Walter Palmer is under heavy criticism from conservationists and animal lovers following allegations that he paid $50,000 to go on a hunt in Zimbabwe.
The American dentist was identified on July 28 by The Telegraph as the hunter who paid $50,000 to kill Cecil the lion, one of Africa’s most famous lions, earlier this month.
In Zimbabwe, hunters can pay $50,000 to kill a trophy lion.
Zimbabwean police are searching for Walter Palmer, who shot the protected lion with a crossbow, the Associated Press reported.
After The Telegraph’s report that Walter Palmer was responsible for Cecil’s death, his name quickly started trending worldwide on Twitter.
Users are also sharing several photos from Walter Palmer’s other hunts. They also tweeted death threats and began sharing the contact information for Walter Palmer’s dental practice, River Bluff Dental.
Meanwhile, a petition calling for “justice” has already been signed by more than 12,000 people.
An ex-Nigerian minister stole $6 billion of public money, the governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, has alleged.
Adams Oshiomhole said US officials informed President Muhammadu Buhari of the alleged theft during his visit to Washington last month.
Muhammadu Buhari took office in May, ending the rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The PDP has repeatedly denied allegations of widespread corruption during its 16-year rule.
Adams Oshiomhole, who accompanied Muhammadu Buhari to Washington, did not name the minister who allegedly stole the money.
During his visit to the US, Muhammadu Buhari said he had asked America to help recover $150 billion “stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts”.
US officials described the theft during the PDP’s rule as “earth-quaking”, Adams Oshiomhole told journalists in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The PDP said Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Washington was a failure, in particular for failing to obtain “any sort of tangible gain for the fight against terrorism”.
Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, was invited to Washington shortly after becoming the first opposition candidate to win a national election in March.
He succeeded President Goodluck Jonathan.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, but the majority of its citizens live in poverty. The country’s oil sector has often been hit by allegations of corruption.
Two Zimbabweans are due to appear in court over the killing of Cecil, the country’s most famous lion shot by American dentist Walter Palmer.
Professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and farm owner Honest Ndlovu, are charged with poaching offences for not having the required hunting permit.
Walter Palmer shot the animal with a crossbow and rifle outside Hwange National Park.
Police say Walter Palmer, who claims he was unaware of the lion’s identity, could also face poaching charges.
Theo Bronkhorst and Honest Ndlovu, who accompanied Walter Palmer on the hunt, will appear in court in Victoria Falls, and could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Walter Palmer says he regrets shooting the well-known animal and believed he was on a legal hunt, saying he relied on professional guides to find a lion and obtain the necessary permits.
Separately, court records have shown that the dentist has a felony record in the US after killing a black bear in the state of Wisconsin in 2006.
Walter Palmer was given a one-year probation and fined $3,000, having shot the animal outside an authorized zone and then trying to pass it off as having been killed elsewhere.
Records from the Minnesota Board of Dentistry also show that Walter Palmer was the subject of a harassment complaint which was settled in 2006.
A receptionist alleged that the dentist had made comments to her. Walter Palmer admitted no wrongdoing and agreed to pay out more than $127,000.
Walter Palmer is believed to have paid about $50,000 to go on the hunt in Zimbabwe.
Cecil the lion was skinned and beheaded, according to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), a local charity.
Walter Palmer insists that he believed his guides had secured “all proper permits” for the hunt.
“I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt,” he said in a statement on July 28.
He said he had not been contacted by authorities in Zimbabwe or the US but would “assist them in any inquiries they may have”.
Walter Plmer is believed to be back in the US, although his exact whereabouts are unknown.
“Again, I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practise responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion,” he said.
The dental practice run by Walter Palmer was closed on July 28 and a note was placed on the door referring visitors to a public relations company.
The practice’s Facebook page was removed from the site after being besieged by angry comments and the company website was also taken down.
Zimbabwe, like many African countries, is battling to curb illegal hunting and poaching which threatens to make some of its wildlife extinct.
Cecil, a 13-year-old lion, was a major tourist attraction at Zimbabwe’s famous Hwange National Park.
The animal is believed to have been killed on July 1st but the carcass was not discovered until a few days later.
The ZCTF said the hunters had used bait to lure him outside Hwange National Park during a night-time pursuit.
Walter Palmer is said to have shot Cecil with a crossbow, injuring the animal. The group did not find the wounded lion until 40 hours later, when he was shot dead with a gun.
