A new study suggests that multiple CT scans in childhood can triple the risk of developing brain cancer or leukaemia.
The Newcastle University-led team examined the NHS medical records of almost 180,000 young patients in UK.
Writing in The Lancet the authors emphasized that the benefits of the scans usually outweighed the risks.
They said the study underlined the fact the scans should only be used when necessary and that ways of cutting their radiation should be pursued.
During a CT (computerized tomography) scan, an X-ray tube rotates around the patient’s body to produce detailed images of internal organs and other parts of the body.
In the first long-term study of its kind, the researchers looked at the records of patients aged under 21 who had CT scans at a range of British hospitals between 1985 and 2002.
Because radiation-related cancer takes time to develop, they examined data on cancer cases and mortality up until 2009.
A new study suggests that multiple CT scans in childhood can triple the risk of developing brain cancer or leukaemia
Brain cancer and leukaemia are rare diseases.
The study estimated that the increased risk translated into one extra case of leukaemia and one extra brain tumour among 10,000 CT head scans of children aged under ten.
Dr. Mark Pearce, an epidemiologist from Newcastle University who led the study, said: “We found significant increases in the risk of leukaemia and brain tumors, following CT in childhood and young adulthood.
“The immediate benefits of CT outweigh the risks in many settings.
“Doses have come down dramatically over time – but we need to do more to reduce them. This should be a priority for the clinical community and manufacturers.”
CT scans are useful for children because anaesthesia and sedation are not required.
This type of check is often ordered after serious accidents, to look for internal injuries, and for finding out more about possible lung disease.
Regulations on their use in the UK mean CT scans should only be done when clinically justified – and the researchers said their study underlined that point.
Professor Sir Alan Craft, a co-author and leading expert in child health, said: “The important thing is that parents can be reassured that if a doctor in the UK suggests a child should have a CT scan, the radiation and cancer risks will have been taken into account.
“There’s a much greater risk of not doing a CT scan when it’s suggested.
“This study will push us to be even more circumspect about using it. We have much stricter rules here about using CT than in the United States, for example.”
Asus has presented Transformer Book, its Windows 8-based laptop-tablet hybrid device, in Taipei, Taiwan.
Transformer Book features Windows 8 OS, the newest version of the Windows operating system.
It converts into a tablet once the screen is detached.
A number of other firms are expected to unveil devices running Windows 8 OS once the event starts on Tuesday.
The detached screen of the Transformer Book becomes “the world’s biggest tablet”, said Asus chairman Jonney Shih at a pre-Computex press conference.
The display comes in 11.6, 13 or 14-inch options, indeed making the tablet one of the largest on the market.
Asus has presented Transformer Book, its Windows 8-based laptop-tablet hybrid device, in Taipei
Another hybrid device unveiled by the Taiwanese firm is called the Taichi.
It looks like a regular laptop – but it has two displays.
When closed, the device is transformed into a tablet.
But when open, it becomes a laptop with a full-HD screen on each side – allowing two people sitting face-to-face to simultaneously view a screen.
“Not that there’s anything wrong sitting next to each other, but this looks much better,” said Jonney Shih.
Both Asus devices run Microsoft’s new Windows 8 OS, expected to be released later this year.
The Transformer Book, though, also runs Android operating system – which comes into play once the device is converted into a tablet.
It is expected that Windows 8 OS will be present on a number of devices technology companies are getting ready to unveil at the show.
Besides Asus, other Taiwanese computer manufacturers, such as Acer and Micro Star International, have said that they will demonstrate products running Windows 8.
Computex 2012 organizer, The Taipei Computer Association, said that the convertible notebook-tablet computers will be the “reinforced battle power of Windows 8”.
The new operating system is touch-enabled and has been designed for tablets, notebooks and other hand-held devices.
According to Microsoft, Windows 8 will allow users to freely switch between the touch control interface, a keyboard or mouse.
Microsoft said that tens of thousands of improvements had been made to what it calls the most important redesign of its interface since Windows 95.
Consumers can now download the release preview of Windows 8, a system which Microsoft says is its most tested operating system ever.
It is expected to go on sale in the autumn, three years after Windows 7.
Vodafone and 02-owner Telefonica have announced plans to create one shared grid in the UK.
The move is designed to improve existing coverage and to speed up the roll-out of superfast 4G services.
The companies say it will mean 4G mobile services, which allow users to download music and videos to their phones at high speed, can be delivered by 2015.
That is two years ahead of regulator Ofcom’s requirement of 98% coverage by 2017.
Vodafone and 02-owner Telefonica have announced plans to create one shared grid in the UK
The two firms will continue to compete but will pool their network infrastructure.
“Exceptional customer demand for the mobile internet has challenged the mobile industry to consider innovative solutions to building a nationwide network that will be fit for our customers in the future and support the products and services that will truly make Britain digital,” said Ronan Dunne, chief executive of Telefonica UK.
Guy Laurence, Vodafone UK chief executive, said: “This partnership will close the digital divide for millions of people across the country and power the next phase of the smartphone revolution.”
The deal will help keep costs down for the operators at a time when consumer spending in Europe is weak. Telefonica in particular has been under pressure to cut its debt and is currently disposing assets.
A huge dock torn from a Japanese port by March 2011 tsunami has washed up in the US state of Oregon – 8,050 km (5,000 miles) across the Pacific.
The 20m-long (66ft) concrete dock weighing 165 tons was spotted on Agate beach, south-west of Portland.
A Japanese consulate official said a commemorative plaque showed it had come from the fishing port of Misawa.
Radiation checks proved negative, but scientists say invasive species foreign to the area may have hitched a ride.
A huge dock torn from a Japanese port by March 2011 tsunami has washed up in the US state of Oregon
A starfish native to Japan was among the marine life still clinging to the structure, Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman Chris Havel was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
“This is tsunami debris, not just from Japan, but from the tsunami itself,” Chris Havel said.
Oregon police have now been deployed to keep people from climbing on the dock, which was first mistaken by local residents for a barge.
Misawa lost four docks during an earthquake and resulting tsunami on 11 March 2011. Two docks are still missing.
This April, the US Coast Guard used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese ship that drifted to Alaska after the tsunami.
A month later, a Japanese owner of a Harley-Davidson motorbike swept away by the tsunami was amazed to find out that it had been washed up inside a container on a beach in Canada – about 6,400 km away.
Japanese scientists estimate that some 20 million tons of debris were generated by the earthquake and the incoming rush of water.
Most would have stayed on land, and a fair proportion pulled out to sea would have sunk rapidly. But it is possible a million tons of debris is still afloat.
Nearly 16,000 people were killed by the quake and tsunami in Japan.
Facebook investors have been offered $40 million by the NASDAQ stock exchange for a computer hitch that stopped them trading on debut day.
Some shareholders had hoped to sell the much-hyped shares on the issue day to take advantage of pent-up buyer demand.
But technical problems kept many investors from buying shares in the morning or selling them later in the day.
The payout is meant to reimburse those who lost money because of the fault.
The opening of trading was delayed by half an hour and some investors were unable to tell whether their orders were processed, while others said they were left holding shares they did not want.
Facebook investors have been offered $40 million by the NASDAQ stock exchange for a computer hitch that stopped them trading on debut day
Facebook’s shares went on sale at $38 a share on 18 May, but rose sharply in early trading, something many buyers had hoped to capitalize on by selling during the day.
They ended the day barely above the starting level though, and have floundered since, falling to around $25 a share.
NASDAQ says it will reimburse those who tried to sell into the first-day bounce at $42 or less, but either couldn’t sell or sold at a lower price than they intended.
The $40 million is more than 10 times the $3 million previously paid by NASDAQ for technical errors, but already there have been complaints from some investors it will not be enough to cover losses.
