A photo of dead Boston bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the morgue emerged on the Internet via the popular social sharing site Reddit just hours after he passed away on April 19.
The extremely graphic image was posted by user nfieldflyer on Friday, under the title “Suspect #1 … in the morgue. NSFW.”
The user claims the photo was obtained by a “friend” who works downtown. Typical for images posted to Reddit, the photo itself is being hosted on Imgur.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts on April 19
As far as the photo’s authenticity, law enforcement sources have confirmed to TMZ that the image is real. One source told the website that authorities are investigating to determine who leaked the photo.
At one point, the image even managed to break through and reach the front page of Reddit, but apparently was pushed off.
For those who want details, but do not want to view the image, the picture shows the corpse of the 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev lying on what appears to be a morgue table.
Multiple bullet wounds can be seen, as well as a large gash along the left side of his chest in the area of his rib cage. According to specialists, the large wound is a thoracotomy, an evidence of an emergency procedure to restart his heart. Iodine traces being evident around the wound’s perimeter .
The body is covered in blood, particularly on his face. His mouth and both eyes are wide open.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts on April 19.
Chris Brown sparked rumors of splitting from Rihanna when he was joined by his ex Karrueche Tran at his birthday party on Friday, with his girlfriend nowhere in sight.
Chris Brown celebrated his 24th birthday – which is actually on May 5th – at the Emerson nightclub in Los Angeles.
Rumors have been circulating that there may be trouble in paradise once again for Chris Brown and Rihanna, which was only made worse by Karrueche Tran’s attendance.
However, source told HollywoodLife.com that Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran are “cool friends” and Rihanna is OK with them hanging out from time to time.
It appears Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran are cool friends and Rihanna is OK with them hanging out from time to time
The insider added that Chris Brown and Rihanna are “into each other way too f***ing much” to let his friendship with Karrueche Tran come between them.
Chris Brown, who is still on probation for violently beating Rihanna in 2009, previously revealed he would always have a soft spot for his former flame Karrueche Tran – who was recently said to have moved on with NBA star John Wall – because she supported him during the worst time in his life.
The singer said: “She was my friend through it all. It was a friendship more than a relationship. I still love her, but at the end of the day, it’s like I got love for her. She gone always be my homie!”
Chris Brown also said he wishes “all the best to her. We still have a clothing line. I only want her to progress. I don’t want to stop her blessings”.
He is set to host a huge birthday bash in 1 Oak nightclub in Las Vegas on Saturday and is trying to convince Rihanna to join him for the night after she was forced to postpone her concert in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday because the Brooklyn Nets need the venue to compete in the playoffs.
A source said: “That’s his number one and he wishes she could be with him on his birthday just like he was with her.
“But that’s just how it goes sometime. They can’t be together every second.”
Rihanna is currently in New York for her Diamonds World Tour, and sources have revealed that work commitments are preventing the couple from finding much time to spend together.
A source told HollywoodLife: “It’s up and down sometimes, the s**t is even sideways. Every time some s**t pops off between them, they blast that s**t all over social media, and they shouldn’t.
“But when they’re far apart, that’s how they act out towards each other when one of them doesn’t get their own way. It’s crazy as f**k, but it’s how they get down.”
Chris Brown hit LA to celebrate his upcoming birthday with some famous friends and tasty treats.
He was joined by Christina Milian, David Hasslehoff, Chloe Green and ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran as he partied the night away at indulged in delicious cupcakes.
Honey Boo Boo’s mom, June Shannon, is wedding her beau Sugar Bear in a ceremony in Georgia, on Sunday, according to TMZ.com.
Mama June and Sugar Bear, whose real name is Mike Thompson, met on an online chat room nine years ago and hit it off.
Honey Boo Boo’s mom, June Shannon, is wedding her beau Sugar Bear in a ceremony in Georgia, on Sunday
They got together and Alana Thompson, aka Honey Boo Boo, was born two years later.
According to TMZ, cameras will capture the ceremony for the reality TV show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and guests have reportedly been told that no cell phones or cameras will be allowed at the wedding.
June Shannon and her daughter Alana Thompson shot to fame after appearing on reality show Toddlers and Tiaras before landing their own programme, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Honey Boo Boo will be making her UK debut soon, as her successful reality show will air on TLC’s new channel in the country.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is one of many of the American broadcaster’s shows to screen in the UK when it launches next month.
While Peter Stefan’s funeral home in Worcester, Massachusetts, is being protested, the owner says he is desperate for a gravesite as cemeteries all refuse to take Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body.
However, a determined funeral director charged with burying the body of the Boston bomber says everyone deserves a dignified burial regardless of the circumstances of their death.
Peter Stefan said dozens of protesters have gathered outside the Graham, Putnam& Mahoney Funeral Parlors, upset with his decision to handle the service.
“My problem here is trying to find a gravesite. A lot of people don’t want to do it. They don’t want to be involved with this,” Peter Stefan said.
“I keep bringing up the point of Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh or Ted Bundy. Somebody had to do those, too.”
Every cemetery in Massachusetts has turned down the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Peter Stefan told Fox News, but he remains insistent that this death be handled like any other. It is also understood that Peter Stefan has reached out unsuccessfully to cemeteries in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Peter Stefan firmly intended to provide Tamerlan Tsarnaev with tradition Muslim funeral rites, which some protestors take issue with.
It was unclear who, if any, among the deceased’s family would step in to ensure the rites – such as the ritual bathing and shrouding of the body – were undertaken according to the religion’s traditions.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, arrived in Worcester from his Maryland home to take care of the burial arrangements
Then, on Sunday, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, arrived in Worcester from his Maryland home to take care of the arrangements.
Ruslan Tsarni chose to step in, he said, because “no one wants to associate their names with such evil events” and because religion and tradition call for his nephew to be buried.
“I’m dealing with logistics,” he said.
“A dead person must be buried.”
Ruslan Tsarni and three of his friends met with Peter Stefan Sunday afternoon.
Some picketers believe Tamerlan Tsarnaev should be buried at sea, similar to what was done with the body of Osama bin Laden.
Other protestors simply did not want Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s remains in their town, like retired firefighter Ronald Wahlers.
“It’s going to give this neighborhood a bad name,” Ronald Wahlers, who has lived in Worcester for a year and a half, told the Boston Globe.
“This guy doesn’t belong here.”
Peter Stefan disagrees: “I can’t control the circumstances of somebody’s death, or what they’ve done, or how they’ve died.
At least three people died and other 60 have been injured during clashes between police and Islamist protesters of Hefajat-e-Islam in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.
Up to half a million protesters gathered in Dhaka, where rioters set fire to shops and vehicles as police fought to contain them.
