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Hugh Jackman pulls out of Houdini Broadway musical

Sonia Pantiss
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Hugh Jackman pulls out of Houdini Broadway musical

Les Miserables star Hugh Jackman has decided to pull out of a new Broadway musical about Harry Houdini in which he was to have played the famed illusionist.

Hugh Jackman cited scheduling demands as the reason for his departure, saying he “wasn’t able to commit to the time this role will require”.

“I have tremendous respect and admiration for the creative team and I wish everyone the best,” the actor continued.

Hugh Jackman cited scheduling demands as the reason for his departure from Houdini Broadway musical
Hugh Jackman cited scheduling demands as the reason for his departure from Houdini Broadway musical

“I know they’re well on their way to making something extraordinary.”

Producer Scott Sanders said Hugh Jackman had been “terrific to have on this part of our journey”.

“We will continue to move forward with our remarkable creative team as they craft this ambitious new musical,” he said.

First mooted in 2008, the long-gestating Houdini musical had been on track for a 2014 premiere before Hugh Jackman’s exit.

Danny Elfman, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz are among those to have been involved in the project over the past five years.

Hugh Jackman was recently seen in the film version of Les Miserables, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

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Bethlehem Christmas Eve celebration in Manger Square

Diane A. Wade
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Bethlehem Christmas Eve celebration in Manger Square

Crowds of pilgrims and tourists have begun to gather in the biblical town of Bethlehem to kick off Christmas Eve celebrations.

The nearby Church of the Nativity sits on the spot where the Bible says Jesus was born.

The number of visitors to Bethlehem has been steadily rising in recent years as peace talks to resolve the Middle East conflict have resumed.

Crowds of pilgrims and tourists have begun to gather in the biblical town of Bethlehem to kick off Christmas Eve celebrations
Crowds of pilgrims and tourists have begun to gather in the biblical town of Bethlehem to kick off Christmas Eve celebrations

Despite the erection of Israel’s separation barrier with the West Bank, which appears as a high concrete wall around the town, three gates have been opened for Christmas to allow the Christmas procession led by the Latin Patriarch coming from Jerusalem to enter the city.

In Vatican City, Pope Francis has made a Christmas visit to Pope Emeritus Benedict, 86, and said he found his predecessor looking well.

Pope Francis, who was elected in March, spent about 30 minutes with Pope Emeritus Benedict in an ex-convent on the Vatican grounds where the former pope has been living since he stepped down earlier this year, the Reuters news agency reports.

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Mikhail Khodorkovsky applies for Swiss visa

Nancy Clayson
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Mikhail Khodorkovsky applies for Swiss visa

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has applied for a visa to travel to Switzerland, the Swiss foreign ministry says.

A ministry’s spokesman said Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky submitted his request for a three-month Schengen visa at the Swiss embassy in Berlin.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 50, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, spent 10 years in a Russian prison for fraud and tax evasion.

He was pardoned and freed on Friday and immediately flew to Germany.

Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Stefan von Below told the Associated Press news agency that the three-month visa request would probably be processed in the coming days.

He declined to give further details.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has applied for a visa to travel to Switzerland
Mikhail Khodorkovsky has applied for a visa to travel to Switzerland

Schengen visas allow holders to travel to most EU countries without having their passports or other documents checked at the border.

Earlier, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s spokeswoman, Olga Pispanen, told AFP news agency that he was considering moving to Switzerland where his twin sons go to school.

Olga Pispanen said he was due to be reunited with his wife, Inna, and their three children in Berlin on Christmas Eve and he planned to discuss the idea with them.

“He is waiting for the family’s arrival. They will sit down and discuss everything,” she added.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has always insisted that his conviction was politically motivated.

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Kaius Jagger Berman: Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman reveal second baby name

Lisa.Felice
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Kaius Jagger Berman: Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman reveal second baby name

Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman welcomed second baby boy, whose nickname is Kai, joining older brother Skyler Morrison.

Fashionista Rachel Zoe and husband Rodger Berman announced the birth of their second son via Twitter Sunday and now they revealed their new baby boy’s name is Kaius (Kai) Jagger Berman.

Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman welcomed second baby boy Kaius Jagger Berman
Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman welcomed second baby boy Kaius Jagger Berman

“As loyal readers of The Zoe Report, I wanted you to be the first to see a picture of the beautiful new addition to our family, Kaius Jagger Berman, aka <<Kai>>,” Zoe Rachel wrote on her website along with a black and white photo of her and Rodger Berman with their newborn son.

“So excited to welcome our baby boy into the world,” Zoe Rachel tweeted Sunday.

“He’s 7 lbs 12 oz, beautiful, healthy and we couldn’t be happier.”

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Phil Robertson suspension: A&E celebrates Christmas with 25 episodes of Duck Dynasty

Sonia Pantiss
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Phil Robertson suspension: A&E celebrates Christmas with 25 episodes of Duck Dynasty

Although A&E suspended Phil Robertson from future episodes of Duck Dynasty last week, the network is still welcoming him home for holidays.

A&E Networks is celebrating Christmas with a staggering 25 consecutive episodes of Duck Dynasty, beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Christmas Day and running until the wee hours of December 26.

A&E Networks is celebrating Christmas with a staggering 25 consecutive episodes of Duck Dynasty
A&E Networks is celebrating Christmas with a staggering 25 consecutive episodes of Duck Dynasty

According to the schedule on the networks website, the Robertson family will take over the channel until 4 a.m., and then paid programming – meaning infomercials – will kick in.

Phil Robertson, 67, will not be left out of the Christmas Day airings as he is a key character in plenty of the episodes scheduled to air, including Quack-O-Lantern and Drag me to Glory.

The Duck Dynasty patriarch came under fire last week when GQ magazine published his anti-gay comments. He was subsequently suspended from the series indefinitely, and the family has stated they are hesitant to continue with the show if Phil will not be part of it.

Duck Dynasty Season 5 will premiere on January 15 and Phil Robertson is slated to appear in several episodes that have already been filmed.

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Phil Robertson controversy: Twitter blocks IStandWithPhil.com website

Sonia Pantiss
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Phil Robertson controversy: Twitter blocks IStandWithPhil.com website

People tweeting IStandWithPhil.com, the website created in support  Duck Dynasty ’s Phil Robertson, have been blocked by Twitter.

It appears that those who type IStandWithPhil.com receive the following message: “Oops! A URL in your Tweet appears to link to a page that has spammy or unsafe content.”

The Christian group Faith Driven Consumer, which is behind the IStandWithPhil.com page, said a petition at the site has yielded 200,000 signatures in less than four days.

The group said Twitter has also shut down two other pro-Phil Robertson social media accounts.

Twitter has blocked people from tweeting IStandWithPhil
Twitter has blocked people from tweeting IStandWithPhil

“Despite Twitter’s shut down of iStandWithPhil.com, we are surging through 200,000 supporters. In recent days, iStandWithPhil.com is among the top trending hash tags on Twitter,” said Chris Stone, founder of the group.

“We’re encouraging supporters to be heard, Tweet the @support or @twitter account, and use their other means of communication to get iStandWithPhil.com back online.”

The group notes that a Google page diagnostic of the site indicates it “is not currently listed as suspicious” and that “this has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days”.

When it complained to Twitter, the group said, it received a boilerplate message saying Twitter “has systems that blocks [sic] the posting of suspected harmful URLs in order to make Twitter safer and more secure for our users. … Even if Google’s diagnostic report of the URL is clean, we may decide to continue blocking the URL on Twitter as potentially harmful”.

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Russia drops piracy charges against Greenpeace activist Anthony Perrett

Diane A. Wade
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Russia drops piracy charges against Greenpeace activist Anthony Perrett

Russian authorities have decided to drop piracy charges against the first of 30 people accused of taking part in a Greenpeace protest in the Arctic.

The man has been identified as Anthony Perrett from Newport in Wales, who is now preparing to leave Russia.

He was in the group of 28 activists and two freelance journalists arrested in September as they staged a protest at a Russian offshore oil rig.

They were all charged with hooliganism – but have all been freed on bail.

They are being granted amnesty under a new Russian law which has seen several high-profile releases in recent days.

Greenpeace said on Tuesday that one man from the “Arctic 30” group had been told his case was now closed, and that others were expected to receive notice soon.

The statement did not name the man.

An earlier report saying that three people had been notified for release was later corrected.

