Judge Mitchell Beckloff, who is overseeing the guardianship of Michael Jackson’s children, has ordered an inquiry into Paris Jackson’s wellbeing after she attempted to kill herself earlier this week.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff asked an investigator to look into the 15-year-old’s health and welfare.
A lawyer for Katherine Jackson, Paris’s grandmother, said he was “completely supportive” of the court order.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff asked an investigator to look into Paris Jackson’s health, education and welfare after her suicide attempt
He declined to comment further on her current health status.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff issued a similar inquiry into the welfare of the Jackson children last year after Katherine Jackson, their guardian at the time, was out of communication with them for several days.
That led to TJ Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew, being appointed co-guardian to Paris, Prince and Blanket.
A lawyer for Michael Jackson’s estate said it would assist the guardians however necessary to help Paris.
“The estate will work with Paris’s guardians to provide whatever is required for her best interests,” Howard Weitzman said in a statement.
“We are totally and completely supportive of Paris as her wellbeing is our foremost concern.”
Judge Mitchell Beckloff’s order requires an investigator to prepare a report that only the judge will be allowed to review.
He did not include instructions on how the review should occur or when the report was due.
Authorities were dispatched to the Jackson family home on Thursday in response to a report of a possible overdose.
Lawyer Perry Sanders said Paris Jackson was “physically fine” and was getting “appropriate medical attention”.
With only five weeks to go until her due date, Kate Middleton wants to be sure her home is ready for the baby’s arrival.
Kate Middleton, 31, has been pictured shopping with a woman thought to be a lady-in-waiting for soft furnishings at the high-end interiors specialist Bernard Thorp in Chelsea, south-west London.
The visit last Tuesday saw the Duchess of Cambridge spend 45 minutes inside the shop to decorate the new nursery at Kensington Palace in central London, less than six weeks before her due date of July 13.
Just hours earlier Kate Middleton had been with her husband Prince William, 30, and around 2,000 other guests at Westminster Abbey for a grand service to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.
Kate Middleton pictured shopping at high-end interiors Bernard Thorp in Chelsea
There Kate Middleton wore a delicate daisy lace dress with silver-grey ribbon detail and a soft peach shantung jacket with nude heels, before changing into a navy blue dress and magenta cardigan for her shop.
The front of the store was decked out in light blue, but there was no indication that she bought the color. It was in fact reported that Kate Middleton picked out beige and brown English handmade fabrics inside.
“Kate was fascinated by all the designs and picked out two,” a source told the Daily Star Sunday.
“She had very definite ideas about what she liked. It was boiling hot outside so the door was open.
“She was feeling the heat so we sat her down with a glass of water. The Duchess was charming and so lovely. She didn’t put on any airs or graces. She said she’d got so many ideas after coming in.”
Kate Middleton has one more scheduled official public engagement before she goes on maternity leave, when she names a ship on Thursday in Southampton, Hampshire.
The duchess will also attend Trooping the Colour next week to mark the Queen’s birthday – and is debating whether to join Prince William at the Order of the Garter ceremony in Windsor a few days later.
Bernard Thorp, which was founded in 1971, says on its website that its “hand screen printed fabrics and wall coverings are of impeccable quality with an ethos of service second to none”.
John Zawahri – the gunman accused of going on a shooting spree in Santa Monica Friday that left four people dead, among them his father and brother – was upset over his parents’ recent divorce and had a history of mental illness, it was revealed today.
Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said Saturday that the alleged shooter, identified as John Zawahri by multiple law enforcement sources, planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds of ammunition.
“Any time someone puts on a vest, of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be neutralized at the hands of the police, I would say that that’s premeditated,” she told reporters at a press conference.
John Zawahri would have turned 24 on Saturday.
Police had an encounter with him seven years ago, but they wouldn’t elaborate because he was a juvenile at the time.
Santa Monica college gunman John Zawahri went on shooting rampage killing four because he was angry at parents divorce
A law enforcement source has revealed to the Los Angeles Times that John Zawahri had suffered from mental problems in his youth.
As they work to untangle the circumstances surrounding the deadly rampage, police are trying to determine why the suspect wanted to be driven to Santa Monica College, where he was ultimately shot dead by police.
Laura Sisk, 41, who was carjacked by John Zawahri, told the Los Angeles Times that the man specifically asked her to be taken to the college and then let out. At this point in the investigation, authorities do not believe that the education institution was the target in the attack.
However, Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said the gunman was enrolled in the college, possibly along with a family member, as recently as 2010.
At a police press conference this afternoon, investigators put on display weapons and ammo recovered from Santa Monica College where the killings ended Friday when police gunned him down in the library, where students were studying for finals.
Among items presented to the press were surveillance photos of a man in black entering the library with an assault-style rifle by his side.
A dam has broken on the flood-swollen River Elbe in eastern Germany, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes around the city of Magdeburg.
Water levels in Magdeburg stood at 7.44 m (24 ft) on Sunday, nearly four times higher than normal (2 m).
In Hungary, water levels on the Danube are expected to peak on Sunday after the worst floods in more than a decade.
At least 15 people have died in the floods in Central Europe, which will cost billions of euros to clean up.
The authorities in Germany are investigating an anonymous letter threatening attacks on several dams.
The motive behind the threats is not known, but the threat is being taken seriously.
In the Hungarian capital Budapest, flood defenses have been strengthened and appear to have held up.
Water levels in Magdeburg stood at 7.44 m on Sunday, nearly four times higher than normal
Along more than 700 km (470 miles) of the River Danube, thousands of people, including many volunteers and even convicts from the prisons, worked to reinforce earth and sandbag barriers,
Late on Friday, residents were moved out of their homes in the village of Gyorujfalu, near the city of Gyor, because a dyke weakened after a landslide.
No flood-related deaths have so far been reported in Hungary.
The river is forecast to peak at around 9 m in Budapest late on Sunday. Flood barriers now stand at 9.50 m.
In Magdeburg, more than 23,000 people left their homes as flooding increased and power was shut off.
Flood defenses on the Elbe and the River Saale have been weakened by days of heavy rain.
Another dam is in danger, reports the regional broadcaster MDR, and more evacuations may have to take place.
German President Joachim Gauck visited the flood-stricken city of Halle, near Magdeburg, and paid tribute to the way its inhabitants had coped.
“It is fantastic to see how different people get together to help others. And you notice that many of them are exhausted, but they are happy and it seems to motivate them,” Joachim Gauck said.
The flood crest is expected to reach northern Germany in the coming days.
Edward Snowden, a former CIA technical worker, has been identified by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes.
Edward Snowden, 29, is described by the Guardian as an ex-CIA technical assistant, currently employed by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Guardian said his identity was being revealed at his own request.
The recent revelations are that US agencies gathered millions of phone records and monitored internet data.
