Paul McCartney has been given France’s highest award, the Legion of Honour, for services to music.
Sir Paul McCartney was decorated by President Francois Hollande during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
As an officer of the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), Paul McCartney joins such cultural icons as actor Clint Eastwood and singers Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli.
Sir Paul McCartney was decorated with France’s Legion of Honour by President Francois Hollande during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris
In his native Britain, Paul McCartney was knighted by the Queen in 1997 – earning the title Sir.
Sir Paul said afterwards: “It is such an honor to be awarded this.”
He recently performed to a global audience at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Legion of Honour was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, and comes in five grades – Knight, Officer, Commander, Grand Officer and Grand Cross.
Paul McCartney, 70, has enjoyed a long and successful music career after rising to fame with The Beatles.
He and bandmate John Lennon penned such hits as Yesterday, Hey Jude and A Hard Day’s Night, before the Beatles split up in 1970. Paul McCartney went on to forge a solo career.
Katie Holmes has become the first ever face of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.
Katie Holmes, 33, who recently divorced husband Tom Cruise after five years of marriage, has signed a deal with the beauty firm which will see her act as both muse and collaborator.
Bobbi Brown told WWD: “We weren’t looking for a celebrity, just a cool, amazing woman who would fit with our brand. And she’s just ridiculously naturally beautiful.”
Katie Holmes, who favors a bare-faced, almost no-make-up look, is a perfect fit for the cosmetics company, which also shares a natural aesthetic.
According to Bobbi Brown executives, as well as being the first celebrity face of the 21-year-old brand, Katie Holmes name will appear on a capsule collection of fall 2013 cosmetics.
Katie Holmes has become the first ever face of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
She told WWD: “This is my first foray into beauty products and the evolution of a look.
“You want the hair and makeup to support the woman, just like you want the clothes to support the woman. You don’t want to lose the woman. That’s how Jeanne and I design.”
The news comes as the actress and designer prepares to stage the first-ever Fashion Week show for her label, Holmes & Yang.
Katie Holmes, who founded the line with stylist Jeanne Yang, will join the likes of Diane Von Furstenberg and Donna Karan at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center on Sunday.
And by all accounts, the success of the show, and the fashion press verdicts, will mean a lot to her.
Katie Holmes explained: “When you go in and you show your clothing, you think that they’re going to buy the whole collection. And when they don’t, you’re like, <<What do you mean? It all goes together. So what do we do with this?>>.
“So that was new, but I think that’s kind of a life thing – <<What, you don’t want all of me?>>”
The event will take place on the same day as Victoria Beckham, putting the two celebrities – and one-time friends – head-to-head.
The Holmes & Yang pieces, which she described as “just nice, well-made luxury items that highlight the woman wearing them”, range in price from $700 to $3000.
“We use a lot of silks and leathers and suedes,” she added, as if by way of explanation.
The Holmes & Yang first formal New York Fashion Week presentation and the Bobbi Brown beauty campaign together indicate that Katie Holmes is carving a sophisticated new image for herself, in the wake of her divorce.
Her acting career has not been completely sidelined, however.
Katie Holmes is set to star in a Broadway play, Dead Accounts, from November, and has two movies in the pipeline for next year.
The Hong Kong government has decided to back down over plans to make schoolchildren take Chinese patriotism classes, after weeks of protests.
City leader Leung Chun-ying said the classes would be optional for schools.
“The schools are given the authority to decide when and how they would like to introduce the moral and national education,” he said.
Critics said the plans were an attempt to brainwash the city’s children by the Chinese government in Beijing.
The government had said the subject was important to foster a sense of national belonging and identity. Anti-Beijing sentiment has been on the rise in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, a city of seven million people.
The Hong Kong government has decided to back down over plans to make schoolchildren take Chinese patriotism classes, after weeks of protests
The decision comes ahead of elections on Sunday, when voters will elect just over half the members of a legislative assembly that is expanding from 60 to 70 seats.
The protests had given a boost to pro-democracy legislators hoping to win a landmark election on Sunday.
The government’s surprise announcement has led some to speculate it is a move directly timed to influence that election in favor of pro-government legislators, our correspondent says.
Leung Chun-ying, who was sworn in as Hong Kong’s chief executive in July, cancelled his trip to the APEC regional summit in Vladivostok this weekend because of the furore.
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.
According to AFP news agency, course material funded by the government extolled the benefits of one-party rule, equated multi-party democracy to chaos, and glossed over events like the Tiananmen Square crackdown and the mass starvation of Mao Zedong’s regime.
A survey released last week suggested 69% of students opposed the classes.
The climbdown came a day after activists said more than 100,000 protesters had rallied at government headquarters. Police put the turnout at 36,000.
Unlike the rest of China, Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of freedom, including a free press, the right to assemble and transparent, accountable institutions.
The row is the latest example of the cultural, social and political gap that exists between Hong Kong and its mainland masters.
It also highlights the deep suspicion with which many Hong Kong people continue to regard the Chinese government.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the US administration wants to normalize trade relations with Russia this month.
Hillary Clinton said the government was working closely with the US Congress to get the necessary legislation passed.
She was speaking ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged a fight against protectionism to turn the global economy around.
And Chinese President Hu Jintao promised his country would try to help the world’s economy by increasing the demand in China for imported goods.
Hillary Clinton speaking ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation APEC summit in Vladivostok
Although Russia is now a member of the World Trade Organisation, there is still a piece of legislation that prevents US companies trading normally with Russia – the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment which, although suspended, remains in place.
In her speech to the APEC summit in the Russian port city, Hillary Clinton – who is standing in for President Barack Obama – said she welcomed Russia’s commitment to playing a greater role in the Asia-Pacific region.
She added: “To make sure our companies get to compete here in Russia, we are working closely with the United States Congress to terminate the application to Jackson-Vanik to Russia and grant Russia permanent normalized trade relations.
“We hope that the Congress will act on this important piece of legislation this month.”
However there are concerns in the US Congress about Moscow’s support for Iran and Syria, as well as its broader human rights record, so the timing of a vote on the issue remains unclear.
