Kim Kardashian’s latest photo shoot for French magazineFactice could be one of her most daring yet.
Kim Kardashian, 32, displays her world-famous curves in several boudoir-inspired ensembles
First up Kim Kardashian raises temperatures in a racy lace bra and panty set complete with suspenders and cream silk stockings.
The reality star’s ensemble is topped off with a luxurious-looking fur coat and giant diamond and enamel floral ring and matching bracelet.
With her famous full lips heavily glossed, Kim Kardashian does her best pout and smoldering stare for the camera.
This time instead of wearing her glossy locks down, she has them tousled up in a messy bedhead style.
In another snap, Kim Kardashian wears her hair down in a somewhat Fifties voluminous style.
And the reality star is certainly every inch the pin-up girl in a beige satin lingerie set, this time paired with a darker fur coat and sky-high Christian Louboutin heels.
Kim Kardashian’s latest photo shoot for French magazine Factice could be one of her most daring yet
Kim Kardashian’s shoot also switches to playful, as she changes into a cream sheer set with a sleeveless shirt worn over her top half and tied at the waist.
She pushes her already ample cleavage together creating even more lift.
The coquettish look is completed with a feather boa and a wide-brimmed hat.
Kim Kardashian is not only just standing and posing for her French fashion shoot.
She also reclines on a shell-shaped sofa, wearing a vintage white lace basque, matching silk stocking and white heels.
Kim Kardashian once again drapes her feather boa around her body and gives a smoldering stare into the camera.
And for her most sexiest shot of all, and one that is bound to get boyfriend Kanye West’s heart racing, is one of Kim Kardashian sprawled across a mirrored coffee table.
Jutting out her famous derriere, Kim Kardashian’s curves look sublime in a sheer cream lace and silk set paired with leopard print stilettos, pearls and yet another fur accoutrement.
Launched in February 2011, Factice Magazine is a French, fashion and online (every two months) magazine.
It is just one of the many projects which Kim Kardashian has been working on of late.
The always busy star has been jetting around the world in the last few months doing photo shoots and promoting her clothing line, as well as being in Miami to shoot her reality TV show Kourtney & Kim Take Miami.
A horrible, or horribly drunk, BMW driver banged the front and side of her car trying to park it between two other vehicles.
In the video posted below, car enthusiasts may cringe as they watch what could easily be called one of the worst parking attempts captured on camera.
The video, which was originally posted on LiveLeak.com and goes on for a full minute, shows the unseen driver bumping and banging the curb, a stone pillar and another vehicle to the right in an attempt to straighten out her car.
“This is oddly entertaining,” one of the guys behind the camera says before pointing out the crooked BMW’s “ugly ass wheels”.
A horrible, or horribly drunk, BMW driver banged the front and side of her car trying to park it between two other vehicles
The driver then hits another unseen car to the left before the video ends.
One of the dumfounded observers asks out loud: “Is that my car? Sh**!”
That is one way not to video someone unsuccessfully trying to park a luxury automobile.
Cheick Modibo Diarra, Mali’s prime minister, has resigned on state television, hours after being arrested by soldiers who were behind a military coup in March.
Cheick Modibo Diarra was detained on Monday at his home in the capital Bamako, reportedly on the orders of the coup leader, Capt Amadou Sanogo.
He had been due to travel to France.
Cheick Modibo Diarra, 60, was made prime minister of an interim government in April after the military officially handed power back to civilians.
The astrophysicist has backed plans to send a West African intervention force into the northern half of Mali which was seized after the coup by Islamists and Tuareg separatists.
But tensions between the soldiers who led the coup and the civilian prime minister they were forced to appoint have been mounting in recent weeks.
Many within Mali’s military are opposed to foreign intervention, saying they need only financial and logistical support.
Military spokesman Bakary Mariko said that the prime minister was suspected of attempting to jeopardize the planned political dialogue over the transition to democracy.
“Eight months ago the prime minister was given the mission to help Mali recover its territorial integrity, but unfortunately he has been working to stay in power indefinitely,” he said.
Cheick Modibo Diarra would be held until a new prime minister was appointed by the interim president, the spokesman said.
Cheick Modibo Diarra, Mali’s prime minister, has resigned on state television, hours after being arrested by soldiers who were behind a military coup in March
In his address on national broadcaster ORTM, Cheick Modibo Diarra gave no clear explanation of his resignation.
“Men and women who are worried about the future of our nation, you are hoping for peace. It’s for this reason that I, Cheick Modibo Diarra, am resigning along with my entire government.”
A member of the president’s entourage earlier told AFP news agency that the prime minister had been arrested by about 20 soldiers from the sprawling Kati military base where the 21 March coup was launched.
The source said soldiers had: “smashed in the door of the prime minister’s residence and took him away a bit violently”.
“They said Captain Sanogo sent them to arrest him,” he added.
Security officials said Cheick Modibo Diarra was then driven to Kati.
The military spokesman told Reuters that Cheick Modibo Diarra “wanted to leave the country having incited trouble”.
The prime minister had been about to leave the country for France – the spokesman said. It is not known if he had been trying flee.
Cheick Modibo Diarra, the son-in-law of Moussa Traore, a former Malian coup leader and president, had been leading a government of national unity.
It was formed in August in an attempt to satisfy regional demands for a transition from military rule and to restore stability following the March coup, which led to the entire northern half of the country being occupied by hardline Islamists and Tuareg rebels.
The Islamists have since taken control of northern Mali’s main urban centres, imposing a strict version of Islamic law.
The United Nations warned on Monday that the north of the country is now “one of the potentially most explosive corners of the world”.
The West African regional group Ecowas has agreed to send 3.300 troops to reclaim rebel-held territory. The deployment has been backed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
On Monday, the European Union backed plans for a 250-member training mission for around four battalions of the Malian army to fight the militants.
HSBC is to pay US authorities $1.9 billion in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case, the bank has confirmed.
A US Senate investigation said the UK-based bank had been a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations”.
Money laundering is the process of disguising the proceeds of crime so that the money cannot be linked to the wrongdoing.
HSBC admitted having poor money laundering controls and apologized.
“We accept responsibility for our past mistakes,” said HSBC group chief executive Stuart Gulliver in a statement.
“We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again.”
The bank said it had spent $290 million on improving its systems to prevent money laundering and clawed back some bonuses paid to senior executives in the past.
It also said it expected to reach an agreement with the UK’s Financial Services Authority shortly.
Last month it announced it had set aside $1.5 billion to cover the costs of any settlement or fines.
