Drinking Time Machine, a chilling new phone app, gives users an insight into how they will look after ten years of binge drinking.
The app has been designed by forensic artist Auriole Price as a warning of the devastating effects of alcohol on the body. By taking a photo and inputting your daily alcohol intake, the app shows how heavy drinking speeds up the ageing process.
The unflattering pictures reveal the full effects of alcohol with the portraits showing bloated flushed cheeks and bloodshot eyes. Initially designed for a Scottish Government health drive, the app is now available on iTunes for $1.
Drinking Time Machine, a chilling new phone app, gives users an insight into how they will look after ten years of binge drinking
Auriole Price, 41, said: “The main aim is to shock people into drinking just a little bit less. We are appealing to people’s vanity as the effects of alcohol can include red, broken veins on the cheeks, bloodshot eyes, a bloated face and deeper wrinkles.”
The app has been used on photographs of well-known celebrities – from Angelina Jolie and Madonna to Tulisa – with the resulting bloated faces, haggard complexions and deep lines etched on the face acting as a warning against over-indulgence.
Scientists at the University of South Carolina have developed a T-shirt capable to store electrical power.
The T-shirt could pave the way for clothes that are able to charge phones and other devices.
Experts predict that new technologies including roll-up smartphones and laptops will be on the market soon.
These developments would spur on the need for “flexible energy storage”, said the professor behind the project.
Xiaodong Li, a professor of mechanical engineering at the university teamed up with post-doctorate researcher Lihong Bao to find a solution.
The pair wrote up their findings for the Advanced Materials journal.
Scientists at the University of South Carolina have developed a T-shirt capable to store electrical power
They used a T-shirt bought from a local discount store, which was soaked in a solution of fluoride, dried and then baked in an oxygen-free environment at high temperature.
The fibres in the fabric converted from cellulose to activated carbon during the process, but the material remained flexible.
By using small parts of the fabric as an electrode, the researchers showed that the material could be made to act as a capacitor.
Capacitors store an electrical charge and are components of nearly every electronic device on the market.
By coating the individual fibres of the carbonized fabric with manganese oxide just a nanometre thick, the electrode performance of the fabric was further enhanced.
“This created a stable, high-performing supercapacitor,” said Prof. Xiaodong Li.
The hybrid supercapacitors proved resilient – even after thousands of charge-discharge cycles their performance did not diminish more than 5%, the researchers said.
“By stacking these supercapacitors up, we should be able to charge portable electronic devices such as cell phones,” Prof. Xiaodong Li added.
“We wear fabric every day. One day our cotton T-shirts could have more functions; for example, a flexible energy storage device that could charge your cell phone or your iPad.”
Eva Rausing, wife of Tetra-Pak cartons billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing, has been found dead in west London.
Eva Rausing’s body was reportedly found at Cadogan Place, Belgravia.
The death is being treated as unexplained.
Hans Kristian Rausing, 49, one of Britain’s richest men, has been arrested over the death of his wife after she was found dead from a suspected drug overdose.
Eva Rausing, wife of Tetra-Pak cartons billionaire Hans Kristian Rausing, has been found dead in west London
He was tonight being questioned by Scotland Yard detectives after the body of his American wife Eva, 48, was found at their home.
He is currently in custody at a south London police station.
A post-mortem examination of Eva Rausing’s body began at 13:00 BST at Westminster Mortuary.
Police said they searched the address and found the body after making the drugs arrest on Monday.
Officers could be seen guarding the front door of the Cadogan Place home, which was taped off.
The large terraced house is in one of London’s most expensive areas just off Sloane Street, between Knightsbridge and Chelsea.
In 2008 Eva Rausing and her husband faced drug charges after crack, heroin and 52 g of cocaine were found in their home.
Eva Rausing had been arrested after she allegedly tried to smuggle small amounts of crack cocaine and heroin into the US embassy in London.
Charges were then dropped and a caution issued instead.
In 2010 Forbes ranked Hans Kristina Rausing’s father, Hans Rausing Senior, 86, as the 64th richest man in the world, worth an estimated $10 billion.
The family made their fortune from the Tetra Laval milk carton, patented by Ruben Rausing in the 1960s.
It allows milk to be kept fresh without refrigeration.
George Obama, US President Barack Obama’s half-brother, is making his film debut in a documentary where he talks about his non-existent relationship with his relative who is the most powerful man in the world.
George Obama, 30, lives in Nairobi, Kenya and first came into the public eye in 2008 when his half-brother was a rising presidential candidate.
At the time, he was living in a hut in the slum neighborhood of Haruma, which prompted many critics to deride Barack for not providing financial support.
In his interview with conservative journalist Dinesh D’Souza, who based the documentary off his book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage which focuses largely on the President’s views on colonialism, George Obama keeps his comments about his famous relative fairly positive.
In a clip released to The Hollywood Reporter, Dinesh D’Souza asked whether he felt dejected that Barack Obama has never offered to help George, but he simply brushed such claims aside.
“I think he has a family of his own, he’s supposed to help his family,” George Obama responded.
George Obama lives in Nairobi, Kenya and first came into the public eye in 2008 when his half-brother Barack was a rising presidential candidate
The journalist didn’t let go, saying that they are blood relatives which should entitle him to be considered a part of Barack Obama’s family, but George still didn’t take the bait.
“Yea, I’m part of his family, but I’m over-age so I can help myself.
“He’s got other issues to deal with. He’s taking care of the world, so he’s taking care of me.”
George Obama says that when he was five or six years old, he met Barack briefly.
“I was just surprised- he is some half white guy,” George Obama said in a clip from the documentary.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii by his mother Ann Dunham, who was white with various European ancestry.
The two men share the common bond of their father, Barack Obama Sr., but even that was not very strong because of their age gap.
