San Diego police has arrested at least two people and used pepper spray yesterday to break up a human chain formed by Occupy movement protesters at a downtown plaza where they’ve camped for a week.
The action started Friday early in the morning, when police began removing about a half-dozen tents after warning protesters their personal belongings couldn’t stay in the Occupy San Diego camp. However, Occupy demonstrators can continue protesting without the tents, tarps and tables, according to authorities.
According to police Lt. Andra Brown, one man was arrested before 8 a.m. for interfering with a police officer after he sat down and refused to take away his tent. After the man and his tent were removed, other protesters erected another tent and formed a human chain around it.
By noon, police officers pulled apart Occupy demonstrators and used pepper spray to disperse them.
According to demonstrators, several protesters were suffering burning eyes from the pepper spray.
Police used pepper spray to disperse Occupy San Diego protesters
One of the protesters, Michael Basillas, a 26-year-old college student, said they were regrouping to make a new plan and many of them had moved to Balboa Park.
Michael Basillas said San Diego Police refused to negotiate with the Occupy protests organizers about the removal orders.
Police said they met with the Occupy protests organizers on Thursday night to tell them they would need to remove their tents to allow the city to prepare for a weekend event at the civic center plaza.
“They chose just to force their way in,” student Michael Basillas said.
On Friday night, Officer David Stafford said that Occupy San Diego protesters remain on the scene, and police officers are there to monitor the situation.
Occupy San Diego protest is in sympathy with Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York and other cities to protest corporate influence on politics.
Gap Incorporation has announced its plans to close more than 20% of all Gap stores in US.
The retailer, which runs the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic chains, plans to close 189 of its locations, which means 21% of Gap stores in the U.S., by the end of 2013.
The announcement comes as President Barack Obama’s push for the Made in America brand saw him visit a GM plant in Orion, Michigan, hailing a new trade agreement with South Korea that will see the manufacture of subcompact cars in the U.S.
However, while the Made in America stamp of approval is creating thousands of jobs in the motor industry, Gap‘s losing streak will see the loss of thousands more in the retail sector.
Gap plans to close 189 of its locations, which means 21 per cent of Gap stores in the US, by the end of 2013
Like many U.S. companies, Gap has been looking overseas for growth as Americans continue to cut back on spending during the down economy in the U.S.
Gap, which is the largest U.S. clothing chain, said it plans to triple the number of its stores in China from about 15 by the end of 2011 to roughly 45 by the end of 2012.
Gap sales in the U.S. have eroded considerably since it drove America’s love of khakis and all things business casual in the 1990s because of growing competition from specialty retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch and cheap chic merchants such as H&M.
In May 2011, Gap design director Patrick Robinson, was dramatically fired, with immediate effect, and the store was knocked from the top position as the world’s biggest fashion chain by Spanish behemoth Zara.
Gap’s overall revenue has fallen 3% over the last quarter, as has Banana Republic’s, while the revenue at Old Navy, which sells low-priced clothing, remained flat.
The changes are related to a Gap’s previously stated goal of reducing its overall square footage in the U.S. by 10% from 2007 to the end of 2013, while roughly doubling revenue from outside of the U.S. to 30% by the end of the same year.
Glenn Murphy, Gap’s CEO, said in a statement:
“The combination of our global strategy and formidable growth platform puts us in a strong position to expand our reach into the top 10 apparel markets worldwide.”
“In North America, we’re taking a number of steps to improve sales in the near-term, and I’m confident that with a strong management team in place, we’re well positioned for sustained growth across the business.”
In order to improve its profitability, Gap has closed or reduced the size of stores over the past few years. In 2008, the company announced plans to reduce overall square footage in the U.S by primarily focusing on cutting the number of stores. But Gap never gave details on how many stores that it planned to close.
On October 13, Gap officials offered more details to analysts gathered in New York for its annual meeting. It plans to have closed 34% of its namesake stores between 2007 and the end of 2013, not including Gap Outlet locations. After the reduction, Gap will have 700 stores left by the end of 2013, down from 1056 in 2007.
“Over the next 26 months, we’ll look store by store at our specialty fleet and determine which stores meet the standards we’ve set for our brand,” said Art Peck, president of Gap North America, who took over the helm of the brand in February.
Gap also said it plans to keep the same number of Old Navy stores in North America, but is cutting down the size of each store. Old Navy had decreased its square footage by 8% to 18.5 million since 2007. It plans to add 50 new Gap Outlet stores by the same period, which will leave 250 stores by the end of 2013.
The company said that it is testing new merchandising ideas and marketing to get shoppers excited. Gap Kids has collaborated with designer Diane von Furstenberg to design a children’s line to be shipped to stores next spring.
Meanwhile, the first Gap store in Hong Kong will be opening in a few weeks, as is the first Banana Republic store in Paris later this year. Gap also plans to expand Old Navy outside of North America to Japan within the next 18 months.
Gap’s shares rose 11 cents, to $17.96 per share after the information was released in New York.
Rapper Rick Ross is now hospitalized in Alabama after suffering a second seizure in a private jet in the same day.
Rick Ross is currently in a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital after losing consciousness for the second time in the day mid flight, but his condition is not yet known, according to TMZ.
Rick Ross is currently in a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital after losing consciousness for the second time in the day mid flight
Yesterday, at 10:36 a.m. PST, Rick Ross had his first episode on a Delta flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Memphis, where the rapper was supposed to perform in concert at 7:30 ET at FedEx Forum, TMZ reported.
Rick Ross’ entourage jumped out of their seats to alert aircraft personnel and a doctor on board administered CPR on the rapper.
The plane made an emergency landing right away and Rick Ross was being wheeled off the aircraft and rushed to a nearby hospital.
Few minutes later, one of Rick Ross’ closest friends, rapper Wale tweeted: “I just talked to Ross…he’s 100 pct ok..”
One of Rick Ross’ family member told TMZ that the artist is currently under close supervision and is doing fine and that drugs and alcohol were not involved.
After being rushed to hospital, Rick Ross was later released and reported to be “100% okay” and even tweeted from Fort Lauderdale airport before take off at 5:07 p.m. ET, writing: “Memphis here I come.”
After first seizure episode, Rick Ross has been shortly released from hospital and tweeted from Fort Lauderdale airport before the take off, writing: “Memphis here I come."
Rick Ross then posted a video of himself boarding the private jet and a message to fans promoting his forthcoming album.
Shortly after the take off, at 5:44 p.m. CDT, the private jet was diverted and made an emergency landing in Birmingham, Alabama, after Rick Ross had another seizure on board.
Rick Ross was immediately rushed to Birmingham hospital emergency room.
A representative for Birmingham Shuttlesworth Airport told E! Online:
“There was a private plane that was routed here for medical purposes. This plane didn’t go through our main terminal. We have a fixed based operator called Atlantic Aviation that handles our general aviation (private planes).”
Sources told TMZ that rapper Yo Gotti may replace Rick Ross at the Memphis concert.
Dr. Ramzi Amri, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, claims that Steve Jobs would probably be alive today if he had not put off conventional medical treatment in favor of alternative remedies.
According to Dr. Ramzi Amri, Steve Jobs had a mild form of pancreatic cancer that is rarely fatal and that his choice of treatment “eventually led to an unnecessarily early death”.
Dr. Ramzi Amri wrote on Quora, a forum frequented by Silicon Valley executives:
“Let me cut to the chase – Mr Jobs allegedly chose to undergo all sorts of alternative treatment options before opting for conventional medicine.
“Given the circumstances, it seems sound to assume that Mr Jobs’ choice for alternative medicine has eventually led to an unnecessarily early death.”
Steve Jobs died on October 5 at 56 due to respiratory arrest caused by pancreatic cancer.
Dr Ramzi Amri claimed that Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer more quickly because of his apparent refusal to embrace “conventional treatment” especially over the last year
According to his death certificate, released by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, Steve Jobs had a “metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor” and there would not be an autopsy.
The document also stated that Steve Jobs had suffered from the disease since October 2003, when he was first diagnosed.
Dr. Ramzi Amri claimed that Steve Jobs died from the disease more quickly because of his apparent refusal to embrace “conventional treatment” especially over the last year.
