North Korea has decided to stop sending cheerleaders to South Korea for Asian Games 2014, which would have been the first such trip in almost 10 years.
Pyongyang had said a group would accompany athletes taking part in the 16th Asian Athletics Championships in September in the South Korean city of Incheon.
However, it changed its mind because South Korea had appeared to be “displeased”.
North Korea accused the South of quibbling over details, and of viewing the group as a political propaganda tool.
“The South side took issue with the scale of the cheerleading squad and the size of the flag of the DPRK [North Korea],” a statement carried by KCNA news agency said.
North Korea has decided to stop sending cheerleaders to South Korea for Asian Games 2014
The statement said the South “finally raised even the issue of expenses which the North side had never mentioned, bringing the talks to a rupture”.
South Korea said it was disappointed at the “unilateral” move and said it hoped Pyongyang would change its mind.
The squad of dozens of young women performing synchronized moves traditionally attracts attention in South Korea.
Cheerleaders last came in 2005 for the Asian Athletics Championships, also held in Incheon.
That contingent was made up of 101 cheerleaders, including – reports say – Ri Sol-ju who went on to marry North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.
Tension remains high between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Pyongyang is widely believed to be pursuing nuclear weapons’ development and has carried out three nuclear tests, most recently in 2013.
North Korea traditionally alternates threats and olive branches towards its southern neighbor.
There will be no charges after the incident in which a 9-year-old girl fatally shot gun instructor Charles Vacca, officials say.
The death of Charles Vacca was “being viewed as an industrial accident,” Mohave County Sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Charles Vacca, 39, was giving the girl a lesson at an Arizona shooting range when the recoil from a firearm caused her to lose control of the Uzi submachine gun.
He died after being airlifted to a hospital in Las Vegas.
The girl was at the shooting range with her parents, who filmed the lesson.
The footage shows Charles Vacca coaching the girl as she fires a single shot at a target at the Last Stop shooting range in White Hills, Arizona.
Charles Vacca was giving the girl a lesson at an Arizona shooting range when the recoil from a firearm caused her to lose control of the Uzi submachine gun
The Uzi then appears to be switched to automatic as the girl pulls the trigger and loses her grip of the weapon.
The video, edited and released by the Mojave County Sheriff’s office, ends abruptly before the instructor is shot.
The unnamed girl and her family were on a visit to Arizona from New Jersey.
A spokeswoman for the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health confirmed that the agency was also investigating the shooting, but would give no further details.
The website of the shooting range, called Bullets and Burgers, says children aged 8 and older can shoot a weapon if they are accompanied by a parent and an instructor.
Range operator Sam Scarmardo told the Associated Press news agency the facility had not had an accident in the 12 years it has been open.
“We really don’t know what happened. Our guys are trained to basically hover over people when they’re shooting,” Sam Scarmardo told a local broadcaster.
“If they’re shooting right-handed, we have our right-hand behind them ready to push the weapon out of the way. And if they’re left-handed, the same thing.”
A similar incident in 2008 killed an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the head during a gun expo in Massachusetts.
Iceland has raised its aviation warning level near the Bardarbunga volcano to red after an eruption began overnight.
Scientists said a fissure eruption 0.6 miles long started in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier.
Civil protection officials said Icelandic Air Traffic Control had closed the airspace above the eruption up to a height of 5,000ft.
The volcano has been hit by several recent tremors.
The fissure eruption took place between Dyngjujokull Glacier and the Askja caldera, a statement from the Department of Civil Protection said.
Iceland has raised its aviation warning level near the Bardarbunga volcano to red after an eruption began overnight
The area is part of the Bardabunga system.
“Scientists who have been at work close to the eruption monitor the event at a safe distance,” the statement added.
“The Icelandic Met Office has raised the aviation colour code over the eruption site to red.”
It added that no volcanic ash had so far been detected but a coast guard aircraft was due to take off later to survey the site.
Until now the Icelandic Met Office has kept its aviation warning level – indicating the potential threat of volcanic activity to air travel – at orange, its second-highest.
On August, scientists said they were examining several “cauldrons” found near Bardarbunga volcano that could potentially be a sign of an eruption.
The cauldrons, depressions in the volcano’s surface, each between 49 ft deep and 0.6 miles wide, were seen during a flight on August 27.
Bardarbunga is part of a large volcano system hidden beneath the 1,600ft-thick Vatnajokull ice cap in central Iceland.
Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in 2010, producing ash that disrupted air travel across Europe.
Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, has released an update on the health status of her mother after she was hospitalized in New York.
In a Tweet posted to NBC News, Melissa Rivers said that her mother “is resting comfortably and is with our family.”
