Chinese Twitter-like service Weibo’s shares rose by almost 20% on their first day of trading on the US stock market, after a lukewarm start.
Weibo’s flotation on the NASDAQ stock exchange had initially raised a less-than-expected $286 million.
However, investors flocked to the shares, and they ended the day at $20.24, after opening at $17.
The number of Weibo users fell after China’s censors strengthened control of online discussions last year.
Weibo’s flotation on the NASDAQ stock exchange had initially raised a less-than-expected $286 million
The China Internet Network Information Center said in its annual report that almost 28 million people abandoned Weibo in 2013.
It can only be used by Chinese citizens who verify their account with a mobile phone number.
The sale is a big test of demand for Chinese internet stocks ahead of an anticipated listing by Weibo’s co-owner, the Alibaba group.
China’s internet market has grown to become the world’s biggest with more than 500 million users.
With major global social networking firms such as Facebook and Twitter blocked in the country, domestic companies have benefited the most from this growth.
However, the growing popularity of social media platforms has also attracted the attention of authorities who have moved swiftly to silence voices online.
Easter’s Way of the Cross procession in Rome has been led by Pope Francis, with prayers for the poor and the abandoned.
Via Crucis ceremony marks Christians’ commemoration of Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday. Tens of thousands of people lined the route near the 2,000-year-old Colosseum.
Pope Francis heard the Vatican’s official preacher deliver a sermon denouncing greed and the love of money.
The procession is part of the Church’s Easter triduum festival.
Pope Francis urged the crowd to “remember all the abandoned people” and spoke of the “monstrosity of man” when he lets evil guide him.
Easter’s Way of the Cross procession in Rome has been led by Pope Francis, with prayers for the poor and the abandoned
“Evil won’t have the last word, but love, mercy and pardon will” he added at the end of the Way of the Cross.
The sermon, by Father Raniero Cantalamessa, spoke of the injustice of human trafficking and suffering caused by environmental damage.
“Money is behind every evil in our society” the preacher declared.
The procession route included 14 stages, known as Stations of the Cross, at which specially written meditations were recited.
One meditation touched on the plight of child soldiers, while another recalled the deaths of migrants trying to reach more prosperous countries.
Other meditations criticized overcrowding in prisons and the treatment of the elderly.
Immigrants, prisoners, former drug addicts and elderly people were among those who helped carry a large cross between the different stations.
On Saturday night, Pope Francis will celebrate an Easter vigil Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.
Easter services will then conclude on Sunday with a Mass celebrating Jesus’s resurrection.
Pope Francis will deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message.
On Thursday, the Pope washed the feet of 12 disabled people in Rome as part of the Maundy Thursday service commemorating Christ’s Last Supper.
Pope Francis broke with tradition by washing the feet of several women and a Muslim man in a ceremony traditionally restricted to men only.
Prince has a signed a new deal with Warner Bros Records after 18 years.
Prince and Warner Bros split was so acrimonious that the singer called himself a slave and changed his stage name to a symbol.
Now he says the new deal will see a release of his classic album Purple Rain in time for its 30th anniversary.
Prince will also regain ownership of master recordings made during his previous deal with Warner Bros.
“A brand-new studio album is on the way and both Warner Bros Records and Eye (sic) are quite pleased with the results of the negotiations and look forward to a fruitful working relationship,” Prince said in a statement.
The Purple Rain album was released in 1984, as was the cult film of the same name.
Prince and Warner Bros split was so acrimonious that the singer called himself a slave and changed his stage name to a symbol (photo AP)
The album will be given a “deluxe reissue” to coincide with its milestone. More of his classic albums are expected to get the same treatment.
“Everyone at Warner Bros Records is delighted to be working with Prince once again; he is one of the world’s biggest stars and a truly unique talent,” said Warner Bros Records chairman and CEO, Cameron Strang.
Prince signed to Warner Brothers Records in 1977 and they released the biggest albums of his career – among them Purple Rain, Sign O The Times and the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Batman movie in 1989.
But by the time of 1991’s Diamonds and Pearls, the relationship had soured.
“He didn’t want to be told what to do any more,” Prince’s publicist Chris Poole told his biographer, Matt Thorne.
Specifically, Prince wanted to be able to release more music, more often. Furthermore, he felt he should own the original master tapes for his hit albums.
When Warner Bros disagreed, on both counts, Prince began appearing in public with the word “Slave” written across his face, and changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol – leading the press to christen him The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
“People think I’m a crazy fool for writing <<slave>> on my face,” Prince told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996.
“But if I can’t do what I want to do, what am I? When you stop a man from dreaming, he becomes a slave.
