Bachelor Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici got married in a lavish ceremony at the Four Seasons resort The Biltmore in Santa Barbara, California, in the franchise’s first-ever live TV wedding.
Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici got engaged ten months ago on The Bachelor Season 17 finale.
On January 26, Sean Lowe walked down the aisle first, flanked by his mom, Sherry, and his dad, Jay, who officiated the vows. They were followed by the rest of the wedding party, including Catherine Giudici’s many bridesmaids, who wore ethereal blush-colored gowns with gold accents.
Bachelor Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici got married in a lavish ceremony at the Four Seasons resort The Biltmore in Santa Barbara
Resplendent in a strapless lace Monique Lhuillier gown, Catherine Giudici appeared at the end of the aisle.
Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici’s love “has been an epic fairy-tale, on display for all the world to see,” his dad began, as the camera panned to other Bachelor alum – including Ryan and Trista Sutter, and Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum – in the crowd.
Actor Eric Lawson, who portrayed the Marlboro Man during the late 1970s, has died at the age of 72 from smoking-related disease.
Eric Lawson’s wife, Susan Lawson, said Sunday that her husband died on January 10 at his California home. The cause was respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
Eric Lawson portrayed the Marlboro Man during the late 1970s
He portrayed the smoking cowboy in Marlboro print ads from 1978 to 1981. He also had bit parts in such TV shows as Baretta and Charlie’s Angels before injuries sustained on the set of a Western film ended his acting career.
A smoker since age 14, Eric Lawson later appeared in an anti-smoking commercial that parodied the Marlboro Man and an Entertainment Tonight segment to discuss the negative effects of smoking.
Egypt’s army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been given approval by the country’s top military body to run for the presidency, state media report.
Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, in July.
He is expected to accept the nomination from the Supreme Council for Armed Forces (SCAF) and resign from his military position within days.
Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader
Earlier, the interim president promoted him from general to field marshal.
Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is popular with much of the Egyptian public and analysts say he would be expected to win the presidential election, to be held by late April.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people joined a rally in Cairo to mark the anniversary of the 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak by calling on Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to stand.
Dozens of Italian police officers are hunting for a stolen holy relic that contains the blood of Pope John Paul ll.
It appears to have been taken during the burglary of a small chapel that was a place of special significance to Pope John Paul II.
The church of San Pietro della Ienca lies in an isolated spot in the mountains of central Abruzzo region.
Over the weekend, thieves broke some protective iron bars and forced their way in through a window.
The stolen holy relic contains the blood of Pope John Paul ll
They left the collection box, but took a crucifix and the priceless relic, which contains a piece of gauze once soaked in the blood of the late Pope – one of only three such relics in the world.
Members of the local cultural association supporting the chapel are distraught.
Pope John Paul II used to escape the pressures of life in the Vatican by coming to the mountains.
Dozens of police officers are now searching the area with sniffer dogs.
Ice Cube’s cop comedy Ride Along stayed firm at number one in North American box office, taking $21.2 million.
Lone Survivor, starring Mark Wahlberg, held its nerve in second spot, taking £12.6 million.
The film, about the war in Afghanistan, was relatively inexpensive to make and is heading towards a cumulative total of $100 million.
Animated films The Nut Job stayed at number three, with Frozen just behind in its 10th week of release.
The Disney movie has becomes the second biggest original animation of all time, behind Finding Nemo.
Political thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, boasting a line-up including director-actor Kenneth Branagh and Keira Knightley, slipped back to fifth place after a modest debut at four last week.
The latest big screen version of Frankenstein has failed to impress cinema audiences in North America, debuting in a lowly sixth place.
Ice Cube’s cop comedy Ride Along stayed firm at number one in North American box office
Aaron Eckhart’s beefy vision of the legendary monster made $8.3 million, while the film cost $65 million.
Variety magazine is calling I, Frankenstein the “year’s biggest financial flop so far”, which is likely to slip even further next week as it loses big screen slots to other films including the remake of Robocop.
In the race towards the Oscars at the beginning of March, American Hustle has made the biggest box office headway so far at number seven.
The leading Academy Awards contender, with 10 nominations, was ahead of August: Osage County and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street with North American audiences.
Other best picture contenders had nationwide debuts this weekend, including Dallas Buyers Club, which made a modest $2 million.
