Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in Johannesburg was attended by 52 presidents and 16 prime ministers on December 10, 2013.
Although the stadium had empty seats, a live broadcast was beamed into three other venues, and there were more than 100 public viewing areas across the country.
Between now and Nelson Mandela’s burial on Sunday, thousands will line the streets to see his coffin pass through Pretoria.
Although crowd estimates should always be treated with caution, the largest funeral attendance in history is widely thought to have happened in 1969 when 15 million people reportedly took to the streets of Chennai for CN Annadurai, the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in Johannesburg was attended by 52 presidents and 16 prime ministers
CN Annadurai’s popularity was partly due to his brilliance as a writer and speaker, says Tamil expert MSS Pandian, and the fact he founded a separate linguistic identity for the Tamils by rejecting Hindi as the national language.
According to the Guinness World of Records, the highest percentage of mourners in any country came 20 years later, when one in six Iranians – about 10 million – witnessed the coffin of Ayatollah Khomeini being carried through Tehran, amid chaotic scenes in which several were crushed to death.
For sheer political magnitude, there was also Pope John Paul II‘s funeral in Rome in 2005, when about 200 world leaders were among the 250,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square.
A huge television audience estimated to be in the billions watched the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997.
The US Congress budget committee has reached an agreement to fund federal services, after October government shutdown.
The proposed deal finances the government for two years and reduces the federal deficit by $23 billion.
It also avoids another government shutdown on January 15, 2014, when government funding is scheduled to run out.
The new deal “cuts spending in a smarter way,” Republican Congressman Paul Ryan said on Tuesday.
The budget deal also offsets $63 billion in previously enacted automatic military and domestic spending cuts triggered in January when Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a budget compromise.
Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray, the respective chairs of the House and Senate budget committees, were called on to reach a cross-party budget deal in the wake of October’s partial government shutdown over federal spending.
“We have broken through the partisanship and gridlock,” Patty Murray said of the new deal.
Senators Paul Ryan and Patty Murray, the respective chairs of the House and Senate budget committees, were called on to reach a cross-party budget deal in the wake of October’s partial government shutdown over federal spending
Paul Ryan said he was optimistic the new budget agreement could pass both sides of the highly politically divided Congress.
The measure is expected to come to a vote before the House recesses for several weeks beginning on Friday.
According to the Congressional budget chairs, the new deal does not raise taxes but requires newly hired federal workers to make larger contributions to their pensions.
A federal airport security fee adding $5 to the cost of a typical return flight is also included.
Following the announcement on Tuesday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner called the “modest” cross-party deal a “positive step forward”.
President Barack Obama issued a written statement labeling the agreement “balanced” and “designed in a way that doesn’t hurt our economy”.
“This agreement doesn’t include everything I’d like – and I know many Republicans feel the same way. That’s the nature of compromise,” he said.
But, “because it’s the first budget that leaders of both parties have agreed to in a few years, the American people should not have to endure the pain of another government shutdown for the next two years,” the president added.
Government officials say the deal, totalling an estimated $85 billion over the next decade, aims to carve $20 billion out of the nation’s $17 trillion debt.
The deal is expected to pass both houses of Congress, despite attempts by Conservative groups to persuade Republicans to oppose it.
Katie Couric has admitted a disproportionate reporting on HPV vaccine controversy during an episode of her show.
She said some of the criticism that the episode was too anti-vaccine and anti-science “was valid”.
“We simply spent too much time on the serious adverse events that have been reported in very rare cases following the vaccine,” Katie Couric wrote in a blog post published Huffington Post.
“More emphasis should have been given to the safety and efficacy of the HPV vaccines.”
The December 4 episode of Katie show had been criticized for promoting arguments from moms who said their daughters were harmed by the vaccines, including one whose child died. Katie Couric also interviewed HPV researcher Dr. Diane Harper, chair of family medicine at the University of Louisville. Harper had researched the vaccine and said its protection would wear off after five years.
Experts were quick to point out that scientific evidence didn’t jive with the opinions from Katie Couric’s guests.
