The Muppet Show is returning to TV with a contemporary grown-up reboot.
The show has been commissioned by ABC and promises a “more adult” take on much-loved characters such as Kermit.
The Muppet Show series will be filmed in a “contemporary, documentary-style” and will explore their personal lives and relationships.
For the first time ever, the series will explore the Muppets’ personal lives and relationships, both at home and at work, as well as romances, break-ups, achievements, disappointments, wants and desires.
The Big Bang Theory‘s producer Bill Prady is behind the series.
The recent pilot got a standing ovation at an ABC screening last month, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The Muppets, created by puppeteer Jim Henson, first appeared on TV in the 1950s, getting their own show in the 1970s.
They recently made a return to the big screen in 2011’s The Muppets and 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted, featuring Ricky Gervais.
Their TV comeback series is one of several new comedies picked up by ABC after the US pilot season.
An Ivorian boy has been smuggled into Spain from Morocco inside a suitcase, Spanish police say.
The 8-year-old boy, named Abou, was found inside the case being carried by a 19-year-old woman into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave next to Morocco, on May 7.
When police opened the case, they found the boy in a “terrible state”, a spokesman for the Guardia Civil told AFP.
The boy is now in the care of authorities in Ceuta.
According to El Pais, the 19-year-old is not related to the boy, and was paid by his father to carry the suitcase.
The boy’s father lives in the Canary Islands and had hoped to be reunited with his son, El Pais said.
The Spanish news agency Efe said the boy’s father, also named Abou, had travelled back to Ivory Coast to pick him up, having moved to Gran Canaria in 2013.
The father then reportedly paid the Moroccan courier to carry the suitcase. A police spokesman told Efe: “She seemed to hesitate, and it looked as though she didn’t want to come through the border.
“At first we thought that there could be drug packages, but gradually discovered that it was a human body.”
The boy’s father travelled across the border an hour-and-a-half after his son. At that point, Efe said, he was detained by border guards.
Ceuta and another Spanish enclave, Melilla, sit on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, and are each surrounded on three sides by Morocco.
Madrid says they are integral parts of Spain and manages their borders, but Morocco claims sovereignty over the territories.
Despite being surrounded by six-meter-high fences, the enclaves have proved to be popular areas for migrants to try to cross into Europe from Africa.
Human Rights Watch says at least 4,300 people entered Ceuta and Melilla illegally in 2013, compared to 2,804 the year before.
Civil rights singer Guy Carawan has died at the age of 87.
Guy Carawan’s rendition of We Shall Overcome became an anthem of the US civil rights movement
The white folk musician popularized the song by teaching it to a group of black activist students in 1960.
We Shall Overcome was taken up as a rally cry and was sung at the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery led by Martin Luther King.
President Lyndon B. Johnson also quoted the lyrics when describing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
We Shall Overcome has a long oral history and can be traced back to a 19th Century church hymn.
The song has since been performed by Tiananmen Square protesters and at the dismantled Berlin Wall, the Times reported.
Guy Carawan was born in California in 1927 and moved to New York City where he became active in the folk revival movement in Greenwich Village.
He and his second wife, Candie, taught music for decades at the Highlander Research and Education Center, a social justice leadership school in Tennessee, whose visitors over the years included Rosa Parks and Luther King.
Guy Carawan had dementia and died at his home in Tennessee on May 2nd, his wife told local media.
ABC has decided to cancel Nigella Lawson’s cooking show The Taste after two series, following a dramatic ratings slump.
The Taste lost more than half its viewers, falling from highs of 7 million to less than 3 million viewers on New Year’s Day.
In the UK, Channel 4 ended The Taste in 2014 after just one series.
Other shows cancelled by ABC include Forever, supernatural drama Resurrection and new sitcom Cristela.
Starring alongside Nigella Lawson were chefs Anthony Bourdain, Ludo Lefebvre and Marcus Samuelsson. The show saw cooks trying to impress the experts with spoonfuls of food.
ABC has also re-commissioned Castle, fairytale drama Once Upon A Time, American Crime and Secrets and Lies.
Also commissioned were Biblical saga Of Kings and Prophets, Quantico – from Gossip Girl producer Josh Safran – and 80s crime drama Wicked City.
Modern Family, The Goldbergs, Fresh Off the Boat and The Middle are among the comedies returning for new series, along with reality series The Bachelor and Dancing With the Stars.