Vladimir Putin, who is hosting the summit, expressed concern about the world economy, and particularly Europe’s debt crisis.
“The priority goal is to fight protectionism in all its forms. It is important to build bridges not walls,” he said.
President Hu Jintao said: “The world economy today is recovering slowly, and there are still some destabilizing factors and uncertainties.
“The underlying impact of the international financial crisis is far from over.
“We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations. We will boost domestic demand and maintain steady and robust growth as well as basic price stability.”
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has left the talks early to return home after her father died.
China’s President Hu Jintao has promised to maintain economic growth to support a global recovery, at the start of an Asia-Pacific summit in the Russian port city of Vladivostok.
China would pursue steady policies and seek to boost domestic demand, he said.
He was speaking ahead of the start of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit.
All countries in the region, he said, shared a responsibility to maintain peace and stability.
“The world economy today is recovering slowly, and there are still some destabilizing factors and uncertainties,” President Hu Jintao told businessmen in a speech before the summit.
“The underlying impact of the international financial crisis is far from over.
“We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations. We will boost domestic demand and maintain steady and robust growth as well as basic price stability.”
President Hu Jintao has promised to maintain economic growth to support a global recovery, at the start of APEC summit in Vladivostok
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged countries in the region to lift more barriers to free trade in the Pacific. American officials say they would welcome a more active Russian role in the region.
“Fostering a balanced and stable economy is a challenge too sweeping and complex for countries to approach in isolation,” Hillary Clinton said.
“If we do this right, globalization can become a race to the top, with rising standards of living and more broadly shared prosperity.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is hosting the summit, has expressed concern about the world economy, and particularly Europe’s debt crisis.
“The recovery of the global economy is faltering. We can only overcome negative trends by enhancing the volume of trade… enhancing the flow of capital. It is important to follow the fundamental principles of open markets and free trade,” he said.
“The priority goal is to fight protectionism in all its forms. It is important to build bridges not walls.”
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she was leaving the talks early to return home after her father died.
Japanese researchers mapped the muscles fibres of cheetah known to accelerate to record-breaking speeds.
By comparing the cheetah’s muscles with those of a domestic cat and dog, the team identified the special propulsion power of its hindlimb muscles.
The study is the first to investigate muscle fibre distribution across the whole of the cheetah’s body.
The findings are published in the journal Mammalian Biology and examine how the muscle fibres of domestic cats and dogs compare with those of the world’s fastest land mammal.
“The study of muscles is indispensable to understand the cheetah’s run,” said Dr. Naomi Wada, the study’s co-author and Professor in System Physiology at Yamaguchi University in Japan.
Japanese researchers mapped the muscles fibres of cheetah known to accelerate to record-breaking speeds
Different types of muscle fibre are suited to different activities, explained Dr. Naomi Wada.
In all the animals studied, so-called Type I fibres produced a small force output but were resistant to fatigue, making them best suited to maintaining posture and slow walking.
Type IIa fibre performance was best suited to fast walking and trotting whereas Type IIx or “fast” fibres created a high force output but had low endurance and were key to fast running or galloping.
By mapping the distribution of fibres across the muscles of a cheetah’s body, scientists were able to gain insights into the animal’s impressive sprint technique.
“The forelimb muscles in the cheetah included [the] most Type I muscle fibres of all three animals… while the muscle of hind limb muscles have many Type IIx fibres.”
“The functional difference between forelimb and hindlimb is the most remarkable in the cheetah,” said Dr. Naomi Wada.
The team’s results suggested that the power comes from the cheetah’s hind legs, in the same way as a rear wheel-drive car, according to Dr. Naomi Wada.
She drew a further automative parallel when describing how the cheetah handles at high speed.
The digits of the cheetah’s hindlimbs contained no fast fibres, but the digits on the front legs contained many of them.
Dr. Naomi Wada explained that this is because the cheetah controls its balance by using its forefeet to turn and slow down.
However, most rear-wheel drive cars cannot mimic the enviable acceleration of the cheetah: zero to 60 mph in under three seconds.
Previous studies have indentified the cat’s seven metre stride-length as key to this ability. With long, flexible limbs, a sprinting cheetah spends more than half its time airborne.
In order to maximize this effect, it arches and contracts its spine, and Dr. Naomi Wada and colleagues found muscle fibres that supported this technique.
The cat had a high percentage of fast fibres running along its back and middle, suggesting that it could produce a quick, strong extension of the backbone.
Princess Charlene of Monaco looked as stunning as every as she attended the annual picnic at Le Parc Princesse Antoinette yesterday.
Prince Albert and Princess Charlene looked in high-spirits as they met their subjects during the principality’s popular celebratory event.
Prince Albert, who is one of the world’s wealthiest royals with a fortune of more than $1billion, was as cheerful as could be as he showed off his consort to the adoring crowds.
Prince Albert and Princess Charlene looked in high-spirits as they met their subjects during the principality's popular celebratory event, the annual picnic at Le Parc Princess Antoinette
And the South African former swimmer has clearly taken to her royal duties like a duck to water, as she was composed and friendly throughout, and was photographed graciously accepting some flowers from an excited local girl taking back in the ceremonies.
The 54-year-old head of the House of Grimaldi donned a traditional outfit for the engagement, while Princess Charlene wore a classy long grey skirt, white tank top and pink scarf.
An ungrateful son thanked his mom by filming her sleepwalking and posting it on the internet.
The hysterical video, uploaded on YouTube, shows the pajama-clad woman wandering and then waltzing around her kitchen, while her son follows her with a camera.
The son, who goes by the YouTube name of “stillsoundlyawake”, then asks “and what exactly are you doing mam”.
With eyes open and speaking intently, the mother explains that she was trying to open a “tomato cage” – a wire structure used to grow tomatoes.
The hysterical video, uploaded on YouTube, shows the pajama-clad woman wandering and then waltzing around her kitchen, while her son follows her with a camera
“It’s a special code,” she says with a shimmy.
“I was doing a special thing. But the tomato cage wouldn’t open.”