The animal had a GPS collar fitted for a research project by Oxford University that allowed authorities to track its movements. The hunters tried to destroy it, but failed, according to the ZCTF.
The six cubs of Cecil will now be killed by the new male lion in the pride in order to encourage the lionesses to mate with him.
About a century ago there were around 200,000 lions roaming across Africa but that figure has dropped to less than 30,000 in recent years.
Hunting lions is legal in several countries in southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, but groups must obtain a valid permit from authorities.
The leader of banned Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Pakistan, Malik Ishaq, has been shot dead, police say.
Malik Ishaq, who had been detained last week, was in a prison convoy in Punjab province when supporters opened fire in an attempt to free him, said police.
They said Ishaq was killed in a gun fight along with his two sons and 11 militants in Muzaffargarh district.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been behind some of the most violent attacks on Shia Muslims in recent years.
Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada confirmed the news to AFP news agency, while a doctor at Muzaffargarh District Hospital said 14 bodies had been received there.
Six police officers were also reported injured but correspondents say the details are unclear, and they have not been seen by the media.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was banned in Pakistan in 2001 and designated a terrorist group by the US in 2003.
The group is accused of killing hundreds of Shia Muslims in Pakistan.
Windows 10 is being launched globally on July 29 in Microsoft’s attempt to reverse its fortunes in the mobile industry.
Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to most existing Windows users, as well as those buying new PCs.
Analysts say the company is beginning to move away from relying on Windows as a key money-making product.
Microsoft has until now released a new version of Windows every few years.
Windows 10 will be the last launch of this kind, the company said – from here on it will gradually update the software for free over months and years. For those of you who aren’t so ‘tech savvy’, there are companies such as 1E who can help businesses with the upgrade, and overall process.
The developer version of Hololens, which is placed over a user’s eyes and displays graphics in their surroundings, is on course to be released within a year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said.
Consumer versions of the software would follow at a later date.
While the company is still to make a small number of mobile devices – a couple of smartphones, and its Surface tablet-laptop hybrid – it has significantly lowered its ambitions in the area.
Earlier this month, Microsoft wrote off last year’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Finnish mobile giant Nokia, while laying off thousands of the employees it gained from the phone company.
The write down resulted in the company’s biggest ever quarterly loss.
The deal was made by Satya Nadella’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer.
Windows 10 is multi-platform – meaning essentially the same software can power PCs, smartphones, tablets, games consoles and wearables.
The previous version of the operating system – Windows 8 – was so badly received the company leapfrogged making Windows 9 altogether in an attempt to distance itself from its previous outlook.
In the run up to launching Windows 10, Microsoft launched its Insider Program – a scheme which allowed millions of users to test out new features and provide feedback which was monitored and acted upon by the team.
Initial reviews of the software have been positive.
Robert De Niro will direct A Bronx Tale musical in New Jersey in 2016.
A Bronx Tale, an adaptation of the movie with the same name, is set against the backdrop of organized crime and racial tension in 1960s New York.
The world premiere will take place at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey on February 4.
The musical will be co-directed by Jerry Zaks, the man behind Broadway hits such as Guys and Dolls, with music by multiple Oscar-winner Alan Menken.
A Bronx Tale began life as a one-man stage play, starring Chazz Palminteri as an Italian-American teenager who must choose between his father and a mob-boss father figure.
An aspiring actor, Chazz Palminteri had become frustrated with his inability to win a leading role and decided: “If they’re not gonna give me a great part, I’ll write one myself.”
Chazz Palminteri played eighteen parts, winning widespread acclaim in Los Angeles. Shortly before the play transferred to New York, Robert De Niro bought the film rights.
He cast Francis Capra in the lead role, with Chazz Palminteri as the mafia figure.
Robert De Niro, who played the teenager’s father, also directed.
Plans to turn the show into a musical with the help of Billy Joel never came to fruition, and Chazz Palminteri – who had gone on to appear in The Usual Suspects and Bullets over Broadway – revived his one-man show on Broadway in 2007.
That led to renewed interest in the musical version, with Alan Menken eventually signed up to write the score.
The composer previously wrote songs for Disney movies including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas.
Paper Mill’s new season will launch with big band musical Bandstand in October.
A Christmas Story, based on the 1983 movie of the same name, will run throughout the holiday period at the end of the year.
