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92,030 | 025e7691965b780a46de7923ff8764e0836d1af3 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 08:37 EST, 17 April 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 12:44 EST, 17 April 2012 . Though she carried two beautiful daughters and gave birth to them nine months later, US citizen Ellie Lavi cannot call her daughters American. That’s because Ms Lavi, a single mother, turned to in vitro fertilisation to become pregnant while in Israel, giving birth to her girls there. When she tried to obtain citizenship for her twins at the US consulate in Tel Aviv, she was denied because she could not prove the egg and sperm used to conceive her children were from those of US citizens. Scroll down for video . Lagging law: The US Embassy in Tel Aviv denied mother and US citizen Ellie Lavi citizenship for her twin daughters because they were conceived via IVF . Loving mother: Ms Lavi carried her girls Maya and Sheila to term and gave birth to them in 2009 . Ms Lavi was asked by an embassy staffer if her daughters, born in 2009, were hers, as USA Today first reported. Even more humiliating, she said, was that the consulate worker asked her through a loudspeaker in a room teeming with people how she conceived the twins. Ms Lavi, who is from Chicago, told the Today that she was offended by the question, which she considered an invasion of privacy. ‘I was embarrassed, humiliated, horrified, ashamed,’ she said. ‘It’s an outrageous question.In an interesting loophole, children adopted from other countries are eligible to become US citizens. The issue lies in a law that says, according to the US State Department, that a child must have a biological link with at least one parent. Stipulation: Maya and Sheila cannot become US citizens unless their mother moves them back to the US and they live there six months - but their home is in Tel Aviv . Humiliation: Ms Lavi said she was angered and embarrassed when a staffer at the US Embassy asked her how her daughters were conceived . Because her twins Maya and Sheila were conceived via in vitro fertilisation, there was no such link between Ms Lavi and her daughters. Most fertility clinics do not keep records from donors, and are anonymous, thus making it impossible for Ms Lavi to prove the nationality of her daughters’ biological parents. However, Ms Lavi carried the twins to term and delivered them, and her name is on their birth certificates – she, of course, is listed as their mother. Ms Lavi told Today: ‘US policy is not keeping up with the technology. That’s essentially what the issue is.’ According to Michele Koven Wogal, an . Israel-based attorney who focuses on U.S. immigration law, calls the . probing questions ‘profiling,’ saying that the embassies only ask . single, older women where their children came from. In vitro, veritas: Because Ms Lavi doesn't know the nationality of the sperm and egg donors, the US Embassy denied her twins citizenship; she said the law is lagging behind modern technology (file photo) As USA Today notes, around 200,000 US citizens living in Israel have dual citizenship – which allows them to receive IVF treatments for free. Maya and Sheila could become U.S. citizens if they lived in the States for at least six months and completed other necessary steps. However, as Today notes, the family is situated in Tel Aviv. For the moment, Ms Lavi has given up the uphill citizenship battle. ‘If I’d gone back to the States to give birth, my children would have automatically received American citizenship. But I live here.’ Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy . | Chicago native Ellie Lavi received IVF treatment in Tel Aviv and gave birth to twin daughters in 2009 .
Daughters Maya and Sheila, now nearly three, denied citizenship because Lavi cannot prove nationality of donor parents .
US law demands children have biological connection to at least one parent . |
195,048 | 887af21df3042591b687629815ddb0bf764cd981 | By . Sarah Dean . Twelve puppies found living in their own filth while locked inside an underground bunker have been rescued from a cruel puppy farm. Sought after breeds, including King Charles spaniels, labradors and German shepherds were kept three metres below ground in darkness with no fresh air, by a 43-year-old woman in Western Australia. 'The smell emanating from this is quite overpowering,' said an RSPCA rescuer as he lifted the lid of the bunker. Saved: 12 puppies were found locked up inside an underground bunker in countryside WA in January . Locked up: The dogs were kept in squalid conditions three metres below ground . Frantic: The puppies can be seen climbing up the walls in an RSPCA video. They look desperate to escape . Fifty dogs in total were saved from a hidden country side farm in South Doodlakine, on January 24, 2012. Katherine Lisa King had already been banned from owning an animal for a decade in 2004, so she moved her sick money making puppy farm underground in what is believed to be an attempt to avoid detection. The horrific animal cruelty was filmed in an RSPCA rescue video. The puppies can be seen yelping for help, as the small circular lid to their underground kennel is lifted. A frantic brown and white King Charles spaniel can be seen desperately trying to jump up towards the bunker's exit. They were found living on a floor littered with dirty old newspaper. A yellow bucket of brown food was placed against the wall. Many of the 50 dogs were sick with infections including ear mite and secondary infections resulting from failure to treat the conditions by taking the animals to a vet. Cruel: The dogs had no daylight and dirty old newspaper surrounded them . Infected: Many of the dogs were sick with ear mite and secondary infections resulting from failure to treat the conditions by taking the animals to a vet . Shocking: The circular entrance to the puppy bunker was well hidden on the farmland . The popular breeds, which also included west highland terriers and Tibetan terriers, were roughly segregated in different areas of the property. Amanda Swift of the RSPCA told Seven News: 'It was difficult for us to find, it was well hidden. The dogs were down there... we don't know for how long.' The puppies were to be sold at high prices in pet shops and online. Free: A white puppy is brought up to the sunlight after being kept in the bunker . Sad: 50 dogs in total were rescued from the appalling conditions on the farm . Inside: A photo taken from above the bunker gives a glimpse of the disgusting conditions the dogs were kept in . Ms King was found guilty on three counts of animal cruelty in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday and fined $11,000. She has also been banned from going within 10 metres of any animal for five years and was ordered to pay $20,000 in costs. 'The dogs had been placed in an alien and terrible environment and should never have been placed in the underground bunker,' Magistrate Stephen Wilson said, WA Today reported. 'There was no sunlight, no fresh air or flow of air and there was a stench emanating from the when her current banning order expires from bunker,' he said. Katherine Lisa King (seen here hiding her face), from South Doodlakine, had already been banned from owning an animal for a decade . Mystery: Amanda Swift of the RSPCA said they didn't know how long the dogs were down there . | Katherine Lisa King kept 50 dogs in total at her puppy farm in South Doodlakine, in countryside WA .
RSPCA officers filmed the moment they rescued 12 puppies from a bunker .
It is not known how long they had been kept in the disgusting conditions .
43-year-old had already been banned from owning an animal for 10 years .
She was fined $11,000 at Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday .
Found guilty of three counts of animal cruelty . |
252,917 | d3573325d568692505a6c9a7b0d3e6d91a0941a8 | (CNN) -- Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi hailed his team after qualifying from the toughest group at the Asian Cup in Qatar, becoming the first team to reach the quarterfinals after beating North Korea on Saturday. Iran, seeking a record fourth title but first since 1976, followed up the opening 2-1 win over defending champions Iraq with a 1-0 victory in Doha thanks to a second-half goal from Karim Ansari Fard to go through with a match to spare. Iraq's chances of going through were boosted by a last-gasp 1-0 win over the United Arab Emirates in Saturday's second Group D fixture. The result left Iraq three points behind Iran on three, with North Korea and the U.A.E. on one. "The qualification of our team, for me, is a fantastic accomplishment," Ghotbi, who moved to the U.S. in his teens and learned to coach there, told the Asian Cup website. An ominous sign ahead of the 2022 World Cup? "Our group was the 'group of death' and I still believe it is the most difficult group in the tournament. To achieve this result two games in a row, I'm very proud of my players. "Iran is capable of playing much better football. We will show that in the coming games. We will be fitter and more confident and hopefully you'll see much better performances from our team." Ansari Fard, a 20-year-old striker, struck the winner in the 63rd minute from Pejman Nouri's cross after Iran struggled to break down the well-organized Korean defense. "Playing North Korea is always difficult. They defend with numbers, they are organized, they are disciplined, they fight, they have pace and they are dangerous on the counter-attack," Ghotbi said. Socceroos deny South Koreans . Korea's best chance came when Hong Yong-jo's shot shaved the crossbar in time added on, leaving his team needing to beat Iraq in Wednesday's final round of matches. "The next match is very critical for our team to go for the knockout stage but we will try our best," Korea coach Jo Tong-sop said. "In terms of the system, we converted to 4-4-2 and we combine attack and defense, and in this way we created new tactics for our team. For the next match, I think we have to again put the emphasis on defense and try to score goals on the counter-attack." The U.A.E. seemed set to have earned a second successive goalless draw until an own-goal by defender Walid Abbas in the third minute of time added on gave Iraq a much-needed victory. U.A.E. defender Hamdan Al Kamali headed against the post early on and striker Ahmed Khalil missed from close range, while Iraq hit the woodwork twice just before halftime through Nashat Akram and Qusay Muneer. Khalil smashed a shot against the bar after the hour mark, but the unlucky Abbas decisively turned the ball into his own net in injury-time as he tried to cut out a cross from Iraq captain Younis Mahmoud. "It was a little bit lucky but at the end of the day we tried our best to force our luck in the game," Iraq's German coach Wolfgang Sidka said. "We had three strikers up front and I believe that we were rewarded. Sometimes if you have bad luck, you must force your luck to get it back. I believe that today we managed to force our own luck and we did it with a fighting spirit." | Three-time champions Iran beat North Korea to reach last eight at Asian Cup .
Karim Ansari Fard's second-half winner puts Iran through ahead of final Group D match .
North Korea need to beat defending champions Iraq in Wednesday's last game .
Second-placed Iraq snatch last-gasp 1-0 win over United Arab Emirates in Saturday's other game . |
267,438 | e65a659972f50d78f81bba183a23f2aad63ab0fa | Lensman turns 'the skin into a canvas' with pictures of made-up models in stark American landscape . When most of us take pictures for the family album we want to be able to recognise who is in the shot. But photographer Jean-Paul Bourdier has dedicated his time to making his subjects look like they are not even there. In these remarkable snaps bodies are painted to mimic backdrops of deserts and snow-covered fields. The hills are alive! Jean-Paul Bourdier's painted ladies peak at the mountains . This pair were boulder-ed over by the stunning scenery . They couldn't see the wood for the trees, now they are the new forest . The Frenchman, who lives in Berkeley, California, has spent has spent the last 15 years taking pictures in the American West. He was inspired by seeing that there was 'no separation between the universe and myself.' Jean-Paul, a professor at Berkeley, said: 'I scarcely see the final result large enough to enjoy it. Only when I make large prints do I enjoy them. 'For me, turning the skin into a canvas for the imagination is both an artistic and a spiritual endeavour. Sometimes we all need a moment to reflect . Never again would the husbands be trusted with the sunblock. What a way to get a precipice of the action . He claimed the painted look transformed the body 'into a living sculpture, lit up by its godly colours' that could reach its potential 'to tune in or become an extension of the cosmos.' 'As I conceive it, skin painting marks a person's external appearance while also bringing out the inner self,' Jean-Paul said. 'They put us in contact with nature and with the raw, at the same time, they turn us into non-natural beings, opening the way to experience the invisible or the unknown. Spot the difference - looking out over the desert . What's black, and white, and red all over? Not these two, they are a little blue. Jean-Paul sets up his models for the perfect picture. The professor daubs his model in blue paint to match the sky . 'Body and earth are one. If the body is seen from the back, the front becomes an open field, a place that cannot yet be identified, a place of possibilities. 'In working with the bare and painted body, I am also working with the demands and challenges of a body-mind state that I call, "not two-many twos." 'For example, without clothes the body regains its undivided primary nature, being intricately part of the forces of the universe, it is no longer estranged from the environment nor split into an upper and a lower part.' 'The visual works I come up with are a continual study of how we physically, rhythmically relate to this universe from the specific, intimate bodyhouse.' | Lensman turns 'the skin into a canvas' with pictures of made-up models in stark American landscape . |
198,783 | 8d51b266df630345c667bdbc07f172b906e627af | (CNN) -- An Indiana woman shot her three children and set the family's house on fire before turning the gun on herself, police said. The bodies of the four were discovered Friday, when police in Austin, Indiana, responded to the home to conduct a welfare check. "Upon arriving, the officer had to make a forced entry into the residence," Indiana State Police said Monday in a statement. "Once in the residence, he saw parts of the home had suffered recent fire damage and also located four deceased persons in the home." The state police assisted with the investigation, which preliminarily concluded that 30-year-old Amanda Bennett shot the children -- 14-year-old Jasmine Abbott, 9-year-old Katelynn Bennett and 4-year-old Ryan Bennett -- before starting the fire and shooting herself. "While the investigation remains open until autopsy reports are finalized, indications are this case is a tragic case of murder/suicide that claimed three innocent lives along with the suspect of the murders, Amanda Bennett," the police statement said. All four apparently died from gunshot wounds to the head. Amanda Bennett and Katelynn Bennett also suffered smoke inhalation, police said. The family's dog was also shot, but survived and was being treated at a veterinary clinic, authorities said. Jasmine, the teenager, had made references to marital problems between her parents and a possible divorce, friend Karen Barrett told CNN affiliate WDRB. Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Jerry Goodin told CNN that authorities examined online content as part of their investigation, including a posting purportedly from Amanda Bennett that blamed her husband, according to WDRB, saying, "You got what you wanted, no wife and no kids." However, the reasons for the shootings remain unclear, Goodin said. "The only person that knows the motive is Amanda," he said. Austin is about 35 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. CNN's Ashley Hayes contributed to this report. | Mother, three children died from gunshot wounds to the head .
Authorities believe mother Amanda Bennett set fire to the home .
Bennett was believed to have written an online post blaming her husband . |
243,775 | c7892591163d9d36031000294ebe37d3e3b4cf25 | By . Chris Pleasance . PUBLISHED: . 04:16 EST, 9 December 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 06:25 EST, 26 December 2013 . Pope Francis has spoken about how a nun saved his life while he was suffering from a lung condition aged 21 . He is the spiritual healer for millions across the globe, but now Pope Francis has revealed that his life was saved by a nun when he was just 21. While in hospital with a recurring lung problem, the pontiff says his doctor was not prescribing him enough antibiotics. However his life was saved by a nun who instinctively tripled his dose, a feat the Pope puts down to her working on the front line and being with the sick every day. The remarks were made in a new book, I Fioretti di Papa Francesco, (The Little Flowers of Pope Francis), in which Pope Francis talks to Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Vatican journalist. The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's condition came to light during his Papal election in March this year, after his predecessor became the first Pope in 600 years to retire due to poor health. Francis reportedly had three cysts on his lung, before having part of the organ removed, though Vatican officials have always said they have seen him in nothing other than good health. Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Tornielli agreed. He said: 'His health is good and he shows great stamina. He works many hours a day and spends many hours a week greeting people in St . Peter’s Square in the freezing cold.' Mr Tornielli also revealed how Pope Francis made a personal phone call to a woman whose son is addicted to drugs after she passed a note written on a napkin to one of his officials. The incident happened at Bueno Aires airport, after which Francis called the woman and said he would pray for her and her son. Francis's condition was thrown under the spotlight during his Papal election in March after his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict, retired due to poor health . Proving that Francis has always been a man of the people, the book also recounts how he dined with the poor while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. After eating with the Pope, one man told the author: 'He looked me in the eyes and said to me: "I like to sit at the tables of the poor because they serve food and share with their hearts."' In another chapter, Francis reveals how he took a strong stand when priest Father 'Pepe’ Jose Maria di Paolo received death threats over his work with drug addicts. The former archbishop defended him, insisting that he would rather be killed than see any of his priests suffer. | Pope Francis reportedly suffered from cysts on his lung .
Says he was saved by a nun who treated him while in hospital .
New book also reveals the times he ate with the poor in Buenos Aries . |
222,616 | ac2fa4fad478a39adf1067c0e85d52373854bb6e | Cruel: Natalie Armitage (pictured), 20, admitted four animal welfare charges when she appeared before magistrates . A pet owner has been banned from keeping animals after she starved her cat so badly he broke into a hamster's cage and ate the animal inside. Jeffrey the cat was only allowed to drink water from the toilet and eat stale dog biscuits so in desperation he mauled the rodent, a court heard. Natalie Armitage, 20, has admitted four animal welfare charges and has been banned from keeping animals for five years. Calderdale Magistrates Court heard that RSPCA inspectors repeatedly called at her address in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, in October last year because of welfare concerns. The police were called to gain access to the house, which was in darkness. 'In the living room the hamster cage was broken into pieces and there was no sign of the hamster,' said Tanya Forrest, prosecuting. Eventually, Armitage answered the door to an inspector and was asked 'where is the hamster?' to which she replied: 'I think the cat has eaten it.' Ms Forrest said: 'I think that is evidenced by the cage - the cat broke into it. 'Regrettably, the consequence was the hamster met its fate.' Armitage, who was not represented, said she went to Crewe for dental treatment but her son was taken ill and she was away longer than expected. She had fallen out with her mum and sister and had no-one to access the property. Armitage said she thought she was away for around six nights. Hungry: Jeffrey the cat (pictured) was so starved of suitable food and water that he destroyed the cage of the terrified animal and gobbled him up, a court heard . Scene: The RSPCA found that the hamster's cage had been broken open so the cat could find a meal . Chairman of the bench, Andrew Entwistle, told her: 'You left the cat for longer than you like to admit. The cat did suffer. The hamster is no more.' The charges she admitted covered not providing a suitable environment for Jeffrey, not ensuring his need for a suitable diet including water, failing to protect Jeffrey from pain, suffering, injury and disease, and not protecting the hamster from pain, suffering, injury and disease. Armitage, who is on benefits, was fined £50 with £200 costs and a £15 pounds victim surcharge, and was disqualified from keeping animals for five years. A deprivation order was made to take Jeffrey, currently in boarding, off her. Carnage: Jeffrey was only able to crink toilet water and eat dry dog biscuits, but he is now re-homed . After the case, an RSPCA spokesperson said: 'This is a very sad situation for both the cat and the hamster. Both were left to fend for themselves for nearly a whole week. 'It is not the cat's fault that he found himself drawn, through hunger, to seek out his only option for sustenance. But on the other hand, one can only imagine the hamster's terror as his cage was broken apart. 'It is an offence to leave your pets without arranging for their basic welfare needs to be taken care of.' | Natalie Armitage, 20, left Jeffrey with only toilet water and dog biscuits .
The cat was so hungry he broke into hamster's cage and ate terrified rodent .
Owner is fined and banned from keeping animals for five years . |
6,597 | 12ba5e295c4afe1e7fd860d975ad93f0ca385d58 | (CNN) -- On the evening of December 3, 2008, John Francis Cahill, a police officer for 19 years, walked up a trail in California's Santa Cruz Mountains. He stopped, took out a .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun and shot himself in the temple. He was 42 years old. He was the father of two daughters. He was my firstborn son. Most Americans are aware of the high rate of suicide among soldiers. Less attention has been paid to those who protect us on the home front. The Badge of Life, a group of former cops dedicated to preventing police suicide, reports that about 145 police officers take their lives every year, twice the number of cops killed by felons. The rate of police suicides is more than 1½ times the rate of the general population. The Badge of Life also reports that for every suicide, a thousand working cops suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and another thousand struggle with serious depression, marital problems or substance abuse. My son had been through a painful divorce and was distraught about the failure of his marriage, his financial problems and the possible impact of the divorce on his youngest daughter. Only after losing my son did I learn how susceptible cops are to suicide. Kevin Gilmartin, a former Arizona police officer turned clinical psychologist, wrote a book called "Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement," and consults with the FBI and police agencies around the country. His main message is that cops can never let their guard down, that the very things that make cops safe and effective on the job can cause great harm in their personal and family life, and in some cases, destroy them. Gilmartin writes vividly of the dangers of the "hypervigilance biological roller-coaster," where officers on duty are "alive, alert, energetic, involved and humorous," but when off duty, are "tired, detached, isolated and apathetic." He points out that hypervigilance on the job produces a healthy amount of cynicism and mistrust, which is necessary for street survival, but off the job, can be destructive for emotional survival and relationships with family and loved ones. Good cops create control out of chaos, and are willing to risk everything during a critical incident, which is usually short-lived. But when a cop gets depressed, these professional habits can become lethal. Cops don't do well when they can't control their situation or the source of their depression, and they begin to despair when they see that their problem -- the "critical incident" -- is never-ending. That's what happened to John. He told me how frustrating it was not to be in control, and he often told me, "This will never end." He went from depression to despair. I believe he was convinced that everyone would be better off if he was gone. John and I were close. I knew he was struggling, but my perception of him as secure and healthy never allowed me to imagine he could end his own life. Ellen Kirschman, a psychologist, police trainer, and author of "I Love a Cop," writes about the paradox between an officer's work life and personal life, and how police work changes people. She emphasizes that cops are oriented toward control and details situations that lead to suicide, including, "family conflicts, relationship losses, depression, immediate access to guns, poor coping skills, financial difficulties, shame, failure and a distorted but culturally correct sense of invincibility and independence." Kirschman defines trauma as a normal reaction to an abnormal event, an emotional reaction that can lead to depression and suicidal thoughts. A police officer can be traumatized by many events that are abnormal or infrequent in other people's lives: shootings, a civilian getting severely injured in a police action, a child's death, a violent confrontation, a bad car crash or a gory crime scene. John Violanti, a former New York state trooper, is a public health professor who has extensively researched police suicide. He is the co-editor of "Police Suicide: Tactics for Prevention," which advocates peer support and stress management programs and emphasizes the importance of mental health treatment and a culture in which asking for help is not seen as a poor career move or a sign of weakness. The Badge of Life promotes "emotional self-care training," with the idea that every officer is a potential trauma victim. The members believe suicide prevention programs are crucial, but argue that departments must go beyond that to train officers to recognize trauma in themselves, to manage stress, to become resilient, and to understand the value of healthy lifestyles, including exercise. My son was the second San Jose police officer to commit suicide in 2008. As a result, the San Jose Police Department started to require agency-wide training. The department told its officers that if they were depressed and feeling suicidal, they could come in confidentially, receive counseling and keep their jobs. In the year after John died, 12 officers came in, got help and stayed on the job. The San Francisco Police Department lost three officers to suicide in 2010. Today, the SFPD's advanced officer training program includes a two-hour session on trauma, depression, substance abuse, suicide and the value of an annual, voluntary mental health checkup, not unlike an annual physical. As part of that training, I speak each week to 30 officers. I tell them John's story, summarize the research on police suicide, tell them that the very things that make them effective as cops can be destructive in their personal lives, and stress that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. When I'm back in my car I usually fall apart, revisiting the horror of four years ago. But I know I'm honoring my son by doing this. The California Highway Patrol has also aggressively addressed suicide prevention. But too many other police departments across the nation, even as they invest heavily in training in weapons use, tactics and physical safety, are not acknowledging the hidden risks of police work and protecting those who protect the rest of us. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian Cahill. | Brian Cahill became a suicide prevention trainer after his son, a police officer, killed himself .
About 145 cops commit suicide a year, he says. Thousands have PTSD and depression .
Cahill: Cops see traumatic stuff every day. What helps them on the job can harm them at home .
Cahill: Police departments need to teach officers to recognize trauma and provide help . |
59,933 | aa462b7e4020ace0e96ca69ce4bfee9b32b42f39 | New York (CNN) -- America's job crisis is a result of decades of shopping on credit and underinvesting in research to fuel new industries, says analyst Fareed Zakaria. In a recent cover story in Time magazine and in a special on CNN this weekend. Zakaria traces the growing loss of faith in the American dream and the ways that technology and globalization have put millions of middle-class jobs at risk. The author and host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" spoke to CNN on Thursday. Here is an edited transcript: . CNN: What can we do about the threat to American jobs? Fareed Zakaria: The first thing we have to do is to stop doing what we've been doing for almost 20 years, which is pretending we don't have a problem. We've been kicking the can down the road, we've blamed other people, blamed other countries for these issues. And most important, we've deluded ourselves that there is no crisis because we've kept the economy going by overconsuming. From the 1950s, America had a very stable pattern of consumption. Consumer expenditures made up between 60 and 65 percent of GDP [Gross Domestic Product] -- in the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s, that was the pattern. Then in the early 1980s, that starts going up, and it goes up to 70 percent of GDP by 2001 and it stayed there ever since. Now this wouldn't be a problem if we actually had that money, but we have been consuming using borrowed money for the last 20 years. So the average American household now has 13 credit cards, 40 percent of which have an outstanding balance. Debt has gone from $700 billion in 1974 to $14 trillion now. This is completely unsustainable. A fundamental way to think about it is that we have to shift this economy from an over-reliance on consumption and move it more toward investment. CNN: How do we do that? Zakaria: Let's talk about what we need first. One of the things I'm struck by in talking to corporate CEOs -- these are all real free-market types -- but they all agree that the key to getting growth and middle-class jobs back is that we make massive investments, investments in technology, investments in research and development, investments in infrastructure. That is in a sense, investing in the middle class, because that is investing in the industries of the future, the industries that will create middle-class jobs. We used to spend 3 percent of GDP on research and development. We don't do that now even though Obama has raised it a lot. I would argue that we actually need to do a lot more than we did in the 1950s, because in the 1950s there were millions of jobs for semiskilled labor, manufacturing jobs, making steel, making cars. All those jobs are under enormous competitive pressure from both technology and globalization. And so we need jobs in the new industries, industries of the future, knowledge based industries, scientific industries. To get those jobs and to make sure that American companies dominate them will take huge investments. CNN: Should they be government investments? Zakaria: That's what's produced the semiconductor industry, it was government investment. That's what created the internet. Al Gore may not have created the internet, but DARPA certainly did. That's the Defense Department venture capital group. And GPS, the technology that's now fueling the next internet revolution, the mobile revolution, that was also a U.S. Defense Department project. Those are now producing hundreds of billions of dollars for the private sector, all started by government funding. Zakaria: The middle class is being hollowed out . There's another urgency. We're falling behind. Just today in the news, on the front page of The New York Times, China has developed the fastest computer in the world. Why was that? Was it because of unfair trade practices or an undervalued currency? No. It was because the government of China has made massive investments in technology ... in many of these areas we've lost a lot of ground. CNN: How can the United States pay for this? Zakaria: I don't believe in a free lunch. For 20 years we've pretended that we can have our cake and eat it, too. We could have tax cuts and prescription drugs for the elderly and a war in Iraq and Afghanistan and nobody has to pay for it. The government did it just as individuals did it -- by borrowing. This is going to cost money and you're going to have to raise revenue. The best revenue raising device is a consumption tax, sometimes called a value added tax, or a national sales tax. Every industrialized country in the world has it. We are the only ones who don't. If we were to have a 5 to 7 percent consumption tax, it would be the lowest in the industrialized world. It would raise a lot of revenue. You could set it up so that the revenues from that tax would only go into investment, none of it is for current expenses. And if there is a consequence of this tax, which is that Americans consume a little less, that ain't the worst thing in the world either. CNN: You wrote in your piece in Time about immigration and skilled labor. How is that a part of the equation? Zakaria: Perhaps the most intelligent investment we can make is in human capital, particularly in talented people in science, math and computers. So what do we do? Well we can try to revitalize science education in America, which we must do, but it's going to be a long slog. We've fallen quite far behind. But we have been this amazing magnet -- the brightest students in the world come to America because we have the best colleges and universities in the world, and we are also seen as a place in which people find it attractive to study and work. But then, after we train all these hundreds of thousands of students from all over the world, the cream of the crop, we throw them out of the country, we tell them don't you dare work here, because that would mean you would invent here, and hire people here, create new companies here, file new patents here, pay taxes here. No, no, no, go back to your country. We've trained them often at taxpayer expense. Someone getting a computer science degree at the University of California at Berkeley is being trained at the California government's expense and is then thrown out of the country. We don't reap any benefits from it. This is a great investment strategy for the future of China and India. But it's a terrible investment strategy for the United States. CNN: What can be done? Zakaria: [New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg has suggested that everyone who gets a science or math PhD in this country should be given a green card along with their degree. And I think that's a wonderful idea. We should frankly make it incredibly easy for these people to stay here. They are the people who overwhelmingly create jobs. ... Within a year or two they begin to pay back into the system at multiples of what they might have ever cost. And yet because of the usual political paralysis and dysfunction, it is right now unthinkable that we would ever enact a program like that. On the contrary, we're trying to throw more people out. CNN: You don't think there could be consensus on this in Washington right now? Zakaria: The problem in Washington is that the minute one side suggests something, the other side demagogues it. So the incentive to come to the center is vanishing. The minute you try to come to the center, if you're a Republican, Rush Limbaugh will denounce you, Glenn Beck will denounce you. There will be a primary opponent in your district who will be able to raise money. CNN: Will Tuesday's election change that? Zakaria: No. I fear it will actually exacerbate it. A lot of Republicans will get elected, will tell you they are mad as hell about the deficit, and the solution is to cut taxes. This is insanity, cutting taxes will create an even larger deficit. This is math, this is not politics. ... In the face of the problems we have, to have one more experiment in the idea that if we cut taxes, this will somehow goose the economy, we've been there done that. [President George W.] Bush had this massive tax cut and it produced almost no growth. What it did produce was an $800 million hole in the budget. CNN: How does education fit into the picture? Zakaria: The countries that have been able to maintain a manufacturing base, such as Germany, are really worth studying. The Germans have high taxes, they have lots of regulations, they have strong unions and yet they've seen their imports increase year after year. They've weathered the economic crisis very well, they've had 15 months of falling unemployment numbers, and why is that? Because they have really focused on scientific education, technical education, apprenticeship programs, retraining. They focus on high-end manufacturing, they train and retrain their workers. We don't have any such systems in America. We need there to be more of a coordinated effort by government, business and educational institutions -- a triangle of training. We've been too cavalier about letting skills of higher manufacturing erode among American workers. That work has not gone to India or China, that work has gone to Germany and Canada and Japan, other high wage, high income countries. | For decades, Americans have been overconsuming on credit, says Fareed Zakaria .
He says government has to fund major investments in research and development .
Zakaria says investment will have to be paid for through new revenues .
"Restoring the American Dream" airs Saturday 9 p.m. ET/PT, Sunday 10 a.m. ET/PT . |
56,470 | a004b1328f5180c4ff2ebfecd491605d97545715 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . Last updated at 4:39 PM on 5th July 2011 . David Peters, 30, has been linked to at least 128 different identities which he used to fleece banks, mortgage lenders and government agencies . A master conman thought to be one of Britain's most prolific identity fraudsters is facing jail after admitting an eight-year scam which netted him at least £650,000. David Peters, 30, has been linked to at least 128 different identities, which he used to fleece banks, mortgage lenders and government agencies. He stole £168,575 in benefits from three London councils, by claiming to be both tenant and landlord at the same address. Peters obtained a £250,000 mortgage for a house in Edgware, North-West London, using one of 74 separate driving licences he fraudulently obtained. He got a second mortgage on a flat in Essex worth £157,495 and took more than £60,000 from Lloyds TSB in a series of bank frauds. Nigerian Peters, who was also named as Oluseyi Jeremiah Adebayo on court documents, was finally caught last year after City of London police launched an investigation following a tip-off by the DVLA and DWP. Inquiries in April 2010 discovered he had successfully applied for 74 UK driving licences under false names at various rural post offices across the country, using a checking system where the cashier certifies the documents as genuine. On other occasions Peters applied for a change of name via deed poll to get his hands on genuine licences. Through photographic evidence from the DWP, DVLA and banks Peters has been linked to 128 different identities. Peters yesterday admitted multiple counts of making a false statement with a view to obtaining benefit; possession of criminal property; obtaining property by deception; fraud and possession of false identification documents. Scales of justice on top of the Old Bailey in London where the case was heard. Peters will be sentenced here on Wednesday . Police inquiries have discovered Peters was running the con from as far back as October 2002 until December of last year. He will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Wednesday morning by Judge Gerald Gordon QC. Following his guilty pleas, Detective Inspector Richard Fisher, from the City of London Police, said: 'This is the biggest case of identity theft we have ever investigated, with banks, mortgage lenders and government agencies all being caught in Peters' web of deception. 'The sheer number of the fake identities we discovered are evidence of how Peters was a full-time fraudster who was committed to funding a life of excess for himself at the expense of others. Jerry Alfred Zaandam . Goke Jerry Adeyimi . David Johnson Brown . Kevin Michael Peters . John Donald Nelson . Desmond Brown Jackson . Gavin Matthew Jacob . David Stephen Michaels . Peter Oliver Phillips . Daniel Jackson . George Fargo . John Lewis Lawrence . Gerry Arnold Johnson . David Francis Dyer . Peter Kevin Dyer . 'By working closely with the DWP we have brought an end to Peters days of deceit, while at the same time sending out a warning to anyone else who likes to act as someone they are not as means to commit a crime.' Peters fraudulently claimed council tax and housing benefit from Barking and Dagenham council, Brent and Enfield local authorities, he also helped himself to jobseeker's allowance and tax credits from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. He used the driving licences to obtain a mortgage with the Kensington Mortgage Company, worth £256,500 for a property in Edgware, and got a similar deal from Birmingham Midshires for a flat there and one in Dagenham. Peters, of Edgware, North-West London, admitted a total of 29 charges. They were six counts of making a false statement with a view to obtaining benefit; 12 counts of possession of criminal property; three counts of obtaining property by deception; six of fraud and four counts of possession of false identification documents. The charges variously date between October 18, 2002 and December 1, 2010. He was remanded in custody to be sentenced on Wednesday. | Nigerian who had 74 driving licences caught after tip-off .
Took £168, 575 in benefits from three London councils - by claiming to be both tenant and landlord .
City of London Police: 'This is the biggest case of identity theft we have ever investigated' |
30,188 | 55c616b00c1ab147298f80d0e2a051f27d5394f0 | This is the first picture of grandmother Mollie Haines who burned to death in a fireball after her car was hit from behind by a Porsche on the motorway. The 73-year-old had broken down in the middle of the M40 as she was en-route to see her daughter and grandchildren when a Porsche Cayenne careered into the back of her vehicle. Her Nissan Almeira which was catapulted 50 yards along the carriageway before bursting into flames, trapping the mother-of-three inside the mangled wreckage. Fireball horror: Grandmother Mollie Haines burned alive when her car burst into flames (right) after being struck from behind by a Porsche Cayenne on the M40 . Incinerated: The golf club president was trapped inside the car after it was shunted 50 yards along the motrway by the impact . Scores of motorists caught up in . queues behind the crash could only look on helplessly as golf club . president Mrs Haines, who was alone in her vehicle, died in the inferno. Today . her husband Charles and their three daughters paid tribute to the . orthoptist, who was raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and educated at . St Andrews in Scotland. 'Mollie . was very much the focal point for all of us and losing her so suddenly . in these circumstances has left us deeply shocked and saddened,' they . said. 'She will be remembered for her lovely smile, her kind and generous ways and her great sense of humour. 'She . was a friend to so many people and we are very grateful for the huge . number of tributes and messages we have received from people who knew . her.' Destruction: Motorists are diverted off the motorway as emergency services investigate the crash and clear up the scene . Tragic: Mrs Haines was en-route to see her daughter and grandchildren when the Porsche Cayenne careered into the back of her vehicle . The grandmother-of-seven was travelling . the 120 miles from her home in Barnt Green near Bromsgrove, . Worcestershire, to visit her daughter in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey, . on July 18. She was less than an hour away from her destination when she broke down alongside junction 2 on the M40, the turning to Beaconsfield, Bucks. Her car slowed to a stop in the middle lane and the driver of the Porsche, who was following, was unable to avoid running into the back of her. Mrs Haines' body was so badly charred that police had major difficulties trying to identify her. Probe: The driver of the Prosche Cayenne has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and has been released on police bail . Screening the wreck: Firefighters erected tarpaulins while they remove Mr Haines's charred remains . The driver of the 4x4 Porsche - a 47-year-old man - was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. He has been released on police bail pending further inquiries. Keen tennis player, Mrs Haines, had been a member of Blackwell Ladies' Golf Club for 25 years and three years ago was elected president. When she was a young woman, her work in the eye care profession took her to Malta where she met her future husband Charles, who was then serving in the Navy. They married in 1963. Mrs Haines later worked at the Midland Eye Hospital in Birmingham for more than 20 years while her husband, who is now retired. He was a consultant paediatrician over a similar period of time at the former Bromsgrove General Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and later the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Mollie Haines burned alive after her Nissan Almeira was struck by 4x4 .
Motorists could only watch in horror as golf club president incinerated .
Body so badly charred that police had difficulties trying to identify her .
Was on way to see children and grandchildren when she broke down .
Family pay tribute to her 'lovely smile, her kind and generous ways'
Porsche driver arrested for 'causing death by dangerous driving' |
182,077 | 77be9ba4374109fdba8304db475854d346b13df2 | (EW.com) -- Shia LaBeouf's short film "HowardCantour.com" wasn't exactly a new thing. The LaBeouf-directed short premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Critic's Week sidebar in 2012, and, despite some acclaim, little was made of his portrait of an online film critic. 'Charlie Countryman' redband trailer: Shia LaBeouf, urinals, ecstasy, and strip clubs . But the film was made available online Monday, and things quickly spiraled out of control when bloggers noticed that LaBeouf's short film bared a striking resemblance to author Daniel Clowes' comic "Justin M. Damiano." Soon after, articles started dissecting the similarities and direct references to Clowes' text without any attribution, and the video disappeared behind a password-protected wall. LaBeouf had remained out of touch for most of the day, and his reps did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment. But then, early Tuesday morning, LaBeouf decided to tweet his thoughts on the kerfuffle, culminating in the mea culpa, "I f****d up." Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' will feature body-doubles . "Copying isn't particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work," he tweeted. "In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation ... I'm embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration ... I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it. I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work." EW's request for comment to Clowes was not returned. See the original story at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. | Shia LaBeouf failed to credit the inspiration for his short film .
The short bears a striking resemblance to a Daniel Clowes' comic .
LaBeouf admitted on Twitter that he "neglected to follow proper accreditation"
He apologized to Clowes by saying, "I f****d up" |
127,633 | 30fcc57e4027bba6baf85f5d6551b075491e0647 | Sir Ben Ainslie and Georgie Thompson have spoken of their gratitude to Sir Richard Branson after he came to their aid after their boat suffered mechanical problems during their honeymoon. The newlyweds had been sailing close to Branson's Necker Island, in the British Virgin Islands, after tying the knot in December when their boat developed a problem with its sail furling system and they messaged for help. Members of the island's watersports team helped to cut the sail and prevent the stricken vessel being wrecked on a reef, and Branson duly invited them to stay on the island for a few days. Necker Island staff members (from left) Marco Bava, George Lambert, Adam Chubbock pose with Georgie Thompson and Sir Ben Ainslie after they helped rescue them following a technical fault on their yacht . The furling system on the yacht broke, meaning ithe sail couldn't be hoisted or lowered . 'Unfortunately we had a mechanical failure with the mast furling system which, for just the two of us, was a bit much to try to fix on our own,' four-time Olympic champion Ainslie told Sky Sports News. 'We were very lucky that we were right next to Necker Island and some of the guys from the sailing centre, I have to say, were absolutely amazing and between the four of us we managed to sort out the situation. 'Then Richard very kindly phoned up and invited us over for dinner.' The newlyweds didn't let their sailing disaster dampen their honeymoon and joined Sir Richard for a few days on Necker Island . Sir Richard tweeted about the incident and wrote a post on his blog saying he had never expected to rescue an Olympic sailor from a boat . Thompson, pleased to put the ordeal behind her and spend some time onshore, gladly accepted Branson's offer. 'Dinner became a two-day stay which was lovely because right at the end of our honeymoon, having been on a boat for three weeks, I think that was very welcome that we were able to have a couple of days in luxury without any mechanical failures happening onboard,' the TV sports presenter said. Branson and Ainslie have had troubles at sea together when they had to abandon an attempt to set an Atlantic crossing record in 2008 when powerful winds and high waves damaged their boat. Ainslie, the most decorated Olympic sailor in history, has won medals at each of the last five Olympics and in 2013 helped Oracle Team USA overturn an 8-1 deficit to win the America's Cup. The couple were married at the end of December and enjoyed some time in Antigua before heading out on a yacht around the British Virgin Islands . Romantic ceremony: The lovebirds exchanged vows at London's Royal Hampton Court on December 20 . | Sir Ben Ainslie and Georgie Thompson rescued by Necker Island staff .
Yacht's furling system jammed and sail could not be hoisted or lowered .
Virgin boss wrote a blog post about the unexpected rescue .
Newlyweds now spending a few days on Necker Island . |
225,604 | b020a79aedfbd9825f105a96c4dd568e7e457674 | The official Student Loans Company has been accused of using ‘Wonga tactics’ to harass thousands of graduates who are behind on their repayments. It has invented a fictional firm – Smith Lawson and Company Recovery Services – which adopts the same threatening language as private debt firms and solicitors to chase payments. The tactic appears similar to an approach taken by the payday lender Wonga, which was last week ordered to pay £2.6million in compensation after sending letters to thousands of customers from made-up debt recovery firms. The Student Loans Company is a subsidiary of the Government and reports to Vince Cable's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . Both sets of revelations have triggered calls for a police inquiry into what appears to be evidence of mis-representation and harassment. Warnings sent by ‘Smith Lawson and Company’ to graduates for the last nine years carry a banner in red stating ‘Do Not Ignore This Letter’, with a demand for payment within seven days and a threat of legal action. They gave the impression of a separate company with the line: ‘We are instructed by our client, in connection with the sum outstanding shown above.’ But the supposed firm does not exist and is little more than a masthead designed to intimidate. The Student Loans Company (SLC) is a subsidiary of the Government and reports to Vince Cable’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Threat: An extract from the letter sent to graduates . The firm said it introduced Smith Lawson as a ‘cost-saving exercise’ because the use of conventional debt collection agencies required payment of commission. Last week City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed Wonga would have to pay £2.6million compensation to 45,000 people sent letters from two invented debt recovery firms. Subsequently, City of London Police said it would investigate whether the lender and its millionaire founders had committed any criminal offences under a number of possible headings. These range from the Fraud Act – which states it is a crime to dishonestly make a false representation intending to make a gain or cause loss to another – and the Administration of Justice Act, which protects those in debt from harassment. There are also possible offences under the Solicitors Act of 1974, which makes it an offence for someone to falsely imply they are a solicitor, and sections of the Theft Act which cover demanding money with menaces. Consumer groups and lawyers say any evidence a government firm is adopting the same tactics at Wonga should mean it is also brought into the police investigation. The SLC has been sending out warning letters under the Smith Lawson name since at least 2005, suggesting tens of thousands will have been issued, not least because the number of former students who are in arrears is rising sharply. The bullying approach was backed up in Smith Lawson’s training manual which told staff that if people refused to pay ‘then the threat of legal action should be used’, including seeking a County Court Judgment. It advised: ‘The threat of a Debt Collection Agency should also be used, explaining that someone could actually call round to speak to them personally.’ The total amount owed by all students ballooned to £54.4billion in 2013/14 following the introduction of £9,000-a-year tuition fees in 2012. At the same time, the arrears soared from £12.7million to £38.2million. Last week City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority revealed Wonga would have to pay £2.6million compensation to 45,000 people sent letters from two invented debt recovery firms . Last night Marc Gander, founder of the Consumer Action Group, said: ‘When we find that Wonga tactics are being used by a lender which is so close to government … it shows very clearly how out of control the lending industry really is. We can only hope that the Student Loans Company faces a criminal investigation as well.’ Yesterday, the SLC said newer Smith Lawson letters no longer refer to the SLC as the ‘client’, adding: ‘Smith Lawson is a trading name for the Student Loans Company and this is made clear on all relevant correspondence to customers. Our communications were agreed with the Office for Fair Trading.’ | Student Loans Company has been accused of using 'Wonga tactics'
Fictional firm invented to harass graduates who are behind in repayments .
