Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson will join Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister during the State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Willie Robertson had endorsed Vance McAllister during his Congressional bid.
The CEO of Duck Commander appeared in a TV ad advising voters to “send somebody from the 5th District who speaks for us to help turn Washington around”.
Vance McAllister, a wealthy Louisiana businessman, was elected in November.
Willie Robertson will join Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister during the State of the Union address
He had also scored an endorsement from Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson, whose anti-gay remarks earned him a short-lived suspension from the A&E show.
“I am proud to have my close friend, constituent and small business owner, Willie Robertson, attend tonight’s State of the Union Address as my special guest,” Vance McAllister said in a statement about his choice of guest for his first State of the Union.
“Willie is thankful for this opportunity and honored to attend. I look forward to the two of us representing the Fifth District in DC this evening and bringing some diversity to our nation’s capitol.”
President Barack Obama will unveil a minimum-wage raise as he delivers his annual State of the Union address later.
The president is expected to bypass a fractured Congress to act on income inequality.
The White House said Barack Obama would unveil an executive order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for new federal contract workers.
The president is also expected to announce other executive orders, which do not require congressional approval.
He is facing some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency.
Barack Obama has called for a “year of action”, though Congress will limit his ability to get much done.
He will speak in the House of Representatives at 21:00 local time on Tuesday.
President Barack Obama will unveil a minimum-wage raise as he delivers his annual State of the Union address
Just over a year after his re-election, Barack Obama must contend with determined opposition from the Republican Party, which controls the House of Representatives and has the numbers in the Senate to block his agenda.
Time is running short before Washington DC turns its attention to the 2016 race to elect his successor, threatening to render him irrelevant even with three years remaining in office.
In the face of a divided Congress, Barack Obama has pledged to use executive action to bypass Congress, and the White House says he will flesh out some of his plans in the State of the Union speech.
Barack Obama is also expected to address long-term joblessness, expansion of early childhood education and infrastructure spending.
He will reiterate his call for a broad rise in the national minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, say White House officials.
The president’s executive order raising the hourly rate of federal contract workers prompted a swift response from Republicans.
Barack Obama is also tipped to urge the Republican House of Representatives to support a broad overhaul of the US immigration system.
Last year, the Senate passed a bill that included a path to citizenship for some of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller indexes, the US home prices extended a winning streak in November, with 2013 shaping up as the best year for gains since 2005.
The composite 20-city home price index, a key gauge of US home prices, was up 13.7% in November 2013 from a year earlier. All 20 cities have posted year-over-year gains for 11 straight months.
The US home prices extended a winning streak in November 2013
Prices in the 20-city index were 0.1% lower than the prior month, but that’s mostly due to the weaker winter selling season. Adjusted for seasonal variations, prices were 0.9% higher month-over-month. Nine of the 20 cities posted a monthly decline, though on a seasonally adjusted basis priced no city saw a drop.
Though home-price gains have been strong, the Case-Shiller data are lagged.
Many analysts expect increases to moderate this year.
At least ten inmates died and 42 others were injured in a fire at Modelo prison in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, police say.
Some inmates with slight injuries have now been released from hospitals in the city, but at least 15 are still being treated for the severe burns they suffered or for the smoke they inhaled.
The fire broke out Monday night, apparently when several inmates in Cellblock B of Modelo jail set mattresses on fire during a clash between rival gangs, following an inspection carried out by Inpec guards.
At least ten inmates died and 42 others were injured in a fire at Modelo prison in the Colombian city of Barranquilla
It took seven fire engines to extinguish the 39ft flames.
The director of the Colombian prison system, General Saul Torres, told local radio that a fight broke out after guards carried out a search of the cell block during which drugs, mobile phones and weapons were confiscated.
Saul Torres said that the guards fired tear gas to break up the fight, at which point the fire started.
Barranquilla authorities slammed the overcrowding at the Modelo jail, where close to 1,200 prisoners are held, triple the facility’s capacity for 400 inmates.
About 200 police and a hundred guards have surrounded the jail to prevent any inmates from escaping.
Ford has announced that last year was “one of the company’s best years ever”, driven by a strong performance in the US and Asia.
The company said net income for 2013 was $7.2 billion, up $1.49 billion on the previous year.
Q4 2013 net income was $3 billion, or 74 cents per share, an increase of $1.4 billion compared with the same period in 2012, the company said.
The strong performance helped offset losses in Europe and South America.
Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally said 2013 was “an outstanding year”.
“We are well positioned for another solid year in 2014,” he added.
