The video of the moment when activist Ellen Sturtz heckled First Lady Michelle Obama was caught on tape and has now been released to show the tense exchange.
After she was interrupted, Michelle Obama threatened to leave the Democratic National Committee fundraiser unless Ellen Sturtz was removed.
“It felt like she was within a few inches – in my face,” Ellen Sturtz told ABC News, in an account that several witnesses have corroborated.
The video, obtained by CNN, shows how Michelle Obama got down from her platform and went directly over to the heckler and told her to stop or else she was going to leave and allow her to finish.
The crowd cheered for Michelle Obama and told the heckler to stop talking.
The First Lady then walked aside, going over to talk to other supporters briefly- as if to shake off the incident- before returning to the lectern.
Moments before the confrontation, Ellen Sturtz had interrupted Michelle Obama to demand that her husband sign an executive order barring discrimination by federal contractors based on s**ual orientation.
“One of the things I don’t do well is this,” Michelle Obama replied to loud applause, according to a pool report.
“Listen to me or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.”
The crowd urged the first lady to stay, and she returned to the podium to continue speaking. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney later said that Michelle Obama handled the interruption “brilliantly”.
Ellen Sturtz described herself to ABC News as an “old, grey-haired lesbian” and said she felt compelled to interrupt Michelle Obama because she doesn’t feel she has the time to wait around for action on gay rights.
“I’m too old to wait for it,” she said.
“I don’t want to see us continue to be second-class citizens.”
Ellen Sturtz is an activist for the pro-LGBT rights group GetEQUAL and she was one of four protestors at the event.
The moment when activist Ellen Sturtz heckled First Lady Michelle Obama
But when the White House’s transcript arrived, The Daily Caller reported Tuesday night, it didn’t include any indication of an acrimonious exchange – and was missing Michelle Obama’s threat to leave the event.
The only indication in that transcript that anything was amiss is a note about an “(Inaudible audience interruption.)”
“I lived and worked in the closet, hiding who I was in order to earn a living,” Ellen Sturtz said in a statement late Tuesday night.
“I had planned to speak tonight with DNC officials but, as the First Lady was talking about our children’s future and ensuring that they have everything they need to live happy and productive lives, I simply couldn’t stay silent any longer.”
“I’m looking ahead at a generation of young people who could live full, honest, and open lives with the stroke of the President’s pen,” Ellen Sturtz insisted.
The home where the heckling happened belongs to power couple Karen Dixon and Nan Schaffer, formerly of Chicago, who have hosted fundraisers for the Obamas in the past, including one that raised $1.4 million for the president’s reelection campaign in February 2012.
Karen Dixon is an attorney who serves on the national board of Lambda Legal, an organization working for LGBT rights.
Her spouse, Nan Schaffer, is a veterinarian who works to preserve the rhino population through artificial insemination.
She is also a minority shareholder in Windy City Media Group and founded Outlines, a Chicago newspaper, in 1987.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney took an oddly coincidental question earlier in the day during his regularly scheduled briefing about the same discrimination issue that had Ellen Sturtz shouting at the top of her lungs.
Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila Putina have announced that they have separated and their marriage is over.
The 60-year-old Russian president and his 55-year-old wife broke the news of the end of the 29-year marriage in an obviously staged TV interview after a night at the ballet that made no mention of Vladimir Putin’s alleged mistress, former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 30.
Asked on Rossiya-24 television about longstanding rumors that the Putins no longer lived together, Vladimir Putin said: “That is true.”
Lyudmila Putina said it had been “our common decision. And our marriage is over due to the fact that we barely see each other”.
Asked whether they were divorced, Lyudmila Putina said it was a “civilized divorce”.
But neither clarified whether they were legally divorced and Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he did not know.
The obviously staged interview made no mention of Alina Kabayeva, a 30-year-old former gymnast who is rumored to have been Vladimir Putin’s mistress for years.
Alina Kabaeva, who is alleged to have given birth to Vladimir Putin’s lovechild, is now a politician after retiring from a glittering career in gymnastics in which she represented her country at the Olympics twice.
Rumors about Vladimir Putin’s alleged affair with Alina Kabaeva first surfaced five years ago when a Russian newspaper owned by the oligarch Alexander Lebedev reported that Putin wanted to marry his gymnast mistress.
Vladimir Putin angrily denied the story, and the newspaper was closed down shortly afterwards, which many attributed to Putin’s rage. Further stories later emerged claiming that Alina Kabaeva had had a baby by the president, but both sides denied them.
Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Putina had last been seen in public together at Putin’s inauguration to his third presidential term on May 7, 2012.
Married just a few weeks short of 30 years, the Putins announced the decision on state television after attending a ballet performance Thursday evening in the Kremlin.
Lyudmila Putina has rarely been seen in public during her husband’s long tenure at the top of Russian politics.
Alina Kabaeva, who is alleged to have given birth to Vladimir Putin’s lovechild, is now a politician after retiring from a glittering career in gymnastics in which she represented Russia at the Olympics twice
“I don’t like publicity and flying is difficult for me,” she said.
In the televised announcement of their divorce, Vladimir Putin appeared reserved and Lyudmila Putina smiled tentatively.
“We practically never saw each other. To each his own life,” Vladimir Putin said.
Lyudmila Putina said: “We will eternally be very close people. I’m thankful … that he supports me.”
There were no immediate indications of how the move would be perceived by the public. Divorce is common in Russia, and nearly 700,000 pairs dissolved their marriages in 2009, according to UNICEF.
Russian leaders, unlike their counterparts in the West, generally keep their personal lives well out of public view. Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife Raisa raised many Russians’ hackles by her visibility, flair for fashionable dress and forthright comments.
But Vladimir Putin also has made a point of supporting traditional social values and appearing at holiday masses of the Orthodox Church.
The church permits divorce under some circumstances; it is not clear if the Putins sought pastoral advice or permission before the split.
The couple, who married in 1983 and have two daughters, recently attracted attention after they were never seen in public together.
An official family portrait has been issued, and photographs of their daughters Maria, 27, and Yekaterina, 26, have never been printed by the Russian media.
In April speculation was mounting as to why the first lady of Russia was rarely seen by the president’s side.
Unfounded rumors suggested Vladimir Putin had an affair with spy-turned-lingerie model Anna Chapman, which has been strongly denied, was behind the former Aeroflot-hostess’ disappearance from public view.
In October 2010 the Putins tried to quell rumors they had divorced by posing for pictures as they jointly answered questions for the national census.
Vladimir Putin has been a constant fixture in leading the country.
He was re-elected to the role of President in May last year, and he previously held the post from 2000 to 2008.
In between his these offices, Vladimir Putin was Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012.
The Russian office of first lady demands the attendance of many official ceremonies and functions of state – either by the side of the president or to represent him.
Russia heavily frowns upon the First Lady holding outside employment while occupying the office.
Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for protests across the country to end immediately.
At Istanbul airport Recep Tayyip Erdogan told crowds of supporters who were welcoming him home from a four-day North Africa tour that the protests bordered on illegality.
As he spoke, thousands of anti-government protesters were also rallying in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
The unrest began as a local protest over a park in Istanbul but spiraled into nationwide demonstrations.
An estimated 10,000 supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party descended on the airport to welcome him home in the early hours of Friday.
Standing alongside his wife and government ministers on an open-top bus, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the crowd: “These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now.”
At times Recep Tayyip Erdogan was almost drowned out by the cheering and chanting of his supporters.
“We have never been for building tension and polarization, but we cannot applaud brutality,” he said.
Some of his supporters chanted: “Let us go, let’s crush Taksim.”
However, Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged them to “go home” peacefully.
“You have remained calm, mature and showed common sense,” he said.
“We’re all going to go home from here.”
Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for protests across the country to end immediately
Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded to calls for his resignation by referring to his election victory in 2011 when he took 50% of the vote.
“They say I am the prime minister of only 50%. It’s not true. We have served the whole of the 76 million from the east to the west,” he told the crowd.
It was the first major show of support for Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a week of protests in which his opponents have called for him to resign.
The divisions in Turkey look set to deepen in the days ahead and could be very dangerous indeed.
The original sit-in at Gezi Park last Friday spiraled into mass protests after police cracked down on activists defending the green space near Taksim Square from developers.
Correspondents in Taksim Square say the atmosphere is good-natured, with protesters dancing and chanting political slogans.
Many are part of a secular, well-educated middle class which feels that Turkey lacks a proper, free political culture.
One protester in the square, named as Deniz, told reporters: “He [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] cannot take the park, there is no way. You know what? He will cause a war inside the country. We will keep resisting.”
Protesters accuse Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state.
His Justice and Development Party (AKP) has governed Turkey since 2002.
