Turkey shot down a Syrian military jet it says violated its airspace, but Damascus calls this “blatant aggression” and says the jet was over Syrian territory.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan says its armed forces have shot down a Syrian military jet which had violated its airspace.
He warned such action by Syria merited a “heavy response”.
But Syria accused Turkey of “blatant aggression”, saying the plane had been over Syrian territory at the time.
The incident reportedly occurred in an area where Syrian rebels and government forces have been fighting for control of a border crossing.
Turkey and Syria – once allies – have more than 500 miles of common border.
Turkey shot down a Syrian military jet it says violated its airspace
The two countries have been on opposing sides in Syria’s war since October 2011 and the two sides have been involved in occasional skirmishes and confrontations
However neither side is interested in a direct, sustained, open war or conflict between the two countries.
Speaking at a rally of supporters, Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated his air force on its actions on Sunday.
“A Syrian plane violated our airspace. Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard,” he said.
A Syrian military source, quoted by state television, said Turkish air defenses had shot down a Syrian jet as it attacked rebels on Syrian territory – an act of “blatant aggression”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said initial reports from the area suggested the plane came down on the Syrian side of the border.
“Turkish air defenses targeted a Syrian fighter bomber as it struck areas of the northern province of Latakia. The plane caught fire and crashed in Syrian territory,” the Observatory said.
According to one report, the plane’s pilot was able to eject.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Philip Breedlove has issued a warning about the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s border.
US Air Force General Philip Breedlove said NATO was in particular concerned about the threat to Moldova’s Trans-Dniester region.
Russia said its forces east of Ukraine complied with international agreements.
The build-up has been allied with Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, following the removal of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president.
Moscow formally annexed Crimea after the predominantly ethnic-Russian region held a referendum which backed joining the Russian Federation.
Kiev and the West have condemned the vote as “illegal”.
Russian flags have now been hoisted at 189 Ukrainian military units and facilities in Crimea, the Interfax news agency reports.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Philip Breedlove has issued a warning about the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s border
On Sunday, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief Andriy Parubiy told a big rally in Kiev: “The aim of [President Vladimir] Putin is not Crimea, but all of Ukraine… His troops massed at the border are ready to attack at any moment.”
The comments by Gen. Philip Breedlove came at an event held by the German Marshall Fund think-tank in Brussels.
He said: “The [Russian] force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready.”
He added: “There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Trans-Dniester if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome.
“Russia is acting much more like an adversary than a partner.”
Trans-Dniester is a narrow strip of land between Dniester River and Ukraine’s south-western border and it proclaimed independence from Moldova in 1990.
The international community has not recognized its self-declared statehood.
As Crimea was annexed, the Trans-Dniester Supreme Soviet sent a request asking to join the Russian Federation.
On Sunday, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told the Itar-Tass agency: “The Russian Defense Ministry is in compliance with all international agreements limiting the number of troops in the border areas with Ukraine.”
Russia’s ambassador to the EU warned the US against sending troops or military aid to Ukraine, saying it would be a “grave mistake”.
A French satellite spotted potential debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, France’s foreign ministry says.
Radar echoes had picked up several objects about 1,430 miles from Perth, a statement added.
It is the third possible sighting in the area off western Australia that has become the focus of the search effort.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
Malaysian officials believe the plane was deliberately taken off course.
Based on information received from a satellite, the search has been in two distinct corridors – one stretching to the north-west of the last known location in the Malacca Straits and one to the south-west.
However, none of the countries on the northern corridor have reported any radar contact, and the satellite images of possible debris in the south Indian Ocean have concentrated the search there.
On Sunday, a statement published on the Malaysian ministry of transport’s Facebook page said: “This morning, Malaysia received new satellite images from the French authorities showing potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor.
French satellite spotted potential debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean
“Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue co-ordination centre.”
An unnamed Malaysian official told the Associated Press that the new satellite image was taken on Friday, and that one of the potential objects was estimated to be about the same size as one spotted by a Chinese satellite that appeared to be 72ft by 13m 43ft.
The possible debris was located about 575 miles north of where the objects reported by China and Australia over the past week, the official added.
A French foreign ministry statement said the objects were about 1,437 miles from Perth, but did not give a direction or say when the discovery was made.
