Tom Courtenay, Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon and Toby Jones are among the stars who will appear in a big-screen remake of classic sitcom Dad’s Army.
Toby Jones will star as Captain Mainwaring, Bill Nighy will appear as Sergeant Wilson and Tom Courtenay will play Corporal Jones.
Michael Gambon will fill the role of Private Godfrey and there will also be roles for Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sarah Lancashire and Mark Gatiss.
The original sitcom followed a hapless World War II Home Guard platoon.
Tom Courtenay, Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon and Toby Jones are among the stars who will appear in a big-screen remake of classic sitcom Dad’s Army
It ran for nine series from 1968 to 1977 and is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest TV comedies.
The story will see Catherine Zeta-Jones play a glamorous journalist sent to report on the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard before MI5 discovers that there is a German spy in the fictional British town.
The film will be directed by Oliver Parker, who made Johnny English Reborn, St Trinian’s and Othello starring Kenneth Branagh.
The script will be written by Hamish McColl, who wrote Johnny English Reborn and Mr. Bean’s Holiday.
Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse infected with Ebola, remembers touching her face with her gloves after treating a dying priest, a doctor in Madrid has said.
Maria Teresa Romero Ramos, 40, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa.
She had treated two Spanish missionaries who later died from Ebola.
A World Health Organization (WHO) adviser has warned that more Ebola cases can be expected among medical staff, even in developed countries.
Teresa Romero remains in quarantine in the Spanish capital along with her husband and three other people.
A fifth person, said to be a friend and colleague of Teresa Romero, was admitted on Wednesday morning with a slight fever. In all, more than 50 people in Spain are under observation.
Teresa Romero was part of a team of about 30 staff at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid looking after the missionaries when they were repatriated from West Africa.
Maria Teresa Romero Ramos is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa
Miguel Pajares, 75, died on August 12 after contracting the virus in Liberia, while Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, died on September 25 after catching the disease in Sierra Leone.
New figures released by the WHO show that more than 8,000 people have now been infected with the disease and 3,879 have died. The vast majority of deaths have been in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Teresa Romero told El Pais that she might have become infected when removing her protective suit after cleaning Manuel Garcia Viejo’s room.
“I think the error was the removal of the suit,” Teresa Romero told El Pais by phone.
“I can see the moment it may have happened, but I’m not sure about it.”
Teresa Romero added that she did not have a fever on October 8 and was “doing better”.
In another development, the woman’s husband, Javier Limon, is reported to be fighting a court order to have their pet dog put down over fears it could be carrying the disease. Animal rights groups have also criticized the move, saying there is no evidence Ebola has been spread by dogs.
Meanwhile, the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sierra Leone says the rest of the world is not doing enough to combat the outbreak of the Ebola virus.
The Chinese government’s expenditures on overseas trips, lavish receptions and official cars have dropped by almost $9 billion over the past year.
The announcement comes as President Xi Jinping’s campaign to tackle decadent working practices in the ruling Communist Party draws to a close.
More than 150,000 “ghost jobs”, where people are paid even if they do not turn up, were found in the clean-up.
Xi Jinping has repeatedly said corruption threatens the party’s existence.
President Xi Jinping conducted a campaign to tackle decadent working practices in the ruling Communist Party
The stated aim of the mass-line campaign, as it is known, is to strengthen the party’s ties with the Chinese population.
Official spending on government cars, receptions and trips was down almost a third compared with the year before.
Past leaders have warned that if you fight corruption too much then you will destroy the party – but if you fight it too little then you will destroy the country.
Shrien Dewani agreed to pay about £1,300 ($2,000) to a hitman for the murder of his wife Anni in South Africa, a court has been told.
On the second day of the trial in Cape Town, Mziwamadoda Qwabe said he was asked to make it look like a hijacking.
British businessman Shrien Dewani, 34, denies murdering his wife Anni, 28, on their honeymoon in 2010.
The couple was held at gunpoint while being driven in a taxi through Gugulethu township near Cape Town.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe told the Western Cape High Court that taxi driver Zola Tonga had told him “there was a husband who wanted his wife to be killed”.