Ford net income for 2013 was $7.2 billion, up $1.49 billion on the previous year
The results follow Ford’s warning in December that the cost of introducing new vehicles and a deteriorating Venezuelan economy would hit its profits in 2014.
Ford plans to triple the number of product launches in North America this year.
But that will hit its profit margins, the company said, as older models will have to be discounted and Ford will have to spend more on marketing.
Ford produced 6.4 million vehicles in 2013, up 646,000 from a year ago.
As a result of its 2013 performance, Ford said it planned to make record profit-sharing payments of about $8,800 per person to around 47,000 of its hourly employees in the US.
Ford has been open in acknowledging that 2014 will be a transition year for the firm, both in terms of products and changes in leadership.
Alan Mulally is scheduled to step down at the end of the year.
He is credited both with leading the firm back to profitability after the 2008-2009 financial crisis, as well as with changing the corporate culture at Ford.
Ford faces difficulty in the future returning its European operations to profitability, as well as maintaining its streamlined supply chain to avoid the oversupply issues that plagued Ford and other US car makers during the financial crisis.
According to forecasters, Deep South will be hit by what could be its worst snow and ice in a generation.
Schools were closed, hundreds of flights were scrapped and cities blew the dust off the few snowplows they have Tuesday.
From Texas to the Carolinas, almost 40 million people are in the storm’s path.
In New Bern, North Carolina, where the last 6-inch snowfall happened in 1989, forecasters said as much as 7 inches could come down. In Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, ice was the major threat – as much as a half-inch.
Columbia, South Carolina, a city of 130,000 people with only eight snowplows, was expecting up to 4 inches of snow. The city put emergency workers on 12-hour shifts and mixed up sand, salt and brine to put on the city’s major roadways as the weather got worse.
Schools were closed from Texas through the Florida Panhandle and up to North Carolina. The Johnson Space Center in Houston shut down for the day. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency for almost half the state’s counties.
Deep South will be hit by what could be its worst snow and ice in a generation
Drivers were warned to use extreme caution or stay home entirely. Just north of Austin, Texas, where ice was accumulating on bridges and overpasses, emergency crews responded to a reported 20-car wreck.
Airlines canceled more than 2,600 flights, including more than 800 in the hub of Atlanta and more than 600 at the major airport in Houston.
Snow was already falling Tuesday morning from just north of Austin, Texas, up to the southern tip of Maryland, and a band of ice reached from San Antonio to the suburbs south of Atlanta.
By Wednesday, forecasters said, the storm will bend up the East Coast, traveling as far north as Providence, Rhode Island, before moving offshore by lunch.
Farther north, millions of people suffered Tuesday under another day of deep freeze. Subzero temperatures stretched from Montana to Pennsylvania. It was 11 below zero as the sun came up in Chicago, 8 below in Pittsburgh and 6 below in Cincinnati.
The unbearable cold forced schools to close in Minnesota, Chicago and western Pennsylvania. The University of Michigan shut down because of weather for the first time since 1978. Lake Geneva, Wis., recorded its 17th day of subzero temperatures this winter, double the average.
The latest blast of frigid weather arrived just as a shortage of propane, the fuel used by 14 million Americans to heat their homes, reached critical proportion.
With prices more than doubling from $2 a gallon to more than $4 last week, the governors of Minnesota and Illinois declared states of emergency Monday, urging people to cut back and regulators to lift restrictions on shipping to their states.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala’s properties have been raided by police as part of a fraud inquiry, French media report.
Police swooped on several properties owned by Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala as well as the Main d’Or theatre in Paris, where he has staged some of his shows.
The controversial comedian is suspected of a fraudulent declaration of bankruptcy, money-laundering and abuse of company assets.
The government has vowed to make Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala pay fines for hate speech.
According to French media, Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala has transferred 400,000 euros ($547,000) to Cameroon since 2009 while failing to pay fines totalling 65,000 euros.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala has been convicted six times of hate speech against Jews and popularized a gesture called the “quenelle”, widely regarded as an inverted Nazi salute.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala’s properties have been raided by police as part of a fraud inquiry
Police have detained a man suspected of distributing a photo of a quenelle being made outside a Jewish school in the south-western city of Toulouse, where an Islamist gunman shot dead three small children and a teacher in March 2012, AFP news agency reports.
The man who was detained near Marseille on Tuesday is also suspected of distributing another image of a quenelle outside the Toulouse flat of the killer, Mohammed Merah, who died in a police siege.
Youths could be seen making quenelles at a rally against President Francois Hollande on Sunday in Paris, which was organized by small, mainly right-wing organizations.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls accused Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala of trying to bankrupt himself earlier this month in order to avoid paying the fines.