It also clarified that the French authorities had passed on data in the form of “satellite-generated radar echoes” rather than images. Radar works by sending out radio waves or microwaves and listening for echoes that bounce back.
“France has decided to mobilize complementary satellite means to continue the search in the identified zone,” the ministry statement added.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) subsequently announced that that the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean had concluded for the day.
“There were no sightings of significance,” a statement said.
“The search area experienced early sea fog particularly in the western areas, however conditions improved during the day.”
AMSA said the four military and four civilian aircraft involved in Sunday’s search effort had covered a total of 22, 780 sq miles south-west of Perth. Chinese military Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft and Japanese P-3C Orion aircraft would join the search on Monday, it added.
HMAS Success, an Australian navy supply ship, also took part in Sunday’s operation.
A key focus on Sunday was the sighting on Saturday of a wooden cargo pallet, along with belts or straps.
Mike Barton, operations co-ordinator at AMSA, said: “Part of the description was a wooden pallet and a number of other items which were nondescript around it and some belts of some different colours around it as well, strapping belts of different lengths.”
He added: “We tried to re-find that yesterday, one of the New Zealand aircraft, and unfortunately they didn’t find it. That’s the nature of it – you only have to be off by a few hundred metres in a fast-travelling aircraft.”
Pallets are used for shipping as well as plane cargo and Mike Barton urged caution, saying the sighting “could be anything”.
Earlier, Australian PM Tony Abbott said the sightings of objects were encouraging signs.
Hillary Clinton told college students during a Clinton Global Initiative University forum at Arizona State University in Tempe on Saturday that she is “very much concerned about the direction of our country” but was still deciding whether to pursue another presidential campaign.
Hillary Clinton fielded a question from Vrinda Agrawal, a student at the University of California, Berkeley who asked: “If you don’t represent women in politics in America as a future president, who will?”
More than 1,000 students roared with approval and applauded while former President Bill Clinton smiled, whispered into TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s ear and clapped along.
The former first lady said she appreciated the sentiment but was still deciding.
“I am very much concerned about the direction of our country and it’s not just who runs for office but what they do when they get there and how we bring people together and particularly empower young people so we can tackle these hard decisions,” Hillary Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton speaks at student conference for Clinton Global Initiative University
Jimmy Kimmel playfully interjected: “She wants an answer!”
Hillary Clinton smiled and asked the woman to “give me your name and number.”
The woman responded: “I will proudly run your campaign!”
Hillary Clinton said she was “obviously thinking about all kinds of decisions”.
The exchange came during a wide-ranging interview of the Clintons and their 34-year-old daughter, Chelsea. The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live jokingly asked Hillary Clinton: “If you do run for president, will you reuse the old Clinton campaign lawn signs?”
The interview covered light topics like how the Clintons met at Yale Law School, the family’s favorite TV shows – former President Bill Clinton said they enjoyed PBS’s Antiques Roadshow – along with their upbringing and policy issues.
Diving into the thorny issue of climate change, Hillary Clinton said young people understand the significant threat of global warming and that she hoped there would be a mass movement that demands political change.
Hillary Clinton said the generation of college students and young people are much more committed to doing something to address climate change and it wasn’t “just some ancillary issue” but will determine the quality of life for countries around the globe.
“I’m hoping there will be this mass movement that demands political change, that makes what public officials do on dealing with carbon emissions … a voting issue,” Hillary Clinton said.
First Lady Michelle Obama hosted an education roundtable in China telling professors, students and parents on Sunday that she wouldn’t have risen to where she was if her parents hadn’t pushed for her to get a good education.
Michelle Obama hosted the discussion about education on the third day of her visit to China aimed at promoting educational exchanges between the two countries.
“Education is an important focus for me. It’s personal, because I wouldn’t be where I am today without my parents investing and pushing me to get a good education,” she.
“My parents were not educated themselves, but one of the things they understood was that my brother and I needed that foundation.”
Michelle Obama said she and her husband, President Barack Obama, wanted as many young people as possible in the US and the world to have access to education.
Michelle Obama hosted an education roundtable in China
She hosted a roundtable with a handful of Chinese professors, students and parents at an event at the US Embassy in Beijing that was attended by new US Ambassador to China Max Baucus and closed to media.
