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A raging fire at Magnablend Chemical Plant in Waxahachie, south of Dallas, sent black smoke billowing into the sky and prompted area schools to evacuate students.
Officials at the scene told WFAA-TV there are contaminates in the air that are dangerous to breathe in as a result of the fire.
Huge orange flames and plumes of smoke were seen at the Magnablend Chemical Plant facility in Waxahachie, about 30 miles south of Dallas.
Several large explosions were also reported from the facility.
Giant plumes of noxious smoke, which could be seen for miles, rise from the Magnablend Chemical Plant, not far from houses and apartments on Highway 287 Bypass in Texas
Ellis County emergency management authorities issued an evacuation order for an apartment complex, an elementary school and a junior college.
Waxahachie Independent School District spokeswoman Nicole Mansell said Wedgeworth Elementary School students had been safely bussed to another school’s gymnasium by 12:25pm.
Navarro College cancelled all classes for its 2,500 or so students, school president Dr. Richard Sanchez told the Star-Telegram.
Sheriff’s officials urged residents not to drive toward the area of the fire.
In addition, area residents are being told to stay inside their homes – and to keep doors and windows shut.
Jessenia Colin, an assistant general manager at a nearby Hampton Inn and Suites, said hotel staff members were turning off air vents so smoke and chemicals didn’t enter the rooms.
As they waited for news and watched the smoke billow, staff covered their mouths to protect against the heavy chemical smell that hung in the air, she said.
Jessenia Colin said: “It smells like a whole bunch of chemicals, like wrappers burning. It’s making everyone’s heads hurt.”
Stephanie Otto said she was preparing her new restaurant for a Tuesday opening about a quarter-mile from the plant when she heard sirens and walked outside to see a “huge plume.” She said she could hear what sounded like gun shots for about 15 minutes, and there was a strong smell of ammonia.
Stephanie Otto said: “It was huge. It looked like an atomic bomb went off.”
Lisa Wheeler, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman said that the plant deals with ammonia, as well as sulfuric, hydrochloric, nitric and phosphoric acids.
It mixes the chemicals for fertilizer and agricultural products.
From Interstate 35E just south of Interstate 20, close to Dallas, a giant plume of smoke can be seen rising from the Magnablend chemical processing plant in Waxahachie, Texas
Waxahachie Police Lt. Joe Wiser tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram no injuries have been reported since the fire was reported at 10:40 a.m.
Images from WFAA-TV show the fast-moving fire engulfing a fire truck at the scene as firefighters nearby battle the blaze.
Magnablend Chemical Plant official Donald Golden told the station:
“My main concern when I got here was ensuring that everyone got out of the plant and were accounted for, which they are, everyone is safe at this time.
“That was the best news I got so far. Now, were just waiting to hear from the fire department as they respond to the fire.”
Magnablend’s website says it’s a chemical manufacturing company that makes custom chemicals for industries ranging from oil fields to industrial cleaning.
The electric car fans saw and rode a prototype of Tesla Model S at the Tesla Motors factory in Fremont, California, on October 1.
The persons who pre-ordered Tesla Model S electric car tried Tesla Motors’ first full-size electric sedan and had the tour of the factory.
Faster Tesla Model S goes from a standstill to 60 miles (96.56 km) in 4.5 seconds.
The 2012 production run of the Model S is sold out and the company intends to start delivering to customers next year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a co-founder of PayPal, made a plea for support, he said lots of people had viewed the electric cars as fantastic unicorns.
“The oil companies said electric cars can’t work, but the truth is, they don’t want them to work. But here it is. They would say this car is the equivalent of a unicorn. Well, tonight you had the opportunity to ride a unicorn,” he said.
Musk announced Tesla was working on a faster Model S. It goes from zero to 60 miles (96.56 km) per hour in 4.5 seconds. This is two-tenths of a second quicker than the 2011 Porsche 911 Carrera with a manual transmission. However, with Porsche’s quick-shifting PDK automatic the car matches the Tesla at 4.5 seconds.
Versions of the 911 (Carrera S, GT3, Turbo) could easily outrun the Tesla Model S. Yet the big sedan will be able to run with the Porsche, Chevrolet Corvette, Audi R8 and other sports cars. It would also establish electric power as a performance feature, not just a gasoline-saving one, even the basic Model S is quick at 5.6 seconds from zero to 60.
Tesla Model S will come with three battery offerings, 160 miles (257.5 km), 230 miles (370.15 km) or 300 miles (482.8 km) on a full charge.
Base Tesla Model S will cost around $57,400, before a $7,500 federal tax credit and other rebates.
The large touchscreen of Tesla Model S hosts most of the infotainment controls.
Tesla wants to be more than a niche brand that sells only the expensive Roadster sports car. Roadster sports car has a base price of $109,000, and most of them are sold at $140,000.
Tesla Model X sports utility prototype will be unveiled in December and is due out in late 2013.
Tesla, based in Palo Alto, California, has around 1,400 workers. It held an initial public offering of stock in June 2010. Among its private backers are Draper Fisher Jurvetson, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google founders. Tesla won a $465 million loan guarantee in 2009 from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Other carmakers were inspired by Tesla Model S. Detroit works on its own electric vehicles. General Motors started selling its hybrid Chevrolet Volt last year. Anaheim, California-based Fisker Automotive, recently started delivery of its luxury hybrid Karma.
The company will phase out the Tesla Roadster in January 2012, to focus on the Tesla Model S.
Amanda Knox was released from prison this evening after an appeal court overturned her murder conviction.
Amanda Knox, 24, burst into tears and hugged her parents Curt Knox and Edda Mellas – as just feet away the family of Meredith Kercher could only look on in amazement.
Amanda Knox has served four years of a 26-year prison sentence after being found guilty in 2009 of the brutal sex murder of Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found semi naked with her throat cut in her bedroom of the house she shared in Perugia, Italy.
Amanda Knox bursts into tears after she was sensationally cleared of the murder of Meredith Kercher
Computer studies graduate Raffaele Sollecito, 27, Amanda Knox ex-lover, who had also been accused of carrying out the murder, was also freed by the eight member jury after 11-hours of deliberations.
Amanda Knox was actually found guilty of slandering bar owner Diya “Patrick” Lumumba who she accused of carrying out the killing. She was sentenced to three years in jail – but as she had already served four years she was freed immediately.
Amanda Knox who had arrived to the hearing looking breathless and pale seemed to struggle to her feet as she was quickly led from the court room by Italian officials.
Amanda is now looking at the possibility of a swift return to America – possibly on a private jet provided by a television network.
Speaking outside the court following the verdict, Amanda Knox’s sister Deanna said:
“We are thankful that the nightmare is over. She suffered for four years for a crime she did not commit.”
Raffaele Sollecito, Amanda Knox ex-lover, who had also been accused of carrying out the murder, was also freed
Deanna Knox also thanked the Italian lawyers who had conducted the case and who “loved her”.
“We are thankful for the support from all over the world, people who took the time and trouble to research the case and knew that she was innocent.
“We are thankful to the court for having courage to look for the truth.
“We now ask for privacy and a chance to recover from our ordeal.”
“We’ve been waiting for this for four years,” said one of Raffaele Sollecito’s lawyers, Giulia Bongiorno
However, the verdict was not universally welcomed.
Outside the court there were screams of “shame on you” which appeared to be directed at lawyer Giulia Bongiorno.
One bystander shouted: “Run off back to America on your private jet,” while another said: “They just let the black man pay.”
Sky News reported rumors that American TV network had laid on a private plane as part of a potential a $1million deal with a guarantee of an interview.
Prosecutors now have to decide if they will appeal the acquittal to Italy’s highest court. There was no word late this evening if they planned to do so.
The Knox family’s delight contrasts sharply with the emotions of Meredith Kercher loved ones.
Meredith’ sister, Stephanie Kercher, who was in Perugia with her mother and brother for the verdict, lamented that her sister ‘has been nearly forgotten”.
“We want to keep her memory alive,” Stephanie said after the verdict which means that four years on from the brutal murder of the 21-year-old her family still have no clear picture of what happened.
At the first trial in 2009, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito had been convicted after the court heard they had carried out the crime with the aid of a third man Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 24.
The appeal however overturned this and ruled that he carried out on his own but key to the verdict was an independent court ordered report into hotly disputed DNA evidence.
Two forensic professors from Rome’s La Sapienza University Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti had poured scorn on the original police forensic investigation of the crime scene producing a damning conclusion of techniques and methods used.
Key to the case was a 12 inches kitchen knife retrieved in Raffaele Sollecito’s flat and on which the original trial heard was found DNA from Meredith on the blade and that of Amanda Knox on the handle.
Prosecutors confusingly said it was “not incompatible” with the murder weapon – which has never been found – while defense teams argued it was too big to have caused the wounds on Meredith Kercher’s throat.
In addition the report also said that no blood was found on it and the DNA of Meredith Kercher was so low is should be ruled inadmissible – in fact there was such a small amount it could not even be retested.
They were also critical of results reached from tests on a clasp from Meredith’ s bloodied bra which was not collected from the murder scene and analyzed until 46 days after Meredith Kercher was killed.
Meredith Kercher was found semi-naked with her throat slashed in a bedroom in the house she shared with Amanda Knox and two other women
To highlight the farcical way police carried out the investigation the experts showed footage of the way the forensic officers collected the evidence and there was gasps of amazement as more than 50 errors were pointed out.
The team was seen picking up the clasp with dirty gloves – instead of tweezers – and then placing it in a plastic bag when the recognized international procedure is a paper one.
They were then seen handing it to each other from glove to glove, placing it back on the floor in a different place from where it was found and then picking it up again.