A defiant Greece has decided to rehire thousands of public sector workers, including cleaning ladies, despite sustained pressure from its international creditors.
Greek lawmakers passed a law to give back jobs to some 4,000 workers who were laid off under severe austerity cuts.
The move comes as Athens seeks a deal on more financial aid ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on May 11.
Greece is running out of money as it has to pay €750 million ($845 million) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on May 12.
International creditors have demanded cuts in spending, including plans to trim the civil service and privatization of state assets, in order for Greece to continue receiving loans.
On May 7, the Greek parliament adopted a bill to rehire school guards, cleaning ladies and civil servants who lost their jobs or were earmarked for dismissal under the austerity program.
In 2014, 32 cleaning ladies sacked by the Greek finance ministry came to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in France to plead their case.
The insistence of the cleaners – who were replaced by cheaper workers – made them famous all over Greece.
Yesterday’s bill in the Greek parliament does not violate the terms of a massive bailout by the EU and IMF, which allows Athens to hire one public employee for every five who leave.
However, the move – combined with the reopening of the public broadcaster ERT – is likely to face criticism from the eurozone negotiators.
The talks with the IMF and EU are expected to continue over the weekend.
EU officials say a deal is unlikely before Greece has to make the IMF payment on May 12.
Eurozone officials say no further loans will be released until further economic reforms have been agreed.
Greece needs progress at May 11 meeting because that is likely to affect the willingness of the European Central Bank to allow the continued emergency lending that is keeping Greek commercial banks afloat.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis insisted the country would meet May 12 deadline.
Yanis Varoufakis also rejected the view that Greece had been reckless with bailout money, saying that 91% of the bailout funds his country had received so far had been spent on repaying banks, particularly northern European banks such as Germany’s – rather than helping Greece’s economy.
Yanis Varoufakis again stressed that Greece had no intention of leaving the euro.
Greece met its deadline on May 6 for a repayment for €200 million.
A Pakistani military helicopter crashed during an emergency landing in the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan territory killing at least six people.
The ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines, the wives of the Indonesian and Malaysian envoys and two Pakistan Army pilots died in the crash.
They were travelling to attend the opening of a tourism project in Gilgit. The cause of the crash is unclear.
Military spokesman Asim Bajwa confirmed the deaths of Norwegian Ambassador Leif Larsen and Domingo Lucenario of the Philippines in a post on Twitter. He said five others were injured, including the Polish and Dutch ambassadors.
Eleven foreigners and six Pakistanis were on board the MI-17 helicopter, Asim Bajwa added.
The helicopter reportedly hit a building belonging to an army school in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is not yet known whether there are any casualties on the ground.
It was one of three helicopters ferrying a delegation of foreign diplomats for the inauguration of a chairlift project built by the air force for tourists.
Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif was scheduled to inaugurate the facility, but his aircraft turned back from Gilgit after reports of the crash.
The chairlift project was reportedly completed more than six months ago, but its inauguration was delayed due to PM Nawaz Sharif’s other commitments.
Europe is marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two on the continent.
European leaders gathered in the Polish port of Gdansk for a midnight ceremony at the site where the first shots of the war were fired.
The Gdansk commemoration was seen as a slight to Russia’s Victory Parade on May 9, which has been boycotted by Western leaders because of Ukraine.
There will also be ceremonies in Paris, London, Berlin, as well as Washington.
The commemoration in Gdansk was marked with a 21-gun salute on the stroke of midnight. Beams of light illuminated a monument to Polish defenders in Westerplatte and the national anthem was played.
In a speech, Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski said the war had started with the co-operation of two totalitarian regimes led by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
Bronislaw Komorowski went on to say that the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 did not bring freedom but instead communism and the Iron Curtain. Such division finally ended, the president said, with the integration of the region into the European Union.
The event was attended by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the presidents of several countries including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania and Ukraine.
Many other Western leaders – who are boycotting Moscow’s event and for whom the Gdansk commemoration was partly organized – did not attend.
Among those in Gdansk was Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko who said it was possible to draw parallels from history and the current situation in Europe.
“Annexation and invasion, under the pretext of defending ethnic minorities… could all become the new reality,” he said.
Relations between Russia and the West have been soured by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula last year and support for rebels in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Moscow denies it is arming the rebels and sending troops across the border.
Russia, which lost more citizens to the WW2 than any other nation, will stage its biggest-ever military parade during its Victory ceremony in Moscow’s Red Square on May 9.
