Blue Ivy Carter’s parents, Beyonce and rapper Jay-Z, have bought her the most outrageous luxury yet – her own nursery at a basketball stadium that costs $1 million a year to rent.
Blue Ivy is apparently put in the suite at the Brooklyn Nets ground in New York whenever her father performs on stage or is watching a game.
Jay-Z did eight shows to open the stadium last year as he grew up nearby and is a fan of the team.
He and Beyonce’s decision to rent the suite comes after they already showered their one-year-old daughter with more gifts than most children can dream of.
When she was just five days old the couple bought her a $21,000 “fantasy crib” made of solid cedar and birch.
Then there’s the $16,000 high chair lined with Swarovski crystals designed by Carla Monchen from which she can eat her food when she is old enough.
And let’s not forget the clothes: Blue Ivy has already been bought a $290 Jean Paul Gaultier silk dress to get her wardrobe started.
According to US Weekly, the suite at the Brooklyn Nets stadium is ‘filled with toys’ to keep the toddler entertained.
Blue Ivy, Jay-Z and Beyonce’s daughter, has own $1million nursery suite at New York’s Barclays Center
The decor is said to be mostly glass and there is a TV screen so she can also watch him perform.
Beyonce, 31, and Jay-Z are amongst the highest earning and most successful celebrities on Earth – she is worth around $300 million due to her singing with Destiny’s Child and her solo career, her clothing line and numerous investments.
Jay-Z, 43, is said to be worth $450 million on the back of his incredibly successful recording career and investments.
They have not been the only ones pampering their daughter and the child has reportedly be inundated with gifts from the likes of Sean Combs, Kanye West, Rihanna, Mary J Blige and Mariah Carey.
Among the more extravagant gifts already sent by their celebrity friends was a $4,700 Swarovski crystal-studded baby bath from Beyonce’s former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
The 3,000lb porcelain tub is studded with 44,928 crystals that Californian interior designer Lori Gardner spent more than two months applying by hand.
Kelly Rowland also bought a green Bob Marley one-piece and several cashmere baby blankets at a cost of $300 each.
Oprah Winfrey even sent a case of her favorite children’s books to get Blue Ivy off to a good start with her reading.
The outpouring has not stopped Beyonce herself splashing out herself, including the crib from high end baby firm Posh Tots, which has in the past sold items to Julia Roberts, Donald and Vanessa Trump and Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin.
After the birth she and Jay-Z also ensured their newborn travelled home in style in a luxury van with blacked out windows and a pimped-up interior.
The leather seats, satellite TV, minibar and car stereo of the $125,000 Mercedes Sprinter Van Grand Edition made it look like it had come straight out of one of her father’s hip hop videos.
Beyonce’s baby was born in January last year weighing 7 lbs amid a $125,000 security operation which saw a bulletproof door temporarily installed at the entrance to Beyonce’s room at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
The happy couple said at that the “birth was emotional and extremely peaceful; we are in heaven”.
Honey Boo Boo’s mother, June Shannon, has revealed she won’t be upgrading her modest home for a luxury pad any time soon – as she is not profiting from reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Instead the self-proclaimed “redneck” has divided the estimated $15,000 to $20,000 episode fee into equal trust funds for her four daughters and granddaughter.
“I want my kids to look back and say, <<Mama played it smart. Not like those other reality TV people>>,” she told website TMZ.
And Mama June, as she is known, has ensured she won’t be tempted to take the money for herself by asking TLC to pay it straight into the trust funds.
“TLC puts the money into the girls’ trust accounts for me and then I get an email telling me how much everyone gets,” she explained.
“You’re never gonna see me drive a Range Rover or a Mercedes. I’ll drive one if someone else pays for it. Never gonna live above my means.”
Honey Boo Boo’s mother, June Shannon, has revealed she won’t be upgrading her modest home for a luxury pad any time soon as she is not profiting from reality show
Her far-sightedness means that when 7-year-old Honey Boo Boo, aka Alana Thompson, and her sisters Lauryn, 12, Jessica, 15, Anna, 18, and Anna’s daughter Kaitlyn turn 21 they will receive a sizeable amount of money.
Only if they need money for their education, or healthcare, can the girls access the money before then.
Full time mother June Shannon, who is known for her love of extreme couponing, explained that she and her partner live off his salary as a contractor.
The family has made one large purchase since their new found fame – a second hand, 7-year-old Ford Expedition.
Madonna continued her quest to conquer the slopes while on a family holiday in the mountains of Gstaad, Switzerland on Saturday.
Madonna, 54, has been celebrating the new year on the slopes with her children and her Brazilian boyfriend Brahim Zaibat and has been getting quite a bit of action on her skis.
But she started off her week on a bad foot, spending the majority of time on her bum as she lost balance while skiing with her 25-year-old boyfriend.
On Saturday Madonna’s skiing skills appear to have improved as she’s been taking lessons and was joined by a male companion who could have been her instructor.
Madonna has been celebrating the new year on the slopes with her children and her Brazilian boyfriend Brahim Zaibat and has been getting quite a bit of action on her skis
Madonna kept a low profile in an all black ensemble, matching her male companion.
And aside from keeping her upright, his duties also included helping Madonna in and out of her snow equipment.
Brahim Zaibat and Madonna’s 12-year-old son Rocco took a break from the skis, opting instead to slip on snowboards with their friends.
Madonna’s daughter Lourdes, 16, was also out on the mountain on Friday cutting a much more confident figure as she rode her snowboard, but wasn’t spotted on the slopes on Saturday.
Madonna’s younger children, David and Mercy, also took a break from the cold after spending the week taking private lessons.
The young brood have been naturals, excelling at both snowboarding and skiing on their holiday jaunt.
It seems the family are fans of the resort and spent time in the town last January.
The U.S. has been hit with a particularly aggressive early flu season with widespread reports of the illness across the country, hospitalizing 2,257 people and leaving 18 children dead before the end of 2012.
And health officials say the numbers haven’t even peaked yet.
“I think we’re still accelerating,” Tom Skinner, a Center for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman, told reporters.
The latest figures from the CDC show 29 states and New York City reporting high levels of flu activity, up from 16 states and New York City just one week prior.
Overall, 41 states reported cases.
“It’s about five weeks ahead of the average flu season,” said Lyn Finelli, lead of the surveillance and response team that monitors influenza for the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
“We haven’t seen such an early season since 2003 to 2004.”
During that flu season, Joe Lastinger’s daughter Emily, 3, died only five days after coming down with the flu in late January.
“That was the first really bad season for children in a while,” said Joe Lastinger, 40.
“For whatever reason that’s not well understood, it affected her and it killed her.”
In that season, illnesses peaked in early to mid-December, with flu-related pneumonia and deaths peaking in early January.
That season was considered a “moderately severe” season for flu, and ended in mid-February.
It’s still too early to tell how bad this year’s flu season will get.
The US has been hit with a particularly aggressive early flu season with widespread reports of the illness across the country
While the CDC is waiting for more time to pass before classifying the season, Google Flu Trends has already listed it as “intense” by monitoring flu activity around the world based on internet search terms.
And roughly 4% of users on Flu Near You, a real-time tracking tool gaining about 100 new participants per week, say they’re experiencing symptoms.
