Kendra Spears is set to become a princess after announcing her engagement to Prince Rahim Aga Khan, the eldest son of billionaire racehorse owner the Aga Khan.
Supermodel Kendra Spears, 24, once dubbed “the next Cindy Crawford”, will marry Prince Rahim Aga Khan, 41, in a Muslim ceremony, though a wedding date has not yet been set.
The engagement was made public on Friday by the Aga Khan in a press release on hiswebsite.
The Aga Khan, who is the spiritual leader of the world’s Shia Ismaili Muslims, said he was “delighted to announce the engagement”.
Kendra Spears is set to become a princess after announcing her engagement to Prince Rahim Aga Khan
Kendra Spears, who has appeared in campaigns for Diane von Furstenberg and Prada, and walked the catwalk for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy, among many others, thanked well-wishers via Twitter, writing: “Thank you all for the kind tweets! We’re very excited!”
The supermodel is a University of Washington sociology graduate who made headlines in 2009 when she was sued for changing model agencies.
After a two-year legal battle, Kendra Spears was made to pay Ford Models over $150,000 in royalties after switching to Next.
Prince Rahim Aga Khan, who studied in the U.S. at Brown University and the Navarra Business School in Barcelona, Spain, is involved in the poverty reduction efforts of the Aga Khan Development Network.
Kendra Spears, who will likely be converting to Islam ahead of the ceremony, will be marrying into a family with a long-established history of beautiful brides.
Her fiancé’s paternal grandfather was famously married to Rita Hayworth, and Prince Rahim’s British mother, Princess Salimah Aga Khan, was known as supermodel Sarah Croker-Poole before she wed (though she and the Aga Khan divorced in 1995, she continues to be known by her married name.)
The Aga Khan, 74, then married German former pop star Gabriele Renate Homey in 1998, after which she took the name Inaara, though they divorced in 2011.
Prince Rahim will be following in the footsteps of his younger brother, Prince Hussain, who also married an American model.
Prince Hussain, 39, wed New York professor’s daughter Kristin White in 2006 in a fairytale ceremony at a 14th century chateau outside of Paris. The bride converted to Islam and adopted the name Khaliya.
The marriage appears to have been short-lived though as it was reported in 2011 that the pair – who have no children – had split.
The Aga Khan’s daughter, Princess Zahra, 42, also had a failed marriage. She married British male model and farmer’s son Mark Boyden in 1997 – and had two children, daughter Sara, and son Iliyan with him – but they divorced in 2005.
The Rhode Island home of Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s parents have been visited by FBI agents reportedly to take a sample of her DNA after traces of a woman were found on one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks.
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.
According to The Wall Street Journal, FBI agents went to the house today to collect a DNA sample from Katherine Russell in a bid to rule out her involvement in the bombings.
An official close to the case told the newspaper that female DNA has been found on at least one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks. Though investigators haven’t determined whose DNA it is or whether the DNA means a woman helped the two suspects carry out the bombings.
FBI 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
Jason Pack said the FBI visited the house as part of its investigation into the April 15 blasts, which killed three people and injured hundreds more.
“The FBI is there as part of our ongoing investigation, but we aren’t permitted to discuss specific aspects of our case,” the agency said in a statement.
After agents finished their job, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, 24, left with her attorneys through a separate door. She was later photographed smiling as she left a Providence law center with her attorney.
Katherine Russell’s attorneys have previously said she and her family were in shock when they learned of the allegations against her husband Tamerlan and brother-in-law, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a gun battle with police while surviving suspect 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.
No one has yet come to claim Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body, which is in the custody of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Terrel Harris.
The medical officer has determined Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s cause of death, but won’t release the information until the body has been claimed, Terrel Harris told The Boston Globe.
Katherine Russell converted to Islam before marrying Tamerlan Tsarnaev and having his child, 3-year-old daughter, Zahara.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has made a farewell national address thanking the Dutch people one day before her abdication and investiture of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander.
The queen thanked the Dutch people for their “heart-warming displays of affection” and also paid tribute to her late husband, Prince Claus.
Queen Beatrix was also attending a sumptuous gala dinner in her honor at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
She has been head of state since 1980, when her mother, Queen Juliana, abdicated.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has made a farewell national address thanking the Dutch people one day before her abdication
In her televised address, Queen Beatrix said that the people’s devotion had given her the strength to carry on.
“Without your heart-warming and encouraging displays of affection, the burdens, which certainly have existed, would have weighed heavily.”
Paying tribute to her late husband, Prince Claus, who died in 2002, the queen said he had helped modernize the House of Orange.
“Perhaps history will bear out that the choice of my partner was my best decision.”
Monday evening’s gala dinner was being attended by her family and other invited royals and high-ranking dignitaries.
Earlier on Monday, Crown-Prince Willem-Alexander, 46, his future queen Maxima, 41, and their three children took part in a final dress rehearsal for his investiture at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk.
Willem-Alexander will become the Netherlands’ first king since Willem III, who died in 1890.
Queen Beatrix is the sixth monarch from the House of Orange-Nassau, which has ruled the Netherlands since the early 19th Century.
Correspondents say she is extremely popular with most Dutch people, but her abdication was widely expected and will not provoke a constitutional crisis.
Under Dutch law, the monarch has few powers and the role is considered ceremonial.
In recent decades it has become the tradition for the monarch to abdicate.
Queen Beatrix’s mother Juliana resigned the throne in 1980 on her 71st birthday, and her grandmother Wilhelmina abdicated in 1948 at the age of 68.
She has remained active in recent years, but her reign has also seen traumatic events.
In 2009 a would-be attacker killed eight people when he drove his car into crowds watching the queen and other members of the royal family in a national holiday parade.
