Chuck Berry and theatre director Peter Sellars have been named as 2014 Polar Music Prize laureates.
Chuck Berry and Peter Sellars will be presented with their awards by King Carl XVI of Sweden at a ceremony in Stockholm on August 26.
The million kronor prize ($131,000) was founded 25 years ago by Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, the publisher, lyricist and manager of Abba.
Chuck Berry and Peter Sellars have been named as 2014 Polar Music Prize laureates
The first Polar Music Prize laureate was Paul McCartney.
The aim of the award is to “break down musical boundaries by bringing together people from all the different worlds of music”.
In a career spanning seven decades, Chuck Berry has released a string of classic songs such as Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B Goode.
The award committee said in a statement: “In the course of three minutes he conjures up an image of the everyday life and dreams of a teenager, often with the focus on cars. Chuck Berry, born in 1926, was the first to drive up onto the highway and announce that we are born to run.”
Acclaimed opera, theatre and festival director Peter Sellars is known for his re-interpretations of classic works.
Peter Sellars is working with the English National Opera later this year for the world stage premiere of John Adams’s latest work, The Gospel According to the Other Mary.
He is, said the award organizers, “a living definition of what the Polar Music Prize is all about: highlighting the music and presenting it in a new context”.
Previous Polar Music Prize laureates include Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, BB. King, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
South Africa’s ANC (African National Congress) has won a commanding victory in the country’s general election, partial results show.
With about 80% of the results in, the ANC has 63% of the vote, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) on 22%.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party is in third place with 5%.
The electoral commission said voting passed off peacefully in most areas, with turnout at just over 72%.
The ANC victory in South Africa’s general elections would return President Jacob Zuma for a second five-year term (photo Reuters)
The elections are the first since the death in December of Nelson Mandela – the country’s first black president – and mark 20 years since the end of white-minority rule.
Dissatisfaction with the government has been growing over high levels of unemployment, a lack of basic services and allegations of widespread corruption.
The ANC is likely to use its impressive mandate to try to drive through its National Development Plan – rejecting nationalization, and emphasizing investment and infrastructure.
The business-friendly plan has alarmed South Africa’s powerful unions – some of which may soon break away to form their own party, he says.
He adds that, on 5%, the EFF are no threat to the ANC but their aggressive populism will keep ministers on their toes, and South African politics more abrasive than ever.
The DA has increased its share of the vote from 17% in the last election to 22%, according to the latest results.
Early on Thursday, DA leader Helen Zille told AFP news agency that she expected her party’s final vote to be around the 23% margin.
“We’ll see how it goes. Of course, we hope it will be more. We did as much as we could,” she is quoted as saying.
The DA has been trying to make inroads into the black electorate – its support is mainly concentrated in the Western Cape which has a large white and mixed-race population.
Those born after the end of apartheid in 1994 were able to cast their ballots for the first time, although only a third of those entitled to do so had registered to vote.
The ANC victory would return President Jacob Zuma for a second five-year term. He was dogged by allegations of corruption in the build-up to the election after an independent inquiry found he had “unduly benefited” from an expensive government-funded upgrade to his private residence.
Speaking as he cast his vote on Wednesday, Jacob Zuma said he thought “the results will be very good”, but added that the campaign had been “very challenging”.
Florida police have announced they are not looking for suspects in the case of four bodies found in James Blake’s burned home in Tampa.
The four victims have been identified by relatives as a family who rented the home from tennis star James Blake.
They spent $650 on fireworks days before the fire destroyed their home.
Police officers say they believe the fire was started on purpose but would not say how or who was responsible.
James Blake, 34, was not at the home inside a wealthily Tampa neighborhood at the time of the fire.
He was one of the top-ranked tennis players in the world in 2006, retiring from competition in 2013 after a 14-year career.
James Blake had rented the $1.5 million home in Tampa to the Campbell family for the past two years.
James Blake had rented the $1.5 million home in Tampa to the Campbell family for the past two years
Darrin Campbell had been an executive for several high-profile companies around the US and his wife Kimberly, was a stay-at-home mom. They had two children, Colin, 19, and Megan, 15.
Firefighters were called on Wednesday morning to the home. Neighbors told police they heard explosions coming from the house.
Kimberly Campbell’s father, Gordon Lambie, told the Associated Press news agency the family had been close-knit and successful.
Darrin Campbell had moved to Tampa more than 10 years ago to take a job with a glass container manufacturer, Gordon Lambie said, and held a few additional positions before he had taken the past year off work.
On Thursday, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Col. Donna Lusczynski described the fire as unusual and said there were “various fireworks” throughout the home.
