Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian’s sibling rivalry appears to have moved over into their work life, with the trio posing up for a joke catfight in a new image from their latest Kardashian Kollection campaign.
In the image, taken before Kim Kardashian fell pregnant, the sisters are seen wearing all-white outfits as they pose up ahead of the release of their latest range at Dorothy Perkins on 20th May.
Kim Kardashian, 32, is seen wearing a figure-hugging dress with a sweetheart neckline, while Kourtney opts for a white shorts suit and peach top.
Khloe Kardashian, 28, meanwhile shows off her slim figure in a white skater skirt and long-sleeved top.
Going for a retro feel in the shoot, the trio wear their hair in twenties-style waves. And when it comes to their make-up, the sisters sport simple eyes and red lips to add a pop of color.
But clearly jealous of sister Kim’s glossy raven locks, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian are seen pulling their sister’s hair as she pretends to scream in pain.
Although in another image they’re seen getting along as well as they usually do as they smile and strut their stuff in sync as they put their arms around each other.
And it’s not just white outfits they’re plugging this season, as one other promotional picture reveals a hint of the other items in the collection, including Kim in a figure hugging printed frock and Khloe in a leather cropped jacket with leather look leggings.
The girls have enjoyed huge success with Kardashian Kollection at Dorothy Perkins, following the launch at the store last year where they injected their va-va-voom style into over 100 pieces bags, tops and dresses.
Commenting on the partnership, a spokesman for Dorothy Perkins said at the time: “This was an opportunity we couldn’t miss.
Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian’s sibling rivalry reaches new levels as they all pose in angelic white for latest Kollection promo
“Knowing how popular they are and the huge interest they attract, it enables our customer to buy in to their lifestyle and emulate their look at a great price.”
The Dorothy Perkins brand has been a feature of the British high street since 1919, and has previously been associated with more demure office and casual wear.
However, the store has recently revamped its image though in the hope of attracting a younger, more glamorous crowd – and it doesn’t get more glamorous than the Kardashian sisters.
It’s been a huge success, and their stewardship of their own campaigns has helped massively.
Now, Kim Kardashian is allowing her fans a glimpse behind the scenes at how the magic unfurls when she Khloe and Kourtney pose for their Dorothy Perkins collection advertisements as they’ve also release4d a special video of the shoot.
The Kardashian sisters can be seen in tantalizing poses, particularly Kim, who gets one accessory between her teeth, a long white ribbon.
Hot on the heels of their spangled, curve-kissing, leopard print-infused first collection for Dorothy Perkins the Kardashian sisters came back with a second offering.
The latest capsule Kardashian Kollection arrived at the high-street store at the end of January in the UK and was available at Sears and online.
A monochrome palette is enlivened by the odd flash of scarlet or cobalt blue, while silhouettes are kept surprisingly simple.
Key looks from their debut collection are echoed in this one with plenty of polka dots in both a chiffon shirt and blazer variety.
But while the clothes are low key, the shoes are most definitely not.
Kim Kardashian’s famous skyscraper heels are very much in evidence – despite her advancing pregnancy – and come complete with bright pops of color and bang-on-trend studs galore.
As for arm candy, the self-made trio have branded their handbags with the iconic Kardashian Kollection symbol.
Styles range from a nude leather tote and frayed festival-chic bag to neon shoulder bags perfect for adding an injection of color to any drab outfit.
Kourtney Kardashian’s bohemian chic can be emulated by teaming simple black platform courts with the polka dot blazer.
To achieve Kim Kardashian’s red carpet glamour a statement color block wedge with the ottoman dress would help you channel the voluptuous star’s look.
Christina Aguilera looked almost magically slimmer in a picture she Tweeted from the set of her new music video on Wednesday.
Christina Aguilera, 32, was wearing what could’ve been a control garment on her lower body but she still had an enviably small waist.
She has taken a break from her tenure as a judge on The Voice to work on her music, and also to work towards a healthier shape.
Clearly the 5ft 2 singer has been hitting the gym, and she’s said to be working with personal trainer Tee Sorge.
Christina Aguilera recently showed off a slimmer figure on a shopping trip with boyfriend Matthew Rutler.
It seems re-teaming up with Tee Sorge is definitely working for the star.
Christina Aguilera looked almost magically slimmer in a picture she Tweeted from the set of her new music video
And she’s soon to return to her twice weekly appearances on the top talent show as it’s been reported that Christina Aguilera is headed back to her old job.
She’s going to replace Shakira after just one season.
Despite looking svelte Christina Aguilera has spoken out saying she loves that after years of being stick thin that she now has curves.
Last year Christina Aguilera said she was totally unconcerned about the way her clothes advertise her assets.
The singer said: “Actually, the challenge I’ve always had is being too thin, so I love that now I have a booty, and obviously I love showing my cleavage.
“Hey, if you can work it and you can own it, that confidence is going to shine through.”
Christina Aguilera left The Voice last year to promote her album Lotus, which came out in November to disappointing sales.
Cee Lo Green, who was part of the original line up with Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, also took a break at the same time as Christina Aguilera.
“Everybody can’t coach for life because when you have people with current recording in the game, this is not their job,” he said when he left, but Christina Aguilera – who regularly stole the show with her razor-sharp observations – is obviously missing her calling.
Miley Cyrus had a visible layer of white powder around her chin after suffering a make-up malfunction while glamming up to celebrate her title as Maxim‘s hottest woman at the magazine Hot 100 Party on Wednesday night.
Loose face powder is meant to be used – sparingly – to minimize shine, but the application was a little heavy handed this time around.
Miley Cyrus, 20, was dressed in an eye-catching black Valentino jumpsuit and metallic Saint Laurent platform heels to the Vanguard nightclub in Hollywood.
Her outfit featured a white band around the bust and a bow between her shoulder blades – a variation of a dress worn recently by Jennifer Aniston.
Miley Cyrus had a visible layer of white powder around her chin after suffering a make-up malfunction while glamming up to celebrate her title as Maxim’s hottest woman
“Hmmm …. What to wear… What to wear….. Hmmmm. Valentino ❤ you’ve never done me wrong!” she teased on Twitter just hours before the party.
Miley Cyrus volumized her blonde quiff, adding a series of delicate baubles to her ears and gold bracelets to her wrists but seeming to eschew any other accessories.
She also carefully hid her engagement ring – which she flashed on Twitter earlier in the week – by hiding her hands in the pockets of her jumpsuit.
In her winning spread for Maxim, Miley Cyrus is seen posing seductively on a beach in a revealing gold swimsuit while gazing into the camera with her eyes heavily lined.
“It feels amazing to be number one,” she told Maxim about her victory, “especially because it was voted on by the fans. I have the best fans in the world!”
“It’s every woman’s fantasy to be told she’s number one on Maxim’s Hot 100! So crazy!” added the singer.
Coming in at second place in the competition is former Disney star Selena Gomez, followed by singer Rihanna and actresses Mila Kunis and Jennifer Lawrence, who rounded out the top five consecutively.
Joining the starlets in the top ten were Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ashley Tisdale, Kate Upton, Vanessa Hudgens and Elisha Cutbert.
Hodges restaurant in downtown Cleveland is helping to make Charles Ramsey – the man who famously helped rescue kidnapping victim Amanda Berry – even more of a household name.
Hodges has added the “Ramsey burger” in honor of the 43-year-old hero, who has worked as a dishwasher at the restaurant.
The $12 burger is eight ounces of Certified Angus Beef with lettuce, cheddar cheese, bread and butter pickles, and a “secret sauce” on a toasted sesame seed bun.
The owner of the restaurant, Chris Hodgson, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the burger is a “play on a Big Mac, which is what he was eating [when the rescue occurred]”.
