Lelisa Desisa has won the men’s race at this year’s Boston Marathon and Kenya’s Caroline Rotich came first in the women’s race.
Kenya’s Caroline Rotich took the title in two hours 24 minutes 55 seconds after a sprint finish with Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba.
Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa’s victory at 2:09:17 was more comfortable and he crossed the finish line 30 seconds ahead of his compatriot Yemane Adhane Tsegay.
African runners dominated the top 10 in both races.
This is the second victory for Lelisa Desisa at the Boston Marathon.
Lelisa Desisa’s last came in 2013, the year that a bomb exploded close to the finish some two hours after he crossed the line.
He returned his winner’s medal that year in honor of the three people killed.
“I’m happy to win,” Lelisa Desisa said after Monday’s race.
Caroline Rotich and Mare Dibaba battled for first place in the closing stages of the race, but Rotich was more determined.
She is the fifth Kenyan woman in a row to win at Boston.
Rita Jeptoo, who won the women’s race in 2013 and 2014, has been banned from athletics for two years after testing positive for drugs.
Japan’s Maglev train has broken its own world speed record, hitting 603km/h (374mph) in a test run near Mount Fuji.
The magnetic levitation train beat the 590km/h (366mph) speed it had set last week in another test.
Maglev trains use electrically charged magnets to lift and move carriages above the rail tracks.
Central Japan Railway (JR Central), which owns the trains, wants to introduce the service between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya by 2027.
The 280km (173mph) journey would take only about 40 minutes, less than half the current time.
However, passengers will not get to experience the maglev’s record-breaking speeds because the company said its trains will operate at a maximum of 505km/h (313mph).
Construction is estimated at nearly $100 billion just for the stretch to Nagoya, with more than 80% of the route expected to go through costly tunnels, reported AFP news agency.
The government is also hoping to sell the maglev train technology overseas.
Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe is visiting the US on Sunday where he is expected to pitch for a role in building a new high-speed rail line between New York and Washington.
South Korean PM Lee Wan-koo has offered to resign after facing accusations of accepting bribes.
President Park Geun-hye has not said if she will accept Lee Wan-koo’s resignation, but has expressed sympathy for him.
State news agency Yonhap said Park Geun-hye had called for a “thorough investigation” into the scandal.
Lee Wan-koo denies accepting 30 million won ($27,700) in illegal campaign funds in 2013, but has come under pressure to stand down.
Under South Korean law, politicians cannot accept more than 100,000 won in contributions.
The scandal erupted when businessman Sung Wan-jong was found dead earlier this month in a suspected suicide.
Sung Wan-jong was about to be questioned by authorities over allegations that he embezzled company money to bribe politicians.
Investigators found a note in his pocket listing the names of several people, including Lee Wan-koo, and numbers which appeared to indicate amounts paid to them.
An opposition party then called for Lee Wan-koo’s impeachment.
Referring to Lee Wan-koo’s resignation, Park Geun-hye said in a written statement: “I find it regrettable. I also feel sympathy for the agony of the prime minister.”
The president is currently in Peru on a four-day state visit. Yonhap reported that she would decide on whether to accept Lee Wan-koo’s resignation by next week.
Lee Wan-koo has been in the job for only two months.
He filled the position after a protracted hunt for a candidate to replace his predecessor, Chung Hong-won.
Chung Hong-won resigned shortly after the Sewol ferry disaster in April 2014 that killed more than 300 people.
AC/DC’s former drummer Phil Rudd has changed his plea to guilty on a charge of a threat to kill, at a court in Tauranga, New Zealand.
The court heard Phil Rudd had asked for a former employee to be “taken out” because he was angry his solo album had not performed well.
Phil Rudd, who had denied the charges, also pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and methamphetamine.
One second charge of a threat to kill has been dropped for lack of evidence.
Australian-born Phil Rudd was arrested at his home in the coastal town in November 2014 and has since been out on bail.