Revelation triggers call for police inquiry into use of controversial tactic . |
103,507 | 1178d2f39dea6cd5389eb0075be1cf5a3cbf5c4f | JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli troops have completed their withdrawal from Gaza after a three-week military campaign against Hamas militants, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday. Palestinians look at an damaged rocket launcher left behind by Israeli forces. "The forces are now redeployed outside the Gaza Strip, and are prepared for any development," a military statement read. During their withdrawal, Israeli troops warned Gaza residents to avoid unexploded bombs or shells left behind and report their location to Israeli authorities. Israel said it had achieved its goal to halt Hamas' firing of rockets into southern Israel from Gaza. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has controlled the territory since 2007, also declared victory in the conflict during a rally in Gaza City on Tuesday. Israeli troops began to withdraw Sunday following tentative, separate cease-fire declarations by Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Hamas. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited the territory Tuesday, criticized both sides and the international community for what he called their "collective political failure" in settling the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "I have condemned from the outbreak of this conflict the excessive use of force by Israeli forces in Gaza. I view the rocket attacks into Israel as completely unacceptable. We need to restore basic respect for civilians," he said. Watch troops prepare to withdraw » . The conflict, which began December 27, has left more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. Confirmation of the Israeli withdrawal came within a day of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the new president of the United States, replacing George W. Bush, whose administration was among the most supportive of Israel in decades. Ban said he hoped Obama would consider settling the conflict "a matter of priority." Speaking during a visit to Sderot, the southern Israeli city that has endured rocket fire from Hamas for years, Ban said the Bush administration was "leading and heavily engaged" in the region, but added, "Unfortunately, we have not achieved the goals." Obama has vowed to move swiftly and has said he was assembling a strong team to be "immediately engaged" on "day one." In a statement welcoming the new U.S. president, Olmert said Israel and the United States would remain "full partners in advancing peace and stability in the Middle East." CNN's Shira Medding contributed to this report. | Israel says it has removed its troops from Gaza after three-week offensive .
Both Israel, Hamas have declared victory in conflict .
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized both sides for fighting .
More than 1,300 people have died in Gaza operation . |
275,291 | f0a58e9327197f8320f037287b6ad4816bde9f6c | Chelsea want Cesc Fabregas to replace Frank Lampard. Fine player though Fabregas is, it is hard to imagine he will come near. Lampard changed English football. Click here to read Martin Samuel's column . Jose Mourinho is confident he has captured Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona to replace Frank Lampard at Chelsea and is hoping a deal can be announced before Spain face Holland in their opening World Cup game on Friday. He is convinced that Fabregas and Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa are both bound for Stamford Bridge this summer, as the Chelsea manager looks to spice up his attack ahead of a title challenge next season. The Blues finished third in the Premier League last season, just four points behind winners Manchester City, despite Mourinho repeatedly claiming they were not title challengers. VIDEO Scroll down for Cesc Fabregas: We never know what to expect from England . True blue? How Cesc Fabregas would look in a Chelsea shirt (image mocked up) Market movers: Mourinho also believes a deal for Atletico striker Diego Costa will be done by next week . It is hoped the signings of Fabregas and Costa, for £28million and £32m respectively, will help them win their first league title since the 2009-10 season. Despite Arsenal having a buy-back option on Fabregas, Arsene Wenger withdrew the Gunners from the race to sign the Barcelona midfielder, clearing the way for Chelsea. The midfielder, 27, who qualifies as a homegrown player in the Premier League after spending eight years at Arsenal, expressed an interest in moving back to England after just three years in Spain, having being told he could leave the Nou Camp. Confident: Mourinho believes both Fabregas and Costa are both Chelsea-bound this summer . And Spain and Barcelona team-mate Gerard Pique appeared to confirm Fabregas’ move to Chelsea during a conversation with Spain boss Vicente del Bosque at a promotional event last week. 'Despite excitement surrounding Fabregas’ move, one Chelsea season-ticket holder of 40 years has described the signing as ‘the equivalent of hiring Rafa Benitez as manager’.' Click here to read more from Chelsea fan Jon Dolan . The defender told Del Bosque: ‘He [Cesc] told me it’s all done. He’s going, €33m he told me.’ Fabregas' partner Daniella Semaan then posted an Instagram message with a picture of her and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi's partner Antonella Roccuzzo, saying: 'I miss this girl so so so so much' before using the hashtag #tevoyaextranar, translated as 'I'll miss you'. Chelsea’s interest in Costa, meanwhile, has been long-standing, with the Brazil-born striker excelling for Atletico during a campaign that saw them beat Barcelona and Real Madrid to win La Liga, and finish runners-up in the Champions League after seeing off Mourinho's side in the semi-final. Talk is cheap: Both Gerard Pique (left) and Vicente del Bosque (centre) were picked up by microphones . Sportsmail revealed on Thursday how everything was in place for the 25-year-old to complete his move, with a fee and personal terms agreed. A hamstring injury that blighted the end of his domestic season had delayed a medical, but a return to fitness has enabled him to complete that ahead of the World Cup. And Costa took another step closer to joining Chelsea following a cameo performance for Spain against El Salvador on Saturday night. Speaking after Spain's 2-0 friendly win, he told AS: 'Am I going to Chelsea? It looks like it.' Indication: Semann (right) posted this picture with Messi's partner (left), saying: 'I'll miss you' | Mourinho wants the Fabregas deal done before Spain vs Holland on Friday .
He is convinced Fabregas and Spain team-mate Diego Costa are Chelsea-bound .
Mourinho is getting his business done early ahead of another title push .
Fabregas and Costa should sign for £28million and £32million respectively .
Chelsea finished third in the Premier League, four points behind Man City . |
212,843 | 9f9aeb0b50fbf28f08047ea21e3397070ed7fd23 | Paris Saint-Germain forward Ezequiel Lavezzi has admitted he often thinks about quitting football for good, and will not stay in the game when he retires. There are rumours that the 29-year-old Argentinian is set to leave the French capital after two seasons, and he admits he has become disillusioned with the game he once loved. 'Sometimes I think about giving it all up. It's a thought running through my head today, not just in the past,' Lavezzi told Marca Plus. 'Once I leave football, I will not continue in the world of sport. Right now I don't know what I might do.' Paris Saint-Germain forward Ezequiel Lavezzi admits that he has become disillusioned with football . Lavezzi joined PSG from Napoli after five years at the club, and has now played over 70 times in Paris . Lavezzi, who spent five years at Napoli before moving to France, did admit that football has given him some opportunities he couldn't have had without it, but believes there is a self-centred element to footballers. 'Certainly the best thing that ties me to football is the possibility of living well, discovering new cultures, and spending time with my family when it's possible – I enjoy it all the more. 'The worst aspect of it is the environment, everyone is powered by their own interests. It's not all what it looks like from outside.' With the transfer window now open, and the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal said to be showing an interest, it would not be a surprise to see Lavezzi make a fresh start. The 29-year-old admits he will not stay in sport after he retires from playing professionally . The PSG man laughs in training with Argentina as he speaks to Martin Demichelis and Lionel Messi (right) | Ezequiel Lavezzi admits he will not stay in sport after his retirement .
The Paris Saint-Germain forward says he often thinks about giving up .
Reports have linked him with a move away from the French capital .
He says 'everyone is powered by their own interests' in football . |
130,235 | 3459ecb0f90d367271c1da1b4f5c1860f28f592d | Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Thirty-eight al Qaeda militants were killed in clashes with Yemen's military, local security officials said Friday. At least 15 troops also died in the violence Thursday morning in the southern provinces of Abyan and Lahjj, the officials said. Dozens were also wounded in a fierce battle involving several army brigades and the air force, state-run news agency SABA said. Militant leaders and foreign elements were among those killed, the news agency said. The Yemeni government this week blamed an affiliate of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for a massive suicide bombing Monday that killed more than 100 soldiers. Jihadist websites posted a statement purportedly from the group, Ansaar al-Sharia, claiming responsibility for the attack. But CNN could not independently verify the authenticity of the statement. The partially lawless Middle Eastern country has become a central battleground in the fight against al Qaeda. The terror network's leader recently called for an uprising against the nation's new president. The Yemeni branch of the group calls itself al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula; Ansaar al-Sharia is an affiliate of AQAP. | Dozens of al Qaeda militants died in clashes with Yemeni forces, security officials say .
At least 15 soldiers also lost their lives in the violence in southern Yemen, officials say .
The violence comes only days after a massive suicide bombing killed more than 100 soldiers . |
22,651 | 404dc750d6a589aeaaa3168fe7382e11ebe402a0 | It has been revealed that the 12-year-old girl who married a man in an Islamic ceremony was pregnant at the time the 26-year-old Lebanese student was charged with ongoing child sex abuse. The pair held the 'wedding', which is alleged to have been arranged by her father, in the girl's lounge room in the Hunter region in NSW, in January last year. Not long after the man, now 27, and can not be named for legal reasons, was charged with one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child, the girl was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy and then miscarried in February after complaining of abdominal pain,The Daily Telegraph reported. The girl, now 13, didn't want to marry the student because of the 14 year age gap but the man bombarded her with text messages after he first laid eyes on her in a mosque in November 2013, the court papers stated on Wednesday. A 27-year-old man, pictured at Burwood Local Court in May, has pleaded guilty to ongoing child sex abuse . The man pleaded guilty in Burwood Local Court in October to one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child, which carries a 25-year maximum jail sentence. The charge takes in 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 14, with which the man was originally charged. He was ordered not to contact his victim for two years, and a date for sentencing will be decided next week. Police allege the man married the Hunter Valley girl in an Islamic ceremony earlier last year. The girl's father will face trial this year. The father, who is in his 60s, allegedly arranged the illegal marriage. The 27-year-old Lebanese student, who can't be named, pleaded guilty in Burwood Local Court on Thursday to one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child . The father allegedly organised his daughter's marriage to the Lebanese immigrant because he wanted to stop her from 'committing a life of sin'. He was charged with procuring a child under 14 for unlawful sexual activities, and being an accessory before the fact to sexual intercourse with a person under 14. Court documents say the girl met the 27-year-old man at a mosque in November 2013 after he approached her father and asked to meet her. Police allege the young girl's father enabled his daughter's sexual assault by organising the unlawful marriage - including allowing them to swap phone numbers and meet three times in the family home before the ceremony. The couple spent their wedding night at a motel in the Hunter region where they had sex several times, police allege. A week after the wedding, the father asked the girl's older siblings to put two single mattresses next to each other to make a queen size bed so the couple had a bed in the family home. The imam who performed the ceremony pleaded guilty to solemnising the marriage and was fined $500. In court documents it is claimed that since the marriage the pair engaged in sexual activities on a daily basis until February when their relationship was discovered by a Centrelink worker, when the man tried to get registered as the girl’s legal guardian in order to obtain welfare benefits. 'The girl has expressed a strong desire to start a family with the [then] 26-year-old,' the police report states. The man has had his student visa cancelled and is now living in an immigration detention centre. | Man, 26, 'married' girl,12, in Islamic ceremony in her lounge room in NSW .
Man pleaded guilty to persistent sexual abuse of a child in October .
Court papers reveal the girl discovered she pregnant at the time .
It was also revealed the girl didn't want to marry due to 14 year age gap .
Police allege man married the girl in an Islamic ceremony in January 2014 .
It is also alleged that the girl's father arranged the 'marriage' |
245,304 | c981854e124645a3167b49f41c0dc6c6e43c5a74 | (CNN) -- Washington state health officials have issued a warning to anyone who may have been in the vicinity of a particular woman at the end of March: You may have been exposed to measles, a highly contagious and potentially fatal respiratory disease. Privacy laws prevent them from showing you the woman's picture or telling you her name, so they're trying another tack: they're telling you where she's been. The Department of Health posted where she was virtually every hour of the day between March 26, when she became contagious, and March 29, so that you can determine whether you are at risk and possibly need medical attention. "I've seen it happen pretty regularly when it comes to significant infectious disease circumstances," agency spokesman Tim Church said Tuesday when asked whether this was a unique approach to quelling a public health crisis before it starts. "What's unique is the extent of the schedule this person had while ill," he told CNN. The 20-something Whatcom County woman didn't seem to be slowed a bit by the infectious disease. She kept a schedule that would be the envy of any healthy bon vivant. On Friday, March 28, for example, after working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the at the Lynden Dutch Bakery (home of the "world's best scones" according to its website"), she made a stop at Lynden Wine and Spirits before checking into the Best Western in downtown Seattle at 7:15 p.m. She then took in the Kings of Leon concert at Key Arena -- about a 20-minute walk from the hotel -- until midnight. She kept the party going at a place called Wasabi Bistro until 3 a.m. before finally heading back to her hotel. The next day was spent traipsing around like an energetic tourist: lunch in Pike Place Market, then south to Tacoma to take in the LeMay car museum and a visit to a place called the Celebrity Cake Studio before bellying up at Harmon Brewing Co. and Eatery in Pierce County. Measles is so highly contagious that you can get it by simply walking into a room where someone with it had been hours before -- which is why her attending the concert is a concern. "This wasn't a local bar," Church said. "It was a major concert at a major venue." Even though most people in Washington state are vaccinated -- 96% statewide by 6th grade -- Key Arena holds 15,000 people for concerts, signifying the potential for exposure, given some concertgoers may have been from out of state. "It's a serious illness," said Church. "Measles has a way of finding those who are not vaccinated." There have been no linked reported cases thus far, according to Church. "It's still early." The department says the woman became contagious with measles on March 26 after visiting a local family member with measles linked to an outbreak in British Columbia. Fraser Health, the health authority in British Columbia, confirms 375 cases of measles as of April 8. Church would not pinpoint when the woman was diagnosed, only that it occurred between March 29 and April 2, when the agency posted her schedule online. "Anyone who was in those locations at the listed times should find out if they have been vaccinated for measles or have had measles previously," the agency said. Those who aren't and "develop an illness with fever or unexplained rash should consult a health care professional immediately." As for the patient, Church says that she is recovering. CNN's John Newsome contributed to this report. | Measles patient's daily schedule published to alert those who may have been exposed .
20-something woman went to a bakery, wine shop, concert and bistro in Seattle .
Health official: "Measles has a way of finding those who are not vaccinated" |
11,776 | 2171a8159f6a22caf1bca654879522183b443083 | PUBLISHED: . 05:09 EST, 7 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 05:36 EST, 7 May 2013 . A new study has discovered that women’s brains are hard-wired to respond to a baby’s cry, while men do not seem to react at all. Research, carried out by National Institute of Child Health in the U.S., asked 18 men and women to let their minds wander. During this time the scientists conducted brain scans. Oblivious: Brain scans have shown that men's brains do not react in the same way as women to the sound of a distressed baby . The researchers then played a recording of white noise interspersed with short clips of a baby crying. The scans showed that while women immediately became more alert after hearing a baby’s cry, the brains of men remained in a resting state. Specifically, the dorsal medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate areas, known to be involved when the mind is allowed to wander, were recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and later studied for results. 'Determining whether these responses differ between men and women, by age, and by parental status, helps us understand instincts for caring for the very young,’ study co-author Marc Bornsteinfrom the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development told Medical Daily. Although brain activity patterns differed between men and women, there was no difference in the brain patterns between parents and non-parents. The researchers also played the cries of infants who were later diagnosed with autism. Interestingly, the study found that both men and women reacted to autistic babies. Previous studies have shown that babies with the condition have higher-pitched cries . Interestingly, hearing these cries interrupted the mind wandering of both men and women. A previous study has shown that the . screams of infants who develop autism tend to be higher pitched than . those of other babies and that the pauses between cries are shorter. It has been long known that women's bodies react to the sound of babies after pregnancy. Soon . after birth, a woman's 'letdown reflex' — the reflex that releases the . milk produced by breasts — needs time to adjust to the . sensation of feeding. Frequent . breastfeeding will help the reflex become attuned to particular . stimulation, but until then, many sensations such as hearing screams and . even certain thoughts may trigger lactation (the release of milk from the breast). | American study shows that men's brains are not designed to respond to the sounds of a baby crying .
However both men and women react to cries of autistic babies because they are higher pitched . |
196,102 | 89ca4f81a4f2b50e491075b149af3c4893311e1d | Lukas Podolski has hinted that he might leave Arsenal before his contract expires in 2016 because he was not playing enough. The German forward is finding Premier League opportunities difficult to come by under Arsene Wenger and could see his future elsewhere. 'I am a full blooded player, a street player and I love competition,' the 29-year-old told RTL television. Lukas Podolski (right) poses with summer signing Danny Welbeck after the latter scored a hat-trick . Podolski has had to deal with a bit-part Arsenal role of late, mainly warming the bench at the Emirates . 'If I don't have this competition every weekend then a change must occur.' Podolski, who has scored 47 goals for Germany in 118 internationals, joined the London club in 2012. He was not involved in the opening four matches of the season following Germany's successful World Cup in Brazil, and has been an unused substitute four times in Arsenal's last eight matches. He has come on for the last few minutes of the Premier League games against Leicester City and Aston Villa and the Champions League defeat at Borussia Dortmund and has only played an entire match once - Arsenal's 2-1 home defeat against Southampton in the Capital One Cup last week when he looked a peripheral figure. He did not feature in Arsenal's 4-1 win over Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday where again he was an unused substitute and has yet to find the net this season. VIDEO: Scroll down to see Podolski sign shirts for screaming fans on international duty . Podolski in training at London Colney this week, before Arsenal's Champions League tie . Podolski (centre) alongside Alexis Sanchez walk out for the warm-up at the Emirates on Wednesday . 'We will have to see. But it is certainly something one has to think about', he said when asked if he would see out his deal with the club for whom he has scored 28 goals in 73 appearances. As far as his career with Germany is concerned, Podolski said it was not the first time he was seeing little action at club level but kept his place in the squad. Podolski only made two appearances for Germany in Brazil -- playing for the last eight minutes against Portugal in their opening group match and the first half of their last group match against the United States, and was an unused substitute in the final when they beat Argentina. 'I have been with Germany a long time and have gone through phases where I did not play a lot at club level but was convincing with the national team. That is no problem,' he said despite no longer being a regular first team choice for his country. Welbeck, Podolski and Ozil walk out to the Arsenal training pitch at London Colney . | Lukas Podolski has found Premier League opportunities difficult to come by recently, and admits his future could lie elsewhere .
He joined Arsenal in 2012, but has been an unused substitute four times in the Gunners' last eight matches .
Podolski has only played an entire match once this season - Arsenal's 2-1 home defeat against Southampton in the Capital One Cup last week .
The German international has not scored a goal this season . |
158,021 | 584ea886b55f8a05ff867368f773bf457dc7c08c | New York (CNN) -- Forget two turntables and a microphone -- New York City experienced two tornados and a microburst Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Spokesman Gary Conte told reporters at the Office of Emergency Management late Friday.that an EF-0 tornado touched down in Brooklyn and an EF-1 tornado touched down in Queens. "EF" numbers -- the Enhanced Fujita scale -- are a method of estimating wind speed based on damage. An EF-0 tornado likely brought 3-second bursts of winds between 65 and 85 mph, while an EF-1 carried gusts of 86 to 110 mph. The strongest winds and greatest damage, which also took place in Queens, were caused by what Conte described as a "microburst." Conte said this was "a sudden acceleration of winds coming out from fast moving storms." It produced wind gusts up to 125 miles per hour, he told reporters. National Weather Service meteorologist Ross Dickman told reporters that the service and emergency management and spent the day reviewing radar data, interviewing residents, touring the ground and flying around different parts of the city to determine the types of storms that hit the area Thursday. "I want to first say that I'm very sorry for those that experienced extensive damage with this storm," he said. Crews in New York worked early Friday morning to clean up damage left behind by a fast-moving storm that killed one person when it ripped through the city. The storm's strong winds and torrential rains toppled trees and left more than 20,000 customers without power Thursday. A 30-year-old woman was killed in Queens when a tree fell on the car she was driving, the New York Police Department said. "The good news is that most people were safe, just annoyed, traffic being bad or a tree coming down in their yard," he said. Both New York City's La Guardia and New Jersey's Newark airports experienced two-hour outbound delays Thursday, while John F. Kennedy airport reported three-hour outbound delays. The storm also caused a headache for commuters on Thursday. All Long Island Railroad service going east out of Manhattan was suspended Thursday after the storm, as was service on certain subway lines running from Manhattan into Queens and Brooklyn. . CNN's Sean Morris, Jesse Solomon, Logan Burruss, Rob Frehse, Cheryl Robinson, and Kristen Hamill and Eden Pontz contributed to this report. | NEW: Queens, Brooklyn took tornado hits .
NEW: Microburst caused greatest damage, weather service says .
One death was storm-related, the New York Police Department says .
The storm left thousands without power and triggered delays on rail lines and at airports . |
266,172 | e4c082186f339f702c5f9b5bd444a4f302ff8861 | By . Paul Collins . Arjen Robben insists there is more to come as Holland progressed to the knockout stages of the World Cup with a 100 per cent record. The Bayern Munich winger was man of the match as substitutes Leroy Fer and Memphis Depay scored late goals to beat Chile 2-0 and ensure they and not the South Americans topped Group B. It sets up a last-16 clash with Mexico, who finished second in Pool A. 'If you told me that we'd win our three games to finish top of the group two months ago I'd have been delighted, but I don't want to end it here. We want to go on,' he said. The future's bright: Arjen Robben was again the star man as Holland enjoyed a 2-0 victory over Chile . Dutch of class: Holland celebrate after topping Group B with a 100-per-cent record . 'Although we want to enjoy the moment we'll soon need to start to work hard in training to improve even more. 'You have to give compliment to both teams, both gave 100 per cent - and although Chile finished second I think they go far in this tournament.' Manager Louis van Gaal adjusted his tactics and team-shape to cope with Chile's threat and it worked perfectly. Head boy: Leroy Fer broke the deadlock and gave Holland the lead with this header . 'We limited Chile to a handful of opportunities, we neutralised them extremely effectively,' he said. 'We did have to change our style - and I will always pick a system and a strategy that will help us win. 'However, we're not perfect - in possession we still need to improve, but I do think we're very good without the ball.' Despite that, Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli was satisfied with his side's progress so far. 'We kept going and fighting for 90 minutes, but ultimately we didn't get the result,' he said. 'I felt that our intensity and commitment was outstanding. Our players should have their heads held high as we've played well in the three games so far and we're now through to the round of 16.' | Holland beat Chile 2-0 in Sao Paulo to finish top of Group B .
Dutch side face Mexico in second round on Sunday .
Arjen Robben delighted to win all three group games and finish first . |
58,186 | a4f61a7aa5b259af9a3baf7ff6cc4d9ca16abf29 | By . Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor . PUBLISHED: . 08:52 EST, 18 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 04:11 EST, 19 June 2013 . Anger: Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a blunt warning to the UK about the risks of arming Syrian rebels . Vladimir Putin today warned arming rebels in Syria would risk a repeat of the 'violent assassination' murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich. The intervention by the Russian President to invoke Drummer Rigby's death came after he blocked the G8 from calling for the removal of Bashar Assad to end the bloody conflict in Syria. The Russian leader refused to sign a communique at the summit in Northern Ireland which mentioned ousting the Syrian President amid claims that chemical weapons have been used against opposition forces. At a G8 dinner last night David Cameron led seven world powers . against one as he tried to shame Mr . Putin into agreeing that Syria's brutal regime must be toppled. Mr . Cameron was hoping for a show of unity over the civil war in Syria, . which has largely overshadowed the economic priorities of the summit. Over a dinner of crab and lamb at the G8 . summit, the leaders of the US, Canada, Germany, Japan, France, and . Italy joined the UK in urging President Putin to give ground. But Mr Putin rejected the idea, and issued a stark warning at a press conference to mark the end of the two-day G8 conference. In a direct challenge to Mr Cameron, . he said: 'Recently the British people suffered a huge loss. It was a . tragedy next to his barracks on the streets of London. A violent . assassination, a very brutal killing of a British serviceman. 'Clearly the opposition is not . composed all of this but many of them are exactly the same as the ones . who perpetrated the killing in London. 'If we equip these people, if we arm . them what is going to control and verify who is going to have these . weapons, including in Europe as well. 'So we call all our partners, before making this dangerous step, think about it very carefully.' Warning: The Russian President told allies to think 'carefully' before taking any decisions to provide weapons to the opposition forces . Division: Russian President Vladimir Putin has resisted demands from David Cameron and Barack Obama to back a call for Syrian President Assad to go . The decision to invoke the death of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich is likely to stir emotions in Britain . Other than Russia, members of the G8 . agreed on a five-point plan after two years of civil war in Syria. It . included a condemnation of the use of chemical weapons and a declaration . that Syria needs a 'new government' with the consent of its people. But Mr Putin has refused to sign up to a demand that Assad must go. Instead . the leaders of the world's most powerful nations papered over their . differences on Syria to agree a weaker joint position after fraught . talks at the G8 summit. The . chief communique states that the G8 nations are 'committed to achieving . a political solution to the crisis based on a vision for a united, . inclusive and democratic Syria'. It . endorses plans to restart peace talks in Geneva 'as soon as possible' and says that they should begin with both sides agreeing on 'a . transitional governing body with full executive powers, formed by mutual . consent'. Meeting: The two-day summit agreed action on trade,and tax but divisions over Syria dominated the agenda . Talks: British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Assad has 'blood on his hands' as G8 leaders threw their weight behind calls for a peace conference on Syria to be held in Geneva 'as soon as possible' Protests: Oxfam volunteers dressed as Mr Cameron and Mr Putin pose for the cameras in a call for an end to global hunger . The G8 leaders also confirmed that they are making almost $1.5 billion available in additional funding for humanitarian operations in Syria and its neighbouring countries. At a press confernce to mark the end of the summit, Mr Cameron said: 'It is unthinkable that president Assad can play any part in the future government of his country. 'He has blood on his hands, he's used chemical weapons.' Mr Cameron said the priority now was to identify people from the regime and opposition 'who can sit down and talk about a transitional authority that will take power in Syria'. 'If that can happen that opens the way to a genuine transition to a genuine Syria free from Assad, free from terror. That is what we have agreed to work towards and I think that is an important step forward.' Tense: U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland . A cold encounter: Mr Putin and Mr Cameron clashed during talks in Downing Street on Sunday . The agreement It comes after Mr Putin . ignored diplomatic protocol to publicly lambast first Mr Cameron and . later US President Barack Obama for demanding action to end the war. On . Sunday the Russian leader used a press conference in Downing Street to . warn Mr Cameron that arming Syria's rebels will put guns in the hands of . extremists who 'eat the organs' of their enemies. And last night during a G8 press conference a visibly uncomfortable Mr Putin admitted . after talks with Mr Obama that 'our positions do not fully coincide'. The White House has indicated it is now ready President Barack Obama, who visited a school in Enniskillen with Mr Cameron today, is ready to arm the opposition in Syria. Instead a joint stance which has been agreed will be formally published this afternoon. It will revive hopes that a peace conference can be convened to pave the way for a political transition in the war-torn Middle Eastern state. Mr Cameron put Syria top of the agenda at last night's summit dinner with the aim of restoring momentum towards the proposed meeting in Geneva. There had been suggestions that the other seven G8 countries could go ahead with a statement with or without Russian agreement. But Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov announced that a joint deal had been agreed. He signalled that it would not specify that Assad should step down from power and that no outcome should be declared in advance for how any transitional government wold be made up. | David Cameron used a dinner to put pressure on Russian President .
But Vladimir Putin today refused to back a demand for Assad to go .
Syrian conflict has dominated two-day G8 summit in Lough Erne .
US President Barack Obama is ready to provide weapons to rebels .
But Putin warns against arming forces who 'eat the organs' of enemies . |
115,078 | 208392f4ec8eed2b4b8aa9a8c35610e852b98185 | Ann Arbor, Michigan (CNN) -- "We did not have a right to choose where we lived ... freedom of speech, or freedom of actions. The traffickers had keys to our apartment. They controlled all of our movement and travel. They watched us and listened when we called our parents. They didn't let us make friends or tell anyone anything about ourselves. We couldn't keep any of the money we earned. We couldn't ask anyone for help." -- Lena . Lena was an athletic student from Eastern Europe yearning to visit the United States through a study-abroad program at her college. She had visions of learning English and returning home to share her experiences with her family. But the human traffickers who ensnared her had a different vision for Lena, shipping her to America and exploiting her in the sex industry for profit. They met her at the airport with news that her study abroad placement had been changed. She was given new bus tickets and sent off to Detroit, Michigan. Once there they took her passport and her freedom. After almost a year of enslavement, Lena risked her life to make a daring escape. She is smart, resilient and funny, and I have been honored to be her attorney through the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. Unfortunately there are thousands of adults and children like Lena who have not been able to escape their traffickers. These victims, especially the children, are in the same position Lena was: They're being exploited and can't ask anyone for help. The data on human trafficking is sparse, but what is known is terrifying. It's already the second largest criminal industry in the world -- behind only the trade in illegal drugs -- and it's growing fast. The global commercial sex trade exploits one million children annually. At least 100,000 and perhaps as many as 300,000 children in America are victims of sex trafficking each year. The grim reality of child sex trafficking in the United States is this: Human traffickers are selling sex with children in big cities and small towns throughout America. Child sex trafficking has been illegal in the United States since 2000 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Under this law it is illegal to recruit, harbor, transport, provide or obtain a person under the age of 18 years for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Since the passage of the TVPA many states have passed their own human trafficking laws. Children who are selling sex in the United States are then, by definition, victims of human trafficking. Despite this, child victims of sex trafficking are frequently viewed as criminals rather than as victims. According to the Department of Justice in 2006, six years after the passage of the TVPA, 1,600 children were arrested for prostitution and commercialized vice. The children victimized by sex trafficking are often very young. On average, girls are first exploited for commercial sex between the ages of 12 and 14. For boys the average age is even younger -- between 11 and 13. But being a victim of sex trafficking does not have to be a life sentence. Victims can become survivors and build new lives. And while Lena is no longer the young college student she once was and it is too dangerous for her to return home, her speech and actions are now her own. She can choose where she wants to live. She is free. Through my work with Lena and other clients in the Human Trafficking Clinic we have identified a number of ways to fight sex trafficking. Raise awareness within your community: One of the biggest barriers to helping victims of sex trafficking is the lack of awareness about the issue. Human traffickers profit when we think human trafficking only happens in foreign countries. • Human trafficking happens everywhere, and sex trafficking cases involving children have been found in all regions of the country. No community is immune to the horrors of human trafficking. • Communities must prioritize the fight against human trafficking -- including providing enough resources to law enforcement. Change the conversation: Children who by law are too young to consent to having sex obviously cannot consent to selling sex, so: . • Victims should not be described as entering into prostitution; they are being exploited and should be described as victims of human trafficking. • Law enforcement officials often arrest and detain child victims of sex trafficking on either prostitution charges or other charges, such as truancy or curfew violations. Law enforcement must be trained about human trafficking. • Sellers of sex, especially when they are children, should not be guilty of a criminal violation. Buyers and pimps should be the only individuals at risk of criminal penalties. This would ensure that no victims are arrested or jailed. Reduce demand: The reality of sex trafficking must not be neutralized or glamorized. • Individuals who travel abroad to purchase sex from children are demonized in the media and identified as sexual predators, yet individuals who stay in the United States and pay to have sex with children are given the anonymous title "john" -- and frequently aren't even charged with a crime. • Individuals who pay for sex with children in the United States should be punished. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bridgette Carr. | Bridgette Carr says sex trafficking thrives in U.S. communities .
Victims of sex trade are often wrongly viewed as criminals, she says .
Carr: To fight trafficking, communities must become aware, reduce demand . |
160,281 | 5b3131fb97d30c902560465cf8cd403d3ef451cf | Moorhead, Minnesota (CNN) -- He's been there for 30 years, and 85-year-old Lloyd Paulson isn't moving anytime soon. But on his stretch of Rivershore Drive in this city just east of Fargo, North Dakota, he's essentially the only one. "I want to go feet-first out of here," Paulson said from his living room, which is now just feet from rising floodwaters. "I don't want to leave. I want to stay here because I enjoy it so much." Last year, he and his family and friends saved his home from the record flooding that nearly ravaged the entire city -- but it took 30,000 sand bags. A farm boy since birth, Paulson said the sandbagging in 2009 saved his property from major damage, meaning another pleasant year of watching the wildlife in his backyard. "I can see turkeys and squirrels and deer. They come up at night." But when the retired sporting goods store manager looks down the street now, what he sees is a mix of houses on stilts ready to be moved and vacant houses awaiting demolition. The neighbors in the 14 houses to his south and three to the north sold their homes to the city, accepting its offer to buy them out so that a more permanent levee can be built up in their place. Paulson says he's surprised that so many people made the decision, since some had "beautiful homes." The buyouts were voluntary, but since Paulson decided to stay, he must foot the bill for his portion of that new levee himself. He hasn't received a bill yet, but he says whatever the cost, it should be worth it because that mountain of dirt will mean his days of sandbagging are over. Since the city's new levee isn't up yet, earthen levees surrounding Paulson's home are protecting it from this year's flood. "The cupboards are all stocked up, the freezer is all stocked up, so I can stay here for weeks without having to go out," Paulson said, laughing. And those levees will protect him up to a 43-foot crest. The most recent forecast calls for a crest of 38 feet, so Paulson says he's "not worried at all" about staying in his home while the water is high. His wife of 57 years died shortly after the flood of 2009. But even though he now lives there solo, Paulson said he doesn't feel lonely. "Not at all. I have so many friends in town, and every day, I'm out doing something. The phone rings regularly," he said. Are you there? Share photos, video of flood . When asked how he feels to be known as the last man standing in his neighborhood, the one who won't leave, Paulson said he "didn't do this for publicity." "I just want to enjoy my life," he said, "and I can do it here." | Lloyd Paulson, 85, of Moorhead, Minnesota, refuses to sell his home to the city .
The city wants to build a levee in his neighborhood .
Volunteers staged a massive effort to rescue his home during last year's flooding . |
35,099 | 63c4db09967e5302fb979838692cbe06a66834a1 | David Cameron was accused of trying to stage-manage Prime Minister’s Questions last night, after leaked emails revealed Tory MPs are routinely pressured to ask him easy questions. The weekly 30-minute session is supposed to be a test of Mr Cameron’s wits, with MPs able to ask him about almost any topic. But a leaked series of memos reveal that his aides routinely try to take the pressure off him by encouraging Conservative MPs to ask friendly questions. The PM pronounces during Prime Minister's . Questions: Leaked emails allege that David Cameron's aides have been trying to stage manage the weekly session by pressurising Tory . colleagues into asking easy questions . The memos show that Mr Cameron’s . parliamentary aide sends out a weekly email to all Tory MPs suggesting . ‘free hits’ for them to read out during PMQs. Gavin Williamson says that any mentions of the suggested questions would be greatly appreciated by Number 10. The most recent email, which was sent out last week, said: ‘Please find below some questions, should you want to take the opportunity of a free hit today. ‘Good news on the economy features heavily – any mentions would be greatly appreciated.’ Other questions include whether Mr Cameron agrees that a ‘growing economy means more economic security for our country and a more financially secure future for hardworking people’. Mr Williamson also suggests asking the Prime Minister whether he agrees that the Government’s economic plans were ‘delivering a sustainable recovery’. ‘Please find below some questions, should you want to take the opportunity of a free hit today. 'Good news on the economy features heavily - any mentions would be greatly appreciated.’ Similar emails from the past two months suggest Mr Williamson’s pleas have gone largely unrewarded – perhaps indicating the strained relationship between Tory high command and many backbench MPs. But a question asked on December 11 by Tory MP Stephen Metcalfe bears a striking resemblance to one sent out by Mr Williamson an hour earlier. Mr Williamson’s suggestions included . the question: ‘Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the only way . to raise my constituents’ living standards is to stick to the . Government’s long-term plan to fix our economy, rather than abandoning . the plan through more borrowing and more taxes as the party opposite . propose?’ Mr Metcalfe went . on to ask the Prime Minister: ‘Does my right honourable friend agree . that the best way to raise the living standards of my constituents is . for the Government to stick to their long-term plan to rebuild this . economy and not abandon it in favour of more borrowing and more taxes, . as proposed by the Labour party?’ Mr . Cameron responded by saying Mr Metcalfe was ‘entirely right’, going on . to explain the importance of reducing the deficit and continuing with . the Government’s ‘difficult spending decisions’. Gavin Williamson, left, Mr Cameron’s parliamentary aide, whose suggestion for a 'free hit' sent on December 11 was strikingly similar to an actual question asked by Tory MP Stephen Metcalfe, right, just an hour later . Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, described Mr Williamson’s emails as ‘depressing’. He said: ‘If it continues like that it just helps people’s disengagement from politics because they don’t think it’s a serious engagement, it’s a manufactured bear garden.’ Party whips have long pressured MPs on all sides to ask friendly questions. Commons Speaker John Bercow has warned that soundbites and planted questions have helped damage the reputation of Parliament. | Cameron's aide sends weekly email to all Tory MPs suggesting 'free hits'
Most recent asked party colleagues to bring up the economy in PMQs .
But critics warn that the practise risks increasing political apathy . |
201,479 | 90ded2fda5c5d2a3d417345c5b83505e455f44cc | Passengers on board a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve are expected to be rescued by helicopter tomorrow after three icebreakers failed to reach the paralysed vessel - but it could still be weeks before they reach dry land. A helicopter on board a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, aims to collect the 52 passengers trapped on the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy when there is a break in the weather. Ironically, the Akademik had gone in search of evidence of the . world’s melting ice caps but instead the team of climate scientists had to abandon their mission because the ice is . thicker than usual at this time of year. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the rescue would be a complex operation. Scroll down for videos . Passengers on board Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy that has been trapped in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve are expected to be rescued by helicopter tomorrow. Above, crew build an icy helipad today . A helicopter on board a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, aims to collect the 52 passengers. The 22 members of crew will remain on the stricken vessel . This image, taken by passenger Andrew Peacock, shows the ship still stuck in the ice off East Antarctica, as it waits to be rescued . The research team had hoped the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis (seen here yesterday) would be able to crack through the thick ice and allow them to continue on their way . The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the rescue would be a complex operation - and it could be several weeks before the passengers reach dry land. Above, Akademik expedition leader Greg Mortimer gives a briefing about the ice conditions yesterday . 'The helicopter is unable to fly in the current weather conditions and will hold off on the rescue until conditions improve,' AMSA said in a statement. 'Weather conditions are unlikely to start improving until tomorrow and decisions related to carrying out the rescue may be made at short notice.' The 22 members of the crew - who have built an icy helipad - will stay behind with the ship and wait for the ice to break up naturally, expedition spokesman Alvin Stone said. They had hoped the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis would be able to crack through the thick ice and allow them to continue on their way. The ship isn't in danger of sinking, and there are weeks' worth of supplies on board, but the vessel cannot move. Above, the research team drill into the ice . A thin fresh coat of snow on the trapped ship . Professor Chris Turney, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, is pictured talking to international media from the top deck of the stranded ship . Australian Green Party Senator-elect Janet Rice up early doing some stretching on the top deck of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy . The Aurora came within 20km (12 miles) of the ship on Monday, but fierce winds and snow forced it to retreat to open water. Today, the weather remained bleak, and the crew on the Aurora said their vessel would also be at risk of getting stuck if it made another rescue attempt. The Snow Dragon, which is waiting with the Aurora at the edge of the ice pack, was also unable to crack through the ice, as was France's L'Astrolabe. The passengers will be flown back to the Snow Dragon in groups of 12, and then transferred by barge to the Aurora. John . Young, AMSA emergency response division general manager, said the . Aurora Australis will then take several days to make its way to the . Casey Base in Antarctica to refuel before returning to Hobart in . Tasmania. 'It will be a couple of weeks before they are landed,' he told Ninemsn. The Chinese icebreaker Xuelong - meaning Snow Dragon - was deployed to rescue the Russian science ship . However just before midnight on Friday Captain Wang Jianzhong's ship (pictured) also became trapped . Scientists on board the Xuelong, including Liu Shunlin (left), are now studying the condition of the Russian ship while they wait to be freed themselves . A photograph sent in by the captain of the Russian ship suggests that the two vessels can actually see each other, albeit as a tiny speck on the horizon . Smile: The crew of passengers and researchers pose for a holiday photograph in the depths of Antarctica . Barbara Tucker, a passenger on Russia's Academic Shokalskiy, is pictured watching an adelie penguin . It is believed a simple shift in the wind could free the Akademik. Winds from the east have been pounding the ship and pushing the ice around the vessel. A westerly wind would help break up the ice, Stone said. The trouble is, no one knows when the wind will change. The ship isn't in danger of sinking, and there are weeks' worth of supplies on board, but the vessel cannot move. The . expedition, which set off from New Zealand on November 28, is being led . by Chris Turney, a climate scientist, who was hoping to reach the base . camp of Douglas Mawson, one of the most famous Antarctic explorers, and . repeat observations done by him in 1912 to see what impact climate . change had made. Trapped: 74 people, including scientists, tourists and a Guardian reporter, are stuck in thick ice sheets . Crew members routinely check the hull of the ship, which gathers fresh layers of snow every night . The looming helicopter rescue means the expedition will have to be cut short, Stone said. Still, those on board appeared to be taking it all in stride. 'Surprisingly, all the passengers seem to be considering it the adventure of a lifetime,' Stone said. Turney has also posted a photograph on Twitter apparently showing the Chinese vessel, a speck on the horizon beyond an expanse of ice. 'Everyone well,' Turney added. He said trying to break through ice that was too thick would be 'like driving your car into a brick wall'. Passengers waved as a helicopter sent from China's retreated Snow Dragon flew by to check the snow levels yesterday . The researchers on board have managed to get messages out saying they are well-stocked and continuing their research despite being trapped in five metres of ice sheets 1,500 miles south of Tasmanian capital Hobart . Failed: This picture, tweeted by passenger Chris Turney, shows the top-of-the-range icebreaker, China's 'Snow Dragon' which also got stuck and was forced to retreat on Friday . Russia's Academic Shokalskiy is recreating Mawson's 100-year-old Australasia expedition using new tools . Blizzards could hamper the rescue mission, but the ship is well-stocked and the scientists are continuing their research on the snow around them . And he tweeted: 'Heavy ice. Beautiful; light wind. Only -1degC. All well. Merry Xmas everyone from AAE.' Academic . Shokalskiy, an ice-strengthened ship built in 1982, was originally used . for oceanographic research before being refurbished to be used as a . passenger vessel in the Arctic and Antarctica. Marooned . 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart - the capital of the Australian . state of Tasmania - the thick ice sheets built up during a bout of . severe wind. The Russian . embassy in Australia has been in constant contact with the captain and . said everyone on board was in good health and there was 'no threat to . their lives or safety'. The ship had been on a multi-day tour from New Zealand to visit several sites along the edge of Antarctica before getting trapped in sea ice . On . board are scientists from the University of New South Wales, a . journalist from The Guardian and dozens of tourists who have paid to be . part of the recreation of Mawson’s expedition. The research team has made contact with local stations from the Commonwealth Bay to say they are well-stocked with food. They are also continuing their research while stranded by testing the temperature of the surrounding ice sheets. A . spokesman for AMSA said: 'It is quite a remote part of the world, but . we have everyone safe. The vessel isn't in any immediate danger.' France's L'Astrobe, also deployed to save the ship, has now turned back . Bleak: The ship has been stranded in the barren, frozen landscape since Christmas . | MV Akademik Schokalskiy is stuck in thick ice sheet .