“I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming love and support for my mother. She is resting comfortably and is with our family. We ask that you continue to keep her in you thoughts and prayers,” Melissa Rivers wrote.
Joan Rivers was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital from her New York City doctor’s office after she stopped breathing during vocal cord surgery (photo Getty Images)
On August 28, Joan Rivers, 81, was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital from her New York City doctor’s office after she stopped breathing during vocal cord surgery.
Melissa Rivers, who co-stars with her mother on E!’s reality series Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? quickly made her way to the hospital to be by Joan’s side.
Britney Spears and David Lucado have split up after 18 months of dating, Us Weekly reported.
The news comes just months after the couple battled breakup rumors.
Britney Spears took to Twitter herself on August 27 and shared the news with world, tweeting: “Ahhhh the single life!”
The singer told Entertainment Tonight during happier times last year: “I’m in love. I like the fact that he’s very stubborn and he’s stuck in his ways. He’s just a simple man. I adore him.”
Britney Spears and David Lucado have split up after 18 months of dating (photo Getty Images)
Britney Spears, the mom to Sean, 8, and Jayden, 7, first stepped out with David Lucado in March 2013, shortly after calling off her engagement to Jason Trawick.
She was previously married to Kevin Federline.
Britney Spears has stayed mum as to the reason for the breakup, but a source tells E! News that she called it quits because of an alleged video that shows David Lucado cheating on her.
Apparently, the video shows David Lucado making out with another woman and dancing with her in what appears to be someone’s living room.
Allegedly, the video was taken in early August when Britney Spears and David Lucado were very much together.
Prince Harry is dating former Miss Edinburgh Camilla Thurlow after meeting her through one of Princess Diana’s favorite charities, The Halo Trust, Us Weekly reported.
Camilla Thurlow, 25, was spotted on August 23 accompanying Prince Harry on a luxury yacht holiday this week in St Tropez with some friends. They are traveling with pal Ben Goldsmith and his model financée Jemima Jones.
An insider claims Prince Harry is thinking about settling down and the trip was to “partly to celebrate Harry’s 30th birthday which is just weeks away”.
Prince Harry is dating former Miss Edinburgh Camilla Thurlow
Last month, Prince Harry was first spotted kissing Camilla Thurlow at a nightclub. They allegedly “stayed in touch via text after the first night they kissed”.
Camilla Thurlow holds a first class honors degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Loughborough University.
Prince Harry’s new love interest works as a project officer for The Halo Trust, a UK non-profit which was once a project close to the heart of the prince’s late mother, Princess Diana.
Harry became patron of the mine clearance charity in March.
Camilla Thurlow was crowned Miss Edinburgh when she was 19.
Kensington Palace had no comment on the romantic getaway.
Prince Harry is now dating former Miss Edinburgh Camilla Thurlow.
Prince Harry, 29, split from his long-term girlfriend Cressida Bonas in April.
An insider told E! News: “Camilla’s the full package – she’s got beauty and brains.”
Last week, Prince Harry and Camilla Thurlow were spotted on a luxury yacht with friends in Saint-Tropez to celebrate in advance the Prince’s 30th birthday.
“Harry’s had no interest whatsoever in going out and just wants to focus on Camilla without any distractions,” the insider said.
In June, two months after his split with Cressida Bonas, Prince Harry was seen kissing Camilla Thurlow, 25, at a nightclub.
Prince Harry is now dating former Miss Edinburgh Camilla Thurlow
“The pair apparently had <<a few drinks>> and kissed in front of friends at the Mexican bar, club and restaurant, which is owned by Harry’s best friend Guy Pelly and frequented by the royals,” the Daily Mail reported.
US Weekly’s source said Saint-Tropez holiday is a sign that Prince Harry is really smitten with the former Miss Edinburgh.
Camilla Thurlow, who is from Dumfries, now works as a projects officer for The Halo Trust, a UK non-profit charity which conducts humanitarian landmine clearance.
The Halo Trust was made famous in 1997 when the prince’s mother Princess Diana visited a minefield in Angola.
Prince Harry was also a contributor of the charity but left in March this year, reports the Daily Mail.
According to E! News, Prince Harry “sees Camilla as much more than a fling”.
“This was supposed to be Harry’s last summer of fun before he turned 30 and got serious and settled down,” a source said.
“It’s a great sign it shows how mature he is now and that he realizes when he finds happiness to not let go of it and to nurture it.”
“Harry loves how she’s devoted her life to charity – she’s fully committed to helping other people and he sees a lot of his mother Diana’s goodness in her.”