Michelle Obama plans to visit the Great Wall later Sunday and have lunch with her mother and daughters at a restaurant in a former school near a section of the wall.
On Saturday, Michelle gave a 15-minute speech at China’s prestigious Peking University in which she promoted the free flow of information and freedom of speech, the only time during her trip that she has brought up a contentious issue. China routinely filters out information deemed offensive by the government and silences dissenting voices.
Those remarks by Michelle Obama were absent from China’s state media but were circulating in social media, where they were widely praised.
Michelle Obama’s trip, the first time a US president’s wife has independently visited China, also has given her an opportunity to engage with President Xi Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan.
Michelle Obama will visit Xi’an and Chengdu cities before returning to Washington on Wednesday.
A small plane crashed into a reservoir in southwestern Colorado.
The aircraft is believed to be carrying five people and authorities say they don’t think anyone survived.
The single-engine Socata TBM700 was flying from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to Montrose, Colorado, about 180 miles southwest of Denver, when it went down Saturday, Ouray County spokeswoman Marti Whitmore said.
The aircraft went down in Ridgway Reservoir, about 25 miles south of Montrose
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the crash occurred just before 2 p.m., but he didn’t yet know its cause.
The aircraft went down in Ridgway Reservoir, about 25 miles south of Montrose.
Rescue efforts started in the afternoon and were suspected shortly after sundown until Sunday morning, Marti Whitmore said.
Marti Whitmore said no one is believed to have survived, but no victims have been recovered.
She said the aircraft crashed about 90 ft from shore in 60 to 90 ft of water.
The identities of the occupants were being withheld until relatives could be notified.
The plane is registered to an Alabama corporation.
Marti Whitmore said recovery work will continue Sunday. The Ouray County sheriff’s office said a dive team and additional resources were expected to take part.
Colorado State Parks has closed a nearby campground and day facilities, pending completion of the recovery efforts.
A Rembrandt painting has been recovered in France, 15 years after it was stolen.
The 17th Century painting L’enfant a la bulle de savon (Child with soap bubble), valued at 3.2 million euros ($4.3 million), was taken from a museum in the southern city of Draguignan in 1999.
Two men were arrested in Nice on Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency.
Rembrandt’s L’enfant a la bulle de savon was taken from a museum in Draguignan in 1999 (photo AFP)
Police said they received information that a transaction was due to take place in a hotel the following day.
The men, aged 46 and 53, one of whom was described as a former insurer, appeared in court in Nice on Thursday, AFP said.
They were reported to be known to police for previous petty crimes. Police are still looking for other suspects.
The painting was stolen from Draguignan’s Musee Municipal d’art et d’histoire during the city’s Bastille Day celebrations in July 1999.
At the time, police said the thieves entered through a back door and escaped before officers responded to the alarm.
The undated painting, which portrays a teenage boy with long dark brown locks, wearing a golden necklace and holding a soap bubble, was said to be in a good condition.
The international search of the south Indian Ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been increased with more planes.
Eight planes were sent out on Sunday over a wider search area after China released new images of possible debris.
Australia is leading the search and said it was investigating sightings of a wooden pallet and other items.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.
Malaysian officials believe the plane was deliberately taken off course.
Based on information received from a satellite, the search has been in two distinct corridors – one stretching to the north-west of the last known location in the Malacca Straits and one to the south-west.
More planes have joined an increasingly international search of the south Indian Ocean for missing flight MH370
However, none of the countries on the northern corridor have reported any radar contact, and two sets of satellite images of possible debris in the south Indian Ocean have concentrated the search there.
The search is being co-ordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) from Perth in western Australia.
Eight search planes were involved in the search on Sunday, including four civil aircraft and a US P8 Poseidon.
Two Chinese IL-76 search planes have arrived in Perth but have not yet been deployed. Japan is sending two P3 Orions.
The Australian navy’s HMAS Success is the only ship in the area, though others, including from the US, UK and China are on the way.
A key focus on Sunday was the sighting on Saturday of a wooden cargo pallet, along with belts or straps.
Mike Barton, operations coordinator at AMSA, said: “Part of the description was a wooden pallet and a number of other items which were nondescript around it and some belts of some different colors around it as well, strapping belts of different lengths.”