Two victims suffered from upper-body trauma, she added, but did not indicate whom. She also said no weapons had been found.
A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said medical exams of the deceased were under way on Thursday.
“We are not looking for any suspects, not at this point in the investigation,” Debbie Carter said.
William Weimer, vice-president of Phantom fireworks, confirmed Darrin Campbell had bought fireworks on Sunday, describing them as the kind of fireworks usually set off in backyards.
He said the fireworks could have started a fire but that it would have spread slowly.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake has hit Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital, Mexico City.
According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was centered near the town of Tecpan de Galeana in southern Guerrero state, about 190 miles south-west of Mexico City.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake has hit Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital
The earthquake was also felt in the resort city of Acapulco, the Associated Press says.
There are no reports of any damage or injuries but frightened office workers ran into the streets in the capital.
Mexico lies on top of three continental plates and is regularly shaken by tremors.
Finance Minister Luis Videgaray was mid-speech at the National Palace in Mexico City when the latest quake struck, Reuters reports.
“I think we’d better take a pause if you don’t mind,” the news agency quoted him as saying.
The quake had a depth of 15 miles.
The US Geological Survey downgraded the magnitude from an earlier figure of 6.8.
Two Jordanian journalists having a televised debate about the civil war in neighboring Syria literally turned — and overturned — the desk on each other during an on-air brawl.
Journalists Shaker al-Johari and Mohammad al-Jayousi were debating the conflict on Jordan’s Seven Stars program on Thursday.
Mohammad al-Jayousi accused Shaker al-Johari of supporting the revolution in Syria, and was in turn accused of backing President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for money
Mohammad al-Jayousi accused Shaker al-Johari of supporting the revolution in Syria, and was in turn accused of backing President Bashar al-Assad in exchange for money.
The two men, obviously carried away by the debate, stood up and grabbed the edge of the studio table they had been seated at, and tried to fight each other.
In the scuffle, the top of the table broke off and the rest of it toppled as the moderator and studio workers tried to stop the fight and finally separated the two journalists.
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have decided to go ahead with an independence referendum on Sunday, despite a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone it.
The move was announced by separatist leaders after consulting supporters.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin called for a postponement to create the conditions necessary for dialogue.
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have decided to go ahead with an independence referendum on Sunday (photo Reuters)
Ukrainian authorities say they will disregard the results and that “anti-terror” operations will continue.
Millions of ballot papers have been prepared for the referendum.
The question put to voters is: “Do you support the act of proclamation of independent sovereignty for the Donetsk People’s Republic?”
The decision to press ahead with the vote was announced by separatist leaders in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The leader in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said the decision had been unanimous.
“We just voice what the people want and demonstrate through their actions,” he said.
A spokesman for the Kremlin said there was “little information” and that it needed to analyze the situation further.
Moscow has vowed to protect the rights of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population against what it calls an undemocratic government in Kiev.
Ukrainian authorities have rejected activist demands for greater autonomy and troops have been battling to regain official buildings occupied by rebels in the east.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have been honored at the annual Hope Awards dinner of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on Tuesday.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were kidnapped as teens and tormented for years until their escape from Ariel Castro’s house of horrors in Cleveland on May 6, 2013.
They spoke only briefly, with Amanda Berry’s voice muffled by her infectious tears. But her message was clear: “Never give up hope.”
It was one year to the day when Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, were freed from what authorities described as a real-life horror chamber. Ariel Castro, a school bus driver, often kept the women in ropes and chains, torturing them physically and emotionally for more than a decade in his white-frame house with boarded-up windows on Seymour Avenue.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have been honored at the annual Hope Awards dinner of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Michelle Knight was 21 when abducted and now is 33. Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus are also adults now but were honored Tuesday with Hope Awards by the missing children’s center because they were teenagers when kidnapped. Amanda Berry was taken in April of 2003, a day before she turned 17. Gina DeJesus disappeared in January 2004, when she was 14.
Hours before being presented their awards, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus had lunch at the White House and met Vice President Joe Biden. President Barack Obama stopped by to meet them while they were talking with Joe Biden, according to the missing children’s center and the White House.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have guarded their privacy, and although their appearance at the Hope Awards drew attention from network and Cleveland broadcasters, there was little certainty that they would do more than nominally address the ballroom audience of 500 Center for Missing and Exploited Children supporters.
The women appeared flanked by family members, and Amanda Berry, standing center, appeared uncertain of what to say.
“It’s an honor to be here tonight,” Amanda Berry began after hesitation.
“It is really special to be here with Gina and our families. It means more than you’ll ever know.”
