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How to re-light the passion in your relationship

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What do you do when you feel like your relationship has become stuck in a rut? Depending on the circumstances, there are different options available to you.

If you’re young and there are no kids involved, then ending a relationship may not be a big deal. You may have only been going out for a few months and not moved in together, in which case, although it might be difficult to end the relationship as you’ll upset the other person, at least it can be a fairly ‘clean’ break. It’s worse, of course, if you have a property together, or even just live in rented accommodation together, but there are always ways out of a relationship if that’s what you decide to do.

If, however, you are in a long-term relationship or marriage and have children, it can be an entirely different proposition.

i'll take you away, turn this place into our private getawayOf course, most people try to work out the problems in their relationship before they throw in the towel and split up. They originally fell for their partner for a reason – they were physically attracted to them, they were friends before they became lovers – whatever it may be, long-term relationships are often worth fighting for.

There are different ways you can approach relationship problems. Maybe it’s just that you’ve taken each other for granted for too long; the relationship might have lost that special feeling that it used to have. Life has a habit of getting in the way too, and with kids and work taking up so much time and energy, then nurturing the relationship with your partner can sometimes go by the wayside.

Some couples find that having a ‘date night’ is a good way to rebuild the closeness they once had. Making time to spend alone with each other allows you time to get reacquainted, to talk and listen to each other without the distraction of having other people around, to remember why it was that you fell in love in the first place. Putting a regular date night in the diary can make all the difference to some couples.

Other couples might have problems that run deeper than that. They might need help from a third party to look at and analyse their relationship without things disintegrating into an argument. Some people choose to have relationship counseling or to have psychic readings together. Having a neutral third party can sometimes be useful in getting a better understanding of how each other’s behavior can make the other person feel.

It’s not always possible to rekindle the ‘magic’ in a relationship once it has been lost, but it’s certainly worth giving it a try, especially if you have children together, for their sake as much as your own.

Bachelor Season 18 finale: Nikki Farrell gets Juan Pablo Galavis’s final rose

The Bachelor Season 18 finale episode began with each of the girls meeting Juan Pablo Galavis’ family in St. Lucia.

Clare Crawley is up first and has an interesting conversation with his mom. When Clare asks her if there’s anything she should know, Juan Pablo’s mom eventually says: “He is sometimes very rude.”

Clare then brings up their disagreement from Vietnam and somehow finds comfort in his mom’s reaction to it.

Nikki Ferrell has already spent some brief time with Juan Pablo’s parents, daughter Camila, and Camila’s mom.

This time she sits down with his cousin Rodolfo. It’s then that Nikki also hears what are potential red flags straight from Rodolfo.

“Juan Pablo … sometimes when things are getting rough, he walks away [from] the relationship,” Rodolfo tells her.

“So how can you deal with that?”

“I think a relationship with no fighting, [has] no passion… so I feel like we would fight well,” Nikki says.

Nikki Ferrell got Juan Pablo Galavis’ final rose without a ring
Nikki Ferrell got Juan Pablo Galavis’ final rose without a ring

Both girls have their final one-on-one dates. For Clare, it’s a romantic helicopter ride. But when they step off the plane, Clare says Juan Pablo made some hurtful, insulting remarks. She explains he said something along the lines of: “I don’t know you that well, but I love hooking up with you.”

Later in her hotel room, Clare tries to get Juan Pablo to clarify and as per usual his party line is: “It’s OK.”

But Clare finally gets Juan Pablo to say what she wants to hear, that it’s more than just the physical with her.

“Tonight I know that he wants me here,” she says.

Nikki’s final date with Juan Pablo begins with a catamaran ride. But, again, he brings up some insecurities Nikki has about their relationship. Later that night, Nikki is still concerned that she’s going to lose Juan Pablo. After giving him a photo and a letter expressing her feelings for him, Juan Pablo says goodbye for the final time before she finds out if she’s the one.

At the end of the show, Juan Pablo picks Nikki, saying: “I have a ring here in my pocket and I’m not going to use it. I’m not 100 percent sure I want to propose to you, but at the same time I’m 100 percent sure I don’t want to let you go.”

For the first time since Brad Womack rejected both ladies in the Season 11 finale, there was no proposal.

Juan Pablo Galavis hands out the final rose, but without a ring, and Nikki Ferrell accepts it.

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Elephants are able to recognize human voices

According to a new study, elephants are able to differentiate between ethnicities and genders, and can tell an adult from a child – all from the sound of a human voice.

The research team played voice recordings to wild African elephants.

The animals showed more fear when they heard the voices of adult Masai men.

Livestock-herding Masai people do come into conflict with elephants, and this suggests that animals have adapted to specifically listen for and avoid them.

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Karen McComb and Dr. Graeme Shannon from the University of Sussex, who led the study, explained that in previous research they had used similar playback experiments to reveal that elephants could tell – from the sound of a lion’s roar – whether the animal was a female or a more dangerous male.

Other studies have shown that elephants respond with fear to the scent and even to the red color of the Masai clothing.

“I’ve experienced that,” explained Prof. Karen McComb.

Elephants are able to differentiate between ethnicities and genders, and can tell an adult from a child
Elephants are able to differentiate between ethnicities and genders, and can tell an adult from a child

“If you give a Masai man a lift in your car, you can see the elephants behave in a different way around you.

“They’re much more wary of the car and you see a lot of smelling and listening.”