The Guardian quotes Edward Snowden as saying he flew to Hong Kong on May 20, where he holed himself up in a hotel.
He told the paper: “I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.”
Asked what he thought would happen to him, he replied: “Nothing good.”
Edward Snowden said he had gone to Hong Kong because of its “strong tradition of free speech”.
The first of the leaks came out on Wednesday night, when the Guardian reported a US secret court had ordered phone company Verizon to hand over to the National Security Agency (NSA) millions of records on telephone call “metadata”.
Edward Snowden, a former CIA technical worker, has been identified as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes
The metadata include the numbers of both phones on a call, its duration, time, date and location (for mobiles, determined by which mobile signal towers relayed the call or text).
That report was followed by revelations in both the Washington Post and Guardian that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to track online communication in a programme known as PRISM.
All the internet companies deny giving the US government access to their servers.
PRISM is said to give the NSA and FBI access to emails, web chats and other communications directly from the servers of major US internet companies.
The data are used to track foreign nationals suspected of terrorism or spying. The NSA is also collecting the telephone records of American customers, but not recording the content of their calls.
On Saturday, US director of national intelligence James Clapper called the leaks “literally gut-wrenching”.
“I hope we’re able to track down whoever’s doing this, because it is extremely damaging to, and it affects the safety and security of this country,” he told NBC News on Saturday.
PRISM was reportedly established in 2007 in order to provide in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information on foreigners overseas.
The NSA has filed a criminal report with the US Justice Department over the leaks.
The content of phone conversations – what people say to each other when they are on the phone – is protected by the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which forbids unreasonable searches.
However, information shared with a third party, such as phone companies, is not out of bounds.
That means that data about phone calls – such as their timing and duration – can be scooped up by government officials.
James Clapper’s office issued a statement on Saturday, saying all the information gathered under PRISM was obtained with the approval of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court (FISA).
Prism was authorized under changes to US surveillance laws passed under President George Bush and renewed last year under Barack Obama.
On Friday, Barack Obama defended the surveillance programmes as a “modest encroachment” on privacy, necessary to protect the US from terrorist attacks.
“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program is about,” he said, emphasizing that the programmes were authorized by Congress.
Richard Ramirez’s skin color turned “a shocking shade of green” before his death from liver failure on Friday.
Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, 53, spent 24 years on death row after a spree of demonic murders in California.
The serial killer died reportedly after “sitting up in his bed doing stretches” just the day before at Marin County Hospital.
Richard Ramirez had been taken from San Quentin’s death row to a hospital before his death.
A source told the New York Post that Richard Ramirez’s skin turned to the ghastly hue on Thursday and was up and moving around his hospital bed.
Richard Ramirez’s skin color turned “a shocking shade of green” before his death from liver failure
“He was the color green,” said the Post‘s source.
“He looked like a green highlighter pen.”
It appears the killer was showing signs of severe jaundice in the final throes of his illness.
The skin and eye whites of a sufferer can change color when bilirubin – a yellow substance – builds up in the body.
Bilirubin is formed when haemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen round the body, breaks down. It is usually flushed out of the body in urine or faeces, but a build-up of the waste product in the bloodsteam can lead to the change in skin color.
Richard Ramirez had been housed on death row for decades and was awaiting execution, even though it has been years since anyone has been put to death in California.
He was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 s**ual assaults and 14 burglaries, which terrorized Southern California in 1984 and 1985.
Though Richard Ramirez died of liver failure, the exact cause of the ailment has not been released due to federal patient privacy laws.
Johnny Depp, who celebrates his 50th birthday today, was hailed as the world’s sexiest man, but he still has not achieved the stable home life he longed for.
Sources told The Sunday People part of it is that Johnny Depp always acts like a teenager with women, rather than a middle-aged dad of two.
And his psyche must owe a lot to a childhood in which his volatile parents uprooted him 30 times in 15 years.
Johnny Depp has loved and lost some of the world’s most beautiful women, including British supermodel Kate Moss.
He was shattered when his 14-year relationship with French singer Vanessa Paradis, 40, ended last year.
Yet Johnny Depp soon fell into the arms of bombshell actress Amber Heard, 27. He is already calling the beauty his soulmate and talking of marriage.
But friends are saying it is a relationship that won’t last. Old schoolmate Yves Bouhadana said: “Johnny falls in love at first sight. When he falls for a girl he really falls for her.”
Yves Bouhadana, who was in a teenage band with Johnny Depp and is still friends with him, added: “He wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s is a genuinely nice guy.
“He doesn’t act around his friends. What you see is what you get.”
Johnny Depp is worth more than $350 million and his agents can command $20 million for a film role.
But his childhood was far from idyllic. He was the youngest of four and witnessed constant rows between his dad John, an engineer, and waitress mum Betty Sue. When the family moved from Kentucky to Florida all of them lived at first in a single motel room.
They moved on average every six months and young Johnny constantly changed schools. The marriage unraveled slowly and painfully and by the time Johnny Depp was 13 he was smoking d**e, drinking heavily and deliberately cutting his arms to hurt himself.
Talking later about his marks, Johnny Depp said: “My body is a journal, in a way. Every important event is marked there.”
His parents’ marriage ended when he was 15.
Johnny Depp’s first and most lasting love was music. His mother bought him a guitar for his 13th birthday and he spent hours learning to play.
He made friends with a group of like-minded boys, including Yves Bouhadana, and they formed heavy metal bands.
They discovered groupies and Johnny Depp lost his virginity in the back of a van after a concert at a school.
He described it as “forgettable” and it even put him off casual s**.
While band mates picked up all the girls, Johnny Depp concentrated on his music. Then he fell head over heels in love with make-up artist Lori Anne Allison after a 1980 gig in Florida. He was 17 and she was 22. He proposed marriage almost immediately but they did not tie the knot until Christmas Eve 1983, in Miami. Johnny Depp was 20.
Johnny Depp, who celebrates his 50th birthday today, was hailed as the world’s sexiest man, but he still has not achieved the stable home life he longed for
Yves Bouhadana, now a 49-year-old sales executive living in Ohio, recalled: “She was absolutely beautiful. Still is.”
“Lori was his first serious relationship and he couldn’t wait to marry her. She is a very private person and doesn’t like to talk about the marriage. They are still friends.
“That’s the great thing with Johnny. He hasn’t changed since we were at school. We all still get together.”
Johnny Depp wanted to make it as a rock guitarist and Lori Anne Allison supported him as a make-up artist when they moved to Hollywood with his band The Kids.
But musical success and happiness eluded him. The Kids opened for the Ramones, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders and Talking Heads but the band failed to get a record deal and his marriage fell apart within two years. Biographer Cristopher Heard said: “It ended just simply because of the stress of failure.”