Gina DeJesus then spoke, appearing equally uncertain.
“I’m glad to be here with you guys to accept this award,” she said.
“And always believe in hope, even though sometimes it is hard. … Just pray to God” for hope, she said.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped from Castro with the help of Seymour Avenue neighbors on the eve of the missing children’s center Hope Awards last year, when the center’s president and CEO, John Ryan, was fairly new.
Amanda Barry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight have been recognized in other ways this week. Officials announced that more than 10,000 donations had been made to help them, totaling $1.4 million and divided evenly in trusts for their current and future needs.
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus have been working with Mary Jordan, a Washington Post reporter and Cleveland native, to tell their story in a book expected to be released in 2015.
Michelle Knight made an emotional return to the syndicated Dr. Phil show on Wednesday.
The Cleveland survivor said the horrific memories of being held captive and brutalized by Ariel Castro don’t fade with time.
“No, they never go away,” Michelle Knight told Dr. Phil McGraw.
“They stay there, but you know you’re able to live your life.”
Michelle Knight shared many painful and disturbing memories during a highly rated two-part interview aired on Phil McGraw’s daytime talk show in November. A year after escaping Ariel Castro’s Seymour Avenue home, she reunited with Phil McGraw, this time in front of a studio audience.
Airing a day after the publication of her memoir, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed, this was her fourth national television appearance in four days.
Michelle Knight was interviewed by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie Sunday night for the lead story on Dateline. She again spoke to Guthrie Monday morning, this time for a segment of NBC’s Today show. That night, she was interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Writing the book was “a healing experience” Michelle Knight told Phil McGraw on Wednesday’s episode of Dr. Phil.
“It helped me go through all the emotions that I couldn’t do on my own,” said Michelle Knight, who has changed her name to Lilian Rose Lee.
Phil McGraw introduced Michelle Knight as “an inspiring young woman” and “one of my favorite people that I admire so much.”
“One year after being rescued, Michelle is stronger, happier and finally free,” he told his audience.
Dr. Phil episode aired a day after the publication of Michelle Knight’s memoir, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed (photo Dr. Phil)
When asked what she hoped people would take away from her book, Michelle Knight replied: “I want them to know that everybody survives in their own personal way.”
Michelle Knight was the first of three Cleveland women abducted by Castro. She disappeared in August 2002. She was 21 at the time.
Throughout the interview, Michelle Knight refused to refer to Ariel Castro by name. She called him “the Dude”.
She told Phil McGraw that Ariel Castro would rape her as many as “six, seven times a day.” There were five pregnancies.
What did Ariel Castro do when he learned she was pregnant?
“Beat me, starve me, push me down stairs, punch me, jump on my stomach,” Michelle Knight said. The torture continued until the baby was aborted.
Michelle Knight also recalled Castro looking at a news report about murdered 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, saying “he wished he got to her first”.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus escaped from the Seymour Avenue home on May 6, 2013. Castro pleaded guilty to more than 900 criminal counts that included kidnapping, rape and aggravated murder. As part of a plea bargain, Ariel Castro was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 1,000 years, without the chance of parole.
Ariel Castro was found dead on September 3, hanging by a bedsheet in his cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, south of Columbus.
Unlike Berry and DeJesus, who returned to loving families, Michelle Knight spent time at a hospice facility.
“I felt really alone, that nobody really understood,” she said.
Phil McGraw wanted to know if Michelle Knight had any desire to reunite with her family.
“No,” she said.
“I feel that if I do, they’re going to treat me the same way they did before.”
Ariel Castro kept Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus imprisoned in the same room. Phil McGraw asked if she talks to Gina DeJesus.
“Well, it’s just like they all say: relationships with friends come and go,” Michelle Knight said.
“She was there for a little while, and now she’s doing her own thing. I still care and I still love her, and she could always reach me anytime.”
Phil McGraw asked Michelle Knight how did it go when she was reunited with Berry and DeJesus in February when Gov. John Kasich presented them Ohio Courage medals.
“Awkward because we haven’t talked for a real long time and the relationship with us started to go downhill,” she said.
Michelle Knight spoke about her decision not to fight for custody of her son, Joey. He was adopted during her 11 years of captivity, and she thinks he’s with loving parents.
“All I want is the best for him,” she said.
At the end of the episode, Phil McGraw presented Michelle Knight with a Dr. Phil Foundation check for $431,630.
The program included scenes shot in Michelle Knight’s Cleveland apartment, where she keeps a Christmas tree up year round.
“It feels like I’m free,” she said.
“I don’t feel like I’m trapped in a cage.”
