Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone are returning to the boxing ring in the forthcoming comedy Grudge Match.
Robert De Niro, who won an Oscar for his role as boxer Jack LaMotta in Raging Bull, will play a retired fighter who agrees to one last bout in the ring.
His rival will be played by Sylvester Stallone, best known for the Rocky films – a character last revived in 2006.
The pair will be directed by Get Smart’s Kevin Segal.
Stand up comedian Kevin Hart, who recently starred in Think Like A Man, will play the promoter who persuades the old timers back into the ring, Deadline reported, while Entourage’s Doug Ellin will write the screenplay.
No dates for filming have been announced. Robert De Niro is currently filming Luc Besson’s Malvita, in which he plays a retired gangster living under the witness protection programme in France.
Sylvester Stallone’s forthcoming films include Bullet to the Head and The Tomb, both due to be released next year. A third film in the Expendables franchise is also rumored to be in the pipeline.
He was nominated for the best screenplay Oscar for his 1976 film about punch drunk Philadelphian boxer Rocky Balboa. The film went on to collect three awards including best director and best picture – beating Robert De Niro’s Taxi Driver to the title.
A host of celebrities have paid tribute to Whitney Houston as part of a special Grammy television show in Los Angeles.
Britney Spears, Halle Berry and LL Cool J were among the presenters at the Nokia Theatre honoring Whitney Houston who died in February aged 48.
There were also musical performances from Jennifer Hudson and Usher who sang some of Whitney Houston’s hits.
We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston will be broadcast in the US on 13 November.
A number of stars shared their memories of the singer at the event.
“She inspired a generation of little girls and women to believe in their own dream and to know that they had within themselves the greatest gift of all,” Halle Berry said on stage.
“I was one of those little girls who then became a woman who never ever, ever, stopped loving Whitney Houston.”
While Britney Spears said her version of Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing scored her a deal with a record label and started her career.
The event was attended by Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, and record label executive Clive Davis, who discovered the singer.
Whitney Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub the night before this year’s Grammy awards.
Authorities said the cause of death was accidental drowning brought on by cocaine use and heart disease.
Bobbi Kristina Brown swapped her sapphire and diamond sparkler for a pair of stacked rings on Thursday night, as music’s biggest names gathered to pay tribute to Whitney Houston in Los Angeles.
Bobbi Kristina brown, 19, sat stoically through the We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, where Jennifer Hudson, Britney Spears and Usher were among those on hand to give tear-jerking music tributes.
The teenager wore a bodycon red dress for the occasion – her hair coiffed in loose curls around her shoulders.
Bobbi Kristina Brown smiled bravely and clasped Nick Gordon’s hand from time to time, undoubtedly glad to have him there as her support.
Eyes, however, were drawn to the huge bauble on her left hand.
Bobbi Kristina Brown and Nick Gordon at Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston
The stacked pair of rings were noticeably different than the jewellery Bobbi Kristina Brown flashed to family members in a newly-released promo for reality show The Houstons: On Our Own, in which she announced their engagement.
It remains unknown if the jewellery is a keepsake from her mother, or a gift from Nick Gordon.
The teenager has in the past been seen wearing her mother’s jewellery in the wake of her passing.
Bobbi Kristina Brown has meanwhile filled her time with minor acting roles and filming her family’s Lifetime reality show, The Houstons: On Our Own.
Viewers can tune in to see how the family drama unfolds when The Houstons premieres on Lifetime on October 24.
Kourtney Kardashian flashed onlookers when she was twirled around by Khloe, blowing up her short skirt and showing off her derriere in the process.
The mother-of-two was playing around with her younger sister on the balcony of Miami’s Eden Roc Hotel on Wednesday when she showed a little more than expected.
Kourtney and Khloe kardashian- who are in town with their sibling Kim filming their new reality show – were doing a 50’s-style dance number.
The sisters were laughing and having a great time when the mishap occurred.
Kourtney Kardashian, who was wearing a white and blue-print blouse and short canary-yellow circle skirt, was being pulled into a twirl by a taller Khloe when the wind picked up and blew up her skirt.
Kourtney Kardashian blowing up her short skirt and showing off her derriere
Underneath she revealed a very skimpy pair of underwear.
In the famous comedy The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe cools off from the summer heat by letting her skirt fly up over a vent above the subway.
Marilyn Monroe’s subway scene is perhaps her most memorable, even to this day.
Kim Kardashian, 31, and eldest sister Kourtney, 33, are currently living in Miami shooting scenes for their new reality show, Kim and Kourtney Take Miami, of which Khloe, 28, is undoubtedly a part of too.
Police in Norway are investigating the theft of some of the Ghanaian Ashanti crown jewels from Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Oslo.
The jewels were travelling with King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the ruler of the Ashanti, who is representing Ghana at a conference in the Norwegian capital.
A suitcase was snatched from the lobby of the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.
The jewels, amassed over generations and considered to be priceless, are used by the king when he performs ceremonial duties.
Police are quoted in the Norwegian media as saying that they have “good” surveillance pictures, and are now trying to identify suspects in the footage.
“Anyone carrying something of great personal value will understand what a great loss it is when it is stolen,” said the king’s secretary Kofi Owusu Boateng.
“And for anyone who knows our tradition it will be clear that these crown jewels has tremendous value.”
King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II ascended the throne in 1999 as the 16th ruler, or Asantehene
King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II ascended the throne in 1999 as the 16th ruler, or Asantehene.
The Asantehene is a revered figurehead for Ghana’s largest ethnic group. He adjudicates in disputes and is closely involved in local issues.
However the king – like other traditional leaders – is barred by the constitution from taking part in Ghanaian politics.
The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for six decades of work in advancing peace in Europe.
The committee said the EU had helped to transform Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.
The award comes as the EU faces the biggest financial crisis of its 54-year history, with many of its member states mired in recession.
The last organization to be given the award outright was Medecins Sans Frontieres, which won in 1999.
Announcing the award, Nobel committee president Thorbjoern Jagland acknowledged the EU’s current financial problems and social unrest.