HSBC is to pay US authorities $1.9 billion in a settlement over money laundering
The news followed the announcement of a similar but much smaller settlement with UK-based Standard Chartered bank, which will pay $300 million in fines for violating US sanctions.
The cases are seen as part of a crackdown on money laundering and sanctions violations being led by federal government agencies and New York state authorities.
The settlement had been widely expected following a report by the US Senate, published earlier this year, that was heavily critical of HSBC’s money laundering controls.
The report alleged that:
HSBC in the US had not treated its Mexican affiliate as high risk, despite the country’s money laundering and drug trafficking challenges
The Mexican bank had transported $7 billion in US bank notes to HSBC in the US, more than any other Mexican bank, but had not considered that to be suspicious
It had circumvented US safeguards designed to block transactions involving terrorists drug lords and rogue states, including allowing 25,000 transactions over seven years without disclosing their links to Iran
Providing US dollars and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia despite their links to terrorist financing
In less than four years it had cleared $290 million in “obviously suspicious” US travellers’ cheques for a Japanese bank, benefiting Russians who claimed to be in the used car business
The report suggested HSBC accounts in Mexico and the US were being used by drug barons to launder money.
“The banks became very overextended, not just in lending on property, which we all know about, but in this case, for example, buying businesses in Mexico about which, it turned out, they knew too little,” said Sir John Gieve, former deputy governor of the Bank of England.
The Senate report also said HSBC regularly circumvented restrictions on dealings with Iran, North Korea, and other states subject to US sanctions.
HSBC has announced it has appointed a former US official to work as its head of financial crime compliance, which is a new position.
Bob Werner was previously the head of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – the agency responsible for enforcing the US sanctions on countries including Iran.
He will be responsible for beefing up HSBC’s anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance systems.
It is unclear what impact the case will have on HSBC’s business. The bank is the biggest in Europe by market capitalization, and made pre-tax profits of $12.7 billion for the first six months of 2012.
275 g (10 oz) Bournville chocolate, broken into small pieces
450 ml (¾pt) double cream
4 tbsp apricot jam
Icing sugar, for dusting
Christmas chocolate log
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6. Lightly grease and line a 33 cm x 23 cm (13in x 9in) Swiss roll tin. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is pale, light and frothy. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and carefully cut and fold together, using a metal spoon, until everything is incorporated, being careful not to beat out the air from the mixture.
Pour into the tin and spread evenly into the corners. Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-10 minutes until pale golden and the sides are shrinking away from the edge of the tin. Place a piece of baking parchment larger than the Swiss roll on the work surface, invert the cake onto it and remove the lining paper on top.
Trim the edges of the cake with a knife and make a score mark 2.5 cm (1in) in along the longer edge so it’s easier to roll. Roll up the cake from the scored edge using the parchment, rolling the parchment inside. Set aside to cool.
While the cake is cooling, make the icing. Melt the chocolate and 300 ml (½ pt) of the cream in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until completely melted (be careful not to overheat; the bowl must not touch the water). Refrigerate to cool and firm up (this icing needs to be very thick for piping). Whip the remaining cream.
Uncurl the cold Swiss roll and remove the paper. Spread a third of the icing over the surface, then spread the whipped cream on top, and re-roll tightly. Cut a quarter of the cake off from one end on the diagonal. Transfer the large piece of cake to a serving plate and angle the smaller cake to the side of the larger one to make a branch.
Cover the surface of the cake with the melted apricot jam. Place the remaining icing into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe long, thick lines along the cake, covering it completely so that it looks like tree bark. Cover each end with icing (optional).
Finally, dust the cake lightly with icing sugar and garnish with fresh holly, to serve.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has signed a settlement with hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, who accused him of sexual assault, a New York judge says.
Details of the 63-year-old former International Monetary Fund chief ‘s agreement with Nafissatou Diallo will remain confidential, the judge added.
DSK was held in New York in May 2011 after Nafissatou Diallo, 33, said he assaulted her in his hotel suite.
Prosecutors later dropped charges amid concerns about her credibility.
The incident was widely seen as having ruined DSK’s chance of becoming the Socialist presidential candidate in his native France.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon announced on Monday that after lengthy negotiations, the parties “came together and put terms of a settlement on the record”.
The amount of the settlement was kept confidential.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has signed a settlement with hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo
DSK did not attend the hearing, but Nafissatou Diallo was in court.
After the settlement, the judge thanked all parties and said it was a “privilege to work with all of you”.
Outside the courtroom, Nafissatou Diallo made a short statement: “I thank everybody all over the world and everybody at the court, and God bless you all.”
Her lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, said afterwards that she was “ready to move on”.
In May 2011, Nafissatou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant with a teenage daughter, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn had forced her to perform oral sex when she went to clean his hotel room.
He was arrested, charged with attempted rape and forced to resign from his post at the International Monetary Fund.
DSK had previously admitted to a “moral failing”, but insisted their sexual encounter was consensual.
In the wake of Nafissatou Diallo’s accusations, other women came forward with sexual assault allegations against him.
Real life Barbie Valeria Lukyanova caused an internet sensation – but also deep concern – when her cosmetically-enhanced looks turned her into a living doll.
Now she is joined by 24-year-old “Dominica” – real name Olga Oleynik – who also owes her shape and image to the surgeon’s knife.
“We met on the internet five years ago,” said Valeria Lukyanova, explaining that both come from the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
“We were curious about our similarities. We had the same hairstyle, make-up, and even dressed in a similar way. Our friends were sure that we were blood sisters.
“We are really sisters – but only in spiritual way. We have the same outlook and lifestyle.”
Valeria Lukyanova and Olga Oleynik
The pair have been holding lectures on spirituality at $75 a session. They use their looks to attract participants, it is claimed.
“We are planning to move to America soon. Dominica’s boyfriend is living in the US and my husband wants to start a business there too,” said Valeria Lukyanova.
“I am not going to be bored abroad, I’m often invited to photo-shoots and parties.”
When images of Valeria Lukyanova first started appearing, there were questions about whether she actually existed with her porcelain looks, minuscule waist and razor sharp features. Some claimed she must be a PhotoShop creation.
The model calls herself “the most famous Russian woman on the Russian-speaking internet”.
Her average day includes meditation, travel in her astral body, going to the gym while she admits her ideal dinner is to “make dinner for the man I love”.
Instagram images that incited Ice-T’s fury – showing his wife, glamour model Coco Austin, with rapper AP.9 – have resurfaced.
The photos show Coco Austin smirking at the camera and wrapping her arm around AP.9 as he plants a kiss on her cheek and burrows his face in her neck.
