In a recent interview, Oprah Winfrey – who is playing a White House butler’s wife in Lee Daniels-helmed The Butler – has said she feels the time is finally right for audiences to embrace films that tackle slavery and civil rights.
Oprah Winfrey, 59, told BBC she was “so happy” a number of new titles cover the topics.
She revealed one of these movies, 12 Years a Slave, moved her to tears during the interview.
Oprah Winfrey has a starring role in The Butler, which recounts the life of an African American man who grows up on a cotton plantation.
Oprah Winfrey is playing a White House butler’s wife in Lee Daniels-helmed The Butler
Cecil Gaines (played by Forest Whitaker) goes on to witness the Civil Rights struggle as he serves under a succession of US presidents.
Oprah Winfrey takes the role of his wife Gloria.
“I think everything has its time and I’m so happy for this time,” she said.
“The fact that all of them are happening this year is really, really exciting.”
“People are ready to hear it,” Oprah Winfrey added, recalling that her 1998 film Beloved, which also addressed America’s slave-owning past, was met with a cool reception – including from African American journalists.
Oprah Winfrey became visibly emotional during the interview when referring to harrowing scenes in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.
She also feels The Butler has an important role.
Oprah Winfrey said she had been lucky to be born in 1954 and never to have attended a racially segregated school in her native Mississippi.
Oprah Winfrey recalled an incident where Republican congressman Joe Wilson disrespected Barack Obama by crying out “you lie” while the president was giving a speech to the Congress.
The 59-year-old talk show queen, who will be seen playing a White House butler’s wife in Lee Daniels-helmed The Butler, recalled the 2009 incident during a recent interview with BBC.
“Remember that?” she said.
Oprah Winfrey asserted that there is no doubt in her mind that President Barack Obama had to face some criticism because of his ethnicity
“I think there’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs.
“And that occurs in some cases, and maybe even many cases, because he’s African American. There’s no question about that. And it’s the kind of thing no one ever says, but everybody’s thinking it.”
Oprah Winfrey asserted that there is no doubt in her mind that President Barack Obama had to face some criticism because of his ethnicity.
Katherine Jackson has filed an appeal to the jury’s verdict in Michael Jackson’s wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live, Entertainment Tonight first reported.
In a trial that began in April, Michael Jackson’s mother sued AEG Live for more than $40 billion for the wrongful death of her son, who died at age 50 in 2009.
Katherine Jackson has filed an appeal to the jury’s verdict in Michael Jackson’s wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live
After a lengthy trial, the jury decided in October that AEG was not liable in Michael Jackson’s death, which his mother is now appealing.
Scientists found out a clam they discovered a few years ago was the oldest living animal ever.
But they have also confessed that they accidentally killed it when they opened it up to see how old it was.
Ming the clam was thought to be around 405 years old when it was found by researchers in Iceland in 2006.
Ming the clam was thought to be around 405 years old when it was found by researchers in Iceland in 2006
However, more recent dating methods have determined that Ming was actually 507 years old. That means the mollusk made its way into the world around 1499, which explains how it got its posthumous name. Ming was the Chinese dynasty in power when the clam was born.
“We got [the age] wrong the first time, and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then,” ocean scientist Paul Butler from Bangor University told ScienceNordic.
Former German President Christian Wulff will go on trial today over receiving and granting favors in office.
Christian Wulff, 54, is alleged to have accepted the payment of hotel bills by a film producer in return for lobbying while he was premier of Lower Saxony in 2008.
The former president – who stepped down in February 2012 after less than two years in the post – is Germany’s first head of state to answer charges in court.
Christian Wulff rejects the allegations and has vowed to clear his name.
Film producer David Groenewold also faces similar charges.
The trial is expected to start at 10 a.m. local time in the northern city of Hannover.
Christian Wulff is alleged to have allowed film producer David Groenewold to pay hotel bills in Munich during the Oktoberfest beer festival in 2008 and on the northern island of Sylt in 2007.
In return, Christian Wulff is accused of having lobbied German companies to support David Groenewold’s work.
Christian Wulff is alleged to have accepted the payment of hotel bills by a film producer in return for lobbying while he was premier of Lower Saxony in 2008
Prosecutors had sought to put the former head on trial for corruption, but the court only approved the less serious charges.
If convicted, Christian Wulff faces up to three years in jail or a fine.
Christian Wulff and David Groenewold had rejected an offer from the prosecutor in March to settle the case with a fine – a procedure allowed for cases not considered especially serious.
He resigned amid a welter of unfavorable coverage in the German media dealing with his links to businessmen.
The pressure on him increased at the end of December 2011 with allegations, published in the mass circulation Bild newspaper, about a low interest home loan received from the wife of a wealthy businessman in 2008.