Professors Conti and Vecchiotti said that this also made it highly likely that it had been contaminated and then they also revealed how they had been unable to retest the clasp because it had rotted away after being wrongly kept in the forensic lab in Rome.
Prosecutors lame arguments that the experts had no professional experience and that their findings were unqualified and unreliable, were ignored by the judge and jury.
Today prosecutors said they would appeal the decision and take the case to the Supreme Court in Rome but in the meantime Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito will be free and they do not even have to show up for the case.
Meredith Kercher crime scene photo
The Supreme Court judges will simply examine all the documentary evidence and see if there is a valid point of law which can be used to overturn the appeal court’s ruling.
If they do not find any cause then the decision to release Amanda Knox will be confirmed while if they do find a justifiable reason then the case will be sent for a fresh trial leaving open the possibility of an extradition request from Italy for Knox.
November 2, 2007: Body of Meredith Kercher is found in Perugia apartment. Investigators say she was killed the night before.
November 6, 2007: Amanda Knox is arrested with then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, Congolese owner of pub where Knox occasionally worked.
November 20, 2007: Lumumba, implicated by Amanda Knox statements to police, is released from jail for lack of evidence.
December 6, 2007: Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede is extradited from Germany, where he was arrested, and jailed upon arrival in Italy.
December 14, 2007: Meredith Kercher is laid to rest after funeral in London.
October 28, 2008: Judge indicts Amanda Knox and Raffaelle Sollecito on murder and sexual assault charges. Rudy Guede, who was granted a fast-track trial, is convicted of murder and sexual assault and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
January 16, 2009: Trial of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito opens in Perugia.
June 12, 2009: Amanda Knox takes stand; tells court she was shocked by Meredith’s death, offers alibi and says police beat her into making false statements.
December 4, 2009: Court finds Amanda Knox guilty of murder and sexual assault; sentences her to 26 years in prison. Raffaele Sollecito is convicted of same charges and sentenced to 25 years.
December 22, 2009: Appeals court upholds Rudy Guede conviction and cuts sentence to 16 years.
November 8, 2010: Judge orders Amanda Knox to stand trial on slander charges for claiming police beating.
November 24, 2010: Appeals trial for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito opens in Perugia.
December 16, 2010: Italy’s highest criminal court upholds Guede’s conviction and 16-year prison sentence.
June 29, 2011: Independent forensic report ordered by appeals court finds much of the DNA evidence used to convict Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is unreliable.
October 3, 2011: Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are freed after appeals court overturns conviction for murder.
A person over 65, who takes aspirin daily, has twice the risk to develop an age-related vision loss (late stage macular degeneration) than a peer who almost never takes it, a recent study has shown.
Aspirin used daily could aggravate late stage macular degeneration and lead to vision loss.
No directly association between aspirin and vision loss could be proved by the study, but the scientists are worried the aspirin could aggravate the eye disease, as long as lots of seniors take this medicine.
The European study has been published in the journal Ophthalmology and included 4691 people over 65. The subjects were from Norway, Estonia, Britain, France, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Medical scientists, led by Dr. Paulus de Jong at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical Center, gathered health and lifestyle information.
Of the 839 daily aspirin users, around 36 (4%) had an advanced form of the disease, wet macular degeneration. Only 2% of persons who took aspirin less frequently had the same type of macular degeneration (aging macula disorder).
“For people who have age-related macular degeneration, it probably isn’t wise to recommend taking aspirin,” William Christen of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told Reuters Health. He was not involved in this study.
Wet macular degeneration leads to vision loss in the center of the eye’s field of vision.
The wet form (neovascular or exudative macular degeneration) causes vision loss due to abnormal blood vessel growth. Scarring, bleeding, leaking from these blood vessels eventually cause rapid vision loss if left untreated
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, ASA) use has already been known for causing or aggravating gastrointestinal bleeding, but in the same time it has appeared to protect against cataract and in 2004 a study has shown aspirin is associated with decreased rates of abnormal blood vessel growth in patients with macular degeneration. Thus, aspirin could decrease the risk of vision loss.
The dry form is less severe. Its cause is an atrophy of the retinal pigment, which causes visual impairment, vision loss in the central part of the eye.
Aspirin use was not linked to the dry form, nor to earlier stages of the disease, scientists said.
In other studies aspirin appeared to protect against cataract or neovascularization in macular degenaration, thus protecting against vision loss.
Wet and dry macular degeneration are the leading causes of vision loss in persons over age 60. These conditions affect millions of Americans.
The seniors often take aspirin to prevent or to slow the progression of cardiovascular diseases. It could be the cardiovascular diseases that are linked with macular degeneration, some medical scientists said. According to Dr. Paulus de Jong, the researchers found that aspirin users, regardless of their heart condition, are at a greater risk of vision loss.
Yet, the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks of vision loss for people with cardiovascular illnesses who take aspirin to prevent the condition from worsening.
People should be aware that aspirin might aggravate macular degeneration, but on the other hand “a healthy eye with full visual capacities is of no use in a dead body,” said Paulus de Jong.
Further larger studies that follow people over time and document their aspirin use and vision are required to established the association between aspirin and vision loss.
Ralph Steinman, a New York scientist working on a cure for cancer today won the Nobel Prize for medicine, but he had tragically died of the disease just three days ago.
Ralph Steinman, 68, had been treating himself with a groundbreaking therapy based on his own research into the body’s immune system but died on September 30 after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
The Nobel committee at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said it was aware of Ralph Steinman‘s death – but it appeared that it had not known before making its announcement.
Ralph Steinman’s colleagues from Rockefeller University in New York called it a “bittersweet” honor.
It is likely that Ralph Steinman died without being aware he had won the Nobel Prize for medicine, along with American Bruce Beutler and French Jules Hoffmann.
The Nobel committee does not give its awards posthumously, but has decided to make an exception because of what Secretary General Goran Hansson called a “unique situation”.
“The Nobel Foundation has recognized Ralph Steinman for his seminal discoveries concerning the body’s immune responses,” said Rockefeller University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne.
“But the news is bittersweet, as we also learned this morning from Ralph’s family that he passed a few days ago after a long battle with cancer,” Marc Tessier-Lavigne added.
Ralph Steinman, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine for work on fighting cancer, died of the disease himself just three days before he could be told of his award
Rockefeller University said in a statement: “Ralph Steinman passed away on September 30. He was 68.
“He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago, and his life was extended using a dendritic-cell based immunotherapy of his own design.”
Alexis Steinman, Ralph Steinman’s daughter, indicating that her father had not known on his deathbed of the impending decision in Stockholm, said:
“We are all so touched that our father’s many years of hard work are being recognized with a Nobel Prize.
“He devoted his life to his work and his family and he would be truly honored.”
Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann, who studied the first stages of the body’s immune responses to attack in the 1990s, shared the $1.5million award with Ralph Steinman, originally from Montreal, Canada, whose discovery of dendritic cells in the 1970s is key to understanding the body’s next line of defense against disease.
The Nobel award panel said in a statement in Stockholm: “This year’s Nobel laureates have revolutionized our understanding of the immune system by discovering key principles for its activation.”
American Bruce Beutler (left) and Jules Hoffmann (right) of France won the Nobel Prize for medicine
Before hearing the news of Ralph Steinman’s death, Lars Klareskog, who chairs the prize-giving panel, said:
“I am very excited about what these discoveries mean.
“I think that we will have new, better vaccines against microbes and that is very much needed now with the increased resistance against antibiotics.”
Bruce Beutler, 53, is based at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
Luxembourg-born, Jules Hoffmann, 70, conducted much of his work in Strasbourg.
They were supposed to share half the 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.46million) of prize-money.
The rest should have gone to Ralph Steinman, though the unusual circumstances leave its fate now in some doubt.
Bruce Beutler said he had learned of his prize by e-mail and had to search online to make sure it was true:
“I finally found it on Google News. My name was all over the place.”
Of his work, Bruce Beutler said, it “might lead to new treatments for inflammatory and auto-immune disease and possibly new treatments for other kinds of diseases as well”.
The work of all three scientists has been pivotal to the development of improved types of vaccines against infectious diseases and novel approaches to fighting cancer.
The research has helped lay the foundations for a new wave of “therapeutic vaccines” that stimulate the immune system to attack tumors.
Better understanding of the complexities of the immune system has also given clues for treating inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, where the components of the self-defense system end up attacking the body’s own tissues.
For many years, British passport applicants have been required to provide details of their mother and father; now, after pressure from the gay rights group lobby, the new PC passports will be given the option of naming “parent 1” and “parent 2”.
The change, which is due to take place by December 2011, has been made following claims the original form was “discriminatory” and failed to include same-sex couples looking after a child.
It has led to claims the official travel document is being turned into a “PC passport”.
Campaigners for family values said the move “denigrated” the roles of parents bringing up children in traditional families.
Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said:
“Fathers and mothers are not interchangeable but have quite distinct roles to play in the care and nurture of their children.
“To speak of <<parent 1>> and <<parent 2>> denigrates the place of both fathers and mothers.
“Much as the equality and diversity social engineers might wish it were otherwise, it still takes a father and a mother to produce a child.”
The decision follows the revelation last month that details of the holder’s sex could be erased from all passports to spare transgender people from embarrassment.
The new PC passport changes follow lobby activity from gay groups
The latest shift follows lobbying from gay rights groups, who argue that the current passport application form fails to recognize same-sex couples who are both officially registered as a child’s parents.
The Home Office “Diversity Strategy” states: “IPS [the Identity and Passport Service] is working with Stonewall [the gay rights group] in response to an issue about having to name a “mother” and “father” on the passport application form.”
Gay couples are registered as the official parents of any child they adopt. Those who use surrogate mothers must apply to the courts for a “parental order” in order to be recognized as a child’s official parents.