“It seems that even during this recurrent phase, Mr Jobs opted to dedicate his time to Apple as the disease progressed, instead of opting for chemotherapy or any other conventional treatment.”
From 2003, when he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, to at least July 2004, Steve Jobs “decided to employ alternative methods to treat his pancreatic cancer, hoping to avoid the operation through a special diet “, according to a 2008 CNN Money article.
The rapid advance of the cancer caused Steve Jobs to undergo an operation known as a “Whipple procedure” in which he had his pancreas and duodenum removed.
The pancreatic cancer expert suggests that Whipple procedure, which is only undertaken if the cancer is quickly spreading, might not have been necessary if Steve Jobs had pursued conventional medicine sooner.
“The only reason he’d have a transplant would be that the tumor invaded all major parts of the liver, which takes a considerable amount of time.”
According to Dr. Ramzi Amri, if Steve Jobs had the cancer surgically removed immediately after the disease was diagnosed then he may well have survived with “no residual side-effects”.
Steve Jobs had comparatively mild neuroendocrine tumors, compared to the far more aggressive pancreatic adenocarcinoma tumors that 95% of pancreatic cancer sufferers have.
“In my series of patients, for many subtypes, the survival rate was as high as 100% over a decade.”
In the end, the expert said he had the “profoundest respect for Mr Jobs and his legacy” and did not wish to offend anyone with his comments.
“I have done 1.5 years of research on the type of tumor that affected Steve Jobs and have some strong opinions on his case, not only as an admirer of his work, but also as a cancer researcher who has the impression that his disease course has been far from optimal.”
It is not clear what was the “special diet” Steve Jobs may have adhered to after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but he was known to be a pescetarian, eating fish alongside a vegetarian diet.
Restaurant workers of San Francisco, California, want to implement a standard tip of 25% onto the bill.
According to Contra Costa Times , the restaurant workers proposals for standard 25% tipping in San Francisco already have support from some high-class restaurants.
The main issue with their proposal is that diners should pay the 25% tip whether the service is good or bad.
Regularly, people are tipping on average somewhere between 15 and 20%.
Restaurant workers of San Francisco want to implement a standard tip of 25 per cent onto the bill
The San Francisco restaurant workers proposal comes after a recent incident, when a diner declined to tip a waitress in Washington and allegedly insulted her on the receipt.
Victoria Liss was so incensed by the diner’s comment and his lack of gratuity, that she has made it her mission to find the “jerk” responsible.
The waitress posted a picture of the offending receipt on her Facebook page and named the customer as Andrew Meyer, after she found the name of the credit card user.
The picture of the offending receipt was re-posted on Facebook, blogged, tweeted and reported on by several media outlets.
The proposal of standard tipping in San Francisco, however, has not gone down well with those living nearby.
Speaking to Contra Costa Times, Mike Alexander, from Antioch, said:
“They have to be kidding.
“The whole purpose of a tip is to reward service. If the price is dictated it’s not a tip.
“If they’re serious they’ll meet a lot of resistance. It seems like everyone is trying to squeeze another buck out of us.”
Another potential diner, Martha Haider, from Brentwood, also told Contra Costa Times: “I don’t mind tipping for good service, but 25% is going too far.”
“There might be some well-heeled people who will do it, but not me.”
Around the world there are wide variations for a standard tip, often leaving even the most experienced of travelers confused.
The tipping rules sometime can be extremely complicated and vary not only by country but also by scenario.
According to travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler, tipping in the Middle East is “complex and subtle”. While you may pay out often, it is usually in smaller amounts.
In some of the world’s poorer countries – including those in Africa – travelers are advised to not just be generous but also thoughtful.
Travelers are advised to always tip in India as it has been known for restaurant workers to run after people and scream for money.
In Europe, one rule is too always tip in cash and not on credit card. That way, the waiter or waitress will receive the money.
In the U.S you would be expected to leave between 15 and 20% on a meal. But in Latin America it is more like 8 to 12%.
The cleanup action of Zuccotti Park from Lower Manhattan, that has been occupied by Wall Street protesters for nearly a month, was canceled Friday minutes before it was supposed to begin.
Bloomberg administration made the announcement around 6:20 a.m., about 40 minutes before workers were scheduled to enter Zuccotti Park, which has been the encampment for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Deputy Mayor Caswell F. Holloway said in a Friday morning statement:
“Late last night, we received notice from the owners of Zuccotti Park – Brookfield Properties – that they are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation.
Our position has been consistent throughout: The City’s role is to protect public health and safety, to enforce the law, and guarantee the rights of all New Yorkers. Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”
As news that the cleanup of Zuccotti Park has been canceled, cheers erupted among demonstrators who had been preparing for a possible confrontation.
Hundreds of Occupy demonstrators had gathered overnight in anticipation of what might happen on Friday morning, while others continued cleaning the park, which Brookfield Properties complained had become filthy and a potential health threat.
Early in the morning on Friday, at around 5 o’clock, a collection of mops and brooms had stood in a plastic bin on Liberty Street along with 27 buckets of soapy water.
A woman handed out white rubber gloves to more than a dozen people. They walked to the west end of the park, at Trinity Place, and announced they were going to begin a sweep, picking up and discarding objects that did not belong to anyone.
As news that the cleanup of Zuccotti Park has been canceled, cheers erupted among Occupy protesters who had been preparing for a possible confrontation
According to Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for Occupy Wall Street, on Thursday night protesters tried to deliver a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to City Hall,calling upon Mayor Michael Bloomberg to allow the Zuccotti Park occupation to continue.
Bruner also sent a message to supporters asking them to show up at Zuccotti Park early Friday morning to “to defend the occupation from eviction.”
On Friday morning, at 6 o’clock, the crowd had swelled to more than a thousand. NYPD officers stood behind metal barricades that lined Zuccotti Park.
Two days ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Zuccotti Park would be cleaned.
On Tuesday, Richard B. Clark, Brookfield’s chief executive officer, sent a letter to the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, in which he wrote that conditions in Zuccotti Park had reached “unsafe” levels, and he reiterated his complaint that the encampment violated the law.
“Overflowing garbage cans attracted rodents, gas-fired generators posed a fire hazard, bad smells abounded, the lack of toilets made things worse and complaints were mounting from disgruntled people who live and work nearby.”
“In light of this and the ongoing trespassing of the protesters, we are again requesting the assistance of the New York City Police Department to help clear the park.”
Occupy Wall Street protesters feared that Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement that the park would be cleaned was a prelude to their being permanently banned from Zuccotti Park. An appeal quickly went out on Facebook and other sites calling for brooms, mops and various cleaning supplies as well as volunteers willing to donate elbow grease. After cleaning the place themselves, the demonstrators planned to form a human chain around the park to try to keep police officers from entering.
Hundreds of Occupy movement protesters stormed Cipriani restaurant last night to confront NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg ahead of this morning’s planned “eviction” of their Manhattan camp.
They went to Cipriani restaurant, where Michael Bloomberg attended a dinner, in an attempt to hand him a petition with 310,000 signatures supporting their right to remain in nearby Zuccotti Park.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators’ anger was triggered by the Bloomberg’s endorsement of Friday’s clean-up of the “unsanitary” encampment nearby Zuccotti Park.
Michael Bloomberg refused to come out of the restaurant, instead making his exit out of a back door.
Hundreds of Occupy movement protesters stormed Cipriani restaurant last night to confront NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg ahead of this morning's planned “eviction” of their Manhattan camp
NYC officials have ordered demonstrators to clear their sleeping bags and tarps from the park where they started the Occupy movement that has spread around the globe and forced CEOs and presidential candidates to take notice.
The activists said they wouldn’t be going anywhere on Friday morning, setting the stage for a dawn showdown with police.
Brookfield Office Properties, the owner of the private Zuccotti Park, where the demonstrators have camped out for nearly a month, said it has become trashed and “unsanitary”.
Brookfield Office Properties planned to begin a section-by-section power-washing of Zuccotti Park on Friday, at 7:00 a.m.
Patrick Bruner, the Occupy Wall Street spokesman, sent an email to supporters on Thursday asking them to join the demonstrators at 6:00 a.m. on Friday to “defend the occupation from eviction”.