Speaking in Tunis earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged that police had used “excessive force” against activists at the original sit-in. But he said that a small group was now manipulating what had started as an environmental protest.
“Among the protesters there are extremists, some of them implicated in terrorism,” he told reporters.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also defended the urban development plan for Gezi Park.
Turkey’s stock market dropped nearly 5% after his remarks.
Amid growing international concern at the unrest, the US has urged Turkish officials to refrain from “unhelpful rhetoric” and France has condemned the heavy-handed police response.
Four people, including a police officer, are reported to have died since the protests began, with thousands more hurt and hundreds arrested.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler has said that more than 500 police officers are among the injured.
The protests come as Turkey prepares to host an international conference focused on its relations with the EU on Friday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to make the opening speech at the event.
Negotiations with the EU have stalled in recent years amid concerns over Turkey’s freedom of speech, treatment of religious minorities, women’s and children’s rights, civilian control of the military and long-running tensions over Cyprus.
Lynne Rosen and John Littig, a couple who hosted a radio show called The Pursuit of Happiness, took their own lives by asphyxiation, US authorities say.
John Littig, 47, and Lynne Rosen, 45, were found in their New York home on Wednesday.
They both left notes. John Littig said they wanted to die together and Lynne Rosen apologized to her family, police said.
Radio station WBAI tweeted: “RIP Lynne Rosen + John Littig. Partners on the air and in life.”
The station aired Lynne Rosen’s monthly radio show The Pursuit of Happiness, on which John Littig would regularly appear.
The couple were partners in a self-help venture called Why Not Now, their website says.
Lynne Rosen and John Littig, who hosted radio show The Pursuit of Happiness, took their own lives by asphyxiation
It says Lynne Rosen was a life coach, speaker and consultant, while John Littig was described as a motivational speaker, workshop facilitator and life coach.
It is not clear why the couple, who were known for giving advice and life lessons, decided to kill themselves.
In one YouTube clip, they can be seen discussing a quote attributed to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
“People get scared to make changes and step outside of that comfort zone, right, John?” Lynne Rosen says.
John Littig responds: “Stepping outside your comfort zone is very important. Or alternatively, you can start to get comfortable with change.”
North Korea has announced it will restore the key hotline with South Korea at Kaesong Industrial Complex, as the two countries discuss where to hold talks on the jointly-run industrial zone.
Pyongyang said it would reopen a Red Cross hotline which it cut in March.
It also invited officials to come to Kaesong for talks on Sunday on restarting operations at the factory zone, after the two sides agreed in principle to talks on Thursday.
Work at Kaesong has been halted since April, amid high regional tensions.
Ties between the two Koreas deteriorated earlier this year in the wake of the North’s 12 February nuclear test.
North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are expected to be on the table when the US and Chinese presidents meet in California later on Friday for an informal summit.
The Kaesong factory complex is seen as a symbol of North-South co-operation. Around 53,000 North Korean workers are employed there 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.
North Korea has announced it will restore the key hotline with South Korea at Kaesong Industrial Complex
However, Pyongyang withdrew its workers in April, apparently angered by tightened UN sanctions in the wake of its nuclear test and annual South Korea-US military drills.
It had already cut a military hotline with South Korea, and another line used to communicate with the UN Command at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas, in addition to the Red Cross hotline.
On Thursday, however, it offered talks with the South on the resumption of operations and said it would reconnect the Red Cross hotline if Seoul – which had been seeking such talks – agreed.
Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said the Red Cross link would be restored from 14:00 local time, AFP news agency said.
The two sides are still working out details of the talks on the industrial zone. The South suggested ministerial-level talks in Seoul on Wednesday, but North Korea has asked for lower-level talks on Sunday in Kaesong, which is located just inside North Korea.
In a statement, Pyongyang said that working-level talks were needed first, “in the light of the prevailing situation in which the bilateral relations have been stalemated for years and mistrust has reached the extremity”.
Kaesong Industrial Complex:
Launched in 2003, largely financed by the South to increase co-operation
More than 120 factories employ North Koreans in manufacturing industries, with goods exported to the South
Complex as a whole produced $470 million worth of goods in 2012 – the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade
South Korean companies pay more than $80 million a year in wages to North Korean workers
James Clapper, director of US National Intelligence, has strongly defended government surveillance programmes after revelations of phone records being collected and internet servers being tapped.
Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper said disclosure of a secret court document on phone record collection threatened “irreversible harm”.
Revelations of an alleged programme to tap into servers of nine internet firms were “reprehensible”, he said.
Internet firms deny giving government agents access to their servers.
The director of US national intelligence issued a strong-worded statement late on Thursday, after the UK’s Guardian newspapersaid a secret court order had required phone company Verizon to hand over its records to the National Security Agency (NSA) on an “ongoing daily basis”.
That report was followed by revelations in both the Washington Post and Guardian that US agencies tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms to track people in a programme known as Prism.
The reports about Prism will raise fresh questions about how far the US government should encroach on citizens’ privacy in the interests of national security.
The NSA confirmed that it had been secretly collecting millions of phone records. But James R. Clapper said the “unauthorized disclosure… threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation”.
The article omitted “key information” about the use of the records “to prevent terrorist attacks and the numerous safeguards that protect privacy and civil liberties”.
He said reports about Prism contained “numerous inaccuracies”. While admitting the government collected communications from internet firms, he said the policy only targets “non-US persons”.
Prism was reportedly developed in 2007 out of a programme of domestic surveillance without warrants that was set up by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.
Prism reportedly does not collect user data, but is able to pull out material that matches a set of search terms.
James Clapper, director of US National Intelligence, has strongly defended government surveillance programmes after revelations of phone records being collected and internet servers being tapped
James Clapper said the communications-collection programme was “designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-US persons located outside the United States”.
“It cannot be used to intentionally target any US citizen, any other US person, or anyone located within the United States,” he added.
James Clapper said the programme, under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was recently reauthorized by Congress after hearings and debate.
“Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats,” he added.
But while US citizens were not intended to be the targets of surveillance, the Washington Post says large quantities of content from Americans are nevertheless screened in order to track or learn more about the target.
The data gathered through Prism has grown to become a major contributor to the president’s daily briefing and accounts for almost one in seven intelligence reports, it adds.
The Washington Post named the nine companies participating in the programme as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple.
Microsoft said in a statement that it only turned over customer data when given a legally binding order, and only complied with orders for specific accounts.
“If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it,” Microsoft said.
Meanwhile, Yahoo, Apple and Facebook said they did not give the government direct access to their servers.
In a statement, Google said: “Google does not have a <<back door>> for the government to access private user data.”
On Wednesday, it emerged that the NSA was collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans, after the Guardian published a secret order for the Verizon phone company to hand over its records.
A senior congressman, House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, told reporters that collecting Americans’ phone records was legal, authorized by Congress and had not been abused by the Obama administration.
He also said it had prevented a “significant” attack on the US “within the past few years”, but declined to offer more information.
The order requires Verizon – one of the largest phone companies in the US – to disclose to the NSA the metadata of all calls it processes, both domestic and international, in which at least one party is in the US.
Such metadata includes telephone numbers, calling card numbers, the serial numbers of phones used and the time and duration of calls. It does not include the content of a call or the callers’ addresses or financial information.
According to a fossil study, a Neanderthal living 120,000 years ago had a cancer that is common today.
A fossilized Neanderthal rib found in a shallow cave at Krapina, Croatia, shows signs of a bone tumor.
The discovery is the oldest evidence yet of a tumor in the human fossil record, say US scientists.
The research, published in the journal PLOS One, gives clues to the complex history of cancer in humans.
A fossilized Neanderthal rib found in a shallow cave at Krapina, Croatia, shows signs of a bone tumor
Until now, the earliest known bone cancers have been identified in ancient Egyptian remains from about 1,000-4,000 years ago.
“It’s the oldest tumor found in the human fossil record,” said Dr. David Frayer, the University of Kansas anthropologist who led the US team.
“It shows that living in a relatively unpolluted environment doesn’t necessarily protect you against cancer, even if you were a Neanderthal living 120,000 years ago.”
The fossil was uncovered from an important archaeological site that has yielded almost 900 ancient human bones, along with stone tools.
The cancerous rib is an incomplete specimen, so the overall health impact of the tumor on the individual cannot be established.
The tumor was diagnosed by a medical radiologist from X-rays and CT scans.
Although efforts to extract ancient DNA from the Neanderthal fossil have proved unsuccessful, the researchers hope other fossils may shed light on cancer in prehistoric humans.
Actress Esther Williams has died in Los Angeles aged 91.
The swimming champion-turned-movie star’s spokesman said Esther Williams died peacefully in her sleep. She had been in declining health due to old age.
A national swimming champion by the time she was 16, Esther Williams’ success led to a career in Hollywood “aqua-musicals” designed just for her, in the 1940s.