Similar changes have been made in recent months to passport application forms in the U.S., outraging traditional family groups and religious conservatives.
British officials accepted that the move was made following lobbying from gay rights groups who claimed it was discriminatory.
A spokesman for the UK Identity and Passport Service insisted it was necessary to incorporate same-sex parents on the form so that accurate information is collected.
“IPS is planning to amend the application form and associated guidance to deal with same-sex parents applying for a passport on behalf of a child.
“Currently, the application form provides the relevant boxes of <<mother>> and <<father>> to be completed.
“The new form to be introduced by December 2011 will in addition provide for <<parent 1>> and <<parent 2>>.
“It is essential that any parent provides the necessary information on their status as parents or guardians when applying for a passport on behalf of their child.
“This protects the interests of the child and ensures that IPS is able to issue passports securely and safely to the right person.
“The passport application form is therefore being updated to incorporate same-sex parents.”
Gay lobbyists and politicians have long claimed that 10% of the population is homosexual, but figures from the Office for National Statistics in UK suggest that this is a wild exaggeration.
According to the Integrated Household Survey, homosexuals and bisexuals make up only 1.5% of the population.
1% said they were gay or lesbian, while 0.5% said they were bisexual.
More men than women declared themselves homosexual, with 1.3% of men saying they were gay compared with 0.6% of women who described themselves as lesbian.
94% said they were heterosexual, 4.3% declined to answer the question or said they did not know, and 0.4% said their sexuality was “other”.
Amanda Knox made a dramatic plea for her freedom in a tearful way as she addressed the judge and jury today in her appeal trial and told them: “I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal.”
Amanda Knox, 24, spoke for just over ten minutes and needed to pause frequently for breath, at one point the judge asked her if she wanted to speak sitting down.
But Amanda Knox, who is fighting to avoid a possible life sentence, turned down his offer and after a gentle encouraging squeeze of her hand from her lawyer Luciano Ghirga she addressed the court.
Speaking in Italian, Amanda Knox pleaded her innocence for the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher and said:
“Esteemed people of the court, it has been said many times that I am a person different than what I am.
“I am the same person I was four years ago, the same person, the only thing that distinguishes me from four years ago is the four years that I have suffered.
“In four years I have lost a friend in a brutal and unexplained way. My faith in the police has been betrayed. I have had to face accusations, injustice and suggestions without foundation and I am paying for my life for something that I did not do.”
Tearful Amanda Knox in the court room in Perugia, Italy, this morning on the final day of her appeal
“I am not what they say I am. I am not perverse, violent, disrespectful towards life, people, these things do not apply to me and I have not done the things that have been suggested.
“I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there. I was not present at this crime.”
According to court watchers who have been covering the trial, her plead was a powerful delivery and much better than the one Amanda Knox had made at her original trial two years ago when she confused the court by saying she did not want the “mask of an assassin forced upon me”.
Crucially for her this time Amanda Knox also said that she did not kill Meredith Kercher – something she failed to do at her original trial and as she spoke her parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, were in tears.
As Amanda Knox spoke there was complete silence in court and the packed chamber listened intently to her who added:
“I had never faced such tragedy, suffering, I didn’t know how to tackle it, how to interpret it.
“When we learnt Meredith was dead, we just could not believe it. How was this possible ?
“Then I felt scared. A person who I was sharing my life with, who had the bedroom next to me, she was killed in our house and if I was there that night I could have been killed.
“I wasn’t there. I was at Raffaele’s.”
Police asked the media to leave the court room this morning before Amanda Knox hearing began
Amanda Knox then criticized the police who had questioned her that night. She said: “I had a sense of duty towards justice, the authorities who I put my trust in.
“They were there to find the guilty and to protect us. I put my faith in them absolutely.
“I made myself available for them in those days but I was betrayed – the night of 5/6 November I was pressured, stressed and manipulated.”
Amanda Knox has already told the court how she was questioned for 14 hours without a lawyer or an interpreter and was even cuffed twice around the back of the head by police as they demanded answers from her.
Her version of the events that evening is crucial to the appeal as prosecutors say Amanda admitted being on the scene and had also provided – wrongly – the name of bar man Patrick Lumumba who was wrongly arrested and held in jail for two weeks before being freed.
Amanda Knox also insisted that despite prosecution claims she did not know Rudy Guede who has already been convicted of the murder and added: “I have never done what they say I have done, it is not as they say it was.”
“I had a good relationship with all my flatmates. I was messy, carefree but we had a good relationship we were all ready to help each other.
“I shared my life with Meredith, we had a friendship, she was worried for me when I went to work, she was always gentle with me.
“Meredith was killed and I have always wanted justice for her. I am not fleeing from the truth and have never fled. I insist on the truth. I insist after four desperate years for our innocence because it is true. It deserves to be recognized.
“I want to go home. I want to return to my life, I don’t want to be punished and deprived of my life, future for something I have not done because I am innocent, Raffaele is also innocent.
“We deserve our freedom. We have never done anything not to deserve it.”
Earlier in his declaration Raffaele Sollecito had spoken and had told the court:
“I have so much to say but I don’t think I have enough time. I just want to tell the court how much I have been suffering.
“I just want to say i never hurt anyone, never in my life,”. He added: “I hoped that this would have all been cleared in a short time – instead it did not happen this way.”
Raffaele Sollecito paused several times and took several sips of water as he spoke and said: “Amanda and I have been in jail for 1,400 days. These 1,400 days have been spent 20 hours a day in a space 2.5m by 3m – it’s difficult to imagine that situation.”
Then turning to the night of Meredith’s murder Raffaele Sollecito said: “I was in a beautiful situation. I was about to hand in my dissertation for my final degree.
“During that period I met Amanda Knox, she was beautiful, sunny, lively and sweet and that was supposed to be our first weekend together.”
Painting a romantic picture Sollecito said: “We were free that night. Our only aim that night was to have an evening of tenderness and cuddles. The other descriptions just did not happen. This was our simple desire.”
After Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito had addressed the court judge Hellman also spoke sternly to the packed chamber and said: “We will now retire but I to ask you to reflect on something. This is a court room and not a football match there is no room for supporting when the verdict is read.
“Let’s remember that a beautiful girl was murderered and the lives of two other young people are in the balance. So I say again when the sentence is read, respect and silence. Having said that we will now retire and the verdict will not be before 8pm local.”
The final day of the 10-month appeal trial began with Amanda Knox’s lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, making his final rebuttal, stressing how the investigation had been carried out in a climate of “hostility” towards his client.
Amanda Knox, 24, is serving 26 years for the brutal murder of British student Meredith Kercher, 21.
There are four possible outcomes for Amanda Knox today:
1. Conviction upheld and she serves remaining 22 years
2. Conviction upheld and sentence increased to life
3. Conviction upheld and sentence reduced
4. Conviction overturned and she is released from prison
Mary Bach, a Walmart shopper has successfully sued the retail giant after she was charged $1 instead of 98 cents for a pack of sausages.
Mary Bach, who has made a habit of taking Walmart to court, was angered when the chain’s store in Delmont, Pennsylvania made her pay $1 for a box of Banquet Brown ‘N Serve sausages, which had been priced at 98 cents.
Walmart argued new packaging caused a mix-up on the price, but Mary Bach, a consumer activist from Murrysville, claimed the overcharge was intentional.
Murrysville District Judge Charles Conway agreed with Mary Bach and ruled the store breached trade laws. The judge awarded Mary Bach $100 in damages, plus $80 in court costs, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.
Mary Bach said the court battle was not about money, but principle
“This is the fifth lawsuit that I have now won against this store, this Delmont Walmart, for the same problem: practice of putting up a shelf tag that was lower than the price charged at the cash register,” Mary Bach told WPXI outside court.
“All this is for the scanner charge to correlate with the shelf tag or vice versa. I’m not telling them what price to charge for the item they’re selling.”
Mary Bach said she hopes her court case will ensure the error does not happen to any other costumers, no matter how small.
Mary Bach said the Walmart should be more careful in guaranteeing that prices listed on shelves match what prices scan at the register, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.
“Walmart was wrong. They were overcharging customers. Even though it was a minimal amount, they were wrong,” Mary Bach told WPXI.
Mary Bach testified that on August 20 she picked up the sausages, which had a listed price of 98 cents, but was charged $1 when she reached the check-out.
Mary Bach was angered when Walmart made her pay $1 for a box of Banquet Brown 'N Serve sausages, which had been priced at 98 cents
“The clerk did everything right when I pointed out the error and refunded me the difference and noted the error,” Mary Bach said.
However, six days later, Mary Bach went back to the store to purchase more of the same sausages when the same thing happened, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.
This time Mary Bach was not interested in a refund and she took the store to court.
Walmart attorney Timothy J. Nieman argued that Mary Bach, who has a reported 17-year history of legal battles over pricing faults, was not really shopping for groceries, but was looking for her next lawsuit.
“Never once have I been questioned by a cashier whether an item I’m purchasing is for my personal use or not,” Mary Bach said.
“Everything I buy is for my personal use.”
Mary Bach told the court her husband and grandchildren enjoy the sausages on a regular basis.
Mary Bach was overcharged two cents for sausages at the Delmont, Pennsylvania Walmart
Walmart spokesman Greg Rossiter told WPXI the company tried to refund the money to Mary Bach, but she refused. He said Walmart respectfully disagrees with the decision, and is considering its options.
Passengers from two flights landed at Boston Logan Airport were taken to hospital with head, back and neck injuries and burns last night after the aircraft they were on suffered extreme turbulence.
The two commercial aircraft landed in Boston after 18 passengers sustained injuries while in the sky.
