Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez has been crowned Miss USA 2014.
Nia Sanchez, a fourth-degree black belt in the Korean martial art of taekwondo, has beat out 50 other contestants Sunday night in Louisiana.
First runner-up was Miss North Dakota Audra Mari.
Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez has been crowned Miss USA 2014
Miss USA 2013 Erin Brady, of South Glastonbury, Connecticut, gave up her crown to Nia Sanchez after a three-hour telecast from the Baton Rouge Civic Center in Louisiana.
Other runner-ups were: home state beauty queen, Miss Louisiana Brittany Guidry; Miss Georgia Tiana Griggs, Miss Florida Brittany Oldehoff and Miss Iowa Carlyn Bradarich.
Carlyn Bradarich got a second chance when the viewing audience gave her the most votes on Twitter.
Nia Sanchez will go on from the 63rd Miss USA to represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe competition later this year.
O.J. Simpson murder trial evidence has been unveiled after 20 years.
AP court reporter Linda Deutsch got an up-close look at the infamous gloves and other evidence in the O.J. Simpson murder trial that riveted the US twenty years ago.
The leather gloves were the Rosetta stone of the Simpson murder trial. One was discovered at each of the two crime scenes. Of all the physical evidence that had been gathered and catalogued that day, the gloves were, perhaps, the most tangible.
O.J. Simpson murder trial evidence has been unveiled after 20 years
They were unique articles of apparel and the prosecution had linked together an imposing evidence chain connecting them to the defendant.
The gloves were dark brown leather, cashmere lined, size extra large. Manufactured by Aris Gloves, a subsidiary of Consolidated Food Corporation, the Isotoner Lights brand, style number 70263, were part of a small batch of only 300 pairs that had been sold exclusively by Bloomingdale’s Department Store on 3rd Avenue in New York between 1989 and 1992. The store sold 240 pairs and returned the rest to the manufacturer. On December 20th, 1990, Nicole Brown Simpson had purchased two pairs of these gloves for $110. The gloves had a distinctive stitching and V pattern in the palm and were very identifiable. The prosecution assembled press photographs and videotapes of O.J. Simpson wearing this type of leather gloves during football game telecasts in 1993 and 1994.
On April 3 1995, the prosecution produced evidence that the glove found behind the bungalow on O.J. Simpson’s Rockingham estate had a mixture of blood from Nicole Brown Simpson, Ronald Lyle Goldman and Simpson.
On last night’s season 10th premiere of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kourtney Kardashian revealed that she is pregnant with her third child.
The episode starts out with Kim Kardashian and sisters Kourtney and Khloé jumping on a trampoline in the backyard, but things get serious when Khloé reveals that someone has already made an offer on the house that she and Lamar Odom used to live in together.
Scott Disick is planning to buy a sports car for Kourtney Kardashian and invites Khloé to help him pick it out.
Kourtney Kardashian revealed pregnancy with 3rd child on KUWTK Season 10 premiere (photo E! Online)
While looking at cars together, Scott Disick told Khloé Krdashian that he is planning to go back to the retreat in Arizona that he went to with Kourtney because he is having a hard time dealing with some things in his life and he wants to get in touch with his emotions. He also wishes that Kourtney would open up to him a bit more because he really needs someone to be there for him.
Scott Disick decides on a white Ferrari as a gift for Kourtney Kardashian.
He surprises Kourtney with the Ferrari that he bought for her. But when he takes her into the garage, Scott is frustrated by Kourtney’s lack of excitement and inability to express her emotions, which makes it hard for him to figure out how she even feels.
Kourtney Kardashian sits down with Scott Disick and says that she would like to do more for him on an emotional level and promises to listen to him more. Scott Disick tells Kourtney Kardashian that he loves her and is thankful that she is trying to work on her issue for their relationship.
Then Kourtney Kardashian makes the announcement that will change their lives forever: She’s pregnant with their third child!
Miss Universe Thailand Weluree Ditsayabut renounced her title over remarks she made on social media including one that “red shirt” activists, supporters of ousted PM Yingluck Shinawatra, should all be executed.
Thailand’s military coup last month was the latest convulsion in a decade-long conflict between the Bangkok-based royalist establishment and the rural-based supporters of Yingluck Shinawatra and her brother, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
Miss Universe Thailand Weluree Ditsayabut renounced her title over remarks she made on social media
Weluree Ditsayabut, 22, was crowned Miss Universe Thailand last month but comments she made months earlier soon surfaced, including one on her Facebook account, referring to the red shirts, which said: “I am so angry at all these evil activists. They should all be executed.”
A tearful Weluree Ditsayabut told reporters that she could not handle the vitriol directed at her on Twitter and Facebook.