Police questioned the comedian last week after bailiffs reported being fired on with rubber bullets at his house.
The bailiffs had said they could not ascertain who had opened fire but a weapon was later found during a search of Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala ‘s property.
Earlier this month a ban on Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala ‘s one-man show The Wall (Le Mur) was upheld by France’s highest court.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls had taken strenuous steps to ban the show. Initial performances in Paris contained sketches including the performer miming urination against the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala was also recorded referring to the Holocaust in remarks about a Jewish journalist and mocking commemoration of the Nazi extermination of the Jews.
Over 40,000 people in the US have signed a petition calling for President Barack Obama to revoke Justin Bieber’s visa and deport him to his native Canada following his arrest in Miami.
Justin Bieber was charged with DUI, resisting arrest without violence and driving without a valid license in Miami on Thursday, and it seems his latest bad behavior is the final straw for many Americans.
Justin Bieber was charged with DUI, resisting arrest without violence and driving without a valid license in Miami
The petition, which was launched on Whitehouse.org hours after Justin Bieber’s arrest, states: “We the people of the United States feel that we are being wrongly represented in the world of pop culture. We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive, and drug abusing Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked. He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation’s youth. We the people would like to remove Justin Bieber from our society.”
The campaign has garnered over 40,000 signatures, but must reach 100,000 before White House staff will agree to review it and “ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts”.
The White House petition is not the only campaign that has been launched following Justin Bieber’s arrest – 17 additional petitions calling for the same action have appeared online.
Billionaire Tom Perkins has apologized for comparing a row about free buses for tech workers in Silicon Valley to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
It follows a month of protests in San Francisco over what some residents see as the negative impact of tech workers.
In an open letter to the Wall Street Journal, Tom Perkins described a “rising tide of hatred” of the rich.
His comments were criticized on Twitter.
In the letter, Tom Perkins said: “I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its <<1%>>, namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American 1%, namely the <<rich>>.
“This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendant “progressive” radicalism unthinkable now?”
He later said he regretted using the word Kristallnacht but his message about a new type of class warfare remained true.
Tom Perkins has apologized for comparing a row about free buses for tech workers in Silicon Valley to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany
Kristallnacht – also referred to as night of broken glass – was a series of attacks against Jews in November 1938.
Tom Perkins, who headed up venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers before his retirement, was condemned by his old firm, which tweeted: “We were shocked by his views… and do not agree.”
The protests over the way tech workers commute to their jobs began in December when a bus taking people to Google’s campus had its window smashed by activists.
Similar protests have been held at bus stops around the city, with protesters complaining an influx of rich technology workers is driving up costs in the city.
The buses have become a symbol of such gentrification.
“Big tech exploits San Francisco’s cultural diversity and public infrastructure to lure workers here,” said the Heart of the City collective, which has organized the protests, in its own open letter also published this week.
“Real estate speculators capitalize on the influx of high-wage earners by evicting long-time residents to rent units at inflated rates, commanding up to 20% more around tech shuttle stops,” it added.
It is demanding that tech companies fund affordable housing initiatives and public transit service improvements.
The tech firms based in Silicon Valley, including Google, Twitter and Apple, use the buses to take about 17,000 people to and from the area each day.
Those behind the scheme say such buses ease congestion on already clogged roads in the city.
To ease the tensions, San Francisco’s transport agency has imposed fees and restrictions on the shuttle buses. The bus operators will have to pay $1 per stop per shuttle, netting an average of between $80,000 and $100,000 per operator each year.
Prince has taken a $22 million legal action against 22 people for posting copies of live performances online.
Court documents list the individuals said to have distributed bootleg recordings using Facebook and blogs.
One fan on a major Prince fan forum wrote: “Doing things like this is making him lose more and more fans.”
However, other fans rushed to defend the singer’s right to protect his vast back catalogue of material.
The action, filed earlier this month, reads: “The defendants in this case engage in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material.
Prince has taken a $22 million legal action against 22 people for posting copies of live performances online
“For example, in just one of the many takedown notices sent to Google with respect to Doe 2 (aka DaBang319), Prince identified 363 separate infringing links to file-sharing services, with each link often containing copies of bootlegged performances of multiple separate musical compositions.”
The documents go on to outline a range of blog sites and Facebook profiles where live renditions of classic Prince’s tracks such as Purple Rain and Little Red Corvette could be downloaded, or where links to such material could be found.
Fans on the long-established Prince.org forum suggested that although the action was surprising, it was not out of character for Prince. The 55-year-old has often used legal battles to crack down on unauthorized distribution of his music.
