The first interview has been aired with former Navy Seal member Matt Bissonette, who wrote a first-hand account of the May 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, No Easy Day.
Former Navy Seal Matt Bissonette, who uses the pseudonym Mark Owen, was interviewed by CBS television network.
He repeated his claim that Osama Bin Laden was shot as soon as he looked out of his bedroom, contrary to the official version of events.
The Pentagon has said it may sue Matt Bissonette for divulging military secrets.
In the interview, Matt Bissonnette defended what he said was the manner of Osama Bin Laden’s death.
Former Navy Seal Matt Bissonette, who uses the pseudonym Mark Owen, was interviewed by CBS television network
“If a guy sticks his head around the corner he very easily could have a gun,” he told CBS’ 60 Minutes programme.
“You don’t wait to get that AK or the grenade thrown down the hall or the suicide vest,” he added.
He said that Osama Bin Laden was still moving after the first shot and was shot again when the Seals entered the room.
“[The Seals] couldn’t see his hands. So, he could’ve had something. Could’ve had a hand grenade or something underneath his chest,” Mark Owen said.
US officials had stated he was shot only after he had ducked back into the bedroom, prompting fears he might be grabbing a weapon.
Matt Bissonette told of a later meeting with President Barack Obama at which the Navy Seals refused to tell him which of them had shot Osama Bin Laden.
“Pulling a trigger is easy…. It’s not about who that one person was, it’s about the team… that teed this whole thing up,” Matt Bissonette said.
“Who cares who the one person is. Doesn’t matter,” he added.
The book was not reviewed ahead of publication by the Pentagon, CIA or the White House – and officials had warned that criminal charges could result from the improper disclosure of secret information.
The Pentagon’s general counsel, Jeh Johnson, has written to the author to inform him that “in the judgment of the Department of Defense, you are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed.”
The Pentagon is considering “all remedies legally available to us”, the letter added.
The arrest of Indian anti-corruption cartoonist Aseem Trivedi on charges of sedition has sparked off criticism.
Aseem Trivedi was held in the city of Mumbai over the weekend for his cartoons allegedly mocking the Indian constitution.
He was also charged with insulting the national flag and remanded in police custody until Sunday.
The cartoonist has been participating in the anti-corruption movement led by campaigner Anna Hazare.
India’s media and prominent citizens have condemned Aseem Trivedi’s arrest, calling it a “wrongful act”.
The arrest of Indian anti-corruption cartoonist Aseem Trivedi on charges of sedition has sparked off criticism
“From the information I have gathered, the cartoonist did nothing illegal, and in fact, arresting him was an illegal act,” Chairman of Press Council of India Markandey Katju told The Hindu newspaper.
“A wrongful arrest is a serious crime under the Indian Penal Code, and it is those who arrested him who should be arrested.”
Markandey Katju, a former Supreme Court judge, asked how drawing a cartoon could be considered a crime and said politicians should learn to accept criticism.
“Either the allegation is true, in which case you deserve it; or it is false, in which case, you ignore it. This kind of behavior is not acceptable in a democracy,” he said.
Senior journalist and the editor of CNN-IBN news channel Rajdeep Sardesai said he found it “amusing, but also very dangerous that you can get away with hate speech in this country, but parody and political satire leads to immediate arrest”.
A former senior police officer and lawyer YP Singh told the Mint newspaper that from “what I have heard, it seems he [Aseem Trivedi] can be booked at the most under a law to prevent insults to national honor and not on serious charges like sedition, which attract much harsher punishment”.
If proved, a sedition charge can invite a three-year prison term in India.
The micro-blogging site Twitter was also full of messages criticizing Aseem Trivedi’s arrest.
Police held him acting on a complaint by a Mumbai-based lawyer who said his cartoons were anti-national.
Earlier this year, a website carrying Aseem Trivedi’s anti-corruption cartoons was banned by the police in Mumbai, reports say.
In April, Indian police arrested a professor in Calcutta for allegedly posting on the internet cartoons ridiculing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He was later released.
Campaigning Barack Obama has been given a voter lift, when he was raised off the ground by an enthusiastic supporter in Florida.
President Barack Obama was lifted in a bear hug by 1.90 m-tall (6.2 ft) pizza shop owner Scott Van Duzer during a bus tour.
“Scott, let me tell you, you are like the biggest pizza shop owner I’ve ever seen,” said the president.
Despite being a registered voter of the rival Republican party, Scott Van Duzer said he would vote for the Democrat.
President Barack Obama was lifted in a bear hug by pizza shop owner Scott Van Duzer during a bus tour in Florida
“I don’t vote party line, I vote who I feel comfortable with, and I do feel extremely comfortable with him,” the 46-year-old owner of the Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce said.
He added that he rushed to embrace the president because he was “overcome with excitement”.
Scott Van Duzer also runs a community blood donation operation, prompting Barack Obama to say he had “a big heart, along with big pecs”.
He said that Barack Obama had stayed for about 20 minutes, and that it had been a great meeting.
The president ordered 20 pizzas and paid with cash, he said.
France’s President Francois Hollande has outlined a series of budget measures, including cuts, aimed at achieving economic recovery within two years.
“I have to set the course and the pace” to combat “high joblessness, falling competitiveness and serious deficits“, he said in a televised interview at TF1.
“My mission is a recovery plan and the time frame is two years,” the president added.
Francois Hollande has outlined a series of budget measures, including cuts, aimed at achieving France’s economic recovery within two years
Critics have accused the Socialist president of procrastination since his election in May.
During the interview, Francois Hollande outlined a series of measures, including spending cuts and extra taxes totalling 30 billion euros.