Chris Hodgson has also been selling T-shirts that honor Charles Ramsey, raising more than $17,000 so far.
The $12 Ramsey burger at Hodges restaurant is eight ounces of Certified Angus Beef with lettuce, cheddar cheese, bread and butter pickles, and a secret sauce on a toasted sesame seed bun
Unlike the burger, the proceeds of the shirt sales are going to the kidnapping victims, Chris Hodgson said.
Charles Ramsey won hero status across the nation for breaking into his neighbor’s home to rescue Amanda Berry, who had been kept inside the house for years against her will along with Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus and her 6-year-old daughter.
Hours after the rescue, Charles Ramsey catapulted to Internet fame for the series of colorful television interviews that he gave on the ordeal.
Hodges patron Melissa Rush tried the burger on Monday afternoon and told the Cleveland Fox affiliate it was “delicious”.
When asked what she thought about Charles Ramsey, she said: “Oh, I’m obsessed. I’ve been following it. I think the guy is great. I’m really proud to know that he’s from Cleveland.”
Officer Barbara Johnson has described the moment she rescued Michelle Knight in the Cleveland house of horrors, 11 years after the 32-year-old was abducted.
Barbara Johnson was one of the first Cleveland police officers to rush into Ariel Castro’s house on Seymour Avenue after Amanda Berry managed to escape and call 911.
When she found Michelle Knight, the woman grabbed her tightly and begged her not to leave her, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
“Michelle hugged me first, then clutched me and said, <<Don’t let me go>>,” Barbara Johnson said at an awards ceremony for the officers involved in the miraculous rescue.
“You can’t really describe how I felt…it rips the heart out of my chest.”
Officer Barbara Johnson has described the moment she rescued Michelle Knight in the Cleveland house of horrors
The rescue of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus a decade after they were all feared dead has been called the “Miracle in Cleveland”.
For the officers who arrived at Ariel Castro’s home on May 6, it was also a brush with unimaginable horror.
“When I heard there were people in the house, I ran up to the door, but it was locked from the inside,” Officer Michael Simon recalled.
“So I grabbed the hand rail by the stairs to use as a prying tool…but the other officers kicked the door in.
“Once inside, I felt evil in the house.”
Even the veteran officers who are confronted with human tragedy on a frequent basis could not ignore the emotional impact of rescuing the three girls from a decade of captivity.
“I’ve broke down [crying] a few times on the scene, and in private since then,” Officer Anthony Espada – the first officer on the scene – admitted.
“Those three girls are my heroes… after what went through in that house all those years.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev chose to write a note confessing his connection to the Boston Marathon bombings explaining why he and his brother Tamerlan made the two pressure cooker bombs as he thought he was dying when he was hiding out in a boat.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, found a pen in the boat but no paper so it was revealed today that he wrote his message on an interior wall of David Henneberry’s boat that he used as shelter in Watertown.
Law enforcement sources told CBS that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote that he “does not mourn” the death of his older brother Tamerlan because he is a martyr living in “paradise” and that he expected to join him there soon.
The note is a critical piece of evidence for police as it reiterates what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said to them in the hospital after his arrest.
Aside from simply confirming his other statements, it could serve as back up for the eventual legal case against him because the reported confession to police came before Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was read his Miranda rights informing him of his right to remain silent.
After they were read, the suspect reportedly stopped talking to police, but now the note will serve as a handwritten confession.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev found a pen in the boat but no paper and he wrote his message on an interior wall of David Henneberry’s boat that he used as shelter in Watertown
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote that the bombings were retribution for the various American crimes against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He equated the three people who were killed in the marathon bombings and the more than 250 others who were injured to “collateral damage” like the thousands of innocent Muslim victims of American wars across the globe.
“When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reportedly wrote.
CBS reporter John Miller pointed out that the note is just the latest piece of evidence that police are using in developing their theory that the Chechen brothers worked alone and were self-radicalized rather than being the “soldiers” for a larger group.
Investigators are still working to determine who else- if anyone- knew about the attack before it happened.
While the note is undoubtedly a boost for the state’s case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is now being held in the medical center of an area prison, it is hardly cut and dry.
Because police fired hundreds of bullets at the boat during their attempt to capture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the note is riddled with bullet holes.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and the note will certainly be used in the case against him.
Prince Harry rounded off his hugely successful week-long tour of the U.S. yesterday very much in his comfort zone – playing polo in Connecticut.
His team won the match at the exclusive Greenwich Polo Club in aid of Sentebale, the charity he set up to help children in the poverty stricken African kingdom of Lesotho.
And as well as being awarded a trophy for his team’s stellar effort, Prince Harry also scored a kiss from model Karolina Kurkova at the end of the fast-moving game.
Cheered on by models, designers and wealthy guests, Prince Harry played in a team captained by Malcolm Borthwick, a regular in the England team, against a team led by Argentinean player and Ralph Lauren model, Nacho Figueras.
Malcolm Borthwick said Prince Harry would show his true athleticism on the field after having tried his hand at baseball in New York City on Tuesday.
“He’s an extremely good polo player,” he said.
Also playing on Prince Harry’s team was Dawn Jones, wife of the actor Tommy Lee Jones.
The game kicked off after Prince Harry arrived in a motorcade dressed in jeans, a blazer and his favorite desert boots. He was greeted by club founder Peter Brandt and his model wife, Stephanie Seymour.
As well as being awarded a trophy for his team’s stellar effort, Prince Harry also scored a kiss from model Karolina Kurkova at the end of the fast-moving polo game
Peter Brant, 65, – whose wife is 44 – is an American industrialist and businessman, worth an estimated $2.7 billion. He is also a major art collector and avid horseman.
He said on Wednesday that Prince Harry’s father and grandfather were good players and he was excited to watch Harry play at his club.
“It’s a great honor,” he said.
“It’s great for polo.”
Located in leafy Connecticut, Greenwich is one of the wealthiest pockets of the US, filled with hedge fund millionaires and their trophy wives.
Unlike previous royal polo events, tickets for the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup, one of the highlights of the international calendar, are not available for sale.
The guests included the 13th Duke of Argyll, fashionista Olivia Palermo, model Karolina Kurkova and designers Jason Wu and Valentino.
“Is the sun coming out?” Karolina Kurkova asked as she posed in a light rain.
Guests at the polo dined on grilled peppered fillet of beef, served with an arugla and spring vegetable salad and crispy warm panisse, followed by vanilla bean creme brule, mixed berry trifle, Lemon Curd tart with mixed berries and truffle brownie squares.
Just 400 seats were available in all, however, making it literally the hottest ticket in a town, with dozens of elegantly-coiffured ladies – both young and old – trying to beg, borrow or steal an invite.
At the Greenwich branch of the English-Speaking Union, which promotes English language and culture, Natalie Pray, the president, has been fielding calls from its 300 members, some blatantly offering cash for tickets to see the prince play, according to the New York Times.
Peter Orthwein, the chief executive of Thor Industries, who is a founding member of the Polo Club admitted the prince’s visit had caused a stir.
In a speech shortly before the match, Prince Harry talked at length about the work of Sentebale in the tiny landlocked kingdom of Lesotho where AIDS is rife.
He said: “Whilst Sentebale may be evolving rapidly, the situation on the ground in Lesotho remains critical.
“The HIV pandemic continues to leave thousands of children without parents and family structures to guide them through life. Without this support, basic needs such as food, shelter and care remain unmet, leaving children vulnerable and very often without much hope in their lives.”
Prince Harry concluded by commenting about his extraordinarily successful tour of the US, saying: “This is the last day of my tour around the United States. “Thank you for a wonderful week. I have witnessed the extraordinary generosity of the people of this great Nation.”
