Libya has formally requested the handover of Abdullah al-Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief, following his arrest in Mauritania.
A spokesman for the new government in Tripoli “insisted” Abdullah al-Senussi be extradited to Libya to face trial.
However, Abdullah al-Senussi is also sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity.
France also wants to extradite Abdullah al-Senussi in connection with a bomb attack on a plane in 1989.
Mauritania has already said it wants to carry out its own investigation before considering any extradition requests.
Abdullah al-Senussi was held at the airport in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, after flying in from Morocco using a false passport, officials said.
However, Mauritania has not yet provided any evidence of his arrest.
It is believed he is being held at the offices of the Mauritanian intelligence agency.
Libya has formally requested the handover of Abdullah al-Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief, following his arrest in Mauritania
Abdullah al-Senussi, 63, fled Libya last year as Muammar Gaddafi’s regime began to crumble.
“We insist that Senussi is extradited to Libya,” said Mohammed al-Harizy, spokesman for Libya’s National Transitional Council.
“There are demands from the ICC and France to get Senussi, but the priority is to deliver Senussi to Libya.”
The arrest provoked strong feelings on the streets of Tripoli on Saturday.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both said that Mauritania was bound by the UN Security Council to co-operate with the ICC, even though it has not signed up to its statute.
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s deputy director for North Africa, said in a statement that the Libyan justice system remained “weak and unable to conduct effective investigations into alleged crimes”.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Abdullah al-Senussi last June, saying he was an “indirect perpetrator of crimes against humanity, of murder and persecution based on political grounds” committed in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Abdullah al-Senussi could also be held to account for the massacre of more than 1,000 detainees at a Libyan prison in 1996.
A French court has already convicted the former spy chief in absentia of involvement in a 1989 attack on a French plane that killed 170 people, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Abdullah al-Senussi, nicknamed “the butcher”, was one of the last significant members of the Gaddafi regime still at large.
Beyoncé, Jay-Z and their little girl Blue Ivy enjoyed a lunch together at trendy restaurant Nobu in the Tribeca area of New York.
The pricey eatery Nobu is a popular choice for celebrities although it is doubtful that many patrons take young babies with them.
But Blue Ivy is already a star in her own right – she is already the youngest artist ever to be on the Billboard charts after appearing on Jay-Z’s record – she will no doubt have received the full VIP treatment.
As the family left the restaurant Jay Z was seen beaming with pride while Beyoncé carried the two-month-old baby in a harness.
The singer had also wrapped a light colored blanket around her little bundle as the family made their way to the chauffeur driven car waiting for them.
Beyoncé, Jay-Z and their little girl Blue Ivy enjoyed a lunch together at trendy restaurant Nobu
Beyoncé was looking as stylish as ever in a black fedora hat and matching blazer.
She climbed into the back of the large SUV and was seen cradling Blue Ivy tenderly.
Beyoncé’s bright blue nails, no doubt a tribute to her only child, could be seen as she held her daughter.
In fact the singer has been stepping out in a series stylish ensembles for the walks with Blue Ivy.
Beyoncé ‘s father Matthew Knowles has recently spoke about his granddaughter at an event in London.
Matthew Knowles, 60, said: “She’s already the youngest artist ever to be on the Billboard Charts. I just saw Beyoncé and Blue Ivy two days ago.
“She has already got fifty per cent growth in three weeks. She is going to be a really tall kid.”
“You just want to love and kiss her but the great thing with grandkids is that you can give them back.”
Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar, including nine children, was trying to leave active service in response to financial problems, it emerged yesterday.
Bypassed for a promotion and struggling to pay for his house, Robert Bales, 38, was eyeing a way out of his job at a Washington state military base months before he was deployed to Afghanistan.
While Robert Bales sat in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth’s military prison, classmates and neighbors from suburban Cincinnati, Ohio remembered him as a “happy-go-lucky” high school football player who took care of a special needs child and watched out for troublemakers in the neighborhood.
But court records and interviews show that the 10-year veteran – with a string of commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan – had joined the Army after a Florida investment job went sour, had a Seattle-area home condemned, struggled to make payments on another and failed to get a promotion or a transfer a year ago.
Robert Bales’ legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, court records show.
He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed.
Military officials say that after drinking on a southern Afghanistan base, Robert Bales crept away on March 11 to two slumbering villages overnight, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine of the 16 killed were children and 11 belonged to one family.
Robert Bales hasn’t been charged yet in the shootings, which have endangered complicated relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and threatened to upend U.S. policy over the decade-old war.
Robert Bales, the soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar, was trying to leave active service in response to financial problems
He joined the Army after studying business at Ohio State University – he attended three years but didn’t graduate – and handled investments before the market downturn pushed him out of the business.
Florida records show that Robert Bales was a director at an inactive company called Spartina Investments Inc. in Doral, Florida; his brother, Mark Bales, and a Mark Edwards were also listed as directors.
Robert Bales was struggling to keep payments on his own home in Lake Tapps, a rural reservoir community about 35 miles south of Seattle; his wife asked to put the house on the market three days before the shootings, real estate Philip Rodocker said.
“She told him she was behind in our payments,” Philip Rodocker told The New York Times.
“She said he was on his fourth tour and it was getting kind of old and they needed to stabilize their finances.”
The house was not officially put on the market until Monday; on Tuesday, Philip Rodocker said, Robert Bales’ wife called and asked to take the house off the market, talking of a family emergency.
Robert Bales and his wife bought the Lake Tapps home in 2005, according to records, for $280,000; it was listed this week at $229,000. Overflowing boxes were piled on the front porch, and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.