Researchers have discovered a bug in the Android operating system which affects nearly a billion mobile phones.
The flaw can be exploited by sending a photo or video message to a person’s smartphone, without any action by the receiver.
Google said it had patched the problem, but millions of devices still need their software updating.
The researchers said the flaw was “extremely dangerous”.
Researchers from information security company Zimpherium said they believed it was one of the worst Android vulnerabilities to date, estimating that 950 million devices were affected.
Hackers were able to send malicious code within a multimedia message that could access a service within Android called Stagefright.
After Stagefright had been invoked, which required no action from the victim, other data and apps on the handset could be accessed by the malicious code.
“These vulnerabilities are extremely dangerous because they do not require that the victim take any action to be exploited,” the researchers wrote.
Further details on the flaw will be revealed by the team, at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas next week.
Zimpherium’s researchers notified Google, which subsequently produced a patch to fix the problem.
However, millions of devices currently remain unpatched because hardware manufacturers and mobile operators have to distribute updates to customers themselves, and customers can reject updates manually.
In a statement, Google said: “This vulnerability was identified in a laboratory setting on older Android devices, and as far as we know, no-one has been affected.
“As part of a regularly scheduled security update, we plan to push further safeguards to Nexus devices starting next week.
“And, we’ll be releasing it in open source when the details are made public by the researcher at Black Hat.”
President Barack Obama has addressed the African Union (AU) warning that Africa could not advance if its leaders refused to step down when their terms ended.
Barack Obama also called for an end to the “cancer of corruption”, saying it took money away from development.
He made the comments in the first ever address by a US leader to the 54-member AU at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The address marked the climax of Barack Obama’s five-day trip to Africa.
Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia, the headquarters of the AU.
He said African leaders should respect their constitutions, and step down when their term ends.
“Nobody should be president for life,” Barack Obama said.
The US president said that democracy existed in name but not in substance when journalists were jailed and activists were threatened.
Corruption was “draining billions of dollars” from Africa, he added.
Barack Obama also said the money could be used to build schools and hospitals.
Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, and eight others have been sentenced to death over war crimes linked to the 2011 revolution in Libya.
More than 30 close associates of Muammar Gaddafi were tried for suppressing peaceful protests during the uprising.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was not present in court and gave evidence via video link.
He is being held by a former rebel group from the town of Zintan that refuses to hand him over.
Former head of intelligence for the Gaddafi regime, Abdullah al-Senussi, is among those also facing death by firing squad, as is former PM Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors say that he was part of his father’s plans to “quell, by all means, the civilian demonstrations against the Gaddafi regime”.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will be given the right to appeal against the death sentence.
The trial, which opened in 2014, has been dogged by criticism from human rights agencies, who are concerned about the fairness of Libya’s judicial system.
Eight other ex-officials received life sentences and seven were given jail terms of 12 years each, said chief investigator Sadiq al-Sur. Four were acquitted.
The defendants were accused of incitement to violence and murdering protesters during the uprising that eventually toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Since Gaddafi’s death Libya has been plagued by instability, and currently has no single government.
Instead two warring factions each claim to run the country. An internationally recognized parliament is based in Tobruk, while Tripoli is held by rivals Libya Dawn.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has been held in the mountainous town of Zintan since the end of the war, by rebels who are allied to the Tobruk-based government.
Bobby Brown has paid tribute to his daughter Bobbi Kristina, describing her as “an angel”.
“Krissy was and is an angel,” Bobby Brown said in a statement.
“I am completely numb at this time. My family must find a way to live with her in spirit and honor her memory. Our loss is unimaginable.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown died on July 26 at the age of 22. She had been in a coma since being found face down and unresponsive in a bath at her Atlanta home on January 31.
Initial tests have found no significant injuries and no obvious underlying cause of death, according to the medical examiner.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was the only child of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston.
Whitney Houston herself was found dead in a hotel bath in Los Angeles in 2012.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was found by her partner, Nick Gordon, in the bathroom of their home in Atlanta.
Nick Gordon’s mother, Michelle Gordon, said in a statement on July 27 that Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death had devastated her son and the rest of their family.
“Nick loved and cared for Krissi deeply, and he has suffered greatly each and every day they’ve been apart,” she said.
“Nick and our family are in mourning, and we ask that you respect our privacy. Our thoughts and prayers are with both the Houstons and the Browns during this difficult time.”