Christian Wulff was accused of giving misleading statements about the loan and later apologised to the editor of Bild, Kai Diekmann, for leaving an angry message on his voicemail threatening him if the story was published.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had pushed strongly to get Christian Wulff, from her centre-right CDU party, appointed to the largely ceremonial post in 2010.
At the time of his resignation, Angela Merkel said she accepted it “with respect but also with regret” and that she was convinced he had “acted legally”.
President Christian Wulff was succeeded by the Lutheran pastor and former East German anti-communist campaigner, Joachim Gauck.
Only 27,000 Americans enrolled for health insurance through its troubled federal website in the first month, the Obama administration has said.
About 106,000 people were insured in total, most of them through the state-run websites.
The administration originally estimated nearly half a million people would sign up in the first month.
Democrats reportedly expressed frustration about the botched rollout in a White House meeting on Wednesday.
The federal website, used in 36 US states, has been bedeviled by glitches since its October 1st launch.
The administration has pledged that the portal will be “running smoothly” for a “vast majority” of users by the end of November.
Wednesday’s figures from the US health department also showed nearly 400,000 Americans had qualified for Medicaid, a government medical programme for the poor that was expanded by the healthcare law.
Only 27,000 Americans enrolled for health insurance through its troubled federal website in the first month
About 40% of people in this category were said to have come through the federal website.
Nearly one million people, meanwhile, had managed to check via the website if they were eligible for government subsidies towards the insurance, but had not selected a plan, according to the administration.
The White House’s chief technology officer, Todd Park, told a congressional oversight hearing on Wednesday that the system’s response times have improved.
But there is a long way to go – health insurance enrolment thus far is a tiny fraction of the seven million people the Obama administration has projected will sign up by the end of March.
The difficult launch of the website has provided Republicans with plenty of ammunition against the law, which they tried to delay or defund through a partial government shutdown last month.
The White House is also facing harsh criticism over insurance companies’ mass cancellation of policies that do not meet the law’s strict requirements, even though Democratic President Barack Obama had pledged otherwise.
Adding to his political headache, six Senate Democrats are sponsoring a bill that would allow Americans to hold on to their existing coverage. The proposal is entitled Keeping the Affordable Care Act Promise.
It is along the lines of a House Republican-sponsored bill, to be voted on Friday, which Democratic leaders have rejected as just another conservative attempt to repeal the law.
Democrats in the House of Representatives met White House officials on Wednesday, reportedly to express their concern that the issue could lead to a backlash in next year’s midterm elections.
An unnamed senior House Democratic aide told US media that legislators had pressed President Barack Obama to announce a fix for the cancelled policies.
The White House is expected to host a visit from Democratic senators on Thursday.
Former President Bill Clinton, a fellow Democrat, on Tuesday urged Barack Obama to find a way to let Americans keep their coverage under the law. Republicans seized on his comments.
Last week, Barack Obama apologized to those whose policies had been cancelled, saying “we didn’t do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law”.
Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern whose affair with President Bill Clinton nearly got him kicked out of office, has made a point of declining interviews as she builds a new life.
During time, Monica Lewinsky, now 40, declined many interviews from the press, including TIME in 2009.
Her friend and former publicist, Barbara Hutson, explained that Monica Lewinsky was attempting, as best as possible, to avoid any publicity.
Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern whose affair with President Bill Clinton nearly got him kicked out of office, has made a point of declining interviews as she builds a new life
TheNew YorkPost reported last year, however, that Monica Lewinsky was rumored to be shopping around a $12 million dollar book deal – which promised to reveal a more salacious, detailed account of her illicit encounters with President Bill Clinton. The rumors alone have sparked a flurry of speculation about the resurrection of the scandal.
“Monica Lewinsky is Back” read a September 2012 headline in the New York Observer, echoing 15 years of headlines on the evergreen intern.
Philippines’ government says it is facing its biggest ever logistical challenge after Typhoon Haiyan, which affected as many as 11 million people.
Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said the government had been overwhelmed by the impact of Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record.
The official death toll stands at more than 2,300, but local officials and aid workers say it could rise much higher.
Rene Almendras said the government had responded to the disaster “quite well”.
Aid is slowly beginning to arrive in the worst-affected regions.
US military planes have been arriving at Tacloban’s ruined airport on Wednesday, delivering World Food Programme supplies, which can be carried by helicopter to outlying regions, and a French-Belgian field hospital has been set up.
Typhoon Haiyan affected as many as 11 million people in Philippines
On Tuesday, eight people died when a wall collapsed as thousands of desperate survivors mobbed a food warehouse.
And on Wednesday there were reports of shots being fired in the street and of a teenaged boy being stabbed in the stomach.
With warehouses empty, the main concern for people still in Tacloban was food and water. Some survivors resorted to digging up water pipes for supplies.