“We will not spend a euro more in 2013 than in 2012,” he said.
Francois Hollande also said that a planned 75% upper tax rate to be imposed on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.28 million) could be dropped after two years.
However, polls have shown that the public is losing confidence in the government.
The 69th Venice International Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, has run at Venice Lido August 29th through September 8th, 2012, directed by Alberto Barbera.
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance. The Festival includes retrospectives and homages to major figures as a contribution towards raising awareness of the history of cinema.
The Venice International Film Festival (Italian Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia) is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the “Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica”, the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice, Italy.
The Film Festival’s principal awards are the Leone d’Oro (Golden Lion), which is awarded to the best film screened in competition at the festival, the Leone d’Argento (Silver Lion) for the Best Director, and the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup), which is awarded to the best actor and actress. The Jury may also choose to award a Special Lion for an overall work to a director or actor of a film presented in the main competition section.
The other sections are: Orizzonti section (Horizons), open to all “custom-format” works, with a wider view towards new trends in the expressive languages that converge in film. The awards of the Orizzonti section are: the Orizzonti Prize the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize (for feature-length films) the Orizzonti Short Film Prize the Orizzonti Medium-length Film Prize.
Controcampo Italiano section, presents a panorama on Italian cinema with 7 narrative feature-length films, 7 short films, and 7 documentaries, all world premiere screenings and all in competition in their respective categories. The awards of this section are: the Controcampo Award (for narrative feature-length films) the Controcampo Award (for short films) the Controcampo Doc Award (for documentaries).
The 69th Venice International Film Festival has run at Lido from August 29th to September 8th, 2012
Venice Film Festival 2012 winners:
VENEZIA 69
GOLDEN LIONfor Best Film: to PIETA by Kim Ki-duk (Republic of Korea)
SILVER LIONfor Best Director: to THE MASTER by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: to Paradies: Glaube by Ulrich Seidl (Austria, Germany, France)
COPPA VOLPIfor Best Actor to Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix in the film THE MASTER by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA)
COPPA VOLPI for Best Actress: Hadas Yaron in the film LEMALE ET HA’CHALAL by Rama Bursthein (Israel)
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD for Best New Young Actor or Actress: to Fabrizio Falco in the films BELLA ADDORMENTATA by Marco Bellocchio (Italy) and È STATO IL FIGLIO by Daniele Ciprí (Italy)
AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY: to Olivier Assayas for the film APRES MAI by Olivier Assayas (France)
AWARD FOR THE BEST TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION (CINEMATOGRAPHY): to Daniele Ciprì for the film È STATO IL FIGLIO by Daniele Ciprì (Italy)
LION OF THE FUTURE – “LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to KÜF (MOLD) by Ali Aydin (Turkey, Germany) VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS’ WEEK
as well as a prize of 100,000 USD, donated by Filmauro di Aurelio e Luigi De Laurentiis to be divided equally between director and producer
ORIZZONTI
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM (full-length films): to SAN ZIMEI by Wang Bing (France, Hong Kong)
SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE (full-length films:) to TANGO LIBRE by Frédéric Fonteyne (France, Belgium, Luxembourg)
ORIZZONTI YOUTUBE AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM: to CHO-DE by Yoo Min-young (South Korea)
EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2012-EFA: to TITLOI TELOUS by Yorgos Zois (Greece)
GOLDEN LION FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 2012: to Francesco Rosi
JAEGER-LECOULTRE GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER AWARD: to Spike Lee
PERSOL AWARD: to Michael Cimino
L’ORÉAL PARIS PER IL CINEMA AWARD: to Giulia Bevilacqua
South Korean film Pieta has won the Golden Lion award at the 69th edition of Venice Film Festival.
The best actor award was split between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix for The Master.
Inspired by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, the film also picked up the Silver Lion prize for best director.
South Korean film Pieta, directed by Kim Ki-duk, has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival 2012
Directed by Paul Thomas Andersen, The Master tells the story of a sect leader who takes a war veteran under his wing.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, who also collected Phoenix’s award, said: “Joaquin Phoenix is a life force in this film … and I kind of rode that life force and that was my performance.
“It was really riding his life force because it was something that was untameable and my job was to try to and it was almost impossible, which is kind of the movie.”
He also praised Paul Thomas Anderson, who was not at the ceremony, calling him: “Friend first, collaborator second. And he happens to be one of the great film-makers.”
Morality tale Pieta, directed by Kim Ki-duk, centres on a debt collector who is forced to examine his life when a woman turns up claiming to be his mother.
On accepting his award, Kim Ki-duk sang a song to the audience while thanking the jury.
Speaking after, he said: “This is a song that we Koreans sing when we are sad, when we feel alone, when we feel desperate, but also when we’re happy.”
The Venice Festival jury, which was headed by US director Michael Mann, picked Hadas Yaron for best actress for Fill the Void, a film delving into the life of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
London will bid an “exuberant” farewell to the 2012 Paralympic Games with a closing ceremony billed by organizers as “a Festival of Flame”.
British band Coldplay will lead the show, due to start at 20:30 BST, with a live set reflecting the four seasons.
Athletes will be in the centre of the Stadium at the start, and there will be a tribute to charity Help for Heroes.
The event ends what organizers say has been the most successful event in Paralympic history.
China has finished top of the Paralympic medals table, with 231 medals – 95 gold. Great Britain cemented third place behind Russia, with a tally of 120, including 34 golds.
London will bid an exuberant farewell to the 2012 Paralympic Games with a closing ceremony billed by organizers as a Festival of Flame
Apart from Coldplay’s music, Sunday’s sold-out ceremony will feature performances by Jay-Z and Rihanna, alongside a cast of around 1,200 performers.