Prof. Karen McComb wanted to find out if the animals used their very acute sense of hearing to identify a potential threat from humans.

The scientists recorded Masai men, women and children saying, in their own language, “look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming”.

They also recorded Kamba men saying this phrase.

While cattle-herding Maasai people often encounter free-ranging elephants, which can result in violent conflict, the Kamba people’s more agricultural lifestyle does not generally bring them into aggressive contact with the animals.

When the team played recordings of these different voices through a camouflaged loudspeaker, they found that elephant family groups reacted more fearfully in response to the voice of a Masai man, than to a Kamba man’s voice – retreating and bunching together defensively.

And the adult male Masai voices triggered far more of these defensive reactions than the voices of women or boys.

An additional and unexpected finding was that when the researchers changed the pitch and frequency of the voices – making a male Masai voice sound more female – the elephants would still react in the same way as they did to the original recording.

“That suggests they’re using completely different cues [to us] in order to attribute gender,” said Prof. Karen McComb.

Frans van der Waal from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, a researcher and the author of several books on animal behavior, wrote in an accompanying article in PNAS that this finding suggested we had “much to learn about how elephants make decisions”.

Prof. Karen McComb said the research showed that elephants were “trying to adapt” to human threats.

“Humans are undoubtedly the most dangerous and versatile predators the elephants are faced with these days,” she said.

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Heinz former CEO William Johnson receives $110 million for final 8 months of 2013

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Heinz former CEO, chairman and president William Johnson received $110.5 million for the final eight months of 2013, the food company disclosed in a filing to US regulators.

Heinz current boss Bernardo Hees, who joined the company in June, received $9.2 million.

Bernardo Hees has cut more than 3,400 positions and closed factories in an effort to boost profits.

Heinz former CEO William Johnson received $110.5 million for the final eight months of 2013
Heinz former CEO William Johnson received $110.5 million for the final eight months of 2013

Heinz was bought by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital for $28 billion in February 2013.

The company, whose products include ketchup, baked beans, and a variety of frozen meals, reported a net loss of $71.7 million from February to December 2013.

Heinz announced the closure of three US plants in November and two European processing plants in February this year.

Nonetheless, Warren Buffett recently said in an annual report to Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders that he expected 2014 earnings at the firm to be “substantial”.

Whitney Houston death: SWAT team supervisor Brien Weir files lawsuit over death scene

Former police SWAT team supervisor Brian Weir filed suit Monday against the city of Beverly Hills and its police department, alleging he was removed from his position for reporting that a fellow officer disturbed the scene of Whitney Houston’s death in 2012.

Officer Brian Weir’s lawsuit alleges that then-Det. Sgt. Terry Nutall lifted the sheet covering Whitney Houston’s body and commented: “Damn, she’s still looking good, huh?”

Whitney Houston was found dead in her room at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on February 11, 2012. She was 48. The Los Angeles County Coroner determined that she died of accidental drowning, with cocaine use and heart disease as contributing factors.

Brian Weir’s lawsuit alleges that then-Det. Sgt. Terry Nutall lifted the sheet covering Whitney Houston’s body and made inappropriate comments
Brian Weir’s lawsuit alleges that then-Det. Sgt. Terry Nutall lifted the sheet covering Whitney Houston’s body and made inappropriate comments

Brian Weir’s lawsuit alleges that as the senior patrol sergeant on duty, he “attempted to secure and preserve the scene of the death” and had placed a sheet over Houston’s body to “prevent contamination” before Terry Nutall arrived and removed it “to an area below the pubic region.”

He alleges he was removed from his position as head of the department’s SWAT team after reporting the alleged misconduct. The suit, filed on his behalf by attorney Christopher Brizzolara, seeks unspecified damages for pain and suffering and loss of special unit pay.

Terry Nutall has since been promoted to lieutenant.

Police spokesman Lt. Lincoln Hoshino said Terry Nutall was near the Whitney Houston death scene and was the detective division sergeant on duty, which meant it was appropriate for him to respond.

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Oscar Pistorius trial day 7: Reeva Steenkamp last meal claim challenged

On the seventh day of Oscar Pistorius trial in Pretoria, his defense team has questioned a pathologist’s finding that Reeva Steenkamp had eaten less than two hours before he killed her.

This contradicts Oscar Pistorius’ account that he and his girlfriend had been in bed for several hours before the shooting.

On Monday, Oscar Pistorius vomited as he listened to the medical testimony.

Oscar Pistorius, 27, denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and says he mistook her for a burglar.

Dr. Gert Saayman said Reeva Steenkamp had been shot three times, in the head, hip and arm but that he did not know the order of the injuries.

Oscar Pistorius denies intentionally killing Reeva Steenkamp and says he mistook her for a burglar
Oscar Pistorius denies intentionally killing Reeva Steenkamp and says he mistook her for a burglar

If she had been shot in the hip or arm first, screaming would have been expected, he said.

Neighbors have previously said they heard a woman screaming but Oscar Pistorius’ defense lawyers argue that the athlete was the only one who screamed.

When pressed by defense lawyer Barry Roux, Dr. Gert Saayman said that there could be an error of “an hour or two” in his estimation of when Reeva Steenkamp last ate.

Judge Thokozile Masipa has ruled that Tuesday’s post-mortem examination testimony could be tweeted but not broadcast live.

The judge had banned live twitter coverage of Monday’s testimony because of its nature.

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MtGox Bitcoin exchange wins temporary bankruptcy protection in US

MtGox Bitcoin exchange has won a temporary bankruptcy protection in the US.

