A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines on late Monday morning killing at least 13 people, official reports say.
The death toll includes at least two children, according to the government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
The quake hit 70 km north of Dumaguete city on Negros island at 11.49 (03.49 GMT) at a depth of 20 km, according to the US Geological Survey.
Two aftershocks with a magnitude of 4.8 and 5.6 followed.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the central Philippines on late Monday morning killing at least 13 people
Dozens of people have also been reported as still missing. Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing in areas where houses and buildings had collapsed due to landslides.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology issued a tsunami alert for the area, but had lifted it by 14.30.
The late morning quake in the Negros and Cebu region had caused panic in nearby cities, with people rushing out of schools, malls and offices. Officials in some areas suspended work and cancelled classes.
A child was reportedly crushed to death by a collapsed wall in Tayasan town in Negros, Benito Ramos, NDRRMC chief told reporters.
Buildings in the cities of Cebu and San Carlos shook violently and sustained damages such as broken windows and cracks on the walls, he added.
The Philippines is located in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. A 7.7-magnitude quake killed nearly 2,000 people in Luzon in 1990.
The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17 with a dramatic last-minute touchdown in a thrilling Super Bowl XLVI at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
NEW YORK GIANTS 21
• Touchdowns: Cruz, Bradshaw
• Field Goals: Tynes (2)
• Safety: Awarded against Brady
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS 17
• Touchdowns: Woodhead, Hernandez
• Field Goal: Gostkowski
Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who destroyed New England in the Super Bowl four years ago, repeated the trick to set up Ahmad Bradshaw’s six-yard run.
There were still 57 seconds for Tom Brady to respond, though, but the Patriots quarterback fell just short.
As in Super Bowl XLII, Manning picked up the Most Valuable Player award.
Manning, who this season led his team to six victories after being in losing positions before the Super Bowl, kept his composure at the end of a keenly contested encounter to mount the winning drive.
He was helped enormously though by a stunning catch by Mario Manningham, which will be remembered for years to come.
It came on the first play of their final drive. Manning, on his own 12-yard line with less than four minutes remaining, signalled his intent by firing a long pass down the left sideline. Manningham defied gravity to produce a superb catch as he fell, somehow getting both feet down in bounds and holding on to the ball.
It provided the Giants – who began the game well, taking an early 9-0 lead – with fresh impetus after they wilted under some relentless pressure from the Brady-inspired Patriots.
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning poses with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Giants defeated the New England Patriots by a score of 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium
Eight plays later, and in surreal circumstances, Bradshaw fell into the endzone, completely untouched by the New England defence, who were prepared to concede the touchdown because it would have allowed Brady enough time for one final chance.
Were Bradshaw to have fallen at the one-yard line, Scottish-American kicker Lawrence Tynes would have had an easy field goal attempt to win the game as time expired.
Giants running back Bradshaw, who impressed throughout with 72 rushing yards from 17 attempts, could not stop himself from scoring, setting up a nailbiting final minute in which Brady – who completed a Super Bowl record 16 passes in a row during the game – did his utmost to snatch victory for New England.
But, with the last play of the game, his Hail Mary pass was batted to the ground by the Giants’ relieved defence.
It was cruel on Brady, playing in his fifth Super Bowl, who recovered superbly from conceding a safety with his first possession to complete 27 of 41 passes for 276 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
The Giants capitalized on Brady’s mistake to take a 9-0 lead when Victor Cruz snagged Manning’s perfectly thrown two-yard pass.
New England responded, hitting back with a well-measured drive before ultimately being stopped by the Giants’ defence. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski made no mistake from 29 yards though to get them on the scoreboard.
Danny Woodhead’s catch in the endzone then capped a masterful 14-play drive from Tom Brady, which saw the Patriots march 96 yards down the field at the end of the first half – tying the Super Bowl record for the longest drive.
Brady picked up where he left off at the start of the third quarter with another controlled drive before ultimately finding Aaron Hernandez with a short pass. The tight end fought off Deon Grant’s despairing tackle to run into the endzone to make it 17-9.
The Patriots defence, with a reputation for giving up a lot of yards but not so many points, then took inspiration from their offence. Some fearful hitting and tackling restricted the Giants, but nonetheless they got three more points onto the board courtesy of a 38-yard Tynes field goal.
New England failed to respond, but were unlucky soon afterwards when they failed to recover the Giants’ wide receiver Hakeem Nicks’s fumble.
New York failed to fully capitalise on their stroke of good luck and were forced to settle for another Tynes field goal, this time from33 yards, at the end of the third quarter to bring them back within two points at 17-15.
Brady’s trademark composure slipped at the start of the fourth quarter when, after successfully evading two tackles, his long bomb down the field was intercepted by Chase Blackburn.
Bradshaw then nearly gave the ball straight back to New England but again the Giants got lucky when Chris Snee recovered the fumble.
The Patriots then aimed to run down the clock in the knowledge that the Giants had already blown two of their three timeouts.
But, after punting the ball back, Manning – who completed 30 of 40 throws for 296 yards – was able to weave his magic and set up yet another fairytale ending for the Giants.
An explosive book claims that John F. Kennedy took the virginity of a White House intern in a side room, just feet away from where administration staff were drinking at an after-work party.
Mimi Alford, now 69, told how former president John F. Kennedy led her into “Mrs. Kennedy’s room” during a personal tour, where he proceeded to have sex with her.
Mimi Alford, a retired New York church administrator and grandmother, also revealed in her tell-all memoir details how, during a passionate 18-month affair with the commander-in-chief, he told her to perform a sex act on his friend as he watched.
She also claims the then 45-year-old president also stuffed party-drug amyl nitrate, more commonly known as poppers, under her nose after telling her it would enhance their sex life.
But during their romance, Mimi Alford said JFK never properly kissed her and that she was often forced to play “a waiting game” as to when she would see him.
John F. Kennedy led the former intern into “Mrs. Kennedy’s room” during a personal tour, where he proceeded to have sex with her, Mimi Alford claims
Mimi Alford’s book “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath” tells the story of when the 19-year-old debutante from New Jersey landed a job in the White House press office.
It was just four days into her internship that Mimi Alford was invited for a midday swim in the White House pool, where JFK exercised to ease his chronic back pain, and where they spoke briefly.
Later that day, Mimi Alford was invited by his best friend Dave Powers to an after-work party, it was reported in The New York Post.
After drinking several cocktails, JFK took her on a “personal tour”, where she says he moved “closer and closer” until he was standing above her, guiding her onto the edge of a bed.
Mimi Alford wrote in the book: “Slowly, he unbuttoned the top of my shirtdress and touched my breasts. Then he reached up between my legs and started to pull off my underwear.
“I finished unbuttoning my shirtdress and let it fall off my shoulders.”