“That’s huge,” John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston, told NBC News.
“Last year, we never got near this.”
John Brownstein is one of the founders of Flu Near You, a project, coordinated by Children’s Hospital Boston, the Skoll Global Threats Fund and the American Public Health Association.
The project has been a great tool for generating immediate data about the ongoing flu season.
“It’s what we call <<nowcasting>>,” John Brownstein said.
“It’s a more up-to-date view.”
CDC data can be as much as two weeks behind real-time reports.
John Brownstein’s data shows cough is this year’s most frequently reported symptom at 19%, ahead of sore throat at 16%, fatigue at 15%, headache at 14%, body ache at 10%, and fever at 7%.
Three out of four people reporting flu symptoms had not been vaccinated.
While John Brownstein’s data is more immediate, he cautioned against using it as an accurate measure of vaccine’s effectiveness because of variables in reporting.
During the 2010-2011 flu season, the CDC reports vaccine’s were effective for about 60% for all age groups combined.
While there were then reports of vaccinated people developing laboratory-confirmed flu strains, CDC officials said it’s not yet possible to know if this year’s trends match up though they are “watching the situation closely”.
Those officials also noted that this year’s vaccines seem to be a good match for the two strains of influenza A and one of influenza B circulating.
The H3N2 strain is dominant this year, and it can cause more serious illnesses.
Flu seasons vary widely in severity with some year’s totaling up to 200,000 hospitalized and between 3,000 to 49,000 dead.
About 127 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed this year from the 15 million doses produced for this season.
Do you have the flu? These are the symptoms to watch for:
According to data being gathered by Flu Near You, flu cases have increased dramatically over the last few weeks. Here are the season’s most-reported symptoms:
Oscars 2013 are to pay tribute to 50 years of James Bond films.
“We are very happy to include a special sequence on our show saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday,” said the producers of this February’s Oscars show, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.
They described the films about the British spy as “the longest-running motion picture franchise in history, and a beloved global phenomenon”.
Current Bond film Skyfall has made more than $1 billion globally so far.
This makes it the most successful Bond film in the series’ 23-film franchise. It stars Daniel Craig in his third outing as Bond, and was directed by Sam Mendes.
Oscars 2013 are to pay tribute to 50 years of James Bond films
The inclusion of Bond at the Oscars show is likely to fuel speculation that Skyfall will feature in the nominations on January 10 – two weeks earlier than usual.
The film also became the first Bond film to be nominated for the top prize at the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards.
The PGA awards are seen as a good indicator of which film could win best picture at the Oscars, the most coveted film prize of the year and highlight of the movie calendar.
Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson were also among nominees for the PGA.
Historically, 007 films have only been Oscar-nominated for technical or musical categories, so the PGA nods have marked a departure from this.
The Oscars ceremony on February 24 will be hosted from Hollywood by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of hit TV comedy animation series Family Guy.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has delivered a rare TV address, denouncing his opponents as “enemies of God and puppets of the West”.
Bashar al-Assad lamented the suffering of the people in the civil war, saying a “black cloud” of pain engulfed every corner.
He also set out a plan involving a national dialogue conference and a referendum on a national charter.
The UN estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the uprising, which began in March 2011.
The speech was Bashar al-Assad’s first public address since June 2012.
He rejected the Syrian opposition movement as puppets fabricated by the West, and said that Syria wanted to negotiate with the “master not the servants”.
Bashar al-Assad said Syria had not rejected diplomatic moves but insisted it would not negotiate with people with “terrorist” ideas.
He said: “There are those who seek to partition Syria and weaken it. But Syria is stronger… and will remain sovereign… and this is what upsets the West.”
His speech was interspersed with applause and chants from defiant supporters in the opera house in central Damascus, and at the end he was mobbed on the stage.
Bashar al-Assad accused the rebels of stealing wheat from the people, depriving children of school and cutting off electricity and medical supplies.
He called on every citizen to defend the country according to their means.
“We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word. This war targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. Thus, this is a war to defend the nation,” he said.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has delivered a rare TV address, denouncing his opponents as enemies of God and puppets of the West
Bashar al-Assad set out a series of steps he said would provide a solution to the crisis:
Outside powers to stop arming what he called “terrorist groups”
The army would then halt military operations, while reserving the right to defend state interests
The government would then contact what he termed “Syrian individuals and political parties” to engage in a conference of national dialogue
The conference would try to establish a national charter that would be put to a referendum, leading to parliamentary elections and a new government
The president’s latest words are unlikely to persuade any in the opposition that he is ready to discuss a viable transition.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) quickly dismissed Bashar al-Assad’s proposals.
Spokesman Walid Bunni told Reuters his group would accept nothing less than the departure of Bashar al-Assad and his government.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague accused President Assad of hypocrisy, saying “the empty promises of reform fool no-one”.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton’s office said the union would consider “if there is anything new in the speech”, but added: “We maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition.”
The foreign minister of neighboring Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, dismissed Bashar al-Assad’s remarks as “repetitions of what he’s said all along”.
Bashar al-Assad’s last public comments were in November, when he told Russian TV he would “live and die in Syria”.
Since then opposition forces have gained control of swathes of territory in northern Syria and have formed the SNC, a more inclusive leadership that has been recognized by the US and the EU.
But rebel efforts to gain ground in and around major cities including Damascus have been met by stiff resistance and increasingly destructive air strikes.
The UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported fresh violence overnight into Sunday, saying that troops had bombarded rebel positions on the outskirts of Damascus, including in Beit Saham, near the airport road.
The father of Indian student who was gang-raped in Delhi and later died says her name should be made public so she can serve as an inspiration to other victims of sexual crimes.
The father told UK’s Sunday People newspaper: “We want the world to know her real name.”
Indian law protects sex crime victims by prohibiting identification.
One minister, Shashi Tharoor, has urged authorities to reveal the name so it can be used for a new anti-rape law.
The 23-year-old woman died last weekend in a hospital in Singapore from injuries suffered during last month’s attack.
The father told the Sunday People: “My daughter didn’t do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself.
“I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter.”
The laws on identification were introduced to protect victims from the social stigma associated with rape, and apply even after the death of the victim.
Although the system has not always been watertight, the high-profile case has brought a tough stance from the authorities.
The father of Indian student who was gang-raped in Delhi and later died says her name should be made public so she can serve as an inspiration to other victims of sexual crimes
Police filed a case against broadcaster Zee News after it carried an interview with the friend who was with the victim during the attack.
The victim’s friend was not named but his face was shown and police are investigating whether Zee News broke broadcasting laws relating to disclosure of the victim’s identity.
However, it remains unclear what could be done if the father chose to publicly name his daughter.
Last week, Shashi Tharoor, the junior education minister, called on the authorities to reveal the name of the gang-rape victim so that the new anti-rape law could be named after her.
He wrote: “Unless her parents object, she should be honored and the revised anti-rape law named after her. She was a human being with a name, not just a symbol.”
The Sunday People said the father had given it permission to name him and his daughter.
It carried a photograph of the father but said the family had requested no photograph of the victim be used.
In the interview, the father also renewed his calls for the men who carried out the attack to be hanged.
“Death for all six of them. These men are beasts. They should be made an example of and that society will not allow such things to happen,” he said.
