Seiren, a Japanese textile company, has launched Deoest, a new brand of odor-eating underwear, claiming that it neutralize the smell of flatulence.
The pants are said to be a big hit with Japanese businessmen, as it means they can break wind without getting caught.
But there’s also a pink pair for women, too.
The odor-absorbing range, known as Deoest, effectively kills odor from wind. It does this using ceramic particles in the material fibres, which are said to absorb and neutralize gassy smells.
A word of warning, however: there is no word on whether they might mask any sound.
Deoest range was developed after the manufacturer, Seiren, was contacted by a doctor.
He wanted to help patients suffering from digestive complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome disguise their excessive flatulence.
Seiren has launched Deoest, a new brand of odor-eating underwear, claiming that it neutralize the smell of flatulence
“It took us a few years to develop the first deodorant pants that are comfortable enough to wear in daily life but efficient in quickly eliminating strong smells,” said Nami Yoshida, a spokeswoman for the company, Seiren.
“At first we thought about selling them to those who require nursing care and to hospitals.
“But to our surprise, lots of ordinary people, like businessmen who are in positions that require them to see people on a daily basis, bought them,” she said.
Deoest range has now expanded to 22 items, including socks that prevent feet from smelling and T-shirts that mask the whiff of sweaty armpits.
In the 1950s the glamour of Chanel No. 5 was reignited by Marilyn Monroe whose unsolicited endorsement of the fragrance provided invaluable publicity.
“What do I wear in bed? Chanel No. 5!”
These are the words famously spoken by the Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe.
But many have never heard Marilyn Monroe utter the statement that forever fused the blonde and the fragrance house. Until now.
Chanel has released lost audio footage of an interview Marilyn Monroe gave in April 1960 complete with a tribute video to the star and her famous response.
The 2-minute video opens with a still image of the blonde beauty lying nude in bed as the question “What do you wear to bed?” flashes up on the screen.
The video then states: “We may never know when she said the phrase for the first time” as it goes on to unveil the lost footage in a tantalizing build-up chronicling the timeline of her famous phrase.
Chanel has released lost audio footage of an interview Marilyn Monroe gave in April 1960 complete with a tribute video to the star and her famous response
It explains that on April 7th 1952 a 26-year-old Marilyn was quoted in LIFE magazine referencing the famous Chanel No 5 perfume for the very first time and from that day one, the perfumery legend was born.
But it wasn’t until October 2012 that, for the first time, Chanel retrieved and unveiled a lost interview that Marilyn Monroe gave to Georges Belmont at French Marie Claire speaking about her love of the brand.
Her voice can be heard saying: “You know, they ask you questions…just an example: <<What do you wear to bed? A pajama top? The bottoms of the pajama? A nightgown?>> So I said <<Chanel No. 5!>> Because it’s the truth!”
Marilyn Monroe may have died almost 50 years ago, but her legacy continues to intrigue and delight fans old and new.
Closing on an image of Marilyn Monroe spraying a bottle of No 5 over her body, the tagline “Forever Marilyn and No 5” flashes across the screen as the video draws to a close.
When it comes to buying Christmas gifts, most of us have hard-to-buy-for people in their lives: from those who already own everything they could want or need to individuals with a wish list to rival the average annual salary.
But if you’re flummoxed by a loved one’s lust list and money is no problem, there is a solution in the form of British luxury gift website VeryFirstTo.com, which dubs itself “the first website for individuals to learn about, and have, newly launching luxury products and experiences”.
It aims to showcase the most desirable items within the world of technology, fashion, home, leisure, beauty and beyond; as well as the latest must attend venues and events.
One such gift just available on the site which is sure to please the most demanding of recipients is the super premium vodka housed in the Faberge-inspired egg.
If the eye-catching 24-carat gold egg isn’t enough to impress, the vodka itself is filtered twelve times and was once enjoyed by 19th Century St Petersburg aristocracy.
If you’re keen to impress though, you must act fast because only five golden eggs are produced each year.
Other super luxurious items perfect for a show off include the Z.Boat by Zaha Hadid (£300,000; $500,000), the Azature 267 carat black diamond nail polish adored by Kelly Osbourne (£160,000; $240,000) and an Elliot Rhodes Megalodon Shark Tooth Belt Buckle (£1,950; $3,000).
If the Z.Boat takes your fancy, the site will direct you to the seller who will then consider your purchase application, but other gifts such as the vodka egg can be bought instantly from the site.
One Christmas gift which is sure to please the most demanding of recipients is the super premium vodka housed in a Faberge-inspired gold egg
And if you have qualms that the gifts may not be up to standard then you can rest easy knowing that they have been hand selected by a panel of arbiters of taste and style also known as “Connoisseurs”.
The panel includes It girl Bip Ling, fashion designer Giles Deacon, Joan Burstein CBE and Co-founder of Browns and Luke Johnson, Chairman of Royal Society of Arts and Gails.
But it all comes at a price with VIP membership to the site setting you back £50 ($75) before you have even contemplated shelling out a few thousand pounds on gifts.
Your membership grants access to exclusive products, bespoke items and special pre-opening events.
“Having found it impossible to establish what products and experiences brands were about to launch and what exciting new brands were soon be born, I thought it about time there was a site that identified such launches and enabled people to be amongst the very first to have them” said founder Marcel Knobil.
The toilet seat has acquired an unfair reputation as the dirtiest item in the average household, but scientists say there are far filthier places in our house, some of them where we least expect.
Would you chop your vegetables on your toilet seat? I think pretty much all of us would say No. But maybe we should think again.
Dr. Chuck Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, studies how diseases are transferred through the environment. This involves swabbing household items and measuring how many bacteria – and what sort – develops.
He particularly looks for faecal bacteria such as E.coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
His studies have found that on the average toilet seat there are 50 bacteria per square inch.
“It’s one of the cleanest things you’ll run across in terms of micro-organisms,” he says.
“It’s our gold standard – there are not many things cleaner than a toilet seat when it comes to germs.”
We should be more worried about other household items, it seems.
“Usually there are about 200 times more faecal bacteria on the average cutting board than on a toilet seat,” he says.
In the kitchen it doesn’t necessarily get there through actual contact with faeces. It comes via raw meat products or the viscera from inside of the animal, where a lot of the faecal bacteria originate.
Would Dr. Chuck Gerba be more inclined to chop his vegetables on a toilet seat then?
“It would seem a safer place,” he says.
“Not that I would recommend it, but you might treat your cutting board a bit more like you do your toilet seat.”
The toilet seat has acquired an unfair reputation as the dirtiest item in the average household, but scientists say there are far filthier places in our house
It’s because we all fear the dirtiness of the toilet seat so much that we regularly clean it, so perhaps this is the course of action we need to take with our chopping boards. Luckily with some of the new toilet seat technology you can at least deal with some of the smell issues through charcoal filtering, and hopefully we’ll start to see more sterilization options getting popular.But the filthiest culprit in our homes is the kitchen sponge or cloth.
According to Dr. Chuck Gerba, there are about 10 million bacteria per square inch on a sponge, and a million on a dishcloth.
In other words, a kitchen sponge is 200,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat, and a dishcloth is 20,000 times dirtier.
This is the same the world over.
“Always the dirtiest thing by far is the kitchen sponge,” says John Oxford, professor of virology at the University of London and chair of the Hygiene Council – an international body that compares hygiene standards across the world.
Its latest study examines samples from homes in nine different countries, and finds that 21% of “visibly clean” kitchen cloths actually have high levels of contamination. The cloths also fail the bacterial test which looks for E.coli.
The study identifies faecal bacteria in other places around the home, and this varies from one country to another.
Saudi Arabia has the dirtiest fridges, with 95% of the fridges in the study failing the bacteriology test for E.coli. And in South Africa, the dirtiest item is the seal in the bath, with almost two-thirds with unsatisfactory levels of E.coli and 40% for mould.
“It’s always a bit delicate which countries are the worst,” says John Oxford.
“We found that countries like Australia and particularly Canada are high up on the hygiene list… Countries near the bottom are fairly routinely, unfortunately, India and Malaysia.”
What about away from our homes? Dr. Chuck Gerba says the office is particularly bad.
“Many people don’t realize they’re talking dirty every time they pick up their phone, because they never clean it.
“The average desktop has 400 times more bacteria than on a toilet seat.”
“Shopping trolleys are really bad,” warns Chuck Gerba. What’s more, about half of reusable shopping bags have faecal bacteria in them.
“Some people have more faecal bacteria in their grocery bag than in their underwear, because they at least wash that.”
So what does this actually mean for us in terms of health risks?
“These numbers of bacteria, particularly for E.coli, are huge,” says Oxford.
“E.coli is an indicator bacterium. It may not itself cause horrible disease, but it indicates faeces is around and that might contain other organisms like salmonella and Shigella which really are virulently pathogenic.”
But we all touch these perhaps startlingly dirty things every day, and on the whole we don’t get constantly ill.
“We’re jolly lucky that as we’ve evolved over two million years, we have a whole set of genes whose only function is to get the immune system in action,” says John Oxford.
“All of us, in all these countries we have gone to, rely on Lady Luck too much, keeping our fingers crossed or sitting on our hands. In a modern scientific society, what we want is people to realize there’s a problem here and take action.”
Household hygiene
2010 Hygiene in the Home Study tested 180 homes in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UK and US
Bathroom seals caused most concern, with 70% failing bacterial tests
Fridge interiors came second – more than 40% of homes failed tests on bacteria and mould build-up
Kitchen towels were found to be unsatisfactory or unacceptably dirty in 36% of homes
Cleanest surface tested was pushchair with only 6% failing bacterial tests
E.coli
Short for Escherichia coli – type of bacterium present in gut of humans and other animals
E.coli infection happens when mutant strains are introduced to body, usually through food
119 people were infected during E.coli outbreak in Northern Ireland last month; 14 people died in Germany in 2011 after outbreak caused by cucumbers
The following list shows the stores that are opening on Thanksgiving, Black Friday store hours, Black Friday doorbuster sales times, and stores offering Black Friday deals online on Thanksgiving.
Many of the stores do not have closing times because it varies depending on their location and have been marked with a question mark (?).
