in line with the fundamental principles.’ | Bryan Barkley held the one-man protest outside Wakefield Cathedral .
Stood by himself and held up a placard which read 'No same sex marriage'
Has now been dismissed from the British Red Cross due to the protest .
Was told he was no longer welcome as his views are incompatible with its values . |
228,515 | b3e1700b8e0421f78f796ac077c3cecb127275a0 | (CNN) -- Truly, it's been a summer for jokers -- and I'm not just talking about "The Dark Knight." "Tropic Thunder" stars Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. as self-absorbed actors. When the bat's been away, Steve Carell ("Get Smart"), Will Ferrell ("Step Brothers") and Seth Rogen ("Pineapple Express") have all come out to play, and notched up lucrative returns, too. Ben Stiller's sometimes hilarious "Tropic Thunder" is easily the biggest of the summer's blockbuster comedies -- and certainly the goriest. It's a high-concept meta-movie about an all-star Vietnam War picture (also called "Tropic Thunder") that goes very, very wrong. Stiller's "Tropic Thunder," on the other hand, gets it mostly right. Which is just as well, because it looks like it cost an arm and a leg to make. The movie-within-a-movie is directed by Damian Cockburn (Steve Coogan) and stars chubby clown Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), action beefcake Tugg Speedman (Stiller) and Aussie method man Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.). The latter is a temperamental chameleon who takes his craft so seriously he has undergone skin pigmentation treatment for his role as a black GI. (Any resemblance to Russell Crowe is entirely superficial but can hardly be coincidental.) Cockburn quickly loses the trust of his ferocious, potty-mouthed studio boss (in one of the film's more inspired insider gags, he's played by a real-life studio boss you may just recognize as Tom Cruise). So when disabled Vietnam vet "Four Leaf" Tayback (Nick Nolte) -- the inspiration for the movie -- suggests dropping them into the jungle and shooting the picture with hidden digital cameras, "guerrilla-style," it seems like a stroke of genius. That is, until the stars lose contact with the outside world and find themselves in a firefight with Golden Triangle drug lords. "Tropic Thunder" is willing to push its gags right to the edge -- and sometimes over it. In the most famous example, the film has run into flak from disabled advocates for its repeated use of the word "retard," referring to Speedman's previous bid for artistic respectability, a sentimental "Forrest Gump"-style Oscar bid by the name of "Simple Jack." Watch why several groups want to boycott the film » . Stiller does milk it, but the protesters are missing the point. If there's one group who should be protesting this movie it's the Screen Actors Guild. The heart-rending, soul-searching, consciousness-raising commitment we prize in our movie stars, particularly around Oscar time -- it's all beautifully travestied and lampooned. An early bad-taste highlight has Tugg messing with his director's head. Literally. And the strained relationship between Alpa and Kirk -- who proves incapable of breaking out of his African-American character -- is terrifically juicy. Downey's blackface performance is an appalling mixture of Mr. T and Uncle Remus, but at the same time he endows the actor with enough straight critical intelligence to appreciate the severity of their situation. The effect is simultaneously funny and a little disturbing. Lazarus is the one character who leaves an indelible impression among some overly familiar caricatures. The Asian characters, in particular, rightfully belong in some third-rate "Deer Hunter" knock-off. Which doesn't mean that "Tropic Thunder" -- which was written by Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen -- isn't funny. It can be scattershot, even with its fairly safe targets, but when it hits it hits dead-on. (It's not wildly original and outrageous, though, to anyone who's seen Coogan in "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" or watched the Ricky Gervais series "Extras," in which Stiller played himself in one episode.) iReport.com: Share your thoughts on 'Tropic Thunder' But after an hour or so the movie's one big joke starts wandering around in circles and we're stuck watching a painfully unfunny Jack Black flailing about in mock heroin withdrawal; Tugg reprising Simple Jack, yet again; and a silly, authentically B-movie climax which involves everyone shooting blanks. Still, if it doesn't live up to its full potential there is more than enough to keep you smiling, not least its production values. The film was photographed by John Toll, who shot "The Thin Red Line," and he gives it a look to compete with the Vietnam movies it has in its sights ("Platoon," especially, gets a ribbing). There's also the now-cliched '60s jukebox soundtrack to go with it. And though some of the caricatures wear thin, some of the acting rises to a high level. There's Downey, of course, but also Jackson and Jay Baruchel's nicely gauged supporting turns, and a blitzkrieg of celebrity cameos including Tobey Maguire, Matthew McConaughey and Jon Voight. As for Mr. Cruise, he's still the best mover and shaker in Hollywood. He should try this stuff more often. "Tropic Thunder" is rated R and runs 106 minutes. For Entertainment Weekly's rave review, click here. | Tom Charity: "Tropic Thunder" doesn't always hit, but when it does, pow!
Robert Downey Jr. particularly good in Hollywood satire .