Patrick Bruner also said that the clean-up effort of the authorities is a dirty trick to end their demonstrations.
The spokesman said Brookfield Properties asked for police assistance to clear it of protesters so that it could be cleaned on Friday.
According to Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway, the protest has “created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on” Zuccotti Park.
The cleaning was to be done in stages, and protesters were permitted to return to the park after cleaners were finished.
On Thursday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told the New York Post that returning protesters will be prohibited from bringing tents, sleeping bags with them.
According to Ray Kelly, the protesters were notified of the new policy through pamphlets that were passed out to them by police officers.
The NYPD notice lists regulations including no tents, no tarps or sleeping bags on the ground, no lying on benches and no storage of personal property on the ground. All those practices have been common at the park, where protesters have lived, slept and eaten for nearly a month.
French prosecutors have dropped the investigation into Tristane Banon’s claim that former IFM chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape her through a lack of proof.
According to prosecution, DSK admitted to sexual aggression against journalist and writer Tristane Banon, but that it was too late to prosecute for that charge because the incident happened in 2003.
Tristane Banon, 32, claims DSK attempted to rape her during an interview for a book, but he called the claim imaginary.
According to prosecution, DSK admitted to sexual aggression against journalist and writer Tristane Banon, but that it was too late to prosecute for that charge because the incident happened in 2003
The prosecution decision comes after journalist Tristane Banon finished a fictional account of her ordeal, in which she referred to her alleged attacker as “the pig”.
“Eight years ago, the pig stole my life,” she wrote at the beginning of “Le Bal des Hypocrites” (“The Hypocrites’ Ball”).
The 62-year-old former IMF chief quit his job earlier this year after a New York hotel maid accused him of attempted rape. Prosecutors later dropped that case.
According to France law, the statute of limitations for attempted rape is 10 years and only three years for sexual assault.
French judges confirmed that the “sex acts” exchanged between DSK and Tristane Banon had taken place, and that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been unnecessarily violent.
“There is not enough evidence to pursue the attempted rape case after 10 years, but sexual aggression was recognized,” said a spokesman for the Paris prosecutors’ office.
Tristane Banon now intends to pursue her case against DSK through the civil courts, rather than the criminal courts.
She refers continually to the alleged crime in her 126-page book, but leaves out the name of DSK.
Tristane Banon, 32, claims DSK attempted to rape her during an interview for a book
The tactic she used is a common one among French authors as they try to avoid libel charges relating to what they have written.
Despite this, publicity for the book makes it perfectly clear that the book is auto-biographical.
“With a dignity and sincerity that earns our full admiration, Tristane Banon tells the story of the six weeks that changed her life,” said a spokesman for publishers Diable Vauvert.
Tristane Banon first spoke out after DSK was arrested on charges of attempting to rape a maid at Sofitel Hotel in New York.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has always denied Tristane Banon’s allegations and is suing her for defamation, although he does admit kissing her and making a pass at her.
Referring to her lawyer, David Koubbi, in her book, Tristane Banon writes:
“I was offered lots of money to go on American TV to say I was making a complaint. I told David to tell them to get lost.”
The journalist claimed she was attacked while interviewing DSK in 2003, describing him as a “rutting chimpanzee”.
After four years, Tristane Banon said during a Paris TV talk show:
“We ended up fighting. It finished really violently. We fought on the floor.”
Dominique Strauss-Kahn could have received a prison sentence of up to 15 years if found guilty of attempted rape in France.
A shocking video showing two students-girls from Roger C. Sullivan High School, a Chicago public school, who were viciously beating a 14-year-old classmate, has been released on internet.
The footage shows the victim, Jillian Salgado, 14, battling to defend herself as she is pummelled and thrown around the classroom by two sisters, who are her classmates. The fight took place in front of one of their teacher, who watched them powerless.
The teacher can be seen trying to break up the fight at one point, but she was unable to help and had to rely on security guards to end it.
The shocking video shows two students-girls from Roger C. Sullivan High School, a Chicago public school, who were severely beating a 14-year-old classmate
Jillian Salgado’s best friend told NBC:
“They got angry and went ghetto on her.
“Every day there’s a fight. Today there was a fight in algebra.”
The two sisters attacked Jillian Salgado during a biology class at Roger C. Sullivan High School last Thursday and the fight has been recorded by another student on the mobile phone.
The student’s mother, Maria Salgado, says she didn’t realize how brutal the beating was until she saw the video.
“I am grateful for whoever recorded it because it did show the severity that no one realized.”
Roger C. Sullivan High School spokesman, Marielle Sainvilus said the two sisters who attacked Jillian Salgado, aged 17 and 18, have both been suspended.
Marielle Sainvilus told NBC: “Chicago Public Schools does not tolerate violence among students in any way.
“The safety and security of our students is a top priority and we will take whatever actions are necessary to ensure that schools remain a safe environment for learning.”
Last night, Orange County Police named the eight people who were the innocent victims killed during the Seal Beach massacre.
The eight people killed by Scott Dekraai in the crazed shooting at Salon Meritage were: Randy Fannin, the beauty salon owner, Victoria Buzzo, Lucia Kondas, Laura Elody, Christy Wilson, Michelle Fast, David Caouette and Michelle Fournier, the gunman ex-wife.
Scott Dekraai, ex-husband of one of the victims, Michelle Fournier, allegedly went on the shooting spree at Salon Meritage, after losing custody of his 7-year-old child.
Eight people were the innocent victims killed, during the Seal Beach massacre, by the crazed gunman Scott Dekraai
The gunfire happened Wednesday afternoon, the day after Scott Dekraai is said to have been served a restraining order by former wife Michelle Fournier after she won custody of their son Dominic.
Michelle Fournier, who claimed in court filings that Scott Dekraai was unstable and physically abusive to her when they were married, was murdered, along with salon owner Randy Fannin, newlywed Laura Elody and Michele Fast, a young mother to two teenage daughters.
Another man, David Caouette, was killed outside Salon Meritage by a shot to the head as he sat in his Land Rover.
Other two women, Victoria Buzzo and Christy Wilson, were murdered and another 73-year-old woman, Hattie Stretz, is in a serious condition in hospital. Hattie Stretz is the mother of Laura Elody.
His last victim was 65-year-old Lucia Kondas, who was the oldest person killed at the salon.
Wednesday event at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach was the deadliest mass killing in Orange County history.
After the terrifying shooting at Salon Meritage, Orange County authorities rushed to the scene and seized Scott Dekraai in a traffic stop half a mile away.
Scott Dekraai is said to have moved to Seal Beach in 2009, after he was honourably discharged from the military because of a work-related leg injury.
The gunman worked on tugboats after being discharged by the military and walked with a limp after a boat accident.
Scott Dekraai allegedly remarried Mindy Miguel, his rehab nurse, who is currently assisting detectives with their investigations.
Salon Meritage owner, Randy Fannin died in the shooting after he is said to have confronted Scott Dekraai.
One of Michelle Fournier’s best friends, Christy Wilson, who is married, also died in the shooting.
Christy Wilson was reportedly in court with Michelle Fournier on Tuesday to testify on her friend’s behalf during her custody case.
Mother-of-two, Victoria Buzzo, 54, was killed just a few months after the death of her father.
Seal Beach youth soccer team, Beach Futbol Club, sent out a message to its members announcing that Michelle Fast, who is a mother of one of the players, had died in the shooting at Salon Meritage. Michelle Fast has two teenage daughters.
“It is with great sadness that we write to let you know that one of the victims in the senseless Seal Beach tragedy was Michelle Fast, wife of Patrick Fast who manages our Girls U16 White team, and mother of Lisa Fast a player on that team. Please keep the Fast family in your prayers.”
The newlywed Laura Elody, 46, was also killed during massacre. Laura’s mother, Hattie Stretz, 73, was also shot in the salon and she is still in a critical condition at hospital.
Laura Elody is said to have been styling her elderly mother’s hair when she was killed.
Seal Beach, a quiet beachfront city of approximately 25,000 residents, identifies itself as the Gateway to Southern California’s Orange County and is located about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Sandra Bullock is among its famous residents.