Also, stores in Massachusetts may not be opening at the times that are listed.
Some stores are offering Black Friday specials, doorbuster prices and free shipping options online on Thanksgiving.
Store List
AAFES Exchange
Black Friday Hours: 4 a.m.
A.C. Moore
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters: 5 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Academy Sports
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters: 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday or while supplies last.
Bass Pro Shops
Thanksgiving Day: Many locations will be open from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Thanksgiving Night: Great Turkey Campout – Gift card drawings from 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters: 6 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Bealls
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters: 12 a.m. – 1 p.m.
36 Bell Ringers – 475 Bell Ringers Midnight – 1 p.m. Free Scratch-Off Card to the first 100 customers in line.
Belk
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Black Friday Early Bird Specials: 12 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Online: Shop all Black Friday deals and doorbusters online on Thanksgiving Day.
Best Buy
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. until? (Massachusetts stores open at 1 a.m.)
(Handing out tickets up to two hours before opening)
Black Friday Doorbusters: 12 a.m. all day or until supplies last.
Online: The Black Friday Sale online will start on Thanksgiving Day.
Bon-Ton
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. Friday until?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 12 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Coupon in ad – $25% select sale merchandise, 10% off sale watches, toys, small electrics and health & wellness items. Nov. 22-24, 2012.
Burlington Coat Factory
Black Friday Hours: to be announced.
BJ’s Wholesale
Black Friday Hours: 7 a.m. until ?
Cabela’s
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 5 a.m. – 10 a.m.
First 600 in line by 5 a.m. get free prizes. (Good ones, too)
Costco
Black Friday Hours: 9 a.m. Friday
Thanksgiving savings go on for 3 days – Nov. 23 – 25, 2012 or while supplies last.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 12 a.m. – 2 p.m. Nov. 23 only
Dollar General
Open on Thanksgiving – 7 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Black Friday – 7 a.m. until ?
Electronics Expo
Black Friday – 7 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters – 7 a.m. – 9 a.m.
Black Friday 2012 Early Bird Specials
Family Dollar
Open on Thanksgiving Day – 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Thanksgiving Day specials – one day only.
Black Friday – 8 a.m. until ?
Fred Meyer
Black Friday Hours: Will post when available.
Fred’s Super Dollar
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – Until ?
Goody’s
Thanksgiving Hours: 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Extra 25% off coupons included in Black Friday ad.
Gordmans
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters: First 300 customers per store get an extra 25 percent off everything that you can fit into a bag that they give you.
Black Friday Doorbusters: 5 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Harbor Freight
Black Friday Hours: 7 a.m. (6 a.m. for Inside Track Members) – Closing times vary.
Black Friday Doorbusters: Black Friday deals good on all day
Hastings
Thanksgiving Hours: Opens 1 p.m. until Midnight
Thanksgiving Special Sale Hours: 8 p.m. – Midnight
Black Friday Early Bird 4-hour Sale: 8 a.m. – Noon Saturday 4-Hour Sale: 8 a.m. – Noon
h.h. gregg
Thanksgiving Hours: 10 p.m. Black Friday Doorbusters start on Thanksgiving at 10 p.m.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Home Depot
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – Until ?
JCPenney
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Early Bird Sale: 6 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Jo-Ann
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Early Bird Sale: 6 a.m. and all day.
Saturday Doorbuster Sale: Starts 7 a.m.
KMart
Open Thanksgiving 6 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Thanksgiving Day Doorbusters: 8 p.m. – Midnight
Black Friday Hours: Midnight – 3 a.m
Black Friday Doorbuster Sale: 5 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Kohl’s
Black Friday Hours: Thursday at Midnight – Friday at Midnight (Opened 24 hours)
Black Friday Early Bird Specials: Midnight on Thursday – Friday 1 p.m.
Saturday – 6 a.m. – Midnight
Get $15 in Kohl’s Cash for every $50 spent. Nov. 21 – Nov. 25
Lowes
Open Thanksgiving 6 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Black Friday Hours: Midnight – Until ?
Macy’s
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Morning Specials: 12 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Saturday Special Sale: 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Meijer
Thanksgiving Day: 6 a.m. – 12 a.m.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Doorbuster Sale: 4 a.m.-12 p.m.
Menards
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Sale: 6 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Michaels
Thanksgiving Day: Doorbusters 4 p.m. – 11 p.m.
30% off entire purchase coupon in ad. Valid Thursday 4 p.m. – 11 p.m. only
Black Friday Hours: 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
25% off entire purchase coupon in ad. Valid Friday 7 a.m – Noon only.
50% off one regular priced item. Coupon in ad. Valid Friday 7 a.m – Noon only.
Saturday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
20% off entire purchase coupon in ad. Valid Saturday 8 a.m – Noon only.
50% off one regular priced item. Coupon in ad. Valid FSaturday 8 a.m – Noon only.
Modell’s
Black Friday Hours: Most Stores – 12 a.m. until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 12 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Office Depot
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – Until ?
The Black Friday Sale online will start on Thanksgiving Day at 7 a.m.
Office Max
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ?
Old Navy
Thanksgiving Day Hours: Some locations will be opened.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – Until ?
Olympia Sports
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 5 a.m. – 2 p.m.
20% coupon in ad. Good Nov. 23 – 25, 2012
Palais Royal
Thanksgiving – Open 8 p.m. – Midnight
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ? Black Friday Doorbusters: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Peebles
Thanksgiving – Open 8 p.m. – Midnight
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ? Black Friday Doorbusters: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Radio Shack
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ?
The Black Friday Sale online will start on Thanksgiving Day
Rite Aid
Check your local stores for Thanksgiving Day hours.
Black Friday Hours: Open 7 a.m. – Until (most locations).
Store hours can be found using the online store locater tab at the Riteaid Store Locator.
Sam’s Club
Black Friday Hours: 7 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: Black Friday Only Specials
Online: Black Friday prices will be available online starting Wednesday, November 231 at 11 p.m. EST.
Sears
Thanksgiving: Open 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Door Busters: 4 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Sears Hometown Stores
Thanksgiving: Open 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Thanskgiving Doorbusters start at 8 p.m.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Door Busters: 4 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Sears Outlet
Thanksgiving: Open 8 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Thanskgiving Doorbusters start at 8 p.m.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Door Busters: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Shopko
Thanksgiving Day: 9 p.m.. Doorbusters start at 9 p.m. on Thanksgivng and go until Friday at noon.
Sportsman’s Warehouse
Black Friday Hours: 6 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 6 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Sports Authority
Black Friday Hours: 12:01 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Black Friday Sale: 12:01 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The first 80 people in line at each Sports Authority location on Black Friday will receive between $10 and $500 in Bonus Bucks! (valid for use on Black Friday only)
Staples
Black Friday Hours: 5 a.m. – Until ?
Black Friday Doorbusters: 5 a.m. – Noon
Stein Mart
Black Friday Hours: 7 a.m. – Until ?
The ad has a “Scratch & Save” coupons for up to $100 off. Bring it to the store between 7 a.m. to Noon on Black Friday. You will need the original ad to get the coupon. Copies will not work.
Target
Thanksgiving Hours: 9 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Black Friday Hours: 12 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Black Friday Doorbusters: All Day with the exception of a few offers that go on sale at 4 a.m. until Noon.
Toys R Us
Thanksgiving Hours: 8 p.m. through Black Friday – closing at 10 p.m. (most stores)
Doorbusters: Start on Thanksgiving at 8 p.m. while supplies last.
Ulta
Black Friday Hours: 11/23 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
Walgreens
Thanksgiving Hours: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
One day sale on Thanksgiving Day.
Black Friday Hours: To be announced
Walmart
Opens Thanksgiving night at 8 p.m.
8 p.m. on November 22:
Deals on Toys, Gaming, Home and Apparel
10 p.m. on November 22:
The BIG Event – Brand Name Electronics
5 a.m. on Nov. 23:
Savings on Gifts from Jewelry to Tires
Find out more information about the Black Friday sale at Walmart
Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving and has earned the reputation of being the busiest shopping day of the year.
The name was adopted from an accounting term – red ink denotes a negative profit margin, where as “in the black” denotes a positive profit margin. Many retailers make or break their sales goals between Thanksgiving and Christmas, with the season kicking off on the Friday after Thanksgiving, hence the name “Black Friday.”
1. Check Out the Ads:
Your local Thanksgiving Day newspaper will be stuffed like your Thanksgiving turkey with ads, coupons, and circulars. This will be your number one source to local Black Friday savings. It will also help you organize your day to maximize savings, since many stores offer special discounts that are time specific. Example: Receive an extra 10 percent off if you shop before 11 a.m.
2. Do Your Research Before Friday:
If you are hoping to scoop up a deal on Friday on a big-ticket item, go ahead and get your research out of the way as soon as possible. A bad product is a bad deal no matter how cheap it costs. Being knowledgeable about the products you want to buy will help you avoid being sucker-punched with loud advertising for poor products. About.com is chocked full of buying advice on a wide variety of products from professionals who have the knowledge to help you make good decisions.
3. Compare Prices:
Utilize price-comparison Internet shopping sites such as PriceGrabber.com to assist you in comparing product prices. Compare the “options” included with the product. Some retailers will low-ball the advertised price on a stripped down product, and then you will be charged extra for the necessary parts that will make the product perform as expected. A good example of this is often seen with super low-priced computer printers that come without the cable (cord) or printer ink.
4. Look for Early Bird Shopper Discounts:
The Early Bird Shopper will be the real winner on Black Friday. Stores offering early-day shopper specials usually run the deals from 5 a.m. until 11 a.m. and with no “rain checks,” which means once they run out of the products, you are out of luck. Scanning the ads and routing your trip based on your buying priorities will be important with the time-sensitive deals that will be offered.
Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving and has earned the reputation of being the busiest shopping day of the year
5. Beat the Crowds with Night Owl Discounts on Thanksgiving:
Internet shoppers can beat the early birds by shopping online in the pre-dawn hours of Black Friday. Many retailers will be posting their Black Friday specials, which can be ordered online and picked-up at your local store. Special “Web only” deals will also be available starting as early as Thanksgiving eve. Many of the aggressive outlet malls and factory stores will be opening Thursday at midnight, with early bird promotions in hopes of capturing your dollars before the competition has opened.
