Unnamed: 0
int64 0
287k
| id
stringlengths 40
40
| article
stringlengths 117
14.7k
| highlights
stringlengths 37
3.97k
|
|---|---|---|---|
41,074 | 73dd2960c1b5479a347ef266a9697706fed60254 | By . Harriet Arkell . PUBLISHED: . 06:46 EST, 14 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:16 EST, 14 May 2013 . Owners of iconic beach huts in Whitby say their view over the beach and sea has been ruined by 'ugly' safety railings. The crowd control-type barriers went up earlier this month in front of the colourful beach huts on the promenade above West Cliff Beach in the popular North Yorkshire resort. They were put up by Scarborough Borough Council who cited 'safety concerns', and said the barriers would be replaced with permanent railings in the autumn. Blighted: The colourful beach huts now have crowd-control barriers to stop people falling off the promenade . The iconic beach huts enjoy dramatic views over rockpools, the sandy beach, and the North Sea beyond . The colourful beach huts enjoyed far-reaching views over Whitby Pier, the sandy beach and the North Sea . This picture shoes the view from above the huts before the council put up the safety fencing in front of them . But chalet-owners say they were installed without consultation - and are spoiling their beautiful view. Maggie Hall, whose family has used one of the colourful chalets for 65 years, said: 'One of my great pleasures, one shared by many chalet users, is to hole up in the chalet on a miserable, rainy day with a cuppa, a book and the papers, gazing at that wonderful sight of the beach and the tide. 'I know there are many things to worry about in this world but it breaks my heart to think the council has robbed us of that view and pleasure.' Artist Dave Jeffery, who regularly paints the view, said: 'It's changed the whole aspect. For anyone who has a beach hut, sitting out on a deck chair all they will see are metal railings in front of them instead of the view they will have been used to for many, many decades. 'It was a beautiful view, but now the railings look like crowd barriers. They are very ugly.' The council said the tide and weather had reduced the level of sand on the beach in recent years, increasing the height of the drop between the promenade and the beach. Before the railings were put up, users of the promenade managed to get along it without falling into the sea . Holidaymaker Chris Hall, from Hull, is one of the hut owners who say their view has been ruined by the fencing . The council says it plans to replace the temporary barriers with more permanent railings . Andy Skelton, Scarborough Borough Council's director of service delivery, said: 'We were keen to address chalet users' safety concerns and took action to install temporary railings ahead of the last bank holiday weekend, which is viewed by many as the start of the summer season. 'We plan to replace the temporary railings with permanent ones in keeping with the railings used along other parts of the promenade.' | Colourful beach huts in Whitby now blighted by crowd barrier-style fencing .
Huts and promenade above West Cliff Beach are popular tourist spot .
Scarborough Borough Council says the barrier's needed for safety reasons . |
93,459 | 0432aa7550f94eb9ecac5d80c27bfcb98476929b | By . Associated Press . 'Hi, baby,' Catherine La France cooed as she swept granddaughter Arianna into her arms and danced around the California Folsom prison yard with the 3-year-old. She pulled her two daughters into a bear hug, and the girls burst into tears. La France hadn't seen Arianna's mother, 18-year-old Samantha La France, in six months, and she last saw Summer La France, 14, nearly three years ago. They soon dropped into easy banter as barbed concertina wire high above them glinted in the sun and guards armed with pepper spray discreetly patrolled nearby. Tiffany Dugan, left, greets her daughter, Arianne Skelton, 13, with a big hug at the Folsom Women's Facility in Folsom, Calif where families were reunited after months of being apart . Audree Loaiza,11, left, hugs her mother, inmate Andrea Fabbri during her visit at the Folsom Women's Facility near a wall where Fabbri and her daughter drew loving messages to one another in chalk . inmate Catherine La France, center, greets her daughters, Summer, 14, left, and Samantha, 18, as her granddaughter Arianna, 3, left, looks on at the Folsom Women's Facility where they are enjoying a day of playing, arts and crafts, and eating good food . 'This is my birthday present and . Mother's Day at the same time,' Catherine La France said at the stark, . concrete-block-walled prison for low-risk offenders where she's been . locked up for nearly two years. La France turned 39 two days earlier and . won't be released for three more years, when she completes a sentence . for petty theft. Three . generations of La France women got 4 ½ precious hours together at Folsom . Women's Facility east of Sacramento more than a week before Mother's . Day, which is Sunday. It happened through a free, nonprofit program . called Get on the Bus that arranges for children to visit their . incarcerated parents in California prisons around Mother's and Father's . days. Get on the Bus appears . to be unique in providing free transportation to children around the . two holidays and in offering counseling and other support, said Ann . Adalist-Estrin, director of the National Resource Center on Children and . Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers University, Camden. Lamariae Williams, 10, left, looks at a letter from her mother, Taryn Mitchell, an inmate at the Folsom Women's Facility, as her brother, Lamar Williams, 6, opens his, on the bus that will take them home after visiting their mother . Taryn Mitchell, center, plays jump rope with her daughter, Lamariae Williams, 10, right, and cousin Schelette Butler during their visit at the Folsom Women's Facility where children were able to play games with their incarcerated parents . inmate Lisa Mercuri hugs her son, Noah, 4, before the end of his visit with her at the Folsom Women's Facility in Folsom Calif where the duo got to play with face paint and spend some quality time together . inmate Erica Carmona, 21, tosses a soccer ball back and forth with her son, Dominic, 3, during his visit to the Folsom Women's Facility for a day filled with fun and games . A handful . of programs in other states, including Florida and New York, provide . transportation to kids as part of a larger mission to help prisoners and . their families. 'We have . kids every year that are meeting their moms or dads for the first time,' California program organizer Hilary Carson said, while others have not . seen their parent in years. The organization's survey of participants, . who average 8 years old, shows that more than half wouldn't otherwise be . able to see their imprisoned parent without the program. On Saturday, 40 minors and four . young-adult children of inmates made the trip to Folsom Women's . Facility. Tears of joy streamed down mothers' smiling faces as their . kids arrived, and lingering, emotional embraces came before the bus . pulled away. The trip began before dawn in San Jose, and the bus made . stops to pick up children along the way. inmate Catherine La France, left, walks around the recreation yard with her arm around her daughter, Summer, 14, who she has not seen for over a year since she has been incarcerated . inmate Catherine La France, kisses her granddaughter Arianna, 3, left, after her arrival at the Folsom Women's Facility as part of the Get on the Bus program that allows families to be together on Mother's Day and Father's Day . Correctional Sgt. Ron Crother checks in Samantha, center, and Summer La France before their visit with their mother, Catherine La France, at the Folsom Women's Facility where she is serving three more years for petty theft . In this photo taken May 3, 2014, Correctional Officer Charmaign Hanson directs family members of inmates to the recreation yard of the Folsom Women's Facility so that they can see their parents for the first time in months or years . It's . the second Mother's Day the bus chartered by the nonprofit Center for . Restorative Justice Works visited the prison designed to house 400 . low-risk women. But this year there were about half as many children, . Carson said. Not enough participants from Southern California signed up . to justify chartering a second bus. Similar . buses fan out to 10 of the state's 34 adult prisons each year. On . Friday, more than 250 children plan to visit two prisons in central . California. At Folsom . Women's Facility, Erica Carmona, 21, tirelessly chased her 3-year-old . son the entire visit, grinning as he kicked a soccer ball around the . yard or tugged her along with a jump rope. Other children played . pingpong on two concrete tables, had their faces painted and played . pickup games with footballs and basketballs. 'I was worried he would forget who I was,' said Carmona, who is serving a sentence for assault with a deadly weapon. When the youngsters boarded the bus for the ride home, they each received a teddy bear and a letter written by Mom. With . their time together running out, Lisa Mercuri, 33, sat quietly blowing . soap bubbles with her 4-year-old son, Noah, on a bench bolted to the . prison wall. His face was painted like a pirate, with an eye patch, . roguish handlebar mustache and goatee. 'Let's get your car and go,' he said suddenly, tugging at her. 'Get your car. Let's go.' The car is long gone, and Mercuri won't be going anywhere until January, when she completes her sentence for forgery and fraud. 'How do you explain that to a 4-year-old?' she wondered aloud.'I just tell him I'm on a big-girl timeout. inmate Lisa Mercuri blows bubbles with her son, Noah, 4, during his visit to the Folsom Women's Facility . inmate Tiffany Dugan, right, hits a volleyball to her daughter, Arianne Skelton, 13, left, during Arianne's visit at the Folsom Women's Facility . inmate Lisa Mercuri plays a game with her son, Noah, 4, during his visit to the Folsom Women's Facility . inmate Serina Diaz spends time with her granddaughter, Elena Montes, 7 months, during a visit at the Folsom Women's Facility . Tiffany Dugan, left, spends time with her daughter, Arianne Skelton, 13, during her visit to the Folsom Women's Facility and the pair catch up on lost time . | The visit happened through a free, nonprofit program .
called Get on the Bus that arranges for children to visit their .
incarcerated parents in California .
The program also offers family counseling . |
281,749 | f8fc292c6388ea55401452d16962f4d4bb1b3316 | Valencia have expressed an interest in Everton striker Samuel Eto'o. The 33-year-old has impressed at Goodison this season and is popular among his team-mates and fans. He has been used mainly from the bench and has helped bring on Everton's younger players. Valencia have expressed an interest in Everton striker Samuel Eto'o, who has been impressing at Goodison . Eto'o has been used mainly from the bench and has helped bring on Everton's younger players . However, Valencia want him to bolster their attack and Singapore-base owner Peter Lim is happy to offer £75,000 per week in wages. They hope that will persuade the Cameroon international to return to Spain where he performed so well for Real Mallorca and Barcelona. The 33-year-old has impressed at Goodison this season and is popular among his teammates and fans . | Valencia have taken an interest in Everton striker Samuel Eto'o .
The 33-year-old has impressed at Goodison Park this season .
Eto'o largely helps the younger players at Everton and is popular . |
120,858 | 283506a6fde88574b993a1cda095235e9f6c2c7a | (CNN) -- Former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic is hoping to lead Serbia to a historic first Fed Cup final in Moscow this weekend. The Serbian team, who have never reached the last four until this season, will face a Russian side who have won the tournament four times. But, crucially, they will be without top stars Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva. Armed with a stellar line-up including Ivanovic and fellow former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic, the Serbs are hoping to deliver the biggest upset of the tournament to injury-hit Russia. "For all of us and for our country it means a lot," team captain Dejan Vranes said at the draw on Thursday. "It's the first time (in the semifinals) after many years. We started this journey five years ago in the Europe/Africa Group 1 in Plovdiv and after five years we're finally in the semifinals. Our plan is just to fight until the last point -- we'll see what happens." Serbia, who have been beaten by Russia in their last three Fed Cup meetings, is in its strongest position yet to finally claim a victory. Ivanovic has suffered a slump in form since winning the 2008 French Open, but has shown encouraging signs this year rising seven places in the rankings to 15th. The 24-year-old reached the fourth-round of the Australian Open in January and the semifinal in Indian Wells in March. "We have had a good team for a while but we never seem to come together and actually go for it," she said on the official Fed Cup website. "This is the first time we're in the semifinals so it's very thrilling of course. It makes it that much harder with the Olympics of course and everything else this year and it seems like a lot of things are going on. "The semifinal is just one step from the final and maybe a title -- something I would love to have next to my name." Russia should have been the formidable favourite in the historic showdown, taking the title four times in the last decade. In the absence of world No.2 Sharapova and 10th-ranked Zvonareva, Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev has turned to two-time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, as well as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Maria Kirilenko and Elena Vesnina. In the other semifinal reigning champions the Czech Republic take on three-time winners Italy. World No. 3 Petra Kvitova is expected to lead the home side in Ostrava as she bounces back from illness and injury which have plagued her for the past two months. The 2011 Wimbledon champion will be joined by 23rd-ranked Lucie Safarova, and doubles partners Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. The Italians, led by 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavore and world No.22 Flavia Pennetta have won four of their last seven meetings. | Serbia to face Russia in their first ever Fed Cup semifinal .
Serb Ana Ivanovic, ranked 15, will lead campaign against injury-hit Russia .
The former world No. 1 is hoping to make a comeback after career slump .
Czech Republic will face Italy in opposing semifinal, with Petra Kvitova hoping to return to form . |
131,609 | 362b44e0e7b48e68705976f94a09690893148030 | (CNN) -- One of the stars of this summer's Hollywood hit, "Inception", Ken Watanabe has fought his way to the top of his profession. He started out as a theatrical actor in Japan in the 1980s, later finding fame in his homeland through TV and film roles often playing noble warriors in historical dramas or enigmatic tough guys. His biggest challenge came away from the lights and cameras when he was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 29. Fortunately he was able to continue acting while visiting hospital for treatment. However a return of the cancer five years later had an even more profound affect on him. "When I got relapse, I thought my life would be meaningless if I did not make a comeback as an actor. It was a kind of sense of duty. That's how I faced [it]," he told CNN. "One good thing was that it gave me a time to reflect on my way of life, to think how I had connected myself to society. I had very vague image about the work of acting until then... We could connect to society because there are audiences who watch our performance." Making a connection to a worldwide audience came with his role alongside Tom Cruise in 2003 film "The Last Samurai". It also helped Watanabe expand his own horizons. "It was good that after growing in my career and seeing kind of a limit in myself, in a way Hollywood told me that it was not a limit at all... It opened me up to go as far as I can," he said. Now 50, Watanabe has continued to make movies in Japan after his Oscar nominated performance in "The Last Samurai" but has maintained his Hollywood credentials with roles in Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Batman Begins". His global profile is also growing, but he has the new battle of avoiding being typecast. "As a Japanese actor, I really want to work with a lot of actors and actresses in the world and many directors who have many different kinds of talents. I feel like nationally doesn't matter at all." | Japanese actor is one of the stars of summer blockbuster "Inception"
Recovered from leukemia to continue acting and make a number of Hollywood films .
Career began in theatre before film and TV roles often as enigmatic warriors . |
20,467 | 3a18115e65d9b37faa5c0eba9aa96798e09ab1b5 | By . Emma Innes . A Scottish schoolgirl who developed narcolepsy after having the swine flu vaccine is hoping to receive a £120,000 compensation payout from the government. Chloe Glasson, 14, from Fife falls asleep without warning between 25 and 30 times a day. Chloe had the Pandemrix jab in November 2009 and started suffering the symptoms of narcolepsy just four months later. Chloe Glasson (pictured with her mother, Rebecca), 14, developed narcolepsy after having the swine flu vaccine. She now falls asleep up to 30 times a day and suffers extreme mood swings and scary, vivid dreams . Campaigners believe she is one of dozens of youngsters across the UK who developed the condition after having the vaccine. The government recently admitted for the first time that the injections can trigger narcolepsy in some cases. It is believed ministers will announce on Friday that tests are to begin on sufferers to see if they qualify for compensation. Chloe's case is so severe that her family, from Kirkcaldy, are convinced the government will be forced to pay compensation. Chloe said: ‘What hurts the most is when people see me in public and I'm starting to fall asleep and they look at me as if I'm drunk or have been taking drugs. ‘I am no different to anyone else in that I have still got feelings and I can see the way they are looking at me. Chloe can no longer take public transport by herself, go swimming or have a bath. She has also had to drop two subjects at school as she couldn't keep up with the workload . ‘I have still got hopes and dreams. I want to be a drama teacher when I'm older but I've really just got to take every day as it comes.’ Chloe says she also suffers mood swings and disturbing dreams as a result of her condition. She said: ‘The emotions I feel are so extreme, I can go from being really happy and chatty to really annoyed to really upset in a few seconds and all it takes is one little thing to set it off. ‘The dreams I have when I'm asleep are really vivid, I can feel the pain in the dream and sometimes it even feels like someone is touching me, it's really terrifying.’ Chloe (pictured with her mother, Rebecca) is hoping to receive a £120,000 compensation payout from the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme . Chloe has already to drop two subjects at school because she cannot keep up with the workload. She said: ‘When I go into auto pilot behaviour I don't really remember anything that happens, and luckily I've never been really hurt.’ Chloe, who was officially diagnosed with narcolepsy and catalepsy in December last year, added: ‘It can happen at any time. ‘Like standing up or sitting down. I've really been lucky that I've not hurt myself falling asleep while standing up and I ask myself everyday how I've managed. ‘At school I'll be sitting at my desk and this wave of tiredness takes over. Then you're eyes start to roll and droop and that's when you know what's about to happen. You just go out. Chloe (pictured before her illness) said: 'What hurts the most is when people see me in public and I'm starting to fall asleep and they look at me as if I'm drunk or have been taking drugs' ‘It’s like a rollercoaster of emotions sometimes and at first it was really embarrassing. ‘No one really got what was going on so they would kind of laugh about it. Even the teachers joined in at first. I've been reduced to tears so many times.’ Chloe’s mother, Rebecca, said: ‘It's just frustrating that it's taken them this long to admit there is a link. ‘Almost everyone involved knew that was the case and we're just trying to prove it. You just start to blame yourself.’ She added: ‘Chloe had to get the vaccine because she is asthmatic but now she's left with this condition for the rest of her life. The UK Government recently admitted that the Pandemrix jab could be to blame in certain cases of narcolepsy . ‘The scariest moment so far was when Chloe went missing for over two hours. She was meant to meet my mum in town but went into an automatic behaviour state and disappeared. ‘We were all frantic with worry and I had to call the police.’ Ms Glasson said the falling asleep was not even the biggest problem. Chloe now also suffers from the debilitating muscle condition cataplexy. Ms Glasson said: ‘Her cataplexy means she can collapse at any time and there is so many day to day things that we take for granted that she can't do. It is thought that for every 55,000 children who were given the injection, one has developed narcolepsy . ‘No bubble bath, no swimming and she . can't even use public transport on her own. She fell asleep on a bus . once and ended up miles away. ‘For us it’s not just about the compensation, it’s about making Chloe's life better. We want people to realise what she's dealing with and to help make her feel more accepted. ‘Chloe is a really, really bright kid and she loves drama and art but it’s really unfair that she has had to drop two subjects. ‘It's been life changing for Chloe and the rest of the family.’ Since 2011 the vaccine has not been given to people under the age of 20 because of the risk of narcolepsy . The UK Government recently admitted that the Pandemrix jab could be to blame in certain cases of narcolepsy. Families will get £120,000 through the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme if they can prove 'severe' disability. Narcolepsy, which occurs in one in every 2,000 people, is a sleep disorder that causes a person to suddenly fall asleep at inappropriate times. It is a long-term neurological condition that disrupts normal sleeping patterns. Symptoms include, sleep attacks, daytime sleepiness and cataplexy - temporary muscle weakness in response to emotion. It is often caused by an autoimmune response - this is when antibodies are released by the body but instead of destroying disease, they attack healthy cells. In the case of narcolepsy, antibodies attack the areas of the brain that produce a sleep-regulating chemical. There is currently no cure but the condition can sometimes be managed, for example, by taking regular naps, eating healthily and exercising. In some cases, medications such as antidepressants or stimulants can also help. It is thought that for every 55,000 children who were given the jab, Pandemrix, one has developed narcolepsy. Researchers, who published their findings in the British Medical Journal, studied 75 children with narcolepsy and found that 11 of these had received the vaccine before their symptoms began. The vaccine is associated with a 14-fold increase in a child's risk of developing the condition. Since 2011, the Department of Health has prevented the use of Pandemrix in people under the age of 20. It is thought that for every 55,000 children who were given the injection, one has developed narcolepsy. Researchers, . who published their findings in the British Medical Journal, studied 75 . children with narcolepsy and found that 11 of these had received the . vaccine before their symptoms began. Since 2011 it has not been given to people under the age of 20 because of the risk of narcolepsy. The UK Health Protection Agency has found that giving the jab to young children increases their chance of developing narcolepsy by 14 times. Narcolepsy affects the brain's ability to regulate the normal sleep-wake cycle, causing excessive sleepiness throughout the day. The long term neurological condition can cause sleep attacks, daytime sleepiness and, in some cases, cataplexy. There is no cure for narcolepsy but medication is available to help manage the symptoms, which cause side effects such as nausea, hallucinations and headaches. A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions confirmed they had written to four families previously rejected for compensation inviting them to reapply. Saying individual cases could not be discussed, he added: ‘The Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme provides support in the very rare cases where someone becomes severely disabled as a result of a vaccination. ‘Decisions on vaccine damage payments claims take into account the individual circumstances of each case and the latest available accepted medical evidence. ‘DWP has looked at some vaccine damage payments cases again in light of new information regarding swine flu and narcolepsy provided by the Department for Health. ‘Once this new information was taken into account it was decided, on balance of probability, in some cases that causation was proved.’ | Chloe Glasson became narcoleptic four months after having Pandemrix jab .
She falls asleep throughout the day and suffers extreme mood swings .
She cannot use public transport by herself, have a bath, or go swimming .
Hopes she'll receive a payout from Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme .
For every 55,000 children who were given the injection, one has developed narcolepsy . |
259,687 | dc34a0aa74aeb22aa4bcddca9aa712e1fd00e6d7 | By . Deni Kirkova . PUBLISHED: . 09:25 EST, 19 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 10:47 EST, 19 September 2013 . A mother-of-two decided to drastically change her life and lost 10 stone - almost half her body-weight - following a family holiday on which she was left humiliated when the aeroplane seat-belt would not fit around her size 30 waist. Marcia Rushton, 38, had to call over flight attendant and ask for a seat belt extension to wrap around her 21st frame before the plane could take off. Marcia, who lives in Amthorpe, Doncaster, with her husband Wayne and their two children, said: 'I didn't know what to do when . my seat belt wouldn't fasten. I thought I would have to get off the . plane and that would be the end of my holiday. I didn't know extensions . existed until someone told me.' Marcia, who now weighs a slim 11st 2lbs, pictured after her weight loss now holding up a pair of the old jeans she no longer fits into . Marcia Rushton, 38, pictured before her diet, was so humiliated when the seat-belt wouldn't fit around her waist on holiday that she decided to lose weight, and lost almost half her body-weight in just 18 months . She added: 'I remember having to ask for a seat belt extension because I couldn't fasten the belt. I was really embarrassed. But determined Marcia vowed it would . never happen again, so when she returned from holiday she joined a slimming club with her sisters Michelle Johnson, 40, of Bessacarr, Doncaster, and Carla Murgatroyd, 35, of Armthorpe. The trio stopped eating sugary snacks and convenience foods and instead focused on making proper, healthy meals. And Marcia has now, over 18 months, shed an amazing 10 stone - almost half her body weight. Between them the sisters have lost a total of 17 stone. The women have also begun hosting regular Come Dine With Me-themed slimming evenings featuring their . own recipes, and their special foodie events have even lead to Marcia being named Woman of the Year . by her local slimming club. 'Now I have slimmed down I can't believe how big my old clothes are. I have an old pair of jeans and I can actually fit into one of the legs' Marcia, who now weighs 11st 2lbs and can fit into a size 12 dress said: 'I have always enjoyed food and ate a lot of convenience meals. My weight crept up over the years and I knew something had to be done. 'But when that happened on the plane it gave me the incentive to do something about it. 'Now . I have slimmed down I can't believe how big my old clothes are. I have . an old pair of jeans and I can actually fit into one of the legs.' Marcia said: 'Now I have slimmed down I can't believe how big my old clothes are. I have an old pair of jeans and I can actually fit into one of the legs' | Marcia Rushton, 38, from Amthorpe, Doncaster, weighed 21st 3lbs .
She wore size 28-30 clothes .
Was with husband Wayne and their children when plane incident happened .
Had to ask for seat-belt extension from an air steward .
Joined slimming club with sisters, now weighs 11st 2 lbs and wears size 12 . |
284,279 | fc4f6649b522c33ffebff0028a15d0ef5064ed25 | By . Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor . PUBLISHED: . 05:31 EST, 8 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 10:27 EST, 8 August 2013 . The UKIP politician under fire for referring to ‘Bongo Bongo land’ today offered up yet another explanation for his remarks – he was talking about an antelope. Godfrey Bloom faced repeated accusations of racism after condemning foreign aid being sent to ‘Bongo Bongo land’, seen as a derogatory reference to Africa. But he insisted that a bongo is a ‘white antelope, lives in the forest, there is no connotation of racism about it whatsoever’. Critics were quick to point out that the bongo antelope is not white, it is brown. Scroll down for video . Excuses: UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom insisted a 'bongo' is an antelope, so 'Bongo Bongo Land' is the home of the antelope, not a racist term . The bizarre justification for his remarks is just the latest in a long list put forward by the MEP since a recording of a speech to UKIP activists emerged this week. He was slapped on the wrist by party leaders after he was secretly recorded making what critics immediately branded racist comments. He told supporters in the Midlands that foreign leaders who received aid spent the money on ‘Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it’. In the recording, the MEP for Yorkshire . and the Humber says: ‘How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a . month when we’re in this sort of debt to Bongo Bongo land is completely . beyond me.’ UKIP leader Nigel Farage ordered Mr Bloom to stop using the term and the under-fire MEP issued a carefully-worded statement apologising if he had caused ‘genuine offence’. However, in a fresh round of media interviews he again sought to explain his choice of words. He told ITV’s Daybreak: ‘These have been interpreted as racist comments, they are not racist at all. ‘If anybody would care to take the trouble to get out the Oxford dictionary this morning and look it up, you’ll find that bongo is a white antelope, lives in the forest, there is no connotation of racism about it whatsoever. ‘Bongo land is the land of the antelope. ‘Some people have interpreted it as a racist remark but there is no evidence in any dictionary at all that it implies racism.’ Bongo bongo land: Mr Bloom insisted he was referring to the rare east African Mountain Bongo, seen here at Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire . There is just a few dozen of the bongo antelopes left in Kenya. They are hunted for their reddish-brown coat with white stripes, and their long spiralled horns. There are thought to be only around 100 left in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the the western or lowland bongo on the ‘near threatened’ list. In addition to the threat posed by poachers, numbers of fallen as logging wiped out their habitats. But his explanation was dismissed by Labour's foreign aid spokesman Rushanara Ali. She said: 'It’s offensive for sure and the public . have shown that they find it offensive so I think Mr Bloom should . apologise, it would do him good, it would do his party good. 'This is a . party that is trying to show that they are reasonable but his comments . are completely unacceptable and objectionable and that’s what the public . are saying. 'Nigel . Farage ought to step in and sort this out because this just shows what . his party is really about and it’s not a party that’s inclusive, it’s an . intolerant party and it’s defined by Mr Bloom. 'There . are legitimate views about how we should spend aid and so on but I . don’t think the vast majority of people accept the term bongo bongo land . - that is offensive.' The 63-year-old has spent the last 24 hours fielding questions about the comments, insisting he has the broad support of the public away from the ‘Westminster bubble’. His office has revealed 3,000 emails since the storm erupted and ‘half a dozen’ disagree with him, he claimed. Repeatedly quizzed on whether he is a . racist, Mr Bloom told Channel 4 News interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy: . ‘Move on, there’s a good fellow. If you’re not going to move on to . serious issues, I’m not going to continue – I can’t be bothered with . it.’ He then tore off his earpiece and stormed off. It . was an abrupt ending to a day of Whitehall farce as Mr Bloom engaged in . a whirlwind tour of radio and television studios, repeatedly defending . himself and making the case against overseas aid. Going: Mr Bloom starts to get annoyed during interview with Channel 4 News... Going: The MEP whips off his earpiece... Gone: And waves goodbye to interviewer . Asked by the BBC yesterday where ‘Bongo Bongo land’ was, Mr Bloom said: ‘I don’t know where Ruritania is either – there is no such place of course is there? Like the Third World. Where is the Third World?’ Later he suggested: ‘It might have been misconstrued by President Bongo of the Gambon, he may have thought I was talking about him. ‘If he is offended, I shall write to his excellency in short order and say, “I’m very sorry I wasn’t talking about you”. Ali Bongo is president of Gabon, not Gambon. David Cameron weighed into the row today, branding Mr Bloom's remarks 'offensive' and defending the use of British taxpayers' money for overseas aid. He said: 'I think it is an offensive remark anyway, but what I think is wrong is this sort of "stop the world, I want to get off" approach just doesn't work. Unrepentant: Mr Bloom, his wife Katryna and their terrier chippy yesterday . 'Britain is a very open international country. The problems elsewhere come and visit us. So it makes sense I think to have an overseas aid programme that helps solve these problems at source,' he told BBC Breakfast. However, Mr Bloom stood by his central argument that it was wrong to send British taxpayers’ money to foreign countries while making cuts at home. He claimed: ‘We’re closing our A&E wings of our hospitals, we’re cutting our police, we’re cutting our defence, we don’t have enough dialysis machines and we're sending £1 billion a month away without even an audit trail. ‘We don’t even know where most of it goes. It’s treason and it’s a disgrace and that’s the point I made in my speech which incidentally wasn’t clandestine recorded, it was an open meeting in Birmingham and lots of people were there - there was nothing clandestine about it.” Asked if he has been pressured to resign by the UKIP leadership, Mr Bloom replied: 'Good Lord no, not with the amount of support that I’ve had - it’s massive. 'What I have promised Nigel is I won’t use that phraseology in the future so it can’t be misinterpreted and I’m quite happy to obey that rule.' The . son of a Second World War fighter pilot, Mr Bloom – known to friends as . ‘Godders’ – grew up in London and spent 40 years working as an . economist in the City. He has been married to Katryna, a . physiotherapist who hails from Poland, for nearly 30 years. Mr Bloom . drifted into politics after being asked to write a research note on the . single currency in the mid-1990s. ‘I gave it ten years before it started to inwardly collapse,’ he recalls. ‘I’ve been proved right in spades.’ Mr Farage, then a City colleague and drinking companion, persuaded him to join the party. He was elected as an MEP in 2004. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Or in Godfrey Bloom's case, men are better at reversing cars while women can find condiments in the pantry and fret about wet towels left on beds. The bowler-hat wearing 63-year-old as gained a reputation for his outspoken views. His latest musings on the differences between the sexes emerged in an article railing against setting quotes for the number of women on the boards of FTSE 100 companies. Mr Bloom argued that women have a 'genetic predisposition' to prioritise family over working hard. 'Most women can find the mustard in the pantry quicker than a man, most men can reverse a car better than a woman,' he said in an article. 'Men and women care about different things on a micro-scale. Leaving the lavatory seat up, wet towels on the bed and the top left off the toothpaste will drive a wife mad. 'A man simply cannot understand what the problem is. Most wives do not regard putting petrol in the car as any part of their responsibility. 'Men cannot see the point in making the bed if you are going to get back in it tonight.' He also boasted of being 'just about as Alpha' as a man can be. 'I am not a 'new man', would not be caught dead at the birth of a baby and [would be] happy to punch the first man who tries to steal my beer,' he said in the article last month. He also lashed out at modern feminism 'spawned in the bra burning 1970s by rather shrill, bored, middleclass women of a certain physical genre'. He said they represented few women but are now supported by 'the slightly effete politically correct chaps who get sand kicked in their face on the beach'. | Godfrey Bloom confused why 'Bongo Bongo land' might be seen as racist .
Insists the dictionary shows a 'bongo' is an antelope living in Africa .
'I'm 63, that's the sort of phraseology we used years ago,' MEP said .
He stormed off Channel 4 News when repeatedly asked if he was racist .
He called aid programmes 'treason' when the UK is making cuts .
David Cameron condemns 'offensive' remarks and defends aid spending . |
260,486 | dd51bc7d29020902a1be71d0f787fd1c9121ce3d | Mass killer Anders Breivik yesterday claimed he plotted his appalling murder spree in London. He said a secret meeting of far-Right fanatics in the capital nine years ago sparked his plans to devastate Norwegian society. Last night, Scotland Yard was trying to unravel a complex web of links between the crazed neo-Nazi and British extremists. Investigators are desperate to find out if Breivik - who lived in the Norwegian Embassy in London as a child - acted alone or was supported by others plotting similar outrages. At the centre of the inquiry is the maniac’s claim that there was a 2002 London ‘summit’ of far-Right fundamentalists from across Europe, including two Britons. Connections: Anders Breivik and at least two members of the English Defence League may have met in the past after discussions were posted on an internet forum . Damning links: An anti-fascist charity says it has uncovered connections between the EDL and Breivik . In a chilling manifesto begun shortly afterwards, Breivik, 32, boasted of his admiration for the English Defence League and other anti-Islamic organisations. The document was signed 'Andrew Berwick' - an English translation of his name - and he referred to someone called 'Richard' as his English mentor. The document was littered with references to English politicians for allowing the spread of Islam. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is branded 'a war criminal' and accused of aligning himself with Islamist terror groups. Tony Blair, Jack Straw, Prince Charles and a number of national newspaper journalists are also mentioned. In his ramblings, he boasted there are 80 people across western Europe who are ready to stand up and fight in the same way. He emailed the document - A European Declaration of Independence - to 5,700 people in the hours before he went on the rampage, the Daily Telegraph revealed. Despite visiting Britain in the past, Breivik is not thought to have been in the country this year. Experts said the carnage in Oslo and on the island of Utoya is likely to mark a watershed moment in how police counter hard-to-track ‘lone wolf’ fanatics. As Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that security forces may not be able to stop a similar terror attack: . The full horror of events in Norway . was only becoming clear last night, more than 48 hours after the country . suffered its worst atrocity since the Second World War. At . least seven people were killed when a car loaded with a home-made . fertiliser and fuel bomb detonated in Oslo’s government quarter. British links: Breivik lived in the Norwegian Embassy in London as a child while in his manifesto, right, he wrote about his admiration for the English Defence League . A short time later, Breivik ran amok on a nearby holiday island where a political youth camp was being held. Trapped by freezing water on all sides, at least 86 people, mostly young men and women, were shot dead during 90 minutes of horror. The carnage ended only when armed police, tragically delayed by the isolated location, stormed the island and Breivik surrendered. His lawyer said he ran out of ammunition but police claimed he was carrying a lot more. The devastation has sent shockwaves around the world, and David Cameron will lead a meeting of security officials today to discuss the UK response. Ministers insisted they have not taken their eye off the threat of far-Right extremists as resources are pumped into the battle against violent Islamists. However, the shocking Norwegian bloodbath could trigger a re-think in the approach to right-wing groups. Investigators are studying a 1,518-page manifesto datelined London and posted online by Breivik just hours before his rampage. It reveals that the Christian fundamentalist had spent years plotting the attack and kept meticulous records of his preparations. He shows an obsession with the impact of multiculturalism and immigration, as well as what he sees as the ineffectiveness of mainstream politics. At least 86 people, mostly young men and women, were shot dead during 90 minutes of horror on Utoya . Terrified victims posted this picture on Facebook after barricading themselves in a building on the island . Writing under the anglicised name Andrew Berwick, the killer declares he is a ‘Justiciar Knight Commander’. He explains that this is a leading member of a ‘re-founded’ Knights Templar group formed at the secret London meeting in April 2002. Revered by some white supremacists, the Knights Templar were a Christian military order from the Middle Ages recently thrust into the spotlight after they featured in Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code. Breivik claims the founding group had nine members, whom he does not name, and a further three sympathisers who were not able to attend the meeting. Breivik says: ‘Our purpose is to seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda. ‘The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come.’ He shows a detailed knowledge of . British far-Right extremists and claims to have held discussions with . members of the EDL, while calling for an equivalent in Norway. Smoke billows from a 17-storey government building after a powerful explosion rocked central Oslo . Horror: Young girls comfort one another after the shootings which could spark copycat attacks . Breivik’s lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said his client spent years crafting the manifesto about his views and had ‘confessed to the factual circumstances’ of the atrocities. He said: ‘He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution. He wished to attack society and the structure of society.’ Sickened: Stephen Lennon, EDL founder member, said Breivik was a 'freak' Last night the EDL denied any formal link to Breivik. Stephen Lennon, who founded the group in 2009, said he was ‘sickened’ to learn of Breivik’s claims and denounced him as a ‘freak’. But he told the Daily Mail that he fears others could be inspired to commit similar atrocities ‘within five years’ if they feel their voice is not being heard. The shocking death toll piles pressure on police who are already well aware of the danger of a shooting atrocity in the run-up to the Olympics. Armed officers have been training for months to tackle gunmen who may target busy locations such as railway stations or entertainment events. Mr Hague said it was harder to prevent atrocities by determined individuals than sophisticated networks such as Al Qaeda. He said: ‘You have to have as many defences in place as you possibly can. But even then you cannot guarantee being able to prevent every attack or every kind of attack.’ Dr Matthew Goodwin, an expert in far-Right politics at Nottingham University, said the authorities have dismissed ‘lone wolf’ extremists for too long and they now pose a massive challenge to Europe. Dr Goodwin said: ‘We need to accept that this is not an exclusively Norwegian issue. There is clearly a wider pool of potential recruits should the main parties not respond to their grievances.’ | 1,500-page manifesto littered with references to Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Prince Charles and a number of British journalists .
Breivik, 32, held a secret meeting with extremists in Britain in 2002 .
He claims up to 80 extremists across Europe are plotting similar solo attacks .
93 people died in 90 minutes of horror in Norway .
Killer boasted that he 'admired' the English Defence League .
The death toll rose to 93, with 96 injured and more still missing, perhaps drowned while trying to escape; .
Police revealed the killer used deadly ‘dum dum’ bullets which explode inside the body; .
Survivors gave harrowing accounts of how they escaped from a gunman so calm he looked as if he was ‘mowing the lawn’; .
Breivik claimed via his lawyer that what he did was ‘atrocious but necessary’ and will plead not guilty in court today; . |
61,667 | af28a9fc58ed9a9fe72934359d21b9f9f5dd7b70 | (CNN) -- As the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Syria mounts, so have the calls for military intervention. Bashar al-Assad's regime has been brutal, calculating and impervious to world opinion; with the assistance of Russia and China, it has dodged a U.N. mandate to halt the attacks on its own people. The now-familiar pattern of the Arab Spring -- popular outcries for freedom provoking hideous repression, which we saw in Libya in 2011 -- seems to warrant military intervention to stop the slaughter in Syria. But first we need answers to some hard questions. Please. We have just exited Iraq after 8½ years, a cost of more than $1 trillion and a loss of some 5,000 U.S. service members. And Iraq is still a cockpit for sectarian struggle and violence. In Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, strong Islamic sentiments have inevitably surfaced despite the democratic and Western-oriented facade of the initial Arab Spring uprisings. The future orientation of these states is likely to be less helpful to U.S. aims and policies in the region than their predecessors. And overshadowing Syria is the worry of Iran's nuclear ambition, and the fact that "all" options must be kept available in case diplomacy fails there. So, in the case of Syria, we must ask, first, what are the U.S. national interests at stake? What is our objective? Then, how would the use of force attain that objective? How much force, how applied, at what cost? What is the end state we seek? What basis in international law is there for action? Which allies will help us? And, when all is said and done, have we actually achieved what we set out to do, and at a cost and risk proportionate to U.S. interests? In addition to humanitarian concerns, there are significant U.S. strategic interests at play in Syria. The Syrian regime is a "front-line" state to America's ally Israel, and so is critical to lasting peace there. And while the Syrian regime has flirted with a peace agreement, it has also served as a conduit of Iranian influence and threats. McCain calls for airstrikes on Syria . Syria hosts Iranian advisers and assists Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed fighting force that has squeezed and threatened Israel from the north, provoked one border war already, taken a powerful and coercive role inside neighboring Lebanon, and which serves as a major factor of regional intimidation as Iran angles to attain its nuclear aims. Moreover, the Syrian regime is a Cold War relic, maintaining a strong military and inviting ties with America's geostrategic competitor, Russia. Unlike the case of Libya, the United States has substantial strategic interests in Syria but would be facing a strong, capable military still mostly loyal to al-Assad. Syria is less accessible militarily than Libya, with a population triple its size -- 22 million, including some 2 million Christians. Opinion: World shouldn't stay silent in face of regime's brutality . Weapons are flowing in, refugees are fleeing, but there seems to be little in the way of an organized Syrian opposition with which to work. And while Saudi Arabia and Qatar are calling for al-Assad's removal, this seems more of an opportunistic anti-Iran strategy. Among the resistance forces are apparently some radical Sunni fighters, perhaps al Qaeda itself, and others whose ascension to power would likely cause a further crisis, with millions of Christians and other religious minorities fleeing from the region. While the U.S. aim in ending the violence and saving lives is obvious, this is a much more complicated and demanding scenario than Libya. There is as yet no international mandate, not even from NATO. The most appropriate form of intervention is reportedly under study -- but it looks like almost any course of action will increase the violence, not reduce it. And who will be available in the skies and on the ground to help? How will a new government be formed, and how will Syria be managed until then? What is needed right now is clear thinking, solid planning and a well-supported international strategy for the region, including Iran -- before we act. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Wesley Clark. | Wesley Clark: The calls for military action to stop Syria slaughter are understandable .
He says there are a host of unanswered questions to deal with .
Intervention in Syria would be much tougher than in Libya, he says .
Clark: It looks like every course of action would increase, rather than curb, violence . |
267,861 | e6e64c2f3c848db3050536cb5b47080b0224a1ce | By . Rob Waugh . PUBLISHED: . 08:27 EST, 7 June 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:27 EST, 7 June 2012 . HTC's Android Evo 4G phone: British phone users will be able to enjoy a new ultra-fast '4G' network far sooner than thought . British phone users will be able to enjoy a new ultra-fast '4G' network far sooner than thought. Carriers Vodafone and O2 will fast-track the service after banding together to launch the hi-tech network, which offers download speeds akin to the ones on home broadband connections. No release date was given for the new 'next generation' network to launch. The current model of the iPad has a 4G aerial, but there are no national networks in the UK for 4G. It's also not clear whether any UK network would work with iPad, as there are several competing standards for the technology. Phone company Everything Everywhere . has submitted an application to Ofcom to use its existing 1800MHz . 'slice' of mobile spectrum to deliver 4G services in the UK. But . it's a slightly different frequency to the U.S. networks the new iPad . is built to work on - and it's not clear whether Apple will update its . tablet to work with the UK's network. '4G' is used widely in the U.S., and is the successor to the current 3G network, but built from the ground up for high-speed data. Vodafone and O2 already have a more . basic sharing agreement in Britain, and the deal to pool basic network . infrastructure will increase their national coverage to 98 percent by . 2015 and speed up the roll-out of fourth-generation services, they . said. Vodafone estimates that around . two-thirds of the population currently have access to third-generation . indoor mobile coverage, and the government has been calling on operators . to increase that reach to make the country more efficient to boost the . economy. ‘Faced with a host of macro-economic and . sector threats, the European Telecom sector is finally addressing some . of the basic business model problems they face and laying the groundwork . for a much more profitable recovery,’ Bernstein analyst Robin . Bienenstock said. Olaf Swantee, CEO at Everything Everywhere, said earlier this year, ¿Everything Everywhere¿s vision is to launch 4G for Britain as soon as possible.' Bigger, faster: The third version of the iPad, pictured above is the first to offer a 4G connection - but users in the UK and other territories could miss out, as our networks may not work with new machine . Vodafone and O2, which is owned by Spain's Telefonica , said they would form a joint venture in Britain to pool their infrastructure to improve coverage and speed up the roll-out of a fourth-generation network. Analysts said the pair's move could be replicated in other European markets such as Spain and Germany, which could have a knock-on effect on other operators struggling with fierce competition, regulatory pressure and weak consumer spending. ‘This will create two stronger players who will compete with each other and with other operators to bring the benefits of mobile internet services to consumers and businesses across the country,’ Vodafone UK Chief Executive Guy Laurence said, adding that it would give Britain the 4G networks it will need tomorrow. The super-fast 4G aerial in the new iPad will allow users to connect to the web at near-broadband speeds - but UK users might miss out . The agreement will also help O2 and Vodafone, ranked second and third respectively in Britain, to compete with market leader Everything Everywhere, which runs the Orange and T-Mobile brands, in the fight to have the best network. The smallest operator, 3, has a network-sharing deal with Everything Everywhere. | Hi-tech new network built for fast data speeds .
Offers speeds similar to landline broadband data .
Current model of iPad has 4G but may use different wavelength - and be unable to connect .
Upcoming launch will see new phone handsets hit UK . |
154,823 | 5412bbe6a341ecb52cc3149e561337a02487d989 | A grieving mother who questioned her faith following the death of her son says it has been restored after receiving a message from a Vatican representative offering condolences. Stephany Nicolo, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, called the Vatican following the death of her 25-year-old son, Eric, in May, from an epileptic seizure. Ms Nicolo, 58, told FoxNews she said she no longer believed in God and 'sobbed uncontrollably' as she left her name and number with a representative of the Vatican. Stephany Nicolo, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, called the Vatican following the death of her 25-year-old son, Eric (pictured), in May, from an epileptic seizure . Ms Nicolo (left) says she told the Vatican she no longer believed in God when she called them following the death of her son Eric . She awoke last week to find a missed call, along with a voicemail message on her phone from a man who identified himself as a Vatican representative. The man can be heard to offer Ms Nicolo a 'big hug and a blessing' and says they will 'try to talk to you again.' Ms Nicolo told FoxNews that Pope Francis 'has helped me so much in my time of grief.' She said: 'There are no words to describe what this phone call has done for me.' Meanwhile, in an unrelated announcement, the Vatican has given its blessing to exorcisms as a standard practise in the Catholic Church. More than forty years after 1973 film The Exorcist terrified cinema audiences the world over, the Church has recognised, under canon law, the work of a group of priests who claim to banish demons from the possessed. Meanwhile, in an unrelated announcement, the Vatican has given its blessing to exorcisms as a standard practise in the Catholic Church . The International Association of Exorcists consists of 250 priests in 30 countries who perform religious ceremonies to 'liberate the faithful from demons.' Pope Francis has emphasised that Satan exists and was previously thought to support exorcisms. The Vatican has given its blessing to exorcisms as a standard practise in the Catholic Church. More . than forty years after 1973 film The Exorcist terrified cinema . audiences the world over, the Church has recognised, under canon law, . the work of a group of priests who claim to banish demons from the . possessed. The International Association of . Exorcists consists of 250 priests in 30 countries who perform religious . ceremonies to 'liberate the faithful from demons.' Last year he appeared to cast out a demon from a wheelchair-bound man who said he was possessed by the devil. The Vatican insisted the pope 'didn't intend to perform any exorcism,' and it released a statement that said 'he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him.' The man later said that Francis had failed to banish the demons from his body. However, after Francis placed his hands on him, he was able to walk again, he claimed. The association was introduced in Italy by veteran exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, to share experience as increased interest in occult practices has boosted demand for exorcisms. Fr. Francesco Bamonte, an exorcist from the Diocese of Rome told official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the Holy See’s approval of the IAE 'is cause for joy... for the church as a whole.' 'Exorcism is' in fact 'another form of charity' he said. | Stephany Nicolo called Vatican following the death of her son Eric, 25, in May .