The pictures were taken in Las Vegas, where Coco Austin is currently performing in her topless show, Peepshow, in a role she recently took over from pregnant Holly Madison earlier this year.
Ice-T’s wife has been in Sin City without her husband and the famous rapper has been left outraged by the pictures.
In a series of tweets that he has since deleted, Ice-T tweeted: “Regardless.. They would take Posed pics every time. Most of them disrespectful and in bad taste. She’s made me look.. And feel like shit.”
Ice-T, 54, explained to his fans that he was venting on Twitter because his wife had displayed “misconduct” for a married woman, and then asked fans to direct anymore questions about the incident to Coco.
“I say this on Twitter because there’s no way to avoid the obvious misconduct of a married couple. That’s it. Any more questions ask @Cocosworld,” he wrote.
Ice-T added that he had no idea who AP.9 was.
“She said he knew someone in the crew from our show and would pop up where ever they would go. He also said he knew me.. I don’t know dude,” he wrote.
Ice-T also made it quite clear that he was furious about the incident.
“Don’t get it twisted… I’m not happy about this shit,” he said.
Coco Austin smirking at the camera and wrapping her arm around AP.9 as he plants a kiss on her cheek and burrows his face in her neck
Ice-T also informed his fans that he had spoken to his wife about the pictures on the internet, which he explained were taken when she first arrived in Vegas for her burlesque show.
“Coco’s in Vegas. She has given me her explanation of the pics on the net from her first weeks out there with some dude,” he wrote.
Coco Austin has since apologized for the incident on her own Twitter account, admitting that they were taken in poor taste.
“Ice is right, the pics I took with this man were in poor taste & I disrespected my husband however the pics were the only thing that happened,” she wrote on Saturday.
Earlier she had told her Twitter fans to relax as the photos were “harmless”.
“Woke up to people in a panic about some pics, please guys I’m happily married, sometimes fans & friends take silly pics. Its harmless. #RELAX” she posted at the start of the day.
But after Ice-T vented his fury over the snaps, she was begging for forgiveness.
“I feel so sad ,the bottom line is I love Ice & I can understand why he’s upset theres no excuse for my actions. I’m so sorry baby & to evryone,” she wrote.
Coco and Ice-T have been married for 11 years and will celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary on New Year’s Eve.
The couple appears in their own reality TV series about their married life, called Ice Loves Coco.
The blonde star made her debut in Peepshow as Bo Peep, a role previously filled by a now pregnant Holly Madison, on December 3.
And in a recent interview, Coco Austin said she was more than excited about kicking things off, as well as her relocation to Vegas.
She said: “I am over my head with excitement. I didn’t know at first if I wanted to change my New York lifestyle to Vegas lifestyle, but I’m, like, what the heck, life is too short.
“This is actually what I have been building up to my entire life. I have been a dancer my whole childhood, and I’m also a performer, so I think this is the next stage in my life.”
And while the role does involve some nudity, Coco Austin said she didn’t find any hesitation from her husband.
She added to the Las Vegas Sun: “He was the first supporter. Without his support, I wouldn’t have gone to Vegas at all because I was kind of iffy in the beginning.
“He said, <<If I was offered a Vegas show, I would do it. This is right up your alley. You love to show off your body, you like to perform, and you like to dance. You need to go for it>>. And then after that, he gave me a kiss.”
Ice-T and Coco Austin are currently gearing up for the premiere of season three of their reality show, Ice Loves Coco.
Matthew Good has been identified as the second winner of record Powerball jackpot, Arizona lottery officials announced.
Matthew Good has chosen to receive a single payout of $192 million to avoid a possible tax rise in 2013.
He bought $10 of Powerball lottery tickets and had kept them in the sun visor of his car overnight before realizing he was a winner.
He and his wife will split the $587.5 million total prize with a Missouri couple who bought the other winning ticket.
Matthew Good, who lottery officials said is in his 30s, and his wife live in an affluent suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, called Fountain Hills, where their ticket was sold.
They consulted a team of financial advisers after discovering that they had won.
A lottery official said Matthew Good intended to put together a financial plan, and also to set up a charitable organization that would give money to causes he and his wife support, the Associated Press reported.
Matthew Good has been identified as the second winner of record Powerball jackpot
Matthew Good also reportedly told officials that he enjoys his job and is not making plans to quit.
The couple had tried to remain anonymous, but Mattew Good’s name was released in response to a public records request.
Earlier, they said in a statement: “It is difficult to express just how thankful we are for this wonderful gift.
“We are extremely grateful and feel fortunate to now have an increased ability to support our charities and causes.
“Obviously, this has been incredibly overwhelming and we have always cherished our privacy.”
The jackpot was the second-largest in US history.
The numbers drawn on November 28th were 5, 23, 16, 22, 29 and 6.
The other winning ticket was bought at a petrol station by Mark and Cindy Hill, of Dearborn, Missouri.
They said they would use their winnings to help their relatives, including grandchildren, nieces and nephews, pay for college.
What is it like to surf the internet in North Korea, the most secretive country on Earth?
It seems that North Koreans begin to put their lives at risk just to connect to the outside world.
There’s a curious quirk on every official North Korean website. A piece of programming that must be included in each page’s code.
Its function is straightforward but important. Whenever leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed ever so slightly bigger than the text around it. Not by much, but just enough to make it stand out.
It’s just one facet of the “internet” in North Korea, a uniquely fascinating place.
In a country where citizens are intentionally starved of any information other than government propaganda, the internet too is dictated by the needs of the state – but there is an increasing belief that this control is beginning to wane.
“The government can no longer monitor all communications in the country, which it could do before,” explains Scott Thomas Bruce, an expert on North Korea who has written extensively about the country.
“That is a very significant development.”
There’s just one cybercafe in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.
Anyone logging on at the cafe would find themselves at a computer that isn’t running Windows, but instead Red Star – North Korea’s own custom-built operating system, reportedly commissioned by the late Kim Jong-il himself.
A pre-installed readme file explains how important it is that the operating system correlates with the country’s values.
The computer’s calendar does not read 2012, but 101 – the number of years since the birth of Kim Il-sung, the country’s former leader whose political theories define policy decisions.
Normal citizens do not get access to the “internet”. That privilege is left to a select number in the country, known as elites, as well as some academics and scientists.
What they see is an internet that is so narrow and lacking in depth it resembles more an extravagant company intranet than the expansive global network those outside the country know it to be.
“The system they’ve set up is one that they can control and tear down if necessary,” explains Thomas Bruce.