But he said the committee wanted to concentrate on the body’s work over six decades of advancing “peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights”.
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, said he was “deeply touched and honored” with the award.
The US Court of Appeals has overturned a ban on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus phone, in a blow to Apple in the ongoing battle between the two rivals.
It said the district court in California, which had issued the ban in June, had “abused its discretion in entering an injunction”.
Earlier this month, a sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in the US was also lifted.
The two firms are involved in a legal tussle over patent infringement claims.
Samsung welcomed the latest decision saying it “confirms that the role of patent law is to protect innovation and not to unreasonably stifle competition and restrict consumer choice”.
“We will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of our innovative products,” the South Korean manufacturer said.
The smartphone segment is one of the fastest growing sectors for phone manufacturers and Apple and Samsung are among the biggest players in the arena.
Apple, which makes the iPhone, was one of the early pioneers in the segment, while Samsung, which manufactures the Galaxy range of smartphones, has made rapid strides in the sector gaining a strong share of key global markets in recent years.
However, its success has coincided with a growing legal battle with Apple, spread across various countries.
Earlier this year, a California court awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed by Samsung.
Samsung has since challenged that verdict and called for a retrial.
Analysts said that given the tremendous growth potential of the sector, the legal battle between the two firms was likely to continue.
“The intensity of the competition is so high, that it is less about billions of dollars in fines but more about slowing the competition,” said Manoj Menon, managing director of Frost & Sullivan.
He explained that Apple feels that Samsung has infringed its patents, which it believes has played a role in Samsung’s success.
“Apple will try and slow the rapid growth trajectory of Samsung,” he said
Eleven of Lance Armstrong’s former team-mates have told their stories of doping with the US Postal Service cycling team, but none in such detail as Tyler Hamilton.
Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race, published in September, provides minute detail on how the drugs were obtained, how they were stored, delivered to the riders and injected, and how the syringes were carried away in a Coke can.
Most astonishingly, Tyler Hamilton explains how easy it was to beat the testers.
Lance Armstrong has rejected Tyler Hamilton’s allegations, while his lawyer described the latest condemnation from the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) as a “one-sided hatchet job”.
Tyler Hamilton started off on testosterone, a “red egg” as the cyclists referred to the pill, but soon graduated on to the more powerful EPO – erythropoietin – which he and his US Postal Service team-mates dubbed Edgar, after Edgar Allen Poe.
This stimulates the creation of red blood cells, boosting performance by about 5%, or, as Tyler Hamilton puts it “roughly the difference between first place in the Tour de France and the middle of the pack”.
EPO can be detected in the body for a number of hours after it has been taken – the “glowtime”. During this time, the cyclist needs to avoid a meeting with the dope tester.
So, during the months of training, they kept track of when they had taken the drug, and tipped each other off by phone whenever a tester appeared in Girona, the town in northern Spain where the cyclists were based. In The Secret Race, co-authored by journalist Daniel Coyle, he lists three tips:
“Tip one: Wear a watch. Tip Two: Keep your cellphone handy. Tip three: Know your glowtime, how long you’ll test positive after you take the substance. What you’ll notice is that none of these things is particularly difficult to do.”
They were more like “discipline tests, IQ tests” than drug tests, he says.
“If you were careful and paid attention, you could dope and be 99% certain that you would not get caught.”
Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race was published in September and provides minute detail on doping
On one occasion Tyler Hamilton heard a knock on the door when he was glowing, and simply hid inside the house in silence until the tester gave up and went away.
They never came during the night, making late evening the best time for doping. One elderly tester even called in advance to let the cyclists know when he was coming.
USADA describes Lance Armstrong as the enforcer of US Postal’s “massive and pervasive” doping programme.
“It was not enough that his team-mates give maximum effort on the bike,” Wednesday’s USADA report on Armstrong says.
“He also required that they adhere to the doping programme outlined for them or be replaced.”
It wasn’t only US Postal that was doping, of course. More than half the Tour de France winners since 1980 have either tested positive, been sanctioned for doping, or admitted it.
Tyler Hamilton said this week that it was “a dark period of cycling that we all went through”.
“None of us when we were 15 or 16 years old were planning on doing that, but we all kind of rode our way up the ranks and came into this world. It was a world that already existed, when we got there. The doctors, the riders had been doing these things for years.”
George Hincapie, US Postal team captain from 1999-2005, admitted doping for the first time on Wednesday, saying that early in his professional career it became clear to him “that given the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them”.
Tyler Hamilton writes in The Secret Race that he visited Lance Armstrong at his home in Nice some time before the 1999 Tour de France, and finding himself without EPO, asked if he could use some of Armstrong’s.
“Lance pointed casually to the fridge. I opened it and there, on the door, next to a carton of milk, was a carton of EPO, each stoppered vial standing upright, little soldiers in their cardboard cells.”
In 1998, the team had distributed the EPO in white lunch bags. But this was the year the Festina and TVM teams were caught with large quantities of steroids, EPO and syringes. So in 1999 greater care was needed. According to Tyler Hamilton, Lance Armstrong arranged for his gardener to follow the Tour on a motorbike, carrying a thermos flask full of EPO tubes.
“When we needed <<Edgar>>, Philippe would zip through the Tour’s traffic and make a drop-off,” he writes in The Secret Race.
By the following year, they had begun blood doping, flying to Spain to have their blood drawn by the team doctor, Tyler Hamilton says.
This blood, rich in red blood cells, was then delivered back to the tired riders, to help boost their red blood cell count during the race.
Riders found blood bags, still cold from the refrigerator, taped to the wall next to their beds in their hotel rooms. Hamilton describes the sensation of goosebumps as the chilled blood circulated around his body.
One of the doctors used by US Postal, Michele Ferrari – nicknamed Doctor Death by reporters – found ways of helping to reduce the EPO glowtime by using small “microdoses” injected into the vein.
The cyclists could also drink large amounts of water, or inject themselves with saline solution, in order to accelerate the fading of the glow.
“They’ve got their doctors, and we’ve got ours, and ours are better,” writes Tyler Hamilton.
