Norman Rockwell’s painting Saying Grace has been sold for $46 million at Sotheby’s in New York, a new record for a piece of American art sold at auction.
Saying Grace shows a crowded restaurant with a grandmother and grandson bowed in prayer at a table they are sharing with two young men.
The painting’s pre-sale estimate by Sotheby’s was $15 million to $20 million. The buyer’s identity was not disclosed.
Ten Norman Rockwell works in total were sold at the auction.
Norman Rockwell’s painting Saying Grace has been sold for $46 million at Sotheby’s in New York
The Gossips sold on Wednesday for just under $8.5 million, while Walking to Church fetched more than $3.2 million.
Many came from the family of Kenneth Stuart, the art editor at the Saturday Evening Post at the time when many of Norman Rockwell’s paintings were featured on the magazine’s covers.
The paintings were part of a larger American art auction at Sotheby’s that took in almost $84 milion in total proceeds.
The previous record for the sale of an American painting at auction was set in 1999, also at Sotheby’s, when George Bellows’ Polo Crowd sold for $27.7 million.
Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro committed suicide being frustrated by conditions in his cell, obsessed with the quality of prison food and convinced that guards were mistreating him, two consultants concluded Tuesday.
The two, considered national experts on prison conditions, rejected suggestions that Ariel Castro may have died accidentally, as an earlier review by the state prisons agency suggested.
Ariel Castro’s death on September 3 was a suicide, the new report said.
All available evidence pointed to suicide, including a shrine-like arrangement of family pictures and a Bible in Ariel Castro’s cell, an increasing tone of frustration in his prison journal and coming to terms with spending the rest of his life in prison while subject to constant harassment.
Subsequent reviews by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Franklin County coroner reached the same conclusion, the report said.
“Based upon the fact that this inmate was going to remain in prison for the rest of his natural life under the probability of continued perceived harassment and threats to his safety, his death was not predictable on September 3, 2013, but his suicide was not surprising and perhaps inevitable,” the report said.
Fred Cohen, a retired professor at the State University of New York at Albany who helped monitor Ohio’s youth prison system as part of a federal court order, and Lindsay Hayes, who directs the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives and is an expert on prison suicides, conducted the review for the state.
Ariel Castro, 53, pleaded guilty in August to imprisoning three women in his Cleveland home for a decade while repeatedly raping and assaulting them. He fathered a girl with one of the victims.
He was found dead kneeling in his cell with his pants down; he was hanging from a sheet attached to a window hinge, according to an earlier prisons report. Ariel Castro had just begun serving his sentence of life plus 1,000 years.
Ariel Castro committed suicide being frustrated by conditions in his cell
The two consultants said it was likely Ariel Castro was harassed by guards, based on interviews with inmates who said they had heard it.
“I don’t know if I can take this neglect anymore, and the way I’m being treated,” Ariel Castro wrote in a journal on August 22, according to the report.
“I will not take this kind of treatment much longer if this place treats me this way,” Ariel Castro wrote on August 31.
“I can only imagine what things would be like at my parent institution. … I feel as though I’m being pushed over the edge, one day at a time.”
The report said Ariel Castro complained constantly about the quality of food and wrote in his journal he believed his food was being tampered with. He complained in late August that his cell and toilet were filthy.
Ariel Castro was housed at the state’s Correctional Reception Center south of Columbus, awaiting transfer to a permanent prison, when he died. None of the multiple health assessments he received indicated anything that would have required suicide-prevention measures, the consultants said.
Messages left Tuesday with Ariel Castro’s attorneys seeking comment about the report weren’t immediately returned.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is committed to following recommendations in the report, spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said in a statement. They include beefing up staff training on suicide prevention and ending the use of online training.
Ohio prison inmate suicides were below the national rate over the past five years but above it this year alone, the study found.
Some inmates, who had not seen Ariel Castro, suggested of his appearance when he died that his pants slipped because of his 10-pound weight loss since entering prison, the report said.
Two prison guards were placed on paid administrative leave during the state’s investigation into Ariel Castro’s death. The corrections department alleged they falsified logs documenting the number of times guards checked on Ariel Castro before he died.
Those two guards and an additional one received formal warnings Monday that any future violations would result in immediate firings that can’t be challenged.
The consultants’ report criticized the falsification but said it didn’t contribute to Ariel Castro’s death since he was seen alive minutes before he hanged himself in a check that met prison standards.
