Russian Soyuz capsule has returned to Earth with its three-man crew after they spent 123 days at the International Space Station.
Two Russians, Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, and their American colleague Joe Acaba made the safe return in Kazakhstan on Monday morning.
Another crew of three who took off in May remain on the International Space Station.
Russian Soyuz capsule has returned to Earth with its three-man crew after they spent 123 days at the International Space Station
Next month, another three are due to take off from Kazakhstan to join them.
The capsule landed at 08:53 local time and all three crew members “are safe and adjusting to gravity,” according to the Twitter feed of the US space programme NASA.
Toddlers & Tiaras star Honey Boo Boo, a second grader from McIntyre Georgia, is in high demand after her TLC reality show drew more viewers than vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
Yesterday the seven-year-old pageant queen learned the heavy price that comes with fame as she busily signed head shots at a local amusement arcade before rushing off to a TLC press junket.
In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Alana Thompson said that filming the show was fun because she got to do things she doesn’t always get to do, like going to a water park.
And sure enough, the Here Comes Honey Boo star managed to squeeze in a little bit of me time at the local amusement arcade The Fun Zone in Milledgeville.
Honey Boo Boo signs autographs at the amusement arcade in Milledgeville
After a quick game of PacMan, followed by what looked like a quick telling off from mother June Shannon, the canny kid and her bagful of tokens headed straight to the Skee Ball machine.
The bowling game, known by arcade aficionados to pay out the most tickets, delivered, and Alana Thompson, known for her outrageous catchphrases “a dolla makes me holla!” and “you better redneckognize!”, could not contain her delight.
But there was little time to cash in her tickets, as the mother and daughter were spotted not much later leaving home with wet hair and Honey Boo Boo changed into a pink t-shirt with the words “We Dream” with a pair of denim shorts and sparkly high heeled shoes.
Critics have accused the Thompson family of everything from child exploitation to glamorizing redneck stereotypes.
But June Shannon has said: “Life is all about experiences and this is one of the experiences on the journey of life, and if it continues, fine, and if it doesn’t, then we move on to be the same people we were before the show even started.”
The season finale of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo airs Wednesday, September 26 on TLC.
Fantasy series Game Of Thrones has dominated the Creative Emmy Awards, which recognize arts, craft and technical work on television shows.
The HBO programme picked up six prizes including best visual effects and best costumes – the latter of which went to British designer Michele Clapton.
BBC nature show Frozen Planet took home four awards, led by the trophy for outstanding non-fiction series.
And actress Kathy Bates won a prize for her impersonation of Charlie Sheen.
The Oscar-winner was a guest star on sitcom Two And A Half Men, from which Charlie Sheen was fired in 2011, playing the ghost of his character, Charlie Harper.
Game Of Thrones has dominated the Creative Emmy Awards
Kathy Bates, who revealed last week she had had a double mastectomy, was not able to collect her award in person, but proved a popular winner with the audience in Los Angeles.
She was one of a handful of guest actors honored at the technical awards, which precede next week’s Primetime Emmys.
Chat show host Jimmy Fallon won the prize for best guest actor in a comedy series, in recognition of his appearance on long-running sketch show Saturday Night Live.
Actress Martha Plimpton was named best guest actress in a drama for her recurring role in legal drama The Good Wife. She plays Patti Nyholm, a conniving lawyer who has used her pregnancy and, in recent episodes, her baby to win sympathy from judges and juries.
In what was described as a “major upset” by The Hollywood Reporter, Jeremy Davies won best guest actor in a drama, for his role in crime drama Justified.
Jeremy Davies, who beat the likes of Jason Ritter, Michael J Fox, and Mark Margolis, seemed as surprised by his victory as the press were.
“Is this is actually happening and is it officially too late for a recount?” he asked reporters backstage.
British series Downton Abbey, which returns for its third series in the UK tonight, scooped two awards – for hairstyling and original dramatic score.
As temperatures outside the Nokia Theater reached 36 Celsius (97 Farenheit), Glasgow-born Downton composer John Lunn joked: “How do you live in this heat? The ovens in Scotland don’t get this hot!”
Political thriller Homeland won its first ever Emmy award, for outstanding casting in a drama series, perhaps an indicator that acting prizes will be in store for Claire Danes and Damian Lewis at next week’s Primetime ceremony.
Director Martin Scorsese also received one of the coveted statuettes, which depict a winged woman holding an atom, for his documentary on former Beatle, George Harrison.
George Harrison’s widow, Olivia, told reporters the guitarist had been planning his own documentary before his death in 2001.
“After the Beatles Anthology came out, he started filming and was filming for several years to do his own story,” she said.
“I think he would be very happy with the award and the reception.”
The biggest upset of the night was for critics’ darling Mad Men. The 1960s advertising drama, an Emmy favorite, failed to win any of the awards it was shortlisted for.
It is still in the running for the top award at the Primetime Emmys, which will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on 23 September.
Europe has almost exhausted its stock of old-style internet addresses.
Strict rationing of these addresses – called IPv4 – has been started by the body that hands them out in Europe.
From now on, companies can only make one more application for IPv4 addresses and, if successful, will only get 1,024 of them.
In addition, any application for more old addresses must demonstrate how an organization is using the new, replacement, addressing scheme.
“The day has come, finally,” said Axel Pawlik, managing director of the Ripe NCC that hands out addresses to European ISPs, firms and other organizations.
Europe has almost exhausted its stock of old-style internet addresses
Every device that goes online is allocated a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address.
The internet grew up using an addressing scheme called IP Version 4 (IPv4). In the 1970s when the web was being built the 4.3 billion IP addresses allowed by IPv4 were thought to be enough.
However, the rapid growth of the internet and popularity of the web have swiftly exhausted this pool.
The growth of the net is linked to the size of the pool because everything that connects to the net needs an IP address to send and receive data.
Plans are afoot to move to a new scheme, known as IP Version 6 (IPv6), that has an effectively inexhaustible supply of addresses.
On 14 September Ripe NCC got down to its last 16 million IPv4 addresses. While this might sound a lot, said Axel Pawlik, the use of this last substantial block would be so heavily restricted that the supply could be considered to be at an end.
“Applicants will only get about 1,000 addresses and that’s it and they only get them once and that’s the end of it,” said Axel Pawlik,
To even get that small number of IPv4 addresses, he said, applicants must already have an allocation of IPv6 addresses and demonstrate how they planned to use them.
Immediately prior to reaching the last big block Ripe was handing out just under four million IPv4 addresses every 10 days.
Anyone planning expansion based around the net should already be committed to using IPv6, said Axel Pawlik.
