Boy George showed off a black eye caused during an altercation at a night club on Saturday evening.
The former Culture Club frontman – now a successful DJ – was injured as he left the Amadeus nightclub in Northallerton, North Yorkshire on Saturday evening.
Boy George, 50, real name George O’Dowd, was leaving the venue when there was an altercation with a female club-goer.
A spokesman for Boy George claimed: “George was leaving the club when, the club management have said, a drunken and aggressive woman lunged for his hat – and in doing so hit him in the eye.”
The spokesman claimed that as a result of her actions, the woman was asked to leave the club.
Boy George was injured as he left the Amadeus nightclub in Northallerton, North Yorkshire on Saturday evening
Boy George posted the photograph on micro-blogging site Twitter, adding: “Looking pretty after being assaulted on Saturday night! Nice!”
The star added: “Poor Christine having to make up only one eye after an incident in a club….I have one big bruised eye! Sweet.”
Boy George, though, is not pressing charges against the woman.
The singer first rose to fame as the cross-dressing frontman of Culture Club.
They were one of the most successful stars of the1980s with chart-topping singles including Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon, which was the biggest selling UK single of 1983.
However, the band fractured as Boy George’s infamous heroin addiction worsened. In 1986, he was even arrested for heroin possession.
Boy George subsequently rebuilt his career as a DJ but has intermittently come to the attention of police.
The singer was sentenced to five days community service in New York for falsely reporting a burglary in 2006.
In 2009, Boy George then served four months in prison in the UK after he was convicted of false imprisonment.
A reunion album with Culture Club has also been mooted for later this year.
Millions of people from Dallas and Forth Worth are being urged to seek shelter immediately as dramatic news footage shows trucks and other massive debris being thrown across the skies in Texas.
National Weather Service said storm spotters and radar revealed separate tornadoes south of Dallas and Fort Worth.
Incredible news footage of the twister shows a massive funnel cloud and tractor trailers being launched above the area.
The weather service says the tornado south of Fort Worth caused “considerable damage” near Cleburne.
The agency said in its warning: “National Weather Service meteorologists confirmed a large and dangerous tornado near Hutchins. This is a dangerous situation … seek shelter now!! This is a tornado emergency for Dallas and Hutchins!”
Dallas tornado tosses trucks across the skies as dangerous twister targets Texas
Local television footage shows a large funnel cloud on the ground near Interstate 35 south of Dallas.
The weather service says the “large and extremely dangerous” tornado was near Lancaster about 20 miles south of Dallas and moving north.
The weather service is also reporting other developing tornadoes as a band of severe storms moves through the area.
A tornado watch is in effect for most of the counties in north Texas.
The United Nations Security Council has been accused by Turkey PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan of indirectly supporting the oppression of the Syrian people by failing to unite on Syria.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the UN Security Council was standing by with its “hands and arms tied” while the Syrian people were dying every day.
Russia says Syria has promised to pull its forces from cities by 10 April.
In Damascus, the head of Red Cross has been meeting top Syrian officials.
Jakob Kellenberger has been trying to get Syria to allow aid workers better access to those who have been wounded or displaced by the conflict.
He will also press the Syrian authorities to implement a daily two-hour ceasefire, as stipulated in the peace plan proposed by the UN and Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the UN Security Council was standing by with its "hands and arms tied" while the Syrian people were dying every day
The president of the UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, says he has asked Kofi Annan to brief the world body on his Syria peace mission.
No date has been set, but Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser said he had suggested 13 April, after the 10 April deadline for the military pullback and a mutual ceasefire has passed, our correspondent adds.
Russia’s foreign ministry says Syria’s government has informed Moscow it has started implementing Kofi Annan’s plan to end the unrest.
The ministry said in a statement that the Syrian ambassador to Moscow told Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov that Damascus had begun fulfilling its obligations under the plan, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The statement did not give any further details.
Kofi Annan’s spokesman, Ahmed Fawzi, said on Tuesday that an advance team from the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) would arrive in Damascus “in the next 48 hours” to discuss the deployment of international monitors.
The team would be made up of five to six people, he added.
The announcement comes the day after Kofi Annan urged the UN Security Council to set a deadline of 10 April for a ceasefire plan to come into force.
Syria says it has agreed to the deadline.
But activists say government forces have continued to attack opposition strongholds.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said by not taking a decision on Syria, the UN Security Council had “indirectly supported the oppression. To stand by with your hands and arms tied while the Syrian people are dying every day is to support the oppression”.
He told members of parliament from his governing AK Party that Turkey would not turn its back on the Syrian people.
China and Russia have twice vetoed resolutions condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for turning the army on civilians.
On Monday, Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council that President Assad had agreed to withdraw security forces from major population centres by 10 April, diplomats said.
Kofi Annan also asked the Security Council to plan for the deployment of UN observers to supervise the ceasefire by all parties, as set out in his peace plan.
UN officials and diplomats said the monitors would probably be drawn from other peacekeeping forces in the region and could not be established without an end to the fighting, agreement by all parties and a Security Council mandate.
The ceasefire is only one part of Kofi Annan’s peace plan, which also calls for a political process to address the “aspirations” of the Syrian people, release of detainees, delivery of humanitarian aid, free movement for journalists, and right to protest.
Former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton has told how talk show host Rush Limbaugh made fun of her looks when she was 13 years old by comparing her to a dog.
Chelsea Clinton, 32, said she identified with Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke, who was branded a “slut” and a “prostitute” by Rush Limbaugh, during a panel about women in politics last week.
“She and I actually have something in common. We’ve both have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh,” Chelsea Clinton said.
She added: “She was 30. I was 13.”
