A freight train in Texas has crashed into a parade float carrying wounded veterans en route to a charity benefit in Midland, Texas, killing four people and injuring 16 others.
The crash happened at a railroad crossing in the city of Midland, as the flat-bed truck was on its way to an event honoring wounded US veterans.
The crossing gate and lights were reportedly working and an investigation is under way. One eyewitness said the float became stuck at the crossing.
The veterans and relatives were heading to a banquet, which has been cancelled.
According to the local officials, the float hit by the train was the second being pulled along the parade route. The first had already safely crossed the railroad.
Officials say the eastbound train was sounding its horn before it struck the float with 26 people on board.
Panic reportedly swept through those on the trailer as the locomotive approached, with eyewitnesses saying some people jumped off the float.
The crash happened at a railroad crossing in the city of Midland, as the flat-bed truck was on its way to an event honoring wounded US veterans
Patricia Howle, who was waiting at a nearby traffic light, told KOSA-TV: “People on the trailer saw the train coming and they were flying in every direction.
“I covered my face. I didn’t want to see.”
“I’ve been through five combat tours, and this is worse than probably, getting blown up,” Michael Morris, who said a good friend had died in the accident, told the Odessa-American.
Spokesman Tom Lange said a preliminary investigation indicated the crossing gate and lights were working at the time, though he said he did not know if the train crew had seen the float approaching.
“There is going to be a very thorough investigation,” Tom Lange said.
“It’s obviously a very tragic incident.”
Eyewitness Daniel Quinonez said the second float “could not go anywhere because of the other one being right in front of it”.
“I just saw the people on the semi-truck’s trailer panic, and many started to jump off the trailer,” Daniel Quinonez told the Associated Press news agency.
“But it was too late for many of them because the train impacted the trailer so fast,” he added.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson says his agency is investigating the crash.
Ten of the 16 injured people were later released from hospital, but at least one person remained in critical condition.
Special Agent Fred Humphries has been revealed as the face, and torso, of the “Shirtless FBI Agent” whose images were found in socialite Jill Kelley’s email account.
It was Frederick Humphries who initiated the investigation into harassing emails sent to Jill Kelley that ultimately led to the resignation of General David Petraeus.
Amid the heat of that exposure the news of his own apparent indiscretion was treated as another layer of sexual intrigue in this tangled tale.
In fact, Fred Humphries insists, it is nothing of the sort. The email was a joke that backfired more spectacularly than he could possibly have imagined and, perhaps, was allowed to.
The image in question was not some leering pose, directed at the object of his desire, but a round-robin joke – the sort of which the 47-year-old Special Agent was in the habit of sending – that ended with a picture punchline.
In stark contrast to the covert “dead drop” technique of Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus’s email correspondence, Fred Humphries’s message was sent from an account he shared with his wife, teacher Sara.
The snapshot showing Frederick Humphries – bald, muscular and shirtless – posed between two buff, bullet-ridden target dummies and carrying the punchline “Which one is Fred?” was framed and displayed on his wife’s desk at work. His supervisor even pinned it on the notice board in the Bureau.
In fact as the Seattle Times reports, one of the newspaper’s staff was among those to receive the email, sent in 2010 shortly after the Special Agent had been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the Bureau’s Tampa office.
Fred Humphries sent topless picture to Jill Kelley from email account he shared with his wife
The email was sent on September 9, 2010. All of which points to the motivation of the sources that first leaked word of its existence being mischievous at best.
Because if not quite an Icarus figure fallen to earth, Fred Humphries reputation has certainly been allowed to wilt in the heat of the media glare.
According to the New York Times, Fred Humphries has a reputation as a “hard-charging” field agent. It is a turn of phrase that implies an approach more likely to earn results than friends.
Fred Humphries reportedly received a dressing down from his superiors when he impatiently tried to push forward the investigation into the emails received by Jill Kelley.
General David Petraeus has spoken out for the first time since his affair with Paula Broadwell became public, forcing him to resign – and revealed he is determined to make his marriage work.
Breaking his silence almost a week after he dramatically stepped down, David Petraeus also revealed he has not spoken to his mistress, Paula Broadwell, since the scandal emerged and denied he had ever given her classified military documents.
He maintained that his shock resignation on Friday had nothing to do with hearings about the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which he was due to testify at this week.
Instead, David Petraeus, speaking with HLN reporter Kyra Phillips, said he stepped down as he was deeply remorseful about the affair and the only honorable thing left to do was to admit his failings.
And, relaying her conversations with David Petraeus toHLN on Thursday, Kyra Phillips said he was now focusing on repairing the damage inflicted on his family, including his two adult children, Anne and Stephen.
He admitted to her that he had “screwed up terribly” and that he “felt fortunate to have a wife who is far better than he deserves”, Kyra Phillips said.
“He knows he made a big mistake,” she said.
“He does want to move forward making things work with his family. He doesn’t want to throw 37 years out the window with his wife.”
“This woman is strong,” she added of Holly Petraeus.
“She knows what she wants. She’s obviously, according to people that know her well, not happy about this – very, very upset about this.
“I do not know if she’s committed to working this out with Petraeus… But I do know that Dave Petraeus does not want to throw 37 years away and would really like to make this work and make things right with his family.”
Speaking with HLN reporter Kyra Phillips, David Petraeus said he stepped down as he was deeply remorseful about the affair with Paula Broadwell and the only honorable thing left to do was to admit his failings
David Petraeus, 60, revealed very little about his ten-month affair with Paula Broadwell, which ended in July, but said they had not spoken since Friday.
“They have not talked since this story broke,” Kyra Phillips said.
“They talked a couple of times when he ended this relationship which was a couple [of] months ago. But they have not talked since the story broke.”
These previous conversations have been confirmed by sources who saw David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell chatting at an intelligence event in Washington on October 27, weeks after the start of the FBI probe.
Matthew McConaughey has revealed he is now down to his goal weight to play the real-life AIDS-afflicted character of Ron Woodroof in The Dallas Buyers Club – and doesn’t plan on losing any more.
In a new interview the 6 ft-tall actor reveals he now weighs in at 143lbs – having lost 38 lbs over the past few months (more than the 30 lbs previously reported).
With a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 19.4, Matthew McConaughey is still in the “normal weight” range – but skirting very close to and just seven pounds away from the underweight range (below 18.5).
Matthew McConaughey, 43, opened up to HitFix.com about the struggle he endured to shrink his frame – admitting it has been “90 per cent diet”, and exercise less so, which has seen him transform into the gaunt figure he is today.
He also admitted to looking forward to being able to eat a cheeseburger – but before then he has to maintain his weight for the next five weeks while filming after arriving on location in New Orleans over the weekend.
“I feel good, now,” Matthew McConaughey told HitFix‘s Gregory Ellwood. “Overall, probably got 35 percent less energy. The tough part, there have been plateaus.”
He explained: “Getting past 170 [lbs] was really hard, but then once you get into the 167, the next 7 come off easy. Getting past 160, really hard. But then you fly down to 150.
“Getting past 150 was really hard. And then, bam, got down to 143 and that’s where I want to be. Once you get past the plateau, the body seems to understand, <<OK this is where we’re living now, this is where we are>>, so the energy rises.”
Matthew McConaughey reveals he now weighs in at 143lbs, having lost 38 lbs over the past few months for his new role in The Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey also talked about how he realized it was his diet he needed to regulate most – rather than his exercise.
The star is sticking to a drastic regime of cardio, five ounces of protein a day and low carbohydrates to maintain his emaciated form.
He said: “I’m doing cardio but I’ll tell you what, the more I’ve learned is – and I think it comes with age too – is it’s 90 percent diet.
