Sadie Robertson, daughter of Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson, attended the Madison Academy Junior/Senior Banquet at Burritt on the Mountain with Madison Academy student Blake Coward.
Sadie Robertson tweeted a photo of herself and Blake Coward at the Alabama banquet.
Sadie Robertson and Blake Coward attended the Madison Academy Junior Senior Banquet
“I got the privilege to take Sadie to Jr/Sr last night,” said Blake Coward via Facebook message.
Blake Coward is a junior, and plays football and baseball for the Madison Academy Mustangs.
Sadie Robertson, 16, has cousins who attend Madison Academy, and she met Blake Coward while attending one of their softball games.
“I asked her on a date later,” said Blake Coward.
“It went great and then I visited her in Louisiana about a month later and we have been dating for three months now.”
Chelsea Chanel Dudley, aka Chanel West Coast, rose to celebrity as the rapping secretary on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory.
Chelsea Chanel Dudley, aka Chanel West Coast, rose to celebrity as the rapping secretary on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory
Since then, Chanel West Coast did some modeling for Maxim as well as Rob Dyrdek’s “Reckless” clothing brand.
Chanel West Coast, 25, has also become a co-host on Rob Dyrdek’s internet video spoof show Ridiculousness and has begun a musical career rapping on tracks with various artists.
Chanel West Coast unlikely popularity has stemmed largely from the reality show juggernaut that Rob Dyrdek has somehow become.
Two Kuwaiti newspapers have been temporary suspended for breaking a news blackout about an alleged coup plot, a judge has ruled today.
The independent newspapers, Al Watan and Alam Al Yawm, published details of a videotape said to show former senior officials planning the overthrow of the Gulf state’s leadership.
Both papers have been ordered to stop printing for two weeks.
The editor of Al Watan said it would appeal against the suspension.
Kuwaiti independent newspapers, Al Watan and Alam Al Yawm, published details of a videotape said to show former senior officials planning the overthrow of the Gulf state’s leadership
He told Reuters news agency: “I do not think we talked about the tape more than any other newspaper.”
The videotape purportedly contains allegations of a plot to topple the government of the Western-backed emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah.
Reports about the tape have featured extensively in local media since the start of the year, prompting a recent call from the emir’s office to stop discussing the topic.
Earlier this month the Kuwaiti prosecutor’s office ordered a media blackout of the investigation. Last week Kuwait’s lawmakers discussed the tape behind closed doors.
Kuwait’s parliament is one of the few elected bodies in the Gulf.
Kuwait is home to about a dozen daily newspapers, which often include criticism of government ministers including some ruling family members.
The transcript of the last communications between South Korean ferry that sank on Wednesday and traffic services reveal panic and indecision by the crew.
In the newly released transcript, a crew member repeatedly asks if there were vessels on hand to rescue passengers if evacuation was ordered.
The captain has said he delayed the move for fear people would drift away.
After three days, divers have now entered the ferry and retrieved 26 bodies, bringing the death toll to 58.
However, another 244 people are still missing. Some 174 passengers were rescued.
The Sewol capsized during a journey from Incheon in the north-west to the southern island of Jeju. There were 476 people on board – including 339 children and teachers on a school trip,
Investigations are focusing on whether the vessel took too sharp a turn before it started listing and whether an earlier evacuation order could have saved lives.
Some experts believe the turn could have dislodged heavy cargo and destabilized the vessel.
Messages and phone calls from those inside paint a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the sharply-listing ferry.
Sewol ferry capsized during a journey from Incheon in the north-west to the southern island of Jeju
Details of the panic on the bridge emerged on Sunday, when the coastguard released a transcript of the last communications between the crew and controllers.
At 09:24 – 29 minutes after the Sewol issued its first distress call – a controller says: “Please go out and let the passengers wear life jackets and put on more clothing.”
The unidentified crew member says: “If this ferry evacuates passengers, will you be able to rescue them?”
“At least make them wear life rings and make them escape,” the controller from the Jindo Vessel Traffic Services Centre replies.
As he continues to urge the crew to prepare for evacuation, the crew member twice asks if passengers would be “rescued straight away”.