1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, the Tasmanian capital .
Helicopter on Chinese icebreaker, Snow Dragon, aims to pick up 52 passengers; 22 crew members will remain on stricken vessel .
Passengers will be flown to Snow Dragon in groups of 12, and then transferred by barge to the Australia back-up ship Aurora .
Aurora will then take .
several days to make its way to Casey Base in Antarctica to refuel .
before returning to Hobart .
Chris Turney, climate scientist and expedition leader, planned to document 'environmental changes' at the pole . |
126,569 | 2f96a14f3285434055926670c887b3ff17b77dc5 | PUBLISHED: . 08:04 EST, 4 June 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 09:06 EST, 4 June 2012 . Rare illness: Douglas Husband has had to be put on a tightly controlled diet . Meal times are predictable affairs for little Douglas Husband, who lives off a diet of potatoes - as any other food leaves him screaming in pain. The 19-month-old's mother has found her son can tolerate spuds and butternut squash, but meat, fruit and vegetables leave him writhing in agony. Brave Douglas suffers from eosinophilic colitis, a rare condition where too many white blood cells are produced in his intestine. As a result the cells designed to protect his body actually attack it. The youngster had a normal, natural . birth and, even though he arrived into the world with the umbilical cord . wrapped around his neck and needed resuscitating, he made a quick . recovery. He was soon sent home to join mother Beverley Ward, father Tim . Husband and four-year-old sister Edie in Sheffield. At . first when he went home he seemed fine but he was unable to settle . easily to sleep. After a few weeks he developed a cold and started . choking, before going limp and blue in his mother's arms. Concerned . Beverley, 41, a writer, said: 'The day Douglas went blue and limp in my . arms was the most horrendous moment of my life, I thought he was dying. 'I . called 999 and within minutes the paramedics were at the door. He came . round when they arrived and we took him in the ambulance to the . Children’s Hospital in Sheffield.' Fed up with seeing her little boy . screaming in agony whenever he was fed, Beverley decided to film him . feeding and showed it to the hospital. After . a colonoscopy and endoscopy at Sheffield Children’s Hospital under . specialist Mike Thompson, Douglas was finally diagnosed with . eosinophilic colitis when he was 19 months old, which is a result of . stomach acid leaking back into the oesophagus. His mother added: 'Now we are still learning about the condition and what works for Douglas and what doesn’t. Trial and error: Beverley Ward says she has tried feeding her son Douglas about 30 different foods, but so far only potatoes and butternut squash have worked . Little Douglas was initially diagnosed with bronchiolitis, and despite not having the same problems as other babies on the ward he was discharged and Beverley continued to breastfeed him. She said: 'Once home, he continued to . choke at feeds and his breathing always seemed laboured. It turned me . into a nervous wreck. 'He . was generally a happy-go-lucky little chap until I tried to feed him and . he’d sob through his feeds. He seemed to be waking up all night . screaming in pain. It seemed that his bowels were causing him trouble as . well.' 'If he has an allergic reaction to . food he scratches at his face, screams through the night, is . bad-tempered during the day and suffers with severe constipation and . diarrhoea. He can also come out in hives and it makes him quite ill. 'It’s . completely trial and error, we try foods and see what he can tolerate. So far he can only manage to eat two foods, butternut squash and potato. Bland: A typical meal for Douglas consists of squash and potato cut up and cooked in different ways - but his condition means his parents cannot even use oil . 'I try to mix it up through the day, so he has mashed potato for breakfast, baked potatoes for lunch and I’ve recently started cutting the potato up into chunks so it looks like chips - although we can’t use any oil on them. 'We’ve tried him on about 30 foods . including meat, vegetables, fruit and rice, but he just reacts to . everything, so we’re reluctant to try him on much else. 'He can only drink water and a . hypoallergenic formula called Neocate which provides him with all his . nutrients so people are surprised at how healthy he looks. 'It . is really sad that, at a time when we should be excitedly trying our . son on lots of new foods, we are so scared of the reaction he might . have. 'We’ve tried a range . of drugs. Some of them have helped him but some have made his condition . much worse as he reacts to the ingredients in the medicines in the same . way as he reacts to food and can have different allergic reactions to . things like colours and flavourings. 'We . have to watch him closely as he mixes with other children to ensure . that he doesn’t eat anything that will make him ill. It can be . heartbreaking to have to keep saying "no" to him. 'He is now on a new drug which seems . to have stabilised him a little but he is still only eating potato and . butternut squash. Like all children he can be faddy, it’s a real worry . when he seems to have gone off one of his foods.' Mike . Thomson, specialist from the Children’s Hospital, Sheffield, said: . 'Children like Douglas often go a long time without being recognised, as . in some ways this is a relatively new set of diseases to general . practice and paediatrics alike. Compliments to the chef: Douglas looks delighted with his plain food but his parents wish they could try giving him more varied meals . 'While it will usually resolve with time it may take many years and other related problems such as eosinophilic oesophagitis - which is likened to eczema of the gullet - can ensue and last into adulthood. 'We are fortunate that a number of parent-led groups are beginning to flag this set of problems up to the wider community, but it is our responsibility as health care teams to recognise these conditions early and act appropriately with a referral to a paediatric gastroenterology department.' Beverley added: 'It has been a long, hard journey to get to where we are but we are determined to learn more about this little known condition and to raise awareness so that children are more easily diagnosed.' | Other foods leave 19-month-old Douglas Husband writhing in agony .
Sheffield boy can only drink water and a special nutritional formula .
Eosinophilic collitis sees too many white blood cells produced in the intestine, causing stomach acid to leak up into the gullet .
Even medicines cause painful reactions - but new drug seems to be helping . |
100,279 | 0d35a6da56cecdf6e45019f85db774f0ae203ca6 | Louis van Gaal has faced Jose Mourinho, the monster he created, just once before in a competitive match – and lost. And do you think the Manchester United manager is still bitter about the 2010 Champions League final that saw Mourinho's Inter Milan beat van Gaal's Bayern Munich with just 34 per cent possession? You bet. 'We have only played once and it was that game. And that honourable Howard Webb doesn't give a penalty to us. That game,' says a snarling van Gaal. VIDEOS Scroll down to watch . Inter Milan's Diego Milito (right) scores the winner against Bayern Munich in the 2010 Champions League final . Jose Mourinho (centre) lifts the Champions League trophy after his side's victory at the Bernabeu . Mourinho greets his former colleague Louis van Gaal (right) prior to the 2010 final in Spain . 'I said congratulations (to Jose) afterwards. Not more because I don't say anything about that game.' The role of van Gaal in Mourinho's career is well-documented. When the Dutchman took over at Barcelona in 1997, he decided not to sack Sir Bobby Robson's translator and instead promoted him to give him his first formal coaching job. The rest is history. Sunday's Manchester United-Chelsea showdown at Old Trafford will be their second clash as rivals. The first four years ago had a huge personal effect on van Gaal who will be privately savouring the prospect of making amends this afternoon. Bayern went into the European final as favourites at Real Madrid's Bernabeu. They had beaten Manchester United en route to the final and van Gaal could call upon Arjen Robben as well as future World Cup winners Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Muller and Miroslav Klose. Van Gaal, pictured in training with Manchester United, admits he is still bitter about his defeat to Mourinho . Yet Inter won with a double strike from unsung Argentine Diego Milito. Van Gaal still bears a grudge against English referee Webb, who two months later was at the centre of an infamous World Cup final between Spain and Holland. In Madrid, van Gaal watched with growing anger as Webb let off Inter hatchet-man Walter Samuel for scything down Robben. Then, crucially, he didn't give Bayern a penalty at 0-0 when Maicon handled. Van Gaal ended up losing the game and the following year his job – a huge blow to a manager who revels in his "iron" personality. And he'll surely be aware that the man in the middle for Sunday's big game, Phil Dowd, was once taken to task by Sir Alex Ferguson for being overweight, though he has clearly slimmed down since then. Despite the platitudes between van Gaal and Mourinho, it is hard for a mentor to see his protege overtake them. It's happened to Mourinho too. Last season he was desperate to beat Liverpool at Anfield and deny his protege Brendan Rodgers the title, even though it ended up in the hands of a manager he dislikes, Manchester City's Manuel Pellegrini. Van Gaal is now motivated by chasing Mourinho. First of all, this afternoon and longer-term beating him to the Premier League title. 'He has won the championship in more than three countries. I am next with three, and I also want to do it here. Then I am equal again!' said van Gaal. 'He hasn't won as many titles overall as I have but he's done it in a shorter time.' Van Gaal has been a champion in Holland, Spain and Germany, but Mourinho has been top dog in four countries – Portugal, England, Italy and Spain. They first met in Spain 17 years ago and it was Mourinho's personality that helped him get a job on the training ground besides translation. Sir Bobby Robson loved the way the young Mourinho would be able to communicate his instructions to big egos like Ronaldo and Hristo Stoichkov with firmness and intensity. Van Gaal was also taken with his passion when he replaced Robson. 'We all had a meeting and he was angry that Sir Bobby was no longer coach. His anger was fantastic to see. So I said “You are my man”! Mourinho shows his emotions as he celebrates winning the Champions League for a second time . Tactically, the game at Old Trafford will be intriguing. United have used a record 30 different players in their opening eight league fixtures, testimony to the injury problems van Gaal has faced. Skipper Wayne Rooney is out of the game as he completes a three-game ban. Chelsea's early success this season, they are still unbeaten in the league, has owed a great deal to their midfield playmaker Cesc Fabregas being on top form while United's equivalent Michael Carrick has been unable to play for the first-team so far because of injury though he did return for the under-21s against West Ham on Friday. 'He (Fabregas) is a very interesting player and he can also dominate a game. He makes a big part of the attacking play of Chelsea,' accepted van Gaal, who is likely to start with Ander Herrera to try and snuff out the Fabregas threat. With Rooney out and van Gaal saying Falcao took a heavy kick in training on Friday, he will want the best out of former Chelsea player Juan Mata. 'I want to be a manager who can improve the qualities of players and that is a process,' he said of the £38million midfielder, who has not enjoyed the best first 12 months at Old Trafford. Whoever is on the pitch however, the television cameras will regularly point to the dug-outs to see the two protagonists van Gaal and Mourinho. For once, United won't be clear favourites for a game at Old Trafford. Their defensive resources have been stretched all season, hence conceding two at West Brom, two at home to Swansea, four at MK Dons and most startlingly, five at Leicester City in the Premier League. But having lost to Mourinho in a big final, van Gaal will not want a repeat and goes into the game believing he could sample some kind of revenge. 'We can beat any team,' he says. 'We have made individual errors at the back but we have also shown this season we can score goals and beat any team.' | Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the 2010 Champions League final .
Louis van Gaal is still unhappy with the performance of ref Howard Webb .
The Dutchman hopes to match Mourinho's record of winning titles in four countries by leading Manchester United to the top of the Premier League . |
169,823 | 67c8e49394e9f9060808f31c5e746401c53d6503 | By . Emma Innes . PUBLISHED: . 11:14 EST, 17 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:31 EST, 17 June 2013 . Samuel L Jackson has urged men to be more open about their health problems in an attempt to tackle cancer. The Pulp Fiction star, who is fronting a new charity called One For The Boys, believes men should talk more about the disease and other illnesses. Jackson, 64, said: ‘Guys don't talk about their health issues, unless they've got a sprained ankle. Scroll down for video . Samuel L Jackson is fronting a campaign to encourage men to be more open about their health. He says he believes men need to be more aware of cancer and of their own bodies . For more videos, please go to ITV . ‘We'll talk about our injuries but we won't talk about our illnesses, so I think it's time we do that.’ The actor said he was motivated to put his weight behind the charity after he learnt that friends had secretly coped with cancer without telling anybody. He said: ‘When they started talking about it, I realised most guys don't talk to other guys about what their medical conditions are - especially cancer conditions. ‘And most guys think the only cancer guys get is prostate cancer, or they look at TV and see it as basically a woman's problem, but it's not. ‘So I realised that we do really need to make men aware of the fact that cancer is a very serious thing for guys.’ One For The Boys was founded by event organiser Sofia Davis to challenge men's understanding of cancers and their tendency to have a more laissez-faire approach to their health. In recent weeks, Angelia Jolie (left) has revealed that she had a double mastectomy to reduce her chance of developing breast cancer and Michael Douglas (right) spoke out about his battle with throat cancer . All money raised will go towards the Royal Marsden Hospital in London to buy new MRI scanners which will help with cancer diagnosis. In recent weeks, Angelina Jolie has revealed she had a double mastectomy because she has a higher chance of developing breast cancer, and Michael Douglas has spoken about his throat cancer. Asked what effect celebrities can have on people's perception of the disease, Jackson said: ‘We're just people who have interesting jobs, so people tend to look at us, or that fact that you guys [media] do shows, or you film us talking, allows people to hear our opinions about things, or sometimes, we'll just expose stuff about ourselves, and that makes people go, “Oh, that's sort of like us”. Samuel L Jackson says that he tries to keep fit and to eat healthily. He also says he uses alternative medicines and visits acupuncturists . ‘I don't know that what we say has more weight than anything else, but Angelina's declaration and allowing people to understand that she did that will maybe get some other women or some other person to look at their bodies and go in and go, “Ok, well maybe I do need to do this too, or I need to get checked”. ‘Hopefully we have enough credence, or our earnestness about the things we're talking about will make sense to people, or it reaches a greater number of people because we're the ones saying it. ‘I just want people to be aware and get out there and do something. To understand their bodies and understand the quality of life for them and their families if they understand what's going on, on the inside and the outside, because cancer is not just internal, it's external too.’ Jackson said he has an exercise and diet regime to make sure he keeps healthy. ‘I try and eat a certain way, and I try and exercise,’ he said. ‘I do use alternative medicines, I go to acupuncturists, get massages, but I'm old, so I need to have those things. ‘But the sooner you recognise how to take care of your body, the longer you'll have that engine driving you, and the more you'll be able to do for yourself and for other people because you are healthy and you'll be a healthy example.’ He added: ‘I stretch. I ride a bike. I don't necessarily get out and run. I ride a stationary bike for an hour, an hour and a half, two or three times a week. ‘I get on the big Swiss ball, I've got my TRX straps to use my own body weight to pull myself around. ‘Push-ups, pull-ups and stuff like that, so I try to find a way to maintain a specific weight and a specific level of fitness that allows me to have a comfortable lifestyle, and not be achy, and, I guess, kind of old.’ | The Pulp Fiction star is fronting a new charity called One For The Boys .
He is encouraging men to be more open and aware about their health .
Says he was motivated to join the campaign after learning that friends had battled cancer in secret . |
49,024 | 8a72790b02e8f85924c5095bdbbc8e9ff87ce115 | (CNN) -- I have a distinguished astrophysicist friend who sets an alarm to ring every 15 minutes when he's at work. As soon as it does, he closes his eyes for nine seconds, takes a deep breath and collects himself. The break represents only 1% of his working day — nine seconds every 900 — and yet it's a regular reminder to him to look up as well as down, to ensure he's not overheating and to put his work within a larger frame. The man is not a New Age flake or idler; he has been a fellow for 33 years at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, Einstein's old home, and I first met him at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But he's a seasoned scientist who's aware, from empirical research, that the best way of completing a task, often, is to look away from it; it's the pause in a piece of music that gives the piece its beauty and its shape. As J.P. Morgan used to say, I'm told, of his habit of taking two months off every year, "I can get done in 10 months what I could never do in 12." It's an old principle, as old as the Buddha or Marcus Aurelius: We need at times to step away from our lives in order to put them in perspective. Especially if we wish to be productive. It's no coincidence that the word "holiday" suggests a holy day, or that the longest book in the Torah concerns the Sabbath. If you wish to advance in any sphere, the best way is to take a retreat. Has the need for taking a break -- a breath -- ever been so urgent as right now? Sociologists studying time diaries have found that Americans are working fewer hours, at home and in the office, than they were in the 1960s, but they feel they're working more. The more time-saving devices we own, the less time we seem to have. It takes 25 minutes to recover from a phone call or an e-mail, researchers have found, and yet the average person receives such an interruption every 11 minutes. Which means that we're never caught up; we're always out of breath, running behind. Many of us know that Google has regularly given its workers 20% of their paid time off, to let their minds go foraging, setting up meditation programs and trampolines to offer them a more imaginative space. Intel experimented with giving 300 of its executives and engineers a four-hour "quiet period" every Tuesday morning, when they were asked not to take calls, handle e-mails or engage in idle chat, and the fortunate specimen cases found the results to be so invigorating that they suggested the program be expanded. Fully a third of American companies now have stress-reduction programs, if only because stress is costing them $300 billion a year, and the World Health Organization is quoted as calling stress "the health epidemic of the 21st century." But what of those of us who don't work for enlightened companies willing to allow us to go to the mental health club as readily as to the fitness center? Well, relief is always close at hand. Most people I know nowadays go for a run every day, or practice yoga, or cook after work, taking conscious measures to step out of the pace that technology has imposed on us and return to something human. A friend at Google reminds me that it's always easy just to step into a conference room, close the door and close one's eyes. When I was working in a very high-pressure job in a 25th floor office in Midtown Manhattan, I would take myself to a long, multi-course tea mid-afternoon, and be amazed at how much better and more directed my work was when I returned. All of us are feeling scattered and distracted as we try to keep up with an accelerating world. But nearly all of us have an answer in our hands, in simply choosing to do nothing and go nowhere for a while. I once got onto a plane in Frankfurt for a 12-hour flight to Los Angeles, and a young, attractive German woman came down and set next to me. She engaged in friendly and highly animated conversation for thirty minutes or so, and then politely turned away and sat where she was. She never played with her video monitor or took out a book. She didn't even sleep. She simply sat, for the next eleven hours, visibly still. As we prepared to land, I asked her about this, and she explained that she had a very draining job, as a social worker. She was now on her way to a five week holiday in Hawaii, and she wished to use the flight just to get all the stress out of her system and to detoxify. The next flight I took, I tried the same: No movie, no work-related reading. Just a chance to take my mind for a walk, or let it do nothing at all. When I awoke next morning, I felt as if I was ready to remake the world. Read more: . Could being quiet help you get ahead . Modern schools for mastering life . | In an age of constant movement and connectedness, maybe what we really need is some stillness .
A recent study found that Americans work fewer hours than they did in 60s, but feel like they have less time .
Writer Pico Iyer argues that when we feel scattered, most of us already have the answer .
Maybe we need to just do nothing and go nowhere -- even if it's for five minutes . |
52,423 | 9483a077ff809cf7c2f2393c8a5a2b0ec2bdfa21 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 09:27 EST, 8 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 10:00 EST, 8 August 2012 . A couple has been pulled before a judge after they refused to let their eight-year-old daughter undergo chemotherapy for a brain tumour, opting for alternative treatment instead. Sarah Parisian, from Minnetonka, Minnesota, had 90 per cent of the cancerous tumour removed last December and underwent a cycle of chemotherapy - but endured painful suffering, her parents said. When they told doctors they would not allow her to go through it again, Jon and Karen Parisian were reported to Child Protection Services and ordered into court. Scroll down for video . Court battle: The parents of Sarah Parisian, 8, refused to allow their daughter to undergo chemotherapy for a brain tumour and wanted to opt for other treatments instead . There, the family was told if they did not work on a treatment plan with doctors, Sarah would be taken from them. This week, the family and physicians reached a compromise so she will undergo less treatment that doctors hope will still be effective - but the family is bitter about the pressure. 'Parents should have freedom,' Sarah's mother Karen told the Brainerd Dispatch. Sarah underwent the operation to . remove the tumour last December. The family sought a treatment that . would yield fewer side effects, and chose proton therapy, which could . only be done in Chicago. After the treatment they stayed in Illinois . for seven weeks, where Sarah suffered from exhaustion, nausea, a sore throat, hair and weight loss, her mother told WCCO. 'The week that we started chemo she was sleeping 22 hours a day,' said Karen, who has another daughter, 11-year-old Savannah, with her husband. Orders: Doctors contacted Child Protective Services and the Parisians, pictured with Sarah and their oldest daughter, were ordered to make a compromise in court - otherwise Sarah would be taken from them . Pain: They argued that after one cycle of chemo she suffered weight loss, illness and slept for 22 hours a day . Struggle: Doctors said that every day her parents withheld treatment, Sarah's survival was compromised . 'She is very sick from the standard . treatment so we wanted to explore an option of modifying the treatment . so that it would be more appropriate for Sarah.' But doctors argued the child's chances of survival worsened each day she was not treated. 'So in order to modify her treatment we had to go in front of a judge and fortunately we seem to be working this out,' Karen, a financial adviser, added. Dr. Kevin Conners, an integrative cancer specialist, told WCCO a compromise could be reached to 'do what's best for the patient'. 'Let's take her case as an individual case and... look at her as an individual what she can tolerate what other therapies added to a traditional approach is going to be best for her,' he said. The youngster will now stay at home but undergo some treatment that will not 'send her tipping over the edge,' Dr. Connors said. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office . said that it respects the right of parents to make decisions for their . children, but that the Parisians were not doing what was best for their . child. Moving forward: The court ordered Sarah (second left) to undergo less treatment and her parents agreed . Anger: But Karen Parisian, pictured talking to local reporters with her family, said she was frustrated she was not allowed to decide what was best for her daughter . While the family are happy to have . reached a compromise that will benefit Sarah, Karen said she was annoyed . that she had not been able to make a decision she believed was best for . her daughter. 'As parents, you don’t have the right to choose the kind of treatment you want your child to have,' she said. Sarah begins testing and treatment on Friday. After Sarah was diagnosed with the brain tumour, her mother and older sister cut their hair in solidarity and donated it to Locks for Love, which makes hair pieces for cancer patients. 'I didn’t want her to have to go through it alone,' Karen said. See below for video . | Sarah Parisian had operation to remove 90 per cent of tumor last year .
Underwent chemotherapy afterwards - but suffered terrible side effects .
Parents did not want to see her suffer so opted for alternative therapies .
Child Protective Services ordered couple to court .
The Parisians agreed to a compromise of lesser treatment . |
178,645 | 7348cd714ce4b117cca47031e022c4ce6a4feb8c | (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that his country has "been able to control" the U.S. drone that Iran claims it recently brought down, Venezuelan state TV reported. "There are people here who have been able to control this spy plane," Ahmadinejad told VTV. "Those who have been in control of this spy plane surely will analyze the plane's system. Furthermore, the systems of Iran are so advanced also, like the system of this plane." Ahmadinejad did not elaborate or specify what precisely he meant when he referred to people "who have been able to control" the drone. He spoke in Farsi, which VTV translated into Spanish. The Farsi portion of the interview was not audible. President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States has asked Iran to return the drone aircraft that Iran claims it recently brought down in Iranian territory. "We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said. Ahmadinejad's comments to VTV seemed to suggest that Iran did not plan to return the aircraft. "The North Americans at best have decided to give us this spy plane," Ahmadinejad said. "In the unpiloted planes, we have had many advances, much progress and now we have this spy plane." Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said the drone no longer belongs to Washington. "The U.S. spy plane is among the assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Vahidi told reporters Tuesday, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. "Our country will decide what to do with it." The United States owes Iran an apology and needs to admit its crime, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday, the Iranian Students' News Agency report. "The U.S. should know that what it did regarding violation of our air space can put international peace and security in danger," he said. "The U.S. should take responsibility for the consequences of the measure." American officials have not confirmed that the drone shown in a video released last Thursday by Iranian media is a U.S. aircraft. But Pentagon spokesman George Little has said that an American drone is missing and had not been recovered. Two U.S. officials have confirmed to CNN that the missing drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission that involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said the country's armed forces had downed the drone near Kashmar, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) from the border with Afghanistan on December 4. The Ahmadinejad interview was aired in Venezuela Monday night. Officials say the fall of this drone is not related to an incident Tuesday in which a U.S. drone crashed upon landing at an airport in Seychelles. For one thing, they seem to be two different kinds of drones -- the one over Iran was apparently a sophisticated stealth-type vehicle while the Seychelles one is of more conventional design. | The spy plane belongs to Iran, defense minister says .
President Obama has asked Iran to return the drone .
"There are people here who have been able to control this spy plane," the Iranian president tells VTV .
U.S. officials have said that the missing drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission . |
172,804 | 6ba875672658b38127db9d3df228349ef05fe0ae | By . James Gordon . A 73-year old veteran from Florida has been fired from a Cracker Barrel restaurant for giving a homeless man a muffin. Joe Koblenzer has worked at the restaurant in Venice for the past three-and-a-half year and appears to have a heart of gold. It was when a man who looked as though he had fallen on hard times walked into the store, he thought he would give him a little extra. 'He looked a little needy. He asked if I had any mayonnaise and some tarter sauce. He said he was going to cook a fish,' he told ABC 7. Scroll down for video... Fired: Joe Koblenzer, a 73-year old veteran says he was fired from the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Venice for giving someone who looked in a need a few condiment packets and a corn muffin . Don't break the rules! The restaurant say Joe gave food away on several occasions and was written up for it . The man whose job it is to be friendly, obliged. 'I got it for him. As he walked out I put a corn muffin in.' That gesture cost Joe his job. 'The General Manager called me in and said he had some bad news for me. Joe we are going to have to let you go.' Joe says that he has been written up before for what sound like the most trivial of things. Once he was reprimanded for getting a fountain drink on the job and on a second occasion he gave a cup of coffee to woman, which he claims he paid for. The culprit: Joe gave a homeless a corn muffin for free. He was fired for doing so . Rewarded: Joe says he has worked hard to earn the four gold stars that adorned his apron . A lifetime of service: Joe served his country in Vietnam and he now says he is looking for something else to supplement his Social Security . He admits that rues are rules. 'It's a rule. They legally can do this because I did break the rule. I completely forgot about it. I am a host at Cracker Barrel with a little above minimum wage job.' The debate over the seriousness of the event and the subsequent firing has a debate online. Joe's niece, Penny Robinson Hockey says that she is appalled her her uncles' treatment. 'He is truly such a wonderful and friendly guy. He was such a joy to those he greeted at CB. They wronged him in the worst possible way!! Shame on Cracker Barrel!! I will never step foot into one again.' Others, like Mike Cecil, have been less sympathetic.'I worked at Cracker barrel when they first opened. They were very strict about their products. I think it is horrible this vet lost his . job over a muffin. But the store has rules the food is their property. Where does the employer draw the line. Maybe next time it would be a . sandwich, a full meal? He violated the policy's he was well aware of.' Rules are rules: Joe understands the reasons why he has been fired but thinks the restaurant came down a little harsh on him . Upset: There has been outrage on the restaurants Facebook page with many demanding he be given his job back . While some are saying it's the company’s right, the establishments reviews have plummeted with more than 30 negative comments about the firing. 'I feel badly. It shines a bad light on the company. I would not want that on any company, but it happened,' says Joe. He says he's sad over the situation and misses the regulars and employees he's gotten to know; earning the maximum amount of stars on his apron for performance achievement and responsibility. 'You know what? At 73, I was really proud of doing this. I was really proud of getting those stars.' The Vietnam vet who was trying to supplement his Social Security is now looking for work. Hanging up his apron: Joe says he served with pride and what he did was 'morally right' Cracker Barrel have released the following statement: . 'Mr. Koblenzer has worked as a host at Cracker Barrel’s Sarrasota store since April 2011. During the time he was employed, he violated the Company’s policies regarding consuming food without paying or giving away free food, on five separate occasions. Mr. Koblenzer received multiple counselings and written warnings reminding him about the company’s polices and the consequences associated with violating them. On the fifth occasion, again per Company policy, Mr. Koblenzer was terminated. Cracker Barrel is grateful for and honors Mr. Koblenzer’s service to our country as we honor all service men and women and their families.' | Joe Koblenzer felt sorry for a man who came into the restaurant just to take free condiments .
He decide to give him a corn muffin but was fired for doing so .
Restaurant say that he has a habit of giving away stuff for free and had to be let go . |
51,608 | 922062130373bfbcedab42a83f129b39933cbde7 | (CNN) -- Veteran NFL superstar Brett Favre has promised that this will definitely be his last comeback, having decided to return for one more season with the Minnesota Vikings. Favre, who turns 41 in October, has previously retired with the Green Bay Packers in March 2008 and in February 2009 with the New York Jets. But the 11-time Pro-Bowl selection has announced that he will continue for a 20th season with the Vikings following successful ankle surgery. He is now hoping to win his second Super Bowl title after taking Minnesota to within a match of last year's final, losing in New Orleans as his final throw was intercepted. Favre was visited by teammates Jared Allen, Steve Hutchinson and Ryan Longwell this week, and confirmed his return to the Vikings on Wednesday. "It was very tough, I could make a case for playing and not playing. Ultimately much has made about the three guys coming down, it was really about the team," he told reporters at a press conference. "When I left New Orleans a big part of me was, I don't want to say done, but the fact we lost that game... It's hard to make people understand. "The mental toll is what is hard to deal with. This team is a very good football team, the chances here are much greater than other places. From that standpoint it has always made it easier, but answering the bell again... "My wife always says I look at things more negatively than I should, but the 'what ifs.' I'd love to win the Super Bowl again, but what happens if you don't?" Favre has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, and said even his latest surgery has not stopped a new spur forming on his ankle. "I have played 309 straight games, I can't complain. There's nothing on me that's 100 percent, there's nothing on me that was the year before either. But the surgeries, I think, have made me a little better. "There's a little bit of pain there. The fact is it's something I'm going to have to deal with. There's a little bit more range of movement there since the surgery, but we're not talking about a lot. I was hoping to resolve this, but every time you sprain an ankle, mine sprains a little bit easier than it did earlier in my career." However, Favre is hopeful that he can add to his 1996 Super Bowl triumph, having returned to training on Wednesday. "I've done it all. There's nothing left for me to prove. I'm here to have fun, help these guys win. I really enjoy this group of guys like you wouldn't believe. I think the feeling is mutual," he said. "I can promise you this: Not that I have ever set out as a goal to play 20 years, [but] it's 20 years and I'm done. This is the last year of my contract. I'm sure a lot of people are like, 'Yes!' "Did I just say that? I do believe it now. I do. I'm going to fall apart sometime." | Brett Favre decides to play one more NFL season with the Minnesota Vikings .
Veteran quarterback aims to finally retire following his 20th season as a player .
The 40-year-old is hoping to win his second career Super Bowl before he quits .
He has officially retired on at least two other occasions, then returned to play . |
63,533 | b468b8bb0e30fd8f4bfcd4f9972241dff799197c | By . Sarah Bruce . PUBLISHED: . 12:47 EST, 12 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 08:36 EST, 13 February 2013 . Five children were injured along with an adult after a chairlift failed at a ski resort. Dozens of other people had to be rescued when they were left dangling mid-air at Lecht Ski Centre in Corgarff, Aberdeenshire, yesterday. The five children, who were as young as nine, and the man were injured when they fell 20ft onto the mountainside, crashing to the ground. Stephen Bastiman-Davies took this picture of his wife and son being rescued from the chair-lift at Lecht Ski Centre . A failed component on a pylon at Lecht Ski Centre led to a chairlift pictured falling to the ground . Some of the injured were airlifted to hospital amid fears of spinal injuries following the accident at 3.25pm. After the casualties had been dealt . with, rescuers could finally turn their attention to the day trippers – . including children – trapped 20ft up on the broken lift in sub-zero wind . chill conditions. Among them was a small boy on his own in a chair, whose father tried to comfort him from the ground. Last night, it was unclear exactly what had happened – but Health and Safety investigators will visit the scene this morning. In a statement published on its Facebook page, the company involved Lecht 2090 said it did not know what caused the malfunction. An investigation is due to take place by the Health and Safety Executive and the chairlift, which is the only lift of its kind at the ski resort, is expected to remain closed for some time. The statement read: 'Some of you might know there was an incident with the chairlift this afternoon (Tuesday) where six people were injured. 'We are extremely upset that these people have been injured but as yet we don't [know] the cause of the problem with the chair. 'The first response was to look after the injured. The rest of the skiers were then taken off the chairlift by the two Lecht teams within around one hour and 20 minutes. 'A major incident was called by the company to alert all the other emergency agents who reacted quickly. The chair will be out of action for a while but the rest of the lifts will be working as normal.' Jennifer Johnston and her family, from . nearby Hatton of Fintray, were skiing in the area – and her . 15-year-old son Calum was on a lift parallel to the chairlift that broke . down. He described one chair becoming detached from the main line and causing a pile-up. Police, ambulances, firefighters and mountain rescue teams dealt with those trapped at the scene . The ski lift with police tape around it at the Lecht ski centre near Tomintoul, Aberdeenshire . Five children and an adult were taken to hospital after a chairlift derailed at the Scottish ski resort . A casualty arriving at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after being flown by Royal Navy helicopter . Calum said: 'I looked over at the chairlift and saw one caught in the pylon cable. 'Then another one came up behind it and also got caught, then there was a third chair. They were all bundled up together. 'I heard a crunch and soon after the . cable released. There was groaning as it was on the ground, although . there was no screaming when it fell – it happened too quickly.' Mrs Johnston added: 'We skied away and could see where one of the cables had come off the pylon. 'One chair was detached from the cable and had stopped progression up the hill, and other chairs had got tangled in the cable. 'One of the most upsetting things was a . little boy all on his own on a chair much higher up. His dad was on the . ground trying to comfort him and throw him gloves.' The Lecht Ski Centre, with 20 runs, is on the eastern side of the Cairngorms in Strathdon and began operating in the mid-1970s. Busy: CCTV pictures from the Lecht Ski Centre in Aberdeenshire shortly before a chair life derailed at 3.25pm . Derailment: The incident was the result of a 'suspected derailment' at the Lecht Ski Centre near Tomintoul in Aberdeenshire . Yesterday, it was particularly busy with families because of the February half-term school holidays. More than 30 adults and children were left trapped when the mechanism ground to a halt. Police said a calm descended as several doctors who were skiing in the area rushed to help, pre- empting emergency services. Four ambulances, two fire engines, . several police cars, three Mountain Rescue Teams, an air ambulance and a . Royal Navy helicopter from HMS Gannet were scrambled to help with the . rescue. The six casualties, suffering broken . bones and spinal injuries, were taken by helicopter and ambulance to . Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Busy: CCTV pictures from shortly before the incident show a thick coating of snow on the hills, with numerous of people using the resort's facilities . Rescue: According to reports, six people were injured in the incident and 36 people had to rescued by emergency services . None of the injuries is thought to be life-threatening. After the stranded skiers were rescued, they were checked over by medics at the ski centre and allowed home. Last night, a spokesman for the ski . centre said: 'All the casualties are in a stable condition; three were . taken to hospital by helicopter and three by ambulance. 'Staff evacuated 36 people who were stuck on the other chairlifts and everyone was off the slope within an hour and 40 minutes. 'The Health and Safety Executive and the Lecht will be investigating the cause of the accident.' Grampian Police Chief Inspector Willie Findlay said: 'A number of doctors who were skiing were quickly on scene.' | Incident took place at the Lecht Ski Centre near Tomintoul in Aberdeenshire .
Derailment occurred at 3:25pm causing possible leg and spinal injuries .
30 other people were rescued by emergency services while stranded on lifts . |
228,900 | b4649bcf6f289177684d20cd23d61f5207b270cb | By . Daily Mail Reporters . PUBLISHED: . 11:16 EST, 29 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:31 EST, 29 August 2013 . The three-year-old son of a teenager who slipped into a coma while undergoing a breast augmentation operation still does not know his mother is sick, her devastated family has revealed. Linda Perez, 18, a student from Miami, Florida, . never woke up from the anesthesia after what should have been a routine . hour-long operation at a clinic in Coral Gables two weeks ago. She now needs a life-saving tracheotomy to help her breathe. The procedure will again require general anesthesia. Her . family were told that her heart stopped during the operation and she . was 'effectively' dead when she was transported to hospital. She suffered brain and heart damage during the procedure. Tragic: Linda Perez's son, 3, does not know his mother slipped into a coma after breast implant surgery . 'What they gave me is essentially a vegetable,' her mother Mariela Diaz told NBC 6. Perez was admitted to Mercy Hospital following her procedure and her family's attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, said that finding out what went wrong will require litigation. 'How does an 18-year-old healthy young lady go in to have a simple routine cosmetic procedure and come out in a vegetative state?' he asked as he spoke to NBC 6. Perez paid just $2,800 for the procedure, which is around half of the typical cost of the procedure, according to Eiglarsh. Serious: Mariela Perez sits at her daughter's bedside after the teen suffered brain and heart damage . Dr Jacob Freiman, who performed the . surgery, has a clean record and is a board-certified plastic surgeon, . according to the Florida Department of Health. However it later emerged that the anesthetist Dr Mario Alberto Diaz had previously served time for illegally selling pain pills over the internet. Dr Diaz served time in federal prison in 2006 for illegally dispensing at least 53,000 doses of pain pills over the Internet. He also had his Florida medical license suspended for six months. The . parents of the tragic teen have now demanded an investigation into the . Coral Gables, Florida, clinic. Mariela Perez and Fernando Izquierdo have . called for an inquiry into how their daughter ended up in a coma. Questions: Perez, pictured with her father, paid around half the price of a typical breast implant surgery . Loved: Her heartbroken parents said the once vivacious girl was now 'like a vegetable' in her bed . Glamorous: Perez had researched the clinic herself before undergoing the operation, her parents said . Fernando said: 'A young girl so full of life, healthy, and now she's just thrown in bed, like a vegetable. It's sad. It's sad.' Neither Freiman or Diaz have commented on the situation. The attorney added that the Perez family is not looking for a big payoff from the center, but could bring a lawsuit. 'This . is about any person that may see this who may have a procedure tomorrow . and may think, "I want to pass on this clinic",' Eiglarsh said. 'Maybe . save up a little bit of money to go with a place that's a little more . reputable.' Perez researched The Coral Gables Cosmetic Center before agreeing to go under the knife. While . the name of the clinic suggests it is in the upmarket Coral Gables area . of south Florida, it is in fact in Miami and above a pet grooming . salon. False advertising: The clinic is not in Coral Gables as the name would suggest but is above a pet grooming salon in Miami . Video Source NBC6.COM . The clinic's website boasts about its top quality care and surgeons. It . says: 'Coral Gables Cosmetic offers the latest in cosmetic surgery, . performed by some of the finest plastic surgeons in South Florida. 'All . are highly skilled board-certified plastic surgeons who use . sophisticated approaches and attention to detail for cosmetic surgery . candidates. 'Complimentary . consultations are available for patients who want to learn more about . Miami plastic surgery procedures, such as having a tummy tuck, . liposuction, a nose job, butt lifts, facial plastic surgery, or Botox.' Mother: Mariela Perez wants a full investigation into how their daughter ended up in a coma . Her dad Fernando Izquierdo said: 'They just ruined our daughter's life and this isn't even compared to the pain we are feeling. She used to be so full of life' The clinic offers a wide range of cosmetic procedures, including Brazilian butt lifts. A . statement from the facility read: 'Coral Gables Cosmetic Center prides . itself on partnering with top medical professionals including . board-certified plastic surgeons. 'CGCC . is committed to upholding the highest standards of medical care and . patient safety. For privacy reasons, CGCC cannot comment on any medical . issues related to its patients.' | Linda Perez, 18, slipped into a coma during the operation two weeks ago .
Her parents say the once-vivacious girl is now 'a vegetable'
Family is now considering legal action against the clinic . |
252,707 | d30aa9a131a9c3803a41791a698be2d04feb9215 | With nearly half of all suicides in the U.S. military committed with a privately owned firearm, Congress and the Pentagon are moving to implement policies that will discourage at-risk members of the armed forces from retaining their personal weapons. As suicides continue to rise in 2012, the Defence Department officials are developing a suicide prevention campaign, part of which will encourage friends and family of the potentially suicidal to convince the soldiers to give up their weapons. The Pentagon’s move would be hugely controversial as some lobbyists may construe it as gun control. Concern: Almost half of all suicides in the U.S military are committed with a private firearm, not service weapons . Gun rights groups – along with many service members themselves - are likely to oppose any policy which could seem to limit a citizen’s private ownership of a firearm. ‘This is not about authoritarian regulation,’ said Dr Jonathan Woodson, the assistant secretary of defence for health affairs. ‘It is about the spouse understanding warning signs and, if there are firearms in the home, responsibly separating the individual at risk from the firearm.’ Dr Woodson said the campaign would also include measures to encourage friends and family of at-risk soldiers to remove possibly dangerous prescription drugs from their homes, but declined to provide any further details. Another significant step is the fact that Congress appear willing to implement legislation which would allow mental health counsellors and commanders to discuss the issues of privately owned weapons with the troops. The measure would amend last year’s legislation, that prohibited the Defence Department from collecting information from members of the armed forces about lawfully owned, personal firearms. The measure was part of the Defence Authorisation Act and was backed by the National Rifle Association. The NRA claimed the provision was in response to efforts by defence officials to maintain records of all firearms owned by their personnel. The new amendment, which is part of the defence authorisation bill for 2013, has been passed by the House of Representatives but not the Senate. It would allow mental health experts and commanders to ask service members about their private firearms if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe the soldier is at ‘high risk’ of harming himself or others. Trauma: Congress are taking steps to prevent at-risk soldiers from retaining their private weapons . The NRA are wary over the moves, and have said that, although they are happy for the commanders to ask questions of those they are concerned about, the commanders should not be confiscating firearms. ‘We’re OK with the commanding officer being able to inquire,’ said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA., ‘but they can’t confiscate.’ Senator James M Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who sponsored the 2011 restrictions, said he would support the new amendment ‘if it clears up any confusion.’ ‘This is a national tragedy that Congress, all branches of D.O.D. and numerous outside organizations have been working together to solve,’ Mr Inhofe said. The Senate is not expected to take the bill until after the general election. Suicides in the US military rose rapidly between 2005 and 2009, and reached 285 active service members, along with 24 reservists in 2009. Opposition: Gun rights lobbyists are likely to oppose any policy that would result in the confiscation of weapons . The numbers plateaued in 2010 and 2011, but the 2012 figures look set to exceed those of 2009, according to the New York Times. As of last month, 270 active-duty service members killed themselves this year alone, and half were from the Army. More than six out of 10 military suicides are by use of firearms, and nearly half of those involve privately owned guns. Guns are also the most common method of suicide among young males across the country. When troops are identified as high risk, commanders have the authority to confiscate their service weapons, but under current legislation they can not ask them to hand over their personal firearms. The rising figures are of greater concern to the military staff considering the efforts from the suicide prevention campaign. John Ruocco, a helicopter pilot, killed himself in 2005 between deployments in Iraq. His wife, Kim, said he felt unable to seek help. She said: 'He was so afraid of how people would view him once he went for help.' 'He thought that people would think he was weak, that people would think he was just trying to get out of redeploying or trying to get out of service, or that he just couldn't hack it. In reality, he was sick. 'He had suffered injury in combat and he had also suffered from depression and let it go untreated for years.' | Pentagon and Congress to back policies encouraging the separation of at-risk soldiers from their private weapons .
Suicide rate among U.S. military staff rising again in 2012, almost half of those committed with personal firearm .
