Australian scientists are working to classify a new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on a beach in Tasmania.
A family found the 5ft jellyfish on a beach south of Hobart last month.
Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin, of Australia’s CSIRO government agency, said that scientists had known about the species for a while but had not yet classified it.
She described the specimen as a “truly magnificent animal”.
Experts at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) were alerted to the discovery by Josie Lim and her family, who came across it.
“She and her children found the jellyfish and took this amazing photo that just boggles the mind,” jellyfish expert Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin said.
This species was part of the Lion’s Mane group, she said.
Australian scientists are working to classify a new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on a beach in Tasmania
These jellyfish “look like a dinner plate with a mop hanging underneath – they have a really raggedy look to them”, she said.
The Tasmanian discovery was found stranded belly-up, Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin explained.
It was one of a “species I’ve known about for a while but it’s not yet named and classified”, she said.
“We’re very eager to know more about it.”
It is one of three new species of Lion’s Mane in Tasmania which the scientist is currently working to classify.
Recent years had seen “huge blooms” of jellyfish in Tasmanian waters, she said, but scientists were not sure why.
“We’re very keen to find out why jellyfish are blooming in such super-abundances in these southern waters,” she said.
The world’s largest jellyfish shares the same genus – Cyanea – as the Lion’s Mane. Found in the North Atlantic and Arctic, the Cyanea Arctica can grow up to 10ft across the body, Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin said.
An international team of scientists have created a bionic hand which allows the amputee to feel lifelike sensations from their fingers.
Dennis Aabo from Denmark received the hand, which was connected to nerves in his upper arm, following surgery in Italy.
Dennis Aabo, who lost his left hand in a firework accident nearly a decade ago, said the hand was “amazing”.
In laboratory tests he was able to tell the shape and stiffness of objects he picked up, even when blindfolded.
The details were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The team carried out the research project, which included robotics experts from Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
“It is the first time that an amputee has had real-time touch sensation from a prosthetic device” said Prof. Silvestro Micera from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa.
The scientific advance here was not the hand itself, but the electronics and software that enabled it to give sensory feedback to the brain.
Prof. Silvestro Micera and his team added sensors to the artificial hand which could detect and measure information about touch. Using computer algorithms, the scientists transformed the electrical signals they emitted into an impulse that sensory nerves could interpret.
Dennis Aabo, who lost his left hand in a firework accident nearly a decade ago, said the bionic hand was amazing
During an operation in Rome, four electrodes were implanted onto nerves in the patient’s upper arm. These were connected to the artificial sensors in the fingers of the prosthetic hand, so allowing touch and pressure feedback to be sent direct to the brain.
Dennis Aabo, 36, a property developer, spent a month doing laboratory tests, firstly to check the electrodes were functioning, and then with these fully connected to the bionic hand.
He said: “The biggest difference was when I grabbed something I could feel what I was doing without having to look. I could use the hand in the dark.
“It was intuitive to use, and incredible to be able to feel whether objects were soft or hard, square or round.”
The bionic hand is still a prototype, and due to safety restrictions imposed on clinical trials, Dennis Aabo required a second operation to remove the sensors.
Professor Paolo Rossini, neurologist, University Hospital Agostino Gemelli, Rome, said a lot of pre-training was done involving surgery on pigs, and with human cadavers, to ensure they knew exactly how to attach electrodes to the tiny peripheral nerves in the upper arm.
Another member of the team, Dr. Stanisa Raspopovic said: “It was a very exciting moment when after endless hours of testing….Dennis turned to us and said with disbelief, <<This is magic! I can feel the closing of my missing hand!>>”
The international team is now working on how to miniaturize the technology so that it could be used in the home.
“We must get rid of the external cables and make them fully implantable” said Prof. Thomas Stieglitz, University of Frieburg, Germany, whose laboratory created the ultra-thin implantable electrodes.
There is no precise timetable, but scientists think it could be a decade before a sensory feedback bionic hand is commercially available.
And they believe it may pave the way for more realistic prosthetic devices in the future which can detect texture and temperature.
But it will undoubtedly be very expensive, well beyond the means of most patients. And artificial hands still lack the precision and dexterity of the real thing.
The super-functioning bionic hand of science fiction films remains the stuff of fiction.