A judge in Dallas, Texas, agreed to protect MtGox’s assets and temporarily halt two US lawsuits while bankruptcy proceedings occur in Japan.

MtGox filed for bankruptcy in Japan in February after losing about $473 million worth of customers’ Bitcoins to what it says was a hacking attack.

The company is scheduled to return to court on April 1 to extend the protections.

MtGox filed for Chapter 15 protection in the US late on Sunday.

The filing asks the US bankruptcy court to recognize MtGox’s bankruptcy in Japan and protect its US assets.

MtGox Bitcoin exchange has won a temporary bankruptcy protection in the US
MtGox Bitcoin exchange has won a temporary bankruptcy protection in the US

And it gives MtGox a temporary reprieve against two US lawsuits: one a class-action suit in Chicago filed by an Illinois resident, and another a $75 million breach-of-contract case filed in Seattle by Coinlab Inc.

At the time of the MtGox theft, about 750,000 customer Bitcoins were stolen as well as close to 100,000 of MtGox’s own bitcoins.

That amounts to about 7% of all the Bitcoins in existence.

Steven Woodrow, the lawyer leading the Chicago class-action suit, told Judge Harlin Hale that the case was a “massive fraud”.

MtGox’s attorney, David Parham, denied there was any fraud and said the company and its founder, Mark Karpeles, were complying with the terms of the Japanese bankruptcy proceeding.

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Ukraine: John Kerry declines Vladimir Putin’s meeting offer

Secretary of State John Kerry has declined an offer of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin until Moscow engages with US proposals to tackle the crisis in Ukraine.

John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Moscow’s military intervention in Crimea had made any negotiations extremely difficult.

US officials say there will be little to talk about if the referendum on Crimea’s future goes ahead.

John Kerry has declined an offer of talks with Vladimir Putin until Moscow engages with US proposals to tackle the crisis in Ukraine
John Kerry has declined an offer of talks with Vladimir Putin until Moscow engages with US proposals to tackle the crisis in Ukraine (photo AP)

The referendum is to be held on Sunday.

Ukraine and the Western countries say that the vote is illegal.

Russia said on Monday it was drafting counter-proposals to a US plan for a negotiated solution to the crisis.

Moscow has condemned Ukraine’s new Western-backed government as an unacceptable “fait accompli” – it says that Russian-leaning parts of the country have been turned into havens of lawlessness.

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New Zealand to hold referendum on changing national flag

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People in New Zealand will vote in a referendum on whether to change the national flag, PM John Key has announced.

John Key, who on Monday called an election for September 20, said the vote would be held within three years.

The current flag shows the Southern Cross constellation and includes the Union Jack – the UK’s national flag – in one corner.

John Key said the flag represented a period of history from which New Zealand had moved on.

“It’s my belief… that the design of the New Zealand flag symbolizes a colonial and post-colonial era whose time has passed,” John Key said in a speech at Victoria University.

“The flag remains dominated by the Union Jack in a way that we ourselves are no longer dominated by the United Kingdom.”

“I am proposing that we take one more step in the evolution of modern New Zealand by acknowledging our independence through a new flag.”

People in New Zealand will vote in a referendum on whether to change the national flag
People in New Zealand will vote in a referendum on whether to change the national flag

PM JOhn Key said that he liked the silver fern – popularized by national teams including the All Blacks – as an option, saying efforts by New Zealand’s athletes gave “the silver fern on a black background a distinctive and uniquely New Zealand identity”.

But he said he was open to all ideas and that retaining the current flag was “a very possible outcome of this process”.

A group of cross-party lawmakers would oversee the vote process and a steering group would seek public submissions for new flag designs, he said.

John Key said there was no move to cut ties with the British monarchy.

“We retain a strong and important constitutional link to the monarchy and I get no sense of any groundswell of support to let that go,” he said.

It is not clear to what extent there is support for changing the flag. One poll late last month showed only 28% of respondents wanted to change the flag, compared to 72% who were happy with the current version.

Representatives of service personnel have argued that troops have fought and died under the existing flag.

The opposition Labor party has said it supports the process.

“We’re not going to differ or divide from the government on this issue. It’s a broad constitutional issue, if the country wants a debate about the flag so be it, but it’s not the primary issue for this election,” leader David Cunliffe said.

The polls have been scheduled so that a new government will be in place by the G20 meeting due to take place in Australia in mid-November.

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Missing MH370 flight: Stolen passport used by Iranian with no terror links

One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links, Malaysian police say.

Police say the 19-year-old – named as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad – was probably migrating to Germany.

Investigations are continuing into a second man using stolen documents.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on Saturday, after taking off with 239 on board. The search has been widened.

Experts have said the presence of two people with stolen passports on a plane was a breach of security, but is relatively common in a region regarded as a hub for illegal migration.

Malaysia’s police chief Inspector Gen Khalid Abu Bakar said the young Iranian was “not likely to be a member of a terrorist group”, adding that the authorities were in contact with his mother in Germany, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.

He says the friend and another Iranian, also using a stolen passport, stayed with him before taking the Malaysia Airlines flight, and that they had hoped to settle in Europe.

One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links
One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links

Reports from Thailand suggest that the tickets of the two men, routing them to Amsterdam via Beijing, had been bought through a Thai travel agent and an Iranian middleman.

Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong with the aircraft.

None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proved to be linked to the disappearance.