Mimi Alford said John F. Kennedy pulled down his trousers, but kept his shirt on, and paused when he noticed she seemed reluctant.
He asked her if she had done this before and she initially replied “No” but then changed her mind and said “Yes”.
After intercourse, Mimi Alford said: “He hitched up his pants and smiled at me.” She claims he pointed her to the bathroom and went back to the West Sitting Hall where they had met.
She said: “I was in shock. He, on the other hand, was matter-of-fact, and acted as if what had just occurred was the most natural thing in the world. On the ride home, it kept echoing in my head: I’m not a virgin anymore.”
Mimi Alford's book “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath” tells the story of when the 19-year-old debutante from New Jersey landed a job in the White House press office
Mimi Alford said she went swimming with him again the next week and, although he “barely acknowledged” her arrival, they later ended up in another bedroom which was, she says, the start of the affair.
She said: “The fact that I was being desired by the most famous and powerful man in America only amplified my feelings to the point where resistance was out of the question. That’s why I didn’t say no to the president. It’s the best answer I can give.”
Mimi Alford, who ironically went to the same Miss Porter’s school as JFK’s wife Jackie, described the former president as “playful”, the sex as “varied and fun” and said he could be “seductive and playful”.
She said they spent a lot of time “taking baths” and that if they spent the night together, she would wear his own soft-blue cotton nightshirts.
But Mimi Alford also revealed complications in the relationship, saying they never kissed, and that she was often subjected to a “waiting game” where she was told to stay in her hotel until he called for her.
There is also a dark undertone to some of JFK’s actions in the book, such as when he “forced” her to sniff amyl nitrate, commonly known as poppers, during a Hollywood party at Bing Crosby’s desert ranch.
Mimi Alford said: “I was sitting next to him in the living room when a handful of yellow capsules – most likely amyl nitrate, commonly known as poppers – was offered up by one of the guests.
“The president asked me if I wanted to try the drug, which stimulated the heart but also purportedly enhanced sex.
“I said no, but he just went ahead and popped the capsule and held it under my nose. He didn’t try it himself. This was a new sensation, and it frightened me. I panicked and ran crying from the room.”
Mimi Alford also tells of how JFK asked her to “take care” of his friends Powers who “looked a little tense” while they were swimming in the White House pool.
“It was a dare, but I knew exactly what he meant. This was a challenge to give Dave Powers oral sex. I don’t think the president thought I’d do it, but I’m ashamed to say that I did… The president silently watched,” she said.
During the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, where the U.S. and USSR had a nuclear stand-off, JFK reportedly told Mimi Alford that: “I’d rather my children red than dead.”
Mimi Alford, then Mimi Beardsley, also tells of how she erroneously believed at one point she was pregnant with JFK’s child, and another moment of when her lover reached out to her following the death of his infant son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy.
Mimi Alford wrote: “I had never seen real grief in my relatively short life. He invited me upstairs, and we sat outside on the balcony in the soft summer evening air. There was a stack of condolence letters on the floor next to his chair, and he picked each one up and read it aloud to me… Occasionally, tears rolling down his cheeks, he would write something on one of the letters, probably notes for a reply. But mostly he just read them and cried. I did, too.”
She said she saw President John F. Kennedy for the final time at The Carlyle hotel in Manhattan on November 15, 1963, just a week before his assassination in Dallas.
At this point Mimi Alford was due to be married to her college sweetheart, Tony Fahnestock.
“He took me in his arms for a long embrace and said, <<I wish you were coming with me to Texas>>. And then he added, <<I’ll call you when I get back>>. I was overcome with sudden sadness. <<Remember, Mr. President, I’m getting married>>.
“<<I know that>>, he said, and shrugged. <<But I’ll call you anyway>>.”
A greedy cormorant came inland for a meal at the Sevenoaks Wildfowl Reserve in Kent, UK, and tried desperately to gulp down a huge 5 lb pike.
Having thrashed around on the surface of the water for around five minutes the ravenous cormorant appeared to have won the battle, swallowing most of the pike’s body.
But just when it seemed like it was ready to move on to dessert the seabird suddenly regurgitated the freshwater pike having decided it was simply too big to go down.
Adamant that he could finish the fish in one it made one more token attempt, seizing the pike again, before finally giving up.
A greedy cormorant came inland for a meal at the Sevenoaks Wildfowl Reserve in Kent, UK, and tried desperately to gulp down a huge 5 lb pike (Photo Fred O'Hare)
The pike floated away and photographer, 68-year-old Fred O’Hare, who took the amazing pictures was unsure whether it survived.
Fred O’Hare, a retired fireman from West Wickham, Kent, had turned up hoping to photograph another bird, a bittern, but his lens was attracted to the life or death battle between the cormorant and the pike.
He said: “I saw the cormorant surfacing with something and couldn’t make out what it was to start with. It became apparent it was a pike and it was clearly too big for the cormorant.
“It tried really hard to swallow it but got fed up in the end and the pike drifted off. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before.”
There are thought to be around 24,000 wintering cormorants in the UK.
Some species of cormorant can dive to a depth of 45 metres in the hunt for fish.
US director Abel Ferrara announced that French legend Gerard Depardieu is to star as Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a film about the sex scandal that caused the former IMF chief to resign.
Abel Ferrara told Le Monde newspaper he would be making the film, with Isabelle Adjani playing Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn left the International Monetary Fund in May last year after being charged with raping a New York hotel maid.
The case was dropped but ended his ambitions for the French presidency.
Before the scandal, DSK, a former French finance minister, was thought to have had aspirations to run as a Socialist contender for the post.
French writer Tristane Banon later accused DSK of trying to sexually assault her during an interview in 2003, claims he denied. No action was taken because of a three-year statute of limitations but Tristane Banon has indicated she may still file a civil suit.
Abel Ferrara told Le Monde the film would be shot in New York, Paris and Washington.
“In all the places of power: It’s a film about the rich and powerful,” said the director.
US director Abel Ferrara announced that French legend Gerard Depardieu is to star as Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a film about the sex scandal that caused the former IMF chief to resign
The project has long been rumored, but Abel Ferrara confirmed he would be going ahead with it in June, despite the doubts of his producers Wildbunch.
“I am the director. No one is going to stop me talking about my film,” said Abel Ferrara.
Abel Ferrara met Gerard Depardieu, 63, at the Deauville film festival in September and said the French star was everything a director could wish for in an actor.
Abel Ferrara is best known for hard-hitting films dealing with the dark and seedy side of life, such as Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey Keitel as a corrupt New York policeman with a drug and gambling addiction.
The cold snap that hit Europe in the last week has already claimed more than 260 lives across the continent.
Ukraine continues to be hardest hit, with another 9 deaths overnight. According to officials, 131 have died up to now, most of them homeless people, and 1,800 people have been taken to hospital.