On May 8, there will be a ceremony in Germany where President Joachim Gauck will lay a wreath at a cemetery for Soviet soldiers. The German parliament will meet in special session.
In London, a remembrance service will be held at the Cenotaph and 200 beacons will later be lit across the country.
In France, where VE (Victory in Europe) Day is a national holiday, President Francois Hollande will lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
In the US, a ceremony will be held at the national World War Two memorial in Washington followed by a fly-past of vintage fighter planes.
On May 8, 1945, Allied forces accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, marking the end of the war in Europe.
However, it was not the end of WW2. It would take another three months before Japan surrendered.
David Cameron’s conservatives have won the UK’s general elections and are expected to form a slender majority in the Commons.
His party made gains in England and Wales.
Ed Miliband is expected to stand down later after Labour Party was all but wiped out by the SNP in Scotland.
The Liberal Democrats are also heading for a fewer seats.
The Conservatives are expected to have won a 37% share of the national vote, Labour 31%, UKIP 13%, the Lib Dems 8%, the SNP 5%, the Green Party 4% and Plaid Cymru 1%.
PM David Cameron declared victory in a speech after being returned as MP for Witney, in which he set out his intention to press ahead with an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union and to complete the Conservatives’ economic plan.
“I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together, not least by implementing as fast as we can the devolution that we rightly promised and came together with other parties to agree both for Wales and for Scotland.
“In short, I want my party, and I hope a government I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost – the mantle of One Nation, One United Kingdom. That is how I will govern if I am fortunate enough to form a government in the coming days,” he said.
David Cameron is expected to hold an audience with Queen Elizabeth II later on Friday.
Salman Khan’s sentence for a 2002 hit-and-run conviction has been suspended by Mumbai high court.
Salman Khan, 49, was convicted on May 6 by a lower court of culpable homicide.
The court sentenced the Bollywood star to five years in prison for killing Noor Ullah Khan by driving over him as he slept on a pavement. Four others were injured.
Many expected Salman Khan to be jailed on May 8 but the court extended bail. A final appeal hearing is due in July.
During his trial, Salman Khan argued his driver had been behind the wheel, but the judge said it was the actor who had been driving, under the influence of alcohol.
Within hours of his conviction on May 6, Salman Khan approached the high court and was given interim bail for two days, meaning he stayed out of jail.
Salman Khan – who had faced a possible 10-year jail term – then went home, where a number of Bollywood stars met him.
Correspondents say today’s ruling will be a huge relief for Salman Khan whose sentencing had divided Indians.
While Salman Khan’s friends and colleagues in Bollywood and many fans and others spoke out in his support, others called for him to be treated like any other citizen of the country who had committed a crime.
On May 8, Salman Khan’s fans began celebrating outside the court and outside him home.
Salman Khan is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, appearing in more than 80 Hindi-language movies.
The case has gripped Bollywood and India for years – and looks set to continue as lawyers argue in the appeal courts.
Skin lightening creams have been banned in Ivory Coast due to health concerns, the health ministry says.
The health ministry says “cosmetic lightening and hygiene creams… that de-pigment the skin… are now forbidden”.
Whitening creams have been popular for years among young women – and some men – across Africa, who believe they make them more beautiful.
Medical experts say they may cause cancer, diabetes, severe skin conditions and other diseases.
“The number of people with side-effects caused by these medicines is really high,” Christian Doudouko, a member of Ivory Coast’s pharmaceutical authority, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
However, analysts say the ban may not stop people buying the products.
They are still used in The Gambia despite a ban.
South Africa has the world’s toughest laws against skin lighteners, having prohibited the most active ingredient – hydroquinone, but a University of Cape Town study found that more than a third of South African women still buy them.
The use of whitening creams in Africa is most widespread in Nigeria – where more than 75% of women buy them, according to a 2008 UN Environment Programme study.
The National Security Agency (NSA) phone data collection is illegal, a US appeals court has ruled.
Overturning a 2013 ruling, the judges did not, however, halt the program but urged Congress to take action.
The NSA’s spying was leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden, who has since fled to Russia.
The NSA has collected data about numbers called and times, but not the content of conversations. It also allegedly spied on European firms.
Among individuals targeted was German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The latest verdict, by The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, came after New York District Judge William Pauley had dismissed a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which argued that the way the NSA tracked million of calls contravened the US constitution.