Barack Obama is 50-years-old while George is only 30-years-old, and Barack Sr died in a car accident just six months after George was born.
The President reportedly has seven half-siblings on his father’s side- including George Obama, though the paternity of two of his reported half-brothers, named Abo and Bernard, is questioned.
In the documentary interview, George Obama said that he remembers little about his father except the stories that his mother told him.
“He was really educated,” George Obama said of his deceased father.
“My mom was disappointed in me because I actually didn’t finish my schooling. I really did let her down, I let my father down because he was an intellectual guy.”
That said, George Obama did write a book, entitled Homeland, which was published in 2010.
While many conservatives- including the interviewer- were likely hoping for a more controversial and damning take on his half-brother, George seems to be one of the least problematic members of the wide-ranging Obama family.
By comparison, Barack Obama’s “lost” half-uncle Omar Onyango was arrested for driving under the influence which was coupled with an outstanding deportation warrant.
Google Inc. has been fined $22.5 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for ignoring the privacy settings of customers using Apple’s Safari browser.
The staggering sum would be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the FTC.
But, with Google reporting a net income of $2.89 billion in the first quarter of this year, it would take just over 17 hours for the company to earn the amount to pay off the fine.
The fine was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited officials briefed on the settlement terms.
Google has been fined $22.5 million by the FTC for ignoring the privacy settings of customers using Apple's Safari browser
The charges involve Google’s use of special computer code, or “cookies”, to trick Apple’s Safari browser so Google could monitor users that had blocked such tracking, the newspaper said.
The tracking, which occurred on computers and iPhones, would have allowed the search engine to collect information on users’ preferences and search choices.
But Google disabled the code after being contacted by the Wall Street Journal, which first covered the story in February.
Staff at Google told the publication that tracking Apple users was inadvertent and did not cause any harm to consumers.
“The FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page. We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies,” Google said.
But the company’s practices sparked an investigation by the Trade Commission into whether it had violated an agreement signed last year.
In the 20-year agreement, Google said it would not misrepresent its privacy practices to users, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The penalty for violating this agreement is $16,000 per violation per day.
The code was spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer. Advisers agreed that scores of ads on websites installed the tracking code.
Google also faces potential sanctions from other governments. It is being investigated by the European Union to determine if the company complies with Europe’s stricter privacy laws, the Wall Street Journal reported.
McDonald’s is trying to tell us that a Big Mac is just like a home-cooked meal by posting a tutorial on You Tube explaining how to make the famous burger at home.
The warm and fuzzy PR stunt comes hot off the heels of the restaurant chain candidly revealing the secret to how it makes it’s burgers look so much bigger, juicer and tastier in its adverts than in its restaurants – using “food stylists”.
The latest video sees McDonald’s executive chef Dan Coudreaut casually preparing a Big Mac at home, but the fact the finished product looks nothing like the burgers served up in store doesn’t seem to bother him.
Just like the expose on why McDonald’s burgers look better in the ads, the video begins with a question from a customer.
“We have a question here from Christine… what is in your special sauce?” he says before taking viewers step by step through the process of making its two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.
McDonald’s is trying to tell us that a Big Mac is just like a home-cooked meal
While chopping, whisking and grilling his ingredients, Dan Coudreaut continually reminds those watching that the produce he’s using is all available in their local grocery store.
For the so-called special sauce – which Dan Coudreaut reveals is “not really a secret” because the ingredients have been available in shops and online “for years” – store-bought mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and yellow mustard are whisked together with vinegar, garlic powder, onion power and paprika.
The chef dices an onion and chops some lettuce which “gives you that nice moisture and crunch”. He then says the pickles he’s using are also from his local grocery store.
“Now the bun is the classic signature of the Big Mac experience,” Dan Coudreaut says as he slices it in half and toasts it, whistling while he works.
Then it’s patty time.
“This is 100 per cent beef,” he insists as he squishes the creamy looking pink stuff into a metal ring, “just like in our restaurants”.
He adds, clearly proud of his measly thin accomplishment: “There we go, that’s a good one.”
Before chucking them in a pan: “And they’re going in, you hear that sizzle?”
Again Dan Coudreaut insists he’s following the process used by the fast-food chain’s cooks around the world saying, “and once I flip it over I’m just going to season it with a little salt and pepper just like we do at the restaurants”.
Now the secret – or not so secret – is out, we’ll never have to go to an actual McDonald’s restaurant again.
Though that probably wasn’t the incentive behind the video.
Adele, who kept her pregnancy under wraps until the last minute, has said she is due to give birth in two months.
Adele, 24, announced she was expecting her first baby with boyfriend Simon Knoecki, 36, on June 30.
The singer is due to have her baby in September, meaning she was six months pregnant when she went public.
In hindsight, all the clues were there before she revealed her news – she didn’t fly to the States for the Billboard Awards in May even though she won 12 gongs.
And she arrived at the Ivor Novello Awards in London a week later dressed in a very loose fitting black dress.
Adele, who kept her pregnancy under wraps until the last minute, has said she is due to give birth in two months
She also snuck in late and refused to speak to the press or pose for photos, even though she is usually very chatty and friendly towards the media.
A source said: “Adele has barely left the house in recent months, so she could keep this to herself for as long as possible.
“She stopped exercising a few months ago, and since then it’s been all about the baby.”
Adele announced her pregnancy on her website and said: “I’m delighted to announce that Simon and I are expecting our first child together.
“I wanted you to hear the news direct from me, obviously we’re over the moon. Yours always, Adele.”
A spokesman for the star said he had “no more information” on Adele’s pregnancy.
The couple started dating last summer and moved in together earlier this year.
Simon Konecki also has a five-year-old daughter with his ex-wife Clary Fisher.
Egyptian parliament has briefly convened, despite the ruling military council ordering it to be dissolved.
