Seven years after steaming up the screens in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reportedly set to co-star in a new film together.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are said to be in talks to appear in a forthcoming Ridley Scott movie, The Counselor, according to Deadline.com.
However, insiders insist that Angelina Jolie will play a small part rather than as a leading lady.
Shame actor Michael Fassbender is already confirmed to star in the film, which has been penned by Cormac McCarthy – the award-winning author who wrote The Road and No Country for Old Men.
It follows a lawyer who decides to get “a little bit” involved in the drug business, only to discover there is no way to just do that.
Seven years after steaming up the screens in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reportedly set to co-star in a new film together
The movie will reportedly be filmed in Europe and is slated to shoot in June.
It will be convenient for both the couple and the director who both have stately houses in the South of France.
Director Ridley described the film recently, saying: “[It’s a story of how] you shouldn’t play with the devil, don’t step across the line, don’t think you can do it and get away with it. You can’t.”
Studio 20th Century Fox, who most recently worked with the director on Prometheus, have approached the helmsman about distributing and possibly co-financing the film.
Angelina Jolie’s next project, Maleficent, will shoot in late June or early July, ahead of a release in March 2014, meaning she would have the time to work on a small role in The Counsellor.
Brad Pitt has said previously that the couple try to work separately so that either one can be a constant presence for their six-strong brood.
“We’re not ones to repeat ourselves, but we’d like to, because right now, we’re hopscotching with films so one can be with the kids and one’s free to work,” brad Pitt told the Associated Press last May.
“And why aren’t we doing [movies] together? Why aren’t we doing everything together?”
The small town of Amarillo, Texas, was hit with a whopper of a storm Wednesday morning that left four feet of hail in its wake.
Officials from the National Weather Service in Amarillo said that the storm was so severe and the hail so unrelenting that a major highway in Potter County was completely covered.
But the photos of the one-off event are so unbelievable that an army of online skeptics have cast doubt on their authenticity, suggesting that instead they may simply show large rocks.
Several vehicles got stuck in the flash flooding and two feet of water also struck a stretch of Highway 136, the weather service reported.
One Chevy Tahoe, a large SUV, got stuck in hail up to its hood, Krissy Scotten, a spokeswoman for the weather service office in Amarillo, told MSNBC.com.
When the weather service posted a photograph to Facebook of a firefighter next to the ice — which reached all the way up to his chest – commenters couldn’t believe their eyes.
“That just doesn’t even look real! Dang!” Bridget Hefner said on the site.
Commenters turned their disbelief into hypotheses, offering alternative explanations to the unbelievable reality.
“Looks like a bunch of rocks/stones,” suggested Tiffany Baugh Berry.
Another cynical poster wrote: “It’s a lite dusting of hail on some damn rocks.”
“I can assure you we do not have big rocks like that in West Texas,” Krissy Scotten retorted to MSNBC.com.
“That was four feet of ice,” she insisted, adding that the hail was compacted by rain and floodwater across a wide area.
She blamed the ice’s rock-like appearance on drought.
“We’re very dusty around here,” Krissy Scotten said.
“It was actually the rain/water that caused the drifts,” she said.
“Anytime you have hail accumulate two to four feet high and get over three inches of rain, no matter how it occurs, it’s pretty incredible.”
The small town of Amarillo, Texas, was hit with a whopper of a storm Wednesday morning that left four feet of hail in its wake
The Texas Department of Transportation said that at the storm’s climax, there was zero visibility on the road.
Maintenance crews worked on Thursday to clear roads after the storm, which left so much hail in its wake that workers had to use snow plows to clear the piles from the road.
“It was crazy,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Justyn Jackson said about the freak event.
As the hail started to melt, it created flash floods which swept through the area.
“It looked like soap suds,” said a local TV meteorologist.
“The storm was moving really slow and a combination of the pea-sized hail and four to six inches of rain created those conditions.”
The rural area where the storm struck was mainly ranch land, about 25 miles north of Amarillo and south of Dumas. Rainwater gushed across the parched land, washing dirt and then mud into the hail, pushing it all onto U.S. 287, Potter County Sheriff Brian Thomas said.
“There were just piles of hail,” said Maribel Martinez with the Amarillo/Potter/Randall Office of Emergency Management.
“Some of the cars were just buried in hail and people were trapped in their cars.”
The southbound lane of the highway, which was shut down around 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, finally reopened early on Thursday morning.
Emergency crews also got several swift-water rescue calls as the road was flooded in low-lying areas, she said. Rural fences and vehicles suffered hail damage but there were no reported injuries.
But the National Weather Service said it’s starting to clear up and should be a sunny weekend.
“That’s a good thing since it will take a few days for that hail to melt,” said Andrew Moulton, an NWS meteorologist in Amarillo.
Pea-sized hail, flash flooding and rain combined to form the perfect storm, but it didn’t set any records.
Krissy Scotten says the weather service doesn’t keep records of quantities of hail.
“This was just one of those weird storms,” Potter County sheriff Brian Thomas told KAMR-TV.
The region isn’t unfamiliar with this kind of weather either.
A similar storm hit Dalhart, Texas, in 1993, according to Jose Garcia, the chief forecaster at Amarillo’s weather service.
He said that the five to six-foot deep hail took over a month to melt.
A package delivered to New York World Financial Center building which appeared to be a grenade has been cleared by the bomb squad as a toy.
The suspicious packet was found at Two World Financial Center near the World Trade Center site and prompted a mass evacuation of the building at 11:00 a.m. yesterday.
The package had been spotted during routine screening, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
A package delivered to New York World Financial Center building which appeared to be a grenade has been cleared by the bomb squad as a toy
The police department’s bomb squad surrounded the scene in lower Manhattan.
NBC reported an “all clear” on its Twitter feed at 12:27 p.m.
Two World Financial Center was severely damaged by the falling debris when the World Trade Center towers collapsed in the September 11 attacks on New York.
