Duck Dynasty’s Jep Robertson took to Twitter to talk about his near-death experience after suffering from a seizure while deer hunting on October 19.
“Well, I about died this past Sunday…I’m doing much better now. Thanks for all the prayers! #seizuresuck #gladtobealive,” Jep Robertson, 36, tweeted on October 25.
Jep Robertson also posted a picture comparing himself to Steven Seagal in the hospital.
Jep Robertson suffered from a seizure while deer hunting (photo Facebook)
“Just like Steven Seagal, I’m hard to kill,” he added to the snapshot.
In a statement to Us Weekly, the Robertson family says: “Jep was rushed to the hospital and received immediate treatment. He is doing well now, but is still in the hospital for additional tests and observation, and he is being treated with antibiotics to cover a range of possible infections believed to have caused the seizure.”
The statement continues: “Our family would like to thank everyone for their love and support and ask that you keep Jep, Jessica and their children in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”
Duck Dynasty Season 7 is set to premiere on A&E on November 19.
In a recent interview, Reeva Steenkamp’s mother has said that it was bad luck her daughter met Oscar Pistorius as the “volatile” athlete “would have killed someone sooner or later”.
Speaking to The Times, June Steenkamp calls Oscar Pistorius “pathetic”, “moody”, “gun-toting” and “possessive”.
June Steenkamp rejects both Oscar Pistorius’ apology and his version of events, but admits: “He’s the only one who knows the truth.”
Oscar Pistorius, 27, is serving five years for the culpable homicide of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He could be out in 10 months.
The Paralympic champion was cleared of murder.
June Steenkamp, 68, told The Times, which is serializing her book, Reeva: A Mother’s Story, which is to be published on November 6, that Reeva had told her the couple had not yet entered a s**ual relationship and had “nagging doubts about their compatibility”.
She says: “She had confided to me that she hadn’t slept with him. They’d shared a bed, but she was scared to take the relationship to that level.
“She wouldn’t want to sleep with Oscar if she wasn’t sure. I believe their relationship was coming to an end. In her heart of hearts, she didn’t think it was making either of them happy.”
June Steenkamp rejects both Oscar Pistorius’ apology and his version of events
June Steenkamp, who was not called to testify at the trial, says this may have played a part in what happened on the night of the shooting, Valentine’s Day last year.
She rejects his version of events, that there was no row and that he had thought there was an intruder in the toilet cubicle when he fired four shots through the door “without thinking”.
“There is no doubt in our minds that something went horribly wrong, something upset her so terribly that she hid behind a locked door with two mobile phones,” June Steenkamp writes.
Other words she uses to describe Oscar Pistorius are “arrogant”, “moody”, “combustible”, “trigger-happy”, “vague”, “evasive” and “shifty”.
She believes Reeva, 29, was about to leave Oscar Pistorius, 27.
She says: “Her clothes were packed. There is no doubt in our minds: she had decided to leave Oscar that night.”
In the excerpt of the book serialized in the paper, June Steenkamp refers to Oscar Pistorius’ apology to them in court.
“Why decide to say sorry to me in a televised trial in front of the whole world? I was unmoved by his apology.
“I felt if I appeared to be sorry for him at this stage of his trial on the charge of premeditated murder, it would in the eyes of others lessen the awfulness of what he had done. He was in the box trying to save his own skin.”
Nevertheless, the parents say they do want to meet Oscar Pistorius.
Although she says: “I am not entirely sure what I am going to say”, father Barry, 71, says he wants an apology.
“I would like him to really, truthfully say, although he said it in court, <<I’m sorry>>. I would like him just to say it to our faces.”
June Steenkamp also talks about the “wrenching pain that you get in your heart” when thinking of her daughter’s death.
“It’s always there. The minute your eyes open in the morning, or if you wake up in the middle of the night, there it is.”
Oscar Pistorius, an amputee sprinter, became the first athlete to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
He is serving his sentence in Pretoria’s Kgosi Mampuru II jail.
Oscar Pistorius was also given a three-year suspended sentence for firing a gun in a restaurant.
A poll suggests that Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is a good song for people to listen to if they feel unwell or down.
A ComRes survey for BBC local radio for Faith in the World Week, which is exploring the healing power of music, offered 1,000 people 10 choices.
Dancing Queen by Abba came second, with Happy by Pharrell Williams in joint third with “classical music” generally.
More than two-thirds of those polled said they like listening to music when they do not feel well.
Nearly 90% of respondents agreed that listening to music can make people feel better when they are sick or facing difficult times.
A poll suggests that Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is a good song for people to listen to if they feel unwell or down
Faith in the World Week, which runs until November 2, is examining how music can change and shape people’s lives.