The union representing prison guards says the state is scapegoating front-line employees for supervisory failures.
Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus from the streets of Cleveland from 2002 to 2004 when they were 20, 16 and 14. He periodically kept them chained in rooms, sometimes in the basement, and restricted access to food and toilets.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were rescued May 6 when one of them broke out part of a door and called for help.
A double attack on Yemen’s defense ministry in Sanaa left at least 29 dead and more than 70 hurt, officials say.
A suicide car bomb blew up at the gates of the complex in Sanaa’s Bab al-Yaman district, at the entrance to the old city, and a gunbattle followed at a hospital inside.
At least two foreign medical staff are among the dead, medical sources say.
Yemeni security forces are fighting regional rebels and al-Qaeda, while combating lawlessness and army splits.
Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser is currently on a visit to Washington.
No group has said it carried out Thursday’s attack.
Correspondents say it bears the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
However, one government minister has blamed people linked to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Officials said the situation was under control and most of the gunmen had been killed.
Deadly attacks hit Yemen defense ministry in Sanaa
“The attack took place shortly after working hours started at the ministry when a suicide bomber drove a car into the gate,” a ministry source said, quoted by Reuters.
The blast was heard hundreds of metres away.
“The explosion was very violent, the whole place shook because of it and plumes of smoke rose from the building,” an eyewitness told the agency.
Officials said a second car followed whose occupants opened fire at the complex, and a battle ensued involving gunmen in military uniforms.
The gunmen occupied a hospital at the complex, they added, but security forces later regained control of the building, which was badly damaged.
“The assailants took advantage of some construction work that is taking place to carry out this criminal act,” the defense ministry said.
They were said to be armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades.
“Most” of the gunmen were killed, officials said, but it was not clear how many were involved.
The incident comes to aid tight security in the last few weeks following a series of hit-and-run attacks on officials by militants on motorbikes, blamed on AQAP.
President Barack Obama has said the US must fix what he described as profound income inequality and a lack of social mobility.
He called for a rise in the minimum wage and for stronger collective bargaining laws, among other measures.
The president also said his embattled healthcare overhaul would ease one part of American families’ financial struggle.
Barack Obama’s approval ratings have plummeted in recent weeks amid that law’s botched rollout.
While acknowledging the political difficulty of passing any such government action with a divided and acrimonious Congress, Barack Obama’s speech in Washington DC gave a broad overview of economic themes for the rest of his term, analysts say.
The president said the country had accepted higher levels of economic inequality than other developed nations because Americans “were convinced that America is a place where even if you’re born with nothing, with a little hard work you can improve your own situation over time”.
But Barack Obama, a Democrat, said rising income inequality had been accompanied in recent decades by diminishing opportunities for social mobility. He faulted tax cuts for wealthy Americans, declining investment in schools and infrastructure, and laws that have weakened labor unions, compounded by broad structural changes in the global economy.
Barack Obama has said the US must fix what he described as profound income inequality and a lack of social mobility
“The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe,” Barack Obama said.
“The idea that so many children are born into poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth is heartbreaking enough. The idea that a child may never be able to escape that poverty because she lacks a decent education or healthcare, or a community that views her future as their own, that should offend all of us and it should compel us to action.”
The US president argued rising inequality was eroding trust in institutions and reducing civic and community involvement. And he said the “growing gap” was as much about class as it was about race.
To remedy the growing income inequality, Barack Obama called for a rise in the national minimum wage, currently $7.25 – as low as it was during the administration of President Harry Truman in the 1950s in terms of spending power, he said.
Several states and cities have raised their own minimum wages, most recently New Jersey and Washington DC.
A proposal is currently being floated in the Senate to increase the national minimum wage to $10.10 in three steps and tie further increases to changes in the cost of living, but its path even through the Democratic-controlled Senate is unclear.
Barack Obama also suggested targeted programmes for cities and regions hardest hit by the 2008 recession and other sea changes in the US economy, universal preschool education for young children, a shoring-up of the US pension and social safety net schemes, and laws to make it easier for workers to organize into labor unions.
He pressed Congress to extend unemployment benefits to 1.3 million people who have been unemployed long-term, set to expire toward the end of December.
Additional weeks of benefits have been approved since 2009, but on Tuesday, a senior Republican congressman, Representative Tom Cole, said his party opposed an extension.