Likely to spark opposition from gun rights groups such as National Rifle Association . |
256,274 | d7b75d8217acd0f7a72056106a6d8612b6166a0b | By . Laura Collins In Oklahoma . and Lydia Warren . PUBLISHED: . 13:27 EST, 21 May 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 21:19 EST, 21 May 2013 . Relatives of a young mother . killed along with her five-month-old child in the 7-Eleven razed by the Oklahoma . tornado have told of her desperate final moments. MailOnline has learned that . mother-of-two Megan Futrell was desperately trying to reach her older child . when the storm overtook her and she was forced to seek shelter in a futile bid . to save herself and her baby. She hid with her baby in the . freezer at the convenience store. And it was there, huddled together, that their bodies were . found. According to tributes online the young mother-of-two had spoken to her husband on the phone moments before the tornado hit. Scroll down for video . Tragedy: Megan Futrell, pictured, and her five-month-old baby were among those killed at a 7-Eleven store in Moore, Oklahoma, which was destroyed in Monday's tornado . Devoted mom: Megan Futrell, pictured at a little league game, was trying to reach her son . A cousin said she was a 'beautiful woman, teacher, mother, wife'. Speaking to MailOnline, Pastor DA . Bennett, of St Andrews who has been contacted by the family and asked to make . funeral arrangements said: ‘This woman had two children, a six-year-old and a five month child. ‘She was a school teacher and had . to be home with her baby. She went to get her baby and found that she couldn’t . outrun the storm.’ He added: ‘I hope that when people . think of her they don’t think that she was reckless or some kind of thrill . seeker. ‘She was a mother who loved her . baby and wanted to do what she could to protect that child.’ The victim was born in Oklahoma . City, confirmed in St Andrews Church and married there too. Her husband Cody is a shop foreman at UEM, Oklahoma City. As a member of his . parish, Pastor Bennette said, ‘I will do what I can now for her and her child . and her family.’ Grieving: A bouquet of flowers was left at the site today . Destroyed: A mound of rubble was all that was left of the gas station . Areas of the town, including the Plaza Towers Elementary School (pictured) were leveled by the tornado . The tragedy is the latest to . emerge in the wake of the storm that tore through this swathe of the mid-West and claimed the life of 24, nine of them children. A further 237 were injured and hope of finding victims alive was beginning to wane. Officials started to search flattened homes and piles of rubble with cadaver dogs. No survivors were found on Tuesday and officials said they hope to complete three searches of every site of devastation before nightfall. The weather service confirmed that the powerful storm was for times an EF5 - the maximum on the scale. Seven children were found drowned at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which was a direct hit during the 45 minutes of terror. Nine-year-old Janae Hornsby, whose father said 'always has a smile on her face', is one of the victims while family members have shared pictures of other missing children, including Sydney Angle, feared dead. Frightened third graders were . being pulled from the wreckage alive on Monday afternoon as rescue workers . passed the children down a human chain before taking them to a triage center . set up in the school's parking lot. Staff said there had been at least 75 people in the school of around 500 students when the tornado hit. The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students were taken from the school to a church before the twister barreled through. Students who were inside . the building described clinging to the walls of the hallway where many . of them huddled during the storm as the twister battered the school. Others cowered in closets or bathrooms to protect themselves . Briarwood was the other elementary school flattened in the tornado but all the students miraculously escaped alive. Tales of heroic teachers throwing themselves over children to save them were reported in both. At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, an official confirmed that the two schools did not have safe rooms, as they had not applied for them. Fatalities: 24 people were confirmed dead yesterday including nine children. Shocking images and videos emerged of the tornado which caught many off guard . Destroyed: Piles of precious belongings could be seen on streets destroyed by Monday's tornado . Nothing left: For many their entire lives have been wiped out by the storm . He added that the jurisdiction decides where to allocate funds for safe rooms based on past events. President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore. Speaking from the White House on Tuesday morning, he said that FEMA staff were on the ground to provide support to residents. He offered his condolences to the community following 'one of the most destructive storms in history' and promised whatever resources they may require in the coming days and weeks. House Speaker John Boehner said on Tuesday that at the request of Rep. Tom Cole, from Moore, he has ordered flags on Capitol Hill to be lowered to half-staff. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin expressed her grief on behalf of her state for the parents of the missing children. 'Our hearts are broken for the parents that are wondering about the state of their children that had been in the schools that have been hit today,' Fallin said. 'I know that there are families wondering where their loved ones are.' At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, officials said they are aiming to complete three searches of all homes by dark. Rescue teams, including 80 members of the National Guard and search dogs, had reported hearing cries for help from beneath the rubble of the flattened school but the screams reportedly stopped at around 6:30 p.m. local time. One teacher told Good Morning America that her students had to stay with her for hours until their parents could reach them. Because of the damage to the roads, 'parents walked for miles just to get to their children,' she said. 'They were out of breath and crying but just so happy to see them.' Many parents have been forced to endure an agonizing wait at St. Andrews United Methodist Church, where they wait for news of their loved ones. Rescue: Dozens of volunteers came forward to help in the bid to find survivors . Counting the cost: Families assessed their property today. Many also received the devastating news their loved ones were among the 24 confirmed dead . Frantic parents rushed to Plaza Towers Elementary moments after it was pummeled but were kept back so search teams could hear any survivors calling for help through the rubble. The seven children confirmed dead are believed to have been trapped underneath rubble when they were overcome by water from burst pipes. The families were later taken to a nearby church where they continued the harrowing wait for news. On Tuesday morning the death toll was revised down to 24 - from the prior figure of 51, which may have included some double-reported casualties. Crews used jackhammers and sledgehammers to tear . away concrete, and chunks were being thrown to the side as the workers . dug. National Guard choppers were being used across Moore overnight . to detect body heat of survivors trapped under collapsed buildings and other rubble so they could direct rescuers. | Pastor confirms young mom and her baby are two of the 24 confirmed fatalities .
Megan Futrell, 29, was trying to find shelter and ended up in a 7-Eleven store, hiding in a freezer, where her body was found still holding her child .
She leaves a husband, Cody, and a six-year-old son .
Another man is said to have died at the store which the tornado ripped right through . |
201,633 | 910ec53649bf92fa3f209719efdcafef88a10e77 | By . John Greechan . He hasn’t scored as many goals at Celtic Park as certain rivals in the race to replace Neil Lennon; Oscar Garcia has just the one to his name and, to be honest, the only strike in a 1996 friendly is unlikely to rival any of Henrik Larsson’s in terms of emotional impact. What the former Barcelona midfielder lacks in Celtic credentials, though, he perhaps makes up for in suitability for this particular job. Not because he can drop the names of Johan Cruyff and Louis van Gaal into conversations about his formative footballing years. But because his outlook sits so easily with the philosophy of a club constrained by financial realities. Up for the job: Garcia, who left Brighton after narrowly missing out on promotion, has put his name forward . A coach who felt let down by alleged broken promises from the Brighton board last season, resigning after failure at the semi-final stages of the Premier League play-offs, Garcia does not shy away when the issue of Celtic’s established model — buy ‘em young, flog ‘em for a massive profit — is raised as a potential issue. A short laugh is followed by the ex-Barca Under-19s and Maccabi Tel Aviv boss telling Sportsmail: ‘For me, it’s amazing to work with young players, to develop them — and then, at the end of the day, the club has to decide what is best for the club and the players. ‘But for me to work with young players, I’ve done it all my life, not only at La Masia but in Tel Aviv — I played with a lot of young players. ‘And last season in Brighton, four of the young players from the youth department made their debuts for me. One became the Young Player of the Season, two others are currently playing in Toulon for the England Under-21 national team. ‘Celtic have done very well, bringing players in and giving them a chance, then maybe moving them on. They have a good reputation for developing talent. Well-travelled: Garcia won the Israeli title with Maccabi Tel-Aviv before his time in the Championship at Brighton . Playing days: Garcia (right) played at Barcelona where he was team-mates with the likes of Rivaldo (left) ‘I am not afraid to play with young players, if they are good enough. And I know that, in the youth department at Celtic, there are a lot of good players. ‘I know that, already in the club, they have talent. I know that the Under-20s just won their title, so they obviously have good players in there. Celtic is a club that works very hard on developing young players.’ Garcia certainly learned at the feet of masters, citing Cruyff as the greatest of all as he recalls a Barcelona playing career that saw him share a pitch with Romario, Ronaldo, Hristo Stoichkov and Luis Figo, among others. It is his work as a coach within the fabled La Masia youth system at Barca that really brought him to wider attention, though, and the Celtic coaches who saw his Under-19s side beat their Hoops counterparts home and away a few years ago were hugely impressed. Still, working with kids is one thing. Especially at a big club with the pick of the world’s young talent. What has he done in the senior game? Well, in between dodging Hamas attacks on the city, he guided Maccabi Tel Aviv to their first league title in 10 years. If he didn’t quite steer Brighton to the Premier League promised land, he wasn’t that far away. There is a reason that those close to the process describe Garcia as a ‘very credible candidate’ for the Parkhead job. If he has no Celtic roots, that also means he arrives without baggage. Talking tactics: The former Brighton boss explains his thinking to Mailonline using coffee cups . Parameters: The former Maccabi Tel-Aviv boss has shown he can work within financial constraints . Explaining his approach to football and his own fledgling managerial career, the 41-year-old said: ‘The biggest influence on me was Johan Cruyff. But I learned a lot from Louis van Gaal, from Jose Mourinho, from Bobby Robson. I had fantastic coaches in Barcelona and I learned a lot from them. ‘But I am Oscar Garcia. However much I learned from these great, great football people, I am myself — I have my thoughts and my thinking. ‘Obviously I agree with the passing football philosophy, keeping the ball, trying to keep the opposition moving, play in the opposition half as much as possible. ‘This is the best way to win games — and to make the fans happy. Because, at the end of the day, we play for the fans. They must enjoy to see their team play attractive football. Especially if we are winning. ‘I live my life by feelings. When I moved to Tel Aviv, nobody in Barcelona thought it was the right thing. I told everybody it was the right thing — but nobody believed me. The same thing happened at Brighton. I move where it feels right. ‘Now I have refused four very good offers because I don’t have the right feelings. They are big clubs but I have refused them. ‘I’ve had some offers in Spain, some offers in England, some from other countries. I’m waiting for the right club, the right offer. I’m sure I will make the right decision. I am a lucky man. I always have decided where I want to manage and coach. I’m confident it will happen the same for me this time.’ Asked if he would choose Celtic over an offer from south of the border, Garcia said: ‘First of all, I have to speak with the clubs, to have the right offer, the right feeling. Relaxed: Garcia is interested in the Celtic job but will need to make sure it suits him before accepting any offer . ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s in England, Scotland, Wales, France, Italy — I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have a good feeling. ‘I will choose a place where I can work as I want and where I have the right trust in the club, the right trust of the people. ‘Could I be happy at Celtic? Nobody has talked to me yet. I have spoken to some clubs, I have refused some offers. Now I am speaking to two big clubs and we’ll see what happens. ‘The good thing is to have enough offers to choose. That’s the reason I’m relaxed, because I believe I will choose correctly.’ Although Garcia is yet to speak with anyone directly about this position, his advisers have ‘put him in’ — to use the football parlance — and are understood to have been pleased with the response. He at least should be familiar to some of the Celtic hierarchy, having formed part of the official Barcelona party for their recent Champions League encounters. And, of course, he has that one challenge match appearance, telling Sportsmail: ‘Yes, I remember playing against Celtic — and I scored the goal. If I remember, we won 1-0, so I was the match winner! ‘The fans of Celtic are amazing. It’s a fantastic stadium and one of the biggest and best clubs in the world. They have all the facilities, as well as passion for the game.’ So maybe he’s not the King of Kings. And maybe his words are only the usual flattery, the kind of stuff we’ve all heard a thousand times before. But he’s young, he’s hungry, he’s got a good pedigree and he seems happy to work within fairly strict financial parameters. As left-field candidates go, he might not be so far out there as to be beyond serious consideration. | Garcia lacks the playing connection to the club, which means no baggage .
Former Brighton boss used to developing - and selling - young players .
Education at Barca has influenced him, but he remains his own man . |
86,778 | f648fa5059808d7298adae052e0f368631ee8940 | This weekend sees the return of one of Britain’s finest – WBA super-bantamweight world champion Scott Quigg. I’m a fight fan and one of the bouts I would love to watch is Quigg against Carl Frampton. Like other fight fans, I also want to drive the politics out of this sport and make it happen because after this weekend’s test, when Quigg faces a tough defence against Tshifhiwa Munyai, I want to make a huge fight for him. We are already in discussions with the likes of Leo Santa Cruz, the WBC world champion, and Kiko Martinez, the IBF champion, because Quigg will move on to a great fight, whether it involves Frampton or not. For fight fans: Scott Quigg (right) and Carl Frampton (left) is a bout boxing's faithful deserve to see happen . In defence: Tshifhiwa Munyai (right) is on a four-fight winning run and is a possible banana ski for Quigg . I am doing what I can behind the scenes. After increasing my substantial offer to Frampton at the end of last year, we are still no closer. That is because of the politics of boxing and they have a habit of cropping up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m blessed to be in a job like this but it does have a tendency to kick you in the nuts. The rollercoaster of matchmaking meant that Quigg’s original opponent for this next fight, Venezuela’s Nehomar Cermeno, pulled out. He had visa issues which required a trip to his embassy and a submission of fingerprints, which he failed to do. We looked at various options within the WBA rankings and Munyai looked a good, credible fight. He was already in the country because he has been sparring with Martin Ward. He has looked devastating on his other fights here, including stopping Martin Power twice for the Commonwealth bantamweight title and he also stopped Lee Haskins. He has also won an IBO world title and is on a four-fight winning streak. He is dangerous and awkward, a complete style change to Cermeno. That is a massive test for Scott, challenging his intelligence and his training to see if he can adapt accordingly. It is a potential banana skin. This is a sterner test than Cermeno. In terms of what will happen if Quigg comes through this, I am considering the options. I understand that Frampton’s agreement with another broadcaster restricts him from fighting on Sky. That’s the politics we talk about in this sport. I will do what I can to make it happen. Frampton has talked about options we would request - not true. As a voluntary challenger, I would be willing to have just a rematch clause and, if Frampton beat Quigg, we would do the rematch in Belfast. So, what is the problem? It’s a chance for both fighters to make huge money and a fight that the British public want to see. Alternatives: Spain's Kiko Martinez - along with Leo Santa Cruz - are other possible Quigg opponents . I don’t think for one minute that Frampton is afraid – both these guys are warriors. I just want to get it done. This is a chance for both to make a huge amount of money in a division where there are not many big-money fights. Frampton has his eyes on Santa Cruz, who has just had his mandatory defence. I don’t believe Santa Cruz will fight him next, or even this year. As it happens, we are talking with Santa Cruz ourselves about a fight and I think it’s more likely he will have a unification bout with Quigg than a fight with Frampton. Where does that leave Frampton? I think there will come a point where Team Frampton need to look at what is out there and, if they want it, there is a shot at Quigg’s title waiting for them. I am sick of these great fights not happening so I am on a mission to make this one go ahead. A fair bit has happened since my last column – we signed James DeGale. Just a few years ago his profile was huge, but I think he has fallen off the radar since he lost that tight decision against George Groves. He is what I call a buzz fighter – he is someone who needs his mojo to be firing and needs a crowd to perform. I think fighting in front of small crowds just wasn’t giving him that buzz. Let’s see how he likes 80,000 at Wembley. James has a real tough test in Brandon Gonzales and, if he comes through that, he will fight the winner of Froch and Groves. Motivation won’t be a problem for him. Bring back the buzz: James DeGale will have no problems finding motivation when he fights at Wembley . Mojo sapper: DeGale (right) may not have fully found his potential since that close points loss to Groves (right) We’ve had some good news. I can confirm we have an extra 20,000 tickets for Froch-Groves and I will announce next week how you can buy them. It will be one of the most spectacular events in boxing history. Great expectations: An extra 20,000 tickets will be released to see Carl Froch and George Groves at Wembley . Rematch: Groves lands a left on Froch's chin in his controversial loss in Manchester in November last year . Anthony Crolla fights John Murray in Manchester on Saturday on the undercard of Quigg-Munyai. What a fight. It is a city divided – Crolla from the red side and Murray from the blue side. Crolla is on a great run and is almost ready for a world title fight and Murray is on his way back. What has Murray got left? He looks in better shape than ever. And I believe Crolla is hugely under-rated on the world stage – he may look like a male model and be one of the nicest guys in the sport, but I think you will see a spiteful edge from Anthony in this one. Manchester derby: The undercard for Quinn-Munyai features locals Anthony Crolla and John Murray . These two used to work each other’s corner but I am starting to notice a bit of needle. This could be a special fight and I can’t call it either way. I like the idea of Ricky Burns eventually fighting the winner. Roll on Saturday. Speaking of Burns, I am looking at getting him back out on June 27 in Glasgow. I am looking at the WBC route and ultimately a shot at their champion, Omar Figueroa. We will pick an opponent who will put us in position for him. Javier Prieto is a fight I am looking at – we have made them an offer and Scottish fans can expect a great card – with another big domestic clash made yesterday. Watch this space. Next challenge: Ricky Burns could face the winner of Crolla and Murray, but Omar Figueroa is the ultimate aim . Four hours and 10 minutes for the marathon. I’m in bits. | Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton is a fight I and fight fans want to see .
WBA super-bantamweight champion Quigg is one of Britain's finest .
Quigg-Frampton is a chance for both fighters to enjoy a big payday .
Tshifhiwa Munyai will be a tough title defence for Quigg on Saturday .
James DeGale will relish Wembley and has a real test in Brandon Gonzales .
20,000 more tickets will become available for epic Froch and Groves fight . |
26,434 | 4b0ad938c114cd9ba247871ff42d31e0e660419b | By . Damien Gayle . PUBLISHED: . 12:45 EST, 24 January 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 15:48 EST, 24 January 2013 . The discovery of a new feathered dinosaur will change the way we look at birds forever, scientists claimed today. The fossil of a 30cm long creature from the Jurassic period is set to challenge widely accepted views on the origin of flight. In a groundbreaking study, experts have revealed how the Eosinopteryx roamed the earth long before the bird-like beasts it was thought birds evolved from. How Eosinopteryx might have looked: Scientists studying the fossilised remains of the new dinosaur say its discovery will rewrite theories of how birds evolved the ability to fly . Scientists previously believed that birds evolved from dinosaurs called theropods from the Early Cretaceous period, about 120-130million years ago. But recent discoveries in north-eastern China of much older feathered dinosaurs from the older Middle-Late Jurassic period have cast doubt on the old theory. The Eosinopteryx would have been around on Earth more than 145million years ago. Dr Gareth Dyke, Senior Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Southampton, Hants, co-wrote a report on the exciting findings. He said: 'This discovery sheds further doubt on the theory that the famous fossil Archaeopteryx - or "first bird" as it is sometimes referred to - was pivotal in the evolution of modern birds. 'Our findings suggest that the origin of flight was much more complex than previously thought.' An artist's impression of Archaeopteryx: Dr Gareth Dyke, of the University of Southampton, says the study casts doubt on this creature's role in the evolution of flight . The fossilised remains found in north-eastern China indicate that, while feathered, this was a flightless dinosaur, because of its small wingspan and a bone structure that would have restricted its ability to flap its wings. The dinosaur also had toes suited to walking along the ground and fewer feathers on its tail and lower legs, which would have made it easier to run. Dr Dyke is based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. He worked on the report, published in the journal Nature Communications this week, with fellow experts from Belgium and China. | Eosinopteryx roamed the earth long before the bird-like beasts it was thought birds evolved from . |
177,119 | 71463436f7702c7cdbe424a104df923ee1370dcc | Ed Miliband last night received a £1.5 million donation from left-wing firebrand Len McCluskey’s trade union Unite. The union said it gave the cash to Labour’s general election campaign fund because of fears the Conservatives could be elected in May on a ‘tide of big business cash’. The Tories said the donation would ‘not come for free’, highlighting a series of policy demands made by Unite. All smiles: The donation came as Ed Miliband, pictured with Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy yesterday, spoke approvingly of ‘redistribution’ of money from the better-off to the poor . Proposals approved at its most recent conference included a 400 per cent increase in the dole, the reversal of all spending cuts and the repeal of Margaret Thatcher’s anti-strike laws. The Unite cash boost for Labour came as Mr Miliband spoke approvingly of ‘redistribution’ of money from the better-off to the poor and refused to rule out a coalition deal with the resurgent Scottish Nationalists. On a campaign visit to Scotland, he backed Labour Scottish leader Jim Murphy’s suggestion that a new ‘mansion tax’, largely raised from homeowners in the South East, should fund 1,000 new nurses north of the border. Former Labour leadership candidate Diane Abbott has accused him of trying to ‘buy Scottish votes with money expropriated from London’. But Mr Miliband said: ‘On the issue of the mansion tax… some of the powerful, the super-rich and the famous are going to protest louder and louder about paying a little more. Firebrand: Len McCluskey is the leader of the Unite union - and a powerful force over the Labour party . 'When homes costing hundreds of millions of pounds pay the same in property tax as homes a fraction of that value, the case for the mansion tax to fund the NHS is getting stronger and stronger by the day. ‘What is the principle at stake here? The principle at stake in this argument about the mansion tax is actually the principle of redistribution and equality.’ Mr Miliband insisted his party can still win a UK-wide majority, and hold all its Scottish seats – despite polls suggesting dozens of Labour MPs will fall victim to an SNP surge. But just days after Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls ruled out a post-election deal with the SNP should Labour fall short of a majority, Mr Miliband left the door open. Political football: Alex Salmond has not ruled out a deal to rule with Labour if there is a hung parliament . He would say only: ‘I have one focus, which is a majority Labour government.’ Challenged that he was not ruling out a deal, Mr Miliband replied: ‘I couldn’t be clearer. Jim [Murphy] said we “don’t need, we don’t want and we’re not planning that” and that’s my position too.’ Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who is attempting to return to the Commons in May, suggested last night he was angling for a coalition – and claimed he is more popular in England than either David Cameron or Mr Miliband. ‘There’s every chance of the SNP becoming the third biggest party in the UK in May,’ he told the Buzzfeed website. ‘The political stars are aligning for a balanced parliament. Neither Cameron nor Miliband are capable of or deserve a majority, and that leaves space for a hugely substantial SNP influence. ‘The problem for the Tories, and Labour for that matter, is that I’m certainly more popular than David Cameron and Ed Miliband in England. Definitely less unpopular, anyway – let’s put it that way.’ Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg warned of the dangers of a post-election coalition involving the SNP or Ukip, suggesting it would make the ‘fiercest critics of this coalition slightly more benevolent about it’. The Tories said that almost 70 per cent of donations to Labour under Mr Miliband had come from the trade unions. Between 2010 and the third quarter of last year, they said Labour had received £35.4 million from the trade unions, out of £51.3 million total donations. Unite has donated £12.8 million to Labour – a quarter of all donations received since Mr Miliband became leader in September 2010. Conservative Party vice-chairman Bob Neill said: ‘This huge latest donation from Unite doesn’t come for free. We all know Len McCluskey and Unite buy Labour’s policies, choose Labour’s leader and pick Labour’s candidates. ‘Just three months away from the most important general election of our generation, the choice couldn’t be clearer: between a competent Conservative government that stands up for hard-working British taxpayers and an incompetent Labour party under Ed Miliband who’s too weak to stand up to his trade union paymasters.’ Labour fury at 'Sinn Fein link' Labour has reacted with fury to claims the party approached Sinn Fein over propping up Ed Miliband in Downing Street. It followed allegations that senior figures were ‘badgering’ the Irish MPs about voting with Labour in the event it lacked the seats to form a government. The Tories issued a poster showing Mr Miliband on the steps of No 10 Downing Street, with his arm around Alex Salmond, alongside Gerry Adams, prompting a senior Labour frontbencher to accuse the Tories of fighting the election campaign ‘in the gutter’. Anger: Labour has reacted with fury to this 'pro Sinn Fein' poster produced by the Conservative party . Ivan Lewis, the shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, said: ‘Sinn Fein have said that this story is “pure fiction”, and that no discussions have taken place. ‘Labour’s record as an honest broker in Northern Ireland speaks for itself. ‘The Tories clearly intend to fight this election in the gutter.’ Yesterday there were claims – confirmed by Sinn Fein – that a Tory MP had also approached the party to find out if their MPs might take their seats in the event of a hung Parliament. A senior Labour source denied the party was ‘cosying up’ to Sinn Fein, but refused to rule out a coalition, saying only: ‘We are working towards a majority Labour government.’ A senior Tory source said there was ‘zero prospect’ of a Tory deal with Sinn Fein. One of the key opinion formers during the election campaign will be the BBC. The corporation – accused by the Tories of having a left-wing bias – is bound by its charter to be politically even-handed. The Mail will monitor the service to see if it lives up to its obligations. Under the headline, ‘Care spending cut by fifth in 10 years’, the story led the BBC website and featured heavily on radio and TV news bulletins on Wednesday. It implied that the amount of public money spent on elderly care had been slashed by an alarming 20 per cent in the past decade. But it hasn’t. In cash terms, spending on home and residential care between 2003/04 and 2013/14 actually increased by 20 per cent, from £7.37 billion to £8.84 billion. Even adjusted for inflation it went down by only 6 per cent – regrettable, of course, but hardly a catastrophic fall in a time of austerity. To get to their dramatic 20 per cent cut, the BBC arbitrarily divided the spending totals for 2003/04 and 2013/14 by the number of over-65s in the population for each of those years, to get a per capita spending figure. As the population has risen sharply in the past decade – and with it the number of over-65s – spending per capita was bound to fall between 2004 and 2014. But this per capita figure takes no account of changing care needs and costs, whether the over-65s have become fitter in the past ten years, whether more choose or are able to live at home – with or without social services help – than go into a nursing home, or whether more are being taken in by their families. So is it a realistic calculation, or an interpretation of the statistics most likely to embarrass the Coalition? The BBC replied: ‘We worked with an ONS statistician who was on secondment to the BBC on this analysis, the Health and Social Care Information Centre provided the spending figures and we ran the findings past the Department of Health. No one raised any issues with our approach and we set out clearly in all our coverage what we did and why.’ | Firebrand Len McCluskey’s trade union Unite donated cash to Labour .
But senior Tories warned Unite would want a return on its investment .
Policies have included 400% dole increase and repealing anti-strike laws .
'More than two-thirds' of Labour's £51.3m pledges since 2010 by unions . |
45,478 | 8027c0d60791c73bf0d800598b8aad8091523f9a | By . Daniel Martin . Last updated at 5:12 PM on 28th February 2012 . Nick Clegg was accused of 'working . against' his Coalition partners last night after he demanded yet more . changes to the Government's troubled NHS reforms. The Deputy Prime Minister has got . David Cameron's agreement to a string of amendments after first signing . off the legislation when it was originally introduced and then obtaining . a series of changes last spring. Mr Clegg said that if the latest . changes, which will limit competition and the role of the private . sector, are approved by Parliament the reforms should be 'allowed to . proceed'. NHS treatment transformation? Nick Clegg (right) is trying to placate his party for supporting the controversial NHS Bill . The concessions agreed by the Prime . Minister will help the Lib Dem leader survive his party's spring . conference next month which is likely to be dominated by angry demands . from anti-privatisation activists. But Mr Clegg's behaviour was called . 'outrageous' by Tory backbenchers who said he should be bound by . collective Cabinet responsibility. The changes were announced in a letter . from Mr Clegg and Lib Dem peer Shirley Williams. It was sent to all Lib . Dem peers and MPs as the House of Lords reconvened to debate the Health . and Social Care Bill. The controversial legislation will . give GPs control of most of the NHS budget and open up the Health . Service to greater competition from the private and voluntary sector. Mr Clegg and Baroness Williams said . competition in the NHS must be in the 'interests of patients and not . profits', adding: 'Given how precious the NHS is, we want to rule out . beyond doubt any threat of a U.S.-style market in the NHS. Prime Minister David Cameron speaks, as Mr Lansley looks on, during a round table discussion on the proposed NHS reorganisation at Downing Street last week . 'That is why we want to see changes . made to this Bill that have been put forward by our Liberal Democrat . team in the House of Lords to make sure that the NHS can never be . treated like the gas, electricity and water industry.' Mr Clegg said the . five changes he wants are his party's 'final' demands. They will reduce the remit of the . Competition Commission, require foundation trusts to put patients' interests first and get permission from their governors before carrying . out extra private work, and force members of clinical commissioning . groups to declare all financial interests. Deputy PM evokes Arab Spring in his drive for Lords shake up . Another amendment is designed to . insulate the NHS from the full force of European competition law to . prevent private takeovers of hospitals. Mr Clegg's language in the letter is . in stark contrast to the way he talked about the health reforms at the . start of the Coalition. Increasing competition in the health service brings benefits for patients and boosts productivity, according to a new report. The centre-right think-tank Reform published 10 case studies from around the world showing how a 'radical change in the delivery of healthcare can result in improved quality and productivity'. It said competition allows new organisations to run services better, more efficiently and often at a lower cost. And it argued the Government must defend competition clauses in the Health and Social Care Bill as it passes through Parliament. In examples from the US, the study says competition can cut hospital admissions and costs. 'In Rhode Island, a private company, Beacon Health Strategies, has created an integrated care pathway for mental healthcare services, which were previously highly fragmented,' it said. 'In one year the cost of mental healthcare hospitalisations for children was cut by 20 per cent.' In summer 2010 he signed the foreword . to the White Paper outlining the original reforms. And when the Bill was . introduced to Parliament he described them as a 'fusion' of the best of . Lib Dem and Tory principles. But when Lib Dem activists rebelled at . their spring conference last March he changed his tune, demanding a . 'pause' in the progress of the Bill and a 'listening exercise' with NHS . staff. This led to a raft of changes, after which Lady Williams and other Lib Dems declared themselves satisfied. However, rumblings from party . activists and peers in advance of this year's spring conference appear . to have forced Mr Clegg to demand more concessions. A Whitehall source said Health . Secretary Andrew Lansley was happy with the changes. It has yet to be . decided whether Tory peers will be pressured to vote for the new . amendments. It appears Mr Clegg's letter came as a . surprise to many of his Coalition partners. Some observers say, . however, it was a stage-managed enterprise to put him in a better light . with his grassroots. In the morning, the Prime Minister's . spokesman said they did not see the need for any 'significant changes' to the Bill, while at lunchtime Tory health minister Simon Burns . insisted the whole Government backed the Bill 'as amended now'. But in the afternoon, Mr Cameron's spokesman revealed he had agreed to the changes the Lib Dems wanted. Tory backbencher Priti Patel said: 'It . is outrageous that Nick Clegg is being allowed to do this. He is a . member of the Cabinet and he should be signed up to collective . responsibility. 'He should be putting the case to his . Lib Dem colleagues as to why we need this Bill. He should not be . actively working against the Government. It is not good enough that . David Cameron is going along with this.' | Lib Dems are opposed to both increasing competition and giving 'favours' to the private sector .
Royal College of Physicians calls emergency meeting on whether to ballot its members over bill . |
41,350 | 74a3a0fbb888da724a5aeb560d6b4b1d73edb72f | By . Martin Robinson . PUBLISHED: . 11:22 EST, 21 November 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 14:17 EST, 21 November 2013 . Deepening scandal: Paul Flowers was handed a £60,000 'golden goodbye' after he resigned, despite leading the bank to the brink of collapse . Disgraced former Co-operative Bank boss Paul Flowers was handed a £31,000 'golden goodbye' after he resigned, despite leading it to the brink of collapse, it was revealed today. The Methodist minister, who was filmed allegedly buying crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine, was given a pay-off of the remainder of his £130,000 annual salary in June. Now the bank is trying to claw back the cash and has ceased any further payments. They will not confirm what the total payout is but have written to him to ask for the money back. Their statement said: 'When Paul Flowers relinquished his responsibilities in June, it was agreed, as per his contractual obligations that his fees for the rest of his period of office would be paid. 'Following recent revelations, the Board stopped all payments with immediate effect and no further payments will be made. As previously stated, an internal fact-finding review is now under way.' Flowers was chairman of the 'ethical' Co-op Bank from 2010 until May this year when he stepped down as it became clear the bank was on the path to losing £700million. It came as it emerged that the Reverend was convicted of drink-driving in 1990, but just like after his conviction for gross indecency in 1981 he was forgiven by the church. His Co-op pay-off was described a 'scandal' today and 'ill-deserved earnings' rewarded for 'incompetence and damage he has inflicted on the Co-op Bank, former Leeds MEP Michael McGowan said. The latest revelations surrounding Mr Flowers and the crisis-hit bank emerged as the Government indicated there would be an independent inquiry into how the Methodist minister - who has now been suspended indefinitely by his church - came to be appointed in the first place. Flowers is accused of buying and using illegal drugs including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine. Police have searched his home as they . investigate drugs offences. In recent days the Methodist has been hit . with scandal after scandal. Scroll down for video . Investigation: Police at the home of disgraced Mr Flowers today - he is being investigated by police for allegedly buying crystal meth and crack cocaine . While he was in charge of the Co-op he was setting up sex sessions with rent boys using his work email. it also emerged that 32 years ago he was convicted of gross indecency . after he was caught by police performing a sex act with a trucker in a . public toilet. He also . resigned as a Labour councillor in Bradford in 2011 after 'inappropriate . but not illegal adult content' was found on a computer he used, the . city council said. It . has now been revealed Rev Flowers was caught drunk at the wheel in . Manchester in June 1990, after celebrating his 40th birthday. It is believed he was later banned from the roads after appearing before magistrates in the city. A spokeswoman for the Methodist Church said he had been allowed to continue his role in the church. She . said: 'This was a matter for our usual procedures and after that . process was complete it was decided he could continue as a minister. This matter did not preclude him from his activities in the church. He was very contrite, and he continued his work.' Allegations: Ciaron Dodd, left, claims that he met Flowers, right, in plush hotels paid for by the struggling Co-op for depraved sex sessions . | Paul Flowers was given payment, despite the bank's troubles .
Former MEP called it a 'scandal' and 'ill-deserved earnings'
The Methodist minister is under police investigation for buying drugs . |
153,493 | 5258855ff4a03b3e4ebd0659e0668327a4400a8f | (CNN) -- Johns Hopkins Health System has agreed to pay $190 million to settle the case of a gynecologist who secretly photographed and recorded his patients. The doctor committed suicide after confessing to the clandestine photos and recordings. "We have come to an agreement that the plaintiffs' attorneys and Johns Hopkins Health System believe is fair and properly balances the concerns of thousands of plaintiffs with obligations the Health System has to provide ongoing and superior care to the community. "It is our hope that this settlement -- and findings by law enforcement that images were not shared -- helps those affected achieve a measure of closure," Johns Hopkins said in a statement Monday. The dollar figure of the settlement was provided by hospital spokeswoman Kim Hoppe. Dr. Nikita Levy was fired in 2013 after 25 years at Johns Hopkins. He was found out after a colleague reported her suspicion that Levy was secretly recording his patients using a pen-like camera, which he wore around his neck. Levy confessed and police searched his house. They found multiple computer servers and computers full of naked patient pictures and videos. As many as 8,000 women and girls were included in the case, according to plaintiffs' attorney Jonathan Schochor. "We are hoping this is a major step in putting this all behind us," he said. Hopkins said insurance would cover the cost of the settlement. "We assure you that one individual does not define Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins is defined by the tens of thousands of employees who come to work determined to provide world-class care for our patients and their families," the hospital said in its statement. Doctor accused of molesting his patients . Doctor sued for 'branding' patient's uterus . CNN's Marisa Marcellino and Donovan Long contributed to this report. | NEW: As many as 8,000 women and girls were included in the case .
Dr. Nikita Levy was fired in 2013 after 25 years at Johns Hopkins .
Police found computers full of naked patient pictures, videos .
Levy committed suicide soon after his confession . |
176,485 | 707b77874eb13d446837d84e5badd5a0fa260513 | The 15-year-old accused of stabbing to death his teacher chose to sit alone in lessons and was a fan of online video games, classmates said today. The teenager, arrested yesterday after the . death of Ann Maguire, 61, has been described as a depressed introvert who spent . long periods online playing video games. Police . have today said they are trawling social media pages linked to the . schoolboy, who used a drawing . of a Grim Reaper as the banner on his Facebook page. His profiles on Google+ and YouTube also revealed . his keen interest in Dark Souls - a video game . Classmates said today the middle-class teenager, who loved heavy metal music, felt he was an ‘outcast’ and would isolate himself in school. One girl, from his art class, said: 'He was very bright though, he was in the top sets for everything and was good at drawing too. I've heard he comes from a loving family and his family love him'. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Gamer: This is believed to be the boy, pictured wearing a gaming network T-shirt, who has been was arrested by police after allegedly stabbing his Spanish teacher to death in front of his class . West Yorkshire Police said today they were 'aware' of his online presence, which is 'forming part of their investigation'. The teenager was also a member of Achievement . Hunter- a gaming community - and would challenge and interact with other . PS3 players online. His . Facebook profile picture shows him wearing one of the website's . T-shirts, which would have been ordered from the United States. They said he had previously threatened to commit suicide after complaining of bullying and had experimented with drugs. Neighbours added that he would not make eye contact with them or acknowledge their greetings as he walked past. Last night friends told of their shock at the schoolboy’s arrest. They said his mother – a human resources manager who separated from his father, a council executive, a decade ago – had always seemed a responsible, attentive parent. Classmates at Corpus Christi Catholic School described the alleged killer as a loner, who did well in all subjects apart from Spanish, and said he had seemed increasingly troubled in recent months. ‘He was apparently suicidal and had tried to kill himself several times,’ a former pupil said. ‘He used to say he was being bullied and he was really weird. He was really quiet though and didn’t say much.’ Another ex-pupil said the 15-year-old often went into school carrying Jack Daniels and beer and that he was a ‘goth’ who drew circles on the floor, claiming to worship the devil. A third said: ‘He was an outcast. He was bullied in year 7 but then he got a few friends. One of the teachers used to chat to him about his family issues. Bright boy who became a loner: The 15-year-old pupil that stabbed Mrs Maguire felt he was an 'outcast' Loved: Pupils described Ann Maguire, 61, as the heart of Corpus Christi College, where she taught generations . He added: ‘He came to a party a few weeks ago and he took some paracetamol beforehand. He used to take drugs all the time.’ But fellow pupil Jacob Hill, 16, of Leeds, said: ‘He had gone through stages of depression and used to be on anti-depressants. ‘He was really clever and always got top grades. He was fine in everything apart from Spanish.’ Matthew Calvert, also 16, was in some classes with the suspect and described him as ‘strange’. On his Facebook page, along with the Grim Reaper drawing and links to British heavy metal bands Enter Shikari and Bring Me The Horizon, he had posted a picture of himself dressed in black with long hair. But neighbours of his 47-year-old mother, in a cul-de-sac in a quiet Leeds suburb, said he had recently cut his hair very short. 'He would never look at anybody. He would literally walk face-down to the ground with his bag on his back' He had lived in the semi-detached house in distance from the school for around ten years, with his 19-year-old brother – a musician with a up-and-coming local rock band who is studying at college. As police examined the house yesterday, neighbours said the only times they saw the 15-year-old was when he walked to school or took the family’s Bassett hound dog out. Rebecca Hardy, 21, said: ‘He would never look at anybody. He would literally walk face-down to the ground with his bag on his back. Once or twice I’ve tried to get him to make eye contact and smiled, but he’s never let on.’ She added: ‘They’re both quiet boys – if you said hello they probably wouldn’t say hello back. I would say they were a bit weird.’ Her 47-year-old father Steve Gill, added: ‘They’re a very quiet family. If there was a street party, they wouldn’t come – they’re just that sort of people.’ But another neighbour said: ‘He’s the last person round here I’d expected to be involved in something like this. He’s never caused any trouble in the street. In fact, he’s always seemed quite shy. Police arrested the boy at the scene at Corpus Christi college yesterday and searched his parents' houses . ‘His mother’s always seemed really nice, she’s got a good job and seemed to be doing a good job of bringing up two teenagers alone. ‘She would have been absolutely horrified to learn it was her son who is suspected of doing this.’ The boy’s father – who jokes on Facebook that he acts as a ‘roadie’ for his elder son’s rock band – lives in a row of £350,000 terraced houses in a pretty village outside Leeds, with his partner and their young child. He has just turned 50 and Happy Birthday balloons were visible in the windows yesterday. But he was not at home and police forensics teams appeared to be searching the property. A neighbour said: ‘They are a professional family – they get up and go to work. You’d never expect something like this. ‘They moved in a few years ago. They’re a nice family, they’ve got a young child, about two or three. What an awful thing to happen.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Schoolboy posted about Dark Souls and Grand Theft Auto games .
Classmates said he loved heavy metal music, felt he was an outcast .
Threatened to commit suicide after reporting he had been bullied .
His mother, a human resources manager, seemed 'attentive'
'Really clever' but suffered from bouts of depression, peers claim . |
272,962 | ed8cc3c86cf2577c3624a5263c60096fae66410a | Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings are packed full of vivid imagery and complex meanings. And The Garden of Earthly Delights, which depicts the Biblical narrative of creation, heaven and hell is one of his most intricate. So it may come as no surprise that not one person had tried to play a tiny piece of music tattooed on the bottom of a man languishing in hell in the triptych painting until now – 500 years after the work was created. Scroll down for sound clip . In the painting, a choir sings from the score inscribed on the man's buttocks that have been described as 'musician's hell' In the painting, a choir sings from the score inscribed on the man’s buttocks that have been described as ‘musician’s hell.’ A student called Amelia, who describes herself as ‘a hard of hearing music and information systems double major’ at Oklahoma Christian University is said to be the first person to play the hellish ditty. She admitted she did not spend a long time playing the tune that is assumed to be in the key of C, which was a common choice for chants composed around 500 years ago and may feature the odd bum note. 'This is literally the 600-years-old butt song from hell,’ she wrote on Tumblr. Amelia . tapped it out on a piano, but it does sound quite melodic for a tune . that is rumoured to be a chant that opens the gates of hell, according to Classicalite. Not one person had tried to play a tiny piece of music tattooed on the bottom of a man languishing in hell (pictured in the top left hand corner) in the triptych painting until now - 500 years after the work was created . Bosch depicts a world in which humans have succumbed to temptations that lead to evil and reap eternal damnation. The scene is set at night, and the natural beauty that adorned the earlier panels is absent. Cities are aflame, there are torture chambers, demons and mutated animals feeding on mangled humans. Writer Walter S. Gibson said that explosions in the background are ‘turning the water below into blood’. The foreground is populated by a variety of distressed or tortured figures. Some are crucified by harps and lutes to sharpen the contrast between pleasure and torture. The ‘tree man’ has three naked people in his hollow torso and the image is thought to suggest sexuality and lust, which in the Middle Ages were seen by some as humanity’s fall from grace and the deadliest of sins. However, Amelia wrote on her blog: ‘Just wanted to let people know that there are indeed errors in the transcription and this is indeed not a very good recording (I threw this together in 30 minutes at one in the morning,) but I’m working with the music department at my college to get the transcription more accurate!’ Bosch painted his three part masterpiece between 1490 and 1510 when he was around 50 years old. It is his most famous work. Art historians and critics have largely interpreted the painting as a warning on the perils of life's temptations, but there have been other strange interpretations over the centuries as to what it could all mean. Hell is the setting for a number of Bosch’s paintings and in this one, humans have succumbed to the temptations that lead to evil and reap eternal damnation. The picture is a chilling one and humans are warring and held in torture chambers, pursued by demons and feasted on by mutated animals that feed on human flesh. Interestingly some of the tortured souls trapped in hell are shown to be crucified by harps and lutes so that the music of the underworld is the opposite of that on Earth and certainly in heaven. Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch's paintings are packed full of vivid imagery and complex meanings. And The Garden of Earthly Delights (pictured) which depicts the Biblical narrative of creation, heaven and hell is one of his most intricate . | The tune is pictured on the posterior of a tortured male in The Garden of Earthly Delights painting by the Dutch master .
500 years after it was painted, a student from Oklahoma Christian University has played the song in the Hellish panel for the first time .