Johnny Depp and Lori Anne Allison were evicted from several apartments and were divorced in 1985. But Lori Anne Allison had introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage and the two became mates. Nicolas Cage persuaded him to get an agent.
Success came quickly with a memorable role in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, which became an unexpected hit.
Soon Johnny Depp was engaged to Twin Peaks beauty Sherilyn Fenn but they split after two years, blaming work commitments.
Never on his own for long, Johnny Depp dated Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey and – following a familiar pattern – proposed.
But that relationship also lasted only two years and Johnny Depp quickly hooked up with fiancée No4 Winona Ryder, his co-star in 1990’s Edward Scissorhands.
Work got in the way again and after splitting from Winona Ryder he moved on to Kate Moss.
Kate Moss was 23, a supermodel, and he was a 33-year-old film star. The relationship was volatile. Johnny Depp once caused $10,000 damage to his New York hotel room after a row with Kate Moss.
And he was devastated when they broke up in 1998 after four years together.
Johnny Depp said: “I cried for a week after we split. I didn’t give her the attention I should have done. I was a horrific pain in the butt to live with. I’m a total moron at times. I let my work get in the way.
“I will never let it happen again. I think you could say I have truly discovered the meaning of loneliness.”
But within weeks Johnny Depp was spotted out with Vanessa Paradis. And three months later she was pregnant. Their daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp was born in 1999 and the couple’s son John Christopher “Jack” Depp III came along in 2002.
With homes in France and the Bahamas, they looked settled. But in the later years Johnny Depp started to spend more time working in Hollywood and the split from Vanessa Paradis was announced in June 2012.
True to form he quickly sought solace with Amber Heard. His frends said Johnny Depp was once again acting like a teenager in love. The pair had two bust-ups in the early stages but have since calmed down.
One friend said: “Johnny always goes overboard with women. He has whisked Amber off to his island in the Bahamas and has already introduced her to his children. When they’re apart he sends her poetry. It is very sweet but everyone worries about him getting hurt again.”
This weekend there are several 50th birthday celebrations for Johnny Depp.
Rolling Stone Keith Richards insisted on being there with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard to toast his pal’s landmark.
The friendship began after Johnny Depp revealed he modeled his Pirates of the Caribbean character Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards, 69.
The Bolshoi has announced it will not renew the contract of veteran dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who has been in open conflict with the theatre since the acid attack on its artistic director Sergei Filin.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze, 39, who has been at the Bolshoi since 1992, is one of the theatre top talents.
He sparked conflict when he accused bosses of using the attack on Sergei Filin to conduct a witch hunt against him.
A spokeswoman said Nikolai Tsiskaridze, would leave at the end of the month.
“I can confirm that yesterday Tsiskaridze was given notice that his fixed-term contracts will not be renewed. His contract runs out June 30,” Katerina Novikova told Rossiya 24 on Saturday.
Katerina Novikova refused to give a reason for the decision.
In an NTV television interview on Sunday, Nikolai Tsiskaridze questioned the theatre’s right to let him go.
Dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who has been at the Bolshoi since 1992, is one of the theatre top talents
“To be honest, this is still not clear, because I’m on staff as a ballet artiste,” he said.
“When I was taken on, I joined the staff. I didn’t sign any paper to be released from this. It’s all very confusing.”
Earlier this year, the Bolshoi filed two reprimands against Nikolai Tsiskaridze for giving unauthorized interviews after the attack on Sergei Filin in January.
Under Russian law, multiple reprimands can be grounds for dismissal.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze appealed and a Moscow court annulled one of the reprimands.
In his outspoken interviews, Nikolai Tsiskaridze complained of corruption and called for the theatre’s entire management to be sacked and for himself to be put in charge.
It led to a tit-for-tat response from Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov, who suggested Nikolai Tsiskaridze might have played a role in inciting the attack on Sergei Filin, which left him with severe burns to his face and fighting to save his sight.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze has denied having anything to do with the attack and insists the Bolshoi has been trying to drive him out.
Soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two alleged accomplices have been charged in connection with the attack and are in jail awaiting trial.
In March, Pavel Dmitrichenko admitted to discussing the attack but denied ordering the use of acid.
A masked protester waving a lit flare ran onto the court at the men’s final of the French Open tennis in Paris but was restrained by security before he could interrupt the match.
A few minutes earlier, two bare-chested men stood up in the front rows, holding a banner accusing France of trampling on children’s rights.
Masked protester waving a lit flare ran onto the court at the men’s final of the French Open tennis in Paris
Other protesters called on President Francois Hollande to resign.
The protesters were angered by France’s decision to legalize same-s** marriage.
The first same-s** wedding in France took place last month under tight security.
Campaigners against gay marriage and adoption by same-s** couples, backed by the Catholic Church and conservative opposition, argue the law undermines an essential building block of society.
The protests at the French Open final were quickly snuffed out.
Rafael Nadal won the final in straight sets, defeating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
Rafael Nadal had to cope with an on-court intruder and the Paris rain to beat fellow Spaniard David Ferrer and win a record eighth French Open title.
Rafael Nadal, 27, came through 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 to reaffirm his dominance on clay, and further elevate himself among the greats of the sport.
However, the final was marred by a brief protest high in the stands during the second set that was quickly followed by an intruder leaping onto the court while brandishing a flare.
Security guards managed to bundle the man to the ground as he approached Rafael Nadal, and the player even took care to shake an official’s hand before returning to the action.
Rafael Nadal immediately dropped his serve, but within an hour he had wrapped up the victory that makes him the first man to win a Grand Slam singles tournament eight times.
His 59th match win also takes him past Roger Federer and Guillermo Vilas at Roland Garros, while his 12th major title moves him above Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver on the all-time list.
David Ferrer, playing in his first major final at the age of 31, was a worthy adversary and pushed his compatriot harder than the score might suggest, but he never threatened an upset.
Rafael Nadal won a record eighth French Open title after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer
Both men appeared edgy in the early stages, with breaks of serve exchanged in games three and four, but Rafael Nadal fired a brilliant cross-court backhand winner to move ahead again at 4-3 and took the set with a third break.
David Ferrer was making his illustrious compatriot work for his service games and missed an early chance in the second set, before Rafael Nadal made him pay with a forehand winner for 2-0.
A routine afternoon looked on the cards, but the calm was shattered by chanting from protesters with a banner in the upper tier of the stands during the sixth game of the set.
The players paused while the incident was dealt with only for another, potentially more serious, disturbance to follow before the next game when a shirtless man wearing a mask vaulted the flower bed surrounding the court, waving a burning flare above his head.
When play resumed, two unsurprisingly distracted service games followed, but Rafael Nadal moved two sets clear and looked razor sharp again when a volley put him 2-0 ahead in the third.
