Venomous reptiles may provide a good source for new drugs for human diseases, British researchers in Liverpool say.
Venom has already been used to create drugs, but the chemicals in it are often too deadly for human consumption.
However, a study, published in the journal Nature Communications, has shown snakes and lizards have “reclaimed” some toxins and used them, safely, elsewhere in their own bodies.
Scientists think these reclaimed toxins could make safe and effective drugs.
Venomous reptiles may provide a good source for new drugs for human diseases
Researchers compared the genomes of venomous snakes and lizards to see how the animals’ venoms had evolved.
They said it was an “unexpectedly dynamic” process, with chemicals in venom being formed through evolution and then later being adopted by parts of the body for other uses.
Dr. Nicholas Casewell, from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: “Our results demonstrate that the evolution of venoms is a really complex process.”
He said venom seemed to evolve a lot of new functions, possibly to overcome resistance in prey.
“The venom gland of snakes appears to be a melting pot for evolving new functions for molecules, some of which are retained in venom for killing prey, while others go on to serve new functions in other tissues in the body,” he said.
Dr. Wolfgang Wuster, from Bangor University, said: “Many snake venom toxins target the same physiological pathways that doctors would like to target to treat a variety of medical conditions.”
The cardiovascular system, heart and blood vessels, is one of the main targets of snake venom when attacking prey and it has played a role in the origins of some blood pressure drugs such as ACE inhibitors.
The nervous system is another similar area. The challenge has been to overcome the toxic effect of the toxins.
“This means that drug developers have had to modify toxins to retain their potency and make them safe for drug use,” said Dr. Nicholas Casewell.
However, the scientists involved in the study believe nature may have already done the hard work, with reptiles making the toxins safe for their own use.
Dr. Nicholas Casewell said it would be a “whole new source” for drug discovery.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has suspended the country’s entire prison staff, amid protests over video footage showing prisoners apparently being abused by guards.
Prisoners are shown being badly beaten, one sexually assaulted with a broom.
In an announcement live on national TV, President Mikhail Saakashvili said police would be deployed in all jails.
Relatives of inmates have tried to storm the prison where the alleged abuses took place.
The ruling party has said the video was staged by the opposition to discredit the government ahead of key elections.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has suspended the country's entire prison staff
For critics, though, this is graphic proof that the authorities’ tough approach to crime has become unaccountable and heavy-handed.
Mikhail Saakashvili demanded a complete overhaul of the prison system.
“Patrol police must immediately enter all prisons,” he said.
“There must be zero tolerance to any violations of human rights, because we are building a civilized and humane country, rather than discipline based on violence.”
The film showing abuse in the Gldani prison No. 8 was broadcast on TV on Tuesday.
It triggered overnight protests in Tbilisi and also in the southern city of Batumi, Georgian media say.
In the capital, anti-government demonstrations were held in various places, including outside the national broadcaster’s headquarters.
Angry protesters have been demanding the resignation of Khatuna Kalmakhelidze, the minister in charge of prisons.
On Wednesday, Khatuna Kalmahelidze said she had decided to step down because her efforts to protect human rights in prisons had “proved insufficient”.
Later, an opposition TV station released more videos which appear to show the abuse of underage inmates in a juvenile detention centre.
It has long been suspected that prisoners in Georgia are mistreated, our correspondent says.
When Mikhail Saakashvili swept to power after the Rose Revolution in 2004, he clamped down heavily on crime.
But his critics say Georgia has now swung to the other extreme, accusing his government of becoming authoritarian.
The abuse videos come as Georgia is preparing for parliamentary elections on 1 October, seen as the biggest test facing the country’s democracy since the revolution.
President Mikhail Saakashvili’s party faces a challenge from Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has vowed to oust the government from power.
With a reputation for benevolence and philanthropy, Bidzina Ivanishvili is popular among many poorer voters who are struggling in modern Georgia’s neo-liberal economy, correspondents say.
HTC has unveiled two Windows Phone 8 handsets at an event in New York.
HTC has said that it intends to promote the 8X, which features a 4.3″ (10.9 cm) display, as its flagship device alongside the Android-powered One X.
The firm is also offering a smaller 8S model with a 4″ (10.2 cm) screen.
HTC’s share price has fallen more than 50% since February after the firm experienced weak sales of earlier models despite positive reviews.
Analysts have said the firm had a weak advertising campaign which was compounded by the fact that its South Korean rival, Samsung, had a much bigger marketing budget.
HTC has unveiled two Windows Phone 8 handsets at an event in New York
Nokia and Samsung have already shown off alternative Windows Phone devices which will launch after Microsoft releases the operating system.
HTC said the 8X would launch in 50 countries in early November across 126 mobile operators, while the 8S would be available in 52 countries with more than 146 operators.
Such detail was notably lacking at Nokia’s recent Lumia 920 launch, where it did not confirm the date or number of countries the smartphone would be sold in.
HTC made much of the devices’ design at the US event saying they had “a remarkably unique profile” thanks to the way their edges tapered, becoming thinner at the bottom, to make them feel thin in their users’ hands.
It said its top-end model featured an 8 megapixel camera on its rear supported by a dedicated chip for “faster focus speed and clearer, sharper shots”. The 2.1MP front camera – used for video chats – has also been designed to provide a wide-angle view.
The firm also hopes to distinguish both models by including Beats Audio sound equipment which it said offered “deeper bass and crisp vocals”. The handset maker owns a 25% stake in the company.
The 8X has an NFC (near field communication) chip for touchless payments, but the 8S does not.
The bet on Microsoft’s technology carries risks – the firm’s phone systems only accounted for 3.1% of global smartphone shipments in the April to June months, according to research firm NPD.
But one of the company’s analysts said HTC had an opportunity to grow that number.
“The reception from operators is quite good,” said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager.
“The market wants another alternative to Android as vendors don’t want to face the kind of problems that have arisen out of the lawsuits between Apple and Android device manufacturers – products being withdrawn or delayed.
“But HTC has to compete against Nokia and Samsung which also have Windows Phone 8 products.
“Nokia offers extra services on top such as its transport and augmented reality City Lens facility, while Samsung has a bigger marketing budget.”
Another analyst praised HTC for the industrial design and materials used to build its new devices, saying they would prove eye-catching on store shelves, but was not convinced that would be enough to improve its fortunes.
“HTC has had problems standing out in the Android market, and it could be even more difficult on Windows Phone 8 as Microsoft controls more of the experience on the platform,” said Gartner’s research director, Roberta Cozza.
“HTC needs to add further value to the ecosystem similar to what Nokia has done with its imaging and navigation resources.
“Unless that happens I don’t suspect things will change a lot for the firm.”
HTC’s press conference is the last of the big smartphone launches that had been scheduled ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
The nominations for 2013 Academy Awards will be revealed two weeks earlier than this year’s were.
The next year nominees will be unveiled on 10 January – five days earlier than normal and three days ahead of the Golden Globes.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) said it would “provide members and the public a longer period of time to see the nominated films”.
The 85th Academy Awards will be held in Hollywood on 24 February.
The nominations for 2013 Academy Awards will be revealed two weeks earlier than this year's were
In recent years the Golden Globe Awards, hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), have preceded the Oscar nominations announcement.