It has been suggested that the score on the man's buttocks is intended to open the gates of Hell and is sung by a tortured choir . |
52,342 | 944caa4329a39016905c3e276ff915d89ad91d14 | Washington (CNN) -- More U.S. Marines are fortifying security at the American Embassy in Nairobi following the deadly shopping mall attack there, CNN has learned. Two U.S. officials confirmed the move in Kenya, but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The newly arrived Marines are part of a unit specially trained in enhanced security, including providing personal protection to senior American officials. That kind of assistance was recently added to tasks performed by the embassy guard program after the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, last year. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the armed assault that, in part, focused attention on State Department security readiness and military response. The security step also follows a State Department travel advisory on Wednesday about potential terror threats in East Africa from al Qaeda and affiliated groups following the Westgate Mall attack and standoff that killed 67 people. Due to security concerns, the officials would not discuss the precise number of Marines added to the embassy since the shopping mall attack. While there is no specific threat against the embassy at this time, the Obama administration deemed it a "high threat" facility, the officials said. The United States has doubled the number of Marine guards at the Nairobi embassy in the past eight weeks. The force was first increased during a heightened state of alert during which the United States close nearly two dozen embassies worldwide due to a threat from al Qaeda in Yemen. Security was beefed up again prior to the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Separately on Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder said there was no evidence so far to indicate that any Americans were involved in the Nairobi attack. Citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation and the latest security assessment, CNN reported on Wednesday that authorities want to know if any Americans were among the attackers as claimed by the Somali-based al-Shabaab terror group said to be behind it. Was 'White Widow' involved in mall attack? Kenyan authorities have said the attackers were from a number of countries, but have not confirmed that any Americans were involved. "We don't have verifiable information that would indicate one way or the other way whether any Americans were involved," Holder said. "That is one of the things that we are trying to do with our Kenyan colleagues - go through the forensic things, materials that we have, physical things to make that kind of determination." United States knows so far that the attack that began on Saturday was carefully planned. FBI experts are assisting the Kenyans on a preliminary basis. They have specific expertise in analyzing explosives and fingerprints. "FBI agents have been on the ground since right after the incident began. We have been flowing resources into Nairobi on a continuing basis. We have had conversations about this matter both here and at the White House," Holder said. American forensic investigators were granted access to mall alongside Kenyan officials on Thursday, CNN's Evan Perez reported. But U.S. law enforcement officials told Perez that there is an increasing concern that some of the perpetrators escaped alongside fleeing victims, making the effort to piece together who was responsible more difficult. The updated State Department travel caution on security threats and terror activities worldwide included the Kenya attack, saying al-Shabaab had "taken credit" for it. "Al-Shabaab assassinations, suicide bombings, hostage taking, and indiscriminate attacks in civilian-populated areas are also frequent in Somalia," the advisory said. Holder added that there was no "specific, credible evidence" that al-Shabaab is planning anything domestically. "I am not sure they have the capacity to do anything in the United States," he said, adding that the United States is taking the "threat that they pose" seriously. A U.S. official with access to the latest intelligence told CNN the State Department advisory was issued out of an "abundance of caution." But officials are concerned there could be other plots in the works. Source: Kenya mall attack suspect eyed after ammunition fell out of his pocket . | First on CNN: Additional Marines sent to embassy in Kenya following shopping mall attack .
Marines are specially trained in personal protection for senior officials .
Move follows State Department travel advisory, which includes latest overseas terror attack .
NEW: Some suspects may have escaped alongside fleeing shoppers; U.S. gains access to mall . |
122,901 | 2ad5b1827ec21ad79ea829872e0b9e0c4d66ee05 | By . Charles Sale . Follow @@charliesale . ITV Sport will not show commercials during the drinks breaks which will occur during a number of World Cup matches. FIFA gave broadcasters the option of advertising during the cooling periods, which will be decided on a match-by-match basis by the venue medical officer if the temperature exceeds 32°C. But ITV, despite the potential advertising riches, wanted to keep their broadcasts focused on the game, which was felt to be in the best interests of viewers. Each break, should it be enforced, will last three minutes. Team photo: Adrian Chiles (centre) will head a 16-strong team which includes regular ITV pundits Roy Keane (3rd left) and Lee Dixon (right) as well as former players including Patrick Vieira (3rd right) FIFA gave the go-ahead in February to Italy coach Cesare Prandelli's proposal for water breaks after his experiences at the Confederations Cup in Brazil last summer. After the draw in December saw England land matches in some of Brazil's hotter areas, Roy Hodgson supported the calls for the mid-half rest periods as he did in USA 1994 when he was manager of the Switzerland team. Hot and bothered: England against Italy at the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus will likely feature water breaks . England's opening game against Italy in the jungle city of Manaus will likely feature water breaks but will be advert-free as it is being shown by the BBC. England's games against Uruguay in Sao Paulo and Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte are being broadcast by ITV but temperatures at both are expected to be below the threshold. Brainwave: Italy coach Cesare Prandelli put forward the proposal for water breaks, which Roy Hodgson backed . | Breaks will be held after 30 minutes of each half if the temperature is forecast to be above 32 degrees .
Each break, should it be deemed necessary, would last three minutes .
Official World Cup broadcasters were given the option by FIFA to show adverts during the break .
ITV decided to focus the break in play on the game . |
178,128 | 7296b62a5e5734dae4ede710dddd8225176313de | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 12:49 EST, 16 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 14:28 EST, 16 January 2014 . A 28-year-old man from Los Angeles is facing two charges of animal cruelty over a video that allegedly showed him dragging a puppy down a street. Dossey James is being held on $145,000 bail after a concerned passerby, who filmed the incident, contacted police. The heartbreaking footage shows a tiny bull terrier type puppy being dragged along on its stomach by its leash. Shocking: Concerned passersby filmed as the puppy was dragged along on its belly . Witnesses said the puppy was leaving a trail of blood behind and that the owner continued to drag it for a 'considerable distance'. The owner dragged the dog up and down the street 'because it refused to walk' according to a police statement. James was arrested for animal cruelty and the puppy was handed over to the Animal Cruelty Task Force. The dog, which had several cuts on its legs and stomach, needed surgery but it is expected to make a full recovery, KTLA reported. James had his bail set at $145,000 on January 7 because of other animal cruelty allegations made against him. He has a hearing scheduled for January 22. Arrest: Dossey James is facing animal cruelty charges over a video showing an injured puppy being dragged . Recovery: The puppy needed surgery after being pulled along and is now being cared for by an animal shelter . The case is one of several in which the public sent in video evidence using their smartphones or iPads. 'This valuable evidence has contributed greatly to the identification of suspects and criminal charges of animal cruelty being filed,' a police spokesman said. 'Witnesses come to the realization that anyone that would commit such horrific acts of violence on defenseless animals could also do the same to humans,' according to LAPD. | Witnesses filmed dog being pulled along and sent footage to police .
Dossey James, 28, charged with two counts of animal cruelty . |
96,458 | 081d47861bb198a0a680e1d3210c25c79b0d51c2 | Sony came under harsh criticism today after it emerged that a couple managed to broadcast a 20-minute live sex session via a 'chatroom function' on the new PlayStation 4. The man and woman, believed to be Russian, were seen having sex on the PS4's Playroom feature - which allows gamers to use a built-in webcam to communicate with each other. It is meant to encourage users to share their gaming sessions with people all over the world and the Playroom broadcasts can been seen by people of any age using the console's service. Different state of play: A couple, thought to be Russian, filmed themselves having sex, and broadcast it live to thousands on PlayStation 4's chatroom feature Playroom . This week, Playroom for PS4, which does not have a filter for unsuitable content, was used by one couple to broadcast a seedy 20-minute sex session. The pair, believed to be somewhere in Russia, performed a multitude of sex acts which were viewed by more than 1,000 people - some of whom commented on the on-going action. Since its launch last November, more than 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles have been sold worldwide. One of the people who saw the footage was Tristan Holtby-Smith, 34, a Gregg's manager of Poole, Dorset. He turned on his PlayStation at about 8am on Monday morning - and the video appeared on the Playroom's 'most popular' section. Popular console: Since its launch last November (pictured), more than 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles have been sold worldwide . Mr Holtby-Smith said: ‘I often go to the Playroom on my PlayStation when I don't have much else to do, because you quite often find funny people or gaming sessions there. ‘But when I turned on the system, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was so shocking. The Playroom is really a children's game. ‘Some guy and his girlfriend, I think they were Russian because the zoom button was in Russian, were naked and going at it like rabbits. ‘There were more than 1,000 people watching them have sex, and I would bet that some of those viewers were under 18. ‘Once you've signed up for Playroom, you don't need to verify your age, so anybody could have been watching it. ‘It went on for so long as well, at least 20 minutes. It just goes to show that nobody at Sony is paying attention to what is being broadcast.’ The Playroom is a game that comes with every PlayStation 4 console, which allows users to broadcast themselves to other PlayStation users over the internet. Players can leave comments or send messages to each other, which are shared along with the video stream by a third-party company. Unexpected content: Gamers were shocked to discover that the chatroom function was used to broadcast a live sex session (stock image) While the service does require a one-off payment, once that has been set up, there is no filter in place to restrict explicit content. The couple, who went by the online handle g12051992, received more than 150 comments from the thousand people watching their 20-minute lovemaking session. Tristan said: ‘There were definitely children watching that. People of all ages play consoles, and since there was no age filter, there was no way that that could be avoided. ‘It was one of the most watched streams at that time of day. The comments were almost as disgusting as the sex. ‘The couple were loving it - they kept looking at their TV screen and smiling. At one point she adjusted the camera so people could get a better look.’ ‘Porn causes harm to all of us, including those who have never seen any, on many levels.’ Claire Perry, Tory MP for Devizes, who has campaigned for censoring explicit content online, slammed the broadcast. She said: ‘Dear God, this is terrible - and yet another example of why we can't be too vigilant.’ Heike Diaferia, Executive Director of Stop Porn Culture, agreed, criticizing Sony for making such explicit content available, even if the broadcast is moderated by a third party. She said: ‘Since the beginning of the internet, severely damaging hardcore pornography has always been accessible to children of all ages. ‘Certainly, the disturbing live streaming in The Playroom, which is supposed to be a safe game for kids, adds a new layer to what's already available. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spokesperson David Wilson said: ‘The PlayStation4 system is designed to help gamers share their game play through popular social channels. It is unfortunate that some individuals may abuse this feature and share inappropriate content. He added that within the PlayStation 4 system is a way of setting up parental controls that bans certain people using the console from accessing any user-generated content, such as online messages or video streams. He explained that the content being shared by users of the Playroom is moderated by Californian-based company uStream. Just days after the PlayStation 4 was launched last year, one gamer hit the headlines when he stripped his drunk wife during a live-streaming event. The man was banned after exposing his wife's breast before taking off all her clothes in front of thousands of watching gamers. | Couple, believed to be Russian, broadcast a 20-minute live sex session .
The video was sent out via a PlayStation 4 feature called Playroom .
The 'chatroom' allows gamers to communicate with the built-in webcam . |
179,331 | 742add176824e27aa1f63ed10a4d11f5e26e8f9f | Rangers chairman David Somers was accused of being 'disingenuous' after claiming Dave King's failure to provide proof of funds and identify members of his consortium made it impossible to accept the South African-based businessman's offer of investment in the troubled Ibrox club. A proposal from King's group was considered last month along with another from Sale Sharks owner Brian Kennedy before the Ibrox board finally accepted a £2million interest-free bailout from existing shareholder Mike Ashley. The Newcastle United owner subsequently increased that amount by a further £1m, with the total loan amount secured against the Glasgow club's Edmiston House and Albion car park properties. David Somers has been accused of being 'disingenuous' after saying he couldn't accept Dave King's money . Rangers in action against Alloa at Ibrox on Saturday - a match they drew 1-1 . In a rare interview on Tuesday, Somers spoke publicly for the first time on why the club had turned down former Ibrox director King, who was also looking for 51 per cent of Rangers shares in return for his consortium's £16m investment. But the Ibrox chairman – who claimed that he could not tell shareholders 'hand on heart that these guys have got the money' - provoked a furious response from King's consortium. They claimed proof of funds was available 'immediately' but that Sandy Easdale, chairman of the Rangers football board, had agreed that the information could be provided once the backing of shareholders was confirmed. 'We had three people offering us funds,' said Somers. 'And I felt it was very important we do proper due diligence on all three. Rangers midfielder David Templeton (centre) takes a shot on goal from long range . Dave King's (left) money was not accepted by Rangers' chairman David Somers, but Mike Ashley's (right) was . 'In the past, Rangers has perhaps done deals it wouldn't have if it had done proper due diligence. 'Where (the King offer) fell down was really at stage one. When I said to all three of these people: "Would you show me proof of funds?", two showed me proof of funds. The consortium did not. 'The second question for the consortium was: 'I know there are eight of you, I only know three of you. Can I please have the other five names?' And the message I was getting all the time was: 'If you agree to do deal, if you persuade 75 per cent of shareholders, then we'll show you funds and you can have the other names'. 'It wasn't meeting the due diligence requirements. The simple questions were: 'Show me the money' and 'Give me the names'. 'I cannot go to the shareholders with a deal where I don't know all of the names and I can't check (those) names out. I can't go to the shareholders and say with my hand on my heart that these guys have got the money. 'With the other two people I could. We went round the houses and in the end we moved on to stage two with two providers (Ashley and Kennedy).' David Somers pictured arriving at Ibrox for a Rangers match earlier this year . Sports Direct billionaire Ashley, who controls just under nine per cent of Rangers, also runs the club's retail arm. But when he gave the club a further £1m earlier this month he relinquished the rights to rename Ibrox Stadium that he had purchased for just £1 from former Rangers chief executive Charles Green. Somers insisted Ashley's security demands on the car park and Edmiston House were less onerous than what was on the table from Kennedy. He added that Ashley's loans being interest-free, coupled with the Newcastle United owner's commercial interest in seeing Rangers thrive, represented the best deal for the club. 'It was a simple question of which provider was offering the lowest interest rate and Mike Ashley was offering zero interest rate, which was difficult to beat,' said Somers. 'And (it was about) which provider wanted the least security. Again, Mike Ashley wanted Edmiston House and the car park, but it was a small amount of security relative to the other deal. Once we got to that stage, it was a no-brainer which one we were going with. 'Also I think Mike Ashley had the advantage because we have an important joint-venture with him, with the merchandising agreement, which is important to us. We make quite a lot of money from it. He and we are both keen that Rangers has financial stability because we will both benefit.' While Tuesday was the first time Somers had gone public to explain in detail why the King and Kennedy deals were turned down, his comments echoed an earlier statement Rangers issued to the stock exchange on November 12. On Tuesday night, however, King said Somers was 'being disingenuous with his comments'. In a statement, the businessman added: 'We had private discussions with both (former chief executive) Graham Wallace and Sandy Easdale in which we told them that we would immediately provide proof of funding and details of the full make-up of the consortium following confirmation from Sandy Easdale that the shareholders whom he represents were prepared to support the terms of our investment proposal in principle. 'Sandy Easdale agreed to proceed on this basis. Unfortunately, he was not then able to provide the confirmation we asked for. There was no possibility of proceeding any further without the support of Sandy Easdale's group who had the power to block our proposed investment.' Brian Kennedy was not available for comment on Tuesday night. | Dave King offered investment to Rangers when they were in dire need of it .
Chairman David Somers turned it down because King could not provide proof of funds and identify consortium members .
Instead, Rangers accepted a £2 million interest-free bailout from Newcastle owner Mike Ashley .
Now, Somers has been accused of being 'disingenuous' |
72,348 | cd17940889b10d44b1c9241ce75b511c9eb7e0ab | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 23:24 EST, 2 July 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:53 EST, 3 July 2012 . Britain's answer to David Blaine has won £10,000 by predicting exactly how Spain would win Euro 2012 from the quarter finals onwards. Appearing on This Morning yesterday, Dynamo showed presenters Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield how he guessed the winner of every match correctly. Holding up a betting slip as proof of the 10,000-1 gambit the illusionist had even forecast how Spain would win by two or more goals against their Italian rivals. Today, Paddy Power confirmed the bet was placed but the winnings had not been collected. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Magic: Dynamo holds up his Paddy Power slip revealing how he predicted Spain would win the Euros with astonishing accuracy . Prediction: Dynamo put an £1 accumulator bet on the Euro 2012 Football Championships at the quarter-final stage - correctly guessing each team's victory . The magician, whose previous stunts include walking across the River Thames, told how he did a £1 accumulator bet just before the quarter-finals on June 21. He then left the Paddy Power slip with the production team at ITV, returning two weeks later to appear on the popular TV show. A Paddy Power spokesman told MailOnline: 'I can confirm that the magician 'Dynamo' placed a winning £1 accumulator bet on Euro 2012 in a Paddy Power betting office in London on Thursday, 21 June last.' Schofield, 50, said: 'It's extraordinary, you can't fake something like that. It's just incredible.' Extraordinary: Philip and Holly look stumped as Dynamo holds up the betting slip on This Morning yesterday . Amazing: In June last year, Dynamo, a Bradford-born . 29-year-old, walked across the River Thames making it half way across the . river in front of the Houses of Parliament in London . Dynamo, whose real name is Steven Frayne, will donate his winnings to The Teenage Cancer Trust. In June last year, the Bradford-born . 29-year-old walked across the River Thames making it half way across the . river in front of the Houses of Parliament in London before he was picked up by what appeared to be a River Police boat. Stunned onlookers watched from Westminster Bridge as the magician recorded the stunt for his TV show Dynamo: Magician Impossible. A spokesman insisted the photographs were not faked. On the up: Frayne has so far built his name on the celebrity circuit, astounding a host of famous names with his tricks . Frayne has so far built his name on the celebrity circuit, astounding a host of famous names with his tricks. Among those who will testify to his skills are the likes of Jay-Z, Coldplay, Will Smith, Busta Rhymes and Paris Hilton. His previous tricks have included making Little Britain star Matt Lucas levitate before a live audience at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, and turning signed lottery tickets into cash in front of Robbie Williams and Davina McCall as part of BBC's Sport Relief live programme. Various celebrities have taken part in his TV series including heavyweight boxing champion David Haye, Manchester rocker Ian Brown and pop star Natalie Imbruglia. In episode one, he performs his trademark levitation trick and physically moves a girl's tan line on the glamorous Miami Beach. The magician's tricks also include him transporting a mobile phone into a glass beer bottle, turning snow into diamonds in the Austrian mountains and bringing a flutter of butterflies to life in Hollywood's famous Chateau Marmont. Frayne's current roster of A-list celebrity admirers is a long way from his upbringing on the deprived Delph Hill Estate in Bradford, where he learned magic from his grandfather. That background provided the title for a Channel 4 programme entitled 'Dynamo's Estate Of Mind'. See the full interview here . | The illusionist had even forecast how Spain would win by two or more goals against their Italian rivals .
Paddy Power confirmed the bet was placed but the winnings had not been collected . |
69,318 | c48d686124be9af0246d4135f31b25337b729c8a | (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday reinforced the nation's belief in freedom and its constitutional traditions with a ruling that upheld my challenge to a section of the federal election campaign law that restricted citizens' rights to express their views. That outcome, I believe, will become part of a successful attack on the numbing political status quo in Washington and encourage activists across the nation who have fresh ideas to improve how our government operates. I am grass-roots proof that citizens retain some influence and—with determination—can achieve positive change. I hardly suspected such an outcome in late 2011 when I launched my legal challenge. My target was the overall limits on an individual's fully disclosed contributions to federal candidates, national political parties and political action committees. I did not challenge the specific contribution limits in each category. This case is not about limits on the amount of money you may contribute to an individual candidate. It is about your right to contribute that amount to as many candidates as you choose. Allowing individuals to donate to as many candidates as they wish would draw contributions away from PACs and bring money directly to candidates, giving underdog candidates a fair chance in the political arena. Like most Americans, I had little knowledge of these campaign laws—including how the Washington insiders passed them, interpreted them and enforced them. I have spent my adult life as an electrical engineer in the Birmingham, Alabama, area where I grew up and eventually created a small business that has fewer than two dozen employees. I was too busy for politics until five years ago, at age 42, when I joined many other Americans who were disenchanted by what they saw in Washington and decided to take action. Sally Kohn: With ruling, money talks even louder in politics . The core belief that has driven my political activity and my legal challenge has been my full embrace of the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. During my political science course as a freshman at Georgia Tech University, I learned about the Supreme Court's landmark 1976 decision that political activity was entitled to that protection. All the sitting justices joined, at least in part, that Buckley vs. Valeo ruling, which found that free and open debate—including unlimited campaign expenditures—is "integral to the operation of the system of government established by our Constitution." This week's ruling by Chief Justice John Roberts restated many of those vital national values. Excessive campaign finance restrictions, he wrote, impermissibly inject the government "into the debate over who should govern." He pointedly added, "And those who govern should be the last people to help decide who should govern." It doesn't take a political scientist to conclude that congressional incumbents have been the chief beneficiaries of these restrictions. Even with the overwhelming public unhappiness with Congress, they typically have re-election rates of roughly 95%. A key factor is that the current system makes it much more difficult for challengers to raise money. In most cases, they simply lack the incumbents' access to tap into Washington's deep-pocketed special interests. This status quo, which has been created chiefly by the so-called political reformers, has had the perverse—but seemingly intended—effect of protecting incumbents in both parties, except for infrequent waves of voter disgust. My objective is to assist challengers in raising funds, and to encourage smarter political ideas. I clearly am not one of those special interests, nor am I one of the billionaires who have become political targets. Friends call me "your neighbor Shaun." With other activists, I believe that we can change our politics and draw it closer to our communities. Having become part of public life, I have learned that political conflict and rhetoric sometimes can be hard-ball. But I have made a point of fully respecting other players, even if they criticize me. My support of the First Amendment in this case helps extend those rights to everybody. With the Supreme Court's encouragement, I hope the nation is prepared for a robust and wide-open public debate to address our problems. | Shaun McCutcheon sues to remove overall contribution limit for individuals .
Court strikes down contribution limit, saying donations are form of free speech .
McCutcheon: Limits had the effect of protecting incumbents, empowering special interests .
He says he wants to make it easier for challengers to raise funds and create change . |
194,234 | 876e71ee3cf1f44a41298e258f42d930c1ec8c91 | (CNN) -- Leonard Nimoy isn't letting a health battle stop him from enjoying his life. The "Star Trek" actor recently revealed on Twitter that he's been diagnosed with COPD, or chronic lung disease. (The COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.) What is COPD? "I quit smoking 30 years ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!!" Nimoy, 82, tweeted. "Smokers, please understand. If you quit after you're diagnosed with lung damage, it's too late. Grandpa says learn my lesson. Quit now." His admission prompted fans to express their concern for the actor, who's lately stayed busy with appearances on TV shows like "Fringe" and "The Big Bang Theory," plus popping up at the movies in "Star Trek Into Darkness." But for everyone worried, Nimoy has assured them that he's hanging in there. "I'm doing OK. Just can't walk distances. Love my life, family, friends and followers," he tweeted. "Just taped my comments for Star Trek Fest to be aired on EPIX Feb. 16th. Still enjoying my life." | Leonard Nimoy has announced he has COPD .
He encouraged his Twitter followers to quit smoking .
Even in light of his health problem, Nimoy says he's still enjoying life . |
102,875 | 1096bab37c2ca66d6cf7a2d652ad68b6edb44f21 | (Rolling Stone) -- "I went through a few roller coasters," says Taylor Swift, reflecting on her relationships over the past two years. She channeled the turmoil into her fourth studio LP, "Red," out October 22. "Trying to chronicle each step of the way was challenging, because you go to some really dark places with the lyrics. Then in the next track, you're talking about how amazing it is to meet somebody new." After writing 2010's smash "Speak Now" by herself, Swift veered in the opposite direction, co-writing with pop hitmakers such as Max Martin and Adele collaborator Dan Wilson. She wound up with nearly 40 potential songs; in between stops on the yearlong world tour that she wrapped in March, Swift joined her writing partners in L.A. and Nashville. "I felt like an apprentice," Swift says. "They taught me so much about melodic sense, and they let me do what I love, which is the lyrics." The result is Swift's most eclectic set ever, ranging from "State of Grace," a howling, U2-style epic with reverb-drenched guitars, to a sweet acoustic duet with U.K. singer Ed Sheeran. Another key track even features a dubstep-inspired bass breakdown. So far, the new direction isn't hurting Swift's career: Lead single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," a bitter breakup anthem with a hip-hop-flavored Max Martin beat, has shattered chart records, selling a stunning 623,000 digital singles in its first week. Taylor Swift to Release New 'Red' Album in October . To Swift, the musical excursions aren't surprising, given how much hip-hop and R&B she listens to. "I have so many play-lists full of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown," she says. "I love Wiz Khalifa." Lyrically, the album is full of Swift's usual themes of romance and heartbreak. "I know general things about love," she says. "How to treat people well, what you deserve and when to walk away. Other than that, love is a complete mystery -- and that's why I like to write about it." Taylor Swift: My Fourth Album Is About 'Crash-and-Burn Heartbreak' Swift has spent much of the summer with her new boyfriend, Conor Kennedy (the son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. She's even looked into buying a house near the Kennedy compound. "That would be so amazing," she says. But Swift won't be resting for long: She's already thinking about how to top her last tour, which featured aerialists, costume changes and a mock wedding onstage every night. "I really want to go out on the road in the spring," she says. "After I write a song, I always end up laying awake at night thinking, 'What are the lighting cues going to be on this? How big is the pit going to be?' I have been thinking of some big moments that are going to happen." Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone. | Lyrically, "Red" is full of Swift's usual themes of romance and heartbreak .
Swift co-wrote "Red" with pop hitmakers such as Max Martin and Adele collaborator Dan Wilson .
The album, which features "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," is due out on October 22 . |
144,859 | 475c5a5b784cbbb04c3d1d8a1fcab693748c1b0c | (CNN) -- West Virginia has demanded a full list of any other chemicals that might have leaked from a Charleston-area storage plant after its owners revealed another compound had spilled into the Elk River. The state Department of Environmental Protection gave Freedom Industries until Wednesday afternoon to disclose "any and all information" related to the January 9 spill. The move came a day after the company told regulators that in addition to the methanol compound that escaped from a ruptured tank, a second chemical -- a mix of polyglycol ethers, known as PPH -- was part of the leak. PPH is not believed to pose any new health hazard for the people of Charleston, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. But the state environmental agency said failing to accurately report the makeup of the leak is a violation of state law. "These materials were not included in the initial information regarding the composition of the spilled materials," the agency stated in a Wednesday order to Freedom. In a statement issued along with the order, DEP chief Randy Huffman called the late disclosure "completely unacceptable." More than 7,000 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, known as MCHM, leaked into Charleston's water supply after it leaked out of a Freedom Industries storage tank. The result was a do-not-use order that left about 300,000 people in the area unable to drink or bathe in their water, some for more than a week. The CDC said little is known about the health hazards of PPH, but it appears to be less toxic than MCHM and made up about 5% of the total volume of the leaking tank. "Given the small percentage of PPH in the tank and information suggesting similar water solubility as MCHM, it is likely that any amount of PPH currently in the water system would be extremely low," it said. "However, the water system has not been tested for this material." Faced with numerous lawsuits as a result of the spill, Freedom Industries filed for bankruptcy protection last week. The company had no immediate response to Wednesday's demand from state officials, who have pledged to step up their oversight of the industry. | The second chemical isn't believed to pose new health risks, the CDC says .
It escaped from the same tank that leaked on January 9 outside Charleston .
A state official called the late disclosure "completely unacceptable"
The January 9 leak prompted a do-not-use order for up to 300,000 people . |
86,515 | f58dc25ab892c6657e657a604a0d64f61c2770ed | Big seller: Samsung has had nine million pre-orders for the S3 - but you may be waiting for the blue model . In the history of gadgets, none has picked up such an army of fans before launch. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has already received nine million pre-orders before launch - even with few people getting to play on Android's latest smartphone until it arrives in the UK on May 29. When the phone arrives, it will instantly become the fastest selling gadget in history, beating out the iPhone 4S's four million units sold in three days. It also tops the first iPad's two million tablets in two months, and the Microsoft Kinect system - which allows you to wave at your television via the Xbox 360 games console - which shifted 2.5 million units in 25 days. Samsung has reportedly hired 75,000 workers to keep up with the demand, with the company confident of meeting all pre-orders. The company is said to have the capacity to churn out five million phones per month - or 66 phones per worker per month. Most of the orders will have come through network carriers across the world, based on customer pre-orders, upgrades and anticipated demand. The carriers will have pre-allocated the majority of this stock to customers, with a surplus to act as a 'buffer' in case demand exceeds their supply. In the UK, Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that the S3 is the most popular phone of the year so far, with thousands of customers lined up to pick up their phone a week from today. Spokesman Graham Stapleton said: 'Pre-order demand for the new Galaxy S3 has surpassed expectations since the handset was first unveiled two weeks ago. 'The first 24 hours alone saw thousands placing their pre-order at Carphone Warehouse.' The S3's predecessor - the Galaxy S2 - took about six months to sell 10million phones, and 11 months to sell 20million. The release of the phone is likely to swell the number of Android users - although with the plethora of devices on the operating system, the increase may end up just causing a small spike. There are now in the region of 350million Android users in the world - with an estimated 900,000 to one million people picking up a new Android device each day. The software could be on one billion screens by the end of 2013, according to some estimates. Apple have not released recent figures for iOS usage - both iPhones and iPads - but in early 2011 the total was believed to be about 110million. Microsoft is notoriously quiet on the number of sales of Windows Phone 7, but it is believed to have shipped about 10 million phones since the operating system launched two years ago, giving them just a fraction - 1.3 per cent - of the market. Although, to be fair to Microsoft, they might not even need a phone version of Windows - due to patent and licensing agreements, Microsoft makes between $5 and $15 on most sales of Android phones, compared to the estimated $3 which goes into Google's pockets per handset through advertising revenue each year. Competition: The iPhone 4S is Apple's current model, while Nokia is trying hard with the Lumia WP7 phone . However Nokia is relying on Windows Phone 7, having invested heavily in the operating system as it begins to phase out the 'Symbian' OS which has powered much of the manufacturer's range of phones. Apple and Samsung between them account for 49.3 per cent of all smartphone sales worldwide - an increase on the 29 per cent the two had in early 2011. The S3 is Samsung's latest flagship phone. Despite the record pre-orders it will face substantial competition from HTC's One series of phones, and the always strong-selling iPhone range. The Samsung's most innovative feature is built-in face-tracking and voice control - allowing, Samsung claims, for a more 'natural' control system. It will also pay tribute to Samsung's expertise in screens, with a large 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen running a resolution of 1280 x 720p - far bigger than Apple’s iPhone, and close in size to the smaller end of the tablet market. Other innovations include what Samsung claims is a 'more intelligent' lock system, that keeps the screen 'awake' when the phone’s camera senses eyes watching it, rather than turning it off. The next iPhone is not due before the Autumn, traditionally launching around October. It is rumoured to come with a four-inch screen, and may be joined by a new addition to the iRange - an iPad Mini. | S3 will be fastest selling gadget in history .
Analysts predict Android usage will swell from an estimated 350million users today to one billion by end of 2013 .
Windows Phone continues to sit at bottom of smartphone market as users stick with Apple and Android . |
75,509 | d62379b6104e35c26dea42bf83d7181cf054d09a | (EW.com) -- Sony's aggressive expansion of its rebooted "Amazing Spider-Man" franchise began last summer with the announcement of release dates for "Amazing 3" and "4" in 2016 and 2018, respectively — meaning that the 2010s will be the first decade in human history with one "Spider-Man" movie every two years, so take that, 2000s! However, not everyone will stick around for the full quadrilogy: Director Marc Webb will take himself and his contextually perfect surname away from the director's chair after "Amazing 3." 'Amazing Spider-Man': Third and fourth films get release dates . "I want to help and contribute, but I think three movies...honestly, that's it for me," Webb tells EW. "I want to try other things." Webb did allow for the possibility that he could stick around as a consultant on Sony's whole Spidey franchise — an idea he also floated with The Daily Beast. 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' trailer: A deep dive . There is some precedent for the consulting role: "Avengers" director Joss Whedon has worked on other Marvel Studios films, while original "X-Men" director Bryan Singer produced "First Class" before making a return trip to the director's chair on this summer's "Days of Future Past." See the original story at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. | Marc Webb isn't planning to direct the fourth "Amazing Spider-Man" film .
He's at the helm of the first three films, and would like to try something else .
He believes he might stick around as a consultant for the rest of the franchise . |
190,311 | 8267aae587d453ba1b2aa796910866335482ab4c | France's Monaco will rival Arsenal in the race for Newcastle United defender Mathieu Debuchy. The France international has admitted he craves Champions League football and cash-rich Monaco, backed by the wealth of Russian owner Dmitry Rybolovlev, have the £12m Newcastle will demand for their first choice right back. Debuchy, 28, left Lille for Newcastle in January 2013, signing a five and a half-year deal worth £5.5million. Right stuff: France right back Mathieu Debuchy is wanted by Champions League clubs Arsenal and Monaco . In demand: The first-choice Newcastle defender will command a £12million fee from a successful bidder . Star power: Debuchy poses for photos with fans in Brazil - he was rested in France's final group game . Debuchy has started for Didier Deschamp's France in their 3-0 win over Honduras and 5-2 defeat of Switzerland but was rested in their 0-0 draw with Ecuador. Meanwhile, Newcastle have agreed to sell right back James Tavernier to Wigan. The 22-year-old has been on the books at St James' Park since 2009 but has spent the majority of his time on loan, with stays at Gateshead, Carlisle, Sheffield Wednesday, MK Dons and Shrewsbury Town. His most recent, and successful stint came last season at Rotherham as they achieved promotion to the Championship. Permanent move: James Tavernier (left) is bound for Wigan after spending of his Newcastle career on loan . | Newcastle will demand a £12million fee for defender Debuchy .
The 28-year-old is Newcastle and France's first-choice right back .
Arsenal are interested in Debuchy, an ideal replacement for Bacary Sagna .
James Tavernier, who was on loan at Rotherham, will move to Wigan . |
279,183 | f5b373da9ba034c46d606da25214575c8a724b75 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . UPDATED: . 17:33 EST, 1 November 2011 . They're always said to be man's best friend, and judging by this Spaniel's reaction to seeing her master, the old adage still rings true. Jezebel the excited Spaniel couldn't wait to see owner Steve Morris after the Flight Lieutenant returned from his mission in the skies over Libya. Flight Lieutenant Morris was one of nine Squadron GR4 Tornados to return to RAF Marham, Norfolk, following a seven-month deployment supporting the rebels who overthrew Colonel Gaddafi. I've missed you! Jezebel the Spaniel can't hide her excitement after being reunited with her owner Steve Morris on his return from Libya . Man's best friend: Flight Lieutenant Morris piloted one of nine tornados which returned to RAF Marham, Norfolk, today, from Libya . All smiles: Flight Lieutenant Steve Morris was welcomed back by Jezebel and a woman believed to be his girlfriend . There were touching scenes too as Wing Commander Andy Turk, who navigated Tornado GR4 warplanes on missions against Colonel Gaddafi’s forces, lifted his three-year-old son above his head as they were reunited at the Norfolk airbase after the seven-month deployment. During the heartwarming scene another of his young children looked on proudly, dressed in a miniature RAF uniform. Wing Commander Turk flew scores of missions during the Libyan conflict, regularly dealing crushing blows to the dictator’s troops as they threatened to slaughter civilians. Yesterday, as he returned to wife Abi and his children, he said: 'It is fantastic to be back with the family and the little ones but more importantly it's fantastic to bring the squadron back. 'They did an amazing job over the skies of Libya as part of the wider RAF efforts. 'It has been inspirational to see the momentous events over the last month. I'm back: Wing Commander Andy Turk greets his elder son after his return from Libya . Family reunion: Wing Commander Andy Turk was one of many UK pilots who had a heartwarming reunion with their partners and children after their seven-month mission . 'Because there were no British troops, it was very important that the RAF maintained our intelligence and surveillance. 'We got a real sense of connection to what was going on on the ground. 'We . feel a real sense of achievement and it shows the flexibility of the . equipment we have in service to take these sorts of conflict head on.' Based at Gioia del Colle in Southern . Italy, the British pilots played a key role in the 3,000 UK sorties, in . Libya, more than 2,100 of which were strike attacks on around 640 . targets. The final seven GR4 Tornados landed at Marham this morning after the first nine arrived home on Friday. The . Tornado force, deployed under Operation Ellamy as part of the Nato . operation, was led by Marham-based IX Squadron with additional aircrew . and engineers from Lossiemouth. On home turf at last: Tornado GR4 jets from 9 Squadron return to RAF Marham after deployment in Libya . They . were deployed with Apache attack helicopters, airborne warning and . control systems aircraft, VC10 refuellers and airborne radar aircraft. The Tornados' role over Libya was reconnaissance and surveillance as well as air strikes. Although the RAF does not comment on specific sorties, one of the most used weapons was the Brimstone missile. The Brimstone has a hit rate of more . than 90 per cent and its precision allows the use of a small warhead with a low . risk of collateral damage. Marham . station commander, Group Captain Pete 'Rocky' Rochelle, said: 'This . operation has shown the versatility of the Tornado aircraft. 'While IX Squadron were deployed over Libya, 31 Squadron were fighting in a very different conflict in Afghanistan.' Dadd'y boys: Wing Commander Andy Turk from 9 Squadron is greeted by his two children on his return to RAF Marham, King's Lynn, after returning from service in Libya . | UK pilots return to RAF base after seven-month deployment to Libya . |
13,130 | 2546ecffd68a83669c081a8c70f556c2f5509dbf | ISIS fighters have fired a crude chemical weapon at the Kurdish forces defending the Syria-Turkey border town of Kobane, it has been reported. BBC reporter Güney Yıldız says a Kurdish official from the war-torn town told him of a suspected IS chemical attack last night, which has caused people to lose their eyesight, blistering on the skin and respiratory problems. Testing on victims has not taken place because of the intensity of the fighting there, but a Kurdish doctor in the town, who was also injured by the strike, says he is '75 per cent' sure it is a chemical weapon. There was also speculation it was an unsophisticated warhead containing chlorine, similar to weapons used in the First World War. Savage: A photo of a victim of a reported chemical attack on the Syrian town of Kobane. It is claimed ISIS fighters fired a crude chemical weapon at the war zone . This photo reportedly shows a skin blister caused by the alleged chemical weapon attack . Swelling: Testing on victims has not taken place because of the intensity of the fighting there . Last week the Iraqi government reported that ISIS controls a vast compound in Iraq containing 2,500 rusting chemical weapons rockets. The site was bombed by the US during the 1991 Gulf War, but the munitions there were only partially destroyed, according to the UN - then left to Iraq to take care of. However, Iraqi officials wrote to the United Nations this summer claiming that abandoned weapons containing the lethal nerve agent Sarin are still in the ruins of the Muthanna State Establishment, which made chemical weapons in the 1980s and early 1990s, and that this is now in the hands of the violent jihadists. They warned that they had watched equipment there being looted on CCTV. Turkish Army T-155 howitzers stand in firing position near the Turkish-Syrian border today . An explosion after an apparent US-led coalition airstrike on Kobane, Syria, as seen from the Turkish side of the border. Intense fighting in the town has been going on for weeks . ISIS fighters inside Kobane: It is believed that Kurdish forces defending the town have are slowly beating ISIS . A Turkish tank manoeuvres near the Turkish-Syrian border. Ankara has placed a heavy military presence at the border . A CIA picture of the Muthanna State Establishment, which produced chemical weapons on an industrial scale . Remnants of Iraq's chemical weapons program at the Muthanna State Establishment. It was destroyed by American bombs during the 1991 Gulf War . Cache: Isis controls a compound in Iraq containing 2,500 chemical weapons rockets, according to the Iraqi government. Pictured are Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians preparing unexploded ordnance for demolition at a safe disposal area near Baghdad in 2003 . A U.S. Army Third Infantry Division soldier loads materials discovered in an explosives laboratory hidden in a home April 15, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq . Militants then shut the surveillance cameras at the depot down, the New York Times reported. Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim wrote to the UN saying that 'armed terrorist groups' took over the Muthanna complex, which lies 60 miles north of Baghdad, on June 11. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said remnants of a former chemical weapons programme are kept in two bunkers there. 'The project management spotted at dawn on Thursday, 12 June 2014, through the camera surveillance system, the looting of some of the project equipment and appliances, before the terrorists disabled the surveillance system,' Alhakim wrote in the letter dated June 30. 'The Government of Iraq requests the States Members of the United Nations to understand the current inability of Iraq, owing to the deterioration of the security situation, to fulfill its obligations to destroy chemical weapons,' he said. The Muthanna complex measures three by three miles and was thought to be capable of producing around 4,000 tonnes of nerve agent a year. Secrets: In 2002 President George W. Bush said Hussein was developing a program of chemical weapons but no evidence of such weapons was ever found . Alhakim singled out the capture of bunkers 13 and 41 in the sprawling complex 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad in the notorious 'Sunni Triangle.' The last major report by U.N. inspectors on the status of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program was released about a year after the experts left in March 2003. It states that Bunker 13 contained 2,500 sarin-filled 122-mm chemical rockets produced and filled before 1991, and about 180 tons of sodium cyanide, 'a very toxic chemical and a precursor for the warfare agent tabun.' However, U.S. Defence Department spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said earlier that the United States' best understanding was that 'whatever material was kept there is pretty old and not likely to be able to be accessed or used against anyone right now'. 'We aren't viewing this particular site and their holding it as a major issue at this point,' Kirby said. 'Should they even be able to access the materials, frankly, it would likely be more of a threat to them than anyone else.' It was revealed this week that about 5,000 chemical weapons were recovered or destroyed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion but the Pentagon chose to keep the findings top secret. An investigation by The New York Times has revealed that U.S. forces happened across the hidden caches of warheads, shells and aviation bombs between 2004 and 2011. But the information wasn't made public for several embarrassing reasons including the fact some of the weapons were U.S.-made, plus they had been sitting dormant since the early 1980s and therefore didn't support President George W. Bush's rationale for going to war. The weapons - most of them mustard agents in 155-millimeter artillery shells or 122-millimeter rockets - were developed by Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war which raged between 1980 and 1988. But on September 12, 2002, President Bush had contended that Hussein was developing new chemical weapons capable of 'mass destruction'. 'Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons,' he said. But all the weapons found had been developed before 1991. In March 2003, President Bush received a mandate from the U.S. Congress to lead an invasion of Iraq, asserting that Iraq was in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. With strong support from British P.M. Tony Blair, the Bush administration claimed that Sadam and his forces were in possession of weapons of mass destruction that posed a threat to U.S. security and that of allies including the U.K. and Australia. After investigation following the invasion, the U.S. led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical and biological programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if the Iraq sanctions were lifted. Although no active chemical weapons program was found, at least 17 U.S. troops and 7 Iraqi police officers were burned or wounded when chemical devices exploded. President Bush later said that the biggest regret of his presidency was 'the intelligence failure' in Iraq, while the Senate Intelligence Committee found in 2008 that his administration 'misrepresented the intelligence and the threat from Iraq'. The U.S. completed its withdrawal of military personnel in December 2011, during the ninth year of the war. The rise of ISIS means that the U.S. will send an army headquarters to Iraq for the first time in three years to assist local security forces struggling to resist advances by the fundamentalist group. Another reason for the cover-up, according to The Times, was that five of the six chemical weapons encounters involved weapons designed by the U.S. '''Nothing of significance'' is what I was ordered to say,' said Jarrod Lampier, a now-retired Army major who was present when forces found 2,400 nerve agent rockets in 2006 - the largest chemical weapons discovery of the war. Soldiers were also loathe to report finding the caches as documenting chemical weapons added hours of extra work to their load. Chemical warfare specialists had to be called in, and waiting for them to arrive put coalition forces in dangerous positions. 'I could wait all day for tech escort to show up and make a chem round disappear, or I could just make it disappear myself,' one ex-soldier told The Times. The mustard shells could be put in with other explosives that needed to be destructed and then detonated. US Secretary of State John Kerry visits the former Berlin Wall crossing point Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin today . However, handling chemical weapons lead to many injuries, which were not taken seriously by military doctors at the time. Many explosive ordnance disposal personnel were not aware that the shells they were handling contained chemicals, believing them to be regular old artillery. At least 17 American military personnel and seven Iraqi police were sickened by poisons - usually sarin and mustard gases. Many of the shells would leak liquid during transportation, exposing the soldiers to the potentially-lethal fumes. Symptoms ranged from disorientation and nausea to blindness and huge, seething blisters. Jarrod Taylor, a former Army sergeant on hand for the destruction of mustard shells that burned two soldiers in his infantry company, joked of 'wounds that never happened' from 'that stuff that didn't exist'. 'I love it when I hear, ''Oh there weren't any chemical weapons in Iraq'',' he said. 'There were plenty.' | BBC reporter claims terror group has fired chemical weapons at warzone .