Neighbors said Robert Bales was a loving father two his two children, daughter, Quincy, and son, Bobby, adding that there were no signs that the Army sergeant was troubled.
The best case scenario for the next phase in their family’s life, Robert Bales’s wife wrote, would be an Army assignment in an adventurous location like Germany, Italy or Hawaii, and barring that, possibly an assignment in Georgia, where her husband could become a sniper instructor.
“We are hoping that if we are proactive and ask to go to a location that the Army will allow us to have some control over where we go next,” she wrote.
It would seem she was greatly looking forward to the promotion, which would allow him to be home with her and their children.
But when Robert Bales was passed over for the position, his wife was understandably upset.
Sgt. Robert Bales, who served as an Army sniper, joined the military after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
His attorney, John Henry Browne, described the couple’s marriage as “fabulous”.
John Henry Browne said on CNN that marital problems were “totally bogus”, adding that his client had a “very strong marriage and, frankly, we’re all taking offense at that”.
McLaren’s Jenson Button won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as his team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished third.
Jenson Button, who qualified second to his team-mate, beat him into the first corner and pulled away to win.
Lewis Hamilton lost second place to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel after an unlucky break with a safety car, and the German was able to hold him off.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was fourth, ahead of the surprisingly quick Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Williams driver Pastor Maldonado was on course to take a close sixth, but he lost control while chasing Alonso on the last lap and crashed at the Turn Seven kink.
That handed sixth place to Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese won out in a seven-car fight to the flag.
McLaren's Jenson Button won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as his team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished third
In a chaotic final lap, Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, impressive on his return after two years in rallying, took seventh ahead of the second Sauber of Sergio Perez, the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo, Force India’s Paul di Resta, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who had been eighth until Maldonado’s crash led to frantic place-swapping.
Jenson Button was serenely unaware of the drama behind him – he was in a league of his own throughout the race after making a better start than Hamilton and passing him down the inside into Turn One.
“As a team it really shows how important the winter is,” said Jenson Button, who kicked off his 2009 championship-winning year with victory in Australian.
“We had a strong winter and qualifying really shows that. It’s nice to come away with a win in the first race of the season.
Two golden retrievers prove that dogs are clever animals by learning how to play a duet on the piano and a video of their performance became viral on YouTube with over 147,000 hits in three days.
The musical dogs enthusiastically play The Flea Waltz on an over-sized keyboard.
The duetting dogs aren’t quite clever enough to play the piece on their own, though.
The golden retrievers’ owner plays an ocarina to guide them to the correct notes.
The musical dogs enthusiastically play The Flea Waltz on an over-sized keyboard
Hundreds of YouTube users have left glowing reviews of the video, with “david007max” saying: “Bravo! Great job by your retrievers, they deserve a treat, so gifted.”
And “Ghostwhisperer2011” said: “This cannot be possible! I want those two goldens!”
The Flea Waltz is a simple piano piece played all over the world – though its composer is unknown.
The International Pop Music Festival for Children and Youth
“Crystal Star” begins registrations!
Starting on March 15, 2012, talented children and young singers, aged between 6 and 25 can apply online on the website www.steauadecristal.ro for participation in the International Pop Music Festival for Children and Youth “Crystal Star “. The festival will take place from July 12 to 15, 2012, at Gura Humorului, Romania.
The Cultural Association “Melos”, in collaboration with Events Management Company organizes in the town of Gura Humorului, the county of Suceava, Romania, from July 12 to 15, 2012, the first edition of The International Pop Music Festival “Crystal Star”. The festival includes two sections: Vocal (solo and group) Interpretation and New Song (Original Song). Competitors may register in one or both sections: vocal interpretation or/and new song , in one of the five age groups: 6-8 years old, 9-11 years old, 12 -14 years old, 15 to 18 years old, 19 to 25 years old.
The festival aims to promote young pop music performers, to bring the spotlight on the most talented children and young singers from Romania and abroad, in a real competition, marked by objectivity and transparency.
We invite all talented children and young singers to attend the International Pop Music Festival “Crystal Star”, a truly international competition in a holiday atmosphere, in one of the most beautiful tourist areas of Romania, Bucovina.
All information on the organization of festival, event program, rules and regulations are available online at www.steauadecristal.ro.
Ordos is a new city in Inner Mongolia that stands largely empty after the great Chinese building boom, which did so much to fuel the country’s astonishing economic growth, is over.
A huge statue of the mighty warrior Genghis Khan presides over Genghis Khan Plaza in Ordos New Town. The square is vast, fading into the snowy mist on a recent Sunday morning.
Genghis Khan Plaza is flanked by huge and imposing buildings.
Two giant horses from the steppes rise on their hind legs in the centre of the Plaza, statues which dwarf the great Genghis Khan himself.
Only one element is missing from this vast ensemble – people.
There are only two or three people in this immense townscape. Because this is Ordos, a place that has been called the largest ghost town in China.
Most of the new town buildings are empty or unfinished. The rampant apartment blocks are full of unsold flats.
If you want to find a place where China’s huge housing bubble has already burst, then Ordos is the place to come.
The story started about 20 years ago, with the beginning of a great Mongolian coal rush.
Private mining companies poured into the green Inner Mongolian steppe lands, pock-marking the landscape with enormous opencast holes in the ground, or tunneling underground.
Local farmers sold their land to the miners, and became instantly rich. Jobs burgeoned. Ceaseless coal truck convoys tore up the roads.
And the old city of Ordos flourished as the money flowed in.
The municipality decided to think big, too.