The increasingly heavy rain now appeared the biggest threat to his ambitions, but David Ferrer was not done and got back on level terms before blowing an opportunity to move ahead with a backhand error at 3-3.
It was to be David Ferrer’s last chance as a double-fault gave up his serve for the seventh time.
Rafael Nadal moved to match point and cracked a magnificent forehand winner before falling back onto the clay in celebration for an incredible eighth time at Roland Garros.
Scottish writer Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said.
The author revealed in April he was suffering from terminal gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year.
Iain Banks was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity.
In a statement, Iain Banks’ publisher said he was “an irreplaceable part of the literary world”.
Little, Brown Book Group said the author was “one of the country’s best-loved novelists” for both his mainstream and science fiction books.
“Iain Banks’ ability to combine the most fertile of imaginations with his own highly distinctive brand of gothic humor made him unique,” the statement said.
After announcing his illness in April, Iain Banks asked his publishers to bring forward the release date of his latest novel, The Quarry, so he could see it on the shelves.
On Sunday, it was revealed the book – to be released on 20 June – would detail the physical and emotional strain of cancer.
Scottish writer Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer
It describes the final weeks of the life of a man in his 40s who has terminal cancer.
Iain Banks revealed he was some 87,000 words into writing the book when he was diagnosed with his own illness.
“I had no inkling. So it wasn’t as though this is a response to the disease or anything, the book had been kind of ready to go,” he said.
“And then 10,000 words from the end, as it turned out, I suddenly discovered that I had cancer.”
Little, Brown Book Group said the author was presented with finished copies of his last novel three weeks ago.
Iain Banks’ first novel, The Wasp Factory, was published in 1984 and was ranked as one of the best 100 books of the 20th Century in a 1997 poll conducted by book chain Waterstone’s and Channel 4.
The writer also penned sci-fi titles under the name Iain M. Banks. His most recent book, The Hydrogen Sonata, was released last year.
After announcing his illness, Iain Banks had described being “hugely moved” by the public support for him through his website.
“Still knocked out by the love and the depth of feeling coming from so many people; thank you, all of you,”he wrote on Banksophilia last month.
Johnny Depp has dropped out of Black Mass, the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger biopic, after being asked to take a $10 million pay cut.
Johnny Depp, 50, was to have been paid $20 million to star in Black Mass which told the story of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.
But after producers shopped the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival in France and failed to attract a large number of bids they asked Johnny Depp to drop his usual $20 million fee.
The actor refused to agree to the paycut – and has walked away from the production.
Producers of the film to be directed by Hollywood veteran Barry Levinson had wanted to trim their budget down to $60 million.
Johnny Depp has dropped out of Black Mass, the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger biopic, after being asked to take a $10 million pay cut
According to theHollywood Reporter pre-sales of the film at Cannes had been “soft”.
Whitey Bulger was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for over 10 years and wanted for murder.
He was captured in June of 2011 after his girlfriend was spotted visiting a beauty salon.
The FBI had placed adverts in beauty magazines asking people to be on the lookout for Whitey Bulger, 83 and his girlfriend Catherine Greig.
The pair were arrested in California.
Whitey Bulger was wanted for the murder of at least ten people and was said to be the basis for the Jack Nicholson character in the film The Departed.
Johnny Depp, one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, will next be seen in The Lone Ranger which opens in July. He plays Tonto, the native American partner of the Lone Ranger.
Surveillance footage shows Santa Monica College shooter John Zawahri, entering the campus library, clearly carrying a large firearm.
He killed four people including his own father and brother.
While John Zawahri fired through the wall, students in the school’s library were able to survive the rampage by stacking items against the door and squatting to the floor.
Carlos Navarro Franco has been identified among the dead. His daughter Marcela, 25, was taken to UCLA Medical Center after her father was fatally wounded and crashed the car he was driving into a wall. She is on life support and in “grim condition”, according to Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline A. Seabrooks who would not confirm the names of any other victims at a 4 p.m. press conference.
John Zawahri, 24, armed with an AR-15, a handgun, and 1,300 rounds of ammunition began the deadly spree by killing his father and brother and setting fire to their Southern California home.
Dressed all in black and carrying a semi-automatic rifle, John Zawahri walked through the Santa Monica College campus – where he was enrolled as a student “as recently as 2010”, according to police – after killing his father, brother and another person, authorities said.
When he entered the library, students were able to run to a “safe room”, where they stacked items against the door and “hunkered down” to avoid the shots that John Zawahri fired at them through a wall.
He would kill a woman outside the library moments later, before dying from police gunfire.
A neighbor described the victim as unemployed, 22, man who lived in the Mar Vista area with his mother.
Sources tell CNN that John Zawahri was hospitalized for mental illness in recent years after allegedly talking about harming others.
It remains unclear if he admitted himself or if he was involuntary placed in the hospital. Also unclear are the exact circumstances of his treatment and the circumstances of his release.
Officials do not believe John Zawahri had any terrorist affiliations, domestic or international.
Jacqueline A. Seabrooks did confirm that John Zawahri had a 2006 run-in with the law but was unable to specify its exact nature, as he was a minor at the time.
Surveillance footage shows Santa Monica College shooter John Zawahri, entering the campus library, clearly carrying a large firearm
Trena Johnson, a longtime administrative assistant working in the dean’s office, looked out the window around noon Friday and saw a man with a “very large gun”.
“We saw a woman get shot in the head,” said Trena Johnson.
“I haven’t been able to stop shaking.”
The violence, which lasted just about 20 minutes, started about mile away when John Zawahri opened fire in front of a house he’d set ablaze.
Two officials said the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman’s father and brother. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
As the house burst into flames, John Zawahri carjacked a woman at gunpoint and directed her to drive to the college campus, having her stop so he could shoot along the way, police said.
He wounded one woman in a car who was in critical condition late Friday. He fired on a city bus where three women were left with minor injuries. One had shrapnel-type injuries and the two others had injuries not related to gunfire. They were treated at a hospital and released.
The gunman also fired on police cars, bystanders and pedestrians, police said.
From there, the chaos shifted to Santa Monica College, a two-year college with about 34,000 students located among homes and strip malls more than a mile inland from the city’s famous pier, promenade and expansive, sandy beaches.
In a faculty parking lot on the edge of campus, he fired on two people in a red Ford Explorer that crashed through a block wall. The driver was killed, police said, and a passenger was in critical condition after undergoing surgery UCLA Medical Center, doctors said.
College employee Joe Orcutt was in the lot and said he saw the gunman, looking calm and composed.
“He’s just standing there, like he’s modeling for some ammo magazine,” Joe Orcutt said, “seeing who he could shoot, one bullet at a time, like target practice.”
The gunman walked on to campus and shot the woman in front of the library, who appeared to be in her 50s and carried a bag of recyclables, police spokesman Richard Lewis said. She died at the hospital about three hours later.
