Pictures of Kardashian’s annual Christmas Eve party show the famous family posing with Santa Claus, opening presents by the festive tree and making the most of the holiday period and quality time together.
Kim Kardashian, 31, looked far from miserable about her recent heartache as she glammed up for the occasion in a floor-length dress and no doubt asked the big man himself if he could just grant her a speedy divorce from Kris Humphries.
Kim Kardashian wore a silver grey garment with long-sleeved and she teamed it with a pair of matching stilettos and several bangles.
However, it wasn’t long until she’s had enough of being dressed up and emerged wearing a pair of gnome-print pyjamas.
Kim Kardashian giggled and played with the young kids as she donned a pair of reindeer antlers too.
The reality star spent time cuddling her adorable nephew Mason as they admired her younger sisters’ new chocolate Labrador puppies.
Mason, 2, had also been dressed up for the party and wore a dark red velvet blazer with a white shirt and black bow tie.
Mason’s mother, Kourtney Kardashian, looked happy and relaxed as she posed with her son who wore a hat made of balloons.
The Kardashians’ spent quality time together at their glamorous annual Christmas Eve party
Kourtney Kardashian showed off her growing baby bump on a black shift dress that had lace sleeves, which seemed to match her boyfriend’s attire.
Her partner, Scott Disick, wore a black and white checked suit with a white shirt and looked rather serious as he posed with the rest of the family.
The mother-of-six, Kris Jenner, looked exceptionally glamorous in a black floor-length dress that was covered in sequins.
Kris Jenner also stopped by the staircase for a chat with Santa and looked rather happy with one of her gifts – an Apple iHome docking station.
She also spent time mingling with her party guests, which included plastic surgeon Garth Fisher and former ox Sugar Ray Leonard.
Her husband Bruce Jenner seemed happy to step away from the spotlight and is rarely seen in any of the photographs, but he does look happy in a group shot that sees the family all come together.
Bruce Jenner teenage daughters Kendall and Kylie looked older than their years in more glamorous party dresses.
Kendall Jenner wore a rather short black fitted dress that was decorated with tiny gold studs whereas Kylie opted for a short cream dress that had a pleated skirt.
The girls looked extremely pleased with Santa as they sat on his knee and paraded around the house with their new puppies.
It was recently revealed that they have named the dogs Louis and Vuitton.
Someone who didn’t look so pleased to see Father Christmas was Mason.
The toddler looked annoyed as his father Scott Disick held him up on the bearded man’s lap and appeared desperate to get back down.
Mason’s parents couldn’t miss an opportunity for a photograph though and posed for the cameras as their son pulled a face.
They were later seen posing again by the Christmas tree as Mason clutched his giant candy cane and looked tired in his mother’s arms.
Kim Kardashian’s brother wasn’t so keen on being in front of the cameras either and only posed for a few pictures with his family.
Rob Kardashian wore a simple black shirt and matching trousers with red suede shoes.
But he wasn’t the only Kardashian sibling who wasn’t pictured much as someone who wasn’t even there at all was Khloe.
Khloe Kardashian, 27, was in Dallas with her husband Lamar Odom for the opening of the NBA season as he is now playing for the Dallas Mavericks.
The famous family made up for Khloe’s absence as they were joined by various celebrity friends.
U.S. star Maria Menounos arrived at the party in a low-cut black dress that showed off her trim figure perfectly.
The leggy actress posed with Kourtney and Kim before admiring the puppies along with the family.
Also there to have a good time were twin actresses Khadijah and Malika Haqq.
The women – who have starred in the Kardashians reality programmes – donned Christmas hats as they posed with Kim kardashian and celebrity make-up artist Rob Scheppy.
A photo of some of the food that was laid out shows a variety of cupcakes, toffee apples, profiteroles and a giant gingerbread house.
It’s well known that the former US president, Richard Nixon, carpet-bombed Cambodia, spewed out anti-Semitic slurs and crude misogynistic jokes in the White House and smeared his political opponents with ruthless “dirty tricks” campaigns.
And nobody forget Richard Nixon lied to his country about his involvement in the Watergate scandal and went down in history as America’s shiftiest, darkest President.
Given everything that Richard Nixon has been accused of, it’s difficult to believe there could be any more skeletons left in his cupboard. But it seems there are.
A new biography of Richard Nixon, written by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the former president years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drink problem, beat his wife and – by the time he was inaugurated in 1969 – had links going back two decades to the Mafia, including with New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello, then America’s most powerful mobster.
Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Richard Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behavior of a notoriously secretive politician.
Don Fulsom argues that Richard Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles “Bebe” Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.
The book, “Nixon’s Darkest Secrets”, is out next month – by coincidence at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clint Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washington’s 20th-century hard men.
But while FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover, played in Eastwood’s film by Leonardo DiCaprio, allegedly had an affair with his squeaky-clean deputy Clyde Tolson, Richard Nixon’s supposed secret paramour was a very different character.
Bebe Rebozo was a short, swarthy, good-looking Cuban-American businessman with a history of failed relationships with women and close alliances with Miami’s Mafia chiefs.
The veteran TV newsman Dan Rather recalled how Bebe Rebozo “transmitted the sense of great sensuality”, paying tribute to his “magnetic” personality and “beautiful eyes”.
Don Fulsom uses recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews – including with FBI agents – to shed new light on long-standing suspicions among White House insiders that Richard Nixon may have been more than just good buddies with Bebe Rebozo.
The journalist claims Richard Nixon’s relationship with Pat, his wife of 53 years, was little more than a sham. A heavy drinker whom his own staff dubbed “Our Drunk”, Richard Nixon used to call his First Lady a “f***ing bitch” and beat her before, during and after his presidency, says Don Fulsom.
Richard Nixon and his wife had separate bedrooms at the White House – and in Key Biscayne, the exclusive resort near Miami where they holidayed, Pat Nixon didn’t even sleep in the same building. Bebe Rebozo, however, was in the house next door.
President Richard Nixon with Bebe Rebozo at Key Biscayne
Don Fulsom claims one of Richard Nixon’s former military aides had a secret job “to teach the President how to kiss his wife” so they would look like a convincing couple.
How much of this can we believe? Richard Nixon died in 1994 and his reputation is pretty much irredeemable. As with Eastwood’s Hoover film, there is no definitive proof, but plenty of “supporting evidence”.
Don Fulsom quotes a former Time magazine reporter who, at a Washington dinner, bent down to pick up a fork and saw the two holding hands under the table. It was, the reporter judged, sufficiently intimate to suggest “repressed homosexuality”.
Another journalist related how, loosened up by drink, Richard Nixon once put his arm around Bebe Rebozo “the way you’d cuddle your senior prom date. Something was fishy there”.
But who exactly was Bebe Rebozo, and how did a shady Florida businessman of unclear sexual leanings end up as the bosom friend of one of the most paranoid and buttoned-up political leaders of the 20th century?
Born two months before Richard Nixon in 1912, Charles Gregory Rebozo was the son of a Cuban cigar-maker and, as the youngest of nine, was stuck with the nickname “Bebe”.