Anthony Perrett was in the group of 28 Greenpeace activists arrested after they staged a protest at a Russian offshore oil rig
Anthony Perrett was in the group of 28 Greenpeace activists arrested after they staged a protest at a Russian offshore oil rig

Twenty-six of the group are foreigners – six of them Britons – and Greenpeace said they would be free to leave Russia once they had the right stamps in their passports.

“We know that getting those stamps would be the best Christmas present for the Arctic 30 and we hope it can happen quickly, but until such time as they do, we still cannot say when they will leave,” it said in a statement.

The detainees, from 16 different countries, had sailed to an oil rig operated by Russia’s state-run energy company Gazprom in September.

They were intercepted by Russian coastguards, who fired warning shots as some activists tried to climb on board the rig.

Their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, was seized.

The group was initially charged with piracy but the charges were later reduced to hooliganism.

They denied the charges, saying their protest had been peaceful and legal.

The Russian amnesty law was passed last week by the State Duma and could see the release of some 20,000 people.

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Mass ethnic killings in South Sudan

Roy Siemens
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Mass ethnic killings in South Sudan

New evidence is emerging of alleged ethnic killings committed during more than a week of fighting in South Sudan.

The violence follows a power struggle between President Salva Kiir Mayardit, a Dinka, and his Nuer ex-deputy Riek Machar.

A reporter in the capital, Juba, quoted witnesses as saying more than 200 people, mostly from the Nuer ethnic group, were shot by security forces.

Another man in Juba said gunmen from the majority Dinka ethnic group were shooting people in Nuer areas.

The fighting first erupted in Juba last week and has spread throughout South Sudan, with rebels supporting Riek Machar seizing the major towns of Bor and Bentiu, north of the capital.

Bentiu is the capital of the oil-producing Unity State.

New evidence is emerging of alleged ethnic killings committed during more than a week of fighting in South Sudan
New evidence is emerging of alleged ethnic killings committed during more than a week of fighting in South Sudan

Salva Kiir has accused Riek Machar, who he sacked in July, of plotting a coup. Riek Machar denies he is trying to seize power, while the government has denied it is behind any ethnic violence.

The fear is that the personal rivalry between the former allies will spark a full-scale conflict between the Nuer and Dinka groups.

The official death toll stands at 500, but aid agencies say the true figure is likely to be much higher.

There has also been fighting in Upper Nile State but few details have emerged.

Another 81,000 people have been displaced, the UN’s humanitarian agency says, with about half seeking shelter at UN bases.

President Salva Kiir has said he is willing to hold talks with Riek Machar – and that a delegation of East African foreign ministers had offered to mediate – but that his former deputy would have to come to the table without any conditions.

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Edward Snowden: Mission accomplished by leaking NSA surveillance programs

Diane A. Wade
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Edward Snowden: Mission accomplished by leaking NSA surveillance programs

In a recent interview, Edward Snowden – who leaked details of NSA electronic surveillance programs – says he’s achieved his aim.

“In terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished,” he told the Washington Post.

“I already won,” said 30-year-old Edward Snowden, whose extensive leaks have caused a reassessment of US surveillance policy.

Edward Snowden was interviewed in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum on August 1st.

The former NSA contractor fled the US in late May, taking a huge cache of secret documents with him. He faces espionage charges in the US.

Edward Snowden was interviewed in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum
Edward Snowden was interviewed in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum

“As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself,” Edward Snowden told the newspaper.

“All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed,” he said.

The NSA, accustomed to watching without being watched, faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever, the Washington Post reports.

Edward Snowden told the newspaper he had no way of knowing whether the public would share his views.

“You recognize that you’re going in blind… But when you weigh that against the alternative, which is not to act, you realize that some analysis is better than no analysis.”

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NORAD Tracks Santa 2013

Nancy Clayson
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NORAD Tracks Santa 2013

The NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is tracking Santa’s route around the world.

You can watch it too on www.noradsanta.org starting Christmas Eve.

The website also has games and activities, videos, music and more.

The official NORAD Tracks Santa app is also available in the Windows, Apple and Android stores. Tracking opportunities are also offered on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+.

NORAD Tracks Santa started in 1955
NORAD Tracks Santa started in 1955

Santa followers just need to type “@noradsanta” into each social media site to get started.