“I felt under pressure. I tried to improve myself but what I could not stand was to see my mother stressed,” Weluree Ditsayabut said.
“I have decided to sacrifice my status as Miss Universe Thailand.”
Weluree Ditsayabut also hit back at comments on her looks.
“Actually I’m fat, you animal!” read one post on her Twitter account, which has since been deleted.
Pimbongkod Chankaew has replace Weluree Ditsayabut as Thailand’s representative at the global competition, Miss Universe 2014.
Psy decided switching genres would be his best bet for another hit with his latest single so he teamed with Snoop Dogg on the hip-hop track Hangover.
The Hangover video, which debuted Sunday on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Psy’s YouTube channel, serves as a lesson in Asian hangover remedies.
“This video is not about dance moves, but it’s about like culture exchanging,” Psy said.
The South Korean pop star said Snoop Dogg signed on immediately after only hearing the song’s title.
Psy teamed with Snoop Dogg on the hip-hop track Hangover
Psy signed with Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, after Gangnam Style’s initial success. He said he appreciates Scooter Braun’s guidance and impressive drinking abilities.
“He is the most strongest tolerance with alcohol among Americans,” Psy said.
“Asians drink really hard and really mixing everything and really drinking hard every day. So literally I was kind of like unbeatable person with the alcohol before I meet Scooter.”
Psy will return to his EDM roots on a new EP, due later this year. But this time he plans to include more English lyrics.
“People always comparing my new thing with <<Gangnam Style>>, which is unbeatable,” Psy said in a recent interview at YouTube Space LA.
“That means I have a severe, heavy pressure on my shoulder. … In that way I don’t like the song.”
Gangnam Style recently surpassed 2 billion views, a record for YouTube. The South Korean pop star also holds the record for most views in a day with 38 million for his Gangnam Style follow up Gentleman.
Jinnah international airport in Karachi has resumed operations after an assault by Pakistani Taliban which left 28 people, including all 10 attackers, dead.
The assault on Pakistan’s largest airport began late on Sunday, with security forces gaining control in the early hours of Monday.
The Taliban have said they carried out the raid as revenge for the killing of their leader last year.
The government said a full investigation was under way.
Asif Kirmani, a spokesman for PM Nawaz Sharif, also praised the security forces for their response.
Analysts say the latest violence has further undermined Nawaz Sharif’s attempt at initiating peace talks with the Taliban.
Jinnah international airport in Karachi has resumed operations after an assault by Pakistani Taliban which left 28 people, including all 10 attackers, dead
The negotiations have made little headway since February. Critics have argued that they could allow the militants to regroup and gain strength.
Pakistani officials said 10 heavily armed gunmen stormed the airport in two teams of five on Sunday at 23:00 local time.
The attackers, wearing explosives belts, are believed to have entered the area using fake ID cards, although some reports suggest they cut through a barbed wire fence.
They threw grenades and fired at security guards in the old terminal, used for cargo and VIP operations.
Jinnah airport was shut down, passengers were evacuated and flights diverted as security forces fought back.
Seven militants were shot dead in a gun battle with security forces which lasted until dawn. Another three attackers detonated their explosives.
The dead terminal staff were said to be mostly security guards from the Airport Security Force (ASF) but also airline workers. At least 14 people were wounded.
The Chief Minister of Sindh province, Qaim Ali Shah, said the attackers “were well trained” and their plan “very well thought out”.
Later on Monday, security forces displayed a large quantity of weapons and ammunition seized from the attackers, as well as food, indicating they had been prepared for a lengthy siege.
Army officials said there were indications that some of the gunmen may have been foreign nationals.
The Taliban later said they had carried out the attack, and that its aim had been to hijack aircraft, though they failed to do so.
It was “a message to the Pakistan government that we are still alive to react over the killings of innocent people in bomb attacks on their villages”, said spokesman Shahidullah Shahid.
Pakistan has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for more than a decade, with the Pakistani Taliban the main militant group.
A Moscow court has given life sentences for two men who killed Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
They were among five men convicted of the crime last month.
Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter and vocal critic of Russia’s war in Chechnya, was shot in a lift in her block of flats.
Three of the men had earlier been acquitted but Russia’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial. Investigators have not determined who ordered the killing.
Anna Politkovskaya’s reporting for Novaya Gazeta newspaper won international renown for her dogged investigation of Russian abuses in Chechnya
Rustam Makhmudov was given a life sentence for pulling the trigger.
His uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, one of those found guilty of organizing the murder, was also jailed for life.
The three others convicted of the killing – two of whom are Rustam Makhmudov’s brothers – were given between 12 and 20 years in prison.
The prosecution had pushed for tougher sentences.