After Dr. Michele Ferrari was convicted of sporting fraud by an Italian court in 2004, Lance Armstrong issued a statement, in which he said: “I have always said that I have zero tolerance for anyone convicted of using or facilitating the use of performance-enhancing drugs. As a result of today’s developments, the USPS team and I have suspended our professional affiliation with Dr. Ferrari.”
Lance Armstrong contests that he took 500 drug tests worldwide and never failed one. This is disputed. Tyler Hamilton says he failed tests, but managed to explain it away, or hush it up.
Tyler Hamilton himself kept a clear record for several years. He first tested positive just as he reached the peak of his career – a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics – when by mistake he was given another man’s blood.
Blood transfusions are potentially risky. Badly stored blood can poison an athlete when transfused. Tyler Hamilton never had this problem, but he did suffer from one botched transfusion, which left him urinating a fluid “dark, dark red, almost black”.
US vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan clashed sharply in their only debate, amid tightening polls ahead of the 6 November election.
Thursday night’s debate saw feisty exchanges on national security, the economy, taxes and healthcare.
Democrat Joe Biden was aggressive, frequently interrupting his rival as he defended President Barack Obama.
Republican Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan was comparatively calm in his first debate on the national stage.
The head-to-head came as Democrats try to rejuvenate their campaign after what was widely seen as a poor debate performance by Barack Obama last week.
The Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor and businessman Mitt Romney, has gained steadily in the polls as a result.
The president has acknowledged he was “too polite”, and it appeared his campaign unleashed Joe Biden on Thursday night to attack Mitt Romney on taxes, government spending, the economy and other issues.
The vice-president repeatedly cut off Paul Ryan, chuckling, rolling his eyes and raising his hands in apparent exasperation, even as he referred to his rival as “my friend”.
But Paul Ryan seemed not to be rattled. His goal was to defend Mitt Romney’s recent gains against a renewed onslaught from Barack Obama, analysts said.
On stage at Centre College in Kentucky, the vice-presidential candidates jousted as moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC News sought to keep order.
The debate opened with an exchange on Libya, where a US ambassador was killed last month in what the Obama administration now calls a terrorist attack.
Joe Biden defended the Obama administration’s handling of the situation, as well as its initially inaccurate characterization of the incident as a reaction to an anti-Islamic video made in the US.
And he pivoted to attack Mitt Romney, saying the Republican’s decision to hold a political press conference the morning after the attack was “not presidential leadership”.
In one of many barbs, he said Paul Ryan’s criticisms of the administration’s handling of the crisis were “a bunch of malarkey. Not a single thing he said is accurate”.
Paul Ryan, meanwhile, said the administration had disregarded diplomats’ requests for more security in Libya.
And in a charge he repeated later, Paul Ryan said: “What we are watching on our TV screens is the unravelling of the Obama foreign policy.”
The men argued about Iran and the US relationship with Israel, but showed little substantive difference between their tickets’ respective policies.
“When Barack Obama was elected, [Iran] had enough fissile material – nuclear material to make one bomb,” Paul Ryan said.
“Now they have enough for five.”
Joe Biden said international sanctions against Iran had crippled that nation’s economy, and challenged Paul Ryan to clarify where Republican policy on Iran differs from the administration’s.
“So all this bluster I keep hearing, all this loose talk, what are they talking about?” he asked.
On the economy, Joe Biden said the president had inherited a nation teetering on ruin – a result, he said repeatedly, of the Republican policies of George W Bush.
And he defended the president’s remedies, especially a programme – that Mitt Romney opposed – to save US auto manufacturers from bankruptcy.
“We knew we had to act for the middle class,” Joe Biden said.
“We immediately went out and rescued General Motors.”
He added: “What did Romney do? Romney said, <<No, let Detroit go bankrupt>>.”
Joe Biden also unleashed a broadside against Mitt Romney’s recently publicized comments that the 47% of Americans who pay no federal income tax are dependent on government, consider themselves victims, and should take responsibility for themselves.
“I’ve never met two guys who are more down on America across the board,” he said, referring to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
Paul Ryan sought to deflect the attack with a story about Mitt Romney’s personal generosity and by referring to Joe Biden’s own record of verbal blunders.
He acknowledged Barack Obama had inherited an economy near collapse, but added: “We’re going in the wrong direction.”
He noted the continuing high unemployment rate and other grim statistics.
“This is not what a real recovery looks like,” the congressman said, promising that Mitt Romney’s tax plans would add jobs and promote economic growth.
Later, the two outlined their competing plans on the Medicare healthcare programme for over-65s.
Joe Biden defended the administration’s 2010 health insurance overhaul, dubbed Obamacare; Paul Ryan derided it as a government takeover of the healthcare industry and repeated a disputed assertion that Barack Obama had pulled money from Medicare in order to fund it.
With the election less than four weeks away, the rivals were tasked with keeping their respective campaigns competitive, as new polls suggest Mitt Romney has narrowed or erased Barack Obama’s lead in several key swing states.
The two candidates are virtually tied in Florida and Virginia while Barack Obama still leads in Ohio, but by a slimmer margin.
An orphaned puppy and an abandoned kitten who were put together at a rescue centre near London, UK, have become so close – they think they are sisters.
Kitty the cat was brought into Battersea Cats and Dogs Home by a kind-hearted member of the public who found her alone in a garden when she was just one day old.
To keep her company she was put together with Buttons the Jack Russell, who was born at the centre but rejected by her mother as the runt of the litter.
They have since become inseparable – and even cry when Kitty is moved to the cattery to spend some time with other cats.
Battersea Veterinary Nurse Sascha Taylor says they eat, sleep and play together.
Kitty and Buttons become inseparable at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home
Sacha Taylor said: “Normally we’d hand rear puppies and kittens separately but we thought we could try putting them together as they are both so young.
“Luckily it’s paid off as they adore being with each other and do everything together – it’s really very sweet.”
Buttons’ mum Poppy was given to the centre in Old Windsor, Berkshire, because her elderly owners could not cope when they discovered she was pregnant with eight puppies.
