Ben Shepard, a Kanye West fan, has launched a campaign to encourage the rapper to run for mayor of his native Chicago.
Ben Shepard has created the Kanye4Mayor.org website, and lists several reasons why Kanye West, 36, would make an ideal politician for the city.
Kanye West fan Ben Shepard has launched a campaign to encourage the rapper to run for mayor of his native Chicago (photo Getty Images)
In an open letter on the website Ben Shepard wrote: “Right now your home city is ruled over by a Mayor whose allegiances are not with the majority of Chicagoans. I want to invite you to run for mayor of Chicago in 2015 and make it the best city in the world. Doing this would require fixing some big problems. … Not to put any pressure on you but you are the only person in the world who could make this happen. There isn’t anyone else who (1) is wealthy and famous enough (2) is from Chicago, and (3) may actually understand the problems with the city.”
The website also includes quotes and lyrics from Kanye West’s songs and speeches.
Rahm Emanuel, the brother of Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel, is the current mayor of Chicago.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are currently on their honeymoon in Ireland.
French police in the northern city of Calais is removing about 800 migrants from Asia, the Middle East and Africa who are occupying camps near the port.
The authorities say the evictions are needed to deal with an outbreak of scabies in the camps, where numbers have swelled in recent months.
French police in Calais is removing about 800 migrants from Asia, the Middle East and Africa who are occupying camps near the port (photo Reuters)
The migrants have been trying to get to Britain, and say they have nowhere else to go after the camps are destroyed.
Police moved into the site after a deadline for people to leave expired.
Several busloads of police in riot gear arrived at the camps early on Wednesday.
After a stand-off with local activists, the officers moved in and told migrants to pack their bags.
Local officials say the migrants will be transported to new accommodation somewhere in the region, but initial attempts to persuade them to board buses were unsuccessful.
Most people at the camps believe the UK will be a more welcoming place if only they can get there.
The migrants have been sheltering under plastic bags and sheets, without water, power or even enough food.
The camps are a few hundred metres from a terminal where ferries take passengers and goods back and forth between France and the UK.
The Thai army announces it has now released 124 people, including politicians and activists, who were taken into custody after the coup.
A military spokesman said a total of 253 people had been summoned. Fifty-three did not report and 76 were in custody.
Conditions for the release appear to include agreeing to avoid political activity and informing the army of travel.
Coup leaders, who took power last week, received royal endorsement on Monday.
Thailand’s former PM Yingluck Shinawatra has been released but remains under some restrictions.
Yingluck Shinawatra has been released by Thailand’s army but remains under some restrictions (photo Reuters)
Aside from politicians and activists, academics have also been detained.
Thailand’s army seized power on May 22, saying it wanted to return stability to the country after months of unrest.
Leaders of the anti-government movement have been released from custody but representatives of those who support the government remain in detention.
Correspondents say there is also a degree of skepticism about the total number of people in custody, with reports of more widespread detentions.
Rights groups have expressed alarm over the detentions, as well as the tight restrictions on media.
Television stations on Wednesday aired footage from the military showing five detainees, including pro-government “red-shirt” leader Jatuporn Prompan, at an unidentified location, in an apparent move to show they were being treated well.
Experts have said that the coup is unlikely to heal highly polarized political divisions in the country.
At least twenty patients and a nurse have been killed in a fire at a South Korean hospice in Janseong county.
Six others are in critical condition after the fire at Hyosarang Hospital, about 200 milles south of Seoul.
Most of those who died are thought to have been in their 70s and 80s, and confined to their beds.
At least 20 patients and a nurse have been killed in a fire at the hospital in Janseong county
Officials said most of the people who died suffocated because of toxic fumes. The fire was put out within half an hour.
Police said they had detained an 81-year-old patient suffering from dementia after security video footage showed him entering an area where the fire began, reports said.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight at a three-storey annex.
Agencies report that many patients on an upper floor of the building were unable to evacuate as their rooms were filled with smoke from the fire.
