British-born Tony Scott, who lived in Beverly Hills, was producer and director Ridley Scott’s younger brother.
Distinct visual styles mark both siblings’ films – Ridley Scott mastering the creation of entire worlds with such films as Gladiator, Blade Runner, Alien and this year’s Prometheus, Tony Scott known for hyper-kinetic action and editing on such films as his most recent, the runaway train thriller Unstoppable, starring regular collaborator Denzel Washington.
Tony was the first of the Scott brothers to enjoy blockbuster success with Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, the top-grossing film of 1986 at $176 million.
Tony Scott teamed with Tom Cruise again four years later on the hit Days of Thunder. He also had a sequel to Top Gun in development.
But Ridley Scott later managed more and bigger hits than his brother and earned a level of critical respect never achieved by Tony Scott.
Gladiator won the best-picture Academy Award for 2000 and earned Ridley Scott one of his three best-director nominations; Tony Scott never was in the running for an Oscar, and critics often slammed his movies for emphasizing style over substance.
The two brothers ran Scott Free Productions and were working jointly on a film called Killing Lincoln, based on the best seller by Bill O’Reilly.
Their company produced the CBS dramas NUMB3RS and The Good Wife as well as a 2011 documentary about the Battle of Gettysburg for the History Channel.
Besides Unstoppable, Tony Scott worked with Denzel Washington on four other movies: Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu and The Taking of Pelham 123.
British-born Tony Scott, who lived in Beverly Hills, was producer and director Ridley Scott's younger brother
• The Hunger (1983) – His debut starred Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie as vampires. It was a commercial flop but became a cult classic
• Top Gun (1986) – Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, and Val Kilmer turned this film into the highest-grossing of the year, $354million, and a pop-culture classic.
• Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) – This Eddie Murphy film was the most highly-anticipated film of the year
• Revenge (1990) – Tony Scott left the action genre to work with Kevin Costner in this adultery thriller. It was a flop
• Days of Thunder (1990) – Tom Cruise returned for a film about the danger of NASCAR racing. Nicole Kidman and Robert Duvall played major roles
• The Last Boy Scout (1991) – Bruce Willis starred in this big-budget action film that under-performed at the box office
• True Romance (1993) – Ironically, this was Tony Scott most critically-acclaimed film but also one of his biggest commercial flops
• Crimson Tide (1995) – Another success for Tony Scott in this thriller starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington
• The Fan (1996) – Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes star in a psychological thriller about fanatical baseball fans
• Enemy of the State (1998) – Will Smith played opposite Gene Hackman in a big-budget spy thriller
• Spy Game (2001) – More glowing reviews for another Tony Scott spy thriller, this one starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt
• Man on Fire (2004) – Denzel Washington as a CIA operative bent on revenge after his young charge is kidnapped in Mexico
• Domino (2005) – Keira Knightley stars as a bounty hunter in LA. Panned by critics
• Déjà Vu (2006) – A science fiction thriller starring Denzel Washington
• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) – Denzel Washington and John Travolta play opposite each other in this terrorism-related thriller.
• Unstoppable (2010) – Tony Scott again turned to Denzel Washington. The critics enjoyed it and the public too spending $168 million
Mining giant Lonmin has dropped its threat to fire miners who failed to return to work at a South African mine after deadly clashes last week.
Lonmin’s decision came after the government appealed to the firm to drop its ultimatum to sack workers if they failed to end their strike by Tuesday.
Last week, police shot dead 34 strikers at the Marikana mine.
The South African parliament is due to debate the killings on Tuesday, amidst a national outcry, reports say.
South African President Jacob Zuma has a declared a week of national mourning and has promised to appoint a commission of inquiry into the shooting.
Mining giant Lonmin has dropped its threat to fire miners who failed to return to work at a South African mine after deadly clashes last week
Mark Munroe, Lonmin’s executive vice president, said firing thousands of workers would not necessarily ease tension.
“I don’t think it’s going to contribute to a more stable environment if Lonmin goes out and puts deadlines and ultimatums and says we will fire everyone if no one comes to work,” he said.
A minister in Jacob Zuma’s office, Collins Chabane, said Lonmin had agreed to suspend its ultimatum in talks with the government.
“I think we need to try to temper the flare-up of emotions on all sides and try to find a reasonable solution to address the problems,” he said on local radio, AFP news agency reports.
Senior opposition party members visited the mine in North West province ahead of a special parliamentary sitting that will debate the incident, South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper reports.
“We have heard the workers concerns and we have familiarized ourselves with the situation. We will now be in a better position to ask the right questions in parliament,” opposition United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa is quoted as saying.
About 3,000 rock-drill operators (RDOs) walked out more than a week ago in support of demands for higher pay.
The strike was declared illegal by Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, and the mine was shut.
Clashes between strikers, some holding clubs and machetes, and police culminated on Thursday when officers armed with automatic rifles and pistols fired dozens of shots.
The miners, who are currently earning between 4,000 and 5,000 rand ($484-$605) a month, say they want their salary increased to 12,500 rand ($1,512).
The body of Jesse Robredo, Philippine Interior Secretary, has been recovered from the sea after a plane he was travelling in crashed.
Jesse Robredo’s body was retrieved from wreckage of the light aircraft about 55 m (180 ft) underwater, Transport Secretary Mar Roxas told reporters.
He was described as a “most honorable” leader by the spokesman of President Benigno Aquino.
Three others were also on the plane when it crashed on Saturday.
Flags at government institutions and police stations are being flown at half-mast.
The body of Jesse Robredo, Philippine Interior Secretary, has been recovered from the sea after a plane he was travelling in crashed
“The nation is united in grief and gratitude to one of her finest and most honorable servant-leaders,” Benigno Aquino’s spokesman said in a statement.
The small plane was travelling from Cebu City in central Philippines to Jesse Robredo’s hometown of Naga City, in Camarines Sur province, when it encountered engine problems.
The pilots sought permission for an emergency landing at Masbate province, but did not manage to make it there. Witnesses saw the aircraft crash into the sea less than a kilometre from the runway.
The bodies of the two pilots have also been found in the wreckage, the government said, but it is not clear if they have been retrieved.
A fourth person, Jesse Robredo’s aide, managed to get out of the aircraft on Saturday. He was rescued by local fishermen and taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Benigno Aquino flew to Masbate on Sunday to oversee the search and rescue operation for Jesse Robredo, local media report.
The president was also with Jesse Robredo’s family on Tuesday as they received his remains in Naga City.
Jesse Robredo, 54, was in charge of the national police force and provincial governments. He was a close ally of Benigno Aquino and helped his election campaign in 2010.
He was a long-time mayor of Naga City before his appointment to Benigno Aquino’s cabinet.
A graduate of Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, Jesse Robredo received numerous awards for good governance.
One of these was the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, known as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, in 2000.
Various officials have described him as an “exceptional” and “inspirational” public servant.
“His unflagging sense of integrity and diligence served as an example to many of his colleagues in and outside government, and these same qualities have made him a most valuable and highly regarded member of President Aquino’s cabinet,” said Florencio Abad, budget secretary, in a statement.