Four areas of investigation were focused on the possibility of human agency, the police chief said: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft are taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.

Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the United States of America are assisting.

Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the search was being conducted “on both sides” of the peninsula.

The area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane had disappeared – over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam – to 100 nautical miles (115 miles).

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Cyprus central bank governor Panicos Demetriades resigns

Panicos Demetriades – the governor of Cyprus central bank – has resigned after reportedly experienced difficulties with the government and had been criticized for his handling of the country’s 10 billion-euro bailout.

There was no official statement on Monday about why Panicos Demetriades had stepped down.

Panicos Demetriades’ departure comes after Cyprus’ bailout was thrown into doubt when its parliament rejected a key part of the plan, and then passed it a day before the deadline was due to expire.

A spokesperson for the European Central Bank said: “The ECB takes note of the resignation of Panicos Demetriades who has been the governor of the central bank of Cyprus through very difficult times and played an important role in the implementation of the adjustment program.”

They added: “We count on a fruitful cooperation with his successor.”

Panicos Demetriades has resigned after being criticized for his handling of Cyprus' 10 bn-euro bailout
Panicos Demetriades has resigned after being criticized for his handling of Cyprus’ 10 bn-euro bailout

Cyprus was nearly bankrupted after Greece’s financial crisis in 2010.

The country’s banks were hit heavily but its government did not have the funds to issue a bailout.

Slow economic growth and the stance of international lenders, who stopped offering loans, added to the pressure on the country’s finances.

Panicos Demetriades, formerly an economics professor at the University of Leicester, was appointed in May 2012 for five years by Cyprus’ former communist president, Demetris Christofias.

The former president has reportedly been blamed for policies which could have contributed to Cyprus’ crisis.

Last year Cyprus’ banking system was rescued from collapse by a 10 billion-euro bailout from the EU and IMF.

Current president, Nicos Anastasiades, said in September he might ask the country’s supreme court to rule on whether Panicos Demetriades could be sacked.

That was despite the ECB last year issuing repeated warnings to the Cypriot authorities not to interfere with the governor’s work.

Last month Cyprus’ lawmakers threw the bailout program, and the country’s next tranche of cash, into doubt over a bill allowing state firms to be privatized.

Edward Snowden speaks via video conference at SXSW Interactive 2014

Edward Snowden spoke before a packed auditorium of technology innovators via video link in Austin at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference on Monday.

Global mass surveillance conducted by the US and other governments is “setting fire to the future of the internet”, he said.

He added: “You guys are all the firefighters, and we need you to help us fix this.”

The former NSA contractor, who fled the US last year after leaking thousands of documents that revealed his employer’s extensive surveillance programs, spoke to the audience through a choppy Google Hangout video connection running through multiple proxy servers to conceal his location.

Although Edward Snowden has granted a handful interviews to the media since his revelations made global headlines and led to his seeking asylum in Russia, it was one of his first live appearances before a general audience.

During his one-hour session moderated by his lawyer, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Edward Snowden urged internet and computing experts to design and produce encrypted communication technology that the average user can use.

Often delving into the technical details of internet security, calling it “defense against the dark arts in the digital realm”, he said the systems currently available, if used by the general public, would make NSA bulk surveillance programs much more difficult.

Edward Snowden also denounced what he saw as a change in US priorities since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, focusing on breaking communication security rather than protecting information.

Edward Snowden spoke via video link at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin
Edward Snowden spoke via video link at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin

“When you are the one country in the world that is sort of a vault that is more full than anyone else, it doesn’t make sense for you to be attacking all day rather and never defend your vault,” he said.

He also criticized the NSA’s mass data collection system as being ineffective and a waste of resources. Instead, he said, the agency should be focusing on the type of people who present a threat.

Edward Snowden cited Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan as individuals the government might have been able to catch if they had directed resources in the right areas.

“We spent all this money, we spent all this time hacking into Google’s and Facebook’s back end to look at their databases,” he said.

“What did we get out of that? We got nothing.”

Edward Snowden received a warm reception from the audience, and the question-and-answer session included words of praise in an email from internet pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who said his actions were “profoundly in the public interest”.

His appearance was not without critics, however. Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas wrote an open letter to the conference’s organizers on Friday, urging them to deny the NSA leaker a public platform to air his views.

Edward Snowden’s “only apparent qualification”, he writes, “is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of first amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin”.

At the start of the session, Ben Wizner, who serves as Edward Snowden’s legal advisor, replied that although freedom of expression protections are generally stronger in the US than in Russia, “if there’s one person for whom that’s not true, it’s Ed Snowden”.

If Edward Snowden were still in the US, he said, he’d probably be held by the government in solitary confinement.

Edward Snowden’s session is the latest event in a technology conference that has been dominated by talk of internet security, government surveillance and privacy rights.

In his final question, Edward Snowden was asked to assess the importance of his revelations.

“Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we had a right to know,” he said.

“I took an oath to support and defend the constitution, and I saw the constitution was violated on a massive scale.”

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Ukraine border to be monitored by NATO planes

NATO has decided to deploy reconnaissance planes in Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis.

It gave the go-ahead for the flights on Monday, a Nato spokesman said.

“All AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System] reconnaissance flights will take place solely over alliance territory,” the official said.

The NATO move comes as Russia cements its control of Ukraine’s Crimea ahead of Sunday’s referendum to join Russia. Ukraine and the West say this is illegal.