NASDAQ’s chief rival, the New York Stock Exchange, has accused NASDAQ of giving itself an unfair advantage, saying the move gives investors an incentive to move more of their trading to NASDAQ.
In a statement it said: “This is tantamount to forcing the industry to subsidize NASDAQ’s mis-step and would establish a harmful precedent that could have far-reaching implications for the markets, investors and the public interest.”
The exchange added it would “strongly press our views” against the proposal, which has to be approved by the watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Armand D’Angour, a lecturer in classics at the University of Oxford and author of The Greeks and the New: Novelty in Ancient Greek Imagination and Experience and the forthcoming Eureka: Seven Principles of Innovation from Ancient Greece, has imagined several solutions ancient Greeks would give to help modern Greeks with their current financial worries.
1. Debt, division and revolt. Here’s the 6th Century BC news from Athens.
In the early 6th Century BC, the people of Athens were burdened with debt, social division and inequality, with poor farmers prepared to sell themselves into slavery just to feed their families.
Revolution was imminent, but the aristocrat Solon emerged as a just mediator between the interests of rich and poor. He abolished debt bondage, limited land ownership, and divided the citizen body into classes with different levels of wealth and corresponding financial obligations.
His measures, although attacked on all sides, were adopted and paved the way for the eventual creation of democracy.
Solon’s success demonstrates that great statesmen must have the courage to implement unpopular compromises for the sake of justice and stability.
2. What happens next? The Delphic oracle
Ancient Delphi was the site of Apollo’s oracle, believed to be inspired by the god to utter truths. Her utterances, however, were unintelligible and needed to be interpreted by priests, who generally turned them into ambiguous prophecies.
In response to, say: “Should Greece leave the euro?” the oracle might have responded: “Greece should abandon the euro if the euro has abandoned Greece,” leaving proponents and opponents of “Grexit” to squabble over what exactly that meant. It must have been something like listening to modern economists. At least the oracle had the excuse of inhaling the smoke of laurel leaves.
Wiser advice was to be found in the mottos inscribed on the face of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, advocating moderation and self-knowledge: “Know yourself. Nothing in excess.”
3. Nothing new under the sun: The sage Pythagoras
If modern Greeks feel overwhelmed by today’s financial problems, they might take some comfort from remembering the world-weary advice from their ancestor Pythagoras that “everything comes round again, so nothing is completely new”.
Pythagoras of Samos was a 6th Century BC mystic sage who believed that numbers are behind everything in the universe – and that cosmic events recur identically over a cycle of 10,800 years.
His doctrine was picked up by the biblical author of Ecclesiastes in the 3rd Century BC, whose phrase “There is nothing new under the sun” is repeated more than 20 times.
If you look at the picture at top of the story, the young man with a laptop on a Greek vase from 470 BC (in fact, a writing-tablet) seems to prove the proposition.
In the early 6th Century BC, the people of Athens were burdened with debt, social division and inequality, with poor farmers prepared to sell themselves into slavery just to feed their families
4. Mind you, it could be worse… Odysseus and endurance
“Hold fast, my heart, you have endured worse suffering,” Odysseus exhorts himself in Homer’s Odyssey, from the 8th Century BC.
Having battled hostile elements and frightful monsters on his return home across the sea from Troy to his beloved Ithaka and wife Penelope, Odysseus here prevents himself from jeopardizing a successful finale as a result of impatience.
The stirring message is that whatever the circumstances, one should recognize that things could be, and have been, even worse. Harder challenges have been faced and – with due intelligence and fortitude – overcome.
5. Are you sure that’s right? Socrates and tireless inquiry
“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being,” said Socrates.
By cross-examining ordinary people, the philosopher aimed to get to the heart of complex questions such as “What is justice?” and “How should we live?” Often no clear answer emerged, but Socrates insisted that we keep on asking the questions.
Fellow Athenians were so offended by his scrutiny of their political and moral convictions that they voted to execute him in 399 BC, and thereby made him an eternal martyr to free thought and moral inquiry.
Socrates bequeathed to humanity a duty to keep on thinking with tireless integrity, even when – or particularly when – definite answers are unlikely to be found.
6. How did those jokers end up in charge? Aristophanes the comedian
The most brilliantly inventive of comic playwrights, Aristophanes was happy to mock contemporary Athenian politicians of every stripe. He was also the first to coin a word for “innovation”.
His comedy Frogs of 405 BC, which featured the first representation of aerial warfare, contained heartfelt and unambiguous advice for his politically fickle fellow citizens: choose good leaders, or you will be stuck with bad ones.
7. Should we do the same as last time? Heraclitus the thinker
“You can’t step into the same river twice” is one of the statements of Heraclitus, in the early 5th Century BC – his point being that the ceaseless flow of the water makes for a different river each time you step into it.
A sharp pupil pointed out “in that case you can’t step into the same river once”, since if everything is constantly in flux, so is the identity of the individual stepping into the water.
While change is constant, different things change at different rates. In an environment of ceaseless flux, it is important to identify stable markers and to hold fast to them.
Bond markets, debt and bail-outs must feel like a similar challenge.
8. Tell me the worst, doctor. Hippocrates faces the facts
Western medicine goes back to Hippocrates, late 5th Century BC, and doctors still take the “Hippocratic oath”. An extensive set of ancient medical observations details how patients fared when they were treated by means such as diet and exercise.
What is exceptional in ancient thinking about health and disease is the clear-sighted recognition that doctors must observe accurately and record truthfully – even when patients die in the process.
Magical or wishful thinking cannot bring a cure. Only honest, exhaustive, empirical observation can hope to reveal what works and what does not.
9. Seizing the opportunity: Cleisthenes and democracy
The ancient Greeks were strongly aware of the power of opportunity – in Greek, kairos. Seizing the moment – in oratory, athletics, or battle – was admired and viewed as an indication of skill.
In many cases, such temporary innovation, born of the moment, will be more enduring, especially if successive innovators build on its principles.
When the tyrants of Athens were deposed at the end of the 6th Century, the leading citizen Cleisthenes needed to think up a constitution that would cut across existing structures of power and allegiance.
He devised with amazing rapidity a system of elective government in which all the citizens (the Greek word “demos” means “the people”) had a single vote – the world’s first democracy.
10. Big problem, long bath: Archimedes the inventor
Asked to measure whether a crown was made of pure gold, the Sicilian Greek Archimedes (3rd Century BC) puzzled over a solution.
The story goes that when he eventually took a bath and saw the water rising as he stepped in, it struck him that an object’s volume could be measured by the water it displaced – and when weighed, their relative density could be calculated.
He was so excited by his discovery that he jumped out of the bath and ran naked through Syracuse shouting “Eureka!” – Greek for “I’ve got it!”
Finding the solution to a knotty problem requires hard thinking, but the answer often comes only when you switch off – and take a bath.
Google has presented new mapping technologies in an effort to reassert its position as a market leader.
While it boasts one billion users, Google Maps has recently seen defections by some key developers and partners.
Reports suggest Apple may abandon Google Maps next week at its annual developer conference.
They suggest Apple may announce its own mapping application to replace Google Maps on its smartphones and tablets.
To counteract any negative publicity, Google executives held a media event on Wednesday in San Francisco to preview new mapping features and trumpet a decade of achievements in digital mapping, including its use of satellite, aerial and street-level views.
Among the stand-out features were 3D enhancements to Google Earth, a portable device for taking “street view” panoramic photos and offline access to Google Maps on Android phones.
“It’s much more than finding a way home,” said Brian McClendon, vice president of engineering for Google Maps.
Google has presented new mapping technologies in an effort to reassert its position as a market leader
Google Imagery, the company’s most sophisticated 3D rendering to date, makes use of an automated process to generate very detailed models from 45-degree aerial photos. Google has actually commissioned a fleet of planes to do the job. The end result is zoomable, three-dimensional cityscapes, complete with top and side level views of buildings, streets and landscaping.