Katie Couric has admitted a disproportionate reporting on HPV vaccine controversy
For the 57 million doses of the vaccine given out from June 2006 through March 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has received at least 22,000 reports of adverse events in girls and women. About 92 percent of which were classified as non-serious. The other almost 8% of serious side effects included headache, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, fainting and generalized weakness.
Katie Couric’s blog post devoted more space to the science. She highlighted the risk between HPV and cancer, citing estimates that each year about 26,000 Americans are diagnosed with a cancer caused by HPV.
She noted that while the vast majority of side effects to the HPV vaccine are not serious, she said she still felt the need to share the two patient stories on her show.
“As a journalist, I felt that we couldn’t simply ignore these reports. That’s why we had two mothers on the show who reported adverse reactions after their daughters had been vaccinated for HPV,” she wrote.
“One could hardly get out of bed for three years, and the other tragically died. There is no definitive proof that these two situations were related to the vaccine. Every life is important. However, the time spent telling these stories was disproportionate to the statistical risk attendant to the vaccines and greater perspective is needed.”
She added that as a cancer-prevention advocate, one of her goals was to affirm the importance of getting Pap tests and that people should not skip gynecological visits just because they got an HPV vaccine.
Katie Couric also expressed support for the vaccine, adding her own two daughters had been vaccinated.
Shannon Guess Richardson pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to making the biological agent ricin that was sent in letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
As part of a deal reached with federal prosecutors that has yet to be approved by a judge, Shannon Guess Richardson, 36, would spend 18 years in prison and then five years on supervised release, according to court documents.
Shannon Guess Richardson pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing and possessing the toxic agent ricin
Shannon Guess Richardson, whose career included minor television roles in shows such as The Walking Dead, pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing and possessing the toxic agent ricin, which was found in the letters.
She was initially charged with one count of making a threat against the President of the United States and two counts of mailing threatening communications.
Shannon Guess Richardson tried to blame her husband for the letters, sent in May, testing positive for the presence of ricin, according to prosecutors.
Spanish journalists Javier Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova have been kidnapped in Syria by a radical Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda.
El Mundo reporter Javier Espinosa and freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova were seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The Spanish newspaper said they were taken at a checkpoint in northern Raqqa province near the Turkish border.
Meanwhile, Syrian activists said a leading human rights lawyer, Razan Zaytouna, had been abducted near Damascus on Tuesday.
Razan Zaytouna was seized along with three other activists from the eastern suburb of Douma after armed men broke into the office of the Violations Documentation Centre (VDC), which monitors casualties.
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a network of opposition activists of which Razan Zaytouna is a founding member, demanded their immediate and unconditional release.
There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction, but Razan Zaytouna is reported to have recently received threats from Islamist rebel groups.
Spanish journalists Javier Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova have been kidnapped in Syria
In 2011, Razan Zaytouna was given the Anna Politkovskaya Award by the NGO Reach All Women in War for risking her life by breaking the Syrian government’s media blackout to report on the brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.
El Mundo said the two journalists had been trying to leave Syria at the end of a two-week reporting mission when they were taken on September 16.
Four members of the Free Syrian Army – the main Western-backed rebel group – who were protecting them were also captured. The four were later released.
El Mundo said news of the kidnapping was kept quiet while it held indirect communications with the captors, who have still not made any demands.
“Unfortunately, these gestures have yielded no result and we have concluded, the families in agreement with the newspaper, that the time has come to share our concern and indignation,”El Mundo director Pedro Ramirez told a news conference in Madrid.
“We believe they are alive and we believe they are well,” he said.
Hours after El Mundo announced the kidnapping, Javier Espinosa’s wife, Monica Prieto, spoke at an emotional news conference in Beirut, urging the journalists’ captors to free them.
Monica Prieto said the pair had “travelled a dozen times to Syria to document war crimes, risking their lives, and becoming brothers with the Syrians in their fear, misery and humanitarian crisis”.
“Javier and Ricardo are not your enemy. Please, honour the revolution they protected, and set them free.”
Javier Espinosa has been a Middle East correspondent for El Mundo since 2002 and is based in Beirut.
Ricardo Garcia Vilanova has worked for various news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the AFP news agency.
The White House said President Barack Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro’s handshake at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was unplanned.
White House aide Ben Rhodes told reporters the two exchanged no words more substantive than a greeting.
