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261,281 | de627697e674b27ce58860096f6211ad0b84b349 | By . Larisa Brown . PUBLISHED: . 11:40 EST, 14 October 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 04:38 EST, 15 October 2012 . As far as extreme sports go, this may seem a little on the wild side. These vintage images capture dare devil bikers driving motorcycles around a so-called 'wall of death', built perpendicular to the floor. And that's not forgetting the lions on board the vehicles, which sit neatly perched in makeshift side-carts as spectators gather to watch in awe. Dangerous: A dare devil circles around the wood board motordrome with a lion in his cart . Wind-swept: Perched on the edge of the vehicle, the lion is driven around the 'wall of death' at speeds as high as 80mph . Captured between the 1920s and 1960s, the photographs, which feature on the Retronaut website, show an event that became one of the most daring acts at fairgrounds and carnivals in the early 1910s in America. The motorcycle craze - which peaked in the 1930s - began with single drivers circling around a wood-paneled motordrome at high speeds and completely vertical. Over a hundred 'walls of death', as they became known, were traveling the US by the 1930s. Circles: Taken in the mid-1900s, this photograph snaps a lioness roaring angrily at the driver of the vehicle . Extreme motorcycle shows became one of the most daring acts at fairgrounds and carnivals in the early 1910s in America . As organisers increased the angle of the . walls throughout the years, making them more steep, the number of . serious accidents in turn increased. One of the most popular versions of . the sport was nicknamed the 'Liondrome', so-called because it featured a . rider accompanied by a tamed lion. Traveling with a lion was always a . risky business - as captured in these photographs - where lions and . lionesses are seen letting out gigantic roars. A man and his pet lion: The cub looks a tad grumpy as it rests on the motorcycle ahead of the show . 'Death riders and racing lion': A signed photograph of a lion and the courageous riders . The drivers placed the animals in . side-cars, unless they were small enough, in which case the lions were . sometimes placed on the rider's lap. One of the most difficult parts of the stunt was to induce the lion to remain quiet throughout the event. After a number of accidents in which riders were injured or killed, it was decided the sport had become too dangerous and it ended. | Dangerous motorcycle craze peaked in the 1930s in America . |
234,055 | bb00487ba9d2946656dc78fa33c04adfcc7a1a26 | By . Harriet Hernando . A remarkable letter written by the future Edward VIII that exposes him as an ungrateful, sexist and racist prince has come to light. The Prince of Wales, who later abdicated to marry an American divorcee, told of the ‘miserable and loathsome’ time he was having on a Caribbean cruise. He visited Barbados in 1920 in what was supposed to be a diplomatic trip of the British Empire but he described the tropical paradise as a ‘bum place’. The future Edward VIII visited Barbados in 1920 on what was supposed to be a diplomatic trip however he revealed he found it 'deadly dull' in a letter to his mistress . The Royal reported the local scenery as being ‘ugly’ and he found the ‘coloured population’ to be ‘revolting’. He also wrote of begrudgingly dancing with various women on the trip, all of whom he insisted had to be young and vetted by his friend, Louis Mountbatten. Edward, whose name before he was King was David, even described one young lady he danced with as an ‘American bit’. Edward VIII wrote this sickeningly-sweet love letter to his then mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, while he was on a diplomatic trip to Barbados in 1920 . The diatribe on the trip was included in a sickeningly-sweet love letter to his then mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, in which he bleated about how much he was missing her. The married socialite was the future King’s lover between 1918 to 1923. Edward VIII (left) with then mistress Freda Dudley-Ward to whom he wrote whilst in Barbados, and her husband liberal MP William Dudley-Ward . They remained close until 1936 when he met American divorcee Wallis Simpson, who he gave up the throne for later that year. Over 22 pages, Edward wrote of his travels on HMS Renown from March 21 to March 29, 1920. 'How I loathe being separated from you like this and it all seems so unnatural sweetie mine; how I want you tonight to tell you how madly I love you. Oh! My darling darling precious beloved little Fredie life is absolute hell for your little David. Without you I'm oh so miserable. I just don't feel I can live these seven months of this sordid lonely existence without my Fredie.' 'I can't or shan't be able to raise the least enthusiasm about anything [on] this trip; it all seems to me so terribly artificial and organised somehow tho [sic].' 'We are all depressed tonight as we lost a man overboard this afternoon. 'He was apparently leaning against the rails on the side of the ship [...] and fell overboard [...] we never saw him again. Of course one man's death means nothing sweetheart only it's a depressing effect on everybody!!' 'I only danced three dances towards the end and never loathed anything so much beloved one; but I just had to tho [sic]. I've appointed Dickie my 'procurer' of partners and only take on a 'young woman' that he has vetted as being possible!! But Christ! They were the absolute limit tonight as I can't remember what the three women I danced with look like as I hardly looked at them.' 'There are over 170,000 of them the white population is very small and they aren't much to look at all too deadly dull and of course depressingly primitive.' In the gushing letter, he wrote of how much he missed his mistress, telling her ‘how I want you tonight to tell you and show you how madly I love you.’ He added: 'Oh! My darling darling precious beloved little Freddie, life is absolute hell & torture for your little David without YOU.' The Prince of Wales then went on to document his hatred of the trip each day which came at a time when Britain was heading into an economic depression after the First World War. Prince Wales later abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson . He moaned: 'I can’t and shan’t be able to raise the least enthusiasm about anything on this trip.'It looks a proper bum island this Barbados. It’s a unique sort of scenery very ugly and I don’t take much to the coloured population who are revolting. 'I’m sorry for the colonial office people who have to live there tho (sic).' The 25-year-old Prince then bleated about have to dance with different women at formal functions. Edward VIII describes in a letter to his mistress Freda Dudley Ward how he 'vetted' the women he danced with in Barbados . He said: 'Never have I felt less like all that or setting eyes on any woman but you darling angel; the idea absolutely revolts me. 'We gave an official dinner to 20 notables of the island including the governor and his wife which was followed by a reception. 'I’ve appointed Dickie [Mountbatten] my 'procurer' of partners and only take on a 'young woman' that he has vetted as being possible!! Edward VIII explains in a letter from a trip to Barbados in 1920 how losing a man overboard had a 'depressing effect on everybody' 'But Christ! They were the absolute limit tonight and I can’t remember what the three women I danced with look like as I hardly looked at them!! 'I danced quite a lot sweetheart: Dickie found me a little American bit who wasn’t such a bad mover but the rest of the women were impossible.' The letter is now being sold by a private collector at auction with a pre-sale estimate of £1,200.Richard Davie, of International Autograph Auctions, said: 'This is a letter of quite remarkable content that reflects Edward VIII’s character. 'He was one of the most colourful members of the Royal family who showed his emotions. Edward VIII described the locals as 'deadly dull and of course depressingly primitive' on what was supposed to be a diplomatic trip to Barbados in 1920 . 'I’m sure in March 1920 many British people would have gladly swapped places with him in Barbados and the Caribbean. 'He was in a very fortunate position but the tone of this letter written over the course of a week is one of ungratefulness. 'After he abdicated, Edward went on to become the governor of the Bahamas. Hopefully his attitude had changed by then and he was more diplomatic.' The letter is being sold at the Edwardian Radisson Hotel at Heathrow, London, on Saturday. | Edward VIII visited Barbados in 1920 on what was supposed to be a diplomatic trip .
But these letters reveal he was having a 'miserable' time because the people were 'deadly dull' and 'depressingly primitive'
He reported the local scenery as being 'ugly' and found the 'coloured population' to be 'revolting'
Edward VIII doted on his then mistress Freda Dudley Ward whom he reveals he was missing greatly . |
66,637 | bd00f982eb2a57d7f88caea98a0241351dc9527e | By . Emma Innes . PUBLISHED: . 06:40 EST, 3 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:16 EST, 3 September 2013 . Derek Thompson, 69, broke 22 ribs when he was attacked by an 800kg bull on his farm in North Yorkshire . A farmer who suffered 22 broken ribs after being trampled by a bull is on the mend - after being put back together with ‘Meccano’ surgery. Derek Thompson, 69, spent three months fighting for life in intensive care after being hit by the animal while rounding up his cattle earlier this year. Surgeons attached a number of titanium plates - similar to those in the construction toy Meccano - to his broken ribs to speed up the healing process, relieve pain and reduce the risk of complications. The intricate procedure was the first of its kind performed by surgeons at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. Mr Thompson, from Northallerton, in North Yorkshire, said: 'I would think I was one of the most difficult cases they have ever had to save. 'Nearly all my ribs were broken, there was not much left. They are now held in place with plates that look like bits of Meccano. 'They are doing a marvelous job, there’s no doubt about that.' Mr Thompson was inside a pen, picking out bulls to take to the market, when an 800kg bull charged him. 'I had my back to one of them when he decided to hit me. He knocked me over and hit me again,' said the father-of-two and grandfather-of-four. 'My son knocked him off me and I walked up to the farmhouse and rang my wife.' He was taken to the local Friarage Hospital before being transferred to Middlesbrough and was in a coma until cardiothoracic surgeon Joel Dunning and orthopaedic surgeon James McVie operated on him. Until recently, the only treatment for rib fractures was to strap them up and take painkillers while they healed naturally - a process which can take months. They cannot be immobilised with splints in the same way as other broken bones are, as the ribcage needs to be able to expand and contract for a patient to breathe. But the pain - which can make taking deep breaths and coughing excruciating - can lead to complications such as pneumonia, because phlegm can build up in the lungs and become infected. Mr Thompson had surgery to attach curved titanium plates to each of his broken ribs (pictured). The surgery speeds up healing, relieves pain and reduces the risk of complications, such as pneumonia . Rib plating was first attempted in the 1970s and 1980s using metal plates and screws designed for other bones, such as forearms, but they were not flexible enough. Newer techniques, such as the Synthes MatrixRIB system, developed in Switzerland five years ago, use curved plates sculpted to fit the contours of a ribcage. Cuts are made to expose the affected ribs, which are repaired by attaching the plates with screws or wires. The operation typically takes around two hours and patients can be home within days depending on their condition and other injuries. Fractures then usually heal within six to eight weeks. The procedure, which costs around £6,000 to the NHS, was approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2010. The procedure was the first of its kind performed at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. Image shows cardiothoracic surgeons Joel Dunning and James McVie who operated on Mr Thompson . Cardiothoracic surgeon Mr Dunning said: 'We now offer rib plating for major fractures and are one of only eight centres nationally doing this. 'This procedure will be a major help to our most critically injured patients and as a major regional trauma centre we estimate that this will help a lot of patients from the whole region, increasing survival rates and reducing their days on the intensive care unit.' Mr McVie added: 'I’m really pleased that Mr Thompson is recovering well from his major chest injury and surgery. It’s great that we can now offer this surgery here at James Cook as it will help future trauma patients.' In a study, fewer patients who had the surgery developed pneumonia than those whose ribs were left to heal naturally, and those who did not have the operation stayed an average of 10 days longer in intensive care. Until recently, the only treatment for broken ribs was to strap them up and take painkillers until they had healed. This could take months and left the patient in danger of complications such as breathing difficulties, pneumonia and chest deformity. The new technique, Synthes Rib Matrix, sees patients undergo a two hour operation which is available both on the NHS and privately. During the surgery, tailor made plates are pinned to the broken bones to speed up recovery and alleviate pain. Each plate is about half an inch wide and is shaped to match the contours of the ribs. The recovery time from the operation is only a few days. The plates are left in the body for the rest of the patient's life. | Derek Thompson, 69, was trampled by an 800kg bull on his farm .
He spent three months fighting for his life in intensive care .
Surgeons at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough operated .
They attached curved titanium plates to his broken ribs .
This speeds up recovery, reduces pain and prevents complications . |
272,362 | ecc8533ae787f506b91feca0aaf91dac0a787bfd | Despite years of research suggesting otherwise, a new study claims humans did not evolve to cooperate with one another as strongly as first thought. Previous theories claim that in nature, humans cooperate because it in everyone's interest to do so. But, given half the chance, people have a tendency to be selfish - especially if they can increase the amount they benefit from betraying or deceiving someone. Two University of Pennsylvania researchers studied human cooperation. Their study focused on a game theory called the Prisoner's Dilemma, in which people are more likely to benefit if they were selfish (stock image shown) instead of cooperating . The latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was carried out by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania. In a series of experiments twisting the classical game theory match-up known as the Prisoner's Dilemma, selfish strategies became more successful. In the classic game, if both players cooperate, they both receive an equal payoff. This game theory looks at how people might cooperate or betray one another for their own interests. In the classic example, two members of a criminal gang are arrested. Each are held separately to one another. There is not enough evidence to convict them of their main charge, but they are both given a year in prison on a lesser charge. However, the police give each separately the option of betraying the other and turning them in, or staying silent and cooperating. If both stay silent and don't testify agfainst the other, they will each serve their single year in prison. However, if one betrays the other, but the other chose to cooperate, then the one who betrayed will be set free and the other is given three years in prison. If they both betray each other, they both serve two years in prison. The theory goes that two rational people would choose to betray, as they are guaranteed not to get the worst sentence. However, previous studies have shown that humans show a bias towards cooperating. But if one cooperates and the other does not, the cooperating player receives the smallest possible payoff, and the defecting player the largest. If both players do not cooperate, they both receive a payoff, but it is less than what they would gain if both had cooperated. In general it pays to cooperate, but it can pay even more to be selfish. Last year, postdoctoral researcher Alexander Stewart and Proffesor Joshua Plotkin from the University of Pennsylvania published a mathematical explanation for why cooperation and generosity have evolved in nature. But their new research played out in a large, evolving population, found that adding more flexibility to the game can allow selfish strategies to be more successful. In the new investigation, the researchers added a twist. Not only could players alter their strategy - whether or not they cooperate - but they could also vary the payoffs they received for cooperating. Initially, as in their earlier study, cooperative strategies found success. But with higher and higher payoffs at stake, the temptation to defect also rose. And they found that the population of players reached a tipping point, after which defection was the predominant strategy in the population. The work paints a dimmer but more realistic view of how cooperation and selfishness balance one another in nature. 'It's a somewhat depressing evolutionary outcome, but it makes intuitive sense,' said Proffesor Plotkin. 'We had a nice picture of how evolution can promote cooperation even among self-interested agents and indeed it sometimes can, but, when we allow mutations that change the nature of the game, there is a runaway evolutionary process, and suddenly defection becomes the more robust outcome.' Previous studies found people are more likely to cooperate (stock image shown) more than not, but the latest research revealed that by increasing the reward for betrayal, people became more selfish. This suggests humans are not naturally wired to cooperate with each other . | University of Pennsylvania researchers studied human cooperation .
Their study focused on a game theory called the Prisoner's Dilemma .
In it, people are typically more likely to benefit if they betray not cooperate .
And previous studies found people would cooperate more than not .
However, the latest research increased the reward for betrayal .
And they found this increase made people become more selfish .
It suggests humans are not naturally wired to cooperate with each other . |
25,621 | 488d47b31267bbaeb5b7962c1e0793df1bfd4dae | Wayne Rooney edged closer to Sir Bobby Charlton’s England goal-scoring record after his late free-kick against Estonia secured three vital points for England in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. England’s captain had a mixed game in Tallinn and missed a plethora of chances to accelerate towards the goals record. Rooney scored his ninth goal in European qualifiers, surpassing Kevin Keegan with only Michael Owen ahead on 11 goals. Wayne Rooney scored a fine second half free-kick to take his England goal tally up to 43, six off the record . Rooney made this Instagram post of him celebrating his winner with Leighton Baines after the Estonia win . England's captain salutes the away fans who traveled to watch the Three Lions eventually prevail 1-0 . Sir Bobby Charlton (49) Gary Lineker (48) Jimmy Greaves (44) Wayne Rooney (43) Michael Owen (40) Roy Hodgson’s side struggled in front of goal against Estonia but will be pleased to leave with three wins from three fixtures in Group E. Rooney was relieved England managed to finally score after a frustrating evening in Tallinn: . ‘For the goal, it was close in so I was focussing on getting it over the wall. I've shown over the years I'm always capable of scoring goals.’ Gary Lineker, second on the all time England goal-scorers list, tweets his son after Rooney's winning goal . Wayne Rooney will have wanted to score more than just two goals against San Marino and Estonia. With the opportunities he had, he could have overtaken Sir Bobby Charlton’s all-time England record. SAN MARINO . 6 mins - A free-kick from inside the area is punched away . 18 mins - Shoots from 25 yards but his effort is comfortably gathered . 51 mins - Has a free header but fails to take advantage . 61 mins - Beats the offside trap but his chip is easily saved . 81 mins - Another header and another save by the keeper . 86 mins - Hammers a shot wide from the right of the area . ESTONIA . 16 mins - Volleys Jack Wilshere’s lofted pass over the bar . 17 mins - Misses the ball from Leighton Baines’ cross . 39 mins - A header from the centre of the area goes over . 89 mins - Hooks a difficult chance over on the volley . 90 mins - Through one on one but hits it straight at the keeper . England’s captain was evidently pleased how the squad persevered against the 10-men of Estonia: . ‘We knew that's how the game would go. We know they are tough games with men behind the ball and it's tough to break them down. It's a good win. ‘Their keeper made a good save at the end from me. We are playing well, the pleasing thing is that we have a young team and we hung in there.’ Rooney is also expected to win his 100th cap for England next month at home to Slovenia in the next Euro 2016 qualifier, putting him in prime position to break Peter Shilton’s all-time record of 125 appearances for the national side. Rooney, leading out his side, is only six goals behind England's leading all-time scorer Sir Bobby Charlton . The Manchester United striker, had this late chip shot saved, missed a host of chances to add to his tally . The 28-year-old had a frustrating game before his goal as Estonia restricted England for over seventy minutes . | Late Wayne Rooney free kick fired England to 1-0 win over Estonia .
Roy Hodgson's England have so far won all three Euro 2016 qualifiers .
Rooney now only six behind Sir Bobby Charlton's record 49 England goals .
England's captain is set to reach 100 caps next month against Slovenia .
Manchester United's striker missed a host of chances to add to his tally . |
282,728 | fa3348da47608419c564e42125a34d8d513bbde3 | By . Wills Robinson . A father attacked his baby son in hospital while the little boy was being treated for injuries he had inflicted in a previous violent outburst, it has been revealed. The child was taken to Rotherham District Hospital in South Yorkshire when he was less than three weeks old where medical staff found he had suffered severe head injuries and ‘forceful shaking’. While he was still being treated for his injuries his father attacked him again - leaving him with extensive bruising. Scroll down for video . Shocking: The baby boy, who was less than three weeks old, was being treated for head injuries in Rotherham District Hospital, South Yorkshire, when his father attacked him . Police are investigating the incident which took place in January, but no arrests have been made. The shocking details of the father’s violence against the child emerged as a family judge banned him from seeing his son - saying the baby would be in ‘real danger’ if any further contact took place. Judge Annabel Carr QC, sitting at Sheffield Family Court, said the injuries suffered by the boy could only have been caused by the father and it was ‘not possible’ they were accidental. After the initial outburst, the child had been unresponsive for about an hour, but the father did not take him to hospital - saying he didn’t know where it was - and waited for the baby’s mother to return home. The baby was initially treated for an infection, but scans revealed bleeding on the brain and social workers became involved after doctors suspected the infant had been assaulted. While he was still in hospital recovering from those injuries, the baby suffered further harm. The father called in a duty nurse as he was changing his son’s nappy and claimed he had ‘tripped’ on the wheel of a cot and dropped the baby face down on the bed. After demonstrating to the nurse how he had fallen, the father said: 'I cannot believe this has happened'. The judge said doctors were ‘deeply suspicious’ of both sets of injuries and, following extensive tests which ruled out natural causes, Rotherham Borough Council launched care proceedings. The council did not take any issue with the mother’s care and accepted she is a ‘concerned and loving parent’ who is capable of caring for the baby. During the family court hearing, the father’s version of events was ruled out by doctors, who said it was simply ‘not possible’. Medical staff also concluded that both sets of injuries could not have been caused by anything other than deliberately inflicted trauma. Judge Carr said the father’s evidence was ‘neither credible nor reliable’, adding that his failure to alert the mother sooner when the baby first fell ill was an attempt to cover up the harm the child had suffered at his hands. Civil case: Judge Annabel Carr QC banned the father from seeing the child at Sheffield Family Court, saying the child would be in 'real danger' if they were to remain in contact . She said: 'There can be no other explanation as only the father was present and therefore only he knows what happened. 'He left it to the mother and grandfather to raise their own concerns and to seek help for the baby, unaided by him. 'The only explanation is that these were inflicted injuries, as all the medical evidence now supports.' She found that both sets of injuries could only have been caused by the father and ordered that he should have no contact with the baby. The judge said: 'Those findings having been made, it makes any contact - supervised or otherwise - in the immediate future a very real risk and danger for the child. 'I have to bear in mind that, on the second occasion, this baby was in a place of safety yet came to be injured by severe bruising over his head and body, the explanation given by the father simply not being a possibility. 'As such, for the time being, there can be no safe contact between this child and the father.' | Infant was being treated at Rotherham District Hospital, South Yorkshire .
Was brought in with a blow to the head and had suffered 'forceful shaking'
Father attacked him while he was being treated - causing extensive bruising .
When nurse arrived - the parent claimed he tripped and dropped the child .
Judge at Sheffield Family Court banned the father from seeing his son .
Annabel Carr QC said baby would be in 'real danger' if left in his care .
Police are investigating the incident but no arrests have been made . |
167,175 | 64339ef8aece3dd764e01bf4bfd8ceb277fdd787 | Soviets may have spent up to $1billion on unconventional psychology research from as early as 1917, it has emerged. A new report uncovering previously classified information has revealed how the USSR worked tirelessly to come up with a mind control programme that would rival that of the U.S. The paper by Serge Kernbach confirms for the first time that Soviets used methods to manipulate test subjects' brains. Dr. Bill van Bise, electrical engineer, conducting a demonstration of Soviet scientific data and schematics for beaming a magnetic field into the brain to cause visual hallucinations . The work titled 'Unconventional research in USSR and Russia: short overview' details the experiments researchers called 'psychotronics'. Kernbach, of the Research Centre of Advanced Robotics and Environmental Science in Stuttgart, Germany, based the work on Russian technical journals. He reveals how Soviets developed a device to generate and store high-frequency electromagnetic radiation called 'cerpan'. 'If the generator is designed properly, it is able to accumulate bioenergy from all living things - animals, plants, humans - and then release it outside,' writes Kernbach. The pyschotronics program or 'parapsychology' as it was called in the U.S. involves unconventional research into mind and control and remote influence, reports news.com. The new information sheds light on Soviet efforts to research the phenomenon of mind-control using unconventional methods. (Image taken from Secrets of Russia, a German documentary) The original scheme of transmitting and receiving bio-circuitry of the human nervous system as depicted in the report . While the two countries worked on their relative projects in secrecy, the report reveals much of what they were investigating was the same. Indeed the psychotronics program draws similarities to America's MKUltra - a human research operation experimenting in the behavioral control of humans through the CIA's Scientific Intelligence Division. The program was introduced in 1950 - some 30 years after the Soviets' efforts in parapsychology research. Though paper reveals the USSR's early research into the subject, it does not disclose the results of such experiments or whether or not similar work is ongoing in Russia today. An example of a generator from the psychotronics program of which very little was known in previous years . Unlike the Soviets' research, Project MKUltra has been well documented since being shut down in 1973. The program was officially sanctioned in 1953, and carried out much of its research illegally by enlisting unwitting subjects who were, on occasion, subjected to taking drugs without their knowledge. Researchers used various methodologies to manipulate people's mental states and alter brain functions, including hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture. As many as 80 institutions carried out the research including universities, hospitals and colleges. It was first brought to the attention of the public in 1975 by the U.S. Congress, but all files relating to the research had been destroyed under the instruction of former CIA director Richard Helms in 1973. | Report uncovers previously classified Soviet research into mind control .
USSR researchers investigated subject some 30 years before US program .
Soviets made device to create high-frequency electromagnetic radiation .
America's controversial MKUltra experimented in control of humans .
The CIA-run program sometimes forced test subjects to take drugs . |
85,565 | f2aa6d2b57449ed938f64da8d8b030a0369b9ae2 | By . Paul Collins . Tom Ince is due in Italy on Monday for talks with Inter Milan. The 22-year-old is a free agent but the Italians will have to pay compensation to Blackpool for around £155,000. Monaco have also shown an interest as have Everton but compensation would be higher for an English club. Ince recently spoke about the 'dream' opportunity Inter Milan offered him to follow in his father’s footsteps. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Tom Ince: 30 second freestyle . Like father, like son: Tom Ince could be set to follow in his father's footsteps by joining Inter Milan . Move abroad: Paul Ince joined Inter Milan in 1995 and spent two seasons playing for the Italian giants . It is 19 . years since Paul Ince left Manchester United to join Inter, where he . spent two seasons, and now the Serie A giants could be about to sign his . son. The . England Under 21 international, who spent the second half of last . season at Crystal Palace, has options to remain in the Barclays Premier . League but it is the prospect of moving to Italy that has captured the . imagination. ‘It is unbelievable to be mentioned with them,’ said Ince. ‘The history that is there with my old man… It is dreams, it really is dreams. The name of Inter, the history, the stature of the club. There are options there. Going abroad wouldn’t faze me. ‘Look at Gareth Bale – it shows that sometimes it is better to make these moves when you are a boy. I have got to make sure that wherever I am next season, I am a better player. There are still things that I need to learn and get better. But that type of interest is fantastic.’ The list of English exports to foreign clubs has barely been added to since Joe Cole’s high-profile loan move from Liverpool to Lille in 2011 and Ince believes the whole experience of moving to Italy – if that is what he decides – would have a number of positive spin-offs. ‘You don’t see many English players doing it,’ said Ince. ‘Whether it is the risk of the language, us English are very lazy because we only want to speak our own language and if no one else does then no one cares. Sometimes you have to look at options like that as it opens up new horizons. ‘Learning a different language and culture, but I haven’t ruled out staying in England. Wherever I choose, it will come down to a gut feeling. I have got a great man behind me to help and advise me but, when it comes down to it, it will be my decision.’ On the hunt! Inter Milan have admitted their interest in signing Blackpool winger Tom Ince . Making waves: Ince has been on loan at Crystal Palace from Blackpool since the January transfer window . | Tom Ince is out of contract at Blackpool and available for a nominal fee .
Ince has been on loan at Crystal Palace from Championship side Blackpool .
England Under 21 star wants to emulate Gareth Bale's impact abroad . |
56,826 | a100128fde5ad8cf889c050f5e54c72d700535d9 | (CNN) -- Manchester United have accepted a world-record $130 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. Ronaldo is set to smash the world record transfer fee if he agrees to move to Real Madrid. The English champions have given the big-spending Spanish giants permission to talk to the World Player of the Year, according to the official United Web site. United said on Thursday that the Portugal winger had again expressed his desire to leave Old Trafford, and the club now expect the deal to be concluded by June 30. Madrid confirmed on the club's Web site that it hoped to seal an agreement with Ronaldo "in the coming days." Real, who have fallen behind bitter rivals Barcelona, have swooped to follow up the $92 million signing of Brazil star Kaka from AC Milan earlier this week. What's your view? Tell us what you think about Ronaldo joining Real. Real also held the previous record when they paid €77 million (now worth $108 million) for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. The club's president Florentino Perez said after the Kaka deal was concluded that he would do "everything possible" to sign the 24-year-old Ronaldo, as he sought to build a new empire that would match his first stint at the Bernabeu. The 20 most wanted players in the world. United held off Real's advances last summer, with manager Alex Ferguson traveling to the Portugal camp during the Euro 2008 finals to hold crisis talks with Ronaldo. The player committed himself to another season in Manchester, but was affected by injuries early on and -- despite a sizzling end to the campaign -- was unable to help United retain the UEFA Champions League title, losing to Barcelona in last month's final. Perez is seeking to rebuild a team which finished second in the Primera Liga last season, nine points behind Barcelona, and again failed to progress past the first knockout stage of Europe's premier club competition. He failed in his first bid for the presidency in 1995, but won the 2000 elections on a promise to sign Luis Figo from Barca. Perez duly brought in the Portuguese forward and followed it up with a series of budget-busting transfers, including that of Zidane and David Beckham, as he created a team dubbed the "Galacticos." United have been linked with moves to sign Bayern Munich's France star Franck Ribery and Wigan's Ecuador winger Antonio Valencia as Ferguson seeks to replace Ronaldo. Check out the latest transfer rumors and gossip. Perez has also expressed an interest in bringing Ribery to Spain from Germany. Ronaldo moved to Old Trafford in August 2003 in a $20 million transfer from Sporting Lisbon just days after scoring against United in a pre-season friendly. He made his first senior outing for the national side that November and helped Manchester United win the FA Cup in May before suffering heartache as Portugal lost to underdogs Greece in the final of Euro 2004 on home soil. In November 2005, he agreed a two-year extension to his contract until 2010. He was vilified in England in the summer of 2006 after his antics helped get United clubmate Wayne Rooney sent off as Portugal progressed to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Germany. After the tournament, Ronaldo revealed that he would like to leave United, but at the end of the 2006-07 season the forward agreed a new five-year contract. Watch CNN on why Ronaldo moved » . The next campaign he beat George Best's 40-year-old club record for goals scored by a winger in a single season, with 33 in the Premier League and 42 overall. Ronaldo suffered an ankle injury as Portugal lost 3-2 to Germany in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, and told Portuguese newspaper Publico he would remain with United "for at least another year". In December he was named Europe's top player, then the next month he escaped uninjured after writing off his Ferrari sports car when crashing into a roadside barrier under a tunnel near Manchester Airport on his way to training. Read about it here. Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on January 12 and went on to held United retain the Premier League title, but the club failed to become the first to retain the Champions League since its inception in 1992. | Real Madrid given permission to talk with Cristiano Ronaldo after record offer .
Spanish club offer a world-record $130 million for Manchester United winger .
The World Player of the Year is expected to conclude his transfer by June 30 .
Real have been seeking to sign the Portugal international for the last two years . |
17,419 | 314a4a921fa348ebf043e3bf4caf33e01bb32920 | By . Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Editor . PUBLISHED: . 12:19 EST, 5 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:24 EST, 16 September 2013 . Dish of the day at Waitrose yesterday was humble pie – and first in the queue to see it served up must surely have been Delia Smith. Months after the Queen of TV cookery stopped appearing in TV advertisements and Pippa Middleton was hired as its magazine columnist, the supermarket has decided to reinstate her. In a U-turn, the grocery giant has asked the much-loved cook to bring her successful online culinary school to its website. Triumphant return: Delia Smith has been signed up again by Waitrose. The supermarket's customers were annoyed when Pippa Middleton was given a column in the store magazine soon after Delia departed . The move follows anger in the kitchens . of Middle Britain over Waitrose’s decision to drop her from its . television ad campaign last year, while promoting Miss Middleton. Customers . saw the decision as a betrayal of a woman who had taught two . generations to cook and the resulting Twitter storm suggested it was a . ‘gratuitous insult’ to customers, with some threatening a supermarket . boycott. Her departure was . followed by the news that Waitrose had hired the Duchess of Cambridge’s . sister as the new star columnist for its magazine. The . news irked many Delia lovers, not least because the 29-year-old’s . culinary experience seemed limited to enjoying the hospitality at . celebrity parties and making sushi rolls for her university chums. Added . to that was the widespread mocking of her Celebrate party planning . book, which had disastrous sales. Pippa was signed as a columnist for Waitrose's monthly magazine Waitrose Kitchen . Yesterday, breathless bosses at . Waitrose announced their ‘exciting new move’ to work with Delia again. Her . online cookery school, launched earlier this year, will appear on the . Waitrose TV section of the supermarket’s website, offering a free video . library of lessons and techniques from beginner to advanced level. Waitrose chiefs were positively effervescent yesterday, calling Delia’s . tutorials the ‘hero of the channel’ and praising her ‘inspiration and . expertise’. Waitrose . marketing director Rupert Thomas said: ‘We have a long and successful . history of working with Delia and we’re thrilled to be joining forces . again on the Delia Online Cookery School with Waitrose, which we believe . will be the definitive online tool for cookery tuition.’ Delia, who has sold 21million cookery books, maintained her dignity throughout the controversy. When it was suggested she might want to prepare one of Pippa’s recipes at home, she simply laughed. Yesterday, the 72-year-old spoke of her ‘ambition’ to teach anyone who wants to learn to cook. ‘If . you are from nine to 109 you will be able to learn anything from . boiling an egg to baking a cake – I don’t think you can learn in a . better way,’ she said. Icon: Delia has been a popular mainstay of the British culinary scene for decades . | Supermarkets bosses invite cooking icon back into the fold .
Delia's successful cooking school will feature on Waitrose TV .
Customers riled when she was dropped and Pippa given slot in magazine . |
19,290 | 36983687cd6f0a9c38ba3c3e31022d97bb60b4d1 | By . Ruth Styles . PUBLISHED: . 06:52 EST, 12 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 12:35 EST, 21 February 2013 . Living in a state of permanent sexual arousal might not sound like such a bad deal for many of us, but for Amanda Gryce, 22, it's no laughing matter. The 22-year-old says her life is being ruined by constant multiple orgasms which can be triggered by just about anything imaginable, including loud music, car journeys and even ringing mobile phones. And it can happen absolutely anywhere - . when she's with her friends and even while she's at work as a sales . associate in a baby products shop. Embarrassing: For Amanda Gryce, 22, having 50 orgasms a day is no laughing matter . Torture: Amanda has suffered from the condition since she was eight and says it has ruined her life . The reason for the daily onslaught of orgasms is a rare condition known as Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome or PSAS, which first manifested when Gryce was just eight years old. And although PSAS is rare, it can have a devastating effect on the handful of people who suffer from the condition . Last year, 39-year-old Gretchen Molannen, from Florida, committed suicide after battling the condition for 16 years. The news was particularly difficult to take for Amanda, also from Florida, who sometimes has to masturbate up to 15 times in one day to get relief. She said: 'It is not pleasurable: you could say it has become a torture. This condition controls your life completely and it is like living a nightmare.' Something kinda ooh: Amanda has to adopt special positions to control her many orgasms . Passion killer: According to Amanda, her condition intimidates would-be boyfriends . Young: Amanda was just eight years old when the condition first began to manifest itself . 'I can have 50 orgasms in one day and five or ten within an hour of each other. It happens when I'm with my friends or out in public and it's very embarrassing. 'It kills me inside. I just have to put on a smile and pretend that nothing's wrong. 'Orgasms are supposed to be a good feeling but I've had them every day for so long now that I'm living with constant fear and shame.' She added: 'At my lowest points, I have thought about suicide but I had to reassure myself that I would never resort to something like that and that it wasn't going to happen to me.' Amanda first began suffering from the condition when she was just eight and by the age of 13 she was battling the intense feelings as she sat in her classroom during lessons. But, raised Catholic and told in Sunday school that sexual thoughts and masturbation was a sin, she was too scared to confide in anyone. Tough: Almost anything can give Amanda an orgasm including car or plane travel and ringing mobile phones . Cry for help: The condition can take a terrible toll on sufferers with some even committing suicide to escape . She said: 'As a child I had no idea what was happening to me - I thought I was just sex-obsessed. I had to masturbate to relieve my condition and I felt guilty every time I did it.' It wasn't until 2008 that she heard about PSAS while listening to the radio but despite contacting four different doctors for help, found that none had ever heard of the condition. Since then she has tried to move on with her life and, at 20, even lost her virginity after years of fearing sex would make her condition worse. But she admits she has not been able to have a steady relationship - because men either take advantage or are intimidated. She said: 'When I lost my virginity I was left emotional and disappointed. It didn't make me feel better. The guy that I was with seemed sympathetic at first but then used my condition to get more sex. 'I've been with a few guys since but it's difficult- I've found some guys are even intimidated. 'Thankfully I've had the courage to tell my family and they have all been very understand and supportive.' She added: 'I get people say I'm making it up and that I'm really a nymphomaniac but I don't let it faze me. 'I just now hope that there will one day be more understanding of this condition and my story will give just one other person the courage to get support.' | Amanda Gryce, 22, suffers from Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome .
Condition means she can have up to 10 orgasms an hour .
Triggers include ringing mobile phones, car journeys and loud music .
Florida native Gryce describes living with the condition as 'torture'
She says it has affected her relationships and intimidates men . |
244,795 | c8d5dc73dbd0ce6351d3196af19f5081caf8d195 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 11:10 EST, 10 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:47 EST, 11 June 2013 . The mighty HMS Ark Royal cut a forlorn figure as she reached her final resting place today over 2,000 miles from home. A tugboat dragged Britain’s most famous warship, which saw service in Iraq and Bosnia, into a scrapping facility at Izmir, west Turkey this afternoon. Orange smoke was used to guide the vessel into the boatyard, which spans two kilometres. Last journey: The mighty Ark Royal cuts a forlorn figure as she reaches her final resting place - 2,000 miles from home. A tugboat dragged Britain's most famous warship into a scrapping facility at Izmir, west Turkey, today . Pulling in: The flagship vessel, which led forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was sold by the Ministry of Defence to ship recycling firm Leyal for a reported £2.9 million . Here the 22-000-tonne light aircraft carrier will be stripped down and eventually turned into everything from bridge foundations to tin cans and razor blades. Asim Ozdogan, director of ship recycling firm Leyal, said it will take a team of up to 80 workers an estimated eight months to finish the project. The ship, which carried 22 aircraft . and had a complement of 1,051, was retired five years ahead of schedule . in 2011, a high-profile casualty of the government’s controversial . defence review. Defence bosses claimed that her decommissioning and sale to a foreign country for . £2.9million saved . taxpayers more than £100million. Guide: Orange smoke was used to guide the vessel into the right area of the boatyard, which spans two kilometres . Stripped down: The 22,000-tonne light aircraft carrier will be stripped down and could eventually be turned into everything from bridge foundations to tin cans and razor blades . Weight: 22,000 tons . Power: Four Rolls Royce gas powered engines which produce 97,000 BHP . Cost: £320million . Length: 210metres . Conflicts: 2003 Iraq war and Bosnia . Launched: June 2, 1981 . What happens to her now: Sold for scrap . Retirement date: 2016 (brought forward five years by the Coalition Government) Motto: Zeal does not rest . Constructed: Swan Hunter's Dockyard, Newcastle . Aircraft: Can hold up to 24 planes . There was outrage at the prospect of selling the ship . online, with plans to turn her into a casino in Hong Kong, a floating . hospital or a commercial diving wreck all rejected. Destiny, however, . sent her on the same 2,000-mile journey her sister ship made two years . ago. HMS Invincible, heroine of the Falklands war, also went for scrap. There had been bids to turn the ship into a nightclub, casino and even an artificial diving reef off the coast of Devon, but all were rejected by the MOD. The rust-streaked left the UK for the final time when it was waved off by hundreds of flag-waving Britons at Portsmouth Harbour on May 20. It had served the UK for more than a quarter of a century since being built by Swan Hunters Ship Builders’ yard at Wallsend, North Tyneside 1978, at a cost of £320million. At 210m long it was capable of carrying 22 aircraft and had a complement of 1,051. As well as leading the invasion of Iraq in 2003, she also saw service in Bosnia. It was the fifth great warship to be named the Ark Royal, the first being a ship ordered in 1586 for Sir Walter Raleigh. Leyal are not due to start scrapping the vessel for another two weeks. From . their ship graveyard near Izmir, Turkey, Leyal engineers have also . dismantled several other high profile British naval vessels, including . Type 42 destroyers such as HMS Cardiff, HMS Newcastle and HMS Glasgow. Left: The rust-streaked left the UK for the final time when it was waved off by hundreds of flag-waving Britons at Portsmouth Harbour on May 20 . Dismantled: From their ship graveyard near Izmir, Turkey, Leyal engineers have also dismantled several other high profile British naval vessels, including Type 42 destroyers such as HMS Cardiff, HMS Newcastle and HMS Glasgow. The . company website boasts that the five hectares of land dedicated to . dismantling is capable of handling 100,000 tons of shipping a year . The Leyal ship breaking facility is located in the industrial heartland of Turkey - next to the steel mills of Aliaga - which melt down high grade steel to be sold on to European manufacturers. Last year Turkey produced in excess of 30 million tons of steel and was the eighth largest producer of steel in the world - even though almost all of it comes from scrap. The MOD declined to comment about the project. Last month: After more than a quarter of a century of service, the aircraft carrier – the fifth Royal Navy ship to bear a name that dates back to the days of victory over the Spanish Armada – began her final, solemn journey to the scrapyard . When the HMS Ark Royal was launched in June 1981, it was the fifth great British warship to bear the famous name. The . Ark Royal was originally the name given to a ship ordered for Sir . Walter Raleigh in 1586. It was involved in the battles against the . Spanish Armada, and served for more than 50 years. That first ship was eventually broken up in 1638, and it was almost 300 years before another vessel bore the same name. The . second HMS Ark Royal, launched in 1914, was the first ship designed to . carry aircraft in history. The 7,080 ton ship bore little resemblance to . her 800 ton 16th century predecessor. But like her namesake she served . her country with distinction and was used in both World Wars. The . Ark Royal was launched in 1937 but came to a watery end in 1941 when . sunk by a German U-boat. The fourth Ark Royal was launched in 1950 . before being scrapped in 1979 and replaced by the current one in 1981. The . present Ark Royal was built by Swan Hunters Ship Builders' yard at . Wallsend in 1978 and launched by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen . Mother. She was accepted into service on July 1, 1985. | A tugboat dragged HMS Ark Royal into a scrapping facility at Izmir, west Turkey, earlier today .
The warship led forces during the Iraq war invasion in 2003 and saw active service in Bosnia .
Purchased from MoD for reported £2.9m - decommissioned as part of spending cuts following 2010 defence review .