The nurse who died had been trying to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher, according to AFP.
Police said the building had recently undergone safety checks, reported Yonhap news agency.
Hospice director Lee Hyung-seok, apologized and told reporters: “I’ve committed a grave sin… There is no excuse when valuable lives were sacrificed.”
The incident comes at a time of mourning for South Korea after more than 300 people died in a ferry sinking last month.
The hospital incident also comes a day after seven people were killed and 20 others injured in a fire at a bus terminal in Goyang city.
Edward Snowden has described himself as a trained spy specializing in electronic surveillance, dismissing claims he was a mere low-level analyst.
In an interview with NBC, Edward Snowden reiterated that he had worked undercover overseas for the CIA and NSA. This is the first interview with the former NSA employee for an American television. The NBC interview will air next week.
The fugitive intelligence leaker said the US got better intelligence from computers than human agents.
Edward Snowden, 30, fled the US in May 2013 and has been living under temporary asylum in Russia.
In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Edward Snowden said he had trained as a spy (photo NBC)
Last year, he fed a trove of secret NSA documents to news outlets including the Washington Post and the Guardian.
Among other things, the leaks detailed the NSA’s practice of harvesting data on millions of telephone calls made in the US and around the world, and revealed the agency had snooped on foreign leaders.
The revelations have sparked a debate in the US over the appropriate role of the NSA and the extent to which it should be authorized to conduct such broad surveillance.
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to rein in the program by barring the NSA from storing phone call data on its own and to require it to seek a court order to access telecom companies’ records.
Last week, the US House passed such legislation, sending it to the US Senate.
In excerpts of an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Edward Snowden said he had trained as a spy “in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas – pretending to work in a job that I’m not – and even being assigned a name that was not mine”.
But he described himself as a technical expert who did not recruit agents.
“What I do is I put systems to work for the US,” he said.
“And I’ve done that at all levels from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top. Now, the government might deny these things, they might frame it in certain ways and say, <<Oh well, you know, he’s – he’s a low-level analyst>>.”
Edward Snowden said he had worked for the CIA and NSA undercover, overseas, and lectured at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
When Edward Snowden fled the US, he had been working as a technician for Booz Allen, a giant government contractor for the National Security Agency.
Brazilian riot police fired tear gas at anti-World Cup and indigenous demonstrators in the capital, Brasilia.
Stones were hurled at security forces as hundreds of protesters tried to reach the National Stadium – where the golden tournament cup is on display.
A group of indigenous people who were demanding land rights at Congress eventually joined the protest.
Riot police fired tear gas at anti-World Cup and indigenous demonstrators in Brasilia
This is the latest in a series of demonstrations in Brazil against the cost of staging the tournament.
Authorities say around 1,500 people were taking part in Tuesday’s demonstration, which blocked one of the main roads of the city.
As the crowd tried to walk towards the National Stadium, host to several tournament matches, mounted police blocked their way.
With tensions running high, police fired tear gas several times to break up the demonstration.
The crowd was joined by a group of indigenous people who had climbed onto the roof of the Brazilian Congress building to demand changes in how their land is demarcated.
A policeman was reportedly injured in the leg by an arrow shot during the scuffles.
The demonstrations gridlocked the traffic in Brasilia for hours.
Last year, up to a million people joined demonstrations across the country to demand better public services and highlight corruption and the high cost of staging the World Cup.
Since then several other anti-World Cup protests have been staged in Brazil, with many descending into violence.
The first official photos of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding at Forte di Belvedere in Florence, Italy, on May 24, have been released by E! News.
Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress was a white Givenchy Haute Couture gown.
Kim Kardashian’s wedding dress was a white Givenchy Haute Couture gown (photo E! News)
Kanye West kept it simple in a basic black Givenchy tux.
After a costume change, Kim Kardashian, 33, later joined the reception in a short frock by Balmain.