The Cuban government said the gesture may show the “beginning of the end of the US aggressions”.
The US broke off diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961 as Fidel Castro aligned with the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
On Tuesday, after the handshake, a White House official said the Obama administration still had grave concerns about human rights violations in Cuba, Reuters reported.
Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to condemn the gesture, with one Republican congresswoman chiding the move during a unrelated hearing on Tuesday.
The White House said President Barack Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro’s handshake at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was unplanned
“Sometimes a handshake is just a handshake, but when the leader of the free world shakes the bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like Raul Castro, it becomes a propaganda coup for the tyrant,” Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is known for her opposition to the Castro government, told Secretary of State John Kerry.
“Could you please tell the Cuban people living under that repressive regime that, a handshake notwithstanding, the US policy toward the cruel and sadistic Cuban dictatorship has not weakened.”
The last US president to shake a Cuban leader’s hand was President Bill Clinton, who greeted President Fidel Castro, Raul’s brother and predecessor, at a 2000 UN General Assembly meeting.
Under President Barack Obama, the US has eased restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to the island and on remittances between family members across the two countries.
But the gradual thaw has been disrupted by the detention in Cuba of a US contractor.
Alan Gross, 64, was arrested four years ago while on a project to provide internet access to Cuba’s small Jewish community.
On the fourth anniversary of his arrest, Alan Gross wrote to Barack Obama to say he feared the US government had “abandoned” him, and asked the US president to intervene personally to help win his release.
In Duck Dynasty’s upcoming hour-long Christmas special, airing on A&E on December 11 at 10 p.m. ET, Phil Robertson takes Miss Kay and Jessica for a hunting trip to catch a hog for the family’s Christmas dinner.
Phil Robertson takes Miss Kay and Jessica for a hunting trip to catch a hog for the family’s Christmas dinner
However, the family patriarch immediately regrets that decision.
Duck Dynasty Christmas special will also include the Robertson gang performing a live nativity play in their church. Fortunately, they’ve got the beards to play Joseph and the three wise men.
Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of French company PIP, which distributed defective breast implants around the world, has been sentenced to four years in prison for fraud.
Jean-Claude Mas was also fined 75,000 euros ($101,000) by a court in Marseille.
He will remain at liberty until a French court hears an appeal lodged by his lawyer.
PIP’s sale of faulty implants caused a global health scare which affected about 300,000 women in 65 countries.
The company was found to have used sub-standard silicone gel – rather than medical-grade silicone – which the result that many implants ruptured.
Apart from Jean-Claude Mas, four other former PIP executives were convicted and given lesser sentences.
With more than 5,000 women registered as plaintiffs in the case, and about 300 lawyers, the trial was considered one of the biggest in French legal history.
Jean-Claude Mas has been sentenced to four years in prison for fraud
The health scare came to public attention in 2011 when the French government recommended that women have PIP implants removed due to an abnormally high rupture rate.
The issue of whether the sub-standard silicone used in the implants posed any danger was not resolved by the trial, AFP news agency notes.
Jean-Claude Mas, 74, showed no sign of emotion as sentence was passed. His lawyer, Yves Haddad, blamed the severity of the sentence on pressure generated by the media, and said he would appeal, meaning that Mas will remain at liberty until the outcome of a further hearing.
He and the others had all admitted to fraud.
PIP’s director-general was sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended.
The company’s head of quality control received two years, one of them suspended, and the head of research and development was sentenced to 18 months, suspended.
Throughout the trial, Jean-Claude Mas had denied the silicone used was harmful while all but one of the other defendants said they had not been aware of the risks.
When an implant ruptures, the silicone gel filling can leak into the body. Some women will not notice anything at all, and there is no evidence of an increased cancer risk.
However, it can result in the formation of scar tissue that can change the shape and feel of the breast. The gel can be an irritant, causing pain and inflammation. It can also be more difficult to remove an implant once it has ruptured.
France’s Health Products Agency (ANSM) has to date registered more than 7,500 implant ruptures and 3,000 cases of undesirable effects, mainly inflammations, among the 30,000 women using PIP products in France.