Five men have been charged with abduction, rape and murder. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried as a juvenile.
A pre-court hearing for the five was held in the Saket area of the Indian capital on Saturday and the men have been summoned to appear in court on Monday.
In his interview with Zee News, the friend said he and the rape victim had boarded a bus after a trip to the cinema and after failing to flag down an auto-rickshaw.
He said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them.
He confirmed that the assailants had later thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over.
The case has caused a national outcry, and there have been frequent protests calling for greater protection for women.
British researchers have reported that totally blind mice have had their sight restored by injections of light-sensing cells into the eye.
The team in Oxford said their studies closely resemble the treatments that would be needed in people with degenerative eye disease.
Similar results have already been achieved with night-blind mice.
Experts said the field was advancing rapidly, but there were still questions about the quality of vision restored.
Patients with retinitis pigmentosa gradually lose light-sensing cells from the retina and can become blind.
The research team, at the University of Oxford, used mice with a complete lack of light-sensing photoreceptor cells in their retinas. The mice were unable to tell the difference between light and dark.
They injected “precursor” cells which will develop into the building blocks of a retina once inside the eye. Two weeks after the injections a retina had formed, according to the findings presented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
British researchers have reported that totally blind mice have had their sight restored by injections of light-sensing cells into the eye
Prof. Robert MacLaren said: “We have recreated the whole structure, basically it’s the first proof that you can take a completely blind mouse, put the cells in and reconstruct the entire light-sensitive layer.”
Previous studies have achieved similar results with mice that had a partially degenerated retina. Prof. Robert MacLaren said this was like “restoring a whole computer screen rather than repairing individual pixels”.
The mice were tested to see if they fled being in a bright area, if their pupils constricted in response to light and had their brain scanned to see if visual information was being processed by the mind.
Prof Pete Coffee, from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London, said the findings were important as they looked at the “most clinically relevant and severe case” of blindness.
“This is probably what you would need to do to restore sight in a patient that has lost their vision,” he said.
However, he said this and similar studies needed to show how good the recovered vision was as brain scans and tests of light sensitivity were not enough.
He said: “Can they tell the difference between a nasty animal and something to eat?”
Prof. Robin Ali published research in the journal Nature showing that transplanting cells could restore vision in night-blind mice and then showed the same technique worked in a range of mice with degenerated retinas.
He said: “These papers demonstrate that it is possible to transplant photoreceptor cells into a range of mice even with a severe level of degeneration.
“I think it’s great that another group is showing the utility of photoreceptor transplantation.”
Researchers are already trialing human embryonic stem cells, at Moorfields Eye Hospital, in patients with Stargardt’s disease. Early results suggest the technique is safe but reliable results will take several years.
Retinal chips or bionic eyes are also being trailed in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.
Venezuela’s National Assembly has chosen its leader, a possible stand-in for President Hugo Chavez who is in Cuba following cancer surgery.
The assembly re-elected the incumbent Diosdado Cabello, a leading ally of Hugo Chavez.
Opposition leaders are calling for new elections if the president cannot be sworn in for his new term on Thursday.
In such a situation, Diosdado Cabello would become caretaker president pending the outcome of the vote.
Vice-President Nicolas Maduro has dismissed the opposition’s calls, saying the Supreme Court can swear in Hugo Chavez at a later date.
Diosdado Cabello’s re-election was expected in the National Assembly, which is dominated by Hugo Chavez’s governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
“The president will continue being president beyond January 10, nobody should have any doubt about that,” Diosdado Cabello said after his election, adding: “We will never defraud the people.”
Nicolas Maduro watched the vote and debate from the balcony of the chamber.
Venezuela’s National Assembly has chosen Diosdado Cabello as its new leader, a possible stand-in for President Hugo Chavez
Diosdado Cabello finds himself in a position of great power and influence.
Analysts say he is seen as a political rival to Nicolas Maduro, whom Hugo Chavez has named as his preferred successor.
However, both men have vowed to maintain unity in the PSUV. They both visited Hugo Chavez in Cuba earlier in the week, along with several other dignitaries.
Hundreds of Chavez supporters rallied outside parliament on Saturday following an appeal by Diosdado Cabello.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas, who was among the first government officials to arrive for the vote, said: “There is a clear leadership here by Comandante Chavez who is so responsible that he has even studied the worst case scenarios.
“We have a president who has been elected from 2013 to 2019… and that will be perfectly fulfilled. Chavez is the president of Venezuela. There is no other.”
Experts have different interpretations of what it would mean if Hugo Chavez misses his inauguration.
Some in the opposition say that if Hugo Chavez is still in Cuba, power should pass to the head of the National Assembly and new elections should be held within 30 days.
But Nicolas Maduro has insisted that Thursday is not a fixed deadline and that there was no reason to declare Hugo Chavez’s “absolute absence” from office.
“The formality of his swearing-in can be resolved in the Supreme Court,” he said.
“The president right now is president.”
Hugo Chavez – who was re-elected for a fourth term in October – has not been seen in public since his latest round of surgery more than three weeks ago.
Ernesto Villegas said on Thursday that the president had suffered complications due to a lung infection and had a “respiratory insufficiency”.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is to give a rare speech to the nation, state media say, as he continues to battle an uprising against his rule.
The address will cover “the latest developments in Syria and the region”, according to the Sana news agency.
It comes amid fierce fighting close to the capital, Damascus.
The UN estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the uprising against President Assad, which began in March 2011.
The speech will be Bashar al-Assad’s first public address since June.
In an interview with Russian TV in November – his last public comments – he said he would “live and die in Syria”.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is to give a rare speech to the nation as he continues to battle an uprising against his rule
Since then opposition rebels have gained control of swathes of territory in northern Syria, and have formed a more inclusive leadership council which has been recognized by the US and the EU.
But opposition efforts to gain ground in and around major cities including Damascus have been met by stiff resistance and increasingly destructive air strikes.
On Saturday the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Harasta and Daraya, suburbs of Damascus.
Diplomatic attempts to end the conflict in Syria have so far failed.
UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been pushing a plan approved at an international conference in June that would create a transitional government.
But the plan leaves President Assad’s role unclear. The Syrian opposition has insisted that Bashar al-Assad must step down for the conflict to end.
Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a week ago that a negotiated solution was the only option.
India and Pakistan have exchanged fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan said Indian troops had raided a military post in the Haji Pir sector of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, killing a soldier and injuring another.
An Indian army spokesman said Pakistan had “initiated unprovoked firing” at Indian military posts.
Kashmir is claimed by both nations in its entirety and has been a flashpoint between them for more than 60 years.
Exchanges are not uncommon but rarely result in fatalities.
The Pakistani military’s public relations office said the two sides were still exchanging fire in the area.
It said Indian troops had “physically raided a checkpost named Sawan Patra”.
India and Pakistan have exchanged fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region
The Haji Pir Pass is just south of the main road from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir.
“Pakistan army troops effectively responded to the attack,” it said, adding that Indian troops had left behind weapons as they retreated.
Colonel Brijesh Pandey, a spokesman for the Indian army in Kashmir, told the Associated Press news agency that Pakistani troops had “initiated unprovoked firing” with mortar shells and automatic weapons at Indian military posts. One civilian home was destroyed, he said.