E!’s photos include one shot of the smiling Kim Kardashian and Kanye West holding hands as they exit the aisle following their exchange of vows. In another, they share a kiss before the massive wall of white flowers that provided a backdrop to the affair. The website also snagged a photo from Kim Kardashian’s final dress fitting with Riccardo Tisci that shows her appropriately over-the-top train flowing out behind her.
After Kim Kardashian and Kanye West slipped rings on one another’s fingers, they enjoyed a musical homage to their union courtesy of John Legend, who performed All of Me.
At the reception, the four-course meal and seven-layer wedding cake were accompanied by some 1,000 bottles of Ace of Spades rose champagne, according to ET.
Ukraine’s army is now in full control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk after a day of bloody clashes, the interior ministry announced.
More than 30 pro-Russia separatists were reported killed after an attempt to seize the airport early on Monday.
Ukraine’s army is now in full control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk after a day of bloody clashes
Ukraine’s newly elected President Petro Poroshenko vowed to tackle the eastern uprising in hours, not months. Russia has called for an immediate end to military action.
Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says it has lost contact with a monitoring team.
The OSCE said four of its monitors were on a routine mission east of Donetsk when they were stopped at a checkpoint at about 18:00 on Monday.
The monitors, all male, were Turkish, Swiss, Estonian and Danish. Danish trade minister Mogens Jensen said it was believed they were being held by armed separatists.
In April, seven international military observers linked to the OSCE were held captive in eastern Ukraine for a week.
President Barack Obama had telephoned Petro Poroschenko on Tuesday to congratulate him on his victory in Sunday’s elections and offer him “the full support of the United States”, said the White House.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the airport was “under our full control” but operations were continuing.
Sporadic gun and artillery fire could be heard into the afternoon.
President Barack Obama has announced that the US will keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan after it concludes its combat mission at the end of this year.
Under the plan Barack Obama announced at the White House, the US will continue to withdraw troops until only a small residual force remains after 2016.
The remaining troops would guard the US embassy, train Afghan forces and support counter-terrorism operations.
But the plan depends on the Afghans signing a joint security agreement.
President Barack Obama has announced that the US will keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan after it concludes its combat mission at the end of this year (photo AP)
While current Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign such an agreement, the Obama administration appears to be confident either of the two candidates seeking to replace him would do so.
“This year, we will bring America’s longest war to its responsible end,” Barack Obama said.
The troop numbers Barack Obama announced are largely in line with what military commanders have been asking for. His announcement indicates the longest war in American history – launched by President George W. Bush following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks – will end by the time he leaves office.
He confirmed the US would seek to have 9,800 troops across Afghanistan at the beginning of 2015, but that number would be reduced by about half by the end of the year and would be concentrated in Kabul and at Bagram Air Force Base.
“We will no longer patrol Afghan cities and towns, mountains or valleys,” Barack Obama said.
“That is a task for the Afghan people.”
By 2016, Barack Obama said, the military will draw down to a “normal embassy presence” with an additional security detail, “just as we’ve done in Iraq”.
“We have to recognize Afghanistan will not be a perfect place – and it is not America’s responsibly to make it one,” Barack Obama said.
However, he added the US would help Afghans secure a “hard-earned peace”.
Afghanistan’s run-off election between Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani to replace Hamid Karzai is set for 14 June.
Barack Obama noted on Tuesday that both have said they would sign a security agreement with the US.
According to new figures, the US housing price growth slowed to just 0.2% in 2014 Q1.
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller index, the slowdown in growth compared with the previous quarter was partly caused by tighter bank lending regulations.
Further compounding the problem is rising student loan debt, which has discouraged first-time buyers.
The US housing price growth slowed to just 0.2 percent in 2014 Q1
Nationally, the US home prices are still up 10.3%, compared with a year earlier.
“The year-over-year changes suggest that prices are rising more slowly,” said index chairman David M. Blitzer in a statement.
“Among those markets seeing substantial slowdowns in price gains were some of the leading boom-bust markets including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Tampa,” he added.
An index of the housing prices in 20 US cities showed a 0.9% increase in March compared with February.