Film's first half particularly strong, though it gets repetitive . |
22,494 | 3fdbf8c7ab6c5677dd4647990767fcb8acdb8536 | There were emotional scenes today as the family and friends of a four-year-old boy who drowned after slipping from a jetty attended his church funeral. Dylan Cecil slipped into the sea off a jetty while on holiday with his family in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset on Sunday August 19. He was said to have been trying to get a closer look at the sea when the tragedy happened. Scroll down for video . Tragedy: Dylan Cecil fell into the water at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset on Sunday August 19. Pictured front right is his father Darren Cecil and his mother Rachel McCollum is behind the coffin . Accident: Dylan, 4, from Kettering in Northamptonshire . The youngster, from Kettering in Northamptonshire, disappeared from view while members of his family were enjoying a day on the coast. His parents, Rachel McCollum and Darren Cecil, attempted to save their boy, while emergency services quickly launched a search and rescue operation. The body was discovered by a member of the public under a floating jetty at the mouth of the River Brue, near Burnham-on-Sea Yacht Club - half a mile from where Dylan went missing. At St Mary’s Church in . Kettering this afternoon hundreds of mourners turned out to pay their . last respects to the youngster, many wearing blue in honour of Dylan’s . beloved Kettering Town FC and Sonic the hedgehog. Mr Cecil was one of the pall-bearers . who lifted his son’s blue coffin, which also had a picture of Sonic on . the side and a football scarf draped over it, out of the white . horse-drawn carriage and carried it into church. Ceremony: The coffin arrives for the funeral service at St Mary's Church, Fuller Street, Kettering as hundreds of mourners file in behind . Devastated: His parents, Rachel McCollum and Darren Cecil, attempted to save their boy, while emergency services quickly launched a search and rescue operation . Tiny coffin: The blue casket had a picture of Sonic on the side and a football scarf draped over it, and was carried in a white horse-drawn carriage . One tribute, attached to a rectangular cream arrangement dedicated to 'brother' and with a poem and a picture of the cartoon hedgehog, said: 'To the best big brother ever!! Dylan we love and will miss you always. Love Faithy B and Ali bop bop xxx.' Many mourners hugged one another and wiped away tears as they silently watched. In the playground next to the church, . children stopped playing football and stood quietly at the gates of the . court while the coffin was carried in. Members of Kettering Town FC were also part of the congregation. As Dylan’s mother, Ms McCollum, who was . wearing a blue dress, left the church after the hour-long service, she . said goodbye to her son and bent to kiss his coffin before it was lifted . into the horse-drawn carriage. A poem she had written was read out during the service, prayers were said and hymns sung for the youngster. The hymn ‘All Creatures Great and . Small’ could be heard seeping from the aisles of the church out on to . the streets of the town rocked by Dylan’s death. Support: Dylan's mother was hugged by a mourner as his father lifted the coffin into the horse-drawn carriage . Memories: Hundreds of mourners turned out to pay their last respects to the youngster, many wearing blue in honour of Dylan's beloved Kettering Town FC and Sonic the hedgehog . Expressions of sorrow: Handwritten messages on floral tributes inside the hearse described the sadness felt by Dylan’s family at his death . Dylan Cecil, right, pictured with his parents Rachel McCollum and Darren Cecil, on his fourth birthday . One of the pictures of Dylan in the order of service showed him smiling and wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog baseball cap. Ms McCollum was hugged . tightly and she sobbed as her son’s coffin was lifted into the hearse. Mr Cecil wiped tears from his eyes as he turned to embrace family and . friends. Handwritten messages on floral tributes inside the hearse described the sadness felt by Dylan’s family at his death. One, . attached to a rectangular cream arrangement dedicated to 'brother' and . with a poem and a picture of the cartoon hedgehog, said: 'To the best . big brother ever!! Dylan we love and will miss you always. Love Faithy B . and Ali bop bop xxx.' A . card on a wreath of flowers including white lilies and red roses from . his grandparents said: 'To our special grandson Dylan. You will always . be with us. Lots of love, seaside Nanny and Grandad.' Another, . laid on the pavement outside the church gates, showed a picture of . Sonic and had a card that said: 'For Dylan, our beautiful little boy . that we love and miss so much. Always in our hearts, our thoughts and . our prayers. Nanny and Grandad Cecil xxx.' Last sighting: After he slipped into the sea, Dylan's mother Rachel McCollum, centre, returned to the spot where the boy was last seen with police community support officers . Cars . came to a halt as the carriage carrying Dylan was driven slowly from . the church, followed by his parents and family in cars behind, as he was . taken for a private burial. Donations in memory of Dylan, whose body was taken to be cremated after the service, were asked to be made to BARB (Burnham Area Rescue Boat). | Dylan Cecil was on holiday visiting his grandparents when he fell into the water at Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset on Sunday August 19 .
His parents, Rachel McCollum and Darren Cecil, attempted to save their son .
Hundreds of mourners turned out to pay their last respects to the youngster, at St Mary’s Church in Kettering this afternoon .