President Mohammed Mursi had ordered the assembly to meet in defiance of the ruling.
Earlier, the council said the decision to dissolve parliament must be upheld. The military closed parliament last month after a supreme court ruling.
Its latest intervention is seen by some as a challenge and warning to Mohammed Mursi, who was sworn in only a week ago.
It could be the first confrontation between the military and the president since Mohammed Mursi’s election.
Speaker Saad al-Katatni said by holding the assembly, MPs were not contradicting the ruling, “but looking at a mechanism for the implementation of the ruling of the respected court. There is no other agenda today,” he added.
The MPs approved Saad al-Katatni’s proposal that the parliament seek legal advice from a high appeals court on how to implement the supreme court’s ruling. He then adjourned the session.
The demonstration that was due to be held in Tahrir Square in defiance of the military’s decision does not seem to have gone ahead.
Egyptian parliament has briefly convened, despite the ruling military council ordering it to be dissolved
The Muslim Brotherhood – Mohammed Mursi’s power base, which has the biggest bloc of seats in parliament – had said it would participate on Tuesday “in a million-man march in support of the president’s decision and reinstating parliament”.
The military council said it was confident “all state institutions” would respect the law and constitution.
It is unclear how events will unfold as the situation – with the new president elected without a new constitution being drafted, and the parliament theoretically dissolved – is unprecedented, analysts say.
The statement from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) will infuriate the Muslim Brotherhood.
Members of the Brotherhood believe it was the military that failed to respect the law by giving itself new powers after dissolving parliament last month.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Constitutional Court rejected the decree issued by Mohammed Mursi the day before to reconvene the Islamist-dominated parliament.
The court said its 14 June ruling – that the law governing Egypt’s first democratic elections in more than six decades was unconstitutional because party members were allowed to contest seats in the lower house reserved for independents – was binding and final.
As the court had not itself ordered the dissolution of parliament, Mohammed Mursi was not directly challenging a court order.
No mention was made of the court’s ruling in the decree. And presidential spokesman Yasir Ali argued Mohammed Mursi had been quite legitimate in suspending the dissolution until new parliamentary elections took place within 60 days of a new constitution being ratified.
Despite the apparent tensions, the president and Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads SCAF, appeared together at a military cadet graduation ceremony on Monday.
The president’s order has not, however, been welcomed by political rivals.
Former presidential candidate Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh said Mohammed Mursi’s decision a subtle way out of that confrontation.
“Respect for the popular will by restoring the elected parliament and respect for the judiciary by holding parliamentary elections is the way out of this crisis,” he wrote on Twitter.
Liberal MP Mohammed Abu Hamed urged SCAF to challenge what he called “this constitutional coup”.
The constitutional court is due to hear a number of appeals against the decree on Tuesday, reports say.
Mohammed Mursi won the country’s first free presidential election last month, and army chiefs formally handed over power on 30 June.
Before Mohammed Mursi’s inauguration, the military granted itself sweeping powers.
The commanders’ constitutional declaration stripped the president of any authority over the military, gave military chiefs legislative powers, and the power to veto the new constitution, which has yet to be drafted.
Who holds the power in Egypt?
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)
The interim constitutional declaration of 17 June gives the SCAF complete legislative power until a new parliament is elected and gives it a strong voice in the constitution-writing process. The decree makes the military free from civilian oversight, and gives the SCAF control of military affairs and the budget.
President
On paper, the president has authority over administrative and domestic affairs. He will appoint the cabinet – with the exception of the defense minister, which is reserved for the head of the SCAF. The president chairs the re-established National Defense Council, but the military has a majority.
Parliament
The SCAF dissolved the lower house, the People’s Assembly, after the Supreme Constitutional Court found the election law unconstitutional. New elections will take place a month after the new constitution is approved, effectively suspending parliament until then. It is unclear whether the upper house, the Shura Council, is affected.
Supreme Constitutional Court
The court decides cases in which the constitutionality of a law or regulation is challenged. Its current president, Farouq Sultan, who is set to retire this summer, was appointed by Hosni Mubarak. His successor was selected by the court.
Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced by International Criminal Court (ICC) to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003.
Thomas Lubanga was convicted by the ICC in March – the first conviction since the court was set up 10 years ago.
He had protested his innocence and said he had not supported the use of child soldiers.
But in a unanimous decision, the judges said Thomas Lubanga was responsible.
Thomas Lubanga showed no emotion as the presiding judge read out the sentence.
Thomas Lubanga has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for recruiting and using child soldiers in his rebel army
Judge Adrian Fulford told the court in The Hague that, taking into account the time Thomas Lubanga has already spent in jail, he will effectively spend eight more years behind bars.
Campaign group Human Rights Watch says more than 60,000 people were killed in the conflict between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in Ituri, in north-eastern DR Congo.
In June, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was asking for a “severe sentence” of 30 years.
He said the prosecution was requesting a sentence “in the name of each child recruited, in the name of the Ituri region”.
The conviction of Thomas Lubanga is linked to current unrest in DR Congo.
Rebel forces are advancing towards the country’s main eastern city of Goma.
They are headed by General Bosco Ntaganda, who is also wanted for war crimes by the ICC.
Thomas Lubanga
• Leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an ethnic Hema militia
• Head of the UPC’s military wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (FPLC)
• Accused of recruiting children under 15 as soldiers
Is it possible to go online without being noticed by Google? Three computer professionals try to part ways with Google.
Tom Henderson spends what he describes as “way too much” time online.
The managing director for Extreme Labs, a technology company in Bloomington, Indiana, Tom Henderson says he’s often up late in the evening doing work for clients – and having fun exploring the far reaches of the internet.
But when Google announced earlier this year that it would be streamlining the privacy agreements for all of its products – including YouTube, Blogger and Gmail – Tom Henderson decided to find a way to stay online without patronizing Google.