She said she told them she no longer believed in God following Eric's death .
But she said her faith has been restored after she received a voicemail message from a man identifying himself as a Vatican representative last week . |
133,369 | 3872b8ae2ecd50fd7548cf2d2e8aaa813e390228 | Labour will lose the election if it allows Ed Miliband to be pitted against David Cameron in a presidential-style contest, John Prescott warned yesterday. The former deputy prime minister said Labour had to ‘run as a party’, rather than relying on its struggling leader, who could cost it the election. Lord Prescott, who has previously criticised the ‘pointy-heads’ running Labour’s campaign, suggested the party still had to explain to voters ‘what we stand for’. Labour will lose the election if it becomes a presidential contest between David Cameron and Ed Miliband (left), former deputy prime minister John Prescott (right) warned . Asked whether it was in good shape ahead of the election, he said: ‘It could be in better shape and I think it’s working to it. It’s seen that they've got to get over to people and convince them.’ In a frank admission of Mr Miliband's personal unpopularity with the voters, he added: ‘Don’t run, Ed, as a president – you won’t win. ‘Run as a party so people can understand what we stand for and what our values are.’ Tory strategists are determined to run a presidential-style campaign that offers voters a straight choice between Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband as prime minister. A YouGov poll at the weekend found that 40 per cent of voters think Mr Cameron is doing a good job, while 52 per cent do not, giving him a net satisfaction rating of minus 12. By contrast, just 18 per cent of people said Mr Miliband was doing a good job, compared to 70 per cent who said he was not – giving the Labour leader a net satisfaction rating of minus 52. Lord Prescott’s intervention came as former prime minister Tony Blair renewed his veiled criticism of Mr Miliband, saying Labour needed a ‘strong’ leader to win. Lord Prescott was quizzed about the state of the Labour party on Jack Whitehall's chat show Backchat . Labour floundered yesterday on how it would plug Britain’s huge budget deficit – suggesting higher fees for gun owners. Chancellor George Osborne said Labour seemed not to want ‘to mention the deficit at all’ and challenged it to spell out tax rises it would bring in. Labour’s plan to soften spending cuts if it wins the election would mean borrowing up to £50billion a year more by 2020 than the Tories, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, risking adding £170billion to the national debt by 2030. The main parties last night agreed to back a new Charter of Budget Responsibility, which will mean billions more pounds being wiped off spending. Mr Osborne said he would not raise taxes, but save £13billion from Whitehall departments and £12billion from welfare, and £5billion from reduced tax avoidance to balance the books. But Chris Leslie, Labour’s Treasury spokesman, struggled to explain how the party could sign up to the charter while not setting out cuts or tax rises. He could only name Labour’s plan to increase the top rate of tax to 50p and £17.2million extra from ‘gun licence changes’ – money already promised to the police. A Tory spokesman said: ‘This shows the total chaos in Labour’s economic policy.’ Mr Blair said it would be up to the electorate voters to decide whether Mr Miliband had the necessary leadership qualities to be prime minister. But in a lukewarm endorsement of the man who hopes to follow in his footsteps and return Labour to power, the ex-premier said voters would make up their own minds about whether Mr Miliband had a ‘problem’. Interviewed by BBC political editor Nick Robinson as part of a new Radio 4 series called Can Democracy Work?, Mr Blair repeatedly said that firm leadership was the key to success. With Labour failing to establish a clear lead in opinion polls, Mr Blair was asked what Mr Miliband's ‘problem’ was. ‘I'm not sure he has got a problem. That’ll be for the people to choose. I'm Labour Party and I’ll be backing him.’ Latest polling shows Mr Miliband's net satisfaction ratings are far worse than David Cameron's . Tony Blair issued a thinly-veiled warning that Labour needs to show strong leadership in the run-up to the election . Last month, Mr Blair was forced to issue a ‘clarification’ after apparently suggesting he expected Mr Miliband to lose the election after dragging the Labour Party to the Left. In an interview with the Economist, Mr Blair said the election could be one ‘in which a traditional Left-wing party competes with a traditional Right-wing party, with the traditional result’. Asked if he meant a Tory win, Mr Blair replied: ‘Yes, that is what happens.’ The following day, Mr Blair said his remarks had been ‘misinterpreted’, and insisted he hoped and expected Mr Miliband would win. | Former Deputy PM warns the Labour party 'could be in better shape'
Insists party must present a united front to persuade voters to back them .
Warns against presidential battle between Miliband and Cameron .
Tony Blair insists voters want to see 'clear leadership' from Miliband . |
105,404 | 13e834cd4a0251795f5230c40f4496f005c5a042 | New federal Ebola response squads - likened to public health SWAT teams - have been prepared and are on standby to rush to any U.S. city where new Ebola cases are identified, CDC officials announced on Wednesday. The CDC Ebola Response Teams (CERTS) will consist of 10-20 people who can be sent to any hospital with a new case of Ebola is lab-confirmed, or even before confirmation, if health officials believe a person is very likely to be infected. The brief for the second set of teams - Fast Assessment and Support Teams (FAST) - is to help prepare hospitals in cities deemed most likely to see future Ebola cases. Three teams have already been sent out to New York, Chicago and Washington. New federal Ebola response squads - likened to public health SWAT teams - have been prepared and are on standby to rush to any U.S. city where new Ebola cases are identified, CDC officials announced on Wednesday. The teams are 'ready to go - boom - if we have another case of Ebola,' said Dr. Jordan Tappero, one of the leaders of CDC's Ebola response effort. The government has been criticized for its handling of the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian, came down with Ebola symptoms last month, a few days after arriving in Dallas from West Africa. He was admitted to a Dallas hospital in late September and died on October 8. Duncan's illness and death created public fear as health officials had to track down and monitor scores of people he came in contact with. Ebola coordinator Ron Klain listens to President Barack Obama speak to the media about the government's Ebola response in the Oval Office: President Obama last week announced the need for Ebola rapid response teams that he had likened to SWAT teams . No one in the community has been infected, but two nurses who cared for him were. Since then, CDC officials have admitted that they should have sent more people to Dallas when Duncan's case first surfaced - particularly infection control specialists, who could have provided better guidance to the hospital. President Barack Obama had first announced a push for a faster federal reaction last week. 'We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so that they are taking the local hospital step by step though what needs to be done,' he said. The CDC has developed two sets of teams, identified by the acronyms CERT and FAST: . CERT teams . The CERTs - for CDC Ebola Response Teams - are the squads Obama was talking about. They are to be made up of 10 to 20 people each, who can be sent to a hospital right after a new case of Ebola is lab-confirmed, or even before confirmation, if health officials believe a person is very likely to be infected. They are drawn from a list of roughly 100 CDC workers and others, scattered across the country. No CERT team has been deployed yet but the 20 or so people at the top of the list are on standby, with bags packed. FAST teams . Three FAST teams were assembled last week. These are smaller, preparatory teams: FAST stands for Facility Assessment and Support Teams. They're involved in checking out hospitals that have volunteered to handle Ebola cases, making sure they are ready to handle everything from the first encounter with a patient to the disposal of Ebola-infected medical waste. Hospitals . The government is trying to identify up to 20 hospitals around the country that are designated Ebola referral centers. An emphasis has been on reviewing hospitals in the five cities with airports where all travelers from West Africa are now being funneled. The FAST teams have already been sent to three of them - New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The other two cities are Atlanta and Newark. The government hopes to release a list of primary Ebola hospitals in those five cities this week, CDC officials said. Federal, state or local officials have already named some hospitals. CDC officials confirmed that one is Emory University Hospital in Atlanta - which already has been treating Ebola patients. In Chicago, local health officials this week said four leading hospitals have agreed to handle Ebola patients - Rush University Medical Center, the University of Chicago Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. New York state officials have said they have designated eight hospitals to handle patients diagnosed with Ebola: New York City's Bellevue Hospital Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Montefiore Hospital Center; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System; Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse; University of Rochester Medical Center, and Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island. Other teams . On Sunday, the Pentagon said it's building a 30-person medical support team that could go to help civilian hospitals deal with a future appearance of Ebola. The team is to include 20 critical care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease, and five trainers in infectious disease protocols. The military team has a different orientation - they'll be there to provide medical care if a hospital needs more hands. The CERT teams are not there to care for patients. They would be involved in testing, coordinating communications with the public, ensuring that hospital workers are properly protected, and helping to track down people an infected person was in contact with, explained Dr. John T. Brooks, the CDC official overseeing the teams. The CDC also has teams in Ohio and Texas working on Ebola, Brooks said. They are not FAST or CERT teams. They were sent to help officials in those states to help track and prepare for potential cases related to Duncan or to a nurse who treated him and traveled to the Cleveland area. | President Obama last week announced the need for Ebola rapid response teams that he had likened to SWAT teams .
CDC has now announced the development of two different types of team .
CERTS (CDC Ebola Response Teams) will consist of 10-20 people who can be sent to any hospital with a new case .
FAST (Fast Assessment and Support Teams) will help prepare hospitals in cities deemed most likely to see new Ebola cases .
FAST teams have already been sent to New York, Chicago and Washington . |
109,990 | 19ca2c5a9f2b39070b8f73cead3f941a44416a8a | The "Weekend of Resistance" protests have ended, the prosecutor didn't step aside and the world awaits word from a grand jury determining whether charges should be brought against a white police officer who fatally shot unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters demanded criminal charges against Officer Darren Wilson, who some witnesses said shot and killed Brown while he was surrendering with his hands up. But police said Wilson shot Brown after the 18-year-old attacked him and tried to take his service gun in August. Demonstrators also sought for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch to recuse himself from overseeing the case because, they allege, he can't be impartial after his police officer father was killed on the job by a black man in 1964. McCulloch rejected those demands. But he said he will not try the case if there is an indictment. Meanwhile, two assistant prosecuting attorneys have been assigned to the case. Here are key five things you'll want to know as the legal system moves forward: . 1. What kinds of charges are the grand jury considering? It's not just one potential crime. The grand jury is deciding whether Wilson should be charged with any one of several possible crimes, including: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, said Ed Magee, spokesman for the prosecuting attorney's office. The grand jury can issue an indictment on any of those four charges, and it also has the option of adding a charge of armed criminal action, authorities said. At the same time, the grand jury will receive the Missouri statutes for self-defense and the police use of deadly force. 2. How many votes are needed on a grand jury to issue an indictment? There are 12 members on the Missouri grand jury (some other states have different numbers), and nine of the 12 must vote yes to indict someone. The grand jury proceedings are conducted in secret. The same goes for the grand jurors' race or ethnicity. 3. Does the grand jury have a deadline? Yes, the grand jury has until January 7 to make its decision. But the prosecutor's office says there could be a decision by mid-November. 4. How often does it meet? Normally a grand jury in St. Louis County meets every Wednesday. But the grand jury has been extended for the Brown case so jurors have extra time to hear from a number of witnesses and to focus solely on this case. In this scenario, the panel is allowed to meet on days when all 12 jurors can get together. Once agreed upon, the schedule is given to the prosecuting attorney's office. 5. Has the grand jury received all the evidence yet? No, according to the prosecutor's office. They have not heard from all the witnesses. Some witnesses are still reluctant to cooperate, the prosecutor's office said. Ultimately, witnesses can be compelled to appear to the grand jury by subpoena. In past statements, McCulloch has promised a fair and thorough investigation. "We will be presenting absolutely everything to this grand jury. Every statement that a witness made, every witness, every photograph, every piece of physical evidence. Absolutely nothing will be left out so the grand jury is making their decision based upon absolutely everything and we'll go from there," McCulloch told KTRS in August. | The grand jury in Missouri is looking at several potential crimes, not just one .
The grand jury has been given permission to set its own schedule .
Grand jurors have until January to make a decision . |
53,669 | 9832c025ba41de0b69473baa475571cdbe40df4d | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 13:11 EST, 14 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:53 EST, 14 August 2013 . Three years after an unidentified woman was found abandoned in a hospital waiting room, wearing only an adult diaper and hospital gown, Alabama authorities have found her name and the person who was supposed to be caring for her. Unable to speak, and with no identification, Edith Allen's history had been a mystery until Monday. Her carers had scant clues to go on - just a cesarean section scar and initials in her dentures. However, a tip off finally led authorities to Ms Allen's carer Cathy Jean Thomas, of Douglasville, Georgia, who faces charges of claiming more than $25,000 in Ms Allen's social security checks over the past three years. Named: Three years after she was found abandoned, Edith Allen has her identity back . 'It's a relief to me. It's been a long, . drawn-out process over something that should have never happened,' Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent Lieutenant Scott . Bartle, who has led the search for Ms Allen's identity, told Al.com. Because Ms Allen, who was named Sally by the medical staff who have cared for her since she was found in August 2010, did not have an identity she was unable to qualify for Medicaid. The 68-year-old woman, who had a urinary tract infection, and was dehydrated and malnourished when she was found, has built up medical bills of $200,000 in the past three years. Although she can barely speak and has learning disabilities, Ms Allen did try to help authorities identify her. 'She would attempt to write her name and, what's really sad, is, if you look at the name she was attempting to give the hospitals here in Oneonta, it matches the name and the signature that she would give to the adult day care she stayed at in Georgia,' Blount County district attorney Pamela Casey said. From the start, officers feared someone may still be claiming her social security checks. Thomas, 59, became the disabled woman's carer in 2009 and, according to authorities, . filled out the necessary paperwork to take charge of Ms Allen's social . security benefits. 'Thomas . did acknowledge receiving Edith Allen's money and using it to obtain . goods and services that never went to Allen,' Lieutenant Bartle said. 'For three . years, she has reaped the benefits of those checks.' Charged: Cathy Jean Thomas, who was Edith Allen's carer, is accused of identity theft . He added that Thomas, who has been charged with identity theft, denied being the one who abandoned Ms Allen, who weighed less than 90lb when she was found at the hospital. Ms Allen was originally cared for by Thomas's sister until she died, which was when Thomas took over, according to Al.com. The search for Ms Allen's identity was further hampered because her short blonde hair had been dyed dark and she was wearing large, black-rimmed glasses when she was found, possibly in an attempt to disguise her. Several newspaper articles and television reports featured her story, and fingerprints and DNA were taken in the hope of finding a match in missing persons databases. 'The Alabama Bureau of Investigation probably followed over 1,000 to 2,000 leads,' Ms Casey told ABC3340. In 2011 Ms Allen's new carers spoke to the press again in the hope of finding her relatives, or anyone who knew her. Although they did not provide immediate leads, her story was carried on various social media sites, which eventually helped identify her. After a tip off to LostNMissing, a non-profit volunteer group, officials were able to match Ms Allen with her medical and financial records. Thomas has since been charged and is being held on a $50,000 bond. Ms Casey said she now wants to pass Edith's Law, which would give more security to those with learning disabilities and help stop others being treated in the same way as Ms Allen was. 'We have to do something about this. We have to be able to identify these people and we have to make sure the benefits that are provided to them are actually going to them and for them,' she said. Ms Allen's court-appointed guardian, attorney Sid Summey, is thrilled that her identity has been revealed. Protection: District attorney Pamela Casey wants to introduce laws to protect patients like Ms Allen . 'A lot of compassion has poured out for this lady. Many have expressed an interest and concern in finding her identity so she wouldn't have "Jane Sally Doe" on her tombstone. That's not going to happen now, and we're delighted,' he said. Ms Allen, who has no living relatives, will remain in her nursing home. 'Our intent is for her to remain in our care until or unless her circumstance changes,' Mr Summey said. 'She will stay with us, but now with her rightful name.' | Tip off leads police to Edith Allen's carer who is accused of cashing $25,000 in welfare checks .
59-year-old charged with identity theft but denies abandoning frail woman in waiting room . |
20,225 | 396426e2b34f0a2e3d7bd926e9ff659a8982e9c6 | (AOL Autos) -- Magazines are full of beauty and health secrets with tips on how to improve your inner health and polish and paint your external persona. All of this designed to keep you feeling young. With its low price, boxy-yet-stylish shape and must-have technology, the Scion xB is very youthful. We think that the beauty magazines are missing out on the best way to feel young: drive the right vehicle! New cars for a fresh start . No offense to the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Chevy Malibu, but it's almost impossible to feel young behind the wheel of an ordinary sedan, especially when every other car on the road is just like yours. We've picked vehicles that are unique, different and even a little quirky. You are what you drive, and when you drive a spunky, youthful vehicle, that's exactly what you are! So, here are our choices for the top 10 vehicles to keep you feeling young: . 2008 smart fortwo pure coupe . Not since the original Volkswagen Beetle has a more perfectly youthful car been built than the smart fortwo pure coupe. This smart car has everything: it's cheap, it's fuel efficient, it's safe (check out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ratings), and best of all -- it is the cutest thing on four wheels. 'Nuff said. Starting at $11,590 . 2009 Nissan Versa . An excellent choice for a safe, efficient car, the Nissan Versa is no stripped-down econobox and it has a European style that makes others take a second look. It's a genuinely comfortable, fun-to-drive cute car that will stand up to the rough treatment a young-at-heart driver can sometimes dish out. Starting at $12,990 . 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid . Driving a Toyota Prius is a statement to your friends and neighbors that you're green; driving a Honda Civic Hybrid is living green, pure and simple. There's almost nothing less attractive than conspicuity. Give your inner beauty the opportunity to be green undercover in a subtle, stealthy Civic Hybrid. Starting at $23,550 . 2008 Subaru WRX STi . Nothing gets the heart beating like 305 hp. Add all-wheel drive and hatchback functionality and you have the Subaru WRX STi. Skip those troublesome, time-consuming trips to the gym and just give yourself a workout flogging the STi around the back roads, or throw some golf clubs in the back hatch and make your tee time in youthful style. Starting at $34,995 . 2010 Chevrolet Camaro . This one will take you back to your youth, the last heyday of the American Muscle Car. The 2010 Camaro is one of the most anticipated new cars due in the production pipeline, and anyone who drives one will be the center of attention. And that will make you feel young and beautiful. Prices to be announced . 2008 Mazda5 . When a minivan just isn't mini enough, maybe the mini-minivan is the answer to your needs. With seating for 6, Mazda5 brings the capacity for carpooling without the style penalties of its larger minivan competitors, and fuel economy up to 28 mpg doesn't hurt either. Feel young without looking like a soccer mom. Starting at $18,665 . 2008 Scion xB . With its low, low price, boxy-yet-stylish shape and must-have technology, the Scion xB makes a youthful statement just by showing up. Personalize your xB with accessories from Scion's catalog, or from the extensive aftermarket that has grown up around the car. The bonus is that the xB is a very capable vehicle, and a lot of fun to drive. Starting at $16,420 . 2008 Toyota 4Runner . If you want to project an image of youthful vigor, muscularity, agility and strength -- without going over the top -- few vehicles do it as well as the Toyota 4Runner. That image isn't just on the surface; the Toyota 4Runner is as comfortable on the trail as it is on the pavement. You get timeless good looks and reliability in one package. Starting at $28,415 . 2008 Jeep Wrangler . Is there a car more youthful and exuberant than the Jeep Wrangler? The iconic off-roader has been a symbol of freedom, agility and capability for decades. Drop the soft-top, hang on to the integrated roll bar and head out for points west. Just don't forget the sun block -- you want to look young as well as feel young. Starting at $20,205 . 2008 Vespa S . It was cool in the late 1960's, and it's cool again today. The Vespa S is a modern interpretation of the 1969 Vespa Special and the 1967 Vespa Primavera. An eco-friendly 150cc engine powers the S efficiently and smoothly, with enough oomph to keep up with city traffic. Easy to ride, easy to park, easy to love, the Vespa S might be the coolest ride on the block. Starting at $4,199 . | Some people say you are what you drive -- so drive something spunky!
Driving a Honda Civic Hybrid is living green, pure and simple .
Toyota 4Runner projects youthful vigor, muscularity, agility and strength .
Jeep Wrangler has been symbol of freedom, agility and capability for decades . |
156,803 | 56bfb5429c43f82eee0e694a60660919aef64bb2 | Stoke striker Peter Crouch is perhaps most famous for his robot dance in 2006, but Monday night saw him coin a new trademark celebration - the birdie. Eight years on from his memorable dance after scoring for England against Jamaica, Crouch beat Newcastle's Fabricio Coloccini in the air to head home for Stoke at the Britannia Stadium, and what followed next certainly caught the eye of many. The 33-year-old striker, who is married to Abbey Clancy, wheeled away from goal after putting the home side 1-0 up, and pulled out a new celebration to rival the robot. Peter Crouch's new celebration, caught by Sky Sports cameras, is one to rival the robot . The celebration was well-received by Stoke supporters celebrating the goal . Crouch rises above Fabricio Coloccini to open the scoring on Monday night at the Britannia Stadium . Lifting both arms in the air, Crouch mimicked a bird, much to the delight of his team-mates, and a large television and Twitter audience. When questioned after the match about the celebration, Crouch responded: 'My mate is a Geordie and that's one of his moves. He said I was allowed to do it if I scored, so that one was for him.' Crouch has made 459 professional appearances in a career spanning 14 years, but it is fair to say that he may be remembered more fondly for his celebrations than his goals. He joined Stoke in 2011 for £10 million, and his opener on Monday night was his third goal of the 14/15 season. Crouch (left) is perhaps most famous for his robot dance, first performed against Jamaica in 2006 . Crouch (left) celebrates with his Stoke team-mates after putting his side 1-0 up against Newcastle . | Peter Crouch is well-known for his robot celebration after scoring for England against Jamaica in 2006 .
The former England striker scored for Stoke against Newcastle on Monday night, and coined a new celebration in the aftermath .
Lifting both his arms, the 33-year-old mimicked a bird, much to the delight of his team-mates, and a large television and Twitter audience . |
197,193 | 8b3b049c1f22d6db4e1a2787fc7761fb383510ed | A healthy adult should be consuming something in the region of 2,000 calories a day, according to the Department of Health. But a new photo series by the New York Times reveals just how different 2,000 calories can look at America's favorite food chains. In fact, in some cases just a single dish is enough to meet that quota. At the Cheesecake Factory, for instance, the Louisiana Chicken Pasta clocks in at 2,370 calories - no drinks or sides required. Scroll down for video . Cheesecake Factory: The Louisiana Chicken Pasta clocks in at 2,370 calories . Sonic: The chain's Peanut Butter Caramel Pie Shake contains 2,090 calories . IHOP: A Classic Skillet, with sausage contains 1,880 calories (the pancakes are included and served alongside the main dish). A glass of orange juice contains 110 calories . And while IHOP's Classic Skillet with sausage might appear to feed two (or even three), it is actually intended as a 1,880-calorie dish for one. A glass of orange juice at 110 calories brings it closer to a 2,000 total. At Sonic, all one needs is a Peanut Butter Caramel Pie Shake to consume 2,090 calories in one swift sitting, while a slice of Zuccotto cake at Maggiano's Little Italy is 1,790 calories all by itself (a cappuccino on the side would be an additional 220 calories). You get more bang for your calorie buck at McDonald's, where you'd need to order a Crispy Chicken sandwich with bacon (750 calories), fries (340 calories), Coke (200 calories) and a McFlurry with Oreos (690 calories) to hit that 2,000 mark. Prefer Burger King? A Double Whopper with cheese gets you halfway there at 1,070 calories. Onion rings (410 calories) and a vanilla milkshake (550 calories) complete the feast. McDonald's: You'd need to order a Crispy Chicken sandwich with bacon (750 calories), fries (340 calories), Coke (200 calories) and a McFlurry with Oreos (690 calories) to hit that 2,000 mark . Burger King: A Double Whopper with cheese gets you halfway there at 1,070 calories. Onion rings (410 calories) and a vanilla milkshake (550 calories) bring the total to 2,030 . Subway: A cold-cut combo (375 calories), chips (230 calories), chicken noodle soup with oyster crackers (155 calories), cookie (220 calories), Buffalo-chicken salad (360 calories), Coke (200 calories), egg-and-cheese flatbread (370 calories) and juice (100 calories) equates to 2,000 calories . One would really need to order a lot at Subway to hit 2,000 calories as many salads and sandwiches clock in at under 400 calories. A cold-cut combo (375 calories), chips (230 calories), chicken noodle soup with oyster crackers (155 calories), cookie (220 calories), Buffalo-chicken salad (360 calories), Coke (200 calories), egg-and-cheese flatbread (370 calories) and juice (100 calories) would get you there. Two-thousand calories also equates to a hearty feast at P.F. Chang's, including orange beef (565 calories), pad thai (580 calories), spinach (120 calories), dumplings (195 calories), caramel cake (430 calories) and wine (125 calories). At Olive Garden, it doesn't take much effort to consume 2,000 calories. In fact, just a standard meal of a salad (150 calories), breadstick (140 calories), Tour of Italy sampler (1,500 calories) and a quartino of wine (230 calories) will do it. P.F. Chang's: A 2,000 calorie feast might include orange beef (565 calories), pad thai (580 calories), spinach (120 calories), dumplings (195 calories), caramel cake (430 calories) and wine (125 calories) Olive Garden: A salad (150 calories), breadstick (140 calories), Tour of Italy sampler (1,500 calories) and a quartino of wine (230 calories) contains a total of 2,020 calories . Starbucks: To consume 2,000 calories, one would need to order a Java Chip Frappucino (460 calories), latte (190 calories), orange mango smoothie (270 calories), grilled cheese (580 calories), popcorn (125 calories) and a sausage croissant (410 calories) Pizza Hut: A Meat Lover’s Stuffed Crust pizza is 880 calories. Add a cup of Mountain Dew at 440 calories, baked wings with blue cheese (340 calories), and two cookies (360 calories) and you've met your daily quota . And careful you don't overdo it at Starbucks - while away a few hours there and one could easily consume 2,000 calories in the form of a Java Chip Frappucino (460 calories), latte (190 calories), orange mango smoothie (270 calories), grilled cheese (580 calories), popcorn (125 calories) and a sausage croissant (410 calories). The same applies to Pizza Hut, where a Meat Lover’s Stuffed Crust pizza is 880 calories. Add a cup of Mountain Dew at 440 calories, baked wings with blue cheese (340 calories), and two cookies (360 calories) and you've met your daily quota. At Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, you could achieve the same result simply by ordering the Cowboy Ribeye steak (1,690 calories) and a martini (230 calories). Maggiano's Little Italy: Don't order a main, don't even order a starter. This slice of Zuccotto cake is 1,790 calories all by itself. A cappuccino on the side would be an additional 220 calories . Ruth's Chris Steakhouse: Meet your daily calorie intake simply by ordering the Cowboy Ribeye steak (1,690 calories) and a martini (230 calories) Gourmet fast food: At Chipotle you could hit 2,000 calories by ordering a carnitas burrito (945 calories, left), chips and guacamole (770 calories) and a Coke (276 calories). At Shake Shack, the same could be achieved with a Double ShackBurger (770 calories), fries (470 calories) and a Black and White shake (760 calories) | At the Cheesecake Factory, 2,370 calories looks like one bowl of pasta .
Sonic's Peanut Butter Caramel Pie Shake clocks in at 2,090 calories . |
173,087 | 6c004b0964525166ad3396648434d073e9422c73 | (CNN) -- Sarah Palin is stirring the pot, suggesting she might seek office again. "I've considered it because people have requested me to consider it. But, I'm still waiting to see what the lineup will be and hoping that -- there again, there will be some new blood, new energy," she told radio host Sean Hannity on Tuesday. No, she's not thinking about the 2016 presidential race -- yet. This time, she's eyeing next year's U.S. Senate race in Alaska, where Democrat Mark Begich is seeking a second term. Begich: Alaskans don't like quitters . Several Republicans have already announced their intentions to run, including Joe Miller, who ran a spirited but unsuccessful race for Senate in 2010, and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell. Both have been in touch with the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington to discuss their bids. Palin and her advisers have not. In fact, Republican sources say that members of Palin's team have insinuated that the former governor may be willing to support a candidate already in the race. Of course, Palin has made bashing the Republican establishment into a blood sport and likely wouldn't seek Washington-based help, anyway. Palin to GOP establishment: 'You disrespect Hispanics' "Most Republicans would realize running against Sarah Palin in a primary is like running into a buzz saw. She's got a financial advantage and a grassroots advantage that would be very tough to compete with," National Review Online's Jim Geraghty adds. But there are reasons to doubt she's serious about a run. For one thing, the Republican right urged her to wage a primary challenge against Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2010, but she opted against it. She also resigned Alaska's governorship in 2009 before completing a full term. "Notice, this is not hiring staff, this is not any of the things that a real run would involve. This is just kind of an idle comment to Hannity," Geraghty says of Palin's recent actions. Palin is also not doing any of the things she did to grab headlines like when she was considering a presidential run two years ago, like publicizing slickly produced campaign-style videos and launching a whirlwind cross-country bus tour. In October 2011, she finally explained that she had decided against a national run because, "I've concluded that I believe I can be an effective voice in a real decisive role in helping get true public servants elected to office." And now as she flirts with a Senate run, she has to deal with a new reality: Her popularity in Alaska has tumbled. Several private polls obtained from Republican sources indicate she's one of the least-liked politicians in the state. What's more, Palin is raking in the bucks giving high-profile speeches at conservative functions and appearing on Fox News. And her family is starring in various reality shows. As a U.S. senator, those paychecks would disappear. Yet, Palin loves nothing more than to stay relevant. "My goal right now is to keep people inspired and empowered," she told CNN in June. Palin embraces SNL sketch, dishes out her own humor . What she may be toying with is the uncomfortable concept that she's not the GOP's only bright young star anymore. These days, there are plenty of energetic conservatives capturing the party's imagination that may make her fight for newsy buzz, like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, among others. "If she runs, it's going to instantly become the most covered, the most scrutinized, the most hotly debated Senate race of the 2014 cycle," Geraghty said. American Conservative Union chairman Al Cardenas said Republicans have a 50-50 chance of taking the majority back in the Senate in next year's midterm elections, and said it's an even more significant possibility if Palin runs for the Alaska seat. "If she runs, all the odds are off the table," he said. "She would win a general election." But what about the growing chorus of Republicans who say they would rather see her leave the party than create any new buzz? "The benefits of having her as a U.S. senator and helping us get back the majority so far outweigh any distractions that might be caused," Cardenas said. He added that there are a number of young, outspoken Republicans in the Senate who help the GOP spread its message and "she will be one more such member." And until she decides, political watchers should buckle up, because she'll get plenty of attention. Palin has until June 2, 2014, to file paperwork to run. | Former GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin is considering a run for Senate in 2014 .
Observer: Running against Palin in a primary is "like running into a buzz saw"
Palin's popularity in Alaska has tumbled .
If she decides to run, she'd challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich . |
245,338 | c98dcbb86a0023054be65b291dee51dd2d266f56 | By . Paul Harris . His father is hailed as the greatest racehorse of all time, unbeaten in 14 spectacular outings. Now meet the family: Son of Frankel, his thoroughbred mother. . . and a new brother or sister on the way. They have nicknamed the little one Frank, for the moment at least – and upon his already impressive haunches may rest the chance of securing not just a fortune for his owners, but another place in history for the Frankel dynasty. Grandstanding: The foal showed off his confident stride and juvenile physique for the cameras at Kensington Palace yesterday . Bidding for the three-month-old foal, sold with his pregnant mother, opened at £1million yesterday. At a landmark auction in the grounds of Kensington Palace, he became the first 'Frankelfoal' the champion has sired since retirement to be offered at a public sale. The three-in-one package sold for £1,150,000 – or £1,462,800 including premium and tax. That works out at more than £11 for every minute of Frank's 90-day life so far. He was bought by Michael Vincent Magnier, who runs one of the most prominent bloodstock operations in Europe. Afterwards he said with some understatement he believed he had bought 'a nice horse'. He added: 'It's a little bit of history.' Smiling, he looked forward to this time in 2016, when Frank will be ready to race. 'It will be quite an interesting week,' he said. Mr Magnier also has a famous pedigree – he is the son of John Magnier, the business partner of former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson until they fell out spectacularly over another horse, Rock of Gibraltar. Frank, the first Frankel foal to be offered for sale to the public. The bay colt is three months old . Michael Vincent Magnier with the three-month-old foal, fathered by racehorse Frankel and mother Crystal Gaze at The Orangery in London . Judging by little Frank's grandstanding performance yesterday, Mr Magnier landed a bargain. With a confident stride, and the juvenile physique that quickly marked his father out as a winner, Frank may already have taken his first steps towards becoming a champion. Was he showing off a teeny bit for the cameras? 'He knows he's special,' stud hand Frankie Price told me as she led him around the lawns of the palace orangery. 'He's got a real cool dude mentality. He's an absolute joy to be with.' Frankel is rated the best horse ever on the Flat and was retired to stud in 2012, his bloodline is now highly sought-after . With Frank for his red-carpet style premiere was mother Crystal Gaze, due to give birth next year to another Frankel offspring. Two of her previous foals have won races. Those who know are confident that Frank is another good 'un, as punters might phrase it. The sale, by auction house Goffs and the Al Thani family of Qatar, was held on the eve of Royal Ascot, as the biggest names in racing gather in London. Bidding for the three-month-old foal, sold with his pregnant mother, opened at £1million yesterday . Frank was meant to come last on a list of . 60 horses, a place he is unlikely to occupy often if he lives up to . expectations. But organisers brought his lot forward to stop him getting . impatient. They probably needn't have bothered. He simply stole the show. David Redvers, owner of Tweenhills stud, which bred Frank and the awaited sibling, said: 'He's such a little superstar. 'He has never been off the farm in his life and here he is, showcasing a sale like this, taking the whole thing incredibly well.' He confessed to 'a huge amount of regret' at selling Frank, adding: 'He has the same physical attributes as Frankel... just look at the hind quarters. 'That's where the engine is, and this is definitely a Formula One engine.' But the best may be yet to come. Frankel took £3million in prize money in three years, retiring in 2012. Well, a sort of retirement – he works six months a year as a stud. So far, his prowess off the course has raked in five times in stud fees what he won on the track. And if you were a betting man, you would probably take the odds that he's produced a clear winner to follow in his hoofsteps. | Frank sold at an auction in the grounds of Kensington Palace .
He became the first 'Frankelfoal' to be offered at a public sale .
Buyer paid £11 for every minute of Frank's 90-day life so far . |
197,793 | 8c00bde57e7820e5d952729175afcff564ca6803 | The North Pole may conjure up images of impressive ice sheets and freezing winds, but scenes from a webcam there reveal a different story. Two weeks of warm weather in the high Arctic have caused an aquamarine lake to begin forming since July 13, according to the North Pole Environmental Observatory’s camera. The National Snow and Ice Data Centre has reported that temperatures in early July were one to three degrees Celsius higher than the year’s average over most of the Arctic Ocean. Scroll down for video . Two weeks of warm weather in the high Arctic earlier have caused an aquamarine lake to begin forming at the North Pole . July is known as the melting month for the Arctic with the period seeing ice shrink at its fastest rate. The ice is expected to be further fractured by an Arctic cyclone, which is currently developing over the area. According to CBC, the weather system will strengthen winds to anywhere from 75-100 km/h. Last August, a similar system developed in the area which destroyed 800,000 square km of ice. However, the Arctic hit record low ice melt last year on September 16, 2012, the smallest recorded since satellites began tracking the Arctic ice in the 1970s. The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that temperatures in early July were one to three degrees Celsius higher than the year's average over most of the Arctic Ocean . But experts are divided over what the recent data will mean for the future sea-levels. ‘I have seen much more extensive ponding,’ James Morison, the principal investigator for the North Pole Environmental Observatory told The Atlantic. ‘Because we use wide angle lenses the melt pond looks much bigger than it is.’ Morison also pointed out that a camera 100 meters away showed the ice looking relatively intact. He added that the scale of these images is also quite small. Last week a team of researchers led by Dr Bert Wouters at the University of Bristol claimed that long-term data on the melting of Earth’s polar is too weak to suggest alarming decrease is permanent or caused by humans. The images above show sea ice coverage in 1980 and 2012, as observed by passive microwave sensors on NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite and by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder. Multi-year ice is shown in bright white, while average sea ice cover is shown in light blue to milky white . The group compared nine years of satellite measurements of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica in an attempt to determine if the melt-off is part of an accelerating trend in ice loss and sea-level rise. While the study showed a loss of about 300 billion tonnes of ice per year from the Arctic and Antarctic regions, it noted that natural processes cannot be ruled out as the force behind the receding ice sheets. Last week a team of researchers led by Dr Bert Wouters at the University of Bristol claimed that long-term data on the melting of Earth's polar is too weak to suggest alarming decrease is permanent or caused by humans . We could refreeze the Arctic, and it wouldn't even cost that much, a scientist claims. Two published studies explore the possibility that a technological solution could be found to the problem of global warming melting the ice caps on the North Pole. The scientist who is lead author on both claims that 'any significant nation' could find the resources to carry out the operation. The only significant question, he says, is whether we should. David Keith, professor of applied physics at Harvard University, is lead author on papers published in Nature Climate Change and Environmental Research Letters which speculate as to how we could restore the polar ice. He used climate models to suggest injecting reflective particles into the atmosphere could reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth, engineering a regional effect that could bring ice back to the Arctic. His paper claims that by reducing the penetration of sunlight by just 0.5 per cent is could be possible to restore the sea-ice around the North Pole back to pre-industrial era levels. His second paper suggests the whole operation could be accomplished with just a few modified Gulfstream jets, costing somewhere in the region of $8billion a year. However, while he believes action must be taken to tackle the amount of pollution spewed into the Earth's atmosphere, he doesn't yet advocate the kind of action his papers suggest. | North Pole Environmental Observatory images show lake forming in Arctic .
Temperatures over most of the region were one to three degrees Celsius higher than the year’s average .
Some experts claim data is too weak to suggest decrease in ice is permanent . |
217,677 | a5d50d390fb4045609eb1e27c402066d2ddf52d5 | Ed Miliband was facing a backbench revolt last night over Labour’s failure to support a judge-led inquiry into British complicity in torture. The party’s high command still insists a Westminster committee should investigate even though it presided over an alleged whitewash in the extraordinary rendition affair. A string of Mr Miliband’s MPs yesterday declared that disturbing questions raised by a US Senate report on the barbaric treatment of detainees by the CIA should be answered once and for all. Paul Flynn, David Winnick and Yasmin Qureshi all said only a judge-led process would do. Scroll down for video . Ed Miliband was facing a backbench revolt last night over Labour’s failure to support a judge-led inquiry into British complicity in torture . It leaves Labour’s leader in the unusual position of backing an investigation he himself admits may be inadequate. His brother David could even be called to give evidence to any inquiry. As foreign secretary from 2007 to 2010, he is accused of trying to cover up Britain’s involvement in CIA wrongdoing. Other Labour figures facing questions include Jack Straw and Tony Blair, who broke cover yesterday to say he had never condoned torture. On another day of drama at Westminster: . A string of Mr Miliband’s MPs declared only a probe by a judge could clear up the disturbing questions raised by a US Senate report on the barbaric treatment of detainees by the CIA. Both Paul Flynn (left) and David Winnick (right) said past mistakes should not be covered up . Yvette Cooper said on Sunday that she doubted Parliament’s intelligence and security committee had the capacity and the scope to carry out an inquiry and her ‘instinct’ was for a judge-led process. However, the shadow home secretary then stopped short of backing the full judicial investigation sought by MPs on all sides. Last night a source close to Mr Miliband said: ‘Ed agrees with the position set out by Yvette. The Government has outlined that the intelligence committee will be doing it, we have some concerns on it but we need to see the way the Government sets that out. As foreign secretary from 2007 to 2010, David Miliband is accused of trying to cover up Britain’s involvement in CIA wrongdoing . ‘We are not at this stage calling for anything to go further than that.’ Yesterday Mrs May said that, since her appointment in 2010, she had seen no evidence of the security services being complicit in ill treatment. But, turning the spotlight on the New Labour years, she added: ‘I cannot speak for what might have happened in the past before this Government came into office.’ Mr Clegg also spoke out, saying senior figures in the last Labour government should give evidence on what they knew. The Deputy Prime Minister added: ‘If people are found to have broken the law, the full weight of the law should come down on them without fear or favour, however operationally grand they are.’ When Mrs May appeared before the home affairs committee, Labour MPs took the opportunity to call for a judge-led investigation. Mr Flynn said it was time for Britain – which is still to publish the Chilcot report into the Iraq War – to ‘get away from this policy of trying to cover up past mistakes’. He added: ‘The (Senate torture) report degrades our reputation as allies of the United States.’ Other Labour MPs demanding a judicial inquiry included Mr Winnick and Miss Qureshi. Mr Winnick said an investigation by a judge was needed to ‘clear this whole matter up once and for all’. Keith Vaz, the committee’s chairman, stopped short of calling for a judge-led inquiry, but said it looks like being the next stage. The Labour MP added: ‘The status quo is not going to be enough.’ Mrs May came under pressure to explain the extent to which Britain had lobbied to have the Senate intelligence committee report – which detailed CIA beatings, waterboarding and the rectal feeding of detainees – redacted. It had been stripped of any mention of MI5, MI6 or Diego Garcia – the British base which David Miliband belatedly admitted had been used for at least two rendition flights. As the Mail revealed last week, there were 22 meetings between the Senate committee and British ambassadors. Mrs May also personally met its chairman Dianne Feinstein, though not on the date originally given by the Foreign Office. The Home Secretary said she had not personally asked for any of the report to be redacted, and the pair had discussed ‘other things’. A number of celebrities and politicians have signed a letter to David Cameron demanding Shaker Aamer’s release from Guantanamo Bay. The father of four is pictured here with two of his children . Other Labour figures facing questions are Jack Straw (left) and Tony Blair (right), who broke cover yesterday to say he had never condoned torture . But she conceded: ‘The UK had an opportunity to ensure there was no evidence put in which would damage our national security.’ Despite the growing clamour on all sides for a judicial inquiry, Mrs May said she also believed the intelligence and security committee should be allowed to complete the task. MPs have voiced concerns that the committee – which cleared MI5 and MI6 of involvement in extraordinary rendition in 2007 – does not have sufficient powers. ISC chairman Sir Malcolm Rifkind has said he will ask the US Senate to reveal which parts of its damning report the British Government asked to be redacted from the published version. However, other members of the UK committee have questioned why he does not simply request the information from British authorities rather than go down the time-consuming road of negotiating with the US. Mr Blair’s office issued a statement saying: ‘Tony Blair has always been opposed to the use of torture, has always said so publicly and privately, has never condoned its use and – as is shown by internal government documentation already made public – thinks it is totally unacceptable.’ The statement did not address any of the specific allegations that – during the war on terror – British agents were complicit in extraordinary rendition or had turned a blind eye to abuse of detainees. David Miliband and Mr Straw were unavailable for comment last night. Last week Ed Miliband leapt to the defence of his brother, saying he would ‘never’ have knowingly allowed British agents to become involved in rendition and torture programmes run by the CIA. | Labour high command insists Westminster committee should investigate .
But string of MPs say only a judge's probe can clear up torture questions .
Miliband's brother David could be called to give evidence to any inquiry .
He is accused of trying to cover up UK's part in CIA wrongdoing .
Other Labour figures facing questions are Jack Straw and Tony Blair .
Blair broke cover yesterday to say he had never condoned torture .
Home Secretary Theresa May admitted the Government had been given the chance to vet the Senate report; .
Nick Clegg joined calls for Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer to be returned to Britain; .