“We retaliated only using small arms. We believe it was clearly an attempt on their part to facilitate infiltration of militants,” Col. Brijesh Pandey said.
There has been a ceasefire in Kashmir since late 2003.
India suspended a peace process with Pakistan following attacks by Pakistan-based militants in Mumbai in 2008. Negotiations resumed in February last year.
Last month, the nations signed an agreement to ease visa restrictions on travel for some citizens.
Carlos Rodriguez, the Honduran ambassador to Colombia, has been sacked after a wild Christmas party at the embassy in Bogota.
Ambassador Carlos Rodriguez has been told to resign “to safeguard relations with Colombia”, the Honduran Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
An investigation has begun into reports that two prostitutes had been invited to the party on December 20.
The two women have been accused of stealing laptop computers and mobile phones from the embassy.
An inquiry committee has been set up in Honduras, while in Colombia the authorities are trying to identify the two sex workers.
Carlos Rodriguez, the Honduran ambassador to Colombia, has been sacked after a wild Christmas party at the embassy in Bogota
An employee close to Carlos Rodriguez has been accused of organizing the party and hiring the prostitutes.
An embassy vehicle was reportedly used to bring them into the building.
It is not clear whether the ambassador was present.
US secret service agents were involved in a similar scandal last year, ahead of an official visit by President Barack Obama to Colombia.
They were sent home and disciplined in April 2012 after being accused of taking prostitutes to their hotel rooms on the eve of the Summit of the Americas in the city of Cartagena.
A cat has been detained in the grounds of Arapiraca jail in Brazil with contraband goods for prisoners strapped to its body with tape.
The white cat was apprehended crossing the main prison gate.
The incident took place at a jail in Arapiraca city, 250 km (155 miles) south-west of Recife in Alagoas state.
The confiscated items included drill bits, files, a mobile phone and charger, plus earphones The cat was taken to a local animal centre.
A cat has been detained in the grounds of Arapiraca jail in Brazil with contraband goods for prisoners strapped to its body with tape
The jail holds some 263 prisoners.
A prison spokesperson was quoted by local paper Estado de S. Paulo as saying: “It’s tough to find out who’s responsible for the action as the cat doesn’t speak.”
Officials said the items could be used to effect a means of escape or for communicating with criminals on the outside.
The incident took place at New Year, but the photo has only recently been released.
Stoic Andie MacDowell still looked glamorous and groomed despite having to rely on two walking aides as she made her way to the Hallmark Channel TCA Winter Press Gala at the Huntington Beach Library, San Marino, California, on Friday.
According to Andie MacDowell’s spokesperson, she was snow shoeing over the holiday break and re-injured her knee.
The rep said: “Andie had surgery on her meniscus on Thursday and attended the Hallmark event Friday night.
“She’s feeling good.”
Andie MacDowell on crutches at the Hallmark Channel TCA Winter Press Gala in San Marino, California
Andie MacDowell, who stars in the Hallmark Channel’s Cedar Cove, made sure she was dressed comfortably while not scrimping on the style.
She paired some loose fitting high-waisted black trousers with a grey patterned bat-wing top – showing just a hint of midriff.
Andie MacDowell also wore battered biker boots and wore her lustrous brunette hair down.
She posed for photographers without missing a beat, held up by her crutches, then posed without them as it appeared she could carry her own weight, just not walk unsupported.
Andie MacDowell’s work on the Cedar Cove series first starts with a two-hour movie that will serve as the pilot.
She stars as a small-town family court judge whose career affects the obligations of her daily life.
The movie and series are scheduled to air summer 2013.
Andie MacDowell has two daughters and a son and has been married twice.
Four people have been found dead following a shooting incident that triggered a stand-off with police in Aurora, Colorado.
Police say they went to a townhouse after shots were heard there overnight.
Officers later entered the home. Following a gunfight they found the suspect dead, along with three people apparently killed earlier, police say.
Four people have been found dead following a shooting incident that triggered a stand-off with police in Aurora, Colorado
Aurora, near Denver, was the scene of a mass shooting at a cinema in July, in which a gunman killed 12 people.
He opened fire at random during the premiere of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises. Suspect James Eagan Holmes is currently being tried on murder charges.
In Saturday’s incident, police said they were alerted by a woman who had escaped from the townhouse.
The suspect barricaded himself for five hours, before officers moved in and shot him.
Entering the property, the team found the shooter dead, along with two other men and a woman. Their identities have not been disclosed.
One of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children accidentally pushed a “panic alarm” inside their house last night that prompted a massive response from the LAPD, according to TMZ.
Police cars and a helicopter were sent to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Los Feliz home at 9:00 p.m. after an alarm went off.
TMZ’s sources say the police were told it was a huge mistake when they arrived at the compound in the trendy east hills, and informed by a nanny that one of the children pressed the alarm by mistake.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie weren’t at home but were informed about the false alarm by the nanny.
The family have just returned from Donna Karan’s home in Turks and Caicos where they spent the holidays with their families, and all those children.
But their youngsters had better not get to comfortable on the island, as reports have said Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are taking their kids around the world for the holidays.
One of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children accidentally pushed a panic alarm inside their house which prompted a massive response from the LAPD
DJ Jameela Jamil recently followed in the footsteps of Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton in turning her hand to designing for Very.co.uk.
And now, as Jameela Jamil, 26, unveils her third collection for the fashion website, she hopes she has created a little something for women of all shapes and sizes.
Here Jameela Jamil shares her exclusive style tips:
Jameela Jamil says her ultimate body fixer is a great pair of jeans – which is why she has included a pair of ultra-flattering denims in her new collection.
Speaking about the exciting range she said: “I’ve designed a pair of jeans, we call them the Jam Jeans – they’re so flattering it’s insane!
“They’re high-waisted and they’re inspired by a sort of denim Spanx, so they just pull you in and you get a perfect hourglass figure.”
The Jam Jeans are what Jameela Jamil describes as one of her “quick fixes” for whenever she needs to get dressed in a rush, as well as the Cropped Swing Faux Fur Coatfrom her last collection, which she says makes a real style statement with minimal effort.
“I’ll just wear something really plain and simple underneath, and as soon as I put it on – it’s flattering, it’s beautiful, I feel good in it.
“I wore it on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and that’s my favorite show of all time.
“The fact that I was sitting there, wearing clothes that I had made, that I genuinely loved, was one of the best moments of my life.
“It’s really lovely when you actually want to wear your own clothes – but I’ve worn it to death, it needs to go to the dry cleaners, seriously.”
Jameela Jamil shares her exclusive style tips
Always one to be ahead of the trends, Jameela Jamil has incorporated the best of the season’s offerings into her Spring/Summer 2013 collection for Very.co.uk.
Speaking about her two top picks this season, Jameela Jamil said: “One is the polka dot dungaree denim dress – I love that, and I think you can wear it winter and summer.
“It’s so quirky and just immediately says you’re in a fun, playful mood.
“I like clothing that has a sense of humor and has almost a personality of its own.
“I also love the long yellow maxi dress. It’s very beautiful, you could wear it to a wedding, but it’s also a bit sexy and a bit edgy.
“Those are the pieces that I will 100% be wearing next summer.”