Nonetheless, Dennis Aabo, who now has his old prosthesis back, is ready to swap it for the bionic hand in any future trial.
The US Department of Homeland Security has warned airlines with direct flights to Russia that explosives hidden in toothpaste tubes could be smuggled onto planes.
The warning comes on the eve of the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
It said it shared relevant information with partners at home and abroad “out of an abundance of caution”.
But it was not aware of any specific danger to the US at this time.
Unnamed security officials were quoted as saying there were fears toothpaste tubes could be used to smuggle explosives which could then be used to assemble a bomb either in flight or upon arrival at the Olympics.
The US Department of Homeland Security has warned airlines with direct flights to Russia that explosives hidden in toothpaste tubes could be smuggled onto planes
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that although it is “not aware of a specific threat… this routine communication is an important part of our commitment to making sure we meet that priority”.
The White House National Security Council said the latest threat had not altered existing travel guidelines for Sochi.
“If we should receive information in the coming days and weeks that changes our assessment of whether people should travel to Sochi, we will make that information public,” spokeswoman Laura Magnuson told US media.
The US has also placed two warships in the Black Sea in case of a security breach during the games, scheduled for February 7-23.
Fears were raised following two suicide attacks in Volgograd in December, and numerous threats from Islamist militants in the Caucasus region.
North Korea has warned South Korea it will cancel family reunions, a day after agreeing to hold them.
A top military body in North Korea said in a statement that it would reconsider the family reunions deal if joint US-South Korea military exercises went ahead.
“Dialogue and exercises of war” could not go hand in hand, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the North Korean statement as saying.
The two Koreas last held reunions for divided families in 2010.
The next reunions – for family members separated when the Korean peninsula was partitioned at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War – are scheduled for February 20.
In the past North Korea has cancelled reunions after the South took actions it opposed.
North Korea said it would reconsider the family reunions deal if joint US-South Korea military exercises went ahead
It has been accused of using the reunions, which are highly emotional events, as a bargaining chip.
“As we were reaching an agreement on the separated families, B-52 bombers were engaging in nuclear strike drills against us above Korea’s western sea,” the statement from North Korea’s National Defense Commission said.
“As long as [South Korea] hurts our dignity and slanders our regime, we can’t help but reconsider fulfilling the agreement,” the statement added.
Major US and South Korea military drills, which are held every year around this time, are due to begin later this month. The exercises anger Pyongyang, which views them as aggressive.
Last year, the exercises led to a prolonged surge in tensions, with North Korea threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes and cutting a military hotline with the South.
A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said on Thursday that the joint drills would go ahead.
“We will proceed with our drills normally, regardless of the reunions for separated families,” said ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.
It is estimated that there are about 72,000 South Koreans – nearly half of them aged over 80 – on the waiting list for a chance to join the family reunion events.
Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill that would tighten government controls over the internet.
The new law will allow Turkey’s telecommunications authority to block websites without first seeking a court ruling.
It will also force internet providers to store data on web users’ activities for two years and make it available to the authorities.
The opposition has criticized the move as an assault on freedom of expression.
Internet access in Turkey is already restricted and thousands of websites blocked.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been openly critical of the internet, calling Twitter a “scourge” and condemning social media as “the worst menace to society”.
Both Twitter and Facebook were widely used by anti-government protesters to spread information during demonstrations last year.
Turkey’s parliament has approved a bill that would tighten government controls over the internet
The new measures were adopted after hours of debate in parliament where Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) dominates with 319 of the 550 seats.
At the start of the debate, opposition MP Hasan Oren compared Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Adolf Hitler.
“When you came to power you talked of enhancing democracy in Turkey – now you are trying to implement fascism,” he said.
“Remember that Adolf Hitler used the same methods when he rose to power.”
However, Deputy PM Bulent Arinc said there was “no such thing as internet censorship” in Turkey.
“We are freer compared to many other countries and have freedom of the press,” he said.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the new powers meant Turkey’s telecommunications agency would be able to “gather communications data about all internet users without any legal limits or restrictions” and with users “never… able to know when and how this information is gathered”.
Selena Gomez’s rep confirmed reports that she spent two weeks of January in an Arizona rehab.
Selena Gomez, 21, announced in December that she was canceling her Australian tour to spend some time on herself.