The building had to be closed for repairs until May 2002 as a result of the damage.
The North Korean rocket launch has failed on Friday morning, Pyongyang officials have confirmed.
The rocket – seen by many as a banned test of long-range missile technology – was launched from north-west North Korea early on Friday.
The US, Japan and South Korea say it flew only for a short time before breaking up and crashing into waters off the Korean peninsula.
North Korea said its scientists were assessing what had caused the failure.
North Korea says the aim of the rocket was to launch a satellite into orbit – a move marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of national founder Kim Il-sung.
But the US and other nations say the launch constituted a disguised test of long-range missile technology banned under UN resolutions.
In a statement, the White House condemned the launch, despite its failure. The UN Security Council is due to meet later in the day to discuss the launch. China, North Korea’s closest ally, has called for calm and restraint on the Korean peninsula.
The rocket went up at 07:39 local time, South Korean officials said.
The North Korean rocket launch has failed on Friday morning
Its intended flight path would have taken it south, to the west of the Korean peninsula between Japan and the Philippines.
Both Japan and South Korea had threatened to shoot it down if it threatened their territory.
But officials from several nations observing the launch said the rocket had failed.
“Initial indications are that the first stage of the missile fell into the sea 165 km [105 miles] west of Seoul, South Korea,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command [NORAD] said in a statement.
“The remaining stages were assessed to have failed and no debris fell on land. At no time were the missile or the resultant debris a threat.”
Japan reported similar details.
“At approximately 07:40 we confirmed that a certain flying object was launched from North Korea and fell after flying for just over a minute,” Japanese Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka said.
South Korea said the rocket exploded into some 20 pieces and fell into the sea.
“We are conducting a search operation to retrieve the fallen objects,” a defense ministry official said.
Some five hours after the launch, North Korea confirmed it had been unsuccessful.
“The Earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit. Scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure,” state-run KCNA news agency said. State television carried a similar announcement.
The US said that North Korea’s behavior was of concern to the global community.
“Despite the failure of its attempted missile launch, North Korea’s provocative action threatens regional security, violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments,” a White House statement said.
Pyongyang agreed in February to a partial freeze in nuclear activities and a missile test moratorium in return for US food aid. But that deal was put on hold last month after the North announced its rocket launch plans.
Earlier this week reports also emerged from South Korea of a possible third nuclear test being planned by North Korea.
North Korea conducted a similar rocket launch in 2009. On that occasion US and South Korea analysts said the rocket failed to reach orbit – but North Korea said it was a success.
The failure of this launch could pose a challenge for Pyongyang, which is holding a week of high-profile events ahead of the formal celebrations to mark Kim Il-Sung’s birthday on Sunday.
The Workers’ Party held a rare conference on Wednesday and the country’s rubber-stamp parliament is due to meet on Friday.
Both meetings are seen as formalizing the transition of power to young leader Kim Jong-Un following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.
Four poisonous caterpillar species are the latest dangerous threat in South Florida.
The venomous caterpillars use their spines to attack by projecting poison at potential enemies.
Of all the unusual species to call south Florida home – from African rats to burmese pythons – these types of caterpillars can cause the worst anguish.
Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Miami, told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper that although the center has not seen any deaths from caterpillar stings, they have gotten hundreds of calls for help with people “out-of-control hysterical”.
“It’s a very painful sting,” Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein told the newspaper.
“We even see people pass out from the pain.”
The four types of caterpillars with the awful venom include the saddleback caterpillar, the puss caterpillar, the io caterpillar and the hag caterpillar.
When they attack humans, the venom can be unbearable, particularly if the saddleback releases its poison.
South Florida resident Michael Stanwyck told the Sun-Sentinel: “It’s like somebody lit you on fire.”
Michael Stanwyck went on to say: “A bee sting times a hundred.”
The species is most threatening around this time of year in Florida as the weather starts to get warmer.
Eggs begin to hatch and the caterpillars grow to become moths.
The venomous caterpillars use their spines to attack by projecting poison at potential enemies
Some people, although rare, can have an allergic reaction to the toxins and are encouraged to call 911 or go to hospital.
They can experience vomiting, shortness of breath and other reactions.
Others with less severe attacks can be treated at home by calling Poison Control.
Scotch tape can be placed over the wounded area and stripped off over and over again to remove the spines from within the skin.
Although their poison is painful, the caterpillars are not looking to harm anyone or anything. Jaret Daniels, assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida, told the Sun-Sentinel that they are merely trying to protect themselves.
The venom is used as the caterpillars’ predators, like birds and lizards.
Jaret Daniels said: “If you’re a caterpillar, you have a very challenging life because everything wants to eat you.
“They’re not trying to hurt you. They’re doing it to avoid being eaten.”
Florida has become a popular new home for interesting creatures, including crocodiles that can grow up to 14 feet long.
The reptiles have multiplied 10-fold in the last 40 years in south Florida with about 1,500 crocodiles.
But now they face a new challenge in the area because most of the places they used to call home are now inhabited by humans.
Humans in Florida also have to worry about huge pythons that are wiping out the state’s mammal populations.
A burgeoning population of Burmese pythons – many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big – appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, according to a study from the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically – as much as 99%, in some cases – in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.
Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades’ environmental balance in ways difficult to predict.
Another species that has threatened the state’s environment are giant Gambian pouch rats that have been found on Florida’s Grassy Key despite concerted efforts by conservation officials to eradicate them.
Officials worry that the voracious rats, which grow to nine pounds, might wipe out some crops and upset the delicate ecological balance if they manage to reach the Florida mainland.
Officials worry that the voracious rats, which grow to nine pounds, might wipe out some crops and upset the delicate ecological balance if they manage to reach the Florida mainland.
The Gambian rat first appeared on Grassy Key in 1999 after eight rats escaped from a local exotic pets breeder.
