Steve Smith has become Australia’s new captain for the rest of the Test series against India, Cricket Australia has announced.
He replaces Michael Clarke, who suffered a serious hamstring injury during the first Test in Adelaide.
Steve Smith, 25, will become Australia’s 45th and third-youngest Test captain when the second Test starts in Brisbane on December 17.
“It’s something that I’ve always dreamt of doing,” he said.
“It’s an amazing thrill.”
Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, who was expected to get the captaincy, has been named as vice-captain.
Chairman of selectors Rod Marsh said Steve Smith was highly regarded not just for his batting but and also his “maturity and clear leadership potential”.
Steve Smith, who has played just 23 Tests and has previously captained New South Wales, scored 162 not out and 52 not out in the recent first-Test victory over India in Adelaide.
Staff and customers at a Lindt cafe in Sydney, Australia, are being held hostage by a gunman.
The Lindt cafe in the city centre is surrounded by armed police. Officers have made contact with the gunman.
Five people have been seen running from the building. It is not clear how many remain inside. A black Islamic flag has been displayed at the window.
Australia’s PM Tony Abbott said it was “profoundly shocking” that people were being “held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation”.
He was speaking after chairing a meeting of the national security committee in Canberra.
Earlier Tony Abbott said: “Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society – nothing should ever change that and that’s why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual.”
Senior police officers say they are on a footing “consistent with a terrorist event”.
The incident began as people were arriving for work in Martin Place on December 15. Witnesses saw a man with a bag and gun walk into the Lindt chocolate shop and cafe.
Lindt said about 10 employees and 30 customers were thought to be inside at the time. Nearby offices were evacuated and police asked people to remain indoors and away from open windows.
An enormous police operation is in place, on a scale few Sydney residents will have seen.
About six hours into the siege, three people were seen running from the building housing the cafe. Two more people followed about an hour later. It is not clear whether they escaped or were released.
New South Wales Police deputy commissioner Catherine Burn said: “Those people are now being assessed to make sure their health is okay and then police will talk to them.”
“Our approach is to resolve this peacefully. It might take a bit of time but that is our priority,” she added.
Police negotiators were in contact with the gunman, Catherine Burn confirmed. The suspect also contacted local media and reportedly issued demands.
In a statement on Facebook, Lindt said it was “deeply concerned over this serious incident”.
An armed man wearing a backpack and a bandana could be seeing walking around inside the cafe.
TV footage showed at least three people, thought to be employees and who were visibly distressed, holding up to the window a black flag bearing the declaration of Islamic faith, which reads: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”
The flag is similar to those used by jihadist groups, but is different from the one used by Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
Martin Place is home to the state premier’s office and the headquarters of two of the nation’s largest banks. The state parliament house is also only a few streets away.
Australia – which has sent fighter jets to join the US-led coalition conducting air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq – raised its terror threat level in September.
Former Korean Air VP Heather Cho has tried to apologize in person to two flight attendants for the way she treated them over how she was served nuts.
Heather Cho, also known as Cho Hyun-ah visited the homes of the pair – but both were out, so she left them a note instead.
She had ordered the head steward be removed from a flight after being served nuts in a bag, not on a plate.
The incident forced the flight to Seoul to be delayed. She resigned from her posts in the company afterwards.
The head steward, Park Chang-jin, has alleged that Heather Cho forced him and a female attendant to kneel and beg forgiveness.
However, Heather Cho has denied this: “I’ve never heard such thing. I don’t know anything about it,” AFP quoted her as saying.
Heather Cho told a news conference on Friday that she was sorry for her behavior.
Her father, Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-Ho, also apologized for what he called his daughter’s “foolish act”.
Heather Cho said his daughter would step down from all her posts in companies under the Cho family-owned Hanjin Group, which also owns Korean Air. She had been head of in-flight service for the airline.
The Hanjin Group is one of South Korea’s top family conglomerates, called chaebol.
PM Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition has won a new two-thirds majority in Japan’s parliamentary elections seen as a referendum on his economic policy.
Japanese media reported that Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) retained its House of Representatives majority.
The LDP will govern with the Buddhist-backed Komeito party after the parties won 325 seats out of 475.
Shinzo Abe called the snap vote to secure support for his “Abenomics” economic reforms.
The LDP had won 290 seats, with Komeito taking 35, public broadcaster NHK said.
The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, won 73 seats, an increase of 11, NHK said.