According to new Washington Post report, the National Security Agency (NSA) tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad.
The NSA inadvertently gathers the location records of “tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad” annually, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables, the newspaper said in a report on its website.
Such data means the NSA can track the movements of almost any cellphone around the world, and map the relationships of the cellphone user. The Post said a powerful analytic computer program called CO-TRAVELER crunches the data of billions of unsuspecting people, building patterns of relationships between them by where their phones go. That can reveal a previously unknown terrorist suspect, in guilt by cellphone-location association, for instance.
Former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden
As the NSA doesn’t know which part of the data it might need, the agency keeps up to 27 terabytes, or more than double the text content of the Library of Congress’ print collection, the Post said. A 2012 internal NSA document said the volumes of data from the location program were “outpacing our ability to ingest, process and store” it, the newspaper said.
The program is detailed in documents given to the newspaper by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. The Post also quotes unidentified NSA officials, saying they spoke with the permission of their agency.
Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, declined to comment on the report.
The DNI’s general counsel, Robert Litt, has said that NSA does not intentionally gather bulk location data on US cellphones inside the US — but NSA Director Keith Alexander testified before Congress his agency ran tests in 2010 and 2011 on “samples” of US cell-site data to see if it was technically possible to plug such data into NSA analysis systems.
Keith Alexander said that the information was never used for intelligence purposes and that the testing was reported to congressional intelligence committees. He said it was determined to be of little “operational value,” so the NSA did not ask for permission to gather such data.
DJ Mel Greig, who was at the centre of Kate Middleton prank call, linked to the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, has resigned from Australian radio station 2Day FM.
Mel Greig, who will leave her post at the end of December, has also dropped legal proceedings against her employer Southern Cross Austereo (SCA).
She launched a claim against the company in July, claiming it failed to maintain a safe workplace.
An SCA statement said the dispute had been “amicably resolved”.
Exactly one year ago, Mel Greig and her co-host, Michael Christian, made a prank call to the King Edward VII hospital where pregnant Kate Middleton was being treated for morning sickness.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles seeking information on Kate Middleton’s condition.
Mel Greig has resigned from Australian radio station 2Day FM
Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who answered the phone, transferred the call to a colleague. The 46-year-old was found hanged three days later.
The incident prompted widespread criticism of the DJs, who apologized in the wake of the incident.
Mel Greig has remained off air but co-host Christian returned to work two months later.
She wanted it “made clear” that she was not responsible for the decision to broadcast the call.
In the statement about Mel Greig’s departure from the company, Southern Cross Austereo reiterated its position that recording and broadcasting the call was “not unlawful”.
It also said 2Day FM decided to broadcast the call despite suggestions from Mel Greig that it should be changed. It stressed that SCA had “at all times taken complete responsibility for the hoax call”.
In February, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to charge Michael Christian and Mel Greig with manslaughter over Jacintha Saldanha’s death.
Mel Greig is expected to give a statement at the inquest into Jacintha Saldanha’s death. SCA added that they would also co-operate fully.
North Korea has been urged by Amnesty International to close two political prisoner camps, where it says torture is rampant and execution commonplace.
Amnesty International has released new satellite images of the Kwanliso 15 and 16 camps.
It quotes one former official as saying that inmates are forced to dig their own graves and women disappear after “servicing” officials.
Amnesty alleges that hundreds of thousands of people are held in detention facilities in North Korea.
The organization says it has passed its latest evidence to the UN Commission of Inquiry investigating human rights abuses in North Korea.
The rights group says it interviewed one former security official from Kwanliso 16 last month.
North Korea has been urged by Amnesty International to close two political prisoner camps
The official, referred to as Mr. Lee, said prisoners were forced to dig their own graves and were then killed with blows to the neck.
Mr. Lee said he witnessed prison officers strangling detainees and beating them to death with wooden sticks.
He added: “After a night of <<servicing>> officials, women had to die because the secret could not get out. This happens at most of the political prison camps.”
The new satellite images show both camps.
Kwanliso 15 covers 142 sq miles and is in central North Korea, about 45 miles from the capital Pyongyang.
Kwanliso 16, near Hwaseong in North Hamgyong province, covers approximately 556 sq km.
Amnesty said it was not able to verify prisoner populations, but said there might have been a slight increase at Kwanliso 16 and a slight decrease at Kwanliso 15.