The man, clearly amused, probes further: “And where exactly is this tomato cage?”
“Some place,” she says.
“I tried many things. But it wouldn’t open and I’m pissed off now.”
After a final, and extremely peculiar, dance move, the woman then leaves the kitchen, presumably headed back to bed.
But her son wouldn’t leave the humiliation there.
In a follow up video, which was also posted online, he shows his mother her sleepwalking antics.
Not quite believing what her subconscious self gets up to, she covers her mouth as she laughs. But her son is laughing harder.
Madonna unveiled a huge Obama temporary tattoo on her back during last night concert in New York.
Madonna, 54, made the unmissable statement during her MDNA Tour at New York’s Yankee Stadium.
Clad only in a back-baring bra and trousers she turned her muscly back on the audience, all the better to show off the writing.
Despite turning 54 last month there was no rest for Madonna during her high-kicking concert.
At one point the singer was joined on the stage by her bare-chested younger boyfriend Brahim Zaibat. She and the 24-year-old have been dating for two years.
Madonna unveiled a huge Obama temporary tattoo on her back during last night concert in New York
Madonna has made her left-wing leanings increasingly clear in recent months, with her endorsement of President Barack Obama the latest in a long line of political statements.
The mother-of-four was branded a “moralizing slut” by Russia’s deputy prime minister after scrawling Pussy Riot on her back at her concert last month.
Madonna was making a statement about the jailing of the Russian punk band for an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral.
She then angered the Russians further by making a stand for gay rights at her St Petersburg concert
On that occasion she stomped on an Orthodox cross and asked fans to raise their hands to show pink armbands which had been distributed in support of gays and lesbians.
And in July the pop star was forced to make a public apology to France’s far-right nationalist leader Marine Le Pen after depicting the politician with a swastika across her forehead.
The leader of the National Front had said she would sue the pop queen for associating her with Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.
In an eccentric performance in front of 2,500 fans in Paris, Madonna said: “I know that I have made a certain Marine Le Pen very angry with me. It’s not my intention to make enemies.”
Scientists in the Arctic are warning that this summer’s record-breaking melt is part of an accelerating trend with profound implications.
Norwegian researchers report that the sea ice is becoming significantly thinner and more vulnerable.
Last month, the annual thaw of the region’s floating ice reached the lowest level since satellite monitoring began, more than 30 years ago.
It is thought the scale of the decline may even affect Europe’s weather.
The melt is set to continue for at least another week – the peak is usually reached in mid-September – while temperatures here remain above freezing.
The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) is at the forefront of Arctic research and its international director, Kim Holmen, said that the speed of the melting was faster than expected.
“It is a greater change than we could even imagine 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. And it has taken us by surprise and we must adjust our understanding of the system and we must adjust our science and we must adjust our feelings for the nature around us,” Dr. Kim Holmen said.
The institute has been deploying its icebreaker, Lance, to research conditions between Svalbard and Greenland – the main route through which ice flows out of the Arctic Ocean.
Scientists in the Arctic are warning that this summer's record-breaking melt is part of an accelerating trend with profound implications
During a visit to the port, one of the scientists involved, Dr. Edmond Hansen, said he was “amazed” at the size and speed of this year’s melt.
“As a scientist, I know that this is unprecedented in at least as much as 1,500 years. It is truly amazing – it is a huge dramatic change in the system,” Dr. Edmond Hansen said.
“This is not some short-lived phenomenon – this is an ongoing trend. You lose more and more ice and it is accelerating – you can just look at the graphs, the observations, and you can see.”
Key data on the ice comes from satellites but also from measurements made by a range of different techniques – a mix of old and new technology harnessed to help answer the key environmental questions of our age.
The Norwegians send teams out on to the floating ice to drill holes into it and extract cores to determine the ice’s origin.
And since the early 90s they have installed specialist buoys, tethered to the seabed, which use sonar to provide a near-constant stream of data about the ice above.
An electro-magnetic device known as an EM-Bird has also been flown, suspended beneath a helicopter, in long sweeps over the ice.
The torpedo-shaped instrument gathers data about the difference between the level of the seawater beneath the ice and the surface of the ice itself.
By flying transects over the ice, a picture of its thickness emerges. The latest data is still being processed but one of the institute’s sea ice specialists, Dr. Sebastian Gerland, said that though conditions vary year by year a pattern is clear.
“In the region where we work we can see a general trend to thinner ice – in the Fram Strait and at some coastal stations.”
Where the ice vanishes entirely, the surface loses its usual highly reflective whiteness – which sends most solar radiation back into space – and is replaced by darker waters instead which absorb more heat.
According to Dr. Sebastian Gerland, additional warming can take place even if ice remains in a far thinner state.
“It means there is more light penetrating through the ice – that depends to a high degree on the snow cover but once it has melted the light can get through,” he said.
“If the ice is thinner there is more light penetrating and that light can heat the water.”
The most cautious forecasts say that the Arctic might become ice-free in the summer by the 2080s or 2090s. But recently many estimates for that scenario have been brought forward.
Early research investigating the implications suggests that a massive reduction in sea ice is likely to have an impact on the path of the jet stream, the high-altitude wind that guides weather systems, including storms.
The course and speed of the jet stream is governed by the difference in temperature between the Tropics and the Arctic, so a change on the scale being observed now could be felt across Europe and beyond.
Kim Holmen of the NPI explained how the connection might work.
“When the Arctic is ice free, it is not white any more and it will absorb more sunlight and that change will influence wind systems and where the precipitation comes.
“For northern Europe it could mean much more precipitation, while southern Europe will become drier so there are large scale shifts across the entire continent.”
That assessment is mirrored by work at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, based in the British town of Reading.
The centre’s director-general, Alan Thorpe, said the link between the Arctic melt and European weather was complicated but it is now the subject of research.
“Where Arctic sea ice is reducing in summer – and if we have warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the north-west Atlantic – these twin factors together lead to storms being steered over the UK in summer which is not the normal situation and leads to our poorer summers.”