More celebrities and politicians signed a letter to David Cameron demanding the father of four’s release. |
254,729 | d5bb6ad581704c8f184ebd25d1e126f2731edd2b | (CNN) -- U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III plans to emulate the decision of his Presidents Cup counterpart Fred Couples and select former world number one Tiger Woods for next year's contest with Europe. Woods, a 14-time major winner, has struggled with form and fitness since problems in his personal life emerged two years ago. The American has slipped to 50th in golf's world rankings, having not won a tournament since the Australian Masters in November 2009. But the 35-year-old's recent slump has not prevented Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, from selecting Woods as a wildcard pick for November's Presidents Cup clash with the International team in Australia. "Well I've been asked that a lot, what would I do if I was in Fred's situation," Love, himself a former major champion, told a press conference at Medina Golf and Country Club in Chicago, the venue for the 2012 Ryder Cup. Look out Europe: American golf is bouncing back . "You certainly want one of the best players ever in the game, you want him on your team. I'm hoping, for Tiger's sake, that he has a full healthy season next year and we are not in this situation. That he's back to his form and he's ready to go. "I would love to play as Tiger Woods' partner in a Presidents Cup or a Ryder Cup. So I would probably have to go with exactly what Fred did." Woods has played in six Ryder Cups since 1997, but his only experience of team victory came at Brookline, Massachusetts in 1999 after missing out due to injury three years ago. He had planned to take the rest of this year off, but his Presidents Cup selection persuaded him to enter the Frys.com Open starting October 6, when he will be partnered by new caddy Joe LaCava -- who carried Couples' bag for more than 20 years. LaCava left Couples this year when the 51-year-old decided to reduce his playing schedule, and worked with 2010 Ryder Cup player Dustin Johnson until the end of the PGA Tour's recent FedEx Cup playoffs. "Joe is an outstanding caddy," Woods told his official website on Sunday. "I have known him for many years. I've personally seen the great job he did for Freddie. I'm anxious for us to be working together." LaCava added: "I'm excited to be working with Tiger. I contacted Tiger and Mark (Steinberg, Woods' agent) because this is a unique opportunity to be part of something very special. "Tiger and I have been friends for a very long time, and I know what he can do." | U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III wants Tiger Woods in his 2012 team .
Fred Couples has picked Woods as a wildcard for the Presidents Cup in November .
The former world No. 1 has dropped down the rankings to 50th after two hard years .
Woods has hired Couples' former caddy Joe LaCava as his new bagman . |
152,016 | 5075b816811d8a7901a8116d3574d1a40d0033c7 | Excellent! Alex Winter, who played Bill S. Preston Esq. in 1989's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and 1991's "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey," said plans for the pair's third movie are coming along -- and Keanu Reeves, who played Ted "Theodore" Logan, is also on board. "(Bill and Ted) will be 40-something, and it's all about Bill and Ted grown up, or not grown up," Winter told Yahoo. "It's really sweet and really f***ing funny." The films star Winter and Reeves as two slacker friends who find out that they're key to a utopian future -- but first they have to pass a history test. In the first film, thanks to the intercession of Rufus (George Carlin), the two travel through history and gather notables such as Napoleon, Genghis Khan and Abraham Lincoln, allowing them to breeze through. In the second film, the two face off against Death -- though, instead of playing him in a "Seventh Seal"-type chess match, the two choose to challenge Death to games of Battleship and Twister. The first film was an unlikely success, Winter recalled in April. "I hate to say it, but we kind of gave up on the movie," Winter told the UK's Guardian. "It was much closer to the chopping block than anyone knows." Winter didn't say who would take the place of Carlin, who died in 2008, but told Yahoo there will be "many versions of ourselves in this movie." The bigger challenge, he added, was that the earlier films have such a large fan base and expectations are high. "The thing we had going against us is that word got out," he explains. "That was kind of a bummer. It just takes a long time to put a movie together. Now we're having to build this thing in public, which is fine. I just feel bad (the fans) have to get dragged through this long, boring, protracted process." Winter is currently featured in the film "Grand Piano." | Alex Winter says a third "Bill & Ted" movie is still in the works .
Winter and Keanu Reeves will reprise their roles .
The characters are slacker metalheads who create an amazing future . |
46,615 | 835a73bab6b9d8b9035e629204793dc0800d73a7 | 'You're too fat,' is something no woman should ever have to hear in the workplace. But for Ashley Graham, who has made a living for the past fifteen years modelling in the plus size clothes market, the insult is a regular occurrence. In the last 12 months, the 27-year-old from Nebraska has been elevated to the ranks of supermodel - gracing the cover of Elle earlier this year and featuring in both Love magazine and Teen Vogue this month. Supermodel Ashley Graham has launched a lingerie range (featured in pic) across Europe for plus-size women after being taunted all of her life over weight. The American is hoping to encourage women to embrace their curves . But that doesn't meant that the model is treated with kid gloves - her size means she is regularly subjected to a whole host of verbal abuse both outside and inside of the industry. She said: 'I have been in, I've been out, I've been too fat, I've been too thin, I've been too ethnic, I've been too white, I've had people tell me I'm too ugly. 'You really have to have thick skin to be (plus-size) in this industry.' But after decades of completely ignoring overweight women in fashion, film and music, Ashley believes that the tide is finally changing thanks to more and more women speaking out about their needs being ignored. She has just launched her own 19-piece lingerie range for plus-sized online retailer Navabi, with bras starting at 36DD and going up to 44E. With the average British woman in the UK now a size 16, Ashley hopes we are seeing an end to a clothing market focused solely on the perfect size ten. Ashley wants more fashion houses to use curvy models so that the general public can see themselves represented on TV and in magazines . She said: 'To see the changes in this industry is phenomenal and I'm excited to see where it's going. 'I really feel that curves are in and everything that I do on Instagram is #curvesarein. '(As plus size models) we go on the runway castings as much as we can for the high end designers that have never done plus-size before. 'And for the beauty adverts - just because I'm plus-size doesn't mean that I can't do a beauty or hair campaign. 'I was on the cover of Elle at the beginning of the year, I have done some editorial for Harpers Bazaar and I'm in Love Magazine and Miss Vogue right now, so it's happening. 'That's when you know the industry is changing.' Often, change starts with prominent public figures taking a stand and Ashley believes that British singer Adele is one of the stars that have really helped push the cause of curvy women in the western world. Although Ashley is larger than your average model, she maintains a healthy and active lifestyle . She said: 'With Adele, people aren't looking at her and saying that's a big girl who can sing, they're just saying that's Adele. 'But it's still something lingering over people's minds. 'Melissa McCartney is still only cast for big girl roles - I think that there is still that struggle in TV and film but she is still getting very high-profile roles.' However, there is still most of the work to be done,in the last two Fashion weeks - during February this year and the most recent one last month - Ashley maintains that all of the big fashion houses did not want to use anybody plus-size on their catwalks. She said: 'In February's fashion week and this fashion week, no high end designers wanted to use plus-size. 'There was a backlash - they saw us and they thought we were great, but they also said they were't ready to work with us yet. Over years of working in fashion, Ashley Graham has worked out how to dress to best flatter her figure - she enjoys both accentuating her hourglass figure (left) and wearing slouchy clothes (right) 'So while they see the curves and the plus-size, there aren't any high end designers putting curves on the catwalk yet. 'But things are going to be changing soon, the fact that they are open to seeing plus-size models at castings - that's a big deal.' Ashley is most concerned about pushing through a change because she believes is is something that normal women need to see - plus-size women being admired and welcomed by the media and fashion - in order to feel good about themselves. She said: 'I think seeing plus-size women on catwalks gives normal women confidence by knowing that there are actually people their size. 'They want to see themselves in the magazine - whether they are 13 or 45, they want to see someone representing them on a billboard, in a magazine or in a campaign. Ashley Graham for Navabi bra collection left to right: Padded bra, £39, Non-padded Full Coverage bra, £39, pearl bra, £39, lace bra, £39. Bra sizes range from 36DD to 44E . Ashley Graham for Navabi pants collection, each £17 . 'It's important for women to see body diversity in the community reflected in the media and you can tell it's wanted.' 'I have talked to multiple girls in different high schools with some other plus-size models, I also just went to a weight loss camp in upstate New York and it was really interesting because there were girls from a US size six (UK 10) and some as a US size 22 (UK 26). 'These girls couldn't believe that there were these models who were plus-size, who were excited about their curves and who were in the media. 'They don't know that it exists and they were excited and they said to us, 'Thank you for making me feel so incredible about my body. 'I don't have role models like this but you have created one for me.' Dress for your body type - trends don't necessarily matter . Buy classic pieces that you can wear in five or six years time - your wardrobe will grow immensely . Be confident to show off your hourglass figure . If you feel good in an outfit then it shows - Ashley would rather be half an hour late than not feel good in what she's wearing for the day . 'To have 13,14 and 15-year-old girls say this was so nice and it really makes me want to do something about the fashion industry.' And while Ashley is full of positivity about women embracing their bodies, the model maintains that she is extremely anti-overeating. Over the years, being a plus-size model has made her a figurehead for the anti-fat brigade, with people accusing her of making the world an unhealthier place by promoting curvy bodies. She said: 'I absolutely hate that. To the people who say I am pro-obesity, I laugh in their face. 'I am pro-health and I am pro-diversity. 'If you look on my Instagram page, you can see that I work out constantly and I have a workout video coming out that shows you how to work out and keep your curves. 'I work out three-four days a week but I can modify my eating to kind of what I want, I also like green juices and healthy salads. 'I just happen to be big boned and have an extra layer of meat on me.' Ashley Graham's lingerie range is available at navabi.co.uk . | The American has been regularly told she is too ugly or fat for jobs .
The 27-year-old is now one of the world's most successful models .
She is on mission to make women embrace their curves not be embarrassed .
Ashley has launched underwear range, with bras going up to 44E in Europe . |
14,379 | 28c583f8f1499839330be02bf45b9c68f0f83b61 | Jarratt, Virginia (CNN) -- Teresa Lewis, called the mastermind in the murder-for-hire deaths of her husband and stepson, was executed Thursday night, Virginia Department of Corrections officials said. Lewis, who was given a lethal injection, was pronounced dead at 9:13 p.m. ET at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Death penalty opponents argued that Lewis, a 41-year-old grandmother, should not have died for a 2002 conspiracy that spared two triggermen a capital sentence. Instead they got life without parole. Lewis was the first woman executed in Virginia in nearly a century. The victims' family members witnessed the execution, state Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said. News media witnesses said Lewis appeared frightened when she entered the death chamber and approached the gurney. Asked if she had last words, Lewis said, "I just want Kathy to know I love her. And I am very sorry." The inmate was referring to her stepdaughter, witness Kathy Clifton, daughter of murder victim Julian Lewis and sister of victim C.J. Lewis. "She has no recriminations, she has no ill will for anybody," Lewis attorney Jim Rocap said. "I think frankly that she had accepted what was going to happen tonight a long time ago, and she was very peaceful with that." The death row inmate pleaded guilty in the 2002 slayings of her husband and stepson in their rural home near Danville, Virginia, about 145 miles from Richmond. Lewis, whom the state argued is evil, was the first woman executed in the United States in five years. She requested a last meal of two fried chicken breasts, sweet peas with butter, German cake (first choice), apple pie (second choice) and a Dr Pepper soft drink, officials said. Rocap also released a statement late Thursday. "Tonight, the machinery of death in Virginia extinguished the beautiful, childlike and loving human spirit of Teresa Lewis ..." Rocap said. "Teresa asked that I send her thanks and love to all of those who have supported her in this fight for her life. In her words, 'It's just awesome.' It is our hope that Teresa's death will cause a re-examination of the badly broken system of justice that could allow something as wrong and unjust as this to happen." On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution appeal. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell also rejected a clemency request. "Having carefully reviewed the petition for clemency, the judicial opinions in this case, and other relevant materials, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the Circuit Court and affirmed by all reviewing courts," McDonnell wrote. "Accordingly, I decline to intervene and have notified the appropriate counsel and family of my decision." Lewis and her lawyers argued to the governor that she had an IQ that was borderline mentally retarded and that she was manipulated into committing the crimes by a dominant male co-defendant. She pleaded guilty to her participation in the murders but later regretted her actions, they said. Two anti-death penalty groups pleaded with McDonnell to show clemency. "Teresa's death sentence, imposed despite clear evidence of her diminished mental capacities, disabilities and addictions, undermines any confidence that she was properly adjudicated to be 'worthy' of death," argued Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "The final failure of the death penalty system in Virginia rests squarely on the desk of Governor McDonnell. He should do the right thing and allow Teresa the same punishment, which was given to her co-defenders -- life imprisonment." "I just want the governor to know that I am so sorry, deeply from my heart," Lewis recently said. "And if I could take it back, I would, in a minute. ... I just wish I could take it back. And I'm sorry for all the people that I've hurt in the process." Lewis admitted to police that she concocted the plot to kill her husband, Julian, and his son C.J., an Army reservist set to be deployed to Iraq. At the time, she was having an affair with Matthew Shallenberger and paid him and then-19-year-old Rodney Fuller to commit murder for the victims' insurance money. Court records show that Lewis gave the two killers cash to buy weapons and left the door of the home open for easy entry. Lewis was in bed with her husband when he was hit with a shotgun blast by Shallenberger. Julian Lewis survived long enough to tell police, "My wife knows who did this to me." Fuller killed C.J. Lewis in his bedroom down the hall. Despite her guilty plea, a state judge later sentenced Lewis to death while sparing the lives of Shallenberger and Fuller. At sentencing, the judge called her "the head of this serpent." "I can frankly say that Teresa Lewis is as evil a person as I've ever met," David Grimes, commonwealth's attorney for Pittsylvania County, who was at the scene shortly after the crimes occurred. "I would wager with some assurance that you wouldn't find anyone who knew her before this event occurred who thought she was mentally retarded or had a limited mentality -- that it would ever cross their minds." Her supporters said Lewis was deeply remorseful and had been a model prisoner, helping fellow female inmates cope with their circumstances. "I do feel I could be a lot of help to some of the women, which I have already. From my understanding, I've already helped a lot to change their lives or made them look at their lives in a different way," Lewis said. Amnesty International and best-selling author John Grisham were among those supporting leniency. Grimes said Lewis had a "fairly low" IQ but noted that courts have concluded she was not mentally retarded. The state also argued that Lewis waited 45 minutes after the shootings before calling police and that she had involved her then-16-year-old daughter in the plot. Rocap argued that such evidence suggested "Teresa could not have been the mastermind." "Shallenberger has stated, and the experts that have examined her agree, that she was being used by Shallenberger, not the other way around," he said. Lewis' attorneys said that Shallenberger admitted he used Lewis to get at the $250,000 she would receive in the event her stepson died. A letter from Shallenberger to another woman, they say, said that the only reason he slept with Lewis was "so she would give me the insurance money." "She was exactly what I was looking for," he wrote. "Some ugly bitch who married her husband for the money and I knew I could get to fall head over heels for me." Furthermore, they said, Shallenberger said he "manipulated the whole thing" and "knew he was going 'take' Lewis from the moment he met her," according to an affidavit from one of their investigators. But Shallenberger, who committed suicide in 2006, refused to sign the affidavit and actually tore up and ate part of it. Still, Grimes said, his investigation showed that Lewis took an active role in the plot, that she connived and manipulated everyone from her late husband to her lover to her children. From early on, he said, Lewis schemed several different ways to get the inheritance money. She helped plan an earlier plot to kill her husband that failed. | Teresa Lewis, 41, died Thursday night by lethal injection .
Death penalty opponents had asked Virginia's governor for clemency .
Lewis met earlier with family members, spiritual adviser .
She was sentenced in the slayings of her husband, stepson . |
97,443 | 096a0386235a731e33e00dc512cd4ffaf33abe28 | (CNN) -- Jeff Bauman may very well personify "Boston Strong," the rallying cry of the wounded but tenacious city where his life almost ended on April 15 at the Boston Marathon. The image of the maimed Bauman being led to safety by a man in a cowboy hat became one of the iconic images of the Boston Marathon terrorist attack that killed three and injured more than 260 people. Bauman, 27, announced Wednesday that he will publish a memoir about his experiences at and since the marathon. It's title? "Stronger." "The past months have often been difficult, but the support I've received from around the world, and especially from the people of Boston, has inspired me to set and achieve high goals," he said in a statement released by Grand Central Publishing. When Bauman woke up the next day after two life-saving surgeries with no legs, he mustered the strength to describe bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev to law enforcement. Tsarnaev's younger brother, Dzhokhar, has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges, including murder, related the bombings. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed when his brother ran over him as police were trying to handcuff him in a chase a few days later, authorities said. The book, which will be co-written by author Bret Witter, will be released to coincide with the first anniversary of the bombings. | Jeff Bauman lost both his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing in April .
Bauman, 27, who helped identify one of the suspects, will write a book .
The book called "Stronger" will be published near the anniversary . |
103,008 | 10c764e54f32dc5e8f9e3d4037c4a98cb04f973e | Germans are marking 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it seems some can't resist reliving the 'bad old days' of Communism. Deep in the forests of former East Germany they are spending the night in an authentic Stasi bunker - complete with military uniforms, rations and formal training for a Cold War chemical attack. Teenagers not yet born when the wall fell are among those signing up for the 14-hour tour at the Bunkermuseum Frauenwald, a 38,750 sq ft underground complex which once had enough supplies to last 130 occupants up to a year. Nostalgia for the East: At 15 years old, Jesset Kogel (pictured) was not yet born when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 - but he is now one of a growing number of people spending the night as soldiers in a Stasi-built Cold War bunker hidden in the woods near the city of Suhl . Listening in: A night in the bunker, which had a radio transmitter to reach the outside world, costs punters £87 including their rations . Shrine: The Stasi re-enactors brush up on the news of the day next to a banner depicting Karl Marx laid out on the conference table . Camouflage: Twin staircases leading to the 38,750 sq ft complex were concealed in a warehouse, with only this lookout post as a clue . Hidden in the woods near the city of Suhl, it was one of at least 15 similar bunkers meant to serve as command and administrative centres in case of war. The airtight bunker - whose twin access staircases were concealed inside a warehouse - had decontamination units and oxygen tanks in case of a chemical weapons attack in the world outside. It also had cooking facilities, bedrooms, a dining room, its own power supply and a command centre which used telegraph wires and a radio transmitter to keep up contact with the outside world. But the bunker was not perfect - as it was not radiation-proof, and would have been safe for only a week in an all-out nuclear war. Its active service ended in 1990 when Germany was reunified, and in 1997 it was turned into a museum which now has 20,000 visitors a year. Rations: Many original East German food products were taken off the shelves after reunification in 1990, and there is an interest in finding old examples. The biscuit in this picture are genuine, but the 'NVA field soup' was produced later to poke fun at the regime . Say cheese! Visitor Tobias Merkel, dressed as a soldier from the East German National People's Army (NVA), photographs his friend Andreas Zahn with a mannequin in a gas mask in the warehouse placed over the bunker. It now holds a military vehicle display . Drill: The 14-hour overnight 'experience' includes preparations for chemical warfare. The bunker had oxygen tanks and air filters . Cramped: Tobias Merkel inspects his accommodation in a small dormitory. The phenomenon of reliving Communism is called Ostalgie . I call top bunk: Jesset Kogel, 15, assigns his fellow visitors to bunk beds. Others will take part in the night watch to check for 'attacks' Dinner time: The participants preparing to cook for themselves. The bunker had supplies to keep inhabitants safe for up to a year . Not all of it survived, as top-secret aspects of a technical base in the warehouse over the bunker were destroyed completely. The warehouse now houses military vehicles instead. Nowadays the Bunkermuseum Frauenwald is a privately-owned museum which teams up with a local hotel for its £87-a-night stays. Visitors dress as East German army soldiers for a more authentic experience and cook their own meals, before donning gas masks and training for a chemical weapons strike in the darkened woods. The more hardy among them take up night watches as well as sleeping in the bunker's cramped, windowless dormitories. But it's not quite the feat of endurance faced by their Stasi predecessors, as the fee includes 'relaxation time' the next morning in the hotel's sauna. Thomas Krüger, who helps run the tours, told MailOnline they were popular with visitors under 30. 'The bunker is visited by some people to experience how such military installations were created and equipped,' he said. 'Others are interested in the historical and political aspect that goes into these systems. 'The level of interest is high because such military or intelligence objects are secret and unavailable to the public while they are in active operation.' 'Younger people show an interest in the museum. They are often encouraged or taken by schools and parents to visit the bunker.' Last week Germany marked 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. TV footage of jubilant Berlin citizens perched atop the wall, an act which for decades would have earned them a gunshot to the back, inspired people around the world and has grown in legend to become the defining image of the fall of Communism. Left: Visitor Andreas Busch, who once served in the East German army. Right: A storage cupboard with original gas masks and filters . Saving lives: Museum employee and 'Sergeant' Olaf Schumann explains the functions of the original gas mask system to his visitors . Sharing a joke: The visitors arrive at the bunker at 6pm from a nearby hotel and leave at 8am - with the chance to unwind in the sauna . Pay attention: Olaf Schumann explains the electronic bunker map to visitors during an overnight stay in the Bunkermuseum Frauenwald . Strategy: 'Bunker commander' Thomas Krueger (right) mimics a typical scene in the 1970s-era underground bunker's committee room . Play a Stasi officer: Visitor Marco Schmidt contemplates the state of the Cold War next to a hand-drawn map in the control room . Young soldier: Jesset Kogel examines military telecommunications equipment. The visit came 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall . The Bunkermuseum's popularity has increased with the rise of Ostalgie, a phenomenon which sees Germans paying big money to relive the days of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). The word is a combination of Ost (East) and nostalgia (nostalgie), and came to prominence a decade ago with the release of the hit film Good Bye, Lenin! 1800 Arrival and briefing at forest bunker . 1830 Cook dinner with original DDR rations . 2000 'Basic training' and a bunker tour . 2330 Bed time - or start of the night watch . 0730 Wake-up call and 'breakfast sports' 0800 Vacate the bunker and debrief . 0830 Retreat to a sauna in nearby hotel . The Bafta-nominated bittersweet comedy followed the fictional character Alex Kerner, whose mother falls into a coma shortly before the Berlin Wall falls and awakes during the rise of capitalism. Convinced she will be unable to accept Germany's brave new world, Alex goes to impossible lengths to trick his mother into thinking the Communist state is still alive and well. The film was followed by a string of other cinema releases and TV shows which observed the everyday lives of people in the DDR, while manufacturers of nostalgia saw sales increase. Other relics from the Communist past - such as the hat-wearing green man (Ampelmann) marking road crossings in East Berlin - remained popular almost from the day the wall fell. So-called Ostalgie sparked a debate in the German media when it emerged. While many said it was a good way to remember the past, some support groups accused the trend of 'glorifying' the past and glossing over its downsides, which included stifling state surveillance and the execution of 'traitors'. A later hit about life in East Germany, The Lives of Others (2006), won the Oscar for best foreign-language film by painting a much grimmer picture of the DDR - delving into the Stasi's eavesdropping on those suspected of being disloyal to the regime, and the human tragedies it caused. But Mr Krüger insisted: 'Our visitors are no more or less nostalgic than any other human being. 'They want nothing more to learn from their own history, to see and understand the political history of their country, especially if they were not involved in intelligence or military service.' Comrades: The bunker hidden deep in the forest has original Cold War-era memorabilia, including this East German radio and an image showing a Soviet (right) and East German soldier with the motto: 'Class brothers - weapons brothers - unified unconquerable!' A little out of date! In one corner, a portrait of Communist Party Secretary Erich Honecker hangs over a 'modern' Robotron computer . Ears close to the ground: Military telecommunications devices in the bunker. The Stasi were famed for their surveillance programmes . Hello operator: In the case of full-blown war between East and West, the bunker would have served as a vital command post . Affectionate: An original calendar which still hangs in the bunker museum carries a pencil sketch of an East German military vehicle . Remembering the past: Visitors Eric Merkl, Marco Schmidt and Tobias Merkl mingle during the £87 tour under memorabilia of the former communist East Germany (DDR) - including the East German flag and portraits of Vladimir Lenin and other communist-era leaders . | Underground chamber was built by 1970s East German secret police in a hidden pocket of forest near city of Suhl .
Designed as command post for chemical or nuclear war and had enough supplies to last 130 occupants up to a year .
Fans pay £87 to spend night in 38,750 sq ft facility 25 years after fall of Berlin Wall in phenomenon known as Ostalgie . |
28,392 | 5092f062b5b060a38ed108049fa6be3b081b6b2a | By . Katie Davies . PUBLISHED: . 20:25 EST, 1 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:01 EST, 2 March 2013 . Police have appealed for help in identifying a man spotted outside a high school just 90 seconds before a 14-year-old girl went missing and just yards away from where she was later found murdered . Marysa Nichols left Red Bluff High School on Tuesday just before 11am in a gap between classes, however she failed to return home that evening causing her parents to report her missing . Her body was discovered yesterday next to a creek on the route she normally took to get home close to the small town high school. Police search: Officers are trying to track down this man who was caught on high school security footage just moments before a 14-year-old girl, later found murdered, was reported missing . Murdered: Young Marysa Nichols, pictured, was found dead on Thursday - her body discovered by a creek on her usual route home from school . Body: The body of the 14-year-old was discovered near a creek just a short distance from the high school she snuck out of two days before . Her death is being treated as a homicide . and police say the man caught on security cameras is a 'person of . interest' in their case. The man is described as white, in his thirties with a stocky short build. He was wearing red shorts and is said to have a distinctive 'colorful' tattoo on his left ankle. Police are urging witnesses to report if they saw the man in the area on 530-737-3160 and 530-737-3225. He is filmed on a street corner near the school just a minute and a half before Marysa Nichols reaches the same corner and is also caught on camera. Red Bluff Police Chief Paul Nanfito said: 'I want the assistance of the public in finding that man. He is a person of interest who may merely be a witness but it is important that we know who he is'. The officer said that the force have no suspects at this time but had made contact with registered sex offenders in the area. He refused to release any further details about the homicide as he said he didn't want to compromise the investigation. Mother's tribute: Marysa Nichols' mother Diane Whitmire published these pictures of her daughter onto her Facebook account. The pretty 14-year-old was missing for two days before her body was found . Uniform: This is the sweatshirt Marysa Nichols was to believed to be wearing when she went missing on Tuesday. Her body was found yesterday . When asked why the teenager left her . high school, he added: 'My understanding is it had to do with her . scheduling. She had one class and didn't have to return until 1pm.' Police found her body yesterday. Officers searched the field, where she was eventually found, three times before discovering her body. In a statement yesterday the police chief said: 'Marysa told her mother that she would be home at around 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. 'When her mother returned home at . around 4 p.m. her daughter was not at home. Detectives searched the . creek area for the missing juvenile as this is an area that she would . have crossed when walking home from school. 'Based . upon the scene we have determined that this is a homicide . investigation. Our investigation is continuing and an autopsy is . scheduled for Saturday.' Devastated: Friends held a vigil for Marysa Nichols at the Tehama County Courthouse in Red Bluff, California, last night. She was described as a popular girl who loved boy-band One Direction . Teen grief: Mourners in the small town of Red Bluff, California have been left stunned by the murder of the 14-year-old . Her mother, school bus driver, Diane . Whitmire, stepfather Curtis . Whitmire and biological father Rick Nichols, who lives in nearby Fresno, . were described as 'hysterical' upon hearing the news of her death. A . vigil was held at the school tonight and more than 200 gathered outside Tehama County Courthouse on . Thursday as news broke that her body had been found. Friends describe Marysa as a popular student of the high school and a fan of teen band One Direction and Justin Bieber. One friend Taylor Skelton, 15, told the newspaper she had known her since elementary school . 'She was really nice to everyone,' she said. Several groups were set up in tribute to the teenager on social networking sites and another vigil is planned at the high school tonight. Her stepsister Hope Nichols wrote: 'I just found her and loved getting to know her' Happy: A younger Marysa Nichols, center, with her siblings, her body was found near her high school yesterday . Another friend wrote: 'I've been crying my eyes out on and off yesterday and today. God has you in heaven.' Her body was found near a creek in a field to the west of the high school at Baker Road and Walnut Street. Lisa Escobar, superintendent of the Red Bluff Union High School District, told the local newspaper that the killing had devastated the entire community. 'Our hearts go out to the family. I think it's a community issue. We all need to work together.' | Police want to identify man filmed on security cameras near Red Bluff High School just a minute and a half before Marysa Nichols left the school building .
14-year-old was found murdered yesterday near a creek not far from the school she left just before 11am on Tuesday .
The teenager was reported missing when her mother, Diane Whitmire, came home from work and discovered her daughter wasn't home .
Police say man is 'person of interest' who needs to be identified .
Police Chief says they are speaking to known sex offenders in the area . |
28,793 | 51bd2dba036e8b73ef67a74d00276e398aae7d72 | Manchester United manager Van Gaal revealed Young could be out for 'many weeks' after he limped off during the 1-1 draw at Stoke with a hamstring injury. Winger Antonio Valencia was ruled out before the match due to a thigh strain before Young hobbled off with a hamstring problem. Manchester United manager Van Gaal: 'I'm not a doctor so we have to wait for tomorrow or the day after.' Ashley Young (right) is helped off the pitch after pulling up with a hamstring problem at the Britannia Stadium . Young hobbled off the pitch in the 74th minute during Manchester United's clash with Stoke City . Antonio Valencia was taken off at half time during the Premier League game against Tottenham last week . The extent of Valencia's thigh injury and the length of time he will be absent is not yet known . Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has lost faith in Brazilian right back Rafael . Young pulled up in the 74th minute at the Britannia Stadium and was replaced by Rafael - the same player who came on for Valencia when he was taken off during the half-time interval against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Sunday. Valencia has emerged as United's first-choice right back under Van Gaal and had started the previous 10 Premier League games. The extent of the injury and the length of time Valencia will be missing is not yet known, but Van Gaal will hoping it is not serious as the Dutchman has lost faith in Brazilian right back Rafael, who was left on the bench for the clash at the Britannia before replacing Young. It is a position that United are prioritising in the January transfer window. The Dutchman admitted his side 'had difficulties defending long balls' in an awkward swirling wind in the 1-1 draw at Stoke. Jonny Evans was particularly thankful to see former team-mate Mame Biram Diouf miss a clear chance after the Northern Ireland international misjudged a long ball. Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal speaks during a press conference on Tuesday . 'It was scrappy, hard to judge the ball with the wind, but that's the challenge for us,' said Evans. '(Diouf) made a bit of a mess of it and I'm thankful for that.' Stoke boss Mark Hughes was frustrated by not just the handball appeal, but another penalty shout after Crouch's header against the woodwork. 'We've had two penalties not given,' he said. 'The obvious one was when Crouch headed towards goal and Smalling basically batted the ball down. 'Then when Crouch hits the post, you see Geoff Cameron waiting to put the ball in and he gets taken out.' A frustrated Van Gaal makes a point to the fourth official during the match at White Hart Lane on Sunday . He said of his side's overall performance: 'Tactically we were spot-on, they found it very difficult to get their key players on the ball. 'I'm disappointed but pleased we've got more points on the board and a good performance once again. Hughes also insisted there is 'nothing' in reports linking Crouch with West Brom and former coach Tony Pulis, adding: 'Peter's a big part of what we do here.' And he revealed playmaker Bojan will be out for another '10 days to a couple of weeks' with a hamstring problem. | Ashley Young hobbled off after 73 minutes against Stoke City .
He could miss 'many weeks' says Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal .
Antonio Valencia missed the match at the Britannia Stadium .
Valencia had started the previous 10 league games for United . |
145,392 | 4806079476a4ebd26dd5d2670cc8545433570ea3 | (CNN) -- A surprise inspection by the Centers for Disease Control has resulted in a failing grade for one of the plushest cruise ships afloat. According to a report by the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program, the cruise ship Silver Shadow was cited repeatedly for using an "organized effort" to remove 15 trolleys of food from the ship's galley to individual crew cabins to "avoid inspection." The snap inspection of the Silver Shadow on June 17 in Skagway, Alaska, was conducted after an anonymous crew member sent still photographs to the CDC showing meat in crew cabin sinks and trays of food in the corridors in the hallways outside those cabins. It resulted in a failing grade of 82 for the Silver Shadow. Any grade less than 84 is considered "less than satisfactory," according to the VSP website. In its advertisements Silversea Cruises, the cruise line that owns the Silver Shadow, emphasizes luxury and what it calls a "world class" culinary experience. The company said its ships have an average passenger load of a little more than 300 compared to some cruise lines with ships that carry anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 passengers. The company said it charges passengers an average of $5,000 per week to sail. One crew member who was on board the Silver Shadow said that his superiors ordered him and other crew members to sleep with food inside their cabins. Adriano Colonna, who had a 40-day contract to serve as a pastry chef on the vessel, said a trolley full of salami and even unrefrigerated blue cheese was stored in crew cabins. Colonna said food was hidden night after night to avoid health inspections. Passengers lack public info on cruise ship crime . A spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale-based Silversea Cruises, Ltd. e-mailed CNN prior to the public posting of the CDC score, stating that the firm was "deeply disappointed" in the outcome of the inspection. In fact, Gina Finocchiaro said the final grade was an 84, although it actually turned out to be 82. The company said it had always scored in the highest range of grades in the past. Records published by the CDC showed that Silversea ships had been graded in the high 90s and even 100 on occasion. Finocchiaro said the Silver Shadow inspection last month in Alaska was an anomaly. Neither she nor anyone else at the company responded to questions from CNN asking whether any employees were disciplined. Jim Walker -- a Miami-based lawyer who specializes in filing lawsuits against cruise lines for injury and wrongful termination -- said that, in his experience, it's common for cruise ships to hide food from government inspectors. "There is typically a scramble that takes place," he said. "That's what we learn from crew members." Walker, who wrote about the Silver Star incident on his website cruiselaw.com, said he believes managers on board the ship "were essentially caught playing a game." "The CDC was alerted by crew members who were concerned about the hygiene on the ship and they went in and verified their complaints," he said. According to the CDC final report, its inspectors poured chlorine liquid over the discarded food on board the Silver Shadow to prevent any of it from being re-used. Other than a promise to correct actions that led to the problems, the owners of the ship were not fined, nor was the ship stopped from proceeding on its scheduled trip along Alaska's Inland Passage to Juneau. That's because the CDC has no authority to correct any of the issues. The CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program employs inspectors from the U.S. Public Health Service and, even though it's a considered a regulatory program, it only has the authority to ask the cruise line to correct its actions. "VSP requires all ships to submit corrective action statements for deficiencies," the program states on its website. "VSP does not verify that the deficiencies have been corrected until after conducting the next vessel inspection or re-inspection." In a cruise ship crisis, what should happen? This year, six cruise ships, including the Silver Shadow, have received failing grades by the CDC, according to its database. That's three times more than the number of cruise ships that failed inspections in 2012. CDC spokeswoman Bernadette Burden noted that "every case is different," and each case goes through several reviews before scores are finally posted. The cruise industry has been in the spotlight after a series of disasters that have captured headlines. The Costa Concordia hit a reef off the coast of Italy in January 2012, killing 32 people. Then there was February's Carnival Triumph cruise, which experienced an engine fire in the control room that led to a loss of electrical power for five days. In May, Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas caught fire, forcing the ship to cut short the trip. Nevertheless, a recent survey by J.D. Power and Associates found overall customer satisfaction with eight major cruise lines remains high. Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International and Holland America Line came in first, second and third, respectively, in customer satisfaction, while Carnival ranked last. Silversea Cruises was not included in the survey, which survey measured seven factors that affect a customer's experience: service, state of the room, food, the efficiency of boarding and departing on the ship, entertainment, cost and excursions. 5 things we've learned about cruising . Got a story idea or tip for CNN's investigations team? Go to cnn.com/investigate or click here to submit. Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here. | Silver Shadow scored "less than satisfactory" 82 during surprise inspection .
Pastry chef said trolleys of food were stored in crew cabins to avoid inspection .
CDC inspectors poured chlorine over discarded food to keep it from being re-used .
Ship owners were not fined; CDC has no authority to correct any of the issues . |
9,086 | 19bec57d73849356d7b9f3942b2caf6cb0919c2e | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 12:38 EST, 3 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:09 EST, 8 February 2013 . A Northern Ireland-based company was the supplier of halal food found to contain traces of pork DNA, it was revealed today. Food distributor 3663 said McColgan Quality Foods Limited supplied a 'very small number of halal savoury beef pastry products' that contained pork traces to prisons. The company said all halal products from the manufacturer had been withdrawn from supply. Northern-Ireland based company McColgan Quality Food Ltd has been revealed as the distributor of the halal pastry products that contained pork . The consumption of pork is forbidden under Islamic law. In a statement the company said: '3663 . would like to clarify that the very small number of halal savoury beef . pastry products that have been withdrawn from supply were only ever . distributed to custodial establishments. 'The products in question are from one particular food manufacturer, McColgan Quality Foods Limited, and have not been distributed to any other customer.' The Ministry of Justice said 3663 has not been suspended, but a 'sub-contractor' has been. 3663 has said it was 'shocked', and described as 'wholly unacceptable' the discovery that some of the halal products it supplied were found to contain pork DNA due to McColgan Quality Foods being accredited by the Halal Food Authority. According to buynifood.com, a website devoted to the produce of Northern Ireland, McColgan Quality Foods - based in Strabane, County Tyrone - is said to be 'approved for the preparation of halal product'. The 'halal' beef pastries were supplied to prisons but have since been withdrawn . The website lists among McColgan customers popular supermarket brands including Lidl, Spar and Costcutter. A spokesman for McColgan's said the company is proactively cooperating' with the Food Standards Agency. In . a statement he added: 'McColgan's has already taken swift measures to . identify, isolate and withdraw all of the products which are supplied to . The Prison Service while an investigation to determine the . circumstances surrounding this deeply regrettable and unforeseen . incident takes place. 'McColgan's is keen to stress that at . no point has pork of any kind been included in the recipes of any of the . halal-certified products it supplies.' 3663 . is currently contracted to distribute a wide range of products . including ambient, frozen, fresh and chilled foods to the MoJ, all . sourced from fully accredited and approved manufacturers and producers. Following the horse meat scandal, 3663 . recognised a potential connection between a halal beef producer . mentioned within the FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) report and a . supplier of halal savoury beef pastry products stocked for the MoJ. 3663 informed the MoJ of the potential connection as a precautionary measure, then took the decision that these halal savoury beef pastry products should be quarantined to prevent their use pending DNA testing. | McColgan Quality Foods Limited said it is cooperating with investigations .
Pork DNA was found in 'small number' of halal pastries supplied to prisons .
Company withdrew products from supply and said it is 'deeply regrettable'
McColgan's said 'at no point' was pork included in the halal recipes . |
222,131 | ab88520779ce01f9b6bcca3c2cfcb0e6ba4b4776 | Alesha Dixon has quit the judging panel of Strictly Come Dancing. The pop star, who controversially replaced choreographer Arlene Phillips in 2009, is leaving after three series on the BBC show. Her departure comes just hours before ITV is set to unveil its new panel for Britain's Got Talent, prompting speculation she may have been lured by a big money deal to swap sides. I'm off! Alesha Dixon has quit BBC talent show Strictly Come Dancing after three series . In a statement, Miss Dixon said: . 'After three incredible years on the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel I . have decided that it is time to move on. 'Strictly Come Dancing will always . hold a special place in my heart as it has been such an amazing . experience, both as a winning competitor and as a judge. 'I would like to say a big thank you . to everyone involved in the show, the production team, my fellow . judges, and a very special thank you to the fans for their support. 'Music is my great passion and the . reason for the other incredible opportunities that have come my way and I . am looking forward to getting back into the studio and focusing on . making a new record in 2012.' Who will replace her? Who will sit with Craig Revel Horwood, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli? A BBC spokesperson said: 'We wish her all the best. 'She has done three very successful series with us and we look forward to announcing our new line-up in due course.' Dixon, 33, famously won the fifth series of Strictly in 2007 with her professional partner Matthew Cutler. It . was a career resurgence for the Hertfordshire singer, who had been dropped from . her record company and split from ex-husband, rapper Michael Harvey, after discovering . his affair with singer Javine Hylton. Her appointment on the Strictly panel caused controversy, with the BBC being accused of 'ageism' after sacking Phillips, who is 36 years older than Dixon. During . her time on Strictly, Dixon was rumoured to be the highest paid judge . on the panel, earning more than Craig Revel-Horwood, Len Goodman and . Bruno Tonioli. Glamour girl: The singer at the Military Awards at the Imperial War Museum last month . Despite being the least experienced in terms of dancing, her celebrity status and interest from rival talent shows landed her a reported £100,000 salary. In a recent interview, Dixon admitted she hoped to build her TV career and dreamed of being the 'British Oprah'. She told the Mail On Sunday's You magazine: 'I haven't got an exact time scale for it. I can't say I want to do it in five years, or ten, but that's the ultimate goal. Triumph: Dixon and Matthew Cutler in the final of Strictly Come Dancing in 2007 . 'I would love to have my own chat . show. I'd love to be able to address serious issues, and keep a foot in . the entertainment world. I just want to do it all, and I think you can. Oprah has.' Following her Strictly triumph, Dixon signed to a new record label and her second album The Alesha Show was certified platinum. However, . her follow-up disc The Entertainer failed to captivate the British . music buying public and peaked at No.84 on the album charts. In June, Dixon announced she and Asylum Records had parted ways, citing 'creative differences'. | Will she be on the new Britain's Got Talent panel when it's unveiled tonight? |
51,619 | 92257ec476bf09197a5f7d3fe4afa1fa0fa558b8 | By . Nik Simon . Follow @@Nik_Simon88 . Leicester: Schmeichel, De Laet, Konchesky, Drinkwater (James 46), Morgan (c) (Wasilewski 46), Hammond (Ulloa 46), King, Albrighton (Schlupp 40), Moore, Mahrez (Taylor-Fletcher 68), Nugent (Wood 68) Subs not used: Hamer . Werder Bremen: Wolf, Garcia, Caldirola, Galvez, Lukimya, Fritz, Elia, Hajrovic, Junuzovic, Gebre Selassie, Petersen . Subs: Makiadi, Obraniak, Ekici, Kroos, Kobylanski, Aycicek, Bartels, Husing, Selke, Akpala, Busch, Husic . Attendance: 8,314 (159 away) Referee: Craig Pawson . Leicester City rounded off their unbeaten pre-season campaign with a narrow victory over Werder Bremen at the King Power Stadium. Skipper Wes Morgan scored a seventh minute header to continue City's positive preparations for life in the Premier League; with the Foxes already beating Everton, Ilkeston, Walsall, MK Dons and Rotherham earlier in the summer. But an injury to winger Marc Albrighton took the shine off the win for Leicester manager Nigel Pearson, who was forced to withdraw the 24-year-old in the second half. Speaking after the match, Pearson said: 'It's about what you do when the season starts, but today we did well against a good technical team. Felt we were better side.' Leicester kick off their Premier League campaign at home to Everton. Captain's call: Leicester's Wes Morgan celebrates scoring the only goal at the King Power Stadium . Tussle: Leicester's Leonardo Ulloa (right) and Werder Bremen's Luca Caldirola fight for possession . Concerns: Leicester winger Marc Albrighton was taken off after picking up a knock in the first half . Head to head: Danny Drinkwater of Leicester is challenged by Alejandro Galvez of Werder Bremen . | City captain scores winner to round off unbeaten pre-season campaign .
Winger Marc Albrighton replaced in second half after injury scare .
Leicester kick off their Premier League campaign at home to Everton . |
181,396 | 76d6827a192c835d6193fcac10ee963e7566f3c8 | (CNN) -- Two suspected rebel leaders accused of having committed war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region surrendered to the International Criminal Court on Wednesday, the court announced. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus are charged with three counts of war crimes stemming from an attack on African Union peacekeepers in September 2007, the ICC said. They arrived voluntarily at the court at The Hague on Wednesday following summonses issued last August, the court said. Their first appearance before the chamber was scheduled for Thursday morning. Both men are now staying at a undisclosed location, where they will remain for the course of the proceedings, the ICC said. The men each led armed groups that carried out the attack on the African Union peacekeepers, the court said. Banda led splinter forces of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and Jerbo commanded troops from a breakaway faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement, it said. In the attack, about 1,000 men armed with anti-aircraft guns, artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers killed 12 African Union peacekeeping troops and severely wounded eight others in Haskanita, in northern Darfur, the court said. They also destroyed peacekeepers' communications installations, dormitories and vehicles and stole computers, cell phones, uniforms, ammunition and money, the court said. It was the deadliest single attack on the peacekeepers since they began their mission in late 2004. The voluntary surrender of the two accused was "the culmination of months of efforts," ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said. "The appearance of the two suspects means that all the persons we wish to prosecute in connection with the Haskanita attack have now appeared before the court," he said. The case against Jerbo and Banda is the fourth one dealing with Darfur that has been handled by the court. In one case, Ali Kushayb, a militia leader, and Ahmad Harun, former minister of state for the interior in Sudan, are still at large. Both face charges of murder, rape, forced displacement and other offenses during the Darfur crisis, which the United States characterizes as a genocide. The prosecutor offered them the option of voluntary surrender, Moreno-Ocampo said. "They refused to cooperate, and the judges issued arrest warrants against them," he said. Sudan has refused to extradite them, and has been found in "non-compliance" with U.N. Security Council resolutions as a result, he said. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir -- who was just reelected last month -- is wanted by the court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He also remains at large. A third case involved Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, of Sudan's Zaghawa tribe. He appeared voluntarily before the court last year on charges of murder, directing attacks on peacekeepers, and pillaging in the 2007 attack on the peacekeepers, but the court declined to pursue those charges in February citing insufficient evidence. The attack on the AU peacekeepers came months before the 7,000-strong force was replaced by a United Nations peacekeeping force of 26,000 troops. The U.N. force, known as UNAMID, is a joint operation between the United Nations and the African Union and took over formally at the end of 2007. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes. Sudan denies that the death toll is that high. The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government. To counter the rebels, Sudanese authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength. | NEW: Surrender means all attack suspects are in custody .
Men are charged with three counts of war crimes .
Charges stem from fatal 2007 attack on African Union peacekeepers .
