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Golden Globes 2015: Full List of Nominations

Sonia Pantiss
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Golden Globes 2015: Full List of Nominations

The 2015 Golden Globes film and television awards will take place on January 11.

FILM

Best film, drama

Boyhood

Foxcatcher

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Best film, comedy or musical

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Into the Woods

Pride

St. Vincent

Best actress, comedy or musical

Amy Adams – Big Eyes

Emily Blunt – Into the Woods

Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey

Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars

Quvenzhané Wallis – Annie

Best supporting actor

Robert Duvall – The Judge

Ethan Hawke – Boyhood

Edward Norton – Birdman

Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best score

Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game

Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything

Trent Reznor – Gone Girl

Antonio Sanchez – Birdman

Hans Zimmer – Interstellar Golden Globes 2015

Best song

Big Eyes – Big Eyes (Lana Del Ray)

Glory – Selma (John Legend, Common)

Mercy Is – Noah (Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye)

Opportunity – Annie

Yellow Flicker Beat – Hunger Games, Mockingjay Pt 1 (Lorde)

Best director

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ava Duvernay – Selma

David Fincher – Gone Girl

Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Best actor, drama

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game

Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler

David Oyelowo – Selma

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Best supporting actress

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood

Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year

Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game

Emma Stone – Birdman

Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Best actress, drama

Jennifer Aniston – Cake

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore – Still Alice

Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best actor, comedy or musical

Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Bill Murray – St. Vincent

Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice

Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Best animation

Big Hero 6

The Book of Life

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

The LEGO Movie

Best screenplay

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo – Birdman

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Best foreign language film

Force Majeure

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

Ida

Leviathan

Tangerines

TELEVISION

Best series, drama

The Affair

Downton Abbey

Game of Thrones

The Good Wife

House of Cards

Best actress, drama series

Claire Danes – Homeland

Viola Davis – How to Get Away with Murder

Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife

Ruth Wilson – The Affair

Robin Wright – House of Cards

Best actor, drama series

Clive Owen – The Knick

Liev Schreiber – Ray Donovan

Kevin Spacey – House of Cards

James Spader – The Black List

Dominic West – The Affair

Best series, comedy or musical

Girls

Jane the Virgin

Orange is the New Black

Silicon Valley

Transparent

Best actress, comedy or musical series

Lena Dunham – Girls

Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie

Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin

Julia Louis Dreyfuss – Veep

Taylor Schilling – Orange Is the New Black

Best actor, comedy or musical series

Don Cheadle – House of Lies

Ricky Gervais – Derek

Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent

Louis CK – Louie

William H. Macy – Shameless

Best mini-series or TV movie

Fargo

The Missing

True Detective

The Normal Heart

Olive Kitteridge

Best actress, mini-series or TV movie

Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Honorable Woman

Jessica Lange – American Horror Story: Freak Show

Frances McDormand – Olive Kitteridge

Frances O’Connor – The Missing

Allison Tolman – Fargo

Best actor, mini-series or TV movie

Martin Freeman – Fargo

Woody Harrelson – True Detective

Matthew McConaughey – True Detective

Mark Ruffalo – The Normal Heart

Billy Bob Thornton – Fargo

Best supporting actress

Uzo Aduba – Orange is the New Black

Kathy Bates – American Horror Story: Freak Show

Joanne Froggatt – Downton Abbey

Allison Janney – Mom

Michelle Monaghan – True Detective

Best supporting actor

Matt Bomer – The Normal Heart

Alan Cumming – The Good Wife

Colin Hanks – Fargo

Bill Murray – Olive Kitteridge

Jon Voight – Ray Donovan

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CIA torture report: John Brennan defends CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation methods

Roy Siemens
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CIA torture report: John Brennan defends CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation methods

Director John Brennan has defended the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation techniques but admitted some methods were “harsh” and “abhorrent”.

Speaking at CIA headquarters, John Brennan said some officers acted beyond their authority but most did their duty.

According to the Senate report, “brutal” methods like waterboarding were ineffective.

However, John Brennan asserted the CIA “did a lot of things right” at a time when there were “no easy answers”.

“Our reviews indicate that the detention and interrogation programme produced useful intelligence that helped the United States thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives,” Brennan told a rare CIA news conference in Virginia.

“But we have not concluded that it was the use of <<enhanced interrogation techniques>> (EITs) within that program that allowed us to obtain useful information from detainees who were subjected to them,” he added.

“The cause-and-effect relationship between the use of EITs and useful information subsequently provided by the detainee is, in my view, unknowable.”John Brennan CIA torture report

While he was speaking, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who heads the committee that produced the report, was rejecting his arguments on Twitter.

One tweet said: “Brennan: <<unknowable>> if we could have gotten the intel other ways. Study shows it IS knowable: CIA had info before torture. #ReadTheReport.”

John Brennan was a senior CIA official in 2002 when the detention and interrogation program was put in place.

An outgoing Democratic Senator, Mark Udall, has called on John Brennan to quit, citing interference from the CIA in preparing the report.

A summary of the larger classified report says that the CIA carried out “brutal” and “ineffective” interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US and misled other officials about what it was doing.

The information the CIA collected using “enhanced interrogation techniques” failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said.

John Brennan described the actions of some CIA agents as “harsh” and “abhorrent” but would not say if it constituted torture.

He added an overwhelming number of CIA agents followed legal advice from the justice department that authorized some of the brutal methods.

“They did what they were asked to do in the service of their nation.”

The UN and human rights groups have called for the prosecution of US officials involved in the 2001-2007 program.

However, the chances of prosecuting members of the Bush administration are unlikely – the US justice department has pursued two investigations into mistreatment of detainees and found insufficient evidence.

On December 10, an unnamed justice department official told the Los Angeles Times prosecutors had read the report and “did not find any new information” to reopen the investigation.