Shinzo Abe was elected in 2012 and has tried to revive the economy by raising public spending and printing money.
After an initial burst of growth, Japan slipped back into recession in the second half of this year, which many economists have blamed, at least in part, on an increase in sales tax, from 5% to 8% in April.
The tax increase was legislated by the previous government in 2012 to curb Japan’s huge public debt, which is the highest among developed nations.
Shinzo Abe says he called the election to get a mandate to delay a second increase in the tax to 10%, scheduled for 2015.
“My <<Abenomics>> policies are still only half-way done,” he said on Decemebr 14, adding that his government would not become “complacent”.
“I am aware that there are still a lot of people who are still not feeling the benefits. But it’s my duty to bring [benefits] to those very people, and I believe this election made that clear.”
Japan is the third-largest economy in the world, according to the World Bank, but it has struggled in recent years.
Voters were choosing who sits in the 475-seat lower house of Japan’s parliament, the Diet.
Reports said turnout at polling stations was low due to voter apathy and heavy snowfall in parts of the country. The government said turnout was at just 35%, two hours before polls closed.
EU officials have sharply criticized a mass arrest of media representatives in Turkey.
Foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and the commissioner heading EU enlargement talks said the arrests went “against European values”.
At least 24 people were arrested in police raids on leading newspaper Zaman and Samanyolu TV station said to have close links with opposition parties.
Those detained are accused of trying to seize control of the state.
The Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu TV channel both have ties to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, the spiritual leader of the Hizmet movement.
A former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Fethullah Gulen – who lives in self-imposed exile – is accused of running a “parallel state” within Turkey.
In a statement, Federica Mogherini and EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said any move towards EU membership depended on “full respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights”.
The raids and arrests “are incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy,” the pair said in a statement.
“We expect that the principle of presumption of innocence will prevail and recall the inalienable right for an independent and transparent investigation.”
The raids come days after Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged a fresh campaign against Fethullah Gulen’s supporters.
Journalists, producers, scriptwriters and an eastern Turkey police chief were all arrested, among them the editor-in-chief of Zaman newspaper and the chairman of Samanyolu TV.
Staff at Zaman reported on the incident as police mounted a Sunday morning raid on their offices.
Staff and supporters held placards and chanted “free press cannot be silenced” as police raided the building.
Editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanli smiled and studied police documents before being led through the newspaper’s headquarters to applause from staff crowded onto balconies.
“Let those who have committed a crime be scared. We are not scared,” Ekrem Dumanli said as he was led into a waiting police car, according to Reuters.
The chairman of Samanyolu TV, which also has links to Fethullah Gulen, was detained in a separate raid in Istanbul.
Hidayet Karaca told reporters the operation was “a disgrace for Turkey” before his arrest.
“Sadly in 21st Century Turkey this is the treatment they dish out to a media group with tens of television and radio stations, internet media and magazines,” the English edition of Zaman quoted him as saying.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, called the raids “a coup”.
Staff at Zaman had been expecting the raid after details of the swoop were leaked by a Twitter user known as Fuat Avni, who has previously leaked advance details of police operations.
A version of the script for the new James Bond film, Spectre, has been stolen by hackers during last month’s attack on Sony Pictures.
The producers of Spectre have confirmed that the screenplay was taken as part of a cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November.
In a statement on the film’s official website, Eon Productions said they were concerned the script may be published online.
Spectre is due to be released in November 2015.
The statement said: “Eon Productions, the producers of the James Bond films, learned this morning that an early version of the screenplay for the new Bond film SPECTRE is amongst the material stolen and illegally made public by hackers who infiltrated the Sony Pictures Entertainment computer system.
“Eon Productions is concerned that third parties who have received the stolen screenplay may seek to publish it or its contents.”
Filming for Spectre began this month after the title and cast were unveiled in London.
A new car was shown off, but few details were given about the plot for the film.
A Sony spokesman denied reports that the cyber attack had forced the studio to stop production.
“Productions are still moving forward,” Robert Lawson told the Reuters news agency.
The James Bond franchise is a valuable asset for Sony Pictures, with Skyfall making $1.1 billion worldwide.
On November 24 hackers disabled the computer network at California-based Sony Pictures.
They also released salary and Social Security numbers for thousands of Sony employees – including celebrities
North Korea has denied being behind the attack in retaliation for a film depicting the country’s leader but praised it as a “righteous deed”. The FBI has confirmed that it is investigating.