Director Tony Scott did not have inoperable brain cancer, despite initial reports a terminal diagnosis was what drove him to commit suicide from a bridge in Los Angeles, his family told authorities the day after his death.
Tony Scott, 68, perhaps best known for Top Gun, was said to have leaped to his death “without hesitation” in an effort to spare his family the pain of watching his slow death, ABC News reported. Hours later, ABC backed away from that report.
The Los Angeles Times confirmed that Tony Scott’s family told the corner’s office Scott did not have cancer – or any major illness.
“The family told us it is incorrect that he has inoperable brain cancer,” Craig Harvey, a chief at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office told the newspaper.
TMZ were the first to report that Tony Scott’s wife Donna told authorities her husband was healthy, according to unnamed sources.
Donna Scott told investigators that rumors of a return of her husband’s cancer was “absolutely false”, TMZ says.
The celebrity news site also claims the preliminary results of an autopsy did not reveal the presence of cancer – though more tests are needed.
Tony Scott’s body was pulled from the water beneath the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California
The revelation, if proven true, begs the question – what could have driven the successful director, whose films have grossed more than $2 billion, to kill himself?
His older brother, Sir Ridley Scott, is flying from London to Los Angeles to be with Tony’s family.
Tony Scott’s tragic death comes just weeks after he was pictured looking pained as he left a Beverly Hills restaurant on July 23.
Tony Scott had been in hospital earlier this summer and told friends it was for a hip operation. But they knew he had previously kicked cancer and some believe it had come back.
“He has been suffering from cancer and he had a relapse,” a source told the New York Post.
“He wasn’t depressed, he was a lovely guy. On Sundays everyone went to his house, there would be the guy who worked in his local restaurant sitting by the pool by Michael Caine.”
Another source added: “He did have cancer, and for a while he was cancer free. He didn’t have any money problems or marriage problems.”
The beloved filmmaker, who directed movies including Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II and Enemy Of The State and was the younger brother of director Ridley Scott, fell within feet of a cruise boat around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday as horrified tourists watched.
“He landed right next to our tour boat, and many of us saw the whole thing,” a witness, who had been on the cruise around the Los Angeles Harbor, told TMZ.
According to the Contra Costa Times, Tony Scott climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge, which spans San Pedro and Terminal Island, at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday and leaped off “without hesitation”.
Several people called 911 around 12:35 p.m. to report that someone had jumped off the bridge, according to Los Angeles police Lt. Tim Nordquist. Police are interviewing witnesses.
A dive team with Los Angeles Port Police pulled the body from the murky water around 3:00 p.m. It was taken to a dock in Wilmington and turned over to the county coroner’s office.
Investigators found a note in Tony Scott’s black Toyota Prius, which was parked on the bridge, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The note listed names and contact numbers – including that of his wife – so police could call his friends to tell them of his death, TMZ reported.
A suicide note was later found at his office but, while it is said to have been much more detailed than the note in his car, its contents were not revealed.
Simon Halls, a publicist who represents the Scott brothers, confirmed the death.
“The family asks for privacy during this time,” Simon Halls said.
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy is planned and results could be expected as early as this afternoon.
The sudden death shook Hollywood and film fans as the successful director apparently had everything to live for.
Tony Scott leaves behind twin sons and his wife Donna, a model and actress who had appeared in some of his films.
He was also in the early stages of developing a sequel to cult classic movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It was set for release in 2014, the L.A. Times reported.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has said the UK would be committing diplomatic suicide if it tried to enter his country’s embassy in London.
Rafael Correa said such a move would open up the UK to having its diplomatic missions around the world entered.
The president was speaking to state television about the continuing dispute over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Julian Assange has been in the embassy since June and been granted asylum by Ecuador as he fights extradition.
The UK says it is obliged to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden, where he faces questioning over sex assault claims, which he denies, and he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has said the UK would be committing diplomatic suicide if it tried to enter his country's embassy in London
Julian Assange entered the embassy in June while on bail before extradition proceedings against him started.
The interview with Rafael Correa opened with a short report from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
It showed Julian Assange hugging his lawyer, the former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, just minutes before he addressed crowds of his supporters from the embassy’s balcony on Sunday.
Rafael Correa was then asked if he thought there was now no possibility the UK authorities would enter the embassy premises to arrest Julian Assange, as they had previously indicated they might in a letter to Ecuadorean officials.
The preseident said: “While the United Kingdom hasn’t retracted nor apologized, the danger still exists.”
He said such a course of action would be “suicide for Great Britain because then people could enter their diplomatic premises all around the world and they wouldn’t be able to say a thing”.
There was very little said on what the next diplomatic step might be regarding removing Julian Assange from the embassy.
But Rafael Correa said, if needed, he was prepared to take the issue to the United Nations.
He also said Ecuador was hoping for strong support from a meeting of the Organization of American States on Friday.
“Remember that David beat Goliath. And with many Davids it’s easier to bring down a number of Goliaths,” he said.
“So we’re hoping for clear and coherent backing because this violates all inter-American law, all international law, the Vienna Convention and all diplomatic traditions of the last, at least, 300 years on a global scale.”
Returning to the question of Julian Assange, Rafael Correa said: “The British say they have no choice but to extradite him but why didn’t they extradite Augusto Pinochet?”
While Rafael Correa may not have thrown any fresh light on where the stalemate goes next, he did reiterate that the channels of negotiation with the UK were still open.
The UK has insisted it will not grant Julian Assange “safe passage” to Ecuador as it seeks a diplomatic solution to him being given asylum.
The Supreme Court in May dismissed Julian Assange’s bid to reopen his appeal against extradition and gave him a two-week grace period before extradition proceedings could start.
On Sunday, Julian Assange, 41, used his first public statement since entering the embassy to claim asylum – delivered from a balcony – to call on the US to stop its “war on whistle-blowers”.
The US is carrying out an investigation into WikiLeaks, which has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables, embarrassing several governments and international businesses.
In 2010, two female ex-WikiLeaks volunteers accused Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, of committing sexual offences against them while he was in Stockholm to give a lecture.
Julian Assange claims the sex was consensual and the allegations are politically motivated and fears extradition to the US if extradited to Sweden.
Being overweight is not just bad for your waistline but for your brain too, say researchers who have linked obesity to declining mental performance.
Experts are not sure why this might be, but say metabolic changes such as high blood sugar and raised cholesterol are likely to be involved.
Obesity has already been tipped as a risk factor for dementia.
The work, published in Neurology, tracked the health of more than 6,000 British people over a decade.
The participants, who were aged between 35 and 55, took tests on memory and other cognitive skills three times over a 10-year period.
People who were both obese and who had unhealthy metabolic changes showed a much faster decline on their cognitive test scores compared to others in the study.
Being overweight is not just bad for your waistline but for your brain too
The experts stress that they only looked at cognitive function, not dementia.
The boundary between normal ageing, mild cognitive impairment and dementia is blurred – not all impairment leads to dementia.
All of the study participants came from one group of civil service workers, which may mean the findings may not apply more generally to other populations.