First Lady Michelle Obama and military children decorated Christmas cookie ornaments, made tissue-paper flowers and used dried fruit to make tiny wreaths into the State Dining Room at the White House.
Two life-sized replicas of the Obamas’ Portuguese water dogs – Bo and his little sister Sunny – made from black satin ribbon, are one of the first things people will see this month as an expected 70,000 visitors stream in to the White House for tours and holiday functions. Both dogs wag their tails and Bo gives a high-five. They are surrounded by Christmas trees made of books.
Sunny and Bo, dark chocolate miniature versions, are also part of the annual gingerbread White House display. Both dogs hang out near a functioning replica of the fountain on the North Lawn. The illuminated, edible White House sits on top of a life-sized fireplace fashioned from more than 1,200 Springerle cookies. The entire display weighs about 300 pounds and is trashed after the holidays due to its prolonged exposure to so many people.
Sunny and Bo, dark chocolate miniature versions, are part of the annual gingerbread White House display
Michelle Obama, who has emphasized support for military families, gave some of them a first look at the decked-out White House halls on Wednesday. She asked Americans gathering with friends and family for the holidays to also remember the men and women in uniform.
“During this holiday season, as we gather with our loved ones, I’d ask every American to remember what our military families and service members often experience during this time of year,” Michelle Obama said.
“Let us all remember the sacrifices they make to proudly serve all of us.”
An annual highlight of the decorations is the official White House Christmas Tree. This year it’s a towering 18 ½-foot Douglas fir from Lehighton, Pennsylvania, that fills the oval-shaped Blue Room. It honors military families, a holiday tradition of Michelle Obama’s, and among its trimmings are photos of their joyous homecomings.
This year’s White House Christmas theme is “Gather Around: Stories of the Season” and is focused on stories behind American holiday traditions.
The White House has unveiled this year’s Christmas card featuring Obamas’ dog Bo, as well as the latest addition to the family, Sunny.
“As we gather around this season, may the warmth and joy of the holidays fill your home,” the card read.
The White House has unveiled this year’s Christmas card featuring dogs Bo and Sunny
The White House Christmas card is signed by President Barack Obama, First LadyMichelle Obama, their daughters Sasha and Malia and the two presidential dogs, Sunny and Bo.
General Motors has promoted product development chief Mary Barra to the post of CEO.
Mary Barra replaces Daniel Akerson, and is the first woman to run a US carmaker.
Daniel Akerson, who is also currently chairman of GM, will leave both of his posts in mid-January. His wife has recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer.
Earlier this week the US government sold its remaining shares in GM, the world’s second biggest carmaker.
General Motors has promoted product development chief Mary Barra to the post of CEO
Overall, GM lost around $10 billion on its bailout of the carmaker in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
The US Treasury spent $49.5 billion bailing out GM, and took a 61% stake in the company.
Mary Barra has been in charge of design and engineering, and before that was head of human resources at the company.
She joined GM as a student in 1980.
In a message to the company’s employees on Tuesday, Daniel Akerson said: “I will leave with great satisfaction in what we have accomplished, great optimism over what is ahead and great pride that we are restoring General Motors as America’s standard bearer in the global auto industry.”
Current CFO, Dan Ammann, was named GM president. He will also take responsibility for the Cadillac and Chevrolet brands.
The Sundance Film Festival has revealed the lineups of its 30th edition in 2014.
More than 100 independent feature films will premiere at the event next month in Utah, along with 11 documentaries.
Films on offer include coming-of-age drama Laggies starring Keira Knightley and Sam Rockwell.
Comedy Frank, about a wannabe musician, stars Michael Fassbender alongside Maggie Gyllenhall.
Another big hitter – A Most Wanted Man – is directed by Anton Corbijn and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright.
It is based on the John le Carre bestseller of the same name.
More than 100 independent feature films will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next month in Utah
The Trip to Italy, directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, reunites the comedy pair after their six-episode BBC mini-series The Trip.
It followed the duo – who spent a significant amount of the time bickering – as they travelled around England reviewing restaurants for a national newspaper.
Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival and the second consecutive year that submissions have exceeded 12,000 films.