But she was the runt of the litter and staff has had to hand-rear her after being rejected by her mother and was at risk of being killed by her seven brothers and sisters.
Kitty and Buttons were put together when they were about two weeks old and treat each other like siblings.
Staff at the animal home are hoping someone has enough room to adopt the loveable pair, who are now both around four weeks old.
Nurse Sascha Taylor added: “Hand-rearing them is hard work – I have to feed them every two hours, even throughout the night – but it’s totally worth it.
“We’re not sure if they’ll be re-homed together, though it would be great if they did.”
Katie Holmes has cottoned onto the craze, jumping on the same bandwagon as Jessica Alba and Jay-Z, and even Rihanna who sampled the London Underground.
Katie Holmes was seen riding the New York subway on Wednesday, going incognito with her hair scraped back into a ponytail, opting to go make-up free beneath large sunglasses.
She also seemed to be prepping for winter, wearing a knitted cream sweater and dark blue jeans, carrying an oversized leather bag and the signature pose of a commuter – keeping her head buried
Using public transport is a stark change from her former life as a Cruise, when she relied not only on chauffeur-driven cars, but also on exclusive A-list travel methods of helicopter ferrying.
Katie Holmes rides the subway
It’s almost as if Katie Holmes’ ride on the subway was a metaphorical two fingers up at ex-husband Tom Cruise.
On Tuesday, Katie Holmes was seen with daughter Suri, arriving home from school by foot instead of a lift from a personal driver.
The six-year-old started at the elite Avenues school in New York last month.
Solenne San Jose from south-west France, who received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion euros, has had the real amount she owed waived – after Bouygues Telecom admitted its mistake.
Solenne San Jose, from Pessac outside Bordeaux, said she received a huge shock when she opened the bill for 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros.
This is nearly 6,000 times France’s annual economic output.
Solenne San Jose had requested her account be closed after losing her job last month.
The former teaching assistant said she “almost had a heart attack. There were so many zeroes I couldn’t even work out how much it was”.
The phone company, Bouygues Telecom, initially told her there was nothing they could do to amend the computer-generated statement and later offered to set up installments to pay off the bill.
In the end, the company admitted the bill should have been for 117.21 euros only, and eventually waived it altogether.
Bouygues Telecom has also apologized for the gaffe, which it says was down to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre.
US vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan are set to meet in their only debate, as polling suggests the election race is tightening.
Vice-President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, will clash for 90 minutes in Danville, Kentucky.
Democrats are hoping to change the campaign narrative after what was widely seen as a poor performance by President Barack Obama last week.
Barack Obama said on Wednesday he had been “too polite” to his rival, Mitt Romney.
The Obama campaign has since accused Mitt Romney, a Republican former business star and Massachusetts governor, of shifting his policy positions and of lying during their meeting in Denver, Colorado last week.
Thursday’s debate will be moderated by Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, and will cover both domestic and foreign policy.
It is set to begin at 21:00 EST at Centre College, a small liberal arts university about 80 miles from the city of Louisville.
The debate will be split into nine 10-minute segments.
Vice-President Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan will clash for 90 minutes in Danville
The two vice-presidential candidates are tasked with keeping their respective campaigns competitive, as new polls suggest Barack Obama’s lead in several key swing states has been somewhat erased by Mitt Romney.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Thursday showed Mitt Romney making gains in three states said to be essential to his presidential hopes.
The two candidates are virtually ties in Florida and Virginia while Barack Obama still leads in Ohio, but by a decreased margin. The Romney campaign has added extra campaign stops in Ohio in the coming weeks, aware that no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.
Also on Thursday, a New York Times/CBS News poll suggested that likely voters in Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin – all states “in play” on 6 November – gave Mitt Romney stronger marks for leadership than previously.
However, the new poll showed no sharp movements in support for either candidates.
Joe Biden, 69, is known for his frank but folksy manner and foreign policy experience, while Paul Ryan, 42, is known as the Republicans’ budget hawk, serving in Congress for 14 years.
Both have kept lower profiles in the past week as they prepared for the debate.
“Joe just needs to be Joe,” Barack Obama told ABC News on Wednesday.
“Congressman Ryan is a smart and effective speaker. But his ideas are the wrong ones.”
The president played down the importance of his own first debate performance, saying: “What’s important is the fundamentals of what this race is about haven’t changed.”
Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod told CBS on Thursday that he believes “the big challenge for [Biden] is to pin Congressman Ryan down”.
“Right now the Romney campaign is running away from some of their positions like unwanted stepchildren.”
Mitt Romney expressed confidence in his running mate at a campaign stop in Ohio: “I think Paul Ryan will do great.”
The Wisconsin representative himself said he was not intimidated by Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden’s one of the most experienced debaters we have in modern politics,” Paul Ryan told reporters.
“But the Achilles’ heel he has is President Obama’s record.”
The debate is expected to focus on the federal budget plans Paul Ryan put forward as the chair of the House budget committee.
While the Obama campaign has sought to portray Paul Ryan’s place on the Romney ticket as an endorsement of the Ryan plan, the Romney campaign has worked to play down that impression.
“You have to remember that there is [a] Romney-Ryan ticket and there’s one presidential candidate,” Mitt Romney adviser Kevin Madden said.
“So the focus again will be on what Governor Romney’s plan is for reforming Washington.”
Joe Biden is said to have studied Paul Ryan’s most recent budget plan during his debate preparations.
The event is not expected to draw the approximately 70 million people who watched four years ago when Joe Biden debated Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
That debate did little to change the 2008 campaign but helped Sarah Palin after a series of disastrous interviews.
“Normally vice-presidential debates are good political theatre and sort of interesting from a talent scout standpoint, as you evaluate the up-and-comers on the political stage,” Alan Schroeder, author of a book on presidential debates, told the Associated Press.
“But this year could be different because of the negative reviews of Obama’s performance. That heightens expectations for this second debate.”
Latest official figures show that unemployment in Greece hit a record 25.1% in July, with the level among young people reaching 54.2%.
Greece’s statistical authority said 1.26 million Greeks were jobless in July, with more than 1,000 jobs lost every day over the past year.