Photo Getty Images
The court summary heard on April 21 that he had fired a number of employees in August after his solo album, Head Job, flopped in the charts.
A month later, the court heard, Phil Rudd called an associate saying he wanted one of the people he had fired “taken out”.
He later offered the associate NZ$200,000 ($153,000) as well as “a motorbike, one of his cars or a house”, which the person assumed was payment “for carrying out his earlier request”.
Phil Rudd is then alleged to have called the victim threatening to “come over and kill you”.
“As a result of threats made by the defendant, the victim was genuinely very fearful for his safety,” the court summary read.
Phil Rudd’s lawyer, Craig Tuck, told reporters outside the court that the charge “essentially revolved around an angry phone call – that was it”.
The 60-year-old faces up to seven years in jail for the threat charge. Possession of cannabis carries a sentence of three months and methamphetamine possession six months.
Phil Rudd has been released on bail until another hearing in June.
Cirque du Soleil has sold a majority stake to US and Chinese private investors, valuing the company at $1.5 billion.
Guy Laliberte, who founded the Canadian circus company in 1984, has retained a minority stake.
The two buyers are US private equity firm TPG Capital LP and Fosun Capital Group, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd.
Cirque du Soleil has staged performances in front of 160 million people in 48 countries around the world.
The company has recently sought to expand in China.
“After 30 years building the Cirque du Soleil brand, we have now found the right partners in TPG, Fosun and the Caisse to take Cirque du Soleil forward to the next stage in its evolution as a company founded on the conviction that the arts and business, together, can contribute to making a better world,” said Guy Laliberte said in a statement.
Quebec pension fund giant Caisse de Depot et Placement will also acquire a minority stake.
Based in Montreal, Cirque du Soleil started as the project of a small group of stilt-walkers and street performers who formed a performance troupe called the Le Club des Talons Hauts (the High Heels Club) to put on a performance celebrating the 450th anniversary of the European discovery of Canada by Jacques Cartier in 1534.
Since then, the company has expanded rapidly, taking in approximately $1 billion annually from 18 global shows, some of which tour and others of which are based in theatres in Las Vegas.
It employs about 5,000 people globally and is known for its mixture of acrobatics, artistic costumes and choreography.
Cirque du Soleil has faced difficulties in its efforts to expand, which led to layoffs in 2012.
In 2013, Cirque du Soleil was fined by US regulators after one of its acrobats died during a live show in Las Vegas.
This June sees Chile host soccer’s Copa America. The world’s oldest international soccer tournament is also one of the most raucous and colorful sporting festivals in the world.
Some of the most entertaining soccer players in the world combine with wild spectators to create a dramatic spectacle throughout the whole of the four week-long competition. Supporters are currently snapping up tickets for this year’s event which takes place in Chile and begins on June 11.
One of the most interesting aspects of this year’s Copa America will be watching how two of the giants of world soccer react following their last tournament performances, which were played out in the FIFA World Cup a year ago.
Copa America 2015 – Fans, Flair and Fatigue
Recently, Brazil looks to have overcome the hangover following the harrowing 7-1 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semifinals. As if the scoreline was not embarrassing enough, the result was exacerbated by the fact that the Brazilians were on home soil, in front of their adoring fans.
Legendary World Cup winner Dunga is now in charge of la seleção, and they have powered to eight straight wins since last summer’s debacle. The form of talismanic striker Neymar, now installed as captain, has had a big role to play.
Eternal rivals Argentina managed to progress one round further at the World Cup, eventually losing out to Germany in the final. It will be 22 years since Argentina lifted silverware—their last trophy being 1993’s Copa America.
National coach Gerardo Martino will be looking to knit together a side that can be as resilient as it is exhilarating. Blessed with a forward line that reads like a who’s who of the world’s greatest—Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria—surely the time has come for them to deliver?
And yet, the 2015 Copa America could be the most unpredictable tournament in years. Most of the world’s finest players migrate toward the riches of the European soccer leagues for their regular jobs. This year, a mere five days separates the end of the European soccer season and the opening game of the Copa America. (The UEFA Champions League final takes place in Berlin, Germany on June 6th).