But the research is in its earliest stages. For science, the Arctic itself is hard to decipher. The effects of its rapid melt are even tougher.
The US economy created 96,000 jobs in August, according to official figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is less than was expected.
However, the figure was lower than expected and revisions to June and July data mean that 41,000 fewer jobs were created than previously reported.
Analysts had expected non-farm payrolls to grow by 125,000 last month.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, compared with 8.3% in July, but only because more people gave up looking for work.
The US economy created 96,000 jobs in August, according to official figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Employment increased in food services and drinking places, professional and technical services and healthcare during August, the Bureau said.
Employment growth has averaged 139,000 a month in 2012, the Bureau said, compared with an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.
The percentage of Americans who either have a job or who are looking for one fell to 63.5%, the lowest participation rate since 1981.
The weak figures could put pressure on President Barack Obama in his re-election campaign, given than rival Mitt Romney has put jobs at the centre of the national debate.
Mitt Romney described the figures as “more of the same for middle-class families who are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression”.
He claims his economic plan will create 12 million new jobs by the end of his first term.
The figures are also seen as making it more likely that the US Federal Reserve will provide further economic stimulus measures in the form of quantitative easing, as hinted at by chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech on 31 August.
A survey released on Tuesday indicated that growth in the US manufacturing sector remained weak.
The Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 51.5 in August compared with 51.4 in July. A reading above 50 indicates growth.
Figures released last week showed that the US economy grew at an annualized pace of 1.7% in the second quarter of the year.
Hopes of an early jail release for the Pussy Riot punk protesters dimmed last night after Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a scathing attack on the three women singers.
The three Pussy Riot members are to appeal their two years prison sentences for staging a cathedral stunt opposing the strongman leader.
Supporters of the women – who have called for a revolution against Vladimir Putin – fear his hardline stance will sway judges and rule out their punishments being reduced.
“First they went to the Yelokhovsky Cathedral and conducted an orgy there and then they went to the other cathedral and had another orgy,” Vladimir Putin said in a major TV interview.
“The state is obliged to protect the feelings of the faithful.”
Vladimir Putin dashes hopes for Pussy Riot release as he says faithful must be defended after two Cathedral orgies
The women were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for dancing and singing in Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
He also chided the police for taking no action when one of the three – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 – was involved in a sexually explicit protest four years ago in a biological museum.
“They had a group sex session in a public place. They then uploaded it onto the Internet. The authorities should have looked at this too,” he stressed.
Recalled a Soviet-era joke, he said: “Some fans say that group sex is better than one-on-one because – like in any collective work – you can take it easy a bit.”
But he stressed: “Uploading it onto the Internet is controversial and can be subject to legal proceedings.”
Vladimir Putin asked his interviewer if he knew what the band’s name meant.
“There is no need to pretend that you don’t know. It’s indecent,” he said.
He claimed the repression suffered by the church in Soviet times meant it had to be respected now.
But he denied behind the scenes pressure to send the women to jail, despite suspicions of this among the opposition and in the West.
“I know what is going on with Pussy Riot, but I am staying out of it completely,” he said.
Vladimir Putin also denied he was clamping down on protest, declaring: “What is <<tightening the screws>>? If this means the demand that everyone, including representatives of the opposition, obey the law, then yes, this demand will be consistently implemented.”
He also blasted Britain for “double standards” in the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, alleging political interference in the attempt to extradite him to Sweden for sexual offences.
Julian Assange is holed up in the Ecuador embassy and has been granted political asylum by the South American country.
“They decided to extradite him. What is this? Of course it is double standards, that is clear,” he told Russia Today television.
“As far as I know, Ecuador asked Sweden for guarantees that Assange will not be extradited from Sweden to the United States. It has received no such guarantees.
“Of course this leads one to think that this is a political case.”
The decision made a mockery of Britain’s claim of judicial independence, he said.
A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 50 people dead and 150 injured, Chinese state media say.
The quakes struck the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with the largest felt at 11:19 Beijing time, Xinhua news agency said.
The US Geological Survey registered the two strongest of the series of quakes at 5.6 magnitude.
The quakes affected mostly mountainous areas that saw landslides, reports say.
A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 50 people dead and 150 injured
Zhang Junwei, a spokesman from the Yunnan seismological bureau, told the Associated Press (AP) agency that most of the deaths were from Yunnan’s Yiliang county.
“The casualty number is still being compiled. I don’t know what was like for the other towns, but my town got hit badly,” another government official in Yiliang told AP.
No deaths have been reported in Guizhou so far.
The death toll is expected to rise further, especially in areas affected by landslides, Xinhua says.
“Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach hard-hit villages,” Li Fuchun, head of Yunnan’s Luozehe town, was quoted as saying.
Xihua reported that at least 100,000 people have been evacuated and earlier reports said that more than 20,000 houses were damaged.
Mobile and regular phone service in the area was experiencing disruption, according to reports.
Hundreds of local residents had gathered on streets littered with bricks and rocks, television footage from state-run broadcaster CCTV showed.
Users of the Twitter-like weibo reported people rushing out of shaking office buildings, and photos posted online also showed streets strewn with rubble.
Local officials said teams had been sent to distribute tents and blankets to those affected.
The largest of the quakes was also felt in the neighboring province of Sichuan, where a 7.8 magnitude quake in 2008 left tens of thousands dead.
Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner apparently hates reality TV behemoth Honey Boo Boo and her mother June Shannon.
Kris Jenner, 56, is said to be concerned that the Thompsons are drawing attention away from the K-Dash juggernaut.
But surprisingly, Kris Jenner is also said to have concerns that June Shannon is exploiting her 7-year-old to make money.
Kris Jenner apparently hates reality TV behemoth Honey Boo Boo and her mother June Shannon
“To say Kris is not a fan of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is an understatement,” a source told Radar Online.
“She thinks the Thompsons are classless, unlike her family and can’t understand why America is so fascinated by them.
“The show has become bigger than Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and Kris is starting to feel threatened by its success.
“Kris especially has a strong dislike for June, claiming the beauty pageant world is vile and that June is a bad mom for <<exploiting>> Alana in that way.