Chelsea Clinton recalls how Rush Limbaugh made fun of her looks when she was 13 years old by comparing her to a dog
Chelsea Clinton was referring to the 1993 incident in which Rush Limbaugh mocked her appearance.
“Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?” Rush Limbaugh had said, before showing an image of the young Chelsea Clinton.
“I’m grateful I don’t remember the exact phrasing,” Chelsea Clinton said during the debate.
“Thankfully I had grown up in public life and knew that having thick skin was a survival skill.”
“I do also believe if you have the right type of enemies you’re doing something correct,” Chelsea Clinton added.
Rush Limbaugh apologized after both incidents but his comments about Sandra Fluke caused widespread condemnation, prompting high-profile advertisers to pull out from his radio show.
During the panel with Chelsea Clinton, the law student said she hoped the conservative host’s comments had not put other women off speaking out in the future.
“I was worried they would think, <<I should sit down and shut up, because if I speak out, this is what happens>> … I want women to see this as an empowering moment,” Chelsea Clinton said.
Hilary Clinton also weighed in on the debate during an interview with MSNBC this week.
“As a woman and as someone who can vaguely remember being a young woman, and as a mother of a young woman of that age and generation, I thought the response was very encouraging,” Hillary Clinton said.
“The response from the public, the response from women cutting across all kinds of categories, the response from advertisers, so I’ll let that speak for itself.”
SolarKindle Lighted Cover is a solar case which lets readers “top up” their gadget simply by leaving it in the sun.
The SolarKindle Lighted Cover has a built-in solar panel and battery – and the battery is guaranteed to provide three months of reading time in “normal” sunlight, without dipping into the gadget’s own power.
Kindle solar case goes on sale this week, priced at $80.
Once the gadget’s topped up, the SolarKindle diverts power to a backup battery.
Eight hours will fully charge the backup , which offers roughly three weeks’ use. The battery also powers an LED light, which can run for 50 hours.
Given that Kindle is built for wireless use, with books and gadgets delivered to the gizmo via wi-fi or cellular networks, it is likely many SolarKindle-equipped e-readers may never be plugged in at all.
The SolarKindle Lighted Cover has a built-in solar panel and battery
The leather-clad pouch with charger panel and battery comes at quite a premium, though – it’s $80, only $30 short of the price of Kindle itself.
The gadget also offers a built-in LED light, powered by the reserve battery.
“Expose the solar panel to sunlight and your Kindle will be constantly charging,” says SolarFocus.
If your Kindle is running down and there’s no sign of the sun, you can switch the gadget to “top up” from the reserve battery. A blinking LED light tells you how much battery is left in the reserve as you charge.
“After fully charging the Kindle, the solar panel automatically switches to charge the reserve battery. When charging, the LED indicator light blinks green. A one hour charge in direct sunlight can provide almost three days worth of reading time on your Kindle.”
“For optimum performance, use the solar panel to continuously charge your Kindle – don’t wait for the battery to run out of power before recharging.”
One L. Goh, the man who allegedly shot seven people dead and injured three more at Oikos University in Oakland, California, was targeting a female school official, police say.
One L. Goh began shooting randomly when he discovered the administrator was not there, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said on Tuesday morning.
The shooting took place on Monday at Oikos University.
Suspect One L. Goh, a 43-year-old former student at the college, surrendered at a supermarket in nearby Alameda city.
One L. Goh allegedly shot seven people dead and injured three more at Oikos University in Oakland
He arrived at the university with the “the intent of locating an administrator. He then went through the entire building systematically and randomly shooting people,” Howard Jordan told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
“We’ve learned that the suspect was upset with the administration at the school. He was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature.
“He was having, we believe, some behavioural problems at the school and was asked to leave several months ago.”
Howard Jordan described the suspect as a “chaotic, calculated and determined gentleman”, adding that it was the gunman’s intention to kill people.
Five people died at the scene, and two people died later at the hospital. Two people remain in hospital in a stable condition and one person has been released.
According to the police chief, the victims ranged in age from 21 to 40.
Robert Redford will produce a documentary about Watergate, more than 30 years after appearing in a film about the US political scandal.
Robert Redford, 75, played journalist Bob Woodward in the 1976 movie All the President’s Men, whose uncovering of the scandal lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
The actor told the New York Times it was the “right time to take a look at this moment in history”.
The documentary will premiere in 2013.
As well as producing All The President’s Men Revisited, Robert Redford will also act as narrator.
Robert Redford will produce a documentary about Watergate
The controversy that surrounded the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, prompted President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974.
Washington Post reporters Woodward and Carl Bernstein – portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film – played a key role in uncovering the scandal, which was traced back to members of a Nixon-support group.
The 1976 film was nominated for four Oscars, winning four including one for screenwriter William Goldman.
The new documentary has been commissioned by the Discovery Channel and will explore the effect the scandal has had on US politics and the media in the four decades since.
“To be able to pull the fabricated and the real together, for the first time, is kind of a juicy opportunity for us,” Eileen O’Neill, the president of Discovery, said.
Last week, Robert Redford said he believed documentaries have replaced newspapers as the media’s main source of investigative journalism.
Robert Redford also said he thought papers were in “steep decline” and documentaries have become “a better form of truth”.
Girls Around Me, the controversial mobile app which allowed users to find nearby women and access their full name, photos, and send them messages, has been taken off the market due to safety concerns.
The application worked by taking GPS data from Foursquare and searched for women in the immediate area who have also checked in on the location-based mobile service.
The mobile app, made by Russian company iFree Innovations, was previously available on iTunes.
The app’s less-than-careful data sharing had caused considerable concern last week, with many lambasting the app for making stalking easy and taking advantage of those who don’t understand privacy policies of social media.
Girls Around Me mobile app has been taken off the market due to safety concerns
Girls Around Me required the users permission to link the app to their personal Facebook account.