A computer error at the Tesco’s tills enabled surprised customers to pick up Terry’s Chocolate Orange for just 29p each – a tenth of their value.
Shoppers, who have taken advantage of the glitch at Tesco, filled their trolleys with boxes of Terry’s Chocolate Orange – advertised on TV by comedian Dawn French – and cleared entire stocks.
One shopper bought 192 packs of Terry’s Chocolate Orange, which normally has a retail price of £2.75, for just £57 – saving a staggering £471.
A shopper, who have took advantage of the glitch at Tesco, bought 176 boxes of Terry’s Chocolate Orange and posted the photo on internet
The rush started because two independent Tesco discounts were applied at the same time rather than consecutively:
1. Buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) offer is equal to £1.375 pounds per orange, half the £2.75 retail price.
2. £3.25 for every three you purchase (three for £5 when that many would normally cost £8.25).
So, if you buy six Terry’s Chocolate Orange, it would cost £16.50, less £6.50 (the three for £5 discount) and also less £8.25 for the BOGOF deal.
The total cost is therefore £1.75 for six packs of Terry’s Chocolate Orange – or just over 29p each.
The discount error is believed to have affected all main UK Tesco “Extra” supermarkets as well as their Metro stores – around 1,250 in all – but not the smaller Express outlets.
A spokesman for Tesco would not say how many Terry’s Chocolate Orange products were sold or how much it had cost the company.
Within hours, a Facebook page called “Terrys Chocolate orange glitch, I was there” has been created and flooded with people posting photos of their chocolate hordes as well as their receipts.
A Facebook page called “Terrys Chocolate orange glitch, I was there” has been created and flooded with people posting photos of their chocolate hordes as well as their receipts
In the same time, the glitch had been posted on a money-saving website and 57 pages of comments had been posted from excited shoppers.
It was reported that people visited five different stores after clearing each shops’ shelves to make the most of the deal.
They were able to combine a three-for-£5 deal on another Terry’s Chocolate Orange with BOGOF offer.
A Tesco receipt was posted on Facebook showing how the two offers were combined at the till and resulted in a massive discount
However, the tills applied a further discount only when Terry’s Chocolate Orange was bought in multiples of six.
That meant Terry’s Chocolate Orange, which usually sells for £2.75, was being sold for 10% of the original price.
The Terry’s Chocolate Orange’s deal was first posted on money saving website www.hotukdeals.com at about noon on Tuesday.
After few minutes, the shoppers posted photos of their receipts – the first showed £8.95 being spent just on Terry’s Chocolate Orange, with £73.15 being saved.
According to a spokeswoman for Tesco, the error only lasted only “a couple of hours”.
She added: “We deal with 35,000-40,000 products, so sometimes these things happen. We have made lots of people very happy.”
“We are putting steps in place to make sure that it does not happen again.”
Kraft Foods, the producer of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, were unavailable for comment.
Mike Lazaridis, the founder and co-CEO of Research in Motion announced on Thursday that the BlackBerry service has been fully restored.
“All of the services are back up globally,” he said.
The announcement was made during a conference call on Thursday and came just hours after a downbeat video message – itself a rare appearance from Mike Lazaridis – appeared to say the exact opposite.
“I’d like to give you an estimated time of full recovery around the world, but I cannot do this with certainty at this time,” Mike Lazaridis said.
“For those of you affected I know this is very frustrating. We’re doing everything in our power to restore regular service levels and we’re working tirelessly to restore your trust in us.”
“I apologize for the outages this week. We’ve let many of you down.”
Research in Motion announced that the BlackBerry service has been fully restored today
Mike Lazaridis went on to say that service levels had been restored in many territories. His comments were mirrored by users around the world, as many reported today that emails were now working, and that BlackBerry Messenger was back online.
It was reported that users are now demanding compensation for three days cut off from BlackBerry services.
But, Research in Motion (RIM) – the company behind BlackBerry- has made no comment as to whether it might offer compensation to users.
RIM has faced widespread criticism for its handling of the crisis, in particular its infrequent communications with customers.
BlackBerry shares are still down on today’s trading.
RIM’s revenues have been in rapid decline from their $5.6 billion peak since February, when its shares were worth $70 a piece. They are now trading at just under $25. The company has lost nearly two thirds of its value in eight months.
Profits collapsed over the summer as RIM failed to produce new models, saw its tablet computer flop and generally lost out to the iPhone and Android mobiles.
Apologizing for interruptions and delays, RIM’s chief information officer Robin Bienfait said on the company’s website:
“You’ve depended on us for reliable, real-time communications, and right now we’re letting you down.
“We believe we understand why this happened and we are working to restore normal service levels in all markets as quickly as we can.”
In a later posting, RIM insisted there was “a significant increase in service levels” in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, and that service was “progressing well” in the US, Canada and Latin America, despite some continued delays.
It remains unclear how many of the 70 million BlackBerry subscribers have been affected by the outage, but many have vented their frustrations on Twitter.
BlackBerry outage started at around 11:00 a.m. on Monday.
Sony is recalling 1.6million of its Bravia LCD TVs worldwide after several serious malfunctions involving parts “melting” appeared on 2007 and 2008 sets.
It was reported that 11 incidents took place in Japan, but faulty parts may affect forty-inch LCD models sold “around the world”. 630,000 affected units have been sold in Europe.
“If you own one of these products and you notice any abnormality – unusual noise, unusual smell or smoking – please turn it off immediately and unplug the power cable,” Sony said.
“There have been no reports of injuries or of damage to anything other than the televisions,” said the company.
The TV sets were manufactured in 2007 and 2008 and were mostly sold in Europe and the United States, although some were also sold in Japan and other parts of the world.
Sony is recalling 1.6million of its Bravia LCD TVs worldwide after several serious malfunctions involving parts “melting” appeared on 2007 and 2008 sets
“You can find the model number of a Sony set on the back of the casing,” a spokesman for Sony said yesterday.
“It’s also available using your remote, in a process described on the Sony Europe website.”
“Sony is voluntarily initiating a free inspection, and if necessary a free repair to reassure you that these products meet your expectations,” Sony said yesterday.
“If you own one of the products mentioned above, we invite you to contact your nearest Service Centre to arrange an inspection of your TV. Sony’s service representative will visit to check your TV and will repair it as promptly as possible if it has the affected component.”
The sets at risk of being affected are all 40 inches LCDs manufactured in 2007 and 2008, although the TV’s may have been on sale until later.
The specific model numbers are: KDL-40D3400, KDL-40D3500, KDL-40D3550, KDL-40D3660, KDL-40V3000, KDL-40W3000, KDL-40X3000, KDL-40Z3000.
The user can find out the model number from the back of the set, or via the set-up menu on screen.
Whitney Houston, 48, was nearly ejected from the Delta Airlines flight in Atlanta after refusing to fasten her seatbelt despite being asked by a steward, celebrity website TMZ reported.
According to the celebrity website, another crew member came over and warned the famous singer that if she did not buckle up she would have to be kicked off.
Whitney Houston was nearly ejected from the Delta Airlines flight in Atlanta after refusing to fasten her seatbelt despite being asked by a steward
Whitney Houston eventually relented, although she left it to a steward to fasten her up, and the plane was then cleared for takeoff.
Sources close to Whitney Houston, who has previously been voted the greatest diva of all time, told TMZ that she “overreacted a little bit after missing an earlier flight but she’s still 100% sober and was on the way to Detroit for her first day of shooting a new movie”.
Whitney Houston has been struggling since 2009 to make a comeback after years away from the spotlight due to drug addiction.
According to some critics, the quality of her voice has been affected by the drug use.
In an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Whitney Houston admitted she used to take cocaine with marijuana.
The singer also admitted her drug use became “heavy” after the 1992 film The Bodyguard.
Whitney Houston said: “You put your marijuana, you lace it, you roll it up and you smoke it… it’s like heroin and cocaine speedballing, but you level it off, with marijuana.”
She finally stopped drug use in 2006, when she checked into rehab with the support of her mother Cissy Houston and Clive.
Whitney Houston then found the courage to leave ex-husband Bobby Brown, with whom she shared a rocky relationship.