The 'unsophisticated' weapon may have had a chlorine payload .
Pictures show victims with burns from the alleged chemical attack .
Isis controls former chemical weapons plant in Iraq, it was claimed last week .
The Muthanna State Establishment made nerve agents in the 80s and 90s .
Iraq wrote to the UN this summer to say that it had lost control of the depot . |
16,319 | 2e47d52259b86ee247bee6330a984d1b141280d9 | Former captain Chris Gayle has risked the wrath of the West Indies Cricket Board by describing Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard's World Cup omission as 'ridiculous' and 'victimisation'. West Indies announced a 15-man squad on Saturday for the global tournament, set to start in Australia and New Zealand next month, but left out all-rounders Bravo and Pollard. Gayle, no stranger to stand-offs with the board in an often vexed relationship over recent years, believes the absence of the two Trinidadians leaves the Windies without their 'strongest team'. Chris Gayle (front) hits a six for the West Indies against South Africa in Johannesburg on Sunday . The big-hitting opener was speaking after his match-winning 90 as the tourists completed a Twenty20 series success over South Africa. He asked: 'How can those two guys not be in the team? 'To me it (has) got to be like victimisation when you look at it towards those two guys. 'Come on ... it is just ridiculous ... (it has) really hurt ... just sad. 'We don't have our strongest team without Pollard or Bravo. 'It is a really big blow for us to actually lose two key players. Dwayne Bravo unsuccessfully appeals against Kyle Abbott (right) during the T20 match . 'I don't know what's the history behind it, but it is a ridiculous selection from my point of view ... with two of our biggest players in ODI cricket not involved in the 50-over format and the World Cup.' Pollard and Bravo have also been left out of the squad for a one-day international series against South Africa. Bravo was among the 12 players also named on Saturday as recipients of central contracts. Gayle, in the West Indies' World Cup squad, declined his annual deal. Bravo was a driving force behind an apparent player boycott over a contract dispute three months ago which led to the Windies pulling out of their tour of India. Abbott (left) attempts a run out against West Indies batsman Kieron Pollard (centre) | Chris Gayle has slammed the omission as 'ridiculous' and 'victimisation'
Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Polland are not part of the 15-man squad .
The 2015 Cricket World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand . |
161,758 | 5d2a15b8e1cb88ca087725507a7d52fc2b1d9c00 | MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Suspected drug cartel leaders in Mexico don't often answer reporters' questions, although one did call a radio station a few days ago to offer the government a deal. Police escort suspected drug cartel leader Jose Alberto Lopez Barron on Wednesday in Mexico City. So it was rather unusual for Jose Alberto Lopez Barron to speak to journalists shouting at him during a police lineup Wednesday, opening up a new window on how his reputed cartel operates. Lopez Barron was arrested this week in connection with the torture and killings of 12 federal police agents in Michoacan state July 13. Mexican federal officials say Lopez Barron, also known as "El Gordo," is one of the top leaders of La Familia Michoacana, a drug cartel blamed for a rash of violence that has left at least 18 federal agents and two soldiers dead since July 11. Speaking in a calm manner, Lopez Barron said that even if the cartel acted outside the law, it operates in an orderly manner and under rules that not only cartel members have to obey, but also residents in Arteaga, one of the cities the cartel controls. "You can't go around shooting off guns," Lopez Barron said. "You can't go around killing people, not only us but for the whole town. You can't speed in your vehicle. You can't traffick any kinds of drugs without telling us first." Anyone who wants to sell drugs, he said, has to go through the Familia Michoacana. "It has to be the company's merchandise," Lopez Barron said. "He has someone there who I believe is in charge of distributing cocaine." Cocaine can be sold retail, he said, but not methamphetamine, known as crystal or ice, since La Familia has prohibited it in the whole state. Lopez Barron said his direct boss was Servando Gomez, known as "La Tuta." Authorities said Gomez is La Familia Michoacana's top leader. Gomez went on a radio show recently to offer a truce with the federal government. Mexican President Felipe Calderon quickly answered that the government does not make pacts with criminal organizations. Lopez Barron said authorities have tried to capture Gomez but local residents have protected him. "Elements from the federal investigations agency arrived in town -- I wouldn't know the exact number of agents -- and we had to leave town for the hills. We arrived at a small ranch called La Peña, and they gave us nourishment and refuge." The suspect said municipal authorities respect the cartel and it respects the local police. He said that although the sale of drugs has diminished, the cartel has not stopped paying local police for protection. Lopez Barron was one of four suspects arrested this week in connection the slayings of the 12 federal agents in southwestern Mexico. Officials said he had a handgun that was traced to one of the slain officers. The other three suspects -- Gamaliel Rodriguez Granados, Evaristo Armas Bello and Jaime Rafael Navarro -- were captured inside a taxi in a town in Michoacan, officials said. The killings were among a series of reprisals by La Familia after the federal police captured one of their top leaders, authorities said. | Jose Alberto Lopez Barron arrested in connection with deaths of 12 police agents .
Mexican officials: Lopez Barron a top leader of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel .
"You can't go around shooting off guns," suspect tells reporters .
Anyone who wants to sell drugs has to go through cartel, Lopez Barron says . |
122,620 | 2a7af0f9008bf64f8a4b80f45e7fba2fe7363408 | (EW.com) -- When Lady Gaga flounces onto a concert stage in one of her Marie Antoinette-gone-"Clockwork Orange" getups, there's never much doubt that you're watching a glorious ''monster.'' The magic of Katy Perry, by contrast, is that she'll show up to perform in a shiny blue wig with Bettie Page bangs wearing oversize spinning lollipops pinned to her breasts ... and damned if she still doesn't look like the girl next door. In the thrilling 3-D concert film "Katy Perry: Part of Me," there are a lot of things to love about Perry, from her sweetly sexy and pert beauty to her full-throated voice to the outrageous hookiness of songs like ''Teenage Dream'' and ''Last Friday Night'' (to me, her greatest track). Yet you could talk about every one of those things without capturing what's most special about Perry: the joy that beams out of her like a holy light. "Part of Me" works hard to prove it's more than a glorified infomercial, and one reason it is more is that Perry has a startling story to tell. The daughter of Pentecostal ministers, she grew up in a Christian bubble, sheltered from pop. But once she embraced pop, she did so with an almost religious zeal. The film also documents the breakup of her marriage to Russell Brand, and though it's glimpsed from the sidelines, Perry's despair is on full display. "Part of Me" demonstrates why feeling the sorrow may help to project the joy. EW's grade: A- . See the full story at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. | EW gives "Katy Perry: Part of Me" an A- .
The magic of Katy Perry is that she still seems like the girl next door .
The film documents her Pentecostal upbringing and her breakup with Russell Brand . |
240,817 | c3c36bb79a43a61869a8aa2b6a7e8f89c4df6225 | (CNN) -- Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan has suspended the national soccer team from international competition for two years after their dismal performance at the World Cup. Nigeria came bottom of Group B at the tournament in South Africa, losing to Argentina and Greece before drawing with South Korea. Now president Jonathan has dissolved the Nigerian Football Federation and removed the "Super Eagles" from the international circuit, meaning sanctions could follow from soccer's governing body FIFA. Nigeria's Sports Minister Ibrahim Isa Bio confirmed the decision in an interview with CNN. "The government has taken a decision we believe is in the interests of Nigeria that we should for now, withdraw from international competition because our football since 1996 seems not to be growing," he said. "The government spends a lot of money to encourage football in Nigeria and we need to go back to the drawing board the way Ghana did two years ago. "The president Goodluck Jonathan has endorsed this decision and the Nigerian people are excited about it. "They are not happy with the performance [in the World Cup] and the Nigerian people believe the right thing to do is start all over again. We have informed FIFA of our intentions." Earlier, Mr Isa Bio's spokesman, Olukayode Thomas, told CNN: "Nigeria is a sovereign state and has the right to take a decision aimed at improving the nation. It's a decision that was taken by all Nigerians. We can't stand back and watch our football decline because of FIFA rules." Thomas said an interim body has been established in the wake of the football federation's demise, and that new elections would be held shortly to appoint new officials. CNN anchor Pedro Pinto said the decision was also based on Nigeria's performance at the African Cup of Nations, as well as their organization of the under-17 World Cup. FIFA rules prevent governments from interfering in the running of national football federations, and on Wednesday president Sepp Blatter warned France on a similar issue. FIFA told CNN they had no official information on the matter, but that their "position regarding political interference in football is well known." Fulham midfielder Dickson Etuhu, who played every game in Nigeria's World Cup campaign, told CNN he was stunned by the decision. "I'm so shocked at the moment I don't know what to say or how to react," he said. "Obviously there's a lot of things that aren't right in Nigerian football, it should be doing a lot better than it is. I don't think banning us is going to help. "With us coming out of the World Cup the way we did obviously there will be meetings about that because no-one will be happy. "For me and the other players, no international football for two years is not something we'll be happy with because we all love playing for our country. I don't know how that's going to go down. "You could say it's a bit extreme banning us for two years, but every country has a different way of handling their affairs and we have to respect the decision the president has made." | Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan has suspended the national soccer team .
Decision taken in response to Nigeria's poor performance at the World Cup .
Government says it wants to rebuild the national football federation .
A spokesman for the sports minister says decision has approval of all Nigerians . |
81,251 | e63ca779dd826f70ea007ae9c8b385a3909262a9 | By . Joshua Gardner . A Texas millionaire's dogs are so pampered they've got their own $45 per hour social media consultant churning out their personal blog posts. Auto recycling tycoon Ron Sturgeon loves his King Charles Cavaliers Willy, Dixie and Lance so much he pays for the world to see their thoughts on Facebook, Twitter and a personal blog. But that's just the start of their pampering. Sturgeon's love runs so deep he's even said he may stiff his family and will his $75 million fortune to the dogs. Scroll down for video... Blogging dogs: These Cavalier King Charles Spaniels owned by auto salvage millionaire Ron Sturgeon have their own Facebook account with 20,000 followers, a Twitter account and a blog . Let them eat cake: Sturgeon has to give his fortune to someone when he's gone and says it may well be his three beloved dogs . Josh Davis is the lucky Fort Worth tech . entrepreneur tasked with maintaining the furry online . presence of Willie, Dixie and Lance as they lead the good life. Davis revealed to BetaBeat what exactly he does for the dogs. 'I spend anywhere from four to eight hours per week managing the dogs’ blog and various networks,' revealed Davis, who also runs web design company Made in Forth Worth. 'I am paid $45 per hour for this work.' Davis has used his expertise to gain a following of 23,000 for the dogs' Facebook page, called Spoiled Cavaliers. Lavish: Willy, Dixie and Lance have a blog called Spoiled Cavaliers and hope to soon have their own reality series . Façonnable: Sturgeon calls his dogs the most lavishly treated pooches in the world . 'Each day Ron sends me several videos, with some notes,' said Davis. 'The content is generally from the perspective of the dogs, or what the dogs might be thinking in their head' Party time: Foster King Charles Cavaliers often appear in the Texas household along with Sturgeon's beloved trio, and they too are treated like royalty . They also have their own blog, a new Twitter account and an Instagram account on the way. Davis . posts pictures of the pooches posed in funny scenarios like them all . sitting in the driver's seat of one of Sturgeon's Ferraris. 'Each day . Ron sends me several videos, with some notes. I then take those videos, . upload them, and publish them across the networks. The content is . generally from the perspective of the dogs, or what the dogs might be . thinking in their head,' Davis told BetaBeat. The . photos often feature more than just Willy, Dixie and Lance. There's . often a fourth or even a fifth or sixth Cavalier that Sturgeon has take . in as a foster as it awaits a forever home. 'Ron has always been passionate about his dogs. He has been involved with the Cavalier Rescue for years,' said Davis. Behind the paws: Fort Worth computer programmer and entrepreneur Josh Davis spends several hours a week at $45/hr blogging from the viewpoint of Sturgeon's dogs . Spoiled cavaliers: Willie, Dixie and Lance boast a following of 23,000 on their Facebook page Spoiled Cavaliers . The lucky dogs may soon get even more media exposure. A show called Goin’ to the Dogs about Sturgeon, his wacky family and, of course his dogs, is currently being pitched to various TV networks. It's one part reality show and one part competition series as Sturgeon's wife, adopted sons and canine heirs duke it out over the $75 million. 'There's talk in this family that he's going to leave it all to the g**d*** dogs,' said one son in a publicity short for the proposed series. For his part, Sturgeon stays mum on who will benefit from his years of sharp business dealings. 'Nobody really knows what I'm gonna do with the money,' he said in a monologue tailor made for reality programming. 'They just need to keep sucking up.' Ready for TV: Sturgeon and his family are hoping to turn their strange lives and the dog fight for his millions into a reality series . Their own cars? 'Ron has always been passionate about his dogs. He has been involved with the Cavalier Rescue for years,' said Davis. Sturgeon loves his dogs and rumor has it he will one day leave his $75 million dollar estate to the pooches . Ron Sturgeon is a self-made millionaire who began his career by opening an auto salvage business when he was fresh out of high school in 1978. The business, which he started when when his dad died and left him homeless and along, eventually grew into the largest of its kind in the United States. He sold his chain of auto salvage yards to Ford in 1999 for upwards of $20 million before buying it back from the car company for a profit years later. Sturgeon soon sold the business that made him a millioanire once again, this time for $23.5 million. In between these deals, he worked for Ford and started a successful auto auction for insurers, which won him even more millions. Now in his 60s, Sturgeon collects toy and adult-sized cars. He displays many of his 3,000 toys at one of his Texas offices. As of 2010, he owned 14 cars that included Bentleys and Ferreris, according to Dallas News. In 2013, Sturgeon published a sex and relationship advice book called Men are Pigs: And that's a good thing in which he describes how he applies his keen business sense to women in order to become a 'sex whisperer.' Source . | Josh Davis from Fort Worth, Texas runs the Twitter, Facebook and blogs of auto recycling millionaire Ron Sturgeon's pets .
Sturgeon's three Cavalier King Charles Spaniels boast 23,000 followers on Facebook .
The three dogs and sometimes some foster pups pose in funny situations and in Sturgeon's many sports cars as they lap up the attention . |
51,225 | 90fbdc844c5ef94511b1f3b84b4731f3271dc770 | A top technology guru at the Department of Health and Human Services told Congress on Tuesday that the government is nowhere near ready to close the deal on new Obamacare signups, with just '60 to 70 per cent' of the website's internal engine built so far. HHS has promised that the website will be full functional by November 30, although White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the Obama administration would consider the effort successful if four out of five consumers could successfully enroll in insurance plans. Testimony from Henry Chao, the Deputy Chief Information Officer at HHS's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, indicates that this is because the government's tech gurus still can't process payments. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Henry Chao, the deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, testified that more than half of the Obamacare website's back-end computer processing systems are still unfinished . Inquisitor: Colorado Republican Rep. Cory Gardner was shocked to learn how little of the Obamacare website's back-end was ready for launch . 'We still need to build the payments systems to make the payments to [insurance policy] issuers in January,' Chao told members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Under questioning by Colorado Republican Rep. Cory Gardner, he said more than half of the tech systems that operate behind the scenes when consumers shop for insurance at healthcare.gov still aren't completed. 'How much do we have to build today, still?' Gardner asked. 'I mean, what do we need to build? 50 per cent? 40 per cent? 30 per cent?' 'I think it's – uh, just an approximation,' Chao answered, 'we're probably sitting somewhere about 60 and 70 percent.' 'Unbelievable': Gardner was incredulous to learn how much of the Obamacare system still lacks the computer support to process payments and keep the books . An incredulous Gardner asked him to confirm that the '60 to 70 per cent' number represented the incomplete sections of the website. Chao didn't dispute the number, but the Department of Health and Human Services did later in the day, telling Buzzfeed that the numbers were reversed. Chao also clarified that the consumer portion – what Americans see when they visit the website – is '100 per cent there.' Those functions include the capacity for consumers to complete a basic enrollment in the Obamacare system, compare health care plans and determine their eligibility for government subsidies. But 'the back office systems, the accounting systems [and] the payment systems,' he conceded, are not ready for prime time. Those systems include one that makes government subsidy payments directly to insurance companies on behalf of consumers who qualify. When the federal government released statistics on November 13 showing the number of Americans who had selected health insurance plans through healthcare.gov, it omitted any mention of how many had made actual purchases. | Accounting and other 'back office' systems are nowhere near ready, said a top HHS tech guru .
A congressional panel heard that the government lacks the ability to process payments or pass the money on to insurance companies .
HHS released Obamacare signup numbers but didn't say how many people made policy payments – because they can't process them . |
94,412 | 055866db4a347f5ef38504a2dd4ea703e938d591 | In focus -- Technology transfer . It's been a month since an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico led to one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history. This week the UAE announced that it is ready to offer advice and expertise to help plug the leak. MME takes an inside look at the advanced technology in place in Abu Dhabi to prevent and respond to spills in a region overflowing with oil. Facetime -- Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority . Over 90 percent of the UAE's crude reserves are based in Abu Dhabi and the revenues have built up the Emirate's cash reserves. Now, Abu Dhabi is keen to diversify away from oil with a push towards tourism. The sector was up 19 percent in the first quarter of this year alone. MME talks to the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan and asks him where this growth is coming from. Watch the show this week at the times (GMT) below: . Friday: 0915, 1745 Saturday: 0445 Sunday: 0615,1745 . | The UAE has offered advice and expertise to plug the leak in the Gulf of Mexico .
MME take a look at the advanced technology in place in Abu Dhabi to prevent oil spills .
Plus MME talks to the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority . |
58,102 | a4b2b7e23a5b303f39383ddf213b7983baaa7020 | Prince Andrew's bodyguards were accused yesterday of turning a blind eye during his visits to a paedophile friend's 'house of sin'. Protection officers accompanied the royal to Jeffrey Epstein's Florida mansion where he allegedly partied with naked young women. Juan Alessi, who was Epstein's butler for 11 years, said: 'Andrew was with security. He had his two bodyguards from Scotland Yard. I can remember their names. 'The bodyguards were off duty and they slept in one of the guest bedrooms.' Hundreds of under-age girls are said to have been abused at Epstein's mansion and one woman says she was forced by the shamed financier to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, which is below the age of consent in Florida. Scroll down for video . Prince Andrew's (left) bodyguards were accused yesterday of turning a blind eye during his visits to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Florida mansion, pictured together in 2011 . The prince fiercely denies having any sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts, now 30. But there were calls yesterday for Scotland Yard to investigate whether Andrew's protection officers suspected or witnessed any criminal activity at Epstein's homes. A royalty protection source said: 'Epstein's Florida mansion appears to have resembled a five-star brothel. And Epstein behaved like a pimp. 'I would have expected protection officers to have advised the duke to leave immediately. 'If they did not, the big question is why? The problem is that protection officers are very well paid – some get up to £80,000 a year which is double their basic pay – because of overtime and special allowances. 'They can sometimes forget they are working for the police, not the royal household. Challenging a royal about their conduct, or the people they are mixing with, can result in a loss of trust and their removal from a very lucrative job.' Dai Davies, a former head of the protection unit, said the prince's bodyguards might be able to corroborate his account that he never had sexual relations with his accuser in 2001. But he added: 'I would have expected Prince Andrew to have been severely warned on the dangers of liaising with Epstein. This is an extraordinary case. I would have expected officers in royalty protection to bring matters to senior officers' attention far earlier.' Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dem deputy chairman of the London Assembly police and crime committee, said: 'If royal protection security staff ever suspect that criminal activity is taking place at a venue they are present at, they have an obligation to take action. Turning a blind eye should never be an option.' Virginia Roberts, now 30, claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17, which is below the age of consent in Florida . Jenny Jones, the Green deputy chairman of the same committee, said: 'The Met Commissioner should look into this as a matter of urgency. 'These are under-age sex allegations and I do have a problem with officers – that we, as taxpayers, fund – going to events like these alleged parties. 'The Commissioner needs to start asking questions about what these officers saw and what Prince Andrew did or didn't get up to.' A spokesman for the Labour group on the London Assembly said Scotland Yard had 'serious questions to answer'. He added: 'Those being protected at public expense have a responsibility to consider the situations they are placing those public servants in and a duty to ensure their actions do not bring their protection officers into disrepute. If what you've been told is true there are serious questions to be asked as it would appear to be an inappropriate position to put these protection officers in.' But Peter Prentice, who headed the royalty protection squad at the time of the Epstein parties, has defended the 'laissez faire' approach, saying it was 'not an offence for a man or woman to be naked in a private house'. He also suggested he would 'not expect a protection officer to question ages' of young girls because of the difficulties involved. 'Every day of the week, clubs or bars are being fooled and duped,' added the retired chief superintendent. 'Protection officers are there purely to ensure their [the royals'] safety. Their role does not include questions of morality. The only compromise to this is, of course, if there is a question of legality. Then I would expect the protection officer to take advice from a senior officer or supervisor.' The royal (left) with Virginia Roberts, then 17, (centre) and Ghislaine Maxwell (right) in early 2001 . Mr Prentice said no officer approached him with concerns about Andrew's conduct when he led the protection squad from 1998 to 2005. 'If a protection officer comes to a supervisor [about a royal's behaviour] we would advise them and not turn a blind eye,' he added. 'But if you never hear of anything you don't know if a blind eye has been turned [by the protection officer].' Andrew was pictured with Epstein in February 2011 after the billionaire was released from jail after serving time for paedophile offences. The ensuing scandal forced the prince to cut his ties with the American. But the controversy was reignited last week by the release of US court papers on the Epstein case. In the files, Miss Roberts claims Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew three times in 2001 – in London, New York and on the billionaire's Caribbean island. She and other alleged victims want to overturn a deal that Epstein struck with federal prosecutors that saw him jailed for 18 months in 2008 for under-age sex offences. Buckingham Palace has repeatedly insisted that for Andrew 'any suggestion of impropriety with under-age minors is categorically untrue'. Mr Alessi confirmed that Miss Roberts, who is a mother of three, was a visitor to Epstein's Palm Beach mansion. His comments come from unpublished extracts of an interview with the Daily Mail in 2011. Hundreds of under-age girls are said to have been abused at Epstein's mansion, including Ms Roberts (pictured) Security sources suggest that Andrew's gallivanting around the world with Epstein, 61, cost taxpayers well over half a million pounds of public money. The duke allegedly spent several weeks at Epstein's Florida mansion and also visited his sumptuous property in New York and shared holidays with him in Thailand, New Mexico and the Caribbean. Sources confirmed the total bill in the decade up to 2011 is conservatively estimated to be £500,000. The figure is made up of business class air fares, hotel bills, salaries and overtime. Epstein has branded all his accusers liars and gold diggers. Scotland Yard declined to comment when asked whether royalty protection officers had raised concerns about Prince Andrew's conduct with Epstein or about his visits to the paedophile's Palm Beach mansion. It said: 'We do not discuss matters of security and protection.' Mr Prentice insisted it was not true that the generous pay protection officers receive would make them reluctant to jeopardise their position by challenging the behaviour of a royal or reporting it to a senior officer. 'That's high risk. When the truth comes out – and it always comes out - their days are numbered,' he said. Additional reporting: Andrew Levy and Rebecca Camber . A royalty protection source said: 'Epstein's Florida mansion (pictured) appears to have resembled a five-star brothel. And Epstein behaved like a pimp' Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. | Prince Andrew's bodyguards have been accused of 'turning a blind eye'
Protection officers accompanied the royal to Jeffrey Epstein's mansion .
Hundreds of under-age girls are believed to have been abused there .
Epstein's butler Juan Alessi said bodyguards slept in guest bedroom .
Virginia Roberts, then 17, claims she was forced to have sex with the royal . |
71,920 | cbe526ddd53e469321df7208625061a5d78b3664 | WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal agents have arrested more than 1,300 suspected gang members, including 343 with violent criminal histories, in the past three months, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said Tuesday. Gang weapons and paraphernalia are displayed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2006. "Violent foreign-born gang members and their associates have more than worn out their welcome, and to them I have one message: good riddance," Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a news release. Of those arrested, 374 face criminal charges, officials said. The rest face deportation, they said. During the nationwide crackdown, immigration and customs agents worked with law enforcement counterparts in 23 cities in what officials described as a "summer surge." The most arrests were made in the New York area (205) and Miami, Florida (160), but gang members were arrested in cities as small as Boise, Idaho, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. Watch agents in action in suspected gang roundup » . Myers told a Washington news conference that some of "the worst of the worst" gang offenders had been taken off U.S. streets. One of the gangs targeted has been MS-13, which is believed to be the fastest growing group in the United States as well as one of the most violent, the agency said. The FBI estimates MS-13 has about 10,000 members in the country, along with tens of thousands in Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, where the gang originated in the late 1980s. "MS-13 still seems to be the primary gang and the most violent gang still out there, and it is penetrating throughout the United States," said Marcy Forman, director of investigations for the agency. Don Hunter, sheriff of Collier County in southwest Florida, said MS-13 was present in what he called the "upscale" community. "We are not unique, we have transnational gangs, we have homegrown gangs," Hunter told the news conference. But he said cooperation among federal and local agencies had made it possible to put a dent in gang operations. The sweep was part of the agency's Operation Community Shield anti-gang initiative, which started in 2005, and has resulted in arrests of more than 7,000 alleged members and their associates from more than 600 gangs, the agency said. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Kelli Arena and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report. | Immigration and Customs sweep part of initiative started in 2005 .
Arrests took place over three-month period in 23 cities .
Of those arrested, 374 face criminal charges; the rest will be deported . |
262,784 | e0606609b1372027b2e94ba70373ac0ccd5f69e1 | (CNN) -- "Everything seems sexier in Paris," muses New Yorker Alison Drew, who recently returned from an unforgettable romantic escape. "Just walking around makes you want to be in love." Paris has proved itself irresistible to Travel + Leisure readers as well, who again rated it No. 1 for romance in the latest World's Best Awards survey. For some cities, setting the stage for love seems second nature. The 18th-annual awards revealed destinations for that perfect romantic getaway closer to home as well, like California's quaint seaside village of Carmel (No. 3) with its storybook cottages, sheep meadows and rugged coastal views. Be it a gorgeous cityscape, an overflow of culture, or pastries that make your heart sing, the world's most romantic cities offer plenty to love, whether you've found a match or are merely looking to let some sparks fly. No. 1 Paris . For both art lovers and lover lovers, ranking the City of Light as the best in the world in both categories may sound cliché, but the heart wants what the heart wants (and is always right). Walks along the Seine, tree-lined boulevards and cobbled lanes, a swoony stop at the Musée Rodin, or a simple glass of red in a cozy bistro all add to l'amour Parisienne. Don't miss: The picnic-perfect Place des Vosges, one of Paris's oldest and most beautiful squares, surrounded by elegant 17th-century mansions in the Marais quarter. No. 2 Venice . Although Venice ranked No. 25 overall this year, the City of Water rises toward the top of the world's best cities when it comes to love -- and it's easy to see why. Its hidden bridges, cobblestoned alleyways and iconic canals are perfect for getting lost in with a partner. Stroll the palaces and piazzas, explore the ancient architecture and while away the day in chic boutiques, art galleries and canal-side cafés. Don't miss: The legendary grandeur of Hotel Cipriani (Europe's No. 5 small city hotel) on serene Giudecca Island, offering balcony views of St. Mark's Square and a private wooden boat for traversing the lagoon. Travel + Leisure: America's best new romantic restaurants . No. 3 Carmel, California . Storybook cottages, quaint shops, art galleries and inviting eateries in this quaint seaside village abut one of northern California's most spectacular swaths of sand. Amble along the cypress-fringed path overlooking the rugged coast or cuddle on a bench and gaze out on the Pacific. Wine-tasting in nearby Carmel Valley, Pebble Beach's scenic 17-mile drive and the redwood-laden road to Big Sur only heighten the romance factor. Don't miss:: A glass of wine on the patio of Clint Eastwood's Mission Ranch, with rolling sheep meadows and sparkling sea vistas, before dinner at L'Auberge Carmel's cozy Aubergine restaurant, helmed by one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs of 2013, Justin Cogley. No. 4 Florence . With its red-roofed buildings along the Arno backed by rolling hills, it's no wonder this Renaissance city leaves visitors love-struck. Art lovers fall for Florence's classic architecture and masterful Michelangelos, while foodies adore the authentic Tuscan cuisine and stone's-throw jaunts to the Chianti countryside. Don't miss: Jaw-dropping skyline vistas from the Giardini Bardini, or essential souvenir shopping in the charming Oltrarno quarter, with its artisan workshops and small boutiques. Travel + Leisure: Worst romantic hotel fails . No. 5 Honolulu . This tropical paradise wins over T+L readers with a perfect cosmopolitan coast: miles of sandy stretches, dramatic cliffs, balmy weather and a buzzing dining and nightlife scene. Couples can snorkel the calm shores of Hanauma Bay Beach; hike to the top of Diamond Head Crater for stellar sea and Waikiki views; then hit the town for a date night of Pacific Rim cuisine. Don't miss: A stay at the posh Halekulani, a five-acre resort with tropical grounds fronting Waikiki Beach, or Sunday brunch at its open-air Orchids restaurant, where Hawaiian specialties come with views of Diamond Head. No. 6 Quebec City, Canada . Set on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, Quebec may be one of the oldest cities in North America but the French appeal of this capital -- which jumped up this year from No. 11 -- never gets old. Stroll the historic quarter's narrow cobbled lanes, where centuries-old stone buildings house antique shops, museums and sidewalk cafés in an almost fairy-tale European-like setting. Don't miss: Parc Linéaire, a weave of walking trails along the St. Charles River that lead to lush gardens, canyons and waterfalls. Travel + Leisure: America's most romantic towns . No. 7 San Francisco . While San Francisco scored high marks for food (No. 2 in the world), trendsetting eateries are only one ingredient in the City by the Bay's allure -- as are Napa-Sonoma's wine country an hour north. Couples with a penchant for kissable selfies have a multitude of worthy backdrops, from colorful Victorian row houses to Art Deco mansions, hilly bohemian-chic neighborhoods and rugged natural vistas out over the (often fog-shrouded) bay. Don't miss: The storybook town of Tiburon, where twosomes can picnic on the sprawling grassy waterfront, hike to 360-degree panoramas of the San Francisco skyline or bike along the banks of the shimmering bay. No. 8 Rome . Romance is undeniably a part of Rome's heritage -- it's not nicknamed the Eternal City for nothing -- with its epic monuments, baroque churches and medieval ruins vying with charming trattorias for your attention. Few pleasures come close to grabbing a table for two by a millennia-old fountain, sipping a cappuccino and soaking it all in. Don't miss: A romantic walk over cobblestones on the 2,300-year-old Appian Way, past Roman countryside, ancient statues and imperial palaces. No. 9 Cape Town . Framed by the dramatic Table Mountain ridge and breathtaking seascapes, Cape Town is arguably South Africa's most beautiful city, where markets and colonial-era cottages meet the modern metropolis. You can wander the local art galleries or take a short drive through the rolling-hilled Winelands and get a flavor for the region's burgeoning farm-to-table fare. Sun-seekers can also find a secluded spot on Camps Bay's white-sand beaches. Don't miss: A sumptuous room with service to match at Cape Grace, a luxurious hideaway set on its own private quay on the V&A Waterfront. No. 10 Charleston, South Carolina . Whether it's the charming folks (ranked No. 9 for world's friendliest people), blossoming arts scene, raved-about Lowcountry cuisine or historic neighborhoods, Charleston satisfies every southern fantasy. In fact, every corner seems to stage a proposal-worthy scene, from the Battery with its moss-draped oaks and antebellum mansions to Waterfront Park's picturesque Cooper River views. Don't miss: Unrivaled harbor and skyline panoramas over sunset cocktails at the Market Pavilion Hotel (ranked No. 1 small city hotel in the U.S. and Canada). See all of the world's best cities for romance . Planning a getaway? Don't miss Travel + Leisure's guide to the World's Best Hotels . Copyright 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. | The City of Light is still tops for lovers of love and art .
No need to cross the pond with two romantic California towns on the list .
Cross over the Canadian border to find French-style romance . |
55,279 | 9c9f4fc7e71b04d6af69a9ff0d72334936a4551f | Conversations about refereeing controversies in the National Football League have run amok this week. Sunday's disputed, last-second field goal by the Baltimore Ravens that gave them a 31-30 win over the New England Patriots first set tongues wagging. But that uproar was comfortably outdone the next night by an even more controversial, game-winning score -- this one by the Seattle Seahawks, which resulted in their narrowly defeating the Green Bay Packers. This play -- both the lack of a blatant offensive pass interference call and officials' determination that Seattle's Golden Tate deserved a touchdown, despite evidence indicating the ball was intercepted -- spurred vitriol on Twitter and criticism from pundits and fans alike. For many, it illustrated the credibility problem plaguing the league during its season's first three weeks with replacement officials on the field, in place of regular referees who were locked out by the NFL in a prolonged contract dispute. This storm subsided late Wednesday, when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell temporarily lifted the lockout to allow the "regular" referees to officiate Thursday's game between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. NFL officials remain locked out until a new collective bargaining agreement is voted on by the union membership. About time,' players, fans say as NFL officials return . Goodell has had his critics, including those up in arms over the league's handling of the latest officiating issues. But it is worth pointing out that the sport has at times been a trailblazer in the field of technology, making soccer -- or football as it's known outside the United States -- look like it is still stuck in the dark ages. The NFL introduced an instant replay system in 1986, allowing officials to review and possibly overturn calls on the field. This system at first didn't take and was scrapped, but an improved replay system was reintroduced in 1999. Since then, instant replay has been a key feature of the sport, with coaches allowed to challenge a call. Each time, play is halted while the on-field referee watches a replay of the disputed incident from the sidelines and makes his final call. In all, two challenges are allowed per side per game -- the limited number is to ensure games don't totally lose their flow or get too long -- and an additional challenge is permitted if the first two are proved correct. In the final two minutes of each half, no coach challenges are allowed, but an additional official, watching from overhead in the press box, can intercede over any controversial decisions. As seen this week, the instant replay system isn't foolproof. But problems about officiating decisions have, in the past decade or so, become increasingly reduced now that there's an avenue for calls to be overturned. This has not been the case, however, in soccer. "The NFL embraced technology early on, and it's much more progressive than other sports, even in America, like baseball," said Nat Coombs, a commentator on both sports for British broadcasters Channel 4 and the BBC, as well as ESPN. "With better camera angles and social media with armchair referees, there's more pressure than ever for the officials to get it right, so it's logical to embrace and adapt the technology," he added. NFL's stop-start nature lends itself better to such a system, whereas in soccer there has been a reluctance to introduce technology because of fears it could break up the game's flow. Resistance has been voiced by the likes of UEFA President Michel Platini who, in an interview this week, once again professed his dislike for goal line technology. "You will never convince me on technology, and I will not change at the age of 57," said Platini, a Frenchman. "Technology assisting referee, I say 'no'. My idea is to help referees by putting up more referees." Such a system has been tried in the Europa League since 2009 and was used at the recent Euro 2012 tournament. But mistakes were still made. Notably Marko Devic's "goal" for Ukraine against England, which looked to have crossed the line, would have been allowed had technology been in place. It was an incident at the 2010 World Cup that finally convinced world governing body FIFA and, more specifically, president Sepp Blatter, of the need for change. A shot from England's Frank Lampard -- which was comfortably inside the German goal line -- was not ruled a goal. Ultimately, the British fell by a 4-1 score. "I have to say, 'Thank you, Lampard'," said Blatter at the time. "I was completely down in South Africa -- when I saw that it really shocked me. It took me a day to react." The lack of goal line technology in soccer is hard for Coombs' American colleagues and friends to comprehend. "The lack of technology was the overriding issue (some Americans) had with regards to the World Cup," said Coombs. "They're just astonished there's not a review, that it's just unprofessional and illogical." Navigating injury: Can GPS help reduce player burnout? If the beast that is soccer has taken its time to crank into life over the use of technology, other sports like cricket and tennis have been solid bedfellows with the NFL in providing help to umpires and officials. In all those sports, the NFL included, there were skeptics when technology was introduced. "There's always been a fear that it makes a game more stop-and-start," said Coombs, arguing that in each case instant replay has made sports better. "The drama of a challenge in the NFL is incredible. It creates a great buzz for all the spectators. "I'd love to see it come into (soccer). The good would far outweigh the bad and in a few weeks of it being introduced everyone will be thinking why didn't we have this before." The Premier League is among those planning to use goal line technology next season, a decision that has been welcomed by the vast majority of the league, including Chelsea manager Roberto di Matteo. "We see every season, every big tournament, we need it because there are some crucial moments within those games where you could find the right solution with a bit of technology," said the Chelsea boss. There is a parallel between soccer and the NFL in the way players, coaches and fans have a tendency to berate officials, as has been seen in abundance in the United States this week. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady stepped in to ease the row over the controversial ruling in his game this week, when the Ravens' field goal attempt soared toward the uprights -- and through them, according to the officials in the field, if not to New England fans. When asked whether the field goal had or had not gone through, he said: "From the angle that I have, I can't tell. Those guys are standing at the uprights. So, if they can't get it right, then nobody can." That throws up the question of further technology. Had cameras been in place on the goalposts then the matter would not even have been a talking point this week. As an aside, American comedian Adam Carolla has a stand-up routine in which he suggests posts rise up to 500 feet in the air to avoid any issue. On a serious note, that is a potential issue for Goodell and the NFL commission to address, and one that Coombs believes they will. "It's such a forward-thinking sport in terms of technology that after what happened, I wouldn't be surprised if that matter is already being addressed," said Coombs. For now, though, Goodell has more instant and pressing matters to contend with. | The National Football League has used officiating technology on and off for the last 26 years .
Soccer has never implemented technology, instead using extra officials .
Calls for goal line technology in soccer have grown as a result of costly errors .
Sports such as tennis, cricket and rugby already use technology successfully . |
247,618 | cc6e7063680232eb37dfd64909c792b7531d40f7 | (CNN) -- We all knew he'd eventually get around to it: Mark Zuckerberg is expected to finally bring Facebook public. The company is reported to be preparing to file for an IPO -- initial public offering -- through which anyone will be able to buy shares of the social networking company on an open stock exchange. As a media theorist, I used to ignore these business shenanigans. Who cares if these companies are private or public, profitable or in the red? How many non-Wall-Street-Journal readers even knew what an IPO was back before the Internet created the likes of AOL, Netscape, and Google? But the fact is we do now think about the stock market. Many of us are aware that Apple's market capitalization is fast approaching half a trillion dollars, making it either the largest or second-largest company in the world behind Exxon Mobil - depending on the week. So when we hear that Facebook is preparing for an IPO that will likely dwarf Google's entrance to the public markets in 2004, particularly considering that the company doesn't sell tangible goods or services in the traditional sense, we can't help but wonder what this will mean for the future of Facebook, its users, its competitors, and the greater economy. The way it appears at first glance - particularly for those who have been following Mr. Zuckerberg since he launched "The Facebook" from his college dorm or, better, those who have seen the movie "The Social Network" - is that the Zuckerberg juggernaut is continuing unabated. This new form of media -- social networking -- will not only redefine the Internet, change human relationships, create a new marketing landscape, and challenge Google, but it will now rescue and alter the economy itself. Like virtual kudzu, it will infiltrate the financial markets, creating new sorts of opportunities for this peer-to-peer "social" economy to take root. We will all make our living playing Farmville, or designing new versions of it, or investing in companies that do. In reality, however, I don't think we are witnessing Facebook's victory over the financial markets as much as its acquiescence to them. Yes, Apple challenged Microsoft for software supremacy, just as Facebook now challenges Google for Internet supremacy. But there's another operating system churning away beneath all this high tech activity, and it's called corporate capitalism. If a company is big enough -- and that means simply holding enough money -- then sooner or later that money influences the rest of the company's activities. In Facebook's case, it meant approaching the legal limit of 500 investors, which triggers a requirement to open the books to regulatory scrutiny. It also meant dealing with a few thousand coveted employees who took jobs at Facebook instead of Google or Apple or anywhere else because they were hoping to get in on a big thing. The promise of cashing in a few million dollars worth of stock options helps many a programmer make it through a late night of coding. The same goes for those who invested in Zuckerberg five or more years ago and want to cash in before the "social web" bubble pops, if it's going to. Facebook was taking so long to get to market that many people had begun selling their shares privately on what are known as secondary markets, putting Facebook's valuation even further out of the company's own hands. Simply becoming a multi-billion-dollar company changes the essence of its goals, activities, and purpose. Its bloodstream becomes filled with cash, and cash has its own agenda. For just like print, TV, or the Internet, money is a medium, too. It has biases, or tendencies, programmed right into it. The kind of money we happen to use -- bank-issued central currency -- is biased toward lending. That's why we call our system "capitalism." It's about the capital: Our money is designed to favor those who lend it to others who actually use it to build companies or create value. The more money a company takes in, the more obligated it becomes to function in accordance with the properties and rules of money. For example, since becoming public, Google has had to prove its devotion to its shareholders' interests by cutting pet programs, showing earnings' growth, and demonstrating focus over big dreams. Out with public experiments like Google Labs, in with products like Android try to compete with Apple's iOS and G+ to compete with Facebook. No more touting that employees get 20% of their work hours to do whatever they want. It's a real corporation, now, and has to behave like one. By all accounts, Zuckerberg was trying to delay this eventuality as long as possible. He knows that becoming the CEO of a public company will not be nearly as much fun, or as free, as running an Internet startup. However much we may not like his vision for our future, his primary purpose was to change the world. He wanted to create the operating system on which human social activity took place. What he has ultimately succumbed to, however, is the fact that Facebook was running on top of another operating system all along. Instead of revolutionizing our reality, by filing an IPO Mark Zuckerberg is finally getting with the program. Follow CNN Opinion on Twitter . Join the conversation on Facebook . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Douglas Rushkoff. | Douglas Rushkoff says Facebook's reported plan to go public makes some wonder about future .
He says it may seem company expanding influence, reaching into, rescuing economy .
But really it would be just giving into corporate capitalism, he says: Earnings trump big dreams .
