Elizabeth Rizzini is expecting her second child, a baby girl, this week.
Elizabeth Rizzini, nee Elizabeth Austen, is a UK Met Office meteorologist and BBC weather presenter.
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Elizabeth Rizzini expecting second baby
Zach Dasher: Duck Dynasty cousin to run for Congress in Louisiana’s 5th District
Calhoun businessman Zach Dasher, a cousin of Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson, announced Monday he will run for Congress in Louisiana’s 5th District.
The seat is currently held by embattled GOP Rep. Vance McAllister, who won the district in a special election last November – largely thanks to the local reality television superstar Willie Robertson’s support.
Zach Dasher said he has the full support of the Robertson family in a Monday morning interview with Louisiana radio show host Moon Griffon.
The news comes as a blow for Vance McAllister, who has waffled in recent weeks about whether he’s running for re-election. Earlier this year, Vance McAllister was caught on video kissing a staffer in his district office – an incident that gave him the title “kissing congressman”.
State Sen. Neil Riser, whom Vance McAllister defeated in the special election runoff for the seat, also announced on Monday that he will not run for the seat.
“I won’t be running in the 5th Congressional District this fall,” Neil Riser told LA Politics on Monday.
“I’m not ruling anything else out in the future, but I’m not going to be a part of this race in the fall.”
Candidates have until August 22 to file the necessary paperwork to run in Louisiana. In the state, all candidates who qualify run on the same ballot in November. If no candidate garners at least 50% of the vote, the race proceeds to a December runoff.
Louisiana’s 5th District is heavily Republican territory. GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney carried the district with 61% in 2012.
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Michael Jace in court over wife April Jace’s murder
Michael Jace is due to appear in Los Angeles court today to enter a plea, after being charged with his wife April’s murder last month.
Prosecutors say the 51-year-old actor shot April Jace, 40, multiple times at their family home on May 19, while the couple’s young children were present.
Michael Jace called 911 to report the shooting, according to police, and was at the house when they arrived.
The actor played Detective Julien Lowe in FX series The Shield.
Fire officials have released an emergency call from April Jace’s father, in which reveals the actor told him he had shot his wife.
The audio recording features an unnamed caller who explains to the operator: “My son-in-law called me, and [texted] me, and said come get the kids because he shot April, our daughter.”
April Jace’s family has called her death a senseless act of domestic violence and police are looking into whether financial or other domestic issues may have been the motive.
Michael Jace’s lawyers said the case is in its early stages and their investigation is ongoing.
April Jade worked at Biola University and had three sons, including two boys under the age of 10 with Michael Jace. They were unharmed and are now living with relatives.
The couple was married for nine years while Michael Jace, who has another child from a previous relationship, was previously married to Jennifer Bitterman. Michael Jace and Jennifer Bitterman divorced in 2002.
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Paul Simon and Edie Brickell disorderly conduct charges dropped
Paul Simon and Edie Brickell disorderly conduct case has been dropped.
Police were called after a heated dispute at the couple’s house in Connecticut in April.
Edie Brickell had told officers that her husband Paul Simon had shoved her and she had slapped him.
Prosecutors told a judge on Tuesday they were declining to pursue the case. Neither of the singers attended court.
Officers were called to the couple’s home in New Caanan on April 26, 2014.
Edie Brickell told them she had confronted her husband of 22 years after he did something to “break her heart”.
She did not provide any further details. The police report added Paul Simon suffered a superficial cut to his ear and Edie Brickell, who smelled of alcohol, had a bruise on her wrist.
At an earlier hearing, Paul Simon told reporters outside the court in Norwalk, Connecticut: “We’re fine. We love each other. We’re fine. We had an argument. It’s over.
“Neither one of us has any fear or any reason to feel threatened.”
Paul Simon, 72, and Edie Brickell, 48, had been scheduled to be in court on Tuesday, but did not appear.
The charges have now been dropped and will be erased after 13 months.