Dr. Phil also presented Michelle Knight to culinary school and on a shopping trip to Macy’s.
According to recent figures, China’s exports and imports rebounded in April, helping allay some fears about a slowdown in its economy.
Exports rose 0.9% from a year earlier, after falling for two straight months. Shipments had dropped 6.6% in March and 18.1% in February.
Imports grew 0.8% from a year ago, reversing the 11.3% decline in March.
The data come as China is looking to move its economy away from an export and investment-led growth model to one driven by domestic consumption.
China’s exports and imports rebounded in April, helping allay some fears about a slowdown in its economy
Some analysts said the latest numbers were likely to provide a boost to policymakers, not least because there have been concerns that the world’s second-largest economy may see its growth slow amid the rebalancing efforts.
China’s economy expanded by 7.4% in the first three months of the year, down from 7.7% growth in the previous quarter.
However, a sluggish start for the year is not uncommon for China due to the Lunar New Year holiday when many businesses and factories shut down operations for about two weeks.
For its part, China announced a mini-stimulus in April to help sustain growth.
As part of the stimulus, it said it was extending a tax break for small and medium-sized companies, and ramping up spending on China’s railway infrastructure.
Earlier this year, China launched a free-trade zone in Shanghai.
The zone is widely seen as a test bed for reforms in key areas of the economy, such as the financial and telecom sectors which previously were tightly controlled by the government.
Analysts have said that opening up these areas is key to sustaining China’s long term economic growth.
Thai anti-graft body has indicted ousted PM Yingluck Shinawatra over a controversial rice subsidy scheme.
The case will now be voted on at the Senate. If impeached, Yingluck Shinawatra will be barred from politics for five years.
On Wednesday, a Thai court ordered Yingluck Shinawatra and several cabinet ministers to step down over separate charges.
Thailand has been in political turmoil since anti-government protests erupted in November 2013. In February, snap elections were annulled.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) unanimously voted to indict Yingluck Shinawatra, the commission’s chief said on Thursday.
“The committee has investigated and there is enough evidence to make a case … We will now forward it to the Senate,” Panthep Klanarong said.
Thai anti-graft body has indicted ousted PM Yingluck Shinawatra over a controversial rice subsidy scheme
The NACC is also considering whether to file criminal charges against Yingluck Shinawatra.
Yingluck Shinawatra has previously said she was only in charge of formulating the policy, not the day-to-day running of the scheme, and has said that the commission treated her unfairly.
Under the rice subsidy scheme, the government bought rice from Thai farmers at a much higher price than on the global market.
However, it resulted in the accumulation of huge stockpiles of rice and hit Thailand’s rice exports hard.
Critics said the scheme was too expensive and vulnerable to corruption.
Separately, on Wednesday, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled that Yingluck Shinawatra acted illegally when she transferred her national security head to another position in 2011.
Yingluck Shinawatra stepped down, and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan replaced her as prime minister.
Her supporters believe the courts are biased against her.
Yingluck Shinawatra leads the ruling Pheu Thai Party, which won elections in 2011.
It commands strong support from rural voters, especially in Thailand’s north and north-east.
However, anti-government protesters, who tend to be urban and middle-class voters, have protested against Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration for months, occupying official buildings and disrupting elections in February.
They say ousted former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who is also Yingluck Shinawatra’s brother, is still controlling the government, and that the ruling party has been buying votes with irresponsible spending pledges aimed at its support base.
Both sides have planned rallies this week, and there are fears that clashes could occur.
Thailand’s government has scheduled elections for July 20 after the February vote was declared unconstitutional.
However, the opposition says it will not contest the polls and that political reforms need to be introduced first.
Carlton Citadel Hotel and several other buildings have been destroyed by a huge explosion in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, state media and activists report.
Rebel fighters are believed to have detonated a bomb placed in a tunnel beneath the Carlton Citadel Hotel, near the city’s medieval citadel and souk.
Opposition activists said that government troops were based there and that a number had been killed.
Both sides have been trying to end a long-standing stalemate in the city.
In recent weeks, rebels have been trying to advance on areas where government forces are entrenched, while rebel-held areas of Aleppo have come under fierce aerial bombardment since mid-December.
The state news agency, Sana, reported that “terrorists” had blown up tunnels they had dug underneath archaeological sites in the Old City.
Carlton Citadel Hotel and several other buildings have been destroyed by a huge explosion in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo
Preliminary reports said the hotel had suffered “huge damage”, it added, without saying if there had been any casualties.
The Carlton Citadel is situated inside a 150-year-old building that faces the entrance of the 13th-Century citadel, which along with the rest of the Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, and the opposition Shaam News Network (SNN) said it was being used by government forces.