He added: “We tried to re-find that yesterday, one of the New Zealand aircraft, and unfortunately they didn’t find it. That’s the nature of it – you only have to be off by a few hundred metres in a fast-travelling aircraft.”
Pallets are used for shipping as well as plane cargo and Mike Barton cautioned the sighting “could be anything”.
AMSA released a statement on Sunday’s search, detailing the aircraft involved and saying the area would cover about 22,800 square miles.
Mike Barton said the sun and haze at a low altitude made the task for searchers tough.
The weather on Sunday was initially cloudy but it was hoped it might clear later.
Earlier, Australian PM Tony Abbott said the sightings of objects were encouraging signs.
“Obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope – no more than hope, no more than hope – that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft,” he said.
China on Saturday released a satellite image showing an object floating in the southern Indian Ocean near to the area already being searched, some 1,550 miles south-west of Perth.
The grainy image was released by China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
South Korea military officials say North Korea has tested dozens of short-range rockets in the past 24 hours in an apparent show of anger with Seoul.
Analysts say the launches are Pyongyang’s way of protesting against joint military drills between the US and South Korea.
Some 16 rockets were fired into the sea early on Sunday, following the launch of 30 on Saturday.
North Korea has tested dozens of short-range rockets in the past 24 hours in an apparent show of anger with Seoul
North Korea claims its rocket tests are routine, self-defense exercises.
Pyongyang has bitterly criticized the annual war drills by Washington and Seoul, labeling them invasion preparations.
The isolated state often makes a show of force at the same time as the drills.
But this year there have been an unusually high number of rockets launched.
Experts say some 70 missiles have been fired so far this month, including the 46 from this weekend.
The South Korean military says that the North appears to be firing Frog rockets, which are unguided Soviet-developed devices that Pyongyang has had in its armory since the 1960s.
Both South Korea and the US have criticized North Korea’s missile tests.
Under UN resolutions, North Korea is required to abandon its ballistic missiles programs.
An anti-austerity protest attended by tens of thousands of people turned violent in Spain’s capital Madrid.
Dozens of youths threw projectiles at police, who responded by charging at them.
Demonstrators were protesting over issues including unemployment, poverty and official corruption.
Protesters want the government not to pay its international debts and do more to improve health and education.
Spanish demonstrators were protesting over issues including unemployment, poverty and official corruption
They travelled from all corners of Spain, many of them making the journey on foot, in order to voice their anger.
For many of them, the cutbacks that Mariano Rajoy’s government has implemented, in particular to health and education, are causing Spain irreparable damage.
Although most of the demonstration took place peacefully, violence broke out later on Friday with a number of arrests and several policeman injured.
Analysts say that Spain came out of recession in the second half of 2013.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek defends his government’s decision to ban Twitter, accusing the website of failing to comply with court orders.
Turkish government banned Twitter on Friday, after users shared information about allegations of corruption against high-level officials.
Analysts say Twitter users have found many ways of circumventing the ban, which was widely criticized.
Twitter has so far made no public comment on the ban, but the company on Friday posted a message in both English and Turkish telling users how to send tweets via text messages.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek defends his government’s decision to ban Twitter, accusing the website of failing to comply with court orders
There are estimated to be about 10 million Twitter users in Turkey.
Mehmet Simsek, who accepted that banning social-media sites “doesn’t reflect well” on his government, insisted that the ban was not a crackdown on free speech.
“The Turkish telecommunications watchdog has made a number of statements saying that they have asked Twitter on a number of occasions to remove some content on the back of court orders and Twitter has been refusing to comply,” he said.
“I don’t think any global company, whether it’s a media company, whether it’s an industrial company, it shouldn’t see itself [as being] above the law.”
The minister said it now looked as if Twitter was working with the Turkish authorities to get the ban lifted.
A senior Turkish government official told Reuters that talks with Twitter on ending the ban “were going positively”.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan was said to have been angry that people have used Twitter to spread allegations of corruption about members of his inner circle.
Guinea government officials say the Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of hemorraghic fever now believed to have killed nearly 60 people in the country.
Dozens of cases have been recorded since the outbreak began early last month.