Starting Christmas Eve, website visitors can watch Santa make preparations for his flight through the Bing maps and Cesium technology to track Santa with NORAD in 2D and 3D.

Beginning at 5 a.m. Tuesday, trackers can speak with a live phone operator to ask about Santa’s whereabouts by dialing the toll-free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or by sending an email to noradtracks santa@outlook­.com.

NORAD Tracks Santa started in 1955 when a local media advertisement directed children to call Santa direct – only the number was misprinted. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the Crew Commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center.

Thus began the tradition which NORAD carried on since it was created in 1958.

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Anna Paquin axed from X-Men: Days of Future Past

Sonia Pantiss
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Anna Paquin axed from X-Men: Days of Future Past

Anna Paquin’s character Rogue will no longer feature in X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer has revealed.

Anna Paquin, 31, had reprised her role in a rescue sequence shot early in the sequel’s production that has since been adjudged to be surplus to requirements.

Bryan Singer told Entertainment Weekly the scene had become “extraneous” and “was just one of the things that had to go”.

Anna Paquin, the director said, “completely understood” that “films evolve”.

Anna Paquin's character Rogue will no longer feature in X-Men: Days of Future Past
Anna Paquin’s character Rogue will no longer feature in X-Men: Days of Future Past

He said Anna Paquin had done “a fantastic job” in the X-Men sequel, had been “awesome” in the sequence and was “a brilliant actress”.

The scene, which took a week to shoot, had seen Anna Paquin appear alongside Ian McKellen’s Magneto, Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and Shawn Ashmore’s younger mutant Iceman.

Bryan Singer said the sequence would “probably” feature on the film’s DVD and that he would work with Anna Paquin again “in a heartbeat”.

“It’s very disappointing, but she’s very professional and she knows that stuff happens, particularly with material you shoot early on in production.”

The announcement follows Anna Paquin’s appearance at last July’s Comic Con event in San Diego, California alongside fellow members of the Future Past cast.

Bryan Singer directed the first two installments in the X-Men series, which deal with characters endowed with superhuman abilities and the difficulties they face assimilating into society.

Anna Paquin was 11 when she won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in The Piano. She played Rogue in the first three X-Men movies before landing the role of Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood.

Beyonce surprises Wal-Mart shoppers with Christmas gifts

Lisa.Felice
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Beyonce surprises Wal-Mart shoppers with Christmas gifts

Beyonce surprised supermarket shoppers in Massachusetts when she paid an unexpected visit to a Wal-Mart in Tewksbury.

The Single Ladies singer, 32, bought a doll for her toddler Blu Ivy at the store on Friday night, as well as a copy of her self-titled new album.

Beyonce surprised supermarket shoppers in Massachusetts when she paid an unexpected visit to a Wal-Mart in Tewksbury
Beyonce surprised supermarket shoppers in Massachusetts when she paid an unexpected visit to a Wal-Mart in Tewksbury

Beyonce announced over the shop loudspeaker she would pay the first $50 of all of their shopping bills and wished everyone in the store a Happy Christmas. The singer spent $37,500 in gift cards.

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Pervez Musharraf treason trial postponed after explosives found on route to court

Roy Siemens
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Pervez Musharraf treason trial postponed after explosives found on route to court

Pervez Musharraf’s trial has been postponed after explosives were found on his route to court in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

The special court hearing on treason charges against Pakistan’s former military ruler will now take place on January 1st.

On Monday, Pervez Musharraf’s petition that only a military court could examine his actions was rejected.

The charges relate to his decision in 2007 to suspend the constitution and impose emergency rule.

Pervez Musharraf, who is on bail in several other cases, says all the accusations against him are politically motivated.

The 70-year-old also faces separate charges of murder and restricting the judiciary.

He is the first Pakistani former president to face trial for treason.

Pervez Musharraf’s trial has been postponed after explosives were found on his route to court in Islamabad
Pervez Musharraf’s trial has been postponed after explosives were found on his route to court in Islamabad

Pervez Musharraf’s lawyer, Anwar Mansoor, told the court on Tuesday that the trial could not go ahead because of a heightened security threat.

Police said 5 kg of explosives had been found along the route to the National Library, where the hearing is taking place.

The court granted Pervez Musharraf a one-time exemption from appearing, and ordered the court registrar to ensure he had safe transit on January 1st, where charges will be read to him.