Asked to select specific music, almost 30% of men choose Bohemian Rhapsody from the list provided. Fewer women – 23% – put it first, with 28% naming Dancing Queen. Only 16% of men opted for the Abba track.
Among the over-65s, classical music made more of an impression, with 39% saying they wanted to listen to it when they’re ill or down.
Among younger adults, Happy was the most popular song. Songs by Bob Marley, Robbie Williams and Michael Jackson were also on the list presented in the survey.
Bohemian Rhapsody is taken from Queen’s A Night at the Opera album.
Queen said they regarded the track as a showcase of their technical skill and the song encompasses several musical styles.
Although Bohemian Rhapsody topped the poll for its apparent cheering and soothing effects, its subject matter is a man’s confession to a murder.
Ukraine is holding snap elections for a new parliament.
President Petro Poroshenko called the poll as he aims to cement a new direction for the country after the ousting of pro-Russian leaders earlier this year.
However, the vote will be overshadowed by a continuing conflict with pro-Russian rebels in the east.
About 3 million people in Donetsk and Luhansk regions will not vote. The separatists will hold their own polls next month.
Another 1.8 million people in Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, will not take part.
The vote also comes amid an energy crisis, with Russia cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine in June in a dispute over unpaid bills.
Ukraine’s economy is collapsing, with GDP forecast to fall between 7 and 10% this year.
The government hopes the elections will help stabilize the country, with pro-Russian parties considerably weakened by recent events.
Half of the 450 seats in parliament will be allocated proportionally according to a party list system, with parties needing to gain more than 5% to win seats.
Ukraine is holding snap elections for a new parliament (photo Getty Images)
Another 198 lawmakers will be elected from individual constituencies, with 27 from Crimea and the rebel-held areas remaining vacant.
Most are nationalist and pro-Western, and ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions is not running.
However, three parties comprising his former allies are seeking votes in the south and east of the country.
“At last we will elect a pro-Ukrainian and not pro-Moscow, an anti-corruption and not pro-bribery, a pro-European parliament,” President Petro Poroshenko said on October 24.
Viktor Yanukovych fled in February after a wave of pro-Western protests in Kiev triggered by his refusal to sign a partnership agreement with the European Union.
Anger in eastern Ukraine at his overthrow turned to unrest with separatists seizing government buildings and beginning an insurgency in April.
At least 3,700 people have been killed since the conflict began, including 300 killed after a ceasefire was agreed on September 5.
Nurse Kaci Hickox, who was quarantined on her return to the US from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, has criticized the way she was dealt with at Newark airport.
Kaci Hickox, 33, said the experience was frightening and could deter other health workers from travelling to West Africa to help tackle the Ebola virus.
Illinois has become the third state after New York and New Jersey to impose stricter quarantine rules.
Meanwhile US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power is to visit West Africa.
Samantha Power will travel to Guinea on October 26, continuing later to Liberia and Sierra Leone – the three worst-hit countries.
“For me the benefits of having first hand knowledge of what is happening in these countries gravely outweighs the almost nonexistent risk of actually travelling to these countries, provided I take the proper precautions,” she said on Saturday.
She said she hoped her trip would “draw attention to the need for increased support for the international response”.
The White House has expressed concern that strict quarantine restrictions such as those imposed in New York, New Jersey and Illinois could put off aid workers and others travelling to West Africa to help mitigate the crisis at its source.
More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, with 4,922 deaths, according to the WHO’s latest report.
Only 27 of the cases have occurred outside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Kaci Hickox, of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, described seeing a “frenzy of disorganization, fear and most frightening, quarantine” on her return from Sierra Leone on October 24.
Writing for The Dallas Morning News, Kaci Hickox asked whether fellow health workers would “face the same ordeal”.
Nurse Kaci Hickox was quarantined on her return to the US from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone (photo My Space)
“Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?” she questioned.
Kaci Hickox said she was kept in isolation at the airport terminal for seven hours and given only a cereal bar to eat.
She also denied that she had had a fever, saying she was merely flushed because of the upset caused by her treatment at the airport.
Though Kaci Hickox tested negative in a preliminary test for the virus, she will remain under quarantine for three weeks and continue to be monitored by health officials.
Stricter quarantine measures were put in place in New York and New Jersey after a doctor, Craig Spencer, tested positive for the virus on his return from Guinea last week.
Dr. Craig Spencer is currently being treated at New York’s Bellevue Hospital in isolation.
The new measures mean that anyone who has had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa now faces a mandatory 21-day quarantine period.
Illinois governor Pat Quinn announced on October 25 that his state would start imposing the same measures, without providing further details.
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was not consulted over the new rules, which were ordered by the state governors of New York and New Jersey.