After that moment, she has struggled to thrill fans during her comeback Nothing But Love tour, and last year many fans demanded refunds after seeing her shows, claiming she was “wheezing” her way through songs.
Whitney Houston was forced to cancel her opening performance in Manchester after claiming she had caught a chest infection.
The singer subsequent appearances in UK, Birmingham and London, were heavily criticized with some fans demanding their money back.
Whitney Houston encountered the problems with the Australian and Asian legs of the tour, and she also came under fire for forgetting the words to her songs.
Whitney Houston has a long-lived reputation for being difficult, with her participation in Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday concert in 1988 overshadowed by complaints from disgruntled stars on the bill who accused her of behaving like a prima donna.
Thousands of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users have encounter an error screen saying simply “Error 3200” or “Error 3002” as they tried to download the newly launched version of iPhone’s operating system, iOS 5, last night.
Scroll down for Error 3200 and Error 3002 solutions…
Yesterday launch of iOS 5, the iPhone operating system, a package of updates which adds BlackBerry-stye instant messaging to iPhone, among other things, became a disaster for Apple, as servers struggled to deal with the demand for the new software.
“Error 3200” that users have seen became a trending topic on Twitter, as they were confronted with the message repeatedly during iOS 5 download.
Many tech sites began to offer workarounds and complex “cheats” to help users deal with their frustration and get the software faster.
But many frustrated fans reported leaving their homes today without the new software. Other users reported that the download was extremely slow.
The free update is intended to bring (some) older iPhones into line with the functions offered by iPhone 4S.
But it seems that Apple was overwhelmed by demand.
As the iOs 5 software launched, many users complained of slow download speeds, with some asking plaintively: “Has anyone successfully downloaded iOS 5 yet?”
Not all users encountered the “Error 3200” message, but most found the process excruciating.
The iOS 5 free update is intended to bring (some) older iPhones into line with the functions offered by iPhone 4S
Questions about the “Error 3200” flooded Mac forums and social networks.
Somebody wrote on Twitter:
“Steve Jobs has only been gone a few days and we are already experiencing the start of the techpocalypse.”
The inability of Apple’s servers to deal with demand may have been due to the co-ordinating power of social networks, after “Downloading iOS 5” became a trending topic.
It’s traditional for geeks to be on the edge of their seats in advance of any new Apple software launch – but social networks may have ensured that a wider audience was aware the instant the new software was available.
Unlike BlackBerry’s high-profile collapse this week, “Error 3200” seems eminently curable – just keep trying.
Other glitches have been reported even once users install the iOS 5 software, such as the new music service iCloud refusing logins.
Internet exchanges showed a multi-gigabit-sized jump in demand that coincided with the launch of the new iOS 5, which is available as a free download via iTunes store. If the demand was caused entirely by users downloading iOS 5, it’s little wonder many were left frustrated.
Apple declined to comment this morning.
It’s not entirely clear what’s causing those errors, 3200 and 3002, but we’ve been provided with a solution that should work for both Mac and Windows users.
How to fix Error 3002 and Error 3200:
You will be restoring to iOS 5 rather than updating, meaning the device will be back to a fresh iOS installation. Be sure you have a backup of the iOS device before you proceed, so that you can then get all your apps and settings back.
Important: Before proceeding, be sure you have removed any blocks for gs.apple.com from your hosts file!
Be sure you have iTunes 10.5 installed
Download iOS 5 IPSW specific to your device, save it somewhere that is easy to find
Launch iTunes 10.5 and then…
Mac users: hold down the OPTION key then click on “Restore”, locate the aforementioned IPSW file
Windows users: hold down the SHIFT key and then click on “Restore”, point iTunes to the downloaded IPSW file
If your hardware gets totally boinked or if you’re then encountering Error 3194, you can also try putting the iPhone or iPad into DFU mode and restoring while in recovery.
Remember to check your hosts file too, if you blocked an Apple server or use Sauriks instead in the past for jailbreak purposes, that will cause issues now when you are updating to iOS 5.
Another common error is “An internal error has occurred” – this is an indication that Apple’s servers are swamped, so you may want to try again later.
Sara Leal, who allegedly slept with Ashton Kutcher on the eve of his sixth wedding anniversary to Demi Moore, spilled the secrets on her one-night stand with the actor and how they discussed the upcoming presidential election after hooking up.
Sara Leal, the 22-year-old administrative assistant said she met Ashton Kutcher while partying at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego and then retreated to his hotel room to have sex in the early hours of September 24, Us Weekly reported.
“[Kutcher] just came up and kissed me,”Sara Leal said.
“I didn’t think it was out of the ordinary,” she said.
“I wasn’t self-conscious about getting naked.”
“He lost his towel and I took my robe off.”
“Then we had sex,”Sara Leal said about their fling that Saturday.
“He was good … It wasn’t weird or perverted,” she added, describing him as “tender” in bed.
As the two-hour sex session ended, during pillow talk after hooking up, Sara Leal and Ashton Kutcher discussed religion, politics and the upcoming presidential election.
“He asked about my parents, if they were still together.”
“I told him my parents divorced when I was 6. He was like, <<Let me guess, you don’t believe in love>>. ”
As the two-hour sex session ended, during pillow talk after hooking up, Sara Leal and Ashton Kutcher discussed religion, politics and the upcoming presidential election
And just as they were ready to go at it again, Ashton Kutcher’s bodyguard, bizarrely dressed as a priest, confiscated Sara Leal’s cellphone and deleted texts about the evening she sent to friends.
It all began when Sara Leal and her friend, Marta Borzuchowski, were naked on Ashton Kutcher’s lap in a bubbling hot tub on the balcony of his luxurious Diamond Suite at San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel on September 23.
At one point, Marta Borzuchowski asked him: “Aren’t you married?”
According to Sara Leal, Ashton Kutcher was quiet for a few seconds, then replied: “I’m separated.”
Then, they moved to his bedroom, where he tried to talk the girls into having three-way sex.
Ashton Kutcher had only a towel wrapped around his waist.
“Ashton and I started kissing and then he kissed my friend,” she said.
“He was rubbing my leg and he asked my friend, <<Would you be comfortable rubbing Sara’s leg?>>. And she was like, <<Yes>>. ”
Ashton asked if the girls had ever had a threesome. “I said no,” Sara Leal said.
Then she had to go to the toilet.
“I had to pee so I got up,” she said.
“I was so nervous. When I came back my friend was gone. He was like, <<Well she left. I told her if she was uncomfortable she could leave>>. He was lying down on the bed, so I just laid next to him. We started kissing again. He lost his towel. I took my robe off. Then we had sex.”
Sara Leal admitted Ashton Kutcher didn’t wear a condom.
“It kind of caught me off-guard, but we still did it,” she said.
Sara Leal had first noticed Ashton Kutcher early that night at Fluxx nightclub, in San Diego. She and some friends later made their way into a private party Ashton Kutcher arranged at his hotel suite.
When he saw Sara Leal in his room, Ashton Kutcher served her shots of booze and mixed her a vodka Sprite cocktail.
He put the moves on her soon after, suggesting she and Marta Borzuchowski join him in the hot tub.
“I started looking for towels,” said Sara Leal.
“He just came up and kissed me.”
After they had sex for the first time, the two made small talk, discussing where she grew up and when her birthday was. She also told him that she was religious – a Lutheran from Texas.
“He said, <<Oh, my gosh, are you a Republican?>>. I was like, <<What, do you like Obama?>>. He said <<Yeah>>, and asked if I could name any up-and-coming candidates. I said Rick Perry.”
Then they had sex again.
“He was like, <<I enjoy things like this because I’m an actor 90 percent of the time and it’s fake. It’s nice to have moments that are real. I’m here now and you’re here now, enjoying it>>,” Sara Leal said.
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have not commented on Sara Leal’s claims but sources say they are headed for a $290 million divorce.
Helen Tamaki is the second person who died from injuries suffered in the crash of a helicopter that plunged into the East River off of Midtown Manhattan with five people onboard last Tuesday.
On October 4, Sonia Marra had organized the doomed flight over Manhattan’s skyline to celebrate her 40th birthday with her parents, who now live in Portugal, and her partner, Helen Tamaki.