Shrien Dewani faces five charges, including murder and lying about the circumstances of Swedish national Anni’s death.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe, from Cape Town, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 for the murder of Anni Dewani.
Prosecutors claim Shrien Dewani conspired with him, and other Cape Town residents Zola Tongo and Xolile Mngeni.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 29, told the court Tongo phoned him and said he had a job that needed to be done – that someone needed to be killed.
He said Zola Tongo agreed to meet him the next day to discuss the murder, and a price of 15,000 rand was agreed.
The pair then arranged to meet up with Zola Tongo’s taxi for the attack, during which Shrien Dewani’s phone would also be taken.
Shrien Dewani agreed to pay a hitman for the murder of his wife Anni in South Africa
He told the court the money was due to be left in a “cubby hole” in the vehicle which would later be split before the pair spent an evening “socializing”.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe was asked if there was any discussion about a weapon. He said: “I knew there would be a firearm involved.”
He told the court Zola Tongo called him later and told him the route the taxi would take on the evening of November 13, 2010.
Describing the carjacking, Mziwamadoda Qwabe said: “[Xolile Mngeni] had the gun. As it [Zola Tongo’s car] approached I got into the driver’s side.
“[Xolile Mngeni] got into the passenger side and Zola got into the back. I saw in the (rear view) window a guy and behind me was a lady,” he said.
“I ordered Zola to get out of the car. He told me the money was in a pouch behind the front passenger door.
“I stopped the vehicle, I asked the husband to get out of the car.
“The husband was now out of the vehicle and I drove on.”
Mziwamadoda Qwabe told the court he was behind the wheel when Anni Dewani was fatally wounded.
He said he was concentrating on the road at the moment Xolile Mngeni killed her.
“I heard a gun shot. [Xolile Mngeni] said <<I shot the lady>>.
“I pulled over on to the pavement and stopped the car. I saw she [Anni Dewani] was on the back seat of the car.”
Mziwamadoda Qwabe said he found the bullet casing then threw his gloves away.
He told the court 10,000 rand was in the pouch and 4,000 rand was seized from “the husband”.
Mziwamadoda Qwabe admitted he had lied in court at a bail hearing before he admitted his guilt over the murder.
Francois van Zyl, representing Shrien Dewani, said: “At that bail hearing you testified under oath, you pleaded not guilty because you said you had an alibi. Is that a lie?”
Mziwamadoda Qwabe replied: “My lawyer at the time told me to plead not guilty.”
Francois van Zyl said: “I repeat the question. Was that a lie under oath?”
Mziwamadoda Qwabe answered: “Yes.”
The court was told there had been no conversations with Zola Tongo about how Anni Dewani would be killed, only that it had to look like a hijacking.
Francois van Zyl asked: “You never had a discussion about how this woman was going to be killed?”
Mziwamadoda Qwabe answered: “No, sir.”
He told the court it was not decided who would strike the fatal blow, what weapon would be used, or where the killing would take place.
On October 6, Shrien Dewani told the court in a written statement that his “whole world came crashing down” when his wife was found killed.
Some of the earliest cave paintings produced by humans have been identified in a rural area on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi.
Until now, paintings this old had been confirmed in caves only in Western Europe.
Researchers tell the journal Nature that the Indonesian discovery transforms ideas about how humans first developed the ability to produce art.
Australian and Indonesian scientists have dated layers of stalactite-like growths that have formed over colored outlines of human hands.
Early artists made them by carefully blowing paint around hands that were pressed tightly against the cave walls and ceilings. The oldest is at least 40,000 years old.
Some of the earliest cave paintings produced by humans have been identified in a rural area on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi
There are also human figures, and pictures of wild hoofed animals that are found only on the island. Dr. Maxime Aubert, of Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, who dated the paintings found in Maros in Southern Sulawesi, explained that one of them was probably the earliest of its type.
“The minimum age for is 39,900 years old, which makes it the oldest hand stencil in the world,” said Dr. Maxime Aubert.