It was not until 09:37 – a few seconds before the last communication – that it became clear to controllers that evacuation had been ordered.
On Saturday the captain, Lee Joon-seok, appeared on TV saying: “I bow my head in apology to the families of the victims.
“The current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold, and I thought that if people left the ferry without proper judgement, if they were not wearing a life jacket, and even if they were, they would drift away and face many other difficulties.”
Lee Joon-seok, 69, was not on the bridge when the ferry began listing. It was steered inexperienced by a third mate who had never navigated the waters where the accident occurred, prosecutors said on Saturday.
The captain and two other crew members have been charged with negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.
Since the capsize, many of the relatives of those on board have been on Jindo island, near the site of the accident. Some have protested over the rescue operation.
Boats carrying 13 of the recently retrieved bodies arrived at Paengmok Port on Jindo on Sunday.
About 200 ships, 34 aircraft and 600 divers have been taking part in the search operation. Fishing boats with powerful lights have been brought in to help the divers operate at night.
But the currents are still strong and the visibility remains challenging.
Sewol communications excerpt:
Controller: “Please go out and let the passengers wear life jackets and put on more clothing.”
Crew member: “If this ferry evacuates passengers, will you be able to rescue them?”
Controller: “At least make them wear life rings and make them escape.”
Crew member: “If this ferry evacuates passengers, will they be rescued right away?”
Controller: “Don’t let them go bare. At least make them wear life rings and make them escape… We don’t know the situation very well. The captain should make the final decision and decide whether you’re going to evacuate passengers or not.”
Crew member: “I’m not talking about that. I asked, if they evacuate now, can they be rescued right away?”
Quentin Tarantino was joined by Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Dern and Michael Madsen in Los Angeles for a reading of his leaked script, Hateful Eight.
Once due to be the follow-up to Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino cancelled the film in January after the script spread around Hollywood and film websites.
At the time, the director said he was “very, very depressed” by the leak.
However, Quentin Tarantino, 51, was in better spirits for the one-off live reading and hinted his movie may yet see the light of day.
“I’m working on a second draft and I will do a third draft but we’re reading from the first draft,” he told the audience at Los Angeles’ Theatre at the Ace Hotel.
He also suggested the script would be changed substantially in future drafts – in particular the final act, which he described as the “fifth chapter”.
“The chapter five here will not be the chapter five later so this will be the only time it is seen, ever,” he said.
Quentin Tarantino was joined by Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Dern and Michael Madsen in Los Angeles for a reading of his leaked script, Hateful Eight
Set in post-civil war Wyoming, the Western drama takes place after a blizzard diverts a stagecoach from its route, stranding a mismatched group of outlaws in a “haberdashery”.
Among their number are a competing pair of bounty hunters, a renegade Confederate soldier and a female prisoner.
Four of the five “chapters” take place almost entirely within one room, said the Hollywood Reporter, which described the plot as an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit, albeit with added violence.
Several of Quentin Tarantino’s old cast-members took part in the reading, with Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Kurt Russell (Death Proof) and Amber Tamblyn (Django Unchained) all on stage.
“We’ve been rehearsing this for the last 3 days and we’re not bad,” said Quentin Tarantino.
Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell played the dueling bounty hunters, while Michael Madsen played cowboy John Gage and Quentin Tarantino narrated.
“Guys, you are starting to drift away from the dialogue on the page,” he told the ensemble at one point.
“No more co-writing!”
About 1,200 people attended the show, with tickets priced between $150 and $200.
Among the audience were film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has distributed several of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, and X-Men writer David Hayder.
Mobile phones were banned, and there was no live stream of the event.
Meanwhile, Quentin Tarantino is suing gossip website Gawker for contributory copyright infringement after it posted a link to the leaked screenplay.
Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, whose wrongful conviction for murder caused an international outcry, has died at the age of 76.
Rubin Carter died on Sunday at his home in Toronto, Canada, his friend and former co-defendant John Artis, confirmed.
The former boxer spent 19 years in prison for three murders in New Jersey in 1966.
The alleged racial motivations behind the incarceration became well-known in Bob Dylan’s song Hurricane, several books and a film.
John Artis said Rubin Carter had died in his sleep, following a battle with prostate cancer, AP news agency reported.