Haiti’s PM Laurent Lamothe has resigned amid violent anti-government protests over delayed elections.
“I am leaving the post of prime minister this evening with a feeling of accomplishment,” Laurent Lamothe said in a televised address.
Protesters had called for President Michel Martelly and Laurent Lamothe to resign.
Michel Martelly was to have called polls in 2011, but they were postponed in a stalemate over electoral law.
Opposition politicians accuse Michel Martelly of wanting to rule by decree and that legislation that would authorize the vote unfairly favors the government.
The government argues that opposition politicians are dragging their feet in the hope of extending their time in office without elections.
Parliament’s mandate expires in January, and unless elections are held, Michel Martelly would rule by decree.
A commission set up to break the stalemate said on December 12 that PM Laurent Lamothe should resign, along with the head of the Supreme Court and the country’s election commission.
Michel Martelly said earlier that the accepted the commission’s findings, and would meet government officials on December 15 to discuss them.
Haiti is also still struggling to recover from a devastating 2010 earthquake.
UN delegates at Lima talks in Peru have reached an agreement on how countries should tackle climate change.
They have approved a framework for setting national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.
Differences over the draft text caused the talks in Lima to overrun by two days.
Environmental groups have criticized the deal as a weak and ineffectual compromise, saying it weakens international climate rules.
The talks proved difficult because of divisions between rich and poor countries over the scale and scope of plans to tackle global warming.
None of the 194 countries attending the talks walked away with everything they wanted, but everybody got something.
Peru’s environment minister, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who chaired the summit, told reporters: “As a text it’s not perfect, but it includes the positions of the parties.”
The agreement was adopted hours after a previous draft was rejected by developing countries, who accused rich nations of shirking their responsibilities to fight global warming and pay for its impacts.
The final draft is said to have alleviated those concerns with by saying countries have “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
“We’ve got what we wanted,” Indian environment minister Prakash Javedekar told reporters, saying the document preserved the notion that richer nations had to lead the way in making cuts in emissions.
It also restored a promise to poorer countries that a “loss and damage” scheme would be established to help them cope with the financial implications of rising temperatures.
However, it weakened language on national pledges, saying countries “may” instead of “shall” include quantifiable information showing how they intend to meet their emissions targets.
Sam Smith, chief of climate policy for the environmental group WWF, said: “The text went from weak to weaker to weakest and it’s very weak indeed.”
The talks followed last month’s agreement on emissions targets between the US and China, but hopes soon faded after delegates began the talks in Lima on December 1 that it would encourage wider global agreement.
On December 14, US climate envoy Todd Stern had warned that the deadlock in the negotiations threatened the chances of a new global deal in 2015.
“Failing to produce the decision before us will be seen as a major breakdown, and will deal a serious blow to the confidence of the parties and others as we approach Paris. And indeed to the hope of a Paris agreement,” Todd Stern said.
Japan is voting in a snap election called by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost support for his economic reforms.
Voters will be choosing who sits in the 475-seat lower house of Japan’s parliament, the Diet.
Recent surveys show Shinzo Abe’s coalition is likely to win a majority, even though his popularity has dipped.
He was elected in 2012 and has tried to revive the economy by raising public spending and printing money.
After an initial burst of growth, Japan slipped back into recession in the second half of this year.
Japan is the third-largest economy in the world, according to the World Bank, but it has struggled in recent years.
However, Shinzo Abe has insisted that his policies, known as “Abenomics”, can get Japan back on track.
“I promise to make Japan a country that can shine again at the centre of the world,” he said in a recent campaign speech.
He has vowed to help more Japanese women enter and remain in employment by tightening anti-discrimination laws and setting employment targets.
The prime minister has also promised to amend the law to allow the Japanese military to engage in collective self-defense alongside allies who are threatened.
Economists say an increase in sales tax from 5% to 8% in April knocked consumer spending and helped to halt growth.
The tax increase was legislated by the previous government in 2012 to curb Japan’s huge public debt, which is the highest among developed nations.
Shinzo Abe called the election to seek a mandate to delay a second increase in the tax to 10%, scheduled for 2015.
Several surveys in recent weeks have pointed to a win for Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party.
Observers say this is partly due to the lack of a real political alternative, with the opposition in disarray.
The Banri Kaieda-led opposition Democratic Party is expected to pick up a handful of seats, but not enough to affect the parliamentary balance.
A total of 1,191 candidates are competing for 475 seats.