Once downloaded, the app asked for the user’s Facebook log in, pictures, basic information including gender and age, as well as photos and email addresses.
It also asked permission to run even when the app itself was closed, thus allowing Girls Around Me to collect location data at all times. The app’s website advertised that Girls Around Me “puts you in control!”.
It continued: “Reveal the hottest nightspots, who’s in them, and how to reach them…” It also says that users can easily find “love” or “a one-night stand”.
Though the initial app download was free, users had to pay $0.99 for every “energy pack”, to search for nearby women at an accelerated rate.
iFree Innovations made the decision to pull the app. The company told the Wall Street Journal: “[W]e believe it is unethical to pick a scapegoat to talk about the privacy concerns.
“We see this wave of negative as a serious misunderstanding of the apps’ [sic] goals, purpose, abilities and restrictions.”
The app was downloaded more than 70,000 times before it was taken down, according to the creators.
Stanford lecturer Elizabeth Stark told the New York Times’ Bits blog that the application required far too much information.
“This would be a very different application if it didn’t link back to Facebook, which is a treasure trove of information,” she said.
“With that link, this app could easily be a <<let’s stalk women>> app.”
Popular Apple blog Cult of Mac described the app a “wake-up call about privacy”.
US researchers have found that the obesity problem may be much worse than previously thought.
Experts said using the Body Mass Index (BMI) to determine obesity was underestimating the issue.
The US study, published in the journal PLoS One, said up to 39% of people who were not currently classified as obese actually were.
The authors said “we may be much further behind than we thought” in tackling obesity.
BMI is a simple calculation which combines a person’s height and weight to give a score which can be used to diagnose obesity. Somebody with a BMI of 30 or more is classed as obese.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, at least one in three Americans are obese.
Other ways of diagnosing obesity include looking at how much of the body is made up of fat. A fat percentage of 25% or more for men or 30% or more for women is the threshold for obesity.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, at least one in three Americans are obese
One of the researchers Dr. Eric Braverman said: “The Body Mass Index is an insensitive measure of obesity, prone to under-diagnosis, while direct fat measurements are superior because they show distribution of body fat.”
The team at the New York University School of Medicine and the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, looked at records from 1,393 people who had both their BMI and body fat scores measured.
Their data showed that most of the time the two measures came to the same conclusion. However, they said 539 people in the study – or 39% – were not labeled obese according to BMI, but their fat percentage suggested they were.
They said the disparity was greatest in women and became worse when looking at older groups of women.
“Greater loss of muscle mass in women with age exacerbates the misclassification of BMI,” they said.
They propose changing the thresholds for obesity: “A more appropriate cut-point for obesity with BMI is 24 for females and 28 for males.”
A BMI of 24 is currently classed as a “normal” weight.
“By our cut-offs, 64.1% or about 99.8 million American women are obese,” they said.
It is not the first time BMI has been questioned. A study by the University of Leicester said BMIs needed to be adjusted according to ethnicity.
IBM is developing a computer which will digest twice as much information every day as the entire internet, sifting through radio waves from space in an effort to unravel the origin of the universe.
The huge computer will be attached to a 1,900 square mile array of telescope antenna, and will be built to “suck in” in radio telescope data which will “see” 13 billion years into the past, back to the dawn of the universe and the Big Bang.
IBM machine will be millions of times more powerful than the fastest PCs today – and will deal with 100 times more information than the output of the Large Hadron Collider.
Ton Engbersen of IBM resarch said: “If you take the current global daily Internet traffic and multiply it by two, you are in the range of the data set that the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope will be collecting every day.”
Upon completion in 2024, the telescope will be used to explore evolving galaxies, dark matter and even the very origins of the universe dating back more than 13 billion years.
The IBM computer will be attached to a 1,900 square mile array of telescope antenna, and will be built to “suck in” in radio telescope data which will “see” 13 billion years into the past
IBM is to investigate using 3D “stacks” of computer chips to achieve the enormous computing power required by the Square Kilometre Array.
This extremely powerful survey telescope will have millions of antennas to collect radio signals, forming a collection area equivalent to one square kilometre but spanning a huge surface area – approximately the width of the continental United States.
The SKA will be 50 times more sensitive than any former radio device and more than 10,000 times faster than today’s instruments.
The SKA is expected to produce a few Exabytes of data per day for a single beam per one square kilometer. After processing this data the expectation is that per year between 300 and 1500 Petabytes of data need to be stored.
In comparison, the approximately 15 Petabytes produced by the large hadron collider at CERN per year of operation is approximately 10 to 100 times less than the envisioned capacity of SKA.
The directors of the SKA project are to meet in Amsterdam on 3 April to discuss the location of the huge telescope, scattered across 1,900 square miles of Earth’s surface.
It will start building in 2016.
“It will have a deep impact on the way we perceive our place in the universe and how we understand its history and its future,” said Michiel van Haarlem, interim director general of the SKA project.
“We know we are going to discover things.”
The SKA will consist of thousands of dishes across 1,900 miles, with a total surface area of one square kilometre, that will provide so much data that one astronomer has declared it will completely change our view of the universe.
The scientific community also believe that the SKA represents our best ever chance of finding out if there’s life beyond our solar system.
To do this will require ground-breaking technology. The SKA’s 15m-dishes, which will detect electromagnetic radiation emitted by objects in space, will be the most sensitive ever built – able to detect an airport radar on a planet 50 light years away.
These dishes will be complemented by low and medium frequency aperture arrays, which provide a large field of view and are capable of observing more than one part of the sky at once.
It will be carried on enough optical fibre cable of such quantity that it could be wrapped twice around the world.
As yet, a location for it hasn’t been decided, but Southern Africa and Australia are both n the reckoning.