Chrystie Crownover is Bruce Jenner’s first wife with whom he had two children, son Burt and daughter Cassandra.
Bruce Jenner and Chrystie Crownover were married from 1972 until their divorce in 1981.
Chrystie Scott, who took the surname Crownover after divorcing Bruce Jenner, was happily married to Bruce for eight years between 1971 and 1979.
Chrystie Crownover, now 63, and Bruce Jenner, now 64, had two children together, Burt, now 36, and Cassandra “Casey”, 34. Chrystie Crownover has always stuck up for her ex even though he left her while she was pregnant with Casey for model Linda Thompson, whom he eventually married.
She told People Magazine years later that there was never a custody battle and she has retained her respect for Bruce Jenner, before adding: “Bruce is a good father, and I want him involved with my kids.”
Chrystie Crownover was happily married to Bruce Jenner for eight years
In 1981, Bruce Jenner got married for second time with Linda Thompson, with whom he had two sons, Brandon and Brody. They divorced in 1985.
In 1991, the former Olympian married Kris Kardashian after five months of dating. Bruce Jenner has two daughters with Kris, Kendall and Kylie.
Chrystie Crownover, who is divorced from her second lawyer husband Robert, is still in touch with Bruce Jenner and says that being away from Kris is the best thing that can happen for him and the children.
She said: “I don’t speak to him that often, but it’s better for everyone, especially the kids, that they’re not together and she’s out of his life. Hopefully, they’ll have more of a chance of leading a normal life out of the spotlight.”
“I can’t say anymore, but he’s never been a cross-dresser in all the time I’ve known him,” Chrystie Crownover added.
Shakira is pregnant with her second child, the singer confirmed to the Spanish version of Cosmopolitan.
Shakira, 37, is expecting baby No. 2 with her soccer star boyfriend Gerard Pique, whom she met while promoting the 2010 World Cup anthem Waka Waka (This Time For Africa).
The Colombian singer and her boyfriend welcomed their first son Milan in January 2013.
Shakira welcomed her first son Milan in January 2013
“If it wasn’t for the World Cup, my son Milan would not be here,” Shakira recently told the AP before performing her new 2014 World Cup single La La La (Brazil 2014) at the final game on July 13.
Shakira has been very open about her desire to have a big family, telling Latina magazine in April: “If it weren’t because of my music projects, I would be pregnant already. I would love to have eight or nine kids with Gerard – my own football team.”
Hello Kitty is not actually a cat, her creators Sanrio have said.
In preparing a Hello Kitty retrospective for the Japanese American National Museum, University of Hawaii Anthropologist Christine R. Yano was given one major correction by Hello Kittyowners Sanrio: She is not a cat.
“Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty,” Sanrio said.
She is a British school girl called Kitty White and she lives just outside London, although no-one is saying exactly where.
In fact, Kitty has a whole life story and a family that includes a twin sister called Mimmy.
Hello Kitty is a British school girl called Kitty White and she lives just outside London (photo Sanrio)
Although Sanrio has a whole website dedicated to Kitty’s biography, her appearance has suggested that she is animal rather than human – an assumption that also fooled Christine R. Yano.
“That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat,” Christine R. Yano told the LA Times.
“She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat.
“She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature.
“She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”
Christine R. Yano claims a lot of people don’t know Kitty’s really a person and that many of her fans who are aware “don’t care”.
And the reason Kitty is British?
“Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain,” said Christine R. Yano.
“They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence.
“So the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time.”
Hello Kitty lives in the suburbs of London and is approximately five apples tall and was born on November 1.
Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, and Christiane Amanpour are the subjects of a new tell-all book by Vanity Fair contributor Sheila Weller.
Highlights from the book, appropriately titled The News Sorority, were posted by The Daily Beast on August 27, and include some gossipy bits about the alleged rivalry between Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer.
According to The Daily Beast‘s write-up, Sheila Weller’s tome claims that the two journalists battled each other for scoops when they appeared on competing morning shows – Katie Couric on Today, Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America – in the early 2000s.
The Daily Beast quotes Sheila Weller’s book as saying: “When a friend of Diane’s, a public figure, was being pursued by Katie’s people, the wooed eminence got a call from [Diane’s movie director husband] Mike Nichols, who said – in a very nice way, to be sure – that he and Diane would essentially cut off all social contact if their friend appeared on Today.”
Sheila Weller’s The News Sorority includes some gossipy bits about the alleged rivalry between Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer
Sheila Weller further alleges that Katie Couric badmouthed Diane Sawyer when the latter scored an interview they both wanted with a 57-year-old woman who’d given birth to twins. Afterward, she writes, Katie Couric was overheard saying: “I wonder who she blew this time to get it.”
