Lance Armstrong will be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, amid reports that he might publicly admit to doping.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by the sport’s governing body, following a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network said the 90-minute interview would address “years of accusations of cheating”.
Lance Armstrong has maintained his innocence as he received a life ban from USADA.
But the New York Times reported on Friday that the 41-year-old was considering a public admission that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs. An admission could lead to an apparent bid to return to competing in marathons and triathlons, the paper reported.
The interview announcement was first made on Oprah Winfrey’s Twitter account on Tuesday, and confirmed when Lance Armstrong retweeted it 15 minutes later.
The interview – his first since being stripped of his wins – will be broadcast on January 17 on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network and live-streamed online.
Lance Armstrong will be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, amid reports that he might publicly admit to doping
Lance Armstrong ended his fight against doping charges in August 2012. In October, USADA released a 1,000-page report saying he had been at the heart of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme” ever seen in sport.
He was stripped of his titles by the International Cycling Union (UCI) shortly afterwards and given a lifetime ban from the sport.
Lance Armstrong also resigned as chairman of the Livestrong foundation – the cancer charity he created – after the cycling body’s decision.
His lawyer, Tim Herman, has described the USADA report as a “one-sided hatchet job” and the cyclist himself has accused the agency of offering “corrupt inducements” to other riders to speak out against him.
It is believed he is considering an admission because he wants to resume his athletic career, and has shown an interest in competing in triathlons.
Asked whether the 41-year-old was set to come clean, Tim Herman told the New York Times: “Lance has to speak for himself on that.”
Separately, the head of USADA told a US investigative programme that Lance Armstrong offered the agency a donation of some $250,000 in 2004, reports said.
Speaking to 60 Minutes Sport, to be broadcast in the US on Wednesday, Travis Tygart said the offer was a “clear conflict of interest” and quickly rejected.
Venezuela’s National Assembly has approved a request by President Hugo Chavez to postpone his inauguration for a new term in office, which was scheduled for Thursday, January 10.
Hugo Chavez is in hospital in Cuba after cancer surgery, and has suffered complications caused by a lung infection.
Legislators voted to give Hugo Chavez as much time as he needs to recover.
He has not been seen in public since his last operation a month ago.
Earlier, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro had confirmed that Hugo Chavez would be unable to attend the ceremony.
Venezuela’s opposition has called for the Supreme Court to rule on what should be done if Hugo Chavez is absent.
Its leader, Henrique Capriles, says Hugo Chavez should be declared absent, with the speaker of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, taking over as interim president.
President Hugo Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, was re-elected in October for a fourth term.
The government insists that the inauguration is a mere formality for an incumbent leader.
Venezuela’s National Assembly has approved a request by President Hugo Chavez to postpone his inauguration for a new term in office
After weeks of speculation, Diosdado Cabello announced to legislators that Hugo Chavez had requested to be sworn in at a later date before the Supreme Court, according to Article 231 of the Constitution.
“On the recommendation of his medical team, the process of post-operation recuperation will have to be prolonged beyond 10 January, [as a result of which] he will be unable to present himself on this date to the National Assembly,” he said, reading a letter from Vice President Nicolas Maduro.
On Monday, Diosdado Cabello called on Hugo Chavez supporters to take to the streets of Caracas on Thursday to show support for him.
He said several foreign leaders had agreed to be at the Miraflores Presidential Palace on inauguration day.
But Henrique Capriles urged them to stay away and not succumb to “a game by a political party”, meaning Hugo Chavez’s ruling party.
In his most recent update on Hugo Chavez, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said his condition was “stable”, and he was “responding to the treatment”.
Venezuela’s constitution
Article 231: The president-elect shall take office on January 10 of the first year of their constitutional term, by taking an oath before the National Assembly. If for any reason, (they) cannot be sworn in before the National Assembly, they shall take the oath of office before the Supreme Court.
Article 233:(…) When there is an absolute absence of the president-elect before taking office, there shall be a new election by universal, direct and secret vote within the next 30 consecutive days. Pending the election and inauguration of the new president, the president of the National Assembly will assume responsibility for the presidency of the Republic.
If the absence of the president of the Republic occurs during the first four years of the constitutional period, there shall be a new election by universal, direct and secret vote within 30 consecutive days. Pending the election and inauguration of the new president, the executive vice-president will be responsible for the presidency of the Republic.
Article 234: When the president is temporarily unable to serve, they shall be replaced by the executive vice-president for a period of up to 90 days, which may be extended by resolution of the National Assembly for an additional 90 days.
From a cornflower blue dress from Zara to a pair of vibrant pink jeans, Kate Middleton’s wardrobe choices have sent high street sales soaring with shoppers desperate to emulate her impeccable style.
But it seems that not everyone is reaping the rewards of the “Kate effect”, with designer Roland Mouret admitting that Kim Kardashian has more selling power than the Duchess.
Kate Middleton wowed the world when she stepped out in one of his show-stopping cream gowns at Claridge’s last year, but French designer Roland Mouret said the 30-year-old doesn’t boost his sales as much as reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
“You don’t see hundreds of women running around looking like her [Kate Middleton],” he said.
“To be honest, we’re more likely to get orders on a dress that Kim Kardashian’s worn,” he told The Telegraph.
Roland Mouret has admitted that Kim Kardashian has more selling power than Kate Middleton
Roland Mouret attributes this to the fact that the Duchess has no interested in drawing in the attention of the media, unlike Kim Kardashian who lets the media follow her life on a daily basis.
Speaking about Kate Middleton’s fashion choices, Roland Mouret said: “She’s highly attuned to those details that will provoke a tabloid frenzy and above all, she does not want a tabloid frenzy.
“She doesn’t seem to feel the need to dress sexily to woo the world.
“She’s dressing for William and herself.”
And it seems that the Duchess is so afraid of the media frenzy that she once asked for one of her gowns to be altered to fit less tightly.
“She doesn’t want a bottom situation like Pippa had,” said Roland Mouret.
Roland Mouret earned himself the much coveted title of “King of the dress” after his Galaxy dress was named the “dress of the decade” and worn by every A-lister in tinsel town.
But after a few years out of the glare of the spotlight, Roland Mouret is back and ready to give his own iconic number a run for its money with a brand new collection – no doubt hoping for the endorsement of both Kim Kardashian and the Duchess of Cambridge.
According to the UN, 1 million Syrians are going hungry and helpless due to the 22-month civil conflict in the country.
The World Food Program (WFP) says it is helping 1.5 million Syrians, but continued fighting and an inability to use the port of Tartus to deliver food mean many people are not receiving aid.
The UN estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the uprising, which began in March 2011.
Rebels have gained control of swathes of northern Syria in recent months.
The increasingly dangerous situation meant the WFP had pulled its staff out of its offices in Homs, Aleppo, Tartus and Qamisly, said agency spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs.
According to the UN, 1 million Syrians are going hungry and helpless due to the 22-month civil conflict in the country
Late 2012 saw a sharp rise in the number of attacks on WFP aid trucks, said the agency, which has also been hit by fuel shortages.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said the number of refugees fleeing the violence in Syria had leapt by nearly 100,000 in the past month.
It said there were 597,240 registered refugees and individuals awaiting registration as of January 6 – up from 509,559 the month before.
The UN estimates that around four million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid.
Opposition forces have been making considerable gains in recent weeks, but their efforts to take control of areas around major cities including Damascus have met with stiff resistance and increasingly destructive air strikes.
