Texas school children have come into contact with the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola on US soil, Governor Rick Perry has said.
At a news conference at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Gov. Rick Perry said the children were being monitored “at home” for symptoms.
The patient is thought to have contracted the virus in Liberia before coming to the US nearly two weeks ago.
He is in a serious condition, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.
“Today we learned that some school-age children had been identified as having had contact with the patient and are now being monitored at home for any signs of the disease,” Rick Perry said.
“Parents are extremely concerned about that development. These children have been identified and they are being monitored.”
Rick Perry emphasized the disease could not be transmitted before a patient showed signs of the disease, and he said Texas had the medical infrastructure to prevent an outbreak.
“The public should have every confidence that the highly trained professional will succeed in this very important mission,” he said.
Texas school children have come into contact with the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola on US soil
Meanwhile, in Liberia a government spokesman said the country had put in place “stringent screening” at the airport, where the man showed no symptoms or fever as he departed the country.
“What this incident demonstrates is the clear international dimension of this Ebola crisis,” Lewis Brown, Liberia’s information minister, said in a statement.
“For months, the Liberian government has been stressing that this disease is not simply a Liberian or West African problem.”
More than 3,000 people have already died of Ebola in West Africa and small number of US aid workers have recovered after being flown to the US.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the Ebola virus seems to have been contained in Senegal and Nigeria, with no new cases reported there for almost a month.
CDC Director Thomas Frieden confirmed the Ebola case on September 30, saying the unnamed patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the US the next day to visit relatives, without displaying any symptoms of the virus.
Symptoms became apparent in the patient on September 24, and on September 28 he was admitted to a Texas hospital and put in isolation.
The unnamed patient was described as critically ill on September 30, suggesting the hospital has upgraded his condition.
Health officials are working to identify all people who came into contact with the unnamed patient while he was infectious, including relatives and a “couple” community members.
Those people will then be monitored for 21 days to see if an Ebola-related fever develops.
However, they will not be monitoring passengers on the man’s flight, where Dr. Thomas Frieden said there was “zero risk of transmission” as the man had been checked for fever before boarding.
According to Thomas Frieden, it is possible a family member who came in direct contact with the patient may develop Ebola in the coming weeks.
On October 1, Zachary Thompson, the director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, told local broadcaster WFAA “there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient”.
In an interview with CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, suggested the hospital which initially saw the patient should have asked about international travel.
“If the ER physician had asked for a travel history, [and said], <<Do you have any recent travel outside of the country?>> And if the person said, <<Well, I just came back from Liberia>>, that would have been an enormous red flag for anybody, given the publicity that we have,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told the broadcaster.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered airlines to replace or modify the cockpit display units fitted to hundreds of Boeing jets.
The US air safety regulator said that tests had indicated that mobile phone and computer signals could cause the screens to go blank.
The affected planes are typically fitted with several screens, each of which costs thousands of pounds.
Honeywell – the displays’ manufacturer – has stressed that the problem has not been experienced in-flight.
“The only known occurrence was during a developmental test conducted on the ground,” said spokesman Steve Brecken.
“We worked with Boeing and addressed any concerns in 2012 with new display hardware.”
Boeing had previously issued an alert in November 2012 after an aero plane operator and Wi-Fi vendor noticed interference caused by the installation of an in-flight internet system.
The “phase 3” display units were found to be susceptible to the same radio frequencies used to transmit data via Wi-Fi.
The FAA has ordered airlines to replace or modify the cockpit display units fitted to hundreds of Boeing jets
In addition, the FAA said it was concerned that the screens could be disrupted by mobile satellite communications, cellular signals from phones, and air surveillance and weather radar.
The watchdog noted that the displays were required to provide pilots with information about airspeed, altitude, heading and pitch and roll, and added that the fault could cause a crash.
“We are issuing this AD [airworthiness directive] to prevent loss of flight-critical information displayed to the flight crew during a critical phase of flight, such as an approach or take-off, which could result in loss of airplane control at an altitude insufficient for recovery, or controlled flight into terrain,” it said.
Planemaker Boeing said that it had recommended that carriers implement the changes back in 2012.
However, the FAA said that it had estimated that a total of 1,326 Boeing 737 and 777 jets still needed to make the change.
It estimated that the replacement program would cost about $13.8m (£8.5m) to implement.
The agency noted that Virgin Australia, Air France, Ryanair and Honeywell were among those that had opposed the new rules on the grounds that they did not believe either current in-flight Wi-Fi systems or passengers’ electronic devices emitted signals at a strong enough level to affect equipment on the flight deck.
The FAA said Ryanair had complained that the demands imposed “a high, and unnecessary, financial burden on operators”.
Honeywell had suggested that airlines should be forced to install new screens only if Wi-Fi enabled tablets or other such equipment were used in the cockpit.