There is no known cure or vaccine for the highly contagious Ebola virus.
Ebola is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.
Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of a deadly outbreak of hemorraghic fever in Guinea
The World Health Organization (WHO) says outbreaks of Ebola occur primarly in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests,.
“We got the first results from Lyon yesterday [Friday] which informed us of the presence of the Ebola virus as the cause of this outbreak,” Sakoba Keita, chief disease prevention officer at the Guinean health ministry, told AFP.
“The Ebola fever epidemic raging in southern Guinea since February 9 has left at least 59 dead out of 80 cases identified by our services on the ground,” he said.
“We are overwhelmed in the field, we are fighting against this epidemic with all the means we have at our disposal with the help of our partners but it is difficult.”
Medical aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres said on Saturday it would strengthen its team in Guinea and fly some 33 tonnes of drugs and isolation equipment in from Belgium and France.
Russian troops backed by armoured vehicles stormed a Ukrainian airbase in Crimea.
Reports say at least one person was injured during the assault on Belbek base, near Sevastopol. The base is now said to be under Russian control.
Earlier, several hundred unarmed protesters seized a Ukrainian naval base at Novofedorivka, western Crimea.
Pro-Russian militia have also been seizing Ukrainian navy ships.
Ukrainian troops in Crimea feel beleaguered and abandoned by their commanders in Ukraine.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law formalising Russia’s takeover of Crimea from Ukraine, despite fresh sanctions from the EU and the US.
In Belbek, two armoured personnel carriers burst through the wall of the base followed by Russian troops firing weapons in the air.
At least one person was injured during the assault on Belbek base, near Sevastopol
An ambulance was then seen entering the base amid reports that at least one person had been injured.
The Ukrainian soldiers were later gathered at the base main square in front of the heavily armed Russian troops.
The storming followed an ultimatum by the Russians to surrender.
The Belbek base commander earlier told the few dozen troops still there to shoot in the air if they were attacked.
Ukraine’s military chiefs deny this, saying each unit in Crimea has been issued with clear orders on what to do if attacked.
In Novofedorivka, attackers threw smoke bombs at the base.
Pro-Russian militia – backed by Russian forces – have already seized a number of Ukrainian bases in the southern peninsula.
Russian troops have taken over control of Crimea following last month’s overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych after mass street protests.
The Kremlin says it acted to protect its “compatriots” in Crimea from “fascists” moving in from the mainland Ukraine.
Kiev denies the claim, accusing Moscow of “blatant lies” to justify the land grab.
The funeral of L’Wren Scott, following her tragic suicide on March 17, will be held in Los Angeles, opposing the wishes of some of the fashion designer’s family.
With many of L’Wren Scott’s family still based in Utah, it has been unclear until now where her funeral would be held, especially with longtime partner Mick Jagger residing in LA and much of her business and life based in New York. However, it has now been reported that the funeral will be held in LA, according to a report from Page Six. Unfortunately, this decision is mainly in part due to a bitter, unresolved feud that persists in the Scott family.
According to new reports, L’Wren Scott’s funeral will be held in LA at the wishes of her brother and Sir Mick Jagger.
L’Wren Scott’s funeral will be held in LA at the wishes of her brother and Sir Mick Jagger (photo Reuters)
Mick Jagger’s representative said in a statement Thursday that Jagger is in Los Angeles to be with his daughters Karis, Elizabeth, Georgia May and Jade, and his son, James.
L’Wren Scott died Monday at age 49. The New York City medical examiner’s office has ruled her death was a suicide. The statement asked for privacy for Mick Jagger and his family “during this very difficult time”.
Mick Jagger, 70, called L’Wren Scott his “lover and best friend” in a Facebook tribute and said he was struggling to come to grips with her death.
L’Wren Scott had been dating Mick Jagger since 2001.
Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $885 million to settle claims it mis-sold mortgage-backed securities in the US before the financial crisis.
The Swiss bank was accused of misleading US government-backed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, over the quality of the products.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which received government bailouts in 2008, will be paid $234 million and $651 million respectively.
More than $10.1 billion has been recovered from banks in similar actions.