With such close proximity between the Copa America and a regular season which followed a World Cup year, a major factor in deciding the outcome of the tournament could be which nation copes best with fatigue.
Furious 7 has become the fastest film to take more than $1 billion worldwide.
The movie took just 17 days to break the $1 billion barrier, compared to 19 for Avengers and the final Harry Potter.
Furious 7, starring Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker, has also topped the US box office for a third week with $29.1 million.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, starring Kevin James, was second with $24 million.
The movie, which moved the shopping center policeman’s segway adventures to Las Vegas, was savaged by critics giving it a 0% score on aggregate reviews site Rotten Tomatoes.
Low-budget, social media-themed thriller Unfriended took third place over the weekend with $16 million – 16 times the film’s modest production budget.
It marks another success story for production company Blumfeld, which has already made the highly profitable but low budget movies The Purge, Ouija and The Boy Next Door.
Tom Hardy’s Soviet thriller Child 44 took just $600,000 across 510 cinemas.
With a budget of $50 million it means the film could be one of the year’s biggest flops.
Rounding out the weekend’s top five were Home with $10.3 million and The Longest Ride with $6.9 million.
According to box office tracker Rentrak and studio estimates, Furious 7 has already taken almost $300 million in the US and Canada alone.
A song from the Furious 7 soundtrack – Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again, featuring Charlie Puth – has also been breaking records.
See You Again got more Spotify streams in 24 hours than any other track in the US, and also topped the UK singles chart on Sunday as the fastest-selling single of 2015 so far.
Zayn Malik has paid tribute to One Direction at this year’s Asian Awards ceremony, where he made his first solo appearance since leaving the band.
Zayn Malik, 22, was presented with the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the fifth annual Asian Awards, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.
Asian Awards celebrate excellence across the global Pan-Asian community.
Zayn Malik said he had an “amazing” time as a member of the pop band.
He also said he was “not really a guy of many words”.
Zayn Malik added: “I’d also like to take this moment to thank four of the best guys that I ever met whilst being in the band and doing all the amazing things that I did.
“Some of the things that we did will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
He ended his speech by saying: “Here’s to the future.”
Zayn Malik left One Direction last month after returning to the UK from the band’s tour having been “signed off with stress”.
Compared to the rest of the world, the United States has a shockingly high incarceration rate. Only Seychelles has a higher prison population rate than America. About a quarter of the world’s total prison population is incarcerated here. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that two-thirds of prisoners reoffend within three years of their release. While other countries focus successfully on rehabilitation, the United States is falling seriously short.
Incarceration has a negative impact on criminals, yet the United States incarcerates criminals far more often than other countries. In Germany, incarceration rates are just 6 percent. The Netherlands incarcerates just 10 percent of its criminals. Yet the United States has a staggering incarceration rate of 70 percent. It will take major changes in the criminal justice system to alter these outcomes, but with a fresh outlook from new graduates with a masters in criminal justice, reform may become possible.
Rehabilitation Programs Are Underutilized
Rehabilitation programs have an impressive success rate when properly utilized. In Norway, rehabilitation is the primary focus of prisons, with facilities located in relaxing wooded settings with ample amenities. While this approach may seem too plush for American prison systems, it does get results with a recidivism rate under 30 percent.
Meanwhile, a report from Nebraska revealed that just 13 percent of prison inmates were enrolled in substance abuse, anger management, and sex offender treatment. One in seven were on a waiting list for these treatments, and some were blocked from parole as a result.
Re-Entry Programs Are Limited
Louisiana has the worst incarceration rate in the United States, and its prison system highlights many of the problems that lead to high recidivism. Among local prisons, re-entry programs are scarce. In 2012, the New Orleans Parish sheriff reported that a move to temporary quarters more than doubled re-entry, making it more difficult than ever to provide re-entry programs. Meanwhile, violent offenders are ineligible for such programs, though they face release as well.