There are also paintings in the caves that are around 27,000 years old, which means that the inhabitants were painting for at least 13,000 years.
In addition, there are paintings in a cave in the regency of Bone, 100 km north of Maros. These cannot be dated because the stalactite-like growths used to determine the age of the art do not occur. However, the researchers believe that they are probably the same age as the paintings in Maros because they are stylistically identical.
The discovery of the Indonesian cave art is important because it shows the beginnings of human intelligence as we understand it today.
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola on the US soil, has died in Dallas, Texas hospital officials have said.
Thomas Eric Duncan, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, was being kept in isolation in a Dallas hospital and receiving experimental drugs.
Earlier the US announced new screening measures at entry points to check travelers for symptoms of the virus.
More than 3,000 people have died and 7,500 infected, mostly in West Africa, in the worst Ebola outbreak yet.
“It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am,” a spokesman said in a statement.
Thomas Eric Duncan was the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola on the US soil (photo Facebook)
The news came shortly after Secretary of State John Kerry urged all nations to boost their response to combat the virus.
“More countries can and must step up,” he said in a joint press conference with his British counterpart Philip Hammond.
The US has pledged as many as 4,000 troops to the region, while the UK is sending 750 military personnel to Sierra Leone.
Thomas Eric Duncan, who worked as a driver for a courier company, tested positive in Dallas, Texas, on September 30, 10 days after arriving on a flight from Monrovia via Brussels.
He become ill a few days after arriving in the US but after going to hospital and telling them he had been to Liberia he was sent home with antibiotics.
Four days later, Thomas Eric Duncan was placed in isolation but his condition continued to worsen and this week he was given an experimental drug.
Ten people he came into contact with are being monitored for symptoms.
Following Thomas Eric Duncan’s diagnosis, the first case of contagion outside that continent was confirmed in Spain, where nurse Teresa Romero, who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid, contracted the virus herself.
Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa.
Teresa Romero had treated two Spanish missionaries who later died from Ebola.
A trio of researchers has been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for improving the resolution of microscopes.
Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner used fluorescence to extend the limits of the light microscope.
The winners will share prize money of 8 million kronor ($1.12 million).
They were named at a press conference in Sweden, and join a prestigious list of 105 other Chemistry laureates recognized since 1901.
A trio of researchers has been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for improving the resolution of microscopes
The Nobel Committee said the researchers had won the award for “the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”.
Committee chair Prof. Sven Lidin, a materials chemist from Lunds University, said “the work of the laureates has made it possible to study molecular processes in real time”.
Optical microscopes had previously been held back by a presumed limitation: that it would never obtain a better resolution than half the wavelength of light.
The researchers used fluorescent molecules to circumvent this limitation, allowing scientists to see things at much higher levels of resolution.
This has even allowed scientists to visualise the pathways of individual molecules inside living cells.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that more Ebola cases can be expected among medical staff – even in developed countries with modern health care systems.
The WHO adviser, Prof. Peter Piot, said he was not surprised that a Spanish nurse had contracted the disease.
The nurse, Teresa Romero, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa.
She treated two Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola in Madrid.
Teresa Romero, a 40-year-old auxiliary nurse, had been part of a team of about 30 staff at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid looking after Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares when they were repatriated from Sierra Leone and Liberia respectively.
She remains in quarantine in the Spanish capital along with her husband and three other people.
A fifth person was admitted on Wednesday morning with a slight fever. She is said to be a friend of Teresa Romero and, like her, an auxiliary nurse in the Carlos III Ebola care unit.
In all, more than 50 people in Spain are under observation.
Teresa Romero told El Mundo on October 8 that she had followed the correct protocol and had “no idea” how she had become infected. She said she was feeling “a little better” but was very tired.
Officials say earlier she had twice gone into Manuel Garcia Viejo’s hospital room, first to treat him and later to disinfect the room after his death.
Spanish media say neighbors of the infected nurse have been calling emergency services, asking how to protect their children after sharing lifts and public spaces.