In February last year her second son, Prince Friso, was struck by an avalanche in Austria and remains in a coma.
Amanda Bynes debuted her new undercut last week after shaving half her hair off, but she continues to show off her new style in several pictures posted in Twitter on Sunday.
The new bizarre self portraits featured Amanda Bynes winking at the camera while taking pictures of herself in a gym mirror.
Amanda Bynes debuted her new undercut last week after shaving half her hair off
“At the gym! Rawr!” she wrote, before posting the series of snapshots showing her blonde tresses worn long over one shoulder and cropped shaven on the other side.
She sported a white tracksuit top and baggy white tracksuit bottoms while posing in front of several gym machines
Amanda Bynes, 27, debuted her new look on Twitter last week.
The troubled actress posted: “I buzzed half my head like @cassie! No more old photos! This is the new me! I love it!”
Amanda Bynes follows in the footsteps of R&B singer Cassie, rocker Ellie Goulding and model Alice Dellal, who have all sported similar hairstyles.
Khloe Kardashian has lost an estimated 20 lbs recently through exercise and healthy eating and she wanted to unveil her new beach body while on a family holiday in Mykonos, Greece.
Khloe Kardashian, 28, stripped down revealing her frame in a one-piece bathing suit.
The reality star was pictured leaping off a boat in the cleavage-baring number, which also showed off her sculpted back with its scoop design in the rear.
Khloe Kardashian stripped down while on a holiday in Mykonos, revealing her frame in a one-piece bathing suit
Lamar Odom’s wife wasn’t afraid to let her legs catch some sun as she donned the high cut item which showed off plenty of her behind from a side angle.
Khloe Kardashian completely let go of an inhibitions as she jumped in the water with both hands in the air.
She wore her locks with two French braids at the front, letting the rest of her long tresses fall on her back.
Upon returning to her family’s yacht, Khloe Kardashian covered up her lower half with a white towel and concealed her eyes with dark sunglasses.
Khloe Kardashian claims to have dropped 20 lbs thanks to boxing sessions.
“Well I love to box,” she told recently OK! magazine.
“I’ve always boxed. I just love it. I’m good at it. I get the circuit really well.
“Like when they yell out numbers I’m really fast and good with it and it keeps me really entertained.
“I don’t get bored and you shed weight when you do it.”
It was Kate and William second wedding anniversary, but it was business as usual for the Duchess of Cambridge as she visited Naomi House Children’s Hospice today.
Kate Middleton, 31, was without husband Prince William during the engagement at the children’s hospice in Hampshire to mark Children’s Hospice Week.
It was Kate and William second wedding anniversary, but it was business as usual for the Duchess of Cambridge as she visited Naomi House Children’s Hospice
According to sources, Prince William is on shift as an RAF Search and Rescue pilot in Anglesey on the anniversary of their Westminster Abbey wedding in 2011 – which is normally celebrated with a gift of cotton.
However it is believed Kate and William enjoyed a private weekend away in Norfolk to mark the occasion.
On her visit to the hospice, Kate Middleton looked blooming in an apricot-colored Tara Jarmon Coat and a peach dress by a private dressmaker.
She was presented with a beautiful posy of flowers by Sally Evans, eight, from Salisbury, Wilts, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy.
LG Electronics has announced it will begin deliveries of curved OLED television sets in May, making it the first to offer such a product to the public.
The use of organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) allows screens to be made thinner and more flexible than before.
The 55 in (140 cm) model will cost 15 million won ($13,550) and is initially limited to sales in South Korea.
One analyst said that being first to market gave LG “bragging rights”, but suggested demand would be limited.
LG Electronics and its rival Samsung Electronics both showed off curved OLED TV prototypes at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, but did not announce release dates at the time.
LG Electronics has announced it will begin deliveries of curved OLED television sets in May, making it the first to offer such a product to the public
The two businesses are part of larger conglomerates that have separate divisions manufacturing their own television display panels. Many of their competitors buy in the components from third parties, making it harder for them to claim such an exclusive.
OLED tech is based on carbon-based materials that convert electricity into light.
While LCD screens need a backlight to illuminate their crystals, OLED does not need a separate light source.
This allows the newer type of TVs to be made thinner, lighter and more energy-efficient than before, as well as offering the advantage of deeper blacks.
In addition, the OLEDs can be fabricated onto a flexible plastic substrate rather than a rigid glass layer, making it easier to manufacture them into a curved screen.
This has allowed LG to market the new EA9800 model as being only 4.3 mm (0.17 in) thick, weighing 17 kg (37.5 lb) and offering an “Imax-cinema-like” viewing experience.
“With more than five years research behind developing the optimum curvature, the entire screen surface is equidistant from the viewer’s eyes, eliminating the problem of screen-edge visual distortion and loss of detail,” LG Electronics said in a press release.
IHS Screen Digest, a market research firm used by television manufacturers, said it expected Samsung to follow with a similar product soon, although it noted that teething troubles with making large OLED TVs was likely to keep their prices high and output low in the near future.
The firm’s senior analyst Ed Border added that, in the short term, curved TVs were likely to be more valuable as a promotional tool rather than a profit-making product to their makers.
“There’s certain content which is great to see in different ways, but for a lot of what’s on TV seeing it curved is not necessarily going to improve the experience that much,” Ed Border said.
“But I think being curved is a good way of pushing the OLED technology to consumers and acting as a marketing tool.
“Looking forward, I think there will still be room for flatscreen TVs, especially if you are thinking of hanging an OLED screen on the wall or just want to buy a cheaper LCD set.”
LG said it was now accepting orders for the curved TV set in South Korea, and would announce the timing and pricing of versions for markets elsewhere “in the months ahead”.