The gunman went inside the library and kept shooting but apparently hit no one, Jacqueline A. Seabrooks said.
Dozens of students, who had been studying for final exams, ran for the exits.
“I was totally scared to death and I can’t believe it happened so fast,” said Vincent Zhang, a 20-year-old economics major.
Officers entered the library and shot the gunman moments later, Jacqueline A. Seabrooks said. He was carried to a sidewalk, where he was declared dead. His body remained there many hours later as coroner’s investigators examined the scene. His name and the names of his victims’ were being withheld while the coroner’s office notified relatives.
Nine crime scenes were under investigation by officers from 11 different law enforcement agencies, said Richard Lewis.
On the gunman they found a canvas bag that included a rifle, a handgun and magazines of ammunition, Richard Lewis said. A small cache of ammunition found in the house that had burned.
Police had said earlier that seven people were killed, including the gunman, but they revised the death toll to five at a news conference late Friday. Richard Lewis said there were conflicting descriptions of some victims and they were counted twice.
At a press conference Friday night, Sgt. Richard Lewis said that the gunman acted alone, and investigators have released a man who had been detained as a “person of interest”.
Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro will plead “not guilty” to 329 charges, including kidnapping and rape.
On Friday, Ariel Castro, 52, was indicted on 329 charges. His lawyer told Reuters Saturday that he plans on pleading “not guilty” to those charges at his arraignment next week.
“The indictment is being reviewed and a <<not guilty>> plea will be entered at the scheduled arraignment,” attorney Jaye M. Schlachet said.
The indictment covers the period from August of 2002, when Michelle Knight, the first of the three women discovered in his Cleveland home last month, disappeared, until February of 2007.
Ariel Castro was indicted for one act of aggravated murder – for purposely and with prior calculation and design causing the unlawful termination of another’s pregnancy.
He was also indicted on 139 counts of rape, 177 counts of kidnapping, seven counts of gross s***al imposition, three counts of felonious assault and one count of possession of criminal tools.
Ariel Castro will be arraigned on those charges next week and a trial judge will then be assigned.
“Today’s indictments represent a first major step in the criminal justice process,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty.
When the indictment process is complete, the County Prosecutor’s Capital Review Committee will consider whether this case is appropriate to attach the death penalty.
Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro will plead “not guilty” to 329 charges
Ariel Castro is accused of kidnapping Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight and holding them captive along with 6-year-old Jocelyn, the girl he fathered with Berry.
The suspect has been in the Cuyahoga County Jail since his arrest on May 6. He was charged on May 8 and was jailed on $8 million bond.
Ariel Castro was taken off “suicide prevention” watch on Wednesday after being monitored for the past month.
Jail logs released on Wednesday also show Ariel Castro has been visited multiple times by relatives, but did not list which family members paid a visit to the suspect, News Channel 5 reported.
They also reveal that he watched a lot of television, spent a lot of time running in place and has met with his defense attorneys. He has refused time out of his cell on at least two occasions.
They show his cells being checked for contraband items – and none being found.
Jail logs last month noted that Ariel Castro spends most of his time in his cell resting or asleep, with breaks for pacing, showers and cell cleaning.
Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver, was arrested May 6 after one of the women, Amanda Berry, kicked out part of a locked door of his house and yelled to neighbors to help her and call police.
Police quickly arrived and found Amanda Berry in the street before racing through the house, freeing Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The women were admitted to a hospital but have been released.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus disappeared between 2002 and 2004, when they were in their teens or early 20s, authorities said.
The FBI teamed up with the US Postal Service to track down ricin mailing suspect Shannon Guess Richardson using a system that snaps pictures of “every mail piece that is processed”, according to a complaint.
Filed Friday in Texas, the complaint details how federal investigators narrowed down the origin of the letters by reviewing the pieces of mail scanned before and after the ricin containing letters sent to President Barack Obama, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a gun control lobby sponsored by the mayor.
Postmarked in Shreveport, Louisiana, the letters were processed at a regional distribution facility in the city, according to the complaint. Though in Louisiana, the plant also processes mail for parts of Arkansas and Texas, where Shannon Richardson resides, the complaint explains.
By referencing two separate batches of mail processed by the postal service’s Automated Facer Canceller System (ACFS) on May 20, as well as the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, which takes the actual pictures of the mail, agents determined the mail came from the area around New Boston, Texas, the complaint states.
FBI and the US Postal Service tracked ricin suspect Shannon Guess Richardson down using an advanced system that takes pictures of and tracks every piece of mail sent in the US
The first of the three letters, addressed to mayor Michael Bloomberg, was opened four days later at a mail center in Lower Manhattan. The second was opened two days later in Washington, D.C., by a staffer at The Raben Group, the Bloomberg-sponsored gun control lobbying firm. The third was intercepted on May 30 before reaching President Barack Obama, having been opened at the White House mail facility, the complaint detailed.
Shannon Richardson met in Shreveport with investigators later that day, accused her husband of sending the letters and turned over a book of stamps, which investigators determined on June 3 to be the same book of stamps the ricin letters postage came from, said the complaint posted on the Smoking Gun.
Further investigation led to warrant-less searches of the couple’s New Boston home, turning up castor beans – which contain the toxic ricin poison, saved letters matching those mailed and other physical evidence, according to the report.
The nail in Shannon Richardson’s accusatory coffin was that her husband, Nathaniel Richardson, was found to have been working a 10-hour shift starting 6:30 a.m., which was corroborated by coworkers, the day the letters were postmarked, the complaint states.
Shannon Richardson’s alibi in shambles, she confessed to trying to set her husband up, she mailed the letters – a photo finish to a lie and, perhaps, her marriage.
Male train drivers in Sweden have circumvented a ban on shorts by wearing skirts to work in hot weather.
The workers, who operate the Roslagsbanan line north of the capital Stockholm, have been wearing skirts to work for the past two weeks.
Employer Arriva banned the drivers from wearing shorts after taking over the running of the line in January.
But the company has given the men its blessing to wear skirts, according to local newspaper Mitti.
Male train drivers in Sweden have circumvented a ban on shorts by wearing skirts to work in hot weather
“Our thinking is that one should look decent and proper when representing Arriva and the present uniforms do that. If the man only wants [to wear] a skirt then that is OK,” Arriva communications manager Tomas Hedenius told the paper.
“To tell them to do something else would be discrimination.”
Driver Martin Akersten said he and his colleagues came up with the idea to wear skirts after they were informed of the new company dress code in the winter.
“We have always said that when summer comes, we will get some skirts and wear them. It’s very warm weather here so we would like to wear shorts but if we can’t then we have skirts for comfort.”
The male drivers have chosen only to wear skirts on hot days, opting for trousers in cooler conditions.