On Monday, the New York Times reported that Israeli intelligence indicated Syrian troops were mixing chemicals – suspected to be the deadly nerve gas sarin – at two storage sites, and filling dozens of 500-pound (225 kg) bombs that could be loaded on airplanes.
The reports in late November prompted a flurry of international statements warning the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against using chemical weapons on his own people.
It seems Lindsay Lohan has managed to take on another legend in the guise of Marilyn Monroe for another movie.
Although Lindsay Lohan has taken a rather more controversial slant to the role of the iconic beauty.
A trailer for upcoming film InAPPropriate Comedy shows Lindsay Lohan in her cameo alongside Adrien Brody in the eyebrow raising picture.
And it seems Lindsay Lohan’s up to her usual controversial antics as she’s seen wearing a white dress like the one worn by Marilyn Monroe during her iconic moment when her dress blows up in The Seven Year Itch.
Lindsay Lohan mimics the moment by standing on a pavement with her similar halterneck white frock blowing up in the air to almost reveal her modesty.
She even completed her look with platinum blonde hair and lashings of lipstick to emphasize her pout.
And then Lindsay Lohan can be seen facing a row or paparazzi before taking a gun hidden from behind her dress and shooting the photographers.
Lindsay Lohan having a Marilyn Monroe moment in InAPPropriate Comedy trailer
A description for the movie details Lindsay Lohan’s moment as her character living out “her fantasy of taking an ultimate revenge on the salivating paparazzi who haunt her”.
Lindsay Lohan appears alongside Adrien Brody in the comedy, which lives up to its name if the new trailer is anything to go by.
She is also due to appear in the thriller The Canyons with James Deen, and Scary Movie 5 with Charlie Sheen later this year.
It makes a nice change for Lindsay Lohan to be showing she’s been hard at work as opposed to her usual press for her off screen antics.
On Monday Lindsay Lohan even made headlines for being a no-show in court.
The troubled 26-year-old, who is widely reported to have severe money problems, is accused of punching a fellow clubber in the face during a nightclub brawl on November 29.
Lindsay Lohan was arrested and charged with third degree misdemeanor assault following the incident.
But as the troubled star failed to make an appearance in court on Monday, her lawyer revealed that she had no need to worry.
In fact he bizarrely told waiting reporters how a “fortune teller has predicted an extremely lucky 2013” for his client.
Following Larry Hagman’s death Dallas fans are set to be treated to another “Who Shot JR?” mystery.
Dallas producers are set to pay tribute to the late Larry Hagman by killing off his character JR Ewing, in an hour-long special of the new version of the show, according to reports.
A source told the Mirror: “We wanted Larry’s legacy to remain beyond this show.”
“We felt that one way would be to mirror the most memorable episode of all time.”
Larry Hagman passed away in November after losing a battle with cancer.
Dallas producers are set to pay tribute to the late Larry Hagman by killing off his character JR Ewing, in an hour-long special of the new version of the show
The “Who shot JR?” episode of the original oil drama in the 1980s was the second most-watched TV episode of all time.
It is estimated that more than 85 million viewers tuned in to see the episode that revealed that the character had actually survived and that the shooter was his sister-in-law Kristin Shepard.
Larry Hagman passed away on November 23 from complications of throat cancer aged 81.
The actor was in the middle of filming episode five of 15 in season two of the Dallas reboot when he passed away and writers evidently struggled with how to write him out of the show, before coming up with the “Who Done It” plot.
The episode is set to air in March in the US.
The original 1978 CBS series, only originally envisaged as a five-part drama, became a hit and counted millions of fans across the U.S. and in the 95 foreign countries where it was aired.
Shortly before his death, Larry Hagman took part in hidden camera show I Get That a Lot – to try and convince fans he was just an average Joe.
Vogue magazine gives a complete guide to Kate Middleton for those seeking to emulate the Duchess of Cambridge’s style.
From the diameter of Kate Middleton’s curls to the number of teeth she shows when she smiles, nothing has escaped the Vogue’s scrutiny.
Ahead of her 31st birthday tomorrow, Vogue has analyzed outfits the duchess has worn since her marriage to Prince William in April 2011, plus a handful from before the couple’s engagement – 100 in total.
So to be a true copy Kate Middleton, you should wear blue, ensure the average drop of your earrings is 33 mm – and carry your clutch bag with both hands.
According to Vogue’s guide, when it comes to her clothes, Kate Middleton’s favorite color appears to be blue, which she has worn on 24% of occasions.
From peacock to Prussian, it is her out and out favorite.
The Duchess of Cambridge also favors red (13%) – which she wore for the occasion of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant – followed by white (12%) and, less popularly with the public, grey (11%).
Next on the list is purple (9%), multi colored or patterned outfits (8%) pink (7%) and green (6%).
Cream and yellow both languish at the bottom of the league table on 5%.
By far and away most outfits worn on her last 100 official engagements come from top end High Street store LK Bennett – worn on 28 public engagements.
But designer Alexander McQueen, whose outfits cost several thousand pounds apiece and who the Duchess chose to design her wedding dress, is her next favorite label with 14.
Vogue magazine gives a complete guide to Kate Middleton for those seeking to emulate the Duchess of Cambridge’s style
Other designers in Kate Middleton’s top five are Jenny Packham (6), who has designed some of her most stunning evening dresses, and Temperley (8).
Once the high street Queen, Zara languishes at seven (probably because the firm have a huge store just a short hop from her home at Kensington Palace).
But surprisingly Reiss, the label Kate Middleton wore to meet US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle at Buckingham Palace, does not even register.
Vogue has even made it its business to scrutinize the length of the Duchess’s sleeves – finding that 6:1 being the most commonly seen arm-to-sleeve-length ratio.
“All the better to display the royal wrist-bling,” it says.
The magazine estimates that on her most recent tour of South East Asia and the Pacific, the Duchess took along 61 items of clothing, footwear and accessories worth around £1,427 per outfit (compared to the late Diana, Princess of Wales whose tour outfits costs the modern equivalent of £4,270 a pop).
Kate Middleton’s other most talked-about asset is her glorious tumbling tresses and the magazine has even, unbelievably, worked out the average diameter of her curls – 25 mm.
The Duchess goes for a glossy “Chelsea blow dry” 73.4 of the time – a perfectly achievable goal if one, like Kate Middleton, has a hairdresser on call 24 hours a day.
Just like on her wedding day, she favors a chic half-up half-down do 13.6% of the time, wearing it either naturally loose or curly or in a ponytail 6.5% of occasions.
Her accessories are equally closely monitored.
Apparently Kate Middleton has perfected the tilt of her hats and fascinators – always to the right at a stylish 50 degree angle – to show off her enviable cheekbones.
The average dimension of her favorite clutch bags is 194 mm by 132 mm and she carried them as thus: one handed 31%, left hand over right 15.5%, right hand over left 5.5%, hands together 48%.
Kate Middleton’s favored shoe designer is the upmarket Stuart Weitzman – sported on 13 public engagements out of the last 100 – closely followed by Jimmy Choo at nine official events.
Even her earrings do not escape scrutiny – the average drop measuring exactly 33 mm.
One of her favorite pairs is a glittering sapphire and diamond set once owned by William’s mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who sported them on the cover of Vogue in July 1994.
Seventeen years later, on her July 2011 official tour to Canada, Kate Middleton wore them in public again after having them slightly remodeled.
Even her teeth do not escape the eagle eye of the fashionistas.