Pervez Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and remained president until 2008 when a democratically elected government forced him to resign.He went into exile soon afterwards.

On Monday, Pervez Musharraf’s lawyers had argued – unsuccessfully – that as he was the army chief in 2007, only a military court had the authority to try him.

But Islamabad’s high court rejected the petition. It also dismissed objections over the appointment of judges and prosecutor.

Pervez Musharraf ousted PM Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup.

After his resignation in 2008 he left Pakistan to live in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London.

On his return in March Pervez Musharraf hoped he could lead his party into elections, but was disqualified from standing and found himself fighting an array of charges relating to his time in power.

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Mariah Carey disses Eminem on Watch What Happens Live!

Lisa.Felice
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Mariah Carey disses Eminem on Watch What Happens Live!

Mariah Carey and Eminem long-running feud continues.

Eminem, now 41, famously claimed that he and Mariah Carey had a relationship after their meeting in 2001.

Mariah Carey’s pointed response on the matter was her 2009 smash Obsessed, which inspired a video that featured herself in male drag as, presumably, Eminem himself.

On the Sunday episode of Watch What Happens Live!, Andy Cohen broached the topic to Mariah Carey during a round of Plead the Fifth by asking her to say three nice things about Eminem.

Mariah Carey and Eminem long-running feud continues
Mariah Carey and Eminem long-running feud continues

Mariah Carey response was sweetly sarcastic: “They come in a package that you can carry wherever you go. People love them around the world, and they’re tasty. You can have peanut or the regular kind.”

“Oh my god, I love it!” Andy Cohen replied.

Mariah Carey also revealed that she and husband Nick Cannon won’t be adding to their brood ever: “Here’s the thing, I’m responsible for the kids for like forever. They didn’t ask for this lifestyle but here they are.”

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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova calls for Sochi Winter Games boycott

Diane A. Wade
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Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova calls for Sochi Winter Games boycott

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has called for foreign countries to boycott February’s Sochi Winter Olympics, hours after she was freed from jail.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova dismissed the amnesty law that set her free, saying it was a “cosmetic measure”.

She and band-mate Maria Alyokhina, who was also freed, said the prison system needed wider reform and promised to continue anti-government action.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Ayokhina were jailed in 2012 after singing a protest song in a Moscow cathedral.

The act was seen as blasphemous by many Russians, and was condemned by the Orthodox Church.

But their conviction for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” was criticized by rights groups, anti-government activists and foreign politicians.

The amnesty passed last week aimed to free some 20,000 prisoners.

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has called for foreign countries to boycott February's Sochi Winter Olympics
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has called for foreign countries to boycott February’s Sochi Winter Olympics

Both Pussy Riot members said their anti-government stance had not softened, and both promised to form a human-rights group to fight for prison reform.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who was freed from a prison hospital in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, immediately called for a boycott of the Sochi Games.

“What is happening today – releasing people just a few months before their term expires – is a cosmetic measure,” she said.

“That includes the case of Khodorkovsky, who didn’t have much time left on his prison term. This is ridiculous.”

She said far more people should be set free.

“I’m calling for a boycott, for honesty. I’m calling [on Western governments] not to give in because of oil and gas deliveries from Russia.”

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, labeled the Russian state a “totalitarian machine” and said prison reform was the starting point for reform of Russian society.

Maria Alyokhina, released in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 280 miles east of Moscow, told Russian TV that the amnesty was “a profanation”.

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Alan Turing pardoned after 59 years

James J. Williams
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Alan Turing pardoned after 59 years

British computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon.

Queen Elizabeth II granted a rare “mercy pardon” Monday to Alan Turing, the computing and mathematics pioneer whose chemical castration for being gay drove him to suicide almost 60 years ago.

The conviction meant he lost his security clearance and had to stop the code-cracking work that proved vital to the Allies in World War II.

The pardon was granted under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy after a request by Justice Minister Chris Grayling.

“Dr. Alan Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind,” said Chris Grayling.

He said the research Alan Turing carried out during the war at Bletchley Park undoubtedly shortened the conflict and saved thousands of lives.

Alan Turing was one of the leading scientific geniuses of the 20th century – the man who cracked the supposedly uncrackable Enigma code used by Nazi Germany in World War II and the man many scholars consider the father of modern computer science.