In the latest move on Monday, armed men – said to be Russian troops and local militias – seized a military hospital in Crimea.

NATO will deploy reconnaissance planes in Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis
NATO will deploy reconnaissance planes in Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis

The attackers marched into the hospital in the regional capital Simferopol, threatening staff and some 30 patients.

Pro-Russian troops are also blockading Ukrainian troops across Crimea, which is an autonomous region.

Moscow has officially denied that its troops are taking part in the blockades, describing the armed men with no insignia as Crimea’s “self-defense” forces.

The new government in Kiev – as well as the US and EU – accuse Russia of invading Ukraine, in violation of international law.

NATO said the surveillance flights would “enhance the alliance’s situational awareness”.

Last week, the organization said it was reviewing all co-operation with Russia and stepping up its engagement with the government in Kiev.

NATO’s announcement on Monday came hours after men in military uniforms broke into the Simferopol hospital, where Ukrainian soldiers and veterans were being treated.

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5 Tech Products That Help Keep Your Heart Healthy

From more precise monitoring to enhanced results, fitness gadgets can make your exercise regimen more effective and more fun. Heart health is one of the main reasons that people exercise and there are quite a few gadgets available to help improve your cardiovascular health; here are a few of them:

1. Pedometers
Walking is a form of moderate exercise that can greatly improve your heart health. It is easy and can be done by most people in most environments. In addition to strengthening your heart, a moderate walk can improve your circulation and build your lung capacity. Pedometers are useful tools for tracking how much you walk and can help you to stay motivated. Modern pedometers are very precise and can provide a reasonably accurate estimate of the number of steps you take.

5-Tech-Products-That-Help-Keep-Your-Heart-Healthy


2. Electronic Muscle Stimulators

These devices such as the ones at shopcompex.com send an electrical pulse to a specific muscle, which causes it to contract as it would during exercise. The pulse is mild and safe. By creating the same effect as exercise, these devices can help you to tone your muscles and to improve oxygen consumption; both of these things are good for cardiovascular health. Electronic muscle stimulators are not a substitute for cardio exercise but they can help to enhance the benefits.

3. WiFi Scales
Losing weight is an important part of improving your heart health. For effective weight loss, you will need tools to measure your progress. Having regular weigh-ins is a good way to keep yourself accountable; a reliable scale is therefore essential. Scale technology has come a long way since the old analog models of yesteryear. There are WiFi scales available that allow the information on the scale to be transmitted to a personal computer. This allows for more precise tracking of your weight loss efforts.

4. Music Players
Motivation is arguably the most important element in achieving any fitness goal. Any tools that can provide or add to your motivation will be extremely helpful in improving your heart health. Music is an excellent motivational tool and today’s music players are compact, light and feature-rich; this makes them perfect for use while working out. Among the most helpful features on some models is the ability to set your music to stop playing when you stop moving; the idea behind this is that it provides that extra incentive to keep going.

5. Heart Rate Monitors
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that you workout for at least 20 minutes three days per week at between 70 and 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. You should combine this with moderate exercise at 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate three days a week. In order to achieve these heart rates and to stay within them for the recommended amount of time, you are going to need a monitoring device. Heart rate monitors have become widely available and are used by professional athletes as well as by regular people just trying to get fit. You can set the alarm to signal when your heart rate falls below the desired pace and ensure that your workout stays at the intensity you desire.
Fitness and improved heart health are the two goals most people have when they start working out. Many fail to attain them. Gadgets cannot provide you with the willpower you will need to exercise consistently, but they can help to make your workouts more effective.

Chiquita and Fyffes merger to create world’s largest banana company

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US-based fruit company Chiquita is to merge with its Irish rival Fyffes, creating the world’s largest banana company worth about $1 billion.

The new company, named ChiquitaFyffes, is expected to sell about 160 million boxes of bananas annually, more than any rival.

“This is a milestone transaction for Chiquita and Fyffes that brings together the best of both companies,” said Chiquita boss Ed Lonergan.

ChiquitaFyffes will be listed in New York.

Chiquita is to merge with its Irish rival Fyffes, creating the world's largest banana company worth about $1 billion
Chiquita is to merge with its Irish rival Fyffes, creating the world’s largest banana company worth about $1 billion

In the merger, shareholders will receive shares in each firm, with Fyffes shareholders owning about 49.3% of the combined company.

Ed Lonergan said the deal would help it to save costs and expand the areas it served.

The tie-up came as Fyffes revealed that its profit before tax for 2013 rose 9.8% to 28.7 million euros.

The global market is currently controlled by four firms – Chiquita, Dole Food Company, Fresh Del Monte and Fyffes – according to the UN.

The deal is expected to go through this year, but will be subject to review by competition authorities.

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Uli Hoeness admits defrauding Germany’s tax authorities of 18 million euros

Bayern Munich President Uli Hoeness has admitted in court to defrauding Germany’s tax authorities of 18 million euros ($25 million).

Prosecutors had earlier accused Uli Hoeness, 62, of evading a far smaller sum of 3.5 million euros in taxes and are seeking a jail term.

The former Germany forward kept the funds in a secret Swiss bank account.

He told the court he deeply regretted “my wrongdoing”.

“I will do everything necessary to ensure that this depressing chapter for me is closed,” Uli Hoeness said.

Uli Hoeness, who helped the national team win the 1972 European Championship and then the World Cup two years later, came clean about his secret bank account last year, filing an amended tax return in the hope of an amnesty in return for paying the tax he owed.