A police report described Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death as a “drowning” although it is unclear what led to it.
Bruising was found on the front of her body at the time. Authorities later said Whitney Houston’s daughter had sustained injuries in a car crash several days earlier, adding they were not the result of foul play.
Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said the time that had elapsed since the incident that led to Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death would “complicate” its effort to reconstruct events.
It said the initial portion of the post-mortem had been completed and there were no signs of “an obvious underlying cause of death”, no significant injuries and no previously unknown medical conditions.
The cause of death would not be announced until all tests have been conducted, it added, saying that could take “several weeks”.
A spokeswoman for Bobbi Kristina Brown’s family said she died on Sunday, July 26, surrounded by her family and was “finally at peace in the arms of God”.
Nick Gordon’s mother, Michelle Gordon, said in a statement on July 27 that Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death had devastated her son and the rest of their family.
Bobbi Kristina Brown died on July 26 at the age of 22. She had been in a coma since being found face down and unresponsive in a bath at her Atlanta home on January 31.
She was found by Nick Gordon in the bathroom of their home in Atlanta.
“Nick loved and cared for Krissi deeply, and he has suffered greatly each and every day they’ve been apart,” she said.
“Nick and our family are in mourning, and we ask that you respect our privacy. Our thoughts and prayers are with both the Houstons and the Browns during this difficult time.”
A police report described Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death as a “drowning” although it is unclear what led to it.
Bruising was found on the front of her body at the time. Authorities later said Whitney Houston’s daughter had sustained injuries in a car crash several days earlier, adding they were not the result of foul play.
Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said the time that had elapsed since the incident that led to Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death would “complicate” its effort to reconstruct events.
It said the initial portion of the post-mortem had been completed and there were no signs of “an obvious underlying cause of death”, no significant injuries and no previously unknown medical conditions.
The cause of death would not be announced until all tests have been conducted, it added, saying that could take “several weeks”.
Nick Gordon, 25, is currently estranged from the Houston/Brown family as the mysterious circumstances surrounding Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death are under investigation.
According to new reports, Nick Gordon learned of Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death “just like everyone else did, from the Internet”.
Nick Gordon was still in Florida with his mother at the time the news broke and he is not welcome at Bobbi Kristina Brown’s funeral service.
The ageing terminals of New York’s LaGuardia Airport – one of the busiest in the US – will be rebuilt, Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced.
Vice President Joe Biden – who previously compared the airport to “some Third World country” – was on hand for the announcement on July 27.
Joe Biden said: “I wish everything I said that was truthful but controversial would turn out this well.”
The redesign will double the space available for planes to operate.
Work is scheduled to start in 2016, and the first redesigned portion of the airport will open to passengers in 2019.
LaGuardia Airport, which sits along the East River in Queens, is frequently ranked as one of the worst in the US, according to customer surveys.
“It’s slow, it’s dated, it has a terrible front-door entrance way to New York,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
Andrew Cuomo said VP Joe Biden was instrumental in securing federal funding for the project. Delta Airlines will also shoulder some of the costs of the $4 billion project.
With short runways that are surrounded by water, the airport has been dubbed “USS LaGuardia” by some pilots who say landing there is like arriving on an aircraft carrier.
Nearly 2 miles of new taxiways will be created under the plan, which will make landings easier for pilots.
Chinese police have raided a factory which allegedly made up to 41,000 fake iPhones.
Nine people have been arrested during police raid.
The operation reportedly involved “hundreds” of workers repackaging second hand smartphone parts as new iPhones for export, with counterfeit phones produced worth 120 million yuan ($19 million).
The factory was discovered on May 14 but was revealed on social media by Beijing’s public security bureau on July 26, according to reports.
The operation was set up in January.
The factory was led by a husband and wife team, on the northern outskirts of Beijing, according to Beijing authorities.
They said they had been alerted to the factory by US authorities which had seized some of the fake phones.
The reports come amid an official Chinese crackdown on counterfeit goods, with authorities pushing companies to trademark their goods.
China has also agreed to work with the US authorities to try to stem the large quantities of fake goods flowing between the two countries.
The discovery of the factory comes four years after fake Apple stores were found in Kunming city, China.
Discovered by blogger BirdAbroad, the fakes were so convincing she said many of the staff themselves were convinced that they were employed by Apple.