The policy was criticized by EU officials for being too invasive.
“At that point I had to make a decision,” says Tom Henderson.
“Do I like the terms of service and am I willing to abide by it to use Google’s products? And the answer in both cases was no.”
So Tom Henderson decided to quit Google for good. He wrote a manifesto for IT World called How I divorced Google and set about initiating the break-up.
Four months later, he’s still living a mostly Google-free existence.
Google’s terms of service state that the information it collects is used primarily to make the browsing experience better.
They firm also promises to share that information only in limited circumstances, unless users give consent.
Three computer professionals try to part ways with Google
But Tom Henderson wasn’t satisfied that the policy could be enforced, and didn’t feel confident that the sheer amount of information Google can collect wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.
“Google isn’t subject to an audit of what those practices are,” he says.
“They’re not telling whether they sell that info to insurance companies or people who want to market to you or people who don’t like you at all.”
So rather than hope for the best, he started to live his life without Google.
Though he still misses YouTube, he asked his son, a musician, to cross-post his music videos on Vimeo. He uses MapQuest for directions. And instead of “Googling,” he now uses a platform called Duck Duck Go, a search engine designed to protect privacy.
Tom Henderson isn’t the first person to try to abandon Google products out of privacy fears. But he’s stuck with it longer than most.
“After a month, I decided it was mission impossible,” says Benjamin Ellis, a technologist living in Camberley, England.
In 2009, he tried to give up Google after a friend “held up his Google-branded phone to take a picture that will probably end up on a Google-powered photo site, indexed by Google search-bots, published on Google-powered blogs, with Google-powered ads, viewed in Google-built web browsers, maybe even on a Google-built operating system.”
“I realized pretty quickly that you had to go to extreme lengths to avoid interaction with Google,” he says.
He found that his contact with Google went well beyond the active choices of viewing videos on YouTube or using the search engine.
Google planted tracking cookies when he visited sites that used Google’s AdSense, which used his personal preferences to tailor ads to his liking.
Benjamin Ellis was also being exposed to cookies via Google SafeBrowsing, a product that keeps tabs on sites known to run malware. That program is now used on Safari and Firefox web browsers as well as Google’s Chrome browser.
“It was hard to find any that didn’t use either of those. It’s a massive chunk of the internet,” he said.
(Tom Henderson, for his part, uses blockers that prevent Google from tracking his browsing).
Benjamin Ellis says he’s back to using Google products, but has become more careful about his browser’s privacy settings and the type of programs that he agrees to give data to. Though the UK has stricter online privacy laws than the US, Benjamin Ellis is still proactive about his internet footprint.
“I have much stricter settings on my cookies now,” he says.
“I’m a bit more conscious.”
Not everyone who tries to walk away from Google ends up wary.
Take Joe Wilcox, the editor of BetaNews.com, a technology news site. In 2011, he too was worried about privacy, and tried to shun Google for at least a week.
“It went so badly that I went the other way. Now I’m a total Google geek,” he says.
Joe Wilcox says that Google’s size and scope has led to great products and break-neck innovation.
“They’re constantly improving their services and making it better. I like that lifestyle,” he says.
He’s not bothered by the cache of data Google collects about each user.
“There’s no evidence that they’re abusing your privacy,” he says.
Instead, he points to ways it can make browsing easier – for instance, the new product Google Now, a predictive service which is promoted as being “always one step ahead” of the user.
Google Now uses personal data and GPS information to determine users’ routines and preferences. The program can send Android phone-users traffic updates, weather warnings and restaurant recommendations.
“It flips the script. It doesn’t take your information and [mis]use it, it takes your information and makes your experience better,” says Joe Wilcox.
In the digital age, he argues, there is very little privacy. With that in mind, Joe Wilcox says he’d rather deal with a large, visible company like Google than other less-known entities.
“At Google, I get more of a sense of what they know about me than some other companies.” he says.
Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of billionaire trader Marc Rich, has renounced her U.S. citizenship to avoid U.S. tax bill.
Denise Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, top Democratic donor and glamorous figure in European royalty circles, renounced her American passport in November, according to her lawyer.
Her maiden name, Denise Eisenberg, appeared in the Federal Register on April 30 in a quarterly list of Americans who renounced their U.S. citizenship and permanent residents who handed in their green cards.
By dumping her U.S. passport, Denise Rich, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, likely will save tens of millions of dollars or more in U.S. taxes over the long haul, tax lawyers say.
She also has Austrian citizenship through her deceased father, said Michael Heidt, a lawyer in Hollywood, Florida, who represented her in a recent lawsuit. She plans to live in London.
Denise Rich, who wrote songs recorded by Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and Jessica Simpson, is the latest bold-faced name to join a wave of wealthy people renouncing their American citizenship.
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin gave up his U.S. passport to become a citizen of Singapore, an offshore tax haven, before the company’s initial public offering in May.
Nearly 1,800 citizens and permanent residents, a record since data was first compiled in 1998, expatriated last year, according to government figures.
Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of billionaire trader Marc Rich, has renounced her U.S. citizenship to avoid U.S. tax bill
Michael Heidt said Denise Rich had dumped her U.S. passport “so that she can be closer to her family and to Peter Cervinka, her long-time partner”.
Denise Rich’s two daughters live in London; Peter Cervinka, a wealthy property developer, is an Austrian national.
Denise Rich plans to make London her main residence and does not intend to acquire other passports, Michael Heidt said.
Her ex-husband, commodities trader Marc Rich, fled the United States in 1983 when indicted on charges of tax evasion, fraud, racketeering and illegal trading of oil with Iran. They divorced in 1996.
Marc Rich received a presidential pardon in 2001 on President Bill Clinton’s last day in office.