Released Prisoners Face Limited Opportunities
Today’s prisoners re-enter society at a distinct disadvantage. They’re barred from many jobs, making it difficult if not impossible for some to find gainful employment. Further, they have limited access to housing subsidies and welfare benefits.
Piper Kerman’s book “Orange Is The New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison” may have spawned a wildly popular — and inaccurate — television portrayal of prison life, but the story carries some poignant messages. In it, Kerman relates stories of laughable re-entry programs that leave inmates no better prepared to face the outside world than they were upon incarceration. She goes on to describe inmates who are afraid to leave prison because their prospects outside are worse than they are in jail.
Without major reforms, it seems unlikely that the United States will significantly lower recidivism. However, the successful programs in other countries have shown that it is possible to provide prisoners with a dramatically different experience while preparing them better for their life beyond bars.
According to leaked Sony emails, Ben Affleck asked PBS producers not to reveal one of his ancestors was a slave-owner.
Ben Affleck, 42, was taking part in PBS’ Finding Your Roots series, where experts research a celebrity’s family history, when the discovery was made.
The public television says in a statement that they didn’t censor the slave-owner details.
It is “very common” to find slave-owning ancestors during research, the show’s host says.
“For any guest, we always find far more stories about ancestors on their family trees than we ever possibly could use,” Prof. Henry Louis Gates says in a statement sent to The Associated Press.
Photo PBS
Prof. Henry Louis Gates says both film director Ken Burns and journalist Anderson Cooper also found out while making Finding Your Roots that relatives of theirs had owned slaves.
The details of Ben Affleck’s slave-owning family member were not included when his episode of Finding Your Roots was broadcast.
“In the case of Mr. Affleck – we focused on what we felt were the most interesting aspects of his ancestry – including a Revolutionary War ancestor, a third great-grandfather who was an occult enthusiast and his mother who marched for Civil Rights during the Freedom Summer of 1964,” says Prof. Henry Louis Gates in a statement on the PBS website.
Earlier this year, Ben Affleck received a People’s Choice award for his humanitarian work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The email chain between Prof. Henry Louis Gates and Sony Pictures co-chairman and chief executive Michael Lynton was one of many thousands of emails and documents from last year’s Sony hack that WikiLeaks put into a searchable online archive on April 16.
“Here’s my dilemma: confidentially, for the first time, one of our guests has asked us to edit out something about one of his ancestors – the fact that he owned slaves,” Henry Louis Gates wrote on July 22, 2014.
“Now, four or five of our guests this season descend from slave owners, including Ken Burns. We’ve never had anyone ever try to censor or edit what we found. He’s a megastar. What do we do?”
Michael Lynton replies the same day, saying: “I would take it out if no one knows, but if it gets out that you are editing the material based on this kind of sensitivity then it gets tricky. Again, all things being equal I would definitely take it out.”
After further exchanges Henry Louis Gates and Michael Lynton seem to agree that censorship is a bad idea.
“It would embarrass him and compromise our integrity. I think he is getting very bad advice,” Henry Louis Gates writes.
“Once we open the door to censorship, we lose control of the brand.”
Ben Affleck is never referred to by name in the emails – instead he is called “megastar” or “Batman”. At the time of the exchange Ben Affleck was filming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Ringo Starr has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 19.
The former Beatles drummer was the last of the Fab Four to be inducted as a solo artist, where he was hailed as “one of the greatest and most creative drummers”.
“Finally, I’m invited and I love it,” Ringo Starr said at the ceremony.
Ringo Starr, 74, was introduced by fellow Beatle Paul McCartney and together they performed their 1967 hit, With A Little Help From My Friends.
While inducting Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney said he could always rely on his former bandmate to perform on every song.
“You don’t have to look with Ringo – he’s there,” he said.
Ringo Starr was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a member of the Beatles in 1988.