A Lufthansa flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Munich was diverted to Boston after it experienced problems when it flew through the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia.
Flight 429, which had 245 passengers and 18 crew on board, was greeted by emergency crews as it landed at 11:45 pm.
Passengers at Boston Logan Airport were taken to hospital with head, back and neck injuries
“I saw the plane go down, down, down and I said, <<Oh my God, oh my God>>,” one passenger told local station WCVB.
The other aircraft, a Jet Blue flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Boston also landed at the airport with seven people injured.
Seven people were injured on flight 852, which had 130 passengers and five crew members.
Six of the people injured had head, back and neck injuries. One people had been burned by coffee.
The 852 flight landed at its intended destination of Boston around 10:00 pm, about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, according to the airline’s website.
“I thought, <<Oh my God, this could be it>>. But it didn’t last that long. It was quite a surprise,” one female passenger told WCVB.
“I had the coffee jump everywhere. We started screaming. Oh my God, so scary,” another female passenger told the station.
Phil Orlandella, spokesman for the Boston Logan Airport, said he did not know the extent of the injuries on the Lufthansa flight.
The anti-corporate protest – Occupy movement – which began in New York City two weeks ago, have spread across US, with demonstrations occurring in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle.
Sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has seen thousands of protesters camped out in New York’s Financial District for the past two weeks, mass gatherings have started nationwide, with the unified purpose of voicing anger at the U.S. banking and political systems.
The protests against corporate America in New York City entered its fifteenth day today, as the city’s residents began to increasingly feel the effect of a mass gathering that began as little more than a dozen students.
Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, several hundred protesters marched from Pershing Square to City Hall on Saturday, and said they would remain camped at the site “indefinitely”, like their New York counterparts.
Organized by a group called Occupy LA, the demonstrators echoed the refrain begun by those on the East Coast, saying they hoped to change economic polices that benefit the richest 1% of Americans.
“Occupy LA” protesters marched from Pershing Square to City Hall on Saturday, and said they would remain camped at the site “indefinitely”, like their New York counterparts
Demonstrators waved signs, including one that read “The Banks Ate My Baby”, and chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, corporate welfare’s got to go”, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“In the end, what we want to do is inspire working-class people to get involved in the political process,” Adam Liszkiewics, a 32-year-old USC graduate student, told the Los Angeles Times.
Boston
The Occupy Boston movement appears the most well-developed of the off-shoot protests, with a sizeable camp, featuring tents, medical supplies and even wi-fi, setting up at Dewey Square, across from the Federal Reserve building.
Tactical groups have been formed, covering legal affairs, food and media outreach, and a crowd in the spot had reached nearly 1,000 on Friday night on the first day of protest, the Boston Herald reported.
Key organizers said they had been to New York to learn from the protests. Matthew Krawitz, an unemployed I.T. expert, told how he had been in Manhattan for the first day of the demonstrations there and wanted to replicate the scene in Boston.
“Occupy Boston” demonstrators camping outside the Federal Reserve building
There were other protests in the city over the weekend, including one outside the Bank of America aimed at expressing people’s anger at foreclosures and the announcement the bank will charge customers $5 a month to use debit cards to access their own money. It resulted in 24 arrests.
President Barack Obama’s old stomping ground has been gripped by the “Occupy” movement as well. A group of activists have gathered in front of the Federal Reserve Bank Chicago as part of a rally to protest against poverty and unemployment in the U.S.
Chicago
The Chicago sit-in began on September 23 with a march from Willis Tower to the bank, the Chicago Tribune reported, with some protesters calling it their Tahrir Square, in reference to the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Demonstrators hold signs across from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on Friday
One demonstrator, Emilio Baez, told Press TV the protest is a “direct call to working people worldwide”.
“This is our Tahrir Square,” he said of the spot which led to a revolution in the African country. “We’ll stay here for months if we have to.”
Seattle
Meanwhile, more than 100 people turned out for Occupy Seattle on Saturday, with protesters waving signs and mingling peacefully with police.
The demonstrators, however, are only beginning to coalesce and they acknowledge that they need to clarify their goals. Like their New York counterparts, the protesters are seeking for a place in Seattle’s financial district to camp out for the winter.
“Occupy” protests in Seattle
Denver
Denver had its first protest on Saturday, with demonstrators telling 9News that they are a leaderless resistance movement of people who will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of Wall Street.
“Occupy” protests in Denver
Further “Occupy” protests are planned for San Francisco, Washington DC, Phoenix and Albuquerque.
New York
In New York, the protesters, who have been camping out in Manhattan’s Financial District, say their movement has grown and become more organized over the last couple of weeks and they have no intention of stopping.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstration started out small, with less than a dozen college students, but has grown to include thousands of people in communities across the country.
Now entering its third week in Manhattan, those spending their days and nights at Zuccotti Park said they’re going to stay as long as they can.
Yesterday, the Brooklyn Bridge was shut down and more than 700 people arrested after protesters camping out near Wall Street spilled onto the New York landmark and blocked traffic.
Around 1,500 protesters march over the Brooklyn Bridge in New York during an Occupy Wall Street protest
In a tense showdown, police took swift action – cuffing and dragging hundreds to the sidings – after many of the protesters risked being hit by cars by moving from the walkway on to the road.
A large group of marchers, who are rallying against corporate greed, broke off from others on the bridge’s pedestrian walkway and headed across the Brooklyn-bound lanes.
In two separate videos released by police, officers are heard warning protesters that they will be arrested if they strayed from the path and onto the roadway.
A police captain is heard saying: “I’m ordering you to leave this roadway now. If you do so voluntarily, no charges will be placed against you. If you refuse to leave, you’ll be placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct. If you do not wish to be arrested, you must leave this area now.”
The videos emerged as a film of protesters coming face to face with the subjects of their ire attracted more than 230,000 views on YouTube.
The iPhone 5 highly-anticipated launch is planned for the next Tuesday and speculation is mounting over what the must-have gadget will look like.
Now designers have developed an iPhone 5 mock-up, showing a slightly wider device to its predecessor and a four-inch screen covering the whole model.
Experts at Giga Netzwerk have compiled leaked hints, hardware components and computer designs to show how they think iPhone 5 will appear.
The iPhone is still the smartphone industry’s benchmark after four years and its new model is expected to come out in the U.S. this Tuesday, before the holidays.
The Giga Netzwerk designers have developed a 3D mock-up, showing a slightly wider device to its predecessor and a four-inch screen covering the whole model
The Giga Netzwerk mock-up shows a “teardrop” design of iPhone 5, aluminium back instead of glass and an oval rather than a circular “home” button.
iPhone 5 mute switch is expected to move to the other side of the phone but the camera placement is likely to remain unchanged from the iPhone 4.
A new operating system is expected to have excellent voice recognition software that will allow users to dictate emails or SMS messages.
The device could even be called the “iPhone 4S” instead of the “iPhone 5” when it is launched on Tuesday, reported the Huffington Post.
The iPhone 5 release will be Tim Cook’s first major product launch since taking over from an ill Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO in August.
The iPhone 5 is already widely expected to have a bigger touchscreen and faster processor than the current iPhone 4.
iPhone 5competition is fierce, as more than 550,000 Google Android-based devices – including tablets- are activated each day globally.
An insider source said in August that the new model will have a bigger screen, better antenna and an impressive eight-megapixel camera.
Apple’s iPhone has been a huge success since it debuted in 2007, transforming the company into one of the world’s leading mobile device makers.
Experts at Giga Netwerkz have compiled leaked hints, hardware components and computer designs to show how they think iPhone 5 will appear
iPhone accounts for around 40% of Apple’s revenue, with margins estimated at 60%.
Meanwhile, the mysterious closure of a number Apple stores in the U.S. has prompted speculation they will re-open as the iPhone 5 launches.
The first “hands-free” pedestrian crossing will be launched in UK, so that devout Jews do not have to break a religious law that prohibits them from using electricity or operating machinery on the Sabbath.
As the crossing is near a busy synagogue, pressing a button to operate it is considered a breach of the strict rules that apply to Orthodox Jews.
Traffic will be held every 90 seconds from Friday evening until nightfall on Saturday, covering the Jewish Sabbath period.
The first automatic crossing will be placed on one of London’s busiest roads, the North Circular at the Henlys Corner junction.
But planners insist it will not cause traffic chaos.
The first “hands-free” pedestrian crossing will be launched in UK, so that devout Jews do not have to break a religious law that prohibits them from using electricity or operating machinery on the Sabbath
The new “hands-free” system will come into operation in December when the junction fully reopens after a massive ten-month upgrade costing $12 million (£8 million).
The decision to include automatic crossings was taken after leaders at Finchley United Synagogue explained their predicament to staff at Transport for London, which is responsible for maintaining main roads in the capital.
Transport for London (TfL) says the “hands-free” green man has not added to the cost of improvements.
A TfL spokesman said: “We always consult with the community over major road projects. This idea was suggested by the synagogue, whose members asked if it could be done. We thought about it and came to the conclusion that it could.”
No one at the synagogue was available for comment because of the Jewish New Year. But someone from the congregation said: “This is a sensible idea that will make a real difference.”
The move follows the controversial formation of an eruv – a boundary recognized by Jewish law within which certain activities are permitted – in the same part of North London.
Although observant Jews are allowed to carry household objects such as door keys, and to push prams and wheelchairs within the six-square-mile area, they are still banned from using electricity.
Dressed in their underwear, protesters have taken the streets of New York today after it emerged the NYPD were warning women in Brooklyn to cover up in the face of sex attacks.
The “slutwalk” protest comes a day after women in Park Slope were warned by police short skirts should not be worn and shorts that show too much leg have been deemed inappropriate.