“It’s 90 percent amount and then what you’re eating because right now I’m not losing any more weight if I burn 1,500 calories, two hours of cardio in an afternoon, or if I don’t. It doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of how much I eat or how little I eat.”
Matthew McConaughey says he has had to be strict on himself and stay away from temptation – but concedes that while he is looking forward to eating normally again, his body will probably be in for a shock.
“The organs shrink, so my stomach has shrunk as well. So as much as I can’t wait to have that cheeseburger, on the day, it’ll be damn hard to eat the whole thing.”
But for now: “I choose to pick my places where there’s less good smells and temptations. I don’t want to be doing this interview at a Pizza Hut buffet,” he added with a laugh.
The gritty film role, which initially attracted Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling, revolves around Ron Woodroof, the heterosexual, homophobic electrician who died of the disease in 1992 after illegally smuggling HIV drugs not approved in the States.
This is perhaps Matthew McConaughey’s most dramatic turn, having last appeared as a sexy stripper in Magic Mike.
Jennifer Garner has joined the film as Dr. Eve Saks and Jared Leto has also come on board to portray Ron Woodroof’s friend Rayon, a flamboyant HIV-positive cross-dressing hospital patient.
Reality star Honey Boo Boo has been immortalized in cartoon form, in a garish new comic book titled 15 Minutes.
The colorful 23-page magazine charts seven-year-old Honey Boo Boo 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.”
The front cover of the comic book, shows Honey Boo Boo, whose real name is Alana Thompson, dressed in a pink pageant dress that will be familiar to many of her fans.
Kris Jenner, Rosie O’Donnell and Anderson Cooper also have cameo roles in the short book.
In one of his strips Michael Troy asks readers “What is fame?”, responding with a quote from poet Lord Byron that “it is the thirst of youth”.
Honey Boo Boo has been immortalized in cartoon form, in a garish new comic book titled 15 Minutes
U.S. publishers Bluewater Productions, say the magazine examines the “the underbelly of fame”.
Its publisher Darren G. Davis explained that people shouldn’t take the magazine too seriously.
He said: “Clearly this one was meant to be fun for people and not to educate society.
“There are some of these biographies we do for strictly the entertainment value.”
Bluewater’s comics have previously featured stars such as One Direction, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato.
Its new series 15 Minutes will focus on personalities from the realms of reality TV, and it hints that Kim Kardashian, and characters from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Jersey Shore could possibly star in future issues.
It isn’t the first time Honey Boo Boo has been imagined in cartoon form.
Last month she starred in an episode of the animated sitcom South Park, along with her mother June Shannon.
The Honey Boo Boo comic is available in print for $3.99, while a digital version is priced at $1.99.
Many people across the world have been brought up on the idea of three square meals a day as a normal eating pattern, but it wasn’t always that way.
People are repeatedly told the hallowed family dinner around a table is in decline.
The case for breakfast, missed by many with deleterious effects, is that it makes us more alert, helps keep us trim and improves children’s work and behavior at school.
But when people worry that breaking with the traditional three meals a day is harmful, are they right about the traditional part? Have people always eaten in that pattern?
Breakfast
Breakfast as we know it didn’t exist for large parts of history. The Romans didn’t really eat it, usually consuming only one meal a day around noon, says food historian Caroline Yeldham. In fact, breakfast was actively frowned upon.
“The Romans believed it was healthier to eat only one meal a day,” she says.
“They were obsessed with digestion and eating more than one meal was considered a form of gluttony. This thinking impacted on the way people ate for a very long time.”
In the Middle Ages monastic life largely shaped when people ate, says food historian Ivan Day. Nothing could be eaten before morning Mass and meat could only be eaten for half the days of the year. It’s thought the word breakfast entered the English language during this time and literally meant “break the night’s fast”.
Religious ritual also gave us the full English breakfast. On Collop Monday, the day before Shrove Tuesday, people had to use up meat before the start of Lent. Much of that meat was pork and bacon as pigs were kept by many people. The meat was often eaten with eggs, which also had to be used up, and the precursor of the full English breakfast was born.
But at the time it probably wasn’t eaten in the morning.
In about the 17th Century it is believed that all social classes started eating breakfast, according to chef Clarissa Dickson Wright. After the restoration of Charles II, coffee, tea and dishes like scrambled eggs started to appear on the tables of the wealthy. By the late 1740s, breakfast rooms also started appearing in the homes of the rich.
This morning meal reached new levels of decadence in aristocratic circles in the 19th Century, with the fashion for hunting parties that lasted days, even weeks. Up to 24 dishes would be served for breakfast.
The Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th Century regularized working hours, with laborers needing an early meal to sustain them at work. All classes started to eat a meal before going to work, even the bosses.
At the turn of the 20th Century, breakfast was revolutionized once again by American John Harvey Kellogg. He accidentally left some boiled maize out and it went stale. He passed it through some rollers and baked it, creating the world’s first cornflake. He sparked a multi-billion dollars industry.
By the 1920s and 1930s the government was promoting breakfast as the most important meal of the day, but then World War II made the usual breakfast fare hard to get. But as Britain emerged from the post-war years into the economically liberated 1950s, things like American toasters, sliced bread, instant coffee and pre-sugared cereals invaded the home. Breakfast as we now know it.
Many people across the world have been brought up on the idea of three square meals a day as a normal eating pattern, but it wasn’t always that way
Lunch
The terminology around eating in the UK is still confusing. For some “lunch” is “dinner” and vice versa. From the Roman times to the Middle Ages everyone ate in the middle of the day, but it was called dinner and was the main meal of the day. Lunch as we know it didn’t exist – not even the word.
During the Middle Ages daylight shaped mealtimes, says Ivan Day. With no electricity, people got up earlier to make use of daylight. Workers had often toiled in the fields from daybreak, so by midday they were hungry.
“The whole day was structured differently than it is today,” says Ivan Day.
“People got up much earlier and went to bed much earlier.”
By midday workers had often worked for up to six hours. They would take a quick break and eat what was known as a “beever” or “noonshine”, usually bread and cheese. As artificial light developed, dinner started to shift later in the day for the wealthier, as a result a light meal during the day was needed.
The origins of the word “lunch” are mysterious and complicated, says Ivan Day.
“Lunch was a very rare word up until the 19th Century,” he says.
One theory is that it’s derived from the word “nuncheon”, an old Anglo-Saxon word which meant a quick snack between meals that you can hold in your hands. It was used around the late 17th Century, says Caroline Yeldham. Others theorize that it comes from the word “nuch” which was used around in the 16th and 17th Century and means a big piece of bread.
But it’s the French custom of “souper” in the 17th Century that helped shaped what most of us eat for lunch today. It became fashionable among the British aristocracy to copy the French and eat a light meal in the evening. It was a more private meal while they gamed and womanized, says Ivan Day.
It’s the Earl of Sandwich’s famous late-night snack from the 1750s that has come to dominate the modern lunchtime menu. One evening he ordered his valet to bring him cold meats between some bread. He could eat the snack with just one hand and wouldn’t get grease on anything.
Whether he was wrapped up in an all-night card game or working at his desk is not clear, both have been suggested. But whatever he was doing, the sandwich was born.
At the time lunch, however, was still known “as an accidental happening between meals”, says food historian Monica Askay.
Again, it was the Industrial Revolution that helped shape lunch as we know it today. Middle and lower class eating patterns were defined by working hours. Many were working long hours in factories and to sustain them a noon-time meal was essential.
Pies were sold on stalls outside factories. People also started to rely on mass-produced food as there was no room in towns and cities for gardens to keep a pig pen or grow their own food. Many didn’t even have a kitchen.
“Britain was the first country in the world to feed people with industrialized food,” says Ivan Day.