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Ebola vaccine clinical trial halted temporarily due to joint pains

Kathryn R. Bown
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Ebola vaccine clinical trial halted temporarily due to joint pains

An Ebola vaccine clinical trial in Switzerland has been interrupted after some patients complained of joint pains in their hands and feet.

The trial was stopped one week early in all 59 volunteers “as a measure of precaution”, the University of Geneva Hospital said.

The vaccine being tested is one developed by NewLink Genetics, and recently bought by Merck.

There is currently no vaccine licensed for use to protect against Ebola.Ebola vaccine NewLink Genetics

Two vaccines are currently being tested in humans in a number of countries.

The side-effects in the Geneva trial were experienced by four volunteers.

The hospital said human safety trials would resume on January 5 in up to 15 volunteers after checks had taken place to ensure the joint pain symptoms were “benign and temporary”.

“They are all fine and being monitored regularly by the medical team leading the study,” the hospital said.

Four trials of another Ebola vaccine developed by GSK, in collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are also underway.

JK Rowling’s Cuckoo’s Calling and Silkworm to be adapted for TV

Sonia Pantiss
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JK Rowling’s Cuckoo’s Calling and Silkworm to be adapted for TV

JK Rowling’s detective novels The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, written under the name Robert Galbraith, is to be made for TV, BBC One has announced.

The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm will form the basis of the serial, which will be made with the assistance of JK Rowling.

Filming details for the series have yet to be determined.JK Rowling detective novels

The number of episodes for the series are still in discussion, and it is not yet clear when it will be broadcast.

The BBC together with HBO has already made a small screen version of JK Rowling’s A Casual Vacancy, which is due to be aired in February.

Production company Bronte Films, which made the mini-series, will also be responsible for the new crime drama.

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The Interview: Seth Rogen objected to re-editing movie

Sonia Pantiss
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The Interview: Seth Rogen objected to re-editing movie

Seth Rogen objected to re-editing The Interview movie, about an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-un, just “to make North Koreans happy”.

Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal wrote to Seth Rogen to ask him to tone down a scene in which the North Korean leader is blown up.

Amy Pascal said the request came from Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony Corporation.

The exchange was revealed in leaked emails in the wake of a massive cyber attack on Sony Pictures.

Seth Rogen – who wrote and directed The Interview – refused to meet all of the demands made by Kazuo Hirai.

“This is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy,” he wrote, in an email dated August 15.

“That is a very damning story.”

The Interview – due to be released on Christmas Day in the US – sees Seth Rogen and James Franco play two reporters who are granted an audience with Kim Jong-un. The CIA then enlists the pair to assassinate him.The Interview Seth Rogen

In June this year, North Korea described the film as an act of war and an “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism”, and called on the US and the UN to block it.

Amy Pascal wrote to Seth Rogen relaying concerns raised by Kazuo Hirai about a key shot in the film which depicts Kim Jong-un struck by a tank shell, causing his head to explode.

“As embarrassing as this has been from my point of view,” wrote Amy Pascal to the film-maker, “you have to appreciate the fact that we haven’t just dictated to you what it had to be.”

“This isn’t some flunky. It’s the chairman of the entire Sony Corporation who I am dealing (with),” she said, referring to Kazuo Hirai’s position as the head of the studio’s parent company.

She stressed she was keen to ensure that the Japanese company would not be placed “in a bad situation”, in terms of its political relations with North Korea.

In a later response, Seth Rogen agrees to remove some of the ghoulish detail, including reducing the “flaming hair”, but added: “The head explosion can’t be more obscured than it is because we honestly feel that if it’s any more obscured, you won’t be able to tell it’s exploding and the joke won’t work.”

In an email to Kazuo Hirai, Amy Pascal notes that she has encountered considerable “resistance from the filmmakers”.

A final email in October, from Seth Rogen, confirms that his latest edit had “removed the fire from the hair and the entire secondary wave of head chunks”.

“Please tell us this is over now,” he adds.

Details of the emails were reported by Bloomberg News. Representatives for Seth Rogen declined to comment.

Sony Pictures announced this week that the stars will be giving no interviews at the Hollywood premiere of The Interview.

The California-based studio’s computer system went down last week and hackers then published a number of as-yet unreleased films on online download sites. The Interview was not among them.

A slew of emails, including embarrassing exchanges about some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, have also been leaked.

North Korea has denied it was directly involved in the hacking but praised the attack itself as a “righteous deed”.

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Ebola outbreak: Unreported bodies found in Kono, Sierra Leone

Kathryn R. Bown
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Ebola outbreak: Unreported bodies found in Kono, Sierra Leone

A number of bodies have been discovered by health officials in Kono, a remote diamond-mining area of Sierra Leone, raising fears that the scale of the Ebola outbreak may have been underreported.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said they uncovered a “grim scene” in the eastern district of Kono.

A WHO response team had been sent to Kono to investigate a sharp rise in Ebola cases.

Ebola has killed 6,346 people in West Africa, with more than 17,800 infected.

Sierra Leone has the highest number of Ebola cases in West Africa, with 7,897 cases since the beginning of the outbreak.Ebola outbreak Sierra Leone

The WHO said in a statement on December 10 that over 11 days in Kono, “two teams buried 87 bodies, including a nurse, an ambulance driver, and a janitor drafted into removing bodies as they piled up”.

Bodies of Ebola victims are highly infectious and safe burials are crucial in preventing the transmission of the disease.

The response team also found 25 people who had died in the past five days piled up in a cordoned section of the local hospital.

Dr. Olu Olushayo, a member of the WHO’s Ebola response team, said: “Our team met heroic doctors and nurses at their wits’ end, exhausted burial teams and lab techs, all doing the best they could but they simply ran out of resources and were overrun with gravely ill people.”