“That’s where I was. I don’t own Prince’s music. If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.”
Prince eventually fulfilled his contract by delivering Warner Bros a series of albums packed with off-cuts and lacklustre material – including Chaos and Disorder and Old Friends 4 Sale.
Although they contained an occasional gem – such as 1996’s playful Dinner With Delores – the records damaged his reputation with casual fans, who were confused and disinterested by what amounted to an employment dispute.
By the time Prince released his first post-Warners album – the pointedly-titled Emancipation.
Prince’s latest album, PlectrumElectrum, was recorded with his all-female band 3rdEyeGirl.
President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that would block the entry of any UN ambassador whom the US says has engaged in “terrorist activity”.
The law came as a response to Iran’s pick of Hamid Aboutalebi as UN envoy.
Hamid Aboutalebi was linked to the student militants who overran the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
The US has already denied Hamid Aboutalebi a visa, and Barack Obama said he would treat the new law as “advisory”.
Iran has lodged a formal complaint with the UN over the rejection.
Hamid Aboutalebi was linked to the student militants who overran the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 (photo Iranian Presidency)
The bill that Barack Obama signed into law on Friday passed both houses of Congress handily following uproar over Hamid Aboutalebi’s links to the students who seized the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held the American diplomats hostage.
Hamid Aboutalebi has said that he acted merely as a translator on a couple of occasions for the hostage-takers, an account corroborated by some of the activists.
A senior political adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, he has previously served as the Iranian ambassador to Italy, Belgium and Australia.
In a statement on Friday upon signing the bill, Barack Obama said: “I share the Congress’ concern that individuals who have engaged in such activity may use the cover of diplomacy to gain access to our nation.”
However, Barack Obama said the law could effectively curtail his power under the US constitution to receive or reject ambassadors, and thus he said he would treat the law “as advisory in circumstances in which it would interfere with the exercise of this discretion”.
Under the 1947 Headquarters Agreement, the US is generally required to grant visas to persons invited to the UN in New York.
Iran’s deputy envoy at the UN, Hossein Dehghani, has asked Committee on Relations with the Host Country for a meeting over the decision, saying the US had violated its legal obligations under international law.
“This decision of the US government has indeed negative implications for multilateral diplomacy and will create a dangerous precedence and affect adversely the work of intergovernmental organizations and activities of their member states,” Hossein Dehghani warned.
A Pakistani library in Islamabad has been renamed after Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda chief.
The Islamic seminary for women – Jamia Hafsa Madrassa – is linked to the Red Mosque, known for its alleged links with militants.
A paper sign on one of the doors proclaims Osama bin Laden a “Shahid” (martyr).
Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by US commandos in 2011.
Pakistani troops raided the mosque in 2007. Dozens died later in clashes.
Jamia Hafsa Madrassa renamed its library after Osama Bin Laden
There are no chairs or any table in the library – just two computers on the floor.
The library is in a huge complex in the heart of Islamabad, part of which is still being built.
A spokesman for the madrassa said the new name was a tribute to Osama bin Laden, who was “a hero”.
The chief cleric there is Maulana Abdul Aziz. He warned that “if the government makes madrassas and mosques its target then Sharia (Islamic law) allows us to retaliate – if anyone will be harsh with us, they should not expect flowers in return”.
He also uses the library as his office. It has about 2,000 books – all of them related to Islam.
There are books about Sharia, Jihad and interpretations of the Koran in Arabic, Urdu and English.
Lee Joon-seok, the captain of South Korean ferry Sewol that capsized and sank earlier this week has been arrested, Yonhap news agency reports.
Captain Lee Joon-seok faced charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law.
Yonhap said a local court had issued arrest warrants for him and two other crew members on these charges.
Efforts to find the 268 people still missing have been hampered by low visibility and strong currents.
Twenty-eight people are now known to have died in the disaster, with 179 rescued.
The ferry Sewol was sailing from Incheon, in the north-west, to the southern resort island of Jeju. It capsized and sank within two hours.
Captain Lee Joon-seok faced charges including negligence of duty and violation of maritime law (photo Yonhap)
Lee Joon-seok, who had already been questioned by police, was shown on television on Thursday, his face partially obscured, apologizing to the victims and their relatives.
“I am really sorry and deeply ashamed. I don’t know what to say,” he said.
It has emerged that a junior officer – and not the captain – was at the helm of the ferry when it capsized.
Investigations are focusing on the sharp turn the vessel took before it started listing and whether an evacuation order could have saved lives.
Some experts believe such a tight turn could have dislodged heavy cargo and destabilized the vessel, while others suggest it could have been caused by a collision with a rock.