Documentaries premiering at Sundance include To Be Takai, about Star Trek actor and activist George Takei, who journeyed from a World War II internment camp to the helm of the Starship Enterprise.
Life Itself recounts the surprising and entertaining life of renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert, while WHITEY: United States of America v. James J Bulger, looks at the relationship between the infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger and the FBI and Department of Justice.
The closing night film is Rudderless. Directed by William H Macy, it tells the story of a grieving father who stumbles upon a box of his deceased son’s original music before forming a rock ‘n’ roll band that changes his life.
The cast includes Billy Crudup, Anton Yelchin, Felicity Huffman, Selena Gomez, Laurence Fishburne and Macy.
The 2014 festival takes place between 16 and 26 January in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
Garth Brooks is planning to go on a world tour, more than 10 years after he last hit the road.
Garth Brooks, 51, retired from recording new music and touring in 2001 so that he could see his three daughters grow up.
“My children are off on their own, so the guilt of not being there … I’m a phone-call dad now,” the singer told Good Morning America.
Garth Brooks’ hits include The Thunder Rolls and Unanswered Prayers. He has sold more than 125 million albums.
Garth Brooks is planning to go on a world tour, more than 10 years after he last hit the road
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA,) Garth Brooks is the second best-selling solo albums artist of all time in the US behind Elvis Presley
“It sure feels good to get to throw your hat back in the ring,” Garth Brooks told GMA.
The country star said the tour would take place in 2014 although there was no detail on where it would take him.
Garth Brooks, who has sold more than 125 million albums, played occasional concerts during his hiatus but never went on tour. He began performing concerts in Las Vegas in 2009.
Lufsig, a stuffed toy wolf stocked by IKEA, has sold out in Hong Kong, after it became an unlikely symbol of anti-government protest.
Based on the Red Riding Hood fairytale wolf, the toy flew off the shelves as people queued up for it from morning.
An anti-government protester is said to have thrown the toy at Hong Kong’s leader CY Leung over the weekend.
Its Chinese name sounds similar to a Cantonese profanity and critics have long nicknamed Mr Leung “the wolf”.
A spokesman for IKEA Hong Kong said that customers arrived at the stores to queue for the toy at 07:00 local time and that by 11:10 the wolf had sold out.
IKEA’s Lufsig has sold out in Hong Kong, after it became an unlikely symbol of anti-government protest
IKEA did not comment on any political message being read into the small stuffed animal, but it did say that none of its products in Hong Kong, including its soft toy range, had Chinese names.
The wolf in question is called Lufsig in Hong Kong as it is elsewhere in the world.
However, IKEA’s website for mainland China features the toy with a Chinese name, which sounds similar to a profanity in the Cantonese dialect.
CY Leung has long been labeled “the wolf” by his opponents because his name resembles the Chinese word for wolf and they accuse him of being cunning.
The toy even has its own Facebook page featuring spoof pictures of the wolf in various locations, including one with an image of the chief executive’s face superimposed on top.
CY Leung was appointed as Hong Kong’s chief executive by a committee last year and has suffered from extremely poor popularity ratings.
Among his tasks will be introducing a blueprint for universal suffrage allowing Hong Kong residents to choose his successor in 2017.
His critics are skeptical of his ability to manage this process because of his ties with Beijing.
Meanwhile IKEA says that new stock of Lufsig is expected in early January 2014.
Thousands of South Africans have joined dozens of world leaders for the national memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
The service is being held in front of a vociferous crowd in the FNB stadium in Johannesburg.
President Barack Obama said Nelson Mandela was a “giant of history”, adding: “The world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.”
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president died last Thursday, aged 95.
South Africa is observing a series of commemorations leading up to the funeral on Sunday.
The memorial service is one of the biggest gatherings of international dignitaries in recent years.
There had been fears people would be turned away, but the heavy rain left areas of the 95,000 capacity stadium empty.
Introducing the proceedings, the master of ceremonies, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that Nelson Mandela’s “long walk is over… and he can finally rest”.
The first speaker, friend and fellow Robben Island inmate Andrew Mlangeni, said Neslon Mandela had “created hope when there was none”.
Barack Obama delivered his address, carried on the White House web site, to huge cheers. He said: “It is hard to eulogize any man… how much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation towards justice.”