It previously opened in autumn but had a limited run at a smaller number of cinemas.
Ukraine’s Justice Minister Olena Lukash has warned anti-government protesters occupying her ministry she will call for a state of emergency if they do not leave.
Olena Lukash told local media she would ask the National Security and Defense Council to introduce the measures.
Protesters seized the building in Kiev late on Sunday and set up barricades outside with bags of snow.
Unrest is spreading across Ukraine, with activists taking over municipal buildings in several towns and cities.
Buildings have come under attack even in eastern areas, which have traditionally had closer ties with Russia and where President Viktor Yanukovych has enjoyed strong support.
The crisis was sparked by the president’s decision not to sign a deal with the European Union, and has escalated with the deaths of four activists in recent days.
Correspondents say protesters entered the justice ministry building in the capital without resistance.
Unrest is spreading across Ukraine, with activists taking over municipal buildings in several towns and cities
“The seizure of the Ministry of Justice is a symbolic act of the people of the uprising. Now, these authorities are stripped of justice,” one protester told reporters.
But Olena Lukash told Inter TV channel: “If the protesters do not leave the justice ministry building… I will ask the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to impose the state of emergency.”
The minister is an ally of President Viktor Yanukovych and involved in the ongoing negotiations between the government and protest leaders.
She said she would be “forced to turn to the Ukrainian president with a request to stop the negotiations unless the justice ministry building is vacated without delay and the negotiators are given a chance to find a peaceful solution to the conflict”.
Last week, the parliament of the Crimean Autonomous Republic – seen as a staunch supporter of Viktor Yanukovych – also urged the president to declare a state of emergency.
The government has previously insisted it would not resort to the army, a measure our correspondent says would likely further antagonize the protesters and worsen the violence.
The parliament is due to meet for an extraordinary session on Tuesday, but the speaker has previously said a state of emergency will not be under discussion.
Chinese Moon rover Jade Rabbit is in trouble after experiencing a “mechanical control abnormality”, state media report.
The Moon exploration vehicle ran into problems due to the moon’s “complicated lunar surface environment”, Xinhua news agency said, citing science officials.
Jade Rabbit landed in December as part of China’s Chang’e-3 mission – the first “soft” landing on the Moon since 1976.
It was expected to operate for around three months.
Earlier this month, the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre said that Jade Rabbit, also known as Yutu, had successfully explored the surface of the moon with its mechanical arm.
The malfunction emerged before the rover entered its scheduled dormancy period on Saturday, Xinhua reported, citing the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).
Chinese Moon rover Jade Rabbit is in trouble after experiencing a mechanical control abnormality
Scientists were organizing repairs, the news agency added, without providing further details.
The rover was due to become dormant for 14 days during the lunar night, when there would be no sunlight to power the rover’s solar panel, reports said.
Xinhua said the news of the rover’s troubles had generated extensive discussion on Chinese social media.
“People not only hailed the authority’s openness to the accident, but also expressed concern,” it said.
On Sina Weibo, China’s largest microblog provider, users began tagging their posts with the hash tag “#hang in there Jade Rabbit”.
Novelist and poet Jose Emilio Pacheco has died at the age of 74, a day after hurting his head in a fall.
The poet’s daughter, Laura Emilia Pacheco, said he died “very peacefully” after suffering a heart attack.
In 2009, Jose Emilio Pacheco was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the highest literary honor in the Spanish-speaking world.
In 2009, Jose Emilio Pacheco was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the highest literary honor in the Spanish-speaking world
Jose Emilio Pacheco was born in Mexico City in 1939, and is best-known for his accounts of adolescents growing up in a corrupt and unjust Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s.
He is seen as one of Mexico’s foremost poets and a leading representative of his generation.
Jose Emilio Pacheco also translated works by Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams and TS Eliot, and taught literature at universities in the US, UK and Canada, besides his work in Mexico.
Edward Snowden has alleged the National Security Agency (NSA) engaged in industrial espionage.
In an interview with Germany’s ARD TV channel, Edward Snowden said the agency would spy on big German companies that competed with US firms.
The former NSA contractor, who was granted temporary asylum by Russia, also said he believed that US officials wanted to kill him.
Edward Snowden’s leaks caused outrage in Germany when it came to light Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone had been bugged.
After the row broke out last year, Angela Merkel accused the US of an unacceptable breach of trust.