Although he was the last Beatle to be recognized for his solo efforts, Ringo Starr was the first to establish a career following the band’s split in 1970, releasing two albums and scoring two top five songs within a year.
Ringo Starr has released 18 solo studio albums, including his latest – Postcards From Paradise – released earlier this month.
Among the other honorees at the ceremony were singer Bill Withers, rock band Green Day, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts and Lou Reed – who died in 2013.
Green Day were inducted in their first year of eligibility – which rules state must be 25 years after the release of an artist’s first record.
Bill Withers was inducted by Stevie Wonder.
Joan Jett – who was inducted by Miley Cyrus – opened the show with her rock hit Bad Reputation, and was joined by Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl for a performance of Cherry Bomb.
Patti Smith inducted Lou Reed and thanked him for “brutally and benevolently injecting poetry into your music”.
The 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony will be broadcast on HBO on May 30.
A teacher at a school in Barcelona, Spain, has been killed by a 13-year-old student armed with a crossbow, local media say.
The suspect has been detained. His motive is unclear. Police have not confirmed the weapon used or whether he was a student at the Instituto Joan Foster.
At least four other people were injured in the attack.
The teacher killed was protecting another during the incident, El Mundo newspaper reports.
According to Spanish media reports, the boy, said to be also armed with a knife, arrived at a class on Monday morning when he injured a teacher and her daughter, who was a student of hers.
Hearing screams, a male teacher who was there as a substitute entered the classroom and was killed.
Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias tweeted that he was appalled by the incident and has pledged his support for those affected.
Spain’s ANPE teachers union says it is the first documented case of a student killing a teacher in the country.
If the attacker is confirmed as a 13-year-old, he would not face charges as the age of criminal responsibility in Spain is 14.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to announce an investment of $46 billion in Pakistan.
The focus of the spending is on building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the two.
They will run some 1,865 miles from Gwadar in Pakistan to China’s western Xinjiang region.
The projects will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean and beyond.
This marks a major advance in China’s plans to boost its economic influence in Central and South Asia, correspondents say, and far exceeds US spending in Pakistan.
“Pakistan, for China, is now of pivotal importance. This has to succeed and be seen to succeed,” Reuters quoted Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Pakistani parliament’s defense committee, as saying.
Pakistan, for its part, hopes the investment will boost its struggling economy and help end chronic power shortages.
Leaders are also expected to discuss co-operation on security.
President Xi Jinping will spend two days in Pakistan holding talks with President Mamnoon Hussain, PM Nawaz Sharif and other ministers. He will address parliament on April 21.
Deals worth some $28 billion are ready to be signed during the visit, with the rest to follow.
Under the CPEC plan, China’s government and banks will lend to Chinese companies, so they can invest in projects as commercial ventures.
A network of roads, railways and energy developments will eventually stretch some 1,865 miles.
Some $15.5 billion worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will come online by 2017 and add 10,400 megawatts of energy to Pakistan’s national grid, according to officials.
A $44 million optical fiber cable between the two countries is also due to be built.
Pakistan, meanwhile, hopes the investment will enable it to transform itself into a regional economic hub.
Ahsan Iqbal, the Pakistani minister overseeing the plan, told the AFP news agency that these were “very substantial and tangible projects which will have a significant transformative effect on Pakistan’s economy”.
Xi Jinping is also expected to discuss security issues with PM Nawaz Sharif, including China’s concerns that Muslim separatists from Xinjiang are linking up with Pakistani militants.
Leaders of far-right Golden Dawn party are among 69 people who have gone on trial in Greece on charges including murder and being part of a criminal group.
The session began at a top security prison in Athens, without some of the key defendants present.
Security forces are braced for trouble, with party supporters and anti-fascist groups vowing to stage protests.
Golden Dawn polled third in the January general election.
Photo AP
Critics describe the anti-immigrant party as a neo-Nazi group.
All 18 of the far-right party’s lawmakers in the previous Greek parliament are among the defendants, but only a handful of them were in the specially-built courtroom for the start of the trial.