The 97-page ruling says that “a provision of the USA Patriot Act permitting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to collect business records deemed relevant to a counterterrorism investigation cannot be legitimately interpreted to permit the systematic bulk collection of domestic calling records”.
However, the appeals court stopped short of ruling on the constitutionality of the program, launched after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
Edward Snowden’s revelations in June 2013 caused an international outcry, despite US administrations insisting the program has been fully authorized.
The measures – repeatedly approved in secret by a national security court since 2006 – are set to expire on June 1st.
Leaders of the lower US House of Representatives would prefer to pass a bill to end the government’s bulk collection of phone records and replace it with legislation that supporters say protects civil liberties. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he wants to extend the Patriot Act and retain the bulk collection program.
The White House supports “an alternative mechanism to preserve the program’s essential capabilities without the government holding the bulk data”, said Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
ACLU’s deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said: “The appeals court’s careful ruling should end any debate about whether the NSA’s phone-records program is lawful.”
Jackie Chan, whose son Jaycee was jailed for drugs offences, has said he supports the use of the death penalty for some drug offenders.
The Hong Kong actor said that with drugs “you’re hurting thousands of young children”.
Jaycee Chan spent six months in prison in China after police found marijuana in his home.
Jackie Chan is Singapore’s first celebrity anti-drug ambassador. He was named official Narcotics Control Ambassador by Chinese police in 2009.
Both Singapore and China have enforced capital punishment for drug trafficking.
In an interview with journalists conducted in both English and Mandarin, Jackie Chan said drugs were not only hurting young people, they were hurting his family.
“On some issues, I do support the death penalty,” the actor said.
“When you’re hurting thousands and thousands of young children, I think these kind of people are useless.
“You should get the right punishment.”
Jackie Chan, 61, added: “[Young people say] <<it’s okay, it’s just like a cigarette>>. I say <<it’s not okay, not in my family>>.”
Jaycee Chan, 32, was imprisoned for not just using drugs, but for the additional and more serious crime of “providing a shelter for others to abuse drugs”, Beijing police said at the time.
When asked about his son’s time in prison, Jackie Chan said he felt “ashamed” and “shocked” and that he was now more focused on his son.
“I’m more concentrating on him now, used to be just, <<you are a grown man>>. But now I find out, he’s still a boy,” Jackie Chan said.
Richard Gere and his estranged wife Carey Lowell are fighting over his $100 million fortune, Fox News reported.
The actors have already agreed to a custody solution for their 15-year-old son.
Richard Gere and Carey Lowell reportedly attended a hearing last week in New York, ostensibly to decide how to divvy up his estimated $100 million fortune.
Carey Lowell, who at 54 is 11 years Richard Gere’s junior, has starred as a Bond girl and Law & Order.
Richard Gere and Carey Lowell were married for 12 years.
Manny Pacquiao underwent surgery on his right shoulder in Los Angeles less than a week after losing the most anticipated fight of the 21st century, ESPN reported.
The Philippines-based superstar is expected to make a full recovery.
Floyd Mayweather remains undefeated after beating Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision on May 3.Â
Manny Pacquiao, 36, said he entered the fight with an injured shoulder, a claim that Floyd Mayweather’s camp vehemently refuted after the result.
His decision not to disclose the injury to the Nevada State Athletic Commission – which kept him from getting a cortisone shot the night of the fight –Â may lead to a fine and suspension, with some filing lawsuits against him, alleging fraud.
Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who has operated on Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant in the past, conducted the 90-minute operation on Manny Pacquiao’s rotator cuff, which was significantly torn.
Manny Pacquiao moved to 57-6-2 with the loss. Already an active member of the Philippines House of Representatives, some have speculated that the champion could become a presidential candidate.
Floyd Mayweather says he would be willing to fight Manny Pacquiao after he is recovered.
Norfolk Police is distributing letters warning the media not to harass Prince William and Kate Middleton and their family after the royal couple returned to Anmer Hall, their home on the Queen’s Sandringham Estate, with newborn Princess Charlotte on May 6.
The letter asks photographers respect Prince William and Kate Middleton’s privacy after “a number of intrusions” by people with long lenses.
It says it hopes “acts of harassment and breaches of privacy” cease.
Norfolk Police confirmed it was distributing letters on behalf of the royal couple.
Prince William and Kate Middleton have been staying at Kensington Palace since the birth of Princess Charlotte on May 2 but travelled to Norfolk on May 6.