Other techniques based around technical tricks that share IPv4 addresses among many different devices would prove increasingly unworkable, he said.
“They are complicated, potentially unstable and expensive,” he said.
“The other route they could go is to v6 as it’s in most of the net equipment now.”
Having a highly demanding job, but little control over it, could be a deadly combination, British researchers have found.
They analyzed 13 existing European studies covering nearly 200,000 people and found “job strain” was linked to a 23% increased risk of heart attacks and deaths from coronary heart disease.
The risk to the heart was much smaller than for smoking or not exercising, the Lancet medical journal report said.
The British Heart Foundation said how people reacted to work stress was key.
Job strain is a type of stress. The research team at University College London said working in any profession could lead to strain, but it was more common in lower skilled workers.
Doctors who have a lot of decision-making in their jobs would be less likely to have job strain than someone working on a busy factory production line.
Having a highly demanding job, but little control over it, could be a deadly combination
There has previously been conflicting evidence on the effect of job strain on the heart.
In this paper, the researchers analyzed combined data from 13 studies.
At the beginning of each of the studies, people were asked whether they had excessive workloads or insufficient time to do their job as well as questions around how much freedom they had to make decisions.
They were then sorted into people with job strain or not and followed for an average of seven and a half years.
One of the researchers, Prof. Mika Kivimaki, from University College London, said: “Our findings indicate that job strain is associated with a small but consistent increased risk of experiencing a first coronary heart disease event, such as a heart attack.”
The researchers said eliminating job strain would prevent 3.4% of those cases, whereas there would be a 36% reduction if everyone stopped smoking.
Prof. Mika Kivimaki said the evidence of a direct effect of job strain on the heart was mixed.
He said job strain was linked to other lifestyle choices that were bad for the heart: “We know smokers with job strain are more likely to smoke a bit more, active people with job strain are more likely to become inactive and there is a link with obesity.
“If one has high stress at work you can still reduce risk by keeping a healthy lifestyle.”
Prof. Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We know that being under stress at work, and being unable to change the situation, could increase your risk of developing heart disease.
“This large study confirms this, but also shows that the negative effect of workplace strain is much smaller than, for example, the damage caused by smoking or lack of exercise.
“Though stresses at work may be unavoidable, how you deal with these pressures is important, and lighting up a cigarette is bad news for your heart. Eating a balanced diet, taking regular exercise and quitting smoking will more than offset any risk associated with your job.”
Dr. Bo Netterstrom, from Bispebjerg Hospital in Denmark, said other stresses at work such as job insecurity “are likely to be of major importance”.
He said job strain was “a measure of only part of a psychosocially damaging work environment”.
Belgian researchers have spotted a never-before-seen chemical effect in Vincent Van Gogh’s Flowers In A Blue Vase that is dulling the work’s vibrant yellows.
It seems a layer of varnish added later to protect the work is in fact turning the yellow to a greyish-orange color.
High-intensity X-ray studies described in Analytical Chemistry found compounds called oxalates were responsible.
But atoms from the original paint were also found in the varnish, which may therefore be left in place.
It is not the first time that the bright yellows that Van Gogh preferred have been examined with X-rays.
A layer of varnish added later to protect Van Gogh work Flowers In A Blue Vase is in fact turning the yellow to a greyish-orange color
In 2011, an article in the same journal from a team led by the University of Antwerp’s Koen Janssens reported that a pigment Van Gogh favored called chrome yellow degraded when other, chromium-containing pigments were present.
The new work was begun during a conservation treatment in 2009, when conservators found that the yellows in Flowers In A Blue Vase – this time from a pigment called cadmium yellow – had turned greyish and cracked.
Normally, cadmium yellow grows paler and less vibrant as it ages.
So the team again took tiny samples of the work to some of Europe’s largest sources of X-rays: the ESRF in France and Desy in Germany. Both use vast particle accelerators to speed up electrons, which spray out X-rays as they pass around the accelerators.
The purpose was to determine not only what was in the samples in terms of atoms and molecules, but also the precise structures in the interface layer between the original paint and the varnish.
That is where the team was shocked to find a compound called cadmium oxalate as the cause of the grey-orange pallor.
“The contact layer between the varnish and the paint, where the cadmium oxalate is found, is micrometer thin,” said Dr. Koen Janssens.
“If we had not used methods that allow us to interrogate this very thin layer, we would never have noticed that there were oxalates there.”
Oxalates are commonly found in much older works, and in association with different pigments. This is the first time that cadmium has been seen to form oxalates within the varnish – a protective measure that was added much later.
“Van Gogh didn’t like to varnish his paintings – he liked them, let’s say, rough,” Dr. Koen Janssens said.
“It was only after he died that these paintings found their way into the art market and into private and public collections and individual conservators would say <<we’re going to varnish it because we do that with all our paintings>>.”
That some of the Van Gogh’s paint has been drawn into the varnish creates a troubling problem for conservators, who of course want to prevent any further degradation but are duty-bound not to remove any original material.
The particular chemical reaction may be putting the yellows of other works at risk by Van Gogh and others, but it does not happen with every type of varnish.
For now, perhaps the world’s best collection of Van Gogh’s work – at the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands – seems safe.
“I don’t anticipate it will be a wide-scale problem for our particular collection, given its conservation history,” said Ella Hendriks, the museum’s head of conservation.
“But of course it’s always good to be aware of the possibility that you could come across this in other paintings,” she said.
“This type of information for conservators is very valuable because it helps us understand the condition of the paintings and make the right choices about how we can best conserve them.”
Nicki Minaj and country star Keith Urban have been confirmed as judges on the next series of American Idol.
Fox television made the official announcement hours before the first round of auditions were due to take place in New York.
The duo replace Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler, both of whom quit earlier this year.
Mariah Carey and Randy Jackson complete the line-up on the programme, which has been suffering falling ratings.
Nicki Minaj and country star Keith Urban have been confirmed as judges on the next series of American Idol
Audience’s for this year’s series – the eleventh – were down about 30% on 2011. The season finale drew 21.5 million viewers, a record low, to see Phillip Phillips win.
Therefore, the appointment of Nicki Minaj, 25, is likely to be of key importance to Fox, who will hope to draw in a younger, hipper audience.
Nicki Minaj sold three million copies of her recent single Starships in the US alone; while her cartoonish blend of pop, rave and hip-hop has seen her top the charts in the UK, US and Canada.
Keith Urban, meanwhile, is one of the biggest names in country music. He boasts 14 US number ones, and has won the Grammy for best male country vocal performance four times in the last six years.
The singer is also married to actress Nicole Kidman.