Prof. Peter Piot is a world specialist in Ebola brought in by the WHO as a scientific adviser
Promising “total transparency”, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy appealed for calm while at the same time urging vigilance.
“Let the professionals do their work. Spain’s health system is one of the best in the world,” he told parliament on October 8.
In another development, Teresa Romero’s husband, Javier Limon, is reported to be fighting a court order to have their pet dog put down over fears that it could be carrying the disease. Animal rights groups have also criticized the move, saying there is no evidence that Ebola has been spread by dogs.
Some 3,400 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak with most of the deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed Ebola infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.
WHO experts have insisted that modern hospitals with rigorous disease control measures would prevent infection – but the case of the Madrid nurse proves that is far more difficult than many thought.
Prof. Peter Piot, a world specialist in Ebola brought in by the WHO as a scientific adviser, warned that even the simplest movement, like rubbing your eyes, is a risk.
“The smallest mistake can be fatal,” he said.
“For example, a very dangerous moment is when you come out of the isolation unit you take off your protective gear, you are full of sweat and so on.”
Many of those who have died of Ebola in West Africa have been health care workers.
Meanwhile the US military is stepping up its efforts to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Sinead O’Connor has announced she is writing an autobiography in which she promises to reveal all about her former partners.
Penguin Random House imprint Blue Rider Press said the four-times-married Irish singer-songwriter’s book, currently untitled, would be published in March 2016.
Sinead O’Connor promised that her autobiography will reveal all about her former partner
In a statement issued through her publisher Sinead O’Connor, 47, pledged to reveal all about her liaisons.
Sinead O’Connor, who had hits including Nothing Compares 2 U, is renowned for her blunt, confrontational style.
Cable networks UP TV and TV Guide announced they would not broadcast scheduled re-runs of Stephen Collins’ beloved family series 7th Heaven after details of molestation allegations against the actor were reported by TMZ.
New York police confirmed on October 7 they have an open investigation into allegations Stephen Collins molested a teenage girl in the early 1970s.
NYPD spokesman Stephen David said the complaint was filed in 2012 accusing Stephen Collins of molesting a then-14-year-old girl in the actor’s Manhattan apartment in 1972.
Stephen David says the case remains open and is being handled by Special Victims Division detectives, but no charges have been filed.
Prosecutors will make a determination about whether any charges should be pursued.
Hollywood trade publications reported on October 7 that Stephen Collins lost a role in the film Ted 2 and resigned his position from the acting guild SAG-AFTRA.
Stephen Collins is accused of molesting a teenage girl in the early 1970s (photo Getty Images)
Pamela Greenwalt, a spokeswoman for SAG-AFTRA, declined comment on Stephen Collins’ departure from its national board. The actor’s name had been removed from lists of current board membership by Tuesday afternoon.
The actor’s estranged wife, Faye Grant, wrote in a sworn court declaration in Los Angeles last year that her husband had disclosed he molested at least three young girls.
Faye Grant wrote in the November 2012 declaration in the couple’s divorce case that she reported abuse to Los Angeles police, who said they are not actively investigating the actor, but could not offer details on any previous investigations. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said it did not have records of a case being presented to prosecutors.
The report to New York police was made six months after Stephen Collins filed to divorce Faye Grant, who he married in 1985.
Faye Grant and Stephen Collins separated in February 2012, roughly two weeks after the actress said she learned of her husband’s abuse in therapy sessions, according to her declaration. Stephen Collins filed for divorce three months after the separation.
Faye Grant states her husband has said two of the girls he molested were abused when they were between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. She said she had no indications that he was abusing girls until he disclosed it in therapy, and that she reported his disclosures to police in New York and Los Angeles.
Stephen Collins has worked steadily in television and movie roles since the early 1970s, with appearances in movies such as All the President’s Men, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and recurring roles on series such as No Ordinary Family, Revolution and Devious Maids after 7th Heaven concluded its 11-season run in 2007.
British author JK Rowling has explained the meaning behind a cryptic tweet sent earlier this week, scotching hopes that it referred to a new Harry Potter story.