The ritual of taking lunch became ingrained in the daily routine. In the 19th Century chop houses opened in cities and office workers were given one hour for lunch. But as war broke out in 1939 and rationing took hold, the lunch was forced to evolve. Work-based canteens became the most economical way to feed the masses. It was this model that was adopted by schools after the war.
The 1950s brought a post-War world of cafes and luncheon vouchers. The Chorleywood Process, a new way of producing bread, also meant the basic loaf could be produced more cheaply and quickly than ever. The takeaway sandwich quickly began to fill the niche as a fast, cheap lunch choice.
Today the average time taken to eat lunch – usually in front of the computer – is roughly 15 minutes, according to researchers at the University of Westminster. The original meaning of lunch or “nuncheon” as a small, quick snack between proper meals is just as apt now as it ever was.
Dinner
Dinner was the one meal the Romans did eat, even if it was at a different time of day.
In the UK the heyday of dinner was in the Middle Ages. It was known as “cena”, Latin for dinner. The aristocracy ate formal, outrageously lavish dinners around noon. Despite their reputation for being unruly affairs, they were actually very sophisticated, with strict table manners.
They were an ostentatious display of wealth and power, with cooks working in the kitchen from dawn to get things ready, says Caroline Yeldham. With no electricity cooking dinner in the evening was not an option. Peasants ate dinner around midday too, although it was a much more modest affair.
As artificial lighting spread, dinner started to be eaten later and later in the day. It was in the 17th Century that the working lunch started, where men with aspirations would network.
The middle and lower classes eating patterns were also defined by their working hours. By the late 18th Century most people were eating three meals a day in towns and cities, says Day.
By the early 19th Century dinner for most people had been pushed into the evenings, after work when they returned home for a full meal. Many people, however, retained the traditional “dinner hour” on a Sunday.
The hallowed family dinner we are so familiar with became accessible to all in the glorious consumer spending spree of the 1950s. New white goods arrived from America and the dream of the wife at home baking became a reality. Then the TV arrived.
TV cook Fanny Cradock brought the 1970s Cordon Bleu dinner to life. Many middle-class women were bored at home and found self-expression by competing with each other over who could hold the best dinner party.
The death knell for the family dinner supposedly sounded in 1986, when the first microwave meal came on to the market. But while a formal family dinner may be eaten by fewer people nowadays, the dinner party certainly isn’t over – fuelled by the phenomenal sales of recipe books by celebrity chefs.
Dana Leland, of Rhode Island, used fake $100 bills depicting Abraham Lincoln instead of Benjamin Franklin.
As any schoolchild, or really anyone who has ever handled money in their life, knows, Honest Abe’s visage graces the $5 bill.
According to police, the Central Falls man used the fake banknotes on three consecutive days to buy items such as socks worth less than $25 at a Target store in North Attleboro, Massachusetts.
Police caught up with Dana Leland on Wednesday in Rhode Island after an officer in his hometown recognized him from a surveillance photo released by law enforcement agencies, according to The Sun Chronicle.
Dana Leland, 29, was held on $1,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty in Attleboro District Court to three charges of uttering a counterfeit note and possession of a counterfeit note.
He reportedly has a record of similar crimes in Rhode Island. His attorney, Lynn Porecca, said her client has struggled with drug and alcohol problems and untreated mental health issues, and had a relapse.
Dana Leland used fake $100 bills depicting Abraham Lincoln instead of Benjamin Franklin
Dana Leland is due back in court December 11.
Amazingly, this is not the first time that someone has tried to pass off a fake $100 bill with Abraham Lincoln’s face on it as the real thing.
In February 2008, a man was arrested in Mesa, Arizona, for doing just that while trying to buy a watch with two phony $100 note, KPHO-TV reported at the time.
The store owner tried to let the uninformed crook, 37-year-old Scott Martin, down easy, telling him that Lincoln is not on the $100 note, but the man became enraged, forcing the owner to Taser him.
While being treated by first responders, Scott Martin admitted that he had swallowed a bag of meth before going shopping.
Florida socialite Jill Kelley tried to cash in on her “honorary consul” title by asking for $80 million for her help in putting together an energy deal.
Jill Kelley asked for 2% of a multi-billion deal being considered by an alternative energy company called TransGas Development Systems.
Jill Kelley, 37, was even flown to New York by the company so she could learn more about the business.
But according to company president Adam Victor, he realized she didn’t have a clue about commercial deals when she asked for the eight figure sum for brokering any deal.
Adam Victor said he met Jill Kelley at the Republican Convention in Tampa in September where she boasted about her close contacts with General David Petraeus.
Jill Kelley also told him she was honorary consul for South Korea and Adam Victor admitted he thought her links with officials from the country could help his business.
“When I met with [her], she seemed extremely interested in coal gasification,” Adam Victor said.
He told the Tampa Tribune that he flew Jill Kelley to New York to learn more about his company’s clean coal technology and believed her close ties to David Petraeus could help win energy contacts in South Korea.
Jill Kelley tried to cash in on her honorary consul title by asking for $80 million for her help in putting together an energy deal
Adam Victor said he was shocked when Jill Kelley, who owes millions to the bank and in credit card debt, asked for 2% of any deal that was signed.
The energy chief said he was so taken back by the demand that he began to question her experience in putting together deals. He also cut all ties with her.
A spokesman for Jill Kelley said she was not aware of TransGas.
Meanwhile, South Korean officials are now examining if Jill Kelley should retain the title “honorary consul”.
“We are looking at what is going on around her,” said Tae-jin Kim from the South Korean embassy.
“I think there is a possibility we will review her status.”
Jill Kelley parades around Tampa in a silver Mercedes with the license plate “Honorary Consul”.
She also tried to ask for diplomatic protection after her name first became linked to the downfall for former CIA director David Petraeus.
Losing her honorary consul status will be another slap in the face for Jill Kelley who has already had her pass to the MacDill Air force base revoked.
That was far from the first time that Jill Kelley ruffled feathers at the military base, as the wife of General John Allen, the top military commander under investigation for sending “flirty” emails to a Florida party organizer, was unhappy about their close friendship.
Kathy Allen complained to the wife of a civil liaison officer at Central Command in Tampa about the number of emails her husband was receiving from socialite Jill Kelley.
Jill Kelley, who reveled in her close links to senior military men, was warned several times to stop bombarding the general with emails.
Florida socialite Jill Kelley’s husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, was pictured for the first time today since being dragged into the media spotlight.
Dr. Scott Kelley, a renowned cancer surgeon with his own charitable foundation, was seen leaving his mansion which overlooks the bay this morning.
The surgeon looked weary as he left home wearing a shirt and tie. As he made his way to his car, Dr. Scott Kelley glared at the photographers who have been camped outside his property for several days.
It is the first time he has been seen since his wife was revealed as the lynchpin of an FBI investigation that led to CIA director David Petraeus’ resignation after an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.
As Dr. Scott Kelley braved the media glare on Thursday, there was still no sign of the other doctor dragged into the increasingly tangled web of betrayal – Dr. Scott Broadwell, husband of David Petraeus’ mistress Paula.
Florida socialite Jill Kelley’s husband, Dr. Scott Kelley, was pictured for the first time today since being dragged into the media spotlight
The radiologist, who has two sons with his wife, has not been seen since the scandal broke last Friday.
Dr. Scott Broadwell and his wife had been enjoying a romantic weekend for her 40th birthday at a B&B in West Virginia when news of her long-term affair with CIA director David Petraeus broke on November 9.
The Broadwells then headed for Washington D.C, where Paula Broadwell has been pictured hiding out at her brother’s house. Her husband has remained out of view.
Both Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley have refused to speak publicly about the scandal.