Leader Nikos Michaloliakos, 57, who was released recently from prison, is being kept under house arrest and was not in court on April 20.
The trial follows a lengthy investigation into the 2013 murder of anti-racist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn supporter.
Golden Dawn has also been linked to the murder of a Pakistani immigrant and beatings of political opponents.
US Ambassador to Poland Stephen Mull has been summoned over Holocaust comments made by FBI director James Comey.
Poland’s foreign ministry said James Comey had suggested in a Washington Post article that some Poles were accomplices.
After the summons, Stephen Mull said he made it clear the US believed “Nazi Germany alone” was responsible.
Six million Polish citizens were killed by the Nazis during World War Two, half of them Jewish.
In the Washington Post article on April 16, aimed at raising education about the Holocaust, James Comey wrote: “In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do something evil.
“They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do.”
The words sparked a storm of protest in Poland.
Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski told Polish television the comments were an “insult to thousands of Poles who helped Jews”.
PM Ewa Kopacz said: “To those who are incapable of presenting the historic truth in an honest way, I want to say that Poland was not a perpetrator but a victim of World War Two. I would expect full historical knowledge from officials who speak on the matter.”
Ambassador Stephen Mull, who on April 19 attended ceremonies marking the 72nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis, said that any suggestion that “Poland, or any other countries other than Nazi Germany, bear responsibility for the Holocaust, is a mistake, harmful and insulting”.
After the summons, Stephen Mull said: “I made clear that the opinion that Poland is in any way responsible for the Holocaust is not the position of the United States.
“Nazi Germany alone bears responsibility. I now have a lot of work before me to make things right in this situation.”
However, Stephen Mull also said he believed the wider message of the article was that many people had either aided the Nazis or not done enough in response to the atrocities, including in the US.
The Washington Post on April 19 published a column criticizing James Comey’s comments.
A Star Wars spin-off will tell the story of a mission by a group of resistance fighters to steal plans to the infamous Death Star.
The plot of Rogue One was revealed to fans at the Star Wars Celebration convention in California on April 18.
Rogue One will be the first in a series of on-screen adventures exploring stories outside the core Star Wars saga.
The movie will be set before the first part of the original series, Episode IV: A New Hope.
It was released in 1977 and began with the Empire’s pursuit of a ship carrying Princess Leia and blueprints to the lethal space station.
A specially created trailer was also shown at the convention, featuring a TIE fighter soaring over a planet where the Death Star can be seen in the clouds.
Director Gareth Edwards said that because the Jedi Knights were all but wiped out in the preceding film Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, his story would be different from the other Star Wars movies.
Gareth Edwards said it would not focus on people who were able to use the mysterious “force”.
“It comes down to a group of individuals that don’t have magical powers that have to somehow bring hope to the galaxy,” he said.
Gareth Edwards, a lifelong Star Wars fan, also noted that in the previous movies, characters were clearly defined as good or bad. He said he wanted Rogue One to be more complex.
“The thing that interests me about it, is Star Wars was basically very black and white. Our movie is grey.”
Rogue One starts filming in the UK this summer and is due to be released in December 2016, a year after Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Jeremy Clarkson has revealed in his Sunday Times column that he thought he probably had cancer at the time he hit Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.
Jeremy Clarkson, 55, said the incident came on his “most stressful day… in 27 years at the BBC” – but that other people facing stress “manage to cope better than I did”.
The former presenter told the paper he later got the all-clear over a lump on his tongue.
He was dropped from Top Gear on March 25 over what the BBC called an “unprovoked physical attack” on Oisin Tymon.
Jeremy Clarkson wrote: “Two days before the <<fracas>> I’d been told, sternly, by my doctor that a lump on my tongue was probably cancer and that I must get it checked out immediately.
“But I couldn’t do that. We were in the middle of a Top Gear series. And Top Gear always came first.”
Jremy Clarkson also described his obsession with the Top Gear job, especially after the break-up of his marriage and the death of his mother, and the “enormous” sense of loss he felt after his contract was not renewed.