She became known as Hollywood’s Mermaid, starring in films including Dangerous When Wet and Easy to Wed.
Esther Williams became one of cinema’s biggest box-office stars in the 1940s and 1950s, famously appearing in spectacular swimsuits that capitalized on her physical beauty.
Her films were typically lavish song-and-dance affairs, following the same formula of romance, music and comedy – held together by a lightweight plot that provided infinite excuses for the actress to get into the water.
Esther Williams has died in Los Angeles aged 91
Finales usually featured Esther Williams diving into a pool or lagoon and surfacing to a crescendo of music, with water glistening on her beaming face.
Her string of successful films included Thrill of a Romance, Fiesta, On an Island With You and Duchess of Idaho.
Co-stars included Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban and Howard Keel.
“I look at that girl and I like her,” Esther Williams said on watching her films decades later, Reuters reports.
“I can see why she became popular with audiences. There was an unassuming quality about her. She was certainly wholesome,” she said.
In the 1950s she attempted to branch out into non-swimming roles, but met with little success.
“I guess what MGM found was that my audience wanted that bathing suit,” Esther Williams said, when her autobiography was released in 1999.
“And you know, when Cinemascope came in and you’ve got that water all wrapped around you and they’d do big close-ups of me… I think it had too much pleasure connected with it for them to change it.”
Esther Williams retired from the movies in 1962, following her marriage to her third husband, Hollywood playboy Fernando Lamas.
In her later years Esther Williams hosted swimming events for ABC-TV’s coverage of the 1984 Olympic Games and turned her attention to business, launching her own line of swimwear.
Esther Williams was married to Fernando Lamas for 20 years until his death in 1982. She and her last husband Edward Bell lived in Los Angeles’ Beverly Hills.
Her autobiography also told of many romances, including one with actor Jeff Chandler.
According to Esther Williams, she discovered he was a cross-dresser and walked out, explaining: “Jeff, you’re too big for polka dots.”
Several of Jeff Chandler’s colleagues denied Esther Williams’ claims when the book was published.
Prince Philip has been admitted to hospital for an exploratory operation, Buckingham Palace has said.
The Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to the London Clinic “following abdominal investigations” and is expected to stay in the hospital for up to two weeks.
The operation will take place on Friday under general anaesthetic. It is a planned, not an emergency, admittance.
Prince Philip, who will be 92 on 10 June, pulled out of an official engagement earlier this week.
In the past week, the duke has been having unannounced “abdominal investigations” at the hospital in central London, said BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt.
The Palace said in a statement that “further updates will be issued when appropriate”.
On Monday, Prince Philip pulled out of an engagement for the Royal National Institute of Blind People after becoming unwell ahead of last week’s service marking 60 years since the Queen’s coronation.
Prince Philip attended the service at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday and was present at a garden party attended by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Thursday afternoon.
Guests said he gave no signs of being unwell.
Prince Philip was driven to the clinic after the party and walked in unaided.
Prince Philip has been admitted to hospital for an exploratory operation
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “He is in very good health.”
She added: “He felt unwell on Monday and missed an engagement, but that was down to the fact he had temporarily lost his voice.”
A Palace spokesman at the London Clinic described the Duke of Edinburgh as being in good spirits.
The spokesman stressed it was not an emergency admission and the decision was taken by the duke’s doctors to carry out the exploratory operation after investigations and tests last week.
Police officers were standing guard outside the hospital ahead of Philip’s operation.
In April, Buckingham Palace played down fears about the Duke of Edinburgh’s health after he was pictured with purplish skin round his eye in Canada. It said he did not fall and simply woke up with the discoloration.
Prince Philip, 91, has been admitted to hospital three other times in the past two years after suffering health scares.
In August 2012, he was treated at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for a bladder infection.
The Duke of Edinburgh spent four days in hospital over Christmas 2011, following an operation to clear a blocked heart artery.
After attending events to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June, he was admitted to hospital for five nights missing several days of festivities after sustaining a bladder infection.
Writing on Twitter, PM David Cameron said: “My best wishes to the Duke of Edinburgh who is in hospital tonight. I hope he has a swift recovery.”
On Friday, Prince Philip was due to accompany the Queen when she officially opens the BBC’s New Broadcasting House building in central London. The Queen will now undertake the visit alone.
Prince Philip was at the Queen’s side at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday for the coronation service and on Wednesday toured a Victorian steamship, the SS Robin, in London’s East End.
Ahead of the garden party, Queen Elizabeth II invested her husband with New Zealand’s highest honor to mark the Diamond Jubilee making him an additional member of the Order of New Zealand.
The Duke of Edinburgh would miss the Trooping the Colour parade on June 15, marking the Queen’s official birthday.
Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila Putina have announced their marriage is over.
The Russian president and his wife, who had been married for 30 years, made their divorce public on Russian state television after attending a ballet performance.
“It was a joint decision: we hardly see each other, each of us has our own life”, Vladimir Putin said.
Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putina had rarely been seen in public in recent months, prompting much speculation in Russian media.
She is known to dislike publicity, and told the TV reporter that flying was difficult for her.
The divorce was “civilized” and the couple would “always remain close”, she said.
“I am very grateful to Vladimir… that he still supports me. And the children, he really cares for them and the children feel this,” Lyudmila Putina added.
Vladimir Putin confirmed on TV that the two were no longer living together.
Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila Putina have announced their marriage is over
Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Shkrebneva were married in 1983. They have two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina, both in their 20s.
“Our children have grown up; they have their own lives,” Lyudmila Putina added.
She and Vladimir Putin were last seen together at his inauguration for his third term as president on 7 May 2012.
Neither clarified whether or not their marriage had been legally dissolved.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: “They separated a long time ago. I don’t know if the divorce has been formalized but I can confirm that we are talking about a civilized divorce.”
The announcement came after the couple had gone to see the ballet Esmeralda at the Kremlin Palace – they left after the first act.
Thursday’s announcement confirms what had been rumored for years, that the Putins were having marital problems.
But the news has still come as a shock to many Russians, who are not used to their leaders getting divorced.
The Putins’ marriage has been the subject of speculation before.
In 2008, Vladimir Putin denied rumors that he had secretly divorced and was planning to remarry former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva.
Thousands of anti-government protesters are gathering in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, ahead of the return of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from a North African tour.
Protesters are calling for Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s resignation, correspondents in the square say.
Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to press ahead with controversial plans to redevelop a park in Istanbul.
A local environmental protest against the proposal spiraled into nationwide political unrest seven days ago.
The original sit-in at Gezi Park mushroomed after police cracked down on activists defending the green space near Istanbul’s Taksim Square from developers.
For days, demonstrators in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities have been calling for the three-term prime minister to quit.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to return from Tunisia on Thursday evening after a four-day visit to North Africa.
Speaking in Tunis earlier, he acknowledged that police had used “excessive force” against activists at the original sit-in. But he said that a small group was now manipulating what had started as an environmental protest.
“Among the protesters, there are extremists, some of them implicated in terrorism,” he told reporters.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also defended the urban development plan for Gezi Park.
“The project respects [Turkey’s] history, culture and environment,” he said.
“What we are doing is to protect the rights of the majority and to preserve the beauty of Istanbul.”
Thousands of anti-government protesters are gathering in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, ahead of the return of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan from a North African tour
The economic response to the remarks was swift, with the stock market dropping nearly 5% after the prime minister’s announcement.
Since the protests erupted, four people including a police officer are reported to have died, thousands have been injured and hundreds arrested in the unrest.
Among those detained were seven foreigners from France, Germany, Greece, Iran and the US, Turkey confirmed on Thursday.
Protesters accuse Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government of becoming increasingly authoritarian and trying to impose conservative Islamic values on a secular state.
His ruling Justice and Development Party has governed Turkey since 2002, winning a series of election victories.
Earlier this week, Deputy PM Bulent Arinc apologized for police violence in the original protest at Gezi Park.
He also met representatives from a protest group calling itself the Taksim Solidarity Platform (TSP).
The collective presented a list of demands, which included the dismissal of police chiefs, a ban on the use of tear gas, the release of detained protesters, the sacking of Istanbul’s governor, and the scrapping of the plans for the redevelopment of Gezi Park.
Opponents of the plan say the park is one of the few green areas left in central Istanbul.
But Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said the project would go ahead, and that the historic Ottoman-era military barracks would be rebuilt on the site as planned.
The protests come as Turkey prepares to host an international conference focused on its relations with the EU on Friday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to make the opening speech at the event, which will be attended by the EU’s Commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Rule, British ex-foreign minister Jack Straw and representatives from other member states.
France earlier condemned Turkey’s heavy-handed police response to the protests.