The system is called Kwangmyong, and is administered by the country’s lone, state-run internet service provider.
According to Thomas Bruce, it consists mainly of “message boards, chat functions, and state sponsored media”. Unsurprisingly, there’s no sign of Twitter.
“For a lot of authoritarian governments who are looking at what is happening in the Middle East they’re saying rather than let in Facebook, and rather than let in Twitter, what if the government created a Facebook that we could monitor and control?”
The Red Star operating system runs an adapted version of the Firefox browser, named Naenara, a title it shares with the country’s online portal, which also has an English version.
North Koreans begin to put their lives at risk just to connect to the outside world
Typical sites include news services – such as the Voice of Korea – and the official organ of the state, the Rodong Sinmun.
But anyone producing content for this “internet” must be careful.
Reporters Without Borders – an organization which monitors global press freedom – said some North Korean “journalists” had found themselves sent to “revolutionization” camps, simply for a typo in their articles.
Beyond the Kwangmyong intranet, some North Koreans do have full, unfiltered internet access.
However, it is believed this is restricted to just a few dozen families – most directly related to Kim Jong-un himself.
North Korea’s reluctance to connect citizens to the web is counteracted by an acceptance that, as with trade, it needs to open itself up slightly if it is to continue to survive.
While China has its infamous “great firewall” – which blocks out the likes of Twitter – North Korea’s technology infrastructure is described as a “mosquito net”, allowing only the bare essentials both in and out.
And it’s with mobile that the mosquito net is most porous.
While there is an official mobile network, which does not offer data connections or international calls, North Koreans are increasingly getting hold of Chinese mobile phones, smuggled across the border.
The handsets generally work within about 10 km (6 miles) of the border between the two countries – but not without considerable danger.
“The level of risk that people are taking now would be unthinkable 20 years ago,” says Nat Kretchun, co-author of a groundbreaking report into the changing media environment in North Korea.
The paper, entitled A Quiet Opening, interviewed 420 adults who had defected from the country. Among their stories was a glimpse at the lengths people would go to use these illegal mobile phones.
“In order to make sure the mobile phone frequencies are not being tracked, I would fill up a washbasin with water and put the lid of a rice cooker over my head while I made a phone call,” said one interviewee, a 28-year-old man who left the country in November 2010.
“I don’t know if it worked or not, but I was never caught.”
While the man’s scientific methodology is questionable, his fear was certainly warranted.
“Possession of illegal cellphones is a very major crime,” explains Thomas Bruce.
“The government has actually bought sensor equipment to try and track down people who are using them.
“If you use them, you want to use them in a highly populated area, and you want to be using them for a short amount of time.”
During his leadership, Kim Jong-il would parade hundreds of tanks through the streets to show himself as a “military genius”.
Many observers say that his son, Kim Jong-un, must in contrast show himself to have an astute technological mind, bringing hi-tech enhancements to the lives of his citizens.
But each step on this path brings the people of North Korea something they’ve not had before – honest information, which can have a devastating effect on secretive nations.
“I don’t see an open door towards an Arab Spring coming that way any time soon,” Thomas Bruce says.
“But I do think that people are now expecting to have access to this technology – and that creates an environment of personal expectation that cannot be easily rolled back.”
North Korean jargon buster
Kwangmyong
This is North Korea’s intranet, a closed system that those lucky enough to have access to can browse. Among the content are news websites, messageboards and other chat functions. Only the “elites” – members of high social standing – are permitted to use it, as well as some scientists and academics.
Koryolink
Koryolink is the official North Korean mobile network. Administered by Egyptian firm Orascom, it boasts over one million subscribers. However, it is not possible to make international calls on the service, nor can users access mobile internet.
Naenara
Meaning My Country, Naenara is the name given to the main information portal on the North Korean intranet, as well as the specially designed version of the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Red Star OS
The Red Star operating system, used by computers in North Korea, is built on Linux, the popular open source software used by many in the wider world. Its introduction music is believed to be based on a classic Korean folk song, Arirang
Iran has launched Mehr, a new website for citizens to share short videos.
Mehr, which means affection in Farsi, is run by the state broadcaster IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).
Iran already has a popular local video channel called Aparat, which is run by the same company behind Iranian social network Cloob.
YouTube, operated by Google, has been blocked in the country since 2009 but many Iranians can still access it.
They use Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, which are banned in the country but are not uncommon – and allow net surfers to bypass filters.
Iran has launched Mehr, a new website for citizens to share short videos
Online video is very popular in Iran but low internet speeds – often less than 1Mbps (megabits per second) – make streaming a big problem.
While there is no data yet available about the use of Mehr, Aparat, which has been around for a couple of years, is the 13th most popular website in Iran according to web stat provider Alexa.
Aparat is based in Iran and abides by local laws governing its content but has international sponsors including electronics firm LG.
YouTube was officially censored in the country following protests and allegations of vote fraud after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Demi Moore has been dumped by her latest toyboy Vito Schnabel.
Demi Moore, 50, was reportedly told by Vito Schnabel, 26, that their brief affair was over when they met up at the Art Basel event in Miami.
The actress was spotted in the Florida city yesterday looking downcast as she emerged from Starbucks in a blue shirt, denim cut-offs and dark sunglasses.
Demi Moore and art dealer Victor Schnabel were an item for several weeks prior to their jetting to Florida for the annual art fair.
Vito Schnabel was reportedly angry that Demi Moore turned up in Miami to party with other celebrities – and told her he wanted to end the relationship.
Demi Moore was later photographed acting bizarrely at a party with singer Lenny Kravitz and is said to have spent the weekend club hopping.
Vito Schnabel is said to have been angry that Demi Moore’s antics meant he would not be taken seriously in the art world.
Demi Moore has been dumped by her latest toyboy Vito Schnabel
“Vito has worked very hard to be taken seriously in the art business and doesn’t want to be seen as somebody who dates celebrities,” a source told the New York Post’s Page Six.
“He hated having photographers follow him around after word got out.
“Vito wasn’t too happy that Demi flew down to party at Art Basel while he was working to build his business. It was a distraction he did not need while all the big collectors were in town.”
Art Basel is one of the biggest gathering of collectors in the U.S. and attracts dozens of celebrities as well as dealers.
Demi Moore, who spent time in rehab after her six year marriage to Ashton Kutcher broke up earlier this year, met Vito Schnabel at Naomi Campbell’s party for her Russian boyfriend last month.
Final checks are under way in Antarctica before the launch of a daring attempt to investigate ancient Lake Ellsworth beneath the ice-sheet.
Lake Ellsworth lies below ice that is at least two miles (3.2 km) thick.