Alan Turing was one of the leading scientific geniuses of the 20th century
Alan Turing was one of the leading scientific geniuses of the 20th century

By the time he was 23, Alan Turing had hypothesized what would become today’s computers – the Turing machine, which could emulate any computing device or program. Almost 80 years later, Alan Turing machines are still used in theoretical computation.

“His later life was overshadowed by his conviction for homos**ual activity, a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory and which has now been repealed,” said Chris Grayling.

“Turing deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science. A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man.”

The pardon comes into effect on December 24.

Alan Turing died in June 1954 from cyanide poisoning and an inquest decided that he had committed suicide. However, biographers, friends and other students of his life dispute the finding and suggest his death was an accident.

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Christmas Crepes Recipe

Kathryn R. Bown
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Christmas Crepes Recipe

Christmas Crepes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • Vegetable oil

    Christmas Crepes
    Christmas Crepes

Directions:

  1. Combine the salt, sugar, eggs, milk, and butter in a blender until well mixed. Add the flour and blend until smooth. Let the batter chill in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
  2. When you’re ready to cook, heat a small amount of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat, then blend the batter once more. Drop a few tablespoons of batter in the pan, tilting and rotating the pan to spread the batter uniformly over the bottom.
  3. Cook until the underside has slightly browned and bubbles form on the top of the crepe, then flip the crepe and cook until the other side has slightly browned.
  4. As you cook them, stack the finished crepes on a warm dish, then, when you’re ready to eat, let everyone fix them to their liking. Makes approximately 20 crepes.

Phil Robertson controversy: Bristol Palin adds to Duck Dynasty furor

Sonia Pantiss
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Phil Robertson controversy: Bristol Palin adds to Duck Dynasty furor

Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol Palin, entered the Duck Dynasty controversy saying that gay activists are “hypocritical” to take offense at Phil Robertson’s remarks.

“I think it’s so hypocritical how the LGBT community expects every single flippen person to agree with their life style,” Bristol Palin said in a blog post.

“I hate how the LGBT community says it’s all about <<love>> and <<equality>>,” she continued.

Bristol Palin entered the Duck Dynasty controversy saying that gay activists are "hypocritical" to take offense at Phil Robertson's remarks
Bristol Palin entered the Duck Dynasty controversy saying that gay activists are “hypocritical” to take offense at Phil Robertson’s remarks

“However, if you don’t agree with their lifestyle, they spread the most hate. It is so hypocritical it makes my stomach turn. They need to learn how to respect others’ opinions and not just jump to the conclusion that everyone who doesn’t support homos**uality and gay marriage is homophobic.”

Bristol Palin has denied in the past that she is herself “a homophobic.”

“I like gays,” she said in July 2012.

“I’m not a homophobic and I’m so sick of people saying that. Just because I’m for traditional marriage doesn’t really mean I’m scared or anything of anyone else, and I don’t hate anybody.”

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Barack Obama signs up for health insurance coverage

Diane A. Wade
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Barack Obama signs up for health insurance coverage

President Barack Obama has signed up for health insurance coverage under ObamaCare.

A White House representative said Monday that the president enrolled in a health plan through the Washington, D.C. insurance marketplace over the weekend.

Barack Obama chose one of the cheapest plan – bronze plan – which covers 60% of medical costs.

Barack Obama chose bronze plan which covers 60 percent of medical costs
Barack Obama chose bronze plan which covers 60 percent of medical costs

“The act of the President signing up for insurance coverage through the DC exchange is symbolic since the President’s health care will continue to be provided by the military,” the aide said.

Barack Obama will pay premiums for the plan, though, the aide said. The insurance would cover only the president, not his wife or children, and the premium will be less than $400 per month.

All presidents and their immediate families get coverage through the military. As Commander-in-Chief, any president has a personal physician and he and his family get full care at the White House Medical Unit and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Target sued by 11 customers over credit card security breach

Clyde K. Valle
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Target sued by 11 customers over credit card security breach

Target is being sued by at least 11 customers over a credit card security breach that saw details of more than 40 million cards stolen.

The lawsuits, each seeking class-action status, were filed in US courts in recent days.

Meanwhile, major US banks have moved to limit damages by restricting spending on debit cards.