The remote detonation of a large quantity of explosives placed in the tunnel by the Islamic Front had destroyed the hotel and caused the collapse of several nearby buildings, the Observatory said.
A number of security forces personnel and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were believed to have been killed, it added.
Photographs and video published online purported to show the moment of the blast, with a cloud of smoke rising from the scene.
A statement from the Islamic Front said its fighters had “leveled the Carlton Hotel barracks in Old Aleppo and a number of buildings near it, killing 50 soldiers”. It did not say how it knew how many soldiers died.
The front lines have moved little in more than two years of fighting, though it seems the rebels have made a few incremental gains in recent months.
Meanwhile, hundreds more people are expected to be evacuated from their last remaining rebel stronghold in the heart of Homs.
Almost 1,000 rebel fighters and their relatives were driven in buses from the Old City to opposition-held territory north of Homs on Wednesday.
Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi told Syrian state television on Wednesday that Homs would be declared a “secure” city once the withdrawal was complete and the army had moved in.
The withdrawal is part of a deal that will also see rebels release dozens of captives and ease sieges of two predominantly Shia towns in the north.
Oscar Pistorius’s trial has begun today with discussion of when Reeva Steenkamp may have eaten her last meal.
Witness Christina Lundgren, an anaesthetist, described when a stomach is likely to be emptied after eating.
Oscar Pistorius’s trial has begun today with discussion of when Reeva Steenkamp may have eaten her last meal (photo AP)
Christina Lundgren said the prosecution’s argument that Reeva Steenkamp’s stomach would have been empty if she ate when Oscar Pistorius said she did was “pure speculation”.
Oscar Pistorius, 27, denies intentionally killing Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013.
The South African Paralympic sprinter says he accidentally shot her through a toilet door in a state of panic, mistaking her for an intruder.
Oscar Pistorius had said Reeva Steenkamp ate her last meal the evening before she was killed, and that the couple had been sleeping before waking in the early hours.
The prosecution has argued that this cannot be true as Reeva Steenkamp had food in her stomach at the time of her death.
Speaking on Thursday, Prof. Christina Lundgren, who was shown copies of the post mortem report, said there were many factors that could have delayed gastric emptying in Reeva Steenkamp’s stomach, including sleep, exercise, medication, and her age.
“In an ideal world, after six hours of fasting after [the] meal her stomach should probably have been empty. But there are so many unknowns about possible factors that might have delayed gastric emptying,” she said.
“One cannot state it as being fact” that Reeva Steenkamp’s stomach would have been empty six hours after eating, Prof. Christina Lundgren said.
Four people have been found dead in the burned home of former tennis star James Blake in Florida.
The unidentified victims were found by fire fighters early on Wednesday after responding to reports of a blaze.
Four people have been found dead in the burned home of former tennis star James Blake in Florida
James Blake, 34, was not at the $1.5 million home, which was being rented out at the time of the incident.
He was one of the top-ranked tennis players in the world in 2006, retiring from competition in 2013 after a 14-year career.
Emergency crews battled the fire throughout the morning on Wednesday before later extinguishing it.
Two bodies were located earlier in the day, a third later in the morning and a fourth body in the afternoon, according to local media.
Safety concerns regarding the structural integrity of the home have hampered a more detailed search as of yet.
Hillsborough County sheriff’s Corporal Donna Lusczynski told the Tampa Tribune it may be days before the home is safe enough to enter and for medical examiners to identify the victims found inside.
The partial results in South Africa’s polls show that governing African National Congress (ANC) has taken an early lead in the general election.
With 31% of votes counted, the ANC had 58.7% of the vote followed by the Democratic Alliance on 27.7%.
The ANC is widely expected to return to power although analysts say anything less than 60% of the vote for the party will be seen as a major upset.
The ANC is widely expected to return to power in South Africa (photo AFP)
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party was in third place with 4.2%.
The electoral commission said voting passed peacefully in most areas.
Turnout was just over 72%, with about 25 million people registered to vote in 22,000 polling stations across South Africa.
The elections are the first since the death in December of Nelson Mandela – the country’s first black president – and mark 20 years since the end of white-minority rule.
Those born after the end of apartheid in 1994 were able to cast their ballots for the first time, although only a third of those entitled to do so had registered to vote.
An ANC victory would return President Jacob Zuma for a second five-year term. In the last election in 2009, the ANC saw a drop in support, polling 66% of the vote.
Speaking as he cast his vote on Wednesday, Jacob Zuma said he thought “the results will be very good”, but added that the campaign had been “very challenging”.