But prosecutors say he did so because investigators were already on his case.

The penalty for tax evasion can be 10 years in jail, though the prosecution says it will seek a seven-year sentence. A verdict is expected on Thursday.

Uli Hoeness has admitted in court to defrauding Germany's tax authorities of 18 million euros
Uli Hoeness has admitted in court to defrauding Germany’s tax authorities of 18 million euros

Munich state prosecutor Achim von Engel read out the indictment against Uli Hoeness shortly after the start of the trial, described as one of the most spectacular of the year by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

He alleged that the defendant had failed to declare the income he held at Vontobel bank in Switzerland.

Giving evidence later, Uli Hoeness said he had used the money for large-scale gambling on the foreign currency markets, losing far more than he ever gained.

“Between 2002 and 2006 I really gambled with sums that today I find difficult to grasp. For me it was a kick; pure adrenalin,” he said.

It was while Uli Hoeness was having lunch with Chancellor Angela Merkel on January 15 in Berlin last year that he was made aware of press interest in his finances, he told the court. Vontobel phoned him, he said. warning him that journalists from Stern magazine were making inquiries.

Before the scandal emerged, Uli Hoeness was considered to be on good terms with Angel Merkel, who has since said she is disappointed with him.

Uli Hoeness said he had already decided to come clean about his taxes to the authorities.

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Common Day for Weight Gain. Study indings

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According to a study published in the European Journal of Obesity, most people weigh the most on Monday mornings and the least by Friday.

The new study found that you are more likely to gain weight during the weekend and lose it throughout the week.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Eighty men and women recorded their weight every morning before breakfast for nearly a year. When researchers examined the numbers, they identified a distinct trend for weight gain on weekends and weight loss during the weeks.

However, researchers found that what sets people who ultimately lose weight throughout the year apart from those who gain is that losers shed more pounds during the weekdays. They are also more likely to adhere to this pattern than those who gain – losers hit their lowest weight around Friday 74% of the time.

MtGox boss web accounts attacked by hackers amid growing frustration over Bitcoin loss

The web accounts of Mark Karpeles – boss of the troubled MtGox Bitcoin exchange – have been attacked by hackers.

The attack on Mark Karpeles accounts seems to have been motivated by growing frustration over the actions of MtGox.

Last month MtGox stopped trading and filed for bankruptcy after finding out that $465 million in Bitcoins had been lost via a security bug.

Many have called on the exchange to release more information about what happened to the lost Bitcoins.

The attacks were mounted on the personal blog and Reddit account of Mark Karpeles and left the hackers in charge of both social media accounts.

The attack on Mark Karpeles accounts seems to have been motivated by growing frustration over the actions of MtGox
The attack on Mark Karpeles accounts seems to have been motivated by growing frustration over the actions of MtGox

Hackers used their access to grab detailed information about trading activity at MtGox. They then shared their findings by posting a 716MB file containing much of what they had found.

The material posted included an Excel spreadsheet of more than one million trades, entries from MtGox’s business ledger and information about its back-office administration software.

“It’s time that MtGox got the Bitcoin community’s wrath instead of [the] Bitcoin community getting Goxed,” wrote the hackers in a message accompanying the data dump. The word “Goxed” has been used to describe the sudden interruptions in trading MtGox imposed when it was going through technical problems before its final closure.

According to Forbes writer Andy Greenberg, although $465 million in Bitcoins (approximately 744,000 coins) had supposedly gone astray from MtGox, no activity suggesting they had been traded had been seen in the blockchain – the central list of buying and selling that underpins the entire Bitcoin network.

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Oscar Pistorius sick in court as pathologist reads Reeva Steenkamp autopsy report

Double-amputee Oscar Pistorius vomited in court while a pathologist testified at his murder trial on Monday.

A bucket was placed in the dock before Professor Gert Saayman, who carried out an autopsy on the Paralympic champion’s slain girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, took the stand.

Earlier the judge banned all live broadcast of the autopsy evidence.

Pathologist Gert Saayman successfully argued that broadcasting the details of the report could compromise the “dignity of the deceased”.

Reporters at the scene said Oscar Pistorius was seen “breaking down, loudly gagging, retching” as Gert Saayman spoke and later he threw up.

Oscar Pistorius denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp
Oscar Pistorius denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

The Paralympic champion, on trial for murder, denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Oscar Pistorius fired four shots at Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door. He says he mistook the 29-year-old model and aspiring lawyer for an intruder.

Gert Saayman used the following arguments to persuade Judge Thokozile Masipa to ban broadcasts of his autopsy report:

  • “Very personal nature of the findings”
  • “Details of the injuries have the potential to compromise the dignity of the deceased”
  • It may “harm the rights” of friends and family of the deceased
  • “Goes against the morals of society”

The judge also banned coverage of the details of the autopsy report through Twitter and other social media.

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Missing jet: China urges Malaysia to step up search

Malaysian authorities have been urged by China to “step up its efforts” in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared on Saturday.

Most of the passengers on board of flight MH370 were Chinese nationals.

Nearly three days after the aircraft went missing, an international effort has still not found the plane’s wreckage.

None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proven to be linked to the disappearance.

Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people on board.

Relatives of the missing passengers have been told to prepare for the worst.

China said the Malaysian authorities needed to “step up their efforts” to find the missing airliner, which had more than 150 Chinese nationals on board.