According to the medical examiner, initial tests on Bobbi Kristina Brown have found no significant injuries and no obvious underlying cause of death.
Whitney Houston’s daughter died on July 26 at the age of 22.
Bobbi Kristina Brown had been in a coma since being found face down and unresponsive in a bathtub at her Atlanta home on January 31.
Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Los Angeles in February 2012.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was found by her partner Nick Gordon.
A police report described Bobbi Kristina Brown’s death as a “drowning” although it is unclear what led to it.
Bruising was found on the front of her body at the time. Authorities later said she had sustained injuries in a car crash several days earlier, saying they were not the result of foul play.
Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said the time that had elapsed from when Bobbi Kristina Brown was found in January will “complicate” its effort to reconstruct events.
It said the initial portion of the post-mortem had been completed and there were no signs of “an obvious underlying cause of death”, no significant injuries and no previously unknown medical conditions.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s cause of death would not be announced until all tests have been conducted, it added, saying that could take “several weeks”.
A spokeswoman for her family said she died on Sunday surrounded by her family and was “finally at peace in the arms of God”.
Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston’s cousin, described Bobbi Kristina Brown as “a sweetheart”.
“She will be missed, that’s for sure. She was a good girl. She was a good little girl. She really was,” she told the Bravo TV network.
The day before Bobbi Kristina Brown was found in the bath, she had tweeted: “Let’s start this career up&&moving OUT to TO YOU ALLLL quick shall we !?!???!”
Bobbi Kristina Brown began performing with her mother as early as 1999, singing duets of My Love is Your Love and recording Little Drummer Boy for a holiday album in 2003.
Johnny Depp dropped in at the Australian Bat Clinic & Wildlife Trauma Centre over the weekend to see how Jackie Sparrow – an orphaned bat he sponsored in May – was doing.
Of course, he had to visit while dressed in full Jack Sparrow costume.
The bat clinic posted a video of Johnny Depp bottle feeding the flying fox, who is now 10 weeks old and teething.
According to new reports, Bobbi Kristina Brown will be buried next to her mother, late singer Whitney Houston.
Bobbi Kristina Brown will be given a funeral service this week in Atlanta, Georgia, after which her body will be flown to New Jersey where she will be buried alongside her mother, ET reported.
Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s daughter died on Sunday, July 26, nearly six months after being found unresponsive in her bathtub. She was 22.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s mother died on February 11, 2012, after she was found unconscious in a bathtub at The Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The singer was laid to rest eight days later at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey. Whitney Houston was buried next to her father, John Russell Houston.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was found unresponsive in her bathtub on January 31, 2015, and was then taken to North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, Georgia, where she was put on a ventilator to assist her breathing. She was later placed in a medically induced coma at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital.
Nearly two months later, Bobbi Kristina Brown was moved to a rehabilitation center, where she remained until June 24, when she was moved to the hospice center where she died on July 26.
Michael Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, has suffered a stroke, according to the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
According to the hospital, Joe Jackson was admitted on Sunday afternoon and is being treated in the intensive care unit.
A statement from the hospital also said Joe Jackson was suffering from an irregular heartbeat.
Photo www.jwjackson.com
Joe Jackson is in Brazil to celebrate his 87th birthday.
According to local media, he was absent from his own party because he was already in the hospital.
Photos from Joe Jackson’s official website show him dining in Sao Paulo restaurants.
Joe Jackson managed his sons’ musical group in the early 1960s, first working with his three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine and then younger sons Marlon and Michael, forming the Jackson 5.
Although they would go on to achieve huge commercial success, it was reported that Joe Jackson was often abusive towards his family.
Michael Jackson died from an overdose of sedatives on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50.
Large businesses have typically shied away from using virtual telephone systems preferring instead to use traditional in-house PBX systems. The reasons for this are varied but virtual systems just did not provide the tremendous advantages to them as large companies as it did small and medium businesses. Large businesses would already have feature rich systems that could manage call queuing and many of the specialized features required to support contact centers and large salerooms. However, lately there has been a shift towards virtualization due to rising confidence in the internet and the cloud service provider’s capabilities. Similarly, advances in technology have seen vast improvements in internet bandwidth via xDSL and this has circumvented the problem with call quality and capacity. Both of were major concerns for large companies, as dropped call, distorted voice and failure to establish a call did little to enhance the company’s reputation in the eye of their customers.