Fly-over views of San Francisco’s Civic Center, City Hall, AT&T Ballpark and waterfront were shown during Wednesday’s demonstration.
“We are trying to create magic here,” said Peter Birch, program manager for Google Maps, who compared the offering to “Superman wings.”
“It’s almost as if you are in a personal helicopter hovering over the city,” he said.
The feature will be available on both Android and iOs devices in a matter of weeks, said Peter Birch.
He would not be drawn on the possibility of a snag with Apple if Google Maps is de-bundled from Apple’s smartphones and tablets: “I can’t really speculate on what the rumors may be… Apple is a good partner of ours.”
“We have a lot fantastic applications already on the platform. Google Earth is one of the top applications, and we’ve been on Apple devices since 2008,” he said.
“It’s a really fantastic showcase for the platform and we’re really excited to be offering new features.”
Google aims to bring the new 3D imagery to desktops later this year.
By the end of the year, the California-based company anticipates 300 million people will be able to look at their communities using this technology. The initial metropolitan areas were not specified, but Peter Birch indicated both American and international cities would be part of the initial rollout.
Should Apple actually divest Google Maps from its mobile screens later this year, as the Wall Street Journal first reported, experts say it would be a strike against the search giant.
“It’s a negative for Google, but it’s not going to have a big revenue impact, and it may in fact motivate them the create a more powerful mapping application that people can download from the iTunes store if Apple doesn’t try to block it,” said Greg Sterling, a long-time Google watcher and contributing editor at Search Engine Land.
“It’s a platform battle,” according to Di-Ann Eisnor, a social mapping expert and vice president of Waze, a commuter tool that relies on real-time crowdsourced data from its 18.5 million users to inform its mobile mapping application.
But the war goes beyond Android versus iOs.
Google created a backlash of sorts when it began charging for commercial use of its API last autumn. Developers and publishers like Foursquare, the location-based, mobile check-in app with 20 million users, opted to go with the free and volunteer-driven OpenStreetMap, the world’s largest crowdsourced atlas, as its baseline mapping technology, instead of Google Maps. So did the mobile version of Wikipedia.
With 600,000 registered users, OpenStreetMap also has the support of Microsoft. As more big players start working on OpenStreetMap, Di-Ann Eisnor and others say it could be another “viable alternative” to Android and iOs.
John Jackson, a technology analyst with CCS Insight in Boston agrees with the notion of platform wars, calling it “an epic battle for the future of mobile computing”.
Between Apple, Google and Microsoft, “we may end up with three centres of gravity”, he said.
A new report has claimed that John Travolta had a six year gay affair with his pilot Doug Gotterba.
John Travolta is said to have had a long-term relationship with Doug Gotterba in the ‘80, before the actor’s marriage to Kelly Preston in 1991.
The claims are made in the new issue of the National Enquirer – by Doug Gotterba’s ex-boyfriend and John Travolta’s former secretary.
Doug Gotterba – now 60 – is not quoted in the article – but the publication claims he did confirm he worked for John Travolta “for six years in the 1980s”.
John Travolta’s one-time secretary Joan Edwards – who worked for the star from 1978 to 1994 – told the National Enquirer: “Of course I knew he [John Travolta] was gay. It never bothered me.”
Joan Edwards goes on to reveal that she knew Doug Gotterba – detailing how he started working for John Travolta, 58, in 1981. She adds that she is still good friends with Doug Gotterba.
The tabloid then quotes Doug Gotterba’s ex-boyfriend Robert Britz in the article – who the pilot had a relationship with post-Travolta.
John Travolta is said to have had a long-term relationship with Doug Gotterba in the ‘80, before the actor's marriage to Kelly Preston in 1991
Robert Britz makes a string of claims about John Travolta and Doug Gotterba, saying: “Doug told me right at the beginning of our relationship that he’d had a homosexual relationship with John Travolta in the 1980s.”
He goes on to detail how:
• Doug Gotterba showed him a home video of John Travolta with his shirt off
• Says Doug Gotterba would chauffeur the actor to gay sex stores
• Claims Doug Gotterba told him it was “lucrative” to work for John Travolta
Five years into the relationship, Doug Gotterba began to tire of John Travolta, apparently becoming repulsed by his habits, according to Robert Britz.
“Doug said that he hated sleeping with John because his body was very hairy and he didn’t like they way John smelled,” Robert Britz claims.
He went on: “John would also become very heavy between movies. Doug called him <<huge>> and said it turned him off.”
“After a few years, Doug grew apart from John sexually, and John’s advances eventually started to repulse him,” Robert Britz said.
He added: “The relationship ended shortly thereafter.”
The Enquirer claims John Travolta went to great lengths to cover up his fling and used actress Brooke Shields – who was just 16 at the time – as a smokescreen by going on a few dates with her in public.
In his 1997 biography, John Travolta: Back In Character, author Wensley Clarkson says the dates with Brooke Shields were set up by their agents.
Doug Gotterba, 60, is the owner of a private jet company near Santa Barbara, California.
John Travolta was hit with two lawsuits last month from masseurs claiming the actor made sexual advances towards them during massages – but one claim was later withdrawn.
A string of other people came out of the woodwork making similar claims.
John Travolta’s legal team strenuously denied the allegations at the time.
Fatima “Myla” Sinanaj, Kris Humphries’s new girlfriend, shares more in common with his former flame Kim Kardashian than just a passing resemblance.
Seen here in a series of Facebook snaps, 25-year-old Fatmire Sinanaj has clearly been blessed with the same knockout curves as her predecessor.
Apparently Kris Humphries has been dating Fatima – who goes by Myla – for the past five months, according to TMZ – meaning their relationship has already lasted longer than his ill-fated 72-day marriages to 31-year-old Kim.
Kris Humphries and Myla Sinanaj were pictured together on Miami Beach over the weekend. TMZ says Kris Humphries is denying they are an item – but claims to have inside information to the contrary.
Fatima “Myla” Sinanaj, Kris Humphries's new girlfriend, shares more in common with his former flame Kim Kardashian than just a passing resemblance
The celebrity website reports Kris Humphries flew his new curvy lover into Miami from New York to spend the weekend with him.
They have apparently been seeing each other regularly, meeting at various basketball games where the New Jersey Nets (now called Brooklyn Nets) star provided her and family members with courtside seats.
Kris Humphries and Myla Sinanaj met at a prominent five star hotel in New York, TMZ claims.
She is an avid tweeter and had already taken swipes at Kim Kardashian’s famous family.
In one Twitter post, she said Kim Kardashian’s stepdad Bruce Jenner’s face “scares me”, concluding: “It should be on the <<Why not to get plastic surgery>> poster.”
She held back somewhat with Kim Kardashian, though, re-tweeting a snap of the reality star with the message: “Looks like JLO.”
However she didn’t have good things to say about Kim Kardashian’s new boyfriend Kanye West.
She blasted him over his song Theraflu in which Kanye West disses Kris Humphries, rapping: “And I admit I fell in love with Kim… Round the same time she fell in love with him … That’s cool, babygirl, do your thing … Lucky I ain’t had Jay drop him from the team.”
In response Myla Sinanaj wrote how Kanye West should be “bigger than taking petty shots at sh*t that got nothing to do with him. Lost respect”.
Myla Sinanaj, who paraded around Miami Beach over the weekend, has a tattoo on her back and was seen fussing with the bottom of her bathing suit after taking a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew have visited Prince Philip in the London hospital where he is being treated for a bladder infection.
Earlier, Buckingham Palace said Duke of Edinburgh’s condition had “improved considerably” but he was likely to stay in the King Edward VII Hospital for a few days.
Prince Philip, 90, has spent two nights in hospital, missing the end of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the duke was in “good spirits”.