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Malaysia boat sinks, 66 Indonesian migrants feared drowned
At least 66 people are feared drowned after a wooden boat carrying 97 Indonesian migrants capsized and sank after leaving Malaysia’s west coast.
The boat was believed to have sunk shortly after midnight while trying to leave Malaysia illegally, said a Malaysia’s maritime agency official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said that the Indonesians, including women and children, were believed to be heading home ahead of the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The Malaysian official said that 31 people have been rescued so far. A ship and several boats were searching for survivors and a helicopter will soon be dispatched, he said.
No reason was immediately given for the accident.
Tens of thousands of Indonesians work illegally in plantations and other industries in Malaysia. They sometimes risk dangerous boat journeys to return home.
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Afghanistan elections 2014: Abdullah Abdullah demands halt to vote-counting
Afghanistan’s presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has demanded an immediate halt to vote-counting over allegations of widespread fraud.
Ballot boxes had been stuffed and the whole system was working to benefit his rival Ashraf Ghani, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah said.
He said he had lost trust in election officials, adding: “We have asked our monitors to leave their offices.”
A run-off vote to choose who replaces Hamid Karzai was held on Saturday. Final results are due in July.
Abdullah Abdullah won most votes in the first round in April, but did not secure an outright majority.
There was no immediate comment from Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank economist.
Hamid Karzai, who has served two terms as Afghanistan’s first and only president since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, is obliged by law to stand down after the latest election, which would be the country’s first peaceful transfer of power.
He is expected to hand over to his successor in August.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah said that a number of his observers had been beaten up, detained and only released on Tuesday.
He accused President Hamid Karzai of not being neutral and said important concerns he had raised over the election had been ignored.
Abdullah Abdullah also complained that there had been no clarification over what he had called inflated turnout figures – and no explanation for the sacking of several thousand election workers after the first round.
He added that he had also demanded that a senior member of the Independent Election Commission should be suspended, but this had not happened.
“The counting process should stop immediately and if that continues, it will have no legitimacy,” Dr. Abdullah Abdullah told reporters.
Ballot boxes have yet to reach Kabul for votes to be counted but the former foreign minister said preliminary evidence gathered by his team showed widespread fraud.
According to initial reports received by his staff, Ashraf Ghani is leading by nearly a million votes after Saturday’s run-off, Reuters news agency reported.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of Afghanistan’s 2009 presidential election which was also marred by claims of mass fraud.
UN and US officials have been urging both contenders in this year’s race to give officials time to count votes and look into possible malpractice.
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Ukraine: President Petro Poroshenko proposes unilateral ceasefire
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed a unilateral ceasefire by his troops to allow pro-Russian separatists to lay down their weapons.
Petro Poroshenko said the peace plan would be implemented “shortly”, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.
His announcement comes after Petro Poroshenko held a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
They discussed a solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels are battling government forces.
More than 30 gunmen were killed and wounded in fighting near the town of Schastya in the Luhansk region on Tuesday, a spokesman for the government’s “anti-terrorism operation” said.
UN human rights investigators say the security situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has deteriorated significantly over the past month.
A report reveals a rising number of abductions and killings, with civilians increasingly caught in the cross-fire and thousands forced to flee the violence.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said an explosion at a major pipeline in central Ukraine was caused by a bomb.
He said explosives had been placed under a concrete support at the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod Pipeline.
No-one was reported injured by the blast. European and Russian companies said gas exports were not affected by Tuesday’s pipeline explosion.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the National University of Defense in Kiev, Petro Poroshenko said a “brief” truce would be introduced to allow “Russian mercenaries” to leave Ukraine.
The Kremlin confirmed that Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin “touched upon” the issue of a possible ceasefire during their talks on Tuesday.
Correspondents say Petro Poroshenko has made similar comments in the past but it is not clear when the ceasefire will be implemented.
“The peace plan begins with my order for a unilateral ceasefire,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted the president as saying on Wednesday.