The annual report by the Norwegian Refugee Council suggests almost 29 million people lived in internal displacement in 2012, with 6.5 million newly displaced just in the past year.
For the fourth year running, Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people on the list.
Globally, the total number of displaced people has risen, with the conflict in Syria blamed for much of the spike.
A third of all internally displaced are in sub-Saharan Africa, the report says.
The annual report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) suggests internal displacement – in which people flee from violence without crossing their country’s borders – will continue to accelerate unless permanent solutions to conflicts are found.
IDMC Director Kate Halff says that governments are “responsible for finding long-term solutions for their displaced citizens”.
For the fourth year running, Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people, according to the IDMC annual report for 2012
The report says that Colombia, with its estimated 4.9 to 5.5 million internally displaced people tops the global list.
It estimates that Colombia’s internal armed conflict forced around 230,000 people to flee their homes in 2012.
However, the report says that the figure is provisional, as the government did not publish official figures for the past year.
It also notes that the figure fails to include those people displaced as a result of violence carried out by criminal and drug-trafficking gangs.
That violence, however, has been on the up, with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos recognizing the rise of the criminal gangs as one of the main threats facing the country.
On Sunday, police figures suggested that Colombia’s largest criminal gang, Los Urabenos, now has more members than the left-wing rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Both the Colombian Red Cross and the IDMC have warned that the victims of criminal gangs in Colombia do not receive the same official recognition as those victimized by the Farc or ELN rebel groups.
Police say the Urabenos have more than 2,000 members and operate in major cities such as Medellin, as well as rural areas, where they engage in drug and arms trafficking and extortion.
Colombia has suffered from almost five decades of civil conflict with both left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries fighting each other, and the security forces.
Negotiators representing the government and the Farc rebel group are currently holding peace negotiations in Cuba in an attempt to end the conflict.
The government has also launched a restitution programme aimed at returning land stolen as part of the conflict to its rightful owners.
The mysterious Misha, identified as Mikhail Allakhverdov and thought to be the missing link in explaining the radicalization of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has broken his silence to speak out from his home in Rhode Island on Sunday.
Accused by members of the Tsarnaev family of being the mastermind behind the Boston Marathon attacks which killed three and injured over 280 people, Mikhail Allakhverdov has come forward in hope of setting the record straight.
Frenzied speculation surrounded his role in April 15th’s attacks, with some asking whether “Misha” was part of a wider terror cell or incredibly, if he was a Russian mole – sent to spy on Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
His very absence from the investigation fueled the conspiracy theories – but now he has come forward to declare himself innocent and that crucially the FBI do not believe he had any part in the bombings.
Christian Caryl from the New York Review of Books tracked down Mikhail Allakhverdov to his family home in Rhode Island – to a lower middle class neighborhood.
The meeting between Christian Caryl and Mikhail Allakhverdov confirms right away that he does have the widely reported distinguishing reddish beard mentioned by members of the Tsarnaev family.
Living with his parents in a tidy apartment, Mikhail Allakhverdov flat out denied any part in Tamerlan, 26 and 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s murderous attacks.
Confirming he is indeed a convert to Islam, Misha said he did know Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2009 as he spoke to Christian Caryl in Russian.
“I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,” Mikhail Allakhverdov said to the New York Review of Books.
The mysterious Misha, identified as Mikhail Allakhverdov and thought to be the missing link in explaining the radicalization of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has broken his silence
Mikhail Allakhverdov, 39, is of Armenian-Ukrainian descent and lives with an American girlfriend with his elderly parents.
His father is an Armenian Christian and his mother is an ethnic Ukrainian.
Speaking to the New York Review of Books, Mikhail Allakhverdov’s father said: “We love this country. We never expected anything like this to happen to us.”
Mikhail Allakhverdov confirmed to the New York Review of Books that he knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2009 when he lived in Boston but none in the years since.
He declined to elaborate on his relationship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev and how he became friends – but would not say why he ceased speaking to the Boston bomber.
However, Misha denied that he had ever met any of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s family – which contradicts their claims that he would be seen discussing Islam with the elder Tsarnaev brother late at night at the family’s kitchen table.
He also confirmed he had been interviewed by the FBI and that he has cooperated with the investigation:
“I’ve been cooperating entirely with the FBI. I gave them my computer and my phone and everything I wanted to show I haven’t done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me.
“And the agents who talked told me they are about to close my case.”
An FBI spokesman in Boston declined to comment on an ongoing case – but confirms recent reports that “Misha” is not thought to be connected to the bombings.
Accused by Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, of radicalizing his nephew, Mikhail Allakhverdov became known only by the name “Misha” as wild speculation grew as to his identity or even if he was real.
“It started in 2009. And it started right there, in Cambridge,” Ruslan Tsarni told CNN after the attacks.
“This person just took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely.”
On Friday the FBI revealed that they now know the identity of the American known as Misha who helped radicalize the Boston bombing suspects.
Family members of dead bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev have described Misha as the guiding influence in the elder bomber developing radicalized views.
Speculation as to who Misha is has varied wildly in the past week, with some suggesting he is the mastermind behind the marathon bombings while others believe he could be a Russian spy – sent to identify and keep tabs on young men like Tamerlan Tsarnaev who are at risk of turning to militant Islam.
Up till Sunday all that was known about Misha is that he is an Armenian man in his 30s with distinctive red beard and that he has disappeared – no longer living in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area.
However, before Sunday’s revelations family members had been telling reporters that in the years before the Boston marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, fell under the strong influence of a new friend, a Christian who converted to Islam and who steered the religiously apathetic young man towards adopting strong Islamic views.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout four days after the bombings on April 15th.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged last Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, and he could face the death penalty if convicted.