Helen Tamaki, 43, who lived in Australia, had been hospitalized in critical condition since being pulled from the water unconscious minutes after the helicopter crashed just after liftoff.
Sonia Marra, the British tourist who was celebrating her 40th birthday, was trapped in the helicopter when it sank and she died at the scene.
Helen Tamaki died one week later, on Tuesday evening, according to officials at New York’s Bellevue Hospital.
Helen Tamaki is the second woman who dies from East River helicopter crash
Harriet Nicholson, Sonia Marra’s mother, remains hospitalized, according to local media reports; Sonia Marra’s stepfather, Paul Nicholson and Paul Dudley, the helicopter pilot, who is a family friend, escaped with minor injuries.
The pilot was treated at the scene.
Eyewitnesses said the helicopter was not equipped with floats and was upside down in the water as rescuers arrived.
The cause of the helicopter crash remains under investigation.
According to eye-witnesses, the chopper spun wildly and barely got off the ground before landing upside-down in the river off a helipad on the river’s edge, on East 34th Street in Manhattan.
The veteran pilot, Paul Dudley, has told the National Transportation Safety Board that the helicopter’s nose swung to the left as he lifted off and that he was unable to regain control as he tried to steer the aircraft back to the heliport.
According to the investigators’ preliminary report, the Bell 206 helicopter had just undergone an annual inspection, during which mechanics disassemble much of the aircraft to check for rust and corrosion. A final report is expected within months.
Apple launched its latest top class operating system, iOS5, on Wednesday afternoon.
iOS 5 includes over 200 features like iTunes and iCloud. The iMessage service let iPhone users send messages with text, photos and video to other iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch users free of charge.
“There’s a big potential issue here,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “The wireless industry makes most of its money from high-priced but low-bandwidth services like voice and text.”
Every year, more than 2 trillion text messages are sent over cellular networks in the U.S. alone. At the moment, wireless carriers charge about 20 cents for sending and then another 20 cents for getting the messages.
Texting is hugely lucrative for the wireless industry. It generated about $21 billion in revenue last year and is estimated to grow to $23 billion this year, according to the Consumer Federation of America.
iMessage uses the carrier’s data network or the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection to transmit the text like email. When users send a text to a friend with iMessage turned on, it shows up as a blue chat bubble and doesn’t count as a text message in their phone plan. Texting someone with an Android or other non-Apple phone will count as a text message and show up as a green chat bubble.
One of the nice features of iMessage is it allows you to set it up with the same email address on multiple devices. You can begin a conversation with someone on your iPhone while you’re out and about, then pick up at exactly the same spot when you get home and use your iPad. Texting takes place virtually instantaneously; I had the above conversation with a TUAW staffer on the other side of the planet, and it was as seamless as you’d expect from a modern IM app.
Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry Messenger is losing credit because of the latest issues expericend throughout the world. The iMessage service will give them a really hard time.
BlackBerry users express more and more the desire of switching to a better service like Apple. The failure of BlackBerry’s service happened at a really bad time. Apple is getting more and more attention from the Tech consumers.
iMessage can send messages to any device that’s running iOS 5. The iPhone remains the only iOS device capable of sending text messages to non-iOS devices.Since there are still so many to non-iOS devices, it doesn’t necessarily mean that iMessage is going to “kill” SMS texting. However, if everyone in your circle of friends has a device running iOS 5, iMessage could very well obviate the need for an unlimited texting plan on your iPhone.
Eight people have been killed Wednesday afternoon by a gunman at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, California.
The gunman, Scott Dekraai, apparently enraged over a custody dispute walked into a crowded Seal Beach hair salon where his ex-wife worked and opened fire, killing eight people and critically wounding another person in the deadliest shooting in Orange County history.
The 41-year-old gunman is said to have shot a total of nine hairdressers and customers at Salon Meritage, a beauty salon just blocks from the Pacific Ocean in the upscale seaside resort of Seal Beach.
A 41-year-old gunman is said to have shot a total of nine hairdressers and customers at Salon Meritage, a beauty salon just blocks from the Pacific Ocean in the upscale seaside resort of Seal Beach
According to authorities, the attacker stormed in the salon at 1:30 p.m. and sprayed with gunfire as victims fell to the floor and those who could escape ran onto the street or hid in neighboring businesses in the bustling area of trendy restaurants and shops along Pacific Coast Highway.
Scott Dekraai continued firing outside, where he shot one man who apparently tried to flee in a Range Rover.
Six people were pronounced dead at the scene. Three others, including a 73-year-old woman, were initially rushed to the trauma center at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in critical condition, where two of them died later. One of the shooting victims is thought to be Salon Meritage owner, Randy Fannin, and the other one is Scott Dekraai’s ex-wife, Michelle Fournier. All the victims were adults.
The gunman, who used to work in the military, had allegedly threatened violence after losing the custody of his and Michelle Fournier 7-year-old son, Dominic.
Scott Dakraai was arrested about half a mile away and was the sole suspect in the rampage, according to police
An officer saw the suspect leaving the area as police responded to reports of the gunfire. Scott Dakraai was arrested about half a mile away and was the sole suspect in the rampage, according to police.
Scott Dakraai, a Huntington Beach resident, was thought to have been wearing body armor during the attack.
When officers raided his car they found multiple weapons, police said.
The shooter didn’t offer any resistance when he was arrested.
Sergeant Steve Bowles of Seal Beach Police said: “We believe he is the only shooter. He was taken into custody without injury.”
The Wednesday rampage stunned the normally placid Seal Beach community. Just one homicide had been reported in the city in the last five years, according to authorities.
“A crime of this magnitude is not something Seal Beach is familiar with,” Sergeant Steve Bowles said. “This could be one of our greatest tragedies.”
Salon Meritage was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape
According to Mary Hearn, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Superior Court, Scott Dekraai initiated a divorce case in 2007 against Michelle Fournier, whose last name was then Dekraai. A judge ruled that all contact between the couple had to be via text or email, except for a 10-minute phone call once a week to discuss their child’s education and well-being.
At the time of the court dispute it appeared that Scott Dekraai was awarded custody and Michelle Fournier had to comply with several conditions to see the child, such as to not consume alcohol 24 hours before visiting. Last year, the case was transferred to Orange County Superior Court at Scott Dekraai’s request, according to spokeswoman.
A local man named Bill Horton said: “[It was a] custody battle for seven-year-old son. Ex-Husband lost court case yesterday. Apparently he had been making threats of violence.”
One of Michelle Fournier neighbor’s told KTLA she took out a restraining order against her former husband on Tuesday.
Scott Dekraai is said to have moved to the area in 2009 after being honorably discharged from the military because of a work-related leg injury. He allegedly remarried Mindy Miguel, his rehab nurse. Mindy is currently assisting detectives with their investigations, according to neighbors.
Outside the salon, which was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape, witnesses described a chaotic scene in which multiple rounds were fired inside the business and in the parking lot. Kimberly Criswell, who owns a neighboring salon, said at least two shots were fired in front of her business as the attacker shot at the man in the Range Rover.
Police confirmed that one of the victims is male and some of those inside managed to escape without harm.
The quiet Seal Beach has approximately 25,000 residents and identifies itself as the Gateway to Southern California’s Orange County and is located about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Sandra Bullock is among its famous residents.
A $45 million Atlanta mansion – Forsyth County estate Le Rêve – was foreclosed and then sold at a massive 75% drop at only $11.5 million.
Forsyth County estate Le Rêve (“The Dream” in French) was foreclosed at the end of 2010 after taking three years to build with no expense spared by Hubert and Norma Humphrey.
The impressive mansion, which has its own private 18-hole golf course, now has a new owner, who bought it for almost $34million less than the asking price.
WSBTV reported Le Rêve (The Dream) estate features seven bedrooms, nine full baths, 11 half baths, ten fireplaces and two elevators.
The $45 million Atlanta mansion - Forsyth County estate Le Rêve - was foreclosed and then sold at only $11.5 million
Besides the private 18-hole golf course, the expensive mansion features other sports courts, stables, a camping area, bowling alley, home theatre, fifties diner, an exercise facility, a massage room and a pool. Le Rêve property is gated and entirely monitored by security cameras.