Apparently Kate Middleton, who is believed to have had her teeth whitened and straightened by “micro-rotation” – using invisible braces attached to the back of each tooth – shows an average of 8.6 teeth when she smiles.
The February issue of Vogue is on sale from Thursday.
Joe Warner, the deputy editor of Men’s Fitness, the UK’s best-selling fitness lifestyle magazine, went from flabby, out-of-shape man to a cover model star – complete with rock-hard six-pack – in just 12 weeks, and reveals the secrets to how you can build a brand new physique with only four hours of exercise per week.
So what’s his secret?
“I spent most of my 20s doing a lot of running but no matter for how far or how long I ran I would always have a bit of a belly and never any muscles on my chest, shoulders or arms,” he says.
“After turning 30 I decided to see whether I could get into the best shape I have ever been in.
“I deal with a lot of fitness models for my job but always thought I would never be able to get a physique like theirs.
“I believed I just didn’t have the right genetics or enough time to make it happen. But it turns out that there is no legitimate reason for not making huge changes to the way you look without a t-shirt on.
“If I can do it, anyone can. I’m an average guy with a busy, deadline-driven desk job so finding the time to train is always difficult, but the regime I followed proves that you don’t need to spend hour after hour exercising to dramatically transform the way you look, even in a relatively short period of time.”
Nick Mitchell, the founder of Ultimate Performance, which has two personal training gyms in London, who designed and oversaw Joe Warner’s training programme says: “When Joe came to me he had a <<skinny fat>> physique, which is when you have very little muscle mass on your torso but a large amount of fat stored around the stomach.
“It’s a body shape I’m seeing increasingly among UK men and one that can lead to a lot of long-term health issues, especially diabetes.
“But Joe and I have proved that an effective training regime, which doesn’t require hours of boring exercise, coupled with smart eating can radically reduce body-fat levels while also packing on significant amounts of lean muscle for a better, and ultimately healthier, body.”
Nick Mitchell’s training programme revolved around just one hour-long gym session four times per week, and in 12 weeks Joe Warner shed 8 kg of fat – the equivalent to 16 large packets of butter – while building 10 kg of lean muscle mass to completely transform his body into one worthy of gracing the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine.
Joe Warner’s four sessions were carried out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunch times, and first thing Saturday morning, so it had minimal impact on his work or social life.
“Instead of working through lunch with a sandwich at my desk I got out of the office, trained, worked off some steam them came back to my job more energized and focused,” he says.
“I found my productivity soared once I started training. Even if you have a very busy, very stressful job finding just four hours per week to train will not only have huge benefits to your physique, it will also help you combat stress levels and allow you to work more effectively and efficiently.
“I booked my training sessions into my diary just like I would any other meeting. It sounds silly but it makes them feel more important so you’re less likely to cancel them.”
“I started seeing major changes after the first week and after a fortnight by body-fat percentage had tumbled from nearly 17% to 12.8%, with nearly all of the fat falling off my stomach,” says Joe.
“I was also adding lean muscle mass to my chest, shoulders and arms, so being wider on my torso but narrower at my waist made me look radically different relatively quicker.”
“The key to getting rapid results is to work out intensively for a short amount of time, then give your body time to recover fully before training again,” says Nick Mitchell.
“Training for too long in one go is counter-productive to getting a better body: it places too much stress on your body, which actually eats away at your muscles and encourages the storage of fat.
“It’s also important to frequently change the exercises you do, and how many sets and reps of each you do so that your body is always out of its comfort zone so must keeping burning fat and building muscle so it’s ready for anything.”
How to build six-pack abs in 12 weeks
Joe Warner’s diet revolved around plenty of lean red meat and white meat, fish, fresh vegetables, eggs and slow-release carbs, such as sweet potatoes.
“The diet I followed was simple but effective so I was never hungry,” he says.
“You do need to be organized so that you are never tempted by a quick sandwich and crisps at lunch, but I found that I was actually enjoying my food more on the diet than before, mainly because steak, vegetables and sweet potato mash is far more delicious than a pre-packed sarnie or ready meal.
“And when you are training hard you want to feed your body the right food to keep your muscles growing and your belly shrinking.”
“I could even have a glass of red wine at the weekends, so never felt as though I was sacrificing anything,” he adds.
“At first it was hard to go out and not being able to drink or order anything I wanted off the menu.
“But most restaurants will serve steak, chicken or fish and happily give you as many vegetables as you want.
“It didn’t take long before I stopped craving for sugary foods and snacks because I could see that my training and diet regime were really working.”
“Joe has proved that training hard and eating healthily is all you need to do to transform your body into one that can grace the cover of a magazine,” Nick Mitchell adds.
“A smart training plan, executed with 100% effort, really is the best, and most effective, way to build the body you’ve always wanted.”
OLD FITNESS REGIME
Monday: 60-minute run Tuesday: 45-minute run Wednesday: 60-minute gym session Thursday: 60-minute run Friday: Rest Saturday: 45-minute run Sunday: Rest
Breakfast: Cappuccino and croissant Snack: Tea and biscuits Lunch: Jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw Snack: Fizzy drink and crisps Dinner: Pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce
NEW DIET
Breakfast: Bacon and scrambled eggs Snack: Handful of mixed nuts Lunch: Tuna salad with peppers and olives Snack: Greek yoghurt Dinner: Steak with sweet potato fries
Pregnant Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Kanye West appear to be preparing a home fit for a little prince – or princess if a new report is to be believed.
TMZ claims Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West have bought an $11 million mansion in Bel Air, where they will set up home together for the first time.
The news website reports the soon to be parents are now the proud owners of a 10,000-square-foot home in a private gated community in California’s exclusive Bel Air suburb.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will join A-list neighbor Jennifer Aniston, Los Angeles Clippers basketball player Chris Paul, and founder of the Girls Gone Wild entertainment franchise Joe Francis as the famous names in the neighborhood.
Kanye West, 35, is well known for his love of interior design and will no doubt be keen to put his stamp on their first home together.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are looking forward to the birth of their first child in June.
The website report that the couple have already gutted the interior and are planning to add an extra 4,000 feet to complete their dream home.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have reportedly bought an $11 million mansion in Bel Air, where they will set up home together for the first time
A source told TMZ the new home will be “an Italian-style villa, with a gym, movie theater, full hair and make-up salon, bowling alley, basketball court, indoor and outdoor pool”.
Not forgetting a nursery of course.
News of the couple’s nestbuilding came as Kim Kardashian, 32,was seen out in Miami on Monday, covering her bump in a billowing sheer tunic top, under a waterfall jacket.
And she opted for comfortable loose white trousers, and a fierce pair of caged heels.
Kim Kardashian was joined by her friend Jonathan Cheban as they spent a day wandering around the shops in Miami.
The reality star recently left the Florida city after completing filming her reality show, but returned over the weekend for a bikini photoshoot on the beach.
The couple surprised many when they reportedly turned down a $3 million offer for the first photos of their baby.
A source close to Kim Kardashian told gossip website TMZ.com that she and Kanye West have been flooded with lucrative offers for their child’s first pictures and were offered $3 million from one publication outside the US.
Kim Kardashian has already been offered $250,000 to host a pregnancy website after being approached by David Dginguerian, an Armenian filmmaker, about working with a planned membership-only website called MyPregnancy.com.
It is unclear if Kim Kardashian will sign up as it was recently revealed that she and Kanye West are reportedly planning to share the pregnancy and their adjustment to parenthood with their fans through a show on E!.