With austerity cuts continuing and Greece likely to enter another year of recession, the level may rise further.
The worst-affected 15-24 age group, however, includes those in education.
According to Greece’s statistics agency the total unemployment rate rose from 24.8% in June. In July 2008, a year before Greece’s financial crisis broke, there were about 364,000 registered unemployed.
“This is a very dramatic result of the recession,” said Angelos Tsakanikas, head of research at Greece’s IOBE economic research foundation. He did not expect employment to pick up for at least a year.
The Greek economy is surviving on international bailouts, but Athens has been forced to impose tough austerity measures in return for the money.
Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras will hold talks on Thursday evening with representatives of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank about signing off the release of more funds.
There was some evidence on Thursday that the government’s strategy is working on one front, at least. Finance Ministry figures showed that the deficit-cutting effort is on track despite lower-than-anticipated revenues.
The ministry figures showed that the January-September deficit was 12.64 billion euros, lower than the 13.5 billion-euro target.
Lindsay Lohan and her mother Dina have been pictured hugging on the steps of their Long Island family home after getting into a violent fight in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, gave her mother an awkward hug despite the fact that only hours earlier, she had made a desperate phone call to her father Michael alleging her mother was “on cocaine”.
According to TMZ, Lindsay and Dina Lohan were in their limousine returning from a night out clubbing when Lindsay told Michael to call the police, fearing her mother was kidnapping her.
TMZ has an audio recording of the call where Lindsay Lohan is heard telling her father that the row erupted “over $40,000”, and claims Dina threatened to “call the cops on me”.
Lindsay Lohan is heard screaming: “Dad, she’s on cocaine. She’s like touching her neck, and s***. She’s saying disgusting things to me… I’m dead to her now.”
The website reports that Dina Lohan had drunk four glasses of wine but eaten nothing before the encounter.
The website also reports that Lindsay gave Dina $40,000 to help save her home from foreclosure. But last night, Lindsay Lohan wanted her money back.
Lindsay Lohan hugging her mother Dina on the steps of their Long Island family home after getting into a violent fight
Lindsay Lohan is overheard telling Dina: “This is what you do. You ruin people,” before telling her father: “She’s like the f***ing devil right now. I have a gash on my leg from what happened.”
She then gets increasingly hysterical, adding: “I asked her to give [the money] back and she’s like <<You’re sick, you don’t give me anything, you don’t do anything for child support>>.”
“You do everything for everyone,” Michael Lohan tries to reassure his daughter. And he adds: “She’s horrible Lindsay.”
Earlier, Lindsay Lohan can be heard trying to get the driver to pull over, while Michael insists Dina is “kidnapping” her.
Lindsay Lohan then tells her father: “She’s throwing your f****** kids out and she’s threatening everyone in the car.”
Meanwhile, the actress is also reported to have told her mother she “needs to go to rehab”, a source told Radar.
“Dina went absolutely ballistic when Lindsay said this to her and insisted that there was no reason for her to get treatment,” the insider added.
“Lindsay is very concerned about her mom though and tried to convey this to Dina, but she was very emotional and tired. Lindsay even told her mom that she shouldn’t be going out to clubs with her and should act more like her mother and less like her friend.”
A bracelet belonging to Lindsay Lohan is also claimed to have been broken in the fallout.
Law enforcement officers arrived at Dina Lohan’s home after receiving a complaint alleging that Lindsay was “being held against her will by Dina and her driver”.
Meanwhile, Michael Lohan told website Hollyscoop: “I called the police at Lindsay’s request. [Lindsay] even asked that I record the conversation because she was being held against her will by the limo driver at Dina’s instruction.”
The altercation happened after mother and daughter went to the Electric Room nightclub in the Dream Hotel in New York City together, leaving at 4:00 a.m.
Police took a Domestic Incident Report but made no arrests.
According to the New York Post, the 911 call drew a “small army” of police to the house around 8:15 a.m.
Witness John Scalesi told the newspaper: “She [Lindsay] was yelling <<I’ve had enough of this!>>”
Nassau police Inspector Kenneth Lack told the newspaper: “It was just a verbal dispute in the vehicle. It was an argument between Lindsay Lohan and her mother Dina. Lindsay called her father and her father called police.”
A photograph was taken earlier in the evening showing Lindsay Lohan in good spirits while posing with a random clubgoer at the club.
Lindsay Lohan, who appeared happy in relaxed in New York at the weekend, has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, despite trying to put her career back on track with Lifetime biopic Liz & Dick.
Most recently, she accused a fellow partygoer at a Manhattan nightclub of assaulting her after a late night out.
Walmart workers are threatening to strike on the busiest shopping day of the year – Black Friday.
The walkout, scheduled for next month on the day after Thanksgiving, is set to cause chaos across Dallas, San Diego, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Today, a meeting at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas was interrupted by 200 protesters waving placards and chanting.
Walmart is the world’s largest private employer and has long been a target of workers’ rights groups, who advocate higher wages, more flexibility in hours and an end to punishments, such as reduced shifts, which they claim are meted out to staff seeking to unionize.
Evelin Cruz, a department manager, told ABC News that for many years she kept quiet about what she views as the company’s unjust practices because she was afraid of being fired if she spoke out.
Evelin Cruz, who works at the Pico Rivera Walmart in California, is one of thousands of members of Our Walmart, an organization backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
Leaders of Our Walmart, the National Consumers League and other groups today said they will join Walmart workers outside stores on Black Friday if their demands are not met.
Walmart workers are threatening to strike on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year
National Organization of Women president Terry O’Neill said her group would join in the action on Black Friday, to show “solidarity with the workers who are walking off the job”.
Last Thursday, about 30 employees from the Pico Rivera Walmart demonstrated outside the store with signs that read “Stand Up, Live Better, Stop Retaliation” and “Stop Trying to Silence Us”.
The protest over working conditions was coordinated with actions at eight other Walmart stores across California protesting against working conditions and treatment.
It was the first-ever walkout in the company’s 50-year history, said Dawn Le, a spokeswoman for Making Change at Walmart, a coalition whose mission is to change the way the firm conducts business.