The three-paragraph letter from the royal couple’s communications secretary is being distributed outside Sandringham by Norfolk Police.
The letter says members of the Royal Family and their guests “have a more than reasonable expectation of privacy” while in the private estate.
“There have in the past been a number of intrusions into the privacy of the Royal Family which in the main have been as a result of professional photographers using long-distance lenses, not only to observe the Royal Family, but also to photograph them going about their activities on the estate,” the letter says, adding that previous warnings given to photographers had helped the situation.
“The Sandringham Estate trusts that there will not be a need to take any further action other than bringing these points to your attention.”
Anmer Hall, a Georgian mansion, is about 2 miles east of the Queen’s residence and dates back to about 1800, although some parts are much older.
It has recently been refurbished and now boasts a new kitchen and roof.
A garden room and quarters for the family’s full-time nanny – who will also care for 21-month-old Prince George – was also created during the improvements.
The majority of the work at Anmer Hall was paid for by the Royal Family from private funds.
According to a US government watchdog, 1,580 IRS workers evaded taxes over a decade, including some who were responsible for enforcing the nation’s tax laws.
This means about 160 workers a year out of a workforce of 85,000. So while were saving receipts, researching tax credits, and using every possible tax calculator available, the tax man himself is avoiding the one thing he’s hired to do.
According to a new report by the IRS’ inspector general, most were not fired, even though a 1998 law calls for terminations when the tax agency’s workers willfully don’t pay their taxes. The penalty must be waived by the IRS commissioner.
Among their offenses: improperly claiming dependents, repeated failure to file timely tax returns, and claiming a tax credit for first-time homebuyers when the worker didn’t buy a house.
Some of the employees received promotions, raises and bonuses after they were caught willfully not paying their taxes, the report said.
“Given its critical role in federal tax administration, the IRS must ensure that its employees comply with the tax law in order to maintain the public’s confidence,” said J. Russell George, Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
“Willful violation of the law by IRS employees should not be taken lightly.”
The report looked at workers from 2004 through 2013, before IRS Commissioner John Koskinen started.
The IRS said more than 99% of its employees pay their taxes on time, the highest compliance rate of any major federal agency. Historically, about 8% of the general public owes back taxes.
The agency said those who weren’t fired faced strong disciplinary actions, including suspensions and reprimands.
In 2014, the agency started denying performance bonuses to employees who willfully fail to pay their taxes.
The agency also said it will become more transparent about why the commissioner chooses not to terminate certain employees who willfully don’t pay their taxes.
Twice a year the IRS uses a screening process to identify employees who might owe back taxes. Tax information is confidential by law so the agency’s ability to check compliance makes it unique among federal agencies.
Over the 10-year period, the IRS found 18,300 cases in which IRS employees owed back taxes but the delinquency was not willful, the report said. The IRS found 1,580 cases in which employees willfully did not pay their taxes.
Among the willful violators, the IRS fired 25% and an additional 14% retired or resigned, the report said. Sixty-one percent received a lesser penalty.
An arrest warrant could be issued for troubled actress Lindsay Lohan after failing to complete her community service hours.
In February, Lindsay Lohan, 28, was ordered by a judge to complete 125 hours of community service by the end of the month.
Photo Instagram
So far, according to TMZ, Lindsay Lohan has completed fewer than 20 hours.
These hours, which stem from her 2012 reckless driving case, have been an issue for the actress for quite some time.
Earlier this year, Lindsay Lohan tried to say that she had completed her service, but a judge scoffed at her, as she passed off fan meet-and-greets in London as community service. The judge threw out 125 of the claimed hours and ordered her to do actual community service.
A status hearing is set for May 7, wherein the prosecutor is most likely to ask the judge to issue a warrant for Lindsay Lohan’s arrest, according to TMZ.
British people are expected to head to polling stations to cast their votes in the UK general election.
The voters will elect the 56th Parliament of the United Kingdom after the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 led to the mandated dissolution of the 55th Parliament on March 30, 2015.
There are also local elections scheduled to take place on the same day across most of England, with the exception of Greater London.
Polls open at 07:00 BST on Thursday, May 7, at around 50,000 polling stations across the UK.
A total of 650 Westminster Members of Parliament (MPs) will be elected for the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, with about 50 million people registered to vote.
As well as the general election, there are more than 9,000 council seats being contested across 279 English local authorities.