Diane Sawyer, for her part, was reportedly at war with Barbara Walters.
“Barbara and Diane were determined to kill each other – to wipe each other off the face of the earth,” Sheila Weller quotes one ABC News staffer as saying.
An excerpt on the book’s Facebook page reads: “As reporters and communicators of that which was beyond their control – the news of the world – and as women in a tremendously competitive professional arena in which their gender was an impediment, their ability to strongly control what they could control has been central to their success. Each has been self-aware and self-powering in a different way, and their careers offer lessons in female survival.”
A source close to Katie Couric said that the book is “overall very positive” about the women, but that the alleged feud is “drummed up into something much bigger than it was”.
Seinfeld actor Stephen Lee passed away on August 14 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 58.
Stephen Lee portrayed the Big Bopper in Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba and also appeared in the movies RoboCop 2 and Burlesque but he’ll perhaps be best remembered as an inquisitive contractor hired to install kitchen cabinets in Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment in a 1997 episode of Seinfeld.
Stephen Lee is best remembered as an inquisitive contractor hired to install kitchen cabinets in Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment in a 1997 episode of Seinfeld
He made his debut in a 1981 episode of Hart to Hart and became a TV staple in shows like Hill Street Blues, Roseanne, Quantum Leap and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Stephen Lee also played Tom Arnold in 1994 TV movie Roseanne and Tom: Behind the Scenes.
A woman died after being struck by a bus that was carrying passengers around the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, officials say.
Burning Man festival spokesman Jim Graham says the incident happened just after midnight on Thursday. The woman was pronounced dead on the scene.
Jim Graham says no other injuries were reported. Details about the circumstances of the crash and the woman’s identity weren’t immediately available.
The last death at the Burning Man festival was in 2007, when an attendee fell under a trailer
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Burning Man co-founder Marian Goodell issued a statement calling the crash a tragic accident and saying event staff members were offering support to those who were affected.
Jim Graham says the last death at the Burning Man festival was in 2007, when an attendee fell under a trailer.
Joan Rivers was rushed to Mount Sinai hospital on August 28 after she stopped breathing during throat surgery at a New York City doctor’s office.
Joan Rivers, 81, has been hospitalized after a 911 caller reported “somebody in either cardiac or respiratory arrest”, TMZ reported.
The comedian most recently made headlines for blasting supporters of Palestinians involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza. Before that, she walked out on a CNN interview after the anchor asked about a fur coat she was wearing on the cover of her new book, Diary of a Mad Diva, her tenth book published.
Joan Rivers was rushed to Mount Sinai hospital after she stopped breathing during throat surgery (photo Getty Images)
Joan Rivers rose to fame in 1965 as one of Johnny Carson’s frequent guests on The Tonight Show. Their relationship, however, was shattered when she launched rival late-night program The Late Show in 1986.
Joan Rivers went on to host daytime talk show The Joan Rivers Show, which earned her a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 1989. The show was nominated for several other Emmys until it ended its run in 1993.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is accusing Russia of invasion after deploying its troops in eastern Ukraine.
Petro Poroshenko’s remarks came as pro-Russian rebels opened a new front in the south by seizing the coastal town of Novoazovsk.
NATO says it has detected a significant increase of Russian arms being supplied to the rebels over the past two weeks.
Russia has denied that its forces have crossed Ukraine’s border. At least 2,119 people have been killed in four months of fighting.
The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting in New York on August 28 at 18:00 GMT to discuss the crisis.
NATO Brigadier General Niko Tak said there had been a “significant escalation in the level and sophistication of Russia’s military interference in Ukraine” over the past two weeks.
“[NATO has] detected large quantities of advanced weapons, including air defense systems, artillery, tanks, and armored personnel carriers being transferred to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine,” he said.
President Petro Poroshenko is accusing Russia of invasion after deploying its troops in eastern Ukraine
“Russia is reinforcing and resupplying separatist forces in a blatant attempt to change the momentum of the fighting, which is currently favoring the Ukrainian military.”
More than 1,000 Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine, both supporting the separatists and fighting on their side, according to NATO.
However, Russia’s ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said NATO had “never produced a single piece of evidence” for its accusations. He said the only Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil were 10 paratroopers captured earlier this week.
On August 28, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting with his security council to discuss “the sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region… as Russian troops were actually brought into Ukraine”.
“The situation is extremely difficult, but it is manageable enough for us not to panic and continue calculating our actions,” he told security chiefs.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Russia had “unleashed a war in Europe”, adding that the world should take “effective steps”.