Mother read a poem to mourners . |
213,542 | a08cc0d148a7c217384184b9575e19b48af3fb37 | Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN) -- Laura Zych never liked birds. Ben Bostic feared drowning. They faced their fears when US Airways Flight 1549 hit a flock of geese and crash-landed in the Hudson River. They were strangers on January 15, 2009, when they boarded the fateful flight that would become known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." A year later, they're in love. "The first time people meet you, they want to hear the sensational part" of the crash, says Ben, 39. He prefers to talk about something different: "I met this wonderful girl because of what we went through that day." Laura, 31, looks at him, batting her model-like lashes, and smiles. "We don't dwell on what happened to us in the crash," she says. "It's more so on the experiences and lessons that we've taken from it." 'Is this really happening?' A buyer for Belk department stores, Laura was in New York for the fashion market. With the nation in the thick of recession, she scooped up bargains for herself. She carried her trendy purchases through the airport that day on her return home to Charlotte, North Carolina. Wearing a sweater dress, tights and boots, the woman with stylish sandy brown curls was getting a bite to eat when a group of guys asked if she was a model. "No," she said. "But I am in the fashion industry." She was traveling with five Belk co-workers. Waiting to board, she fired off e-mails and thought little of the flight home or those around her. Ben -- who was in New York for a quick business trip for Lending Tree -- caught a glimpse of the 5-foot, 10-inch knockout near the gate. Later, when they boarded, he noticed her again, coming down the aisle. "The first thought I had was it'll be cool if she sits beside me." He was in 20A, a window seat on the left side of the plane. She sat down three rows in front of him, in 17D, on the aisle. It was one of those fleeting moments every single person knows: You see an intriguing stranger, hope for the best, then move on. Ben picked up a book and began reading. Laura, who didn't notice Ben, thumbed through a Glamour magazine. At the helm of the Airbus A320 was Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a 57-year-old former Air Force fighter jet pilot. He'd been flying for four decades, for US Airways since 1980. His expertise was about to mean everything. About 90 seconds into the flight, the plane -- traveling at 250 mph and carrying 150 passengers and five crew -- struck a flock of geese. Some passengers described hearing a series of loud thumps. "One lady screamed," Ben recalls. He looked out the window. "The whole back of the engine was pretty much engulfed in flames, just shooting out of the back," he says. He thought: "This isn't good." The plane banked to the left. The smell of burning geese, feathers and flames wafted through the cabin. With neither engine working, a silence fell over the jet as it glided through the skies. People began whispering. Some thought they were going back to LaGuardia. Sullenberger came over the speaker system. "Brace for impact," he said. "The most harrowing thing I'd ever heard in my life," Ben recalls. "I thought for a second: Is this really it? Am I going to die?" Three rows in front of him, Laura thought about calling her family. She decided against it. If I die, what a depressing message that would be to leave on a message machine, she thought. And what would she say if they did answer? "Guess what? In 60 seconds, you're not going to be talking to me any more." She crouched down, prepared for impact. "Is this really happening?" Fear of birds and drowning . Laura grew up on a farm in Minnesota and had lived in Fargo, North Dakota, for the past 12 years. She'd jumped at the chance to take on a bigger role with Belk in Charlotte. But her focus on career meant there wasn't much time for relationships while jet-setting around for work. Ben was a Carolina native, and he also poured his energy into work. The software developer at Lending Tree was divorced with no children. Nearing 40, he found his career rewarding, yet felt something was missing. Both had fears that stemmed from their youths. Her bird phobia was rooted in days on the farm, where her grandmother kept chickens. Once, a bird pooped on Laura's shoulder, sending her into tears. As she got older, her disdain for birds grew. When she traveled to New York on business, the abundance of pigeons sometimes terrified her. Ben's fear -- of drowning -- went back to an experience he had when he was 8. On a beach outing with his family, his raft drifted out from shore and then flipped over. He scrambled to try to get back on, but kept falling back into the sea. He never relished the water again. 'We connected' As the plane glided silently through the air, Ben peeked out the window every once in a while. He could see they were headed straight toward water. "Just make it quick so I don't have to suffer," he thought. The Airbus splashed into the frigid waters of the Hudson River. The clank of seatbelts unbuckling rattled inside the plane. Water lapped at Laura's leather boots. She grabbed her wallet and her cell phone with a GPS tracking device. It'll be easier for rescuers to find my body and identify me, she thought. She exited to the left and onto a wing. While bobbing up and down there, she called her father. "Dad, this is Laura. I've been in a plane crash." When things calmed down and she knew she would be rescued, she found comic relief in what brought the plane down. "You do realize my fear of birds is justified," she told her parents. "OK, we'll give you that one," they responded. Inside the plane, a bottleneck of passengers blocked some exits. A flight attendant in first class waved passengers to the front. Ben climbed over the seats. At the door, he looked out and saw water all around. Clutching tight to his seat cushion, he jumped into a raft. With survivors packed in like sardines, he worried the raft might tip. Later, safe on shore, Ben's colleagues who were also on the flight saluted life and told him: You know what we'd be doing tonight if we were single! Ben thought about the woman with the long legs and curly hair. He wondered what happened to her. From Facebook friends to dating . A bottle of Maker's Mark bourbon helped ease Ben's charter flight home to Charlotte that night. In the media blitz that followed, Laura noticed Ben for the first time on television. They became Facebook friends. Flight 1549 survivors -- whose stories were compiled in the book "Miracle on the Hudson," published late last year -- formed support groups. They considered "Sully" their hero, each other family. Six months after the crash, when about 20 survivors and their families gathered at a home near Charlotte, Ben and Laura met in person for the first time. "I was checking you out on the plane," he told her. They went clubbing with a third survivor that night. Then the two stayed up talking until 6 in the morning. They shared secrets, their views on life's opportunities. "We connected," Laura says. They took it slow at first. Neither was looking for a relationship. "We were family," Ben says, "and we didn't want to ruin that aspect of it." Eventually, sparks lit. Despite their bond, the last year has had its difficulties. They wonder why they survived when, a month later, all 50 people aboard a Buffalo commuter jet died. Both have sought counseling. They take anti-anxiety medication to ease air travel. Ben never sits at a window seat. Weeks after the flight, the airline returned salvaged personal belongings to survivors. Laura received a white envelope, labeled with a number. Inside was her waterlogged Glamour magazine. "It put me back in that seat," she says, tears in her eyes. Four other boxes of returned items sit unopened in a spare bedroom. She doesn't know whether to throw them out or save them. "Things in there must not be that important," she says. "All the priorities were reset after January 15." Her relationship with Ben, she says, is another "positive outcome" from that day. "We kind of pick each other up if we start to slip," Ben says. "What's better than smiling and laughing and love?" They're speaking about their relationship, Laura says, because too much news dwells on the negative. Their message is the opposite. "Think about how you want to write today's page," Ben says. "Live, laugh, love and dance like tomorrow's not guaranteed." | Laura Zych and Ben Bostic had never met before the "Miracle on Hudson" flight .