Protesters have taken the streets of New York today after it emerged the NYPD were warning women in Brooklyn to cover up in the face of sex attacks
On today’s march the protesters chanted “No means no – however we dress, wherever we go.”
Speaking to the New York Post, organizer Sammy Lifson, 21, said:
“The cops in Park Slope have really stepped up their presence and they’re trying to be helpful.
“But to focus on women isn’t going to help catch the perpetrator.”
The international series of protests known as SlutWalks, sparked by a Toronto police officer’s flippant comment that women should avoid dressing like “sluts” to avoid being raped or victimized, is taking root in the United States.
Some women and men who protest dress in nothing more remarkable than jeans and T-shirts, while others wear provocative or revealing outfits to bring attention to “slut-shaming”, or shaming women for being sexual, and the treatment of sexual assault victims.
The police officer made his comments in January to a group of York University students at a safety forum.
He later apologized, but his comments were publicized widely on Facebook and Twitter.
The police officer comments inspired a march in Toronto that drew more than 3,000 people, as well as SlutWalks since then in Dallas, Asheville, North Carolina, and Ottawa, Ontario.
The movement has since spread around the world, with slut walks organized in several countries.
The SlutWalk march was organized after a NYPD officer “advised” women not to wear short skirts after at least 10 unsolved sexual attacks have occured
Yesterday’s “advice” was given out in response to at least 10 unsolved sexual attacks that have taken place in the area since March.
But in Park Slope, which is famous for being liberal and feminist, the campaign has provoked fury.
Jessica Silk, founder of neighbourhood watch group Safe Slope, told the Wall Street Journal that such a measure was “completely inappropriate”.
One of the women who had been spoken to, who identified herself only as Lauren, told how she was three block from her home when she was stopped for wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
She claimed a cop asked to speak to her then did the same to two other women wearing dresses.
Some protesters at SlutWalk wore jeans and t-shirts, others dressed more provocatively
Lauren, 25, claimed he asked if she knew about the sex attacks and when they all replied yes he “pointed at my outfit and said, <<Don’t you think your shorts are a little short?>>”
“He pointed at their dresses and said they were showing a lot of skin,” she said.
Lauren claimed the cop said such clothes could make the rapist think he could get “easy access”.
The officer then said that they were “exactly the kind of girl this guy is targeting”.
A teenager is reportedly in a coma after falling off a skateboard whilst filming himself for an appearance on Anderson Cooper’s new show.
A producer for the daytime programme “Anderson” allegedly encouraged the boy to record his wild behavior for a show on the teenage mind.
Anderson Cooper, who has only been hosting the show for three weeks, is “very saddened” by the incident and is praying for the boy and his family.
Anderson Cooper said he is “very saddened” by the teenager who is reportedly in a coma after falling off a skateboard whilst filming himself for the show
A representative for Anderson Cooper said producers had been working with the boy and his parents on the science behind the teenage brain.
“As part of our routine process, we ask guests for video footage and photos,” he told Gawker.
“We did not provide the family with a camera.”
On the morning the boy was supposed to travel to New York City, producers found out that he had been injured.
The teenager was encouraged by Anderson Cooper’s new show producer to “film the crazy stuff you do”, but suffered a severe head injury when falling from his skateboard, a source told Gawker.
The teenager was reportedly encouraged to “film the crazy stuff he does” but suffered a severe head injury when falling from his skateboard (file picture)
This left the teenager in a coma and the show never aired.
“I was very saddened to hear the news of this accident, and want to express my deepest concerns for the teenager who was injured,”Anderson Cooper told Gawker through a spokesman.
Anderson Cooper added that his “thoughts and prayers” are with the boy and his family.
Emmy-award winner Anderson Cooper is a Yale University graduate and joined CNN almost 10 years ago after working for ABC and Channel One News.
L’Oréal’s anti-grey pill, a daily medication based on a secret fruit extract, is scheduled to launch within the next four years.
Bruno Bernard, head of hair biology at L’Oréal, told The Sunday Times:
“We have a watertight proof of concept with this, and we think it will have a market among men as well as women.”
Although L’Oréal has been researching the pill for more than a decade, scientists acknowledge it will take at least another 10 more to chart its effectiveness, because hair-greying is such a slow process.
The bad news for people whose hair has already started to turn grey, the scientists believe the anti-grey pill won’t reverse the process.
“Ideally you would take it (the pill) for your whole life,” said Bruno Bernard.
“But realistically we would encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey because we don’t think it can reverse the process once it has started.”
Scientists say they don't believe their anti-grey pill will work on people like George Clooney, whose hair has already begun the greying process
Hair cells are at their best between puberty and the age of 25. Once people hit 30, the hair cells slump into an “oxidative stress” process and their defense against toxins breaks down summoning the appearance of grey hairs.
The new anti-grey pill is designed to protect the hair cells.
According to researchers, the absence of a protective enzyme called tyrosinase-related protein 2 (TRP-2) causes hair pigment cells to die as people get older.
But, instead of developing a synthetic drug that mimics TRP-2, L’Oréal screened thousands of natural compounds humans are exposed to already and found one in the fruit.
Des Tobin, professor of cell biology at Bradford University’s Centre for Skin Science, told The Sunday Times:
“With people living longer and working longer, they are in the grey zone for longer, and the demand for something like this is huge.”
George Cotsarelis, a hair cell expert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, said although he was skeptical, if the company had found a way to prevent pigment cells from dying off it could be “very interesting”.
North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Il has been spending nearly $200,000 a year on his dogs while his nation starves, it has been revealed.
The allegations were made in a report presented to the country’s parliament leaked by a South Korean Member of Parliament.
Nearly six million North Koreans – a quarter of the country’s population – live in extreme poverty due to food shortages in the country.
A third of children younger than five years old are reported to suffer from malnutrition in North Korea.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il lives a lavish lifestyle while his people live in poverty
MP Yoon Sang Hyun said the Kim Jong-Il‘s regime had purchased around 600 bottles of fine French wine that were consumed at parties for senior party and military officials last year.
Yoon Sang Hyun said the dictator had also imported several dozen Russian horses, and bought ten US jet skis for his son and heir Kim Jong Eun.
Most of the luxury goods had been purchased through China – the North’s sole major ally, and Russia, Yoon Sang Hyun said.
If found to be true, the Kim Jong-Il’s actions will have breached United Nations Security Council sanctions banning the export of luxury items to the communist state.
The sanctions were imposed after the North’s missile and nuclear tests.
MP Yoon Sang Hyun, a member of the ruling conservative Grand National Party in South Korea said: “The luxury life for Kim Jong-il’s family goes on regardless of the worsening suffering of North Koreans amid the third-generation succession.”
A football game between Los Angeles high school football rivals turned tragic when Angela Gettis, a cheerleader collapsed on the sideline and died.
Angela Gettis was briefly revived after passing out Friday at Fremont High School, according to LA Unified School District spokesman Tom Waldman.
The top student and member of the Reserve Officer Training Corp, Angela Gettis, who planned to go to college to study forensic sicence, was rushed to a hospital where she died about three hours later.
Cheerleader Angela Gettis, a student at Washington Prep High School, apparently suffered sudden cardiac arrest during a football game
Angela Gettis, a student at Washington Prep High School, apparently suffered sudden cardiac arrest, spokesman Tom Waldman said.
Washington Prep Principal Todd Ullah told KABC-TV that Angela Gettis was a good student and a leader on campus.
School district Superintendent John Deasy said Saturday that Angela Gettis was “a wonderful young lady” and added:
“It is a catastrophic loss for the school and for the community. My heart goes out to her family.”
Angela Kirkindoff, the student’s aunt said: “I just want people to remember the heart she had. She was very kind.”
A witness, Cameron Bonner, told City News Service the Washington Prep squad tied the game against Fremont in the fourth quarter when the cheerleader Angela Gettis collapsed.
Play was stopped as coaches and trainers ran to help the cheerleader Angela Gettis.
Cameron Bonner said: “They had just tied the game up, and the cheerleaders were pumped up.”
He added that Angela appeared “to just pass out”.
Bystanders performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive.
Angela Gettis was briefly revived after passing out on the sideline, but she died in a nearby hospital
“All of her friends were in a circle crying,” Cameron Bonner said.
Crisis counsellors will be at Washington Prep on Monday to help students and faculty deal with the death, Superintendent Deasy said.
An autopsy has been scheduled to find the exact cause of Angela Gettis’ death.
In a video clip from 1985, Princes William and Harry bang enthusiastically on the keys of a piano as they take part in a photo-shoot at Kensington Palace, enjoying family life in perfect harmony.
Watched on by a glowing Princess Diana and a proud Prince Charles, three-year-old Prince William is encouraged to kiss his one-year-old sibling, Prince Harry.
William and Harry were captured on film playing the piano, as they took part in a photo-shoot at Kensington Palace in 1985
William is at first reluctant, but then lands a cheeky smacker on Prince Harry’s head to cheers from onlookers before pulling quickly away.
At one point, their father, Prince Charles is seen playing peekaboo with a handkerchief to encourage his children to look in the right direction for the camera.
William kisses Harry's head, much to the delight of his parents and other onlookers
Just like any other youngsters, Princes William and Harry display an endearingly mischievous side – scampering away, hiding under tables and squirming out of their parents’ arms.
Prince Harry, who is just learning to walk, crawls over to photographer Tim Graham to get a closer look.
“Go on Harry, go get him!”, someone, possibly Diana, calls out from behind the video camera.
Princes William and Harry 26 years after, at Westminster Abbey before William’s marriage to Kate Middleton in April 2011
The children are joined by Charles and Diana for a selection of family snaps. The late Princess of Wales, Diana radiates as she sits on the floor next to her boys.