“We thought we had them whipped as of 2009,” Scott Hardin, exotic-species coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told keysnet.com.
“In the early part of 2011, a resident e-mailed me and said he saw one of the rats. We were skeptical but went back and talked to people and [saw] there were rats that we missed,” Scott Hardin added.
After four female rats were found in 2011, officials unsuccessfully launched another effort to kill them in November and December, primarily through the use of poison-laced cantaloupe and peanut butter.
And it might become difficult to control crocodiles’ interaction with humans if that population continues to grow.
Crocodiles tend to stick to an area they decided they will live in now matter how much they have moved.
So even if they leave a particular spot they chose as their own for weeks and travel far away, they are likely to return.
They will likely continue to be one of the many species like boa constrictors, Nile monitor lizards, vervet monkeys and more to join the state – and wreak havoc on local animal species.
A new scientific study has found that drinking a glass of red wine could actually reduce your chance of piling on the pounds.
The research shows enjoying the odd glass of Merlot may be less of a guilty pleasure and have an additional benefit.
Scientists have revealed a compound found in red wine can help control body fat.
The substance, called piceatannol, delays the generation of young fat cells and prevents them from growing into mature fat cells.
The compound blocks insulin’s ability to activate genes that carry out further stages of fat cell formation.
A new scientific study has found that drinking a glass of red wine could actually reduce your chance of piling on the pounds
The agent found in wine is also thought to protect the body from heart and neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
The groundbreaking research was carried out at Purdue University, Indiana, USA.
Lead researcher Dr. Kee-Hong Kim said: “In the presence of piceatannol you can see delay or complete inhibition of young fat cells.
“Piceatannol alters the timing of gene expressions, gene functions and insulin action during adipogenesis – the process in which young fat cells become mature fat cells.”
Dr. Kee-Hong Kim, assistant professor of food science at the university, added: “We are now testing our idea using animal model obesity to see if it has the same beneficial functions.
“We need to work on improving the stability and solubility of piceatannol to create a biological effect.”
The compound is similar in structure to resveratrol and is also found in grapes, blueberries and passion fruit.
The research was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Bobbi Kristina Brown will not be starring in her own reality show, it has been announced.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, tweeted in March that she was in negotiations to star in a television series about her budding singing career and personal life.
Her family has now clarified in an official press statement to Access Hollywood that a reality television project is not being considered.
“[There’s] no truth at all [to the reports] – completely false,” a Houston family spokesperson insisted.
Bobbi Kristina Brown will not be starring in her own reality show
Bobbi Kristina Brown recently signed for her first major television role in Tyler Perry’s TBS sitcom For Better or Worse.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s mother, Whitney Houston, was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room in February at the age of 48. Authorities have confirmed that cocaine use and heart disease contributed to Whitney’s accidental drowning, but no foul play is suspected.
Mel Gibson said John Lennon deserved to die, according to the screenwriter of the failed “Maccabee” project, Joe Eszterhas.
In a scathing 9-page letter, obtained by The Wrap, Joe Eszterhas claims Mel Gibson once ranted about John Lennon: “I’m glad he’s dead. He deserved to be shot. He was f**king messianic. Listen to his songs! Imagine. I hate that f**king song. I’m glad he’s dead.”
According to Joe Eszterhas, Mel Gibson saved his true fury for Oksana Grigorieva, saying: “I want to f**k her in the ass and stab her while I’m doing it.“
Mel Gibson said John Lennon deserved to die, according to Joe Eszterhas
And on the business side, Joe Eszterhas claims Mel Gibson said this of Ari Emanuel, the head of the William Morris Endeavor Agency: “He’s a c*nt Jewboy.”
Mel Gibson has fired back at Joe Eszterhas , claiming the letter is a pack of lies.
Pat Houston, Whitney Houston’s sister-in-law and former manager, said she’s relieved the singer’s death investigation is finally over.
Pat Houston and Whitney’s brother Gary just landed at LAX, hours after the Beverly Hills Police Department concluded its investigation into the singer’s death.
The BHPD decided once and for all, foul play was not involved.
Pat Houston, Whitney Houston's sister-in-law, said she's relieved the singer's death investigation is finally over
TMZ asked Pat and Gary Houston if the BHPD’s findings brought them closure and if they were happy the case has finally been closed. Pat Houston said yes.
Bottom line, the BHPD decided Whitney Houston died on February 11 from accidental drowning.
The 911 call made following the discovery of Whitney Houston’s body at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11 has been released.
Whitney Houston drowned in her bath tub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at the age of 48 in what was later reported to be brought about by a drug overdose.
In the 911 call recording obtained by TMZ the caller identifies himself as a member of the Beverly Hilton security team and informs the operator about a “46-year-old female found in the bathroom” and requests for paramedics to come immediately to the scene.
“I’m not sure if she fell or if she was in the bathroom with the water,” he adds.
“Apparently she wasn’t breathing and she’s 46 years old. The person who called me was irate and I couldn’t get much out of her,” the caller said, referencing an original notification received by Beverly Hilton staff from an unknown woman who repeatedly hung up before giving requested information.
The 911 call made following the discovery of Whitney Houston's body at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 11 has been released
The security member, who never identifies Whitney Houston by name, told the operator he was under the impression the woman was not breathing.
The 911 agent says emergency personnel would be dispatched to the hotel ASAP.
According to the final autopsy report, Whitney Houston’s official cause of death was “accidental drowning,” but heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors.
Police concluded the investigation into Whitney Houston’s death yesterday and determined that no crime had been committed.
J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author, has announced her first adult novel will be called The Casual Vacancy.
J.K. Rowling revealed in February that she was working on the book, and said it would be “very different” from her previous material.
The new book will be published worldwide in hardback, e-book and as an audio download and CD on 27 September.
“The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me,” J.K. Rowling said.