Eight people died in Poland overnight, police say, bringing the toll to 53.
In Romania, another 6 people died overnight rising the death toll to 34, the Black Sea is still frozen on the coastline and dozens of roads are closed due the freezing rain that hit the country after the snowfalls.
The cold snap that hit Europe in the last week has already claimed more than 260 lives across the continent
Transport hubs have also been hit, with London’s Heathrow airport expecting to run only 50% of services on Sunday.
At least 4 people have died in France since the Arctic spell began and 43 departments in France have been put on alert for “exceptional” weather conditions.
The Italian capital Rome has seen its heaviest snowfall in more than 25 years, with runs on essential goods at supermarkets reported.
“The snow is beautiful, but let’s hope spring comes soon,” Pope Benedict XVI told the small number of pilgrims who braved the cold to go to St. Peter’s Square.
The Italian national rail operator is facing class action lawsuits after hundreds of people were trapped in trains due to the weather, AFP news agency reports.
Three helicopters were being used over eastern Bosnia on Sunday to deliver food and pick up people who needed evacuation.
A state of emergency is in force in the capital, Sarajevo, where snow has paralyzed the city.
In neighboring Serbia, 70,000 people remain cut off and 32 municipalities throughout the country have introduced emergency measures, according to senior emergency official Predrag Maric.
The Netherlands marked temperatures of -21.8C in the town of Lelystad on Saturday, the lowest recorded in the country for 27 years.
Activists for animal rights have demanded a boycott of Liam Neeson’s new film, The Grey, after the British actor revealed he ate wolf stew to prepare for his role.
In the movie, Liam Neeson, 59, plays the leader of a group of oil workers being hunted down by a pack of wolves after surviving a plane crash in the Arctic.
During the making of the film, the director suggested that cast members eat real wolf meat to “get into character”.
But while some were reluctant, Liam Neeson revealed that he “went up for seconds of the wolf stew”.
Furious members of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a statement: “Neeson’s stance on kindness to animals is sorely out of step with the rest of the world.”
And arguing that instead of being predatory, wolves normally shy away from human contact, PETA urged cinema-goers: “Don’t just shy away. Run away from The Grey.”
Activists for animal rights have demanded a boycott of Liam Neeson’s new film, The Grey, after the British actor revealed he ate wolf stew to prepare for his role
Most of the wolf scenes in The Grey were shot using special effects, but PETA claims the film’s director Joe Carnahan ordered wolf carcasses from a trapper and that the animals would have suffered “horribly” before they died.
“Many animals caught in traps chew off their own limbs in order to escape,” said PETA spokeswoman Jane Dollinger.
“These animals go on to die of gangrene or other secondary infections, sometimes leaving nursing puppies abandoned to fend for themselves.
“Wolves are intelligent, family-oriented animals who mate for life and live in tightly bonded packs.
“Breaking up a wolf family causes loneliness, separation-anxiety, depression and grief.”
At a press conference to promote The Grey, Liam Neeson, who was born in County Antrim, said that while some cast members had been sick after eating the wolf meat, he was not fazed by the experience.
Liam Neeson said: “It was very gamey. But I’m Irish, so I’m used to odd stews. I can take it. Just throw a lot of carrots and onions in there and I’ll call it dinner.”
Wolf experts have joined PETA in its protest, claiming the film, which was shot in British Columbia in Canada, will incite Americans to slaughter wolves after falsely portraying them as man-eaters.
“Wolves pose no threat whatsoever to human beings,” said Jane Dollinger.
The animals faced extinction in the US until they were added to the endangered species list in many states.
In British Columbia, though there are just 8,000 left, it is still legal to kill them in traps.
Despite the animal rights protesters’ anger, The Grey has topped the American box-office charts since its release.
And reviews of the film have been sympathetic to Liam Neeson, noting a parallel with his character and tragic events in his own life.
Liam Neeson’s wife and mother of his two teenage sons, the English actress Natasha Richardson, died in 2009 from a head injury sustained in a skiing accident.
In The Grey it is suggested that Liam Neeson’s character has a death wish as a result of a tragedy involving his wife.
“Let’s just say that I had to do very little research,” Liam Neeson said of the role.
“I knew the emotions that had to be accessed. We just played the scenes of a man whose heart is broken.”
In addition to eating wolf meat, Liam Neeson did survivalist training to prepare for Canada’s sub-zero temperatures.
“I saw a documentary about this British man a few years ago who liked to swim through icebergs in Antarctica,” he said.
“He started preparing by taking freezing-cold showers for ten minutes every morning. I did the same thing to prepare for this movie, but I only got up to seven minutes.”
A spokeswoman for Liam Neeson referred questions about animal rights issues to the film’s producers, who declined to comment.
More than 100 dolphins have now beached off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, as mammals continue to get inexplicably stranded on the region’s beaches.
Three of them died on Friday, meaning that of 116 common dolphins that have beached since January 12, 84 have died, though rescuers have managed to save the rest.
This year’s strandings dwarf the average of 37 common dolphin strandings annually over the last 12 years, and no one can explain why the numbers have mysteriously spiked this year.
Scientists have theories, ranging from geography, weather changes or behavior of their prey.
Mike Booth of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is leading rescue efforts, said dolphins remain close off the Cape Cod and more strandings are possible.
Massachusetts lawmakers held a Congressional briefing on the issue Friday and campaigned for federal funding to hep the staff and some 300 trained volunteers, the Cape Cod Times reported.
More than 100 dolphins have now beached off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, as mammals continue to get inexplicably stranded on the region's beaches
Friday’s death came after ten dolphins approached Wellfleet, and four beached. Three died and one was rescued.
Although this time of year is known to be “high season” for dolphin stranding near Cape Cod, IFAW aren’t sure why so many dolphins are beaching now.
One theory is that the marine creates get stranded during low tides while hunting for food. When the tide goes out, the dolphins become stranded.
Katie Moore, a Cape Cod dolphin rescue veteran of 15 years, told CNN that this is only the second time she has seen this many dolphins washing ashore.
“Sometimes they come up one at a time, other times we see them 10 at a time,” Katie Moore said.
IFAW’s stranding coordinator B. Sharp said: “This might be the largest dolphin stranding geographically speaking that we’ve had.”
According to a Student British Medical Journal report, sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) among older adults have more than doubled in the past 10 years, as the age group is having more sex than ever.
Of those between 50 and 90 years of age, 80% are sexually active, according to the report, spreading opportunity for disease with the aid of possibly overlooked symptoms.
“A 56 year old man has trouble with his <<waterworks>>. A 61 year old woman reports lower abdominal pain. The chances are that sexually transmitted infections are not high on your list of differential diagnoses – but increasing evidence indicates that they should be,” state the co-authors.