President Barack Obama said Nelson Mandela was a “giant of history”
He said Nelson Mandela had taught the world the power of action and the power of ideas, and that it had taken a man like Mandela to free not only the prisoner but also the jailer.
Barack Obama said: “We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. While I will always fall short of Madiba [Nelson Mandela’s clan name], he makes me want to be a better man.”
On his way to the podium, Barack Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro, an unprecedented gesture between the leaders of two nations that have been at loggerheads for more than half a century.
In his address, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said there was “sorrow for a mighty loss and celebration of a mighty life”.
Ban Ki-moon said: “South Africa has lost a hero, it has lost a father… He was one of our greatest teachers. He taught by example. He sacrificed so much and was willing to give up all he had for freedom and democracy.”
Nelson Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, arrived at the stadium to huge cheers as she was shown on the big screen.
There were cheers too of “Winnie! Winnie!” for ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who hugged and kissed Graca Machel.
However, there were boos for current President Jacob Zuma.
He will make the keynote address. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao, President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee are also making speeches.
Raul Castro will also speak, reflecting the fact that under his brother, Fidel, Cuba was a staunch critic of apartheid, and Nelson Mandela had expressed gratitude for that support.
The memorial service, which had been due to start at 11:00, will last about four hours, according to the official programme.
Correspondents say that the heavy rain, security and transport issues and the fact that Tuesday was not declared a national holiday have kept the numbers down.
Nelson Mandela’s body will lie in state in Pretoria on the following three days and a state funeral takes place on Sunday in his home village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province.
More than 100 current or former heads of state or government will attend the funeral or the national memorial, according to the South African government.
Among those not attending the memorial events will be Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who cited high travel and security costs.
However, there will be suspicion that he wishes to avoid the potential for anti-Israeli protests.
Brazil’s ex-president Juscelino Kubitschek was murdered by the 1970s military regime, an investigative commission has found.
The Sao Paulo truth commission, a group of councilors from the city’s assembly, is due to present a full report into the case on Tuesday.
The proof of the alleged conspiracy was found after analyzing more than 90 pieces of evidence, the group says.
At the time, the former president had just regained his political rights.
Juscelino Kubitschek, who famously relocated Brazil’s capital from Rio de Janeiro to the especially designed Brasilia, died on August 22, 1976, following a car accident on a motorway between Rio and Sao Paulo.
For decades, there have been rumors that JK, as the Brazilian President from 1956 to 1961 was known, had been the victim of a murder conspiracy.
Brazil’s ex-president Juscelino Kubitschek was murdered by the 1970s military regime
The 73-year-old centrist politician was a popular opposition leader.
The report of the Sao Paulo Truth Commission presents the findings of an investigation which allegedly uncovered fake records, procedural errors and contradictions.
“We have no doubt that Juscelino Kubitschek was a victim of a conspiracy, a plot and a political crime. There is documentary proof and important testimonies in the more than 29 pages of the report,” Sao Paulo councilor Gilberto Natalini told the news website Terra.
Among the evidence is testimony from the driver of the bus that crashed into the former president’s car.
He is said to have told the investigators he had been offered money in exchange for admitting guilt for the accident.
Another witness reportedly told the commission he briefly saw a bullet hole in the head of Juscelino Kubitschek’s driver during an exhumation procedure in 1996.
A national Truth Commission of the Brazilian Congress is also looking into the death of Juscelino Kubitschek and a number of other human rights abuses that allegedly took place during Brazil’s military rule.
The remains of Juscelino Kubitschek’s successor, Joao Goulart, another opposition leader, were recently exhumed as part of the investigations into whether he was murdered.
The commission’s findings are not expected before May 2014.
The coldest place on Earth has been identified in the heart of Antarctica.
The lowest temperature was recorded on August 10, 2010, and has been measured by satellite to be a bitter minus 93.2 Celsius (-135.8F).
Researchers say it is a preliminary figure, and as they refine data from various space-borne thermal sensors it is quite likely they will determine an even colder figure by a degree or so.
The previous record low of minus 89.2C was also measured in Antarctica.
This occurred at the Russian Vostok base on July 21, 1983.
