Burger King has announced new additions to their menu, including three new salads and an extended breakfast selection.
The Miami-based company’s move comes after Wendy’s stole the crown as the second biggest burger chain in the U.S.
Wendy’s also revealed a bold new design look that it plans to bring into their restaurants by the end of the year.
Burger King is moving away from beef and targeting the more health conscious customers with their chicken laden Garden Fresh Salads.
The salads are being sold at premium prices with the Chicken BLT and the Chicken, Apple and Cranberry costing $5.39 and the new Crispy Chicken Caesar priced at $4.99.
This is the biggest shake up of their salad menu since 2004 when they began their Fire-Grilled Salad line.
Burger King has announced new additions to their menu, including three new salads and an extended breakfast selection
And coming onto their new breakfast menu are two types of Burrito and cinnamon buns.
Priced at $2.49 the Southwestern Burrito comes stuffed with sausage, cheese, hash-brown nuggets and egg.
Costing your wallet and your waistline less, the modest Sausage burrito is snack sized and costs $1.
The cinnamon buns seem to be a revamp and are now baked fresh on the premises. Burger King already offers Cini-minis which come in packs of four with an icing dip.
As part of their Value Menu, the Cini Minis pack in a whopping 490 calories, 18 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 39 g of sugar and 400 mg of sodium.
Burger King’s revamped breakfast menu is part of a larger trend among fast food chains to offer bigger breakfast menus. Taco Bell also recently launched similar items for the morning crowd.
Earlier in the month Burger King announced the introduction of Chicken Strips and Crispy Chicken Snack wraps.
All the new products shift the focus away from beef products after a growing controversy over pink slime, the heavily processed meat substitute.
The backlash about the beef filler has included supermarket chains, including Safeway and Giant Food Stores, no longer selling beef which has “pink slime” in it.
When Wendy’s knocked Burger King off the spot as second biggest burger chain earlier this month it was the first shifting of U.S burger ranking since 1969.
Sir Elton John has revealed he took so much cocaine that is a “miracle” he didn’t end up dying an addict, like Whitney Houston.
As Elton John, 65, confessed if he hadn’t kicked his drug habit in 1990 he would be dead, rumors began circulating that the singer and husband David Furnish could be having another child.
“I’d probably be dead,” Elton John declared.
“I didn’t want to end up like Whitney Houston and I could so easily have ended up like her.”
“It’s a miracle I didn’t because I’m sure I did as much cocaine as she ever did.”
Elton John’s revelations come just six weeks after Whitney Houston was found dead in the bathroom of her Beverly Hills hotel room aged just 48.
Last week, a newly released toxicology report showed Whitney Houston had cocaine in her system when she died.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner said the tests revealed Whitney Houston had been a “chronic user”.
Elton John has revealed he took so much cocaine that is a “miracle” he didn't end up dying an addict, like Whitney Houston
Elton John, who married partner David Furnish in 2005, has always been open about his battle with drugs and alcohol.
Rumors began circulating online that the pair is having a second child, they already have one-year-old Zachary, but these are currently unconfirmed.
A source told the Daily Mirror: “The wheels are in motion. David and Elton have never hidden their desire to extend their family, and believe the time is right for another child.
“By the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, there will be a fourth member of the John-Furnish clan.”
Elton John has previously described his old self as a “real mess” and said getting sober and clean in 1990 was his “greatest achievement in life”.
Yesterday during a US television interview, Elton John said his life could have taken a different turn if he hadn’t overcome his addictions.
“I would not be the person I am today. I wouldn’t have Zachary, I wouldn’t have David, I wouldn’t have anything,” said the musician.
Elton John also opened up about how he suffered at the hands of bullies as an adult, and revealed he was the target of physical and mental abuse.
“It was about control and their being able to keep me under their thumb,” Elton John said.
“I was a perfect candidate for it. Even though I was famous and a big deal, it doesn’t matter – it’s who you are underneath that. I was always kind of shy and intimidated.
“One was violent and the other two were mentally violent. They were very important people in my life. They were important in my career and in my personal life.”
Elton John said he felt “scared” by the abuse and was “hit by people, physically”.
The singer did not reveal the identities of his attackers but said the bullying had taken place “in certain relationships that I’ve had”.
“Someone that was close to me and involved with my career,” he added.
Elton John said he was worried that his son Zachary would also become the target of bullies because he does not have a typical family situation.
“I know, by being two same sex parents, that when my boy goes to school he’s probably going to have some people saying <<Er you don’t have a mummy>>,” he said.
Asked how he planned to deal with the situation, Elton John said: “We’ll sit down with him before he goes and say <<listen, if anyone says something mean to you come and tell us and we’ll try and help. Stand up for yourself>>.”
Gushing about the one-year-old, who was born to a surrogate mother on Christmas Day in 2010, Elton John said: “He’s been the greatest joy that I could ever imagine.
“If I’m blue, if I’m down, I just get my iPad out and look at photographs of him and a smile comes across my face. If I’m not with him I cuddle my pillow and pretend it’s him.
“I thought I experienced love when I’d been with David for 18 years, and that’s incredible love, but David will say the same thing – there’s no love until you have a child.”
Elton John said he had been working with Zachary’s godmother, Lady Gaga, on an anti-bullying campaign and was desperate to “nip this in the bud”.
“Too many people have died. Too many young people have committed suicide because they’ve been, you know, frightened of 15 or 16-year-olds,” Elton John said.
“It’s got to be stopped and it can be stopped. But we can only stop it by making people realize the consequences of their actions and punishing them.”
The National Institute of Mental Health based in Maryland, US, is launching a study to see if a strain of Streptococcus bacteria may cause children develop a particular condition with OCD-type symptoms.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) study will see if there is a link between Streptococcus bacteria and a condition called Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).
PANS causes children and teens to suddenly develop symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms without any known cause.
Susan Swedo, Managing Director of the NIMH, said: “Parents will describe children with PANS as overcome by a <<ferocious>> onset of obsessive thoughts, compulsive rituals and overwhelming fears.”
Scientists think that after it detects a Streptococcus infection, the body’s immune system responds by creating antibodies which sometimes mistakenly attack the heart, joints, and brain.
In children, this attack on the brain can cause the bundle of nerves called the basal ganglia to become inflamed.