Mayors will also be elected in Bedford, Copeland, Leicester, Mansfield, Middlesbrough and Torbay.
This means that nearly every voter in England – excluding London where there are no local elections – will be given at least two ballot papers when they enter polling stations.
Some votes have already been cast, through postal voting, which accounted for 15% of the total electorate at the 2010 general election, when the overall turnout was 65%.
For the first time, people have been able to register to vote online.
Most polling stations are in schools, community centres and parish halls, but pubs, a launderette and a school bus will also be used.
A handful of seats are expected to be declared by midnight, with the final results expected on Friday afternoon, May 8.
Polls close at 22:00 BST, but officials say anyone in a polling station queue at this time should be able to cast their vote.
Seven parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, UKIP, SNP, PC and Green) participated in the election leadership debates.
The Conservative Party and Labour Party have been the two biggest parties since 1922, and have supplied all UK prime ministers since that date. Polls predict that these parties will receive between 65-75% of the votes and win 80-85% of seats between them and that as such the leader of one of these parities will be the prime minister after the election.
The Economist described a “familiar two-and-a-half-party system” (Conservatives, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats) that “appears to be breaking down” with the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the Greens and the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Analysts say that there will be no overall majority, but that PM David Cameron’s Conservatives will be the largest party with more than 280 seats.
Princess Charlotte and her parents, Kate Middleton and Prince William, have left Kensinton Palace for their Norfolk home, Anmer Hall.
They will spend the first few weeks of Princess Charlotte’s life at their recently-refurbished Georgian mansion.
Prince William is beginning two weeks’ paternity leave from his job as an air ambulance helicopter pilot.
Queen Elizabeth II first met her new great-granddaughter this week when she visited Kensington Palace.
Princess Charlotte’s brother, 21-month-old Prince George, was with Prince William and Kate Middelton for the journey to Anmer Hall, where the couple will adjust to life with two young children.
Kate Middleton and Prince William are expected to be based at Anmer Hall – on the Queen’s Sandringham estate – for the next few years as they raise Princess Charlotte and Prince George, who is almost two, with the help of a full-time nanny.
The couple recently undertook major renovations of the mansion, including a new roof and kitchen and the creation of a garden room and quarters for the nanny.
The majority of the renovation costs were paid for by the Royal Family from private funds.
Princess Charlotte was born on May 2nd at London’s St Mary’s Hospital, weighing 8lbs 3oz.
Iulia Vantur, a Romanian TV anchor dubbed by the media Salman Khan’s “girlfriend”, has apparently showed her support for the Bollywood star as he was convicted of culpable homicide in a 2002 Mumbai hit-and-run case.
Salman Khan, 49, was sentenced to five years in jail for killing a homeless man in 2002.
While Salman Khan was awaiting his sentence in a Bombay court, Iulia Vantur posted an extremely emotional message on her Facebook account, a sign that although distance separates them , her thoughts were with him.
Iulia Vantur, 34, wrote: “Pray, Faith, God”.
Global media speculated that Iulia Vantur is Salman Khan’s girlfriend after she was surprised several times in the company of the Bollywood star, at his sister Arpita’s wedding, and in Romania, but they decided to retain discretion on their relationship.
Bollywood star Salman Khan has been convicted of culpable homicide in a 2002 Mumbai hit-and-run case.
Salman Khan, 49, has been sentenced to five years in jail for killing a homeless man.
The man was among five people who were run over in the incident.
One of the victims of the hit-and-run incident has said getting compensation is more important to him than Salman Khan’s conviction.
However, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh told Outlook magazine: “I have no hard feelings for him [Salman Khan]. I still watch his movies.”
Abdullah Rauf Shaikh, who lost a leg in the accident, also told the publication: “Nobody came to visit me in the last 13 years. I am forced to do petty jobs to support my family and face a lot of problems.”
“Compensation matters more than conviction, my health and work suffered,” he said.
Abdullah Rauf Shaikh was only 22-year-old when he lost his leg in the 2002 incident.
On May 6, 2015, the Bombay high court sentenced Bollywood star Salman Khan to five years in jail for killing a homeless man in a 2002 Mumbai hit-and-run case.