They all offer areas with ideal conditions for telescopes, which must be well clear of electronic interference, such as that generated by mobile phones.
It’s hoped that construction will begin in 2016, with the dishes coming online eight years later.
A prototype of SKA called KAT-7, which consists of seven 16-metre dishes, is undergoing testing in South Africa’s Karoo desert.
Mirlande Wilson, a McDonald’s employee from Maryland who claimed to hold one of the winning lottery slips, had yet to produce a ticket and has disappeared, leaving Mega Millions officials skeptical.
The mystery surrounding the Mega Millions winners deepened as lottery executives said until the lucky three came forward with tickets, any claims to have scooped the top prize were nothing but speculation and rumor.
Three ticket-holders in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois will split the record $656 million payout. No winner has yet come forward to lottery officials in the states to claim their multi-million dollar share.
Stephen Martino, Maryland lottery director, told ABC: “We don’t know any more than the public or media does and it’s all speculation and we’re not going to get involved in that.”
Another official added: “It’s probably not this person.”
Mirlande Wilson had yet to produce a ticket and has disappeared, leaving Mega Millions officials skeptical
Winners in Maryland and Illinois have six months to claim the money – Kansas’s newest multimillionaire has up to a year.
Both Maryland and Kansas will allow winners to remain anonymous but the lucky ticket-holder in Illinois will be identified.
Mirlande Wilson, 37, had enraged her co-workers with claims of her scoop after she revealed to the New York Post that she was not planning on sharing the millions – despite the fact they had pooled their money for tickets.
Workers at the McDonald’s restaurant bought a number of tickets together for the biggest lottery in world history but Mirlande Wilson claimed she separately bought one of the three winning tickets.
“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The winning ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,” Mirlande Wilson told The New York Post.
A number of items once belonging to Whitney Houston commanded slightly more than $82,000 at the Hollywood Legends auction this weekend, with most items drawing much higher bids than they were originally estimated to bring in.
The highest-selling Whitney Houston item, a beaded bustier that had been sold during a 2007 court-ordered debt auction, drew $18,750. In the catalog for the auction, the estimated value is listed as $4,000 to $6,000.
Also commanding a handsome price, a grey velvet gown that Whitney Houston wore to her mentor Clive Davis’ pre-Grammys party in 1996. The gown, which was also sold during Whitney Houston’s 2007 debt auction, pulled in $11,520, and had been listed in the catalog in the $1,000-$2,000 range.
The highest-selling Whitney Houston item, a beaded bustier that had been sold during a 2007 court-ordered debt auction, drew $18,750
The items were sold off as part of the Hollywood Legends auction held in Beverly Hills by Julien’s Auctions. Other items up for bid included a bowler hat, cane and suit owned by film icon Charlie Chaplin and a Christian Dior gown worn by Grace Kelly.
A vest and two pairs of earrings worn by Whitney Houston in her breakthrough film The Bodyguard were also auctioned off, raking in a combined $8,700.
Whitney Houston was pronounced dead on February 11 after being found submerged in the bathtub in her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel by a member of her personal staff. An autopsy later determined that she died of accidental drowning, and that cocaine and heart disease contributed to her death.
Rihanna has revealed that she would love to portray Whitney Houston if there is ever to be a biopic and a role to be played.
Recent reports abounded that record label executive Clive Davis was heading up efforts to make a biographical film to honor Whitney Houston, but he has since denied the rumors.
Rihanna was reportedly being considered for the role, but she recently revealed that she would “love” to portray the legend.
“That would be something that I would have to give my entire life to do because I would want to really pull it off,” Rihanna told The Press Association.
“That’s a huge, huge role and whoever does it has to do a good job.”
Rihanna says she would love to portray Whitney Houston if there is ever to be a biopic and a role to be played
Rihanna was on the short list of contenders for the role, along with Jennifer Hudson, Vivica Fox and Sparkle star Jordin Sparks. Brandy was also mentioned in some reports.
Though Rihanna may lack acting experience compared to the other candidates, she’s not completely new to the industry. She is set to debut her acting abilities in her first film, Battleship, alongside Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker and Liam Neeson. The sci-fi thriller will be released in the U.S. in May.
But for Rihanna, portraying Whitney Houston is not so much about acting experience, but about the chance to represent her musical inspiration on the big screen.
“My first song that I remember falling in love with was a Whitney Houston song – I Will Always Love You,” Rihanna said.
“It was really inspiring and it made me develop a passion for music, so really she’s partly responsible for me being here in this industry.”
A small plane with two persons on board crashed into a Florida shopping mall and burst into flames last night, injuring at least five people and sending shoppers running from the building.
Several people at the Northgate Shopping Center in Deland, Florida called emergency services at 7:20 p.m. to report that an aircraft had plunged into the complex, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
Witnesses described seeing the plane sputtering just before it plummeted and hit the building. The pilot and one passenger were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
They were both in critical condition, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. At least five people had been injured, two with burns.
A witness reported that the twin-engine plane appeared to have crashed into the roof of a Publix chain supermarket.
A witness reported that the twin-engine plane appeared to have crashed into the roof of a Publix chain supermarket
Marleny Arevalo, a manager at a nearby fast food restaurant, said she didn’t hear or see the crash but customers entering the Taco Bell were rattled by the incident.
She ran with another employee to the shopping center and saw flames that appeared to be shooting from the rear of the Publix branch.
“There was a lot of smoke. When I first saw it, there was fire in the air and then it was just a lot of black smoke,” Marleny Arevalo added.
Fire crews on the scene blocked off surrounding roads. Roth Peeler, who lives about 300 feet from the store, told the Orlando Sentinel he watched the plane go down.