“The state has the right to make its decision, just like the CDC does, and we’re going to work with them,” he told reporters on October 25.
President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and online address that Americans had “to be guided by the facts – not fear”, reiterating that people cannot contract Ebola unless they have come into direct contact with an infected patient’s bodily fluids.
Barack Obama’s comments follow the release of the WHO’s latest report, which warned that the number of Ebola cases in West Africa could be much higher than recorded, as many families were keeping relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centers.
Tunisians are voting to elect the country’s first full parliament under a new constitution passed earlier this year.
The election is one of the final stages in the political transition which followed the ousting of authoritarian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
There are no opinion polls, but the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which won Tunisia’s last national election in 2011, is expected to do well.
Its main rival is likely to be the liberal Nidaa Tounes (Tunisia’s Call).
Most of the major parties have vowed to tackle Tunisia’s high unemployment and to reinvigorate its economy.
Tunisia is seen as the birthplace of the “Arab Spring” – the pro-democracy movement which sought to replace autocratic governments in several Arab countries.
The country is considered to have had the most successful outcome, with relatively low levels of violence.
Tunisians are voting to elect the country’s first full parliament under a new constitution passed earlier this year (photo Reuters)
However, radical groups within Tunisia have threatened to disrupt the elections and on October 23 militants shot a policeman on the outskirts of the capital, Tunis.
More than 50,000 security personnel and nearly 20,000 soldiers are expected to be deployed on Sunday to ensure safe voting.
Around five million Tunisians have registered to vote, with overseas residents having already cast their votes on October 24.
Some observers fear a low turnout, arguing that voters have become disaffected with politics after a lack of economic progress in the years following Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s overthrow.
Results are expected on October 29. Ennahda, which currently rules in coalition with other parties, has promised to pursue a unity government even if it wins the most seats.
Tunisia is set to hold a presidential election on November 23, which will deliver the country’s first directly elected leader following the ousting of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in street protests almost four years ago.
The protests, which began in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid in late 2010, later gathered pace and spread across much of the Arab world the following year.
Brazilians are voting in the second round of the presidential election in what correspondents say is the tightest vote the country has seen in decades.
Incumbent left-leaning President Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party (PT) faces centrist Aecio Neves of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) in the second run-off round.
Both candidates have pledged to kick-start Latin America’s largest economy and make it more competitive.
The latest opinion polls showed President Dilma Rousseff with a slight lead over the opposition candidate.
A survey by pollster Datafolha gave Dilma Rousseff 52% voter support against 48% for Aecio Neves.
A separate survey by polling firm Ibope gave the incumbent 53% against 47% for her challenger.
Both polls had a margin of error of plus or minus 2%.
Leftist President Dilma Rousseff faces centrist Aecio Neves in the second run-off round of Brazil’s presidential election
Poor Brazilians, particularly in the impoverished northeast, remain loyal to Dilma Rousseff thanks to her party’s trademark welfare programs, such as the Bolsa Familia grant scheme.
Dilma Rousseff obtained her largest support there in the first round of the presidential election on 5 October, with almost 60% of votes.
But wealthy Brazilians, who are against interventionist economic policies such as petrol price controls and high taxes, favor instead business-friendly Aecio Neves.
Aecio Neves is regarded in the financial markets as someone to put the economy back on track, after four years of low growth rates with the country now technically in recession.
More than 140 million Brazilians will vote on October 26, but correspondents say much will depend on who wins the middle-class vote in the industrialized southeast.
On October 25, Aecio Neves campaigned in his native state, where he served two terms as governor, and paid a visit to the grave of his grandfather Tancredo, who was elected president in 1985 but died before taking office.
Dilma Rousseff, who has been serving as Brazil’s first woman president since 2010, spent instead the last day of campaigning in her southern stronghold of Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, where she held a rally.
The vote is widely seen as a referendum on 12 years of government by her Workers Party.
The PT came to power in 2002 with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as president.
Its policies are credited with lifting an estimated 40 million Brazilians out of extreme poverty.
However, President Dilma Rousseff’s government has faced allegations of corruption and of overspending in preparations for this year’s football World Cup.
She also presided over rising inflation and a recession this year.
The election comes after weeks of intensive campaigning by the two candidates and a presidential race that turned dramatic after Eduardo Campos, a main opposition candidate, was killed in a plane crash in August.
His running mate, a renowned environmentalist, Marina Silva, was thrust into his spot, vowing to become the South American country’s first “poor, black” president.
Marina Silva came third in the first round after Dilma Rousseff and Aecio Neves secured 41.5% and 33.5% of the vote respectively.
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Uruguayans are voting to elect a new president to succeed outgoing leader Jose Mujica who is barred by the constitution from running for a second term.