Under the tutelage of a friend known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing and stopped studying music, his family said. He began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, and Jews controlled the world.
According to Ruslan, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s radicalization happened right under the nose of his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.
Former NBA champion Michael Jordan married his girlfriend of five years, Cuban model Yvette Prieto, on Saturday, April 27, in a jaw-dropping 40,000 sq ft tent.
According to local realtors Jeff and Cary Lichtenstein, Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto’s venue is the “largest tent in wedding history,” and is actually 5,000 square feet larger than their home. Jeff Lichtenstein, who took the photos of the wedding venue, markets homes in Jupiter and Palm Beach real estate for sale.
Michael Jordan, 50, and his new wife, 34-year-old Yvette Prieto, hosted upwards of 2,000 people at their Palm Beach wedding, according to People magazine.
Yvette Prieto and Michael Jordan got engaged in 2011 after dating for three years. Michael Jordan was previously married to Juanita Vanoy from 1989 to 2006.
The newlyweds’ 40,000 sq ft wedding tent was placed on a golf course and was designed by Jack Nicklaus.
Michael Jordan married Yvette Prieto on April 27, in a jaw-dropping 40,000 sq ft wedding tent in Palm Beach
More than 2,000 guests have been invited to join the couple for their reception at the Bear’s Club golf course in Jupiter, Florida, which is just feet away from Michael Jordan’s sprawling Florida mansion that is 5,000 sq ft smaller than his wedding tent.
Michael Jordan’s enormous home was deemed too small for the couple’s reception so he had to resort to erecting the tents, the size of three football fields, for the wedding revelers.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve been working weddings for a while. It looks like he’s having about 2,000 people over,” and unidentified insider told GossipExtra.
On Thursday, a crew of 50 staffers spent the day on setting up three tents in the backyard.
On Friday, employees set up a sound system for the fete.
The equipment is said to have arrived in four semi-trailers.
Musicians in the wedding band were heard practicing on Friday and golfers who were playing on the course were said to have enjoyed the set list.
The wedding tent allowed guests to enter in a spacious reception area that leads into a dining room.
Connected was a gigantic ballroom and dance floor, darkened with paneling to allow for lighting and effects.
On Friday, the lovebirds and their wedding party descended on the exclusive Bethesda-By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in Palm Beach for their rehearsal.
Michael Jordan’s mother was seen headed into the church where her star athlete son is going to get married Saturday afternoon.
Though neither Michael Jordan nor Yvette Prieto were seen in public on Friday, they likely were inside the church as they prepare to wed.
Local police have been ordered to order back up security for the church between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday, giving the crew of revelers more than enough time to arrive, attend the ceremony and leave.
Bethesda-By-The-Sea is the same church where Donald Trump married his third wife Melania in 2006.
Earlier in April, it was the venue for the memorial service for socialite designer Lilly Pulitzer, who died on April 7.
Yvette Prieto, Michael Jordan’s new wife, is a Cuban-American model born on March 1, 1979, who has posed for famous designers such as Alexander Wang.
The Cuban-born model went to school for business management and, in 2008, she began dating Michael Jordan, and the two moved in together a year later.
Yvette Prieto, 34, and former NBA champion Michael Jordan, 50, live in Kendall, Florida, a suburb outside of Miami in a three-bedroom house.
Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto got engaged in 2011 and married on April 27, 2013, in a Palm beach lavish ceremony.
Yvette Prieto, Michael Jordan’s new wife, is a Cuban-American model, who has posed for famous designers such as Alexander Wang
Yvette Prieto once dated Julio Iglesias Jr., brother of more famous singer Enrique Iglesias and son of legendary Julio Iglesias.
Julio Iglesias Jr., now 40, once called Yvette Prieto “simple”, saying: “She’s a fantastic girl and I like her. Aside from her beauty, which is obvious, she is loving, simple and very good person.”
According to The Urban Daily, Yvette Prieto and Julio Iglesias Jr. met while “freak dancing at a not-so-sexy club in Miami”.
Yvette Prieto is Michael Jordan’s second marriage. MJ was married to his first wife, Juanita, for 17 years. Forbes magazine reported their divorce settlement was possibly more than $150 million, which, at the time, would have made it the most expensive divorce in entertainment history.
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Yvette Prieto was first registered as a Republican, according to Fox News, then she changed her affiliation to Independent.
Speaking to the June issue of Elle UK magazine, Miley Cyrus insists she and Australian actor Liam Hemsworth are as committed to each other as ever, despite her reluctance to discuss her private life.
Miley Cyrus, 20, admits she has decided to keep their romance away from the spotlight after previously being more open.
Speaking about her June 2012 engagement to Liam Hemsworth, who she has been dating since 2009, Miley Cyrus admitted it felt like a natural progression after moving in together.
The former child star said: “We have a house together and dogs. It just seems right to be wearing this ring and to be committed.
Speaking to the June issue of Elle UK magazine, Miley Cyrus insists she and Liam Hemsworth are as committed to each other as ever
“But we keep our relationship low-key and don’t talk about it anymore.”
Miley Cyrus was previously very open about her emotions on Twitter, but decided to pull back in recent months.
She explained: “We were too nice to the world and gave them too much insight – into my life and my puppies and my house – and I just don’t feel they get that privilege any more.
“Like on my Twitter, I’m much more… not conservative, but you don’t see a picture of my dogs. You don’t get that personal stuff anymore.”
Having found fame as a child star, Miley Cyrus admits it is difficult to find real friends she can trust and who befriend her for her personality, not her celebrity persona.
The actress said: “People who grew up without either (money or fame) can get more of a culture shock and go the wrong way. <<Oh my God, I have all this money! How can I spend it? All these people will like me because I’m famous!>>
“I’ve always had people trying to be my friend for the wrong reasons.”