On October 6, JK Rowling posted an anagram: “Cry, foe! Run amok! Fa awry! My wand won’t tolerate this nonsense.”
Some fans translated it as: “Harry Returns! Won’t say any details now! A week off! No comment.”
However, JK Rowling later confirmed that it was really the first line from the synopsis for a film screenplay she is writing.
After one follower suggested: “Newt Scamander only meant to stay in New York for a few hours”, she replied: “YES!!!!!!!!!!!! People, we have a winner!”
Newt Scamander was the fictional author of a textbook on magical animals that featured in the Harry Potter novels.
JK Rowling herself released the book, titled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in 2001 to raise money for Comic Relief.
JK Rowling confirmed that her cryptic tweet was really the first line from the synopsis for a film screenplay she is writing
Now, Newt Scamander is going to be the main character in a film trilogy inspired by that textbook.
JK Rowling is currently working on the screenplay for the first film, which is expected to be set in 1920s New York after Newt Scamander was commissioned to travel the world and compile a guide to magical beasts.
She later tweeted that the anagram was “the first sentence of a synopsis of Newt’s story”, adding: “It isn’t part of the script, but sets the scene.”
JK Rowling then wrote: “Newt only meant to stay in New York for a few hours. Circumstances ensured that he remained… for the length of a movie, anyway. X”
The first film is due to be released in 2016.
JK Rowling has previously said: “Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.
“The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”
According to a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Canberra is the best place in the world to live.
The Australian Capital Territory of Canberra led the regional ranking while Australia topped the overall country rankings, followed by Norway.
The OECD ranked 362 regions of its 34 member nations in its survey.
It used nine measures of wellbeing, including income, education, jobs, safety, health and environment.
Five Australian cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Perth were also in the top 10.
Other top-scoring places included the states of New Hampshire and Minnesota in the US.
Canberra came out on top as the most liveable city in the world
On the other end of the scale, Mexican states constituted all 10 of the bottom regional rankings.
On a country level, Mexico, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia were ranked as the hardest places to live.
The OECD study, while not comprehensive, is one of the few to analyze the quality of life in countries.
“Recent years have seen an increasing awareness that macro economic statistics, such as GDP do not provide policy-makers with a sufficiently detailed picture of the living conditions that ordinary people experience,” the OECD said on its website.
“Developing statistics that can better reflect the wide range of factors that matter to people and their well-being (the so called “household perspective”) is of crucial importance for the credibility and accountability of public policies and for the very functioning of democracy.”
The North Korean mission at the UN held a rare briefing to discuss its recent report on its own human rights situation.
A North Korean official acknowledged his country runs labor camps to “reform” detainees, but dismissed criticism of its rights record as “wild rumors”.
A UN report released in February 2014 said North Korea was committing “unspeakable atrocities” against its own people on a vast scale.
North Korea is thought to hold tens of thousands of people in prison camps.
Official Choe Myong-nam told the briefing – which was open to reporters and foreign diplomats – that there were “no prison camps” operating in North Korea but there were “detention centres where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings”.
He said North Korea was a “transition society” and as such “there might be some problems, for example in the economic and other areas, we may need to establish more houses and social facilities in order to provide people with better living conditions”.
Choe Myong-nam blamed North Korea’s economic situation on “external forces”, Reuters reports, in an apparent reference to the stringent international sanctions the country is under as a result of its repeated nuclear and ballistic missile tests in recent years.
The North Korean mission at the UN held a rare briefing to discuss its recent report on its own human rights situation
As the country moved forward “the enjoyment of the people will be further expanded”, Choe Myong-nam said.
The UN report in February said there was evidence of “systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights” in North Korea.
It said those accused of political crimes are “disappeared” to prison camps, where they are subject to “deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide.
The report, based on interviews with North Korean defectors, estimated that “hundreds of thousands of political prisoners have perished in these camps over the past five decades”.
North Korea’s report rebutting the UN findings, first released last month, said that “hostile forces are persistently peddling the ‘human rights issue’ in the DPRK [North Korea] in a bid to tarnish its image and bring down the social system and ideology chosen by the Korean people”.