It laid out plans for a huge new town for hundreds of thousands of residents, with Genghis Khan Plaza at the centre of it.
Ordos is a new city in Inner Mongolia that stands largely empty after the great Chinese building boom
Ten years later Ordos new town is an empty new city.
And it is merely the most spectacular example of a new Chinese phenomenon, in many cities – unsold flats, unlet shops, empty office blocks.
It looks to outsiders as though the great Chinese building boom is over, the real estate extravaganza that shook the world.
Western financial experts who fear a bursting of the Chinese real estate bubble point out that the Chinese economy is more dependent on house building than the United States economy was, before the sub-prime lending bubble burst in 2007.
Many Chinese local authorities seem to have become dependent on the proceeds of big land sales to developers.
In the eyes of the critics, China’s housing boom is becoming a disaster.
The authorities in Beijing have taken notice of the direst warnings. They have been taking official action to rein in the speculative buying of multiple apartments over the past two years.
Chinese economic commentators seem much less concerned than the Western doom-mongers. They are still confident that the technocrats in Beijing who have guided China’s 30 years of spectacular economic growth will soon be able to balance supply and demand in the housing market.
The same relaxed attitude was apparent in a couple in a spacious apartment in Ordos, in the middle of a building site.
They were buying the place as an investment, even though the delivery date keeps on slipping.
It is only some 25 years since Chinese people were permitted to buy and sell homes at all.
Decades of pent-up demand are still being satisfied as the great wheel of Chinese urbanization continues to bring millions of people in from the countryside to work in the cities.
Right now there are other worries in the Chinese system, typified by Li, a man I met in Ordos, who had prospered when the local council bought up the land on which his family’s shop had been located.
Li invested the compensation with local private financiers.
It is common practice in China where there is a big grey market in private loans to private businesses who cannot get money from the big, official, state-owned banks.
Li’s private financier naturally invested the money in property, and paid him interest every three months at the rate of about 40% a year.
He had put the equivalent of over $1 million into such schemes.
For two years they paid out, but last year the interest payments began to dry up.
Then one of the financiers disappeared.
This has become a very familiar story in China now, one that is making big headlines as some famously rich private finance people come up for trial on charge of huge financial irregularity. China’s 68th richest woman, Wu Ying, is facing the death penalty for schemes she ran in her 20s.
At least half of Li’s money now seems to have disappeared.
As a Mongolian, Li said he was very angry when it happened last year. But now his mood has changed to a curious, fatalistic resignation, quite unlike Genghis Khan.
“Once we were rich, and now we’re poor again,” said Li, with something like a wry grin.
Chaleo Yoovidhya, the creator of the energy drink Red Bull has died in Bangkok aged 80.
Chaleo Yoovidhya rose from humble origins to become one of Thailand’s richest man, with a wealth estimated at $5 billion in 2011.
His pharmaceutical company produced a tonic drink in the 1970s, but it became popular worldwide in the next decade when he went into partnership with an Austrian entrepreneur.
Red Bull also owns two football clubs and a Formula 1 team.
Chaleo Yoovidhya, the creator of the energy drink Red Bull has died in Bangkok aged 80
Chaleo Yoovidhya was born of poor Chinese immigrant parents in the northern province of Phichit, reportedly in 1932, local media say.
He worked as a salesman before setting up TC Pharmaceuticals in 1962.
TC Pharmaceuticals introduced the drink Krating Daeng, which became popular with shift workers and lorry drivers.
In 1984 Chaleo Yoovidhya launched it as Red Bull with the Austrian marketing expert Dietrich Mateschitz, and three years later began selling it in Austria.
Red Bull is now sold in 70 countries throughout the world.
Forbes Magazine put Chaleo Yoovidhya equal 205th in its March 2012 world billionaire list.
Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston’s cousin, says that she will no longer answer questions about the late singer.
Dionne Warwick, 71, who has given several interviews in the wake of Whitney Houston’s death, said that the star now “needs to rest”.
Whitney Houston’s cousin told Entertainment Tonight: “I think what we’re doing right now is the last time I’m gonna be doing this about Whitney. Whitney needs to be let go, she needs to rest and we all need to give her that solace.”
Dionne Warwick had earlier declined to take part in Oprah Winfrey’s recent TV special about Whitney Houston.
The singer previously revealed that she spoke to Whitney Houston just hours before she passed away in a Beverly Hilton hotel room on February 11.
Dionne Warwick, who has given several interviews in the wake of Whitney Houston's death, said that the star now "needs to rest"
Dionne Warwick also told Entertainment Tonight that she is pleased to be recording a new album, saying that the work has helped her cope with the tragedy.
“This is probably the best thing that ever could have happened – for me to be busy,” Dionne Warwick said.
“I want to have the peace that I know she is enjoying right now.”
New reports claim that even Bobbi Kristina Brown’ closest friends were shocked by the news Whitney Houston’s daughter is dating Nick Gordon, the guy she used to consider her “brother”.
According to TMZ, Bobbi Kristina Brown feels she’s doing nothing wrong by dating Nick Gordon, the guy her mother Whitney Houston unofficially adopted 10 years ago.
Sources told TMZ that Bobbi Kristina broke the news to her friends at a BBQ this week and no one believed it until the two kissed in front of everyone.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’ closest friends were shocked by the news Whitney Houston’s daughter is dating Nick Gordon
One of Bobbi Kristina’s friends said he felt the “relationship” was the result of each of them taking the death of Whitney Houston too hard, but they both brushed off that notion.
The sources said the rest of the BBQ was quite awkward after that and everyone just tried to change the subject.