12 peacekeepers died, 8 others were severely wounded . |
251,119 | d0ff15765ce99a0401fc583b1d90bd3b553177e0 | LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- An agreement aimed at ending violence and bloodshed that has erupted in Bolivian provinces has been reached between President Evo Morales and provincial governors, officials announced Tuesday. Leopoldo Fernandez Ferreira, governor of Pando province, talks to reporters a day before his arrest. The announcement on Bolivian television came just hours after the military arrested the governor of one of five provinces where violent clashes have occurred in the past three weeks, saying he had committed genocide in the deaths of 30 peasants. Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez Ferreira of Pando province was picked up at his office in Cobija and placed on a military plane for La Paz, the Bolivian capital. He did not resist. Groups in Pando and four other Bolivian provinces, backed by the local governors, have demanded greater autonomy and clashed with supporters of the federal government. Federal authorities say the 30 people who were killed Friday were federal supporters. Bolivian President Evo Morales said the arrest was legal and constitutional. "This arrest is within the framework of the state where it happened, within the constitutional framework and no one can oppose it," Morales said at a news conference at the presidential palace. Officials said more arrests are possible. "We will work day and night to avoid any more deaths or terrorist acts," presidential minister Juan Ramon Quintana said in another news conference. "We will do everything we can to arrest those who have committed terrorist acts." As news of Fernandez's arrest spread across the country, many citizens talked about who else could be on the government's "black list," as they were calling it. Besides demanding greater autonomy, opposition leaders in the five provinces want the cancellation of a constitutional referendum that would give the president more power. The opposition also is angry over tax money that Morales is diverting from the provinces to fund programs for the elderly. Learn more about the Republic of Bolivia » . Morales has said the opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. "This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces," Morales previously said. Opposition leaders say they merely want their demands met. On Tuesday, they warned that Fernandez's arrest could destroy a shaky truce with the government. The arrest came hours after Morales returned Monday night from a quick trip to Chile, where presidents of the 12-nation Union of South American Countries met to discuss the Bolivian crisis. Watch leaders meet to discuss Bolivia » . Confronting its first crisis, the four-month-old UNASUR voted to create a commission to support Morales' democratically elected government, said Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet. She read a nine-point statement on Chilean TV that calls for the support of human rights and democracy and the preservation of Bolivia's territorial integrity. The statement condemns any attempts to overthrow the government. It also said the new commission will investigate the peasants' deaths. UNASUR is modeled on the European Union and aims to politically and economically integrate South American countries. On Tuesday, the United States announced it is organizing emergency evacuation flights for Americans in Bolivia and urged them to leave if the situation permits. A statement from the U.S. Embassy in La Paz said U.S. citizens need to sign an agreement to pay later for the cost of the flight. The embassy said some commercial flights are still available, although American Airlines suspended some flights until Sunday. The United States also continued to urge Americans to delay traveling to Bolivia. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador last week, accusing the American government of inciting the violence. The expelled ambassador, Philip Goldberg, called the charges "false and baseless" and said Bolivia was making a "grave mistake." On Monday, the Peace Corps temporarily suspended operations in Bolivia because of "growing instability" there. All Peace Corps volunteers in the country have been moved to Peru. "Our first priority is the safety and security of our volunteers," Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter said in a written statement. Protests started 21 days ago in Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz, Tarija and Chuquisaca provinces. The opposition groups have blockaded major roads and threaten to disrupt the nation's natural gas shipments, particularly to Brazil and Argentina. Anti-government protesters also have clashed with police and taken over offices and buildings in the five provinces. Much of the violence has taken place in Pando, where Morales declared martial law Friday. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, was elected in December 2005. | NEW: Deal aimed at ending weeks of violence .
Bolivian military accuses governor of genocide .
30 peasants killed Friday in clashes in Pando province .
U.S. urges its citizens to leave Bolivia, announces emergency evacuation flights . |
223,176 | aceaec45b3e3524381f0f69d58bd31b1312dc8c5 | (CNN) -- Capping a hotly contested contest, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won re-election Sunday. With more than 99% of polling stations reporting, he had nearly 51% of the vote versus the 45% won by challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, according to election officials. A first-round vote was held last month. None of the five candidates running then received more than 50% of votes, forcing a runoff between Santos and Zuluaga. Santos was first elected in 2010 on a platform of continuing an offensive against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, leftist guerrillas at war with the government for decades. But since late 2012, peace talks with the group have become a hallmark of the Santos presidency. Zuluaga had called for an end to the peace talks and is against giving any political space to the rebels. He conceded Sunday night, thanking supporters and promising to continue to fight for the good of the nation. Santos celebrated in Bogota, predicting the start of a new Colombia. "These have been unique elections (because) what was at play wasn't the name of a candidate -- but the direction of the nation. Colombians with very different ideas ... came together around a cause," he told cheering crowds, "and that cause is peace." "This is the end of more than 50 years of violence in this country, and the beginning of a new Colombia," Santos said. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Rafael Romo contributed to this report. | NEW: Juan Manuel Santos predicts the start of a new Colombia .
With more than 99% of polling stations reporting, he had nearly 51% of the vote .
Challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga won some 45% of ballots .
Key election question: How should the government handle the FARC? |
284,736 | fceebbeca3fd798fa5311f8a4b7b6b9a99911c60 | CERN's Large Hadron Collider will be turned back on in March - at double power, scientists revealed today. The world's biggest particle collider, located near Geneva, has been undergoing a two-year refit. Work is now 'in full swing' to start circulating proton beams again in March, with the first collisions due by May, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said. Scroll down for video . A worker stands below the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), a general-purpose detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, during maintenance works. Deep below the border between Switzerland and France, the tunnel stretches out of sight, decked with silver installations fit for a starship . 'With this new energy level, the (collider) will open new horizons for physics and for future discoveries,' CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said in a statement. 'I'm looking forward to seeing what nature has in store for us.' CERN's collider is buried in a 27-km (17-mile) tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border at the foot of the Jura mountains. The entire machine is already almost cooled to 1.9 degrees above absolute zero in preparation for the next three-year run. The first run, carried out at lower power, led in 2012 to confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson particle, which explains how fundamental matter took on the mass to form stars and planets. That discovery was a landmark in physics but there are still plenty of other mysteries to be unraveled, including the nature of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'. Latest calculations suggest that dark matter accounts for 27 percent of the universe and dark energy, which drives galaxies apart, 68 percent, while the visible matter observed in galaxies, stars and planets makes up just 5 percent. Scientists look at a section of the LHC while it is switched off. A year ago, the world's largest particle collider made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science, identifying what is believed to be the Higgs Boson -- the long-sought maker of mass . Other unsolved questions include the relative lack of antimatter in the universe, when equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created in the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, and the possible existence of other new kinds of particles. Many physicists favor a yet-to-be-proven theory known as super-symmetry, in which all basic particles have a heavier but invisible 'super' partner. Getting to grips with such issues requires deeper insights into the building blocks of the cosmos, which researchers hope to achieve by turning up the dial at CERN to higher energies. 'We have unfinished business with understanding the universe,' said Tara Shears, a physics professor at the University of Liverpool, who works on one of the four main experiments at the collider. A worker walks past the Compact Muon Solenoid - part of the LHC. The 27 kilometre circular lab went offline in February for an 18-month overhaul. When experiments resume in 2015, scientists at CERN will use its enhanced power to probe dark matter, dark energy and supersymmetry . As engineers focus on the technical mission, physicists are sifting through the mountains of data that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has churned out since 2010, for there could be more nuggets to find. 'The things that are easy to spot have already been exploited, and now we're taking another look,' said Tiziano Camporesi of CERN, noting wryly that dealing with the unknown was, well, unknowable. 'We always say that astronomers have an easier task, because they can actually see what they're looking for!' The LHC's particle collisions transform energy into mass, the goal being to find fundamental particles in the sub-atomic debris that help us to understand the universe. At peak capacity, the 'old' LHC managed a mind-boggling 550 million collisions per second. 'We give the guys as many collisions as we can,' said Mike Lamont, head of its operating team. 'That's our bread and butter. Most of that stuff is not very interesting, so there are real challenges sorting out and throwing most of that away, and picking out the interesting stuff,' he explained in the tunnel, which mixes installations fit for a starship with the low-tech practicality of bicycles for inspection tours. CERN's supercomputers are programmed to identify within microseconds the collisions worth more analysis - chunks of a few hundred per second - before thousands of physicists from across the globe comb the results to advance our knowledge of matter. The LHC's computer screens are dark, but behind the scenes, work is pushing ahead to give the vast machine a mighty upgrade, enabling the collider to advance the frontiers of knowledge even farther . 'We want to understand how that behaves, why it sticks itself together into tiny things that we call atoms and nuclei at really small scales, into things that we call people and chairs and buildings at bigger scales, and then planets and solar systems, galaxies at larger scales,' said CERN spokesman James Gillies. CERN's work can bemuse beginners, but the researchers find ways to make it simple. 'Everybody knows what an electron is, especially if they put their finger in an electric socket,' joked Pierluigi Campana, whose team has just provided the most exhaustive confirmation to date of the Standard Model, the chief theoretical framework of particle physics conceived in the 1970s. At peak capacity, the 'old' LHC managed a mind-boggling 550 million collisions per second. 'We give the guys as many collisions as we can,' said Mike Lamont, head of its operating team. Here, an engineer observes the Compact Muon Solenoid . They achieved the most accurate measurement yet of a change in a particle called a Bs, showing that out of every billion, only a handful decay into smaller particles called muon, and do so in pairs. For the experts, that finding was almost as thrilling as tracking the Higgs boson -- nicknamed the God Particle. It was theorised in 1964 by British physicist Peter Higgs and others in an attempt to explain a nagging anomaly - why some particles have mass while others, such as light, have none. As engineers (pictured) focus on the technical mission, physicists are sifting through the mountains of data that the LHC has churned out since 2010, for there could be more nuggets to find . It is believed to act like a fork dipped . in syrup and held up in dusty air. While some dust slips through . cleanly, most gets sticky - in other words, acquires mass. With mass . comes gravity, which pulls particles together. The Standard Model is a trusty conceptual vehicle but it still lacks an explanation for gravity, nor does it account for dark matter and dark energy, which comprise most of the cosmos and whose existence is inferred from their impact on ordinary matter. Some physicists champion supersymmetry, the notion that there are novel particles which mirror each known particle. A worker rides his bike in a tunnel of the LHC. When it is back in business, the supercomputers are programmed to identify the collisions worth more analysis - chunks of a few hundred per second - before thousands of physicists from across the globe comb the results to advance our knowledge of matter . 'We have a theory that describes all the stuff around us, all the ordinary, visible matter that makes up the Universe. Except, the problem is, it doesn't. It makes up around five percent of the Universe,' said Gillies. The LHC replaced the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP), which ran from 1989 to 2000. I . It came online in 2008, but ran into problems, forcing a year-long refit. The LHC's particle collisions transform energy into mass, the goal being to find fundamental particles in the sub-atomic debris that help us to understand the universe. Here a scientist gestures in front of a diagram of one of the many goings on at the LHC . It went on to reach a collision level of eight teraelectron volts (TeV) -- an energy measure -- compared to the LEP's 0.2 TeV. After the 50 million Swiss franc ($54-million, million-euro) upgrade, the target is 14 TeV, meaning bigger bangs and clearer snapshots. ''Every time we pass a significant amount of data collected, someone will find an excuse to open a bottle of champagne,' said physicist Joel Goldstein, glancing at a lab corner piled with empties.'We're going to run out of space eventually!' The particle was theorised in 1964 by British physicist Peter Higgs and others in an attempt to explain a nagging anomaly - why some particles have mass while others, such as light, have none. The search more knowledge about the Higgs Boson will resume when the LHC opens again after its upgrade . | The 27 km circular lab went offline .
in February but will reopen in March with more firepower to help scientists solve the mysteries of the universe .
A year ago, the Large Hadron Collider made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of .
science, identifying what is believed to be the Higgs boson .
As engineers focus on the technical .
mission, physicists are sifting through data that the mighty atom smasher has churned out since 2010 . |
157,118 | 57230174e8af56d8bba12e84bbcf53eed8ac7f26 | By . Paul Casey, Press Association . Former captain Paul Azinger would not pick Tiger Woods for this year's Ryder Cup and believes the 14-time major winner will rule himself out of the contest at Gleneagles. Azinger led the United States to their only victory in the 21st century at Valhalla in 2008, when Woods was ruled out through injury. And with the former world number one again struggling for form and fitness, Azinger does not think current captain Tom Watson can afford to use one of his three wild cards on Woods on September 2. The nine automatic qualifiers are decided on Sunday. Suffering: Woods played through the pain at Valhalla but missed the cut by some distance . 'I don't see how you can take an injured player who is not playing well,' Azinger told the Golf Channel. 'I don't think I would. And also Tiger has not necessarily been the formula for success either. I just don't see how you can pick him at this point. 'I am guessing he will call Tom and beg out of this and say 'I am not ready', make Tom's decision easier.' The bare statistics make grim reading for Woods after the worst year of his career came to an end at the US PGA Championship. Woods missed the cut for just the fourth time in 66 major championships as a professional at Valhalla, carding consecutive rounds of 74 and suffering more of the back problems which have blighted his campaign. The 38-year-old will not play in next week's Wyndham Championship and cannot qualify for the FedEx Cup play-offs - missing out for just the second time since the post-season began in 2007 - leaving just the Ryder Cup to aim for. Woods has made just seven starts all season, the second fewest in his career, missing three months and the Masters and US Open after undergoing back surgery on March 31. He has recorded no top-10 finishes for the first time and earned just 108,275 US dollars (£64,543), and while he is not exactly short of money, it should be noted that he has earned more than that in 176 individual PGA Tour events in his career. Pulling out: Azinger says he expects Woods to make Tom Watson's decision for him, but choosing not to play . But as grim as the statistics are, perhaps what is most telling was the 14-time major winner's response when asked when he will play again. 'I don't know,' the 38-year-old said. And asked what he would say if Watson calls and asks about the Ryder Cup, the response was the same: 'I don't know, he hasn't called.' Whether Watson calls at all remains to be seen, with Woods far from the only player causing the 64-year-old some sleepless nights ahead of next month's contest at Gleneagles. World number six Matt Kuchar, who has already secured his place on the team, pulled out before the start of the US PGA due to back spasms, while defending champion Jason Dufner lasted just 10 holes before being forced to withdraw with a neck injury. Dufner started the week eighth in the Ryder Cup standings with the top nine on Sunday evening qualifying automatically, but dropped to ninth after Zach Johnson made the cut at Valhalla and said he was not sure when he would be able to play again. Dustin Johnson, who was the only American player unbeaten at Medinah in 2012, was fifth in the standings before declaring himself unavailable as he takes a leave of absence to deal with 'personal challenges'. In pain: The 14-time major champion has been a shadow of his former self as injuries interrupt his game . As former European captain Colin Montgomerie said this week, it would be a massive gamble for Watson to pick players who are not fully fit, with the prospect of them needing to play five matches in three days at Gleneagles. Woods will at least try to get fit as soon as possible, admitting he was too stubborn to withdraw before his second round at Valhalla despite reinjuring himself on the range. 'I need to get stronger, I need to get my glutes strong again, my abs and my core back to where I used to have them,' he said. 'They are just not quite there yet. 'I couldn't make a backswing. Coming through (the ball) is fine, I can't get the club back. (The injury) throws everything off. I can't get anywhere near the positions that I'm accustomed to getting to. I can't do it. I've got to rely on timing, hands, and hopefully I can time it just right. 'It's hard because you want the bigger muscles controlling the golf swing. I have got to rely on my hands to do it. The face is rotating so fast through impact because I'm just not able to get my arms and the body in the correct spot.' | Woods missed cut at US PGA Championship after struggling with injury .
Azinger believes 14-time major winner will rule himself out .
America missing several stars including Dustin Johnson and Jason Dufner . |
49,127 | 8abbe24710e5f7bbe83a94a40f72a965d782e2d7 | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congress is looking into allegations that National Security Agency linguists have been eavesdropping on Americans abroad. Government linguists say the U.S. eavesdropped on Americans, including military officers serving in Iraq. The congressional oversight committees said Thursday that the Americans targeted included military officers in Iraq who called friends and family in the United States. The allegations were made by two former military intercept operators on a television news report Thursday evening. A terrorist surveillance program instituted by the Bush administration allows the intelligence community to monitor phone calls between the United States and overseas without a court order -- as long as one party to the call is a terror suspect. Adrienne Kinne, a former U.S. Army Reserves Arab linguist, told ABC News the NSA was listening to the phone calls of U.S. military officers, journalists and aid workers overseas who were talking about "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism." David Murfee Faulk, a former U.S. Navy Arab linguist, said in the news report that he and his colleagues were listening to the conversations of military officers in Iraq who were talking with their spouses or girlfriends in the United States. According to Faulk, they would often share the contents of some of the more salacious calls stored on their computers, listening to what he called "phone sex" and "pillow talk." Both Kinne and Faulk worked at the NSA listening facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia. They told ABC that when linguists complained to supervisors about eavesdropping on personal conversations, they were ordered to continue transcribing the calls. NSA spokeswoman Judith Emmel said the agency's Inspector General has investigated some of the allegations and found them "unsubstantiated." Other accusations are still being looked at, she said. The NSA operates in "strict accordance with U.S. laws and regulations," she said. "Any allegation of wrongdoing by employees is thoroughly investigated" and if misconduct is discovered, "we take swift and certain remedial action." CIA Director Mike Hayden, who was the head of the NSA when the terrorist surveillance program began, has always maintained that private conversations of Americans are not intercepted and if it should happen inadvertently, the name is removed from the record. "At NSA, the law was followed assiduously," said Hayden's spokesman, Mark Mansfeld. "The notion that Gen. Hayden sanctioned or tolerated illegalities of any sort is ridiculous on its face." Author Jim Bamford was the first to interview the two former NSA linguists for his new book, "The Shadow Factory," which will be published next week. Bamford told CNN the accounts from the whistle-blowers demonstrate the NSA was listening to the private conversations of Americans, transcribing them and keeping them. "They don't delete them," he said. Bamford has written two other books on the NSA and was a party to an unsuccessful ACLU lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The ACLU issued a statement on Thursday saying the allegations show that the government "misled the American public about the scope of its surveillance activities." The ABC report "is an indictment not only of the Bush administration, but of all of those political leaders, Democratic and Republican, who have been saying that the executive branch can be trusted with surveillance powers that are essentially unchecked," said ACLU official Jamell Jaffer. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, called the allegations "extremely disturbing." "Anytime there is an allegation regarding abuse of the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, it is a very serious matter," said Rockefeller, adding that his committee is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to ensure the government is following the strict procedures to protect U.S. citizens against unwarranted surveillance. A House Intelligence Committee spokesman said the panel has been in contact with the NSA and is awaiting the agency's response. | Ex-Army Reserves Arab linguist said the U.S. government listened to private calls .
Another linguist said NSA eavesdropped on 'pillow talk' conversations .
U.S. surveillance program allows calls related only to terrorism to be monitored .
Linguists said that when they complained, they were told to keep listening . |
23,057 | 416ff7b3f5ff9e14b01a4ccc682a73832239748c | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 16:40 EST, 21 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:36 EST, 22 March 2013 . A patient died at scandal-hit Stafford Hospital as she pleaded with nurses ‘Help me’, a disciplinary hearing was told today. The woman had got her head stuck between a bed railing and begged for help, but nurse Ann King told an auxiliary worker: ‘Sit down - she’s fine’, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard. By the time she was checked on the woman’s face had turned purple and she could not be resuscitated, the NMC was told. A patient died at scandal-hit Stafford Hospital as she pleaded with nurses 'Help me', a disciplinary hearing was told today . Mrs King’s case is the latest in a series of accusations against nurses at the hospital, where up to 1,200 patients died needlessly. The nurse is also accused of failing to recognise that another patient, who subsequently died, was diabetic. Mrs King and ward manager Jeannette Coulson are accused of making a number of blunders while working in the Trauma and Orthopaedics ward between 2005 and 2010. Their alleged failings came to light when a Healthcare support worker known as (HCSWA) and another nurse known as (SNA) blew the whistle. The woman who died in the railings had been admitted to the ward with a broken leg was said to be an alcoholic, and 'appeared to be agitated due to withdrawal'. ‘Patient A was in a side room and could not move from her bed without assistance due to her injury - she was awaiting surgery,’ said Rebecca Wood, for the NMC. ‘During the handover HCSWA could hear Patient A shouting for a bed pan and for some assistance. HCSWA tried several times to get up and attend to Patient A but was repeatedly told to sit down by nurse King. She told him the patient was fine, and that she seen to her earlier. ‘Patient A continued to shout and seemed to be getting more and more agitated and at one point shouted “help me, help me.”’ Ten minutes later the woman became silent and the auxiliary went to check on her, it was said. ‘As he approached the door he saw a puddle of urine coming from under the door and when he entered the room he found Patient A at the bottom of her bed with her head wedged in between the bars in an extended section that pulled put on a trolley for taller patients,’ Miss Wood said. ‘Patient A’s head was swollen and purple and she was not moving. The alarm was raised and emergency CPR commenced, but Patient A could not be resuscitated.’ King did not respond to patient requests, prevented HCSWA from attending promptly to the patient and did not ensure the woman’s safety, it is claimed. As ward manager, Mrs Coulson failed to ensure the patient’s safety, it is alleged. As the auxiliary left the patient’s room, he was pushed up against the wall by another nurse, Karen Salt, who said words to the effect of ‘keep your mouth shut,’ it is claimed. Mrs Coulson witnessed the incident and she looked over towards the assistant him as if to say she agreed with Ms Salt, the tribunal heard. Both nurses are also accused of failing to recognise that another patient who died under their care, Patient B, was diabetic. By the time she was checked on the woman's face had turned purple and she could not be resuscitated, the NMC was told. King's case is the latest in a series of accusations against nurses at the scandal hit Stafford Hospital where up to 1,200 patients died needlessly . The woman who had suffered from a stroke was admitted to A&E on April 1, 2007, and was transferred to the Trauma and Orthopaedics ward seven days later. While in A&E a doctor stated that her blood sugar levels should be checked hourly. Both Mrs King and Mrs Coulson deny ever being told the woman was diabetic. ‘If they had looked, they would have seen this information recorded in her notes,’ said Miss Wood. Describing the lead up to Patient B’s death Miss Wood said she had been checked my another nurse had asked for her blood sugar to be tested, and noted that it was very high. Due to a breakdown in communication Patient B did not receive her diabetes medication. On April 10, 2007 the patient was found collapsed in her bed. ‘Tests revealed that her blood sugar was now so high, it was off the charts,’ said Miss Wood. ‘An agreement was made with her family that Patient B should not be resuscitated of she arrested again.’ The woman died later that night. Both nurses had both failed to ensure adequate tests were carried out on the patient and failed to ensure adequate records of her care were kept. King denies all allegations against her, while Coulson admits using inappropriate language and replacing a sign that stated what times relatives could speak to staff after it had been taken down. She also admits refusing to accept a patient on the ward after surgery stating: ‘Get her off this f***ing ward’, and swearing at HCSWA when he was unwell. Neither of the nurses is attending the central London hearing. The hearing continues. Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons. | Nurse Ann King told auxiliary worker: ‘Sit down - she’s fine’, hearing told .
By the time she was checked on the woman’s face had 'turned purple'
King and ward manager Jeanette Coulson accused of series of blunders . |
129,245 | 3308e28a04dd979ddd1c3e65bbacec937ef1e768 | Manchester United have been warned they may have to break the world record fee for a defender after enquiring about Paris Saint-Germain defender Marquinhos. United stumbled through a 0-0 draw at Cambridge United in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday which left more questions about the strength of their squad and their defence continues to look fragile. They have sounded out the French champions ahead of a possible summer move for the stylish Marquinhos. Paris Saint-Germain centre-back Marquinhos has been linked with a move away from the French champions . The 20-year-old is under contract until 2018, but Manchester United are said to be interested in him . Manager Louis van Gaal has drawn up a list of potential targets and the Brazilian is among those names, however, they have been warned the defender won't come cheap. The 20-year-old central defender joined PSG 18 months ago from Roma in a £23.4million deal but has found himself playing at right-back to accommodate the arrival of David Luiz this season. United value Marquinhos at around £30million but PSG have laughed off those figures and United would have to supass the £50m fee PSG paid to Chelsea for Luiz to get him. His agent Giuliano Bertolucci said: 'Last summer, PSG's president Nasser Al-Khelaifi declared that Marquinhos was unsellable. We will see what their position is this summer. Many clubs are interested in the player. Manchester United are one of them, this is true.' Marquinhos appeals to Van Gaal as he can play in a four or three-man defensive line and is comfortable in possession. Thiago Silva (near left) and David Luiz (near right) have been playing ahead of him for PSG this season . United predictably are being quoted huge sums for their defensive targets as they weigh up options for the summer. Atletico Madrid's Diego Godin would be £28.5million, Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels will command £30m and Nicolas Otamendi at Valencia has also been discussed but the Spanish side want his buy-out figure of £37m. The fact Marquinhos has been moved aside to allow compatriots Luiz and Thiago Silva to form PSG's central defensive partnership has encouraged United they could persuade the player to move. Under-fire Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is keen to land a new defender in January . Talking to Le Parisien, Bertolucci added: 'Marquinhos wants to become the best defender in the world. He is not a lesser player compared with Thiago Silva or David Luiz. 'He respects the decisions of his coach, but just wants to play and spend as little time as possible on the bench. Marquinhos is prepared to play at right-back and even in defensive midfield if he has to.' Marquinhos has made 47 first-team appearances for PSG since joining the club from Roma in July 2013. United, meanwhile, have yet to agree new contracts with young defenders Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett with both players free to talk to foreign clubs. | Paris Saint-Germain centre-back Marquinhos has been linked with a move .
According to his agent, Manchester United are one club interested in him .
The Brazilian has failed to hold down a starting berth at centre-back .
Countrymen David Luiz and Thiago Silva have been playing ahead of him . |
154,263 | 535d9cf92baf120d795950b59e9410fd3f2c5798 | A visibly-harassed Francois Hollande is said to be 'devastated' over a book by his ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler, which brands the French president callous and cynical. Mr Hollande, pictured at the Nato summit today looking irked, is facing a media storm back home in France after Ms Trierweiler's intimate memoir portrayed him as a snob who secretly mocks poor people. The book is a particularly unwelcome distraction at a time when Mr Hollande is under pressure in Wales for a deal between France and Russia over a warship. Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, he said the deal to supply two Mistral-class helicopter carriers was neither cancelled nor suspended, but the conditions for deliver were 'not in place'. Bad day? Francois Hollande takes a call at the Nato summit in Wales, as the scandal of Valerie Trierweiler's develops back home in France . Hollande has also been dealing with the sensitive issue of delivering a warship to Russia. France has come under pressure to scrap the deal and has seemingly suspended it for now . Back home Mr Hollande found an unlikely backer in his former partner Segolene Royal. The mother of Mr Hollande's four children dismissed the attacks made by his former lover Valerie Trierweiler as 'rubbish'. The book,Thank You For This Moment, received a furious backlash in France, where politicians' private lives are not publicly aired. Ms Royal, speaking on France's BFMTV early on Thursday, repeated several times that she would not comment on questions of a personal nature but reacted when the interviewer pressed her on Mr Hollande's alleged contempt for the poor. 'It's rubbish, it's the exact opposite of the political commitment of a great leader of the left,' she said. 'Do you think it's true?' Royal shot back to the interviewer. 'Can you think it is true about a politician you have known for years...? Segolene Royal has shot down the humiliating claims against her former partner as 'rubbish' 'One must judge politicians by their acts,' she said, adding that Mr Hollande had a proven record of working for better conditions for the poor.' Mr Hollande is reported to have sent a friend a text message saying he is 'devastated' by the book, which casts him as callous and cynical. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: 'I call for respect in the lives of everyone and dignity in public debate. 'With these outrageous attacks, by mixing public and private life, we are dragging down the debate'. With a stagnant economy and high unemployment, he added that the French had far more important things on their mind such as 'jobs, housing and the high cost of living'. An unlikely ally came in the shape of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, normally one of his fiercest critics, who dubbed the book a 'dishonour for France.' She went on to describe the memoir, which became Amazon’s top seller on its first day, as a 'profoundly indecent settling of scores' and a form of 'vengeance'. Miss Trierweiler received an advance of some £70,000 for the first kiss-and-tell account of a serving head of state. The 49-year-old journalist, whose maiden name is Massonneau, recalls spending Christmas with her working-class family and Mr Hollande. She writes that Mr Hollande quipped: 'They're not very nice, the Massonneau family.' She says her family 'is so typical of his electors', adding: 'He stood for election as a man who does not like the rich. In reality, the President does not like the poor. He, the man of the Left, calls them the toothless ones. He's very proud of his humour.' Ms Royal, pictured in Paris on Thursday, appeared visibly irritated with her interviewer's line of questioning. She dismissed Valerie Trierweiler's book outright, defending her ex . Ms Royal, who has four children with the French president, sprung to his defence following the stinging book . She also describes the collapse of their nine-year affair after a gossip magazine published pictures of Mr Hollande visiting his mistress on a moped. And she reveals he sent her 29 texts in one day trying to win her back – while still seeing his lover, TV actress Julie Gayet. Extracts detailing the 'cruelty' of a 'passionate, possessive and mad' affair appeared yesterday in Paris Match magazine. Mr Hollande sacked Miss Trierweiler as his first lady on January 25 in a short official statement. But she says he had already lied brazenly to her about Miss Gayet, 42. She claims to have confronted him when rumours spread in December 2013, saying: 'Swear to me on my son's life that it's false and we won't talk about it any more'. He swears, and dismisses it as nonsense.' Miss Trierweiler pictured with French President Francois Hollande, who she has portrayed as a hypocrite . Miss Trierweiler, pictured on August 20, in Normandy on charity work. Her book about her relationship with Francois Hollande has caused him a severe headache in France . When the truth emerged, she spent eight days in hospital for 'stress'. Disturbingly, she writes: 'Julie Gayet was top of the morning news. I'm cracking up, I can't hear anything, I rush to the bathroom. I take the small plastic bag containing sleeping pills. Francois follows me. He tries to snatch the bag. 'I run into the bedroom. The pills scatter on to the bed and floor. I manage to grab them. I swallow what I can. I want to sleep. I feel the storm about to break around me, and I don't have the strength to resist.' After their split, Mr Hollande attempted to remain in contact, said Miss Trierweiler, on one day 'sending me 29 text messages'. Miss Trierweiler – known as the Rottweiler – claims that on August 12, his 60th birthday, when many were speculating he might marry Miss Gayet, Mr Hollande texted his former lover: 'It is up to you to say yes to me'. Elysee Palace sources said the President – nicknamed Flanby, for a brand of caramel pudding – had been 'completely unaware of this book'. Meanwhile Paris Match, where Miss Trierweiler works, describes it as 'both a scream of love and a slow descent into hell, a dive into the intimacy of a couple. Two people and nothing else – Valerie and Francois.' Over 12 pages, it tells the story of Miss Trierweiler's 'passionate, possessive, mad love for this man whom I loved, who made me laugh, and who destabilised me deliciously'. Miss Trierweiler says she felt 'dehumanised' throughout the Socialist politician's rise to power because she was seen as his mistress, and talks of feeling 'illegitimate' when Mr Hollande won the presidency in 2012. Of the day he came to power, she writes: 'He's cold, he doesn't smile. I'm his stooge, but I have no value.' The 320-page memoir is on sale in France following a massive 200,000 print run carried out in the strictest secrecy. It is almost unprecedented. In 2013, Cecilia Attias, the second wife of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, cashed in with a book called A Desire for Truth. However, it came out a year after he left office, and contained no intimate details. | Hollande is reported to have sent a friend a text message saying he is 'devastated' by the book .
Mother of Hollande's four children shot down the attacks as 'rubbish'
Prime Minister Manuel Valls labelled the book as 'outrageous'
Labels Hollande a hypocrite who 'dislikes the poor'
Hollande also under pressure over warship deal with Russia . |
140,187 | 414551b770b273ebe78995d4ca9eb5024076b932 | A council which has been forced to slash millions from its budget spent £17,000 on an extravagant ceremony to switch on its Christmas lights. Crawley Borough Council has been forced to make savings of £7.3million from its budget during the last five years - cutting services for residents. But the council decided to spare no expense when it hired barriers, bouncers and put up a stage, as well as organised a fireworks display and street entertainment for the switch-on event, which cost £16,882. Crawley Council spent £17,000 on an extravagant Christmas lights switch on event, which residents branded a shambles and criticised as the council has slashed millions off its budget in the last five years . It also drafted in Stephen Mulhern, the presenter, for the event - but residents complained it was a waste of money, with bad decorations and a poor fireworks display. Steve Burbidge was at the event with his daughter and said: 'All I can say is it was unbelievable. 'My daughter asked me when they were putting the lights on - but they already had.' Another resident, who asked not to be named, said: 'It was a joke - we couldn't see the fireworks and the decorations themselves are dreadful. 'It was a shambles and an embarrassment. Spending £100 on the event would have been too much, let alone £17,000.' Last year Crawley Borough Council announced it would close 22 playgrounds which were under used and cost too much to maintain. This was reduced to four after a backlash. Stephen Mulhern (holding microphone) was drafted in to turn on Crawley's Christmas lights, while the council also spent thousands on a stage, bouncers, barriers and decorations - which residents said were rubbish . People said they were unable to see the town's expensive fireworks display because of the barriers they used . The council merged community wardens and civil enforcement officers, which it claimed saved £50,000. The TaxPayers' Alliance also criticised the council for trying to create festive cheer by spending money. Andy Silvester said: 'It's easy to sound like the grinch but at a time when we're struggling to pay for social care and children's services, every penny of unnecessary spending has to be questioned. 'It's a small figure in the grand scheme of things, but this money could have been spent better. 'Festive cheer isn't created by Councils, no matter how hard they try.' A council spokesman described the switch-on as 'a great event' which attracted 2,500 people into the town centre, and added: 'The economic benefit to the town was almost certainly higher and feedback from local organisations, was extremely positive.' | Crawley Borough Council spent £17,000 on lavish Christmas lights event .
It hired bouncers, barriers and even paid for fireworks for the switch-on .
But residents said decorations were rubbish and event a waste of money .
Extravagant spending follows council saving £7m from budget in 5 years . |
247,584 | cc647ad650cbf6fe0490c66af617b4a041f8cc9f | By . Jennifer Smith . PUBLISHED: . 06:13 EST, 12 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:03 EST, 12 November 2013 . Three mischievous pigs who fled their woodland pen to go on a month-long rampage had almost doubled in size by the time the farmer had found them. The six-month-old sows broke free from their sty in the Forest of Bowland, Lancaster, where they were fed only grass as part of an environmental initiative. Perhaps unsatisfied with their meager diet, the trio of Saddleback pigs escaped from the enclosure they shared with one other, sparking a lengthy man hunt which ended in their capture a month later. Guilty: The three fugitive pigs were eventually found after having gone on the run for almost a month . When the six-month-old sows were eventually tracked down their keeper was shocked to discover they had ballooned in size . The pigs were eventually found grazing in a farmer's field by their keeper, Phil Dykes, reserve officer for the . Lancashire Wildlife Trust. 'We’d had them for about three weeks . and then three of them decided to do a runner under the fence. 'We could never understand why one stayed, but she got very sad lonely and had to go home to her owners. 'We had volunteers going to see them every day so it was my wife Rose who went one day and found three of them had gone. 'We started searching and going out with a bucket of food - their favourite - but there was no sign of them.' The mischievous pigs left one other behind in the sty when they escaped in the Forest of Bowland, Lancaster . The animals were found grazing on a farmer's land, and put up a strong fight before being wrestled to the ground and taken back to their sty . Keeper, Phil Dykes, eventually found the animals after following trails of their excrement. He had become worried for the animals' welfare when they didn't return to the pen shortly after going missing . Mr Dykes, who began to worry for their welfare, eventually tracked them down by their excrement. 'I have become quite the expert in dung,' he said. 'I was worried about them because they had been gone so long and I was starting to think someone might have rounded them up. I was sure someone would have seen them in nearly a month, so I was very relieved to find them.' It took three grown men to tackle the mischievous pigs to the ground before they were taken home. 'We had to have a pig wrestling match to get them on dog leads so we could take them home. The pigs were taking part in a woodland environmental project to keep grass short and benefit the environment when they escaped . The Tamworth Two, Butch and Sundance, famously escaped the butcher's knife before being settled into a sanctuary by the Daily Mail in 1998 . 'They thought it was highly amusing, but they were worn out when we finally got them home' 'They have been happy as Larry since they got back. They are very inquisitive animals and they were definitely pleased to see us.' Their great escape bears resemblance to that of the Tamworth Two, a pair of pigs who managed to flee a transit lorry while being taken to an abattoir in 1998. Named after film outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the siblings were six months old when they made headlines across the world. After being recaptured, the animals were treated to a luxury life in the Rare Breeds Centre in Woodchurch near Ashford, Kent, by the Daily Mail. | Three six-month-old pigs fled their woodland pen for month of indulgence .
Eventually found grazing on a farmer's land having ballooned in size .
Plump pigs had to be wrestled by three men before being taken home .
The escape bears resemblance to that of the Tamworth Two, a pair of pigs who managed to flee a lorry while being taken to an abattoir in 1998 . |
117,392 | 2397ff0c9caf7792488fc6860fa97663decdb1c1 | By . Hannah Roberts In Rome . PUBLISHED: . 11:19 EST, 6 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:31 EST, 6 May 2013 . The seven-time Italian Prime Minister was accused of using political cunning to help the Mafia . The former Italian prime minister who laid the ambush that brought down Margaret Thatcher over the European single currency has died, aged 94. Giulio Andreotti, who was known for his Machiavellian style of politics, plotted with other European leaders to mount a surprise attack on Baroness Thatcher at a 1990 summit. The talks were a catastrophe, which set in motion the chain of events that led to her resignation. The seven-time premier died at home in Rome yesterday, after a long illness. At the Rome summit of 1990 the European Monetary Union was high on the agenda and Thatcher’s prophetic voice was alone against it. Thatcher was fundamentally opposed to the Euro because there was no history of a successful currency union without a political union. But, effectively ambushed by the 11 other head of states, she was trapped. Boris Johnson later described it as ‘a blood-curdling scene.’ He remembered: ‘Thatch was backed into a corner — a minority of one — as they all piled into her.’ Within days, Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Howe resigned over her handling of EU relations and his dramatic speech was the key catalyst for the leadership challenge by Michael Heseltine. This was followed soon after by her own resignation. After Baroness Thatcher’s death last month, Gianni De Michelis, Andreotti’s foreign minister, remembered how the Italians plotted to bring her down. He said: ‘In September 1990, we, Italy, who had the presidency of the EU, decided on her political downfall. ‘She was convinced of her arguments and she thought she was better than other people and would therefore get the result she wanted. In general this was true but not this time.’ The Iron Lady later described Andreotti having ‘a positive aversion to principles’. At his prime, Andreotti, known as the Godfather of Italian politics, was one of the country’s most powerful men. He helped draft the country’s . constitution after World War II, sat in parliament for 60 years. ‘Power . wears out ... those who don’t have it,’ he once famously said. The 94-year-old former Prime Minister died after a long illness . Margaret Thatcher with Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (c) at a meeting. Mr Andreotti led an ambush against Mrs Thatcher over the European single currency. She resigned from government shortly afterwards . But he was a controversial figure who was tainted by corruption scandals and accused of aiding the Mafia. He was tainted by his friendship with Roberto Calvi, the Vatican-linked financier known as God’s Banker, who was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. Both men were said to be members of P2, a secret Masonic lodge to which hundreds of Italian politicians, businessmen, secret service agents, policemen, civil servants and others belonged. In 2002, in what was dubbed the trial of the century Andreotti was convicted of ordering the murder of an Italian journalist. And he was accused of exchanging a ‘kiss of honour’ with the mafia’s long-time No. 1 boss. Prosecutors alleged Andreotti granted favours for the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in exchange for their delivering votes for his party. He was eventually cleared. but suspicion and scandal stuck, as well as a host of grimy nicknames including the Black Pope and Beelzebub. A character in the Godfather film series was based on him. Andreotti always denied the charges, again maintaining he was a victim of mob bosses intent on taking revenge for his fight against the Mafia. | Former Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, dies in Rome after long illness .
Led ambush against Margaret Thatcher over European single currency .
Known for political cunning, Mrs Thatcher said he had a 'positive aversion to principles'
Controversial figure with links to Mafia tainted by corruption scandals .
Character in Godfather film series based on him . |
104,453 | 12c3c4d570ae48c8bf4309de170ec04dc3ea11e8 | The next 9/11-style terrorist attack will come from Iraq and Syria if the Iraqi government collapses, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday. 'According . to our own Director of National Intelligence, FBI director, . the next 9/11 is coming from here,' Graham (R-S.C.) said to Bob Schieffer on CBS's 'Face the Nation.' When asked about his personal opinion, Graham said he agreed with that statement and that another 9/11 attack was 'inevitable.' 'The seeds of 9/11s are being planted all over Iraq and Syria,' he said. Graham made the remarks while speaking about militant Sunni group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) movement toward Baghdad. Scroll down for video . 'Inevitable': Sen. Lindsey Graham, pictured on 'Face the Nation,' said the next 9/11-style terrorist attack will come from Iraq and Syria if ISIS takes Baghdad . 'You . don't have to believe me,' Graham continued. 'This is what they're telling . you they're going to do. They're not hiding their agenda. They want an . Islamic caliphate that runs through Syria and Iraq. 'They're . going to take the king of Jordan down because he's an infidel in their . eyes as much as we are and they plan to drive us out of the Mideast by . attacking us here at home.' Graham also said the United States' '[needs] air power immediately to stop the [ISIS] advance toward Baghdad.' ISIS, he said, will also move into Jordan and Lebanon. While speaking on 'Face the Nation,' Graham criticized the leadership of Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's leadership - and said he must step down. Get out! Graham, seen in this file photo, also called for al-Maliki to step down . 'Maliki is a flawed, leader, Bob. He - he has to go. There's no way that Maliki can bring this country back together,' Graham said on the CBS program. Though Graham advocated air support in Baghdad, he noted the possibility of civilian casualties. 'The Iraqi Air Force is basically grounded,' he said. 'Without American air power it's going to be hard to turn the tide.' Graham said the US will 'probably' need help from the Sunni Iranians, whom he said wanted southern Iraq, but compared the partnership to working with Stalin during World War II. 'We're going to have to have some dialogue with Iranians that say, let's coordinate our efforts, but put a redline to the Iranians,' he said. 'Don't use this crisis to take territory from the Iraqi people.' | Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Sunday the next 9/11-style terrorist attack will come from Iraq and Syria if the Iraqi government collapses .
Graham also called for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down .
Compared working with Sunni Iranians to working with Stalin during World War II, whom he said wanted southern Iraq . |
104,678 | 130d5a55843eb48ac54a3994bd9d4e3d6494018f | A 300-year-old horse chestnut tree in the grounds of the country estate where prime minister Benjamin Disraeli lived has been declared the largest in the country. The veteran tree on the National Trust's Hughenden estate in Buckinghamshire has a girth of 7.33 metres (more than 24ft), clinching its status as the largest horse chestnut tree in the UK on the National Tree Register. The Hughenden tree, which stands in 275 hectares (680 acres) of parkland on the estate, has taken the crown from a horse chestnut in Whitchurch, Hampshire, which is 13cm (5 inches) smaller at 7.2 metres (more than 23ft). Hughenden Manor ranger Steve Kirkpatrick (left) and volunteer ranger Chris Raymond measure the largest horse chestnut tree in the country at Hughenden estate, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire . Steve Kirkpatrick, National Trust ranger for Hughenden, said the tree had reached such a huge size because it had been allowed to grow unhindered, was planted in good soil and had benefited from plenty of nutrients as it was on a flood plain. He added: 'It's impossible to date precisely but it's certainly over 300 years old, so it pre-dates many of the other trees at Hughenden which were planted by our former prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, who lived here for 33 years in the 19th century. 'Disraeli loved trees. He famously said: 'when I come to Hughenden I pass the first week sauntering about the park examining all my trees, and the second examining my books'. 'He loved to plant trees around the estate and during his time here tripled the size of the parkland. Steve Kirkpatrick with his dog Oz sitting in the largest horse chestnut tree in the country at Hughenden estate . The veteran tree is over 300 years old and also has the largest girth in the country . The tree pre-dates many of the other trees at Hughenden which were planted by our former prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, above, who lived here for 33 years in the 19th century . 'Although few remain now, the landscape still reflects what he set out to do in terms of creating a parkland full of wonderful specimens to include cedar of Lebanon and Deodar cedar.' The National Trust said the chestnut was one of a number of 'national champion' trees in its care, including the tallest Scots pine in the country, at Cragside in Northumberland, and the tallest oak at Stourhead in Wiltshire. The Trust looks after more than 30,000 notable or veteran trees - ones which because of their age, size or condition are of exceptional value to the landscape, culture or conservation - across its woodlands and estates. The National Trust said the chestnut was one of a number of 'national champion' trees in its care . The National Trust's Hughenden estate in Buckinghamshire - where the horse chestnut is planted . These include the Ankerwycke Yew at Runnymede, Surrey, thought to be the Trust's oldest tree at 2,500 years old, and the Old Man of Calke at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire, an oak dating back a thousand years or more. The announcement about the horse chestnut has been made to mark the start of National Tree Week. | Tree is on the National Trust's Hughenden estate in Buckinghamshire .
Has 24ft girth - taking crown from another horse chestnut in Hampshire .