The duke was admitted to hospital on Monday, hours before the Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Andrew have visited Prince Philip in the London hospital where he is being treated for a bladder infection
On Wednesday, the Queen attended a lunch with Commonwealth leaders, as she continued to mark 60 years of her reign.
Prime Minister David Cameron was among the 70 guests at the lunch, at Marlborough House on Pall Mall.
The engagement saw a protest by some members of the UK’s Tamil community, as Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa arrived. They were demonstrating about the country’s record on human rights.
The duke, who had treatment for a blocked coronary artery in December, turns 91 on Sunday.
A palace spokesman said earlier: “The treatment of his infection continues with antibiotics.
“He is likely to remain in hospital over the next few days. He is in good spirits.”
The Queen arrived at the hospital, in central London, at 17:10 BST and left at 17:55. The Duke of York left the hospital at about 18:40 BST.
Prince Andrew told reporters that his father was “mending very well”.
Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales, who earlier opened a sheep industry show in Scotland, told well-wishers the duke was “doing well”.
Dorothea Holland, 60, from Stranraer in Galloway, said she asked Prince Charles how the duke was.
“He said he was doing well and thanked me for asking. He just said it was a shame that he hadn’t been able to take part yesterday, and said they had all had a very busy few days,” she said.
On Tuesday, the Earl of Wessex, his youngest son, said the duke was “feeling better” and had been watching the Jubilee events on television.
Asked how the Queen was coping without her husband, Prince Edward added: “She’s bearing up but missing him, obviously.”
As well as the concert, which saw performances from artists including Stevie Wonder and Sir Paul McCartney, the duke missed the national service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday.
In his sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury said “our prayers and thoughts” are with the duke.
The service was followed by receptions at Mansion House and the Guildhall, a lunch at Westminster Hall and a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace, then by a balcony appearance by the Queen, the Royal Family and a flypast.
Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip was “understandably disappointed” about missing the rest of the celebrations.
On Tuesday evening the Queen released video message to the nation, describing the four days of celebration as a “humbling experience”.
“It has touched me deeply to see so many thousands of families, neighbors and friends celebrating together in such a happy atmosphere,” the Queen said.
With water demand rising, forests and fish stocks declining, and lack of action on climate change, life on Earth may be at risk to an irreversible change, the UN warns.
The Global Environmental Outlook says significant progress is seen on only four out of 90 environmental goals.
Meanwhile, a team of scientists warns that life on Earth may be on the way to an irreversible “tipping point”.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) urges leaders to agree tough goals at this month’s Rio+20 summit.
Where governments have agreed specific treaties, it says, major change has transpired.
However, negotiations leading up to the summit appear mired in problems, with governments failing to find agreement since January on issues such as eliminating subsidies on fossil fuels, regulating fishing on the high seas and obliging corporations to measure their environmental footprint.
“GEO-5 reminds world leaders and nations meeting at Rio+20 why a decisive and defining transition to awards a low-carbon, resource-efficient, job-generating ‘green economy’ is urgently needed,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP’s executive director.
“If current trends continue, if current patterns of production and consumption of natural resources prevail and cannot be reversed, then governments will preside over unprecedented levels of damage and degradation.”
This is the fifth edition of the Global Environmental Outlook, UNEP’s blue-chip five-yearly assessment of the natural world.
With water demand rising, forests and fish stocks declining, and lack of action on climate change, life on Earth may be at risk to an irreversible change
The last, published in 2007, warned that factors such as rising demand for freshwater were affecting human wellbeing.
For the current edition, researchers assessed progress in 90 important environmental issues.
They concluded that meaningful progress had been made on just four – making petrol lead-free, tackling ozone layer depletion, increasing access to clean water and boosting research on marine pollution.
A further 40 showed some progress, including the establishment of protected habitat for plants and animals on land and slowing the rate of deforestation.
Little or no progress was noted for 24, including tackling climate change, while clear deterioration was found in eight, including the parlous state of coral reefs around the world.
For the remainder, there was too little data to draw firm conclusions.
This is despite more than 700 international agreements designed to tackle specific aspects of environmental decline, and agreements on alleviating poverty and malnutrition such as the Millennium Development Goals.
Among the report’s “low-lights” are:
• air pollution indoors and outdoors is probably causing more than six million premature deaths each year
• greenhouse gas emissions are on track to warm the world by at least 3C on average by 2100
• most river basins contain places where drinking water standards are below World Health Organization standards
• only 1.6% of the world’s oceans are protected.
A few hours after GEO-5’s release, the journal Nature published a review of evidence on environmental change concluding that the biosphere – the part of the planet that supports life – could be heading for rapid, possibly irreversible change.
The authors, headed by Anthony Barnofsky from the University of California, Berkeley, combined information on major transformations in the Earth’s past (such as mass extinctions) with models incorporating the present and the immediate future.
More than 40% of the Earth’s land is used for human needs, including cities and farms; and with the population set to grow by a further two billion by 2050, that figure could soon exceed 50%.
Rising demand for resource-expensive foods such as beef could mean it happens by 2025, Prof. Anthony Barnofsky’s modelling suggests.
“It really will be a new world, biologically, at that point,” he said.
“I think that if we want to avoid the most unpleasant surprises, we want to stay away from the 50% mark.”
At the core of the Rio+20 agenda is the idea of changing many of the factors driving this pattern of environmental decline while also raising living standards for the world’s poor.
UNEP adds its voice to many others urging world leaders to seize this baton when they assemble in Rio on 20 June.
Population growth, unsustainable consumption in western and fast-industrializing nations, and environmentally destructive subsidies all need urgent action, it says.
A few years ago the World Bank concluded that destructive fishing practices, fuelled largely by subsidies, had depleted stocks so much that society was missing out on $50 billion per year worth of fish it could otherwise have eaten.
The G20 has previously agreed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies – calculated at over $400 billion per year – without setting firm targets or a timetable. UNEP says leaders should make specific moves on this in Rio.
The summit – which marks 20 years since the Rio Earth Summit and 40 years since the very first UN environmental gathering in Stockholm – is likely to agree to develop a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs), a concept that UNEP endorses.
It points out that factors such as air pollution and climate change are also imposing costs on the global economy – in the US, for example, air pollution is calculated to cut crop yields by $14-26 billion each year.
“The moment has come to put away the paralysis of indecision, acknowledge the facts and face up to the common humanity that unites all peoples,” said Achim Steiner.
“Rio+20 is a moment to turn sustainable development from aspiration and patchy implementation into a genuine path to progress and prosperity for this and the next generations to come.”
Spain’s economy minister Luis de Guindos has dampened speculation that the country is about to seek a bailout of its bank sector.
Luis de Guindos said no decision would be made until audits of the banks were completed, possibly by the end of June.
There have been reports in the past few days that Spain was seeking an immediate bailout from eurozone funds.
Luis de Guindos was speaking in Brussels, where plans have been published that aim to ensure that taxpayers do not have to fund future bailouts of banks.
An IMF audit of Spain’s banks is due next week, with further independent reports completed about two weeks after, Luis de Guindos said.
“I have absolutely not discussed any intervention in Spain’s banks today,” he told reporters on the sidelines of meetings in Brussels.
Asked if Spain was preparing a request for EU aid, Luis de Guindos said: “We are not preparing anything… we have a road map.”
With investors demanding higher returns to lend money to Spain, its finance minister said the credit markets were “effectively shut” to Spain, inflaming worries that the country would be forced to join Greece, Portugal and Ireland and seek outside help.
Spain has to find at least 80 billion Euros ($100 billion) to strengthen its banks’ capital buffers.
A key test will come on Thursday, with Spain due to auction up to 2 billion Euros of bonds.
Spain's economy minister Luis de Guindos has dampened speculation that the country is about to seek a bailout of its bank sector
Spain is keen to avoid having to ask for a European Union bailout as this would come with strict conditions.