Bebe Rebozo came from poverty but worked his way up through property speculation and then banking. According to the FBI, he had close links with Mob bosses such as Santo Trafficante, the Tampa Godfather, and Alfred “Big Al” Polizzi, a stooge of Meyer Lansky, the Cosa Nostra’s financial brains.
By the 1960s, an FBI agent was describing Bebe Rebozo as a “non- member associate of organized crime figures”. He bought land in Florida with a business partner who was believed to be a front for some of the most powerful Mafiosi.
When Bebe Rebozo started his own bank in Florida in 1964, Richard Nixon – then a lawyer – wielded a golden shovel at the ground-breaking ceremony and became its first depositor.
According to Mafioso Vincent Teresa, the bank was used by the Mob to launder stolen cash. It hardly seems possible that Richard Nixon, who pledged to make fighting organized crime a priority of his presidency, could not have known of his best friend’s Mafia links.
Richard Nixon had just won one of California’s U.S. Senate seats when he first met Bebe Rebozo in 1950. Fearing Richard Nixon was facing a nervous breakdown, fellow Senator George Smathers suggested a holiday in Florida and enlisted his old school friend Bebe Rebozo to show the socially awkward Nixon a good time.
Their first jaunt together – in Bebe Rebozo’s 33ft fishing boat – did not go well. Bebe Rebozo later complained that Richard Nixon just sat reading papers and, according to his host, barely said half a dozen words to him.
George Smathers said Bebe Rebozo later told him: “Don’t ever send that son of a bitch Nixon down here again. He’s a guy who doesn’t know how to talk, doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t chase women… he can’t even fish.”
But Bebe Rebozo persevered – and according to a cynical George Smathers, Richard Nixon’s rising stardom in Washington and the potential influence it offered “had a lot to do with it”.
In months, Richard Nixon and Bebe Rebozo were inseparable, holidaying with Nixon’s wife Pat – and without her. Bebe Rebozo became an “uncle figure” to the Richard Nixons’ two daughters, Tricia and Julie. The dapper Cuban-American chose Richard Nixon’s clothes and even selected the films he watched at the White House.
On Richard Nixon’s solo visits to Key Biscayne, they swam and sunbathed, indulging in their shared passions for discussing Broadway musicals and barbecuing steaks.
Both men were also extremely secretive, and their relationship – described as the “most important unsolved mystery in Nixon’s life” – was kept so discreet that the New York Times did not mention it for nearly 20 years.
Observers noticed their intimacy became most apparent when they were drunk. An aide recalled them playing a game called King of the Pool at Key Biscayne: “It was late at night, the two men had been drinking. Nixon mounted a rubber raft in the pool while Rebozo tried to turn it over. Then, laughing and shouting, they’d change places.”
They were seen together at the same British-themed hostelries in the Key: the English Pub, where they drank beer from tankards engraved with their names, and the Jamaica Inn, where they ate at a discreet booth.
Both spots were owned by another businessman with Mob links and the secret service asked Richard Nixon to find another place to eat.
Why the President’s minders didn’t raise alarms about Bebe Rebozo’s Mafia connections has puzzled experts, but they probably didn’t dare. When a New York newspaper investigated Bebe Rebozo’s Mob links in the 1970s, its staff suddenly found themselves under secret service surveillance.
A White House aide once dismissed Bebe Rebozo’s role as “the guy who mixed the Martinis”, but he was far more important than that.
When Richard Nixon became President, Bebe Rebozo got his own office and bedroom at the White House, and a security clearance that allowed him to go in and out without being logged by the secret service. Using a false name, says Don Fulsom, Bebe Rebozo even got into Richard Nixon’s hotel suite during a trip to Europe.
The President’s closest colleagues complained at the way Bebe Rebozo monopolized Richard Nixon’s time. General Alexander Haig, his last chief of staff, is said to have imitated Bebe Rebozo’s “limp wrist” manner and joked that Rebozo and Nixon were lovers.
According to Don Fulsom, Henry Kissinger resented the way Bebe Rebozo would fly on Air Force One, the Presidential plane, wearing a blue U.S. Navy flight jacket bearing the President’s seal and with his name stitched on it.
Away from Richard Nixon’s side, Bebe Rebozo surrounded himself with glamorous women and threw Miami parties that descended into orgies, but was it all a front?
Aged 18, Bebe Rebozo reportedly enjoyed an “intense” affair with a young man, Donald Gunn. He later wed Donald Gunn’s teenage sister. The marriage lasted four years and, according to his wife, was never consummated.
Bebe Rebozo didn’t marry again until middle age, when he entered what Newsweek magazine described as an “antiseptic” alliance with his lawyer’s secretary. “Bebe’s favourites are Richard Nixon, his cat – and then me,” the lady complained later. A fellow Miami resident told Richard Nixon biographer Anthony Summers that Bebe Rebozo was definitely part of the city’s gay community.
Anthony Summers and co-writer Robbyn Swan, however, question whether there is enough evidence to suggest Richard Nixon was gay. “They held hands on occasion, and both men had problems with consummating physical relationships with women, but we found no evidence that Nixon was actively homosexual,” Anthony Summers said.
Physical or not, Richard Nixon’s attraction to Bebe Rebozo has struck many as politically reckless. Nixon expert Professor Fawn Brodie couldn’t understand how he would be “willing to risk the kind of gossip that frequently accompanies close friendship with a perennial bachelor”. After all, Fawn Brodie added, Nixon was, in public, a virulent gay-hater.
When Walter Jenkins, a trusted aide to President Lyndon Johnson, was caught providing sexual favors to a retired sailor in a YMCA lavatory, Richard Nixon denounced him as “ill”. People who suffered this “illness”, he added, “cannot be in places of high trust”.
Bebe Rebozo was certainly in a position of “high trust”, and not only because he was a key fundraiser. He was with Richard Nixon when he announced his successful run for President and again in June 1972 when Nixon learned that five men hired by the White House to break into the Watergate building had been arrested.
“We were swimming at Key Biscayne in front of my house,” Bebe Rebozo recalled.
“They came out and told him. He said: <<What in God’s name were they doing there?>> We laughed and forgot about it.”
Bebe Rebozo also ended up being investigated by the Watergate committee, which found that a $100,000 cash contribution from the industrialist Howard Hughes that was meant for the Republican Party was actually in Rebozo’s safe deposit box.
It also emerged that both Richard Nixon and Bebe Rebozo’s personal wealth had soared during Nixon’s first five years in the White House, Rebozo’s rising nearly seven-fold from $675,000 to nearly $4.5 million.
Bebe Rebozo escaped prosecution – allegedly because of a White House deal – and he stood by his disgraced friend. He was at Nixon’s bedside during his final days.
When Bebe Rebozo died in 1998, he left more than $19 million to the Nixon memorial library, whose executive director eulogized him as a “consummate gentleman” on whose “wise counsel, shrewd political insight and ready wit” Richard Nixon relied.
Typically, Richard Nixon had been rather less charitable – he always described Bebe Rebozo as just a “golfing partner”.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has left Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire after four nights.