According to industry website Deadline Hollywood, bringing the latter forward could “blunt the impact” of the HFPA event.
“The Academy’s nomination announcement will get enormous attention just as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is drumming up attention for its own big night,” wrote columnist Pete Hammond.
In The Hollywood Reporter, Scott Feinberg suggested the Academy’s board of governors hoped “to grab back some of the thunder that has been stolen in recent years by the ever-increasing number of awards shows”.
The changes, he said, “could have a major impact on awards season and on the viewing experiences of the Academy’s own members”.
As part of the Oscars shake-up, many of the Academy’s 6,000 members will also have the opportunity to vote online for the first time.
From 17 December a new system will allow them to vote on their preferred films, actors and technical film achievements by email.
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) had planned to announce its award nominations on 10 January but will now do so two days earlier.
Two Swedish women could be able to give birth using the wombs in which they were carried, doctors say, hailing the world’s first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants.
The weekend procedures were completed by more than 10 surgeons at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg.
The names of the patients have not been revealed.
Doctors caution they will not consider the operations successful unless the women achieve pregnancy.
Two Swedish women could be able to give birth using the wombs in which they were carried
“We are not going to call it a complete success until this results in children,” said Michael Olausson, one of the Swedish surgeons told The Associated Press.
“That’s the best proof.”
Both women started in-vitro fertilization before the surgery, he said, adding that their frozen embryos will be thawed and transferred if the women are considered in good enough health after a year-long observation period.
Both recipients, who are aged in their 30s, were tired after the surgery but recovering well, said the university in a statement.
One had her uterus removed due to cervical cancer and the other was born without a uterus, they added
“The donating mothers are up and walking and will be discharged from the hospital within a few days,” said Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the university.
He is the leader of a research team – comprising 20 scientists, doctors and specialists – which has been working on the project since 1999.
Turkish doctors said they had performed a successful uterus transplant last year, giving a womb from a deceased donor to a young woman, but Dr. Michael Olausson said he was not sure whether the recipient had yet started undergoing fertility treatment.
The first widely reported womb transplant from a live donor was performed in 2000, in Saudi Arabia, but the organ had to be removed three months later because of a blood clot.
Last year, 56-year-old Eva Ottoson, who lives in Nottinghamshire, said she hoped to become the first woman to have her womb transplanted into her daughter, Sara, 25, who lives in Sweden and was born without reproductive organs.
It remains unknown whether they were involved in the weekend’s procedures.
Further heavy fighting took place today in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the northern city of Aleppo.
Activists said government forces had stormed Hajar al-Aswad, a southern suburb of Damascus, and that the situation for residents was desperate.
State media said troops had killed many of what they called “terrorists”.
Earlier, Amnesty International warned that indiscriminate air and artillery strikes were causing a dramatic rise in civilian casualties in Idlib and Hama.
The report said the plight of people in the two provinces had been under-reported because world attention had focused on Damascus and Aleppo.
Further heavy fighting took place today in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi held talks with President Bashar al-Assad and other officials in Damascus.
Ali Akbar Salehi said a solution to the conflict, which the UN estimates has left at least 20,000 people dead, lay “only in Syria and within the Syrian family”.
Rebels have also taken full control of the Tal al-Abyad border crossing with Turkey after a lengthy battle with government forces overnight, according to Turkish officials and witnesses.
The crossing is further to the east than any of the others previously captured by rebels, and could make it easier for them to get fighters and ammunition in and out of Syria.
On Wednesday, opposition activists said the military was attacking the south-western Damascus suburbs of Muadhamiya, Jadidat Artouz and Kanakir, Qudsaya to the north-west, and the southern districts of Qaddam, Assali, Yalda and Hajar al-Aswad.
They posted videos online which they said showed helicopter gunships firing rockets on Hajar al-Aswad, as well as the bodies of some of the more than 20 people they said had been killed in the assault. The army was destroying and setting houses on fire, they added.
State media said troops had moved into Hajar al-Aswad and clashed with an “armed terrorist group” near a cemetery, eliminating “a number of its members”, and that others had been killed as streets were “cleansed”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, later said rebel fighters had announced their withdrawal from Hajar al-Aswad, Qaddam and Assali after weeks of violent clashes.
Activists also reported that the bodies of at least 20 people executed by government forces had been found in the north-eastern district of Jobar.
In Aleppo, government forces had bombarded several central areas surrounding the Old City, including Bab al-Hadid and Bab al-Nasr, and also attacked the outlying districts of Hananu and al-Bab, they added.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist network, said more than 62 people had so far been killed across the country on Wednesday, including 30 in Damascus. It put the death toll on Tuesday at 160.
The reports of violence came as Amnesty International said indiscriminate air attacks and artillery strikes by Syrian government forces are killing, maiming, and terrorizing civilians in the Idlib, Jabal al-Zawiya and north Hama regions.
Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior crisis response adviser, who recently returned from northern Syria, said there was evidence that the army and air force were increasingly using battlefield weapons in residential areas where government troops had been forced out by opposition forces, with disastrous consequences for civilians.
“They are using in equal measure air-delivered, large, old, Soviet-era unguided bombs – free-fall bombs – the opposite of smart bombs,” she said.
“They are dropped over an area. There’s no way you can target them at a specific target or specific building.”
“They fall over people’s houses, over markets, in the street. Many of those who were killed and injured are children. Every day, in the field hospitals, on the ground, in the streets and in people’s homes I was seeing the disastrous consequences of these attacks on civilians.”
Amnesty’s report says the group carried out first-hand field investigations in the first half of September into attacks which killed 166 civilians, including 48 children and 20 women, in 26 towns and villages.
In a separate development, a Syrian general who defected to the opposition told the Times newspaper that the president had discussed using chemical weapons in the conflict, and even whether they should be transferred to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah.
“We discussed this as a last resort – such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo,” General Adnan Sillu said.
South African police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters near a mine owned by Anglo American Platinum, a day after a deal ended a strike in Marikana.
“We are not tolerating any illegal gatherings,” a police spokesman said.
Workers at the Lonmin-owned Marikana platinum mine ended their six-week strike after accepting a 22% pay rise.
The strikes have spread to other mines in South Africa, one of the world’s biggest producers of precious metals.
On Monday, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said that the disruption had cost the industry $548 million in lost output.
The unrest came as Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s largest platinum producer, re-opened its mines after they were closed last week following huge protests.
South African police have fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters near a mine owned by Anglo American Platinum
Amplats spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said the mines in Rustenburg, the centre of South Africa’s platinum mining – about 80 km (50 miles) north-east of Johannesburg – were operational.
She said the police had “dispersed a group of people gathering illegally at Sondela informal settlement [near the mine]” and said it was not clear if they were Amplats workers.
“Police utilized tear gas and stun grenades, and rubber bullets were used at the squatter camp,” said police spokesman Captain Dennis Adriao.
“As we have said, we are not tolerating any illegal gatherings,” he said.
After weeks of unrest, the government last week announced that it would clamp down on the protests.
In the nearby Marikana mine, where police last month shot dead 34 protesters, workers were celebrating the end of the strike, reports the AP news agency.
Riddick Mofokeng, another miner, said he felt good about the deal.