Negotiations with the EU have stalled in recent years because of concerns over freedom of speech, treatment of religious minorities, women’s and children’s rights, civilian control of the military and long-running tensions with Cyprus.
According to Israeli military sources, the Syrian army has taken control of an UN-monitored crossing in the Golan Heights that had been overrun by rebel forces.
Tanks and armored vehicles were used in the fighting at Quneitra, near Israeli-held territory.
Austria has said it will withdraw its peacekeepers from the Golan Heights because of the fighting.
It comes a day after Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants retook the key town of Qusair.
The involvement of Hezbollah and the upsurge of fighting near the ceasefire line with Israel in the Golan have both raised fears that the conflict could spread across Syria’s borders.
Rebels seized the crossing near the town of Quneitra earlier on Thursday, with explosions and heavy shelling rocking the area.
But an Israeli military source said Syrian government forces retook the symbolically significant position hours later, and that it was now relatively quiet in the area.
Two UN peacekeepers were wounded as fighting raged around the crossing and Quneitra.
Austria said it would withdraw its soldiers because the threat had “reached an unacceptable level”.
Austrian troops make up more than a third of the more than 900-strong UN force monitoring the demilitarized zone and Quneitra – the only open crossing between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Israel expressed regret at Austria’s decision, and said it hoped it would not lead to “further escalation” in the region.
The UN said the withdrawal of Austrian troops would affect the mission’s operational capacity and it would look for replacements.
Syrian army has taken control of an UN-monitored crossing in the Golan Heights that had been overrun by rebel forces
Croatia, Canada and Japan had already withdrawn their contingents in the Golan because of the conflict in Syria.
Syria’s deployment of tanks in the demilitarized zone violates ceasefire agreements in place since the Arab-Israeli war of 1973.
Israel captured part of the plateau in 1967 and later annexed it in a move that has never been internationally recognized.
Israeli officials have voiced fears the civil war in Syria could spill over their borders. They are worried the Golan Heights could be used to launch attacks against Israel – either by Islamist extremists fighting for the rebels, or by Hezbollah militants fighting on the government side.
Hezbollah’s growing role in the conflict was highlighted by its involvement in the battle for Qusair, which government forces recaptured on Wednesday after a bitter siege.
Hezbollah is a political and military organization in Lebanon made up mainly of Shia Muslims.
It emerged with backing from Iran in the early 1980s when it fought Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and has always been a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Its involvement in Syria has heightened sectarian tensions across the region, and the US has called for it to withdraw.
Late on Wednesday several rockets landed in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek inside Lebanon – after rebel threats to strike at Hezbollah on its home turf.
Qusair lies only 6 miles from the Lebanese border and is close to important supply routes for both the government and rebels.
As the battle for Qusair raged, fighting was continuing in most other parts of Syria, especially around the capital Damascus, where regime forces are trying to push the rebels back from the suburbs.
More than 80,000 people have been killed in Syria and more than 1.5 million have fled the country since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, according to UN estimates.
International efforts to resolve Syria’s conflict continue, but the US and Russia have failed to set a date for proposed peace talks.
Meanwhile France has said that growing proof of chemical weapons use in Syria “obliges the international community to act”.
However, President Francois Hollande cautioned: “We can only act within the framework of international law.”
Bruce and Kris Jenner have been the source of constant speculation due their unusual living arrangements.
But Khloe Kardashian insisted her mother Kris’ relationship with husband Bruce Jenner is doing just fine despite the fact they live in separate houses.
In fact Khloe Kardadshian told Tonight Show host Jay Leno the arrangement is just a more extreme version of the “manroom” her NBA star husband Lamar Odom has in their home.
When Jay Leno asked if their relationship is in trouble Khloe Kardashian replied: “Well they’re not having problems but they still like to live apart, which is definitely different.
“You know Bruce and my mom, they wanted some… I, like in my house, there is a manroom for Lamar. A room not a different house.
“So I think they took my idea and ran with it and they got another house, and Bruce stays there sometimes.”
But Khloe Kardashian admits she does not approve of their unconventional living arrangements, saying: “I’m not for that.
“It’s in the same state, a different city. I’m not for that, but you know, to each their own. I don’t compare relationships
“I just think a little too much time apart maybe isn’t the best thing.”
Khloe Kardashian insisted her mother Kris’ relationship with husband Bruce Jenner is doing just fine despite the fact they live in separate houses
In an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians on Sunday, Kris Jenner suggested she and Bruce take a break, encouraging him to spend time in a “man cave” where he’s out of sight and out of mind.
Worryingly, Bruce Jenner seemed excited by the idea of some timeout from Kris, naturally making their children worried.
However, clearly distance makes the heart grow fonder in their case as Kris seen later in the episode asking Bruce Jenner to move back in.
Khloe Kardashian added to Leno that the pair are insistent it is an arrangement that works for them.
She said: “They’re like, <<This is us, don’t judge us. We’ve been married 24 years. Blah blah blah>>.
“I’m like, <<I know people that have been married longer that still live together. Like you!>>.”
When asked why Bruce Jenner needs a whole house, Kim Kardashian said: “I have no idea and I don’t want to know.”
Khloe Kardashian, 28, was joined on the show by Kung Fu Panda 2 star Danny McBride and The Wanted.
Bobbi Kristina Brown has reportedly been evicted from her Atlanta home.
Bobbi Kristina Brown, 20, and her on-off boyfriend and “brother” Nick Gordon were said to be the subject of at least ten different noise complaints, leading up to her moving out.
A friend of a neighbor also revealed on Reddit that Bobbi Kristina Brown left an angry note for her neighbors following the supposed eviction.
The friend revealed: “My friend and his family live in the apartment under Bobbi Kristina Brown.”
“After 6 months of complaints, she was finally kicked out. He found this on his door today.”
However, on Wednesday, Bobbi Kristina Brown took to her Twitter account to deny that she had been forced out of her home.
“Awoke2CrazyNeighborStory(:” she wrote, adding: “Ichoose2move(: THEY were the nightmare.”
However, neighbor Joshua Morse seems to disagree, and spoke to 11alive about the note, which included foul language.
Bobbi Kristina Brown reportedly wrote: “Thank You for making a hard year harder. You are a miserable couple and always will be.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown has reportedly been evicted from her Atlanta home
It went on: “You were honored to have us living above you and you couldn’t stand such a young beautiful couple far more successful than you ever will be.”
“I pray your misery doesn’t rub off on your innocent little baby.”
Joshua Morse said he and his wife have filed at least ten different complaints about the noise coming from Bobbi Kristina Brown’s apartment.
He also revealed that Bobbi Kristina Brown has now turned in her keys and left the complex.
Bobbi Kristina Brown leaves angry note for neighbors as it’s claimed she was evicted from Atlanta home
Whitney Houston’s daughter lived in the apartment with Nick Gordon, who she reportedly split with romantically in November last year, after he tweeted: “@REALbkBrown and I are not engaged or dating. Just close like we have always been.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown attempted to defend her romantic relationship with Nick Gordon to her extended family on Lifetime’s The Houstons: On Our Own last year.
“We’re engaged,” she said on the episode as she showed of a ring that was once her mother’s.
“Everyone gets it wrong, I was never officially… it’s not incest.”
Nick Gordon was informally adopted by Whitney Houston when he was 12 years old.
Paris Jackson attempted to take her own life on Wednesday afternoon, but it appears that her cry for help may have started some time ago.
In previously published pictures, the 15-year-old daughter of late singer Michael Jackson was seen six weeks ago with a crop of scars on her forearm – which appear to suggest she has been self-harming.
Paris Jackson has reportedly been on a psychiatric ward for 72 hours after she apparently cut her wrists on Wednesday.
Seen on a lunch date out with her biological mother, Debbie Rowe, at the Fire Island Grill in Palmdale, California, on April 28, rows of scars could clearly be seen on the troubled teenager’s forearm as she raised her arm in a rock sign.
Lines of marks – typically associated with self-harming – can be seen coursing down the teenager’s arm from her wrist and almost reaching her elbow.
In the light of Paris Jackson’s suicide bid, it would appear that the teenager had been in need of support for some weeks in the lead-up to the attempt.
The latest tragic turn her relatively short life is somewhat unsurprising given the personal struggles she has endured over the course of the last few years.
Not only did the teen lose her superstar father prematurely when he passed away in 2009, but she has also had to put up with a great deal of criticism surrounding her recent reconnection with her birth mother.
Paris Jackson began rebuilding her relationship with her mother, who signed custody of her children over to Michael Jackson after her divorce from the singer in 1999, following her father’s tragic passing in 2009.
However, her elder brother Prince, 16, is said to have been less than understanding about Paris Jackson’s desire to reconnect with their absent parent, causing a rift between the siblings.