Federal prosecutors and Congress investigated the pardon, and in 2002 a House of Representatives committee concluded Denise Rich had swayed the action through donations to the Clinton library and campaign.
Dubbed “Lady Gatsby” by Yachting magazine, Denise Rich owns multiple properties, including a mansion in Aspen, Colorado.
She is a frequent habitué of Cannes, Monte Carlo and St. Tropez with celebrities and singers aboard her 157-foot yacht, Lady Joy.
Denise Rich will escape future U.S. taxes but possibly not all current ones. In 2008, Congress imposed an expatriation tax on persons with a net worth of more than $2 million who dump their U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.
Under the law, those people owe an “exit tax” on their worldwide property, computed at a fair market value the day before they leave.
But tax lawyers say the tax can be reduced or avoided by structuring asset holdings through foreign annuities.
While Austria, like the United States, generally taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, it has generous tax breaks for citizens who spend half the year abroad.
In January, Rich put her 5th Avenue penthouse in New York on the market for $65 million, according to the listing agent, The Corcoran Group.
New York property records show Denise Rich acquired a 100% stake in the apartment, described by Corcoran as “the epitome of luxury and grandeur,” for $200,000 in 2006.
Bonnie Evans, the Corcoran broker for the property, declined to discuss details.
The recent lawsuit against Denise Rich was filed on behalf of Lee Goldberg, the former protector of a Cook Islands trust of which Rich is a beneficiary, in February. The case was dismissed in April, court records show.
The Cook Islands, a South Pacific tax haven, offers Swiss-style secrecy for wealthy investors.
The lawsuit accused Denise Rich and Richard Kilstock, a British real estate entrepreneur who is married to Rich’s daughter Daniella, of “transferring, moving or secreting trust assets, in violation of the trust’s guidelines and without the knowledge or permission of Goldberg.”
Denise Rich and Richard Kilstock denied the charges and accused Lee Goldberg of altering trust documents, court filings show.
Both Lee Goldberg and his attorney, Donald Thomas, declined to discuss the case. Denise Rich recently dismissed Lee Goldberg, one of her long-time lawyers, as protector of the trust.
Michael Heidt, who also represents Richard Kilstock in the case, declined to discuss the lawsuit.
Eurozone finance ministers have decided to lend Spain 30 billion Euros ($37 billion) this month to help its troubled banks.
It will be the first installment of a bailout of up to 100 billion Euros, which was agreed in June.
The ministers will need to get approval from their own parliaments and hope to make the payment by the end of July.
The eurozone finance ministers also agreed to extend the 2013 deadline for Spain to cut its budget deficit to the EU limit of 3% by one year.
The yield on Spanish bonds rose sharply on Monday ahead of the meeting, with many fearing that little concrete action on Spanish banks would be reached.
Eurozone finance ministers have decided to lend Spain 30 billion Euros this month to help its troubled banks
“We are aiming at reaching a formal agreement in the second half of July, taking into account national parliamentary procedures, allowing for a first disbursement of 30 billion Euros by the end of the month to be mobilized as a contingency in case of urgent needs in the Spanish banking sector,” Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
“There will be specific conditions for specific banks, and the supervision of the financial sector overall will be strengthened,” he added.
The exact amount that Spain needs for the bailout of its banks may not be known until September.
Jean-Claude Juncker also said that Madrid should implement measures needed to bring its public finances into line with EU norms.
On Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that he would take further steps soon to cut the country’s public deficit.
In a news conference at the end of Monday’s marathon meeting, a number of appointments were also announced.
The ministers reappointed Jean-Claude Juncker as their chairman and picked German Klaus Regling to head the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which is due to come into force this month.
The conclusions of the finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro will be submitted to a meeting of all 27 EU finance ministers later on Tuesday.
On Monday, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds, which are taken as a strong indicator of the interest rate the government would have to pay to borrow money, had risen above 7%, while Italian bond yields had reached to 6.1%.
Yields above 7% are considered to be unsustainable in the long term.
An armed man is holding a parent hostage at a school in Vitry-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris, France, after releasing a group of children he had been holding.
The parent had come to drop his child off at the school in Vitry-sur-Seine, which is being used as a leisure centre during the holidays, police said.
Elite police Raid unit officers and a negotiator are at the scene.
Many schools run summer activities during the holidays.
An armed man is holding a parent hostage at a school in Vitry-sur-Seine
The school is in the centre of the town, itself some 7.5 km (5 miles) from the centre of Paris.
Police were called at about 07:00 to the school, where 5-10 children and three parents were at the time, French radio reports.
The children were quickly released, said a reporter for France Info radio who is at the scene.
The hostage-taker is said to be in his 30s and unknown to the police. He was wearing a binman’s green boiler suit when he entered the school, police sources told French radio.
Although his demands are unclear, he is said to be very determined, police say.
Scientists found that limiting the time we spend sitting to just three hours a day could add an extra two years to our life expectancy.
Similarly, if we cut daily TV viewing down to two hours we could add on 1.4 years, they say in a report for the online journal BMJ Open.
But experts say the US estimates, which are based on five separate population studies, are too unreliable to predict personal risk.
Plus the targets are unfeasible.
Prof. David Spiegelhalter, an expert in risk calculations at the University of Cambridge, said: “This is a study of populations, and does not tell you personally what the effect of getting off the sofa might be.
“It seems plausible that if future generations moved around a bit more, then they might live longer on average.
“But very few of us currently spend less than three hours sitting each day, and so this seems a very optimistic target.”
Limiting the time we spend sitting to just three hours a day could add an extra two years to our life expectancy
Adults are advised to do at least two-and-a-half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week, as well as a couple of sessions of muscle-strengthening exercises like lifting weights or digging in the garden.
But even if you do this recommended amount, you may still be sedentary – for example, if you work in an office you may spend most of your working day sitting.