Survivors have accused the crew of instructing them to remain where they were rather than evacuate the ship.
Messages and phone calls from those inside painted a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the sharply-listing ferry.
Earlier on Friday, coastguard officials said that two divers had managed to enter the cargo bay of the vessel, but could not identify or rescue anyone because of items obstructing their way.
Some 350 of those on board were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, a suburb of Seoul, who were on a school outing when the ferry sank.
The vice principal of Danwon High School, who was rescued from the ferry, was found dead on nearby Jindo island on Friday.
Kang Min-Kyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday and was discovered hanging from a tree near the gym on Jindo island – where many of the relatives of missing passengers have been staying.
Amid a major search and rescue operation, officials say air has been pumped into the ship to help any people trapped inside and to help refloat the vessel. But officials say it is unlikely anyone has survived.
Three salvage cranes have reached the site and they may be used to raise the ship or move it to another area with weaker currents.
Challenging conditions have hampered the search for a third consecutive day.
Vertigo actress Kim Novak says that cruel jabs about how she looked during this year’s Oscar ceremony amounted to bullying that left her crushed at first, but then determined to speak out in protest.
Kim Novak, 81, has called the treatment she received following her Oscars appearance “bullying”.
Following her presenting stint at the Academy Awards, Kim Novak was subjected to jibes about her looks, including a tweet from Donald Trump.
“I will no longer hold myself back from speaking out against bullies. We can’t let people get away with affecting our lives,” the actress wrote in an open letter.
She admitted she had “fat injections” in her face.
Following her presenting stint at the Academy Awards, Kim Novak was subjected to jibes about her looks
“In my opinion, a person has a right to look as good as they can, and I feel better when I look better,” Kim Novak wrote in a Facebook post.
The actress added: “We need to stand up to them [bullies] in a healthy way by speaking out, working out and acting out. I am speaking out now because I don’t want to harbor unhealthy feelings inside me anymore.”
Kim Novak told the Associated Press that she did not leave her house for days after the ceremony, and the criticism she received “really did throw me into a tailspin and it hit me hard”.
She was also critical of the comments made about actress Liza Minnelli during the ceremony, when host Ellen DeGeneres jokingly mistook her for a male impersonator.
Kim Novak blamed her halting speech during the ceremony on taking medication to “relax”, which she regretted.
She said she had walked away from the Hollywood industry many years ago because of the immense pressure it had placed on her, but felt ready to return to the spotlight.
“When I was honored at the Cannes Film Festival last year, I received an overwhelming standing ovation,” she wrote.
“Yet, in Hollywood, after the Oscars, I was bullied by the press and the public on the internet and TV.”
Kim Novak said she felt the time was right to “address the elephant in the room” publically for the first time after appearing at a film festival and speaking about it openly.
“I realized that I had to stand up not only for myself but for other people that don’t have the courage to do so,” she said.
“I feel like I have a mission.”
Kim Novak presented the award for best animated feature at the Oscars 2014 on March 3.
Chelsea Clinton announced that she is pregnant during a speech in New York City with her mother, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at her side.
“Marc and I are very excited that we have our first child arriving later this year,” Chelsea Clinton said at the Lower East Side Girls Club at the end of a Clinton Foundation event dedicated to empowering young girls.
Chelsea Clinton, 34, did not say if she and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, are having a boy or a girl.
However, Chelsea Clinton later tweeted that her due date is sometime this fall.
Chelsea Clinton revealed that her due date is sometime this fall
“I certainly feel all the better whether it’s a girl or a boy that she or he will grow up in a world full of so many strong, young female leaders,” she told the audience full of young women.
“So thank you for inspiring me.”
Hillary Clinton connected the announcement to the focus of the day’s event, telling the crowd that she is not only excited for her family but for the future generations who may not have to face the same glass ceilings as she did.
“Obviously we are very excited about what’s happening in our family,” Hillary Clinton told the young women.
“But we’re also very excited because of what we’re doing that we hope gives confidence and support to so many of you across our country as you make decisions about the lives you want to lead and try to make sure there are no ceilings that are stopping you from going as far and as high and as fast as you can.”
Chelsea’s parents, Bill and Hillary Clinton, both responded on Twitter shortly after the announcement Thursday afternoon.
Former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, 34, and husband Marc Mezvinsky will welcome the new addition to their family later this year.
The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton currently serves as vice chair of the charitable Clinton Foundation, focusing on global health initiatives.
Chelsea Clinton and husband Marc Mezvinsky will welcome the new addition to their family later this year
Chelsea Clinton has told US media she has not ruled out a political run in the future.