The June issue of ELLE UK will be on sale starting with 1st of May 2013.
The new issue is available as digital edition through Apple Newsstand.
A massive explosion has damaged a building in the centre of the Czech capital Prague, police say.
Initial reports suggested that some people may be trapped in the rubble. The area around the explosion in Divadelni St has been sealed off by police.
Spokespeople for the fire brigade said that there had been at least one injury from the blast.
A massive explosion has damaged a building in the centre of the Czech capital Prague
Police spokesman Tomas Hulan says it is not immediately clear what caused the blast in Divadelni Street on Monday morning.
A photo, tweeted by RT.com and credited to Digiolli on Twitter, shows the aftermath of the blast.
The street is covered with rubble and has been sealed off by police.
Jirina Ernestova, spokeswoman for the rescue service says rescuers expect some people are buried under the rubble. Firefighters spokeswoman Pavlina Adamcova says at least 13 people have been injured.
Windows in buildings located hundreds of meters from the blast were shattered, including some in the nearby National Theater.
South Korea has decided to pull the last of its workers out of Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, as Seoul announced moves to help affected firms.
A total of 125 South Koreans left the joint Kaesong complex on Saturday, and the remaining 50 were expected to leave on Monday, officials said.
They had been due out at 17:00 local time but were delayed by “details” that needed “ironing out”, officials said.
The move came after North Korea rejected talks on Kaesong industrial park.
Tensions are high following Pyongyang’s third nuclear test in February.
Pyongyang has been angered by tightened UN sanctions imposed after its February 12 nuclear test and by joint US-South Korea military drills, which are scheduled to end on Tuesday.
A total of 125 South Koreans left the joint Kaesong complex in North Korea on Saturday, and the remaining 50 were expected to leave on Monday
Kaesong Industrial Complex, which was launched in 2003 to boost inter-Korean ties, is a factory park situated just inside North Korea.
It is home to 123 South Korean companies which employ North Korean workers, and provides the North with much-needed hard currency.
Earlier this month, North Korea blocked South Korean workers from entering the zone. It withdrew its 53,000 workers from the industrial park a few days later.
Although the North has restricted entry to Kaesong Industrial Complex in the past, this would be the first time that all South Korean workers had withdrawn.
The remaining 50 workers had been expected to cross the border back into South Korea at 17:00.
“The two sides are currently in the process of ironing out some details, with most of the outstanding issues having been worked out,” a spokesman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said.
He still expected the workers to return on Monday, South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted him as saying.
Earlier on Monday, the Ministry told reporters that North Korea had not yet approved the passage of the workers across the border. Pyongyang said last week it would not hinder those leaving the Kaesong complex.
Some of the workers were reportedly reluctant to leave Kaesong, fearing that company assets would be seized.
Han Jae-kwon, chairman of the Association of Kaesong companies, said: “Those remaining workers are there to take charge of products owned by our customers and raw materials, so we want detailed measures to protect them after the workers have been pulled out.”
The South Korean government said it had set up a taskforce to help companies who had been forced to halt operations at Kaesong.
The taskforce would “assess damages suffered by the firms with factories at Kaesong and… devise comprehensive and practical supportive measures,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The South Korean government had discussed a variety of support measures, including the possibility of offering businesses loans from the inter-Korean co-operation fund, the statement added.
Meanwhile, North Korea seems to be gearing up for a major land and air military exercise, Yonhap said on Sunday, citing a government source.
A US citizen is also due to be tried soon on charges of attempting to overthrow the North Korean government, according to the North’s official news agency KCNA.
Pae Jun-ho, who is known in the US as Kenneth Bae, was held last year after entering North Korea as a tourist.
No date for the verdict has been confirmed, and it is not clear what sort of sanction Kenneth Bae might face, although North Korea’s criminal code provides for life imprisonment or the death penalty for similar offences.
Paris Jackson and her biological mother Debbie Rowe were spotted enjoying quality time together as they headed to lunch together once again in California on Sunday.
Looking like any other mother and daughter, 15-year-old Paris Jackson looked in high spirits as she left Fire Island Grill accompanied by Debbie Rowe.
Dressed in a pair of cut-off denim shorts, with Dr. Martens and camouflage jacket, Paris Jackson flashed the rock sign and a smile to waiting photographers.
Completing her edgy look the teenager wore a Kurt Cobain T-shirt, while her cropped hair fell over her eyes.
Debbie Rowe and Paris Jackson celebrating the teenager’s 15th birthday at Ahi Sushi in Studio City, California on April 3
While Debbie Rowe, 54, may not have the same rock chic style, simply opting for a pair of jeans and T-shirt, she too looked comfortable and at ease.
Paris Jackson jumped into her mother’s car on the passenger seat showing that despite her rather unconventional upbringing she’s still an average teenage girl.
Debbie Rowe and her daughter have plenty to catch up on as they have only been in touch once again since Michael Jackson tragically passed away in 2009.
The lunch trip comes just a few days after the first picture of Paris Jackson with her biological mother Debbie Rowe surfaced.
The touching photo, revealed by Entertainment Tonight, shows Debbie Rowe with her arm around Paris Jackson as they celebrated the teenager’s 15th birthday at Ahi Sushi in Studio City, California on April 3.
Syrian PM Wael al-Halqi has survived a car bomb attack targeting his convoy in western Mazzeh district of Damascus, state television said.
There are also reported to be a number of casualties.
UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Wael Halqi’s bodyguard had been killed, AFP news agency reported.
The blast is believed to have been a suicide attack.