Health officials are worried that many of the Ebola cases in Kono have gone unreported until now.

“We are only seeing the ears of the hippo,” said Dr Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone’s Director of Disease Prevention and Control.

The district of more than 350,000 inhabitants had reported 119 cases up to December 9.

Authorities in Sierra Leone have decided to put Kono district on “lockdown” from 10 to 23 December to try and contain the outbreak.

During the lockdown, no-one will be able to enter or leave the district but they can move around freely within it.

Hong Kong protest: Pro-democracy activists arrested as Admiralty protest camp is cleared

Diane A. Wade
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Hong Kong protest: Pro-democracy activists arrested as Admiralty protest camp is cleared

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists have been arrested at the main protest camp at Admiralty, which is now cleared after more than two months of demonstrations.

Many left as bailiffs and police removed the camp’s barricades but some vowed to stay despite police warnings.

Police began their operation early on December 11 in what is widely seen as the final act in the long-running protests.

The number of protesters has dwindled in recent weeks from the tens of thousands who turned out in September.

They want Beijing to allow free elections for the territory’s next leader in 2017. China says everyone can vote but a pro-Beijing committee will screen candidates.

Police officers started to clear the camp and dismantle tents after issuing orders for protesters to vacate the “occupied area” within 30 minutes or face arrest.

Among those reportedly arrested were opposition Democratic Party founder Martin Lee, student leader Nathan Law, media tycoon Jimmy Lai and singer Denise Ho.Admiralty protest site Hong Kong

As police approached the last remaining protesters, Alex Chow, head of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, rallied the crowds, saying the fight was not over, AP reports.

Meanwhile, a dozen people who opposed the protests turned up to cheer on the police, the South China Morning Post reports.

Earlier in the morning, bailiffs read out a final warning to protesters shortly before workers, backed by police, moved in and began dismantling barricades in one section of the site, using box cutters to remove ties.

Footage from the scene showed police tearing down supply and first aid tents, as well as a study area used by students.

Trucks with cranes were also used to pick up debris left behind from the broken barriers, plastic sheets and umbrellas.

The clearance is the result of a court order obtained by a bus company which says the protests have disrupted its business.

While the order covers three portions of the Admiralty site, including the main Connaught Road area, Hong Kong police spokesman Cheung Tak-keung said officers would also clear blocked roads.

He said they would clear away barricades from a second protest site at Causeway Bay site “at an appropriate time”. About 20 people remain there, the South China Morning Post reports.

Some pro-democracy politicians have joined the students at the site and academics and a police watchdog are monitoring the clearance operation.

Some protesters, however, packed up their tents as Thursday dawned.

Clashes erupted when a third protest site, at Mong Kok, was cleared last month.

On December 10, Hong Kong’s top civil servant Carrie Lam urged students to leave the Admiralty site peacefully.

Later that night, more than 10,000 people gathered at the protest site, chanting pro-democracy slogans in what many saw as a farewell to the current demonstrations.

At their height, the protests were seen as the biggest challenge to Beijing’s rule in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover.

Rallies in late September and early October saw huge crowds on the streets. But numbers fell as weeks passed and many Hong Kong residents also spoke out against the protests because of disruption to the city.

Beijing has not moved from its position on Hong Kong’s election process, describing the demonstrations as illegal.

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Superbugs study: Drug resistant infections will kill more than cancer by 2050

Kathryn R. Bown
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Superbugs study: Drug resistant infections will kill more than cancer by 2050

According to a new study, drug resistant infections will kill an extra 10 million people a year worldwide – more than currently die from cancer – by 2050 unless action is taken.

They are currently implicated in 700,000 deaths each year.

The analysis, presented by British economist Jim O’Neill, said the costs would spiral to $100 trillion.

He was appointed by UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron in July to head a review of antimicrobial resistance.

The reduction in population and the impact on ill-health would reduce world economic output by between 2% and 3.5%.

The analysis was based on scenarios modeled by researchers Rand Europe and auditors KPMG.

They found that drug resistant E. coli, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) would have the biggest impact.Superbugs study

In Europe and the United States, antimicrobial resistance causes at least 50,000 deaths each year, they said. And left unchecked, deaths would rise more than 10-fold by 2050.

Jim O’Neill is best known for his economic analysis of developing nations and their growing importance in global trade.

He coined the acronyms BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and more recently MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey).

He said the impact would be mostly keenly felt in these countries.

The review team believes its analysis represents a significant underestimate of the potential impact of failing to tackle drug resistance, as it did not include the effects on healthcare of a world in which antibiotics no longer worked.

Joint replacements, Caesarean sections, chemotherapy and transplant surgery are among many treatments that depend on antibiotics being available to prevent infections.

The review team estimates that Caesarean sections currently contribute 2% to world GDP, joint replacements 0.65%, cancer drugs 0.75% and organ transplants 0.1%.

This is based on the number of lives saved, and ill-health prevented in people of working age.

Without effective antibiotics, these procedures would become much riskier and in many cases impossible.

The review team concludes that this would cost a further $100 trillion by 2050.

Dick Cheney: CIA torture report is full of crap and George W. Bush knew about interrogation techniques

Roy Siemens
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Dick Cheney: CIA torture report is full of crap and George W. Bush knew about interrogation techniques

President George W. Bush was “fully informed” about CIA interrogation techniques condemned in a Senate report, his vice-president, Dick Cheney, says.

Speaking to Fox News, Dick Cheney said George W. Bush “knew everything he needed to know” about the program, and the report was “full of crap”.

The CIA has defended its use of methods such as waterboarding on terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks.

The Senate report said the CIA misled politicians about the program.

However, George W. Bush dismissed this, saying: “The notion that the committee is trying to peddle that somehow the agency was operating on a rogue basis and that we weren’t being told – that the president wasn’t being told – is a flat-out lie.”