Rubin Hurricane Carter spent 19 years in prison for three murders in New Jersey in 1966
Rubin Carter was charged with the murder of three white people in New Jersey in 1966.
He was convicted on the evidence of two white prosecution witnesses, who were attempting to commit a burglary near the location of the murders.
The witnesses recanted their statements in 1974, and Rubin Carter was briefly freed in 1976 after the guilty verdicts were overturned.
The case made Rubin Carter a high-profile figure in the civil-rights movement, and famous campaigners including Bob Dylan and Muhammad Ali expressed their support for him.
However, he was retried and convicted again in 1976. One of the prosecution witnesses withdrew his recantation, the New York Times reported.
Rubin Hurricane Carter was freed for good in 1985, after a federal judge overturned his convictions.
Judge H Lee Sarokin said Rubin Carter’s convictions had been “predicated on an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure”.
Following his release, Rubin Hurricane Carter moved to Toronto, and campaigned for the rights of those wrongfully convicted.
In an opinion piece for the New York Daily News in February this year, Rubin Carter thanked Judge H Lee Sarokin for freeing him.
“I lived in hell for the first 49 years, and have been in heaven for the past 28 years. To live in a world where truth matters and justice, however late, really happens, that world would be heaven enough for us all.”
Pope Francis led his second Easter Mass and delivered the Urbi et Orbi message on Easter Sunday in front of tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
After leading the ceremony that marks the holiest day in the Christian calendar, Pope Francis delivered his traditional blessing and address.
The pontiff prayed for peace in Syria and Ukraine and “an end to all war and every conflict”.
And he also prayed for those people around the world suffering from hunger, poverty, disease and neglect.
This is the second Easter mass and “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message Pope Francis, 77, has delivered as Pope.
Pope Francis led his second Easter Mass in front of tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square
The avenue leading up to the Vatican was filled with 35,000 flowers donated by the Netherlands.
“Help us to overcome the scourge of hunger, aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible,” Pope Francis prayed.
He appealed for more medical attention for those suffering from the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa and also prayed for the protection of the most vulnerable members of society.
Pope Francis asked God to “enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine so that all those involved… will make every effort to prevent violence and, in a spirit of unity and dialogue, chart a path for the country’s future”.
“We pray in a particular way for Syria,” he said, expressing the hope that the “defenseless civil population” will be protected from the violence and get the aid they need.
In reference to Syria, Pope Francis urged the international community to “boldly negotiate the peace long awaited and long overdue”.
Pope Francis’ message came as Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad marked Easter by visiting the ancient Christian town of Maalula.
The four French journalists released from captivity in Syria have been speaking about their ordeal at the hands of suspected Islamist rebels.
Didier Francois said the four men were chained to each other and kept in basements without natural light.
His colleague Nicolas Henin added that they were “not always well treated”.
Nicolas Henin and Didier Francois, along with Edouard Elias and Pierre Torres, were greeted by their families and President Francois Hollande on arrival in France.
They had been found by Turkish soldiers on the Syrian border late on Friday.
The jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has been accused of kidnapping them.
Television footage after their reappearance showed the men looking unkempt, with beards and long hair, but in good health.
Nicolas Henin and Didier Francois, along with Edouard Elias and Pierre Torres, were greeted by their families and President Francois Hollande on arrival in France
Didier Francois, 53, said he was “very happy to be free… to see the sky, to be able to walk and to be able to speak freely”.
“We spent six whole months in basements without seeing daylight, and for two-and-a-half months we were chained to each other,” he told his own radio station, Europe 1.
“It was a long haul, but we never lost hope,” Didier Francois added.
“From time to time, we got snatches of information, we knew that the world was mobilized.”
The journalists were found blindfolded and handcuffed in a no-man’s land in Turkey’s border province of Sanliurfa and were taken by Turkish soldiers to a police station in the nearby town of Akcakale.
The men went missing in two separate incidents last June.
Didier Francois, a veteran war correspondent, and Edouard Elias, a photographer, were abducted in early June on their way to Aleppo.
Nicolas Henin, who was working for Le Point magazine, and Pierre Torres, reporting for French-German television channel Arte, were taken later that month near Raqqa.