However, the FAA rejected these complaints saying it wanted to “eliminate” any risk of interference.
“We do not agree that no problems have occurred on in-service airplanes, since the Wi-Fi… testing that disclosed this susceptibility was conducted on an in-service airplane fitted with phase 3 display units,” it added.
The FAA has given the companies involved five years to swap or modify the components.
Malcolm Young, who recently left AC/DC due to ill-health, is reportedly suffering from dementia.
61-year-old Malcolm Young, AC/DC guitarist and founder member, has been replaced in the band by his nephew, Stevie Young.
A family statement to People magazine said: “Malcolm is suffering from dementia and the family thanks you for respecting their privacy.”
AC/DC announced Malcolm Young’s departure last month but said they would go on without him and that their new album Rock Or Bust.
Rock or Bust will be released in December.
Malcolm Young formed AC/DC in 1973 with his younger brother Angus (photo PA)
Malcolm Young, who emigrated from Scotland to Australia at the age of 10 with his family, formed AC/DC in 1973 with his younger brother Angus, who has famously dressed as a schoolboy onstage for many years.
The band has previously survived the death of their singer when Bon Scott died in 1980 after a night of heavy drinking in London. He was replaced by Brian Johnson, who has remained as vocalist ever since.
They have been a huge draw on the rock circuit for decades, creating anthems such as Highway To Hell and Back In Black, although they have tended to have album rather than single success.
AC/DC’s songs were used as the soundtrack for the movie Iron Man2.
Their most recent release, 2008 chart-topper Black Ice, was only their third since 1990.
Generations fans have been cut off from South Africa’s most popular show following the August sacking of its cast for demanding better pay.
The last available episode of Generations was broadcast on September 30.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said it would be at least two months before a “revamped” version of the show returns – with a completely new group of 16 actors.
Generations is South Africa’s longest-running soap, having launched in 1994.
Watched daily by some seven million viewers, it follows predominantly black middle-class characters working in Johannesburg’s advertising industry.
The cast first went on strike in August after a long-running dispute over pay and contracts.
They claimed they were underpaid and received no repeat fees for their work, which is also screened in other African countries.
Generations is South Africa’s longest-running soap
The actors were asked to continue filming while negotiations were taking place, but were sacked after they did not return to work. The SABC has now run out of new editions to broadcast.
“We don’t have enough episodes of Generations, so we will only go until today,” SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
“We are hoping that Generations will have episodes ready for the first week of December.”
At the time of the cast’s sacking, executive producer Mfundi Vundla told a South African radio station that the actors were not irreplaceable and the soap would continue without them.
“There were other actors before, there will be other actors in the future,” he told Talk Radio 702.
“Generations will go on, it doesn’t mean the demise of the series.”
The cast have since approached the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in an effort to get their jobs back.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has urged other actors not to be persuaded to join the soap as replacements.
“Don’t be used by the arrogant producing companies in order to maintain and continue the exploitation of your fellow actors,” said secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi.
Classic Tom and Jerry cartoons on TV will be accompanied by a warning that they may depict scenes of “racial prejudice”.
The cartoons, some made more than 70 years ago, carry a warning for subscribers to Amazon Prime Instant Video.
There have been claims of racist stereotyping in the depiction of a black maid in the cartoon series.
Amazon’s warning says such prejudice was once “commonplace” in US society.
Tom and Jerry is being presented with a cautionary note about “ethnic and racial prejudices”.
Amazon’s streaming subscription service, formerly branded as LoveFilm, includes the cartoons in its comedy collection.
Tom and Jerry: The Complete Second Volume is accompanied by the caution: “Tom and Jerry shorts may depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.”
The wording is similar to disclaimers accompanying some collections of the cartoons on DVD.
Tom and Jerry cartoons on TV will be accompanied by a warning that they may depict scenes of racial prejudice
The warning was attacked as “empty-headed” by cultural commentator and professor of sociology, Frank Furedi, who said it was a form of a “false piousness” and a type of censorship which “seems to be sweeping cultural life”.
“We’re reading history backwards, judging people in the past by our values,” said Prof. Frank Furedi from the University of Kent.
Tom and Jerry was first produced by the MGM film studio in 1940. The cartoons, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby, ran until 1957, with carefully choreographed chase scenes set in the homes and gardens of suburban America.
There were more than a hundred short films made in this original series, winning seven academy awards. These included the Cat Concerto in 1946, the Two Mouseketeers in 1951 and Johann Mouse in 1952.
In the subsequent decades there have been numerous re-launched television versions of the series, with varying styles and varying degrees of critical approval.
The claims of racism are longstanding. When the original versions were shown on US television in the 1960s some scenes were edited.
There have also been complaints about the characters smoking cigarettes, with changes made to recent screenings.