She made the announcement at a public event with her mother in New York organized by a Clinton Foundation initiative to advance the cause of women and girls around the world.
“Mark and I are very excited that we have our first child arriving,” Chelsea Clinton said.
“I certainly feel all the better whether it’s a girl or a boy that she or he will grow up in a world full of so many strong young female leaders,” she added.
“I just hope that I will be as good a mom to my child… as my mother was to me.”
Hillary Clinton is currently considered a strong contender for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, although she has yet to announce her intent to run.
Pro-Russian militants in Donetsk say they will not leave the government building there, defying the Kiev authorities and threatening a new international deal on Ukraine.
The separatists’ spokesman said that the Kiev government was “illegal”, so they would not go until the Kiev government stepped down.
Russia, Ukraine, the EU and US earlier agreed that illegal military groups in Ukraine must leave official buildings.
They reached the deal in Geneva.
Pro-Russian militants in Donetsk say they will not leave the government building there, defying the Kiev authorities and threatening a new international deal on Ukraine
Alexander Gnezdilov, spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said his group would evacuate the government building in the eastern city only when the “illegal” Kiev government vacated parliament and the presidential administration.
A tense standoff continues in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists – many of them armed – are occupying official buildings in at least nine cities and towns.
Another protest leader in Donetsk said the separatists would not leave unless pro-European demonstrators in Kiev’s Maidan Square packed up their camp first.
President Barack Obama cautiously welcomed the Geneva deal, but warned that the US and its allies were ready to impose new sanctions on Russia if the situation failed to improve.
On Friday there were reports of some shooting in Serhiyivka, in Donetsk region.
Ukrainian paratroopers opened fire to remove a protesters’ roadblock in Serhiyivka, Interfax-Ukraine reported, quoting local sources. The details have not been confirmed.
Russia denies fomenting separatism in eastern and southern Ukraine.
According to South Korean investigators, the third officer was at the helm of Sewol ferry that capsized off Jindo island.
A total of 268 people – including scores of high school students – remain missing after Wednesday’s disaster.
Twenty-eight people are now known to have died and 179 were rescued.
It is not clear why the ferry sank, but experts have suggested it either hit a rock or turned sharply, unbalancing the vessel as cargo shifted.
Sewol ferry had been travelling from Incheon, in the north-west, to the southern resort island of Jeju. It capsized and sank within a period of two hours, officials said.
A major search and rescue operation has been under way. Bad weather, poor visibility and strong currents hampered the divers’ search on Thursday.
Some of the divers have managed to enter the cargo bay of the ship, a coast guard official confirmed in a press conference on Friday.
But they could not identify or rescue any people due to items obstructing the way, the unnamed official added.
The third officer was at the helm of Sewol ferry that capsized off South Korea coast
Air was also now being injected into the ship to help any people trapped inside – though officials have said that survivors are unlikely – and to help refloat the vessel.
Coast guard officials, quoted by AFP, say the bodies picked up were found floating in the water, and none had been retrieved from the ship itself.
Three salvage cranes have also arrived at the scene, to raise the ship or move it to another area with weaker currents.
“We will review the options very carefully, as the salvage operations may hurt survivors trapped inside,” Yonhap news agency quoted a coast guard officer as saying.
Meanwhile, investigators have stated that the captain of the ferry, Lee Joon-seok, was not in charge when the ferry ran into trouble.
“It was the third officer who was in command of steering the ship when the accident took place,” state prosecutor Park Jae-Eok told journalists.
“Whether or not they took a drastic turnaround… is under investigation,” he said.
“Though surviving crews have different testimonies about the situation, we’ve been investigating the captain as he was suspected to leave the steering room for an unknown reason,” Park Jae-Eok added.
In a separate development, reports say the vice principal of Danwon High School, who was rescued from the ferry, was found dead on Friday.
Yonhap news agency quotes police as saying Kang Min-Kyu, 52, was found hanging from a tree near the gym where many of the relatives of missing passengers have been staying.
Witnesses have accused the crew of telling passengers to remain where they were, rather than evacuate the sinking ship.
Messages and phone calls from those inside painted a picture of people trapped in crowded corridors, unable to escape the severely-listing ferry.
Some 350 of those on board were students from the same high school in a suburb of Seoul who were on a field trip.
Their relatives have endured a long wait for news – their anguish compounded by conflicting information about numbers of survivors issued early on.
In a public statement issued on Friday, families of the missing called for more urgent action.
“Nobody told us about what went wrong and what was happening out there. There was not even a situation room in charge by late Wednesday,” a representative said.
“Our children would be shouting for help in the freezing water,” he said.
The nearly 8-year marriage of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban is on the rocks because of distance, her ostensible Botox use and his “flirtations”, claims Star magazine.