E! Entertainment network president Suzanne Kolb previously said: “Kim and Kanye are an incredibly dynamic couple, and their baby news is just so exciting.
“Like so many Kardashian fans, we love it when this close-knit family gets even bigger. We look forward to sharing the joy as they prepare for more diapers, more bottles and without a doubt, more fabulous baby wear.”
Sony has unveiled Xperia Z, a new smartphone that can be used in the shower or bath without the risk of damage.
This water-resistant feature is relatively common in Japan, but has not been included in many top-end smartphones released elsewhere.
The Xperia Z can also record HDR (high dynamic range) video, a facility borrowed from its camera division.
One analyst said it was evidence of Sony Mobile making progress but added “it still had a mountain to climb”.
The Japanese company announced it was taking control of the smartphone unit – which had previously been a joint venture with Ericsson – in October 2011.
Sony posted a full-year loss of 56.7 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in May and has continued to lose money over subsequent quarters.
Android-powered Xperia Z was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Sony has unveiled bath-friendly Xperia Z at 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
Sony says the handset, which has a 5 in (12.7 cm) screen, is capable of being submerged in water of up to one metre (3.3 ft) in depth for 30 minutes.
“If you want to want to sit in the bath and watch an HD movie this is the device for you,” said Steve Walker, Sony Mobile executive.
“You can take it in the shower if you want, or more usefully if you get it dirty you can wash it under the tap.”
He added that about one in 10 people had dropped their phone down a toilet at some point, something this would protect against.
The trade-off is that handset’s various ports, including the one for its headphones, all feature protective plastic covers that must be unclipped before they can be accessed.
Other features on the 7.9 mm-thick (0.3 in) device include 4G LTE connectivity, a Micro SD slot, a 13 megapixel camera and a 1080p x 1920p high-definition screen that borrows technology from the firm’s Bravia TV division to enhance video playback.
In addition a NFC (near field communication) chip is used to start streaming content to Sony’s latest televisions by tapping the handset against their remote controls.
The firm also boasts that the device includes its proprietary Exmor RS image sensor technology, allowing it to record HDR video.
This allows it to combine exposure readings to tackle problematic situations such when a person is standing against a bright background; Sony says that without HDR either the person’s face looks too dark or the background too light.
Nvidia’s latest Tegra chip can also do this but has not been built into a handset yet.
Eurozone unemployment rate hit a new all-time high of 11.8% in November, official figures have shown.
This is a slight rise on 11.7% for the 17-nation region in October. The rate for the European Union as a whole in November was unchanged at 10.7%.
Spain, which is mired in deep recession, again recorded the highest unemployment rate, coming in at 26.6%.
More than 26 million people are now unemployed across the EU.
For the eurozone, the number of people without work reached 18.8 million said Eurostat, the official European statistics agency said.
Greece had the second-highest unemployment rate in November, at 20%.
The youth unemployment rate was 24.4% in the eurozone, and 23.7% in the wider European Union. Youth unemployment – among people under 25 – was highest in Greece (57.6%), followed by Spain (56.5%).
Overall unemployment was lowest in Austria (4.5%), Luxembourg (5.1%) and Germany (5.4%).
Eurozone unemployment rate hit a new all-time high of 11.8 percent in November 2012
The eurozone and wider European Union economies are struggling with recession as government measures to reduce sovereign debt levels have impacted on economic growth.
However, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday that he believed the worst was over.
Jose Manuel Barroso said the turning point was last September’s promise from the European Central Bank to buy unlimited amounts of eurozone states’ debts.
But in the view of the UK’s Institute of Directors, whose members rely on demand from trading partners in the eurozone, this “has bought time, but that is all it has done”.
“It is clear that the economic implosion of several member states continues at a troubling pace,” said the business group’s chief economist Graeme Leach.
“The headline figures spell bad news, but that is compounded by the political and human impact of terrifying levels of youth unemployment in Spain, Greece and Italy.
“This saga is far from over, whatever President Barroso may believe, and it seems it is set to get worse in 2013.”
Rabobank economist Jan Foley said the rise in unemployment was “the other side of austerity or structural reform.”
“There is a very worrying picture painted by these numbers, and governments do need to wonder if they need more pro-growth strategies in the next few years,” she said.
The record low for the eurozone unemployment rate was 7.2%, which was recorded in February 2008, before the financial crisis that first gripped the banking sector spread to the real economy.
The historic low for the eurozone youth unemployment rate was 15% in March 2008.
Samsung Electronics has announced it expects to make a record profit for the last quarter of 2012, powered by growing sales of its smartphones.
It has estimated an operating profit of 8.8 trillion won ($8.3 billion) for the quarter, a 90% jump from the same period a year earlier.
That would make it the fifth quarter in a row of record profits for Samsung.
The success of its Galaxy smartphones helped Samsung overtake Nokia as the world’s biggest phone maker last year.
Analysts said that given the popularity of its smartphones, the South Korean firm was likely to see its profits grow further in the coming months.
“Not only are their smartphone sales growing, they have also learned how to make a good profit on those sales,” said James Rooney, chairman of Market Force Company, an advisory firm based in Seoul.
“Given these factors, this streak of record breaking quarters is likely to continue for a while,” he added.
Samsung Electronics has announced it expects to make a record profit for the last quarter of 2012, powered by growing sales of its smartphones
One of the key drivers of Samsung’s smartphone sales in recent months has been its Galaxy S3 model.
However, the phone is facing increased competition, not least from rival Apple, which launched its iPhone 5 in September last year.
Other rivals, such as Nokia and HTC, have also launched new handsets powered by Windows Phone 8, in an attempt to increase their market share.
At the same time, there are also concerns that the pace of growth of sales that Samsung has seen in recent quarters could slow in the coming months.
“Investors are a bit concerned that Samsung’s momentum may slow in the first half after posting a series of record profits,” said Kim Sung-Soo a fund manager at LS Asset Management.
“The smartphone market is unlikely to sustain its strong growth, as advanced markets are nearing saturation,” he explained.
Kim Sung-Soo added that a slowdown in the smartphone division may hurt Samsung as other parts of its business, such as manufacturing memory chips and televisions, have already been impacted by a contraction in global demand.
The U.S. real estate market seems to have a relatively steady progress toward recovery in 2013.
During 2012 area residential and commercial property sales hit their highest level in five years for some regions throughout the country.
Coastal town real estate market boom tendency, the U.S. apartment shortage and the high rents, along with the Extension of the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act of 2007, low mortgage rates and the deduction for mortgage insurance premiums revived by the fiscal cliff deal, all of these facts seem to lead to a real estate market growing trend.
Under these circumstances, for real estate brokers it is important to have a good multiple listings service (MLS) for their websites. An interesting article on Internet Data Exchange (IDX) provider Boomtown ROI is published on Real Geeks blog.
According to real estate research firm Reis Inc., low apartment vacancies and high rents may encourage more renters to become home buyers.
There have been three years of vacancy declines and in the last three months of 2012 the national apartment vacancy rate dropped to 4.5 percent. That was the lowest vacancy rate since the third quarter of 2001, according to Reis data. Also, the average effective rent of $1,048 was up 0.6 percent from the prior period, and marked the twelfth straight quarter of rising rent.
“You’re starting to see the initial signs of rent versus own calculus that takes place. You’re starting to see it in New York and San Francisco, where people are paying $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, a month to rent. They look at it and say, ‘All right, I’m already dealing with 8 percent, 10 percent rent increases from year to year, how much longer do I really want to put up with this from landlords?” said Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis.