Prince Harry’s visit promised a lighter tone than his stop the previous day in New Jersey, where he toured two shore communities devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
He also spent Tuesday in New York City at events promoting tourism, entrepreneurism and philanthropy.
Mo’Nique has shed 80 pounds since starting performing her exhausting workouts.
Mo’Nique, 45, said she now weighs 218 pounds after “tipping 300” when she starred in the 1999 sitcom The Parkers, adding: “My goal is between 190 and 200.”
The actress also said: “I am the best Mo’Nique I’ve ever been in my life right now, and I still have a ways to go. But I feel amazing.”
Mo’Nique has shed 80 pounds since starting performing her exhausting workouts
Mo’Nique has been documenting her daily workouts in pictures on Twitter, and writing inspirational messages in hopes that others will join her.
On Wednesday the actress tweeted: “We can always get a quick fix. However what will be the long term effects. Do it naturally, benefits . . . PRICELESS.”
The star mixes up her workouts, with weights, running, yoga, and basketball just some of the activities she pursues.
Mo’Nique also tells her fans she takes a minimum of 10,000 steps and does 50 sit-ups in a single day.
In a radio interview the actress revealed it was her husband Sidney Hicks who encouraged her to change her ways
Mo’Nique said: “It made me say [to myself], <<OK sis, you got these babies. The twins [Jonathan and David] are 7, [stepson] Michael’s 9, Shalon’s 22>>.
“And I want to meet their babies. So, I said, <<Let me stop being selfish, and eating everything>>. And I ate everything . . . I was a food junkie.”
The newly released White House Benghazi emails reveal the then CIA-Director David Petraeus strongly objected to the Obama administration’s version of events of the terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Libya.
David Petraeus, who was forced to resign in disgrace in November after an extra-marital affair with Paula Broadwell became public, wanted to see more detail made available, including a warning issued from the CIA about plans for an embassy attack.
The documents give a glimpse into the administration’s message control as officials carefully debated via email which details U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice should highlight when she went on talk shows five days later to discuss the September 11 assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The White House on Wednesday released 99 pages of emails and a single page of hand-written notes made by Petraeus’ deputy, Mike Morell, after a meeting at the White House the day before U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice began giving interviews to the media based on the agreed “talking points”.
On that page, Mike Morell scratched out from the CIA’s early drafts of talking points mentions of al-Qaeda, the experience of fighters in Libya, Islamic extremists and a warning to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on the eve of the attacks of calls for a demonstration.
“No mention of the cable to Cairo, either?” David Petraeus wrote after receiving Mike Morell’s edited version, developed after an intense back-and-forth among Obama administration officials.
“Frankly, I’d just as soon not use this, then.”
Senior administration officials told reporters Wednesday that Mike Morell made the changes to the talking points because of his own concerns that they could prejudge an FBI investigation into who was responsible for the September 11th, 2012, attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
The officials said Mike Morell also didn’t think it was fair to disclose the CIA’s advance warning without giving Hillary Clinton’s State Department a chance to explain how it responded.
The officials spoke on a condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the emails on the record.
Officials said that Mike Morell acted on his own judgement and not with any pressure coming down from the State Department.
However, when David Petraeus received the final draft of the media talking points he was dismissive, saying that the reduced list would not satisfy the House Democrat who had asked for it.
“This is certainly not what Vice Chairman Ruppersberger was hoping to get,” David Petraeus wrote, in reference to Representative C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
The White House released the emails to the media after some of them leaked on Friday and seemed to suggest that President Barack Obama’s national security team may have altered the talking points for political gain.
And while the White House claims these are all the correspondence that occurred in the aftermath of the terror attack on Benghazi, they suggest more of battle between the State Department and the CIA – rather than the president’s own team.
“In recent days, these e-mails have been selectively and inaccurately read out to the media,” said a White House spokesman, Eric Schultz.
Critics have highlighted an email by then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland that expressed concern that any mention of prior warnings or the involvement of al-Qaeda would give congressional Republicans ammunition to attack the administration in the weeks before the presidential election. Fighting terror was one of President Barack Obama’s re-election strong points.
That email was among those released by the White House, sent by Victoria Nuland on September 14th at 7:39 p.m. to officials in the White House, State Department and CIA.
“I have serious concerns about all the parts highlighted below, and arming members of Congress to start making assertions to the media that we ourselves are not making because we don’t want to prejudice the investigation,” she wrote.
In another, Victoria Nuland sends the White House and intelligence officials an email warning that the talking points could be “abused” by opposition politicians “to beat the State Department for not paying attention to agency warnings so why do we want to feed that either?”.
White House Benghazi emails reveal the then CIA-Director David Petraeus strongly objected to the Obama administration’s version of events of the terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Libya
The emails were shared with Congress earlier this year as a condition for allowing the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director to move forward.
The general counsel for the national intelligence director’s office briefed members and staff from the Senate Intelligence Committee and leadership on the emails on February 15th at a session in which staff could take notes.
A similar briefing took place March 19 for the House Intelligence Committee and leadership staff.
An interim report last month from the Republicans on five House committees criticized the Obama administration and mentioned the emails, but the issue exploded last Friday when new details emerged.
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee read some of the emails aloud last Wednesday at a hearing with State Department officials.
The next day, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called on the White House to release the emails.
Congressional officials selectively shared parts of the emails, and new revelations emerged Friday that showed State Department and other administration officials pressing for references to terror groups and prior warnings to be deleted, expressing concerns about the political implications.
The White House released the full set of emails sent to Congress under the pressure in hopes of putting an end to the controversy that has dogged the administration for months.
The White House says congressional Republicans have misrepresented some of them.
The emails released by the White House were partially blacked out, including to remove names of senders and recipients who are career employees at the CIA and elsewhere.
The names were replaced with references to the office where they worked.
The talking points were used by Rice in her appearance on five news shows on Sunday, September 16, and also sent to Congress.
An official with the CIA’s office of congressional affairs whose name was blacked out sent the final version to David Petraeus on Saturday, September 15, at 12:51 p.m.
“As mentioned last night, State had voiced strong concerns with the original text due to the criminal investigation,” the official wrote.
David Petraeus responded at 2:27 saying he’d prefer not to even use them in that form.
But he said the decision was up to the White House’s national security staff.
“NSS’s call, to be sure; however, this is certainly not what Vice Chairman [Dutch] Ruppersberger was hoping to get for unclas use. Regardless, thanks for the great work.”
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
At a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said there has been “very, very substantial progress” in the investigation into who was responsible for the twin nighttime attacks in Benghazi.
Earlier this month, the FBI said it was seeking information on three people who were on the grounds of the diplomatic mission when it was attacked.
The FBI posted photographs of the three people and said they may be able to provide information to help in the investigation.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington State, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday’s release of the emails was a “wise choice”.
There was little in the roughly 100 pages of emails about Susan Rice’s “talking points” that had not been leaked previously.
While awkward for the White House, releasing the emails was an effort to counter complaints from Republicans and the media that President Barack Obama’s administration is secretive.
They included an email confirming perhaps the most damaging charge that administration officials removed mention from Susan Rice’s talking points that the CIA had warned of an al-Qaeda threat in the area of the eastern Libyan city before the attacks.
In the Benghazi emails, then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland raised concerns about references to intelligence about the threat from militants in eastern Libya.
Victoria Nuland wrote that she had “serious concerns” that the talking points would provide members of Congress with material to “beat the State Department for not paying attention to [Central Intelligence] Agency warnings” about threats in the region.
It was not clear who she was referring to but Republicans have tried to link former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2016, to the controversy over Benghazi.