Keith Urban is supposedly spending much of his time jetting from Los Angeles to Sydney to visit Nicole Kidman and their two daughters.
Keith Urban is supposedly spending much of his time jetting from Los Angeles to Sydney to visit Nicole Kidman and their two daughters
“He’s groveling,” contends the source.
“He told her that he wants to put their family first and get their marriage back on track.”
While it’s been close to a year since Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban posed together on the red carpet, they were spotted in Sydney last week with daughters Sunday, 5, and Faith, 3.
Just days ago, Keith Urban praised Nicole Kidman’s ability to balance her busy career and their home life, calling her “an amazing wife and mother”.
Four anti-corruption activists linked to the New Citizens’ Movement – which campaigns for government transparency – have been jailed by a Chinese court.
Human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi was jailed for three and a half years, while veteran activist Zhao Changqing was jailed for two and a half years.
Activists Zhang Baocheng and Li Wei each received two-year sentences.
The verdicts come after Beijing’s high court upheld a four-year jail term given to movement founder Xu Zhiyong.
Four anti-corruption activists linked to the New Citizens’ Movement have been jailed by Beijing court
The New Citizens’ Movement a loose network of activists is campaigning for government officials to disclose their wealth.
Xu Zhiyong had appealed against his sentence for “gathering crowds to disrupt public order”.
The four activists were charged with the same offence, Beijing’s Haidian District People’s Court said in a blog post.
Zhang Baocheng’s lawyer, Ge Yongxi, told the AFP news agency that the ruling was “a warning and a threat”.
“We think he’s completely innocent; there is no legal basis for the court’s ruling, and the punishment is too heavy,” Ge Yongxi said.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly vowed to crack down on corruption – but the party has also tried critics and anti-corruption activists.
Human rights groups said the crackdown on the activists was part of a wider campaign against civil society by the government, despite President Xi Jinping’s high-profile public campaign against corruption.
A surgeon treating an Indian businessman in Delhi has recovered 12 bars of gold from his stomach.
The 63-year-old man was admitted to hospital after complaining of vomiting and difficulty defecating.
He told his doctor that he had swallowed a bottle cap in anger, after a fight with his wife.
But when surgeons operated they found gold bars weighing nearly 400g (14oz) in his stomach instead of a bottle cap.
Police and customs authorities had questioned the businessman and confiscated the gold.
Indians traditionally hoard gold in the belief it will bring financial security (photo Reuters)
India, the world’s largest consumer of gold, has seen a record rise in smuggling after a rise in duty on imports of metal to curb the current account deficit.
Dr. CS Ramachandran, a senior surgeon at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said he had never seen a “case like this in my life”.
“This is the first time I have recovered gold from the stomach of a patient. I remember having taken out a bladder stone weighing 1kg from a patient. But finding gold in a patient’s stomach was something unbelievable,” he said.
“It was a tedious three-hour-long operation. He is an old patient and we had to be careful. We found 12 gold bars lying in a stack in his stomach.”
The businessman, who had undergone four stomach surgeries in the past and is a diabetic, was admitted to the hospital earlier this month, with symptoms of “acute intestinal obstruction”, Dr. CS Ramachandran added.
Last year India’s government hiked the import duty on gold three times to curb demand for the precious metal.
Gold imports, which had peaked at 162,000kg in May 2013, came down to 19,300kg in November after the hike.
As South Korean ferry Sewol began to sink, some of those on board sent harrowing text messages to their loved ones.
With almost 300 people still unaccounted for one day after the accident, reports of desperate text messages from some of those trapped on board have surfaced in local media.
“This might be the last chance to say I love you,” one student named as Shin Young-jin is reported to have texted his mother.
“Why’s that,” his mother texted back, clearly unaware of the crisis engulfing the vessel.
“I love you anyway.”
According to the Korea Herald, Shin Young-jin was among the 179 people rescued from the ship so far.
But other parents who received such messages have not been reunited with their children. Another exchange between one student and her father was recounted by the AFP news agency and local media:
Student: “Dad, don’t worry. I’m wearing a life vest and am with other girls. We’re inside the ship, still in the hallway.”
Father:“I know that the rescue is under way, but shouldn’t you be waiting outside the rail? Try to get out if you can.”
Student:“The ship is too tilted. The hallway is crowded with so many people.”
The student who sent these messages remains unaccounted for.
As South Korean ferry Sewol began to sink, some of those on board sent harrowing text messages to their loved ones
In another text exchange widely published on South Korean media a student texted his older brother as the ship ran into trouble.