“Everyone else has a union,” said Dawn Le.
“Workers in every other country – Japan, the U.K., Nicaragua, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina – have been able to form a union, except the U.S. and Canada.
“We just don’t understand the double standard Walmart has. How come those in other countries get to have a voice, yet not in the U.S., its home country?”
Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman disputed her claims, insisting that most employees have “repeatedly rejected unionization”.
“They seem to recognize that Walmart has some of the best jobs in the retail industry – good pay, affordable benefits and the chance for advancement,” he said.
Walmart has hit the headlines on several recent occasions. In mid-September, warehouse workers in Southern California went on a 15-day strike that included a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage for safe jobs.
Around the same time, hundreds of people marched in Dallas and San Diego, demanding better work conditions.
On Monday, Chicago riot police arrested 17 peaceful protesters blocking the entrance to a warehouse that supplies Walmart stores in support of striking workers.
The company is also now facing another sex discrimination lawsuit, filed on behalf of 100,000 women in California and Tennessee.
Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, said: “Workers find how Walmart has tried to retaliate by cutting their hours and not scheduling them for certain shifts when they tried to speak out, and they’re tired of it.”
The $16 billion company, however, argues that the California rally was simply a “publicity stunt by the UFCW to seek media attention in order to further their political agenda and financial objectives”, according to Dan Schlademan.
Evelin Cruz, who started on $7.40 an hour and now makes $13.20, said: “We just wanted to be treated like humans, not robots. We do have health insurance, but in most cases, you’re not even making enough to live on, let alone take anyone to the hospital.”
Although she worries about losing her job, she didn’t see another option but to voice her anger.
“We are still worried that they might retaliate,” she added.
“We know exactly how they operate. They wait until you feel confident, or put down your guard, and then they come after you one way or another. But that’s how tired we are of what’s going on in the stores.”
Scarlett Johansson fills the role of Janet Leigh, who was famously “killed” in the shower scene for her Golden Globe-winning performance as Marion Crane in 1960 Alfred Hitchcock suspense/horror film Psycho.
In the first look at Hitchcock movie’s trailer, Scarlett Johansson’s feminine form is alluded to twice, once over a dinner meeting with Alfred Hitchcock [Anthony Hopkins] and again when the filmmaker speaks to his wife [Helen Mirren].
Scarlett Johansson, 27, swans into frame during the trailer wearing in a low-cut halter neck peach satin dress, before sitting across the table from Alfred Hitchcock to discuss the role.
As the New Yorker begins to gesticulate, she asks: “How exactly are you going to shoot this shower scene? Well, it’s only from here up I’m not exactly boyish.”
Towards the end of the footage, we also see Helen Mirren’s character Alma Reville tell her husband: “Ooh, you imp! You’ve got n****y in there.”
To which he responds: “Well, her br***ts were rather large. It’s a challenge not to show them.”
Scarlett Johansson fills the role of Janet Leigh in Hitchcock movie
As Hitchcock‘s trailer opens, Anthony Hopkins provides an eerie voiceover, revealing: “All of us harbor dark recesses of violence and horror, I’m just a man hiding in the corner with a camera, watching.”
Helen Mirren plays the long-suffering wife, seen in bed reading the script: “It was the knife, that a moment later cut off her scream and her head, charming Doris Day should do it as a musical!”
It then cuts to a business meeting, where the filmmaker is told: “No one respects the name Hitchcock more than Paramount, but even a talented man sometimes backs the wrong horse.”
After he’s told he can make it if he can finds the money himself, Alfred Hitchcock whips out his cheque book.
However, the movie becomes an obsession and a financial nightmare after film bosses try to ban the film from hitting cinemas, leading to domestic troubles at home.
Alfred Hitchcock is seen shouting at Alma Reville, saying: “I’m under extraordinary pressures on this picture and the least you can do is give me your full support.”
But she responds: “We’ve mortgaged our house. I am your wife, I celebrate with you when the reviews are good, I cry for you when they are bad.
“And I put up with those people who look through me as if I were invisible as all they can see is the great and glorious genius that is Alfred Hitchcock!”
Speaking of the film still that was released as a teaser yesterday of Scarlett Johansson behind the wheel of a car in the same pose as Janet Leigh, director Sacha Gervasi said: “When we took that still of Scarlett behind the wheel and put it up against the still of Janet behind the wheel in Psycho, it was eerie.
“The extent to which Scarlett was able to channel Janet [was] a real surprise. She brought it in such a way that no one really anticipated.”
Hitchcock movie, which hits screens on November 23, also stars Jessica Biel as Vera Miles.
The director notes that the beautiful Total Recall star faced the same challenges that Vera Miles did to get into character.
“Hitchcock dressed her up in a wig and did everything they could to make the beautiful Vera Miles look frumpy,” Sacha Gervasi said.
“What Hitch tried to do to Vera we tried to do to Jessica, and the results were equally ridiculous. It is not possible to make Jessica Biel dowdy.”
Vera Miles was an American actress who worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock, notably in Psycho, having played the sister of the Janet Leigh’s character, which she reprised in Psycho II.
Footage taken from Bobbi Kristina Brown’s reality show, entitled The Houstons: On Our Own, has allegedly confirmed that she is in fact engaged to Nick Gordon.
According to reports on E!Online in the exclusive clip Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of late singer Whitney Houston, shocks her family when she tells them of her plans to wed Nick Gordon.
The website claim that Bobbi Kristina Brown announces the news as she laughs, saying: “We’re engaged!”
In another trailer for the Lifetime show, family members of the Houston clan are seen worrying over Bobbi Kristina Brown’s relationship with Nick Gordon.
Bobbi Kristina Brown has allegedly confirmed that she is in fact engaged to Nick Gordon
During the clip Gary Houston, Whitney’ brother, appears to disapprove of their bond, as he has a heated discussion with Nick Gordon, 22.
Gary Houston says: “No one knew that from a godson you would turn into a boyfriend. No one knew that.”
With Nick Gordon stating: “The family has me out to be a bad person.”