“It was an all-consuming entity, a many-tentacled global monster that was dysfunctional and awkward and mad but I loved it with a passion. I loved it like my own child,” he wrote.
“I felt sick because after I’d lost my home and my mother, I’d thrown myself even more vigorously into my job and now, idiotically, I’d managed to lose that too.”
Jeremy Clarkson told the newspaper he had initially thought about not doing any more television, but that he was now planning to “pick up the pieces” and do another car show – although he did not know whether he would be working with his former Top Gear co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has climbed Mount Paektu, the country’s highest mountain, KCNA reported.
Photos of Kim Jong-un show him standing on a snowy mountaintop, with the sun behind him.
His father, Kim Jong-Il, is said by the state to have been born on the mountain, however many historians say he was actually born in Russia.
Reports say Kim Jong-un reached the 2,750-metre peak alongside hundreds of fighter pilots and party officials.
“Climbing Mount Paektu provides precious mental pabulum more powerful than any kind of nuclear weapon,” the Rodong newspaper quoted Kim Jong-un as saying to troops.
The purpose of the visit is said to have been to see pilots from the Korean People’s Army who have completed a tour of battle sites in the area.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “pabulum” as “bland or insipid intellectual matter, entertainment”.
The peak of the volcanic mountain, lying on the border with China, is considered a sacred place in Korean folklore.
It is also part of the propaganda which glorifies the Kim family, who are said to have a “mount Paektu bloodline”.
Recently it has been claimed that Kim Jong-un could drive by the time he was three years old.
The regime also says that Kim Jong-Il, who ruled until his death in 2011, scored 11 holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf.
Like his father before him, Kim Jong-un makes many “field guidance trips” to army bases, factories and other important sites.
Analysts say this is his way of showing himself as an energetic man of the people.
North Korea has a troubled economy, with two-thirds of the population, approximately 16 million people, not knowing where their next meal is coming from, according to the UN.
A boat carrying up to 700 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea killing hundreds of people, the Italian coastguard says.
A major rescue operation is under way after the vessel carrying “between 500 and 700 migrants” capsized at midnight local time, south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.
So far 28 people have been rescued.
Earlier this week, 400 people are feared to have drowned when their vessel capsized north of Libya.
Maltese PM Joseph Muscat said that many people were feared dead.
Italian ships, the Maltese Navy and commercial vessels are all involved in the rescue operation in Libyan waters.
According to The Times of Malta, the migrants fell overboard when they rushed to draw the attention of a passing merchant ship.
The Italian coastguard’s spokesman said the fishing boat capsized about 130 miles off the coast of Lampedusa and 17 miles from the Libyan coast.
Twenty ships and three helicopters were currently involved in the rescue, he added.
California authorities issued a revised plan for the state’s first-ever mandatory water cuts, emphasizing the need for urgent action as summer looms.
The state regulators issued the new plan in response to numerous complaints on April 18.
California drought, which started in 2012, could persist for years, warned Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board.
“We know we don’t know when it will end,” Felicia Marcus said as the board released a revised blueprint for enforcing Governor Jerry Brown’s executive order that Californians by next February reduce urban water use 25% compared with 2013 levels.
The board’s changes trimmed conservation targets for some communities with a track record of saving water, while slightly increasing the required cuts for the thirstiest cities.
Water suppliers that recorded the lowest residential per-capita water use in July, August and September of last year will have to cut only 8%. They include San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Seal Beach.
Communities with the highest per-capita numbers during that period, including Arcadia and Beverly Hills, have to chop consumption by 36%.
Los Angeles and Long Beach, which under the first draft of rules would have had to reduce use by 20%, were assigned a lower target of 16%.
The emergency proposal could change further before the board formally adopts it early next month, officials said. The state board will begin tracking compliance in July, when June’s use is reported, and will perform monthly checks on the more than 400 urban water suppliers that have to comply with the order.