On a visit to the city, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said aid was coming in but “the priority has got to be, let’s get the food in, let’s get the water in”.
Health officials warn the worst-affected areas are entering a peak danger period for the spread of infectious diseases.
Typhoon Haiyan – one of the most powerful storms ever recorded on land – hit the coastal Philippine provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday.
It swept through six central Philippine islands before going on to kill several people in Vietnam and southern China.
Disaster management officials in the Philippines have put the confirmed death toll there at 2,344, with another 3,804 injured as of 20:00 local time. They said 79 people were still missing.
The head of the Philippines Red Cross, Gwendolyn Pang, also said she expected the official death toll to rise.
Francesco Schettino’s former lover Domnica Cemortan has revealed how she used to sneak into the Costa Concordia captain’s cabin.
Captain Francesco Schettino, 53, is on trial in Italy being charged with manslaughter after 32 people died in Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster last year.
Domnica Cemortan, 26, was spotted dining with Captain Francesco Schettino on the night the doomed cruise liner capsized.
Despite previously denying any affair with Francesco Schettino, when quizzed in court Domnica Cemortan admitted she was his mistress.
The Moldovan beauty has now revealed how she would sneak into his cabin at 2 a.m. just hours before Francesco Schettino had to be on duty.
Domnica Cemortan told the Sun: “I would make my way to his cabin in the middle of the night. It was all very secretive. I had to make sure no one saw me.”
Francesco Schettino and Domnica Cemortan met on the Costa Concordia cruise ship in December 2011 and began an affair when she returned to the ill-fated liner in January 2012 after Schettino bombarded her with phone calls and emails.
Francesco Schettino’s former lover Domnica Cemortan has revealed how she used to sneak into the Costa Concordia captain’s cabin
Domnica Cemortan admits she was “captivated” by Francesco Schettino and told how they kissed for the first time in his office.
The Moldovan told the newspaper: “I don’t think anyone ever saw me leave his cabin but people were certainly gossiping about us.”
Domnica Cemortan, a mother of one, also hit back after being branded the “blonde siren” who seduced Captain Francesco Schettino.
She told the Sun: “I’m talked about as an <<easy girl>>, the <<blonde sl*t>> who distracted the captain and caused the crash. It’s so wrong. I’m not some little tart.”
Domnica Cemortan, who was with Francesco Schettino on the bridge of the Costa Concordia when it struck rocks, was one of thousands of passengers forced to fight for their lives.
She fled and managed to get into a lifeboat – but narrowly escaped with her life after the ship started to come down on top of it “like something out of a disaster movie.”
Despite her ordeal, Domnica Cemortan maintains that Francesco Schettino is innocent.
Francesco Schettino faces 20 years in prison over charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.
Domnica Cemortan said of the captain: “I pray he doesn’t go to jail. I feel so sorry for him.”
Malala Yousafzai and Barack Obama’s elder daughter, Malia, are on Time magazine’s list of 16 most influential teens of 2013.
Time magazine’s list, published Tuesday, took young people who have inspired the society by their work in various fields like music, sports, technology, science, writing and media.
The magazine said that Malia Obama, 15, and her sister, Sasha, act with the poise of adults.
Barack Obama’s elder daughter, Malia, is on Time magazine’s list of 16 most influential teens of 2013
“President Obama often mentions his daughters in speeches, and says that they influenced his stance on gay marriage,” the magazine said.
Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, 16, was a target because of her vocal activism to better the education of girls under Taliban rule, Time said.
After surviving the attack, Malala Yousafzai didn’t hide in fear but strengthened her voice, it added.
Malala Yousafzai received the Sakharov Prize and Clinton Global Citizen Award this year for freedom of speech.
She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace prize 2013.
Others who figured on Time’s list are: singers Lorde, 17, and Justin Bieber, 19, actors Kiernan Shipka, 14, Chloe Grace Moretz, 16 and Hailee Steinfeld, 16, authors Maya Van Wagenen, 15, and Beth Reekles, 17, technology whizkid Nick D’Aloisio, 18, Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin, 18, fashion icon Dante de Blasio, 16, Romanian scientist Ionut Budisteanu, 19, Kendell and Kylie Jenner, 18 & 16, Lydia Ko, 16 .
Motorola has launched low-cost smartphone Moto G that includes features more commonly found in higher-priced models.
The Moto G will be sold contract-free from $179 in the US.
The handset has a 4.5 in (11.4 cm) 720p high-definition screen, a five megapixel rear camera, a 1.3MP front one, and runs the latest versions of the Android operating system.
Analysts suggest the budget end of the market is set to enjoy huge growth.