A growing body of evidence suggests the more time we spend sitting, the less healthy we may be.
Several studies have linked sitting and television viewing to conditions like diabetes and heart disease as well as an increased overall risk of death from any cause.
But finding a link is not the same as proving one thing actually causes the other.
And although this latest piece of research does not claim to be proof, the researchers themselves acknowledge there are flaws that make its findings less than reliable.
The work looked at a large sample of people – almost 167,000 in total – but did not scrutinize the different lifestyles these individuals led.
It is not clear how many of these people were less healthy to begin with and who, therefore, might spend more time sitting down as a result.
And the studies relied on the participants accurately recalling and reporting how much time they spent lounging around.
Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk and Prof. I-Min Lee who carried out the review stress that their estimates are theoretical.
But given that the adults in their research spent, on average, half of their days sitting “engaged in sedentary pursuits”, the findings could provide an important public health warning.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has been seen attending different events with a mystery woman.
The fact was led to speculation in South Korean media about her identity.
The woman was shown on state TV on Sunday with the new leader at an official ceremony in honor of his late grandfather, Kim Il-Sung.
And on Saturday, the same woman was seen sitting next to Kim Jong-Un at a concert.
Kim Jong-Un has been seen attending different events with a mystery woman
The appearances have made front-page news in South Korea.
Kim Jong-Un took power in the Communist state after the death of his father at the end of last year.
North Korean society is so closed to the outside world that no-one knows if Kim Jong-Un is married, or even his exact age.
So the appearance by his side of an elegant, black-clad, short-haired woman, probably in her 20s, has left many North and South Koreans playing guessing games.
Some South Korean news outlets suggested she might be his younger sister, Kim Yo-Jong, of whom very little is known, or even his wife.
On Sunday, the woman, dressed in a black jacket and skirt, was seen bowing with Kim Jong-Un, as part of a ceremony to mark the 18th anniversary of the death of Kim Il-Sung, the country’s founder.
She is believed to be the same woman shown by North Korea’s KRT broadcaster on Saturday walking into a concert behind Kim Jong-Un and sitting next to him.
A photo of the pair was also published in the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Demi Moore was spotted arriving on the set of Very Good Girls today but she wasn’t so keen on being seen in public.
As Demi Moore, 49, wandered around the New York City location, she tried her best to keep her face covered with what looked like a film script.
Perhaps Demi Moore’s shyness is down to the recent revelation that her three daughters have abandoned her.
Demi Moore was spotted arriving on the set of Very Good Girls today but she wasn't so keen on being seen in public
Rumer, 23, Scout, 20 and Tallulah, 18, are said to be estranged from their mother due to her emotional breakdown in the wake of her split from Ashton Kutcher.
Demi Moore clearly wasn’t in the mood to be photographed today, but perhaps it’s because she had dressed down for her day of work.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have reached an agreement to settle their divorce, their representatives have confirmed.
“The case has been settled and the agreement has been signed,” Katie Holmes’ lawyer Jonathan Wolfe said in a statement to People magazine.
“We are thrilled for Katie and her family,” Jonathan Wolfe added.
A spokeswoman for Tom Cruise confirmed the settlement in an email to Reuters: “It is done.”
In a joint statement released earlier on Monday, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes said they were “working together” to settle custody of their daughter Suri, 6.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have reached an agreement to settle their divorce
“We are committed to working together as parents to accomplish what is in our daughter Suri’s best interests,” the statement read.
“We want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other’s commitment to our respective beliefs and support each other’s roles as parents.”
It was revealed last month that Katie Holmes, 33, was filing for divorce.
At the time, a spokesman for Tom Cruise said: “Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children. Please allow them their privacy.”
It was Katie Holmes’s first marriage and Tom Cruise’s third.
The divorce brings to an end a relationship that began with very public declarations of affection.
Katie Holmes once admitted she had a childhood crush on the Hollywood celebrity, and kept posters of him on her bedroom wall. Tom Cruise famously jumped on a sofa on the Oprah Winfrey Show as he declared his love for the actress.
Tom Cruise proposed to Katie Holmes at the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the couple was married by a Church of Scientology minister.
Tom Cruise, who turned 50 last week, was Hollywood’s highest-paid actor in 2011, and has starred in blockbusters such as Top Gun, Jerry Maguire and the Mission Impossible series.
Katie Holmes rose to fame as a leading actress on television drama Dawson’s Creek. She has also appeared in Batman Begins and Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark.
Mitt Romney’s campaign increased its fundraising lead over Barack Obama in June, official numbers released on Monday show.
Mitt Romney and the Republicans raised $106 million, $35 million more than Barack Obama and the Democrats, who raised $71 million.
Both camps raised more than in May, when the Romney bid took in $77 million and the Obama camp $60 million.
The totals exclude millions raised by independent groups that support each candidate.
Mitt Romney's campaign increased its fundraising lead over Barack Obama in June
The Obama campaign released the June numbers in an email to donors.
“If we lose this election, it will be because we didn’t close the gap enough when we had the chance,” the email says in a call for donations.
Barack Obama’s campaign has been regularly warning supporters that he is in danger of becoming the first sitting president in history to be outspent by his opponent.
Mitt Romney and the Republicans have an estimated $160 million cash in the bank to spend on the campaign, they confirmed on Monday.
Despite its fundraising bonanza, correspondents say the Romney campaign has struggled recently to gain the initiative.
He has faced renewed scrutiny over his financial affairs in recent days, and several polls show the president retains a lead in some key swing states.
However, a poor jobs report on Friday was seen as a reminder to Barack Obama that the US economy remains weak just four months before the 6 November election.
Elvedin Pasic is the first witness who has taken the stand in the war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic.
Elvedin Pasic held back tears as he described surviving a mass killing in 1992 in the Bosnian village of Grabovica.