Its pitch-black waters have remained isolated and unseen for up to half a million years.
This will be the first attempt to extract uncontaminated samples of water and sediment from a body of water so far below the surface.
The investigation is part of a search to understand the limits of where life is possible and, despite the high pressures and lack of sunlight, it is likely that microbes will be detected.
The lake is about 14 km long, 3 km wide and 160 m deep – about the size of Lake Windermere, England’s largest.
In a region of Antarctica notorious for its low temperatures and near-constant winds, operating at this location is a huge challenge.
The project is made all the tougher because of the need for all the equipment to be kept sterile throughout the process.
The team behind the £8m project is readying a hot-water drill that will be used to blast a hole from the surface of the ice all the way down to the lake.
The chief scientist, Professor Martin Siegert of Bristol University, said he had first thought of exploring sub-glacial lakes 16 years ago.
“We’re very excited about this work and we’re very much looking forward to doing science that has taken us so long to plan.
“The first challenge was to develop the equipment and we’ve done that. The second was to keep it clean and we’ve done that. The third was to get it to Antarctica in a clean way and we’ve done that too.
“Now the experiment is set we can hit the Go button.”
Final checks are under way in Antarctica before the launch of a daring attempt to investigate ancient Lake Ellsworth beneath the ice-sheet
A small mountain of 270,000 litres of snow is ready to be shoveled into boilers – the first of a vast quantity needed to produce enough water for the operation.
The water will be filtered to remove any microbes, then screened through ultra-violet light before being heated to 90 degrees C and passed into the drill which will melt a passage through the ice-sheet.
The hot water pipes connecting the boilers have been insulated and in some cases fitted with heating devices. All the key component are wired to relay data. And the drill hose, which is 3.4 km long, has been cleaned and checked.
The drilling operation is expected to last five days and the bore-hole is projected to remain open for no more than 24 hours.
During this brief window, the plan is to lower a sampling probe fitted with HD cameras to gather the first images of the lake and collect water samples.
Next the team hopes to lower a second device which will settle on the bed of the lake and extract a core of the sediment – which should provide an invaluable record of the history of the lake and reveal when it was covered by ice.
Project manager Chris Hill of the British Antarctic Survey described the “funny feeling” of planning the project for so long and now being ready.
In his blog, he wrote:
“The twelve people here have sat around a meeting table on many occasions during that period…but now, for the first time, we are together in Antarctica, at Lake Ellsworth, with all the equipment, as a team and we have to make it happen.
“No pressure then!”
Earlier this year Russian scientists extracted samples from a much larger Antarctic lake, Lake Vostok, though there are questions about the risks of contamination.
And an American team reported last month on the discovery of microbes in Lake Vida, but from far shallower depths than the waters of Lake Ellsworth.
The initial findings of the Lake Ellsworth project should be known in about a week’s time.
Male leggings – or meggings to those in the know – are the latest trends in men’s fashion in 2013 as they have already been spotted on outlandishly-dressed celebrities such as Russell Brand and Noel Fielding.
And this winter they have started to take New York by storm, sported by the likes of Justin Bieber and Lenny Kravitz.
Now they are expected to follow the skinny jeans trend by crossing the Atlantic to British high streets.
Uniqlo is already selling male leggings through its British website, with other retailers likely to follow.
Designers have been putting male models in leggings for years, but not everyone who tried them has been convinced – with criticisms ranging from “hot and uncomfortable” to “Where do you put your wallet?”.
Meggings are the latest trends in men’s fashion in 2013
One Manhattan resident proud to show off his legs is English internet entrepreneur Mark Dorosz, 34.
He told a newspaper: “Male tights are so much more comfortable than skinny jeans. I’ve always had good legs and it’s nice to show them off all year round.”
But fellow New Yorker Gabriel Cru, 35, said: “Men in tights? Get out of here. We don’t do men in tights in New York. That’s European.”
Yet science and folklore both give us clues that suggest Prince William and Kate Middleton will have a girl.
For starters, Kate Middleton’s debilitating morning sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum, is more commonly found among women expecting girls.
And her slim build may also hint at a royal daughter. A 2008 study at the University of Exeter showed women who consumed lower-calorie diets were more likely to have girls because female foetuses can survive on fewer nutrients.
Then William’s occupation as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot could also play its part. An American study found pilots had an 80% chance of having girl babies.
One theory is that exposure to radiation on planes reduces the number of sperm carrying male chromosomes, but sperm carrying hardier female chromosomes are unaffected.
And if Kate Middleton is spotted leaving a Kensington dermatologist, it’s odds-on for a daughter.
French researchers found that mothers who suffered acne while pregnant were 90% more likely to give birth to a girl due to excess levels of the female hormone oestrogen.
On the other hand, there may be some truth in the idea that women who suffer cold feet will have a son.
Yet science and folklore both give us clues that suggest Prince William and Kate Middleton will have a girl
Cold feet are a symptom of poor circulation – and German scientists have found that this condition during pregnancy is often experienced among women expecting boys, though they haven’t yet been able to explain why.
If all else fails, there is one final method of prediction: ask the Duchess whether she thinks she is expecting a boy or a girl.
According to scientists from Arizona, women’s intuition is the most accurate gender predictor of all.
Asked to guess the sex of their child, mothers-to-be are correct 70% of the time.
Italian stocks have fallen sharply, reacting to news that Prime Minister Mario Monti plans to resign and former premier Silvio Berlusconi is to run for office again.
The main Italian stock index fell 3.1%.
Other indexes throughout Europe were also lower, with banks the worst hit among shares.
Mario Monti became the leader of a technocrat government in 2011 after investors became worried about Italy’s economic health.
Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party withdrew its support from the government on Thursday, and Berlusconi confirmed he would lead his party into next year’s elections – now on course to be held slightly earlier than expected.
Mario Monti had planned to serve until April 2013, when the current parliamentary term runs out. He had hoped this would be enough time to “rescue Italy from financial ruin”.
The withdrawal of his political support means that elections are now set for February.
Mario Monti replaced Silvio Berlusconi after the Italian 10-year bond yield reached a euro-era record of 7.48% in November 2011, bringing about Berlusconi’s departure. Since then, Italy’s yields have dropped and the focus has shifted to Spain, which has taken a bailout for its banks, and back to Greece.
However, on Monday, Italy’s 10-year bond yield jumped more 0.3 percentage points to 4.8%.
Among individual shares in Italy, banks were the hardest hit. Italy’s biggest, Unicredit, fell 6%. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena fell 7% and Banca Popolare di Milano declined 6.9%.