Plans to turn the ship into a museum, heliport, nightclub, school or casino fell by the wayside . |
34,223 | 61434db41b5e79cb3247c859a9cbab04b16fd9f3 | By . Kerry Mcqueeney . PUBLISHED: . 19:48 EST, 1 September 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:40 EST, 2 September 2012 . A woman who partied with Prince Harry claimed she kissed the young Royal in a naked 'drunken fumble' during his now-infamous night in Las Vegas. Blonde Carrie Reichert revealed how she was alone with Prince Harry in his hotel room for up to 20 minutes during a party in Nevada's Sin City last month. The Royal was completely naked during their tryst, she claims, while she stripped down to a string bikini. Stunning blonde Carrie Reichert claims she was alone with a naked Prince Harry for between 15 and 20 minutes in his hotel room . Wild times: Carrie partied with the young Royal on his now-infamous night in Sin City . However, despite the intimate nature of their rendezvous, Carrie insisted the kiss was 'fun' and 'not romantic'. She also claimed that, in spite of many people stripping off at the party, it was not an orgy. Instead, she said, Harry was a 'gentleman' but added he was completely 'wasted'. The 32-year-old is the first woman to speak out about Harry's wild night in Vegas, where he was pictured frolicking naked with a young woman during a game of 'strip billiards'. Carrie, who had been visiting from San Diego with a group of girlfriends, claims she was hand-picked to join the Prince's party after his friends spotted her near the swimming pool at the Encore At Wynn hotel, it was reported. The British-born beauty said she was approached by one of the Prince's entourage who invited her to party with them in his penthouse. She told The People: 'I'm not going to pass an opportunity to party with Prince Harry.' When she got upstairs, she said, the party was in 'full swing' with guests - and Harry - already naked. Male bonding: The Royal Protection Officer, left, and Harry's 'wingman' Skippy, centre, all displayed bare chests as they chatted and joked together . The Prince had been spotted clearly enjoying himself with friends and young women at a pool party in Vegas . She added: 'Harry was already undressed. It was just crazy, he looked actually delirious. There was a pool table and he was playing air guitar with pool sticks.' Carrie said Harry took her by the hand and led her from the living room to his bedroom soon after introducing herself to him. Harry was already naked and she removed her dress to reveal a string bikini before she kissed him, she said. The pair then had a conversation about her childhood links with Britain before enjoying a 'drunken fumble'. She added: 'We kissed for 15 to 20 minutes. I am sure someone stumbled in as there were people going in and out of rooms all the time. We kissed again and he said "That was great".' Carrie said they then both rejoined the party in the living room and carried on drinking until she went back to her hotel room. Harry was photographed on a mobile . phone in just a necklace with a naked female playmate hiding behind him . having played a game of strip pool in his VIP Las Vegas suite. Another . showed him giving the same topless woman a naked bear hug, which have . since been seen by tens of millions across the world. As well as the embarrassment, it did raise security fears about how well the prince was protected on his Vegas trip. Despite Met sources saying that there . was no security breach and that officers were not there to protect his . reputation, it is believed two of Harry’s most high-ranking personal . protection officers have already been interviewed by their bosses back . in London. They were accused of watching him . being photographed playing ‘strip billiards’ in his Las Vegas hotel . suite but failed to take any action. | British-born beauty claimed she was alone with the naked Prince in his room . |
147,347 | 4a7fea1f1957a71d098ad54f80deff34a040d084 | By . Corey Charlton . The shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner made its final journey yesterday arriving in the northern Italian city of Genoa where it will be scrapped. Pulled by tugboats for 200 miles and nudged by winds, the ship was eased into the port. It took five days for the liner to reach the headquarters of ship owner Costa Crociere Spa where the luxury vessel first set sail after construction in 2005. Thirty-two people were killed when the ship ran aground in the seas near the Tuscan island of Giglio in 2012, making it the worst maritime disaster since the Second World War. Meanwhile, the captain has provoked anger as pictures emerged of him reportedly 'celebrating' a book deal at a publisher's exclusive VIP party on the holiday island of Ischia. Scroll down for video . Transported: The Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia sits today inside Genoa's Voltri Port, Italy. Thirty-two people died onboard when the ship ran aground in 2012 . Docked: The wreckage of the Costa Concordia liner arrived near the northern Italian city of Genoa following a 200-mile towing operation . At port in Genoa: The Costa Concordia dismantling operations are predicted to last two years . It's here: The cruise liner was made floating again on July 14, 30 months after the cruise ship hit a reef and partly capsized off the island of Giglio in January 2012 . The salvage operation for the ship - pictured as it is towed to Genoa today - is expected to be a long and expensive process that will take two years and cost 1.5billion euros . The ship's . captain Francesco Schettino has been a figure of ridicule and contempt . since the accident, and local media suggested he was celebrating a book . deal at the party. He . is currently on trial for manslaughter, with it alleged he performed a . 'salute' to the island as he tried to impress his Moldovan lover - a . former dancer who worked as a hostess on the ship. Local newspaper Il Golfo . published the images, showing a tanned and happy-looking Schettino . socialising at Italian publisher Pietro Graus's annual 'White Party'. The Sunday Telegraph reported Mr Graus defended inviting Schettino to his party. 'The commander was invited to the event that I organise every year for my publishing house,' he said. The Costa Concordia, a huge floating hotel as long as three football pitches laid end to end, with 13 passenger decks, was carrying some 4,000 passengers and crew when it went down shortly after the start of a Mediterranean cruise . Final journey: The Costa Concordia arriving at Genoa's Voltri Port. The ship's dismantling operations are expected to last two years . As much of the country watched on as the wreckage of the ship, where 32 people died, was towed north, Capt Schettino was attending a VIP party in Ischia . Locals in Genoa watch on as the massive ship - the length of three football fields - is slowly hauled in to the port where operations will begin to salvage scrap metal . Four tugboats and several escort ships were lined up to tow the 114,000-tonne vessel to Genoa after the most daunting salvage operation ever attempted . 'I have a . duty to transfer all the pain, the anger of a man who has always had . before him the silent and endless horizons of the sea.' Twitter users were quick express their condemnation of the captain. One wrote: 'The party organized by the editor @GrausEditore who wanted #Schettino as guest star. Pure disgust.' Even . former tennis professional Angelo Mangiante weighed in on the debate, . tweeting: '32 dead, 110 injured. And he, still #Schettino on vacation . guest of honor among the VIPs of Ischia. I am ashamed of this Italy.' The . wreckage of the 114,500-tonne Costa Concordia was lifted off the rocks . and re-floated last week in preparation for its trip north where it will . be salvaged for scrap. Smiling: The former Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino pictured with two unidentified women at the VIP White Party event in Ischia, in the Bay of Naples. The photo was taken on July 19, while nearby salvage operations continued on the ship where 32 people perished . Prime . Minister Matteo Renzi is expected in Genoa later today to hail the . completion of the operation which restored some pride to Italy after a . disaster that was widely interpreted as a national humiliation as well . as a human tragedy. In . contrast to the calamitous night of Jan. 13, 2012, when the Concordia . came too close to shore during a display sometimes performed by cruise . ships known as a 'salute', the salvage operation has been a resounding . technical success. 'This . is not a celebration. We have to think of the victims, but it has to be . said that keeping the Concordia in Italy is a great occasion for our . country,' Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti told reporters at the . port. 'We have excellent technology and we are capable of undertaking great things,' he said. The . overall salvage effort is expected to cost Carnival Corp, owner of the . ship's operator, Costa Cruises and its insurers more than 1.5billion . euros. Locals on the beach of Voltri use binoculars to watch the wreckage of the Costa Concordia getting towed into the Genoa port today . The captain of the ship is currently on trial for manslaughter - which he denies - after it is alleged he attempted a manoeuvre to show off to his mistress who was aboard the boat . Environmentalists were concerned the ship could split as it left port or during the four day voyage north, however it appears to have reached its destination intact . The arrival of the stricken luxury cruise liner created a stir in Genoa, with dozens heading down to the beaches, or their balconies, to catch a glimpse of it . The island of Ischia is a beautiful island located in the Bay of Naples. The captain was photographed at a party here despite being on trial for manslaughter . | Former captain of Costa Concordia, currently on trial for manslaughter, provokes outrage over pictures of him at party .
Captain Francesco Schettino photographed at publisher's exclusive VIP party on the holiday island of Ischia .
The Costa Concordia sank on the coast off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people .
Pictures of captain emerge as salvage operation continues, with wreckage of the ship towed to Genoa at the weekend . |
99,913 | 0cbe03f6b40092a15a8fd686be4114a1b2bda941 | A young German tourist has died in a hospital in Maui, Hawaii, one week after she lost her right arm in a horrific shark attack. Lana Lutteropp, 20, had been on life support and in 'very critical condition' at Maui Memorial Medical Center since she was pulled from the water last Wednesday by a heroic teacher who heard her screams. 'Jana fought hard to stay alive. However, we are sad to say that she lost her fight today,' her family said in a statement on Wednesday. Lutteropp was snorkeling 100 yards off Palauea Beach in Makena when a shark attacked and bit off her arm. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Globetrotter: German citizen Jana Lutteropp, 20, is on life support after losing her arm in a shark attack while vacationing in Hawaii . 'Jana was a very beautiful, strong, young woman who was always laughing, and we will forever remember her that way,' her family said. California high school teacher Rick Moore, who jumped into the water to save Lutteropp, said the young tourist kept repeating that she was going to die. ‘As soon as we stand on the beach, we heard this blood-curdling scream,’ the 57-year-old of Laguna Niguel, California, said. ‘We look out and there was blood everywhere in the white water around her.’ With the bikini-clad woman's other arm around his neck, Moore backstroked about 100 yards through strong ocean currents. ‘It . dawned on me - I was in danger now,’ he said. ‘The shark is around me . and she's bleeding. I start praying out loud, “God, God protect us.” She . said, “I'm dying. I know I'm going to die."’ ‘About 10 feet from her, I saw her floating on her back, with no arm,’ Moore said. ‘It was completely severed from her body.’ Lutteropp is originally from Zierenberg north of Kassel in western Germany. She was a member of the town's carnival troupe called Grace Berger Dance Guard and had left Germany last summer to work as an au pair in Seattle, Washington. She was in Hawaii for a three-week vacation and was planning to return to Germany September 11, according to her personal blog as well as the HNA.de website that serves the region where her town is located. On her blog, Lutteropp wrote about her experiences working as an au pair for an American family living in Issaquah – a suburb of Seattle. Hero: Rick Moore (left), a 57-year-old gym teacher from California, jumped in the water after hearing Jana (right) screaming and brought her ashore, where he performed CPR until help arrived . The 20-year-old had spent a year caring for her host family’s three boys – 4-year-old twins and their 5-year-old brother. Her last day on the job was August 12, after which the young au pair apparently headed to Hawaii for a vacation. After Moore got Lutteroppto shore, his friend, Nicholas Grisaffi, 61, of Laguna Beach, stood in neck-high water and took the woman from Moore and carried her limp body out of the water. ‘What was left of her shoulder was in my chest,’ said Grisaffi, who teaches homeless fourth- and fifth-graders. ‘I had a pure-white rash guard on’ but there was very little blood on it, an indication of how much blood she lost. The two teachers said they put the woman in a bystander's kayak, using it as a stretcher to bring her up a trail leading to the street. The woman's three friends were in shock as Moore performed CPR. Attack: The victim is understood to have lost an arm after being bitten by the shark in Hawaii . ‘Pretty much everybody was out of . control except me and Rick,’ Grisaffi said. ‘If we're not there, she's . not saved. Nobody did a thing. They just stood there in shock, watching . the blood and everything.’ A . police officer arrived with a tourniquet as the woman was going in and . out of consciousness, Grisaffi said. An ambulance rushed her to Maui . Memorial Medical Center. Joshua Craddock, a 23-year-old from London who was sunbathing on the beach at the time, called 911. He hailed Moore's bravery. ‘He . was pretty heroic and selfless to dive in the water when by this stage . she was surrounded by a pool of blood which we could see form the . shore,’ Craddock said. Moore . and Grisaffi have visited the woman in the hospital and said she was in . stable condition Friday. Authorities have declined to release her name. ‘I just can't get the screaming out of my head,’ Grisaffi said. ‘The arm didn't bother me. At our age, we've seen a lot.’ The ordeal has changed his perspective on the ocean. ‘I won't take risks of going too far out any more,’ he said. Hawaii officials say shark attacks are unusual considering how many people are in the state's waters. Stunning: The young German tourist was snorkelling just 50 yards from Makena beach, Hawaii, when she was attacked . There . have been six shark attacks this year through the end of July, . including three on Maui, according to a state database. There were 11 . shark attacks in the state in 2012. The last time anyone in Hawaii died from a shark attack was in 2004. To . reduce the risk of being injured by a shark attack, state officials . urge people to swim in groups and avoid going in the ocean at dawn and . dusk, when sharks may come closer to shore to feed. But Craddock said he . doubts many people are aware of these warnings. ‘She was a young, fair-haired blond girl on vacation and she clearly had no idea,’ he said. | Shark attack victim Jana Lutteropp, 20, was on life support .
Her right arm was torn off .
The German tourist had spent a year working as an au pair in Seattle, Washington .
She traveled to Maui, Hawaii, for a three-week vacation before her scheduled return home in September .
Rick Moore, 57, a teacher from California, jumped into the water after hearing Jana's blood-curdling screams .
'We look out and there was blood everywhere in the white water around her,' Moore said .
Moore's friend, Nicholas Grisaffi, helped carry Lutteropp out of the water . |
164,531 | 60c4b7eac1df3789c44f5bece0fa413ff2472caa | A Scottish island that has been trapped in time for decades is going on the market for £250,000 and could one day play host to eco tourists. The 64-acre island of Linga is listed for the same price as a two-bedroom flat in Edinburgh or Glasgow even though it has no power or water supply or a house which is move-in ready. Located in the Shetland Islands in northern Scotland, Linga’s eventual owner will be permitted to create an eco-tourism business, install wind-generated power, build a pier for boat access and restore two derelict croft houses as holiday homes. The 64-acre island of Linga is located in the Shetland Islands in northern Scotland . If the island sells and someone moves in it would be inhabited for the first time in over 80 years, although it is closer to Norway than it is to Scotland. The last known person to have lived on the island, part of the most northerly group of the British Isles, is reported to have been Captain James Fraser, who died in 1931. The stunning island lies in the Vaila Sound with just a few hundred yards of sea separating it from the mainland Shetland village of Walls. Sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the larger island of Vaila and surrounded by blue waters the island is small enough to walk across in less than half an hour. Linga’s new owner will have permission to rebuild the derelict croft houses alongside a new cottage . Untouched for a generation it includes pristine white beaches, a loch and an abundance of wildlife, according to a brochure from Shetland Estate, the listing agent. The brochure says: ‘Visitors would be able to take part in traditional crofting and fishing activities experiencing first-hand the annual cycle of activities required to support crofting during this period. ‘Considerable design and study work has been completed along with a fully developed business plan.’ Evidence of prehistoric settlements prove continuous occupation and human activity on the island for several thousand years. Linga lies in the Vaila Sound with just a few hundred yards of sea separating it from the village of Walls . Linga's current owner, Bob Thomson, hopes someone will finish off his ambitious project . In 1881 it is recorded to have been home to 13 people split between the two families but by 1901 only one of the houses was inhabited. Linga’s current owner, Bob Thomson, is selling the island with hopes that the new owner will revive it and finish off his ambitious project. It would give tourists the chance experience life as it was on a traditional Shetland croft at the end of the 19th century. Mr Thomson, who grew up in Shetland and bought the island in 2008, said: ‘I was brought up in Walls and as a child used to play on the island in the school holidays with friends as we grew up in small boats. ‘It needs a younger person to take over and complete the concept.’ Mr Thomson grew up in Shetland and bought the island in 2008 . Captain James Fraser, who died in 1931, is the last known person to have lived on the island . He added: ‘Owning an island is Shetland is the best feeling ever and it is very sad to have consider selling especially as the development concept has received such fantastic local support. ‘When talking to people abroad about owning the island they are always really impressed. My wife especially likes to tell people we meet overseas about Linga.’ Linga’s new owner will have permission to rebuild the derelict croft houses alongside a new cottage to provide self-catering accommodation with en-suite facilities and ground source heat pumps. And there are approvals for a windmill and solar panels to provide electricity to the island for the first time, in addition to new sewage systems and rainwater capture systems for water supply. | Island of Linga is located in the Shetland Islands in northern Scotland .
It is listed for the same price as a two-bedroom flat in Edinburgh .
Eventual owner will be permitted to create an eco-tourism business .
It includes permission to restore the houses as holiday homes . |
102,117 | 0f98d3de06f13c4e4ddf37bab66e42d8963cfa9a | By . Tim Shipman and Hugo Duncan . PUBLISHED: . 12:24 EST, 6 December 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 18:32 EST, 6 December 2012 . Ministers must find £27billion of fresh spending cuts or tax rises to plug the black hole in the nation’s finances, Britain’s leading economic think-tank revealed yesterday. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said Britain is on course for £7billion of tax rises and another £20billion in welfare cuts and spending reductions after the next election. IFS director Paul Johnson also predicted that pensioner benefits such as free bus passes and television licences, and the winter fuel allowance – which David Cameron has pledged to protect until 2015 – are almost certain to be slashed after the election. Tory Chancellor George Osborne and Lib Dem Treasury minister Danny Alexander will have to set out spending cuts and tax rises until 2018 at the next election . The cuts are needed because the . Chancellor has pledged to get the national debt as a share of national . income falling by 2017 in order to convince the markets that Britain’s . recovery plan is on track. Leading ratings agency Fitch has already . threatened to strip the UK of its coveted AAA status in the wake of the . Autumn Statement. It said George Osborne’s admission . that he will miss a crucial target to cut the country’s debt burden by . 2015-16 ‘weakens the credibility’ of the public finances. But getting . debt back on track by 2017 will be painful, the IFS warned. If the next government continues to . protect spending on the NHS, schools and aid, it will have to make . real-terms cuts totalling 16 per cent in 2017 in the other departments. That would take cuts in those . departments to 31 per cent since the downturn began. Mr Johnson said no . government would dare do this, making further tax rises and welfare cuts . ‘almost inevitable’. Plans already announced by Mr Osborne . mean cuts account for 85 per cent of debt reductions in 2017, with just . 15 per cent from tax rises. Up to 2015, the Chancellor has pledged to achieve an 80-20 split between tax rises and spending cuts. If he were to achieve the same . balance in 2017, it would mean tax rises of £7billion, with the rest of . the £27billion saved from cuts to defence, councils, transport and other . departments. So far just £4.5billion of the . £10billion of welfare cuts the Chancellor has said will be necessary . have been announced, suggesting the Conservatives will seek to make at . least another £5.5billion of benefits savings after the election. But Mr Johnson said money for the NHS . and pensioners accounts for 40 per cent of public spending, and . ministers will have to take from both if they are to balance the books. Mr Osborne insisted yesterday that Britain remained a safe bet for international investors despite fears over the credit rating. A downgrade – which could drive up . borrowing costs for the Government, businesses and households – would be . a crushing humiliation for the Chancellor but economists warned that it . was only a matter of time before Britain was stripped of its AAA . rating. Labour Treasury spokesman Rachel . Reeves said: ‘The reason why there is a big hole in George Osborne’s . plan is that his reckless policies choked off the recovery and have . pushed up long-term unemployment.’ Debt mountain: The UK's public sector net debt is set to get worse than previously thought . Tax-free office perks such as subsidised food in the staff canteen could be axed under a Treasury review of workplace expenses. Other areas under threat include Christmas gifts from managers and a right for staff to take home products made by their employers at a reduced price. Chancellor George Osborne has asked officials to look at the complex area of workplace expenses to see if more tax should be paid. Documents released alongside the Autumn Statement show that the independent Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) will look at office benefits. This could also include cheap petrol and £30,000 tax-free redundancy payments. The Treasury said: ‘The Government will ask the OTS to carry out a review of ways to simplify the taxation of employee benefits and expenses and employee termination payments.’ It did not give further details but accountants said one proposal could be for HM Revenue and Customs to bring in a flat rate allowance per employee for expenses incurred off-site. | Institute for Fiscal Studies reveals extent of spending reductions needed to meet George Osborne's deficit targets .
If spread across Whitehall unprotected areas like defence and transport would face cuts of 16% .
Report also warns poorest hardest hit by 1% benefits cap for three years .
By 2015 up to 5million people will have been dragged into 40p tax rate . |
244,415 | c84fe64783cf67b91bcc0658ca2ce5ded8664f31 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 16:08 EST, 11 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 01:25 EST, 12 August 2013 . The skies are expected to shimmer with a 'natural firework display' tonight as a meteor shower crosses into the earth’s atmosphere, astronomy experts have predicted. Although the Perseids meteor shower is an annual event, the Royal Astronomical Society believes prospects for this year’s showing are particularly good and could mean up to 60 shooting stars an hour in the UK. The best display will last from late Monday evening through to early Tuesday morning. Wish upon a star: If you're lucky bright meteors like this one seen during the 2009 Perseids shower will shoot through the sky leaving visible trails . Spectacular: The annual meteor shower is a result of material falling from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle . Stars gazers will need only their own eyes to enjoy the natural occurrence, which is a result of material falling from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near the Earth in 1992. 'Comet Swift-Tuttle won’t be visiting our neck of the woods again until the year 2125, but every year we get this beautiful reminder as the Earth ploughs through the debris it leaves in its orbit' said Professor Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen’s University Belfast. 'Every meteor is a speck of comet dust vaporising as it enters our atmosphere at 36 miles per second. What a glorious way to go.' Meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, are the result of small particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed. Prime time: This Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning are the peak times to spot a meteor, as the shower crosses into the earth's atmosphere . These heat the air around them, causing the characteristic streak of light seen from the ground. They mostly appear as fleeting flashes lasting less than a second, but the brightest ones leave behind trails of vaporised gases and glowing air molecules that may take a few seconds to fade. The Perseids meteor shower is active each year from around mid-July to late-August, but for most of that period only a few meteors an hour will be visible. | Best time to see the Perseids meteor shower is from Monday night to early Tuesday morning .
It is an annual event but usually only features one meteor per hour .
Shooting stars are the result of small particles entering the Earth's atmosphere at speed . |
270,611 | ea7ccb2b7342753b90aa29be1036a8369df69883 | (CNN) -- Veteran British broadcaster David Frost, best known for his series of interviews with disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon, has died. He was 74. His death was reported by the BBC, which aired many of his shows, and by Al Jazeera English, where he also worked. The BBC published a statement from Frost's family asking for privacy "at this difficult time." The family said Frost spent Saturday evening giving a speech on a cruise ship, where he suffered a heart attack. He's survived by his wife of 30 years and three children. "My heart goes out to David Frost's family," British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted Sunday morning. "He could be -- and certainly was with me -- both a friend and a fearsome interviewer." Frost's interviews with Nixon, and the story behind them, were portrayed in the play and film "Frost/Nixon," written by Peter Morgan. In a 2009 interview, Frost told CNN he did not see the interviews as "an intellectual 'Rocky,'" as Morgan called them. Nixon at one point let down his guard, telling Frost, "I'm saying when the president does it, that means it's not illegal." For many viewers, that moment cemented Nixon's infamy. More than 30 years later, Frost remembered Nixon as a surprisingly awkward figure who, while once discussing what they'd done the previous evening, asked the host, "Did you do any fornicating?" "It was amazing to discover how ... hopeless he was at small talk," Frost told CNN. "I mean, here was this incredible professional politician, a great pro. And he'd never learned small talk." Watch a 2009 CNN interview with David Frost . In a 2011 interview with CNN, Frost praised former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. "He was wise," Frost said. "He was cautious, he knew what he was determined to do." But it wasn't all serious interviews with politicians. Charlie Courtauld worked with Frost in his later years at Al Jazeera English. "What was remarkable about Sir David was his ability to put any interviewee at ease, from the most high and mighty to an ordinary person in the street," Courtauld said in a statement. "He found interest in anybody. Whoever he was interviewing would realise that Sir David was genuinely interested in them and their lives. He was very much a people person." In his early days as a presenter, Frost also dabbled in satire. In the early 1960s he hosted a program on the BBC called "That Was the Week That Was." The short-lived show included luminaries like John Cleese and marked the beginning of a broadcast career that mixed news and entertainment. Born in southern England, Frost considered following in the footsteps of his Methodist minister father. That ambition didn't last. Before entering university, Frost also ruled out professional soccer, turning down an offer from a team in Nottingham. Frost married in 1981. The union with actress Lynne Frederick was brief, just 18 months. In 1994, Frederick committed suicide. Frost later said of Frederick, "Life was very unfair to her." Frost's second marriage would last. In 1983 he wed Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard. The couple had three sons. The late Princess Diana was godmother to the youngest. Although Frost came from humble beginnings, later in life he lived quite well. He was knighted in 1993. His annual summer fete drew A-listers and headlines. This year, for example, Pippa Middleton drew attention for the red lace number she wore. Frost's lengthy career led to many accolades, but in 2011 Frost described himself as an "OK father." Still, in comments to the Daily Mail, Frost said he loved being a father and he simply tried not to impose on his sons. "It's terribly important not to be too ambitious for them, just to be ambitious for their happiness," he said. People we lost in 2013 . | David Frost was 74 .
He's best known for interviews with disgraced U.S. president Richard Nixon .
The interviews were dramatized in the play and film "Frost/Nixon" |
1,763 | 051290bd52161035410817e8b160282413f50c46 | (CNN) -- Manchester United will be without Wayne Rooney for Sunday's English Premier League clash with Blackburn, but manager Alex Ferguson expects the England striker to return from injury next weekend. Rooney made a shock comeback in Wednesday's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, but had to go off with an hour to play after aggravating his ankle problem as United crashed out of Europe's top club tournament on away goals. Ferguson believes the injury is not serious and that Rooney will be fit for second-placed United's clash with local rivals Manchester City next Saturday. "I don't think it's as serious as we said when he got the injury the first time, but I think he'll be ready for the City game," the Scot told reporters on Friday. "We've got more time to work on it, anyway. Other than that, everyone else is fit." Ferguson said he was ready to put faith in Dimitar Berbatov for the short trip to North-West rivals Blackburn, despite keeping the Bulgarian forward on the bench until the final 10 minutes of the 3-2 win against Bayern. "Yes, I still trust him," Ferguson said. "He is a good player and there is absolutely no reason why we should doubt that. "Dimitar has done well in a lot of games recently but we prefer to play with one striker. When we got the man sent off on Wednesday there was no need to bring a striker on because all we were trying to do was go over the line in terms of defending." Ferguson hinted that he will rotate his squad as United seek to win and move a point above leaders Chelsea, who take on Aston Villa in the semifinals of the FA Cup on Saturday. "Given the nature of the game on Wednesday and the energy spent, we have to address the situation of freshness," he said. "We've got a a squad to use -- we have the likes of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville and we also have John O'Shea back now. "He came on against Bayern and did 30 minutes' work -- it's good to get him back because he's such a versatile player for us." | Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson expects Wayne Rooney to return next weekend .
Rooney will miss Sunday's trip to Blackburn after aggravating his ankle injury .
England striker made shock comeback against Bayern Munich on Wednesday .
United can move a point above English Premier League leaders Chelsea with victory . |
212,157 | 9eb825f89f13adb301617351a416e622db4fe3e7 | It has shed two million viewers compared to last year, was beaten into second place in the ratings by BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing and rumoured in-fighting between the judges has seen the new look X Factor plunged into crisis. Phone votes have plummeted as fans desert the show and it seems Simon Cowell's huge . gamble to leave his signature reality show to launch in the . U.S., may have put the show in crisis. Slump: Boy band Nu Vibe were voted off last night's X Factor live show which saw viewing figures and phone votes plummet . Despite gaining 9.6 million viewers during Saturday's . live shows, X Factor was beaten in the ratings by the BBC's Strictly Come . Dancing, which had 9.75million tuning in despite its barely revamped . format. Sunday night's results show rose to . 11.4million viewers but compared to 13.4million for the same stage of . the competition last year, it's clear that the new format is not quite . yielding the much-hoped for results. And today, ITV is expected to discover that phone votes for the first public eviction have also plummeted as newspaper reports today suggest that viewers have lost faith with the acts, which would mean a major drop in income for ITV and producers. But despite the falling ratings, a drop in phone votes and reports of unrest behind the scenes, an upbeat Cowell insists he is very happy with the way the show is going. A source told MailOnline: 'Simon's . really happy with the show here in the UK. He has deliberately left the UK show to run without him and he absolutely trusts the team to do a . great job. Happy: Simon Cowell, seen here on the US X Factor last night, is pleased with how the UK show is going - and is said to have already spotted an act that he believes is a 'stand out star' By PAUL CONNOLLY . Say what you like about Simon Cowell - and I have often - but he knows how to put together a talent show that draws in the viewers. True, The X Factor has always been about as reflective of the vibrancy of the UK music scene as EastEnders is of British TV drama, but it's always been entertaining and slick. Without the book-haired Cowell at the helm, however, it's falling apart. Louis Walsh, whose knowledge about pop music would fit comfortably on a grain of rice, is demonstrably out of his depth without his old mucker Cowell to guide him across the musical road, while Tulisa has been anonymous and Kelly Rowland domineering and annoying. But it's Gary Barlow who's been the biggest disappointment. What's with that beard? He's obviously going for the boyband Clooney look but he just ends looking like one of The Wurzels. With his droopy eyes and. Deliberate. Way. Of. Speaking. He's clearly trying to project gravitas but instead he looks as though he's trying to remember where he left the keys to his combine harvester. Oh, and the acts. Nu Vibe's cover of U2's With Or Without You was like watching kittens singing Land Of Hope And Glory - compelling, undoubtedly, but for all the wrong reasons. The styling hasn't been much better. I've not seen since awful, mismatched outfits since the Royal Wedding. This farrago would never have happened under Cowell's watch. But with the US X Factor suffering too can he really spare the time to save his original money-spinner? 'Simon is very happy with how they are all doing and thinks . all the judges are doing a fantastic job too. Not only that, Simon has . already spotted an act on the show who he thinks is a clear standout . star.' Saturday night’s programme was watched by an average of 10.1million people, compared with 12million in the corresponding episode of the previous series. In contrast, its BBC1 rival, Strictly Come Dancing beat the X Factor for all but five minutes of the half-hour period when the two programmes overlapped. It also had a larger audience share. Fans of the show also took to their . social networking pages in droves last night during the sing-off between . the bottom two acts, boy band Nu Vibe and Frankie Cocozza, slamming . their 'tuneless' performances. But according to reports today, it's not just the falling ratings and phone votes that have hit the show, but unrest behind the scenes, with judge Kelly Rowland at the centre of the reports. According . to the Sun, the Destiny's child star, 30, has been throwing her weight . around and bossing fellow judge Tulisa Contostavlos and telling Louis . Walsh's acts to ditch his ideas. An insider claimed that instead of focusing on her own acts, the girls, she has been meddling with the other acts. Speaking . to the paper, they said: 'Kelly is trying to turn this into The Kelly . Show with her meddling - and it's really putting people's noses out of . joint. 'The contestants love it as they're in . awe of her but the judges hate it. Tulisa has properly fallen out with . her after Kelly went to speak to her about the styling and songs and . vocals for Rhythmix.' Doing a great job: Cowell is pleased with the line-up of judges this year which include regular Louis Walsh and newcomers Tulisa Contostavlos, Kelly Rowland and Gary Barlow . Safe: Frankie Cocozza made it through to next week's show after the sing-off with Nu Vibe but was slammed on social networking sites for his 'tuneless' performance . The paper also claimed that Tulisa . felt the force of the producers' wrath after arriving for rehearsals . looking hungover and exhausted, having spent the night before cheering . on her axed act Amelia Lily who performed at London club G.A.Y, and who . Tulisa surprised with a birthday cake for her 17th. A source said: 'She looked a wreck and spent most of the time just sitting behind the judging desk with her head slumped on it.' Clash: Reports have claimed that Kelly has put Tulisa's nose out of joint by bossing her about and telling her what to do with her acts . Hungover: Sources also claimed that Tulisa was ticked off for arriving for rehearsals looking worse for wear after a late night supporting her axed act Amelia at a performance at G.A.Y . | Two million viewers desert show as phone votes plummet .
Reports of unrest between judges behind the scenes .
Sources say Cowell is very 'happy' with new look show . |
233,987 | baeb949e449113de696c9b630d30a33eae96fe98 | (CNN) -- Spain remain on course to retain their European Championship crown after seeing off a lackluster France 2-0 in the third Euro 2012 quarterfinal at the Donbass Arena, Donetsk on Saturday. Xabi Alonso celebrated his 100th appearance for his country with two goals in either half to seal a convincing win for the world champions. "There's a lot of personal satisfaction in getting to 100 caps and of course getting on the scoresheet," Alonso said. "We are now in the semis and of course all the games at this stage are life and death. We didn't have that many chances but we had the match totally under control," he added. Victory over France sets up a showdown with arch rivals Portugal next Wednesday. Germany crush Greece Euro dream . With coach Vicente Del Bosque once again opting to pack the midfield and leave striker Fernando Torres on the bench, Spain quickly assumed control of the game. It fell to Andres Iniesta to unlock the opposition defense in the 19th minute. Barcelona's midfield maestro threaded a pass through to Jordi Alba who jinked past a flailing Mathieu Debuchy before squaring a cross which Alonso headed home with power and accuracy. For the remainder of the half, France offered little in reply. Franck Ribery's industry down the left came to nothing. Yohan Cabaye's 31st minute free kick was turned over the bar by Iker Casillas and Karim Bezema's shooting remained frustratingly errant. Spain resumed the second half where they finished the first -- controlling the game at a canter with France chasing the game. Debuchy went close with a header in the 60th minute, but France couldn't capitalize on the few openings they created in the second period. Coach Laurent Blanc sent on substitute's Samir Nasri, Jeremy Menez and Olivier Giroud but it failed to turn the tide in favor of the three-time European champions. Anthony Reveillere's foul on substitute Pedro in the 90th minute handed Spain a late penalty and a chance to put the result beyond doubt. Alonso stepped up to take the spot kick, sent goalkeeper Hugo Lloris the wrong way and keep Spain marching on in their bid to land a third consecutive major trophy. | Xabi Alonso scores a brace as Spain beat France 2-0 in Donetsk in Euro 2012 quarterfinal .
Goals in either half capped a memorable night for the midfielder who celebrated his 100th appearance in style .
Spain now face Portugal in Wednesday's semifinal . |
109,179 | 18b937f200f5823ccff2c1698b598cf4e07bd695 | Tom Harrison has been appointed the England and Wales Cricket Board's new chief executive, and will take up the role in January. Harrison replaces David Collier, who left the position last month after an eventful 10-year tenure. It will be 42-year-old Harrison's second stint at the ECB, following a near four-year stay in the marketing department at Lord's from 2003. Tom Harrison (left) has been appointed chief executive of the ECB and will take up the role in January . Harrison will replace David Collier (above) who had been in the position since 2004 but retired this summer . A former first-class cricketer, who had a brief career with Derbyshire, Harrison was not one of the obvious front-runners for the post when it became clear Collier was leaving. But ECB chairman Giles Clarke said: 'Tom has come through a rigorous recruitment process which included us meeting with candidates in leadership positions from cricket, other sports and from outside of the industry. 'He was the unanimous choice of the interview panel who were impressed with his energy, passion for the game and his positive, bold, creative and ambitious vision for the future of cricket in England and Wales. 'Tom has a proven track record of success in his career to date and a wealth of relevant experience both in the UK and internationally. In Tom, we believe we have found a leader with....charisma and vision.' Harrison, who has previously worked for the ECB, will hope England build over their Test victories over India . ECB chairman Giles Clarke says Harrison is a 'leader with charisma and vision' who will bring success . Harrison will be joining from international sports marketing agency IMG, where he is head of cricket. He said: 'As a lifelong cricket fan, I feel extremely honoured and privileged to have been offered this opportunity to lead the ECB as its new chief executive officer. 'I am a passionate supporter of the game across all formats, at all levels, and I am genuinely excited by the substantial opportunities that the game has moving forward in this country.' | Tom Harrison will take over the role in January 2015 .
Harrison is a former first class cricketer who played for Derbyshire .
New chief executive worked in ECB marketing department for four years between 2003 and 2007 .
Chairman Giles Clarke calls Harrison a 'leader with charisma and vision' |
155,493 | 54f8672d602e40b063e3fae95e9d3f922b0ad0f8 | San Francisco said goodbye Thursday to Candlestick Park — the stadium . where the city's beloved Giants and 49ers celebrated some of their . greatest triumphs. The storied venue shut down after an evening concert by former Beatle . Paul McCartney that finished about midnight. McCartney was a fitting final act, having played the venue for The Beatles final live concert in 1966. Scroll down for video . Paul McCartney performs on Thursday, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco as locals say goodbye to the legendary stadium . McCartney previously played the venue when the Beatles held their final concert on Aug. 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park . The stadium is being demolished to make room for housing, retail, and entertainment development . 'Thank you, San Francisco, for being cool now and for being cool back then,' he told the crowd at the end of his second and final encore, USA Today reported. The former Beatle closed out the stadium's storied life with a 150 minute performance covering classics from his mop-top heyday, classics from Wings and his solo career, and even a cover of Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally.' He finished his set with the apt 'Let It Be.' The former Beatle closed out the stadium's storied life with a 150 minute performance covering classics from his mop-top heyday, classics from Wings and his solo career, and even a cover of Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally' 'Thank you, San Francisco, for being cool now and for being cool back then,' McCartney told the crowd . San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee personally lobbied for McCartney to be Candlestick's final act. Leading up to McCartney was a month of shows from major stars, including Beyonce and Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Tom Petty, and Kanye West. Candlestick Park will now be be demolished . to make way for a housing, retail and entertainment development. The Stick, as it is known, opened more than 50 years ago and served as . the home field for the 49ers and Giants. It hosted greats from both . teams, including Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Willie Mays, and was the . site of The Catch — Montana's touchdown pass to Dwight Clark to win the . NFC championship game in January 1982 and send the 49ers to their first . Super Bowl. McCartney chose the bittersweet 'Let It Be' to close out the stadium's final night . San Francisco's mayor (not pictured) had personally courted McCartney to close out the park, drawing thousands of excited fans . The Giants played their last game at Candlestick in September 1999. The . 49ers will play at a new stadium about 45 miles south starting this . year. Candlestick was also the site of a 1987 mass by Pope John Paul II and the Beatles' last live concert in 1966. 'Anyone you talk to about Candlestick Park is going to have mixed . emotions about it: it's not a pleasant place physically. It gets windy . and cold, but it's where the Giants and 49ers played for so many years,' Greg Breit, 50, said before the concert's start. 'There's so much . history here. You can't deny it.' Twist and shout: Spectators watch the Beatles perform at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966 . Fans savored the final event at The Stick by holding tailgate parties . and taking snapshots of the stadium before the late-afternoon fog rolled . in. San Francisco police warned people attending Thursday's concert not to . take any chairs or other mementos from the stadium, saying anyone caught . with such items could face vandalism charges. 'We don't want people to be trying to take any pieces of Candlestick . Park,' Officer Gordon Shyy told KGO-TV. 'Just come enjoy the concert . tonight and have a safe night.' | Plays final show at storied venue almost 50 years after The Beatles played their final live concert there .
Candlestick Park will be demolished to make room for housing, retail, and entertainment development .
McCartney closes out a month of major shows featuring Beyonce and Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, .
Tom Petty, and Kanye West .
McCartney's 150 minute performance closed with Beatle's classic 'Let It Be' |
221,394 | aa98711791d1c46681317f399fd515b1de63835f | (CNN) -- The coalition is growing -- not just in words, but in action. Just over two weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed "America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat" posed by ISIS, more than 50 countries have signed up, so far, to support the fight. They include new entrants Belgium, Denmark and Britain, which will all send fighter jets to Iraq to assist that nation's government and the United States in the anti-ISIS military campaign. Even the foreign minister of Russia -- which has butted heads repeatedly with Washington, including over whether the President of neighboring war-torn Syria needs to go -- signaled Friday his country is ready to back Iraq in fighting terrorists, "above all the Islamic State," which is what ISIS calls itself. Most members of the anti-ISIS coalition have restricted their support to Iraq-focused efforts. A handful of Arab nations, however, have joined Washington in going after ISIS, from the air, in Syria. ISIS' worst nightmare: A female pilot . Why do it? Ahead of what turned out to be an overwhelming Parliament vote Friday authorizing UK air power, Prime Minister David Cameron said the world has an obligation to corral a well-funded, highly organized force known for virtually unmatched cruelty -- reviled for its "beheadings, crucifixions, the gouging out of eyes, the use of rape as a weapon, the slaughter of children." "Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a NATO member, with a declared and proven determination to attack our country and our people," said Cameron, referring to NATO member Turkey. Still, even as more countries agree to take part in airstrikes and helping Iraq, that doesn't mean this will be a cakewalk. No one has pledged combat troops to join Iraq's oft-maligned military or the various forces -- from moderate opposition forces to their foes in President Bashar al-Assad's military -- doing battle with ISIS in Syria. Plus, eliminating a movement of militants who can easily mingle among civilians and strike in myriad, devious ways isn't easy. Rout raises questions about Iraq's military ability to beat ISIS . That's why U.S. and British officials, including Cameron, said coalition forces need to be prepared to devote not weeks, not months, but years to the fight. As U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday: "This is going to be a persistent and sustained campaign. And it will take time." Expert: ISIS adapting, mixing in with civilians . It's not known if any ISIS leaders have been killed so far in airstrikes. Nor is there much evidence the group has lost a big amount of territory, much less that it is in full retreat. But that doesn't mean the air campaign -- which began in August in Iraq and a few weeks ago in Syria -- hasn't had an effect. In the Pentagon briefing Friday, Dempsey credited airstrikes with disrupting ISIS command and control activities and logistics in Syria as well as helping friendly ground forces begin to take back ground lost to the group. CNN military analyst James Reese, a retired U.S. Army special operations officer, added that the strikes have helped "blunt the momentum of ISIS in Iraq." Airstrikes also have disrupted ISIS safe havens on the ground, such as the northern Syrian town of Raqqa, Reese said. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters helped drive the extremists back and secure positions on the ground. Strikes have since targeted ISIS throughout the swaths it holds, and the combined efforts have stopped ISIS from swarming over Baghdad. But the group's command structure is adapting, said CNN military analyst Peter Mansoor, a retired U.S. Army colonel. It is spreading out, and its leaders are now "mixed in with the civilian population," he said. "So, it's unlikely these airstrikes have crippled ISIS," he said. Big questions about coalition ground partners . While Dempsey vowed he will recommend to Obama "what it takes to destroy ISIL," he said the best mix of ground forces to defeat the extremist groups will be drawn from Iraqis, Kurds and moderate Syrian rebels. Some support has begun flowing to Iraq and Kurdish forces, including equipment to training. Then, of course, there's the growing international air component -- such as Denmark sending seven F-16 fighter jets, according to a spokeswoman for that country's Defense Ministry -- though new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told CNN this week that his country's ground troops aren't getting the coordinated "air cover" they need to advance on ISIS forces. A lack of faith right now in Iraq's military may not help, especially after ISIS overran the Iraqi Saqlawiya military base near Falluja this weekend. It wasn't just the defeat that stung, but claims from Iraqi soldiers that their pleas for backup went unanswered by military commanders for hours. Iraqi officials said they had tried to support them but failed. "There is no leadership in the Iraqi army right now," said retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Francona. "The people who are paying the price are the soldiers in the trenches." For all these issues in Iraq, what to do on the ground in Syria may be even more complicated. It's in the midst of a more than three-year civil war, one that's seen several groups -- from ISIS to the moderate opposition that Washington supports -- spring up trying to unseat al-Assad. Here, the marshaling of an effective ground partner against ISIS terrorists has only begun. There has been no coordination, "nor will there be," between Washington and al-Assad's government regarding U.S. airstrikes in Syria, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Friday. The United States hasn't shifted its approach to al-Assad, who has "lost all legitimacy to govern," according to Hagel. Khorasan Group still a threat in Syria, along with ISIS . As all this is being sorted out, the violence continues. This includes fresh battles between Kurdish Syrian fighters and ISIS militants near a city on the border with Turkey. CNN's Phil Black, watching the fighting from a hillside in Turkey, reported hearing small arms and artillery fire as the Kurdish and ISIS forces fought to advance toward the Syrian city of Ayn al-Arab. Turkish Kurds gathered near the border to watch the fighting cheered whenever ISIS fighters appeared to take a hit. A resident of the city, also known as Kobani, said ISIS forces are 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from the city and that resistance forces are running low on ammunition. "We are hoping and waiting for any coalition air strike on these terrorists, to save our city from the barbaric attack," Hussein Kamal said. Coalition air power was not evident in the region. But earlier in the day, the United States did turn its air power on more ISIS targets, taking out vehicles in other parts of Syria and Iraq and destroying a command node and a checkpoint. A U.S. Defense Department official said as of 8 p.m. ET Friday -- or 3 a.m. Saturday in the Middle East -- that military operations were ongoing in both Syria and Iraq. No details were provided. ISIS has been the main target of past strikes, but not only one. The air campaign has also gone after the Khorasan Group, which consists of senior al Qaeda operatives that a U.S. senior official has said was actively plotting attacks in the United States and elsewhere in the West. The U.S. military launched eight Tomahawk missiles against Khorasan targets -- including training camps plus command and control facilities -- Tuesday west of Aleppo, Syria. The American government believes at least some senior Khorasan members survived the strikes and that they could continue plotting attacks, a U.S. government official said Friday. Added TSA Administrator John Pistole: "I see the Khorasan Group as a very capable, determined enemy who was very much focused on doing -- getting somebody or something on a plane bound for Europe or the United States." CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali, Evan Perez, Jim Acosta, Al Goodman, Adam Levine, Alla Eshchenko, Chelsea J. Carter, Holly Yan and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report. | NEW: Airstrikes happening in Syria and Iraq, U.S. defense official says .
Denmark joins anti-ISIS coalition, which now includes more than 50 countries .
The fight may last years, say British Prime Minister and U.S. officials .