“The seemingly political nature of the State Department’s concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes and who at the State Department was seeking them,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner.
Republicans say the talking points were an attempt to portray the attacks as arising from a spontaneous protest, and not an organized militant assault, so as to protect Barack Obama in last year’s presidential campaign from any charges that he was weak on fighting terrorism.
The White House vehemently denies any cover-up and emphasizes that the controversy over the talking points focuses on intelligence that eventually evolved. The emails, officials said, showed a normal back and forth between government agencies on a fluid national security event.
“Collectively these emails make clear that the interagency process, including the White House’s interactions, were focused on providing the facts as we knew them based on the best information available at the time and protecting an ongoing investigation,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.
Officials also suggested that Victoria Nuland was not the only one with concerns about the original talking points.
Sanjay Dutt has returned to jail to serve his sentence for firearms offences linked to 1993 blasts which killed 257 people in Mumbai.
The Bollywood star gave himself up at a court in the western Indian city.
Sanjay Dutt has already served 18 months of a five-year term for illegally possessing a rifle and pistol which he bought from the bombers after the attacks.
The actor had sought to delay his return to prison to finish a number of films, but the court rejected his appeal.
Sanjay Dutt, 53, was convicted in 2006 of buying arms from the bombers but cleared of conspiracy. The attacks left 713 others injured.
There was tight security outside the star’s house from early on Thursday morning as scores of reporters and television cameramen gathered.
Accompanied by his family and friends, Sanjay Dutt travelled in a convoy of cars to the court.
Sanjay Dutt has returned to jail to serve his sentence for firearms offences linked to 1993 blasts which killed 257 people in Mumbai
For 20 minutes, he was unable to leave the car because of the media mob which police struggled to keep in check.
Accompanied by his sister and wife, Sanjay Dutt went inside the court from where he will be transferred to jail.
Several Bollywood personalities visited Sanjay Dutt’s home in the posh Bandra suburb of Mumbai before he went back into custody.
The son of a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Sanjay Dutt said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the Hindu-Muslim rioting of 1993 which followed the destruction by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.
Sanjay Dutt, one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, is hugely popular for his role as a loveable gangster in the Munnabhai movies. He has also dabbled in politics.
In 2006, a special anti-terror court convicted 100 people for the blasts. Twelve were given the death penalty and 20 others sentenced to life imprisonment.
Sanjay Dutt, the most high-profile among the convicts, was originally charged with five offences, including criminal conspiracy and possession of illegal weapons.
In March 2013, India’s Supreme Court upheld Sanjay Dutt’s conviction, but reduced his sentence from the earlier six years to five years.
Three Indian cricketers have been arrested over allegations of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the country’s cricket board says.
The players belong to the Rajasthan Royals team and have been identified as S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila by the team boss, Raghu Iyer.
The team said it had “a zero-tolerance approach to anything that is against the spirit of the game”.
Meanwhile, the cricket board has suspended the three players.
There has been no word from the cricketers themselves, but S Sreesanth’s family said he was innocent.
“I have full faith in him, he would never do anything like this,” said his mother Savitri Devi.
Spot-fixing involves illegally rigging parts of a match, for example by timing the delivery of a deliberate wide or no-ball, to benefit bookmakers or those betting on matches.
Rajasthan Royals are captained by legendary Indian batsman Rahul Dravid and owned by Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra.
Fast bowler S Sreesanth has represented India in many international games. He has played 27 Tests and 53 one-day internationals.
Media reports said the players were taken from Mumbai for questioning late on Wednesday.
Three Indian cricketers have been arrested over allegations of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League
They are expected to appear in court in Delhi on Thursday.
“We have no information other than that the three players have been arrested. We don’t know the details of the charges against them. We are waiting to get further information from the police,” president of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) N Srinivasan told a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, the BCCI suspended the three players saying it was “shocked and saddened” at the development.
“The IPL governing council has met and decided that the cricketers found involved will be dealt with severely,” the board said in a statement.
“As of now, the three players – Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila and S Sreesanth – stand suspended pending enquiry. All information required to bring the persons involved to book will be collected and strictest action will be taken, if found guilty,” it added.
The team owners Rajasthan Royals also issued a statement saying they had “been informed that three of our players have been called in for investigation on spot-fixing in matches. We are completely taken by surprise.
“We do not have the full facts at this point and are unable to confirm anything. We are in touch with the BCCI [Board for Control of Cricket in India] on this matter. We will fully co-operate with the authorities to ensure a thorough investigation.”
Some media reports, quoting police sources, said at least seven bookmakers had also been arrested.
The sixth season of the IPL, which is considered to be the world’s showcase for Twenty20 cricket, is currently under way in India.
Top Indian and international players take part, contributing to what is the world’s richest cricket tournament.
The scandal is the latest to affect cricket.
Last year, Indian cricket officials suspended five players after a sting by undercover TV reporters purported to show cricketers agreeing to bowl no-balls and spot-fix matches.
And in 2011, three top Pakistani players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – were banned after they were found guilty of involvement in a betting scam.
Cyclone Mahasen has stricken Bangladesh’s southern coast, as people packed into evacuation shelters.
The storm hit Patuakhali district on Thursday with winds of up to 100 km/h (60 mph), and was heading for the ports of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.
Some two people have been killed, Bangladeshi officials say.
Around one million people have been ordered to evacuate low-lying areas in Bangladesh and Burma, and take shelter in cyclone centres.
Displaced Rohingya Muslims, living in camps on both sides of the border, may be particularly vulnerable.
But some of those on the Burmese side have resisted calls for them to evacuate camps in Rakhine state.
The UN has warned that 8.2 million people could be at risk from Mahasen in Bangladesh, Burma and north-east India.
At least 956,672 people have been evacuated from Bangladesh’s coastal areas to more than 3,200 cyclone shelters, the government said on Thursday.
The measures in place are a sign of the preparation the authorities have made for the storm.
Cyclone Mahasen has stricken Bangladesh’s southern coast
Warning messages went out to the population across all media before Mahasen hit.
Airports in Chittagong and the resort town of Cox’s Bazar have been shut until the danger subsides. Chittagong’s port, the busiest in Bangladesh, also remains closed.
The Bangladeshi authorities earlier raised the danger level to seven out of 10 for low-lying areas around Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.
The cyclone covered more than 175km in nine hours before hitting Bangladesh, the country’s Meteorological Department said.
However, the service’s deputy director, Shamsuddun Ahmed, told AFP news agency the cyclone was not expected to cause serious damage as it was “not severe”.
The cyclone “did not gain strength in the last part of its journey as it hit the coast”, he said.
In Bangladesh, there have been reports of waist-deep water submerging low-lying areas and houses being damaged. Dozens of huts collapsed when the cyclone struck Patuakhali district, eye witnesses told local media.
There are also fears of a storm sea surge, and authorities have warned that heavy rainfall could cause landslides in hilly regions.
All schools, colleges and some hotels have been declared cyclone shelters. The centres are crowded and people are still rushing in.
In Burma, meanwhile, tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in camps in low-lying areas of Rakhine state are feared to be at risk.
They were displaced by ethnic violence last year and many are reluctant to move from the camps.
Hla Maung said he lost his mother and two young daughters during the clashes between Muslims and Buddhists.
“I lost everything. I don’t want to go anywhere. I’ll stay here. If I die, I want to die here,” he said.
Rakhine state said it had moved some 36,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from camps, said Kirsten Mildren, from the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
But she said the evacuation was “not moving as fast as we’d like – it’s certainly a race against time. We’re finding it very difficult to convince [people] to move to higher ground or safer buildings”.