Credit Suisse has agreed to pay $885 million to settle claims it mis-sold mortgage-backed securities in the US before the financial crisis (photo Reuters)
The Credit Suisse settlement is the ninth that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has reached over some $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities – an investment product at the centre of the global financial crisis.
Since 2011 the FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has filed 18 lawsuits against banks over the products.
Credit Suisse said the settlement resolved its biggest remaining mortgage-related lawsuit.
The settlement covered $16.6 billion of securities sold to the two mortgage companies between 2005 and 2007.
Credit Suisse said it would reduce previously reported 2013 annual earnings by 275 million Swiss francs ($311 million) as a result of the settlement.
Duck Dynasty’s Jase Robertson’s opened up about his daughter Mia’s cleft surgery.
Jase Robertson revealed to Closer magazine that his 11-year-old daughter Mia’s bone graft surgery, done to repair a facial cleft, had him shaking in his boots.
Jase Robertson revealed that his daughter Mia’s bone graft surgery had him shaking in his boots (photo A&E)
“The hardest part was handing her off to the surgeons, knowing she was about to go through a lot of pain and suffering, even though I knew it was for the best,” he said.
Jase Robertson said that Mia has proven herself to be an exceptionally altruistic little girl, and is always thinking of others.
“She is always thoughtful of others who are going through difficult times.
“She actually prays each night for someone who is going through a tough situation.”
Duck Dynasty’s little Mia Robertson has just completed her fifth cleft surgery.
In a new interview with Closer magazine, 11-year-old Mia Robertson opened up about her cleft surgery and revealed that all she wants to do is go to Chick-Fil-A, a fast food restaurant that specializes in chicken.
“We’re driving straight [to Chick-Fil-A] from the doctor’s office,” Jase and Missy Robertson’s daughter told the magazine.
When asked what the scariest part of her surgery was, Mia Robertson said: “Knowing I couldn’t eat chicken strips for 3 months!”
Mia Robertson has just completed her fifth cleft surgery
Mia Robertson was then asked about how she coped with the surgery itself. Surprisingly, she was not scared at all.
“I honestly was never scared about having surgery. It wasn’t the first time, you know?” she admitted.
“Besides, I had my mom and dad with me, and I knew God would be with me the whole time.”
Mia Robertson has been forced to replace chicken and her mother has been preparing her a wide variety of soups.
“She cooked a lot of different soups that I could pick from,” says Mia Robertson.
“My favorite was her homemade spaghetti sauce soup! I take it to school every day for lunch.”
Duck Dynasty Season 5 finale will air next week Wednesday and will feature Mia Robertson’s cleft surgery.
Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) unveiled the biggest sports video board in the world on Wednesday night when the 12-story Big Hoss TV made its debut.
“There’s nothing like attending a live sporting event,” TMS president Eddie Gossage said.
“With this, you don’t miss a thing. To me, it’s the ultimate fan amenity. To have the biggest one in the world, that’s just another one of those ‘everything’s bigger in Texas’ stories that we’re really proud to be a part of.”
The 20,633-square foot screen constructed by Panasonic is 79% larger than the monitor that hangs over the playing surface at AT&T Stadium. Jerry Jones’ two-sided screen cost $40 million. Eddie Gossage declined to give the total amount of the TMS board.
The Big Hoss TV is designed to hold its own against winds up to 130 miles per hour. The strength of the LED bulbs has been tested by having golf balls hit off the screen to simulate hail.
Texas Motor Speedway’s Big Hoss TV unveiling included a showing of the newest episode of Duck Dynasty
Helio Castroneves, a four-time Verizon IndyCar Series winner at TMS, said the screen’s size could be distracting for drivers during the race.
“The good news is that it’s so fast on the back straightaway that it would be hard for us to try to look,” said Helio Castroneves, who is scheduled to be part of the IndyCar field at TMS on June 7.
“Hopefully when we come back here in June, I can see myself in the victory circle on that big TV.”
The unveiling included a showing of the newest episode of A&E’s Duck Dynasty. Duck Commander, the company the show is centered around, is the sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race on April 6.
Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson were on hand and were presented with custom-painted racing helmets.
“I think a lot of these guys and gals watch the show, so it’s a good combination for us,” Willie Robertson said.
“We were thrilled to put our name on it. If you told me we were going to do this a couple years ago, I would’ve never believed it.”