Dow Building Solutions has isolated the first certified Passive House in England. Underhill House, the pioneering project of eco-sustainability, created by the architect Helen Seymour -Smith , gave birth to an eco-friendly house on a hill that rises on the ruins of a 300 year old barn , situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The Passive House has been carved into the hillside and is invisible to the surrounding landscape so as to ensure even minimal environmental and visual impact. The structure is made of concrete left exposed internally to exploit the advantages of thermal energy and it has a bay window facing south, which helps to build-up of heat, and is highly insulated in the floor, roof and walls thanks to Styrofoam , Floormate 300 – A, Roofmate SL- A and Perimate OF -A .
Underhill House
Styrofoam, due to its capillarity and nothing to the excellent insulating properties, has been installed in Underhill House outside of the waterproof cover, minimizing the heat loss. There is also floormate 300-A, due to the high moisture resistance and for its resistance to compression, which is installed under the floor. The roof was insulated with Roofmate SL –A slabs, providing a minimum U -value of 0.097 W/m2K. The basement walls and foundations, finally, were isolated with Floormate and Perimate OF -A that has vertical grooves to drain the water.
All tests were certified in the Passive House and the evidence of airtight was exceeded. The isolation level is high; the design of Underhill House makes the most of the sun’s power by using AGL Solar Energy and creates a tightly sealed building that maintains a comfortable indoor climate.
This project is a demonstration of how a combination of effective materials and excellent architectural idea can achieve a functional and contemporary family home that addresses and solves problems directly related to environmental issues.
The grammar of creativity combines design, color, sustainability, emotion, young solutions for lightness and originality: Skyline 2.0 Snaidero perfectly interprets all these ingredients, serving as a project easy to read.
Appealing, technologically advanced, exciting, but also a versatile system suitable for small spaces in such large environments goes with the synthesis of a beauty clean, and functional, based on ergonomics, design and technology.
At the base of the restyling of the two architects Lucci and Orlandini was confirmed the idea behind the project, according to which the design must be designed for the man in his entirety, in response to both emotional expectations an above all, functional and practical.
Skyline 2.0 confirms a “outside the box” conventional project, released by the compositional grid modules that can highlight the clever use of space, both horizontally and vertically.
The work plan that modernized the design of the shape, confirms its extraordinary flexibility, along with a soft design, and continuously throughout the kitchen by creating a play of concavity and convexity that fosters an extremely ergonomic use of the operational area, with the advantage of overvaluation of the operative space.
The end customer can draw your shaping choice of the work plan: from the point of view of Skyline 2.0 Lucci and Orlandini Design Industrial Snaidero can implement any type of form or design, adapting perfectly to the most refined requirements related to space or domestic habits.
The project is also renewed in height: the need for more storage space and less infrequent contamination to the living, have in fact led the architects to bring the project to a new height come to define an operational area that doubles its space with two shelves countertop from which it was converted into a practical space to accommodate household utensils such as the kettle, kitchen tv, a Big W Coffee Machine , mugs and kitchen drives, allowing you to have everything at your fingertips.
In this way, the devoted space of the preparation becomes a real console where everything is easy and accessible, thanks to the basics semi-space which guarantees perfect enjoyment of the area devoted to the preparation and cooking. The gestures and spaces are extremely soft as well as shaped by the work plan, including the two linear and curved countertop shelves with LED lighting integrated in the rotor angular compartment with two glass shelves, and bases projections, which are also equipped with storage shelves.
But the customization is the true value of the project distinctive skyline 2.0, the kitchen where all combinations are possible, the composition, sizes and materials. There are over 100 finishes available for an aesthetic and functional dynamic able to support and enhance the creativity of the user. Everything is completely customizable: the doors, the floors above the shelves that surround the project chromatically by a distinctive and instantly recognizable sign.
Do you like to cook regularly? Do you consider yourself a contemporary chef? Personally, I used to order my food and pizzas from EatNow Pizza Delivery but since I decided to renew the design my kitchen with the latest ADI design index, I made up my mind to cook at home. It might sound very cheesy but I since changed my oven, kitchen supply and décor I realised it is better this way. Let’s start with the kitchen hood: 35CC, the amazing hood designed by Fabrizio Crisà for oven propellers that break the mold in the kitchen, continues to win design enthusiasts from the spirit and youthful.
This is confirmed by the inclusion of 35CC in the 2013 ADI Design Index, the benchmark for the world of design and the Made in Italy creativity. The products and projects that have passed the long and careful process of selection of the Permanent ADI will be candidates for the Compasso d’Oro and have become the protagonists of the exhibition Design | Opera, who told the visionary and revolutionary spirit of the Italian design.