Home values in Metro Detroit, while rising, remain low compared to the rest of the nation, and are also still below pre-recession levels.
“Southeast Michigan’s real estate market is making great strides. Without question, we are on the road to recovery,” Jeanette Schneider, vice president of RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan, said in a press release.
Coastal town real estate market has a boom tendency.
Home prices are on the upswing, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Home prices rose 4.3% in October 2012 in comparison to October 2011. While some states are still struggling, others are making huge progress. Massachusetts home sales have increased 38% from November 2011 to November 2012, while home prices also increased 2%. The number of home sales in the month of November throughout the state was at a level that has not been seen since 2005.
In Louisiana, both residential and commercial property sales reached their highest level in five years during 2012. The outlook for 2013 looks very promising in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, according to Bill Boyd, Bayou Board of Realtors president. Data for existing and new properties in Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parishes, plus part of Assumption Parish, shows sales of $343.8 million for 2,086 units in 2012, compared to $313.3 million for 1,934 units in 2008 when the national recession started.
In Florida and California, beach homes are quickly leaving the market as investor demand is rising, which is turning the “buyer’s market” into more of a “seller’s market.”
How to calculate real estate return on investment (ROI)
To determine a property is a good investment, you need to calculate the real estate return on investment (ROI). Before you begin, gather all relevant information, such as tenant payments, any property costs such as taxes and insurance fees and the original amount of your investment.
1 Calculate how much you would earn from the real estate. Let’s say you make $1,000 per month on one property. Multiply by 12 to get the yearly total. This means $12,000 per year.
2 Add up your expenses for the real estate. Include taxes, insurance, mortgage payments and repairs and any other expenses pertaining to the property. Let’s say you pay $1,500 a year for taxes, $1,500 a year for insurance, $500 a month ($6,000 a year) for mortgage payments and $500 a year for repairs. That would be a total of $9,500 a year for expenses.
3 Calculate the investments. Down payment and costs of repairs made before renting or leasing the property are considered investments. Let’s say you put $20,000 down on the real estate and made $5,000 in initial repairs then your total investment is $25,000.
4 Calculate the net operating income. Your net operating income (NOI) can be found by subtracting the total expenses from the total amount that you would earn from renting or leasing the real estate. Using the examples above, if your yearly earnings were $12,000, your NOI would be $12,000 – $9,500 = $2,500.
5 Use the NOI to get the ROI. Divide the NOI by your total investment amount. The number that you will get will need to be converted to a percentage by moving the decimal point two places to the right. Using the examples above, $2,500/$25,000 = 0.10, which would be 10 percent for the ROI.
Several Chinese media outlets have appeared to back journalists at the Southern Weekly newspaper embroiled in a row over censorship.
News portals carried a state-sanctioned editorial criticizing the journalists.
But they added a disclaimer saying that posting the piece did not mean that they shared the views it expressed.
Meanwhile journalists at the Southern Weekly are reported to be engaged in talks with propaganda officials over the row, AP reports.
A Reuters reporter outside the paper’s headquarters said police broke up brief scuffles between supporters of the Southern Weekly and another group denouncing the paper.
The row began when a New Year message in the paper – also known as Southern Weekend – that had called for guaranteed constitutional rights was changed by censors prior to publication.
Staff wrote two letters calling for the provincial propaganda chief, Tuo Zhen, to step down. Another row then erupted over control of the paper’s microblog when a message was posted denying that the piece had been changed.
A number of staff went on strike and protesters demonstrated outside the paper’s offices.
On Tuesday, an editorial from the state-run Global Times was republished on multiple news sites – the result, according to some reports, of a government directive.
Copies of the directive circulating online called state control of the media an “unwavering” principle, blamed the incident on “hostile outside forces” and said workers should not voice support for Southern Weekly journalists.
Several Chinese media outlets have appeared to back journalists at the Southern Weekly newspaper embroiled in a row over censorship
The Global Times editorial, meanwhile, said local provincial officials were not behind changes to the New Year message, adding that activists outside China’s media industry – including US-based blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng – had been “inciting some media to engage in confrontation”.
It said that reform “out of step with political development” was unrealistic.
“For media professionals, it is clear that under the reality of China’s current state of affairs, the country is unlikely to have the ‘absolutely free media’ that is dreamed of by those activists.
“The Southern Weekly issue will not be concluded with a surprise ending.”
Major web portals including Sina, Sohu and Tencent republished the article. But their disclaimers said that publication did not mean they shared its opinion or endorsed its content.
Print editions of at least four well-known newspapers – Xiao Xiang Morning Post, Shanghai Morning Post, China Youth Daily, Oriental Daily – appeared not to be carrying the piece.
Chinese media are supervised by so-called propaganda departments that often change content to align it with party thinking.
Southern Weekly, based in Guangdong, is one of the country’s most respected newspapers, known for its hard-hitting investigations and for testing the limits of freedom of speech.
Its next edition is due out on Thursday. Editors and propaganda officials are engaged in negotiations over the terms under which the journalists would be willing to publish, AP reported, citing an unidentified Southern Weekly editor.
The row is being keenly watched as a test for China’s new leaders, who took over in November last year.
It has also sparked a reaction in cyberspace, with comments from prominent bloggers and journalists.
Actress Yao Chen posted the newspaper’s logo and quoted Russia’s Alexandr Solzhenitsyn in a microblog post to her 32 million followers: “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.”
Since its launch into orbit in 2009, Kepler has stared at a fixed part of the sky, peering at more than 150,000 stars in its field of view.
It detects the minute dip in light coming from a star if a planet passes in front of it, in what is called a transit.
But it is a tricky measurement to make, with the total light changing just tiny fractions of a percent, and not every dip in light is due to a planet.
So Francois Fressin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics – who discovered the first Earth-sized planets set about trying to find out not only which Kepler candidates might not be planets, but also which planets might not have been visible to Kepler.
Artistic illustration of different types of planets in the Milky Way detected by NASA Kepler spacecraft
“We have to correct for two things – first [the Kepler candidate list] is incomplete,” said Francois Fressin.
“We only see the planets that are transiting their host stars, stars that happen to have a planet that is well-aligned for us to see it, and [for each of those] there are dozens that do not.
“The second major correction is in the list of candidates – there are some that are not true planets transiting their host star; they are other astrophysical configurations.”
These might include, for example, binary stars, where one star orbits another, blocking some of the light as the stars transit each other.
“We simulated all the possible configurations we could think of – and we found out that they could only account for 9.5% of Kepler planets, and all the rest are bona fide planets,” Dr. Francois Fressin explained.
The results suggest that 17% of stars host a planet up to 1.25 times the size of the Earth, in close orbits lasting just 85 days or fewer – much like the planet Mercury.
That means our Milky Way galaxy hosts at least 17 billion Earth-sized planets.
Even as Dr. Francois Fressin reported an analysis of the most recent Kepler catalogue, it was increased substantially by results reported by Christopher Burke of the Seti Institute.
Dr. Christopher Burke announced 461 new candidate planets, a substantial fraction of which were Earth-sized or not much larger – planets that have until now been particularly difficult to detect.
“What’s particularly interesting is four new planets – less than twice the size of Earth – that are potentially in the habitable zone, the location around a star where it could potentially have liquid water to sustain life,” said Dr. Christopher Burke.
One of the four, dubbed KOI 172.02, is a mere 1.5 times the size of the Earth and around a star like our own Sun – perhaps as near as the current data allow to finding an “Earth 2.0”.