“The idea is the coming together as one,” said artistic director Kim Gavin.
“We are known as a nation for having the most festivals, it is something that we do – with 600 festivals a year.
“We pay tribute to the all the human spirit and achievement through this wonderful sport of the last two weeks.”
Kim Gavin hinted that would be “a few surprises” and that, “with it being a festival of the flame there will be a lot of flame – and the whole show will be very exciting”.
“The Festival of the Flame celebrates the exuberance of festivals and the changing of the seasons,” added 2012 organizers LOCOG.
Some 120 child volunteers from east London are expected to take part in tonight’s show, with disabled aerial performers from Circus Scape and The British Paraorchestra.
Organizing committee chairman Lord Sebastian Coe said: “It has been fantastic. We get Paralympics sport in this country. I never really doubted that the Paralympic Games would be anything other than a show-stopper.”
Fifty Shades of Grey’s Christian Grey has become one of the literary world’s most infamous characters.
So just where did author E.L. James get the inspiration for the man who enjoys kinky S&M sex in his red room of pain?
Certainly not from her husband said the man himself, Niall Leonard, who appeared on Lorraine Kelly’s show on Daybreak this week.
The author’s husband said this is the question he is most often asked now his wife’s erotic novels have become bestsellers so he’s keen to set the record straight.
“It’s a fantasy, it’s certainly not based on me,” he said.
“In fact perhaps being married to me helped her to fantasize about someone more interesting. You are talking about a chap with a 32 inch waist and helicopter pilot licence so it’s certainly not based on me.”
Fifty Shades of Grey’s Christian Grey has become one of the literary world's most infamous characters
Leonard Niall said he and his wife, whose real name is Erika Mitchell, are still “coming to terms” with the success of her books. Since being published last year, they have become worldwide bestsellers, smashing records for paperback sales and making Erika Mitchell a fortune.
He said the sales have been beyond their dreams given Erika Mitchell only wrote the novels “for fun”.
He said: “She wrote it for herself, all the best books are written for the person who writes them. It was her own story, her own dream. She put it down on paper for a few friends to read it and then wanted it published to have her name on it.
“It was doing ok last summer and then it got bigger and bigger and then exploded. We’re still coming to terms with it, it’s happened so quick we’re both still in shock.”
The books have been so popular the film rights have been snapped up. Who will be cast in the role of Christian remains hotly anticipated with Ryan Gosling the current favorite for the part. But Leonard Niall said he is currently none the wiser on who will be cast despite his wife being involved in the film project.
“Every actor in Hollywood wants the part but I don’t know if it’s been cast yet,” he said.
The couple, who live in Ealing, London, with their two sons are both writers and Leonard Naill has recently published his own novel, Crusher, which he describes as a modern contemporary thriller.
Leonard Niall already worked as a TV screenwriter but was inspired to become a novelist by his wife – before her books became bestsellers.
He said: “She had a really good time doing it. I saw she was enjoying it so much and she was writing the story she wanted to be told.
“I wanted to sit down and write my own story. She said <<why don’t you?>> so that’s when I did.”
Leonard Niall pointed out his novel is nothing like his wife’s although he said it does have some “naughty bits”.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of emoticons introduction to modern language.
The emoticons even have a birth-date that can be traced to an exact moment: 11:44 a.m. on the 19th of September 1982, which was when Professor Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh sent an email with a sideways smiley face.
The aim of their creation by Scott Fahlman was clear – he wanted to avoid confusion over the tone of emails that were meant to be humorous and those that were not meant to be.
Seeing how jokes and emails that were not meant to be funny were misunderstood, Scott Fahlman wrote in his email: “I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: 🙂 Read it sideways.”
The emoticons were born on the 19th of September 1982, when Professor Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh sent an email with a sideways smiley face
Amazed at how his creation took off, Scott Fahlman admitted that there was a certain playfulness in his suggestion.
“This was a little bit of silliness that I tossed into a discussion about physics,’ said the professor who still works at Carnegie Mellon.
“It was ten minutes of my life. I expected my note might amuse a few of my friends, and that would be the end of it.”
However, the note spread across the fledgling computer networks of the early 1980s and within months the usage of smiley faces had become global.
Today, emoticons are everywhere, with variations as little yellow computer graphics with faces that visibly express emotions by actually smiling, frowning or laughing.
Prof. Scott Fahlman does not like them.
“I think they are ugly, and they ruin the challenge of trying to come up with a clever way to express emotions using standard keyboard characters,” said Scott Fahlman to The Independent.
“But perhaps that’s just because I invented the other kind.”
The professor unfortunately could not retrieve the original email from the university records and has faced claims that he was not the first to invent them.
So in 2002, an engineer from Microsoft went back through the back-up tapes and uncovered the original email.
However, some people have uncovered an edition of the New York Times from 1862 which has a transcript of a speech by Abraham Lincoln which contained a ;-), which sent conspiracy theorists into overdrive debating whether it was a typo or not.
Iraq’s fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi has been sentenced to death in absentia after a court found him guilty of running death squads.
The court ruling came as at least 45 people were killed in a wave of about 24 attacks across Iraq.
Tariq al-Hashemi was the most senior Sunni Muslim in the predominantly Shia Iraqi government until he was charged last December and went on the run.
The charges against him sparked a political crisis in Iraq.
Iraq's fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi has been sentenced to death in absentia after a court found him guilty of running death squads
Other Sunni politicians denounced Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki – who issued the warrant for Tariq al-Hashemi – as a dictator, accusing him of deliberate provocation that risked plunging the country back into sectarian conflict.