The Moto G is being launched in 30 countries including the US, UK, France, Germany and parts of Latin America and Asia. That contrasts with Motorola’s last model – the Moto X – which is currently only available in the US.
Motorola has launched low-cost smartphone Moto G that includes features more commonly found in higher-priced models
Its price makes it slightly cheaper than Samsung’s Galaxy S3 Mini, HTC’s Desire X and Sony’s Xperia M but still more expensive than Huawei’s Ascend G510.
However, Motorola’s device is the only one of these to come preinstalled with the Android Jelly Bean operating system. The firm is also promising to release an upgrade to the newest version of its Android platform, KitKat, in the near future.
It also has the highest resolution display and is the only one to feature a quad-core, rather than dual-core, CPU (central processing unit). This should in theory allow it to offer superior processing power while minimizing the toll on battery life.
Motorola representatives revealed the handset would be targeted at three groups:
People in developing countries who wanted to move from a basic “feature phone” to one that could run a wide range of apps
Students and children in richer nations, for whom price was still an issue
Existing smartphone owners frustrated by the prospect of spending $800 every couple of years to upgrade to another top-end model [youtube DljaASvRUIA 650]
Batman bin Suparman has been jailed in Singapore on theft and drugs charges.
His double-barrelled superhero name has given him something of cult following on social media.
The jokes on social media are aplenty following the news that 23-year-old man Batman bin Suparman has been given a prison sentence of 33 months by a court in Singapore.
He was arrested after being caught stealing money from a shop, as well as using his brother’s cash card to withdraw money. Far-fetched as it seems, this unusual name does appear to be entirely genuine – and it’s not gone unnoticed.
Batman bin Suparman has been jailed in Singapore on theft and drugs charges
Back in May 2008, a Singaporean ID card belonging to one Batman bin Suparman began being widely shared on social media. It was picked up by the blog Gizmodo and ran from there. Since then, the picture has been re-posted over 300 times, there have been more 15,000 tweets using his name, and a Facebook fan page has been set up in his honor. It has more than 11,000 followers.
Batman bin Suparman’s family appear to be originally from the Indonesia island of Java – where the name Suparman is very common, explains Ben Zimmer, a language columnist for the Wall Street Journal, who has worked in Indonesia and who has written about Suparman.
“Su” has Sanskrit origins and is a common prefix in Indonesia, featuring in a whole rung of Indonesian presidents’ names – including the current one Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “Bin” means “son of” in Arabic, making it very likely that Batman’s father was also called Suparman.
The Batman part is a bit harder to explain, however says Ben Zimmer, as it’s not a traditional name in the region. The most likely explanation is that his parents chose it as a joke – Batman the superhero is popular there, and Indonesians are often playful in the names they choose, says Ben Zimmer.
“I see the name as this interesting juxtaposition of local naming with Western pop culture.”
Former Brazilian President Joao Goulart’s remains will be exhumed on Wednesday to establish whether he died of natural causes or was poisoned.
Joao Goulart, widely known as Jango, died in 1976 in exile in Argentina. His cause of death was deemed to have been a heart attack.
Howaever, former Uruguayan intelligence officer has said Joao Goulart was poisoned by agents working for the region’s military governments.
Joao Goulart governed from 1961 to 1964.
The president, a progressive leader with left-wing sympathies during the height of the Cold War, was deposed in the 1964 military coup.
He fled first to Uruguay, where he settled as a farmer, and in 1973 to Argentina on the invitation of its president, Juan Peron.
Joao Goulart was found dead on December 6, 1976, in the Argentine city of Mercedes, nine months after a military junta had overthrown the government of Juan Peron’s widow, Isabel Peron.
Officials at the time said he had died of a heart attack, but no post mortem examination was carried out by the authorities in either Argentina or Brazil, where he was taken for burial.
Doubts about his death resurfaced five years ago when a former Uruguayan intelligence officer serving a sentence for drug smuggling in Brazil alleged Joao Goulart was poisoned by Uruguayan agents at the request of Brazilian military rulers.
Former Brazilian President Joao Goulart’s remains will be exhumed to establish whether he died of natural causes or was poisoned
The intelligence officer, Mario Neira, said the alleged murder was part of Operation Condor, a plan under which the military governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay collaborated to eliminate their political opponents in the 1970s and 80s.
Mario Neira alleges that Joao Goulart died after his heart medication was swapped with one altered to cause a cardiac attack, by agents working on behalf of the Brazilian military.
Brazil’s National Truth Commission, which started work last year, agreed to investigate the claims with the help of the presidency’s human rights commission.
“Today we will open a new chapter in the tale of mystery which has surround the death 37 years ago of the former president,” the human rights commission said in a statement.
“The exhumation will put an end to the anguish of his family and thousands of Brazilians who have sufficient reason to believe that his death did not occur spontaneously, as stated in the death certificate – which was issued without a prior post mortem examination,” they added.