The idea of running warnings ahead of potentially upsetting moments in films or books has become a controversial topic in US universities.
There have been calls for the use of “trigger warnings” which could flag up to students that they are about to come across descriptions of physical brutality, aggressive language or s**ual violence.
The suggestion that these should be inserted into lessons about classic texts has angered some academics.
Prof. Frank Furedi said calls for such trigger warnings were a form of “narcissism”, with the concerns not really being about the content of a book or work of art but about individual students asserting their own importance.
Hong Kong protesters are preparing for huge pro-democracy rallies on the National Day as leader CY Leung has urged them to back electoral reforms set out by Beijing.
Speaking early on the National Day holiday, CY Leung said Hong Kong should work with Beijing to achieve progress.
The protesters want Beijing to withdraw plans to vet candidates for the next Hong Kong leadership election in 2017.
Activists say they expect the biggest demonstrations yet on the streets to coincide with the holiday.
By midday, protesters were starting to fill up the main protests site in the Central business district, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. A fourth protest site has also spread to Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, several roads south of Mong Kok.
CY Leung, Hong Kong’s chief executive, has rejected campaigners’ calls for him to stand down. Chinese President Xi Jinping has reaffirmed Beijing’s control over the territory.
A rumbling protest campaign ballooned into mass street demonstrations at the weekend.
Police responded initially with tear gas and pepper spray, but riot police later withdrew and since early on Monday the situation has remained calm.
The protesters want Beijing to withdraw plans to vet candidates for the next Hong Kong leadership election in 2017 (photo Reuters)
Crowds swelled again on Tuesday night and the demonstrators – who include student groups, supporters of the Occupy Central movement and others angered by the police response – say they are confident of greater numbers on Wednesday, October 1.
So far there are no signs of concessions from Beijing.
On September 30, President Xi Jinping told Communist Party leaders that his government would “steadfastly safeguard the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macau”.
The protests are seen as a direct challenge to Beijing’s grip on the territory’s politics. Analysts say leaders are worried that calls for democracy could spread to mainland cities.
News of the protests is being heavily censored in mainland China. Media have blamed “radical opposition forces” for stirring up trouble.
Meanwhile the US restated its position on the protests, saying that a genuine choice of candidates in the election would enhance the legitimacy of the chief executive.
On September 30, state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Secretary of State John Kerry would discuss the protests with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi when the pair meet on October 1.
On 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) designated October 1st as the International Day of Older Persons.
This was preceded by initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing – which was adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing – and endorsed later that year by the UN General Assembly.
The International Day of Older Persons is celebrated each year on October 1st
In 1991, the UNGA adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons.
In 2002, the Second World Assembly on Ageing adopted the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, to respond to the opportunities and challenges of population ageing in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages.
The theme of the 2014 commemoration is Leaving No One Behind: Promoting a Society for All.
The population over 60 is expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030.
According to an index of the quality of later life in 96 countries, Norway is the best place to grow old.
HelpAge International’s Global AgeWatch Index measures the social and economic welfare of those over 60.
Published on the UN International Day of Older Persons, it ranks Australia, Western Europe and North America highly, and Afghanistan last.
The report predicts that by 2050, 21% of the global population will be over 60.
The index measures four areas – income security, health, personal capability and whether the person lives in an “enabling environment”.
After Norway comes Sweden, closely followed by Switzerland, Canada and Germany.
HelpAge International’s Global AgeWatch Index measures the social and economic welfare of those over 60
The report says that by 2050 some 40 countries in the index will have populations where 30% are aged 60 or over.
The UN has said that the number of those aged 60 or over is expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030.
Several Latin American countries – particularly Mexico and Peru – have leapt up the index for their commitment in ensuring “social pensions” for the poorest older people.
These are tax-financed, non-contributory pensions that ensure a basic income for the most vulnerable.
In Mexico, nearly nine out of every 10 people aged 65 and over receive a social pension.
Because of this, Mexico ranks at 30 on the index, outstripping the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Peru has implemented the Pension 65 program, which provides older people with 250 nuevo soles ($85) every two months.
Daniel Crespo, the mayor of California suburb Bell Gardens, has been fatally shot at home and his wife taken into custody.
Mayor Daniel Crespo, 45, got into an argument with his wife, Levette Crespo, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Crystal Hernandez said.
Levette Crespo is thought to have shot her husband after the couple’s 19-year-old son tried to intervene, said the officer.
Daniel Crespo was mayor of Bell Gardens, a suburb of Los Angeles, and a city council member for more than a decade (photo City of Bell Gardens)
Daniel Crespo was mayor of Bell Gardens, a suburb of Los Angeles, and a city council member for more than a decade.
The couple – high school sweethearts – married in 1986 and Daniel Crespo worked as a Los Angeles County probation officer in addition to his duties as mayor.