A source told E! News: “It’s been a very difficult time. Paris has wanted Debbie in her life… She’s a young girl and having a female mother figure has been something she has desired for as long as she can remember, but it has caused problems in the family.
“It has caused some problems between Paris and Prince. It’s a very personal choice for both of them and they do not see eye to eye on it at all. But Paris has believed from the start that it is something that Prince will come around to, that he will change his mind as he gets older.”
The source added that Paris Jackson felt “alone and confused” after Prince refused to “understand her wanting to have a relationship with her mom”.
Paris Jackson’s grandmother Katherine, who is currently guardian of Paris and her two siblings Prince and Blanket, is also said to have been unsure about the relationship being rebuilt but “understands that this is what Paris needs and she would not want to stand in her way”.
In fact, the teenager’s relationship with the Jackson family is believed to have become so strained that it was recently claimed she will walk away from her relatives and “never return” as soon as she turns 16.
Mark Lester, who is godfather to all three of Michael Jackson’s children, recently told Grazia magazine: “I’m sure when Paris hits 16 she will take herself out of that Jackson clan, walk out of that door and never turn back. She will never go back. I’m glad she’s got Debbie Rowe in her life.
“It appears to be the case that each family member has a different agenda. You’ve got all the brothers and sisters taking an interest in their lives now. I think it’s inevitable when they reach 16, or when Katherine dies, that they will say to the rest of the family, <<Back off, it’s my life>>.
“It must be hard for Katherine, being an 83-year-old having teenage kids running around. It must be very difficult for her stepping in as a mother when she was always granny, which brings us back to Debbie Rowe. I think it’s a good thing she’s coming back on the scene, perfect timing.”
Paris Jackson was seen six weeks ago with a crop of scars on her forearm
A source close to the teenager said that Paris wanted to be free of her family guardians after suffering from depression “for some time” and felt “unsolved” following the death of her father in June four years ago.
It has been revealed that being surrounded by various members of her family and their entourage had made the teenager feel “alone” adding that she “misses her father every day”.
Paris Jackson even asked for “emancipation” from her family at one point, according to the US columnist Roger Friedman, who has strong sources close to the Jackson family.
The court action would have given Paris Jackson control over her own life before legally becoming an adult at 18.
Roger Friedman also alleged that Debbie Rowe, 54, Paris Jackson’s mother and ex-wife of Michael Jackson, could seek legal custody of her daughter removing her from the Jackson family compound in Calabasas.
A family insider is quoted as saying: “She’s a handful for the Jacksons. They don’t know what to do. Paris suffers from depression. She’s lonely, she thinks no one loves her or is listening to her. She doesn’t want to be controlled or told what to do.”
According to reports, Paris Jackson “didn’t want to die” when she reportedly attempted to take her own life on Wednesday.
The LA County Sheriff’s Department will have to class the call as a suicide bid due to Paris Jackson apparently cutting her wrists and taking a drugs overdose, sources toldTMZ.com that Paris’ contact with a suicide helpline is an indication that the incident was in fact a cry for help.
A law enforcement source told the website: “She wanted attention, she wanted to be saved. It makes no sense if you really want to die to call a hotline, where the person on the other end will get an ambulance over to your house.”
While another family source has claimed toFox that it was ‘not the first time’ Paris had attempted to take her own life.
Paris Jackson’s paternal grandmother Katherine, 83, currently shares guardianship of her and her brothers Prince Michael, 16, and Blanket, 10, with TJ Jackson, the son of Michael’s brother, Tito.
On Thursday, Prince Michael canceled an appearance on German television, following his sister’s troubles.
He was scheduled to make a guest appearance on the ZDF show Wetten, dass …? (Wanna Bet?).
“Under these circumstances, we perfectly understand that Prince Michael prefers to stay close to his family,” ZDF’s Silke Blömer told People.
“We wish Paris the strength and the power to recover soon.”
Meanwhile, the producer of what is set to be Paris Jackson’s acting debut has said she “will be ready” to start filming soon.
Author Dennis Christen is producing the film Lundon’s Bridge and the Three Keys based on his own novel.
He told UsWeekly: “Paris will do a delightful job in her role… She’s been concentrating on developing her acting skills and is becoming a very proficient actor.”
The website also reports that Paris Jackson was conscious and aware when the ambulance arrived, and put up no struggle when the emergency technicians placed her on a stretcher and took her to the hospital.
Following the reported suicide bid, Paris Jackson’s family released a statement saying the teenager is ‘safe and doing fine’ and is recovering in a Los Angeles hospital.
The statement, released by Katherine Jackson’s lawyer Perry Sander, did not refer to the nature of Paris’ emergency, but said Michael Jackson’s daughter is getting the “appropriate medical attention”.
It read: “Being a sensitive 15-year-old is difficult no matter who you are. It is especially difficult when you lose the person closest to you her father. Paris is physically fine and is getting appropriate medical attention. Please respect her privacy and the family’s privacy.
“Thank you for the outpouring of concern and support for Paris. She is safe and doing fine. We truly appreciate you respecting our family’s privacy at this time.”
Paris Jackson’s mother Debbie Rowe, who was pictured speaking to police on Wednesday outside her Palmdale ranch in California, also released her own statement, which read: “We appreciate everyone’s thoughts for Paris at this time and their respect for the family’s privacy.”
She also reportedly told police that Paris Jackson has had “a lot going on lately”.
The FBI and Microsoft have broken up Citadel botnet, a huge network of hijacked home computers responsible for stealing more than $500 million from bank accounts.
The Citadel network had remotely installed a keylogging program on about five million machines to steal data.
About 1,000 of the 1,400 or so networks that made up the Citadel botnet are believed to have been shut down.
Co-ordinated action in 80 countries by police forces, tech firms and banking bodies helped to disrupt the network.
“The bad guys will feel the punch in the gut,” Richard Boscovich, a spokesman for Microsoft’s digital crimes unit said.
The cybercriminals behind Citadel cashed in by using login and password details for online bank accounts stolen from compromised computers.
This method was used to steal cash from a huge number of banks including American Express, Bank of America, PayPal, HSBC, Royal Bank of Canada and Wells Fargo.
Citadel emerged after core computer code for a widely used cybercrime kit, called Zeus, was released online.
FBI and Microsoft have broken up Citadel botnet
Underground coders banded together to turn that code into a separate cybercrime toolkit that quickly proved popular with many malicious hackers.
In a blogpost detailing its action, Microsoft said Citadel had also grown because malicious code that could take over a PC had been bundled in with pirated versions of Windows.
The millions of PCs in the criminal network were spread around the globe, but were most heavily concentrated in North America, Western Europe, Hong Kong, India and Australia.
Despite the widespread action, which involved seizures of servers that co-ordinated the running of Citadel, the identity of the botnet’s main controller is unknown.
However, Microsoft has started a “John Doe” lawsuit against the anonymous controller, believing him to use the nickname Aquabox and be based in Eastern Europe.
In addition, the FBI is working with Europol and police forces in many other countries to track down and identify the 81 “lieutenants” that helped Aquabox keep Citadel running.
Microsoft has also started action to help people clean up an infected computer.
Typically, it said, machines compromised by Citadel were blocked from getting security updates to ensure those computers stayed part of the botnet.
With the network disrupted, machines should be free to get updates and purge the Citadel malware from their system.
The International Monetary Fund has admitted that it made mistakes in handling Greece’s first international bailout.
The IMF said it was too optimistic in its growth assumptions and said a debt restructuring should have been considered earlier.
Greece was granted a 110 billion euro ($145 billion) bailout by the IMF and EU in May 2010.
Another 130 billion euro rescue package was approved in February 2012.
Greece’s first bailout came amid fears the country would default on its debts and that it could spark debt contagion in the eurozone.
The IMF has now released a study looking at the handling of the programme.
It admitted that it bent its own rules on exceptional access for the programme to go ahead.
To justify exceptional access, one of the four criteria that must be met is that public debt is sustainable in the medium term.
But the IMF said: “Even with implementation of agreed policies, uncertainties were so significant that staff were unable to vouch that public debt was sustainable with high probability.”
But staff wanted to go ahead with exceptional access because of fears that any spillovers from Greece would threaten the rest of the eurozone and the global economy.
The IMF then amended the criterion to where debt was not sustainable with high probability, “a high risk of international spillover effects provided an alternative justification”.
The IMF has admitted that it made mistakes in handling Greece’s first international bailout
The IMF described the programme, which ran from May 2010 to March 2012, as a “holding operation” that gave the euro area “time to build a firewall to protect other vulnerable members and averted potentially severe effects on the global economy”.
It said it had notable successes such as achieving strong fiscal consolidation, Greece remaining in the eurozone and any spillovers that might have had a severe impact on the global economy were relatively well-contained.