Buckingham Palace said Prince Phillip will now return to the Royal Family’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
The Duke of Edinburgh had been in Papworth Hospital since Friday when he had a coronary stent fitted after being admitted following chest pains.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has left Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire after four nights
Prince Philip, who left by road and waved to reporters, missed the royal Christmas celebrations and had to sit out the traditional Boxing Day shoot.
He sat upright and smiled broadly as he left the hospital.
In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “On departure, Prince Philip thanked the staff at Papworth for the excellent care he has received during his stay.
“He is very much looking forward to rejoining his family.”
The Duke of Edinburgh is said to have been advised by doctors to rest.
The Queen, 85, has been briefed regularly on her husband’s condition.
On his arrival at Papworth Hospital doctors discovered a blocked artery and went ahead with a “minimally invasive procedure of coronary stenting”, which was declared a success.
Stenting involves inserting a tube called a stent into an artery, to improve blood flow.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s next formal engagement is not until 17 January when he is due to attend a dinner at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.
Usually on Boxing Day Prince Philip would lead the Royal Family’s shooting party.
But this year he was under doctor’s orders not to leave his bed while he was kept under observation.
This is the most serious health scare suffered by the normally spry nonagenarian.
Prince Philip usually accompanies the Queen and in the autumn he travelled to Australia on a 11-day official visit to Perth, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were reportedly spent Christmas together at their Brentwood, California home with their children.
Maria Shriver, 56, who filed for divorce from her husband in June, is said to be “reconsidering” their divorce.
People cite a source close to the family who reveals that the couple “had a really nice time” over the holiday.
The source said they also attended the Los Angeles Lakers’ season opener game at the Staples Center in the afternoon.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were reportedly spent Christmas together at their Brentwood, California home with their children
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have been spotted with each other frequently since the announcement of their split in the wake of it being revealed that Arnold fathered a love child.
Maria Shriver was also by her ex’s side on his 64th birthday in July.
The former couple, married 25 years before announcing their separation in May, have four children together: Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher.
Maria Shriver filed for divorce from her husband after he admitted earlier this year to fathering a love child with their former maid Mildred Baena 14 years ago.
Now it appears that Maria Shriver is reconsidering the move.
Due to a number of factors, including her Catholic beliefs, Maria Shriver has reportedly told friends that she is having second thoughts, sources have told TMZ.
Most devout Catholics do not believe in divorce.
The decision for Maria Shriver is said to have been made even more difficult with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempts to woo her back.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, 64, has apparently been showering Maria Shriver with gifts and acting “extremely sweet” towards his estranged wife, according to TMZ.
Since announcing their split, the couple has been remaining amicable for the sake of their children.
They were even seen attending church together last month.
Maria Shriver is also still visiting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite Beverly Hills salon Giuseppe Franco.
Arnold Schwarzenegger also organized haircuts for himself and sons Patrick, 18, and Christopher, 14, the same week.
The Schwarzenegger family shearing’s is perhaps one sign that Arnold and Maria are amicably working through their difficulties.
Aliahna Lemmon, a 9-year-old missing girl from Indiana, has been found dead, and the family friend who was watching her before she disappeared was charged last night with murder, authorities said.
Allen County sheriff’s spokesman Cpl Jeremy Tinkel said investigators found the body of Aliahna Lemmon in the county, but he wouldn’t say where.
Jeremy Tinkel also said Mike Plumadore, 39, was “interviewed by police and taken into custody at 9:00 p.m. and charged with murder”.
Mike Plumadore, who had been watching Aliahna Lemmon and her sisters before she was reported missing late Friday, is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
Earlier Monday, FBI agents descended on the rundown mobile home park in Fort Wayne where Aliahna Lemmon lived.
The park is a known haven for registered sex offenders, though Mike Plumadore isn’t on Indiana’s registered sex offenders list. He has a criminal record in Florida and North Carolina that includes convictions for trespassing and assault.
More than 100 emergency workers searched Saturday for Aliahna Lemmon around the mobile home park, where she was last seen.
Aliahna Lemmon, 9, has been found dead, and the family friend who was watching her before she disappeared was charged last night with murder
Sheriff’s deputies, police officers and firefighters fanned out in the area around the trailer park where the girl disappeared, searching on ATVs and on foot. An airplane circled the area.
But Sheriff Ken Fries called off the hunt for Sunday, Christmas Day, and ordered only limited searches of area ponds on Monday.
Sheriff Fries said searchers exhausted every possible hiding place in a one-mile radius around the trailer where she disappeared.
He didn’t see any good in using the manpower to lead further widespread hunts for the girl, who was feared dead as federal authorities took over.
About half-dozen officers in black windbreakers, several of whom identified themselves as FBI agents subsequently arrived, some with search dogs were seen at a nearby storage facility.
Agents at the scene wouldn’t say why the FBI was involved.
According to a state website, 15 registered sex offenders live at the mobile home park that numbers about two dozen homes.
“Children don’t just walk away during Christmastime,” Aliahna Lemmon’s step-grandfather, David Story, said Monday afternoon.
Aliahna Lemmon’s mother, Tarah Souders, 28, told The Journal Gazette earlier on Monday that her daughter had vision and hearing problems and suffered from attention deficit disorder and emotional problems. She also has a history of sleepwalking, family members said.
The girl and her sisters were staying at a family friend’s nearby home because their mother had been sick with the flu and Aliahna Lemmon’s stepfather works at night and sleeps during the day.
Mike Plumadore told The Journal Gazette Sunday that he left the three girls in his mobile home about 6:00 a.m. Friday and went to a gas station about a mile away to buy a cigar.
Authorities have said the store’s surveillance video shows him there about that time.
“I had dead-bolted the door,” Mike Plumadore said.
“When I got back, all the girls were here.”
He said he smoked his cigar and went back to sleep, and then woke up about 10:00 a.m. when Aliahna Lemmon’s mother called. After that call, he realized the door to the home was unlocked and that the girl was gone. He said Aliahna Lemmon’ six-year-old sisters told him Aliahna had left with her mom.
Mike Plumadore said it wasn’t until he talked with Aliahna Lemmon’s mother at about 8:30 p.m. that they realized she was missing and police were notified.
Tarah Souders said miscommunication between the two of them caused the delay in determining that the girl had vanished.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning in her country on an adultery conviction could be hanged instead.
Iranian authorities said today they were moving ahead with plans to execute the woman but are reconsidering what punishment to carry out.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is already in prison serving a ten-year sentence on a separate conviction for the murder of her husband.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning in her country on an adultery conviction could be hanged instead
The Iranian woman’s case has generated international outrage and last July officials suspended plans to carry out her death sentence on the adultery conviction.
A senior judiciary official said experts were studying whether the punishment of stoning could be changed to hanging.
Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the head of justice department of East Azerbaijan province, where Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is jailed said: “There is no haste. … We are waiting to see whether we can carry out the execution of a person sentenced to stoning by hanging or not.
“As soon as the result (of the investigation) is obtained, we will carry out the sentence.”
The charge of a married woman having an illicit relationship requires a punishment of stoning, Malek Ajdar Sharifi said.
He said judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani ordered a halt to stoning in order to allow Islamic experts to investigate whether the punishment can be altered in Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s case.