The former president’s grandson, Joao Marcelo Goulart, said it was “a historic moment not just for the family but also for the country and all the relatives of those killed, disappeared, tortured and exiled by the military dictatorship”.
Joao Goulart’s remains will be exhumed on Wednesday from the family pantheon in Sao Borja, a small Brazilian town near the Argentine border.
Local media say they will then be taken to the capital, Brasilia, where an official ceremony is planned to make up for the fact that Joao Goulart was the only Brazilian president to be buried without the honors usually given to a former head of state.
Toxicology tests will be carried out on the remains and sent abroad to be analyzed, local reports say.
Up to 500 people were killed or disappeared under Brazil’s military rule – a far lower number than in shorter periods of military rule in neighboring Argentina and Chile.
Thousands of Brazilians were tortured, exiled or deprived of their political rights.
Monica Samille Lewinsky was born in San Francisco, California, on July 23, 1973.
Monica Lewinsky, now 40, was raised in the affluent neighborhoods of Brentwood and Beverly Hills, in Southern California. Her father, Bernard Lewinsky, is an oncologist, and her mother, Marcia Kaye Vilensky, is an author who publishes under the name Marcia Lewis. The Lewinskys divorced in 1988.
After graduating from college, Monica Lewinsky took an internship and then a job at the White House. During the period from mid-1995 to 1997, Monica Lewinsky was involved in a s**ual relationship with then President Bill Clinton. Her taped conversations with Bill Clinton, and subsequent testimony, led to a media frenzy and a political firestorm.
Monica Lewinsky was raised Jewish and attended Sinai Akiba Academy and the John Thomas Dye School in her younger years. She graduated from Bel Air Prep (now Pacific Hills School) in 1991 and attended Santa Monica College while working for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School.
She also began an affair with Andy Bleiler, her married high school drama instructor, around this time. She enrolled at Lewis & Clark College after completing her two-year degree. She graduated with a degree in psychology in 1995.
Through a family friend, Monica Lewinsky secured an internship in the White House office of Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. After her internship ended, Monica Lewinsky accepted a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
She was involved in a romantic relationship with President Bill Clinton between the winter of 1995 and March 1997. The relationship involved nine encounters, some in the Oval Office.
Monica Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon in 1997. She confided in an older coworker, Linda Tripp, about her relationship with Bill Clinton. Shortly thereafter, Linda Tripp began secretly recording Monica Lewinsky’s conversations with the president.
Bill Clinton was already burdened with a history of s**ual misconduct allegations, and in 1997, lawyers working on the civil lawsuit filed by Arkansas state employee Paula Jones heard rumors of Monica Lewinsky’s relationship with the president.
Monica Lewinsky was involved in a romantic relationship with President Bill Clinton between the winter of 1995 and March 1997
Monica Lewinsky submitted a false affidavit denying the affair. It was at this point that Linda Tripp handed over her tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. President Bill Clinton denied the affair under oath.
News of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair broke in January 1998 and immediately dominated the media. Monica Lewinsky spent weeks in hiding. She later reported that she had spent much of this stressful period knitting. After Kenneth Starr obtained a blue dress of Lewinsky’s stained with Bill Clinton’s se**n, the president admitted to an inappropriate relationship.
Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton made her a pop-culture star.
A Barbara Walters interview in which Monica Lewinsky apologized to the Clintons drew record ratings. She also cooperated with Andrew Morton on a 1999 biography titled Monica’s Story.
Monica Lewinsky experimented with a number of career paths after the scandal. She designed a handbag line, promoted the Jenny Craig weight-loss system and appeared as a television correspondent and host.
In 2002, Monica Lewinsky took audience questions during the taping of the HBO special Monica in Black and White.
Eager to escape the spotlight, Monica Lewinsky moved to London, England, in 2005.
In 2006, she graduated from the London School of Economics with a master’s degree in social psychology.
In 2013, some of Monica Lewinsky’s clothing and personal affects were put up for auction. The items, which had been submitted to the Kenneth Starr investigation in the 1990s, included a black negligee and a letter signed by President Bill Clinton.
Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram is to be named as a foreign terrorist organization by the US state department.
The move, expected to take place on Wednesday, means US regulatory agencies are instructed to block business and financial transactions with Boko Haram.
It will become a crime under US law to provide material support to the group.
Boko Haram wants to impose Islamic law in northern Nigeria and has been blamed for thousands of deaths.
The group began its insurgency in 2009, and targets both the military and civilians, including schools, and frequently clashes with the Nigerian armed forces.
While Boko Haram’s main focus is Nigeria, the US has cited links to the al-Qaeda affiliate in West Africa, and extremist groups in Mali.