Jill Kelley has remained at her colonial style mansion during the scandal, appearing briefly in bold designer dresses for the media who have gathered outside her home.
She has been bombarded with offers from TV networks to conduct a sit down chat about her relationship. Friends believe Jill Kelley will agree to talk – because she desperately needs the money.
Kathy Allen, wife of General John Allen, the top military commander under investigation for sending “flirty” emails to Jill Kelley, was reportedly unhappy about their close friendship.
Kathy Allen complained to the wife of the civil liaison officer at Central Command in Tampa about the number of emails her husband was receiving from Jill Kelley.
Officials probing the links between General John Allen, 58, and Jill Kelley, 37, said there are 20,000 – 30,000 pages being examined.
One official said the content of the emails were so explicit they amounted to “phone sex”.
John Allen, who is the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan and due to take up a position as head of NATO, has denied any wrongdoing.
Mark Rosenthal, a civil liaison officer, said Jill Kelley was “loud, ostentatious and revealing” at the parties where she kissed and hugged high-ranking military officials. Mark Rosenthal said Jill Kelley wore revealing short skirts at the parties.
Kathy Allen, wife of General John Allen, was reportedly unhappy about his close friendship with Jill Kelley
Other sources said Jill Kelley never spoke with anyone below the rank of colonel and focused on those officers with the most power.
Mark Rosenthal was aware the Tampa socialite was bombarding General John Allen with thousands of emails. He said Kathy Allen complained to his wife about the emails and he contacted Jill Kelley to ask her to stop.
Since becoming a key player in the military sex scandal, Jill Kelley has had access denied to the MacDill Air Force base.
Jill Kelley was among a handful of civilians who had easy access to the base in her role as an unpaid liaison officer and “honorary consul”.
Florida socialite Jill Kelley reveled in her close ties to senior military men and bombarded General John Allen with emails, a military source has revealed today.
Mark Rosenthal, a civil liaison officer for the MacDill Air Force base in Tampa where Central Command is based, said he was appalled by the flirty behavior of Jill Kelley at lavish parties she hosted in her $1.3 million home.
He warned 37-year-old Jill Kelley, a mother-of-three who is married to cancer surgeon Dr. Scott Kelley, to stop bombarding the general with emails. General John Allen is the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
“I called her probably three times and told her not to send any more emails,” Mark Rosenthal told the Tampa Tribune.
“I thought it was ridiculous. Who the hell is she. These guys are protecting the world.”
Jill Kelley reveled in her close ties to senior military men and bombarded General John Allen with emails
Mark Rosenthal, a civil liaison officer, said Jill Kelley was “loud, ostentatious and revealing” at the parties where she kissed and hugged high-ranking military officials. Rosenthal said she wore revealing short skirts at the parties.
Other sources said Jill Kelley never spoke with anyone below the rank of colonel and focused on those officers with the most power.
Mark Rosenthal was aware the Tampa socialite was bombarding General John Allen with thousands of emails. He said Kathy Allen complained to his wife about the emails and he contacted Jill Kelley to ask her to stop.
Since becoming a key player in the military sex scandal, Jill Kelley has had access denied to the MacDill Air Force base.
Jill was among a handful of civilians who had easy access to the base in her role as a unpaid liaison officer and “honorary consul”.
The scathing portrayal came as her husband Dr. Scott Kelley was pictured for the first time today since being dragged into the media spotlight.
Dr. Scott Kelley, a renowned cancer surgeon with his own charitable foundation, was seen leaving his mansion which overlooks the bay this morning.
The surgeon looked weary as he left home wearing a shirt and tie. As he made his way to his car, Dr. Scott Kelley glared at the photographers who have been camped outside his property for several days.
David Petraeus and his mistress Paula Broadwell were seen chatting together at a high-profile intelligence event weeks after they learned the FBI had launched an investigation into their affair, it has been claimed.
Their brazen appearances at the annual Office of Strategic Services Dinner in Washington D.C. on October 27 came just two weeks before David Petraeus’ dramatic resignation last Friday.
A photograph shows Paula Broadwell at the event, according to NBC sources, and guests noted she was confident – rather than a woman under investigation for potential national security breaches.
“It’s mind-boggling that she could be so reckless as to show up at high-profile events like this, shortly after learning the FBI was investigating their affair,” one former U.S. intelligence official told NBC.
The probe was launched in May after Paula Broadwell sent anonymous threatening emails to Florida military socialite and perceived love rival Jill Kelley, telling her to “back off” from David Petraeus.
The catty emails were traced back to Paula Broadwell and, in the process of the investigation, agents also uncovered messages revealing the affair between the biographer and David Petraeus.
A friend claims the affair ended in July and agents interviewed Paula Broadwell during the week of October 14 and David Petraeus the week of October 21, CNN reported – just days before the Washington event.
Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus did not sit together, but were seen speaking, sources told NBC.
Some attendees claimed they attended the event together, conservative weekly Human Events reported, but others disputed this.
It is the last known meeting of the pair who seemed very much at ease with each other, despite claiming their affair had ended months prior.
David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell were seen chatting together at a high-profile intelligence event after they learned the FBI had launched an investigation into their affair
Paula Broadwell, a married mother of two who first met David Petraeus as he spoke at Harvard University in 2006, appeared confident while speaking with guests, Fox News reported.
“She was elated, beaming that night,” the source said.
“She was having her picture taken with guests. She would disappear for a few minutes and then return, very much enjoying the attention.”
They added that Paula Broadwell spoke openly about David Petraeus and had personal insights and opinions about him.
“She said he was unsure of himself sometimes,” they said.
David Petraeus, who is also married with two children, was described as being in a “great mood” and gave a speech honoring a CIA director predecessor and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
After the event, one of the most high-profile events within the intelligence community, the FBI interviewed Paula Broadwell for a second time.
On November 6 – Election Day – the FBI told Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about the probe during a phone call. He then spoke with David Petraeus and advised him to resign.
On November 8, President Barack Obama was told about the 10-month affair and Petraeus visited him at the White House to hand in his resignation.
Barack Obama accepted David Petraeus’ resignation and he stepped down as the head of the CIA on November 9.
The scandal later dragged in another general, the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, after the FBI investigated Jill Kelley’s emails from Paula Broadwell.
During the probe, they reportedly uncovered 20,000 to 30,000 pages of email correspondence between General John Allen and Jill Kelley, an unpaid social liaison who throws parties for military in Tampa, Florida.
Food experts have pointed out that the “fruit” many companies claim on their packaging is actually just balls of sugar and soybean oil, mixed with tiny bits of dried fruit.
Consumer watchdogs warn that some of biggest food companies are fooling us with unhealthy and high-sugar “fruit imposters” inside labels promising “real fruit, full of vitamins”.
An example is Special K Fruit and Yogurt cereal, with fresh berries on the front of the box.
Michael Jacobson, the head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer watchdog group, told Today it actually contains “no berries whatsoever”.
He explained that these berry “imposters” are in a lot of foods, like blueberry Eggos and Aunt Jemima’s Blueberry Pancakes.
While the label proclaims “made with real blueberries”, it actually contains “blueberry bits” which are blue chucks shaped into balls made from “mostly sugar and soybean oil, then little bits of real blueberry that’s been artificially colored”.
Today‘s National Investigative Correspondent Jeff Rossen said: “If the companies were in this room, they would say: <<Look, we’re printing the ingredients on the label. No misleading advertising here.>>”
Food experts have pointed out that the fruit many companies claim on their packaging is actually just balls of sugar and soybean oil, mixed with tiny bits of dried fruit
But Michael Jacobsen disagreed: “You can’t deceive people in big print and pictures on the front of the label, and then give the correct answers on the back of the label.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees such labeling, told Today that it “supports laws requiring labels to be truthful and non-misleading”, and these labels “are permitted” under FDA regulations as long as the word “flavored” is also printed.