Correspondents say the fragile government coalition between Sunnis, secularists and Shia has seemed in danger of collapse ever since.
Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have been blamed for much of the recent violence in Iraq.
The Iraqi government issued the warrant for Tariq al-Hashemi’s arrest on 19 December 2011, the day after the last US troops left the country.
He fled first to the largely autonomous Kurdish north of the country, and from there to Qatar and on to Turkey.
Prosecutors said Tariq al-Hashemi was involved in 150 killings. During his trial in absentia in Baghdad, some of his former bodyguards said Tariq al-Hashemi had ordered murders.
He says the charges against him are politically motivated and has accused PM Nouri al-Maliki of fuelling sectarianism.
On Sunday, an Iraqi court found Tariq al-Hashemi and his son-in-law guilty of two murders and sentenced him to death by hanging. The judge dismissed a third charge for lack of evidence.
Although violence has decreased since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks have escalated again after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq at the end of last year, amid increasing political and sectarian tensions.
The Iraqi government has been hampered by divisions between Sunni, Shia and Kurdish political groups.
The Iraqi government said July 2012 was the deadliest month in nearly two years, with 325 people killed.
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, and many Sunnis believe they are being penalized by Shias, who have grown in influence since the US invasion.
Sunnis have accused Nouri al-Maliki of taking an authoritarian approach to government.
Jewish and Muslim organizations in Germany have staged a joint protest in Berlin over a regional court’s ruling that the circumcision of young boys constituted bodily harm.
The protest was prompted by the news that a rabbi in Bavaria was being investigated over the practice.
The ruling on circumcision was handed down by a court in Cologne in June.
However, the German government has since announced it will legislate to explicitly legalize the practice.
Jewish and Muslim organizations in Germany have staged a joint protest in Berlin over a regional court's ruling that the circumcision of young boys constituted bodily harm
About a thousand people joined the protest to hear speeches from the chief rabbi of Berlin and other religious leaders.
“I’m here to stand for the freedom of religious rights,” said protester Fereshta Ludin.
The court in Cologne had declared that the ritual circumcision of a Muslim boy, in accordance with his parents’ faith, had caused the child bodily harm.
The German Medical Association then told doctors across the country to stop performing the procedure.
Both Jews and Muslims feel that, whatever the court intended, the ruling will be used as a way of attacking their religions.
On Wednesday, the state government in Berlin announced that circumcision was legal there, as long as it was properly carried out.
The federal government, perhaps in response to international condemnation, has also said it wants to legalize the procedure explicitly.
There has also been renewed debate over the practice in the US, one of the countries where it is most prevalent.
Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a review of scientific evidence on the circumcision, saying that “the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks of the procedure”.
However, the AAP added it did not recommend it for all newborn boys, saying the decision was best left to parents, in consultation with doctors.
Heidi Klum has spoken publicly for the first time during an interview for the new Katie Couric TV show to deny she had an affair with her bodyguard while married to Seal claiming she never looked at another man when they were together.
Heidi Klum, 39, broke her silence to tell Katie Couric that she had been completely faithful to Seal during their seven-year marriage and has been left devastated by claims she cheated on him.
Seal had suggested his estranged wife was sleeping with bodyguard Martin Kristen after they were photographed together in Italy.
He said: “I would have preferred Heidi to have shown a little bit more class and at least waited until we separated first before deciding to fornicate with the help.”
Heidi Klum broke her silence to tell Katie Couric that she had been completely faithful to Seal during their seven-year marriage
A spokesman for Heidi Klum denied the claim, and Seal later retracted his statement and said he had not meant to suggest she had cheated on him during their marriage.
In her sit-down interview with Katie Couric, Heidi Klum insisted she had been faithful.
According to the New York Post, the German born model said of Seal’s comments: “It was a unique choice of words. I’m used to it. Other people aren’t. When we were together, I never looked at a another man.”
The full interview will be shown on Wednesday, two days after Katie Couric’s chat show makes its anticipated debut.
The revelation came a day after Heidi Klum was pictured looking relaxed in Los Angeles after returning from New York Fashion Week.
The supermodel landed back in California after strutting down the catwalk at New York Fashion Week last night, modelling an incredible and revealing gown at the Project Runway 2013 Spring Collection.
Following the success of last night’s shenanigans, Heidi Klum tweeted: “We shot the @ProjectRunway Season 10 finale today! Was a great show…but, you have to wait till Oct 18th to see it!”
The fashion show will become Project Runway’s series ten season finale.
Alongside Jennifer Hudson and Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum walked after a series of models, who were showcasing the designs of the three finalists, Fabio Costa, Melissa Fleis and Dmitry Sholokhov.
Cheetah robot has set a new world speed record for legged robots, running faster than Usain Bolt, who is considered the fastest human.
The headless machine, funded by the Pentagon, reached 28.3 mph (45.5 km/h) when tested on a treadmill.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s top speed is 27.78 mph (44.7 km/h).
The project is part of efforts to develop robots for military use. One robotics expert said that it was “unfortunate” the Cheetah was made primarily “to kill people”.
It has been created by the Massachusetts robotics company Boston Dynamics and backed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Cheetah robot has set a new world speed record for legged robots, running faster than Usain Bolt
According to DARPA, the aim is to “more effectively assist war fighters across a greater range of missions”.
The Cheetah, which is powered by a hydraulic pump, broke its own record of 18 mph (29 km/h), recorded in February.
“The Cheetah had a slight advantage over Bolt as it ran on a treadmill, but most of the power Cheetah used was to swing and lift its legs fast enough, not to propel itself forward,” DARPA said in a statement.