J.K. Rowling has announced her first adult novel will be called The Casual Vacancy
The story is centred on the death of Barry Fairweather, whose unexpected passing shocks the local villagers of Pagford.
Publishers Little, Brown & Co said: “Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war.”
The publisher describes the tale as being “blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising”.
More than 450 million copies of J.K. Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide.
The novels, about a boy wizard who survives the attack that kills his parents, became a worldwide phenomenon and were turned into eight blockbuster films starring Daniel Radcliffe.
When the final installment of the book series went on sale in 2007, thousands of copies sold in minutes.
Serbian police has recovered a Cezanne painting stolen in a raid on a Swiss museum in 2008.
Authorities have not named the painting, but local media has reported it is Boy in a Red Waistcoat, which was taken from Zurich’s Emil Georg Buehrle Collection, a private collection founded by a WWII arms dealer and entrepreneur.
Serbian police said three people had been arrested in connection with the theft.
It added an art expert was being flown in to confirm the authenticity of the 1888 painting, worth $109 million.
The robbery at the Zurich museum was one of the biggest art thefts in Europe at the time.
The heist was conducted by three armed, masked men who witnesses said spoke German with a Slavic accent.
Cezanne’s Boy in a Red Waistcoat was stolen from Zurich's Emil Georg Buehrle Collection in 2008
Boy in a Red Waistcoat was stolen with three other masterpieces by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas.
Monet’s Poppies near Vetheuil and Van Gogh’s Blooming Chestnut Branches were discovered undamaged in a car parked outside a psychiatric hospital in Zurich soon after the robbery.
The Degas painting, Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter, is still missing.
Police said the recent arrests in Belgrade and Cacak were conducted in co-ordination with police from several European countries.
Serbia’s state prosecutor is expected to issue a statement on the case later on Thursday.
Cezanne’s Boy in a Red Waistcoat depicts a boy in traditional Italian dress. Three other versions of the painting are in museums in the US.
The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) has gone to court to get Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche banned in the country after it used an image of a Roma boy pointing a gun on its cover.
Headlined The Roma are coming, Die Weltwoche’s publication amounts to racial incitement, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma says.
There is no relationship between the Romanian people (The name of Romania, România, comes from român (previously rumân), “Romanian”, which in turn is a derivative of the Latin romanus, meaning “citizen of Rome”.) and Roma people (Gypsies – an ethnic group living mostly in Europe, who trace their origins to the Indian Subcontinent) .
Laif, the agency that supplied the picture, says its meaning was distorted.
Die Weltwoche deputy editor Philipp Gut said the article was justified.
Phillip Gut accepted that it had sparked outrage but said it highlighted growing “crime tourism” in Switzerland.
Headlined "The Roma are coming", Die Weltwoche's publication amounts to racial incitement, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma says
The article was headlined They come, they steal and they go and suggested: “Roma families from Eastern Europe are responsible for a large part of the increasing crime tourism”.
It examined issues such as prostitution and the use of children for begging and theft, adding caveats that not all Roma are involved.
But it nonetheless provoked outrage, particularly in Germany where half a million Gypsies – as Sinti and Roma were then more usually called – were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
The Central Council said it had gone to court in Heidelberg to try to get the magazine blocked from the country and to file a complaint for racial incitement and libel.
Its head said the article was similar to Nazi propaganda in that it gave the impression that criminality was caused by ethnic origin.
Similar court action was also under way in Austria and Switzerland, the AP news agency reported.
The picture agency Laif said in a statement on its website that photographer Livio Mancini’s image had been taken for a feature about the inhumane life of Roma children on a waste disposal site in Kosovo.
“[Weltwoche’s] use is distorting, altered the truth and reversed the meaning of the photograph,” it said.
However, in a video message on the weekly magazine’s website, Phillip Gut – one of the article’s co-authors – said crime perpetrated by Roma gangs was a reality.
Phillip Gut told reporters that the real scandal was that Roma gangs misused their children for criminal purposes and that the image was intended to demonstrate this.
Michel Platini, the president of UEFA, has hit out at “bandits and crooks” for the escalation of Ukrainian hotel prices ahead of the Euro 2012 football championships.
Speaking in Lviv, one of the venues, Michel Platini said the rising cost of accommodation worried him, and called on the authorities to prevent it.
Michel Platini added that some hotels were not respecting room contracts which had already been agreed.
In response, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister pledged to take action.
Speaking alongside Michel Platini, Borys Kolesnikov said he would take appropriate measures within the next 30 days to solve the problem.
Michel Platini has hit out at "bandits and crooks" for the escalation of Ukrainian hotel prices ahead of the Euro 2012
“It’s annoying to have made a lot of investment and then say to people that they can’t come because there are bandits and crooks who want to make a lot of money during this Euro,” Michel Platini said.
“You can’t change [the price of a room] from 40 Euros [$52] to 100 and then up to 500 just like that, from one day to the other, this just is not done,” Michel Platini said.
Michel Platini is due to open a new airport terminal in the city later with President Viktor Yanukovych.
Euro 2012 championships, which are being held in Ukrainian and Polish cities, begin on 8 June.
Sony will shed 10,000 jobs over the next 12 months as part of a major reorganization, company’s CEO Kazuo Hirai has announced.
The cuts, which represent 6% of the global workforce, include staff working in businesses that are being sold, such as its chemicals division.
Sony has been struggling to compete in the television business with South Korea’s Samsung and LG, while Apple has challenged it in audio gear and phones.
On Tuesday, Sony forecast a record annual loss of $6.4 billion, double its previous estimate. Its share price has fallen 40% over the past 12 months.
Sony says it will focus its business on three areas – digital imaging, games consoles and mobile devices.
The electronics company hopes the changes will help to generate sales of $10.5 billion by the financial year ending in March 2015, with a profit margin of 5%.