Nutritionist Joy Bauer explained: “If you see the word <<flavored>>, either natural or artificial, it could be a red flag that there’s actually no fruit within that product.”
“The Food and Drug Administration is asleep at the wheel. It rarely brings complaints against these companies,” said Michael Jacobsen, whose own group is suing Coca-Cola, which owns vitaminwater because “there aren’t any strawberries and there aren’t any kiwis in there”.
“I suspect the FDA doesn’t want to tangle with big companies who could keep them tied up in court for years… [But] that bottle contains almost as much sugar as a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola.
“Companies are gonna make a lot more money if they can imply that there are berries in the product, but not put them there. They’re saving a lot of money, but they’re cheating consumers.”
Jeff Rossen added: “The food companies told us some of that real fruit on the package is meant as a serving suggestion, and is disclosed in small print.
“The FDA says it does inspect labels, and it’s cracking down on companies that break the law. The agency told us it’s your responsibility to read the entire label, not just the front.”
Despite the ongoing FBI investigation into the extra-marital affair that led to his resignation as Director of the CIA, David Petraeus has agreed to testify this Friday before a House Committee on the Benghazi consulate attack.
The hearing, which will be held before the Senate Intelligence Committee, is closed to the public and the media and the retired four-star general will answer questions on the CIA’s knowledge and handling of the September 11th assault that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American dead.
Last night it was confirmed by the Committee that David Petraeus would appear before them at 7.30 a.m. putting an end to the speculation the former CIA chief would decline to testify following his resignation over the Paula Broadwell affair.
David Petraeus hopes that by offering to give testimony he will clear up some of the wilder rumors that are circulating.
“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.”
David Petraeus has agreed to testify this Friday before a House Committee on the Benghazi consulate attack
This comes as the former CIA director told his close friend Peter Mansoor that he was ignoring the media firestorm that has erupted in the wake of his resignation.
“He wants to maintain a distance and focus on his family at this time,” said retired Peter Mansoor to CNN.
“He realizes it was a severe and morally reprehensible action, but he violated no laws.”
Asked how David Petraeus, 60, was dealing with the scandal, Peter Mansoor said: “He describes it as putting one foot in front of the other, and then repeating the process. So it’s going to be a long, long road of healing for them. He understands that and he’s focusing on it.”
Sources have told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that intelligence officials will show footage from unmanned drones that were overhead during the assault.
“General Petraeus is willing to come before the committee and the details are being worked out,” Senator Diane Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said today. No date for his testimony has been set.
Dianne Feinstein has been among those in Congress who have complained that lawmakers should have been notified about an FBI investigation that led to the disclosure of David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.
But she said that David Petraeus’ testimony to her committee will be limited to the Benghazi attacks that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others. David Petraeus was CIA director at the time of the attacks and visited Libya afterward.
David Petraeus was originally supposed to give evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday before his resignation and subsequent investigation that has expanded to include General John Allen, the chief of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
When asked if there had been a national security breach with the Petraeus affair, Feinstein replied: “I have no evidence that there was at this time.”
The new details of what uncovered David Petraeus’ months-long relationship with his biographer Paula Broadwell come as the FBI continue to search military documents Broadwell admitted to stashing in her home.
Security officials have revealed Paula Broadwell had “substantial” classified information on her computer which should have been stored more securely.
The computer was taken from Paula Broadwell’s Charlotte, North Carolina home on Monday night after she admitted to FBI investigators that she had taken classified military documents, a source told ABC.
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday there was no indication so far that any classified documents had been found but said he will not prejudge the investigation results.
Security officials have revealed Paula Broadwell had substantial classified information on her computer which should have been stored more securely
Officials continue to investigate exactly how Paula Broadwell acquired the files, but as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Military Reserve, she had security clearance to review the documents.
The government had demanded she return the documents and organized the visit to her home. Prosecutors are now deciding whether to charge her with a crime.
Paula Broadwell, who has kept a low profile since the scandal broke, was seen taking refuge at her brother’s home in the Petworth suburb of Washington D.C. on Tuesday night.
Thirteen deaths have been linked to the consumption of Focus 5-Hour energy drinks according to a report by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just weeks after an eerily similar report involving caffeinated drinks and death.
With the fatalities the energy “shot” has been additionally linked to heart attacks, convulsions and in one case a spontaneous abortion according to 90 filings with the FDA released to the New York Times this week.
The reports covering the last three years come just weeks after popular brand Monster Energy was similarly linked by the FDA to five deaths including of a 14-year-old Maryland girl.
Focus 5-hour energy, who voluntarily submitted their incident reports to the FDA complying with a 2008 regulation, has noted no deaths proven to be caused by the two-ounce “shot”.
The FDA’s director of dietary supplement programs said on Wednesday that the agency is looking into the death reports, including the direct link to each possible victim.
Describing its product as a “compact-sized energy shot intended for busy adults” and “not an energy drink, nor marketed as a beverage”, according to a company statement objected by the Times, they estimate the “shot” to contain “about as much caffeine as a cup of the leading premium coffee”.
The product does not list its exact caffeine content though Consumer Reports has figured it being around 215 milligrams – twice as much as an average cup of coffee.
Thirteen deaths have been linked to the consumption of Focus 5-Hour energy drinks according to a report by the FDA
Monster Energy, which sells its product in 24-ounce cans, in comparison contains 240 milligrams of caffeine.
When 14-year-old Anais Fournier from Hagerstown, Maryland consumed two cans of the energy drink, back-to-back, an autopsy found the teen died of cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity, impeding her heart’s ability to pump blood.
Worries have arisen on the quick swallow of two or more 5-hour Energy shots with each being merely two-ounces.
“We recommend on product labels and the 5-hour ENERGY website that individuals consume no more than two bottles of 5-hour ENERGY shots per day, spaced several hours apart,” Living Essentials spokeswoman Elaine Lutz, the products’ distributor, said in the release to the Times.
BP is set to receive a record fine of between $3 billion and $5 billion to settle criminal charges related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
It will be the biggest criminal penalty in US history.
The settlement with the Department of Justice involves BP pleading guilty to criminal charges.
It is thought that up to four BP staff will be arrested.
Details of the settlement are expected to be confirmed by the Washington-based Department of Justice later.
Earlier, BP said it was in “advanced discussions” with US agencies about settling criminal and other claims.
BP is set to receive a record fine of between $3 billion and $5 billion to settle criminal charges related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster
BP said that any deal would not include a range of other claims including individual and federal claims for damages under the Clean Water Act, and state claims for economic loss.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 workers and released millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.
The settlement is much bigger than the largest previous corporate criminal penalty assessed by the Department of Justice, the $1.2 billion fine imposed on drug maker Pfizer in 2009.
The oil giant has been selling assets worth billions of pounds to raise money to settle all claims. The company is expected to make a final payment of $860 million into the $20 billion Gulf of Mexico compensation fund by the end of the year.
BP has booked provisions of $38.1 billion to cover its liabilities from the incident, but the company has said the final cost remained highly uncertain.
Champion Lance Armstrong’s name has been removed from the very cancer fighting charity he founded, dropping its name to the Livestrong Foundation.
The move is the latest of several by the charity to separate itself from its founder, who has been stripped of his seven Tour De France titles.
The U.S. Anti-doping agency (USADA) revealed evidence of performance-enhancing drug use by Lance Armstrong and his teammates.
Foundation spokeswoman Katherine McLane said on Wednesday that the name change was approved by the Texas Secretary of State on October 30th.