They began dating after meeting in person six months after the plane crash .
Their motto: Live in the moment, laugh, love .
All 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549 survived the January 15, 2009, crash . |
50,096 | 8daf11b4f860bcc25e8c04c241bee75b97d4e8dc | By . Michael Zennie and Associated Press . PUBLISHED: . 13:00 EST, 20 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 13:30 EST, 20 June 2013 . One day after the FBI ended an unsuccessful dig for Jimmy Hoffa's remains, a law enforcement source has revealed that the former Teamsters boss's body may never be found because it was allegedly run through a wood chipper. Speaking to DNAinfo New York, the source claimed that Hoffa was strangled by New York mobster Anthony 'Tony Pro' Provenzano after he was lured to the Red Fox restaurant outside Detroit by his 'adopted' son Charles 'Chuckie' O'Brien. Hoffa disappeared in 1975 after leaving the restaurant, where he was supposed to meet with Provenzano and Detroit Mafia figure Anthony Giacolone. Scroll down for video . g . Law enforcement officials help search the area in Oakland Township, Michigan on Tuesday where they believe the remains of Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa might be buried . Agents uncovered concrete slabs from a field where they have been digging. They believe the slabs may belong to the foundation of a barn that once stood on the property, under which Hoffa may have been buried . The law enforcement source, who is . described as close to the original investigation into Hoffa's . disappearance, said Hoffa had left the restaurant with O'Brien and that Provenzano and Giacolone were waiting in the backseat of the car. That's when Provenzano allegedly strangled Hoffa, and then the men drove . 16 miles to Inkster, where they ran his body through a wood chipper. The FBI has linked Hoffa to DNA evidence found in the car that was driven that night. O'Brien has denied any involvement in Hoffa's disappearance. Giacolone died in 2001 and Provenzano died in 1998. In the latest attempt to find Jimmy . Hoffa, authorities excavated a field in Oakland Township, Michigan, this . week that was once owned by a reputed Michigan mob boss. An aging former mobster had told . federal agents that Hoffa was buried in a shallow grave under a concrete . slab in the field after he was murdered in 1975. The agents found the . slab, but not Hoffa's remains. The . government has followed up on some 15 credible leads as to the . whereabouts of the once-powerful union leader, but his final resting . place remains a mystery. CNN estimates the search has cost taxpayers $3 million in the last four decades. 'We did not uncover any evidence relevant to the investigation on James Hoffa,' said Robert Foley, head of the FBI in Detroit. Full-scale: FBI agents have set up shop in a field that was once owned by a top mafia figure. They believe Jimmy Hoffa could be buried in a shallow grave here . Search: Federal agents can be seen cutting down the tall grass in the field where they were told Hoffa's remains are buried . Full force: Dozens of cars line the grassy field where FBI agents began searching for Hoffa's body . 'I am very confident of our result . here after two-days-plus of diligent effort. As of this point, we'll be . closing down the excavation operation.' Previous searches have included the . suburban Detroit home a former mob enforcer and an eastern Michigan . horse farm and a backyard swimming pool. It has also been claimed . Hoffa's remains are entombed beneath the former Giants Stadium in New . Jersey and beneath the headquarters of General Motors. All investigations into Hoffa's whereabouts have turned out to be both costly and fruitless. The feds had high hopes for the latest dig. The source of the tip was Tony Zerilli, an 85-year-old former mobster . who said he was told the location of Hoffa's body by a hitman who . claimed to have killed him. 'The bureau had a short list of . people they wanted to talk to about that and I can’t think of anybody on . that list who was more highly placed then Anthony Zerilli,' former U.S. Attorney Keith Corbett told WDIV-TV in January. 'This is certainly the . most interesting and attractive lead that has come up since I’ve been . involved with this - and I think the bureau would react the same way.' But, officials came up short again. 'Certainly, we're disappointed,' FBI head Foley told reporters Wednesday. He said about 40 agents were involved . in an operation that covered about an acre. The FBI has not put a cost . on the search, but Foley said it's more important to solve a case. 'With any investigation we consider . cost-benefits analysis,' he said. 'The FBI and its partners are no . corporations. We do not have a profit margin as a bottom line.' Hunt for Hoffa: The field where FBI agents are searching is 20 miles north of the suburban Detroit restaurant where he was last seen in 1975 . Hoffa's rise in the Teamsters, his . 