Experts: Airstrikes so far have been successful, though ISIS has likely adapted . |
269,449 | e9050dc853f6bb4d64f0200c0efa4b1895ef7c72 | Vince Cable (pictured) claimed a left-leaning pact between Labour, the LibDems and the SNP would be 'possible' if there is another hung parliament . Vince Cable yesterday opened the door to a 'rainbow coalition' of Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP following the General Election. The Business Secretary went further than any other senior Westminster politician as he claimed a left-leaning pact between the three parties would be 'possible' if there is another hung parliament. Labour leader Ed Miliband has played down the prospect of a deal with the resurgent SNP, but Mr Cable insisted there is 'no taboo' on the Nationalists. However, he said whichever party has the most seats at Westminster should have the first opportunity to form a government. He went on to condemn recent remarks from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said she would prop Labour up in Downing Street even if the Tories win the election. Mr Cable was one of the key figures when the current Tory/Lib Dem coalition was formed in 2010, but has remained a critic of the Conservatives and is frequently tipped as his party's next leader. In recent years, Labour has courted Mr Cable in the hope of forming a coalition with the Lib Dems after May's election, and Mr Miliband revealed in 2012 that he was in regular text message contact with the Cabinet minister. But polls suggest the Lib Dems face an election drubbing, particularly in Scotland, and the SNP could emerge as the third largest force in UK politics. Miss Sturgeon – who insists she will lead post-election negotiations rather than Alex Salmond – has ruled out any deal with the Tories, yet is willing to prop up Mr Miliband in Number Ten. In return, she wants the replacement programme for Trident nuclear missiles to be scrapped, an end to 'austerity' and sweeping new powers for Holyrood that critics fear would lead to 'independence by the back door'. Senior Scottish Labour MPs are known to bitterly oppose the idea, but Mr Miliband has repeatedly declined to entirely rule out a post-election deal. Any pact would most likely would be a 'supply and demand' arrangement, ensuring budgets and other key pieces of legislation were passed rather than a formal coalition. Speaking to journalists on a visit to Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Cable said: 'There is probably going to be an issue in the next parliament of minority government. We don't absolutely know, it could go all kind of different directions. 'When that happens there are all kind of different possibilities – coalition, support outside coalition - and I think any sensible party has to be willing to look at all those possibilities in an open-minded way. 'What the country will need is stability, I don't think the electorate will be at all well-disposed to any party – whether it's one of the UK parties or the SNP – which aims to destabilise the government and runs back to the electorate after a few months.' Asked about Miss Sturgeon's claim that she would do a deal with Labour even if it was the second largest party at Westminster, Mr Cable said: 'We adopt a different approach – we think you have to show respect for the electorate. 'You have to respect the principle that the party with the largest number of seats at Westminster has a basic legitimacy. That's where we started from in 2010.' Scroll down for video . Mr Cable (pictured) was one of the key figures when the current Tory/Lib Dem coalition was formed in 2010, but has remained a critic of the Conservatives and is frequently tipped as his party's next leader . Quizzed on the possibility of the Lib Dems working with the SNP, he continued: 'We're perfectly happy to work with the SNP. There's no taboo on the SNP. 'The party we had the greatest degree of difference from were the Tories, but given the reality of the situation in 2010 – the need for a stable government, the extreme nature of the economic crisis – we worked together in a business-like way and we would approach the SNP in precisely the same way.' Asked if a 'rainbow coalition' with Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems is therefore a possibility, Mr Cable replied: 'It's possible. We're not leaning in one direction or the other, we're trying to be equidistant between the parties and leave the public to decide which direction they go, but certainly that kind of arrangement would be possible – I certainly wouldn't rule it out.' Mr Cable insisted the Lib Dems will not get wiped out north of the Border, despite polls suggesting that Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and Women's Minister Jo Swinson could be out of a job. 'I think we'll get far more MPs back than the polls are indicating at the moment,' he said. 'These average figures, which I know are quite low in Scotland, don't actually tell you the underlying trend about what's happening in Argyll or Aberdeenshire or Edinburgh West. I think the vast majority of our colleagues will get back. '[For Danny Alexander] it's an uphill struggle. But he's got a very high profile, he's delivered a lot for his area as well as across the UK, so I would include him in the category of people who when it comes to the crunch, people will look at the individual and their record as an MP and I'm pretty confident we shall see them back.' Labour leader Ed Miliband (left) has played down the prospect of a deal with the resurgent SNP. Mr Cable hinted at a 'rainbow coalition' of Labour, the Lib Dems and David Cameron's (right) Conservative party . The Business Secretary went on to criticise Miss Sturgeon's recent bid to delay plans to cut Britain's deficit and spend an extra £180billion over four years, in return for SNP support in the Commons. 'I'm not sure that delay is a good doctrine in itself,' he said. 'You've got to face the realities. 'I think if [the SNP] did find themselves in government, they would find themselves making some very difficult decisions. Any responsible government has to deal with very large deficits.' Last night, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said: 'A strong team of SNP MPs will be a progressive force for change across the UK, standing up for Scotland's interests and an alternative to austerity focused on jobs, growth and fairness. 'Unlike the Lib Dems, we have made clear that we will never help the Tories into government - and having played their part in inflicting devastating cuts over the last five years, the Lib Dems must now answer to the electorate in May.' A spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party said: 'In every election since the 1930s the biggest party has formed the government. This election is about evicting David Cameron from Downing St and only the Labour Party can do that. 'A vote for any other party makes it get more likely that the Tories will be the biggest party, and David Cameron will get into government through the back door.' | Vince Cable suggested 'rainbow coalition' of Labour, Lib Dems and SNP .
Business Secretary claimed left-leaning pact of parties could be 'possible'
Ed Miliband has played down prospect of a deal with the resurgent SNP .
Mr Cable was key figure when current Tory/Lib Dem coalition was formed . |
214,094 | a1447c236af318f308a12c472d7931e3e0c2c00f | (CNN) -- The heatwave may have passed at the Australian Open but in its place came shockwaves as women's title favourite Serena Williams crashed out. The American world No.1 melted under pressure from resurgent Serbian Ana Ivanovic in the fourth round Sunday. Williams, who was chasing a sixth Australian Open crown and an 18th career grand slam, blamed the shock 6-4 3-6 3-6 defeat on an error-strewn display. "I made a tremendous amount of errors, shots I missed I normally don't miss, I haven't missed since the Eighties," Williams told reporters. "I'm just not used to missing those shots. "I just made way, way, a lot of unforced errors. "I know for a fact I can play so much better than what I did today, so with that, knowing that, I'm not disappointed or anything. I just know that I can play ten times better." Williams refused to blame a back injury for her defeat although the 32-year-old did reveal that she had considered quitting the opening grand slam of the year before her match against Ivanovic. "I almost pulled out," explained Williams, who last lost a match in August. "I'm such a competitor. I mean, I probably should have. "Maybe I wasn't the best physically, but that had nothing to do with it. I don't want to blame anything. "I feel like Ana deserves all the credit. I feel she played unbelievable today. " Victory for Ivanovic is a major boost for the 2008 French Open champion who is trying to get her career back on track after several seasons plagued by big-match nerves, serving troubles and a series of injuries. The 26-year-old told CNN's Open Court last month that she had effectively pressed the re-set button ahead of the 2014 season, swapping British coach Nigel Sears for new coach and hitting partner Nemanja Kontic. "I've been working really hard," said Ivanovic, who last reached a grand slam quarterfinal at the 2012 U.S Open. "I have a new team with me since Wimbledon and it's a Serbian team for me for the first time." The restructure appears to be working as Ivanovic won a warm-up tournament in Auckland -- incidentally beating Venus Williams -- before notching up her first-ever win over Williams' younger sister Serena. Asked by reporters in Melbourne what the difference was between this match and her previous encounters with Williams, she said: "Well, I actually believed. I had some confidence coming into today's match. "This victory means so much to me. All the hard work, it's paying off. "I had very tough fourth round matches in a grand slam, and this was probably the toughest of tough. I just went out there to play. I had nothing to lose. "To have that victory, you know, it's amazing. We all know what kind of champion she is." Ivanovic goes on to meet Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the quarterfinals and, after her giant-slaying performance against Williams, the Serbian 14th seed might just feel she has a chance of going all the way. In the men's draw, Ivanovic's childhood friend Novak Djovkovic eased into the quarterfinals with a straightforward 6-3 6-0 6-2 win over another close pal Italian Fabio Fognini. Djokovic, who said he had managed to watch two sets of Ivanovic's match before taking to the court, faces Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka next, who took him to five sets in the fourth round of last year's Aussie Open. "I have to be ready to play another 12-10 in the fifth like last year," Djokovic said. "I know that he's playing the tennis of his life in the last 15 months. "You cannot expect a clear favorite in that match." In the same half of the draw, Czech Tomas Berdych also advanced to the quarterfinals where he meets Spanish third seed David Ferrer. | Serena Williams out of the Australian Open after fourth round defeat .
Serbian Ana Ivanovic beats American world No.1 4-6 6-3 6-3 .
Williams blames her loss on a "tremendous amount of errors"
In the men's draw, Novak Djokovic sets up quarterfinal against old foe Stanislas Wawrinka . |
149,684 | 4d8ad62c82dc64d2d6577c28efd68fc3ffc138a3 | (CNN) -- The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is an enormous tragedy for the families of the victims. It is excruciating to live through the pain, helplessness, shock and anger. It is as hard to regain some degree of normalcy. I know because I've been there. In 1985, my beloved father died on the Japan Airlines Flight 123 that crashed outside of Tokyo, killing more than 500 passengers and crew. It's one the largest plane accidents in the history of aviation. Sitting on the tatami mat in the city hall in the small village close to the crash site, surrounded by hundreds of other people looking for their loved ones, I felt desperate, scared and suffocated. Contemplating another day of looking at pine wood boxes with inscriptions like, "part of left hand, possibly male," I thought the agony would never end. How can I steel myself to keep on looking to try to identify some remains of what was once my dear father, hero to his family? Emotionally, physically and in every way, I felt drained of life force, like the body fragments in the boxes we were going through one by one in our search for our loved ones. All these years later the scars still sting when scratched, as they were when Flight 370 vanished. I want to share with the grieving, scared and frustrated relatives of Flight 370 victims that while life will never be the same, it will get better. It will take time, but you will laugh again and the sun will come out once more. The lack of closure is the hardest part. How do you know for sure that those on the plane are gone since their bodies have not been found? What if they are alive somewhere waiting for you to rescue them? How do you have a funeral when there are no remains? How can you be so sure? But the truth is that while you may hold out hope, the world is presuming they are gone forever. You have to accept it and move on. Here are some steps that helped me recover from my loss. Perhaps it could be of help to the families of Flight 370: . 1. Grieve. Allow the pain to be released. Cry, punch the pillows, share stories, do what you need to let the feelings out. Let the emotions flow. 2. Get support. From your family, friends and experts. From your spiritual source, in prayer or in nature. In time, maybe join a bereavement group. 3. Eat as healthy as you can. 4. Get rest, even if you can't sleep well, take some down time. 5. Move. Walk, exercise, play a sport, dance, do something physical so that the feelings can be dissipated. 6. Go into nature. Nature is big enough to hold you and your grief. Nature is healing. 7. Know that your loved one(s) are at peace and will be with you always. 8. Help someone who may be in a worse situation than you. In my case I saw that a couple of American families didn't make the trip to Japan. I sent them notes to let them know that I prayed for their loved ones, and that everyone was very kind and respectful in the whole search process. 9. Trust that something good will come out of this tragedy. We may not know what it is, or how, but it will happen. My father's death helped me learn how to be more present, to survive adversity, and appreciate the wonderful kindness of strangers. From disaster I've learned to be strong and flexible, and to seek assistance when I need it. With faith and courage I can make a positive difference in other people's lives. During the course of my life, I've been fortunate to reach many of the goals I had set. I know that my dad was there, guiding, supporting and inspiring me the entire time. He smiled with pride with each new milestone that I crossed. I believe all of us can grow and thrive through the trials of life with peace and happiness. It just takes one step at a time. The families of Flight 370 victims will come out of this tragedy different -- but they will endure and honor the memories of their loved ones. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Marilyn Tam. | Families of Flight 370 victims are grieving as searchers continue to look for plane .
Marilyn Tam: I know how they feel; my father died in a plane crash in 1985 .
She says lack of closure is the hardest part for relatives, who may hold out hope .
Tam: All of us can grow and thrive through the trials of life with peace and happiness . |
89,467 | fe0a80ef5bb7d75caa85820bab4d633a5565a334 | It's for just one congressional seat for about eight months, but Tuesday's special election in Florida has taken on huge political significance. National Republicans are framing Tuesday's special election as a referendum on Obamacare. But their message -- plus a flood of outside spending by Democrats focused on the issue of Social Security -- is drowning out other issues in the race, Republican candidate David Jolly says. His Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, isn't shying away from the health care debate, touting the law's benefits and saying she's open to improvements. Both parties are looking at this race as a testing ground for their messages going into the midterm elections. Florida's 13th District is one of a small number of competitive ones, and Republicans and Democrats say the tight race here will come down to which campaign gets its supporters out. Both sides have spent more than $11 million on media and direct mail, according to data from the Sunlight Foundation. The bulk of that spending comes from outside groups hoping to shape two very different narratives. Eight things to watch between now and Election Day . Republican groups and Jolly's campaign have concentrated on tying Sink to Obamacare and its rocky rollout and to President Barack Obama and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who have low approval ratings among independent voters. Jolly thinks the health care law is a top issue for voters, but the message he was trying to deliver last week at a senior center focused heavily on local issues. "There is a lot more going on here that just Obamacare," he said. Jolly served as a longtime aide to GOP Rep. Bill Young, whose death last October after representing the area for more than 40 years prompted the special election. At the senior event, Jolly pointed out his connection to Young and the federal resources the late congressman helped to deliver for the district, saying Young was "nearly a father to me." Borger: Congress takes the year off . But Democrats are trying to make Jolly's work as a Washington lobbyist after he left Young's staff the driving issue in the campaign, arguing he backed changes to Social Security that could cut benefits. The district has one of the highest concentrations of voters over age 65 in the country. Talk about changing retirement benefits or any concerns that Obamacare provisions could affect health care coverage resonate strongly with voters here. Pre-emptive strategy on Obamacare . Standing next to former Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham at an event with seniors at her campaign office, Sink called the current programs "an American promise" and said, "those programs were put in place for a good reason, and I'm going to fight to protect the integrity of the Social Security and Medicare programs for all of us." Sink, who served as Florida's chief financial officer and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010, recognizes that Obamacare is a major issue. She acknowledges that the Obama administration's proposal to cut the popular Medicare Advantage is a major worry among older voters, who she says will make up half of the electorate in the race. Other Democratic candidates tend to avoid the O-word, but Sink talks about the law's benefits and argues she won't go back to the old system. Crist: Democrats 'ought to strengthen up' and support Obamacare . Sink's strategy on Obamacare appears to be pre-emptive: she stresses how the health care law will help people but also notes it has some major flaws that need fixing. She said she is open to Republican-backed plans to change the law's current requirement that employers provide health insurance to employees who work more than 30 hours a week. She also said Obamacare's current requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees offer health insurance is "an arbitrary number" and says she wants to work across party lines to adjust the law to avoid any "unintended consequences," such as keeping businesses from expanding. Obama: Democrats 'sleepy' during midterms . Jolly reiterates the Republican mantra that Obamacare must be repealed altogether. Because his own campaign hasn't raised nearly as much money as Sink's, the bulk of the ads and direct mail attacking Sink are from the National Republican Campaign Committee and other allies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Action Network, which backs GOP candidates in House races. Although he concedes it's not likely to happen, Jolly says he remains committed to getting rid of Obamacare entirely. He ticks through his plan to cover younger workers with a small government program and says he wants to make sure those with pre-existing conditions can always obtain insurance. Some Republicans worry about repeal-Obamacare strategy . He said Obamacare shows "two very different views of government. We can talk about specific health care solutions, but it really comes down to a view of government that says we need more government in individual lives. We need individual mandates and we need more interference between government and families versus a view of government that says no, we don't. That's wrong. " Some Republicans worry that the bright line the party is drawing about repealing Obamacare isn't the right tactic. Bob Sikora, a resident at the Regency Oaks senior community who supports Jolly, told CNN he thinks the GOP should be talking about improving the law instead of scrapping it entirely. "I would certainly think personally if I were in charge of his campaign, I would not have said, 'I'm out to repeal it' -- he's been forced to say that by some of the party higher-ups that control the tea party, which is controlling what Republicans are saying right now," Sikora said. Sink told CNN the concerns about the health care law are lower on the priority list for people in the district. She puts it as "fifth" on the list of things voters raise with her at forums, after homeowners' worries about the skyrocketing costs of flood insurance, veterans issues, and the fear that any plans to start offshore drilling could hurt the tourism industry in this beach community. But one Sink supporter, Julie Meyer, who runs a retail shop in St. Petersburg, told CNN she thinks voters and the candidates should be talking about Obamacare. "I would like the conversation. I think there are blatant lies about what is being said about Obamacare and that's very, very unfortunate, because people should be able to decide with the real information," Meyer said. Texas kicks off first primary of 2014 . Democrats had a head start . Democrats had the advantage going into the race because they did not have to spend time and money on a primary. Jolly endured a contentious primary in January and didn't have any significant resources going into the general election. With no primary opposition, the Sink campaign went to work against Jolly early and stuck with the line of attack that electing him would send someone to Washington who wanted to cut Social Security. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and outside groups have spent millions to drive that message home and link it to Jolly's lobbying history. House Majority PAC, an outside group that backs Democratic candidates, has spent close $750,000 on one ad that says Jolly "lobbied for a special interest that wanted to privatize Social Security." Jolly insists that Sink has misrepresented his position on the issue and says he would vote against the House Republican budget authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan because of the changes it would make to Social Security and Medicare. "They spent a million dollars painting me as an extremist and a million dollars on Social Security and Medi-scare and Social Security claims that are false," the GOP candidate told CNN. Poll: Anti-incumbent feelings at all-time high . Jolly reiterates he opposes the proposals to privatize retirement accounts or alter how Medicare benefits are structured. "I think the current reform plans are too aggressive, and I don't think we should pursue them," Jolly said. Republicans privately acknowledge that Sink's ability to start her ads early, combined with the fact that her campaign and the outside groups supporting her are outspending them, has hurt. David Wasserman, who analyzes House races for the Cook Political Report, told CNN that "Democrats have been more consistent with their message in this race, building a narrative about Jolly as a lobbyist who operates behind closed doors, and that has clearly helped." District is evenly split . This district is split down the political middle -- 37% of those registered to vote are Republicans, about 35% are Democrats and 28% are unaffiliated or back a third-party candidate. There is a libertarian candidate, Lucas Overby, competing in the race, and he has participated in the three major debates. But it's unclear what kind of impact he'll have in drawing votes away from Jolly or Sink. Florida allows absentee voting by mail, and well over half of those who were mailed ballots have returned them. In past election cycles, Republicans have traditionally posted a stronger return rate of absentee ballots, but the Pinellas County supervisors office reports that the GOP holds about a 4-point edge over Democrats sending in their ballots. Voters here frequently mention their distaste for the gridlock in Washington, and supporters of both Sink and Jolly told CNN they aren't sure that their candidate will be able to change much. Tami Simms, a registered independent who backed Young in the past and works as a Realtor in St. Petersburg, told CNN she's voting for Sink. But she's unsure a new, more junior representative will deliver the same results. "I know there are some concerns that no one is going to have (the) power that Congressman Young had from his tenure and from his longtime experience. There was more than just his tenure that allowed him to move funding for projects in this area." If Jolly wins on Tuesday, Republicans will certainly say retaining this competitive seat is a validation of their plan to make Obamacare the central issue this fall. A Democratic victory could have other candidates across the country adopting Sink's approach to discussing health care with a "fix-it" attitude. House Speaker John Boehner made it clear that even if the Democrats manage to pick up this seat, his party's midterm strategy won't change. Asked if a loss in this special election could alter the GOP message of repealing Obamacare, Boehner replied simply, "No." | Both parties are testing messages for fall midterms in Tuesday's special election .
Republicans trying use Obamacare to frame midterm elections .
Republican candidate says outside anti-Obamacare ads are drowning other issues .
Democrat is confronting Obamacare debate, saying there's room for improvement . |
244,420 | c85131711854427697380b8967add0a1f29889ea | By . Martin Robinson . PUBLISHED: . 05:52 EST, 1 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:28 EST, 1 February 2013 . Barclays has been accused of lending billions to Qatar just so the Arab state would plough it back in again to help avoid an embarrassing government bailout, it emerged today. The deal is alleged to have been set up in 2008, at the height of the banking crisis, and is being probed by the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Services Authority. According to reports more than £6billion was lent to Qatar Holding, part of the rich country's huge investment fund, which then bought shares in Barclays to help them avoid becoming part-nationalised like Lloyds Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland. This investment was a critical show of support for Barclays when many were pulling their money out of banking shares. More scandal: Barclays has today been accused of underwriting a Qatari share deal to ensure the bank did not go bust in 2008 . The Qatari funding machine owns Harrods, David Beckham's Paris Saint-Germain and is the largest shareholder of Sainsbury's. Barclays' alleged loan to Qatar would be underwriting their later investment, which breaches Britain's financial regulations. At the time it would have given the impression that a new £6billion investment had been made in the bank at a critical stage, but in reality Barclays would have had to have borrowed the money to fund the loan which was then used to buy the shares. The probe comes as the terms of the bank's fundraising at the height of . the financial crisis are already being scrutinised, but allegations of a loan to the Qataris is a new strand. Last year the authorities started looking at the fees paid for fundraising deals in 2008. Barclays is already trying to rebuilt its reputation after it was fined a record . £290million for its role in rigging the interbank interest rate known as Libor, which affects how much customers pay for mortgages and credit . cards. Setting this rate low was a bid to paint a rosier picture of the bank's financial health at the time of the financial crisis. The rate fixing scandal led to resignation of former chief executive Bob Diamond, chairman Marcus Agius and chief operating officer Jerry del Missier. Former Citi banker Peter Hahn, now at Cass Business School, told the . Financial Times today: 'The concept of lending money to any investor to . purchase your own shares raises a series of immediate questions about . disclosure and other regulatory issues.' Embarrassing: Former Barclays Bank chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to resign and the bank was fined a record £290million after it manipulated Libor . Blow: New chief executive Antony Jenkins is trying to rebuild the bank's reputation but has now been hit with a FSA and SFO probe into the alleged loan . The allegation piles yet more pressure on Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins as he pledged to help it bounce back. Row: The Qatari investment was alleged made by the group led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani (pictured), but there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on his part . The FT says Barclays received cash injections in 2008 worth a total of £6.1 billion from Qatar Holding, which is a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, and Challenger, an investment vehicle of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar and his family. There is no suggestion that they have carried out any wrongdoing. Investors from Abu Dhabi and other sovereign wealth funds also pumped cash into the group as part of a capital raising to prevent the Government bailing it out - a move that helped it avoid the fate suffered by part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. But existing shareholders complained the terms offered to the new investors were too attractive, while the fees paid for the deal are also thought to be under investigation. The FSA and the SFO were approached by MailOnline today but refused to comment. A Barclays spokeswoman said: 'Both the FSA and SFO investigations are on-going and, as such, we are unable to comment further.' Barclays said in August that Britain's fraud prosecutors had launched a criminal probe into payments between the bank and Qatar, a month after revealing the FSA's investigation into dealings between the two parties. It said the FSA probe was into the bank and four current and former senior employees, including finance director Chris Lucas. | Alleged £6bn deal helped the bank avoid part-nationalisation suffered by Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland .
Bankrolling a share purchase like this would break British financial regulations .
Financial Services Authority and Serious Fraud Office investigating . |
34,445 | 61e4747776bd844146a9b8c7c1913c827ffbcd8a | Russia and China have expressed growing concern about a possible American military strike against Iran over its nuclear programme. And this week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to . publish a damning report with 'compelling evidence' that Iran is secretly building an arsenal of nuclear warheads. Fresh details suggest that Iran could even be . 'nuclear ready' within months. And laying bare the disturbing extent of the country’s atomic weapons programme will increase calls in the United States for pre-emptive action against the Islamic state. And that plays into the hands of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is said to be pushing for an airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr, southern Iran - a site that may be targeted in a mooted military strike . However, Iran has threatened to retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, severing 40 per cent of the world’s oil supplies. Russia's foreign minister today became the latest critic of any proposed action against Iran warning it would be 'a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences'. Sergei Lavrov added: 'The only path . for removing concerns is to create every possible condition' to resume . the talks between Iran and six world powers, which broke down last . December. China has also expressed concern about a military strike against Iran, but has also urged Tehran not to be confrontational with the IAEA. Moscow . and Beijing have signaled concern that the report will box Iran into a . corner and dim any chance of diplomacy resolving the dispute, which has . the potential to spark a wider conflict in the Middle East. Concerns: Russia's foreign minister Sergei . Lavrov, right, warned any action against Iran would be 'a very serious . mistake.' China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi, left, has also expressed . concern . 'The Russians in particular have been lobbying quite intensively,' one senior Western diplomat said. Meanwhile former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has weighed in to slam Iran saying the U.S. should consider . even tougher penalties against the Iranian government and 'be doing . everything we can to bring it down.' Rice told ABC's This Week that the U.S. should never take the option . of military force off the table when it comes to dealing with Iran. The current Iranian government is trying to obtain a nuclear . weapon and has repressed its own people, she said. 'The regime has . absolutely no legitimacy left,' she added. Israeli President Shimon Peres has also expressed a determination to launch a military strike against Iran. New UN evidence suggesting Iran was helped by several foreign scientists could provide further headache for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . 'The . possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being . applied than the application of a diplomatic option,' he said over the weekend. 'I . estimate that intelligence services of all these countries are looking . at the ticking clock, warning leaders that there was not much time . left,' he added. Republican candidate Rick Perry, last week came out to back an Israeli air strike on Iran. The Texas Governor said he would support Israel on the matter if there is proof Tehran is moving closer to having a nuclear weapon. The news comes as a former Soviet weapons expert and scientists in Pakistan and North Korea are all believed to have aided Iran in its nuclear quest, according to the United Nations. Former Soviet weapons scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko allegedly taught Iranians how to build high-precision detonators that could trigger a chain reaction, according to UN evidence. Danilenko was believed to have been contracted by Iran's Physics Research Centre, linked to the country's nuclear programme, in the mid 1990s. He allegedly gave lectures and shared research on developing and testing bombs that Iran then incorporated into their warhead design, according to Washington Post sources with access to IAEA's files. However, while Danilenko acknowledged his role he also said he believe his work was limited to assisting civilian engineering projects, the sources added. There is also no evidence that Russia knew of Danilenko's Iranian activities. Weapons experts added that Iran relied on foreign scientists for mathematical formulas and codes, some of which may have come from North Korea. The design for a neutron initiator by father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was also discovered in Iran, sources said. The latest intelligence provided to UN nuclear officials, due for publication on Wednesday and obtained by the Washington Post, suggests former Soviet weapons scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko allegedly taught Iranians how to build high-precision detonators that could trigger a chain reaction during the mid 1990s.' But it makes clear the Iranians want to be able to build such weapons quickly if need be. And thanks to outside help, the Iranians are now on 'the threshold' of making a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on top of a ballistic missile, says the study. One key technical breakthrough, say the IAEA’s intelligence sources, is that Iran has learnt how to design a device known as an R265 generator. It added there was also evidence to suggest other . precision technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea had . helped advance Iran's nuclear capabilities. Iranian officials appear unconcerned. Iran’s foreign minister and former nuclear official, Ali Akbar Salehi, told the Mehr News Agency: 'Let . them publish and see what happens,' adding that the uproar over the . country's nuclear programme was '100 per cent political' and that the . IAEA is 'under pressure from foreign powers.' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday the U.S. feared Iran's growing military power because it is now able to compete with Israel and the West. 'Yes, . we have military capabilities that are different from any other country . in the region,' he said. 'Iran is increasing in capability and . advancement and therefore we are able to compete with Israel and the . West and especially the United States.' 'The U.S. fears Iran's capability. Iran will not permit (anyone from making) a move against it.' Proof: A test-fire launch of a short-range missile in Iran. The UN now has a 'compelling case' that Iran is building an arsenal of nuclear weapons . Iran is conducting its secret nuclear programme at the Parchin military base, near Tehran, according to sources close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran has allegedly carried out experiments in the final, critical stage for developing nuclear weapons, including explosions real and simulated. These have been carried out in a bus-sized container spotted on satellite photos, according to reports. U.S. intelligence agencies are thought to have believed the base is suitable for developing nuclear weapons for around eight years. The Iranians have rejected an IAEA request to visit Parchin in the past, arguing the IAEA rules allowed it to deny such visits to military bases. Now the site is under scrutiny again as a suspected location for covert nuclear activity. One . part of the IAEA's report is thought to reinforce concerns that Iran . continued its nuclear programme after 2003 - the year that U.S. intelligence agencies believed it had bowed to international pressures . to halt experiments. One . Iranian document suggests scientists had been discussing plans to start a . four-year study of neutron initiators beginning in 2007 - four years . after the 2003 deadline, according to sources. 'The programme never really stopped,' David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who has seen the intelligence files said according to the Washington Post. 'After 2003, money was made available for research in areas that sure . look like nuclear weapons work but were hidden within civilian . institutions,' he added. Tehran denies secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, insisting it is enriching uranium for reactors to generate electricity. But Iran has become increasingly belligerent in recent weeks and tensions are continuing to mount over its ambitions. The country's history of concealing sensitive nuclear activity and its refusal to suspend work that can potentially yield atomic bombs have already been punished by four rounds of U.N. sanctions, and separate U.S. and European punitive steps. Earlier this week, it was revealed Britain was drawing up contingency plans for any military action. Commanders . were working out how to deploy Navy submarines equipped with Tomahawk . cruise missiles in case President Barack Obama decides to launch missile . strikes against Iranian bases. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Ehud Barak are reportedly agitating for pre-emptive action. Mr Netanyahu is seeking Cabinet support for an attack and earlier this week Israel test-fired a new long-range missile. | Fears mount that Iran could be 'nuclear ready' in a matter of months .
UN intelligence suggests Iran was helped by foreign experts - including rogue Russian scientist .
Russia foreign minister says any military action would be a 'serious mistake'
Condoleezza Rice: 'We must do everything we can to bring Iran down'
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains defiant . |
249,040 | ce452dfc09c885e1003b210f2bd72d0f66422b81 | Olympic sailing champion Sir Ben Ainslie has announced his engagement to TV presenter Georgie Thompson. Ainslie, who has four Olympic gold medals and one silver to his name, wrote on his Twitter account: 'Picture says it all. So happy to be engaged to the . loveliest woman in the World. Biggles is pretty excited too!' Thompson then posted on her account, saying: 'This just in… @AinslieBen and I are getting . married! Couldn't be happier. Suspect the honeymoon may involve a . boat..:)' Scroll down for video . Ben Ainslie posted this picture to his Twitter account to announce his engagement to Georgie Thompson . Sky Sports presenter Thompson also shared the exciting news on her own Twitter account . The couple first roused interest when they were spotted kissing while on a trip to New York in October 2013. Georgie, who previously dated Declan Donnelly for over two years, later revealed the couple had been in a quiet relationship since April - but they had known each other for three years before. She said in an interview with the Mail: 'We met through friends at an event and I don’t really know how to describe it. It was a bit of a thunderbolt moment but a thunderbolt that took years before it became anything real. 'We were in different places, but then . in April the stars aligned and it made sense to be together and we . haven’t looked back since. It’s very special… he makes me very happy.' Ainslie has won four Olympic gold medals, putting him fourth on the list of most successful British Olympians . Sporty pair: The couple have been quietly dating since April 2013 after seeing their former friendship turn to romance . And aside from having to deal with their rather noticeable height difference, Georgie and Ben also have to battle against the perils of a long-distance relationship, with him living in San Francisco and her in New York, where her new job at Fox Sports is based. She added: 'I’m 5ft; he’s 6ft, and it’s good because he puts a protective arm around me. 'Because I . understand his world but I’m not in it so I can be that person who . listens but at the same time can offer a different perspective, and he’s . the same with me. 'He lives in San Francisco so now I’m in New York I’ve sort of moved five hours closer to him. It’s a long-distance scenario, but when you really want to be with each other, you find a way to make it work.' | Sir Ben Ainslie and TV presenter Georgie Thompson announce engagement .
Ainslie has four Olympic gold medals and one silver .
That makes Ainslie fourth on the list of most successful British Olympians . |
149,202 | 4cef3e9e7577683ef2252f22f9d41c2035196491 | By . Louise Boyle . PUBLISHED: . 13:46 EST, 22 May 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 13:52 EST, 22 May 2012 . The scientist who inspired Jodie Foster's character in the film Contact is retiring after 35 years of studying the universe for signs that we are not alone. Astronomer Jill Tarter, 68, announced today that she will stand down as head of the non-profit Center for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Dr Tarter was the inspiration for Carl Sagan’s novel Contact which led to the 1997 film starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Foster played Dr Eleanor Arroway, a SETI scientist chosen to make contact after she finds evidence of extraterrestrial life. Scroll down for video . Believer: Dr Jill Tarter (left) leaves the Center for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in California after 35 years. She was the inspiration for the film Contact starring Jodie Foster (right) Dr Tarter plans to spend her time fundraising for the center in Mountain View, California. She said: 'I want to make the endowment of SETI research a success, so that my colleagues now, and in the future, can focus on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence for all of us.' Dr Tarter earned a Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree at Cornell University, going on to complete a Master's degree and PhD in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. She started working with the program in the 1970s when a group of NASA researchers began developing radio equipment to look for other forms of life in the universe. SETI was founded in November 1984 and today employs around 150 scientists. The scientist was at the helm of a ten-year project that used large antennas in Australia, Puerto Rico and West Virginia to examine 1,000 star systems over an unprecedented wide range of radio frequencies. Anybody out there? Dr Tarter on a platform 500ft above the huge radio telescope dish where she directs the search for signs of civilization in outer space . Life on screen: Jodie Foster played Dr Ellie Arroway, based on Jill Tarter, in the 1997 film Contact about the search for alien life forms . When NASA launched their Kepler telescope in 2009, thousands of new planetary systems were discovered. Mission: Astronomer Jill Tarter has pioneered research into other forms of life with her non-profit organisation . Dr Tarter said: 'The best reason to support SETI research is because it is an investment in our own future. 'If we detect a signal, we could learn about THEIR past (because of the time their signal took to reach us) and the possibility of OUR future. 'Understanding that it is possible to find solutions to our terrestrial problems and to become a very old civilization, because someone else has managed to do just that, is hugely important! 'Knowing that there can be a future may motivate us to achieve it.' Dr Tarter has been lauded throughout her career. She has received two public service medals from NASA and became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2004. During the filming of Contact, Jodie Foster met with Dr Tarter as part of her character research. The astronomer served as a consultant on the production to help capture the struggles of women scientists in the 1970s. Listening in: Dr Tarter was at the helm of a project which used giant antennas to examine 1,000 star systems over a huge range of radio frequencies . | Doctor Jill Tarter, 68, has spent her career looking for other life forms .
'Research is an investment in our future' said the award-winning scientist . |
72,714 | ce316cafc787195fd60b7459b27ebbb51c66cda7 | For anyone heading home for Christmas, carrying bags overflowing with presents often means a nightmare journey. In an attempt to ease the inevitable festive sardines situation, Virgin Trains has introduced a delivery service called Bag Magic. The initiative - costing from £9.99 per bag one-way - allows passengers to send luggage and gifts to a UK destination overnight by courier, so they can enjoy their journey without the burden of baggage. Scroll down for video . Delivered to your door: The service collects and delivers luggage overnight to any address countrywide . Sardines: The journey home for Christmas with luggage and presents thrown in can be nightmarish . The Bag Magic team, working with Parcels 4 Delivery, will collect bags, cases, presents, and even bicycles from home, an office or a hotel and deliver them next day or on a pre-booked date in the future to the passenger's address of choice. To promote the service in the lead up to Christmas, Virgin Trains has employed elves to wrap presents for free at London's Euston station on November 22 and 23. The bags containing the gifts will then be delivered anywhere in the country on November 25 by the Bag Magic team. Steve Tennant, Customer Experience Director at Virgin Trains said: 'We're always looking for ways to make our customers' journeys more relaxing, especially the final train home before Christmas when you're carrying those mountains of presents for loved ones. 'Bag Magic means you can send your luggage ahead to make your journey as simple and enjoyable as a sleigh ride. Christmas elves: Virgin Trains have unveiled a new luggage delivery service, Bag Magic . Happy to help: The elves will also wrap presents for free at London's Euston station this weekend (Nov 22-23) 'Christmas is a time when people's bags are bigger than ever, and we know that whilst some people have the gift of neat wrapping others aren't quite so deft. 'The Virgin Trains elves will have your presents looking perfect and now with Bag Magic you can send everything ahead whilst you sit back and relax, dreaming of a white Christmas.' | Bag Magic service collects and delivers luggage overnight to UK address .
To launch service elves will be wrapping presents at Euston station .
Delivery prices start from £9.99 per bag one-way . |
10,486 | 1dd19e5c3559ff972f1bc630995360899b0a8ab3 | (CNN) -- United Airlines and US Airways have joined American Airlines in charging passengers to check bags on certain flights. Passengers check in at the United Airlines counter at the Miami International Airport Thursday in Miami, Florida. Citing higher fuel prices, United Airlines said Thursday it will begin charging domestic passengers $15 each way for one checked bag. The Chicago, Illinois-based airline said the fee to check a second bag will be $25 each way. The fee to check three or more bags, overweight bags or "items that require special handling" will increase from $100 to $125 or from $200 to $250, depending on the item, United said in a statement. The $15 charge will apply to customers who purchase a ticket on or after Friday for travel within the United States, and who buy on or after August 18 a ticket to or from Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The $15 service fee will not apply to customers flying in United First or United Business or who have premier status with United or Star Alliance airline network, the carrier said. iReport.com: How do you feel about the new fee? For itineraries that include international flights (except Canada), checking a first and second bag will continue to be free, United said. The cost to check more than two bags or items that are overweight or require special handling varies by destination. US Airways, meanwhile, said it will begin charging passengers $15 for their first checked bag for travel on or after July 9. The airline said it also has recently started charging passengers $25 for second checked bags. The new policy applies to flights in the United States as well as flights to and from Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. Some airlines have been adding fees to once-free benefits, such as snacks. Despite this cost-cutting, airlines are finding it harder to survive as they get squeezed by soaring fuel costs. "With record-breaking fuel prices, we must pursue new revenue opportunities while continuing to offer competitive fares, by tailoring our products and services around what our customers value most and are willing to pay for," said John Tague, United's executive vice president and chief operating officer. United said it estimates that the $15 fee will apply to one out of three customers, and the potential revenue from baggage handling service fees, including those for checking a first and second bag, will be approximately $275 million a year. The move comes a month after American Airlines announced a $15 service charge for the first checked bag. Delta, Continental and Northwest told CNN they are not charging for passengers' first checked bags. However, a spokesman for Northwest said the airline is well aware of changes in the industry. "We are always keeping an eye on what our competitors are doing," the spokesman said. | United: Second bag to cost $25; $125 to apply to three or more or overweight bags .
$15 fee will not apply to those in United First, United Business or with premier status .
Some airlines add fees to once-free snacks .
United: $15 fee will apply to one out of three customers . |
284,038 | fbfc17c0ca4f1f552c9331db60a5408b1e6a0046 | A man wanted over the Sydney police pursuit, which led to the death of a 17-month-old girl, has been formally charged. The 22-year-old had been on the run since he allegedly crashed a stolen Audi through the fence of a Constitution Hill property into a backyard where kids were playing last Thursday night. The toddler was playing on the other side of the fence and sustained fatal injuries. Scroll down for video . A man has been charged with the manslaughter of a 17-month-old toddler who was run over at Constitution Hill - Sydney's west . The 22-year-old will appear at Wyong court on Thursday and will also face charges of aggravated dangerous driving causing death, police pursuit [Skye's Law], and use offensive weapon to avoid apprehension . The man spent the night behind bars at Wyong Police Station and will face Wyong court on Thursday, police said. He has been charged with manslaughter and a raft of other offences, and is from Waterloo - in Sydney's inner-city. He was arrested at a home in Gorokan, on the Central Coast on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after arriving at Wyong Police Station the man claimed he had a medical issue and was taken to hospital. A 23-year-old woman who was a passenger in the stolen Audi appeared in court on Wednesday on drug charges . He was later return to the police station where he was formally charged on Thursday morning. The charges laid against him include manslaughter, aggravated dangerous driving causing death, police pursuit [Skye's Law], and use offensive weapon to avoid apprehension. A critical incident investigation will look at which car involved in the pursuit caused 17-month-old's injuries. It comes after Katie Tutie, 23, who watched all the tragic drama of the high-speed pursuit unfold from the passenger seat appeared in court on Wednesday. Tuite was not charged over the chase but she faced court on a raft of unrelated offences. Whilst the 22-year-old man remained on the run, Tuite was arrested on the day of the toddler's tragic death. She was remanded in Darlinghurst, in possession of drugs methamphetamine (ice) and buprenorphine, near where the Audi had been dumped. Magistrate Les Mabbutt refused her bail application after hearing of Tuite's own reign of terror. Police prosecutors detailed her own personal crime spree over the past 18 months, including offences ranging from aggravated robbery, serious assault, stealing, possession of housebreaking equipment and providing police with more than 20 false names and information. Detectives working on the Constitution Hill case had been pursuing the 22-year-old suspect for a week and arrested him yesterday . Her distraught family have reached out to Tuite, assuring her they still love her and are devastated by the problems that drugs have allegedly brought into her life. ‘I love her so much,' her mother cried in an interview with 9News. 'Katie, don’t ever think I don’t love you,’ her mother pleaded in tears. Katie’s sister-in-law Samantha said they know there was still a chance the 23-year-old could turn her life around. 'We didn’t want it to be like this, we want her to change her life and start doing good,' she told 9News. 'We all know that she’s got the potential to do it.' Tuite's mother also cried when explaining how devastated she feels after the tragic death of toddler. ‘I’m so sorry… I wake up in the morning and see those baby’s eyes in my eyes,' she said. On Wednesday, Tuite, sporting tattoos on her arms and prison greens, appeared by video link at Central Local Court from inside Silverwater Jail, where she will remain until her next court appearance, set down for January 29. Lawyers for Tuite applied for bail but police prosecutors claimed 'the defendant's record extends over the last 18 months from August 29 last year and since there have been continuous offences. [She] continues to make choices with further undesirable people'. Magistrate Mabbutt said: 'The range of the offences [she has been charged with] are grave matters, the accused has a length history and has outstanding matters, the offences overall have to be considered serious. 'The accused has a history of violence,' he stated, adding that the offences would most likely lead to 'full-time custody' if she was found guilty. Magistrate Mabbutt went on to deny Tuite's bail application. Distraught friends of the toddler's family visited the house following her death last Friday . Friends lay flowers outside the family home of the child who was killed as she played with two of her sisters . An emotional police officer on the scene at Constitution Hill near Parramatta last Friday . A witness to the accident is overcome with emotion as he places flowers at the site where the toddler was killed . Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | A 22-year-old man was charged with the manslaughter on Thursday .
He will appear in Wyong court following his arrest by police on Wednesday .
The man is accused of running over the toddler at Constitution Hill in Sydney's west .
A passenger in the stolen Audi that crashed through the toddler's fence appeared in court .
Katie Tuite was not charged with the chase but was charged with drug offences . |
50,423 | 8ea3794758c63596af73f1e1c6e039ce7571cda0 | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military is pounding Taliban targets in the country's Swat Valley, trying to clear militants who control parts of the district's main city, military officials said. Pakistani army trucks transport cannons for the military operation against the Taliban. The Pakistani forces had killed 35 militants in Wednesday's fighting, the officials said. The officials said there are reports of some civilian casualties in Wednesday's fighting -- which has been concentrated in Swat's district capital of Mingora -- but they denied local media reports that 35 civilians died. An eyewitness said he saw the bodies of 15 civilians were being taken from a village near Mingora on Wednesday. Twelve of the dead were children. Taliban militants have laid siege to Mingora, looting banks, attacking army headquarters, the police station, and the main power grid station, the officials said. They are also occupying civilian houses and government buildings in the city center, according to the military. See a map of Taliban-controlled areas » . The fighting has trapped 80 boys inside an orphanage in the city, according to Muhammad Ali, the director of the facility. Another 20 staffers are also holed up inside the four-story building, and they only have enough food for two more days, Ali said. Local government officials issued an evacuation order for the Swat area Tuesday, ahead of the military operation. An estimated 40,000 people have fled Mingora, according to Khushhal Khan, district coordination officer. Government officials warn that the fighting could lead to the exodus of 500,000 civilians. Watch as thousands flee military offensive » . For the last two weeks, Pakistani troops have battled Taliban fighters in Buner and Lower Dir, two districts bordering Swat. Army generals claim to have killed scores of militants. Fighting continues in those two districts, and the operations are "progressing smoothly," the military said Wednesday. Militants struck a girls' college in the area with rocket fire, partially damaging the building, the military said. Watch conditions in a refugee camp in Pakistan » . Pakistan's government recently signed a deal that would allow Islamic law, or sharia, in the Swat Valley, in exchange for an end to fighting. The government began its military operation after Taliban militants moved into the Buner district and refused to disarm, in violation of the agreement. Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday in Washington. Obama is hoping to build an enduring regional alliance with both countries, enlisting them as full partners rather than treating them as battlefields for U.S. soldiers to fight extremists. Last week, Obama said Pakistan's government appears to be "very fragile" and argued that the United States has "huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable" and doesn't end up a "nuclear-armed militant state." CNN's Samson Desta and Elise Labott contributed to this report. | Pakistani military pounds Taliban fighters, killing 35 in Swat Valley offensive An estimated 40,000 people flee city of Mingora as forces clash .
500,000 civilians expected to flee Swat Valley area as offensive continues .