Burmese planning minister Tin Naing Thein said that in all more than 166,000 people had been relocated, but there was little evidence of a mass evacuation in reports from the affected area.
Correspondents say the Burmese evacuations are seen as a test of the government’s resolve to assist the Rohingya, amid allegations that state forces stood by or even participated in last year’s anti-Muslim violence.
Cyclone Mahasen has already taken a toll. Though the storm did not make landfall in Sri Lanka, the associated heavy rain caused floods and mudslides which killed at least seven people, according to the country’s Disaster Management Centre.
At least 50 Rohingya Muslims drowned on Tuesday when boats evacuating them from the path of the cyclone capsized off western Burma.
A tornado has ripped through Texas town of Granbury resulting in six deaths, officials say.
Homes were destroyed when the tornado hit Granbury, 70 miles west of Dallas, late on Wednesday.
Local officials warned the toll could climb as rescue teams search through the rubble of affected houses. Dozens of people have been injured and are receiving treatment at local hospitals.
Severe weather has been reported across the region.
One resident described the tornado’s impact to Reuters: “The house started shaking. We were in a closet.”
Homes were destroyed when the tornado hit Granbury, 70 miles west of Dallas, late on Wednesday
“You could hear it – it sounded like a train going off. It was scary,” he said
The same storm spawned another tornado that tore through part of the town of Cleburne, about 25 miles south-east of Granbury, the National Weather Service said.
There have been no reports of any fatalities from Cleburne so far.
However, dozens of homes have been destroyed or badly damaged, according to officials and residents.
A third tornado in neighboring Parker County has also caused damage to buildings, particularly in the town of Millsap, officials say.
Acting head of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Steven T. Miller has quit after it emerged his staff singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny, President Barack Obama has announced.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had asked for and accepted the resignation of IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, he said.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again,” Barack Obama told a news conference.
The scandal has been one of several to rattle the White House in recent days.
Earlier on Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder faced four hours of questioning at a Congressional hearing on the IRS, the secret seizure of phone records from the Associated Press news agency, and the attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
Eric Holder told the House judiciary committee that it would take time for the FBI to determine if any laws had been broken by IRS personnel.
In a short statement to reporters at the White House, President Barack Obama said he had reviewed the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups and found the “misconduct” uncovered was “inexcusable”.
“Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it,” the president said.
“I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives.”
“The IRS has to operate with absolute integrity.”
Steven T. Miller has quit as IRS head after it emerged his staff singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny
To that end, Barack Obama revealed that the treasury secretary had requested and accepted the resignation of acting commissioner of the IRS.
“It’s important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward.”
Barack Obama said the treasury department would also put in place new safeguards to “make sure this kind of behavior cannot happen again” and that the IRS would begin implementing the TIGTA’s recommendations immediately.
In a letter to colleagues, Steven Miller said he would leave his role in June.
“There is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation’s tax agency,” he added.
Steven T. Miller took over leadership of the agency in November, when the five-year term of Commissioner Douglas Shulman ended.
At the time when conservative groups were targeted, Steve Miller was a deputy commissioner who oversaw the division responsible.
On Tuesday, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s report on the scandal placed the blame on “ineffective management”.
It found IRS managers had allowed “inappropriate criteria” to be developed and stay in place for more than 18 months, resulting in “substantial delays” in processing applications for tax-exempt status, and requests for “unnecessary information”, such as lists of donors.
Among the criteria used by the IRS Determinations Unit to flag groups for review, the TIGTA said, were having words like “Tea Party”, “Patriots” and “9/12” in their names; or manifestos that focused on the government’s fiscal policy and educating the public to “make America a better place to live”, or criticized how the country was being run.
Senior IRS officials told the watchdog that the decision to focus on conservative groups had not been influenced by any individual or organization outside the agency.
Some Republicans, including two high-profile governors, have called for a special prosecutor to investigate.
House Speaker John Boehner told reporters earlier on Wednesday: “My question is, who’s going to jail over this scandal?”
At least three Congressional panels are planning hearings, and House judiciary committee member Representative Darrell Issa said he had asked five mid-level IRS employees be made available for questioning.
A startling number of teen girls have admitted to having a schoolgirl crush on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, proclaiming their love for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect on social media.
It’s a disturbing trend on sites like Twitter and Facebook, where girls have admitted to finding Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attractive, and herald him in the ranks of Justin Bieber and One Direction singer Harry Styles.
One Twitter user, a waitress who goes by the name Keepitblunted, has said she is looking to get a tattoo of a Dzhokhar Tsarnaev quote.
“If you have the knowledge and the inspiration all that’s left is to take action.”
The quote was tweeted by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on April 8, a week before the Boston Marathon bombings.
She has since gone back on her promise, posting that she has decided to hold off “out of respect of my family’s wishes”.
But the young woman, named Alisha, told the New York Post that she’s not among the group of women who are interested in the case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev because she’s in love with him.
She told the paper: “Somebody needs to stand up for him, and not the little high-school girls who just think he’s cute.”
The FreeJahar97 Twitter account was created on April 25 – 10 days after the double bombing.
The first tweet reads: “any other beliebers out there who want to see Jahar freed and believe he is innocent? feel like i’m all alone here.. #freejahar.”
Another says she is considering becoming a Muslim to better related to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
“I know I didn’t know Jahar and I shouldn’t be saying this but… I miss Jahar… Is that weird? Don’t think I’m weird. I just miss him.”
Facebook group Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is innocent sprung up shortly after the bombings and has more than 8,000 followers
Tsarnaev5ever tweeted: “Jahar is gonna go crazy in that cell alone with just a book… I wanna send money to him… Anyone have the address?”
“Poor Jahar… He’s only 19. ONLY 19… No one deserves to be in a 10×10… No one…”
Shadowlilly1993 posted: “Yall can judge me as much as you want. I’m on his side.This kid needs people behind him. I hope to meet him one day he fascinates me @J_tsar.”
A teen who goes by the Twitter handle Wildziall, says: “I wonder what jahar is thinking about right now.”
In another, she said: “My little brother just said he would cover for me if I snuck out of the house to meet up with jahar I love him.”
Meanwhile, a Facebook group that sprung up shortly after the bombings, “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is innocent”, has more than 8,000 followers.
The group, loaded with conspiracy theories and proclamations of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s innocence, is by invitation only.
Vocal fans of the “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is Innocent” Facebook group have claimed that neither Tsarnaev’s brother, Tamerlan, was responsible for the Boston bombing.
Instead, they say, a government-funded group of mercenaries from a private company staged the event and framed the Chechen pair.
The company they accuse, Craft International, trains military and police teams through tactical and combat scenarios. Its founder, retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, wrote the best-selling book American Sniper and recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history.
Chris Kyle was killed in February at a Texas gun range, by a fellow veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s new lawyer, Joshua Dratel, insists that the Boston Marathon bombing suspect’s widow will co-operate with the investigation into the terrorist atrocity.
Joshua Dratel, who has represented several terrorism suspects, joined the legal team of Katherine Russell, who was married to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, last week.
Katherine Russell has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but the FBI are currently interrogating her to find out if she had any clue as to her husband’s plans.
The bombing at the marathon’s finish line on April 15 killed three people and injured more than 260.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s new lawyer Joshua Dratel insists that she will co-operate with the investigation into the terrorist atrocity
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, originally from Chechnya, are believed to have carried out the attacks due to their radical jihadist beliefs.
Joshua Dratel, from New York, today said that he joined Katherine Russell’s legal team to help her navigate the criminal justice system and to protect her interests.
He said she had spoken with investigators and planned to keep co-operating.
“I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future,” he said.
