Russell Crowe has launched a campaign to have his new Biblical epic Noah screened for Pope Francis.
Russell Crowe plays the title role in Darren Aronofsky’s new film, which is based on the Bible story of Noah and his ark.
The actor wants to make sure Pope Francis sees the movie and he has launched a campaign on Twitter in a bid to arrange a screening for the pontiff, tweeting his official account and urging fans to re-post his messages.
Russell Crowe has launched a campaign to have his new Biblical epic Noah screened for Pope Francis
Russell Crowe wrote: “Dear Holy Father… Noah film. Screening? The message of the film is powerful, fascinating, resonant… Villagers, given his environmental focus/scholarly knowledge, trying to screen <<Noah>> for Pope Francis… You help? retweet previous.”
Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel has unveiled plans to shrink the US Army to what is expected to be its smallest size since before World War Two.
An entire class of Air Force attack jets was tipped to be axed under the plans, as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel outlines his 2015 budget.
Chuck Hagel is expected to propose trimming the active-duty Army to between 440,000 and 450,000 personnel.
The US military is under pressure to downsize after two costly foreign wars.
The number of active-duty US Army members is already expected to be pared down to 490,000, as the US prepares to end its combat role in Afghanistan later this year.
Referring to budget pressures, Chuck Hagel said at the Pentagon on Monday: “The reality of reduced resources and a changing strategic environment requires us to prioritize and make difficult choices.”
Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel has unveiled plans to shrink the US Army to what is expected to be its smallest size since before World War Two
Noting there are currently about 520,000 active-duty US Army members, Chuck Hagel will also say according to prepared remarks: “Since we are no longer sizing the force for prolonged stability operations, an Army of this size is larger than required to meet the demands of our defense strategy.”
The proposed Army staffing levels would be the lowest since before the US entered World War Two in 1940, when 267,000 active-duty members were employed.
By the end of that conflict, 8.2 million active-duty US Army members were employed.
The figure peaked at 1.6 million both during the Korean War, in 1952, and during the Vietnam War, in 1968.
The number was 482,000 in 2000, a year before the attacks of September 11, 2001.
After those attacks, the force peaked at 566,000 in 2010.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Chuck Hagel will also recommend reducing housing allowances and other benefits, limiting pay raises and increasing healthcare premiums.
However, the military cost-cutting drive could well cause ructions on Capitol Hill, which is gearing up for November’s midterm elections.
The plan is said to take into account government cutbacks as well as President Barack Obama’s pledge to end land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under the proposed cuts, the military would still be able to defeat any adversary, unnamed officials told that newspaper, but be too small to engage in protracted foreign occupations.
Harold Ramis, best known for the films Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, has died aged 69.
The actor found fame as bespectacled ghost-hunter Egon Spengler in the Ghostbusters franchise in 1984.
But he was also a talented writer and director, whose credits included Caddyshack and Analyze This.
Harold Ramis died of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels.
Born in Chicago to convenience store owners Ruth and Nathan, Harold Ramis studied at Washington University in Missouri and, on graduation, briefly worked in a psychiatric ward.
Harold Ramis died of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels
He started his career as a writer by penning arts stories for his local newspaper and editing Playboy magazine’s “party jokes” section.
Harold Ramis developed his career behind the camera, directing Bill Murray in Groundhog Day and Robert De Niro in the mobster spoof Analyze This.
His other films included The Ice Harvest, Bedazzled and prehistoric comedy Year One, his final movie, in 2009.
In addition to his wife, Erica,
Harold Ramis is survived by his wife Erica, sons Julian and Daniel, daughter Violet and two grandchildren.
Miley Cyrus kissed Katy Perry while singing her new single Adore You with the debut of her Bangerz Tour at Staples Center, Los Angeles on Saturday.
Katy Perry, 29, has long been a fan of Miley Cyrus, 21, and excitedly tweeted before the LA concert: “I hope @MileyCyrus sings Breakout or The Climb tonight please bb!”