And determined to make her family accept her blossoming romance, Bobbi Kristina Brown firmly asserts: “They want to see us fail. We won’t.”
Bobbi Kristina Brown and Nick Gordon lived together as siblings for more than a decade before Whitney Houston’s death in February, with Nick considered to be the superstar’s unofficial adopted son.
Whitney Houston took Nick Gordon into her home when he was just 12 after his father went to prison and his mother was unable to take care of him.
However, following Whitney Houston’s passing – having died at the age of 48 due to an accidental drowning complicated by heart disease and cocaine use – the controversial pair grew closer.
Set to premiere on October 24, the show follows the Houston clan including Pat, Whitney’s sister-in-law and manager, Pat’s daughter Rayah, Whitney’s brother Gary, Bobbi Kristina and Grammy Award-winning singer Cissy Houston in the aftermath of the pop superstar’s tragic death.
“Pat Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law, manager and most trusted confidant, manages the business and estate of the beloved singer and her most prized possession, her daughter Bobbi Kristina,” said a Lifetime press release.
“The series will follow Pat and her husband, Gary, Whitney Houston’s brother, as they take on their greatest challenge, supporting and guiding Bobbi Kristina as she faces the world alone, without the one person she relied on the most, her Mother.”
Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen, is being transferred to a new military hospital with better facilities, officials say.
Malala Yousafzai, in critical condition two days after being attacked in the north-western Swat Valley, left Peshawar by helicopter for Rawalpindi.
The Taliban, who accuse the young activist of “promoting secularism”, have said they will target her again.
There have been widespread protests in Pakistan against the shooting.
Malala Yousafzai was being treated in an intensive care unit in Peshawar before doctors decided to move her to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology critical care unit in Rawalpindi.
“Doctors have decided to shift Malala to the Combined Military Hospital [CMH] in Rawalpindi where medical facilities are better,” said Maj Ishtiaq Ahmad.
One of the medical team treating her said “neurologically she has significantly improved” but that the “coming days… are very critical”.
Another doctor, Mumtaz Khan, told AFP news agency that she had a 70% chance of survival.
“Her condition is not yet out of danger despite improvement,” Masood Kausar, the governor of the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was also quoted as saying.
Pakistani officials have offered a 10 million rupee ($105,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.
Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who visited Malala Yousafzai in hospital in Peshawar on Wednesday, said it was time to “stand up to fight the propagators of such barbaric mindset and their sympathizers”.
Malala Yousafzai wrote about suffering caused by Talibans who had taken control of the Swat Valley in 2007
Malala Yousafzai gained attention aged 11, when she started writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban.
Under the pen-name Gul Makai, she wrote about suffering caused by militants who had taken control of the Swat Valley in 2007 and ordered girls’ schools to close.
The Taliban were ousted from Swat in 2009, but her family said they had regularly received death threats.
They believed she would be safe among her own community, but on Tuesday, she was stopped as she returned home from school in Mingora, in north-western Swat, and shot in the head.
Two other girls were injured, one of whom remained in a critical condition on Wednesday.
Schools in the Swat Valley closed on Wednesday in protest at the attack, and schoolchildren in other parts of the country prayed for the girl’s recovery.
Protests were held in Peshawar, Multan and in Malala Yousafzai’s hometown of Mingora and in Lahore.
Those taking part praised the girl’s bravery, while many condemned the attack as un-Islamic.
Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature.
A prolific author, 57-year-old Mo Yan has published dozens of short stories, with his first work published in 1981.
The Swedish Academy praised Mo Yan’s work which “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”.
Mo Yan is the first Chinese resident to win the prize. Chinese-born Gao Xingjian was honored in 2000, but is a French citizen.
Mo Yan is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, won last year by Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer.
Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature
Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award – only given to living writers – is worth 8 million kronor ($1.2 million).
Born Guan Moye, the author writes under the pen name Mo Yan, which means “don’t speak” in Chinese.
He began writing while a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and received international fame in 1987 for Red Sorghum: A Novel of China.
Made into a film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, the novella was a tale of the brutal violence in the eastern China countryside where he grew up during the 1920s and 1930s.
Favoring to write about China’s past rather than contemporary issues, the settings for Mo Yan’s works range from the 1911 revolution, Japan’s wartime invasion and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
His other acclaimed works include Republic of Wine, Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out and Big Breasts and Wide Hips.
The latter book caused controversy when it was published in 1995 for its sexual content and depicting a class struggle contrary to the Chinese Communist Party line.
The author was forced by the PLA to withdraw it from publication although it was pirated many times.
After it was translated into English a decade later, the book won him a nomination for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
His latest novel, Frog, about China’s “one child” population control policy, won the Mao Dun Literature Prize – one of China’s most prestigious literature prizes – last year.
Forced evictions in China have risen significantly in recent years as local officials sell off land to property developers, Amnesty International says.
Many cases involve violence and harassment, in what the group called “a gross violation of human rights”.
Pressure on local officials to meet economic goals and vested interests were behind the coercion, it said.
These evictions are a rumbling cause of social discontent and have led to protests across the country.
All land in China is effectively controlled by the state, and laws allow local governments to claim land for urban development projects.
Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty’s senior director of research in Hong Kong, said that seizing and selling off land was how local authorities were paying back funds borrowed to finance stimulus packages during the economic downturn.
“The Chinese Communist Party promotes officials who deliver growth seemingly at any cost, and land development for roads, factories, residential complexes and so on is seen as the most direct path to visible results,” she said.
Amnesty said the system was open to abuse and evictees often received little notice, no consultation and only a fraction of the value of their home in compensation.
Such cases have led to violent clashes between residents and police or private security guards on several occasions, the report said.
Amnesty interviewed lawyers, housing rights activists and academics, both in China and abroad, for its 85-page report entitled Standing Their Ground.
It looked at 40 cases of forced eviction from January 2009 to January 2012, nine of which it said culminated in deaths of people who opposed their evictions.
“The forced eviction of people from their homes and farmland without appropriate legal protection and safeguards has become a routine occurrence in China, and represents a gross violation of human rights obligations on an enormous scale,” Amnesty said.