Sexually transmitted diseases among older adults have more than doubled in the past 10 years, as the age group is having more sex than ever
In the editorial discussion by Rachel von Simson, a medical student at King’s College London, and Ranjababu Kulasegaram, a consultant genitourinary physician at St Thomas’ Hospital London, cases like HIV among the group now composes 20% of the UK’s reported HIV population.
That’s up from 11% in 2001.
With the increase in reports of HIV among older populations, the authors write on increased cases of other diseases like syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the UK, United States and Canada’s older demographic.
The authors write that the cause is in part because of prolonged health and survival.
This news brings several words of caution in the report, as well as by experts, suggesting seniors may want to consider STD testing.
“You never have to retire from sex,” clinical psychologist Judy Kuriansky told CNN, “but you should always behave as the 20-30 year-olds do. You need to be cautious about it.”
“Just as we spend a lot of time advising kids to practice safer sex, we need to do the same things for ourselves and our parents,” sex therapist Ian Kerner told CNN.
Ian Kerner points out that those on their 50’s and up compose the fastest-growing demographics for those who use online dating.
But with some older women into or past menopause believing a condom as unnecessary or men finding them contributors of erectile dysfunction, according to the CNN report, safe sex has dwindled while the more unfavorable, ailing figures rise.
Britney Spears and Jason Alexander were married for a mere 55 hours in 2004 before their union was annulled, and now he has opened up about their short-lived marriage, insisting that he was in love with the singer.
In a new interview with ABC’s 20/20 show, Jason Alexander says that the decision to end the marriage had not been his.
He said: “I was in love with her. … I feel like she felt the same way.”
Jason Alexander said that when they broke the news of the marriage to Britney Spears’ management team: “They didn’t want to hear anything … and [Spears] came back, and it ended. That was pretty wild.”
In the annulment papers for the marriage, it was claimed that Britney Spears “lacked understanding of her actions, to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage”.
But Jason Alexander says of that claim: “Bull***t. That was probably the hardest part about it. I had obviously got my feelings involved.”
Jason Alexander has opened up about his short-lived marriage to Britney Spears, insisting that he was in love with the singer
Asked what he had learned from the marriage, Jason Alexander replied: “Nice guys finish last. Look out for yourself.
“If you are going to really get involved into a relationship with a celebrity and you are just an average Joe, make sure you are thinking business!”
Following the annulment, Britney Spears said in an interview: “It was me being silly, being rebellious.”
Since the annulment, Britney Spears has been married to dancer Kevin Federline, the father of her two sons, and is now engaged to marry her former agent Jason Trawick.
However, Jason Alexander spoke last year about Britney Spears’ engagement to Jason Trawick, labelling it “fake”.
Jason Alexander said: “I know everyone wants me to be happy about this, but I am not. I think it’s fake and I think people are afraid to say it.
“They look like they are going through the motions. It seems like an answer to the court thing. Sort of a nice way to sew it all up she marries her handler.”
Lion King-ing, the latest internet phenomenon, sees pet owners around the world lifting their animals above their head.
The phenomenon, copying a famous scene from the film The Lion King, follows other such memes as planking, owling and Tebowing.
The videos take their inspiration from the famous scene in the beginning of The Lion King where the wise mandrill Rafiki presents the young Simba to the herd.
In the movie, the Elton John “Circle of Life” song is heard, and many of the online videos have the same music.
“I think that everyone with a cat or a small dog has done it before,” said Jeff Wysaski, a blogger on Pleated-jeans.com who made a viral video of the phenomenon from clips other pet owners had posted on YouTube.
“I checked on YouTube, and, lo and behold, there were a ton of videos of people doing it. I thought it would be funny to put them together.
“I think most people don’t talk about it, but when you bring it up other cat owners, they’re like, <<I do that>>, <<I have done that>.”
Lion King-ing, the latest internet phenomenon, sees pet owners around the world lifting their animals above their head
Jeff Wysaski admitted he “Lion Kings” his own tabby cat.
“She’s not too happy about it,” he said.
“A lot of the animals are … just putting up with us and our ridiculousness.”
Lion King-ing is the latest internet phenomenon to join the ranks of planking, Tebowing and owling.
Planking involved people posting pictures of themselves lying flat in random places for no apparent reason.
Tebowing took its name from the Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who dropped to one knee and paused with a hand resting on his forehead as he prayed during a game.
Images soon starting spring up all over the internet of people pulling the exact same pose.
Owling consisted of people crouching on their haunches and staring into the middle distance, like an owl.
Two civilians and at least five police officers have died in a car bomb attack on police headquarters in the city of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan.
Other 19 people were wounded in the blast in a car park outside the police building, the local government said.
The blast – thought to have been caused by explosives hidden inside a parked car and detonated remotely – was strong enough to shatter nearby windows.
No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two civilians and at least five police officers have died in a car bomb attack on police headquarters in the city of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan
Kandahar is the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the province is considered to be the spiritual homeland of the Taliban.
Militants frequently launch attacks against government and military targets in the province, despite intensive efforts by NATO-led forces in recent years to improve security there.
The United Nations said on Saturday that civilian deaths in Afghanistan had risen for the fifth year in a row – with 3,021 deaths in 2011 compared with 2,790 in 2010 and 2,412 in 2009.
Film and Broadway actor Ben Gazzara has died on Friday in New York at the age of 81.
Ben Gazzara was best known for playing tough characters and villains in the films Anatomy of a Murder in 1959 and 1970’s Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
The actor, who had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, later appeared in cult comedy The Big Lebowski, directed by the Coen Brothers.
Ben Gazzara began his career in the theatre, starring in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Ben Gazzara died on Friday.
The son of Italian immigrants, Ben Gazzara was a proponent of method acting and it helped him achieve stardom early in his career.
In 1955, Ben Gazzara originated the role of Brick Pollitt, the disturbed alcoholic son and failed football star in the Tennessee Williams’ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Ben Gazzara left the show after only seven months to take on the role of Johnny Pope, the drug addict in A Hatful of Rain, which earned him the first of three Tony Award nominations.
Film and Broadway actor Ben Gazzara has died on Friday in New York at the age of 81
In 1965 Ben Gazzara starred in the TV series Run for Your Life which saw him twice nominated for an Emmy during the show’s three-year run.
His other films included The Strange One, The Thomas Crown Affair and Opening Night, one of three appearances directed by his friend John Cassavetes.
Ben Gazzara’s marriages to actresses Louise Erikson and Janice Rule, ended in divorce. He married his third wife, the model Elke Krivatand, in 1982.
Fidel Castro, the former Cuban president has made a rare public appearance to launch his memoirs.
The book, “Guerrilla of Time”, is almost 1,000 pages long and relates his childhood and rise to power in the Cuban Revolution.