The open UN briefing comes days after North Korea agreed to resume formal high-level talks with South Korea – which were suspended in February – after Northern officials made a surprise visit to the South for the Asian Games.
Spanish authorities are investigating a hospital in Madrid after a nurse became the first person known to have contracted the deadly Ebola virus outside West Africa.
The nurse had treated two Spanish missionaries who died of the disease after being flown home from the region.
Three other people, including the nurse’s husband, have been quarantined.
The European Commission has asked Spain to explain how the nurse could have become infected.
Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak – mostly in West Africa.
The Spanish auxiliary nurse, a 40-year-old woman who has not been named, was one of about 30 staff at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid who had been treating priests Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares, officials say.
Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, died at the hospital on September 25 after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone. Miguel Pajares, 75, died in August after contracting the virus in Liberia.
The nurse had twice gone into the room where Manuel Garcia Viejo had been treated, to be directly involved in his care and to disinfect the room after his death. Both times she was wearing protective clothing.
Madrid healthcare director Antonia Alemany told reporters that according to the information available: “The nurse went into the room wearing the individual protection gear and there’s no knowledge of an accidental exposure to risk.”
The Spanish nurse was one of about 30 staff at the Carlos III hospital in Madrid who had been treating priests Manuel Garcia Viejo and Miguel Pajares
Shortly afterwards the nurse went on holiday, a hospital spokesman said, but fell ill on September 30 and was admitted to Alcorcon hospital in south-west Madrid on October 5 after being tested positive for Ebola.
Early on Tuesday she was moved under police escort to Carlos III hospital in the capital and is said to be in a stable condition.
The Spanish health authorities say she is being treated with a drip using antibodies from previous Ebola patients.
Her husband and a second nurse who treated the missionary are now in quarantine, officials said, as well as a man who recently arrived on a flight from Nigeria.
Doctors are also monitoring 22 people who the nurse had contact with at Alcorcon hospital, and 30 people working at Carlos III, according to health sources quoted by Spanish newspaper El Pais.
They include an ambulance crew, and doctors and nurses, and have all been contacted by the health authorities.
It was not clear where the nurse had gone on holiday.
It is also unclear how she could have contracted Ebola.
The hospital was reported to have had extreme protective measures in place including two sets of overalls, gloves and goggles.
However, health workers told El Pais newspaper that the clothing did not have level-four biological security, which is fully waterproof and with independent breathing apparatus.
Instead it was level two, the paper says, as photographs provided by staff indicated that the overalls did not allow for ventilation and the gloves were made of latex and bound with adhesive tape.
Morrissey has revealed he has had four medical procedures he has described as “cancer-scrapings”.
The singer has recently battled bouts of ill health but revealed the cancer news during an email interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
“I have had four cancer-scrapings, but so what. If I die, I die,” Morrissey wrote.
“If I don’t, then I don’t. As I sit here today I feel very well.”
The singer started his latest European tour in Lisbon, Portugal, on Monday.
In the exchange with journalist Javier Blanquez, he wrote: “I know I look quite bad on recent photographs, but I am afraid this is what illness does to the overall countenance. I will save relaxation for when I’m dead.”
Morrissey has revealed he has had four medical procedures described as cancer-scrapings
The announcement comes after the ex-Smiths star canceled part of a US tour when he was treated in hospital for a respiratory infection in June.
Morrissey, 55, also scrapped 22 US concerts last year due to ill health. His other recent ailments have included pneumonia, an ulcer, the throat condition Barrett’s oesophagus and anaemia.
He published his autobiography last year and is currently working on his debut novel.
“I will be delighted to see it in print next year, and I might have no reason to sing again… which will make many people very happy!” Morrissey said.
“I have reached the age where making music is meant to be over… as in finished with… so many classical composers were dead at 34.
“So, I am still here, and nobody knows what to do with me, and a lot of people still want to listen to me.”
Morrissey’s next concert is scheduled for Madrid, Spain, on October 9, and he is due to play 30 further concerts across Europe, finishing the tour in Greece in December.