Anna Politkovskaya’s reporting for Novaya Gazeta newspaper won international renown for her dogged investigation of Russian abuses in Chechnya.
But her pieces, which were highly critical of President Vladimir Putin, then serving his second term, and the Chechen leadership, angered many in authority.
Last year a former police officer, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for supplying the murder weapon.
Anna Politkovskaya’s family say they will continue to campaign until the person who ordered the killing is uncovered.
Asian markets’ reactions are mixed after the European Central Bank (ECB) introduced aggressive easing measures aimed at stimulating the eurozone economy.
The ECB is the first major central bank to introduce negative interest rates, which will see it become cheaper for banks to lend money to businesses.
Japan, Hong Kong and Australian stocks initially rose in reaction before giving up their gains in later trade.
The muted response comes despite a strong rally on Wall Street.
Asian markets’ reactions are mixed after the ECB introduced aggressive easing measures aimed at stimulating the eurozone economy (photo AP)
The S&P 500 and Dow Industrial Average closed at new record highs on Thursday on the new stimulus measures out of Europe.
European stock markets and the euro currency also logged gains on Thursday.
The ECB announcement saw it cut the deposit rate for banks to zero from -0.1% and reduce the benchmark interest rate to 0.15% from 0.25%.
In addition to the interest rate cuts, the ECB will offer a package of cheap long-term loans to banks which are worth up to 400 billion euros.
ECB President Mario Draghi also signaled there may be more easing measures to come.
CMC Markets analyst Max Ho called the ECB’s moves “well-telegraphed”.
“We witnessed history in the making,” he said.
“While this move to cut deposit rates to a negative is considered to be bold and unprecedented, some observers are not convinced that it will have a significant impact on existing bank lending.”
Analysts said Asian investors are now turning their attention to US jobs data due out Friday.
Non-farm payrolls for May are expected to show an improvement in the US employment market and are crucial to the US central bank’s future policy decisions.
Analysts forecast the Federal Reserve may raises interest rates and end its extraordinary stimulus known as quantitative easing (QE) once the jobs market and overall US economy is strong enough.
Concerns about a reduction in QE, or the Fed taper, led to a sell-off in emerging market stocks and currencies in Asia last year.
The entire board of the Vatican’s financial regulator has been dismissed by Pope Francis as he looks to reform the city-state’s banking practices following a corruption scandal.
The move is also reportedly due to infighting among the “old guard”.
The Financial Intelligence Authority’s Italian, five-person board were due to see their terms expire in 2016.
They are being replaced with four international experts from Italy, Singapore, Switzerland and the US.
Pope Francis fired the entire board of the Vatican’s financial regulator
The Vatican said the new directors include Juan Zarate, a former national security adviser to President George Bush, and Joseph Pillay, a civil servant and adviser to the president of Singapore.
The other two board members are Maria Bianca Farina, an executive at the Italian postal service and Marc Odendall, a Swiss financial consultant.
Pope Francis has sought to stamp out corruption and other abuses at the Vatican bank, which handles funds for the Catholic Church.
The Vatican bank is known officially as the Institute for Religious Works and has assets worth more than $8 billion.
However, it became embroiled in a scandal last year after senior cleric Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was arrested by Italian police for allegedly being involved in money-laundering.
Nunzio Scarano and two others face trial for trying to move 20 million euros illegally from Switzerland.
As a result, there has been push to align the Holy See’s finances with international transparency rules.
Pope Francis also issued a decree last year aimed at combating money-laundering and prevent any financing of terrorism.
Police have praised the bravery of a Seattle Pacific University student for disarming a gunman who had killed one person and wounded three others.
The student overcame the gunman on the campus of Seattle Pacific University as he tried to reload, police said. Pepper spray was used to subdue the attacker.
Police said the actions of the student, and others who came to his aid, prevented a more serious tragedy.
The gun suspect has been named as Aaron Ybarra, 26, who is in custody.
Police have praised the bravery of a Seattle Pacific University student for disarming a gunman who had killed one person and wounded three others
Police say he is being investigated for murder. They say he was not a student at the university and was believed to have been acting alone.
He is reported to have been carrying a shotgun and a knife before opening fire after walking into the foyer of the university.
“But for the great response at Seattle Pacific University (SPU) this incident might have been much more tragic,” Seattle police spokesman Paul McDonagh told a news conference.
SPU President Daniel Martin told the Seattle Times that the students who overpowered the gunman “acted without regard to their own safety on behalf of others”.
“We are a community and we care for others,” Daniel Martin was quoted as saying.
“Those that were involved did just that.”
He said that students and university personnel have procedures in place for when a shooting occurs, which was one reason why the gunman was subdued so quickly.