Thousands of activists from Hefajat-e-Islam blocked highways, isolating Dhaka from other parts of the country.
They are calling for those who insult Islam to face the death penalty.
Up to half a million protesters gathered in Dhaka, where rioters set fire to shops and vehicles as police fought to contain them
They also want greater segregation of men and women, as well as the imposition of stricter Islamic education.
Hefajat-e-Islam’s opposition to a national development policy for women has angered women’s groups.
The group draws its strength from the country’s madrassahs, or religious schools.
But the government, which describes Bangladesh as a secular democracy, has rejected the group’s demand for a new law on blasphemy.
PM Sheikh Hasina said current legislation was adequate.
Chanting “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is greatest!”) and “One point! One demand! Atheists must be hanged”, the activists marched down at least six main roads, AFP news agency reported.
They headed for Motijheel, Dhaka’s main commercial district.
The area around the city centre’s largest mosque turned into a battleground as police reacted to stone-throwing rioters with tear gas, rubber bullets and truncheons.
Three people were killed with at least one dying of gunshot wounds.
Reports spoke of some 60 people being injured, including two local TV journalists.
A Hefajat-e-Islam activist, Hossain Soliman Abdullah, said the main aim of the protest was to press for the implementation of a 13-point demand inspired by the Koran.
Dhaka’s Daily Star newspaper reports that the group hired at least 3,000 vehicles, including buses, lorries and minibuses to bring demonstrators into the capital, while others travelled there by train.
On Friday, PM Sheikh Hasina said the government had already met many of the group’s demands.
“Many of these have already been implemented while some are in the process,” she was quoted as telling the Daily Star.
Sheikh Hasina said the government had already arrested four bloggers for making “derogatory comments” against the Prophet Muhammad and they would be prosecuted if found guilty.
Muslims make up nearly 90% of Bangladesh’s population with the rest mostly Hindus.
Five women died and four were injured when a stretch limo caught fire on the San Mateo bridge near San Francisco on Saturday night.
Only the male driver escaped unhurt during the incident at 20 miles south-east of San Francisco, a police spokesman said.
The victims, said to be in their 30s, were trapped as fire engulfed the back of the car, which had stopped.
Amateur video footage showed the white car ablaze in the darkness.
No other vehicle appears to have been involved in the incident and police are still trying to determine the cause.
The fire was reported around 10 p.m. on Saturday on the bridge which connects San Mateo and Alemada counties at Foster City.
Five women died and four were injured when a stretch limo caught fire on the San Mateo bridge near San Francisco on Saturday night
When smoke began to pour from back of the limo, the driver quickly pulled over but fire spread rapidly.
Four women managed to get out but one had severe burns while the others suffered minor injuries including smoke inhalation, according to local broadcaster KTVU. They were taken to local hospitals.
The westbound lanes of the bridge were closed as police investigated, but one lane of traffic re-opened early on Sunday.
Details of the victims were not released as the authorities sought to notify their families.
“We have no idea right now where they were going or where they were coming from,” California Highway Patrol officer Amelia Jack told KGO-TV.
Stretch limousines, usually designed to carry groups of six adults or more, are typically hired for celebrations such as school proms or pre-wedding parties.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of Boston bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, appeared in photos of her as a younger woman wearing a low-cut blouse and having her hair teased like a 1980s rock star.
After she arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 2002, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva went to beauty school and did facials at a suburban day spa.
But in recent years, people noticed a change. The Boston bombers’ mother began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims.
Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
In another, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, 45, insists there is no mystery. She’s no terrorist, just someone who found a deeper spirituality. She insists her sons – Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a gunfight with police, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was wounded and captured – are innocent.
“It’s all lies and hypocrisy,” she told The Associated Press in Dagestan.
“I’m sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I’ve never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva arrived in the U.S. in 2002, settling in a working-class section of Cambridge, Massachusetts. With four children, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva qualified for food stamps and were on and off public assistance benefits for years. The large family squeezed itself into a third-floor apartment.
She took classes at the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics, before becoming a state-licensed aesthetician. Anzor Tsarnaev, who had studied law, fixed cars.
By some accounts, the family was tolerant.
Bethany Smith, a New Yorker who befriended Zubeidat Tsarnaeva’s two daughters, said in an interview with Newsday that when she stayed with the family for a month in 2008 while she looked at colleges, she was welcomed even though she was Christian and had tattoos.
“I had nothing but love over there. They accepted me for who I was,” Bethany Smith told the newspaper.
“Their mother, Zubeidat, she considered me to be a part of the family. She called me her third daughter.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said she and her son Tamerlan began to turn more deeply into their Muslim faith about five years ago after being influenced by a family friend, named “Misha”.
The man, whose full name she didn’t reveal but later was identified as Mikhail Allakhverdov, impressed her with a religious devotion that was far greater than her own, even though he was an ethnic Armenian who converted to Islam.
“I wasn’t praying until he prayed in our house, so I just got really ashamed that I am not praying, being a Muslim, being born Muslim. I am not praying. Misha, who converted, was praying,” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said.
By then, she had left her job at the day spa and was giving facials in her apartment. One client, Alyssa Kilzer, noticed the change when Zubeidat Tsarnaeva put on a head scarf before leaving the apartment.
“She had never worn a hijab while working at the spa previously, or inside the house, and I was really surprised,” Alyssa Kilzer wrote in a post on her blog.
“She started to refuse to see boys that had gone through puberty, as she had consulted a religious figure and he had told her it was sacrilegious. She was often fasting.”
Alyssa Kilzer wrote that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was a loving and supportive mother, and she felt sympathy for her plight after the April 15 bombings.
But the woman stopped visiting the family’s home for spa treatments in late 2011 or early 2012 when, during one session, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva “started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me that she thought 9/11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims”.
“It’s real,” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said, according to Alyssa Kilzer.
“My son knows all about it. You can read on the Internet.”
In the spring of 2010, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva’s eldest son, Tamerlan, got married in a ceremony at a Boston mosque that no one in the family had previously attended. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife, Katherine Russell, a Rhode Island native and convert from Christianity, now have a three-year-old daughter, Zahara.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva married into a Chechen family but was an outsider. She is an Avar, from one of the dozens of ethnic groups in Dagestan. Her native village is now a hotbed of an ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Salafism or Wahabbism.
It is unclear whether religious differences fueled tension in their family. Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva divorced in 2011.
About the same time, there was a brief FBI investigation into Tamerlan Tsarnaev, prompted by a tip from Russia’s security service.
The vague warning from the Russians was that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, an amateur boxer in the U.S., was a follower of radical Islam who had changed drastically since 2010.