Mariah Carey, who first found fame with the number one single Vision Of Love in 1990, will reportedly receive $18 million for her one-year contract on Idol. The salaries of the other judges have not been revealed.
The appointment of three newcomers means Randy Jackson is the sole returning judge.
He has been with the show since it first began in 2002, when his fellow judges were Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul.
Over the years, American Idol has produced stars such as Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry and Jennifer Hudson.
It now faces competition from the likes of The Voice and X Factor US, which boast Cee-Lo Green, Britney Spears, Adam Levine and Simon Cowell on their judging panel.
American Idol returns for its 12th series in January.
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart relationship was left in tatters when she was photographed cheating on him with married film director Rupert Sanders.
But Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have reportedly decided to give their romance another shot.
The Twilight co-stars are said to have had a tearful heart-to-heart, with the 26-year-old actor eventually deciding to forgive his girlfriend for what he considers to be a “stupid mistake”.
A source told The Sun: “They pretty much decided they couldn’t live without each other.
“Kristen poured her heart out to Robert and told him it was a one-off and a mistake.”
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are now said to be moving into a secluded Los Angeles home together, and are hoping to rebuild their relationship.
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have reportedly decided to give their romance another shot
The source added: “Rob sees it as Kristen made a really stupid mistake. After a lot of long tearful talks, they’ve worked it out.
“Rob can see how truly sorry Kristen is and has totally forgiven her. They really do love each other.”
Kristen Stewart seems to have been quietly confident about making amends with Robert Pattinson for some time.
Earlier this month, Kristen Stewart told reporters at a press conference they were “totally fine” about making potentially awkward public appearances together in November while they promote The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.
Back in July, Kristen Stewart was photographed in the arms of father-of-two Rupert Sanders, breaking not only the hearts of his wife Liberty Ross and her long-term love R-Patz – but loyal fans across the globe.
In the wake of the news, both Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders were quick to make public statements saying that their tryst had been a mistake.
Kristen Stewart said: “This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.”
While Rupert Sanders told People magazine: “I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family. My beautiful wife and heavenly children are all I have in this world.
“I love them with all my heart. I am praying that we can get through this together.”
A NATO air strike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Laghman has killed at least eight women, local officials say.
NATO has conceded that between five and eight civilians died as it targeted insurgents, and offered condolences.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai “strongly condemned” the deaths and has sent officials to the area to investigate.
Earlier on Sunday, four US soldiers with the NATO forces were killed in an attack by suspected Afghan police.
The attack in southern Zabul province brought to 51 the number of NATO troops killed in “insider attacks” this year, and came a day after two UK soldiers were killed at a checkpoint in Helmand by a man in police uniform.
Local officials in the remote area of Laghman said at least eight women had died, while provincial council member Gulzar Sangarwal said nine were dead.
Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the ISAF international forces, said between five and eight civilians could have been killed, and said an investigation was under way.
He said a group of some 45 insurgents had been targeted by an ISAF unit, and many had been killed.
A NATO air strike in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman has killed at least eight women
“Unfortunately, we have become aware of possible ISAF-caused civilian casualties as a result of this strike, numbering five-eight Afghans,” he said.
“ISAF offers its sincerest condolences to the affected community and family members, as well as to the Afghan people, concerning this tragic loss of life.”
At least seven women were also reported to have been injured. Provincial health director Latif Qayumi said some of them injured were girls aged as young as 10.
The Laghman governor’s office said a number of civilians had gone to the mountains to collect wood and nuts from a forest in the Noarlam Saib valley, a common practice in the area.
The mountainous, highly forested terrain remote from government control make the area attractive to Taliban and other insurgent groups, correspondents say.
The issue of civilian deaths by international forces has created tensions between the US President Karzai.
In August, UN figures suggested the number of civilians killed and injured in the first half of 2012 had fallen 15% on the same period of 2011.
Analysts said increased sensitivity on both sides about the impact of civilian deaths had led to more carefully targeted attacks.
In his statement, President Hamid Karzai expressed his “sorrow” over the incident, saying he “strongly condemns the airstrike by NATO forces which resulted in the deaths of eight women”.
ISAF spokesman Lt. Col. Hagen Messers said the remote base in Zabul province came under attack in the early hours of the morning, AFP reports.
The US troops were scrambled to help the Afghans repel the attack, but four of them were shot dead by Afghans in police uniform.
Officials said it was not yet clear whether the attacker or attackers were genuine police, but one provincial office told AFP that three or four known policemen had since disappeared from the base.
“At the moment, we don’t know where they have gone. We don’t know if they fled fearing arrest or if they are linked to the Taliban,” he said.
Zabul’s deputy police chief Ghulam Gilani told the Associated Press the police could have been forced into attacking the American troops.
“Whether they attacked the Americans willingly we don’t know,” he said.
Meanwhile, more details have also emerged of the scale of damage caused by an insurgent attack on NATO’s heavily fortified Camp Bastion base in Helmand province, in which two US marines were killed.
Militants breached the perimeter of the sprawling base in Helmand province, destroying six US Harrier aircraft and damaging two more, destroying three refueling stations and damaging six aircraft hangars.
NATO said 14 of the insurgents were killed and one was injured and taken into custody. Nine coalition personnel were wounded.
In a statement, NATO said the attack had been carried out by 15 insurgents dressed in US Army uniforms who “appeared to be well-equipped, trained and rehearsed”.
Hundreds of thousands of worshippers have attended a seafront Mass in Beirut on the concluding day of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon.
Pope Benedict XVI appealed for leaders in the Middle East to work for peace and reconciliation and urged those at the service to “be peacemakers”.
The pontiff also renewed his call for a end to the violence in Syria.
He later left Lebanon, after a ceremony at Beirut airport attended by flag-waving crowds.
The visit came amid anti-US protests in the region over a film deemed insulting to Islam.
It was the first papal trip to Lebanon since John Paul II went there in 1997.
An estimated 350,000 worshippers gathered for the waterfront Mass earlier on Sunday. They waved flags and cheered as the Pope made his way through the crowd in his bullet-proof popemobile.
During the service, the Pope urged Christians throughout the Middle East to do their part to end “the grim trail of death and destruction” in the region.
Hundreds of thousands of worshippers have attended a seafront Mass in Beirut on the concluding day of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Lebanon
Calling again for peace in Syria, he said: “I appeal to the Arab countries, that, as brothers, they might propose workable solutions respecting the dignity, the rights and the religion of every human person.”
Christians from around Lebanon, as well as Syria, Iraq and further afield, travelled to see him speak in what must have been a very thrilling day.
On Saturday, the pontiff met Lebanese political leaders at the presidential palace near Beirut.