“It is not what we expected to get, but it is great,” he said.
“Most of the people, we are ready to go back to work.”
The miners had been demanding a monthly salary of 12,500 rand ($1,513) – they currently earn between 4,000 and 5,000 rand.
As well as a pay rise of 11-22%, they will get a one-off payment of 2,000 rand to help cover the weeks of not being paid while they were on strike.
Analysts had warned that the Lonmin deal could encourage other mines to down tools to obtain pay hikes.
Some 15,000 miners at Gold Fields remain on strike.
Last month, police opened fire on demonstrators at the mine in Marikana, killing 34 striking workers. Ten people, including two police officers, had already died in the protests.
President Jacob Zuma has ordered a judicial inquiry into what has become known as the “Marikana massacre” – the deadliest police action since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Lady Gaga has been sporting a much fuller figure of late, but she looked decidedly meaty as she took to the stage on Tuesday night in Amsterdam, Holland.
Wearing her cherished carnivorous corset, Lady Gaga, 26, flaunted her new curves for all to see as she hit the Netherlands for the latest stop on her Born This Way tour.
Looking much bigger than usual around her thigh and hip region, Mother Monster was also sporting a fuller face as she belted out her biggest hits.
And as the Alejandro hitmaker later changed into a pair of high-waisted khaki trousers and a black bralet, her weight gain around her waist was clear to see.
Lady Gaga has been sporting a much fuller figure of late, but she looked decidedly meaty as she took to the stage on Tuesday night in Amsterdam
But it wasn’t her figure that was grabbing people’s attention as she took to the stage in Amsterdam.
Lady Gaga was seen mid-show lighting a big joint of marijuana and inhaling it during a break.
Praising the “wondrous” drug, Lady Gaga told fans she had cut down on drinking alcohol because she prefers smoking the substance.
Lady Gaga was seen mid-show lighting a big joint of marijuana and inhaling it during a break
She was quoted as telling The Sun newspaper: “I want you to know it has totally changed my life and I’ve really cut down on drinking.
“It has been a totally spiritual experience for me with my music. It’s like saying everybody needs to take a breath and it’s going to be OK.”
Lady Gaga has been open about how hard she usually works to maintain her trim physique, and caused controversy earlier this year by revealing her diet habits.
Writing on her Twitter page, Lady Gaga said: “Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopSingersDontEat #IWasBornThisWay.”
However, the star has previously admitted she can’t resist hearty Italian food.
She said: “The rumors I am a dab hand in the kitchen are completely true.
“I come from an Italian family – what more can I say? I love to cook. I am really good at Italian food. So I make great meatballs, pasta and all sorts. I love it.”
China’s state-run news agency has linked fallen politician Bo Xilai to a criminal act for the first time, alleging he knew his wife Gu Kailai was suspected of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood.
Xinhua quoted witnesses at the trial of his former right-hand man, Wang Lijun, suggesting that Wang had tried to tell Bo Xilai about his suspicions.
Wang Lijun was “angrily rebuked and had his ears boxed”, Xinhua reports.
Bo Xilai’s downfall exposed the biggest political crisis in China for years.
His wife, Gu Kailai, was found guilty in August of murdering Neil Heywood. She was given a suspended death sentence.
Bo Xilai has been linked to a criminal act for the first time, as he knew his wife Gu Kailai murdered Neil Heywood
Wang Lijun was the former police chief and deputy mayor in Chongqing, where Bo Xilai was Communist Party chief until the scandal erupted.
Earlier this week Wang Lijun pleaded guilty to defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking charges during a two-day trial in the nearby city of Chengdu. A verdict is awaited.
He tried to tell “the Chongqing party committee’s main responsible person at the time” about his suspicions about Gu Kailai, says Xinhua in its official published account of his trial, without naming Bo Xilai.
As Chongqing Communist Party chief, Bo Xilai was tipped for promotion to the top leadership ranks at China’s forthcoming leadership congress before his downfall.
Wang Lijun’s flight to a US consulate in Chengdu in February sparked the events which led to his downfall.
According to the UK Foreign Office, Wang Lijun made allegations about Neil Heywood’s death while at the US consulate.
Shortly afterwards, Bo Xilai was sacked.
He has not been seen in public since the scandal erupted and is said to be under investigation by the party’s disciplinary officials.
Wang Lijun, 52, began his career in law enforcement in the Inner Mongolia Region in 1984 and moved to the south-western city of Chongqing in 2008.
Lindsay Lohan was arrested in New York during the early hours of Wednesday morning on charges that she clipped a pedestrian with her car and did not stop, police have confirmed.
The man Lindsay Lohan allegedly knocked down has claimed that the actress was “slurring her words” and “smelled like alcohol”.
Manhattan chef Jose Rodriguez also said people at the scene “acted like I was nothing”, telling the New York Daily News: “[It was like] no one could touch her because she was rich and powerful.”
Lindsay Lohan, 26, was preparing to park her Porsche Cayenne at the Dream Hotel in Manhattan at 12:30 a.m. when she allegedly hit the knee of Jose Rodriguez.
One of Lindsay Lohan’s passengers got out and checked her vehicle for damage, and then the group continued into the hotel to attend an event it was reported.
When Lindsay Lohan emerged from the venue at 2:30 a.m., police were waiting for her and she was arrested.
The actress was booked for the misdemeanour offence of leaving the scene of an accident and released with a desk appearance ticket – meaning she did not have to pay bail before her release.
Lindsay Lohan was arrested on charges that she clipped a pedestrian with her car and did not stop
Jose Rodriquez was not knocked down by the vehicle and had no visible injuries, but was still taken to Bellevue Hospital after calling 911.
He claims doctors said he had “torn tendons” and gave him morphine for the pain.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly confirmed no Breathalyzer test had been carried out at the time as law enforcers believed Lindsay Lohan was sober.
Though the offence is a misdemeanour, it could trigger a probation violation in her 2011 jewellery theft case as one of the conditions of probation is that she obeys all laws.
Lindsay Lohan is allegedly describing the incident as “really fishy”. And believes she is the victim of a “set up” and plans to fight the claims.
Fortunately, Lindsay Lohan may have back-up in the guise of a surveillance video, which TMZ are reporting “shows the guy… is grossly exaggerating”.
The video is said to show LiLo driving down a ramp as she entered the hotel, with the alleged victim walking in the pedestrian path – an area the actress had to cross to get into the building.
TMZ state her car was “traveling at a crawl” and it is “unclear” if it makes contact with the man.
However, once she has driven off, the video sees the pedestrian in question “sprinting after her”.
When Lindsay Lohan emerges from her car, she “doesn’t seem flustered or aware’ she may have hit someone”.
Notoriously outspoken father Michael Lohan has waged in on the debacle, to stand by his daughter.
Adamant she was sober at the time of the incident, he told Radar Online: “I am happy that she is away from other people and was NOT drinking last night.
“[I am] so happy that Lindsay had confidence in me. I love her; I will always be there for her.”
A source told Radar Online that LiLo told police to call her father when they arrived at the scene.
This is not the first time the actress had been involved in a car crash.
In June of this year Lindsay Lohan smashed up another Porsche after claiming she was cut up by a truck.