Prince William even helps his mother re-do her make up as he lovingly dabs her face with a powder pad.
Gene Simmons, KISS bassist, married his girlfriend, Shannon Tweed, on October 1 in an evening ceremony held on the Crystal Lawn at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
The former Playboy Playmate wore an ivory Priscilla of Boston gown with a bouquet of ivory garden roses, while she was walking to the aisle.
“At the Gene Simmons-Shannon Tweed wedding – a dog just walked down the aisle ahead of the bride so its [sic] a good start,” Bill Maher wrote on Twitter.
Gene and Shannon wrote their vows and read them in front of 400 guests. Their children, Nick, 22, and Sophie Alexandra, 19, cheered along with Hugh Hefner, Bill Maher, Paul Stanley when their parents said “I do“. Sophie was the maid of honor and performed At Last by Etta James, the melody the couple chose for the first dance.
Gene Simmons and his family.
Shannon wore $2.5 million of diamonds, without the 24-carat engagement ring, TMZ has learned. Michael Raven handmade the jewelry (13 pieces for the bride and bridal party, earings, necklaces and a $420,000 bracelet).
Shannon Tweed, 54, was joyful before her wedding with Gene Simmons, 62.
“I sneaked down the hall of the hotel to Gene’s room in my sexy undies to live my last night as a single girl & knocked on the wrong door LOL. I’m going to get married today! To the man I love! Everyone said it would rain! It’s a perfect day for a white wedding!!” Shannon wrote before the wedding.
“Thanks one and all for the kind wishes. Wish I could celebrate tomorrow with all of you. But Saturday is for Shannon and the kids. Family!!!” Gene wrote
“Shera & I are going to the Gene Simmons-Shannon Tweed wedding this evening. Shannon was PMOY [Playmate of the Year] & my GF [girlfriend] in 1981. Shannon Tweed met KISS rock star Gene Simmons at a Midsummer Night’s Dream here at the Mansion. They’ve been together almost 30 years.” Hugh Hefner wrote.
“The Gene Simmons-Shannon Tweed wedding was a very romantic, family affair,” he wrote later.
“Truly one of the most beautiful cable television weddings I’ve ever seen.” (Bill Maher)
“That was the best wedding I’ve ever been to!! Thank you, Gene Simmons, Sophie Simmons & Nick Simmons!” Shannon wrote later.
Guests were asked to donate to the couple’s favorite charities instead of wedding gifts (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Kiva, a non-profit organization that seeks to alleviate poverty through micro-loans, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Pink Lotus Breast Center).
Gene Simmons proposed to Shannon several month ago, while they were on holiday in Belize. He previously said he would never marry and they were a happily unmarried couple.
“I come with so much baggage, but you’re the only friend I’ve got, you’re the only one I’ve ever loved, you’re the only one I love, and the only one I ever will love. I’ve never said those words to anybody, and I don’t ever wanna… It’s funny, they used to watch movies where they say I can’t live without you but for me it’s true,” he said then he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
"It's funny, they used to watch movies where they say I can't live without you but for me it's true," said Gene Simmons and got down on one knee.
Gene Simmons had claimed he had had slept with thousands of women. At that time Shannon had moved out and told People “You’re seeing this happy family, but in my heart, I am dying.“
That season of Family Jewels has documented their troubles and family therapy sessions. In June 2011, Shannon slammed Gene for his infidelities.
“I need some sort of commitment. Something has to give.” She told People.
Gene Simmons claimed he had slept with 4,600 women."I need some sort of commitment. Something has to give." Shannon told People.
In 2007 Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed underwent face lift surgery together, a growing trend among the couples at that time.
Gene Simmons (Chaim Weitz), The Demon, Israeli-American rock bassist, became famous with Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.
Gene formed the band with Paul Stanley, then Peter Criss and Ace Frehley joined them.
His legal name after arriving from Israel is Gene Klein, klein means small in German, in informal Hungarian it means kiss. He changed his name to Gene Simmons, after legendary rockabilly performer Jumpin’ Gene Simmons.
He has lived in Beverly Hills, California with his fiancée, actress Shannon Tweed for 28 years. Gene Simmons had live-in relationships with Cher and Diana Ross.
Gene Simmons, Shannon Tweed and their children, Nick and Sophie.
Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed and their children star on the reality television series Gene Simmons Family Jewels. The new season of the reality show premieres on October4 on the A&E network. The wedding will be aired on October 18.
“Everything from choosing the flowers and wedding dress to the bachelor and bachelorette parties will unfold in the new season,” read a statement.
Gene Simmons with the legendary band KISS become the Kings of the Night Time World on a cruise of the Carnival Destiny.
Gene Simmons with KISS: Kings of the Night Time World on a cruise of the Carnival Destiny from October 13 to October 17.
It starts on October 13 from Miami and returns on October 17. The Rock and Roll Party for four nights, includes two full concerts by KISS and performances by Skid Row, The Envy, Bad City and Craig Gass, party every day on Half Moon Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas.
Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed wedding song (video)
Sara Leal, the 23-year-old blonde from Texas, who allegedly spent a night in a hot-tub with Ashton Kutcher in his hotel room, told her friends that the evening ended in a torrid sexual liaison.
One of Sara Leal closest friends, party promoter Gavin Naumoff, 23, said last night:
“Sara’s a great girl. My job is to round up hot girls and bus them into clubs in San Diego or Vegas. The girls get free booze, food, whatever, and they attract rich and famous guys to the clubs. It’s a two-way street. The girls get to meet rich men and the guys get what they want.”
Pointing proudly to photographs he took recently of a topless Sara Leal, he bragged:
“She was off her head, we all were. She’s a wild girl and loves to party. She is someone who knows what she wants and is determined to get it.”
Sara Leal
But to understand how Sara Leal allegedly found herself in the hot tub of Ashton Kutcher’s 12th-floor suite in San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel last weekend, one has to go back to her humble Texan beginnings.
An ugly, featureless railroad town, McAllen is surrounded by searingly hot, pancake-flat oil fields and cotton, citrus and cattle farms.
Sara Leal was born to a Hispanic father, Arturo, and a blonde saleswoman, Darcy. Her parents divorced when Sara was eight years old.
Last night at his home in a crime-ridden McAllen suburb, her father told us:
“I have no comment on what’s going on except that she’s a wonderful girl, an innocent girl, and I don’t like the way people are talking about her.”
Sara Leal’s grandmother, Monna Rober, 78, added: “She was raised to have very good values.”
Sara Leal spent her early years in a modest bungalow in a lower-middle-class area. A simple wooden swing still dangles from a tree in the parched front garden. After the divorce, Sara Leal and her mother moved to a cheap rented flat on a sprawling estate.
While Sara Leal has been attacked online, her grandmother said she is optimistic that “things will turn out for the best”.
“She’s always been a pretty girl. People aren’t being fair to Sara,” she said.
One of Sara Leal closest childhood friends, who asked not to be named, said:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it is true. She was always a party girl who wanted to get out of McAllen.
“From the time we were in high school, I think she hoped to find a richer older guy to take care of her. She wasn’t great at anything in particular that would have enabled her to make it on her own. But she was good at looking good. She dyed her brunette hair blonde and wore risque clothes.”
In a photograph taken in McAllen, Sara Leal playfully lolls in a hot tub with a male friend. She is wearing a pink bikini and sipping a margarita. In another photo, she parties in front of a table cluttered with bottles. Sara Leal originally attended a private Catholic academy, Our Lady of Sorrows, but soon transferred to a series of state-run schools.
Sara Leal in a hot tub with a male friend
The friend says Sara Leal ultimately attended an “options school” offering accelerated learning for teens with drug problems, unwed mothers and students “who want to get done with school quickly”.
“Sara finished school half a year early and started hanging out with older men,” said her friend.
Sara Leal’s first serious boyfriend was Serafin Gomez, now 25, a rugged science student from an affluent family.
“He was Mr Gorgeous and Sara seemed to be living really well. She drove a Cadillac,” recalled her friend.
“They split up after three years and she headed west.”
Sara Leal arrived in San Diego two years ago, where she promptly fell in with a hard-partying crowd.
One friend, Rafael Sandoval, said: “I don’t know what Sara does for a living. When you are young and pretty, you can party all night for free.”
Fluxx is the hottest club in San Diego at the moment and is placed in the fashionable downtown Gaslamp section of town. There is a circular dancefloor with a DJ on a raised dais surrounded by dancers in bikinis. On Friday, September 23, Ashton Kutcher arrived with a group of male friends.
As usual, Fluxx was filled with scantily clad young women. In recent weeks, it has played host to actor Jamie Foxx and rapper Snoop Dogg.
The club’s promoter, Aaron Klose, said: “I saw Ashton dancing with several girls, including Sara. Fluxx has the reputation for only allowing the prettiest ones in. Ashton was clearly up for a good night.”
Gavin Naumoff said he was given an account of the night by Jacques Du Toit, a South African yacht worker.
He explained: “Sara was at the club with some girlfriends. My buddy Jacques is the boyfriend of one of the girls partying with Sara that night, Alexis. The story is Ashton was picking out girls who were <<hot tub worthy or not>>. He would send his friends to hand-pick the prettiest girls from the dancefloor.”
Ashton Kutcher was booked into the $3,800-a-night “top of the rock” Diamond Suite at the Hard Rock Hotel. According to the hotel’s website, the luxury 1,200 sq ft accommodation has an outdoor Jacuzzi that “is always a hit”.
Gavin Naumoff said: “Jacques told me Alexis called him to say she and some other girls were going to a party in Ashton’s suite. Jacques was concerned, so he went over to the hotel to make sure she was behaving. Alexis told him Ashton’s room number and when he got there, a bodyguard was at the door who said it was a private party. Jacques explained he was the boyfriend of one of the girls and was let in.