Negotiations with their kidnappers had been going on for several weeks but it is not known if anything was offered to them in return for freeing the men.
Welcoming them at Villacoublay air base, south of Paris, President Francois Hollande called it a “day of great joy” both for the four journalists and for France.
“France is proud that these compatriots serve the freedom of the press and France is proud to have been able to secure their liberty,” he said.
Francois Hollande also denied that France had paid a ransom.
Syria has become one of the most dangerous places for journalists.
More than 60 journalists have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad three years ago.
Families of passengers on sunken South Korean ferry Sewol have protested angrily over the rescue operation.
Police stopped up to 100 people trying to leave Jindo island intending to march to Seoul.
After more than three days, divers have now finally entered the ferry, retrieving 22 bodies and bringing the death toll to 54.
However, another 248 people are still missing from the Sewol ferry, which sank on Wednesday.
Some 174 passengers were rescued.
Since the capsize, many of the relatives of those on board have been on Jindo, in the south-west of the country.
Hundreds have been camping at a gymnasium on the island, awaiting news from the rescue operation.
Scuffles broke out when some family members tried to cross a bridge to the mainland, reportedly to march on the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, some 260 miles to the north.
Relatives are anxious for the bodies to be retrieved before they decompose.
Families of passengers on sunken South Korean ferry Sewol have protested angrily over the rescue operation
Even the prime minister came down to try to dissuade the protesters from marching on Seoul, with officials worried that the controversy could turn into a national political issue and harm the government.
About 200 ships, 34 aircraft and 600 divers have been taking part in the search operation.
Squid fishing boats with powerful lights have been brought in to help the divers operate at night.
But the currents are still strong and the visibility remains challenging.
Coastguard official Koh Myung-seok told a briefing that divers had discovered a number of routes into the ferry, and found bodies in different locations.
Captain Lee Joon-seok and two other crew members are in custody and have been charged with negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.
Officials said on Saturday that the ferry was being steered by an inexperienced third mate in unfamiliar waters when it sank.
Lee Joon-seok, 69, was not initially on the bridge when the ship ran into trouble.
The Sewol, carrying 476 passengers and crew, capsized during a journey from the port of Incheon in the north-west to the southern holiday island of Jeju.
Investigations are focusing on a sharp turn the vessel took before it started listing and whether an evacuation order could have saved lives.
Some experts believe the ship’s tight turn could have dislodged heavy cargo and destabilized the vessel, while others suggest the sinking could have been caused by a collision with a rock.
Messages and phone calls from those inside painted a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the sharply-listing ferry.
Footage from the ship appeared to show instructions from crew members for passengers to remain on board even as it tilted dramatically to one side.
Some 350 of those on board were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, a suburb of Seoul, who were on a school outing when the ferry sank.
Orthodox Church patriarchs in Kiev and Moscow have highlighted during their Easter messages the deep division in Ukraine, where a tense stand-off is continuing in the east.
The head of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church Patriarch Filaret accused Russia of “aggression” and “evil”.
Russian Church Patriarch Kirill asked God to end the designs of those who wanted to rip apart Russia and Ukraine.
Pro-Russian activists in the east continue to occupy government offices.
Meanwhile Russia media are reporting several deaths in a gun battle near the eastern town of Sloviansk.
Reports of fatalities in the region have appeared before but have not been independently confirmed.
A mediator from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is scheduled to hold talks with them on Sunday.
Russian Church Patriarch Kirill asked God to end the designs of those who wanted to rip apart Russia and Ukraine
Ertogrul Apakan, who heads the special OSCE mission in Kiev, said his deputy would be in Donetsk to try to get them to comply with an agreement reached on Thursday to ease the crisis.
In his Easter message, Patriarch Filaret said: “Against our peace-loving nation, which voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons, there has been aggression, there has been injustice.
“A country which guaranteed the integrity and inviolability of our territory has committed aggression. God cannot be on the side of evil, so the enemy of the Ukrainian people is condemned to defeat.
“Lord, help us resurrect Ukraine.”
In Moscow, Patriarch Kirill appealed for peace, saying it “should reign in the hearts and minds of our brothers and sisters by blood and by faith”.