The Dawn at the Meadows facility offers youth-targeted treatment for addiction and other issues, but Selena Gomez didn’t seek help for drugs or alcohol when she discreetly checked in on January 5, says her camp.
Selena Gomez spent two weeks of January in an Arizona rehab
“Selena voluntarily spent time at Meadows but not for substance abuse,” her rep said in a statement.
While Radar Online says Selena Gomez sought help for “emotional issues,” another insider alleges that she’d been “partying very hard”.
According to TMZ, Selena Gomez blames Justin Bieber for her troubles, citing the “excesses” she was exposed to (e.g. alcohol, pot and Ambien) while hanging with him and his posse.
Since, addiction and mood disorders, such as depression, are often linked, it is likely that Gomez has been suffering from multiple issues in recent months. Luckily, receiving treatment at a dual diagnosis treatment center can help with both addiction and emotional issues.
While going through with dual diagnosis treatment, Gomez will learn to create a balance in her life that will ultimately lead to her living in a healthier manner.
Arizona is home to some of the top rehab centers in the entire country, so fans can be certain that Gomez has received the best care available and is well on the road to recovery.
Suzanne Basso is scheduled to be executed Wednesday in a rare case of a female death-row inmate in the US.
Suzanne Basso, 59, is convicted of torturing and killing mentally impaired Louis “Buddy” Musso near Houston, Texas, more than 15 years ago.
If she is lethally injected as scheduled, New York native Suzanne Basso would be only the 14th woman executed in the US since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. By comparison, almost 1,400 men have been put to death.
Texas, America’s busiest death-penalty state, has executed four women and 505 men.
Suzanne Basso was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of 59-year-old Louis “Buddy” Musso, whose battered and lacerated body was found in a ditch outside Houston. Prosecutors said Suzanne Basso had made herself the beneficiary of Louis Musso’s insurance policies and took over his Social Security benefits after luring him from New Jersey.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to halt the execution in a ruling Tuesday, meaning the Supreme Court is likely her last hope. A state judge ruled last month that Suzanne Basso had a history of fabricating stories about herself, seeking attention and manipulating psychological tests.
Suzanne Basso is convicted of torturing and killing mentally impaired Louis “Buddy” Musso in 1998
Leading up to her trial, Suzanne Basso’s court appearances were marked by claims of blindness and paralysis, and speech mimicking a little girl.
Suzanne Basso’s attorney, Winston Cochran Jr., had asked the appeals court to overturn the lower court’s finding that Basso was mentally competent to face execution. He argued that Suzanne Basso suffered from delusions and that the state law governing competency was unconstitutionally flawed.
Her lawyer said a degenerative disease left her paralyzed, but Suzanne Basso, who uses a wheelchair, blamed her paralysis on a jail beating years ago. At a competency hearing two months ago, she testified from a hospital bed wheeled into a Houston courtroom and talked about a snake smuggled into a prison hospital in an attempt to kill her.
She acknowledged lying about her background, including that she was a triplet, worked in the New York governor’s office and had a relationship with Nelson Rockefeller, the late vice president and New York governor.
Prosecutors said Louis Musso was living in New Jersey when he met either Suzanne Basso or her son at a church carnival, then moved to Jacinto City, east of Houston, with an offer of marriage. Evidence showed Suzanne Basso was already married but took over his benefits and insurance.
An autopsy showed Louis Musso had several broken bones, including a skull fracture and 14 broken ribs. His back was covered with cigarette burns, and bruises were found all over his body.
Suzanne Basso became a suspect after reporting him missing following the discovery of his body. Five others also were convicted, including Suzanne Basso’s son, but prosecutors only sought the death penalty for her.
Suzanne Basso is among about 60 women currently on death row in the US, making up about 2% of the 3,100 condemned inmates.
Steve Coogan and Philomena Lee, whose story inspired the Oscar-nominated film Philomena, have met Pope Francis in Rome.
Steve Coogan, who starred in, co-wrote and co-produced the film, will take part in a press conference with Philomena Lee in Rome on Thursday.
They are campaigning for the release of 60,000 adoption files held by the Irish state, churches and private agencies.
The film tells the story of Philomena Lee’s search for her adopted son.
As an unmarried mother in Ireland in the 1950s, Philomena Lee was put into a convent as a “fallen woman” and forced to give up her three-year-old son.