The report’s author, Amnesty North Korea researcher Rajiv Narayan, said: “Under its new leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea is violating every conceivable human right.
“People are sent to the political prison camps without charge, let alone a trial, many of them simply for knowing someone who has fallen out of favor.”
Rajiv Narayan added: “We are calling on the North Korean authorities to acknowledge the existence of the camps, close them, and grant unhindered access to independent human rights monitors like Amnesty International.”
President Nicolas Maduro has signed a decree controlling the price of new and second-hand cars in Venezuela.
New cars are currently hard to find, and Venezuelans often have to pay very high prices for an used car.
Nicolas Maduro, who previously legislated on the prices of electronics, toys and clothes, has accused criminal gangs of creating artificially high prices in the used car market.
The legislation says old cars cannot be sold at prices higher than new cars.
More details will be available when the legislation (decree number 625) is published on Thursday.
Nicolas Maduro has signed a decree controlling the price of new and second-hand cars in Venezuela
People will be “expressly forbidden to speculate on the prices of second-hand vehicles as though they were new,” Nicolas Maduro told the official Agencia Venezoelana de Noticias.
Those who break the new law will face jail sentences of six to 12 years, Nicolas Maduro said.
The government hopes that the regulations will put a halt to a popular loophole used by Venezuelans to guard against one of the world’s highest inflation rates (21.1% in 2012).
But critics say government intervention will encourage the black market.
They blame the government’s left-wing policies for keeping foreign investment away and hurting the economy.
Nicolas Maduro was elected in March by a narrow margin, succeeding the late President Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer after 14 years in office.
Last month, Nicolas Maduro requested special powers to rule by decree for a year to deal with the economic crisis.
This is the third decree Nicolas Maduro has signed since he was granted the controversial special powers.
In his address to the nation on his birthday, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand has urged people to support each other for the sake of the country.
Thailand is marking the 86th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej amid a truce after days of violent protests in Bangkok.
Speaking at his palace in the coastal resort of Hua Hin, King Bhumibol Adulyadej said that Thailand had been peaceful because of the unity of the people.
There were violent clashes earlier in the week between police and protesters.
The demonstrators, who are demanding that the current government resign, began protesting on November 24.
They agreed to stop their attacks on government buildings for the birthday celebrations, but have said they will be back right after them.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand has urged people to support each other for the sake of the country
On Thursday, thousands of people had headed to the town of Hua Hin, near the king’s Klai Kangwon palace, in the hope of seeing him, the Bangkok Post reports.
Special bus and train services had been laid on by the transport ministry to bring people to the town, the paper says.
The kings traditionally deliver a speech to the nation on his birthday – an audience keenly anticipated for any hints of his thinking on events in Thailand.
He called on people to do their duty to support each other for the sake of the country.
“All Thais should realize this point a lot and behave and perform our duties accordingly, our duty for the sake of the public, for stability, security for our nation of Thailand,” the king said.
The current wave of protests began in Bangkok relatively peacefully, but things took a violent turn over the weekend and on Monday.
Protesters tried to topple police barricades and storm the prime minister’s office, Government House. Clashes broke as police used tear gas and water cannon to repel them.
The situation calmed down on Tuesday after security forces stepped back from protesters.
Some anti-government protesters headed to the police headquarters in Bangkok on Wednesday. A few hundred of the protesters were allowed inside the compound by the police and then withdrew.
The protesters say there is more to come.
“After the king’s birthday, we will start fighting again until we achieve our goal,” former deputy prime minister and protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told AFP on Tuesday.
The protesters want the current government under PM Yingluck Shinawatra to step down and be replaced by an unelected “People’s Council”.
Print issues of Newsweek magazine will be available at the newsstands starting next year.
Editor-in-Chief Jim Impoco says Newsweek‘s owners, IBT Media, want to “hit the reset button” and move to a business model where a weekly print magazine would be mainly supported by subscription fees instead of advertising.
Jim Impoco said in an interview Wednesday that officials haven’t decided how much the magazine will cost, but it’s expected to be less than $10 per issue.
Print issues of Newsweek magazine will be available at the newsstands starting next year
Newsweek had been struggling for years when The Washington Post Co. sold it for $1 in 2010 to stereo equipment magnate Sidney Harman, who died the following year. Before he died, Sidney Harman placed Newsweek into a joint venture with IAC/InterActiveCorp’s The Daily Beast website, a move intended to help widen its online audience.