She was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her drug addict husband.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s lawyer said she was allegedly beaten and sold for sex by opium-addict Ebrahim Ghaderzade.
The woman was jailed for ten years for murder and sentenced to death for adultery. She was also convicted of having illicit relations for which she received 99 lashes.
Property records show Madonna Badger bought the five-bedroom, waterfront Victorian home for $1.7 million last year
Madonna Badger, from Stamford, Connecticut, climbed onto the roof of her burning house and tried to smash the windows of her daughters’ bedrooms in a bid to save them from the flames ravaging her home.
Madonna Badger, a 47-yea-old former Calvin Klein art director, and friend Michael Borcina survived the horrific Christmas day fire at her home that claimed the lives of her three daughters and their grandparents.
The girls, Lily, 10, and twins Sarah and Grace, 7, perished in the 5 a.m. fire with Madonna Badger’s parents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson, who were to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary today.
Firefighters desperately tried to reach the family members who were trapped on the second floor of the $1,725,000 house by the raging flames.
According to witnesses, Madonna Badger, who runs Badger and Winters fashion branding consulting firm and created the Mark Wahlberg underwear adverts for Calvin Klein, was dazed as rescue workers helped her. She was heard saying: “My whole life is in there.”
The woman was seen being led away from the flames with acquaintance Michael Borcina, who was barefoot and wearing boxers and a t-shirt.
Michael Borcina is the president of New York City construction firm Tiberias Construction Inc., believed to be the company renovating the five-bedroom home.
The grandparents moved to the New York area from Kentucky five years ago to be near their grandchildren, according to the New York Times.
The day before he died, Lomer Johnson, 71, worked at his “dream job” as Santa Claus at the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, New York, the family member said. Pauline Johnson, 69, watched on as he handed out candy canes and posed for pictures.
“That’s all he ever wanted to be,” a family member told the New York Times. “He stopped shaving the day he retired.”
Madonna Badger was reported to be a “fair condition” at Stamford Hospital on Sunday afternoon. A supervisor at the hospital said she was treated and discharged by the evening.
Michael Borcina was also hospitalized but his condition was not released.
Police officers drove Madonna Badger’s husband, Matthew Badger, from New York City to Stamford on Sunday morning.
The couple had separated three years ago. She filed for divorce in October.
Acting Fire Chief Antonio Conte said desperate attempts by firefighters to rescue the family were thwarted by the intense flames and heat.
A total of 46 firefighters attended the scene.
All five victims were removed from the second floor of the burnt-out building this evening.
Antonio Conte said fire officials do not yet know the cause of the blaze and will not likely get clues for a few days until fire marshals can enter the house, which has been completely destroyed.
The house was being renovated but fire officials do not believe that was the cause of the blaze.
Property records show Madonna Badger bought the five-bedroom, waterfront Victorian home for $1.7 million last year.
The house is situated in Shippan Point, a wealthy neighborhood that juts into Long Island Sound.
Stamford is a city of 117,000 residents about 25 miles northeast of New York City.
Anonymous, the hacking group, claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor.
According to one hacker, the Anonymous’ goal was to pilfer funds from individuals’ accounts to give away as Christmas donations, and some victims confirmed unauthorized transactions linked to their credit cards.
Anonymous boasted of stealing Stratfor’s confidential client list, which includes entities ranging from Apple Inc. to the U.S. Air Force to the Miami Police Department, and mining it for more than 4,000 credit card numbers, passwords and home addresses.
Austin, Texas-based Stratfor provides political, economic and military analysis to help clients reduce risk, according to a description on its YouTube page.
The company charges subscribers for its reports and analysis, delivered through the web, emails and videos.
Stratfor’s main website was down, with a banner saying the “site is currently undergoing maintenance”.
Anonymous claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers belonging to clients of Stratfor
Proprietary information about the companies and government agencies that subscribe to Stratfor’s newsletters did not appear to be at any significant risk, however, with the main threat posed to individual employees who had subscribed.
“Not so private and secret anymore?” Anonymous taunted in a message on Twitter, promising that the attack on Stratfor was just the beginning of a Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets.
Anonymous said the client list it had already posted was a small slice of the 200 gigabytes worth of plunder it stole from Stratfor and promised more leaks.
The hacking group said it was able to get the credit card details in part because Stratfor didn’t bother encrypting them – an easy-to-avoid blunder which, if true, would be a major embarrassment for any security-related company.
According to Fred Burton, Stratfor’s vice president of intelligence, the company had reported the intrusion to law enforcement and was working with them on the investigation.
“Stratfor has protections in place meant to prevent such attacks,” he said.
“But I think the hackers live in this kind of world where once they fixate on you or try to attack you it’s extraordinarily difficult to defend against.”
Hours after publishing what it claimed was Stratfor’s client list, Anonymous tweeted a link to encrypted files online with names, phone numbers, emails, addresses and credit card account details.
“Not as many as you expected? Worry not, fellow pirates and robin hoods. These are just the <<A’s>>,” read a message posted online that encouraged readers to download a file of the hacked information.
The attack is “just another in a massive string of breaches we’ve seen this year and in years past,” said Josh Shaul, chief technology officer of Application Security Inc., a New York-based provider of database security software.
Still, companies that shared secret information with Stratfor in order to obtain threat assessments might worry that the information is among the 200 gigabytes of data that Anonymous claims to have stolen, Josh Shaul said.
“If an attacker is walking away with that much email, there might be some very juicy bits of information that they have,” he added.
Lt. Col. John Dorrian, public affairs officer for the Air Force, said that “for obvious reasons” the Air Force doesn’t discuss specific vulnerabilities, threats or responses to them.
“The Air Force will continue to monitor the situation and, as always, take appropriate action as necessary to protect Air Force networks and information,” John Dorrian said in an email.
Miami Police Department spokesman Sgt. Freddie Cruz Jr. said that he could not confirm that the agency was a client of Stratfor, and he said he had not received any information about a security breach involving the police department.
Anonymous also linked to images online that it suggested were receipts for charitable donations made by the group manipulating the credit card data it stole.
“Thank you! Defense Intelligence Agency,” read the text above one image that appeared to show a transaction summary indicating that an agency employee’s information was used to donate $250 to a non-profit.
One receipt – to the American Red Cross – had Allen Barr’s name on it.
Allen Barr from Austin, Texas, recently retired from the Texas Department of Banking and said he discovered last Friday that a total of $700 had been spent from his account.
The man, who has spent more than a decade dealing with cybercrime at banks, said five transactions were made in total.
“It was all charities, the Red Cross, CARE, Save the Children. So when the credit card company called my wife she wasn’t sure whether I was just donating,” said Allen Barr, who wasn’t aware until a reporter with the AP called that his information had been compromised when Stratfor’s computers were hacked.
“It made me feel terrible. It made my wife feel terrible. We had to close the account.”
Wishing everyone a “Merry LulzXMas” – a nod to its spinoff hacking group Lulz Security – Anonymous also posted a link on Twitter to a site containing the email, phone number and credit number of a U.S. Homeland Security employee.
The employee, Cody Sultenfuss, said he had no warning before his details were posted.