Student:“The ship ran into something and it’s not moving. They say the coast guard just arrived.”
Brother:“Don’t panic. Just do what you are told to do and then you will be fine.”
But there was no further communication after that.
Some parents were able to stay in touch with their children on the phone until lines were cut off. Park Yu-shin, whose daughter is among the missing, told the AFP news agency that she talked to her daughter as she was coping with the emergency.
“She was telling me: <<We’re putting on our life vests. They’re telling us to wait and stay put, so we’re waiting…I can see a helicopter>>,”Park Yu-shin said. Her daughter is still among the missing.
Reports that messages have been received from students still trapped inside the ferry have not been verified.
It is not yet clear what caused the ferry, carrying mainly school students, to sink, but survivors gave similar accounts of a catastrophic event at around 09:00. A picture of the fear and chaos on board has also been vividly drawn.
“There was a really loud noise and then the boat immediately began to shift to one side,” said rescued passenger, Kim Song-Muk.
“People were scrambling to get to the upper decks, but it was difficult with the deck slanted over.”
Student, Lim Hyung-min, told how he jumped into the ocean wearing a life jacket with other youngsters and then swam to a nearby rescue boat.
“As the ferry was shaking and tilting, we all tripped and bumped into each another,” Lim Hyung-min said, adding that some people were bleeding.
Once he jumped, the ocean “was so cold… I was hurrying, thinking that I wanted to live”.
Pictures from the scene showed rescue teams balanced on the sinking hull pulling teenagers from cabin windows as other jumped into the sea as the ship went down.
Other survivors have criticized the evacuation procedures.
Passenger Koo Bon-hee, 36, told the Associated Press news agency that many people were trapped inside by windows that were too hard to break. He wanted to escape earlier but an announcement said passengers should stay put.
“The rescue wasn’t done well. We were wearing life jackets. We had time,” Koo Bon-hee, who was on a business trip to Jeju with a co-worker, said from a hospital bed in Mokpo where he was treated for minor injuries.
“If people had jumped into the water … they could have been rescued. But we were told not to go out.”
Another survivor told local television: “The announcement told us that we should stay still, but the ship was already sinking and there were a lot of students who did not get out of the ship.”
Kim Seong-mok told YTN that he was “certain” many people were trapped inside the ship as water quickly filled up inside and the severe tilt of the ferry kept them from reaching the exits.
But tales of heroism on board as the vessel began to sink have also emerged.
One crew member, named as 22-year-old Park Ji-young, is said to have lost her life while struggling to make sure passengers on the upper floors of the ferry wore life jackets and found their way out.
“I repeatedly asked her why she did not first wear a life jacket. Park just said she would get out of the ship after making sure that all passengers were out,” a survivor told local media.
“Park pushed shocked passengers toward the exit even when the water was up to her chest.”
The Korea Herald reports that she joined the ferry company in 2012 to earn money to support her family.
When her body arrived at hospital, the paper reports, her mother cried: “I can’t believe you left us.”
At least six Sherpa guides are reported to have been killed after an avalanche on the slopes of Mount Everest.
The avalanche struck around 06:45 local time in an area known as the “popcorn field”, just above Everest base camp at an elevation of 19,000ft.
An official said four bodies had been found and two more were being dug out of the snow.
At least six Sherpa guides are reported to have been killed after an avalanche on the slopes of Mount Everest
Everest is crowded ahead of peak season on the 8,850 m summit.
The Sherpa guides had climbed up the slope early in the morning to fix ropes for climbers and prepare the route for mountaineers when the avalanche hit, officials are quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
A number of others are thought to be missing.
More than 3,000 people have scaled Mount Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, but many have died in the attempt too.
Straddling Nepal and China, the world’s highest mountain has an altitude of 29,029ft (8,848 m).
Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died in Mexico aged 87, his family has announced.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was considered one of the greatest Spanish-language authors, best known for his masterpiece of magic realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The 1967 novel sold more than 30 million copies and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez had been ill and had made few public appearances recently.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was considered one of the greatest Spanish-language authors
“Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died,” a spokeswoman for the family, Fernanda Familiar, said on Twitter.
“Mercedes and her sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, have authorized to give me the information. Such deep sadness,” she added.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos also took to Twitter to pay tribute to the author.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time,” Juan Manuel Santos wrote.
The cause of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s death was not immediately known but he was recently hospitalized for a lung and urinary tract infection in Mexico City.
He was sent home last week but his health was said to be “very fragile” because of his age. He had lived in Mexico for more than 30 years.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s other novels include Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and the The General in His Labyrinth.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is set to kick off his re-election campaign at an event his brother and campaign aide has called “history in the making”.