“I am honored and delighted to have been in the presence of Pope Francis today,” Philomena Lee said in a statement.
Steve Coogan and Philomena Lee, whose story inspired the Oscar-nominated film Philomena, have met Pope Francis in Rome
“As the film portrays, I have always put great faith in the church and the good will to put the wrongs of the past right.
“I hope and believe that his Holiness Pope Francis joins me in the fight to help the thousands of mothers and children who need closure on their own stories.”
Pope Francis holds a general audience in the Vatican every Wednesday.
Philomena Lee and her daughter Jane recently launched The Philomena Project to help reunite families separated by adoption.
At present, adopted children who are trying to find their biological parents in Ireland are not permitted to see documents containing information on the identities of parents and children.
Adoption was sometimes forced upon single mothers due to the stigma of having a child outside marriage.
Philomena Lee’s story was told in a book by former BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith, and his book was adapted for the screen by Steve Coogan.
Philomena has four Oscar nominations, including best picture, best actress for Judi Dench and best adapted screenplay for Steve Coogan and co-writer Jeff Pope.
Honey Boo Boo is reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress brought on by the recent car accident.
Alana Thompson, aka Honey Boo Boo, 8, and her family are still recovering from the incident.
Father Mike Thompson (aka Sugar Bear), Honey Boo Boo, Lauryn Shannon, Jessica Shannon, and mother June Shannon were involved in a small wreck in early January when the family vehicle was struck by a truck.
While there were no serious injuries reported, physical after effects resulted in Lauryn’s brief hospitalization.
Honey Boo Boo is reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress brought on by the recent car accident
Meanwhile, Honey Boo Boo’s road to recovery has been rocky as well.
“She has what [doctors] call post-concussion symptoms, which is like the headaches, the body aches, being dazed and confused,” Mama June explained to BANG Showbiz.
“Then she also has post-traumatic stress syndrome from being in a traumatic event. So we are just taking it one day at a time.”
While fans take in new episodes from the third season of Here Come Honey Boo Boo on TLC, the family’s recent off-screen drama has Mama June worrying that her youngest may not return to her old self.
“We are just trying to get her back to the most normal routine we can, which is going to help her healing process,” June Shannon continued.
“What is frustrating is that we don’t know what the outcome will be, or when she is going to be back to normal.”
It remains unclear how much of this story will find its way onto viewers’ television screens.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
A private funeral service will be held for Philip Seymour Hoffman in New York on Friday.
Only his family and close friends have been invited to pay their respects to the late actor.
A representative for Philip Seymour Hoffman said: “In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Phil’s name to two charities that were very close to his heart: The Dreamyard Project and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. The family wishes to thank everyone for their continued support and good wishes.”
A private funeral service will be held for Philip Seymour Hoffman in New York
Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead Sunday morning of a suspected drug overdose at the age of 46. Dozens of bags of heroin were found in his apartment, and the actor had been in rehab in recent months.
He was born in New York and lived there just a few blocks from partner Mimi O’Donnell, with whom he had three young children.
Mimi O’Donnell had recently kicked Philip Seymour Hoffman out of their shared Manhattan apartment to battle his addiction.
The UN watchdog for children’s rights denounced the Holy See for adopting policies which allowed priests to abuse thousands of children.
The UN has said that the Vatican should “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers.
In a report, it also criticized Vatican attitudes towards homos**uality, contraception and abortion.
The Vatican responded by saying it would examine the report – but also accused its authors of interference.
A group representing the victims of abuse by priests in the US welcomed the report.
The UN has said that the Vatican should “immediately remove” all clergy who are known or suspected child abusers
In its findings, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the Holy See should open its files on members of the clergy who had “concealed their crimes” so that they could be held accountable by the authorities.
It said it was gravely concerned that the Holy See had not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, and expressed its “deepest concern about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic churches who operate under the authority of the Holy See, with clerics having been involved in the s**ual abuse of tens of thousands of children worldwide”.
It also lambasted the “practice of offenders’ mobility”, referring to the transfer of child abusers from parish to parish within countries, and sometimes abroad.
The UN report called on a Vatican commission created by Pope Francis in December to investigate all cases of child abuse “as well as the conduct of the Catholic hierarchy in dealing with them”.
Footlights – Charlie Chaplin’s only known novella – has been published, 66 years after it was written.