That led the FBI to interview Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 at the family’s home in Cambridge. Officials ultimately placed his name, and his mother’s name, on various watch lists, but the inquiry was closed in late spring of 2011.
After the bombings, Russian authorities told U.S. investigators they had secretly recorded a phone conversation in which Zubeidat Tsarnaeva had vaguely discussed jihad with Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The Russians also recorded Zubeidat Tsarnaeva talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.
Anzor Tsarnaev’s brother, Ruslan Tsarni, told the AP from his home in Maryland that he believed his former sister-in-law had a “big-time influence” on her older son’s growing embrace of his Muslim faith and decision to quit boxing and school.
While Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living in Russia for six months in 2012, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who had remained in the U.S., was arrested at a shopping mall in the suburb of Natick, Massachusetts, and accused of trying to shoplift $1,624 worth of women’s clothing from a department store.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva failed to appear in court to answer the charges that fall, and instead left the country.
According to criminal complaint, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college friend Dias Kadyrbayev sent a text warning him that his fast was all over the news, the Boston bomber responded with “lol” (universal text message-speak for a joke).
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, then told his pal Dias Kadyrbayev: “You better not text me.”
Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, is one of three of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college friends arrested on Wednesday by federal authorities and accused of trying to cover the suspected terrorist’s tracks by throwing away his computer and a backpack full of firearms.
He and Azamat Tazhayakov, both Kazakh nationals, were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by destroying evidence. American citizen Robel Phillipos is charged with knowingly and willfully making false statements to investigators.
The three young men were friends of Dzhokhar Tsarneav at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, where the bomb suspect was a promising student.
According to the criminal complaint from federal authorities, Dias Kadyrbayev sent a text message to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on April 18 after the FBI released surveillance images of him at the Boston Marathon with his brother Tamerlan.
Dias Kadyrbayev warned his friend that that he was plastered across TV News.
“Tsarnaev’s return texts contained <<lol>> and other things KADYRBAYEV interpreted as jokes,” documents say.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also wrote: “You better not text me” and “Come to my room and take whatever you want”.
Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov were identified as the two friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who have been arrested on April 20
Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov had already been in police custody for more than a week at the time of their arrest because they were previously questioned about their license plate that reads “TERRORISTA#1”. Authorities then held them on immigration issues because they are in the country illegally after their academic visas expired.
The nature of these charges suggests that none of these young men helped plan the fatal Marathon bombing, which left three dead and more than 260 injured, but they did work to cover Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s tracks from investigators and evade capture.
The detailed criminal complaint goes through the timeline of events according to each of the 19-year-olds, all of whom met Dzhokhar Tsarnaev when they started school at UMASS-Dartmouth in the same semester in the fall of 2011.
Like many throughout Boston, none of the three boys had any inkling that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was involved until the FBI released pictures of the two suspects.
On the same day that the FBI released pictures and video clips of the Tsarnaev brothers at the bomb scene, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov removed items from the younger bomber’s dorm room.
That was just two days before the FBI searched the room.
The criminal complaint lists that they removed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s backpack from his room and “agreed to get rid of it after concluding from news reports that Tsarnaev was one of the Boston Marathon bombers”.
The three friends- Dias Kadyrbayev, Azamat Tazhayakov and Robel Phillipos- went over to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s on-campus dormitory after seeing the news reports.
When the group arrived at the dorm, Dias Kadyrbayev showed Azamat Tazhayakov a text from the bomber that said: “I’m about to leave if you need something in my room take it.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not specify where he was going, but Azamat Tazhayakov told investigators that he felt that this meant he would never see Tsarnaev alive again.
They were let in the room by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s roommate, who said that Dzhokhar had been there just a few hours earlier.
The criminal complaint says that when there, the three friends watched a movie.
Dias Kadyrbayev “knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the Marathon bombing”.
Azamat Tazhayakov was more alarmed because the tubes had been emptied but not destroyed, meaning that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could have either used the explosives or planned to use them.
Kadyrbayev found Vaseline in the room, which he told the others Tsarnaev used to make bombs.
At one point in the police interviews, Azamat Tazhayakev said that during a meal a month before the attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told he and Dias Kadyrbayev that he knew how to make a bomb.
Dias Kadyrbayev was reportedly the one who “decided to remove the backpack from the room in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble”.
In a slightly unexpected explanation, Dias Kadyrbayev says that he took Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s laptop because he did not want to the roommate to think that he was “stealing or behaving suspiciously by just taking the backpack”.
Though the release of the photos is the first time that alarm bells went off in the students’ minds, it is not the first time that they interacted with the bomber since Monday April 15.
Both Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov- who shared an apartment in New Bedford- spent time with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev two days after the bombing.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev met with Dias Kadyrbayev briefly, where Kadyrbayev noted that Dzhokhar “appeared to have given himself a short haircut”.
Azamat Tazahayakov told police that he spent more time with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev earlier that same day, when Tsarnaev drove him to his off-campus apartment after class and then they spent time hanging out in the apartment.
During multiple interviews, American Robel Phillipos lied about various parts of the story- at first saying that he never went to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm room, then saying that they didn’t remove anything, then saying that they went to the dorm but it was locked and they never entered.
After repeating false versions of the same story, Robel Phillipos recanted his previous testimony in the fourth interview on April 26.
The gravity of the situation did not appear to hit Robel Phillipos until after the trio returned to the off-campus apartment and they “started to freak out, because it became clear from a CNN report that we were watching that Jahar [Dzhokhar Tsarnaev] was one of the Boston Marathon bombers”.
The Boston police were the first to announce the arrests via Twitter, and they followed up their initial tweet by confirming that there is no threat to public safety.
Buckwild star Salwa Amin was jailed in March without bail after getting busted for Oxycodone and heroin possession.
Now Salwa Amin is being released from prison temporarily to undergo treatment in a rehabilitation centre.
According toTMZ, Salwa Amin will temporarily leave Central Regional Jail in West Virginia jail to enter a impatient rehab to undergo treatment for opiate use.
On Monday the decision was made in a West Virginia courtroom.
Salwa Amin is being released from prison temporarily to undergo treatment in a rehabilitation centre
Once Salwa Amin, 24, completes her rehab stint, she will head right back to jail until a hearing is set for her original drug possession charges.
Back in February, Salwa Amin was arraigned in Nicholas County Magistrate Court on felony charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
State police said at the time that a multi-agency task force arrested Salwa Amin and two others at a home in Summersville after receiving a tip from an informant.
Officers said they found oxycodone pills and heroin.
Jail Administrative Sgt. Rick Drake said at the time that Salwa Amin didn’t want to talk to the media.