1964 conviction for jury tampering and his presumed murder are Detroit's . link to a time when organized crime, public corruption and mob hits . held the nation's attention. Over the years, authorities have received . various tips, leading the FBI to possible burial sites near and far. In 2003, a backyard swimming pool was . dug up 90 miles northwest of Detroit. Seven years ago, a tip from an . ailing federal inmate led to a two-week search and excavation at a horse . farm in the same region. Last year, soil samples were taken from under . the concrete floor of a backyard shed north of the city. And detectives . even pulled up floorboards at a Detroit house in 2004. Other theories have suggested he was . entombed in concrete at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, ground up and . thrown in a Florida swamp or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering . plant. The excavation site was 20 miles north of the restaurant where Hoffa was last seen in July 1975. Zerilli, 85, has said Hoffa was murdered by mobsters who dumped his body in a shallow grave. The property was owned in 1975 by . Jack Tocco, Zerilli's cousin, who reportedly became head of the Detroit . mafia after Hoffa vanished. A house and barn used to stand on the land, though both building were later torn down. Zerilli . says Hoffa was taken to the property after meeting with two organized . crime figures at the Macus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, . Michigan. The mob insider said he was told by a mob enforcer that Hoffa, 62, was executed on the property and then buried. Mob royalty: Tony Zerilli, 85, was the second in command of the Detroit mafia before he was indicted and sent to prison. Now, he says, he's 'dead broke' Turncoat? Zerilli, seen here in his federal prison photo, has told the FBI to look on property once owned by his cousin, who was the head of the Detroit mafia . The mafia initially planned to move the body to a hunting lodge upstate, but police pressure became so intense after Hoffa's disappearance that 'once he was buried here he was buried and they let it go,' Zerilli told WDIV in an interview in January. Zerilli and his cousin Tocco, led the organized crime families in Detroit until 1996, when both were indicted on racketeering charges. He was sent to prison in 2002 and released in 2008. 'Clearly . when he returned [from prison] he would’ve been a person, based on his position in . the hierarchy, who would have been able to learn the facts and . circumstances surrounding the disappearance of James Earl Hoffa,' said . Corbett. Despite being mob royalty, Zerilli says he is now 'dead broke.' When he went to Tocco and asked for money, he said, Tocco refused. Now, Zerilli is writing a book about the Detroit Partnership - the Motor City's mafia. Fanning out: Federal agents spread out across the property. There is no telling how much of the field they will have to excavate . It's unknown how long the FBI will have to search the property to determine whether or not Hoffa is buried there . Jimmy Hoffa waves to delegates at the opening of the Teamsters Union convention at Miami Beach, Florida in 1957 . | The source claimed that Hoffa was .
strangled by New York mobster Anthony 'Tony Pro' Provenzano after he was .
lured to the Red Fox restaurant outside Detroit .
His body was then driven 16 miles to Inkster, where his body was run through a wood chipper .
Hoffa, a former Teamsters boss, disappeared in 1975 .
Feds have investigated at least 15 locations for Hoffa at a cost of $3 million .
Agents have excavated a backyard pool and a horse barn searching for the former Teamsters Union president . |
652 | 01e5409cd4a270b39fb54149634f5b7c20f9eaff | This is how the world reacted in unison to the grand jury verdicts that absolved the killers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Millions of Twitter users across six continents lent their voice to the conflict using the rallying hashtags #ICantBreathe, #BlackLivesMatter and #HandsUpDontShoot. Now, an animated map has documented exactly how the globe lit up with tweets within minutes as each case unraveled. Scroll down for videos . The start: Shortly before the Ferguson verdict, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was prevalent in the US and UK . Within hours: That night, when the verdict was announced, the news spread across the world . Case: Michael Brown, 18, (left) was shot dead by Darren Wilson (right) who was not indicted for the death . The visualization starts on November 24, shortly before a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, refused to indict white police officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of black 18-year-old Michael Brown. At that point, the protest cry #BlackLivesMatter was most prominent in the east side of the US, with strong reactions from the UK and parts of Europe. When the judge delivered the verdict, America and Britain erupted with tweets, and the news prompted a faint chain reaction across mainland Europe, southern Asia, Australia, central Africa and central Latin America. Bubbling anger: The reactions continued to simmer, with the phrase #HandsUpDontShoot in the week after . Brewing: As the Eric Garner verdict neared, six continents lit up with simultaneous reactions . Outrage: Red dots swarmed across the globe as millions tweeted Garner's last words 'I can't breathe' As the reactions began to simmer a week later, the hashtag #HandsUpDontShoot - which many claimed to be Michael Brown's last actions and words - emerged across most of the US and southern England, with dots scattered across other continents. On December 3, a grand jury in Staten Island refused to indict white police officer Daniel Pantaleo over the chokehold that killed black father-of-six Eric Garner. The news sparked global outrage. Red spots simultaneously erupted across the map as users tweeted the hashtag #ICantBreathe - the last words Garner said before he died on a New York sidewalk in July. The map remained clouded by yellow and red dots well into December 4 as the first protests were staged across America. Take two: Just a week after the verdict, the officer who killed Eric Garner (left and right) was also absolved . | Grand jury verdict not to indict Darren Wilson sparked millions of tweets .
Animated map shows how news and reactions spread in the days after .