Willie Nelson’s iconic braids sold for $37,000 at Guernsey’s auction in New York.
The braids were cut in the 1980s when Willie Nelson’s hair was still red and were the most talked-about item in the Arizona auction of items owned by the late Waylon Jennings, Nelson’s cohort in the “outlaw country” music movement of the 1970s.
Waylon Jennings was given Willie Nelson’s braids at a 1983 party thrown by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in Jennings’ honor to celebrate his sobriety.
Willie Nelson’s iconic braids sold for $37,000 at Guernsey’s auction in New York
The identity of the buyer was not disclosed.
Also sold was Buddy Holly’s Ariel Cyclone motorcycle, for $450,000. The motorcycle, bought by the rock ‘n roll great in 1958, was given to Waylon Jennings by members of Holly’s band years after Holly was killed in 1959.
The auction was staged by the Guernsey’s auction house at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Phoenix, Arizona.
Tourists visiting Eiffel Tower in Paris are being treated to a new glass floor, creating a sensation of walking on air nearly 200 feet above ground.
Visitors will be able to look down on Paris through a glass floor as part of a refurbishment of the tower.
Tourists visiting Eiffel Tower in Paris are being treated to a new glass floor, creating a sensation of walking on air nearly 200 feet above ground
The $37.5 million reconstruction is likely to become a prime location for “selfies,” with the first visitors spending time on the floor turning their phones towards themselves and the glass floor below.
Carlos the Jackal, who carried out a string of attacks in the 1970s and 80s, is to go on trial again in France for the murder of two people in 1974.
A self-styled professional revolutionary from Venezuela, Carlos the Jackal is accused of throwing a grenade in Paris that also left 34 people wounded.
The notorious convicted killer’s real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
After years on the run, Carlos the Jackal was caught in 1994 and jailed for life.
An investigating judge specializing in anti-terror cases had ordered the latest prosecution, Le Figaro reported on October 7.
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, 64, had admitted carrying out the September 15, 1974, attack on the Drugstore Saint-Germain in an Algerian newspaper five years later, French media said.
Carlos the Jackal carried out a string of attacks in the 1970s and 80s (photo AP)
Carlos the Jackal has already been given a life sentence for killing 11 people and wounding another 150 in four attacks dating back to the early 1980s:
In March 1982, a bomb exploded on a train between Paris and Toulouse, killing five people and wounding 28
A month later a car bomb attack was mounted on an anti-Syrian newspaper in Paris, with one passer-by killed and 60 injured
On New Year’s Eve 1983, a bomb on a TGV fast train between Marseille and Paris killed three people and wounded 13
A bomb at a Marseille train station killed two
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez has also been linked to several other attacks outside France.
Francoise Rudetzki, head of France’s national victims of crime federation, told France Info radio that the latest move was “a victory for justice, the victims and of being able to get a message to the terrorists”.
Whatever the period of time, there would be no escape and they would have to answer for their actions, she said.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was awarded jointly to Japanese scientists Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes [LED] which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”.
The blue LEDs developed by Professors Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura helped produce bright, energy-efficient white light sources.
The winners, named at a press conference in Sweden, will share prize money of 8 million kronor ($1.1 million).
The physics Nobel has been awarded to 196 other laureates since 1901.
Prof. Shuji Nakamura, who was woken up in Japan to receive the news, told the press conference: “It’s unbelievable.”
Japanese scientists Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura have been awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014
Making the announcement, representatives of the Nobel Foundation emphasized the usefulness of the invention, adding that the Nobel Prizes were established to recognize developments that delivered “the greatest benefit to mankind”.
“These uses are what would make Alfred Nobel very happy,” said Prof. Olle Inganas, a member of the prize committee from Linkoping University.
The committee chair, Prof. Per Delsing, from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, emphasized the winners’ dedication: “What’s fascinating is that a lot of big companies really tried to do this and they failed.
“But these guys persisted and they tried and tried again – and eventually they actually succeeded.”
Sewol ferry captain, Lee Joon-seok, has said he was in a very “confused” state during the incident, as he started giving evidence in his trial.
