A new earthquake of 5.8-magnitude has struck the Emilia region in northern Italy, killing at least 10 people and burying several others under rubble, local media say.
All the deaths were in the Modena area.
Three were killed when an industrial shed collapsed in Medolla. Three also died in San Felice, two in Mirandola and one in Cavezzo.
Today’s tremor hit the same region where a quake 10 days ago killed seven people and destroyed many buildings.
Milan and Bologna were shaken too.
Some people fled from buildings when they felt the tremor, which struck at 09:03 local time.
A new earthquake of 5.8-magnitude has struck the Emilia region in northern Italy, killing at least 10 people and burying several others under rubble
There have been several aftershocks since, including a large one at about midday which sent people back out into the streets.
Italian media report that some buildings damaged by the larger May 20 quake have now collapsed in Mirandola, Finale Emilia, San Felice and Cavezzo. That quake measured 6.0.
Many historic buildings now lie in ruins in Cavezzo, where the roof of a church damaged by the earlier quake collapsed on Tuesday, Il Messaggero news website reports.
Calls to emergency services have overloaded the telephone network in some areas, causing a system blackout. Train services have been halted in some parts of northern Italy.
Office workers were evacuated in Bologna and there are reports of evacuations elsewhere too.
The quake struck 40 km north of Bologna and 60 km east of Parma, at a depth of 9.6 km (6 miles), Reuters reports. It was felt as far away as Venice, the Austrian border and Piedmont.
Last Sunday’s quake destroyed many centuries-old buildings of cultural value. It was the worst to hit Italy since the L’Aquila tremor that killed nearly 300 people in 2009.
About 7,000 people who fled that quake are still living in dozens of tented camps erected in public spaces, AFP news agency reports. There have been many tremors in the region since that quake.
Dominic West and Emily Watson were among the big winners at the TV BAFTA Awards, winning for their powerful performances in Fred West drama Appropriate Adult.
Coronation Street has won the best soap and continuing drama award, beating last year’s winner EastEnders.
Andrew Scott won the best supporting actor for Sherlock, in which he plays Sherlock’s arch nemesis Moriarty.
In winning the award he beat co-star Martin Freeman, who won it last year.
Speaking before the ceremony, Benedict Cumberbatch – who plays Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series – said he was “keeping his fingers crossed for both Andrew and Martin”, but added: “I hope Andrew gets to share the glory that Martin had last year.”
Benedict Cumberbatch missed out in the best actor category to Dominic West, who played serial killer Fred West in the ITV drama.
Emily Watson, who collected best actress, played the volunteer companion to Fred West Janet Leach.
She said: “It was such a disturbing place to go. In my speech I was very overwhelmed I forgot to thank Janet Leach, she gave very generously to us.
“The public perception of the West case is a tabloid-driven view and then I read the script and it was a very intelligent piece full of integrity.
“It’s a deep abyss right in the middle of our society.”
Dominic West and Emily Watson were among the big winners at the TV BAFTA Awards, winning for their powerful performances in Fred West drama Appropriate Adult
Collecting his award, Dominic West said: “I hope she has had some closure and we have honored the suffering she endured and the suffering of all the West’s victims, living and dead.”
Appropriate Adult also saw Monica Dolan win best supporting actress for her portrayal of Rosemary West.
But it lost out in the best mini-series category to This is England ’88, written by Shane Meadows.
During the event both artist and presenter Rolf Harris and Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat received special awards.
Rolf Harris was presented with a BAFTA fellowship recognizing his “outstanding and exceptional contribution to television”.
He said: “It’s unbelievable for a start, it’s very humbling and thrilling. I can’t tell you how exciting it was when they asked if I would accept the award.”
Receiving his award, Steven Moffat said he owed a great deal to “the two best things the British have ever given to the world: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who”.
Speaking backstage Steven Moffat, who is head writer on Doctor Who and co-creator of Sherlock, also said he was delighted Andrew Scott had won the best supporting actor award.
“In the first series he was only Moriarty in the last scene, and he became a star from the last scene. It takes an extraordinary powerful actor to do that.”
The Great British Bake Off, which pits amateur cooks against each other, won the best feature category.
Presenter Mel Giedroyc said backstage: “We never realized there could be such drama in a quiche. It’s a gentle show – it’s not about trauma and backstories.”
New category reality and constructed factual was won by The Young Apprentice.
The best entertainment show went to Graham Norton for The Graham Norton Show. He was unable to collect the award himself as he was travelling back from Azerbaijan after presenting the Eurovision Song Contest.
The comedy performance awards went to Jennifer Saunders for Absolutely Fabulous, and Darren Boyd for Spy.
The International category was won by Danish political drama Borgen, shown on BBC Four, which beat Danish police drama The Killing, US comedy Modern Family and Australian drama The Slap.
And viewers voted for the audience award category which was won by Celebrity Juice.
NASA scientists have discovered a new technique to detect osteoporosis bone loss at the earliest disease stages.
Currently, the condition can go undetected for years and may only be diagnosed with scans after weakening of the bones has led to a fracture.
The new test – designed partly with astronauts in mind as they too can suffer bone loss due to the microgravity of space – looks for traces of bone calcium in the urine.
The work is published in PNAS journal.
The technique developed by scientists at Arizona State University working with the US space agency analyses calcium isotopes – different atoms of the element calcium, derived from bone and each with their own specific number of neutrons.
NASA scientists have discovered a new technique to detect osteoporosis bone loss at the earliest disease stages
The balance or abundance of these different isotopes changes when bone is destroyed and formed and can therefore indicate early changes in bone density.
To put it to the test, the researchers studied a dozen healthy volunteers whom they confined to bed rest for 30 days. Prolonged bed rest triggers bone loss.
The technique was able to detect bone loss after as little as one week of bed rest – long before changes in bone density would be detectable on conventional medical scans such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).