Footlights – the basis for his 1952 film Limelight – has been reconstructed by Charlie Chaplin’s biographer, David Robinson.
Drafts of the work were uncovered in the Chaplin archive at the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy.
The novella will be launched on Tuesday at BFI Southbank in London during an event to mark the centenary of Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp character.
Footlights is 70 pages long and contains around 34,000 words. It took Charlie Chaplin around three years to adapt his book into a film script.
It is being published as part of a larger book called The World of Limelight, compiled and written by David Robinson.
Footlights novella was the basis for Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 film Limelight
Limelight is considered by many to be one of Charlie Chaplin’s last great films.
It tells the story of a clown – played by Charlie Chaplin – who saves a dancer (Claire Bloom) from suicide and helps her resume her dancing career.
It includes a sequence where Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, who plays Chaplin’s stage partner, appear on screen together – the only time they did so.
Claire Bloom will appear at Tuesday’s event alongside David Robinson, author of many books about Charlie Chaplin’s life and work.
After Limelight, Claire Bloom was named best newcomer at the 1953 BAFTAs and went on to appear with Richard Burton in Look Back in Anger (1956) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).
The Cineteca di Bologna’s digitization of the vast Charlie Chaplin archive comprises more than 100,000 documents.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol producers and Tom Cruise are being sued for $1 billion by Timothy Patrick McLanahan who claims its script was based on his copyrighted screenplay.
Timothy Patrick McLanahan claims the 2011 release was “illegally written and produced” from his 1998 script Head On.
He filed legal papers against Tom Cruise, Paramount Pictures and several production companies in December 2013.
The documents have since been obtained and published by Radar Online.
In the court papers, Timothy Patrick McLanahan said he had originally sent his script to the William Morris Agency only to have it turned it down.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol producers and Tom Cruise are being sued for $1 billion by Timothy Patrick McLanahan who claims its script was based on his copyrighted screenplay
“I was told by the agency that they could not use the script as a movie,” he writes.
He claims they then “shopped the script around the world” without his permission and passed it on to Creative Artist Agency (CAA), who represent Tom Cruise.
On watching Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth movie to star Tom Cruise as agent Ethan Hunt, Timothy Patrick McLanahan said he “immediately recognized” the script.
The film took nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office, going on to earn more from DVD and Blu-ray sales.
“Because the Ghost Protocol film generated close to $1 billion, I am asking for this amount in damages,” said Timothy Patrick McLanahan in the court papers.
A fifth Mission: Impossible film is now in the works and is expected to be released in December 2015.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea has defended not playing live during this year’s Super Bowl half-time show.
Flea responded to reports that his and guitarist Josh Klinghoffer’s instruments were not plugged in while they played Give It Away at the NFL game at the weekend.
On Red Hot Chili Peppers’ website Flea said they were told a backing track would be pre-recorded when they agreed to the show.
“I understand the NFL’s stance on this,” he said.
Flea added: “Given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the TV viewers.”
When Red Hot Chili Peppers’ joined Bruno Mars on stage during the show, singer Anthony Kiedis’ vocal was live but Flea, Josh Klinghoffer and drummer Chad Smith played along with the backing track.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea has defended not playing live during this year’s Super Bowl half-time show
In his online statement, Flea added that the band didn’t feel the need to plug in their instruments because: “We thought it better to not pretend.”
The musician added: “The Red Hot Chili Peppers stance on any sort of miming has been that we will absolutely not do it.”
However, he said the opportunity to play at the event was too much to pass up.
“When this Super Bowl gig concept came up, there was a lot of confusion amongst us as whether or not we should do it, but we eventually decided, it was a surreal-like, once in a life time crazy thing to do and we would just have fun and do it.”
Flea also said the last time the band mimed, or tried to, was in the late 80s when they were thrown off Top Of the Pops during rehearsals because they refused to mime properly.
He explained: “I played bass with my shoe, John [Frusciante] played guitar atop Anthony’s shoulders, and we basically had a wrestling match onstage, making a mockery of the idea that it was a real live performance.”
Flea closed the statement by saying: “I am grateful to the NFL for having us. And I am grateful to Bruno, who is a super talented young man for inviting us to be a part of his gig. I would do it all the same way again.