Roth Peeler said: “A small, yellow plane spiraled right down and through the roof and just exploded. Not a piece of the plane came out. It’s all in the store.
“I went around the front and saw people running out of the store and trying to get into their cars and out of the parking lot.”
Deland is about 20 miles west of Daytona Beach and the shopping center is close to Deland Municipal Airport.
A dark column of smoke could be seen wafting from the rooftop of the shopping center.
Around 20 fire engines were at the shopping complex, using extended ladders to pour water on to the flames.
Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that the FAA did not provide air traffic services for the flight and had no immediate information.
Publix has 748 store locations in Florida and dozens more in four other Southern states. It is the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the U.S.
An Australian mother on board a Qantas flight discovered live maggots crawling inside a packet of the airline nuts after she’d already begun eating them.
Victoria Cleven, 42, didn’t see the maggots when she started to eat the snack on a Los Angeles to Melbourne flight because she hadn’t turned on her overhead light.
But after thinking the nuts tasted a bit strange she turned the light on to inspect the packet and saw maggots wriggling out of the packet all over her.
The mother-of-two told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper: “It tasted strange and I turned the light on and looked at the rest of the packet and started seeing maggots coming out of it everywhere.
“I couldn’t talk. I was nearly throwing up. I was beside myself.”
Victoria Cleven on board a Qantas flight discovered live maggots crawling inside a packet of the airline nuts
Victoria Cleven’s 15-year-old son then checked another two packets of the Australian made “trail mix” they had got on the plane and found they contained maggots as well.
She took a photo and video of the maggots to prove her story and now says she is unhappy with Qantas’ response.
Victoria Cleven says she was offered a flight refund but claims the money she was offered eventually amounted to AUD$400 when the total cost of her flight was AUD$1,600.
A spokesman for the airline says the incident last week is being investigated.
He added: “Qantas sincerely apologizes to Mrs. Cleven for the incident that occurred on her return flight from LAX to Melbourne.
“Qantas has also contacted the supplier and is currently investigating how this issue occurred.”
The Sydney Biscuit Company, which makes the snack, told the newspaper that moths could have got into the packets when they were stored at a warehouse.
At least five people are believed to have been injured in a shooting at a Christian university in Oakland, California, police say.
US TV footage showed wounded people emerging from buildings at Oikos University in the city of Oakland.
Policemen have surrounded the buildings, but it is not clear whether there is still a suspect on the scene.
Oikos University is a religious institution offering courses in theology, music and nursing, according to its website.
The Associated Press news agency is quoting law enforcement sources as saying five people are dead.
At least five people are believed to have been injured in a shooting at Oikos University in Oakland, California
Johnna Watson, of Oakland Police, said: “We know this to be a Korean college. A gunman came in to the college and fired multiple shots.
“We do have fatalities, I cannot confirm the number of fatalities we have at this time. We additionally have victims who have suffered from gunshot wounds.”
Johnna Watson added that medical services as well as police were at the scene.
The Oakland Fire Department says it was first notified of the shooting at about 10:50 local time .
One witness, Brian Snow, told local news station KGO-TV: “One of the people who was inside the building, she was saying there is a crazy guy inside.
“She did say someone got shot in the chest right next to her before she got taken off in an ambulance.”
A police officer at the scene told reporters the gunman had not been identified.
Reports described the suspect as a Korean man in his 40s, with heavy build and wearing khaki clothes.
Model Lauren Scruggs ventured out in public with her stump on display for the first time four months after the horrific accident which saw her lose her left hand and eye in a plane propeller accident.
Until now, Lauren Scruggs kept her missing limb covered with clothes or scarves any time she left her home but yesterday the pretty blonde finally had the courage to venture outside with her missing limb visible.
Lauren Scruggs was out shopping with her parents near her home in Texas, likely spending some of the settlement she received as a result of the December 3 accident.
There have been reports Lauren Scruggs received more than $1million in the settlement that was reached last week after rejecting the first offer of $200,000.
TMZ reported she received several millions.
Model Lauren Scruggs ventured out in public with her stump on display for the first time
Wearing a blue baseball cap, green sports vest and black jogging pants, Lauren Scruggs was beaming from ear to ear as she emerged from sports shop Luke’s Locker in Plano with her parents.
A flesh-colored bandage was wrapped around the end of her arm where her hand should have been and she had hooked a white purse over it, making no attempt to cover it, signs that she may be growing more accustomed to her disability.
Last week Lauren Scruggs was pictured with her prosthetic eye after receiving it three weeks ago.
According to the Courthouse News Service, the plane which injured Lauren Scruggs was insured by Aggressive Insurance Services, along with a separate plane owned by the pilot Curt Richmond, a friend of the Scruggs family from Dallas, Texas.
Curt Richmond’s policy extended to other planes he pilots, the service said. Both have a $100,000 limit for passengers riding in the planes.
The report stated that Curt Richmond’s insurance “verbally offered” to pay Lauren Scruggs $200,000 after the December 3 accident.
The complaint, issued in Dallas County Court, alleged that Lauren Scruggs was not a passenger at the time of the incident, and therefore eligible for more compensation.
Alec Baldwin has got engaged to his younger lover Hilaria Thomas over the weekend.
Alec Baldwin, who turns 54 tomorrow, proposed to 28-year-old girlfriend Hilaria Thomas this weekend in Long Island, New York.
His representative told Us Weekly magazine: “Yes, it’s true! Alec proposed to Hilaria this weekend and we’re all excited for the newly engaged couple. Alec’s birthday is tomorrow. Great way to celebrate!”
Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas have been a couple for almost a year and first appeared in public together at several bashes in New York in May 2011.