“Immediately after that, we must receive support for the presidential peace plan from all sides involved. This should happen very shortly.”
He said Russia was waging “a new type of warfare” with the use of professional subversive groups and volunteers.
Russia says it has launched a criminal investigation into Ukraine’s interior minister and a local governor over the killings of civilians and journalists.
Arsen Avakov and Igor Kolomoisky, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, are accused of organizing military operations, including rocket strikes, in cities such as Donetsk, Sloviansk and Mariupol that left more than 100 dead, Russian state media said.
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Iraq crisis: Sunni militants seize Baiji refinery
Iraqi Islamist militants have invaded the country’s biggest oil refinery, after pounding it with mortars and machine guns from two directions.
An official quoted by Reuters said the militants now controlled 75% of the Baiji refinery, 130 miles north of Baghdad.
Government forces have made new air strikes on militants advancing towards the capital.
Fighting is also reported in the western city of Ramadi.
The government is battling to push back ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and its Sunni Muslim allies in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, after the militants overran the second city, Mosul, last week.
PM Nouri al-Maliki appeared on television with Sunni Muslim and Kurdish leaders on Tuesday to issue a call for national unity in the face of the advance – they demanded that non-state forces lay down their arms.
However, such a call is unlikely to have much effect as Nouri al-Maliki has openly sponsored the formation of Shia Muslim militias to fight alongside regular Iraqi troops.
Hundreds of people have been killed since the start of the militant offensive last week, many of them believed to be captured soldiers publicly shot by ISIS-led firing squads.
During fighting in the city of Baquba this week, 44 prisoners were killed inside a police station in unclear circumstances.
The attack on the refinery started at 04:00 a.m. from outside two of the three main entrances to the refinery, according to Reuters.
Smoke rose from a spare parts warehouse and some stores of oil were reportedly destroyed.
“The militants have managed to break into the refinery,” the unnamed official told Reuters from inside the refinery.
“Now they are in control of the production units, administration building and four watch towers. This is 75% of the refinery.”
Foreign personnel were evacuated earlier but local staff reportedly remained in place, with the military defending the facility.
Baiji accounts for a little more than a quarter of the country’s entire refining capacity, all of which goes toward domestic consumption for things like petrol, cooking oil and fuel for power stations, an official told AP news agency.
Militants in the western province of Anbar, where the capital is Ramadi, said they had made advances, with a number of police stations near the town of Hit going over to dissident tribes.
Further north, the Iraqi government said it had recaptured the citadel in the strategic town of Tal Afar, where militants were said to have taken control on Monday.
Using unusually strong language, Nouri al-Maliki accused Saudi Arabia – which is largely Sunni – of backing ISIS. He also fired four army commanders for failing to halt the sweeping advance by the militants. They included the top commander for Nineveh, the first province where ISIS fighters made major gains.
British Guiana one-cent magenta stamp fetches record $9.5 million at New York auction
A rare 19th Century one-cent magenta stamp from a British colony in South America has sold for a record $9.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
It took only two minutes for the British Guiana postage stamp to be sold to an anonymous bidder.
The stamp had been sold three times before, each time setting the auction record for a single stamp.
It measures just 1in by 1in (2.5cm by 3.2 cm), and had not been publicly exhibited since 1986.
Sotheby’s auction house said that apart from setting a new world record price for a stamp, it was also the most expensive item by weight and size ever sold.
“Every collecting area has its Holy Grail. For stamps it is The British Guiana,” Sotheby’s wrote on its website, adding the stamp is often described as the “most famous” and “most valuable” in the world.
The stamp, printed on magenta paper, bears a three-masted ship and the colony’s motto: “We give and expect in return.”
It initially went into circulation when a shipment of stamps was delayed from London and the colony’s postmaster asked printers to make three stamps until the shipment arrived.
A one-cent magenta, four-cent magenta and four-cent blue were created, but only the one-cent stamp is believed to still exist.