The actress later blamed the manufacturing of the vehicle but tests carried out after the crash found the breaks were working fine.
In May of 2007, Lindsay Lohan was arrested on suspicion of drinking under the influence and this led to her heading for rehab for 45 days.
In July of that year, Lindsay Lohan refused to take a sobriety test and was taken to a police station where her blood alcohol level was over the limit. She also had some cocaine in her pocket.
Lindsay Lohan, who spent 23 days in jail after violating her probation agreement following a DUI, took to her Twitter page recently to blast law enforcement officers for not doing more to stop actress Amanda Bynes who was caught driving with a suspended licence recently.
She tweeted: “Why did I get put in jail and a nickelodeon star has had NO punishment(s) so far?”
Just last month, Lindsay Lohan was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department over the purported theft of $100,000 worth of luxury items from the home of her multimillionaire friend Sam Magid.
The L.A. County District Attorney dropped burglary charges due to “insufficient evidence”.
After being charged with misdemeanor theft and probation violation in February 2011 following the shoplifting of a necklace from a Venice Beach store, Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 480 hours of community service.
In addition, the actress was also ordered to remain under supervision whilst completing all of her community service.
She pleaded no contest in court, and was put under house arrest complete with ankle bracelet monitor due to jail overcrowding.
Lindsay Lohan was then later sentenced to 30 days in jail and 400 hours of community service in November, after she was found guilty of violating her probation because she failed to perform her community service at a Los Angeles morgue.
She entered jail on November 7, 2011, but was released after just under five hours, again due to overcrowding.
The actress finally ended her supervised probation in March this year after fulfilling all of her community service and therapy requirements.
And despite being involved in the hit and run and car crash earlier this year, has remained relatively out of trouble.
Lindsay Lohan is currently trying to get her life and career back on track, and recently completed filming Liz & Dick, the Lifetime Elizabeth Taylor biopic, and independent film, The Canyons, written by Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Paul Schrader.
Lindsay Lohan’s spokesman Steve Honig said: “While some of the facts are still being gathered, it appears that this is much ado about nothing.
“We are confident this matter will be cleared up in the coming weeks and the claims being made against Lindsay will be proven untrue.”
Robbie Williams’ wife Ayda Field has given birth to a baby girl Theodora Rose.
The Take That star took to his Twitter page on Tuesday night to announce the pair had welcomed baby Theodora Rose Williams into the world.
Announcing the happy news on his blog, Robbie Williams wrote: “Praise be, it’s Theodora Rose Williams, affectionately known as Teddy….. Born 3:33 p.m. on 18.9.12, 7Ibs 4oz…
“Baby, Mummy and Daddy are all rockin…. Thank you for your best wishes XXXX.”
It is the first child for the couple, who married two years ago.
Robbie Williams and Ayda Field welcome baby girl Theodora Rose
Following the birth, Robbie Williams’ Take That bandmate Gary Barlow was quick to lead the congratulations to the singer and his wife.
He tweeted: “Massive congrats Rob and Ayda. So happy for you.”
Boyzone singer Ronan Keating tweeted: “Congrats to Robbie Williams and Ayda.”
And Chris Moyles wrote on his Twitter page: “Congratulations Robbie & Ayda!”
And singer and actor Jonathan Wilkes, who is a long-standing friend of Robbie Williams, said: “Right bed time !!! Got a big day Tomorrow I’m meeting a new little lady !! X”
Robbie Williams recently expressed concern he could miss his baby’s birth due to his concert schedule over its birth due date.
He told radio DJ Chris Evans last week: “I’ve had a bit of a falling out with the wife.”
He continued: “So I’ve got gigs this week, the baby could come at any minute, the wife has said, <<If I go into labor and you’ve got a gig in say Leeds or Dublin, you’ve got to cancel it and come home>>.”
Robbie Williams recently revealed the couple had chosen a name for their daughter and was pleased it was a traditional moniker.
He said: “Right now I’m ecstatic. We do have a name but we’re not going to get it out in case it gets tweeted.
“And as a celebrity we’re supposed to call them Aubergine or something like that aren’t we?
“I do have a sort of celebrity name but it’s not Apple-esque. It’s a very solid, old-school name.”
Robbie Williams also said he is planning to move back to England from Los Angeles because he doesn’t want his daughter to go to school with the “f***ing idiots” in the city although he admitted he and American born Ayda are still discussing their future living arrangements.
He said: “I don’t want to educate our baby in LA because I would much prefer her to have English sensibilities.
“They are idiots in L.A. schools. They are f***ing idiots. They are a breed of idiots that only exist in Los Angeles and she would be surrounded by them. It’s not like one or two either. It’s not like the Big Brother house, where you pick the worst ones.
“I think kids there have a massive sense of entitlement, are dull and dumb. It means me coming back to the UK for good but I can live with that. It’s worth being pestered for her to have a good school.
“I want the baby to have an English passport, we’re still figuring out exactly whereabouts the baby is going to be brought up.
“I had a conversation with the wife last night about where we’re going to end up but we still don’t know.”
Giuliana and Bill Rancic are revealing the identity of the surrogate mother who helped them bring their son into the world.
A clip from the couple’s reality show Giuliana & Bill shows the mom and dad-to-be being coached in the delivery room with their surrogate, Delphine.
Delphine, who carried the Rancic’s son Edward Duke to term, is seen with the couple and a hospital worker who talks them through the process of what will happen the day of delivery.
While Giuliana and Bill Rancic bicker over who will first get to hold the child, and who will cut the umbilical cord, Delphine seemed at ease and open to letting the pair be as much a part of the process as possible.
Delphine, Giuliana and Bill Rancic surrogate mother, seemed at ease around the couple
Delphine eventually gave birth at a Denver, Colorado hospital on August 29 with the Rancics by her side.
Edward Duke Rancic was born at 10:12 p.m. and the baby’s umbilical called was cut by Giuliana and Bill moments before they held him ahead of anyone else.
The couple named the tot after Bill Rancic’s father, who was called Edward, and Giuliana’s dad, Eduardo.
The American entrepreneur and reality star tweeted the news of the then-anonymous surrogate going into labor.
“It’s game time,” Bill Rancic posted on his Twitter account.
After little Edward was born, the couple said they felt “blessed beyond words” to have become parents for the first time.
Giuliana Rancic, 37, took to Twitter, writing: “It’s true what they say (and what u all told us)…. @BillRancic and I couldn’t love little Duke anymore than we do. He’s a dream….”
Bill Rancic, 41, tweeted: “The <<Duke>> has landed! Edward Duke Rancic was welcomed into the world last night at 7 lbs 4 oz. G& I feel blessed beyond words…We did it!(sic).”
The happy arrival came after Bill Rancic and his E! News host wife struggled to conceive naturally, undergoing three failed cycles of IVF.
Then last year during her treatment Giuliana Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer, putting their dreams of a family on hold.
She underwent a lumpectomy followed by radiation before undergoing a double mastectomy.
Following her recovery the couple decided to use a surrogate to try for a baby, and they were thrilled when their attempt ended in a pregnancy.
Bill Rancic earlier this year opened up about the journey, telling the TODAY show how he and his wife “hit the gestational carrier lottery”.