Government forces had made significant advances against the separatists in recent weeks, but these gains seem in doubt with rebels now operating in two distinct areas of Donetsk region.
Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko told Russian TV that between 3,000 and 4,000 Russian citizens were fighting in their ranks.
He said many of the Russians were former service-people or current service personnel on leave, insisting that all were volunteers.
Ukraine’s security and defense council confirmed reports that Novoazovsk had been captured by the rebels, whom they described as “Russian troops”.
It said it had withdrawn its forces to save lives, and that Ukrainian soldiers were now reinforcing the defenses of the strategic port city of Mariupol.
The port has until now been peaceful and cut off from rebel positions.
Pro-Russian fighters have been trying for weeks to break out of an area further north in the Donetsk region where they are almost encircled.
Analysts say the separatists could also be seeking a land link between Russia and Crimea, which would give them control over the entire Sea of Azov.
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control.
The WHO said the number of cases could already be four times higher than the 3,000 currently registered.
It also called on airlines to resume “vital” flights across the region, saying travel bans were threatening efforts to beat the epidemic.
So far, 1,552 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria have died.
Announcing a WHO action plan to deal with the outbreak, Bruce Aylward said “the actual number of cases may be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported” in some areas.
The WHO assistant director-general said the possibility of 20,000 cases “is a scale that I think has not ever been anticipated in terms of an Ebola outbreak”.
“That’s not saying we expect 20,000… but we have got to have a system in place that we can deal with robust numbers,” he added.
The WHO plan calls for $489 million to be spent over the next nine months and requires 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers across West Africa.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control (photo AFP)
On August 28, Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos, with an infected doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt dying from the disease.
Operations have not yet been affected in Africa’s biggest oil producer, but a spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary said they were “monitoring the Ebola outbreak very closely”.
Health ministers from across West Africa are meeting in Ghana at an extraordinary meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss how to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Officials at the ECOWAS session backed the WHO’s call for flight bans to be ended and called for states to reopen their borders to make it easier for health workers to access affected areas.
Earlier Bruce Aylward insisted bans on travel and trade would not stop the spread of Ebola, saying they were “more likely to compromise the ability to respond”.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the Ebola virus is not airborne and is spread by humans coming into contact with bodily fluids, such as sweat and blood, from those infected with virus.
Medical agencies in West Africa are struggling to cope with an increasing number of cases and growing hostility from communities in certain affected areas.
Efforts to prevent the virus spreading are unlikely to see any results given that most treatment centers are already operating at full capacity.
Meanwhile, British medical charity Wellcome Trust and pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said safety trials on an experimental Ebola vaccine are being fast-tracked.
GSK says it plans to build up a stockpile of up to 10,000 doses for emergency deployment if results from the trials, which could begin as soon as next month, are good.
Turkey’s outgoing PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been officially sworn in as the country’s president after winning the first public vote for head of state.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who served three terms as prime minister, has vowed to give more power to the previously ceremonial post.
Critics of Recep Tayyip Erdogan say the move will make him more authoritarian. Opposition MPs walked out of the ceremony.
Outgoing Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is set to be Turkey’s prime minister after being elected head of the governing AK Party.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised in his presidential oath to protect Turkey’s independence and integrity, to honor the constitution and adhere to the principles of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
“In my capacity as president of the Republic, I swear upon my honor and repute before the great Turkish nation and before history to safeguard the existence and independence of the state,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the brief ceremony in parliament.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan served three terms as Turkey’s prime minister (photo AFP/Getty Images)
The new president left parliament to lay a wreath at Ataturk’s mausoleum in the centre of Ankara – widely regarded as one of the most important symbols of the secular republic.
Another ceremony was held at the presidential palace.
Turkey’s main opposition party walked out of parliament just before Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived, in protest over what they say is his disrespect for the constitution.
One legislator was even reported to have hurled a copy of the constitution toward the Speaker, complaining that he was not allowed to express his views.
Main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu boycotted the inauguration ceremony.
Under the constitution, Recep Tayyip Erdogan must cut his ties with the AK Party upon becoming president.
At the party’s congress on August 27, he said Turkey needed a new constitution, which analysts say would introduce the style of executive presidency that Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly seeks.
Thursday’s inauguration ceremony was attended by several heads of state.
However, the US only sent a representative of its embassy and no Western European leader was there.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan clamped down violently on anti-government protests last year and recently compared Israel’s policy in Gaza to “genocide… reminiscent of the Holocaust”.
His supporters say he has transformed Turkey’s economy and given a political voice to the country’s conservatives.