Size is down to space, good soil and nutrients, and position on flood plain .
The tree predates many others at estate planted by Disraeli in 19th century . |
154,862 | 54206f12682ebcab084ad28fe21e5319f0ca46f3 | (CNN) -- There's no question that losing your job can be a jolting experience, as anyone who has had the misfortune of being laid off in recent years can attest. But what if that jolt could be a positive experience? That's the suggestion to come out of recent research which looked into the experiences of laid-off mid-to senior-level managers in the United States and Australia. The participants' overwhelming response was that the experience of losing their jobs in the previous 12 months had given them a renewed interest in living according to their values. The "crisis" of redundancy was in fact an opportunity to get to better know themselves, and reassess their priorities to lead more fulfilled, happier lives. "All of the respondents, which surprised us, talked about the positives associated with this jolt of job loss," said study co-author Amy Kenworthy, a professor of management at Australia's Bond University. "These people took that jolt and focused on the positives of it to recalibrate themselves in terms of 'Who am I and what do I want from life?' It was counter-intuitive with what we thought was going to take place." Read more: Want to be a leader? Act like one . Kenworthy said as their research was exploratory, and focused specifically on the experiences of those in middle-to upper-management, it did not necessarily represent everybody's experiences. She said it reflected the way people could lose themselves and gradually become divorced from their personal values as they climbed the corporate ladder. Only a quarter of the responses from participants -- who ranged in age from their early 30s to late 50s, and nearly half of whom held doctorates -- related to feelings of self-doubt and cynicism, which the researchers had assumed would be the predominant response. "It's normal to be angry and upset and scared and frustrated, and to experience not only self-doubt, but cynicism about the process and the organization," said Kenworthy. Instead, the respondents expressed a desire to lead their lives with more "authenticity" and integrity, even if it meant forgoing corporate benefits or a high salary -- perhaps a luxury that former mid-to senior-level managers can afford. Their new priorities fit into three clear categories: the desire for a more balanced quality of life, with more time for family and friends; more meaningful work which they felt contributed to society; and job security and happiness. "People said things like: 'I didn't realize how toxic work my environment was, and how important a criterion that should be'," said co-author Suzanne de Janasz, professor of leadership and organization development at Swiss business school IMD. Said Kenworthy: "All of them expressed a genuine desire to be true to oneself as they moved forward to the next chapter of their careers. It was everything from 'I want to spend more time with my kids' to 'I know I have much more creative talent than I was able to demonstrate in my last job.'" Read more: Why we pick bad leaders . Two respondents had opted to write books following their redundancy. "For many of us, at some level inertia takes over. It's the comfort of the routine, the comfort of the expected. It's hard to break out of that," said Kenworthy. "The jolt of job loss may in fact be something that is very useful to people and there may be some very clear benefits to come from it." The authors said there were lessons for organizations from their research: that cutting back hours and salaries might be a mutually satisfactory way of getting through lean times, as it would allow employees to address their work-life balance. Where layoffs were unavoidable, organizations could offer affected employees workshops to help them to assess and prioritize their values, rather than simply update their resumes. More broadly, the findings were a useful reminder, as the times of economic uncertainty continued, that there was always a potential upside to a downturn. "There is something we can take from the Chinese written language that they have understood for a very long time -- that crisis can mean opportunity," said Kenworthy. "We don't frame things that way, but maybe we should." | New research suggests that redundancy can "jolt" people into happier, more fulfilled lives .
Being laid off can shock people out of their corporate "inertia" to reassess their priorities .
Participants in the research sought more meaningful new jobs in line with their values .
Study looked at laid-off mid- to senior-level managers in the United States and Australia . |
234,802 | bbf5322c3230d0ce986b1de2d0cae9d25a9d5712 | Despite the recent uptick in gas prices, the last major travel holiday of the summer is expected to be busier. According to AAA's survey of Labor Day travel released Tuesday, 33 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles for the upcoming long weekend, an increase of 2.9% from 2011. Travelers are also expected to spend more on their trips. The median cost of $749 this year is slightly higher than last year's average of $702. The automotive and travel services group says the vast majority of those travelers, 28.2 million of them, will hit the roadways for their trip. The nationwide average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline is 14 cents higher than it was when AAA did its Labor Day forecasting last August, but below the year's peak of $3.94 in April. The survey found nationwide gas prices are not expected to have a major negative impact on travelers' plans, and two-third of those surveyed said their current financial outlook would not impact their Labor Day plans either. Those looking to save money on their travel said they will skip hotels and stay with family or friends, take a shorter trip, use a more economical mode of transportation or spend less on shopping or sightseeing. Air travel for the holiday is expected to rise 3.7%, thanks to a 4% dip in airfares from last year. 2.55 million passengers will fly to their Labor Day destination, while 2.3 million will use other modes of transportation like buses, rail and cruise ships. The average trip will stretch 626 miles, though 54% of those surveyed said their Labor Day excursion will fall between 100 and 400 miles roundtrip. AAA projections saw a 1.2% year-over-year uptick for Memorial Day travel this year, and a 4.9% increase for the Independence Day holiday. The Labor Day survey looks at the travel period between Thursday, August 30, and Monday, September 3. | Travelers are also expected to spend more on their trips, AAA says .
Survey: Gas prices are not expected to have a major impact on travel plans .
Air travel for the holiday is expected to rise 3.7% . |
41,231 | 7459ac7d1a21f394e5409d950f177deed76a6a88 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 08:16 EST, 18 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 10:28 EST, 18 May 2013 . A family claim a restaurant refused to blend food for their severely disabled son because it would break health and safety rules. Ryan Moss, 17, has a severe form of quadriplegic cerebral palsy and cannot eat solid foods. His family had visited a branch of Zizzi in Manchester's Trafford Centre on Wednesday and ordered a bowl of pasta for the teenager. Bemused: Chris and Paula King said the actions of the restaurant could stop other families with disabled children like Ryan going out to eat in the future . Distress: Chris King was left angry when restaurant chain Zizzi refused to blend up severely disabled stepson Ryan's pasta at its branch in Manchester . They always carry a hand-held blender when they eat out but staff refused to use the device on the dish. When Ryan's step-dad Chris King, 49, challenged the restaurant manager he was told using the blender would breach health and safety rules. Chris told the Manchester Evening News: 'I was more shocked than anything else. 'Wherever we go, Ryan goes. Whatever we eat, Ryan eats. Offending venue: Zizzi in Manchester's Trafford Centre. The chain has apologised . 'Some families with special needs children would come up against a hurdle like this and it would put them off eating again.' Ryan's mum Paula Moss, 46, added: 'Things like this shouldn't happen in this day and age.' Zizzi bosses have since apologised for the incident, saying they were sorry for any distress caused. A spokesperson said: 'We strive to offer the very best customer service at all of our restaurants and are looking into this incident as a matter of urgency to ensure levels are maintained in the future.' | Ryan Moss has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and cannot eat solids .
Mother Paula Moss, 46, and step father Chris King, 49, angry at treatment .
The restaurant, in Manchester's Trafford Centre, has apologised . |
257,664 | d9750717e84f70c87659ea6bbf78231a34a8be63 | Islamic State fighters may be taking cocaine to boost morale as Coalition planes bomb them from above, and Kurds advance on their territory. Kurdish fighters uncovered a bag of cocaine at the home of IS leader, Emir Abu Zahra, after killing him in a military operation deep inside the war-torn city of Kobane in Syria. The discovery in the Botan neighbourhood suggests widespread drug use within ISIS which is very much against the doctrines and principles of Islam. They believe Zahra distributed the drug among his fighters to boost morale - as ground assaults by Iraqi Peshmerga and bombing raids by the US Air Force begin to take their toll. Discovery: Kurdish fighters found a bag of cocaine (pictured) from the home of an IS leader, Abu Zahra . Drugged: The Kurdish soldiers believe Zahra was distributing the drug to up to 40 of his fighters . Forbidden: The use of narcotics goes against the doctrines and principles of Islam . Raid: Abu Zahra was killed in the military operation which uncovered the bag of cocaine and an armoured laptop (pictured) Islamic State's propaganda videos have previously shown the extremist group whipping three drug addicts near the Syrian city of Damascus. The captions on the video being circulated suggested the men were being punished for taking illegal substances, in accordance with Sharia Law. Islamic State's religious police, known as the Hesbah, have previously been pictured burning a large supply of cigarettes near the IS-controlled city of Raqqa. While amateur footage online shows its soldiers burning fields of what appears to be a marijuana farm. Despite the image they portray, there have been constant rumours of drug use within Islamic State ranks. The group's leaders are believed to drug their fighters so they fight more bravely, although their enemies suggest this inspires reckless and ineffective attacks. Kurdish fighters have reportedly found mysterious pills, capsules and syringes on both dead and alive IS fighters. High-tech: An armoured laptop worth over £2,000 was also recovered from Abu Zahra's house . Operation: A dozen Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) carried out the raid on Zahra's home . Destruction: The city of Kobane (pictured) has been reduced to rubble after continuous fighting between Kurdish, regime, and ISIS forces . The dozen soldiers from the People's Protection Units (YPG), who carried out the raid on Zahra's home, also found an armoured Dell Latitude XFR laptop, which costs over £2,000. Kobane, on the northern border between Syria and Turkey, has been the scene of intense fighting between Kurdish and IS forces. Kurdish fighters have made great advances into IS territory in Kobane sine the new year, thanks to aerial support from the US Air Force and artillery fire from Iraqi Pehmerga soldiers. ISIS were pushed back in the south and south-east, and retreated from both the Cultural Centre and the governmental square. The Kurds now control around 80 per cent of the city, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. | Bag of cocaine discovered at the home of IS leader, Emir Abu Zahra .
Kurdish fighters killed him during a military operation in Kobane, Syria .
They claim Zahra distributed drug to his fighters to give them 'courage'
Previous IS videos show the extremists burning marijuana and cigarettes .
Discovery suggests widespread drug-use within Islamic State ranks . |
162,069 | 5d8c0a21ee180965f5967ba08c7ff834868bd901 | By . Martha De Lacey . PUBLISHED: . 08:16 EST, 31 July 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:16 EST, 31 July 2012 . She may be Serbian by blood, but Roksanda Ilincic has been resolutely embraced as one of our own. The London-based designer has risen swiftly and steeply through fashion's ranks since settling in the capital in 1999. And her ascent has been assisted by some extremely important women, all of whom have been busy filling their wardrobes with her vibrant colours and statement dresses. Simple elegance: The Duchess of Cambridge stepped out last night in her well-loved Roksanda Ilincic dress, without her husband Prince William . Royalty of the genuine, political and Hollywood variety have all demonstrated their fondness for Ilincic's idiosyncratic and ever-elegant creations. The Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Beatrice, Samantha Cameron, Michelle Obama and Tilda Swinton are just some of the sartorially clued-up women to appreciate her bold colour-blocking and clean, unfussy lines. And the former Kate Middleton looks set to claim the title of Ilincic's staunchest fan, prepared to recycle the Central St Martin's graduate's elegant gowns on even the most prominent of public engagements. The Duchess stepped out in an elegant, knee-length, dove grey Ilincic dress at last night's Creative Industries reception at the Royal Academy of Arts in London’s Piccadilly, where she met with David Cameron in support of the Government’s GREAT Campaign. David and the Duchess: The former Kate Middleton speaking to the Prime Minister at yesterday's Royal Academy reception . With her trademark blow-dried locks pinned back, Kate completed her outfit with a pair of grey suede heels, tan tights and hooped Kiki McDonough earrings. Meeting the Prime Minister at the event - and without her husband, who was unavailable due to previous work commitments - the Duchess clearly chose a dress in which she already knows she feels and looks confident. After all, the understated grey cocktail dress - which features a pinched waist and slashed neckline - has been seen before. The lady loves LA: Kate in Roksanda Illincic in July 2011, on her first tour of America with her husband, Prince William . Prince William's new wife sported the stunning gown in LA on her inaugural tour of America last year, just three months after their wedding. The newly titled Duchess stepped off the plane at Los Angeles International Airport teaming the clean-cut day dress with tan heels and her hair let down. But even though the dress did not make its orignial debut last night, the 35-year-old designer's pride at seeing it worn by the Duchess for a second time is still just as great. Roksanda Ilincic tweeted her . pleasure at seeing Kate wearing her gown last night, writing: 'Looking . beautiful - so proud #duchess ofcambridge is wearing my dress tonight, . xr' All of a Twitter: The designer Roksanda Ilincic tweets excitedly about the Duchess of Cambridge wearing her pale grey dress . Ilincic - who has confessed to being . fanatical about Yves Saint Laurent and having some 500 of the brand's . vintage pieces - must be used to spotting celebrities wearing her . creations by now. The first ladies of both Britain and America - . Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama - are big fans of her bold, . Lego-like colours and clean lines. Princess Beatrice stepped out wearing . her delicious, long-sleeved peach frock - complete with appropriately . royal blue sleeve tips - at a recent event. And Hollywood royalty including Penelope Cruz, Emma Stone, Keira . Knightley and Gwyneth Paltrow have all been photographed in her dresses, which cost from £300 to over £1,000. Royal followers: Genuine royalty, in the form of Princess Beatrice, left, and Hollywood royalty such as Gwyneth Paltrow, right, both adore Ilincic's dresses . Ladies who love Roksanda: Actresses including, from left to right, . Emma Stone, Penelope Cruz and Keira Knightley are all enamoured with . Ilincic's classic style and elegant statement dresses . Fashion's first ladies: Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama are both staunch Ilincic supporters . Ilincic, who lives in north London with her husband Philip Bueno de Mesquita and toddler daughter Efimia, designs four womenswear collections per year. The former model - who yearned . to be a ballet dancer when she was growing up, but felt 'too tall and . awkward' - moved to London to study design after reading about Louise . Wilson, a teacher at Central Saint Martins. She . thought to herself: 'If all those big-name designers are coming out of . the same college, something amazing must be happening.' The designer: Roksanda Ilincic, who was born in Serbia but has made London her home since 1999 . She recently made her . creations accessible to even more women (and also little girls), designing an . affordable range for high-street department store Debenhams, and a . unique designer line for children. Her children's line, Blossom, is a selection of pretty dresses, stretchy tops and bold colours, made for two to eight-year-olds. The designer plans to create two Blossom . collections per year, with items on sale at Liberty and on . AlexandAlexa.com, priced between £135 and £270. Ilincic's almost-two-year-old daughter modelled the babywear for Blossom's debut line. Pretty as a picture: Ilincic's own daughter Efimia, left, modelled some of the clothes for her children's line, Blossom . Little blossoms: Ilincic aims to design two Blossom lines for kids per year . Back on the high street, Ilincic's Debenhams line features similarly bold colours and simple lines at a more affordable price, examples of which include a £95 beige satin maxi dress and a purple and orange colour block crepe dress, originally priced £75, now down to £22.50 . The designer's Debenhams line also features a special edition children's T-shirt created for BBC Children In Need. IIlincic joined a selection of other designers and celebrities - including Henry Holland, Julien Macdonald, Matthew Williamson, Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Sadie Frost, Jemima French, and Ben de Lisi - who all designed tees for little ones. The unique tops are priced at £7, with all proceeds going to charity. Affordable: Roksanda Ilincic's Debenhams line has made her clothes attainable to more women . Charity design: Roksanda Ilincic's £7 children's T-shirt for Children In Need, available at Debenhams . | Get the Duchess's designer look....from Debenhams .
Roksanda now creating clothes for children . |
173,187 | 6c20c2fd4440792d76f9f8fba8020a967e647209 | Rachael Owhin, 23, raised nearly £11,000 in eight days after discovering she could not afford her tuition fees at Oxford University . An Oxford student who set up a fundraising page to raise money for her Masters degree has raised nearly £11,000 in eight days. Rachael Owhin, from Brent, London, was ecstatic after receiving an offer to study a MSc in migration studies at the Oxford University in March. But after she was turned down for a scholarship, the 23-year-old spent three months worrying that her savings and bank loan would not cover the extortionate tuition fees - a staggering £18,110. She had saved £6,000 herself, and her mother lent her £2,000, but she was still £10,000 short. In an ambitious bid to raise enough money Miss Owhin, a law graduate at Sussex University, set up a profile on crowd-funding site Hubbub with the slogan ‘£10,000 in ten days’. She used #Oxford10000 to generate interest on social media, and rewarded people who donated to her cause. She promised that a £10 donation would get a public thank you on Twitter. Donors who gave £1,000 were rewarded with a formal invitation to a dinner at Wolfson College, Oxford. The page received 197 donations in just eight days, and her total now stands at £10,916 - meaning she can afford the tuition fees. One anonymous donor left £1,002 after seeing the campaign on Twitter. Her involvement as a mentor at the Powerlist Foundation - which provides career support for people from disadvantaged backgrounds - also led to a generous donation from Dragons Den star Piers Linney, who is one of the foundation’s trustees. Miss Owhin, whose mother works for a charity which helps disadvantaged children in the UK and Africa fund their education, said: ‘Going to Oxford is the fulfilment of all my dreams. ‘When they sent me the offer, they told me to apply for a scholarship for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. 'I thought I had a good chance of getting the scholarship but in June I found out I didn’t. I went to the toilet and cried - my dream became a nightmare. Scroll down for video . Miss Owhin, who volunteered at the 2012 Olympics, started a crowd-funding page after the university told her she would not be receiving a scholarship . Using the Twitter hashtag #Oxford10000, Miss Owhin's crowd-funding page was inundated with donations . ‘I had looked at crowd-funding, but I thought it was so ineffective. I needed serious money. ‘I did some research and decided that with the right social media campaign it was worth setting up a site. My sister came up with the hashtag idea in the shower. 'On the first day, one of my Tweets got over 700 retweets - thank god for Twitter. It’s amazing to see how social media can be used for good.’ Miss Owhin added: ‘Oxford had no way to help. I’ve called them so often and numerous times they’ve told me to just apply next year. That’s such a horrible thing to say, to have only one option. ‘There’s nothing in place to support minority students that can’t afford the course. The tuition fees are a huge burden for someone who isn’t wealthy. '£18,000, not to mention living costs, is extortionate. Most people can’t afford that.’ Miss Owhin will have to pay a total of £18,000 for her MSc in migration studies at Oxford, which starts soon . The 23-year-old saved £6,000 herself, and her mother lent her £2,000 - leaving her £10,000 short . An Oxford University spokesman said: ‘Fundraising for postgraduate scholarships is one of the University’s key priorities and this year over 1,000 fully-funded scholarships were available from the University, its colleges and supporters for new master’s and doctoral students in 2014-15. ‘But for the many aspiring graduate students who do not receive scholarships, it can be very difficult to find the money for their studies and we hope that more can be done at a national level to ensure postgraduate study is open to all.’ Other students hoping to complete a masters degree at Oxford have also had to turn to crowd-funding. Emily-Rose Eastop raised over £26,000 on Hubbub in July so she could study a MSc in cognitive and evolutionary anthropology. And Zu Barbie hopes to raise nearly £60,000 so she can complete a two-year MPhil in political theory. To make a further donation to Rachael’s studies, visit her donation page. Emily-Rose Eastop raised over £26,000 on Hubbub in July so she could study for an MSc at Oxford University . Zu Barbie hopes to raise nearly £60,000 so she can complete a two-year MPhil in political theory at Oxford . | Rachael Owhin set up crowd-funding page to raise money for university fees .
The 23-year-old law graduate had been turned down for a scholarship .
In just eight days she had the £11,000 to fund her Masters degree at Oxford . |
211,772 | 9e3c1085a37410c4a552a4443ed9c73374c96a50 | (CNN)Deep in the untouched areas of Ukraine and Russia live men who have decided to leave human establishments and live isolated in nature. Photographer Danila Tkachenko tracked some of them down by calling local authorities, park rangers, newspapers and nature reserves, though it's difficult to track down a man who has chosen to be lost. "Often the information is not accurate, so many trips went in vain," Tkachenko said. The hermits live in homes made of local resources -- lumber, burrows in the ground or caves -- and eat what they hunt or gather. If they fall ill, Tkachenko said, they live with the condition or treat themselves with folk methods. He said one man lost his vision completely but continues to live by himself in the woods. Occasionally the men see tourists, hunters or guests like Tkachenko, though typically they are alone. "Communication with people has been broken off and left in the past," he said. The names of the hermits have no relevance because they are extricated socially, Tkachenko said, and he chose to not include them in his photo captions. Many of them don't even have documents, he said. He spent a few days with each man before taking photos. He chose to shoot on film because it draws less attention and because some of the religious hermits do not like digital technology, he said. Despite, or maybe because of their isolation, Tkachenko found that the men were open and talkative. "They are close to nature and live in harmony with it," he said. "For them, it is freedom." Tkachenko grew up in a city but has always been drawn to nature. Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. "For me it's a place where I can hide and feel the real me, my true self, out of social context," he wrote in his project description. He wrote that he is concerned with internal freedom and whether it is possible when constrained by social obligations and schedules. "School, work, family -- once in this cycle, you are a prisoner of your own position and have to do what you're supposed to," he said. "You should be pragmatic and strong, or become an outcast or a lunatic. How (do you) remain yourself in the midst of this?" Danila Tkachenko is a Russian photographer. He is represented by Salt Images. | Photographer Danila Tkachenko tracked men living off the grid in Russia and Ukraine .
Tkachenko spent a few days with each man before taking photos . |
233,616 | ba7034724ff030fb690cfae7f6b6421ca6f9d3ff | Mesut Ozil has tweeted his delight at Arsenal snapping up fitness coach Shad Forsythe, after the German FA confirmed that the American had left them to move to North London. The fitness guru had been working with the German team since 2004 and was credited with playing an important role in their World Cup triumph this summer. Ozil has worked with Forsythe for five years since breaking into the Germany squad, and the midfielder tweeted: ‘another world champion for the Gunners! ;-) welcome to #Arsenal, Shad Forsythe! #newFitnessCoach #AFC’. VIDEO Scroll down watch 'Arsenal heading in the right direction - Winterburn' Willkommen! Mesut Ozil welcomes the former Germany fitness coach Shad Forsythe to Arsenal . Grateful: The German FA tweeted its thanks to the departed fitness coach for all his hard work . Forsythe will also be familiar to Arsenal’s other German internationals Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski, and he is tasked with ending the Gunners’ poor run of injuries. Over recent years Arsenal have fallen short in the title race come March as injuries have began to take their toll. If Forsythe can reduce Arsenal’s numbers on the treatment table, then he could prove to be as important a summer signing as Alexis Sanchez, Calum Chambers or Mathieu Debuchy. Three's a crowd: Germans Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Ozil returned to training on Monday . Fitness guru: Shad Forsythe has been tasked with ensuring Arsenal's players avoid injuries this season . Part of the team: Forsythe has played an important role in Germany's transformation to World champions . Follow me: Forsythe (front centre) leads the German players on a warm-up at this summer's World Cup . VIDEO Arsenal heading in the right direction - Winterburn . | Mesut Ozil hailed the signing of Shad Forsythe as Arsenal's fitness coach .
The American worked with the German national team for 10 years .
Arsenal have struggled with injuries in recent seasons .
Ozil missed six weeks of the last campaign with a hamstring problem .
Forsythe has also worked with Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski . |
238,901 | c146e17333f8a17f6625da037072f0fdda3c0e3d | Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Slashing red tape or ignoring ordinarily required paperwork, officials in the United States and the Netherlands have cleared the way for scores of Haitian orphans to leave their earthquake-ravaged homeland, according to officials from the two countries. All of the children had adoptions pending with prospective parents in the two countries before Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, and government officials said paperwork was expedited or put on hold to make transfers happen on an emergency basis. 300 children have pending adoption cases with American families. Six children arrived in Florida Sunday night, met by their adoptive parents with hugs and tears of happiness. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has chartered a plane to pick up about 100 children Monday, spokesman Aad Meijer told CNN. Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin over the weekend granted the children entry into the country, although their paperwork, including travel and adoption documents, was incomplete, Justice Ministry spokesman Patrick Mikkelsen told CNN. About 44 of the orphans' adoptions had yet to be approved by a Haitian judge, even though they were matched to Dutch parents, Mikkelsen said. Dutch officials may seek the remaining approvals from Haiti once the children have already settled in the Netherlands, he added. Haiti is home to about 380,000 orphans, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, and that number is expected to grow in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake. And those who lived in orphanages before Tuesday may be homeless now, as reports of destroyed orphanages have come throughout the quake zone. Full coverage of the earthquake in Haiti . Some children who lost parents in the quake or were separated from parents are being relocated to the Dominican Republic, a child advocacy group said. About 50 orphaned and abandoned children will arrive in the border town of Jimani on Wednesday, Kids Alive International said. The efforts, coordinated with the governments of both countries, will eventually take the children back to Haiti. Some will be reunited with parents who lost communication with their children in the quake's aftermath, the group said. View or add to CNN's database of missing persons in Haiti . CNN's Melissa Gray and Richard Greene in London contributed to this report. | U.S., Dutch officials slash red tape to expedite Haitian orphan adoptions .
Six adopted Haitian children arrived in Miami tonight, met by their adoptive parents .
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs charters plane to pick up about 100 kids Monday .
Watch "Haiti How You Can Help" a special Larry King Live, tonight 8 p.m. ET . |
23,808 | 43969645c86a01aa66a36f608c81d9989bd56461 | By . John Hall . Google is to meet data regulators across the European Union to discuss the way it handled the EU's 'right to be forgotten ruling'. In May the European Court of Justice ruled that links to 'irrelevant' or outdated articles should be erased from search engine results if those mentioned in the articles request their removal. That verdict, along with Google's decision to apply the practice only to its European search engines, has pitted privacy advocates against freedom of speech defenders, who argue the process will be abused in order to cover up information that should remain easily accessible to the public. Debate: Regulators can take Google to court if it refuses to delete articles they consider 'irrelevant' or outdated, as happened in Spain where the 'right to be forgotten' ruling originated . European . data protection authorities are meeting representatives of Google, . Microsoft and Yahoo to discuss the implementation of the landmark . ruling. European . Union privacy watchdogs have reportedly raised a number of concerns . about the way the ruling is being implemented, particularly by Google. Regulators . can take Google to court if it refuses to meet their demands, as . happened in Spain where the 'right to be forgotten' ruling originated. Under . particular scrutiny is Google's decision to only remove results from . its European search engines - such as Google.co.uk - meaning anyone can . easily access the hidden information by switching to the widely used Google.com. Experts . have said this effectively defeats the purpose of the ruling, which . gives people the right to ask search engines to stop links to . information deemed 'inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or . excessive' from appearing in searches for their name. 'Google has claimed that the decision is restricted to localised versions of Google...There appears to be no basis for that claim at all' said Ashley Hurst, a partner at Olswang, a law firm. Google declined to comment ahead of today's meeting. Browsing: Freedom of speech defenders argue 'right to be forgotten' will be abused in order to cover up information about individuals that should remain easily accessible to the public via search engines . Another . issue likely to be raised by the EU watchdogs is Google's decision to . notify the owners of the websites that have been removed from search . results. This sparked . controversy three weeks ago when Europe's most popular search engine . removed links to an article by a well-known BBC journalist about an . ex-Wall Street banker, and several links to stories in a UK newspaper. The . authors of the stories wrote about the removal, thereby . drawing attention to the issue and feeding speculation about who . requested the removal. Google eventually reinstated a few of the links. EU privacy watchdogs are concerned about the effect the notification process could have on people making the requests. Google already notifies the owners of websites that are removed from search results due to copyright infringements. Privacy . advocates and legal experts said the backlash over the aforementioned . articles showed the difficulty of implementing the privacy ruling given . the broad criteria laid down by the court for information that is . inadequate or irrelevant. 'We . are likely to see complainants dressing up libel complaints as data . protection complaints as it is easier to prove that data is inaccurate . than it is to prove that it is libelous,' Hurst said. 'This will lead to some difficult decisions for Google,' he added. | Google has been accused of mishandling European Court of Justice ruling .
Verdict says links to 'irrelevant' articles must be deleted from search results .
But Google has only applied the ruling to its European search engines .
Google.com still displays the full results - angering some privacy advocates .
But freedom of speech defenders argue 'right to be forgotten' can be abused to cover up information that should remain easily accessible .
Data regulators are now meeting search engines to discuss the ECJ ruling . |
125,254 | 2dea9131fd7bdefd55781d2ec76b8ec8b3a63269 | (CNN) -- The recent opening of the world's first peak-to-peak suspension bridge in Switzerland is yet another example of how footbridges -- once simply built to provide passage over challenging obstacles -- are increasingly being designed with thrill seekers in mind. Here's a closer look at this new Swiss beauty and other amazing footbridges around the world. Peak Walk by Tissot (Bernese Oberland, Switzerland) In October, the world's first pedestrian suspension bridge to connect two mountain peaks opened on Glacier 3000 in Switzerland's Bernese Oberland. The 107-meter (351 feet) bridge connects View Point peak with Scex Rouge peak. Famed alpine peaks Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau can be all be seen from the bridge's observation deck. The bridge, which cost $2 million dollars to build, will stay open all year around. Peak Walk by Tissot, Glacier 3000, Route du Pillon 253, Les Diablerets, Switzerland . SkyBridge (Sochi, Russia) The world's longest pedestrian bridge forms part of Sochi's new SkyPark attraction, which includes the world's highest swing and a 700-meter-long zip wire. The 439-meter-long bridge has two observation platforms, both offering spectacular views of the Black Sea. There's also a bungee jumping platform from the center of the structure. SkyPark Russia, Cossack Ford Street, Krasnoflotskay, Sochi, Russia . Aiguille du Midi Bridge (Mont Blanc massif, France) This bridge links the north and south peaks of the Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps, and is located 3,842 meters (12,604 feet) above sea level. Getting here involves a ride on the world's highest vertical ascent cable car. From the top, visitors can see into France, Switzerland and Italy. Aiguille du Midi, Mont Blanc massif, France . Tigbao Hanging Bridge (Bohol, Philippines) This structure looks flimsier than it is -- it's actually made of metal, but a bamboo top layer was added to give it an authentic -- or, depending on your perspective, scary -- look. It hangs 25 meters (82 feet) above the river. Visitors wanting to do their best Indiana Jones impression can even buy a facsimile hat at a stall on the riverbank. Loboc River, Loboc, Bohol, Philippines . Taman Negara National Park Bridge (Titiwangsa Mountains, Malaysia) At 530 meters long (1,650 feet), this is Malaysia's longest suspension bridge. We have a suspicion it's the narrowest, too. It stretches across the top of the trees of Taman Negara, Malaysia's largest national park. Visitors with a fear of heights will be reassured to know that the ropes are checked every morning. Taman Negara National Park, Titiwangsa Mountains, Malaysia . Capilano Suspension Bridge (Vancouver, Canada) The Capilano suspension bridge stretches 137 meters (450 feet) across and 70 meters (230 feet) above Vancouver's Capilano River. It was originally built by Scottish engineer George Grant Mackay in 1889, but was completely rebuilt in 1956. Today, it's Vancouver's oldest and most popular attraction, receiving more than 700,000 visitors per year. Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, 3735 Capilano Road, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada . Hanging Bridge of Ghasa (Nepal) It's not just humans who use this bridge -- donkeys, cows and goats use it, as well. In fact, it was built specifically for animals, as a solution to the congestion caused by cattle being herded up and down Ghasa's narrow roads. Today, animals remain the biggest users of the Hanging Bridge of Ghasa, prodded along by the farmers who also use it to deliver produce to local families. Ghasa, Annapurna circuit, Nepal . Trift Bridge (Gadmen, Switzerland) This Swiss suspension bridge, which can only be accessed via a cable car, hangs above the Trift Glacier and has a length of 170 meters (557 feet). It was built as a response to global warming -- until recently, the mountaineering hut at the top of the glacier could be reached on foot, but when the glacier started to shrink, the bridge became the only route of access. The structure is based on traditional Nepalese rope bridges and is the longest and highest in the Alps. Trift Bridge, Grimselworld Trail, Gadmen, Switzerland . El Caminito Del Rey (Malaga, Spain) One of many bridges on the El Caminito Del Rey (meaning "the king's little pathway"), this cliff-hugging path in Spain was built to provide workers at the hydroelectric power plants at Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls with a way to cross between them. It quickly became a tourist attraction, although it's only recently reopened after major renovations. The entire walkway is just one meter wide and rises to over 100 meters (328 feet) above the river below. El Caminito Del Rey, El Chorro-Alora, Malaga, Spain . The Marienbrucke (Bavaria, Germany) Marienbrucke (or Mary's Bridge) is located just a few meters from Bavaria's beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle and spans the Pollat Gorge. It was named after Marie of Prussia, wife of King Maximilian II and mother of King Ludwig II, who built the castle. There was already a wooden bridge spanning the gorge, but King Ludwig II wanted something more substantial from which to watch his castle's construction, so he replaced the wooden railings with iron ones. Pollat Gorge, Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, Germany . MORE 15 amazing spots to find natural bridges . Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (County Antrim, Northern Ireland) This bridge was originally constructed so that fishermen could cross the 30-meter-deep and 20-meter-wide gorge to check their salmon nets, but it's since become one of Northern Ireland's most popular tourist attractions. The nearby Sheep Island View Hostel has a collection of photographs depicting people performing various stunts on the bridge, including one local doing a handstand on a chair in the middle of the structure. Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Whitepark Road, Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland . Kokonoe "Yume" Grand Suspension Bridge (Oita, Japan) For now, the world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge (see the next entry) stands at 173 meters (567 feet) above the Naruko-gawa River. It's 390-meters long (1,279 feet) and was built in 2006. Visitors flock to it for the views of the Shindonotaki falls. After a hike across the bridge you can soak in the nearby hot springs -- almost a fifth of Japan's hot springs can be found in Oita Prefecture. Kokonoe "Yume" Grand Suspension Bridge, 1208 Tano, Kokonoe-machi, Kusu-gun, Oita, Japan . Highline179 (Reutte, Austria) Later this month, the world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge will officially open, connecting the Ehrenberg Castle ruins with Fort Claudia in Reutte, Austria. The bridge, which will have a length of 403 meters (1,322 feet) and a height of 110 meters (360 feet), will snatch the title from Japan's Kokonoe "Yume" Grand Suspension Bridge. The Highline179 is named after the tourist route that winds through this part of the Austrian state of Tryol. Highline179, Ehenbichl, 6600 Reutte, Austria . Tamara Hinson is a freelance travel writer based in the UK. | Located in Sochi, Russia's new record-breaking SkyBridge is 439 meters long .
Travelers can view France, Switzerland and Italy from the Aiguille du Midi bridge .
More animals than people use the Hanging Bridge of Ghasa in Nepal .
Based on traditional Nepalese rope bridges, Trift Bridge is the longest and highest in the Alps . |
217,236 | a53e5a9adaa451c4482a8516f47c7b2a15c84361 | By . Snejana Farberov . PUBLISHED: . 12:36 EST, 4 October 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:41 EST, 4 October 2013 . Disgraced: Gary Baker, 50, who was fired from the Sacramento PD last December, is accused of raping a 75-year-old grandmother on two occassions . A former veteran Sacramento, California, police officer accused of repeatedly raping an elderly stroke victim has claimed that their sexual encounters were consensual. Gary Baker, 50, was fired last December after 22 years on the force when it came to light that he had allegedly sexually assaulted an ailing 75-year-old woman suffering from a severe speech impediment. Detective Eugene Shim testified during a preliminary hearing Wednesday that initially, Baker had denied even touching the victim, identified in the case only as Jane Doe. A day after he learned of the allegations against him, Shim said that his former colleague changed his story, saying that he did have two encounters with the woman - both of them consensual. According to the witness, Baker, now 50, said that at first he unsuccessfully tried to have intercourse with 'Jane Doe,' whom he thought to be only 60 or 65 years old at the time. He later admitted to performing oral sex on the septuagenarian at her senior living apartment complex, The Sacramento Bee reported. When questioned about his paramour's unusual speech, Shim responded that the officer told investigators he thought the woman had a foreign accent and a stutter. Jane Doe suffered a stroke in 2009, which left her with a condition called speech aphasia - a disorder that causes problems with speaking, listening, reading and writing. Change of heart: Baker, seen next to his attorney last month, initially told police he did not have sex with the victim, but later said the two had consensual sex . Crime scene: The alleged incidents took place in November 2010 and September 2012 inside the elderly woman's senior living apartment complex . Due to her condition, the victim, who is now 78 years old, has been declared incompetent to take the stand and offer testimony against her alleged assailant. During a hearing last month, Baker's attorney Linda Parisi attempted to use the victim’s disability to poke holes in the prosecution's version of events, suggesting that there was no way for officers who investigated the alleged rape to know if the woman understood the questions they were posing to her. Officer Paula Gow responded that the elderly woman kept tapping on the police patch on the sleeve of her uniform, apparently indicating that her attacker was a cop, according to a CBS Sacramento report. According to the prosecution, Baker raped the woman the first time November 24, 2010, and again September 20, 2012. Marked: Officer Paula Gow testified last month how the elderly woman kept tapping on the police patch on the sleeve of her uniform, apparently indicating that her attacker was a cop . He was taken into custody that December after getting caught on a surveillance camera set up by Jane Doe's son entering her home. When questioned by police about the allegations, Detective Shim testified that Baker said he and the woman were on good terms, and she even showed him pictures of her family and gave him her phone number. Asked if his encounters with the septuagenarian were consensual, Baker reportedly answered in the affirmative. On the day of his arrest December 20, however, the veteran officer was adamant in his denial of any contact with the victim, telling police that he has not even ‘held her hand.' The prosecution’s case against Baker hinges on DNA and medical evidence suggesting that the woman may have been raped, and also on testimony from the victim’s family. On Tuesday, her son took the stand, telling the court that his elderly mother had no problem communicating that she had been assaulted. 'She was crying and said "Rape,"' the man recalled. When asked by her family to describe her attacker, the woman allegedly used the words 'police' and 'black.' Baker is African-American. The court also heard from Jane Doe's granddaughter, who recalled that when she asked what happened, her grandmother spelled out ‘r-a-p-e.’ ‘I said, "Who, who was raped?" She said "Me. I was raped.’ She was pointing at herself,"' the relative told the court. When the granddaughter examined the elderly woman's body in the bathroom, she said she noticed bruising to her breasts. | Gary Baker, 50, is accused of raping the septuagenarian suffering from speech aphasia in 2010 and 2012 .
Officer was fired from Sacramento Police Department in December 2012 after 22 years on the force .
Baker claimed after his arrest his trysts with 'Jane Doe' were consensual, and she even gave him her number .
Relatives claim woman kept repeating the words 'rape,' 'police' and 'black'
Judge ruled the woman, now 78, was incompetent to testify in trial . |
13,043 | 25025b227e37a79e29c972e268baa1cc71f1ebca | (CNN) -- For all her experience and accomplishments, the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor could hinge on one sentence she uttered more than seven years ago. Sonia Sotomayor's opponents are attacking a 2001 remark she made at the University of California, Berkeley. The sentence constitutes 32 words of the almost 4,000 she delivered during a speech at the University of California, Berkeley. Read by itself, it seems to imply that Latina women make better judges than white men. "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," she said October 26, 2001. The Princeton and Yale graduate has more than 16 years of federal opinions with which to gauge her proficiency as an arbiter. She spent six years as a district judge and a decade on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the 2001 comment promises to be a focal point of her confirmation. See Sotomayor's key rulings » . Conservatives such as talk radio host Rush Limbaugh have called her a "reverse racist." Limbaugh further denounced President Obama as "the greatest living example of a reverse racist." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in a Twitter post Wednesday, "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw." However, the White House and others say the remark is being taken out of context. Watch GOP congressman say she'll get a fair hearing » . "Look at the totality of it. I have confidence that people will come to a reasonable conclusion," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in his Wednesday briefing. When Obama cited the qualities he was seeking in a nominee, a diverse background was atop the list, Gibbs said. "When I talk about the richness of experience, I include a life and an upbringing that are different than some people have had," Gibbs said. Indeed, in a 2007 speech to a Planned Parenthood convention, the president laid out the criteria he would use to select judges: "We need somebody who's got the heart -- the empathy -- to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old." See whom Sotomayor would sit alongside if she's confirmed » . Sotomayor's 2001 speech had similar overtones, as she conceded that white justices had made historic decisions on race and gender but emphasized that the attorneys who argued these decisions before the court were African-Americans and women. At the beginning of her speech, she offered all Latinos in the room a warning: "Latinas are making a lot of progress in the old-boy network." She went on to laud her Latina upbringing and culture before delivering a brief history on the ascension of women and minorities to the federal bench. She referenced "two excellent studies on how women on the courts of appeal and state supreme courts have tended to vote more often than their male counterpart to uphold women's claims in sex discrimination cases and criminal defendants' claims in search and seizure cases." After making the now-inflammatory comment on Latina women versus white men, she discussed how her experiences might color her judicial decisions. Watch how Sotomayor can smooth confirmation process » . "Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see," she said. "My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage." Read a transcript of the speech . Lani Guinier, a professor at Harvard Law School, defended Sotomayor's remarks, writing in The New York Times on Tuesday that "cognitive psychology and history predict that every justice acts from a perspective." As a judge, litigator and private lawyer, Sotomayor has myriad experiences that will benefit the court, Guinier wrote, but it would be a mistake to reduce Sotomayor to her résumé. Watch bloggers share their thoughts » . "[Her] impressive intellect is joined by the wisdom and compassion that comes from varied life experiences," Guinier wrote. Maria Echaveste, President Clinton's former deputy chief of staff, also defended Sotomayor. Calling Sotomayor a racist, she said, is a disservice to the public. "What is wisdom but knowledge and experience -- and experience that comes from being who you are? That's all she was saying," she said. Asked whether she would defend a white male nominee who said his experience gave him a better perspective on legal issues, Echaveste dismissed the comparison. "I can't imagine that any president would pick someone who would say something like that. That's not what Judge Sotomayor was saying," she replied. Several conservatives, however, believe that is exactly what Sotomayor was saying, and they have mounted an offensive before her confirmation schedule is even solidified. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has called her nomination "troubling" and said her public remarks "make it clear she has an expansive view of the role of the judiciary." "What the American public deserves is a judge who will put the law above her own personal political philosophy," he said in a statement. Another 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, also lambasted Sotomayor, saying Obama's campaign promise to remain centrist and bipartisan is "mere rhetoric." "The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the 'feelings' of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion," Huckabee said in a statement. "If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice." Despite widespread criticism over Sotomayor's remark, those defending her say they hope the Senate will judge her by her qualifications and not her 2001 Berkeley speech. "America is a big, rich, diverse pot, and having a woman of her caliber, her qualifications, on the bench can only enrich," Echaveste said. Added the White House's Gibbs, "I think [richness of experience] provides somebody with important perspective, and I think many people in America can see some part of them in her story." CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin and John King contributed to this report. | White House says 2001 remark being taken out of context .
Sotomayor: She hopes "wise Latina woman" would judge better than white male .
In same speech, she said Latinas making progress "in the old-boy network"
GOP heavyweights call Sotomayor "racist" in denouncing her nomination . |
52,574 | 95023de0346a050b01217a153c0abe2e86129e6b | By . Liz Hull . PUBLISHED: . 16:33 EST, 19 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 01:55 EST, 20 August 2012 . Like most new mothers, Katie Brown readily admits she is besotted with her baby son. But the 29-year-old has more reason than most to feel blessed by Ethan’s safe arrival – because he is the child she was afraid it would be impossible for her to have. Miss Brown and her partner Adam Holtby, 28, were planning to get married and start a family when their world was turned upside down two years ago. Blessed with child: Katie Brown and partner Adam Holtby were relieved when baby Ethan arrived safely after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer two years ago . Following a routine smear test, Miss Brown was diagnosed with cervical cancer and warned she could die without a hysterectomy. But, distraught that she would never be able to have children of her own, she was offered the chance to undergo pioneering surgery to save both her life and her fertility. The operation, which has been performed on just a handful of British women, was a success. To her doctor’s amazement, Miss Brown became pregnant six months later and Ethan was born by Caesarean section weighing a healthy 7lb 11oz. Miss Brown, a dental hygienist, said: ‘Holding Ethan in my arms for the first time was the most amazing feeling ever, it was the best day of my life. It was very, very emotional. I was in tears, Adam was crying, even some of the doctors and nurses were blubbing, it was very special. 'Little miracle': Miss Brown underwent pioneering surgery to save her life from cervical cancer and her fertility and to her doctor's amazement Miss Brown fell pregnant with Ethan within six months . ‘To be told I had cancer and that I may never be a mother was heartbreaking, but then to be given this chance and to manage to get through the pregnancy and birth with a healthy little boy – we are just over the moon. ‘People say Ethan is a happy little boy, . but we are just so pleased to have him. We look at him every day and . can’t quite believe he’s here. He’s our little miracle.’ Radical surgery: Miss Brown had a pioneering procedure devised at Hammersmith Hospital, pictured, and the Lister Hospital . Miss Brown was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September 2010. Doctors warned her that it was likely that she would need a hysterectomy to save her life. But, by chance, her consultant knew a doctor pioneering a little known procedure, known as a radical abdominal trachelectomy. The operation, devised by doctors at Hammersmith Hospital and the Lister Hospital, both in London, involves most of the cervix – the muscle which holds a baby in the womb – being removed, together with the upper part of the vagina. The womb and the upper opening of the cervix, where it joins on to the womb, are left behind and rejoined to the vagina. A stitch is then inserted on to the upper opening of the cervix to hold a baby in place in the womb until it is ready to be delivered. ‘The doctors explained that I could have a hysterectomy or radiotherapy but I knew both would rob me of my fertility,’ Miss Brown, who lives with Mr Holtby, an IT research analyst, in Brough, East Yorkshire, said. ‘This new operation seemed like a much better option. The consultant told me only a handful of women in the UK had had the surgery but it had a good success rate.’ If the doctors had discovered during the . operation that the cancer had spread they might still have had to . perform a hysterectomy. But fortunately, that didn’t happen. Delayed wedding plans: The couple put their wedding on hold and began trying for a baby six months after the successful operation . Miss Brown and Mr Holtby put their wedding plans on hold and began trying for a baby six months after the successful operation at Castle Hill Hospital, Cottingham, East Yorkshire, in November 2010. She became pregnant almost immediately, in May last year, and after a normal pregnancy, Ethan was born by a planned C-section at 38 weeks in February. ‘When I was diagnosed with cancer I’d thought I’d lost my chance to have children, but having Ethan was made possible thanks to this amazing surgery,’ added Miss Brown, who is in remission from her cancer. ‘I just want other women to know that having a hysterectomy is not the only option if you have cancer, I’m proof that fertility can be preserved and miracles do happen.’ | Katie Brown was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2010 .