Kirtana Vallabhaneni, a Merseyside student at West Kirby Grammar School has been named as the UK Young Scientist of the Year.
Kirtana Vallabhaneni, 17, beat 360 other entrants to be awarded the prize at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham’s NEC on Friday.
The student was part of University of Liverpool’s research project aimed at identifying the harmful cells that cause pancreatic cancer.
Kirtana Vallabhaneni said she hoped her win could help “instill the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people”.
The judging panel for the national award, open to 11 to 18-year-olds who completed a science, technology, engineering or maths project, included renowned space scientist Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt, and the Science Museum’s inventor in residence Mark Champkins.
Kirtana Vallabhaneni, 17, beat 360 other entrants to be awarded the prize at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham's NEC
Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock said she was “delighted” with Kirtana Vallabhaneni’s work.
“The country’s science and engineering industry has an incredibly bright future ahead of it if Kirtana and her fellow finalists are anything to go by,” Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock said.
“It’s these talented individuals who will inspire others to think about science and engineering in a new and exciting light.”
Kirtana Vallabhaneni, who was part of the project team working to isolate cells in the pancreas that can be targeted with chemotherapy, said she was “so happy” with the win.
“Everything that I’ve worked for over the last year has come together,” Kirtana Vallabhaneni said.
“The fact four finalists were female shows that there are strong opportunities for women in science and it proves they don’t have to follow convention and stereotypes.
“I’m so passionate about what I do and I hope that with this success, I can instill the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people.
Abdullah al-Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi’s intelligence chief has been arrested in Mauritania, Libyan authorities have confirmed.
Abdullah al-Senussi, 63, was detained at Nouakchott airport, according to Mauritanian security officials
The former Libyan spy chief was Muammar Gaddafi’s brother-in-law and has been described as one of his most trusted aides.
Abdullah al-Senussi fled Libya when Gaddafi was ousted and killed last year after an uprising and months of fighting.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Abdullah al-Senussi’s arrest last year for crimes against humanity.
France said the arrest was carried out in a joint operation between French and Mauritanian authorities, and President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would request Abdullah al-Senussi’s extradition.
A French court convicted the former Libyan intelligence chief of involvement in a 1989 attack on a French plane that killed 170 people, and sentenced him to life in prison.
But Libyan authorities are also demanding his extradition.
Mauritania has not signed the ICC’s statute, and it is unclear what the country intends to do with Abdullah al-Senussi.
Mauritanian security officials said Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested during the night as he arrived on a regular flight from the Moroccan city of Casablanca on a false Malian passport.
Abdullah al-Senussi, Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief has been arrested in Mauritania
Abdullah al-Senussi has been taken to the offices of the Mauritanian intelligence agency.
Libyan government spokesman Nasir al-Mani told state TV that Abdullah al-Senussi was travelling with a young man thought to be his son when he was arrested.
“The Libyan government is making contacts to demand that Abdullah al-Senussi be handed over,” said Nasir al-Mani.
Analysts say Abdullah al-Senussi could provide the most detailed insights so far into the inner workings of the Gaddafi regime.
Abdullah al-Senussi, nicknamed “the butcher”, was one of the last significant members of the regime still at large.
The former Libyan spy chief was indicted by the ICC along with Muammar Gaddafi and the leader’s son Saif al-Islam on 27 June 2011.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was captured in November in southern Libya and has been held by former rebels ever since.
The ICC wants him tried in The Hague but the Libyan authorities say he will receive a fair trial at home.
Libyan, Arab and Western sources describe Abdullah al-Senussi as a thuggish figure who would beat and abuse prisoners.
Abdullah al-Senussi is thought to have been responsible for purges of opponents within the regime in the 1980s and 90s, and for the deaths of 1,200 political prisoners at Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison in 1996.
He kept a low public profile during last year’s uprising, but reportedly played a key role in attempts to crush the revolt in the eastern city of Benghazi when it began last February.
There have been repeated reports of his death and capture which were later proved false.
Sources in the then opposition claimed Abdullah al-Senussi was killed in an attack by rebels in July in the Libyan capital Tripoli but later retracted the claim.
Officials in Niger said in October that he had fled through Niger into Mali, but a month later the new Libyan authorities said he had been arrested in the southern Libyan region of Sabha.
Further reports of Abdullah al-Senussi’s capture came in December but officials were unable to provide pictorial evidence.
Austrian skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner is more than halfway toward his goal of setting a world record for the highest free-fall jump.
Felix Baumgartner, 42, is aiming for nearly 23 miles this summer. The record is 19.5 miles.
The adventurer lifted off Thursday for a test jump from Roswell, New Mexico, aboard a 100-foot helium balloon. He rode inside a pressurized capsule to 71,581 feet – 13.6 miles – and then jumped.
Felix Baumgartner parachuted to a safe landing, according to project spokeswoman Trish Medalen.
“The view is amazing, way better than I thought,” Felix Baumgartner said after the practice jump, in remarks provided by his representatives.
Thursday’s rehearsal was a test of his capsule, full-pressure suit, parachutes and other systems.
A mini Mission Control – fashioned after NASA’s – monitored Felix Baumgartner’s flight.
Felix Baumgartner reached speeds of up to 364.4 mph Thursday and was in free fall for three minutes and 43 seconds, before pulling his parachute cords. The entire jump lasted eight minutes and eight seconds.
With Thursday’s successful test, Felix Baumgartner is believed to be only the third person ever to jump from such a high altitude and free fall to a safe landing, and the first in a half-century.
“I’m now a member of a pretty small club,” Felix Baumgartner said.