Former President Tabare Vazquez of the Broad Front, Jose Mujica’s left-leaning party, is ahead in opinion polls.
However, neither Tabare Vazquez nor his main challenger, Luis Lacalle Pou of the right-wing National Party, is expected to win outright without a second round.
Pedro Bordaberry of the Colorado Party is trailing a distant third.
Uruguayans will cast ballots for president, vice-president and members of parliament at the same time. The Broad Front could lose its current majority in Congress.
Uruguayans will cast ballots for president, vice-president and members of parliament at the same time
They will also vote in a controversial referendum on whether to lower the age at which a person can be criminally charged as an adult from 18 to 16.
Jose Mujica remains popular after leading Uruguay through economy growth and wage rises, but he is barred by the constitution from running for a second consecutive term.
His government was behind social reforms such as the legalization of marijuana, abortion and gay marriage.
However, critics say Jose Mujica’s government has failed to deal with problems in education, security and environmental protection.
Polls will open from 08:00 local to 19:30.
If no candidate obtains the 50.1% needed to avoid a second round, Uruguayans will choose between the two leading candidates on November 30.
Tabare Vazquez served as president of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010 while Luis Lacalle Pou is the son of a former president.
Serena Williams gave a fiery display of her fighting spirit on October 25 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium during her WTA Finals semi-final against good friend Caroline Wozniacki.
Serena Williams beat Caroline Wozniacki in a thrilling contest to reach her third consecutive final at the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore.
The world No 1 had a 9-1 head-to-head record going into the game against the Dane, but got off to a slow start in the opening set.
Her frustration came to a boil when she went 5-2 down after sending the ball into the net.
Serena Williams, 33, proceeded to smash her racket multiple times into the ground, leaving it in an obliterated, mangled mess. Her act left the crowd gasping and earned her a warning from the chair umpire.
Serena Williams gave a fiery display of her fighting spirit at the Singapore Indoor Stadium during her WTA Finals semi-final against good friend Caroline Wozniacki
“I don’t know how many times I hit it, but boy, that racket will never do me wrong again, I tell you,” Serena Williams said of her angry outburst in the first set.
“It was definitely legendary. I kind of lost my cool a little bit. I thought, well, at least you know I’m passionate. I give 200%.
“When I play, doesn’t matter how I feel, I’m going to give everything I have for every shot and every point.”
Serena Williams will face a rematch against Simona Halep on October 26, four days after suffering her heaviest defeat in 16 years against the Romanian in the group stage.
Simona Halep, 23, broke Agnieszka Radwanska’s serve five times and hit 26 clean winners as she swept past the Pole to reach the final on her first appearance at the WTA season finale.
Duck Dynasty’s Korie Robertson celebrated her 41st birthday on Friday, October 24.
Korie Howard married childhood sweetheart Willie Robertson on January 11, 1992. Together, they have four children: John Luke, Sadie, Will and Bella. They also have a foster child: Rebecca.
Korie Howard married childhood sweetheart Willie Robertson on January 11, 1992 (photo Facebook)
In 2014, Korie and Duck Commander CEO Willie Robertson announced that they were planning on leaving the show.
She earned a business degree from Harding University.
Korie Robertson works at Duck Commander as the company’s office manager.
Ford profits dropped in Q3 2014, largely due to the cost of developing its new F-150 pickup truck.
Net profit for the period was $835 million, down by a third from a year earlier. Revenue was up slightly at $35.8 billion.
Ford said it invested “heavily” in new products and closed its Dearborn truck plant for five weeks to replace machinery to make the F-150.
The new truck is scheduled to go on sale later this year.
Ford profits dropped in Q3 2014, largely due to the cost of developing its new F-150 pickup truck
“During the third quarter, we continued to introduce an unprecedented number of new vehicles and invest heavily in the new products and technologies that will deliver strong profitable growth beginning next year,” said Ford CEO Mark Fields.
The carmaker had warned that profits this year would be under pressure from new model launches, including the new Mustang, and the cost of building new plants in Asia.
In the first nine months of this year, Ford made a net profit of $3.1 billion.
For 2015, Ford forecasts “significantly higher” profits of between $8.5 billion and $9.5 billion, excluding one-off items.
Australian surgeons at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney have performed the first heart transplant using a “dead heart”.
Donor hearts from adults usually come from people who are confirmed as brain dead but with a heart still beating.
Specialists at Sydney hospital revived and then transplanted hearts that had stopped beating for up to 20 minutes.
The first patient who received a heart said she felt a decade younger and was now a “different person”.
Hearts are the only organ that is not used after the heart has stopped beating – known as donation after circulatory death.
Beating hearts are normally taken from brain-dead people, kept on ice for around four hours and then transplanted to patients.