It is instead seeking funds which could be injected directly into the banking system.
Reports suggesting EU officials are looking at how this could happen contributed to a rally on European markets late in the afternoon.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama kept up pressure on European leaders, calling for an “immediate plan” to restore confidence, after the two men spoken on the telephone last night.
David Cameron is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday to discuss the issues.
The European Central Bank (ECB) appeared unlikely to take any immediate action to provide further financial support, despite president Mario Draghi acknowledging the seriousness of the eurozone’s crisis.
After the ECB left interest rates unchanged at 1% on Wednesday, Mario Draghi suggested that further monetary policy was not the answer.
The ECB has provided 1 trillion Euros for the banking system with two re-financing operations, or LTROs, designed to ease borrowing costs.
Despite signs that borrowing costs are once again rising sharply, Mario Draghi said: “The issue now is whether these LTROs would actually be effective. Some of these problems in the euro area have nothing to do with monetary policy… and I don’t think it would be right for monetary policy to fill other institutions’ lack of action.”
On Wednesday, the European Commission unveiled proposals designed to stop taxpayers’ money being used to bail out failed banks.
The aim is to ensure losses are borne by bank shareholders and creditors and minimize costs for taxpayers.
However, new legislation is unlikely to come into force before 2014 at the earliest, too late to protect taxpayers from any further immediate bank failures.
“The proposal we have today may be only useful for the future but it does not solve the current problems we face,” said Sharon Bowles, chair of the European Parliament’s economic and finance committee.
There would be new requirements for countries to prepare for a bank collapse, collecting money through an annual levy on banks that would be used to provide emergency loans or guarantees.
The European Commission plans involve drawing up a EU-wide framework that would allow:
• Financial regulators to be more “intrusive” in the running of banks as firms’ stability worsens
• Forcing banks to draw up explicit “recovery” and “resolution” plans in the event of their finances deteriorating
• Countries to enforce the sale of all or a part of failed banks, overriding the rights of shareholders or creditors
• Appointment of a “special manager” at a bank to “restore its financial situation”
• Laying the foundations for an “increasingly integrated EU-level oversight of cross-border entities”
The changes form part of commitments agreed by the leaders of the G20 group of major economies in September 2009.
Michel Barnier, the commissioner who unveiled the plans, said: “We must equip public authorities so that they can deal adequately with future bank crises. Otherwise citizens will once again be left to pay the bill, while the rescued banks continue as before knowing that they will be bailed out again.”
If it wins the backing of EU countries and the European Parliament, the law would mark a step in the direction of the banking union supported by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi.
Drew Barrymore certainly achieved something “tasteful and timeless” for her wedding day in her stunning Chanel wedding dress as she exchanged vows with new husband Will Kopelman last weekend.
Pregnant bride Drew Barrymore looked gorgeous and glowing in her muslin and organza gown, which featured a skirt embroidered with tulle flowers, feathers and a black belt to accentuate her growing tummy.
In the first official romantic snap for People magazine, art director Will Kopelman is seen tenderly cradling her baby bump as she smiles and near nuzzles into her new husband.
Drew Barrymore’s dress was accessorized with Chanel Fine Jewelry, including a pair of Fils de Camelia 1.42 carat diamond earrings and a 14 carat white and black diamond vintage Eventail cuff.
The bride wore a traditional veil and carried a bouquet of flowers featuring cherry blossoms, pink peonies, pink garden roses and pink spray roses.
The wedding was held at Drew Barrymore’s $5.7 million Mediterranean style mansion in Montecito, California.
“The day was perfect,” she gushed to People magazine.
“Everyone we love and care about was there. It was fun and meaningful as we could ever have hoped.”
In the first official romantic snap for People magazine, art director Will Kopelman is seen tenderly cradling Drew Barrymore’s baby bump as she smiles and near nuzzles into her new husband
Drew Barrymore’s father died several years ago, and she was walked down the aisle by her father-in-law, former Chanel CEO Arie Kopelman.
“[She] looked gorgeous, completely relaxed and beautiful,” a source said of the pregnant bride.
“She was radiant.”
The vows were exchanged under a rose and lace adorned Chuppah in a traditional Jewish ceremony.
Drew Barrymore’s best friend and rumored bridesmaid Cameron Diaz reportedly read the pregnant bride E.E Cummings famous poem, I Carry Your Heart With Me, which she also famously recited in the hit 2005 movie In Her Shoes.
Wedding planner Stephanie Cove said that the romantic day was “special”.
“Everyone was so happy for them,” Stephanie Cove said.
“The way Drew and Will looked at each other was just so special.”
The couple’s reception was said to be very food-orientated, and included gourmet appetizers such as lobster rolls, pork buns, foie gras on pink peppercorn shortbread, and steak tartare with quail egg.
Meanwhile the formal dinner was more family-style, and included fried chicken and steaks, People magazine reports.
After partying the night away, guests were once again treated to more treats from some food trucks, before the couple left the reception to stay the night at nearby ranch.
In a limo on their way to their first night as a married couple, Drew Barrymore, 37, and Will Kopelman looked like they just couldn’t wait to be alone as husband and wife.
The actress, who is heavily pregnant with the couple’s first child, couldn’t wait to share an intimate moment with her new husband as they both tenderly leaned in for a kiss as they were picked up from the ceremony.
As well as Drew Barrymore’s best pal Cameron Diaz attending the wedding, Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth, Busy Phillips, Jimmy Fallon and his wife Nancy Juvonen were all on hand to join in the celebrations.
And all of them had been present at a rehearsal dinner the day before.
Will Kopelman proposed to Drew Barrymore during a holiday in Sun Valley, Idaho, in January.
The marriage is Drew Barrymore’s third, after she was wed to Welsh bar owner Jeremy Thomas between March and April 1994 and comedian Tom Green, who she married in July 2001, but filed for divorce from before the end of the year.
The world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is planned to take place in New Zealand on November 28.
The screening at Wellington’s Embassy Theatre will take place two weeks ahead of the film’s release on 14 December.
Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson said it was fitting to hold the premiere “where the journey began.”
Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit is set 60 years before the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films.
The world premiere of The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey is planned to take place in New Zealand on November 28
In An Unexpected Journey, Bilbo Baggins attempts to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from Smaug, the dragon.
The film’s cast includes Sherlock’s Martin Freeman, who takes on the lead role of Baggins.
Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett and Sir Ian McKellen, who all starred in Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy, also appear in the movie.
British actor Andy Serkis has reprised his motion-capture animated role of Gollum.
The film is split into two parts, with the second installment – The Hobbit: There And Back Again – due for release in December 2013.
The 3D movies were shot at a rate of 48 frames per second, compared with the industry standard of 24 frames.
Following a preview of unfinished footage at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas in April, some critics claimed it “looked like a made-for-TV movie”.
Peter Jackson admitted: “It does take you a while to get used to.”
He added: “Ten minutes is sort of marginal, it probably needed a little bit more.”
He wrote the screenplay with partner Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.
A new research suggests that combining exercise with conventional treatments for depression does not improve recovery.
In the NHS-funded study – published in the British Medical Journal – some patients were given help to boost their activity levels in addition to receiving therapy or anti-depressants.
After a year all 361 patients had fewer signs of depression, but there was no difference between the two groups.
Current guidelines suggest sufferers do up to three exercise sessions a week.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) drew up that advice in 2004.
At the time it said that on the basis of the research available, increased physical activity could help those with mild depression.
“This is a huge disappointment because we were hoping exercise would help lift depression. But we need to bear in mind that these were patients already on medication, so it considers exercise on top of medical care. It did not look at mild depression nor did it consider exercise as an alternative to medication.