By the time a jury absolved officer Daniel Pantaleo, the globe erupted . |
195,313 | 88d518ad78c2db1adb3c40bc6938e4f41a4166fd | (CNN) -- Real Madrid confirmed the signing of Fabio Coentrao from Benfica on Tuesday, with the Portugal international signing a six-year deal. The 23-year-old defender is the fifth new signing to arrive at the Bernabeu since the off-season transfer window opened with the culmination of the most recent league campaign. The left-back, who was one of his country's stand-out performers at the 2010 World Cup, said it was a dream come true to join the nine-time European champions. "Every footballer dreams of playing for Real Madrid," the defender told Real's official web site. "I wanted to since I was a child. I used to imagine playing for this team. It was my dream and it has now come true. I hope to earn continuity and to show people I'm ready to play here." The move will see Coentrao link up with his compatriot Jose Mourinho, the head coach who led Los Blancos to second place in the Spanish First Division last season. "He is the best coach in the world," Coentrao said of the former Chelsea and Inter Milan boss. "It makes me proud to have the chance to work with him." Coentrao, who previously played in Spain during a loan spell with Real Zaragoza in 2008, has played for Portugal on 12 occasions since making his debut in 2009. Coentrao joins fellow new arrivals at Real, Turkish international duo Nuri Sahin and Hamit Altintop, who moved from Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich respectively. Winger Jose Callejon has arrived from Espanyol and young French defender Raphael Varane has been signed from Lens. Elsewhere, Manchester City completed their second signing of the week after Roberto Mancini's team announced the acquisition of Montenegro defender Stefan Savic. The 20-year-old joins the City of Manchester Stadium outfit from Partizan Belgrade on a four-year contract. Savic's arrival comes just two days after the Citizens completed a deal for left-back Gael Clichy, who moved from English Premier League rivals Arsenal. The center-back faced a number of his new teammates during Montenegro's 0-0 draw with England in October 2010, and is looking forward to working with so many international players. "I never imagined that I'd be teammates with all those City players within a year and I'm so happy to be at this club," Savic told City's web site. "I watch the Premier League all the time and I know it's the place to be so I am just looking forward to helping this club achieve great things. We have an incredible stadium and I've seen how passionate the City fans are many times on TV. "Montenegro play England later this year so I'm expecting to have some great banter with the England lads. I'm just really happy to be a City player." There was also transfer activity at Inter Milan on Wednesday, as they agreed a deal with Argentine team Velez Sarsfield for attacker Ricardo Alvarez. Inter have agreed to pay $17m for 90% of the 23-year-old's contract with an option to purchase the remaining 10% at a later date, according to Velez's web site. Meanwhile, Scottish champions Rangers have completed a deal for Almeria's Juan Manuel Ortiz. The 29-year-old former Atletico Madrid winger has signed a three-year contract at Ibrox. | Real Madrid have completed the signing of Portugal defender Fabio Coentrao .
Coentrao will join from Benfica for a fee believed to be in the region of $43 million .
NEW: Manchester City have announced the arrival of Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade . |
5,448 | 0f710dc73ce33ffa8457abea9e61f25a86461377 | A man who claims Chicago police tortured him until he confessed to a rape he didn't commit walked out of jail smiling Wednesday, a free man for the first time in 30 years. Stanley Wrice, 59, gave a thumbs up as he was released from the Pontiac Correctional Center after Cook County Judge Richard Walsh overturned his conviction this week saying officers lied about how they treated him. The ruling was just the latest development in one of the darkest chapters of Chicago Police Department history, in which officers working under former Lt. Jon Burge were accused of torturing suspects into false confessions and torturing witnesses into falsely implicating people in crimes. Freed: Stanley Wrice, 59, is all smiles and is greeted with applause as he walks out of Pontiac Correctional Center on Wednesday after serving 30 years for a crime he confessed to after being tortured by police . Big smiles: Wrice has been granted a new trial after a judge ruled that officers who performed his 1982 interrogation lied about their conduct. Here, Wrice smiles with his layer Heidi Linn Lambros, left, and his daughter Gail Lewis . Not alone: Wrice was sentenced to 100 yeas in prison in 1982 after he says two former officers beat him with a flashlight and a 20-inch piece of rubber ¿ the same weapons, lawyers say the two implicated cops used on others . Wrice has insisted for years that he confessed to the 1982 sexual assault after officers beat him in the groin and face. And a witness testified at a hearing Tuesday that he falsely implicated Wrice in the rape after two Chicago police officers under Burge's command tortured him. Wrice was sentenced to 100 years in prison. One of Wrice's attorneys, Heidi Linn . Lambros, said that when Walsh's ruling was announced, Wrice 'squeezed my . hand and looked at me with tears in his eyes and said he owed me a . dollar,' a reference to the bet she made with Wrice recently that she . would have him home by Christmas. Past: It is the latest development in one of the darkest chapters of Chicago Police Department history, in which officers working under former Lt. Jon Burge, pictured, were accused of torturing suspects into false confessions . Now . that Walsh has ordered Wrice's release, it will be up to a special . prosecutor to decide whether to retry him. The special prosecutor did . not return a call seeking comment Tuesday evening. With . his release, Wrice will join a number of men who in recent years have . been released from prison because they were tortured into confessing at . the hands of Burge's men. Dozens . of men - almost all of them black - have claimed that, starting in the . 1970s, Burge and his officers beat or shocked them into confessing to . crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder. Ongoing: Stanley Wrice walks free after 30 years, accompanied by his son-in-law Cashell Lewis, left, and his attorney Jennifer Bonjean. The officers implicated in the case refused to testify at Tuesday's hearing, citing their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination . Thumbs up: Wrice drove away into a world that has changed in innumerable ways since he was put away in 1982 . Wrice testified Tuesday that two former officers beat him with a flashlight and a 20-inch piece of rubber - the same weapons, Lambros said, that others have said the two used on them to get them to confess to crimes or implicate others in crimes they did not commit. The officers refused to testify at Tuesday's hearing, citing their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. No Chicago police officers have ever been convicted of torturing suspects, but Burge was convicted in 2010 for lying in a civil suit when he said he'd never witnessed or participated in the torture of suspects. He is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence in federal prison for perjury and obstruction of justice. Chicago also has paid out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits in cases related to Burge. The torture allegations also were a factor in former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's decision to institute a moratorium on the death penalty in 2000. Gov. Pat Quinn abolished the death penalty in 2011. Emotional: Wrice appeared to wipe away tears as he stood on the free side of Pontiac Correctional Center for the first time in 30 years on Wednesday . Top of the world: Wrice had only a box of possessions with him as he walked out of prison on Wednesday. Wrice joins a number of men who in recent years have been released from prison because they were tortured into confessing at the hands of Burge's men . | Stanley Wrice was released Wednesday from an Illinois prison after 30 years .