They said: “More research is needed to look at the effects of genetic factors and also to take into account how long people have been obese and how long they have had these metabolic risk factors and also to look at cognitive test scores spanning adulthood to give us a better understanding of the link between obesity and cognitive function, such as thinking, reasoning and memory.”
Shirley Cramer of the Alzheimer’s Research UK said: “We do not yet know why obesity and metabolic abnormality are linked to poorer brain performance, but with obesity levels on the rise, it will be important to delve a little deeper into this association.
“While the study itself focuses on cognitive decline, previous research suggests that a healthy diet, regular exercise, not smoking and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol in midlife can also help stave off dementia. With dementia figures spiralling towards a million, the findings suggest we should be conscious of our general health throughout life.”
Just two weeks after landing its Curiosity rover on Mars, NASA has announced it will send another robot to the planet in 2016.
The InSight spacecraft will be a static lander that will carry instruments to investigate Mars’ deep interior.
Scientists say this will give them a clearer idea of how the rocky planets formed – the Earth included.
InSight beat two other proposals in a competition to find NASA’s next relatively low-cost mission.
This so-called Discovery class of endeavor is cost-capped at $425 million (345 million euros), although that figure does not include the rocket to launch the spacecraft.
InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.
It will be led from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
The design of the lander leans heavily on the successful Phoenix probe put on the Red Planet in 2008. But although the 2016 venture will look very similar, it will carry very different instrumentation.
A seismic experiment will listen for “marsquakes” and use this information to map the boundaries between the rock layers inside Earth’s neighbor.
It will determine if the planet has a liquid or solid core, and provide some clues as to why its surface is not divided up into tectonic plates as on Earth.
Just two weeks after landing its Curiosity rover on Mars, NASA has announced it will send InSight robot to the planet in 2016
Key components of this package will come from France and the UK.
InSight will also push a German-built thermal probe into the surface to gauge Mars’ temperature profile. This will reveal how the planet is cooling.
JPL will provide the two cameras on InSight and a robotic arm.
It will also deliver another sensor that will very accurately determine the degree to which the planet wobbles on its axis.
All the data combined will inform researchers about the internal state of Mars today and how it has changed through the eons.
“This is science that has been compelling for many years,” said John Grunsfeld, who heads up NASA’s science division.
“Seismology, for instance, is the standard method by which we’ve learned to understand the interior of the Earth – and we have no such knowledge for Mars.
“This has been something the principal investigator (JPL’s Bruce Banerdt) of this mission has been trying to get to Mars for nearly three decades, and so I’m really thrilled that this is now at a mature stage where he has been able to propose something that fits within the cost and schedule constraints of the Discovery programme.”
It is clear from surface features that the Red Planet was much more geologically active in the past. The remains of the largest volcano in the Solar System – Olympus Mons – can be seen on Mars.
When and why this activity waned remains to be established, but it is an issue that plays directly to the question of life on the planet.
Earth retains an atmosphere and water at its surface because of the protective magnetic field generated in its liquid iron/nickel core.
At some point, Mars lost its global magnetic shield and that allowed the stream of particles billowing away from the Sun – the “solar wind” – to strip away the planet’s atmosphere, leading to the loss also of its surface water. This change may have stifled any chance for life to establish itself on Mars.
NASA is currently basking in the success of its Curiosity rover, which landed on the planet two weeks ago. That mission, by comparison, is costing $2.5 billion (2 billion euros).
The space agency says the InSight selection was made before the six-wheeled vehicle touched down and so was not influenced in any way by recent events.
The outlook for American Mars scientists now looks considerably brighter than it did at the beginning of the year.
Back in February, they were told NASA’s budget for Red Planet exploration would be cut back sharply; and many feared that if Curiosity was lost during its risky landing, they might not see another US-led Martian lander for perhaps 10 years.
InSight – Mission to Mars’ interior
• Launch window: 8-27 March 2016
• Landing: 20 September 2016
• Destination: Flat equatorial plain
• Mission length: Two Earth years
• Cost: $425 million cap (without rocket)
Billionaire George Soros has bought a stake in Manchester United football club, a US regulatory filing showed.
George Soros’ investment fund bought about 3.1 million Class A shares in the club, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Class A shares carry one vote each, compared with 10 votes for every Class B share.
The club floated on the US stock market earlier this month.
Billionaire George Soros has bought a stake in Manchester United football club
While the figure was less than originally hoped, the flotation valued the club at more than $2.3 billion, making it one of the biggest sports clubs in the world.
Manchester United has been controlled since 2005 by the Glazer family, the billionaire US sports investors who also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football franchise.
About half of the $233 million that the club raised from its flotation will go to paying off the club’s debts, with the rest going to the Glazers.
Manchester United’s shares on Monday closed down 2.7% at $13.06, after hitting a fresh low of $12.91 earlier in the day.
Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, has died at the age of 57, state media say, after weeks of illness.
Meles Zenawi died in a hospital abroad, said state media and a government spokesman, but they did not say exactly where or give details of his ailment.
Speculation about his health mounted when he missed an African Union summit in Addis Ababa last month.
Meles Zenawi took power as the leader of rebels that ousted communist leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.
He had dominated Ethiopian public life since the 1990s, as president and then prime minister.
He was austere and hardworking, with a discipline forged from years spent in the guerrilla movement – and almost never smiled.
Meles Zenawi died in a hospital abroad, said state media and a government spokesman, but they did not say exactly where or give details of his ailment
“Prime Minister Meles Zenawi passed away yesterday [Monday] evening at around midnight,” government spokesman Bereket Simon said, adding that he was “abroad” when he died, according to AFP news agency.
“He had been recuperating well, but suddenly something happened and he had to be rushed to the ICU [intensive care unit] and they couldn’t keep him alive.”
State television said he had died after contracting a “sudden” infection.
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who is also Ethiopia’s foreign minister, will be acting head of government, state television said.
“Even if Ethiopia has been badly affected for missing its great leader, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi initiated fundamental policies and strategies which will be further strengthened,” the TV said.
Meles Zenawi had not been seen in public for some eight weeks prior to his death, and was reported to have been admitted to hospital in July.
But three weeks ago, the spokesman Bereket Simon said he was in “a good condition and recuperating”, and dismissed reports he was critically ill.
At the time he declined to give any details about Meles Zenawi’ whereabouts or what he was suffering from.
But reports suggested Meles Zenawi was in hospital in Belgium, suffering from a stomach complaint.
President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons by Syria would be a “red line” that would change his thinking on intervention in the crisis.
Barack Obama said he had “at this point not ordered military engagement”.
But he added: “There would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons.”
Earlier the new UN special envoy to Syria faced criticism for refusing to say whether President Bashar al-Assad must quit.
Barack Obama, speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, said the deployment or use of biological weapons would widen the conflict in the region.
He said: “It doesn’t just include Syria. It would concern allies in the region, including Israel, and it would concern us.”
He warned President Bashar al-Assad and “other players on the ground” about the use or movement of such weapons.
He said: “A red line for us is [if] we see a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around, or being utilized. That would change my calculus.”