Lance Armstrong had previously stepped-down as chairman of the foundation and last week resigned from its board of directors.
Lance Armstrong’s name has been removed from the very cancer fighting charity he founded, dropping its name to the Livestrong Foundation
Katherine McLane said the charity’s supporters recognize its already popular Livestrong brand, which the foundation has used for several years to raise money for cancer survivors programmes.
Leaving one mark of Lance Armstrong unscrubbed from their website is his cancer success story, however, rallying his defeat of testicular cancer to his consequential creation of the foundation.
Adding a six-worded update to that story, they write: “During his treatment, before his recovery, before he even knew his own fate, he created the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now known as the LIVESTRONG Foundation). This marked the beginning of Lance’s life as an advocate for people living with cancer and a world representative for the cancer community.”
In a conference call with his national finance committee on Wednesday, Republican Mitt Romney attributes his election loss to President Barack Obama’s “gifts” that he bestowed on minorities and young people during his first term.
Mitt Romney said Barack Obama’s win was buoyed in large part by loyal Democratic constituencies including the poor that he had promised “free health care”, the immigrants that he had protected from deportation and the college-aged women that he had offered free contraceptives.
“You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity? I mean, this is huge.”
“Likewise, with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus,” he added.
“But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called DREAM Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”
Barack Obama announced in June that he would grant temporary amnesty to some children of undocumented immigrants who met certain requirements and had clean criminal records. The program resembled the DREAM Act, which had long been stalled in Congress.
Mitt Romney chided Barack Obama over the summer for waiting so long to address immigration reform, charging that his amnesty program was politically motivated.
“He saves these sort of things until four-and-a-half months before the general election,” Mitt Romney said in June on CBS’ Face the Nation.
“I think the timing is pretty clear. If he really wanted a solution that dealt with these kids or illegal immigration in America, then this is something he would have taken up in his first three-and-a-half years, not in his last few months.”
Now Mitt Romney is saying that the program is what persuaded Hispanics to support Barack Obama.
Mitt Romney attributes his election loss to Barack Obama’s gifts that he bestowed on minorities and young people during his first term
Mitt Romney won 59% of the white vote, while Barack Obama was backed by 93% of black voters, 71% of Latinos and 60% of voters younger than 30, according to exit polls.
He said that Barack Obama directed his campaign according to the “old playbook” of targeting specific groups with promises of legislation that would persuade them to vote a certain way.
“In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mitt Romney said.
“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” Mitt Romney said.
“Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people.
“They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008,” Mitt Romney said.
Similarly, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate, blamed the Republican ticket’s loss on high turnout among “urban” voters.
“I think the surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race,” Paul Ryan told a television station in Wisconsin.
“When we watched Virginia and Ohio coming in, and those ones coming in as tight as they were, and looking like we were going to lose them, that’s when it became clear we weren’t going to win.”
Mitt Romney told his finance team that the sting of his loss was still too strong to begin mapping out his plans going forward for himself and for the Republican Party.
“I am very sorry that we didn’t win,” he said.
“I know that you expected to win. We expected to win… It was very close, but close doesn’t count in this business.”
Mitt Romney added: “And so now we’re looking and saying, <<O.K., what can we do going forward?>>. But frankly we’re still so troubled by the past, it’s hard to put together our plans from the future.”
Barack Obama’s “gifts”
Mitt Romney says President Barack Obama targeted blacks, Hispanics and young people with certain “gifts” including:
Obamacare’s provisions allowing children to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans through age 26
A program that caps federal student loan payments at 10% of income and forgives any remaining debt after 20 years of consistent payments
Temporary deportation exemptions granted to young illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements
Requirement that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control
Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley, the two women at the centre of the Petraeus sex scandal are facing the prospect of being blackballed by the military establishment.
The US military has revoked access for two women at the heart of the scandal that led to Friday’s resignation of General David Petraeus as CIA director.
Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Tampa socialite who hosted parties for the nation’s top brass, has been told yesterday that she is no longer welcome at military HQ near her Florida home. Her pass at the Florida air force base where she organized social events has been frozen.
An FBI inquiry into Jill Kelley’s complaints of email harassment revealed that Paula Broadwell and General David Petraeus had been having an affair.
Paula Broadwell, who is a military intelligence reservist with the rank of lieutenant colonel has had her government security clearance suspended pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation.
Paula Broadwell, a 40-year-old married mother of two, had apparently sent the anonymous emails to Jill Kelley warning her to stay away from David Petraeus.
Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley, the two women at the centre of the Petraeus sex scandal are facing the prospect of being blackballed by the military establishment
Frederick W. Humphries, the mysterious “Shirtless FBI Agent” who began the investigation that led to the resignation of David Petraeus, has broken his silence to say he did not send Tampa socialite Jill Kelley any pictures of a sexual nature.
While not denying the now notorious, but unseen “shirtless” picture exists, Frederick W. Humphries, 47, said the photograph was sent as a “joke” and described it as him “posing with a couple of dummies”.
Refuting media suggestions that the picture was sent because he had become enamored with Jill Kelley, the decorated FBI agent said that the photo was sent years before she contacted him about threatening emails she received from David Petraeus’ biographer-turned-mistress Paula Broadwell.
According to the general counsel for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association who have spoken to Frederick Humphries, the FBI counter terrorism agent only passed on the information Jill Kelley provided him with and played no part in the subsequent investigation.
Lawrence Berger told theNew York Times that Frederick Humphries, who played a key role in stopping a terrorist attack aimed at blowing up Los Angeles International Airport in 1999 and his wife had been “social friends with Ms. Kelley and her husband prior to the day she referred the matter to him”.
“They always socialized and corresponded.”
Lawrence Berger denied any suggestion that Frederick Humphries sent inappropriate shirtless pictures to Jill Kelley during the course of the investigation which has now engulfed the intelligence community in Washington.
“That picture was sent years before Kelley contacted him about this, and it was sent as part of a larger context of what I would call social relations in which the families would exchange numerous photos of each other,” said Lawrence Berger.
Claiming that the picture was sent as a “joke”, Lawrence Berger said that Frederick Humphries was “posing with a couple of dummies” at the time of the photograph and that it was not sexual in nature.
However, those with knowledge of the investigation that Frederick Humphries sparked said that he was given a dressing down by his superiors for trying to push the complaint forward.
In fact, according to the New York Times, Frederick Humphries believed that the case was purposefully being stalled for political reasons.
So much so, that in October, Frederick Humphries contacted Representative Dave Recihert, a Republican from Washington State, where Humphries had worked before to ask for his help – purposefully going over his bosses heads.
Dave Reichert directed him to House majority leader, Eric Cantor who eventually passed the message onto the FBI director, Robert S. Mueller.
Frederick W. Humphries is the mysterious Shirtless FBI Agent who began the investigation that led to the resignation of David Petraeus
According to Wired Magazine, Eric Cantor and his staff personally met with Frederick Humphries in October but were unable to act on the information he was giving them because they doubted his credibility.
They also had no idea that FBI were investigating David Petraeus in the first place and after conferring they decided to contact FBI Director Robert Mueller on October 31st.
One week later, on November 6th, Election Day, Robert Mueller went to James Clapper the director of national intelligence and David Petraeus’ immediate superior – who urged him to resign his position as head of the CIA.
In fact, the House Judiciary Committee has written to Robert Mueller to ask why it took him a week to come forward with the information that Frederick Humphries had given him.
This information puts severe doubt over Frederick Humphries assertion that he took no active interest in the case that has caused the resignation of the CIA chief David Petraeus and could cause the downfall of General John Allen, who commands U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
“Fred is a passionate kind of guy,” said one former colleague.