September 28, 2002: Salman Khan’s car runs over five people sleeping on a Mumbai street, killing a homeless man and injuring four others
Photo India TV
October 2002: Salman Khan charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder – arrested but granted bail
May 2003: Court rejects Salman Khan’s plea to drop culpable homicide charge
June 2003: Bombay high court drops culpable homicide charge; Salman Khan is then tried for rash and negligent driving
October 2007: Prime witness, a constable who served in his security detail, dies of tuberculosis
March 2015: Salman Khan tells the court he was not drunk and his driver was behind the wheel
May 2015: Salman Khan found guilty, sentenced to five years in jail
Salman Khan has been freed on bail for two days, hours after being convicted of culpable homicide in a 2002 Mumbai hit-and-run case.
The Bombay high court gave the Bollywood star interim bail for two days after his lawyers filed an appeal against his sentence. The appeal will be heard on May 8.
On May 6, a sessions court sentenced Salman Khan to five years in prison for killing a homeless man.
The man was among five people who were run over in the incident.
Salman Khan, 49, had said his driver was behind the wheel, but the judge said the Indian actor and producer was driving the car and was under the influence of alcohol at the time.
The guilty verdict is being seen as a huge setback for Salman Khan, although the jail term could have been as long as 10 years.
Photo Press Trust of India
Following the verdict, Salman Khan remained in the trial court while his lawyers went to the high court with the appeal.
The actor is now expected to go home, at least for the next two days.
Salman Khan is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, appearing in more than 80 Hindi-language films.
Several of his Bollywood colleagues spoke out in his support and expressed their sympathies. Actress Hema Malini said she was praying for him.
If Salman Khan is put behind bars, it will affect several big-ticket film projects he is involved in at the moment.
Meanwhile, one of the victims of the hit-and-run incident has said getting compensation is more important to him than Salman Khan’s conviction.
Abdullah Rauf Shaikh told Outlook magazine: “I have no hard feelings for him (Salman). I still watch his movies.”
The case has gripped Bollywood and India for years.
Late on the night of September 28, 2002, Salman Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser hit the American Express bakery in the Bandra area of Mumbai, authorities say.
The vehicle ran over five people sleeping on the street, killing 38-year-old Noor Ullah Khan and seriously injuring three others. Another person received minor injuries.
The prosecution alleged that Khan had been driving the car while drunk.
Giving evidence in March, Salman Khan had denied he was drunk or that he was driving the vehicle.
But many witnesses disagreed.
A constable attached to Salman Khan’s security detail said in a statement to the police that the “drunk” actor had lost control of the car. The policeman died in 2007 of tuberculosis.
In April, Salman Khan’s driver told the court that he had crashed the car after a tire burst but the court did not accept that version.
According to a report by French investigators, Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps in March, may have practiced a rapid descent on a previous flight.
The French investigators’ report said Andreas Lubitz repeatedly set the plane for an unauthorized descent earlier that day.
Andreas Lubitz is suspected of deliberately crashing the Airbus 320, killing all 150 people on board.
The co-pilot had locked the flight captain out of the cockpit.
The plane had been flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf on March 24.
The alteration of the flight settings occurred on the plane’s outbound flight from Dusseldorf to Barcelona on the same day, the preliminary report by accident investigation agency BEA said.
It added that on several occasions – again with the captain out of the cockpit – the altitude dial was set to 100ft, the lowest possible reading, despite instructions by air traffic control in Bordeaux to set it to 35,000ft and then 21,000ft.
It was also reset on one occasion to 49,000ft, the maximum altitude.
The changes apparently happened over a 5-minute period at about 07:30 on the day of the crash, starting 30 seconds after the captain left the cockpit.
“I can’t speculate on what was happening inside his head – all I can say is that he changed this button to the minimum setting of 100ft and he did it several times,” BEA director Remy Jouty told Reuters news agency.
The outward flight left Dusseldorf at 06:01, arriving in Barcelona at 07:57.
Andreas Lubitz is known to have suffered depression in the past and last month German prosecutors revealed that he had researched suicide methods and the security of cockpit doors.
Voice recorder findings suggest Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit on the doomed flight.
The BEA’s preliminary report also discloses more detail of what happened on board the flight that crashed.
The flight data recorder appears to show Andreas Lubitz repeatedly increasing the aircraft’s speed once he had programmed its descent.
On several occasions, both air traffic control and France’s air defense system tried to contact the plane.
Signals from the cabin intercom, followed by knocking on the cockpit door and then “noises similar to violent blows” are heard on the voice recorder as the captain tries to re-enter the cockpit, according to the report.
BEA is expected to release its final report in a year, which the focus on “systemic failings” and cockpit security.