“Kris thinks it’s all a ploy to make money, and says she sees through it and thinks it is absolutely disgusting.
“Although it’s like pot calling the kettle black – you could say that Kris does exactly the same with her family,” the source added.
Toddlers & Tiaras contestant Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson has become a soaraway hit thanks to her eponymous show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
TLC first introduced viewers to Toddlers and Tiaras star Alana Thompson in January, where her amusing personality and self-confidence became a fixture in pop culture.
The network offered the family a spin-off series, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, an inside look into little Alana Thompson’s world.
Since premiering on August 8, the show has attracted millions of viewers and its August 29 installment attracted nearly 3 million viewers, eclipsing every network’s coverage of the Republican National Convention and Paul Ryan’s speech.
Each episode follows Honey Boo Boo and her unapologetically outrageous family.
A Russian little girl cracks after receiving a lengthy telling-off by her bullying teacher and gives him a powerful kick in the groin.
The hilarious incident was captured on a mobile phone camera by one of her fellow pupils during an English lesson at the school at an undisclosed location somewhere in Russia.
A Russian little girl cracks after receiving a lengthy telling-off by her bullying teacher and gives him a powerful kick in the groin
The poor girl, with long blonde plaited hair, is hauled up to the front of the classroom, where she is screamed at by her furious teacher.
She bows her head and endures a torrent of abuse but to the surprise of the teacher and the delight of her classmates she strikes back before racing out the room.
Prince Harry has been deployed to Afghanistan for four months, UK’s Ministry of Defence says.
Prince Harry, 27, an Apache helicopter pilot, arrived on Thursday night at the main British base, Camp Bastion in Helmand.
The third in line to the throne will take part in combat missions against the Taliban.
It is his second Afghanistan deployment – Prince Harry spent 10 weeks in Helmand province in 2007-08 but was pulled out after media reported his secret deployment.
Captain Wales, as Prince Harry is known in the military, arrived as part of the 100-strong 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment, Army Air Corps.
Royal Navy Captain Jock Gordon, Commander of the Joint Aviation Group, said: “Captain Wales, with his previous experience as a Forward Air Controller on operations, will be a useful asset.
“He will be in a difficult and demanding job. And I ask that he be left to get on with his duties and allowed to focus on delivering support to the coalition troops on the ground.”
Captain Wales, as Prince Harry is known in the military, has been deployed to Afghanistan for four months
Prince Harry is the first member of the Royal Family to see active combat since his uncle Prince Andrew fought in the Falklands war.
The prince, who turns 28 next week, qualified as an Apache helicopter pilot in February this year after 18 months of rigorous training in the UK and the US.
The Ministry of Defence regards the threat to Apache aircraft and crew in Afghanistan as “low”.
The Taliban claim to have brought down an Apache in Afghanistan, but the British have never lost an Apache anywhere, from a total of 67, despite two minor crashes.
The Apache attack helicopter is designed to hunt and destroy tanks and is equipped with rockets, missiles and automatic cannon.
During his previous deployment, Prince Harry was a forward air controller, directing planes dropping bombs on Taliban positions in Helmand province.
The Ministry of Defence, which had agreed a news blackout with British media believed that the risk to the prince was too great after Australian and US media revealed details of his deployment.
Then he was part of ground forces, calling in air strikes against enemy positions. He was disappointed to be withdrawn, and determined to return to front-line combat.
In April, the prince suggested it would be pointless to train as a helicopter pilot if he never served.
“I’d just be taking up a spare place for somebody else if they didn’t have me going out on the job,” he said at the time.
Camp Bastion is a sprawling base in Helmand and one of the largest in Afghanistan.
Prince Harry’s living quarters will be a shipping container, shared with another member of his squadron. Although basic, it is far better accommodation than the tented barracks that others, who are not Apache crew, have to sleep in.
Bastion has a bar which does not serve alcohol as it is forbidden on base. It has table football, a pool table, and games. Elsewhere on Bastion there is a cigar bar and a steak restaurant, called Blues.
Those working on the base are regularly awakened by the distant sound of heavy ordnance being disposed of, and a 5:00 a.m. call to prayer from a loudspeaker on top of the local mosque.
Recently Prince Harry has had a high-profile presence at the London 2012 Olympic Games. He then went to Las Vegas on a private holiday, where he was photographed at a party.
The photos, published by the Sun newspaper in UK and international websites, prompted about 3,800 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.
However, the watchdog said it would be “inappropriate” to open an inquiry because the prince’s representatives had not yet made a formal complaint.
Curiosity rover has measured the Red Planet’s atmospheric composition.
NASA’s robot sucked the air into its big Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument to reveal the concentration of different gases.
It is the first time that the chemistry of the atmosphere has been tested from the surface of the planet since the Viking landers in the 1970s.
The SAM analysis is ongoing but no major surprises are expected at this stage – carbon dioxide will dominate.
CO2 is the chief component of the Martian air, as the Viking probes found. Of keener interest will be whether a signal for methane has been detected by Curiosity.
The gas has recently been observed by satellite and by Earth telescopes, and its presence on the Red Planet is intriguing.
Methane should be short-lived and its persistence suggests a replenishing source of some kind – either biological or geochemical. It is hoped SAM can shed light on the issue.
Curiosity rover has measured the Red Planet's atmospheric composition
The results from this first test could be announced next week, said Curiosity deputy principal scientist Joy Crisp, but she cautioned that it would be some time before definitive statements could be made about the status of methane on Mars.
“When SAM is at its best it can measure various parts per trillion of methane, and the expected amounts based on measurements taken from orbit around Mars and from Earth telescopes should be in the 10 to a few 10s of parts per billion,” she told reporters.
“But it’s so early in the use of Sam, which is a complicated instrument, and we have to sort through the data.”
Curiosity – also known as the Mars Science Laboratory, MSL – has now driven more than 100 m from the location on the floor of Gale Crater where it landed a month ago.
A new picture from the overflying Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft shows its progress.
“You can see the rover with the white deck on top and the black wheels, and you can see our tracks behind us,” explained mission manager Mike Watkins.