And, unlike other biochemical tests for bone loss that look for blood markers of increased bone turnover, it can give a direct measure of net bone loss.
Lead researcher Prof. Ariel Anbar said: “The next step is to see if it works as expected in patients with bone-altering diseases. That would open the door to clinical applications.”
As well as being useful for diagnosing osteoporosis it could help with monitoring other diseases that affect the bones, including cancer.
NASA nutritionist Scott Smith said: “NASA conducted these studies because astronauts in microgravity experience skeletal unloading and suffer bone loss. It’s one of the major problems in human spaceflight, and we need to find better ways to monitor and counteract it.”
Spain’s retail sales dived in April, showing the biggest fall since the figures started being collected in 2003.
Sales fell 9.8% last month compared with the same month last year, after adjusting for calendar differences, according to official figures from the National Statistics Institute.
The fall was much worse than had been expected, and marked the 22nd consecutive month of declining sales.
Sales had fallen by 3.8% in March.
Spain’s retail sales dived in April, showing the biggest fall since the figures started being collected in 2003
Without adjusting for calendar effects, retail sales fell 11.3% in April having dropped 4% in March.
It is the latest bad news from the Spanish economy, which saw the level of risk attached to its government bonds hitting record levels on Monday after it emerged on Friday that banking group Bankia was going to need a bigger bail-out than had been expected.
Spanish shoppers are being discouraged by government austerity measures, rising taxes and Europe’s highest rate of unemployment.
Employment in the retail sector was down 1.2% in April from the same month in 2011.
The unemployment rate is over 24%, while the economy is back in recession having contracted in the last three months of 2011 and the first three months of 2012.
On Tuesday, a report from the Bank of Spain predicted that the recession would continue in the second quarter of 2012.
“Available indicators for the second quarter are still scarce but they do anticipate that activity will continue contracting in this period,” the report said.
Yesterday two pictures emerged of Mariah Carey’s 13-month-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan, as they hitched a ride on a red wagon, as well as their beaming mother.
Monroe and Moroccan looked absolutely adorable wearing matching white jumpers as they clung to either side of Mariah Carey’s slimmed-down figure in an image released by her fan site Team Mariah.
Mariah Carey, 42, carried her fraternal twins in a dark dress, black patent leather peep-toe heels, and bug-eyed sunglasses only a mega star could pull off.
Mariah Carey's 13-month-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan, as they hitched a ride on a red wagon
Her husband of four years, actor Nick Cannon, 31, shared the second image of little ‘Roc and ‘Roe riding in a red wagon near potted flowers on an outdoor patio.
“Ridin around and they gettin it!” Nick Cannon tweeted to his 3.4 million followers yesterday.
Riding “shotgun”, Monroe smiled in her hot pink tracksuit with brother Moroccan sat behind her in a striped hoodie and blue jeans.
Mariah Carey’s toddlers, also known as “Dem Babies” on their official website, are regularly seen wearing high-end Petit Trésor designer clothes.
The singer, whose net worth was estimated at more than $500 million last year, spares no expense when it comes to spoiling her ultra-cute babies.
At their lavish black-tie birthday party last month, the tots were gifted a toy Ferrari, rocking horse, and miniature white piano while celebrating at the Plaza Athenee in Paris.
Mariah Carey also reportedly spent millions of dollars creating a luxurious nursury for her little ones, including Chelsea Sleigh cribs, Clara changing table, 24-carat gold and onyx sofa, diamond-encrusted iPods, and a flatscreen TV that comes down from the ceiling.
Kris Jenner and her daughter Kourtney Kardashian fought it out on latest episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, when Kourtney struggled to forgive her mother for cheating on her late father Robert.
Kourtney Kardashian, 32, even made a scathing remark at a lunch, when they discussed Kris Jenner’s recent meeting with a contestant from The Voice at an event.
She provoked a negative reaction when she asked Kris Jenner: “Did you bone him in the bathroom?”
Kourtney Kardashian added: “It’s not like that’s stopped you before,” in reference to Kris Jenner’s confession in her new book, in which she revealed that she had cheated on Kourtney’s father.
“Sometimes you can be really rude,” Kris Jenner pointed out as she tried to shift the subject and ignore her daughter’s resentment toward her.
Although she set aside the matter, Kourtney Kardashian brought the topic up again at another lunch with sister Kim, and when her younger sibling suggested confronting their mother about her resentment, she refused to make it that easy for the matriarch, saying: “I would rather die.”
Kim Kardashian confided in Khloe – who was at the time residing in Texas with husband Lamar Odom – about the ongoing spat via a video call.
As the matter was obviously effecting the whole clan, Khloe Kardashian agreed that Kourtney should learn to forgive.
But that just wasn’t the case, especially when Kourtney Kardashian hosted her first official family dinner since moving into her new house with boyfriend and father of her two-year-old son, Scott Disick.
Kris Jenner’s flirting with the chef in front of her husband Bruce Jenner less than impressed the party’s host.
Kourtney Kardashian said: “You’re so inappropriate and embarrassing. You have no shame in your game.”
“You’re so f***ing uptight,” Kris Jenner responded, before asking her to step outside.
After some serious words, the conversation didn’t seem to be helping ease any tensions.
“I don’t understand how you can do that to your family,” Kourtney Kardashian admitted as they stood away from the rest of the guests in the garden.
“Are you going to punish me for the rest of my life because of something I did 25 years ago?” Kris Jenner responded.
But Kourtney had heard the last she wanted on the matter and bluntly told her: “I don’t want to keep talking about this. I just don’t relate to this and I don’t understand it.”
Kris Jenner and her daughter Kourtney Kardashian fought it out on latest episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, when Kourtney struggled to forgive her mother for cheating on her late father Robert
Later Bruce Jenner found his wife hiding out in the backyard cabana and convinced her to spill the beans about what was bothering her.