He said it was every Cuban’s duty to fight until the last moment, for Cuba, the planet, and humanity.
Fidel Castro, 85, had not been seen in public since April last year.
Communist Party newspaper Granma said the launch at the Havana Convention Centre lasted more than six hours.
The two-volume memoir is based on conversations between Fidel Castro and journalist Katiuska Blanco.
It starts with former President Fidel Castro’s earliest childhood memories and takes the reader up to December 1958, the eve of the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista by Castro and his followers.
Culture Minister Abel Prieto and Director of the Cuban Writers’ Union Miguel Barnet were among those speaking at the launch.
Miguel Barnet said the memoirs were “as vivid as a 3D film”.
At the event, Fidel Castro spoke about current affairs, praising Latin American students for “standing up for their right to free education”.
Fidel Castro also paid tribute to his friend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who “had done more than anyone else for the Venezuelan people”.
It was the first time Fidel Castro had appeared in public since the closing session of the Communist Party Congress in April 2011.
Fidel Castro handed over the presidency to his brother Raul in 2006, and has kept a low profile since, fuelling speculation over his health.
Peter Huybers, a Harvard earth sciences professor, has finally proved the idea that slight shifts in Earth’s axis are enough to trigger the ice ages using computer models to test competing ideas – and finding that earth’s tilting axis is the only one that works.
The finding could have profound implications for our understanding of our planet’s climate and could, its author says, be crucial to “predicting long-term changes in future climate”.
Two “cycles” in the way Earth’s axis spins have an effect on the cycle – one lasting 10,000 years and one lasting roughly 40,000 years.
When they align correctly, ice melts. At the other extreme, glaciers advance.
The idea that these could dictate the cycles of glaciation in Earth’s climate was first proposed by Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milankovitch in the first half of the 20th century.
“These periods of deglaciation saw massive climate changes,” Prof. Peter Huybers said.
“Sea level increased by 130 meters, temperatures rose by about 5 degrees C, and atmospheric CO2 went from 180 to 280 parts per million.
“We ought to understand what caused these massive changes in past climate if we are to predict long-term changes in future climate with any confidence.
“And at least now we know with greater than 99% confidence that shifts in earth’s axis are among the factors that contribute to deglaciation.”
Prof. Peter Huybers has finally proved the idea that slight shifts in Earth's axis are enough to trigger the ice ages using computer models to test competing ideas
When both cycles align “correctly”, the glaciers retreat rapidly.
“When you get that alignment, the radiation that the Northern Hemisphere receives during summer increases by tens of watts per meter squared, and if large Northern ice sheets are present, they tend to disintegrate.
“These statistical findings agree exactly with what Milutin Milankovitch, a Serbian geophysicist, proposed in the first half of the 20th century.”
Prof. Peter Huybers emphasizes that these cycles are only one factor among many.
“It could also be that orbital forcing causes a rise is atmospheric CO2, and that it’s the increased CO2 that drives the loss of ice sheets,” he said.
“In all likelihood, both CO2 and increased summer radiation contribute to deglaciation. They’re both expected to push the climate system toward less ice.”
Ioana Spangenberg, a Romanian model with a waist of just 20 inches, has insisted she eats three square meals a day, including fatty foods such as crisps, pizza and kebabs.
She told The Sun: “No one seems to believe it, but every day I eat three big meals and I snack on chocolate and crisps all the time. I just have a small stomach. It’s a bit like a gastric band, if I eat too much I feel sick.”
Ioana Spangenberg was born a very normal weight of seven pounds, and only saw her body transform into what it is now when she was a teenager.
When she was 13, Ioana would get friends to put their hands completely around her 15 in waist.
Ioana Spangenberg, a Romanian model with a waist of just 20 inches has insisted she eats three square meals a day, including fatty foods such as crisps, pizza and kebabs
Ioana Spangenberg says she has tried to fatten up, eating sweets like Mars bars to do so, but to no avail.
It was only in 2006 when she met her German husband Jan Spangenberg, that she says she finally became comfortable in her own skin.
Her husband encouraged her to become a model after photographs he posted of her online received a fantastic reaction.
“I would still like to gain weight so I don’t look so shocking. And now that I live in Germany I can’t get enough pizza or kebabs.”
More than 200 people were killed by Syrian government forces which bombarded the city of Homs with tank shells and mortars, opposition groups say.
Activists say a massacre has occurred but the government denied attacking, accusing the opposition of propaganda.
But opposition fighters, though outgunned, plan to launch a “general offensive”.
A vote is expected later on a UN draft resolution, despite Syrian ally Russia voicing strong objections.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday the current draft included measures against President Bashar al-Assad’s government, but not against armed opposition groups.
Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had tabled amendments to the text to try and ensure the UN would not appear to be taking sides in a civil war.
Homs appears to have come under a “pretty relentless” bombardment, which targeted areas outside government control.
Funerals have already begun in large numbers, amid reports of a death toll as high as 260.
Russia’s foreign minister said it would be a “scandal” to ask the UN Security Council to vote on the resolution in its current form.
Russia is Syria’s main ally on the council, and has said it will veto any resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad to stand down.
Moscow has continued to supply weapons to Syria despite the protests.
However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the Homs assault was a “further step in savagery” and warned against a veto.
“Those who would hinder the adoption of such a resolution would assume a heavy responsibility in history,” he said.
In another blow to the Assad regime, Tunisia’s government said it had begun the process of expelling the Syrian ambassador and withdrawing recognition from the government.
A death toll higher than 200 at Homs would make it by quite a long way the bloodiest day since protests began.
More than 200 people were killed by Syrian government forces which bombarded the city of Homs with tank shells and mortars, opposition groups say
Homs was one of the first cities to join anti-Assad protests, and became one of the focal points of dissent after government forces fired on crowds in April last year. Many army defectors have sought refuge in the city.
Activists said most of the deaths were in the residential area of Khalidiya.
Reports said a hospital had been destroyed in Khalidiya, and residents said more than 30 houses had been wrecked in the barrage.
“We were sitting inside our house when we started hearing the shelling. We felt shells were falling on our heads,” Khalidiya resident Waleed told Reuters news agency.
Video footage emerged on the internet showing several bodies covered in blood with a voiceover saying the bombardment was still going on.
State media dismissed the Homs casualty reports as a “hysterical campaign of incitement” by armed gangs designed to influence the UN.
“The civilians shown by satellite television stations are citizens who were kidnapped and killed by armed gunmen,” said a report on Sana news agency.
International media outlets are restricted in Syria, making it difficult to verify the claims of either side.