In the interview on December 11, Dick Cheney said the report was “deeply flawed” and a “terrible piece of work”, although he admitted he had not read the whole document.

A summary of the larger classified report says that the CIA carried out “brutal” and “ineffective” interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US and misled other officials about what it was doing.

The information the CIA collected using “enhanced interrogation techniques” failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said.

However, Dick Cheney said the interrogation program saved lives, and that the agency deserved “credit not condemnation”.Dick Cheney on CIA torture report

“It did in fact produce actionable intelligence that was vital in the success of keeping the country safe from further attacks,” he said.

The UN and human rights groups have called for the prosecution of US officials involved in the 2001-2007 program.

“As a matter of international law, the US is legally obliged to bring those responsible to justice,” Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, said in a statement made from Geneva.

He said there had been a “clear policy orchestrated at a high level”.

Correspondents say that the chances of prosecuting members of the Bush administration are unlikely, not least because the US justice department has said that it has already pursued two investigations into mistreatment of detainees since 2000 and concluded that the evidence was not sufficient to obtain a conviction.

None of the countries where the prisons were located has been identified in the report, but several countries suspected to have hosted so-called “black sites” reacted strongly to the publication.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is among the world leaders to have condemned how the agency imprisoned and questioned al-Qaeda suspects.

He said the program “violated all accepted norms of human rights in the world”.

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he hoped that the publication of the report would “help us leave these techniques where they belong – in the past”.

He banned harsh interrogation techniques after taking office in 2009, and has acknowledged that some methods amounted to torture.

Some Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee released a minority report, accusing the Senate of having a “flawed analytical methodology”, “inadequate objectivity” and “political considerations”.

However, influential Republican Senator John McCain argued that torture “rarely yields credible information” and that even in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden the most important lead came from “conventional interrogation methods”.

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France plane crash: Alpha Jet aircraft comes down in Vouvray killing one person

Nancy Clayson
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France plane crash: Alpha Jet aircraft comes down in Vouvray killing one person

An Alpha Jet aircraft has crashed into a home for disabled people in central France, killing one person and leaving several others injured, one seriously.

According to French media, the military plane, which was on a training flight, came down in the town of Vouvray near Tours on Wednesday, December 10, at about 17:30 local time.

The two crew members had ejected and were unhurt, the air force said.

Uninjured residents of the home are being moved to new lodgings.

The 63-year-old resident who was killed had lived at the home for several years, said Health Minister Marisol Touraine after visiting the scene of the accident.

About 75 people live at home. The plane hit one of two buildings housing female residents.Alpha Jet crash Vouvray

A witness quoted by the local Nouvelle Republique newspaper, named as Sebastien, described a “very loud noise” and a “huge fireball”.

He also said he had seen the two crew of the jet descending in parachutes.

The pilots had made for “a dark area that appeared to be uninhabited,” said Col. Cyrille Duvivier, commander of air base 705 near Parcay-Melay.

He said the plane had been on a night training flight with an instructor and trainee pilot on board.

Col. Cyrille Duvivier described the Alpha Jet as a “very reliable design, which has been in service for some 30 years.

It is more than 30 years since the last such accident at base 705, according to Le Monde newspaper.

Princess Charlene of Monaco gives birth to twin babies

Lisa.Felice
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Princess Charlene of Monaco gives birth to twin babies

Princess Charlene of Monaco has given birth to twin babies, Gabriella and Jacques, the palace has announced.

Prince Jacques is next in line to the Monaco throne, a rich principality on the southern French coast.

A statement said both babies were doing well. Princess Gabriella was born first, with Prince Jacques arriving two minutes later.

Prince Albert II, 56, is the son of the late actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III.Princess Charlene of Monaco gives birth

Princess Charlene, 36, a Zimbabwean-born former Olympic swimmer, was giving birth to her twins at Princess Grace Hospital.

The prince has two other children but they are excluded from the throne because they were born outside of marriage.

Ahead of the birth, Prince Albert said that the first child to be delivered would become next-in-line, if the twins were the same gender.

Since the twins are mixed gender, Prince Jacques takes the role, due to Monaco’s laws of succession favoring males.

The gender of the twins had been kept a secret even from their father during Princess Charlene’s pregnancy.

Forty-two canon shots were fired to mark the babies’ arrival, 21 for each infant.

It is the first time twins have been born to Monaco’s royal family since it was founded in the 13th Century.

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Sinead O’Connor to join Sinn Fein party

Sonia Pantiss
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Sinead O’Connor to join Sinn Fein party

Sinead O’Connor has applied to become a member of the Irish political party, Sinn Féin.

Writing in her blog, Sinead O’Connor said she wanted to join the party “just as a regular punter” because she wanted to see a “proper socialist Ireland”.

However, in a Facebook post on December 8, the singer also called for the Sinn Féin leadership to step down.

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said the party welcomed her membership application and that it was currently being processed.

Sinead O’Connor achieved worldwide fame in 1990 with the song Nothing Compares 2 U, written by Prince.

She has often courted international controversy over her outspoken political and religious views.

Sinead O’Connor currently writes a regular blog on her website, entitled Sinead’s musings.

In recent weeks, the singer’s posts have focused on the controversial introduction of domestic water charges in the Republic of Ireland and the legacy of the 1916 Easter Rising, the rebellion against British rule.

In her latest blog entry, entitled Strange Week, Sinead O’Connor wrote: “I’m joining Sinn Féin now. If they’ll have me.

“Just as a regular punter who wants to learn and contribute with whatever strengths I might have or learn. I’d like to see a proper socialist Ireland.”

She also said that she has “never voted” in an election in her life.

Writing in a later Facebook post on Monday night, Sinead O’Connor said she “might not even be the kind of person they [Sinn Féin] want”.