“There’s no inconsistency between that and her interests at this point.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is in a prison hospital facing charges that could bring the death penalty. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died on April 19 after a shootout with police.
Katherine Russell, 24, had been living in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two-year-old daughter, but has been staying with her parents in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, since the day her husband was killed.
She has reverted to using her maiden name, switching from her married name of Tsarnaeva.
Among the questions about Katherine Russell is what she knew or saw in the weeks leading up to the bombing, and in the days after it.
Two U.S. officials have said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators the bombs were assembled in the small apartment Katherine Russell shared with her husband.
One of her lawyers has previously said Katherine Russell was working long hours and was frequently away from the apartment.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s burial in Virginia is legal, according to the county sheriff.
Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was buried at a Doswell cemetery last Thursday, angering some in the community after it was claimed that authorities were not consulted about the Muslim burial.
Neighbors of the cemetery have argued that a police presence will be needed at the cemetery while Caroline County officials investigated whether the burial had been done properly and legally.
Caroline County Sheriff Tony Lippa said in a statement that the official paperwork including the death certificate and burial permit were in order.
Tony Lippa said: “It would appear that all paperwork is in order at this point.
“Like the rest of America, the citizens of this county were outraged by the Boston Marathon Bombings. We too mourned for the loss of life, prayed for the survivors, and offered our support.
“Unfortunately we now find ourselves forever connected to this tragedy in the most unsavory way – as the final resting place of one of the alleged terrorist.”
The sheriff’s office will provide the same amount of protection to Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s burial site as any other cemetery in Caroline County.
The statement said: “The Caroline County Sheriff’s Office cannot, nor will we, divert our limited resources towards the protection of a single gravesite, especially one belonging to that of a terrorist.”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried at a Doswell cemetery, angering some in the community after it was claimed that authorities were not consulted about the Muslim burial
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s remains were rejected by cemeteries in many cities for fear of desecration and demonstrations.
Sheriff Tony Lippa said last week that he learned of the burial from the media and added that the county does not have the money to provide security and that it will be the cemetery’s responsibility.
The cemetery director told MyFoxBoston that he is not concerned about adding security and added that Doswell is a close community.
He also shared details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s burial, saying he was buried in a small ceremony Thursday morning after being draped in three white sheets and laid on his right side to face Mecca.
The cemetery director declined to say who was in attendance.
The decision to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the small Islamic cemetery in rural Virginia has also sparked fury some members of the area’s Islamic community, who say they weren’t consulted, according to the Associated Press.
Imam Ammar Amonette, of the Islamic Center of Virginia, said that his group was never consulted.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried under a shroud of secrecy Wednesday evening at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery in central Virginia, about 15 miles from Richmond.
Martha Mullen, a professional counselor who has a degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, said she coordinated the clandestine burial with the help of the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond after a number of cemeteries refused to take his body.
A video footage shows the new Czech president, Milos Zeman, clearly worse for wear, propping himself up against a wall at a public event, struggling to negotiate a step and being aided by a cardinal.
Milos Zeman, 68, makes no secret of his drinking. But on this occasion – a rare and highly-ceremonial public display of the Czech crown jewels last week – his office insisted he simply had a virus and subsequently needed a day or two of rest.
Since then, the video has prompted a storm of social media gags. Czechs – by far the biggest beer drinkers in the world per capita – have been posting pictures of themselves in bars getting drunk with slogans like: “Here I am getting a virus”, or “Heading out for a virus”.
Milos Zeman, a chain smoker and lover of fatty foods, often extols the virtues of booze. On one occasion, the president praised Winston Churchill for his love of whisky and pointed out that Adolf Hitler was a teetotaler and vegetarian – “and you know how he ended up”.
During a 1996 election campaign Milos Zeman said his campaign bus “drove on gas and Becherovka”, a popular Czech liquor. Two years later he became prime minister.
Footage shows President Milos Zeman clearly the worse for wear at a rare public display of the Czech crown jewels
A tabloid in the Czech Republic once claimed Milos Zeman told the paper he would drink on average six glasses of wine – plus three shots – on any given day.
His unsuccessful rival in this year’s presidential election, the nobleman Karel Schwarzenberg, couldn’t help but take a swipe at his opponent’s taste for alcohol.
“Milos Zeman was in my opinion one of the most intelligent prime ministers this country has ever had,” Karel Schwarzenberg said during the campaign.
“And had he not drunk so much he’d have been a really good prime minister,” he added.
Milos Zeman insists he’s so used to drinking that it never has any ill effects, and he has openly challenged anyone to prove otherwise.
“If anyone has ever seen me drunk in my life, tell me when,” Milos Zeman said during the presidential election campaign.
Miroslava Nemcova, the speaker for Parliament’s lower house and one of seven holders of the keys to the Czech crown jewels, was the only person at last week’s event to comment on Milos Zeman’s appearance.
“I saw what you saw,” she was quoted as saying on the Lidove Noviny daily’s website Friday.
Ariel Castro, who is accused of imprisoning three women for a decade in his house in Cleveland, will plead not guilty to all charges, his lawyers say.
Ariel Castro, 52, is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were abducted at different times and held in Ariel Castro’s house in Cleveland. Amanda Berry escaped earlier this month and raised the alarm.
“He’s not a monster and he shouldn’t be demonized,” said lawyer Jaye Schlachet.
Speaking to the AFP news agency, he added that details of Ariel Castro’s innocence “will be disclosed as the case progresses”.
Craig Weintraub, another defense lawyer, told WKYC-TV that his client “loves dearly” Jocelyn, the child he fathered with 27-year-old Amanda Berry – one of the three alleged kidnap victims.
The defense lawyers said they had spent four hours speaking to Ariel Castro in prison.
Prosecutors in Ohio have said they also plan to seek aggravated murder charges that could carry the death penalty.
The charges relate to alleged forced miscarriages suffered by one victim.
Ariel Castro, who is accused of imprisoning three women for a decade in his house in Cleveland, will plead not guilty to all charges
The prosecutors are still preparing their case against Ariel Castro and there has yet to be an arraignment hearing.
Ariel Castro made his first court appearance in Cleveland on May 9 without entering a plea.
County prosecutor Brian Murphy told that hearing: “The charges against Mr. Castro are based on premeditated, deliberate, depraved decisions to snatch three young ladies from Cleveland West Side streets to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit.”
He is charged with four counts of kidnapping, covering the three initial abduction victims and Jocelyn, Amanda Berry’s six-year-old daughter, who was apparently conceived and born in captivity.
The former school bus driver also faces three counts of rape, one against each woman.
Bail was set at $8 million, meaning in effect that he has remained in custody ever since. He is currently on suicide watch and is being kept in isolation.
According to CBS News, Ariel Castro confessed to his crimes in a long, hand-written letter found in the house, which investigators believe may have been intended as a suicide note.
In the 2004-dated letter Ariel Castro said he had been raped as a child by his uncle and was also abused by his parents, a law enforcement source told CBS News.
Ariel Castro reportedly called himself a “sexual predator”, but he also asked to donate all his money to his victims after his death.
His two brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, also appeared in court on unrelated charges. They had been arrested, but police found no evidence linking them to the crime.
Pedro Castro was fined $100 for public drinking, while two minor counts against Onil Castro were dropped.
Amanda Berry, whose disappearance in 2003 the day before her 17th birthday was widely publicized in the local media, escaped from Ariel Castro’s house by kicking the door and screaming for help while her alleged captor was out. His neighbor, Charles Ramsey, helped her to escape.
Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus were freed soon afterwards. They were all abducted after accepting rides from Ariel Castro, according to a police report leaked to the media.
US scientists announce that human cloning has been used to produce early embryos, marking a “significant step” for medicine.