Security researchers said the stolen card numbers had been seen on underground markets.

Senator Chuck Schumer has called for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate the breach.

The thieves managed to grab key details for so many cards by getting malware on to the computer systems at the checkout desks in almost 1,800 Target stores in the US.

It is still not clear how the hackers managed to get their malware on to the systems.

Target is being sued by at least 11 customers over a credit card security breach
Target is being sued by at least 11 customers over a credit card security breach

The fraudsters had access to card data read at the tills for almost three weeks, said Target in a statement released after the attack.

Complaints against Target, seeking unspecified damages, have now been filed in Massachusetts by Amanda Tirado; in Florida by Maria Cruz and Jade Gray; in Oregon by Lisa Purcell; in Washington by Kathi Syvlester; in California by Samantha Wredberg and Jennifer Kirk; in Illinois by Janice McCarter and Veronica Ponce; and in Minnesota, the state where Target is based, by Sarah Horton and in a joint case by 0 and Bryan Barth.

In the complaints, customers who shopped at the retailer between November 27 and December 15 argue Target failed to notify them of the breach before it was first reported and did not “maintain reasonable security procedures” to prevent the attack.

They argue the “ramifications of [Target’s] failure to keep class members’ data secure are severe”, citing billions of dollars lost each year to identity theft.

If the cases are allowed as a class-action, it is believed the potential number of plaintiffs could be in the millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase said it had lowered daily spending limits to $300 and daily cash withdrawal limits to $100 on potentially vulnerable cards as a “precaution”.

Reuters reported that other US banks are also believed to be putting stringent precautions in place that would help to spot if cards were being used fraudulently. In addition, Target said it would offer free credit monitoring for customers affected by fraud.

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Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at 94

James J. Williams
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Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at 94

Mikhail Kalashnikov – the inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle – has died aged 94, Russian officials say.

The automatic rifle Mikhail Kalashnikov designed became one of the world’s most familiar and widely used weapons.

Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain.

Although honored by the state, Mikhail Kalashnikov made little money from his gun. He once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower.

Mikhail Kalashnikov was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in November.

He died on Monday in Izhevsk, the city where he lived 600 miles east of Moscow, an official there said.

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919 in western Siberia, one of 18 children.

The automatic rifle Mikhail Kalashnikov designed became one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons
The automatic rifle Mikhail Kalashnikov designed became one of the world’s most familiar and widely used weapons

In 1938, he was called up by the Red Army and his design skills were used to improve the effectiveness of weapons and equipment used by Soviet tank regiments.

Mikhail Kalashnikov designed the machine gun after being asked by a fellow soldier why the Russians could not come up with a gun that would match the ones used by the Germans.

Work on the AK47 was completed in 1947, and two years later the gun was adopted by the Soviet army.

Mikhail Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer at the Izhevsk firm that first built the AK-47.

He received many state honors, including the Order of Lenin and the Hero of Socialist Labor.

Mikhail Kalashnikov refused to accept responsibility for the many people killed by his weapon, blaming the policies of other countries that acquired it.

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Midwest and New England outage: Thousands of people to spend Christmas in the dark

Nancy Clayson
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Midwest and New England outage: Thousands of people to spend Christmas in the dark

More than 300,000 homes and businesses in Michigan, upstate New York and northern New England remained without electricity Monday morning after thick ice felled trees and brought down power lines, according to utilities companies.

Brad Hoving, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, Michigan – the state with a bulk of the remaining power outages — said many people may still be using candlelight until Thursday.

The Red Cross set up a shelter at Middleville, Michigan, United Methodist Church, but Pastor Tony Shumaker said the crowd was getting too big and needed additional accommodations like showers, so they would be moving to a local school. Church members planned to cook a Christmas dinner and bring it to the school for people who were still without power on Wednesday.

More than 300,000 homes and businesses in Midwest and northern New England remained without electricity following a major ice storm
More than 300,000 homes and businesses in Midwest and northern New England remained without electricity following a major ice storm

Tony Shumaker said regardless of the inconvenient timing of lost power, the people housed at the church “seem to be in pretty decent spirits, they’re glad to have a warm place to go to”.