CEO Kazuo Hirai announces that Sony will cut 10,000 jobs over the next 12 months as part of a major reorganization
In the last financial year, Sony reported sales of $7.9 billion.
“We have heard a multitude of investor voices calling for change. Sony will change,” Kazuo Hirai – who took over as chief executive earlier this month – said at a press conference.
“Sony has always been an entrepreneurial company. That spirit has not changed,” he said.
The reorganization will cost Sony $926 million during the current financial year.
But analysts have been underwhelmed by Kazuo Hirai’s announcement.
“I for one was expecting more,” said Pelham Smithers, who runs his own consultancy specializing in the electronics industry.
“This presentation has the same feel as a presentation made three to four years ago when the previous chief executive, Howard Stringer, tried to restructure.”
“But back then Samsung and Apple were not as powerful as they are today,” he said.
Toshiyuki Kanayama, senior market analyst at Monex, said: “I don’t see anything new here. They’ve talked before about bringing the TV business back to profits. The comments about the electronics business are the same.”
“Nothing has changed from what they’ve flagged in the past, including the M&A plans in the medical field,” he said.
Sony’s television business has lost money for the past eight years. Analysts say that while it sells about 20 million TV sets a year, it is still not big enough to be profitable.
To tackle that problem Sony is planning to cut costs in the business by 60% by March 2014.
“If they’re planning to cut fixed costs by 60%, that signifies the closure of one factory, and the business can shrink. That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” said Kikuchi Makoto, chief executive at Myojo Asset Management.
“The problem is that the plan is lacking in specifics on the plus side.”
Rival Japanese TV maker Sharp is also forecasting hefty losses. It expects an annual loss of $4.7 billion this year.
The FBI has replaced Osama Bin Laden with Eric Justin Toth, an accused child pornographer, on its Ten Most Wanted list of fugitives.
How does America’s most prominent federal law enforcement bureau choose who is featured on the list?
Osama Bin Laden was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists before his death in May 2011, after a US special forces raid in Pakistan. Eric Justin Toth, 30, is not accused of killing anyone, but of producing child pornography.
Eric Justin Toth, a former school teacher and camp counselor, has been on the run since 2008, when he was indicted on federal charges in the state of Maryland after child pornography was found on a camera he had used at a school, officials say.
The FBI has followed him through Illinois, Indiana and out west to Arizona, but the trail ran cold.
So on Tuesday, the FBI added Eric Justin Toth to its Ten Most Wanted list, replacing the slain terrorist.
“We have always counted on the public’s support to help capture fugitives and solve cases,” Mike Kortan, a FBI spokesman, said in a statement.
“The addition of Eric Toth to the Top Ten list illustrates how important it is to get this individual off the streets and into custody.”
The FBI has replaced Osama Bin Laden with Eric Justin Toth, an accused child pornographer, on its Ten Most Wanted list of fugitives
The FBI first drew up a Ten Most Wanted list in 1950 when a reporter asked the bureau for the names and descriptions of the “toughest guys” on the run.
Since then, the list has proven a remarkably successful publicity programme, FBI officials say.
Of 495 men and women on the list since then, 465 have been captured or located. Of those, 153 were nabbed after a tip from the public, the FBI says.
The ten individuals on the list are not ranked.
To be included on the list, a fugitive must have a federal warrant for his or her arrest and must be a real menace to society – someone with the capacity to do continued harm if he or she remains on the run. He or she must also be bad enough to warrant a $100,000 reward.
The case agents searching for the fugitive will have exhausted other leads and believe the publicity will help find him or her. (In cases that don’t make the list, agents may feel they are closing in on the bad guy and the publicity will drive him further underground.)
The FBI adds fugitives to the list by canvassing its field offices for suggestions, analyzing the most worthy cases, then forwarding those up the bureau’s chain of command until they receive final approval from Director Robert Mueller.
“Over time, the top 10 list has in some ways mirrored the criminal investigative interests of the bureau and the priorities of the day,” says John Fox, the FBI’s official historian.
In the 1960s and 1970s, violent anti-Vietnam War radicals like Bernardine Dohrn, Katherine Power, and Leo Burt featured on the list, for example.
In the 1990s, international terrorists made the list, and since 2000, several alleged child pornographers and paedophiles have been listed.
“Of course, it doesn’t capture all of what the FBI’s priorities are,” John Fox says.
“Counter-intelligence is not an investigative matter that is well suited to the Top Ten Most Wanted list.”
Fugitives are removed from the list when they are captured, die (or are killed) or are removed because they are no longer considered a menace to society.
Over the years, six fugitives fell into that category; several of those were anti-Vietnam War activists accused of violent acts who evaded the law until they reached middle age.
The bureaucratic process of adding a new fugitive to the list can be lengthy.
The FBI took 11 months to replace Osama Bin Laden. As of Wednesday, James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger was still on the list, though he was captured in June.
Who else is on the list?
Jason Derek Brown: Accused of killing an armoured car guard during a robbery in Arizona
Joe Luis Saenz: Accused of killing two rival Los Angeles gangsters, raping and murdering his girlfriend, and killing a fourth person
Glen Stewart Godwin: Murdered a fellow inmate in a Mexican prison, then escaped
Robert William Fisher: Accused of killing his wife and children
Semion Mogilevich: Wanted for allegedly defrauding investors in a stock scam
Eduardo Ravelo: Accused member of a drug gang
Alexis Flores: Accused of kidnapping and murdering a five-year-old girl
Victor Manuel Gerena: Sought in connection with the robbery of $7m from a security company
James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger: Accused Boston gangster and murder; captured in June
Getting less than five and a half hours of sleep a night could see you gain nearly a stone in a year, say scientists.
Scientists say that even if diet and exercise habits remained the same, the changes in the body’s metabolism can cause the pounds to pile on.
A team of researchers from Boston believes this could explain why people tend to become larger as they get older and often struggle to get enough sleep at night.