The US state department has not formally announced its decision to brand the group a terrorist organization.
However, the Associated Press news agency cited an unnamed US official, whilst Reuters quoted congressional sources and others briefed on the matter.
Nigeria’s government declared Boko Haram and another militant group Ansaru as terrorist organizations in June, warning that anyone who helps them will face a minimum prison sentence of 20 years.
Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram is to be named as a foreign terrorist organization by the US state department
The US’s decision will be welcomed by the Nigerian government and the Christian Association of Nigeria, which has long been campaigning for the US to declare Boko Haram a terrorist group.
The Obama administration had so far refused, fearing that it could give Boko Haram greater legitimacy in global jihadi circles.
The US is unlikely to identify Boko Haram’s financial backers, when the Nigerian government has up to now failed to do so.
Last year, top US diplomat for Africa Johnnie Carson said Boko Haram exploited popular discontent in northern Nigeria, and the government needed to tackle the political and economic grievances of the mainly Muslim population in the region.
However, Johnnie Carson acknowledged “reports of contact and growing relationships between elements of Boko Haram and other extremists in Africa, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”.
In August 2011, an attack on a UN building in Abuja, Nigeria, marked a turning point as a threat to US interests.
Last year, Lisa Monaco – now the chief counter-terrorism adviser to President Barack Obama – sent a letter to the state department saying Boko Haram met the criteria to be listed as a “foreign terrorist” group because, she said, it either engages in terrorism that threatens the US or has a capability or intent to do so.
The US state department later designated three alleged Boko Haram leaders as terrorists, but stopped short of a wider declaration against the group.
Boko Haram:
Founded in 2002
Official Arabic name, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad)
Initially focused on opposing Western education
Nicknamed Boko Haram, a phrase in the local Hausa language (Western education is forbidden)
Launches military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state across Nigeria
Founding leader Mohammed Yusuf killed in same year in police custody
Succeeded by Abubakar Shekau, who the military wrongly claimed in 2009 had been killed
Suspected to have split into rival factions in 2012
Military claims in August 2013 that Abubakar Shekau and his second-in-command Momodu Bama have been killed in separate attacks; no independent confirmation of claim
Tropical Cyclone 03A that hit Somalia’s north-eastern Puntland region at the weekend has killed at least 140 people, and the number could rise to 300, a government minister has said.
Somali central government has declared a state of emergency in the region, and has appealed for international aid.
Thousands of livestock have also died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed by Cyclone 03A.
The cyclone has subsided, but officials say heavy rains are still expected.
Puntland is a semi-autonomous region within Somalia and a large part of its population relies on livestock herding and fishing.
The tropical cyclone swept through the Eyl, Beyla, Dangorayo and Hafun districts along the east coast and across to Alula on the tip of the Horn of Africa.
“So far we have confirmed the storm killed 140 people. We are afraid the death toll may reach 300 because many people are still missing,” Puntland’s Interior Minister Abdullahi Ahmed told Reuters news agency.
Tropical Cyclone 03A that hit Somalia’s north-eastern Puntland region at the weekend has killed at least 140 people
A government statement said Puntland’s security forces had failed to transport 60 tonnes of aid to affected communities because heavy flooding had made many dirt roads to the worst-affected areas impassable.
“The storm has destroyed entire villages, homes, buildings and boats,” the statement added.
Makeshift shelters had been built to accommodate displaced people, it said.
The government has appealed to international aid agencies to help with air-drops of relief supplies, including clean water, non-perishable food, tents, blankets and medicines.
Ten doctors and two ambulances were attending to people in need of medical treatment, the statement said.
On Tuesday, Somalia’s government pledged $1 million to help communities devastated by the cyclone.
The central government “shared the pain” of communities, PM Abdi Farah Shirdon said.
According to new guidelines, a third of all adult Americans should consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
The first such new guidelines in a decade estimated that 33 million Americans – 44% of men and 22% of women – would meet the threshold for taking statins.
The new recommendations were issued by two leading US medical organizations, American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology.
The statins are currently recommended for 15% of adults.
The guidelines for the first time take aim at strokes, not just heart attacks.
Under the current advice, statins are recommended for those who have total cholesterol over 200 and LDL, or “bad cholesterol”, of over 100.
The new recommendations place much less emphasis on setting numerical cholesterol-lowering targets for patients.
The advice introduces a new formula for calculating a patient’s risk of heart disease based on such factors as age, gender and race, instead of high cholesterol levels alone.
Heart health panel recommends statins for a third of US adults
“This guideline represents a departure from previous guidelines because it doesn’t focus on specific target levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol, although the definition of optimal LDL cholesterol has not changed,” Dr. Neil Stone, author of the report, said in a statement.