She added: “I feel the elders of Sinn Féin are going to have to make ‘the supreme sacrifice’ and step down shortly in the same way the last Pope did.”

Both Sinn Féin and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have faced criticism over how they dealt with allegations on child abuse in Ireland.

It is not the first time Sinead O’Connor has publicly criticized Sinn Féin or other political parties.

In a blog entry last week, dated December 1, she wrote: “We have a system left over from 1922. Fine Fail (sic)/Fine Gael/Sinn Fein, all of them. They are of the old order. They are of our violent history.

“We need new politics. Young people. Not people of the theocracy. Not people of “The War”. Not of any war.”

In a statement to the Journal.ie news website, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “We look forward to working with Sinead as part of Sinn Féin delivering change in communities across Ireland.”

However, the party later defended its leaders against the singer’s calls for them to step down.

“The membership of the party selects the Sinn Féin leadership every year at our Ard Fheis [the party’s annual conference],” a spokeswoman said.

“As a member, Sinead would have an equal say in that process.”

It also said that support for the party in the Republic of Ireland “has grown considerably” since Gerry Adams was elected as a member of the Irish parliament.

Sinead O’Connor has a history of hitting the headlines over issues unrelated to her music career.

In December 2011, Sinead O’Connor annulled her fourth marriage to therapist Barry Herridge 16 days after their wedding.

Pirate Bay taken offline after Swedish police raid

Nancy Clayson
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Pirate Bay taken offline after Swedish police raid

The Pirate Bay website has been taken offline following a police raid in Sweden.

Swedish police seized servers in Stockholm after a complaint was filed by a group targeting internet crime.

It is the first time in several years the pirated content website has been taken offline rather than simply blocked by filters.

Unexpectedly, The Pirate Bay‘s co-founder Peter Sunde – who is no longer involved – called for its permanent closure.

Swedish police have confirmed the raid, which took place after the complaint from the Rights Alliance.

As well as servers being removed from the data centre for examination, several people were now being interviewed by police.

The police operation took place in an area in Nacka, south-east of Stockholm. The area’s mountainous terrain is used as a natural cooling system for computer servers.The Pirate Bay goes offline

According to Torrent Freak, a website that reports on news about piracy and copyright law, a number of smaller torrent websites, or sites related to the activity, had also gone down.

Various reports on December 10 suggested that the site had returned with a Costa Rican web address.

However, this site appeared to be a “mirror” – meaning copy – of the real site, and search functionality did not work.

The Pirate Bay has operated for over 10 years, and in that time has become a focus for the creative industry’s war on copyright infringement. It is one of the internet’s most-visited websites, and the movie, music and software industries blame it for losses running into billions of pounds.

Despite The Pirate Bay‘s operators being convicted of copyright violations, authorities have struggled to stop the site from operating.

The Swedish raid steps up the effort to stop people reaching The Pirate Bay by knocking the site itself offline, although for how long is unclear.

In 2012, The Pirate Bay announced it was to move its site to the cloud – internet-based storage, which can be shared across a variety of locations – so that raids would apparently be ineffective.

Ziad Abu Ein: Palestinian minister dies after confrontation with IDF at West Bank protest

Roy Siemens
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Ziad Abu Ein: Palestinian minister dies after confrontation with IDF at West Bank protest

Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein has died after a confrontation with Israeli troops at a protest in the West Bank.

Ziad Abu Ein had died from complications related to tear gas exposure in the incident near the village of Turmusaya, doctors said.

Several witnesses said the minister had been hit and shoved by soldiers. One said he had been hit in the chest by a tear-gas canister fired by them.

The Israeli military (IDF) said it was looking into the reports.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called for an “immediate and independent” investigation and said that reports of “excessive use of force” by Israel were “extremely worrying.”

A statement released by the IDF said its forces had “halted the progress of rioters into the civilian community of Adei-Ad using riot-dispersal means”.

“The IDF is reviewing the circumstances of the participation of Ziad Abu Ein, and his later death,” it added.

Following the incident dozens of Palestinians have gathered at the spot near Turmusaya setting fire to tires and throwing rocks at security forces, Voice of Israel radio station reported.Ziad Abu Ein death in West Bank protest

The radio also said that Israel has proposed to set up a joint team with the Palestinians to investigate the death with experts from Israel and Jordan to attend a post-mortem examination.

In recent weeks, 10 Israelis and an Ecuadorean have been killed by Palestinians in a series of attacks. Thirteen Palestinians have also been killed, among them several of the assailants.

Ziad Abu Ein, a minister without portfolio, was among dozens of foreign and Palestinian activists taking part in a protest against land confiscations.

They had planned to plant olive tree saplings on a patch of land near the Jewish settlement of Shiloh, which Palestinians believe has been earmarked for annexation by Israel.

In the course of the protest, they came into confrontation with a group of about 15 Israeli soldiers.

Leading Palestinian activist Mahmoud Aloul, who was also at the protest, told the Associated Press news agency that the soldiers had fired tear gas and had beaten some of the activists with rifle butts.

At one point, Ziad Abu Ein was hit by a tear gas canister, Mahmoud Aloul said.

The Reuters photographer said he had seen Ziad Abu Ein being struck by a hand on the neck during an altercation with two soldiers.

An AFP news agency photographer said the minister had been hit in the chest.

Photos of the incident showed Ziad Abu Ein lying unconscious before he was taken away in an ambulance. He died before reaching hospital in the nearby city of Ramallah.

There are reports that Ziad Abu Ein had a health condition that may have contributed to his death.

Condemning “the brutal assault” on Ziad Abu Ein as a “barbaric act”, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas promised to take unspecified measures and declared three days of mourning.

A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinian Authority would halt security co-ordination with Israel.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said that she was “outraged” by the minister’s death.