“We’re about a football field or so away from the touch-down point – from Bradbury Landing.”
Curiosity is heading to a point dubbed Glenelg by scientists.
This is about 300 m further to the east from its current position. Satellite pictures point to Glenelg being an intersection of three distinct types of rock terrain. Researchers think it will be a good place to start to characterize the geology of Gale Crater.
The rover’s arrival at the junction is still some weeks away, however.
Engineers have parked the vehicle for a few days to practice using the 2 m-long robotic arm. This carries a 30 kg tool turret on its end and the mission team needs to learn how to move the device in the weaker gravity conditions that exist on Mars.
“Mars has about 38% of Earth gravity,” said Matt Robinson, the lead engineer on Curiosity’s arm.
“Under Earth gravity, the arm sags to a certain position. On Mars, if you were to command the arm to the exact same joint angles, the turret would be at a higher position than it was on Earth.
“To compensate, we have flight software that does the mathematics to position the arm lower to recreate the exact same pose of the turret with respect to the hardware on the rover.
“So a big part of this exercise is to verify that flight software is doing that compensation properly,” he said.
Once the arm check-out is done, Curiosity will pick up the pace to get to Glenelg.
En route, the rover will watch for an early opportunity to test its turret instruments on a rock.
This will involve putting the “hand lens” known as Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager) close to the test object.
Mahli is essentially a close-up camera that can resolve rock minerals down to the size of a grain of talcum powder.
The other turret instrument engineers want to see in action is APXS, an X-ray spectrometer that can determine the abundance of chemical elements in rocks.
Also in line to make its debut soon is the turret’s scoop mechanism (Collection and Handling for Interior Martian Rock Analysis, or Chimra). The robot arm will pick up a sample of soil and deliver it to the labs inside the rover body for analysis.
It seems Amber Rose has used 2012 MTV Video Music Awards to announce her own happy news to the world: she’s expecting.
Amber Rose, 28, dressed more modestly than usual in a full-length fitted black lace gown, put a tender hand on her growing stomach as she joined fiancé, rapper Wiz Khalifa, on the red carpet.
With her blonde crop slicked with a deep side part, Amber Rose went for a monochromatic make-up look, her platinum hair blending in to her milky complexion and smile swathed with a nude shade of lipstick.
She lined her eyes in charcoal black and wore only a pair of stud earrings and her glittering engagement ring from Wiz Khalifa.
Wiz Khalifa held the hand of his bride-to-be in a three-piece suit he accented with gold jewelry and a pair of dark sunglasses.
Twenty-four-year-old Wiz Khalifa, whose real name Cameron Jibril Thomaz, announced they set to wed in March when he posted on Twitter: “She Said Yes!!!”
Amber Rose put a tender hand on her growing stomach as she joined fiancé, rapper Wiz Khalifa, on the red carpet at 2012 MTV VMAs
Amber Rose, who catapulted to fame while dating Kanye West, then posted a snap of her stunning oval-shaped diamond ring to her own page and said she was the “happiest woman in the world”.
However, online reports claim the budding pregnancy means Amber Rose and rapper Wiz Khalifa may tie the knot sooner than they originally intended.
They have now moved the date to October rather than the winter nuptials they had planned.
The couple has played coy on the rumors, and recently Wiz Khalifa told MTV.com: “I’m saying here that is not what people think it is. But, she will have my baby in life, and you guys will know when she’s pregnant. But it’s not the time now for people to start going crazy.”
While the pregnancy was apparently not planned the couple is reportedly delighted to have a little one on the way.
Meanwhile, a source told RadarOnline: “Amber and Wiz unexpectedly got pregnant, but they’re really happy to be starting a family together.”
Amber Rose’s baby is due in January, according to reports; it will be the first child for the couple.
The couple’s appearance yesterday follows last year’s dramatic unveiling by Beyoncé, who set a tweets-per-second record on Twitter when she revealed at the VMAs she and husband Jay-Z were expecting after a high-energy performance of Love On Top, which she finished with a drop of the mic, freeing a hand to open her jacket and rub her rounded stomach.
Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa could have more than a baby on the way to celebrate depending on how this evening goes – the rapper is up for Best Pop Video for his collaboration with Maroon 5, Payphone. The pair is facing off against One Direction (What Makes You Beautiful), Fun. feat. Janelle Monae (We Are Young), Rihanna (We Found Love) and Justin Bieber (Boyfriend) in the category.
Rihanna appeared at last night’s MTV VMAs to finally confirm the rumors of rekindling her relationship with Chris Brown are true.
As she exited the stage at the star-studded event after collecting her Video Of The Year award, Rihanna, 24, was stopped by former boyfriend Chris Brown as he congratulated her.
Rihanna and Chris Brown were seen kissing on the lips, before hugging tenderly, with Chris’ arm looking slightly proprietorial around her waist.
The images of Rihanna and Chris Brown, 23, are sure to spark rumors among the singers’ fans that the pair have decided to give their relationship another go.
Rihanna and Chris Brown’s tender display comes after she admitted to Oprah Winfrey that she still considers Chris to be the “love of her life”, despite the fact that she took a restraining order out against the singer after he was charged with assault after hitting her at a pre-Grammy party in 2009.
His vicious assault, which led to Rihanna being hospitalized, led to him receiving five years of probation as a result.
Rihanna appeared at last night's MTV VMAs to finally confirm the rumors of rekindling her relationship with Chris Brown are true
But Rihanna told Oprah Winfrey that since the restraining order was dropped in February 2011, the pair have been working on their friendship.
She said: “I think he is the love of my life. He was my first love. Now we’re very close friends. And that’s not anything we’re going to try to change.
“It’s awkward because I still love him. My stomach drops and I have to maintain this poker face and not let it get to the outer part of me. I have to maintain it and suppress it. When you don’t understand those feelings you can make a lot of mistakes.”
At the time of making the comments, Rihanna was single while Chris Brown has been dating model Karrueche Tran.