A judge overturned Wrice's conviction saying officers lied about his treatment .
Officers working under former Lt. Jon Burge were accused of torturing suspects into false confessions .
Wrice insisted for years he confessed after officers beat him in groin and face . |
18,054 | 3326b3e59dfac0e41e8c62f859df94e8d919e9d7 | LONDON, England (CNN) -- From four leaf clovers to a severed rabbit's foot, when it comes to lucky mascots reason and taste often go out of the window. David Beckham's teammates give his bottom a squeeze after scoring his first goal for AC Milan in their 4-1 defeat of Bologna. No more so than at AC Milan where one charm is being held responsible for the team's recent upturn in fortunes on the pitch: David Beckham's bottom. Since Beckham's arrival at the San Siro, the England midfielder has started every game and scored his first goal in last weekend's demolition of Bologna. But as he walked away after celebrating the goal, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo both stroked his left bum cheek. This was apparently because they believe Beckham's posterior has as much to do with Milan's revival as his sweet right foot. "Italy is a superstitious country, people touch things for luck," an AC Milan spokesperson told UK newspaper "The Sun." "Now the players are doing the same thing with Becks' bottom. He is seen as lucky." Have your say: what are the strangest footballing superstitions that you have seen? One English newspaper has even taken to calling him "Goldenbuns", a play on "Goldenballs", the pet name his wife Victoria uses and for which he is still good naturedly mocked when it emerged in the press. Football has a long history of superstitions. Below are some of the strangest rituals: . Kissing Fabien Barthez's head Barthez's big shiny pate became something of a totem for the French during the 1998 World Cup. The ritual was always the same. Veteran defender Laurent Blanc would approach his eccentric goalkeeper before planting a kiss on the top of his head. The team insisted that Blanc maintained the tradition as Les Bleus reached the finals. The French ended up beating Brazil 3-0. Goalmouth: Beckham "dreams" of Milan move. Beanie the Horse watches the action With his blond hair, steely grimace and piercing stare, Stuart Pearce was known on the pitch for his hard tackling, no-nonsense ways. Off it he's, well, a bit of a softy. Whilst in charge of Manchester City the former England defender started bringing a rather bizarre charm, placing it near the dug out so it could observe the action: Beanie, a cuddly woolen horse. It didn't do him much good. He was fired later that season. Blessing from a juju man "Juju" men used to be a regular fixture at African football matches. These self-appointed holy men would bless or curse teams for money. Even government ministers were seduced by them. When the Ivory Coast won the African Cup of Nations in 1992, the government claimed it was because the sports minister paid a "juju" man to bless the team. But he angered them by refusing to pay up. The result? A hex that saw the team endure a miserable ten year losing streak. Tired of defeat, the government begged the juju men for forgiveness, coughing up the $2000. Ivory Coast promptly qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Invoking the power of the Virgin Mary Take a look at Newcastle United's goalkeeper Shay Given before a match. If you look carefully you'll notice him dropping a bottle into the back of the goal. No, not a bottle full of Gatorade but rather a small vial of Holy Water from Lourdes, France. It was there that it is claimed the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858. It has since become a place of pilgrimage for the sick, drawn to the allegedly healing waters. "I carry it in my kit bag and it goes everywhere with me," Given said back in 2002. At the time of writing, Given is still injury free. If all else fails, urinate... When Barry Fry, then Birmingham City's boss, watched his team lose another game, enough was enough. For years the club had suffered from dismal form at their St Andrews ground in Birmingham, England, and had not won anything of note for decades. The reason, fans and club officials feared, was a gypsy curse spat out at the club's owners when they evicted a band of travelers to make way for their new stadium. Managers had tried and failed to lift the curse -- one even placed crucifixes in the floodlights, but it was Barry Fry who had the most ingenious method. He urinated in each corner of the ground. Birmingham City haven't won anything of note since. Employing an Ecuadorian warlock Tzamarenda Naychapi played a pivotal role in Ecuador's 2006 World Cup campaign. The UK's Guardian newspaper described how Naychapi - a warlock who was described as a "witch doctor-cum-shaman-cum-priest-type-fella" - traveled to Germany before the World Cup to cast spells on all 12 stadiums, not to mention the pitch and the goals, in a bid to turn the gods in Ecuador's favor. The South American minnows went on to shock both Costa Rica and Poland, qualifying for the second round for the first time in their history before losing to England 1-0. But then again England had their own magical good luck charm to call upon. David Beckham scored the only goal. | David Beckham's bottom becomes AC Milan's lucky charm .
Teammates pinch the England player's posterior during match .
AC Milan have yet to lose since Beckham signed on loan from LA Galaxy .