Austrian skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner is more than halfway toward his goal of setting a world record for the highest free-fall jump
When the Austrian skydiver known as “Fearless Felix” leaps from 120,000 feet in a few months, he expects to break the sound barrier as he falls through the stratosphere at supersonic speed.
There’s virtually no atmosphere that far up, making it extremely hostile to humans, thus the need for a pressure suit and oxygen supply.
The record for the highest free fall is held by Joe Kittinger, a retired Air Force officer from Florida. He jumped from 102,800 feet – 19.5 miles – in 1960.
Felix Baumgartner is out to beat that record.
He plans one more dry run – jumping from 90,000 feet – before attempting the full 120,000 feet. The launch window opens in July and extends until the beginning of October.
For comparison, commercial jets generally cruise at over 30,000 feet.
Felix Baumgartner has jumped 2,500 times from planes and helicopters, as well as some of the highest landmarks and skyscrapers on the planet.
Among his conquests: the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, the Millau Viaduct in southern France, the 101-story Taipei 101 in Taiwan.
Felix Baumgartner has also plunged deep into the Earth, leaping face-first into a pitch-dark cave in Croatia.
He considers that 620-foot-deep cave jump his most dangerous feat so far, soon to be outdone by his stratospheric plunge.
Felix Baumgartner’s mission takes its name, Red Bull Stratos, from the stratosphere as well as the energy drink-maker sponsor.
“I like to challenge myself and this is the ultimate skydive. I think there’s nothing bigger than that,” Felix Baumgartner told The Associated Press in a recent interview
Felix Baumgartner has caught NASA’s attention, even though space officially begins much higher at an even 100 kilometers, 328,084 feet or 62 miles.
Whitney Houston’s ring, which Bobbi Kristina Brown is now wearing on her engagement finger, is worth $250,000, estimates celebrity jewelry designer Neil Lane.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, is wearing her mother Whitney Houston‘s gorgeous emerald diamond ring on her left hand and Neil Lane told HollywoodLife.com it’s a rare piece indeed.
Whitney Houston’s ring, which Bobbi Kristina Brown is now wearing on her engagement finger, is worth $250,000
Neil Lane, the famed celebrity jewelry designer estimates: “Whitney’s ring appears to be a 10-carat cushion cut ring worth about $250,000. It’s gigantic.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown is reportedly engaged to her “adopted” brother, Nick Gordon, and is reportedly wearing as an engagement ring the jewelry her mother Whitney Houston was wearing when she died.
Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown couldn’t have seemed happier during a trip into the AT&T store in Roswell, Georgia, on Friday, and she even showed off what seemed to be an engagement ring.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, is getting through the heartbreak of her mom Whitney Houston‘s tragic death thanks to love from her “adopted” brother, Nick Gordon, 22, to whom she is now believed to be engaged.
An eyewitness told HollywoodLife.com: “Bobbi Kristina and Nick were shopping at AT&T in Roswell earlier today. She seemed pretty happy. She was holding hands with Nicholas and yes, she was wearing a huge engagement ring.”
“They bought the new iPad 3,” the source added.
Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown couldn’t have seemed happier during a trip into the AT&T store in Roswell, Georgia
Another source at the couple’s favorite Starbucks in the area was surprised to learn Nick Gordon is actually Bobbi Kristina’s “adopted” brother, not just her lover.
Earlier reports claimed that Bobbi Kristina Brown and Nick Gordon are planning a Vegas wedding in the near future.
“I’ve always thought they were a couple,” the Starbucks insider said.
The legend says that St. Patrick came to Ireland in the fifth century to spread the word of Christ and banish snakes from its shores.
As St. Patrick’s Day 2012 is celebrated today, March 17, it seems the patron saint’s motives for leaving Roman Britain may have been less selfless than previously thought.
According to a new research, it seems that St. Patrick actually fled to Ireland to avoid becoming a tax collector. Once there, however, it is claimed he took up an even more dubious occupation – as a slave trader.
Patrick’s father was a Decurion, a Roman official responsible for tax collection in Britain. But he used a bail-out clause in Roman law that allowed him to leave his post by joining the clergy on the condition the job was passed to his son.
Dr. Roy Flechner, an expert in ancient and medieval history from Cambridge University, claims that Patrick, alarmed at the prospect of taking on the unpopular job, decided to emigrate.
As well as collecting tax (with any shortfall coming from the Decurion’s own pocket), duties included road maintenance and the recruitment of soldiers.
“In the troubled era in which Patrick lived, which saw the demise and eventual collapse of Roman government in Britain in 410AD, discharging the obligations of a Decurion, especially tax-collecting, would not only have been difficult but also very risky,” said Dr. Roy Flechner, whose research is based on a new analysis of St. Patrick’s writings.
According to a new research, it seems that St. Patrick actually fled to Ireland to avoid becoming a tax collector
Patrick was forced to find a way of retaining some of the family estate – in the shape of slaves – to pay for his new life in Ireland.
Dr. Roy Flechner said Patrick may have become a slave trader because it was the only way he could transfer his wealth from England, as Ireland did not have a monetary economy at the time.
Slaves were a highly valued commodity and Patrick’s writings mention that his family owned several.
Dr. Roy Flechner said: “It may seem strange that a Christian cleric of Patrick’s stature would own slaves, but in late antiquity and the early middle ages the church was a major slave owner.
“The only objections to slavery were cases in which Christian slaves were owned by non-Christians.”
Dr. Roy Flechner claimed that the traditional legend of St. Patrick’s arrival in Ireland was invented by the man himself because that is how he wanted to be remembered.
He also questioned the part of the legend that says before his arrival as a missionary St. Patrick spent six years as a young slave in Ireland himself.