“It’s extremely sad that a colleague and an old friend has been killed in such a cruel way” she said.

“Ziad was guilty of nothing more than planting olive trees where Israel would uproot trees.”

Ziad Abu Ein once received the death sentence, commuted to life imprisonment, from a court in Israel for a 1979 bombing that killed two Israeli teenagers. He was released in 1985 as part of a prisoner exchange that saw the release of three Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon.

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CIA torture: Aleksander Kwasniewski admits Poland hosted CIA secret prison

Roy Siemens
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CIA torture: Aleksander Kwasniewski admits Poland hosted CIA secret prison

Former President Aleksander Kwasniewski has acknowledged Poland let the CIA run a secret prison on its territory following 9/11.

Aleksander Kwasniewski insisted he had not known about the harsh treatment used by the CIA interrogators.

The former president had previously denied that Poland hosted a secret CIA prison.

The US Senate report into the CIA’s activities did not name the countries that hosted the prisons.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that Poland had allowed the CIA to torture two al-Qaeda suspects at a secret detention centre in 2002 and 2003, when Aleksander Kwasniewski was president.Poland CIA secret prison

In an interview following the publication of the CIA torture report, Aleksander Kwasniewski said Poland had agreed to strengthen intelligence co-operation with the US following the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

He said the Americans were very secretive about the way they conducted their activities, which aroused suspicions among Polish officials.

“Poland took steps to end the activity at this site and the activity was stopped at some point,” Aleksander Kwasniewski told Radio TOK FM in Warsaw.

He said he had been unaware of the methods they used which, he added, were totally unacceptable and unjustifiable.

Prosecutors opened an investigation into the claims in 2008, three years after Aleksander Kwasniewski left office. The investigation continues and has yet to publish any findings.

The CIA has defended its actions in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US, saying they saved lives.

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Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi receive Nobel Peace Prize awards

James J. Williams
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Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi receive Nobel Peace Prize awards

Malala Yousafzai and Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi have received the Nobel Peace Prize awards.

The Nobel committee described both laureates as “champions of peace”.

The Pakistani education activist said she was there to stand up for the rights of forgotten and frightened children, and raise their voice rather than pity them.

Kailash Satyarthi said receiving the prize was “a great opportunity” to further his work against child slavery.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi received their awards from the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, in the presence of King Harald V of Norway.

They delivered their Nobel lectures during the award ceremony.

In her speech, Malala Yousafzai, 17, said the award was not just for her: “It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.

“I am here to stand up for their rights, raise their voice. It is not time to pity them. It is time to take action so it becomes the last time that we see a child deprived of education.”Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Nobel Peace Prize

Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in October 2012 for campaigning for girls’ education and now lives in the UK.

She is the youngest-ever recipient of a Nobel Prize.

She said she had brought other girls with her to Oslo with similar stories, among them two classmates shot alongside her by the Taliban.

Malala Yousafzai said she was dedicating the prize money to the Malala Fund, “to help give girls everywhere a quality education and call on leaders to help girls like me…”

“I will continue this fight until I see every child in school,” she added.

“I feel much stronger after the attack that I endured, because I know, no-one can stop me, or stop us, because now we are millions, standing up together.”

In his speech earlier, Kailash Satyarthi, 60, said he was “representing the sound of silence” and the “millions of those children who are left behind”.

He said he had kept an empty chair at the ceremony as a reminder of the children without a voice.

“There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children,” he said.

“I refuse to accept that the shackles of slavery can ever be stronger than the quest for freedom,” he added, to applause.

Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland stressed the importance of education, saying: “The road to democracy and freedom is paved with knowledge.”

Thorbjorn Jagland praised Kailash Satyarthi’s work campaigning against child labor, often at great risk to himself.

He also lauded Malala Yousafzai’s efforts to promote education despite threats from the Taliban, saying: “Her courage is almost indescribable.”

Indian and Pakistani leaders congratulated the laureates.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi were jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi have split the $1.4 million prize money.

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CIA torture report: UN and human rights groups call for prosecution of US officials

Roy Siemens
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CIA torture report: UN and human rights groups call for prosecution of US officials

Human rights groups and the United Nations have called for the prosecution of US officials involved in what a Senate report called the “brutal” CIA interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects.

A top UN human rights envoy said there had been a “clear policy orchestrated at a high level”.

The CIA has defended its actions in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US, saying they saved lives.

President Barack Obama said it was now time to move on.

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson said that senior officials from the administration of George W. Bush who planned and sanctioned crimes must be prosecuted, as well as CIA and US government officials responsible for torture such as waterboarding.

“As a matter of international law, the US is legally obliged to bring those responsible to justice,” Ben Emmerson said in a statement made from Geneva.

“The US attorney general is under a legal duty to bring criminal charges against those responsible.”CIA torture report

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said that the CIA’s actions were criminal “and can never be justified”.

“Unless this important truth-telling process leads to prosecution of officials, torture will remain a <<policy option>> for future presidents,” he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the attorney general should appoint a special prosecutor to conduct “an independent and complete investigation of Bush administration officials who created, approved, carried out and covered up the torture program”.

“The crime of torture has no statute of limitations when torture risks or results in serious injury or death, and the US government has the obligation under international law to investigate any credible evidence that torture has been committed,” an ACLU statement said.

“If there’s sufficient evidence of criminal conduct… The offenders should be prosecuted. In our system, no one should be above the law, yet only a handful of mainly low-level personnel have been criminally prosecuted for abuse. That is a scandal.”