“We, as a band, aspire to grow as musicians and songwriters, and to continue to play our guts out live onstage for anyone who wants to get their brains blown out.”
Power supplies and transport have been disrupted after south-west England and south Wales were hit by a powerful storm.
Engineers have been working to restore power but more than 7,000 homes are still without electricity.
In Dawlish, Devon, a section of sea wall under the railway line collapsed, leaving the track suspended in mid-air.
UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee later to consider the government’s response.
It is the first time this year that the prime minister will have chaired a meeting of Cobra to discuss the floods and follows widespread criticism of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson’s handling of the crisis.
Power supplies and transport have been disrupted after south-west England and south Wales were hit by a powerful storm
The prime minister’s office said David Cameron was anxious to ensure that “all that can be done is being done”.
Earlier, First Great Western said all lines between Exeter St Davids and Penzance were closed because of adverse weather conditions and it advised against travel for the rest of the day.
Part of the sea wall at Dawlish, which is between Exeter and Cornwall, has collapsed and the railway station and tracks have been severely damaged by huge waves, driven by gale-force winds.
Western Power Distribution said about 44,000 customers had been affected by power cuts since Tuesday afternoon and 7,400 homes in south-west England remained without power.
The Met Office said gusts of up to 70mph and 20mm of rain had spread from the South West to south-west Wales and eastern Northern Ireland overnight.
Western Power Distribution said there had been high voltage faults due to debris being blown around in Devon and Cornwall.
Teams of engineers worked through the night to try to fix the faults, and the company said it would also switch circuits to work around individual faults.
Mamoru Samuragochi, a deaf composer who has been dubbed “Japan’s Beethoven”, has admitted hiring someone else to write his music for nearly two decades.
Mamoru Samuragochi, 50, shot to fame in the mid-1990s and is most famous for his Hiroshima Symphony No 1, dedicated to those killed in the 1945 atomic blast.
He has now confessed he has not composed his own music since 1996.
The real composer of the musician’s “hits” has not been formally named.
According to his now defunct website, Mamoru Samuragochi was taught how to play the piano by his mother when he was four and began playing Beethoven and Bach when he was 10.
Mamoru Samuragochi made his first breakthrough creating music for video games including Resident Evil and Onimusha.
He completely lost his hearing when he was 35 but continued to compose music, apparently relying on his “absolute pitch”.
Mamoru Samuragochi shot to fame in the mid-1990s and is most famous for his Hiroshima Symphony No 1
Mamoru Samuragochi’s Hiroshima Symphony No 1, completed in 2003, became a major classical music hit, selling more than 100,000 copies in Japan.
It went on to become an anthemic tribute known informally as the “Symphony of Hope”, after Mamoru Samuragochi was filmed meeting survivors in the tsunami-battered Tohoku region in 2011.
Apologizing on his behalf, Mamoru Samuragochi’s solicitor said the musician was “deeply sorry as he has betrayed fans and disappointed others”.
“He knows he could not possibly make any excuse for what he has done. He is mentally distressed and not in a condition to properly express his own thoughts.”
Japanese broadcaster NHK quoted Mamoru Samuragochi saying: “I started hiring the person to compose music for me around 1996, when I was asked to make movie music for the first time.
“I had to ask the person to help me for more than half the work because the ear condition got worse.”
It is believed Mamoru Samuragochi paid for the commissions while giving the ideas for his work to the other composer.
“I’ve been told that there are certain circumstances that make it hard for the person [who composed the works] to come out in public,” his lawyer said.
“Samuragochi has therefore come to describe himself as the sole composer.”
Although the identity of the “ghost” composer has not been formally identified, Japanese media has named him as music teacher Aragaki Takashi.
Japanese Winter Olympics hopeful, figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, has also been caught up in the scandal as his program includes a dance to Mamoru Samuragochi’s Sonatina for Violin – also not penned by the musician.
Nippon Columbia, Mamoru Samuragochi’s record company, said it was “flabbergasted and deeply infuriated” by his revelation.
Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle a lawsuit over the sale of mortgage-backed securities.
The money will be paid to the US regulator that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage guarantee firms.
US taxpayers had to rescue the two firms in 2008 in a bailout worth $187 billion during the financial crisis.
Morgan Stanley joins other banks, including JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, in settling with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
The banking giant will add an additional $150m to its legal reserves as a result of the settlement with the US regulator.