Alec Baldwin has got engaged to his younger lover Hilaria Thomas over the weekend
The actor was previously married to actress Kim Bassinger but the pair divorced in acrimony in 2002 after nine years of marriage and the pair was then embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their daughter Ireland, who is now 16.
Spanish-born Hilaria Thomas has not been married before.
Hilaria Thomas grew up between Boston and Spain, studying dance and history at NYU before becoming a yoga instructor.
In recent months Alec Baldwin has been sporting a noticeably trimmer physique, perhaps in a bid to appear more youthful alongside his younger partner.
Things had been getting more and more serious between Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas for months, and the actor recently revealed he was considering having children with her.
Alec Baldwin said: “Have I thought about having more kids? Oh sure, that would be great, that would be heaven, that would be fantastic.”
The actor jokingly added: “As my friend said to me, <<When you have children, typically in a second marriage, when you’re older and you get married again to a woman who would have children, you must always remember that you make sure the children attend a college where the commencement ceremonies are held in a facility with a wheelchair accessible ramp>>.”
Last August Alec Baldwin sold his home in the Upper West Side of New York and moved in with Hilaria Thomas in the city’s SoHo district.
Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Whitney Houston’s final movie, Sparkle, which hits theaters on August 17.
Jordin Sparks takes on the lead role as Sparkle Williams, a singer from Detroit who teams up with her two siblings Sister (Carmen Ejogo) and Dolores (Tika Sumpter) to form a girl group during the Motown era.
Sparkle is loosely inspired by the story of Diana Ross’s The Supremes and is a remake of the 1976 film of the same name.
Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks in Sparkle
Whitney Houston, who tragically died on February 11 this year, plays the girls’ mother, Emma, and also served as a producer on the movie.
Whitney Houston’s final recordings – a version of gospel classic His Eye is on the Sparrow and Celebrate, written by R Kelly and performed with Jordin Sparks – will feature in the musical drama.
Sparkle is Whitney Houston’s fourth feature film, following The Bodyguard (1992), Waiting to Exhale (1995) and The Preacher’s Wife.
Cee Lo Green and Derek Luke also star in director Salim Akil’s Sparkle, which opens in the US on August 17 and October 5 in the UK.
The already “extreme” risk of a flu pandemic spreading in the UK will increase during the Olympics, a report has said.
Britain has been ranked by analysts Maplecroft as second only to Singapore for the speed at which influenza could spread, because of its dense cities and status as a global travel hub.
The report said the “large influx of visitors” at Olympic Games time would raise the “already significant” risk of spread.
But the Health Protection Agency (HPA) disagreed, saying the risk was low.
“We have done our own review and we don’t believe that there is a risk,” said Dr. Brian McCloskey from the HPA.
“We have sporting events and music festivals all around England and we had the swine flu pandemic at Glastonbury. We also looked at research from the Vancouver Games – neither produced any significant problems.”
Dr. Brian McCloskey said that at Glastonbury in 2009, hundreds of thousands of people were densely packed in fields together for days at a time during the outbreak of influenza strain H1N1.
Whereas he said at London 2012 visitors would only be at the Olympic Park for four or five hours, so the risk was reduced.
Maplecroft report said the "large influx of visitors" at Olympic Games time would raise the "already significant" risk of flu spread in UK
Maplecroft’s influenza pandemic risk index rates five countries at the “extreme” level of risk for the pandemic spread of the disease, with Singapore top, followed by the UK, South Korea, the Netherlands and Germany.
The study said that the Olympics would increase the danger of flu spreading because of the extra 5.3 million overseas tourists expected to visit Britain for the Games.
But it also found that Britain was in the top 10 of countries best placed to withstand any outbreak.
The Department of Health (DoH) said that the NHS had contingency plans in place for any eventuality.
“Outbreaks of infectious diseases during the Games have been very rare,” a spokesperson said.
“The Health Protection Agency (HPA) responds to over 5,000 disease outbreaks each year and has robust systems and processes in place to do this.
“There is a comprehensive testing and exercising plan in place to make sure that all systems are ready.”
Dr. Brian McCloskey said the chance of flu spreading during sporting events was quite low.
“It is much the same as it would be in any summer,” he said.
“The fact lots of people are going to London during the Games, doesn’t really change it.
“We have to be very careful about new diseases coming in but that doesn’t mean we are high risk. Conditions won’t be as such during the summer to make flu spread easily.”
He added that the HPA would not be recommending any specific health precautions, other than those it already gives.
“Our normal advice would be if you feel unwell then stay at home. Then there is the standard advice we give across London at all times about sneezing, coughing and washing your hands.
“The simple advice would be, don’t worry. But anyone feeling unwell – where they feel there is a cold, or have diarrhoea and vomiting then stay at home and don’t bring it out with you.
“It’s not an area people should worry about in any sense.”
In January a series of reports, in The Lancet Infectious Disease journal, highlighted the risks of mass gatherings, such as London 2012.
Health experts said they can be a hotbed of diseases from across the world – the theory being that so many people, packed closely together, increases the risk of diseases spreading.
Successful smartphone app Angry Birds will be turned into an animated series, game designers Rovio have confirmed.
Angry Birds series will be made into 52 short episodes that will be released on “all possible platforms”.
Rovio’s head of animation Nick Dorra announced the news at a media conference in Cannes, France.
“I am happy to say we are going to roll out a weekly animation series this year of short format content,” Nick Dorra said.
“It’s a great way for us to connect with our existing fans, to give them more and keep them engaged.
“But it’s also important for acquiring new fans because not everyone might want to play the game or is not able to play the game.
“We want to offer people different points where they can interact and experience our characters.”
Successful smartphone app Angry Birds will be turned into an animated series
Rovio first revealed it was working on a series of short videos last October.
But Nick Dorra said a film version of the game, also first announced in 2011, would not be released until at least 2015.