Newsweek ceased print publication at the end of 2012. The online magazine was sold to IBT, which owns online publications including International Business Times, Medical Daily and Latin Times, in August for an undisclosed sum.
Many magazines and newspapers have reduced or shut down their print editions in recent years because of weak demand from advertisers. But Impoco says officials are confident that they will be able to drum up enough print subscribers.
Kanye West has hired Monica Warhol, Andy Warhol’s cousin, to paint a portrait of his fiancée Kim Kardashian.
Monica Warhol spoke with Page Six about her new commission, and says she thinks her famed cousin would have loved Kim Kardashian.
“She’s famous for nothing,” Monica Warhol said.
“Kim is beautiful. She’s so manufactured. She looks like a human Barbie.”
Kanye West has hired Monica Warhol, Andy Warhol’s cousin, to paint a portrait of his fiancée Kim Kardashian
Monica Warhol also revealed she never met Andy, who died in 1987 when she was 10. She claims to have never studied Andy Warhol’s past work, saying she never even owned a book of his artwork until about a year ago.
However, Monica Warhol’s prints are reminiscent of her cousin’s signature pop art style. The younger Warhol has already drawn portraits of rapper Flo Rida and Lenny Kravitz.
After an elaborate October proposal at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, Kanye West has been over the moon when talking about Kim Kardashian, his future wife and mother of his daughter North.
“Our love story’s a love story for the ages,” Kanye West raved of his romance with Kim Kardashian in a recent interview.
“I felt like when we first got together, it was like a Romeo and Juliet kind of thing.”
Paul Walker’s autopsy report revealed the actor was killed in a car crash by the combined effects of the impact and subsequent fire.
Paul Walker, 40, who was a passenger in the car driven by his friend and financial adviser Roger Rodas, died Saturday when the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT smashed into a light pole and tree then exploded in flames.
Paul Walker’s autopsy report revealed the actor was killed in a car crash by the combined effects of the impact and subsequent fire
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office released the autopsy results Wednesday. The report also says Roger Rodas was killed by the impact.
Paul Walker starred in all but one of the six Fast & Furious blockbuster films that glorified fast cars and dangerous driving.
Sheriff’s investigators are still trying to determine exactly what caused Roger Rodas to careen out of control. They have said speed was a factor.
The 911 recordings from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, were released Wednesday.
Less than two weeks before the first anniversary of the tragedy, the recordings were made public after the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission approved a request from the Associated Press and the state’s attorney decided not to appeal.
The 911 recordings from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown were released
Prosecutors had argued that audio of seven calls placed from inside Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, would cause anguish for the families of the 20 children and six staffers slain.
A court agreed they would be “a searing reminder of the horror and pain of that awful day” but said would also underscore the “bravery and professionalism” of the first responders.
While many family members opposed the release of the tapes, others were in favor of public airing.
The recordings were put out days after state law-enforcement officials released a long-awaited report on the shooting and 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza.
The Kardashian – Jenner clan revealed their latest family holiday card on Sunday’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians: a Very Merry Christmas.
Shot by fashion shutterbug David LaChappelle against a backdrop of Hollywood movie theater props and old tabloids, the family photo features plenty of cleavage, leg and general oddball behavior. Various photos of the family members – including one in the form of Bruce Jenner on an old Wheaties box from his Olympian era – also dot the scenery.
The Kardashian – Jenner clan revealed their latest family holiday card
In previous years, the family’s holiday card has included Kim, Khloe and Kourtney’s significant others, but this year, Scott Disick, Kanye West and Lamar Odom are notably absent.
Also missing from the frame is Kim Kardashian’s 6-month-old daughter, North, although the lack of a few loved ones doesn’t seem to have dampened anyone’s photo shoot fun.
“I loved working with David LaChapelle,” Kris Jenner recently told E! News of the shoot.
Kanye West is planning to tie the knot with Kim Kardashian at the Palace of Versailles in France, Us Weekly reported.
A source told the magazine: “Kanye has never been married and wants a big [wedding].”
Another insider added: “They are not working with a budget. He says this is his moment, marrying his ideal woman.”
Kanye West is planning to tie the knot with Kim Kardashian at the Palace of Versailles in France
Kanye West would want to marry at a place that redefined opulence and excess.
However, Gossip Cop quoted a Kardashian insider as saying the Versailles report is completely false: “They haven’t picked a location, date or wedding planner yet.”