“They took money I did not have,” Cody Sultenfuss told The Associated Press in a series of emails, which did not specify the amount taken.
“I think <<Why me?>> I am not rich.”
But the breach doesn’t necessarily pose a risk to owners of the credit cards. A card user who suspects fraudulent activity on his or her card can contact the credit card company to dispute the charge.
Stratfor said in an email to members that it had suspended its servers and email after learning that its website had been hacked.
“We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other web sites,” said the email, signed by Stratfor Chief Executive George Friedman and passed on to AP by subscribers.
“We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained.”
“Stratfor’s relationship with its members and, in particular, the confidentiality of their subscriber information, are very important to Stratfor and me,” George Friedman wrote.
One member of the hacking group, who uses the handle AnonymousAbu on Twitter, claimed that more than 90,000 credit cards from law enforcement, the intelligence community and journalists – “corporate/exec accounts of people like Fox News” – had been hacked and used to “steal a million dollars” and make donations.
It was impossible to verify where credit card details were used. Fox News was not on the excerpted list of Stratfor members posted online, but other media organizations including MSNBC and Al-Jazeera English appeared in the file.
Anonymous warned it has “enough targets lined up to extend the fun fun fun of LulzXmas through the entire next week”.
Anonymous has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on credit card companies Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., eBay Inc.’s PayPal, as well as other groups in the music industry and the Church of Scientology.
If you want to experience the adventure this winter, try Lake Balea Ice Hotel in Romania.
The Fagaras Mountains in Transylvania provide a perfect backdrop for the stunning Lake Balea Ice Hotel. Its remote location, at over 2000 m can be reached only by cable car in the winter making it an exclusive 10-14 room hotel. Set amidst breathtaking scenery the Ice Hotel is rebuilt every year – so no two years are the same.
According to its website, the hotel is entirely built from ice from a glacial lake. Since 2005 every winter the Hotel of Ice in the Fagaras Mountains is rebuilt, namely from the materials offered by nature: huge blocks of ice, cut and removed directly from the glacial Lake Balea are used to raise the walls, the snow gathered across the mountain slopes, is used for fixing the ice bricks and for finishing the walls.
If you want to experience the adventure this winter, try Lake Balea Ice Hotel in Romania
Every year brings a new story from the Hotel of Ice. Each season another new structure is added and tells a new story. 2011 story is a musical one which is transposed in the architecture and design of the rooms, the Ice Bar and the Ice Restaurant. The news about 2011´s Hotel of Ice is a separate complex of igloos next to the hotel.
Typically temperatures range from -2 to +2 degrees, the ice beds are covered with reindeer fur, with mattresses placed on top for comfort. Bedding, further furs and specialist sleeping bags are all provided, with bathroom facilities nearby. This all makes for a surprisingly cosy night’s sleep, especially if you indulge in a nightcap at the sub-zero Ice bar where inevitably the glasses are made of ice. There is a special Ice Hotel set menu in the evening, which needs to be booked in advance or you can defrost with a meal at the Lake Balea Chalet.
The place are also offering a plenty of activities from sledging to riding on a snow mobile, and the splendid Ice Church is a short walk away for anyone in the mood for an icy prayer. The breath-taking views and silent nights with bright stars overhead make a visit to the Ice Hotel.
A “must do” experience for anyone visiting the Ice Hotel with 2 courses actually serviced on Ice plates! The food is surprisingly delicious and the atmosphere is truly unique; smoked salmon egg cream, Dijon mustard sauce and toast, cream of carrot soup with croutons, medallion of beef, in a white wine sauce, peppers, sprouts and mashed potato with rosemary are only few of the Ice Hotel menu’s choices.
The paradox of the Kardashians popularity is that their wild, lavish lifestyle juxtaposed with their simple everyday family dynamic.
Kasa Kardashian tweeted a tale of no expense spared decorations and simple family moments.
Yesterday Kylie Jenner, 14, published a picture to her account which warmed the cockles in a way with a touch that big sister Kim Kardashian finds elusive.
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian, 31, whose middle name is Christmas (Noel) was more impressed by shiny baubles than family groupings.
To those who questioned Kim Kardashian’s decision to keep that $2 million engagement ring from Kris Humphries, this will come as no surprise, of course.
Kim Kardashian posted a picture of Kris Jenner’s luxury ornament bedecked tree today, which looked very expensive and very neutral – like all the Kardashian homes.
Kris Jenner’s staircase was trimmed with black, to tie in with the monochrome theme, and was therefore eerily reminiscent of Kim Kardashian’s wedding.
Kim Kardashian posted a picture of Kris Jenner's luxury ornament bedecked tree today, which looked very expensive and very neutral
But it didn’t trouble Kim Kardashian with bad memories as she wrote: “How pretty is my mom’s Christmas tree!”
Meanwhile, Khloe Kardashian revealed that some of the family sat down and watched Jim Carrey in How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Kim Kardashian got busier with her account later in the day, presumably after eating with her family, and tweeted festive greetings to friends.
She always talks about how she isn’t a big drinker, but it’s possible that today was an exception because she sent a message to Barbie, the Mattel doll.
Kim Kardashian wrote: “Merry Christmas Barbs @BarbieStyle! Long time no see! What did Ken get you for Christmas? Miss you doll!”
A home surveillance camera caught an UPS delivery man flipping the middle finger at the camera before throwing the package roughly on the door step.
The UPS delivery man in question was fired after the video went viral.
The worker was making the delivery to a home in Long Island on December 15.
UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin said: “We don’t tolerate such conduct. And yes, he was fired.”
Natalie Godwin said he was a seasonal employee.
A home surveillance camera caught an UPS delivery man flipping the middle finger at the camera before throwing the package roughly on the door step
The delivery man was delivering a white box from Zappos. As he cooly strides up the path, he flips the middle finger at the camera before flinging the heavy parcel at the door and walking off.
The video was published just days after a video of a Fedex employee heaving a computer monitor over a fence to a southern California home went live.
After the FedEx employee’s conduct became a hit on the internet, a company vice president issued his own YouTube video apologizing and promising the delivery employee would no longer work with customers.
Nick Confalone, a writer for the Disney Channel cartoon Fish Hooks, edited a home video footage his father filmed every December 25 to chart his sister and himself growing up over 25 years.
The video, which was posted on YouTube, shows the changes in Confalone family’s lives over a quarter of century.
The footage begins in 1985 and shows the two children clambering down the staircase in their pyjamas as toddlers to see what Santa Claus has left under the Christmas tree.
Nick Confalone edited a home video footage his father filmed every December 25 to chart his sister and himself growing up over 25 years
In the following years, their styles change – as does their willingness to be featured on the home video.
By 1991, a dog has entered the scene and in one of the last scenes, the girl’s boyfriend is brought into the family tradition. The tape is accompanied by the song Christmas Time by Vince Guaraldi.
Nick Confalone explained: “Every year, for pretty much my entire life, Dad has videotaped me and my sister coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.
“As teenagers, we begrudgingly accepted our fathers tradition, but as we grew up we realized we were part of something special – dare I say, <<something magical>>.”