Thousands of people have protested in Washington DC against the recent killings of unarmed black people by police.
Relatives of Michael Brown, shot dead in the Missouri town of Ferguson, and Eric Garner, who died being restrained in New York, were among them.
Both died after encountering police, but grand juries decided not to bring charges, sparking anger and unrest.
Another demonstration in New York also drew thousands despite chilly weather.
Speakers at the Capitol called for changes to US legislation.
Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown, told the crowd: “What a sea of people. If they don’t see this and make a change, then I don’t know what we got to do. Thank you for having my back.”
The mood in Washington DC was described as calm but defiant, with a large number of police on standby.
Photo Reuters
Earlier in the day, a small group of protesters from Missouri disrupted the schedule by taking to the stage at the starting-point, on Freedom Plaza, and blowing a bullhorn.
They complained that the protest, which was organized by long-established civil rights groups, was staid and ineffective.
Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead on August 9 during an altercation with a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Eric Garner, 43, died while being held down by a white police officer on July 17.
He had been challenged over the alleged sale of loose cigarettes on a street in Staten Island, New York.
The event was caught on camera and his dying plea of “I can’t breathe” has become a slogan of the protesters. It echoes the adoption of “Hands up! Don’t Shoot!” – a Ferguson refrain alleging that Michael Brown was surrendering to police when the fatal shots were fired.
Relatives of three other black people killed in controversial shootings were also expected to attend the march, according to the National Action Network:
Akai Gurley, 28, was shot dead by New York police on November 20
Tamir Rice, 12, was shot dead in a Cleveland, Ohio, park on November 22 while carrying a pellet gun
Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot dead on February 26, 2012, by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida
Marchers crowded Pennsylvania Avenue for the walk from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol, but the actual numbers were not immediately clear.
Some in the crowd, which was made up of both black and white people, held banners saying: “Stop racist police”, “I can’t breathe”, and “President Obama seize this moment. The ancestors are watching.”
The Rev Al Sharpton, a leading civil rights advocate, called for “legislative action that will shift things both on the books and in the streets”.
Prince William and Kate Middleton have released three official Christmas pictures of Prince George.
The photos were taken in late November and show Prince George in a courtyard at Kensington Palace.
The third-in-line to the throne celebrated his first birthday in July, and is now almost 17 months old.
The shots of Prince George were taken by Prince Harry’s private secretary Ed Lane Fox, who has also worked as a freelance photographer.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are releasing the images, in part, as a thank you to the media, who have not published any of the paparazzi pictures that have been taken of the prince.
The couple are said to be grateful that their request for their son to grow up without intrusion continues to be honored.
Prince William and Kate Middleton announced in September the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant with a second child.
A man’s plan to propose to his girlfriend has ended with a mobile crane smashing the roof of a house and forcing the evacuation of two others in the Dutch town of IJsselstein.
The man had wanted to surprise his partner by descending in front of her bedroom to sing her a song and pop the question.
The unsecured crane he used instead toppled into a neighbor’s house.
Photo AP
The woman still said yes, Dutch media report, and the couple are now said to be celebrating in Paris.
Following the initial impact, more damage was done when the crane fell again during an attempt to right it.
Residents in nearby properties were evacuated but no one was injured.
Sarah Ferguson has shed an incredible 50 lbs in just five months.
Fergie, formally known as the Duchess of York, showed off her noticeable weight loss in a sheer black dress at The Theory of Everything UK premiere on December 9.
Sarah Ferguson, a former Weight Watchers ambassador, has always been public about her struggles with weight, and recently revealed to Hello! magazine the motivation behind her newly slimmed-down physique.
Fergie, 55, says that she knew she had to make a change when she discovered that she weighed almost the same as when pregnant with her first daughter, Princess Beatrice, who is now 25.
“That’s what really frightened me,” she says.
“Beatrice was an 8lb 8oz baby and I was only 6lb off my full-blown pregnancy weight. I decided to make a change.”
Sarah Ferguson dropped the extra pounds by cutting out sugar and sticking to a “straightforward” exercise regime.
“I used to be so angry,” Fergie tells the magazine about her initial struggle.
“I believed I was never going to lose the weight, that I had lost control. I couldn’t fit into any of my clothes. I was just drowning in eating, drowning in food.”
President Xi Jinping has presided over China’s first state commemoration of the Nanjing massacre.
China says 300,000 civilians were massacred when Nanjing was occupied by Japan’s troops in 1937, although some Japanese nationalists dispute this.