At last night’s VMAs, both artists took home awards, with Rihanna being named Video of the Year for We Found Love, and Chris winning Best Male Video and Best Choreography for Turn Up The Music.
Chris Brown’ win is likely to please the singer even more as he was up against rival Drake for the prize.
The RnB singer seemed more than a little delighted to have scored his victory following his infamous brawl with Drake in a New York nightclub in June.
When Chris Brown took to the stage he said: “First and foremost, I want to thank Team Breezy, Riveting Entertainment because this is my first time actually being able to direct a video by myself.”
However, Drake did not walk away empty handed after losing out on the big award for Take Care. Instead, he won the lightly regarded Best Hip-Hop Video award instead.
Meanwhile, the show’s host Kevin Hart made light of Drake and Chris Brown’s brawl at the W.i.P club that left eight people injured, including San Antonio Spurs player Tony Parker, who later said he nearly lost his left eye.
He said: “Right now you guys are arguing over a mistake. You’re arguing over a thrown bottle in the club.
“Drake is from Canada. Drake loves to recycle. Drake thought there was a recycle bin in Chris’s section.”
The cameras showed 25-year-old Drake laughing heartily at the quips.
However, he may not be laughing for long, as he and Chris Brown have been hit with a $16 million lawsuit over the incident by the clubs owners, who lost their licence following the melee.
One Direction tops this year MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) picking up three trophies for What Makes You Beautiful.
One Direction took home Best New Artist, Best Pop Video and Most Share-worthy Video.
The group also performed their latest song, One Thing, for fans at the ceremony in Los Angeles.
“Thank you so much! We have grown up watching this show and to collect one of these [awards] straight away is incredible,” said Niall Horan.
Simon Cowell, the band’s manager tweeted the group saying: “Congratulations 1D. I’m very proud of you. Celebrate!”
One Direction tops this year MTV Video Music Awards picking up three trophies for What Makes You Beautiful
Rihanna had the most nominations going in to the event with five although she only won one award in the end, for video of the year.
“I love you guys! This is awesome,” said Rihanna, as she collected her trophy.
On her way from collecting the prize she was congratulated by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, who previously pleaded guilty to assaulting the pop star before the Grammy Music Awards in 2009.
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong also appeared at the ceremony, where he was mobbed after inviting fans to come up on stage.
Billie Joe Armstrong looked fully recovered after being taken to hospital earlier in the week.
Alicia Keys was joined on stage by Olympic gymnast Gabby Ross, who back-flipped while the singer performed her new single Girl On Fire.
Performers also took the opportunity to crowd surf, with Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne and host Kevin Hart all diving off the stage.
MTV Video Music Award winners:
Video of the year: Rihanna ft Calvin Harris – We Found Love
Best new artist: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
Best female video: Nicki Minaj – Starships
Best male video: Chris Brown – Turn Up The Music
Best hip-hop video: Drake ft: Lil Wayne – HYFR
Best pop video: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
Best rock video: Coldplay – Paradise
Best video with a message: Demi Lovato – Skyscraper
Best electronic dance music video: Calvin Harris – Feel So Close
Most share-worthy video: One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
Asian stock markets have risen, joining a global rally, after European Central Bank’s president, Mario Draghi, unveiled a plan targeted at easing the region’s debt crisis.
The ECB said it would buy bonds of the bloc’s debt-ridden nations in a bid to bring down their borrowing costs.
The implied borrowing costs for Spain and Italy fell after the announcement.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 2.2%, Korea’s Kospi gained 2.6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.4%.
Asian stock markets have risen after ECB unveiled a plan targeted at easing the region's debt crisis
“We think this is a credible plan to addressing the issue, and while there are still political hurdles, we expect those will be addressed,” said Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Equity Research.
The borrowing costs for some of the eurozone’s larger economies, such as Spain and Italy, had risen to levels considered unsustainable earlier this year.
That led to concerns that these nations would no longer be able to borrow money from international investors and, therefore, would not be able to repay their debts, further escalating the region’s debt crisis.
Many investors feared such developments would not only hurt the eurozone’s growth, but could also derail the global economic recovery.
That would have had a knock-on effect on Asia’s export-dependent economies, which rely heavily on global demand.
However, the ECB’s announcement, and the drop in borrowing costs of Spain and Italy thereafter, has helped allay those fears.
Markets in the US rose, with the Dow Jones index hitting it highest level in almost five years.
In Europe, Germany’s Dax index closed 2.9% higher, while France’s Cac 40 jumped 3% and the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 2.1%.
“The markets were looking for a strong decisive action and a commitment from the central bank that they are ready to act if any issues blow up in the region’s bigger economies,” said Justin Harper of IG Markets.
“Last night they got that.”
The ECB announcement also provided a boost to the euro currency, which rose against the US dollar and the Japanese yen.
The euro was trading at $1.263 in Asian trading. It also rallied against the Japanese currency to 99.63 yen.
Analysts said that the ECB’s plan had boosted investor morale and that they were more confident of investing in riskier assets.
“The ECB’s actions afford time, allowing risk appetite to stage a comeback, for now,” said Vincent Chaigneau, a strategist at Societe Generale.
However, they warned that while the ECB’s plan had helped allay market fears, the crisis was far from over.
“Mr. Draghi has won a battle, but cannot win the euro area crisis war by himself,” Vincent Chaigneau said.
“The hardest task of all – getting governments to drop posturing in return for leadership and deep reforms – still awaits us.”
Barack Obama has accepted the nomination of the Democratic party, telling voters they face a generational choice in November’s election.
The US president highlighted the differences between his aims and Republican policies, and reprised his 2008 theme of “hope”.
“I never said this journey would be easy, and I won’t promise that now,” Barack Obama told the Democratic convention.
Republican Mitt Romney is challenging Barack Obama for the White House, with polls showing a tight race.
Barack Obama told delegates in the hall and voters watching at home that the nation’s problems had built up over decades and could not be fixed in a flash.
“But when you pick up that ballot to vote – you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation.
“Over the next few years, big decisions will be made in Washington: on jobs and the economy; taxes and deficits; energy and education; war and peace – decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and our children’s lives for decades to come,” he said.