The last owner of the famous stamp was John du Pont, heir to the du Pont chemical empire, who was convicted in 1997 of murdering an Olympic champion wrestler and died in prison in 2010.
The stamp was sold by his estate, with some proceeds to be donated to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation.
It last set a record in 1980 when it was sold to John du Pont for $935,000.
An 1855 Swedish stamp which sold in 1996 for $2.3 million had held the previous record for a single stamp at auction.
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Marcus Wellons: First US execution since botched procedure in Oklahoma
Georgia has carried out the first execution in the US since a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma in April.
Marcus Wellons, who raped and killed a 15-year-old in 1989, died by injection of a single drug late on Tuesday.
Shortly afterwards John Winfield was executed in Missouri for two killings.
The men were among three set to die within 24 hours, after nine executions were stayed since one in Oklahoma went wrong seven weeks ago.
A last-minute appeal by Marcus Wellons over the source of the drugs used to kill him failed at the Supreme Court.
He was pronounced dead at 23:56, more than an hour after the execution began, a Georgia corrections spokesperson said. No obvious complications were reported.
John Winfield was executed by lethal injection just after midnight on Wednesday for killing two women in 1996.
Officials in Oklahoma halted the execution of Clayton Lockett in April after he began making noises, and he died of a heart attack less than an hour later.
Like Oklahoma, Georgia and Missouri refuse to say where they are obtaining drugs for lethal injections, or if they are tested.
Lawyers for Marcus Wellons, as well as others on death row, have challenged such secrecy in court.
John Ruthell Henry is scheduled to be executed at 18:00 local time on Wednesday in Florida.
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American Airlines suspends flights to Venezuela from July 2014
American Airlines has announced it is cutting almost 80% of its flights to Venezuela from next month.
From July 2, American Airlines will operate only 10 flights per week instead of the current 48.
The move comes as part of a continuing dispute over the repatriation of revenue due to tight currency controls in the oil-rich country.
A number of airlines have already suspended or reduced the number of flights to Venezuela.
“Since we are owed a substantial outstanding amount [$750 million to March 2014] and have been unable to reach resolution on the debt, we will significantly reduce our flights to the country after 1 July,” the airline said in a statement.
American Airlines said it would only fly to Venezuela from Miami, suspending its flights from New York, Dallas and Puerto Rico.
Tight foreign currency controls make it difficult for foreign airlines to repatriate money from ticket sales in Venezuela.
The authorities have restricted access to dollars and want to make them more expensive to purchase, which may lead to losses for companies that are still waiting for cash from as far back as 2012.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates Venezuela is delaying payment of $4 billion.
American Airlines is the largest foreign carrier serving Venezuela.
Air Canada has suspended service citing security concerns, while others like Lufthansa and Copa Airlines have reduced the number of tickets made available in local currency.
In January, Ecuadorean airline Tame also suspended flights to Venezuela, demanding $43 million in overdue payments for tickets.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said at the time that airlines that reduced their operations in Venezuela would face “severe measures”.
“The company that leaves the country will not return while we hold power,” he said.
Last month, the Venezuelan government announced a deal with six Latin American airlines that would allow them to repatriate revenue from sales in 2012 and 2013.
Strict controls over foreign exchange were first imposed in 2003, following a troubled year which saw a coup against then-President Hugo Chavez.
Emma Allen turns herself into World Cup trophy
Emma Allen has used face paint to turn herself into the FIFA World Cup trophy.
The London based artist, who specializes in body art, says it is such an iconic symbol around the world she wanted to see if she could represent it in body paint.
Emma Allen’s transformation took about two hours to complete.
The images have now gone viral and been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
YouTube to remove indie music labels as it launches subscription service
Music videos by artists such as Adele, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead will be removed from YouTube because the independent labels to which they belong have refused to agree terms with the site.
Google, which owns YouTube, has been renegotiating contracts as it prepares to launch a music subscription service.