Presenter Giuliana Rancic, meanwhile told E! News: “Bill and I are blessed beyond words to welcome Edward into our lives.
“Thank you so much to everyone who supported us along the way. We are so in love with the little guy already!”
Giuliana & Bill is scheduled to premiere on the STYLE network on October 2 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
President Barack Obama has rebuked Republican candidate Mitt Romney, saying that anyone seeking to be president needs to work for all Americans.
Barack Obama told chat show host David Letterman that Mitt Romney was wrong to describe 47% of Americans as “victims”.
Earlier, Mitt Romney defended his remarks after secretly filmed video of a speech to donors became public.
He told Fox News he knew those “dependent on government” would not vote for him in November’s election.
Mitt Romney also decried the notion of government “redistribution”, calling it an “entirely foreign concept”.
Barack Obama told David Letterman that Mitt Romney was wrong to describe 47 percent of Americans as victims
More leaked video emerged on Tuesday, showing Mitt Romney saying Palestinians do not want peace in the Middle East.
The full video of the Florida fundraiser was also published by liberal investigative magazine Mother Jones.
In Tuesday’s Fox interview, Mitt Romney stood by his comments about the 47% of Americans who do not pay income tax. He said they support President Barack Obama and would never vote for him. He said his statement was “about the campaign”.
“I’m talking about a perspective of individuals who are not likely to support me,” he said.
“Those that are dependent on government and those that think government’s job is to redistribute, I’m not going to get them,” Mitt Romney said.
Mitt Romney says he expects Barack Obama to receive about half of the vote in the November election because of these voters.
The real problem, he added, was that so many people were not eligible to pay income tax because they had fallen into poverty.
Recent polls indicate that the election is likely to be a close contest, although an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday evening showed that Barack Obama’s approval rate has hit 50% for the first time since March.
In addition, the poll put the president ahead of Mitt Romney by 5% among likely voters polled across the nation. The poll had a margin of error of 3.6%.
On David Letterman’s show, Barack Obama said he told the US on election night in 2008 he would work for everyone, including those who did not vote for them.
“One thing I’ve learnt as president is you represent the entire country,” he said.
“There are not a lot of people out there who think they are victims” or simply entitled to benefits, Barack Obama said.
Barack Obama’s rebuke came at the end of a day in which more clips of Mitt Romney’s fundraising address emerged. In one, Mitt Romney said the Palestinians are “committed to Israel’s destruction”.
“The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace,” he says in the video, adding that “the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish”.
But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters news agency that Mitt Romney was wrong to accuse the Palestinians of not seeking peace.
“Only those who want to maintain the Israeli occupation will claim the Palestinians are not interested in peace,” he said.
In another clip, the former Massachusetts governor is shown discussing Iran’s nuclear programme, and warning that America itself could come under attack.
The first clips released on Monday showed the Republican candidate saying those who did not pay income tax would never vote for him.
“There are 47% who are with him [Barack Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,” he said.
Mitt Romney said in the video that his role “is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
The video clips provided to Mother Jones are said to have been filmed at a $50,000 per head fundraiser at some point after Mitt Romney became the presumptive Republican nominee.
They were made public as the Romney campaign announced a new shift in strategy after several difficult days for the candidate.
Campaign advisers told the US media on Monday that Mitt Romney would speak more specifically about his budget plans and tax policy.
Daniel Barrera, one of Colombia’s most notorious drug traffickers, has been captured in Venezuela.
Daniel Barrera, known as “Crazy Barrera”, was captured in San Cristobal across the border from Colombia with the help of Venezuelan, British and US intelligence agencies.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos described him as “perhaps the most wanted kingpin in recent times”.
Colombia is one of the world’s main producers of cocaine.
Daniel Barrera, one of Colombia's most notorious drug traffickers, has been captured in Venezuela
Daniel Barrera’s criminal empire delivered cocaine not only to the US but around the world, especially to Europe.
The reward offered for his capture in the US was $5 million – the same as Osama Bin Laden. Colombia added $2.7 million to that.
The trafficker was a legend in the cocaine business, not only for his longevity but also for his ability to work with all sides in Colombia’s 48-year civil conflict.
“He has dedicated 20 years to doing bad things to Colombia and the world, all types of crime, perverse alliances with paramilitaries, with the Farc [rebel group],” President Juan Manuel Santos said in a televised speech.
Daniel Barrera’s arrest was the third detention of an alleged Colombian drug baron over the past year.
In June, Venezuelan authorities captured the alleged head of the Los Rajostros drug cartel, Diego Perez Henao, better known as Diego Rastrojo.
His gang has become a major exporter of cocaine to the US via Mexico in recent years, according to police.
Perez Henao is said to have controlled half the members of the paramilitary criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking in Colombia.
The cartel’s previous leader, Javier Antonio Calle Serna, handed himself to US authorities on the island of Aruba in May.
He is accused of the murder in 2008 of Wilber Varela, a Colombian drugs baron whose drug-smuggling routes he supposedly took over.
Cyberthieves who stole more than $250,000 in digital money bitcoins are still sitting on the cash.
The haul, in what is known as bitcoins, was stolen in a raid on the BitFloor online currency exchange this month.
BitFloor boss Roman Shtylman said transaction-tracking technology in the bitcoin system showed the money had not been spent.
The robbery forced BitFloor to close but Roman Shtylman said he was working on ways to relaunch the exchange.
Cyberthieves who stole more than $250,000 in digital money bitcoins are still sitting on the cash
Although bitcoins can be used to buy and sell, the digital currency is not minted by a nation. Instead bitcoins are “mined” by people getting their computer to perform a complicated and time-consuming mathematical problem.
Bitcoins are spent by assigning the private key associated with them to someone else. The robbery on BitFloor got hold of the private keys of many of the exchange’s customers, thereby handing control of those bitcoins to the robbers.
Because all transactions with bitcoins are public, said Roman Shtylman, everyone who used the coins knew that the thieves had yet to start spending their ill-gotten gains.
Digital detective work carried out soon after the theft showed that it was carried out via an IP address based in Moscow, he said. No transactions had been recorded using the stolen coins since they had been taken.
“They have not been moved,” Roman Shtylman.
“We may not know who the person is but we can see what they are doing with the fund.”
He speculated that the thieves were sitting on their pile of digital cash because the money was still “hot”. The thieves may be looking at ways to launder the money, he said, by putting it into bitcoin wallets they controlled and then converting it into other, real-world, currencies.
Roman Shtylman said a crime report about the theft had been filed with the FBI, which was believed to be investigating.
Prior to the raid BitFloor was the largest bitcoin exchange in America and the fourth-largest in the world. Roman Shtylman said he was now looking at how best to relaunch BitFloor.
“Given the amount of money involved it will take time to solve these problems and find ways to pay people back,” he said, adding that most of the currency traders who used BitFloor were sticking with him.
“A lot of people want to see the exchange return and continue trading,” he said.
Poet Louis Simpson, a Pulitzer Prize-winner whose work often explored the darker side of life in the US suburbs, has died at his New York home aged 89.
Born in Jamaica in March 1923, Louis Simpson – the son of a Russian mother and a lawyer of Scottish descent – moved to the US at the age of 17.
The Columbia University graduate published more than 18 books of poetry.