“It’s very exciting because we’re really starting to pick up the sensitivity to these things in the habitable zone – we’re just really getting to the frontier of potentially life-bearing planets.”
William Borucki, the driving force behind and principal investigator on the Kepler mission, said he was “delighted” by the fresh batch of results.
“The most important thing is the statistics – not to find one Earth but to find 100 Earths. That’s what we’ll be seeing as the years go on with the Kepler mission, because it was designed to find many Earths.”
Venezuelan authorities have urged President Hugo Chavez’s supporters to join a major rally on Thursday, when he is due to be sworn in for a fourth term.
Hugo Chavez, in hospital in Cuba after cancer surgery, is unlikely to attend.
But Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Diosdado Cabello said many heads of state would be in Caracas to show their support.
The Catholic Church says ministers risk violating the constitution and the opposition have called for protests.
The opposition insists new elections should be called within 30 days if Hugo Chavez is unable to take the oath on January 10.
Hugo Chavez, 58, who has been in power since 1999, has not been seen in public since his latest operation last month, and government officials have acknowledged that he has suffered complications caused by a lung infection.
The president’s condition was “stable”, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said in a televised statement late on Monday.
Venezuelan authorities have urged President Hugo Chavez’s supporters to join a major rally on Thursday, when he is due to be sworn in for a fourth term
Predicting a major pro-Chavez demonstration, the speaker of the assembly appealed to opposition leaders to act responsibly on Thursday and warned: “We will stop any attempt to destabilize the government.”
“There will be a big gathering here in Caracas on January 10. All of Venezuela is going to come to Caracas and be in front of the Miraflores [Presidential’ Palace. The people will be on the streets,” Diosdado Cabello said.
Earlier, the Venezuelan Catholic Church said it would be a morally unacceptable violation of the constitution to allow Hugo Chavez to remain in power after missing his inauguration.
The head of the Venezuelan Conference of Bishops, Diego Padron, said Hugo Chavez had to attend his inauguration when his term ended on 10 January.
“It is not our job to intervene publically, but in this case the good of the country and the defence of ethics are at stake. To alter the constitution to attain a political objective is morally unacceptable,” added Monsignor Diego Padron.
The assembly speaker hit back, insisting that the government “had always respected the constitution and would continue to do so”.
“We believe the call made by the Bishops’ Conference today is aimed at the sectors of the opposition and the high echelons of the Church who took active part in the 2002 coup attempt [against President Hugo Chavez],” he said.
Diosdado Cabello was re-elected as speaker on Saturday.
If Hugo Chavez does not take the oath of office, the Speaker of the National Assembly should act as caretaker president until new elections are held within 30 days, the opposition says.
In the absence of President Chavez, Diosdado Cabello and Vice-President Nicolas Maduro are in effect running the country.
Attorney-General Cilia Flores said on Sunday that Hugo Chavez could be sworn in at a later date.
Hugo Chavez is a “re-elected president, not an elected candidate”, said Cilia Flores, adding that the key date was October 7 when President Chavez was elected for his fourth term.
Japan Airlines said that a fire broke out in one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, shortly after it landed in Boston, following a flight from Tokyo.
The fire started after a battery in the jet’s auxiliary power system overheated.
Japan Airlines said that no passengers or crew members were hurt as they had already disembarked.
This is the latest setback for the Dreamliner, after production delays and several technical problems.
“Smoke was initially discovered by maintenance staff in the rear end of the cabin, and confirmed by another maintenance staff who also detected smoke outside the aircraft,” Carol Anderson a spokeswoman for Japan Airlines said.
Meanwhile, Doug Alder, a spokesman for Boeing was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that the plane maker was “aware of the situation” and that it was “working with the airline to understand more about it right now.”
Japan Airlines said that a fire broke out in one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, shortly after it landed in Boston, following a flight from Tokyo
The Dreamliner is one of the most advanced planes ever built. However, a spate of technical issues has hurt its image.
Last year, a United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing due to an electrical problem.
In December, Qatar Airways grounded one of its 787 Dreamliners after several manufacturing faults caused electric problems similar to those that affected the United plane.
To add to Boeing’s woes, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in December that it had identified errors in the assembly of fuel line couplings, in the Dreamliner.
It warned that these errors could result in fuel leaking on to hot engine parts and start a fire, cause engine failure, or simply see the plane run out of fuel.
Analysts said the latest incident on the Japan Airlines flight was a major blow to Boeing.
“I don’t want to be an alarmist, but onboard fires on airplanes are as bad as it gets,” said Carter Leake, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Virginia.
“Even though it happened on the ground, rest assured the FAA is asking <<What if it happened in the air?>>”
The death of Chicago lottery winner Urooj Khan has led to a murder investigation after a post-mortem examination found he died of cyanide poisoning.
Urooj Khan, 46, died suddenly as he was about to collect almost $425,000, but his death was initially attributed to natural causes.
The local coroner reopened his case after a relative came forward.
Chicago police confirmed they were now investigating Khan’s death as a homicide.
“It’s pretty unusual,” Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina said, commenting on the rarity of cyanide poisonings.
“I’ve had one, maybe two cases out of 4,500 autopsies I’ve done.”
Stephen Cina’s office found that Urooj Khan died shortly after ingesting a lethal dose of cyanide.
Urooj Khan said he had sworn off gambling after making a trip to Saudi Arabia for the Muslim hajj pilgrimage, local store employee Ashur Oshana told the Associated Press.
The death of Chicago lottery winner Urooj Khan has led to a murder investigation after a post-mortem examination found he died of cyanide poisoning
Urooj Khan, who owned several dry cleaning stores, was named as the lottery winner and presented with a giant cheque in an Illinois lottery ceremony days after purchasing his winning ticket.
“Winning the lottery means everything to me,” he said on June 26, adding that he would put some of his winnings into his business and donate money to a children’s hospital.
He opted to take his winnings in a lump sum of just over $600,000, which amounted to about $425,000 after taxes.
Urooj Khan’s winner’s cheque was issued on July 19, the day before he died, but was cashed on August 15.
If a lottery winner dies, the money typically goes to his or her estate, a spokesman for the Illinois lottery said.
At the time, the medical examiner’s office did not generally perform autopsies on those older than 45 unless the death was suspicious. A basic toxicology screening came back negative and Urooj Khan’s death was ruled a result of the narrowing and hardening of his arteries.
Deborah Blum, a poisons expert, said cyanide would taste strongly bitter but that a lethal dose could kill within five minutes.
The poison, Deborah Blum said, disrupts the ability of cells to transport oxygen around the body, causing a convulsive, violent death.
“It essentially kills you in this explosion of cell death,” she told AP.
“You feel like you’re suffocating.”
The medical examiner’s office reopened the case and tested for a range of chemicals after a relative asked authorities to look into the case further.
David Bowie has released a new single on his 66th birthday, following ten years of silence and speculation.
The glam-rock legend has released the recording Where are we now? on iTunes, which will be followed by a new album, entitled The Next Day, in March.
David Bowie has not performed live since 2006 and has rarely been seen in public since then.
The new track was recorded in New York and produced by the singer’s long-time collaborator Tony Visconti.
According to a statement released through his press representatives, “throwing shadows and avoiding the industry treadmill is very David Bowie”.
David Bowie, it continued, was “the kind of artist who writes and performs what he wants when he wants”.
David Bowie has released a new single on his 66th birthday, following ten years of silence and speculation
The track precedes a new fourteen-track album The Next Day which is due to be released in March.