“The probability that Patrick managed to cross from his alleged place of captivity in western Ireland back to Britain undetected, at a time when transportation was extremely complicated, is highly unlikely,” Dr. Roy Flechner said.
“None of this is to say that Patrick was not a bishop or that he did not engage in missionary activity, but his primary motives for moving to Ireland were most likely to escape the poisoned chalice of his inherited position in Roman Britain.”
Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust has released doodles made by Ronald Reagan at the 1981 Ottawa G7 summit, which were then kept by the former British prime minister.
Ronald Reagan’s scribblings, which include a man’s torso and an eye, are among personal papers from 1981 of Margaret Thatcher.
The Ottawa summit, which took place six months after Ronald Reagan took office, saw the leaders’ relationship progress to first-name terms – Ron and Margaret.
Ronald Reagan was president for eight of Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years in power.
The doodles, which were left on the table beside Margaret Thatcher and which she then filed in the flat at Number 10, have been released by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust.
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are first thought to have met in 1975 – four years before Margaret Thatcher became prime minister – when she was a junior minister in Edward Heath’s government and Ronald Reagan, the former governor of California, was on a visit to Whitehall.
Remembering their first meeting, Ronald Reagan said even then he had believed she would make a “magnificent prime minister”.
Ronald Reagan's scribblings, which include a man's torso and an eye, are among personal papers from 1981 of Margaret Thatcher
After Ronald Reagan took office in January 1981 – and in a sign of the close relationship to come – Margaret Thatcher was given of the honor of being the first foreign leader invited to the US by the Reagan administration.
Margaret Thatcher visited the US in February 1981.
The two leaders famously forged a close, though often tempestuous, relationship during their time in power.
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan famously forged a close, though often tempestuous, relationship during their time in power
Both political outsiders, they found common currency in shared right-wing ideals such as minimal government, strong defense and a free market. There was also a joint mission to defeat communism in the shape of the Soviet Union.
Political soul mates they might have been, but there were disagreements, most notably over the Falklands crisis in 1982 and then the US invasion of Grenada 18 months later.
In her eulogy at President Ronald Reagan’s funeral in 2004, Lady Margaret Thatcher called him one of her “closest political and dearest personal friends”, while in later life President Reagan told how “richly blessed” he had been for having known the “Iron Lady”.
Jason Russell, the co-founder of Invisible Children has been taken to hospital in San Diego, California, after he was found semi-naked and screaming at traffic.
Jason Russell narrated the Kony 2012 campaign video which went viral on the internet last week.
According to police, Jason Russell had been detained and taken to a medical facility.
In a statement, Invisible Children head Ben Keesey said that a “severe emotional toll” had led to an “unfortunate incident”.
The statement said Jason Russell had been hospitalized on Thursday “suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition”.
San Diego police spokeswoman Andra Brown told AFP news agency: “Officers responded to a radio call to check the welfare of an individual who was said to be running in the street, interfering with traffic, screaming.”
Andra Brown added that after assessing his condition, officers had decided to take him to a medical facility for treatment.
Jason Russell, the co-founder of Invisible Children has been taken to hospital in San Diego, California, after he was found semi-naked and screaming at traffic
Invisible Children’s 30 minute video on the use of child soldiers by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda has been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube over the past week.
It has the backing of countless celebrities and the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, but both the group and the video have also come under heavy criticism.
Activists say the campaign simplifies a complex issue, and questions have been raised about Invisible Children’s financing.
Several civilians and police officers have been killed in two separate explosions in the Syrian capital Damascus, state TV announced.
A broadcast described the blasts as “terrorist” attacks. Preliminary reports suggested vehicles packed with explosives had been detonated, it said.
It said intelligence and police buildings were hit and the cause was not known.
Details of the reports cannot be independently verified as access to Syria for journalists is restricted.
Dozens of people have been killed in bomb attacks in Damascus and the second city Aleppo in recent months, which the government also blamed on terrorists.
The opposition has accused the authorities of staging some of those incidents.
The latest blasts came two days after the first anniversary of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which UN estimates say has left more than 8,000 people dead.
State TV showed pictures of charred bodies, burned-out vehicles and bloodstains on the streets.
It described one body as being that of a terrorist.
It said buildings housing the criminal police and aviation intelligence had been targeted.
Opposition sources also said security buildings had been hit.
Fresh anti-government protests were held on Friday in cities across Syria.
And there was a return of violence to the Damascus suburbs – the first significant fighting there since government forces imposed military control some weeks ago.
Clashes between rebel fighters and the army were reported in several other parts of the country.
President Bashar al-Assad insists his troops are fighting “armed gangs” seeking to destabilize Syria.
On Friday, UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan renewed calls for an end to fighting and for unimpeded humanitarian aid for Syria.
Speaking to UN Security Council members, Kofi Annan said he was sending a team to Damascus to discuss setting up a new international monitoring mission.
The international community remains divided on Syria, with Russia and China both blocking UN Security Council resolutions on Syria and aid groups from 27 countries urging them to condemn the government’s use of violence.
But the two permanent members have backed Kofi Annan’s peace mission.
Senior US officials have revealed the identity of the suspect soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.
They named the suspect as he was heading back to the US to face charges.
Robert Bales has now arrived at a maximum security military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after being flown from Kuwait, the US Army said.
The suspect will be held in solitary confinement pending charges, the Army added.
Sgt. Robert Bales’ lawyer, John Henry Browne, said he had been injured twice while serving in Iraq.
John Henry Browne also said the accused, aged 38, had witnessed his friend’s leg blown off the day before the killings.