Although US mortgage rates are near a seven-month low, the US Federal Reserve recently indicated that tighter bank lending standards might be shutting out potential buyers.
Furthermore, there is a low supply of new homes in the US, as the recession put a halt to new home construction in 2008-09.
Since the recovery, many developers have focused on building rental apartment buildings as opposed to single-family homes, which has also put pressure on prices.
According to US researchers, a defective gene linked to obesity appears to affect impulse control and food choices.
This could explain why people with the gene have so much trouble maintaining a healthy weight as they age.
Middle-aged and older people with obesity-associated variants of the FTO gene tend to gain weight, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health. Moreover, scans detected reduced function in brain regions that govern impulsivity and perception of food texture and taste, the researchers found.
“Sure enough, people who carry one or two copies of the FTO variant show increased intake of high-calorie or fatty food as they age,” said senior author Dr. Madhav Thambisetty, chief of clinical and translational neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging’s Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience.
“There may be a common biological factor underlying both the risk for obesity during aging as well as obesity-related behavior like your ability to resist impulse eating,” Madhav Thambisetty said.
Many studies have tied certain versions of the FTO gene to chronic obesity, but doctors have struggled to determine why the gene affects a person’s risk of obesity, said Ruth Loos, director of the genetics of obesity and related metabolic traits program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Middle-aged and older people with obesity-associated variants of the FTO gene tend to gain weight
“These types of studies are important to disentangle the mechanism of why FTO is associated with obesity, but it’s only one piece of a huge puzzle,” Ruth Loos said.
In the US, more than one-third of adults aged 65 and over are obese, according to background information in the study.
About 45% of people in this study had at least one copy of the pro-obesity FTO variant, Dr. Madhav Thambisetty said, which tracks with the white population in the US. About 16% of people had two copies of the gene, which confers an even greater risk of obesity.
The study focused on nearly 700 participants, including 69 people who agreed to annual PET scans to gather additional information regarding their brain structure and function. At the start of the study, average age was 46. All were participating in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, one of the longest running studies of human aging in North America.
They first confirmed that body mass index increased in those with one or two copies of the FTO gene variant. They then compared brain PET scans of patients with the FTO variant with scans of non-carriers, looking for differences in brain function over time.
They found people with the gene variant had reduced function in their medial prefrontal cortex, a region thought to be important in controlling impulses and response to the taste and texture of food.
In a final step, the team reviewed data gathered on participants’ personality and diet. The group at increased genetic risk for obesity showed a greater tendency to impulsivity as well as a greater intake of fatty foods during aging.
The effect appears to increase with the number of copies.
“We see a dose effect, where these changes in impulsivity or a preference for fatty foods increase with multiple copies of the gene,” Dr. Madhav Thambisetty said.
The findings are published May 27 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
If these results pan out in additional studies, they mean that people who have a greater genetic risk of obesity face an uphill battle to maintain a healthy weight.
However, a genetic predisposition to obesity does not mean one is doomed to obesity.
“You may be genetically susceptible, but by living a healthy lifestyle you can overcome your genetics,” Ruth Loos said.
“You are not destined to be obese.”
Dr. Madhav Thambisetty agreed, noting that previous studies have shown that people can overcome the obesity risk posed by the FTO gene through regular exercise.
Scott Disick turned 31 on May 26, and Khloe and Rob Kardashian took to social media to congratulate him.
Khloe Kardashian shared a split photo of her mugshot and Scott Disick’s for his 31st birthday (photo Khloe Kardashian)
“Happy birthday to my partner in crime @letthelordbewithyou I love you LD!!” Khloe Kardashian captioned a split photo of her mugshot and Scott Disick’s.
Khloe Kardashian was arrested in 2007 for a DUI and spent only three hours in jail due to overcrowding. Scott Disick’s mugshot comes from his 2001 DUI arrest after he crashed his car in Riverhead, New York.