Amanda Bynes is reportedly back in contact with her parents after revealing on Twitter several week ago that she was estranged from her family.
A source told RadarOnline.com on Friday that Amanda Bynes “reconnected with her parents this week and it was a really positive talk on both ends”.
The insider elaborated: “Her parents are good people who are genuinely concerned for her. And Amanda misses them, so she finally called them up.”
The successful conversation may even lead to an East Coast physical reunion between New York City-based Amanda Bynes and her parents, who have remained in Los Angeles throughout her myriad antics.
Amanda Bynes is reportedly back in contact with her parents after revealing on Twitter several week ago that she was estranged from her family
“Amanda’s parents really want to see her so they’re thinking of flying out to New York as early as next week.
“The last place Amanda wants to be is Los Angeles. She likes New York and doesn’t want to leave,” the source added.
Earlier in April, Amanda Bynes alarmed followers on Twitter when she confessed she’d severed communication with her parents, Rick and Lynn: “I don’t speak to my parents anymore, they don’t talk to reporters on my behalf.
“Don’t believe anything you read about me unless I tweet it.”
Amanda Bynes’ recent bizarre behavior, which includes posting a collection of increasingly lascivious self-portraits from her bathroom, shaving one side of her head and publicly smoking marijuana, has prompted widespread concern from fans and family members alike.
The actress appears to be spending most of her time alone with the majority of her social interactions occurring on Twitter, where she’s accrued nearly one million followers.
On Thursday, Amanda Bynes, 27, added to the online portfolio by posting two snaps of herself wearing a blonde wig with a thick fringe and green streaks.
Malaysia is voting in what is widely expected to be the most closely contested general election in the country’s history.
PM Najib Razak’s Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition is up against Pakatan Rakyat, a three-party alliance headed by Anwar Ibrahim.
Malaysian PM Najib Razak’s Barisan Nasional coalition is up against Pakatan Rakyat, a three-party alliance headed by Anwar Ibrahim
Voters are faced with returning the ruling party, in power for 56 years, or choosing an untested opposition.
Ahead of the polls, allegations of various forms of fraud emerged.
At polling station in the capital Kuala Lumpur queues had formed well before voting began.
Analysts say that for the first time since Malaysia’s independence in 1957, there is a real possibility that the opposition may be able to unseat the ruling party. Opinion polls suggest support for the two sides is evenly matched.
The possibility of an end to more than half a century of one-party rule has made this the hardest-fought election anyone can remember.
The hunger for change, especially among younger Malaysians, has given the opposition real momentum during the campaign.
But the ruling party has significant advantages in the cash it has spent on crowd-pleasing hand-outs, and in the way Malaysia’s parliamentary system over-represents rural areas, where the government’s support is strongest.
Nearly eight million people cast ballots in the first four hours of voting, comprising almost 60% of the 13.3 million registered voters, the election commission said.
Barisan Nasional, while credited with bringing economic development and political stability, has also been tainted by allegations of corruption.
But it remains to be seen whether Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition, comprising parties of different ethnicities and religions, can persuade voters to choose an alternative government.
Najib Razak, 59, said he was confident that Malaysians would retain his coalition and even return the two-thirds parliamentary majority Barisan Nasional lost in the 2008 polls.
During the last four years, Najib Razak said during a campaign rally on Thursday, the coalition had proved it could “protect and benefit all Malaysians”.
“The task of transformation is not over yet,” he told supporters in his home state of Pahang on Saturday.
Mohamed Rafiq Idris, a car business owner waiting to vote in the central state of Selangor, told the Associated Press news agency the ruling coalition had made “some mistakes” but he believed it would do its best to take care of the people’s welfare.
But first-time voter Bernie Lim, a banker, said: “I grew up recognizing that my parents voted for the present coalition at almost every general election. This time, they voted for the opposition. People do change.”
Anwar Ibrahim, 65, has said people’s clamor for change means that Pakatan Rakyat will emerge victorious.
“People have enough of this semi-authoritarian rule, of complete [government] control of the media, of strong arrogance, of power and endemic corruption,” he told AP in an interview.
He advised supporters “to remain calm, not to be provoked, not to take the law into their own hands, support the process”.
“Unless there’s a major massive fraud tomorrow – that is our nightmare – we will win,” he told AFP news agency.
Allegations of election fraud surfaced before the election. Some of those who voted in advance complained that indelible ink – supposed to last for days – easily washed off.
The opposition has also accused the government of funding flights for supporters to key states, which the government denies.
Independent pollster Merdeka Center has received unconfirmed reports of foreign nationals being given IDs and allowed to vote.
The international organization Human Rights Watch said there had been well-planned attacks against the country’s independent media ahead of the polls.
It said on Thursday that readers were unable to access several online news sites providing coverage of opposition candidates.
Officially, just 18 foreign electoral observers are in Malaysia. They are joined by 1,200 local observers from 17 non-governmental organizations.
The electoral commission said on Saturday that the foreign observers comprised six each from Indonesia and Thailand, and two each from Burma, Cambodia and the ASEAN secretariat.
Syrian state television has reported that Israeli rockets have hit Jamraya army research centre near Damascus.
Witnesses heard huge explosions near the Jamraya facility, and residents said nearby military positions were also hit.
The Jamraya site was the target of an Israeli strike in January.
Earlier, unnamed Israeli officials said that on Friday Israeli aircraft had attacked a shipment of missiles inside Syria.
Israeli rockets have hit Jamraya army research centre near Damascus
The missiles were believed to be destined for Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon.
The latest attacks come amid reports of massacres in a campaign of sectarian cleansing near the coastal region of central Syria.
Heavy explosions shook Damascus overnight. Amateur footage posted online claimed to show the blasts at the Jamraya research centre, on Mount Qassioun overlooking Damascus.
Residents said military bases in the area had also been hit.
Syrian state media said the attack showed that there was an organic link between Israel and the rebels.
“The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups, which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army,” state TV said, referring to recent offensives by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted eyewitnesses in the area as saying they saw jets in the sky at the time of the explosions.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on the latest explosions.
Israeli officials have confirmed their forces have carried out two air strikes on Syrian targets this year.
The first attack, in January, apparently targeted the Jamraya facility.
The second, two days ago, targeted a consignment of missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In a separate development, hundreds of Syrian families have fled the coastal area of central Syria amid reports of massacres.
Activists said that more than 100 people, including women and children, were killed in the Sunni village of al-Bayda and the nearby coastal town of Baniyas.
More than 70,000 people are estimated to have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has stopped co-operating with authorities as it emerged female DNA found on one of the detonated bombs does not belong to her.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was later killed in a gunfight with authorities, called his wife in the hours after the FBI released surveillance images of him and his younger brother, Dzhokhar.