Lebanon’s politicians are bitterly divided over the conflict in neighboring Syria, but the Pope met leaders from across the spectrum, including the Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah.
Addressing an audience of government officials, foreign diplomats and religious leaders, he called for the “fundamental right” of religious freedom to be observed.
Earlier in his visit, the Pope condemned religious fundamentalism and called on all religious leaders in the Middle East “to do everything possible to uproot this threat”.
Controversy over a film deemed to be offensive to the Prophet Mohammed has provoked protests throughout the region since the Pope’s arrival in Lebanon.
The film, Innocence of Muslims, is believed to have been made by a Coptic Christian in the US, and related unrest has led to the death of, among others, the US ambassador to Libya.
The Pope also addressed a gathering of thousands of young people on Saturday, and urged them to stay in Lebanon “and take your place in society and in the Church”.
The number of Christians in the region has been greatly reduced in recent years due to political upheaval and economic pressures.
Libyan authorities have arrested some 50 people in connection with Tuesday deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, the president of Libya’s interim assembly has said.
Mohamed Magarief told CBS News he had “no doubt” the attack was pre-planned.
That appears to contradict US envoy to the UN Susan Rice who told ABC that the evidence suggested it had been part of “spontaneous” protests.
US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US consulate staff were killed.
They died when the consulate in Benghazi was set ablaze, in protests apparently inspired by demonstrations at the US embassy in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
It was part of a wave of violent protests in the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film made in the US.
Libyan authorities have arrested some 50 people in connection with Tuesday deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi
Some of the suspects in last Tuesday’s violence in Benghazi were from outside Libya, Mohamed Magarief told CBS News.
“It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” he said.
He said the suspects were connected to al-Qaeda, or its “affiliates and maybe sympathizers”.
“We don’t know what are the real intentions of these perpetrators,” he said.
“They entered Libya from different directions. Some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria.”
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has said in a statement the attack avenged the killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi – a Libyan-born al-Qaeda commander killed in June by a US drone strike in the North Waziristan-Afghan borderlands.
Susan Rice, meanwhile, told ABC that the the US’s “current best assessment” was that “this began as a spontaneous not a pre-meditated response” to the protests in Cairo.
“As that unfolded it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that as you know in the wake of the revolution in Libya are quite common and accessible and then it evolved from there,” she added.
The Benghazi violence was followed by a string of attacks on US consulates, embassies and business interests across the Middle East and north Africa. British, Swiss, German and Dutch properties were also targeted.
Two people were killed during protests outside the US embassy in the Tunisian capital, Tunis on Friday, while three were killed in clashes in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
On Saturday, the US ordered all non-essential staff to leave Tunisia and Sudan, fearing further violence. The US had asked Sudan for permission to send troops to protect its Khartoum embassy, but the request was turned down.
A State Department statement also advised US citizens in Tunisia to leave by commercial flights and those in Sudan to “exercise caution at all times”.
The Canadian government announced on Sunday it was closing its embassies in Sudan, Libya and Egypt for the day as a precautionary measure.
The US and Canadian announcements came as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called for fresh attacks against Western embassies, describing the recent unrest as “a great event”, and urging protesters to unite to “expel the embassies of America from the lands of the Muslims”, AP reports.
Meanwhile a man involved in producing the film – a low-budget, amateurish production called Innocence of Muslims – has been questioned by police in the US.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has admitted his role in the film but investigators are trying to find out whether he was the internet user named “sambacile” who posted a clip of it online.
He was freed on probation in June 2011 on condition that he did not use the internet without authorization or assume aliases.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was released by police after questioning and may have gone into hiding, the Associated Press reports.
US defence secretary Leon Panetta has warned territorial disputes in East Asia have the potential to become wider conflicts if provocations are not reduced.
“A misjudgement on one side or the other could result in violence, and could result in conflict,” Leon Panetta said at the start of an Asian tour.
His comments came as anti-Japanese protests continue to sweep China over a disputed island chain.
Demonstrators gathered in cities across China for a second day on Sunday.
Riot police used tear gas and water cannon in the southern city of Shenzhen to break up an angry crowd.
China is reasserting its claim to sovereignty over the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, in the wake of a Japanese government decision last week to purchase the islands from their private Japanese owners.
US defence secretary Leon Panetta has warned territorial disputes in East Asia have the potential to become wider conflicts if provocations are not reduced
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has urged Beijing to take steps to protect Japanese nationals, but added that the authorities in both countries should “remain calm”.
Speaking in Tokyo, Leon Panetta said: “I am concerned that when these countries engage in provocations of one kind or another over these various islands, that it raises the possibility that a misjudgement on one side or the other could result in violence, and could result in conflict.”
“And that conflict would then have the potential of expanding,” he warned.
The US defence chief stressed that during his talks in Tokyo and later in Beijing he would appeal for restraint.
Leon Panetta also said that Washington did not take a position with regard to the territorial disputes in Asia.
He will also visit New Zealand as part of his tour.
On Sunday, hundreds of Chinese protesters again faced off against riot police at the Japanese embassy in Beijing.
In Shenzhen, police fired tear gas to disperse a demonstration, while in the nearby city of Guanghzhou angry crowds burned Japanese flags.
One eyewitness in the city of Xi’an described how his camera was snatched from him and damaged because it was a Japanese brand.
“Japanese-made cars were randomly stopped, their drivers grabbed and thrown out… and the cars smashed and burned. The police and army seemed to do little to stop the riot,” he said.
Tensions have been heightened this week after the purchase of some of the islands by the Japanese government from their private Japanese owners.
China briefly sent six surveillance ships into waters around the islands on Friday in response.
The islands are also claimed by Taiwan and have been a long-running source of friction in the region.
Analysts see Japan’s decision to buy the islands as damage limitation in response to a much more provocative plan by the nationalistic governor of Tokyo, who wanted to purchase and develop the islands.
And yet there is virtually no mention of the protests in China’s state media, and attempts have been made to control discussion on the internet.
This reflects the Communist leadership’s ambivalence about such displays of nationalist fury: they can be useful to send a message to Japan, but could easily get out of control and spark wider expressions of discontent.
There is plenty of scope for miscalculation in the coming days: Chinese fishing fleets are set to return to the disputed waters, and nationalists could try to provoke Japan by landing on the islands.
In Japan, the government seems unlikely to back down with election looming.
There is talk in the Japanese press that some on both sides could be willing to risk a limited naval clash in defence of the conflicting claims.
Further complicating matters, Japan’s newly appointed ambassador to China, 60-year-old Shinichi Nishimiya, died on Sunday, the foreign ministry said.
The envoy – who had been due to take his post in October – collapsed several days earlier near his Tokyo home and was taken to hospital.