President Xi Jinping told survivors that to deny a crime was to repeat it but insisted the ceremony was to promote peace, not prolong hatred.
Relations between China and Japan have been strained in recent years.
They have clashed over island territory in the East China Sea as well as over Japan’s insistence on honoring its war dead, including convicted war criminals, at the Yasukuni shrine.
The ceremony, which came on the 77th anniversary of the massacre, is part of three new public holidays intended to mark the conflict between the two countries.
A crowd of about 10,000 people attended the event in Nanjing, taking part in a minute’s silence to honor those killed. They included survivors of the massacre, as well as soldiers and students.
In a speech at the event, President Xi Jinping criticized Japanese nationalists for denying the atrocity took place.
“Anyone who tries to deny the massacre will not be allowed by history, the souls of the 300,000 deceased victims, 1.3 billion Chinese people and all people loving peace and justice in the world,” the president said.
Xi Jinping added that China should not “bear hatred against an entire nation just because a small minority of militarists launched aggressive wars,” according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Millions of Chinese people were killed when Japan occupied China in the 1930s and 1940s.
Dolly Parton has accepted an invitation to join a branch of the Rotary Club in the UK.
The country singer supports a children’s library in the seaside resort, in partnership with the Cleethorpes organization.
Dolly Parton has become an honorary member of the town’s branch of the charity, the first she has joined outside the US.
Former club president Rolf Sperr said the members were surprised when Dolly Parton agreed to join.
“We wrote to her and we never actually expected this,” he said.
“All of a sudden we got an email saying Dolly accepted to be an honorary member of our club.
“We couldn’t believe it, to be really honest.”
Dolly Parton is behind a literacy scheme to encourage pre-school children to read.
One of her Imagination Libraries opened at Cleethorpes’ Little Stars Day Nursery, in March. Children at the nursery will be given a free book every month until they are five.
Almost 60 libraries have been set up across the UK under the scheme, since the first opened in Rotherham in 2007. The project recently handed out its millionth book.
A landslide on Indonesia’s main island of Java has killed at least 17 people, officials say.
More than 100 people are missing after heavy rain caused the landslide near Jemblung village in central Java.
Rescuers have been searching for survivors but a lack of heavy equipment is hampering efforts, with many forced to dig with their bare hands.
Disaster agency officials said rescue teams had taken about 40 people to hospital, of whom four were said to be in a critical condition.
Relief efforts were suspended on Saturday afternoon after more rain.
Indonesia’s national disaster agency said hundreds of houses had been destroyed by the landslide.
“Conditions on the ground are pretty tough and we need heavy machines to clear the road that has been covered by the landslide,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
A landslide in a nearby village on Thursday killed one man and forced hundreds to evacuate.
Flash floods and landslides are common in Indonesia, triggered by seasonal downpours.
Many of the inhabitants of the chain of 17,000 islands live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.
The Senate has passed a new annual defense bill expanding the military campaign against Islamic State (ISIS).
The bill approves a general Pentagon budget of $496 billion plus $64 billion for US wars abroad.
The measure also authorizes the training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebel fighters for two years.
The bill had already been passed by the House and has now been sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law.
ISIS controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, imposing a rigid version of Sunni Islam and persecuting or killing non-believers.
The US-led coalition has launched more than 600 air strikes against IS militant targets in Iraq since the campaign began on August 8.
The US, with Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has also carried out almost 500 attacks on IS in neighboring Syria since September 23.
Until now, US operations against ISIS had been funded from the existing Pentagon budget.
The new bill, which was passed by 89 votes to 11, approves $3.4 billion for the direct deployment of US forces against IS, and a further $1.6 billion for training Iraqi Kurdish forces for two years.
Democrat Senator Carl Levin said that US air power had “changed the momentum on the ground” but added that IS “cannot be defeated without an opposing force to take the fight to it”.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) had been the subject of cross-party talks for several months.
The bill rejected President Barack Obama’s request to approve the closure of the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
It also extended a ban on transferring inmates from the prison to the US.
The bill protected for another year the fleet of aging A-10 “Warthog” ground-support aircraft, whose retirement had been proposed.
A 1% pay rises for military personnel was also agreed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lauded the bill, saying “it enhances our efforts to keep our warfighters safe on the battlefield, and it authorizes the resources needed to responsibly conclude our combat mission in Afghanistan”.
The bill also requires the provision of annual mental health screenings for military personnel.