But he also said Ukraine was “spiritually and historically” at one with Russia, and he prayed for it to have authorities that were “legitimately elected”.
“We are a single people before God,” he said.
Ukraine’s acting President, Oleksandr Turchynov, said in his Easter message: “We are living in a fateful time when the Ukrainian people have decisively affirmed their striving for freedom and justice.”
In an interview to be aired in full later on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Ukraine’s interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to “restore the Soviet Union”.
If Vladimir Putin succeeded, Arseniy Yatsenyuk says, it would be “the biggest disaster of this century”.
Ukraine has been in crisis since President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled in February.
Russia then annexed the Crimean peninsula – part of Ukraine but with a Russian-speaking majority – in a move that provoked international outrage.
The annexation followed a referendum in Crimea that backed a move to join the Russian Federation.
Pro-Russian activists then occupied buildings in several eastern Ukrainian cities, many calling on Moscow to support them.
Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US agreed during talks in Geneva on Thursday that illegal military groups in Ukraine must be dissolved, and that those occupying government premises must be disarmed and leave.
But the separatists’ spokesman in the city of Donetsk said that the Kiev government was “illegal”, and vowed they would not go until it stepped down.
Prince George has met Bilby George at Taronga Zoo in Sydney during his first official engagement in Australia.
The two came face-to-face on Sunday at Taronga Zoo’s enclosure, where it was officially named the Prince George Bilby Exhibit as part of Australia’s gift following the prince’s birth on July 22 last year.
It had been anticipated that Prince George would make his only public appearance at the zoo, but it wasn’t confirmed until he was filmed being put into the car by his mother Kate Middleton.
Kate Middleton carried Prince George – dressed in dark blue shorts, a striped lighter blue-colored shirt, dark blue socks and shoes – as they entered the zoo.
Eight-month-old Prince George looked inquisitive, and was chuckling and looking at the cameras.
Prince George has met Bilby George at Taronga Zoo in Sydney during his first official engagement in Australia
Kate Middleton had changed out the dove-grey Alexander McQueen outfit she wore to church during Easter Sunday service, into a lemon cream broderie anglaise dress by a designer who did not want to be named. The dress had a fitted bodice and flared out to the knee.
After a quick photo op, the family headed into the enclosure where the meeting took place.
Prince William helped break the ice, when he enticed the bilby – renamed George – over with some food.
Kate Middleton held Prince George close to the glass wall dividing the pair, and he started to show a keen interest in the endangered marsupial.
Despite being a royal, Prince George proved himself to be a normal baby – eagerly grabbing the stuffed bilby present before throwing it on the ground – and sticking a card straight in his mouth.
This was Prince George’s second official function.
During the New Zealand leg of the trip, Prince George “hosted” a play group event with other babies his age at Government House.
After the very short engagement, Prince George returned to Admiralty House, while Kate Middleton and Prince William continued through the zoo, feeding tree kangaroos, walking past giraffes, enjoying a bird show, and taking in the rhino conservation display.
On Good Friday, Prince William and Kate Middleton visited the Royal Easter Show at Sydney Olympic Park in Australia.
The Royal Easter Show is one of Australia’s largest events, attracting around 900,000 people over the course of two weeks.
Prince William and Kate Middleton watched a shearing demonstration, and the Duchess of Cambridge seized the opportunity to poke fun at her husband’s bald spot (photo Getty Images)
Kate Middleton, 32, opted to wear a local designer, Zimmerman. The Roamer Day dress, from the Summer/Swim 2014 collection, retails for $495 and arrives in stores this June; it’s previously been worn by Naomi Watts. She completed her look with $395 Stuart Weitzman Minx espadrille wedges.
Prince William and Kate Middleton watched a shearing demonstration, and the Duchess of Cambridge seized the opportunity to poke fun at her husband’s bald spot. Lyn Crejan, a farmer from Glenn Innes in New South Wales, showed them a tuft of alpaca wool that just so happened to be a similar shade to Prince William’s hair.
“The Prince was interested in the alpaca and as I showed it to them the Princess said he should put it on his head,” Lyn Crejan told reporters.