Rob Kardashian also tweeted a photo of him struggling to carry Kourtney Kardashian’s longtime boyfriend in a rickshaw-like cart through the ocean while on vacation.
“Happy Birthday @ScottDisick! Love You Brother!” Rob Kardashian tweeted along with the photo.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, the Sudanese woman awaiting the death penalty for abandoning her religious faith, has given birth in jail near Khartoum, her lawyer has said.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag married a Christian man and was sentenced to hang for apostasy earlier this month after refusing to renounce Christianity.
The woman is allowed to nurse her baby girl for two years before the sentence is carried out.
Born to a Muslim father, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag was convicted by a Sharia court.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag married a Christian man and was sentenced to hang for apostasy earlier this month after refusing to renounce Christianity
Sudan has a majority Muslim population, which is governed by Islamic law.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag was also convicted of adultery on the grounds that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan was void under Sudan’s version of Islamic law, which says Muslim women cannot marry non-Muslims.
For this the judge sentenced her to 100 lashes, which will reportedly be carried out when she has recovered from giving birth.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother’s religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood.
According to Amnesty International, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag was arrested and charged with adultery in August 2013, and the court added the charge of apostasy in February 2014 when she said she was a Christian and not a Muslim.
Lawyer Elshareef Ali said his 27-year-old client had given birth to a baby girl in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a hospital wing at the prison.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag also has her 20-month-old son with her as he has been held with her in prison since late February, he said.
Correspondents say death sentences are rarely carried out in Sudan.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag’s legal team lodged an appeal on May 22 as Elshreef Ali says the verdict contravenes the constitution’s enshrining of freedom of faith, the Bloomberg news agency reports.
Western embassies and rights groups have urged Sudan to respect the right of the woman to choose her religion.
Jazz singer and actor Herb Jeffries, who performed in a series of all-black Western movies in the 1930s, has died at the age of 100.
Known to cinema audiences as the Bronze Buckaroo, Herb Jeffries starred in four cowboy films aimed at black audiences from 1937 to 1939.
In 1940, Herb Jeffries scored a big hit with jazz legend Duke Ellington as the vocalist on Flamingo.
Known to cinema audiences as the Bronze Buckaroo, Herb Jeffries starred in four cowboy films aimed at black audiences from 1937 to 1939
Herb Jeffries died of heart failure on Sunday, his biographer Raymond Strait said.
Film director Robert Townsend tweeted: “RIP Herb Jeffries, 1st Black Cowboy on Silver screen, my prayers with his family.”
Born Umberto Valentino in Detroit in 1913, Herb Jeffries said of his mixed parentage: “My mother was Irish, my father was Sicilian and one of my great-grandparents was Ethiopian.
“So I’m an Italian-looking mongrel with a percentage of Ethiopian blood, which enabled me to get work with black orchestras.”
Herb Jeffries’ other songs with Duke Ellington included There Shall Be No Night and You, You Darlin’.
As a Western star, Herb Jeffries appeared as Bob Blake alongside his horse Stardusk and the vocal group the Four Tones.
At a time when mixed race performers tried to lighten their skin, Herb Jeffries wore make-up to darken his.
He said in one interview: “Little children of dark skin – not just negroes, but Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, everybody of color – had no heroes in the movies. I was so glad to give them something to identify with.”
Herb Jeffries continued performing as a singer into his 90s. His last album was The Duke and I, released in 2000.
He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.
Married five times, including to burlesque star Tempest Storm, Herb Jeffries is survived his fifth wife Savannah, three daughters and two sons.
The Rolling Stones returned to the stage in Oslo for their first show since the death of L’Wren Scott in March.
Playing to a sold-out crowd of 23,000 at Oslo’s Telenor Arena, Mick Jagger did not mention his late girlfriend L’Wren Scott, but said he was happy to be back on the stage.
The Rolling Stones returned to the stage in Oslo for their first show since the death of L’Wren Scott (photo CBS News)
“We first played Oslo in June 1965,” he said.