Australian surgeons at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney have performed the first heart transplant using a dead heart
The novel technique used in Sydney involved taking a heart that had stopped beating and reviving it in a machine known as a “heart-in-a-box”.
The heart is kept warm, the heartbeat is restored and a nourishing fluid helps reduce damage to the heart muscle.
The first person to have the surgery was Michelle Gribilas, 57, who was suffering from congenital heart failure. She had the surgery more than two months ago.
“Now I’m a different person altogether,” she said.
“I feel like I’m 40 years old – I’m very lucky.”
There have since been a further two successful operations.
Prof. Peter MacDonald, head of St Vincent’s heart transplant unit, said: “This breakthrough represents a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs.”
It is thought the heart-in-a-box, which is being tested at sites around the world, could save up to 30% more lives by increasing the number of available organs.
The breakthrough has been welcomed around the world.
Similar methods of warming and nourishing organs before transplant have been used to improve the quality of lung and liver transplants.
Stem cells could be turned into killing machines to fight brain cancer, scientists from Harvard Medical School have discovered.
In experiments on mice, the stem cells were genetically engineered to produce and secrete toxins which kill brain tumors, without killing normal cells or themselves.
Researchers said the next stage was to test the procedure in humans.
A stem cell expert said this was “the future” of cancer treatment.
The study, published in the journal Stem Cells, was the work of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
For many years, they had been researching a stem-cell-based therapy for cancer, which would kill only tumor cells and no others.
They used genetic engineering to make stem cells that spewed out cancer-killing toxins, but, crucially, were also able to resist the effects of the poison they were producing.
They also posed no risk to normal, healthy cells.
In animal tests, the stem cells were surrounded in gel and placed at the site of the brain tumor after it had been removed.
Their cancer cells then died as they had no defense against the toxins.
Stem cells could be turned into killing machines to fight brain cancer
Dr. Khalid Shah, lead author and director of the molecular neurotherapy and imaging lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said the results were very positive.
“After doing all of the molecular analysis and imaging to track the inhibition of protein synthesis within brain tumors, we do see the toxins kill the cancer cells.”
He added: “Cancer-killing toxins have been used with great success in a variety of blood cancers, but they don’t work as well in solid tumors because the cancers aren’t as accessible and the toxins have a short half-life.”
But genetically engineering stem cells has changed all that, he said.
“Now, we have toxin-resistant stem cells that can make and release cancer-killing drugs.”
Dr. Khalid Shah now plans to test the technique using a number of different therapies on mice with glioblastoma, the most common brain tumor in human adults. He hopes the therapies could be used in clinical trials within the next five years.
Tonight, Russia is turning back its clocks for the last time to permanently adopt winter hours.
Three months ago, President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will permanently switch to winter time on October 26, 2014.
The move will reduce the time difference between Moscow and most of Europe by an hour.
Russia already has nine time zones – but now the area around the Volga River will run one hour ahead of Moscow, and the country’s remote Kamchatka and Chukotka regions in the far east will be nine hours ahead – giving Russia a total of 11 time zones. Correspondents say the aim is to make sure local time matches the rising of the sun as closely as possible.
For the last three years, Russia experimented with keeping permanent summer time, but it proved to be highly unpopular with many Russians.
Russia will permanently switch to winter time on October 26, 2014
The Soviet Union introduced Daylight Saving Time in 1981.
In 2011, then President Dmitry Medvedev introduced measures to reduce Russia’s time zones to nine, and to keep summer time all year round.
Russians put their clocks forward one hour but did not put them back in winter time.
Changing times in the seasons disrupted people’s biorhythms and even upset cows, Dmitry Medvedev said.
However, during winter many Russians in the north complained about living in darkness, where there are fewer hours of sunlight closer to the Arctic Circle.
At a news conference in Moscow, representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that Europe would now be closer as the difference between the capital and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) would only be three hours.
The deputy director of the Geography Institute, Arkady Tishkov, said he was against the latest change because he believed it was carried out to please advertisers as it would result in, he believes, more people watching television.
When Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in March, Crimea’s time was adjusted to match Moscow time (GMT +4).
Qari Hashim, one of the suspects in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, has been set free by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan.
Qari Hashim was detained in 2005 and held in jail in Hyderabad, a southern city in Pakistan, during his trial.
The court acquitted Qari Hashim because of a lack of evidence, his lawyer said.
American journalist Daniel Pearl went missing in Karachi in January 2002
Daniel Pearl went missing in Karachi in January 2002. A month later authorities said he had been killed after receiving video footage of his beheading.
In May 2002, a decapitated body was found in a shallow grave.
DNA test proved it was Daniel Pearl, who was South Asia bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal.