Syrian PM Wael al-Halqi has survived a car bomb attack targeting his convoy in western Mazzeh district of Damascus
Syrian state television said the explosion happened at a busy intersection. A picture which activists said was of the scene after the attack showed a large plume of black smoke rising into the air near a road and a high-rise building.
Activist groups said a bus and a car had been set on fire.
Mezzeh is a government-controlled quarter housing a military airport which is vital to the regime’s defenses.
Syrian forces and rebels have been fighting around Damascus for months but with neither side gaining an upper hand.
Monday’s attack is the latest bombing inside government-controlled areas.
Late last year there was a suicide bomb attack on the interior ministry. The state media said top officials had escaped unhurt, but it later emerged that the minister himself had been badly injured.
Six-month pregnant Kate Middleton and her mother were spotted in upmarket South Kensington together, browsing some of the London’s most exclusive baby stores after enjoying a spot of lunch together at the Zefi Mediterranean restaurant where they were seen by fellow diners sipping healthy fruit juices.
First on their list was Blue Almonds, which boasts that it creates “magical rooms for children” – perfect for the third in line to the throne.
Dressed in identical dark blue skinny jeans and knee-high black boots, Kate and Carole Middleton spent up to an hour browsing the Moses baskets on sale.
Priced up to £295 ($450) for an off the shelf model, they are certainly out of reach price-wise for many new mothers-to-be.
Some bespoke versions at the store can cost up to £1,000 ($1,600) and be customized with frilled fitted sheets and sun shades.
Six-month pregnant Kate Middleton and her mother were spotted in upmarket South Kensington together, browsing some of the London’s most exclusive baby stores
Kate Middleton, 31, who was wearing a loose blue maternity top with a pretty white lace collar, and her mother finally settled on a large white wicker version and walked out into the street together, clearly discussing their purchase.
They were then whisked off by a waiting car driven by one of Kate Middleton’s bodyguards, presumably back to Kensington Palace where Kate is overseeing the renovation of her new apartment.
According to recent reports, work on Apartment 1A, once the home of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, will not be finished until at least September or October this year, well after the birth of the Duchess of Cambridge’s baby.
Kate Middleton and Prince William are currently living in a small two-up, two-down cottage in the grounds, which is less than ideal to bring a royal heir home to.
As a result, say sources, Kate Middleton has decided to eschew the help of a maternity nurse and spend the first six weeks after her child’s birth living with her parents at their new $7.5 million Georgian mansion in Bucklebury, Berkshire.
The duchess has told friends that she cannot think of anyone better suited to helping her in those first difficult few weeks than her mother, who has brought up three children of her own.
“It’s where I feel safest,” Kate Middleton has said.
Carole Middelton is said to be nervous but thrilled at the prospect of becoming a grandmother for the first time – to a future king or queen at that.
Although Izabela Minkiewicz, the owner of Blue Almonds, has declined to comment on Kate Middleton’s purchases, she confirmed that she was “honored” to have received a visit from the duchess.
“We spend a great deal of time making sure that we get to know the client, their particular taste and demands,” Izabela Minkiewicz said.
The following day Kate Middleton was seen back out shopping for baby goods again at the Peter Jones department store in Chelsea, where she spent several hours mulling over buggies and a car seat.
Kate Middleton has revealed that her baby is due in mid-July and that she will be going on maternity leave around a month earlier but insists, contrary to speculation, that she and Prince William have chosen not to discover the sex of their first child.
Michael Jordan married former model Yvette Prieto in Palm Beach, Florida, the former NBA champion’s manager Estee Portnoy said Sunday.
Newlyweds Michael Jordan, 50, and Yvette Prieto, 35, took their first spin around the dance floor as married couple at the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Florida Saturday.
The wedding took place at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea with nearly 300 guests in attendance, including Tiger Woods, Patrick Ewing, Spike Lee and Ahmad Rashad.
The ceremony was followed by a reception at the luxurious private golf club designed by Jack Nicklaus. Michael Jordan owns a home near the course.
There were fireworks at night as part of the celebration.
In lieu of wedding gifts, donations were made to the James R. Jordan Foundation. The wedding flowers were donated to the Jupiter Medical Center.
Michael Jordan married former model Yvette Prieto in Palm Beach
Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto met five years ago and were engaged last December.
Yvette Prieto wore a French silk voile corseted sheer sheath gown by J’Aton Couture, in an ecru palette with accents of flesh tones, with handmade silk lace created especially for her, and enhanced with Swarovski crystals.
The gown featured French seamed crinoline borders, which cascaded into a dramatic cathedral train finished in the lace, with accents of a peacock-feathered design.
The newlyweds and their guests were entertained by DJ MC Lyte, singers K’Jon, Robin Thicke and Grammy-Award winner Usher and The Source, an 18-piece band.
Everyone enjoyed an all-white, seven-layer white rum wedding cake that was covered in white fondant and sugar crystals, and adorned with crystal brooches and the couples’ monogram on the top layer.
Guests sat at tables that were a continuous candle-lit landscape with a myriad of crystal candelabras and mercury glass vessels, each filled with one variety of white flower, including roses, peonies and tulips, and one accent of purple.
Jacintha Saldanha’s suicide note has revealed that Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who were given details of Kate Middleton’s health by the nurse during a radio hoax, drove her to take her own life.
Jacintha Saldanha, 46, directly blamed the radio presenters in a suicide letter found by her hanged body.
The note said: “I hold the Radio Australians Mel Greig and Michael Christian responsible for this act.
“Please make them pay for my mortgage.”
Jacintha Saldanha left the handwritten note in her living quarters close to King Edward VII’s Hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness last year.
The nurse took her own life last December- just three days after she transferred the hoax call to a ward nurse.
It had been thought that Jacintha Saldanha was unhappy with how the hospital treated her after falling victim to the prank call.