Last week President Barack Obama indicated to Germany’s ZDF TV that US bugging of Angela Merkel’s mobile phone had been a mistake and would not happen again.
Edward Snowden has alleged the NSA engaged in industrial espionage
Referring to the German engineering company Siemens, Edward Snowden told ARD: “If there is information at Siemens that they [the NSA] think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they’ll take it.”
Edward Snowden also said he believed US agents want to kill him, referring to an article published by the Buzzfeed website in which intelligence operatives are quoted as saying they want to see him dead.
In August, Russia granted Edward Snowden asylum for one year, after he leaked details of US electronic surveillance programs.
The US has charged Edward Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Daft Punk has taken top honors at this year’s Grammy Awards, winning five prizes including album and record of the year.
Hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took four awards – best new artist plus best rap album, song and performance.
Justin Timberlake won three, while New Zealand teenager Lorde picked up two including song of the year for Royals.
Paul McCartney was among the other double winners and also reunited with his Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr.
The pair teamed up for Paul McCartney’s song Queenie Eye during the ceremony, which is known for its heavyweight on-stage collaborations.
The show was opened by Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce, while Madonna joined Macklemore and Ryan Lewis during their anti-homophobia anthem Same Love, as 33 couples got married on stage.
Other collaborations included Metallica performing with pianist Lang Lang and Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams being joined by Stevie Wonder to perform Get Lucky.
Get Lucky, which featured producer and singer Pharrell Williams and disco guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers, was one of the biggest hits of 2013.
Daft Punk has taken top honors at this year’s Grammy Awards, winning five prizes including album and record of the year
As well as scooping album and record of the year, Daft Punk won best pop duo/group performance for Get Lucky and best dance/electronica album for Random Access Memories.
The album was also named best engineered album, non-classical, which was credited to its engineers.
The French dance pioneers, real names Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, never appear in public without their trademark robot helmets.
As well as performing, Paul McCartney picked up the trophies for best music film and best rock song for Cut Me Some Slack, a collaboration with the surviving members of Nirvana.
It beat The Rolling Stones’ Doom And Gloom, from their 50th anniversary album GRRR!, as well as tracks by veteran metal band Black Sabbath, stadium rockers Muse and singer-guitarist Gary Clark Jr.
Black Sabbath did scoop best metal performance, while Led Zeppelin won best rock album for their live recording Celebration Day.
Rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, who found fame after self-releasing their album The Heist, won four awards from seven nominations.
Seventeen-year-old Lorde’s debut single Royals earned song of the year and best pop solo performance after catapulting her to the top of the charts around the world last year.
Jay-Z started the night with the most nominations, up for nine awards. He won best rap/sung collaboration for Holy Grail, featuring Justin Timberlake.
Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams and rapper Kendrick Lamar were among the acts who went into the ceremony with seven nominations.
Other winners included Adele for her James Bond theme Skyfall, which won the prize for best song written for visual media, and Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who won best classical instrumental solo.
According to a medical team at Cleveland Clinic, good cholesterol, or HDL, also has a nasty side that can increase the risk of heart attacks.
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol normally helps to keep arteries clear and is good for heart health.
But the team at the Cleveland Clinic showed it can become abnormal and lead to blocked blood vessels.
Doctors say people should still eat healthily, but that the good cholesterol story is a more complex tale than previously thought.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is “bad” because it is deposited in the walls of arteries and causes hard plaques to build up that can cause blockages, resulting in heart attacks and stroke.
HDL cholesterol is “good” because the cholesterol is instead shipped to the liver.
HDL cholesterol also has a nasty side that can increase the risk of heart attacks
The evidence shows that having a high ratio of good to bad cholesterol is good for health.
However, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic say trials aimed at boosting levels of HDL have “not been successful” and the role of good cholesterol is clearly more complicated.
In their study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, doctors showed how HDL cholesterol could become abnormal.
One of the researchers, Dr. Stanley Hazen, said HDL cholesterol was being modified in the walls of the artery: “In the artery walls it is acting very differently to in the circulation. It can become dysfunctional, and contributes to the development of heart disease.”
Small quantities of the abnormal HDL seep back into the bloodstream and this can be detected.
Tests on 627 patients showed that levels of abnormal HDL in the blood could be used to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Stanley Hazen added: “This data does not change the message of eat healthily.”