Rushkoff: With IPO, Zuckerberg not so much revolutionizing reality as getting with program . |
130,475 | 34ba2727a3f41e969bbffd35adcdc1eeef6bb5d7 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . A year's supply of fruit cake, a book of stamps and a free meerkat adoption are some of the forms of compensation offered by UK companies, a survey has found. A book of vouchers only redeemable in the US, £2.48 in return for loss of the internet for a month and a free meal at a restaurant where the diner caught food poisoning are some of the other 'goodwill' gestures suffered by consumers, the poll for the online complaints service resolver.co.uk revealed. Repentant companies have also offered a bottle of orange juice that was out of date and fermenting, 60p in return for not switching mobile providers, and a box of condoms after a customer submitted a bad review when one broke. One unnamed company said an angry customer could adopt a meerkat because they received poor service . Another firm offered a free Cadbury Creme Egg as compensation to another customer who made a complaint . Asked to name what they considered to be the most bizarre or strange compensation offered by a company after making a complaint, others surveyed reported receiving a voucher for a new tyre from a scrapyard and a Cadbury creme egg. Resolver founder James Walker said: 'What this shows is that companies are not taking the consumer seriously. 'Complaining should be more prevalent and I urge consumers to seek redress if they experience poor customer service. 'We want companies to take compensation more seriously and hope that our service will highlight the good and the bad practices that are out there. 'Our plan is to work with these companies to show them the value of complaints - hopefully illustrating to them how they are valuable sources of feedback and essential information for helping them to provide a better service to the customer.' YouGov surveyed 2,341 adults online on July 25-28. | One company offered an angry customer the chance to adopt a meerkat .
Another firm sent the complainant a free Cadbury Creme Egg .
One customer received a free packet of condoms when one broke . |
14,899 | 2a4dc94be174df4ceb1da5e228c57d67b52ce407 | By . Paul Sims . PUBLISHED: . 08:42 EST, 17 May 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 09:32 EST, 17 May 2012 . Disgraced: Grahame Maxwell, former Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police, is to get the payout despite admitting 'gross misconduct' A disgraced former chief constable who admitted gross misconduct for helping a relative get a job has walked away from the force with a £250,000 golden goodbye, it emerged yesterday. Grahame Maxwell, 51, narrowly escaped the sack over the claims of nepotism and was given a final written warning at a secret disciplinary hearing last May. But after the police authority refused to extend his £133,000-a-year contract a controversial clause legally entitling Mr Maxwell to £247,636 in compensation was activated. The clause enables Mr Maxwell to receive 85 per cent of the difference between the pension lump sum he is now eligible for after serving 28-and-a-half years and the amount he would have received had he continued for another 18 months. It is believed to be the first time the compensation clause has ever been activated following a decision not to renew a chief constable's contract. Today, the payment to the former North Yorkshire police chief was branded 'shocking' and 'ridiculous'. Skipton and Ripon Tory MP Julian Smith urged the government to overhaul the rules which entitled Mr Maxwell to the large pay-out. 'The taxpayers of North Yorkshire will find this figure shocking,' he said. 'I have already written to the Policing Minister and I am meeting with him to make the case that never again will a chief officer guilty of gross misconduct be able to take these ridiculous sums of money.' Mr Maxwell admitted making 'errors of judgement' when he helped a family member jump the queue to apply for a job within his own force in February 2010. He stepped in after a hotline set up to recruit 70 new officers was 'overwhelmed' by 500,000 applicants, many of whom were unable to get through. Former office: The headquarters of North Yorkshire Police in Northallerton . Among them was a male member of Mr Maxwell's extended family. The relative was not entitled to a 'call back', but nonetheless Mr Maxwell rang the family member himself and completed the vetting questionnaire. Mr Maxwell later admitted his involvement and in a meeting with the force solicitor allegedly described himself as an 'a***hole'. Despite his apparent admission Mr Maxwell continued to deny helping the relative and only admitted the charge of gross misconduct - a sackable offence - when his disciplinary hearing got underway. By then more than £300,000 of public money had been spent on the misconduct case. Mr Maxwell did not respond to calls from this newspaper for a comment. But the existence of the clause that entitled him to the pay-out is likely to come into sharper focus when the newly-elected police commissioners take over from police authorities at the end of the year. Under new rules commissioners will be given the power to remove chief constables from office. As a result there could be more pay-outs similar to the one Mr Maxwell received. Last night, Police Authority Chief Executive Jeremy Holderness said: 'It is important that the public understand that the Authority had absolutely no discretion in this matter whatsoever. 'Mr Maxwell became entitled to receive this payment as a matter of law, following the Authority's decision not to extend his fixed term appointment.' A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: 'Police authorities signed up to these arrangements several years ago but we are looking at them again in the light of the recent Winsor Review.' 'It recommended that misconduct hearings should have the power to remove all or part of a chief constable's severance payment and we have asked the Police Negotiating Board to consider this.' Mr Maxwell has been succeeded by temporary chief constable Tim Madgwick. The police authority said Mr Madgwick's temporary appointment was to allow the Police and Crime Commissioner, due to be elected in November, to make the final decision on a substantive appointment. | Graham Maxwell awarded sum due to special clause after North Yorkshire police refused to renew contract .
Disciplinary hearing heard he helped a family member jump queue of 500,000 applicants for jobs .
The 51-year-old later admitted 'gross misconduct' |
33,584 | 5f88695a951bf66fa93442aa5acb5f7c331bb5c0 | By . Leon Watson . PUBLISHED: . 07:09 EST, 1 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 12:51 EST, 1 February 2013 . Westerners in Turkey have been warned to be vigilant after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive today in front of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. The blast in the capital killed the bomber and a guard at the entrance gate before the British mission in Istanbul made clear officials feared there could be further outrages. The White House condemned the attack on the U.S. Embassy as 'an act of terror' while the British embassy warned Westerners to 'be vigilant'. Scroll down for video . Two police officers arrive at gate two of the U.S. Embassy just minutes after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device . Stills from an unverified online video purport to show the aftermath of the Ankara bombing . Several people were injured and journalists reported seeing two bodies pulled from the wreckage . Paramedics stretcher an injured person into a waiting ambulance after the blast . There was no immediate claim of . responsibility, but Turkey's interior minister, Muammer Guler, said the . bomber was likely connected to a domestic left-wing militant group. He . did not explain why. The president's spokesman says it is not yet known who is responsible, but a suicide bombing on the perimeter of an embassy is, by definition, a terrorist act. A . Turkish woman was also seriously wounded and two other guards sustained . lighter wounds in the 1.15pm blast in the Turkish capital, Guler told . reporters. A police official, meanwhile, said the bomber is most likely a suspected member of . the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front. He spoke on . condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the . press. The group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States but had been relatively quiet in recent years. The explosion occurred inside the . security checkpoint at the side entrance to the U.S. embassy, which was . being used by staff. A guard standing outside the checkpoint was killed . and while the two other guards 'were standing in a more protected area,' Guler said. Medics carry an injured woman on a stretcher to an ambulance after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara . Emergency personnel are seen in front of a side entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara . Rescuers take a victim of the blast to a waiting ambulance. Two were killed in the blast outside the U.S. embassy, local television reported . People stand outside the entrance of the US embassy in Ankara where the blast killed two security guards . Police and ambulances swarmed the area and authorities immediately cordoned it off. TV footage showed the embassy door . blown off its hinges. The windows of nearby businesses were also . shattered by the power of the blast, and debris littered the ground and . across the road. The inside of the embassy did not appear to be damaged. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip . Erdogan said the attack demonstrated a need for international . cooperation against terrorism and was aimed at disturbing Turkey's . 'peace and prosperity.' 'But we will stand firm and we will overcome this together,' he said. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy thanked Turkey for 'its solidarity and outrage over the incident.' The embassy building is heavily . protected and located near several other embassies in Ankara, including . that of Germany and France. The Hurriyet newspaper said staff at the . embassy took shelter in 'safe room' inside the compound soon after the . explosion. Damage: Turkish police begin the search for clues at the scene of the blast . There was no claim of responsibility, but Kurdish rebels and Islamic militants are active in Turkey . Aftermath: Phones were not being answered at the embassy . Guler identified the injured woman as . 38-year-old Didem Tuncay, a television journalist and a hospital . official said she was 'not in a critical condition.' News reports said . she was at the embassy to get a U.S. visa. 'We can confirm a terrorist blast at a . check point on the perimeter of our embassy compound in Ankara, Turkey, . at 1.13pm local time,' State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland . said in Washington. 'We are working closely with the . Turkish national police to make a full assessment of the damage and the . casualties, and to begin an investigation,' she said. Police forensic experts work on the site of a blast outside the US Embassy in Ankara . Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed the explosion was a suicide attack . Turkish police secure the area after an explosion in front of U.S. Embassy in Ankara . Turkish police were examining security cameras around the embassy. U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey . have been targeted previously by terrorists. In 2008, an attack blamed . on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul . left three assailants and three policemen dead. Elsewhere, terrorists attacked a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 last year, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The attackers in . Libya were suspected to have ties to Islamist extremists, and one is in . custody in Egypt. The force of the blast damaged nearby buildings in the Cankaya neighbourhood where many other state institutions and embassies are also located . Blast: Emergency personnel are seen in front of a side entrance to the U.S. Embassy . A suicide bomb went off outside the U.S. Embassy in Ankara today killing two, news reports said . The bomb appeared to have exploded inside the security checkpoint at the entrance of the visa section of the embassy . The blast went off in the Turkish capital Ankara (marked on map) British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the attack 'in the strongest terms' Britain's Foreign Secretary William . Hague condemned Friday's attack 'in the strongest terms,' and said . Turkey and the U.S. will get the U.K.'s full support as they seek to . hold those responsible to account. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet . Davutoglu, speaking to reporters during a visit to Belgrade, Serbia, . said he was saddened that the attacked had occurred in Turkey. 'We have always shown great sensitivity to the protection of foreign missions and we will continue to do so,' he said. Homegrown Islamic militants tied to . al-Qaida have also carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul, Turkey's . bustling commercial center. In a 2003 attack on the British consulate, a . suspected Islamic militant rammed an explosive-laden pickup truck into . the main gate, killing 58 people, including the British consul-general. Turkey is also being deeply affected . by the brutal civil war in neighboring Syria, and has become a harsh . critic of President Bashar Assad's regime there. The war has left at . least 60,000 people dead so far, according to the U.N., and Turkey is . sheltering tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. The first of six Patriot missile . batteries being deployed to Turkey to protect the country against attack . from Syria was just declared operational and placed under NATO command. Others are expected to become operational in the coming days. | Bomb appeared to have exploded inside embassy's security checkpoint .
Turkish television said a security guard was killed at the entrance .
British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemns the attack . |
43,170 | 79bf4b1a9d08b131d09a2210501d19f0d0d4ccb6 | (CNN) -- Throughout this primary election season, as tea party candidates in Kentucky, Georgia, Texas and elsewhere faltered, a media narrative started taking shape that the Republican establishment was taking back control of the party. Then, stunningly, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost Tuesday night. Some will insist that this historic upset was simply a fluke. But the reality is that the "Establishment Strikes Back" storyline has been wrong all along. The tea party has in fact been on a roll ever since it burst on the scene. Its success needs to be properly understood -- then emulated by its foes in both parties. The tea party is resilient partly because for many in the movement, winning is not primarily about election results. Even when it loses primaries, it wins -- by forcing the winners so far to the right that they would be unrecognizable by establishment Republicans of a generation ago. And when tea party candidates win primaries outright, as David Brat did Tuesday night in Virginia, they of course directly push their party rightward. When it comes to actual policymaking and governing, the same dynamic applies. In cases where the tea party didn't get what it wanted, as in the debt and default crisis, it still succeeded in redefining the frame of the possible. In the House it can always veto proposals such as immigration reform that have cleared the Senate. In short: The tea party wins when it loses and wins when it wins. This is a pretty good setup. And it's not an accident. I disagree profoundly with the tea party's policy agenda. Yet I also have come to see that nobody is better at democracy today than the tea party. Cantor's electoral autopsy will surely describe how Brat's campaign, out-funded and out-endorsed, was never out-organized. Tea partyers win elections by old-fashioned person-to-person proselytizing, plenty of new-media mobilizing and a fair amount of time-tested fear-mongering. They create a sense of urgency, and they convert that urgency into turnout. After the election, they continue to meet, rally and apply effective pressure on elected officials. Yes, it's not all grass roots, and pools of big money and the power of Fox News have much to do with tea party clout. But when you spend time with activists, you come to appreciate that there is no secret playbook at work. At the core is a network of citizens who've decided to deploy the full range of tools available. They show up. They work the phones. They work the media. They elect people. They un-elect people. That full-range deployment has given a minority of the nation's minority party truly outsize voice in American politics. Consider immigration. Just Tuesday morning came reports of a new poll showing majorities in both parties supporting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. By nightfall, with Brat's uncompromising stance against such a pathway, the new conventional wisdom was that immigration reform is now dead. Never mind that Lindsey Graham, who shaped the Senate immigration bill that included a pathway to citizenship, handily defeated his primary challengers. Never mind that anything's possible in a lame-duck session with a House leadership in flux. Now many in the Beltway will simply say immigration is untouchable because the tea party wants it that way and if the tea party can beat Cantor it can beat anyone. Cantor 'earthquake' rattles Capitol Hill . You can decry the tea party's ability to create such self-fulfilling perceptions, but you cannot dismiss it. In fact, activists along every other point of the political spectrum should study the tea party more closely and learn just how it endows relatively small blocs of voters with the force of much larger blocs. What if the progressive left, centrist Democrats and moderate Republicans all organized and mobilized their people as effectively as the tea party has? What if citizens of every stripe, even without access to big campaign cash, learned to activate people power? What if leaders of all leanings thought harder about how to wake up their base and get them actually to vote? It may be harder to do that in the middle than on the extremes, but it's not impossible. The political scientist E.E. Schattschneider once wrote, "All that is necessary to produce the most painless revolution in history, the first revolution ever legalized and legitimatized in advance, is to have a sufficient number of people do something not much more difficult than to walk across the street on election day." As Cantor can now attest, the activists of the tea party understand this. They count votes and make votes count. Want to join them? Learn from them. Want to beat them? Learn from them. Either way, it's how we'll make a new democracy. | Eric Liu: GOP establishment seemed to be reasserting itself, then Eric Cantor loses .
Liu says tea party wins even when it loses, forcing GOP candidates further to the right .
Liu: Tea party uses every strategy to give a minority of the minority party outsize clout .
Nobody better at democracy, and other groups can learn from tea party, he says . |
181,238 | 76a06baf33e681fd7ab4d340219061444ad68810 | By . Ashley Collman . PUBLISHED: . 21:46 EST, 22 January 2014 . | . UPDATED: . 06:05 EST, 23 January 2014 . The American Psychological Association has refused to punish one of its members for assisting in the torture of a 9/11 terrorist suspect at Guantanamo Bay. Leaked documents show that Dr John Leso, now a retired US Army reserves, instructed prison staff on ways to obtain intelligence from detainees including Mohammed al-Qahtani, the twentieth 9/11 hijacking suspect. The methods were so severe even Pentagon officials called them 'torture'. Methods included forcibly hydrating Qahtani though IVs and then not letting him use the bathroom. They also subjected him to loud music, made him bark like a dog and deprived him of sleeping saying he can go to bed 'when he tells the truth'. But in an APA letter obtained by the Guardian . from December 31, they decided they 'cannot proceed with formal charges . in this matter. Consequently the complaint against Dr Leso has been . closed'. Fact: Leaked documents prove that Dr John Leso aided in the torture of a suspected terrorist at Guantanamo Bay . The APA doesn't deny that Dr Leso took part in the torture, but says his actions didn't meet the burden of 'direct unethical conduct' since he was a noted critic of the military's intelligence gathering approach. Leso and colleague Major Paul Burney were the authors of an interrogation handbook of sorts - a memorandum called 'Counter-Resistance Strategies which advised on how to best get information from prisoners. 'All aspects of the [detention] environment should enhance capture shock, dislocate expectation, and support exploitation to the fullest extent possible,' one section read. Exonerated: But the American Psychological Association ruled last month that they will not carry out charges against Leso, one of their members. On the left, Mohammed al-Qahtani, the terrorist suspect he helped torture. On the right, a detainee being interrogated at Abu Ghraib . But Leso and Burney distanced themselves from the document during a Senate panel in 2007, saying they were' not comfortable with the memo they were asked to produce'. Prior to that, just a month before logs show he aided in the interrogation of Qahtani, Leso was in a Guantanamo meeting in which he said that detainee abuse may not prove fruitful. 'Force is risky, and may be ineffective due to the detainees' frame of reference,' he said in October 2002. 'They are used to seeing much more barbaric treatment.' These occasions of noted discomfort are what the APA are using to defend their move in exonerating Leso. 'Available evidence in the public domain also includes that, in the face of pressure from the highest levels of the Bush administration which strongly supported ‘enhanced’ interrogation tactics, the respondent sought consultation and argued against such approaches and in favor of rapport-building approach,' wrote Lindsay Childress-Beatty, the deputy director of the APA’s ethics office, in the December 31 letter. The APA's decision has not been popular among other psychologists who believe this breaks their 'do no harm' rule. Trudy Bond is the Ohio psychologist who complained about Leso's work at Guantanamo to the APA and said their decision sends the message that 'psychologists are free to violate our ethical code, perhaps, in certain situations'. | Dr John Leso consulted on the interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay .
The methods were so severe that even Pentagon officials called them 'torture'
The American Psychological Association decided last month not to punish him .
They cite instances where he spoke about being uncomfortable with detainee abuse . |
231,428 | b7a6ad153a0ceda690649e3c19432ec79dc237a0 | A widely-used anti-depressant could help ease the symptoms of Alzheimer's sufferers, a study has found. The drug Citalopram - sold under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil - significantly relieved agitation in a group of patients with the condition. It helped to reduce their emotional distress, excessive movement, aggression and disruptive irritability. Treatment: Citalopram could help ease the symptoms of Alzheimer's sufferers, a study has found. The drug - sold under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil - significantly relieved agitation in patients with the condition . The drug, known as Citalopram Hydrobromide, was also found to be safer than the antipsychotic drugs currently used to treat the condition - with a lower risk of strokes or heart attacks. It was tested on 186 Alzheimer's patients with varying symptoms during clinical trials at Johns Hopkins University and seven other American and Canadian academic medical centres. Researchers found the drug produced irregular heart beats in some patients - but the risk was lower than that of antipsychotic drugs. Antipsychotics, which are often used as . first-line medications for Alzheimer’s-related agitation, can significantly . increase the risk of strokes, heart attacks and death in sufferers. Benefits: It helped to reduce sufferers' emotional distress, excessive movement and disruptive irritability . Dr Constantine Lyketsos, who led the study, said the popular anti-depression could be a 'safer' choice of medication for Alzheimer's patients. 'If the agitation is not responding to non-medication treatments and your patient’s agitation isn’t improving, there are no great options,' he said. 'But here’s another medication choice that might be safer than other medications and seems to be just as effective.' Researcher: Dr Constantine Lyketsos said the popular anti-depression could also be a 'safer' choice of medication for Alzheimer's patients . During the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients initially underwent tests to define the extent of their agitation, memory and other cognitive skills. The stress levels of their caregivers were also measured as this is a factor strongly linked to the well-being of those with Alzheimer’s. The patients - all of whom had previously experienced no adequate symptom relief with non-medical therapies or other antipsychotic drugs - were then separated into two groups. Over the next nine weeks, 50 per cent took increasing doses of citalopram that peaked at 30 milligrams per day, while the rest took a placebo. At the end of the study, the same set of tests was given, along with electrocardiograms. Dr Lyketsos said the results showed that 40 per cent of patients on Citalpram had experienced 'considerable' relief from agitation symptoms - compared to just 26 per cent of patients who took the placebo. The caregivers for these patients also reported less stress. However, Dr Lyketsos said patients on the anti-depressant were found to have slightly decreased cognitive function - adding: 'It was not huge, but measureable. That introduces a tradeoff.' Patients on Citalopram also had longer QTc intervals - a measure of abnormal heart function that increases the risk of heart attacks. But Dr Lyketsos added antipsychotic medications also used to treat agitation increase heart attack risk as well - perhaps even more substantially. Dr Lyketsos and his colleagues now hope to carry out further tests to determine whether a lower dose of Citalopram might be just as effective in treating Alzheimer’s-related agitation - but with less risk for cognition and heart function. | Drug Citalopram significantly relieved agitation in Alzheimer's patients .
Helped to reduce emotional distress, excessive moment and aggression .
Also safer than the antipsychotic drugs currently used to treat condition .
But patients had slightly decreased cognitive function, a study found .
Researchers tested 186 Alzheimer's patients with variety of symptoms .
Popular anti-depressant sold under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil . |
84,617 | f013fa276e7e81363a82697504ca0fafc07af6c5 | (CNN) -- The presidents of the two Sudans concluded talks Sunday aimed at addressing outstanding economic, oil and security issues after tensions between the two nations nearly led to a return to war. Talks between Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir concluded in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, where the two agreed to temporary arrangements over a disputed oil-rich region claimed by both countries. The agreement called for the creation of temporary administrative and security arrangements for the Abyei region, including the creation of a police service and a limited governing council. Al-Bashir and Kiir agreed to reconvene another summit to discuss the final disposition of the disputed region. Sudan and South Sudan in 2013: Rise or fall together . South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011 as part of a peace deal that ended decades of war between the two sides. The war left nearly 2 million people dead. Soon after the split, tensions between the old foes escalated over outstanding issues, coming close to an all-out war in April. South Sudan shut off its oil supply last year, accusing Sudan of stealing oil revenue. The South got about 70% of the formerly united country's reserves when it became independent last year. Both countries have seen hyperinflation and a squeeze on incoming foreign currency as a result of the shutdown. Read more: Coup attempt disrupted, Sudanese government says . In September, the leaders signed a deal to resume the nation's oil operations, but failed to address other key disputes between the recently divorced countries. In addition to a deal to restart oil exports from South Sudan, the two presidents agreed on a demilitarized zone and principles of border demarcation. However, they failed at that meeting to reach a deal on the status of Abyei. Neither country implemented the agreements from that meeting. CNN's Faith Karimi and David McKenzie contributed to this report. | The presidents of the two Sudans agreed to temporary arrangements with Abyei .
Abyei is a disputed oil-rich region claimed by both countries .
As part of the agreement, there will be a police service and an administrative council . |
41,151 | 7415e323a6b796c91ae9f0984d157957906230eb | By . John Drayton . Lionel Messi has just turned 27. So, to celebrate, Adidas have made a special edition pair of football boots for the superstar to don on his special day. His new footwear are a technicolor version of the adizeroTM f50 Messi boots, which the Argentinian wizard is currently wearing at the World Cup in Brazil. Messi is set to wear them in training on Tuesday, ahead of his country's clash table-topping clash with Nigeria the following day. Leo and the technicolor boots: Messi's birthday boots, made for his 27th by adidas . Savour: Messi celebrating his stunning last-minute goal against Iran on Saturday . VIDEO Argentina can't be dependent on Messi - D'Alessandro . There are . to be 27 total pairs made in total - one for each year of his life - . with two exclusive signed pairs to be given away on a competition . @teammessi on his birthday. Messi . has so far scored twice at the World Cup, a superb effort against . Bosnia & Herzegovina in their opening game at the Maracana, and a . stunning last-gasp winner in their game against Iran. Hopefully his new technicolor boots will help keep his dream alive in Brazil. Support: Messi's partner Antonella Roccuzzo and his son arriving to watch him play Iran on Saturday . | Messi to wear special edition technicolor birthday boots in training .
Scored twice so far at the World Cup, including stunning winner vs Iran .
Argentina to play Nigeria on Wednesday in Group F table-topping decider . |
79,195 | e079256f8f4158efeec6ebdc426032c5f1ad537d | By . Quentin Letts . PUBLISHED: . 21:15 EST, 13 November 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 05:54 EST, 14 November 2012 . Community spirit: Miriam Margolyes, Quentin Letts (right) and Bill Kenwright hunt for the nation's best amateur dramatic company . Essex bricklayer Steve Foster pauses with a lump of wet mortar on his trowel. After changing into character, the nasal-voiced, side-whiskered Mr Foster, 63, starts spouting Shakespeare. 'Mistress Ford,' he cries. 'I would thy husband were dead: I'll speak it before the best lord. I would make thee my Layydee!' And with that he throws back his head and gives a filthy, Sid-James-style laugh before returning to his wall. Brickie Foster is one of Britain's large, neglected tribes: the amateur dramaticals. There are thousands of them up and down the land. Some act well, some appallingly. Some sew costumes, some paint backdrops, some do the make-up and some boss everyone around while directing the shows. Britain's am-dram scene is lively, growing - but is often sneered at by the wider world. Am-drams? Oh, you say, that's ham actors standing with their feet at a 'quarter-to-three' angle in front of wonky props. That's prompters in the wings shouting lines at half-deaf thespians. How wrong you are. Having just taken part - as the Mail's theatre critic - in a TV talent show about am-drams, I can tell you they're on a roll. Or rather, a role. Steve Foster belongs to the Heath Players from Hatfield Heath on the Essex-Herts border. He is about to play Sir John Falstaff in an Essex take of The Merry Wives of Windsor (the wives are done up like ageing Spice Girls). Fellow stalwarts in the troupe, which was founded in 1967, include a marine surveyor, a Vauxhall car dealer, a teacher and a civil servant. That, anyway, is what they do by day. By night they become a host of characters. As the saying went on Matthew Kelly's Stars In Their Eyes: 'Tonight, Matthew, I am going to be . . .' The same happens in Glasgow, where salesman Barry Ward is pumping himself up into a frenzy of sexual anger - in order (let it hurriedly be said) to play Hamlet. Thirty-something Barry belongs to the Strathclyde Theatre Group, where his fellow actors include a dustman and a carer for the elderly. Am-drams were last week pooh-poohed by London opera critic Rupert Christiansen, who wrote of 'self-managing, largely middle-class adult groups performing extant plays or musicals in the village hall or community theatre'. Pausing only to ask 'er, what's wrong with middle-class?', one has to conclude that the normally fair-minded Mr Christiansen is speaking out of his exhaust pipe. When I signed up as a judge on Sky's Nation's Best Am Dram (along with impresario Bill Kenwright and actress Miriam Margolyes) I did not know what to expect. Sky had invited the am-dram societies of Britain to submit audition tapes. The winner would get the chance to stage a production in London's West End - which, to am-drammers, is like getting to play a match at Wembley. Entries were whittled down to a long list of 20. Some of the productions were, admittedly, as wooden as the Mayflower. Some actors wore Ozzy Osbourne-style eye make-up to play Greek tragedy. Murdered by mascara! Some waved their hands in the air - woooo - like Pan's People. But some of the auditions were top rate. For instance, West Yorkshire's Bingley Little Theatre had done a version of the witches scene in Shakespeare's Macbeth. This is a minefield even for professional actors. There is always a danger, with all those toad and newt giblets, that the audience will start splurffing with laughter instead of feeling spooked. Bingley's amateurs set the scene in a gay bar, casting the witches as three camp old men. Those taking part included NHS worker Jonathan Scott, 51, with an Ena Sharples-style hairnet on his head, who hissed and bitched to a high order. The Royal Shakespeare Company would have been proud to call his interpretation their own. The same was true when Crossmichael Drama Club, from Galloway, gave us their take on the 'mechanicals' scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Nation's Best Am Dram reflects the country's lively community theatre scene . Amateur Dramatics brings together talent from all walks of life, from brickies to single mothers . They did it in a strong Scots dialect which, far from making the scene incomprehensible, made it soar in the most unexpected way. Nick Bottom and his mates can come across as clumping idiots with accents like Benny from Crossroads. Here they were sparky rustics, eyes a-gleam (with excitement and terror) at the thought of doing some acting. Crossmichael's members include a sheep farmer, a schoolmaster and a mother who is full-time carer for her disabled child. These are time-starved people, yet they carve a few precious hours out of every week to devote themselves to the arts. More than 2,500 am-dram groups belong to the National Operatic and Dramatic Association. These are run by volunteers who come in after a day's work, grab a bite to eat, then dash off to rehearsals with a disparate band of neighbours. Every few weeks, along comes show-night - the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd. And then the all-important cast party, where thirsts are quenched and romances may be forged. 'It's a cracking way to meet women,' laughs Steve Foster. 'Not at my age, though - that's long gone!' Lusty Sir John Falstaff might not agree. Hair-salon receptionist Tracey Challen, who acts with Dorset's Regent Rep, says am-drams are 'a massive part of who I am. Acting for me is the same as eating, breathing, sleeping.' Sound engineer Bruce Downie, 44, from Glasgow, says directing the Strathclyde Theatre Group is the biggest thing in his life. Sitting in the group's theatre, he says simply: 'This is my real home.' Having long watched the likes of The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, I'd suspected talent shows whipped up participants into false states of emotion. From my judge's seat on Nation's Best Am Dram, I saw genuine tears and cheers. Winners of Nation's Best Am Dram will get the chance to stage a production on London's West End . When the 20-year-olds from Liverpool's Tell Tale community theatre company were told they had made it to the next round, they reacted like Premier League footballers after scoring a goal - though they did not rip off their shirts which, given the curvaceousness of some of the group's actresses, was just as well. Why do people devote so much time to am-drams? Various reasons. For Anne McIntyre, 44, director of Crossmichael, it is 'a release'. She has a disabled son at home. 'Drama gives me something else to focus on,' she says. For mother-of-seven Janet Blizzard, from the Wirral, am-dram is a return to a life she had once hoped to follow before babies intervened. 'I'd like to think perhaps I could have made it as an actress,' says Mrs Blizzard, 55. So is it all a middle-class self-indulgence? Tommyrot. Am-drams embody the best of British community spirit. And I say that without the slightest need for a prompt. | New TV show Nation's Best Am Dram is the X-Factor for thespians .
The passion of Britain's amateur actors 'embodies community spirit' |
66,333 | bc2d51a15687d9c6dba94556eaeb140ee96557b2 | It might be a matter of opinion as to whether money is the root of all evil – but cash is definitely dirty. Scientists have discovered that the average banknote is home to 26,000 bacteria, which could be potentially harmful to our health. Despite two thirds of us believing that handling bank notes and coins is unhygienic, just one in five Europeans wash their hands after holding cash, according to new research. Definitely dirty: The average European bank note is home to 26,000 bacteria, which could be potentially harmful to our health. And despite the fact we know them to be filthy, only one in five Europeans wash their hands after handling them, according to a new study . A Europe-wide study of over 9,000 consumers from 12 countries highlighted how despite being ranked as more unhygienic than hand rails on public transport or nuts in a bar, Europeans are struggling to break the bad habit of not cleaning their hands after handling dirty cash. More germs can be found on a £1 coin than on a regularly cleaned toilet seat, but almost half of Britons admit to never washing their hands after handling money. Men are more likely to avoid cleaning their hands than women at 55 per cent. Around 40 per cent of females skip the hygienic step. A staggering 43 per cent of Britons think money is clean and we are the least likely to wash our hands, along with Denmark in Europe . People living in France and Hungary have . the biggest ‘say-do gap’ as they were among the most aware of how filthy . money can be, but also the more likely not to wash their hands. A . staggering 43 per cent of Britons think money is clean and we are the . least likely to wash our hands, along with Denmark, in Europe. Psychologist Donna Dawson explained that people find it hard to make negative associations with money because notes and coins are the biggest form of individual success that we have. ‘The reason for the often large gap in the survey between what we say and what we do is a lack of “connection”. We may recognise that money collects germs, but we do not connect disease or illness to the handling of money,’ she said. The MasterCard research also highlighted that four in 10 Europeans claim they will try to be more hygienic and think that contactless payment will help. Over half of respondents to the survey said they would prefer to use contactless payment instead of handling germ-ridden coins. Dr Jim O’Mahony, lecturer in biological sciences at the Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland, said that humans have long been aware of the link between money and hygiene. ‘From a historical perspective there have even been reports that villagers believed money was somehow responsible for plague epidemics in England, with villagers leaving money in water troughs filled with vinegar in order to decontaminate it. ‘Scientifically, there have been many studies in recent years which have proven beyond doubt that bank notes and coins carry bacteria and other microbes.’ Hygiene wash out: People living in France and Hungary had the biggest 'say-do gap' as they were among the most aware of how filthy money can be, but also the more likely not to wash their hands . A MasterCard study conducted with the . University of Oxford found that the average European banknote contains . 26,000 bacterial colonies and UK notes were among the dirtiest – along . with Denmark’s krone, Russia’s rouble and the Austrian euro. The study comes in within a week of the old £50 banknote being withdrawn and follows the announcement that the UK will use plastic bank notes so that they are more durable and more hygienic. The Bank of England signed an agreement with Innovia Security in March to obtain polymers for its new £5 and £10 notes. The new notes will be more dirt-resistant than paper because they will be coated in a film so they can wiped clean, as well as being harder to fake because they contain features including a transparent window. Polymer notes were first adopted by Australia in 1988 and are now in use in more than 20 countries. The new £5 notes are expected to be rolled out in the UK in 2016 and will feature Winston Churchill, while the £10 note will follow a year later with Jane Austen. | Europe-wide MasterCard study found that two thirds of people think handling money is unhygienic but only 1 in 5 Europeans wash their hands .
More germs can be found on a £1 coin than on a toilet seat .
Men are more likely to avoid cleaning their hands than women and Britons are the worst in Europe for not washing after handling coins or notes .
People living in France and Hungary are among the most aware of how filthy .
money can be, but also more likely not to wash their hands .
One psychologist thinks people find it hard to associate negative traits such as ill health with money, which is linked with an individual's success . |
267,818 | e6dbce293c95dda12ff1533c6bc336d12d93c40f | Freezing Britain's unusually harsh winter could have cost thousands of pensioners their lives. This month is on track to be the coldest March for 50 years – and as the bitter Arctic conditions caused blackouts and traffic chaos yesterday, experts warned of an 'horrendous' death toll among the elderly. About 2,000 extra deaths were registered in just the first two weeks of March compared with the average for the same period over the past five years. Whiteout: Blizzards caused huge snow drifts leaving these cars nearly completely covered in Hadfield, Derbyshire . Blizzards: The Peak District was one of the worst affected areas as blizzards swept the UK overnight . And for February, 3,057 extra deaths were registered in England and Wales compared with the five-year average for the month. Campaigners at Age UK, which says 26,000 people die needlessly in winter every year, said the current weather could prove deadly for thousands more. Director general Michelle Mitchell said: 'Colder, harsher winters tend to lead to an increase in life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks and strokes which in turn leads to a high rate of excess winter deaths. 'For every one degree drop in average temperature, there are around 8,000 extra deaths.' The Office for National Statistics said the extra death rate 'could be to do with the prolonged period of cold weather we've been experiencing.' But it cautioned that it was too early to make an absolute link. The March figures are still provisional. Malcolm Booth, chief executive of the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners, said that last month almost 700 of his members had died, compared with 250 last year. 'If our membership is a representative sample that was replicated across the general population, then we could be looking at a horrendous number when all the figures are in,' he said. Snow the Welsh town of Llangollen which was cut off by road except for four wheel drive vehicles . Trapped: A car is buried in a snow drift in the Craigant Hills near Belfast, Northern Ireland . Tight squeeze: A motorist drives slowly past another vehicle that has been trapped in snow near Belfast . 'An increase in fuel costs and the extended winter means that more people are going to suffer, and more will be unable to afford to eat and heat their homes. It's a scary prospect.' It is not just pensioners who are at risk. The body of a 27-year-old man who went missing while walking home from a night out was found in deep snow in farmland near Burnley, Lancashire, yesterday afternoon. Police said the man would not be named until all family members had been informed. Chief Inspector Derry Crorken of Burnley Police said: 'Early indications suggest that it is a very tragic incident where a young man has been out with friends and has become caught up in the weather last night on his journey home. A sheep with her lamb (left) that was born during the heavy snowfall and blizzards that hit County Durham overnight and (right) Six-year-old Polly Johns and four-year-old brother Dylan enjoy sledging in Kington, Herefordshire . A soldier stands on guard during a snow shower on the first day the soldiers are wearing their summer red tunics outside Buckingham Palace . 'I would urge people to only go out if it is necessary.' Blizzards and power cuts wreaked havoc across large parts of the country yesterday, leaving snowdrifts of up to 15ft in Cumbria and night-time temperatures plunging to -7C (19F) in the Pennines. Power lines were down in Northern Ireland, Scotland and North Wales, leaving 50,000 homes without electricity. Ulster was hardest-hit, with 29,000 properties without power and 1,000 without water. The transport network was also crippled. East Midlands, Leeds, Robin Hood (Doncaster) and Humberside Airports were all forced temporarily to close runways for snow and ice to be cleared. Train services in the North-West were severely hit and even major roads were treacherous. In Cumbria 70 people were put up in a school after being stranded in their cars on the A595. A woman walking in the snow in Birmingham city centre . In North Wales, the Red Cross was brought in to transport vital medical staff to hospitals in 4x4 vehicles because the snow had made roads off limits to normal cars. The M62 near Rochdale was closed for a time but gritters were out to ensure the route between Manchester and West Yorkshire remained open overnight. Yesterday's sporting programme was also badly hit, with Northern Ireland's football World Cup qualifier against Russia called off for the second time in 24 hours as Belfast's Windsor Park was unplayable. Elsewhere, seven Football League games in the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North were cancelled and race meetings at Doncaster and Newbury were abandoned. Theme parks at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor Park closed, too. The Environment Agency had 59 flood alerts in place last night, covering the Midlands, East Anglia, the south east and the south west. Hundreds of schools were forced to close on Friday and many were expected to remain closed tomorrow, causing headaches for parents. Weathermen forecast that the harsh conditions would gradually diminish over the coming week but a biting wind from the east would ensure temperatures remain at 4-6C (39-42F), well below the seasonal average of 11C (52F). Greg Dewhurst of the Met Office said: 'While the rain, sleet and snow will peter out, it will still feel very cold because of strong easterly winds. The signals are that temperatures will start to return to normal after Easter.' The weather is also taking its toll on retailers, especially fashion chains where spring lines are remaining on the racks. For DIY chains and garden centres, this is normally one of the most important months. But Mandy Murphy of the British Retail Consortium said: 'Bad weather could feed through to sales being poorer than hoped for over the big bank holiday weekend.' It is all in stark contrast to the same time 12 months ago, when sunbathers swamped beaches as temperatures hit 22C (71F), sparking fears of a possible drought. | 2,000 extra deaths registered in just the first two weeks of March .
And for February, 3,057 extra deaths registered in England and Wales .
Campaigners warn weather .
could prove deadly for thousands more . |
167,799 | 6507f036618fe95d79e9bd6fb9f8b97978d01fdd | These huge paintings are the work of a secretive graffiti artist who travels the world tagging walls, often painting his quirky pieces in a hurry to avoid arrest. Chinese-born DALeast lives in South Africa but spends six months of the year travelling and has tagged walls on nearly every continent. His unusual paintings, which are sometimes hundreds of feet across, can look 3D and as if they are created out of thousands of tiny metal shards, but in fact they have been spray-painted onto a flat surface. Original style: This mural of two big cats fighting was painted by secretive Chinese-born graffiti artist DALeast in Hanbury Street, near London's Brick Lane . Astonishingly lifelike: This beautiful mural on a wall in the artist's home city Cape Town, South Africa, looks like slowed-down footage of the animal leaping . DALeast's works can be seen in Cape Town, Miami, New York and London's Brick Lane, as well as his native China. The 29-year-old, who keeps his real name a secret, has been making art since he was three. He said: 'I worked on everything when I was in China - painting, sculpture, installations, synchronising performance, and digital art, but I only started painting in public spaces in 2004.' DALeast, who now lives with his wife, also an artist, in Cape Town, said he creates his pieces 'Spiritually, in the mind' before embarking on his painting trips. Much of his work portrays wild animals hunting prey, often showing them in motion. The nature of the artist's work has landed him in trouble before, most notably just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics when police raided a house he was staying in and arrested him and his graffiti crew. Ambitious art: This enormous mural of a flying bird in Honolulu, Hawaii, is one of the dramatic works by DALeast on walls across the world . This breathtaking image of a dolphin leaping out of the water is painted on a building in Melun, in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris . He said: 'Life always give one troubles but my work gives me a lot of opportunity to face these troubles. Any situation can arise when you work in the public space. 'But I hope I am creating illusions through my paintings that can be a switch for people's minds.' He added: 'I like to express life-emotions and the environment, and use different artistic forms to speak. I prefer people staring at my work without saying any words - it means they are taking it in.' This detailed mural showing a string of camels in the desert was painted on a wall of a parking lot in Miami, Florida, by Chinese-born graffiti artist DALEast . Astonishingly lifelike: This huge painting of a horse painted on some chipboard walls in Tin Town, South Africa, looks like a model from a fairground carousel . Imperious: This magnificent picture of a stag takes up most of a wall in Vienna, Austria - the graffiti artist has tagged walls on most continents . This mural of a lion looking at another beast is painted on the wall of a boutique in New York City, another destination for the globe-trotting DALeast . Change of subject: This mural in Miami, Florida, depicts a car splintering into tiny pieces as it crashes into a pipe on the outside of the building . Using buildings and walls as his canvases, the graffiti artist can paint pictures of astonishing breadth, as with this eagle mural in Cape Town, South Africa . Violent image: This work of art, entitled Eclipse Of The Halo, has been spray-painted on a wall in Miami, Florida, and shows the artist's DALeast tag . This enormous image of a whale by the graffiti artist takes up nearly the entire wall of a storage warehouse in Rochester, New York City . An undated image painted onto the end of a building in the artist's home town of Cape Town, South Africa, depicts a magnificent bird of prey . This image of a slithering serpent in Rochester, New York City, is one of the artist's longest works, painted underneath a bridge - below is the work in its entirety . This invigorating portrait of a big cat pouncing is painted on the wall of a house in Brick Lane in London's East End - another work showing animals splintering in two . In a departure from his normal style, the artist painted an astronaut planting a flat on the moon on the wall of this abandoned and overgrown building in Paris . Fast as a cheetah: A wild cat speeding away on what look like bicycle tyres has been painted onto the side of a building in Johannesburg, South Africa . Inspirational: This mural on a wall in Los Angeles depicts a man apparently diving through water followed by a trail of bubbles or fish . | DALeast, who doesn't reveal his real name, lives in Cape Town but travels world tagging walls in different continents .
His unusual works look 3D, as if they're made of metal shards, but are spray-painted, often in a hurry to avoid arrest .