Troy Stowe, a real estate agent described the property:
“One of the largest challenges of selling Le Rêve was it sat on 72 acres, it was 47,000 square feet and just trying to find someone (who) wants to take on (what) I kind of call the big dragon.
“If you’re not used to maintaining and caring for a property like that, it is a challenge.
“I was told that in that one room, there are 27 seats and there was over $1 million spent in the home theatre.”
Immediately after foreclosure, the mansion was originally listed for $45 million. Then the bank took possession of the property and its price was dropped to $28 million. The Forsyth County estate Le Rêve price was dropped down to $16 million before the $11.5 million offer was accepted.
Troy Stowe said: “Ultimately, if you get a $50 million house for $11.5 (million), at some point, when the money lined properly with what the property offers, (a buyer) just came onboard.”
According to Zillow, the online real estate database, Hubert Humphrey started life as a railroad brakeman and conductor who later enjoyed entrepreneurial success.
Hubert Humphrey sold insurance for A.L. Williams, where he earned record sales, then launched his own company, Humphrey Worldwide Network, before selling it to Primerica, which is now part of CitiGroup.
The entrepreneur then formed World Marketing Alliance, followed by the World Leadership Group, a marketing, financial services and mortgage company based in Atlanta.
Hubert Humphrey started building Le Rêve mansion in 2005 on the 72-acre property.
Asked about the identity of the new Le Rêve owner, Troy Stowe said he cannot give anything away:
“Everybody wants to know who bought it. And I did sign a confidentiality agreement, but I just tell them it’s normal folks, husband and wife living at the property.”
FBI arrested Christopher Chaney from Florida after he had allegedly accessed Scarlett Johansson and other 50 celebrities’ phones and email accounts.
Several n**e photos of Scarlett Johansson appeared on an Internet site earlier this year and TMZ.com reported that hackers stole them from her cellular phone.
Christopher Chaney, 35, from Jacksonville was arrested this morning on charges that stem from a year-long probe known as Operation Hackerazzi.
Christopher Chaney was charged with hacking into the emails of Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson, Renee Olstead and Mila Kunis in a computer invasion scheme that targeted Hollywood celebrities, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Christopher Chaney is expected to appear in a Florida courtroom later Wednesday and charged with 26 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access to a protected computer and wiretapping.
Christopher Chaney was arrested this morning on charges that stem from a year-long probe known as Operation Hackerazzi
If convicted, Christopher Chaney faces up to 121 years in prison. It wasn’t immediately known if he had retained an attorney.
According to authorities Christopher Chaney was responsible for stealing nude photos taken by Scarlett Johansson herself and were later posted on the Internet. Steven Martinez, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office said the hacker offered some material to celebrity blog sites but there is no evidence that he profited from his scheme.
“Celebrity information is highly marketable,” said Steven Martinez, who added LA office continues to receive complaints about celebrities having their personal information breached.
Many of them were named only by initials as only those who were named as victims in the indictment agreed to have the identities made public.
“It helps get out the message that cyber-hacking is a real threat,” said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, who called those who engage in such activity as “scum”.
Christopher Chaney hacked Google, Apple and Yahoo email accounts beginning November 2010 through February 2011, then hijacked the forwarding feature so that a copy of every email received was sent, “virtually instantaneously”, to an email account he controlled.
Christopher Chaney allegedly used the hacker names “trainreqsuckswhat”, “anonygrrl” and “jaxjaguars911” and also used the victims’ identities to illegally access and control computers.
The hacker is accused of damaging email servers that caused losses of at least $5,000 per instance.
Authorities wouldn’t say whether Christopher Chaney was able to access email accounts via cell phones, but he was able to figure out secure passwords to various celebrity accounts through information that had been made public.
A hacking group has claimed responsibility for allegedly accessing Scarlett Johansson’s phone however this has not been verified.
Scarlett Johansson’s or other celebrity’s representatives did not comment on the news until now.
A weekly intake of a minimum 45 grams (1.6 ounces) of chocolate containing at least 30% of cocoa, or dark chocolate, is linked to a lower stroke incidence in women, showed a study.
The study was led by Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
“We followed 33,000 women over the course of 10 years, and we found that those who ate most chocolate had a much lower risk – 20 per cent lower – of suffering a stroke,” she said.
The study, performed by Susanna Larsson, Jarmo Virtamo, and Alicja Wolk, was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
In 1997, 33,372 women, age 49 to 83 years, were enrolled and followed up around 10.4 years. The subjects completed questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle.
Apparently eating 66.5 grams (2.35 ounces) of chocolate a week protects women against stroke.
There were 1,549 strokes over the following ten years, 1,200 cerebral infarctions (a blood vessel in the brain is blocked, starving an area of the brain of blood), 224 hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain), and 125 unspecified strokes. Among the persons with more 45 grams (1.6 ounces) dark chocolate intake per week, there were 2.5 strokes per 1,000 women per year. In the same time there were 7.8 strokes per 1,000 women among those with less than 8.9 grams (0.31 ounces) a week intake. A stronger association, not explained yet, was observed for hemorrhagic stroke than for cerebral infarction (ischemic stroke). Only women with chocolate consumption around 66.5 g (2.35 ounces)/week had a significantly reduced risk of stroke. The study does not point out the type of chocolate eaten by the women, but mention that in the 1990s around 90% of chocolate in Sweden was milk chocolate, containing about 30% cocoa solids.
“Cocoa contains flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties and can suppress oxidation of low-density lipoprotein which can cause cardiovascular disease,” said Professor Larsson.
In the United States there are around 800,000 strokes every year. Among them, one of six dies and lots remain disabled. Antihypertensive drugs (medicine to lower high blood pressure), quitting smoking, adequate exercise, and healthy diet are the remedies doctors recommend. The chocolate, even dark chocolate, is not included.
The beneficial effects of dark chocolate on human health were highlighted over the years.
There are data which show that dark chocolate might be beneficial to the cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels). Dark chocolate has been shown to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in mild high blood pressure cases. Dark chocolate also has been demonstrated to improve endothelial and platelet function (preventing blood clots, chest pain and heart attack) and to ameliorate insulin resistance. Flavonoids contained in dark chocolate have strong antioxidant activity and can prevent the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (bad cholesterol), lowering the risk of atherosclerosis (stiff and clogged arteries).
Mary Engler of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues, found that around 45 grams (1.6 ounces) a day of dark chocolate can keep blood vessel elastic and healthy. The dark chocolate (high-cocoa content) contains epicatechin. Epicatechin is a particularly active plant flavonoid. Flavonoids prevent cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels and reduce the risk of blood clots. The study used Dove dark chocolate for two weeks and was published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Mary Engler previously reported the results at the 2002 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association and at the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting.
Another study published in the Journal of Proteome Research and conducted by researchers at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, showed that eating about 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduce stress. Half of the chocolate was eaten mid-morning and the other half was eaten mid-afternoon. The scientists found that high levels of stress hormone, cortisol, and the fight-or-flight hormones (catecholamines, adrenaline) present in highly stressed, anxious people were reduce by dark chocolate. Dark chocolate partially normalized stress-related differences in energy metabolism and microbial activity in the gut (microbiota).
Regarding the amount of anti-oxidants, dark chocolate and cocoa are better than pomegranate, cranberry, or blueberry juice, fruit powder mixes, a study conducted by the Hershey Company has showed. Polyphenols, organic molecules contained in dark chocolate, could maintain arteries smooth and lower risk of heart disease.
A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry showed cocoa powder, baking chocolate and dark chocolate have between 14.1 to 18.5 micrograms of resveratrol (antioxidant) per serving (average California red wine contains 832 micrograms per glass).
Dark chocolate with minimum 60-85% cocoa content could prevent sunburns, showed an experiment conducted by researchers from Laval University in Quebec City (Canada) among women with sensitive skin. They ate three squares of dark chocolate a day for twelve weeks. The polyphenol ensure good oxygenation and blood supply to the skin surface, which could explain the protective effect of cocoa.
Cambridge University researchers have demonstrated that regular consumption of dark chocolate could reduce the risk of heart disease by a third. Other study said dark chocolate could be as good as exercise for human health.