“We … have a responsibility to demand and urge the Malaysian side to step i[ search efforts, start an investigation as soon as possible and provide relevant information to China correctly and in a timely manner,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Earlier, the Global Times, a prominent Communist Party newspaper, issued a sharply worded editorial arguing there were “loopholes” in the work of Malaysian airlines and security authorities, noting that “until yesterday [Sunday], the Malaysian government could not even ensure accurate information about the [plane’s] passengers”.

The Malaysian authorities are attempting to address Chinese concerns – they have reissued a pledge to fly worried family members to Kuala Lumpur so they can be closer to the search efforts, our correspondent adds.

But one victim’s relative – Guo Qishun, whose son-in-law was on the plane – said he did not see the point of flying to Malaysia.

“We don’t want to go to Malaysia now. There is no result from the search operation yet. If we go to Malaysia, we can do nothing but wait, just like what we are doing in Beijing now. If we go to Malaysia, who can we rely on? Most of us don’t speak English,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

Malaysian authorities have identified one of the two men travelling on the missing plane on stolen passports.

Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur
Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur

Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said they could not reveal his identity, but confirmed the man was a non-Malaysian.

Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, said all of the relevant information concerning those two passengers had now been passed on to the various national intelligence agencies which were investigating the matter.

International police agency Interpol has confirmed the passengers were travelling with Italian and Austrian passports stolen in Thailand years ago.

The search area has been widened to include waters in the Strait of Malacca.

Commander William Marks from the US Seventh Fleet, which is taking part in the search, says he expects the plane’s flight recorders to be floating in the water.

“In calm seas, if there were a soccer ball [football] or a basketball floating in the water, the radar could pick it up. They [flight recorders] typically have a radio beacon and so for example our P3 [radar] – if they are flying within a certain range of that – will pick up that radio beacon. We have not yet picked up anything, but that’s typically what those black boxes contain.”

There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.

US Navy officials earlier said their aircraft had not seen any debris associated with commercial aircraft wreckage.

Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:41 local time on Saturday. But radio contact was lost at 01:30, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong.

Malaysian military officials said on Sunday they were widening the search area because of indications the plane, a Boeing 777-200ER, may have turned back from its scheduled route shortly before vanishing from radar screens.

Investigators are looking at all angles, including a possible terror attack. Counter-terrorism agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation.

Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, and their luggage was consequently removed.

The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

Malaysia Airlines is the country’s national carrier, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.

On Monday, shares in Malaysia Airlines fell 18% to a record low.

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Adam Lanza’s father speaks publicly for first time

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Peter Lanza, the father of the Newtown school killer Adam Lanza spoke publicly for the first time saying he wishes his son had never been born.

Peter Lanza opened up about his son in one of a series of interviews with The New Yorker that began in September.

Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother, Nancy, before gunning down 20 students, six staff members and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

His father said: “You can’t get any more evil. How much do I beat up on myself about the fact that he’s my son? A lot.”

Peter Lanza, a vice president for GE Energy Financial Services, was divorced from Adam’s mother since 2009 and hadn’t seen his son for more than two years at the time of the killings, he told the magazine.

The New Yorker writer Andrew Solomon said Peter Lanza approached him in September.

Adam Lanza’s father spoke publicly for the first time saying he wishes his son had never been born
Adam Lanza’s father spoke publicly for the first time saying he wishes his son had never been born

Peter Lanza was quoted as saying: “I want people to be afraid of the fact that this could happen to them.”

“With hindsight, I know Adam would have killed me in a heartbeat, if he’d had the chance,” Peter Lanza said.

“I don’t question that for a minute. The reason he shot Nancy four times was one for each of us: one for Nancy; one for him; one for [his brother] Ryan; one for me.”

Peter Lanza says that by the time his son entered middle school, “it was crystal clear something was wrong.”

Adam Lanza was socially awkward, anxious, unable to concentrate and afflicted with insomnia.

The family thought they’d gotten an answer when Adam Lanza was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, at age 13. But after a severe reaction to the anti-anxiety drug escitalopram, he refused to take any psychotropic drugs thereafter – behavior that profoundly concerned a psychiatric specialist who treated him.

Still, Peter Lanza says he is convinced the Asperger’s diagnosis had little to do with the mass killings. Instead, he said Asperger’s may have been masking schizophrenia.

“Asperger’s makes people unusual, but it doesn’t make people like this,” he told the magazine.

Meanwhile, Peter Lanza refuses to talk about a lingering mystery: where or how his son’s body was disposed of.

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300: Rise of an Empire tops North American box office with $45 million

300: Rise of an Empire topped the North American box office this weekend, earning $45.1 million in the US and Canada.

The sequel to 2006 hit 300 also took $87.8 million worldwide.

300: Rise of an Empire did not equal its predecessor’s first weekend tally of $70.9 million in North America, but still performed far above expectations.

Set in ancient Greece, the movie depicts a sea battle between Greeks and Persians.

The film only briefly features 300 star Gerard Butler as King Leonidas – leader of the Spartan army who famously held off a vastly superior Persian force – concentrating instead on a female warrior played by Casino Royale‘s Eva Green.

Eva Green’s participation is understood to have boosted the female audience for this male-skewed release to 38% – a 9% increase on the original’s 29%.

300: Rise of an Empire topped the North American box office this weekend, earning $45.1 million in the US and Canada
300: Rise of an Empire topped the North American box office this weekend, earning $45.1 million in the US and Canada

Outside North America, the film was also the top draw in Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK.