“She said, <<You need it more than me>>, and pointed to his head and he laughed.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton have marked Easter Sunday by attending a church service in Sydney.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were greeted by cheering crowds outside St Andrew’s Cathedral in the city centre.
While at the cathedral, they signed the First Fleet Bible, which was brought to Australia in 1788 and bears the names of other members of the royal family.
Prince William and Kate Middleton then moved onto Taronga Zoo, where Prince George was introduced to a bilby, a rabbit-like marsupial.
Dressed in a blue striped shirt, blue shorts and black shoes, the young prince looked excited to meet the native animal, which was named George in his honor.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were greeted by cheering crowds outside St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney
Prince William and Kate Middleton then unveiled a plaque at the bilby enclosure, which was paid for by the Australian government to celebrate Prince George’s birth.
Earlier, the private church service was also attended by Australian PM Tony Abbott.
Archbishop of Sydney the Most Reverend Dr. Glenn Davies and Dean of Sydney the Very Reverend Phillip Jensen met Prince William and Kate Middleton on the cathedral steps before the service began.
The bible had previously been signed by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh as well as the Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales in 1983 on their visit to Australia with an infant Prince William.
Prince William and Kate Middleton also signed the prayer book of the First Fleet – the 11 ships that carried Europeans to Australia in the 1780s.
Kate Middleton wore a dove grey Alexander McQueen coat and Jane Taylor hat for the service, while her husband wore a suit.
After the service, they spent time speaking to members of the cathedral choir and children who had gathered nearby to see the royal couple.
Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan’s best known television presenters, has been shot and wounded by gunmen in the city of Karachi.
Police said the attackers opened fire on Hamid Mir’s car near the airport.
The presenter for Geo TV received three bullets, but was in a stable condition, the officials added.
There have been previous attempts on the life of Hamid Mir, the first journalist to interview Osama bin Laden after 9/11.
Pakistan is one of the most dangerous countries for the media.
The attack has been strongly condemned by Pakistani politicians, including PM Nawaz Sharif.
Hamid Mir is one of Pakistan’s best known television presenters (photo Geo TV)
Last month, Nawaz Sharif pledged to do more to protect journalists in Pakistan.
Hamid Mir had just landed in Karachi and was on his way to the studios of Geo TV, a private Pakistani news channel, when unidentified gunmen in a car and on motorcycles reportedly tailed him before opening fire.
Police said he sustained three gunshot wounds, but that his life was not in danger.
Hamid Mir’s brother, a leading investigative journalist, has accused the country’s intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), of orchestrating the attack.
According to his brother, Hamid Mir had recently told family and colleagues that he had received threats from the ISI because of his political views.
In 2012, the Pakistani Taliban tried to kill Hamid Mir by planting 1lb of explosives under his car outside his home in the capital, Islamabad.
But the remote-controlled bomb failed to go off.
The Taliban had threatened Hamid Mir and other journalists for their coverage of the militants’ shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.
Five journalists were killed in Pakistan in 2013 and more than 50 have died since the early 1990s. Most murders remain unresolved.
Giorgio Armani fashion house has paid 270 million euros ($374 million) to the Italian authorities to settle a tax bill.
An Armani spokesman confirmed reports that the payment concerned the group’s subsidiaries abroad but declined to comment further.
Giorgio Armani fashion house has paid 270 million euros to the Italian authorities to settle a tax bill
Last year the designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were convicted of concealing millions of euros in tax.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have appealed against a 20-month jail sentence.
All tax claims against Armani, which saw sales rise to more than 2 billion euros in 2012 according to Reuters news agency, are now closed, the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reports.
Lara Spencer has been promoted to co-host status on Good Morning America, ABC has announced.
Lifestyle anchor since returning to the show in 2011, Lara Spencer now has billing parity with Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos.
Lara Spencer was GMA‘s national correspondent from 1999 to 2004. Then, for seven years, she was a host of The Insider.
Lara Spencer has been promoted to co-host status on Good Morning America
Her promotion comes as GMA continues to beat NBC’s Today show in the ratings, but after it recently lost two members of its team, Sam Champion and Josh Elliott.
The other current members of the GMA family are Ginger Zee and Amy Robach.