But despite her love for floaty summer maxi dresses, Autumn/Winter remains Jameela Jamil’s favorite season for fashion.
“I love layers; I love big chunky scarves and chunky knits that I can wear as a dress.
“It’s really important to have that; because I think only boring people don’t get a bit fat around Christmas!
“It’s good to have clothes that just make you feel like you’re being cuddled all the time, regardless of how many mince pies you’ve eaten.”
Regardless of the season, however, Jameela Jamil maintains that getting dressed up is all about daring to be noticed.
She said: “I think just don’t go if you’re going to be boring – what’s the point if you’re going to keep it safe?
“I don’t think you should go out there just trying to be controversial and noticed, but I think if you don’t feel amazing in what you’re wearing, don’t go out!”
Gerard Depardieu has arrived in Russia, where he has been granted citizenship and a private meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
A Kremlin spokesman said Gerard Depardieu may receive his new Russian passport personally from the president.
The actor announced he was seeking Russian citizenship after the French government criticised his decision to move abroad to avoid higher taxes.
Last month Vladimir Putin had said he would be happy to welcome him to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin will hold a private meeting with the actor in the Black Sea resort of Sochi later on Saturday, his spokesman said.
Earlier this week President Vladimir Putin signed the decree granting Russian citizenship to Gerard Depardieu.
The actor responded by writing an open letter saying: “I love your country, Russia – its people, its history, its writers. I love your culture, your intelligence.”
Gerard Depardieu went on describe Russia as “a great democracy, and not a country where the prime minister calls one of its citizens shabby”.
Gerard Depardieu has arrived in Russia, where he has been granted citizenship and a private meeting with President Vladimir Putin
Gerard Depardieu’s highly publicized tax row began last year after new President Francois Hollande said he would raise taxes to 75% for those earning more than 1 million euros.
The actor accused the socialist government of punishing “success, creation and talent”, and announced in early December that he would move to Belgium.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branded his decision to move abroad as “shabby and unpatriotic”.
Gerard Depardieu, described by Vladimir Putin as a friend, has developed close ties with Russia, which has a flat 13% personal income tax rate.
He currently appears in an advertisement for Sovietsky Bank’s credit card and is prominently featured on the bank’s home page.
In 2011, Gerard Depardieu played the lead role in the film Rasputin, a Franco-Russian production about the life of eccentric monk Grigory Rasputin.
With the best will in the world, the Landestheater in the Austrian city of Linz is not exactly Madison Square Garden.
But for the past four months, this unlikely venue has been a home-from-home for Marianne Faithfull, who is performing here as the lead singer in the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill ballet The Seven Deadly Sins.
And rather than being put up in a plush hotel during her stay, Sixties pop singer Marianne Faithfull has been bunking down in a tiny flat in a nearby tower block to save money.
“Marianne has become part of the community here,” says the theatre’s secretary, Susanne Kuffner.
“You sometimes see her walking around town like a grandma.
“Occasionally, someone will recognize her and ask her to sign an album or a picture from the Sixties and she will stop and talk to them.
“We let her use a little flat that is owned by the theatre because it’s cheaper than a hotel. And because we are state-funded, this is not the place performers come to get rich.”
All in all, it is not, one suspects, what Marianne Faithfull, who turned 66 last week, envisaged her later years would hold when she was the lusted-after poster-girl of the flower power generation – and was dating the most lusted-after poster boy, Mick Jagger.
Certainly, her current plight, scratching a living in one of the more unglamorous corners of Europe, is in glaringly harsh contrast to the exalted position of her Rolling Stone ex.
At the same time as Marianne Faithfull was appearing in front of a few hundred people on stage last month, Mick Jagger was personally earning £4 million ($6 million) for a handful of sell-out concerts in London and America to celebrate his band’s 50th anniversary, with tickets changing hands at £1,000 ($1,500) a time.
But then, the intervening 40-plus years have hardly been kind to Marianne Faithfull. There have been desperate battles with drugs, failed marriages, a fight against cancer and money worries.
Marianne Faithfull, who dated Mick Jagger for 4 years until 1970, admits she has not saved for her old age and must continue to work.
Sometimes it has been a struggle. Recently, during her theatre run, she suffered a severe cold, but muddled through, coughing and looking unsteady. And during an ovation, one of her backing dancers, young men dressed only in skimpy leather shorts, had to support her to make sure she did not fall.
Of all Mick Jagger’s women, Marianne Faithfull, perhaps, has had the furthest fall from grace. But, as she admitted in a candid magazine interview this week, it could all have been so different today if she had stayed with Mick Jagger.
She says she blames the collapse of their relationship and her subsequent spectacular downfall on the events of one night in February, 1967 – the night when Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger were caught up in the notorious drugs bust at Redlands, the country home of Mick’s Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards.
What happened there has since gone down in the annals of rock ’n’ roll mythology and, according to Marianne Faithfull, is the reason she is not with Mick Jagger today.
“It damaged our relationship, and [four years later] I was living on the street as a drug addict. Do I blame anyone or anything for that? I do blame the Redlands thing, yes.”
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were arrested, eventually receiving stiff jail sentences, which were later quashed – but overnight, Redlands turned Mick Jagger’s 20-year-old girlfriend into the most infamously scarlet women in the land.
There were tales of drugs galore and, famously, of Marianne Faithfull being discovered naked, save for the fur rug she was wrapped in – not to mention salacious rumors involving Marianne and a Mars bar.
So what really happened on that fateful night that Marianne Faithfull still blames for her downfall today?
Perhaps we should start a few weeks after the bust, when a notorious East End thug called David Litvinoff and another renowned London villain, John Bindon, arranged to meet one of the more colorful figures of the flower power generation for what they euphemistically called “a little chat”.
As was often the case, however, when the brutish duo came calling, there was precious little polite conversation on offer.
Instead, the man they had come to visit, Nicky Cramer – a rather fey member of the trendy Chelsea set with a taste for lurid make-up, who had attended the Redlands party – would spend much of the encounter being dangled by his ankles from the upstairs window of his flat, his garish robe billowing, like drying washing, around his ears.
The hard men had deployed their unrivalled powers of persuasion on Nicky Cramer in a bid to discover if he was the mole who tipped off police for the Redlands bust.
David Litvinoff, who as well as being an underworld enforcer was Mick Jagger’s pet gangster, had taken it upon himself to track down the police’s informant.
“After the bust, no one knew who had fingered them. David Litvinoff applied some of his East End methods to see who was culpable,” said eminent artist Nigel Waymouth, who is a long-time friend of Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull.
“Nicky was terrified because Litvinoff had a few dealings with the Kray brothers, helping them run their gambling joint on the King’s Road.”
In fact, after giving the terrified Nicky Cramer a thorough beating, David Litvinoff and John Bindon declared the poor chap innocent. The true informant was never found – but whoever they were they had trashed Marianne Faithfull’s image for good.
Her career as the sweet-voiced chanteuse, whose blonde, almost beatific looks, had beguiled Britain and the United States, never recovered from the scandal.
Don Rambridge, one of the surviving policemen, who was part of the search team that night, now retired and in his mid-70s, retains the policeman’s forensic memory for the events of nearly half a century ago.
And, once and for all, he can put an end to the infamous Mars bar story.