Mudslides and flooding killed at least one person and forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes as heavy rains hit southern California.
The body was found in a drainage canal in a southern suburb of Los Angeles.
Another hard-hit area was the town of Camarillo Springs, 50 miles north-west of Los Angeles, where a mudslide left 18 homes uninhabitable.
The same storm closed major highways and caused power cuts in the San Francisco area on Thursday.
More than 200,000 people were still without power on December 12 further north in Oregon and Washington state.
National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Jackson that rain had been falling at a rate of nearly 2 inches an hour near Camarillo Springs, before a river of mud and rocks hit the community.
Officials ordered the evacuation of more than 100 homes in the town. Further east in Glendora, another 1,000 people were told to leave following mudslides.
In Los Angeles, rescue teams saved two people from the Los Angeles River.
Three deaths have already been blamed on the harsh weather, including homeless man and son killed in Oregon on December 11 when a tree toppled onto their tent.
Princess Srirasmi, the wife of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, has resigned her royal position, the palace has announced.
A statement said King Bhumibol Adulyadej had accepted Princess Srirasmi’s written request.
Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn had asked the government to strip his wife’s family of their royally bestowed name.
Seven of her relatives had been arrested in a purge of officials allegedly involved in corruption.
The palace statement, which appeared in the Royal Gazette, read: “Princess Srirasmi, wife of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn… has written to respectfully resign from her status in the royal family and permission has been granted by His Majesty the King.”
Princess Srirasmi is the crown prince’s third wife, and the pair married in 2001. They have a son.
Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn was already known to be estranged from Princess Srirasmi, although they continued to attend official functions together.
Princess Srirasmi’s uncle, a police general, was arrested over accusations of amassing vast wealth through smuggling and gambling rackets.
Four of her siblings and two other relatives have also been held.
Princess Srirasmi would have been expected to become queen when the crown prince succeeded his father.
The pivotal position of the monarchy in Thailand’s political order makes the succession an extremely sensitive issue.
Many aspects still cannot be reported from inside the country.
The strict lese majeste law criminalizes any critical comment about the monarchy.
King Bhumibol, the world’s longest-reigning monarch and a widely revered and unifying figure, has been on the throne in Thailand since 1946.
A stray cat enjoyed a $1,000 fish feast at Russia’s Vladivostok airport, after managing to get inside a delicatessen fish counter, it’s reported.
The cat was filmed by staff at Vladivostok airport, helping itself to marine delicacies including squid and dried octopus, the PrimaMedia.ru news website reports.
The animal was seen scrabbling at packaging and happily munching away on the contents. It was a costly break-in for the store’s owner, who had to bin the entire contents of the fish counter, worth about 60,000 roubles ($1,000). Nobody knows how the cat managed to get into the store, although according to airport staff it’s a local stray and sometimes wanders into the airport.
It seems the cat is now a minor celebrity, with “fans” lining up to visit the scene of the crime. “Our staff practically can’t work because of the flow of fans,” Irina Kuzmina, the shop’s owner, tells PrimaMedia.
“From the arrival hall, people come directly to us with questions about the cat. But they don’t buy anything, they only ask questions.”
Some members of the public are concerned about the cat’s fate, because it hasn’t been seen since being busted mid-meal. The airport has received letters from dozens of concerned people offering the animal a home, the website says.
The FBI is investigating the hanging death of Lennon Lacy, a black teenager from North Carolina, previously ruled a suicide.
Lennon Lacy, 17, was found hanging in a trailer park in Bladenboro, North Carolina, in August.
An FBI spokeswoman confirmed that the agency was reviewing the investigation into his death “at the request” of the local federal prosecutor.
The state medical examiner initially ruled it a suicide based on reports from the police and the county coroner.
Lennon Lacy’s mother wrote an article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which she said the police failed to fully investigate her son’s death, including not asking why he “was found with a pair of white sneakers on his feet that he didn’t own and were two sizes too small for him”.
His family and the North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have called for a federal investigation into his death and is holding a rally on December 13.
The Reverend William Barber, president of the NAACP chapter told the Associated Press that many questions surrounding Lennon Lacy’s death remain unanswered, including why he was found hanging from a belt he did not own.
“We don’t know what happened that terrible night,” Rev William Barber said.
An FBI spokeswoman said agents had addressed all viable leads and a district attorney had previously said he had seen no evidence of foul play.
Lennon Lacy’s told AP she could not believe her son killed himself.