CIA torture report key findings:

None of 20 cases of counterterrorism “successes” attributed to the techniques led to unique or otherwise unavailable intelligence

The CIA misled politicians and public

At least 26 of 119 known detainees in custody during the life of the program were wrongfully held, and many held for months longer than they should have been

Methods included sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, often standing or in painful positions

Saudi al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was kept confined in a coffin-sized box for hours on end

Waterboarding and “rectal hydration” were physically harmful to prisoners, causing convulsions and vomiting

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Oscar Pistorius prosecutors granted appeal

Clyde K. Valle
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Oscar Pistorius prosecutors granted appeal

South African Judge Thokozile Masipa has ruled that prosecutors can appeal against the “culpable homicide” conviction of double amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius.

Oscar Pistorius, 27, was jailed for five years in October for shooting dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home on Valentine’s Day 2013.

Judge Thokozile Masipa said prosecutors could not challenge the length of the sentence given to Oscar Pistorius.

Oscar Pistorius’s lawyers had opposed the appeal request.

Prosecutors are seeking a murder conviction and the case will now go before South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal.

They have argued that Judge Thokozile Masipa misinterpreted the law when she ruled that Oscar Pistorius did not intentionally shoot Reeva Steenkamp.Oscar Pistorius prosecutors granted appeal

Judge Thokozile Masipa Masipa announced the ruling in a Pretoria court on December 10.

“I cannot say… that the prospect of success at the Supreme Court of Appeal is remote,” she said.

“The application therefore in respect of count one is decided in favor of the applicant.

“The application for leave to appeal against the sentence is dismissed.”

Oscar Pistorius had been charged by the prosecution with the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate.

He was also acquitted of the lesser murder charge of dolus eventualis – also known as common-law murder – by Judge Thokozile Masipa, who ruled that he did not intend to kill.

The prosecution had called for the maximum 15-year sentence for culpable homicide, or manslaughter.

Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead at Oscar Pistorius’ home in Pretoria in the early hours of Valentine’s Day last year. He said he feared there was an intruder.

Oscar Pistorius is serving the sentence in the hospital wing of Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru II prison.

Correspondents say the appeal is likely to take place in 2015.

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James Watson to get back auctioned Nobel Prize medal from Alisher Usmanov

James J. Williams
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James Watson to get back auctioned Nobel Prize medal from Alisher Usmanov

Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov has revealed that he bought James Watson’s Nobel Prize gold medal, and intends to return it to him.

Steel and telecoms tycoon Alisher Usmanov said James Watson “deserved” the medal, and that he was “distressed” the scientist had felt forced to sell it.

The medal, awarded in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA, sold for $4.8 million at auction.

The medal was the first Nobel Prize to be put on sale by a living recipient.

The 1962 prize was awarded to James Watson, along with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, with each receiving a gold medal.James Watson's Nobel Prize gold medal

James Watson, 86, has said he planned to donate part of the proceeds to charities and to support scientific research.

In an interview with the Financial Times recently, James Watson said he had been made to feel like an “unperson” since a Sunday Times interview seven years ago in which he linked race to intelligence.

Alisher Usmanov said in a statement that he was the anonymous telephone bidder who bought the medal at a Christie’s auction last week.

“In my opinion, a situation in which an outstanding scientist has to sell a medal recognizing his achievements is unacceptable,” he added.

“James Watson is one of the greatest biologists in the history of mankind and his award for the discovery of DNA structure must belong to him.”

Alisher Usmanov, said by Forbes magazine to be worth $15.8 billion, is a major shareholder in Arsenal football club and was named Britain’s wealthiest man in the Sunday Times rich list for 2013.

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LeBron James breaks royal protocol with Kate Middleton

Lisa.Felice
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LeBron James breaks royal protocol with Kate Middleton

Prince William and Kate Middleton met LeBron James in New York on December 8 after watching a basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Barclays Center indoor arena.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also presented with NBA shirts, including a small one for their young son, Prince George.James LeBron breaks royal protocol with Kate Middleton

While posing for photographs, LeBron James appeared to surprise Kate Middleton by breaking royal protocol and placing his arm around her.

The breach of protocol echoed the time when Michelle Obama caused a stir by putting her arm around Queen Elizabeth II in 2009.

Prince William and Kate Middleton are on their first official trip to the US since 2011.

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Mutant Giant Spider Dog is biggest trending video on YouTube in 2014

Nancy Clayson
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Mutant Giant Spider Dog is biggest trending video on YouTube in 2014

Mutant Giant Spider Dog, a short film featuring a dog in a tarantula costume, was the biggest “trending” video on YouTube in 2014, Google has announced.

With over 113 million views since it was posted in September, Mutant Giant Spider Dog was the most shared and discussed online, according to YouTube.

The short horror film was made in Poland.

Katy Perry’s Dark Horse music video was the most popular with 715 million views.Mutant Giant Spider Dog

Facebook recorded over 3 billion interactions about the Brazil World Cup this year.

Brazil World Cup 2014 was “the most talked about event” on Facebook since the comapny began measuring event-based chat, with over 350 million people posting about the game.

However Brazil’s presidential election attracted even more chat on the social media platform, with 674 million interactions recorded by 48 million people.

The most played games on the Facebook platform were Bubble Witch 2 Saga and Candy Crush Soda Saga.

Google has released lists of the most watched material on YouTube in a blog post.

Swedish games commentator Felix Kjellberg, aka Pewdiepie, gained the most subscribers for his YouTube channel for the second year running, with over 32 million subscribers.

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Hour of Code 2014: Barack Obama writes computer code with school group

Nancy Clayson
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Hour of Code 2014: Barack Obama writes computer code with school group

President Barack Obama has written a line of computer code to help animate a character from Frozen animated movie.

Barack Obama joined a group of pupils taking part in the “Hour of Code” project, a 60-minute introduction to computer science set up by the group code.org.

A drive to widen access to introductory computer science lessons in schools across the US was announced on December 8.Barack Obama Hour od Code 2014

“While no-one is born a computer scientist, becoming a computer scientist isn’t as scary as it sounds,” Barack Obama said in a YouTube video.