Omar Sheik, the alleged mastermind of the murder, was sentenced to death in 2002. Three other men were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Cream bassist Jack Bruce has died aged 71, his publicist confirms.
Legendary group Cream, which also included Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, are now considered one of the most important bands in rock history.
Cream sold 35 million albums in just over two years and was given the first ever platinum disc for Wheels of Fire.
Jack Bruce wrote and sang most of the songs, including I Feel Free and Sunshine Of Your Love.
Born in the Glasgow suburb of Bishopbriggs in 1943, Jack Bruce’s parents travelled extensively in Canada and the USA and the young Jack attended 14 different schools.
He finished his formal education at Bellahouston Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, to which he won a scholarship for cello and composition.
Jack Bruce wrote and sang most of Cream’s songs
Jack Bruce left the academy and Scotland at the age of 16 and eventually found his way to London where he became a member of the influential Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc, where Charlie Watts, later to join the Rolling Stones, was the drummer.
He played in a number of bands throughout the early 60s, including John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and Manfred Mann before joining Eric Clapton and Baker in Cream.
Cream split in November 1968 at the height of their popularity, with Jack Bruce feeling he had strayed too far from his ideals.
Jack Bruce never again reached the commercial heights he did with Cream but his reputation as one of the best bass guitarists in the business grew throughout the subsequent decades.
In May 2005, Jack Bruce reunited with his former Cream bandmates for a series of concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Jack Bruce’s death was announced on his official website, and confirmed by his publicist Claire Singers.
Claire Singers said: “He died today at his home in Suffolk surrounded by his family.”
A statement from Jack Bruce’s family said: “It is with great sadness that we, Jack’s family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father and granddad and all-round legend.
“The world of music will be a poorer place without him, but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts.”
For gun control activists, 2008 was the year the floodgates opened. That’s when the Supreme Court ruled on District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark challenge to the constitutionality of DC’s 32-year ban on handguns. In a remarkable 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the personal right to own a gun for lawful purposes, such as self-defense, is a guarantee under the Constitution.
The court did not finish there. In 2010, it further strengthened Second Amendment rights by overturning Chicago’s handgun ban with its 5-4 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago. Following these two legal decisions, and spurred on by mass shootings in Colorado, Arizona, and Connecticut, the gun control lobby has gone into overdrive. It continues to push legislations that chip away at the Second Amendment.
Image via Flickr by Jim Wrigley Photography
Universal Background Checks
Universal background checks are the least intrusive measure in the gun control arsenal. While federal law already requires background checks for any weapons sold by licensed gun dealers, gun control activists want those checks to extend to every gun transaction. This includes live auctions over the Internet, gun shows, and private sales.
A private seller does not need to perform a background check on the buyer, but certain states such as California require that you do. If you know that the buyer has a criminal history or suffers from a mental illness or drug addiction, you are legally allowed to refuse to sell him or her a firearm without performing a background check.
Magazine Bans
Image via Flickr by Mojave Desert
There are eight states, plus the District of Columbia, that have passed laws restricting magazine capacity. In New Jersey and Colorado, the limit is 15 rounds. In states such as California, Connecticut, DC, and Massachusetts the limit is 10. However, some states, such as Colorado and Massachusetts, grandfathered certain magazines before laws came into effect. Check your date of purchase, as you may be eligible to keep your large capacity magazine.
Law enforcement officers in Colorado recently sued the state over its newly enacted gun control laws, claiming they were unconstitutional and unenforceable; the judge ruled against them based on lack of standing.
Assault Weapons Ban
Image via Flickr by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
In 2003, a decade-long federal ban on “assault weapons” expired. After the Sandy Hook shootings, renewing this ban became a primary focus of gun control groups. Unfortunately, most of the groups pushing for a ban had little understanding of the weapon they were proposing to ban, focusing more on cosmetic alterations. The AR-15, America’s most popular rifle, became their primary enemy. However, there was little support for this ban. Furthermore, a Justice Department study showed the federal ban actually failed to save any lives. It is no longer a primary aim of the largest gun control groups.
Gun Registries
Second only to an outright ban, federal gun registries are the Holy Grail for gun control activists. This is because a gun registry does not track guns so much as it identifies and registers gun owners. This makes it easy to disarm certain classes of people. The Nazis used a national gun registry to disarm its political opponents and the Jews.
States such as Hawaii and the District of Columbia require owners to register their guns. Some states, such as New York, require registration of certain guns (handguns). Check with your state to see whether you need to register your gun, especially if you own different firearms.