He told the International Criminal Court at The Hague how Bosnia’s ethnic groups lived in peaceful coexistence until the outbreak of war in the 1990s.
General Ratko Mladic is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ratko Mladic, 70, denies the charges, which date back to the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
He was on the run for 16 years before his arrest and is one of the last key figures wanted for war crimes during the Bosnian War.
General Ratko Mladic is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity
The trial was halted in May because of “irregularities” by the prosecution.
Some of the relatives of victims and survivors of the war have expressed concern that if the trial takes too long, Ratko Mladic, who has suffered from heart problems, will die before a verdict is reached.
Elvedin Pasic, 34, is a Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) from the village of Hvracani in northern Bosnia. He was a teenager during the war.
He told the court: “Before the war we had a great time. We were playing basketball and football, we used to do everything together. Muslim, Croats and Serbs, we were all having a great time, respecting each other.”
Things began to change in the spring of 1992, he said, when as a 14-year-old boy he first noticed a convoy of soldiers in the uniform of the Yugoslav national army giving Muslims the three-fingered Serbian salute.
Elvedin Pasic went on to describe how bombs were falling on his area during the war and his village was overrun.
He was separated from the other men in his family and later survived the execution of around 150 people in the northern Bosnian village of Grabovica.
Later this week, the court is due to hear from the retired British general, Sir Richard Dannatt, who served as deputy commander of NATO’s force in Bosnia.
However, the Mladic defense team has called for his expert evidence to be thrown out.
There will also be an anonymous witness who survived the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. He is expected to tell the court how he saw prisoners being lined up in groups of 10 and executed.
Around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica were killed after the town was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in July of that year – in what was the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II.
A rare caterpillar fungus, dubbed Indian Viagra, is starting to transform local economies in the Himalayas.
Some of those harvesting it are now having to arm themselves to protect what has become a valuable cash crop.
There is a fungus that attacks caterpillars in the Indian Himalayas. People in north India call it kira jari. In neighbouring Tibet it is known as yarsagumba.
Rare caterpillar fungus, dubbed Indian Viagra, is starting to transform local economies in the Himalayas
The fungus mummifies its prey and then grows out of the top of the dead caterpillar’s head. It appears above ground just as the snow melts in May or June.
In China, kira jari is used as an aphrodisiac. Athletes have used it as a performance-enhancing drug. For villagers in the Indian Himalayas it is a source of income.
During the last five years they have begun to collect the caterpillar fungus and sell it to local traders. These middlemen, in turn, sell the fungi to businesspeople in Delhi and it travels on from there to Nepal and China.
When sold in the village, a single fungus fetches 150 Indian rupees ($3) – more than the daily wage of a manual laborer.
Some people are able to collect 40 in a single day. So the search for caterpillar fungus has come to resemble a type of Himalayan gold rush.
Supreme Constitutional Court in Egypt, which dissolved the parliament last month, is due to discuss how to respond to President Mohammed Mursi’s order to reconvene it.
The speaker of the dissolved house has called for it to meet on Tuesday.
Military and judicial authorities have held emergency talks, but have not announced any action so far.
Mohammed Mursi, whose Muslim Brotherhood won most seats, said the chamber should reconvene until a new election is held.
Military police are keeping the area around the parliament building sealed.
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court is due to discuss how to respond to President Mohammed Mursi's order to reconvene parliament dissolution
It is not clear when or how MPs are expected to reconvene.
MPs would first have to get past a line of police and military guards who have been preventing them from entering the parliament building – or they could meet elsewhere.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) – which has assumed legislative power – met in an emergency session shortly after the presidential decree was issued on Sunday.
It is due to hold another meeting.
The military had enforced a court order last month dissolving parliament because party members had contested seats reserved for independents.
The SCAF took over the reins of power last year, after the revolution that ended former President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
The army move was initially welcomed by many of the anti-government protesters, but its presence became increasingly unpopular as critics accused its leaders of wanting to hold on to power.
Mohammed Mursi won the country’s first free presidential election last month, and army chiefs formally handed over power on 30 June.
But before his inauguration, the military had granted itself sweeping powers.
The commanders’ constitutional declaration stripped the president of any authority over the military, gave military chiefs legislative powers, and the power to veto the new constitution, which has yet to be drafted.
In his presidential decree, Mohammed Mursi said new parliamentary elections would be held 60 days after the constitution had been agreed by referendum, the decree said.
The Muslim Brotherhood has consistently opposed the decision to dissolve parliament.
But analysts say it is unclear whether the president has the authority to reinstate the assembly.
If there was a political truce in Egypt, it could soon be over – unless this is part of a more complicated deal, under which parliament would meet briefly then be dissolved by the president.
Italian and Spanish 10-year bond yields have been rising ahead of a summit of eurozone finance ministers on Monday.
The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds, which are taken as a strong indicator of the interest rate the government would have to pay to borrow money, rose above 7%, while Italian bond yields rose to 6.1%.
Yields above 7% are considered to be unsustainable in the long term.
Details of the bailout of Spain’s banks are expected from eurozone ministers.
Their meeting will continue on Tuesday.
The high yields on Spanish and Italian bonds were in contrast to the rates at a short-term German bond auction on Monday.
Italian and Spanish 10-year bond yields have been rising ahead of a summit of eurozone finance ministers on Monday
The yield on six-month German bonds fell to a record low of -0.03%, meaning that investors were paying the German government to lend money to them.
It is the second time that German bond yields have been negative. The auction was oversubscribed, despite the negative yield.
Investors have been flocking to German debt as a safe haven from the problems elsewhere in the eurozone.
Eurozone officials have been reported as warning that not too many quick decisions should be expected from the finance ministers’ meeting, which is supposed to add detail to the agreements from the eurozone leaders’ summit on 29 June.