Miley Cyrus kissed Katy Perry while singing her new single Adore You with the debut of her Bangerz Tour at Staples Center
After the photo of their kiss went viral, Katy Perry shared her own aftermath shot, which features Miley Cyrus with her mouth hanging open in shock and Perry covering her mouth with her hand.
Katy Perry captioned the photo: “And after! I adore you @Miley Cyrus.”
Kim Kardashian posted a picture of her late father, Robert Kardashian, on what would have been his 70th birthday.
Along with the picture, Kim Kardashian wrote: “Happy Birthday dad! Can’t believe you would have been 70 today! Bet you’re up there eating tons of Ralph’s cake! Miss you & love you!”
Kim Kardashian posted a picture of her late father, Robert Kardashian, on what would have been his 70th birthday
Robert Kardashian, who famously defended close friend O.J. Simpson in his 1995 murder trial, died of esophageal cancer at the age of 59 on September 30, 2003, only eight weeks after being diagnosed.
A Lego Movie sequel will find its way to cinemas in 2017, Warner Bros has confirmed.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s The Lego Movie has racked up $275 million worldwide in under three weeks on release.
The film has a hugely impressive 96% “fresh” rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, indicating almost universal acclaim.
A Lego Movie sequel will find its way to cinemas in 2017
Little is known about the planned sequel other than a release date: May 26, 2017. There is no word as to whether Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will return for the second film, nor whether voice talent such as Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill have signed up for another outing.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, a Lego Ninjago movie, based on the Danish company’s popular Japanese-themed line, could be first into cinemas.
Latest reports do not confirm whether The Lego Movie sequel will be a straight follow-up, or a Ninjago spin-off.
The Lego Movie remains on the top of the North American box office chart, after spending a third week at number one.
The film earned $31.5 million over the weekend, according to early estimates.
Kevin Costner crime drama 3 Days to Kill debuted in second place with $12.3 million.
A sequel of the Lego Movie has just been announced, with a release date set for May 2017.
The Lego Movie is the highest-grossing film of the year so far.
Gladiator drama Pompeii, starring Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington, took third place with $10 million, despite a mauling from many film critics.
The RoboCop reboot dropped from third to fourth place in its second week of release, taking $9.4 million while George Clooney’s war movie, The Monuments Men, also dropped a place, from fourth to fifth.
The Lego Movie remains on the top of the North American box office chart, after spending a third week at number one
Two Kevin Hart movies, About Last Night and Ride Along, took sixth and seventh place respectively.
Ride Along has also secured a sequel off the back of the first film’s successful run.
MtGox chief executive Mark Karpeles has quit the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, which oversees and develops the virtual currency software.
It comes shortly after Bitcoin exchange MtGox halted transfers of the digital currency to external addresses after it spotted what it called “unusual activity”.
The halt resulted in a sharp decline in the value of Bitcoins.
Last week, MtGox – one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges – said customers should be able withdraw funds “soon”.
Meanwhile, all tweets on MtGox’s Twitter account have also been deleted.
The Bitcoin Foundation said that Mark Karpeles’s resignation would be “effective immediately”.
MtGox chief executive Mark Karpeles has quit the board of the Bitcoin Foundation
It is the foundation’s second high-profile resignation in the past month.
Another board member, Charles Shrem, stepped down in late January after being arrested and charged with money laundering in connection with his Bitcoin company.
Charles Shrem, the chief executive of New York-based Bitcoin exchange BitInstant, has pleaded not guilty.
The issues with MtGox had sparked a dispute between the exchange and the Bitcoin Foundation.
The Tokyo-based firm said that its investigation into the unusual activity revealed a loophole that could be exploited to fool the transaction process into sending double the correct number of Bitcoins.
It also left it vulnerable to attacks, which slowed down the rate at which coins could be bought and sold.
As it halted the withdrawals, MtGox had suggested that a flaw in Bitcoin’s underlying software was to blame for the problem.
An arrest warrant has been issued in Ukraine for ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, the interim interior minister has announced.
Arsen Avakov announced on Facebook that a criminal case had been opened against Viktor Yanukovych and other officials over “mass murder of peaceful citizens”.
Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday after months of protest sparked by his rejection of an EU deal.
A crackdown on the protests last week left dozens dead.
“An official case for the mass murder of peaceful citizens has been opened,” said Arsen Avakov.
“Yanukovych and other people responsible for this have been declared wanted.”
A criminal case has been opened against Viktor Yanukovych and other officials over mass murder of peaceful citizens
The statement said Viktor Yanukovych was last seen in Balaklava on the Crimean peninsula on Sunday, but that he had left by car for an unknown destination, accompanied by an aide.
Before leaving Balaklava Viktor Yanukovych gave his state-appointed security detail the choice to leave him, with many choosing to do so, the statement said.
It did not say which other figures were covered by the warrant.
Arsen Avakov – a key opposition figure – was appointed interim interior minister on Saturday, in a day of fast-paced events in parliament.
He replaced Vitaly Zakharchenko, who was sacked the day before after being blamed for the deaths of civilians in the crackdown on protesters.
The protests first began in late November when Viktor Yanukovych rejected a landmark association and trade deal with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Ukraine’s health ministry says 88 people, mostly anti-Yanukovych protesters but also police, are now known to have been killed in last week’s clashes.
Viktor Yanukovych insisted on Saturday that he was still Ukraine’s legitimate leader. But he had become increasingly isolated and parliament voted to impeach him and hold presidential elections in May.
Russian ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov has been recalled over what it described as the deteriorating situation in the country.
Moscow has condemned the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych, who was dismissed by parliament on Saturday.
Ukraine’s newly appointed interim president, Olexander Turchynov, says the country will now focus on closer integration with the EU.
Viktor Yanukovych’s rejection of an EU trade deal in favor of closer ties with Russia had triggered the unrest.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is due to arrive in Kiev on Monday to discuss EU support “for a lasting solution to the political crisis and measures to stabilize the economic situation”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the US strongly supports the Ukrainian parliament’s vote to impeach Viktor Yanukovych and call elections, the central demand of months of protests.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine’s opposition “had in effect seized power in Kiev, refused to disarm and continued to place its bets on violence”.
Russian ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov has been recalled over what it described as the deteriorating situation in the country
He accused them of deviating from a political deal they signed with Viktor Yanukovych on Friday, which aimed to end the protests after a week in which dozens of people were killed.
Moscow recently agreed to provide $15 billion (11 billion euros) to support Ukraine’s struggling economy, a move seen as a reward for Viktor Yanukovych’s controversial decision last year not to sign a long-planned trade deal with the EU.
But there are now fears Moscow could withdraw that offer.
A US official said US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had discussed Ukraine with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Sydney on Sunday.
Anton Siluanov reportedly left open the question of whether Russia would pay the next installment of financial help for Ukraine, worth $2 billion.
British Chancellor George Osborne said early on Monday that the UK was ready to provide financial support to Ukraine through international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Lawmakers from Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions now appear to be disowning him, having issued a statement criticizing him to Interfax-Ukraine.
In other decisions on Sunday:
Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara and Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk were dismissed
Arrest warrants were issued for former Incomes Minister Oleksandr Klimenko and former Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka
Parliament lowered the official status of the Russian language by cancelling a law brought in by Viktor Yanukovych
Parliament also voted to seize Viktor Yanukovych’s luxury estate near Kiev, which protesters entered on Saturday [youtube inQUUTiSnLU 650]
South Korea and US joint military drills have begun, amid rare family reunions between North and South Korean relatives separated for decades.
The annual military exercises will last until April 18.
They will involve Key Resolve, a computer-based simulation, and Foal Eagle, which involves air, ground and naval drills.
Pyongyang is opposed to the drills and had previously threatened to cancel the reunions if the exercises went ahead.
The military drills will involve more than 12,500 US troops.
The US and South Korea describe the annual drills as defensive in nature, but Pyongyang has described them as “exercises of war”.
Last year, the exercises led to a prolonged surge in tensions, with North Korea threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes and attacks on South Korean and US targets.