“The passengers stare at us but so far no-one has said anything – well, not to me, anyway. And I don’t mind as it’s more about comfort,” Martin Akersten adds.
President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have ended a two-day summit in California, which was described by US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon as “unique, positive and constructive”.
Tom Donilon said Barack Obama had warned Xi Jinping that cyber-crime could be an “inhibitor” in US-China relations.
He also said that both countries had agreed that North Korea had to denuclearize.
The talks in California also touched on economic and environmental issues.
The two leaders spent nearly six hours together on Friday and another three hours on Saturday morning at the sprawling Sunnylands retreat in California.
While briefly appearing for a stroll together on Saturday, Barack Obama described their progress as “terrific”.
After the talks concluded, Tom Donilon told a press conference that President Barack Obama had described to Xi Jinping the types of problems the US has faced from cyber-intrusion and theft of intellectual property.
He gave no details but said Barack Obama underscored that Washington had no doubt that the intrusions were coming from inside China.
Earlier, Xi Jinping’s senior foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi told reporters that China wanted co-operation rather than friction with the US over cyber-security.
“Cyber-security should not become the root cause of mutual suspicion and friction, rather it should be a new bright spot in our co-operation,” he said.
On North Korea, Tom Donilon said the two leaders had achieved “quite a bit of alignment”.
President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have ended a two-day summit in California
“They agreed that North Korea has to denuclearize, that neither country will accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state and that we would work together to deepen co-operation and dialogue to achieve denuclearization,” he said.
Immediately after the summit ended, the White House issued a statement saying the two nations had agreed to work together for the first time to reduce hydrofluorocarbons – a potent greenhouse gas.
The White House appears to be delighted by the summit, with Tom Donilon repeatedly calling it “unique”.
The summit was the first meeting between the two leaders since Xi Jinping became China’ president in March.
It was billed as a chance for the two to get to know each other.
Speaking after his first session of talks with Xi Jinping on Friday, Barack Obama described cyber-security as “uncharted waters”.
On Friday, the Guardiannewspaper published what it described as a US presidential order to national security and intelligence officials to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks.
The White House has not commented on the report.
The US and China are the world’s two largest economies. The US runs a huge trade deficit with China, which hit an all-time high of $315 billion last year.
Last week, the Chinese firm Shuanghui agreed to buy US pork producer Smithfield for $4.7 billion – the largest takeover of a US company by a Chinese rival.
The deal highlights the growing power of Chinese firms and their desire to secure global resources.
US producers want China to raise the value of its currency, the renminbi, which would make Chinese goods more expensive for foreign buyers and possibly hold back exports.
Beijing has responded with a gradual easing of restrictions on trading in the renminbi.
Intellectual property is also an area of concern for US firms.
A report last month by the independent Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property put losses to the US from IP theft at as much as $300 billion a year. It said 50-80% of the thefts were thought to be by China.
Ahead of the summit, White House officials told reporters hacking would be raised, amid growing concern in the US over alleged intrusions from China in recent months.
Last month the Washington Post, citing a confidential Pentagon report, reported that Chinese hackers had accessed designs for more than two dozen US weapons systems.
The US also directly accused Beijing of targeting US government computers as part of a cyber-espionage campaign in a report in early May.
North Korean and South Korean officials are holding their first government-level talks in more than two years.
The talks are taking place at Panmunjom, a military compound in the demilitarized zone between the two countries.
The meeting comes after months of rising tension and war-like gestures from both sides.
They culminated in the suspension in April of all activity in the Kaesong joint commercial zone.
Kaesong Industrial Complex, which is seen as a symbol of North-South co-operation, had run successfully just inside North Korea for more than eight years.
With tensions between the two countries easing, South Korea invited the North to high level talks in Seoul, but Pyongyang said it wanted lower-level discussions first.
The South Korean delegation hopes to negotiate plans for ministerial-level talks later this week.
At the end of the morning session, a spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry said the two sides had discussed technical issues for the future ministerial meeting.
“The atmosphere of today’s meeting… was such that the talks have gone smoothly without any argument,” Kim Hyung-suk told reporters in Seoul.
North Korean and South Korean officials hold key talks at Panmunjom, a military compound in the demilitarized zone between the two countries
The South’s three-person delegation – led by the director of the Unification Ministry – left Seoul just before 08:00 for Panmunjom.
Ties between the two Koreas deteriorated earlier this year in the wake of the North’s nuclear test on February 12.
Pyongyang withdrew its workers from Kaesong in April, apparently angered by tightened UN sanctions in the wake of the nuclear test and annual South Korea-US military drills.
Around 53,000 North Korean workers are employed at the Kaesong factory complex by more than 120 South Korean factories.
The zone is a key source of revenue for the North and the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade.
Last Thursday the North offered talks with the South on the resumption of operations and said it would reconnect a Red Cross hotline if Seoul – which had been seeking such talks – agreed.
The talks closely follow a summit in California between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Both leaders agreed that North Korea had to denuclearize and that neither country would accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said on Saturday.
Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been sentenced to 11 years in jail on fraud charges by a court in China.
The lawyer defending Liu Hui said the jail term was out of all proportion to the alleged offence.
He said it should have been treated as a civil dispute, not a criminal matter.
Liu Xiaobo was already in jail when he won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for campaigning for peaceful democratic change in China.
Since then his wife, Liu Xia – sister of Liu Hui – has been held under strict house arrest in what she says is an official vendetta against his family.
This latest sentencing of a close family member is being seen as further political persecution.
It comes at the same time as China’s President Xi Jinping is in America for talks with President Obama, a summit at which the US side says the issue of human rights is being raised.
Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has been sentenced to 11 years in jail on fraud charges
The court in Huairou, north-east of Beijing, convicted Liu Hui, a manager in a property company, of defrauding a man of 3 million yuan ($490,000) along with a colleague.
“As Liu Hui’s defence attorney I definitely do not approve of this verdict, because we see this fundamentally as a civil issue, and it fundamentally does not constitute criminal fraud,” lawyer Mo Shaoping told reporters.
He said Liu Hui maintained his innocence.
A tearful Liu Xia accused the authorities of persecuting her family.
“I absolutely cannot accept this. This is simply persecution,” she said before being driven away from the court.
“This is completely an illegal verdict.”
She said she had “completely lost hope” in the government, adding: “I can’t even leave my house.”
Police pulled journalists away from the car as Liu Xia was driven off.
Liu Xiaobo, who won the prize despite fierce Chinese opposition, was jailed in 2009 for helping to draft a manifesto – Charter 08 – calling for political change.
He is currently serving 11 years in jail for inciting the subversion of state power.
Liu Xia, also a known activist, has been living in her Beijing apartment with no internet or phone access and limited weekly visits with family.