A spokesperson for the indie labels said YouTube was making a “grave error of commercial judgment”.
YouTube said it was bringing “new revenue streams” to the music industry.
Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s head of content and business operations, told Financial Times that videos from independents could be blocked “in a matter of days,” if new licenses are not negotiated.
The three major record labels – Universal, Sony and Warner – have all agreed terms with the site, but smaller independents are holding out.
Some independents say they are being offered “highly unfavorable terms”.
YouTube’s entry into the music subscription market comes after Amazon launched a similar service for its Prime members, and Apple bought online music service Beats Music.
US stock markets decline on mixed economic data
Stock markets dipped in early Monday trading as fresh data presented a mixed economic picture in the US.
US consumer price inflation rose 0.4% month-on-month in April, twice as much as analysts had expected, while new home starts fell 6.5%.
The Dow Jones was down 30.28 points, or 0.18%, at 16,750.73 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 4.84 points, or 0.11%, to 4,316.27.
The S&P 500 dropped 3.19 points, or 0.16%, to 1,934.59.
Markets were also nervous as the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee began a two-day monetary policy meeting.
Forest Oil Corp was the biggest gainer, up 10.5%, after it emerged that a deal for the company to be taken over by Sabine Oil & Gas was going ahead, despite earlier reports to the contrary.
Sarah Jessica Parker admits she can only work out for 22 minutes
Sarah Jessica Parker revealed that she is far from dedicated when it comes to going to the gym.
“I work out for a sum total of 22 minutes, because that’s all I can bear,” Sarah Jessica Parker admitted to an audience during the Cannes Lion film festival, E! News reported.
Sarah Jessica Parker, 49, has spoken about her figure in the past, telling Good Housekeeping magazine that a body like hers and other women in the industry shouldn’t be “an example” for other women.
” … No real woman should look to any woman in this industry as an example. It’s simply not applicable because of the enormous number of advantages we have,” the actress told the magazine.
“Women in this country should be reminded to be healthy rather than to be a size zero. I’m not going to kid you: Money changes everything. I’m fortunate enough to have things like private trainers and yoga classes. I realize that.”
Sarah Jessica Parker also claimed she loves to eat: “I love to eat. I think about food all the time.”
Dr. Oz questioned by Senate panel over weight loss scams
Dr. Mehmet Oz offered to help “drain the swamp” of unscrupulous marketers using his name to peddle so-called miracle pills and cure-alls to millions of Americans desperate to lose weight.
He appeared before the Senate’s consumer protection panel and was scolded by Chairman Claire McCaskill for claims he made about weight-loss aids on his TV show, The Dr. Oz Show.
Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, acknowledged that his language about green coffee and other supplements has been “flowery” and promised to publish a list of specific products he thinks can help America shed pounds and get healthy – beyond eating less and moving more. On his show, Dr. Oz never endorsed specific companies or brands but more generally praised some supplements as fat busters.
Claire McCaskill took Dr. Oz to task for a 2012 show in which he proclaimed that green coffee extract was a “magic weight loss cure for every body type”.
Dr. Oz insisted he believes in the supplements he talks about on his show as short-term crutches, and even has his family try them. But there’s no long-term miracle pill out there without diet and exercise, he said.
Within weeks of Dr. Oz’s comments about green coffee – which refers to the unroasted seeds or beans of coffee – a Florida-based operation began marketing a dietary supplement called Pure Green Coffee, with claims that the chlorogenic acid found in the coffee beans could help people lose 17 pounds and cut body fat by 16% in 22 weeks.
The company, according to federal regulators, featured footage from The Dr. Oz Show, to sell its supplement.
Dr. Oz has no association with the company and received no money from sales.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the sellers behind Pure Green Coffee and accused them of making bogus claims and deceiving consumers.
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Chris Brown sells graffiti-covered Hollywood Hills home for $1.79 million
Chris Brown has sold his graffiti-covered Hollywood Hills home for $1.79 million, seven months after listing it for sale.