However, his critics accuse him of having an abrasive style and Islamist leanings.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey’s first direct presidential election earlier this month after gaining nearly 52% of the votes in the first round.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt got married in France, according to a spokesman for the Hollywood couple.
Angelina Jolie, 39, and Brad Pitt, 50, tied the knot on August 23, ending years of speculation over when and where they would finally walk down the aisle.
The actors were wed in a small chapel in Chateau Miraval in a private, nondenominational, civil ceremony attended by family and friends.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s children took part in the wedding, the Associated Press reports.
Angelina Jolie walked along the aisle with her eldest sons Maddox and Pax, 13 and 10 respectively, while her daughters Zahara, 9, and Vivienne, 6, threw petals.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were wed in a small chapel in Chateau Miraval in a private, nondenominational, civil ceremony attended by family and friends (photo Getty Images)
Eight-year-old Shiloh and 6-year-old Knox served as ring bearers, according to the couple’s spokesman.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt obtained a marriage license beforehand from a California judge who travelled to France to conduct the ceremony.
Chateau Miraval in Correns, a village in the southern French region of Var, has been the couple’s second home since 2008.
Brad Pitt was previously married to Jennifer Aniston, while Angelina Jolie was previously married to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.
The couple, whose relationship began after they starred together in the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith and have been engaged since April 2012.
According to the Times of Malta, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are currently in Malta to shoot By the Sea, their first film together since Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Angelina Jolie has also written the script and will direct what she has described as “a very experimental, independent-type film where we get to be actors”.
Gala Bingo, the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign (MCAC) and Coronation Street pooled their respective talents to organise a game of bingo with the largest set of bingo balls ever. The allusion to massive balls doesn’t need too much explanation, and attempts to demystify this aspect of masculinity are an important part of the MCAC’s vital cause.
There was also a Guiness World Record to beat and managing such big balls is never an easy feat – just ask Ashley Peacock. The gargantuan balls were deployed from the street’s famous bedrooms by some of our all-time favourite Corrie characters: Ashely, Maureen Webster, Nick Tilsley and Sunita Alahan expertly wrestled the balls out of the bedrooms featured in the Rovers Return, No. 1 (the Barlow boudoir), and No. 5 (Tyrone’s seldom frequented bedroom).
Alison Hammond and Jeff Brazier frantically called the numbers, as the giant balls descended on the expectant heads of the fevered participants, whose bingo daubers thrust like pistons as the action spiralled to a scintillating climax.
45 players took part in the action, but 90 in total enjoyed a once in a lifetime tour of the famous Corrie set. The oversize game of bingo had doubled as a fine way for some fans to say goodbye to the iconic cobbles of the current Corrie set, before it moves to a shiny new home on Manchester’s Salford Quays. There are some subtle differences on the new set, such as added windows, widened streets and shallower bays, but even the most ardent fan would be hard pressed to ring the changes.
Gala have already raised £10,500 for the MCAC and they’ve committed 20% of all future proceeds from the Coronation Street bingo game to the cause. MCAC ambassador Rhian Sugden was there to accept the cheque.
GalaBingo.com Director, Alison Digges said: “We wanted to do something special for the launch of Corrie Bouncy Balls, something involving balls! We love the innovative, educational approach MCAC takes, so we’re delighted to work with them. And a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title attempt seemed like a good way to get everyone’s attention. So we’ve organised a bingo game on Coronation Street, invited some ex-cast members and have raised money for charity, all at the same time!”
There’s a serious message in all of this thinly disguised innuendo and these are the kinds of innovative marketing link-ups that really get these issues in the press and back on the agenda, so well-done to all concerned.
Birdman, a comedy drama about an actor trying to escape the shadow of a famous superhero role, has opened this year’s Venice Film Festival in Italy.
Michael Keaton joined the rest of the film’s stars on the Lido at the world premiere that launched this year’s 12-day event.
Birdman is one of 20 titles up for the Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival’s main award.
French composer Alexandre Desplat heads this year’s jury, which also includes the British actor Tim Roth.
Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell and Palestinian film-maker Elia Suleiman are also members of the nine-strong panel.
Birdman has opened this year’s Venice Film Festival in Italy
Other movies they will assess include Al Pacino’s latest outing Manglehorn; Abel Ferrera’s new film about Italian director Paolo Pasolini; and Good Kill, starring Ethan Hawke as a US military drone pilot.
Films that will screen out of competition include The Sound and the Fury, James Franco’s adaptation of the William Faulkner novel, and a longer version of the second half of Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac.