President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons by Syria would be a "red line" that would change his thinking on intervention in the crisis
Syria holds the world’s fourth-largest stockpile of chemical weapons. Last month a Syrian foreign ministry spokesman said the weapons would never be deployed inside Syria.
However, the US has seen unconfirmed reports recently that the Syrian authorities have been moving the country’s chemical arms stockpile.
Fighting continued in several Syrian cities on Monday, including Damascus, Deraa and Aleppo.
A Japanese journalist, Mika Yamamoto, was killed by gunfire in Aleppo, the country’s foreign ministry has confirmed.
Mika Yamamoto, 45, was a veteran war reporter, working for Japan Press.
The UN says more than 18,000 people have been killed in the conflict, 170,000 have fled Syria and 2.5 million need aid within the country.
Earlier on Monday, the UN’s new envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi said he was “not in a position to say yet” whether President Assad should go, but was “committed to finding a solution”.
Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister, last week succeeded Kofi Annan who resigned after both sides largely ignored his peace plan.
On Sunday, UN observers ended their mission to verify its implementation.
Their departure came after the UN Security Council agreed to allow their mandate to expire at midnight, and instead set up a new civilian office in Damascus to pursue political contacts that might lead to peace.
Since being confirmed as the new UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi has acknowledged that he has no concrete ideas of how to end the conflict, which he believes has been a civil war for some time.
On Monday, he said he was not ready to say whether President Assad should step down despite widespread international condemnation of his government’s crackdown on dissent since protests erupted in March 2011.
“I am not in a position to say yet, because I was appointed a couple of days ago. I am going to New York for the first time to see the people who I am going to work for, and I am going to Cairo see the Arab League,” he explained.
After announcing his resignation, Lakhdar Brahimi’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, said: “It is clear that President Bashar al-Assad must leave office.”
The main opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council (SNC), said Lakhdar Brahimi’s stance showed “disregard for the blood of the Syrian people and their right of self-determination” and demanded he apologize.
Lakhdar Brahimi stressed that he was “committed to finding a solution full stop”.
“I am a mediator. I haven’t joined any Syrian party. I am a mediator and a mediator has to speak to anybody and everybody without influence or interest,” he added.
“Then I’ll make up my mind about what to say and what to do.”
Duchess of Alba and her husband Alfonso Diez were today spotted enjoying a sunshine break on the island of Formentera.
The two, accompanied by a friend, took a cooling dip in the sea and enjoyed strolls along the beach.
With the typically extrovert duchess clad in a bright floral bikini and her friend in a cut-away cerise swimsuit, the threesome was sure to attract plenty of attention.
Duchess of Alba, 86, and Alfonso Diez, 61, married after much controversy in a ceremony last October; the bride, an eccentric billionaire with more titles than Queen Elizabeth II; her groom a civil servant young enough to be her son.
Alfonso Diez is the duchess’s third husband and 25 years her junior.
Duchess of Alba and her husband Alfonso Diez were today spotted enjoying a sunshine break on the island of Formentera
It emerged ahead of the wedding that the twice-widowed duchess had divided her $5 billion fortune between her six children to convince them that her suitor was besotted with her rather than her money.
Once they had realized the romance between their mother and Alfonso Diez was becoming serious her children had mounted a campaign to block any possible marriage.
They suggested publicly that she was emotionally unstable and even attempted to enlist the King of Spain in their efforts.
The duchess’s answer was to gift her five sons and daughter with their inheritance in advance.
Alfonso Diez also relinquished rights to his wife-to-be’s fortune in an effort to appease her heirs and convince them that he was not a gold-digger.
She did not give up her fortune to marry, rather designated who it will go to once she dies and until then remains in control of the House of Alba in its entirety, but her actions were enough to persuade most of Alfonso Diez’s detractors – and at least the four children that attended the wedding – that their love was real.
The colorful Spanish Royal wed her toyboy in a 15th century palace in Seville last October.
The eccentric Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart wore a delicate pale pink gown designed by Victorio y Lucchino for her third marriage, which took place in front of 38 guests.
Well-wishers donned fancy dress and wigs in an attempt to copy her quirky style as they celebrated in the city’s streets.
The duchess is a distant relative of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana and is among Spain’s most famous people.
Known now for her frizzy white hair, squeaky voice and wildly colorful clothes she entered Vanity Fair’s International Best-Dressed list in 2009 at the age of 83.
A bit of controversy is nothing new in the life of this multi-titled octogenarian.
Last year, Duchess of Alba was at the centre of a sex scandal when Spanish magazine Interviu published a 30-year-old picture on its front cover of the duchess sunbathing topless in Ibiza.
In July 2011 the duchess won damages of over $390,000 from a TV station that claimed she cheated on her first husband with a flamenco dancer.
She doesn’t really need the monet though.
Her fortune is estimated at around $5 billion but with a large chunk of her wealth tied up in property and art the figure could be up to $3.2 billion higher.
Upon her death each of the duchess’s children is now guaranteed to receive significant properties: her eldest, the future Duke of Alba, Carlos will become director of the Alba foundation and control both the Palacio de Liria and the Palacio de Monterrey, while the youngest and only daughter, Eugenia, gets a palace in Ibiza and a vast estate in Andalusia.
Duchess of Alba and Alfonso Diez, a social security administration employee, are old acquaintances through her second husband, who was a former priest, and Diez’s brother.
They bumped into each other about three years ago outside a cinema in Madrid and eventually started dating.
Apple, the world’s most valuable firm, is now the most valuable company of all time, with a market value of approximately $623 billion.
Apple has now surpassed Microsoft’s record of $620.58 billion set in 1999. However that figure is not adjusted for inflation.
The news comes ahead of the anticipated launch of the iPhone 5, and possibly a smaller and cheaper iPad.
Apple, the world's most valuable firm, is now the most valuable company of all time, with a market value of approximately $623 billion
Apple shares hit $664.74 in New York midday trading, before falling to $663.
That was $14.98, or 2.3%, higher than Friday’s close.
There is also speculation that Apple plans to make a TV set.
However, despite its market valuation, Apple, like many US companies, faces a number of challenges.
The strength of the US dollar against the euro and other currencies makes US-made goods more expensive overseas. Added to that, the faltering economic recovery in the United States, combined with recession in major markets such as Europe, is also making it more difficult to sell consumer electronics.
Apple also faces stiff competition from Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and HTC’s One X smartphones.
At least seven people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a bomb attack in Gaziantep, south-eastern Turkey, security sources and media say.
The suspected car bomb exploded close to a police station in Gaziantep, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported.
Police officers were reported to be among the casualties and media showed a bus and other vehicles on fire.
At least seven people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a bomb attack in Gaziantep
No group has so far said it carried out the attack.
However, rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are active in south-eastern Turkey, which has a Kurdish majority.
Gaziantep’s governor Erdal Ata said the explosion had been caused by a remote-controlled car bomb, the Dogan agency said.
Earlier on Monday, two Turkish soldiers were killed and another wounded in a mine blast in south-eastern Hakkari province. Turkish officials blamed the attack on the PKK.
Clashes between the PKK – which seeks autonomy for the Kurds – and Turkey’s armed forces have increased in south-eastern Turkey over the past year.