He was reportedly shot several times and later died en route to the hospital.
Daniel Crespo was elected to the City Council in 2001. The mayor’s post is rotated among council members.
President Barack Obama rode in an elevator this month with an armed security contractor who had assault convictions, in what appears to be another security lapse.
It happened on September 16 when Barack Obama visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
The incident came to light on September 30, hours after Julia Pierson, the boss of the Secret Service, was grilled by Congress about a security breach at the White House.
An armed contractor with violent criminal record got in the elevator with President Barack Obama during his visit at the CDC in Atlanta (photo Reuters)
A Secret Service official confirmed the incident but declined to comment.
The gun was found when the man was questioned after taking a video in the elevator and was immediately fired by his employers, according to newspaper reports.
The Washington Post said the man had three convictions for assault and battery.
“This person was within arm’s length of the president with a gun,” said Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was told of the incident by a whistleblower.
It will come as another embarrassment on the day when Secret Service Director Julia Pierson took responsibility before a hostile House oversight committee hearing for an “unacceptable” security breach at the presidential residence.
The first Ebola case diagnosed on US soil has been confirmed in Dallas, Texas.
According to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital officials, the unidentified patient is being kept in isolation.
The man is thought to have contracted the virus in Liberia before travelling to the US nearly two weeks ago.
More than 3,000 people have already died of Ebola in West Africa and a small number of US aid workers have recovered after being flown to the US.
“An individual travelling from Liberia has been diagnosed with Ebola in the United States,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden told reporters on September 30.
Thomas Frieden said the unnamed patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States the next day to visit relatives, without displaying any symptoms of the virus.
Symptoms of the virus became apparent on September 24, and on September 28 he was admitted to a Texas hospital and put in isolation.
The first Ebola case diagnosed on US soil has been confirmed at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital
The disease, which is not contagious until symptoms appear, is spread via close contact with bodily fluids.
Aid workers who caught Ebola in West Africa have come back to the US for treatment but this is the first case of a patient developing the virus on US soil.
A hospital official told reporters on September 30 the facility already had procedures in place to deal with any such potential cases.
Preliminary information indicates that the unnamed patient, who was described as critically ill, was not involved in treating Ebola-infected patients while in Liberia.
Health officials are working to identify all people who came into contact with the unnamed patient while he was infectious.
Those people will then be monitored for 21 days to see if an Ebola-related fever develops.
According to Thomas Frieden, it is possible a family member who came in direct contact with the patient may develop Ebola in the coming weeks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says more than 3,000 people have died of the virus so far, mostly in Liberia.
Earlier on Tuesday, the CDC said the Ebola virus seemed to be contained in Nigeria and Senegal, with no new cases reported there for almost a month.
It is the world’s most deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus.
Paintings belonging to Imelda Marcos have been seized by Philippine authorities who claim they were acquired with stolen state funds.
A small number of works were taken away from properties owned by the 85-year-old former first lady on the order of the courts.
Pieces by Picasso, Gauguin and other masters are thought to be in the possession of the family of the Philippines’ former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.
Imelda Marcos lived a lavish lifestyle during her husband’s 21-year rule.
She is best known for amassing a huge collection of designer shoes during the family’s tenure in power, but has never been imprisoned despite being charged with a number of crimes.
State authorities claim that a selection of paintings were illicitly obtained using public funds during the Marcos era, which lasted from 1965 to his overthrow in 1986. Ferdinand Marcos died in exile three years later.
Paintings belonging to Imelda Marcos have been seized by Philippine authorities who claim they were acquired with stolen state funds
The family and associates are estimated to have amassed more than $10 billion in property, jewellery, cash and other assets during their time in power.
Imelda Marcos, who was elected to the Philippine congress in 2010, has consistently denied embezzlement.
Pablo Picasso’s Reclining Woman VI, Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child, and a still life by Paul Gauguin are among those the Philippine courts are keen to seize.
State spokesman Nick Suarez confirmed that a number of pieces of art had been removed from Imelda Marcos properties, but they “have yet to determine which ones or how many”.
The other works on the court’s list are Francisco de Goya’s portrait of the Marquesa de Santa Cruz, Pierre Bonnard’s La Baignade Au Grand Temps, Vase of Red Chrysanthemums by Bernard Buffet, Joan Miro’s L’Aube, and one of Camille Pissarro’s Jardin de Kew series.
Imelda Marcos is said to be a keen art collector, and her lawyer said that the court order and seizure were “highly questionable” and there would be an appeal.
Robert Sison said that the paintings were not included in a forfeiture case which the Philippine government brought against the Marcos family more than a decade ago.
There are thought to be a total of 150 artworks in Imelda Marcos’ possession, which the authorities are keen to track down.
According to US researchers, young children who are given repeated courses of antibiotics are at greater risk than those who use fewer drugs of becoming obese.