Across banks in Europe, Germany’s Commerzbank fell 2.9% and France’s BNP Paribas dropped 2.5%. In Spain, banks such as Santander, Bankia and BBVA all turned lower.
“Monti is the one who managed to stabilise Italy and stop the contagion from Greece,” said David Thebault, a trader at Global Equities.
“His surprise resignation brings back the political risk in the equation, something we had forgotten about.”
Italian stocks have fallen sharply, reacting to news that Prime Minister Mario Monti plans to resign and former premier Silvio Berlusconi is to run for office again
Italy’s government has the biggest debt burden of any of the major eurozone countries at 123% of economic output (GDP), which makes it particularly susceptible to a loss of market confidence. This is because higher borrowing costs would make it very difficult, if not impossible, for the government to roll over its debts as they come due for payment.
Jane Foley, a currency strategist at Rabobank, said: “The resignation of Italy’s technocrat PM Monti at the weekend has re-awakened fears of a return to old style political theatre in the country and brought some fresh downside pressure for the euro.”
The 17-nation currency fell against the dollar and British pound.
Mario Monti, an economist who heads a unelected cabinet of technocrats, has said he will try to pass a budget and financial stability law before standing down.
A statement from the office of President Giorgio Napolitano over the weekend said that Mario Monti “does not think it possible to continue his mandate and consequently made clear his intention to present his resignation”.
If the law for next year’s budget can be passed “quickly”, Mario Monti would immediately confirm his resignation, the statement said.
An election must come within 70 days of the government resigning. Italy had been due to go to the polls by April at the latest.
Mario Monti – a respected former commissioner at the European Union – has tried to pass reforms, including implementing in July a series of spending cuts of 26 billion euros ($32 billion) over three years to tackle the deficit.
But many of the proposals have been watered down or stalled as they have gone through parliament.
Italy’s economy has been shrinking all year – its fourth recession of the past 10 years.
Employers’ lobby group Confindustria predicts that the economy will shrink 2.4% this year, with unemployment hovering around 11%. The government forecasts the economy will contract by 1.2% this year.
Silvio Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud in October, though he is appealing against that ruling, and he is also on trial accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
He has already served as Italy’s prime minister for three separate terms and built up what is believed to be a vast personal fortune from his business empire.
President Mohamed Morsi has ordered the military to maintain security and protect Egypt institutions in the run-up to a controversial referendum on a new constitution.
The army has also been given the power of arrest.
Mohamed Morsi has tried to calm public anger by annulling a decree giving him huge powers, but rejected a call to scrap the 15 December constitutional vote.
Opposition leaders called for protests on Tuesday against the referendum.
The opposition was “not aiming at toppling the president” but wanted a better constitution, said former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.
Islamist groups have said they will hold counter demonstrations, raising fears of further bloody clashes on the streets of the Egyptian capital.
In another apparent concession, the president suspended a big tax increase on the sale of a variety of goods including soft drinks, cigarettes and beer.
The decision was carried in a statement that appeared on Mohamed Morsi’s Facebook page in the early hours of Monday, state-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported.
As tension increased before Saturday’s referendum, Mohamed Morsi ordered the military to maintain security “up to the announcement of the results from the referendum”, AFP news agency reports.
The step will raise fears that Egypt is moving back towards military rule.
Under the new presidential decree, the military is asked to co-ordinate with the police on maintaining security and is also entitled to arrest civilians.
The police have been seen as weakened since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak and failed to intervene when anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters ransacked the Islamist movement’s Cairo headquarters last week, correspondents say.
An increased military presence was visible on Monday close to the presidential palace, which has been the focus of opposition demonstrations. The army has sealed off the area with concrete blocks.
It is not yet clear whether the opposition will boycott Saturday’s referendum. However, a group of senior judges announced on Monday that they would be prepared to oversee the vote, on certain conditions.
Votes in Egypt are traditionally supervised by the judiciary but the November 22nd presidential decree led thousands of judges to go on strike.
Mohamed Morsi has ordered the military to maintain security and protect Egypt institutions in the run-up to a controversial referendum on a new constitution
Now, with the decree rescinded, the State Council Judges’ Club has agreed to oversee the vote as long as pro-Morsi supporters call a halt to a sit-in outside Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court.
The court suspended work on 2 December, citing “psychological pressure” from Islamists who had prevented a meeting on a draft of the new constitution. The protesters had wanted to block a ruling on the legality of the document.
The opposition argues that the constitution was drafted by an assembly dominated by Mohammed Morsi’s Islamist allies.
In a statement after talks on Sunday, the opposition National Salvation Front said it would not recognize the draft constitution “because it does not represent the Egyptian people”.
“We reject the referendum which will certainly lead to more division and sedition,” spokesman Sameh Ashour said.
On Sunday, hundreds of opposition protesters protested against the referendum outside the presidential palace.
They chanted anti-Muslim Brotherhood slogans and held up banners reading slogans such as “Morsi, hold back your thugs” and “The people demand the fall of the regime”.
But Mohamed Soudan, foreign relations secretary of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said Mohamed Morsi was constitutionally bound to go ahead with the vote because the date had been announced by the constituent assembly.
The president says he is trying to safeguard the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak last year, but his critics accuse him of acting like a dictator.
Mohamed Morsi’s decree of 22 November stripped the judiciary of any right to challenge his decisions and triggered violent protests.
Although the decree has been annulled, some decisions taken under it still stand.
The general prosecutor, who was dismissed, will not be reinstated, and the retrial of former regime officials will go ahead.
The presidents of the EU’s three main institutions have collected the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
The EU was awarded the prize for its role in uniting the continent after two world wars.
At the ceremony there was applause when the leaders of France and Germany stood up, holding hands.
Critics say the award is inappropriate. They point out that the eurozone crisis has exposed deep divisions in the 27-nation bloc.
Most of Europe’s national leaders were at the event, but not the UK’s David Cameron.
The British prime minister’s deputy, Nick Clegg – a longstanding advocate of the European project – represented the UK at the ceremony.
Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the audience that in the current economic crisis “the political framework in which the union is rooted is more important than ever”.
“We must stand together, we have collective responsibility,” he said, warning of a risk of new nationalism in Europe.
The prize was received jointly by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Martin Schulz. Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso then gave a joint acceptance speech, in two parts.
The presidents of the EU’s three main institutions have collected the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo
Herman Van Rompuy paid tribute to the post-war leaders of France and Germany who had forged the EU by uniting their economic interests.
He praised “the EU’s secret weapon – an unrivalled way of binding our interests so tightly that war becomes impossible”.