The party emerging as the ANC’s main challenger is the Democratic Alliance (DA) – a liberal pro-business party, led by anti-apartheid activist Helen Zille, which is trying to make inroads into the black electorate.
The EFF, launched last year by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, hopes to get its first parliamentary seats with its campaign for nationalizing the mines and the forced redistribution of farmland.
Toyota has seen its profits nearly double, boosted by the Japanese yen’s weakness and cost cutting.
The carmaker made a net profit of 1.82 trillion yen ($17.8 billion) in the year to March 31, up from 962 billion yen a year ago.
Toyota has seen its profits nearly double, boosted by the Japanese yen’s weakness and cost cutting
But that was lower than its February forecast of 1.9 trillion yen profit.
Japanese companies, especially those relying on exports, have benefited from the weakness in the yen which helps lift their profits when they repatriate their overseas earnings back home.
The Japanese yen has weakened by nearly 18% against the US dollar since the start of 2013 amid aggressive policy measures by the government.
Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, said the yen’s weakness boosted its profits by nearly 900bn yen during the past financial year.
Scientists say Viagra and Cialis could be used to fight Duchenne muscular dystrophy in boys.
In tests the drugs helped improve blood flow to the muscles of boys with DMD.
Scientists at the Cedars-Sinai Institute in Los Angeles hope the drugs could slow the onset of the disease, which causes the breakdown and gradual loss of muscle fibres.
But experts warn the study did not show an improvement in the boys’ ability to walk, and was not a “big breakthrough”.
DMD affects one in every 3,500 newborn boys, and many will die before they reach 30.
DMD affects one in every 3,500 newborn boys, and many will die before they reach 30
It can become fatal when it affects the muscles needed to breathe and pump blood around the body.
Many patients with the condition have to use a wheelchair by the age of 10, and there is currently no effective treatment.
Corticosteroids, currently used for short-term treatment, have a range of side effects, from acne, muscle weakness and stomach ulcers to diabetes, osteoporosis and high blood pressure.
But they do not work in 25% of cases.
Scientists looked at the new treatment in a study of 10 boys with DMD aged between eight and 13.
Boys with DMD had “blood flow abnormalities” despite taking corticosteroids, they said.
The boys, who had previously been taking corticosteroids, were given a single dose of either sildenafil, commonly known as Viagra, or tadalafil, known as Cialis, which are also used to treat erectile dysfunction.
The dose was given and the blood flow in the boys’ muscles was measured after one hour, for Viagra and after three hours for Cialis.
It was measured when they were resting and then doing a handgrip exercise, after taking corticosteroids, Viagra and Cialis.
Their blood flow was compared with 10 boys of the same age who didn’t have DMD.
The study said blood flow to the muscles was improved in boys treated with both Viagra and Cialis, compared with when they were taking corticosteroids.
The blood flow of boys with DMD increased by 32% after exercise without either treatment.
But after treatment with Cialis, their blood flow increased by 63%. This compares with 78% in “healthy” boys.
The study built on earlier work in zebra fish and mice.
The retrial for the penalty phase of convicted killer Jodi Arias will begin on September 8.
Judge Sherry Stephens has pushed back the Jodi Arias retrial because attorney Juan Martine will be prosecuting in another trial that conflicts with Arias’ trial.
The retrial for the penalty phase of convicted killer Jodi Arias will begin on September 8
According to the Arizona Republic, Juan Martinez is scheduled to begin the trial on May 12, the oldest capital murder case in Maricopa County, which may also be a death penalty trial. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Welty ruled the trial of Bryan Hulsey, who was accused of killing a police officer in the Phoenix area in 2007 will go first.
Jodi Arias, 33, was convicted of killing her boyfriend at his suburban Phoenix home in 2008. Jodi Arias said she did it in self-defense. She claimed Travis Alexander had a violent outburst while they were shooting a video and she dropped his camera. The jury found her guilty but couldn’t decide whether to sentence her to life in prison or give her the death penalty but the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on her sentence.
In Arizona, capital-murder trials have three parts. First, a jury has to find the person guilty of first-degree murder. Jodi Arias was found guilty on May 8, 2013. Second, jurors decide whether there were any aggravating factors. The jury found that the murder was committed in an especially cruel fashion one week later. The third is sentencing. Under Arizona law, Jodi Arias’ murder conviction stands, but prosecutors can pursue a death sentence in the penalty phase with a new jury. If the second jury fails to reach a verdict, the death penalty would be removed as an option. Judge Sherry Stephens would then sentence Jodi Arias to either life behind bars or be eligible for release after 25 years.