“He found Ashton in a hot tub on the balcony with Alexis, Sara, a girl called Katie and another girl called Marta. They were all naked. Ashton invited Jacques to join them in the tub.
“Apparently, Ashton said, <<Yo, where’s the vodka at?>> and Jacques was like, <<It’s over there but I’m not going to get it>>. So Ashton gets out to get the vodka and that’s when Jacques saw he was butt naked.”
The alleged sexual encounter took place that night after everyone except Sara Leal and her friend Marta had left.
“Sara is telling everyone 100% that she and Ashton had sex,” claimed Gavin Naumoff.
“Jacques and Alexis are two of my best friends and Sara is a good friend. If she says she slept with him then I think she’s telling the truth.”
Katie Boggus, a friend of Sara Leal from Texas, who allegedly took part in the hot tub high jinks, refused to be drawn on the subject when approached at her San Diego home late Friday.
She said: “Sara is a great person. It’s really sad people are saying mean things about her.”
When asked directly if Sara Leal slept with Kutcher that night, she said: “I can’t talk about that.” Asked about being in the hot tub with a naked Ashton Kutcher, she smiled and said: “I’m sorry, I can’t say anything about that.”
According to another girlfriend of Sara Leal, she is “keeping low”.
Sara Leal out partying with friend Katie Boggus
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said: “The last thing she said was she would rather Ashton paid her the money and she would never talk. She’s a bit freaked out how big this story has become.”
Ashton Kutcher’s high-profile lawyer Marty Singer stayed uncharacteristically quiet when asked to comment about Sara Leal’s claims.
As for Demi Moore, the stress of the allegations has caused weight to fall off her already slim frame. According to friends of the actress, she has been devastated by the allegations of her husband’s infidelity, even though they are not the first.
Last year, another “party girl”, Brittney Jones, claimed she had sex with Ashton Kutcher at the marital home in Los Angeles. Despite threats of legal action over Brittney Jones’s “lies”, none ever materialized.
A producer who knows Demi Moore said: “Demi is devoted to Ashton. She is so proud and supportive of him. The silence from her side is deafening.
“Demi does everything she can to stay young and sexy, but when it comes down to it she is a 48-year-old woman. There is a whole generation of young girls who don’t care if a man is married. They just want to have a good time and hit pay dirt. Only time will tell if Sara Leal really did hit the jackpot.”
Jacqueline Laurita, The Real Housewives of New Jersey star announced on Twitter that she was done with the show after one of her fellow castmates “got set up.”
Jacqueline Laurita may be exiting the reality show, but she’s intent on landing a few blows against a castmate before she departs.
In response to a rumor this week that Melissa Gorga formerly worked as a stripper, Jacqueline Laurita has taken to Twitter and implied that Gorga’s sister-in-law, Teresa Giudice, is behind the chatter.
“Teresa told me that <<rumor>> about Melissa when she first started the show,”Jacqueline Laurita tweeted today.
“She wanted her out then. She knew. She plotted it. She played dumb on camera and even defended Melissa.”
Jacqueline Laurita seemed to be referring to an incident in which Melissa Gorga was reportedly set-up to appear on camera with a man who was supposedly her former boss at a strip club.
It would be just the latest case of a participant in the franchise having some embarassing aspect of her past revealed on-screen.
Regarding the rumor itself, Gorga’s ex-boss came out on Thursday and said Melissa was simply a bartender at his establishment, while this Housewife has posted a denial on her personal website.
“This is 100% NOT TRUE. I did bartend fro a few weeks at a bikini bar while I was in college. My outfit was a tank top, shorts and sneakers. SORRY, no bubbies there.”
The alleged setup was reported by The Huffington Post. Melissa Gorga said on Twitter the story was “so untrue,” but declined to explain what about it was inaccurate. The Huffington Post said the attempt to capture Melissa Gorga on camera with the supposed strip club boss took place at a fashion show at the boutique Posche; Jacqueline Laurita attended the event Tuesday, according to People.
Jacqueline Laurita said in a series of tweets after the fashion show that she had soured on “Real Housewives” and would not take part in the reunion special, which taped without her Wednesday.
“I feel nauseous and feverish. No reunion for me. Sorry guys. XOXO!” Jacqueline Laurita tweeted Wednesday.
Later she was adding: “Someone (not me) got set up tonight. There are some sneaky people trying to make someone look bad & then play innocent on camera. Sad. … 2b honest. I’m tired of the BS &shitty low life people.I didn’t know this was what I signed up 4.I have 2rise above&move on.”
Jacqueline Laurita continued: “I can’t be part of the Charade anymore. It’s unsettling. It’s disturbing & against what I stand for. I’m a REAL housewife.”
Jacqueline Laurita also accused fellow participants of hypocrisy:
“There is no real love there. Things aren’t always what they seem. SOME people live a different life OFF camera then they do on. ( ahem) … You’ll all see through the bullshit if you look closely enough. I think you all are pretty smart.”
Jacqueline Laurita, fortunately, claims she is pretty much already holding out for a new contract gone, tweeting:
“OK, so I’m losing it. This is what all this negativity I’m surrounded w/does 2me. I’m taking deepbreaths&gettingcontrolofmyself.”
Bravo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon.
The police said it was the marchers’ choice that led to the enforcement action.
“Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested,” Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said.
“Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested.”
Police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge
Many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered.
“The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway,” said Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street who marched but was not arrested.
A video on the YouTube page of a group called We Are Change shows some of the arrests.
Around 1 a.m., the first of the protesters held at the Midtown North Precinct on West 54th Street were released. They were met with cheers from about a half-dozen supporters who said they had been waiting as a show of solidarity since 6 p.m. for around 75 people they believed were held there. Every 10 to 15 minutes, they trickled out into a night far chillier than the afternoon on the bridge, each clutching several thin slips of paper – their summonses, for violations like disorderly conduct and blocking vehicular traffic. The first words many spoke made the group laugh: all variations on “I need a cigarette.”
David Gutkin, 24, a Ph.D. student in musicology at Columbia University, was among the first released. He said that after being corralled and arrested on the bridge, he was put into plastic handcuffs and moved to what appeared to be a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus, along with dozens of other protesters, for over four hours. They headed first into Brooklyn and then to several locations in Manhattan before arriving at the 54th Street precinct.
Men and women had been held separately, two or three to a cell.
None of the protesters interviewed knew if the bridge march was planned or a spontaneous decision by the crowd. But all insisted that the police had made no mention that the roadway was off limits.
The scene outside the Midtown South Precinct on West 35th Street around 2 a.m. was far more jovial. Only about 15 of the rumored 57 people had been released, but about a dozen waiting supporters danced jigs in the street to keep warm. They snacked on pizza. One even drank Coors Light beer, stashing the empty bottles under a parked police van. When a fresh protester was released, he or she ran through a gantlet formed by the waiting group, like a football player bursting onto the field during the Super Bowl. “This is so much better than prison!” one cheered.
The march on the bridge had come to a head shortly after 4 p.m., as the 1,500 or so marchers reached the foot of the Brooklyn-bound car lanes of the bridge, just east of City Hall.
In their march north from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan – headquarters for the last two weeks of a protest movement against what demonstrators call inequities in the economic system – they had stayed on the sidewalks, forming a long column of humanity penned in by officers on scooters.
Where the entrance to the bridge narrowed their path, some marchers, including organizers, stuck to the generally agreed-upon route and headed up onto the wooden walkway that runs between and about 15 feet above the bridge’s traffic lanes.
But about 20 others headed for the Brooklyn-bound roadway, said Christopher T. Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who accompanied the march. Some of them chanted “take the bridge.” They were met by a handful of high-level police supervisors, who blocked the way and announced repeatedly through bullhorns that the marchers were blocking the roadway and that if they continued to do so, they would be subject to arrest.
There were no physical barriers, though, and at one point, the marchers began walking up the roadway with the police commanders in front of them – seeming, from a distance, as if they were leading the way.
After allowing the protesters to walk about a third of the way to Brooklyn, the police then cut the marchers off and surrounded them with orange nets on both sides, trapping hundreds of people. As protesters at times chanted “white shirts, white shirts,” officers began making arrests, at one point plunging briefly into the crowd to grab a man.
The police said that those arrested were taken to several police stations and were being charged with disorderly conduct, at a minimum.
After allowing the protesters to walk about a third of the way to Brooklyn Bridge, the police then cut the marchers off and surrounded them with orange nets on both sides, trapping hundreds of people
Earlier in the afternoon, as many as 10 Department of Correction buses, big enough to hold 20 prisoners apiece, had been dispatched from Rikers Island in what one law enforcement official said was “a planned move on the protesters.”
Etan Ben-Ami, 56, a psychotherapist from Brooklyn, who was up on the walkway, said that the police seemed to make a conscious decision to allow the protesters to claim the road.
“They weren’t pushed back.”
“It seemed that they moved at the same time.”
Etan Ben-Ami said he left the walkway and joined the crowd on the road.
“It seemed completely permitted,” he said.
“There wasn’t a single policeman saying <<don’t do this>>.”
In related protests elsewhere in the country, 25 people were arrested in Boston for trespassing while protesting Bank of America’s foreclosure practices, according to Eddy Chrispin, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department.
Sarah Churman, a 29-year-old deaf, who was fitted with a state-of-the-art hearing implant nine weeks ago, has heard her own voice for the first time.
Her husband decided to film her as nurses turned on the implant and Sarah Churman finally heard the world at full volume.
Sarah Churman, from Texas, posted the video on YouTube and wrote underneath: “I was born deaf and 8 weeks ago I received a hearing implant.