“The message mustn’t be to stop exercising. Exercise has so many other benefits – it is good in terms of heart disease, lowers blood pressure, has a beneficial effect on the balance of fats in the blood, strengthens muscles, and burns up calories. A lot of people who have depression may have other problems too. And an active body helps to produce a healthy mind,” said Prof. Alan Maryon-Davis, professor of public health, King’s College London.
A new research suggests that combining exercise with conventional treatments for depression does not improve recovery
The latest study, carried out by teams from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, looked at how that might actually work in a real clinical setting.
All 361 people taking part were given conventional treatments appropriate to their level of depression.
But for eight months some in a randomly allocated group were also given advice on up to 13 separate occasions on how to increase their level of activity.
It was up to individual patients what activity they chose to increase and by how much.
This approach produced good results in terms of encouraging people to do more over a sustained period of time – something which could have benefits to their general physical health.
But at the end of a year, researchers found no additional reduction in the symptoms of depression in the more active group.
Prof. John Campbell, from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, which also took part in the study, said: “Many patients suffering from depression would prefer not to have to take traditional anti-depressant medication, preferring instead to consider alternative non-drug based forms of therapy.
“Exercise and activity appeared to offer promise as one such treatment, but this carefully designed research study has shown that exercise does not appear to be effective in treating depression.”
But he added that GPs were often faced with patients with a number of health problems for whom encouraging an active lifestyle might be of overall benefit.
“The message of this study of course is not that exercise isn’t good for you, exercise is very good for you, but it’s not good for treating people with what was actually quite severe depression.
“That buzz we all get from moderate intensity of exercise is certainly acknowleged but it’s not sustained and it’s not appropriate for treating people with depression.”
At present, the NHS can refer patients for a course of supervised exercise sessions as part of treatment for a number of illnesses, including depression.
These findings are therefore likely to be taken into account when NICE next reviews its guidelines.
The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, a British government-backed programme.
More packages with body parts have been found at two Vancouver schools, in what could be the latest twist in the case of Luka Rocco Magnotta, who is suspected of murdering and dismembering his lover Jun Lin.
The packages contained a human hand and foot, Canadian police said.
Canadian police declined to confirm whether the incident was linked to suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta.
Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, on Tuesday appeared in a Berlin court – a day after he was arrested at an internet cafe.
The Canadian authorities are now preparing papers to request his extradition, and Luka Rocco Magnotta has reportedly said he will not fight the move.
Luka Rocco Magnotta is suspected of killing Chinese student Jun Lin, 33, in Montreal, and posting severed body parts to political parties in Canada.
Luka Rocco Magnotta is suspected of killing Chinese student Jun Lin in Montreal, and posting severed body parts to political parties in Canada
Jun Lin’s relatives have now arrived in Montreal and are expected to meet police shortly.
On Tuesday, Canadian police said a package with what appeared to be a human hand was opened at Vancouver’s False Creek Elementary School.
Another parcel with what looked like a human foot was found at St George’s school for boys in the western Canadian city.
“There is no indication any student or staff has been targeted at any school,” Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Warren Lemcke told a news conference.
He added that “this must have been a very traumatic incident” for pupils and teaching staff at the schools.
Jun Lin’s hand and foot were discovered last week after they were mailed to Canada’s political parties.
Police say Jun Lin’s other hand, foot and head are still missing.
Police say Luka Rocco Magnotta flew from Montreal to Paris on 26 May, eventually travelling by coach from France to Germany.
Montreal Police Commander Ian Lafreniere said investigators were extremely relieved and pleased about the arrest.
“We said from the beginning that the web has been used to glorify himself and we believe the web brought him down,” he added.
“He was recognized because his photo was everywhere.”
Luka Rocco Magnotta was picked up in the cybercafe in Berlin’s Neukoelln district, where he had reportedly been reading articles about himself.
“A colleague recognized him from his photo because he’d just read the newspaper,” the cafe owner told the Associated Press news agency.
The employee, Kadir Anlayisli, ran outside and flagged down a passing police van.
Police said there had been no struggle when Luka Rocco Magnotta was arrested on Monday.
Confronted by seven police officers, Luka Rocco Magnotta “tried at first giving fake names”, police spokesman Guido Busch said.
“But in the end he just said: <<You got me>>.”
The suspect had reportedly worked as a bisexual porn actor and model.
Jun Lin, who was from Wuhan in China, had been enrolled as an undergraduate to study engineering and computer science at Concordia University in Montreal.
Investigators say a video posted online, in which a man apparently uses an ice pick to kill another man, is believed to show Jun Lin’s murder.
Luka Rocco Magnotta faces charges in Canada of murder and threatening Canadian politicians.
Li Wangyang, a leading Chinese dissident imprisoned after the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, has been found dead under strange circumstances, his relatives and rights groups said.
Officials said Li Wangyang, who was freed from jail a year ago, hanged himself in hospital, where he was being treated for heart disease and diabetes.
But Li Wangyang’s brother-in-law questioned the death, says the dissident showed “no signs of suicide” in a recent meeting.
Li Wangyang spent more than 22 years in jail.
Li Wangyang, who was freed from jail a year ago, hanged himself in hospital, where he was being treated for heart disease and diabetes
Zhao Baozhu said he saw the body of his brother-in-law in a hospital in the central Chinese city of Shaoyang.
Li Wangyang was found in his room with a white strip of cloth around his neck connected to a window bar above, Zhao Baozhu said.
He said the authorities had then taken away Li Wangyang’s body without approval from the family.
“Last evening we were together, Li Wangyang did not show any signs of suicide; it is strange,” Zhao Baozhu told AFP news agency.
“Li Wangyang is a man with a strong mind and strong spirit,” he added.
He told the news agency he did not want to comment further as he was afraid his phone was being monitored.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in China said Li Wangyang died “unusually”.
“We cannot rule out that security guards monitoring him tortured him to death and faked a suicide,” the centre said in a statement.
Li Wangyang, a labor rights activist, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, the centre said.
He was released in 2001 but later sentenced to another 10 years for “inciting subversion”.
Science-fiction author Ray Bradbury has died in Southern California at the age of 91.
Ray Bradbury’s daughter Alexandra confirmed that her father died on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
He wrote hundreds of novels, short stories, plays and television and film scripts in a career dating back to the 1940s.
Ray Bradbury’s most famous novels include Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
The writer’s grandson, Danny Karapetian, said: “He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it’s always really touching and comforting to hear their stories.
“His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theatre, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him.”
Science-fiction author Ray Bradbury has died in Southern California at the age of 91
Ray Bradbury was born in Illinois, and as a teenager moved with his family to Los Angeles.
For three years after leaving school he earned a living selling newspapers, writing in his spare time.
From the early 1940s, his short stories started to appear in magazines like Weird Tales, Astounding Science Fiction and Captain Future.
In 1947, Ray Bradbury married Marguerite “Maggie” McClure and published his first book, Dark Carnival.
Three years later, Ray Bradbury began to establish his reputation with The Martian Chronicles, a collection of stories about materialistic Earthmen colonizing and ruinously exploiting Mars.
His most celebrated novel, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, depicts a future society in which books are banned.
The story, which gets its title from the temperature at which paper supposedly ignites, proved to be uncannily prophetic – the characters are addicted to television soap operas, while miniature headphones, known as “ear thimbles”, provide a constant stream of music and news.
A film version, directed by Francois Truffaut, was released in 1966.
For years, Ray Bradbury tried to prevent the publication of Fahrenheit 451 as an e-book. He told the New York Times that electronic books “smell like burned fuel” and called the internet “a big distraction”.
“It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere,” he said.
But he relented in 2011, when his publishing deal was renewed. His agent said: “We explained the situation to him, that a new contract wouldn’t be possible without e-book rights. He understood and gave us the right to go ahead.”