Kanye West, 36, recently called Kim Kardashian, 33, “the most beautiful woman of all time! I’m talkin’, like, arguably of human existence – the top 10 of human existence”.
1 loaf French bread (12 inches long and about 9 ounces)
Crazy Bread is one of Willie Robertson’s favorite recipes
1 stick (¼ pound) butter, melted
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon garlic salt
4 slices bacon, cut in thirds crosswise
Directions:
Heat the oven to 400ºF. Slice the bread about 1 inch thick without cutting all the way through. Place the bread on the cookie sheet. Pour butter between the slices, then stuff cheese between the slices. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Top the bread with the bacon slices without overlapping them.
Bake until the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and cook the bacon to your taste.
Fast & Furious 7 production has been put on hold after Paul Walker’s death on Saturday.
Filming had been scheduled to resume in Atlanta this week but has so far been cancelled and Universal Pictures has declined to say when it will restart.
Paul Walker, 40, died when a Porsche being driven by his friend Roger Rodas, who also died, crashed near Los Angeles.
The film company will donate proceeds from the upcoming DVD release of Fast & Furious 6 to Paul Walker’s charity.
Paul Walker founded Reach Out Worldwide in 2010 to give first-response aid to victims of natural disasters and had been hosting a fundraiser for the charity on Saturday afternoon when he went for a drive with fellow car enthusiast Roger Rodas.
Fast & Furious 7 production has been put on hold after Paul Walker’s death
The lucrative Fast & Furious franchise became one of Hollywood’s biggest hits thanks to its reliable formula of high-speed chases, underground gangs and thrilling stunts and has starred Paul Walker in all but one installment.
Fast & Furious 6 became the highest-grossing film in the series to date, earning more than $788 million worldwide when it was released in May.
Its follow-up is scheduled for release in July 2014, and although Universal Pictures is expected to go forward with the film, it has not yet announced how it will handle Paul Walker’s unfinished performance.
A large portion of the car-racing movie has been shot since filming began in September, but it is currently incomplete.
Paul Walker starred in two further films that have yet to be released. Hurricane Katrina drama Hours, which the actor also produced, is being released in the US later this month.
Brick Mansions, a remake of the French action film District B13, is due for release early next year.
Paul Walker’s family has asked that donations be made to the late actor’s charity Reach Out Worldwide instead of flowers or gifts.
The Duck Dynasty clan stopped by Good Morning America to share their go-to recipes from their cookbook, Miss Kay’s Duck Commander Kitchen, to make at home.
The Robertson family kicked things off with their recipe for duck and dressing, which roasts a whole duck over a hearty cornbread and cracker dressing.
“We’re not losing weight on this meal,” Miss Kay Robertson admitted.
Next up were Willie Robertson’s famous armadillo eggs.
“This is low-fat,” Willie Robertson joked.
“It only has sausage, bacon and cream cheese.”
These meat-wrapped jalapeño poppers are grilled for crunch and smoky flavor, and then finished off in the oven.
Willie Robertson presented his famous armadillo eggs
Jase and Missy Robertson took the reins next with a banana pudding.
“If you didn’t get enough fat from the sausage and the bacon and the butter,” Missy Robertson quipped.
“There are two sticks of butter in this and two cups of sugar to start off with.”
The banana pudding is a no-cook recipe, and Jase Robertson shared its secret.
“That’s lemon juice – you dip [the bananas] in there so they don’t turn brown,” he said.
Miss Kay Robertson attempted to make things healthier with Aunt Judy’s cranberry salad.
“It is a salad!” Miss Kay Robertson insisted of the dessert dish with marshmallows and whipped topping.
Willie Robertson quickly cut off any of her healthy claims.
“But what you really want is the cheesy bread right here,” he said of his recipe for crazy bread.
“This is more bacon on top of French bread with a little butter and olive oil with garlic and you toast it.”
A&E’s Duck Dynasty Christmas Special will air on December 11 at 10/9 C.
Nigella Lawson appeared in court today saying her ex-husband Charles Saatchi threatened to “destroy” her with “false” allegations of drug use.
The TV cook and author said Charles Saatchi made the threat after she had shown reluctance to give evidence at the trial of her assistants.
Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo face fraud charges at Isleworth Crown Court.
The Grillo sisters’ defense has claimed they were allowed to spend on credit cards by Nigella Lawson in return for covering up her use of drugs.