“He’s kind of an obsessive type. If he locked his teeth onto something, he’d be a bulldog.”
Frederick Humphries has since been reassigned and his status is being reviewed by the FBI.
Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, defended Frederick Humphries as an experienced professional.
“From my view issues of national security have unfortunately been reduced to a bad episode of <<Real Housewives>>,” he said to the Wall Street Journal.
“The photos should not undermine the fact that the agent responded in a timely way and appropriately, nor do they reflect any amorous relationship,” he said.
It was Frederick Humphries who passed on Jill Kelley’s complaint about disturbing emails she had received to his superiors in the FBI Tampa field office.
The investigation tracked down the emails to Paula Broadwell and subsequently discovered the extramarital affair between 60-year-old David Petraeus and the married mother-of-two.
Frederick Humphries grew up in Steilacoom, Washington, attended high school in Canada and rose to become a captain in military intelligence in the U.S. Army.
Studying criminology at the University of Tampa, Frederick Humphries joined the FBI and in 1999 he was involved in the investigation which foiled Ahmed Rassam the “Millennium Bomber” who planned to attack Los Angeles International Airport.
Two years ago the passionate officer was attacked outside of MAcDill Air Force Base in Tampa by a knife wielding man, who Frederick Humphries fatally shot.
It’s a common grumble that politicians’ lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president – who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay. Jose Mujica.
Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.
This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.
President Jose Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife’s farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.
The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.
This austere lifestyle – and the fact that Jose Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000, to charity – has led him to be labeled the poorest president in the world.
“I’ve lived like this most of my life,” Jose Mujica says, sitting on an old chair in his garden, using a cushion favored by Manuela the dog.
“I can live well with what I have.”
His charitable donations – which benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs – mean his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $775 a month.
In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration – mandatory for officials in Uruguay – was $1,800, the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.
This year, Jose Mujica added half of his wife’s assets – land, tractors and a house – reaching $215,000.
That’s still only about two-thirds of Vice-President Danilo Astori’s declared wealth, and a third of the figure declared by Jose Mujica’s predecessor as president, Tabare Vasquez.
Elected in 2009, Jose Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution.
He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.
Those years in jail, Jose Mujica says, helped shape his outlook on life.
President Jose Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife’s farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo
“I’m called <<the poorest president>>, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.
“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” Jose Mujica says.
“I may seem a mad and eccentric old man. But this is a free choice.”
The Uruguayan leader made a similar point when he addressed the Rio+20 summit in June this year: “We’ve been talking all afternoon about sustainable development. To get the masses out of poverty.
“But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of development and consumption of the rich countries? I ask you now: what would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household than Germans? How much oxygen would we have left?
“Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet.”
Jose Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a “blind obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the world”.
But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Jose Mujica and these other leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and downs of political life.
“Many sympathize with President Mujica because of how he lives. But this does not stop him for being criticized for how the government is doing,” says Ignacio Zuasnabar, a Uruguayan pollster.
The Uruguayan opposition says the country’s recent economic prosperity has not resulted in better public services in health and education, and for the first time since Jose Mujica’s election in 2009 his popularity has fallen below 50%.
This year Jose Mujica has also been under fire because of two controversial moves. Uruguay’s Congress recently passed a bill which legalized abortions for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Unlike his predecessor, Jose Mujica did not veto it.
He is also supporting a debate on the legalization of the consumption of cannabis, in a bill that would also give the state the monopoly over its trade.
“Consumption of cannabis is not the most worrying thing, drug-dealing is the real problem,” he says.
However, Jose Mujica doesn’t have to worry too much about his popularity rating – Uruguayan law means he is not allowed to seek re-election in 2014. Also, at 77, he is likely to retire from politics altogether before long.
When he does, Jose Mujica will be eligible for a state pension – and unlike some other former presidents, he may not find the drop in income too hard to get used to.
Even before Paula Broadwell’s affair with David Petraeus emerged this was a point which bothered talk-show hosts, perplexed interviewers and left onlookers faintly bewildered at the string of appearances which constituted Broadwell’s publicity tour for that book, All In.
Her own explanation, such as it was, is glib at best. They met, Paula Broadwell repeatedly trotted out, at a dinner for West Point alumni back in 2006.
After dinner there were drinks and at drinks David Petraeus gave her his business card and they just kept in touch.
Two years later, in 2008, Paula Braodwell was working on a dissertation on theories of leadership and so, she told Jon Stewart: “I shot him an email, and said, <<I’m gonna to go for it>>.”
David Petraeus’ reaction was to invite Paula Braodwell well and truly into his camp. For a man of such experience the extent to which he let his guard down is breathtaking.
But then Paula Broadwell is nothing if not convincing when it comes to outlining her own credentials and, given the glowing portrait of “strategic leadership” she penned as David Petraeus’s biography, nothing if not flattering.
In one television interview Paula Broadwell recalled approaching General David Petraeus and asking him to be a case-study for her dissertation. She wanted to show: “What Petraeus’s role was in forcing the military to adapt to win the wars we were in”.
“There was no room for a conversation of shortcomings of the Petraeus theology. She wasn’t a reporter. She struck me as an acolyte,” one advisor to David Petraeus is quoted as telling the New York Post.
And while Paula Broadwell stroked her subject’s ego with one hand she shored up her own credibility with the other; part Mata Hari, part blue-stocking.
Another in the Petraeus camp noted, on meeting her: “I was underwhelmed. It was surprising to me that she was his official biographer.”
But, when it came to promoting her book, for Paula Broadwell establishing her own academic, military and security credentials came second only to establishing whether General David Petraeus was, as Jon Stewart put it, “awesome or incredibly awesome”.
She dropped academic qualifications and security clearance the way a socialite might pepper her conversation with boasts of parties attended and ‘BFFs made.
According to Paula Broadwell, being embedded in Afghanistan with David Petraeus was not the huge leap many imagined because, she explained: “We had previously met through academia.”
Paula Broadwell herself was a graduate of West Point and a specialist in counter-terrorism with black ops experience, high security clearance, “and then some”.
She was High School Valedictorian, All State Basketball player, top of her class at West Point, holder of a masters from Harvard…and how do we know all of this? Because Paula Broadwell has taken great pains to tell us.
Paula Broadwell was an acolyte, never a reporter and an unquestioning devotee of David Petraeus
We know that her husband Scott Broadwell is not “just” a radiologist but an “interventional radiologist”.
Writing in The New Republic, Noam Scheiber states: “When my friend met her, she was fond of pointing out that her husband was no mere radiologist but a special breed known as <<interventional radiologist>>. She would draw out the word <<interventional>> for emphasis.”
We know that she can run 6-minute miles and do hundreds of press-ups, that she has 13% body fat and is an ironman triathlete and marathon runner.
We know all this because Paula Broadwell has told us. We know that she hosted a charity BBQ for wounded veterans because she invited Jon Stewart and the assembled press.
Meanwhile, until Paula Broadwell stopped posting, her Twitter feed was a dizzying mixture of her following both world-causes and the world-famous.
According to the Times, Paula Broadwell recently tweeted: “Heading 2 @AspenInstitue 4 the Seucirty Forum tomorrow! Panel (media & terrorism) followed by a 1v1 run with Lance Armstrong.”
The political, professional and academic platform on which Paula Broadwell now teeters is one entirely of her own, formidable, construction: itself an exercise in strategy to rival David Petraeus’s own.
Paula Broadwell has set out her credentials relentlessly with faux humility, referring to herself as a mere “mentee” of David Petraeus on one hand then telling the Charlotte Observer in her hometown in North Carolina: “Petraeus once joked I was his Avvatar” a breathtakingly arrogant aside.