This, in turn, can lead children to develop, seemingly overnight, severe symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD) and anorexia.
Maryland NIMH launches a new study to see if there is a link between Streptococcus bacteria and a condition called Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS)
According to the NIMH, children with the condition can appear terror-stricken, suffer extreme separation anxiety, shifting from laughter to tears for no apparent reason and regress to temper tantrums, “baby talk”, or bedwetting.
Other symptoms include undergoing sudden deterioration in school performance or learning abilities and exhibiting sensory and motor abnormalities.
The NIMH hopes the study will improve diagnosis and treatment.
It also wants to find out if there is an alternative cause of PANS apart from Streptococcus bacteria.
One of the most common examples of OCD symptoms is an irrational fear of germs and dirt.
Other obsessions include worries about security issues such as having left the cooker on or the house unlocked, a need for everything in life to be ordered with extreme precision, and a fear of making a mistake.
Such obsessions make the sufferer feel anxious. In an effort to ease that anxiety they take actions such as washing their hands every few minutes or going around the house checking everything is locked.
Many sufferers know they are being irrational but feel powerless to stop.
The NIMH has now launched a project to find such cases and improve diagnosis and treatment, including a study to see how well IVIG, a human antibody treatment used to dampen autoimmune reactions, reverses the syndrome.
It also wants to find out how many such cases are related to strep infections, or if there are other causes.
The NIMH has now put out guidelines for diagnosing Sydenham’s chorea whenever it appears, whether or not the child is known to have had a recent strep infection.
Tracking all cases this way should allow researchers to investigate causes more thoroughly, as well as diagnostic signs, and treatments.
An Alaska Airlines flight from Long Beach, California, to Vancouver, Canada, was forced to land in Portland, Oregon, when two children, aged three and eight, refused to stay in their seats.
The children and their parents were kicked off the flight and met by police officers.
After being spoken to by officials, the family was allowed to continue its journey on another plane.
Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Marianne Lindsey said police talked with the family after the flight landed in Portland on Tuesday night.
An Alaska Airlines supervisor then talked to the family about the need to comply with federal air regulations that require children to remain buckled in their seats for safety.
Alaska Airlines flight from Long Beach to Vancouver was forced to land in Portland after two children refused to stay in their seats
Marianne Lindsey said the supervisor then escorted the family to make their connecting Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle, Washington. That flight was uneventful.
She declined to release any additional information about the family, citing privacy concerns.
Chris Heistand, a passenger on the flight forced to set down in Portland, said he thought the captain’s decision to boot the family off may have been an overreaction.
He told KATU News: “I think we all need to have some sort of tolerance.
“Everybody’s trying to get from point A to point B. We’re all in the same boat in a sense – the same plane, right?”
France’s famous parfumier Jean-Paul Guerlain has been found guilty of making racist comments by a court in Paris.
Jean-Paul Guerlain, 75, was fined 6,000 Euros ($8,000) over the remarks, which were broadcast in 2010.
He used the French term “negre”, a racial slur, and implied that black people were lazy, when he explained how he worked hard to create a perfume.
Jean-Paul Guerlain apologized to France’s black community during the trial, describing his remarks as “imbecilic”.
He made the comments during a 2010 interview on France-2 television, in which he was explaining how he made his famous Samsara perfume.
Jean-Paul Guerlain made the racist comments during a 2010 interview on France-2 television
A number of anti-racism groups filed legal complaints after the broadcast and protests were staged in front of the Guerlain store in Paris.
“I am from another generation,” Jean-Paul Guerlain said during the trial, and such expressions were “common” in the past.
Jean-Paul Guerlain took over the family’s perfume house from his grandfather in 1959.
The Guerlain company distanced itself from his remarks, saying his words were “unacceptable”. It also noted that Jean-Paul Guerlain had not been a shareholder in the company since 1996 or part of its staff since 2002.
The first breast augmentation operation using silicone implants took place 50 years ago. Now the procedure rates as the second-most popular form of cosmetic surgery worldwide, undergone by 1.5 million women in 2010.
It was spring 1962 when Timmie Jean Lindsey, a mother-of-six lay down on the operating table at Jefferson Davis hospital in Houston, Texas.
Over the next two hours, she went from a B to a C cup, in an operation that made history.
“I thought they came out just perfect… They felt soft and just like real breasts,” says Timmie Jean Lindsey now aged 80.
“I don’t think I got the full results of them until I went out in public and men on the street would whistle at me.”
Though the operation boosted Timmie Jean Lindsey’s self-confidence – and she enjoyed the extra attention – she had never planned to have a breast enlargement.
Timmie Jean Lindsey had been to hospital to get a tattoo removed from her breasts, and it was then that doctors asked if she would consider volunteering for this first-of-its-kind operation.
“I was more concerned about getting my ears pinned back… My ears stood out like Dumbo! And they said <<Oh we’ll do that too>>.” So a deal was struck.”
The surgeons were two ambitious pioneers, Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin.
It was Frank Gerow who had first come up with the plan for a new kind of breast implant.
“Frank Gerow squeezed a plastic blood bag and remarked how much it felt like a woman’s breast,” says Teresa Riordan, author of Inventing Beauty: A History of the Innovations that have Made Us Beautiful.
“And he had this <<Aha!>> moment, where he first conceived of the silicone breast implant.”
Timmie Jean Lindsey is the first woman who had a breast augmentation with silicone implants in 1962 at Jefferson Davis hospital in Houston
The first guinea pig for the silicone implant was a dog named Esmeralda. The basic principle behind the prototype was simple.
“A rocket achieves lift off with lift and thrust – same thing in breast augmentation,” says Thomas Biggs, who was working with frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin in 1962 as a junior resident in plastic surgery.
“I was in charge of the dog. The implant was inserted under the skin and left for a couple of weeks, until she chewed at her stitches and it had to be removed.”
The operation was deemed a success and Frank Gerow declared that the implants were “as harmless as water”. Soon after, the medical team began looking for women to try out the implants.
Timmie Jean Lindsey has only a hazy recollection of her operation day.
“As I came back from surgery there was just a lot of weight on my chest – like something heavy had been sitting there.”
“That was about it – after maybe three or four days the pain part of it had let up.”
The doctors were pleased with their work. But, at the time, Thomas Biggs had no idea quite what they had on their hands.