The South Korean ferry sank in April 16 and more than three hundred people died, most of them schoolchildren, when the Sewol passenger ferry capsized.
Lee Joon-seok, 69, is charged with negligent homicide – a crime punishable by death in South Korea.
The trial, being held in the city of Gwangju, began in June.
Captain Lee Joon-seok is charged with negligent homicide, a crime punishable by death in South Korea
Capt. Lee Joon-seok repeatedly told the court that he was confused and not in his normal state of mind when the ship began to sink on April 16.
He said he had ordered the ship to be abandoned but that the order was not followed. The prosecutors say this contradicts what he had previously told the police.
Investigators have said a combination of cargo overloading, illegal modification of the vessel and inexperienced helmsmanship was behind the disaster.
A less-experienced crew member was steering the ship when it made a sharp turn causing it to list sharply to one side.
The parents of some of the teenagers who died during the incident have been in attendance at the trial.
Eleven other members of the crew are also facing trial on lesser charges.
Broadway legend Marian Seldes has died in New York at the age of 86 following a lengthy illness.
Marian Seldes was best known for appearing in every performance of Deathtrap during its four-year run, setting a Guinness World Record.
She made her stage debut in 1947 aged 17 in a production of Medea and won a Tony Award in 1967 for her performance in A Delicate Balance.
In 2010, Marian Seldes was awarded an honorary Tony for her lifetime’s work.
The actress garnered a total of five nominations for Broadway’s leading theatre awards during her long career.
Marian Seldes was best known for appearing in every performance of Deathtrap during its four-year run, setting a Guinness World Record (photo IMDb)
Marian Seldes was also inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1995, but missed the ceremony because she was on tour.
She was a muse to playwright Edward Albee, the writer of A Delicate Balance, and became a regular fixture in his subsequent work, including The Play About The Baby and Three Tall Women, which won a Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Her record-breaking run in Deathtrap cemented her place in Broadway history, gracing the stage for 1,809 performances between 1978 and 1982 without taking any holiday or sick leave.
However, her achievement has since been broken by actress Catherine Russell, who was in more than 11,000 performances of a New York theatre production of Perfect Crime.
Marian Seldes also enjoyed some success as a screen actress, with roles in TV series Nurse Jackie, Frasier, and others.
A black bear cub was found dead in New York City’s Central Park on Monday morning.
The female cub appeared to have suffered traumatic injury but it remains unclear how it died.
Bears are not known to live in the park at the centre of one of America’s most densely populated cities.
They may not be kept as pets, and none were reported missing from local zoos.
Patrick Thomas, associate director of the city’s Bronx Zoo, told the New York Times bears once lived in New York City but had not in a long time.
Bears are not known to live in Central Park at the centre of one of America’s most densely populated cities
He said a bear was recorded shot in New York in 1630.
Bears are native to the region, however. New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, has one of the largest black bear densities in the US.
In that state last month, a black bear killed a university student out for a hike.
The bear was found under a bush. Investigators with the New York Police Department’s animal cruelty squad combed the site on the park’s west side for clues and concluded the corpse had been dragged there.
“Certainly, a cub did not wander into Central Park by itself,” Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates told the New York Daily News.
Twin Peaks will make its return with creators David Lynch and Mark Frost on premium cable channel Showtime in 2016, the network said on October 6.
The murder mystery television series drew audiences and critical praise in the 1990s.
Twin Peaks, which ran for two seasons on the ABC network in 1990 and 1991, was centred on an FBI agent investigating the murder of a homecoming queen in the small fictional town of Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks will make its return on Showtime in 2016
“The mysterious and special world of Twin Peaks is pulling us back. We’re very excited. May the forest be with you,” David Lynch and Mark Frost said in a statement.
David Lynch will direct all nine episodes and also write and produce the new series with Mark Frost.
The new limited series will be set in present day and will tackle “long-awaited answers,” CBS Corp-owned Showtime said in a statement.
It will go into production in 2015 but it is not known if the original cast will return.