6. Bring the Ads:
Many stores offer a “lowest-price” guarantee; however you may be required to produce a copy of the exact product being advertised for less. Most local retailers will not meet Internet prices even when the product is advertised on the same company’s website, but it cannot hurt to try. Print the Web page that details the product and shows the advertised price. It may give you additional bargaining power and push the sales person into waiving other charges such as assembly fees.
7. Know the Store Policies:
Knowing the store policies on returns can help you determine where to buy. A previous trend of extending “return days” during the holidays is being seen less this year. Many retailers are including restocking fees and shorter return deadlines. Almost all of the major retail chains have clamped down on requiring receipts for returns and exchanges, and many keep a database of individuals who tend to abuse return policies. If you get onto an “abuse” list, prepare yourself to be turned down.
8. Ask for Gift Receipts:
Gift receipts generally include a description of the item purchased but do not disclose the price paid. Including gift receipts inside the gift box will make returns or exchanges easier for the gift recipient. Without proof-of-purchase, the recipient may be turned down for returning or exchanging the item or risk receiving an exchange for the current selling price of the item.
Since many retailers begin permanently slashing prices as soon as Black Friday is over, the difference between what you pay for a gift during December and what it sells for in January can be significant. Including a gift-receipt should help insure a hassle-free return experience for gift recipients.
9. Saying “Charge It” Can Pay Off
Obviously, there is no bargain in running up high credit card bills and paying big interest rates, however, with proper spending disciplines intact, using the right charge card can be of value to consumers. Many credit card companies entice consumers with free benefits, which include extended free warranties, return protection and sale price protection.
Warranty Coverage – Your credit card company may offer to double or triple a manufacturer’s warranty for free on a product you purchase – a good option instead of purchasing a service contract that costs money and has a shorter duration period.
Return Protection – A credit card company may guarantee a refund on a product up to 90 days where as the store may not. This is becoming particularly more important as retailers stiffen the allotted return days.
Sale Price Protection – Some of the credit card companies will offer this protection and refund you the difference if a product you buy is marked down further than the price you paid within a certain time frame (usually 60 days).
An enormous amount of advertising, locally and online, can be confusing and nearly paralyzing to the Black Friday bargain hunter. To maximize the benefits of hitting the stores on a day where there are big crowds and a better deal around every corner, developing a plan and doing preliminary research will help insure that the day is a shopping success.
Cracker Jacks popcorn maker is adding a new ingredient to their classic snacks – caffeine – making Cracker Jack’D a product strictly developed for adults .
Branded Cracker Jack’D, a new version of Frito-Lay’s classic ballpark snack will contain caffeinated wafers called “power bites”.
Containing 70 mg of caffeine per 2 oz package, Frito-Lay says the soon-to-be released product is developed strictly for adults.
Despite keeping their iconic baby-faced sailor and dog on its packaging, it won’t be marketed for children they said.
“The package design and appearance are wholly different from Cracker Jack to ensure there is no confusion among consumers,” Frito-Lay spokesman Chris Kuechenmeister told The Boston Globe.
“We all know kids live with adults and if kids see a Cracker Jack box, whether or not their familiar with that product, they’re very likely to pick it up,” concerned dietician Lauren Antonucci told WABC.
Lauren Antonucci is one of many already up in arms over the new product calling it inappropriate for a snack she said is typically sold to children.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has mutually accused Frito-Lay of violating regulations with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the new product.
Cracker Jack’D is a new version of Frito-Lay’s classic ballpark snack which contains caffeinated wafers called power bites
In a letter expressing their upset, the non-profit alerted the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, fearing the food could add to further caffeinated items popping up on store shelves.
“How soon before we have caffeinated burgers, burritos, or breakfast cereals?” CSPI’s executive director Michael F. Jacobson wrote in the letter sent on Thursday.
Explaining the amount of 70 mg taken from coffee beans, Lauren Antonucci reasoned it to be the “Equivalent to about one and a half cups of black tea or a cup of weak coffee or slightly less than an 8 ounce cup of coffee.”
Regardless of what may sound like a little amount to some she worries that adults get enough caffeine in their daily lives as it is.
“It’s going to be very easy for adults to go over the limits for caffeine,” she said.
At least 47 children aged four to six years old have been killed after their school bus was hit by a train near Manfalut, central Egypt, officials said.
The bus was carrying about 60 children from a nursery school when it was hit by a train near Manfalut, 350 km (230 miles) south of Cairo.
The Egyptian transport minister has resigned, state media report.
Reports from witnesses say the barriers of the crossing were opened when the bus approached.
“The deaths have now reached 47. There are 13 children injured,” Assiut state governor Yehya Keshk told state television.
Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi ordered his ministers to offer support to the families of those killed, the state news agency reported.
“They told us the barriers were open when the bus crossed the tracks and the train collided with it,” doctor Mohamed Samir told the Reuters news agency, citing witness accounts.
At least 47 children aged four to six years old have been killed after their school bus was hit by a train near Manfalut, central Egypt
The head of the state railway authority has also resigned.
Distraught families are searching for the remains of their loved ones along the tracks, the Associated Press reports.
Egypt’s roads and railways have a poor safety record. An estimated 8,000 people die in car accidents each year in the country.
During the key points in his life, Richard Burton kept a private record of events, writing on and off until just a year before his death, at the age of 58, in August 1984.
Now, for the first time, his widow Sally has agreed for it to be published in full.
The bulk of the diary focuses on the tempestuous years when he was married (twice) to Elizabeth Taylor. It was written knowing Elizabeth Taylor would read it and often teases her mercilessly – as well as including her stinging, handwritten ripostes.
“JUNE 1965
Tuesday 1st, Lavandou, France: Got up 9.50. Woke Burt [nickname for Elizabeth] up at 12.00. Swam, sunbathed, lunched, bed, read, ate, slept. Whew! Burt a bit sarky today. Added in Elizabeth’s handwriting:He should fri**ing talk!
“Wednesday 2nd: Had good row with Burt and accused her, among other things, of lousy taste. She accused me, among other things, of snobbery. I said the only thing we had in common was the game of Yahtzee [a dice game the couple enjoyed]. I forgot some other things.
Wednesday 9th: Had a quarrel again. Nasty habit we have. Home and to Yahtzee and bed in sullen silence. It’s always (nearly) alright in the morning.
MARCH 1966
Saturday 26th, Rome: I worry enormously about the fact we have no money. I worry that I won’t be able to look after my wife and my children after I’m dead – nobody else will.
APRIL
Tuesday 12th: E [his shorthand for Elizabeth] to go into hospital tomorrow for an operation. Came to lunch with me and felt sick and faint. Poor little thing. I shouted and bawled at her for being <<unfit>> for lack of discipline, for taking too much booze. I think I was talking about myself – out of fear for her. God get tomorrow over rapidly.
In Elizabeth’s handwriting:Bachgen [Welsh for <<boy>>], I love you.
Wednesday 13th: What a day. I went to work at 7.30 [both were starring in Franco Zefferelli’s The Taming Of The Shrew] and was made up and learned lines. All the time I waited for the phone to ring. I thought a lot about our lives and shades of mortality grew round me like a mist. Then the blower blew and joy of joys it was herself on the other end and the operation was over and she was in pain but alive and will live to be shouted at another day.
Thursday 21st: E much better today. I may have to work tomorrow. I look forward to it. In Taylor’s hand-writing:You ill-tempered bastard! So do I – at least you’ll be out of my hair!
Thursday, 28th: We dined at home quietly and made lovely love.
MAY
Sunday 29th: End of another working week. Both Eliz and I agreed solemnly that we never want to work again but simply loll our lives away in a sort of eternal Sunday. Quite right, too. We’re both bone-lazy. And enjoy it.
Monday 30th: One of my awful, unaccountable days of savage ill-humor. I snarled at everyone, everything and every idea. Eliz was gay and sweet, but nothing could drag me out of my tantrum.
SEPTEMBER
Monday 26th: Astonishingly I’ve lost, temporarily I hope, my taste for alcohol. I’ll force a Campari-soda-vodka between my clenched teeth before dinner or bust. I shall have my hamburgers any minute. E is frantic when she cooks – quite incoherent, poised in the dark over the barbecue like a Fury.
Tuesday 27th: I’ve just discovered that in the last 20 months, I’ve given $76,000 to one person, over $1,000,000 to another. You’ve got to be an idiot. Anyway, we’re lucky: we can always grow some more. Who’s like us?!
OCTOBER
Monday 3rd: Tomorrow we go to Rome to accept Golden masks or Silver masks or whatever, for being rich and infamous, I suppose. That’s a splendid fracturing bore to look forward to.
Tuesday 4th: The award evening was monstrous. For about ¾ hour, endless hard-faced breastless models paraded before our bored eyes an extraordinary tasteless concourse of fashions. Then every performer in Italy was awarded Masks of Silver. We were the last.
After the awards, we talked and drank with Zeffirelli and his secretary Sheila Pickles. E was telling us all about her operations, when Pickles threw up. All over the carpet. It cleared the bar rather faster than a typhoon.
Wednesday 5th: Woke late, and so ashamed that rather than be late would rather not turn up for work at all. E called and explained, lying like a trooper, that I was desperately ill. I don’t care. I have one disease that’s incurable – I’m easily bored. I’m fascinated by the idea of something, but its execution bores me.
Sunday 16th, Positano, Italy: Lunch slightly marred by fans. There was one frantic woman who ran along beside us, screaming: <<If she only takes off her glasses for me to see her beautiful eyes.>> I loathe fans; they make me intensely nervous and self-conscious. Why do they do it? I actually feel as embarrassed seeing a public figure as being one.
NOVEMBER
Wednesday 2nd, Rome: I’ve been more or less drunk for two days. I don’t know why but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I also made a feeble pass at Karen, our [adopted daughter] Maria’s nurse, and apologized immediately and straightaway told E, who thought it funny but probably harmful to K. I apologized again the next morning in front of E. Now what on earth possessed me to do that? It must be my impending 41st birthday.