Hospital officials in the Washington state city said the person killed was a man in his 20s. A woman is also in a very serious condition with a gunshot wound to her upper body.
The other two injuries were sustained by men in their 20s. One is in a stable condition and the other has minor wounds to the abdomen.
In a statement, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray referred to previous fatal shootings in the city and added: “Once again the epidemic of gun violence has come to Seattle, the epidemic of gun violence that is haunting this nation.”
SPU is a privately run Christian university which has about 4,270 undergraduate and graduate students inside a 40-acre campus about 10 minutes from central Seattle.
The US has recently suffered a spate of shootings in or near colleges.
World heads of state are joining hundreds of veterans in Normandy to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
They will meet at Ouistreham, one of the five beaches where Allied troops landed on June 6, 1944.
French President Francois Hollande will give a speech followed by US President Barack Obama. Queen Elizabeth II and Russian President Vladimir Putin will also go.
World heads of state are joining hundreds of veterans in Normandy to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings
There will be a re-enactment of the landings, which were the start of the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.
The day’s commemorations began at midnight with a vigil at Pegasus Bridge near Ouistreham, marking the first assault of the D-Day invasion when British soldiers began the first Allied action of the campaign.
At 00:16 on June 6, 1944, six Horsa gliders carrying 181 men from the Glider Pilot Regiment and the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, landed silently to capture the strategically-vital bridge and another nearby.
This paved the way for soldiers landing on the Normandy beaches to move inland and reinforce their airborne colleagues. It also prevented the Germans from repelling the invasion on the coast.
Vladimir Putin will be at the ceremony with Prince Charles, who reportedly criticised the Russian president while speaking to a woman during a tour in Canada.
Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko is expected to attend, amid tensions between his country and Russia.
Scientists have discovered the mechanism by which a good night’s sleep improves learning and memory.
The scientific team in China and the US used advanced microscopy to witness new connections between brain cells – synapses – forming during sleep.
Their study, published in the journal Science, showed even intense training could not make up for lost sleep.
Experts said it was an elegant and significant study, which uncovered the mechanisms of memory.
It is well known that sleep plays an important role in memory and learning. But what actually happens inside the brain has been a source of considerable debate.
Sleep plays an important role in memory and learning (photo Tumblr)
Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School trained mice in a new skill – walking on top of a rotating rod.
They then looked inside the living brain with a microscope to see what happened when the animals were either sleeping or sleep deprived.
Their study showed that sleeping mice formed significantly more new connections between neurons – they were learning more.
And by disrupting specific phases of sleep, the research group showed deep or slow-wave sleep was necessary for memory formation.
During this stage, the brain was “replaying” the activity from earlier in the day.
Further tests showed how significant sleep was.
Mice doing up to an hour’s training followed by sleep were compared with mice training intensively for three hours but then sleep deprived.
The difference was still stark, with the sleepers performing better and the brain forming more new connections.
Canadian police arrested Justin Bourque suspected of killing three officers and wounding two others in Moncton, New Brunswick.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in New Brunswick tweeted that Justin Bourque was arrested just after midnight in Moncton.
News of the arrest came after a huge manhunt went into its second night.
Schools and government offices were closed and residents told to stay indoors during the operation.
Canadian police arrested Justin Bourque suspected of killing three officers and wounding two others in Moncton (photo The Gazette)
Police said residents of Moncton could now leave their homes.
A grainy image purporting to show Justin Bourque being taken into custody was circulating on social media.
The mayor of Moncton, George Leblanc, told CBC: “On the one hand we feel very happy, almost elated that this person has been arrested and this ordeal is over.
“But at the same time we have a great sense of sadness for the losses that our families have suffered.”
Earlier, police said the suspect, who was wearing camouflage gear and carrying rifles, had been spotted several times in north Moncton.
Dozens of police officers were seen scouring the search area with weapons drawn. Armoured security trucks were also visible.
One of the wounded Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers has been released from hospital, and one remains in hospital in a stable condition.
The officers were shot while responding to a report of an armed man at the north-west side of the town at about 20:00 local time on Wednesday.
It was the deadliest attack on Canada’s police force since four officers were killed by a gunman on a farm in the western province of Alberta in 2005.
North Korea has announced it arrested a third American tourist last month for inappropriate activities.
A report on the KCNA news agency said the man had entered North Korea on April 29, but was detained as he was leaving the country.
The report said he has been questioned, but gave no more details. Japanese agency Kyodo said the tourist was held because he left a Bible at a hotel.
North Korea has announced it arrested a third American tourist last month for inappropriate activities.
If confirmed, North Korea would now be holding three US citizens.