Rob Ford is expected to deliver a 20-minute speech at the Toronto Congress Centre, where he celebrated his mayoral win in 2010.
He has been stripped of many of his powers after admitting to using and purchasing drugs while mayor.
Rob Ford faces two major challengers in the 27 October election.
His brother and campaign manager City Councilor, Doug Ford, said he expected “thousands” to turn out after the campaign sent automated phone invitations to many Toronto residents.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is set to kick off his re-election campaign
Rob Ford was first elected in 2010 to lead Canada’s largest city on a pledge to tackle wasteful spending at city hall. He draws much of his support from the suburban areas of Toronto.
He soon privatized rubbish collection across much of the city and did away with a vehicle tax, but quickly became bogged down in disputes with the council.
And over the past year, Rob Ford has admitted smoking crack cocaine “in a drunken stupor” and to purchasing illegal drugs while mayor.
Allegations have also surfaced in police documents that Rob Ford used racially abusive language, threatened staff, harassing a female colleague, and snorted cocaine in a restaurant.
He denies the allegations.
In the fallout from the drugs scandal, the city council stripped Rob Ford of most of his mayoral powers and his budget, rendering him effectively mayor in name only, analysts say.
However, Rob Ford has brushed aside pressure to quit, saying voters will decide whether to keep him in office in the October election. He has said his “track record speaks for itself”, and recent polls show him running in contention with his chief challengers.
On Thursday, Doug Ford told reporters his brother’s campaign kick-off would include “some humility, a lot of accomplishments” but no new campaign policy announcements.
The Toronto mayor faces serious challenges from centre-right candidate John Tory, a broadcaster and former member of the provincial parliament, and former New Democratic Party (NDP) MP Olivia Chow.
John Tory has released a “Code of Conduct” in which he vows to “respect and defend our laws, not break them”, and to “show up for work each day”, in a clear rebuke to Rob Ford’s recent behavior.
Karen Stintz, a city councilor, and David Soknacki, a former councilor, are also running.
A Belgian study found that artists have structurally different brains compared with non-artists.
Study participants’ brain scans revealed that artists had increased neural matter in areas relating to fine motor movements and visual imagery.
The new research, published in NeuroImage, suggests that an artist’s talent could be innate.
However, training and environmental upbringing also play crucial roles in their ability, the authors report.
As in many areas of science, the exact interplay of nature and nurture remains unclear.
Artists have structurally different brains compared with non-artists
Lead author Rebecca Chamberlain from KU Leuven, Belgium, said she was interested in finding out how artists saw the world differently.
“The people who are better at drawing really seem to have more developed structures in regions of the brain that control for fine motor performance and what we call procedural memory,” she explained.
In their small study, researchers peered into the brains of 21 art students and compared them to 23 non-artists using a scanning method called voxel-based morphometry.
These detailed scans revealed that the artist group had significantly more grey matter in an area of the brain called the precuneus in the parietal lobe.
Participants also completed drawing tasks and the team looked at the relationship between their performance in this task and their grey and white matter.
Those better at drawing had increased grey and white matter in the cerebellum and also in the supplementary motor area – both areas that are involved with fine motor control and performance of routine actions.
Grey matter is largely composed of nerve cells, while white matter is responsible for communication between the grey matter regions.
However, it is still not clear what this increase of neural matter might mean. From looking at related studies of other creative people, such as musicians, it suggests that these individuals have enhanced processing in these areas, Dr. Rebecca Chamberlain added.
“It falls into line with evidence that focus of expertise really does change the brain. The brain is incredibly flexible in response to training and there are huge individual differences that we are only beginning to tap into,” she said.
The latest three victims of the Washington mudslide have been formally identified.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office positively identified the three people Thursday as Ron deQuilettes, 52; Sandra Miller, 64, and Wyatt Ruthven, 4.
They are among the 39 victims recovered from the March 22 slide that swept through the community of Oso.
Sandra Miller was building a new home on the banks of the Stillaguamish River with her husband, Larry, 58. The couple was putting finishing touches on the house before moving in, and Ron deQuilettes was there to work on the home’s electrical wiring.
There are 39 victims recovered from the March 22 slide that swept through the community of Oso in Washington state (photo AP)
Ron deQuilettes leaves behind a wife, who he met 31 years ago, and four children.
Wyatt Ruthven was among three generations of family who died in the mudslide, including his parents, Shane and Katie Ruthven, his 6-year-old brother Hunter and his grandparents Louie and JuDee Vanderburg. Each was previously identified as a victim of the slide.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office said they are still working with the families of the remaining missing.
Miley Cyrus had to cancel a second show after doctors decided to keep her in hospital.