“This is the video of them turning it on and me hearing myself for the first time :)”
The video has now been seen by more than a million people. As a nurse switches the device on and asks if she can tell, Sarah Churman nods in amazement and bursts into tears.
Sarah Churman is so overwhelmed she can hardly communicate her feelings, laughing and crying as she covers her face with her hands.
Sarah Churman cries with laughter as she hears the world around her for the first time
She was saying: “My laughter sounds loud.”
At the end of the video, when asked if she wants to hear her husband’s voice, Sarah Churman can only cry even more, pressing a tissue over her face as her husband is heard chuckling with happiness.
Sarah Churman is now finally able to hear her three-year-old daughter, who appears as a baby in another one of her YouTube videos.
Sarah Churman had been wearing hearing aids from the age of two, but had mainly relied on lip-reading, because “hearing aids only help so much”.
After messages poured in from intrigued viewers, Sarah Churman added: “For those of you who have asked, the implant I received was Esteem offered by Envoy Medical.”
The Esteem implant is embedded in the ear and works through ear drum vibrations, unlike most hearing aids, which use microphones and speakers.
One YouTube user wrote: “The scientist(s) who invented this device should be sainted, knighted and given a Nobel prize.”
Another said: “This is one of the most beautiful and moving things I’ve witnessed. We’re all so happy for you.”
Sarah Churman, who is flying to New York to appear on U.S. news programme the Today Show on Monday, replied on the site: “Thank you for all the positive comments… thanks for all the people who are kind.”
In response to viewers who were amazed at her ability to speak clearly, the formerly deaf woman said:
“My whole life I’ve been complimented on how well I speak.
“I don’t really have an answer for you other than I have always had a passion for reading, grammar, and English.
“My hearing loss was/is considered severe to profound. I’ve worked very hard to be able to interact and blend in… only thing I can say is <<God is good>>.”
Elizabeth Hurley turned the lights pink at the Selfridges Department Store in London as part of Estée Lauder’s Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.
The Breast Cancer Awareness Month Event, held on September 29, changed the Selfridges’ signature from yellow to pink. The store, like the Empire State Building and Niagara Falls, was illuminated in pink to raise awareness to the importance of mammography screening (over the age of 40) for early diagnosis of breast cancer.
“I’ve just arrived from New York where I helped launched a fabulous new awareness campaign called Shine a Light on Breast Cancer which launches next week. Today it’s London, next week Edinburgh and then on to Moscow and back to New York,” she told Vogue.
Her grandmother died of breast cancer, and she is dedicated to the cause.
Elizabeth Hurley, 46, appeared in a pink dress by Michael Kors, then she wore strapless silver dress by Kalinka, with a pair of nude strappy heels. Exquisite earrings, glowing makeup and soft lip shade, hair loose in wavy curls finished off her look.
Elizabeth Hurley firstly arrived at Selfridges in her tight lipstick pink dress, accessorized with beige pumps and the pink rhinestone Breast Cancer Awareness Month ribbon brooch. She signed purchases from the Estée Lauder Pink Ribbon Collection (a jeweled compact mirror, an Elizabeth Hurley lip set), that will raise money for breast cancer awareness. Liz helped to create Elizabeth Pink lipstick. The lipstick sales go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Elizabeth Hurley signed the purchases from Estée Lauder Pink Ribbon Collection at Selfridges, to raise money for breast cancer awareness.
“Had a great time at Selfridges. Wrist aches from a lot of signing. Met some brave cancer survivors who were supporting the cause. Humbling,” Elizabeth Hurley wrote on Twitter.
Elizabeth Hurley brought her son Damian Charles Hurley, 9, to switch on the pink lights at Selfridges for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2011.
She wore a strapless silver cocktail floral jacquard dress with a strappy beige high-heeled sandals, and a pin shaped in the pink ribbon breast cancer symbol. Damian wore a jacket and pink striped shirt and a breast cancer awareness pin placed on one of his navy lapels.
Elizabeth Hurley brought her son, Damian, to turn the lights pink at Selfridges for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2011.
“Every year, we light more than 200 landmark buildings pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. Selfridges is probably one of the busiest department stores in London and the 100-year-old façade is absolutely beautiful,” Elizabeth Hurley told Vogue.
In 1991, the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors.
In 1993 Evelyn H. Lauder launched Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the UK, she founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, co-creating the pink ribbon symbol.
Elizabeth Jane Hurley, actress and model, is Estée Lauder’s Breast Cancer Awareness ambassador. She was married to Hugh Grant, actor. She has a child with Steve Bing, film producer. In 2002 she married an Indian textile heir, Arun Nayar. Elton John attended the wedding and gave the bride away. She divorced in June 2011. Recently she received a sapphire and diamond engagement ring from the cricketer Shane Warne.
“Let’s play the Dunhill together next year – you up for it?”
“You swing great & have nice rhythm – with a super short game! X” He wrote on Elizabeth Hurley’s Twitter page.
Elizabeth Hurley on breast cancer awareness (video)
Amanda Knox has written her memoirs during the four years she has languished in an Italian prison.
In her book, Amanda Knox is describing how she came to be convicted – unjustly, she insists – of brutally murdering her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher.
If Amanda Knox is absolved of one of the most grippingly macabre crimes of recent times, her story is expected to be turned into a multi-million-dollars Hollywood movie.
In the same time, a group of British film-makers led by award-winning director Michael Winterbottom are considering a rival film with Colin Firth, who owns a villa not far from the murder scene in Perugia, portraying a crusading reporter who proves Amanda Knox’s innocence.
At this moment, three American TV networks are already said to have offered a million dollars for the first interview with Amanda Knox should she walk free. Amanda Knox’ Seattle-based PR agent says he has piles of interview requests on his desk from around the world.
According to Italian media, one US TV network has hired a private jet to whisk Amanda Knox and her relatives back to the States if she’s cleared.
If Amanda Knox is absolved of one of the most grippingly macabre crimes of recent times, her story is expected to be turned into a multi-million-dollars Hollywood movie
In response, Meredith Kercher’s lawyer Francesco Maresca said ironically:
“We have heard about a plane waiting to take the Knoxes away, but poor Meredith’s family barely have enough money to come to Perugia for the verdict.”
Should Amanda Knox be depicted as the martyr in a miscarriage of justice movie, it would seal a quite extraordinary image transformation, given that she has been demonized as “Foxy Knoxy”, a dangerously narcissistic, sex-and-drugs obsessed wild-child.
For the past three months, Amanda Knox has put aside her diary and used the internet-less laptop she is permitted in her cell to tap out the most important words she will ever compose – her personal address to the court.
Under Italian law, the defendant is entitled to make a declaration – and they usually wait until the end so theirs is the last voice the judge and jurors hear before considering their verdict.
At her original trial, which ended in December 2009, Amanda Knox was jailed for 26 years, a year more than her well-heeled Italian boyfriend, Rafaelle Sollecito, 27, her supposed accomplice in what the prosecution portrayed as a gratuitous, cannabis-fuelled, sado-sexual slaughter.
Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito were alleged to have murdered Meredith Kercher, a Leeds University undergraduate studying in Perugia for a year on an exchange programme, in her bedroom with the help of a third man, Ivorian immigrant, small-time drug-dealer and petty-thief Rudy Guede. Rudy Guede he pleaded guilty and is serving just 16 years.
Amanda Knox has always denied being at the house that night, and when she rises to re-state her innocence on Monday she is expected to strike a more measured tone.
“Amanda has had four years to really reflect on who she is,” says her loyal friend Madison Paxton, who moved from America to Perugia a year ago so she can visit her regularly.
“Her character is really honed and she is more confident now than she ever was. It’s strangely beautiful.”
Yet as the Meredith Kercher’s lawyer reminded the court this week, Amanda Knox’s was not the only glittering future destroyed that grim night in November 2007.
The lawyer began by displaying a smiling photograph of the Surrey-born student, Meredith Kercher on a big projector screen. Then he replaced it with shockingly candid pictures, never previously displayed in open court, of Meredith lying, semi-naked and lifeless, the left side of her slender neck ripped by a gaping knife wound.
“Amanda has still never seen those photographs and to me that says a lot. I think she remains to this day shocked and ashamed of what she did. That is why she covered Meredith’s body with the duvet. Only a woman would have done that.”
Given that 21-year-old Meredith had attended a Halloween party in the guise of a vampire two days earlier and had then been subjected to a frenzied sexual assault at the rambling hillside cottage shared by Amanda Knox, he theorized that the attackers had enacted some twisted ritualistic fantasy.
But the prosecution case has been seriously undermined during the appeal – in effect a ten-month-long retrial before a new judge and jury.
The forensic evidence, in particular, is disgracefully flawed. Indeed, so many basic errors were made, both in gathering and testing the samples.
At the first trial, for example, the prosecution claimed traces of Meredith Kercher’s DNA were detected on the blade of a 30cm knife recovered from Rafaelle Sollecito’s flat, and thatAmanda Knox’s DNA was on the handle. She is said to have “trembled and shook” when police pulled it from the kitchen drawer.
The original judge refused to allow the test to be independently reviewed, but the second appointed two university experts to analyze it.
While they confirmed that Amanda Knox had touched the knife – as well she might have done when preparing meals at her boyfriend’s house – they said the sample attributed to Meredith Kercher was so tiny it could not even be re-tested, let alone relied upon as accurate.
Meredith Kercher’s family has reiterated their belief that the original trial verdict was fair. Four years after their sparkling, cherished daughter followed her heart to the Italian hills, they still don’t know why she met such a terrible end.
And whether or not Amanda Knox emerges a murderer or martyr after delivering her carefully-crafted speech on Monday, the case will remain the greatest tragedy of this sordid and deeply perplexing saga.