“Sure it was a little bit exciting, but if I’d had a mirror to the future I’d have been dumbstruck,” Thomas Biggs says.
“I was not wise enough to realize the magnitude of it.”
The significance began to hit home when Thomas Cronin presented the work at the International Society of Plastic Surgeons in Washington DC in 1963.
“The plastic surgery world was absolutely set on fire with enthusiasm,” says Thomas Biggs.
The time seemed right. 1950’s America had seen a whole swathe of cultural influences come together around the ideal of a larger breast.
It was the decade in which Playboy magazine and Barbie launched, and film stars played a big role too.
Injected: Paraffin was tried in the 1890’s, but quickly dropped because it leaked to other parts of the body.
Transplanted: In the 1920’s and 1930’s doctors tried moving fat from other parts of the body to the breast.
Inserted: Polyurethane, cartilage, sponges, wood and even glass balls, were all tried in the 1950’s.
Non-surgical solutions: Vacuum pumps, suction devices, a multitude of lotions and potions, and padded or inflatable bras.
Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli’s joint statement to press revealing they had decided to end their marriage appeared like the decision was mutual.
But yesterday Peter Facinelli has filed divorce papers on the same day a new interview was published with Jennie Garth saying she never wanted to split up.
Peter Facinelli cited “irreconcilable differences” in the papers filed at L.A. County Superior Court yesterday.
The actor has made the first steps to end their marriage legally on the very day Jennie Garth has said she “won’t give up on him”.
Speaking to People magazine about the split, Jennie Garth said: “I was very resistant. I didn’t want it to happen.
“He did what he needed to do. I don’t want to walk for him. Or Do I? Of course I wish he had wanted to try harder, try again, try something else.”
Peter Facinelli has filed divorce papers on the same day a new interview was published with Jennie Garth saying she never wanted to split up
At the time of the split earlier this month reports claimed that Peter Facinelli was having an affair although the pair strongly denied that there was a third party involved branding the claims “hurtful”.
But there’s no doubt that the split took its toll on Jennie Garth who said she was shocked when her husband told her their marriage was over.
While Jennie Garth admits that the couple had been in counseling several times and also reveals that there was “jealously” within the relationship the split hit her hard.
Jennie Garth told People magazine: “You get the rug pulled from under you.”
The actress added: “I would take the girls to school, then go back and get into bed and not get up again until it was time to pick them up from school, and I had to pretend everything was fine.”
After Peter Facinelli told Jennie Garth he wanted a divorce there didn’t seem a right time to reveal the news – the pair kept the information to themselves until it became too much to bear.
In the end, Jennie Garth told the magazine, she couldn’t face telling the children herself and left Peter and her therapist to break the news to their three daughters Luca Bella, 14, Lola Ray, 9, and Fiona Eve, 5.
“I just held them. They cried. I cried. It was really hard,” Jennie Garth explained.
Jennie Garth met Peter Facinelli while filming An Unfinished Affair in 1996 and the couple had Luca Bella the following year.
Earlier this week Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli were seen taking their daughters out on a shopping trip – but the awkward situation was obvious given their body language.
After five years together, Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli married and went on to have two more daughters.
This is Jennie Garth’s second marriage to end in divorce – from 1994 to 1996 the actress was married to Daniel Clark.
Tiger Woods kept a very low profile during the height of his now notorious cheating scandal, but he also kept a very close eye on everything that was being written about his indiscretions in the press, claims his former coach Hank Haney in a tell-all book.
Hank Haney explains how his protégé would furiously trawl the internet to find stories written about his infidelities, and gauge readers’ responses to them.
The professional golfing coach makes the allegations, and many others, in The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods, which was released this week.
Hank Haney wrote: “Rather than trying to ignore what was being written and said about him, Tiger was taking it in.
“While we were in Augusta driving back and forth to the course, Tiger sat in the front passenger seat while I sat in the back, and I could see as he surfed the Web on his phone that he was searching for stories about himself on gossip sites.”
In his tell-all book, Hank Haney explains how Tiger Woods would furiously trawl the internet to find stories written about his infidelities and gauge readers’ responses to them
Hank Haney went on to claim that the golfing pro also took the time to read all of the comments left by readers at the bottom of online stories.
He said: “A couple of times he suddenly said, <<Uh oh, here’s another story>>, before immersing himself in it.
“Worse, he was reading the comments from readers, many of them vicious cheap shots. I was thinking there was no way that could be helping his frame of mind.”
The Big Miss also sees Hank Haney describe the sum of Tiger Woods’s qualities, good and bad, which he calls “the package”.
Hank Haney concluded: “Those qualities, foremost among them an extraordinary ability to focus and stay calm under stress, also included selfishness, obsessiveness, stubbornness, coldness, ruthlessness, pettiness and cheapness.”
The serial adulterer’s cheating scandal began when news broke of his mistress Rachel Uchitel in November 2009.
More than 15 other women were then revealed to have had relationships with Tiger Woods while he was married to Elin Nordegren.
As a result, Tiger Woods took a long break from golf before returning with a vengeance that saw him win his first PGA tournament at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday.
No matter where you are from, spring is the perfect time of year to take a vacation. Your family may decide on a Hamptons Rental from Elliman, a beachside home in the Carolinas, or take a trip to San Diego. But there is no better spot for a spring vacation than Florida. Florida weather can become very hot and humid in the summer months, but in the springtime, temperatures are generally perfect!
Orlando is a particularly excellent travel location during the spring months. Most vacationers flock to this top tourist destination after Memorial Day and keep the hotels and theme parks packed through Labor Day. However, during the spring off-season, prices are lower and crowds are smaller.
Photo By: commons.wikimedia.org User CaryMelC
Walt Disney World is often ranked as the most visited tourist destination in the country, as well as one of the most visited spots in the world. There are plenty of reasons why people love to revel in the magic of Disney. Each of Disney’s theme parks have activities and entertainment for people of all ages. Disney’s water parks and the resort hotel pools are welcoming features to those who have been cooped up in the cold all winter. Downtown Disney combines shopping, nightlife, and food venues ranging from the family friendly fare of the T-Rex Cafe to the fine dining of Paradiso 37.
Walt Disney World may be the most well known attraction in Orlando, but it certainly isn’t the only one. Universal Orlando offers the Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks as well as its own nightlife venue, CityWalk. SeaWorld is yet another exciting spot for anyone who loves the wonders of ocean life.