He was one of 18 Sussex officers acting on a tip-off that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, plus five male friends and Marianne Faithfull – the lone female – were involved in a drugs party at the house at which “Sunshine”, a new form of LSD, was being taken.
But what they found was not exactly the scene of rabid excess that has since gone into rock ’n’ roll folklore.
“We knocked on the door and were allowed in and wandered around,” remembers Don Rambridge.
“There was no hassle and everyone was quite affable. The house was very garish and stank of incense and joss sticks. And Mick, Keith, Marianne and the others were just sitting around on the couch.
“She had just had a bath and was naked except for this fur rug she was wrapped in. The blokes who were on the raid with me talked about it afterwards and said: <<Cor, bloody hell. She had nothing on!>>.”
Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull in 1969
Indeed, after DC Don Rambridge had taken one of the other house guests, art dealer Robert Fraser, upstairs to search him, Marianne Faithfull – who herself was being led up the staircase by a WPC – suddenly declared “Search me”, let the rug drop, and stood naked in front of the astonished officers.
For their part, both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who had by then achieved world renown as the quintessential rock degenerates, were politeness itself.
“Mick and Keith were nice and no problem at all,” says Don Rambridge.
“They seemed well brought-up, bright young lads.”
And what of that notorious chocolate bar story? A myth, says the ex-detective.
“I think Marianne got a bit of a raw deal because what was being said about her was not true,” he says.
“I don’t know where the hell that stuff about a Mars bar came from. It was a shock to me and the other officers who were there.”
Mick Jagger, then 23, was charged with possession of four amphetamine “uppers” (the drugs actually belonged to Marianne Faithfull) and Keith Richards was accused of allowing his home to be used for drugs use.
At their trial in June 1967, Marianne Faithfull, who escaped prosecution, was referred to throughout as “Miss X”, although her identity – and the stories of her nakedness – was an open secret.
The convent-educated Marianne Faithfull had first been introduced to Mick Jagger by the Stones’ manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, who spotted the budding 18-year-old singer at a party in London and pronounced her “an angel with big t**s”.
Born plain Marian, she was from an eccentric family. Her father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, a British wartime spy, walked out when his daughter was six to join a commune.
Her mother, Baroness Eva Erisso, the descendent of a once-rich Austro-Hungarian aristocratic family, had been reduced to working as a bus clippy during Marianne Faithfull’s childhood in Reading.
Andrew Loog Oldham persuaded Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to write the hit As Tears Go By for Marianne Faithfull in 1964, but it would be two years before she began an affair with Mick.
In the meantime, Marianne Faithfull had a fling with the womanizing Stones guitarist Brian Jones and spent a night of passion with Keith Richards at the May Fair hotel in London.
Marianne Faithfull soon progressed to sleeping with Mick Jagger, despite the fact that she was married to gallery owner John Dunbar and had given birth to their son, Nicholas.
As would become a recurring theme in the predatory Mick Jagger’s romantic affiliations, the presence of another man did not put him off.
Despite her butter-wouldn’t-melt image, Marianne Faithfull was also already well known on London’s nascent drug scene.
While Mick Jagger never more than dabbled with hard drugs, Marianne Faithfull steadily progressed from cannabis to cocaine and eventually to heroin, with embarrassing consequences for the socially-ambitious Jagger.
At a lavish dinner, thrown in their honor by the Earl of Warwick at his castle, Marianne Faithfull passed out, face down in her soup after popping five Mandrax “downers”.
Marianne Faithfull fell pregnant, but the prospect of fatherhood did little to curb Mick Jagger’s already priapic ways.
He had a fling with Keith Richards’ beautiful Italian girlfriend Anita Pallenberg while they were appearing together in the graphically sexual 1968 film Performance (in retaliation for which Marianne Faithfull and Keith Richards slept together again).
Nonetheless, Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger made excited plans for the baby. They both wanted a girl and decided to call her Corrina.
But in November 1968, Marianne Faithfull suffered a miscarriage at seven months. The loss of the baby combined with Mick Jagger’s brazen infidelities, including rumors (well-founded as it transpired) that he was sleeping with black American singer Marsha Hunt, sent Marianne Faithfull into a tailspin.
Her drug use became increasingly self-destructive.
Critical mass was reached the following summer, when she and Mick Jagger flew to Sydney to film his next acting role, in the much-derided biopic Ned Kelly.
On her arrival at their hotel, Marianne Faithfull looked in the bathroom mirror and, in her drug-addled state, thought she saw the face of Stones guitarist Brian Jones looking back at her (Jones, a fellow drug addict, had been found dead in his swimming pool just days earlier).
After trying to throw herself out of the window of their 14th-floor suite only to find the heavy coat of paint had sealed the window, Marianne Faithfull swallowed 150 Tuinal barbiturates.
Mick Jagger found her and she was rushed to hospital where she remained in a coma for six days.
She was given the last rites by a Roman Catholic priest. While she lay at death’s door, the heartless Mick jagger had already begun filming scenes for the movie.
Her drug addiction continued to spiral. She took to having wraps of heroin delivered to London’s Roundhouse theatre where she was playing Ophelia in Hamlet in 1969.
The relationship limped on, but Marianne Faithfull, jealous over Mick Jagger’s ongoing affair with Marsha Hunt and continued rumors about his flirtation with Anita Pallenberg, began an affair with an Italian artist called Mario Schifano.
With his male pride bruised, Mick Jagger tracked the lovers down to the cottage he had bought for Marianne Faithfull’s mother in the village of Aldworth, Berkshire, and confronted them.
That night, Mick Jagger slept with Marianne Faithfull upstairs while the vanquished Mario Schifano – who was given his marching orders by her the following day – had to settle for the living room sofa.
But after four years together, the relationship finally imploded in 1970 and Marianne Faithfull moved out of the grand house she and Mick Jagger had shared in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.
Her subsequent decline was swift and brutal. Now hopelessly addicted to heroin, she lost custody of her son Nicholas, and within months she was living on the street. She slept rough for two years in a seedy alley in Soho.
In interviews, Marianne Faithfull has said that even at her lowest ebb Jagger tried to get her back. Extraordinarily, she claims that she hacked off her blonde locks and put on three stone in weight to deter him.
However, Californian model Catherine James, who had soon taken over her role as Mick Jagger’s live-in girlfriend, remembers things differently.
“Marianne used to call Mick even though they had split up,” said Catherine James.
“She came over to the house when I was there. I certainly didn’t get the impression she was trying to get him to understand she didn’t want him anymore. I got the impression she very much wanted to see him.
“But Mick was never excited when she was coming over or when she called. She was very high on drugs and he wanted to get rid of her.”
His offhand treatment of her is classic Mick Jagger. Still in the grip of her addictions, Marianne Faithfull went on to marry punk rocker Ben Brierly in 1979, but the marriage ended in divorce seven years later.
In 1985, she checked into the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota, whose previous patients have included Eric Clapton, in a bid to get clean.
But tragedy was never far away. She began a relationship with a fellow addict in rehab, American Howard Tose – only for him to throw himself to his death from the window of their 14th floor apartment in Boston after Marianne Faithfull announced she wanted to split up.
A third, brief marriage followed when Marianne Faithfull wed American writer Giorgio Della Terza in 1988. They divorced after three years.