Thursday 3rd: For some reason, I worried a lot about E this morning, whether she loved me or not and how awful it would be to lose her. I worked myself up to a rare state of misery and was absurdly relieved when she telephoned from the film studio. What’s the matter with me?”
The bulk of Richard Burton’s diary focuses on the tempestuous years when he was married to Elizabeth Taylor
“MAY 1967
Sunday 21st, onboard Oddyseia, Portofino, Italy: We’re going to buy this yacht. There are seven bedrooms and eight crew, and I estimate it will cost $25–30,000 a year to run it. Not too bad when one considers our last house (rented) cost $10,000 a month plus approx $1,000 a week for food and staff etc! If we use it as much as possible, we could actually save money.
Wednesday 24th: The seas were high and the skies grey and the boat rocked and shivered. So we settled to read and, in my case, do crossword puzzles. E anxious that I write about her, so here goes: She’s a nice fat girl who loves mosquitos and hates pustular carbuncular Welshmen, loathes boats and loves planes, has tiny blackcurrant eyes and minute breasts and has no sense of humour. She is prudish, priggish and painfully self-conscious.
JUNE
Thursday 1st, en route to Portofino: On Tuesday, Rex and Rachel Harrison came on board. Rachel became stupendously drunk. She insulted Rex sexually, morally, physically and in every way. She lay on the floor in the bar and barked like a dog. E lectured her, I did, Rex did. All to no avail. Christ.
Sunday 4th: Rachel became pretty drunk again and started to strip off at one point. The people on the roadway above started to cheer, thinking it was E, no doubt. Rex is fantastically tolerant. She wouldn’t last 48 hours with me, and he’s had it for seven years.
Saturday 24th, Monte Carlo: Orson Welles, gargantuanly fat, joined us at our table for a minute or two. I wondered to E how he could possibly make love.
JULY
Thursday 20th, Gstaad: The yacht is now ours and officially the KALIZMA. Kate Liza Maria [the names of their daughters – Kate and Liza from previous marriages, and Maria adopted]. It’s going to be fun when it’s all fitted out.
Friday 28th, London–Sicily: A woman asked: <<Sign my autograph please, Mr. Taylor.>> I gave her a look that felled her. That’s the first time in five years. Cheek.
Sunday 30th, Sicily: A slow day, with a walk in which we bought sunglasses at a little shop. As we left, the crowd which had gathered applauded us. E thought it very sweet, which indeed it was. We dined in somnolence and some self-satisfaction as we compared our ancestors and former wives and husbands.
Monday 31st: Mini-skirts are still relatively rare here and at one moment, in a narrow street, E’s skirts had ridden up and half her (admittedly pretty) thighs were revealed and one young man was so obsessed by the eroticism of the scene that I thought he was going to have an orgasm on the spot. E was too shy to pull her skirt down until we’d moved on, so the pimply feller had a long long stare. He will dream tonight.
AUGUST
Wednesday 2nd, Rome: In the middle of the early night, Elizabeth and I exchanged insults in which I said that she was not <<a woman but a man>> and in which she called me <<little girl>>. A lovely, charming, decadent, hopeless couple.
Thursday 3rd: Make-up day when we both kissed and apologies were flying in all directions.
Friday 11th, Gstaad-Sardinia: A terrible day, frantically disorganized, thousands of bags all over the place, nine children, six adults all on one plane. The Kalizma hasn’t arrived, nobody at the airport to meet us, and I screamed <<f***’ out of drunkenness in the hotel lobby. E making any excuse not to start the film [both were starring in Boom!] on Monday.
SEPTEMBER
Sunday 24th, Bonifacio, Corsica: A glorious day with a light breeze ruffling the harbor waters. Elizabeth was looking infinitely sexy in the shortest mini-skirt I’ve ever seen. The beach boys around, who all appeared to be stoned, were beside themselves. Later, a French deep-sea diving ship pulled alongside and moored. It was the French Navy – and discovering E was on the next ship, they immediately began to get drunk and dive into the harbor with all their clothes on.
Saturday 30th, Paris: At about 12 noon, I did something beyond outrage. I bought Elizabeth the jet plane we flew in yesterday. It costs, brand new, $960,000. She was not displeased.
JULY 1968
Tuesday 23rd, Fitzroy-Nuffield Hospital, London [Liz has been admitted for a hysterectomy]: I’ve just spent the two most horrible days of my adult life. This is the first time I’ve seen a loved one in screaming agony and I felt completely helpless. But it’s the nights that have been so harrowing. I took a room next door to E’s to be near her. The walls are like tissue paper and the first night I heard nothing but her groans. It is not a normal hysterectomy – there were great complications – and she’s suffering far more than normal.
In addition, they’ve given her a drug which gives her vivid hallucinations. At one point, she looked at a poster of the Mona Lisa on the wall and said, very hostess-like: <<Vicky, would you like a drink?>> I fell asleep but kept waking with the sort of convulsive wide-awakeness of a man who’s afraid of having a heart attack in his sleep. The most alarming thing was that E looked at me on occasions with a malevolence that made a basilisk look like a bloodhound. I can only hope that in vino veritas doesn’t apply to drugs.
SEPTEMBER
Thursday 26th, Paris: Elizabeth has gone off to work [on The Only Game In Town, with Warren Beatty]. After seven, or is it eight years, I still miss her if she goes to the bathroom.
OCTOBER
Wednesday 2nd: I suddenly turned from Jekyll into Hyde and went to bed dinnerless in one of my huffs. I woke at 4.30 a.m. and waited for the world to get up. The world being Elizabeth. Finally decided to wake the world up at 7.00, whereupon it made me a Bloody Mary. That, I said, is my vitamin C for the day.
Thursday 3rd [in Taylor’s hand-writing]:My Darling Husband, Just to let you know that going to bed with Warren Beatty hasn’t changed my love for you at all – increased it if anything. Aren’t you thrilled? All my love, Wife
Tuesday 8th: Maria Callas told us on Sunday that she and Aristotle Onassis had parted. Said he was too destructive and her singing was affected. I think she’s a bit of a bore. She told me how beautiful my eyes were and that they demonstrated a good soul! Elizabeth, who has eyes in the back of her bum and ears on stalks, was aware of everything that was going on.
Thursday 10th: Yesterday was unique. I didn’t see or talk to Elizabeth for an entire day. I felt desperate all day long and suddenly, about 5 o’clock, began to drink Martinis. By the time I got home, I passed out. I think perhaps, though it’s good for her, that I don’t like Elizabeth working without me.
Friday 11th: I’ve worked out that we should, at the end of 1969, be worth about $12 million between us [equivalent to $73 million today].
Saturday 12th, aboard Kalizma, Cap Ferrat, France: The Monet is in the living room, the Picasso and the Van Gogh are in the dining room. I can’t stop touching the boat and staring at it, as if it’s a beautiful baby.
Sunday 13th: Elizabeth has great worries about becoming a cripple because her feet sometimes have no feeling in them. She asked if I’d stop loving her if she had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. I told her that I didn’t care if her legs, bum and bosoms fell off and her teeth turned yellow. And she went bald. I love that woman so much sometimes that I cannot believe my luck.
Sunday 20th, Paris: I’m ridiculously (I hope) jealous of E nowadays because she’s working with a young and attractive man [Beatty] who obviously adores her. She tells me I’m a fool and that he’s like a younger brother. Ah, I say, but there’ve been cases of incest. My God, she’s a beauty. Sometimes I look at her when she’s asleep at the first light of a grey dawn and wonder at her.
Wednesday 23rd: Elizabeth tells me that [rich socialites] Jacqueline de Ribes and Marie Helene Rothschild are mad for Beatty. They continually phone E or Warren or each other, scheming to get him. Poor bastard. I have an idea that Marie Helene and Jacqueline were after me for a time about two years ago, but gave me up as a bad job. I told E with great smugness that Onassis had given Jackie Kennedy a wedding present of only <<slightly less than £100,000 of diamonds, precious stones etc.>> – whereas I’d only recently given a £127,000 diamond ring to E simply because it was a Tuesday.
Friday 25th: Onassis has given Jackie half a million pounds worth of rubies surrounded by diamonds. The idea has already been implanted that I shouldn’t let myself be out-done by a bloody Greek. Now the Battle of the Rubies is on. I can be just as vulgar as he can, I say to myself.
Tuesday 29th: I’ve been offered $1 million for one month of this diary. Somebody is mad.
NOVEMBER
Wednesday 6th: Maria Callas is very lonely after the Onassis marriage. Now she obviously wants to do something that will prove to him that all he’s gained is a pretty socialite, while in her he’s lost a genius. Quite right, but if I had the choice I’m afraid I’d elect for Jackie Kennedy. She sounds more fun. And looks prettier.
Friday 8th: With milady fast asleep in bed as I thought, I was looking through a script when suddenly the bedroom door opened and standing there in a near-diaphanous nightgown with one shoulder slipped on to her arm was E. So I went back to bed for ten minutes. I was unquestionably seduced, and I teased her about it for the rest of the day.
Monday 11th: E gave me a mink coat for my 43rd birthday. A mink coat! It’s dark brown and the nap is close and short and it gleams as only a mink can. It comes to halfway down my thighs. I hope I don’t look like a fool! E says not.
Thursday 14th: I drank three bottles of vodka during the course of the day. And that, naturally, doesn’t include the evening, when I think I slowed down.
Friday 15th: I’d like to be alone with E for about 200 years but can’t even get two days.
Tuesday 19th: I’ve been inordinately lucky all my life but the greatest luck of all has been Elizabeth. She’s turned me into a moral man but not a prig, she’s a wildly exciting lover-mistress, she’s shy and witty, she’s nobody’s fool, she’s a brilliant actress, she’s beautiful beyond the dreams of pornography, she can be arrogant and willful, she’s clement and loving, she can tolerate my impossibilities and my drunkenness, she’s an ache in the stomach when I’m away from her, and she loves me! I’ll love her till I die.
Wednesday 20th: I was in a mad mood last night and accused E of talking too suspiciously much about Warren Beatty and his various middle-aged amours. It’s perfectly obvious that one way to attract a woman is to pay a lot of attention to other women. It drives them mad. I remember screwing everybody in a large company over a year or so to get one woman. I wish I hadn’t now because she was an evil bitch.