“We played nine songs – we’ve played more than that already!”
The two-hour set included hits such as Satisfaction and Brown Sugar.
In March, The Rolling Stones interrupted their tour and later rescheduled all their Australia and New Zealand tour dates following the news that L’Wren Scott – Mick Jagger’s partner since 2001 – had committed suicide.
The 14 On Fire tour continues in Portugal on Thursday, where the band headline the Rock In Rio festival.
Concerts in Switzerland, Israel and the Netherlands follow, while the rescheduled Australian and New Zealand dates beginning in Adelaide on October 25.
After skipping Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding on May 24, Rob Kardashian exhibited some strange behavior online.
On May 26, Kim Kardashian’s brother tweeted “good morning from Los Angeles” before deleting all of his tweets, changing his Twitter avatar and starting new.
After skipping Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding in Florence, Rob Kardashian exhibited some strange behavior online
Rob Kardashian, who has close to 5 million followers, then began tweeting out positive messages to members of the service for Memorial Day.
“Happy memorial day,” the sock designer began.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Psalm 33:12. Lord Jesus, protect those who protect me- police, firefighters, and those in the military. Teach me to pray for them and to honor them for their service. Amen.”
Rob Kardashian wrapped up his message, writing: “GOD BLESS AMERICA.”
Though he flew to Paris prior to Kim’s wedding, Rob Kardashian kept a low profile throughout the highly-publicized celebrations. He was spotted flying out of Paris on Saturday, May 24, a few hours before Kim Kardashian’s Florence wedding ceremony, and arrived in Los Angeles shortly after the couple exchanged vows at the Forte di Belvedere.
Macaulay Culkin and his band The Pizza Underground have been booed off stage at a concert in Nottingham.
The group, who play Velvet Underground songs with pizza-themed lyrics and kazoo solos, also had pints of beer thrown at them.
“Why are you throwing those?” Macaulay Culkin asked the crowd at the Rock City venue.
“I’d rather drink them.”
Macaulay Culkin and his band The Pizza Underground have been booed off stage at a concert in Nottingham (photo Getty Images)
According to reports, Macaulay Culkin’s band lasted only 15 minutes before being forced to flee the stage.
“Thank you so much Nottingham,” The Pizza Underground tweeted later.
“Sorry that a couple [of] people ruined it for everyone.”
The Pizza Underground show in Nottingham was part of the Dot to Dot festival – meaning audience members may not have known what to expect from the act.
Macaulay Culkin, 33, is best known for his childhood role as Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone film series.
He joined The Pizza Underground in 2012, performing parody songs such as Take a Bite of the Wild Slice (Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side) and All The Pizza Parties (Velvet Underground’s All Tomorrow’s Parties).
The quintet has a percussionist who plays a pizza box and they often hand out slices of pizza to their audience.
The Pizza Underground met a similar reception on the Manchester leg of the festival, where pint glasses were again thrown and the gig ended abruptly after a stage invasion.
The organizers of the Dot to Dot festival said: “It’s such a shame that some members of the crowd had to ruin what was set to be an excellent show. A sentiment echoed by the band themselves.
“Hopefully they’ll get to play in Nottingham again one day soon.”
Frozen has become the fifth highest-grossing movie in box office history.
The Disney’s animated movie, which was released in the US in November, has taken $1.219 billion worldwide, overtaking Iron Man 3‘s total haul.
It now stands behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, with $1.34 billion in global ticket sales.
Frozen has become the fifth highest-grossing movie in box office history
The feat comes two months after it was confirmed Frozen had become the highest-grossing animation in history.
The movie’s bumper haul has in part been due to its success in Japan, where Frozen has been number one at the box office for 11 consecutive weekends.
Some 15.6 million tickets for the movie – released as Anna to Yuki no Jou (Anna and the Snow Queen) – have been sold in the country, with many people reportedly watching both the original and Japanese dubbed version.
It is the third most successful Western movie in Japan, behind James Cameron’s Titanic and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone although it is predicted to overtake the latter film this week.