When staying in Orlando, couples, families, and singles can all find great deals, especially during the spring off-season. Both Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando have excellent resort choices, though there are many more resorts and hotels available in and around Orlando. Most hotels have complimentary shuttles to the theme parks and often one can even get an inexpensive or free ride to and from the airport. For a change of pace, and a bit more privacy, couples might consider renting a vacation home. During the spring months, these vacation homes are largely uninhabited and much less expensive to rent.
Photo by flickr user Scott-stoddphotography.com
Orlando is also an excellent spot for the avid golfer. The city has more than 50 golf courses and is rumored to be the top vacation destination for golfers. Many resorts give guests access to private golf courses that can easily be enjoyed during the mild spring months.
Orlando is a wonderful place for all who visit, which is why people return to this central Florida city year after year. Whether you are on a two-week stay or simply enjoying a long weekend, a trip to Orlando in the spring is one that you won’t soon forget.
Bobby Brown was charged yesterday with three misdemeanors including DUI, two days after his afternoon arrest in suburban Los Angeles.
Bobby Brown, 43, faces two DUI-related counts and another charge that he was driving on a suspended license, city attorney’s spokesman Frank Mateljan said. One of the counts alleges he had a blood alcohol level of more than 0.08%, which is the level at which someone is presumed to be driving under the influence.
The R&B singer’s attorney, Tiffany Feder, said she could not comment on the case because she had not yet received the police report and other documents. Earlier in the day, Tiffany Feder released a statement denying that the singer was driving unsafely when he was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol on Monday afternoon.
The agency said Bobby Brown was initially stopped because he was seen talking on a cellphone without a hands-free unit, but the officer also suspected the singer was impaired. The singer failed a field sobriety test, according to police.
Bobby Brown was charged yesterday with three misdemeanors including DUI
Bobby Brown was released from jail without having to post bail.
“Mr. Brown is taking this matter seriously, and an investigation is under way,” Tiffany Feder said in the statement released before her client was charged. “The legal process shall run its course.”
Bobby Brown faces up to six months in jail on the driving under the influence counts if convicted. His first court appearance is scheduled for April 16.
Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston’s ex-husband, is a founding member of the group New Edition and has been touring with the group recently.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announces that he has located the long-submerged F-1 engines that blasted the Apollo 11 Moon mission into space.
In a blog post, Jeff Bezos said the five engines were found using advanced sonar scanning some 14,000 ft (4,300 m) below the Atlantic Ocean’s surface.
Jeff Bezos, a billionaire bookseller and spaceflight enthusiast, said he was making plans to raise one or more.
Apollo 11 carried astronauts on the first Moon landing mission in 1969.
The F-1 engines were used on the giant Saturn V rocket that carried the Apollo landing module out of the Earth’s atmosphere and towards the Moon.
They burned for just a few minutes before separating from the second stage module and falling to Earth somewhere in the Atlantic.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announces that he has located the long-submerged F-1 engines that blasted the Apollo 11 Moon mission into space
Jeff Bezos’ announcement comes days after film director James Cameron succeeded in his own deep-sea expedition, reaching the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on the planet.
Announcing the discovery on his Bezos Expeditions website, Jeff Bezos described the F-1 as a “modern wonder” that boasted 32 million horsepower and burned 6,000 lbs (2,720 kg) of rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second.
“I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration,” Jeff Bezos wrote, confirming that his team had located the engines but without hinting where they might be.
“We don’t know yet what condition these engines might be in – they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years. On the other hand, they’re made of tough stuff, so we’ll see,” he wrote.
Jeff Bezos’ privately funded team was planning to raise one or more engines, he wrote.
He said he planned to ask NASA – which still owns the rockets – for permission to display one in the Museum of Flight in his home city of Seattle.
NASA said it looked forward to hearing more about the recovery, the Associated Press reports.
Other elements of the Apollo missions – including the Apollo 11 command module – are on display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
The attempt to raise the F-1 engines is not the first foray into space technology for Jeff Bezos.
In 2000 Jeff Bezos founded a private space flight firm, Blue Origin, which has received NASA funding and is working on making orbital and sub-orbital spaceflight commercially available.
Earl Scruggs, the pioneering banjo player who is credited with helping create modern country music, has died in Nashville aged 88.
Earl Scruggs died of natural causes at a Nashville hospital on Wednesday, his son Gary said.
The musician was known for his unique banjo playing technique, which involved just three fingers. It later became known as “the Scruggs picking style”.
Earl Scruggs’ innovative method can be heard on the theme tune to the 1962 series The Beverly Hillbillies.
He rose to the fame when Bill Monroe hired him to play in the Blue Grass Boys, one of the defining groups in the bluegrass musical genre.
Hollywood actor and fellow banjo player Steve Martin previously paid tribute to Earl Scruggs in the New Yorker newspaper.
“When the singer came to the end of a phrase, he filled the theatre with sparkling runs of notes that became a signature for all bluegrass music since,” Steve Martin said.
“A grand part of American music owes a debt to Earl Scruggs. Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl has, putting him in a category with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins, and Jimi Hendrix.”
Earl Scruggs, the pioneering banjo player who is credited with helping create modern country music, has died in Nashville aged 88
Earl Scruggs later teamed up with Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys, also known as Flatt and Scruggs.
One of their most well known records included Foggy Mountain Breakdown, which featured in the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde.
It was their recording of The Ballad of Jed Clampett that was used in The Beverly Hillbillies.
They eventually disbanded, and a rift grew between the two musicians, although they were inducted together in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985.
Earl Scruggs went on to form a group with his three sons in The Earl Scruggs Revue, playing alongside rock acts such as Steppenwolf and James Taylor.
In 1992, Earl Scruggs was among 13 recipients of a National Medal of Art.
Speaking at the time, Earl Scruggs said: “I never in my wildest dreams thought of rewards and presentations. I appreciate those things, especially this one.”
In 2001, Earl Scruggs released his first album in a decade, Earl Scruggs and Friends, featuring collaborations with other artists including Sir Elton John, Dwight Yoakam, Sting and Melissa Etheridge.
Bo Xilai, the politician at the heart of China’s biggest political scandal in years, is the victim of a smear campaign, a source close to his family has said.
The source, who did not want to be identified, said the allegations against Bo Xilai were “preposterous”.