Some $12 million of its opening weekend tally from the 58 markets in which it played came from 3D Imax screenings.

In the US and Canada, Noam Murro’s follow-up to Zack Snyder’s comic book-inspired original comfortably saw off Mr. Peabody & Sherman, its nearest competitor.

The animated title about a time-travelling dog and his human son took $32.5 million between Friday and Sunday, according to studio estimates.

Liam Neeson’s airborne action film Non-Stop – last week’s number one – fell to three in this week’s chart, taking $15.4 million in the US and an additional $12 million worldwide.

Toy spin-off The Lego Movie and the Christianity-themed Son of God rounded out this week’s top five, according to box office tracking firm Rentrak.

North American box office Top 5:

1. 300: Rise of an Empire – $45.1 million

2. Mr. Peabody & Sherman – $32.5 million

3. Non-Stop – $15.4 million

4. The Lego Movie – $11 million

5. Son of God – $10 million

Source: Rentrak

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6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes off Northern California coast

The US Geological Survey reported that a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California on Sunday night.

The epicenter was 48 miles west-northwest of Ferndale and 50 miles west of Eureka at a depth of 4.3 miles, the USGS said.

The quake, which occurred at 1:18 a.m. ET, was initially reported as magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale, but seismologists revised it upward to 6.9. It was followed by about a half-dozen aftershocks, including one of magnitude 4.6.

There were no reports of any damage or injuries though the quake was felt widely and strongly, according sheriff’s and fire officials in Humboldt County, which includes most of the populated areas near the epicenter.

The earthquake epicenter was 48 miles west-northwest of Ferndale and 50 miles west of Eureka at a depth of 4.3 miles
The earthquake epicenter was 48 miles west-northwest of Ferndale and 50 miles west of Eureka at a depth of 4.3 miles

Police in Eureka said the shaking lasted between 20 and 30 seconds.

Earthquakes are very common in Eureka, a city of about 27,000 people about 270 miles northwest of San Francisco and 100 miles south of the Oregon state line.

The probability of a “strong and possibly damaging aftershock” of magnitude 5.0 or greater in the next seven days was 90 percent, the USGS warned, adding that there was a 5 percent to 10 percent of another quake as large as or larger than the initial one in the next week.

No destructive tsunami was expected, and no tsunami advisory was issued, The West Coast/Alaska and Pacific Tsunami Warning Centers said.

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Syrian rebels release kidnapped nuns

Syrian rebels have released a group of Greek Orthodox nuns, who were kidnapped in the Christian town of Maaloula in December.

The 13 nuns and their three helpers were said to have been freed as part of a prisoner exchange.

The women have been taken to the town of Judaydat Yabus on the Syrian-Lebanon border, Lebanese state media reported.

Rights groups say kidnappings by both rebel groups and government forces have become increasingly common.

The capture of the nuns had raised fears that Christians were becoming a target for the rebels.

Opposition fighters, including members of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, seized the women from the Greek Orthodox convent of Mar Takla when fighters overran Maaloula, about 40 miles north-east of Damascus, in December, the Associated Press reports.

The Greek Orthodox nuns were kidnapped in the Christian town of Maaloula in December
The Greek Orthodox nuns were kidnapped in the Christian town of Maaloula in December

The nuns, who are believed to be mostly Syrian and Lebanese, worked in the convent’s orphanage, the agency said.

They were reportedly held for at least part of their captivity in the rebel stronghold of Yabroud, now the target of heavy government bombardment.

The women reached the Syrian town of Judaydat Yabus overnight after a nine-hour journey.

“We arrived late, and we arrived tired,” the Associated Press quoted Mother Superior Pelagia Sayaf, the head of the Maaloula convent, as saying.

She said the women were mostly well treated by their captors.

“God did not leave us,” she said.

“The [Nusra] Front was good to us … but we took off our crosses because we were in the wrong place to wear them.”

About 150 female prisoners are to be released in exchange for the group’s freedom, Lebanese security chief General Abbas Ibrahim told Syrian television.

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Oscar Pistorius trial day 6: Security guard Pieter Baba questioned over phone calls

The sixth day of Oscar Pistorius trial has begun with the questioning of Pieter Baba, a security guard at the Paralympic champion’s home.

Pieter Baba said he had phoned Oscar Pistorius and not the other way round, as the defense team had suggested.

Later on Monday the trial expects to hear from Professor Gert Saayman, a specialist in forensic medicine and the trial’s first expert witness.

On Friday Pieter Baba, a security guard working at Oscar Pistorius’ gated community, spoke of his shock at seeing the athlete carrying a dying Reeva Steenkamp down the stairs at his villa.

Oscar Pistorius could face life imprisonment for killing Reeva Steenkamp
Oscar Pistorius could face life imprisonment for killing Reeva Steenkamp

Pieter Baba said he had called Oscar Pistorius in response to neighbors’ reports of gunfire from the house in the early hours of the morning.

The guard said Oscar Pistorius had told him: “Everything is fine,” before calling him back a few minutes later and crying down the phone.

On Monday, Oscar Pistorius’ defense lawyer suggested the athlete had called Pieter Baba first and not the other way round, but the witness stuck to his testimony.

Oscar Pistorius’ lawyer, Barry Roux, then suggested his client had said: “I am fine,” and not: “Everything is fine,” but again the witness said this was not true.

“My Lady, what I just told the court is the truth” Pieter Baba told Judge Thokozile Masipa.

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