Where are we now? is accompanied by a video directed by multimedia and installation artist Tony Oursler, which harks back to David Bowie’s time in Berlin.
The promo, which can be viewed via the singer’s website, features his face projected onto the body of a puppet.
The face of a woman is projected onto the mannequin beside him, with David Bowie appearing in more conventional form later on in the video.
David Bowie, who was last reported to be living in New York with his wife and daughter, has not released material since his 2003 album Reality.
In September, David Bowie denied reports he was involved in an upcoming exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London charting his career.
Gerard Depardieu is expected to appear before a French court today, charged with drink-driving.
Gerard Depardieu was arrested in November after a scooter accident in Paris, in which he was found to be three times over the alcohol limit.
Last month, the actor announced his decision to move to Belgium to avoid the French government’s plan for a top tax rate of 75%.
Gerard Depardieu became a Russian citizen at the weekend, receiving a Russian passport.
But on the eve of his scheduled court appearance he was in Switzerland, for the annual Ballon D’Or football award ceremony.
Gerard Depardieu has already pleaded guilty to the charge of drink-driving, which carries a maximum fine of 4,500 euros ($5,880) and a sentence of up to two years in prison, along with six penalty points.
On November 29, he lost control of his scooter in Paris and crashed. A breathalyser test showed he had a blood alcohol rate of 1.8g per litre, more than three times the French legal limit of 0.5g.
Gerard Depardieu, who owns several vineyards, once admitted to drinking up to six bottles of wine a day.
If the actor fails to appear before magistrates, his case could be referred to the criminal court, who tend to be less lenient.
Gerard Depardieu is expected to appear before a French court today, charged with drink-driving
Gerard Depardieu’s tax row with the French authorities began last year after President Francois Hollande said he would raise taxes to 75% for those earning more than 1 million euros ($1.3 million).
The film star, renowned for his roles in Cyrano de Bergerac and more recently as Obelix, announced in early December that he would move to Belgium, accusing France’s Socialist government of punishing “success, creation and talent”.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded Gerard Depardieu’s decision to move abroad as “shabby and unpatriotic”.
The actor has developed close ties with Russia and during his visit at the weekend hugged President Vladimir Putin, who described him as a friend.
Russia has offered him a flat tax rate of 13% if he stays in the country for more than half the year. On his trip to Russia he travelled to the central region of Mordovia, which has invited him to make his home there.
Mordovia is best known for its Stalin-era gulag prison camps.
But the actor said on Monday he was not turning his back on his country.
“I have a Russian passport, but I remain French and I will probably have dual Belgian nationality,” Gerard Depardieu told French sports channel L’Equipe 21.
Under France’s civil code, dual citizenship is permitted but it is unlawful to be stateless. A person must obtain another nationality before giving up French citizenship.
Gerard Depardieu also rejected claims that his decision to move abroad was to avoid paying taxes.
“If I’d wanted to escape the taxman, as the French press say, I would have done it a long time ago.”
Gerard Depardieu made the remarks in Zurich where he was attending the Ballon d’Or ceremony in the company of FIFA boss Sepp Blatter.
Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Kanye West are said to have turned down a huge $3 million offer for the first exclusive photos of their yet to be born child.
A source told website TMZ that the couple have been “flooded” with lucrative offers from media outlets desperate to be the first to publish the baby pictures.
The huge $3 million offer compares to Brangelina’s $4.1million payout following the birth of their first child Shiloh in 2006. Although that was dwarfed by the $14 million they received after the birth of the twins.
The couple donated the payments to a charitable trust they had set up.
The news of Kim Kardashian’s decision is all the more surprising as unlike other more private stars she has previously shown no interest in hiding any facet of her life from public view.
But perhaps her boyfriend is the one behind the move.
Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Kanye West are said to have turned down a huge $3 million offer for the first exclusive photos of their yet to be born child
Kanye West, 35, has previously been reported to be uncomfortable with the way Kim Kardashian, 32, lives, with her reality shows, paparazzi attention and self-publicity on her blog combining to put every aspect of her life under constant public scrutiny.
And of course with their combined fortunes the pair have no financial need to accept the cash.
Luckily for KimYe fans they can still get an insight into how the new baby might look, at least according to a top forensic artist.
US forensic artist Joe Mullins studied recent photographs of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and used the latest computer technology to predict how their children might look.
According to Joe Mullins, a baby boy would inherit Kanye West’s nose and face shape and Kim Kardashian’s lips.
A baby girl would take more after her glamorous mother, with deep brown eyes and glossy dark hair.
Bank of America has agreed to pay US government mortgage agency Fannie Mae $3.6 billion to settle claims relating to residential home loans.
In addition, Bank of America has agreed to buy back 30,000 mortgages for $6.75 billion, and pay a further $1.3 billion in compensation.
Fannie Mae argued the bank sold it toxic debts and should be responsible for the losses it suffered as result.
Separately, ten big mortgage providers agreed to pay $8.5 billion in compensation for mistakes in repossessing homes.
The banks include Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. They will pay $3.3 billion directly to homeowners, some of whom should not have lost their homes, regulators said.
Individual owners will receive anything from a few hundred dollars to $125,000.
Loan assistance and write-offs will make up the remaining $5.2 billion.
Fannie Mae supports the US mortgage market, which collapsed in 2008 after the housing bubble burst.
In the run-up to the financial crisis of 2007-8, home loans grouped together and sold on as investments became increasingly popular.
When the underlying mortgage holders were unable to repay their debts, the investments plummeted in value, with disastrous consequences for banks all over the world.
Bank of America has agreed to pay US government mortgage agency Fannie Mae $3.6 billion to settle claims relating to residential home loans
Freddie Mac is the other government mortgage agency. The two firms lost more than $30 billion, partly because of their investments in the subprime mortgages, and were bailed out by the US government.
Since the rescues, US taxpayers have spent more than $140 billion to keep the firms afloat.
Bank of America settled with Freddie Mac in 2011.
The agreement brings to an end a long-running dispute between Fannie Mae and Bank of America.
“A favorable resolution of this long-standing dispute between Fannie Mae and Bank of America is in the best interest of taxpayers,” said Bradley Lerman at Fannie Mae.
The company said the loans “did not meet our standards at the time of origination, and we are pleased to have reached an appropriate agreement to collect on these repurchase requests.”
The agreement covers loans worth about $1.4 trillion, with outstanding balances of $300 billion.
Bank of America said the settlements were “a significant step in resolving our remaining legacy mortgage issues”.
In October, the US government sued the bank for alleged mortgage fraud, accusing subsidiary Countrywide Financial of selling thousands of toxic home loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Earlier in the month, it took similar action against the banks Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase.
In October, JP Morgan was sued for allegedly defrauding investors who lost more than $20 billion on mortgage-backed securities sold by Bear Stearns.
JP Morgan, which bought the investment bank in March 2008, said the allegations related to actions at Bear Stearns prior to its takeover.
In the same month, Wells Fargo was also sued by federal authorities for alleged mortgage fraud.
June Shannon, Honey Boo Boo’s mother, was long overdue for glamorous makeover considering her newfound celebrity.
Mama June, 33, finally submitted to her having her already grey curls dyed blonde, and had a fake tan and make up applied for the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo series of HOLLAday Specials.
June Shannon, who had greying curls pulled back off her face in previous episodes, debuts the new blonde hairdo in a preview clip, with straightened, shoulder-length locks.