But she exonerates the hospital from any responsibility in the letter and points the finger of blame at the 2Day FM presenters.
Jacintha Saldanha, a mother-of-two, addressed the message to her managers at the exclusive London hospital.
She said: “Please accept my apologies. I am truly sorry. Thank you for all your support.”
Jacintha Saldanha’s suicide note has revealed that Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian drove her to take her own life
An inquest into Jacintha Saldanha’s death was due to begin this week but has been delayed. The nurse was found hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe in her bedroom on December 7.
Jacintha Saldanha shared a home in Bristol, UK, with her husband Benedict Barboza, 49, and their two children, Junal, 17, and Lisha, 14.
She had been working in England for ten years but was said to be having problems working at King Edward VII.
It has been revealed Jacintha Saldanha had been taking anti-depressants for nine months after attempting suicide twice in 2011.
She was closely monitored as a high-suicide risk but her employers were unaware of this.
Radio DJ Mel Greig has not returned to work since the hoax call was broadcast in December.
She made the call with co-host Michael Christian, who has since taken a lower profile job at a Melbourne station.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian were sent death threats and hate mail in the aftermath of the prank call.
The radio presenters rang the hospital impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles and asked questions about Kate Middleton’s pregnancy.
Southern Cross Austereo, which owns the radio station, has offered to pay 500,000 AUD into a trust fund for Jacintha Saldanha’s family.
Labour MP Keith Vaz spoke on behalf of Jacintha Saldanha’s family.
He said: “The forthcoming inquest will hopefully provide answers for the family and for them time will represent closure.”
Ruslan Tsarni, one of the Boston bombers’ uncles living in the U.S., was previously married to a CIA officer’s daughter for three years.
Ruslan Tsarni, formerly known as Tsarnaev, who publicly denounced his two terrorist nephews’ actions and called them “Losers”, even lived with his father-in-law agent Graham Fuller in his Maryland home for a year.
Graham Fuller was forced to explain the relationship on Saturday as news of the family link emerged online.
The former CIA agent told Al-Monitor that his daughter, Samantha, was married to Ruslan Tsarni, whose surname was then Tsarnaev, for three to four years in the 1990s.
Ruslan and Samantha divorced in 1999 more than ten years after Graham Fuller left the CIA in 1987.
“Samantha was married to Ruslan Tsarnaev [Tsarni] for 3-4 years, and they lived in Bishkek for one year where Samantha was working for Price Waterhouse on privatization projects,” Graham Fuller said.
“They also lived in our house in [Maryland] for a year or so and they were divorced in 1999, I believe.
“I, of course, retired from CIA in 1987 and had moved on to working as a senior political scientist for RAND.”
Graham Fuller said his son-in-law showed no interest in the agency or politics but spoke generally about his family in Chechnya.
The former CIA agent said any attempts to portray the relationship as a link between the security agency and the two terrorists was “absurd”.
Ruslan Tsarni, formerly known as Tsarnaev, was married for three years to CIA agent Graham Fuller’s daughter Samantha
“Like all Chechens, Ruslan was very concerned about his native land, but I saw no particular involvement in politics,” Graham Fuller told Al-Monitor.
“I doubt he even had much to say of intelligence value other than talking about his own family’s sad tale of deportation from Chechnya by Stalin to Central Asia. Every Chechen family has such stories.”
Graham Fuller visited Samantha and Ruslan Tsarni in Bishek, as a former Russian history graduate himself interested in “Soviet minorities”.
He said he may have met the terror suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, there once and his daughter knew the Tsarnaev family when Tamerlan was a toddler and before his younger brother Dzhokhar was born.
“I for one was astonished at the events, and to find myself at two degrees of separation from them,” Graham Fuller added.
Ruslan Tsarni, who lives in Montgomery Village, Maryland, was thrust into the spotlight as the names of his two nephews, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, emerged in connection to the Boston terror attack.
He stood on his driveway and attacked the two men calling them “Losers”.
Ruslan Tsarni has since reported a rift between his family and that of his brother Anzor’s and said his older nephew Tamerlan had become increasingly extreme in his religious views.
He said he last spoke to Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2009 when he declared he was dropping out of school to do “God’s business” and Ruslan Tsarni was concerned at his religious fervor.
“[The bombing] has nothing to do with Chechen … He put a shame on our family, he put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity,” Ruslan Tsarni told broadcasters in the aftermath of the bombings.
Ruslan Tsarni also told reporters that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had a friend called Misha who “brainwashed” him.
“This person just took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely,” he said.
FBI agents said they had tracked down Misha and believed he had no link to the terror attacks.
Anzor Tsarnaev, father of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, says he is postponing a trip to the U.S. to visit his hospitalized son Dzhokhar and collect Tamerlan’s body due to his spiking blood pressure.
Anzor Tsarnaev, 47, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he is “really sick” and his blood pressure had spiked.
He said last week that he planned to travel from Russia to the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed in a clash with police.
The news comes days after it was revealed that the suspects’ mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was placed on a CIA watchlist 18 months before the Boston Marathon attack.
Anzor Tsarnaev confirmed that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he had been hospitalized.
Until Friday, Anzor Tsarnaev and the suspects’ mother had been living in the neighboring province of Dagestan.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva claimed she had to call an ambulance for her husband on Thursday but did not elaborate on what happened.
It was revealed last week that both parents have left their home in Dagestan for another part of Russia.
Anzor Tsarnaev is postponing a trip to the U.S. to visit his hospitalized son Dzhokhar and collect Tamerlan’s body due to his spiking blood pressure
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was never planning to accompany her husband to the U.S. because she faces felony shoplifting charges here.