That incident has not been confirmed by the US Army.
The Taliban called off peace talks in the wake of Sunday’s deadly rampage – in which men, women and children were shot and killed at close range.
The US has stressed it remained committed to Afghan reconciliation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has also reacted angrily to the killings. He told the US it must pull back its troops from village areas and allow Afghan security forces to take the lead in an effort to reduce civilian deaths.
On Friday he said the US was not fully co-operating with a probe into the killings.
He also said the problem of civilian casualties at the hands of Nato forces had “gone on for too long”.
“This form of activity, this behaviour cannot be tolerated. It’s past, past, past the time,” Hamid Karzai said.
Shortly after Sgt. Robert Bales’ name emerged, John Henry Browne confirmed that was the name of the soldier he was representing.
Senior US officials have revealed the identity of the suspect soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales
Images quickly emerged online from a Department of Defense website thought to show Sgt. Robert Bales on duty in Afghanistan – and identifying him in the same unit as previously revealed by military officials, part of 3rd Stryker 2nd Infantry.
The photos were soon removed from the live site but remained available to access.
Sgt. Robert Bales has not yet been charged, but is the only known suspect in the killings – despite repeated Afghan assertions that more than one American was involved.
The Pentagon has previously said that he could face charges that carry a possible death penalty.
Such a trial could take years, contrasting with Afghan demands for swift and decisive justice.
In the town of Lake Tapps, Washington state, neighbors described their surprise at Sgt. Robert Bales’ alleged crimes.
Speaking in Seattle on Thursday, where Sgt. Robert Bales is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, John Henry Browne said his new client was a “mild-mannered” man who bore no antipathy towards Muslims.
John Henry Browne described him as “a decorated soldier” who had an exemplary record before the shooting.
The lawyer also suggested the soldier, who began his first deployment to Afghanistan in December, was not fit to serve because of injuries he had suffered on previous tours of duty.
John Henry Browne said that a car accident caused by a roadside bomb in Iraq had given the soldier a concussive head injury. Part of his foot had also been removed in surgery because of a battle-related wound, he added.
“I think it’s of interest that we have a soldier who has an exemplary record, a decorated soldier who was injured in Iraq, to his brain and to his body and then despite that was sent back,” he said.
John Henry Browne, who has represented a number of high-profile clients including serial killer Ted Bundy and a teenage thief known as the Barefoot Bandit, said his client was a happily married man with two children, aged three and four.
George Clooney has been now released after being arrested for civil disobedience during a demonstration outside Sudan’s embassy in Washington DC on Friday.
George Clooney, 50, was taking part in a protest to warn of a humanitarian crisis in the volatile border area between Sudan and South Sudan.
The actor was detained alongside his father, Nick Clooney, but both have now been released after paying bail of $100.
George Clooney is a keen Sudan activist and has visited the area several times.
South Sudan celebrated its independence from Sudan in 2011, but relations between the two neighbors have worsened since then.
The country is one of the world’s poorest regions and has hardly any roads, railways, schools or clinics as a result of two decades of conflict leading up to independence from Sudan in July 2011.
Bitter disagreements remain over oil resources and borders, with conflict raging in the border region – the focus for George Clooney’s concern.
Speaking to reporters following his release, George Clooney said his key concern was the fate of those in the region.
George Clooney was detained alongside his father, Nick , but both have now been released after paying bail of $100
“Best estimate is tens of thousands of people are going to die from starvation… this isn’t a famine, this is a man-made tragedy by the government of Khartoum to get these people to leave.”
“You never know if you are accomplishing anything… We hope it helps,” George Clooney said.
The actor said the arrest was his first, but added: “Let’s hope it’s my last.”
George Clooney, his father Nick and fellow activists had been led away in handcuffs after reportedly ignoring repeated police warnings to leave the embassy grounds.
He was released three hours later after paying the bail fee.
Secret Service spokesman George Oglivie explained how the arrest unfolded: “George Clooney was arrested for crossing a police line at the Sudan embassy and he’ll be transported to the Metropolitan police department second district.”
Also arrested, said George Oglivie, were Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights leader; Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern; Virginia Democratic Congressman Jim Moran; and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Ben Jealous.
A new experiment repeating the test of the speed of neutrinos has found that the subatomic particles do not travel faster than light.
Results announced in September suggested that neutrinos can exceed light speed, but were met with skepticism as that would upend Einstein’s theory of relativity.
A test run by a different group, ICARUS, at the same laboratory has now clocked them travelling at precisely light speed.
The results have been posted online.
The results in September, from the OPERA group at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy, shocked the world, threatening to upend a century of physics as well as relativity – which holds the speed of light to be the Universe’s absolute speed limit.
Now the ICARUS group, based at the same laboratory, has weighed in again, having already cast some doubt on the original OPERA claim.
Shortly after that claim, Nobel laureate Sheldon Glashow co-authored a Physical Review Letters paper that modeled how faster-than-light neutrinos would behave as they travelled.
In November, the ICARUS group showed in a paper posted on the online server Arxiv that the neutrinos displayed no such behavior.
The ICARUS group found that the neutrinos do travel at the same speed as light, within a small error range
However, they have now supplemented that indirect result with a test just like that carried out by the OPERA team.
The ICARUS experiment uses 600 tons – 430,000 litres – of liquid argon to detect the arrival of neutrinos sent through 730 km of rock from the CERN laboratory in Switzerland.
Since their November result, the ICARUS team has adjusted their experiment to do a speed measurement.
What was missing was information from CERN about the departure time of the neutrinos, which the team recently received to complete their analysis.