Pakistani President Zardari meeting U.S. President Obama Wednesday . |
114,269 | 1f708c89240c1556f36332e1b28da8716a502730 | Lynchburg, Virginia (CNN) -- Cassandra Morton never became a household name like some of the other women. Not like Morgan Harrington. Or Hannah Graham. Even for the people in the historically black Tinbridge Hill neighborhood of Lynchburg, where sense of community and oral history thrive, memories of Morton are hazy. "Wasn't she the girl whose body they found up on the mountain?" people ask. Morton went missing on October 10, 2009. Several weeks later, a hiker discovered the 23-year-old's decomposed body on Candlers Mountain, near Camp Hydaway, a retreat owned by Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Lynchburg police and the Campbell County Sheriff's Office hunted for Morton's killer in vain. A year after her death, authorities admitted their leads had gone cold. As the years wore on, Morton's family learned to live without knowing who committed this heinous act. Or why she was robbed of life. Their hope of learning the truth diminished with time. Until recently. One night last month, University of Virginia student Hannah Graham disappeared after going out with friends. The arrest of a suspect in that case has prompted authorities to take another look at Morton's death and several other unsolved cases of women who were murdered, raped or went missing. Police have charged Jesse L. Matthew Jr. with abduction with the intent to defile in Graham's disappearance. They said forensic evidence also links Matthew to at least two other cases: the death of Morgan Harrington, whose body was discovered in Albemarle County in 2010, and a 2005 rape of a 26-year-old woman in Fairfax City. Matthew was also accused of a 2002 rape at Liberty University in Lynchburg, though charges were not pressed. The Campbell County Sheriff 's Office is investigating any possible connection between Matthew and Morton. Sheriff Steve Hutcherson declined further comment on an ongoing investigation. The result of all this has been that suddenly, almost five years after her death, Morton's face is all over the media again. It has meant torture, all over again, for her mother, Catherine Morton. She again felt the kind of shock that jolted her when police showed up at her doorstep several days after Thanksgiving 2009. They showed her a photograph of the body. She recognized her daughter's moccasins and beige jacket. They told her they had matched Cassandra's dental records to the body that was discovered. Catherine fell to the floor. "She hasn't been right ever since," says her husband and Cassandra's stepfather, Rawleigh Myers. Police seize cab of man linked to 2009 death . Overshadowed by a 'damsel in distress'? Cassandra Morton's cremated remains rest in an urn her mother keeps by her bed. It's a constant reminder of the daughter she lost; a reminder that her killer remains unpunished. Every morning, Catherine Morton prays for her daughter's soul. She takes comfort in knowing that 250 people showed up at her daughter's funeral at the Tree of Life Ministries a few blocks up the road from her rented duplex on Campbell Avenue. She swallows eight or nine pills a day to treat her depression and hypertension. There's not much she can do about the anger that rises within. Why did her daughter's death not make national headlines like Graham or Harrington? Why did no one from the state come to help her in her hour of grief and pain? Morton's death was never big news. And it was always overshadowed by news about Harrington, who went missing six days after Morton vanished. In fact, when Morton's body was discovered, some headlines wondered if it might be that of Harrington, whose parents had been vocal from the first day about their daughter's strange disappearance from a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. They appeared on television and created a website to seek justice for their daughter. "There's been so much publicity about Morgan, about Hannah," Myers says. He is blind in his left eye and suffers from high blood pressure. He used to work for the school system, then performed odd jobs here and there. But these days, he and Catherine Morton barely survive by collecting disability. "The Harringtons can afford a reward to find their daughter's killer," he says, sitting on a small front porch cluttered with things. "We're poor and black. Nobody cares." His stepdaughter, Myers says, didn't fit the profile of missing women who make headlines. Like Elizabeth Smart, Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway. Or Harrington and Graham. "It's hard to deny that race has something to do with the fact that attractive young white women get vastly more coverage when they disappear," says A. Barton Hinkle, an editorial writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, who wrote about the so-called Missing White Woman Syndrome in a recent column. The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson first described the media fascination in a 2005 column in which he described "Damsels in Distress." "A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as 'petite,' and it also helps if she's the kind of woman who wouldn't really mind being called 'petite,' a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality. She must be attractive -- also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime. "Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage," Robinson wrote. "The disappearance of a man, or of a woman of color, can generate a brief flurry, but never the full damsel treatment." Similar comments were made in Cleveland, after the bodies of 11 black women were found in a "house of horrors" in 2009. "In all their coverage, sympathetic as it may be, the [Cleveland] Plain Dealer never raises the bigger issue. What made these women such easy targets was being black, being women and being from the highly segregated and desperately poor east side of Cleveland," Angie Schmitt, founding editor of Rust Wire, wrote a year after the bodies were discovered. "Nobody was going to tear up the city looking for a few black women from the east side with sketchy pasts." Justice for everyone? Morton grew up in and around Lynchburg one of three siblings. Her parents separated, and when Catherine Morton married Myers about 12 years ago, he embraced her as his own. Myers never had much contact with his own daughter from a previous relationship; Cassandra filled that void. He loved to hear her call him "Daddy." Myers adjusts the baseball cap hugging his head. "Relax," it says. "God is in control." But he is far from relaxed talking about Cassandra. Catherine Morton decided she had had enough of journalists after Graham's case made the news. She had agreed to speak with me but changed her mind. She makes it clear she's upset her daughter's name has been dredged up again. She tells her husband to "keep it short." But Meyers wants to talk. He wants to keep Cassandra's memory alive. At a vigil last year organized by "Help Save The Next Girl," a group started by Harrington's parents, Myers spoke publicly about Cassandra. "She was loved," he told the crowd, among them the families of nine Virginia women whose cases remain unresolved. Myers says his stepdaughter wasn't perfect. She had fallen in and out of trouble, moved from one home to another. She was arrested in 2005 for theft. The photo that was used in newspapers and television when she went missing was, ironically, a police mug shot. She dabbled with drugs and men, Meyers says. She got pregnant and gave birth to two daughters. She was supposed to check into a rehabilitation facility two days after she went missing. She did not fit the picture of the all-American girl next door. But that, says her family, doesn't mean she should go without justice. Authorities have not said anything about the evidence they have on Matthew. Cassandra Morton's family has no idea whether she, Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington are linked in some chilling way. They know only this: For the first time in years, they harbor hope again of learning the truth, however brutal that might be. | Almost five years after her body was found, Cassandra Morton's name is in the news again .
Police are investigating if there is a connection between Morton and a suspect in other cases .
Morton's death was overshadowed by the disappearance of Morgan Harrington .
Morton's stepfather says Cassandra didn't fit the profile of missing women who make headlines . |
248,184 | cd25978d5c9ea0905d69b831ae9cb82a43fbd106 | Report today criticised Tyne and Wear health chiefs . By . Anthony Bond . PUBLISHED: . 13:30 EST, 28 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:51 EST, 28 May 2013 . Killed: Mental health worker Ashleigh Ewing, 22, was savagely stabbed to death by paranoid schizophrenic Ronald Dixon. A report today said she should not have visited him alone . A mental health worker killed after being savagely stabbed 39 times by a paranoid schizophrenic in his own home should not have visited him alone, a damning report has concluded. Ronald Dixon broke three knives during the frenzied attack on 22-year-old graduate Ashleigh Ewing after she had gone to his home in Newcastle to deliver a letter telling him he was in debt. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death has today heavily criticised health chiefs from Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and said that Dixon should not have been managed in the community. Dixon, described in the report as a loner, had a history of mental illness and had previously attacked his parents with a hammer while they were in bed. The report, commissioned by the North East Strategic Health Authority, outlined how by 2006 when the stabbing took place, he was in relapse and had disengaged from services. But in spite of this, on May 19, 2006, psychology graduate Ms Ewing, who worked for housing support charity Mental Health Matters, was sent by herself to his home with a letter telling him he was in debt. Within 15 minutes of her walking through the door a neighbour heard screams and shouts of 'get off’ and 'stop it'. A minute-long 'hysterical screech' was then heard, before Dixon changed his bloodied clothes, showered and with his dogs walked to a police station and said he had murdered someone. The report said: 'It is the view of the panel that if a robust risk assessment had been completed including a consideration of the lone working policy with P [Dixon], such lone working would have been abandoned and joint visits implemented. 'Thus, it must follow, that A [Ewing] would not have been attending P’s [Dixon’s] house on her own on 19 May 2006.' Brutal: Ronald Dixon, left, stabbed Ashleigh Ewing, right, 39 times and broke three knives during the attack after she had gone to his home to deliver a letter from her employers . It describes the letter she had with her as 'provocative' and said that it was 'entirely inappropriate' for her to have delivered it to him. It also says there was 'a misplaced but substantial over reliance upon Mental Health Matters’ staff' by clinicians from the Trust. It says: 'The reliance on Mental Health Matters staff to report on P [Dixon] led to a situation where P’s mental state was never properly established or assessed on a regular basis. 'It was, in our view, wholly inappropriate to rely upon Mental Health Matters as the conduit for reporting on P’s [Dixon’s] mental state and clinical signs.' While the panel found that 'it is impossible to conclude with absolute certainty that the vicious attack could have been predicted or avoided', they do say he should have previously been detained under the Mental Health Act. Horrific: Ronald Dixon killed the 22-year-old in May 2006 when she attended his home in Heaton, Newcastle, pictured, for a support visit, as part of her work for the charity Mental Health Matters . They also conclude that throughout the . period in question a 'light approach' had been taken towards Dixon’s . care, but his condition 'demanded a more robust intervention'. In October 2007 Dixon pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was ordered to be detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric unit. Mental Health Matters have also previously admitted health and safety breaches and been fined £30,000. A statement by the Trust said: 'We welcome the publication of this report, we accept its findings and we apologise for the shortcomings identified in it. 'We particularly extend our condolences to the family and friends of Ashleigh Ewing. This was a shocking and tragic incident which provides lessons for all the agencies involved and for the wider health and social care systems. 'It is important to remember that this tragic death occurred over seven years ago and much has changed since then. 'We would also like to reassure Ashleigh’s family and the public that since these tragic events, the trust has rigorously and continually improved the areas of care that have been found by this report to fall short of good practice.' A statement from Mental Health Matters said they acknowledged there had been failings in its procedures regarding risk assessment and have conducted a thorough review of their procedures. | Ronald Dixon stabbed Ashleigh Ewing 39 times during frenzied attack .
She went to his .
home to deliver letter from charity saying he was in debt .
Screams of 'get off’ and 'stop it' heard followed by 'hysterical screech'
Dixon then walked to police station to say he had murdered someone .
Report today criticised Tyne and Wear health chiefs . |
253,803 | d48203adce6167398e1b3d110be46f33a1adfd17 | (CNN) -- Water pressure is restored and it is now safe to drink in a Baltimore suburb where a huge water main burst, sending torrents of muddy water coursing over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. Muddy water envelops the community of Dundalk, Maryland, on Friday. Many were left without power. "A bad situation is well in hand," Baltimore County chief executive Jim Smith said during a press conference Saturday morning. Crews were still at work inspecting homes and clearing water from flooded basements, he said, "but the danger is over, the crisis is over." A prestressed concrete water pipe burst late Friday afternoon under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk. The 72-inch-wide main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Smith said. No injuries were reported, Smith said, and knee-high to chest-high water had been reduced to 4 inches. Resident David Johnson said he felt helpless as he stood outside his house and watched the dirty brown water creep up his lawn and approach his front door. It stopped, inches away, and his basement stayed dry. The worst part now is the sewage smell, he said. Local public works officials said at least 39 basements in the area were flooded. See water main break damage » . Shannon Woerner was at home in nearby Essex, Maryland, when he heard the news about the water main break and the call for boats. He loaded his kayak in his truck and headed to the scene. "I just wanted to see if I could help," he said. Woerner said he delivered car keys and other items across flooded streets to people who couldn't get to their homes. Mike Pell, 34, watched the water slowly recede after the main was shut. Water covered the wheels of his pickup. "My basement's done," he said, pointing to his shoulder to show the height of the water inside. He and his fiancee had a bedroom in the basement. "All of our clothes are ruined," he said. He managed to get his two children, ages 2 and 3, to a dry area on the first floor of the house. "Now I wonder who's gonna pay for this. We don't have flood insurance; this area doesn't flood," Pell said, shaking his head. Samantha Hansley, 21, could only watch from a dry hill and wonder if her truck would survive the flood. It sat in 2 feet of water a block away. Hansley and her boyfriend had been driving out of the floodwaters when they stopped to try to help some stranded drivers. "Our truck just died," she said. A manager at the Box and Save grocery store about a block away from the break said the entire parking lot was flooded. Cathy Geisler said customers were still in the store Friday afternoon when police arrived to tell everyone except for essential personnel to evacuate. "We were still doing business, then the electricity went out and we escorted everyone out of the store," Geisler said. Aerial video from CNN affiliates WMAR and WBAL showed a collapsed roadway covered by torrents of water. Entire neighborhoods had flooded streets, and some residents were evacuated, authorities said. Eric Braughman, who lives on one of the flooded streets, said he had "thought something was up" with the water Thursday when his faucets discharged orange-brown water. "My wife didn't give the baby a bath because it didn't look safe," Braughman said. Nearly 1,000 customers were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s Web site. The main break is part of a larger issue with failing infrastructure in many U.S. cities, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's Department of Public Works. Kocher cited two other huge main breaks in the Maryland and Washington area that were started from the same type of pipe that burst in Friday's incident. "This is a national infrastructure crisis," Kocher said. CNN's Alec Miran in Dundalk, Maryland, contributed to this report. | Water is safe to drink; pressure has been restored .
Residents say water damaged vehicles, homes and left sewage smell .
72-inch main shut down after about two hours, county official says .
Nearly 1,000 were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric . |
135,942 | 3be0b746ea167846bf7921d80f422bcd1404b415 | The asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs 66 million years ago also killed off many mammals, according to new research. Although the extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have paved the way for 'placental mammals' such as humans, to dominate, the study shows that many other mammals died off alongside them. This puts a twist on the 'classic story' that it was just the demise of the dinosaurs the allowed us to thrive - and instead suggests a mass extinction of mammals also played a part, too. A study led by New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science said two-thirds of our mammalian rivals went extinct with the dinosaurs (asteroid impact illustrated). So-called metatherian mammals thrived in the shadow of the dinosaurs. But many of them were wiped out by the asteroid impact . The study was led by an international team of experts on mammal evolution and mass extinctions, and was published in the journal ZooKeys. Metatherian mammals - the extinct relatives of living marsupials such as kangaroos - thrived in the shadow of the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period. But, the study shows that these once widespread mammals nearly followed the dinosaurs into oblivion. Scientists have long believed that heavy dust from the asteroid impact blocked out the sun, setting off a disastrous chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. But now researchers in the US have found evidence for a theory that major volcanic eruption began just before the impact, possibly also playing a role in the extinction. Based on their analysis, the researchers determined that the eruption began 250,000 years before the asteroid strike and continued for 500,000 years after the giant impact. Scientists at MIT and Princeton University calculated that the volcano spewed out a total of 932,000 square miles (2.4 million square kilometres) of lava. The immense volcanism may have released dangerous levels of volatile chemicals into the air, poisoning the atmosphere and oceans, they say. When a 6.2-mile (10km) wide asteroid struck what is now Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous period and unleashed a global cataclysm of environmental destruction, some two-thirds of all metatherians living in North America perished, according to the study. This includes more than 90 per cent of species living in the northern Great Plains of the US, the best area in the world for preserving the latest Cretaceous mammal fossils. In the aftermath of the mass extinction, metatherians would never recover their previous diversity, which is why marsupial mammals are rare today and largely restricted to unusual environments in Australia and South America. Taking advantage of the metatherian demise were the placental mammals: species that give live birth to well-developed young. They are ubiquitous around the globe today, and include everything from mice to men. The latest findings were made when the scientists made a more detailed evolutionary tree of mammals before and after the asteroid impact - and found many metatherians went extinct alongside the dinosaurs. This image shows a cast of the fossil remnants of Asiatherium reshetovi, one of the metatherian species that used to live on the planet millions of years ago. Their mass extinction ultimately allowed placental mammals, from mice to man, to dominate planet Earth . Dr Steve Brusatte, of Edinburgh University's School of GeoSciences, said: 'The classic tale is that dinosaurs died out and mammals, which had been waiting in the wings for over 100 million years, then finally had their chance. But our study shows that many mammals came perilously close to extinction' (T-Rex shown) Study lead author Dr Thomas Williamson, of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, told MailOnline: 'This is a new twist on a classic story. 'It wasn't only that dinosaurs died out, providing an opportunity for mammals to reign, but that many types of mammals, such as most metatherians, died out too - this allowed advanced placental mammals to rise to dominance.' Dr Steve Brusatte, of Edinburgh University's School of GeoSciences, added: 'The classic tale is that dinosaurs died out and mammals, which had been waiting in the wings for over 100 million years, then finally had their chance. 'But our study shows that many mammals came perilously close to extinction. 'If a few lucky species didn't make it through, then mammals may have gone the way of the dinosaurs and we wouldn't be here.' | Study led by New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science says two-thirds of our mammalian rivals went extinct with the dinosaurs .
So-called metatherian mammals thrived in the shadow of the dinosaurs .
But many of them were wiped out by the asteroid impact .
This allowed placental animals - from mice to men - to rise to dominance .
'This is a new twist on a classic story,' said Dr Thomas Williamson . |
185,603 | 7c6a5c9b75264daa2821403fc1073378e76467cc | By . Larisa Brown . PUBLISHED: . 18:01 EST, 17 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:22 EST, 18 September 2013 . Opponents may say some of his policy ideas are on the thin side, but George Osborne is doing his utmost to make sure his hair is not. The Chancellor was yesterday seen sporting a new style, with his hair brushed forward to cover up signs of a receding hairline. The choppy, layered cut is used by hairdressers to make it seem as though their clients’ hair is thicker than it really is, in turn helping them look younger. On view: The Chancellor's receding hairline could previously be seen (left), but the younger style (right) gives an impression of more hair on top of his head . It seems to have worked for Mr Osborne. The new style appeared to have taken a few years off the 42-year-old, who was seen in June with thin and greying hair. Mr Osborne was speaking to Lloyds Banking staff in Birmingham after the sale of taxpayer-owned shares. The Chancellor has hailed the £61million profit on the sale of the shares as more evidence the economy was 'turning a corner'. Mr Osborne claimed the £3.2 billion sale of a 6 per cent slice of the bank to institutional investors represented a half-billion pound boost to the public accounts - because of the way it is valued on the Government's books. Snip and tuck: Mr Osborne was speaking to Lloyds Banking staff in Birmingham after the sale of taxpayer-owned shares . He indicated that the disposal of the rest of the Treasury's holding, now standing at 32.7 per cent, may be opened up to the public in a stock market float likely to revive memories of the major privatisations of the 1980s. It comes five years to the day after then-Lloyds TSB stepped in to swallow up troubled Halifax Bank of Scotland during the financial crisis in a disastrous move that saw it needing to be rescued itself in a £20 billion Government bail-out. The first tranche of the re-privatisation saw financial institutions mainly from the UK and United States snap up stock at a price of 75p per share, above the 73.6p average price that had been paid for it by the Treasury. Talk: The new style appeared to have taken a few years off Mr Osborne, 42, who was seen in June with thin and greying hair . In a letter to Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, Mr Osborne said: 'This is a good outcome for the taxpayer. 'It represents a major milestone on the road from rescue to recovery for the British economy, and in further normalising the banking sector. 'This is the first in a multi-staged sale programme. I will consider all options for later sales of our shareholding in Lloyds, including a retail offering to the general public.' | Chancellor seen with new style to cover up signs of a receding hairline .
The style is used by hairdressers to make it seem hair is thicker than it is .
He was speaking to Lloyds banking staff after sale of taxpayer-owned shares . |
144,711 | 4729e9af260f35404e803c54a2c5de669b53e013 | Darren Vann, 43, (pictured) allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indian, but refused to speak in court . A man who allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indiana refused to respond to the judge during his initial court appearance, prompting her to warn him he'd spend 'the rest of his life' in jail unless he cooperates. When the judge asked Darren Vann, 43, if he swore to tell the truth at his initial court appearance in the strangulation death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, he didn't respond or flinch and stood unmoving and stone-faced. He has been charged with the murder of Hardy and 35-year-old Anith Jones, whose body was found in Gary on Saturday. Lake Superior Court judge Kathleen Sullivan warned Vann, who stood with his wrists and legs shackled and flanked by two jail guards, he could be held in contempt and he still declined to speak. 'Mr. Vann, are you choosing not to take part in this hearing?' Sullivan asked Vann during the hearing in a courtroom at the Lake County Jail in Crown Point. Sullivan then addressed Vann's public defender, urging him to make his client speak. 'Tell your client that he stays in jail the rest of his life until this hearing takes place,' she said. Vann's public defender walked up to him and put his hand on Vann's shoulder encouraging him to speak, but he refused. The judge ordered that Vann should be held in contempt of court and said she would schedule another initial hearing for next week. Vann, a convicted sex offender, is charged with the strangulation death of Hardy, whose body was found Friday in a bathtub at a Motel 6 in Hammond, 20 miles southeast of Chicago. Authorities said Hardy was involved in prostitution and had arranged to meet Vann at the motel through a Chicago-area website. Scroll down for video . Victims: Police in Gary, Indiana, named Anith Jones, 35, (right) as one of the deceased and Afrikka Hardy (left) as another of the seven found so far . Teaira Batey, 28, (pictured) was identified by Hammond Police Chief John Doughty as one of the women killed . Police arrested him Saturday in Hardy's death after obtaining a search warrant for Vann's vehicle and home in nearby Gary. After his arrest, investigators say Vann directed them to the bodies of six other women in Gary whom he also confessed to killing. More charges are likely. Officers found the body of 35-year-old Anith Jones, of Merrillville, Indiana, on Saturday night in an abandoned home. She had been missing since Oct. 8. Five more bodies were found Sunday in other homes, said Hammond Police Chief John Doughty, who identified two of the women as Gary residents Teaira Batey, 28, and Kristine Williams, 36. Police have not determined the identities of the other three women, including two whose bodies were found on the same block where Jones' body was found Saturday. Investigators in Indiana and Texas, where he has also lived and served prison time, have been looking over cold case files and missing person reports to determine if there are more victims. They have also been using Vann's phone records to pinpoint his movements after he told police he liked to check on the status of bodies he'd previously stashed after a fresh kill, authorities said. Anith Jones of Merrillville, Indianna (pictured) whose body was found October 18 in an abandoned home . Vann was convicted in 2009 of raping a woman in his Austin, Texas, apartment. He was released from prison last year and moved back to Indiana. Before that conviction, he served a year in prison in Indiana after he grabbed a Gary woman in a chokehold in 2004, doused her with gasoline and threatened to set her on fire. In both the Texas and Indiana cases, the charges against Vann were reduced in plea bargains, and Texas officials deemed him a low risk for violence. Vann registered as a sex offender in Indiana and police made a routine check in September that he lived at the address he provided. Discovery: Police investigating the slayings of seven women whose bodies were found in northwestern Indiana say the suspect has told them that he may have killed people going back 20 years . House of horrors: An abandoned home at 2200 Massachusetts in Gary, Indiana, where police found the one of six women's bodies over the weekend . Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Darren Vann, 43 allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indiana .
He has been charged with the murder of Afrikka Hardy, 19, and Anith Jones .
Vann refused to respond to the judge during his initial court appearance .
He stood unmoving and the judge was forced to postpone the hearing . |
86,350 | f5170941b1e5336099b2bcd68b68c5bfb311a95e | City workers and tourists did a double take this morning as a giant 50ft-tall rubber duck sailed up the Thames. The bright yellow duck, weighing half a ton, looked quite at home amongst the shiny towers of the City as it set sail on its mission to make people laugh in the capital today. It was launched to publicise a new £250,000 bursary designed to encourage people in the UK to have more fun. Bridge lift: Tower Bridge swung open today to allow the giant duck through . The oversized bath toy was launched from West India Dock in the Isle of Dogs, east London, at 8.30 this morning. It floated along the Thames past the O2, the glittering towers of Canary Wharf, and on towards Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast as part of a publicity stunt organised by a website. Former Carry On and EastEnders actress Barbara Windsor, who saw the duck off at West India . Dock is patron of Jackpotjoy.com's new Facebook FUNdation, part of a marketing campaign to grant funds to . people who have good ideas to make people laugh. She said: 'We thought a giant rubber duck floating down the River Thames was a great way to kick the FUNdation off, and it definitely raised a smile and a chuckle from everyone who saw it. 'After . the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant, the floating Olympic rings and . David Beckham jetting into the Olympic opening ceremony, the Thames . really has seen it all this year. Cheering up commuters: The oversized duck was a sight to behold in the chilly December dawn . 'The giant duck was a perfect way to round it all off and it certainly cheered everyone up. 'No one could suppress a smile as they saw it sailing past on its way to HMS Belfast.' Miss Windsor, who is patron of the FUNdation, said she hoped the duck stunt would encourage people to come up with their own ideas. 'We now want people to send us their own entries of wacky things they'd like to do, and we'll provide funding for the best ones.' A team of eight people spent more than 800 man-hours cutting and welding together the parts for the duck to ensure it was airtight before it took to the water this morning. Michael Saunders, managing director . of Jackpotjoy.com, said: 'We want to make sure we get the laughter quota . back where it belongs and are hoping the FUNdation will help people . have some daft fun. 'If you want to organise the biggest ever street conga, or jump into a pool of jelly, let us know.' According to the research commissioned by the website, adults in Britain laugh an average 7.2 times day, while psychologists recommend we should do it 15 times a day to stay happy and healthy. Consultant psychologist Anjula Mutanda said: 'The importance of laughter and joy cannot be underestimated. Research shows that 60 years ago we used to laugh for up to 18 minutes a day but today this figure has gone down to six minutes. We should be laughing more than we are.' Past the O2: The duck practically dwarfed the former Millennium Dome on its early morning journey . Not quite the Gloriana: The giant rubber duck weighing half a ton sailed down the River Thames this morning . Look out for the ravens: The duck attracted a crowd as it was towed past the Tower of London . Not quite what the schoolchildren had come to see: The duck sailed past HMS Belfast today . Traffic stopping: Tower Bridge usually opens for more traditional craft such as tall-masted ships . | Half-ton bath toy swam through London this morning to 'cheer people up' |
74,829 | d42463e1093a92ec4dbd20edd8f4bf3306f00f3f | ROCKWOOD, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Four generations of Saylors have worked the family's dairy farm for nearly a century, but for the past three years, the cows have been doing something besides providing milk: They've been helping power the place. "The farm used to get a lot of complaints," says farmer Shawn Saylor. "It used to stink a lot." Growing up on the sprawling spread 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, 36-year-old farmer Shawn Saylor developed into a self-described science buff. So it was no surprise that, when faced with rising energy costs, Saylor turned to technology. He tapped into an abundant and easily accessible energy source: manure from about 600 cows. Watch how cow poo powers the farm » . "It's a pretty simple process. There's not really a lot to it," Saylor said. "Manure comes from the cows, and there's energy left in the manure." The process is known as anaerobic digestion, and here's how it works: . With the help of a mechanical scraper in the barn, manure drops into a 19,000-gallon tank. The slurry then moves into the digester, which is 16 feet deep and 70 feet in diameter. It's heated there for about 16 days while the bacteria break down the organic matter in order to produce methane gas. That gas is burned in two engine generators to make electricity. See an interactive explaining the process » . Heat created by the generators keeps the digester hot, heats the buildings around the farm and helps provide hot water. The electricity is used to power this farm and a dozen neighboring homes, Saylor said. And there's still some left over, which he sells back to the grid. Overall, the poo power helps Saylor's bottom line. "In savings, there's $200,000 a year, in either extra income from sale of electricity or cost offsets," he said. "So you're talking about system project costs of over a million dollars to build the system but a payback of five years or less." Before he installed the system, the pungent smell from the cows could linger for three to four days, Saylor said. "The farm used to get a lot of complaints from motorists, which is understandable. It used to stink a lot." Now, the digesters reduce 98 percent of all odor, although he admits that if the wind blows, you still "get a whiff." The farm's leftover solid waste is sold to the community. "We use it for bedding for the animals," according to Saylor. "A lot of people like to get it for their gardens ... because it doesn't smell much." Farm-based digesters became popular in the United States during the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. But the technology didn't catch on, possibly because of the high operational costs and declining energy prices, according to the Department of Agriculture. Although Saylor had been interested in digesters for years, his dream didn't become reality until 2006. That's when he received a $600,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection. But Saylor's work isn't done. He intends to make his farm entirely self-sufficient by using waste vegetable oil to make biodiesel fuel. He said his goal is to waste nothing. "In a biodiesel system, all the waste products can either be used or fed back into the digester to make more gas," he said. "I've always looked at new technologies and believed you kind of have to work with that stuff to stay with the future." | Dairy farmer says he saves money by converting cow manure to electricity .
Remaining waste from 600 cows is used as fertilizer and mulch .
Anaerobic digestion became popular in United States in 1970s .
He says process also helps cut dairy farm's odor . |
12,645 | 23dd9ef0217593d8ec3af1a3f4a85c00f25e634a | (CNN) -- Nearly two centuries ago Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed an obscure redistricting law that helped his party stay in office and, more importantly, codified one of the most enduring legacies in U.S. politics: gerrymandering. The U.S. House of Represenatives, home to many beneficiaries of gerrymandering. Now a part of an American lexicon often heard in Washington's K Street bars and among "inside-the-beltway" crowds, the term is seen as a combination of the governor's name and the word "salamander," because of the salamander-like shape one electoral district took on after the redistricting. Elected governor in 1810, Gerry signed the redistricting bill two years later, enabling greater and perhaps disproportionate Republican representation in the Massachusetts legislature. The controversial move has become a favorite across the country among incumbent parties, which pack opposition voters into districts already lost in an effort to minimize the opposition's influence over the state's broader electorate. But some political analysts cry foul. "In the end, democracy comes out the big loser," former federal prosecutor Edward Lazarus wrote in a 2004 column for CNN. "The effect of such partisan gerrymandering is to block new entrants into high political office and to make the result of almost every congressional election a foregone conclusion. This, in turn, effectively disenfranchises all those voters who don't support the preordained winner," he wrote. In 2006, the Supreme Court threw out part of a Texas congressional map, but found the overall redistricting plan orchestrated by House Republicans acceptable. The redistricting helped Republicans in Texas defeat four Democratic congressmen in the 2004 elections. The court ruled that the redistricting plan, promoted by then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, unfairly weakened the voting strength of Latinos in two congressional districts. "A state may not trade off the rights of some members of a racial group against the rights of other members of that group," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. "The question is therefore not whether line-drawing in the challenged area as a whole dilutes minority voting strength, but whether line-drawing dilutes the voting strength of the Latinos in [Texas'] District 23." The court ordered that District 23 be redrawn. States are constitutionally required to redraw congressional districts every 10 years in line with population shifts documented by the U.S. Census Bureau, a part of the Department of Commerce. This year, controversy re-emerged when President Barack Obama announced a decision to cross party lines and nominate U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, to run the Commerce Department. The move sparked criticism from leaders of minority groups concerned that the Census Bureau under Gregg, who voted to abolish the Commerce Department in 1995, might lack the resources needed to accurately count minorities. The White House promised to work directly with bureau's director to assuage those concerns, but that response drew further criticism from House Republicans concerned about greater executive influence in the Census Bureau. In a letter to the president, House Republicans Patrick McHenry and Darrell Issa described the White House as "circumventing the secretary of commerce" and called it "both outrageous and unprecedented," suggesting the Obama administration could affect U.S. census results and congressional districting due out in 2010. The move, they say, could insulate Democratic congressional power. The White House said it recognizes the importance of an accurate census count "free from politicization" and added it "has not proposed removing the census from the Department of Commerce." "From the first days of the transition, the census has been a priority for the president, and a process he wanted to re-evaluate," it said in an earlier statement. The method through which the Census Bureau collects data has long been a topic of partisan bickering. Republicans have generally favored the "door-to-door" approach, which actually is done primarily by self-enumeration through the U.S. mail. Democrats commonly prefer a statistical sampling method meant to fill in "population gaps" they say occur because some members of minority groups and homeless populations are missed by the door-to-door approach. A 1999 Supreme Court ruling said statistical sampling could not be applied to the redistribution of congressional seats, but it did not put gerrymandering of the political landscape entirely off limits. So, almost 200 years after Elbridge Gerry helped coin the term, gerrymandering remains a key part of American politics. CNN's Bill Mears and Keating Holland contributed to this report. | Term coined after Massachusetts Gov. Gerry signed redistricting law in early 1800s .
Political parties can use tactic to pack opposition voters into districts already lost .
Gerrymandering still a key part of American politics .
It's already becoming an issue with the 2010 census looming . |
105,179 | 13ab671217066b579f95d165d74bb6c74e400942 | Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans detained last week while trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association, a government official said. Information Minister Marie Laurence Lassegue's announcement came shortly after the five men and five women left a hearing at the prosecutor's office. Under Haitian law, anyone accused of kidnapping a child is not eligible for bail, the attorney general's office said. Conviction on the kidnapping charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison; the criminal association charge carries a penalty of three to nine years, according to a former justice minister. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday night that the judge in the case has three months to decide whether to prosecute. "We hope that he will decide long before those three months," he said. "He can release them, he can ask to prosecute them." If a decision is made to prosecute, the case would be heard before a jury, he said. Told that the families of the detained Americans had pleaded for him to intervene, Bellerive said he could not. "Those people are not in the hands of the government; they are in the hands of justice," he said. "We have to respect the law. It is clear that the people violated the law. What we have to understand is if they did it in good faith." Bellerive said the Haitian government was open to the possibility of the case being transferred to a U.S. court but said the request would have to come from the United States. "Until now, I was not asked," he said. He expressed gratitude for the work of the vast majority of Americans who have helped in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that he said killed at least 212,000 people. The Americans were turned back Friday as they tried to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. They said they were going to house them in a converted hotel in that country and later move them to an orphanage they were building there. "We can confirm that the 10 American citizens remain in custody in Haiti," said State Department deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid. "We continue to provide appropriate consular assistance and to monitor developments in the legal case." The Americans have said they were just trying to help the children leave the earthquake-stricken country. Some of the detained Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters said Wednesday that they were present when group members spoke with the children's parents. Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children over to the Americans, who promised them a better life and who said they could see their children whenever they wanted to. Government approval is needed for any Haitian child to leave the country, and the group acknowledged that the children had no passports. Some members of the group belong to the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. One of the church's ministers asked for privacy and would not discuss the matter. "I know you have many questions but we don't have answers right now," Drew Ham, assistant pastor, said in a note to reporters. P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, has said that U.S. officials have been given unlimited consular access to the Americans and that U.S. and Haitian authorities are "working to try to ascertain what happened [and] the motive behind these people. "Clearly, there are questions about procedure as to whether they had the appropriate paperwork to move the children," he said Wednesday. CNN's Karl Penhaul in Port-au-Prince, Dan Simon in Meridian, Ohio, and Jill Dougherty in Washington contributed to this report. | 10 Americans charged with kidnapping, criminal association .
Missionaries denied bail because kidnapping charges involve children .
Missionaries say they were trying to help children leave country .
Haitian government says group was trying to kidnap children . |
239,560 | c22a38c58364eecb0fae57c84082320a9ce11802 | (CNN) -- Ahead of the first grand slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open, defending champion Roger Federer has exclusively told CNN's Pedro Pinto that his rivalry with Rafael Nadal is only on the tennis court -- and the pair are good friends when the action stops. "Some people might think that it's strange. Some other people think its great and it's actually really nice for the sport," Federer said. "In the past, maybe there have been much tougher and harsher rivalries. People wouldn't talk to each other, they didn't like each other and they needed to hate each other to actually perform well against each other. But it doesn't need to be that way," he added. Fierce competition with the Spaniard has not only made both of them better players, Federer says, but also forged a stronger bond between them. At the end of last year, Nadal accepted the World No.2's invitation to play in the "Match for Africa" in Zurich for the Roger Federer Foundation which funds child development in Africa. Federer aims to help Australian flood victims . The Swiss won that battle, although Nadal evened things up when the two faced each other in Madrid. And Federer has carried the good form he showed at the end of 2010 into the new year, already winning the Qatar Open in Doha for the third time in his career. Federer and Nadal did not face each other in the gulf state, but their paths have crossed 22 times since 2004, with Nadal currently leading the head-to-head 14 victories to eight. Federer is now turning his attention to the Australian Open in Melbourne, but admits to feeling a few nerves heading into the tournament. Should tennis follow football's lead? "There's a bit of pressure being the defending champion, but I love going down to Australia; it's a wonderful place to play tennis. "In the off season I practiced really well, so I feel very confident going into the tournament," Federer added. Federer's resurgence in form has also given his critics food for thought, with some commentators believing that the 29-year-old's best days were firmly behind him. "It isn't the first time that I have been written off. It happened when Rafa took the number one spot a couple of years ago," continued Federer. "But I was able to snatch it back and then people were questioning Rafa when he went nine months without winning a tournament. "It's disappointing that people have short memories. Even after everything you have done there are those who write you off so quickly. "It's frustrating to say the least. You walk into press conferences and there is a negative tone in there, when really there is nothing to be negative about. "Sometimes, I am beaten simply because my opponent has played better than me, but often that fact isn't respected which I don't think is fair." In addition to his regular backroom team -- which includes the Swiss Davis captain Severin Luthi -- Federer will also draw on the experience of renowned coach Paul Annacone, who he recruited in August last year and has overseen a definite upsurge in Federer's performances. Federer to link up with coach Annacone . "I just thought it would be nice to get someone else into my team who comes in with huge experience and comes from a different angle," he said. So what has Federer learnt from Annacaone, a man who coached Pete Sampras for six years. "He's obviously told me to play more aggressive, because I did have a tendency to start chipping the backhand return into play just getting the rally started. "So we've been working on a few key little areas and they seemed to have worked..." | Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal share a rivalry on court, but also a friendship off it .
Sixteen-time grand slam champion says some people might find friendship strange but it's good for tennis .
Federer starts defense of Australian Open title in Melbourne this month .
New coach Paul Annacone has urged Federer to be more aggressive . |
75,906 | d73eb4e3136284234335c678259765986c24ac2b | (CNN Student News) -- March 31, 2014 . This Monday on CNN Student News, step inside a tremendous facility where first responders get on-the-job training for potential disasters. We'll also cover a tense region near Ukraine's border with Russia, and we'll explain how NASA is turning to the public for its ideas on spacesuit style. And if you've ever asked, "What does the fox say?" we have your answer. On this page you will find today's show Transcript, the Daily Curriculum, and a place for you to leave feedback. TRANSCRIPT . Click here to access the transcript of today's CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. DAILY CURRICULUM . Click here for a printable version of the Daily Curriculum (PDF). Media Literacy Question of the Day: . How might media coverage of disaster training affect public perceptions of first responders? Key Concepts: Identify or explain these subjects you heard about in today's show: . 1. geopolitical . 2. epicenter . 3. prototype . Fast Facts: How well were you listening to today's program? 1. According to the video: Why are some Ukrainian citizens guarding the northeastern border of their country? What are these volunteer troops lacking? What evidence is there that they have popular support in this region? Why are Ukrainian troops on high alert along the border? Why is there a sense of disbelief among some Ukrainian troops over the current situation? How is the Russian government responding to the Ukrainians' concerns? 2. Where was the epicenter of a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that hit Southern California this weekend? About how many aftershocks have occurred? When was the last time that a major earthquake struck this area? 3. What is Guardian Centers? Where is this facility located? Who are some of its clients? What gave the facility's founder the idea to build it? According to the video, how has the center "changed the game" for disaster response training? 4. Why is NASA redesigning its spacesuits? How is the agency asking the public to participate in this redesign? What is the actual purpose of NASA's spacesuits? What has been the cost of previous suits? Discussion Questions: . 1. In the video, we hear the reporter refer to Russia and the U.S. as "Cold War foes." What do you know about the Cold War? What kind of event was it? When did it take place? What countries were involved? Why do you think that the Cold War has been referenced in some reports concerning the situation in Ukraine? Do you think this is appropriate? Why or why not? 2. Why do you think that a disaster training facility like Guardian Centers uses "real props"? How might realistic settings and objects provide a better training experience for first responders? 3. Have you ever participated in a disaster drill at your school? What value do you think these kinds of drills have for students, staff and others who participate? Why? CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists and educators who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show and curriculum. We hope you use our free daily materials along with the program, and we welcome your feedback on them. FEEDBACK . We're looking for your feedback about CNN Student News. Please use this page to leave us comments about today's program, including what you think about our stories and our resources. Also, feel free to tell us how you use them in your classroom. The educators on our staff will monitor this page and may respond to your comments as well. Thank you for using CNN Student News! Click here to submit your Roll Call request. | This page includes the show Transcript and the Daily Curriculum .
Use the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary .
The Daily Curriculum offers the Media Literacy Question of the Day, Key Concepts, Fast Facts and Discussion Questions .
At the bottom of the page, please share your feedback about our show and curriculum . |
191,839 | 846a817363a90af0a8a1d19f7d34b63e36ad119b | From sportswear to rave, Nineties style has been back on the fashion agenda recently, so this week I thought it'd revisit another favourite look from that decade - grunge. Just as grunge fashion was all about simple, rugged designs - think plaid shirts, woolly beanies and ripped jeans - grunge beauty has a similarly unfussy and understated appeal. It's all about dewy skin, an earthy brown eye and statement nude lips. This is the sort of laid-back prettiness made famous by Kate Moss, Drew Barrymore and other Nineties icons, and it looks just as cool today as it did back then. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Binky has always been a fan of unfussy style so the grunge look suits her style perfectly . The Face . A pretty beauty look like this one relies on a smooth and glowing face, so start with a good base. The look you're after is light, youthful and fresh - bareMinerals Bareskin Pure Brightening Serum Foundation has an ultra-thin serum formula that brightens the skin without feeling heavy, creating the ideal dewy finish, especially when applied with the bareMinerals Perfecting Face Brush, which has a dipped centre perfect for creating an even, natural-looking finish. The Eyes . Begin by dusting your entire eye socket with a fawn coloured eyeshadow to create a soft base colour - I used the warm brown shade from Guerlain's 4 Couleurs Eyeshadow Palette in Les Cuirs. In order to achieve the 90s beauty trend Binky recommends using a nude lipstick and earthy eyeshadows . Next, take the lighter brown shade from the same palette and define your socket line. Now take the darkest brown shade in your palette and, using a fine eyeshadow brush, blend the colour along your upper and lower lash lines. The key to grunge beauty is its carefree, messed-up feel, which makes life very simple as you don't need to worry about making mistakes - it's all part of the look! To help create that slept-in-your-make-up sexiness, smudge eyeliner along your upper lash line - I used Daniel Sandler Long Lasting Waterproof Eyeliner in Black Velvet. Finally, coat your lashes with Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara to achieve a sooty-eyed finish. Binky's look requires a dark and defined eyebrow which are currently very on trend . The Brows . Long before Cara Delevingne, Nineties grunge girls boasted strong, defined brows, so I emphasized mine using the Too Faced Bulletproof Brows paste, applied with an angled make-up brush. The Cheeks . The effect you're after is fresh and dewy, so while you don't want to feel caked in products, you still require a touch of colour to add warmth to your face and stop you looking washed-out. Smooth a touch of Daniel Sandler Watercolour Cream Bronzer in Riviera across cheeks, nose, temples and chin, aiming for a subtle finish that will give your face a lightly sunkissed glow. Binky says the pretty yet non-nonsense look is ideal for a night out or a first date . The Lips . A browny-nude lip will complement your brown eyeshadow beautifully, so start by lining your lips with a Clarins Lipliner Pencil in Bay Rose. Begin at the Cupid's bow and carefully work your way around the edge, taking the line just outside the natural line of your lips for a 90s style full pout. Finally, fill your lips in with a warm nude lipstick like Guerlain KissKiss Shaping Cream Lip Colour in Beige Booster, applied straight from the bullet. It's a pretty look with a tough edge, perfect for a first date or a night out. All the products I've used can be found at online beauty boutique Escentual.com. Don’t forget to keep sending in your hair and make-up ideas and requests, and I'll try to help all your beauty dreams come true. Until next week, stay gorgeous, . Love Binky xxx . | Binky channels the uncomplicated 90s grunge trend this week .
She says to achieve it focus on perfecting a nude lip and dewy skin .