Bo Xilai was sacked from his job in charge of the city of Chongqing after his police chief fled to a US consulate, causing major embarrassment to Beijing.
Since then a steady stream of damaging stories about Bo Xilai have emerged.
Earlier this week it emerged that the British government had asked the Chinese authorities to re-open an investigation into the death of UK businessman Neil Heywood, a close friend of Bo Xilai.
Unconfirmed media reports suggest Bo Xilai’s police chief, Wang Lijun, had information about Neil Heywood’s death.
Bo Xilai, 62, was one of China’s top politicians, tipped for even higher office when the Chinese Communist Party carries out a once-in-a-decade leadership change later this year.
Many thought he would be promoted to the Standing Committee of the party’s politburo, the nine-man body that runs China.
Suave and sophisticated, Bo Xilai was popular in Chongqing where he was party secretary, the top job in the city.
Bo Xilai also appeared to have support in the higher echelons of the Communist Party. Many national leaders visited Chongqing after he took charge there in 2007.
But since his sacking that support has disappeared – and a series of accusations have been leveled against Bo Xilai.
One suggested Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun fled to the US consulate because Bo Xilai reacted angrily when told of an investigation into his family.
“That’s just preposterous,” said the Bo family contact.
The allegations against Bo Xilai were "preposterous", said a source close to his family
He said the relationship between Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun was “normal” just days before the policeman fled. “He was pledging his allegiance,” said the contact.
He added that members of Bo Xilai’s family had worked hard to avoid the appearance that they were benefiting from the politician’s rise.
Bo Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai, apparently gave up her career as a high-flying lawyer a few years ago. “She shut down her law firm just when it was getting very big and exciting for her,” said the source.
Bo Xilai had also been accused of praising the Cultural Revolution, a chaotic period from 1966-1976 when normal life was turned upside down.
While in charge in Chongqing he launched a campaign to re-energize people’s enthusiasm for China’s communist past under Mao Zedong.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a thinly veiled attack on Bo Xilai’s project at a press conference just the day before he was sacked.
The family contact said: “Any suggestion that Bo Xilai wanted to go back to the Cultural Revolution period is wrong, given that he spent some of that time in jail.”
The source wanted to counter the impression among many that Bo Xilai was an ambitious politician who sought popularity to further his political goals.
He said Bo Xilai acted only out of a “sense of duty”.
“The problem with China’s government is that it’s strayed too far from the people. If you do things for people, others say you are being a populist,” he added.
The source said Bo Xilai had nothing to do with the death of Neil Heywood, the British businessman who died in Chongqing in November 2011.
There are rumors that Wang Lijun fled because he had details about a connection between Bo Xilai’s family and Neil Heywood.
It has emerged that Wang Lijun first arranged a meeting at the UK consulate in Chongqing, but never turned up.
Neil Heywood, who worked as a consultant in China, was a friend of Bo Xilai, but the family contact denied there were any business dealings between the two. Police say the 41-year-old died of excessive alcohol consumption – friends say he drank only occasionally.
Bo Xilai has disappeared from public view since his sacking last month and it is unclear whether he is under investigation or still has his seat on the party’s 25-member politburo.
But the damaging stories about him continue. Whatever the truth behind them, his downfall has caused a major stir within the Chinese political establishment.
The claims and counter claims suggest there is a major battle between political rivals ahead of the leadership changeover.
Kim Kardashian showed off her hourglass shape in a bikini from her Kardashian Kollection – the fashion line she shares with sisters Khloe and Kourtney.
But there’s something about the shoot and the girls’ appearance that just seem impossible – most notably the difference between Kim Kardashian’s middle and her hips.
Kim Kardashian’s waist appears unbelievably tiny and the frilly duke-blue bikini certainly complements her shape which looks incredible.
She is joined by her sisters Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian in the picture which boasts a brooding theme with dark dramatic clouds seen in the background.
Kourtney Kardashian,32, is seen sporting a dark strapless bikini while Khloe wears a lace bikini with a sheer navy kaftan over the top.
The girls skin appears luminous and flawless suggesting the trio have undoubtedly had a little help in the photoshop department.
Khloe, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian have undoubtedly had a little help in the photoshop department
In fact Kourtney Kardashian, who is currently pregnant with her second child, was seen sporting a baby bump at the time of the shoot in February, but there is no hint of a pregnancy in the snap.
Her abs looked more toned than ever despite photographers capturing her baby bump in snaps on the same day last month.
Kim Kardashian, 31, took to Twitter today to promote the shoot and posted the snap with the caption: “Kourt, Khloe and I put on our favorite bikinis for our new #KardashianKollection swimwear shoot!”
The picture, which seems to have considerable photoshop work on it, comes a day after Kim Kardashian was seen leaving a skin and hair clinic in LA with red patches on her forehead.
It seems the star may well have indulged in a spot of Botox ahead of a glitzy event last night.
Heavily pregnant Jessica Simpson is refusing to put her feet up less than a few weeks away from her due date.
Jessica Simpson, 31, negotiated her enormous bump on a shopping trip with a friend in Los Angeles yesterday.
The singer, who has revealed she has put on no less than 40 pounds in weight during her pregnancy, stepped out in a clinging black maxi dress which showed off her curved stomach.
Jessica Simpson appears to have finally given in to wearing flat footwear and was seen in a pair of comfortable and sensible flip flops.
The mother-to-be and her friend headed to Fred Segal and if Jessica Simpson had picked up anything her friend was carrying it as the brunette left with a series of bags.
Heavily pregnant Jessica Simpson is refusing to put her feet up less than a few weeks away from her due date
Jessica Simpson was seen cradling her bump with her hands and held a bright YSL handbag in the crook of her arm.
The mother-to-be recently spoke out about her pregnancy to Hello! magazine.
Jessica Simpson said: “I had a great pregnancy. Eating and not having to worry too much about it has been fun.”
“Taking a break from working out has definitely been fun. But I’m ready for it to be over. I’m ready to have my body back!”
Jessica Simpson, who appears to have been pregnant for much longer than her three trimesters, told the magazine that she can’t wait to deliver her unborn son or daughter.
“I feel like I could pop at any second,” she said.
A New York civil court has begun hearing the case against former IFM chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, brought by Nafissatou Diallo, the Sofitel hotel maid who accused him of a sex attack last year.