Seven people from were shot dead in a suburban Fort Worth apartment as they had opened their Christmas gifts, police said yesterday.
According to authorities, the shooter appeared to be among the dead, but got a warrant before doing a full search on the small chance that it was otherwise.
Four women and three men, aged 18 to 60, were found in an adjoining kitchen and living room area when police entered the apartment around midday, said Grapevine Police Sergeant Robert Eberling.
Two handguns were found near the bodies in the apartment that was decorated for the holiday with a tree, Robert Eberling added.
“It appears they had just celebrated Christmas. They had opened their gifts,” he said.
Seven people from were shot dead in a suburban Fort Worth apartment as they had opened their Christmas gifts, police said yesterday
The victims have not yet been identified, but Robert Eberling said it appears they all died of gunshot wounds. He said authorities still don’t know what sparked the incident.
Grapevine Police Lieutenant Todd Dearing said investigators believe that all the victims were related, but that some were only visiting and didn’t live in the apartment. He said police are looking for other relatives to inform.
“Seven people in one setting in Grapevine, that’s never happened before. Ever,” Todd Dearing said.
He said police were performing a “meticulous” search of the apartment and he expects them to be on the scene for many hours.
Police and firefighters first rushed to the Lincoln Vineyards complex after receiving an open-ended 911 call at about 11:30 a.m., Robert Eberling said.
“There was an open line. No one was saying anything,” he explained.
Police went into the apartment, located in a middle-class, suburban neighborhood of Grapevine, not far from the upscale Fort Worth neighborhood of Colleyville. The apartment is at the back of the complex, overlooking the athletic fields of Colleyville Heritage High School.
But many of the nearby apartments are vacant, and police said no neighbors reported hearing anything on a quiet Christmas morning when many people were not around.
Apple hopes to use hydrogen cells to produce lighter batteries that could last for weeks on its products.
Apple is staying on the cutting edge as they have recently submitted applications for patents to create new energy sources for their products.
The filings that Apple submitted seem to have rather bold promises of allowing electronics to run for days or weeks without having to be recharged.
“Such fuel cells and associated fuels can potentially achieve high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities, which can potentially enable continued operation of portable electronic devices for days or even weeks without refueling,” the filings report read.
Not only would their plan to use hydrogen fuel cells get rid of “the need for a bulky and heavy battery” but it would also help the environment.
By switching from standard batteries which use toxic chemicals to hydrogen, the by-products of the new technology would only be water and electrical energy.
“Our country’s continuing reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable governments in the Middle East, and has also exposed our coastlines and our citizens to the associated hazards of offshore drilling,” Apple wrote in its patent application.
“These problems have led to an increasing awareness and desire on the part of consumers to promote and use renewable energy sources,” it continued.
The idea of hydrogen fuel technology isn’t new, but this is the clearest indication of exactly what the company intends to do to improve users experiences with the iPod or iPhone.
Apple Insider reported that the first round of patent applications on the subject came in October when they filed papers that mentioned “lighter and more efficient hydrogen fuel cells”.
While the iPhone 4S was released after the death of legendary Apple founder Steve Jobs in October, a technological breakthrough like an entirely different battery would be a massive upswing for the company.
The new iPhone 5 is still on the imminent horizon, as initial predictions put its release date at sometime in late December.
In their 23-16 victory over the Cardinals, Cincinnati Bengals’ Jerome Simpson epic touchdown was the highlight of the game.
The Cincinnati Bengals rookie quarterback Andy Dalton noticed him with plenty of space wide on the left.
He delivered a perfect 19-yard pass.
Jerome Simpson collected the ball with ease, ran at the Cardinals’ Daryl Washington and did an amazing acrobatic forward flip over him in the endzone.
He landed perfectly on both feet, with the somersault drew loud cheers from the crowd.
Jerome Simpson collected the ball with ease, ran at the Cardinals' Daryl Washington and did an amazing acrobatic forward flip over him in the endzone
The mighty move on Christmas Eve helped the Bengals edge to one win away from the playoffs Saturday, holding on for a 23-16 victory over Arizona that secured only their third winning record in the past 21 years.
Now Jerome Simpson could be fined up to $25,000 for breaking NFL regulations as he scored.
Norwegian researchers have discovered a cure to ease that painful gut-busting feeling brought on by over indulging during the holidays and without cutting down on the feasting.
The researchers’ advice is to have a sugary snack.
“A sweet taste can allow the stomach to hold more, and we can eat a little more without experiencing discomfort,” Dr. Arnold Berstad of Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital in Oslo said in a report by the New York Post.
In a paper published this month in The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, Dr. Arnold Berstad and Dr. Jorgen Valeur said sugar appears to stimulate the vagus nerve, which controls digestion, speech, breathing and other functions.
The tickled nerve signals the stomach muscle to loosen up and allow a bit more food to fit in, reports the New York Post.
At the same time, the looser stomach muscle let the food already eaten to settle comfortably.
However, Dr. Arnold Berstad said the effects only last “long enough to influence the current meal but maybe not more”.
Sugary treats can relax the stomach so much that it doesn’t feel full even when it really is, which experts say could explain why it is easier to overindulge when it comes to dessert.
How Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa vanished in 1975 remains one of America’s most enduring mysteries.
After 36 years since Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, his driver Marvin Elkind has claimed he knows where the former Teamsters boss is buried and how he got there, and all it was revealed a new book, “The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob”, by Adrian Humphreys.
Marvin Elkind claimed Jimmy Hoffa was killed by a mob enforcer and buried in the foundations of the towering General Motors’ HQ in Detroit, Michigan.
“It was his own people who did it,” Marvin Elkind said in excerpts of a new book published in the New York Post, adding Mafia member Tony Jack insinuated he was responsible.
After 36 years since Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, his driver Marvin Elkind has claimed he knows where the former Teamsters boss is buried and how he got there, and all it was revealed a new book, “The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob”, by Adrian Humphreys
The startling claim comes 36 years after Jimmy Hoffa, who led the labor union for 13 years, vanished while on his way to meet two mobsters he knew well, Anthony Giacalone and Tony Jack – real name Anthony Provenzano.
The Renaissance Center was under construction when Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.
Marvin Elkind explains how, during a Teamsters conference in 1985, he was among a group of men walking from the city’s Omni International when the Center came into view.
Tony Jack nodded toward the tower’s base and said: “Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys”, Marvin Elkind alleges in “The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob” by Adrian Humphreys.
He also describes the rush to build the Renaissance Center following the disappearance of Hoffa – and claims the body was buried in wet cement.
“There was a mad rush to get the concrete poured,” the New York Post quotes the book as saying.
Jimmy Hoffa was declared legally dead July 30, 1982, when he would have been 69.
He was a union stalwart, serving as its General President from 1958 to 1971 and playing a key part in its growth and development.
During his term as its leader, membership surged to more than 1.5 million members, becoming the largest single union in the country.
As well as a role as Jimmy Hoffa’s driver, Marvin Elkind had careers as a loan collector, a boxer – and a police informant.
Marvin Elkind was working as a busboy in a Toronto restaurant frequented by Jimmy Hoffa’s crew when he was poached as a driver.