Also this week, Good Morning America welcomed Michael Strahan, a co-host of the daily Live with Kelly and Michael, as a contributor.
Gwen Stefani is to sign a deal to join NBC’s The Voice for the upcoming seventh season.
Gwen Stefani, 44, will replace pregnant Christina Aguilera on the upcoming fall season with a one-season deal.
Gwen Stefani is to sign a deal to join NBC’s The Voice for the upcoming seventh season (photo Getty Images)
Christina Aguilera is set to return for the following spring season.
Gwen Stefani will join Pharrell Williams, who replaced CeeLo Green, on the upcoming season. Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are expected to return as well.
An Ohio couple, who had 70 years of marriage, have died 15 hours apart.
Helen Felumlee, of Nashport, died at 92 on April 12. Her husband, Kenneth Felumlee, died at the age of 91 the next morning.
Helen and Kenneth Felumlee’s eight children say the two had been inseparable since meeting as teenagers, once sharing the bottom of a bunk bed on a ferry rather than sleeping one night apart, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported.
They remained deeply in love until the very end, even eating breakfast together while holding hands, said their daughter, Linda Cody.
“We knew when one went, the other was going to go,” she said.
According to Linda Cody, about 12 hours after Helen Felumlee died, Kenneth looked at his children and said: “Mom’s dead.”
Helen Felumlee died at 92 on April 12 and her husband Kenneth died at the age of 91 the next morning
Kenneth Felumlee quickly began to fade and was surrounded by 24 of his closest family members and friends when he died the next morning.
“He was ready,” Linda Cody said.
“He just didn’t want to leave her here by herself.”
Helen and Kenneth had known each other for several years when they eloped in Newport, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, on February 20, 1944. At two days shy of his 21st birthday, Kenneth Felumlee was too young to marry in Ohio.
“He couldn’t wait,” son Jim Felumlee said.
Kenneth Felumlee worked as a railroad car inspector and mechanic before becoming a mail carrier for the Nashport Post Office. He was active in his Nashport-Irville United Methodist Church as a Sunday school teacher.
Helen Felumlee stayed at home, not only cooking and cleaning for her own family but also for other families in need in the area. She taught Sunday school, too, but was known more for her greeting card ministry, sending cards for birthdays, sympathy and the holidays to everyone in her community, each with a personal note inside.
“She kept Hallmark in business,” daughter-in-law Debbie Felumlee joked.
When Kenneth Felumlee retired in 1983 and the children began to leave the house, the Felumlees began to explore their love of travel, visiting almost all 50 states by bus.
“He didn’t want to fly anywhere because you couldn’t see anything as you were going,” Jim Felumlee said.
Although Helen and Kenneth Felumlee experienced declining health in recent years, each tried to stay strong for the other, their daughter said.
In a recent interview, living doll Valeria Lukyanova said she believes the world’s looks are deteriorating because ethnicities are mixing.
Ukrainian-horn Human Barbie has been an object of fascination for several years for her extreme proportions and features.
For GQ Russia’s April issue, editor-in-chief Michael Idov traveled overseas to meet the 28-year-old living doll in the flesh and discovered that “her world is far more bizarre” than any photo online can capture.
“I realize that just like everyone reading about Human Barbie, I had had a simple narrative prepared in my head: A small-town girl grows up obsessed with dolls, etc.,” Michael Idov wrote.
“Instead, I get a racist space alien.”
Valeria Lukyanova said she believes the world’s looks are deteriorating because ethnicities are mixing
Valeria Lukyanova’s look has been debated fiercely online, with many people saying she uses Photoshop to achieve her anime-like appearance. Others chalk up her image to plastic surgery, though Valeria Lukyanova said she’s only undergone breast augmentation. Instead, she claims the rest is done with “sport massage, healthy living and professional makeup.”
In her interview with GQ magazine, the “Human Barbie” addressed topics she’s never explored with reporters before: race and procreation.
According to Valeria Lukyanova, everyone wants to be beautiful, but because of race-mixing, many have had to resort to plastic surgery.
“Everyone wants a slim figure. Everyone gets breasts done. Everyone fixes up their face if it’s not ideal, you know? Everyone strives for the golden mean. It’s global now,” she said.