Louis Simpson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1964 for his fourth collection At the End of the Open Road.
Its title was inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem Song of the Open Road, which presented a vision of America replete with optimism and potential.
Poet Louis Simpson has died at his New York home aged 89
The collection contained the short poem In the Suburbs, in which he offered the bleaker suggestion that there was “no way out” for those “born to this middleclass life”.
His admirers included such writers as Seamus Heaney and William Matthews.
Louis Simpson, who served in World War II with the 101st Airborne Division, lived for many years in Setauket, New York on the north shore of Long Island.
His final collection Struggling Times was published in 2009 by BOA Editions and dealt directly with his old age and declining health.
Speaking on Tuesday, BOA Editions publisher Peter Conners remembered Louis Simpson as a man who “chronicled his life through his literature”.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced it will close its offices in Russia following an order from the authorities there to cease operations.
The Russian government gave the US until 1 October to close the mission.
USAID has worked in Russia for two decades, spending nearly $3bn on democracy and other programmes.
Correspondents say the government’s antipathy towards pro-democracy groups may be to blame for the move.
USAID has announced it will close its offices in Russia following an order from the authorities there to cease operations
The Russian authorities have become increasingly suspicious of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which it believes are using foreign funding to foment political unrest.
Earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin alleged that protests surrounding his re-election were orchestrated by US-funded NGOs.
Among the groups likely to be affected is Golos, whose exposure of electoral fraud at last year’s parliamentary elections helped spark huge anti-Kremlin street demonstrations.
Golos is partly funded by USAID.
In announcing the closure of the USAID office, US state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said: “We remain committed to supporting democracy, human rights, and the development of a more robust civil society in Russia and look forward to continuing our cooperation with Russian non-governmental organizations.”
She would not be drawn on the reasons behind the Kremlin’s decision, but said there was a sense “that they don’t need this anymore”.
The United States began its operations in Russia after the end of the Soviet Union, spending around $2.7 billion on a wide range of human rights, civil society, health and environmental programmes.
USAID was due to spend around $50 million on its work in Russia this year.
Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success! The clock is running!! Make the most of today.
To understand the value of one year, ask a student who failed a grade. To understand the value of one month, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby. To understand the value of one week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To understand the value of one hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To understand the value of one minute, ask a person who just missed a train. To understand the value of one second, ask someone who just avoided an accident. To understand the value of one millisecond, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.
Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with. And remember time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why its called the present.
Honey Boo Boo’s mother, June Shannon, is seen showing off her “Bingo face” in a clip from tomorrow’s episode of the family’s TLC reality show.
June Shannon reveals herself to be an ardent fan of the game, which she insists “is a sport”, in the next installment of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
The new clip sees her steal the limelight from her pageant queen daughter Alana Thompson, six, aka Honey Boo Boo, when she reveals that her short-sightedness causes her to squint during games.
Honey Boo Boo's mother, June Shannon, showing off her Bingo face
She tells the camera: “Bingo and couponing is my all time favorite sport, but playing Bingo I have to be more intense because my eyesight isn’t that good.
“I have to squint a lot. I guess that’s like my Bingo face.”
The mother-of-four, 32, who recently became a grandmother, is seen taking daughters Anna “Chikadee”, 17, “Chubbs” (aka Jessica), 15, Lauryn “Pumpkin”, 12, and Alana to a local Bingo hall.
“Bingo is a sport. It’s a way to calm me down and relax,” June Shannon says.
“They say it’s an old person’s sport, but I don’t think so. I think it’s very fun. I’ve been doing it since I was ten years old.”
She adds that her goal is to win money to fund Alana Thompson’s pageant career, and admits as much to a fellow player.
“I’m looking to win the big jackpot at the end,” she says.
“$1,000 for the pageant next week.”
It appears to be Honey Boo Boo’s first time at Bingo, but being just six years old, she fails to grasp the concept – despite efforts from her mother and sisters to explain how the game works.
Instead, she is more entertained by the marker pens provided, doodling smiley faces on napkins instead of marking off the numbers called.
The same episode, which will air tomorrow, includes a trip to the beauty salon, tips from a local pageant queen and Honey Boo Boo’ seventh birthday bash.
Jennifer Aniston has collaborated with US water brand SmartWater, taking centre stage as a ditzy mother-of-two who is now expecting triplets.
The action starts with a cameo from American Idol host Ryan Seacrest presenting a mock news report, saying Jennifer Aniston’s home security tapes have been leaked online by an unknown source.
The footage then cuts to black and white video surveillance of Jennifer Aniston, climbing inside of a new car and addressing the saleswoman by the wrong name, calling her Demi instead of Mimi.
She then reverses and crashes the vehicle, before coming back inside the house, shrugging off the incident, and announcing: “I forgot my smartwater.”
Jennifer Aniston heads to the kitchen, where she is seen with her back to the camera removing a Velcro band from her waist, which has been squashing her stomach to disguise the enormous baby bump.
Jennifer Aniston has collaborated with US water brand SmartWater, taking centre stage as a ditzy mother-of-two who is now expecting triplets
As she turns around for the big reveal, she shows off the faux tummy, stroking it as she says: “How are my little triplets doing? You must be so thirsty” – then drinking the product she is promoting.
A home-help voice then comes through the intercom telling Jennifer Aniston her trainers are ready for a workout, before we see four burly men lifting her up and down, without her having to break a sweat.
Jennifer Aniston then heads outside to the pool, where two men are filling it with bottles of smartwater.
Cue her twentysomething son, played by Jimmy Kimmel, wearing a snorkel mask and armbands as he wanders into the outdoor area and asks his mother for a swim.
When she declines, he cries: “You always make me hide, I think you’re ashamed someone will see me,” before she tries to usher him into house alongside his brother, a small person in an alien suit.
At the end of her day, Jennifer Aniston, 43, is seen standing in front of a mirror, saying: “Good night Rachel.”
She is alluding to the famous hairdo that became just as famous as the character itself in the Nineties sitcom, as she yanks off a wig to reveal frizzy unkempt locks.
The product tagline then flashes up: “Even more refreshing than the truth.”
While Jennifer Aniston is yet to have any children in real life, a family could soon be on the cards after she accepted a proposal from Mulholland Drive actor Justin Theroux on his 41st birthday last month.
A new secret video clip has emerged of remarks by Mitt Romney, saying the Palestinians are committed to Israel’s destruction.
The Republican candidate tells donors the Middle East will “remain an unsolved problem… and we kick the ball down the field”.
The video is from the same event as a clip released on Monday, in which Mitt Romney says almost half of Americans “believe that they are victims”.
It comes less than two months before the presidential election.
The new footage was posted on Tuesday on the website of the liberal investigative magazine Mother Jones, which said it was taken at a fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida.
A new secret video clip has emerged of remarks by Mitt Romney, saying the Palestinians are committed to Israel's destruction
Mitt Romney is shown saying that Palestinians are “committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel”.
“The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace,” he says, adding that “the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish“.
In another clip, the former Massachusetts governor is shown discussing Iran’s nuclear programme, and warning that America itself could come under attack.
“If I were Iran – a crazed fanatic, I’d say let’s get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we’ll just say, <<Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we’re going to let off a dirty bomb>>.”