They also think it could explain why night shift workers who struggle to sleep during the day are more prone to being overweight.
The academics from Boston compared the effects of sleep on 21 volunteers over six weeks.
They started off having ten hours of sleep a night but this was then reduced to just over five and a half hours at any time during the day.
Getting less than five and a half hours of sleep a night could see you gain nearly a stone in a year
Often volunteers were attempting to doze off during the day time when their body clock was telling them that they should be up and about.
The researchers found that when the subjects were deprived of sleep their metabolism rate dropped by 12%.
This is energy needed to maintain the body’s normal functions such as the lungs breathing and heart beating.
If this rate comes down, less energy or calories will be used up so weight will be gained – even if exercise levels and diets are unchanged.
It was calculated that when the volunteers slept for less than five and a half hours they burned off 120 fewer calories that day.
Over the course of a year this would lead them to put on 12.5 pounds, just under a stone.
The researchers said this could explain why people who work at night are more likely to develop obesity and diabetes. Their body clock or “circadian rhythm” is disrupted so they are unable to sleep as well during the daytime and their metabolism slows down.
Dr. Orfeu Buxton, whose study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, said: “Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day.
“Getting enough sleep is important for health, and sleep should be at night for best effect.”
New reports claimed yesterday that The First Lady Michelle Obama has banned actress Kerry Washington from the White House because she is “too flirty” with President Barack Obama.
Michelle Obama was said to have a “watch list” of women that were to be kept away from her husband – but it’s a story, one White House official claims it totally false.
According to an article in the National Enquirer, Michelle Obama, 48, planned to keep the actress at arm’s length – despite Kerry Washington’s honorary post on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
An White House official said that the story is “100 per cent false”.
Michelle Obama has allegedly banned Kerry Washington (left) from the White House for being "too flirty" with Barack Obama
Kerry Washington, 35, is a keen Democrat and campaigned for Barack Obama, 50, in the 2008 president race.
There were striking parallels between the explosive claims and Kerry Washington’s latest role in a new ABC series called Scandal.
Kerry Washington plays character Olivia Pope, the tough boss in a crisis management firm, protecting the public images of the Washington political elite.
In the first episode, it was revealed that Olivia Pope had a long-running affair with the fictional American president Fitzgerald Grant.
The National Enquirer also named Scarlett Johansson as another “flirt” who made Michelle Obama’s banned list.
Doctors in Uzbekistan claim that the country is running a secret programme to sterilize women without their knowledge or consent.
Adolat is one of the women who were sterilized in Uzbekistan programme. She has striking looks, a quiet voice and a secret that she finds deeply shameful.
She knows what happened is not her fault, but she cannot help feeling guilty about it.
Adolat comes from Uzbekistan, where life centres around children and a big family is the definition of personal success. Adolat thinks of herself as a failure.
“What am I after what happened to me?” she says as her hand strokes her daughter’s hair – the girl whose birth changed Adolat’s life.
“I always dreamed of having four – two daughters and two sons – but after my second daughter I couldn’t get pregnant,” she says.
She went to see a doctor and found out that she had been sterilized after giving birth to her daughter by Caesarean section.
“I was shocked. I cried and asked: <<But why? How could they do this?>> The doctor said, <<That’s the law in Uzbekistan>>.”
Sterilization is not, officially, the law in Uzbekistan.
But evidence suggests that the Uzbek authorities have run a programme over the last two years to sterilize women across the country, often without their knowledge.
Foreign journalists are not welcome in Uzbekistan. And women do not want to give their real names if they are asked.
“Every year we are presented with a plan. Every doctor is told how many women we are expected to give contraception to; how many women are to be sterilized,” said a gynaecologist from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
Like all doctors, she spoke on a condition of anonymity. Talking to a foreign journalist could result in a prison term, in a country where torture in detention is the norm.
“There is a quota. My quota is four women a month,” the doctor said.
Two other medical sources suggest that there is especially strong pressure on doctors in rural areas of Uzbekistan, where some gynaecologists are expected to sterilize up to eight women per week.
“Once or twice a month, sometimes more often, a nurse from the local clinic comes to my house trying to get me to the hospital to have the operation,” says a mother of three in the Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan.
“Now it’s free, but later you will have to pay for it, so do it now,” the nurse tells the mother.
Another mother says she experienced months of mysterious pain and heavy bleeding following the birth of her son. Then she had an ultrasound check and discovered that her uterus had been removed.
“They just said to me, <<What do you need more children for? You already have two>>,” she says.
Doctors in Uzbekistan claim that the country is running a secret programme to sterilize women without their knowledge or consent
According to a source at the Ministry of Health, the sterilization programme is intended to control Uzbekistan’s growing population, which is officially held to be about 28 million people. Some demographers are skeptical, however, pointing to the large numbers of people who have emigrated since the last census in 1989, when the population stood at around 20 million.
“We are talking about tens of thousands of women being sterilized throughout the country,” says Sukhrob Ismailov, who runs the Expert Working Group, one of very few non-governmental organizations operating in Uzbekistan.
In 2010, the Expert Working Group conducted a seven-month-long survey of medical professionals, and gathered evidence of some 80,000 sterilizations over the period, but there is no way of verifying the number and some of the procedures were carried out with the patient’s consent.
The first cases of forced sterilization were reported in 2005, by Gulbakhor Turaeva – a pathologist working in the city of Andijan who noticed that uteruses of young, healthy women were being brought to a mortuary where she worked.
After gathering evidence of 200 forced sterilizations, by tracing women from whom the uteruses were removed, she went public with her findings and asked her bosses for an explanation. Instead they sacked her.
In 2007 Gulbakhor Turaeva went to jail, accused of smuggling opposition literature into the country. Like many others, she refused to be interviewed for this report because of fears for her and her children’s safety.