The Venice Film Festival will close with The Golden Era, a three-hour biopic about a radical writer from the 1900s directed the Hong Kong film-maker Ann Hui.
Attendees at Wednesday’s opening night gala included Julie Gayet, the French actress whose affair with France’s president Francois Hollande made headlines around the world.
Venice is the first of the autumn’s major international film festivals. Telluride opens on Friday in Colorado, while the Toronto Film Festival gets under way next week in Canada.
Bryce Dion, a crew member on police reality show COPS, has been shot dead after Nebraska police opened fire on a robbery suspect.
Bryce Dion, 38, was wearing a bulletproof vest but the bullet that hit him “slipped into a gap” in the arm and entered his chest, police said.
He was a sound operator on COPS for seven years, the show’s producer said.
Police also killed the robbery suspect, Cortez Washington, who was on parole from prison.
“This is very hard for us,” Morgan Langley, who hired Bryce Dion, said at a press conference on August 27.
COPS is a long-running TV series that follows police officers while they are on-duty
COPS is a long-running TV series that follows police officers while they are on-duty. The show has featured police forces from at least 140 US cities and three other countries.
Bryce Dion and a cameraman were with two officers who responded to a call for backup at a fast-food restaurant in Omaha.
Washington fired a pellet gun, which police and witnesses thought was a real weapon, Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said.
Todd Schmaderer told reporters police fired back and Washington was struck by officers’ gunfire but fled outside of the restaurant before collapsing.
Bryce Dion was struck as police continued to fire on Washington as he left the restaurant.
The Omaha World-Herald reported police fired at least 30 shots during the incident.
Todd Schmaderer said his officers were “taking this very hard” as “Bryce was their friend”.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Russian citizens are fighting in eastern Ukraine, a pro-Russian rebel leader in the area has said.
Alexander Zakharchenko, who is prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian TV many of the Russians were former servicepeople or current personnel on leave.
He was speaking as rebels threatened to take the key port of Mariupol, after opening a new front in the south-east.
Reports say they have captured the town of Novoazovsk and are advancing on the port.
Ukraine says Russian forces have crossed the border and are supporting the rebel attack, but Moscow has repeatedly denied arming or covertly supporting the rebels.
There are suspicions that Russia wants to divert Ukrainian forces from the besieged cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, further north.
Government forces have made significant advances against the separatists in recent weeks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an explanation from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin amid the reports of an incursion.
French President Francois Hollande also said it would be “intolerable” if Russian troops were in Ukraine.
Alexander Zakharchenko said Russian citizens were coming to Ukraine to fight because they felt it was their duty.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Russian citizens are fighting in eastern Ukraine
“There have been around 3,000-4,000 of them in our ranks,” he said, adding that the rebels’ struggle would have been much harder without them.
He insisted that any Russians fighting on the rebel side were doing so voluntarily.
“Many former high-ranking military officers have volunteered to join us. They are fighting with us, considering that to be their duty,” he said.
“There are also many in the current Russian military that prefer to spend their leave among us, brothers who are fighting for their freedom, rather than on a beach.”
Reports from journalists and military on the ground say that Novoazovsk has been captured by the rebels.
A Ukrainian company commander, Vladimir Shilov, told Ukrainian TV that he had heard from sources inside the town that it was blocked by tanks and no-one was allowed to leave. Local officials had already fled to Mariupol, he added.
A spokesman for the rebels told Interfax news agency that Novoazovsk was under their control and they would soon “liberate” Mariupol.
Reports on Twitter suggested the rebels were already advancing towards Mariupol, and rebels said they had captured checkpoints to the west of the city.
The port has until now been peaceful and cut off from rebel positions.
Rebels have been trying for weeks to break out of an area further north in the Donetsk region where they are almost encircled.
Analysts say the separatists could also be seeking a land link between Russia and Crimea, which also would give them control over the entire Sea of Azov.
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March.
In a phone call with Vladimir, Angela Merkel said reports of a Russian military incursion into Ukrainian territory had to be cleared up, her spokesman said.
The US also expressed its “deep concern” at the latest developments.
“These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counter-offensive is likely under way in Donetsk and Lugansk [Luhansk],” state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday.
“An increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in fighting on Ukrainian territory,” the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised a roadmap for peace in the east on Tuesday after holding his first direct talks on the crisis since June with Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin said Russia would assist any ceasefire talks, but that stopping the fighting was a matter for Ukraine alone.
The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will focus on the southern part of the search area in the Indian Ocean, Australian officials say.
Officials said further refinement of satellite data found the plane may have turned south earlier than thought.