Nafissatou Diallo brought the action after criminal charges were dismissed against the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The charges were dropped when prosecutors lost faith in her evidence.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is not in court. He is fighting claims in France that he was involved with a prostitution ring.
The hearing in New York is the first stage in the civil case brought by Nafissatou Diallo.
Nafissatou Diallo maintains DSK attacked her when she came to clean his suite at the Sofitel Hotel in New York.
Nafissatou Diallo brought the civil action after criminal charges were dismissed against DSK
Judges must decide whether the case can proceed.
DSK’s lawyers argued in court that the case should be dropped, saying the defendant had diplomatic immunity at the time of the alleged assault.
“Dismissal, your honor, may seem like an unfair result to some, but it’s the result the law compels,” Amit P. Mehta, one of DSK’s lawyers, told the judge.
But the IMF has said Dominique Strauss-Kahn was not entitled to immunity because he was in New York on personal business at the time.
In France, DSK has been placed under investigation over allegations that he was involved in a hotel prostitution ring in the northern city of Lille.
DSK has admitted he attended sex parties, but denies that he knew the women involved in the orgies were hired prostitutes.
Leaked police documents emerged on Wednesday that appear to show that he exchanged text messages with the people running the parties, in which prostitutes were referred to as “material”.
Prosecutors claim the term suggests he knew the identity and profession of the women taking part.
At least one of those women has told police there was undue aggression at these events, an allegation Dominique Strauss-Kahn strenuously denies.
The parties DSK attended were stopped soon after his arrest in May last year.
The United States has confirmed the decision to put on hold planned food aid to North Korea.
The decision comes after Pyongyang announced a new rocket launch, which the US says breaks the terms of a deal agreed last month.
Earlier reports that the food aid plans had been suspended were confirmed by a Pentagon official on Wednesday.
Peter Lavoy told lawmakers North Korea had violated a missile test moratorium agreement and could not be trusted to deliver the aid properly.
Under the deal signed in February, North Korea agreed to a partial freeze in nuclear activities and a missile test moratorium in return for US food aid.
Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, told a government committee that next month’s planned rocket launch “reflects [North Korea’s] lack of desire to follow through on their international commitments and so we’ve been forced to suspend our activities to provide nutritional assistance”.
The United States has confirmed the decision to put on hold planned food aid to North Korea
North Korea claims the launch – which is scheduled for between April 12-16 – is only a satellite and is for scientific purposes.
But the US and North Korea’s neighbors insist it will be a long-range missile test, breaking the terms of last month’s agreement.
The US has not delivered food aid to North Korea since 2009, but sent officials to Pyongyang’s ally China earlier this month to finalize plans to re-start food deliveries.
North Korea has suffered persistent food shortages since a famine in the 1990s, and relies on foreign aid to feed its people.
The planned 240,000 tons of food aid from the US was to go to children and pregnant women.
The fossilized bones of a foot that were discovered in Ethiopia and dated to be 3.4 million years old gave scientists a fascinating new insight into the evolution of humans and our ability to walk.
The researchers say they do not have enough remains to identify the species of hominin, or human ancestor, from which the right foot came.
But they tell Nature journal that just the shape of the bones shows the creature could walk upright at times.
The fossil haul consists of eight elements from the forefoot – bones such as metatarsals and phalanges.
The specimens were pulled from clay sediments at Burtele in the central Afar region of Ethiopia, about 520 km north-east of the capital Addis Ababa.
It is a significant discovery because it demonstrates there was more than one pre-human species living in East Africa between three and four million years ago, each with its own method of moving around.
The other creature was the famous “Lucy” animal (Australopithecus afarensis), whose remains were first identified in the Afar in the 1970’s.
Lucy’s body was built for walking. Her big toe was aligned with the other four digits of the foot, and she had a human-like arch that allowed for very efficient locomotion.
The owner of the partial foot from Burtele was not afarensis; that can be said definitively.
The fossils indicate it had no arch and the big toe was opposed to the other digits, enabling the animal to grasp branches in a tree.
But the fact this creature could and would walk on the ground is evidenced by the nature of the bone joints. These were arranged such that the foot could push off, or toe-off – something only humans do as they walk, and something flat-footed apes cannot achieve.
The fossilized bones of a foot were discovered in Ethiopia and dated to be 3.4 million years
“If you look at the lateral metatarsal head along with the proximal toe bone, the phalanx – that particular joint is really unique in hominids,” explained team member Dr. Bruce Latimer of Case Western Reserve University, US.
“You can see it’s a very different kind of a joint, because when you toe-off and push forward in that last phase of walking, your toes are highly flexed. In order to achieve that, you have to change the base of the phalanx and the metatarsal head – you have to change both sides of the joint. And it’s a highly characteristic type of change that we can pick out immediately,” he said.
The scientists can only speculate as to identity of the Burtele species. Without skull and teeth elements, a formal classification is impossible.
The team says the animal’s morphology is reminiscent in some respects to a 4.4 million-year-old creature known as Ardipithecus ramidus. Although, again, it is not ramidus.
“It may be a relic species that was lingering around until 3.4 or 3.3 million years ago, and which had its origins way back in Ardipithecus ramidus times,” suggested team leader Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie.
“But obviously we cannot put it into the Ardipithecus genus or call it a ramidus species because we do not have any craniodental elements associated with this foot.
“We’ve kept digging at the Burtele site; we have a few isolated teeth, but that’s all,” the Cleveland Museum of Natural History curator said.
It is, though, a remarkable thought that there were these two very distinct species effectively rubbing shoulders with each other 3.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia.
The landmark Lucy specimen unearthed in 1974 was found at Hadar, about 50 km from Burtele. Other remains of afarensis have been discovered closer still.
Cambridge art historian Thomas de Wesselow came with a new theory about the Turin Shroud, being convinced that it is real and did touch Christ’s body.
Thomas de Wesselow insists that the image on the cloth fooled the Apostles into believing Christ had come back to life, and the Resurrection was in fact an optical illusion. However, his theory about the Turin Shroud claims that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead.
His theory is that in the mind of a person 2,000 years ago, the image on the Shroud would have been astonishing – far beyond their normal experiences and truly unsettling.
“They saw the image on the cloth as the living double of Jesus,” Thomas de Wesselow said.