US-Korean missionary Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012 and is serving 15 years of hard labour after being convicted of trying to overthrow the government.
In late April, KCNA said an American named Matthew Todd Miller had been taken into custody on April 10.
KCNA said he had torn up his tourist visa, shouting that he had “come to the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] after choosing it as a shelter”.
North Korea uses the arrested Americans as diplomatic bargaining chips.
Duck Dynasty’s Si Robertson stopped by Big Smo on A&E’s Whiskey Bent Saloon at CMA Country Music Association’s CMA Festival in Nashville.
Si Robertson stopped by Big Smo on A&E’s Whiskey Bent Saloon at CMA Country Music Association’s CMA Festival in Nashville (photo Facebook)
You can stop by too! Free swag, live music, and meet and greets with TheRealBigSmo.
Jessica, Jep, and Martin are also at the festival!
Si Robertson performed at Manuel’s in Nashville with his daughter-in-law Marsha Robertson and nephew-in-law Jay Nelson singing their song from his album Would You Marry Me Again.
Kourtney Kardashian and her long-time boyfriend Scott Disick are reportedly expecting baby number three.
Kourtney Kardashian and her long-time boyfriend Scott Disick are reportedly expecting baby number three (photo Life&Style)
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians stars already have Mason Dash, 4, and Penelope Scotland, 23 months, and they’re absolutely adorable parents to them.
It’ll be a busy summer for Kourtney Kardashian, who, along with sister Khloé, has rented a home valued at $14 million to film their latest reality show, Kourtney and Khloé Take the Hamptons.
O.J. Simpson’s attorneys resubmitted an appeal seeking a new trial at Nevada Supreme Court on grounds that the imprisoned former football star was misled by his lawyer and didn’t get a fair trial in his Las Vegas kidnapping and armed robbery case.
The 102-page document asks the seven justices to reconsider whether O.J. Simpson’s lead attorney at the time, Yale Galanter, had advance knowledge of the ill-fated September 2007 confrontation involving Simpson, several other men and two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel.
Evidence at trial “tended to indicate that Yale Galanter was involved in the alleged conspiracy,” current O.J. Simpson lawyers Patricia Palm, Ozzie Fumo and Tom Pitaro say in the appeal.
“Galanter’s personal interest in hiding his pre-incident involvement is sufficiently substantial to indicate the existence of an actual conflict.”
O.J. Simpson is serving nine to 33 years at a Nevada state prison in Lovelock in the Las Vegas robbery case (photo Las Vegas Review Journal)
Patricia Palm declined additional comment about the appeal, which was initially stalled by size and formatting issues after she submitted it May 21. Since last week, Patricia Palm double-spaced the document according to Chief Justice Mark Gibbon’s instructions and re-filed it.
The justices haven’t decided if they will hold hearings on O.J. Simpson’s latest appeal and didn’t immediately set a date for a decision, court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. The court is Nevada’s only appellate bench and cases can take months or longer to decide.
The high court in September 2010 rejected a previous appeal by Yale Galanter on behalf of O.J. Simpson.
The new effort alleges that Yale Galanter had a conflict of interest that skewed his representation of O.J. Simpson in a trial also tainted by the sports, television and movie star’s notoriety stemming from his acquittal in the June 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.
The 20th anniversary of the slayings is next week.
O.J. Simpson, now 66, is serving nine to 33 years at a Nevada state prison in Lovelock in the Las Vegas robbery case. He’s not eligible for parole until late 2017.
Yale Galanter on Wednesday defended his performance on Simpson’s behalf.
The Miami-based lawyer pointed to Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell’s ruling in November – after five days of hearings last May and several months reviewing the case record – that O.J. Simpson failed to demonstrate how Yale Galanter’s actions led to Simpson’s conviction.
Linda Marie Bell denied O.J. Simpson’s request for release and a new trial. She said also that evidence was overwhelming that O.J. Simpson orchestrated the September 2007 armed kidnapping and robbery at the Palace Station hotel.
“Judge Bell saw through his and his lawyers’ charade and kicked him to the curb,” Yale Galanter said.
O.J. Simpson continues to say he was trying to retrieve items that had been stolen from him after a 1997 civil case put him on the hook for a $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment.
He testified last year that he thought he had a right to get his belongings back, and that he never knew any of the men with him were carrying guns.
O.J. Simpson didn’t testify at trial in Las Vegas. He the judge that Yale Galanter advised him not to.
Evidence of the world that crashed into the Earth billions of years ago to form the Moon has been found after researchers analyzed the lunar rock brought back by Apollo astronauts .
Analysis of lunar rock shows traces of the “planet” called Theia.
The researchers claim that their discovery confirms the theory that the Moon was created by just such a cataclysmic collision.