On April 25, the parents held a bizarre press conference in which they claimed that the gruesome carnage of the Boston attacks, which killed three people and injured more than 280, were staged by the U.S. government.
“America took my kids away from me,” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva cried.
“I’m sure my kids were not involved in anything.”
She went so far as to claim that the blood covering the streets after the blasts was in fact paint.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a police shootout on April 19 and 19-year-old Dzhokhar was taken into custody – alive, but badly injured – less than 24 hours later in Watertown, Massachusetts following a massive manhunt.
After spending nearly a week in a Boston hospital recovering from gunshot wounds sustained during a firefight with police, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was transferred to the Federal Medical Center Devens on April 26.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged in the Boston Marathon attacks and is facing a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life in prison.
The Tsarnaev family emigrated to the U.S. a decade ago, but both parents returned to Russia last year.
Anzor Tsarnaev said Thursday that he was planning to travel to the U.S. as soon as Friday, but hadn’t yet bought a plane ticket.
Banging the table in front of him, Anzor Tsarnaev said: “I am going to the United States. I want to say that I am going there to see my son, to bury the older one.
“I don’t have any bad intentions. I don’t plan to blow up anything. I am not angry at anyone. I want to go find out the truth.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, 45, also described a figure known only as “Misha” – who has been pinpointed as a source of radicalization for her son Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The mother said that he was a “very nice man”, of Armenian origin and living in Boston. “Misha” is also apparently a convert to the Islamic faith.
Anzor Tsarnaev has already been interviewed by Russian and American authorities – and would face further interviews if he ever gets to the U.S.
A blog dedicated to technology news in North Korea have reported that almost two million North Koreans now use the country’s only 3G network.
The figure has been confirmed by 3G provider Koryolink, a partnership between Egyptian telecoms firm Orascom and the North Korean government.
The service can only be used to make voice calls, and all international calls are banned.
At the start of 2012 Koryolink claimed to have one million 3G subscribers.
In January 2013 the government began allowing visitors to North Korea to bring in their mobile phones for the first time.
Almost two million North Koreans use the country’s only 3G network
Unlike residents, visitors to North Korea would now be able to use the 3G network for mobile internet access as well, by purchasing local SIM cards, the country said at the time.
However, last month, a China-based tour operator called Koryo Tours, which specializes in tourist visits to North Korea, posted a note on its website saying that 3G was no longer available for visitors.
North Koreans only have access to a very limited, state-run set of internet pages.
When Google Chair Eric Schmidt visited North Korea at the start of the year he urged the government to allow citizens access to the wider internet and said it would be “easy” for the 3G network to include data access.
“As the world becomes increasingly connected, the North Korean decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world and their economic growth,” Eric Schmidt wrote in a blog post.
Cristiano Ronaldo last night denied cheating on his girlfriend Irina Shayk with Brazilian model Andressa Urach who won the title Miss BumBum at a catwalk competition in 2012.
Andressa Urach, 27, had claimed Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo slept with her in a hotel just 48 hours before a key Champions League semi final which his team lost 4-1 to German side Borussia Dortmund.
The Brazilian model told The Sun: “I have always thought Cristiano is one of the most gorgeous men in the world, so I couldn’t believe it when he got in touch with me.
“He said he was very excited by my pictures online and one of the first things he asked me was if I really was a Miss Butt Brazil model.”
However, Cristiano Ronaldo said in a statement on Twitter last night: “I was informed that The Sun, faithful to its editorial line, will publish an article where is given voice to a so called Andressa – someone seeking the limelight on my account.
“And I wonder why this happens one day before a very important game for my team. Deeply outraged by a situation intended, in vain, to affect my personal life.
“I just want to clarify I was in fact at the Hotel Villa Magna on April 22 giving an interview to Manu Sainz, something the reporter himself is able to corroborate. Everything else is pure fiction and forgery.”
Cristiano Ronaldo last night denied cheating on his girlfriend Irina Shayk with Brazilian model Andressa Urach who won the title Miss BumBum at a catwalk competition in 2012
Andressa Urach had told The Sun it happened a day after Cristiano Ronaldo was pictured leaving a restaurant in Madrid with his girlfriend Irina Shayk.
Irina Shayt, 27, had her arms crossed and wore a downcast face.
Speaking about their tryst, she said: “It was incredible, his body’s perfect, like a Greek god. He went on for hours and would not stop talking about my butt.”
Andressa Urach claimed Cristiano Ronaldo told her he had dreamed about her behind and called her his “little horse” before asking her to come to Madrid and meet up.
She told how they linked up at the city’s $20,000-a-night Villa Magna hotel after she took a taxi there and waited for him in the lobby.
Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in a grey Audi R3 and parked in an underground car park before taking a private lift to his room, from where he texted her his room number, The Sun reported.
Cristiano Ronaldo is dating Russian beauty Irina Shayk, who is known as one of the world’s top swimwear and lingerie models.
On Thursday Irina Shayk was in the UK attending the launch of the new Eleven Paris store in London.
Irina Shayk and Cristiano Ronaldo started dating three years ago – just weeks before Ronaldo announced he had become a father to a baby son with an unnamed American mother.
Although the Real Madrid player announced he had “exclusive guardianship” of the tot Cristiano Jr., his mother Dolores is helping to raise the child in Portugal.
Over the past few years, Irina Shayk seemed to have embraced the role as surrogate stepmother to the child and has been seen doting over the little boy on frequent occasions.
However, since they started dating in May 2010, Cristiano Ronaldo and Irina Shayk regularly go for weeks or sometimes months without seeing each other.
Irina Shayk is based in New York for her modeling work, but travels all over the world, while Cristiano Ronaldo splits his time between Madrid and his native Portugal.