Barack Obama has accepted the nomination of the Democratic party for a second term
Barack Obama took the stage not in a huge stadium in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, as organizers had hoped, but inside the convention centre after Thursday’s speech was moved because of weather concerns.
He followed a rousing speech by Vice-President Joe Biden, who praised Barack Obama for his bravery in bailing our the auto industry and ordering the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
The president offered a string of critiques of Republican policies, describing his opponents as “happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America” without offering suggestions on how to make things right.
“That’s because all they have to offer is the same prescription they’ve had for the last 30 years,” he said.
“Have a surplus? Try a tax cut. Deficit too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!”
But there was no mention of his own healthcare law, a signature achievement that remains unpopular with many Americans, and little explicit talk of the stimulus enacted in his first months in office.
The speech prompted a response from Mitt Romney’s camp: “Tonight President Obama laid out the choice in this election, making the case for more of the same policies that haven’t worked for the past four years,” his campaign said in a statement after the speech.
“He offered more promises, but he hasn’t kept the promises he made four years ago.”
Barack Obama also spoke about his energy strategy, saying the US had opened “millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration… and we’ll open more”.
“But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.”
On international issues, the president described Mitt Romney and running-mate Paul Ryan as “new to foreign policy”.
“But from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly,” he said, highlighting his success with Bin Laden and his withdrawal of troops from Iraq and planned drawdown from Afghanistan.
As Barack Obama finished the speech, he roused the crowd by telling them their votes had helped make the changes of his presidency.
“Only you have the power to move us forward,” he said.
“I recognize that times have changed since I first spoke to this convention. The times have changed – and so have I. I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the president.”
Earlier, Vice-President Joe Biden accepted his own re-nomination in an emotional speech that focused on family and national security.
“Folks, I’ve watched him,” he said of the president.
“He never wavers. He steps up.”
“He asks the same thing over and over again: How is this going to work for ordinary families? Will it help them?”
Joe Biden also criticized Mitt Romney for not backing the US auto industry bailout, referring to the former Massachusetts governor’s time leading private equity firm Bain Capital.
“I just don’t think he understood what saving the automobile industry meant, to all of America. I think he saw it the Bain way, in terms of balance sheets and write-offs,” he said.
“The Bain way may bring your firm the highest profit. But it’s not the way to lead your country from its highest office.”
The third and final night of speeches in Charlotte also saw former Florida governor Charlie Crist – who was previously a Republican – and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry address the convention.
John Kerry criticized Mitt Romney for surrounding himself with “neo-conservative advisers who know all the wrong things about foreign policy”.
“This is not the time to outsource the job of commander in chief,” the Massachusetts senator said.
Former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, still recovering from a near-fatal shooting on a meeting with her constituents in 2011, appeared on stage to lead the convention in the pledge of allegiance.
Walking slowly and steadying herself to recite the pledge, Gabrielle Giffords left many in the crowd dewy-eyed as she smiled through her recital.
Thursday’s speeches brought an end to the Democratic convention, which also headlined speeches from Michelle Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney now face two months of relentless campaigning before voters across the 50 states go to the polls on 6 November.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sets off on his latest bid to put right the wrongs of nature by teaching birds to fly.
Hang-gliding over Arctic Siberia this week, Vladimir Putin guided white cranes which seem to have lost the instinct to migrate south to a warmer climate for the winter.
The aim was to set the endangered birds on course for Asia and as with his previous action-man ventures – which included sedating a tiger, tagging a white whale, and offering tender loving care and a tracking collar to a polar bear – the Kremlin announced total success.
Vladimir Putin guided white cranes which seem to have lost the instinct to migrate south to a warmer climate for the winter
As opposition groups and bloggers mercilessly mocked his flying lesson for birds, Putin’s PR machine made clear that after a false start all five juvenile cranes had followed the lead bird – the Russian president dressed in flapping white overalls – and flown for the required distance.
It is hoped the cranes will now fly from Kushavet ornithological research station to Tyumen, further south in Siberia, before taking off for middle Asia and a warm winter.
“For cranes, the parent is a man in a white robe,” explained Yuri Markin, the director of the game reserve.
“They don’t remember a particular person. They remember the white robe and hood, or on the ultralight, a white helmet – and a special beak that is worn on the head.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted he will still be able to work with Mitt Romney if he’s elected U.S. president despite him calling Russia the “number one geopolitical foe”.
Vladimir Putin made the remark about Mitt Romney during yesterday interview on the Kremlin-funded Russia Today TV channel.
The president said: “We’ll work with whichever president is elected by the American people. But our effort will be only as efficient as our partners will want it to be.”
Vladimir Putin expressed concern about how a Romney presidency would affect the two countries’ long-running dispute over U.S.-led NATO plans to place elements of a missile-defense system in Europe. Russia contends the system could undermine its own defenses.
Vladimir Putin expressed concern about how a Romney presidency would affect their countries long-running dispute over NATO plans
He added that if Mitt Romney is elected “the missile defense system will definitely be directed against Russia”.
The wide-ranging interview showed Vladimir Putin’s acerbic and combative side, particularly on the issue of the two-year prison sentence imposed last month on three members of the provocateur band Pussy Riot for their “punk prayer” prank in Moscow’s main cathedral entreating the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin.
Their conviction brought widespread criticism of Russia for stifling opposition and free speech.
Vladimir Putin briefly sparred with the English-speaking interviewer over how the band’s name could be translated into Russian, declaring: “I think you wouldn’t do it because it sounds too obscene, even in English.”
He also vigorously defended Russia’s stance on the escalating civil war in Syria.
Russia has come under strong criticism in the West for blocking U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pressuring Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, which is fighting an increasingly vigorous armed opposition.
Activists now put the death toll from the uprising that began in March 2011 at between 23,000 and 26,000.
Russia has said its policy is not aimed at supporting Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin in the interview gave strong indication that Moscow may have written off the Syrian leader.
“We realize that this country needs a change,” he said.
“But this doesn’t mean that change should come with bloodshed.”