Know Your Rights
While the Supreme Court has reaffirmed universal Second Amendment rights, laws still vary from state to state regarding concealed carry, open carry, magazine capacity, and other limitations. The most recent example of the tragedy that can occur over disparate gun laws is Shaneen Allen, a single mother from Pennsylvania who faced prison time over her legally owned and carried gun. At a routine traffic stop in New Jersey, Ms. Allen, a Pennsylvania resident, disclosed to the officer that she had a concealed carry permit and her handgun was in the car. The police immediately took her to jail. She faces a mandatory prison sentence because of New Jersey’s extremely restrictive gun control laws.
Even though the Second Amendment right to gun ownership is universal and guaranteed under the Constitution, it’s still important to understand the gun laws of any state. If you travel and plan to bring your gun, know the rights of each state to avoid trouble.
Chiquita shareholders have voted against a merger deal with Irish rival Fyffes.
As a result, the US-based banana company will enter talks with Brazil’s Cutrale and Safra following its $14.50 a share offer.
The announcement sent shares in Fyffes down 5% to 94 cents in Dublin, while Chiquita shares rose 3% to $14.16 in New York.
The Brazilian groups raised their offer by 4% on Thursday ahead of the shareholder vote.
The Fyffes deal, first announced in March, would have created the world’s largest banana supplier, with $4.6 billion in annual revenues.
Chiquita chief executive Edward Lonergan said: “While we are convinced [Fyffes] would have been a strong merger partner, we will now go forward as competitors.”
Chiquita shareholders have voted against a merger deal with Irish rival Fyffes (photo Getty Images)
The Brazilian consortium had said their revised bid, which valued Chiquita at about $682 million, offered shareholders 20% more than the Fyffes bid.
Chiquita had said ahead of the meeting that that it would only enter talks with Cutrale, a fruit juice producer, and investment bank Safra if its shareholders rejected the deal with Fyffes.
The company said it was possible that no agreement with the Brazilian groups would result from the talks.
Dublin-based Fyffes employs about 12,000 people worldwide, while Charlotte, North Carolina-headquartered Chiquita has 20,000 workers.
When the deal was announced, US and Irish law would have permitted Chiquita to move its headquarters to the Republic of Ireland, where it would be subject to a lower tax rate than.
However, the Irish and US governments have since announced plans to make it much harder for companies to take advantage of these so-called tax inversions.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) latest report, the number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths.
Only 27 of the cases have occurred outside the three worst-hit countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Those three countries account for all but 10 of the fatalities.
Mali became the latest nation to record a death, a two-year-old girl. More than 40 people known to have come into contact with her have been quarantined.
The latest WHO situation report says that Liberia remains the worst affected country, with 2,705 deaths. Sierra Leone has had 1,281 fatalities and there have been 926 in Guinea.
Nigeria has recorded eight deaths and there has been one in Mali and one in the US.
The number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths
The WHO said the number of cases was now 10,141 but that the figure could be much higher, as many families were keeping relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centers. It said many of the centers were overcrowded.
The latest report also shows no change in the number of cases and deaths in Liberia from the WHO’s previous report, three days ago.
Eight countries have registered cases in the outbreak. In West Africa, Senegal and Nigeria have now been declared virus-free by the WHO.
In the US, the governors of the states of New York and New Jersey have ordered a mandatory 21-day quarantine period for all doctors and other travelers who have had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa.
Anyone arriving from affected West African countries without having had confirmed contact with Ebola victims will be subject to monitoring by public health officials.
The move follows the diagnosis in New York of Dr. Craig Spencer, who had been working in Guinea.
The first person to be quarantined under the rules was a female health worker who arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on October 24.
She had no symptoms then but later developed a fever. A preliminary test came back negative for Ebola, the New Jersey health department said on October 25, but the woman remains in isolation.
Ha Van Tham, one of Vietnam’s richest business tycoons, has been arrested on suspicion of lending fraud, authorities say.
Ha Van Tham, a former chairman of the private Ocean Bank, was taken into custody in Hanoi on October 24, the ministry of interior said in a statement.
Vietnam’s Central Bank also announced on October 24 that it had suspended Ha Van Tham from his bank chairman role.
Ha Van Tham also owns significant stakes in hotel and real estate businesses.
His personal wealth is estimated to be several billion dollars.
Local media reported that Ha Van Tham could be held for up to four months pending further investigations.
Ha Van Tham is one of Vietnam’s richest business tycoons
The Central Bank said Ha Va Tham was “personally responsible” for some serious violations of the law but did not give further details.
Shares in Ocean Group have fallen by several percentage points since October 22.
The Vietnamese government has vowed to clamp down on fraud and embezzlement.
In June, another one of Vietnam’s richest men, Nguyen Duc Kien, was sentenced to 30 years in jail for tax evasion and illegal trading.
In Nguyen Duc Kien’s case, observers have suggested that the charges against him were a result of an attempt to weaken the position of Vietnamese PM Nguyen Tan Dung, an associate of Kien.