Margaret Thatcher once noted that if you had to tell people you were a lady, you probably weren’t. But self-effacement seems the only class that Paula Broadwell ever sat out.
And the more impressive Paula Broadwell made herself the more flattering her interest in David Petraeus must surely have been. What better way to appeal to a man in power than to appeal to his vanity?
Noam Scheiber, describes David Petraeus as a man of “overachieving impulses and intellectual pretensions”.
Recognizing that, Paula Broadwell seems to have taken those dubious attributes as her own template for what she described in several publicity interviews as her “new path of the soldier-scholar”.
As such Paula Broadwell has been a keen writer of opinion pieces and regular poster on the West Point Alumni Notes page.
Writing in the Boston Globe in 2009, Paula Broadwell tackled the issue of fraternization between the sexes on the front line: “Human sexuality will always present a challenge to organizational discipline. In isolated outposts [it] could create a situation where issues of sex impede an organization’s survival skills.”
Rather presciently she concluded: “Banning sex is futile and impossible; the best approach is to set rules regarding fraternization, maintain awareness of relationships within the command, and strictly and fairly discipline transgressors.”
On many occasions Paula Broadwell has noted of David Petraeus that he “spoke truth to power”.
But if the events of the past week have shown anything it is that the court of the man known as “King David”, lacked anyone willing or able to do the same to him.
Because where David Petraeus “spoke truth to power” Paula Broadwell wanted to dissect that power and to get close to it.
Revealingly, in a recent address to the University of Denver Paula Broadwell claimed to have been drawn to the military as an “instrument of power” and that she wanted to understand how that instrument worked – presumably so she could play it.
Harassing emails sent by Paula Broadwell to her love rival, Jill Kelley, contained confidential information about David Petraeus’ movements, a law enforcement source has revealed.
After Jill Kelley contacted the FBI, agents launched a massive in-depth investigation into who was sending the emails because they shared this detailed information that was not publicly available.
The catty emails, which told Jill Kelley to “back off” from David Petraeus, were sent to Kelley from several fake email addresses. In order to find who had confidential information about David Petraeus’ whereabouts, the FBI obtained an administrative subpoena, and traced them back to Paula Broadwell.
In the course of the investigation, they also unearthed emails indicating the affair between Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus, leading to his resignation on Friday.
The new details of what uncovered David Petraeus’ months-long relationship with his biographer come as the FBI continue to search military documents Paula Broadwell admitted to stashing in her home.
Security officials have revealed she had “substantial” classified information on her computer which should have been stored more securely.
The computer was taken from Paula Broadwell’s Charlotte, North Carolina home on Monday night after she admitted to FBI investigators that she had taken classified military documents, a source told ABC.
FBI agents left Paula Broadwell’s Charlotte home on Monday evening with documents and computers
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday there was no indication so far that any classified documents had been found but said he will not prejudge the investigation results.
Officials continue to investigate exactly how Paula Broadwell acquired the files, but as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Military Reserve, she had security clearance to review the documents.
The government had demanded she return the documents and organized the visit to her home. Prosecutors are now deciding whether to charge her with a crime.
Paula Broadwell, who has kept a low profile since the scandal broke, was seen taking refuge at her brother’s home in the Petworth suburb of Washington D.C. on Tuesday night.
Preparing an evening meal with a glass of wine in her hand, the 40-year-old mother-of-two wore the strain of the last few days clearly on her face. There was no sign of her husband, Scott Broadwell.
Xi Jinping has been confirmed as China’s leader for the next decade.
Xi Jinping led the new Politburo Standing Committee onto the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, signaling his elevation to the top of China’s ruling Communist Party.
The party faced great challenges, he said, but would work meet “expectations of both history and the people”.
Most of the new committee are seen as politically conservative, and perceived reformers did not get promotion.
Xi Jinping replaces Hu Jintao, under whose administration China has seen a decade of extraordinary growth.
The move marks the official passing of power from one generation to the next.
Xi Jinping was followed out onto the stage by Li Keqiang, the man set to succeed Premier Wen Jiabao, and five other men – meaning that the size of the all-powerful Standing Committee had been reduced from nine to seven.
Those five, in order of seniority, were Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang, Shanghai party boss Yu Zhengsheng, propaganda chief Liu Yunshan, Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and Tianjin party boss Zhang Gaoli.
The new leaders had great responsibilities, Xi Jinping said, but their mission was to be united, and to lead the party and the people to make the Chinese nation stronger and more powerful.
“The people’s desire for a better life is what we shall fight for,” he said.
Corruption had to be addressed, he said, and better party discipline was needed.
“The party faces many severe challenges, and there are also many pressing problems within the party that need to be resolved, particularly corruption, being divorced from the people, going through formalities and bureaucratism caused by some party officials,” Xi Jinping said.
“We must make every effort to solve these problems. The whole party must stay on full alert.”
The new Standing Committee was endorsed in a vote early on Thursday by the new party Central Committee, but in reality the decisions had been made in advance.
The new leaders will gradually take over in the next few months, with Hu Jintao’s presidency formally coming to an end at the annual parliament session in March 2013.
Xi Jinping has also been named chairman of the Central Military Commission, a Xinhua news agency report said, ending uncertainty over whether that post would be transferred from Hu Jintao immediately.
Xi Jinping has been confirmed as China’s leader for the next decade
Hu Jintao’s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, held on to the post for two years after he stood down from the party leadership.
New Standing Committee member Wang Qishan has also been named head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection – the party’s anti-corruption watchdog.
Xi Jinping, a former Shanghai party chief, was appointed to the politburo in 2007.
A “princeling” – a relative of one of China’s revolutionary elders – he has spent almost four decades in the Communist Party, serving in top posts in both Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Shanghai.
His speech drew praise online, with a number of netizens liking his more informal style.
“This big boss at least is talking like a human being. I won’t comment on the rest,” well-known Chinese journalist Gong Xiaoyue said via micro-blog.
Xi Jinping, 59, is said to be a protégé of Jiang Zemin, while Li Keqiang is said to have been Hu Jintao’s preferred successor.
Hu Jintao has been the Communist Party chief since he led the Standing Committee line-up out on stage in November 2002.
Under his administration China has seen a decade of rapid development, overtaking Japan as the world’s second-largest economy.
But the development has been uneven, leading to a widening wealth gap, environmental challenges and rumbling social discontent over inequality and corruption.
Analysts say there has been division at the very top of the leadership in the lead-up to the party congress, with two rival factions jostling for position and influence.
The transition process has also been complicated by the scandal that engulfed Chongqing party leader Bo Xilai – a powerful high-flier once seen as a strong contender for the top leadership. His wife has been jailed for murdering a British businessman and he looks set to face trial on a raft of corruption-related charges.
That notwithstanding, the power transition process has been orderly, for only the second time in 60 years of Communist Party rule.
“The ostensible lack of drama throughout the week-long session may disappoint sensation seekers,”China Daily said in an editorial on Thursday before the new Standing Committee line-up was announced.
“But the confidence in continuity, instead of revolutionary ideas and dramatic approaches, means a better tomorrow is attainable.”
Xi Jinping
Born in Beijing in 1953, father was Xi Zhongxun, a founding member of the Communist Party
Sent to work at a remote village for seven years when he was 15
Studied chemical engineering at Tsinghua University and spent time at a US farm in 1985
Was Shanghai party chief in 2007 and became vice-president in 2008
Seen as having a zero-tolerance attitude towards corrupt officials
Married to well-known Chinese folk singer and actress Peng Liyuan with whom he has a daughter
Chinese Communist Party in numbers
Ruled China since 1949
83 million members in 2011
77% of members are men
Farmers make up one third of membership
6.8 million members work for the Party and state agencies