The agency plans to test the robot in the field in 2013.
The machine’s design has been inspired by the real cheetah, the fastest land animal, which can reach speeds of 75 mph (121 km/h).
“Cheetahs happen to be beautiful examples of how natural engineering has created speed and agility across rough terrain,” said Gill Pratt, DARPA programme manager.
“Our Cheetah bot borrows ideas from nature’s design to inform stride patterns, flexing and unflexing of parts like the back, placement of limbs and stability.”
“What we gain through Cheetah and related research efforts are technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions.”
Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, has mixed feelings about the development.
“It’s an incredible technical achievement, but it’s unfortunate that it’s going to be used to kill people,” he suggested.
“It’s going to be used for chasing people across the desert, I would imagine. I can’t think of many civilian applications – maybe for hunting, or farming, for rounding up sheep.
“But of course if it’s used for combat, it would be killing civilians as well as it’s not going to be able to discriminate between civilians and soldiers.”
DARPA’s press release for the Cheetah project suggested that the robots might ultimately be used in “emergency response, humanitarian assistance and other defence missions”.
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who died in January, is about to be immortalized in a new movie starring Hollywood legend Al Pacino.
Al Pacino has agreed to take on the controversial role in a film based on the New York Times bestselling book Paterno.
The movie is still in the early stages of development, but respected Hollywood entertainment blog deadline.com is reporting that it will be shopped around Los Angeles early next week.
Joe Paterno was fired for his alleged role in covering up the child molestation scandal involving assistant coach Jerry Sandusky who was revealed to be a pedophile.
His death came just two months after he was let go by Penn State in November of 2011.
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is about to be immortalized in a new movie starring Al Pacino
The new book, which was penned by former Sports Illustrated columnist Joe Posnanski, takes an in depth look at Joe Paterno’s relationship with Jerry Sandusky.
Jerry Sandusky was convicted and awaits sentencing on child sexual abuse.
As the scandal erupted, it was revealed that Joe Paterno had been told by graduate assistant Mike McQueary that jerry Sandusky had raped a boy in the Penn State locker room showers.
In addition, an independent report conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh, concluded that Joe Paterno, as well as other Penn State bigwigs, “failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade”.
Joe Posnanski’s book, however disputes those claims, saying that Joe Paterno did not know Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused children, and when he read the list of charges against Sandusky, he asked his son Scott: “What is sodomy, anyway?”
Jerry Sandusky was convicted in June of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years.
Google has decided to base its first Latin American data centre in Chile, near the capital Santiago.
The computer server base is expected to cost $150 million and will employ up to 20 people, Google said.
Google said it chose Chile because of its reliable infrastructure and skilled workforce.
The country has been trying to become a tech hub, with initiatives such as Start-Up Chile attracting entrepreneurs from around the world.
The search giant said the data communications centre would make its products faster to access, and more reliable for the local population.
Google has decided to base its first Latin American data centre in Chile, near the capital Santiago
Chile’s selection is a coup for the nation bearing in mind Brazil has a much larger population, is more centrally located and contains a fast-growing tech sector.
“Chile… fosters an atmosphere of innovation, and in recent years has developed cutting edge policies and programs that encourage the growth of the internet,” Google said.
“As with all of our facilities around the world, we chose Quilicura, Chile, following a thorough and rigorous site selection process, taking many technical and other considerations into account including location, infrastructure, workforce, reasonable business regulations and cost.”
Google already has data centres in the United States, Finland and Belgium, and plans to build more in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan by next year.
The centre in Chile is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013.
Opening a data centre in Latin America may help Google’s ambitions in the region.
Orkut, a social network operated and owned by Google, used to be number one in Brazil and several other places in Latin America.
But according to digital media analytics company Comscore, it has now slipped to third place, behind Facebook and Twitter.
A bible which once belonged to Elvis Presley has sold for $94,000 at auction in Greater Manchester, UK.
The 1,600 page book was given to the singer by his Uncle Vester and Aunt Clettes for his first Christmas at his Graceland home in 1957.
It contains annotations by Elvis Presley, who died on 16 August 1977 aged 42.
A pair of Elvis Presley’s unwashed pants is also on sale at the Omega Auctions in Stockport were not sold as bids failed to reach the reserve price.
The 1,600 page book was given to Elvis Presley by his Uncle Vester and Aunt Clettes for his first Christmas at his Graceland home in 1957
Bids for the stained underwear reached £5,000 ($8,000) but the reserve price was £7,000 ($11,000).
The bible was among more than 100 lots of Elvis memorabilia on sale.
It was sold on behalf of a British Elvis collector who is selling a quarter of his collection.
Karen Fairweather, from the auctioneers, said: “It was a really exciting atmosphere in the room, we had 300 people and there was bidding online and on the telephone across the world.
“You could hear a pin drop when it sold for that price.
“There were three rival bidders on the phone and once it got over £20,000 [$32,000] each bid was taking a while, because they each had a price in mind for the bible and they were thinking about it.
“There was a round of applause when the hammer went down. It was incredible.”
The winning telephone bidder, who did not want to be identified, was an American man based in the UK.
An artwork by French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir bought at a flea market in the US may turn out to be a rare bargain.
The painting was bought by a woman as part of a box lot that included a doll and a plastic cow, and cost about $50.
The woman took it to a Virginia auction house where experts said they believed it was Renoir’s Paysage Bords de Seine – a river scene – from about 1879.
An artwork by French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir bought at a flea market in the US may turn out to be a rare bargain
The auctioneers expect it to sell for up to $100,000 later this month.
It is believed the painting was bought from a Paris gallery in 1926.