The cloned embryos were used as a source of stem cells, which can make new heart muscle, bone, brain tissue or any other type of cell in the body.
The study, published in the journal Cell, used methods like those that produced Dolly the sheep in the UK.
However, researchers say other sources of stem cells may be easier, cheaper and less controversial.
Opponents say it is unethical to experiment on human embryos and have called for a ban.
Stem cells are one of the great hopes for medicine. Being able to create new tissue might be able to heal the damage caused by a heart attack or repair a severed spinal cord.
There are already trials taking place using stem cells taken from donated embryos to restore people’s sight.
However, these donated cells do not match the patient so they would be rejected by the body. Cloning bypasses this problem.
The technique used – somatic cell nuclear transfer – has been well-known since Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996.
The technique used for human cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer, has been well-known since Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be cloned
Skin cells were taken from an adult and the genetic information was placed inside a donor egg which had been stripped of its own DNA. Electricity was used to encourage the egg to develop into an embryo.
However, researchers have struggled to reproduce the feat in people. The egg does start dividing, but never goes past the 6-12 cell stage.
A South Korean scientist, Hwang Woo-suk, did claim to have created stem cells from cloned human embryos, but was found to have faked the evidence.
Now a team at the Oregon Health and Science University have developed the embryo to the blastocyst stage – around 150 cells – which is enough to provide a source of embryonic stem cells.
Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov said: “A thorough examination of the stem cells derived through this technique demonstrated their ability to convert just like normal embryonic stem cells, into several different cell types, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells.
“While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine.”
Embryonic stem cell research has repeatedly raised ethical concerns and human eggs are a scarce resource. This has led researchers to an alternative route to stem cells.
The technique takes the same sample of skin cells but converts them using proteins to “induced pluripotent” stem cells.
However, there are still questions about the quality of stem cells produced using this method compared with embryonic stem cells.
Opponents of the new technique argue that all embryos, whether created in the lab or not, have the potential to go on to become a fully-fledged human, and as such it is morally wrong to experiment on them.
They strongly advocate the use of stem cells from adult tissue.
However, advocates of the new technique say that the embryos created from this technique could never become viable human beings.
Thirteen deputy fire chiefs in Boston are calling for their boss to be fired over his handling of the Marathon bombing, saying that he did not take control of the situation.
Thirteen of the city’s fourteen deputy fire chiefs co-signed a letter telling that they have no confidence in Fire Chief Steve Abraira.
The Boston Globe obtained the letter that they wrote to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on April 26, just 11 days after the bombings at the finish line of the marathon killed three people and injured more than 250 others.
They argue that he did not take ownership of the chaotic scene when he arrived, choosing instead to allow the various deputies to lead and did not take charge himself.
“His justification for failing to take action is indefensible,” they wrote.
Thirteen of Boston’s fourteen deputy fire chiefs co-signed a letter telling that they have no confidence in Fire Chief Steve Abraira
The Boston Globe spoke with Steve Abraira who defended his actions, saying that is a “nationally accepted practice” for the top chief to continue to allow his deputies to handle the situation if everything seems to be working, rather than insert themselves into a situation that is already being controlled.
“When I got there I was comfortable with what was going on,” Steve Abraira told The Globe.
“You only take command [as chief] if there’s something going wrong or if you can strengthen the command position or if it’s overwhelming for the incident commander, and none of those things were in fact happening.”
The deputies- with the exception of one who did not sign the no-confidence letter- said that this is not the first time they have been disappointed by Steve Abraira’s actions.
They even mention an instance where there was a six-alarm fire in a Boston building and after he allegedly cleared the scene of being under control by the deputies, Steve Abraira went to the roof of the building next door to take a picture of himself with the flames in the background for his scrapbook.
Steve Abraira vehemently denied the story to The Globe, saying that it never happened.
One thing he doesn’t deny is that he changed the department’s protocol when he came into office in November 2011, making it so that he would not automatically become the so-called “incident commander” at a fire as soon as he arrived.
He justified the move saying that before changing the operating procedure, he polled 29 other city fire departments around the country and the only one that still made the Fire Chief the incident commander was in New Haven, Connecticut.
His deputies don’t see the move as one out of public safety but more out of self-preservation.
“[Steve Abraira] shields himself from immediate accountability while setting the stage for undermining the confidence and authority of his command staff. While acknowledging his ultimate accountability for department operations, he avoids on-the-scene responsibility,” they wrote in the letter.
So far, Boston higher powers have been supportive of Steve Abraira, who made history by being the city’s first Hispanic fire chief.
Fire commissioner Roderick Fraser told The Globe that he had “the utmost confidence in my entire staff, my entire command staff, including Chief Abraira”, and a spokesman for Mayor Menino said that he had “full confidence” in Fraser.
It was Prince Harry’s height – a lofty 6ft 2in – that has caught the eye of his latest admirer, none other than Miss USA Nana Meriwether.
Attending a celebrity-studded fund-raising reception at Manhattan’s famous Four Seasons Restaurant alongside Prince Harry, the raven-haired beauty (officially 6ft 1in, but 6ft 4ins in towering Zara heels) declared she was technically royalty in America, and wondered if Prince William’s younger brother was single and if he might be interested in making an honest woman of her.
Nana Meriwether said last night: “He is doing a wonderful job of representing your country here. Miss USA is like royalty in the States, so I am really hoping to meet him.
It was Prince Harry’s height, a lofty 6ft 2in, that has caught the eye of his latest admirer, none other than Miss USA Nana Meriwether
“He is single, right? Well so am I. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we married. And he is very tall and good looking, I hear. Perfect. We are meant to be.”
Celebrities and the super-rich queued last night to dine with Prince Harry, Manhattan’s man of the moment.
Prince Harry, 28, was guest of honor at a glitzy reception thrown by the American Friends of The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
Among the notable guests was Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am, Sean Lennon, son of Beatle John, Bright Lights Big City author John McInerney and his socialite and philanthropist wife Anne Hearst-Mcinerney, sister of Patti, and the daughter of publishing tycoon Randolph J Hearst.
Also joining the throng was Rudin real estate heiress Beth de Woody.
British PM David Cameron, who is also in New York and earlier attended an event with the prince, also leant his support.
New reports reveal that Angelina Jolie is now planning to have her ovaries removed, following a double mastectomy after discovering she’s a carrier of the BRCA1 gene.
Angelina Jolie, 37, made the brave decision to have three months of secret procedures after being told she had an 87% chance of contracting breast cancer.
Now, the actress is said to already be planning her next surgery – the removal of both her ovaries – as the gene means she has a 50% chance of developing ovarian cancer.
According to People magazine,Angelina Jolie is likely to have the next procedures before she turns 40, as doctors recommend having the surgery done after child-bearing age.
After the surgery, Angelina Jolie will no longer be able to have biological children, although she still has the option to adopt.
Angelina Jolie and her fiancé Brad Pitt currently have three biological children, Shiloh, 6, and 4-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, and three adopted children, Maddox, 11, Pax, nine, Zahara, 8.
The View host Barbara Walters revealed on the show on Tuesday that she had both of her ovaries removed after her sister died from ovarian cancer.
Angelina Jolie is now planning to have her ovaries removed, following a double mastectomy after discovering she’s a carrier of the BRCA1 gene
Barbara Walters explained: “It’s not like having the breasts removed because people don’t see it. But it’s a decision you have to make – it’s preventative.”
Angelina Jolie’s decision to remove her ovaries will likely be fuelled by the fact that she lost her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer at the age of 56.
Marcheline Bertrand died in January 2007 after an 8-year battle with the disease.
Prior to her passing, Marcheline Bertrand founded a charity called Give Love Give Life which spread awareness of the condition.