But only Katherine Russell, 24, knows what was said in the conversation, as she has stopped cooperating with authorities over recent days, the New York Times reported.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has stopped co-operating with authorities as it emerged female DNA found on one of the detonated bombs does not belong to her
Authorities are skeptical of Katherine Russell’s insistence that she played no role in the Boston attack or in helping the Tsarnaev brothers escape the authorities following the release of the photographs, the Times reported.
A source told CNN that the bombs were built in the apartment that Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with Katherine Russell and their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara. Residue samples were found on the kitchen table, the kitchen sink, and the bathtub, the source said.
Katherine Russell’s silence comes as sources told the newspaper that the fingerprints and female DNA found on at least one of the bombs did not belong to her. Authorities had taken a sample from her this week.
Spokesman Jason Pack confirmed that agents investigating the Boston bombings visited the North Kingstown home of Katherine Russell’s parents, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow has been staying since the Boston Marathon attacks.
Following Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbaev arrest in the Boston Marathon bombings for obstructing justice, the Homeland Security Department ordered border agents “effective immediately” to verify that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa.
Azamat Tazhayakov, one of the three college students who were arrested on Wednesday, was able to get into the U.S. illegally on expired student visas, prompting the government’s first formal security change directly related to the April 15 attack.
The student visa for Azamat Tazhayakov had been terminated when he arrived in New York on January 20 but the border agent in the airport did not have access to the information about it in the Homeland Security Department’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, called SEVIS.
Kazakh Azamat Tazhayakov, 19, was a friend and classmate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
He left the U.S. in December and returned January 20, but earlier that month his student-visa status was terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university.
Azamat Tazhayakov and a second Kazakh student were arrested this week on federal charges of obstruction of justice. They were accused of helping to get rid of a backpack containing fireworks linked to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A third student, American citizen Robel Phillipos, was also arrested and accused of lying to authorities.
Azamat Tazhayakov was able to get into the U.S. illegally on expired student visa, prompting the government’s first formal security change directly related to the Boston attack
Dias Kadyrbaev, 19, called his dad and described their arrest as something out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
“He told me on the phone: <<Dad, we have been arrested just like in an American movie. They came over in armored vehicles with a platoon of officers, with guns and laser lights. They undressed us. It started snowing. But we were standing like that until the search of our apartment ended. I am home now, we have been released, everything is all right, don’t worry Dad>>,” the father Murat Kadyrbaev told a Russian television station.
A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, Peter Boogaard, said earlier this week that the government was working to fix the problem, which allowed Azamat Tazhayakov to be admitted into the country when he returned to the U.S.
Under existing procedures, border agents could verify a student’s status in SEVIS only when the person was referred to a second officer for additional inspection or questioning.
Azamat Tazhayakov was not sent to a second officer when he arrived. Under the new procedures, all border agents were expected to be able to access SEVIS by next week.
The U.S. government for years has recognized as a problem the inability of border agents at primary inspection stations to directly review student-visa information.
The Homeland Security Department was working before the Boston bombings to resolve the problem, but the new memo outlined interim procedures until the situation was corrected.
Under the new procedures, border agents will verify a student’s visa status before the person arrives in the U.S. using information provided in flight manifests.
If that information is unavailable, border agents will check the visa status manually with the agency’s national targeting data center.
The Obama administration announced an internal review earlier this week of how U.S. intelligence agencies shared sensitive information before the bombings and whether the government could have prevented the attack.
Republicans in Congress have promised oversight hearings, which begin Thursday next week.
Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday for details from the student visa applications of Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, including information about how Tazhayakov re-entered the United States.
Lawmakers and others have long been concerned about terrorists exploiting the student visa system to travel to the U.S.
A 20-year-old college student from Saudi Arabia was arrested in Texas in 2011 on federal charges of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Authorities accused him of plotting to blow up dams, nuclear plants or the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush. He was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
The FBI is now focusing on Katherine Russell Tsarnaev after federal officials investigating the Boston bombings have discovered radical Islamist materials on a computer belonging to the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, 24, has repeatedly claimed through her attorney that she knew nothing about the deadly April 15 bombings allegedly set off by her late husband, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar.
The FBI is now focusing on Katherine Russell Tsarnaev after agents have discovered radical Islamist materials on her computer
However, the discovery of al-Qaeda’s Inspire magazine on Katherine Russell’s computer, along with the presence of explosive residue throughout their home, have raised new questions about her possible involvement in the act of terror.
According to a government document obtained by NBC News, an analysis of the bombs used at the Boston Marathon and pipe bombs that the Tsarnaevs had allegedly thrown at police may have been built following instructions that appeared in an Inspire article titled: Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.
Officials have yet to determine whether the Islamist files found in Katherine Russell’s possession belonged to the 24-year-old mother, her late 26-year-old husband or a third party, a source told The Washington Post.
Tamerlan Tsranaev was shot dead in a gun battle with police four days after the marathon bombings when he and his brother allegedly carjacked a vehicle in a Boston suburb.
His younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, had fled, setting off a massive manhunt that ended when he was discovered gravely wounded hiding in a boat.
Katherine Russell’s attorney, Amato DeLuca, had previously said his client was kept in the dark about the deadly plot, and she was shocked to learn that her husband and brother-in-law were allegedly responsible for the attacks.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that investigators inspecting Katherine Russell and Tamerlan Tsranaev’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found traces of explosive residue in the kitchen sink, the bathtub and on a table.
Following his arrest, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told police that he and his older brother built the pressure cooker bombs in the basement of the Cambridge residence.
However, it was established earlier this week that female DNA found one a piece of an explosive device used in the attacks did not match Katherine Russell’s, but rather belonged to a department store clerk where the Tsarnaev brothers had purchased the pressure cookers.
In another development in the case, federal and state law enforcement officials accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs scoured a wooded area near Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended college, in search of new evidence possibly related to the attacks.
According to witness accounts, the brothers may have tested explosives in the woods two weeks before the bombings.
It was revealed earlier this week that Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his wife in the hours after the FBI released surveillance images of him and his younger brother.
But only Katherine Russell knows what was said in the conversation, as she has stopped cooperating with authorities over recent days, the New York Timesreported.
Authorities are skeptical of her insistence that she played no role in the attack or in helping the Tsarnaev brothers escape the authorities following the release of the photographs, the Times reported.
A source told CNN that the bombs were built in the apartment that Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with Katherine Russell and their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara. Residue samples were found on the kitchen table, the kitchen sink, and the bathtub, the source said.