The singer clashed with neighbors in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood last year after covering the exterior wall of his $1.5 million home with graffiti.
The street art, which depicted colorful monsters, sparked numerous complaints from locals, prompting officials to fine him and order the star to remove the bright spray paint.
Chris Brown obliged in July and decided to move out of the area in November.
Ahmed Abu Khattala: Benghazi attack ringleader captured
Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected ringleader of the September 2012 raid on a US diplomatic post in the Libyan city of Benghazi, that left four Americans dead, has been captured, the Pentagon says.
Ahmed Abu Khattala was taken into custody in a secret US military raid in Libya on June 15.
He is now being held in a secure location outside the country, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed.
US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed in the attack.
“There were no civilian casualties related to this operation, and all US personnel involved in the operation have safely departed Libya,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm John Kirby wrote in a statement.
After the announcement, President Barack Obama praised the courage and professionalism of the military, law enforcement and intelligence personnel who tracked and captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, who the US describes as a “key figure” in the attack.
“With this operation, the US has once again demonstrated that we will do whatever it takes to see that justice is done when people harm Americans,” he said in a White House statement.
Ahmed Abu Khattala would face the “full weight of the American justice system”, he said, an indication the US will try him in a civilian court rather than hold him at the military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In August, the New York Times reported that federal prosecutors had prepared secret charges against him, accusing him of murder for his role in the attack.
On September 11, 2012, gunmen stormed the US consulate in Benghazi and set it on fire.
In addition to Chris Stevens, information technology specialist Sean Smith and security workers and ex-Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed.
The White House initially said the attack stemmed from anti-American protests over a crude video produced in the US that was deemed insulting to Islam.
Government investigators soon determined it was an organised attack planned by local militias, although the New York Times claimed after an extensive investigation that some of the attackers were indeed motivated by the film.
The US quietly offered as much as $10 million for information in the months following the attack.
In subsequent years, the incident has become a political lightening rod, with Republicans accusing President Barack Obama’s administration of covering up the involvement of militant groups in the days after the attack in order to assist Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
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IkeaHackers: Ikea makes fan site remove all adverts
Ikea has made IkeaHackers – a fan site featuring ideas for customizing the company’s furniture – remove all adverts.
The founder of IkeaHackers.net said she had been issued with a “cease and desist” letter in March, in which Ikea had said the site’s name had infringed upon its intellectual property rights.
An agreement was reached in which IkeaHackers could keep its domain, “without commercial elements”.
An Ikea representative said other sites using its name “creates confusion”.
Jules Yap, a blogger living in Malaysia who started IkeaHackers in 2006, wrote in a blogpost: “Needless to say, I am crushed.
“I don’t have an issue with them protecting their trademark but I think they could have handled it better.
“I am a person, not a corporation. A blogger who obviously is on their side. Could they not have talked to me like normal people do without issuing a C&D [cease and desist]?”
Jules Yap added that she had agreed to Ikea’s demand to remove advertising because she did not have “deep enough pockets to fight a mammoth company in court”.
Fans of the site, which Jules Yap says attracts about 180,000 visitors per week, expressed their outrage at the decision on social media sites.
North Korea unveils cruise missile similar to Russian KH-35
In a propaganda film, North Korea has revealed footage of a newly developed cruise missile.
The North Korean missile is believed to be similar to the Russian KH-35 missile, which came into service in 2003.
Cruise missiles are short-range weapons guided by on-board computers, used to attack specific targets. The majority of the North’s known missiles are much larger, longer-range missiles.
North Korea is under UN sanctions over its weapons and nuclear programs.
Many in the West believe Pyongyang is trying to develop a nuclear weapon.
But analysts say North Korea does not appear to have successfully manufactured a warhead small enough to be carried by its missiles.
North Korea’s suspected new cruise missile was revealed for only a split second at the end of the 50-minute propaganda film.
It appeared in between montages of soldiers shouting, tanks firing in unison and leader Kim Jong-un laughing.