The US government filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions in 2011 over the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities.
The mortgage securities became toxic when the US housing market collapsed.
Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle a lawsuit over the sale of mortgage-backed securities
In December 2013, Germany’s biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, agreed to pay $1.9 billion to settle a lawsuit with FHFA.
The German bank had been accused of breaking state and federal laws when it sold financial products backed by mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac between 2005 and 2007.
One month prior, in November 2013, US bank JP Morgan Chase agreed to a $13 billion settlement with the FHFA for misleading investors during the housing crisis.
It was the largest settlement ever between the US government and a corporation.
At the time, JP Morgan Chase acknowledged it had made serious misrepresentations to the public, but said it did not violate US laws.
Morgan Stanley’s quarterly net income for the October-to-December period last year was more than halved by heavy legal fees relating to the mortgage-backed securities.
The lender’s fourth quarter earnings, which were reported earlier this month, were $433m, down from $982 million a year earlier.
Legal expenses were $1.2 billion.
Citigroup and JP Morgan were also affected by legal costs stemming from the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Morgan Stanley said its legal costs were “specifically litigation and investigations related to residential mortgage-backed securities and the credit crisis”.
New York police have reportedly arrested four people as part of an investigation into the suspected heroin overdose death of Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Some 350 bags of heroin were also seized during the arrests in Lower Manhattan, unnamed police officials were quoted by US media as saying.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, was found dead at his Greenwich Village home on Sunday with a syringe in his arm.
Dozens of suspected heroin bags were found near his body.
Some were stamped with the ace of hearts and the ace of spades, which are said to be brand names for heroin that street dealers use.
New York police have reportedly arrested four people as part of an investigation into the suspected heroin overdose death of Philip Seymour Hoffman
No definitive cause of death has been given, as police try to piece together his final hours using surveillance video and inspecting computers found in his home.
Police say the heroin found in Hoffman’s apartment was not mixed with the synthetic narcotic fentanyl.
Fentanyl has been blamed for a number of recent overdose deaths.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is reported to have withdrawn a total of $1,200 in six visits to a cash machine the day before his death.
The acting world has been paying tribute to a man described as one of the finest actors of his generation.
Lights along theatre marquees on New York’s Broadway are due to be dimmed later in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who earned three Tony award nominations for his work in theatre work in the city.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is survived by his partner Mimi O’Donnell and their three children, has spoken candidly in the past of his struggle against drug addiction.
North Korea and South Korea have agreed to hold reunions for families separated after the Korean War in February, following calls from Pyongyang to improve ties.
If held, they would be the first reunions since 2010.
In September, North Korea cancelled a planned reunion, blaming “hostility” from South Korea.
The move comes ahead of annual US-South Korea military drills later this month, which are expected to anger North Korea.
Pyongyang has asked Seoul to cancel the annual drills – a request that has been refused.
North Korea has in the past cancelled or suspended reunion meetings in retaliation for South Korean actions it opposes. Critics have accused North Korea of using reunions as a bargaining chip.
North Korea and South Korea have agreed to hold reunions for families separated after the Korean War in February
Millions were separated from their families by the division of the Korean peninsula after the 1950-1953 war.
The reunion events are highly emotional occasions where North and South Koreans meet briefly in the North before heading home again.
The program was suspended after North Korea’s shelling of a South Korean border island in November 2010.
The reunions are scheduled to be held from February 20 to February 25, at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea.
Before the meeting, Lee Duk-haeng, head of South Korea’s delegation, said: “We will make all-out efforts to come up with good results such as on a schedule for the family reunion so that we can deliver good news to separated families.
“We will do our best to start the new year off on the right foot for the South-North relationship.”
In September, Pyongyang cancelled the planned reunions of 100 families, blaming South Korea’s “confrontational attitude”.
It is estimated that there are about 72,000 South Koreans – nearly half of them aged over 80 – on the waiting list for a chance to join the family reunion events.
However, only a few hundred participants are selected each time. Most do not know whether their relatives are still alive, because the two countries prevent their citizens from exchanging mail, phone calls and emails.
Last month, North Korea began urging an end to slander and “hostile acts”, but many here remain skeptical that warmer ties are so easy to secure.
President Vladimir Putin has taken senior Olympics officials on a tour of a Persian leopard sanctuary ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi.