Katherine Russell’s silence comes as sources told the newspaper that the fingerprints and female DNA found on at least one of the bombs did not belong to her. Authorities had taken a sample from her this week.
Spokesman Jason Pack confirmed that agents investigating the Boston bombings visited the North Kingstown home of Katherine Russell’s parents, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow has been staying since the attacks.
An official had revealed that female DNA was found on at least one of the bombs, although investigators haven’t determined whose it is or whether it means a woman helped the two suspects.
Her lawyer says Katherine Russell denies any involvement in the bombings, but authorities are still working to establish what exactly she knew – if anything – before or after the April 15 attacks.
On Wednesday, attorney Amato DeLuca insisted Katherine Russell “will continue to meet with law enforcement, as she has done for many hours over the past week, and provide as much assistance to the investigation as she can”.
Katherine Russell met Tamerlan Tamerlan while she was a student at Suffolk University, according to her lawyer. She converted to Islam and they married in 2010 before having a daughter.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died on April 19 following a shoot out with police in Watertown. Investigators say his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, hit him with a car as he fled the scene.
Solar Impulse plane, which is powered only by the Sun, has completed the first leg of a journey that aims to cross the US after landing in Arizona.
Solar Impulse took off at dawn from San Francisco, California, on Friday and landed in Phoenix, Arizona, some 18 hours later.
The craft will stop over in Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and New York in the coming weeks.
Solar Impulse plane has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but it weighs just 1.6 tonnes.
It has already made a day-and-night flight lasting more than 26 hours, and the team aims to eventually circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
Solar Impulse plane, which is powered only by the Sun, has completed the first leg of a journey that aims to cross the US after landing in Arizona
The plane took off from Moffett Field on the edge of San Francisco Bay at 06:12 local time on Friday, and landed at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport at 00:30 local time on Saturday.
This meant Solar Impulse spent several hours flying in darkness, relying solely on the energy stored in an array of lithium-ion batteries to drive its propellers.
In daylight hours, these are charged by nearly 12,000 solar cells that cover the craft’s wings and stabilizer.
The HB-SIA craft was piloted by Bertrand Piccard, a co-founder of the effort, who is perhaps best known for being the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a hot-air balloon, in 1999.
The trans-America bid is the first attempt of its kind with a zero-fuel aircraft.
Together with co-founder and entrepreneur Andre Borschberg, the pair of Swiss pilots have racked up a number of world records and milestones in recent years.
The first night flight of a solar-powered craft in 2010 was followed by a first international flight in 2011, and first inter-continental flight in 2012.
The two will share the job of flying the plane between each of the stops of the tour.
“We’ve been preparing for this flight since last summer, so we are all very excited,” Andre Borschberg said.
The current aircraft HB-SIA is effectively the prototype for the craft that will eventually be used for transoceanic flights and the round-the-world trip. The HB-SIB should be completed by the end of 2013.
“You should see this like being in 1915 when the pioneers were trying to do these first cross-country flights – still unable to cross the ocean, but an important step for the development of aviation,” Andre Borschberg said.
The launch on Friday served as the start of the pair’s Clean Generation Initiative, an effort to encourage policy-makers and businesses to develop and adopt sustainable energy technologies.
“We want to show that with clean technologies, a passionate team and a far-reaching pioneering vision, one can achieve the impossible,” Dr. Bertrand Piccard said at the announcement of the mission in March.
Vanilla Chamu is a Japanese model who has undergone a startling physical transformation that has so far involved more than 30 cosmetic procedures at a cost of 10 million yen ($102,000) just to look like a French doll.
Vanilla Chamu has said she intends to keep having surgeries until she has achieved her lifelong goal.
Photos of Vanilla Chamu prior to her first procedures reveal a rather mousy Japanese teenager whose facial features are virtually unrecognizable from the bizarre and undoubtedly more “western-looking” appearance that she now possesses.
Vanilla Chamu has undergone a startling physical transformation that has so far involved more than 30 cosmetic procedures at a cost of $102,000 just to look like a French doll
Certain plastic surgery treatments, including double-eyelid surgery and nose jobs, are increasingly popular amongst Asian woman wishing to look more western.
Vanilla Chamu has unquestionably had those treatments, but her long list of procedures also includes liposuction, eyelash implants, dimple creation, and breast implants, reportsBuzzFeed.
Still her current look isn’t enough for Vanilla Chamu in her quest to become a “perfect living French doll”.
The model has recently had even larger breast implants fitted and her next procedure promises to be her most extreme yet as she plans to undergo height lengthening surgery.
Vanilla Chamu underwent her first plastic surgery when she was 19 years old and keeps her current age a well-guarded secret.
She has become something of a cause célèbre in her native land, making countless television appearances and launching a pop career.
Her unusual appearance undoubtedly makes her guaranteed to stand out in any crowd, but she does possess a very unusual view of what a French doll should look like.
A French doll can also be known as a porcelain doll, bisque doll or china doll and means a doll partially or wholly out of bisque porcelain.
Traditionally French dolls are characterized by their realistic, skin-like matte finish and were at the peak of their popularity between 1860 and 1900. Such dolls are now highly collectible and worth thousands of US dollars.
With her inflated pout and fake breasts, Vanilla Chamu certainly doesn’t resemble a classic children’s toy, but she is undoubtedly her own creation.
Salwa Amin, a cast member of the MTV reality show Buckwild, is facing a drug charge after being held by police in West Virginia three months ago.
Salwa Amin, 24, was arraigned in February in Nicholas County Magistrate Court on felony charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Salwa Amin, 24, was arraigned in February in Nicholas County Magistrate Court on felony charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver
She is being held at the Central Regional Jail on $200,000 bond.
A multi-agency task force arrested Salwa Amin and two others at a home in Summersville after receiving a tip from an informant.
Officers say they found oxycodone pills and heroin.
Jail Administrative Sgt. Rick Drake says Salwa Amin doesn’t want to talk to the media.
MTV spokeswoman Candice Ashton says the network doesn’t have any comment.
Buckwild reality show features wild young West Virginians.
The show has drawn criticism for what some see as a negative portrayal of the state’s youth.
Dannielynn Birkhead was the spitting image of her mother Anna Nicole Smith as she and her father Larry Birkhead attended the 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs held in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday.
Anna Nicole Smith famously stole the show when she attended the Kentucky Derby in May 2004.
Since that moment and her tragic death in 2007, Larry Birkhead has often taken their daughter Dannielynn to the annual horse racing event.
Six-year-old Dannielynn Birkhead wore traditional Southern Belle attire, reminiscent of the costumes worn in the Mary Poppins movie.