From that brief glimpse, some analysts have deduced that the missile is a modified version of the KH-35 anti-ship missile.
It is unclear whether North Korea previously owned any cruise missiles.
South Korean media has already speculated that the cruise missile could pose a potential new threat to the South’s navy.
Game of Thrones Season 4 finale drew 7.1 million viewers
HBO’s Game of Thrones Season 4 finale drew 7.1 million viewers on Sunday, beating the 5.4 million who tuned in for the previous season’s last episode.
Once repeats were taken into account, the finale for the fourth season was seen by 9.3 million people.
Total viewing figures, including video on demand and mobile streaming have not yet been released.
Game of Thrones is now HBO’s most popular series, surpassing The Sopranos.
The average audience during series four, including catch-up services, has been 18.6 million per episode. The Sopranos’ audience peaked at 18.2 million in 2002, giving it the HBO record until now.
The show is engaged in a ratings war with zombie thriller The Walking Dead, which attracted 15.7 million viewers for its season finale in April.
However, broadcaster AMC said its audience jumped to 28 million once repeats and on-demand figures were taken into account.
The final Game of Thrones episode, The Children, saw many of the show’s leading characters making key decisions which will impact them in future episodes, while several met a typically grisly end.
Season five has already been confirmed.
Game of Thrones TV series is based on the books, A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, set in the mythical, medieval land of Westeros.
In the north, a massive wall of ice keeps out barbarian “wildlings” and zombie-like “white walkers”. South of the wall, there is a bitter war between rival claimants for the Iron Throne and rule of the seven kingdoms of Westeros.
Meanwhile, a princess exiled to distant lands with three dragons has rallied an army of freed slaves.
Game of Thrones is full of intense political intrigue, with war and its aftermath depicted in brutal detail. The show first aired in 2011 featuring actors including Peter Dinklage, Charles Dance, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams.
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Tracy Morgan’s medical condition upgraded to fair
Tracy Morgan’s condition has been “upgraded” to “fair”, 10 days after he was badly injured in a car crash, his spokesman has said.
The comedian has made a “great improvement” and “his personality is certainly starting to come back as well”, Lewis Kay said.
Tracy Morgan, 45, was described as “critical but stable” last week after breaking his legs, nose and ribs when a Wal-Mart truck driver crashed into his vehicle.
Driver Kevin Roper charged with death by auto and assault has pleaded not guilty.
Kevin Roper, 35, made his plea in court on June 11. Prosecutors said he had not slept for more than 24 hours before the accident on June 7.
He swerved to avoid traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike, crashing into Tracy Morgan’s van and killing comedian James McNair, known as Jimmy Mack.
The driver’s bail has been set at $50,000 and he could face more than a decade in prison if convicted.
Jeff Millea, Tracy Morgan’s 36-year-old assistant, who was also in critical condition after the crash, has been upgraded to fair condition as well. Fellow comedian Ardie Fuqua Jr. was also seriously injured.
Mpeketoni attack: At least 15 people killed in new al-Shabab raid
At least 15 people have been killed in a new attack by Somalia’s Islamist militants near Mpeketoni in Kenya.
Local police say the gunmen raided two villages overnight.
Somalia’s al-Shabab group said it had carried out the attack, telling Reuters that its “operations in Kenya will continue”.
At least 48 people died after the al-Qaeda-linked group attacked hotels and a police station in the town on Sunday.
Al-Shabab said it was revenge for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia and the killing of Muslims.
Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to help the weak UN-backed government defeat the militants.
“We raided villages around Mpeketoni again last night,” al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters on Tuesday.
He was later quoted by the AFP as saying that the militants “have been going to several places looking for military personnel”. He said most of those killed were police officers and wildlife wardens.
Kenyan police said that the gunmen raided two villages in the Poromoko district near Mpeketoni.
The authorities said the militants jammed a telecommunication system before the killings to prevent villagers from sounding the alarm.