The JAMA Pediatrics report found children who had had four or more courses by the age of two were at a 10% higher risk of being obese.
However, scientists warn this does not show antibiotics cause obesity directly and recommend children continue using them.
Many more studies are needed to explain the reasons behind the link, they say.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Bloomberg School of Public Health reviewed the health records of more than 64,500 American children between 2001 and 2013.
The children were followed up until they reached five years of age.
Young children who are given repeated courses of antibiotics are at greater risk than those who use fewer drugs of becoming obese
Almost 70% of them had been prescribed two courses of antibiotics by the time they were 24 months old.
But those who had four or more courses in this time were at a 10% higher risk of being obese at the age of five than children who had been given fewer drugs.
And the type of antibiotics they were prescribed appeared to make a difference too – those given drugs targeted at a particular bug were less likely to put on weight.
But those given a broad-spectrum antibiotic – that can kill several types of bacteria indiscriminately – were more likely to have a higher body mass.
Prof. Charles Bailey at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “We think after antibiotics some of the normal bacteria in our gut that are more efficient at nudging our weight in the right direction may be killed off and bacteria that nudge the metabolism in the wrong direction may be more active.”
And researchers say the study highlights that over prescribing inappropriate antibiotics could have a negative impact on child growth.
Meanwhile in a separate study, scientists reporting in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology found that a species of gut bacteria – called Clostridium ramosum – could promote weight gain in mice.
Mice with these bacteria present in their guts became obese when fed a high-fat diet, while those that did not have the bacteria put on less weight despite being given high-calorie meals.
The scientists, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, in Nuthetal, are now trying to understand how the bacteria interact with digestion.
Michael Phelps has been arrested for DUI, Maryland authorities have said.
Police in Baltimore said the Olympic swimmer was stopped for speeding after being caught going 84mph in a 45mph zone early on Tuesday morning.
Michael Phelps, 28, was co-operative but failed a series of standard field sobriety tests, traffic police said in a statement. He was charged and released.
The swimmer is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals.
Michael Phelps was arrested and charged with DUI, excessive speed and crossing double lines
Michael Phelps retired after winning his 22nd Olympic medal at the London Games in 2012 but came out of retirement earlier this year.
The Maryland Transportation Authority said Michael Phelps was driving a white 4×4 in Fort McHenry tunnel in Baltimore when the vehicle was caught on police radar at 01:40 local time.
Police said he was “arrested and charged with DUI, excessive speed and crossing double lines”.
The statement said Michael Phelps was co-operative throughout the process and was released after being charged.
Michael Phelps, who is from Baltimore County, was previously charged for driving under the influence in Maryland in 2004. He pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in exchange for 18 months’ probation.
Neither Michael Phelps nor his representatives have commented on Tuesday’s arrest.
Microsoft has unveiled the first details of its next operating system (OS) – Windows 10.
The new OS’ name is a surprise, bearing in mind it represents a jump from the last version – Windows 8.
The software will run on a wide range of devices, from phones and tablets to PCs and Xbox games consoles, with applications sold from a single store.
Windows 10 also marks the return of the Start Menu, which had been removed from Windows 8.
In addition to offering a list of the user’s favorite applications, the menu also brings up resizable tiles – similar to those featured in Windows 8’s touch-centric interface on PCs and tablets.
These provide a quick view of notifications from relevant applications, such as details of new emails, Facebook messages and weather forecast updates.
Microsoft said the facility was intended to make the software seem familiar to both users of Windows 8 and Windows 7.
The behavior of the OS will depend on the type of device with which it is being used. Unlike its predecessor, users will not need to switch between Desktop Mode and the touch-focused alternative.
Windows 10 will run on a wide range of devices, from phones and tablets to PCs and Xbox games consoles, with applications sold from a single store (photo Microsoft)
However, they can still spread a number of “live tiles” across the screens of two-in-one laptop-tablet hybrids to make them easier to use with both a mouse and finger presses.
Windows 8 had been criticized for being too different to the previous version, which deterred some organizations from introducing it.
It initially lacked a Start button altogether, and when one was introduced it only switched to the touch-centric tiled interface or – if a long mouse press was used – provided access to the system’s control panel and other functions.
Businesses typically wait about a year after a new operating system’s release before offering it to workers to give IT staff a chance to get to grips with the new technologies involved.
It has been nearly two years since Windows 8 first went on sale and adoption is still low.
Across desktop PCs as a whole, only 13.4% currently run Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, according to research firm NetMarketshare.
By contrast, it says 51.2% are powered by Windows 7 and 23.9% by Windows XP, a version that is no longer supported by Microsoft.
Microsoft will offer a “technical preview” of Windows 10 to early adopters later this week, which will run on laptops and desktops.