Tears began to roll as she told him that it “honestly broke her heart” that her children were still hurt that she made a bad decision.
It was the first time Kris Jenner appeared to crack, but she admitted that if she didn’t have the courage to go astray with the affair, her youngest children Kylie and Kendall, and her husband would not be with her today.
The fact that Kris Jenner wasn’t as tough as she appeared hadn’t escaped Kourtney though and she began to soften up in an iChat conversation with Khloe.
She admitted that lately she had been meaner to Kris but that she couldn’t help it.
So she planned to go to therapy to deal with her issues thanks to advice from Khloe.
Her therapist Erica concluded that because Koutney was pregnant with a girl, she was especially emotional as the bond between mother and daughter is the strongest and she was subconsciously worried about disappointing her own little girl.
Kourtney Kardashian herself then broke down as she went over the details in her mother’s memoir and said: “I could never do that to my family.”
She admitted that she didn’t care about the fact that the world knows their family secrets, but she couldn’t see where Kris Jenner was coming from.
However, it emerged that because she had trust issues with her own partner Scott Disick, it made it more real for her as her mother chose to go down the unfaithful route at a time that was so crucial for her.
She finally opened up to Scott Disick about her family problems following the consultation.
Meanwhile, Kris Jenner’s plan to win Kourtney over wasn’t working as she decided to buy an early baby shower gift.
Kourtney Kardashian saw through her stunt and refused to open the adorable gift for her little girl at first.
Instead she said that she had gone to therapy after getting worried about the number of rude comments she had been making towards the woman that brought her into the world.
Her mother was shocked but thought it was fabulous that she told her.
“I’m going to communicate more about what I’m annoyed about instead of getting mad at you. Thank you for my present. I love it. I love you,” Kourtney Kardashian said before they enjoyed an embrace.
Elsewhere in the episode, Kim Kardashian and her younger siblings Kendall and Kylie Jenner spent some girly time together applying fake eyelashes.
Ever the joker, Kim Kardashian tricked them into thinking they had glued her eyes shut.
Also, the girls were thrilled to have landed jobs as West Coast fashion contributors to Seventeen magazine.
But they had problems with the fact that part of their job would be to approach strangers, in the street.
The girls headed out to a shopping mall and approached some women, but while younger Kylie was more confident about the task, Kendall quickly ran away biting her nails.
“It’s so annoying to work with you. Stand up and be professional,” the 14-year-old demanded from Kendall, 16.
The model retorted: “Just because I’m shy doesn’t mean I’m not professional. That had nothing to do with it, you don’t say that.”
When Kylie confided in Kim that she had to do that whole job alone, Kim agreed that it was annoying, but helped her see Kendall’s side because she also was shy when competing with outspoken Kourtney and Khloe as youngsters.
Kim Kardashian tagged along for their next outing to help Kendall come out of her shell.
Their older sister stood to the side as they approached young girls in a parking lot.
Kim and Kylie both gave Kendall words of support, and by the end of the day she admitted it wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be.
Spending even more time together, Kim, Kendall and Kylie went on a hike with Bruce Jenner and the girls freaked out over a spider, which he picked up and tried to scare them with.
They jumped in the car and left him with their dogs because they were not impressed with the funnyman.
They made the Olympic medal winner run home, which started a war between the group.
At dinner the fun and games continued as he threw an insect contained in a cup at her prompting Kim Kardashian to remove her clothes and leave the house almost in tears.
The next day they planned to scare Bruce Jenner and so with the help of half-brother Brandon, they devised a plan to steal the Ferrari, which Kim had a spare key to.
Brandon headed to the Go-Kart track with his dad and Kim and Scott secretly followed in a separate vehicle.
They watched in delight as he squirmed thinking the expensive car had been stolen before appearing in front of the worried father and revealed he was the subject of a joke for once.
A new earthquake has shaken northern Italy, centred on the Emilia region, where a quake on May 20 killed seven people and damaged many buildings.
Tuesday’s tremor was estimated at 5.8 and was felt in Milan and Bologna, where office workers were evacuated.
The quake struck 40 km north of Bologna and 60 km east of Parma, at a depth of 9.6 km (six miles), Reuters reports.
The tremor happened at 09:03 local time. There are no reports of major damage or injuries.
A new earthquake has shaken northern Italy, centred on the Emilia region, where a quake on May 20 killed seven people and damaged many buildings
But some buildings collapsed in areas hit by the larger May 20 quake, which was magnitude 6.0, the Associated Press said.
That quake destroyed many centuries-old buildings of cultural value. It was the worst to hit Italy since the L’Aquila tremor that killed nearly 300 people in 2009.
A record radioactive contamination from last year’s Fukushima nuclear accident has been detected in Pacific Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California.
Bluefin tuna would have picked up the pollution while swimming in Japanese waters, before then moving to the far side of the ocean.
Scientists stress that the fish are still perfectly safe to eat.
However, the case does illustrate how migratory species can carry pollution over vast distances, they say.
“It’s a lesson to us in how interconnected eco-regions can be, even when they may be separated by thousands of miles,” said Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at Stony Brook University, New York.
Fisher and colleagues report their study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A record radioactive contamination from last year's Fukushima nuclear accident has been detected in Pacific Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California
They examined the muscle tissues of 15 Bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) taken from waters off San Diego in August 2011, just a few months after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
These were animals whose parents would have spawned in Japanese waters and spent one to two years locally before heading to feeding grounds in the eastern Pacific.
All the fish examined in the study showed elevated levels of radioactive caesium – the isotopes 134 and 137.
Caesium-137 is present in seawater anyway as a result of the fallout from atomic weapons testing, but the short, two-year half-life of caesium-134 means the contamination can be tied directly to Fukushima. There is no other explanation for the isotope’s presence.