A Renoir plaque on the frame prompted the woman to have it analyzed by a local auction house.
People in Hong Kong are voting for a new legislature, with pro-democracy candidates expected to benefit from weeks of anti-China protests.
The poll comes a day after the government scrapped plans for mandatory Chinese patriotism lessons in schools.
For the first time, 40 of the 70 seats on the governing legislative council will be directly elected.
The results of the poll could keep on track plans for universal suffrage, which could come as early as 2017.
But for the promised reform to be implemented, it needs the support of the legislative council.
Polls in Hong Kong – which has a semi-autonomous status in China – opened at 07:30 local time and will close at 22:30.
People in Hong Kong are voting for a new legislature, with pro-democracy candidates expected to benefit from weeks of anti-China protests
About 3.5 million people are eligible to cast their ballots. Results are not expected until Monday.
The election campaign has been dominated by issues such as employment, corruption and the growing number of visitors from mainland China.
Hong Kong, which was handed to China by Britain in 1997, enjoys greater political freedom than mainland China, including a free press and the right to peaceful assembly.
Under the current laws, 30 of the 70 seats in the assembly are being chosen by small group of electors selected along economic and professional lines.
But the pro-democracy candidates running for office are expected to benefit from the growing anger against mainland China and the lack of political reform there.
A strong showing by the pro-democracy forces this time round could make the transition to universal suffrage more likely in the future.
“Before it didn’t matter so much who got in. But this time, I thought it was important to vote to stop people and parties I didn’t want from getting into the legislature,” one voter was quoted as saying by Reuters.
But another voter, Anthony Tsang, said he was voting for “people who can help us the most”.
“I care about livelihood, housing costs, wages and medical care,” he said.
For the past week, thousands of demonstrators have camped out around Hong Kong’s government headquarters, protesting against the plan for mandatory patriotism lessons.
They said the lessons were Communist Party propaganda and whitewashed events such as the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square and the famine under Mao Zedong.
But the government said the goal was to foster a sense of national belonging.
The proposed curriculum, which consisted of general civics education as well as more controversial lessons on appreciating mainland China, was due to be introduced in primary schools in September and secondary schools in 2013.
On Saturday, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said the classes would be optional for schools.
Leung Chun-ying, who was sworn in as Hong Kong’s chief executive in July, cancelled his trip to the APEC regional summit this weekend because of the furore.
About 3,000 people are being evacuated in Nicaragua from areas near the San Cristobal volcano, which is spewing ash and gas, the government says.
Soldiers have been sent to the region, northwest of the capital Managua, after the government ordered local communities to leave.
The volcano began erupting on Saturday morning, shortly after powerful explosions were heard.
The authorities say they expect more gas emissions and sporadic explosions.
Some 20,000 people could eventually be affected, said government spokeswoman Rosario Murillo.
About 3,000 people are being evacuated in Nicaragua from areas near the San Cristobal volcano, which is spewing ash and gas
The 1,745-meter volcano (5,700-foot) is the highest mountain in Nicaragua and one of the most active along the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.
It has launched a 4 km-high (2.5-mile) column of ash and smoke into the atmosphere.
Jaime Mejia, from Nicaragua’s Institute of Territorial Studies, said there was “strong activity” in the volcano, which had a series of small eruptions in 2008.
“We do not rule out anything, but call for calm,” he told the AP news agency.
Civil defence officers have been sent to the Chinandenga and Leon provinces to help the evacuation.
But hundreds of residents left the area even before their arrival.
Nicaragua has been on alert since an earthquake hit neighboring Costa Rica last week.
Aftershocks were felt across the two Central American countries.
In a tweet fired off on Friday, Lindsay Lohan encouraged President Barack Obama to consider lowering taxes for the one-percenters listed on the Forbes Magazine millionaires’ list.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, who has been very active on Twitter recently, was responding to a message posted by the Obama campaign following his Thursday speech at the Democratic National Convention.
“I’ve cut taxes for those who need it: middle-class families, small businesses,” the tweet read.
Lindsay Lohan encouraged President Barack Obama to consider lowering taxes for the one-percenters listed on the Forbes Magazine millionaires’ list
About 10 minutes later, Lindsay Lohan of the upcoming Elizabeth Taylor biopic Liz and Dick put in her two cents on the issue of tax cuts: “We also need to cut them for those that are listed on Forbes as “millionaires” if they are not, you must consider that as well.”
LiLo retweeted several more quotes from Barack Obama’s speech including: “I don’t believe that firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid will grow the economy.”
She also forwarded a plea by the Obama campaign to join the president “if you want to keep moving forward” and a link leading to Barack Obama’s re-election website.
So far, President Barack Obama has not responded to Lindsay Lohan’s economic policy proposal, and she has since removed the tweet off her page after facing a barrage of ridicule online.
While it is not entirely clear what Lindsay Lohan had in mind when she fired off the message to her 4,240,930 followers, it is assumed that she considers herself to be among the Forbes millionaires in question.
LiLo, known for her out-of-control shopping sprees and addiction problems, had an estimated net worth of $2 million last year.
Just recently, however, Lindsay Lohan made headlines after being banned from the luxurious Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles for failing to pay over $46,000 in fees.
Kim Kardashian was left embarrassed when less than 50 people turned up to see her at the nightclub Hush in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Kim Kardashian, 31, had jetted into New York to Charlotte for the event, which is also where the Democratic National Convention was being held.
While that was being attributed to the almost no show, the event was dubbed as the convention after party, so the club’s bosses will have expected a solid turn out.
The reality star posted a picture of a half glass of champagne on her Twitter page, writing: “It’s that kinda night!”