She had been allowed to leave her apartment to attend the court hearing.
Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, who spent 24 years in prison after a spree of murders in California, died Friday, but not before turning a shocking shade of green.
The serial killer, who left satanic signs at murder scenes and mutilated victims’ bodies during a reign of terror in the 1980s, died reportedly after “sitting up in his bed doing stretches” just the day before at Marin County Hospital.
Richard Ramirez, 53, had been taken from San Quentin’s death row to a hospital where authorities said he died of liver failure, according to a source at the New York Post.
The source said Richard Ramirez exhibited the ghastly-hued skin Thursday and was up and moving around his hospital bed.
“He was the color green,” said the Post‘s source.
“He looked like a green highlighter pen.”
Richard Ramirez had been housed on death row for decades and was awaiting execution, even though it has been years since anyone has been put to death in California. He was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 s**ual assaults and 14 burglaries, which terrorized Southern California in 1984 and 1985. His charges included rape, so**my and o**l co****tion.
Though he died of liver failure, the exact cause of the ailment has not been released due to federal patient privacy laws.
At his first court appearance, Richard Ramirez raised a hand with a pentagram drawn on it and yelled: “Hail, Satan.”
Night Stalker Richard Ramirez had shockingly green skin the day before he died
His marathon trial, which ended in 1989, was a horror show. Courtroom observers wept when survivors of some of the attacks testified.
Richard Ramirez was finally run down and beaten in 1985 by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood while attempting a carjacking. They recognized him because his picture had appeared that day in the news media.
The trial of Richard Ramirez took a year, but the entire case which was bogged down in pretrial motions and appeals lasted four years, one of the longest criminal cases in U.S. history.
Because of the notoriety of the case, more than 1600 prospective jurors were called.
On his way to a jail bus, he sneered in reaction to the verdict, muttering: “Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland.”
The black-clad killer, unrepentant to the end, made his comment in an underground garage after a jury recommended the death penalty for his gruesome crimes.
Inexplicably, Richard Ramirez, a native of El Paso, Texas, had a following of young women admirers who came to the courtroom regularly and sent him love notes.
Some visited him in prison, and in 1996 Richard Ramirez was married to 41-year-old freelance magazine editor Doreen Lioy in a visiting room at San Quentin prison.
Relatives called Doreen Lioy a recluse who lived in a fantasy world.
In 2006, the California Supreme Court upheld Richard Ramirez’s convictions and death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court refused in 2007 to review the convictions and sentence.
Two years later, San Francisco police said DNA linked Richard Ramirez to the April 10, 1984, killing of 9-year-old Mei Leung.
She was killed in the basement of a residential hotel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood where she lived with her family.
Richard Ramirez had been staying at nearby hotels.
He previously was tied to killings in Northern California. He was charged in the shooting deaths of Peter Pan, 66, and his wife, Barbara, in 1985 just before his arrest in Los Angeles, but he was never tried in that case.
Kim Kardashian tweeted a very special birthday message to Kanye West, the father of her unborn child, for his 36th birthday anniversary.
Kim Kardashian, 32, created a photo collage of her favorite magical moments with Kanye West on Saturday in honor of his birthday.
“Happy Birthday to my best friend, the ❤of my life, my soul!!!! I love you beyond words!” Kim Kardashian tweeted along with the sentimental collection.
Kim Kardashian tweeted a very special birthday message to Kanye West
The selection of six photos that Kim Kardashian chose to express her devotion were a balance of moments captured both in their public life dressed up in designer dresses and tuxedos, and private glimpses of them enjoying one-on-one time.
In one picture, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are seen snuggling up closely together in a sweet self portrait, while in another they are raising glasses in a cheers – no doubt to each other – over a romantic dinner.
As they stand arm-in-arm dressed head-to-toe in white, there is no doubt that the power couple are made for each other.
With their first baby due this summer and his highly-anticipated new album set for release on June 18, it is no doubt going to be a big year for Kanye West.
While Kim Kardashian was more than willing to make a very public birthday greetings to her future baby daddy, just two days earlier she complained about living life in the spotlight.
She unleashed a rather perplexing Twitter rant about the paparazzi and wanting to have a break from the spotlight 24/7.
“I get I live a public life,” she wrote on Thursday.
“I live my life on a reality show for the world to see. I love my life, but when the cameras stop, that doesn’t mean I don’t want a break too.
“I’m 32 yrs old now, about to be a mom. I’m not 25 clubbing around LA anymore.”
Hours after her plea for privacy, Kim Kardashian was back on Twitter posting selfies and sharing video taken inside her home.
Beyoncé posted a set of holiday pictures with her daughter Blue Ivy Carter rested atop her superstar mother’s chest in a hot tub as they vacationed on a tropical island.
Beyoncé, 31, shed her strong stage presence as she lovingly held her daughter in the bubbling waters.
Her hair was wrapped in a leopard-print turban and gigantic circular sunglasses shielded her face in the sure-to-be iconic black and white image of the pop legend and her beloved daughter.
As the series of photographs continued on Beyoncé’s Tumblr, color drenched the images.
Beyoncé and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter on a tropical vacation
In one, Beyoncé posed on her bike wearing a white top in front of greenery and palm trees, and not a trace of make-up could be seen on the L’Oreal model’s face.
Wearing the same white cover-up in another photo, Beyoncé stood and reveled a silver bikini and her toned bare legs.
Later, as the sun set, Beyoncé took to the grass to lie down in a colorful frock, her arms outstretched to her sides.
Her latest images continued with pictures of perfectly aligned palm trees and cosy knit socks with rolled-up leggings.
The singer is taking a bit of a breather before she picks up the U.S. leg of her The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour.
Beyoncé’s next tour date is in Los Angeles at the end of June, and she will then embark upon a whopping 22 other U.S. cities.
Serena Williams won a second French Open title 11 years after her first with a convincing win over defending champion Maria Sharapova.
World number one Serena Williams, 31, was pushed at times but took control midway through the first set, winning 6-4, 6-4, in one hour and 46 minutes.
Serena Williams has now claimed 16 Grand Slam singles titles, moving her to within two of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, who have 18 each.
With an unbeaten run that stands at 31 matches, Serena Williams will be strongly favoured to add to that tally at Wimbledon next month.
“Today, when I won, I was trying to win the French Open. I wasn’t trying to get to number 16,” said Serena Williams.
“I think it’s really special. I feel like I definitely want to continue my journey.”
Maria Sharapova had come into Saturday’s final promising to “try something different” after failing to beat Serena Williams in their last 12 matches, stretching back to 2004.
Key to the Russian’s hopes was defending a serve that has been plagued by double faults in recent times.
At 0-40 in the opening game, things already looked bleak for Maria Sharapova, but she dug in and fired down an ace and one terrific second serve as she saw off four break points.