Many cases are “sudden and violent, sometimes resulting in death”, harassment and in one instance, someone being buried alive.
Nicola Duckworth said self-immolations caused by evictions were also on the rise.
“We documented 41 reports of self-immolations from 2009 to the end of 2012,” she said.
Amnesty cited the example of Wukan village in Guangdong province in 2011, where residents demonstrated on the streets after a village negotiator protesting against local officials over a land grab died in police custody.
As a result of protests, two local officials were removed from their posts and others punished in 2012. The villagers also won the right to fresh local elections as part of the deal.
But “optimism might be premature” on the Wukan case, Amnesty said.
“To this day, there has been no independent investigation into [village negotiator] Xue Jinbo’s death. The villagers still have not got any of their land back. And there are now reports that authorities have been harassing and spying on activists in Wukan.”
The group called on China to put an immediate stop to all forced evictions and ensure safeguards were put in place in line with international law.
It also urged China to implement new regulations it adopted in 2011 providing for proper land compensation and outlawing the use of violence in these cases.
China does have laws in place to protect farmers and local residents, but these are often ignored at local level. Leaders in Beijing have acknowledged the problems and pledged to improve the situation.
Premier Wen Jiabao, in his report to the National People’s Congress in March, said that problems related to land expropriation and housing demolition “are still very serious and the people are still very concerned about them”.
Lenovo has replaced Hewlett-Packard as the world’s top PC maker, according to preliminary figures released by research firm Gartner.
Gartner said Chinese PC maker Lenovo shipped 13.8 million units in the third quarter, compared with HP’s 13.55 million.
It said Lenovo’s “aggressive” price cuts had helped it gain substantial market share.
However, research firm IDC’s data put HP at the top, though it showed the gap between the two was closing.
According to IDC, HP shipped 13.9 million units, giving it a 15.9% share of the global market, compared with Lenovo which enjoyed a 15.7% share with 13.8 million units.
Analysts said Lenovo has been among the best performing PC makers in recent times and it was likely to gain further market share.
“Just the momentum that Lenovo has had, makes it inevitable that it will be the world’s number one PC maker across all charts,” said Andrew Milroy of Frost & Sullivan.
According to Gartner, Lenovo was the only PC maker, among the world’s top five, that increased its shipments to the US during the third quarter.
Both Gartner and IDC’s figures showed that global PC shipments fell more than 8% during the quarter, from the same period last year.
Demand for personal computers has been hurt by a slowing global economy as well as the growing popularity of tablet PCs such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy range.
Analysts said that consumers held back on purchases during the period in anticipation of the launch of new products as well as operating systems, including Microsoft Windows 8.
“PCs are going through a severe slump,” said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC’s Worldwide PC Tracker.
“The industry had already weathered a rough second quarter, and now the third quarter was even worse.”
He added that the industry was also struggling to find a product that may help it turn around its fortunes.
“The hard question of what is the <<it>> product for PCs remains unanswered. While ultrabook prices have come down a little, there are still some significant challenges that will greet Windows 8 in the coming quarter.”
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Spain’s credit rating, highlighting a deepening recession and mounting pressure on Madrid’s finances.
S&P cut Spanish debt from BBB+ to BBB-, one level above junk status, and warned of possible further downgrades.
Spain is struggling with high debt levels and the highest rate of unemployment in the eurozone.
Madrid has introduced drastic spending cuts and tax rises, but many think it will have no option but seek a bailout.
“The downgrade reflects our view of mounting risk to Spain’s public finances, due to rising economic and political pressures,” S&P said.
“The deepening economic recession is limiting the Spanish government’s policy options.”
Last month, the government unveiled its latest budget designed to make savings of around 13 billion euros ($16.7 billion) next year, by cutting public sector wages, education, health and social services.
The cuts were the latest in a series of austerity measures that have sparked angry protests across Spain.
Despite the cuts, tax rises, labor market and pension reforms, the Spanish government has said the country’s overall debt levels will rise next year to more than 90% of total economic output.
The country’s borrowing costs have remained high for months, leading many analysts to argue it is only a matter of time before Madrid is forced to ask its eurozone partners for financial assistance.
However, last week, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos denied his country would be asking for help.
The mother of US Navy Seal Glen Doherty killed in last month’s Libya consulate attack has said his death has been used by the Romney campaign for political purposes.
Mitt Romney has been citing his meeting some years ago with Seal Glen Doherty.
His campaign said the candidate would respect Barbara Doherty’s wishes and stop mentioning her son.
The attack on the consulate in Benghazi on 11 September has become a political issue ahead of the election.
Glen Doherty was killed in the attack in Benghazi along with Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two other officials.
“I don’t trust Romney,” Barbara Doherty told Boston news station WHDH.
“He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda. It’s wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama,” she said.
Campaigning on Tuesday in the state of Iowa, Mitt Romney said that instead of running away from danger during the Benghazi consulate attack, Glen Doherty had run towards it.
He reportedly used the anecdote as a metaphor for what Republicans must do to regain the White House in November’s poll.
“They didn’t hunker down where they were in safety,” the former Massachusetts governor was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
“They rushed there to go help. This is the American way. We go where there’s trouble.”
“We go where we’re needed. And right now we’re needed. Right now the American people need us.”
Mitt Romney is reported to have mentioned Glen Doherty at other events on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Romney campaign said in a statement on Wednesday: “Governor Romney was inspired by the memory of meeting Glen Doherty and shared his story and that memory, but we respect the wishes of Mrs. Doherty.”
A campaign official confirmed Mitt Romney would not re-tell the anecdote.
Friends of Glen Doherty have spoken publicly about his encounter with Mitt Romney at a Christmas party.
His friend, Elf Ellefsen, told a Seattle radio station: “He said it was very comical. Mitt Romney approached him ultimately four times, using this private gathering as a political venture to further his image.”
“He kept introducing himself as Mitt Romney, a political figure. The same introduction, the same opening line. Glen believed it to be very insincere and stale,” Elf Ellefsen added, according to ABC News.