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Far-right Austrian politician Heinz-Christian Strache has caused anger after posting a cartoon on Facebook, likened to anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda.
Heinz-Christian Strache posted a caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks.
Austrian Jewish leader Oskar Deutsch likened it to images used by the Nazis in the 1930s.
Heinz-Christian Strache, who leads the Freedom Party, has denied he was being anti-Semitic.
Heinz-Christian Strache posted a caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks
The cartoon was posted on Saturday, accompanied by a comment from Heinz-Christian Strache decrying “EU banking speculators” for taking tax money from Austrians.
On Sunday Heinz-Christian Strache posted a second version, labelled in English. The Star of David emblems had been removed from the banker’s cufflinks and the shape of his nose had also been changed.
Both images show another figure labelled “The Government” pouring a drink for the banker, while a third, poorly clothed and thin figure labelled “The People”, sits opposite the banker with a bone on his plate.
“It is not a coincidence that a caricature of Jews, similar to the ones in <<Der Stuermer>> in the 1930s and 1940s, appeared on the Facebook page of Freedom Party leader Mr. Strache,” Oskar Deutsch said, referring to a newspaper published by the Nazis.
Austrian politicians from both centre-left and conservative parties have condemned the cartoon.
The conservative People’s Party called on the Freedom Party (FPO) to address “the incendiary and discriminating tones within the party itself”.
A lawyer in Vienna has also said he will sue the FPO for holocaust denial, which is illegal in Austria.
Heinz-Christian Strache and the FPO have frequently faced accusations of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
On Sunday Heinz-Christian Strache responded to the backlash with a further comment on Facebook saying he did not tolerate anti-Semitism and insisted that he was highlighting his scorn for “the caste of greedy bankers”.
Beach-goers in Qingdao, in China’s north-eastern Shandong province, are donning slightly scary nylon masks to protect themselves when they take to the sand.
The mask, which was invented by a local around seven years ago, is used to block the sun’s harmful rays so wearers don’t have to apply sun tan lotion.
The mask is now under mass production and is on sale at swimwear stores along Shandong province’s East China Sea coast.
Beach-goers in Qingdao are donning slightly scary nylon masks to protect themselves when they take to the sand
The sea port city of Qingdao is famous for its beaches, which are noted for their clear water, mild waves and soft sand.
The beautiful scenery and their European feel are also compared to Hawaii, Bali or Samet Island in Thailand.
A new research reveals your long-lasting bright lipstick could contain a host of chemicals that may seriously harm your health.
Concerns are growing about links to muscle problems, hormone disruption and poisoning by heavy metals, as well as raised risks of allergies and even a form of arthritis.
Among the substances sparking alarm are chemicals such as parabens, methacrylate, lead and cadmium.
The latest to hit the headlines is a substance called triclosan, which is used as a preservative in popular lipsticks. Research out last week linked triclosan to muscle and heart problems. The chemical has also sparked fears that it causes bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics and turn into superbugs.
Johnson & Johnson, the producer of Listerine mouthwash and Neutrogena soap, has pledged to remove triclosan – along with a host of other worrying chemicals – from all of its skincare products.
The latest research on triclosan suggests that it may hinder the process by which muscles – including the heart – receive signals from the brain.
Molecular bioscientist Professor Isaac Pessah found a “dramatic” 25% reduction in heart function within 20 minutes of laboratory mice being exposed to triclosan. He warned that there is “strong evidence” that it could affect human health. His study also found that triclosan can seriously reduce muscle power.
Previous studies have found that triclosan may have links to thyroid and fertility problems. It may increase women’s levels of male hormones – androgens – causing symptoms such as acne, weight gain, excessive hair growth, menstrual dysfunction, and infertility.
The chemical is under investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over fears that it damages people’s health. The European Commission says it is legal for humans, but its use remains “under evaluation”.
A new research reveals your long-lasting bright lipstick could contain a host of chemicals that may seriously harm your health
The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CTPA) in UK has dismissed the latest research as irrelevant because it only involved tests on mice rather than humans. The association adds that the amounts of triclosan used in the experiments exceeded the maximum permitted levels in cosmetics.
It stresses that all cosmetic products sold in the UK are controlled by European safety legislation, adding: “There are many false allegations levelled against cosmetics manufacturers, accusing them of selling unsafe products and using harmful ingredients. These allegations are just that, false.”
However, mounting concerns over the effects of such “safety-approved” chemicals last week moved the skincare giant Johnson & Johnson to announce that it will go far beyond the current requirements of European and American regulators.
It has pledged to remove a host of potentially harmful chemicals from its products, including triclosan and parabens – a type of preservative commonly found in lipstick.
There are concerns that parabens may act like the female hormone oestrogen and interfere with women’s menstrual cycles. Research by Dr. Philippa Darbre, an oncologist at the University of Reading, has even linked parabens to an increased risk of breast cancer.
Investigators have also found other worrying chemicals in some lipsticks. A report in the Journal of Hazardous Materials in 2010, for example, examined the ingredients of a broad range of lipsticks, and discovered that they often contain significant amounts of heavy metals – namely cadmium and chromium.
These are linked to problems such as dermatitis (skin inflammation) and possible kidney damage in the long term.
“Their extraction from the human body takes over 40 years,” the study warned.
Similar studies have found lipsticks containing methacrylate, a form of adhesive, which can irritate the skin.
Some research even links lipstick use with the development of a chronic and severe arthritis- a type of auto immune disease called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The condition makes sufferers produce antibodies that attack healthy tissue, and this leads to inflammation and damage. Lupus can affect the skin, joints and internal organs, including the kidneys.
In 2008, investigators at Tufts Medical Centre in Boston examined the results of previous research studies into this, and concluded that “using lipstick at least three days a week is significantly associated with an increased risk of SLE”.
Women who started wearing lipstick before the age of 16 have significantly higher risk levels, as do women who wear it seven days a week. The researchers suggested that the lupus may be set off by chemicals and heavy metals in lipstick being absorbed by the sensitive tissues that line the cheeks and the back of the lips, called the buccal mucosa.
Perhaps the best-known worry about lipsticks concerns lead poisoning which builds up over time in the body and can cause brain and nerve damage.
Manufacturers don’t actually add lead to lipstick: it’s naturally present in the minerals they use for bright pigments.
Lead levels in lipsticks have been studied by the American safety watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In its most recent test last year, the FDA found that most of the 400 lipsticks studied contained lead and, worryingly, that the maximum level detected had more than doubled between 2009 and 2011.
Nine of the lipstick brands with the most lead are sold by L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics maker. L’Oreal’s “Color Sensational” Pink Petal had the most lead of any lipstick tested, at 7.19 parts per million. The average lead concentration in the 400 lipsticks tested was 1.11 parts per million.
In response, L’Oreal said: “The lead levels detected by the FDA in the study are also within the limits ¬recommended by global public health authorities for -cosmetics, including lipstick.”
Campaigners fear that toxic substances in lipstick are easily absorbed into the bloodstream through the lips and mouth, and that women repeat their lipstick applications multiple times a day.