The measured concentrations were about 10 times the total caesium radioactivity seen in tuna specimens taken from before the accident.
As a control, the team also examined Yellowfin tuna, which are largely residential in the eastern Pacific.
These animals showed no difference in their pre- or post-Fukushima concentrations.
The research is likely to get attention because Bluefin tuna is an iconic species and a highly valuable fishery – thousands of tons are landed annually.
But consumers should have no health concerns about eating California-caught tuna from last year, the team says.
The levels of radioactivity are well within permitted limits, and below those from other radioisotopes that occur naturally in the environment, such as potassium-40.
“The potassium was about 30 times higher than the combined radio-caesium levels. If you calculate how much additional radioactivity there is in the Pacific Bluefin tuna caught in California relative to the natural background – it’s about 3%,” said Prof. Nicholas Fisher.
The scientists even calculated how much radioactivity might have been present in the fish before they swam across the Pacific (it would have fallen over time) and figured it could have been 50% above background levels; but, again, this would still have met the legal requirements for safe consumption.
Tuna caught in the coming months will be subjected to new tests. These animals would have spent much longer in Japanese waters and so conceivably could have a very different pollution load.
The team also believes the investigation should be extended to other migratory species that frequent Japanese waters.
Fukushima pollution is potentially a very useful tool to trace the origin and timing of animal movements. The ratio of caesium 134 to 137 could be used like a clock to work out when and how long a particular migration took.
“This information might be useful in conservation efforts or in managing fisheries,” said Prof. Nicholas Fisher.
MSNBC broadcaster Chris Hayes has caused outrage on Memorial Day by saying he feels “uncomfortable” branding soldiers who have died in battle “heroes”.
Chris Hayes, a liberal commentator who hosts Up with Chris Hayes, said the word “heroes” is used to justify further war.
His stuttered comments have sparked outrage among veterans organizations and across the internet.
Chris Hayes said: “I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words <<heroes>>.
“I feel… uncomfortable, about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.”
He went on: “I don’t want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that’s fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that.
“But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic.”
He then added: “But maybe I’m wrong about that.”
Chris Hayes has caused outrage on Memorial Day by saying he feels “uncomfortable” branding soldiers who have died in battle “heroes
A spokesman for a veterans organization, Veterans of Foreign Wars, suggested Chris Hayes put himself through the anguish of war before criticizing soldiers.
“If Mr. Hayes feels uncomfortable, I suggest he enlist, go to war, then come home to what he expects is a grateful nation but encounters the opposite,” Joe Davis told The Daily Caller.
“It’s far too easy to cast stones from inexperience.”
Bloggers and users of social networking sites also condemned the comments, with “Chris Hayes” trending on Twitter after the broadcast.
Newsbusters blogger Mark Finkelstein said Chris Hayes’s stuttered speech “almost seems a parody of the conflicted intellectual”.
“What does it say about the liberal chattering class, which Hayes epitomizes, that it chokes on calling America’s fallen what they rightly and surely are: heroes?”
Conservative commentator Warner Todd Huston wrote on blog Wizbang: “I’d like to remind you that many of those Neanderthals that you despise so much died for your right to hate them.”
“Fire Chris Hayes!” one Twitter user wrote on the site.
“His outright DISDAIN for our valiant men and women is disgusting!”
Chris Hayes, who has never served in the armed forces, has hosted his weekend show on MSNBC since last September.
He has appeared as a guest host and commentator on shows including The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell and The Rachel Maddow Show.
Chris Hayes also remains Editor-at-Large of the left-leaning The Nation.
Lucy Challenger from London travelled all the way to New York to finish a tattoo that has taken two years to complete.
The tattoo tourist flew to the New York City Tattoo Convention so a famed artist could put the finishing touches on a huge phoenix design on her left buttock, at a cost of $1,000.
Lucy Challenger’s love of inkwork should come as no surprise, as growing numbers of women are getting tattooed – and now more females than males sport body art in the U.S.
“I’ve had about 35 hours of work so far, and I’ve got another eight hours to go,” the actress told AFP.
“So I’m it bringing home for the women that, you know, we can sit there and just take it.”
Lucy Challenger flew to the New York City Tattoo Convention so a famed artist could put the finishing touches on a huge phoenix design on her left buttock, at a cost of $1,000
The complex creation has cost Lucy Challenger thousands of dollars and two trips to Los Angeles and sessions in New York and London.
“It is a big investment. Not everyone can spend that amount of money, but it is once in a lifetime,” she added.
Lucy Challenger, 28, lay in a t-shirt and not much else while the artist, who had flown in from Los Angeles, perfected the design that stretched from the top of her thigh to her lower back.
She had an iPad to distract her while the tattooist worked on the phoenix for eight hours.
Lucy Challenger was just one of the many women who attended the convention last weekend, which attracted tattoo fans from across the globe.
Many travelled to be inked by some of the most famous artists in the world and pay thousands of dollars to go under the tattoo needle.
That is what drew Lucy Challenger to the show.
“Her work is unbelievable,” she said of her tattooist.
“And I was really attracted to the fact that she’s obviously a woman and I really wanted a feminine touch in my tattoo,” Lucy Challenger told AFP.
Many tattoo artists reported an upturn in the number of women looking for body art – and one parlor owner said he would be happy to turn his establishment into a female-only business.
“I like to do feminine and positive tattoo things,” said Billy Tarr of Totem Tattoo, who added that women usually picked inkings which are “not as violent” as men’s.
A recent survey even suggested that more women in the U.S. have tattoos than do men, with 23% going under the needle compared to 19% of males.
Cynthia Nixon has married her long-term partner Christine Marinoni.
Sex and the City actress wore a custom dress by Carolina Herrera for the ceremony, which was held in New York yesterday.