The study has been published in the journal Science.
The accepted theory since the 1980s is that the Moon arose as a result of a collision between the Earth and Theia planet 4.5 billion years ago.
The accepted theory since the 1980s is that the Moon arose as a result of a collision between the Earth and Theia planet 4.5 billion years ago
Theia was named after a goddess in Greek mythology who was said to be the mother Selene the goddess of the Moon. It is thought to have disintegrated on impact with the resulting debris mingling with that from the Earth and coalescing into the Moon.
It is the simplest explanation, and fits in well with computer simulations. The main drawback with the theory is that no one had found any evidence of Theia in lunar rock samples.
Earlier analyses had shown Moon rock to have originated entirely from the Earth whereas computer simulations had shown that the Moon ought to have been mostly derived from Theia
Now a more refined analysis of Moon rock has found evidence of material thought to have an alien origin.
According to the lead researcher, Dr. Daniel Herwartz, from the University of Goettingen, no one has found definitive evidence for the collision theory, until now.
But the difference, some say, could be explained by material absorbed by the Earth after the Moon formed.
Dr. Daniel Herwartz measured the difference in what is called the isotopic composition of the oxygen contained in rocks on Earth and Moon rock. This is the ratio of different forms of oxygen.
Studies of meteorites from Mars and the outer solar system show that these ratios are markedly different -rather like a fingerprint.
One possibility is that Theia was formed very close the Earth and so had a similar composition. If that was the case it raises the possibility that the assumption that each planet in the current Solar System has a markedly different fingerprint that needs to be revisited.
Carrie Underwood has won the top prize at this year’s CMT Music Awards.
It marks the fifth time Underwood has lifted the video of the year award – voted for by the public – taking top honors for her track See You Again.
“I’ve been doing this for nine years but every second of those nine years you guys have been amazing,” she said.
Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line both won two awards, including a joint award for collaboration of the year.
Carrie Underwood has won the top prize at this year’s CMT Music Awards
They won for their collaborative video This Is How We Roll.
Luke Bryan won performance of the year with Lionel Richie, for their CMT Crossroads version of Richie’s 1983 hit All Night Long.
Blake Shelton, a judge on the The Voice, won best male video for Doin’ What She Likes, while Cassadee Pope – whom he mentored to triumph in the third series – won breakthrough video of the year.
“I honestly am shocked to be standing here holding this,” said Luke Bryan, on receiving his award.
“I’m freaking out because Cassadee won, I’m so excited for her, so y’all have made this already an unbelievable night for me.”
Blake Shelton’s wife, Miranda Lambert, won female video of the year for the fifth time in a row, with Automatic.
Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood closed out the show, at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, with their duet Something Bad.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced new measures aimed at stimulating the eurozone economy, including negative interest rates and cheap long-term loans to banks.
The ECB cut its deposit rate for banks from zero to -0.1%, to encourage banks to lend to businesses rather than hold on to money.
It also cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.15% from 0.25%.
The ECB is the first major central bank to introduce negative interest rates.
It has been tried before in smaller economies. Sweden and Denmark, who are both outside the Single Currency, attempted to use negative rates in recent years with mixed results.
Analysts said in Sweden it had little discernible impact; in Denmark it did have the effect of lowering the value of the currency, the Krone, but according to the Danish Banking Association it also hit the banks’ bottom line profits.
The ECB’s president, Mario Draghi, also announced other measures.
Long term loans are to be offered to commercial banks at cheap rates until 2018. These loans would be capped at 7% of the amount that the individual banks in question lend to companies. Thus, the more the banks lend to companies, the more money they can borrow cheaply from the ECB.
The ECB cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.15 percent from 0.25 percent
It is also doing preliminary work that could lead to buying bundles of loans that are made to small businesses in the form of bonds. This is being seen as a step towards providing companies with credit through the financial markets.
Mario Draghi said the ECB’s policymakers unanimously agreed to consider more unconventional measures to boost inflation if it stays too low. The ECB stopped short of instituting a large asset-buying program like the quantitative easing (QE) undertaken by the US Federal Reserve. However. Mario Draghi insisted that more would be done, if necessary.
“Are we finished? The answer is no. We aren’t finished here. If need be, within our mandate, we aren’t finished here.” he said.
Mario Draghi said that the whole package of measures was aimed at increasing lending to the “real economy”.
“Now we are in a completely different world,” he said.
Even though some of the measures, like the more to negative rates on deposits, were expected European shares moved higher on the ECB announcement.
The benchmark German DAX 30 index jumped above the 10,000 level for the first time. The CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.8% shortly after the ECB’s comments.