For some people, love lasts forever. For others, it can last anywhere from a few days to a few years. In Hollywood, relationships are always being scrutinized for being too short. In some cases, they may be, but it is possible that the Hollywood spotlight just makes them appear to be much shorter than they really are. In reality, how many month-long relationships have you had in your lifetime? Chances are you’re not constantly scrutinized about those.
But no matter how you personally feel about Hollywood romance, 2014 has been just like every other year and allowed us to witness many famous divorces and breakups. Some were amicable, some breakups required restraining orders, and some tough divorces required family lawyers or other divorce professionals to get involved in very lengthy proceedings. But all in all, most breakups were quite amicable!
Check out the following famous divorces and breakups of 2014!
Jordin Sparks and Jason Derulo
Jordin Sparks earned her fame on American Idol, and Jason Derulo is another famous singer topping the charts today. Although the two made beautiful music together for about two years, they split, and rumors have it that the split was amicable. Here’s hoping they can still be friends.
Britney Spears and David Lucado
Poor Britney. It seems as if no matter how hard she tries, she always ends up with the wrong guy. Since she became famous at the age of 16, she has had her fair share of public relationships—and her fair share of marriages (and divorces). Britney Spears and David Lucado have been dating for one and a half years. This year, though, a video surfaced showing Lucado making out with another woman, and Britney wasn’t having it. She ditched David, is currently single, and according to her Twitter feed, loving every minute of it.
Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox
Recently, Eliza Dushku, known for her roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bring it On, has split from five-year boyfriend Rick Fox, former NBA star and current TV actor. Although the couple had been together for five years, they could compromise when it came to where to live. Eliza prefers the East Coast, while Rick wants to stay in L.A. So instead of compromising, they broke up so each could have what they really want.
Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith
When a Hollywood couple is married longer than two years, it’s a record. When a Hollywood couple is married more than 20 years, it seems as if the marriage will last forever. Unfortunately for Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, the 20-year mark was the end of their romance. The split was amicable, and they have agreed to both be a part of their kids’ lives and still support one another even though no longer married. If only every breakup could be as smooth.
Robin Thicke and Paula Patton
The blurred lines singer and his actress wife, Paula Patton, have officially called it quits, although Robin would have it the other way. The pair separated in the summer of 2014 after a photograph of Thicke grabbing a woman’s behind surfaced. Although he made every attempt to get her back—including crying at his concerts and writing an album dedicated to her—Patton officially filed for divorce in October.
Iran has executed Reyhaneh Jabbari who killed a man she said was trying to abuse her.
Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was hanged in a Tehran prison despite an international campaign urging a reprieve.
She was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s ministry of intelligence.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Reyhaneh Jabbari was convicted after a deeply flawed investigation.
A campaign calling for a halt to the execution was launched on Facebook and Twitter last month and appeared to have brought a temporary stay in execution.
However, government news agency Tasnim said on Saturday that Reyhaneh Jabbari had been executed after her relatives failed to gain consent from the victim’s family for a reprieve.
Reyhaneh Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s ministry of intelligence
It said her claims of self-defense had not been proved in court.
After her arrest, Reyhaneh Jabbari had been placed in solitary confinement for two months, where she reportedly did not have access to a lawyer or her family.
She was sentenced to death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009.
Amnesty said that although Reyhaneh Jabbari admitted to stabbing Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back, she alleged that there was someone else in the house who actually killed him.
Jalal Sarbandi, the victim’s eldest son, said Reyhaneh Jabbari had refused to identify the man.
He told Iranian media in April: “Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy.”
The UN says Iran has executed about 250 people this year.
Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, the two nurses infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, have been declared free of the virus.
Nina Pham had a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, hours after being discharged.
The news comes one day after Dr. Craig Spencer returning from Guinea tested positive for Ebola in New York City.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
On October 24, it was announced that one million doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015.
Amber Joy Vinson and Nina Pham were infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas hospital
It was a day of mixed news in the US, where the first infection in New York was followed by the release from hospital of Nina Pham, 26.
“I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” she said.
“I am on my way back to recovery.”
Nina Pham thanked supporters for their prayers during her illness, and asked for privacy as she plans her return to Texas and a reunion with her dog, Bentley.
But first she was flown to Washington, at the request of the White House.
Nina Pham had been treated at a specialist hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, since being flown there from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas last week.
The other nurse, Amber Vinson, has also been declared virus-free, but she will remain in treatment in Atlanta until further notice.
“Tests no longer detect virus in her blood,” a Georgia hospital official said.
Thomas Eric Duncan died earlier this month and it is still unclear how the nurses contracted the virus while wearing protective clothing.