Cynthia Nixon’s publicist confirmed to People: “Cynthia Nixon and her girlfriend, Christine Marinoni, were legally married in the state of New York.”
No further details about the ceremony are currently available.
Cynthia Nixon, 46, have a son Max Ellington Nixon-Marinoni, 15 months, whom Christine Marinoni, 45, gave birth to last year.
They have not revealed the details of the child’s biological father.
The actress also has a daughter Samantha, 16, and 10-year-old son Charles with photographer Danny Mozes.
Cynthia Nixon has married her long-term partner Christine Marinoni
Cynthia Nixon ended her 15-year relationship with Danny Mozes in 2003.
She met Christine Marinoni at an education rally in 2002 and they became a couple two years later.
The actress and education activist got engaged in 2009 at a rally to support gay marriage in New York, which was not legal at that time.
Cynthia Nixon and Christine Marinoni decided to wait to marry until it was legal to do so in New York state, which occurred last summer.
Speaking in 2010, Cynthia Nixon said: “I’m enjoying being engaged very much.
“I don’t mind a long engagement, which this one is surely turning out to be.”
When asked about her sexuality, Cynthia Nixon once explained: “In terms of sexual orientation, I don’t feel I’ve changed.
“I’d been with men all my life and I’d never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn’t seem strange. I’m just a woman in love with another woman.”
In 2008, Cynthia Nixon revealed she had beaten breast cancer which was diagnosed during a routine mammogram two years earlier.
She went on to play a cancer patient on stage too, shaving her head for her role in Wit.
Cynthia Nixon will compete for a Tony Award next month after earning a nomination for best actress for the part.
Women enjoy the best sex of their lives at 28 while their male counterparts lag five years behind, a new survey suggests.
According to the poll, men have to wait until they are 33 before they reach their sexual peak.
The findings come in complete opposition to previous research stating that men peak at 18 and women at 30.
Both sexes, though, appeared to have the most sex earlier in their lives – women at 25 and men at 29.
The poll, of 1,281 people, also found that, on average, men lost their virginity at 18 and women a year younger at 17.
Women enjoy the best sex of their lives at 28 while their male counterparts lag five years behind, a new survey suggests
“Like most things, sex gets better the more you do it and the more practiced you are at it,” says sex and relationship expert Tracey Cox.
“So it makes sense for men to be having better sex at 33 rather than 18. It takes time to learn how to control their orgasms and to fathom the complex female sexual system.
“This reinforces what we’ve always known: it’s not about quantity, it is about quality,” she continues.
“We tend to have the most sex at the start of relationships when desire is fresh, and the best sex once we’re more in tune with our bodies and our partner.
“Despite the female sexual system being far more complex than a man’s, women are discovering what works and doesn’t faster than men.”
The survey was conducted by online sex toy retailer, lovehoney.co.uk
New reports have suggested that Facebook is to launch its own smartphone by next year.
The New York Times cited unnamed sources, including Facebook employees, suggesting that the network had been hiring several smartphone engineers.
Facebook recently admitted it was struggling to make money out of its growing mobile audience.
The company, which recently floated on the stock market, has also just launched its own mobile app store.
New reports have suggested that Facebook is to launch its own smartphone by next year
The App Center currently offers links to Facebook-enabled apps within Apple’s iOS and Google Android stores but developers will soon be able to write apps to be placed exclusively in Facebook’s store.
According to the New York Times, Facebook has hired experts who worked on the iPhone and other smartphones.
It quoted a Facebook employee as saying the site’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was “worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future… Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms”.
A Facebook smartphone has reportedly been in the works for some time.
In 2010, Techcrunch reported that Facebook was “secretly” building a smartphone – although this particular project is said to have broken down.
The company’s desire to enter the smartphone market could be a result of increasing pressure to improve the potential of mobile to make money.
In a statement for potential investors ahead of its initial public offering earlier this month, the company admitted it had concerns about more users accessing Facebook through their mobile – a trend which could make it more difficult to sell advertising.
A spokeswoman for Facebook said the company did not comment on speculation, and referred instead to a written statement.
“Our mobile strategy is simple: we think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social,” the statement read.
“We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.”
Russian researchers have discovered a complex targeted cyber-attack that collected private data from countries such as Israel and Iran.
Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs said they believed the malware, known as Flame, had been operating since August 2010.
The company said it believed the attack was state-sponsored, but could not be sure of its exact origins.
They described Flame as “one of the most complex threats ever discovered”.
Research into the attack was carried out in conjunction with the UN’s International Telecommunication Union.
Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs said they believed the malware, known as Flame, had been operating since August 2010
In the past, targeted malware – such as Stuxnet – has targeted nuclear infrastructure in Iran.
Others like Duqu have sought to infiltrate networks in order to steal data.
This new threat appears not to cause physical damage, but to collect huge amounts of sensitive information, said Kaspersky’s chief malware expert Vitaly Kamluk.
“Once a system is infected, Flame begins a complex set of operations, including sniffing the network traffic, taking screenshots, recording audio conversations, intercepting the keyboard, and so on,” he said.
More than 600 specific targets were hit, Vitaly Kamluk said, ranging from individuals, businesses, academic institutions and government systems.
Iran’s National Computer Emergency Response Team posted a security alert stating that it believed Flame was responsible for “recent incidents of mass data loss” in the country.
Vitaly Kamluk said the size and sophistication of Flame suggested it was not the work of independent cybercriminals, and more likely to be government-backed.
He explained: “Currently there are three known classes of players who develop malware and spyware: hacktivists, cybercriminals and nation states.
“Flame is not designed to steal money from bank accounts. It is also different from rather simple hack tools and malware used by the hacktivists. So by excluding cybercriminals and hacktivists, we come to conclusion that it most likely belongs to the third group.”