DECEMBER
Monday 9th, London: I became very drunk and abused people and insulted E a lot on the telephone when I arrived. I miss her terribly already. I wish I didn’t love people. And I wish I didn’t shout at people.
Thursday 12th: Deep-down, atavistically, I loathe the English. They’re immeasurably snob-ridden and conceited. All classes. The ordinary people in the street look so pinched and puny and mean. Only the occasional young girl, mini-skirted and swinging her bum and breasts, gives any pleasure. And on top of everything, there’s no E here to share my discontent.
Sunday 22nd, Gstaad: I was in one of my absolutely unstoppably filthy moods. Elizabeth screamed a bit. I accused her of being a hypochondriac, and said that she was ill only when she chose to be. Went to bed sulking at about 9.30. Now for the long bore of Christmas.
Tuesday 31st. If E continues to be in trouble with sciatica, I’ll insist that she never works again. The most frightening thing is that when she moans and groans in agony, I simply become bored. And what’s more frightening is she’s become bored with everything in life. As a result of this half-life we’re leading, I’m drinking twice as much. The upshot is that I’ll die of drink while she’ll go blithely on in her half-world.” Extracted from The Richard Burton Diaries, edited by Chris Williams, published by Yale University Press
Just like many other four-star generals and national intelligence chiefs, Bubba the Love Sponge had dealings with Tampa socialite and some-time honorary consul for South Korea, Jill Kelley.
Adding a tawdry new level to the Petraeus scandal, it has emerged that 37-year-old Jill Kelley and Bubba the Love Sponge, real name Todd Alan Clem, crossed paths when she involved herself in a spat over the radio host’s claims that he was going to deep fat fry a Koran earlier this year.
Bubba the Love Sponge has recently been in the news for settling a lawsuit with Hulk Hogan after he allegedly filmed the legendary wrestler and his then wife Heather Clem having sex and released it online.
When the Florida shock jock threatened to deep fat fry a Koran, General John Allen , the commander of the U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and CIA Director David Petraeus both spoke to social climbing Jill Kelley asking to help them with a potential threat to the safety of serving American troops.
Emails released yesterday sent between Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Jill Kelley reveal that she was indeed acting at the behest of high-level U.S. government officials and implored the mayor to act.
“I have Petraeus & Allen both emailing me about getting this dealt with,” Jill Kelley wrote to Bob Buckhorn on March 7th.
The previous day, Jill Kelley told Bobb Buckhorn of similar requests she had received from General John Allen and Vice Admiral Robert Harward, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command in Tampa.
“I just got off the phone with Gen. Allen & Adm Harward,” Jill Kelley wrote.
“I’m going to need your assistance, vice versa with the potential crises we’ll be dealing with.”
When Bob Buckhorn responded to say it was being dealt with, Jill Kelley said: “They asked me to get involved, like I did when it happened with the Pastor last year.”
The emails offer proof that Jill Kelley may not have been boasting of her contacts with high level military figures and indeed show that she was in regular communication with General John Allen and David Petraeus.
Just like many other four-star generals and national intelligence chiefs, Bubba the Love Sponge had dealings with Tampa socialite and some-time honorary consul for South Korea, Jill Kelley
This episode with Bubba the Love Sponge came right before she complained to a FBI agent about threatening emails she was receiving from Paula Broadwell who began an inquiry that uncovered her affair with the retired four-star general.
In addition the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA Director triggered a separate investigation that found “potentially inappropriate” email correspondence between General John Allen and Jill Kelley.
At the time of Jill Kelley’s emails about Bubba the Love Sponge military officials genuinely concerned that a Koran being deep fat fried would have disastrous consequences for U.S. troops serving in Muslim countries.
“It was absolutely a concern,” said Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor, CentCom spokesman to NBC News.
Revealing that he called Bubba the Love Sponge himself, T.G. Taylor said he told him: “Look Bubba, somebody’s going to get hurt if you do this.”
He was “completely reasonable and said he understood”, T.G. Taylor added.
The disc jockey told the Tampa Bay Times that he abandoned his plans to deep fat fry because a local law enforcement officer told him of the dangers to U.S. troops.
Reveling in his new found connection to the highest echelons of U.S. military power, Bubba the Love Sponge ordered one of his radio shows trucks to circle Jill Kelley’s Tampa home today playing a parody to the tune of Falco’s Rock me Amadeus about David Petraeus.
At the end of October, former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan settled a lawsuit with Bubba the Love Sponge over a sex tape involving Hogan and the DJ’s wife.
After the agreement between the former best friends, Hulk Hogan’s publicist said the terms of the settlement were confidential.
Hulk Hogan said in the lawsuit filed in October that he had consensual sex with his best friend’s wife, Heather Clem, six years ago in the Clems’ home, but he didn’t know he was being videotaped.
The disc jockey, Bubba the Love Sponge, apologized to Hulk Hogan and said that he’s convinced Hogan was unaware he was being filmed.
A lawsuit is still pending against the gossip website Gawker, which put excerpts of the video on its site.
With world’s media camped on her doorstep and her name and face plastered all over the news, Florida socialite Jill Kelley decided to lash out at Paula Broadwell, the woman she blamed for her life being turned upside down.
Branding Paula Broadwell, the mistress of General Petraeus a “criminal”, Jill Kelley pleaded with the city’s mayor Bob Buckhorn to intervene and remove the press from outside her house.
As recently as Wednesday, Jill Kelley was trading emails with Bob Buckhorn as the fall out from her complaint about threatening emails from Paula Broadwell intensified into the biggest sex scandal for decades.
“As you see on tv, my name (including Gen Petraeus & Allen) and home have been exploited by the media,” Jill Kelley wrote to Bob Buckhorn in an email time stamped 6:18 a.m. Wednesday.
“I wouldn’t care – if they got the facts right and focus on the criminal that stalked all of us. But the truth will one day prevail,” she continued, in an apparent reference to Paula Broadwell.
Jill Kelley lashed out at Paula Broadwell, branding her a criminal who stalked her family
Jill Kelley has been tied to the scandal that prompted the resignation of retired General David Petraeus as CIA director.
David Petraeus admitted having an affair with his married biographer, Paula Broadwell.
Federal officials say Paula Broadwell sent emails to Jill Kelley, perceiving her as a romantic rival. That FBI investigation uncovered emails between Jill Kelley and General John Allen during his time as head of Central Command in Tampa.
She boasted of connections to David Petraeus and other high-ranking officials, and she sought Bob Buckhorn’s presence at events ranging from hosting a group of VIPs from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal to her daughter’s birthday party.
Artist Jason Mecier spent 50 hours and used 25 lbs of garbage to create a larger-than-life portrait of Honey Boo Boo.
The San Francisco-based artist, who has previously made junk portraits of Donald Trump, Andy Warhol, and Phyllis Diller, used the seven-year-old superstar as inspiration for his latest project.
Utilizing her trademark “sketti”, as well as butter, cheese balls, chicken nuggets and the infamous Go-Go Juice that kept her energetic while starring on Toddlers & Tiaras, Jason Mecier re-imagined her as a pile of garbage.
Jason Mecier said: “I used Red Bulls, Mountain Dew, two cans of hair spray, three tiaras, make-up, mascara, fake eyelashes, coupons, a pink Snuggy box, and all sorts of things that make Honey Boo Boo so unique.
“But don’t worry no roadkill was injured during the making of this portrait!” he joked, making reference to the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo family that often cook and eat roadkill animals found near their home in McIntyre, Georgia.
Artist Jason Mecier spent 50 hours and used 25 lbs of garbage to create a larger-than-life portrait of Honey Boo Boo
Hardly any pieces in Jason Mecier’s sculpture are coincidental.
For example, Honey Boo Boo, whose real name is Alana Thompson, recently got a pet chicken and named it Nugget.
Her mother, Mama June (June Shannon), wrote on her daughters official Facebook page: “[H]er and nugget have became very attached this weekend and it in the house but has a outside house too but alana refuses to let her sleep outside lol she she sleeps inside at night in her inside cage.”
Honey Boo Boo was also recently immortalized in cartoon form, in a garish new comic book titled 15 Minutes.
The colorful 23-page magazine charts Honey Boo Boo’s meteoric rise to fame over the past 11 months, from her TV debut in Toddlers and Tiara’s to landing her very own reality show.
Explaining his inspiration, writer and illustrator Michael Troy said: “Andy Warhol’s quote about 15 minutes of fame is one of my favorites and as a pop culture junkie I jumped at the chance to put my spin on spoon fed America’s latest reality obsession.”
Xi Jinping has just become the most powerful military leader-elect to the most populous country in the world, and yet there are details that remain unknown about China’s new president.
Xi Jinping is married to the honey-voiced megastar of popular Chinese folk music, Peng Liyuan, and they have only one child together, Xi Mingze.
But while Peng Liyuan’s is still one of the most famous faces in the country, comparatively little is known of her husband, a man who spent most of his teens living in a cave, laboring in the fields of one of China’s poorest regions.
Xi Jinping is the son of Communist revolutionary general Xi Zhongxun, a comrade of Chairman Mao Zedong.
But when he was in his teens, his father fell out with the Chairman and was sent to prison.
Xi Jinping was exiled to a far-flung, rural community of Liangjiahe, in Shaanxi province, where he lived in cave-dwellings and was forced to labor in the fields. Little more than 100 miles from Beijing, it is one of China’s poorest regions.
The family lived like peasants in a cave-like house carved out of the yellow rock formations that surrounded the village.
Xi Jinping is quoted as saying no problems he has encountered in political life compare to the hardship he suffered as a young man.
But he immersed himself in local politics and soon rose the ranks before today assuming the top posts in the Communist Party and the powerful military in a political transition unbowed by scandals, a slower economy and public demands for reforms.
Xi Jinping was introduced as the new party general secretary at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People a day after the close of a week-long party congress that underlined the communists’ determination to remain firmly in power.
The once-a-decade leadership change was carefully choreographed. It became clear Xi Jinping would lead China five years ago, when he was appointed to the Standing Committee – the nation’s apex of power – as the highest-ranked member who would not be of retirement age this year.