But it also said there were notable failures, chiefly market confidence was not restored, the banking system lost 30% of its deposits and the Greek economy experienced a much deeper-than-expected recession.
Greece’s economic output (GDP) in 2012 was 17% lower than in 2009, compared with the IMF and EU’s initial projection of a 5.5% decline. The original growth projections were not marked down until the fifth review in December 2011.
The unemployment rate in 2012 was 25%, compared with the original programme projection of 15%.
The IMF added that in future Fund staff should be more skeptical about official data.
The Fund also criticized the delay in restructuring Greece’s massive debt load by forcing private holders of Greek bonds to take losses, which eventually took place in the first half of 2012.
“Not tackling the public debt problem decisively at the outset or early in the programme created uncertainty about the euro area’s capacity to resolve the crisis and likely aggravated the contraction in output,” the report said.
It said an upfront debt restructuring would have been better for Greece but this was “not acceptable to the euro partners”, some of whose banks held large amounts of Greek government debt.
The report also said there was no clear division of labor between the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank, the so-called “troika”.
It said that while there were “occasional marked differences of view” within the troika, these were generally not on display to the authorities so did not risk slowing negotiations, and noted that “co-ordination seems to have been quite good under the circumstances”.
Sophie Jastrow, Paris Jackson’s best friend, has spoken of her shock following Michael Jackson’s daughter’s apparent suicide bid – revealing she was left “shaking” after hearing the news.
Sophie Jastrow made her comments as it became clear that Paris Jackson, 15, had been under immense strain recently after being forced to defend her newly-forged relationship with her mother Debbie Rowe.
The schoolgirl tweeted: “so f***in sad right now…litdraally (sic) shaking right now…literally i cant even focus.”
Joline Nehoray, another of Paris Jackson’s friends and a fellow student at the private Buckley school in California, added: “So heartbroken. Stay strong.”
Paris Jackson posted pictures of her and Sophie Jastrow together at Debbie Rowe’s California home last month, adding: “Ok so I realized that Sophie became my best friend and i love her so much.”
Writing on her ask.fmsite, Paris added: “So i realized dat some ppl dont like my mom and im getting hateful comments about sayin obviously rude things about my mom and i won’t let that okay?
“I am bonding good with her and like i said we are really strong relationship and nobody’s gonna stop me from that (: x yes Prince still isn’t ready idk why but he will meet her too (: i hope so no hate! xx “
Sophie Jastrow, Paris Jackson’s best friend, has spoken of her shock following Michael Jackson’s daughter’s apparent suicide bid
Paris Jackson had revealed that she was back in touch with her biological mother, writing: “So on my birthday, I hung out with my mom because of course, haven’t seen her since… a long time ago. So glad I bonded with my mother. It’s like we have this really strong relationship and did I mention, I kind of look like her. It was so amazing to see my mother after all these years. Love her.”
But when one critic said her mother was only out to use her, Paris Jackson replied: “Well wtf are u messing in my life?
“Stfu im sick of ppl like u who are saying that! She wasn’t in my life around 15 years but now as i said we became close and i know that she wouldn’t use me cuz im her daughter kay?”
Paris Jackson was taken from her Calabasas family home on a stretcher at around 2am on Wednesday and conveyed to a nearby hospital, according to TMZ.
Scott Miller of the Los Angeles County Fire Department tells People Magazine that paramedics responded to a 911 call at 1.27 a.m. “regarding a possible overdose” while TMZ reports a source as saying Paris Jackson had cut herself multiple times on one of her wrists.
Insiders told Entertainment Tonight Paris Jackson was upset because she was not allowed to go to a Marilyn Manson concert in Los Angeles on Thursday.
The incident unfolded just hours after the teenager posted a series of alarming messages on Twitter.
Around midnight she recited the sorrowful Beatles’song Yesterday to her million plus followers, writing: “Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away, now it looks as though they’re here to stay.”
An hour previously, Paris Jackson posted: “I wonder why tears are salty.”
The 911 call came in at 1.27 am local time, according to TMZ and the website reports Paris Jackson is now “doing ok”.
New reports claim Paris Jackson was “overwhelmed” with teenage turmoil before her attempted suicide just weeks before the fourth anniversary of her father’s death.
Paris Jackson, 15, cut her wrists and took a d**g overdose, according to reports.
The teenager had become “overwhelmed” with sadness over the loss of her superstar father, said a friend of the Jackson family.
Paris Jackson is also in the middle of doing her exams at school and is anxious over her looming appearance in court in Los Angeles where she is due to testify in a trial connected with Michael Jackson’s fatal overdose on June 25, 2009.
In addition, sources said the teenager was upset at not being allowed to go to a concert by goth rocker Marilyn Manson tonight.
She “threw a fit” after being told she couldn’t attend the concert on a school night and reportedly ran into her room screaming and slammed the door.
Paris Jackson is going through a difficult time and has had “a lot going on lately”, her mother Debbie Rowe, who was pictured speaking to police on Wednesday outside her Palmdale ranch in California.
The teen has posted a series of dark messages on Twitter over recent months.
New reports claim Paris Jackson was “overwhelmed” with teenage turmoil before her attempted suicide
In May Paris Jackson saluted Goth rocker Marylin Manson on her Twitter page, writing: “Hey evil world,” while in another from that month she refers to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994, as “Jesus”.
In another angst-ridden tweet in February Paris Jackson hinted at heartache over a failed relationship, exclaiming: “Here’s to teenage romances and never knowing why they hurt like hell.”
Perry Sanders, a lawyer for Katherine Jackson, the teen’s grandmother added: “Being a sensitive 15-year-old is difficult no matter who you are. It is especially difficult when you lose the person closest to you.”
But he continued: “Paris is physically fine and is getting appropriate medical attention.”
The drama unfolded just hours after the teenager posted a series of alarming messages on Twitter.
At around midnight on Tuesday, Paris Jackson recited the sorrowful Beatles song Yesterday to her million plus followers, writing: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it looks as though they’re here to stay.”
An hour previously, she posted: “I wonder why tears are salty.”
The backdrop to her Twitter page shows Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, painted while the artist was in a mental asylum in Saint-Remy, France.
Scott Miller of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said an emergency call was made from the Jackson family compound in Calabasas, California, at 1.27 a.m. on Wednesday “regarding a possible overdose”.
Paris Jackson was taken out of the house on a stretcher at 2 a.m. and rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
According to TMZ, a source connected to the emergency response said there were multiple cuts on one of the victim’s wrists.
“She’s okay,” a source told the New York Daily News, scoffing at the idea that the teen would resort to suicide over missing a concert.
“She’s very outgoing and has been spending time lately with Debbie and the animals. This is more just a kid acting out.”
Katherine Jackson, 83, and other family members were at Paris’s hospital bedside yesterday. Her life was not thought to be in any danger.
Michael Jackson, who died in June 2009 from a lethal dose of surgical anaesthetic propofol, was married to Debbie Rowe from 1996 to 1999.
Bruce Jenner turned an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night into a point scoring exercise.
Bruce Jenner, 63, was meant to be promoting the eight season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon but what started out as jokes about their feud – and did get a lot of laughs from the talk show host – turned into an awkward interview long discussion of Bruce’s grievances.
Despite claiming: “I am from the Kardashian group. We can take anything” as the sportsman made jokes his anger was obvious.
The beef between the reality star and Jimmy Fallon started last year during the Olympics.
Jimmy Fallon had been making jokes about Bruce Jenner’s plastic surgery – the star has gone under the knife a number of times including on Keeping Up With The Kardashians – and when the pair ran into each other after a London event, reportedly Bruce demanded the host ‘stop saying s-t’ about his appearance.
But Bruce Jenner has not buried the hatchet it seems.
Bruce Jenner turned an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night into a point scoring exercise
He started the segment by complaining comedians just use bad pictures of him – before showing “bad” pictures of Jimmy Fallon.
“I’m not trying to hide anything here,” Bruce Jenner told the host, saying he could take a joke.
“I had it done on camera in our show.”
But the Olympian made sure Jimmy Fallon knew he had some muscle behind him.
“I can take it but Kanye [West] is really pissed,” Kim Kardashian’s step father said whispering into the host’s ear.
“My good friend, Kanye, and you don’t want to go there.”
Not content to just threaten the funny man with the wrath of Kanye West, Bruce Jenner also tried to insult Jimmy Fallon’s appearance.
“You can make all the jokes you want but I can guarantee you, Mr. Fallon, my ass in a pair of running shorts looks a hell of a lot better than your ass.”
“I would agree with you, and I am sincerely sorry,” Jimmy Fallon said after eight minutes of Bruce Jenner’s angry jokes.
At least six people have died and other 14 have been hurt after a building collapsed in the centre of the city of Philadelphia, officials say.
A four-storey building fell down, sending debris on to a building housing a bustling Salvation Army shop.