Returning to music in the late Seventies, Marianne Faithfull has made a succession of often critically lauded albums and has dabbled with acting.
Now clean, Marianne Faithfull lives in a bohemian existence on a prestigious boulevard close to the British Consulate on the Right Bank of Paris and has another home in County Waterford, Ireland.
She has also resurrected her once broken relationship with her son, Nicholas, a financial journalist.
In 2009, Marianne Faithfull split from her lover of 15 years, Frenchman Francois Ravard, who still acts as her manager. He had helped nurse her through breast cancer treatment in 2005.
As she came around from surgery in a Parisian hospital, the phone ran at 2:00 a.m. and her ex Mick Jagger was on the line checking up on her.
She says: “This voice came on: <<Hello, Marian, how are you?>> I’d know that voice anywhere, and he’s the only one who ever called me Marian. We had a chat. It was lovely.”
Although they have met very occasionally, it was the first time in 35 years they had properly spoken on the phone.
This week, Marianne Faithfull was in a reflective mood, saying: “I could’ve stayed with Mick and he did love me, but I couldn’t bear it, that world. I just felt not good enough. Low self-esteem. All the things a drug addict feels.
“But I don’t think I would’ve felt like that if the drugs bust hadn’t happened. I think we would’ve been fine. Would we have been together today? I don’t know. Why not?”
A drunken passenger on an IcelandAir flight from Iceland to New York was duct-taped to his seat by fellow passengers after attacking one woman, spitting on other passengers and screaming the plane was going to crash.
A friend of one of the observing passengers, Andy Ellwood of New York, posted a picture of the subdued flyer to his Tumblr with an account of the incident.
The “passenger drank all of his duty free liquor on the flight from Iceland to JFK yesterday”, Andy Ellwood wrote.
“When he became unruly, (i.e. trying to choke the woman next to him and screaming the plane was going to crash), fellow passengers subdued him and tie him up for the rest of the flight. He was escorted off the flight by police when it landed.”
The photo was sent to Andy Ellwood because he and his friend liked to trade “travel war stories” he said.
His friend who observed the in-flight meltdown did not want to be identified or talk with the media.
The 46-year-old man, whose name has not yet been released, was arrested upon landing at JFK on Thursday.
He had an Icelandic passport, according to Port Authority spokesman, Ron Marsico.
A drunken passenger on an IcelandAir flight from Iceland to New York was duct-taped to his seat by fellow passengers after attacking one woman and screaming the plane was going to crash
The passenger’s tirade began after several hours in the air when there were about two hours left on the flight, reported Icelandic news outlet Mbl.is.
IcelandAir’s Vice President of Corporate Communication, Guðjón Arngrímsson, confirmed to reporters that the man was acting dangerously, but would not comment on the picture.
The unruly passenger was transported to a hospital in Queens after being taken off the plane, said Ron Marsico of the Port Authority.
Prosecutors declined to charge him for what he did because too many passengers were reluctant to discuss his outburst with authorities, the New York Post reported.
Coincidentally, police arrested an American Eagle pilot after he failed a blood-alcohol breath test before he was scheduled to fly from Minneapolis to New York City Thursday.
Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen was running pre-flight checks at approximately 6:30 a.m. when police, acting on a tip, boarded the plane and made him take a breathalyzer.
He was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol.
“These incidents are very rare,” airport spokesman Patrick Hogan told the Post.
“But every few years, we’ll have a case. We have nearly half a million flights come in and out and we have one case every three or four years.”
Passengers had yet to board for the flight, which was delayed two and a half hours while a replacement pilot was found, according to Matt Miller, a spokesman for the airline’s sister company, American Airlines.
Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen is suspended pending an investigation.
The alcohol limit for flying is even lower than the one for driving, with a .04 threshold in Minnesota.
Former cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping last October, is said to be considering admitting publicly that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his disgraced cycling career.
Lance Armstrong, 41, is reported to have told anti-doping officials that he will make a public admission of guilt in the hope than he can persuade them to restore his eligibility to compete in triathlons, which have replaced cycling as his sporting passion.
For more than a decade, Lance Armstrong has vehemently denied ever doping, even after anti-doping officials laid out their case against him last October in a report which accused him of running “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”.
All Lance Armstrong’s results from August 1, 1998 were expunged from the record books, including his seven consecutive Tour de France “wins” from 1999 to 2005, and he was banned from cycling for life.
Up until now Lance Armstrong has refused to cooperate with the investigation and has consistently denied wrongdoing, but he has been under pressure from various fronts to confess.
Wealthy supporters of Livestrong, the charity he founded after surviving testicular cancer, have been trying to persuade him to come forward so he could clear his conscience and save the organization from further damage.
Lance Armstrong is said to be considering admitting publicly that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his cycling career
According to The New York Times, Lance Armstrong has been in discussions with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and met the agency’s chief executive, Travis Tygart, in an effort to mitigate the lifetime ban he received for playing a lead role in doping on his Tour-winning teams.
Lance Armstrong is also seeking to meet with David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Since quitting cycling, Lance Armstrong has hopes of competing in triathlons and running events, but those competitions are often sanctioned by organizations that adhere to the World Anti-Doping Code, under which Lance Armstrong received his lifetime ban.
According to the code, an athlete might be eligible for a reduced punishment if he fully confesses and details how he doped, who helped him dope and how he got away with doping.
Lance Armstrong has been keeping a low profile since doping revelations ruined his once illustrious career and reputation.
In November he was spotted canoeing in the warm Pacific waters just off Hawaii. The holiday island has become a regular destination for Lance Armstrong to seek refuge, as he throws himself into training for Ironman Triathlon events.
An Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2-mile run, raced in that order and without a break. Most Ironman events have a strict time limit of 17 hours to complete the race.
“Bicholim Conflict” was voted a “good article” – a Wikipedia badge of honor – and sat happily on the online encyclopedia for more than half a decade.
But editors have lately discovered a small issue with the site’s meticulously written 4,500 word article detailing the 17th century Bicholim Conflict.
It was entirely made up.
After five years of featuring the piece, which tells the story of “how colonial Portugal clashed with India’s massive Maratha Empire”, Wikipedia has admitted the entire conflict and books cited as sources for the piece are fictional, the Daily Dot reports.
The only source seems to be an unidentified and mischievous Wikipedia user dedicated to putting extraordinary amounts of effort into promoting his or her own fantasy historical conflict and getting one over on Wikipedia in the process.
“From 1640 to 1641 the might of colonial Portugal clashed with India’s massive Maratha Empire in an undeclared war that would later be known as the Bicholim Conflict,” the article read.
“Named after the northern Indian region where most of the fighting took place, the conflict ended with a peace treaty that would later help cement Goa as an independent Indian state.”
It continues, in precise detail, to explore what happened in the fictional war and lists some 17 references, as well as three suggestions for further reading – which all appear to be a work of the writer’s imagination.
After five years of featuring the Bicholim Conflict, Wikipedia has admitted the entire conflict and books cited as sources for the piece are fictional
The article’s conclusion may have given some hint of its veracity: “The conflict was fairly brief and its impact in terms of casualties and damage was minimal. For this reason, it has not become much of a talking point amongst filmmakers and bookwriters.”