Among the products selected for the category “Design for living ” stands out 35CC, a design object from the heart of technology, which is small and with a compact size. Innovation, materials, small size, color, and with the charm of a line that draws on the past and revisits key hi -tech in a single object is contained the entire flavor for a house in tune with your own style by being unique and unmistakable.
Shape and color characterize the novel cube of only 35 cm per side, born from the intersection of two shells in “C”: an external one with colorful aesthetic, functional for pizza and oven food plus a steel or punctured smooth. It came from a concentrate formal research and efficiency – 35CC offers different types of suction ( or perimeter with stainless steel macro- ) proposes the island and wall versions and installation options mode filtering or ducting .
In the evacuation wall you can choose between an elegant fireplace and stainless steel bracket, which allows the Back Aspiration if the evacuation hole is positioned at the rear of the product. The color choice of the outer shell varies according to the type of the aspiration: in version Evoque (perimeter aspiration) you can choose from white, orange, taupe and lilac; Dynamique version (direct suction holes through steel) between red, black, yellow, and green.
Also you can customize 35CC with the desired suction surface thanks to special accessories kit (macro-perforated steel panel, panel perimeter white, black and stainless steel). The high-efficiency lighting is provided by four LEDs, which is developed throughout 12 Watt, ensuring a bright light on the hob. The functions of suction and lighting are controlled by an innovative electronic touch control. The result is a distinctive, with a strong character, a simple and decisive-sophisticated design, able to enhance the kitchen environment.
Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic has refused to testify after former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic called him as a defense witness at his war crimes trial at The Hague.
It was the first time Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic had appeared together in public since the end of the 1990s war in Bosnia.
Denouncing the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal as “satanic”, Ratko Mladic said testifying could harm his own case.
Both men deny charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In his case, Radovan Karadzic faces 11 charges, including genocide relating to the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Radovan Karadzic’s lawyer argued that Ratko Mladic was “the one person in the whole world who knows best what happened in the war in Bosnia” and that Karadzic was asking him to do his best to testify and to tell what had occurred.
Ratko Mladic initially refused to take the oath, saying: “Your subpoenas, your platitudes, your false indictments, I do not care one bit about any of it.”
He added: “I do not recognize this hate court. It is a satanic court.”
The judge warned him he could be held in contempt, with a possible jail term of up to seven years.
The session was then adjourned, apparently so Ratko Mladic’s dentures could be retrieved from his cell.
Ratko Mladic has refused to testify after Radovan Karadzic called him as a defense witness at his war crimes trial at The Hague
On the court’s return, the judge advised Ratko Mladic he was not obliged to answer questions if he thought the answers would incriminate him.
Radovan Karadzic then addressed Ratko Mladic in person, saying: “Good morning general, sir.”
Ratko Mladic did answer Radovan Karadzic’s first question – listing the posts and dates of his military career.
But following the second question – Did you ever inform me that prisoners from Srebrenica would be, were being or had been executed? – Ratko Mladic said: “I refuse to testify on the grounds of my health and because it may prejudice my rights as an accused.”
Lawyers representing Ratko Mladic say he suffers from a memory disorder that makes it hard for him to differentiate between truth and fiction.
The judge ruled Ratko Mladic would not be compelled to answer.
Radovan Karadzic read out his remaining questions, but received the same reply.
Ratko Mladic again asked if he could read out a seven-page statement but was refused. He denounced the court again as the session was adjourned.
Radovan Karadzic had been hoping his former ally’s answers would support his claims that the orders to commit war crimes did not come from him.
The key charges facing Radovan Karadzic relate to Sarajevo and Srebrenica.
The siege of Sarajevo lasted for more than three-and-a-half years – starving the capital of food and power.
Radovan Karadzic is alleged to have orchestrated the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.
In the Srebrenica enclave, Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-defended safe area in the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War Two.
More than 7,500 Muslim men and boys were killed.
Ratko Mladic was the general in charge of the troops.
His trial is being conducted simultaneously at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 after 13 years on the run.
He had been found living in disguise in Belgrade, under a false name and working as a New Age healer.
Ratko Mladic was on the run for 16 years before being arrested in 2011 in northern Serbia, where he had also been living under an assumed name.
When Bosnia-Hercegovina became an independent state in 1992, Radovan Karadzic declared the creation of the independent Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina (renamed Republika Srpska) with its capital in Pale, a suburb of Sarajevo, and himself as head of state.