Kim Kardashian finally left after two hours, with one source claiming she was furious after the house band stated that “this place is empty”.
Kim Kardashian looked rather striking despite the plain black high-neck dress thanks to the efforts of her giant metal belt around her waist
Se had been in New York earlier promoting her True Reflection perfume at the Lord & Taylor store as well as attending Fashion’s Night Out.
Kim Kardashian looked rather striking despite the plain black high-neck dress thanks to the efforts of her giant metal belt around her waist.
She polished off the gothic look with gelled back hair, tweeting: “Loving this slicked back hair by Michael Silva.”
Kim Kardashian also applied theatrical eyeshadow and liner, crediting the look to her make-up artist: “Fierce glam tonight by @kristoferbuckle.”
To which he gushed: “What a pleasure to work on a beauty like @KimKardashian.”
It was a nice surprise to see Kim Kardashian experimenting with some varied footwear, after being glued to her favorite shoes of the season recently.
Last evening she chose ankle cuffed heels, compared to her beloved Givenchy boots she wore earlier today for the third time in recent weeks.
Barack Obama asked Americans to mark the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by reflecting on how far the nation has come since that day.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Barack Obama is asking people to remember the 9/11 victims and their families.
He asks that they honor in their thoughts the first responders who risked their lives to help the many wounded in the chaotic aftermath of the attacks.
Remember also, he asks, the men and women in uniform serving both at home and abroad and making sacrifices to keep the country safe.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Barack Obama is asking people to remember the 9-11 victims and their families
Barack Obama says America has come back stronger following the horrific events of September 11 2001 in which almost 3,000 people were killed.
He insists that al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat, the U.S. having ensured that Osama bin Laden will never attack America again, and strengthened alliances with powers across the world.
“As Americans we refuse to live in fear,” Barack Obama says, congratulating those who worked to bring down Osama bin Laden and improve security across the nation.
President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation making Friday, September 7 through Sunday, September 9, 2012 National Days of Prayer and Remembrance.
In the Republican address, Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming criticized Barack Obama’s presidency.
John Barrasso said the nation isn’t better off than it was four years ago under President George W. Bush.
According to a new research, there’s a 50/50 chance of another catastrophic 9/11-style attack in the next ten years, and an even greater chance if the world become less stable.
The startling figure was floated by a pair of researchers who examined more than 13,000 lethal terrorist attacks between 1968 and 2007.
They calculated the likelihood based on the assumption that the frequency of major attacks, like earthquakes and other natural disasters, using mathematical power law.
Aaron Clauset at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and Ryan Woodard at ETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zurich assume the number of terrorist attacks remains constant for the next decade at about 2,000 a year.
There is a 50 percent chance of another catastrophic 9-11-style attack in the next ten years, according to a new research
First, they looked at history and determined that a 9/11-magnitute attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people, had a likelihood of 11 to 35% any time in the last 40 years, according to the Technology Review, which is published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Then they calculated the likelihood of another similar size attack if terrorist incidents remain at the same level they are now. Their conclusion: The chance of another 9/11 in the next decade is 20 to 50%.
However, Dr. Aaron Clauset and Dr. Ryan Woodward also admitted that it’s possible the number of terrorist attacks is likely to decline after US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq ends.
The study only looked at numbers until 2007, when Americans still had an active military presence in the country.
If terrorist attacks drop off, the probability of another major terrorist attack is reduced to 5 and 20%.
The researchers also played out a third, more dire scenario, using their formula.
If the number of attacks in the next decade increases dramatically, then the chance of a major terrorist event becomes a near certainty: 95%.
The formula doesn’t take into account increased security around the world or the billions of dollars the US and other developed nations have poured into preventing additional catastrophic attacks.
Pasquale Buzzelli, a structural engineer who became a legend after “surfing” down a wave of falling debris during 9/11, has spoken about his miracle survival and how having children has helped him rebuild his life.
Pasquale Buzzelli, 43, who was working as a structural engineer for the Manhattan Port Authority, was one of the last to evacuate the North Tower as it began to collapse.
He claims that he had reached the 22nd floor when the building collapsed beneath him and he was carried down through a blizzard of debris to the seventh floor, where he was rescued by firefighters.
At the time his wife Louise was pregnant with their first child Hope, now ten, and they have since had a second daughter Mia, seven.
He suffered survivor’s guilt for years afterwards but has finally come to terms with the grief thanks to his family.
Pasquale Buzzelli said: “Time heals all wounds and you start to experience joy.
“With the birth of Mia I was finally able to experience those feelings and not feel guilt. In that sense I’ve realized that the best way to honor those that didn’t make it, is to be the best person that I can be.”
His story is told in the Discovery Channel and Channel 4 documentary 9/11 The Miracle Survivor which is screened next week on the 11th anniversary of the disaster.
Pasquale Buzzelli was one of the last to evacuate the North Tower as it began to collapse
Holding the battered briefcase he was carrying that day, he said: “I haven’t opened this up in quite a few years. I came across it in my basement a couple of years after 9/11. I don’t even keep it in the house as it’s a constant reminder of that day. Its basically rode down the building with me and its battered and torn and just a reminder of how lucky I was to survive.”
His story of survival has divided experts. Shiya Ribowsky, who led the investigation into 9/11, said: “You know I have a healthy skepticism which is in no way a reflection on this man’s character.
“In forensics there are certain statistics about the likelihood of surviving a fall and once you get above five stories then statistics are pretty grim. So you’re talking about an exceptional situation. You’re talking the wings of angels here.”
However, Prof. Thomas Eager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has studied the physics of the collapse and believes that the hurricane force wind pushed him down 15 stories.