The collapse happened around 10:30 local time in the Center City neighborhood.
Emergency services frantically used their bare hands to rescue 14 people from the rubble of the Salvation Army shop after it came down on the corner of 22nd and Market at 10.45 a.m – the cause is yet unknown.
The building was being demolished, though the cause of the collapse was unknown, officials said.
Early reports said just one person had died, but rescuers continued working into the night.
Mayor Michael Nutter said the dead included five women and one man.
“If anyone else is in that building, they will find them,” he said.
Apartment building collapses on top of Philadelphia thrift store killing six people
Thirteen people were taken to hospital suffering minor injuries, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said.
Late on Wednesday, a 61-year-old woman was pulled alive from the rubble to become the 14th known survivor.
The four-storey building had both commercial and residential spaces.
Several witnesses said they had been concerned about the way the demolition was being carried out prior to the collapse.
“We’ve been calling it for the past week – it’s going to fall, it’s going to fall,” window washer Dan Gillis told the Associated Press.
Earlier, witnesses said they had heard a loud rumbling sound immediately beforehand.
“I was standing there looking out my window, watching the men at work on the building, and the next thing I know I heard something go kaboom,” Veronica Haynes, who was in an apartment building nearby, said.
“Then you saw the whole side of the wall fall down… on to the other building.”
Bernie Ditomo told a local NBC he was driving on a nearby street when he felt something “like an earthquake”.
“I said, <<What the hell is going on?>>,” Bernie Ditomo said.
“My truck is totalled. I am a little dusty and dirty, but I’m alright. I am one of the lucky ones.”
High school student Jordan McLaughlan said he saw several people on the ground being given oxygen by rescuers after the collapse as the air filled with dust.
Authorities asked news helicopters to clear the air over the scene so rescuers could hear people trapped under the rubble.
“This is delicate, it is dangerous work,” Lloyd Ayers said.
North Korea has proposed official talks with South Korea on normalizing commercial projects, weeks after operations at the joint Kaesong industrial zone were suspended.
In a statement from state news agency KCNA, North Korea said the place and date could be “set by the South side”.
Kaesong Industrial Complex, just inside North Korea, is a key source of revenue for Pyongyang.
But it pulled out its workers in April amid high tensions on the peninsula following its February 12 nuclear test.
Since then operations at the zone, where more than 100 South Korean manufacturers employ some 53,000 North Korea workers, have been halted for the first time since the project began a decade ago.
North Korea said late last month it would invite South Korean businessmen back to discuss the resumption of operations but Seoul ruled that out, saying working-level government talks should be held.
There was no immediate response from South Korea.
Mount Kumgang resort is a joint tourism project that has been suspended since a South Korean tourist was shot dead there by a North Korean guard in 2008
The KCNA statement, attributed to the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, said that hotlines cut during the period of high tension would be reconnected if South Korea agreed to the talks.
“We propose holding talks between authorities of the North and the South for the normalization of the operation in the KIZ [Kaesong Industrial Zone] and the resumption of tour of Mt Kumgang,” it said.
The Mount Kumgang resort is a joint tourism project that has been suspended since a South Korean tourist was shot dead there by a North Korean guard in 2008. North Korea has since seized assets of the resort’s South Korean operator.
Restarting reunions of separated families could also be discussed, the North Korea statement said, adding: “The venue of the talks and the date for their opening can be set to the convenience of the South side.”
While South Korea may want to discuss Kaesong, its government has made it clear in the past that more wide-ranging dialogue should be linked to progress on denuclearization.
The offer comes after several months of threats and rhetoric from the communist North Korea.
Apparently angered by the US sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test and annual South Korea-US military drills, it warned of attacks on regional targets and cut key economic and communications links with Seoul.
In recent weeks, however, tensions appear to have lessened somewhat. Late last month, North Korea sent an envoy to Beijing – seen as having the greatest degree of influence on Pyongyang – for talks, for the first time since its nuclear test.
Just 48 hours before being rushed from her family’s home to a nearby hospital In Los Angeles after a possible suicide attempt, Paris Jackson posted a lengthy video of herself applying makeup.
Sources close to the Jacksons confirm that the 15-year-old was taken by stretcher from the home she shares with her grandmother and two brothers, after family members found her passed out in her room. The 911 call from inside the Jackson residence indicated that it may have been a drug overdose, while sources at the hospital say the young girl had multiple cuts on her wrists. The cuts didn’t appear to be fresh.
Even more disturbing is the suggestion that this wasn’t her first attempt at suicide.
“She’s given the family a scare before,’’ said a close family friend.
“All of Michael’s kids have had a rough time since their dad died, but Paris is the most sensitive of the three. She takes everything to heart, and the last year of family strife hasn’t given her much time to regroup or heal.’’
Both Paris Jackson and her older brother, Prince Michael, are expected to testify in their grandmother Katherine’s ongoing lawsuit against AEG, the concert-promotion giant responsible for Michael Jackson’s last tour. The suit is seeking millions of dollars and alleges the company was also responsible for Michael Jackson’s death from an overdose.
“That has her scared and rightfully so,’’ said the family friend.
“The CEO of AEG has already implied Katherine is a fraud trying to extort money. What will he say about the kids? They are constantly being judged or at least they feel they are.’’
Adding more fuel to Paris Jackson’s emotional angst is the looming four-year anniversary of her beloved father’s death on June 25.
Paris Jackson has been hospitalized with multiple cuts on her wrists
“It’s been nonstop drama for them in a way since Michael died,’’ said the friend.
“They were jolted from one reality to a very different one when he died. They have all this freedom now that I’m not sure they knew how to handle.’’
While their father lived, Paris Jackson and her two brothers were kept far away from Hollywood and the media spotlight.
Michael Jackson often employed masks to hide their true identities and had them homeschooled in an effort to minimize their contact with the outside world. The megastar was often criticized for his child-rearing tactics, but many inside the immediate Jackson family say Michael had very valid reasons for his actions.
“Michael wanted his kids protected and away from the spotlight,’’ said one Jackson family member.
“He didn’t want them ridiculed and judged. He’d had enough of that for a lifetime and didn’t want his children to face that same fate. Unfortunately, a lot of people around those kids have forgotten Michael’s wishes for his children.’’
After Michael Jackson’s death, all three children were immediately transferred into a brand-new world of private schools, interviews with Oprah Winfrey, and social media. Paris Jackson quickly became the queen of Twitter and Facebook, frequently posting personal insights into her thoughts and family happenings. She’s also become quite the style icon after cutting her long hair into a funky bob and regularly sporting her signature smoky eye makeup whenever photographed.
Last year, Paris Jackson famously alerted the world through her tweets that her grandmother and primary guardian Katherine had been taken away from the home they share with her and not heard from for days. Those tweets led to a widespread investigation of Katherine Jackson’s disappearance but also caused a major riff between her aunts and uncles.
Several of Paris Jackson’s aunts and uncles say they removed their elderly mother from her home last summer because they feared Katherine Jackson’s health was being compromised by the stress of Michael’s death and legal woes. The problem was they didn’t bother to inform Michael Jackson’s children of their plan and that resulted in several of those aunts and uncles being barred from their mother’s home per a court order.
“Paris wouldn’t be on Twitter or Facebook if Michael was alive,’’ said a family member.
“He’d talk to her to see what was wrong, but he wouldn’t allow her to tell the world anything. That only opens the door to more problems. But Katherine is in her 80s and really just wants the kids to be happy, so she lets them do what all other kids are doing. Problem is, they aren’t like other kids.’’
While she has more than a million followers on Twitter, Paris Jackson is often met with mean-spirited messages that attack her looks and famous father.
“Janet and others wanted her to get off Twitter for that reason alone,’’ said one family member.
“Why invite people to come into your life and insult you when you already have so much against you? But Paris wants to be like any other teenage girl.’’
Paris Jackson’s last tweet on Tuesday posted a lyric from Beatles’ Yesterday : “Yesterday all my troubles seem so far away now it looks though they are here to stay.’’
The image of a woman in a red cotton summer dress with a white bag slung over her shoulder and a masked policeman firing noxious tear gas spray that sends her curly hair billowing upwards has become the symbol of the Turkish.
Endlessly shared on social media and recreated as artwork on posters and stickers, the image of the woman in red has become the leitmotif for female protesters during days of violent anti-government riots in Istanbul.
It has thrust Turkish academic Ceyda Sungar into the limelight but she says her experience is typical of people in her country who fight for their rights.
Ceyda Sungar, an academic in city planning at Istanbul Technical University, told Turkish newspaper Radikal: “Every citizen defending their urban rights, every worker defending their human rights, and every student defending university rights has witnessed the police violence I experience.”