Nigella Lawson said that the allegations that have been made about her at the trial had followed “a long summer of bullying and abuse”.
“I have been put on trial here where I am called to answer, and glad to answer the allegations, and [in] the world’s press,” she said.
Nigella Lawson said she had been reluctant to give evidence in the trial, which had provoked an angry reaction from Charles Saatchi.
Nigella Lawson has told a court her ex-husband Charles Saatchi threatened to “destroy” her
“He had said to me if I didn’t get back to him and clear his name, he would destroy me,” she said.
Nigella Lawson said following the “awful incident at Scotts”, the “false” allegations began circulating on a “PR blog”.
Charles Saatchi was cautioned for assault after images of him grasping Nigella Lawson by the neck at the London restaurant appeared in a newspaper.
She said the allegations on the blog were “dedicated to salvaging Charles Saatchi’s reputation and destroying mine”.
On Friday, Charles Saatchi told the court that he had “no proof” that Nigella Lawson had ever taken drugs.
The couple divorced in July after 10 years of marriage.
The Grillo sisters, Francesca, 35, and Elisabetta, 41, are accused of using credit cards loaned to them by the couple to spend more than £685,000 on themselves.
Nigella Lawson told the court Elisabetta did not have a strong moral compass, but she said the 41-year-old was a “stalwart” who had helped her through the death of her first husband.
She said the allegations of fraud “broke our heart” when they were revealed to her and Charles Saatchi.
Nigella Lawson said Elisabetta Grillo had been “a rock”, adding: “I would have done anything for her.”
Defending, Anthony Metzer QC asked Nigella Lawson if Charles Saatchi had a temper.
She said that he “did have a temper and I don’t think that anyone can be in any doubt he had a temper”, adding that she had confided in Elisabetta about Charles Saatchi’s outbursts.
Nigella Lawson told the court that Charles Saatchi used to shout and swear at her, and she told the defendant privately: “I don’t know how long I can take this.”
The European Commission has fined eight banks a total of 1.7 billion euros for forming illegal cartels to rig interest rates.
The cartels operated in markets for financial derivatives, which are products used to manage the risk of interest rate movements.
Two of the eight, Barclays and UBS, were excused their financial penalties for revealing the cartels’ existence.
The European Commission it was shocking that competing banks were in collusion.
UBS and Barclays stood to pay the largest fines of 2.5 billion euros and 690 million euros, but avoided paying anything because they assisted the investigation.
A number of banks were engaged in the rigging of interest rate products intended to reflect the cost of interbank lending in euros, while another group fixed prices for products based on the Japanese yen.
The rates are used to set the price of trillions of dollars of products, including mortgages.
The European Commission has fined eight banks a total of 1.7 billion euros for forming illegal cartels to rig interest rates
Some were involved in both markets and more than one cartel, including RBS, which was fined a total of 391 million euros.
Aside from RBS, Barclays and UBS, the other organizations involved were Deutsche Bank, which received the biggest fine of 725.36 million euros, Societe Generale, JP Morgan, Citibank and the brokers RP Martin.
Banks that have not yet settled fines but are being investigated are HSBC and Credit Agricole, as well as JPMorgan, which accepted a fine for rigging in one market but not another.
The fine, the first for interest-rate rigging from the EU, is also a record for its regulators.
Other global authorities have fined financial institutions including UBS, RBS, Barclays, Rabobank and ICAP for manipulating rates.
A handful of individuals are facing criminal charges.
FIFA has unveiled “Brazuca” – its official match ball for the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
The official match ball made by Adidas was named “Brazuca” in 2012 following a public vote in Brazil which involved more than one million fans.
Brazuca’s design is said to be “inspired by vibrant colors, passion and heritage of Brazil”. Its name is a term used by natives of the country, meaning “Brazilian” or to describe the Brazilian way of life.
Brazuca’s design is said to be inspired by vibrant colors, passion and heritage of Brazil
The ball was unveiled during a spectacular 3D event held at the iconic Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, but went through a rigorous two-and-a-half-year testing process which involved more than 600 of the world’s top players.
Players such as Lionel Messi, Iker Casillas, Bastian Schweinsteiger and former France international Zinedine Zidane were all involved in the process and have since signed off on its use for next year’s World Cup.
Adidas say the technology used will “meet and exceed all FIFA metrics” and will “ensure top performance for every condition”.