The foreign ministry has not publicly commented on what caused his death.
Post-menopausal women who have Type 2 diabetes appear to have a 27% greater risk of developing breast cancer, experts say.
An international team, writing in the British Journal of Cancer, examined 40 separate studies looking at the potential link between breast cancer and diabetes.
Being obese or overweight is linked to both conditions.
But cancer experts say there may be a direct connection between the two.
These studies involved more than 56,000 women with breast cancer.
Post-menopausal women with Type 2 diabetes had a 27% increased risk of breast cancer.
But there was no link for pre-menopausal women or those with Type 1 diabetes.
The authors have also suggested that a high body mass index (BMI), which is often associated with diabetes, may be an underlying contributing factor.
Prof. Peter Boyle, president of the International Prevention Research Institute, who led the study, said: “We don’t yet know the mechanisms behind why Type 2 diabetes might increase the risk of breast cancer.
“On the one hand, it’s thought that being overweight, often associated with Type 2 diabetes, and the effect this has on hormone activity may be partly responsible for the processes that lead to cancer growth.
“But it’s also impossible to rule out that some factors related to diabetes may be involved in the process.”
An IBM team in Zurich has published single-molecule images so detailed that the type of atomic bonds between their atoms can be discerned.
The same pioneering team took the first-ever single-molecule image in 2009 and more recently published images of a molecule shaped like the Olympic rings.
The new work opens up the prospect of studying imperfections in the “wonder material” graphene or plotting where electrons go during chemical reactions.
The images are published in Science.
The team, which included French and Spanish collaborators, used a variant of a technique called atomic force microscopy (AFM).
AFM uses a tiny metal tip passed over a surface, whose even tinier deflections are measured as the tip is scanned to and fro over a sample.
The IBM team’s innovation to create the first single molecule picture, of a molecule called pentacene, was to use the tip to pick up a single, small molecule made up of a carbon and an oxygen atom.
An IBM team in Zurich has published single-molecule images so detailed that the type of atomic bonds between their atoms can be discerned
This carbon monoxide molecule effectively acts as a record needle, probing with unprecedented accuracy the very surfaces of atoms.
It is difficult to overstate what precision measurements these are.
The experiments must be isolated from any kind of vibration coming from within the laboratory or even its surroundings.
They are carried out at a scale so small that room temperature induces wigglings of the AFM’s constituent molecules that would blur the images, so the apparatus is kept at a cool -268C.
While some improvements have been made since that first image of pentacene, lead author of the Science study, Leo Gross, said the new work was mostly down to a choice of subject.
The new study examined fullerenes – such as the famous football-shaped “buckyball” – and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which have linked rings of carbon atoms at their cores.
The images show just how long the atomic bonds are, and the bright and dark spots correspond to higher and lower densities of electrons.
Together, this information reveals just what kind of bonds they are – how many electrons pairs of atoms share – and what is going on chemically within the molecules.
“In the case of pentacene, we saw the bonds but we couldn’t really differentiate them or see different properties of different bonds,” Dr. Leo Gross said.
“Now we can really prove that… we can see different physical properties of different bonds, and that’s really exciting.”
The team will use the method to examine graphene, one-atom-thick sheets of pure carbon that hold much promise in electronics.
But defects in graphene – where the perfect sheets of carbon are buckled or include other atoms – are currently poorly understood.
The team will also explore the use of different molecules for their “record needle”, with the hope of yielding even more insight into the molecular world.
Wang Lijun, the former police chief at the centre of China’s biggest political scandal in years, will be tried in Chengdu next Tuesday, a Chinese court official said.
Wang Lijun is charged with defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking.
He triggered events leading to the downfall of powerful politician Bo Xilai when he briefly fled to a US consulate in February.
Bo Xilai’s wife has since been given a suspended death sentence for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
“Wang Lijun’s case will be heard on 18 September,” an official at the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court who was only identified by his surname, He, told reporters.
Wang Lijun will be tried in Chengdu next Tuesday
An earlier state media report said that the evidence against Wang Lijun was “concrete and abundant”.
The indictment against him said he knew that Bo Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai, was a murder suspect, but “consciously neglected his duty and bent the law for personal gain”, Xinhua news agency reported.
One report said the trial, which comes with China expected to hold its key party leadership congress in coming weeks, would last one day.
Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun’s former boss in Chongqing, had been tipped for promotion to the top leadership ranks at the party congress before his downfall.
He has not been seen in public since the scandal erupted. He is said to be under investigation by the party’s disciplinary officials.
Wang Lijun was seen as a loyal lieutenant of Bo Xilai, but in early February the Chongqing city government said Wang had been shifted to another job.
Four days later, he fled to the US consulate in nearby Chengdu, where many believe he sought asylum. He spent the night there but was persuaded to leave a day later. He gave himself up to police and has been in detention since then.
According to the UK Foreign Office, Wang Lijun made allegations about Neil Heywood’s death while at the consulate.
Shortly afterwards, Bo Xilai was sacked and his wife Gu Kailai was accused and later convicted of murdering Neil Heywood. Gu Kailai’s trial last month took only a day.
Wang Lijun, 52 began his career in law enforcement in the Inner Mongolia Region in 1984 and moved to the southwestern city of Chongqing in 2008.
He had a reputation for being tough on organized crime and was once the subject of a TV drama called Iron-Blooded Police Spirits.
Asian markets have risen, following gains on Wall Street, after the US Federal Reserve unveiled its latest stimulus plan.
The US central bank said it would buy $40 billion of mortgage debt a month and kept interest rates at below 0.25%.
It said it would also continue its programme to reduce long-term borrowing costs for firms and households.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.8%, South Korea’s Kospi gained 2.6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.5%.
This followed gains of 1.6% rise in the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes on Thursday.
Asian markets have risen, following gains on Wall Street, after the US Federal Reserve unveiled its latest stimulus plan
Investors are hoping the measures will revive growth in the US economy, the world’s biggest, and a key market for Asian exports.
“They’re saying that the punch bowl, the fuel for the economy, isn’t going away – it’s going to be here as long as you need it,” said Tony Fratto, managing partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, a policy consulting firm.
There have been growing fears about the global economy with a weak recovery in the US and the ongoing debt crisis in the eurozone.
The slowdown in China’s economy, the world’s second-largest, and one of its biggest drivers of growth after the global financial crisis, has fanned those fears.
Prompted by these concerns, policymakers in these regions have been taking measures to try to spur a fresh wave of growth.
The Federal Reserve’s announcement came days after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its latest plan.
Last week, the ECB said that it would buy bonds from the bloc’s debt-ridden nations in an attempt to bring down their borrowing costs.