“When I saw him, I just knew automatically he didn’t do that to himself,” she said on December 8.
“I know my child. As a mother, I would have sensed if something was wrong to the point that he was going to harm himself.”
Pope Francis has declined to meet the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama because of the “delicate situation” with China, the Vatican announces.
The Dalai Lama, who is visiting Rome, had requested a meeting.
A Vatican spokesman said that although the Pope held him “in very high regard”, the request had been declined “for obvious reasons”.
Correspondents say the Vatican does not want to jeopardize efforts to improve relations with China.
China describes the Dalai Lama as a separatist and reacts angrily when foreign dignitaries meet him.
The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet.
He now advocates a “middle way” with China, seeking autonomy but not independence for Tibet.
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
“Pope Francis obviously holds the Dalai Lama in very high regard but he will not be meeting any of the Nobel laureates,” a Vatican spokesman said.
He added that the pontiff would send a video message to the conference.
The Dalai Lama told Italian media that he had approached the Vatican regarding a meeting but had been told it could create inconveniences.
Analysts say the Vatican and China are at odds over control of the Catholic Church in China.
The Chinese Communist Party oversees an official community, known as the Patriotic Association and believed to number about 12 million people, but there is also a much larger underground Church that is loyal to the Pope.
A serious bone of contention between China and the Vatican is which side should have the final say in the appointment of bishops.
A Vatican official said the Pope’s decision was “not taken out of fear but to avoid any suffering by those who have already suffered”.
The last time the Dalai Lama was granted a papal audience was in 2006 when he met former Pope Benedict XVI.
The Dalai Lama is in Rome for a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize winners. It was initially to be held in South Africa but was relocated to Rome after South Africa refused the Dalai Lama a visa.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook may add a way to “dislike” posts on the social network.
Speaking at a Q&A session in California, Mark Zuckerberg said it was one of the most requested features the social network receives from its users.
The social network’s co-founder said the site would need to find a way to make sure it did not become a way to demean people’s posts.
According to Facebook’s own figures, 4.5 billion “likes” are generated every day.
“One of things we’ve thought about for quite a while is what’s the right way to make it so that people can easily express a broader range of emotions,” Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at Facebook’s headquarters.
“A lot of times people share things on Facebook that are sad moments in their lives. Often people tell us that they don’t feel comfortable pressing <<Like>> because <<Like>> isn’t the appropriate sentiment.
“Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to say, <<That thing isn’t good.>> That’s not something that we think is good for the world.
“The thing that I think is very valuable is that there are more sentiments that people want to express.”
Facebook’s “Like” button has been criticized as being a method by which the social network collects data on its users’ browsing habits.
The system has also come under fire due to a high volume of “fake Likes” – when the popularity of a brand or piece of content is inflated artificially.
Facebook has moved to combat the trade of so-called “Like farming” – businesses that, for a price, will provide a huge number of likes quickly. This will be via automated robots, or by a network of humans paid a tiny sum for each click.
Facebook has initiated legal action against companies offering “fake Likes” or other bogus business practices on the social network.
Oil prices have fallen further after the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast weaker demand in 2015.
The IEA, a consultancy to 29 countries, said supply and demand would take “some time” to respond to sharp falls in oil prices.
It said it was too early to expect low oil prices to start constricting a US supply boom.
On December, Brent crude fell to below $63 a barrel, its lowest price since July 2009.
The price of Brent fell to $62.50 a barrel at one point before recovering slightly to $62.67. US crude was trading below $59 a barrel.
The IEA cut its forecast for global oil demand growth next year by 230,000 barrels per day to 900,000 barrels per day on the expectation of lower fuel consumption in Russia and other oil-exporting countries.
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Oil prices have been in steep decline since June due to slow demand growth and a US shale oil boom which has increased supply.
Prices “continued to plunge in November and into early December”, the IEA said, adding that, “it may well take some time for supply and demand to respond to the price rout”.
The root cause of the fall in prices was “a surge in non‐OPEC supply to its highest growth ever and contraction in demand growth to five‐year lows”.
It predicted that non-OPEC supply gains would add to a global glut of oil.
The US boom should push non-OPEC production to a record 1.9 million barrels per day this year, IEA said, but this figure should fall to 1.3 million barrels per day in 2015.
In Russia, the IEA said lower global oil prices combined with the effect of sanctions and a “collapsing currency” were likely to have an adverse effect on production.