Researchers from the United Kingdom and Colombia made a meta-analysis on 7 studies (the link between chocolate and heart disease) that included 114,009 people. The results were released in the British Medical Journal. Dark chocolate could lower heart disease and stroke by 37%.
Dark chocolate appears to have beneficial effects on heart, blood vessels, brain, skin, mood, stress, metabolism, gut microbiota.
On the other hand, over-eating sweets and chocolate, even dark chocolate, might have no or opposite effects.
Chocolate contains a lot of sugar and fat, and caffeine. The persons with diabetes, other metabolic diseases, prone to irregular heartbeats, palpitation or high blood pressure, have to be very careful concerning the chocolate intake. They should read the product label and the ingredients.
“Previous research has suggested that dark chocolate can increase levels of good cholesterol and decrease blood pressure, both of which can reduce your risk of stroke. However, it’s very hard to say whether this is true of all types of chocolate and it’s difficult to determine whether the reduced stroke incidence found in this study is directly linked to the amount of chocolate consumed. A lot more research is needed,” said Dr Sharlin Ahmed, of The Stroke Association.
“Given the observational design of the study, findings of this study cannot prove that it’s chocolate that lowers the risk of stroke. Chocolate should be consumed in moderation as it is high in calories, fat and sugar. As dark chocolate contains more cocoa and less sugar than milk chocolate, consumption of dark chocolate would be more beneficial,” wrote Professor Larsson.
“It’s important to keep findings like these in context. These findings don’t mean that people need to exchange chocolate for broccoli in their diet. Chocolate does have antioxidants, and antioxidants are beneficial for your health. They can help make your arteries more flexible and they can help you resist the oxidation of cholesterol. But, what if they had tried this study with apple skins or grapes? There’s an upside and a downside to everything. I don’t think people should eat all the chocolate they can, but some chocolate in moderation can have some benefit,” said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, cardiologist, of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.
Like in more other situations the moderation is the key. However, more studies are required to specify the exactly percent of cocoa (Theobroma cacao seeds) content in the dark chocolate needed to stroke or heart disease prevention, and also the effect on male’s health.
27 protesters were arrested during three Occupy movement demonstrations on Tuesday in Chicago and Washington D.C.
A total of 21 economic protesters were arrested for trespassing in Illinois on Tuesday as the Occupy Wall Street movement continued to spread across US major cities.
Last night, five women aged between 55 and 80, from the Action Now group, were arrested in Chicago for taking rubbish from a foreclosed home owned by Bank of America and dumping it at one of the company’s branches.
Action Now is a group of working families, which said Bank of America had not properly shuttered the foreclosed home from which the group took the furniture and garbage.
“Since Bank of America will not go to our neighborhoods and clean up their vacant properties, Action Now members brought the neighborhood to them,” Action Now group said on its website. Bank of America has not yet commented.
The arrests in Chicago came one day after thousands of people including teachers and religious leaders marched and snarled rush-hour traffic while protesting unemployment and economic woes.
They marched to target financial events in Chicago, including a conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
16 of them were arrested for misdemeanor trespassing at the Hyatt Regency protest, where the Mortgage Bankers Association conference was held.
16 protesters were arrested in Chicago for misdemeanor trespassing at the Hyatt Regency protest, where a Mortgage Bankers Association conference was held
Chicago has also seen several weeks of daily protests outside the Federal Reserve Bank by “Occupy Chicago”, an echo of the larger Wall Street protests.
Six other demonstrators were arrested in Washington D.C. yesterday after 100 protesters unfurled upside-down flags – a symbol of distress – and anti-war banners in the atrium of a Senate office building.
Occupy D.C. protesters chanted “We are the 99 per cent” – reflecting their view that the country’s wealthiest 1% have too much and are too powerful – and “Stop the wars” until the police cleared the area.
The original protest in Washington D.C. had been planned for months by such anti-war groups as Veterans for Peace and Code Pink to mark the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan.
But the demonstration drew participants as well from the Occupy DC protest, a local version of the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that have spread nationwide.
In New York, the Occupy Wall Street movement has got stronger, with the added celebrity backing of stars such as singer Kanye West this week.
Yesterday, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators marched to the home of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and today they are gathering at the company’s headquarters in New York to protest.
One day before, a huge crackdown on Occupy Boston’s second campsite ended with about 100 protesters arrested and their tents and personal belongings reportedly thrown into bins.
The Occupy Boston protesters were arrested on Monday around 1:30 a.m. after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week.
They had tried to expand from their original site in Dewey Square to a second site across the street, along the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
According to authorities, a local conservancy group recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs along the greenway and officials said they were concerned about damage, but the arrests were mostly for trespassing.
Boston police had warned Occupy demonstrators for hours they would have to return to Dewey Square, where a tent city has been steadily growing, and issued leaflets saying protesters could not occupy the greenway.
BlackBerry users in the entire world continue to have disruptions in service for a third consecutive day North American subscribers seem to be affected as well.
All those who use Customers using Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa had troubles accessing the e-mail, using messaging and Web surfing on Monday. On Tuesday things got better with only spotty access to e-mail, BlackBerry Messenger, and Web.
At the beginning the problems affected just the BlackBerry users from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. However, the problems spread to other parts of the globe including parts of South America.
On Wednesday morning subscribers in the U.S.A. and Canada started to complain about delayed e-mails, as well as email sent in groups.
Earlier RIM put the blame on the disruption to service that affected Europe, the Mideast, India, Latin America and Africa on a failed switch and backup. The company confirmed the problem had been solved, however, it might take some time to work through the backlog of data, which had not yet been sent to subscribers’ devices. Late on Tuesday E-mail started to trickle in for some subscribers.
“Although the system is designed to failover to a backup switch, the failover did not function as previously tested,” the company explained in a statement on Tuesday. “As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed.”
It’s not very clear, just yet, if the issues plaguing customers overseas is what’s affecting the service in North America. One of the RIM representative was not available for comment in regards to disruptions in the North America.
RIM’sBlackBerry network architecture is its strength as well as its biggest weakness. Unlike other smartphone platforms, RIM routes all e-mail and messaging traffic through its BlackBerry servers in network operation centers throughout the world. This centralized architecture for the service means that additional encryption and security can be added to the messages that traverse the network. And for many corporate customers, this added security is the main reason they use the service.
But the architecture also means there are single points of failure throughout the network. This means that when there is a major infrastructure disruption, it can affect entire regions of service, potentially knocking out service for tens of millions of customers. By contrast competing smartphones, such as the iPhone and Google Android devices, do not suffer from the same types of outages because there is no single point of failure in the network.
Lydia Gale Clark, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, died after she apparently downed 16 shots on the night of her 21st birthday celebration.
Lydia Gale Clark had been seen “stumbling” at several bars on a six-hour drinking marathon that ended Saturday early in the morning, at 3.30 a.m.
According to the student’s friends, she had drunk about 16 shots of alcohol on Friday evening.
Lydia Gale Clark, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, died after she apparently downed 16 shots on the night of her 21st birthday celebration
Police said that Lydia Gale Clark from Meridien, Kansas, who was an international relations and rhetoric student, woke at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday feeling “very sick” and asked a friend to help her use the bathroom at about noon.
The friend who helped her checked on Lydia Gale Clark a few minutes later and found her lying on the floor. The student had stopped breathing and was gasping and convulsing.
Lydia Gale Clark’s roommate called an ambulance and performed CPR. The ambulance arrived minutes later to take the student to Mercy Medical Center, but paramedics were unable to revive her.
According to the police report, Lydia Gale Clark was linked to excessive alcohol consumption, but an autopsy revealed abnormal heart tissue, which may have been another factor involved.
Brad Clark, Lydia’s father said he and his wife had talked to their daughter about drinking before her birthday.
“Her mom and I love her dearly and miss her dearly,” Lydia Gale Clark’s father said.
“When we first got the call in, for the first 24 hours, we just thought it was ignorance of what alcohol can do to you.”
Brad Clark said he had no doubt his daughter had too much to drink Friday night.
The Drake University student’s father said he was searching for the right words to warn her friends attending the memorial service in Kansas this Saturday about the dangers of alcohol.
Lydia Gale Clark’s abnormal heart tissue has now been sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for further testing.