Rovio, which is based in Finland, bought an animation studio based in Helsinki last year to work on projects outside gaming.
Nick Dorra said that was the way forward now for the company.
“Angry Birds is not just about the game-play,” he said.
“It will, in the future, be less and less about the slingshot and more about the characters and their adventures and all different kinds of games in different forms.”
Angry Birds has now been downloaded more than 700 million times across all platforms and its new game, Angry Birds Space, is number one in nearly 100 app stores across the world.
Kourtney Kardashian has embraced her changing shape by slipping into a bikini on holiday.
Kourtney Kardashian, 32, is currently holidaying with her family in the scorching La Romana, Dominican Republic, where temperatures are currently soaring into the region of 30°.
But rather than hiding beneath loose-fitting sundresses or baggy kaftans, Kourtney Kardashian opted to parade in a skimpy patterned two-piece while topping up her sunkissed tan.
While her stomach is clearly in bloom for the new arrival, the rest of Kourtney Kardashian still remains slim.
Kourtney Kardashian revealed her baby bump by slipping into a bikini on holiday
She revealed she still engages in gentle exercise ferrying her two-year-old son Mason around, tweeting: “Lots of walks pushing stroller!” when asked how she stays active while being pregnant.
Never one to shy away from a moment for flaunt her figure, Kim Kardashian too poured her curves into a bikini.
But it seems the famous silhouette might be in store for some Tinseltown shrinkage, as the middle sibling has revealed she intends to change her diet.
Kim Kardashian tweeted: “Workout time!!! Gonna focus on abs today. I’ve been trying to change my bad eating habbits (sic) – slow process but its working. I feel so much better! Sugar, dairy & gluten free. HARD!”
She added: “I will have sweets every once in a while & dairy but this is a huge step for me! Its a lifestyle change but I’m loving it so far!”
A group of employees at a McDonald’s in Maryland are outraged at co-worker Mirlande Wilson who claims she won $105million in Mega Millions but says as she bought the ticket for herself she will not share her winnings.
McDonald’s employees pooled their money for tickets for the biggest lottery in world history but Mirlande Wilson, 37, claims she herself bought one of the three tickets nationwide that will split a record $656 million payout.
“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The winning ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,” Mirlande Wilson told The New York Post.
“I was in the group, but this was separate. The winning ticket was a separate ticket,” the single mother of seven said as she and her fiancé left her home.
Mirlande Wilson, a Haitian immigrant who has seven children, claimed she had hidden the winning ticket and would present it to lottery officials today.
But later she started to backtrack saying she wasn’t sure whether she had won or not.
“I don’t know if I won. Some of the numbers were familiar. I recognized some of them,” Mirlande Wilson said.
“I don’t know why people are saying differently. I’m going to go to the lottery office today. I bought some tickets separately.”
With winning tickets also sold in Illinois and Kansas, a single Maryland winner would get an after-tax lump sum of $105 million, or $5.59 million a year for 26 years.
Mirlande Wilson’s co-workers – who make little more than $7.50 an hour – are furious at her claims she bought the winning ticket with her own money.
“She can’t do this to us!” said Suleiman Osman Husein, a shift manager and one of 15 members in the pool.
“We each paid $5. She took everybody’s money!”
Mirlande Wilson of Maryland claims she herself bought one of the three winning Mega Millions tickets and she will not share the prize with her colleagues
A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of a McDonald’s manager named Layla, who was part of the pool, said Mirlande Wilson bought tickets for the group at the 7-Eleven in Milford Mill, where the winning ticket was sold.
The group’s tickets – along with a list of those who contributed to the pool – were left in an office safe at the fast food outlet, said the man, who gave only his first name, Allen, as he stood next to Layla. She declined to comment.
Then, late Friday, before the night’s drawing, the owner of the McDonald’s, Birul Desai, gave Mirlande Wilson $5 to buy more tickets for the pool on her way home from work, and she went back to the 7-Eleven and bought them, Allen said.
Mirlande Wilson took those tickets home with her, Allen said.
But Mirlande Wilson insisted yesterday that the batch with the winning ticket in it was bought separately by her while she was with a friend.
According to the Post, when Mirlande Wilson found out she had the winning ticket, she called coworkers and told them she – rather than they – had won.
“I won! I won!” she told a colleague.
McDonald’s worker Davon Wilson said he was there when Mirlande Wilson called.
“She said, <<Turn on the news>>. She said she had won. I thought it was a joke or something. She doesn’t seem like a person who’d do this,” Davon Wilson said.
Allen told the Post he and Layla then went to Mirlande Wilson’s home to question her about the winning ticket. Though she first refused to come out, they banged on her door for 20 minutes until she finally relented.
“These people are going to kill you. It’s not worth your life!” Allen said he told her.
“All right! All right! I’ll share, but I can’t find the ticket right now,” she said, according to Allen.
A clerk at the 7-Eleven where Mirlande Wilson bought the tickets said they believed it was a man who had bought the winning ticket and doubted that her story was actually true after lottery officials reviewed the store’s CCTV footage.
Carole Everett said they had no information about the Maryland winner and whether it was a man or a woman who bought the winning ticket.
She said: “Right now, everything is just speculation and gossip. Until someone comes through that door and hands over the winning ticket we will not know who the winner is.”
If Mirlande Wilson won, and if it was with a pooled work ticket, the situation would be very similar to that of New Jersey man Americo Lopes, who was sued by his former colleagues after he claimed he was the sole winner of a $38.5 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot.
The five construction workers say they and Americo Lopes were members of a weekly lottery pool, each person contributing $2 and Lopes would buy the tickets.
Americo Lopes claimed he played the lottery both by himself and as a member of the pool and that the winning ticket in the November 2009 drawing was one he bought for himself.