Instead, he said the findings would be used to develop new tests for abnormal HDL cholesterol and research on drugs to help block its formation.
UN mediator at the Geneva peace talks Lakhdar Brahimi has announced that Syria will allow women and children to leave the besieged area of Homs “from now”.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said women and children were free to leave. He alleged armed groups were preventing them from leaving.
Lakhdar Brahimi said that the opposition had agreed to give the government lists of detainees held by armed groups.
He said it was “too early” to assess the prospects of a comprehensive deal.
Lakhdar Brahimi admitted the talks were proceeding slowly but said that on Monday he “expected the two parties to make some general statement about the way forward”.
The envoy said he hoped a humanitarian convoy from the UN and the Red Cross would be able to go to Homs on Monday.
Hundreds of people are reportedly trapped in besieged parts of the city, including some who are very ill.
Syria will allow women and children to leave the besieged area of Homs
Faisal Mekdad said he hoped arrangements could be made with local officials to allow the convoy access but that the aid must not fall into “the hands of terrorists”, the term Syrian officials for all armed opposition.
Lakhdar Brahimi said that the government would allow women and children to leave immediately but had asked for a list of adult male civilians who wanted to leave to ensure they were not fighters.
The envoy said the opposition had pledged to gather names of detainees from groups it had “authority over or contact with” but admitted that this did not include all anti-government groups fighting in Syria.
The opposition in turn has been asking for the release of thousands of prisoners in government detention.
Lakhdar Brahimi said the talks in Geneva had taken the form of a joint session with the government and opposition in the morning before he met the sides separately in the afternoon.
He added that he expected this pattern to be repeated on Monday.
Lakhdar Brahimi said he had been encouraged by the atmosphere at the talks on Sunday, saying they had been characterized by “respect and exchange”.
No direct words had been exchanged between the delegations but the two sides were talking to each other through him, Lakhdar Brahimi said.
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash has won the grand jury prize and the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The opening night film, about an obsessive jazz drummer, has now been bought by Sony Picture Classics, which will bring it to a wider audience.
Rich Hill, about a group of teenagers living in a deprived area of rural America, won the documentary prize.
Sundance is the US’s leading indie film festival, backed by Robert Redford’s institute of the same name.
Whiplash‘s writer and director, Damien Chazelle, won the US fiction short film grand jury prize last year at Sundance for his original short version of Whiplash.
Damien Chazelle, 28, then expanded his short to make it into a feature film for this year’s festival.
Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash has won the grand jury prize and the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival 2014
“I remember my first time here was with a short, and the whole reason we made a short was because of my experiences as a drummer,” Damien Chazelle said.
“No-one wanted to finance the film because no-one wants to make a film about a jazz drummer – surprising,” he jokily added.
Rich Hill co-director Tracy Droz Tragos dedicated the win to the film’s subjects.
The documentary audience award went to Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory, which explores the effect of music on elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
The annual film festival, now in its 30th year, opened on January 16 in Park City, and will close on Sunday.
Other awards given out on Saturday included the short film audience prize, sponsored by YouTube and based on the number of online hits each entry had. This year’s prize went to Chapel Perilous, a comedy about a man who is visited by a salesman with nothing to sell.
Researchers have found that a 7,000-year-old man whose bones were left behind in a Spanish cave had the dark skin of an African, but the blue eyes of a Scandinavian.
The man was a hunter-gatherer who ate a low-starch diet and couldn’t digest milk well – which meshes with the lifestyle that predated the rise of agriculture. But his immune system was already starting to adapt to a new lifestyle.
Researchers found all this out not from medical records, or from a study of the man’s actual skin or eyes, but from an analysis of the DNA extracted from his tooth.
The study, published online by the journal Nature, lays out what’s said to be the first recovered genome of a European hunter-gatherer from a transitional time known as the Mesolithic Period, which lasted from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. It’s a time when the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was starting to give way to a more settled existence, with farms, livestock and urban settlements.
La Braña 1 ancient man had dark skin and blue eyes
The remains of the Mesolithic male, dubbed La Braña 1, were found in 2006 in the La Braña-Arintero cave complex in northwest Spain. In the Nature paper, the researchers describe how they isolated the ancient DNA, sequenced the genome and looked at key regions linked to physical traits – including lactose intolerance, starch digestion and immune response.