The hoax was only uncovered when another user from Missouri, known as ShelfSkewed, finally realized the deception and nominated the article for removal.
“After careful consideration and some research, I have come to the conclusion that this article is a hoax – a clever and elaborate hoax, but a hoax nonetheless,” they wrote.
“An online search for <<Bicholim conflict>> or for many of the article’s purported sources produces only results that can be traced back to the article itself.”
Wikipedia acted on his warning and promptly removed the piece.
But not before it was labeled a “Good Article” by Wikipedia editors just two months after its creation in July 2007.
It was also nominated for a featured article – Wikipedia’s gold star for research.
And even though site admin didn’t approve the recommendation they didn’t stumble across the fact the entire piece was a wind-up
“Unfortunately, hoaxes on Wikipedia are nothing new, and the craftier they are, the more difficult it is to catch them,” William Beutler, president of Beutler Wiki Relations, a Wikipedia consulting firm, told Yahoo News.
“Anyone who’s clever enough to make up convincing sources and motivated enough to spend the time and skilled enough to write a plausible article can deceive whole Internet – at least for awhile.”
Indeed, several hoaxes have taken place on the crowd-sourced encyclopedia site, so much so that the encyclopedia has its own page detailing them.
At least one place where the Bicholim Conflict lives on.
Venezuelan National Assembly is due to begin its new session as the ill-health of President Hugo Chavez casts doubt over his inauguration on January 10.
Current leader Diosdado Cabello is due to be re-elected head of the assembly – dominated by Hugo Chavez’s supporters.
President Hugo Chavez is in Cuba struggling to recover from his latest round of surgery to treat cancer.
Opposition leaders are calling for new elections if he cannot be sworn in for his new six-year term on Thursday.
But Vice-President Nicolas Maduro has said the Supreme Court can swear in Hugo Chavez at a later date.
The normally routine opening of the National Assembly has been given added significance because of Hugo Chavez’s absence.
Under the constitution, the head of the assembly must lead the country if new elections are called.
Venezuelan National Assembly is due to begin its new session as the ill-health of President Hugo Chavez casts doubt over his inauguration on January 10
Analysts say Diosdado Cabello is seen as a political rival to Nicolas Maduro, whom Hugo Chavez has named as his successor.
However, both men have vowed to maintain unity in the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Both visited Hugo Chavez in Cuba earlier in the week, along with several other dignitaries.
Diosdado Cabello called on Hugo Chavez supporters to rally outside parliament on Saturday “to exhort revolutionary unity and head off the campaign of rumors”.
“If the opposition thinks it will find a space in the National Assembly to conspire against the people, it’s mistaken once again,” Diosdado Cabello said on Twitter.
“It will be defeated.”
Experts have different interpretations of what it would mean if Hugo Chavez misses his inauguration.
Some in the opposition say that if Hugo Chavez is still in Cuba, power should pass to the head of the National Assembly and new elections should be held within 30 days.
But Nicolas Maduro has insisted that Thursday is not a fixed deadline and that there was no reason to declare Hugo Chavez’s “absolute absence” from office.
“The formality of his swearing-in can be resolved in the Supreme Court,” he said.
“The president right now is president.”
Hugo Chavez – who was re-elected for a fourth term in October – has not been seen in public since his latest round of surgery more than three weeks ago.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Thursday that the president had suffered complications due to a lung infection and had a “respiratory insufficiency”.
A small aircraft carrying Vittorio Missoni, director of Italian fashion house Missoni, has disappeared off the coast of Venezuela.
Vittorio Missoni and his wife were among six people on board the flight from the archipelago of Los Roques towards Caracas’ Maiquetia airport.
The small, twin-engine aircraft disappeared mid-morning local time on Friday and has not been traced since.
Vittorio Missoni, 58, is the son of the founder of the eponymous brand and co-owns the firm with his siblings.
He was returning from a Christmas and New Year holiday with his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, and two friends – Elda Scalvenzi and Guido Foresti. Two Venezuelan pilots were also on board.
The family confirmed that the plane was missing on Saturday.
“The Missoni family has been informed by the Venezuelan consulate that Vittorio Missoni and his wife are missing, but we don’t know any more,” said spokeswoman Maddalena Aspes.
A small aircraft carrying Vittorio Missoni, director of Italian fashion house Missoni, has disappeared off the coast of Venezuela
She added that the authorities, who called off the search after nightfall, were expected to resume it in the morning.
Los Roques, an archipelago made up of dozens of islands some 95 miles (150 km) off Venezuela’s coast, is one of the area’s most popular holiday destinations.
According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the pilot of the twin-motored Britten Norman BN2 Islander plane, dating from 1968, was 72-year-old German Merchan.
Another plane with eight Italians on board is reported to have disappeared exactly five years ago, on 4 January 2008. Only a single body – that of the co-pilot – was ever found.
DNA tests have linked five men with the gang rape and murder from last month that has caused outrage in India, a court in Delhi has heard.
The pre-trial hearing was held at the District Court in the Saket area of the Indian capital.
The judge ordered the five to appear before her on Monday. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried as a juvenile.
The woman, 23, died last weekend. Her friend has been recalling the harrowing details of the attack on a bus.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News how he and the victim had boarded the bus and paid a fare, before he was beaten unconscious by men on board, who then attacked her.
Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal that DNA tests confirmed by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory had shown that blood stains found on the clothing of all of the accused had matched the blood of the victim.
Rajiv Mohan also cited records from the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where the woman died, which said death was caused by septicemia and multiple-organ failure.
The five accused, aged between 19 and 35, are charged with rape, abduction and murder, and could face the death penalty if convicted. They include the driver of the bus.
The prosecutor also said items robbed from the victim had been recovered from the accused.
The magistrate said: “[The suspects] will be produced in court on Monday.”
DNA tests have linked five men with the gang rape and murder from last month that has caused outrage in India, a court in Delhi has heard
A following hearing was set for January 10.
Protesters gathered outside the court in Saket, carrying a banner demanding justice for the victim.
The friend of the woman who died has given his first interview since the incident.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News he and the rape victim had boarded the bus after a trip to the cinema and after failing to flag down an auto-rickshaw.
He said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them.
“We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them, she tried to save me,” he said.
“She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away.
“I tried to fight against the men but later I begged them again and again to leave her.”
He confirmed earlier reports that the assailants had thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over.
The friend said he had tried to get help from passers-by and motorists.
“They slowed down, looked at our naked bodies and left,” he said.
And he also criticized the authorities, accusing them of being slow to arrive, then arguing over jurisdiction, and eventually taking them to the wrong hospital.
“My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they [police] took us to a hospital that was far away,” he said.
Delhi Police on Saturday denied its officers were late in arriving. A statement said the first vehicle had arrived within four minutes of the distress call, left the scene with the victims within another three minutes and reached Safdarjung Hospital within another 24.
The case continues to put Indian life under a sharp magnifying glass, and for many people it is uncomfortable viewing.
Meanwhile, police have opened an investigation into whether Zee News broke broadcasting laws relating to disclosure of the victim’s identity.
The victim’s friend was not named but his face was shown.
Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP news agency that a case had been filed against the broadcaster.
The case has caused a national outcry, and there have been frequent protests calling for greater protection for women.