Meanwhile, China has cut its interest rates twice since June to bring down borrowing costs for businesses and consumers. Beijing has also lowered the amount of money that banks need to keep in reserve three times in the past few months to further encourage lending.
This week South Korea has also unveiled two stimulus measures aimed at boosting domestic demand and helping small businesses.
Analysts said the moves had helped reassure investors and markets that policymakers were doing all they could to ensure growth in the global economy.
“You’re witnessing global economic stimulus across the board,” said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial.
“The Fed’s actions are occurring in conjunction with the European Central Bank’s commitments to support the euro and amid talk that China could also deliver a stimulus package.”
Thousands of people have been evacuated in Guatemala after the Fuego volcano started spewing ash and lava.
Volcanologists said powerful eruptions were catapulting burning rocks as high as 1,000 m (3,280 ft) above the crater and lava was flowing down its slopes.
Local residents reported how the roaring of the volcano shook windows and roofs in nearby villages.
Experts say the eruption of the Fuego, 50 km (31 miles) south-west of Guatemala City, is the biggest since 1999.
Thousands of people have been evacuated in Guatemala after the Fuego volcano started spewing ash and lava
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said the eruption could affect people as far away as the capital.
“We will do the best we can to avoid people being harmed,” he said.
Cars, lorries and buses covered in grey cash could be seen speeding away from the area towards Guatemala City.
Some of those who fled their homes headed for an emergency shelter at a school in the town of Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa.
Miriam Carumaco, 28, who arrived there with 16 members of her family, said: “We heard loud thunder and then it got dark and ash began falling.
“It sounded like a pressure cooker that wouldn’t stop.”
Head of Emergency Evacuations Sergio Cabanas originally said evacuation orders for more than 33,000 people in 17 towns and villages had been issued.
However, he later said that 11,000 had been evacuated and no more would be necessary as the eruptions had died down by late Thursday.
“It is hoped that by tomorrow [Friday] the volcano will return to normal activity and that families will be able to return home,” he said.
Officials said lava was covering a 7 km (4.3-mile) area on the south and south-western side of the Fuego.
The authorities recommended that air traffic controllers suspend flights in the vicinity of the volcano, as the ash cloud emanating from its crater was spreading quickly.
The 3,760 m-tall (12,336 ft) Fuego is one of Central America’s most active volcanoes.
Libya has made several arrests in connection with the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.
New Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shaqur said the investigation was making progress.
The attack happened on Tuesday during protests over a US-made film that mocks the Prophet Mohammed.
Similar protests have spread across the Middle East and North Africa. Further unrest is expected at Friday prayers.
Clashes between riot police and protesters continued overnight in the Egyptian capital Cairo, where Islamist groups and others have called for a peaceful “million-man march” later on Friday.
US President Barack Obama has promised to do whatever is necessary to protect US citizens abroad and said he was urging foreign governments to guarantee their security.
A White House statement said he had thanked Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi for condemning an attack on the US embassy there and for launching an investigation.
“President Obama expressed appreciation for the co-operation we have received from the Yemeni government and underscored the importance of working together to ensure the security of US personnel,” the statement said.
Libya has made several arrests in connection with the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi
In Benghazi, US and Libyan officials are investigating the possibility that heavily armed militants used the protest as a pretext for a co-ordinated assault.
Libyan officials say those arrested are being interrogated on suspicion of having instigated the attack.
Four embassy staff died, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
PM Mustafa Abu Shaqur blamed the attack on “criminals” and said anger against the film could not justify it.
“The people, they don’t understand that such a case like this, the American government has nothing to do with it,” he said.
“Somebody made a film and they put it on YouTube. It was very offensive for sure but that doesn’t justify taking this wild actions against Americans or American embassies. People can come out and demonstrate and express their opinion peacefully.”
Following the attack, some Libyans have taken part in rallies in Benghazi and Tripoli denouncing the violence.
Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif told reporters that those arrested had been taken from their homes on Thursday but gave no further details.
No group has said it carried out the attack and Wanis al-Sharif said it was too early to say if those arrested belonged to a particular organization.
Meanwhile, further protests against the US-made film are expected on Friday.
In Yemen, demonstrators briefly stormed the grounds of the US embassy in Sanaa on Thursday and burnt the US flag before being driven back by security forces.
A White House spokesman said all those working in the embassy were safe and accounted for.
In Egypt, 224 people were injured in protests outside the US embassy in Cairo on Thursday, with some demonstrators demanding the expulsion of the ambassador. Police vehicles were set alight.
Egyptian media said that as night fell on Thursday, police were continuing to fire tear gas at stone-throwing protesters.
Calls for a million-man march in Cairo came from The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist al-Nour party and non-religious groups including the “Ultra” fans of Zamalek football club.
They said they had invited Muslims, Coptic Christians and all Egyptian citizens to join them.
President Mohammed Mursi said Egyptians rejected “any kind of assault or insult” against the Prophet Muhammad, but appealed for calm.
Small protests have also been reported in Bangladesh, Iraq, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, and security has been increased at US embassies and consulates around the world.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the film, entitled Innocence of Muslims, as “disgusting” and “reprehensible” but said it was no excuse for violence.
The film was shot in the US and posted online earlier this year. It depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and the bloodthirsty leader of a ragtag group of men who enjoy killing.
However, the film’s exact origin and the motivation behind its production remain a mystery.
Some of the actors involved have since condemned the film, saying they had no idea it was to be used as anti-Islam propaganda.
Six Chinese surveillance ships have entered waters near islands claimed by both Japan and China.
China said the ships were carrying out “law enforcement” to demonstrate its jurisdiction over the islands, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
At least two of the vessels left after the Japanese coast guard issued a warning, Japanese officials say.
The move came after Japan sealed a deal to buy three of the islands from their private Japanese owner.
Japan controls the uninhabited but resource-rich East China Sea islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan.
Six Chinese surveillance ships have entered waters near islands claimed by both Japan and China
The Japanese Coast Guard said the first two Chinese boats entered Japan’s territorial waters at 06:18 local time, followed by another fleet of four other ships just after 07:00.
The first two ships then left the area. A third ship left later on Friday morning, one report said. No force was used, Japanese officials added.
“Our patrol vessels are currently telling them to leave our country’s territorial waters,” the coastguard said in a statement.
The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that its ships were there.
“These law enforcement and patrol activities are aimed to demonstrate China’s jurisdiction over the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets and ensure the country’s maritime interests,” a statement said.