“Back then images had a psychological presence, they were seen as part of a separate plain of existence, as having a life of their own.”
“If you think yourself into the whole experience of the apostles. Going into the tomb three days after the crucifixion, in the half-light, and seeing that image emerging from the burial cloth,” the 40-year-old academic told The Daily Telegraph.
According to the Bible, Peter, James, Thomas, Mary Magdalene and a number of disciples saw Jesus in the flesh after his death.
This proved Jesus was the son of God and became the central tenet of Christian faith and theology.
In the New Testament, after the Romans crucified Jesus, He was buried in a tomb, but God raised Him from the dead and he appeared to many people over a span of forty days before his ascension to Heaven.
Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, the third day after Good Friday, the day of his crucifixion. The resurrection story appears in more than five locations in the Bible.
The image on the Turin Shroud is commonly associated with Jesus Christ, his crucifixion and burial
But Thomas de Wesselow – a self-confessed “shroudie” who has been intrigued by the its mystery since childhood – has a radically different view.
He has spent eight years on The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection, due to be published next Monday.
It is the latest in a long list of works claiming to have solved the riddle of the Turin Shroud.
Many believe the linen cloth was the shroud in which Jesus Christ’s body was buried after it was cut from the crucifix on Calvary, and displays an image of his body.
But debate has raged for decades about its authenticity.
Since a 1988 radiocarbon dating test put its age at between 1260 and 1390, many have just assumed the Shroud, which is held in the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy, is a medieval forgery.
But conclusive proof has not yet been advanced.
De Wesselow’s new book claims to prove the botched sampling of the cloth and the last-minute abandonment of agreed procedures mean that the carbon dating test was seriously flawed.
Thomas de Wesselow, who is based in King’s College, Cambridge, believes the Shroud was looted as bounty by French knights and the Crusaders who sacked Constantinople in 1204.
He is convinced modern analysis proves the Shroud is genuine; that pollens lifted from cloth fibres indicate that it was once in Israel; a seam used in the weave of the linen is identical to one found only on a first-century cloth from Judea; the wound-marks are composed of real blood; and an alternative, peer-reviewed test of the age of the linen found that it was over 1300 years old.
He contends that the negative quality of the image also explains why, in the Gospels, the disciples are at first unable to recognize the Risen Jesus.
And he says his version of the Resurrection can be interpreted from passages in the Bible.
He points to Saint Paul’s 1 Corinthians 15-50 in which the Apostle says unequivocally that “resurrection is not about flesh and blood”.
Pope Benedict XVI and the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had a meeting today for the first time after the Pontiff saying mass in Havana, in which he demanded greater freedom in the country and denounced Communist “fanaticism”.
The meeting comes towards the end of the Pope’s three-day visit to the Communist-run island, during which the pontiff called for a bigger role for the Roman Catholic Church in Cuban society.
Fidel Castro announced late yesterday that he would happily meet with Pope Benedict XVI, saying he was asking for just a “few minutes of his very busy time” while the Pope is in Havana.
After the mass, Pope Benedict met for about half an hour with Fidel Castro, who is a Jesuit-educated altar boy-turned-revolutionary leader whose 1998 hosting of Pope John Paul II marked a turning point in the church’s relations with Cuba.
Pope Benedict XVI and the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had a meeting today for the first time after the Pontiff saying mass in Havana
Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said he was watching the two men and their conversation seemed very animated.
Pope Benedict XVI said Fidel Castro, who was raised a Catholic, asked about the reasons for the changes in the liturgy after the Second Vatican Council, about the role of the Pope and about the Pope’s thinking about the larger philosophical questions weighing on the minds of people today.
Father Lombardi told the Catholic News Service: “In the end, Commandante Fidel asked the pope to send him a few books dealing with the questions he had.”
He also revealed that Fidel Castro had told Pope Benedict he had followed his entire visit on television, and Castro had remarked they were about the same age, to which the Pope replied: “Yes, I’m old, but I can still carry out my duties.”
The Pope will celebrate his 85th birthday in April, and Fidel Castro will turn 86 in August.
Their meeting followed an unusually politicized homily from Pope Benedict XVI which was a not-so-subtle jab at Cuba’s leadership before the vast crowd.
But he also used plain language to urge an end to Cuba’s isolation, a reference to the 50-year U.S. economic embargo and the inability of 11 American presidents and brothers Fidel and Raul Castro to forge peace.
“Cuba and the world need change, but this will occur only if each one is in a position to seek the truth and chooses the way of love, sowing reconciliation and fraternity,” he said.
Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston’s mother, believes Bobby Brown’s DUI arrest proves what she has been telling people all along he is just a bad influence.
Sources close to Cissy Houston told TMZ that she’s always felt Bobby Brown was a cancer who infected Whitney’s life with negative influences.
Cissy Houston felt “vindicated” when she found out Bobby Brown was arrested for driving under the influence on Monday afternoon and believes the incident is exactly why she wants Bobby to “keep his distance” from his daughter Bobbi Kristina.
Cissy Houston believes Bobby Brown's DUI arrest proves he is just a bad influence
The Houstons believe Bobbi Kristina Brown has been in a “vulnerable place” since Whitney passed and as one source puts it: “This is the last person she needs to be around.”
Instead, sources told TMZ that Cissy Houston wants Bobbi Kristina Brown to hang around “positive mentors” like Clive Davis.
Bobby Brown’s attorney is defending the singer’s actions behind the wheel few days after he was arrested for driving under the influence.
“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and Mr. Brown was not driving erratically,” Tiffany Feder, Bobby Brown’s legal counsel, told People magazine in a statement.
“He was speaking on his cell phone.”
The statement continues: “Mr. Brown has not been convicted of anything associated with this incident. Mr. Brown is taking this matter seriously and an investigation is underway. The legal process shall run its course.”
Bobby Brown’s attorney is defending the singer’s actions behind the wheel few days after he was arrested for DUI
On Monday, Bobby Brown, 43, was pulled over at 12:20 p.m. in the San Fernando Valley for talking on his cell phone, and he then failed a field sobriety test. He was later released on his own recognizance and $5,000 bail about two hours later from the Van Nuys police station jail.
The incident came days after the coroner’s announcement that ex-wife Whitney Houston died from accidental drowning.