She underwent radical surgery to save her life and her fertility .
Six months later she was pregnant, much to the amazement of her doctor .
Miss Brown and partner Adam Holtby delayed their wedding plans .
Baby Ethan was born healthy by Caesarean section . |
181,915 | 778de41d32a6824f18adcf1c39c65aa18b88bb59 | By . Freya Noble for Daily Mail Australia . As Australian house prices continue to rise, it's becoming increasingly hard to find an affordable home close to capital cities and business hubs. But Daily Mail Australia has found ten properties around Australia which are under $100,000. And some are only 25 minutes from a capital city. Others feature pools and even water views. The property finds come as a new report released by RP Data this week has found houses selling for less than $400,000 across the capital cities are falling fast. Less than 28 percent of properties in Australia are listed as selling at $400,000 in capital cities, while over 60 percent of regional properties can still be found at that price. The RP Data report found the combined Australian capital median house price is $550,00, while the media unit price is $475,000. 'A rise in capital city home values of 10.1 per cent over the 12 months to June 2014 indicates the difficulty being experienced by price-sensitive purchasers looking to enter the housing market,' RP Data's Cameron Kusher said. 'This is most felt in Sydney and Melbourne where home values have increased by 15.4 percent and 9.4 per cent respectively over the year to June.' Scroll down for video . This apartment in Hope Island, Queensland overlooks the Gold Coast's Coomera River . This unit on the beach in Pottsville, far-north NSW could be snapped up for $99,500 . The report also revealed that although properties in regional areas are definitely more affordable, job and employment prospects are substantially lower in these regions. But the Daily Mail Australia has put together a list of ten suburbs and towns around the country where you can buy property for less than $100,000 _ without moving more than two hours away from a capital city. This was despite being told repeatedly by estate agents it was impossible to buy for under $100,000. While some of the houses, units or apartments may need a little work, by moving a little further out, the extra hour commute to work might just be worth it for the low price you'll pay for these homes. In Windang New South Wales, less than an hour and a half south of Sydney, a one bedroom, one bathroom home could set you back just $55,000. Newly renovated, the house is located 15 kilometres south of Wollongong in the Oaklands Village. With its own car-space, garden, verandah and kitchen it sits on the Illawarra River. It's also a short walk to local shops and the beach - and close to a golf course and a number of parks. In Windang NSW, an hour and a half from Sydney, this self-contained one bedroom place is just $55,000 . The unit has been recently renovated and is located just 15 kilometres south of Wollongong . It sits on the Illawarra River in the Oaklands Village and has its own verandah . The unit has a kitchen and one bathroom and is short walk from the local shops . It also has a spacious living area and sits on the river right near the beach . In far-north NSW near the Queensland border in Pottsville a unit on the beach could set you back $99,500. Just an hour and a half south of Brisbane the one bedroom one bathroom studio is part of the Pottsville Beach Motel. Ideal for an investment property or holiday home the second-floor unit is less than 200 metres from the beach is half an hour from holiday town Byron Bay. It also comes with a car space, pool, BBQ area and was recently refurbished. This Pottsville apartment has access to a pool, car space, BBQ area and was recently refurbished . It's located less than 200 metres from the beach and under an hour from the holiday town of Byron Bay . If you're looking for a place in Queensland, Hope Island - 45 minutes from Brisbane - has a fully-furnished apartment overlooking the marina. On the market for $99,000, the one bedroom one bathroom unit features a huge double bedroom, kitchen and balcony on the Gold Coast's Coomera River. On the inlet of the marina of Hope Harbour the place has magnificent water views and is close to bars, restaurants, gold courses, and the theme parks. This apartment in Hope Island, Queensland overlooks the Gold Coast's Coomera River . The unit has a large double bedroom and is on the market for $99,000 . It also has a large bathroom and is located just 45 minutes from Brisbane . The place has magnificent water views and is close to bars, restaurants, gold courses, and the theme parks . Victoria doesn't have as much to offer in the cheap housing stakes, but some cabins and relocatable house can be found on the cheap. Just under an hour from Melbourne - Longwarry has a unique relocatable house up for grabs. Vince Di Graza from South East Real Estate told Daily Mail Australia it's nearly impossible to find a property anywhere in the country for less than $100,000. 'You'd be hard pressed to find land under $90,000 (near capital cities) even if it's derelict.' Despite this - he pinned the three bedroom two bathroom home to come in under that. Many others on the market for that cheap often need knocking down or pretty serious renovations, he said. This relocatable house will sell for less than $100,00 according to its estate agent . The three bedroom two bathroom home is currently an hour from Melbourne but can be moved . Further south in South Australia the property market is slightly more affordable. In the small town of Hahndorf, considered Australia's oldest surviving German settlement you could snap up a gorgeous little cabin. On the market from just $45,000 this quaint one bedroom home with a laundry and bathroom and separate toilet and shower is located in the Hahndorf Resort. It's located less than half an hour from the state's capital Adelaide, the house is close to public transport and comes with its own garden and shed. In Hahndorf, South Australia this cabin is available in Australia's oldest surviving German settlement . The quaint property is on sale for just $45,000 . Settled in the Hahndorf Resort, it's located less than half an hour from Adelaide . It's a one bedroom home with a laundry and bathroom and separate toilet and shower . Elsewhere in South Australia an hour and 45 minutes north of Adelaide in Snowtown, there's a 1990s villa for sale at just over $100,000. Boasting four bedrooms and and a large combined kitchen and dining area there's one large bathroom on the 1010 square-metre block of land. Nearby to schools, shops, transport and with a large garden this house would be a great project for a creative family. In Snowtown, SA this 1990s villa is for sale at just over the $100,000 mark . The place has four bedrooms and one large bathroom . In the West Australian suburb of Dowerin, two hours west of Perth, a three bedroom family home is up for grabs for just $89,000. The house also has one bathroom, is set on a large block of land and also has a carport. Though the place needs a little love and a coat of paint it features a front verandah, lounge room and the third bedroom could also double as a study. In Dowerin, WA, two hours west of Perth a three bedroom family home is on the market for $89,000 . The house has one bathroom, is set on a large block of land and also has a carport . Though the place needs a little love and a coat of paint it features a front verandah, lounge room and the third bedroom could also double as a study . Tasmania also has a few properties to offer on the cheap, the first of two a unit in Primrose Sands. Two hours from Hobart, the two bedroom place is right near Susan's Bay in a secluded and quiet area. With one bathroom and three car spots the unit is ideal for those who live an active outdoor life and can spare $85,000. This unit in Primrose Sands, Tasmania is near a beach in a relatively secluded area . The two bedroom place is up for grabs for $85,000 . With one bathroom, kitchen and three car spots the unit is ideal for those who live an active outdoor life . The second budget property Tasmania has to offer is in Brandum, also two hours from Hobart. The house - which could be used as a fishing cabin located in the Central Highlands of the state is fully furnished and sits on a large block. It features two bedrooms, a bathroom, one car spot and is just minutes from the local boat ramp which leads into the Great Lake. It's on the market for $65,000. It has an open plan living area and a porch out the front, as well as a large double garage and an additional shed. In Brandum, two hours from Hobart, you can snap up this house for $65,000 . The place could be used as a fishing cabin and is right near Tasmania's Great Lake . It features two bedrooms, a bathroom, one car spot and is just minutes from the local boat ramp . | Property may be becoming more expensive but there are still bargains .
A beach side unit in Pottsville, in far north NSW, will set you back $99,500 .
In Queensland an apartment overlooking the marina in Hope Island is $99,000 .
A relocatable house in Victoria could cost you just $60,000 .
In Snowtown, South Australia, a 1990s villa is just over $100,000 .
The West Australian suburb of Dowerin has a family home for just $89,000 .
In Primrose Sands, Tasmania, a two bedroom one bathroom place is $85,000 . |
241,786 | c4ec527ceace512355515866906b2453a5e256b3 | Space might seem like a vast, empty expanse, but in reality the area surrounding Earth has become congested with junk. This junk – which can include anything from old rockets, abandoned satellites to missile shrapnel - will soon make it difficult for spacecraft to leave the planet. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has now teamed up with Nitto Seimo, a company that manufactures fishing equipment, to build a ‘magnetic net’ that can fish out space debris. It is estimated that there are as many as 370,000 pieces of space junk floating in Earth's orbit, travelling at speeds of up to 22,000 mph . The first test of this equipment is scheduled for late February when a Japanese rocket will be launched to deploy a satellite made by researchers at Kagawa University. Once the satellite is in orbit, it will release a 300 metre-long wire net that will then generate a magnetic field strong enough to attract some of the debris in orbit. Both the net and its contents will burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere. Based on a data archive, each miniature sphere in this image represents an existing object orbiting in space. There are around 22,000 objects in orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track . Since . the first object, Sputnik One, was launched into space 53 years ago, . mankind has created a swarm of perhaps tens of millions of items of . debris. The rubbish circling the planet comes from old rockets, abandoned satellites and missile shrapnel. There are around 22,000 objects in . orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track and . countless more smaller ones that could do damage to human-carrying . spaceships and valuable satellites. It . is estimated that there are as many as 370,000 pieces of space junk . floating in Earth's orbit, traveling at speeds of up to 22,000 mph. One major source of debris in the past . was the testing of anti-satellite weapons carried out by both the U.S. and Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. Accidental . events have also contributed to the problem. In February 2007 for . instance, a Russian Briz-M booster stage exploded in orbit over South . Australia. The possibility of a satellite crashing into a hunk of space debris has worried scientists for years. One collision could send thousands of pieces of debris spinning out, potentially destroying other satellites. There are around 22,000 objects in . orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track and . countless more smaller ones that could do damage to human-carrying . spaceships and valuable satellites. Television signals, weather forecasts, global-positioning navigation and international phone connections are just some of the services at risk. A recent Nasa report said that the amount of space junk orbiting earth had reached a 'tipping point'. In 2009 there was a major crash between a U.S. communications satellite and a defunct Russian military probe over Siberia. The collision at speeds of at least 15,000mph created a cloud of 1,500 pieces of space junk that the International Space Station then had to manoeuvre to avoid. A Chinese missile test in 2007 left 150,000 pieces of junk in the atmosphere. These two events encouraged the U.S to support the United Nations when it issued guidelines that urge companies and countries to stop cluttering Earth's orbit. | Next month, Japanese rocket will be launched with a 300 metre-long net .
The net will generate a magnetic field to attract some of the debris in orbit .
Both the net and its contents will burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere .
Nasa claims amount of space junk around Earth has reached a 'tipping point' |
26,586 | 4b7c3182db7eeb59743539dba88e656d7210c1a5 | On the rack: Former HMRC tax chief Dave Hartnett was accused of being 'cavalier' with public money . The former head of HMRC faced growing criticism yesterday over claims he failed to pursue prosecutions against HSBC’s Swiss customers before taking a job with the bank. Critics accused the agency of adopting a ‘selective prosecution policy’ towards tax evasion cases linked to Britain’s biggest bank and questioned whether it had taken a deliberate strategy to minimise legal action. Dave Hartnett was permanent secretary for tax at HMRC when French authorities handed over account data in 2010. Yet just three cases were passed to the Crown Prosecution Service and there has been only one conviction. He retired as Britain’s top tax official in 2012 and took up a job as an adviser with HSBC in 2013 – a move which was signed off by the Prime Minister. Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury select committee, told the Mail it was ‘totally unacceptable’ for Mr Hartnett to move to HSBC after his job at HMRC. ‘It’s all too cosy,’ he said. ‘It demonstrates that the HMRC has not been fit for purpose for some time.’ Mr Hartnett, 63, retired from HMRC after facing criticism that he signed off ‘sweetheart’ deals which saved Starbucks and Vodafone to avoid billions in tax payments. His tenure at the Revenue was dogged by claims that he helped multinational companies shave millions of pounds off their tax bills. Described as Britain’s most ‘wined and dined’ civil servant, he sparked controversy when it emerged he enjoyed 107 meals with corporate giants over a three-year period. He was severely criticised for brokering a deal that saved Goldman Sachs £20million in interest payments and stepped down after he was accused of lying to MPs over the deal and being ‘cavalier’ with taxpayers’ money. A 2013 court case heard Mr Hartnett personally overruled legal advice and HMRC’s own guidelines to order officials to stop chasing the bank over the tax bill. High Court judge Mr Justice Nicol ruled the deal was lawful but ‘not a glorious episode in the history of the revenue’. When it later emerged he had taken advisory roles with HSBC and City giant Deloitte, the chairman of the public accounts committee Margaret Hodge accused him of ‘greed’ and ‘losing all sense of what is right’. Accused: A 2013 court case heard Mr Hartnett personally overruled legal advice and HMRC’s own guidelines to order officials to stop chasing Goldman Sachs over a tax bill for £20million in interest payments . MPs on the committee are due to question HMRC chief executive Lin Homer about the leaked Swiss account details and Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint is also expected to be called to face questions later this year. Mrs Hodge has said she would ‘order’ executives at the beleaguered bank to give evidence if necessary. Mr Hartnett was last night unavailable for comment, but has previously denied that HSBC’s private banking customers were offered an amnesty. In a 2011 statement, he warned HMRC was closing in on offshore tax evaders and said bank customers whose details were among the stolen data should come forward. He said: ‘This is not an amnesty. There are no special rates of penalty or interest for those who come forward voluntarily.’ ‘This is an opportunity for those who have made errors in past returns to correct them. The net is closing on offshore evaders.’ | Dave Hartnett was agency's tax chief when it was handed details in 2010 .
Yet just three cases were passed to prosecutors - with one conviction .
He retired in 2012 and promptly took up a job as an HSBC adviser .
MP John Mann said move 'totally unacceptable' adding: 'It's all too cosy' |
96,072 | 07892ee5eaaaabc27559fb6a0ad713f99275bcae | With her possessions crammed into a single red bag, a Romanian woman watches as police prepare to search her and her fellow beggars. This is the sight greeting dignitaries arriving in one of London’s wealthiest streets for the Olympics. Up to 40 beggars have made Park Lane their home, transforming a stretch of the central reservation into a gambling den and doss house. Unwelcome guests: Some of the 50 Romanian beggars evicted from Marble Arch last Month gambling in Park Lane after setting up a new camp in the exclusive road's central reservation . Growing problem: Officers search the Romanians as police and the council battle to keep a steady influx of migrant pickpockets and prostitutes in check . According The Evening Standard, locals said the gang had been sleeping in cardboard boxes in a subway which runs under the central reservation until the midpoint entryway was barred shut last week. Coachloads of penniless pickpockets and prostitutes are arriving in the capital every day, many already armed with maps directing them to the best patches, which they have been ordered to defend from rivals. Yesterday, police made attempts to search the beggars – while just a few yards away out of sight some of the group were urinating in the street. And this morning, two police vans were parked in Marble Arch, while a small group of six Eastern Europeans sat nearby with several large black bags. A British homeless man said it had become too dangerous to sleep out in central London because of Romanian gangs roaming around at night thieving at knifepoint. Disgusting: The group regularly urinate in the street, in full view of the area's top restaurants and hotels . Ongoing issue: Westminster Council has held a summit meeting of local agencies including the Foreign Office and representatives of the Romanian Embassy to discuss the problem . Keeping an eye out: Police vans parked outside Marble Arch, around 50 yards from Park Lane, as officers monitor the homeless group . Westminster Council has held a summit meeting of local agencies including the Foreign Office and representatives of the Romanian Embassy to discuss the problem. It repatriated 18 people to Romania recently, but only after the coach company insisted on them being given showers and new clothes before they boarded a bus. Westminster councillor Nickie Aiken said: 'These people are dispersing but they are not going away. They are either camping in Park Lane or moving into South Mayfair and around Oxford Street. 'The police and council are doing all we can about this but the taxpayers are picking up the bill, mainly the cost of cleansing because they have no toilets.' Last night, a group of around 20 - split between elderly women with walking sticks and headscarves and men in their 30s with hooded jackets and mobile phones - sat together on a tatty blanket playing dice for piles of £1 coins in the dual carriageway’s central reservation. Push-along suitcases, beer bottles and carrier bags littered the grass yards from the prestige car dealerships, Speakers’ Corner and some of the capital’s best-known hotels. 'Police here earlier, no trouble, no problems,' said one man in his 20s in broken English, before adding: 'No camera.' Transient problem: Police move members of the group, clutching bin bags, from the entrance of Marble Arch station . An elderly woman broke away from the group to pull down her tights and relieve herself against a fence. 'It’s disgusting,' said Brian Portman, 46, from New Zealand, waiting to board an open-top bus tour. 'It’s definitely not what you expect to see in London. It’s like something from the Third World,' he told the Standard. Local trader Said Ali, of Park Lane News, said: 'There’s always a group of them out there, at night I’ve seen more than 50. They go out in the day begging for money and all come back to sleep in the bushes. 'Sometimes they come in here asking to buy drinks. They always pay in change - 5ps and 10ps they’ve collected through the day. It’s not nice seeing them out there with their bags, sleeping everywhere, it doesn’t give a good impression.' Luiia Rapuano, a hairdresser at the upscale Kakan Altay salon, said: 'Some of our clients use the subway and there were piles of cardboard boxes down there where they’d been sleeping. It was like a cardboard city in the middle of posh Mayfair. 'I use the subway to go home at night and I was a little bit scared. It was awful. The council have taken all the boxes away now, so they’re sleeping rough in the bushes. We need Boris to come up here and sort it out.' Under siege: The beggars have only moved around 50 yards from Marble Arch (above), where they were evicted from last month as council workers fight to control an influx of crime gangs ahead of the Olympics . Rough deal for London: Coachloads of penniless pickpockets and prostitutes are arriving in the capital every day, many already armed with maps directing them to the best patches, which they have been ordered to defend from rivals . Sarah Greene, who has manned an ice cream booth opposite for more than 20 years, said: 'It’s disgusting. I’ve seen men from the council come down to move them on, but as soon as they leave they come back again. When you walk past the subway it stinks of urine.' The council has asked the Foreign Office and the Romanian government for a publicity campaign in Romania to try to deter people from coming. Ms Aiken said: 'This is getting worse because of the Olympics, I worry that people are being duped into thinking there are jobs here.' A Met Police spokesperson said: 'Westminster Police are working alongside Westminster City Council, the UK Border Agency and partner agencies to address these issues. 'The local Safer Neighbourhoods Team and Westminster Council will be working together to prevent any crime and anti-social behaviour linked to the recent influx of homeless people in Marble Arch.' A Westminster City Council spokesperson added: 'There is continued dialogue going on with outreach teams to try and get them to move on. 'They try to suggest that they return home and ask them what they are doing and how they are earning money. 'It is an ongoing issue and one which we think will require various strategies to tackle, including talking with the groups directly and monitoring chartered coaches arriving in London from Romania.' | Moved into central reservation after eviction from Marble Arch last month .
Urinating in street in view of capital's highest-end restaurants and hotels .
British homeless: Too dangerous to sleep rough with knife-wielding migrants .
Coachloads of foreign pickpockets and prostitutes flood streets each day .
Tourist: 'It’s disgusting. It’s like something from the Third World'
Locals say the group were sleeping in subway under central reservation . |
97,425 | 0960ea4f13d0e5fd0b41e45efe308dcc0bfd4be1 | Brits are responsible for almost half of all handbag internet searches . Mulberry ranked as luxury label of choice for Brits . Coach is most searched for iconic model worldwide . By . Bianca London . PUBLISHED: . 07:14 EST, 6 July 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 09:06 EST, 6 July 2012 . From the Mulberry Alexa to the Hermès Birkin, handbags have become one of the most coveted items in the luxury goods market. Women worldwide are willing to sacrifice their hard-earned monthly salaries for a piece of lusted-after arm candy. But it has been revealed that British woman are the hungriest handbag hunters in the whole world. Kim Sears represents the British ladies whose choice of designer handbag is Mulberry; Kim opts for the Bayswater . And it has also been revealed that Britons were behind almost half of internet searches for luxury handbag brands at a time when it seems impossible to escape daily reminders of the country's economic turmoil. The study, carried out by the World Luxury Index, found that it was classic designer staple Mulberry that prevailed as British online shoppers' luxury label of choice. Coach . Louis Vuitton . Chanel . Gucci . Longchamp . Prada . Hermès . Mulberry . Marc Jacobs . Michael Kors . In 2011 the company almost quadrupled its profits from the previous year. And with each bag owing its name to the celebrity who first endorsed it; it would appear that Alexa, Lily, Daria and Rosie have fast become the most popular girls in town. Starting at £550 however, they are certainly not cheap dates and to the music of many shopper's ears, high street stores are hot on the designer world's heels with great copies. More and more, the world wide web is where consumers confirm their desire for handbag brands, and increasingly, specific models. And consumers shift from the boutique to their smartphones, tablets and computers to learn more about the products they covet. The study also unveiled for the first time, a ranking and analysis of the most searched-for handbag brands within the luxury industry, based on the unbiased search inputs coming from global luxury consumers in major search engines. The research examines over 130 brands, through 130 million+ searches, in eight countries. Coach held the top spot as most-searched handbag brand, followed by Louis Vuitton and Chanel. As for Mulberry, which ranked eighth globally, the study found that every nation has a varying taste in style. In the US, UK & France, crocodile is the most-searched for material, where the Americans prefer Orange, the British Tan and the French Black. | Brits are responsible for almost half of all handbag internet searches .
Mulberry ranked as luxury label of choice for Brits .
Coach is most searched for iconic model worldwide . |
74,352 | d2d3718001e156beb0abbf0b04da40f4a5509591 | Madrid (CNN) -- A 25-year-old Spanish man has been ordered by a judge to leave home and look for a job after he took his parents to court for stopping his allowance money. The man from Andalusia in southern Spain had taken the court action demanding a monthly allowance of $588 after his parents stopped giving him his spending money unless he tried to find a job. However, the judge told the man, who has not been named in court documents, that he must leave his parents' house within 30 days. The judge said the man was studying law, albeit at a slow rate, and would probably not complete the degree for several years, but he thought he was still capable of finding some kind of work. The family court in Malaga says the situation at the home had seriously deteriorated with the parents claiming their son had physically and verbally assaulted them. The man's mother works in a restaurant while his father works for a garbage collection firm. The judge also ordered that the parents should pay a $292 monthly food stipend for 2 years. The parents have also taken over the monthly repayments on their son's car. In Spain it is not unusual for offspring to remain living with their parents until well into their 30s, a trend strengthened by a tough labor market where the youth unemployment rate is 40.5%, the highest in the European Union. There are 4.6 million Spaniards unemployed, and 1.3 million Spanish homes with no one in work, according to government figures for the fourth quarter of 2010. | 25-year-old had taken parents to court demanding $588 monthly allowance .
Judge gave him 30 days to leave home and find work .
Parents ordered to pay $292 monthly food stipend for 2 years .
Spain youth unemployment rate is 40.5%, highest in the EU . |
86,836 | f672385e2ca8b8619b023e83d7319ae197c5efe8 | By . Ted Thornhill . PUBLISHED: . 10:23 EST, 3 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 10:30 EST, 3 January 2014 . Claim: Star Scientific claims its Anatabloc product may be useful in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries . A pharmaceutical company that suggested one of its products may be useful in preventing and treating traumatic brain injuries has had its wrists slapped by the U.S Food And Drug Administration (FDA) for misleading the public. Star Scientific, the company at the heart of a scandal involving the Virginia governor, claimed that its product Anatabloc may help with recovery from brain injury caused, for instance, by concussion. However, Gary Coody, the FDA’s National Health Fraud Coordinator, said: ‘We're very concerned that false assurances of faster recovery will convince athletes of all ages, coaches and even parents that someone suffering from a concussion is ready to resume activities before they are really ready.’ What’s more, in a warning letter dated December 20, Star Scientific has been told that it does not have permission to market Anatabloc, because it contains anatabine, a new dietary ingredient that needs federal approval to promote – something that the firm has yet to seek. Star Scientific has been at the center of a scandal involving Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, a Republican whose term ends next month. Federal authorities are investigating the relationship between McDonnell and Star Scientific founder and former Chief Executive Jonnie Williams Sr, who sought state help promoting Anatabloc. McDonnell has acknowledged that he and his family accepted more than $160,000 in gifts and loans from Williams, a major campaign donor. But the governor has said Williams and Star Scientific received no grants or other help from the state. The FDA warned Star Scientific that its claims about Anatabloc's ability to treat brain injuries were misleading . In July, the governor apologized for embarrassing the state and repaid the loans. He said he returned the gifts to Williams. Williams resigned last week. He was replaced by Dr Michael Mullan, head of the Roskamp Institute, a research center. The FDA gave Star Scientific, of Glen Allen, Virginia, 15 days to say what steps it has taken to correct violations. In a statement on its website, Star said it was responding to the FDA and ‘has already advised the agency that it intends to work cooperatively to resolve these issues’. | Star Scientific claimed that its Anatabloc drug may help to treat brain injuries .
The FDA warned that its claims could be dangerous for concussion victims . |
181,466 | 76ef5f093104296c40ee2675d4ded8ce25aa36d5 | Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Staring at the throngs of media representatives who came out to hear and see her Friday, Jessica Colotl took another step into the fight for her future. The undocumented student from Mexico whose case has become a lightning rod in the immigration debate had been released on $2,500 bond just a couple hours earlier. The 21-year-old student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia surrendered Friday morning to authorities in response to a warrant for her arrest issued Wednesday night by the Cobb County Sheriff's Office. Standing nervously before the crowd, Colotl fought back tears when people cheered for her. The media bombarded her with questions as she tried to give voice to her struggle. Just a week earlier, she'd been released from a deportation facility in Alabama after being stopped in March for a minor traffic violation. "If I were to be deported, I'd have to start all over again," she said. "I'm hoping for the best." The sheriff's office said she gave a false address when stopped for that violation, a felony charge that her attorney denies. A spotlight has been trained on Arizona since Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law a bill that requires law enforcement officials to seek proof of legal U.S. residency from anyone whom they have stopped on suspicion of having violated the law. But advocates working with Colotl point out that a little-understood program already gives local authorities in many states the latitude to act as immigration officials -- a right that is often abused, they say. "The future of Arizona already exists in Cobb County and Gwinnett County [also in Georgia]," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. Near him were other Colotl supporters, some holding signs reading "Education not deportation." Under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program, state and local law enforcement can partner with the federal agency to gain some immigration enforcement authority in their own jurisdictions. If they conclude that someone is in the country illegally, they can turn that person over to ICE. Last year, a change to the partnership program prioritized the detention and arrest of those who have allegedly committed crimes. The Cobb County Sheriff's Office is one of 71 law enforcement agencies in 26 states that have entered into this partnership program, according to the ICE website. Labeling the program a "civil rights disaster," Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said it "leads to racial profiling, distracts police from looking for real criminals and destroys families." The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia called Friday for an end to the program. "Jessica's case is yet another outrageous example of the unaccountable local enforcement of immigration laws in Cobb County gone awry," said Azadeh Shahshahani, ACLU of Georgia's national security/immigrants' rights project director. Colotl's legal problems started in late March when her car was stopped on the Kennesaw State campus. Born in Mexico but living in the United States since she was 11, she could not produce a driver's license, so she handed over as identification an expired passport from Mexico. She was arrested the next day and turned over to immigration officials. She spent more than a month in the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama. Friends came out in force and marched on campus in her defense. Earlier this month, she was released, and her deportation was deferred for a year, which will allow her to finish her studies. She hasn't returned to classes yet, but looks forward to earning her degree. "I'm just trying to live the American dream and finish my education," she said. Calling Colotl "a symbol of what's wrong with the immigration system," immigration attorney Charles Kuck thanked ICE for allowing his client to stay in the country for a year to finish her studies. He then set out to educate people about the challenges facing Colotl, providing a reason why she did not have a license. "Jessica can't start the process to become a U.S. citizen because she's not allowed to," he said. "If Jessica could obtain a license, she would have." In a statement Wednesday night, Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren said, "Ms. Colotl knew that she was in the United States without authority to be here and voluntarily chose to operate a vehicle without a driver's license, which is a violation of Georgia law. She has further complicated her situation with her blatant disregard for Georgia law by giving false information." As for the use of the ICE program, he said, "I value any tool that helps me enforce the law and remove violators from our community." But the band of lawyers and advocates who rallied around Colotl say Cobb County is abusing its power. In a joint statement Thursday night, they voiced outrage over Colotl's treatment and suggested that the felony charge is trumped-up. "It is obvious from all the documents that I've seen that she has done nothing wrong and has given her proper address to Cobb County and immigration officials," said Chris Taylor, Colotl's criminal attorney. "There has been no crime committed." The car's registration simply reflected her old address, Taylor said in an interview, and she provided her new address when she was taken into custody. Taylor said he has the documents to prove this and looks forward to clearing her name. In front of the crowd that gathered Friday, he said of his client, "She has not failed us. We have failed her. The system has failed her." The Cobb Immigrant Alliance likened the actions of officials to "schoolyard bullying." Gonzalez, of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, called the sheriff "Wild-West Warren," saying he "has abused his authority in this case. His actions clearly demonstrate the problems that occur when local law officers are granted authority to enforce immigration laws." "Sheriff Warren has embarked on a witch hunt, wasting money and county resources for political gain," said Adelina Nicholls of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. "This is not about public safety." | Jessica Colotl, an undocumented immigrant, was arrested, detained after traffic violation .
In U.S. since she was 11, she is close to graduation from her university in Georgia .
"I'm just trying to live the American dream and finish my education," says Colotl .
Advocates and lawyers for Colotl liken case to "witch hunt" and say system is flawed . |
148,466 | 4bfbcc147ef5edddca4fd7740c757ad6c204cc57 | A Health Department employee of 38 years has been suspended for answering customer calls in a voice that sounds so much 'like a robot' he's confused customers into thinking he's an automated recording. Ronald Dillon is accused of talking in a 'deliberately robotic fashion' at least five times between February and April of 2013, representatives for the Health Department said during a disciplinary hearing. He's now been suspended for 20 days. Department of robots?: Ronald Dillon was suspended from working at the Department of Health because he 'spoke like a robot' on customer service calls and even convinced them he was an automated recording . Dillon's boss at the agency's IT help desk apparently repeatedly told Dillon to stop using the robot voice after fielding complaints from callers, Administrative Law Judge Kara Miller was told. One customer hung up on Dillon then spoke with another employee and told her there was a new automated answering system. She said she had hung up when she heard 'the robot' answer the phone because she needed to speak to a human about her registration issues. At the hearing, the Heath Department played the recording of Dillon's robotic sounding and extremely enunciated reading. 'You have reached the Help Desk. This is Mr. Dillon. How may I help you?' said the recording. Dillon was originally sentenced to 34 days suspension but his penalty was lowered to 20 days after he gave the judge his reasoning. Dillon defended his voice saying he was merely trying to enunciate clearly because he has a thick Brooklyn accent, reports DNA info. Ronald didn't admit to trying to sound like a robot but he did say he isn't much of a people person and that working in customer service is a glitch in the department's employment system. He added that his boss, Barry Novack, picked on him and that he was simply trying to please him by eliminating his accent over the phone. 'They objected to the tone of my voice so I made it atonal,' he said. Judge Miller lowered his suspension after his explanation but said Dillon is a 'disgruntled' employee who doesn't like his boss. Boss' orders!: Ronald Dillon argued he wasn't speaking like a robot but that he was trying to speak slowly because he has a Brooklyn accent and can be difficult to understand . 'There is a difference between speaking slowly and distinctly and speaking so robotically that callers did not believe that they were speaking to a person,' she wrote in her decision. Dillon has worked for the Health Department since 1976 and has never had any prior disciplinary problems. Dillon's job at the department has dwindled over the years and he wasn't so pleased with his new responsibility answering tech questions from the public about NYCMED, a web portal allowing healthcare providers to register with the Health Department. 'He appears to be [a] disgruntled employee who is acting out because of the restructuring that has occurred within the department over the last few years,' she wrote. Dillon served as a project manager and a supervisor for many years before being drafted to the customer service desk. Dillon told the judge he didn't have any background in customer service. 'It's a bullying-in-the-workplace issue,' he said. He asked his supervisors to transfer to another agency unit but they said no. 'It's an experience. Not one that I would want people to go through, but it's an experience,' he said of working the phone line. | US Department of Heath employee of 38 years, Ronald Dillon, is accused of talking in a 'deliberately robotic fashion' at least five times .
Dillon was suspended for 20 days .
Dillon claims he was merely trying to 'speak slowly because he has a thick Brooklyn accent'
The judge claims that Dillon was demoted leading him to act out against his boss Barry Novack with whom he has issues . |
171,391 | 69d58addfa3c592a140ad5023c94044f6a842d80 | (CNN) -- Missiles fired by a U.S. drone killed three people in Pakistan early Thursday, Pakistani intelligence officials said, the first such attack since Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked U.S. President Barack Obama to end the campaign of drone strikes. The strike in northwest Pakistan also comes the week after human rights groups questioned the legality of the U.S. drone program in Pakistan and Yemen, documenting in detail some of the civilian casualties they say it has caused. The identity of the three people killed in the drone attack Thursday on a compound in the thinly governed tribal area of North Waziristan hasn't yet been confirmed but they are believed to be militants, said two Pakistani intelligence officials. Three other people were wounded in the strike near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, said the officials, who declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The Pakistani government "strongly condemns" the latest drone strike, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. North Waziristan is rife with militants and is the area where the United States conducts its most intensive drone campaign, against the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Sharif said last week that he brought up the issue of drone attacks with Obama when the two leaders met in Washington, "emphasizing the need for an end to such strikes." Ahead of that meeting, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released highly critical reports on the U.S. drone program. The groups said some of the attacks may have violated international law, a charge the White House denied. This week, members of a Pakistani family cited in the Amnesty report visited Washington to talk about a drone strike that killed a 68-year-old grandmother. The dead woman's son and grandchildren said that by telling their story to members of Congress, they hope it will influence lawmakers to curtail the number of drone strikes in Pakistan. The U.S. government has said strikes by the unmanned aircraft are a necessary and carefully scrutinized part of the fight against militant groups. "The administration has repeatedly emphasized the extraordinary care that we take to make sure that counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable law," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week. | The attack hits a compound in North Waziristan in northwest Pakistan, officials say .
It comes after the Pakistani prime minister met with President Obama last week .
The Pakistani government says it "strongly condemns" the latest strike .
Human rights groups have documented civilian casualties from drone strikes . |
211,601 | 9e066f9405b6d7f6e0a9b7ef32d69ffd77f35977 | (CNN) -- The battle over health care and whether to use the shortcut tactic known as reconciliation to push it through has thrust the Senate parliamentarian into the spotlight. Never heard of the Senate parliamentarian? You're not alone. It takes thousands of people like him to keep Capitol Hill -- and the U.S. government -- running. "It's sort of like a little city full of people here," Senate historian Donald Ritchie said. Here are some Capitol Hill jobs that those outside the Beltway may have never heard of: . Parliamentarians . The House and Senate each have their own Office of the Parliamentarian. The parliamentarian's job is to advise lawmakers on procedure and clarify the often arcane legislative lingo. The parliamentarian provides nonpartisan advice to help lawmakers understand the ins and outs of the legislative process. It's up to the Senate parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, to advise lawmakers on what can and cannot be passed via reconciliation, which requires a simple majority of 51 votes instead of 60 to advance legislation in the Senate. With reconciliation a likely step on the path to health care reform, expect to see Frumin in the headlines for a while. Keeper of the stationery . The keeper of stationery, like many positions on Capitol Hill, dates back to the early days of Congress. Back then, the secretary of the Senate was hired to buy papers and pens and ink for lawmakers, Ritchie said. Clerks were hired based on penmanship since everything was handwritten. The secretary of the Senate still has a stationery room, which is looked after by the keeper of stationery. Today, that room is more of an office supply shop, where lawmakers' staff can pick up computer paper and ink cartridges. The House and Senate each have similar stores, which are not open to the public. Cloakroom personnel . The cloakrooms are off the floor of the House and Senate chambers, and they are similar to what other offices call break rooms. Lawmakers might work on cutting deals in the cloakroom, or they might just kick back and watch television. Each party has its own cloakroom. Floor assistants and cloakroom attendants are among those who work in the rooms. Their duties include alerting lawmakers when votes are coming up, telling them whether the chamber will be open on a snow day and working with pages to deliver messages. Senate hair care staff . Hairstylists have worked on Capitol Hill since the 19th century, Ritchie said. Although haircuts were free for lawmakers when the shop first opened, that's not the case anymore. In addition to hairstylists, the Senate hair care staff also includes a shoe shiner and a manicurist. The barber shop and beauty parlor are open to the public. Reading clerk . The reading clerk, also known as the legislative clerk, reads the titles of bills. In the Senate, the clerk also calls the role when votes take place. The reading clerk is also the lucky person who has the task of reading aloud 1,000-plus-page bills when lawmakers request it. Gift shop workers . The Senate and House each have their own gift shops. There are also two gift shops at the Capitol Hill Visitor Center. These shops employ gift shop assistants, sales associates and shop directors. Architect of the Capitol . The Architect of the Capitol is responsible for the upkeep and the preservation of landmarks throughout Washington, including the Capitol, Visitor Center, Supreme Court, Library of Congress and U.S. Botanic Garden. The agency employs 2,500 workers. Sergeant-at-arms . The House and Senate each have a sergeant-at-arms, who handles security for lawmakers, their staff and visitors. The sergeants, along with the Architect of the Capitol, serve on the Capitol Police Board. The House sergeant-at-arms introduces the president at the State of the Union address. When the office of the House doorkeeper was abolished in 1995, the House sergeant-at-arms absorbed some of that position's duties, along with the clerk of the House and the chief administrative officer. Subway operators . There are multiple subways that run to the Capitol from lawmakers' office buildings. A driver operates the one from the Rayburn House Office Building. The Senate has three office buildings. Subways running from the Hart and Dirksen office buildings are mechanically operated. The original Russell Senate Office Building still has an operator on its subway, Ritchie said. The subways shuffle lawmakers from their offices to the House and Senate floor. Maintenance staff . "Anything you need to have an office going, we've got people doing it here," Ritchie said. From carpenters to book binders to upholsterers to picture framers to light bulb changers -- the maintenance workers try to counter the wear and tear of the millions of people who visit the Capitol. | Capitol Hill "like a little city full of people," Senate historian says .
Capitol has a barber shop and a beauty parlor .
Keeper of the stationery tends to office supplies .
Parliamentarians explain arcane legislative procedure to lawmakers . |
205,289 | 95c0db3db710627ba7bb03ad64f089ef3e54a643 | JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council failed to reach a consensus when it met to consider condemning an attack that killed eight people at a prominent Jewish seminary as an act of terrorism. Ambulance workers put one of the casualties from the seminary attack into an ambulance. The council said Libya -- a new, nonpermanent member -- blocked the statement on Thursday night. Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said the attack on the school was no different than Israeli military offensives against militants in Gaza. But Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said he saw no connection between Thursday's shooting and Israel's operations in Gaza. "This is not a story of retaliation," he said. "These people have been terrorizing Israel for years, have been carrying out suicide bombings and indiscriminate attacks for years." A gunman broke into the Jewish seminary about 8:30 p.m., spraying automatic-weapons fire, authorities said. Most of the victims were students in their teens and 20s, medical officials said. At least nine others were wounded before an off-duty Israel Defense Forces officer fatally shot the gunman, Jerusalem District Police commander Aharon Franko said. The gunman was carrying an AK-47 and a pistol -- and had time to swap weapons during the massacre. Police are trying to identify the gunman and figure out how he managed, while drawing little notice, to enter the large three-story school in a bustling residential neighborhood. "There was no alert or warning about this attack," Franko said. Watch the immediate aftermath of the attack » . A first responder said the bodies were on the floor of the study hall surrounded by holy books. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Video from Thursday's scene showed a frantic crowd of rescue workers carrying bloodied victims into ambulances. Dozens of police officers were scouring the campus and streets around the yeshiva in case there were other gunmen. Outside the school, scores of Israeli men gathered from surrounding neighborhoods, demanding justice for the attack. Authorities are calling the incident at west Jerusalem's Merkaz Harav yeshiva an act of terrorism. The school is one of the largest seminaries in Israel, with about 500 students in the yeshiva and 200 in an advanced graduate program. "Israel is at the forefront of the struggle against terrorism and will continue to defend its citizens, who are exposed to this threat on a daily basis," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. "Israel expects the nations of the world to support it in its war against those who murder students, women and children, by any means and with respect for neither place nor target." President Bush backed Israeli leaders in a statement issued Thursday, saying, "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Merkaz Harav yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation." But Libya's Dabbashi compared the attack with "bloodshed in the Palestinian territory." "For us, the human lives are the same. We judge the incident itself," Dabbashi told reporters after the Security Council meeting. "When we have to condemn the killing of the Israeli civilians, we also have to look at what's happening in Gaza." Jerusalem security increased . Security was bolstered, with thousands of additional officers across Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, authorities said. Meanwhile, celebratory shooting took place in Gaza City after the news of the attack, with hundreds chanting and clapping in the streets. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the killings. "The Palestinian Authority condemns any attack on innocent civilians," Abbas' office said in a written statement. The shootings came just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with both Israelis and Palestinians, announced that peace talks will resume between the two sides. Abbas suspended peace negotiations last week after fierce fighting broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, but he agreed to resume negotiations after meeting with Rice. Israel will continue peace talks with the Palestinians regardless of the attack in Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said Thursday. Israel conducted a large-scale operation in Gaza to hunt down Palestinian militants who have been firing dozens of rockets into Israel. At least 70 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed during the operation, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Militants also fired at least 25 rockets toward Israel, wounding at least two civilians. "This operation came directly after the attack committed inside Gaza. This operation is a normal response," said Fawzi Barhoom, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. Watch Barhoom's reaction to the attack » . Gillerman said the Security Council should condemn the attack. "They are so, so quick sometimes to criticize Israel for defending itself. I would like to see those members convene as we speak in order to condemn this in the strongest possible terms." Thursday's attack was the worst inside Israel since April 17, 2006, when a suicide bombing outside a falafel restaurant in Tel Aviv killed nine people. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack. Attacks in Jerusalem are rare. Eight people were wounded August 10 in the Old City when a Palestinian resident grabbed a security guard's gun and fired; and four Israeli security guards were wounded May 26 when two Palestinian gunmen began firing in east Jerusalem. All three of the assailants were killed. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Ben Wedeman and Atika Shubert contributed to this report. | Off-duty Israel Defense Forces officer fatally shot attacker .
Gunman went into Jewish seminary in Jerusalem with little apparent notice .
Police spokesman: "There was no alert or warning about this attack"
The violence comes a day after announcement of renewed peace talks . |
260,002 | dcaa968ffc65d3ada44b74b120f295af827aa550 | By . Helen Lawson . PUBLISHED: . 00:07 EST, 3 April 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 02:47 EST, 3 April 2013 . The NHS should remove more tonsils to avoid repeated cases of severely sore throats, according to British doctors. About 200,000 children a year had the surgery in the 1950s but it is now considered old-fashioned and expensive, with only 29,000 carried out in 2010/11. But a Finnish study of patients with recurring sore throats found that only four per cent of those who had their tonsils taken out visited their doctor with another sore throat five months after the procedure, compared with 43 per cent of those who had not had it done. The NHS should carry out more tonsillectomies, say British doctors after a Finnish study showed the surgery reduced cases of sore throats . Consultant surgeon Andrew McCombe, spokesman for ENT UK, the British association of ear, nose and throat specialists, told the Daily Telegraph that the NHS should return to carrying out tonsillectomies instead of cost-cutting by claiming the surgery is ineffective. He said: 'They are trying to pretend that this is about quality of care, saying there is no evidence of [tonsillectomy's] value and calling it a "procedure of limited effectiveness". That is a lie and it is a disingenuous use of information.' The study at the University of Oulu in Finland looked at 86 patients with recurring pharyngitis over a five-month period. The patients were randomly sorted into a group of 40 awaiting a tonsillectomy and 46 who had the procedure. Only two (four per cent) of those who had their tonsils out needed to go to the doctor with another severe bout of pharyngitis during the following five months, compared with 17 (43 per cent) out of the 40 who did not have the surgery. In the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the academics reported: 'These reductions resulted in fewer medical visits and fewer absences from school or work. Patients who underwent surgery also felt that their quality of life improved.' The tonsils are lymphoid tissue and produce antibodies and white blood cells to fight off infections . Last year, Mr McCombe told the Mail: 'There’s been a 40 per cent increase in emergency admissions directly related to tonsillitis over the past ten years. 'It is a good, effective operation that does what it says on the tin: if you have the operation, you won’t get tonsillitis again.’ The tonsils are lymphoid tissue and produce antibodies and white blood cells to fight off infections before young children develop other ways to fight germs. They are prone to inflammation, or tonsillitis, because of infections caused by viruses such as colds and flu. In a third of cases, it is caused by bacterial infection. 'Tonsillectomy is a good operation and this is a study that shows its value and worth, and perhaps suggests we ought to be doing more of these operations,' Mr McCombe told the Telegraph. | Finnish study finds tonsillectomies reduce pharyngitis .