It should be stated this was an air temperature taken a couple of metres above the surface, and the satellite figure is the “skin” temperature of the ice surface itself. But the corresponding air temperature would almost certainly beat the Vostok mark.
The coldest place on Earth has been identified in the heart of Antarctica
“These very low temperatures are hard to imagine, I know,” said Ted Scambos from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
Dr. Ted Scambos was speaking in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.
He and colleagues have been examining the data records from polar orbiting satellites stretching back some 30 years.
They find the coldest moments in Antarctica occur in the dark winter months at high elevations, where the extremely dry and clear air allows heat to be radiated very efficiently out into space.
It is evident that many super-cold spots are “strung out like pearls” along the ridges that link the high points, or domes, in the interior of the continent.
They are not quite at the ridge crests, but set slightly back down the slope.
The cold pockets run in a line for hundreds of kilometres between Dome Argus [Dome A] and Dome Fuji [Dome F]. They all achieve more or less the same low temperature between minus 92C and minus 94C. The minus 93.2C figure is the temperature event in which the team has most confidence. It was recorded at a latitude of 81.8 degrees South and a longitude of 59.3 degrees East, at an elevation of about 3,900m.
One of the spacecraft instruments being used in the study is the Thermal Infrared Sensor on the recently launched Landsat-8.
By way of comparison, the hottest recorded spot on Earth – again by satellite sensor – is the Dasht-e Lut salt desert in southeast Iran, where it reached 70.7C in 2005.
The coldest place in the Solar System will likely be in some dark crater on a planetary body with no appreciable atmosphere. On Earth’s Moon, temperatures of minus 238C have been detected.
Eleanor Parker, who played the baroness in The Sound of Music, has died aged 91 in California.
Family friend Richard Gale said Eleanor Parker died on Monday due to complications from pneumonia in Palm Springs.
Eleanor Parker was Oscar-nominated three times, in 1951, 1952 and 1956.
Her co-star Christopher Plummer described her as “one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known – both as a person and as a beauty”.
“I hardly believe the sad news, for I was sure she was enchanted and would live forever,” he said.
Eleanor Parker was Oscar-nominated three times
Eleanor Parker was discovered at the Pasadena Playhouse and was signed to a contract at Warner Bros where she played minor roles until she was cast in the lead of 1946 film Of Human Bondage.
However, the film flopped and Eleanor Parker did not secure her real breakthrough performance until 1950 in Caged.
Her portrayal of an inmate in a brutal prison, who arrives as a young innocent but becomes a tough convict, brought her first best actress Oscar nomination.
Eleanor Parker’s second Academy nod came the following year as Kirk Douglas’s frustrated wife in Detective Story.
A string of successful films followed including Scaramouche with Stewart Granger and Valley of the Kings with Robert Taylor.
Eleanor Parker then scored her third Oscar nomination for her role as opera star Marjorie Lawrence in 1955’s Interrupted Melody, where she learnt to lip-sync nine arias in three languages.
Her last memorable role was in 1965’s The Sound of Music, starring opposite Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews.
Eleanor Parker’s last credit was the 1991 TV movie, Dead on the Money.
Thailand’s PM Yingluck Shinawatra has rejected protesters’ demands that she resign before February’s snap elections.
Demonstrators have been calling for Yingluck Shinawatra to resign and be replaced with a “people’s prime minister”.
Yingluck Shinawatra won the last polls in 2011, but protesters say ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra remains in charge.
Thailand is facing its largest political turmoil since 2010.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Yingluck Shinawatra urged protesters to stop and “use the electoral system to choose who will become the next government”.
“I must do my duty as caretaker prime minister according to the constitution,” she said.
Yingluck Shinawatra has rejected protesters’ demands that she resign before February’s snap elections
She added: “I have retreated as far as I can – give me some fairness.”
On Monday, around 150,000 protesters had converged around the government headquarters in what they had described as a final push to unseat the government.
On the same day, Yingluck Shinawatra announced that she would dissolve parliament and call elections, now set for February 2.
However, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former opposition politician, said that the demonstrations would continue.
“We will select a people’s prime minister and set up a government of the people and a people’s assembly to replace parliament,” he said late on Monday.