Xi Jinping’s colleagues in the new Standing Committee are Li Keqiang, the presumptive premier and chief economic official; Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang; Shanghai party secretary Yu Zhengsheng; propaganda chief Liu Yunshan; Vice Premier Wang Qishan; and Tianjin party secretary Zhang Gaoli.
In a speech broadcast live on Chinese state TV and worldwide, Xi Jinping said: “We shall do everything we can to live up to your trust and fulfill our mission.”
Xi Jinping, China’s new president, is the son of Communist revolutionary general Xi Zhongxun, a comrade of Chairman Mao Zedong
Xi Jinping biography: from impoverished cave dweller to China’s most powerful man
Very little is known about Xi Jinping’s upbringing – or his rise to power.
Xi Jinping is married to a popstar called Peng Liyuan who, for most of Xi’s career, has been more famous than him.
Chinese often tell a well-known joke: “Who is Xi Jinping? Why, he is the husband of Peng Liyuan.”
He is the son of Communist revolutionary general Xi Zhongxun, a comrade of Chairman Mao Zedong.
But when he was in his teens, his father fell out with the Chairman and was sent to prison.
Xi Jinping was exiled to a far-flung, rural community of Liangjiahe, in Shaanxi province, where he lived in cave-dwellings and was forced to labour in the fields.
Little more than 100 miles from Beijing, it is one of China’s poorest regions.
The family lived like peasants in a cave-like house carved out of the yellow rock formations that surrounded the village.
Xi Jinping is quoted as saying no problems he has encountered in political life compare to the hardship he suffered as a young man.
After leaving Liangjiahe, Xi Jinping headed to the busy coastal provinces that form China’s industrial heartland.
He quickly climbed the ranks to become the most senior party official first in Fujian, before Zhejiang and finally Shanghai.
There he developed the mind for business and economics that he is known for today.
Now with exports and the economy slowing, China hopes his skills can help get the nation back on track to overtaking America and becoming the biggest economy in the world.
Xi Jinping has just become the most powerful military leader-elect to the most populous country in the world, and yet there are details that remain unknown about China’s new president.
Xi Jinping is married to the honey-voiced megastar of popular Chinese folk music, Peng Liyuan, and they have only one child together, Xi Mingze.
Peng Liyuan has become China’s first high-profile political spouse since Jiang Qing, the late wife of Chairman Mao Zedong.
Her huge success in the entertainment industry has run alongside her staunch loyalty to the Communist Party.
Peng Liyuan joined the People’s Liberation Army aged 18 and rose to the rank of major-general, a post she still holds.
But when her superiors discovered her talent for singing, Peng Liyuan began touring army bases serenading troops in a program designed to boost morale.
From there her rise to fame was meteoric. Peng Liyuan is best known for performing at CCTV’s New Year’s Gala – a show watched by hundreds of millions of people throughout China – almost every year since its inception in 1982.
Almost all of her songs are in praise of the Communist Party and frequently appears on state television to sing propagandist ballads with names including Plains of Hope and People From Our Village.
In June 2011, Peng Liyuan was even appointed World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/Aids and tuberculosis.
Peng Liyuan has become China’s first high-profile political spouse since Jiang Qing, the late wife of Chairman Mao Zedong
Peng Liyuan has also shied away from appearing in public with her husband or talking about their relationship until recently, fuelling speculation that she may take a more active role in his presidency than any of her predecessors.
In a rare interview in 2007, Peng Liyuan told a state-run magazine: “When he comes home, I’ve never thought of it as though there’s some leader in the house.
“In my eyes, he’s just my husband. When I get home, he doesn’t think of me as some famous star. In his eyes, I’m simply his wife.”
But while Peng Liyuan’s is still one of the most famous faces in the country, comparatively little is known of her husband, a man who spent most of his teens living in a cave, laboring in the fields of one of China’s poorest regions.
Xi Jinping is the son of Communist revolutionary general Xi Zhongxun, a comrade of Chairman Mao.
The Peony Fairy biography: from showbiz superstar to China’s First Lady
Born in 1962, Peng Liyuan is a Chinese folk singer and actress
Peng Liyuan has been married to Xi Jinping for 25 years with whom she has a daughter, Xi Mingze, 20
The couple are said to have met through friends in the mid 1980s
Nicknamed The Peony Fairy, Peng Liyuan has graced television screens in China for more than a decade, her honeyed tones punctuating state-run TV shows and Communist Party rallies
Peng Liyuan is best known for her propagandist ballads including Plains of Hope and People From Our Village
She joined the People’s Liberation Army aged 18 and rose to the civilian rank of major-general, a post she still holds
Peng Liyuan has performed all over the world, including, New York, Tokyo and Vienna
In June 2011, Peng Liyuan was even appointed World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis
Xi Jinping has just become the most powerful military leader-elect to the most populous country in the world, and yet there are details that remain unknown about China’s new president.
While it is known is that Xi Jinping is married to the honey-voiced megastar of popular Chinese folk music, Peng Liyuan, and they have only one child together, details of their daughter’s life are few and far between.
Their 20-year-old daughter, Xi Mingze, is currently attending Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, though little is known about China’s new First Daughter.
It is believed that Xi Mingze has been studying at the Ivy League school since transferring in two years ago after going to school in China.
She studies under a pseudonym so as not to attract undue attention.
It is rumored that Xi Mingze is surrounded by a staff of Chinese bodyguards 24 hours a day.
Xi Mingze has been studying at the Ivy League school since transferring in two years ago after going to school in China
The Washington Post reported last May that Xi Mingze joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and is described by peers at the school as “studious and discreet”.
She often studies at the sorority house and speaks with unaccented English.
Her name, Mingze, denotes innocence and “moral probity”, Asia Time noted in 2007, speaking of how Xi Jinping’s ascent into China’s highest office could see a sort of parallel to the White House in terms of a father showing affection for his wife and children.
Xi Mingze isn’t the only progeny of China’s political leaders to attend the American institution. Bo Guagua, the only son of embattled politician Bo Xilai, also attended the institution and had a playboy “princeling” reputation while at the school.
Israeli air strikes have targeted the headquarters of Gaza’s Hamas leaders, as the bombardment of the coastal enclave moved into a fourth day.
Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, which Egypt’s PM Hisham Qandil had visited on Friday.
At least 38 Palestinians and three Israelis have died since Israel killed Hamas’s military chief on Wednesday.
Israel earlier put 75,000 reservists on stand-by amid speculation of a ground invasion.
Militants in Gaza have continued to fire rockets into Israel, aiming at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Friday.
After a lull overnight – with correspondents reporting that the area was quiet but for the almost-constant buzz of drones overhead – Gaza City was hit by a string of large explosions shortly after 03:00 local time on Saturday.
There was another series of strikes in and around the city shortly after 05:00 local time, with several targeting Hamas’ cabinet buildings, which correspondents say were likely to have been empty.
Gaza sources say bodies were trapped under rubble at a house hit in Jabalia, north of Gaza City. Casualty figures remain unclear.
Three members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, are said to have been among those killed overnight.
As well as Hamas buildings, Israeli aircraft targeted electricity transformers and the network of tunnels used to smuggle goods and weapons from Egypt into Gaza, reports said.
Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said a total of 200 targets had been hit overnight, including 120 rocket launchers and 20 smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza.
Rumors have been swirling that a ground attack is imminent, but Israeli officials say no decision has been made.
Israel blocked access to three major routes leading into Gaza on Friday. Call-up papers have already been sent to 16,000 Israeli reservists, with officials authorizing the mobilization of another 75,000.
Israeli air strikes have targeted the headquarters of Gaza’s Hamas leaders
Militants and civilians, including at least seven children, have been among the Palestinians killed during Israeli strikes in recent days, Hamas says.
The group’s military leader Ahmed Jabari was killed on Wednesday. A senior commander was killed on Friday, officials said.
Two Israeli women and a man died when a rocket hit a building in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday, officials said.
Before the recent offensive, Israel had repeatedly carried out air strikes on Gaza, as Palestinian militants fired rockets across the border.
On Friday, Hamas said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: Haaretz newspaper said it was the first time since 1970 that a rocket had been fired at Jerusalem.
Israel’s army says the operation – codenamed Pillar of Defence – has hit more than 800 sites in Gaza, including underground rocket launchers & infrastructure.
It says hundreds of rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza since Wednesday, a quarter of which had been intercepted by its radar defence system, Iron Dome.
The army said about 10 rockets were fired from Gaza early on Saturday. There were no reports of casualties from those attacks.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of carrying out “massacres”.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem has arrived in Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to show support for Hamas.
Western leaders and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have appealed for both sides to stop the violence.
In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, President Barack Obama reiterated US support for Israel’s “right to defend itself”.
Barack Obama also spoke to Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi. Mohammed Mursi has called the Israeli raids “a blatant aggression against humanity” and promised that Egypt “will not leave Gaza on its own”.
Ties between Hamas and Egypt have strengthened since Mohammed Mursi’s election earlier this year.
Hamas was formed as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Mohammed Mursi belongs.
Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies, the cream-filled sponge cakes well-loved in the US, has said it will close down the company, leading to the loss of 18,500 jobs.
Hostess Brands said a strike by the bakers union would force it to shut all operations and sell all assets.
It has long been in trouble – emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2009 only to file again in January 2012.
The wind-down also means the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centres and 570 bakery outlet stores.
“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” said chief executive Gregory Rayburn.
“Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”
The company is also behind the Wonder and Merita bread brands, as well as Drake’s cakes.
Twinkies maker, Hostess Brands, has said it will close down the company, leading to the loss of 18,500 jobs
Last week, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on a nationwide strike.
On Thursday, Hostess Brands said it determined that an “insufficient number of employees had returned to work to enable the restoration of normal operations”.
Hostess Brands was founded in 1930 and had revenues of $2 billion last year.
The union’s pension fund is its biggest unsecured creditor, and is owed about $944.2 million.
Bobby Brown, ex-husband of late star Whitney Houston, has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol.
Bobby Brown, 43, maintained his innocence at Los Angeles court on Friday, despite the fact it is the third time he has been charged with DUI.