An international team of astronomers says that there could be many billions of planets not much bigger than Earth circling faint stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
The estimate for the number of “super-Earths” is based on detections already made and then extrapolated to include the Milky Way’s population of so-called red dwarf stars.
The team works with the high-precision Harps instrument.
This is fitted to the 3.6 m telescope at the Silla Observatory in Chile.
Harps employs an indirect method of detection that infers the existence of orbiting planets from the way their gravity makes a parent star appear to twitch in its motion across the sky.
“Our new observations with Harps mean that about 40% of all red dwarf stars have a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone where liquid water can exist on the surface of the planet,” said team leader Xavier Bonfils from the Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Grenoble, France.
“Because red dwarfs are so common – there are about 160 billion of them in the Milky Way – this leads us to the astonishing result that there are tens of billions of these planets in our galaxy alone.”
An international team of astronomers says that there could be many billions of planets not much bigger than Earth circling faint stars in the Milky Way galaxy
The Harps team came up with its numbers after surveying 102 carefully chosen red dwarfs, which are dimmer and cooler than our Sun.
The group found a total of nine super-Earths (which are defined as planets with one to 10 times the mass of the Earth), with two judged to be orbiting inside their stars’ habitable zones.
Putting all its data together, including observations of stars that did not have planets, the team was able to produce an estimate for how common different sorts of planets are around red dwarfs.
This assessment suggests super-Earths in the habitable zone occur in 41% of cases, with a range from 28% to 95%.
Given how many red dwarf stars there are in close proximity to the Sun, it means there could be perhaps 100 super-Earth planets in the habitable zones of stars that are less than about 30 light-years distant.
“The habitable zone around a red dwarf, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on the surface, is much closer to the star than the Earth is to the Sun,” commented co-researcher Stephane Udry from the Geneva Observatory.
“But red dwarfs are known to be subject to stellar eruptions or flares, which may bathe the planet in X-rays or ultraviolet radiation, and which may make life there less likely.”
The latest Harps research will appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Guggenheim Baseball Management LLC, the consortium that includes the former basketball star Magic Johnson, is buying the LA Dodgers baseball club.
The club and owner Frank McCourt said they planned to sell the team and Dodger Stadium for $2 billion to Guggenheim Baseball Management LLC.
The sale could help the club to emerge from bankruptcy.
Frank McCourt and some affiliates of the buyers will also form a joint venture to buy the surrounding property and car parks for $150 million.
The deal is subject to approval in a federal bankruptcy court.
The business – one of the most prestigious franchises in sport – has been overseen by a bankruptcy court since June.
That followed a move in April last year by Major League Baseball, the sport’s ruling body, to take over the day-to-day running of the club following questions about its financing and a fight for ownership between Frank McCourt and his former wife Jamie.
Guggenheim Baseball Management LLC, the consortium that includes the former basketball star Magic Johnson, is buying the LA Dodgers baseball club
Frank McCourt bought the team in 2004 from the Fox division of News Corporation for $430 million. The deal also gave him ownership of Dodger Stadium and 250 acres of land that included the car parks.
The team’s debt stood at $579 million as of January 2012.
The sale announcement came shortly after Major League Baseball owners had approved three bidders for an auction of the team which was expected to start later on Wednesday.
Frank McCourt said: “This agreement with Guggenheim reflects both the strength and future potential of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and assures that the Dodgers will have new ownership with deep local roots.”
Earvin “Magic” Johnson, 52, played 13 seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five NBA championships and three Most Valuable Player awards.
Magic Johnson retired from the NBA in 1991 after being diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, before returning to the game and eventually retiring for good in 1996.
News Corporation’s Fox sports unit and Time Warner Cable are now expected to battle for the rights to screen the team’s games.
Amazon has announced the launch of Kindle Touch, its touchscreen version of iKindle e-reader, in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
The Kindle Touch will be available for delivery from 27 April, five months after it went on sale in the US. Unlike in America, there will not be a discounted version with adverts.
Kindle Touch aims to challenge touch-based e-readers from Kobo and Sony.
Amazon had no update on a European release date for its bestselling Kindle Fire Android-based tablet.
Kindle Touch is being sold in UK for £109 with wi-fi, and £169 with both wi-fi and 3G connectivity, with no monthly fee. Both options allow books to be bought “on the go” from Amazon.
The device also contains an “experimental” web browser, but it only works with a wi-fi signal.
The e-reader is 70 grams (2.5 ounces) heavier and slightly larger than the basic Kindle model, which is sold for £89.
However, it also offers an “x-ray” feature – exclusive to the device – which lets users to find related passages in a book as well as more detailed information from Wikipedia and Amazon’s community-written book encyclopaedia “Shelfari”.
The latest version of its operating system will allow books to be read in both portrait and landscape mode. US-owners had previously been restricted to holding the device vertically and had pressed Amazon to make both options available.
Amazon has announced the launch of Kindle Touch, its touchscreen version of iKindle e-reader, in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy
Amazon said UK readers will have access to more than one million books including the Harry Potter series, which has just become available to the firm and its rivals.
“We launched our first Kindle here 18 months ago and it very quickly became successful with 500,000 titles,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Amazon’s European vice president of Kindle.
“It is the best-selling e-reader in the world, but the comments that we got back… were ‘we wish it had touch’, and so we’re excited now to bring this to the UK market as well.”
Jorrit Van der Meulen would not explain the reason for the gap in launch dates. He also confirmed that European users would not be able to lend books to each other or borrow titles from public libraries as they can in the US.
When asked about the Kindle Fire – which shipped on 14 November in the US – he said: “We generally don’t talk about upcoming products or future plans.”
Gadget site, Pocket-Lint’s editor was not convinced many users would want to pay a premium over the entry-point Kindle, which uses push-buttons to change pages.
“The basic version sold like hot cakes at Christmas and it is likely to remain the market leader,” said the site’s founder Stuart Miles.
“You don’t really need to touch a book to make the pages turn when a button does the same, and for another £20 that’s basically all you are getting.”
In the US, the Kindle Touch faces competition from the Nook Simple Touch, which is sold ad-free at a cheaper price, and the Nook Color which can screen movies and television shows.
There had been rumours that the rival e-readers might soon launch in the UK after their maker – Barnes & Noble bookstores – sponsored an event for developers in London earlier this month.
However, the firm’s senior vice president of communications, Mary Ellen-Keating, said: “We have nothing to announce at this time.”