“With hard work and a little math and science, anyone can do it.”

More than 48 million people signed up to get involved with Computer Science Education Week, currently running in the US, the president added.

“Don’t just consume things, create things,” Barack Obama said.

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Shadows in the Night: Bob Dylan’s 36th studio album to be released in 2015

Sonia Pantiss
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Shadows in the Night: Bob Dylan’s 36th studio album to be released in 2015

Bob Dylan will release tracks originally recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra on his new album Shadows in the Night, the artist has announced.

His 36th studio album, out on February 3, 2015, will feature 10 “uncovers”.

I’m A Fool To Want You, The Night We Called It A Day and Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do, all recorded by Frank Sinatra, are among the songs being reworked by Bob Dylan and his band.

Other highlights on the album produced by Jack Frost include Nat King Cole’s Autumn Leaves and Some Enchanted Evening from Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific.Bob Dylan Shadows in the Night

Bob Dylan – who has sold more than 125 million records around the world and won multiple Grammys – called it “a real privilege” to make the album.

Columbia Records chairman Rob Stringer said Bob Dylan had infused “new life and contemporary relevance into the songs”.

The album is the first new music from Bob Dylan since 2012’s critically acclaimed Tempest.

His last five albums, including 2006’s Modern Times, have achieved new levels of commercial success for his work.

Together Through Life became Bob Dylan’s first album to debut at number one in both the US and the UK in 2009.

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CIA torture report details brutal interrogation program

Roy Siemens
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CIA torture report details brutal interrogation program

According to a US Senate report, the CIA carried out “brutal” interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks.

The summary of the report, compiled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the CIA misled Americans about what it was doing.

The information the CIA collected this way failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said.

In a statement, the CIA insisted that the interrogations did help save lives.

“The intelligence gained from the program was critical to our understanding of al-Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day,” Director John Brennan said in a statement.

However, the CIA said it acknowledged that there were mistakes in the program, especially early on when it was unprepared for the scale of the operation to detain and interrogate prisoners.

Photo AFP/Getty Images
Photo AFP/Getty Images

The program – known internally as the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program – took place from 2002 to 2007, during the presidency of George W. Bush.

Suspects were interrogated using methods such as waterboarding, slapping, humiliation, exposure to cold and sleep deprivation.

Introducing the report to the Senate, Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein described the CIA’s actions as a stain on US history.

“The release of this 500-page summary cannot remove that stain, but it can and does say to our people and the world that America is big enough to admit when it’s wrong and confident enough to learn from its mistakes,” Dianne Feinstein said.

“Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured,” she added.

Earlier, President Barack Obama responded to the report, saying the methods used were inconsistent with US values.

“These techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners,” he said in a statement.

Reacting to the release of the report summary, the Senate Republican leaders insisted that the methods used helped in the capture of important suspects and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

“Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong,” Senators Mitch McConnell and Saxby Chambliss said in a joint statement.

The Senate committee’s report runs to more than 6,000 pages, drawing on huge quantities of evidence, but it remains classified and only a 480-page summary has been released.

Barack Obama halted the CIA interrogation program when he took office in 2009.

Earlier this year, the president said that in his view the methods used to question al-Qaeda prisoners amounted to torture.

Publication of the report had been delayed amid disagreements in Washington over what should be made public.

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Oscar Pistorius verdict appeal delayed

Clyde K. Valle
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Oscar Pistorius verdict appeal delayed

Judge Thokozile Masipa has delayed to December 10 her ruling on whether prosecutors can appeal against what they call the “shockingly light” sentence passed on South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius.

Oscar Pistorius, 27, was jailed for five years in October for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, whom he killed on Valentine’s Day 2013.

Prosecutors also want to challenge Oscar Pistorius’ acquittal on murder charges.

His lawyers opposed the appeal request and said the sentence was not lenient.

The double-amputee sprinter had been charged by the prosecution with the premeditated murder of Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate.

Oscar Pistorius was also acquitted of the lesser murder charge of dolus eventualis by High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa.

In South African law, this charge – also known as common-law murder – applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action.

Judge Thokozile Masipa said she would rule on December 10 whether the prosecution’s appeal could go ahead.

Oscar Pistorius was not in court on December 9 when prosecutor Gerrie Nel outlined his case.

The prosecutor told Judge Masipa she had misinterpreted the law when she acquitted Oscar Pistorius of murder, and sentenced him to five years in prison.Oscar Pistorius verdict appeal

“The precedent set by this court is shockingly low,” Gerrie Nel said.

However, Oscar Pistorius’ legal team argued that the prosecution’s case was flawed and the judge had correctly applied the law.

“It’s incorrect to say it’s a light sentence. It’s not,” defense lawyer Barry Roux said.

Addressing the judge, he added: “Their problem is they don’t like your factual finding. They don’t appreciate that. You absolutely, correctly applied the law.”

Correspondents say it is common in South Africa for the same judge to hear an appeal against their own verdicts.

Judges often grant the request because they are confident they applied the law correctly and their judgement will stand up to scrutiny.

South African criminal lawyer Martin Hood told AFP news agency that he expected Judge Thokozile Masipa to agree to the prosecution’s request because there was “just too much controversy about the judgement”.

In papers filed with the court in November, Gerrie Nel said the judge had “erred in over-emphasizing the personal circumstances of the accused”.

The judge, Gerrie Nel said, had failed to sufficiently consider that Oscar Pistorius had fired four shots “through a locked door into a small toilet cubicle from which there was no room to escape”.

The prosecution had called for the maximum 15-year sentence for culpable homicide, or manslaughter.

Oscar Pistorius is serving the sentence in the hospital wing of Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru II prison. He can apply to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest after 10 months.

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