Binky says that the pretty yet tough look is great for a first date . |
216,718 | a49193641a2ee9ea6db293ed54f6cbc3f063dc09 | A vintage spacecraft will next month close in on Earth after an unexpected long journey around the sun. As it approaches our planet, scientists will have a brief chance to communicate with the 36-year-old probe in an attempt to bring it back to life. But with limited resources of its own, Nasa has made the unprecedented move of handing the reins over to amateur scientists in the hope that a group of space fans can revive the mission. Scroll down for video . Nasa has officially endorsed an amateur group, known as the the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, for them to attempt to bring a vintage spacecraft, called ISEE-3, back to life. Pictured is an artist's concept image of ISEE-3 . In April the ISEE-3 Reboot Project team - made up of the groups Space College, Skycorp, and SpaceRef - undertook a successful crowd funding project to raise £74,000 ($125,000) to rescue the probe. Nasa recently officially endorsed the Virginia-based project and signed a space act agreement for the group to take command and control of the 1970s-era craft. This is the first time Nasa has worked on such an agreement for use of a spacecraft the agency is no longer using or ever planned to use again. ‘The intrepid ISEE-3 spacecraft was sent away from its primary mission to study the physics of the solar wind extending its mission of discovery to study two comets,’ said Nasa astronaut John Grunsfeld. ISEE-3 was the first satellite to study the constant flow of solar wind streaming toward Earth from a stable orbit point between our planet and the sun known as the Lagrangian 1, or L1. Monitoring that wind helped scientists better understand the interconnected sun-Earth system, which at its most turbulent can affect satellites around Earth. In 1984, it was given a new mission and called the International Cometary Explorer. In September 1985, it passed through the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner, making it the first spacecraft to gather data from a comet. It also went on to fly by Comet Halley in March 1986. From 1991 until 1997, when it was too far away for reliable communications, this satellite continued to investigate the sun. Now it's coming home to visit - making its closest approach to Earth in August before it heads back out to interplanetary space. ‘We have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort to recapture the ISEE-3 spacecraft as it zips by the Earth this summer.’ In March, amateur radio astronomers were able to track the spacecraft and find out its route, raising hopes that the mission could be revived. Launched in 1978 to study the constant flow of solar wind streaming toward Earth, ISEE-3 successfully completed its prime mission in 1981. With remaining fuel and functioning instruments, it then was redirected to observe two comets. Following the end of that mission, the spacecraft continued in orbit around the sun. It is now making its closest approach to Earth in more than 30 years. The goal of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project is to put the spacecraft into an orbit at a gravitationally stable point between Earth and the sun known as Lagrangian 1 (L1). Once safely back in orbit, the next step would be to return the spacecraft to operations and use its instruments as they were originally designed. The mission's original communication hardware no longer exists, so controlling the spacecraft required the amateur group to create virtual software versions of the original hardware. Once proving this was possible, the project is now using the Arecibo Radio Observatory (pictured) in Puerto Rico to send commands to ISEE-3 . ISEE-3's close approach in the coming weeks provides optimal conditions to attempt communication. If communications are unsuccessful, the spacecraft will swing by the moon and continue to orbit the sun. Nasa said it has shared technical data with these amateur group to help them communicate with and return data from ISEE-3. The mission’s original communication hardware no longer exists, so controlling the spacecraft will require the amateur group to create virtual software versions of the original hardware. If they are able to do this, the project will use the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to send commands to ISEE-3. New data resulting from the project will be shared with the science community and the public, providing a unique tool for teaching students and the public about spacecraft operations and data gathering. The data also will provide valuable information about the effects of the space environment on the 36-year old spacecraft. | This is first time Nasa has given control of one of its craft to the public .
Virginia-based amateur group works under banner ISEE-3 Reboot Project .
Next month it will try to contact the probe and get its systems working .
ISEE-3 was the first satellite to study the constant flow of solar wind .
Reviving the mission could help scientists better understand solar winds which can affect satellites and the climate on Earth . |
20,281 | 398b657c3d5dc057cf9af1eb02d5eae16fe72fdc | With their near-death experiences and tumultuous love lives - plus the odd major disaster - soap characters seem to have nine lives. But even when they are killed off, it’s rarely the last we’ll see of the actors who play them. When soap stars announce they’re quitting the show for bigger things, it’s not Hollywood that’s beckoning, but Holby City or EastEnders. As ex-Emmerdale actress Claire King joins Coronation Street, we chart the fortunes of those stars who can’t make a clean break from soap... Claire King joined Emmerdale in 1989 as super bitch Kim Tate (right). She quit after ten years, and from 2005 she was in Hollyoaks, in which she played no less than three roles. This month Claire, 51, will become a Corrie regular as barmaid Erika . Ross Kemp was famed as EastEnders hard man Grant Mitchell (left with Martine McCutcheon). He quit in 1999 and returned twice before making documentaries about real gangs. Kemp played an Army deserter in Emmerdale in 1986 (right) Back in 1983, Beverley Callard briefly played Angie Richards, a chip shop cashier in Emmerdale with a big mouth and bigger hair (right). Since 1989 she’s been in and out of Corrie as landlady Liz McDonald, famous for her plunging necklines (left) From 1992-96, Denise Black played Corrie’s siren hairdresser Denise Osbourne (pictured right), with a comeback in 2007. Last year, she crossed the Pennines and arrived in Emmerdale as Joanie Wright (left), the adoptive gran of Adam Wyatt’s son, Kyle . It’s hard to imagine June Brown as anyone other than Dot Cotton (pictured left), the chain-smoking launderette lady in EastEnders — a part she has played for 30 years. But in 1970, she was briefly in Coronation Street (right) with Ena Sharples . In EastEnders, Michelle Collins was Cindy, Ian Beale’s cheating wife (right) from 1998 until she was killed off in jail ten years later. In 2011, she joined Corrie as Stella Price (pictured left with screen husband John Michie), quitting this year . As put-upon housewife Sheila Grant, Sue Johnston made her name in gritty Liverpudlian soap Brookside between 1982 and 1989 (centre). In September 2012 she joined the Street, playing randy granny Gloria Price for 18 months (left), although she’d already appeared in the soap three times in 1982 (right) Long before she started cutting hair in Weatherfield, Sue Nicholls played Marilyn Gates, a waitress in Crossroads, in the mid-Sixties (left). Since 1985 she’s been Corrie regular Audrey Roberts (pictured right with Bryan Mosley as Alf Roberts) After 25 years as the Street’s brassy barmaid Bet Lynch (pictured right), Julie Goodyear’s departure in 1995 was big news, though she revisited the role several times. She later appeared in Hollyoaks as Mrs Temple — a brassy B&B owner (left) For 15 years, Gillian Taylforth was Kathy Beale in EastEnders (pictured right with Steve McFadden) before quitting in 2000. In 2013, Gillian joined Hollyoaks as Sandy Roscoe (left), mum to six ne’er-do-well, murdering sons. She left this year . In 1993, Sherrie Hewson became Maureen Naylor, the scatty shop assistant in Corrie — axed four years later, only to return in 2006 (pictured right). In 2001, she was Virginia Raven, a receptionist in the revival of Crossroads (centre). She went to Emmerdale in 2004 (left), playing Lesley Meredith for two years . | Former Emmerdale actress Claire King is all set to join Coronation Street .
She is one of many actors and actresses to jump between soap roles .
We chart the fortunes of those who have struggled to quit the small screen . |
14,569 | 2951be97fb45d68bd8f460b8b2b562d3293fc3f6 | Sportsmail's Jason Robinson, a former Wigan and England rugby union legend, previews Saturday's Super League Grand Final between arch rivals St Helens and Wigan. The rivalry . I played in the 1998 Grand Final and I know just how fierce the rivalry is. You can be a Kiwi, Australian or Yorkshireman coming into those teams but very quickly you get drawn into the ‘we hate the local enemy’ mentality. Jason Wilkinson signs a collection of pink boots in association with Foxy Bingo . Paul Wellens (L) of St Helens dives in vain as Martin Gleeson scores a try for Wigan in the 2010 Grand Final . Wigan Warriors celebrate lifting the trophy after defeating Warrington Wolves last year's Grand Final . You’ve got two strands to the game. It is probably the game of the season with the biggest prize at stake and it’s also an intense local rivalry. Captains – Paul Wellens v Sean O’Loughlin . Paul is a stalwart of the game, playing in his tenth Grand Final. He is the eyes from the back. He can see where the attacks are coming from and he’ll be barking at the guys all game to make sure they get up and shut Wigan down. St Helens captain Wellen poses with Saints skipper Sean O'Loughlin ahead of the Grand Final . Sean is almost like a coach on the field. He can execute game changing passes when the pressure is on and when things don’t go their way, he has the experience to calm the troops and put plan b into action. He will be talking to the younger players and making sure their mindset is right. Coaches – Shaun Wane v Nathan Brown . Shaun is a born-and-bred Wiganer so he knows the importance of winning this game to the town. He certainly doesn’t mince his words. He wants honesty from his players and if he doesn’t get performances he drops them. Wigan's Shane Wane (L) is a no-nonsense coach while Nathan Brown has coped well with St Helens injuries . Nathan has faced season ending injuries to three of his key players – Jon Wilkin, Luke Walsh and Jonny Lomax. They’re players who make the team tick. The fact he’s been able to adjust midway through the season marks him out as a special coach. VERDICT – I believe Wigan have the edge because of their experience and power. Foxy Bingo have four pairs of signed Robinson pink boots to giveaway. For you chance to win a pair, follow Foxy Bingo and tweet: #Win @Jason15Robinson Pink Boots @Foxybingo @BCCampaign . | Wigan face St Helens in the Super League Grand Final on Saturday .
Captains Paul Wellens and Sean O’Loughlin have very contrasting styles .
Saints coach Nathan Brown has had to cope with injuries while Warriors boss Shane Wane knowshow important the game is to his hometown .
Former England rugby union star Jason Robinson thinks Wigan will edge it . |
249,383 | ceb8883c2b8f718addca443022228220635c9e7f | A couple celebrated a wedding day moment to remember - after getting married on 11/12/13 - at 14:15. Philip Broughton and Fiona Wiltshire picked the date and time to set up a unique numerical progression on their special day. And the occasion went without a hitch, despite some initial reservations from the registrar. Groom Philip, 60, said: 'When we tried to book for quarter past we were told we had to choose 2pm or 2.30pm. So we went for 2.30pm and planned to turn up early. Auspicious: Philip Broughton and Fiona Wiltshire picked the date and time to set up a unique numerical progression on their special day . 'It wasn't until five weeks ago when we were speaking to our registrar and she asked us about the time that we got it sorted. Once we explained she said it wouldn't be a problem. 'We'd like to thank the registrar for being so understanding and letting us do it.' Bride Fiona, 47, said: 'It's one you won't forget. We wanted to get married in December and it was Phil's idea to do it today. Some guests did raise an eyebrow when we said but most of them only noticed when we pointed it out.' Ian Hulme, the best man, was behind the idea of the quarter past two ceremony. He said: 'As soon as they told me the date I said you should have it at that time. It's just obvious isn't it?' The ceremony and reception, for 65 people, was held at Best Western Hotel Smokies on Ashton Road in Oldham. Thankful: The couple, from Norton Moss, were delighted that the registrar agreed to hold their wedding at the slightly unusual time of 2.15pm . When asked about pre-wedding jitters, the groom said: 'I wasn't at all nervous until this morning but I do have a jippy tummy now. It's alright for Fiona, because she has to get ready and get her hair done, so she's occupied, I've just got to wait around. And I've gone and forgot my book! 'Last night I stayed in the room Fiona and the bridesmaids will be getting ready in and was threatened with serious injury not to look at the dresses.' Fiona added: 'I'm relieved now we've had the service. I wasn't really nervous before but I'm just relieved everything has gone without a hitch.' Philip, originally from Ardwick, and Fiona, from Newton Moss, first met five years ago through their passion for ballroom dancing and got engaged on Christmas Day last year. Philip said: 'We just got on really well straight away.' The couple have decided to put off their honeymoon until next year. Philip said: 'Home. That's the only place we'll be going - finish work next week and get ready for Christmas.' | Philip Broughton and Fiona Wiltshire picked time and date to have numerical marker of big day .
Booked a 14.30 slot with registrar and then turned up 15 minutes early .
Best man Ian Hulme was behind the idea .
Couple met five years ago through love of ballroom dancing . |
234,349 | bb6280cb7354ed2ca6f2728c54277c210f50a669 | A mechanic who beat a newborn baby to death sent a message and photos to the child’s mother suggesting everything was fine. Callous Michael Pearce, 33, offered to look after Alfie Sullock so his girlfriend could have her first night out after giving birth six weeks earlier. But he was accused of hitting the infant with a baseball boot and bottles of bubble bath and baby powder during the 95 minutes he was alone with him. Michael Pearce (left) who has been found guilty at Newport Crown Court of killing six-week-old Alfie Rhys Sullock (right) but he was cleared of murder . A court heard the magistrate’s son . had downed five pints before babysitting for Donna Sullock, 27, . including four pints in 45 minutes at a nearby pub. Pearce was home alone babysitting Alfie last year when paramedics were called to his address in Nelson, Caerphilly, south Wales. Half . an hour into her night, she texted Pearce to check her son was alright. Pearce replied with a picture of Alfie to reassure her there was . nothing to worry about. A . trial at Newport Crown Court heard it was the first time divorcee . Pearce had been left alone with the baby. Alfie died after suffering . head and abdominal injuries. Motorcycle mechanic Pearce was today cleared by a jury of Alfie's murder, but convicted of manslaughter. Mother Donna Sullock pictured holding her baby boy Alfie - who died in August last year while in the care of Michael John Pearce, 33 . Ms Sullock (right) broke down in tears after the jury's verdict that Pearce (left) was guilty of manslaughter . During the . trial, the defendant's counsel had queried whether Ms Sullock may have . accidentally hurt her son while getting ready and whether Alfie's . bruising was caused by medics trying to revive him. Those two claims . were both disputed in court by Alfie's mother and paramedics. Pearce, . who had drunk five pints of beer that evening, said he had 'no idea' how Alfie was injured. He said he raised the alarm after returning from . the toilet and noticing Alfie had stopped breathing. As the jury delivered its majority verdict, Ms Sullock broke down in tears. The . former holiday rep, who had clutched her son's teddy while attending . every single day of her former boyfriend's trial, later said: 'We are . disappointed at today’s verdict but satisfied he will still go to prison . for what he has done. 'Whatever sentence he gets will never be long enough for taking Alfie's life away. We have been through a year of hell. 'Thanks . to everyone for their support-friends, family, the community, people . who don’t know me have given me and my family amazing support. Rest In . Peace Alfie.' A healthy and happy Alfie was born at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW), Cardiff, on July 6, 2013, following an uneventful pregnancy. Ms Sullock, who lived in Fairwater, Cardiff, discovered she was expecting while working abroad in Crete. She returned home to the UK, and six months into her pregnancy she became friends with Pearce following a chance meeting in Fairwater. Healthy and happy: Alfie was first taken to the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil before being transferred to UHW. On August 20, life support was withdrawn and Alfie died . Donna Sullock, mother of Alfie Sullock, pictured outside Newport Crown Court . The pair later became an item, although prosecutors said Pearce began to display 'obsessive behaviour' towards her and even asked her to give him a child just weeks into their relationship. On August 16, Ms Sullock travelled from her home in the Welsh capital to Pearce's home in Nelson to stay over the weekend. However, magistrate's son Pearce suggested she go out with his friend's girlfriend for a 'girly night out'. Before then though, Pearce went out to a nearby pub and drank four pints of beer in 45 minutes. He returned home and looked after Alfie while Ms Sullock got ready. The baby's mother said her son was healthy and breathing normally before she left. Less than half an hour into her night, a worried Ms Sullock asked if her son was doing okay. The defendant sent a text saying: 'you can trust me'. He also texted her photographs of Alfie during the evening claiming it was to 'reassure' her the baby was okay. In the half an hour that followed, at 9.11pm an ambulance was called. The seven-minute call was later played to the jury in full. When asked by the operator did he see what happened, the defendant replied he had simply given the baby a bottle and then the child had stopped breathing. Earlier during the case, prosecutor Michael Mather-Lees said: 'Children do not go cold instantly.' Alfie was first taken to the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil before being transferred to UHW. On August 20, life support was withdrawn and Alfie died, the court heard. A Home Office pathologist later gave a provisional cause of death as 'blunt trauma head injury'. Following the completion of the case, Ms Sullock wished to thank family, friends as well as total strangers for their 'amazing support' during her 'year of hell'. Pearce will be sentenced at Newport Crown Court tomorrow. | Michael Pearce, from Caerphilly, bludgeoned Alfie Rhys Sullock to death .
He had been babysitting for Alfie's mother, his girlfriend Donna Sullock .
She was on her first night out six weeks after giving birth to Alfie .
Half an hour into her night, Ms Sullock asked if her son was okay .
Mechanic Pearce sent a text back in reply saying: 'You can trust me'
At 9.11pm an ambulance was called. The child died later in hospital .
It was the first time divorcee Pearce had been left alone with Alfie .
Pearce, 33, was convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder .
Ms Sullock, from Cardiff, broke down in tears after the jury's verdict . |
104,655 | 1307c45e9c3f19567c9c9dc17484c2ebce064ced | Jamie Donaldson remained on course to secure his European Ryder Cup team place with a 69 in the second round of the D+D REAL Czech Masters at the Albatross Golf Resort. The Welshman hit a three-under 69 to go nine under and stay a shot ahead of France’s Gregory Bourdy, who fired a 67. Donaldson holds the eighth of nine automatic places for the team in Gleneagles due to his position on the world points list. On the brink: Jamie Donaldson moved closer to a European Ryder Cup place at the D+D REAL Czech Masters . Snapping at the heels: Frenchman Gregory Bourdy is second on eight-under-par overall at the Czech Masters . Yet he is the only person who can still qualify via the European list too. ‘It’s there,’ Donaldson told Sky Sports 4 when asked about the Ryder Cup. ‘It’s been there for a while. It’s another week where you’re out there playing as well as you can.’ On course: Welshman Donaldson leads on nine-under-par at the Albatross Golf Resort in the Czech Republic . Qualification: Donaldson is the only European who can get on to the team via both the world and European list . | Donaldson shot a 69 in second round of D+D REAL Czech Masters .
He move to nine-under-par to remain one clear at Albatross Golf Resort .
Frenchman Bourdy shot a 67 to move to eight-under-par overall .
Donaldson hold eighth of nine automatic places for Gleneagles .
He can qualify from both the world points list and European list . |
221,470 | aaae82885866d2e9e445e7fa589fd1d63e4e3d87 | Rep. Paul Ryan said Saturday that Republicans need to stick together and pick their fights during President Barack Obama's second term, rejecting some White House proposals outright and trying to infuse others with conservative principles. In a speech to conservatives, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee said Obama would attempt to divide Republicans but urged them to avoid internal squabbles after a second straight presidential loss. 'We can't get rattled. We won't play the villain in his morality plays. We have to stay united,' Ryan said at the National Review Institute's weekend conference on the future of conservatism. 'We have to show that if given the chance, we can govern. We have better ideas.' United front: Paul Ryan looks rueful at the inauguration of President Obama on January 21. 'We can't get rattled. We won't play the villain in his morality plays,' he told conservatives . The Wisconsin congressman outlined a pragmatic approach for a party dealing with last November's election defeats and trying to determine whether to oppose Obama's agenda at every turn or shape his proposals with conservative principles. How the party moves forward was a major theme of the three-day meeting of conservative activists who also heard from Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Bob McDonnell of Virginia were scheduled to address the conference on Sunday. The theme also dominated the Republican National Committee's winter meeting, which ended Friday in Charlotte, N.C. With a surging minority population altering the electorate, Republican leaders have discussed the need to attract more women and Hispanics while at the same time standing firm on the values that unite conservatives. Republicans said despite the losses, the party could return to power by projecting optimism and attracting new voters with a message of economic opportunity. President Barack Obama gives his inauguration address. Republican congressman for Wisconsin, Paul Ryan, said he plans to battle Obama and promote conservatism with 'every tool at our disposal' Walker, a star among conservatives after surviving a union-led campaign to recall him from office, said government needed 'brown-bag common sense,' a reference to his frugal practice of packing his own lunch of ham-and-cheese sandwiches every day. Qualities like optimism, staying relevant to voters and showing courage in tackling big problems would be rewarded at the voting booth, he said. 'We've got to learn to be more optimistic. We've got to learn to give a viable alternative to the voters,' Walker said. Cruz said Republicans needed to use upcoming fights over the budget and the deficit as 'leverage points' to tame long-term spending and debt. Projecting an upbeat outlook for the party, he said Obama's policies would drive many voters to Republicans just as many Americans turned to Ronald Reagan after the economic turmoil of the late 1970s. 'We're on the verge of a rebirth of conservativism,' Cruz said. Ryan said he was 'disappointed' at last year's election results but was able to joke about his failure to become vice president. 'My kids were looking forward to having a pool,' he said . Looking ahead, Ryan rejected the notion that Republicans were 'in the wilderness,' noting that the party controls the House and most statehouses. But he said Obama's victory over Romney meant that Republicans would need to recalibrate their approach to deal with the new political realities. 'If we want to promote conservatism, we'll need to use every tool at our disposal,' Ryan said. 'Sometimes, we will have to reject the president's proposals - that time may come more than once. And sometimes we'll have to make them better.' He said Republicans should have two main goals for the next four years, namely 'to mitigate bad policies' and 'to advance good policy wherever we can.' Ryan acknowledged that 'we all didn't see eye to eye' on the recent 'fiscal cliff' vote to deal with a combination of spending cuts and higher taxes that were set to take effect at the start of the year. He defended his support for the bill, saying it was the only way to avoid sweeping tax increases and prevent the economy from going into a free-fall. As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan said Republicans needed to guard against a debt crisis for the country that would undermine the economy. He said he would promote changes to Medicare and Medicaid and would propose a budget 'that will balance and pay down the debt.' But November's election results still linger. Ryan said he was 'disappointed' by the outcome, saying he was 'looking forward to taking on the big challenges' while living at the vice president's residence. 'My kids were looking forward to having a pool,' he joked. | Former GOP vice presidential nominee says the party must stay together against Obama .
Ryan says: 'Sometimes we will have to reject the president's proposals. And sometimes we'll have to make them better.' |
51,882 | 92f25ef1b712f14c0eaaaa475dce88425a626c14 | (CNN) -- Condoleezza Rice's personal memoir of her family history hits the book stands Tuesday. In "Extraordinary, Ordinary People," the former U.S. Secretary of State recalls much of her family's time during the Civil Rights era in Birmingham. Rice has said that she will write a memoir about her eight years in the White House but felt she could not do so until people understood the "personal and implausible journey" she had taken from being born in 1950s segregated Alabama to being named the first female African-American to lead the State Department. All of this happened, Rice said, due to her parents, John and Angelena Rice. A guidance counselor/preacher and school teacher respectively, Mr. And Mrs. Rice never made more than $60,000 annually, Rice said. Despite being raised in a city resistant to quality education for blacks, Rice's parents used their meager resources to provide their only child with piano lessons at 3. She also took French and ballet. She never learned to swim as a child because Birmingham Public Safety official Eugene "Bull" Connors forbade blacks and whites from sharing public swimming pools. But Rice's parents refused to let the racial tensions limit her potential. "Even if I could not have a hamburger at a Woolworth's counter, my mom taught me that I could be President of the United States," Rice said at an author panel during the 10th annual Book Expo America in May. Rice is a long-time Republican, despite being mentored in international affairs by the Josef Kobel, the father of Democratic Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who became the first female Secretary of State, according to Albright's State Department biography. Rice said her family's introduction into the GOP resulted from a Jim Crow "poll test." The now illegal practice of requiring black voters to answer questions before being permitted to vote, poll tests were "the teeth of Jim Crow," Rice said. While her mother answered the name of the first U.S. President George Washington correctly and was allowed to vote, her father was asked to identify the number of beans in a jar, she said. Unable to do so, John Rice later learned of a woman poll worker who would allow him to vote if he aligned himself with the GOP. "And that is how my father became a Republican," she said. While they did see Rice to on to graduate from Stanford University, and eventually become a provost there, her parents never lived to see her in the White House. Her mother lost a 15-year-battle with breast cancer in 1985. Her dad died just before George W. Bush was inaugurated. Still she recalls them showing her a photo of an eight-year-old Condoleezza RIce standing outside the White House where she believes it was grandfather who told her at the time: "You may be standing out here now, but you will be working in there someday." "Extraordinary, Ordinary People" is available in hardcover, in e-book format and as an audio book read by Condoleezza Rice herself. | The book recounts Rice's life story from 1950's segregation to her appointment as Secretary of State .
Rice's father became a Republican to shake Jim Crow harassment .
Condoleezza Rice reads the audio book version herself . |
48,649 | 8957e0ed0dc923bfb2b60425857ba50ca8db3e4c | (CNN) -- Three Palestinians, including two sick children, have died recently while waiting for resettlement from Iraq, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. UNHCR goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie visits the Al Waleed refugee camp in August. About 2,000 Palestinian refugees are stranded in camps along the Syrian border and face difficult living conditions, including limited medical care, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said. The agency has appealed for the resettlement of "vulnerable and sick" children in Al Waleed refugee camp at the Iraqi-Syrian border. One of those who died in the camp was a 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was suffering from rickets and pneumonia. He died a few days ago in a Ramadi hospital and then was buried in Al Waleed. The other was a 14-year-old suffering from Hodgkin's disease who died in Baghdad last week. A 50-year-old man who was waiting to be resettled died earlier this month in Al Waleed. The agency says seven people, including three children, have died at the camp since refugees fleeing attackers began arriving at the border in March 2006. About 30 to 40 people arrive at the Al Waleed camp each week, the UNHCR reports. The agency has been pursuing medical resettlement. "UNHCR has helped resettle one family of eight with several sick children from this camp to Norway last August. Another 11 medical cases submitted for resettlement are awaiting approval," the agency said, which is working to identify other medical cases. And it is urging the resettlement of the entire group. "UNHCR has sought solutions for the whole group since last year and has only received positive indications from Sudan and Chile," the agency said. Thousands of Palestinians have lived in Iraq, with some going there when Israel was formed and others born there. The UNHCR notes that some got "preferential treatment" under the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But they have been the targets of violence since he was toppled. E-mail to a friend . | U.N. agency appeals for medical resettlement of Palestinians in Iraq camps .
About 2,000 Palestinians in camps along Iraq-Syria border .
30 to 40 refugees arrive at border camp each week, UNHCR says . |
171,543 | 6a0b760ce9badb3a31c351c9bfddc7910fc9b374 | By . Sarah Griffiths . It was one of the defining icons of the 1970s and every child wanted one. Now original designs for the Raleigh Chopper have come to light 45 years after bicycle was first made. The scribbled sketches were just basic outlines but clearly show the bike's most famous features - large U-shaped handlebars, chunky rear wheel and long leather seat. Icon of the 1970s: The original designs for the Raleigh Chopper have come to light 45 years after bicycle was first made. The scribbled sketches were just basic outlines but they clearly show its most famous features - large U-shaped handlebars and rear wheel and long leather seats . The chopper was based on dragster cars and bikes of the 1960s and was a signifier of a child's coolness in the 1970s. Ogle Design produced the concept art for Raleigh's design department headed by Alan Oakley including details such as the padded leather seat and distinctive wheels. The first Chopper went into production in 1969 and became a cultural icon of the 1970s. The first version of the bike featured a gear hub selected using a frame-mounted lever. It had an unusually-shaped frame, high back seat and ape hanger Handlebars as well as differently sized wheels which were 16inches (41cm) at the front and 20inches (51cm) at the back. The design cost £32 for the most basic version at the time. The Mk2 was produced from 1972 until the end of production and had a seat that was moved forward to prevent the bike tipping up as well as other tweaks. Around one and a half million bikes were sold before the BMX craze of the 1980s took over. This was despite the bicycle being unstable, slow, heavy and trickier to ride than conventional bikes. A lighter Mk3 Chopper was launched in 2004 made of aluminium with various safety features. They were drawn by inventor Tom Karen and evolved into formal designs for Raleigh, which produced the first Mark I Choppers in 1969. The bikes, which emulated dragsters, soon became the must-have toy for children across Britain and more than 1.5million of them were made until production ceased in 1979. Mr Karen, 87 has kept the two pages of original drawings, which he took with him when he retired from Ogle Design, the consultancy firm used by Raleigh, in 1999. Since then . his sketch books have been left gathering dust in the garage of his home . in Cambridge, but the grandfather recently rediscovered them . ‘The . sketch books were just for me to do some rough doodles for me to pass . on my ideas to the designers to work on and show to the client,’ he . said. ‘I . left Ogle in 1999 and took these books with me. I have had them in my . garage ever since. They were with a pile of things that I just saved.’ He . was managing director of the company between 1962 and 1999, and in 1968 . his company was approached by British firm Raleigh bicycles help them . come up with a design to rival one of the leading bikes on the market . made by Schwinn. The chopper bikes emulated dragster bikes, soon became the must-have toy for children across Britain and more than 1.5million of them were made until production ceased in 1979 . Creative: The sketches (pictured) were drawn by inventor Tom Karen and evolved into formal designs for Raleigh, which produced the first Mark I Choppers in 1969 . They had tried to compete against the cycle with their Rodeo model, but were unsuccessful. Mr . Karen took inspiration from the dragster cars which have two large . wheels at the back and sketched a picture in a matter of minutes that . went on to became the Chopper. However, Raleigh's . head of design. Alan Oakley claimed to have drawn the very first design . for the Chopper on the back of an envelope in 1967, while he flew back . from the U.S from a trip designed to get to grips with youth culture, . The Telegraph reported. He . saw teenagers in California customising push bikes to look like . dragster motorcycles used by the Hell's Angels by adopting 'ape hanger' handlebars and other features. Mr Karen, 87, (pictured in his study) has kept the two pages of original drawings, which he took with him when he retired from Ogle Design, the consultancy firm used by Raleigh, in 1999 . As well as the famous features of the . bike, Mr Karen said he had the idea to put in gears and springs under the seat. Certain parts were prototyped and eventually the designs were passed to . Raleigh. Mr Karen said: ‘In the 1960s there was a bike made by a company called Schwinn. Mr Karen (pictured) took inspiration from the dragster cars and sketched a picture in a matter of minutes that went on to became the Chopper . ‘It was very sturdy and was great for kids because they could just throw it down on the pavement and then pick it up again and ride away. ‘Raleigh . decided to make a bike to rival the Schwinn and designed something . rather like it, which they called the Rodeo. But unfortunately it . bombed.’ He . explained that Raleigh wanted to reach the same market but to have a . ‘different flavour, so I decided there and then that it must have a big . wheel at the back and a small one at the front.’ The . reason for that was because dragster cars had big wheels at the back . where the power was, and I wanted it to have that feel. I made a quick . sketch within a few minutes in my sketch book.’ The chopper . bike had similar handlebars to the Schwinn. ‘It had a straight frame, a . gear shift that kids loved to use to change speed, and the rear wheel . had some pretend disk brakes,’ Mr Karen said. ‘There was a concern that the saddle was too similar to the Schwinn so we redesigned it and put springs underneath it. ‘We . then delivered the final designs to Raleigh and it became a . considerable success and made a lot of money for them. It was quite . iconic and still is today.’ Raleigh . made two versions of the bike - the Mark I from 1969 to 1972 and then . the Mark II from 1972 to 1979. They also produced a number of limited . edition bikes. Mr Karen was approached by British firm Raleigh bicycles to help them come up with a design to rival one of the leading bikes on the market made by Schwinn (pictured at a flea market in Los Angeles) Mr Karen, riding on his Chopper bike (pictured) said: 'We delivered the final designs to Raleigh and it became a considerable success and made a lot of money for them. It was quite iconic and still is today' | Tom Karen penned the drawings for Raleigh, which produced the first Mark I Choppers in 1969 .
He kept the two pages of original drawings, .
which he took with him when he retired from Ogle Design, the consultancy .
firm used by Raleigh .
The design was inspired by dragster cars and 1.5million bikes were made until production ceased in 1979 .
The chopper was also intended to rival a sturdy 1960s bike by Schwinn . |
262,302 | dfc3bd500ca60d42854ee945566109b340e16059 | By . Pat Hurst, Press Association . West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison has been freed from custody after a judge granted him bail following a private court hearing. The 21-year-old was in custody and not present at Manchester Crown Court to hear the bail application made by his lawyers. Former Manchester United midfielder Morrison is accused of two counts of common assault on his ex-girlfriend Reah Mansoor, 19 and her mother Parveen Mansoor, 39, in the early hours of last Sunday morning. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Ravel Morrison training with West Ham during pre-season . Released: Ravel Morrison has been freed on bail . Thumbs up: Morrison leaving Strangeways Prison just after 5pm on Monday . Trouble: The midfielder was jailed after being arrested for two counts of common assault . On Monday, Judge Michael Henshall granted Morrison bail. An . application to allow the press and public into court for the . hearing was rejected by the judge and the hearing went ahead in private. Morrison was given bail but his bail conditions were not given by the court following a request from the press. Victims: Morrison is alleged to have assaulted ex-girlfriend Reah Mansoor (left) and her mother Parveen . Busy: The Manchester city centre bar where the alleged incident took place is a popular choice for locals . Despite being touted as a bright prospect at Old Trafford, Morrison only appeared in the League Cup before former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson sold him to West Ham for £650,000 in January 2012. West Ham manager Sam Allardyce took him to Upton Park but he was soon shipped out to Birmingham and QPR on loan. Morrison is next due to appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Ravel Morrison has been granted bail after a private court hearing .
The 21-year-old was not present at the bail application hearing .
West Ham midfielder accused of two counts of common assault on his ex-girlfriend Reah Mansoor and her mother Parveen Mansoor . |
207,233 | 9850e47bd977596713e7f108d00522c13664dcb6 | The employees of Silicon Valley's top tech firms are among the most liberal in the country with about 70 percent of workers donating entirely to Democratic candidates. Twitter has the most liberal employee universe, Apple Inc. and Google are tied, with 90 percent of their employees' giving going to liberal politicians. Yahoo, LinkedIn, Amazon.com and Facebook all had employees who gave more than 85 percent of their donations to liberals. The new data from Crowdpac, a for-profit company that analyzes political giving, will come as unwelcome news to the Republican party who are desperate to appeal to a younger, more liberal following. Indeed, the GOP has long spoken of the need to do a better job when it comes to attracting workers from some of the most influential and powerful companies around including Facebook, Twitter, eBay and Amazon. Tweet that! New data from Crowdpac, a for-profit company that analyzes political giving, demonstrates just how much more often those in Silicon Valley give to Democrats rather than Republicans (pictured, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo) Here Twitter is shown to give 100% of its political doncations towards democratic candidates . Co-founder and CEO of Google, Larry Page: 90 per cent of the company's employees donated to the left . Apple pay! Tim Cook's workers at Apple lean left when it comes to their political viewpoints with 85 percent giving their cash to liberals . Unlinked: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Wiener heads a company where 85 per cent of political donations went towards democrats . The data was compiled by Crowdpac co-founder Adam Bonica, an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University. For four years a data base of more than 100 million political contributions made between 1979 and 2012 in local, state and federal elections was analyzed. 1. Twitter . 2. University of California-Berkeley . 3. Stanford University . 4. Apple . 4. Google . 6. Amazon . 6. LinkedIn . 6. Facebook . 9. Yahoo . 10. eBay . 11. PayPal . 12. Cisco . 13. Hewlett Packard . 14. Intel . 15. venture capital firms . The results list of all the donations from employees of major Silicon Valley tech companies and show a huge skew to the left with an overwhelming preference in for liberal politicians. Crowdpac data explains why Republicans find the environment so challenging and why it is so hard to recruit talent from Silicon Valley to work on their campaigns. In the liberal Bay Area around San Francisco it is Democrats who are most often elected into congress, but Republicans will have to find ways of appealing to this growing sector if they are to compete and harness some of the free-flowing capital. Twitter's employees appear to be Silicon Valley's most liberal 100 percent of its 23 political donations going to liberal candidates. Apple Inc. and Google are next with 90 percent of their employees' donations going to liberal politicians. Yahoo, LinkedIn, Amazon.com and Facebook had 85 percent of their employees donate to liberals. At other household names such as eBay and PayPal, the giving towards liberals was in the low 80s. Even at more established firms like Microsoft, Oracle, HP, Cisco and Intel more than 70 percent of giving still went to candidates on the left. The old firm: Even at an established company like Microsoft where Satya Nadella is CEO, more than 70 percent of giving went to candidates on the left . Figures for donations to liberal candidates were in the low 80s at eBay where Meg Whitman is CEO . Facebook Update: Mark Zuckerberg's employees saw 85 per cent give more their donations to liberals . | 100 percent of donations made by Twitter employees went to the left .
Apple and Google are not far behind with 90 per cent donating to Democrats .
Other Silican Valley companies cinluding Yahoo, Amazon and Facebook all give to liberal politicans through at least 70 per cent of donations . |
217,801 | a5fe34b316da62fd5ba322dc5cf3cc08e260e703 | Police have not opened a kidnapping investigation into Robert Allenby's case despite his claims, while authorities also have a surveillance video of a man on a $10,000 spending spree with Allenby's stolen credit card in Waikiki, Hawaii. 9 News reported on Thursday that Hawaii News Now investigative reporter Keoki Kerr said police have not opened a kidnapping investigation, only a robbery case and an unauthorised use of credit card case. However, he said that police believed there was not even sufficient evidence to pursue the robbery case. ‘The investigation is still ongoing but we have opened a robbery and fraudulent theft and credit card investigation. That is all,’ Michelle Yu of the Honolulu Police Department told Daily Mail Australia. Mr Kerr claimed that the same man was also caught on surveillance camera going around stores using Allenby's credit cards to buy more than $10,000 worth of merchandise. Scroll down for video . Toa Kaili claims that he found Robert Allenby passed out on the pavement before he and a friend woke the golfer who accused them of stealing his wallet and phone . Allenby says he can't recall two and a half hours after he was abducted, robbed and dumped in a park . 'The one thing police are certain of is that somebody was using his credit cards and wasn't authorised to do so. That's why they're pursuing that credit card case,' Mr Kerr said. He also said authorities did not believe Allenby's wounds were consistent with an assault, and that it looked like a scrape suffered from a fall. Mr Kerr made it clear that kidnapping is very rare in Hawaii as it has a very low violent crime rate, and that kidnapping usually involves people who know each other. 'It's usually a husband and wife, a girlfriend and boyfriend, or a drug dealer and someone who owes him money,' he explained to 9 News. 'It almost never happens in the case of someone who is just trying to steal some money, credit cards or an iPhone from a tourist. That would be a lot of effort to go through.' Mr Kerr reiterated that there was still no evidence that Mr Allenby was lying, but that 'there's a healthy scepticism about parts of his story'. Since the Australian golfer claimed he was knocked unconscious, placed in a boot and dumped 10km from his hotel after missing the cut at the Sony Open on Saturday, holes have appeared in his story. In yet another twist to the mystery, a homeless man has also come forward claiming he knows where Robert Allenby was for the two and a half hours that the golfer says he can't recall following his alleged abduction. Toa Kaili says he stumbled across the pro golfer passed out on a sidewalk in Waikiki, in Hawaii, at 11pm on Saturday and when he and his friend tried to help Allenby he accused them of stealing his wallet and phone. About two hours later, Mr Kaili says he returned to find the golfer still unconscious on the pavement but now with a bloodied face – the man claims the Australian was injured from falling over and hitting his head on a rock. 'Then he’s accusing me and my friend 'you guys stole my wallet and phone – alright the gig is up just hand it over' so I was like 'brother we are the ones who woke you up - we are the ones just helping you,' Mr Kaili told Channel 9 News. 'He was saying 'you don’t know who I am'.' Although Mr Kaili denies stealing Allenby's possessions - someone has been having a fine time with the golfer's credit card. Honolulu detectives are following the spending spree on Robert Allenby's stolen credit card, as they try to solve the mystery surrounding his alleged abduction last week. Investigators have also been door-knocking businesses throughout the city for video surveillance footage that might help them piece together what happened to the Australian golfer on the night he was bashed and robbed. The new witness says when he returned two hours later Allenby was still unconscious but with a bloodied face from hitting his head on a rock and accused them again of robbing his possessions . Four days have passed since Robert Allenby's attack. As yet local police have made no arrests and are still seeking more surveillance video to help with their investigation. Authorities believe the spending spree on his stolen credit card is their best chance of an arrest . Robert Allenby is disputing reports regarding conflicting details provided by a female witness to the aftermath of his alleged kidnapping, robbery and bashing on Saturday morning. He said the injuries he suffered are proof . An emotional reunion. Robert Allenby meets the homeless woman, now identified as Charade Keane, at the park in Honolulu where she came to his aid at the weekend . 'Thank you for looking after me,' Allenby said to Ms Keane when they were reunited . 'It’s such a shame that people are focusing on whether the story is true,' Robert Allenby is believed to have said in text messages to the Golf Channel. 'I say you only have to look at me to see the truth.' 'Detectives are reviewing witness statements and gathering security video footage,' Yu said. 'They are also looking into recent charges made on Mr Allenby’s credit card. No arrest has been made.' But other CCTV is being sought from the strip around the wine bar where Allenby was last seen. 'The (extra) video will be very helpful,' Honolulu Police Department Captain Rade Vanic said. Staff at the wine bar in which Allenby, 43, was last seen at about 11pm on Friday said 'we can't say anything about that', when contacted by Daily Mail Australia and asked if they had seen anything untoward on the night. With varying stories from Allenby and Charade Keane, the woman who helped the dazed and bruised Australian in the early hours on Saturday morning, detectives are trying to reconstruct the incident. They are believed to be already in possession of vision which shows Allenby leaving the Amuse Wine Bar at about 11pm on the Friday, with two, as yet unidentified men, and a woman. And more CCTV footage of two men buying alcohol, apparently with the golfer's credit card, has been taken from a store at Waikiki. Ms Keane 'dragged' Allenby to safety as he was arguing with two men in the park telling him 'you have to leave or they will kill you' The spot where Allenby was found 'dazed and confused'. 'Honolulu Police say 'we do have video from various retail establishments, so we are looking into it' The Amuse Wine Bar in Honolulu where Allenby was dining with friends before being bashed and robbed . The Amuse Wine Bar is inside the Honolulu Design Centre. It's where Allenby and friends were before the golfer was beaten and robbed . Robert Allenby missed the cut at the Sony Golf Open in Honolulu . Allenby said he couldn't remember much in the hours after being assaulted and robbed. Capt Vanic said not only were detectives attempting to find more surveillance footage of what Allenby described as a Hollywood-style attack and kidnapping, but they were now seeking video from stores where the culprits might have used his stolen credit cards. Police said they could publicly release video of suspects in the hope of identifying the thieves. 'We do have video from various retail establishments, so we are looking into it,' Capt Vanic said. 'Of course, if it does show individuals who are possible suspects, we will do our best to identify them and may even put it out with our Crime Stoppers information. 'But it is still very early on in our investigation.' Capt Vanic said Keane gave police a statement and they would interview her again if needed. Allenby was drinking with friends at the upmarket Amuse Wine Bar in Waikiki on Friday night and believed he was drugged, bashed in the face with a fist or baseball bat, tossed in the boot of a car, robbed and then dumped in a park 10 kilometres away. The drama began when Allenby was separated from his friends in the bar, caddie Mick Middlemo and Anthony Puntoriero. An image of the intersection where Charade Keane found Robert Allenby slumped in the gutter, bashed and trying to fend off two men . Australian golfer Robert Allenby was bloodied and bruised and without his wallet and phone before being placed in a taxi back to the Kahala Hotel by two good Samaritans, an ex-military officer and Charade Keane . The confusion over what happened to Robert Allenby includes his belief that he was found two and a half hours after he left his friends and some 10 kilometres away from where he was dining and Charade Keane's claim that it was just 50 metres from the Amuse Wine Bar . 'I didn't think I was going to survive this one,' Allenby said. 'I was separated from my friend in the bar after we had paid the tab at 10:48pm and he went to the bathroom and next thing you know I'm being dumped in a park miles away. 'I only know this part because a homeless woman found me and told me she saw a few guys pull up and throw me out of the car. 'That is where I got the scrapes above my eye, from the side-walk.' The homeless woman he referred to is believed to be Ms Keane, who said she found and helped Allenby a short distance away from the bar, perhaps 50 metres down the road, at about 1.30am - some two and a half hours after he disappeared. Bizarrely Allenby had an emotional reunion with the homeless woman, just hours after he accused her of being paid to spread false stories about what happened that night. Allenby, whose face was badly cut and bruised, announced on Tuesday he would not play in this week's PGA Humana Challenge event in La Quinta, California, on the advice of his doctor. 'This will enable me to ensure I am fully recovered prior to rejoining the PGA Tour,' he added . The golfer embraced and kissed Ms Keane, as they greeted each other back at the spot where she said they first met, across the road from the Amuse Wine Bar in Waikiki on Saturday morning. 'I really appreciate what you did,' Allenby told her. The reunion came a few hours after the multi-millionaire pro-golfer reportedly speculated in text messages to Golf Central that Keane was was 'getting paid' to relay details of the incident to the media. | Hawaii News reports says police haven't opened kidnapping investigation .
Only robbery and unauthorised use of credit card are being investigated .
Honolulu police reportedly have surveillance video of a man on a $10,000 spending spree with Allenby's stolen credit card .
Homeless man says he found golfer passed out on pavement on Saturday .