On Monday, Mother Jones posted another clip from the same fundraiser in which Mitt Romney disparages those who would vote for his Democratic rival, President Barack Obama.
The Republican candidate is shown saying that the 47% of Americans who back the president do not pay income tax and would never vote for Mitt Romney.
“There are 47% who are with him [Barack Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”
Mitt Romney said in the video that his role “is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
In a late-night appearance on Monday, the Republican candidate said those remarks were not “elegantly stated”, but did not retract them.
The Obama campaign was quick to pounce.
“It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation,” Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
The video clips provided to Mother Jones are said to have been filmed at a $50,000 a head fundraiser at some point after Mitt Romney became the presumptive Republican nominee.
The pictures are blurred out with the exception of his face, and no attendees are visible.
Also on Monday, Mitt Romney’s campaign unveiled a significant reworking of its strategy less than two months before election day.
Until now his message to voters has largely consisted of repeated attacks on President Barack Obama’s economic record.
Campaign advisers told the US media on Monday that Mitt Romney would speak more specifically about his budget plans and tax policy.
The videos bookended a difficult 24 hours for the Romney campaign. On Sunday, a lengthy Politico story detailed apparent divisions and indecision within the campaign.
A series of opinion polls at the end of last week showed Mitt Romney trailing Barack Obama both nationally and in several swing states.
The two men square off in the election on 6 November, but early voting begins soon in several states.
A Secret Service agent in charge of protecting the POTUS relieved himself in full view of Barack Obama and his hundreds of supporters, who were just yards away.
The Secret Service employee, who was standing to the side of the stage where Barack Obama was addressing his Cincinnati fans, was snapped seemingly mid-flow by a photographer from Politico.
Unsurprisingly, as soon as the photograph was posted to Twitter it became a sensation. Some commentators cheekily suggested that the man was especially foolish for peeing uphill.
The Secret Service confirmed that the man was their employee and swiftly added that he was not urinating.
The agency claimed that their employee was simply following protocol and was facing away from the President to look out for any threats that may be headed his way.
The Secret Service employee, who was standing to the side of the stage where Barack Obama was addressing his Cincinnati fans, was snapped seemingly mid-flow
Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan told Politico: “There is no accuracy to the reporting associated with this photo thus far.”
Judging from the photo at the centre of the storm, the agent could have convincingly claimed that he was texting or playing a game of Angry Birds when the incriminating picture was taken.
The embarrassing incident happened while Barack Obama continued his campaign in the swing state of Ohio, where he announced a new trade enforcement action against China.
The promise to move to stop Chinese subsidies of its auto industry came four days after Romney launched an advertising campaign accusing the president of allowing American manufacturing jobs to be lost to the Asian power.
The issue hits home among working class voters in manufacturing swing states such as Ohio, where The White House says more than 850,000 jobs in the state are related to the auto industry.
Barack Obama told thousands gathered at a pavilion in Cincinnati’s leafy Eden Park that Romney made money from companies that outsourced jobs to China while running the private equity firm Bain Capital. The crowd jeered. Barack Obama responded: “Don’t boo. Vote!”
“You can’t stand up to China when all you’ve done is sent them our jobs,” Barack Obama said.
“You can talk a good game. But I like to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. And my experience has been waking up every single day doing everything I can to make sure that American workers get a fair shot in the global economy.”
Dark Energy Camera, the highest-resolution camera ever built, has begun its quest to pin down the mysterious stuff that makes up nearly three-quarters of our Universe.
The Dark Energy Survey’s 570-million-pixel camera will scan some 300 million galaxies in the coming five years.
The goal is to discover the nature of dark energy, which is theorized to be responsible for the ever-faster expansion of the Universe.
Its first image, taken 12 September, focused on the Fornax galaxy cluster.
In time, along with its massive haul of individual galaxies, it will study 100,000 galaxy clusters – the largest stable structures we know of – and 4,000 supernovae, the bright dying throes of stars.
This enormous survey is a collaboration between US, UK, Brazilian, Spanish and German astronomers.
The phone box-sized Dark Energy Camera or DECam is mounted on the 4 m Victor M Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert.
The Dark Energy Survey's 570-million-pixel camera will scan some 300 million galaxies in the coming five years
DECam is particularly sensitive to red and infrared light, to better study cosmic objects as distant as eight billion light-years away.
More distant objects are moving away from us – and each other – faster than nearer objects, which causes a shift of their apparent color toward the red end of the spectrum – a “redshift”.
Careful studies of the shifted light from distant supernovae were what first demonstrated this expansion, leading to the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics.
What is believed to be causing this increase in the speed of expansion is called dark energy, making up more than 70% of the “stuff” of the Universe and the focus of the DECam’s mission.
Other efforts hope to get to the bottom of the mystery, including the Boss survey and a future space telescope dediated to the effort called Euclid.
But for now, Will Percival from the University of Portsmouth, a Dark Energy Survey collaborator, said DECam is an exciting prospect.
“This will be the largest galaxy survey of its kind, and the galaxy shapes and positions will tell us a great deal about the nature of the physical process that we call dark energy, but do not currently understand,” he said.
The survey will tackle the problem in four ways.
It will study the same kind of supernovae that led to the Nobel Prize, in a bid to unravel the “expansion history” of the Universe – when its expansion increased and decreased over billions of years.
It will also map out in 3D the distribution of galaxy clusters, measuring what are known as baryon acoustic oscillations – literally relics of the sound echoes of the Big Bang.
By counting the clusters and plotting out when they evidently formed, the survey can feed back to computer models that map out how we think the Universe organized itself in its earliest years.
And studies of the way galaxies and galaxy clusters bend passing light – in a process called weak gravitational lensing – will help to pin down the equally mysterious “dark matter” that is believed to make up more than 80% of the Universe’s mass.
DECam will now be run through a series of tests and will begin the official survey in December.
With each snapshot it acquires, it will see an apparent area of the sky 20 times larger than the full moon.
In its full five-year run, it should capture an eighth of the full sky.
“The achievement of first light through the Dark Energy Camera begins a significant new era in our exploration of the cosmic frontier,” said James Siegrist, associate director of science for high-energy physics at the US Department of Energy, which oversaw the instrument’s construction.
“The results of this survey will bring us closer to understanding the mystery of dark energy and what it means for the Universe.”
What is redshift?
• The term “redshift” arises from the fact that light from more distant objects shows up on Earth more red than when it left its source
• The color shift comes about because of the Doppler effect, which acts to “stretch” or “compress” waves from moving objects
• It is at work in the sound of a moving siren: an approaching siren sounds higher-pitched and a receding one sounds lower-pitched
• In the case of light, approaching objects appear more blue and receding objects appear more red
• The expansion of the Universe is accelerating, so in general, more distant objects are moving away from us (and each other, and everything else) more quickly than nearer ones
• At cosmic distances, the shift can profoundly affect the color – the factor by which the wavelength is “stretched” is called the redshift
Dark energy and dark matter mysteries
• Gravity acting across vast distances does not seem to explain what astronomers see
• Galaxies, for example, should fly apart; some other mass must be there holding them together
• Astrophysicists have thus postulated “dark matter” – invisible to us but clearly acting on galactic scales
• At the greatest distances, the Universe’s expansion is accelerating
• Thus we have also “dark energy” which acts to drive the expansion, in opposition to gravity
• The current theory holds that 73% of the Universe is dark energy, 23% is dark matter, and just 4% the kind of matter we know well
Chinese ex-police chief Wang Lijun did not contest the charges against him, court officials have said today during his second day of trial.