The rhetoric this year has so far been relatively mild, but the drills are scheduled to last until April, and many here see them as the toughest test yet of whether ties between the two Koreas are warming.
South Korea and US annual military exercises will last until April 18
Speaking on Monday, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said: “As of now, there are no unusual movements from North Korea. We will only take action against North Korea if it makes provocations or denunciations.”
Also on Monday, around 360 South Koreans met their North Korean relatives for the first time since the 1950-1953 Korean War, at a family reunion event in North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort.
They were the second set of relatives chosen to attend the reunions, which come amid an apparent thaw in inter-Korean ties.
Many people were separated from their relatives by the division of the Korean peninsula after the Korean War.
Pyongyang has been accused of using the family reunions, which are highly emotional events, as a bargaining chip.
North Korea has in the past canceled the reunions after the South took actions it opposed – most recently in September.
Meanwhile, South Korea also offered to assist the North with tackling an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
North Korean state media said that thousands of pigs had been affected by the disease.
South Korea, which has also been hit by outbreaks before, has offered to send aid, including medical goods and vaccines, officials said.
Piers Morgan’s CNN prime-time talk show – Piers Morgan Live – is to be canceled.
Piers Morgan, 48, told The New York Times it had been “a painful period” for the show, which has suffered lacklustre ratings.
CNN’s audience had tired of hearing a Briton weigh in on American cultural issues, he said.
Piers Morgan said he was in discussions with CNN about a new role at the channel following the end of the show, probably in March.
The former Daily Mirror editor replaced veteran host Larry King three years ago and interviewed statesman and celebrities, including ex-President Bill Clinton, and financier Warren Buffett. Oprah Winfrey was Piers Morgan Live’s first guest.
Piers Morgan’s CNN prime-time talk show is to be canceled
But it was his outspoken remarks about gun ownership that have garnered most attention in recent months.
“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it,” Piers Morgan told the New York Times.
Piers Morgan said that he would like to do fewer appearances that have more impact.
Interviews with major celebrities and powerful figures would be “better suited to what I do well”, he said.
Earlier this month it emerged that Piers Morgan had been questioned by police under caution over alleged phone hacking at Mirror Group Newspapers.
Piers Morgan has always denied any involvement in hacking.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was out in the street celebrating Canada men’s hockey win over Sweden at Sochi Winter Games when he ran into a fire hydrant and appeared to injure his groin.
Six stars of Duck Dynasty show were out on the town in Charleston, West Virginia, Saturday night for the Dare to be a Duck event to help raise money for a youth-led ministry program.
Si Robertson, Miss Kay Robertson, Korie Robertson, Alan Robertson, Sadie Robertson, John Luke Robertson and special guest Chrys Howard, the mother of Korie and grandmother of Sadie and John Luke, and her husband Alan featured the event.
The night was sponsored by Youth Commission ministries.
Six stars of Duck Dynasty show were in Charleston for the Dare to be a Duck event to help raise money for a youth-led ministry program
“We have students who love the Lord and are trying to make a difference in their homes, trying to make a difference in the community, and also on their school campus,” said YCI’s President and CEO Dennis Williams.
The club encourages kids to take a stand for their beliefs, just like the famous and quirky family they watch every week. Dennis Williams hopes to get more kids involved and let them know that they’re not alone.
The crowd welcomed Duck Dynasty stars with open arms, and couldn’t wait to meet in person the popular personalities of the hit show.
Oldest-known Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer died Sunday morning in London at the age of 110, her family has announced.
Alice Herz-Sommer died in a hospital after being admitted Friday, daughter-in-law Genevieve Sommer said.
Her devotion to the piano and to her son sustained her through two years in a Nazi prison camp, and a film about her has been nominated for best short documentary at next week’s Academy Awards.
An accomplished pianist, Alice Herz-Sommer, her husband and her son were sent from Prague in 1943 to a concentration camp in the Czech city of Terezin – Theresienstadt in German – where inmates were allowed to stage concerts in which she frequently starred.