The biggest surprise was that the genes linked to skin pigmentation reflected African rather than modern European variations. That indicates that the man had dark skin, “although we cannot know the exact shade,” Carles Lalueza-Fox, a member of the research team from the Spanish National Research Council, said in a news release. At the same time, the man possessed the genetic variations that produce blue eyes in current Europeans.
That combination makes for a rare genetic profile, but perhaps it was more typical of the Mesolithic Period. To find out, the researchers say they’ll need to analyze more genomes from that time – starting with La Braña 2, another male whose skeleton was found in the Spanish cave.
Alfonso Cuaron has picked up the top film honor from the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for space drama Gravity.
The prestigious win for Gravity could give Alfonso Cuaron the edge at March’s Academy Awards.
In the DGA’s 65-year history, the winner has only failed to also pick up the best director Oscar seven times.
Accepting the award, Alfonso Cuaron said: “What you cannot see from up there [in space] is this bizarre experiment of nature that is the human experience.
“That experiment is what directors try to sort out with our films. Thankfully, that experience is as diverse as the films as these film-makers make.”
The film-maker also thanked his son and Gravity co-writer Jonas Cuaron.
Alfonso Cuaron has picked up the top film honor from the Directors Guild of America for space drama Gravity
Alfonso Cuaron’s film saw off competition from Paul Greengrass’s piracy film Captain Phillips, Steve McQueen’s historical drama 12 Years a Slave, David O. Russell’s 1970s crime caper American Hustle and Martin Scorsese’s black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street.
Other than the Writers’ Guild Awards on February 1st, there are no more major US awards before the Oscars, which take place on March 2nd. The UK’s BAFTA awards take place in London on February 16.
Recent awards, including the Golden Globes and the Producers’ Guild Awards, have seen a split in honors between Gravity, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle.
Gravity and American Hustle lead the Oscar nominations with 10 nods apiece. 12 Years A Slave has nine nominations.
Other DGA winners included Jehane Noujaim, who won the documentary prize for The Square, about the Egyptian uprising that began in 2011. The film was acquired by subscription service Netflix last year.
Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra mirrored its Golden Globes success by winning the best TV movie or mini-series. The film stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as flamboyant pianist Liberace and his partner Scott Thorson respectively.
Steven Soderbergh, who was once a first vice-president of the Directors’ Guild, was also honoured with the Robert B. Aldrich Award for his services to the organization.
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan won his first DGA award for the series finale of the hit drama.
Other winners included Beth McCarthy-Miller for 30 Rock (best comedy series) and Don Roy King for Saturday Night Live (best variety series).
The awards took place at the Hollywood and Highland complex in Los Angeles, hosted by Glee actress Jane Lynch – the first woman to present the ceremony.
American Horror Story: Coven came to an end thanks to Fiona’s daughter Cordelia.
When Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) got her “sight” back, she had a vision of Fiona (Jessica Lange) standing over all the dead bodies of her fellow coven members.
In order to prevent the inevitable, she told the Axeman (Danny Huston) that Fiona planned to leave him once she got her powers back. Once he had proof, the Axeman used his, well, axe on Fiona, killing her and leaving her body in the swamp.
American Horror Story fans received some shocking news in this week’s episode
Even though the season has been full of resurrections, Fiona is gone for good. Misty (Lily Rabe) even pointed out that she can’t bring someone back once they’re “gator sh–.”
Despite knowing how evil Fiona has been, the coven brutally killed the Axeman. Cordelia then declared that the whole coven will go through the Seven Wonders test to find out who will replace Fiona.
American Horror Story: Coven’s season finale airs Wednesday at 10 P.M. ET/PT on FX.
Karl Slym, managing director of India-based Tata Motors, has died in Thailand where he was attending a board meeting.
Tata Motors said in a statement it “deeply regrets to announce the untimely and tragic” death of 51-year-old Karl Slym.
The circumstances of his death were not immediately apparent, although several media reports said he may have had a fall at a hotel in Bangkok.
The British-born executive ran all Tata Motors’ operations except Jaguar Land Rover in the UK.
Karl Slym had been managing director of Tata Motors, part of the giant Tata Group, since October 2012
Karl Slym had worked for Toyota in the UK, and then General Motors in India and China. He had been managing director of Tata Motors, part of the giant Tata Group, since October 2012.