The Chengdu trial of Wang Lijun for defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking began in secret on Monday and ended on Tuesday.
The verdict would be given at a later date, court officials said.
Wang Lijun’s flight to a US consulate in February sparked events leading to the downfall of top politician Bo Xilai.
Bo Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai, was later convicted of killing the British businessman Neil Heywood and given a suspended death sentence, after a trial that lasted a day.
Wang Lijun is charged with helping cover up her crime.
The Chengdu trial of Wang Lijun for defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking began in secret on Monday and ended on Tuesday
China said Tuesday’s session was “public” but while state television may broadcast pictures later, access to the Intermediate People’s Court was tightly controlled and foreign media were kept outside.
But after the case ended a court official read out a statement saying the defendant did not contest the charges – leaving little doubt that the verdict, when it comes, will be a guilty one.
Although there was only moderate police presence outside the court, the sensitivity of the case was demonstrated by the fact the first day’s hearing was held in secret, because it involved issues of national security, said Wang Lijun’s lawyer, Wang Yuncai, who is not related to her client.
A brief report in state media said Wang Lijun was standing trial for ”bribe-taking and bending the law for selfish ends”.
”The Chengdu City Intermediate People’s Court held a closed-door trial Monday on Wang’s two other charges of defection and abuse of power,” said the Xinhua news agency report.
Earlier Chinese state media reports said the evidence against Wang Lijun was “concrete and abundant”.
The indictment against him said he knew that Gu Kailai was a murder suspect, but “consciously neglected his duty and bent the law for personal gain”, Xinhua reported.
According to the UK Foreign Office, Wang Lijun made allegations about Neil Heywood’s death while at the US consulate in Chengdu.
Shortly afterwards, Bo Xilai was sacked. Gu Kailai was accused and convicted in August of the murder of Neil Heywood.
Chinese media have been quiet on the trial and searches for Wang Lijun’s name and related terms have mostly been blocked on China’s Twitter-like weibo microblogs.
However, netizens have been using pseudonyms such as “head nurse” – a term that puns on ”deputy mayor” in Chinese – to make comments. Wang Lijun was the deputy mayor of Chongqing.
A microblog user in Guangzhou said: “Good luck, head nurse.”
“There should be a public holiday today, and the head nurse’s trial should be broadcast live on TV so people can have a chance to learn what is the rule of law,” said a microblog user in southern Zhuhai city.
The trial comes ahead of a key party leadership congress in China, expected in the coming weeks.
Wang Lijun’s flight to the US consulate proved an embarrassment for China and threw up issues involving diplomacy and state secrets, analysts say.
But most analysts expect him to be given a suspended death sentence, similar to the one handed to Gu Kailai.
At a separate trial on 10 August, four senior police officers from Chongqing admitted to charges of covering up evidence linking Gu Kailai to the murder. A court official said they had been given terms of between five and 11 years in prison, AFP reported.
Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun’s former boss in Chongqing, had been tipped for promotion to the top leadership ranks at the party congress before his downfall.
He has not been seen in public since the scandal erupted and is said to be under investigation by the party’s disciplinary officials. It is not clear if he will face any criminal charges himself.
Wang Lijun, 52, began his career in law enforcement in the Inner Mongolia Region in 1984 and moved to the southwestern city of Chongqing in 2008.
He had a reputation for being tough on organized crime and was once the subject of a TV drama called Iron-Blooded Police Spirits.
NATO announces that it is restricting operations with Afghan troops following a string of deadly attacks on its personnel by rogue Afghan security forces.
Only large operations will now be conducted jointly, with joint patrols evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
ISAF said these were “prudent, but temporary, measures to reduce our profile and vulnerability”.
NATO commanders have been frustrated that the Afghans have not done more to stem the rise in attacks, analysts say.
The moves came as a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying foreigners in the capital, killing 12 people on Tuesday morning.
The attack happened on a major road leading to the international airport and reports suggest those on board worked at the airport.
Afghan insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami has claimed it carried out the attack, which it says was in response to a recent anti-Islam video.
NATO announces that it is restricting operations with Afghan troops following a string of deadly attacks on its personnel by rogue Afghan security forces
Meanwhile NATO-led ISAF forces said they had arrested a Taliban leader and two insurgents they said were involved in an attack on the sprawling Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province.
They said the leader was suspected of “providing support” to the militants who staged the audacious assault, killing two US marines and destroying six Harrier fighter jets.
The joint command of NATO-led ISAF international forces cited “events outside of and inside Afghanistan” related to the film as part of the reason for its restrictions on joint operations.
Afghanistan has seen days of protests over the video, some violent.
Those, along with the surge in so-called “green-on-blue” attacks, had prompted the new restrictions, ISAF said.
Fifty-one NATO troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers so far this year – 15 in August alone. In 2008, just two soldiers died in such attacks – though ISAF and Afghan force numbers have also increased substantially in the period.
Four US soldiers and two UK soldiers died in rogue attacks at the weekend. A fifth of UK soldiers killed this year in Afghanistan were killed not by insurgents, but by Afghan soldiers or police.
Joint operations will now only be conducted routinely at battalion level – large operations involving several hundred troops.
“This does not mean there will be no partnering below that level; the need for that will be evaluated on a case by case basis” but it will have to be approved by a two-star general, ISAF said in a statement.
It stressed the changes were temporary.
“In some local instances, operational tempo has been reduced, or force protection has been increased. These actions balance the tension of the recent video with force protection, while maintaining the momentum of the campaign,” ISAF said.
It insisted it remained “absolutely committed to partnering with, training, advising and assisting our ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] counterparts”.
In a news conference, US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta told reporters he was concerned about the effect of insider attacks.
But he insisted they did not mean the Taliban was getting stronger or regaining lost territory.
He said the US would do all it could to minimize risks to its forces, but “we will not lose sight of the fundamental mission here, which is to continue to proceed to assure a peaceful transition to Afghan security and governance”.
In practical terms, US soldiers are already staying on their bases, while Afghans carry out patrols alone.
There has been enormous frustration among NATO commanders that Afghan officials have not been doing enough to prevent the rise in attacks, our correspondent says.
This shift is clearly aimed at sending a signal to the Afghan government that its measures for vetting new entrants to the Afghan army and police force must improve, they say.
But with 7,000 new recruits a month joining the Afghan army alone, it is very challenging to ensure Taliban militants do not slip through the net.
The Afghan ministry of defence said it had not been formally notified of the changes until a hurriedly convened meeting with NATO on Tuesday.
NATO’s move comes after a week of protests triggered by the anti-Islam film, produced in the US, which has caused a storm of anger around the Muslim world.
On Monday, hundreds of protesters threw rocks and torched police vehicles in an angry protest against the film in Kabul.
The AFP news agency said hundreds more staged a new protest in the northern city of Kunduz on Tuesday.