Meanwhile, the euro fell to $1.3558, its lowest level in four months.
Although the danger of deflation in the eurozone is limited, the ECB is concerned that growth is very sluggish and bank lending weak – both of which could potentially derail the fragile economic recovery.
The eurozone economy grew by just 0.2% in the first quarter of the year. Consumer spending, investment and exports are all growing at a slower pace than this time last year.
Inflation in the eurozone fell to 0.5% in May, down from 0.7% in April. This is well below the European Central Bank’s target of just below 2%.
If the eurozone slips into deflation, the fear is that consumers might spend even less because they would expect prices to fall in future months. For the same reason investors could stop investing.
Growth would then be hit and demand would be severely constrained. The large debts amassed by the eurozone’s countries, companies and banks would take longer and be harder to pay off.
Unemployment, which is already at nearly 12% in the eurozone, and much higher in places like Spain, Portugal and Greece, could get even worse.
Mario Draghi emphasized that recovery in the eurozone was not just in the hands of the ECB, but also in the domain of the banks and the governments. He said the banks needed to play their part by increasing lending and reforms by national governments should be carried through.
“In order to strengthen the economic recovery, banks and policy-makers in the euro area must step up their efforts. Banks should take full advantage of this exercise to improve their capital and solvency position, thereby contributing to overcome any existing credit supply restriction that could hamper the recovery.”
“At the same time, policymakers in the euro area should push ahead in the areas of fiscal policies and structural reforms,” he added.
An AV-8B Harrier jet from the Yuma air base in Arizona has crashed into homes in the California desert, about 90 miles east of San Diego.
TV footage showed at least one home on fire on a residential street in the city of Imperial, following the crash on Wednesday evening.
The AV-8B Harrier jet from the Yuma air base in Arizona has crashed into homes in the California desert
The pilot of the military jet ejected safely, and has been taken to hospital with minor injuries.
The US Marine Corps said eight homes had been evacuated but no-one on the ground was hurt.
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the crash, it said in a statement.
It was the second crash in a month of a Harrier jet from the Yuma air base in Arizona, AP news agency reported.
On May 9, a pilot ejected safely before his plane crashed in a remote desert area near the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, south of Phoenix. No-one was hurt.
ASOS shares have plunged by 30% after it issued a second profit warning in three months.
The UK’s online fashion retailer blamed the strength of the pound, which hurt overseas sales and forced it to launch a series of promotions.
International revenues in the three months to the end of May grew by just 17%, against 48% a year earlier.
Chief executive Nick Robertson admitted the retailer’s performance was “not what we had hoped for”.
The pound has risen 10% in value over the last year.
ASOS cut its forecast on profit margins to 4.5% from 6.5% on a sales target of £1 billion ($1.6 billion) for the current financial year.
ASOS shares have plunged by 30 percent after it issued a second profit warning in three months
That would imply a fall in profits to £45 million ($72 million) from a previous forecast of £65 million ($105 million).
ASOS, which achieves a high proportion of revenues from womenswear, recently launched a series of promotions.
These normally represent 3% of sales but rose to 8% in its third quarter.
But the discounts were not enough to offset the decline in its overseas sales, which account for 60% of the retailer’s total revenues.
ASOS warned in March that the costs of new warehousing in the UK and Germany, as well as start-up expenses in China would hit earnings.
Half-year pre-tax profits fell 22% to £20.1 million ($32 million).
Nick Robertson said sales in the three months to the end of May were strong, up 25% across the group and 43% in the UK.
But overseas growth has been slowing in each quarter for the past year.
US sales were up 17% compared with 59% a year ago, while sales growth across Europe of 37% compared with a 56% rise a year earlier.
For the rest of the world, sales slowed to a trickle of 1% compared with 38% the year before.
Nick Robertson said the result was a higher proportion of sales came from the UK and Europe, where margins are lower.
ASOS, which stands for As Seen on Screen, is targeting annual sales of £2.5 billion ($4 billion).
It reported total sales of £754 million ($1.2 billion) in its last set of full year results to the end of August 2013 a rise of 40% on the year before.
Its share price soared to 7111p earlier this year, more than doubling the company’s value on the year before, but has since slumped amid profit concerns.
Nick Robertson said: “Whilst our profit performance for this financial year is not what we had hoped for due to an unusual combination of factors, our accelerated investment in technology and infrastructure to support our £2.5 billion [$4 billion] sales ambition is progressing.
“We are totally focused on rolling out the Asos business model globally as the world’s leading online fashion destination for 20-somethings.”
GM has accepted the findings of a “brutally tough, deeply troubling” report into recalls of its Chevrolet Cobalt over ignition problems which have been linked to 13 deaths.