Frozen won two Oscars in March – best animated feature and best original song for Let It Go, sung by Idina Menzel.
Top 5 highest-grossing movies of all time:
Avatar – $2.78 billion
Titanic – $2.19 billion
Marvel’s The Avengers – $1.52 billion
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – $1.34 billion
Thai army has detained former Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng who emerged from hiding to criticize last week’s coup.
Shortly before he was held, Chaturon Chaisaeng said he believed the coup would be a disaster for Thailand.
However, Chaturon Chaisaeng said he had no intention of going underground or mobilizing resistance.
Thai army has detained former Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng who emerged from hiding to criticize last week’s coup
On Monday the coup leaders consolidated their legal hold on the country after receiving the endorsement of the king.
The military seized power in Thailand last week, saying it planned to return stability to the country after months of unrest.
The move followed six months of political deadlock as protesters tried to oust the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. At least 28 people were killed and several hundred injured over the course of the protests.
However, the Thai coup – which removed an elected government – has drawn widespread international criticism.
Chaturon Chaisaeng is one of more than 100 opposition figures, academics and activists summoned to report to the military after the coup.
Many of those who have chosen, unlike Chaturon Chaisaeng, to report voluntarily are still in military custody.
Chaturon Chaisaeng was detained in front of journalists at Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club where he had emerged from five days of hiding to give a press briefing.
Former PM Yingluck Shinawatra was among those taken into custody after the coup but a military spokesman told AFP news agency she had now been released.
At least 30 pro-Russia separatists have been killed so far during clashes with Ukrainian forces at the Sergei Prokofiev Airport in the eastern city of Donetsk, insurgents say.
Armed separatists tried to take over the airport on Monday.
Ukraine’s newly elected President Petro Poroshenko vowed on Monday “anti-terrorist operations” in the east would “last hours not months”.
One insurgent told Associated Press the bodies had been brought to a hospital in Donetsk.
At least 30 pro-Russia separatists have been killed so far during clashes with Ukrainian forces at the Sergei Prokofiev Airport in Donetsk (photo Reuters)
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said there were no casualties among Ukrainian troops.
Monday’s clashes started after separatist militants stormed the Sergei Prokofiev Donetsk airport in the early hours of the morning.
The Ukrainian military responded quickly with air strikes and an assault by heavily armed troops.
Reporters said there was heavy gunfire throughout the day and night, with black smoke rising into the air.
The attempt to seize the airport may have been intended to prevent Petro Poroshenko from travelling there after he said his first trip in office would be to visit the restive east.
Petro Poroshenko, a 48-year-old billionaire and former foreign minister, was on Monday formally declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election with 54% of the vote.
He vowed east Ukraine would not be “turned into Somalia”, adding: “The anti-terrorist operation cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours.”
However, President Petro Poroshenko has also said he wants to talk to Russia to end the crisis.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was “open to dialogue” with Petro Poroshenko but insisted that military action against separatists must end.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have flown into Ireland for a secret honeymoon after their wedding in Florence, Italy.
Kimye married in Florence on Saturday and reportedly arrived by private jet at Cork Airport the following day.
They were driven away for a five-day honeymoon in the Republic of Ireland.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have flown into Ireland for a secret honeymoon after their wedding in Florence
It has been reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will holiday at a luxury private estate in Munster.
According to the Irish Independent newspaper, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are also expected to spend at least a day in Dublin – and will tour some of Ireland’s most famous tourist attractions.
The publication reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were accompanied by their personal assistants and bodyguards and are expected to remain in Ireland until Friday when they are due to fly back to the US.
It is the first marriage for Kanye West, and the third for Kim Kardashian.
Kanye West, 36, and Kim Kardashian, 33, were joined by several hundred guests at the 16th-century Fort Belvedere for their wedding at the weekend.
The rapper proposed to Kim Kardashian on her 33rd birthday in October last year at San Francisco baseball ground AT&T Park.