The US has called for ”cooler heads to prevail” as tension intensifies between China and Japan over the islands, which lie south of Okinawa and north of Taiwan.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is due to visit both Japan and China from this weekend as part of a tour of the region that also includes New Zealand.
The dispute has seriously marred diplomatic relations between China and Japan and threatens to damage the strong trading relationship.
The row has also generated strong nationalist sentiment on both sides that observers say now makes it very difficult to be seen to be backing down.
The Japanese government says it is buying the islands to promote their stable and peaceful management.
Its move followed a bid by right-wing Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to buy the islands using public donations – an action that would likely have further provoked China.
China, on the other hand, says the islands have historically been its territory and fishing grounds.
Meanwhile Japan’s newly-appointed ambassador to China, Shinichi Nishimiya, remains in hospital in Tokyo after he was found unconscious near his home in Tokyo on Thursday.
No details have been given on his condition. He was appointed on Tuesday to replace Uichiro Niwa, who has been criticized for his handling of one of the worse diplomatic rows between Japan and China in recent years.
Japan-China disputed islands:
• The archipelago consists of five islands and three reefs
• Japan, China and Taiwan claim them; they are controlled by Japan and form part of Okinawa prefecture
• The Japanese government signed a deal in September 2012 to purchase three islands from Japanese businessman Kunioki Kurihara, who used to rent them out to the Japanese state
• The islands were the focus of a major diplomatic row between Japan and China in 2010
Barack Obama has said the United States does not currently consider Egypt to be an ally.
The president was speaking with reference to violent clashes at the US embassy in Cairo, over a US-made anti-Islamic film which has sparked anger among Muslims.
Barack Obama’s comments also came after the storming of the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed the US ambassador on Tuesday.
President Barack Obama referred to US-Egypt relations as a “work in progress”.
Barack Obama has said the United States does not currently consider Egypt to be an ally
“I don’t think we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy. They are a new government that is trying to find its way,” Barack Obama said in a television interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo.
He said that so far Egypt’s government has “said the right thing and taken the right steps” but it has also responded to other events in ways that “may not be aligned with our interests”.
Barack Obama also said that he expected Egypt to protect the US embassy and its staff.
“If they take actions that indicate they are not taking those responsibilities, as all other countries do where we have embassies, I think that’s going to be a problem,” he said.
Egypt was a close and vital Middle East ally of the United States while ousted President Hosni Mubarak was in power.
Cairo has been key US ally since 1979 Egypt-Israel peace deal, and the US gives more than $1 billion in military aid to Egypt every year.
After last year’s uprising and the resurgence of the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, question marks have been raised over the future of the relationship.
Angry anti-US protests have taken place across the Middle East and North Africa.
The grounds of the US embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa were briefly stormed by protesters on Thursday.
On Wednesday, demonstrators in Cairo angry at the film – Innocence of Muslims – breached the walls of the US embassy and tore down the flag. The clashes, which began on Tuesday, continued in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Egypt’s interior ministry says 16 people were injured overnight – 13 of them members of the security forces. Two police vehicles were burnt out and 12 protesters were arrested.
President Mohamed Mursi has appealed for calm: “I call on everyone to take that into consideration, to not violate Egyptian law… to not assault embassies.”
“I condemn and oppose all who… insult our prophet. [But] it is our duty to protect our guests and visitors from abroad,” he said in a statement broadcast by state media.
In July US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Mohamed Mursi for the first time and reaffirmed Washington’s “strong support” for the Egyptian people and their shift to civilian rule.
An outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now killed 31 people and could threaten major towns, the World Health Organization has warned.
An epidemic was officially declared on 17 August in the northwestern Orientale Province.
WHO official Eugene Kabambi told Reuters that the situation was “very serious” and was “not under control”.
An outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now killed 31 people and could threaten major towns
Ebola is highly contagious and kills up to 90% of people infected.
There is no known treatment or vaccine for the disease, which is spread by close personal contact and causes massive internal bleeding.
The death toll from this latest outbreak, centred on the towns of Isoro and Viadana, has more than doubled over the course of a week to 31.
Up to five health workers are thought to be among the dead.
“The epidemic is not under control. On the contrary the situation is very, very serious,” Eugene Kabambi warned, speaking in DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa.
“If nothing is done now, the disease will reach other places, and even major towns will be threatened,” he said.
Last month an outbreak of a more deadly Ebola strain in neighboring Uganda killed 16 people, but health workers say the two outbreaks do not appear to be related.
Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky has reportedly been meeting with a number of major publishers – who were all asked to sign nondisclosure agreements before seeing her.
An insider familiar with the project said: “I’m sure every major publisher was interested in hearing what she had to say.”
It is unclear who the frontrunners are, according to the New York Post.
Monica Lewinsky moved to England in 2005 where she earned her master’s degree in social psychology.
She then worked as a news correspondent for the UK’s Channel Five News.
Monica Lewinsky may be poised to write a tell-all book
Monica Lewinsky, 39, has given a number of interviews since the 1998 Bill Clinton scandal erupted but has generally kept under the radar.
Her friends have previously said she is not interested in capitalizing off the scandal, though if these rumors are true, this appears to have changed.
Monica Lewinsky has her own business designing purses, The Real Monica Inc.
Her rep said yesterday: “I cannot comment on anything at this point.”
Though it has been 14 years since it emerged that Bill Clinton had nine separate sexual encounters with his intern at the time, her presence still looms in the life of Clinton post-presidency and in that of his wife Hillary.
In what was an unfortunate and awkward schedule at the DNC in Charlotte last week, Monica Lewinsky’s former rabbi – who publicly condemned Bill Clinton during the sex scandal – gave the benediction minutes after the former President took the stage.
ABC News reported that the awkward pairing was likely overlooked by organizers because Rabbi David Wolpe is such a well-known figure in the Jewish community.
In July during a visit to Egypt as U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was taunted by her husband’s affair by protesters as they chanted “Monica, Monica”.
Hillary Clinton was subjected to them whilst visiting the Egyptian port city of Alexandria to reopen the US Consulate.
Dustin Hoffman, rock band Led Zeppelin and talk show host David Letterman are to be honored by Washington’s Kennedy Center.
The performance hall will give all three surviving Led Zeppelin members – John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant – individual awards.
Blues musician Buddy Guy and Russian ballerina Natalia Makarova will also be recognized at the gala in December.
President Barack Obama will also host a White House reception for them.
“With their extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity, the seven 2012 Kennedy Center honorees have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world,” said chairman David Rubenstein.
The award is the highest honor awarded to those that have influenced American culture through the arts, with Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey among past recipients.
Dustin Hoffman, Led Zeppelin and David Letterman are to be honored by Kennedy Center
Led Zeppelin will be celebrated for transforming the sound of rock and roll and influencing other artists with blues-infused hits such as Stairway to Heaven.