It has been estimated that the average woman could swallow between 500 g and 1,500 g of lipstick in her lifetime if she were a modest but regular user.
Lead consumption may be particularly dangerous at certain points in a woman’s life. As the official journal of The International Society of Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology points out, “pregnant and nursing mothers are particularly vulnerable to lead in lipsticks, because the metal passes through placenta and human milk and can affect the foetus or infant’s development”.
All these worries prompt Pat Thomas, a UK expert and author on cosmetic safety, to urge women to moderate both their use of lipstick and the brightness of the colors they choose.
“The lists of permitted ingredients lag seriously behind research on safety,” Pat Thomas warns.
“This includes substances such as parabens and triclosan.”
She adds: “As for lead levels, it depends on the lipstick. More and more manufacturers are using mineral products for the pigments in their lipstick. These minerals are mined from the ground, and any mined product will contain lead, as well as other potential dangers such as arsenic and cadmium.”
Ironically, lead levels in some lipsticks have increased because of consumer demand for more “natural” cosmetics. Make-up made with natural ingredients might sound healthier for your skin – and often they are – but with intense modern lipstick shades, the opposite can be true, thanks to the high lead levels in some mined pigments.
“The proportions vary according to the color. All of them will have some level of lead. As a rule of thumb, you can almost guarantee that if it’s a really intense color that lasts for a long time, it will contain the highest levels of lead.”
Pat Thomas acknowledges that the levels of lead in even the brightest hues are comparatively low. But against that, she adds, we have to balance the unknown danger of smearing such substances around our mouths so regularly.
“If it is a concern for you, then go for glosses and sheer colors,” says Pat Thomas.
Russian police are searching for other members of the punk band Pussy Riot who took part in the anti-Putin protest in Moscow’s main cathedral.
The search is separate from the trial that led to three band members being jailed for two years – a verdict that drew an international outcry.
Investigators have not named the new suspects, nor said how many are being sought.
Police have also questioned ex-chess champion Garry Kasparov for allegedly biting a policeman’s hand at a protest.
Garry Kasparov denied the allegation and accused the police of having detained him unjustly and hit him. He was arrested with several other opposition activists outside the Moscow court before the Pussy Riot trio were sentenced on Friday.
Russian police are searching for other members of the punk band Pussy Riot who took part in the anti-Putin protest in Moscow's main cathedral
The women – Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 – were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
Along with other members of their band, they staged a flashmob-style performance of a protest song near the altar of Christ the Saviour cathedral on 21 February.
Reports say two other band members participated. But last week seven unidentified Pussy Riot members in balaclavas met Western journalists and said the trial had only made them more determined.
The three sentenced on Friday said they did not know the other band members’ names, because they had an anonymity rule and just used nicknames for each other.
The British actor and comedian Stephen Fry has published a two-page open letter of support for Pussy Riot, joining other global celebrities in deploring the Russian authorities’ handling of the case.
Stephen Fry condemned the “monstrous injustice and preposterous tyranny” in the case, calling the women’s two-year prison sentence “astoundingly unfair and disproportionate”.
“Putin hasn’t made a monster of himself. He has made a fool of himself. It is often said that had the world laughed at Hitler early enough he would never have taken the hold on power he did.
“I do not call Putin a Hitler. Yet. But it is time to laugh him out of this stance and you out of incarceration,” Stephen Fry wrote.
In Helsinki on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against overreacting, saying the judicial process had not yet been exhausted.
“There is still the possibility of filing an appeal and the lawyers for the young girls plan to do so,” he said, quoted by AFP news agency.
“Let’s not draw any rash conclusions and go off into hysterics,” Sergei Lavrov said.
Workers have trickled back to Lonmin platinum mine in South Africa where police shot dead 34 striking workers last Thursday, but not in enough numbers to resume operations, its owners said.
Lonmin said the Marikana mine reopened but no ore was produced after fewer than a third of staff turned up.
It also said a deadline for striking miners to return to work or face dismissal had been extended to Tuesday.
President Jacob Zuma declared a week of national mourning for those killed.
South African president has also called for a commission of inquiry to investigate the incident.
Workers have trickled back to Lonmin platinum mine, but not in enough numbers to resume operations
“Lonmin can confirm that work at its Marikana operations resumed today as significant numbers of employees returned to work,” the company said in a statement.
“Almost one third of the 28,000-strong workforce reported for their morning shifts.
“The company can also announce that those illegal strikers who did not return to work this morning will not be dismissed and have been allowed an extra day in light of current circumstances.”
Later, Lonmin executive vice-president for mining Mark Munroe said that “for all intents and purposes” no ore had been produced at the mine on Monday.
“By 07:00 tomorrow we expect workers to return to work. After that, Lonmin has the right to fire them,” he said.
Lonmin chief financial officer Simon Scott said the company wanted to “rebuild the trust of the workers”.
“We are aware that it will take some time for some trust to be regained,” he added.
Union officials quoted by Reuters said that at least 80% of the workforce was needed to bring platinum out of the shafts.
It remains to be seen whether more workers will report for duty on Tuesday.
A significant number have vowed to prolong their stay-away, saying that returning to work would be an insult to their dead colleagues.
The week of mourning began on Monday and a memorial service is planned for Thursday.
About 3,000 rock-drill operators (RDOs) walked out more than a week ago in support of demands for higher pay.
The strike was declared illegal by Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, and the mine was shut.
Clashes between strikers, some holding clubs and machetes, and police culminated on Thursday when officers armed with automatic rifles and pistols fired dozens of shots.
In addition to those killed, at least 78 people were injured and some 250 people were arrested.
Those arrested were remanded in custody by a court in the Pretoria township of Ga-Rankuwa on Monday. Charges included murder, public violence and attempted robbery.
During the hearings, about 100 women appeared outside the court to appeal for leniency for the men.
While union leaders held meetings on Monday, about 1,000 workers gathered near the mine said they would not return.
Several accused Lonmin of insensitivity for expecting them to go back to work while they were still in mourning.
“They can fire us if they want, we are not going back to work. [President] Zuma must shut down that mine,” one worker told AFP news agency.
Correspondents at the scene said workers outside the mine were unarmed and in a calmer mood than on previous occasions.
The miners, who are currently earning between 4,000 and 5,000 rand ($484-$605) a month, say they want their salary increased to 12,500 rand ($1,512).
A row has erupted in the US after Congressman Todd Akin said women’s bodies were naturally able to prevent pregnancy in the case of “legitimate rape”.
Todd Akin, who is also running as Republican candidate for the Senate, made the comments in a TV interview to explain his strict views on abortion.
He later said he had “misspoken” but his Democratic rival said the comments were “beyond comprehension”.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he disagreed with the view.
During the interview for KTVI-TV, Todd Akin was asked about his no-exceptions view on abortion, a highly charged issue in the US, and on whether he would like abortion to be banned even if the pregnancy was the result of rape.
He replied: “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare.
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
“But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
A row has erupted in the US after Congressman Todd Akin said women's bodies were naturally able to prevent pregnancy in the case of "legitimate rape
The interview has sparked a furious reaction in the US, with critics attacking both Todd Akin’s scientific view and his reference to “legitimate rape”.
Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill said it was “beyond comprehension that someone can be so ignorant about the emotional and physical trauma brought on by rape”.
“The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive.”
Claire McCaskill, who is trailing Todd Akin in opinion polls for the Missouri seat, said on Twitter that as a former prosecutor she had personally handled hundreds of rape cases.
On blogs and Twitter, users have also poured scorn on his biological view, and expressed concern that he is a member of the House Committee on Science.
Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, told AP radio that the comments were “flat-out astonishing” and that such language was “intended to shame women”.
A spokesman for Mitt Romney said that both the candidate and his running mate, Paul Ryan, disagreed with Todd Akin, and stressed that “a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape”.
Todd Akin later issued a statement saying he had “misspoken” in his “off the cuff” remarks, though did not specify on which points.
He said the interview “does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year”.
Todd Akin also reconfirmed that he “believes deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action”.
The six-term congressman for Missouri is a long-time vocal opponent of relaxing abortion laws.
In 2011, he co-sponsored a controversial bill that would have limited the government help available to women seeking abortions in the case of rape to cases of “forcible rape”.
After a public outcry, the House Republican party was made to change this language.
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Echinacea is an herbal remedy that should not be given to children under 12, the UK’s drugs watchdog has warned parents.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in UK said there was a small risk of severe allergic reactions and this outweighed any perceived benefits.
Some people take the tablets to reduce the severity of cold and flu.
Echinacea is an herbal remedy that should not be given to children under 12, the UK's drugs watchdog has warned parents
The MHRA said it was a precautionary measure and older children and adults could continue to use echinacea.
It said young children were at heightened risk of allergic reactions such as rashes, hives, difficulty in breathing and even potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.
Richard Woodfield, the head of herbal policy at the MHRA, said: “This is not a serious safety issue, but parents and carers need to be aware that children under 12 could have a low risk of developing allergic reactions.
“The measures being taken are precautionary in nature. Parents should not worry if they have given echinacea to children under 12 in the past.”
Licensed products containing echinacea, some of which are aimed at children, will have to be labelled with the warning.
Firefighters in Greece are battling a large forest fire sweeping across the eastern Aegean island of Chios.
The fire began in the early hours of Saturday and has been fuelled by gale force winds.
Authorities said that by Monday the blaze had destroyed about 7,000 hectares (16,000 acres) of forest and farmland.
Residents of nine villages and hamlets were evacuated from their homes over the weekend as the fire approached.
Firefighters in Greece are battling a large forest fire sweeping across the eastern Aegean island of Chios
Chios lies north-east of the capital, Athens, off the coast of Turkey.
The island is famous for its production of mastic, a natural, gum-like resin with a distinctive flavor produced only by trees on certain sections of the island.
Used as a natural chewing gum, a cooking spice and for pharmaceutical and cooking purposes, mastic resin is a major source of income for the islanders.
The strong winds were hampering efforts to extinguish the fires, despite the presence of several hundred firefighters, soldiers and volunteers, as well as firefighting planes and helicopters.
Wildfires are common during Greece’s long, hot summers, though some are believed to be started on purpose.
A further five forest and brush fires broke out on Monday across Greece, the Associated Press news agency reports, while fire crews continued to fight six fires already burning in other parts of the country.
The government has requested the assistance of water-bombing aircraft from Spain and Italy to help with the summer blazes.
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Alice in Wonderland fans have been marking the 150th anniversary of the fateful boat trip that saw the genesis of the children’s tale.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is, on one level at least, the story of a girl who disappears down a rabbit hole to a fantastic place full of bizarre adventures.
Charles Dodgson, a mathematician at Christ Church, Oxford, first told his surreal story to the daughters of dean Henry Liddell as they rowed down the Thames.
After the boating trip, 10-year-old Alice Liddell badgered Dodgson to write it down and Alice in Wonderland – under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll – was born. The heroine follows a talking white rabbit, meets the Queen of Hearts and plays croquet using flamingos as mallets.
Since the 1960s there has been a trend for readers to identify an underlying drug theme in the book.
The Cheshire Cat disappears leaving only the enigmatic grin behind. Alice drinks potions and eats pieces of mushroom to change her physical state. The caterpillar smokes an elaborate water pipe. The whole atmosphere of the story is so profoundly disjointed from reality – surely drugs must have had an influence? After all this was the era of legal opium use.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the story of a girl who disappears down a rabbit hole to a fantastic place full of bizarre adventures
Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 psychedelic anthem White Rabbit runs with the drug theme.
“When the men on the chessboard get up / And tell you where to go / And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom / And your mind is moving low / Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.”
The Matrix provides a film reference point. “You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
The drug link is a homespun thing. You’ll find it on a host of random forums.
But the experts are usually skeptical. Lewis Carroll wasn’t thought to have been a recreational user of opium or laudanum, and the references may say more about the people making them than the author.
“The notion that the surreal aspects of the text are the consequence of drug-fuelled dreams resonates with a culture, particularly perhaps in the 60s, 70s and 80s when LSD was widely-circulated and even now where recreational drugs are commonplace,” says Dr. Heather Worthington, Children’s Literature lecturer at Cardiff University.
“It is the deviant aspects that continue to fascinate because the text is unusual, innovative, and hard to grasp so turning to the author offers simplicity and excitement simultaneously.”
The mushroom is “magic” only in the context of the story. And the caterpillar is merely smoking tobacco through a hookah.
The shadow hanging over anyone reading the story is the issue of Lewis Carroll’s sexuality. A successful photographer, many of his surviving shots are of children, often semi-dressed or naked.
To many modern minds, a man who regularly formed friendships with young girls is inherently suspicious.
“Lewis Carroll’s personal life intrigues adult readers because Alice in Wonderland is a text for children but the notion that the author photographed, however innocently, young girls in a state of undress is, to our modern eyes, unpalatable,” says Heather Worthington.
“That Alice was based on a child that Carroll knew adds yet another layer of interest, or suspicion, depending on how you look at it.”
But Lewis Carroll was living at a time when childhood innocence was being forged, influencing how children were represented in 19th Century literature aimed at them.
Lewis Carroll’s interest in young female innocence is explained by some of the experts as one that invoked desire, but not necessarily sexual.
Jenny Woolf, author of The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, agrees with this theory.
“Girls offered him a non-judgemental and non-sexual female audience and he opened up to them. They loved him and he found it a relief to be with them.
“Although he was attracted to women, celibacy was a condition of Carroll’s job [a condition imposed on certain Oxford academics at the time] and he believed that having sex was against God’s wishes for him.”
There are plenty of experts who find his interests harder to explain and it is inevitable that this knowledge will inform what readers take from the story.
Consult any set of notes on the book and you’ll see a slew of themes picked out: puberty, abandonment, the challenge of transition to adulthood, even the perils of authoritarian justice in the form of the Queen of Hearts.
But bearing in mind the nature of the birth of the piece, an off-the-cuff attempt to amuse a child in a rowboat, are people guilty of reading too much into it?