Vladimir Putin tried to calm one leopard cub, which had become agitated and attacked two journalists, Russian media said.
The visit to Sochi National Park comes amid efforts to show the games are positive for the environment.
Vladimir Putin is well known for his encounters with wild animals which have helped burnish his outdoors image.
In the past, the president has been shown on state TV tagging whales, saving a TV crew from a tiger and taking to the skies to fly with Siberian cranes.
Vladimir Putin drove Jean Claude Killy, former French Olympian and International Olympic Committee (IOC) official, and IOC Executive Director Gilbert Felli to the nature reserve near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Vladimir Putin has taken senior Olympics officials on a tour of a Persian leopard sanctuary ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi
But a six-month-old Persian leopard cub, Grom (Thunder), attacked two journalists inside a cage, scratching one on the hand and biting the other on the knee, RIA Novosti news agency said.
Footage broadcast on state TV showed the Russian president cuddling the leopard seemingly at ease, commenting: “I like animals, it seems I have a feeling for them. We liked each other.”
Russia is working to re-introduce the Persian leopard to southern Russia where they became extinct in 1970.
“We’ve decided to restore the population of the Persian leopard because of the Olympic Games,” Vladimir Putin said.
During the visit Vladimir Putin insisted that the enormous construction effort to prepare Sochi for the Games had greatly improved the environment.
Environmentalists have accused the Russian authorities of damaging the environment beside the sea and in the mountains of the Sochi area during construction for the Games.
Taliban negotiators in Pakistan have condemned the failure of government representatives to meet them in Islamabad, as preliminary peace efforts got off to a chaotic start.
The government side had asked for clarification about the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) team.
The militants have been waging an insurgency inside Pakistan since 2007.
Later, a bomb outside a hotel in a Shia neighborhood of the north-western city of Peshawar left at least eight dead.
Taliban negotiators in Pakistan have condemned the failure of government representatives to meet them in Islamabad
Twenty-six people were injured in the blast which Shafqat Malik, leader of the police Bomb Disposal Unit, said was a suicide attack.
The government and Taliban representatives had been due to start charting a “roadmap” for talks.
Many observers were puzzled by the government side’s approach. The Taliban swiftly made clear there were to be no additions to their team, and urged the government side to begin talks and see for themselves whether the team had a mandate.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the talks initiative last week, following a spate of attacks.
In January more than 100 people, including many soldiers, died in Taliban attacks across the country. Thousands have been killed in recent years.
A Miami-Dade County judge set the trial date for Justin Bieber drag race for March 3rd.
Justin Bieber, 19, was arrested in Miami Beach on charges of DUI.
The singer’s lawyers have already filed a written plea of not guilty.
He is also charged with resisting arrest and driving with an invalid license.
Justin Bieber was arrested in Miami Beach on charges of DUI
Justin Bieber was arrested on January 23 after police said he was racing his sports car on a Miami Beach street.
The singer is currently on bail, set at $2,500.
Prosecutors will formally file charges at an arraignment on February 14.
R&B singer Khalil Sharieff, the driver of the car Justin Bieber was allegedly racing against, was also arrested after being reportedly found to be under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
A week after the alleged road racing incident, Justin Bieber was charged with assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto in December.
Barbara Walters defended Woody Allen from allegations by his estranged daughter Dylan Farrow that he assaulted her when she was a child during Monday’s edition of The View.
Other panelists on the show tried to argue that Woody Allen’s previous attraction to younger women could give credibility to the claims, but Barbara Walters shut them down repeatedly.
“I know Mia [Farrow], I have a good relationship with her,” Barbara Walters explained.
Barbara Walters defended Woody Allen from allegations by his estranged daughter Dylan Farrow
“But I’ve been with Woody many times with his two daughters, he’s got almost a twenty-year-old marriage … I have rarely seen a father as sensitive, and as loving and as caring as Woody is to his daughters. … I don’t know about Dylan, I can only tell you about what I’ve seen now, that it’s a good marriage and that he’s a loving, caring father.”
“She has nothing to gain by coming out and saying this,” Jenny McCarthy said.
“Supposedly, she’s very angry,” Barbara Walters responded.
“But she’s doing it now because he’s up for an award, so the question is does your personal life interfere with the award?”