Toa Kaili claims Allenby accused him of taking his phone and wallet . |
6,451 | 124b786b80ec6be8accd8a73e18959f3dfb95cb9 | By . Harry Mount . PUBLISHED: . 19:15 EST, 17 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 04:29 EST, 18 November 2013 . Doris Lessing, the grand old lady of letters who has died at 94, lived long enough to turn against practically all the strongly held convictions of her youth. An avid Communist in her younger days, she later rejected not just communism but feminism and political correctness, too. Still, though, she retained some shocking political thoughts. Days after the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, she was belittling the act of terrorism, saying: ‘It was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as the Americans think.’ Some years earlier, Englishmen were in her sights. In her 1962 feminist classic novel, The Golden Notebook, she attacked their uselessness, particularly their inability to satisfy their wives sexually. But, despite her scorn, it was to England that she came, from colonial Rhodesia — now Zimbabwe — more than 60 years ago, settling into a gloriously ramshackle, tall, slim house in London’s West Hampstead. Titan: Writer Doris Lessing, pictured in 2006, has died peacefully aged 94 at her home in London . She derided literary prizes, but scooped them all including, in 2007, the Nobel Prize. At 88, she was the oldest woman ever to win it and only the 11th woman to receive the award. Her triumph came as no surprise to a woman formidably confident in her own intellectual abilities. While the Swedish Academy praised Lessing for her ‘scepticism, fire and visionary power,’ when informed about winning the prize, the writer responded: ‘Oh Christ! . . . I couldn’t care less.’ But she later said: ‘I’ve won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. So I’m delighted to win them all. It’s a royal flush.’ Born Doris Tayler in 1919 in Persia (now Iran), she moved as a child with her British family to Southern Rhodesia. Her father, who lost a leg in World War I, ran a rundown maize farm, where he was looked after by an increasingly desperate wife, a former nurse, whom the young Doris was at odds with from earliest childhood. Her mother was refined, cold and unemotional, always beautifully dressed and more interested in perfectly polished silver and whether the piano was in tune than in Doris and her brother. ‘I have sacrificed myself to my children,’ she would complain in their hearing. Still, it was her mother who helped to forge Lessing’s extraordinary literary career, shipping huge parcels of books from England for her daughter. Recognition: Lessing who was born in Persia - now Iran - was awarded the Nobel Prize aged 88 in 2007. She was the oldest woman ever to win it . ‘I was never educated, you see,’ said Lessing, who left convent school at 14. ‘Without the books, I would have come to grief.’ Determined to escape what she described as a stifling, provincial, expat world, she entered a doomed marriage to Frank Wisdom, a civil servant ten years her senior. She was only 19 and it was the eve of World War II. ‘Everyone got married,’ she explained. A fter less than five years and with two children, John and Jean, the marriage came to an end. Rather than subject the boy and girl to the cool neglect she had suffered from her own mother, she decided it would be preferable if she abandoned them, leaving their father to bring them up. In due course, in 1944, she married a German internee, Gottfried Lessing, and had another child. That marriage, too, failed after five years. In 1949, she fled to London with her youngest son. Honor: Lessing shows off her Nobel Prize. She responded to the accolade by saying 'I couldn't care less' Lessing later said: ‘I’m very proud of myself that I had the guts to do it. I’ve always said that if I hadn’t left that life, the intolerable boredom of colonial circles, I’d have cracked up and become an alcoholic or had a mental breakdown.’ Such callousness was hard to forgive. Her older son, John, later told her: ‘I understand why you left, but it doesn’t mean I forgive you for it.’ Just as the Cold War began, Lessing joined the Communist Party, but later came to see that it had been a mistake. ‘We believed this rubbish, absolutely. But I think there is something about politics that makes people mad, really.’ Whatever the shortcomings of her political and private life, she was undeniably a literary titan. Controversial: Doris Lessing's novel The Golden Notebook has been hailed as a classic feminist text . The Grass Is Singing, her 1950 debut novel about the racism of white colonials in Forties Rhodesia, was a sensation. A tide of novels, poems, operas, autobiographies and short stories followed. Over 60 years she published almost 60 books. They were not all rapturously received. After she won the Nobel Prize, the acerbic American literary critic Harold Bloom said: ‘Although Ms Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable . . . fourth-rate science fiction.’ Those early, admirable qualities were most in evidence in her controversial novel The Golden Notebook. Explaining its genesis, she said: ‘I had been listening to women talk about women’s issues and about men. Suddenly when I wrote down these private conversations, people were astounded. It was as though what women said didn’t exist until it was written.’ The sexually graphic book tells the story of Anna Wulf, a deeply frustrated woman at the dawn of the sexual revolution and women’s liberation movement. It is unremitting in its detail. It deals candidly with menstruation, the female orgasm and men’s sexual shortcomings. Lessing called England a country ‘full of men who are little boys and homosexuals and half-homosexuals’. She made it clear that she thought that public boarding schools had a lot to answer for. The Golden Notebook was widely venerated by feminists and declared ‘the Bible of the women’s movement’, though Lessing refused to become a feminist poster girl. She said: ‘What I really can’t stand about the feminist revolution is that it produced some of the smuggest, most unself-critical people the world has ever seen. They are horrible.’ Indeed, in the introduction for a 1993 reissue of The Golden Notebook, she said it was not a ‘trumpet for women’s liberation’. ‘I think a lot of romanticising has gone on with the women’s movement,’ she said a few years ago. ‘Whatever type of behaviour women are coming up with, it’s claimed as a victory for feminism — doesn’t matter how bad it is. We don’t seem to go in very much for self-criticism.’ And she told the Edinburgh book festival that modern men were ‘cowed’ by women. ‘They can’t fight back,’ she said. ‘And it’s time they did.’ Return: Lessing's novel was reissued in 1993 - a move called a 'trumpet for women's liberation' Lessing wrote her later works from a messy, chaotic home in Hampstead, North London, with worn-out carpets — more student digs than elegant literary salon. Her black and white cat Yum Yum (named after a character in Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera The Mikado) would keep her company. So fond was she of her various cats that she wrote three books about them. She was desperate to escape categorisation as a particular kind of writer. Lessing noted that over the years she had been given ‘every conceivable label’ — starting off as a writer about the colour bar, then a Communist, then a feminist, then a mystic. The mystic label came about because of her interest in later life in Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism. She saw herself as none of these things, but as a storyteller. ‘Just being a writer was the thing,’ she told this newspaper when she was in her 70s. ‘For me, it still is.’ | Author died peacefully at her London home early this morning aged 94 .
Renowned for her sharp way with words and cutting put downs .
Once called George Bush a 'calamity' and Tony Blair a 'little showman'
Her iconic 1962 novel The Golden Notebook hailed as a 'feminist classic'
Was oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007 aged 88 . |
54,218 | 999eb59f8e35694e85e9059da34878ebd03da1ea | By . Liz Thomas And Paul Revoir . UPDATED: . 03:41 EST, 9 March 2012 . Inappropriate: The images of women holding phones and peering into the camera suggestively while urging viewers to call them via premium rate telephone numbers has sparked outrage among mothers . Parents have called for broadcasters to stop showing pornography on Freeview channels available in millions of homes. They are furious that TV companies are allowed to broadcast X-rated material that can easily be seen by children. Channels such as Dutch-based Babestation and Smile TV show naked women massaging each other and simulating sex to entice viewers to call premium-rate numbers for more hardcore content. Some 77 per cent of British households have Freeview – leaving most of the nation’s children in danger of accidentally accessing the graphic images. Although the UK has strict child-protection laws, European legislation stipulates that TV companies are moderated by the regulators from their home country, and not the ones they air in. This means the channels in question are regulated by the Netherlands’ permissive watchdog, the Commissariaat voor de Media. As a result, they are free to broadcast graphic, sexually suggestive content on free-to-air digital channels between 10pm and 6am. Powerless: Ofcom is powerless to ban the channels because they are registered in the Netherlands . Yesterday it emerged that media . regulator Ofcom has made a formal complaint to its Dutch counterpart, . following floods of complaints online. One parent commented on message board Mumsnet: ‘A young child is much . more likely to scroll down to adult channels than they are to log in to a . computer and type in something related to porn.’ Another added: ‘There are about six or seven channels showing this . material from 10pm through to 5-6am. I can’t believe they are allowed on . at this time when there are toddlers up and about.’ Confused: Trainee mormon priest Royston Thompson, 25,flashed at two women after he said he became 'confused' by watching too much Babestation TV . Although more extreme content is only offered on PIN-protected websites . or premium rate phone lines, the Freeview channels are relatively easy . to access through a TV’s electronic programme guide, as they have . prominent positions below channel 200. Broadcaster Six TV has complained to MPs and regulators that the porn . appears before its regional content in the programme list and viewers . can stumble on them as they scroll through the channels. It is possible to delete the offending content, but only temporarily. Freeview automatically updates its service periodically to scan for new . channels – a process that also reinstates any that have been blocked. Last night Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP for Gosport and a member . of the parliamentary inquiry into online child protection, said: ‘The . shocking images we are talking about here are being shown on terrestrial . television and are available free to everyone, including children and . teenagers. ‘We need to urgently address TV content that could be harming our . children. It is simply not acceptable to place private profit before the . protection of children.’ A spokesman for Ofcom said: ‘We take the protection of UK viewers, . especially children, extremely seriously. We are in active discussions . with the Dutch TV regulator to see if further protections can be put in . place to protect UK audiences.’ A spokesman for Freeview said plans were under way to move all adult channels to the end of the programme guide. Freeview, launched in 2002, is run by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, and . transmitter operator Arqiva. It allows homes to access channels such as . BBC3, BBC4, ITV2 and More 4. | Babestation and Smile TV are among the channels that feature naked women writhing and faking orgasms .
Ofcom powerless to ban channels because they are licensed in Netherlands .
Comes day after trainee Mormon priest jailed for flashing after getting 'confused by Babestation' |
7,845 | 16379f0e8ed567becbaff4ba202ce93038fa8169 | Washington (CNN) -- Ready for Hillary, the super PAC urging Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016, raised over $2 million and had 21,000 new donors in the last three months, officials from the group said Wednesday. Ready for Hillary's haul came from more than 38,000 contributions, according to group spokesman Seth Bringman, giving the group an average contribution of $52. The $2 million is in line with what Ready for Hillary has raised in the past, but slightly less than the record $2.5 million the group raised in the second quarter. Ready for Hillary is part of a cadre of pro-Clinton outside groups that are organizing for Clinton's likely run at the presidency. Unlike other super PACs, which are focused on communications and large-money donors, Ready for Hillary has tried to focus on small, grass-roots donations. So far, the group has raised over $10 million. But in the third quarter of 2014, Ready for Hillary also moved to do more than just raise money and began to raise its profile in the eyes of many longtime Clinton confidants by having a large presence at events like September's Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa. Led by former Clinton aides and supporters, the super PAC also began to dish out money to state parties, local candidates and other Democratic groups, as well as helping raise money for 2014 candidates whom Clinton has endorsed. After Clinton endorsed Bruce Braley in Iowa, for example, the group blasted out an email to its supporters asking them to donate money to the Democrat's Senate campaign. Ready for Hillary also maxed out contributions during the third quarter to Vincent Sheheen, South Carolina's Democratic candidate for governor, Bakari Sellers, the state's Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor and the South Carolina Democratic Party. Donating money to state parties has been a Ready for Hillary strategy for much of the year. Last month, a source with the group said Ready for Hillary had donated thousands of dollars to 29 state parties. Most of these donations were close to $10,000, the maximum the group can give to a state party. Part of this stepped up involvement in early states is in reaction to the fact that other possible 2016 Democrats are already making moves there, too. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley moved political staff into South Carolina in August and has been raising money for state Democrats for months. Vice President Joe Biden also has been heavily involved with helping local South Carolina politicos raise money since 2013. Ready for Hillary began sending political staff to 14 states -- including Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire -- on October 1. | Ready for Hillary raises over $2 million in last three months, spokesman says .
Number is in line with what the group has raised in the past .
Third quarter sees Ready for Hillary focus on more than just fundraising .
So far, the group has raised over $10 million . |
94,331 | 053e0c50cbc10815827935932ac5fa866f13e69f | (CNN) -- There was nothing about last Friday's biology department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville that portended the carnage that was to come, Professor Debra Moriarity told a reporter Wednesday. "It was actually a really laid-back, mundane kind of faculty meeting," the biochemist told CNN affiliate WAAY about the 13 people seated around an oval table in Room 369 of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology. "Events coming up, scheduling classes, budgets. It was really actually one of the easiest faculty meetings we've had." Among the participants was Amy Bishop, a Harvard-trained geneticist with whom Moriarity had developed a professional relationship nurtured by the fact that the two women worked with cell cultures. "Sometimes you borrow things back and forth from each other," she said. "We had talked about writing grant proposals together." After about an hour, just before 4 p.m., Bishop -- who had recently been denied tenure -- ended the calm. "All of a sudden, she just stood up and shot," Moriarity said. Moriarity reacted quickly, dropping onto her hands and knees on the gray carpet. "Just dropped to the floor and crawled under the table and crawled towards Amy," said Moriarity, who was focused on one thing. "I mean, you're crawling under a table, you see the legs of a person who's shooting above the table. I grabbed her leg and, I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking anything. I was just thinking: 'Grab her!' "And she sidestepped me. I mean, she pulled her leg free and I was in the doorway then with my back kind of to her. And I think she tried to shoot at me then, but that's when I started yelling at her, 'Amy, Amy, think about my grandson, think about my daughter! This is me! I've helped you before; I'll help you again! Don't do this Amy! Don't do this!'" Bishop then stepped out into the hall, pointed the gun at Moriarity and pulled the trigger, the biologist said. "It clicked, and it clicked again, and I crawled right back in the room and shut the door and she was left out in the hall." The survivors burst into action. One person locked the wooden door, another shoved a table against it, others moved a refrigerator into place to further block the door, another called 911, others moved to help the six people who had been shot, Moriarity said. Three people died; three others were wounded. Two of them remained hospitalized Wednesday in critical condition, according to a spokeswoman for Huntsville Hospital. The third has been released. Moriarity, who joined the school's faculty in 1984, said the casualties have not affected her plans to remain at the school. And she rejected any suggestion that her role in getting Bishop out of the room was heroic. "She followed me out in the hall and then the gun jammed and I could get back in the room," Moriarity said. "That's not being a hero. That's just God looks out for you." She said she had had little time to think. "From the beginning until we finally got things barricaded, it couldn't have been more than 20 seconds," she said. Moriarity further rejected suggestions that anything could have been done to protect the victims. "There was no way to ever anticipate this," she said. "And there was nothing that could ever have been done to stop her. It all happened too fast." And she worried that any attempt to tighten security could have negative consequences. "There is evil in the world; it is unfortunate that good people are hurt by that. But a university is a place of free thought and freedom to explore ideas and to search out new knowledge and you don't want to put anything in place that dampens that." Moriarity returned to her office on Wednesday and said she plans to resume teaching next week. She predicted that, with the help of anti-anxiety medication, she would be able to sleep Wednesday night. "I've been talking to family and friends and just getting their support helps you deal with it," she said. "I think right now most of us want to get back there and get things going, make plans for who is going to cover classes." A memorial service to honor the lives of the dead -- faculty members Maria Davis, Adriel Johnson and Gopi Podila -- is to be held Friday. | Professor Debra Moriarity is a colleague of alleged shooter Amy Bishop, she says .
Bishop started shooting about an hour into a faculty meeting, says Moriarity .
Moriarity: "It was actually a really laid-back, mundane kind of faculty meeting"
Moriarity: "I grabbed her leg. ... I was just thinking: 'Grab her!' " |
168,624 | 661fa2123f2bb0ba7ab387e9aa617088b1c062d4 | By . Suzannah Hills . PUBLISHED: . 21:45 EST, 20 July 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 21:45 EST, 20 July 2013 . It's a difficult conundrum faced by many countries around the world - how to produce enough food for an ever-increasing population when land and space is rapidly running out. But it appears China may have come up with an answer with its plans for space-saving vertical farms. They may look more like tower accommodation blocks usually found in big cities, but these 187-metre-high skyscrapers would only be used to grow vegetables and fruit. Because of China's limited room for farming, there are plans to create these imposing vertical structures which provide food while saving land space . The plans to build in the vertical farms in Tai Po, Hong Kong, come after the country's rapid urban expansion in recent years which has seen much of its usable farmland disappear. Despite still having one of the . largest agricultural outputs - feeding 20 per cent of the world's entire . population, only 15 per cent of all its land is suitable for farming . and only around 1.2 per cent permanently supports crops. And with its cities expanding in size by ten per cent annually since 2000, its farmland is becoming increasingly under threat. This coupled with the world's . ever-expanding population has led to fears of future face . food shortages action isn't taken soon. Despite being state of the art, the towers are inspired by traditional Chinese rice farming's amazing shifting terraces . But Spain-based architectural firm . JAPA believes its model could solve this problem with its Dyn-net or . Dynamic Vertical Networks model. This would be a series of high-rise . towers located on the outskirts of cities that could supply the food . needs of the metropolis. The structures would be made out of lightweight yet high tensile materials using as many recyclable resources as possible. The shifting floors of the structure, inspired by China's traditional rice farms, . means each ring of the building can change its position to best suit the . plants, such as making them receive the maximum amount of sunlight or . moisture. The farming towers will create more agricultural land space by building upwards and using cutting-edge technology to grow as much produce as efficiently as possible . The system would also use hydroponics . to grow produce, using little to no soil at all, and would even have . labs to better monitor growth and nutritional value of the crops. Visitors would be allowed into the . building so they can learn more about local agriculture and get to . witness the 360 degree panoramic views each platform offers. The buildings could put an end to . China’s difficulty in finding enough arable land to farm, which has been . a problem throughout its history, leading to chronic food shortage. Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only about 15 per cent of its total land area can be cultivated enough to keep up with the population . While the production efficiency of its . farmland has grown over time, efforts to expand to the west and the . north have held limited success because of the colder and drier climate . than its traditional farmlands to the east. Since the 1950s, China's farm space has also been under pressure by the increasing land needs of industry and cities. The company has suggested Tai Po . District in Hong Kong which is the second largest administrative district and has a surrounding unused area of some 14,800 hectares in the northeast New . Territories, as the idea site to test the farming skyscrapers. The firm believes the structures would be able to feed the entire population of the surrounding Kowloon-Hong Kong area. Not only will the towers provide food but also spectacular 360 degree viewing platforms and spaces to research on farming techniques . | A network of huge 187-metre-high vertical farms would be used to grow vegetables and fruit .
The skyscrapers would be constructed on the outskirts of big cities such as the Tai Po district in Hong Kong .
China has seen much of its farmland disappear in recent years because of the rapid growth of its cities and industry . |
108,989 | 18804f9925e55a764d3911d4cbba237fa24f009f | Queens Park Rangers will almost certainly have to significantly increase their January transfer window wage structure to land primary target Jermain Defoe. Sportsmail understands the Loftus Road are prepared to offer between £25-30,000 weekly wage to prospective new signings this month. The club are only in the market for loan moves or free transfers this window as they look to cut their cloth accordingly. QPR are interested in signing Toronto FC striker Jermain Defoe on loan until the end of the season . Defoe's (left) basic wage of £60,000-a-week is proving a problem to QPR who face FFP regulations . The Hoops are prepared to offer between £25-30,000-a-week in wages to prospective new signings this month . Furthermore, QPR are also hugely reluctant to fork out loan fees for new signings. The restrictions place major doubt over Rangers' proposed move for Defoe. Redknapp has openly admitted his desire to reunite himself with Defoe, who he has worked with at West Ham, Portsmouth and Tottenham, this month. But Toronto FC would rather sell than loan the ex-England star, while they are also keen to recoup as much of £6million they spent on the striker last January. Likewise, even if they did agree to a loan, Defoe's basic wage of £60,000-per-week means Rangers may require Toronto to fork out a percentage of the forward's wages. The financial constraints set on the club are an attempt to ensure Rangers comply with Financial Fair Play regulations. The club already have a breach of Football League FFP rules hanging over them. Defoe (centre left) has worked with QPR boss Harry Redknapp (centre right) before - including at Tottenham . | QPR boss Harry Redknapp has worked with Jermain Defoe at various clubs .
Toronto FC would rather sell Defoe than loan the striker out .
Defoe's basic wage is £60,000-per-week at the MLS franchise . |
125,994 | 2edec323e58d558132b4d4847bb9001a486d10b6 | A spectacular three-level property has been listed on the market for a cool $900,000 but it's no ordinary home. Nestled at the end of a quiet street in Eltham, north-east of Melbourne’s CBD, the four-bedroom home comes complete with a 15-seat cinema, a room designed to resemble an aircraft's cockpit and seven separate living areas. From a heated solar swimming pool with adjoining spa, outdoor dining and seating areas with palm trees and a plumbed in BBQ – it’s an entertainer’s wonderland that will make anyone feel like they’re on a permanent vacation. Designed for the ultimate entertainer, families have the opportunity to impress their guests with a built in home theatre, billiard table in the gaming room, dance along a juke box or fly on a life sized flight simulator. Home owner Bob Messenger told Daily Mail Australia the property would be a perfect fit to a family with teenagers who would prefer an ‘independent living’ and have a love for entertainment. Inside the stunning three-level property which features a 15-seat home cinema with seven living areas has been listed on the market . Home owner Bob Messenger (left) with his son Daniel sitting inside their life sized flight simulator - complete with seats, pedals and dials . ‘We’ve had 12 lots of families come in so far but unfortunately most of them have come through with young children,’ Mr Messenger said. ‘The home is listed at $900,000 but we’re looking for strong offers in that region and the home will sell perfectly to a family with teens.' One of its unique features inside the sophisticated Ridgeview Street property is the life size flight simulator, which Mr Messenger built specifically for his son Daniel’s 21st birthday. ‘It was built for my son’s birthday and he has always loved flying,’ Mr Messenger said. ‘This is the next best thing because you don’t have to go out of the house to use it. It’s just a regular flight simulator that a lot of pilots use to train. The bottom level features a spacious entertaining and red gaming room - complete with a billiard table, juke box and a life size robot . The property features up to three office or study rooms - perfect for peace and quiet . The built-in cinema comes complete with a nine foot screen that seats 15 guests - perfect for a family movie night or entertainment . The property comes with four bedrooms on separate floors with three with en-suites, walk-in wardrobes and stunning bathrooms . ‘It’s a computer tower and monitor and the controller is a joystick – instead of the joystick, we have the actual flying wheel so when you pull back – it lifts you up, as well as rudder pedals that turn the plane – it’s pretty realistic. ‘The cockpit is modelled on a Boeing 737 aircraft so we took pictures of it, cut them out, put plastic over the top and put holes and lights so it looks like radar screens – so it’s minimal work for maximum effect.’ Voted third in Australia's most liveable areas in 2009, the special features of the home has surprised many potential home buyers. ‘People have said they’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve seen the fathers looking but I don’t know if it [flight simulator] will sell the house unless there’s someone out there looking specifically for one – it’s a personal choice,' Mr Messenger said. ‘But I think what will sell the house in the entertainment areas.’ One of its unique features inside the sophisticated Ridgeview ST property is the life size flight simulator which took six months to build . Home owner Bob Messenger (right) with his other son as they fly on their very own life sized flight simulator . The flight simulator was built for Daniel's 21st birthday by his father Bob and some friends, which took six month in the making . One of the special features of the home is the 'Hobby room' - but it could be converted to a wine cellar or a workshop . The idea came to light after Mr Messenger thought one of the rooms on the lower level was big enough to fit three monitors and a number of seats. ‘I built it with my son and his friends. One of them is a bit of a whiz with IT,’ he said. After six months in the making, the flight simulator now features two jump seats which seats up to four people, one flying seat and one co-pilot seat. ‘You can exit out on one side and it looks like you’re stepping out onto the side of the plain at a control gate when you reverse it,’ Mr Messenger said. One of the four renovated bathrooms inside the sophisticated property - complete with a bathtub - perfect for relaxing after a long day . One of the seven separate 'independent' living areas inside the property - delivering peace, quiet and total privacy to individual members . The stunning master bedroom - with newly renovated ensuite, walk-in wardrobe and adjoining parents retreat on the top floor . Built in 1991, the home has been fully repainted inside and partially re-floored and re-carpeted, with many recent features added on . The owners are reluctantly downsizing as the kids steadily move out of home and Mr Messenger said he wants to move to a country area . Up for sale by Agent in a Box, the newly renovated home comes complete with three spacious levels with each floor delivering its own ‘resort style living’ – perfect for the whole family. Built in 1991, Mr Messenger and his family moved into the property in August 2002 while the home has been fully repainted inside and undergone a major overhaul, partially re-floored and re-carpeted, with many features added on over the last 13 years. ‘Each level has an ensuite and its own living areas – an area on every floor where everyone can go for peace and quiet,’ Mr Messenger said. The owners are reluctantly downsizing as the children steadily move out of home. 'We decided to sell the home because we want to move out to an area that's more of a country side with views of mountains - that's what our dream is,' Mr Messenger said. Open light and modern kitchen, meals, family area that looks out onto new refurbished and maintenance free deck on middle level . One of the seven separate living areas - providing serenity and total privacy to individual members of the family or entertaining the guests . The middle level opens out onto the deck with views of the pool, complete with outdoor dining and living area as well as a built in BBQ - . Sitting on a sizeable 1300 square metres of block, the outdoor entertaining area features a lush manicured garden and heated pool and spa . Sitting on a sizeable 1300 square metres of block, the outdoor entertaining area features a lush manicured garden and serene surrounding . The top level of the home has a ‘parents retreat’; the middle level features a formal lounge and family living areas while the bottom floor comes complete with a red games room, juke box, a life size Dalek (from Doctor Who) and a nine foot screen that seats 15 guests. Inside the luxury home, it features three office or study areas, four bedrooms with three ensuites, walk-in wardrobes and bathrooms and a ‘Hobby’ room which can be converted to a wine cellar or workshop. Opening onto a magnificent sandstone covered deck on the top floor, the area offers a place for dining and BBQ entertainment, pool area gazebo and an outdoor barn dining area. The state-of-the-art contemporary kitchen features open light, dishwasher, meals and family areas that opens out onto the new refurbished and maintenance free deck on the middle level, as well as additional kitchenette situated on the lower level. Sitting on a sizeable 1300 square metres of block, the outdoor entertaining area features a lush manicured garden, an open car space for four vehicles, shed, as well as a walking distance to Eltham Town and Main Line Station and 23 kilometres north-east of Melbourne. Other features include, four bathrooms, full alarm system, gas heating, split system heating and air conditioning, evaporative cooling and ducted heating and cooling. | A stunning three-level property has been listed on the market - seeking offers of more than $900,000 .
Located north-east of Melbourne, the property features a 15-seat home cinema and a life sized flight simulator .
Designed for the ultimate entertainer, the home comes complete with four bedrooms and seven living areas .
Other features include heated swimming pool with adjoining spa, outdoor dining and a plumbed in BBQ .
The home owner said the property would be a perfect fit to a family with teens who have a love for entertainment . |
130,649 | 34f7e8a102a64cce53cdd089d57ef662cae2a939 | By . Emma Innes . PUBLISHED: . 06:01 EST, 3 December 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 06:02 EST, 3 December 2013 . Jäger bombs (pictured) are a favourite among many party goers but new research suggests they could increase the risk of alcohol poisoning . Jäger bombs are a favourite among many party goers, but new research suggests they could put people at greater risk of alcohol poisoning. U.S. researchers found mixing alcohol with energy drinks is riskier than drinking alcohol alone. They say young adults who mix the two tend to drink more, and become drunker, than those who do not. Dr Megan Patrick, from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said: ‘We found that college students tended to drink more heavily and become more intoxicated on days they used both energy drinks and alcohol, compared to days they only used alcohol.’ Dr Patrick, who worked with Professor Jennifer Maggs from Penn State University, says mixing alcohol with energy drinks could increase the risk of alcohol poisoning because it encourages people to drink more. She added it could also have other implications as it makes people more likely to be ‘wide awake drunk’ after a night of partying meaning they are more likely to behave in an antisocial way. The researchers studied 652 students and during four two-week periods they asked them to answer questions about their consumption of energy drinks and alcohol. They also asked them to record any problems they experienced as a result – from suffering a hangover, to getting in trouble with the police. Dr Patrick said: ‘Our findings suggest that the use of energy drinks and alcohol together may lead to heavier drinking and more serious alcohol-related problems. ‘As energy drinks become more and more popular, we should think about prevention strategies for reducing the negative consequences of using energy drinks and of combining energy drinks with alcohol.’ The news comes just after it was revealed that energy drinks that are high in caffeine change the way the heart beats. Researchers at the University of Bonn, in Germany, found the drinks could increase the risk of potentially fatal heart rhythm problems. People who mix alcohol and energy drinks tend to drink more and to get drunker. This means they are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour . They discovered that healthy adults who consumed the drinks had significantly increased heart contraction rates one hour later. This means that the chamber of the heart that pumps blood around the body - the left ventricle - was contracting harder an hour after the energy drink had been consumed. Dr Jonas Dörner said: 'There are concerns about the products' potential adverse side effects on heart function, especially in adolescents and young adults, but there is little or no regulation of energy drink sales.' | Mixing the two is riskier than drinking alcohol alone, U.S. researchers say .
People who mix the two tend to drink more, and become drunker .
Also makes people more likely to be 'wide awake drunk' meaning they are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour . |
73,804 | d148ca6a0cece3f4200038625200189e022b17da | Cutting down on salt could cut headaches by a third, according to new research. People who reduced their salt intake to three grams a day suffered significantly fewer headaches, a study found. Three grams of salt is the equivalent of around half a teaspoon, or the amount found in a McDonalds Big Mac and large fries. Experts said cutting salt could reduce headaches because it lowers blood and pulse pressure. Scroll down for videos . Reducing salt intake to three grams cuts headaches by 31 per cent, a study found. Switching from an unhealthy diet to a healthy one made no difference to the frequency of headaches . But even people with normal blood pressure saw a reduction in headaches when they cut their salt intake. However, switching from a healthy diet to an unhealthy one had no effect on headaches, scientists said. As part of the study almost 400 people were randomly assigned either a low-fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products or a typical Western diet as a control. Participants ate food with almost nine of salt a day for a set period, reflecting average salt consumption in the USA. Then this was reduced to six grams a day (the top level of the recommended daily salt allowance) for the same length of time, before they finally ate a low-salt diet of three grams a day during the final period. They were asked to record side effects such as headache, bloating, dry mouth, excessive thirst, fatigue or low energy, light- headedness, nausea and change in taste in a questionnaire. Scientists discovered halving salt intake from nine grams a day to three grams a day reduced headaches by 31 per cent. Lawrence Appel, of John Hopkins University said: 'A reduced sodium intake was associated with a significantly lower risk of headache, while dietary patterns had no effect on the risk of headaches in adults. 'Reduced dietary sodium intake offers a novel approach to prevent headaches.' Watch out for these foods, which are almost always high in salt because of the way that they are produced: . Professor Graham MacGregor, of Queen Mary University, London and World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) - who was not involved in the study - said scientists do not fully understand why cutting salt reduces headaches, but they suspect it is because it lowers blood and pulse pressure. He told MailOnline: 'We have long suspected that reducing salt intakes reduces the number of people developing headaches, and this study confirms our suspicions. 'Blood pressure drugs do reduce headaches, various studies and anecdotal evidence shows. 'Clearly reducing blood pressure and pulse pressure does lower headaches, even if blood pressure is already in the normal range. He added: 'This is the first well-controlled trial that really demonstrates a very large reduction in headaches just from modest reductions in salt intake. 'We would strongly advocate that those people who have headaches reduce their salt intake as it may abolish their headaches as well as having the very important effect of lowering their blood pressure and thereby the risk of a stroke and or heart attack.' Katharine Jenner, of Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), who was also not involved in the study, added: 'Rather than just reaching for the medicine cabinet, we should be thinking about what is causing our ill health; it is often lifestyle and diet-related. 'If you can get less headaches and lower your blood pressure just by eating less salt, that's two less pills you will need to take.' Experts said it is not fully understood why cutting salt reduces headaches, but they suspect it is because it lowers blood and pulse pressure . | Cutting salt from 9g to 3g a day reduced headaches by 31 per cent .
3g of salt a day is the equivalent to half a teaspoon .
A McDonald's Big Mac and fries contains around this amount of salt .
High salt foods include bread, tinned soups, cheese, pickles and cereal .
Experts said cutting salt reduces headaches as it lowers blood pressure .
Switching from an unhealthy to a healthy diet had no effect on headaches .
Result was seen in people regardless of their blood pressure reading . |
138,377 | 3ef7a4c9bf4c0bd2a10b7e0fe434769a748ee255 | Petra Collins, 20, posted an image of herself from the waist down to the photo-sharing site last week . It attracted so many complaints that her account, which boasted 25k followers, was deleted . By . Sadie Whitelocks . PUBLISHED: . 17:29 EST, 17 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 17:35 EST, 17 October 2013 . The designer behind American Apparel's menstruation T-shirt, branded 'vile' and 'distributing', has had her Instagram account deleted after uploading an image of her unshaven bikini line. Toronto-based Petra Collins, 20, posted a snap of herself from the waist down wearing a bathing suit bottom with her pubic hair peeping out to the photo-sharing site last week. However, she revealed to OysterMag.com today that the picture attracted so many complaints from users that her account - which had over 25,000 followers - has since been deleted. Under fire: Petra Collins, the designer behind American Apparel's controversial menstruation T-shirt, has had her Instagram account deleted after uploading an image of her unshaven bikini line . The artist said dozens of people deemed her self-portrait 'horrible' and 'disgusting.' While it is no longer visible on Instagram, it remains uncensored on Miss Collins' Twitter account. Voicing her annoyance, she wrote: 'To those who reported me, to those who are disgusted by my body . . . I want you to thoughtfully dissect your own reaction to these things. 'Please think about WHY you felt this way, WHY this image was so shocking, WHY you have no tolerance for it.' She highlights that she did nothing to violate Instagram's terms of use. Indeed, the basic guidelines on the site state: 'You may not post violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content via the Service.' 'In our . society, nude or sexually suggestive images of women are automatically . seen as negative' Miss Collins continues: 'Unlike the 5,883,628 (this is how many images are tagged #bikini) bathing suit images on Instagram mine depicted my own unaltered state - an unshaven bikini line.' She said that she now feels 'pressure to regulate' her body after being faced with a barrage of negative comments. However, she defiantly adds: 'To all the young girls and women, do not let this discourage you, do not let anyone tell you what you should look like, tell you how to be, tell you that you do not own your body.' Not all bad news: While her line of American Apparel T-shirts - which include the 'Period Tee' and another showing a woman's bare chest - were initially slammed by shoppers, they are now close to selling out . In an interview with OysterMag.com last year Miss Collins said that she uses her work to get people confronting a reality they would rather ignore. 'I think teen sexuality is a taboo topic, specifically female sexuality. [It] tends to be ignored or looked down on. 'I find people are uncomfortable when . a woman is expressing her sexuality instead of repressing it. In our . society, nude or sexually suggestive images of women are automatically . seen as negative. 'We . need to make room for the female view of sex and accept it. Until then, . people are going to be uncomfortable with [work] like mine.' Miss . Collins' work has been published in magazines including Vice and i-D . and she acts as a contributing photographer for American Apparel. She also runs and curates The Ardorous - an online platform for female artists. While her line of American Apparel T-shirts - which include the 'Period Tee' and another showing a woman's bare chest - were initially slammed by shoppers, they are now close to selling out. | Petra Collins, 20, posted an image of herself from the waist down to the photo-sharing site last week .
It attracted so many complaints that her account, which boasted 25k followers, was deleted . |
47,876 | 871c8d03597ea633b9fbc610f0bfb4e6a3224509 | Cristiano Ronaldo . Wayne Rooney . Manuel Neuer . Andrea Pirlo . Andres Iniesta . Thiago Silva . Franck Ribery . Yaya Toure . Thierry Henry . Marta . Cristiano Ronaldo may have the Ballon d'Or on his shelf, but the Real Madrid star has been beaten by Barcelona rival Andres Iniesta to the 2014 Golden Foot. Iniesta fought off competition from other household names such as Wayne Rooney, Andrea Pirlo and Thierry Henry to become the first Spaniard to lift the award that can only be won by players aged 28 or over. Attending a gala in Monaco on Monday evening with his wife Anna Ortiz, Iniesta joined previous winners Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs and Zlatan Ibrahimovic by having a mould of his footprints taken on stage during the ceremony. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Andres Iniesta wins Golden Foot award in Monaco . Andres Iniesta poses with his 2014 Golden Foot award that will be placed along the 'Champions promenade' Iniesta readies himself to stand in the mix as the Barcelona and Spain veteran wins the yearly award . Iniesta leaves his footprints after receiving the 2014 Golden Foot award on Monday evening in Monaco . Iniesta and his wife Anna Ortiz attend the 2014 Golden Foot ceremony in Monaco on Monday evening . 2003 - Roberto Baggio, Brescia . 2004 - Pavel Nedved, Juventus . 2005 - Andriy Shevchenko, AC Milan . 2006 - Ronaldo, Real Madrid . 2007 - Alessandro Del Piero, Juventus . 2008 - Roberto Carlos, Fenerbahce . 2009 - Ronaldinho, AC Milan . 2010 - Francesco Totti, Roma . 2011 - Ryan Giggs, Manchester United . 2012 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG . 2013 - Didier Drogba, Galatasaray . 2014 - Andres Iniesta, Barcelona . The Golden Foot award, which has been running for more than a decade, can only be won once and is determined by an online poll. That comes after a panel of journalists select 10 finalists based on personality and achievements. Iniesta's mould will join those of previous winners in the 'Champions promenade', based along Monaco's seafront. The 30-year-old, who has been on the books at the Nou Camp since 1996, tweeted the ceremony: 'Thank you very much everyone for this award... Golden Foot 2014!' Iniesta returns to Barcelona for training on Tuesday to continue their La Liga campaign as they look to reclaim the title from reigning champions Atletico Madrid. Rooney may not fret over the loss too much, however, as the England captain looks towards winning his 100th cap at Wembley next month. All being well, Rooney will become England's youngest-ever centurion by nearly three years against Slovenia at the age of 29. Iniesta became the first Spaniard to win the award and beat off competition from Wayne Rooney and others . England captain Wayne Rooney celebrates his goal against Estonia during the Euro 2016 qualifying win . Rooney is set to become the youngest England player to hit the 100-cap mark by nearly three years . Barcelona star Iniesta wrote on Twitter: 'Thank you very much everyone for this award... Golden Foot 2014!' The Golden Foot is an award reserved for players aged 28 or over, and has been given out every year since 2003. It involves an internet voting system after a panel of journalists select 10 finalists based on personality and achievements. Once you win, a permanent mould of your feet are added to the 'Champions promenade' along Monaco's seafront. | Andres Iniesta becomes first Barcelona and Spain player to win award .
Golden Foot is reserved for players aged 28 or over only and has previously been won by Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ryan Giggs .
Iniesta fought off competition from Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo . |
250,357 | d0022043f9f9a1a839f37396d0b9455c22a3a2e9 | (CNN) -- Mexico's new leader had a message for U.S. officials as he toured Washington on Tuesday: Ties between the neighboring nations must go beyond the drug war. The two countries should team up to create jobs, Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto said at the White House. "We should reconsider greater integration of North America to achieve a region that is more competitive and capable of creating more jobs," Pena Nieto told U.S. President Barack Obama as reporters looked on. Before his first meeting with Obama, the 46-year-old former governor said he wanted to reshuffle the list of priorities the United States and Mexico share. In an editorial published by the Washington Post on Friday, Pena Nieto said there was a potential for more trade, manufacturing and energy deals. "It is a mistake to limit our bilateral relationship to drugs and security concerns," the president-elect wrote. "Our mutual interests are too vast and complex to be restricted in this short-sighted way." Obama told reporters he was eager to develop a strong relationship with Pena Nieto and take on a broad agenda. "We are very much looking forward to having a fruitful discussion here today about ... how we can strengthen economic ties, trade ties, coordination along the border and improving our joint competitiveness, as well as public security issues," he said. New president: Grow economy to fight drugs . A crackdown on cartels was a hallmark of outgoing President Felipe Calderon's six-year tenure, and the United States voiced its support, offering $1.6 billion to aid in the fight. Pena Nieto said Tuesday that his government will focus more on reducing violence, but he's offered few specifics about that approach. He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday that boosting his country's economy and creating more social programs could be the greatest weapon to fight organized crime. Without economic opportunities, he said, "millions of my countrymen have no other option than to dedicate themselves sometimes to criminal activity." Opinion: To-do list for Obama and Mexico's new president . The United States is Mexico's largest trading partner. The two countries share billions of dollars in imports and exports and a border that stretches nearly 2,000 miles. For the first time in more than a decade, economic issues are likely to dominate the agenda shared by Mexico and the United States, the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars said in a policy brief this week. That's because drug-related violence appears to have plateaued and illegal immigration in the United States from Mexico has dropped dramatically, according to Andrew Selee, director of the center's Mexico Institute. FBI most-wanted fugitive captured in Mexico . "What's driven the U.S.-Mexico agenda for the past 10 years has been the influx of undocumented immigrants and the headlines about increasing violence, and now both of those have leveled off. ... It allows the two governments to begin to talk about other issues that matter for their long-term well-being," Selee said. While security concerns took a back seat during Obama and Pena Nieto's public remarks, both leaders mentioned the need for immigration reform. "We do have to tell you that we fully support your proposal for this migration reform," Pena Nieto said. "More than demanding what you should do, I do want to tell you that we want to contribute. We really want to participate and we want to contribute toward the accomplishment, so we can participate in the betterment and well-being of so many people who live in your country." In addition to meeting with Obama, Pena Nieto spoke with other officials in Washington, including U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. He was scheduled to travel to Canada and meet Wednesday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Obama noted that it was a longstanding tradition for Mexico's president-elect to visit Washington before taking office. "We meet early with the president-elect of Mexico because it symbolizes the extraordinarily close relationship we have between the two countries," he said. Earlier this week, analysts said on CNN en Español's "Mexico Opina" that they hoped Tuesday's meeting would signal a new approach to interactions between the United States and Mexico. Opinion: Mexico's misconceptions . "Pena Nieto should convince Obama that Mexico deserves more attention. ... This is the moment to change the style and propose a higher agenda," said Olga Pellicer, a professor at Mexico's Autonomous Institute of Technology and a former diplomat. Political analyst Gabriel Guerra said Pena Nieto's government should push to have a greater influence on affairs within the United States, convincing U.S. officials that Mexicans are "important and relevant." "The image of the country is very negative. There is a perception that we are corrupt and drug associates. This is a result of accumulated neglect," he said. Pena Nieto "is inheriting a neglected relationship." Mexican beauty queen killed in shootout . Some critics have said Obama neglected Latin America during his first term, and lambasted the U.S. president for not bringing up Mexico or other countries in the region during last month's foreign policy debate with Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Opinion: Mexico, U.S. ties ripe for major expansion . On Tuesday, Obama quipped that he was jealous that Vice President Joe Biden would be attending Pena Nieto's inauguration in Mexico on Saturday, and he said he was looking forward to attending the North American Leaders' Summit there next year. "Any excuse to go to Mexico, I'm always game," Obama said. Opinion: Can Pena Nieto save Mexico? CNNMexico.com and CNN en Español's Mario Gonzalez and Rey Rodriguez contributed to this report. | Mexico's president-elect meets with U.S. President Barack Obama .
Enrique Pena Nieto says he wants to reshuffle the priorities the countries share .
There is potential for more trade, manufacturing and energy deals, he says .
Pena Nieto takes office as Mexico's president Saturday . |
54,378 | 9a0a29d8178108bd7c09f8d8d864bd880add5b11 | A U.S. government warning this week to airlines about possible shoe bombs represents a credible threat linked to al Qaeda, officials told CNN. Recent intelligence points to tactics believed to be tied to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its master bomb-maker Ibrahim al Asiri, a federal law enforcement official said. Counterterrorism officials don't believe there is an active plot in the works. But the law enforcement source said the United States periodically receives information on attempts by those believed to have been trained by Asiri to try to develop bombs that could defeat screening systems. It's not a new threat, but one viewed as ongoing because they know the al Qaeda unit based in Yemen is constantly trying to improve its bombs. Another U.S. official said the Homeland Security Department would not have taken steps to warn carriers about flights bound for the United States had it not been credible. "This is not just some flip comment on the part of a bad guy," that official said. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Thursday in Los Angeles that "concern about shoe bombs have been out there for years" and the agency updates advisories and modifies procedures "so that we remain vigilant." Intelligence collected by the United States and other countries indicates terror groups have been working on new shoe-bomb designs, sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday. The threat apparently is unrelated to recent warnings about toothpaste and cosmetic tubes potentially being used to hide explosives on flights to Russia. Terrorism experts say airlines continue to be a target of terrorists wishing to make a spectacular impact with an attack. The focus on security since 2001 has shifted from hijackings to bombs, especially those that might be hidden in luggage. Following the 9/11 attacks, passengers aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami thwarted another passenger's attempt to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers. Richard Reid, a British citizen, pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence. Since, Transportation Security Administration policy requires passengers going through airport security checkpoints to take off their shoes to be X-rayed. | U.S. warned airlines this week about possible shoe bomb threat to U.S.-bound flights .
Official ties it to bomb-maker for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula .
The threat is based on the latest intelligence .