Ray Bradbury also wrote several works for film and television. He wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s film Moby Dick and scripts for many TV series, including Suspense, The Alfred Hitchcock Show and The Twilight Zone.
Ray Bradbury was passionate about literature. In 2008, he told The National Endowment for the Arts: “If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy.
“But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide. That’s the great thing about our country – we’re a democracy of readers, and we should keep it that way.”
Ray Bradbury had four daughters – Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra. His wife died in 2003.
Prosecutors in Paris have opened a preliminary investigation into Bahraini ambassador Naser Mohamed Youssef Al-Belooshi’s alleged sexual harassment of an employee.
A former domestic worker for the Bahraini envoy said she was inappropriately approached by Naser Mohamed Youssef Al-Belooshi over a year before being fired in October 2011, AFP reported on Tuesday.
The incidents allegedly took place at the ambassador’s home in the Paris suburb of Neuilly.
Prosecutors in Paris have opened a preliminary investigation into Bahraini ambassador Naser Mohamed Youssef Al-Belooshi’s alleged sexual harassment of an employee
The 44-year-old plaintiff had initially accused Naser Mohamed Youssef Al-Belooshi of raping her on more than one occasion, but later told investigators that she was able to thwart those attempts.
The initial probe will determine the veracity of the allegations, which if proven, could lead to charges.
The alleged victim has also claimed that the ambassador’s son threatened her with a gun in September 2010.
Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld seems to be discovering his paternal side after welcoming Choupette the Siamese cat into his Paris home after he revealed last year that he could never imagine having children of his own.
Over the past few months Karl Lagerfeld, 78, has invested time teaching his female feline the art of fine dining and, gearing her up for the modern world, how to work an iPad.
The fashion mogul even congratulated Choupette on her progress by posting a Twitter picture of her busy playing on the Apple device.
“She has lunch and dinner with me on the table, with her own food. She doesn’t touch my food.
“She doesn’t want to eat on the floor. She sleeps under a pillow and she even knows how to use an iPad.” Karl Lagerfeld told WWD.
Karl Lagerfeld congratulated Choupette on her progress by posting a Twitter picture of her busy playing on the Apple device
And while he’s away on business Karl Lagerfeld revealed that he has recruited two personal maids to provide Choupette with round-the-clock care.
He added: “She is beyond spoiled.”
Choupette was given to Karl Lagerfeld by his French model muse Baptiste Giabiconi in January and she has since become his primary preoccupation.
He even gets his maids to keep a diary of her moods, movements and eating patterns if he’s not with her.
“In the nine months, we already have almost 600 pages… I think it could be funny to make a little book of Choupette’s diary.”
But we won’t be seeing Choupette fashioning custom-made Chanel wares anytime soon, as Karl Lagerfeld described the act of humanizing pets as “circuslike”.
Last year while sat with former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld for Interview’s September issue, Karl Lagerfeld said: “If I were a woman, I would love to have lots of kids. But for men, I don’t believe in it.”
Miley Cyrus announces that she is engaged to The Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth.
Liam Hemsworth, 22, proposed to the former Disney princess on May 31 with a 3.5-carat diamond ring from jeweller Neil Lane.
Miley Cyrus, 19, told People magazine: “I’m so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with Liam.”
Australian magazine WHO reports that the ring is a cushion-cut diamond set in an Art Noveau-inspired gold band.
Miley Cyrus tweeted a day after the proposal: “Heaven is a place on earth.”
Today she quoted: “I love you more today than yesterday but I love you less today than I will tomorrow,” and also wrote: “Life is beautiful.”
Miley Cyrus announces that she is engaged to The Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth
Miley Cyrus’ parents Billy Ray and Tish have yet to release a statement but a source close to the family say the couple are “thrilled” and have always seen Liam Hemsworth as “one of the family”.
The actress once named Liam Hemsworth as her “first serious boyfriend” after teenage romances with Nick Jonas and model Justin Gaston.
The couple met while working together on The Last Song in 2009 and Liam Hemsworth has previously admitted while he wanted to be professional on the film, they couldn’t help but fall in love after working so closely together.
Liam Hemsworth said: “What happened happened, and we’ve been together since.
“She makes me really happy. When you start, you want to be professional, but when you’re filming those scenes with someone and pretending to love them, you’re not human if you don’t feel something.”
It hasn’t been the smoothest of relationships. The couple announced that they had split in August 2010 but were back together within a month. They broke up again in November last year before reconciling again.
Former Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus is one of the highest-earners in showbusiness, and topped a list of the ten richest teens in Hollywood last year with a personal fortune of $120 million.
Liam Hemsworth, meanwhile, is a rising star, who this year broke into the big time with his starring role in The Hunger Games.
Previously, he was best known for his relationship with Miley Cyrus and as The Avengers star Chris’ younger brother.
It has been a happy time in the Hemsworth family of late, with Chris becoming a father for the first time just last month.
Miley Cyrus has been eager to shed her former squeaky clean Disney image for the past few years, and last month voiced her opinion on “magical, beautiful” sex.
“Sex is actually really beautiful,” Miley Cyrus said during an interview on The Conversation.
“It’s the only way we create, and it’s the only way the world keeps going.
“So it’s ignorant not to talk to your kids about it or not make it seem as magical or cool as it actually is. Kids have a TV, so they know what sex is. So educate them and let them know… it’s a beautiful thing, and it is magic, and it’s when you connect with somebody.”
LinkedIn is investigating claims that over six million of its users’ passwords have been leaked onto the internet.
Hackers posted a file containing encrypted passwords onto a Russian web forum.
They have invited the hacking community to help with decryption.
LinkedIn, which has over 150 million users, has not released a formal statement, but tweeted: “Our team is currently looking into reports.”
LinkedIn is investigating claims that over six million of its users' passwords have been leaked onto the internet
The news comes as the social networking website was forced to update its mobile app after a privacy flaw was uncovered by security researchers.
Skycure Security said the mobile app was sending unencrypted calendar entries to LinkedIn servers without users’ knowledge.
The information included meeting notes, which often contain information such as dialling numbers and passcodes for conference calls.
In response LinkedIn said it would “no longer send data from the meeting notes section of your calendar”.
The company stressed that the calendar function was an opt-in feature.
However, the researchers who uncovered the flaw said the transmission of the data to LinkedIn’s servers was done without a “clear indication from the app to the user”.
In a statement posted on the company’s blog, LinkedIn’s mobile product head Joff Redfern said a new “learn more” link would be added to the app so users have a clearer picture about how their information is being used and transmitted.
Cissy Houston has agreed to write a book about Whitney Houston that will give fans “something to treasure”, book publisher HarperCollins announced on Monday.
Cissy Houston, 78, agreed to write a memoir the publisher says will reveal the “unabridged and unbelievable story” of her daughter, who died in a Beverly Hills, California, hotel bathtub in February at 48.
The still untitled book is scheduled to come out next February.
“When I lost my daughter Nippy [Whitney Houston’s nickname], the world lost one of the most beautiful voices and an extraordinarily beautiful and charitable woman,” Cissy Houston said in a statement released by the publisher.
“In sharing our story in this book, I hope to give her fans something to treasure, the way we all treasured Whitney. We are still receiving thousands of letters each day from her fans, and I hope reading this book will provide a deeper understanding into my daughter’s true story.”
Cissy Houston has agreed to write a book about Whitney Houston that will give fans “something to treasure”
HarperCollins wouldn’t divulge how much they’re paying Cissy Houston but said “a portion” of the proceeds will be donated to the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., where Whitney Houston, whose many hits included The Greatest Love of All and I Will Always Love You, sang as a child.
Whitney Houston’s funeral was also held there.
Cissy Houston has had meetings with several publishers and the word in media circles is the book deal could be worth seven figures.