Under the board proposal, regulators could nudge underachievers to impose more outdoor watering restrictions and change their water rates to encourage conservation. The board could also fine agencies up to $10,000 a day for noncompliance.
“Those who are using the most have the easiest way to go because [it is] primarily outdoor irrigation,” Felicia Marcus said.
“And that, frankly, has been our top priority here because that’s what you can reduce without undue economic or personal impact.”
State officials estimate that the 25% reduction in urban use would save about 1.3 million acre-feet of drinking water over the next nine months. That is more than twice what the entire city of Los Angeles uses in a year.
Jerry Brown released his executive order more than a year after he asked for a voluntary 20% drop in water use that most parts of the state failed to achieve. With a record-low snowpack, depleted reservoirs and the onset of another parched year, the governor on April 1 imposed the first statewide restrictions on water use in California history.
The preliminary framework for the regulations, released in April, was greeted by a flood of complaints from local water districts that grumbled that the cuts were unreasonable.
However, Jerry Brown, who appoints the five-member state water board, is standing firm.
The board responded to some of the criticisms contained in more than 250 comments by modifying parts of the proposal. It expanded the range of required cuts from four categories to nine, and assigned water districts to those tiers based on three months of water use last summer, rather than just September 2014.
Although Sacramento has reduced water consumption significantly in the last year, residential water use last summer was 146 gallons per person per day, compared with 91 gallons in Los Angeles.
The revised proposal would also allow urban districts in Southern California that deliver more than a fifth of their supplies to agriculture to subtract the farm water from their overall use, placing them in a less-stringent conservation tier.
Polls have opened in Finland, amid hopes that a new government will pull the country out of its three-year economic slump.
PM Alexander Stubb and his conservative National Coalition Party face a strong challenge from former businessman Juha Sipila and his centre-right Centre Party.
Juha Sipila has pledged create more than 200,000 jobs in the next 10 years.
Finland’s economy has been the main issue during the election campaign.
A year of stagnation in 2014 was preceded by two years of recession and unemployment now stands at 9.2%.
The governing coalition has struggled to push through reforms, leading to a reduction in support for Alexander Stubb ahead of polling day.
A poll published on April 16 by public broadcaster YLE put support for the National Coalition at 16.9%, behind the Centre Party at 24%.
Juha Sipila, an IT millionaire, was relatively unknown in Finland until he became leader of the Centre Party three years ago.
He has publicly criticized Alexander Stubb’s plans to cut 6 billion euros from budget deficits over the coming four years, dismissing the proposal as unrealistic.
It is unclear clear who Juha Sipila will choose to form a coalition with, if he is elected prime minister.
Polls put the Social Democrats at 15.1% and the eurosceptic right-wing Finns Party at 16.7%.
After a break of five years, the Shroud of Turin is back to public display at the city’s cathedral from April 19.
The 4.4-metre-long (14-ft) cloth will be on show until June 24.
Viewings are free but must be booked. Already one million people have signed up.
Some devotees believe the shroud to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Skeptics point to carbon dating that suggests it is a medieval forgery from the 1300s.
Scientists have not agreed on how the image of a man was imprinted on the cloth.
Pope Francis will be among those to view the shroud in a visit on June 21. The last public viewings were in 2010, when 2.5 million people came to see it.
The Church has not officially claimed that Christ’s body was wrapped in the shroud, preferring instead to focus on what it means to those who see it.
Archbishop of Turin Cesare Nosiglia said: “What counts the most is that this shroud… reflects in a clear and precise manner how the gospels describe the passion and death of Jesus.
“It is not a profession of faith because it is not an object of faith, nor of devotion, but it can help faith.”
Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia said that many of those coming to see the shroud would be returnees.
“That means there is a fundamental need in people’s hearts to renew this incredible experience that they had the first time they saw it,” he said.
“Even non-believers will come. It’s an occasion that brings everybody together.”
The shroud will be displayed in a climate-controlled case for 12 hours a day in Turin’s Cathedral of St John the Baptist.