One of Michigan’s power providers, DTE, said crews were working “around the clock” and 90% of the 83,000 customers without electric would be restored by Christmas Eve. However, Consumers Energy said over 200,000 customers were in the dark, and many areas in the southwest portion of Michigan would not be fully restored until after the holiday.

Michigan was hit with half an inch of ice over the weekend.

The storm also saw some 1,200 US flights canceled over the weekend and delayed another 15,000, according to the aviation-tracking website FlightAware.

At least 14 deaths across the US and Canada were blamed on the storm, the AP reported.

Nine of these fatalities came in the US, including five people killed in Kentucky and a woman in Arkansas following a 130-mph tornado.

AAA predicted that a record-breaking 94.5 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more between December 21st and January 1st.

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Diomedes Diaz dies of heart attack at 56

Sonia Pantiss
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Diomedes Diaz dies of heart attack at 56

Colombian singer Diomedes Diaz has died of a heart attack at the age of 56.

Diomedes Diaz was widely regarded as one of the best singer-songwriters of vallenato, a Colombian folk music style.

He won a Latin Grammy award for the best vallenato album in 2010 and had just released a new CD, La Vida del Maestro (Life of the Master).

Diomedes Diaz led a tempestuous life, serving time in jail over the death of a fan at a party in his home.

Diomedes Diaz was widely regarded as one of the best singer-songwriters of vallenato
Diomedes Diaz was widely regarded as one of the best singer-songwriters of vallenato

His wife found him dead in his bed in his hometown of Valledupar.

Diomedes Diaz often showed up late to concerts or not at all, something his fans put down to his addiction to drugs and alcohol.

In 1993, concert-goers trashed the stage and stole valuable equipment when Diomedes Diaz failed to show up at a concert in the town of Baranoa.

Despite his frequent no-shows, he was one of Colombia’s most popular artists, whose devoted fans became known as Diomedistas.

Diomedes Diaz sold more than 20 million albums over the course of his career, which began at an early age on the Caribbean coast.

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Fast & Furious 7 to be released in April 2015

Lisa.Felice
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Fast & Furious 7 to be released in April 2015

Fast & Furious 7 will be released in 2015 after studio executives put production on hiatus following Paul Walker’s death last month, Vin Diesel confirmed.

Paul Walker died in a fiery car crash in California on November 30, a day before he and his castmates were scheduled to resume filming in Atlanta, Georgia.

Executives at Universal Studios closed work on Fast & Furious 7 while the cast and crew were in mourning, and producers came up with a plan on how to resume filming without the franchise’s main star.

Fast & Furious 7 will be released in 2015 after studio executives put production on hiatus following Paul Walker's death
Fast & Furious 7 will be released in 2015 after studio executives put production on hiatus following Paul Walker’s death

Vin Diesel has reached out to fans on Facebook to reveal the movie will hit cinemas in April 2015, almost a year after its planned release date of July 2014.

The actor wrote: “There was a unique sense of completion, of pride we shared… in the film we were now completing … the magic captured… and, in just how far we’ve come…Fast and Furious 7 will be released April 10th 2015! P.s. He’d want you to know first.”

Vin Diesel also shared a photo of the last scene he and Paul Walker filmed together.

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British Airways plane’s wing hits Johannesburg building during take off

Nancy Clayson
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British Airways plane’s wing hits Johannesburg building during take off

A British Airways plane with more than 200 people on board has struck an office building while preparing to take off from the South African city of Johannesburg.

The British Airways flight to London was taxiing at OR Tambo International Airport when its right wing hit the building, injuring four people inside.

Images show the wing of the Boeing 747 wedged in the structure.

South Africa’s Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft had travelled down a taxi-way that was too narrow for it.

The British Airways flight to London was taxiing at OR Tambo International Airport when its right wing hit the building
The British Airways flight to London was taxiing at OR Tambo International Airport when its right wing hit the building

The incident involving the Boeing 747-400 happened late on Sunday.

The control tower “told them to take one taxi-way and they took another one. They took a wrong one,” said aviation authority spokeswoman Phindiwe Gwebu.

None of those on board was injured but four ground staff in the building was hurt.

The passengers were allowed to leave the plane after about an hour but because of the fuel spillage they had still not been able to reclaim their luggage.

The aircraft has since been moved and operations have not been disrupted, Airports Company South Africa says.

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