Judge Sherry Stephens denied two motions by Jodi Arias to fire her lead attorney, Kirk Nurmi.
Because of the excessive publicity, Jodi Arias attorneys have already filed motions requesting that the sentencing phase of the trial be moved out of the Phoenix area.
Michelle Knight was 21 years old when she was kidnapped on August 23, 2002, in Cleveland, Ohio.
She was held prisoner by Ariel Castro, suffering abuse at his hands for more than 10 years.
Michelle Knight was 21 years old when she was kidnapped on August 2002 (photo Dr. Phil)
Born in April 1981, Michelle Knight grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. As a girl, she wanted to pursue a career as a firefighter, and later aspired to become a veterinarian.
Unfortunately, Michelle Knight – whose height of 4 feet 7 inches earned her the nickname “Shorty” – was bullied in high school.
At the age of 17, Michelle Knight told her mother that she had been assaulted at school.
She dropped out of school after becoming pregnant. She had a son, whom she named Joey. When the boy was a toddler, an injury – possibly caused by an abusive boyfriend of her mother’s – led to his son being taken away from Knight and placed in foster care.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were rescued from Ariel Castro’s house of horrors on May 6, 2013.
According to new reports, Prince Harry is planning to meet up with Cressida Bonas in the hope of rekindling their two-year long romance.
The 29-year-old royal is back in the UK after spending the weekend in the US for his best friend Guy Pelly’s wedding.
Cressida Bonas and Prince Harry split two weeks ago
According to Prince Harry’s close friends, he is planning to meet up with Cressida Bonas “imminently”, Vanity Fair reported.
Cressida Bonas and Prince Harry split two weeks ago. She was upset that she was not invited to a bachelors’ party in Miami, and told Prince Harry she wasn’t prepared to fly to America for a bash she wasn’t invited to. The argument soon escalated and resulted in Cressida Bonas calling off the romance.
However, according to the couple’s inner circle, Prince Harry is desperate for a rapprochement and spent most of the wedding weekend talking about Cressida Bonas and sending her text messages.
Vladimir Putin says Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election is a step “in the right direction”.
However, the Russian president said the vote would decide nothing unless the rights of “all citizens” were protected.
Ukraine’s interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk described as “hot air” Vladimir Putin’s call for an independence referendum, planned this weekend by separatists in the east, to be delayed.
Vladimir Putin also said that Russia had pulled back its troops from the border, as tension remains high.
Vladimir Putin met Didier Burkhalter, the Swiss president and current chairman of the OSCE, in Moscow (photo Euronews)
Moscow has said it will protect the rights of the largely Russian-speaking people in the south and east against what it calls an undemocratic government in Kiev.
Kiev has rejected pro-Russian activists’ demands for greater autonomy, fearing it could lead to the break-up of the country, and has sent in troops in recent weeks to seize back official buildings occupied by rebels.
Vladimir Putin suggested that Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine could be halted in exchange for a postponement of the referendum scheduled to take place in several areas on Sunday.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Vladimir Putin of “talking through his hat”.
Earlier on Wednesday, pro-Russian separatists took back the city hall in the southern port of Mariupol after it was briefly taken over by Ukrainian government forces.
Vladimir Putin made his suggestion after talks in Moscow with Didier Burkhalter, the Swiss president and current chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
On the forthcoming presidential elections, Vladimir Putin said: “I would like to stress that… while they are a move in the right direction, [they] will not decide anything if all the citizens of Ukraine fail to understand how their rights are protected after the elections are held.”
Vladimir Putin also said he had pulled back Russian forces from the border with Ukraine to “places of regular exercises, at training grounds”, although NATO said it had “not seen any significant change to the disposition of troops along the border”.
The reality TV personality and model is splitting up with her third husband Kieran Hayler after accusing him of having an affair with her best friend Jane Pountney.
Katie Price is splitting up with her third husband Kieran Hayler after accusing him of having an affair with her best friend Jane Pountney
Katie Price posted the news on her Twitter account.
“Sorry to say me and kieran are divorcing him and my best friend jane pountney bee having a full blown s**ual affair for 7 months,” Katie Price wrote.
According to the South Korean coastguard, the number of people who survived the Sewol ferry disaster three weeks ago has been over-counted by two passengers.
Coastguard chief Kim Suk-kyoon said only 172 people survived the April 16 sinking – not 174, as the government had been saying since April 18.
Kim Suk-kyoon said the miscount was due to mistakes in the counting process.
PM Chung Hong-won has said that the search for victims in the sunken ferry must be completed by the weekend.