Among the countries affected by the attack are Iran, Israel, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
“The geography of the targets and also the complexity of the threat leaves no doubt about it being a nation-state that sponsored the research that went into it,” Vitaly Kamluk said.
The malware is capable of recording audio via a microphone, before compressing it and sending it back to the attacker.
It is also able to take screenshots of on-screen activity, automatically detecting when “interesting” programs – such as email or instant messaging – were open.
Kaspersky’s first recorded instance of Flame is in August 2010, although it said it is highly likely to have been operating earlier.
Prof. Alan Woodward, from the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey said the attack is very significant.
“This is basically an industrial vacuum cleaner for sensitive information,” he said.
He explained that unlike Stuxnet, which was designed with one specific task in mind, Flame was much more sophisticated.
“Whereas Stuxnet just had one purpose in life, Flame is a toolkit, so they can go after just about everything they can get their hands on.”
Once the initial Flame malware has infected a machine, additional modules can be added to perform specific tasks – almost in the same manner as adding apps to a smartphone.
Two masked men have paid a visit to a house in south-eastern Australia, hours after a teenage girl posted a photo on Facebook of a large sum of cash.
The robbers, armed with a knife and a club, struck the home of the 17-year-old girl’s mother in the country town of Bundanoon on Thursday, police say.
Her mother told the men her daughter no longer lived there.
Two masked men have paid a visit to a house in south-eastern Australia, hours after a teenage girl posted a photo on Facebook of a large sum of cash
It is not clear how the robbers found the family address. The Facebook image was at the grandmother’s Sydney house.
The men searched the house and took a small amount of cash and a small number of personal objects before leaving.
No-one was injured.
The girl had earlier posted a picture on her Facebook page of a “large sum of cash” she had helped count at her 72-year-old grandmother’s home in Sydney, 120 km (75 miles) north-east of Bundanoon.
Following the incident, police have issued a warning over the dangers of posting sensitive information online.
SceneTap smartphone app is receiving complaints from female bar customers after they realized the program has the potential to stalk them and send creepy guys to the locations where the most women are in abundance.
Receiving favorable early reviews the SceneTap app works by using facial-detection software and cameras placed strategically around bars and nightclubs. The app then tells users the age and gender makeup of each establishment.
The biggest complaint so far is that not all users are aware they are being video recorded, something one privacy advocated called just plain “creepy” and an “invasion of privacy.”
The SceneTap application is installed in bars from San Francisco, California; Austin, Texas; Athens, Georgia; Bloomington, Indianapolis; Chicago; Gainesville, Florida, and Madison, Wisconsin.
SceneTap smartphone app is receiving complaints from female bar customers after they realized the program has the potential to stalk them and send creepy guys to the locations where the most women are in abundance
After using facial-detection to estimate information about bar and nightclub customers the app created a rundown of ages and sexes which is provided to users in real-time.
On the one hand the app can send customers to meet up with other bar and nightclub attendees that match their age and sex preference, on the other hand some women worry that creeps will hunt them down like prey.
According to SceneTap CEO Cole Harper in an interview with The Week the app is simply meant to help people find the crowd they are looking for, avoiding the type of prospects that might leave them feeling they are in the wrong “scene” for their lifestyle.
In San Francisco so many complaints have been filed that several bars which had agreed to the program chose to back out.
Another app, “Girls Around Me”, suffered a close down after similar complaints were given by various mobile app using females.
According to Cole Harper, the SceneTap app won’t collect any user information. He tells The Week: “It’s not recorded, it’s not streamed, it’s not individualized. You actually give up more information when you hand a bouncer your ID at the door.”
An international research team has succeeded in taking an amazing image of a newly synthesized molecule called olympicene.
The molecule – just over a billionth of a metre across – gets its name because its five linked rings resemble the Olympic symbol.
It was first made by collaborators at the University of Warwick in the UK.
They teamed up with IBM researchers, who in 2009 pioneered the technique of single-molecule imaging with its non-contact atomic force microscopy.
The team, based at IBM Research Zurich, announced its first success with a molecule called pentacene, five linked hexagonal rings of carbon all in a line.
Olympicene molecule, just over a billionth of a metre across, gets its name because its five linked rings resemble the Olympic symbol
It was Professor Graham Richards CBE, former head of Oxford University’s chemistry department and member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) council, who first conceived of the idea to create a more Olympic-themed molecule along the same lines.
“I was in a committee meeting of the Royal Society of Chemistry where we were trying to think of what we could do to mark the Olympics,” said Prof. Graham Richards.
“It occurred to me that the molecule that I had drawn looked very much like the Olympic rings, and it had never been made.”
University of Warwick researchers Anish Mistry and David Fox undertook the task of developing a chemical recipe for the molecule, and took preliminary images of it using a technique called scanning tunnelling microscopy.
But no approach gives such detailed images of single molecules as non-contact atomic force microscopy, in which a single, even tinier molecule of carbon monoxide is used as a kind of record needle to probe the grooves of molecules with unprecedented resolution.
The images show linked ring structures that are reminiscent both of the Olympic rings and a great many compounds made from rings of carbon atoms, including the “miracle material” graphene.
However, Prof. Graham Richards hopes that olympicene’s greatest contribution to chemistry is to bring more students into it.
“Molecules of this nature could conceivably have commercial use, but my own feeling is that above all we want to excite an interest in chemistry provoked by the link with the Olympics,” he said.
Justin Bieber is wanted for questioning by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators after a paparazzo complained of being roughed up by the young pop star at a shopping center.
The scuffle allegedly happened when the photographer tried to snap pictures of the teen idol and his girlfriend Selena Gomez, after they walked out of a theater at The Commons at Calabasas yesterday.
Sheriff Lt. Robert Wiard says the photographer in question called 911 on Sunday and complained of pain to his chest.