About 200,000 children a year had tonsils out in 1950s .
Now figure has dropped to 29,000 procedures a year . |
247,372 | cc1d81ac17748856889bdd1cff54ea8025736d27 | Fancy a trip to an island swarming with 4,000 of the world’s deadliest snakes that pluck birds out of the sky and kill them with a venom that can melt human flesh? That’s what awaits you if you travel to Ilha de Queimada Grande 20 miles (32 km) off the coast of Sao Paolo, Brazil, which is home to the golden lancehead viper. In fact, the island is deemed so dangerous that visiting it was been banned by the Brazilian government - although not before numerous people foolishly ventured there in the past. Pictured is Ilha da Queimada Grande, an island 20 miles (32 kilometres) off the coast of Sao Paolo in Brazil. Visitors to the island are prohibited by the Brazilian government owing to the several thousand resident deadly snakes known as golden lancehead vipers, which have venom that is potent enough to melt human flesh . Ilha de Queimada Grande, understandably nicknamed ‘Snake Island’, is a piece of land 4.6 million square feet (430,000 square metres) in size. Ilha de Queimada Granda is the only place in the world where Bothrops insularis, also known as the golden lancehead viper, can be found. It is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. The species has a light yellowish brown colour on its underside. It grows to an average length of 28 inches (70 centimetres) but can reach a maximum of 46 inches (118 centimetres). The ‘lanchehead’ in its name refers to its pointed head, distinctive of snakes in the genus Bothrops. Lancehead snakes in general are responsible for the most human deaths in North and South America. This particular snake has a mortality rate of 7 per cent without treatment, and up to 3 percent still even with treatment. Its venom can eat flesh and tissue, making prey easier to swallow, while a neurotoxin kills the prey. Its diet consists mostly of birds, although it has been reported to eat lizards and even cannibalise on other snakes. It’s the only place on Earth where Bothrops insularis, also known as the golden lancehead viper, is known to inhabit. That’s probably a good thing, though, as the reptile is regarded as the world's most venomous viper. The island is devoid of almost any human visitors, save for a few scientists granted permission to study the snakes each year, reports the Smithsonian. It is also visited on occasion by the Brazilian navy, who tend to the autonomous lighthouse that was built back in 1909 before scampering clear. And it’s also thought that poachers have been known to visit the island and claim a golden lancehead viper for their own, with their price fetching as high as £17,500 ($30,000) on the black market. The reason the viper has become so deadly is somewhat of a mystery, though. After all, they are not too dissimilar to their brethren on the mainland. The predominant theory is that 11,000 years ago sea levels rose and separated the island from Brazil, which left the snakes on the island with limited sources of food save for migrating birds. The golden lancehead viper (Bothrops insularis), pictured, is only found on this one island. Here University of Sao Paulo researcher Marcio Martins holds one snake while watching another. The snakes have been known to kill humans in the past, including a hapless fisherman who stumbled across the island . Ilha de Queimada Grande, understandably nicknamed 'Snake Island', is a piece of land 4.6 million square feet (430,000 square metres) in size found 20 miles (32 kilometres) off the coast of Sao Paolo, Brazil . The problem was, though, that most venoms take a while to act - sometimes as much as a few days. By the time the snake’s venom killed the birds they would have moved elsewhere, so instead the snakes evolved an incredibly strong venom that can kill prey almost instantly. It is five times more potent than other snakes and can even melt human flesh. In humans, the bite from a golden lancehead viper carried a seven per cent chance of death. And before the island was deemed off-limits there were several stories of people succumbing to the deadly predators. One story tells of a fisherman who lost power in the engines of his boat. After drifting to the island he ventured inland, unaware of the terrors that lay in wait. When his boat was eventually discovered, he was found dead in a pool of blood covered in snake bites. Another story is of the last lighthouse keeper to inhabit the island with his family. Rumour has it they ran in terror when snakes crawled in through their windows; their bodies were later found scattered across the island. The island is believed to have become separated from the Brazilian mainland 11,000 years ago when sea levels rose, which forced the native snakes to evolve their potent venom in order to catch airborne prey. The island is devoid of almost any human visitors, save for a few scientists, poachers and the navy on occasion . The name of the island itself tells of its troubled history. Ilha de Queimada Grande roughly translates as ‘the island of the slash-and-burn fire’, so-called because of a failed attempt to develop a banana plantation on it. However, in the last 15 years the population of snakes on the island as reduced by as much as 15 per cent, due to a combination of vegetation removal and disease. And on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List the snakes are currently listed as critically endangered. With thousands of snakes remaining, however, it’s probably still not the ideal holiday destination. | An island off the coast of Sao Paolo is home to the golden lancehead viper .
It is the only place the so-called 'world's deadliest snake' is known to live .
Their venom is potent enough to kill people and melt human flesh .
Access to Ilha de Queimada Grande is banned by the Brazilian government .
In the past humans have been killed by its deadly inhabitants . |
132,101 | 36d79b97ecf998d36264c8e85fd6ed1046260c13 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 14:22 EST, 24 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:27 EST, 24 September 2013 . A man was found dead in the parking lot of Grand Valley State University, Michigan, just hours after he had used a computer at the campus to research symptoms of a heart attack. The body of Phu Quoc Thieu Tran, 39, was found in a car by a security guard at the DeVos Parking Lot on Monday morning. An autopsy performed later that day determined that the cause of Tran’s death was determined to be arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The body of Phu Quoc Thieu Tran, 39, was found in a car by a security guard at the DeVos Parking Lot on Monday morning . ‘It appears that he had been using the university’s computer lab and was researching health issues,’ Lt. Patrick Merrill told WWJ. Tran was a student at Grand Rapids Community College, and had been at the GVSU computer lab on Sunday night. When police checked the computer he had used, they discovered he was researching symptoms common in a heart attack - tightness of the chest and sweating - on the webmd.com website. They said it appears he then got back into his car, in which he had been living, reclined in the front seat and covered himself with a blanket, reports WoodTV.com. ‘Maybe he thought he would just lay down for a minute and feel a little better, but unfortunately he passed away,’ Merrill said. Tran, a student at Grand Rapids Community College, had been at the GVSU computer lab on Sunday night to research his symptoms . Tran had used the webmd.com website to researching symptoms common in a heart attack - pain and tightness of the chest and sweating . | The body of Phu Quoc Thieu Tran was found in a car parked at GVSU on Monday morning .
On Sunday night he had used a campus computer to search symptoms including tightness of the chest and sweating .
An autopsy determined that he had died from cardiovascular disease . |
283,400 | fb19aebffe2a0ed9694e042e270c57fd61ca2a4e | QPR boss Harry Redknapp admitted his side were "hanging on for their lives" before Bobby Zamora scored the goal which took them back to the Barclays Premier League in injury time. Zamora struck in stoppage time to claim a 1-0 win over Derby at Wembley as Rangers secured their place back in the top flight at the first time of asking after they survived a tough second half following the 60th minute sending off of Gary O'Neil. VIDEO Scroll down to watch Watch QPR players celebrating Premier League promotion . Winning smile: QPR boss Harry Redknapp admits they were lucky to win the the Championship play-off final . Matchwinning moment: Bobby Zamora (right) scored the 90th minute winner to see QPR win 1-0 at Wembley . 'It was a fantastic finish,' Redknapp . said of Zamora's strike, 'We were maybe trying to take the game to . penalties with a draw and were hanging on for our lives. 'It was a fantastic goal to win the game and I couldn't be more pleased. 'I would be a liar if I said I thought I would see us scoring. They had 11 men, were probing us and we were hanging on. Remeber the name: Zamora celebrates in front of the QPR supporters after scoring their winner . Team spirit: QPR players and staff celebrate Zamora's goal against Derby in the Championship play-off final . 'That was a one off where you stand on the touchline, hanging on for grim death and get a goal like that. 'I want to do it for the people here (at Wembley), the owners and the players. They are fantastic people.' Redknapp felt that the dismissal of O'Neil was harsh, not that it mattered too much after the final whistle. 'I thought he wasn't the last man, I thought there was another defender behind him,' the Rs boss added. Pure joy: Zamora celebrates after the final whistle as QPR seal promotion back to the Premier League . 'I . thought he would get a yellow but that's life. I thought we were bang . in trouble but we showed great character and it was amazing.' Defender Richard Dunne added: 'It's amazing. It's been such a long hard season. 'We know how good we can be when we worked and we've worked really hard. Star performer: Richard Dunne (top) won man-of-the-match during QPR's smash-and-grab 1-0 victory . Distraught: Derby boss Steve McClaren (centre) consoles captain Richard Keogh after their play-off defeat . 'When the time came Bobby was there to finish it. 'It's what we've been aiming for all year and we got there through the play-offs.' | Harry Redknapp admits his side were 'hanging on' in the Championship play-off final win against Derby .
Bobby Zamora scored a 90th minute winner to give QPR a 1-0 victory .
Gary O'Neil was sent off in the 60th minute for QPR . |
282,697 | fa2683f66fc62aed99af308d929085651f1fc073 | They were mocked as 'jackasses' for revealing how they had been 'exiled' from the United States - to Italy's most exclusive resort. Now the Chilean-born New York socialites refused re-entry to the US, after being accused of 'enslaving' their Chilean nanny, have broken their silence to Dailymail.com - to say that it is 'heart-breaking' spending Christmas in Portofino. Malu Custer Edwards and her husband Micky Hurley were formally cleared of trafficking their child-minder to the US and forcing her to work in slave-like conditions. But during a family sailing holiday around the Mediterranean, their visas were rescinded- and the family have been stuck in Portofino on the Italian Riviera ever since. Now as they face Christmas away from their Upper East Side home and an ongoing legal tussle, mother-of-four Malu has told Mail Online of her despair after being denied entry to the country where she grew up. Stranded: Socialites Malu Custer Edwards, 29, left, and Micky Hurley, 35, right, are not allowed to return to New York from Italy despite being cleared of abusing their nanny . 'Distress': The couple and their four children are stuck in Portofino, north Italy . The 30-year-old said it was 'heart-breaking' for the couple to tell the children they weren't going to get home for the holidays. She said: 'My eldest son asked for no presents for Christmas. Instead he made a card saying all he wanted for Christmas was to go back to New York, as a family.' The couple's elder children Rex, Malu and Olympia, have now missed the first semester of the school year and the Hurleys have been forced to enroll them in an Italian school 'to distract them' and 'give them some normality in their lives'. Malu, who was born in Chile into a prominent family, grew up in New York until, at the age of 19, she fell pregnant with Rex and moved with Micky to her native country. But after she gained a place at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in 2011 the family relocated to the Manhattan's Upper East Side. Micky and the three elder children had permission to live there because of Malu's student visa while their youngest was born in the States and is a US citizen. The family were accompanied by a nanny, Felicitas del Carmen Villanueva Garcia, whom they had hired through an agency in Chile. But with three months she had left. Two years later she accused the couple of taking her passport, locking her in their apartment, not giving her enough food while they dined out at Manhattan's trendiest restaurants and allowing their children to beat her. The Hurleys denied the charges but were ordered to pay around $6,000 in backpay. In the surrounding publicity a series of unpleasant emails between Micky and a photographer who had worked with him emerged, creating the impression of an over-privileged snob. In one email Micky allegedly tormented his former collaborator with the fact that he was the great-grandson of a seamstress. 'If you were reborn a million times your grandmother would never be a Baroness like mine.' Hurley claims his grandmother was born an aristocrat in Ireland, although his exact lineage is unclear. 'Abuse': Custer Edwards claims the pair have been receiving hate mail in the wake of the dismissed lawsuit . But Malu insists their home life in New York was 'very simple' and says she and her husband divided the chores and had no any help around the house after the nanny left. This summer as the case dragged on and with the stress of proving their innocence weighing on them the couple accepted an invitation to stay on a friend's boat sailing along the French and Italian coast. Since Malu hadn't left the US for two years, their visas had expired, but she believed renewing them was a formality and she claims she had all the paper work in order. The lawsuit was not yet resolved but as it was a civil suit it shouldn't have had any bearing on the decision, Malu says. But when she went to pick up the passports the first thing they did was stamp them with denials as she looked on in horror. On a peninsula in the Ligurian Sea, Portofino is Italy's most exclusive and glamorous resort. It is where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton romanced in the 1961 as she took a break from filming Cleopatra, and its main hotel, the Splendido, offers stunning views, lavish fine dining and the chance to bump into A-list guests. The resort itself has hosted everyone from Winston Churchill to Rihanna, drawn by its scenery and climate. Christmas is low season but it compares favorably to New York for climate. Today it is mostly sunny and 50F - compared to a rainy Manhattan where the temperature is 39F . The officials would not explain the problem but gave her a code that corresponded to the stated reason for refusal. It was only afterwards that she discovered the visa was refused on grounds of the 'human trafficking' claims made against her by the nanny. She remembered: 'I was in a complete state of shock. I lived in the US from the age of one until I was 19. Never could I have imagined that this would happen. 'It was horrible. I felt like I had been judged without having been found guilty.' She said it 'broke her heart' to tell the family. 'One more way the lawsuit ruined our lives.' Things went from bad to worse. Within 24 hours of the decision her husband was hospitalized and operated on for a collapsed lung. Malu describes this time as 'the most difficult experience of our lives'. But after two weeks Micky was allowed to go 'home', which was by then, a friend's house, a former chapel near Portofino. And on December 9 they were officially cleared of all charges brought by the nanny. 'We cried tears of joy and relief' she said. However it will be impossible to forget the 'suffering we went through because of all the lies,' she said. But the ramifications of the lawsuit that 'ruined our lives' are still with them as they have not so far been granted permission for a reconsideration of their immigration ban. 'All those false allegations were deemed baseless and thrown out of court...it was all a lie, but the repercussions of this lawsuit seem endless,' she said. With Christmas here it is particularly tough. 'The children miss their friends, their toys, belongings.' The Hurleys will be having a 'simple' family Christmas she said. 'We will give the children their gifts, we will go to mass in family. We will continue to pray that this wrong be righted. Friends and family cannot believe the injustice, she said. 'It makes no sense to anyone looking from the outside in. Well, it doesn't make sense to us either and we are living it.' 'We want to leave all this nightmare behind us, and get back to NY, where we have a right to be, adding, 'Our bags are packed. We are ready to go.' | Micky Hurley, 37, and Malu Custer Edwards, 30, were accused of abusing Chilean nanny and locking her in their Upper East Side apartment .
A judge dismissed the lawsuit on December 9 .
But the Chileans are not allowed to return from holiday in Italy .
Border officials cited the case as reason for blocking them and 3 children .
The family is stranded in Portofino, where they had planned to stay three weeks in August .
Today they told Dailymail.com they were 'heartbroken' and their eldest son says he doesn't want presents for Christmas, just to go back to New York .
Portofino is largely sunny and 50F today - Manhattan is rainy and 39F . |
185,139 | 7bd614ebfe8a0617fc1f6d9442edf1835a4c5ea8 | By . Michael Seamark . PUBLISHED: . 08:47 EST, 5 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:07 EST, 9 August 2013 . Rear Admiral Sandy Woodward, seen here in London shortly after the end of Falklands War, has died at 81 . Sir John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, who led the Royal Navy task force sent to retake the Falklands in 1982, has died, aged 81, following a long illness. David Cameron hailed his ‘heroic command’ and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he would be remembered by many as the Navy’s ‘fighting admiral’. When Argentina invaded the Falklands, Sir John was a newly-appointed admiral and acted as commander of the battle fleet from the flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes. Ten weeks after the task force left Britain for the South Atlantic, the islands’ capital, Port Stanley, was liberated. During the conflict, an estimated 600 Argentines were killed along with 255 UK servicemen and three Falklands civilians. Admiral Woodward was born in Penzance, Cornwall, and joined the Navy as a schoolboy at the age of 13, attending the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. During the Falklands conflict he gave the controversial order to sink the Argentine cruiser, General Belgrano, killing 323. He went on to write a bestselling account of the war, called One Hundred Days. The admiral later served as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff and before retiring went on to be the Flag aide-de camp to the Queen. Sukey Cameron, the Falkland Islands’ government representative in the UK, tweeted: ‘Sad to learn of the death of Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward; remembering with gratitude the important part he played in Falklands Liberation.’ Two years ago Admiral Woodward told the Daily Mail he feared the islands were ‘now perilously close to being indefensible.’ A strong opponent of cuts to the Navy, he said: ‘The simple truth is without aircraft carriers and without the Americans, we would not have any hope of doing the same again today.’ In written evidence to the Commons defence committee three months ago, he warned Britain would be unable to defend itself if cuts to the Navy continued to be made. David Cameron said: 'I am saddened to hear that Admiral Sir John 'Sandy' Woodward has . passed away -the Admiral was a truly courageous and decisive leader, . proven by his heroic command of the Royal Navy Task Force during the . Falklands conflict. Woodward, who rose to become Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, later served as Aide-de-Camp to the Queen . Admiral Sir John 'Sandy' Woodward, seen in 2000 escorting the Queen at the opening of the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel at Pangbourne College, Berkshire . 'We are indebted to him for his many years of . service and the vital role he played to ensure that the people of the . Falkland Islands can still today live in peace and freedom. 'My thoughts . and prayers are with Admiral Woodward's family and friends at this . difficult time.' Defence . Secretary Philip Hammond commended Admiral Woodward on his 'magnificent . achievement' and said he would be remembered by many as the Navy’s . 'fighting admiral'. Mr . Hammond said: 'I am saddened by the news that Admiral Sir John ‘Sandy’ Woodward, has died and my thoughts are with his family at this difficult . time. 'Admiral Woodward . served his country with distinction throughout his career, but will be . best remembered by many as the Navy’s Fighting Admiral after he led the . Royal Navy Task Force, sent by Margaret Thatcher, to re-take the . Falkland Islands in 1982. 'Following . this magnificent achievement he served as the Deputy Chief of the . Defence Staff and went on before retirement to be the Flag Aide-de Camp . to the Queen.' First Sea Lord Admiral Sir George Zambellas said Admiral Woodward was highly regarded and widely respected in the military. He said: 'Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward will always be remembered for his powerful and clear command of the Royal Navy Task Force that retook the Falkland Islands in 1982. 'Undaunted by the challenge of fighting a capable enemy over 8,000 miles from the UK, in the most demanding and extreme of weather conditions, and against uncertain odds, Admiral Woodward’s inspirational leadership and tactical acumen, meshing the realities of the higher political command at home with the raw and violent fight at sea, was a major factor in shaping the success of the British forces in the South Atlantic. After playing such a crucial role in the Falklands, Woodward was Flag Officer Submarines and NATO Commander Submarines Eastern Atlantic before becoming Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Commitments). The Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sank in the South Atlantic after being torpedoed by the Royal Navy . 'Highly regarded and widely respected within the military, he will be sorely missed and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.' Woodward was born in Penzance, Cornwall, on May 1 1932, according to the Who’s Who annual. He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, joined the navy at the age of 13, and rose through the ranks to command submarines - in 1969 he was given his first submarine to command, the hunter-killer Warspite. He went on to write a memoir of his time as the Falklands task force commander titled One Hundred Days. Admiral Woodward married Charlotte McMurtrie, with whom he had a son and a daughter, in 1960. They later separated. He leaves behind his longtime companion, Winifred Hoult, with whom he lived in Bosham, Sussex. When Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on April 2, 1982, Woodward, then aged 49, was given command of the task force that was to transport British troops south to the islands. Then Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher gave him permission to sink any Argentinian warship outside its national waters - a command that was to prove decisive in the British victory over the agressors. Woodward was in command of two aircraft carriers, Invincible and Hermes, and some 50 other warships as well as support vessels. The task force also had, beneath the waves and in secret, a complement of nuclear-powered submarines. Woodward gave the order to the Commander of HMS Conqueror, pictured, to sink the Belgrano . During the journey south, Woodward visited as many of the British ships as he could, telling the officers that the best way of their getting back to Britain alive was to 'do your absolute utmost. So go and do it.' On the same trip, he told a BBC reporter: 'I am not in favour of blowing peoples head off. 'However as a loyal servant of the government, if I have to blow peoples heads off, I’ll do it in the most efficient and effective way I know.' In late April British land forces recaptured South Georgia, and five days later Woodward's ships were near enough to launch a bombardment. By May 1, Woodward realised that his ships were threatened by a 'pincer movement', with Argentinian aircraft carrier Veinticino de Mayo to the north, and the Belgrano and two destroyers carrying deadly Exocet missiles to the south-west. The sinking of the Beglrano gave a boost to the British war effort - and produced some memorable headlines . Woodward wanted to attack the aircraft carrier but the British submarines shadowing her had lost contact, so he turned instead to the Belgrano, saying 'I had to take one claw out of the pincer'. He ordered the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror, commanded by Christopher Wreford-Brown, to attack, and the Belgrano was torpedoed on May 2 in what would turn out to be one of the most decisive moments of the war. An estimated 323 men died in the attack, which prompted the infamous newspaper headline 'Gotcha', and while 770 survived by jumping onto liferafts, the attack utterly demoralised the Argentinian forces - as well as hardening the country's resolve. Two days later HMS Sheffield was hit by an air missile, illustrating how vulnerable the British fleet was, and there were further attacks on the Sir Galahad and the Sir Tristram. But by 14 June the Argentinians had surrendered, after fierce battles in which the navy played a crucial role, and Woodward was appointed KCB later that year. | The commander of the naval force that retook the Falklands died yesterday .
Sir John 'Sandy' Woodward, who had two children, had had a long illness .
PM David Cameron hailed him as a 'truly courageous and decisive leader'
Woodward gave the order to sink Argentine cruiser the Belgrano in 1982 .
He became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff and Aide-de-Camp to Queen . |
5,977 | 10f5717340f67db4f28cad3698b73746a1bb6c19 | By . Jill Reilly . PUBLISHED: . 06:05 EST, 1 May 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 07:07 EST, 1 May 2012 . A tearful uncle has spoken about the moment he discovered the bodies of his two young nephews who had been stabbed to death by their mother. Leighton Dennis walked in on the grisly scene at the Manchester home of Romario Mullings-Sewell, two, and three-month-old Delayno Mullings-Sewell. Mr Dennis said he ‘knew something had happened’ as soon as he stepped into the house belonging to his sister Jael Mullings. Tragic: Leighton Dennis walked in on the grisly scene at the Manchester home of Romario Mullings-Sewell, left, two, and his brother three-month-old Delayno . Mullings was sectioned indefinitely after killing Romario and Delayno on November 12, 2008. She denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Mr Dennis and his mother Andrea found the youngsters’ bodies at their home in Kilmington Drive, Cheetham Hill. They had became increasingly worried after Mullings, then 21, arrived at her auntie’s house without her two sons. She said that she was 'the devil’ and her sons were ‘at peace’, the inquest at Manchester Crown Court heard. Grim task: A forensic team enter the house in Kilmington Drive, Cheetham Hill, where the brothers were found dead . Horrifying: Mr Dennis and his mother took a taxi to Kilmington Drive and found the door unlocked - they shouted out Romario’s name but they did not get an answer, so made their way upstairs and made found the two bodies . Mr Dennis and his mother took a taxi to Kilmington Drive and found the door unlocked. Mr Dennis said the house was ‘a bit messy’ and added: 'It didn’t seem normal at all. There’s a sort of organised chaos with kids around and it’s never completely tidy. But it seemed as if something had happened.” Mr Dennis and his mum shouted out Romario’s name but they did not get an answer, so made their way upstairs. Leading Mr Dennis through his evidence, Manchester coroner Nigel Meadows said: 'Very sadly when you came into Jael’s room you saw the two children.' Troubled: Jael Mullings said that she was 'the devil' and her sons were 'at peace', the inquest at Manchester Crown Court heard . 'Yes,' replied Mr Dennis. Mr Meadows said: 'Essentially it was obvious to you that they had been injured and in simple terms there was understandable panic and there was a need to phone an ambulance. I think the children were lying on the bed?' 'Yes they were,' said Mr Dennis, who was then overcome with grief and bent over in tears. The inquest earlier heard how Mr Dennis was close to his sister and visited her once or twice a week. He told how Mullings developed an interest in religion and the search for truth. Mr Dennis said: 'As she was growing up she expressed strong spiritual beliefs. 'She wasn’t an avid churchgoer. She wanted to seek the truth. That was the sort of mission her and my mum were on at that time. (Jael) would read the bible and scriptures.' Mullings, who is now in a secure hospital unit, told her family after killing the boys that she was ‘a child of Israel’ and ‘the devil’ and had the power to give life and take it away. The inquest continues. | Mr Dennis said he ‘knew something had happened’ as soon as he stepped into the house .
Jael Mullings, told her family after killing the boys that she was ‘a child of Israel’ and ‘the devil’ |
34,458 | 61ec7fd0244df5cbaf6900d61e0c6fb857b350b1 | Los Angeles (CNN) -- Peter Robbins was a child when he provided the iconic voice for Charlie Brown, still heard every year when the classic 1960s television movies are rebroadcast. Today, Robbins is in the San Diego County jail, inmate No. 13704837, charged with 12 felony counts of making criminal threats and stalking, authorities said. Robbins, 56, of Oceanside, California, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charges in San Diego County Superior Court, said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. Robbins is facing up to nine years in state prison for stalking his ex-girlfriend and making criminal threats against a La Jolla plastic surgeon, the prosecutor said. San Diego Superior Court Judge David Szumowski set Robbins' bail at $550,000, and he was ordered to have no contact with the two people involved in the case and not to possess a gun, Dumanis said. A readiness hearing for Robbins has been set for February 22 and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for March 22. When heroes disappoint our kids . Border Patrol agents arrested Robbins late Sunday as he entered the United States from Mexico at the San Ysidro, California, port of entry, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman. A computer check of his passport revealed that Robbins, who was driving into the country alone in a 2006 Mercedes, was wanted in San Diego on a felony warrant, Customs spokesman Ralph DeSio said. Robbins acknowledged to police that he is the same Peter Robbins who was the child actor, San Diego Police spokesman Gary Hassen said. The four counts of threatening death and one stalking charge involve four victims, including a San Diego Police sergeant. Robbins allegedly threatened the officer with bodily harm during a January 13 incident, Hassen said. Police in Oceanside and Carlsbad, California, are also investigating incidents there, Hassan said. CNN was unable to contact Robbins or a representative for comment. Robbins was 9 in 1965 when he was cast as Charlie Brown in the animated "A Boy Named Charlie Brown." "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was produced later that year, using Robbins as the lead voice. Other TV movies using Robbins' voice include "Charlie Brown's All Stars!" "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," "You're in Love, Charlie Brown" and "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown." His last role as Charlie Brown -- "It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown" -- was produced when Robbins was 13. He told an interviewer in 2008 that he was replaced when his voice changed too much after he turned 14. Robbins' on-camera acting career included featured roles in episodes of TV's "Rawhide," "The Munsters," "F Troop" and "Get Smart." Robbins' last acting role was in a 1972 episode of "My Three Sons," according to the Internet Movie Database. He grew up to become a California real estate agent, living in Oceanside with his dog, Snoopy, his official biography said. CNN's Michael Martinez and Carolyn Sung contributed to this report. | NEW: Peter Robbins, 56, is charged with 12 felony counts of making threats and stalking .
NEW: He is ordered to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and a La Jolla plastic surgeon .
Border Patrol agents arrested Peter Robbins late Sunday as he entered the U.S. from Mexico .
Robbins was 9 in 1965 when he voiced Charlie Brown in the animated TV movies . |
69,663 | c57b59563c8200773261416c3485ea435bc17b0e | A police chief shot his daughter after mistaking her for an intruder as she attempted to sneak back in the house and then crashed his car while taking her to hospital. Easton McDonald, a deputy in Loudon County, Virginia is thought to have been getting ready for work early on Tuesday morning when he fired at the 16-year-old in the garage. The teenager, who has not been named, is said to have suffered a bullet wound to her torso and remains in hospital at Winchester Medical Center where she is recovering. Easton McDonald, who allegedly shot his daughter after mistaking her for an intruder as she attempted to sneak back in the house . According to the Winchester Star, McDonald heard an intruder alarm going off which showed that his garage door had been opened. It is claimed he grabbed a gun when he heard other sounds and then approached the garage. He allegedly fired a shot when he saw a person coming towards him but when he turned on a light, he realised it was his daughter. It is thought that the girl was trying to sneak back into the house without getting caught after leaving earlier that morning. McDonald then attempted to drive his daughter to hospital for medical treatment but on the way there he crashed his car. The teenager is recovering after suffering from a bullet wound to the torso at Winchester Medical Center in Virginia . Winchester Fire and Rescue service then had to transport the girl the rest of the way there. Captain Donnie Lang from Frederick County Sheriff's Office told Your4state.com: 'When he went to go investigate what had set off the alarm, he heard some banging and rustling around in the garage. At that particular point, he obtained a firearm that he had there in the kitchen area. 'Later on, it was determined that the daughter had snuck out hours earlier that morning, and was attempting to sneak back into the home. 'We will confer with the Commonwealth’s Attorney's office to reference all the facts, and once it is completed, determine how they want us to go further.' | Easton McDonald heard noises in garage so took a gun to go investigate .
Saw a person coming towards him so allegedly fired the weapon .
Turned on the light and realised it was his 16-year-old daughter .
Tried to rush her to hospital but crashed his car on the way there .
Girl is now recovering after suffering from a bullet wound to the torso . |
71,372 | ca481cef00ac7c003f6367530fb5f7016db70de3 | School absenteeism has plummeted to a record low following a crackdown on term-time family holidays. New official figures show that in total, England’s primary and secondary pupils missed 35.7 million days of school in the autumn and spring terms of 2013/14 - down around 4.2 million from the same two terms the year before. The overall authorised absence rate - time off approved by schools - alone has dropped from 4.3per cent to 3.5per cent, with statisticians suggesting that this is due to a decrease in illness and agreed family holidays. Full classroom: Figures show that England’s primary and secondary pupils missed 35.7 million days of school in the autumn and spring terms of 2013/14 - down around 4.2 million from the same two terms the year before . In total, 2.5 million school days were lost because of family holidays, both those authorised by the school and unauthorised, down 0.8 million from 3.3 million the year before. Government officials suggested that this drop was down to former Education Secretary Michael Gove's tough new rules on holidays which mean that headteachers can now only grant permission for trips during term time in 'exceptional circumstances'. Previously, school leaders could grant up to 10 days leave a year for family holidays in special circumstances. Rules: School Reform Minister Nick Gibb (left) suggested the drop was down to Michael Gove's (right) new rules which mean headteachers can only grant permission for term time trips in 'exceptional circumstances' The change, which was brought in last September, has proved controversial, with opponents arguing that some families are unable to, or cannot afford to take breaks during school holidays. And the figures note a 'small increase' in family holidays that have not been approved by the school, suggesting that some parents are deciding to take family trips despite not gaining the school’s approval. The latest data also shows a fall in time missed due to illness, the most common reason for absence, with 2.7per cent of half days lost for this reason in the autumn and spring terms, down from 3.3per cent the year before. School Reform Minister Nick Gibb said: 'Our plan for education is getting more young people than ever before back in class, helping thousands more to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. 'Missing lessons can be hugely damaging to a pupil’s education - but today’s figures show more pupils than ever before are getting the best preparation for life in modern Britain.' The truancy, or unauthorised absence rate has also fallen slightly to 0.9per cent from 1per cent, the statistics reveal. And fewer youngsters are being classed as 'persistently absent'. Around 262,255 pupils missed 15per cent of lessons in the autumn and spring terms of 2013/14 - down from 439,105 who were in this category five years ago. A pupil who misses at least 15per cent of school time throughout their school career loses out on around 18 months of lesson time, the Department for Education said, damaging their chances of fulfilling their potential. Parents are legally responsible for ensuring children aged five to 16 attend school regularly, unless they are home educated. Headteachers, social workers or police can issue parents with penalty notices of up to £120 if a child regularly misses school, and their parents have not taken action or asked for help. If this is not paid a prosecution will follow, which can lead to a fine of up to £2,500, a community sentence, or even a three-month jail term. Changes: Former Education Secretary Michael Gove's reforms on school holidays in term time were brought in last September, and truancy fines have also risen . Council officials say that, aside from their education suffering, children who are often absent find it harder to sustain friendships, and are more likely to get involved with crime. The Government has insisted that its reforms to deal with school absence are starting to have an effect. Under the changes, truancy fines have risen from £50 to £60, and from £100 to £120 if they are not paid within 28 days. Guidance on school holidays has also changed, with headteachers now only granting permission for term time trips in 'exceptional circumstances'. | Pupils missed 35.7m school days in 2013/14 autumn and spring terms .
Figure for England down 4.2m from the same two terms the year before .
Time off approved by schools drops from 4.3% to 3.5% .
Officials say this is down to Michael Gove's new rules on holidays .
Teachers can only allow term time trips in 'exceptional circumstances'
Pupils are also missing fewer days to illness and truancy . |
213,170 | a010b0b624bca49cd86253a726c3a2c85d18be82 | (CNN) -- The California runner who was lost in a forest for three days without water had barely a few hours to go before she would have died, her doctor said Thursday. Runner Maria "Gina" Natero-Armenta, 36, survived for three days without water in a California forest. Maria "Gina" Natero-Armento, 36, not only survived 72 hours with only a slice of apple in her stomach and a little bit of water for nourishment, she also has only one functioning kidney, Dr. Derrick Hong said. He spoke with CNN on Thursday afternoon, along with Natero-Armento and her husband, Armando Armento, in a conference call interview from her room at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. Natero-Armento is no amateur when it comes to distance or mountain running. She's one of the top female finishers in a San Diego 100-mile race and an experienced ultrarunner with top times in other 100-mile and 50-mile races. Her body was unusually strong to begin with, but she also has one kidney -- the other doesn't function because of a congenital disorder. "This is extraordinary," Hung said. She said she had planned a simple eight-mile run, a small fraction of what the ultrarunner usually tackles in a sport that challenges competitors to run at least farther than a 26.2-mile marathon. She is among the majority of ultrarunners who like doing 100-mile races. She set out from her Oceanside home at 5:30 a.m. Sunday to meet Fidel Diaz, her running partner and brother-in-law, who is also a serious ultrarunner. They planned to run along a trail in the the Cleveland National Forest near San Diego. She brought along two water bottles and wore a Camelpak, a backpack that can be filled with water. That was plenty of water for an eight-mile outing. She didn't bring food with her, but Natero-Armento said she ate a piece of apple before she started, and that was the only food in her stomach. Natero-Armento said she did several things that were out of character that day, and she wishes she had been more prepared. "I am very careful usually, but that particular day, I was not," she said. "I normally, the night before the long runs, I have everything ready. And this night, I had nothing ready, and it was just a mistake." She usually wears a Garmin GPS watch, a sophisticated device that runners use to find out where they are, the distance they have traveled, calories burned and altitude. "I didn't have my Garmin and wasn't wearing a watch," she said. "I don't know. I always carry food with me, and I didn't have nearly enough." "I always carry my phone with me, and I didn't have my phone with me, and that really was a big mistake," she said. Feeling antsy to just get on the trail and run, she wasn't thinking deliberately. "I just wanted to get going that day; get some fresh air and go for a run. I hurried up." Natero-Armento and Diaz began running about 6:30 a.m. Sunday, she said. She lost track of as much as eight hours, she said, as she and Diaz became lost. By then, she was dehydrated and disoriented. And Natero-Armento said she also made another, more serious bad decision. At some point in the run, Diaz had become ill. Ultrarunning is a sport in which some participants sometimes push themselves way too hard. "[He was] pretty much beside me or in front of me, but I do know that I was insisting on keeping going since I was OK," she said. "He doesn't eat or drink much ever [when out on runs], so I know he can handle that." She said that she kept going because she'd seen him run hard while sick -- also not uncommon in 50- and 100-mile races -- and that she figured he could handle it if she pushed him. She said they became separated as they two were going over a rugged hill. "We had separated because we were going through a hill quite a while and had to go through brush, and that's how I have a lot of scrapes. So that was very difficult," she said. "[We] crawl under and break branches, and that was the only way we were going to get out of there, according to Fidel. So I don't think he was able to see that I was not there anymore." She said that Diaz was in front of her. He would shout to her so they knew the other one was close by: He shouted to her, and she shouted back. Then, at one point, she couldn't hear him anymore. "When I called him and he didn't answer, at this point, I lost a little bit of control," she said. Night turned into day. She had no water or food, and she didn't try to eat anything. She became disoriented but had the wherewithal to know that she was completely out of fuel. She didn't have the strength to keep walking, so she climbed into a ravine, believing that would be the safest place. Diaz was not available for an interview Thursday. He was found Wednesday several hours before she was. It's not clear why he was lost for so long and where, for days, he had traveled in the forest. Rather than ask for water, law enforcement said, Diaz asked how Natero-Armento was doing and if someone had found her. "I really had to, from the beginning, accept that I was not capable of getting out of there, there was no where to go," she said, recalling her hours in the ravine, thinking about her husband and her family. She told herself she would live. "I knew what I had to do." The experience has not scared her away from distance running on trails. When her kidney is strong again, she will be back, running. | Maria "Gina" Natero-Armento, 36, had no food or water for days .
She and her running partner say they got lost in Cleveland National Forest .
She was found in a ravine Wednesday by a rescue helicopter . |
27,548 | 4e113aece171f52acdffc3aeb09c15ebf41a3827 | Even as they squabble over the last piece of grain, these hungry squirrels remain stomach-churningly cute. The small group of European ground squirrels were fighting for the last bits as they nibbled at their lunch at the Radouc nature reserve in the Czech Republic. The scene was captured by 33-year-old engineer Jiri Michal, one sunny afternoon at the reserve. Scroll down for video . Hungry squirrels squabble over the last piece of grain, at the Radouc Nature reserve in the Czech Republic . Err, can I have some please? This ground squirrel apparently doesn't feel much like sharing his food . The scene was captured by 33-year-old engineer Jiri Michal, one sunny afternoon at the reserve . Mr Michal, of Pilsen, Czech Republic, says: 'I love taking photographs in the Czech Republic, I think the scenery and wildlife that the region has to offer is beautiful. 'I laid quietly on the ground while I took the photographs and spent around five hours capturing the scene.' Waiting patiently just four meters away from the squirrels, Mr Michal offered them some grain and watched as they fought over the last pieces. 'After seeing the photographs, people often comment on how cute the squirrels are, it was amazing to watch,' he said. Mr Michal says he lay on the ground for around five hours to capture the close-ups of the squirrels . Mr Michal spent hours waiting patiently just four meters away from the squirrels . Mr Michal offered them some grain and watched as they fought over the last pieces . Mr Michal leads regular photography workshops for beginners in his home town of Pilsen and hopes to encourage more people to take on wildlife photography. European ground squirrels can be found in many areas of Eastern Europe, including southern Ukraine, Austria, Greece and Bulgaria. This tiny species can grow up to 20cm in length, and can often be seen filling up on seeds and roots during the summer in preparation for winter hibernation. | Jiri Michal took the pictures at the Radouc Nature Reserve, Czech Republic . |
196,575 | 8a6687aab1ce34761cb4122da8ff892442c1cda2 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . It has been five years since Claudia Lawrence went missing . Police are hunting two men and two vehicles seen near the home of missing chef Claudia Lawrence, who disappeared five years ago. Detectives from North Yorkshire Police announced the dramatic turn in the search for Miss Lawrence, on the fifth anniversary of the day she failed to turn up for work at York University in 2009. Detective . Superintendent Dai Malyn, who is leading a new review of the case, has . told BBC1's Crimewatch programme that attempts to trace one particular . man could be 'hugely significant'. He was seen outside her house in Heworth Road by a witness at 6.45am on the morning of Miss Lawrence's disappearance - March 19 - and was described as 55 to 65, with grey mid-length hair, and wearing a three-quarter length sandy coloured mac. 'It's really important we trace that man.' Mr Malyn said. Police also want to find a man in his 30s, about 5ft 8in tall, with very tidy brown hair with a fringe, who was seen in the road in the week before her disappearance. 'It looked as if he was looking for an address, he was on the phone, and he had a rucksack on his back,' Mr Malyn said. 'He appeared to walk up to a green door, which we thought was Claudia's door, and a lady at the door appeared surprised, but then let the man in.' Police also want to trace the owners and users of a Vauxhall Astra van which was parked opposite her house at about 9pm on the evening of March 18, and a light hatchback car, possibly a Ford Focus, which braked unexpectedly in her road at 5.42am the next morning. 'What we want to know if why did that vehicle brake, who was in it, and did it stop to give her a lift to work,' Mr Malyn said. North Yorkshire Police said 10 people had called the incident room following last night’s broadcast. A spokesman said a further 10 people contacted the police in response to the media coverage earlier this week, taking the current total to 20 calls. Scroll down for video . Police want to trace the owners and users of a Vauxhall Astra van which was parked opposite her house at about 9pm on the evening of March 18, 2009 . He said the new Claudia Lawrence . microsite has been viewed 6,602 times so far and this is expected to . increase over the coming days and weeks. 'The response to Crimewatch and the wider media appeal has been very encouraging,' he said. 'We . hope people will continue to support the Claudia Lawrence investigation . by looking at the new appeals contained on the microsite. 'The . investigation team is now taking the necessary time to assess the fresh . information and will issue an update in due course.' They have also found the DNA profile of an unknown man on a cigarette butt in the university chef's Vauxhall Corsa. North Yorkshire Police launched a review of the investigation last year after a new major crime unit was established by the force. Miss Lawrence was 35 when she was reported missing by her father, Peter, on March 20 2009. She was last seen at around 3.05pm on March 18, walking back towards her home, and that night she spoke to both her parents on the phone. It is thought something happened to her after she left for work early on March 19. Mr Malyn's team has spent two months re-examining Miss Lawrence's small, terraced home. Police have said before that Miss Lawrence's mobile and rucksack have never been found. They are also looking for the drivers of this light hatchback car, possibly a Ford Focus, which braked unexpectedly in her road at 5.42am the next morning . 'What we want to know if why did that vehicle brake, who was in it, and did it stop to give her a lift to work,' Detective Dai Malyn said . They said her hair straighteners also appeared to be missing. Mr Malyn said: 'From the review of all the evidence available, including the fact that Claudia's bed was made and it appears that she had eaten breakfast and brushed her teeth, it is our belief that she had left for work on the morning of Thursday 19 March 2009. 'What is unusual is that Claudia's GHD hair straighteners - model number 14.4.1B and purchased in May 2007 - were missing from her home. 'From our inquiries, it is doubtful that she would take them to work in her blue and grey Karrimor bag which has also never been found.' He said techniques not available in 2009 had uncovered additional fingerprints that need to be identified. Mr Malyn said: 'There is also other DNA material from items examined in the house that have been recovered. Forensic work is ongoing in respect of these items.' His team has also found the DNA profile of an unknown man on a cigarette butt in the Vauxhall Corsa. Her sister, Ali Sims, told Crimewatch that Miss Lawrence's portrayal at the time as a manhunter was 'so unfair' The 'left-handed smoker' who was seen on a bridge with a woman on the morning Miss Lawrence vanished has never been found. Pictured: A previous reconstruction by the BBC's Crimewatch . A cigarette butt found in Miss Lawrence's car, which was being repaired when she disappeared, is being reexamined . Peter Lawrence, right, the father of Claudia, left, described the uncertainty surrounding the case as 'a cancer' The car was in a local garage at the time of the disappearance but Mr Malyn said the profile did not relate to any man who had yet come forward. Yesterday Miss Lawrence's father, Peter, discussed the 'torture' his family had suffered through five years of not knowing what has happened to her. Her sister, Ali Sims, told Crimewatch that Miss Lawrence's portrayal in the press at the time as a manhunter was 'so unfair'. 'Yes, she was pretty, she had lots of admirers, it's just how a normal 35-year-old would lead their life,' she said. 'We know that a lot of people came forward at the time, but there are still some people that we want to come forward. 'Imagine living with not knowing what has happened to a member of your family, day in day out, for five years, the wondering. We just need to know what's happened to her, we need to find her.' | It has been five years since Claudia Lawrence, 35, disappeared .
Police announced dramatic new lines of inquiry into the mystery .
There is also speculation she could have had a secret boyfriend .
Police already receiving calls after new evidence shown on Crimewatch .