Al Qaeda said to still be interested in targeting airlines . |
60,676 | ac78c3c183b6619b872041510eca756f297529b4 | Wesley Sneijder has admitted it would be hard to turn down an offer from Louis van Gaal to join him at Manchester United next season. Sneijder is currently on World Cup duty with Holland as part of Van Gaal's 23-man World Cup squad and has been heavily linked with a move to the Red Devils over the last few years. VIDEO Scroll down to see Sneijder score the winner in the Galatasaray vs. Fenerbahce derby . On the move: Wesley Sneijder admits it would be hard to turn down Louis van Gaal at Manchester United . For club and country? Van Gaal (left) and Sneijder (right) are currently on World Cup duty for Holland . On the ball: Sneijder (right) starred for Holland in their 5-1 win against Spain in their Group B opener on Friday . VIDEO Van Gaal set for German shopping spree . The 30-year-old midfielder revealed he is currently happy with life at Turkish outfit Galatasaray but the lure of playing under Van Gaal could prove too tempting. ‘In the Netherlands, Van Gaal is something like the head teacher of a school. Not everyone is lucky enough to get into his good books,' he said. ‘He trains his players very hard and always expects the highest standards. I am happy at Galatasaray, I have established myself at the club and have settled in. ‘However, if Van Gaal were to make me an offer, I would have to at least consider it. Nobody from the Netherlands can simply reject Van Gaal.’ The former Real Madrid and Inter Milan playmaker starred in Holland's emphatic 5-1 win in their Group B opening win against Spain on Friday and is expected to start in the Dutch's clash against Australia on Wednesday. Sneidjer's attacking qualities from midfield would be welcomed by the Old Trafford faithful who have been looking for a creative spark since Paul Scholes' retirement. Maestro: United have missed creativity from their midfield following the retirement of playmaker Paul Scholes . | Wesley Sneijder says he'd have to consider an offer from Louis van Gaal at Manchester United .
Sneijder is currently on World Cup duty with Holland under Van Gaal .
Sneijder added he is happy at current club Galatasaray . |
240,580 | c36feaa8c0180c656aa29d1d7beeb50a15ad393a | By . Simon Tomlinson . UPDATED: . 08:46 EST, 10 November 2011 . All 20,000 British troops will be withdrawn from Germany by 2020, bringing to an end a continuous presence since 1945, it will be announced today. Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review, hundreds of military personnel will return home in January. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that an announcement will be made about the pull-out of UK forces, who have had a presence on the Rhine since the end of the Second World War. Ready to move: A convoy of Challenger tanks on exercise in the British army training ground near the German town of Belsen in 2003. All British forces will be withdrawn from the country by 2020, it will be announced today . Camaraderie: British soldiers pose with the British flag in front of two Challenger tanks of the King's Royal Hussars before leaving their base in Muenster on April 15, 1999 to assist with the humanitarian effort in Macedonia . Timetable: Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is due to announce detailed plans for the withdrawal today . The forces were initially tasked with ensuring the stability of Germany after the fall of the Nazis, but troops remained to deter the Russians from advancing from the East as Cold War tensions grew. According to the Daily Telegraph, . 1,800 troops will leave by January and another 8,200 by 2015. The rest . will be back by the end of the decade - 15 years earlier than first . proposed. The withdrawal has been accelerated as part of the budget cuts that aim to streamline the Armed Forces. The . first unit to move will be 43 Close Support Squadron of the Royal . Logistics Corps, which will go from Gutersloh in Germany to Abingdon in . Oxfordshire, it was reported. Proud: The Queen returns to inspect the Royal Tank Regiment in Sennelagar, near Paderborn, during a parade in July 1985 . Surrendering German troops march past anti-tank gun after British forces press into Germany in 1945. Allied forces occupied the country after the fall of the Nazis to ensure stability in Europe . At the end of the Second World War, Germany was divided by the Allies into four military zones. During the 1945 Potsdam Conference it was decided that the French should occupy the southwest, the British the northwest, the U.S would take the south, and the Soviets the east. Thus began British troops' deployment int he country. And while the aim was to stabilise Germany after the fall of the Nazis, a threat was emerging from the Soviets, who were pressing ahead with Communist expansionism in eastern Europe. The growing tensions were outlined in the famous 'iron curtain' speech by Sir Winston Churchill, pictured, in 1946 which many consider to be the beginning of the Cold War. He was referring to the ideological fighting and physical boundary that now split Europe into two separate areas - those occupied by the Allies in the west and Russia. In the speech, the former British Prime Minister said: 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.' The British Army very soon bolstered troop numbers in Germany over fears the country could become a battleground with Russia. British Armed Forces personnel and civilians come under the banner British Forces Germany (BFG), which was fist established as the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Their presence was significantly reduced following the end of the Cold War in 1989. Under the changes, 2nd Battalion the . Royal Anglian Regiment will reportedly go to former RAF base Cottesmore . in Rutland, which closed earlier this year. Personnel from 7 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) will also go to Cottesmore. The MoD is also expected to announce . what will happen to main UK bases in Germany, with British facilities in . Celle and Munster to be handed back to the German authorities. The Rheindahlen Military Complex is to . close, and Waterbeach Barracks in Cambridgeshire will be sold. The MoD . is also expected to outline a restructuring of the hierarchy of the . Army's regional brigades and divisions. This . includes the closure of regional headquarters in Edinburgh and . Shrewsbury, whose work is to be taken over by a new HQ in Aldershot. British Forces Germany, as the Armed Forces in the country are known, are concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. The divisional HQ is located at Herford, near Bielefeld, with garrisons at Gütersloh, Hohne, and Paderborn. British bases in Germany still represent the biggest deployment of UK forces overseas. With civilians, families and children, the British contingent in the country stands at more than 43,000. Last year, it was claimed the UK will have to pay out tens of millions of pounds to Germany before pulling forces out of the country. The bill will have to be settled to ‘make good’ land and property used by British forces, former Labour Defence Minister Kevan Jones insisted. MoD sources conceded that the withdrawal would have ‘initial costs’ but insisted there would be long-term savings of more than £1billion from the withdrawal. Early days: The Duke of Gloucester inspects troops of 11 Company, Royal Army Service Corps, of the British Army of the Rhine during a visit to garrisons in West Germany in May 1950 . Beginning of the end: British infantrymen take cover from snipers in Goch during the Allied invasion of Germany . | Force was left in place to deter Soviet advance from the East .
Hundreds to return home in January as part of defence review .
Half of remaining 20,000-strong force to leave by 2015, the rest by 2020 - 15 years earlier than originally planned . |
157,131 | 57272eac5013e93ebd1fb9eb015c77a62b92dddf | By . Ryan Gorman . PUBLISHED: . 01:32 EST, 16 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 10:54 EST, 16 November 2013 . The Empire State Building is doing its part to bring awareness to the plight of Filipinos affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan. The iconic New York skyscraper was illuminated red, blue, yellow and white – the colors of the Philippine flag – to help make people more aware of the need for donations and aid in regions ravaged by the monster storm. Over 10,000 people were initially feared killed by Haiyan, more than 3,000 have been confirmed dead by Philippine officials as of Friday. Hundreds of thousands more are displaced or without food, water or electricity. Don't forget their plight: The Empire State Building was illuminated Friday in the colors of the Philippine flag . The gesture comes as accusations of politicians prioritizing relief distribution are coming to a head in the devastated country and images of the suffering masses are seen around the world. The building will adorn the colors of the country’s flag both Friday and Saturday nights, and Filipino followers of its Twitter feed couldn’t be happier. ‘I love this. Of course, made me cry. Beautiful!’ Tweeted @chenoite. ‘Maraming Salamat!I can see the lights ffrom Woodside,Queens! Cant help but shed tears for my countrymen,’ wrote one follower. ‘Thank you for the love, NYC!!!’ another follower replied. Starving, without water: A large crowd gathers Saturday underneath a relief helicopter hovering over the small town of Salcedo, on hard-hit Samar Island . Fighting for their lives: The desperation of villagers in Salcedo fighting over relief kits is heart-wrenching . Decimated: A US Navy Sea Hawk helicopter flies over destroyed houses in the super typhoon devastated town of Mercedes, also on Samar Island . A quick glance at the lighting schedule posted to the tower's website shows it lighting in pink for breast cancer awareness, in all green for City Harvest and Earth Day and in all blue for World Autism Awareness Day. The high-rise lights up in different colors each day to commemorate everything from sports teams to charities and other events. Dozens of countries and companies have pitched in to the relief effort, but officials have pleaded for even more. ‘In a situation like this, nothing is fast enough,’ an official said during a press conference from the decimated city of Tacloban. ‘The need is massive, the need is immediate, and you can't reach everyone.’ Some estimates place the number of displaced over 600,000 and the injured over 12,000. Thousands more are missing and presumed dead. They need more than just food and water: Typhoon Haiyan survivors stand on line Saturday in Tacloban to buy fuel . The smell of rotting flesh fills the air: A Filipino man covers his nose from the stench a dead body found in Tacloban . There's nothing left: A military aircraft flies over the obliterated village of Leyte Island, near Tacloban . Tales abound of tragedies, including one woman shown on CNN who gave birth just weeks before the storm only to have it take her husband from her as the storm surge raged through Tacloban. CNN has reported seeing cadaver bags being washed and reused, as well as people surviving the storm only die of a terrible infection in the aftermath. Bodies are being buried in mass graves. A sailor in the Philippine Navy who was helping clear bodies and debris from the city’s streets found his own mother slumped against the wall of a damaged building, according to CNN. Getting out of Dodge: Displaced Filipino and other international personnel prepare for takeoff inside a US Navy C-17 bound for Manila . They used to play on these streets: Ships have washed ashore and sit among the rubble of Tacloban homes leveled by the powerful storm . Most survivors who stayed behind even as evacuation orders were given are no being flown out of Tacloban, which more resembles an apocalyptic movie scene than the bustling port city of more than 200,000 people it once was. At its height, Haiyan battered the island nation with winds upwards of 200MPH, 30-foot storm surges and relentless rains. For those looking to help, visit CharityNavigator for a list of Haiyan-linked charities ranked by their financial health, and also by those designating 100 per cent of funds raised to help victims of the killer storm. | The Empire State Building was adorned Friday night in red, blue, yellow and white - the colors of the Philippine flag .
It will be illuminated in similar colors Saturday night as well .
The iconic tower is often lit in different colors for charitable causes . |
277,306 | f348a2bce5eb645f759e3561b6299813576fbff2 | Icon: The Reverend Joseph Lowery said that he believed 'all white people were going to hell' A civil rights icon who gave the benediction at President Obama’s inauguration said that he believed 'all white people were going to hell'. The Reverend Joseph Lowery, 91, was speaking at a rally in Georgia. According to an account in the Monroe County Reporter: ‘Lowery said that when he was a young militant, he used to say all white folks were going to hell. 'Then he mellowed and just said most of them were. Now, he said, he is back to where he was.’ He was also quoted as telling an audience at the St James Baptist Church in Forsyth, Georgia: ‘I don’t know what kind of a n***er wouldn’t vote with a black man running he also told according to the paper. Lowery told the Daily Caller that he didn’t remember making the n-word comment. ‘I never said that, I don’t remember saying that.’ He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 by President Obama. Honor: President Obama presented Lowery with the 2009 Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award . During his inauguration benediction . in January 2009, he said: ‘Lord, in the memory of all the saints who . from their labour's rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you . to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in . back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the . red man can get ahead, man -- and when white will embrace what is . right.’ An . aide to Lowery, Helen Butler, told the Daily Caller: ‘He was saying . [that] based on all of the hatred that’s going on (towards the . president). He just felt that he should feel the way he used to feel.’ She . added: ‘He was trying to get people motivated to ensure they go and . vote…. [and] he did make the point that there is a lot of hatred in this . country.’ Lowery was a pastor in Mobile, Alabama during the civil rights era. After . the arrest of Rosa Parks, he helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott and . led the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 at the request of his friend . Martin Luther King. Controversial: Lowery made the comments while speaking at a rally in Georgia for President Barack Obama, pictured speaking at a campaign event in Wisconsin . | Lowery, 91, was speaking at event in Georgia .
Took part in Obama's inauguration ceremony in 2009 . |
48,865 | 89f46197431005ebd59c790f24086fe662babaf2 | By . David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor . Embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie kept his presidential hopes alive on Friday with an hour-long press conference that saw him tussling with journalists while insisting that his hands were clean in the 'Bridgegate' fiasco. 'The fact of the matter is I had nothing to do with this, as I said from the beginning,' he said of a September 2013 plot to close down on-ramp lanes to the George Washington Bridge as political payback for a Democratic mayor who failed to endorse his re-election effort. 'In the long sweep of things,' he predicted coyly, 'any voters, if they consider this issue at all, in considering my candidacy – if there ever is one at all – I’ve got a feeling it'll be a small element of it, if any element at all,' said Christie. But reporters scraped and kicked their way to a series of gubernatorial outbursts that could portend one of American history's most colorful White House press briefing rooms. Scroll down for video . New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sparred with reporters for an hour on Friday, while announcing the resignation of the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey . A media crush met Christie in the New Jersey state capitol building as pressure built for him to comment publicly on the 'Bridgegate' scandal that has embroiled the potential 2016 Republican presidential contender . One journalist's pointed question, Christie scowled, was 'so awful that it’s beneath the job you hold.' He barked to another: 'You have to get the facts right if you’re going to ask me a question.' When the dust settled, he turned passive-aggressive in a way that New Jerseyans have come to recognize. 'It's such a joy and relief to be finally able to come back and interact with you in the kind and gentle way we always have,' Christie said to a room bulging with tape recorders, notebooks and TV cameras. 'I'd love to say I missed you, but I didn't. But I'm looking forward to having you all back on a regular basis.' Christie's last press conference was on January 9 and lasted two hours. He conceded during both events that the bridge scandal had shaken the confidence he once placed in his most senior staffers. 'It's obvious to me that I have to make clearer ... what's acceptable conduct and what is not,' he said Friday. Friday's defiant Q-and-A came a day after the release of a formal report, commissioned by the governor and written by a hand-picked law firm. The embattled governor has a reputation for fearlessly taking as many questions as media organizations want to throw at him, and his answers are often headline-worthy . Attorney Randy Mastro delivered a lengthy Bridgegate report to reporters on Thursday, exonerating Christie but enraging Democrats who say the authors failed to talk to at leas ttwo key witnesses . The lengthy examination of the events of Sept. 9-13 exonerated Christie, while also leaving the door open for questions about the independence of the investigators. But the Republican swashbuckler who figures prominently in most predictions of the GOP's 2016 presidential field – 'They love me in Iowa,' he told ABC's Diane Sawyer on Thursday – stood by the document's findings. 'This report has supported exactly what I said,' he told a packed room of reporters. David Samson, a former New jersey attorney general and a long-time Christie ally, resigned Friday from his post as chairman of the powerful Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the George Washington Bridge . The report's authors, he insisted, 'have their own professional and personal reputations. Six of them were former federal prosecutors. They're not going to whitewash anything for me and put their reputations at stake.' He declared that their work product would 'stand the test of time – and it will be tested by the other investigations that are going on. New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman – Christie's successor in the job, and not a fan of the governor – is running his own investigation. A New Jersey special legislative committee dominated by New Jersey lawmakers is running its own probe. Two of those partisans fired back Friday afternoon, saying the report was incomplete because it didn't include input from Bridget Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff whom Christie fired in January after the bridge scheme became national news. Kelly sent an infamous email to David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the New York/New Jersey port authority – which operates the George Washington Bridge – apparently signaling that a plan to alter its traffic patterns should go ahead. 'If we don't hear from the person who put the lane closures into motion, Bridget Kelly, who we know sent the email "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" ... if we don't know why she sent that email, if we don't know who gave her the authority to send that email, if we don't know what she thought she may be accomplishing by sending that email, then we can't have a complete picture of what happened here,' Democratic Assemblyman John Wisniewski told the Newark Star-ledger. Wildstein, the Port Authority . official, resigned in early December, and has since refused to testify . before the legislative committee in Trenton. Christie said Friday that it 'was a mistake' to hire him. The man at the top of the Port Authority, David Samson, quit his post on Friday. Samson's . departure didn't appear related to the report, although the governor . said he had 'tendered his resignation to me, effective immediately,' earlier in the day. Samson also didn't figure in the report itself – because, as with the case of Bridget Kelly, investigators never spoke with him. Bad girl: Former Christie deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly appears to have been the driving force behind a plot to punish a Democratic New Jersey mayor by creating traffic jams in his town; Christie publicly fired her in January . Troublemaker: Former Port Authority official David Wildstein (C) implemented a days-long scheme to dlose lanes of the George Washington Bridge, and inspected the results . 'The Governor's top appointee at the Port Authority refuses to be interviewed for the administration's report and then resigns the day after it comes out,' Wisneiwski noted in a joint statement Friday afternoon with fellow Democrat Loretta Weinberg, 'leaving us once again with far more questions than answers.' 'Any credible examination of the lane closures should be focused on uncovering the facts, not exonerating the governor or anyone else,' the two lawmakers said. Cleared or not, a feisty and defiant Christie seemed to outlast a national press corps that was eager to see him slip. Answering questions about how a plot to abuse traffic resources for political revenge could have escaped his notice. As a chief executive, he said, deputies sledom strode into his office to brief him on minutiae. 'That's not the way it works,' he insisted. | Christie said the politically motivated bridge lane closures in 2013 will be 'be a small element ... if any element at all' of his potential presidential future .
Feisty and defiant, the governor took pot shots at persistent reporters, telling the press corps: 'I'd love to say I missed you, but I didn't'
A report issued this week exonerated Christie of wrongdoing .
Democrats are pressing ahead, saying that investigators were hand-picked by the governor's office and failed to interview two key witnesses .
The New Jersey Port Authority's chairman left his post on Friday, the third high-profile resignation since the Bridgegate fiasco began . |
193,221 | 8627ad6040926ecfc4dd0be2b9be04bf4402604f | By . Adam Crafton . So, here we are again. You may recognise it well, for it is just as we were last week. Another moment of respite, another blanket over the flames engulfing Old Trafford. Once more, the green shoots of recovery spring up and the lonely occasion creates a world of possibilities in the mind of David Moyes. It was all there again for the Manchester United manager on Saturday lunchtime. As insipid and anaemic as his side were against Liverpool and Manchester City, so they were incisive and cavalier here against Aston Villa. As the precocious teen Adnan Januzaj decorated this United victory with a glorious assist for Javier Hernandez late on, it almost felt an illusion that the talk of this past week had been that Moyes could be approaching the end game as Bayern Munich arrive at Old Trafford on Tuesday evening. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Moyes, the banner and Bayern's weekend highlights . Acknowledgment: Manchester United manager David Moyes applauds the crowd after beating Aston Villa . Certainly, this was far more like it from United. Juan Mata scored his first goal in a red jersey, Shinji Kagawa finally provided some indication as to what all the fuss is about and Wayne Rooney was immense yet again, looking every inch the United captain-in-waiting. At this moment in time, Wayne Rooney is Manchester United. United without Rooney would be like Gladiator without Russell Crowe. Rooney has rediscovered his love for the game, charging around, all muscle and deftness. At times, it seems he is on a personal mission to keep his manager on-board. Unfortunately, though, it is not on the basis of games at home to Aston Villa that David Moyes will be judged. Handsome victories over the lesser lights are taken as red in these parts, par for the course, one to tick off the list in the pursuit of grander occasions. Deadly: Wayne Rooney scored a double as United beat Villa 4-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday . At the very least, this was an afternoon of relief for David Moyes. This result stills some of the squalls around him and provided a timely riposte to the crass aeroplane stunt that undermined the vast majority of Manchester United supporters who have, for the most part, been generous in their backing of Moyes this season. Time, however, is devoured extraordinarily quickly in football these days and with the words 'Wrong One - Moyes Out' emblazoned in red letters across the Old Trafford skyline, this became a day of some significance for the United manager. There have been times this season when it has seemed as though United have turned so many corners that they have gone full circle and Saturday marked another of those 'Is this the day it all changes?' junctures for the imperilled United manager. Up in the air: A plane flew over Old Trafford displaying an anti-Moyes banner during the match . The problem for Manchester United under David Moyes is that their hot streaks last only until the next challenging fixture. The month of March has offered a fitting snapshot of United's curious season. A 3-0 win at West Bromwich Albion was followed by a 3-0 defeat at home to Liverpool. Optimism was garnered by victories over Olympiacos and West Ham but the air swiftly went out of the balloon with the midweek capitulation against Manchester City. Saturday yielded another of these rosier days but the next dose of reality is expected when Bayern Munich arrive at Old Trafford and there is little reason to expect that this fluctuating script will deviate any time soon. Support: Moyes received a hug from a United supporter as he arrived in the dugout ahead of the match . Following United under David Moyes has become a life of extremes and too often the air of renewal has proved deceptive. The David Moyes 'Hokey-Cokey' is starting to become a weekly occurrence in these parts. In, out, they shake him all about. For now, the rank-and-file have settled down and while the Stretford Enders wonder privately - and my, how they do - there was no voluble mutiny on this occasion. Winning helps, of course. From plane spotting to plain-sailing, this was a day of appeasement but these United supporters have seen enough false starts this season to be taken in by a victory over Aston Villa. In truth, Paul Lambert's side, just like Olympiacos ten days earlier, were generous opponents for a side teetering on the brink. Moyes will be only too aware that radical improvement is required if United are to challenge Bayern Munich in the Champions League. United's record in the defining matches this season has been appalling. In 13 matches against sides in the top nine of the Barclays Premier League, United have won just one. Tough test: German champions Bayern Munich are United's next opponents on Tuesday . Moyes’ warning to Pep Guardiola's all-conquering team that ‘Old Trafford is not an easy place to come’ is rather undermined by a home record that is equal to Norwich City and only one point better off than those of Hull City and Crystal Palace. The statistics are jaw-dropping. United have failed to win nine of their sixteen Premier League assignments at Old Trafford. Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Newcastle United have all kept clean sheets at Old Trafford and four of those teams won without reply. A cursory glance at the teams United have beaten in the Premier League this season only hastens the conclusion that United are little more than flat-track bullies: Swansea City, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Stoke City, Fulham, Arsenal, Aston Villa, West Ham, Hull City, Norwich City, Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion. Struggles: Moyes looked dejected as his side crashed to a 3-0 defeat at home to City on Tuesday . This United squad may be packed with serial winners but their manager appears to suffer from a conviction deficit disorder in the biggest games. The major holes in his CV are yet to be patched up. It is now 49 Premier League away games as the opposing manager at Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United that Moyes has failed to win a football match. There has been an apathy in these season-defining matches that goes against all we expect from a Manchester United team. Not only has the swagger disappeared but so too has that obstinacy, that refusal to wither, that rejection of defeat. United have fallen behind on sixteen occasions this season and only four times have they recovered to win. Watching on: Former manager Sir Alex Ferguson watches United beat Villa from the stands at Old Trafford . Against Bayern, United must recover their old identity, stop playing chess and as the ditty goes, excite the fans with 'football taught by Matt Busby'. Moyes' side must shed their inhibitions and display the kind of character and nerve that is considered mandatory by those who come through the turnstiles. Moyes talks wistfully of the plans he is busy formulating for the long-term at Old Trafford but he will know deep down that football is also about the here and now, the next 90 minutes. There may be a masterplan in place behind-the-scenes but for the time being, the supporters require one of those magical nights at Old Trafford to escape the despondency and to reconnect, however briefly, with the fluency and majesty of the Ferguson years. Tuesday against Bayern Munich would be a fine time to shine. Message: The Chosen One banner continues to hang at the Stretford End despite Moyes' recent woes . | One win in 13 against the top nine sides .
All very well beating Aston Villa but a Manchester United can never be judged on a victory over a mid-table side .
Moyes says 'Old Trafford is not an easy place to come' - United's home record equal to Norwich and Newcastle - failed to win nine of 16 .
United take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday . |
153,142 | 51e3cba248ff1ce4170cc08f4809317d19f4de62 | By . Charlie Scott . Follow @@charliefscott . With three former World Cup winners that had lifted the trophy seven times between them Group D was supposed to be the Group of Death. For England – and one of Italy or Uruguay – that has proved the case. But not for the fourth nation in the group, Costa Rica. Jorge Luis Pinto’s team are the first side to seal their place in the last 16 after brilliant wins against top-10 ranked sides Uruguay and Italy. Upset: Costa Rica's players defied the odds to reach the last 16 in Brazil . We've done it! Costa Rica players celebrate their win over Italy . Ecstacy: Costa Rican players celebrate on the pitch at full-time . Tears of joy: Costa Rica players embrace eachother at the final whistle . Surprise package: Costa Rica's players can't quite believe it after reaching the knock-out stages . Fancy footwork: the Costa Ricans show off their dance moves . Following the 1-0 win over Italy in Recife that catapulted them into the next round, Sportsmail has taken a look at this World Cup’s surprise team. The coachJorge Luis Pinto is coaching Costa Rica for the second time after an unsuccessful stint before the 2006 finals. The 52-year-old Colombian, who has won league titles in Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia, sets his side up in an attacking 5-4-1 formation, with full-backs Cristian Gamboa and Junior Diaz providing width and energy down the flanks. Genius: Jorge Luis Pinto has masterminded Costa Rica's success . His side got thumped by Chile, lost to South Korea and Japan, and drew with Republic of Ireland in the months leading up to the World Cup, though they did coast through their qualification campaign, finishing second behind United States, ahead of Mexico and Honduras. Ranked 28th in the world, Costa Rica’s record in World Cup matches before the Brazil tournament was not pretty. They had won just three of their 10 games, drawing one and losing the other six. Costa Rica legend Paulo Wanchope, known to English fans following spells at Manchester City, Derby and West Ham, is Pinto’s assistant manager. The stars . Joel Campbell – 35 caps, 10 goals . One of many Costa Rica players to come through the youth system of the country’s top club, Saprissa, Campbell moved to Arsenal in the summer of 2011, though work permit issues have seen him sent out on loan to Lorient, Betis and Olympiakos. Young Gunner: Joel Campbell is expected to be part of Arsene Wenger's first-team squad next season . The 21-year-old striker has recently burst on to the radar of Europe’s top clubs having followed up a fine season on loan at Olympiakos with two brilliant performances alone upfront against Uruguay and Italy. Arsene Wenger has already moved to ward off potential suitors by saying he expects the talented forward to return to Arsenal for pre-season training ahead of next season. Christian Bolanos – 57 caps, 2 goals . A regular in the Costa Rica midfield since making his debut in 2005 against Norway, Bolanos, now 30, plies his trade in Denmark with Copenhagen having moved to the club four years ago. One of the standout performers for his first club Saprissa at the 2005 Club World Cup, he was invited for a trial at Liverpool after being named third best player at the competition. Though he did not do enough to persuade the Merseyside club to sign him on a permanent deal, Charlton offered the pacey winger a one-year loan deal, only for his work permit application to be turned down. Red Sea: Jubilant fans celebrate during the win against Italy . Pitch invasion: Costa rica's subs run onto the pitch at full time . Bryan Ruiz – 65 caps, 14 goals . The skilful 28-year-old was allowed to leave Fulham to join PSV on loan last season, after dipping in and out of the team during three seasons at Craven Cottage. A broken foot in 2012 stalled his progress at Fulham, though he has shown signs of his best form in the Eredivisie this season. His clever passing is vital to Costa Rica’s play, as they look to move the ball to Campbell as quickly as possible. Ruiz netted his 14th international goal in the 1-0 win over Italy, thumping a header past Gianluigi Buffon and in off the crossbar. Cottage industry: Fulham's Ruiz watches his header creep over the line . Hero: Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz celebrates his winner against Italy . Keylor Navas – 55 caps . Linked with Barcelona following an impressive season at Levante, Navas has pulled off some vital saves in Costa Rica’s first two group games, conceding just once during that time. Navas, 27, has 55 international caps to his name, having asserted himself as first-choice for his country after making his debut against Suriname in October 2008. In 2009 he was named the CONCACAF Gold Cup’s best goalkeeper, as Costa Rica reached the semi-finals before being beaten on penalties by Mexico. Top of the stops: Keeper Keylor Navas denies Italy's Mario Balotelli . Junior Diaz – 64 caps, 1 goal . Costa Rica were dealt a blow before the tournament when Everton defender Bryan Oviedo was ruled out through injury, but Diaz has filled in on the left brilliantly in his absence. The 30-year-old, who currently plays for Bundesliga side Mainz 05, offers Costa Rica searing pace down the wing, while his crossing ability was also on show against Italy as he provided the assist for Ruiz’s goal. History . Their previous best performance in a World Cup came on their debut back in 1990, when they advanced to the last 16 having beaten Sweden and Scotland, before they were knocked out by Czechoslovakia. Man hug: Costa Rica players hug it out after the game . They did not qualify for another tournament until 2002, where they were knocked out in the group stages. Their third appearance was one to forget too, as they lost all three of their group games, including a 4-2 thriller on the opening day against Germany. In 2010 they lost a World Cup qualification play-off against Uruguay but they got revenge in their first group game this time round, winning 3-1 and ending a four-match losing run at World Cups in the process. | Costa Rica clinch place in knock-out stages after beating Italy .
Fulham's Bryan Ruiz bagged the only goal to sink Azzurri .
Costa Rica's win confirmed England's early exit from the competition . |
110,651 | 1a9f7c0840860d9c3e442cca7b93e865c30301a4 | The young prisoner stood motionless in the office of the factory manager. Next to him stood the chief foreman and the floor foreman, who had reported him for his grave offence. ‘What were you thinking!?’ the manager screamed. ‘Do you want to die?’ Of course, he did not want to die — he was just 22 years old — but he knew, after many years in the brutal hell of North Korea’s Camp 14, that life was very cheap. Scroll down for video . Behind the wire: Rare video footage taken by hidden camera in 2005 and shows what appears to be a executions in a North Korean concentration camp near Hoeryang along the Chinese border (File photo) His ‘offence’ was severe indeed: he had accidentally dropped a sewing machine down a stairwell, and it was beyond repair. ‘Even if you die, the sewing machine can’t be brought back,’ the manager shouted. ‘Your hand is the problem!’ The chief foreman took hold of his right hand and, with a large kitchen knife, cut off the prisoner’s middle finger, just above the first knuckle. Incredibly, the prisoner felt that he’d got off lightly. ‘I thought my whole hand was going to be cut off at the wrist,’ he said, ‘so I felt thankful and grateful.’ Shin Dong-hyuk’s story of how he lost his finger is just one of the many horrors being recounted this week at a United Nations commission of inquiry in Seoul, South Korea. The commission are interviewing some 30 defectors who are fortunate enough to have slipped from the grasp of one of the vilest regimes the world has ever seen. Death: In tapes taken in 2005 that South Korean intelligence officers insist are fake, prisoners including children are kept in concentration camps that bear similarities to Shin Dong-hyuk's Camp 14 (File photo) Mr Shin, who testified on Monday, is one of the more well-known defectors. He has recently published an account of his experiences in a book, Escape From Camp 14. At times, the stories told by Mr Shin and his fellow defectors are almost too unbearable to hear — but it is the intention of the commission to publicise such acts of terror committed by the regime. It is hoped news of them will trickle across the border into North Korea, alerting its benighted people to what has been done in their name since the despotic Kim family took control in 1948. The 30 witnesses are just a handful of the hundreds of thousands of political prisoners incarcerated in a network of North Korean ‘kwan-li-so’ — best translated as ‘political penal-labour colonies’. In these colonies, three generations of families are held for life, often on the basis that a single family member was once deemed guilty of an offence against the regime. The supposed ‘crime’ which saw . Mr Shin born at Camp 14 in 1982 was that his two uncles had tried to flee the country in the mid-Sixties. Mr Shin’s parents were both prisoners, and their marriage had been arranged in the camp. If their baby had been born out of what passes for ‘wedlock’, then he would not have been allowed to live and they would have been executed for having ‘sexual contact without prior approval’. Evil: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, son of former leader Kim Jong-il, presides over one of the most repressive regimes in history . Another defector, Jee Heon-a, told the commission how one mother was forced to kill her own baby by holding it down in a bowl of water. ‘The mother begged the guard to spare her, but he kept beating her,’ Ms Jee said. ‘So the mother, her hands shaking, put the baby face down in the water. The crying stopped and a bubble rose up as it died. A grandmother who had delivered the baby quietly took it out.’ Mr Shin testified that his first memory as a toddler was watching a public execution, and that he had seen two or three per year since. Many of those executed are those caught trying to escape. One former prisoner, Kang Chol-Hwan, in his book The Aquariums Of Pyongyang, has recalled a typical execution at Camp 15 in which the condemned man had his mouth stuffed full of stones to stop him shouting out any statements against the regime that might be heard by the onlookers. The man was then bound with three pieces of rope: one around his eyes, one around his chest and one at the waist. The leader of the firing squad then shouted: ‘Aim at the traitor of the Fatherland… Fire!’ Three volleys were aimed at the man. The first hit him in the head, killing him instantly. The second hit him in the chest, causing him to slump, and the third, aimed at the waist, caused the man to fall into a pit. As Mr Kang wryly points out: ‘This simplified the burial.’ Spy state: The UN commission of inquiry will look into government policing activities in North Korea . Prisoners are sometimes made to throw rocks at the corpse until its skin comes off. Mr Kang also remembers how a bulldozer preparing some ground to be made into a field unearthed masses of body parts. ‘Scraps of human flesh re-emerged from the final resting place,’ he recalls. ‘Arms and legs and feet, some still stockinged, rolled in waves before the bulldozer. I was terrified. One of my friends vomited.’ Mr Kang was then made to throw the body parts into a ditch. ‘That scene frightens me even more today than it did back then,’ he says. In some ways, those who die are the lucky ones and many prisoners do indeed choose suicide as the ultimate means of escape. Just as in the Nazi concentration camps decades before, prisoners are worked incredibly hard and subsist on pathetically meagre rations. As a result, the starving prisoners — many of them children, — eat what they can, including rats, frogs, snakes, and insects. Mr Shin recalled how rats were especially valued, as their meat can help stave off a potentially fatal disease called pellagra, caused by a lack of protein and niacin. Isolation: A satellite image shows a camp in Haengyong, North Korea, where prisoners are thought to be held by the tyrannical government . Mr Shin would peel away the skin of a rat, scrape out its innards, chew the flesh and bones, then finish off with the rodents’ small feet. Mr Kang prized salamanders, but they have to be eaten live. ‘The way to eat a salamander is to grab it by its tail and swallow it in one gulp, before it can discharge a foul-tasting liquid,’ he says. In the camps, the children eat anything that moves, including earthworms. If a group of prisoners is sent to work in a field, not one animal is left alive. Not surprisingly, the penalty for stealing food is severe. At Camp 14, one six-year-old girl was found by her teacher to have five kernels of corn in her pockets. The teacher forced the young girl to kneel in front of the class, whereupon he repeatedly beat her around the head with a wooden stick. The class was forced to watch as her head swelled up with bruises, and blood leaked from her nose. Eventually, she was taken away. She died later that evening. Such treatment is by no means unusual, and torture is common. Beatings on especially vulnerable parts of the body such as the face and hands are particularly favoured by the sadistic guards, who are encouraged to regard the prisoners as subhuman. Victims are made to kneel motionless on concrete floors for hours, or crouch in special punishment boxes for 15 days at a time. Prison state: A female North Korean soldier stands guard at the entrance of a women's jail on the banks of the Yalu River near North Korea's Chongsong county . More awfully still, those being tortured have often been denounced by members of their own families. One of the most gut-wrenching pieces of testimony made by Mr Shin is his honest admission that it was he who betrayed his own mother and brother for plotting to escape from the camp. He was motivated by the fact that his mother had given rice to his brother and not to him, and partly because he knew that if they did escape, he too would be punished and in all likelihood shot. Mr Shin was forced to watch their execution. At the time, he was so desensitised and full of hate that he felt they deserved their fate. When his mother was led out, he noticed her head was swollen from being beaten. As the noose went around her neck, she looked for her son but Mr Shin did not meet her eye. Her death was terrible, as she struggled at the end of the rope. His brother’s death was equally horrific, as bullets splattered his brains everywhere. The methods of execution varied according to the whim of the camp’s commandant. In 2004, Mr Shin managed to escape Camp 14 and eventually the country disguised as a soldier. Callous: Kim Jong-un lives a fantasy life on the one hand, while allowing the torture and oppression of his people on the other . Although his story and those of . others who have been testifying in Seoul this week seem exceptionally . brutal to our ears, they are commonplace in North Korean camps. Meanwhile, . the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, continues to live in a kind of . Never-Never Land, divorced from the sufferings of his people. His latest pet project is to build a ski resort, which he claims will be for the use of all. Just this week, though, the Swiss government blocked a deal to sell Kim any ski lifts, as it is inconceivable that the resort will be used by the public. And worthy though the UN commission is, it seems unlikely to stop the daily hell that is North Korea. | UN commission of inquiry in Seoul interviewing 30 defectors .
Witnesses include Shin Dong-hyuk, author of Escape From Camp 14 .
Harrowing evidence of country's ‘political penal-labour colonies'
Accounts of mass executions, torture and forced labour .
Starving prisoners - including children - resort to eating rats, lizards and insects . |
117,753 | 240c4477a6575ca036079b9a51375232dfc8436b | A 58-year-old teacher was found with 5,000 photos of teenage boys at his school, in a cache of 60,000 indecent images of other children stored on his computer. Timothy Arthur, who claims he has never had a sexual relationship, was caught as part of an international investigation into the sale of child abuse materials by a Canadian company. As well as 86 extreme images of children being raped, tortured or abused with animals, he had a further 59,477 indecent images and two movies. Timothy Arthur claims he did not know the images he had stored of teenage boys at his school were illegal . Timothy Arthur, 58, was found with 5,000 images he had taken of teenage boys at the Grange School, Bristol . Among these were 5,000 photos of boys aged 14 to 16 at the Grange School in Warmley, Bristol, where he worked part time. Bristol Crown Court heard all the schoolboys he photographed were clothed and had been aware of the pictures being taken by him. Arthur admitted 11 counts of making indecent images of children but escaped prison with a suspended sentence. The court heard that during the investigation into the sale of child abuse material Arthur was identified as a customer of the firm by police in Toronto who handed his details to the UK National Crime Agency via Interpol. Arthur bought DVDs, CDs and downloads between December 2007 and December 2010 with over 70 containing indecent images of children. David Scutt, defending Arthur, said the teacher accepted he had an 'unhealthy obsession' with the material and claimed he had bought it without realising it was illegal. Timothy Arthur hoarded 5,000 photos of teenage boys alongside 60,000 indecent images of other children . Arthur had the images of the boys in a file of 60,000 indecent images of children - some of them being raped . He said: 'He is a 58-year-old man. He has never had a sexual relationship. He is particularly naive.' Mr Scutt added that Arthur had been working only part time at the school and resigned as soon as he was arrested in February. Recorder David Bartlett said some of the images would not on their own be classed as indecent but he could not ignore the higher level images and the sheer number involved. He said: 'If you take the unhealthy obsession with this material then it shows that the relatively innocent stuff can't have been obtained innocently.' Arthur, of Bristol, was given a one-year suspended jail sentence for his crimes, which are thought to have spanned over a three year period. He was also given a 24-month community order, supervision and a 15-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning him from working with children. | Timothy Arthur was found with 5,000 pictures of boys at the Grange School .
Images were part of 60,000 collection which included others being raped .
The 58-year-old was a part time teacher at the school in Warmley, Bristol .
Claimed he was 'naive', inexperienced and did not realise images were illegal .
Was caught as part of international investigation into child abuse material .
He admitted making indecent images and was given suspended sentence . |
104,914 | 135c69a24d0ecb9ffb6c6a9a751d30aa97e27775 | By . Jo Knowsley . Ignored: Mohammed Zabar believes the Government should have acted on his guidance sooner . A Muslim father has revealed he warned the Prime Minister’s office of worrying Islamist practices at one of the scandal-hit ‘Trojan Horse’ schools – but got no reply. The Mail on Sunday has learned that David Cameron’s office received an email in February from Mohammed Zabar, whose ten-year-old daughter attends Oldknow Academy. Oldknow is one of the schools investigated in connection with an alleged fundamentalist plot to take over Birmingham schools. Mr Zabar warned the Government that he believed the school over-emphasised Islamic teaching at the expense of other faiths. He said the school closed for a Muslim festival but had no Christmas celebrations. Downing Street did not respond to Mr Zabar’s email. Instead he was advised by the Education Funding Agency to ‘contact Oldknow Academy directly and make a complaint’. Mr Zabar had already met the school principal, whom he says did not deal with his concerns. News of the Trojan Horse plot broke in March and Mr Cameron spoke about it for the first time in April after claims that non-Muslim members of staff were being isolated, male and female pupils were segregated and assemblies were used to promote the teachings of Al Qaeda. The Prime Minister promised to take ‘swift action’ to ensure schools could not be used to spread the ideology of terrorists, and an investigation into schools in Birmingham started. One report later uncovered allegations that pupils as young as six at Oldknow were taught to treat Western women as ‘white prostitutes’. And there were claims that extermists pushed out the head teacher because she opposed the ‘Islamisation’ of the school. Mr Zabar believes the Government should have acted on his guidance much earlier. He said: ‘I was angry and frustrated that my concerns had been so easily dismissed. ‘When the Trojan Horse scandal broke I wrote to them again saying perhaps they might want to reassess my information in light of recent evidence. I never had a reply to that one.It was distressing and disappointing to have my concerns ignored.’ Peter Clarke, former national head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police, was appointed in April to investigate the Trojan Horse plot to hijack the schools by Islamic extremists. Anti-Christian? Mr Zabar said Oldknow over-emphasised Islamic teaching at the expense of other faiths. It is being investigated in connection with an alleged fundamentalist plot to take over Birmingham schools . His report is due to be handed in to the Government imminently. Last night Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt accused Mr Cameron of ‘shocking complacency’. He said: ‘The Government was warned about the problems in Birmingham’s schools as long ago as 2010. Now it is revealed that warnings by parents were being fobbed off by No 10.’ A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘We became aware of concerns in Birmingham schools in December last year and began investigating immediately. Early warning: Mr Cameron's office received Mr Zabar's email in February - two months before the Trojan Horse plot broke . ‘We were already investigating Oldknow by the time this letter [Mr Zabar’s] was sent.' The email alert about Oldknow is revealed in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, to be screened tomorrow night. The TV investigation also features The Olive School, a Muslim faith primary for 600 pupils in Blackburn. It is understood to have found: . Teachers referring to clapping hands as un-Islamic and ‘Satanic’. Teachers allegedly discussing whether music in school might be un-Islamic. Possible evidence of visits by extremist preachers – though the school strongly denies this. The Olive School is run by the Tauheedul Islam Faith, Education and Community Trust. The Trust confirmed that Dispatches had filmed undercover in The Olive School and promised to act ‘if anything that emerges on the film is shown to undermine our progressive vision, ethos and approach’. A Tauheedul governor said: ‘The trust’s schools provide a first class education for young people in modern-day Britain.’ The governor added: ‘We need to look at what these schools have achieved for their pupils.’Blackburn MP Jack Straw said: ‘I reserve final judgment until I see the programme. From what I know the allegations are groundless.’ Dispatches also reveals concerns over unregistered schools in Hackney, East London, where thousands of Jewish boys appear to disappear from state school registers at the age of 13. | Mohammed Zabar warned of worrying practices at Oldknow Academy .
Said school over-emphasised Islamic teaching at the expense of other faiths .
Emailed Downing Street in February, but was told to contact school directly .
Oldknow is now being investigated in connection with alleged fundamentalist plot to take over Birmingham schools .