Last Wednesday’s episode of Duck Dynasty reality show averaged only 4.7 million viewers, down from a high of 11.7 million viewers.
Last Wednesday’s episode of Duck Dynasty reality show averaged only 4.7 million viewers, down from a high of 11.7 million viewers
Duck Dynasty has lost 6.7 million viewers since the show’s season premiere, according to Hollywood Reporter.
The site’s analysts felt that Duck Dynasty‘s ever-lower ratings was as much due to the public’s burn-out on the show as much as to the anti-gay, pro-Jim Crow South and controversial comments about women made by patriarch Phil Robertson.
Paul McCartney has succeeded to ban the sale of mementos by the family of his former nanny, Rose Martin.
Rose Martin, who looked after Paul McCartney’s children, was reportedly gifted a number of collectable items by the Beatles star’s late wife Linda, including a suit, a cape and handwritten lyrics.
The late nanny’s family decided to put the collection up for auction following her death last year, but they have now been withdrawn from sale following a complaint from Paul McCartney’s attorneys.
Paul McCartney prevents the family of his late nanny selling off his old clothes in Liverpool amid a dispute over ownership (photo Getty Images)
Omega Auctions representative Paul Fairweather told Daily Telegraph: “Unfortunately, the lawyers have claimed that Paul would never have given any clothing away.”
“Rose always told the family that it was Linda that had given them to her but as both have unfortunately passed away, neither story can be corroborated … At the end of the day we’ve got to make sure that according to the law we give them back to their rightful owner, be that Rose’s family or Sir Paul McCartney and MPL Communications [McCartney Productions Ltd]. We can only apologize to any buyers who were hoping to bid on these items.”
The collection was expected to fetch as much as $48,000 at auction and Rose Martin’ family had hoped to distribute the cash to her grandchildren.
Paul McCartney previously paid tribute to Rose Martin following her death, calling her a “dear friend” and “fiercely loyal”.
JRR Tolkien’s translation of the Old English poem Beowulf is to be published for the first time, nearly nine decades after it was completed.
JRR Tolkien’s estate has signed a deal with HarperCollins to release it as a book in May.
JRR Tolkien’s translation of the Old English poem Beowulf is to be published for the first time, nearly nine decades after it was completed
The new work Beowulf: A Translation And Commentary has been edited by his son Christopher Tolkien.
It is the latest posthumous publication for the author, following his poem The Fall Of Arthur last year.
Beowulf is the longest epic poem in Old English, the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest.
It tells the story of a struggle between the hero, Beowulf, and a bloodthirsty monster called Grendel.
JRR Tolkien completed his translation in 1926 – and the new publication will be accompanied by further thoughts on the text, which Tolkien prepared for a series of lectures given at Oxford during his academic career.
The author died in 1973, having seen The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings achieve literary success, but leaving behind many unpublished works.
Christopher Tolkien said: “The translation of Beowulf by JRR Tolkien was an early work, very distinctive in its mode, completed in 1926.
“He returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its publication.
“This edition is twofold, for there exists an illuminating commentary on the text of the poem by the translator himself, in the written form of a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s, and from these lectures a substantial selection has been made, to form also a commentary on the translation in this book.”
According to Malaysian officials, China is investigating new satellite images of debris in the southern Indian Ocean, potentially from missing flight MH370.
Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein read out the news as he was handed it during at his daily briefing, saying one element of debris was 30m by 22m.
He said the Chinese government would give more details on Saturday.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 dropped out of contact an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8 carrying 239 people.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 dropped out of contact an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8 carrying 239 people
Hishammuddin Hussein broke off the question and answer segment of his briefing in Kuala Lumpur to say: “The news that I just received is that the Chinese ambassador received satellite image of floating objects in the southern corridor and they will be sending ships to verify.”
He added: “Beijing is expected to make an announcement in a few hours.”
China is one of 26 nations involved in the search for flight MH370. Most of those on board the plane were Chinese nationals.
Planes and vessels are already searching the southern Indian Ocean following earlier satellite images this week that detected possible debris 1,550 miles south-west of Perth in Australia.
One hundred international monitors will be sent to Ukraine, after Russian diplomats dropped their objections.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), will send advance teams within 24 hours to areas including the violence-hit south-eastern areas.