In a recent issue of Prospect magazine, Richard Jenkyns, professor of the classical tradition at Oxford University, called Alice in Wonderland “probably the most purely child-centred book ever written” and said that its only purpose “is to give pleasure”.
Yet another narrative imposed on the book is the idea of grappling with a sense of self. Lewis Carroll led a very controlled existence, struggling with self-identity, a recurring theme in the book as Alice regularly expresses uncertainty about who she is after she enters Wonderland.
“Perhaps that’s why his book refers to <<morality>> in jeering terms,” suggests Jenny Woolf.
“And the action takes place either underground or in a world which is the opposite of our own.”
We can’t ever truly know what Lewis Carroll intended or if he meant to write anything beyond an enchanting children’s story.
Based on his own experience as an illustrator for the 1988 edition of Alice in Wonderland, Anthony Browne believes Lewis Carroll might not have been aware of the meanings found within his story.
“People interpret books in a logical way as they do dreams. They want it to have meaning. Alice in Wonderland is not to be read as a logical book. There could be some hidden meanings in there, especially considering Carroll was a mathematician during his lifetime, whether he was aware of such meanings subconsciously or not.”
Ultimately, perhaps it’s more enjoyable for the full intentions of the author to remain unknown during the reading of the book.
“In a way, it doesn’t matter,” says Anthony Browne.
“I don’t think Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland to be interpreted. He wrote it to entertain.”
Nonce and nonsense
Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky is one of the great nonsense poems in English, scattered with so-called “nonce” words – coined for one occasion only:
• Bandersnatch: fictional wild animal
• Brillig: Humpty Dumpty explains this as “four o’clock in the afternoon – the time when you begin broiling things for dinner”
• Chortled: mixture of chuckle and snort
• Gyre: A whirling, a vortex
• Mimsy: A combination of flimsy and miserable
• Snickersnack: possibly related to large knife, the snickersnee
In the late Sixties a young clinical psychologist named James Laird performed a ground-breaking experiment asking a group of volunteers to smile or frown, then report how they felt.
His theory, proved correct, was shocking in its simplicity: those who were grinning should feel significantly happier than those who feigned sadness.
That one tiny movement which can change your outlook is the basis for Professor Richard Wiseman’s new book, Rip It Up.
If you struggle to get over a relationship just write your feelings on paper, put it in an envelope and seal it
Surviving a break-up:
Struggling to get over a relationship? Write your feelings on paper, put it in an envelope and seal it.
Researcher Xiuping Li from the National University of Singapore Business School asked 80 people to write down a recent decision they regretted.
Xiuping Li then asked some of the participants to hand their descriptions to a researcher and others to seal them in an envelope.
Those who did the latter felt better about their past decision compared with those who handed them over, because they felt as if they had reached closure.
Next time you want help to get over the end of a relationship, write down what happened, put it in an envelope, and kiss the past goodbye.
In a candid interview with Oprah Winfrey last night Rihanna admitted despite their relationship violent end she still loves ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.
Rihanna, 24, told Oprah Winfrey she and Chris Brown are still “very close friends”, adding: “We built a trust again and that’s it. We love each other and we probably always will.”
The television special for Oprah: The Next Chapter showed Oprah Winfrey describe the fall-out from the horrific night after a pre-Grammy party in 2009.
After re-counting the events, a tearful Rihanna, real name Robyn Fenty, opened up about where the pair’s relationship now stands.
“It was embarrassing it was humiliating… I lost my best friend,” she said.
Rihanna admits since the restraining order was dropped against Chris Brown in February 2011, the pair have been working on their friendship, having seen each other as recently as last month in St. Tropez.
In a candid interview with Oprah Winfrey last night Rihanna admitted despite their relationship violent end she still loves ex-boyfriend Chris Brown
“We’ve been working on our friendship again and now we’re very close friends,” she said.
“And that’s not anything we’re going to try to change.”
But she said it’s still difficult to see her ex, because her feelings are conflicting.
“It’s awkward because I still love him.
“My stomach drops and I have to maintain this poker face and not let it get to the outer part of me. I have to maintain it and suppress it,” she explained.
Then she added: “When you don’t understand those feelings you can make a lot of mistakes.”
Rihanna said they are not pursuing anything romantic, noting Chris Brown is in a longterm relationship (with model Karrueche Tran), while she is single.
Still, the memories of their relationship, she predicted, will linger.
“I think he is the love of my life. He was my first love.”
But she remembers, in part, where it went wrong: “We were very young and very spontaneous. We were falling in love and going at a really rapid pace. We forgot about ourselves as individuals.”
Rihanna’s words have caused uproar with domestic violence support charities blasting the singer for “normalizing” abuse.
Charities claim Rihanna is sending out a dangerous message, which could stop abused women from coming forward.
Vivienne Hayes, chief executive of the Women’s Resource Centre, told The Independent: “Rihanna’s case demonstrates the emotional complexities felt by women locked in abusive relationships.”
After falling into what she described as a “dark place”, reflected in her music, her fashion choices and her attitude, the singer said she was finally able to make peace with the violent end to their romance by rebuilding her relationship with her father, Ronald Fenty.
“I was so angry at him. I was just angry about a lot of things from my childhood. And I couldn’t separate him as a husband from him as my father,” she said, acknowledging he was violent toward her mother, Monica Braithwaite.
Rihanna’s parents split nearly two years before she left Barbados for the states at 16. The singer admitted her father’s “addiction” tore her family apart; although she did not elaborate on his substance abuse.
Now, after bridging the gap, she says she has moved on from the scandal with Chris Brown that has cast a shadow over her career for the last three years.
“I have to move on,” she said.
“I have forgiven him. It took me a long time. I was angry for a long time.”
But that reconciliation comes with the desire to know her ex has also healed since the fracas.
“I truly love him, so the main thing for me is that he’s at peace… I care. It actually matters [to me] that he finds that peace,” she said.
Prepared for a backlash, she continued: “I can’t tell people how to feel about it. They’re entitled to feel angry because it wasn’t a good thing that happened. But I have forgiven him.”
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It is well known that everybody hates Mondays, but a new research suggests Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are equally loathed.
US researchers who looked at a poll of 340,000 people found moods were no worse on Mondays than other working days, bar Friday.
People were happier as they approached the weekend, lending support for the concept of “that Friday feeling”.
The report authors told the Journal of Positive Psychology that the concept of miserable Mondays should be ditched.
US researchers who looked at a poll of 340,000 people found moods were no worse on Mondays than other working days, bar Friday
Prof. Arthur Stone of Stony Brook University said: “Despite our global beliefs about lousy Mondays, we conclude that this belief should be abandoned.
“Cultural myths may vastly over-emphasize actual day of the week mood patterns.”
Similarly, claims that the Monday of the last full week of January – dubbed “blue Monday” – is the most depressing of the whole year have been debunked by others.
Prof. Arthur Stone’s team analyzed data collected by Gallup from telephone interviews.
People reported more enjoyment and happiness and less stress or worry on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays compared with the rest of the week.
Prof. Arthur Stone says it is the contrast in mood from Sunday to Monday that has led to Mondays being unfairly singled out.
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