The carmaker also said it would launch a compensation fund for crash victims and their families.
CEO Mary Barra said the report, which was carried out by former US Attorney Anton Valukas, found “the Cobalt saga was riddled with failures”.
She said 15 employees have been fired.
Five other workers who acted “inappropriately” have been disciplined.
To date, GM has recalled 2.6 million cars with the defective switch.
GM has accepted the findings of a troubling report into recalls of its Chevrolet Cobalt over ignition problems
It took the carmaker more than a decade to report the ignition switch failures, in which the switch can slip out of the “run” position and effectively shut down the car, causing the driver to lose control.
Although the problem has been linked to 13 deaths so far, lawyers for victims put the total at closer to 60.
Mary Barra, in announcing the results of Anton Valukas’s report which involved over 200 employee interviews and more than 40 million documents, promised to “fix the failures in our system”.
However, in a statement, GM emphasized that the report had found no conspiracy or cover-up.
“The Valukas report confirmed that Mary Barra, [and other GM executives] Mike Millikin and Mark Reuss did not learn about the ignition switch safety issues and the delay in addressing them until after the decision to issue a recall was made on January 31, 2014,” GM chairman Tim Solso said.
Last month, GM paid a $35 million fine – the maximum allowed by US law – for its failure to report the ignition switch problems in a timely manner.
Analysts said that GM was hoping this report would be the final word on the matter.
The compensation fund will be run by Kenneth Feinberg, who also led claims processing in the wake of September 11 and the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I will be spending the next few weeks seeking advice and input from all interested parties as to the terms and conditions of such a program,” said Kenneth Feinberg in a statement.
He said the fund would start taking claims on August 1.
GM shares barely budged in the wake of the report. Earlier this week, it reported its best May sales in seven years.
Moncton remains on lockdown as Canadian authorities hunt for suspect Justin Bourque accused of shooting five police officers, killing three, on Wednesday.
Officials say Justin Bourque, 24, was spotted multiple times early on Thursday morning.
They have warned people to stay inside and lock their doors.
The two wounded Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers are undergoing surgery in hospital and their conditions remain unknown.
“We have an armed and dangerous individual and we do not know where he is,” RCMP Commanding Officer Roger Brown told reporters, asking citizens to remain “vigilant”.
Moncton remains on lockdown as Canadian authorities hunt for suspect Justin Bourque
RCMP Supt. Marlene Snowman warned that the suspect was armed with high-powered firearms.
“He’s not known to us, he’s a young person,” she said.
“We’re doing a complete investigation to learn as much as we can about him, about his history, what may have sparked this.”
New Brunswick Premier David Alward said he felt “incredible grief” stemming from the incident.
The officers were shot while responding to a report of an armed man at the north-west side of the town at about 20:00 local time on Wednesday,
Police established road blocks in an effort to seal a perimeter around the residential area and combed nearby woods, searching through the night and into the morning.
Schools in the town are closed, buses are not running, and postal service has been suspended.
Pedestrians and motorists have been asked to stay away from the area.
Justin Bourque was spotted after daylight, but Marlene Snowman warned he was “very mobile”.
“There’s no question that we’re going to continue this search in order to apprehend him,” she said.
Justin Bieber has issued a second apology after claims he used the n-word and joked about joining the Ku Klux Klan.
The 20-year-old said he needed to “take responsibility” for his mistakes and “not let them linger”.
Justin Bieber then posted Bible verses on Instagram, which apparently ask for forgiveness.
Earlier this week Justin Bieber said sorry for another video in which he made a racist joke that he called a “childish and inexcusable mistake”.
Justin Bieber’s apology comes after The Sun published a clip where he changed the words of his hit One Less Lonely Girl to include the n-word.
Justin Bieber has issued a second apology after claims he used the n-word and joked about joining the Ku Klux Klan (photo Getty Images)
Speaking to The Sun from Mexico, Justin Bieber said that facing up to the mistakes of his past was one of the hardest things he had ever had to deal with.
He said he did not want his fans to think he was condoning racism.
“I just hope that the next 14-year-old kid who doesn’t understand the power of these words does not make the same mistakes I made years ago,” he said.
“At the end of the day I just need to step up and own what I did. Once again, I am sorry for all those I have let down and offended.”
The Bible verses he posted on Instagram included 1 John 1:7, which reads: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
The most recent 24-second clip reportedly showed Justin Bieber giggling several times as he changes the words of the song One Less Lonely Girl, which he co-wrote with Usher.
He also referred to joining the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group based mainly in the US.
It’s claimed that the sound of girls laughing can be heard during the video, which is said to have been filmed shortly after Justin Bieber was signed to the Raymond Braun Media Group.