The number of people who survived the Sewol ferry disaster has been over-counted by two passengers (photo Yonhap)
Correspondents say that the changes to the survivor count means that the number of people feared dead has risen to 304.
So far 269 bodies have been recovered.
More than 80% of the victims are students from a single high school near Seoul who were on a trip to southern Jeju island.
Kim Suk-kyoon said that one miscount was because one of the survivors was accidentally listed twice – the other was due to an inaccurate report supplied by a passenger who survived.
Correspondents say that families of the victims and many other South Koreans will see the miscount as the latest manifestation of the government’s mishandling of the rescue effort.
The authorities have also been accused of a series of regulatory failures before the ferry sunk.
Rescuers on Wednesday continued their intensive search, with coastguard, navy and civilian divers working in shifts to open all of the 64 passenger cabins where the missing are thought to be trapped.
In addition fishermen have been asked to search the waters near the site of the sinking because of fears that bodies and belongings of the passengers could be swept away from the sunken vessel despite the installation of nets that were supposed to stop this from happening, Yonghap reported.
Divers who had been battling bad weather and fast currents to retrieve bodies over the past three weeks faced better conditions on Wednesday, officials said.
A cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex with a very long nose has been nicknamed Pinocchio rex.
The ferocious carnivore is 9m-long with a distinctive snout.
Its skeleton was dug up in a Chinese construction site and identified by scientists at Edinburgh University, UK.
The 66-million-year-old predator, officially named Qianzhousaurus sinensis, is described in Nature Communications.
Pinocchio looked very different to other tyrannosaurs.
Pinocchio rex is 66-million-year-old predator, officially named Qianzhousaurus sinensis (photo National Geographic)
“It had the familiar toothy grin of T. rex, but its snout was long and slender, with a row of horns on top,” said Edinburgh’s Dr. Steve Brusatte.
“It might have looked a little comical, but it would have been as deadly as any other tyrannosaur, and maybe even a little faster and stealthier.
“We thought it needed a nickname, and the long snout made us think of Pinocchio’s long nose.”
Researchers now think several different tyrannosaurs lived and hunted alongside each other in Asia during the late Cretaceous Period, the last days of the dinosaurs.
The enormous Tarbosaurus (up to 13 m) had deep and powerful jaws like T. rex – strong enough to crush the bones of giant herbivores.
The thinner teeth and lighter skeleton of Qianzhousaurus suggest it hunted smaller creatures, such as lizards and feathered dinosaurs. But at 9 m tall and weighing almost a tonne, it was still a gigantic carnivore.
Pinocchio’s snout was 35% longer than other dinosaurs of its size.
The discovery of “Pinocchio” settles an argument over a series of strange new fossil finds.
Paleontologists are now confident that Qianzhousaurus and Alioramus are part of a new subgroup of tyrannosaurs with elongated skulls.
Their discovery from Mongolia to southern China suggests these “second tier” carnivores were widely distributed, according to Prof Junchang Lu of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, a co-author on the paper.
With these “weird” creatures now accepted as being part of a whole family, more and more of their long-snouted relatives are expected to be unearthed.
As for the riddle of Pinocchio’s nose, the scientists hope to solve it via biomechanical studies of its jaw – which may hint at its feeding habits.
Nigeria is offering a 50 million naira ($300,000) reward to anyone who can help locate and rescue more than 200 abducted schoolgirls.
The schoolgirls were kidnapped more than three weeks ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants from their boarding school in the north-eastern state of Borno.
Eleven other girls were taken on Sunday night after two villages were attacked.
Boko Haram’s leader admitted earlier this week that his fighters had abducted the girls in the middle of the night from their school in the town of Chibok on April 14.
Nigeria is offering a $300,000 reward to anyone who can help locate and rescue more than 200 abducted schoolgirls
Abubakar Shekau threatened to “sell” the students, saying they should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married.
The group, whose name means “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language, began its insurgency in 2009.
More than 1,500 have been killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone.
A statement from the police said the 50 million naira reward would be given to anyone who “volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students”.
Six phone numbers are provided, calling on the general public to be “part of the solution to the present security challenge”.
“The police high command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality,” the statement said.
The abductions have prompted widespread criticism of the Nigerian government and demonstrations countrywide.
The girls are mostly aged between 16 and 18 and were taking their final year exams.
The governments of Chad and Cameroon have denied suggestions that the abducted girls may have already been smuggled over Nigeria’s porous borders into their territory.
A team of US experts has been sent to Nigeria to help in the hunt.
Security has been tightened in Abuja as several African leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are attending the World Economic Forum for Africa in the city, following two recent attacks there blamed on the insurgents.