In 2007, the United Nations Committee Against Torture also reported forcible sterilizations and hysterectomies in Uzbekistan, and the number of cases of forced sterilization appeared to fall.
But according to medical sources, in 2009 and 2010 the Uzbek government issued directives ordering clinics to be equipped to perform voluntary surgical contraception. In 2009, doctors from the capital were also despatched to rural areas to increase the availability of sterilization services.
There is evidence that the number of sterilizations then began to rise again.
“On paper, sterilizations should be voluntary, but women don’t really get a choice,” says a senior doctor from a provincial hospital, who wished to remain unnamed.
“It’s very easy to manipulate a woman, especially if she is poor. You can say that her health will suffer if she has more children. You can tell her that sterilization is best for her. Or you can just do the operation.”
Several doctors say that in the last two years there has been a dramatic increase in Caesarean sections, which provide surgeons with an easy opportunity to sterilize the mother. These doctors dispute official statements that only 6.8% of women give birth through C-sections.
“Rules on Caesareans used to be very strict, but now I believe 80% of women give birth through C-sections. This makes it very easy to perform a sterilization and tie the fallopian tubes,” says a chief surgeon at a hospital near the capital, Tashkent.
Several doctors and medical professionals said forced sterilization is not only a means of population control but also a bizarre short-cut to lowering maternal and infant mortality rates.
“It’s a simple formula – less women give birth, less of them die,” said one surgeon.
The result is that his helps the country to improve its ranking in international league tables for maternal and infant mortality.
“Uzbekistan seems to be obsessed with numbers and international rankings,” says Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“I think it’s typical of dictatorships that need to construct a narrative built on something other than the truth.”
Steve Swerdlow believes foreign governments could do more. Until recently Uzbek President Islam Karimov was a pariah in the West, but in recent years both the US and the EU have lifted sanctions, including a US ban on arms sales.
This is apparently related to America’s worsening relationship with Pakistan and NATO’s increased use of routes through Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, to get supplies and troops in and out of Afghanistan.
A number of Western dignitaries have visited Uzbekistan in recent months, but few have made any public comment on the country’s human rights record.
“Karimov has managed to get to the point in his relationship with the West when there are no consequences for his actions and human rights abuses,” says Steve Swerdlow.
“There is a deafening silence when it comes to human rights. Reports of forced sterilization add urgency to breaking this silence.”
In a written reply the Uzbek government said the allegations of a forced sterilization programme were slanderous and bore no relation to reality.
The government also said that surgical contraception was not widespread and was carried out only on a voluntary basis, after consultation with a specialist and with the written consent of both parents.
The government stressed that Uzbekistan’s record in protecting mothers and babies is excellent and could be considered a model for countries around the world.
However, Nigora is among many for whom forced sterilization is a reality. She had an emergency C-section. A day later she was told she had been sterilized. On the same day, her newborn died.
Nigora is 24 and will never have children.
Uzbekistan ranked 140th out of 194 countries in terms of infant mortality in 2005-2010, according to data from the UN Population Division
This put it just behind Laos, Madagascar and Bolivia, and just ahead of Bangladesh, Ghana and Papua New Guinea
Figures from the UN Population Fund indicate that Uzbekistan had a maternal mortality ratio of 30 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2008 – a 44% improvement on 1990
This ratio put it level with Iran, just ahead of Albania and Malaysia (31) and just behind Armenia (29), Romania and Uruguay (27)
Kim Jong-Un, the young North Korean leader, has been given two posts previous occupied by his late father, KimJong-Il.
Kim Jong-Un had been named chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission and a standing member of the Politburo, according to the state media.
The announcement came after North Korea held a rare party conference widely expected to see more power formally transferred to Kim Jong-Un.
The country is due to launch a rocket, set to go between Thursday and Monday.
North Korea says the rocket will put a satellite into orbit but the US says the launch is a disguised test of long-range missile technology.
The launch path will take the rocket south between the Philippines and Japan. Both South Korea and Japan have said that they will shoot it down if it threatens their territory.
Kim Jong-Un had been named chairman of the party's Central Military Commission and a standing member of the Politburo
The news of Kim Jong-Un’s new titles came after the ruling Korean Workers’ Party held a conference on Wednesday.
North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament is also meeting on Friday and the two meetings have been seen as forums for advancing the transition of power to Kim Jong-Un following the death of his father in December 2011.
Then on Sunday North Korea will mark the 100th anniversary of the birthday of national founder Kim Il-Sung – the grandfather of Kim Jong-Un – with mass celebrations.
North Korea says that the rocket launch is to commemorate Kim Il-Sung. It says that the satellite will send back weather and other data.
But critics say that the launch constitutes a test of long-range missile technology banned under UN resolutions.
The rocket is due to launch any day between 12 and 16 April from the Tongchang-Ri site on the country’s north-west coast.
A number of airlines have altered flight paths and the US has sent a ship-mounted radar to monitor the launch.
Japan said it was on alert ahead of the launch. “We want to be fully prepared for any possible contingency,” Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.
Pyongyang agreed in February to a partial freeze in nuclear activities and a missile test moratorium in return for US food aid. But that deal was put on hold last month after the North announced its rocket launch plans.
The Beverly Hills Police Department has closed Whitney Houston case saying she died from an accidental drowning and there was no foul play involved.
The BHPD has been investigating Whitney Houston’s death since February 11.
Whitney Houston case has been closed as she died from an accidental drowning and there was no foul play involved
The BHPD never believed anyone took cocaine from Whitney Houston’s hotel room because they found the cocaine residue and powder inside her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills.
Cocaine was a contributing factor in Whitney Houston’s death, says the L.A. County Coroner.
Khloe Kardashian has denied allegations she suffered a miscarriage in February.
Khloe Kardashian, 27, has made no secret of her hopes to have a baby with husband Lamar Odom, 32.
Her struggle to fall pregnant has also been documented on her current E! reality TV show, Khloe and Lamar.