Meanwhile, activists have attacked Syrian embassies around the world
• Around 50 mainly Syrian protesters broke into their country’s embassy in Athens early on Saturday, smashing windows and
• About 20 protesters forced their way into the Syrian embassy in Berlin late on Friday and damaged offices, police said. German TV showed a Syrian resistance flag hanging from one of the windows and graffiti sprayed on the outside of the building
• About 150 demonstrators gathered outside the Syrian embassy in London early on Saturday and five people were arrested after entering the building
• In Cairo, protesters stormed the embassy building, smashing furniture and setting fire to parts of the building
Syria has been gripped by nationwide protests against Bashar al-Assad’s regime for almost a year.
The UN stopped estimating the death toll after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm numbers.
The Syrian government says at least 2,000 members of its security forces have been killed fighting “armed gangs and terrorists”.
A new research by New York’s Stony Brook University and Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, has found that even after ten years of marriage, the level of love can be as intense as it was at the beginning of the relationship.
The study polled 274 married individuals.
40% of subjects who had been married for over ten years told researchers that they were still “very intensely in love”.
Another 13.4% said they were “intensely in love”, and 26.2% agreed with the statement that they were “very in love”.
The feeling was defined by a combination of behaviors such as thinking positively about the partner, being affectionate with one another, sexual intercourse and general life happiness.
The research has found that even after ten years of marriage, the level of love can be as intense as it was at the beginning of the relationship
The study authors say their results counter the commonly-held belief that feelings of love decline over time.
This is even true for couples married well over a decade, it seems. While the findings showed a drop in very intense feelings of love for those married over 20 years, it rose back up to 40% for couples married over 30 years.
There were some differences between the sexes when it came to behavior that represented intense feelings of love, however.
For men, thinking about their partner at all times was a key marker of a deep love, but the same was not true of women.
Female participants, in contrast, linked those strong feelings to passion for “non-relationship factors”, the study authors revealed.
This idea of women needing space to be happy is echoed in a book by Huffington Post writer Iris Krasnow, “The Secret Lives of Wives: Women Share What It Really Takes To Stay Married”.
Iris Krasnow writes: “In order to keep the promise <<till death do us part>> without killing someone first, a woman must have work and hobbies she loves.”
U.S. company Innovega announced that its iOptik contact lenses which focus 3D screens directly into people’s eyeballs could be on sale as early as 2014.
The tiny “screens” sit directly on users’ eyeballs and work with a pair of lightweight glasses with a built-in translucent screen.
The experience is equivalent to a 240-inch television viewed at a distance of 10 feet, says Innovega’s CEO Steve Willey.
The devices can “pair” with smartphones and portable game devices to deliver up-close video – or switch to a translucent “augmented reality” view, where computer information is layered over the world we know.
The devices can be worn while moving about – previous bulky “VR headsets” have blindfolded their users and can only be used sitting down.
Innovega announced that its iOptik contact lenses which focus 3D screens directly into people's eyeballs could be on sale as early as 2014
The effect could be similar to the lenses worn by Tom Cruise in Minority Report.
Innovega is also developing hi-tech lenses for use by American soldiers, feeding battlefield information directly into their eyes.
DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), thought of as the American military’s “mad scientist” wing, has been funding research on “soldier mounted displays” for some time.
It’s now working on “iOptik” lenses with Innovega.
The lenses, made with nano-scale engineering processes, work as a hi-tech focusing device, which allows Innovega’s glasses to be considerably less bulky than previous devices.
The lenses themselves require no power, and thus can sit safely on the eyeball.
DARPA projects are often oddball technology, but it also has a history of far-sighted technological leaps.
DARPA invented the first virtual reality devices, and one of the precursors of the modern internet.
DARPA says: “Innovega’s iOptiks are contact lenses that enhance normal vision by allowing a wearer to view virtual and augmented reality images without the need for bulky apparatus.
“Instead of oversized virtual reality helmets, digital images are projected onto tiny full-color displays that are very near the eye.
“These novel contact lenses allow users to focus simultaneously on objects that are close up and far away.”
Innovega claims that the devices could become popular rapidly due to the number of contact lens wearers worldwide.
The program seeks to develop novel computational imaging capabilities and explore joint design of hardware and software that give warfighters access to systems that greatly enhance their awareness, security and survivability.
Rumors emerged yesterday that Kim Kardashian and NFL star Mark Sanchez were secretly seeing each other while he was said to be dating Victoria’s Secret model Kate Upton.
Kim Kardashian, 31, had quickly denied that she is dating Mark Sanchez.
She took to her Twitter account to set the record straight.
In fact Kim Kardashian said that she doesn’t even know the sportsman.
She wrote: “Dating rumors are always fun when u don’t even know the people your supposedly linked to! Who makes this stuff up!”
Rumors that Kim Kardashian was moving on following the breakdown of her 72-day marriage to basketball player husband Kris Humphries by dating the New York Jets player emerged yesterday.
Kim Kardashian had quickly denied that she is dating Mark Sanchez; in fact she said that she doesn't even know the sportsman
They came after Mark Sanchez was said to dating Victoria’s Secret Model Kate Upton, 19.
Website Strawberryicecream.com reported that the fact that Mark Sanchez was involved with somebody else didn’t stop him from indulging in secret meetings with Kim Kardashian in New York.
The website claimed a source said: “They are very careful with not being seen together, Mark is seeing someone!”
The source added: “Kim and Mark like to meet in hotels for dinner dates and <<flings>>. Whenever Kim is in New York, they hang out.”
The website also claims that Kim Kardashian and Mark Sanchez were planning a rendezvous for the Super Bowl weekend.
A representative for Kim Kardashian also denied allegations that the reality star is dating the quarterback.
The reports are unlikely to be well-received by Kate Upton, who has been linked to the sports star since December.
According to the New York Post, Mark Sanchez has frequently been spotted arriving at Kate Upton’s home late at night.
A source told the New York Post in December: “They never come in together. He’s always five steps after her.”
The quarterback has dated a string of beauties, including Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Hilary Rhoda, since he rose to fame when joining the New York Jets.
According to the New York Post, Mark Sanchez has frequently been spotted arriving at Kate Upton's home late at night
In the summer of 2011 Mark Sanchez was linked to Heroes star Hayden Panettiere, although the blonde denied they were romantically involved at the time.
Hayden Panettiere told Us Weekly: “I swear I’m not dating him at all. Honestly. I’m a huge Jets fan and became very good friends with him and his buddies.
“There’s genuinely, absolutely nothing going on. I’ve always been that girl who has a lot of dude friends. I’m into sports so we have a lot in common, but no, definitely 100% not dating.”
Kim Kardashian found herself in hot water earlier this month after Amber Rose claimed the reality star was the reason behind her split from Kanye West.
The model claimed that Kim Kardashian, who was dating Reggie Bush at the time, began an affair that led her and Kanye West to break up.