Ukraine’s PM Mykola Azarov has offered his resignation.
In a statement, Mykola Azarov said the move was designed to create “social and political compromise”.
In his resignation statement, PM Mykola Azarov said: “To create additional opportunities for social and political compromise and for a peaceful solution to the conflict, I made a personal decision to ask the president of Ukraine to accept my resignation as prime minister of Ukraine.”
Mykola Azarov said his resignation was designed to create social and political compromise
The government had “done everything to ensure the peaceful resolution of the conflict” and would do “everything possible to prevent bloodshed, an escalation of violence, and violation of citizen’s rights”, he said.
If President Viktor Yanukovych signs the decree for the resignation, then the whole cabinet resigns. But they can remain in their posts for 60 days until a new government is formed.
Viktor Yanukovych had already offered Mykola Azarov’s job to the opposition at the weekend, proposing that Fatherland leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk take the post.
Mohamed Morsi’s trial over his escape from prison in 2011 has begun in Cairo, state media say.
The Egypt’s ousted Islamist president was taken to the court in Cairo by helicopter from a prison in Alexandria, Mena news agency reports.
Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely-elected president, was deposed by the military in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
He is now facing four separate criminal trials on various charges.
Also on Tuesday, the interior ministry said that a ministry official, named in local media as General Mohammed Saeed, was shot dead on his way to work.
The killing comes amid a string of militant attacks on security services in recent days, and hours after Egypt’s top military body gave its backing for army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run for president.
Mohamed Morsi’s trial over his escape from prison in 2011 has begun in Cairo
Supporters of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have gathered outside the building, but no pro-Morsi supporters have appeared.
Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organization and authorities have punished any public showing of support for it.
Another 130 people are also facing charges in the prison break trial, but many of the defendants are currently on the run.
Mohamed Morsi stands accused of organizing a mass breakout from the Wadi al-Natrun prison during the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, as well as the murder of prison officers.
He is appearing in a sound-proofed glass box during the trial and will only be permitted to speak after raising his hand.
State television reported that the defendants were shouting inside the glass box and were making the four-finger “Rabaa” protest sign, but could not be heard.
When he first appeared in court in November in a separate trial, Mohamed Morsi chanted slogans against the current government and the court. He also refused to recognize the court’s legitimacy or put on the required prison uniform.
Quentin Tarantino has sued website Gawker for contributory copyright infringement after it posted a link to leaked screenplay of The Hateful Eight.
A link to The Hateful Eight script remained on Gawker‘s Defamer blog on Monday despite demands from Quentin Tarantino’s lawyers to take it down.
They argued the site had effectively cost him royalties he might earn from the eventual publication of the script.
But Gawker said posting a link was part of its job to provide information.
“News of the fact that it existed on the internet advanced a story that Tarantino himself had launched, and our publication of the link was a routine and unremarkable component of our job: making people aware of news and information about which they are curious,” the site’s editor-in-chief John Cook said.
Quentin Tarantino has sued website Gawker for contributory copyright infringement after it posted a link to leaked screenplay of The Hateful Eight
In a post, Gawker added it would be fighting the case, adding that, to its knowledge, “no claim of contributory infringement has prevailed in the US over a news story”.
The lawsuit seeks damages of $1 million against Gawker as well as $1 million against the anonymous file-sharing site where the leaked script was hosted.
Quentin Tarantino has previously published scripts of his films, a practice in the past has earned him hefty royalties and advances.
“There was nothing newsworthy or journalistic about Gawker Media facilitating and encouraging the public’s violation of [Quentin Tarantino’s] copyright in the screenplay, and its conduct will not shield Gawker Media from liability for their unlawful activity,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also alleges the leak was originally only limited to a few people, and The Hateful Eight script did not appear online until after Gawker posted an item encouraging anyone who had a copy to leak it to them.
Quentin Tarantino blasted the leak last week in an interview with entertainment industry website Deadline.com and said he would abandon the project as a film.
According to a new report, the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ routinely try to gain access to personal data from Angry Birds and other mobile applications.
A NSA document shows location, websites visited and contacts are among the data targeted from mobile applications.
It is the latest revelation from documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
In a statement, the NSA said it was not interested in data beyond “valid foreign intelligence targets”.
“Any implication that NSA’s foreign intelligence collection is focused on the smartphone or social media communications of everyday Americans is not true,” the statement said.
The report, published by the New York Times, Pro Publica and the Guardian says the NSA and GCHQ have worked together since 2007 to develop ways to gain access to information from applications for mobile phones and tablets.
The scale of data gathering is unclear.