The company said it would provide details about the introduction of “universal apps” – individual programs that tailor their functionality to different types of devices – at its Build conference in April, and would aim to release the completed OS before the end of 2015.
There was no mention of offering Microsoft’s voice-controlled digital assistant Cortana to PCs, or when Windows 10 would supersede the Windows Phone OS.
Microsoft’s smartphone code is designed for ARM-based processors, unlike the main Windows 8 and Xbox operating systems that are built for x86 chips – including those made by Intel and AMD.
While Microsoft confirmed that Windows 10 would be released for both types of chip architecture, it did not disclose whether there would be a staggered release.
Kansas City Chiefs’ Husain Abdullah has been penalized after celebrating a touchdown by dropping to his knees in prayer.
The American Muslim NFL player scored for the Kansas City Chiefs as they defeated the New England Patriots 41-14.
Officials penalized Husain Abdullah for breaking “excessive celebration” rules by sliding on his knees and pressing his forehead to the ground after scoring.
It is unclear if the 15-yard penalty was for sliding or praying but an NFL director said the decision was wrong.
NFL rules state that “players are prohibited from engaging in any celebrations or demonstrations while on the ground”, but there is an exception for going to ground for prayer.
Michael Signora, NFL’s vice president of communications, tweeted: “Abdullah should not have been penalized. Officiating mechanic is not to flag player who goes to ground for religious reasons.”
Husain Abdullah has been penalized after celebrating a touchdown by dropping to his knees in prayer (photo ESPN)
Fans took to social media to point out that there were plenty of Christian players who marked their touchdowns with signs of deference or religious tributes.
Husain Abdullah, 29, told the Kansas City Star newspaper that game officials had said nothing to him at the time but the Chiefs’ coach had told him he had been penalized for sliding.
“I don’t think it was because of the actual prostration that I got the penalty,” he told the AP news agency.
“I think it was because of the slide.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the NFL to explain the reason for the penalty.
“To prevent the appearance of a double standard, we urge league officials to clarify the policy on prayer and recognize that the official made a mistake in this case,” spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.
Husain Abdullah, a devout Muslim, missed the entire 2012 season to go on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca with his brother, another NFL player.
Nicki Minaj will host this year’s MTV EMAs ceremony in Glasgow, the singer announced via Instagram.
The annual MTV Europe Music Awards will take place in Glasgow’s SSE Hyrdo.
Nicki Minaj wrote: “So excited to announce that I will not only perform, but I have the honorable task of HOSTING this year’s MTV European Music Awards!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! The show will shoot in GLASGOW, SCOTLAND for its 20th Anniversary ON NOVEMBER 9th!!!! Find us @mtvema and Vote at mtvema.com.”
Nicki Minaj will host this year’s MTV EMAs ceremony in Glasgow (photo Instagram)
She will also be performing, and she is up for four awards herself.
One Direction will be going head to head with 5SOS for the biggest fans award, and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini is up for best UK & Ireland act.
The 20th anniversary of the MTV EMAs ceremony takes place on November 9.
Holly Willoughby and husband Dan Baldwin welcomed their third child, a baby boy named Chester William, on Monday, September 29.
The This Morning presenter has announced baby’s arrival on Twitter.
Holly Willoughby, 33, told her 4.88 million followers: “I’m sooo happy to tell you all – we’ve just had a baby boy! Chester William Baldwin made a grand entrance at 8lbs 12. He’s just perfect. X”
Amanda Holden, who’s covering Holly Willoughby’s maternity leave on This Morning wrote: “Congratulations and much love to @hollywills Dan Belle Harry and new baby Chester !!I’m delighted and thrilled!!”
Holly Willoughby has welcomed her third child, a baby boy named Chester William (photo ITV)
Holly Willoughby’s co-presenter Phillip Schofield added: “Had a lovely phone call from @hollywills tonight. Congratulations gorgeous and welcome Chester William Baldwin …. 8lbs 12 blimey!”
Holly Willoughby and Dan Baldwin, who got married in 2007, announced they were expecting another child in March.
The couple also have 5-year-old son Harry and 3-year-old daughter Belle together.
In its new Living Planet Report, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) says the global loss of species is even worse than previously thought.
The new report suggests populations have halved in 40 years, as new methodology gives more alarming results than in a report two years ago.
The report says populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%.
Populations of freshwater species have suffered an even worse fall of 76%.
Compiling a global average of species decline involves tricky statistics, often comparing disparate data sets – and some critics say the exercise is not statistically valid.
The ZSL team says they have improved their methodology since their last report two years ago – but the results are even more alarming.
The 2014 Living Planet Report suggests wildlife populations have halved in 40 years
Then they estimated that wildlife was down “only” around 30%. Whatever the numbers, it seems clear that wildlife is continuing to be driven out by human activity.