Ceyda Sungar, who is part of the Taksim Solidarity Platform protesting against the redevelopment of Gezi Park, has since declined further interviews as she is believed to be uncomfortable with her position as the focal point of the movement.
But it has become a galvanizing force for fellow protestors.
“That photo encapsulates the essence of this protest,” says maths student Esra at Besiktas, near the Bosphorus strait – one of the many centres of this week’s protests.
“The violence of the police against peaceful protesters, people just trying to protect themselves and what they value.”
In one artist’s rendering which has been plastered on walls in Istanbul and elsewhere the woman appears much bigger than the policeman.
“The more you spray the bigger we get,” reads the slogan next to it.
The U.S. and the European Union as well as human rights groups have expressed concern about the heavy-handed action of Turkish police against protesters.
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan branded the protesters on Monday extremists “living arm in arm with terrorism”, a description that seems to sit ill with the image of the woman in red.
Deputy PM Bulent Arinc has apologized for police violence and was due to meet organizers of the demonstration against plans to build a replica Ottoman-era barracks on Istanbul’s Gezi Park in Taksim Square.
But he refuses to talk to unnamed groups he accuses of exploiting anger over police action against the original protest to foment broader violence.
He is in control of the government after Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew off to a state visit to North Africa on Monday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not comment on domestic matters at a news conference in Algiers on Tuesday.
Bulent Arinc apologized for “excessive violence” by police against the initial Taksim demonstration, which contrasted sharply with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s dismissal of the protesters as “looters” and comments linking some to “terrorism”.
President Abdullah Gul has also made markedly more restrained comments on the protests.
Pro-government newspapers signaled a softening of Ankara’s line today and the Sabeh newspaper’s front-page read “Olive Branch”.
Today thousands of people remained at a makeshift camp at Taksim, which has become a focal point of the demonstrations.
Small tents have appeared, food and face masks are on sale and a library is being created.
Ceyda Sungar, woman in red who becomes symbol of Turkish protests being doused with pepper spray, is an academic in city planning at Istanbul Technical University
British student Melisa Kenber, 19, said she was chased by police wielding tear gas canisters after she filmed the protests.
The Leeds University student from Ripon, North Yorkshire, was visiting family in Istanbul when she became caught up in the protests.
As she started to video the police they yelled: “No pictures, no pictures”, and ran after her until she reached her car, her eyes streaming from the gas.
Melisa Kenber said: “I go to Istanbul every year but this time I went, before it all kicked off, I had never hear people so frustrated and angry and complain about the government.
“It was like a bomb waiting to go off. The final straw was at Taksim Square.
“There were thousands of people there, listening to bands and talking, it was a really nice atmosphere.
“But just before dawn police arrived with canisters of gas and water bombs.”
Police have arrested 25 people for “spreading untrue information” on social media and provoking protests.
Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu Agency said today the people were detained in the city of Izmir for allegedly “inciting the people to enmity and hate”. It said police were still looking for 13 others.
Tens of thousands of Turks have joined anti-government protests expressing discontent with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year rule.
Turkey’s main broadcast media have been criticized for shunning the coverage of police brutality at the protest onset on Friday. Many people turned to social media to keep up to date with the developments.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has dismissed the protests as demonstrations organized by an extremist fringe, has referred to the social media as “the worst menace to society”.
Clashes spread overnight to the eastern province of Tunceli, where police fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of protesters who set up barricades and threw stones at them, witnesses said.
Police intervened in a similar way against demonstrators in the capital, Ankara, as well in Hatay province on the Syrian border where a 22-year-old man died after being hit in the head at a rally late on Monday.
The DISK union confederation, including unions in the metalworking, health and energy sectors, was due to stage a walkout on Wednesday, joining another labor confederation in a protest against the government.
Last night, some protestors dressed in more combative gear and sporting face masks as they threw stones, but the large number of very young women in Besiktas and on Taksim Square where the protests began on Friday evening is notable.
With swimming goggles and flimsy surgical masks against the teargas, light tasseled scarves hanging around their necks, Esra, Hasine and Secil stand apprehensively in the Besiktas district on Monday evening.
They are joined by ever growing numbers of youngsters as dusk falls and the mood grows more somber.
They belong, as perhaps does the woman in red, to the ranks of young, articulate women who believe they have something to lose in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey.
They feel threatened by his promotion of the Islamic headscarf, symbol of female piety.
Many of the women point to new abortion laws as a sign that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has advised Turkish women to each have three children, wants to roll back women’s rights and push them into traditional, pious roles.
“I respect women who wear the headscarf, that is their right, but I also want my rights to be protected,” says Esra.
“I’m not a leftist or an anti-capitalist. I want to be a business woman and live in a free Turkey.”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has won three successive elections and has a huge parliamentary majority, has been accused of taking an authoritarian turn after initial economic advances and early democratic reform.
Critics accuse him of pursuing an “Islamist” agenda by easing restrictions on the wearing of headscarves in state institutions, limiting alcohol sales and promoting broader religious projects.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan denies any ambition to undermine Turkey’s secular constitution.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the secular republic formed in 1923 on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, encouraged women to wear Western clothes rather than headscarves and promoted the image of the professional woman.
Ironically, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seen these days as, for better or worse, the most dominant Turkish leader since Ataturk.
After first sweeping to power in 2002, he remains unrivalled in popularity, drawing on strong support in the conservative Anatolian heartland.
The weekend demonstrations in dozens of cities suggest however his popularity may be dwindling, at least among middle classes who swung behind him in the early years of political and economic reform that cut back the power of the army and introduced some rights amendments.
“Erdogan says 50 percent of the people voted for him. I’m here to show I belong to the other 50 percent, the half of the population whose feelings he showed no respect for, the ones he is trying to crush,” says chemistry student Hasine.
“I want to have a future here in Turkey, a career, a freedom to live my life. But all these are under threat. I want Erdogan to understand,” she adds.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday night said only Turks can solve the problem of anti-government protests sowing unrest in Turkey. But he says the U.S. is concerned and isn’t indifferent to the outcome.
Speaking at the American-Turkish Council’s annual conference, which was attended by one of Turkey’s deputy prime ministers, Joe Biden said the U.S. supports free assembly, a free press and non-violence by government and demonstrators.
He added that Turkey mustn’t choose between democracy and economic progress.
Joe Biden also said the U.S. and Turkey sometimes disagree on tactics but share common goals, like a two-state solution in Israel, a non-nuclear Iran and a nonsectarian Syria.
Protesters are coming better prepared now than when the unrest first began.
Some have hard-hats, some are dressed all in black, most wear running shoes. But many are dressed as femininely as the girl in the red dress snapped on Taksim Square.
“Of course I’m nervous and I know I could be in danger here,” said 23 year-old economics student Esra, who says her parents support her protest.
“But for me that is nothing compared to the danger of losing the Turkish Republic, its freedoms and spirit.”
Scientists have worked out the best way to dry your hands and it appears that paper towels not only dry hands quicker than electric driers, they are also more hygienic.
While the importance of washing hands is obvious, the benefits may be undone if they are not dried properly, experts said.
This is because wet hands are better at passing on germs than dry ones, biomedical scientist Cunrui Huang said.
His review of 12 studies found that, overall, paper towels were “superior”. One study found they leave hands 96% dry after just ten seconds. After 15 seconds, the hands are 99% dry.
By contrast, a drier takes at least 45 seconds. The amount of time is important because most people spend only a few seconds on drying their hands.
One study found men spend 17 seconds using hot-air driers and women 13.3 seconds – a fraction of the time needed.
Paper towels also scored higher because the rubbing motion may physically remove germs.
Paper towels are more hygienic than hand driers
By contrast, air driers may blow them on to the body – a concern in public toilets, where regular flushing of cisterns disperses germs in the air.
“This can increase the number of germs by an astonishing 255 per cent,” said Keith Redway, senior academic in Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Westminster University.
Bacteria are then blown on to the hands of users and into the atmosphere.
This leads to the potential for the spread of organisms such as Salmonella and E. coli, as people often dry their hands before cleaning them properly.
In the Mayo Clinic Proceedings journal, Dr. Cunrui Huang, of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, said: “There is a risk of persons standing at air driers acquiring the bacteria dispersed in the air current towards them.”
Cloth towel rolls were marked down because of the numbers of people using them.
Although antibacterial washes are essential in high-risk environments such as hospitals and beneficial on cruise ships and on planes, they are not necessary in daily life.
Previous studies have shown that hand dryers are often contaminated by bacteria in the outlet nozzle and the heat from the dryer is the perfect temperature to encourage their growth.
Keith Redway’s research has shown that disposable paper towels remove 58% of bugs and cotton roller-towels 45%.
“The message has to be to wash and then dry your hands thoroughly, using paper towels, not the hot-air dryers,” explained Keith Redway.