The second seed took that momentum into the following game to break the mighty american serve, and looked well set in the next at 40-15 – before Williams sparked into life.
A heavy forehand winner helped her back into the game and when she thumped away a smash on break point, Serena Williams let out a “come on!” that was the equal of Maria Sharapova’s early efforts.
Serena Williams won a second French Open title 11 years after her first with a convincing win over defending champion Maria Sharapova
Four games in a row put Serena Williams in command at 4-2, but Maria Sharapova showed the grit that has taken her to four Grand Slam titles as she battled her way back to 4-4 in some fierce baseline exchanges.
With the pressure on, Serena Williams raised her intensity still further and produced the kind of hitting that even Maria Sharapova cannot live with, forcing the Russian into a forehand error in game nine before serving out the set after 51 minutes.
That was five minutes longer than Sara Errani had managed to delay Serena Williams in their entire semi-final, and Maria Sharapova continued to cling on gamely.
She saved five break points in a gripping first game of the second set but, unable to trouble Serena Williams’ serve, she found herself under pressure again moments later.
Serena Williams proved just how much she has improved her movement on clay as she slid out wide for one defensive backhand on the way to breaking in game three, and she would not relinquish the advantage.
The 15,000 spectators in the main Chatrier stadium cheered Maria Sharapova as she held serve from 30-30 with defeat looming, but she was not about to be given a reprieve by her opponent.
Serena Williams demonstrated once again that her serve is the best shot in the game, firing down an ace to secure the title and dropping to her knees in celebration.
Maria Sharapova said: “She played a great match. She played strong, she played deep, served really good; served better than I did. She took her chances.”
Princess Madeleine of Sweden turned fairytale bride today as she married her British-American banker beau Christopher O’Neill watched by European royals and the cream of New York society.
“Party princess”, 30, the youngest of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia’s three children, married British-born financier Chris O’Neill, 38, in Stockholm’s Royal Palace today wearing a breathtaking Valentino wedding gown.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex and Princess Charlene of Monaco were among those looking on as the groom placed a tender kiss on Princess Madeleine’s hand during today’s ceremony.
Blue-blooded Europe mingled with Manhattan’s elite and a sprinkling of pop aristocracy as the couple exchanged vows in the lavish ceremony.
Chris O’Neill, 38, appeared to be fighting back tears as the princess walked down the aisle with her father at the Royal Palace in the capital.
Among the high-profile guests in the chapel were Duran Duran’s John Taylor, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, Karl-Johan Persson – CEO of fashion company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), and Roxette stars Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson.
Princess Madeleine and Chris O’Neill met after she fled to the U.S. in 2010 with a broken heart.
She crossed the Atlantic following the breakdown of her first engagement to Swedish attorney Jonas Bergstrom amid speculation that he had cheated on her.
But the radiant princess – and fourth in line to the Swedish throne – got her happy ending in the Royal Palace today, watched by a glittering congregation.
Princess Madeleine’s showstopping wedding gown – made from silk organdies with applications of ivory Chantilly lace – was created by master couturier Valentino.
Small vertical pleats at the waist opened into a full skirt with a flowing, four-metre train.
Princess Madeleine of Sweden turned fairytale bride as she married American banker Christopher O’Neill watched by European royals and the cream of New York society
Her six-metre long cathedral veil was also made from silk organdies, edged with tulle and embellished with Chantilly lace flowers.
Princess Madeleine wore her hair swept back from her face in a simple yet elegant style.
The low bun was held in place by her royal tiara, which was decorated with a delicate garland of fresh orange blossoms.
Guests enjoyed hymns in Swedish and English during the wedding, along with performances from Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson and Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera star Peter Joback.
Smiling Princess Madeleine read her wedding vows in Swedish, while Chris O’Neil delivered his in English.
The financier is a partner and head of research at Noster Capital, a hedge fund with offices in London and New York.
The couple announced their engagement in October 2012.
Their wedding celebrations began last night with a private dinner at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm hosted by the king and queen.
Following today’s ceremony a reception will be held at Stockholm’s Drottningholm Palace, the royal family’s private residence.
Princess Madeleine, who is also known as the Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland, lives in New York where she works for the World Childhood Foundation, a non-profit group founded by her mother.
Chris O’Neill will not hold a title after the wedding as he has elected to remain a private citizen and not be granted royal rank.
Princess Madeleine became known as Sweden’s party princess during her early 20s, when she was frequently spotted at Stockholm’s high-end nightclubs.
Countless column inches were also devoted to Princess Madeleine’s stylish wardrobe and glamorous lifestyle.
Scott Thorson, who was Liberace’s one time toy-boy companion, claims he had an even more famous lover, in the shape of late superstar Michael Jackson.
Scott Thorson – whose memoir inspired HBO’s Behind the Candelabra starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon – now alleges he had a six to seven years relationship with Michael Jackson.
Liberace’s 54-year-old former partner claims Michael Jackson and the piano genius used to bond at his Palm Springs compound as they both recovered from plastic surgery.
“Liberace introduced me and Michael in the late 1970’s,” Scott Thorson toldThe Sun.
“It was right around the time Thriller was coming out and Michael and I became lovers.”
“Our relationship went on for six or seven years, Michael was very generous, too. He treated me well.”
Scott Thorson previously talked about his relationship with Michael Jackson after he gave an interview to The National Enquirer back in 2004 claiming their first s**ual encounter took place at the home of late female impersonator Danny La Rue.
Scott Thorson, who was Liberace’s one time toy-boy companion, claims he was the lover of late superstar Michael Jackson
“I was standing only a few feet away from Michael when he motioned with his hand to come over to him and join him on the bed,” Scott Thorson revealed.
“I climbed onto the bed – our lovemaking session lasted about an hour.”
Behind The Candelabra tells the story of the bizarre love affair between Scott Thorson, then 17, when he met Liberace, who was 57 at the time.
Liberace lavished his much younger lover with gifts but it came at a price as he demanded that he get plastic surgery so that he could look more like him.
After their break-up, Scott Thorson launched an unsuccessful $113 million lawsuit against Liberace who died of suspected AIDS in 1986.
Ironically, Scott Thorson has only just seen HBO’s mini-film about their relationship after he was jailed in Reno while awaiting sentencing for burglary charges.
Scott Thorson – who is currently living at The Bunny Ranch Br***el after the owner bailed him out – liked the way that Matt Damon portrayed him.
“Matt Damon did a great job playing me and he did a great job in bed with Michael Douglas too,” he revealed.
But he’s angry that he did not make more money out of the project and that the two stars did not come and bail him out recently.
“Hollywood turned its back on me. Matt Damon or Michael Douglas would not bail me out, even though I offered to talk to them about the film,” Scott Thorson complained.