Amber Rose said: “She’s a homewrecker! They were both cheating. They were both cheating on me and Reggie with each other.”
And she said that Kim Kardashian instigated the affair by sending sexy pictures of herself to him as well as calling and texting him.
Amber Rose added: “She was sending pictures, and I was like, <<Kim, just stop. Don’t be that person>>.”
Amber Rose said she also emailed Kim Kardashian asking her for an explanation but was disappointed not to get a reply.
The model said: “I thought at least she’d be woman enough to respond to me. She never responded.
“It’s very important that us women stick together and we don’t f*** each other over like that.”
Scientists at the University of Cambridge suggest that abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts.
The researchers found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters.
The study, published in the journal Science, suggested addiction is in part a “disorder of the brain”.
Other experts said the non-addicted siblings offered hope of new ways of teaching addicts “self-control”.
It has long been established that the brains of drug addicts have some differences to other people, but explaining that finding has been more difficult.
Scientists were unsure whether drugs changed the wiring of the brain or if drug addicts’ brains were wired differently in the first place.
This study, funded by the Medical Research Council, attempted to answer that by comparing the brains of 50 cocaine or crack addicts with the brain of their brother or sister, who had always been clean.
Both the addicts and the non-addict siblings had the same abnormalities in the region of the brain which controls behavior, the fronto-striatal systems.
The suggestion is that these brains may be “hard-wired” for addiction in the first place.
Lead researcher Dr. Karen Ersche said: “It has long been known that not everyone who takes drugs becomes addicted.
“It shows that drug addiction is not a choice of lifestyle, it is a disorder of the brain and we need to recognize this.”
However, the non-addicted siblings had a very different life despite sharing the same susceptibility.
“These brothers and sisters who don’t have addiction problems, what they can tell us is how they overcome these problems, how they manage self-control in their daily life,” Dr. Karen Ersche said.
Dr. Paul Keedwell, a consultant psychiatrist at Cardiff University, said: “Addiction, like most psychiatric disorders, is the product of nature and nurture.
“We need to follow up people over time to quantify the relative risk of nature versus nurture.”
It is possible that the similarities in the sibling’s brains may not be down to genetics, but rather growing up in the same household. Research on the relationship between addiction and the structure of the brain is far from over.
However, many specialists believe these findings open up new avenues for treatment.
“If we could get a handle on what makes unaffected relatives of addicts so resilient we might be able to prevent a lot of addiction from taking hold,” said Dr. Paul Keedwell.
The chief pharmacist for Derbyshire Mental Health Trust, David Branford, said the study, “implies that addiction does not produce noticeable changes to brain structure and function which means that there may be provision for looking at new treatment techniques for addiction”.
Prof. Les Iversen, from the department of pharmacology at the University of Oxford, said: “These new findings reinforce the view that the propensity to addiction is dependent on inherited differences in brain circuitry, and offer the possibility of new ways of treating high-risk individuals to develop better <<self control>>.”
Astronomers at the Paranal observatory in Chile have created the world’s largest virtual optical telescope linking four telescopes, so that they operate as a single device.
The telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) form a virtual mirror of 130 metres in diameter.
A previous attempt to link the telescopes last March failed.
Thursday’s link-up was the system’s scientific verification – the final step before scientific work starts.
Linking all four units of the VLT will give scientists a much more detailed look at the universe than previous experiments using just two or three telescopes to create a virtual mirror.
The process that links separate telescopes together is known as interferometry.
In this mode, the VLT becomes the biggest ground-based optical telescope on earth.
Besides creating a gigantic virtual mirror, interferometry also greatly improves the telescope’s spatial resolution and zooming capabilities.
Astronomers at the Paranal observatory in Chile have created the world's largest virtual optical telescope linking four telescopes, so that they operate as a single device
The VLT is one of several telescopes in the Atacama Desert, set up by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
ESO is an international research organization headquartered in Munich, Germany, and sponsored by 15 member countries.
Even prior to the start of the operation, as the domes of the four VLT units opened on a desert mountaintop in Chile, excitement filled the Paranal observatory’s tiny control room.
It was going to be a special night, said one of the astronomers.
The head of instrumentation at Paranal, Frederic Gonte, called the event a “milestone in our quest for uncovering secrets of the universe”.
“It’s an extremely important step because now we know that we’re ready to do real science,” Frederic Gonte said.
“From now on we’ll be able to observe things we were not able to observe before.”
To link the VLT units, the team of international astronomers and engineers used an instrument called Pionier, which replaces a multitude of mirrors with a single optical microchip.
Although the first attempt to combine the four telescopes happened in March 2011, it did not really work, said Jean-Philippe Berger, a French astronomer involved in the project.
But this time, it was already pretty clear that all the instruments were working correctly, Jean-Philippe Berger added.
“Last time, the atmospheric conditions and vibrations in the system were so bad that the data was just worthless, we stopped after half an hour knowing that it wouldn’t improve,” he said.
“So this attempt is a real first one to carry out observations for several hours straight to test the system in different conditions.”
From now on, the system will be offered to the astronomical community, he added – any astronomer working at Paranal or visiting it will be able to use it.
VLTI, or the VLT Interferometer, has been used since 2002 to link together up to three VLT telescopes, as well as four small auxiliary telescopes that reside beside the big ones on the same platform at Cerra Paranal mountain, at 2,635m altitude.
The main component of an optical telescope is a mirror, and the light coming from a particular object being observed with separate telescopes – such as a star, a nebula or a galaxy – first gets reflected off individual mirrors.
And this is where the interferometer comes into play.
It directs the light underground into tunnels, where specific instruments compensate for the delay that inevitably exists when more than one telescope is used.
Once there is no delay, the light is combined into one single beam – and the image astronomers get is what would have been produced by a single telescope with a gigantic mirror and a much better zoom.
In the case of the VLT, the zooming capability becomes almost 20 times better, said Jean-Philippe Berger.
Jean-Philippe Berger explained that although the biggest “virtual” mirror of 130 m in diameter has already been achieved by linking two farthest from each other telescopes, using all four units gives astronomers several advantages.
“The more telescopes the better – you want to generate a plane to fill that virtual mirror, to increase the efficiency to reconstruct an image, in order to observe more complex objects in the sky,” he said.
“With two telescopes, you typically observe round stars, for which you’re only interested in the diameter, or binary stars, where you can measure the separation between the two stars.
“With four telescopes, you can start thinking about triple stars or young stars surrounded by a protoplanetary disk – a disk of dust and gas that forms planets.”
“Now, the zoo of objects accessible to us will be much bigger.”
Black Sea is frozen near the Romanian coastline and villagers in Serbia and Bosnia were airlifted from their homes after being cut off without food, after the dramatic icy weather hit Europe.