An estimated 140,000 Jews were sent to Terezin and 33,430 died there. About 88,000 were moved on to Auschwitz and other death camps, where most of them were killed.
Alice Herz-Sommer and her son, Stephan, were among fewer than 20,000 who were freed when the notorious camp was liberated by the Soviet army in May 1945.
Alice Herz-Sommer, her husband and her son were sent from Prague in 1943 to a concentration camp in the Czech city of Terezin
Though she never learned where her mother died after being rounded up, and her husband died of typhus at Dachau, in her old age she expressed little bitterness.
Alice Herz-Sommer was born on November 26, 1903, in Prague, and started learning the piano from her sister at age 5.
As a girl, she met the author Franz Kafka, a friend of her brother-in-law, and delighted in the stories that he told.
Alice married Leopold Sommer in 1931. Their son was born in 1937, two years before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Jews were allowed to shop for only half an hour in the afternoon, by which time the shops were empty. Most Jewish families were forced to leave their family apartments and were crammed into one apartment with other families, but her family was allowed to keep its home.
In 1942, her 73-year-old mother was transported to Terezin, then a few months later to Treblinka, an extermination camp.
In 1949, Alice Herz-Sommer left Czechoslovakia to join her twin sister Mizzi in Jerusalem. She taught at the Jerusalem Conservatory until 1986, when she moved to London.
Alice Herz-Sommer’s son, who changed his first name to Raphael after the war, made a career as a concert cellist. He died in 2001.
Nicki Minaj’s former hair stylist Terrence Davidson is suing the star for $30 million, accusing her of selling wigs based on his designs without permission.
Terrence Davidson began working for the rapper in 2010, creating multiple wigs for high-profile events and her Super Bass music video.
The hair stylist claims he had previously discussed a joint business venture with Nicki Minaj to launch a line of wigs.
Terrence Davidson says the star is now copying his wig designs and selling them online.
According to legal papers filed in Atlanta, Terrence Davidson says he also turned down a contract for a reality TV show on the advice of one of Nicki Minaj’s representatives, with the promise of creating his own reality show with the star about being a celebrity wig stylist.
Nicki Minaj’s former hair stylist Terrence Davidson is suing the star for $30 million, accusing her of selling wigs based on his designs without permission
But after months passed in 2012, Terrence Davidson claims Nicki Minaj and her team “took active steps to isolate [him] and preclude him from the notoriety he deserved for his wig designs”.
Terrence Davidson – whose celebrity clients also include singers Patti LaBelle and Jennifer Hudson – stopped working as Nicki Minaj’s stylist in early 2013, citing creative differences.
Christopher Chestnut, a lawyer for the hair stylist, said his client’s wigs “significantly contributed” to Nicki Minaj’s notoriety and helped her rise to fame.
The lawyer said Nicki Minaj “took a number of his popular wig designs, without his consent, and used them to start her own wig line”, resulting in at least $30 million in losses.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has celebrated his 90th birthday with a huge party at a Harare stadium.
Thousands of Zimbabweans have attended the official 90th birthday celebration for the veteran leader.
Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, released 90 balloons into the air at Marondera stadium, east of Harare.
He turned 90 on Friday but was in Singapore for eye surgery at the time.
Many schoolchildren were among the crowd, waving flags and chanting Robert Mugabe’s clan name.
Huge cakes were on display in the centre of the stadium in Marondera, while the crowd wore red scarves, as is traditional on Robert Mugabe’s birthday
Huge cakes were on display in the centre of the stadium in Marondera, about 50 miles from Harare, while the crowd wore red scarves, as is traditional on the president’s birthday.
In an hour-long speech Robert Mugabe said Zimbabweans did not hate former colonial masters the British, but loved their own country more.
The cost of Robert Mugabe’s celebration – estimated at about $1 million – has prompted criticism in a country suffering from severe economic problems.
Russia finished on top of the medal table as the 22nd Winter Olympics came to a close in Sochi on Sunday after 17 days of competition.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach officially closed the Games during an extravagant 130-minute ceremony.