“It is better to fight around the table than on a battlefield,” he said, quoting Jean Monnet, one of the EU’s founders.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat next to French President Francois Hollande at the ceremony in Oslo City Hall.
Herman Van Rompuy said the economic crisis was fuelling “the return of long-forgotten faultlines and stereotypes”, but added: “Even such tensions don’t take us back to the darkness of the past.”
He ended by adapting the famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” quote from the late President John F. Kennedy during the Cold War.
He said he hoped future generations would “say with pride <<Ich bin ein Europaer>>, <<Je suis fier d’etre Europeen>>, <<I’m proud to be European>>.”
Four young Europeans, selected through an open EU competition, were in the delegation with equal status alongside the politicians.
The European Commission, which drafts EU laws, says the Nobel Prize money – about 930,000 euros ($1.2 million) – “will be allocated to children that are most in need”.
There has been a barrage of criticism – from Euroskeptics, peace activists and former winners of the prize.
Many of them question whether the EU should be given such an honor at a time when record unemployment and tough austerity policies, supported by European institutions, are causing serious social tensions in several member states.
Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera has died in a plane crash in northern Mexico, her father has confirmed.
Pedro Rivera, flanked by his two sons, told Mexican TV that all seven of those people on board the plane, including two pilots, had died.
Officials earlier said they had found wreckage believed to be that of the singer’s Learjet in Nuevo Leon state.
Jenni Rivera, born in California in 1969 to Mexican parents, has sold more than 15 million records of Norteno music.
She is a judge in the popular television programme La Voz (The Voice).
“Everyone was lost,” Jenni Rivera told Telemundo television.
Civil aviation chief Alejandro Argudín told Mexican media that the plane had been “totally destroyed” and the wreckage scattered over a wide area.
It was not clear what caused the crash.
Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera has died in a plane crash in northern Mexico
Jenni Rivera had performed in the northern city of Monterrey on Saturday and was travelling to the city of Toluca, outside Mexico City, when the plane disappeared, officials said.
A spokesman for Nuevo Leon’s government said the plane had left Monterrey in the early hours of Sunday and aviation authorities lost contact with it about 10 minutes later.
It had been scheduled to arrive in Toluca about an hour later.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the Australian radio hosts at the centre of Kate Middleton hospital hoax, say they are “gutted and heartbroken” over the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha.
Jacintha Saldanha was found dead on Friday, three days after taking the hoax call.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian wept as they said “not a minute goes by where we don’t think about her family”.
They had pretended to be members of the Queen and Prince Charles asking about Kate Middleton, who was being treated in hospital for acute morning sickness.
In an interview for Channel Nine’s A Current Affair programme Michael Christian told presenter Tracy Grimshaw: “When we thought about making a call it was going to go for 30 seconds we were going to be hung up on, and that was it. As innocent as that.”
Mel Greig said: “We thought a hundred people before us would’ve tried it. We thought it was such a silly idea and the accents were terrible and not for a second did we expect to speak to Kate let alone have a conversation with anyone at the hospital. We wanted to be hung up on.”
The pair said they heard about Jacintha Saldanha’s death in the early hours of Saturday morning.
“It was the worst phone call I’ve ever had in my life,” said Mel Greig.
Asked what his immediate reaction had been, Michael Christian wept and said: “Shattered, gutted, heartbroken and obviously you know. Our deepest sympathies are with the family and the friends.”
Mel Greig said: “There’s not a minute that goes by where we don’t think about her family and what they must be going through, and the thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching.”
Michael Christian added: “Prank calls are made every day, on every radio station in every country, around the world and they have been for a long time and no-one could’ve imagined this to happen.”
They were also interviewed for Channel 7’s Today Tonight programme and Mel Greig said of the moment she heard of Jacintha Saldanha’s death: “Unfortunately I remember that moment very well because I haven’t stopped thinking about it since it happened and I remember my first question was <<Was she a mother?>>”
Mel Greig and Michael Christian say they are gutted and heartbroken over the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha
Michael Christian said there was “no malice” in the prank call and “no harm intended” to the nurses, to the duchess or to Prince William.
Mel Greig said they had expected to be hung up on and she said: “The accents were terrible. You know it was designed to be stupid. We were never meant to get that far from the little corgis barking in the background – we obviously wanted it to be a joke.
“If we played any involvement in her death then we’re very sorry for that. And time will only tell.”
Mel Greig said she would give evidence at the inquest if she was required and she played down questions about her and Michael Christian’s career.
Asked about whether she felt there was a “witch hunt” against them, she said: “There’s nothing that can make me feel worse than what I feel right now. And for what I feel for the family. We’re so sorry that this has happened to them.”
Kate Middleton was taken to King Edward VII Hospital in central London last Monday, suffering from an extreme form of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum.
Jacintha Saldanha had answered the presenters’ call and, believing they were members of the Royal Family, put them through to another nurse, who described the Duchess of Cambridge’s condition in detail.
She was pronounced dead on Friday morning at staff accommodation close to the hospital. An inquest into Jacintha Saldanha’s apparent suicide is due to be opened in the next few days.
Earlier the presenters’ employer, Sydney radio station 2DayFM, said at least five attempts were made to obtain the permission of the two nurses involved before airing the call.
The radio station said it was going to review its broadcasting practices.
In an interview with a Melbourne radio station 3AW, Rhys Holleran – whose company Southern Cross Austereo owns 2DayFM – said his staff had tried several times to make contact with Jacintha Saldanha and another nurse at the King Edward VII’s Hospital to get their permission to use the prank conversation before it was transmitted.
Rhys Holleran said the death of Jacintha Saldanha was “tragic” and “regrettable”, but that it “could not have been foreseen”.
Some legal experts in Australia have said if the radio station did not tell the nurses they were being recorded, or received their permission to broadcast the conversation, they may be in breach of a number of laws.
Jacintha Saldanha’s husband, Ben Barboza, wrote on his Facebook page: “I am devastated with the tragic loss of my beloved wife Jacintha in tragic circumstances.”
The family was being comforted by relatives and friends at their home in Bristol, where they were visited by Labour MP Keith Vaz on Sunday.
He said the family are “grief stricken and shocked” at Jacintha Saldanha’s death and were grateful to the hospital for establishing a memorial fund in her name.
Ghana’s incumbent President John Mahama has been won presidential election, the electoral commission has announced.
The commission said that John Mahama had won 50.7% against opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo on 47.74%.
However, the opposition NPP says it will contest the result, accused the governing NDC party of conspiring with commission staff to fix Friday’s poll.