Robert Wiard says the photographer was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.
He says Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez left before deputies arrived, so investigators want to talk to him to get his side of the story.
During the altercation, Justin Bieber, 18, appeared angry and frustrated and girlfriend Selena Gomez appeared to be trying to reason with him.
The scuffle allegedly happened when the photographer tried to snap pictures of the teen idol and his girlfriend Selena Gomez, after they walked out of a theater at The Commons at Calabasas yesterday
TMZ claims that the paparazzo filed a police report, and alleges that according to law enforcement sources the police are investigating the incident as misdemeanour criminal battery.
While Justin Bieber failed to keep calm during the altercation, Selena Gomez, 19, was seen helping him retrieve his baseball cap and one of his high top trainers after they flew off during the incident.
Selena Gomez also appeared to be saying some soothing words to her beau as she chatted to him while tenderly stroking his arm to calm him down.
However the level-headed starlet did look a little concerned during the ordeal.
Meanwhile, Justin Bieber had a face like thunder as he put his shoe back on while being comforted by his girlfriend.
Justin Bieber then walked away with his head in his hands seeming somewhat embarrassed at his behavior.
The incident occurred as the pair was making their way to a cinema to enjoy a movie date.
Along with his plum-colored hat and trainers that had flown off, Justin Bieber was sporting an aquamarine T-shirt and black jeans.
And Selena Gomez looked summery in a printed monochrome maxi dress with a split up one side, which she teamed with brown sandals.
Beyonce has revealed how she lost 60 lbs after she gave birth to daughter Blue Ivy nearly five months ago.
During her second concert last night of her four-date stint at Revel Beach Ovation Hall in Atlantic City, Beyonce told the audience about her post-pregnancy regime.
“Y’all have no idea how hard I worked,” she told her fans.
“I had to lose 60 pounds. They had me on that treadmill. I ate lettuce!”
During her second concert last night of her four-date stint at Revel Beach Ovation Hall in Atlantic City, Beyonce told the audience about her post-pregnancy regime
And the fruits of her labor were evident as Beyonce showed off her trim and toned physique in a series of revealing stage costumes.
Now that the singer has returned to the stage and is back in fighting form she revealed that she was going to treat herself.
“Now tonight I’m gonna get chocolate wasted!” Beyonce exclaimed as reported by Us Weekly.
Beyonce, who is married to rapper Jay-Z, wore a series of custom-made Ralph & Russo designs.
It’s been nine months since Beyonce last performed for her adoring fans.
Taking to the stage in New Jersey last night for the first time since giving birth to daughter Blue Ivy, it appeared her time out for motherhood hasn’t affected her stage presence.
Beyonce had a few famous people in the audience including First Lady Michelle Obama and her two daughters: Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10.
Also supporting her from the wings was her rapper husband Jay-Z, who recently returned from the London leg of his Watch The Thrones tour with Kanye West.
Under his Twitter name Mr. Carter, Jay-Z wrote: “I’m gonna say this and then I’m gonna end mine. BEYONCE is the best performer in the world. Period.”
Speaking to the 5,500 fans at the Ovation Hall in the Revel, Beyonce said: “I gotta say, it feels so good to be back home on stage.”
However, she didn’t bring up her new life as motherhood too often, except for a fleeting glimpse of Beyonce cradling her daughter in a video montage on the screen behind her.
During the set, Beyonce performed a selection of her biggest hits, including Crazy In Love, Love On Top, Irresistible and If I Were A Boy.
The singer paid tribute to the late Whitney Houston with a cover of I Will Always Love You and closed the concert with Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).
Midfielder Stefano Mauri, the captain of Lazio football team, has been arrested by police investigating claims of match-fixing.
Stefano Mauri, 32, was held along with former Genoa midfielder Omar Milanetto, 36, police said.
Juventus coach Antonio Conte, who just led the club to the Serie A title in his first season in charge, is among those being questioned by police.
Officers also visited Italy’s pre-Euro 2012 training camp to question left-back Domenico Criscito, 25.
Police are searching more than 30 homes, including those of players, trainers and administrators of clubs in Serie A, Serie B and lower divisions.
Five people were also arrested in Hungary on suspicion of being part of an illegal international betting ring.
Midfielder Stefano Mauri, the captain of Lazio football team, has been arrested by police investigating claims of match-fixing
Monday’s operation was part of a wider investigation which has already seen a number of arrests of current and former Italian players. In June last year, the Interior Ministry set up a special match-fixing task force in response to a number of high-profile cases.
Former Atalanta captain and Italy midfielder Cristiano Doni was banned for three-and-a-half years in August for his part in the “Calcioscommesse” scandal involving Serie B matches last season. He was also arrested in December 2011 over match-fixing and betting allegations.
Atalanta, promoted from Serie B, were deducted six points in the top flight this season as a result of the scandal.
Former Lazio and Italy striker Giuseppe Signori was banned for five years and 15 other players were banned for between one and five years for their parts.
Stefano Mauri, who joined the Rome club from Udinese in 2006 and has 11 caps for Italy, made 16 league appearances last season as Lazio finished fourth in Serie A.
Omar Milanetto signed for Serie B side Padova last summer after five years at Genoa and made 15 starts last season.
Domenico Criscito, a former Genoa and Juventus defender, is now at Zenit St Petersburg in Russia and has 19 caps for Italy.
European markets have risen after a weekend poll in Greece showed growing support for a pro-austerity conservative party.
The survey suggested the New Democracy party could gain about a quarter of the votes, leaving it as the biggest party, albeit without overall control.
Elections are due to be held on 17 June.
London, Paris and Frankfurt stock markets all rose at least 1%.
European markets have risen after a weekend poll in Greece showed growing support for a pro-austerity conservative party
Spain’s leading IBEX index was out of step with the rest of Europe, falling by 0.5%.