Dannielynn Birkhead was the spitting image of her late mother Anna Nicole Smith at the 139th Kentucky Derby held in Louisville
She looked adorable in a white period-style dress with red trim, paired with matching parasol and shoes.
Meanwhile, her father Larry Birkhead channeled Dick Van Dyke in a multi-colored striped jacket and a matching straw brimmed hat.
Aside from his light blue bow tie, the rest of his outfit was all white, including his shoes.
Father and daughter held hands as they posed for pictures together on the red carpet, with Dannielynn gazing adoringly at her dad.
They have attended the event together in the past, and last year Dannielynn wore a pretty floral dress and flowers in her hair.
Dannielynn Birkhead is well on her way to getting as confident as her late mother Anna Nicole Smith in front of the camera. She recently appeared in an advertising campaign for Guess Kids.
“Dannielynn has always looked up to her mom’s image and I think that this is kind of Dannielynn’s way of paying tribute to her mom in her own special way,” Larry Birkhead told Good Morning America last November.
“To see her mom’s picture next to hers as a Guess girl and say, <<Hey, I was a Guess Kids girl, my mommy was a Guess girl>>, that might be her only connection with her mom.”
Anna Nicole Smith, the buxom reality TV star and former Playboy model who struggled with prescription drug problems, was found dead in a Florida hotel room in February 2007, aged 39.
The official cause of death was an accidental overdose of nine prescription drugs, including Valium and Atavan.
Anna Nicole Smith’s death followed the devastating loss of her 20-year-old son Daniel Smith just six months earlier, three days after his mother gave birth to Dannielynn.
Daniel Smith died after an accidental overdose of the drug methadone with the antidepressants Lexapro and Zoloft.
Guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman was found dead aged 59 at his home in Ben Lomond, Santa Cruz County, CA, on April 23.
Bob Brozman’s death was ruled a suicide, according to the coroner’s office of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department and no more details were released up to now.
The American virtuoso guitarist was a musical pioneer who explored a vast range of cultures in more than 30 albums, the fruit of trailblazing research and recordings in Hawaii, India, Africa, Japan, Australia, Greece, Papua New Guinea and Reunion Island.
Bob Brozman was born in New York on March 8, 1954. He was involved in music since early childhood. A guitarist since age 6, Bob Brozman discovered National resophonic guitars at age 13. In their unique sound, the young Bob found his musical calling. He studied music and ethnomusicology at Washington University with a focus on the earliest roots of Delta blues. He became a respected authority on historical Hawaiian music, publishing articles and put together a large collection of 78rpm records. He produced five re-issue albums from this collection on the Rounder and Folklyric labels, documenting the best of Hawaiian music from 1915 to 1935.
In 1988, Bob Brozman rediscovered the legendary 1929 Hawaiian recording artists, the Tau Moe Family. Together they recorded a landmark album, Remembering The Songs Of Our Youth, a historic re-creation of the family’s genuine Hawaiian music from 60 years prior. The album was released in 1989 to rave international reviews, including the Library of Congress Select List Award. With National endowment of the Arts funding, Bob Brozman began production of a feature-length documentary film about the Moe family and their amazing 54-year-long world tour.
Guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman was found dead aged 59 at his home in Ben Lomond, Santa Cruz County, CA, on April 23
Over the years, Bob Brozman’s passion for National Guitars led him to build a large collection of these attractive art-deco era instruments. After receiving a letter from the then-88-year-old inventor John Dopyera, Bob Brozman visited and became good friends with John and his family. This led to further research, and in 1993 Bob Brozman’s massive work The History And Artistry Of National Resonator Instruments was published internationally. He has also written for several music magazines concerning historical and instructional subjects.
In 2001 Bob Brozman released Nankuru Naisa (Riverboat Records ) with Okinawan vocalist and sanshin maestro Takashi Hirayasu as well as an array of guest musicians Los Lobos’s David Hidalgo.
Mahima, a collaboration with Indian slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya came out in 2003. On Mahima, the two guitarists explored the blues, Hawaiian and Indian music. The album also featured vocalist Sutapa Bhattacharya and tabla master Subhashis Bhattacharya.
Bob Brozman’s 2005 release Songs of the Volcano (CD/DVD) documented his two journeys to Papua New Guinea in 2003 and 2004, when he recorded with 60 musicians from five string bands.
In 2007 the musician released Lumière, an album featuring the Bob Brozman Orchestra – a unique concept where Bob Brozman intricately played each instrumental part, building layer upon layer to formulate the tremendous sound of an extensive orchestra. He revisited the influences drawn from previous collaborations with artists such as Debashish Bhattacharya, René Lacaille, Djeli Moussa Diawara and Takashi Hirayasu to reflect on the profound effect travel had on his life.
Bob Brozman teamed up with John McSherry and Dónal O’Connor on Six Days In Down (2010). In this project, Bob Brozman fused his characteristic guitar sound with Irish music, featuring the uilleann pipes played by virtuoso John McSherry and the fiddle, played by maestro Dónal O’Connor. The album also featured vocalist Stephanie Makem.
His deep knowledge of musical history and arranging enabled him to create large band arrangements and direct music for film, radio, television, and stage. His rhythmic style featured elements of blues, jazz, Gypsy swing, calypso, and even the most modern beats. His chords and harmonies were a blend of timbres from Hawaiian, Indian, African, Japanese/Okinawan, Caribbean, and American roots.
Bob Brozman did not own a CD player, and at one point he said he only ever listened to old music because he believed a “mental pollution” attached itself to the mass-media culture which sullied anything produced after the 1930s. He particularly hated rock (“the most boring beat ever devised by man”), believing its rigidity stifled imagination, although his antipathy towards modern music was softened slightly by the onset of hip hop, whose rhythms he adapted to great effect on some of his later recordings.
“The guitar is the ultimate colonial instrument,” he said.
“It was carried everywhere, from India back to the Pacific across the Americas and back to Europe. My philosophy is that all the music I play is connected by colonialism. It’s an accident of European harmonies fortuitously placed in the hands of people who have better rhythm than the Europeans.”
Through the years Bob Brozman gathered a large collection of National steel guitars, gave lectures, ran workshops, directed film music scores, and wrote The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments. Despite suffering regular pain as a result of a car accident in 1980, he never stopped touring.
His most recent record was last year’s Fire in the Mind, a blues album with a diversity of new and old stringed instruments, including instruments not normally used for blues.
Bob Brozman is survived by his wife and partner of 15 years, Haley Sage Robertson Brozman, daughter Zoe Brozman, 20, and brothers in New York City along with a large international community of friends and fans. It is their desire to carry out Bob Brozman’s vision in the creation of a foundation to help third-world musicians obtain the musical basics that western musicians take for granted.