But the monitoring team is not expected to go to Crimea, which was taken over by Russia last month.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law formalizing Crimea’s annexation on Friday, despite EU and US sanctions.
The 57-member OSCE reached a deal on Friday evening.
The Vienna-based group said that initially 100 civilian observers would deploy for six months in nine regions of Ukraine.
Up to 400 extra personnel could be deployed if necessary.
The areas the monitors are due to visit include Odessa, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, and Luhansk, which have been recently rocked by clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian activists.
The situation remains tense on the long Ukrainian-Russian border
“The decision itself calls for monitors to be deployed within 24 hours,” said Daniel Baer, the US ambassador to the OSCE.
The US said in a statement that “it is clear that with the adoption of this decision this mission has a mandate to work in Crimea and in all other parts of Ukraine”.
But Russian envoy Andrey Kelin responded by saying that Crimea had now become part of Russia and therefore the mission had “no mandate” to go there.
Western diplomats had blamed Russia for several failed attempts to agree such a mission in recent days.
Earlier this month OSCE monitors had to abandon their visit to Crimea after warning shots were fired at the border.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday’s deal was “not the end of the crisis”.
Earlier on Friday, the EU added 12 people to an existing list of 21 officials involved in Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
They include Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin and two close aides of Vladimir Putin, Sergey Glazyev and Vladislav Surkov.
The speakers of Russia’s two houses of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko and Sergei Naryshkin – both at Vladimir Putin’s side as he signed the Crimea law – were also included.
While the list targets several figures close to Vladimir Putin, it does not hit his inner circle as hard as the sanctions announced by the US on Thursday.
In retaliation, Russia ordered travel bans and asset freezes for nine prominent US officials and lawmakers.
Senator John McCain, one of those targeted, joked in a tweet that he would have to cancel his spring break in Siberia.
Vladimir Putin said Moscow would not retaliate for the latest EU sanctions – although the Russian foreign ministry said there would be a response.
In Crimea itself, forces allied to Russia have been seizing Ukrainian ships and taking over military bases.
The new authorities in Crimea have invited those serving in the Ukrainian forces on the peninsula to switch sides and join Russian forces.
US scientists have discovered that the human nose can detect one trillion different odors, far more than we previously thought.
Until now, the long-held belief was that we can sniff out about 10,000 smells.
New estimates published in Science suggest the human nose outperforms the eye and the ear in terms of the number of stimuli it can distinguish between.
Researchers at the Rockefeller University say we use only a tiny part of our olfactory powers.
The human eye uses three light receptors that work together to see up to 10 million colors, while the ear can hear almost half a million tones.
Until now it was believed the nose, with its 400 olfactory receptors, could detect only about 10,000 different odors.
Scientists at the Rockefeller University in New York, set out to test the idea, which dates back to 1927 and was never scientifically investigated.
Human nose can detect one trillion different odors, far more than we previously thought (photo Thinkstock)
They devised experiments to see how good people are at distinguishing between cocktails of 128 different odor molecules, representing a large range of smells from grass to citrus.
The molecules were mixed randomly in groups of 10, 20 or 30 to create unfamiliar smells.
The 26 people were then asked to identify a scent from three samples – two that were the same and one that was different.
Based on these results, the researchers used theory to extrapolate how many different scents the average person would be able to discriminate if they were presented with all the possible mixtures that could be made from the 128 molecules.
They estimated that the average person can discriminate between at least one trillion different odors with the nose, far more than can be detected by the eye or ear.
This is probably an underestimate, they say.
The conventional wisdom on how well we can smell was based on little more than “urban legend”, said co-author Dr. Leslie Vosshall.
“It’s the first real test of how good humans are. People assume animals are much better smellers than us. Humans are remarkably good at smelling things,” Dr. Leslie Vosshall said in an interview with BBC.
She said animals remain two or three times better than us at smelling, as they devote more of their brain to the sense of smell.
However, the power of the human sense of smell should not be underestimated.
“You can push the sense of smell to work harder – you can get bigger and crazier, more intense perfumes,” Dr. Leslie Vosshall added.
“We are using a tiny part of our olfactory powers.”