Angelina Jolie’s mother and her colleagues at the charity also successfully campaigned for Johanna’s Law to fund education into gynecological illnesses and got it signed into statute in the US.
Angelina Jolie revealed her decision to have the double mastectomy by writing an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday.
Ariel Castro had spools of barbed wired tossed about his backyard alongside heavy metal chains and rolls of tarp that he used to hide his neighbor’s view, new photographs reveal.
The collection of discarded items piled up in the garden of the “house of horrors” come in stark contrast to the discarded Barbie bicycle that was likely used by Jocelyn, the daughter Ariel Castro fathered with Amanda Berry.
Police have sealed the scene as they continue to search for clues inside the Seymour Avenue home in west Cleveland, but the photos show that Ariel Castro did much of the blocking off himself.
While police were the ones to replace the back door with a piece of fresh plywood, Ariel Castro had taken out the windows from the back of the house and completely blocked them with gray wood to keep any neighbors from looking into his home.
CNN obtained the photos from a neighbor who chose to remain anonymous.
It appears that the person hopped the fence into the yard because they were able to photograph certain items- like the child’s bike- at a very close distance.
Another chilling clue into Castro’s psyche is the fact that he installed mirrors above his back door.
Ariel Castro had spools of barbed wired tossed about his backyard alongside heavy metal chains and rolls of tarp that he used to hide his neighbor’s view
The angle at which they were left shows that he used them in order to see if anyone was coming up his driveway without his knowledge.
This confirms the story of former friends of Ariel Castro, who said that when they would go over to his home, he would always jump out from the back door as they were walking up, meaning that even if they were going over unannounced he knew they were coming.
The most dramatic items that were spotted in the backyard are the spools of barbed wire and the rusty chains.
Both were likely used to keep the three young women captive inside his home for roughly a decade.
Michelle Knight went missing in 2002, Amanda Berry in 2003 and Gina DeJesus in 2004, and all three were found alive in Ariel Castro’s home early last week.
Portions of their interviews with police have been released, including the disclosure that during the first few years of their captivity, the 52-year-old former bus driver used chains hanging from the basement ceiling to keep them under his control.
One of the pictured chains is lying close to a pulley, which suggests that it was like one used in the basement ceiling so that he would have been able to determine how taut or loose the chain was- and, in turn, how high off the ground the girls were forced to be.
The neighbor who took the photographs said that there were “hundreds” of chains scattered about the back yard.
Several items in the backyard would have looked ordinary to neighbors- as there are two red bicycles leaning against one of the fences that may have belonged to his grandchildren who visited the house and never knew about the captive women.
The same could be deducted for the toy basketball hoop.
That said, the decision to use large sheets of blue, green and gray tarp to hide his backyard from the neighbors’ houses only a stone’s throw away.
Police have boarded up the house – only the portions that he hadn’t blocked off already- as they continue to scour for evidence while preparing for Ariel Castro’s eventual trial.
The photographs came out on the same day as it was revealed that utility workers visited his home roughly 160 times in the ten years that the women were held against their will, but none of them reported any suspicious activity.
The young women were freed after one of them, Amanda Berry, was able to get the attention of a neighbor by breaking part of the front door when Ariel Castro had left “the big inside door” unlocked while going to McDonald’s last Monday.
Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were imprisoned in Ariel Castro’s Cleveland house in conditions described as similar to a prisoner of war camp and have suffered from severe malnutrition.
They will require long-term therapy for injuries such as hearing loss and joint and muscle damage, two sources with direct knowledge said.
The harrowing details come as Ariel Castro’s attorneys claim he’s not the “monster” depicted in news reports – and he will plead not guilty to kidnapping and rape charges.
Ariel Castro’s lawyer, Craig Weintraub, told WKYC-TV: “The initial portrayal by the media has been one of a <<monster>> and that’s not the impression that I got when I talked to him for three hours.
“I know that family members who have been interviewed by the media have expressed that as well.”
The basement where the women were held had chains coming from the wall, and dog leashes attached to the ceiling, the sources said.
The women were restrained with them and duct tape in “stress positions” for long periods that left them with bed sores and other injuries, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, who asked not to be identified.
Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were in worse condition than Amanda Berry when they emerged from at least nine years in captivity at the home of Ariel Castro, accused of kidnapping and raping the women.
Ariel Castro appeared to treat Amanda Berry – his “favorite” – better than the other two, the sources said.
“There is a reason why you have only seen a picture of Amanda,” said one of the sources, referring to the condition of Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were imprisoned in Ariel Castro’s Cleveland house in conditions described as similar to a prisoner of war camp and have suffered from severe malnutrition
Michelle Knight told investigators she fell pregnant five times, but lost the baby each time. She said that Ariel Castro starved and repeatedly punched her in the stomach to force her to miscarry.
Police sources told the National Enquirer that Ariel Castro had no interest in having children with Michelle Knight, because she was only 4-foot-7 and believed her to be “mentally disabled”.
The magazine’s source added that Ariel Castro was grooming his 6-year-old daughter with Amanda Berry, Jocelyn, as another sex slave because the other captives “were getting to old for him”.
Amanda Berry, who broke down a door to freedom a week ago with the help of a neighbor, and then told police of the other women, was photographed smiling immediately after the dramatic rescue.
In contrast, Gina DeJesus wore a hooded sweat-shirt covering her head when she first went home last week, and Michelle Knight was hospitalized for days, and has stayed out of public view.
The sources said Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were gaunt and had closely cropped hair when they were freed.
One of the sources, who has been in the house, said the basement had chains coming from the walls and “dog leashes attached to the ceiling”, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus told police they spent extensive time in the basement.
A second source corroborated the details.
“One of the girls has difficulty moving her head around from being chained up,” said one of the sources. The second source identified Gina DeJesus as the woman suffering this injury.
“It was like they were POWs [prisoners of war]. They had bed sores from being left in positions for extended lengths of time,” a source said.
All the bedroom doors in the house had padlocks on the outside and the rooms were spare with only a mattress on the floor. Their movement through the house was very restricted, the women have told authorities.
“If he left for long periods of time he would sometimes duct tape-up the women over all parts of their faces, even their eyes, only leaving an opening so they could breathe. Then he would just rip it off pulling off skin and hair,” one of the sources said.
A police report said Michelle Knight was starved for weeks at a time and punched in the stomach to induce several miscarriages. A county prosecutor intends to file fetal homicide charges against Ariel Castro in connection with the miscarriages.
The women, especially Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, were now exhibiting signs of malnutrition as Ariel Castro used food as a means to torment them, one of the sources said.
“He would bring food to one or two of the girls and made the others watch as they or he would eat in front of them,” the source said.
Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus would sneak food to each other, this source said.
Ariel Castro generally kept one woman upstairs and the other two – usually Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus – in the basement, the source said.
Despite their ordeal, a Cleveland city council member stressed that the women are reveling in their freedom.
“They are doing well, doing very well. They are thriving and enjoying their freedom,” City Councilman Brian Cummins said on Monday.
The sources asked to be anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the record. They were discussing some of the details of the captivity because they felt tight information control had left the impression that authorities ignored calls and reports about Ariel Castro’s house that could have freed the women sooner.
Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath on Monday issued a statement defending the police department’s policy of restricting information on the crimes.
“The disclosure of sensitive information and details of these horrendous crimes only further victimize three young women. The criticism of law enforcement efforts is disheartening. The dissemination of misinformation erodes the critical relationship between law enforcement and community,” Michael McGrath said.
Little is known about the relationship among the three women. Michelle Knight, who is now 32, Amanda Berry, 27 and Gina DeJesus, 23, have not spoken publicly.