Although Jaguar Land Rover has been hugely successful, the rest of Tata Motors has struggled.
Karl Slym was brought in to help overhaul the manufacturing, sales and distribution operation, including Tata’s new-look Nano ultra-cheap car and building a new generation of engines.
In his tribute, Tata Motors chairman Cyrus P. Mistry described Karl Slym as “a valued colleague who was providing strong leadership at a challenging time for the Indian auto industry”.
Universal Pictures and Focus Features have released the first poster of the adaptation of E.L. James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
The poster depicts business magnate Christian Grey with his back to the viewer, facing a window, with the message: “Mr. Grey Will See You Now.”
The film is set to be released on February 13, 2015.
Fifty Shades of Grey movie is set to be released on February 13, 2015
It was originally slated for release on August 1, 2014, but the date was moved back after Charlie Hunnam, who was initially cast to play Christian Grey, dropped out of the film, citing scheduling conflicts.
Jamie Dornan will now portray Christian Grey in the film.
The book and film depict the relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, who’ll be portrayed by Dakota Johnson.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk has announced that Ukraine’s opposition protests will continue after he rejected President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer to appoint him as prime minister.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the opposition was generally ready to accept leadership, but several key demands must be met, including new elections.
Clashes continued overnight. Activists stormed a Kiev building housing police.
Viktor Yanukovych’s proposal came amid new efforts to end the deadly unrest.
He offered the post of prime minister to Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the position of deputy PM to former boxer Vitali Klitschko following talks on Saturday.
The opposition – confident in its position – appears to have taken these offers as a sign of weakness on Viktor Yanukovych’s part, and is forging ahead with the campaign to unseat him.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk has announced that Ukraine’s opposition protests will continue after he rejected President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer to appoint him as prime minister
Speaking to large crowds in central of Kiev late on Saturday, the opposition leaders repeated their demands.
“Viktor Yanukovych announced that the government wasn’t ready to take the responsibility for the country and offered to the opposition to lead the government,” said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
“What is our response to this? We are not afraid of the responsibility for the destiny of Ukraine.”
Later, Arseniy Yatsenyuk tweeted: “No deal @ua_yanukovych, we’re finishing what we started. The people decide our leaders, not you.”
Arseniy Yatsenyuk says that Tuesday, when a special session of parliament has been called, will be “judgement day”.
The opposition is demanding that a free trade agreement with the EU be signed and political prisoners be freed, including former PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
They are also demanding early presidential elections. A vote is not due until 2015.
Vitali Klitschko told the crowd that they would press ahead with their demands and that talks would continue: “We are not turning back and we will keep discussing and trying to find a direction.”
Jay-Z, hip-hop duo Macklemore and Lewis and Pharrell Williams are among the stars who will be vying for glory when the prestigious Grammy Awards are handed out later.
The Los Angeles ceremony is the biggest night in the US music calendar.
Jay-Z leads the field with nine nominations, while pop hitmaker Pharrell Williams and hip-hop duo Macklemore and Lewis are among the acts with seven.
Other nominees include Ed Sheeran, James Blake and Paul McCartney, who will perform at the event.
The ceremony is known for its heavyweight on-stage collaborations and this year’s highlights will include Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams being joined by Stevie Wonder to perform their hit Get Lucky.
Queens of the Stone Age will join forces with Nine Inch Nails, Dave Grohl and Lindsey Buckingham are to close the show, while Jay-Z is expected to duet with his wife Beyonce.
Jay-Z has the most nominations, up for awards including best rap song and best rap album. But he was left out of the three main categories – song, record and album of the year.
Rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, who found fame after self-releasing their album The Heist, are up for awards including album of the year, best new artist and song of the year for Same Love.
Pharrell Williams is listed twice for record of the year and twice for album of the year thanks to his work with Daft Punk, Robin Thicke and Kendrick Lamar.
Rapper Lamar also has seven nominations including album of the year for Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, plus best rap album, best rap performance and best new artist.
Justin Timberlake has seven nominations including best pop solo performance and best R&B song – but he was shut out of the main three categories.
The Los Angeles ceremony is the biggest night in the US music calendar
Other leading contenders include 17-year-old New Zealand singer Lorde, who is up for record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance for her hit Royals.
There are five nominations each for Drake and mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, who is rewarded for his work with Daft Punk and the Rolling Stones.