The communiqué from that summit said it expected the finance ministers “to implement these decisions by 9 July”, although many analysts say that now looks optimistic.
Leaders have already agreed to lend Spain’s banks up to 100 billion Euros ($123 billion) and independent audits have said that they will need up to 62 billion Euros.
The finance ministers are likely to confirm the size of the bailout and which conditions will be applied to the loans, both for the banks and the government.
Among the key agreements from the 29 June summit were moves towards banking union with the European Central Bank (ECB) acting as a supervisor and allowing European bailout funds to buy bonds to try to reduce countries’ borrowing costs.
But since the summit, there have been signs that Finland and the Netherlands would oppose the use of bailout funds in this way.
There is expected to be discussion of the new Greek government’s policies. At the end of a three-day debate, the Greek government, as expected, won a vote of confidence on Sunday.
Another area of discussion for the eurozone finance ministers will be choosing a new leader.
Jean-Claude Juncker has been co-ordinating the Eurogroup of finance ministers since 2005. His term of office ends on 17 July, but it may be extended.
Also on Monday, ECB president Mario Draghi will be appearing before the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs to give his views on the state of the currency bloc’s economy.
More than 300,000 people worldwide could lose internet access later today as the FBI shuts off servers used by cyber thieves.
The FBI seized the servers in November 2011 during raids to break up a gang of criminals who used viruses to infect more than four million victims.
Victims’ web searches were routed through the servers so they saw adverts that led to the gang being paid.
Many machines still harbor the gang’s malicious code.
The gang racked up more than $14 million by hijacking web searches and forcing victims to see certain adverts. They managed to do this because their servers were taking over a key web function known as domain name look-up.
Domain names are the words humans use for websites. These are converted into the numerical values that computers use by consulting domain name servers (DNS).
When a person types a name into a browser address bar, often their computer will consult a DNS server to find out where that website resides online.
More than 300,000 people worldwide could lose internet access later today as the FBI shuts off servers used by cyber thieves
The gang infected computers with malware called DNS Changer because it altered where a PC went to convert domain names to numbers.
Since the FBI raids the gang’s servers have been run by Californian company ISC.
Over the last few months, the FBI has worked with many ISPs and security firms to alert victims to the fact that their PC was infected with DNS Changer. Online tools are available that let people check if they are infected.
This has meant the original population of four million infected machines has been whittled down to just over 300,000, according to statistics gathered by the DNS Changer Working Group.
The largest group of machines still harboring the infection are in the US but many other nations, including Italy, India, the UK and Germany, have substantial numbers still checking in with the ISC servers.
These servers will be shut down on 9 July.
The result could be that some people lose net access because the PCs that are still victims of DNS Changer will suddenly have nowhere to go when they need to look up the location of a particular domain.
It might take some time for the problems to become apparent, said Sean Sullivan, a security researcher at F-Secure.
“Initially some domains will be cached which will mean web access will be spotty,” he said.
“People will be confused about why some things work and some do not.”
Other security experts said it might take time for the remaining infected machines to be cleaned up.
“Reaching victims is a very hard problem, and something we have had issues with for years,” said Johannes Ullrich, a researcher with the Sans security institute.
He expected the impact to be “minimal” because many of these systems were no longer used or maintained.
Los Angeles will be host to the Sparkle Singing Challenge, sponsored by Sony Pictures and Myspace, happening Saturday, July 14th, beginning at 12:00 p.m.
The Los Angeles winner will receive $500 in cash and a chance to compete for the national Grand Prize. The Grand Prize winner will win a trip to New York, an appearance on BET’s 106 & Park, a recording session with the Punch Monkeys producer & writing team, and a Myspace homepage feature!
The challenge is also taking place nationwide the same day in the following markets: New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Charlotte, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, and Philadelphia.
Sparkle movie, starring Whitney Houston, opens August 17th in theaters everywhere
The St. Louis singing contest will take place at the NASCAR Speedpark
At St. Louis Mills Mall
REGISTRATION: 12:00PM
CONTEST: 2:00PM
To pre-register and reserve audition spots ahead of time, email [email protected]
St. Louis Prize: The winner will receive $500 in cash, a $25 BEBE gift card and a chance to compete for the Grand Prize.
Amateur singers between the ages of 13 and 40 will be asked to sing a 60 second a capella version of one of two songs: Celebrate, or Something He Can Feel. Clips from the songs, official rules, along with more information about the contest, can be found at www.myspace.com/sparkle.
In the LA Area: To pre-register and reserve audition spots ahead of time, email [email protected] or call (323) 330-8867.
Sparkle, starring Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick and CeeLo Green, opens August 17th in theaters everywhere.
For more information on Sparkle, visit sparkle-movie.com
LIKE on Facebook for exclusive content: http://www.facebook.com/Sparkle
Follow on Twitter: @sparklemovie #CelebrateSparkle
Newly released pictures show Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes out in public for the last time together.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were spotted having dinner at a sushi restaurant in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Tom Cruise, 50, was in Iceland filming his movie Oblivion, and received a visit from Katie Holmes shortly before she packed up and left him.
Images show the pair sat in a quiet corner of quaint restaurant Sushi Samba, facing each other as they peruse the menu.
Both of the actors were dressed casually for the meal, with Katie Holmes sporting white leggings and black polo neck while Tom Cruise wore a black jacket and matching trousers.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were spotted having dinner at a sushi restaurant in Reykjavik, Iceland
Tom Cruise was still in Iceland when news broke of the couple’s split and he spent his 50th birthday alone while Katie Holmes took their six-year-old daughter Suri for ice cream.
The pair has attempted to continue life as normal without Tom Cruise around and Katie Holmes has been taking Suri to do an array of activities.
Yesterday the mother and daughter duo were spotted stocking up on groceries at Whole Foods in New York.