But the reports suggest data is gained from a variety of mapping, gaming and social networking applications, using techniques similar to the ones used to intercept mobile internet traffic and text message data.
The documents also reveal the two agencies are increasingly convinced of the importance of mobile applications data.
The joint spying program “effectively means that anyone using Google Maps on a smartphone is working in support of a GCHQ system” one 2008 document from the British intelligence agency is quoted as saying.
Another GCHQ report, in 2012, laid out how to extract information from Angry Birds user information from phones on the Android operating system. The game has been download 1.7 billion times across the world.
The NSA and GCHQ routinely try to gain access to personal data from Angry Birds and other mobile applications
The GCHQ said it would not comment on intelligence matters, but insisted that all of its activities were “authorized, necessary and proportionate”.
Another NSA document described a “golden nugget” – a perfect scenario where NSA analysts could get broad selections of information from the applications, including networks the phone had connected to, documents downloaded, websites visited and “buddy lists”.
Other applications mentioned by the documents include the photo-sharing site Flickr, movie-based social network Flixster and applications that connect to Facebook.
Developers are responsible for the information generated from each application, but there was no suggestion firms were actively agreeing to give the spy agencies data.
On Monday, the justice department announced it had reached agreement with five major internet firms over their request to share information about how they responded to orders from the NSA and other agencies.
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn had previously sued the US government over being able to disclose to the public more information on what they have released to intelligence agencies.
Under the compromise announced, the firms will be able to release:
the number of criminal-related orders from the government
the number of secret national security-related orders from government investigators, rounded to the nearest thousand
how many national security-related orders came from the foreign service intelligence and the number of customers those orders affected
whether those orders were for just email addresses or covered additional information
As part of the deal, the firms will delay releases of the number of national security orders by six months and promise they cannot reveal government surveillance of new technology or forms of communications they create for two years.
Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger has died at a New York hospital after a short illness aged 94, his grandson said.
Peter Seeger’s songs included Turn, Turn, Turn! and If I Had A Hammer.
He gained fame in The Weavers, formed in 1948, and continued to perform in his own right in a career spanning six decades.
Renowned for his protest songs, Peter Seeger was blacklisted in the 1950s for his leftist stance.
Denied broadcast exposure, Peter Seeger toured US college campuses spreading his music and ethos, later calling this the “most important job of my career”.
Peter Seeger gained fame in The Weavers, formed in 1948, and continued to perform in his own right in a career spanning six decades
The lofty, bearded banjo-playing musician became a standard bearer for political causes from nuclear disarmament to the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.
In 2009, Pete Seeger was at a gala concert in the US capital ahead of Barack Obama’s inauguration as president.
Other songs that Pete Seeger co-wrote included Where Have All The Flowers Gone, while he was credited with making We Shall Overcome an anthem of resistance.
Peter Seeger’s influence continued down the decades, with an induction into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and he won a Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album, with Pete.
He was a nominee at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards in the spoken word category.
Pete Seeger performed with Woody Guthrie in his early years, and went on to have an effect on the protest music of later artists including Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders have agreed to scrap anti-protest laws that had fuelled anger at the government, the presidency announces.
Viktor Yanukovych also offered an amnesty to protesters, but only if they cleared barricades and stopped attacking government buildings.
The president made the offer in talks with the three main opposition leaders.
The demonstrators had demanded the protest law be repealed, but they also want Viktor Yanukovych to quit.
The law was hastily passed in parliament by Viktor Yanukovych loyalists on January 16.
President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders have agreed to scrap anti-protest laws that had fuelled anger at the government
The changes included a ban on unauthorized tents in public areas, and criminal responsibility for slandering government officials.
Correspondents say it is likely to be overturned during a special session of parliament on Tuesday, arranged last week to discuss the crisis.
The law angered protesters and helped to spread unrest across Ukraine, even to Viktor Yanukovych’s Russian-speaking strongholds in the east.
The protesters, closely allied to the opposition parties, targeted government buildings and have briefly occupied several ministries in Kiev.
Viktor Yanukovych began the latest round of talks on Monday evening with Fatherland leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Udar (Punch) chief Vitali Klitschko, and nationalist leader Oleg Tyahnybok.
Meanwhile, top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton has brought forward a planned visit to Ukraine by 48 hours and will now arrive on Tuesday for meetings with Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders.
She said she was “alarmed” by reports on Monday that the government was preparing to introduce a state of emergency.
Multiple reports had suggested that the government was intending to invoke a state of emergency, but officials later said they had no such plan.