Hilaria Baldwin showed off her baby bump in an orange dress as she joined husband Alec Baldwin to walk their dogs on Friday in New York City.
The 28-year-old yoga instructor looked ready for spring in the frock, which featured a chic bow that cinched in the dress just above her baby bump.
Hilaria Baldwin showed off her baby bump as she joined husband Alec Baldwin to walk their dogs in New York City
Hilaria Baldwin – who is due to give birth around mid-August – added a sophisticated touch with cream peep-toe heels and warded off the springtime chill with an over-sized black cardigan.
She wore her hair loose over her shoulders and added a slick of apricot lipstick to complement her bright orange outfit.
Alec Baldwin, 55, also dressed smartly for the walk, donning a baby blue shirt and olive green trousers.
Spanish-born Hilaria Baldwin recently told US Weekly that she plans to talk in her native tongue with her infant daughter.
“It’s a little tricky because my husband doesn’t speak Spanish, so that’ll be a little tricky in the house,” she said.
“But maybe we will have our own conversation and he’ll have to learn. We can talk behind his back. I cannot wait!”
While hundreds of families fled to avoid the wildfires that struck California, Britney Spears was driving towards the disaster on Friday.
Britney Spears’ Calabasas home was close to the flames and risks being destroyed by the terrifying fires.
Her family comes first and the star was presumably desperately trying to get to her two sons Jayden and Sean so that they could be reunited amid the danger.
Britney Spears, 31, was seen racing down the freeway into a cloud of smoke while in her white convertible Jaguar.
Britney Spears was seen racing towards California wildfire to get to her family as flames threaten to engulf their home
The singer was then spotted getting stuck in some traffic due to road closures as a result of the wildfire.
As the flames spread towards Malibu, lots homes are in danger, including many properties owned by celebrities.
About 4,000 homes and 300 commercial properties in Malibu and the surrounding area are at risk along with the Point Mugu naval base.
More than 10,000 acres from Newbury Park toward Malibu and the Ventura County coast have been blackened by the fire.
By 2 a.m. local time the brush-fueled wildfire was within “seven or eight miles” of Malibu, Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said.
As well as burning a 10 mile path to the coast, numerous flare-ups were reported throughout Friday as shifting winds blew embers into new areas of tinder-dry brush.
Pregnant Kim Kardashian drew attention to herself as she arrived at LAX thanks to her low-cut top.
The white tank was already putting plenty of Kim Kardashian’s skin on show thanks to its low scoop-neck, but the star ended up revealing more than she bargained for.
Pregnant Kim Kardashian drew attention to herself as she arrived at LAX thanks to her low-cut top
As photographers snapped away, the reality star’s top turned sheer under the flashbulbs, revealing the white bra she was wearing underneath.
Kim Kardashian, who apparently now has size 32F breasts, has been choosing a lot of slimming black outfits during the later stages of her pregnancy.
But she decided to take a risk with lots of white for this occasion and sported a matching blazer over the loose-fitting tank top.
Kim Kardashian, 32, has not ditched the heels just yet added to her maternity chic look with a pair of black court shoes, sweeping her brunette locks into a bun.
She dressed down the outfit just slightly with a pair of ripped boyfriend jeans and covered her face with square-framed sunglasses.
Chris Brown celebrated his 24th birthday – which is actually on May 5th – at the Emerson nightclub in LA on Friday night, with former flame Karrueche Tran but without Rihanna.
The move is sparking rumors that there might be trouble in paradise for Rihanna and Chris Brown once again.
Rihanna, 25, is currently in New York for her Diamonds World Tour, and sources have revealed that work commitments are preventing the couple from finding much time to spend together.
A source told HollywoodLife: “It’s up and down sometimes, the s**t is even sideways. Every time some s**t pops off between them, they blast that s**t all over social media, and they shouldn’t.
“But when they’re far apart, that’s how they act out towards each other when one of them doesn’t get their own way. It’s crazy as f**k, but it’s how they get down.”
Chris Brown celebrated his 24th birthday at the Emerson nightclub in LA with ex Karrueche Tran but without Rihanna
Possibly trying to take his mind off his far-away girlfriend, Chris Brown hit LA to celebrate his upcoming birthday with some famous friends.
The singer was joined by Christina Milian, David Hasslehoff, Chloe Green and ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran as he partied the night away.
Chris Brown kept it casual for the celebration, wearing khaki-colored chinos and a white T-shirt. He wore an open chequered shirt and completed his look with a pair of black hi-top trainers.
Karrueche Tran – who was dumped by Chris Brown when he got back with Rihanna last year – showed off her slimline figure as she helped her ex celebrate.
Topshop heiress Chloe Green also attended in a white see-through top and leather trousers.
Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party has staged a rally in the center of the capital in protest at the Budapest’s hosting of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) on Sunday.
Several hundred supporters took part, despite attempts by the government to prevent it going ahead.
Jobbik said the rally was a protest against what it said was a Jewish attempt to buy up Hungary.
The party, which says it aims to protect Hungarian values and interests, is the third largest in parliament.
It regularly issues anti-Semitic statements.
The event in Budapest on Saturday was billed as a tribute to what organizers called the victims of Bolshevism and Zionism.
Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party has staged a rally in the center of the capital in protest at the Budapest’s hosting of the World Jewish Congress
“The Israeli conquerors, these investors, should look for another country in the world for themselves because Hungary is not for sale,” party chairman Gabor Vona told the rally, according to Reuters news agency.
Marton Gyongyosi said Hungary had “become subjugated to Zionism, it has become a target of colonization while we, the indigenous people, can play only the role of extras”.
Last year, Marton Gyongyosi had sparked outrage by saying all government officials of Jewish origin should be officially listed, as they might be a “national security risk”.
Some of those taking part in the rally were wearing the black uniform of Jobbik’s banned paramilitary wing, the Hungary Guard, which has been accused of vigilante action against Roma (Gypsy) communities.
PM Viktor Orban had ordered police to ban the march, but a Budapest court overruled the ban, saying it had been based on “unfounded presumptions”.
Viktor Orban instead instructed the interior ministry to use all lawful means to prevent the event, which goes against the constitution”.
Security was tight around the rally, with police blocking several streets, but there were no reports of unrest.
The WJC usually hosts its assembly in Jerusalem, but has chosen Hungary this year to highlight what it says is growing anti-Semitism in Europe.
The focus of its summit this year will be on the “alarming rise of neo-Nazi political parties and anti-Semitic incidents in several European countries, including Hungary”, it says on its website.
Spokesman Michael Thaidigsmann said the Jobbik rally was a “worrying sign that these people express their anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli ideology in such a public way”.