But they think some with vital information have not yet come forward . |
101,403 | 0eb44ac2b8f3c14715af4c674036d555bd923b2c | By . Associated Press . For the first time, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children partially due to workers migrating from Mexico and other countries to work on mushroom farms. The changing demographics of American education are apparent inside Jane Cornell's summer school classroom, where giggling grade-schoolers mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language. The sign outside the classroom reads 'Welcome' and 'Bienvenidos' in polished handwriting. Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent. But according to the National Center for Education Statistics, minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority. Minorities will become majority: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority . Higher birth rate: U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students enrolled than white, a shift largely fueled by growth in the numbers of Hispanic children . Added up: White students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent but there are more minorities in schools in general when added together . About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders. Biracial students and Native Americans make up an even smaller share of the minority student population. The shift brings new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, such as changing school lunch menus to reflect students' tastes. But it also brings up some complex societal questions that often fall to school systems to address, including issues of immigration, poverty, diversity and inequity. The result, at times, is racial tension. In Louisiana in July, Jefferson Parish public school administrators reached an agreement with the federal government to end an investigation into discrimination against English language learners. In May, police had to be called to help break up a fight between Hispanic and black students in at a school in Streamwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, after a racially-based lunchroom brawl got out of control. Learning in action: School District Superintendent Barry Tomasetti meeting with young students in teacher Jane Cornell's summer school class at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center in Pennsylvania . Issues of race and ethnicity in schools also can be more subtle. In Pennsylvania's Kennett Consolidated School District, Superintendent Barry Tomasetti described parents who opt to send their kids to private schools in Delaware after touring diverse classrooms. Other families, he said, seek out the district's diverse schools 'because they realize it's not a homogenous world out there.' The changes in the district from mostly middle-to-upper class white to about 40 percent Hispanic was in part driven by workers migrating from Mexico and other countries to work the mushroom farms. 'We like our diversity,' Tomasetti said, even as he acknowledged the cost. He has had to hire English language instructors and translators for parent-teacher conferences. He has cobbled money together to provide summer school for many young English language learners who need extra reading and math support. 'Our expectation is all of our kids succeed,' he said. The new majority-minority status of America's schools mirrors a change that is coming for the nation as a whole. The Census Bureau estimates that the country's population also will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a result of higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians. Moving towards success: Recent high school graduate Christian Cordova-Pedroza as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center . In class: Teacher Jane Cornell working with young students on their storytelling skills during summer school at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center . Even as the population becomes more diverse, schools are becoming more racially divided, reflecting U.S. housing patterns. The disparities are evident even in the youngest of black, Hispanic and Native American children, who on average enter kindergarten academically behind their white and Asian peers. They are more likely to attend failing schools and face harsher school discipline. Later, they have lower standardized test scores, on average, fewer opportunities to take advanced classes, and are less likely to graduate. As the school age population has become more nonwhite, it's also become poorer, said Patricia Gandara, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA who serves on President Barack Obama's advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Roughly one-quarter of Hispanics and African-Americans live below the poverty line — meaning a family of four has nearly 24,000 in annual income — and some of the poorest of Hispanic children are dealing with the instability of being in the country illegally or with a parent who is, Gandara said. Focusing on teacher preparation and stronger curriculum is 'not going to get us anywhere unless we pay attention to the really basic needs of these children, things like nutrition and health and safety, and the instability of the homes,' she said. This transformation in school goes beyond just educating the children. Educators said their parents also must feel comfortable and accepted in schools. Sharpening minds: This photo taken July 21, 2014 shows young students in Jane Cornell's summer school class line put to sharpen pencils at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center . New leadership: Consolidated School District Superintendent Barry Tomasetti listening during an interview with The Associated Press at Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center . | Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent .
According to the National Center for .
Education Statistics, minority students, when added together, will now .
make up the majority .
The shift brings new academic realities, .
such as the need for more English language instruction and cultural .
ones .
It brings up complex societal .
questions that often fall to school systems to address, including issues .
of immigration, poverty, diversity and inequity . |
55,459 | 9d333c495438187c591da68686af2b8fa05d39d6 | Nigel Farage has been branded 'silly and dangerous' after blaming immigrants for clogging up Britain's roads for him missing an event charging Ukip supporters to meet him. The Ukip leader said he arrived too late for a £25-a-head drinks reception in Port Talbot because the UK's 'open door immigration' policy meant that the M4 'is not as navigable as it used to be'. And he vowed to continue speaking his mind, warning he will not be 'brow beaten' into becoming a 'vanilla' politician, despite a storm of criticism over his suggestion that breastfeeding women should sit in a corner. Scroll down for video . Ukip leader Nigel Farage was challenged on BBC Sunday Politics Wales about why he missed an event charging party members £25 to meet him . Ukip held its first ever Welsh National Conference at the weekend, with Mr Farage delivering a speech to activists on Saturday. But he had been due to mingle with paying guests at a reception on Friday night. Around 100 Ukip members paid £25 each for tickets for the event at the Orangery in Margam Country Park, Port Talbot. But the leader failed to turn up, hours after complaining that his chauffeur and security is paid for by Ukip and not the taxpayer. In an interview broadcast yesterday, Mr Farage blamed immigration for there being too many cars on the roads to make the 180-mile journey from London to Port Talbot in south Wales. And he hit back at criticism that the no-show was further evidence of his party lacking professionalism. He told BBC Sunday Politics Wales: 'It took me six hours and 15 minutes in the car to get here. It should have taken three-and-half to four. 'That has nothing to do with professionalism. What is does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof, chiefly because of open door immigration and the fact the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be. 'In all these years in Ukip that's probably about the third event out of a thousand that I haven't made in time.' Mr Farage complained that the M4, linking London to south Wales, was the 'not as navigable as it used to be' Ukip MEP Patrick O'Flynn said it was right that Mr Farage led from the front . A senior Ukip figure has appeared to suggest that Nigel Farage is a 'control freak' in the way he runs the party. Patrick O'Flynn said policy decisions were a 'sort of collective operation' but Mr Farage is the 'dominant figure' in the party. The economic spokesman announced that Ukip could look at introducing a luxury goods levy - quickly dubbed the WAG tax - at the party's annual conference but was slapped down within hours by the leader. He told BBC One's Sunday Politics 'that one didn't make the cut, no'. Mr O'Flynn added: 'It's not just Nigel Farage, but clearly we have a party leader who leads, which is a bit of an innovation in contemporary politics.' He added: 'I remember Tony Blair in my days as a journalist saying to me you are either a control freak or you have lost control. 'And, if you have to decide which side of that fence to go on then having control is probably the right option.' Asked if that meant it was the 'Nigel Farage show', he replied: 'Well, Nigel Farage is the dominant figure in the party who has transformed us from a 3 per cent party to a 18/20 plus party.' Owen Smith, Labour's shadow Welsh secretary, said: 'Remarks like these are what makes Farage so dangerous. 'It is clearly absurd to suggest heavy traffic on the M4 is caused by immigration, but through the laughter at his silly comments you can hear Ukip's dog-whistle politics of division.' Last week it emerged that Ukip pays £60,000-a-year for Mr Farage to enjoy the services of a chauffeur. Mr Farage was also challenged about whether he has regrets about any of his more outspoken comments. On Friday he trigged a row when he suggested mothers of newborn babies should avoid being 'openly ostentatious' when breastfeeding and might think about sitting in a corner when doing so. He has previously complained about people not speaking English on trains and said people would not want a group of Romanians living next door. But he was unrepentant, telling the BBC: 'I look at politics. I look at the incredibly bland people that are now in politics who dare not give an opinion on any issue for fear of criticism. 'Is it any wonder the public don't know their names, don't know what they stand for. 'You know we have finished up with vanilla politics, right across the United Kingdom. 'I am going on, saying it as I see it. It's just me. But I am not going to be brow beaten by you and everybody else into becoming like the rest of them.' Meanwhile Mr Farage has been accused of recruiting 'toffs for the top' of Ukip after a candidate in a key target seat expressed fury that he had been ousted in favour of a star of the TV programme Gogglebox. Andrew Michael, a wealthy, retired hotelier who features on the Channel 4 programme, has been parachuted in as Mr Farage's candidate in Hastings and Rye, where the sitting Tory MP holds a wafer-thin majority. Now the deposed candidate has given vent to his anger in a leaked email to local party members in which he condemns Ukip's policy of recruiting defecting Tory MPs and celebrities. Ralph Atkinson calls on Ukip members to bombard Mr Farage with complaints about his treatment, and claims that his party boasts 'standards of democracy lower than the unelected European Commission'. Mr Michael, 55 – whose Gogglebox appearances with his wife Carolyne and two of their four children have included discussions about whether Ukip is racist – was selected for the seat last week shortly after Mr Atkinson was removed in a coup which he says was orchestrated by the party's head office. Last week Mr Farage complained about not having taxpayer-funded travel and security, which is given to other leaders like Ed Miliband. He told LBC: ' You look at all the other leaders of political parties, they of course, all have the state provide them with, you know, the means to get around, and with security. The state doesn't provide Ukip with anything.' He said he had written to the government asking for state help with his security bills, but it had been refused. He suggesed he should be given the same level of protection as 'any former Northern Ireland Secretary'. 'I'm not having an argument over it, the fact is we don't get help. Do I need (a) security? Yes. And do I need to be driven around from place to place? I think I probably do. 'I mean, I came up here early this morning, I'm off to Swansea in a minute to give a speech. I think I do actually need...so there is a team, there are two guys who are with me and take me round the place. 'And if that's being interpreted by one national newspaper as somehow I'm now living high on the hog, in this luxury 4 x 4 car, all I would say to the newspaper that writes stuff like that is, come and spend a week with me, you'll be half dead by the end of it.' | Ukip leader was expected at a drinks reception in Port Talbot on Friday .
But party members were left disappointed after leader failed to show .
He blamed heavy traffic on the M4... linked to open door immigration .
Labour condemns 'dangerous' Ukip leader's 'silly' dog whistle politics .
Party pays for Farage to have a £60,000 chauffeur and security .
Vowed to carry on speaking his mind and not become a 'vanilla' politician .
Ukip MEP Patrick O'Flynn suggests Farage is a 'control freak' as leader . |
261,405 | de8a734fc492c1037e128de904574d166092f5b0 | After sampling some of the fine wines on offer at this hotel, you may feel like your head is spinning when you return to your room. But the reality may well be that the room is, quite literally, spinning. The Design & Wine Hotel in the northern seaside resort of Caminha, in Portugal, has five suites raised on a platform that is connected to a rotating 18-ton pillar. Five suites at the Design & Wine Hotel in Caminha, Portugal, are raised by a giant pillar and rotated twice daily by 35 degrees . The rotating bedroom suites offer guests the chance of different views from their window during their stay at the Portuguese hotel . The bedrooms at the rotating Portuguese hotel are luxurious in decor, reflecting traditions of the local area . The idea is that guests can fall asleep facing the Santa Tecla mountains, and when they wake they will be treated to a Minho River view. But don't worry - the rooms only move 35 degrees twice a day, so you're unlikely to get any motion sickness. And all for only £67 a night. The innovative design was the brainchild of Pedro Guimarães, who sought to bring a fresh new feel to the luxury hotel business. There are 23 rooms in total, all except the five suites are housed in an 18th century building that oozes history and tradition. There are 23 rooms in total at the four0star Design & Wine Hotel in Caminha, Portugal, but there are five in particular of high interest . This open space is where guests get the chance to sample some of the fine wines on offer, and maybe their heads will be spinning before they even return to their rooms! Each bedroom is designed differently, but each has a unique style that will be hard to find at any other resort in the world . The food in the restaurant is locally sourced, and celebrates everything that is unique about Portuguese cuisine . The four-star hotel prides itself on an eco policy. The property is powered by solar panels and automatic lighting in each room conserves energy. Guests are also encouraged to recycle. Local culture and tradition is demonstrated in the decor throughout as well as the food and wine servings in the restaurant. On going to sleep the guests can have a marvellous mountain view, when they wake they will be greeted by a river . The rotating suites are spacious in the extreme, offering guests the chance to get the best view possible as they spin on the pillar . The 'enoteca' is where you might like to spend most of your 'down time.' This is a bright and airy space where guests can taste wines of all Portuguese regions, including Douro region reds and Alvarinho and Loureiro verdes. After this taste-sensation experience you can take home the ones you liked most. We've all heard of counting sheep to help you sleep, well this room offers the perfect opportunity to count 'arrows' to help you nod off . The innovative design was the brainchild of Pedro Guimarães, who sought to bring a fresh new feel to the luxury hotel business . Guests can also choose from a great variety of outdoor activities, such as cycling, fishing, diving and hiking. The Igreja Matriz (main church) and the Clock Tower are at a two minute walk. The Hotel is situated 26 miles from Vigo-Peinador Airport and 55 milesfrom Oporto- Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport. | The Design & Wine Hotel in the northern seaside resort of Caminha, in Portugal, has five suites raised on a platform .
Guests can fall asleep facing the Santa Tecla mountains, and when they wake they will be treated to the Minho River .
Rooms rotate 35 degrees twice every day, and are raised and connected to an 18-ton pillar . |
253,561 | d431ebb8afff5f9666b6417f248ad6d854968605 | (CNN) -- A young man jangles a stack of coins, organizes his passengers like they're shapes in a game of Tetris, then bangs on the side of the colorful bus. We move off, clattering along the noisy, dusty road. The city is Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest and the place President Obama hung out on his July visit to East Africa. The man is the conductor and his bus is a "dala dala" -- hordes of which toot and rattle along the key arteries through Dar es Salaam every day. This city is often ignored by travelers heading to Tanzania's big tourist destinations -- it's not hard to see why. "Dar" has few obvious attractions and can get hot and sticky. Its streets are filled with traffic, exhaust fumes and dust. Yet it has charm and for anyone willing to experience some "Bongo flava" via one of these eccentric buses, the rewards can be great. ("Bongo flava" is the Tanzanian brand of R&B/hip hop, which originates here in Bongo Town, the local nickname for Dar). More: Can the Maasai survive modernity? Dala for dollar . Dala dala get their name from the slang term for five Tanzanian shillings ("dala" for dollar), the bus fare in the 1970s and 1980s when these vehicles started operating as a response to poor public transportation. Now a standard trip costs 400 shillings (25 cents), though the fare can be more if you're going a long distance. Dala dalas are an attraction in and of themselves, their bright exteriors painted in set designs and colors that indicate the route. Dala dalas are featured in one of the most popular Tanzanian TV shows, with random people being picked up to discuss issues of the day as they get a ride to work. I spend a day exploring the city via dala dala, invariably slotted into a sweaty squeeze, forehead dangerously close to the metal frame hanging from the roof. Yet however crowded it gets inside, the atmosphere is friendly. When I ask where to get off for Kariakoo market, a fellow passenger offers to escort me there. He turns out to be a fisherman on a day off. Conversation along the way ranges from Tanzania's chances in the football World Cup qualifier against Ivory Coast to the best fishing and diving spots. More: High peaks and wildlife put Tanzania on the tourist map . Kariakoo market variety . Kariakoo market, the largest market in East Africa, is worth the stop. It covers several blocks of shops, stalls and courtyards all set around an imposing indoor market built in the 1970s. Its high vaulted arches provide an odd setting for the small hardware sellers who inhabit it. Downstairs there's a huge basement complex where fruit and vegetable traders dwell in semi-darkness. Above ground Kariakoo is full of color and trade in a huge variety of goods, from farming tools and food to bows and arrows. It's a good spot for sampling Dar's abundant street food -- a combined product of the fertile Tanzanian soil and Indian influences. Options include chipsi mayai (chips/fries in an omelet -- a Tanzanian staple), samosas, chapattis, roasted corn served with chili and lime, mandazi (something like a doughnut), sugarcane and tropical fruits. Drinks include coconut juice straight from the coconut or coffee from one of Dar's renowned mobile street coffee vendors. Dar is a port city, so also a place for seafood. For this it's best to go to source. Fried octopus snacks . A short dala dala ride from Kariakoo, the main fish market assaults the senses; it's full of activity, shouts, smells and a variety of fish and sea creatures. At one end the market, a concrete wall drops down to the natural harbor where fishing boats sit on the white sands or at anchor in the water. At the other end, their haul is cooked up in huge sizzling frying pans. Still chewing some deep-red fried octopus, I board a dala dala moving along the seafront. Although color-coding makes them they look like a single organized collective, dala dalas are private enterprises and feature a range of individual touches representing the owners' tastes and allegiances. The most obvious of these are slogans many carry on the windshield sunshade, ranging from religious ("Allah Akbar," "Jesus Power") to sporting ("Liverpool Forever") to cryptic ("New Passion," "Simba Family"). In this sense they're cousins to the jeepneys of the Philippines. The one taking me along Kivukoni front features tassels around its windows and has a sound system playing Bongo Flava. The dala dala travels along the line of distinctive old colonial government buildings built by the Germans in the 1890s and British in the 1920s (well preserved and used by the current Tanzanian government) followed by impressive Catholic and Anglican cathedrals. From here, it's a short hop to the Asian Quarter, Kisutu. This part of town has a different feel to the African Quarter where Kariakoo is located. It's filled with art deco buildings, mosques and Hindu temples and the women are as likely to be wearing an Indian sari as a Tanzanian kanga. The roof terrace of the nearby Sapphire Hotel offers a panoramic view of the city, as well as a good gin and tonic. Looking out at the Dar skyline you can see the jumbled high-rise blocks jutting over the older, squatter buildings. Look harder and you can see the dense slums that house most of the city's population. More: 7 things every first-time Africa traveler should know . Luxury and opulence . The final dala dala ride of the day takes me to Msasani Peninsula, a prime example of the city's recent rapid re-development. Located in the north of the city, beyond the popular hangout of Coco Beach, the once largely uninhabited peninsula is now home to many of Dar's richer inhabitants, including much of the expat community. This is Dar's newest face: marina, luxury apartment blocks, upmarket shopping precinct, restaurants, bars. Many have Maasai security guards standing outside. These members of the famous pastoralist tribe (easily recognizable by their tall, robed frames) have been forced by drought and other factors to leave their traditional lifestyle and move to the towns and cities in search of work. Dar es Salaam is a place of uncomfortable contrasts. Nevertheless, the dala dalas make it a worthwhile stop alongside Tanzania's more obvious attractions. How to catch a dala dala . To catch a dala dala you have to be at, or at least near, a bus stop. There's no timetable; frequency depends on traffic but they generally come around at least every 10 minutes. A standard journey costs 400 shillings (25 cents). The conductor will let you know if you need to pay more. The main dala dala stops in downtown Dar are Posta (center), Fire (west center -- next to the Fire Station near Kariakoo) and Kivukoni (east center, covering the fish market and waterfront). Dala dalas for Kivukoni are painted green. Ask where you should get off for the fish market. Lots of buses go past Kiriakoo. For Msasani Peninsula, get a bus going to Msasani (dark blue), or one going to Mwenge (light blue), get off at Mbuyuni and walk. Dala dalas heading for Mwenge go past the Mwenge carvers market and the village museum. More: 'Star Wars' attraction in Tunisian desert being consumed by sand . | Dala dala get their name from the "dollar" that a journey cost in the 1970s .
They're a local way to get around the city's districts and destinations .
They can be uncomfortable, but they're always fun and riders are friendly . |
253,450 | d4119a080d151a3c0b5471ad18c362f484bf5f29 | Sitting in front of a computer all day can make you feel lazy, affect your posture and even cause long-term health damage. But if you can’t afford a treadmill desk, the next best thing is to build your very own human hamster wheel. The wheel is made of plywood, skate wheels and a pint of glue and can be fitted over an existing desk - but you may need to get permission from your boss to use it. Scroll down for video . The Hamster Wheel Standing Desk was designed by California-based art graduate Robb Godshaw (pictured). Each wheel (pictured) consists of plywood, skate wheels and a pint of glue and is 61cm (24 inches) wide, and has a two-metre (80-inch) diameter. It was designed to make office workers less sedentary . California-based art graduate Robb Godshaw designed the wheel to make office workers less sedentary. ‘You are not reaching your current productivity potential,’ explained Mr Godshaw. TrekDesk is a desk that fits over a treadmill, enabling users to walk slowly while they work. The manufacturer claims the height-adjustable workstation allows individuals the opportunity to gain the necessary amount of exercise daily to maintain health, reduce stress, prevent disease and strengthen muscles. Working at the TrekDesk is said to help users achieve the holy grail of 10,000 steps a day within three hours. It costs $499 (£300), is designed to fit over any treadmill and features a manuscript holder. ‘Rise up, sedentary sentients, and unleash that untapped potential within by marching endlessly towards a brilliant future of focused work. ‘Step forward into a world of infinite potential, bounded only by the smooth arcs of a wheel. Step forward into the Hamster Wheel Standing Desk that will usher in a new era of unprecedented productivity.’ Mr Godshaw has added step-by-step DIY instructions to design site Instructables so other people can build their own version of his wheel. According to the project files, the wheel was designed using Autodesk Inventor and it took Mr Godshaw and his friends 24 hours to build. A timelapse video on the site shows the 61cm (24-inch) wide, two-metre (80-inch) diameter wheel being built. To create the wheel at home, builders will need four sheets of plywood, four skate wheels, two pipes, 240 wood screws, and a pint of glue. Mr Godshaw has added step-by-step DIY instructions (pictured) to design site Instructables so that other people can build their own version of his wheel. According to the project files, the wheel was designed using Autodesk Inventor and it took Mr Godshaw and his friends 24 hours to build . Mr Godshaw said he considered adding brakes to the wheel, but decided against it 'to really force the productivity out of the desk user.' The use of the skateboard wheels means the design has a more fluid rotation, without the need for an axle. 'We already had a standing desk that fit through the wheel, so it was just a matter of avoiding interference and leaving enough room for a human,' continued Mr Godshaw. Mr Goddshaw claims the wheel can also be used as a ‘wheel of death’ or ‘an uncomfortable bench.’ Mr Godshaw said he considered adding brakes to the wheel, but decided against it 'to really force the productivity out of the desk user.' The use of the skateboard wheels (pictured) means that the design has a more fluid rotation, without the need for an axle . The Hamster Wheel Standing Desk was designed to make office workers less sedentary. It is a cheaper alternative to the treadmill desk (pictured), which has been growing in popularity in offices in California . | The wheel was designed by California-based art graduate Robb Godshaw .
He has created a step-by-step guide so people can make their own .
The Hamster Wheel Standing Desk is 61cm (24 inches) wide with a two metre (80-inch) diameter .
Each wheel consists of plywood, skate wheels and a pint of glue .
It was designed to make office workers less sedentary . |
51,326 | 914e8d21037b8ceba01eda64e8017b9944aefb59 | By . Chris Greenwood . Status symbol? Stun guns up to 20 times more powerful are being illegally imported into Britain . Stun guns up to 20 times more powerful than police Tasers are being illegally imported into Britain. The weapons, which can discharge up to one million volts, are highly prized by members of the criminal underworld. An investigation found they can be easily imported into the country via overseas mail order websites. For as little as £60 one German security specialist sold a potentially deadly stun gun without asking any questions about the age or status of the customer. Several days later, the illegal weapon arrived by post. It came with a free can of pepper spray, which is also illegal. Another more powerful weapon, which packs a million-volt punch, cost just £90. Police suspect the stun guns were among hundreds which slip through Customs checks undetected every year. Up to 10,000 such weapons are believed to be in the hands of criminals who use them as a ‘status symbol’, for protection and to enforce debt payments. Electric stun guns are prohibited under the Firearms Act and the maximum penalty for possessing one is ten years’ imprisonment. One police source said: ‘Stun guns are often found during raids on drug dealers. The evidence is that criminals want to own them but they rarely use them. ‘The attraction is they fit in a pocket and can immobilise someone without leaving a permanent injury. Also, even though they are classified as a firearm, the courts sometimes treat people caught with them more leniently than if they had a gun or knife.’ The trade was highlighted in an investigation by the BBC’s Inside Out programme which purchased two devices by mail order. Both weapons, made legally abroad, sailed through specialist Customs checks at Britain’s parcel hubs. At one million volts, one of the guns was 20 times more powerful than the 50,000-volt weapons carried by police. Police issue Taser guns (pictured) fire 50,000 volts, 20 times less powerful than the ones available online and shipped to criminals in Britain for as little as £60 . Metropolitan Police figures reveal . more than 200 crimes involving the weapons over the past three years in . London alone. They include 139 robberies and more than 50 offences where . people were assaulted or harassed with the weapons. During that period . police in the capital seized 498 stun guns. Eran . Bauer, safety adviser with Civil Defence Supply, which trains police in the use of Tasers,, described the million-volt stun gun as ‘one heck of a brute’. He . said: ‘That’s lightning – horrendous tool. I don’t believe you managed . to get one of these. That is seriously dangerous. ‘You are going to end up with skin burns for a start, and subcutaneous [under the skin] damage. ‘If . it goes into the neck across the nerves you can just imagine the . damage. Hit across the chest then anything could happen – [it could] end . up killing someone.’ The . investigation comes less than 18 months after the Serious Organised . Crime Agency shut down the overseas operation of a US company selling . stun guns and pepper sprays. It was found to be behind almost . three-quarters of all stun guns sent by post to Britain. Former Detective Chief Inspector Pete Kirkham said stun guns have become the weapon of choice for many criminals. Keith . Vaz MP, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said: ‘How is it . possible to go online and get a gun into this country through what we . are told is one of the most sophisticated borders in the world? ‘I intend to raise the matter with the head of the Border Agency and the Home Secretary.’ | Border Agency has no up-to-date figures on number of stun guns stopped .
As police focus on knife and gun crime, criminals turn to stun guns .
German website sells deadly million volt stun guns for £60 .
In an earlier version of this article, Civil Defence Supply Limited were referred to as being a supplier of Tasers to the police. We are happy to clarify this is not the case. |
32,311 | 5be37270f7a71c55020855c997c58312cb54e677 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 12:30 EST, 2 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 01:26 EST, 3 August 2012 . Kayla Harrison stunned the world with a gold medal in judo - a first for the U.S. - in an incredible show of strength for a champion who suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of her childhood coach. Miss Harrison became the first American in the sport to earn the Olympics' highest honour with a dramatic win over Great Britain's Gemma Gibbons. The gold medal caps as extraordinary journey for the 22-year-old who hails from Middletown, Ohio, and who in 2007 put her former coach behind bars for sexually abusing her as a teen. Scroll down for video . Golden: Kayla Harrison won the 78k judo final against Great Britain's Gemma Gibbons to win the gold medal . Fighter: Harrison, right, became the first American to take the title in the sport with the dramatic win over Great Britain's Gemma Gibbons, left . With the gold medal around her neck today, Miss Harrison's tumultuous journey turned into triumph. She said: 'I was kind of reflecting back on my life and everything that it's taken to get here and everything I've gone through and everything that everyone in my family has sacrificed.' Miss Harrison, world No. 4 and a former world champion, was in top form, dispatching many of her opponents with a match-ending ippon move, one in less than a minute. She said she was focused on the gold, telling the Associated Press: 'This is my purpose.' Respect: Miss Harrison holds up and Miss Gibbons' arm after their match . She added: 'It's not every four years. It's every day. I'm just so honored to be America's first gold medalist, and so happy to realize my dream. 'I'm America's first gold medalist in judo - and always will be.' Her medal is the U.S.' second in judo this week: Teammate Marti Malloy won a bronze in the women's 57-kilogram division. The bronze medals were won by Audrey Tcheumeo of France and Mayra Aguiar of Brazil. Earlier this year, she spoke out after noticing that sports fans were siding with Penn State football coach Joe Paterno in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. Honour: Kayla Harrison bites on her gold medal after winning the competition in London . Hopes: Miss Harrison was aiming for gold at the London Olympics, an achievement that no American had won before . On the mat: Miss Harrison and Miss Gibbons fall to the floor during their match . 'I was almost disheartened by my country, . to hear that kids at Penn State were protesting for [Paterno] but . not for the victims,' she told Fox Sports. 'What kind of world do . I live in? Are students really doing that? When that happened, when the . victim was that far away [from people's minds], I was in shock.' Harrison was abused between the ages of 14 and 16 by her childhood coach, Daniel Doyle, whose father owned the judo school in Ohio where she first learned the sport. Doyle, who was 16 years her senior, . formed close relationships with her family, joining them on vacations . and chaperoning Harrison on tournaments that took her to Venezuela, Estonia and . Russia to compete. Her secret: Kayla Harrison suffered years of abuse at the hands of her former coach Daniel Doyle, who was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to 10 years in prison . All smiles: Miss Harrison beams as she defeats Gemma Gibbons, left, and on the Olympic podium after receiving the gold medal, right . Win: She won gold at the World Championships in Tokyo in 2010, the first U.S. woman to do so in 26 years . Harrison said she felt 'brainwashed' and wanted to please her coach, so they started a sexual relationship. She told Fox Sports that she believed she would marry Doyle when she turned 18. She confided her secret in a judo friend, who told her mother, who immediately contacted . police. Glory: The gold medal win capped a long and arduous journey for the 22-year-old . He pleaded guilty to having a sex with Miss Harrison and admitted that on one occasion he videotaped a sexual encounter. 'I can't describe how I felt,' she told the Los Angeles Times. 'I think I cried pretty much every night.' She testified against him and he is now serving the maximum 10-year prison sentence. When released, Doyle will have to register as a sex offender. 'Going through that, I felt so guilty,' Harrison said. 'This is the man that I thought I loved. And I just told on him and I put him in jail.' But she turned the tragedy to triumph when her mother sent her to Wakefield, Massachusetts to train with Jimmy Pedro Jr., who won Olympic bronze medals in 1996 and 2004, and his father, Big Jim. She moved into a house with 10 other athletes but struggled with the transition. 'She was an emotional wreck,' Pedro Jr told the Boston Herald. 'She truly believed that this guy loved her, so she had been brainwashed to think that was the case.' Together, . the Pedros helped rebuild her confidence and she got past bouts of . suicidal thoughts, and, in spite of her lowest points, she dragged . herself to training every day. Pedro Jr, who has spent a lifetime chasing Olympic gold himself, gave Harrison the same pep talk over and over again today before the match. 'All day long, I was telling her: . "There's one girl in front of you. That's all we worry about is that one . girl. Are you better than her? Are you stronger than her? Are you . tougher than her? Yeah? Well, then, go beat her - because she's in your . way to be an Olympic champion." 'She heard that about 150 times today,' he said. 'As melodramatic as it sounds, it's . true. The Pedros saved my life and they changed my life,' she told the . Times. 'I don't even want to think about what would have happened to me . if I had stayed there.' Incredibly superstitious, Miss Harrison revealed that she wore the lucky socks that her grandmother gave her six years ago and played her lucky playlist prior to the match. Hard fought: Miss Harrison is bitten by Gemma Gibbons during the judo final . Support system: After Doyle was convicted, Kayla trained with Jimmy Pedro Jr., right, who has won two Olympic bronzes . See below for video . | Defeats British fighter Gemma Gibbons, who took the silver medal .
Says 'this is my purpose' after winning gold medal .
Harrison, 22, endured years of sexual abuse by former coach, Daniel Doyle .
Revealed her abuse ordeal in wake of Penn State sex scandal . |
147,643 | 4ae7e5a3158c062ddeddab6d2299152b8adcc8a3 | By . Alasdair Glennie . PUBLISHED: . 20:23 EST, 29 December 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 20:24 EST, 29 December 2013 . The BBC handed one of its top executives a £200,000 golden goodbye – then rehired him two years later. Former Radio 1 boss Matthew Bannister – once nicknamed ‘the fat controller’ by DJ Chris Evans – is still on the corporation’s payroll more than a decade after he pocketed the huge severance sum. Details of his extraordinary payoff can be revealed by the Daily Mail as it emerged the BBC re-employed 233 staff it made redundant in the past decade, including another executive given £365,000 as he left. Row: Matthew Bannister, right, fell out spectacularly with Chris Evans, left, over the DJ's working hours . It heaps further pressure on the broadcaster’s top brass to explain why millions of pounds of the licence fee has been handed to departing staff, including £25million to 150 senior employees. Tory MP Stephen Barclay, who sits on the Commons public accounts committee, said the latest revelations ‘drive a coach and horses’ through the BBC’s claim that payoffs helped reduce the overall salary bill by encouraging staff to leave. High salary: Mr Bannister earned £153,000 as controller of Radio 1, head of production and head of marketing . He said: ‘There has been a revolving door at the BBC. You get paid to leave, then paid to come back again. The whole argument for payoffs has been that it reduces the headcount and salary bill. ‘But it is beginning to look like the senior executives approving payoffs were doing so with the expectation they would themselves benefit from similar deals.’ Mr Bannister is currently employed as a presenter on Radio 4 and the World Service. The corporation has refused to disclose his current salary, the 56-year-old earned £153,000 as controller of Radio 1, head of production and head of marketing. He left in 2000 after narrowly losing to Greg Dyke in the race to become director- general. Figures buried in the following year’s accounts reveal he was handed a £140,060 ‘termination payment’, plus £54,590 towards his pension. When he was in charge of Radio 1, Mr Bannister was most famous for hiring Chris Evans. The pair later fell out spectacularly after he refused to let the DJ work a four-day week, prompting Evans to walk out. As head of production, he was embroiled in another row when it was discovered Vanessa Feltz’s daytime talk show had featured fake guests. But instead of leaving the corporation for good after pocketing his payoff, Mr Bannister returned in 2002 as a late-night presenter on Radio 5 Live. He later recalled: ‘I decided to withdraw from managing things and just get on with being a broadcaster, which was lovely.’ Rehired: Mr Bannister, pictured with Zoe Ball, is now employed as a presenter on Radio 4 and World Service . He has since become a well-known voice on Radio 4, where he hosts the weekly obituary programme Last Word. According to The Sunday Telegraph, the BBC also rehired its former head of religion Michael Wakelin after handing him a £364,000 redundancy payment in March 2009. He was later given a part-time job as a producer on Radio 2. A Freedom of Information request revealed that another nine managers earning £100,000 or more were also re-employed despite receiving severance pay. Tory MP Angie Bray said the revelation was ‘gobsmacking’, adding: ‘You would think if you’re getting a payoff, it would be “goodbye” and “thank you for your contribution”. Not “see you in a year”.’ In June, the National Audit Office revealed the BBC has paid out £369million in severance payments over eight years, including £60million to senior managers. A BBC spokesman said: ‘BBC policy states that former full-time employees who have been made redundant may apply and be re-hired into the BBC after a minimum of 12 months, and three months on a freelance contract basis. ‘Matthew Bannister was made redundant from the role of chief executive BBC Production in 2000 making savings on an executive post. He returned two years later.’ The BBC said Michael Wakelin is employed by an independent production company that makes programmes for Radio 2, rather than directly by the corporation. | Former Radio 1 boss Matthew Bannister is still on corporation's payroll .
He received a £200,000 golden goodbye when he left the job in 2000 .
But he was rehired by BBC two years later as Radio 5 Live presenter .
Broadcaster has re-employed 233 redundant staff in the past decade . |
171,623 | 6a20960ccb7bf81318160494790f5dae5278585b | By . Adam Crafton . Follow @@AdamCrafton_ . Alex Buttner will complete a move from Manchester United to Dinamo Moscow in the next 24 hours after the two clubs agreed a deal to take the Dutch left-back to Russia. Sportsmail understands that United have managed to secure an initial fee in the region of £4 million for the defender signed by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2012. The deal could rise to £5.6 million based on add-ons and if certain clauses are met. On the move: Alex Buttner is all set to join Russian club Dinamo Moscow from Manchester United . Saying goodbye: Buttner took to Instagram to post this picture with a message of thanks to United supporters . Buttner was deemed surplus to requirements by Louis van Gaal after Manchester United secured the signing of Luke Shaw from Southampton this week. Manchester United confirmed the switch via the club's Twitter account on Saturday afternoon. Dinamo posted a statement on their official website on Tuesday which said Buttner's contract was 'agreed upon' and that only 'technical details' were left to negotiate. They also posted pictures of the left-back in their training kit. The 25-year-old Dutchman, who posed with fellow new boy Stanislav Manolev, said: 'I want to play in the Champions League, win trophies. 'Dinamo are a very strong team and I am confident that we will fight for first place this season.' Buttner then took to Instagram to thank United fans for support during his time at the club. He said: 'Thanks for everything! Had a amazing 2 years at this beautyful club Manchester united! Thanks to all my fans for supporting me!!' Buttner made a total of only 28 appearances in all competitions, scoring two goals, having joined United from Vitesse Arnhem in the summer of 2012. Arrival: Alexander Buttner (right) pictured with Stanislav Moanolev in Dinamo Moscow's training kit . Done deal: Manchester United confirmed the deal had been finalised via the club's Twitter page . | Manchester United confirm Alexander Buttner's switch to Dinamo Moscow .
Left back takes passing swipe at United after sealing move to Russia .
Buttner only made 28 appearances for United since joining in 2012 .
Dutchman posted message of thanks to United and their fans on Instagram .
United have signed Southampton defender Luke Shaw . |
122,244 | 2a04f16e798af8791e540408f84e7ba88c7a0932 | By . Leon Watson . PUBLISHED: . 11:42 EST, 22 June 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 05:56 EST, 23 June 2012 . A violent refugee was jailed for at least 26 years today for stabbing his girlfriend 57 times. Somalian Zakaria Mohamed, 29, was on probation when he killed television recruitment consultant Amina Adan, 32. He had assaulted her twice before during their year-long relationship, but magistrates put off sentencing him so he could take part in a domestic abuse programme. Zakaria Mohamed (left) who was jailed for at least 26 years today for stabbing his girlfriend Amina Adan 57 times . But she took him back and he killed her with three knives and shards of glass from a broken mirror before the counselling sessions were implemented, the Old Bailey heard. Judge Anthony Morris said he did not know why the sessions were not prioritised before Mohamed served an unpaid work element of a community order. Mohamed pleaded guilty to murdering Miss Adan on November 6, last year, at the home they shared in Walworth, south London. After a row, drunken Mohamed went home, dragged her down the stairs by the hair, beat her unconscious, kicked and stamped on her and began to stab her. After police arrived, Mohamed threatened to kill them and had to be subdued with a Taser gun. Miss Adan, who was brought up in Kenya, was described as being hard working and popular at the Al Jazeera news network where she worked in human resources. The Old Bailey heard Mohamed had assaulted Miss Adan twice before during their year-long relationship . Judge Morris told Mohamed: 'You are a controlling and domineering man and Amina was frightened of you and you sought to control her with violence. 'I am satisfied this was a punishment for her standing up to you. 'This was a savage, brutal, sustained and premeditated attack in which you clearly intended to kill. 'It was clearly a totally senseless killing in which you deprived a hardworking young woman of her life.' Mohamed had been in breach of a community order and a deferred sentence at the time. He came to the UK in 2002 on a forged Dutch passport. His request for asylum was turned down but he was given indefinite leave to remain in 2007 under an amnesty. In April 2011, he pleaded guilty to battery on Miss Adan and was placed on a community order which included a domestic abuse programme. In May, 2011, he punched Miss Adan in the stomach and went on the run before being arrested in July. In September, he was convicted of the assault and on October 20, of breaching the order. On October 20, Camberwell Green magistrates deferred a likely prison sentence until January 20 this year, so he could take part in the programme. Judge Morris said he was surprised the programme had not been implemented first. He said: 'It would be more important that they should have prioritised the domestic violence programme. 'This was not something the probation service were not aware of because he committed another offence, and it became even more urgent he should embark on this programme. 'Unfortunately, for reasons I do not fully understand, that programme had not been started fully.' Prosecutor Timothy Carey told the judge the Ministry of Justice would be holding a review into the case because the murder took place while Mohamed was subject to probation. Miss Adan's sister, Hanan, said in a statement: 'We will probably never know why he could possibly act in this way to another human being. It is something we will never forgive or forget.' | Zakaria Mohamed was on probation when he killed Amina Adan in south London .
Old Bailey told he had assaulted her twice before during their year-long relationship . |
82,552 | ea1448035545843e6bdb0d8f33348a9f072a2e20 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 08:13 EST, 11 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:23 EST, 11 June 2013 . British National Party leader Nick Griffin paid a surprise visit to Syria on a fact finding mission . British National Party leader Nick Griffin has arrived in Syria after being invited to take part in a fact-finding visit to the war-torn country by the regime of President Bashar Assad. Mr Griffin said he wanted to highlight the risk that the UK Government’s support for opposition fighters seeking to oust Assad was posing. Writing on Twitter, he said it could plunge the Middle Eastern state into an 'Iraq-style hell of sectarian hate'. And he linked the kind of Islamist militancy espoused by some of the rebels with the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich last month. BNP spokesman Simon Darby said Mr Griffin, who is an MEP for North West England, was invited to Damascus as part of a delegation of European politicians, including MEPs and MPs from Belgium, Russia and Poland. The spokesman stressed that he was not being paid by the Syrian regime and did not want his presence in the country to be seen as an endorsement of Assad. 'What he wants is to let people have a proper view of what is going on in Syria, because at the moment all we have is William Hague and his infantile war-mongering,' said Mr Darby. 'He wants to ascertain just how many British citizens are fighting out there for the so-called Free Syrian Army and other elements opposed to Assad. Syrians holding up national flags and photos of Syrian President Bashar Assad as they celebrate their return to al-Qusair city. Mr Griffin said he was not being paid by the Syrian regime and did not want his presence in the country to be seen as an endorsement of Assad . 'He . is representing the point of view of ordinary British people who don’t . want any engagement in the Middle East and its troubles, any more than . they wanted to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. 'He . is MEP for the North West and he is sick and tired of seeing lads from . Manchester and Liverpool coming back in body bags or with arms and legs . missing because the Government got them involved in business that isn’t . any concern of ours.' Mr Griffin crossed into Syria from neighbouring Lebanon and posted a series of comments on Twitter. Syrian President Bashar Assad is said to have invited Mr Griffin to take part in a fact-finding visit to the war-torn country . Mr Griffin crossed into Syria from neighbouring Lebanon and posted a series of comments on Twitter . BNP spokesman Simon Darby said Mr Griffin, who is an MEP for North West England, was invited to Damascus as part of a delegation of European politicians, including MEPs and MPs from Belgium, Russia and Poland . 'Crossed border into Syria yesterday,' he said. 'Now in Damascus, which is busy, a modern, bustling city. Security rather like Belfast in Troubles. 'Fact finding mission. Cameron & Hague plan to send UK money & weapons to rebels dominated by Islamist jihadis like killers of Lee Rigby. 'Occasional explosions in distance but life in capital normal. 'Traffic busy, shops full of goods. Families out in sun. Why turn stable secular state into Iraq-style hell of sectarian hate? 'More madness from the people who dragged us to costly war in Iraq & Afghan(istan).' | Invited by President Assad to take part in a fact-finding visit to country .
Griffin said he wants to highlight risk of Government’s support for rebels .
He has been tweeting since his arrival in war torn country .
He has compared it to 'Belfast - during the troubles' on his account . |
195,224 | 88b6ec552ed8eb29c9f8de890c8d052ba9d66cd4 | (CNN) -- NASA insisted Friday that it has dibs on rocket engines sitting deep on the Atlantic Ocean floor, a day after a wealthy adventurer announced the discovery of the prized pieces of space history. Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos revealed Thursday that, using deep-sea sonar, a team had found the F-1 engines that powered the Saturn V rocket carrying Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission to the moon "lying 14,00 feet below the surface." "We're making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them from the ocean floor," the billionaire investor and entrepreneur wrote. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, in his own statement Friday, applauded Bezos and his team for their "historic find" and wished them "all the luck in the world." At the same time, he stated that any Apollo engine that's recovered belongs to the space agency. "NASA does retain ownership of any artifacts recovered and would likely offer one of the Saturn V F-1 engines to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington under longstanding arrangements with the institution," Bolden said. The NASA administrator added that he'd directed staff "to provide a smooth and expeditious disposition of any flight hardware recovered." Bezos himself requested, in a message to NASA, that an F-1 engine or another space artifact be put on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. This could still happen if the "Smithsonian declines" to take an engine that's raised from the ocean's depths "or if a second engine is recovered," according to the NASA administrator. "I sincerely hope all continues to go well for Jeff and Blue Origin, and that his team enjoys success and prosperity in every endeavor," said Bolden, referring to the Bezos-led venture into space flight. "All of us at NASA have our fingers crossed for success in his upcoming expedition of exploration and discovery." Bezos said Thursday that the condition of the discovered engines, which slammed into the ocean more than 42 years ago and have been in the saltwater ever since, isn't known. "On the other hand, they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see," he said. Each of the engines weighs nearly nine tons, and they came in a cluster of five. They provided 32 million horsepower by burning 6,000 pounds of fuel every second, and the five together propelled the largest rocket in history up 38 miles in under three minutes. After doing their work, the rockets plummeted into the ocean, where they had been undiscovered for more than four decades. NASA had some clues as to where they landed, and a piece of the debris landed on a German merchant ship, providing more clues. Robert Pearlman, a space memorabilia expert who runs CollectSpace.com, said 65 of these engines were launched. He said if the engines can be brought to the surface and a serial number can be found, it would be easy to authenticate the find. But bringing them up could be a challenge. "If all five are still clumped together, it will be like trying to bring up the big part of the Titanic," Pearlman said. Bezos made his announcement days after another wealthy, high-profile adventurer -- James Cameron -- made deep-sea history himself, as the first person to explore solo the deepest spot in all the world's oceans, in the Mariana Trench. Also this week, Sir Richard Branson used millions to fund his attempts to travel around the globe in a balloon. Pearlman said Bezos' disclosure came as a complete surprise to the space memorabilia world. "But that fits into the way he does business," Pearlman said, referring to Blue Origins, which aims to make human spaceflight cheaper and easier. "Bezos and that Blue Origins have always played their cards very close to their chest and often don't share their milestones until after they have succeeded." CNN's Brian Walker contributed to this report. | Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says he's found engines used to power Apollo 11 .
They are on the Atlantic Ocean floor, at 14,000 feet, in unknown condition, he says .
NASA chief says the space agency has "ownership of any artifacts recovered" |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.