He denied multiple charges stemming from being pulled over at around 1:00 a.m. on October 24, 2012 after police believed he was driving erratically in the Tarzana area of Los Angeles.
Officers subsequently discovered Bobby Brown was behind the wheel without the dashboard breathalyser he was previously ordered by court to carry around with him.
Deputy City Attorney Diego Edber, told E! Online Bobby Brown was not in court but that his attorney, Tiffany Feder, entered not guilty pleas on his behalf.
Bobby Brown maintained his innocence at Los Angeles court on Friday, despite the fact it is the third time he has been charged with DUI
Bobby Brown is facing charges of driving under the influence with a refusal to submit to a chemical test, driving with a suspended license due to a conviction of an alcohol offence, and driving a vehicle without an ignition interlock device.
The last two counts are the result of another DUI arrest back in March in the San Fernando Valley. Bobby Brown received three years’ probation and did a spell in rehab after pleading no contest in that case.
The judge ordered Bobby Brown attend three Alcoholics Anonymous classes per week as a condition of his release until the next court date, with the next pretrial hearing scheduled for December 13.
However, the lawman also denied the prosecutor’s request to impose a $75,000 bail on the entertainer.
If convicted of the new charges, Bobby brown could face a maximum of two years in jail.
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were spotted out together on a secret date night on Thursday.
The young superstars, who set tongues wagging last week as split rumors circulated, seem to be trying to build bridges as they went to The Laugh Factory in LA together.
Clearly in need of a bit of light relief Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez kept their heads down as they made their way into the comedy club to catch some stand-up.
While Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber were rumored to have met up for crisis talks in Brooklyn last weekend, it was unclear whether they had resolved any of their problems.
While Justin Bieber performed in the city, Selena Gomez jetted back to Dallas to spend some time with her family on Tuesday, but obviously made a quick trip to Los Angeles two days later to see her on/off boyfriend.
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were spotted out together on a secret date night at The Laugh Factory in LA
According to TMZ, Selena Gomez was so angry with her popstar other half that she had blocked his number and deleted all his text messages.
The website also claimed that the reason behind the split was “absolutely, positively” because of another woman.
Selena Gomez, 20, is clearly intent on repairing the damaged relationship and appears to be giving her boyfriend another chance.
Looking causal for the reunion, Selena Gomez wore a pair of black leggings, a baggy white jersey top and a pair of tan, tasseled wedge boots.
Wearing her dark locks tied back, Selena Gomez added a silky scarf and wore heavy black eye make-up.
Justin Bieber tried to keep a low profile as he left the club, also looking dressed down in black shiny trousers, a white shirt and bright blue trainers.
Natalie Khawam and her twin sister Jill Kelley, the Florida housewife whose complaint over threatening emails revealed David Petraeus’ affair, have visited the White House three times in the past three months, it has emerged today.
In by far the most astonishing example of her determination to reach the top, Jill Kelley and Natalie Khawam were invited to two “courtesy” meals in the Executive Mansion mess hall as a guest of a White House aide, an Obama administration official has revealed.
Jill Kelley met the mid-level aide through her work with MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, where she also rubbed shoulders with the military’s top brass, including General David Petraeus.
On one further occasion, she received a White House tour with her family, the official added.
This latest revelation shows just how far Jill Kelley soared from her humble beginnings as the daughter of Lebanese immigrants in Pennsylvania to the host of lavish military parties at her Florida mansion.
Natalie Khawam and her twin sister Jill Kelley have visited the White House three times in the past three months
It also suggests that Jill Kelley was telling the truth in an email she wrote to a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times on September 28, in which she boasted of visiting the White House.
“Btw I was made the [honorary] Ambassador to US Central Command’s Coalition!” Jill Kelley wrote.
“In addition to that, I was just recently appointed to be the Honorary Consulate General to South Korea! I’m in DC today – just left from breakfast at the White House…. I really hope to see you soon!”
Further examples also emerged today of how the married mother of three, who is reportedly steeped in debt, has attempted to exploit her connections as she finds herself at the centre of the military scandal.
Jessica Simpson began filming her next long-awaited advert for Weight Watchers on Thursday.
The singer is getting paid a reported $4 million to be the face of the diet program.
Jessica Simpson, 32, posted a sneak peek of her filming the advertisement on her Twitter account.
In the snap, Jessica Simpson is seen standing outside a gourmet market and is looking svelte in a pair of black figure-hugging trousers, a fitted blazer and sky-high heels.
“That’s a wrap on the @weightwatchers commercial!” she says in an accompanying caption.
Her former assistant and best friend CaCee Cobb, friend Erin Alexander and stylist Nicole Chavez also posed with the star for a behind-the-scenes happy snap.
In the photograph, Jessica Simpson is wearing a pair of jeans tucked into Ugg boots, a black vest top and a plaid shirt.
She look noticeably slimmer around the jawline and upper body.
Jessica Simpson’s first advert for the company was filmed back in July as she got stuck into her weight loss regime following the birth of baby Maxwell.
Yet the footage failed to capture her full figure, presumably the one thing that viewers want to see so that they can make a comparison between her before and after figure.
The advert instead focuses on Jessica Simpson’s upper body, with close-ups of her face.
“I’m Jessica Simpson and yes I’m doing Weight Watchers,” she tells the camera, smiling.
“There is a lot of pressure to lose weight but I’m not a supermodel. I’m just Jessica trying to eat real food in the real world and I really just wanna be healthy for my daughter.
“So I knew Weight Watchers was the only way to go. It’s working.
“I’m on my way and it feels amazing. Really I just wanna be a better version of myself.”
Jessica Simpson began filming her next long-awaited advert for Weight Watchers on Thursday
Talking on Katie Couric’s chat show not long after it was revealed, Jessica Simpson admitted that at the time she wasn’t comfortable revealing her whole frame.
Meanwhile, the filming of her newest commercial comes after Jessica Simpson’s unwavering dedication to her diet plan had apparently earlier this month hit a snag – with the stress of gay allegations about her father “derailing” her efforts.
Jessica Simpson was said to have lapsed from her Weight Watchers plan.
According to reports online, the singer was no longer sticking to the correct portion sizes, which had slowed her weight loss.
“Jessica’s diet has been seriously derailed ever since the gay allegations against her father were released,” a source told RadarOnline.
While she’s not diverting from the diet, Jessica Simpson isn’t sticking to the portion plan and isn’t losing as much weight as she should.
“She knows that as the Weight Watchers spokesperson she has to be more disciplined, but her emotions are all over the place right now.”
It has certainly been a tumultuous few months for Jessica Simpson’s family.
Her parents Tina and Joe Simpson recently revealed they had filed for divorce after 34 years of marriage.
Former model Lauren Scruggs has revealed for the first time what actually happened in the horrific accident that robbed her of left arm and eye, and changed her life in an instant.
Lauren Scruggs, 24, from Dallas, Texas, spoke on Today show about the December 3 accident, where she walked into a still-spinning plane propeller, in the lead up to a Dateline interview that airs Friday November 16 at 10:00 p.m.
With little memory of the accident, Lauren Scruggs explained: “My dad actually went to look at the plane. I was always taught to get out in front of the wing, but when you do that [with this kind of plane] you’re basically on the propeller. So I think I basically just got out onto it.”
She added: “I remember getting into the plane, and I was fearful for some reason. We landed, which I thought was interesting, because I thought we might crash. I remember my feet touching the ground, but that’s all I remember.”
Her mother, who was also on the Today show with her husband, Lauren Scruggs’ father, explained how the pair had been to church, before going over to some friends’ for dinner, “like we always do”.
“They live in an airport so we ate dinner, and then they decided they were going to do some recreational flying, look at some Christmas lights and everything,” she said.
“Then, she was out there laying on her stomach in a pool of blood and I wasn’t really sure if she was dead or alive.”
Speaking about the bleak diagnosis given by the paramedics at the time, her father said: “They warned us there was a potential she wouldn’t have the same personality, that she may never form a sentence again, but as you can see today, that’s the case.”
Lauren Scruggs admits the hardest thing about the accident was losing her hand.
“It changes your life,” she said.
“You appreciate life a lot more, my compassion for people has strengthened, I have compassion I couldn’t have had before. It was a dose of reality, and was hard to see.”
Speaking about living life with only one hand, the fashion blogger and former model said: “It’s amazing how your body just does what it needs to do – things that were hard in the beginning a lot easier now. I don’t really think about them now.”
Lauren Scruggs has revealed for the first time what actually happened in the horrific accident that robbed her of left arm and eye
The blonde beauty is also honest in how her injured looks deeply affected her in her interview with Dateline.
“[When I saw myself], I think I just saw the reality of what had happened. I had my eye patch on, I didn’t have my hand, half my head was shaved. I was just thinking, <<Wow. How life can change in an instant and how that’s not the way I have looked in the past>>.”
The fashion blogger also spoke to People magazine this week about the future and learning to live with three different prosthetic limbs, hair extensions where her head was shaved and having to do everything with one hand.
A sometimes fashion model before the accident, Lauren Scruggs revealed she has struggled to come to terms with her changing looks.
She said: “Sometimes it’s easy to dwell on the fact that I don’t look the same. I still struggle with that – I want to look nice. But every day I’m feeling better and better.”
“When I got home from hospital I would cry a lot and it was hard to look in the mirror. Before the accident I would get a lot of attention for the way I looked, so I held a lot of my identity there.
“But these things aren’t going to make you feel whole. They’re empty things.”
Wondering if any guy would ever like her because of her prosthetic arms, she reveals she now feels good about them.
Lauren Scruggs has three different arms – her passive prosthetic which she can’t move but looks incredibly lifelike, her workout prosthetic which she uses for boxing and other exercises and another arm that come with attachments, including a paddle-like device for swimming.
She is in rehab for up to three hours a day to practice ordinary tasks without her left hand and can now tie her shoes, put her hair up and drive – which she does with the help of her knee.
Referring to losing her hand, she said: “Reality hit me when I got off my pain medication. I just wanted my hand back. I went through the process of grieving and still am today.
“My doctor told me that losing your hand is like losing someone in your family. Because it’s a part of you.”