The announcement came as Australia and Malaysia signed an agreement on the search’s next phase, which will see the two countries sharing costs.
The Beijing-bound plane disappeared on March 8 with 239 people onboard.
Based on analysis of satellite data, it is believed to have ended its journey in seas far west of the Australian city of Perth.
Investigators do not know what happened to the flight and finding its “black box” flight recorders is seen as key to understanding the factors behind its disappearance.
The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will focus on the southern part of the search area in the Indian Ocean
Australia, which is responsible for search and rescue operations, has been looking for the plane in an area about 1,800km off its west coast.
The latest detail on the plane’s possible flight path came from an analysis of a failed attempted satellite phone call from Malaysia Airlines to the plane, said Australia’s Deputy PM Warren Truss.
“The search area remains the same, but some of the information that we now have suggests to us that areas a little further to the south… are of particular interest and priority,” he told reporters in Canberra.
A Dutch contractor, Fugro Survey, will kick off the next phase in the search in September. Three vessels towing underwater vehicles will scan for the plane.
The search will focus on an area of about 60,000 sq km and is estimated to cost about A$52 million ($49 million).
Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai signed the memorandum of understanding with Warren Truss.
The two were also briefed on search efforts, together with China’s Transport Vice-Minister He Jianzhong.
Most of the passengers onboard MH370 flight were Chinese. The ministers issued a statement saying they “remain cautiously optimistic” that the plane will be found.
According to a new research, eating tomatoes may lower the risk of prostate cancer.
Men who consume more than 10 portions of tomatoes each week reduce their risk by about 20%, according to a UK study.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide.
Cancer experts recommend eating a balanced diet which is high in fruit and vegetables and low in red and processed meat, fat and salt.
The Bristol team analyzed the diets and lifestyles of around 20,000 British men aged between 50 and 69.
Eating tomatoes may lower the risk of prostate cancer
They found men who consumed more than 10 portions of tomatoes each week – such as fresh tomatoes, tomato juice and baked beans – saw an 18% reduction in prostate cancer risk.
Eating the recommended five servings of fruit or vegetables or more a day was also found to decrease risk by 24%, compared with men who ate two-and-a-half servings or less.
“Our findings suggest that tomatoes may be important in prostate cancer prevention,” said Vanessa Er, from the School of Social and Community Medicine at Bristol University.
“However, further studies need to be conducted to confirm our findings, especially through human [clinical] trials.
“Men should still eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, maintain a healthy weight and stay active.”
The cancer-fighting properties of tomatoes are thought to be due to lycopene, an antioxidant which can protect against DNA and cell damage.
The researchers also looked at two other dietary components linked with prostate cancer risk – selenium, found in flour-based foods such as bread and pasta, and calcium, found in dairy products such as milk and cheese.
Men who had optimal intake of these three dietary components had a lower risk of prostate cancer, they said.
The research, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, was carried out in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
Ailina Tsarnaeva, the sister of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was arrested Wednesday, August 27, on suspicion of threatening to bomb a woman who previously had a romantic relationship with her boyfriend.
Ailina Tsarnaeva, who lives in North Bergen, New Jersey, made the threat against an upper Manhattan woman via telephone on Monday, police said. She turned herself in at a Manhattan police precinct, and police charged her with aggravated harassment.
Several media outlets reported Ailina Tsarnaeva told the Harlem woman she had “people who can go over there and put a bomb on you”.
Officers gave Ailina Tsarnaeva an appearance ticket and released her pending a September 30 court date.
Ailina Tsarnaeva was arrested on suspicion of threatening to bomb a woman who previously had a romantic relationship with her boyfriend (photo Boston Herald)
A telephone number linked to Ailina Tsarnaeva was disconnected. Her lawyer, George Gormley, said he had left his office and would speak Thursday.
Ailina Tsarnaeva has been required to check in with Massachusetts probation officers since prosecutors said she failed to cooperate with a 2010 counterfeiting investigation.
Prosecutors said Ailina Tsarnaeva picked up someone who passed a counterfeit bill at a restaurant at a Boston mall and “lied about certain salient facts during the investigation.”
At a hearing last October, George Gormley said Ailina Tsarnaeva was pregnant with her second child and was unlikely to flee.
Ailina Tsarnaeva once lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at an apartment linked to her brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who were the subjects of an intense manhunt in the Boston area in the days after the deadly April 2013 marathon bombing.
Records show Ailina Tsarnaeva now lives with a sister, Bella Tsarnaeva.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, is charged with building and planting the two pressure cooker bombs that exploded near the marathon’s finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others. He has pleaded not guilty.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a gunbattle with police.