However, with these improvements in the core technologies performance and confidence has risen and we are now seeing large company’s looking at virtual telephone systems. So what are the direct benefits that they can now get out of a virtual system?
Mobility and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): By supporting inbound call forwarding and outbound calling using the virtual company’s number employees can use their personal devices to make and receive calls using the business number
Converged communications: Voice, video and email can be integrated into one service providing voice and video call conferencing and transcript voice-mail to email.
Follow-the-Sun routing: By using a virtual number for a contact center in bound calls can be redirected to the closest operational contact center depending on the time of day
Collaboration and home-working: By utilizing the IP collaboration tools available with virtual telephone systems contact center workers no longer need to commute hours a day to work. Instead, they can work from home and communicate in real time by messenger, voice or through onscreen displays, which shows each workers status. This means the business can save on renting contact center premises.
Automated Call Distribution: provides a system for your customers to call into and be connected to the correct people quickly and reliably.
Virtual Regional Presence: Virtual telephone systems allow the business to have virtual telephone number for any city or country. This means the business can have virtual toll-free numbers that their customers in other regions and countries can call, even if the business has no presence there; this is a major benefit for both the customer and the business.
Lower Cost of Ownership: By saving on monthly leasing fees for a traditional PBX and on the ongoing maintenance and support a large business can if it is careful about planning the virtual system make considerable savings. The point they have to remember hear is that if they want an extension on every desk then the monthly virtual telephone fees are going to soon outweigh the PBX costs.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: This is one of the biggest advantages for large businesses. The major benefit with business continuity practices ensures that the risks involved (and costs) of providing redundancy and fail-over hot sites is passed to the service provider. Similarly, with disaster recovery, it is the responsibility of the service provider to ensure there are disaster recovery options and hot sites available. This can be a major saving for any large business.
Cheaper call tariffs: This is probably the most obvious but largest saving as the costs of international calls especially can be greatly reduced.
To conclude, it is now advantageous for large companies to consider virtual telephone services. Whereas before the technology and services were not mature. Now improvements have removed some of the disadvantageous and they deliver real benefits in price and operational savings.
Monster Hunt has become the highest-grossing domestic movie in China, Xinhua state news agency reported.
As of Sunday afternoon, Monster Hunt had earned 1.317 billion yuan ($212 million) since it opened on July 16, Xinhua said.
The previous record was held by 2012 road trip comedy Lost in Thailand which earned about 1.27 billion yuan.
Fantasy comedy Monster Hunt, a blend of live-action and animation, tells the story of a radish-like baby monster called Huba.
The movie is set in a fantasy world resembling ancient China, where monsters and humans co-exist uneasily in two separate lands.
When revolutionaries in the monsters’ world attempt to overthrow their royalty, the monster queen flees to the land of humans and impregnates a hapless human man, Tianyin, with Huba.
He ends up being pursued by both monsters and monster-hating humans keen on capturing the newborn Huba.
Monster Hunt was directed by Raman Hui, who co-directed 2007’s Shrek the Third.
The Hollywood Reporter said that, outside China, Monster Hunt faces stiff competition from the likes of Minions and Inside Out.
The highest grossing movie ever in China is Furious 7, which earned about 2 billion yuan after it opened in April.
Chinese shares have recorded their biggest one-day fall for more than eight years following a sell-off towards the end of the trading day.
The Shanghai Composite closed down 8.5% at 3,725.56 after more weak economic data raised concerns about the health of world’s second largest economy.
Profit at China’s industrial companies dropped 0.3% in June from a year ago.
That followed data on July 24 indicating that factory activity in July seen its worse performance for 15 months.
The Shanghai market’s fall was the biggest one-day loss since February 2007.
Photo Getty Images
While there was little to explain why shares were being sold at such a level, analysts said fears that China might hold off from further measures to boost the economy had contributed to concerns among investors.
The stock market has been benefitting from a series of support measures from the government and regulators after it lost a third of its value in the three weeks from mid-June.
Since late June, Chinese authorities have cut interest rates, suspended initial public offerings, eased margin-lending and pushed brokerages to buy stocks, backed by money from the central bank.
Chinese shares had recovered about 15% of their value before today’s plunge – showing some signs of stabilization.
On July 27 stocks fell across the board, including benchmark index heavyweights such as China Unicom, Bank of Communications and PetroChina.