The result: they find that the neutrinos do travel at the same speed as light, within a small error range.
“We are completely compatible with the speed of light that we learn at school,” said Sandro Centro, co-spokesman for the ICARUS collaboration.
Dr. Sandro Centro said that he was not surprised by the result.
“In fact I was a little skeptical since the beginning,” he said.
“Now we are 100% sure that the speed of light is the speed of neutrinos.”
Most recently, the OPERA team conceded that their initial result may have been compromised by problems with their equipment.
Rumors have circulated since the OPERA result was first announced that the team was not unified in its decision to announce their findings so quickly, and Dr. Sandro Centro suggested that researchers outside the team were also suspicious.
“I didn’t trust the result right from the beginning – the way it was produced, the way it was managed,” Dr. Sandro Centro said.
“I think they were a little bit in a hurry to publish something that was astonishing, and at the end of the day it was a wrong measurement.”
Four different experiments at Italy’s Gran Sasso lab make use of the same beam of neutrinos from CERN.
Later this month, they will all be undertaking independent measurements to finally put an end to speculation about neutrino speeds.
The MINOS experiment in the US and the T2K experiment in Japan may also weigh in on the matter in due course – if any doubt is left about the neutrinos’ ability to beat the universal speed limit.
Bobbi Kristina Brown is indeed engaged to Nick Gordon and she is wearing the ring that Whitney Houston wore at the time of her death, new reports claimed today.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, and Nick Gordon, 22, are engaged and living together as a couple, and it looks like Bobbi Kristina Brown is using Whitney Houston’s ring as the engagement ring, a source revealed to Hollywood Life.
She is not only wearing Whitney Houston‘s sparkler, but she’s also been seen carrying her mother’s Birkin bag.
Bobbi Kristina Brown is indeed engaged to Nick Gordon and she is wearing the ring that Whitney Houston wore at the time of her death, a source claimed
“Bobbi Kristina is still so vulnerable since her mother passed away,” says the source. “But Nick has become like her rock.”
Nick Gordon, who Whitney Houston raised like a son for 10 years but never officially adopted, may now be Bobbi Kristina’s rock, but apparently, he didn’t have to buy her one.
Oprah Winfrey has come under fire for her interview with Bobbi Kristina Brown and family members of the late Whitney Houston.
The interview aired last Sunday on Oprah Winfrey’s struggling OWN network and was its biggest ratings getter since the network started. More than 8 million people tuned in, hoping to find some answers that could explain tragic end of one of America’s most-love music icons.
There have also been numerous questions about Bobbi Kristina Brown’s own rebellious behavior, her use of drugs and her relationship to ostensible “brother” Nick Gordon.
Whitney Houston’s mother, Cissy Houston, claims the two are engaged in an “incestuous” relationship.
But none of that was forthcoming. The interview was rambling and dwelt mainly with feel-good questions about how Bobbi Kristina Brown was coping following her mother’s death.
Oprah Winfrey it appeared was too close to the subject to maintain her journalistic standards, or any standards for that matter.
Some critics charged that Oprah Winfrey was exploiting the tragedy for ratings to bolster her beleaguered network. But most of the criticism focused on her failure to ask relevant questions.
Oprah Winfrey has come under fire for her interview with Bobbi Kristina Brown and family members of the late Whitney Houston
Oprah Winfrey was accused of “letting the family off the hook… especially when Whitney’s sister-in-law suggested the singer was murdered.”
Surprisingly, Oprah Winfrey seemed oblivious to how bad her interview was. Gossip Web site TMZ caught up with her and asked her for her thoughts. “I think it went really well,” she said.
“I think people really responded and I think the whole country now got to see how [Bobbi Kristina] feels and what she’s going through.”
“Really, I didn’t know,” Oprah Winfrey said about the criticism.
“I don’t look at the criticism. I just move through life doing what I do. I do it with the best intentions,” she said.
“I do it with the intention to be a force for something that’s good, for something that’s right, for something that’s inspirational. And if people don’t like it that’s okay.”
“I really just trying to do what I do best, and I’m always trying to have the best and the good in mind. I didn’t even know people were upset until you told me.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown is set to marry Nick Gordon despite grandmother Cissy Houston branding their relationship “incestuous”, new reports claimed today.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, is said to be totally disregarding Cissy Houston’s wishes, who has slammed her relationship with Nick Gordon as “incestuous”.
A source told Star magazine: “Krissy has told her grandmother that she doesn’t need her blessing to marry Nick, and the more Cissy objects to the relationship, well that only cements Krissy’s decision.
“It’s just a very sad situation. Clearly, Krissy loves Nick, but she has just lost her mother, and her entire world has been turned upside down. Krissy doesn’t think she needs to wait, and points to her mom’s sudden death as the reason to marry Nick.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown is set to marry Nick Gordon despite grandmother Cissy Houston branding their relationship “incestuous”
Meanwhile TMZ reports that Bobbi Kristina is not listening to her grandmother and the website reports she is telling friends she doesn’t care what her family thinks.
A source told TMZ that Bobbi: “Can’t please everyone, so she is going to please herself by doing what she wants to do for once.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown and Nick Gordon were seen sharing a kiss as they enjoyed a pizza parlour date in Atlanta on Tuesday.
She was seen flashing a ring on her engagement finger and reports claim her 22-year-old beau proposed on March 10th.
While Nick Gordon was never formally adopted by Whitney Houston he moved into her home when he was 12-years-old and has lived there ever since.
With Whitney Houston passing away last month Bobbi Kristina and Nick Gordon have been sharing her $1.2 million Atlanta home together.