“His description of a rollercoaster clinched it for me in believing the whole thing,” he said.
Pasquale Buzzelli, who now works in emergency planning for the Port Authority, was in an elevator on his way up to his office the 64thfloor of the North Tower, when the first plane struck at 8:46 a.m.
But instead of evacuating the building, he felt a duty to remain at his desk. He and his colleagues at the Port Authority, were watching the news when the second plane hit.
They finally began to exit at Stairway B, reaching the 22nd floor at 10:28 a.m. when the tower began to collapse.
“I thought something heavy is falling through the stairs or part of the building is collapsing and falling through,” he said.
“I just dove into the stairwell, went into a foetal position, covered my face and hands and buried myself as close to the wall as possible to protect myself from anything falling through.
“It was then that I felt the wall that I was next to and the base of the floor crack open and give way. That’s when I knew that that was it: the entire building was going. I said to myself: <<My God I can’t believe this is. I’m going to die>>. I thought of my wife, my unborn child.”
Pasquale Buzzelli’s wife Louise, who was seven months pregnant with their oldest daughter Hope, now ten – they have a second daughter Mia, six – watched in horror as the tower collapsed.
“I knew it was over then at that point,” she said.
“I couldn’t watch anymore. I couldn’t believe that I was there watching this, carrying our first baby. I was a widow and I watched it and there was nothing I could do.”
But, incredibly, Pasquale Buzzelli began to freefall down the stairwell until he landed on the seventh floor. He regained consciousness three hours later, surrounded by twisted metal, with a badly injured ankle.
“I was totally numb,” he said.
“I felt nothing at all. I just opened my eyes and saw blue sky. I really thought I was dead until I started to cough and I started to feel pain in my leg. At that point I started calling out: <<Help. Help.>>”
Back at Ground Zero, firefighters Mike Lyons and Mike Moribito, who disobeyed orders to search the wreckage, found Pasquale Buzzelli as he was beginning to fear he would be burnt alive.
“He looked like he was in a castle,” said Mike Moribito.
“He was sitting there in broad daylight like a king on top of a hill. I can remember it as clear as day.”
Within hours Paquale Buzzelli was in an ambulance on his way to hospital. His first thought was to call his wife Louise.
“I picked up the phone and said: <<Hello?>>” she said.
“I heard his voice and he said: <<Louise it’s me>>. And I said: <<Oh my god Pascale. It’s you>>. And everyone in the house just screamed.”
However, Pasquale Buzzelli began to suffer from survivors’ guilt and it was only a reunion with Mike Lyons, who was also suffered traumatic stress disorder that brought him out of his depression. Mike Lyons’ girlfriend Kathryn traced Pasquale Buzzelli and they now meet regularly.
“Time heals all wounds and you start to experience joy,” he said.
“With the birth of Mia I was finally able to experience those feelings and not feel guilt. In that sense I’ve realized that the best way to honor those that didn’t make it, is tot be the best person that I can be.”
9/11 The Miracle Survivor is screened on Channel 4 at 10:00 p.m. on Monday September 10 and 11:10 p.m. the following night. An e-book We All Fall Down: The True Story of the 9/11 Surfer by Pasquale and Louise Buzzelli is published on Amazon on September 8.
American novelist Philip Roth has criticized Wikipedia after he was unable to convince the site to change an entry about one of his novels.
Philip Milton Roth, 79, tried to tell Wikipedia about an error in the entry for his novel The Human Stain, published in 2000.
But Wikipedia’s administrators initially refused to amend the entry, saying they required a second source.
The prize-winning author is famed for his tales of Jewish life, relationships and mortality.
The Human Stain tells the tale of Coleman Silk, a classics tutor at a fictional Massachusetts college, whose life spirals into chaos after he makes an ill-received remark judged by some as a racial slur.
American novelist Philip Roth has criticized Wikipedia after he was unable to convince the site to change an entry about one of his novels
According to the Wikipedia entry – which has now been amended – Coleman Silk, who Philip Roth portrayed as born to black parents but who lived his life as a white man, was based on the character of writer and critic Anatole Broyard.
Anatole Broyard, a star book reviewer for the New York Times for many years, was also born to a black family but lived as white.
However, in a lengthy open letter published on the website of the New Yorker magazine, Philip Roth insists that the idea his character was based on Anatole Broyard was utterly incorrect.
“This item entered Wikipedia not from the world of truthfulness but from the babble of literary gossip – there is no truth in it at all,” Philip Roth wrote.
In the 2,655-word letter, Philip Roth explains instead that the character of Coleman Silk was instead based on the experience of a friend of his, whose own ill-chosen remark, made while teaching at Princeton in 1985, was also seen as a racial epithet.
In the letter, Philip Roth describes this as “the initiating incident” of The Human Stain: “There is no novel without it. There is no Coleman Silk without it.”
By contrast, Philip Roth says of Anatole Broyard: “He and I barely knew each other. Over more than three decades, I ran into him, casually and inadvertently, maybe three or four times before a protracted battle with prostate cancer ended his life, in 1990.”
Describing his efforts to get the entry changed, he writes in the New Yorker that he was told by the “English Wikipedia Administrator” that he “was not a credible source”.
Following the publication of the New Yorker letter, the Wikipedia entry was changed and a section noting the debate inserted near its end.
Wikipedia entries and edits are policed by administrators, who have the power to delete pages, or protect those being vandalized. Recent reports suggest the number of people being approved to run the site is on the decline.
Wikipedia by numbers
English Wikipedia:
• 4,005,000 articles
• If printed and bound, it would contain more than 1,700 volumes
• 32,760 contributors making more than five edits per month, about 10-15% of whom are women