Spain’s Bankia, which late on Friday asked for an injection of 19 billion Euros ($24 billion) in state support, fell 27% as it resumed trading on Monday. Its shares had been suspended on Friday pending the funding request.
Meanwhile, bond markets continued to reflect the tensions in the eurozone with the difference between the premium investors demand to hold Spanish government bonds and that of their German counterparts, at a record high.
The spread between 10-year Spanish and German bonds rose to 5.05 percentage points after Spanish government bond yields rose to 6.43%.
Italian government bond yields also ticked higher, rising to 5.87%.
London’s FTSE 100 share index was up 1%, Frankfurt’s DAX up 1.2% and Paris’s CAC 40 was up by 1.1%.
Although both Germany and France have a public holiday on Monday, their equity markets remain open.
Weibo, “China’s Twitter”, has introduced a code of conduct explicitly restricting the type of messages that can be posted.
China’s biggest microblogging service took the action after local authorities criticized “unfounded” rumors posted by some users.
Reports suggest a credit score system will also be introduced with points deducted for rule breaches.
Repeat offenders face having their accounts deleted.
Weibo’s parent, Sina Corp, says it has more than 300 million registered users.
Users are reported to start with 80 points – they gain more by taking part in promotional activities, but lose points if they break any of the rules.
It is reported that if a subscriber’s points fell below 60 a “low credit” warning would appear on their microblog, leading to the possible cancellation of their account if it hit zero. If they “behaved” for two consecutive months their score is reported to return to 80.
“This is a sign of the authorities trying to restrain the internet in China, but a hardcore group of people will still find ways to get round the restraints,” said Dr. Kerry Brown, head of the Asia Programme at the Chatham House think tank.
“There is a tradition of indirect criticism in which people make points using coded references. I very much doubt these rules will change anything.”
The news was first reported in the western press by The Next Web which quoted from a translated version of the rules created by an anonymous group of volunteers.
Weibo, “China's Twitter”, has introduced a code of conduct explicitly restricting the type of messages that can be posted
The “community convention” says its members may not use the service to:
• Spread rumors
• Publish untrue information
• Attack others with personal insults or libelous comments
• Oppose the basic principles of China’s constitution
• Reveal national secrets
• Threaten China’s honor
• Promote cults or superstitions
• Call for illegal protests or mass gatherings
It adds that members must not use “oblique expressions or other methods” to circumvent the rules.
Users have sometimes abbreviated names or used code words to avoid detection in the past.
The Tech in Asia blog noted that Sina did not invent the rules.
“They are pulled directly from Chinese law and are applicable to Weibo posts regardless of whether Sina includes them in a user contract or not,” it said.
However, it added that Sina Corp’s credit score system was an innovation.
A committee made up of experts and Sina Weibo subscribers will be charged with enforcing the rules.
Sina – and its competitors Baidu and Tencent – were ordered to ensure all their members registered their real identities by March. However, Sina later admitted it had not fully implemented the order.
Last month Chinese officials forced Sina and Tencent to suspend users’ ability to comment on each other’s posts for three days after allowing rumors to spread.
The official news agency, Xinhua, reported that the sites “pledged to strengthen management” afterwards.
Authorities have been critical of false reports spread through microblogs including news of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, and stories of a military coup that tried to overthrow Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Chinese social media has also been pressured to filter posts featuring words associated with controversial events.
When the former Communist Party’s Chongqing chief, Bo Xilai, was stripped of his Politburo post several sites would not deliver results for searches featuring his name.
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s first biological child, celebrates her sixth birthday.
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt was born on May 27, 2006, at the Cottage Medi-Clinic Hospital in Swakopmund, Namibia. Since her birth, Angelina Jolie has had two other children, Knox and Vivienne, and the celebrity couple have also adopted three children; Maddox, Pax, and Zahara.
The birth of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt made headlines in 2006, and was easily the most anticipated–and widely covered–birth of the year.
Shortly after her birth, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sold the first pictures of baby Shiloh for a record-breaking $4.1 million to People magazine.
Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s first biological child, celebrates her sixth birthday
Shiloh may be only six, but Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s oldest daughter has already developed her own sense of style. Her mom describes her as being a bit of a tomboy, with Shiloh preferring to wear boy’s clothes, including suits.
“I think she [Shiloh] is fascinating, the choices she is making,” Angelina Jolie said in a 2010 interview of Shiloh’s sense of style.
“And I would never be the kind of parent to force somebody to be something they are not. I think that is just bad parenting…
“Children should be allowed to express themselves in whatever way they wish without anybody judging them because it is an important part of their growth. Society always has something to learn when it comes to the way we judge each other, label each other. We have far to go.”
Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel celebrated their engagement at a cocktail party hosted by Jessica’s stylist, Estee Stanley, at her Los Angeles home.
Saturday soiree drew out a bevy of stars: among the 100 guests were Ellen DeGeneres, Amy Adams, Lance Bass, JC Chasez and Timbaland.
Jessica Biel’s parents, Kimberly and Jonathan, were also there for the celebration.
As for the couple, a source told People magazine: “Justin and Jessica arrived at the party looking very excited. Jessica was stunning in a long dress with her hair down.”
“Estee created a very warm, welcoming and festive party for the couple,” adds the source.
Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel celebrated their engagement at a cocktail party hosted by Jessica's stylist, Estee Stanley, at her Los Angeles home
After some live music, a deejay took over and guests danced to popular hits, including Madonna’s Holiday, Michael Jackson’s Good Times, Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Usher’s OMG.
Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel “danced and looked very happy,” the source says.
Afterward, there were speeches, and the source says Justin Timberlake seemed really “touched” by Timbaland’s remarks.
“You could tell that they have a very special friendship,” the source says.
The couple left the party at 12:30 a.m. and returned to their Hollywood Hills home.