The society’s report, in conjunction with the pressure group WWF, says humans are cutting down trees more quickly than they can re-grow, harvesting more fish than the oceans can re-stock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them, and emitting more carbon than oceans and forests can absorb.
It catalogues areas of severe impact – in Ghana, the lion population in one reserve is down 90% in 40 years.
In West Africa, forest felling has restricted forest elephants to 6-7% of their historic range.
Globally, habitat loss and hunting have reduced tigers from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,000.
In the UK, the government promised to halt wildlife decline – but bird numbers continue to fall.
The index tracks more than 10,000 vertebrate species populations from 1970 to 2010. It reveals a continued decline in these populations. The global trend is not slowing down.
The report shows that the biggest recorded threat to biodiversity comes from the combined impacts of habitat loss and degradation, driven by what WWF calls unsustainable human consumption.
The report notes that the impacts of climate change are becoming of increasing concern – although the effect of climate change on species until now is disputed.
WWF is keen to avoid despair. It points to conservation efforts to save species like:
A Gorilla Conservation Program in Rwanda, promoting gorilla tourism
A scheme to incentivize small-scale farmers to move away from slash and burn agriculture in Acre, Brazil
A project to cut the amount of water withdrawn from the wildlife-rich River Itchen in the UK.
Previously, the Living Planet Index was calculated using the average decline in all of the species populations measured. The new weighted methodology analyses the data to provide what ZSL says is a much more accurate calculation of the collective status of populations in all species and regions.
A group of friends from Vermont launched a new social network, Ello, dubbed the “anti-Facebook” platform because it carries no advertisements.
The social network is currently receiving up to 31,000 requests an hour from people wishing to join its platform, according to its founder, Paul Budnitz.
Ello was initially designed to just be used by about 90 friends of its founder Paul Budnitz.
Paul Budnitz, a bike shop owner from Vermont, opened Ello to others on August 7.
Ello is dubbed the anti-Facebook platform because it carries no advertisements
Ello has been dubbed the “anti-Facebook” network because of a pledge to carry no adverts or sell user data.
However, some experts have cautioned that it might struggle with plans to charge micro-payments for certain “features”.
The site has a minimalist design and does not appear as user-friendly, at first glance, as more established networks.
Ello has already survived a reported Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack – a targeted flood of internet traffic – which briefly knocked it offline over the weekend.
The network will eventually make money by selling access to features, Paul Budnitz added.
Ello members can already check out features in development on the page and register their interest.
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson says the agency’s security plan was “not properly executed” when Omar Gonzalez broke into the White House this month, a lapse she said would never be repeated.
At a House of Representatives oversight committee hearing, Julia Pierson took responsibility for the “unacceptable” breach.
She was addressing congressmen angry over the September 19 break-in.
The 42-year-old intruder, Omar Gonzalez, scaled a fence, ran across the lawn, entered an unlocked door and was tackled inside.
Omar Gonzalez made it well into the first floor of the White House, having pushed his way past a guard standing just inside the unlocked door of the North Portico. He was tackled in the East Room, a long, ornately decorated chamber used for presidential addresses and formal receptions.
“It is clear that our security plan was not executed properly,” said Julia Pierson in testimony at the House Oversight committee hearing, where lawmakers of both parties expressed anger at a number of recent lapses by agency personnel and incidents of agents’ misbehavior.
“I take full responsibility; what happened is unacceptable and it will never happen again.”
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson says the agency’s security plan was not properly executed when Omar Gonzalez broke into the White House this month
While acknowledging the recent failure, Julia Pierson said the agency’s “emergency action plans” were “multifaceted and tailored to each threat”.
She said that agents and uniformed officers had apprehended 16 people who had jumped over the White House fence over the past five years, including six in 2014 alone.
Julia Pierson also said they had dealt with hundreds of people who had approached the grounds and made verbal threats or acted suspiciously.
She had ordered a full review of White House security procedures and said “all decisions made that evening are being evaluated, including decisions on tactics and use of force”.
Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said the White House complex was supposed to be one of the most secure places in the world but the breach had exposed serious problems in the protective agency.
“The system broke down on September 19 as it did when the Salahis crashed a state dinner in November 2009, or when Oscar Ortega-Hernandez successfully shot at the White House on November 2011, or when agents engaged in prostitution in Cartagena in April 2012, or when agents showed terrible judgment and got drunk in the Netherlands in March 2014,” he said, referring to previous, well publicized breaches at the White House and scandals involving Secret Service agents.
Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican, said he was concerned the Secret Service was sending mixed messages when it praised its officers for “tremendous restraint” following the September 19 incident.
Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia, said the issues facing the agency were not a “mere question of personnel” and called for a “21st Century makeover” of the agency.
Barack Obama and his family were not at the White House when the latest intrusion happened, having departed about 10 minutes earlier by helicopter.
Omar Gonzalez has been charged with unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.