Kim Kardashian was previously married to music producer Damon Thomas from 2000 to 2003 and spent 72 days married to professional basketball player Kris Humphries in 2011.
Malaysia has released the raw data used to determine that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.
The data was first released to relatives of passengers, who have been asking for greater transparency, before copies were also provided to media.
The document released on Tuesday comprises 47 pages of data, plus notes, from British firm Inmarsat.
Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Malaysia has released the raw data used to determine that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean
There were 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on board. No trace of the aircraft has been found, nor any reason for its disappearance.
The satellite data released includes the hourly “handshakes” between the plane and a communications satellite that led investigators to conclude that the plane ended its journey far off Australia.
“Inmarsat and the DCA have been working for the release of the data communication logs and the technical description of the analysis,” Malaysia’s civil aviation authority said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a sea-bed search for the missing plane is continuing in waters far west of the Australian city of Perth.
The robotic submarine Bluefin-21, on loan from the US, is still being operated off the Australian vessel Ocean Shield.
The Bluefin-21, which can identify objects by creating a sonar map of the sea floor, restarted its mission last week after experiencing technical problems.
It is expected to leave the search area on Wednesday and return to base on 31 May, said a previous statement from Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre, which is leading the search.
The Bluefin-21 completed the initial search of the area where acoustic signals thought to be from flight recorders were heard without finding anything concrete.
The Australian government is now preparing for a fresh deep-sea search using commercially-contracted equipment.
When asked about the plastic surgery rumors spreading around her, Nicki Minaj has denied having any sort of cosmetic procedures done, including rib removal.
Nicki Minaj has denied having any sort of cosmetic procedures done, including rib removal
Nigeria’s army has announced it knows where the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram are but it will not attempt a rescue.
Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff said it was “good news for the parents,” although he admitted the military would not risk “going there with force.”
More than 200 girls were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen from their school in northern Nigeria in April.
More than 200 girls were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen from their school in northern Nigeria in April (photo Reuters)
Earlier, an agreement was almost reached to release 50 of the girls in exchange for the release of 100 Boko Haram prisoners.
But the Nigerian government pulled out of the deal after President Goodluck Jonathan attended a conference on the crisis in Paris. The reasons for the withdrawal are unclear.
Nigeria’s government is under pressure to do more to tackle the group and bring about the girls’ release.
Thousands of people have died since Boko Haram began a violent campaign against the Nigerian government in 2009 and in the subsequent security crackdown.
Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh said on Monday that “the good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are” but said he couldn’t reveal the location.
“But where they are held, can we go there with force? We can’t kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back,” Alex Badeh added.
Nigeria has called off a deal with Islamist group Boko Haram for the release of some of the abducted schoolgirls.
Some of the girls were set to be freed in exchange for imprisoned Islamist militants.
Boko Haram group snatched more than 200 girls from a school on April 14.
Nigeria’s government is under pressure to do more to tackle the group and bring about the girls’ release.
Nigeria has called off a deal with Islamist group Boko Haram for the release of some of the abducted schoolgirls
Thousands of people have died since Boko Haram began a violent campaign against the Nigerian government in 2009 and in the subsequent security crackdown.
Officials have held talks with the group to secure the release of the schoolgirls.
An intermediary met Boko Haram leaders earlier this month and visited the location in north-east Nigeria where the girls were being held.
A deal was almost reached to set some of the girls free in exchange for the release of 100 Boko Haram members being held in detention.
But the government cancelled the planned agreement shortly before the swap was due to take place.
The reasons for the withdrawal are unclear.
It came just after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan attended a meeting in Paris hosted by President Francois Hollande of France where leaders said they had agreed a “global and regional action plan” against Boko Haram.
The girls, who were mainly Christian, were taken from their school in Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state and are thought to be held in a remote forested area of the state, close to the border with Chad and Cameroon.
Nigeria previously insisted it would not agree to free Boko Haram members in return for their release.
The UK, the US, China and France are among the countries to have sent teams of experts and equipment to help to locate them.