Marvin Elkind initially said he didn’t want the job, but he was told: “Nobody’s asking you.”
He began testifying against the mob when police discovered he’d worked with a con man. They gave him an ultimatum – tell or be charged.
The book, by Canadian reporter Adrian Humphreys, follows his life.
It takes its title from Marvin Elkind’s nickname, The Weasel, which he claims was his boxing moniker – rather than to do with his snitching.
A series of bomb attacks in Nigeria, including two during Christmas Mass services at Catholic churches, killed 40 people and left many others injured.
The Islamist group Boko Haram said it carried out the attacks, including one on St. Theresa’s Church in Madalla, near the capital Abuja, that killed 35.
A second explosion shortly after hit a church in the central city of Jos. A policeman died during gunfire.
Three attacks in northern Yobe state left four people dead.
Two hit the town of Damaturu, and a third struck Gadaka. Yobe state has been the epicentre of violence between security forces and Boko Haram militants.
The Islamist group Boko Haram said it carried out the bomb attacks in Nigeria, including one on St. Theresa's Church in Madalla, near the capital Abuja, that killed 35
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is a Christian, said the attacks were an “unwarranted affront on our collective safety and freedom”.
The White House condemned what it described as “senseless violence” and pledged to assist Nigeria in bringing those responsible to justice.
Boko Haram – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – often targets security forces and state institutions.
The group carried out an August 2011 suicide attack on the UN headquarters in Abuja, in which more than 20 people were killed.
Nearly 70 people have died this week in fighting between Nigerian forces and Boko Haram gunmen in the country’s north-east.
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Yushau Shuaibu told the BBC that the latest Abuja explosion had happened in the street outside the church.
He said the church – which can hold up to 1,000 people – had been badly affected by the blast.
Witnesses said windows of nearby houses had been shattered by the explosion.
Officials at the local hospital said the condition of many of the injured was serious, and they were seeking help from bigger medical facilities.
Police had trouble controlling the anger of local people.
Reuters reports that thousands of youths have erected roadblocks on the road from the capital to the largely Muslim north, and are being tackled by security forces firing tear gas.
One of the Damaturu explosions was a suicide car bomb attack on a convoy of the State Security Service.
In Jos, a blast close to the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church was followed by gunfire that left one officer dead, government spokesman Pam Ayuba told Associated Press.
Two explosive devices found in a nearby building were disarmed as military were deployed to the site.
The attack in Jos, in Plateau state, could have even more serious consequences than the attack in Abuja.
The state lies in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south.
More than 1,000 have been killed in religious and ethnic violence in Jos over the past two years and our correspondent says there will be fears that the latest attack could spark wider conflict.
A string of bomb blasts in Jos on Christmas Eve 2010 were claimed by Boko Haram.
President Goodluck Jonathan said after the latest attacks: “I want to reassure all Nigerians that the government will not relent in its determination to bring to justice all the perpetrators.”
Christmas celebrations started last night with Pope Benedict XVI holding a midnight mass service at a packed St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
Pope Benedict XVI used the ceremony to condemn the “superficial glitter” that now imbues the holiday.
The Pontiff, 84, urged the faithful to discover its true meaning and remember the “child in the stable” instead of being consumed by the commercial side of Christmas.
The Vatican traditional service began with a papal procession through the church shortly after 10:00 p.m. local time.
Christmas celebrations started last night with Pope Benedict XVI holding a midnight mass service at a packed St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican
Wearing cream and gold colored vestments, Pope Benedict XVI proceeded into St. Peter’s Basilica standing on a moving platform – a new concession to spare the pontiff the fatigue of having to walk up and down the long center aisle.
In his sermon, Pope Benedict lamented that Christmas has become an increasingly commercial celebration that obscures the simplicity of the message of Christ’s birth.
“Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light,” Pope Benedict XVI said.
It was the second time in as many days that the Pontiff has pointed to the need to rediscover faith to confront the problems facing the world today.
In his end-of-year meeting with Vatican officials on Thursday, Pope Benedict said Europe’s financial crisis was largely “based on the ethical crisis looming over the Old Continent”.
The Christmas Eve mass was moved up to 10:00 p.m. from midnight several years ago to spare the Pope a late night. This morning he must deliver the important Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” speech (Latin for “to the city and the world). He will also offer brief Christmas greetings in 65 languages.
The Pope speech, delivered from the central loggia of St. Peter’s overlooking the piazza, is usually a survey of sorts of the hardships and wars confronting the globe. It is understood that this year he will base his message on the Arab Spring and the global economic crisis.
There follows an intense two weeks of Christmas-related public appearances that will test the Pontiff’s stamina amid signs that fatigue is starting to slow him down.
Hours before the evening Mass began, Pope Benedict lit a candle in his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square in a traditional sign of peace. A few hundred people had gathered in the square to watch the candle lighting and the unveiling of the Vatican’s larger-than-life nativity scene.
Next weekend, Pope Benedict XVI will preside over a New Year’s Eve vespers service, followed by a New Year’s Day Mass. A few days later he’ll celebrate Epiphany Mass followed by his traditional baptizing of babies in the Vatican’s frescoed Sistine Chapel.
Security was tight at last night’s celebration, as it has been in recent years. In both 2008 and 2009 there were Christmas Eve security breaches, in which a woman with a history of psychiatric problems and wearing a telltale red sweatshirt jumped the wooden security barrier along the basilica’s central aisle.
In 2008, the Pope’s security detail blocked her from getting to Benedict. But in 2009, she managed to grab Benedict’s vestments and pulled him to the ground. The Pope was unhurt and continued along with the service, but a French cardinal who was nearby fell and broke his hip.
A new painless cavity drill is set to hit dentists’ surgeries in two years, scientists from University of Missouri and the technology company Nanova announced.
The hi-tech “plasma brush” can hollow out rotten teeth in just 30 seconds, with only a slight cooling sensation for the patient.
The new device uses chemical reactions to disinfect cavities before operations, and forms a bond on the tooth which is much stronger than current techniques.
This means that fillings will much last longer than before, a huge boost for dentists and patients as currently many stay in place for just a few years.
Scientists from the University of Missouri, which has pioneered the research along with medical technology company Nanova, are confident that the new device marks a huge breakthrough in dental practice.
“Our studies indicate that fillings are 60 percent stronger with the plasma brush,” said engineering professor Hao Li.
The hi-tech “plasma brush” can hollow out rotten teeth in just 30 seconds, with only a slight cooling sensation for the patient
Clinical trials are about to begin and are expected to show the uses of the plasma brush, according to researcher Qingsong Yu.
Qingsong Yu said: “There have been no side effects reported during the lab trials, and we expect the human trials to help us improve the prototype.”
If the trials are successful, the brush could revolutionize one of the most important areas of dentistry.
The scientists claim that 75% of all dental procedures involve fillings, and billions of pounds are spent on the minor operations each year.
Despite how common fillings are, they still fill many with dread – not least because of the pain involved in drilling in to a rotten tooth.
If all goes to plan, the pain will end in late 2013, when the plasma brush should be made available to dentists for the first time.
Riverside County sheriff’s deputy Dayle Long has been charged with executing a man in a sports bar in Murrieta, California, after an argument over a game of darts, while he was off-duty.