The band issued a joint statement saying America was the first place to embrace their music.
“We owe a large debt to the vitality and variety of the music of the American people,” they added.
David Rubenstein called two-time Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman, 75, “one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors” of any generation.
The star of such films such as Rain Man, The Graduate and Tootsie recently made his directing debut with Quartet, to be screened at the London Film Festival next month.
Dustin Hoffman said he may have found a new calling with the film, which stars Dame Maggie Smith as one of a group of ageing opera singers and musicians reunited at a retirement home.
He also revealed he was last in Washington for Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, when it was very cold.
“Since I froze my [behind] off watching him be inaugurated, the least he could do is to shake my hand under the circumstances,” joked Dustin Hoffman.
Late night talk show host Letterman will be recognized as “one of the most influential personalities” on US TV.
The 65-year-old said it was a wonderful honor for his family, his co-workers and himself.
“I believe recognition at this prestigious level confirms my belief that there has been a mix-up,” he said in a statement.
“I am still grateful to be included.”
Chicago musician Buddy Guy, 76, has influenced many musicians over the past 50 years after pioneering the use of distortion and feedback with his electric guitar.
The “titan of the blues” said he did not know what he was doing at the time, but just wanted to turn up the sound so somebody could hear him when he was playing with the likes of BB King and Muddy Waters.
He said he was still pinching himself about his latest accolade.
“I’m hoping this will give the blues a lift,” he added.
Buddy Guy has already visited the White House this year, when he managed to persuade Barack
Protests against anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims made in the US are spreading across the Middle East and North Africa.
In Yemen, demonstrators briefly stormed the grounds of the US embassy in Sanaa and burnt the US flag, but were driven back by security forces.
In Egypt, 224 people were injured in protests, the health ministry said. Protests were also reported in Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was killed in Benghazi.
US officials say they are investigating whether the attack in Libya was planned, citing suspicions that a militant jihadist group may have co-ordinated the violence.
In Yemen, demonstrators briefly stormed the grounds of the US embassy in Sanaa and burnt the US flag
Libya’s new Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur told the AFP news agency there had been a “big advance” in the investigation in Benghazi.
“Arrests have been made and more are under way as we speak,” he said but gave no details.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the film which gave rise to the protests as “disgusting” and “reprehensible”.
The US utterly rejected its contents and its message, she said, but the film was no excuse for violence.
Police in Sanaa shot in the air, but failed to prevent crowds from gaining access to the embassy compound and setting fire to vehicles.
Security force reinforcements used tear gas, water cannon and live fire to drive protesters back.
There were reports of injuries on both sides, although the Reuters news agency carried a statement from the embassy saying there were none.
Windows were smashed. A US flag was torn down and replaced with a black flag bearing the Muslim statement of faith, “There is no God but Allah”.
It was not immediately clear whether the embassy was occupied. There are reports that embassy staff has been moved to a safer location.
In Egypt, protests erupted for a third day outside the US embassy in Cairo, with some demonstrators demanding the expulsion of the ambassador.
Police fired tear gas at crowds throwing stones.
Islamist groups and others have called for a “million-man march” in Cairo on Friday.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist al-Nour party and non-religious groups including the “Ultra” fans of Zamalek football club have invited Muslims, Coptic Christians and all Egyptian citizens to join them.
Egypt’s President Mohammed Mursi appealed for calm, saying Egyptians “reject any kind of assault or insult” against the Prophet Muhammad.
“I condemn and oppose all who… insult our prophet. [But] it is our duty to protect our guests and visitors from abroad,” he said in a statement broadcast by state media.
“I call on everyone to take that into consideration, to not violate Egyptian law… to not assault embassies.”
US officials have described the Benghazi attack as complex and professional, and suggested the attackers may have used the film protest as a pretext for the attack.
Reuters quoted officials as saying there were suspicions that a militia known as the Ansar al-Sharia brigade was responsible, although the group has denied the claim.
The officials said there were also reports that al-Qaeda’s North Africa-based affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, may have been involved, the news agency reports.
The obscure film which has sparked anger was shot in the US and posted online earlier this year. Clips have since been shown on Arab TV stations.
It depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer and the bloodthirsty leader of a ragtag group of men who enjoy killing.
The exact origin of the movie and the internet clip, and the motivation behind its production, remains a mystery.
The most offensive comments regarding Muhammad appear to have been dubbed on later, says our correspondent.
Some of the actors involved have since condemned the film, and said they had no idea it was to be used as anti-Islam propaganda.
In other developments:
• Libya’s PM Mustafa Abu Shagur says there is “no justification” for the Benghazi attack and investigations are under way to find the “criminals” responsible
• Russia says it fears “chaos” in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia condemns both the film and the violence
• Iranians chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans stage a protest outside the Swiss embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, which represents US interests
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai has postponed a planned visit to Norway, fearing violence could erupt in his country
• There were small protests in Bangladesh and Iraq, in addition to Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia
• Security has been increased at US embassies and consulates around the world; US officials say a marine anti-terrorism team is being deployed to Libya and two destroyers to the Libyan coast as a precautionary measure
The US central bank has announced it will resume its policy of pumping more money into the economy via so-called quantitative easing.
The Federal Reserve said it will buy “additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month”.
The central bank also said it could increase the size of its purchases if the economy does not improve.
The economy is a pivotal issue in this year’s US presidential election.
The US central bank has announced it will resume its policy of pumping more money into the economy via so-called quantitative easing
Interest rates in the US have been close to zero for several years now, and the Fed again kept them at below 0.25%.
“The committee is concerned that, without further policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions,” said the Fed, led by chairman Ben Bernanke.
US stocks, which had been little changed, gained after the announcement. The benchmark Dow Jones average was 0.7% higher.
The US central bank has tried to support the economy by quantitative easing – buying $2.3 trillion in bonds in two rounds.
The Fed calls such measures “asset purchases”, where the central bank buys bonds to keep the long-term cost of borrowing down. The last round of asset purchases ended last year.
Mortgage-backed securities are debt backed by loans made to homeowners.
The unemployment rate in the US has been above 8% since January 2009, but the current 8.1% is down from the recent high of 10% in October 2009.
“To support continued progress toward maximum employment and price stability, the committee expects that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens,” the Fed said.
The Fed also confirmed that its $267 billion programme to reduce long-term borrowing costs for firms and households would continue for the rest of the year.
In a move dubbed “Operation Twist”, the central bank buys longer-term bonds from retail lenders and swaps them for shorter-term bonds.