Mr Zabar believes the Government should have acted on his guidance earlier . |
50,944 | 902560a31054fa3921f40e8a81df8bb7317de35b | It should have been a time to savour the pinnacle of her career, but instead Robyn Gardiner's glittering world has turned to dust. Just weeks ago, the celebrity agent was lovingly thanked by Cate Blanchett as the actress accepted an Academy Award for best actress at a glittering Oscars ceremony. Now Gardiner's life - as a successful businesswoman and partner to a successful actor - has come crashing down as her husband Robert Hughes faces years in prison as a reviled child sex offender. It has also been claimed that Gardiner was told about her husband's sexual approaches to children on the set of his sitcom Hey Dad! 20 years ago. Her refusal to believe the allegations ended one of her oldest friendships. Robyn Gardiner (left) is seen leaving a Sydney court last month with husband and former Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes, who has been found guilty of sexual assault. They are pictured with daughter Jessica Hughes (right) When Cate Blanchett said in her Oscars speech last month, 'To my agent in Australia, Robyn Gardiner, I love you so very much,' few if any of the Hollywood royalty in the audience would have known the significance of the statement. Blanchett's public thanks to Ms Gardiner came in the second week of the very public trial of Gardiner's husband on 11 child sexual assault offences against young females including a cast member in his career flagship Australian sitcom, Hey Dad! Ms Gardiner had snapped up Blanchett back in 1992 upon the promising young actor's graduation from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, and has represented her ever since, also acquiring Blanchett's husband, theatre director Andrew Upton, as a client. It has now emerged that Ms Gardiner's star acquisition came at around the same time when stories about Robert Hughes sexual advances to a child TV star were known among the Hey Dad! cast, and the show's casting agent Liz Mullinar claims she approached Ms Gardiner to inform her. Following a jury's conviction last week of Hughes on ten child sex offences, Ms Mullinar, herself a victim of sexual abuse as a child, has come forward. Actor Robert Hughes has been convicted on child sex charges, after he was accused by former Hey Dad! actors and and the daughters of family friends of sexual assault . Robert Hughes in character as the father, Martin Kelly, in the sitcom Hey Dad!, which ran on Channel Seven from 1987 until 1994 . Ms Mullinar told the Nine Network's Today Show she had been close friends with both Robyn Gardiner and Robert Hughes for years before she learned about Hughes' behaviour from members of the Hey Dad! production. She claims she approached Ms Gardiner back then and was rebuffed. 'My whole life’s work had been to help people find healing and help,' Ms Mullinar told the Today Show. 'That’s why I told his wife because I thought that’s my duty, everybody has to know. She denied it and that was the end of a very long friendship, that’s what happens people deny it.' Hughes is currently in Australia's largest maximum security remand prison, in western Sydney, and awaiting sentence on ten charges which include seven counts of indecently assaulting a person under the age of 16 years, and two counts of sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 years. The utter destruction of his career ends a four saga of accusations - and denials by Hughes, who even after his conviction yelled out in court, 'I am innocent'. Clockwise from centre front: Robert Hughes, Simone Buchanan, Christopher Truswell, Julie McGregor, Christopher Mayer, and Sarah Monahan. Ms Monahan accused Hughes of touching her inappropriately while on the set of the show . Robert Hughes entered a plea of not guilty on 11 charges relating to the alleged indecent and sexual assault of five girls, which are said to have occurred between 1985 and 1990, and his trial began on February 24. Robyn Gardiner supported her husband through almost six weeks of often lurid testimony at the trial. Hughes, the trial heard, touched girls as young as seven, gave one victim a teddy bear and called her a 'good girl' after forcing her to perform a sex act. He also exposed himself on set and indecently assaulted some of his victims. Ms Gardiner gave evidence at the trial, saying she was shocked at the accusations against her husband, and rejected the testimony of a former woman friend of the couple . The woman said when her then seven-year-old daughter told her Hughes would molest her during sleepovers at his Artarmon house in the mid-1980s she refused to allow her to go back. Soon afterwards, the woman said, Hughes’ wife Robyn Gardiner asked her why the girl wasn’t sleeping over any more. 'I said words to the effect of 'ask your husband' or 'keep your husband away from my kids,' the woman told the jury. 'She said 'we will have to get him help'.' Challenged about these allegations in the witness box, Gardiner denied saying this and then. 'Absolutely not,' she said repeatedly and and denied lying to save her husband. I’m under oath here, she did not say those words,” Ms Gardiner told the court. She told the court the first allegation she was aware of - that Hughes had exposed himself to a young girl at their home in the 1980s - was 'bad enough'. 'I love you so very much': Cate Blanchett, who was represented by Robyn Gardiner, thanked the agent in her Oscars acceptance speech . She said police investigated and took no action. 'It's not as if I brushed it aside... I saw no evidence to suggest it was true,' she said. Liz Mullinar claimed on Radio 3AW that she had acted 20 years ago to get Robert Hughes sacked from Hey Dad! after informing the show's producers about the abuse. 'We had to get him off the show because of these allegations,' she said. Asked if, at the time, she believed her 'dear friend' could have done the kind of things he was accused of, Ms Mullinar said: 'Yes I did believe them [the allegations], and I did know 20 years ago. 'And even then, as a survivor of child abuse myself, I was, and have been, very public about it. 'I think at the time I didn't realise that paedophiles are your friends. They are lovely, fantastic people. They are not greasy men in dirty coats. 'That it could be someone who I was so close and intimately involved with was terrible. I told his wife and it was a terrible, terrible shock to be surrounded by child abuse.' Robert Hughes will be sentenced on May 2. Agent to the stars: Robyn Gardiner represents media personality Andrew Denton (left) and actor Chris Lilley (right), as well as Cate Blanchett . | Friend claims she told celebrity agent Robyn Gardiner 20 years ago of actor husband's child sex allegations .
Gardiner is Oscar winner Cate Blanchett's much-loved representative .
Spouse of 40 years Robert Hughes awaits sentence for molesting girls aged seven to 15 .
One-time high flying couple's glittering world has turned to dust .
Gardiner's denial cost her friendship, casting agent Liz Mullinar claims . |
197,580 | 8bbb28dc3eae94ba12b624d83b5e6c2ee9d16917 | (CNN) -- May the force be with them. George Lucas, the Hollywood writer, director and producer who's most known for his work on the Star Wars film franchise, wed his longtime girlfriend over the weekend. Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynne Hale told CNN that Lucas, 69, and Mellody Hobson, 44, were married north of San Francisco Saturday at Skywalker Ranch. Hobson is president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments and sits on numerous corporate boards. "It was a beautiful ceremony," Hale said. Journalist Bill Moyers officiated, she said, and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley walked Hobson down the aisle. In a Twitter post Sunday, actor and director Ron Howard said the wedding was a "joy to behold." "Bill Moyers service was beautiful," he wrote, "nothing short of profound." With Abrams in place, 'Star Wars' fans brace for future . | George Lucas and Mellody Hobson wed .
A representative for Lucas says they married at Skywalker Ranch in California .
In a Twitter post, actor Ron Howard describes the wedding as "beautiful" |
60,826 | acda10ae304b71f5ab952d780ca65ad1a41e6fc1 | (CNN) -- When the moment finally arrived, 86 of us stood up to utter 31 sacred words. I raised my right hand. My heart was pounding. All those years spent in public schools in America, I'd refrained from saying the Pledge of Allegiance. It was wrong to say it when my loyalties lay elsewhere. But that changed with a ceremony on a July day six years ago. And it changed me. I learned lessons about the meaning of country and more importantly, about myself. I'd been in America almost three decades but happily retained an Indian passport. Over the years, each time it was renewed, my green card changed to pink and white but the status remained the same: permanent U.S. resident. I'd lived here so long that I felt just as much American as I did Indian, but I had my reasons for not taking that last formal step that made my Americanness official. One was practical -- there was a matter of inheriting my father's property in Kolkata, India, and for a long time, that process was excruciatingly painful without Indian citizenship. My father knew what a bureaucratic nightmare inheritance could be, and as long as he was alive, he encouraged me to stay an Indian. The other reason I held back was far more personal. India does not allow dual citizenship with the United States, and assuming U.S. citizenship would effectively mean renouncing India. That felt like betrayal, a severance with the land that gave me birth and shaped me. I spent a chunk of my childhood in India. When my family finally settled in the United States, I struggled to find myself. I learned to speak English well, even with a twinge of Southern drawl, some would say. I went to high school dances and loved my Levi's and even went out on dates, something I would never have done in India at that time. But I never felt fully accepted. I was always an "other" on forms that asked for race and ethnicity, before the days when Asian-American became a census category. In high school and college, I found myself fighting stereotypes and answering absurd questions about India, such as "do people live in grass huts?" Sometimes, I felt Americans simply didn't understand me and that everything would be better if I could just go back to India. The yearning for home and family grew stronger with age, especially after my parents moved back to India in 1985. I felt a need to rediscover my roots, not uncommon, I suppose, among immigrant children. But every time I returned home to visit, I realized I could never feel fully at home in India anymore. I was too Americanized. A memsahib, the elders in my family joked, referring to the term for British women during colonial times. That, too, is not uncommon among immigrant children. Many of us feel neither here nor there, straddling two cultures as we navigate key years of our lives. In my case, I was happy to go on as a citizen of one country, a resident of another. I paid my taxes and enjoyed all the freedoms afforded Americans save two things. I never served on a jury and more importantly, I could not vote. I never had an electoral say in India either because it did not allow absentee voting. I hailed from the world's largest democracy and lived in the world's most powerful one, but was unable to take part in a free society's most essential expression. I always felt cheated, or worse, that I was falling short. In 2004, I covered the presidential elections for an Atlanta newspaper, and after months of excitement and intrigue I was frustrated that I could not cast a ballot on Election Day. By then I had cleared the biggest legal hurdles in India in settling my father's property. And so it happened that I sat down to fill out the necessary forms declaring my intent to become American. I was fingerprinted, passed citizenship tests that challenged my knowledge of the Constitution and was finally called to take the oath in July 2008. At the suburban Atlanta offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I scanned the room to see faces from Vietnam to Venezuela. There were people from 38 different countries there that day for the naturalization ceremony. I thought back to all the people I had met in my career as a reporter, of people who fought for freedom in lands that kept them caged, and others who clawed their way to these shores to break free. I remembered Cuban dissenters I had met on my trip to Havana, and Afghan women who risked their lives to make things better for their little girls. Now, all we have to do is look to the men and women of the Arab Spring, who took to the streets to oust governments that kept them down. Think of how much people risk to attain the kind of freedom we enjoy in America. And how much people in our own country have struggled to rid our society of prejudice and persecution. My naturalization ceremony was testament to the American spirit. I looked around me and realized that this wasn't just about the journeys people had made; it was about the potential of all they could achieve in their new nation. I thought about the Americans I'd met who worked hard, determined to achieve the American dream; about how their expectations were greater than their fears. Such was the case with Fernando Andrade, who left behind Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military rule in Chile and arrived here without a college degree or English skills. He started in construction jobs and worked his way up to become a successful businessman. Or Darly Pierre, who fled the brutal dictatorship of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. She came to America ready to fulfill her dreams. In Haiti, she said, she never had that chance. I thought, too, about all the Americans I met who inspired me to carry on in the face of adversity. They, too, championed the American spirit. Dylynn Waters lost her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina, resettled in Atlanta only to lose her home again in a fire. Waters persevered with a smile on her face. She said she had learned that it was not possessions that made a home. Richard Ingram was a young cavalry scout whose arm was blown off in a roadside bombing in Iraq. He returned home determined to make the best of life. He is the first severely wounded soldier in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to become an officer. America is filled with such stories. It is a nation that gives people hope. On that July day, I felt proud, and extremely lucky, to be a part of this land. I glanced at Francisco Montiel of Venezuela, standing to my right, dressed for the occasion in a khaki suit and blue tie. And on my left stood my friend Vino Wong, a photographer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper and a native of Malaysia. I wondered what they were thinking as they, too, became U.S. citizens. Did they have the same emotions I did? Was their joy tinged with the melancholy of giving up a homeland? My eyes welled as I began the oath. "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. ..." Two worlds collided in my head as I drove to the Fulton County Courthouse with my new certificate of citizenship so that I could register to vote in time for the 2008 presidential elections. That November, America made history with the election of Barack Obama as its first black president. The election became an important part of my own history as I stepped up to a voting booth and cast a ballot for the very first time. Since then, I've come to think differently of my new citizenship. I know now that swearing allegiance to the red, white and blue gave me new nationality. But nothing can ever take away my identity or that of the 40 million other people living in America who were born in other countries. My Indian roots run deep, and I strive to carry with me every day the very best of two lands. That is, after all, what makes America great. What does U.S. citizenship mean to you as we approach July 4th? Share your take in the comments section below. | CNN reporter Moni Basu writes about making her "Americanness official"
After almost 30 years in America, she became a citizen in 2008 .
Author: "America...is a nation that gives people hope" |
263,805 | e1a6f1359e4b696897d8a1eefce4221392f1ecb5 | Why play one sport when you can play two at the same time? That was the question a number of like-minded individuals were asking themselves, circa 2006. And it is thanks to the vision of these select few that the sport of FootGolf -- a game, unsurprisingly, combining elements of football and golf -- was born and has been spreading its way around the globe ever since. One of those men was Mike O'Connor, who today combines the roles of president of the Federation for International FootGolf (FIFG) and president of UK FootGolf. "I just knew FootGolf would be a bit of a no-brainer for the amount of golf courses there are, as well as the number of golfers and footballers," O'Connor told CNN of a game that involves players kicking a football around a golf course, complete with bigger holes. "I always thought it would take off. So it was just a question of waiting for the right time to get involved with it all really." After years in production, O'Connor would bring the sport to the UK -- where there are now over 10,000 active players -- and set up UK FootGolf in 2012. Yet it is a Dutchman called Michael Jansen who is credited with the title of founding father of the game. "He created what we do today," O'Connor said. "He created everything, from how the game is played, down to the look of the players. Everything." Kicking around a new idea . Jansen, now an FIFG ambassador, held the first FootGolf competition in the Netherlands in 2008, after hearing of a unique idea from friend and former professional footballer Willem Korsten. Korsten had played an early interpretation of the game during his days at Tottenham Hotspur, when he and his teammates would attempt to kick a football from the training pitch back to the changing rooms in as little time as possible. The mere invention of FootGolf seems to be a natural progression, given that football and golf have long shared a close relationship. Footballers are well known for playing golf in their spare time, so perhaps it is no surprise that FootGolf has proved such a hit with those hailing from a footballing background -- 70% of people who have taken up the sport have been footballers. While there is obviously the relaxing aspect of walking around a golf course on a sunny day, former English Premier League player Bryan Hughes also feels that the sport represents another opportunity for footballers to flex their competitive muscles. "There is that challenge when playing golf. As sportsmen, we've all got that in our lockers. We want to challenge each other, we want to challenge ourselves and obviously be the best. That's why footballers turn to golf," he told CNN. "It can be a challenge if you want, but I think it's good that you can actually have it as a casual game as well. Some footballers play golf but do it as a hobby, to relax and wind down, and escape from the pressures of a football match on a Saturday." But while golf is in good health when it comes to attracting footballers, the sport has lost players in recent years -- According to a report in The New York Times, a recent survey by the U.S. National Golf Foundation estimated the game has lost five million in the last decade, with 20% of the existing 25 million golfers likely to quit in the next few years. Many feel the game takes too long to play, is too difficult to learn and has too many complicated rules, which has led to a number of new alternatives being introduced to help boost a sport in decline. Such concerns have led to the introduction on golf courses of 15 inch-wide holes -- about four times the width of a standard hole -- a relaxation in the game's rules, and of course, FootGolf. Gaining a worldwide foothold . Since Jansen's inaugural competition -- open to a mix of Dutch and Belgian professional footballers -- the sport has gone from strength to strength. Three countries formed the FIFG in June 2012 for the first ever World Cup in Budapest, Hungary, while today the world governing body boasts 22 different member nations, ranging from South Africa to Argentina. "A lot of people are getting involved and loving the sport. It's definitely the fun element that attracts people to it," O'Connor said. "It catches such a large demographic because it's such a low skill level to be able to play. You've just got to be able to kick a ball." And it is the sport's ability to appeal to all that means a FootGolf course somewhere has likely played host to either a family visit, a first date, a corporate business trip or even, as was the case in the UK, an 81-year-old grandmother's day out with her grandson. But while there is little doubting the game's capacity to attract members from most walks of life, O'Connor feels luring newcomers at a young age is truly pivotal to FootGolf's future and its capability to grow as a sport. "When I first set up FootGolf I knew a lot of people would want to play the sport, and I knew I wouldn't be alone in liking the idea of playing football on a golf course," he said. "But I was always conscious of the next level. "I knew it would take off with adults, but we started looking at how the sport could continue to grow and grow. And if you get the youngsters involved you're going to still be going in 10, 20, 30 years' time, and you'll be continuing to build, develop and progress." Much to O'Connor's surprise, since its introduction, the sport seems to have struck a particular chord with junior football coaches. There has been an overwhelming response from these coaches, who have contacted UK FootGolf to explain that the game is the perfect way to help youngsters focus on their passing and shooting. So much so, that the governing body has taken the steps to set up its very own UK FootGolf Academy Scheme, due to start for business in May, and headed up by Hughes, who previously played for Birmingham City, Charlton Athletic and Hull City and is now a player-assistant manager at Scarborough Athletic. The scheme is currently being worked on with UK-based 1st4sport -- who develop training qualifications for the likes of the English Football Association and the English Rugby Football Union -- and will range from including holiday camps for kids to qualification courses for future coaches. Hughes will take on the role of academy director, and like O'Connor, he feels the scheme can help to push the boundaries of FootGolf even further. "The concept of FootGolf is something that really appeals to me and I'm sure there is a massive amount of people that would really want to get involved with the Academy Scheme. The potential there is huge and it is something that I'm really looking forward to," Hughes said. "I don't think a lot of kids get the right sort of education when it comes to sport, I think they just want to kick the ball against a wall nowadays. They need direction and for somebody to really push them a little, to get them right up there and become the best they really can be. The scheme will give you that platform." As well as furthering the profile of the sport, the Academy Scheme will be hoping to produce some of the FootGolfers of tomorrow. A tour de force . The FIGC currently stages a European Tour, with each of its different 22 member nations holding their own tournament throughout the year. Some of the world's finest players go from competition to competition looking to accumulate points, before a European champion is eventually crowned at the final stage in Portugal in November. "Players travel from country to country because they love FootGolf and they love trying different courses," O'Connor said. "There's quite a small, but cult, following of people that do this. They all want to get ranked and be known as a good FootGolfer, not just in their own country but around the world." There are also a number of domestic tournaments taking place each year on various courses across the globe. The U.S. currently leads the way when it comes to different courses with 90, while the UK, now boasting 30, has made impressive progress to move up to second, given it had just two at the beginning of 2013. With FootGolf continuing to make huge strides both at home and abroad, O'Connor has high hopes for the sport and feels the sky is most certainly the limit. "In five years' time, every country in the world that has got golf courses will be a member of the Federation for International FootGolf," O'Connor said. "With the amount of inquiries we are getting from all over the place, I have no doubt about that. "We've got somebody in Togo asking us about joining the FIFG. They've only got one golf course in Togo, and they're talking about putting FootGolf on it! That's how big an impact the sport is having around the world." Read more: A golf club with more eagles than most . | FootGolf is played in a number of countries around the world .
The Federation for International FootGolf boasts 22 member nations .
UK FootGolf set to introduce its own UK FootGolf Academy Scheme . |
141,612 | 43202d1293b7fad2d634c77ac0d75153e6fbaa07 | United Nations (CNN) -- Jubilant Libyan rebels in Benghazi erupted with fireworks and gunfire after the U.N. Security Council voted Thursday evening to impose a no-fly zone and permit "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. The opposition, with devoted but largely untrained and under-equipped units, has suffered military setbacks this week. It has said such international action was necessary for it to have any chance of thwarting Moammar Gadhafi's imminent assault on the rebel stronghold. "We're hoping and praying that the United Nations will come up with a very firm and very fast resolution and they will enforce it immediately," said Ahmed El-Gallal, a senior opposition coordinator, before the vote. "We should not arrive too late," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said at the U.N. The resolution was approved with 10 votes, including those of the United States and the United Kingdom. There were no opposing votes on the 15-member council, but China, Russia, Germany, India and Brazil abstained. Germany said it was concerned about a protracted military conflict. U.N. member states can "take all necessary measures ... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force," according to the resolution. Moments after the vote, anti-Gadhafi forces in Benghazi broke into cheers, waving flags and chanting. Antiaircraft tracer fire lit up the sky at one rally. It was not immediately clear just how an international military operation and possible strikes against the Libyan military might unfold. The no-fly zone prohibits Libya's air forces from entering certain zones within the country. The United States and NATO partners have contingencies in place to act within hours, according to an administration official familiar with planning. President Barack Obama will insist on a major Arab role in any no-fly zone, the official said. The contingencies include air strikes and cruise missile attacks designed to cripple Libyan air defenses and punish military units leading Gadhafi's push on opposition strongholds in the east, the official said. Obama called British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy after the vote. The three "agreed that Libya must immediately comply with all terms of the resolution and that violence against the civilian population of Libya must cease," the White House said in a statement. Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim, speaking in Tripoli, told reporters after the vote that the country will safeguard civilians and its territorial integrity. He called on the international community to send a fact-finding mission to the African nation but not lend material support to rebels. A few dozen pro-Gadhafi supporters chanted, "Down with the U.N.! Down with Britain! Down with the United States!" The U.S. military does not view a no-fly zone alone as sufficient to stop Gadhafi. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday that establishing a zone would take "upwards of a week." U.S. military officials have said that a no-fly zone would not halt the heavy artillery the regime is using on the ground. Gadhafi's son Saadi told CNN Thursday evening that troops will change their tactics and take up positions around Benghazi Saturday or Sunday and assist people fleeing from the city. The younger Gadhafi said there will be no large-scale assault. Instead police and anti-terrorism units will be sent into the rebel stronghold to disarm the opposition. Unspecified humanitarian groups can help with the exodus of civilians from Benghazi, Saadi Gadhafi said. In a radio address aired on Libyan state TV, Gadhafi criticized residents of Benghazi and called them "traitors" for seeking help from outsiders. The Security Council resolution condemns the "gross and systematic violation of human rights, including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and summary executions." It details enforcement of an arms embargo against Libya, the freezing of assets and a ban on most flights. "The United States stands with the Libyan people in support of their universal rights," said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice. The resolution deplores the use of mercenaries by Libyan authorities, expresses concern about the safety of foreign nationals and demands an immediate cease-fire. Kaim said the Gadhafi government supports a cease-fire, but is working out certain details. The Arab League's U.N. ambassador, Yahya Mahmassani, said two Arab countries would take part in a no-fly zone operation, but he was not sure which two. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Arab League will be critical to the response to Gadhafi, and that he will travel to the region "to advance our common efforts in this critical hour." British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the U.N. vote shows the need for Libyan citizens "to have a more representative government." Earlier Thursday, Libyan state TV said Benghazi would soon come under attack. Gadhafi said that his forces would enter the city to rid it of those "traitors" and that his forces will search everyone for weapons. He added that his forces gave amnesty to those who gave up their weapons in the city of Ajdabiya. "We will not allow further bloodshed among Libyans," Gadhafi said. "Search for the traitors, for the fanatics. Show them no mercy. We will look for them behind every wall," Gadhafi said. "This farce cannot go on." There were air strikes on Benghazi's airport Thursday, with three blasts hitting the site about 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) outside the city. The opposition has been using the airport to launch its own air strikes, using a handful of jets that rebels have managed to get off the ground, opposition leaders said. It is not clear that Gadhafi's ground forces are actually within striking range of Benghazi, but they have been fighting their way in that direction for several days. State TV claimed Thursday that Gadhafi's forces were in control of Ajdabiya, on the road to Benghazi, a claim disputed by opposition leaders. El-Gallal, speaking from eastern Libya, said "morale is high" and people do not want to leave strongholds because Gadhafi "is willing to kill everybody here." The government forces have taken control of the eastern and western gates to Ajdabiya and are trying to breach the inside, opposition leaders said. The opposition says it controls the southern entrance. The opposition says it has a handful of jets that are no match with Gadhafi's superior air power and a pair of Russian-made "Hind" attack helicopters. Ajdabiya is the last major point between pro-government forces and Benghazi. If it is retaken by pro-Gadhafi forces, it would give access to roads leading to the heart of the opposition's base. In remarks to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, William Burns, the under secretary for political affairs at the State Department, said Gadhafi's forces are only about 160 kilometers outside Benghazi. "They've made advances, taking full advantage of their overwhelming military superiority in military firepower," Burns said. He expressed fear that Gadhafi, now isolated by the world community, could turn to terrorism again. "I think there is also a very real danger that if Gadhafi is successful on the ground, that you will also face a number of other considerable risks as well: The danger of him returning to terrorism and violent extremism himself, the dangers of the turmoil that he could help create at a critical moment elsewhere in the region," Burns told the committee. CNN's Arwa Damon, Nic Robertson, Tommy Evans, Elise Labott, John King, Alan Silverleib, Raja Razek, Jennifer Rizzo, Joe Vaccarello, Yousuf Basil and Reza Sayah, and journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report. | President Obama calls French, British leaders .
U.N. secretary-general will travel to region .
Libya says its troops will protect civilians .
The Security Council approves measures against Libya . |
181,543 | 77089b1c1a6833a89d16d9d837f51f02977669e7 | FIFA approved tougher penalties for racist behavior, including possible relegation, in a move that one anti-racism organization said will bring soccer "in line" with other sports. The sanctions, FIFA revealed at its congress in Mauritius on Friday, come in two stages. They were initiated at a time when incidents of racism continue to make headlines around the world and several months after FIFA set up an anti-racism task force. Punishments for first offenses bring a warning, fine or clubs being forced to play games in empty stadiums. A second offense, or one deemed "serious," could result in demotion, a deduction of points or expulsion from a tournament. Soccer's global governing body also said that any individual committing a racist infraction should be suspended for at least five matches. It's now up to FIFA's member associations, who number more than 200, to implement the new punishments. Only one member -- it wasn't known which one -- voted against the measures. "There have been despicable events this year that have cast a long shadow over football and the rest of society," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "I am speaking of the politics of hate -- racism, ignorance, discrimination, intolerance, small-minded prejudice, that uncivilized, immoral and self-destructive force that we all detest." Kevin-Prince Boateng of A.C. Milan walked off in protest when he was racially abused during a friendly in January, and Greece's football federation banned AEK Athens' Giorgos Katidis for five games in April and fined him for a Nazi-style goal celebration. Kick It Out, the anti-racist body, welcomed Friday's development. "It is something the organization has been campaigning on, and stricter punishments for discrimination more generally, for many years," chair Lord Herman Ouseley said on Kick It Out's Web site. "We hope to see the practical implications of this ruling. "FIFA is setting an example to bring football in line with other sports which don't have problems around discrimination and unacceptable behavior." Meanwhile, FIFA announced three women would take their place on the executive committee, which votes, for instance, on where the World Cup is held. | FIFA takes a tougher stance on racist behavior, as one punishment could be relegation .
Teams could also be thrown out of a tournament or deducted points .
Players face a minimum suspension of five games for committing a racist infraction . |
169,828 | 67cae66e5738cf95d046d20dea78bf5af042a268 | The St Rose of Lima church in Connecticut was evacuated today during a noon mass after the church received a bomb threat - in another traumatic day for a community rocked by tragedy. Following . the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday, tensions were raised again at the sight of . nearly a dozen camouflage-clad SWAT team members carrying assault . weapons who rushed into the church and a nearby educational center. The Catholic church that has become a center of grieving since the deaths of 20 children and six adults at the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School. Scroll down for video . Response: A SWAT team prepares to enter St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church . Lookout: A heavily-armed state trooper prepares to enter a religious center adjacent to the church . Guns blazing: A Newtown police officer stands behind a tree with his gun drawn during the bomb threat investigation . Injuries: A woman is placed into an ambulance outside the church was evacuated in Newtown . With their guns drawn, police shouted to members of the public to stand back and take cover while they secured the building. A woman who had apparently suffered an anxiety attack was taken out on a stretcher and placed into an ambulance. After keeping the public and media at bay for more than an hour, the police seemed to relax their posture and at around 1.30pm they were allowing people to lay flowers an candles at a makeshift memorial. Evelyn Leon, 17, of Waterbury, 20 miles east of Newtown, said she was sitting in the back of the church with her family when word came to leave the church. 'Word filtered back through the pews that there had been a threat made and we had to get into our cars and evacuate,' she said. Gripped by emotion: A man embraces a young boy as they look at a memorial in front of the church . Fleeing: A mother runs with her children as police, seen above, canvass homes in the area near the church . Threat: A police officer keeps a hand on his gun as the unspecified threat at St Rose of Lima Church in Newtown . Possible threat: Heavily-armed state troopers were seen entering the church, as well as an educational center nearby . Paying their respects: Candles and makeshift memorials have been placed on the grounds of the church, pictured in the background, since the school shooting on Friday . By candlelight: The church was the scene of a vigil, where mourners lit candles to honor the children and teachers who had lost their lives in the school shooting . 'Everybody was just rushing out. People just didn't know what do.' President Obama arrived in Newtown at about 4pm to attend a memorial service for the 20 first graders and six adults killed in Friday's gun rampage at the elementary school by Adam Lanza, who also killed himself and his mother. The president planned a private meeting Sunday afternoon with families of the victims and with emergency personnel who responded to the shootings. In the evening, he was to speak at an interfaith vigil at Newtown High School. Stationed: Armed officers stand behind trees with their guns at the ready while their colleagues investigate . Presidential visit: The church is located near the high school where President Obama, pictured on Sunday before he departed from the White House, will meet with the families of victims of the shooting . 'As a nation, we have endured far too many of these tragedies in the last few years,' he said in his weekly radio address Saturday. 'An elementary school in Newtown. A shopping mall in Oregon. A house of worship in Wisconsin. A movie theater in Colorado. Countless street corners in places like Chicago and Philadelphia... 'We have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this. Regardless of the politics,' Obama said in his broadcast remarks.' The church has been a source of solace for many in the small town still coming to grips with Friday's tragedy. It . was the scene of an emotional candlelight vigil on Friday night, and a . place where mourners have continuously stopped to reflect and pray. March: Heavily armed Connecticut State Police officers walk past a memorial moments after the church was evacuated . Remembering: The church has been a source of solace for many in the small town still coming to grips with Friday's tragedy . Place of mourning: Newtown residents flocked to the church on Friday night for a candlelight vigil held hours after the massacre . Police officers have also been seen at the church, praying and paying their respects to the lives that were lost . VIDEO: Haven't they suffered enough? Church evacuation after bomb threat in Newtown... | Noon mass was being held at the St Rose of Lima when hundreds of people inside were evacuated due to a called-in threat .
Heavily-armed Connecticut state troopers were seen entering church and doing room-by-room search of religious education facility nearby .
'All clear' was issued at about 1:15pm .
President Obama was due to attend memorial service at Newtown High School on Sunday night . |
238,859 | c13601f0c8bcbfcf32997956e372bde9950f1cd4 | A housekeeper was kidnapped, beaten and burned by her employers for eight hours after they accused her of stealing money and jewelry, reports claim. Daisy Machuea, 54, was attacked as soon as she arrived at work in Queens, New York City, on February 13, police said. Her employers, Devanand Lachman, 32, and his pregnant wife Ambar Lachman, 31, have been charged with felony assault, felony kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. Horrific: These are Daisy Machuea's injuries after she was allegedly burned and beaten by her employers . Machuea told NBC New York that Devanand Lachman and another man, who remains at large, burned her with a plumber's torch and beat her with a blunt object. Once Ambar Lachman arrived, she says, the group then allegedly drove her to Machuea's house while holding her at knifepoint and tore apart the property. Her friend and housemate Oscar Ramirez said he was watching TV when the suspects arrived and told him: 'If you move, the other guy will kill her,' before stealing their cell phones. Police say Machuea arrived at work to clean a home in Queens, New York City, and was immediately attacked by Devanand Lachman and a male accomplice who remains at large . Mr Lachman's pregnant wife allegedly joined the group before driving to Machuea's home to ransack it . Both Machuea and Ramirez were left with severe injuries and went to the hospital. Machuea was treated for severe burns and bruising. 'They kept punching, one guy this side, the other guy the other side,' Machuea said in Spanish, according to her friend and housemate Oscar Ramirez who translated for NBC. Mr Lachman is in jail, while Mrs Lachman was released on bail. Police are hunting their alleged accomplice, described as a six-foot-tall man aged 30 to 35 years old. Suspect: Police are hunting this man believed to be six foot aged 30 to 35 in connection with the case . | Daisy Machuea, 54, was burned with a torch, accused of stealing money .
Her employers Devanand Lachman and pregnant wife Ambar Lachman allegedly kidnapped Machuea at knifepoint and stole from her home .
Mr Lachman and an accomplice 'burned her and beat her'
Mr and Mrs Lachman are charged with felony assault and kidnapping . |
33,454 | 5f27eaf32c868104c02e6a0bf98f508635a474c8 | (CNN) -- Officials in Brazil say they fear the death toll may rise after four days of flooding left at least 33 people dead and thousands homeless. The flooding has mainly affected the northeastern states of Pernambuco and Alagoas. More than 1,000 people are missing in Alagoas with about 500 people unaccounted for in the town of Uniao dos Palmares alone, a state spokesman said. According to Brazil's civil defense agency, more than 40,000 are homeless. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is meeting in Brasilia with governors of both states and has promised to facilitate emergency funds to help flood victims. Are you there? Send us your photos or videos? Pernambuco Governor Eduardo Campos -- who flew over the affected areas -- described the situation as "heart-breaking." "What we have seen since Friday is more than a horror film," Campos said in an official statement. Alagoas Governor Teotonio Vilela Filho traveled through several affected areas an attempted to reassure public. "I ask you all to remain calm because we are all invested in helping you," he said. Alagoas state weather officials are forecasting more rain on Tuesday. Brazil's Center for Climatic Studies (CPTEC) predicted rain above average in the Northeast for the Autum season, which is now coming to an end. Brazil's winter season officially began on June 21. | Four days of flooding in Brazil has left 33 people dead and thousands homeless .
Flooding has mainly affected northeastern states of Pernambuco and Alagoas .
State weather officials are forecasting more rain on Tuesday . |
238,324 | c07ccc5ed5d137b73735a56da246f524a995f9e6 | LONDON, England (CNN) -- From today, travelers visiting the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) risk being detained at airports and sent home if they don't comply with new U.S. immigration rules. Thousands of travelers risk being detained and sent home from U.S. airports and ports. The introduction of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) means visitors from 27 VWP countries -- including most of Western Europe, New Zealand, Japan and Australia -- must now register their details online at least three days before departure. ESTA -- which came into effect today -- replaces the written green I-94 form and allows travelers under the VWP to enter the U.S. without a visa and stay for up to 90 days. The measure is designed to tighten security and make it harder for terrorists who are citizens of the participating countries to easily obtain entry to the U.S. Critics fear the new rule will be an inconvenience for business travelers and the British Foreign Office is concerned that travelers who have not heard about the new rules may be caught out. A British Foreign Office report on travel trends for 2009 predicted that 13 percent of British travelers are more likely to visit the States now Barack Obama has been elected. "The consequences of not registering through ESTA could therefore be far reaching," says the Foreign Office. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has assured travelers that the system can handle last-minute and emergency requests. Watch CNN's Richard Quest explain the new rules. » . ESTA has been operating on a voluntary basis since 1 August 2008 and is compulsory from 12 January 2009. Applications can be made at any time, even if travelers have no specific travel plans. If itineraries change, information can be easily updated on the ESTA Web site. Once travelers are authorized, they can travel for up to two years or until their passport expires, whichever comes first. Passengers must submit the same information that is currently required in the I-94 immigration form. This includes biographical data, travel information as well as questions regarding communicable diseases, arrests and convictions. Registration is possible through the U.S. government ESTA Web site. In most cases, eligibility for travel will be approved immediately. Applicants who receive an "Authorization Pending" response will need to check the Web site for updates. Applicants whose ESTA applications are denied will be referred to Travel.State.Gov for information on how to apply for a visa. ESTA does not change the rules for citizens from countries that require visas. That no longer includes travelers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Korea, and the Slovak Republic; they joined the VWP in November, 2008. Malta became a member the following month. Travelers are advised that ESTA does not guarantee entry into the United States. The final decision rests with the immigration official at the port of entry. | Travelers risk being turned away at U.S. airports, as entry rules come into effect .
ESTA allows short-term visitors under the visa waiver program entry to the U.S.
Visitors must register details online at least three days before they depart . |
186,251 | 7d3bc12430eba6d5dfc8336f93f8df511370d6f4 | This is the moment a suspected Irish bomber blew himself up after it was believed that he forgot about the clocks going forward an hour for British Summer Time. Police are investigating whether the man, who was allegedly seen running from the scene covered in blood, had injured himself in the blast because he had got his timings wrong when the clocks changed. Officers suspect the bomber planted an explosive device under a Volvo SUV in the centre of Dublin and that it had either gone off too early, or he had returned to the car to investigate why it had not detonated. Blast: An Irish bomber blew himself up after it was believed he forgot about the clocks going forward an hour for British Summer Time . Police believe the high-grade explosives then went off in his face, leaving him with injuries to his head and upper body. Witnesses said they saw a man running from the scene at around 11pm on Sunday with blood on his face, before he climbed into a taxi. 'This certainly was a high-grade explosive used in this bomb. It wasn’t garbage stuff,' a police source told the Daily Mirror. 'It would appear the bomber got his timings wrong.' The source added that the bomber may not have realised just how powerful the explosives were, and that had anyone been in or close to the car at the time of the blast they could have been killed. Probe: Police are investigating whether the man had injured himself in the blast because he had got his timings wrong due to the clocks changing . The car, belonging to a local businessman, was destroyed in the explosion, and the doors and windows of a nearby house were blown out. The Army's bomb squad was deployed to the site of the explosion, close to St Patrick's Cathedral. Police do not believe the attack was linked to paramilitary activity, but instead involved criminal gangs. Superintendent Dave Taylor said the Garda was looking for anyone who may have picked up the suspect. He added: 'It was a very extensive explosion and it was a very frightening experience for the people on Long Lane. 'The consequences could have been very, very serious.' | Police investigating if the man injured himself after getting his timings wrong .
Explosive device was planted underneath a Volvo SUV in Dublin city centre .
Witnesses said they saw a man running from the scene with a bloodied face .
Blast thought to be the work of criminal gangs rather than paramilitary . |
28,174 | 4fdae002dd489912f10b0b4852b40ca1cca5bb2d | (CNN) -- I'm looking forward to Thursday night's installment of CNN's "The Sixties" with some trepidation. True, it's another excellent installment in the series. Capturing the highlights and essence of a decade, especially one as turbulent and historically significant as the '60s, is not easy. Given the controversial nature of many of the events -- at the time and even today -- and given how much influence some of those movements and events still exert, the task of putting together even a multipart series is daunting. Thursday's episode will cover the 1968 assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4, and of Bobby Kennedy, on June 5. Other episodes will cover the beginnings of the gay rights movement -- the Stonewall riots -- and the emergence of the women's rights movement. Those events changed my life, immediately. Those movements changed the way I saw the world, eventually. I was born on December 15, 1959 -- the cusp of the '60s. As the baby boomers came of age, or at least entered their teens, I went from infancy, to being a toddler, to childhood. I have no direct memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK's assassination, the Beatles coming to America, or the buildup of the Vietnam War. "I Have A Dream" was my dream -- it still is, of course -- but I learned the words in reruns. But I was old enough to be affected directly by the events in this episode. As I wrote in "Cooking With Grease," I grew up on April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King was shot. I'd been active in neighborhood politics even before, but that night, at 9 years old, I joined the civil rights movement. I had no choice. None of us did. When Bobby Kennedy was assassinated two months later, we prayed. I remember praying. I remember my anger, my fear, my determination. I remember talking to everyone I trusted, everyone I thought wise. The times indeed were changing, but nobody knew what they were changing into. Our challenge was channeling anger into action, transforming despair into determination, using defeat to become more disciplined. I learned early it's a lifetime challenge. While the civil rights movement was woven into my childhood, it took a bit longer for me to become aware of what was then called the women's liberation movement. Of course, the fight for equality goes back into the 19th century, even to Founders like Abigail Adams. But it was in 1968 that "women's lib" became an official part of the societal shift, the tide of change toward economic, social and legal equality. (The name "women's liberation" came from a nationally circulated newsletter that came out of Chicago.) It was a time of consciousness-raising, and women refused to be left out. In 1968, 100 women protested the Miss America beauty pageant. In 1972, Gloria Steinem published the first issue of Ms. Magazine, but the seeds had been sown earlier. Women like Steinem, Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan, Barbara Jordan -- they showed a young girl just entering her teens that being a woman wasn't a political handicap, but an asset. Or it could be. The gay rights movement also started in the late '60s, but it had the farthest to go. Like the push for women's equality, it actually started earlier. It just found its voice, following the footsteps of the civil rights and women's rights movements. The impetus was the Stonewall riots. When police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, it sent shock waves through the gay and lesbian community. Police lost control of the situation, people rioted, and more protests occurred the next night, and again on other nights. Village residents began organizing, trying to establish places where gays and lesbians could be open without harassment or arrest. Organizing nationwide was slow. Gaining acceptance by other activist groups was slow. Getting respect and equal treatment before the law was slow. It still is. But where we are today began then. And if we want to have an honest discussion about where we are, and where we can and should go, we need to understand the '60s a lot better than we do. I hope you'll tune in. | Events in "The Sixties" changed the world and the way Donna Brazile saw it .
MLK, RFK killed in 1968. Brazile was only 9 but joined the civil rights movement .
Civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, all came into their own in the '60s .
To discuss who we are and where we can go, we need to understand the '60s . |
240,283 | c30e80ba566aa64bc38d4034f44891cce80d11af | By . James Rush . PUBLISHED: . 12:35 EST, 23 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:10 EST, 24 February 2013 . A British man has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of killing one man and the attempted murder of another, according to reports. Jason Peter Marshall is the prime suspect in the murder of 68-year-old tour guide Vincenzo Iale who was strangled and stabbed to death in his flat on the outskirts of Rome. The 24-year-old was arrested last night after police traced him to a bus using his mobile phone signal. Suspect: Jason Peter Marshall has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of killing one man and the attempted murder of another . Officers tracked him down after finding a 55-year-old man severely beaten in the bedroom of his flat in the centre of Rome following neighbours' calls to police after hearing screams and cries for help. Officers believe Marshall met both men through gay internet chat rooms, according to the news channel. The 55-year old man identified Marshall as the attacker and said he was threatened with a gun, beaten with a cosh and smothered with a pillow. Marshall allegedly left the flat with the victim's iPad to erase traces of contact between them, along with 400 euro (£346) and credit cards. It is believed that the Briton, from Greenwich, south-east London, arrived in Italy last month and allegedly killed Mr Iale at his flat in Torvajanica before carrying out the latest attack. He is being held in Regina Coeli prison in Rome on suspicion of murder, kidnap and possessing offensive weapons. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokeswoman said: 'We are aware of the arrest of a Britain national in Italy on February 22. We are providing consular assistance.' Police have said the gun was Marshall's, according to reports . Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons. | Jason Peter Marshall is prime suspect in murder of Vincenzo Iale, 68 .
24-year-old arrested after police traced him to a bus using his mobile signal .
Tracked him down after a 55-year-old was also found severely beaten . |
225,352 | afd49ede89bab806a2779e7bbbda8697224c875b | The owner of an Japanese Akita which attacked a three-year-old boy and left him needing 100 stitches has been told he will not have to destroy his dog. Trafford-James Jackson-Poole required surgery on his left cheek and suffered a fractured eye socket after the brutal mauling at a pub in Newbold near Chesterfield in 2012. Despite the horrifying incident, which left the boy with a permanent scar, Les Kirk-Kingstone, 63, was found not guilty of failing to control his dog after a hearing at Derby Crown Court. Owner: Les Kirk-Kingstone with his Japanese Akita, Tyber. He was found not guilty of failing to control his dog after an incident which left a three-year-old boy requiring 100 stitches . The three-year-old was with his mother, Gemma Jackson, 29 , and his father, engineer James Poole, 31, when he wandered into another room at the Nag’s Head pub and was bitten in the face by the Akita. Miss Jackson said: 'I heard a barking noise and then Trafford-James came in holding his face. The first thing I thought was "is he going to die"? 'I was in complete shock. He has been quite lucky because it could have been so much worse. It’ s frightening to think what could have happened.' Scene: The attack occured at the Nag's Head in Newbold, Derbyshire, in December 2012 . Following the attack in December 2012, Mr Kirk-Kingstone gave up a job he had after 35 years in the trade. 'I . was absolutely devastated,' he said. 'I have lost three stones in . weight with worry. I would rather have gone to prison that have my dog . destroyed. 'Tyber was asleep . in a private room when the little boy wandered in. He jumped onto the . dog to play with him but he startled Tyber because he was asleep.' Before: A picture taken of the three-year-old boy before the horrific incident . After: The youngster suffered a fractured eye socket and has been left with a scar after he was mauled . Mr Kirk-Kingstone said his dog had . previously saved him from a vicious street attack after two men attacked . him and tried to snatch the pub’s takings. 'They . kicked me to the floor,' he said. 'Tyber was in the car and saw I was . in trouble. He jumped out of the window and the men ran off, he saved my . life. 'All the locals have supported me, none of them wanted Tyber destroyed, he’s just a big softie.' Miss Jackson, from Newbold, also mother to . Jordan, 12, would not comment on the outcome of the court case but . added: 'Trafford-James has been very quiet since it happened and not . really himself. Family: The youngster's mother, Gemma, was scared her son was 'going to die' in the aftermath of the mauling . He still has a scar, he won’t go near dogs now and is . scared when he hears them barking.' After . the attack, she told the Daily Mirror: 'He's usually a really smiley . boy but now when he smiles the left side of his smile turns down. 'Trafford keeps saying to me "am I still cute, Mum?"' It . is against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control in a . public or private place where the dog isn’t allowed to be, such as a . neighbour’s house or garden. Worried: Mr Kirk Kingstone said he would rather have gone to prison than see his dog destroyed . | Les Kirk-Kingstone, 63, found not guilty of failing to control his dog .
His dog, Tyber, left Trafford-James Jackson-Poole, three, with a huge scar .
Youngster was mauled as he walked into a room of a pub near Chesterfield .
His mother, Gemma, 29, thought her son was 'going to die' after the attack . |
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