It is thought that more women and African-Americans, who are deemed to be at higher risk of stroke, could find themselves taking statins if they follow the guidelines.
The panel focused on four groups they believe statins would benefit most: people already suffering from heart disease; those with LDL levels of 190 or higher because of genetic risk; older adults with type 2 diabetes; and older adults with a 10-year risk of heart disease greater that 7.5%.
The panel also recommended a “diet pattern” based on vegetables, fruits and whole grains and moderate to vigorous exercise three to four times a week for all adults.
Roughly half of those drafting the guidelines had financial ties to makers of heart drugs.
But panel leaders said that no-one with industry connections was allowed to vote on the actual recommendations.
“It is practically impossible to find a large group of outside experts in the field who have no relationships to industry,” Dr. George Mensah, of the AHA, told the Associated Press news agency.
Dr. George Mensah said the guidelines were based on solid evidence.
Many of the patents on popular statins, such as Lipitor and Zocor, have expired, with generic versions being offered cheaply.
But Crestor, a statin made by AstraZeneca, remains under patent, with sales of $8.3 billion in 2012.
The Ukraine’s parliament vote, on which hangs the fate of both jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and the country’s EU hopes, looks like it may not take place.
Attempts to agree a bill that would allow Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country for medical treatment have stalled.
The EU has made the move a condition for it to sign an association and free trade deal with Ukraine this month.
But Ukraine has come under intense pressure from Russia not to sign.
Attempts to agree a bill that would allow Yulia Tymoshenko to leave Ukraine for medical treatment have stalled
Russia wants Ukraine to join its own customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which it sees as a prototype rival to the EU.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych made a secretive visit to Moscow at the weekend.
MPs said on Wednesday that attempts between the government and opposition to finalize a bill allowing convicts to receive medical treatment abroad had failed.
The leader of the opposition Fatherland group, MP Arseniy Yatsenyuk, blamed Viktor Yanukovych’s ruling Party of the Regions for the failure, and said it was deliberately trying to destroy the EU deal.
“They are hindering Ukraine’s movement towards the European Union,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.
China has unveiled a series of reforms aimed at overhauling its economy over the next decade.
In a statement issued after a closed-door summit, the Chinese leaders promised the free market would play a bigger role.
A new committee will oversee internal security to guard against social unrest, and farmers will be given more property rights over their land.
The leaders will now have to persuade officials below them to implement the reforms.
The so-called Third Plenum talks began in Beijing last week, and ended with a brief communique outlining areas that had been agreed on.
Details of what was agreed are still emerging.
The Communist Party leaders said markets would be allowed to play a leading role. State ownership would remain a pillar of the economy.
“The core issue is to straighten out the relationship between government and the market, allowing the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources and improving the government’s role,” the statement said, Reuters news agency reports.
The Communist Party is vowing to carry out deep reforms across the economy and the government to reach a “new stage of development”.
A lengthy television story heading China’s flagship state newscast showed rows of Communist Party officials, including Chairman Xi Jinping, sitting at long tables studying paper documents in front of them.
The report contained a long list of vague party pledges – from a plan to create a modern military to one that encourages foreign investment in China’s coastal cities. Other changes include promises to institute stronger systems to check corruption.
China has unveiled a series of reforms aimed at overhauling its economy over the next decade
Ahead of the meeting another area expected to be discussed was China’s household registration system.
The meeting was being closely watched after senior Communist Party official Yu Zhengsheng said last month that “unprecedented” economic and social reforms would be discussed at the meeting.
Analysts did not expect any political reforms to be on the agenda.
How successful the reforms turn out to be remains to be seen.
It will take time to assess their impact.
And where economic or social reforms are agreed, local officials and groups with vested interests may be reluctant to implement them, correspondents say.
Third Plenums refer to the third time new leaders of China lead a plenary session of the Central Committee. They generally take place a year after new leaders take office, after they have established their power base.
Previous Third Plenums have had a major impact on China’s development.
At the Third Plenum in 1978, former leader Deng Xiaoping announced the opening-up of China’s economy, spearheading major market-oriented reforms.
In 1993’s Third Plenum, former leader Zhu Rongji announced the “socialist market economy” and dismantled a large part of China’s state-owned sector.
Security was tight in Beijing for the meeting, with tensions higher than usual in the wake of an incident on 28 October in Tiananmen Square and bomb blasts in the north of the country days after.
Five people were killed in what Chinese officials called a “terrorist attack” incited by extremists from the western region of Xinjiang when a car drove through crowds and burst into flames near an entrance to the Forbidden City.
Less than a week later, a series of small blasts killed at least one person outside a provincial office of the ruling Communist Party in Shanxi province.