He chose the lump-sum payment option and received $24 million.
A jury found that Americo Lopes wrongly refused to share the lottery win with his friends and ordered that he pay them $4 million each.
The three jackpot-winning tickets were purchased in Red Bud, Illinois, Baltimore County, Maryland, and Kansas, where state lottery officials have said only that the ticket was sold in the northeast part of the state.
In Illinois, the Chicago Tribune said a second jackpot winner, who also has yet to step forward, bought a quick-pick ticket at a gas station and convenience store in Red Bud, a community of about 3,700 in southwestern Illinois.
There were also some big consolation prizes. Lottery officials said 161 ticket holders won $250,000 apiece by matching the first five numbers, and 897 won $10,000 apiece by matching four numbers plus the stand-alone Mega Ball.
The Maryland and Kansas winners are allowed to remain anonymous because of state laws, but in Illinois, the winner has to be publicized. Though lottery officials say they encourage winners to come forward and enjoy their 15 minutes of fame.
The winning numbers in Friday night’s drawing were 02-04-23-38-46, and the Mega Ball 23.
Hungarian President Pal Schmitt has announced his resignation, after being stripped of his doctorate over plagiarism.
Pal Schmitt, 69, elected in 2010, said “my personal issue divides my beloved nation rather than unites it”.
“It is my duty to end my service and resign my mandate as president,” he told parliament.
Last week, Budapest’s Semmelweis University revoked Pal Schmitt’s 1992 award after finding that much of his thesis had been copied.
Hungarian President Pal Schmitt has announced his resignation, after being stripped of his doctorate over plagiarism
Pal Schmitt won gold medals for fencing at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games.
He was elected to the largely ceremonial role of president for a five-year term, with strong backing from the conservative ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The university said whole passages of his thesis about the modern Olympic Games had been copied from the work of two other academics.
Pal Schmitt denied wrongdoing and resisted calls for him to go, but on Saturday protesters in Budapest stepped up the pressure for him to resign.
The scandal comes at a sensitive time for the Fidesz government, whose news laws on the judiciary, media and central bank have proven highly controversial.
The European Commission and Euro MPs accuse Viktor Orban of limiting media freedom and the independence of the judiciary and central bank. The row has delayed financial help that Hungary desperately needs to ease its debt crisis.
Pal Schmitt served as Hungary’s ambassador to Spain in 1993-1997, and to Switzerland in 1999-2002.
He was Hungary’s fourth democratically elected president since the collapse of communism in 1989.
Pal Schmitt told parliament he would appeal against the decision which revoked his doctorate. He argues that only a court has the power to take such a decision.
Fidesz support for Pal Schmitt wavered from the very start of the plagiarism allegations.
A single comment from Viktor Orban’s spokesman Peter Szijjarto, that the allegations were “ridiculous”, was not followed up by the party as a whole.
When a committee of the Budapest Semmelweis University issued its 1,157-page report last week, Fidesz simply declared the matter “closed”, while the Christian Democrats (KDNP), their junior partner in government, issued a much more strident attack on the president’s critics, our correspondent says.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban would only say last Friday that the president should make up his own mind.
Normally pro-government newspapers have bristled with articles calling for Mr Schmitt’s resignation, though the same authors also pointed to the failure of former leftist leaders – notably ex-Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany – to resign, after admitting to lying in 2006.
On Sunday, the university rector Tivadar Tulassy stepped down, on the grounds that he had not received support from the relevant ministry. The university’s report was returned unopened by the minister.
New research might help explain why black women are much more likely than whites to develop and die from cervical cancer: they seem to have more trouble clearing HPV, the virus that causes the disease.
Doctors have long thought that less access to screening and follow-up health care were the reasons black women are 40% more likely to develop cervical cancer and twice as likely to die from it.
The new study involving young college women suggests there might be a biological explanation for the racial disparity, too.
The vaccine is recommended for all girls starting at age 11.
The study was presented Sunday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference in Chicago.
Certain strains of HPV, the human papillomavirus, cause cervical cancer, but brief infections are very common in young women. They usually go away on their own within a year or so and only pose a cancer risk when they last long-term.
Researchers at the University of South Carolina in Columbia studied 326 white and 113 black students taking part in a wider federal health study.
All were given Pap tests – lab exams of cells scraped from the cervix – and HPV tests every six months throughout their years in school.
Although the groups were similar in how many new HPV infections were detected and risk factors such as how many sex partners they had, doctors saw striking differences in how long their infections lasted.
The research found that the African-American women were clearing HPV virus about six months longer
At any check-up, blacks were 1.5 times more likely to test positive for infection with one of the HPV strains that raise cancer risk, said study leader Kim Creek.
“The African-American women weren’t clearing the virus as fast. They were actually holding onto it about six months longer,” for 18 months versus 12 months for whites, Kim Creek said.
10% of blacks had abnormal Pap tests versus 6% of whites.
Two years after initial infections were found, 56% of black women were still infected but only 24% of whites remained infected.
The government’s National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities sponsored the study. Kim Creek is a paid speaker for Merck & Co., one of the makers of HPV vaccines.
Cervical cancer has declined dramatically in the United States because of Pap tests, which are recommended every three years for women 21 to 65.
Starting at age 30, women can also have an HPV test every five years; they’re not recommended before then because brief infections are so common, they would give too many false alarms.
About 12,000 new cases and 4,200 deaths from cervical cancer occur each year in the United States, mostly in women who have never been screened or not in the past five years.
Paps cost $15 to $60; HPV tests run $50 to $100.
Doctors don’t know how the vaccine will affect HPV test results or how long the vaccine lasts, so women should still be screened for cervical cancer if they are within the recommended screening ages.