The Chinese-born artist has created works of art on walls and buildings in Miami, New York, London and S Africa . |
103,019 | 10caaa1fbe903a0b3b1eddd108cb0103126e255f | Paris (CNN) -- Without the star attraction on Wednesday, this might have just been another fashion show at Paris Fashion Week. There were whispers and rumors that the designer's muse would make an appearance, but no one was certain. We were also in the dark. We knew that Lady Gaga would be strutting down the catwalk as part of Nicola Formichetti's womenswear show for Mugler (of Thierry Mugler fame), but we weren't sure if Gaga would turn up for an interview with CNN. For 24 hours, her people who were in touch with our people could not confirm if the interview would actually go ahead, but they encouraged us to come to Paris anyway to see the catwalk show. So we did. It wasn't your average fashion show. For one, it was in a basketball gym. The basketball hoops were carefully hidden from view, and the set clearly overtook the space. Scores of gothic arches lined the runway with dozens of photographers marking the foot of the catwalk. This made for a striking alternative to just a white walkway for the crowd, but for the scrum of photographers poised at the foot of the runway, this couldn't have been worse. Their concerns were justified. It seemed no one could get a really clear image of the show or the models as they strutted down the catwalk. One photographer said it was hard enough not getting enough space to work in (photographers are usually given little more than the width of their shoulders to set up camp for the show), but it was something else not being able to see the proverbial wood from the trees (full disclosure: the gothic columns were made of wood). Another was so angry that he wouldn't be able to sell any of the footage as he said none of it was useable. But theatrical it was, and Gaga wouldn't have it any other way. Speakers blasted her latest single, "Born This Way," as the superstar strutted down the catwalk amidst the models. The models themselves were interesting. There was a model with his whole shaved head tattooed -- a skull and a brain. He apparently has a starring role in Gaga's "Born This Way" video. Then there were the shoes. Some of them were as high as 15 inches (platform of course). It was an extreme runway with some justification as the models teetered tentatively down the end of catwalk. A couple even stumbled. I remember staring at my own 6-inch heels and wondered what I was complaining about as I walked slowly around the show. As for the clothes, I was expecting a lot of leather and PVC -- your average gothic look. I was pleasantly surprised to see some pieces I would wear: gorgeous slinky dresses and yes, even the PVC high-waisted pencil skirt. My producer, Jonathan, tried to stay in the shadows so no one would notice his (in his own words) "$5 brown corduroy jacket bought from a Kabul market." When the Lady herself emerged puffing a cigarette, clad in a black bra, black hat, black PVC trousers and VERY high black knee-high boots, sections of the crowd whooped with delight. What you have to know about fashion shows, especially during Paris Fashion Week, is that this is the time for buyers and fashion editors to see the newest collection so it isn't just about the entertainment factor. Anyway, back to the Gaga show. While the set was lit up, the darkness in the crowd was lit by the multitude of LED lights from the many mobile phones capturing every moment. Then just 12 minutes later, the show ended and the crowd slowly exited the gym. However, we went against the tide (me in my 6-inch heels) and made our way backstage. Our contact negotiated with the burly bodyguards to let us through to the other side, where we walked up stairs, across bleachers (me trying not to trip over the miles of lighting cables) to where our second cameraman had set up lights and cameras. This is where the interview with Lady Gaga and Nicola Formichetti would take place -- if it would take place at all. And then we waited. To be fair, when this whole interview opportunity first came up, we were told it would take place after the show at 11 p.m. local time. Then when we got to our spot, we were told Gaga would show up in an hour. Then it was 15 minutes and then it was half an hour. True to their word, 30 minutes later there was a flurry of activity below us, and we saw the singer and her stylist weaving their way through the crowds taking their plaudits from those who were part of the show as they sipped champagne. When Lady Gaga approached, she was in good spirits. She introduced herself as Gaga, and she was excited for her friend Nicola -- he was the man behind the infamous meat dress. In fact, one of the first things she said was she didn't want to take any credit for the show or for the collection. Although she did say she had bought the lot. For Gaga, this was a night not about her but about the man who helped create her image and look. Throughout the interview, she embraced and kissed him. She looked at him lovingly, and they acted like friends in a playground. For his part, he seemed shy, grateful for the applause, but very much taking his cue from his famous friend. The interview went well -- after all, we were talking about the brand (both Mugler and Lady Gaga) -- until I asked about John Galliano, who was ousted from Dior after reportedly making anti-Semitic remarks. I had to. Designer John Galliano apologizes . This was the biggest news during Paris Fashion Week, and people were commenting and reacting. But when I asked the question if they had any reaction to the scandal, you could almost hear a pin drop. Gaga quickly looked at her publicist and said she didn't want to comment. Rather, she said, she wanted "to keep it positive." After a few more questions about marketing and business, I commented on her shoes as I wanted to know how she was able to walk in her very high platform shoes, which by the way have no heels. They were high platforms that basically look like she's on her tiptoes. I asked because I was embarrassed to admit I was walking very carefully in my heels. Both Gaga and Formichetti immediately knew the make of my shoes (YSL) and we bonded. The interview came to an end. We took some photographs, and I left for the bureau to edit the piece. We waited for this for over a day, and it was over in 10 minutes. I enjoyed the show. I liked the clothes. I thought she was nice and personable but very careful in what she said. It's not every day I get to interview a megastar, and you couldn't get any bigger than Lady Gaga these days. | CNN's Monita Rajpal is at Paris Fashion Week .
Clad in her own 6-inch heels, Rajpal races to her interview with Lady Gaga .
She waited over a day for a 10-minute interview .
The results: Pure French bliss at the fashion show . |
38,978 | 6e1fb2ae523872192a2cafb4637fed3a77cbc911 | By . James Daniel . PUBLISHED: . 11:25 EST, 9 June 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 11:39 EST, 9 June 2013 . With the nation edging towards an obesity epidemic, some health professionals are resorting to shock tactics in an attempt to convince people to eat healthier. One government health agency in California set out to warn of the dangers of sugary drinks by reaching out to parents and educating them about proper nutrition. However some have suggested this time the agency First 5, went too far by using Photoshop to make a perfectly healthy child look obese. Supersize me: The image on the left is an original photo of the little girl on First 5's website. The image is on the right is what appears on posters around California . Although the intentions to 'nurture and protect our most precious resource — our children' were noble, the poster is now on display all over the state of California and drawing criticism from many quarters. The two were placed side by side by author Marilyn Wann, who wrote the book 'FAT!SO? : Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size' - she believes in a Health at Every Size approach. Wann placed the two photos on her Facebook demanding 'children deserve to be protected from this kind of damaging fearmongering. (And from creepy Photoshopping!).' 'It was so mindblowingly hateful that I Photoshopped them together and posted them on Facebook and on Tumblr,' Wann said. Obesity epidemic: Nationally, some 15 percent of children are overweight or obese, as are some 60 percent of adults . Opinions: Health officials say the use of shocking pictures does not work whilst ad agencies like First 5 tend to veer towards impactful images . Divisive: Whilst a picture of an obese child may suit an ad agency looking to get a message across, health officials say such shock tactics have no impact in reality . 'Hate messages are bad for public health. Children of all sizes deserve to be valued as they are and supported in eating and exercising, because these behaviors are fun, feel good, and are good for health. No shame or blame!' The ad-agency, First 5 has refused to apologise for the doctoring of the photos. Although the agency has worked on anti-obesity campaigns for years, this is the first time the program has Photoshopped images of kids to make them appear bigger than they normally are. The aim of the campaign is to fight childhood obesity using the image of a chubby little girl drinking a bag of sugar through a straw. The caption reads: 'Sugary drinks like juice, sports drinks and soda can cause obesity. Choose milk and water instead.' 'The ad was intended to show parents the real-life consequences of obesity and what sugar can do to our children’s lives,' said spokeswoman Lindsay Van Laningham. 'They are just stock images which were Photoshopped,' she said. 'When you are handing a child soda or a juice box to drink you might as well be handing them a packet of sugar. Because that's what happening.' Such Photoshop manipulation occurs despite experts continually pointing out that using images of overweight kids is ineffective. Childhood obesity prevention researcher Marsha Davis said making people feel badly about their weight does not lead to change. 'We need to fight obesity... not obese people,' she said. | Agency took stock photo of girl then used Photoshop to make her look fat .
Campaign aims to shock parents into feeding their children healthy, less sugary foods .
Critics say such shock tactics fail to work . |
244,430 | c855bad36b81eae2dfb88896e5af1ffa03ef2e00 | By . Michelle Price . PUBLISHED: . 09:21 EST, 12 August 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 09:23 EST, 12 August 2013 . Stephen Merrill was finishing his freshman year of college two years ago when he and a group of friends went to an indoor trampoline park in Utah for a day of flipping, jumping and bouncing. At one point, Merrill leaped from a platform into a pit full of foam blocks, and he shot right through them and landed on his head. He broke a vertebra in his neck, and was left paralysed from the neck down. Stephen Merrill, 22, was left paralysed from the neck down after an accident at an indoor trampoline centre. He wants others to realise how dangerous the seemingly harmless pastime can be . Mr Merrill's injury underscores recent . warnings from doctors and government officials about the dangers of the . jump gyms amid a heightened effort to regulate the indoor trampoline . parks as they have become a popular rain-or-shine suburban entertainment . for birthday parties and summer camps. 'Anything where something like that can happen, I mean, it's such a devastating injury,' the 22-year-old said of his accident in Provo. 'It doesn't seem like things are properly regulated if something like that is possible.' Citing broken necks, shattered leg bones and one death, some doctors say the parks are dangerous and can lead to serious injuries that eclipse any benefits. Governments are starting to take notice, with proposed regulations in Utah and California among the first attempts in the country to address concerns about safety in the burgeoning industry. Operators of the trampoline gyms say severe injuries are rare and safety fears are overblown. They claim an injury rate lower than organised sports such as baseball or soccer and point out the gyms offer a place for adults and kids to have fun and get much-needed exercise. Indoor trampolining has become popular in the U.S. where centres offer fun for adults and children whatever the weather. Governments are starting to take notice of the phenomenon, with proposed regulations in Utah and California among the first attempts in the country to address concerns about safety . For safety, many of the gyms post staffers around trampolines like lifeguards to enforce rules. But some doctors say that's not enough, and they've asked the health board to step in . The parks are typically giant warehouses filled with a series of trampolines that allow customers to bounce every which direction, slam-dunk basketballs and do gymnastics moves. This X-ray shows a broken leg caused by playing at a jump gym . Some parks feature angled trampolines sloping up the sides and pits filled with brick-size foam blocks. The industry has grown rapidly, from a handful of centres in the Western U.S. in 2007 to about 160 throughout the world, according to ASTM International, a standards-development organisation. For safety, many of the gyms post staffers around trampolines like lifeguards to enforce rules and require jumpers to first sign a waiver. Emergency room doctors in one Utah county say that's not enough, and they've asked the health board to step in. 'You'll see a lot of these very severe, open wounds that you don't see unless you're in a high-velocity type of injury,' Dr Craig Cook, trauma director at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. 'This is like a war type of injury or a motor vehicle crash.' Trauma staff at the hospital say they saw 52 injuries requiring multiple doctor visits from area jump gyms from May 2011 to November 2012, according to their emergency room records. Most of the patients are young men around 19 years old, they say, and have had injuries such as dislocated feet, brain hemorrhaging and paralysis. Misty Uribe, who manages Lowes Extreme Air Sports in nearby Provo, said her gym already follows many of the health board proposals, but she's concerned the industry has been unfairly targeted. This X-ray shows all the hardware, plates and screws required to fix a fractured ankle caused by a jump gym . Ms Uribe said her centre sees few injuries compared to the number of people that participate, citing one major injury for every 20,000 visitors. That was Mr Merrill, and she said his jump violated the facility's rules but that the location still took steps to make the pits safer. 'My concern is, once they start with this, where is it going to end?' she said of the proposed regulations. The Utah County Health Board is considering proposals that stipulate gyms must supervise the activities, report their injury rates to the county and warn jumpers about the risks beyond having them sign a waiver. The board will have a public discussion on the proposals this fall. 'We do feel like we have an obligation to inform the public about safety risks out there, especially when it's just open to general public,' said Dr Joseph Miner, executive director of the Utah County Health Department. At the new jump gyms, children and adults take on moves that might previously have be limited to professional gymnasts . The Utah proposals are partly modeled after legislation pending in California that would create an inspection program for the parks akin to regulations for amusement park rides, in addition to requirements about insurance, employee training and injury reporting. The bill has been promoted by a Coronado woman whose 30-year-old son died days after breaking his neck at an Arizona trampoline park in 2012. In Orem, the jump gym Get Air Hang Time has posted signs warning of rules and risks of "serious catastrophic injury or death" from the activity. In addition to requiring participants to sign a waiver, the gym requires jumpers to watch a safety video. 'We try to make sure that people understand what this activity is all about and that the risks are there just like any other recreational activities,' owner Aaron Cobabe said. Mr Cobabe said his gym saw more than 150,000 visitors from July 2012 to July 2013, but during that time had about 11 major injuries that required multiple doctor visits. 'The vast majority of people that come in our facility,' he said, 'enjoy the activity and leave without any injuries.' | Indoor trampoline centres for children and adults are growing in popularity .
The number of injuries are rising and severity are 'similar to those sustained in war', according to one doctor who has treated such patients .
Student Stephen Merrill, 22, broke his neck while on a trampoline and has been left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair .
Regulation has now been proposed in the states of Utah and California . |
149,586 | 4d67a08c1dc69858782fea41395425bd4b6f3a05 | Rosie O'Donnell has gone ballistic...again. This time it's because producers of The View, backed by Whoopi Goldberg, want to draw in a younger audience and to that end add flash sales to the mix and finally fill the fifth seat - with a much younger host, a show insider tells MailOnline. The View is desperately trying to find younger viewers. Hosted by Whoopi, 58, Rosie, 52, Nicolle Wallace, 42, and Rosie Perez, 50, the show is drawing in a much older AARP-friendly audience. ABC executives are intent on making changes in an effort to attract viewers in the 18-to-34 demographic, an age group coveted by advertisers. Currently, The View is being crushed in the 18-to-34 demo group by both The Wendy Williams Show (in first place) and new talk show The Real (in second). Scroll down for video . The old: Gone is the all-white studio that research showed 'made the show feel old' The new: They've added blue, yellow and orange panels with matching lighting to the stage and a multicolored backdrop on the jumbo screen behind their desk . 'ABC is really concerned about how poorly The View is performing with younger audiences. They never thought The Real would beat them out in key demographics and now they have to do something to make the show more youthful, which is hard when the average age of your co-host is 50,' a source at the network told MailOnline. A popular trend with younger TV viewers on all talk shows is the flash sale segment, offering exclusive bargains to viewers. The Wendy Williams Show, The Talk and Good Morning America all regularly do segments where they announce on TV that the audience can buy an item at a super low price from the show's website for a limited time. The View did a version of this segment last summer that was popular with viewers. But when Whoopi announced yesterday that they would be doing the segment next Monday, dubbing it the 'Must-Have Flash Sale,' a shocked O'Donnell expressed concern on live TV. 'I didn't know we were doing that. That makes us like the home shopping club, what is that?' she asked. Status quo: Her sweatshirt logo notwithstanding. Rosie's not happy with the way things are shaking out . Numero uni: Wendy Williams is grabbing a much younger audience in the all-important younger demographic . And in second place: The Talk stars (from left) Sara Gilbert, Sheryl Underwood, guest Bellamy Young, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne and Aisha Tyler are also reaching more younger viewers than The View . Whoopi replied: 'It's something that allows us to keep changing our set.' Rosie shot back: 'I didn't enjoy those, but maybe it’s just me. Keep going,' and then went into an uncomfortable giggle. At the end of the show in the production meeting, O'Donnell went nuclear. 'Why didn't someone tell me about this segment? Who in the hell approved that concept? 'I hated it on the previous version of the show. I won't stand for this crap,' she yelled at producers, who sat and took their scolding. The executive producer attempted to explain to an irate O'Donnell that the concept tests well with other shows and younger viewers love it. That made her explode even more. 'Don't give me that bull***t,' she screamed. 'Stop trying to change this show to get younger viewers. This is not what I signed up for.' ABC has already begun quietly scouting for a fifth co-host to join the panel - a younger personality under 35 who has a strong social media following and a definitive voice. The original format for The View centered around five co-hosts and network executives feel now is the time to bring that back. Go with the flow: Whoopi seems large and in charge at The View these days . Talks of them adding a fifth new co-host as soon as January has also upset O'Donnell, who wants the show to go an entire year without a fifth person. 'Rosie O has made it clear she's not happy about the network looking for a fifth co-host. She hates the idea that they are trying to be competitive with the younger audience and thinks they should cater to the people who are currently watching the show,' says the source. The View has had two changes to the set since their September 15 premiere show. Two weeks ago, they finally ditched the loveseats and low table that viewers dogged on social media. They added brown velvet chairs and a higher table, though co-host Wallace complained 'it still wasn't quite high enough.' Whoopi even griped on air about hitting her knees on the table. On Monday, the show unveiled their second more drastic overhaul to the set. Gone is the all-white studio that research showed 'made the show feel old' and now they have added blue, yellow and orange panels with matching lighting to the stage and a multicolored backdrop on the jumbo screen behind their desk. They've also stopped the walking from the back of studio in Oprah Winfrey-like fashion and now enter on stage behind their desk. 'The set change and new entrance was done to make the show look and feel younger. They're trying anything now to appeal to a youthful demo. Only time will tell if it works,' offered the source. | Rosie O'Donnell went ballistic when she learned The View will be selling discounted merchandise to draw in a younger audience .
'That makes us like the home shopping club,' she blasted Whoopi .
The View has also put out a casting call for a fifth host: Only millennials need apply .
A new set, unveiled Monday, is also aimed at drawing younger View-ers . |
43,611 | 7afb00388cf5b1705d4dce1bd68e310b3df493ae | They are Harry’s Heroes: servicemen and women injured in the line of duty. And 130 of them are in the British military team at the inaugural Invictus Games — the brainchild of Prince Harry. They will compete in London this week against wounded personnel from 13 other nations. Here, five of them share their stories with KATHRYN KNIGHT. My arm was sewn into my stomach . John ‘JJ’ Chalmers, 26, was serving in Afghanistan as a Marine Reservist when he was injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) in May 2011. He lives in Edinburgh with fiancée Kornelia Chitrusko, 27, and will compete in a cycling event in the Games. JJ says: . ‘When I woke in hospital in Birmingham ten days after the attack the problem was that while I was intact, nothing worked: the blast crushed my face, broke my neck, injured both legs and smashed my arms to pieces.’ Scroll down for video . John 'JJ' Chalmers, 26, was serving in Afghanistan as a Marine Reservist when he was improvised by an improvised explosive device (IED) in May 2011 . Doctors saved JJ’s right arm — from which a large chunk had been gouged — by using skin from his midriff. They cut open his abdomen and folded the loose flap of skin over his arm before sewing it in place inside. ‘It was like a sling created out of my own skin,’ JJ explains. The damaged arm remained there for six weeks, attached to the blood supply of the abdomen. ‘Over the weeks they cut small sections of the flap away and each time, my body learned to pump more blood directly into my arm, and a bit less to it through my abdomen. At the end of it, they separated them completely, and the wound on my arm is covered with skin from my abdomen.’ I lost three limbs but cycled to Paris . Josh Boggi, 28, Corporal (rtd) 9 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers lost his legs and his right arm when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan. He lives in Salisbury with girlfriend Anna, 27. He says: . ‘I’d done three tours to Afghanistan when I stepped on an IED on New Year’s Eve 2010. One minute I was on the floor, the next I was in a ditch, but it wasn’t until the lads started applying tourniquets that I realised I’d been injured. Josh Boggi, 28, Corporal (rtd) 9 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers, lost his legs and his right arm when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan . ‘I lost three limbs, but from the start I knew acceptance was the key to moving forward. Life goes on and you have to make the best of it. I spent the first year adapting to what had happened, but by last year I knew I needed something else — the question, with my injuries, was what? ‘Then I discovered cycling. Six weeks after I first got on a bike I cycled from London to Paris for Help for Heroes. Being part of a team was the best part — it replaces some of what you lose when you leave the Army. ‘Now I’m training to be a Paralympic cyclist and I see a wheelchair as a set of handcuffs.’ I'm back to being the man I used to be . Craig Gadd, 41, Sergeant, Royal Engineers. A reservist, Craig lost his left leg after being hit by an IED on his second tour of Afghanistan in 2010. He lives in Hull with his fiancée, Dolly Dalton, 45, and their child. He says: . ‘I had convinced my family my job was one of the safest — I wasn’t poking about looking for IEDs but making tactical decisions about the best way to move our men. But it still took me out into the field and I was unlucky. Craig Gadd, 41, Sergeant, Royal Engineers. A reservist, Craig lost his left leg after being hit by an IED on his second tour of Afghanistan in 2010 . ‘Coming round in hospital was a culture shock. I loved skiing, riding my motorbike, and you think all this stuff has been ripped away from you. I remember taking a shower and looking in a mirror for the first time at where my leg had been and there were a couple of tears. After that, though, I just got on with it — my fiancée was seven months pregnant and we had a baby to think of. ‘Now I’m part of the cycling team for the Invictus Games and I’m part of the Combined Services Disabled Ski Team. It’s helped take me back to the person I was before.’ The doctors thought I was dead . Derek Derenalagi, 39, Lance Corporal 2nd Battalion Mercian Regiment, became only the second soldier to lose both his legs in Afghanistan when his vehicle detonated an IED in July 2007. Originally from Fiji, he remains in the Army as part of their Elite Sports Regiment and lives in Hertfordshire with wife Anna, 23, and their two children. Derek says: . ‘After the explosion I looked down and saw I was lying in a pool of blood with both my legs gone. I thought I would go home in a coffin — and I nearly did. Derek Derenalagi, 39, Lance Corporal 2nd Battalion Mercian Regiment, became only the second soldier to lose both his legs in Afghanistan when his vehicle detonated an IED in July 2007 . ‘I was pronounced dead at the hospital in Camp Bastion, until one doctor detected a tiny pulse. Somehow, I got a second chance. ‘It took me a while to accept I had lost my legs. Back in 2007 my injury was rare: there was no road map, no one to inspire me. ‘Watching the Beijng Paralympics in 2008 was a turning point. I realised I, too, could be an elite sportsman if I found the right discipline. I bought a discus, trained myself in the back garden and four years later I represented our country at London’s 2012 Paralympics. ‘The pride you feel is immense, and I believe it will be similar at the Invictus Games.’ This shows there's life after injury . Vinod Budhathoki, 29, Gurkha (rtd) First Royal Gurkha Rifles, lost his legs and an index finger in May 2010 after stepping on an IED while on patrol in Helmand Province. He lives in Maidstone with wife Sanita, 26 and their two children. Vinod says: . ‘Although what happened to me was horrendous, in some ways it was harder for my wife. Vinod Budhathoki, 29, Gurkha (rtd) First Royal Gurkha Rifles, lost his legs and an index finger in May 2010 after stepping on an IED while on patrol in Helmand Province . ‘My mind had already accepted that something bad might happen, but she was back at home, four months pregnant with our first child. However, when our daughter came along, we were so busy there was no time to dwell on what had happened. ‘Of course, part of me misses my old life, but sport has been a huge positive — it shows you there is life beyond injury. Now I ride a hand-bike, powered by my arms, and play sitting volleyball. Sometimes I miss my legs — I know I won’t be able to climb mountains in Nepal again — but in a funny way what happened opened up a new world of opportunities.’ You can still buy tickets for the Invictus Games at www.invictusgames.org. To support Help for Heroes funding our heroic men and women on their sporting journeys, please text SPORT to 70900 to donate £5 to the charity. | The inaugural Invictus Games in London are the brainchild of Prince Harry .
British military team is made up of 130 men and women injured in line of duty .
They compete this week against wounded personnel from 13 other nations .
Here, five brave servicemen share their incredible stories of survival . |
50,824 | 8fd1ad18ebed797b5d7cb5cfba211e9d2dcaf611 | Gamblers who won $1.5 million at a casino after realizing the cards hadn't been shuffled have been ordered to return the money. State Superior Court Judge Donna Taylor has sided with the Golden Nugget casino in its long-running dispute with 14 gamblers who say the fault wasn't theirs and they should be allowed to keep their winnings. At issue were games of mini-baccarat played in April 2012 using decks of cards the casino had paid a manufacturer to pre-shuffle but that hadn't been shuffled. Once players realized the pattern in which the cards were emerging they drastically upped their bets from $10 a hand to $5,000 and won 41 straight hands. Bummer: Gamblers who won $1.5 million at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City after realizing the cards hadn't been shuffled have been ordered to return the money . In the ruling, issued Monday and publicized by the casino on Thursday, the judge determined the games were illegal under state law because they didn't conform to gambling regulations specifying the way each game must be played. 'The dealer did not pre-shuffle the cards immediately prior to the commencement of play, and the cards were not pre-shuffled in accordance with any regulation,' the judge wrote. 'Thus, a literal reading of the regulations ... entails that the game violated the (Casino Control) Act, and consequently was not authorized.' She ruled that the gamblers must return any cash paid to them by the casino and any outstanding chips in their possession. The casino in turn must refund the gamblers the money they first put up to play. The Golden Nugget was pleased with the court's ruling, casino general manager Tom Pohlman said. 'We believe it was the right decision,' he said. A lawyer for the gamblers did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the decision. A lawyer for the casino's partner, Landry's Inc., said he expects the decision to be appealed. The Golden Nugget bought what were supposed to be pre-shuffled cards from a Kansas City manufacturer, which acknowledged in court it failed to shuffle them. The casino said its litigation with the manufacturer has been resolved but a confidentiality agreement prevents it from revealing details. The judge's ruling was the latest in a long series of decisions that have seesawed between favoring the casino and favoring the gamblers. The owner of the casino, Texas billionaire Tillman Fertitta, originally decided to let the players keep their winnings, but that offer was contingent on them dropping other claims they made against the casino, which they declined to do. The casino paid out about $500,000 in winnings for the disputed games. About $1 million in chips remains outstanding. | At issue were games of mini-baccarat played in 2012 cards the Golden Nugget had paid a manufacturer to pre-shuffle but that hadn't been shuffled .
Once players realized the pattern in which cards were emerging they upped their bets from $10 a hand to $5,000 and won 41 straight hands .
Judge Donna Taylor said the games were illegal under state law because they didn't conform to state gambling regulations . |
162,616 | 5e4021d8936abeb3e5f34a2acabb810237acfa5e | A military standoff with terrorists at a Kenyan mall was apparently drawing to a close Tuesday after four days of carnage left at least 61 civilians and six security officers dead. Five terrorists were killed, and 11 other suspects are in custody, Kenya's president said. About 175 people were injured, he said. As authorities indicated the siege was all but over, many questions will have to be answered, such as did the terrorists include Americans, a British subject and a Canadian national, as claimed by Al-Shabaab, the Islamic extremists who took responsibility for the gun attack. Attackers defeated, Kenya's president says . For now, Kenya reels from a horrific terror attack at Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall -- frequented by well-to-do Kenyans and the expatriate community -- which began just after high noon Saturday. Day One: Saturday . It was a nice day at the 80-store mall. A cooking competition was held for youths, perhaps some aspiring to become chefs. Visitors stocked up on staples at a supermarket or sipped coffee at a cafe. Without warning, gunmen stormed the mall, shooting people outside the five-story structure and then inside it. Shoppers said they also heard grenades exploding. Other witnesses described it "like a Hollywood-action scene," said hospital volunteer Abiti Shah. Mall customers crawled beneath cars in the parking lot and found cover in stairwells and a women's bathroom, presumably because the gunmen would be reluctant to look in that gender's restrooms. 'Westgate bad, blood ... I ran, ran, ran' Attackers went from store to store, taking hostages or randomly firing upon people. Gunmen asked customers whether they were Muslim. The terrorists apparently allowed people of that faith to escape from the mall. The chaos included an unclear report on deaths. Finally, by day's end, 39 people were counted as killed -- a number that would grow. Several hours into the terror assault, an al-Qaeda offshoot in neighboring Somalia called Al-Shabaab used its Twitter account to claim responsibility. Authorities now learned who they were dealing with, and the international community condemned the terror, including the Kenyan president whose nephew and his fiancée were among those killed. Day Two: Sunday . The terrorists continued their siege of the mall, and confusion prevailed over the number of deaths and hostages. Security forces decided to launch a "major assault" on the mall, police said. As another violent day unfolded, "most of the hostages" were rescued, and security forces took control of "most parts" of the mall, the Kenyan military said. Gunfire punctuated the day. Between the bullets are moments of silence. Soldiers surrounded the mall. Authorities numbered the gunmen involved in the attack: 10 to 15 attackers. Further, unconfirmed reports emerged on who they could be: As many as three are from the United States, two are from Somalia and one each from Canada, Finland, Kenya and the United Kingdom. That information came from sources within Al-Shabaab who spoke to CNN about nine names published on Twitter who were purported to be the alleged hostage-takers. Bergen: Al-Shabaab's American allies . CNN couldn't independently confirm that claim by Al-Shabaab. "All efforts are underway to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion," the Kenyan military said. Day Three: Monday . The first announcement about deaths on the other side of the siege is made: Three terrorists have been killed, authorities said. So far, more than 200 civilians have been rescued, they added. But 11 Kenyan soldiers have been wounded, the military said. Kenyan officials reassured the world that they were in control of the mall. The terrorists have little chance of escape, authorities said. But sporadic gunfire sent aid workers and journalists running for cover. Inside the mall, the terrorists ignited a fire, spewing heavy smoke throughout the afternoon. "We're not here to feed the attackers with pastries but to finish and punish them," Kenyan police Inspector General David Kimaiyo warned on Twitter. Even away from the mall, the country faced intensified security. At various locations, more than 10 people were taken into custody for questioning about the attack, including at least four people from an airport. Opinion: What does attack mean for Kenyan security? Authorities released a few details about the death toll: Most of the dead were apparently Kenyans, but the slain included six British citizens, two French nationals, two Indians and two Canadians, including a diplomat, their governments said. Among the 175 people wounded were five Americans, the State Department said. In response to the unconfirmed claim that the terrorists included Americans, U.S. authorities reviewed intelligence reports for evidence of a U.S. connection to the attack, law enforcement sources said. But a senior U.S. official said the claim wasn't looking too solid. Final Day? Tuesday . As the world anxiously awaited a conclusion to the terrorists' siege of the mall, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced forces killed five terrorists at the mall and arrested 11 others for possible ties to the attack. "We have ashamed and defeated our attackers," the president said. That announcement, however, didn't answer important questions: were there foreign nationals among the terrorists, what happened to the hostages and what's the status of the 65 people that the Red Cross says are unaccounted for? Identification of some victims provided glimpses into the terrorists' alleged barbarity: A pregnant Dutch woman expecting her first child in October was killed, along with her husband architect who was building hospitals and clinics for free. Another woman, who was seven months pregnant, was slain. A boy, age 8, was dead, along with his father. The material condition of the besieged mall evoked a war scene: three floors of the mall collapsed during the government's counter-offensive against the terrorists, trapping bodies inside, the president said. Those trapped bodied include terrorists, Kenyatta said. "Our attackers wish to destroy the essential character of our society. They failed," Kenyatta said. "Kenya endures." | Kenya's president indicates terrorists' siege of Nairobi mall has ended .
The gunfire, carnage, hostage-taking lasts four days .
A nice day with a kids' cooking contest becomes nightmarish as gunmen storm upscale mall .
The complex now evokes war imagery, with three collapsed floors trapping bodies . |
212,350 | 9efabb689aa471d33f3c7f7b5036f18c223c7681 | They all received one of the most prestigious personal honours in the game, but the holder of the Ballon d’Or heading into a World Cup has never won the tournament. Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, Marco van Basten and Alfredo di Stefano are among the legendary names that have been awarded the golden ball but have fallen short at the World Cup. So, can the current holder Cristiano Ronaldo buck the trend? VIDEO Scroll down to see Cristiano Ronaldo show his fitness ahead of Germany clash . Buck the trend: Cristiano Ronaldo is the current holder of the Ballon d'Or . 2009 - Lionel Messi (Barcelona) Messi was quiet as Argentina cruised through the group before a 4-0 thrashing by Germany in the last 16. 2010 World Cup: Apps: 5 Goals: 0 . 2005 Ronaldinho (Barcelona) Poor throughout and Brazil lost 1-0 to France in the quarter-finals, with fans torching a giant statue of him back home. 2006 WC Apps: 5 Goals: 0 . 2001 Michael Owen (Liverpool) Gave England early hope in the quarter-final with a goal against Brazil before they lost to the eventual winners. 2002 WC Apps: 5 Goals: 2 . Golden boys: Lionel Messi in 2009 and Michael Owen in 2001 both won the Ballon d'Or . 1997 Ronaldo (Barcelona/Inter Milan) Top-scored for Brazil but, after a mysterious seizure, was left out of the side for the final only to be reinstated before kick-off. But they lost 3-0 to France. 1998 WC Apps: 7 Goals: 4 . 1993 Roberto Baggio (Juventus) Scored five goals for Italy but smashed the vital penalty over the bar in the final shoot-out. 1994 WC Apps: 7 Goals: 5 . 1989 Marco van Basten (AC Milan) Could not repeat his goal-scoring heroics of Euro 88 as Holland went out in the last 16 to West Germany. 1990 WC Apps: 4 Goals: 0 . 1985 Michel Platini (Juventus) Suffering with injury, the French captain still scored twice as France made it to the semi-finals before losing to West Germany. 1986 WC Apps: 6 Goals: 2 . Braziliant: Ronaldo cradles the Ballon d'Or after winning it in 1997 . 1981 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Bayern Munich) Captained Germany to the final and top-scored for them, but lost out to Dino Zoff’s Italy. 1982 WC Apps: 7 Goals: 5 . 1977 Allan Simonsen (Borussia Monchengladbach) The Danish striker won the Bundesliga in 1977, but Denmark failed to qualify for the 1978 tournament. 1978 WC Apps: N/A Goals: N/A . 1973 Johan Cruyff (Ajax/Barcelona) Captained the Dutch side to the final but their total football was not enough to beat West Germany. 1974 WC Apps: 7 Goals: 3 . Missing out: Alfredo di Stefano received the Golden Ball in 1957 but never played at a World Cup . 1969 Gianni Rivera (AC Milan) Made four substitute appearances as Italy lost to Pele’s great Brazil side in the final. 1970 WC Apps: 4 Goals: 2 . 1965 Eusebio (Benfica) A scoring sensation, the Portuguese ‘Black Panther’ took the tournament by storm before England knocked them out in the semi-final. 1966 WC Apps: 5 Goals: 9 . 1961 Omar Sivori (Juventus) Had previously represented Argentina but in 1962 played for Italy as they limped out at the group stage. 1962 WC Apps: 2 Goals: 0 . 1957 Alfredo di Stefano (Real Madrid) A great never to appear at a World Cup. After representing Argentina, he switched to Spain but they failed to qualify. 1958 WC Apps: N/A Goals: N/A . | Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Michael Owen among the other players to have won the Ballon d'Or but not the next year's World Cup .
Alfredo Di Stefano, Brazilian Ronaldo and Michel Platini also in group .
Can Cristiano Ronaldo buck the trend? |
244,760 | c8c94e493d43cbc6f1c38829990b7694fa82e9a4 | (LifeWire) -- When George Dello of San Diego was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he had at best five months to live, he didn't immediately begin the chemotherapy treatments his doctor recommended. Instead, he and his wife, Pam, drove up the California coast and spent a week among the redwoods north of San Francisco. Expert: Family and friends can help the terminally ill by spending time with them. "These trees are 5 feet wide and 150 feet tall," said Dello, 43. "They still have another 150 feet to grow and are going to stick around for another 1,000 years. When I thought about that, I'm just a flea on the bark. It's unbelievable." The trip offered Dello, who worked in the auto repossession business, and his wife a chance to come to terms with the diagnosis in August 2008, and to scratch the trip to the redwood forests off his life "to do" list while he was still relatively healthy. He died four months later. The idea that dying well is as important as living well gained cultural currency last year when Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, delivered a final lecture a month after learning that his pancreatic cancer had spread and was inoperable. The lecture was viewed millions of times on the Internet and adapted into a best-selling book. "We cannot change the cards we are dealt," Pausch, who died in July at age 47, told his audience, "just how we play the hand." "Die the way you live" It's easy, experts say, for terminally ill patients and their loved ones to focus so much on their medical care and other important practical matters, including funerals and wills, that a "good" death eludes them. Health permitting, a trip like the one Dello took with his wife can help, as can visits from friends and family. "You're going to die the way you live," says Fran Moreland Johns, a former hospice volunteer and author of "Dying Unafraid." "Laughter, music, all of the things that have been important in your life -- if you put them to work for making your end times better, you can actually affect your dying days." "That's where Randy Pausch has set a wonderful example. He brought all of his skills to bear on living until the moment he died." Tony Wallace, a retired foreign service officer from Arlington, Virginia, went on a Caribbean cruise with his wife, Susan, after he learned in September 2004 that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. As his illness progressed, Wallace, a former adjunct professor of public policy at George Mason University, put his teaching and writing skills to work by starting a blog, "Navigating Through ALS," and using it as a platform to help others suffering from the disease. "I'm not a compiler of life lists of things I never got to do and places I never got to visit," Wallace wrote in December 2007. "I look back on my life to date and view it as a well-judged race -- like a NASCAR race in which you don't set the speed record, but you don't crash, handle the curves well, and deliver a respectable performance." Wallace died September 4, 2008 at age 67. Susan Wallace, a part-time editor, says her husband's illness, while painful and difficult, offered an opportunity of sorts. "If I had to choose between a long-term illness and an immediate death, I think I would go for a long-term illness, although it was hard on both of us," she says. "But the last four years have been incredible years, probably the best years of our marriage. We became closer than we ever were." For friends and family . Friends and family can help tremendously simply by showing up, says Kathy Brandt, vice president of professional leadership, consumer and caregiver services for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Often, she says, people worry so much about what to say to someone with a terminal illness -- or about saying the wrong thing -- that they just stay away. "We need to put aside our selfish fears," says Brandt. "That may sound a little harsh, but it's not really about us." One way to avoid saying the wrong thing is to steer clear of cliches, she says. "'God has a reason' or 'tomorrow will be another day' -- those kinds of things are trite, but they're also impersonal," says Brandt. "If the person wants to chat and talk, then just ask a question or two and let the person talk. If the person's not physically well enough to do a lot of talking, ask if they'd like to hear a story about something that happened at work, or saying, 'Would you like me to read a story to you?' It's all about figuring out where the person is at and meeting them where they are." Visits can be used to tie up loose ends or resolve old conflicts, says Brandt. Susan Wallace says her husband had time to repair one particularly nagging rift before he died, and Dello also took opportunities to resolve disputes with friends and former co-workers. "Most people at the end of their life need closure," says Brandt. "If they've offended someone or had an argument with somebody, they can say they're sorry. Oftentimes they like the opportunity to say goodbye to people. They may not say those words, but that's what those visits can be with friends and loved ones." In Johns' view, the biggest hurdle for most people is overcoming their fear of the unknown and realizing that, for most, death "is not the worst thing that's going to happen." "We don't know what dying is," says Johns. "Whatever your religious background, it's easier for us to ignore death and pretend that it doesn't happen than to accept it as an unknown with all the other unknowns -- in this day and age there are a lot of them -- and deal with what we can and not be so spooked." LifeWire provides original and syndicated content to Web publishers. William Lamb is a staff writer for The Record of Bergen County, New Jersey. His writing has appeared in Dwell, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Philadelphia Inquirer and at USATODAY.com. | Randy Pausch set an example of a good death for the terminally ill .
Author: He used his skills to go on "living until the moment he died"
Hospice official: People avoid the sick, worrying too much about what to say .
Visits can be used by dying to tie up loose ends or heal rifts . |
33,639 | 5faf8ec235901c4eb141a8b0d0f3833197bd26a6 | By . Catherine Eade . PUBLISHED: . 09:26 EST, 17 September 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 14:43 EST, 17 September 2012 . Peeping Tom: Declan Crosbie was given a community order after he pleaded guilty to attempting to spy on the Chinese Olympic swimming team in a women's changing room . A Peeping Tom was spared jail by a lenient judge today after being caught trying to spy on members of the Chinese Olympic swimming team at a training pool. Declan Crosbie, 25, was caught peering over the top of cubicles as members of the team were getting changed at a sports centre in Leeds. But a judge at Leeds Crown Court said he thought the public would be better protected from Crosbie by a community order rather than sending him to prison because it would guarantee he would go on a sex offenders’ treatment programme. A previous hearing heard how a woman reported seeing Crosbie enter the changing room alongside members of the Chinese team, who were training at the pool ahead of the London 2012 Olympics. She made made a complaint after spotting him looking over the top of cubicles while they were changing. When staff at the centre went to find the 25-year-old, he hid in a cubicle and tried to answer them in a woman’s voice. He then came out and begged staff not to call the police before running away. Crosbie, from Lea Farm Place, Leeds, later handed himself in to police and pleaded guilty last month to trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence. The defendant was jailed for three years . in 2009 after trespassing in a private home and he was found standing . over a sleeping student, whose trousers had been pulled down. He also has convictions for voyeurism in 2005 and 2006. The court was told Crosbie was already on the sex offenders’ register. The Edge training facility at Leeds University was being used for training by the Chinese Olympic swimming team, but Declan Crosbie was trying to spy on them getting changed . Today, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge . Peter Collier QC, said the 2009 jail sentence was passed in the hope . Crosbie would be sent on a treatment course but it never happened. Peter Collier QC said sparing Crosbie from a jail sentence would guarantee he would attend a sex offenders' treatment course . Giving him a three-year community order, Judge Collier said this would guarantee he would attend the course. He . said: 'I’m satisfied it is on the public interest and long term . interest of better protection of the public that I make a community . order in your case today.' The judge barred him from entering any female changing area or toilet for five years. A judicial source familiar with the case said: ‘Sentencing guidelines allow that in cases of voyeurism, as opposed to someone filming sexual activity and making it public or posting it online, that community orders as opposed to custodial sentences are accepted. 'With a custodial sentence you can’t mandate for a course of treatment whereas you can when a community sentence has been handed down. 'The judge has used his power to ensure the defendant gets treatment. Sentencing is to prevent reoffending as well as protecting the public and the sexual treatment course is a preferred course of action to a custodial sentence in some cases.’ At the last hearing, the judge queried if the case should be dealt with under special fast-track Olympic rules. He said it was technically an Olympic offence but there was no suggestion the defendant knew who the women were. Crosbie sat listening to the judge in the dock dressed in a grey suit and black tie, flanked by a security officer. | Declan Crosbie peered over the top of the women's changing cubicles .
The 25-year-old locked himself in a cubicle and put on a woman's voice when challenged .
Judge ordered him to go on a sex offenders' treatment programme .
Crosbie has previous convictions for sex offences . |
209,054 | 9ab7c35d841dd91f097f151a9ffb34546ac92087 | By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 20:45 EST, 29 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 20:48 EST, 29 September 2013 . A Washington man injected his 4-year-old son with heroin on the day his divorce from his wife was finalized, in an attempt to kill the boy with an overdose, police have revealed. Eric Emil Lehtinen, 37, is accused of repeatedly jabbing in young son with needles and injecting him with heroin and a cocktail of other drugs, among them ketamine, morphine and codeine. He then injected himself with high doses of drugs, as well. When the boy's mother when to Lehtinen's Redmond, Washington, home to pick her son up, she found both Lehtinen and the child unconscious. Suspected overdose: A father allegedly injected himself and his four-year-old son with heroin in Redmond, Washington . A needle was still sticking out of the boy's chest, according to police. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Lehtinen's wife of six years allowed the couple's son to stay with Lehtinen while she went out of town for a job interview - despite her husband's history as both a heroin addict and a heroin dealer. She returned to Redmond last Tuesday - on the very day that her divorce from her husband was finalized, authorities say. Both Lehtinen and the child were rushed to the hospital. Both survived. The child is still recovering at Seattle Children's Hospital. It is unknown whether he will suffer long-term damage from the drugs that were pumped into his system. Police tape surrounds the home where the father and his son were discovered by the boy's mother on Tuesday . Prosecutors believe Lehtinen was trying to kill the boy and himself with drugs - but failed. Lehtinen is charged with attempted murder. Lt. Charlie Gorman told q13fox.com: 'In 35 years as a police officer I’ve never run across anything like this.' A neighbor added: 'I just don’t understand how messed up you have to be to inject your 4-year-old with heroin.' | Mother arrived home in Redmond, Washington to find the pair unconscious but still breathing . |
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