The living doll explained further that because of the melting pot that is the world today, there’s been an increase in demand for plastic surgery.
“Ethnicities are mixing now, so there’s degeneration, and it didn’t used to be like that. Remember how many beautiful women there were in the 1950s and 1960s, without any surgery? And now, thanks to degeneration, we have this,” she said.
“For example, a Russian marries an Armenian, they have a kid, a cute girl, but she has her dad’s nose. She goes and files it down a little, and it’s all good.”
For this reason, Valeria Lukyanova said, she is not open to the idea of having children.
“It’s unacceptable to me. The very idea of having children brings out this deep revulsion in me,” she said.
“I’d rather die from torture, because the worst thing in the world is to have a family lifestyle.”
Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 40th birthday with a three-hour live special that will air on Sunday, February 15, 2015.
The show will include a huge reunion of former cast members.
The list of returning Not Ready for Primetime Players, as well as special and musical guests from the show’s run, will be announced in the coming months.
“Saturday Night Live is an institution unlike anything else in television history,” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment.
Saturday Night Live will celebrate its 40th birthday with a three-hour live special that will air on February 15, 2015
“The many brilliant <<Not Ready for Primetime Players>> over the years is a who’s who of film and television comedy for the last two generations. The roster includes everyone from the iconic first cast in 1975 to household names ranging from Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, and Adam Sandler, to Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers – to name only a few. This brand, which is still one of the highest-rated comedies on television, was the brainchild of Lorne Michaels, who still presides over the whole enterprise today. This special is just one of the many ways we plan to celebrate ‘SNL’s’ historic 40th season next year.”
SNL has won 40 Emmy Awards, the most in television history.
The show also holds the title for the most-nominated TV show in Emmy history with 171 nods. It has been honored twice, in 1990 and 2009, with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and cited as “truly a national institution”.
Saturday Night Live, which has also been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the National Association of Broadcaster, remains television’s highest-rated late-night show.
Broadcast live from NBC’s famed Studio 8H in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, Saturday Night Live premiered October 11, 1975.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
Michelle Obama and American Idol alum Kellie Pickler will guest star one episode of ABC’s Nashville.
FLOTUS and Kellie Pickler are to appear on the May 7 episode of the ABC drama, titled All or Nothing With Me.
Michelle Obama and American Idol alum Kellie Pickler will guest star one episode of ABC’s Nashville
They will play as themselves during a charity event held by Rayna (Connie Britton) at Fort Campbell after she finds out that Luke (Will Chase) has been injured in Afghanistan.
Michelle Obama has made numerous appearances on news and talk shows, but she’s only guested once before on a scripted show playing herself on Nickelodeon’s iCarly.
Kellie Pickler, a country singer who placed sixth on the fifth season of Fox’s American Idol and won the 16th season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, has appeared on a couple scripted shows, including the CW’s 90210 and the syndicated The Bonnie Hunt Show.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has chosen a former chapel in Yorkshire as the venue for his next month’s exhibition in the UK.
Ai Weiwei will send 45 antique Chinese chairs to be laid out in the 18th Century chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
They will be shown alongside three sculptures from May 24.
Ai Weiwei in the Chapel will be the artist’s first exhibition in a public British gallery since he filled Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall with thousands of porcelain sunflower seeds in 2010.
Ai Weiwei will not travel to the sculpture park, near Wakefield, for the occasion.
Ai Weiwei will send 45 antique Chinese chairs to be laid out in the 18th Century chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
A strident opponent of the Chinese state, Ai Weiwei’s passport has been confiscated and his travel strictly limited.
The wooden chairs are part of his Fairytale-1001 Chairs series and date from the Qing Dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1911/12.
Visitors will be invited to “take a seat and consider freedom, refuge, sanctuary and their antonyms”.
A 6m- Iron Tree sculpture will also be on show, as will his porcelain sculpture Ruyi and the marble Lantern.
The exhibition will reopen the chapel after a $800,000 refurbishment.
As well as being an outspoken dissident, Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists.
Ai Weiwei was the highest-placed artist on ArtReview magazine’s annual power list in 2013.