David Petraeus has told US Congress that the CIA believed almost immediately that al-Qaeda-linked terrorists were behind the September 11th attacks in Benghazi, according to a leading Republican congressman.
Representative Peter King of New York, a member of the House Intelligence Committee that David Petraeus briefed, said that the former general left a “different impression” today than he had when he testified on Capitol Hill three days after the attack.
Now, Peter King said, David Petraeus insisted that the “original talking points prepared by the CIA were different than the final ones put out” and used by Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Sunday talk shows to say – incorrectly – that the attack was sparked by anger over an anti-Islam video made in California.
“The original talking points were much more specific about al-Qaeda involvement and yet the final ones just said <<indications of extremists>> even though it was clearly evident to the CIA that there was al-Qaeda involvement,” Peter King said.
The former CIA director was giving classified testimony and was accompanied by a CIA analyst. Peter King said David Petraeus did not speak under oath.
David Petraeus arrived early Friday for closed hearings on Capitol Hill as lawmakers seek details from the retired general about the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Peter King said that there was only brief mention by David Petraeus of his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, which triggered his shock resignation last Friday.
“He was asked at the start did that have any impact on his testimony, he said no…10 seconds into it, that was off to the side.”
David Petraeus has told US Congress that the CIA believed almost immediately that al-Qaeda-linked terrorists were behind the September 11th attacks in Benghazi
The New York congressman said that David Petraeus had explained that the talking points ultimately used by Susan Rice had been altered by inputs by a number of other government agencies after the CIA had made its assessment.
“He said that it goes though a long process, an interagency process and when they came back it was taken out.”
The House Intelligence Committee, which was hearing from David Petraeus before he briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee, met in a secure room several floors below the main area of the Capitol Visitors Centre, where tourists gather when they are visiting Congress.
Republicans and some Democrats have demanded an explanation of why the Obama administration initially described the attack at Benghazi as a protest gone awry, leading to the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith and CIA contractors and former Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Five days after attack, the administration sent Susan Rice onto the Sunday news shows to describe what precipitated the assault. She relied on initial intelligence talking points that subsequently proved incorrect.
Deputy CIA Director Mike Morell told the House committee on Thursday that Susan Rice was provided with an unclassified version of events at the American mission, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, a committee member.
The assessment concluded that a spontaneous protest over anti-Islam video, The Innocence of Muslims, had evolved into an attack on the American consulate, a description that Rice presented in the television interviews.
David Petraeus hoped that by testifying he would put an end to some of the wilder rumors following his resignation over reveal of his affair with Paula Broadwell.
“He did not like the conspiracies going around that somehow he had something to hide on Benghazi,” said retired Colonel Peter Mansoor, who served as David Petraeus’ executive officer in Iraq.
“I think his offer to testify crossed with the Congress’ request to him to testify. But anyway he looks forward to that.”
The Hague war crimes court has overturned the convictions of two Croatian generals charged with atrocities against Serbs in the 1990s.
Appeals judges ordered the release of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.
In 2011 they were sentenced to 24 years and 18 years respectively over the killing of ethnic Serbs in an offensive to retake Croatia’s Krajina region.
The men arrived in Zagreb later on Friday to a hero’s welcome. But their release was condemned in Serbia.
On Friday morning, the presiding judge at the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Theodor Meron, said the court had entered “a verdict of acquittal” for General Ante Gotovina and General Mladen Markac, both aged 57.
Last year the two men were convicted of murder, persecution and plunder.
Judges at the time ruled that they were part of a criminal conspiracy led by late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman to “permanently and forcibly remove” the Serb civilian population from Krajina.
But on Friday, Judge Theodor Meron said there had been no such conspiracy.
The appeals judges also said the 2011 trial chamber had “erred in finding that artillery attacks” ordered by General Ante Gotovina and General Mladen Markac on Krajina towns “were unlawful”.
The two former generals have always argued that they did not deliberately attack civilians.
Court officials also said prosecutors would not appeal against the ruling, describing it as “the final judgement”.
Neither defendant showed emotion in court, but their supporters in the gallery hugged each other and clapped after the verdict.
The Hague war crimes court has acquitted Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac charged with atrocities against Serbs in the 1990s
In Zagreb’s main square, thousands of people – who watched the proceedings live on giant TV – burst into applause.
“Our generals are heroes because they risked their lives to save our country and liberate the people,” student Andjela Anic, 26, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
“The verdict confirms everything that we believe in Croatia: that generals Gotovina and Markac are innocent,” Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said.
On Thursday, candle-lit vigils were held in Zagreb and Catholic churches around the country as war veterans and bishops asked supporters to “raise their voices against injustice”.
After the verdict, the two former generals were driven from The Hague to nearby Rotterdam airport before boarding the government plane to fly back home.
“I think it is only fair to get the boys back home,” Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told reporters.
Meanwhile, Serbia’s President Tomislav Nikolic condemned the verdict as “political”, saying it “will open old wounds”.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic said The Hague tribunal had “lost all its credibility”, Serbia’s Beta news agency reported.
Rasim Ljajic said the appeals decision was “proof of selective justice which is worse than any injustice”.
He added that it was “a move backwards and the public opinion of the tribunal (in Serbia) will be worse than it already is”.
Gen. Ante Gotovina and Gen. Mladen Markac were last year convicted over the Croatian offensive in Krajina, which had been under Serbian control since the start of the war in 1991.
About 200,000 ethnic Serbs were driven from Croatia in 1995 and at least 150 were killed in a military offensive in Krajina known as Operation Storm.
The operation to retake the region was ordered by Franjo Tudjman. The Croatian leader died in 1999 while under investigation by The Hague tribunal.
The aftermath of the war is a key issue both in Croatia’s domestic politics and its external relations.
The European Union made it clear to former Yugoslav republics that they will not be considered for membership until war criminals were brought to justice.
Jill Kelley, the Florida housewife whose complaint over threatening emails revealed David Petraeus’ affair, has attempted to exploit her connections once again.
In her first words since her part in the scandal was revealed over the weekend, Jill Kelley has sent a string of pleading emails to the Tampa Mayor, complaining she has been receiving threats and claiming: “The truth will one day prevail.”
The anguished messages, seen by the Tampa Bay Times, were sent in the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday to Bob Buckhorn, whom she knows socially.
Jill Kelley claims her three children are scared to return home and her husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, has been forced to sleep at the hospital because he cannot get into their driveway, due to the swarms of media.
“Dear Mayor Bob,” Jill Kelley wrote, adding that she, David Petraeus and General John R. Allen – whom she was found to have exchanged “flirtatious” emails with – “have been exploited by the media”.
“I wouldn’t care – if they got the facts right and the focus was on the criminal that stalked all of us,” she added, apparently referring to David Petraeus’ mistress Paula Broadwell.
“But the truth will one day prevail.”
It is the second instance of her trying to exploit her “position” – after she called the police asking for “diplomatic protection” from the media due to her role as honorary consul to South Korea.
“I’m an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property,” Jill Kelley told the 911 operator.
“I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that’s against the law to cross my property because, you know, it’s inviolable.”
But the move backfired – with the police releasing the calls to the media and failing to provide her the protection reserved for those in positions of genuine authority.
“To put insult to injury, your police dept gave the local 911 tapes to the press!” Jill Kelley wrote to Bob Buckhorn, adding that the recordings included her cell number, so: “I have been receiving threats all night.”
“I’m scared and cannot believe what my city, in which I have contributed so much of my love, time, money and leadership, has now done to me and my innocent family,” Jill Kelley wrote.
Bob Buckhorn told the Times that he did nothing in response to Jill Kelley’s complaint and simply said that the 911 recordings were public records.
He added that he knew the Kelleys socially after he won the mayoral race in March 2011 – even though they did not support him in his bid and he had never met them before.
Jill Kelley with General David Petraeus and his wife Holly at her home in 2011
Yet just three weeks after Bob Buckhorn was sworn into office, Dr. Scott Kelley and his wife hosted a reception for him at their lavish $1.3 million home on Bayshore Boulevard.
Jill Kelley has since invited Bob Buckhorn to a string of social events, including her daughter’s sixth birthday party, which are also documented by email, the Times reported.
She invited him and his wife to a dinner party for the King of Jordan and, after he was unable to attend, she wrote to him again.
“The King and his sister [the Princess] are awesome people!” Jill Kelley said.
“Actually your name was brought up by the Generals when they were showing off the party I hosted you! (everyone loved that party).”
They met again when Bob Buckhorn and his wife gave her a ride home following an event at MacDill Air Force Base, for which she organized events as a volunteer social liaison officer.
“Gen. [James] Mattis, was so kind to offer, but I realized you two were passing my way,” Jill Kelley emailed the mayor the following day.
Their messages also show how she involved herself in a spat over a radio host’s claims that he was going to deep fat fry the Koran earlier this year, according to the Times.
Officers at MacDill told the mayor that the publicity stunt could harm troops, and asked him to speak with the host.
Jill Kelley also called the mayor to tell them she had been speaking with Gen. John Allen and Vice Admiral Robert Harward, the deputy commander of CentCom, who said they needed the mayor’s help.
When Buckhorn responded to say it was being dealt with, Jill Kelley said “they asked me to get involved, like I did when it happened with the Pastor last year”.
Her shrewd social-climbing tactics also came to light this week when she was pictured with Marco Rubio and her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, when he was running for the Senate.
The photograph was tweeted by Republican Angelette Aviles who said that it was taken at a March 2010 fundraiser, where tickets were $1,000.
But the twins didn’t pay – instead, they appeared, took the photo and left, Angelette Aviles told the Times. They did not contribute to his campaign.
Yet over the past week, Jill Kelley’s connections have given her more exposure than she was perhaps intending.
After David Petraeus dramatically resigned from the top of the CIA last Friday, it emerged that Jill Kelley had played a key role in exposing his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
In May, Jill Kelley alerted the FBI that she had been receiving threatening, anonymous emails warning her to “back off” David Petraeus, whom Kelley and her husband are good friends with.
The FBI was forced to launch an in-depth investigation as some messages contained classified information about David Petraeus’ whereabouts, and they feared there could have been a security breach.