CNN looks at other odd footballing superstitions . |
33,098 | 5e0bbb43241dafbd0fbc47ad110d19db957cd149 | PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- Three suspects are in custody, including two who face murder charges, in what the local sheriff called a "multifaceted" investigation into the killings of a Gulf Coast couple known for adopting special-needs children. Byrd and Melanie Billings were found shot to death Thursday night in their home near Pensacola, Florida. Wayne Coldiron and Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. are facing murder charges in the Thursday night shooting deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings, said Sheriff David Morgan of Escambia County. Coldiron, 41, surrendered to investigators Sunday and Gonzalez was arrested in neighboring Santa Rosa County on Sunday evening, Morgan said. Gonzalez's age was not immediately released. The sheriff was in the middle of announcing Coldiron's arrest to reporters when detectives informed him that Gonzalez was in custody. Watch sheriff learn of second arrest » . Morgan said the investigation has become "a window into something bigger," with multiple motives and multiple suspects. But he released few details. "I know this sounds like we're talking in circles," he told reporters earlier Sunday. "But at this point, we cannot release that information, because those circles have not been completed." In addition, Gonzalez's father, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Sr., 56, has been arrested on evidence-tampering charges. The elder Gonzalez is accused of trying to disguise a red Dodge van that surveillance cameras captured leaving the slain couple's home. Investigators had distributed images of the van, and its discovery Saturday was "the linchpin in this case," Morgan said. Gonzalez "was covering damage and painting the van ... so that it would not be readily recognizable." The Billingses lived in Beulah, west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line. There were eight children, ranging in age from infancy to 11 years, in the home with them when they were killed. The children were unharmed and were being cared for by relatives, authorities said. CNN's David Mattingly contributed to this report. | Wayne Coldiron and Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. face murder charges .
Gonzalez's father arrested earlier Sunday, charged with evidence-tampering .
Byrd and Melanie Billings, who adopted special-needs kids, found dead Thursday .
Escambia County Sheriff calls case a "humdinger," expects more arrests to come . |
148,820 | 4c72fc156f2f61642875f44fa93c178d7fb53cce | By . Associated Press . and Helen Pow . A 17-year-old Connecticut boy charged with stabbing a classmate to death in school on their prom day pleaded not guilty to murder today as his attorney said he was investigating a possible mental health defense. Christopher Plaskon entered the plea in Milford Superior Court, answering a judge's questions in a firm voice. He also waived his right to a probable cause hearing and elected for a trial before a three-judge panel rather than a jury. Plaskon is charged with fatally stabbing . his friend Maren Sanchez in a hallway at Jonathan Law High School in . Milford in April. Not guilty: Christopher Plaskon, 17, center, appears in Superior Court in Milford, Connecticut, on Wednesday, June 4, 2014. Plaskon, charged with stabbing a classmate to death in school on their prom day, pleaded not guilty to murder . Mental health: Christopher Plaskon's uncle and guardian Paul Healy, Plaskon and attorney Richard Meehan, Jr. attend a probable cause hearing. Meehan may mount a mental health defense . Support: Friends and family of Christopher Plaskon, including Plaskon's mother Kathy Plaskon, front left, leave the Connecticut Superior Court in Milford, Connecticut after he waived his right to a probable cause hearing June 4 . Plaskon's attorney, Richard Meehan, said . after the hearing that it would be premature to say he's going to mount a . mental health defense, but he said doing so would be more difficult . before a jury. Plaskon, whose family attended the . hearing, is on anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications but is lucid, . Meehan said in court. 'Obviously we have an obligation to this young man based on the things that we do know to evaluate what his mental status was,' Meehan said. 'I'm a firm believer juries have a difficult time with issues pertaining to mental health in the criminal justice system.' While jury verdicts must be unanimous, a verdict by judges can by 2-1, Meehan said. A trial is not expected until at least the fall, he said. Plans: Maren Sanchez, pictured in the dress she had planned to wear to prom, was excited about the dance which was due to attend with her new boyfriend . Detained: Chris Plaskon is being charged with murder as an adult over the stabbing of a girl at his school . Prosecutor Kevin Lawlor said his job . was to prove the case and that a possible mental health defense was . irrelevant at this point. Sanchez, 16, was a member of the National Honor . Society who was active in drama and other school activities. The attack occurred hours before the school's junior prom. Police are investigating whether it was related to Sanchez's refusal to be Plaskon's prom date. She had organized the dance herself and was set to be prom queen, her friends said. Plaskon's family has said it mourned the loss of life and was struggling to understand what led to the crime. 'This is a very sorrowful, sad youngster,' Meehan said. 'It really is a double tragedy.' Heartbreaking: Maren was fatally stabbed on Friday morning by a boy who reportedly asked her to prom . A witness saw Plaskon on top of . Sanchez during the attack and tried unsuccessfully to pull him away, and . another saw him discard a bloody knife, according to a police . affidavit. Plaskon, his clothes bloody, was taken to the principal's office, where an officer arrived and asked what happened. 'I did it. Just arrest me,' Plaskon replied, according to the officer. Plaskon, who turned 17 last week, is being held on $3 million bond at Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, where he was placed at a hospital. He is being prosecuted as an adult and faces up to 60 years in prison with a mandatory minimum of 25 years if found guilty of murder. | Christopher Plaskon, 17, entered the plea in Milford Superior Court, Connecticut, answering a judge's questions in a firm voice .
He is charged with fatally stabbing his friend Maren Sanchez in a hallway at Jonathan Law High School in Milford in April .
He also waived his right to a probable cause hearing and elected for a trial before a three-judge panel rather than a jury .
Plaskon, whose family attended the hearing, is on anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications but is lucid, Meehan said in court . |
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