The Rolling Stones will go up against Paul McCartney in the best rock song category.
The Stones’ Doom And Gloom, from their 50th anniversary album GRRR!, is up against Cut Me Some Slack, a collaboration between Paul McCartney and the surviving members of Nirvana.
The other nominees in that category are veteran metal band Black Sabbath, stadium rockers Muse and singer-guitarist Gary Clark Jr..
Black Sabbath have two more nods – for best rock album and metal performance.
Meanwhile, two of the five nominees for best new artist are James Blake and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.
David Bowie’s comeback has earned nominations for best rock performance and best rock album. In both categories, fellow veterans Led Zeppelin are also nominated thanks to a live album recorded at their reunion concert in 2007.
Calvin Harris is up for best dance/electronica album for 18 Months and best dance recording for Sweet Nothing with Florence and the Machine’s Florence Welch.
Duke Dumont and Disclosure are also named in the dance categories, while Adele’s James Bond theme Skyfall is in the running for one of the soundtrack awards.
Leading Grammy Nominees 2014:
Jay-Z – 9 nominations
Kendrick Lamar – 7 nominations
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – 7 nominations
Justin Timberlake – 7 nominations
Pharrell Williams – 7 nominations
Drake – 5 nominations
Bob Ludwig – 5 nominations [youtube BYSK0InwJ_U 650]
Thai protesters have surrounded polling stations, blocking early voting ahead of next week’s general election, officials say.
One of their leaders has been shot dead during a clash with government supporters just outside the capital, Bangkok.
Advance voting has reportedly been cancelled in a number of locations.
Anti-government activists want Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down and the political system to be reformed.
Suthin Taratin was speaking on top of a truck, which was part of a rally at a polling station where advanced voting was supposed to take place, when he was struck by gunfire.
He died later in hospital.
Crowds of flag-waving demonstrators chained the doors of polling stations shut, despite promises by protest leaders not to obstruct the polls.
The protesters surrounded polling stations in Bangkok and southern Thailand in an attempt to stop people voting.
Thai protesters have surrounded polling stations, blocking early voting ahead of next week’s general election
Voting was either blocked completely or halted at 48 out of 50 polling stations in Bangkok.
Thailand’s election commission has called for the general vote scheduled for February 2 to be postponed because of possible disruption and violence.
But the government has so far insisted that the election must go ahead on schedule.
The latest disturbances comes despite a pledge from protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who said on Saturday that his supporters would not obstruct advance voting – although they would demonstrate outside polling stations.
The protest movement says it is not obstructing the poll, but that “supporters are simply protesting the advance polls held today by surrounding/standing in front of election units”, in a statement on its Facebook page.
Advance voting is for those unable to take part in the February election.
A state of emergency is in place as the authorities struggle to cope with the unrest.
Protesters, who started their campaign in November, want to install an unelected “people’s council” to run the country until the political system is changed.
They say Yingluck Shinawatra’s government is being influenced by her brother, exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
Sao Paulo police say they have detained 128 people during clashes that followed a demonstration against this year’s football World Cup in Brazil.
A car was set on fire. Shops, banks and a police vehicle were also damaged.
The violence forced the authorities to cancel some of the festivities planned for the city’s 460th anniversary.
Earlier, some 2,500 people took to the street to complain about the costs of staging the World Cup.
They marched through central Sao Paulo waving flags, carrying banners and chanting: “There will be no Cup.”
Sao Paulo peaceful protest was marred by sporadic acts of vandalism which turned into clashes with the police
Other Brazilians protested on Twitter, saying “FIFA go home”, in reference to football’s world governing body. There were similar small protests in Rio de Janeiro and other cities.
Saturday’s peaceful protest was marred by sporadic acts of vandalism which turned into clashes with the police.
Some demonstrators attacked an empty police car and tried to overturn it, while others torched a small car. They also burned tires and targeted banks and others businesses.
The Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin condemned the violence.
Fifteen people were also reported to have been detained at a protest near the World Cup stadium in Natal, a city in north-eastern Brazil.
Last year, more than a million people took to the street in dozens of Brazilian cities over poor public services, corruption and the high cost of the World Cup.
The wave of protests prompted Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff to propose a referendum on political reform.
Dilma Rousseff also pledged to invest 50 billion reais ($25 billion) in public transport, one of the protesters’ main grievances.