China’s Third Plenum:
The Third Plenum was the third meeting of the Xi Jinping-led 18th Central Committee
Traditionally reforms are expected at the Third Plenum, because new leaders are seen as having had time to consolidate power
The tradition was begun by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 when he opened China’s doors to the world
The meeting took place behind closed doors and ran from November 9 to 12 [youtube 78PJ4POCmgE 650]
Sacha Baron Cohen shocked at the BAFTA Britannia Awards in Hollywood after pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off the stage while accepting an award.
The incident was actually a prank by Sacha Baron Cohen, known for his past roles as Borat and Bruno.
Sacha Baron Cohen shocked at the BAFTA Britannia Awards in Hollywood after pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off the stage while accepting an award
Sacha Baron Cohen was accepting the Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy when he “accidentally” pushed Grace Collington in a wheelchair into the audience.
Grace Collington, who appeared in the 1931 Chaplin film City Lights at the age of 5, is the oldest living actress to have worked with the star.
Starbucks has to pay $2.76 billion in damages and other costs to Kraft Foods in a dispute over packaged coffee, an independent US arbitrator has ruled.
Kraft began selling bags of Starbucks branded coffee in 1998 under a deal that was due to run until March 2014.
But Starbucks ended the contract in 2010, accusing Kraft of breaking the terms of their deal.
Kraft challenged that move by starting arbitration proceedings saying it had built a business worth $500 million a year.
Starbucks has to pay $2.76 billion in damages and other costs to Kraft Foods in a dispute over packaged coffee
On Tuesday the arbitrator ruled that Starbucks must pay $2.23 billion in damages plus $527 million in interest and legal costs.
Kraft Foods was spun off by Mondelez International last year and under an agreement between those two firms the payments from the case will go to Mondelez.
“We’re pleased that the arbitrator validated our position that Starbucks breached our successful and long-standing contractual relationship without proper compensation,” said Mondelez.
In a statement Starbucks said it “strongly disagreed” with the conclusions of the arbitrator.
“We believe Kraft did not deliver on its responsibilities to our brand under the agreement, the performance of the business suffered as a result, and that we had a right to terminate the agreement without payment to Kraft,” it said.
A Francis Bacon’s painting featuring his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after it fetched $142.4 million in New York.
The triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, painted in 1969, is considered one of Francis Bacon’s greatest masterpieces.
The artwork was sold after six minutes of fierce bidding, Christie’s auction house said.
The price eclipsed the $119.9 million paid for Edvard Munch’s The Scream last year.
At the same auction, Jeff Koons broke the world record for a price paid for a single artwork by a living artist.
Jeff Koons’ sculpture Balloon Dog (Orange) – one of a series of five stainless steel sculptures in varying colors – fetched $58,4 million.
Three Studies of Lucian Freud, painted in 1969, is considered one of Francis Bacon’s greatest masterpieces
The previous record for a living artist was set by a Gerhard Richter painting depicting an Italian city square, which sold in May for $37.1 million.
It was the first time Three Studies of Lucian Freud had been offered at auction and bidding opened at $80 million. Its presale estimate was $85 million.
Christie’s did not disclose the identity of the buyer.
Francis Bacon, known for his triptychs, painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 1969 at London’s Royal College of Art, after his studio was destroyed in a fire.
The pair met in 1945 and became close companions, painting each other on a number of occasions, before their relationship cooled during the 1970s.
Exhibited in Francis Bacon’s renowned retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1971-1972, the three panels that form the painting were separated in the mid-1970s.
One panel was shown at the Tate in 1985 before the three sections were reassembled.
The complete work was displayed in New Haven, Connecticut in 1999.
Jon Cryer made a confession about his hair during an appearance on Conan show yesterday.
While reminiscing about his “spectacular mane of unruly wonderfulness” in the 1986 romantic comedy Pretty in Pink, Jon Cryer, 48, revealed that his hair is “gone now.”
“This is an elaborate illusion,” Jon Cryer said pointing to the top of his head.
“This is the work of several talented professionals making the most of like four hairs. It’s amazing, actually, what they can do. I’m not wearing a piece – or anything like that – but it’s a long involved process that starts with stuff like shoe polish, basically, that they coat the top.”
Jon Cryer made a confession about his hair during an appearance on Conan show
“They basically just paint – they get a roller type thing – and just whoosh along the top,” the actor described while demonstrating painting his head.
“You have to decide if you’re going to go full [John] Travolta and get the full front in,” he joked of the 59-year-old actor’s famous widow’s peak.
“And then they literally sprinkle powder in from a salt shaker. So this is, like I said, four or five hairs.”
What happens if he gets caught in the rain?
“You’re out of luck,” Jon Cryer said with a laugh.
“It flattens out and you can get the nice little rivulets going down. But thankfully, your eyebrows will channel down the side.”