On Tuesday the streets were quiet and the number of protesters had diminished significantly.
However, a small core of protesters remained outside government buildings, correspondents said.
Yingluck Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party has a majority in parliament, and draws significant support from Thailand’s rural areas. The party is seen as well-placed to win February’s election.
Anti-government protesters say Yingluck Shinawatra’s party is controlled by ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
They accuse it of using public funds irresponsibly to secure votes and want her government to be replaced with an unelected “People’s Council”.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a polarizing politician, is in self-imposed exile after he was overthrown in a military army coup in 2006 and convicted of corruption.
Paris Hilton’s little brother, Barron, is threatening to take legal action against Lindsay Lohan over an altercation on Friday at a Miami mansion that left his face bruised and bloody, according to TMZ.
According to Barron Hilton, 24, he plans to sue Lindsay Lohan, 27, and writer Ray Lemoine, who he believes carried out the attack at LiLo’s behest.
Barron Hilton is threatening to take legal action against Lindsay Lohan over an altercation at a Miami mansion
Police have been attempting to speak with Lindsay Lohan and Ray Lemoine, but haven’t yet had any luck tracking them down.
In a statement to TMZ, Ray Lemoine insists Lindsay Lohan had nothing to do with incident, and says things only became physical with Barron Hilton when he refused to leave Lemoine’s rented house and put his dukes up.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin met some of Duck Dynasty stars over the weekend while on her book tour in Monroe, Louisiana.
Sarah Palin met some of Duck Dynasty stars over the weekend while on her book tour in Monroe, Louisiana
“Had a blast meeting the Duck Commander gang as well as the great folks who came to the book signing yesterday evening,” Sarah Palin wrote Sunday on Facebook.
Sarah Palin recently released a book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.
This year’s Starbucks limited-edition metal gift cards sold out in mere seconds, leaving a lot of devotees feeling frustrated.
For the second year in a row A portion of the 1,000 cards were sold to the My Starbucks Rewards Gold-level customers who were given VIP access to the site, allowing them to purchase cards one hour before they were on sale to the general public.
According to USA Today, what’s really causing disappointment was that online retailer Gilt accidentally put the Starbucks cards for sale one day before the publicized date and began selling them on December 5.
This year’s Starbucks limited-edition metal gift cards sold out in mere seconds
NBC News reported that Gilt Group claims that 500 cards were sold to the general public at 12 p.m. on December 6. Four hundred were made available for the VIP customers one hour prior, and only 100 were sold when the link accidentally went live a day before the sale.
“I’m not speculating on what we could have done differently,” Starbucks spokeswoman Linda Mills said to USA Today.
She explained Starbucks was obligated to honor those premature sales.
“It was unfortunate that the link went up early.”
Gilt Group claims a technical issue caused the link to go live after a “sale preview” page had a snafu.
One eBay seller has listed a stainless metal card at a “Buy It Now” price of $4,500. The card was produced in last year’s batch and is marked No. 19.
In 2012, Starbucks created 5,000 stainless steel gift cards.
This year, Starbucks decided to make the cards even more exclusive, producing only 1,000 of the rose-colored cards. More than 11,000 people are reportedly on the waiting list for this year’s limited stock.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie has appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in August.
Mohammed Badie was seized along with other Brotherhood figures after the Egyptian army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July.
Hundreds of Mohamed Morsi’s supporters were killed in clashes following the ousting.
Mohammed Badie, who is the movement’s General Guide, denied the Brotherhood had acted violently.
Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie has appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in August
He is facing charges of inciting violence and murder over the deaths of eight anti-Brotherhood protesters outside the movement’s headquarters in Cairo.
Mohammed Badie was in court in Cairo along with other Brotherhood figures.
He asked why the death of his son and the burning down of Brotherhood offices were not being investigated instead.
Mohammed Badie was a prominent figure at the Brotherhood’s protest camps in Cairo, but went into hiding as the military-backed interim government increased its efforts to shut down the protests.
His 38-year-old son Ammar was killed in the protests.
In a separate case, Egyptian prosecutors referred the secular activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others for trial.
They are accused of breaking Egypt’s new laws against protests by demonstrating without permission last month.