More than 1,500 shares listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell by their daily downward limit of 10%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 3.1% at 24,351.96 – its biggest loss in three weeks.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1% to 20,350.10, while South Korea’s Kospi index finished 0.4% lower at 2,038.81.
Australian stocks bucked the downward trend, closing up 0.3% at 5,582.40.
Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, has died at the age of 22 on Sunday, July 26.
Bobbi Kristina Brown had been in a coma since January 31, when she was discovered unresponsive in a bathtub.
Photo Facebook
Family representative Kristen Foster said the only child of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown passed away on July 26 surrounded by her family and was “finally at peace in the arms of God”.
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s family posted the following tribute on Whitney Houston’s Facebook page : “It is hard to say goodbye. On Sunday, July 26, Bobbi Kristina Brown made her transition peacefully. The family thanks everyone for their loving thoughts and prayers.
“As Bobbi Kristina would say: <<The wind is behind me and the sun is in my face>>.”
Angela Merkel slipped from a chair while attending the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany, Bild reported.
The 61-year-old German chancellor apparently sat on a broken chair inside a coffee bar and fell, according to Merkel’s representatives who were cited by the German news outlet. She was out for a few minutes before being helped up by others inside the restaurant.
Bild and Spiegel initially reported Angela Merkel “fainted.”
It’s unclear whether or not she was hurt.
Both publications later printed a government statement saying it was nothing of the sort. Her chair was faulty and collapsed.
Chancellor Angela Merkel went on to watch Tristan und Isolde, which she said she enjoyed.
President Barack Obama has arrived in Ethiopia on the second leg of his African tour.
Barack Obama is the first serving US leader to visit Ethiopia.
The president is due to hold talks with government officials and to discuss the civil war in South Sudan with regional leaders.
Barack Obama will also be the first US president to address the 54-member African Union at its headquarters in Addis Ababa on July 28.
He flew to Ethiopia after a two-day visit to Kenya.
There he had discussed trade and security but also called for greater human rights and warned of the dangers of corruption.
Barack Obama was greeted at Addis Ababa’s international airport by Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn.
On July 27, Barack Obama is due to discuss ways to bring South Sudan’s 19-month-old civil war to an end.
In talks with leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda as well as the Sudanese foreign minister, he is expected to call for tougher sanctions and a possible arms embargo if the warring factions do not agree on a peace deal.
However, a US official travelling with Barack Obama said today’s talks were not expected to lead to a breakthrough.
“This is an opportunity to reinforce the effort that’s on the table and to strategize… on next steps in the event that it doesn’t succeed,” the official told reporters.
Fighting in South Sudan has left thousands of people dead and displaced more than two million.
Security issues will also be on Barack Obama’s agenda as Ethiopia, like Kenya, is battling the jihadist group al-Shabab.
Correspondents say he is also likely to call for greater democracy and human rights while in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s ruling party, the EPRDF, and its allies won every single parliamentary seat in May’s elections. Opposition parties claimed the process was rigged.
Some rights groups have criticized Barack Obama’s visit to Ethiopia, warning that the trip could lend credibility to a government accused of jailing journalists and critics.
Amnesty International’s Abdullahi Halakhe said: “We don’t want this visit to be used to sanitize an administration that has been known to violate human rights.”
Human Rights Watch and other organizations urged Barack Obama to put the “pressing human rights concerns… at the forefront of your discussions”.
Bobbi Kristina Brown has died on Sunday, July 26, a family representative has announced.
The daughter of late singer Whitney Houston was 22.
Kristen Foster said Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away surrounded by her family and was “finally at peace in the arms of God”.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was discovered unresponsive in a bathtub on January 31 and placed in a medically induced coma. She never regained consciousness.
She was moved to a hospice in the city of Duluth, Georgia, a month ago after her condition deteriorated.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was the only daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.
Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel bath in Los Angeles in 2012.
“Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away July 26 2015, surrounded by her family,” Kristen Foster said.
“She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months.”
In January, police said Bobbi Kristina Brown was found face down in a bathtub in the suburban Atlanta home she shared with Nick Gordon, the man she called her husband. A police report described the incident as a “drowning”.
Nick Gordon said at the time she did not appear to be breathing and lacked a pulse before emergency services arrived.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was placed in a medically-induced coma and has been breathing with the aid of a ventilator.