According to HarperCollins, Cissy Houston will write with “candor, honesty and respect” about her daughter’s remarkable career. She’ll also address Whitney Houston’s drug problems and her troubled marriage to fellow singer Bobby Brown.
Cissy Houston also will tell of her own grief.
“She will tell the unabridged and unbelievable story of her daughter’s life as well as her own, addressing Whitney’s brightest and darkest moments while helping fans around the world understand the complexities of this extraordinary star who died much too soon,” HarperCollins announced.
“Ultimately, Cissy will go behind the headlines to show the true, human side of this strong, successful yet complicated musical icon, capturing the dramatic depths and soaring range of an extraordinary woman, along with the pain and heartbreak of a grieving mother as she struggles with impossible loss.”
Cissy Houston recently released a new album of gospel tunes called Walk on By Faith, her first new music in more than a decade.
This will be Cissy Houston’s second book. She wrote the memoir, How Sweet the Sound, in 1998.
Sheena Monnin, this year Miss Pennsylvania, has sensationally resigned from her position, claiming that the weekend’s Miss USA 2012 pageant was rigged.
Announcing the resignation on her Facebook account, Sheena Monnin claimed one of her fellow contestants had seen a list of the competition’s top five girls – before the show had even begun.
The unidentified contestant went on to name all five women correctly before they were announced, Sheena Monnin, 27, said in the posting.
But Miss Universe Organization has refuted the claims, saying that in a resignation email, Sheena Monnin said she was quitting as she was against new rules allowing transgender contestants to take part.
Sheena Monnin added on her post that the Miss Universe Organization, which oversees the pageant, is “fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy”.
Sheena Monnin, from Cranberry Township, won her title in December 2011. She did not place in the top 16 contestants on Sunday, leading some to brand her remarks as the mutterings of a “bad loser”.
But 12 hours after her first Facebook post, Sheena Monnin insisted her claims were correct and gave further insight into what sparked her decision.
“I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED proceed to call out in order who the Top 5 were before they were announced on stage,” she said.
The contestant told Sheena Monnin she had seen a folder lying open with a page reading: “FINAL SHOW Telecast, June 3, 2012” on the morning of the show – along with the “top five” filled in.
After the 51 contestants were whittled down to 16, the woman told Sheena Monnin and another contestant what she had seen.
Sheena Monnin went on: “I said <<who do you think they will be?>>. She said that she didn’t <<think>> she <<knew>> because she saw the list that morning. She relayed whose names were on the list.”
The field was then narrowed further as the contestants went through the swimswuit, evening gown and interview rounds, with eventually the final five named.
She went on: “After it was indeed the Top 5 I knew the show must be rigged; I decided to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own.”
After Miss Georgia, Miss Rhode Island, Miss Nevada, Miss Ohio and Miss Maryland completed the Q&A round, Olivia Culpo from Rhode Island was crowned the winner.
Miss Universe Organization, which is co-owned by NBC and Donald Trump, confirmed Sheena Monnin had resigned – but gave very different reasons.
“In an email to state pageant organizers, she cited the Miss Universe Organizations’ policy regarding transgendered contestants, implemented two months ago, as the reason for her resignation,” the statement said.
“Today she has changed her story by publicly making false accusations claiming that the pageant was fixed, however the contestant she privately sourced as her reference has vehemently refuted her most recent claim.”
The statement went on: “We are disappointed that she would attempt to steal the spotlight form Olivia Culpo of Rhode Island on her well-deserved Miss USA win.”
Sheena Monnin, this year Miss Pennsylvania, has sensationally resigned from her position, claiming that the weekend's Miss USA 2012 pageant was rigged
In the email written on Monday by Miss Universe Organization, Sheena Monnin wrote that she was resigning.
She said: “I refuse to be part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it.
“This goes against ever moral fiber of my being. I believe in integrity, high moral character, and fair play, none of which are part of this system any longer.”
These sentiments echo her first Facebook post – before she qualified her story.
It is not the first time a Miss USA contestant has raised eyebrows with her prejudiced views. In 2009, Carrie Prejean, representing California, was asked if she believed every state should legalize same-sex marriage.
Carrie Prejean responded: “I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.”
After Sheena Monnin posted the claims on Facebook, fans and friends commended her resignation, congratulating her for “taking the high road” and thanking her for telling the truth.
But she was also labeled a bad loser by others, including Miss USA 2010 winner Rima Fakih.
“To Miss Pennsylvania 2012,” Rima Fakih wrote on Twitter.
“So you didn’t win or place in Miss USA last night but don’t you dare disrespect my organization! Maybe that’s y u lost.”
The pageant named Olivia Culpo, a 20-year-old cellist, the winner after she made it clear that she embraced all beauty queens – transgender or otherwise – during the interview portion.
In the dreaded final question round, Olivia Culpo was faced with the most difficult question of the night: Would it be fair for a person born a man to be named Miss Universe after becoming a woman?
Olivia Culpo never stumbled as she embraced the Miss Universe Organization’s recent decision to admit transgender contestants.
“I do think that would be fair,” she said.
“But I could understand how people could be apprehensive to take that road.”
Miss Iowa USA Rebecca Hodge was named Miss Congeniality, and Miss Oregon USA Alaina Bergsma was named the most photogenic. They both won $1,000, but didn’t make the top 16.
Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella crowned her successor at the end of the night.
Olivia Culpo will represent the United States at the 61st Miss Universe pageant later this year. An American has not been named Miss Universe since Brook Lee won the title in 1997.
THE ORGANISATION LACKS MORALS: MISS PENNSYLVANIA’S CLAIMS
On her Facebook page, Sheena Monnin wrote:
“I have decided to resign my position as Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012. Effective immediately I have voluntarily, completely, and utterly removed myself from the Miss Universe Organization.
“In good conscience I can no longer be affiliated in any way with an organization I consider to be fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy. I do not support this system in any way. In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this pageant system any longer.
“Thank you all for your support and understanding as I walk a road I never dreamed I’d need to walk, as I take a stand I never dreamed I’d need to take.
“After 10 years of competing in a pageant system I once believed in, I now completely and irrevocably separate myself in every way and on every level from the Miss Universe Organization. I remove my support completely and have turned in the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012.”
Sheena Monnin later qualified her remarks by adding:
“Many people have sent me messages requesting and at times demanding that I come forward if I know information that has led to my abrupt and surprising resignation.
“I agree that it is my moral obligation to state what I witnessed and what I know to be true. I will relay to you the reasoning behind my resignation.
“I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED proceed to call out in order who the Top 5 were before they were announced on stage.
“Apparently the morning of June 3rd she saw a folder lying open to a page that said <<FINAL SHOW Telecast, June 3, 2012>> and she saw the places for Top 5 already filled in. Thinking she was just seeing a rehearsal fake top 5 from a previous day she walked away, then realized that it had without a doubt been labeled as the Final Show Telecast, June 3rd.
“After the Top 16 were called and we were standing backstage she hesitantly said to me and another contestant that she knew who the Top 5 were. I said <<who do you think they will be?>>. She said that she didn’t <<think>> she <<knew>> because she saw the list that morning. She relayed whose names were on the list. Then we agreed to wait and see if that was indeed the Top 5 called that night.
“After it was indeed the Top 5 I knew the show must be rigged; I decided at that moment to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own.
“That is all I know about this. If this contestant would like to step forward as an eye witness and as being the one who saw the sheet with the Top 5 already selected before the judges ever saw the Top 16, then perhaps action can be taken. As for me, I believe her words and I will not encourage anyone to compete in a system that in my opinion and from what I witnessed is dishonest.”
Sheena Monnin’s email, according to Miss Universe Organization:
“I am officially and irrevocably resigning the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012. I refuse to be part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it.
“This goes against ever moral fiber of my being. I believe in integrity, high moral character, and fair play, none of which are part of this system any longer.
“I hereby return the title of Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012.”