Hong Kong leader CY Leung has urged Occupy Central protesters to stop their campaign after tens of thousands of people have been blocking streets in several areas.
The protesters want Beijing to give Hong Kong a free vote for its next leader, something Beijing has rejected.
The streets are now relatively quiet but crowds are set to swell later ahead of Chinese National Day on October 1.
People were sleeping and clearing up on September 30 before larger gatherings expected during the evening.
October 1 is a national holiday marking the founding of Communist China.
At the weekend police used tear gas and pepper spray, but riot police have since been withdrawn and protesters remain calm.
Key parts of the city are being blocked by protesters, with some schools and banks closed.
CY Leung has urged Occupy Central protesters to stop their campaign after tens of thousands of people have been blocking Hong Kong streets
The protesters want CY Leung, the chief executive, to step down. But he appeared to reject their demand, saying that his removal would mean Hong Kong’s next leader being chosen by a committee, as in 2012, rather than by voters.
CY Leung also called on the protesters – a mix of students, supporters of the pro-democracy Occupy Central group and others angered by the police response to the protests – to go home.
“Occupy Central founders had said repeatedly that if the movement is getting out of control, they would call for it to stop,” CY Leung said.
“I’m now asking them to fulfill the promise they made to society, and stop this campaign immediately.”
Beijing ruled last month that Hong Kong people can elect their next leader in 2017.
But the choice of candidates will be restricted to two or three people who must be approved by the majority of a pro-Beijing committee – meaning Beijing can effectively screen candidates.
In Hong Kong, further consultations had been due to take place on the ruling but on September 29 a senior official said these would be postponed until a “better time”.
In its latest statement, Occupy Central accused the government of “delay tactics”, saying it believed the government was “just hoping people’s desire for genuine universal suffrage to fade out over time”.
Occupy Central also repeated calls for CY Leung’s resignation, saying he would be “condemned by the history of democratic development in Hong Kong”.
Members of the Indian film industry in Tamil Nadu state is on a day-long fast to protest against the jailing of former chief minister Jayaram Jayalalitha.
Jayaram Jayalalitha has been jailed for four years for corruption and is in a Bangalore prison.
She has challenged her conviction and applied for bail. The Bangalore high court will hear her plea on October 6.
In a case lasting 18 years, Jayaram Jayalalitha was found guilty of amassing unaccounted wealth of more than $10 million.
In its ruling on September 27, the special court in Bangalore also ordered her to pay a 1 billion rupee ($16 million) fine and resign as chief minister.
Jayaram Jayalalitha has been jailed for four years for corruption and is in a Bangalore prison (photo AP)
A former film actress, Jayaram Jayalalitha is one of India’s most colorful and controversial politicians and has a huge following in Tamil Nadu.
On September 30, actors, directors and other members of the Tamil film industry began a day-long silent fast in the state capital, Chennai, to express “support and solidarity” for Jayaram Jayalalitha.
All the cinemas are shut in the city until the evening and all film shoots have been cancelled for the day.
Jayaram Jayalalitha’s imprisonment has dismayed her supporters who have held protests and wept openly.
One report said at least 16 people were believed to have killed themselves “either by setting themselves ablaze or by hanging” since Jayaram Jayalalitha’s sentencing.
On September 29, her successor O Paneerselvam was sworn in as chief minister – he too wept during his inauguration, with colleagues saying they were in mourning.
Jayaram Jayalalitha has denied charges of amassing wealth as false and says that she acquired property through legal means.
The case was heard in the neighboring state of Karnataka to ensure it remained free from influence or pressure.
The eruption of Japan’s Mount Ontake intensified making the efforts to recover the bodies of at least 24 climbers to be suspended again.
At least 36 people are thought to have died in Saturday’s unexpected eruption.
Dozens of other people were injured in the incident on the mountain, which is about 125 miles west of Tokyo.
Hundreds of firefighters, police and troops have been involved in search operations.
Twelve bodies have been recovered so far. Another 24 are reported to be on the mountain, including five more located on September 29.
The eruption of Japan’s Mount Ontake intensified making the efforts to recover the bodies of at least 24 climbers to be suspended again
Japanese authorities only declare fatalities once the body has been examined by a doctor.
Some of the bodies were found in a lodge near the summit and others were buried in ash up to 20in deep, Japanese media reported.
An official from Japan’s meteorological agency said volcanic tremors in the area could mean that another explosion was on the way.
“The strength of the tremors increased late last night, diminished and then rose again early this morning. There’s the chance things could get even worse, so caution is needed,” Yasuhide Hasegawa told Reuters news agency.
“This points to possibly increasing pressure due to steam inside the volcano, and if it exploded rocks could be thrown around, endangering rescuers,” he said.
Japan’s meteorological agency has warned that volcanic debris may settle within 2.5 miles of the peak.