In Sunday’s attack, al-Shabab appeared to target men, in many cases leaving their wives and children unharmed.
Mpeketoni, near Lamu Island, is not a tourist resort. It appears the attackers were not interested in foreigners or their interests, our correspondent says.
After last year’s Westgate attack in Nairobi – al-Shabab’s most deadly raid in Kenya – the group received a lot of criticism for killing women and children.
Kenya has been on high alert recently following warnings that al-Shabab was planning more attacks.
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Iraq crisis: US to send 275 military personnel to Baghdad
Heavy clashes took place between Iraqi government forces and Sunni Islamist militants who have made major advances in the past week.
Reports say parts of the city of Baquba – just 37 miles from Baghdad – have been taken over by the rebels.
The US is deploying up to 275 military personnel to protect staff at its huge embassy in the capital.
Reports from Baquba – capital of Diyala province on the northern approaches to Baghdad – say rebels are reported to have taken over several quarters and captured the main police station, seizing many weapons.
At Tal Afar, a strategic city west of Mosul in the province of Nineveh, there are reports that reinforcements have arrived to boost government forces trying to recapture the town from rebels. The Iraqi air force is said to have been carrying out strikes in the area.
The city of 200,000 people, which has a mixed Sunni and Shia population, lies between Mosul and the Syrian border and was taken just before dawn on Monday.
In Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, Sunni militants shot down a government helicopter near the city of Falluja, and say they destroyed several tanks in fighting there. They also say army forces fled from a military base near Ramadi, the provincial capital.
Qasem Suleimani, the commander of an elite unit of Iran’s revolutionary guards, is reported to be in Baghdad, helping military leaders and Shia militias co-ordinate their campaign against the rebels.
In Vienna, US officials held brief discussions about Iraq with their Iranian counterparts at a meeting about Tehran’s nuclear program, but American officials have been quick to dismiss reports of military collaboration with a major foe.
In a letter to Congress, President Barack Obama said the 275 military personnel being sent to Iraq would protect US citizens and the embassy in Baghdad, and would remain there until the security situation improved.
A White House statement said that their main role would be to help embassy staff to relocate to US consulates in the cities of Basra in the south and Irbil in the north, and provide airfield management and security.
President Barack Obama has already ruled out sending in ground troops to fight alongside Iraqi government forces, but drone strikes remain a possibility.
The aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush has been deployed to the Gulf, accompanied by two more warships.
The UN says that ISIS fighters have carried out hundreds of summary executions since their offensive began last week.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said that systematic killings in the north of the country “almost certainly amounted to war crimes”.
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Twin tornadoes hit Nebraska
Two massive tornadoes hit the state of Nebraska killing at least one person and leaving at least 19 injured.
The town of Pilger, about 100 miles north-west of Omaha, with a population of 350 people, was devastated by the twisters.
Jerry Weatherholt, county commissioner, said half the town is damaged.
The tornadoes were a mile apart, says the National Weather Service, and another massive tornado has been tracked near Burwell, central Nebraska.
“It was like God dragged two fingernails across the land,” Gregg Moeller told the nearby Norfolk Daily News newspaper.
Pilger saw significant damage to a school, a bank and a church in town, and many homes in the southern portion of the town were destroyed or damaged.
“More than half of the town is gone – absolutely gone,” Jerry Weatherholt said.
“The co-op is gone, the grains bins are gone, and it looks like almost every house in town has some damage. It’s a complete mess.”
Faith Regional Health Services hospital spokeswoman Jodi Richey told the Associated Press news agency one person had died and 16 were being treated for injuries.
Providence Medical Center in nearby Wayne also treated three hurt by the tornado, two who have been already released, hospital spokeswoman Sandy Bartling said.
The governor of the state has declared an emergency, which will allow the use of Nebraska’s National Guard.
Stanton County emergency manager Sanford Goshorn told CNN his agency was still in response mode and said the number of those injured could rise.
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