Miley Cyrus, 21, already canceled a concert in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday night after she was admitted to a medical facility and diagnosed with an allergic reaction to antibiotics.
The singer was due to perform at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on Wednesday night, but she confirmed she is not well enough to be discharged from hospital and urged fans not to travel to the venue.
Miley Cyrus was admitted to a Kansas City medical facility and diagnosed with an allergic reaction to antibiotics (photo Twitter Miley Cyrus)
Miley Cyrus wrote in a series of Twitter posts: “I can’t get a hold of my team because it is so early so I want to be the one to tell my fans especially the ones trekking to get there… The hospital is sayin (sic) I won’t b (be) released today… therefore I’m not going 2 (to) make it 2 St Louis. I’m so sorry but somethings are outta my control.”
She made the announcement after a female fan revealed she was about to set off on a long journey to get to the show in St. Louis, prompting Miley Cyrus to reply: “Babe as of right now I’m still in the hospital… I just don’t want any of my fans to (be) p**sed off or disappointed.”
The concert in St. Louis marks the third cancellation on Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz tour since it kicked off in February.
Forensic tests carried out by expert Roger Dixon for Oscar Pistorius’ murder trial have been rigorously challenged by state prosecutor Gerrie Nel in South Africa.
Roger Dixon’s sequence for the shots that killed Reeva Steenkamp contradicts that of a police ballistics witness and pathologist.
Oscar Pistorius, 27, denies intentionally killing Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day last year.
He says he fired in fear at a toilet door, mistaking her for an intruder.
The prosecution says the 29-year-old model and law graduate was deliberately killed after the couple had an argument.
Oscar Pistorius faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder.
The trial has now adjourned for a break and will reconvene on Monday May 5.
Before the questioning got under way on Thursday, Judge Thokozile Masipa warned those watching the televised proceedings in an overflow court next door about their “unruly” behavior.
Judge Thokozile Masipa said she had been made aware that there had been shouting and cheering at times.
Roger Dixon’s sequence for the shots that killed Reeva Steenkamp contradicts that of a police ballistics witness and pathologist
“It is not an entertainment place,” she said.
The prosecutor Gerrie Nel then continued his cross examination of Roger Dixon, a defense witness, who says he believes Reeva Steenkamp was standing at an angle to the door and that all four bullets hit her as she fell to the ground.
Earlier in the trial, ballistics expert Captain Christiaan Mangena said he believed Reeva Steenkamp was standing up facing the closed door when she was hit in the right hip.
He said she then fell back on to a magazine rack next to the toilet before three more bullets were fired at the door, one of which missed her.
Roger Dixon’s testimony challenges the state’s version that Reeva Steenkamp would have had time to scream after the first bullet and that Oscar Pistorius then changed aim and continued firing.
The forensic expert also told the court about light tests carried out in Oscar Pistorius’ bedroom and sound tests of a cricket bat striking a door and bullets hitting a door.
However, Gerrie Nel has sought to cast doubt on Roger Dixon’s credibility and qualifications as a forensics witness, suggesting some of the tests were amateurish.
He criticized him for not using a model the same height as Oscar Pistorius when on his stumps in a photograph to illustrate what neighbors would have been able to see through the bathroom window at night.
In the photograph a man was kneeling in front of the window.
“It is something I omitted. I overlooked it at the time,” said Roger Dixon, a geologist and university lecturer who worked as head of materials analysis at a police forensic laboratory in Pretoria for 18 years until 2012.
Gerrie Nel also sought to prove that he was out of his depth when he was testifying about marks on Reeva Steenkamp’s body.
He had identified one as a bruise which other pathologists had not, Gerrie Nel said.
At one stage on Wednesday Roger Dixon used the phrase “in my layman’s understanding”.
“Now you call yourself a layman. You see how irresponsible it is to make inferences that aren’t in your area of expertise,” the prosecutor replied.
Before the court adjourned, he was re-examined by defense lawyer Barry Roux and described how an official at the shooting range, where the sound tests were carried out, mistook the sound of the cricket bat striking the door for gunshots.
Roger Dixon took the stand on Tuesday after seven days of testimony from Oscar Pistorius came to an end with him reading a Valentine’s Day card from Reeva Steenkamp.
If Oscar Pistorius is acquitted of murder, the court must consider an alternative charge of culpable homicide, for which he could receive about 15 years in prison.
He also faces charges of illegally firing a gun in public and of illegally possessing ammunition, both of which he denies.
There are no juries at trials in South Africa, and his fate will be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.
Oscar Pistorius is known as the “Blade Runner” because of the carbon-fibre prosthetics he uses on the track.