An American tabloid magazine today reported that she has been trying to put on a ‘brave face’ after miscarriage earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the star today vehemently denied the claim: “Absolutely, 100 per cent not true.”
Khloe Kardashian revealed earlier this year that she is relieved she didn’t fall pregnant before moving to Dallas, Texas, with her husband for his basketball career.
Khloe Kardashian has denied allegations she suffered a miscarriage in February
She told People magazine in February: “It’s frustrating when you hear so many rumors because it makes you almost want to put pressure on yourself.”
“But looking back, I think everything happens for a reason.”
She added: “I think: <<Gosh, what if I did get pregnant last season or a few months ago? Or what if I had a newborn baby and all this trade stuff happened?>>
“I don’t think I could have dealt with everything at one time. Doing this trade and my husband’s emotions and going through all that is so stressful.”
Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom are planning another move, this time back to Los Angeles, after Lamar’s exit from the Dallas Mavericks was announced on Monday.
The happy couple, who married in 2009, still hopes to have a baby – but earlier this year Khloe Kardaashian scotched claims she was looking into fertility treatment.
Khloe Kardashian took to Twitter in January to announce that she is hoping to pregnant naturally.
The reality star posted: “Because there seems to be much speculation, here is my statement… I am not at this time in my life considering any type of fertility treatments. If and when I do, I will shout it from the rooftops but for now its in Gods hands.”
A Vera Wang model’s waist appears to have been airbrushed to an impossibly tiny size, making it almost narrower than the width of her head.
The model, who wore a White by Vera Wang bridesmaid gown, and appeared on the David’s Bridal website, had a slender, yet normally proportioned waist in a back view.
The front shot, however, saw the model’s midriff whittled down to what seems to be almost half its actual size.
Even more ridiculously, the $168 gown, is magically transformed from the charcoal-colored design seen from the front to an entirely different amethyst tone when viewed at the back, Jezebel.com points out.
In fact, the back view image shows what could actually be a different gown – and model – altogether.
While the front view displays a tight bodice all the way to the knees, the back view falls loose just below the bottom.
Vera Wang model’s waist appears to have been airbrushed to an impossibly tiny sizeVera Wang model appeared with normally proportioned waist in a back view
It seems odd that David’s Bridal would include an inaccurate image of the asymmetrical design from the designer’s Fall 2011 collection.
According to Vera Wang’s official website, the stockist is one of few who sell the White bridal collection so correct images of the gown should be readily available.
Regardless, the model who is wearing the dress is seen with a correct-proportioned waist throughout other photographs in the collection.
It is not the first time a model’s waist has been airbrushed to appear slimmer.
Ralph Lauren used Photoshop in 2009 to shave so much off model Filippa Hamilton’s frame that her waist appeared narrower than the width of her head – despite the fact that she was already a U.S. size 4.
The fashion label later apologized for the unnecessary edit.
A spokesperson said at the time: “After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body.”
Grazia magazine was also guilty of its own careless picture alteration.
The magazine admitted to whittling down the size of the Duchess of Cambridge’s waist for the front cover of a special Royal Wedding edition.
A spokesperson called the Photoshop job an “accident”.
The American Medical Association introduced a policy against excessive Photoshop use last year.
The organization released a statement that said it would “discourage the altering of photographs in a manner that could promote unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image”.
Lift & Luminate No 7 anti-ageing serum from Boots is set to be a sell-out success when it hits England’s stores next week.
Priced at £24.95 ($39.5) the Lift & Luminate Day & Night Serum goes on sale on April 18 and claims to reduce the appearance of fine lines and firm up skin.
It joins a number of other wrinkle-busting lotions from the high street retailer which have disappeared from shelves within days of launch.
Two years ago the Protect & Perfect lotion sold out 24 hours after going on sale as scientists from BBC’s Horizons programme deemed it a “miracle product”.
And now the British chemist is hoping its latest offering will be just as successful.
Lift & Luminate Day & Night Serum goes on sale on April 18 and claims to reduce the appearance of fine lines and firm up skin
Dr. Tamara Griffiths, consultant dermatologist at Manchester University applauded the rise of affordable skincare solutions.
She said: “Lines, wrinkles and sagging skin are obvious concerns, but the ageing effects of pigmentation such as age spots and uneven skin tone can also play a significant role.
“There are treatments available however they can be costly and cause side effects and I certainly will welcome a safe, at home treatment.”
Lift & Luminate No 7 serum has been tested on more than 1,200 women and is said to smooth out wrinkles, even skin tone and firm up the face to give it a youthful appearance.
During one trial involving more than 180 women, 80% reported their skin felt radiant after just one use while 73% noticed skin looked younger after just four weeks.
Results of the tests will be revealed to experts at the forthcoming British Society of Investigate Dermatology Conference.
In a recent interview Gwyneth Paltrow also revealed that she was a fan of the Boots No 7 range.
Gwyneth Paltrow said: “One of the many exciting things about living in England for a good part of the year is the perpetual discovery.
“Boots is almost as ubiquitous as the pub here in England. Everyone raves about Boots’ own line No7 and their range of high quality cosmetics, moisturizers and cleansers.”
Kevin Costner sent secret letters to his friend and The Bodyguard co-star Whitney Houston after the troubled singer’s aides asked him to boost her morale during the lowest times of her life.
Kevin Costner, 57, who paid tribute to Whitney Houston at her funeral in February, admits he reached out to the tragic star in letter form, but still has no idea if she read his notes.
Kevin Costner sent secret letters to Whitney Houston after her aides asked him to boost her morale during the lowest times of her life
In a taped TV interview with U.S. newsman Anderson Cooper, Kevin Costner says: “A couple of times there were some people that really loved Whitney and… during the last seven or eight years (they) asked me would I write her a letter… so I did; there were two occasions but I don’t know if those letters were ever read.”