Police officer Dayle Long, 42, has allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times, leaving the victim to die on the floor of the bar.
It is reported that Dayle Long, who had been drinking alone, struck up a conversation with Samuel Vanettes and his friends at Spelly’s Bar and Grille before the shooting.
An altercation allegedly broke out after the deputy told one of the friends: “I’m better at darts than you are”, Chris Hull, 39, told Patch.com.
“My buddy says, <<Aw, you suck at darts>>. (The man) says, <<That’s why I’m a cop, I can do whatever I want to do>>.”
Chris Hull said his friend asked: “Really, you can do anything?”
The deputy then pulled out his gun, Chris Hull claimed and after the group repeatedly asked him to put it away he “pops three rounds into my friend Sam”.
Dayle Long appeared at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley in a red prison uniform, on Friday, charged with murder.
Samuel Vanettes, a gas station cashier, was trying to keep the peace in the bar when he was gunned down, John Hall, a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office, according to Patch.com report.
Off-duty police officer Dayle Long, 42, has allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times, leaving the victim to die on the floor of the bar
Dayle Long and another man were in an argument when Samuel Vanettes had stepped in to break up the fight.
“He came in to act as a peacemaker and ended up getting shot,” Chris Hall said.
Chris Hall added that the victim was unarmed and showing no aggressive behavior.
According to a family member of the victim, who spoke to the LA Times, Samuel Vanettes was at the bar with his sister, her boyfriend and another friend when he started playing darts with Dayle Long.
“They were getting along good,” the relative said Samuel Vanettes’ sister had told.
“When the cop started having more whiskey, he started getting belligerent.
“He lifted his shirt up and showed his gun. Sam was standing by the dartboard.
“He said, <<You don’t want to do this; you’re a nice guy>. And he shot him. That’s what I’m told.”
If convicted, Dayle Long could face 50 years to life behind bars.
India Parker from Cleveland, Ohio, was being held on $10,000 bond Saturday after reportedly confessed police she threw her daughter’s body out with the trash.
India Parker, 35, is facing a charge of abuse of a corpse.
India Parker is at the centre of an investigation into the disappearance of her daughter, Kaliyah, 10.
The girl was reported missing Monday by the father of one of India Parker’s other children, Fox News reports.
India Parker confessed police she threw her daughter's body out with the trash
Relatives and friends have told police they haven’t seen Kaliyah Parker since she was five in 2006.
Sgt. Sammy Morris, with the Cleveland Police Department, told Fox 8: “The Cleveland Division of Police received information from the Cuyahoga County Department of Child and Family Services on Monday, about a missing 10-year-old.”
The police report shows that India Parker told the girl’s father that Kaliyah died when a bookcase fell on her.
However, no death certificate has been found and there were no records at local hospitals.
Police say India Parker was also reported for child endangering back in 2000.
According to Fox News, India Parker had previously had at least one child taken away from her by social workers and subsequently returned to her.
Sgt. Sammy Morris said India Parker will stay behind bars until police find out what happened to Kaliyah.
He told Fox 8: “This is an open investigation. We are asking anyone with any information to call the Cleveland Homicide Unit.”
Kim Kardashian’s declining popularity looks set to receive a further blow after animal rights group PETA launched a billboard campaign slating the star’s love of fur coats.
Kim Kardashian, 31, has regularly been spotted wearing such jackets this year, despite already being chastened by PETA, who named her their worst dressed person of 2010.
In the emotive ad PETA has a cute picture of two fox cubs, with the statement: “Kim: These babies miss their mother. Is she on your back?”
In addition to the adverts, the animal rights organization has also blasted Kim Kardashian on their website.
PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said: “Kim knows that animals on fur farms are beaten, electrocuted, and often skinned alive.
“We’ve explained it to her, and she’s watched a video expose that was filmed inside fur farms.
“When Kim is ready to put an end to her relationship with fur, PETA will be happy to take her discards and donate them to the homeless.”
Kim Kardashian, 31, has regularly been spotted wearing such jackets this year, despite already being chastened by PETA, who named her their worst dressed person of 2010
Ironically Kim Kardashian turned out to support a PETA campaign poster AGAINST fur which featured her sister Khloe earlier this year.
Kim Kardashian posed with Khloe next to the 2008 “Fur? I’d Rather Go Naked” picture, after her younger sibling stripped off for the charity.
It is the second time in recent days the Kardashians have been involved in a fashion flare-up.
It was claimed the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights had criticized the Kardashians for using Chinese sweatshop labor to produce their fashion lines.
However the group’s executive director Charles Kernaghan later spoke out to say the allegations could not be proved, that he had been speaking about conditions in the country in general, and that his words had been twisted.
Charles Kernaghan did speak out again last night to say: “If Ms. Kardashian has found a way to overcome the iron-fisted repression under which the Chinese workers are forced to toil, then that would be huge news and worthy of tremendous applause.
“But unfortunately, based on our concrete experiences investigating factories in China and elsewhere, the chances are about one in a million that Ms. Kardashian has found a way to push back against the Chinese authorities and guarantee that her employees will be afforded their most basic, internationally recognized workers’ rights.”
Mel Gibson finalized his legal separation on Friday and is likely to hand half of his estimated $850 million fortune to his ex-wife Robyn Moore, according to reports.
Legal representatives for Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore gave a judge their suggested parting payment in a Los Angeles courtroom today.
The actor owns several properties in the wealthy, seaside enclave of Malibu, outside L.A.
Under California state law Robyn Moore, 51, is entitled to half of his assets as they didn’t sign a prenuptial agreement in 1980 when they wed.
After 26 years of marriage, Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore split five years ago when he was a detained for driving under the influence in Malibu.
Mel Gibson, 55, was later shamed throughout the film industry for making anti-Semitic remarks.
Mel Gibson finalized his legal separation on Friday and is likely to hand half of his estimated $850 million fortune to his ex-wife Robyn Moore
His wife only filed for divorce, stating “irreconcilable differences” in April 2009 after he had publicly stepped out with a pregnant Oksana Grigorieva, 41.
Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva went on the have a two-year-old daughter, however in 2010 more trouble brewed for the star when he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery following a dispute with Grigorieva.
The filmmaker and actor was sentenced to three years’ probation and was given a glowing review earlier this month by the same judge who is handling Lindsay Lohan’s case, for attending counseling and doing double the community service required of him.
The recovering alcoholic has been working with Mending Kids International, and he previously said working with the organization had helped him realize what the important things in life really are.
Mel Gibson said: “It gives you perspective. It’s one of my faults, you tend to focus on yourself a lot, which is not always the healthiest thing for your psyche or anything else.
“If you take a little time out to think about other people, it’s good. It’s uplifting.”
While Mel Gibson has seven offspring with Robyn Moore, he recently settled a custody battle with his former girlfriend, agreeing to pay Oksana Grigorieva $750,000 and share custody of their child.
Mel Gibson’s wild ways over the last few years have landed him in hot water when it comes to his career.
Producers of The Hangover movies pulled out of featuring him in their second movie due to his controversial actions.