The cold weather in Central and Eastern Europe has caused traffic chaos, power outages and even deaths all over the planet as people battle frostbite and hypothermia.
Meanwhile in Italy, snow fell in Rome today for the first time in 26 years as freezing temperatures took the death toll across Europe to more than 150.
Rome is usually blessed by a moderate climate but the snowfall prompted authorities stop visitors from entering the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, the former home of Rome’s ancient emperors.
The last substantial snowfalls in Rome were in 1985 and 1986, though there have been other cases of lighter snow since then, including in 2010.
The director of the Colosseum, Rossella Rea, said the sites were closed out of fears that visitors could slip on ice.
Snow began falling in the late morning Friday, leaving a light dusting on trees and cars and forming slush on the roads. It wasn’t clear if there would be any significant accumulation on the ground.
But the most dramatic situation is in Ukraine, where 101 people have now died as a result of freezing weather in the country since last Friday, the government has announced in Kiev.
Most of the 101 who died were homeless people and 64 of them were found dead on the streets, the emergencies ministry said.
Hundreds of others have been treated in hospital for frostbite, hypothermia and other cold-related conditions.
Temperatures plunged to below -35C in parts of Eastern Europe this week.
At least eight more deaths were reported in Poland on Thursday, bringing the death toll there since last week to 37.
Black Sea is frozen near the Romanian coastline
Cold weather deaths have been reported across Eastern and Central Europe:
• Russia recorded 64 cold weather deaths for the whole of January, Interfax news agency reports, but it is unclear if this is related directly to the hard frosts which began last week
• In Serbia at least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in mountainous areas, the Associated Press reports
• In Italy, weather experts said it was the coldest week for 27 years.
• In Romania, 24 people have died because of cold weather during last days.
In Ukraine, more freezing weather was forecast for Friday, with overnight temperatures set to fall to as low as -32C in the north and west.
The authorities closed schools and colleges and set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters across the country.
Health officials instructed hospitals not to discharge homeless patients, even after treatment, in order to save them from the cold.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov announced that the country had burnt 1 billion cu m of gas in just three days.
The country’s gas order from Russia for the whole of 2012 is 27 billion cu m.
“It’s a very hard time for the country,” he said, promising that the difficulties would be overcome.
The Russian gas supplier, Gazprom, said Ukraine was exceeding the level of gas consumption envisaged in the contract.
Most Russian gas exports to EU countries transit Ukraine. On Thursday Austria’s energy firm OMV reported a 30% drop in its supply of Russian gas, while Italy’s gas distributor Snam Rete Gas said its Russian gas was down by about 20%.
In the winter of 2009 Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas meant for European customers. Gazprom cut supplies, leaving more than a dozen countries short of Russian gas.
Some, like Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, are almost completely dependent on supplies via Ukraine and so were left with major shortages, during a very cold spell in Europe.
Ukraine’s Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloga has advised the public to take more exercise as a remedy against the cold.
“You need to get up in the morning, take active exercise and work,” he was quoted by Ukrainskaya Pravda as telling reporters on Wednesday.
“It hasn’t killed anyone yet and only makes a person fitter.”
His personal advice to keep warm, he added, was to “run 8-10km [5-6 miles] every morning and bathe in cold water, all year round”.
The two American women tourists and their Egyptian guide, who were kidnapped in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, have been released, according to officials.
The tourists had been travelling in a bus from St Catherine’s monastery to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier on Friday when it was stopped by gunmen.
According to officials, the kidnappers were Bedouin tribesmen who had demanded the release of recently arrested relatives.
Bedouins kidnapped 25 Chinese workers in northern Sinai earlier this week, but released them unharmed after a day.
They were demanding the release of fellow tribesman who were jailed after the 2004 bomb attack at the resort of Taba that killed 31 people.
The US tourists were travelling through the Wadi al-Sual area, about 40km (25 miles) from St Catherine’s, when a vehicle carrying masked men armed with machine-guns forced the bus to stop, officials said.
The gunmen took the tourists’ money and valuables before grabbing the two women and their guide, forcing them into a vehicle and fleeing into the mountains, the officials added.
The three other tourists who had been in the bus were left behind. Their nationalities were not immediately known.
Several hours later, security sources told reporters that the American women and their guide had been released into army custody.
Maj. Gen. Mohammed Naguib, the head of security for southern Sinai, told the Associated Press that the kidnappers were Bedouins who had demanded the release of a number of fellow tribesmen arrested this week on drug-trafficking and robbery charges.
They had agreed to free the women after mediation efforts between officials and tribal leaders, Gen Naguib added.
Egyptian Tourism Minister Munir Fakhri Abdul Nour meanwhile said he had spoken to the Americans, and that they had assured him that they were in good health and had not been mistreated.
Bedouin tribesmen in Sinai have been involved in a series of confrontations with security forces in recent months.
A gas pipeline from Egypt to Israel has also repeatedly been sabotaged, though Sinai’s tourist resorts have remained largely secure.
Rumors that Angelina Jolie is pregnant with another set of twins have been spread in recent days.
However, Angelina Jolie certainly hasn’t been rocking a noticeable baby bump at the slew of recent award ceremonies she and Brad have been attending, but the dress she wore at the SAG Awards was a little bit suspicious – it was black and loose-fitting with a draped neckline that hung over her belly. So maybe she really was trying to hide a small tummy bulge.
There have been tons of tabloid rumors lately about Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston being pregnant, but so far none of them have turned out to be true. So is it possible that OK! Magazine’s claim that Angelina Jolie is pregnant with twin boys could be correct?
A source told OK! magazine that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were “thrilled” at how quickly she got pregnant this time and that they believe it was “meant to be”.
Angelina Jolie has stated in the past that she’s open to getting pregnant again, so maybe she decided that sooner is better than later. Right now Maddox is reportedly the only child that knows about the twins, but it’s hard to imagine him being able to keep them a secret from his five other siblings.
A source told OK! magazine that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were "thrilled" at how quickly she got pregnant this time and that they believe it was "meant to be"
Perhaps the pregnancy will give Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt a little break from their kids asking them to get married. Upon hearing the news, Maddox reportedly asked his parents if the new babies meant that they would finally decide to get married. However, once the twins do arrive, all the kids might be temporarily distracted by them and quit asking their dad to put a ring on it (at least for a little while).
The news of Angelina Jolie’s pregnancy also comes at a great time for Brad Pitt – he’s nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, and the voting ballots are being mailed out to Academy members today.
So maybe they’ll see the news and have Brad on the brain while they’re voting.
Of course it’s possible that this is just the latest in a long line of rumors about Angelina Jolie being pregnant. Another set of twins is almost too good to be true, and the timing is just too perfect – if she wanted to, Angelina Jolie could pull a Beyonce and steal the show at the Oscars by wearing something that shows off her bump.