President John Mahama urged “all leaders of all political parties to respect the voice of the people”.
“The voice of the people is the voice of God,” he added.
Police in the capital Accra fired tear gas to disperse opposition protesters from outside the commission’s offices.
Tanks guarded the electoral commission and roads around the offices were barricaded by police as the results were announced.
“Ladies and gentlemen, based on the results given, I declare John Dramani Mahama president-elect,” electoral commission chief Kwadwo Afari-Gyan told journalists.
He said turnout had been about 80%.
Ghana’s incumbent President John Mahama has been won presidential election
Ghana, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, is regarded as one of Africa’s most stable democracies.
In a draft statement emailed to reporters on Sunday, the opposition said it would contest the results.
“This situation, if allowed to go unchallenged and uncorrected, would seriously damage the essence of the electoral process and the substance of democracy in Ghana,” the NPP said.
“To accept this result is to discredit democracy in Ghana and, in the process, distort the process of democratization in Africa. Therefore, the New Patriotic Party cannot accept the results of the presidential election as declared by the EC (election commission) this evening.”
Earlier, the NPP said it had “enough concrete evidence” to prove that Nana Akufo-Addo had won the election.
“The ruling NDC conspired with certain EC staff in constituencies across the country to falsify the election results and thereby abuse the mandate of the people of Ghana,” the party said.
“It was this planned, systematic stealing of votes at the collation level that was, thankfully, discovered in time.”
The party cited discrepancies between initial tally sheets and the results reported in the media.
John Mahama’s presidential adviser Tony Aidoo said there was no foundation for the allegations.
Nana Akufo-Addo lost the 2008 presidential poll by one percentage point, but accepted the result.
Glitches with a new finger-printing system meant that voting continued into Saturday in some parts of the country.
However, observers said the election had passed off largely peacefully.
John Mahama was Ghana’s vice-president until the unexpected death of President John Atta Mills in July catapulted him into office.
Mix the mincemeat and rum together. Separate the eggs. Place the yolks in a small bowl and mix until well blended. Whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks. Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites on a fast speed until stiff, then gradually add the sugar a teaspoonful at a time, still on fast speed. You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Fold the egg yolks and cream into the meringue, followed by the rum and mincemeat. Turn the ice cream mixture into a 2 ltr (3½ pt) pudding basin, cover and freeze overnight. To turn the pudding out, dip the basin in very hot water for a few moments and turn upside down onto a serving plate – just as you would with a jelly.
* This pudding contains raw eggs so is not suitable for pregnant women, the very young or elderly.
The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Victor Ponta is projected to win Romania’s general election.
Exit polls gave his Social Liberal Union (USL) about 57% of the vote, as compared with just 19% for President Traian Basescu’s Right Romania Alliance (ARD).
Victor Ponta said: “This is a clear victory with an absolute majority.”
But he will have to share power with Traian Basescu, whose term runs until 2014.
Official results are not expected until Monday.
Victor Ponta and Traian Basescu have been locked in a power struggle since Ponta came to power in April following the collapse of the previous centre-right government.
The two men have argued over control of state television and the Romanian Cultural Institute and attempts to draw up a new electoral law.
Political decision-making has at times been paralyzed.
The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Victor Ponta is projected to win Romania’s general election
In July, Victor Ponta suspended Traian Basescu and tried to impeach him. But a referendum failed to meet the required turnout.
Traian Basescu hinted before the election that he might refuse to re-appoint Victor Ponta as prime minister. He has described him as a “mythomaniac”.
Romania is the second poorest member of the European Union, which it joined in 2007.
The country and neighbor Bulgaria, are under special EU monitoring because of concerns about judicial independence, corruption and political influence in state institutions.
Romania is trying to negotiate a new loan from the IMF to replace the existing one which expires early next year.
Hotel Martinez in Cannes may already be one of the most sought after hotels in the world, but its fabulous new L.RAPHAEL Beauty Spa is quickly becoming one its biggest draws.
Located on the seventh floor of the stunning La Croisette building, the L.RAPHAEL Beauty Spa specializes in technologically advanced beauty treatments by the celebrated Swiss skincare brand.
The beauty retreat launched just in time for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and was reportedly filled with A-Listers dropping in for a touch of pampering before the big event.
L.RAPHAEL specializes in exclusive non-invasive Oxy treatments using its proprietary Oxy-Tech II machine, which is able to deliver active ingredients further into the skin than any topical application by combining high-speed jet pressure with oxygen and salt water.
Oxy-Slim treatment promises to firm up and reshape the body instantly by rejuvenating cells.
L.RAPHAEL specializes in exclusive non-invasive Oxy treatments using its proprietary Oxy-Tech II machine, which is able to deliver active ingredients further into the skin than any topical application by combining high-speed jet pressure with oxygen and salt water
The treatment lasts for 50 minutes and during this time three different oils and gels are massaged into skin, including a slimming gel which uses forskolin extract, an effective slimming ingredient which fights cellulite and burns fat.
After each oil is applied, the Oxy-Tech II machine is pressed against the skin to drive the ingredients deeper into the body.
Oxy-Slim is definitely a great confidence-boosting pre-beach treatment, but unsurprisingly the results are not long-lasting.
A new wonder 24kt gold pill promises to “turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth”.
The sparkling capsules, measuring 2 cm long, can be found on the Citizen:Citizen website priced at $425.
After digesting the three gold-leaf tablets,shefinds.com claims consumers will find flakes of pure precious metal decorating their excrement.
The Gold Pills were designed by late New York artist Tobi Wong in collaboration with Ken Courtney.
The creative duo said: “Like an addict, all I want is more. Like celebrity and celebrity culture, demand for luxury items is completely created.”
They were first launched in 2005 as part of their Indulgence line – an art project that comments on society’s “ever-expanding market of luxury items”.
The 24kt gold pill promises to turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth
Since they hit the shelves their price has skyrocketed.
Some have poked fun at the bizarre product. Racked.com wrote: “Distribute a couple in grandpa’s pill tray over Christmas dinner and watch as hilarity ensues. Bonus!
“Take bets with other family members on whether or not his digestive track can handle the opulence (whoever loses has to pay for the ambulance costs!).”
However it seems the Gold Pills have been a hit with the luxury obsessed, as the Citizen:Citizen website states that they are “temporarily unavailable”.
Wong launched a silver version in 1998.Other items featured in his Indulgence collection include a bronze casting of a Playboy drinks stirrer, a cast of a 1980s McDonald’s coffee stirrer and a copper and gold plated BIC pen cap.