Tata Motors’ Managing Director Karl Slym apparently killed himself when he fell from the 22nd floor of a Bangkok hotel on Sunday, Thai police say.
The British executive was in Thailand to attend a board meeting of the company’s local affiliate.
Investigators believe Karl Slym may have taken his own life because of a note left in his room referring to domestic problems.
Police said it was being analyzed to confirm Karl Slym wrote it.
Thai police said they were called to the Shangri-La hotel around 07:45 a.m. on Sunday, after staff found Karl Slym’s body on the fourth floor, which juts out above lower storeys of the luxury complex.
Tata Motors’ Managing Director Karl Slym apparently killed himself when he fell from the 22nd floor of Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok
They then woke up Karl Slym’s wife, who seemed shocked, they said. The couple had been married for about 30 years and did not have any children.
In a statement, Company Chairman Cyprus P. Mistry paid tribute to Karl Slym, describing him as “a valued colleague who was providing strong leadership at a challenging time for the Indian auto industry”.
Aged 51, Karl Slym ran led the automaker’s operations in India and international markets including South Korea, Thailand and South Africa.
He was not responsible for the Jaguar and Land Rover luxury unit that Tata Motors acquired in 2008.
Karl Slym, who was from Derby, England, had worked for Toyota in the UK, and then General Motors in India and China.
He had been managing director of Tata Motors, part of the giant Tata Group, since being hired in October 2012 to revive Tata’s flagging sales in India.
Following news of Karl Slym’s death, Tata Motors stock closed down 6% at 347.8 rupees.
Police official Somyot Boonyakaew said investigators “didn’t find any sign of a struggle” in the room Karl Slym was sharing with his wife in the Shangri-La Hotel.
“We found a window open. The window was very small so it was not possible that he would have slipped,” he told Reuters news agency.
“He would have had to climb through the window to fall out because he was a big man. From my initial investigation, we believe he jumped.”
Two Bitcoin exchange operators have been arrested in the US.
The Department of Justice said Robert Faiella, known as BTCKing, and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant.com have both been charged with money laundering.
The authorities said the two operators engaged in a scheme to sell more than $1 million in Bitcoins to users of online drug marketplace the Silk Road.
Silk Road site was shut down last year and its alleged owner was arrested.
Robert Faiella, known as BTCKing, and Charlie Shrem from BitInstant.com have both been charged with money laundering
Charlie Shrem, 24, was arrested on Sunday at New York’s JFK airport. He was expected to appear in court on Monday, prosecutors said.
Robert Faiella, 52, was arrested on Monday at his home in Cape Coral, Florida.
Bitcoin exchanges are services that allow users to trade bitcoins for traditional currencies.
Charlie Shrem is accused of allowing Robert Faiella to use BitInstant to purchase large quantities of Bitcoins to sell on to Silk Road users who wanted to anonymously buy drugs.
The authorities said Charlie Shrem was aware that the Bitcoins were being used for such purchases, and therefore he was in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.
The Act requires financial institutions in the US to alert authorities to any suspicious activity that may suggest money laundering is taking place.
Charlie Shrem is a founding member and the current vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, a trade group set up to promote Bitcoin as an alternative currency.
Last year, Charlie Shrem set up a bar in New York that accepted Bitcoins.
BitInstant was one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges on the internet.
However, the service has been inaccessible for some time, explained Mike Hearn, another board member at the Bitcoin Foundation.
BitInstant’s investors include Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – the twins who previously sued Mark Zuckerberg claiming he had stolen their idea for Facebook.
The Grammy Awards organizers made a pretty big mistake during its In Memoriam tribute Sunday night as Cory Monteith’s name was misspelled during the annual montage.
The late Glee star’s name was written with the “e” and the “i” reversed. Glee fans immediately noticed the error and took to Twitter to express their anger.
Cory Monteith’s name was misspelled during Grammys In Memoriam
“Dear Recording Academy, it’s 2014 & no one has spell check? His name is Cory MONTEITH!!! Fire the fact check clerk!” one fan tweeted.
Cory Monteith died in July from a fatal combination of drugs and alcohol.
Procter & Gamble R&D department revealed during a conference call with investors and analysts Monday morning they are developing a new line of Crest toothpaste.
The new line, which P&G promises to start selling soon, comprises three flavors: Mint Chocolate Trek, Lime Spearmint Zest and Vanilla Mint Spark.
Procter & Gamble R&D department is developing a new line of Crest toothpaste
Chocolate toothpaste is squarely aimed at winning new customers.
P&G’s biggest releases in that time include a really tough paper towel and a deodorant intended to fight stress-related sweat.