To celebrate her makeover, done with the help of her three daughters her partner Mike Thompson, aka Sugar Bear – decided to buy his beloved a white dress famed by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot.
But while Mike Thompson, dressed as a bear, confessed that the outfit turned him into a “horny bear”, their daughters weren’t so complimentary.
With white arms, a brown back and patches of red too, their brood said that she resembled “Neapolitan ice cream” thanks to some dodgy fake tan application.
But even with an uneven complexion, Mama June’s appearance was a world away from her usual scraped-back grey curls.
However, June Shannon eventually decided that the outfit was “too revealing” and opted for a more Halloween-friendly choice of an Egyptian Mummy.
In the same show, the mother of four also revealed something else – her fear of mayonnaise.
Though she visibly shudders at the mention of the condiment, June Shannon admits that she will eat potato salad or tuna salad, as long as she has not witnessed it being prepared.
“If I watch somebody make it, I can’t [eat] it,” she says.
“The reason why is because when I was growing up, the babysitter I had [would make] mayonnaise sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack… I can’t talk about it, this is making my flesh crawl!”
Sugar Bear decided to buy his beloved June Shannon a white dress famed by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot
In a bid to help their mother conquer her fear, the four girls decide to take action, by attempting to explain how ridiculous she is being.
16-year-old Jessica, also known to the family as “Chubbs”, says: “I think it’s stupid that you’re scared of mayonnaise, Mama, I mean seriously, it’s mayonnaise, it’s white and it’s mayonnaise. C’mon, that’s like ketchup but it’s just white.”
When asked why she doesn’t eat mayonnaise, Jessica says that it is because she is a vegetarian, sparking ridicule from the whole family.
Mama June asks: “When did you become a damn vegetarian?”
Lauryn, aka “Pumpkin”, 13, adds: “Marannaise does not have meat in it.”
The pair then embark on a bizarre argument, that doesn’t involve Jessica at all, in which they both seem to be making the same case.
It ends with Pumpkin insisting that “you could just make a marannaise sammich”, causing Mama June to shudder, and Pumpkin to then do an uncanny imitation.
With the family discussion ending in failure, 7-year-old Honey Boo Boo, Jessica and eldest sister Anna “Chickadee”, 17, decide to present Mama June with a large bowl of mayonnaise.
“Coming from the kitchen with the mayonnaise to the dining room, you could feel the tension in there,” Jessica reveals.
As the girls goad their mother with exclamations of, “Look, it’s so yummy!” and “It jiggles, it’s pretty!” June Shannon gets increasingly distressed.
“My anxiety levels is up like beyond out the roof,” she says.
“I mean like my chest is real tight, my throat feels like its gonna close up… Y’all gotta get that outta there, c’mon now… I’m gonna go into full panic ******* attack… Y’all gotta get it outta here FOR REAL!”
She failed to find much sympathy from Honey Boo Boo, who recalls afterwards: “Mama was turning white, just like mayonnaise.”
The first episode in the HOLLAday Specials sees the family prepare for Halloween. According to a précis of the episode from TLC, a pumpkin carving incident ends with Uncle Poodle stuck inside a one of the gourds and the family gets hopelessly lost in a corn maze.
Anjelica Huston has been revealed as the latest celebrity pillow face victim, after displaying her suspiciously plump cheeks.
Anjelica Huston, 61, showed off her new look as she took part in a panel to promote the second series of her hit show Smash in Pasadena, California, on Sunday.
And Anjelica Huston’s incredibly smooth face had another unwanted affect as it highlighted the creped skin on her neck.
The raven-haired actress is no stranger to taking extreme measures in a bid to maintain her youthful appearance, and admitted previously to having collagen injections to smooth things out.
However, Anjelica Huston also admitted she had been put off some surgical procedures after a Botox experiment went wrong.
The actress explained: “I went to a doctor who said, <<Angelica, we have this wonderful new thing, it’s called Botox>>.
“He took a huge needle and plunged it into my third eye. The pain was something inexplicable. I gasped, I writhed and when I came to, I had a headache that lasted four days. A serious one.”
Anjelica Huston has been revealed as the latest celebrity pillow face victim, after displaying her suspiciously plump cheeks
Anjelica Huston’s new appearance was revealed as she took part in a Smash panel ahead of the premiere of the second season on February 5th, alongside co-stars Megan Hilty and Katharine McPhee.
And the programme’s new showrunner Josh Safran promised viewers that the upcoming series is sure to be as exciting as the first – with a few new twists.
He said: “The stuff that you love from last year is still there, and the stuff that people thought maybe went off on tangents, we’ve looked at. Maybe bigger, more music. Maybe younger, in regards to the new castmembers.
“There was never anything that I outright didn’t like. I just thought season one was interesting to watch. It was somebody else’s world. It was fun to be an audience member and then come in and put my ideas in.”
President Barack Obama is to pick maverick former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as defence secretary later, amid a political backlash over the nomination.
Chuck Hagel would replace Leon Panetta at the Pentagon, but Hagel’s fellow Republicans have voiced criticism over the Nebraskan’s views towards Israel.
White House officials also say Barack Obama will pick his counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan as director of the CIA.
Both appointments must be confirmed by the Senate.
The nominations are expected to be formally announced at the White House on Monday afternoon.
Along with Senator John Kerry, whom Barack Obama nominated last month to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Chuck Hagel and John Brennan would help shape the president’s second-term national security agenda.
But analysts say the choice of Chuck Hagel, a 66-year-old decorated Vietnam veteran, could prompt a Senate confirmation battle. Opponents say he is hostile to Israel and soft on Iran.
Chuck Hagel has criticized discussion of a military strike by either the US or Israel against Iran and has advocated including Iran on future peace talks in Afghanistan.
Although no Republican lawmakers are threatening to block Chuck Hagel’s nomination, two influential senators have attacked him.
President Barack Obama is to pick maverick former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as defence secretary later, amid a political backlash over the nomination
Chuck Hagel made critical remarks against the Israel lobby in the US capital, quoted in a 2008 book by former state department official Aaron David Miller.
“The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” Chuck Hagel was quoted as saying.
“I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.”
Top Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN on Sunday: “This is an in-your-face nomination of the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel.”
US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told NBC there would be “a lot of tough questions” for Chuck Hagel.
But White House officials say Chuck Hagel’s positions on these issues have been misrepresented, saying he voted to send billions in military assistance to Israel and has supported the imposition of multilateral sanctions on Tehran.
The Republican Jewish Coalition’s executive director, Matt Brooks, said the appointment of Chuck Hagel would be “a slap in the face for every American who is concerned about the safety of Israel”.
But the pro-Obama National Jewish Democratic Council adopted a softer tone, saying it trusted that Chuck Hagel would “follow the president’s lead of providing unrivalled support for Israel”.
Chuck Hagel has also been criticized by some Democrats for saying in 1998 that a nominee for an ambassador post was “openly, aggressively gay”. He has since apologized for those comments.
If John Brennan is confirmed to lead the CIA, he will replace General David Petraeus, who resigned last year after admitting to an affair with his biographer.
A CIA veteran, John Brennan is currently Barack Obama’s chief counter-terrorism adviser. The 57-year-old was heavily involved in the planning of the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
Although put forward for the role in 2008, John Brennan withdrew his name amid questions about his connection to interrogation techniques used during the administration of George W. Bush.
“Brennan has the full trust and confidence of the president,” a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP news agency.
“Over the past four years, he has been involved in virtually all major national security issues and will be able to hit the ground running at CIA.”