South Korea was given the Olympic flag as Pyeongchang hosts the 2018 Games.
Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated a rush of medals in Sochi with a triumphant closing ceremony on the shores of the Black Sea.
After spending $50 billion to build a mountain ski resort and a cluster of shimmering sports venues from scratch, failure was not an option for the omnipresent Russian president.
At the opening ceremony a fortnight ago, all the talk was of security fears, culls of stray dogs, last-minute glitches and a giant hydraulic snowflake that failed to open.
The 22nd Winter Olympics came to a close in Sochi on Sunday after 17 days of competition
But by the closing ceremony – which featured ballet from the Bolshoi, music by Rachmaninov and tributes to Tolstoy and Kandinsky plus the usual protocol – the atmosphere was one of pure celebration swathed in the colors of the Russian flag.
IOC President Thomas Bach declared the most expensive Games in history “a real special experience”.
He also personally thanked Vladimir Putin for his contribution to the “extraordinary success of these Winter Games”.
The opening ceremony had been a pleasingly offbeat romp through Russian art and culture. With its marching bands and 1,000-strong children’s choir singing the national anthem, this was more of a traditional show of strength.
For the Russians who wildly cheered a clean sweep of the podium in the 30 mile cross country skiing and a second gold in the bobsleigh for Alexander Zubkov on the final day of competition, a surge of sporting success helped it go with a swing.
The Russian ice hockey team had limped out of the competition to Finland at the quarter-final stage, leaving Canada to triumph over Sweden in Sunday’s final.
Ukraine parliament’s speaker Oleksandr Turchynov has been named as interim president.
Oleksandr Turchynov takes charge following the dismissal of President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday. He told lawmakers they had until Tuesday to form a new unity government.
Former PM Yulia Tymoshenko, who was freed from jail on Saturday, has ruled out becoming prime minister again.
Her release was one of the conditions of the EU-Ukraine trade pact that Viktor Yanukovych rejected last year.
The move triggered the protests that led to the current crisis.
The health ministry says 88 people, mostly protesters, are now known to have been killed in clashes since February 18.
Thousands of opposition supporters remain in Kiev’s Independence Square, heeding opposition calls not to disperse.
Ukraine parliament’s speaker Oleksandr Turchynov has been named as interim president
In response to reports that her name was being mentioned as a possible candidate, Yulia Tymoshenko issued a statement reading: “No-one has agreed or discussed this with me.
“Thank you for your respect but I would like you not to consider my nomination for the post of the head of government.”
Oleksandr Turchynov, a close associate of Yulia Tymoshenko, described forming a unity government as a “priority task”.
“We don’t have much time,” one of the opposition leaders, former world champion boxer Vitaly Klitschko, said as parliament began its debate.
“I want to make Ukraine a modern European country,” he said.
“If I can do that through the president’s position, I will do my best.”
In an address on Saturday, aired before lawmakers voted to remove him, Viktor Yanukovych refused to officially stand down. He is last thought to have been in Kharkiv after travelling there late on Friday night.
Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi has been accused by prosecutors of leaking state secrets to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The claim came during the second hearing of his trial on espionage charges.
Prosecutors allege that he and 35 others were involved in a plot to destabilize Egypt. The trial was later adjourned to February 27.
The deposed Islamist leader is facing four separate trials.
Mohamed Morsi’s supporters say he and other senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders are the victims of politically motivated prosecutions.
The espionage trail opened on February 16 and on Sunday prosecutors detailed the charges against Mohamed Morsi and his co-defendants.
They were specifically accused of “delivering to a foreign country… national defense secrets and providing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards with security reports in order to destabilize the security and stability of the country”, AFP news agency reported.
The statement read in court did not identify the “foreign country”.
Egyptian prosecutors have accused ousted President Mohammed Morsi of leaking state secrets to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
Mohamed Morsi is also accused of collaborating with the Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. If convicted, he could receive the death penalty.
During Sunday’s hearing, Mohamed Morsi was held separately in a soundproof glass cage to prevent him shouting and disrupting proceedings.
Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military last July following mass street protests against his government.
There has since been a severe crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group, as well as on other activists seen as hostile to the military-backed government.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organization and authorities have punished any public show of support for it.
Other senior Brotherhood figures, including supreme guide Mohammed Badie and his deputy and former presidential candidate Khairat al-Shater, are also facing a raft of charges.
Proceedings in two other trials have already begun.
The first opened in November, with Mohamed Morsi facing charges of inciting the killing of protesters near the presidential palace when he was in office in 2012.
In January, another trial opened concerning Mohamed Morsi’s escape from prison in a jailbreak in 2011, during which police officers were killed.
The fourth trial, which has yet to open, will be on charges of insulting the judiciary.
Australian TV personality Charlotte Dawson was found dead at her Woolloomooloo home in an apparent suicide following a long and very public battle with depression.
Charlotte Dawson’s friends have spoken of a sense of inevitability around her death, revealing that in recent weeks her mental state seemed specially fragile.
It is believed Charlotte Dawson, 47, was struggling financially, having borrowed up to $80,000 from friends as she tried to keep up the rent on her $1200-a-week apartment.
Charlotte Dawson had also been axed from her role on the popular Foxtel TV show Australia’s Next Top Model, and last November parted ways with management company Chic Management after they said her battles with mental illness were “damaging her brand”.
Charlotte Dawson was found dead at her Woolloomooloo home in an apparent suicide
Only a week ago, Charlotte Dawson’s ex-husband Scott Miller had appeared on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes to talk about his drug addiction and the role it had played in the breakdown of their marriage. Charlotte Dawson, who described Scott Miller as the “love of her life”, said at the time she wasn’t sure if she would be strong enough to watch the interview.
Charlotte Dawson’s body was discovered the morning after Scott Miller’s 39th birthday.
She is understood to have been found by a security guard in her rented waterside apartment in the early hours of yesterday morning. Her body was later formally identified yesterday by Madeline Huett, a friend and former Top Model contestant.
Charlotte Dawson was hospitalized in 2012 after hundreds of social media trolls viciously targeted her on Twitter.
A police media spokesman told news.com.au: “About 11a.m., police from the Kings Cross local area command were called to Cowper Wharf Road after the body of a woman had been located in a unit. No suspicious circumstances at this stage and a report is being prepared for the coroner.”
It is believed her body was discovered after a real estate agent raised the alarm after she couldn’t reach Charlotte Dawson by mobile phone in relation to the auction of her home.
A five-year-old girl has been killed and dozens of other people wounded after gunmen have opened fire on an anti-government rally in eastern Thailand.
Attackers threw explosives and shot at demonstrators at a rally called by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).
The incident took place at a night market in the Khao Saming district of Trat province late on Saturday.
Tensions across Thailand have escalated since a wave of anti-government protests began in November.
The demonstrators want PM Yingluck Shinawatra to resign to make way for an appointed interim government, but she has refused.
On Tuesday several people were killed in clashes that erupted in Bangkok, when police began clearing protest sites.
Attackers threw grenades and sprayed the crowd with bullets at a night market in the Khao Saming district of Trat province
The latest attack occurred about 180 miles south-east of Bangkok.
Officials said the five-year-old girl had been standing at a noodle stall when the attackers, in two pick-up trucks, opened fire at the PDRC rally. She died from a gunshot wound to the head.
At least 30 other people are believed to have been injured. Another child is said to be in a critical condition.
PDRC spokesman Suwicharn Suwannakha said the attack happened during a speech by a party leader, Thai newspaper The Nation reported.
Suwicharn Suwannakha said he first heard the explosions and gunfire and then saw chairs in front of the stage scattered.
No group has so far said it carried out the attack.
There has been growing frustration recently from the red shirts over the government’s inability to disperse the protesters, who have been occupying parts of central Bangkok for weeks.
Red-shirt leaders have organized a mass gathering in north-eastern Thailand this weekend to decide how they should fight back against the campaign to unseat the government.