“A new structural innovation with a unique symmetry of six identical panels alongside a different surface structure will provide improved grip, touch, stability and aerodynamics on the pitch. Brazuca has been thoroughly tested to meet and exceed all FIFA metrics for an official match ball, ensuring top performance for every condition,” an Adidas statement read.
Nelson Mandela is putting up a courageous fight from his “deathbed”, his daughter Makaziwe Mandela says.
Makaziwe Mandela told national broadcaster SABC that the anti-apartheid icon was “still with us, strong, courageous”.
“Even for a lack of a better word… on his deathbed he is teaching us lessons – lessons in patience, in love, lessons of tolerance,” she added.
Nelson Mandela, 95, is receiving home-based medical care.
He was discharged from hospital in September after being treated for nearly three months for a recurring lung infection.
Nelson Mandela is receiving home-based medical care
Nelson Mandela is widely respected for his role in fighting racism in South Africa, and for forgiving his former white captors after his release from prison in 1990.
He spent 27 years in jail and was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He stepped down after five years in office.
“Every moment I get with him I’m amazed,” Makaziwe Mandela told SABC.
“There are times where I have to pinch myself that I come from this man who is a fighter even though you can see he is struggling, but the fighting spirit is still there with him.”
Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Ndaba Mandela, told SABC that the ex-president was “not doing well in bed”.
Last month, Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said he was no longer talking “because of all the tubes that are in his mouth to clear [fluid from] the lungs”.
The South African presidency has repeatedly described Nelson Mandela’s condition as critical but stable.
Russian company Yota has launched a smartphone with two screens – one of which uses e-ink technology and is “always on”.
Yota said the phone would go on sale online immediately in Russia, Austria, France, Spain and Germany.
The Android-powered phone promises to extend battery life by transferring web pages and other applications to the e-ink screen.
Experts said it may prove attractive to users fed up with drained batteries.
The phone has one LCD display, similar to those found on other smartphones, and a second e-ink screen which the company says lets users see the information they want without having to wake up the phone.
“The typical user picks up and activates their smartphone more than 150 times a day,” said Yota Devices chief executive Vlad Martynov.
“Why? Because users worry that messages or information they need or want are hidden behind their phone’s black screen. This is a huge distraction and can impede meaningful interaction with our friends, families and colleagues.”
YotaPhone has one LCD display and a second e-ink screen which lets users see the information they want without having to wake up the phone
St Petersburg-based Yota is best known for making modems and router equipment. The dual-screen smartphone, which was first announced in 2012, is the company’s first mobile phone.
Yota plans to launch the phone in 20 other countries by March 2014.
It also features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and a 12-megapixel rear camera and will cost 499 euros.
E-ink displays are commonly used for e-book readers and consume very little power. They are also easier to read in the sun than their LCD equivalents, but offer a slower refresh rate making them unsuitable for videos or most games.
The YotaPhone has some smart ideas about how the secondary e-ink screen could be used.
E-readers could be slimmer in future after a thinner screen was developed by the company E Ink.
The new screen technology, known as Fina, is up to 50% lighter and thinner than current screens according to the company.
Animal rights group Nonhuman Rights Project is calling on a New York court to recognize a chimpanzee as a legal person, in what is believed to be a legal first.
The Nonhuman Rights Project wants chimp Tommy to be granted “legal personhood” and thus entitled to the “fundamental right of bodily liberty”.
The group is planning to file the same lawsuit on behalf of three other chimps across New York this week.
It wants the four to be released from their captivity.
They should be taken to a sanctuary that is a member of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance, the group argues.
The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of Tommy on Monday.
“We are claiming that chimpanzees are autonomous – that is, being able to self-determine, be self-aware, and be able to choose how to live their own lives,” its founder Steven Wise told the Associated Press news agency.
The Nonhuman Rights Project wants chimp Tommy to be granted legal personhood and thus entitled to the fundamental right of bodily liberty
Scientists’ evidence is included in the lawsuits.
“Once we prove that chimpanzees are autonomous, that should be sufficient for them to gain legal personhood and at least have their fundamental interests protected by human rights,” Steven Wise said.
Tommy, the group said, “is being held captive in a shed at a used-trailer lot” in Gloversville, New York.
Patrick Lavery, owner of the site where Tommy lives, said the chimp’s cage was spacious “with tons of toys”.
He said he rescued Tommy from his previous home, where he had been badly treated, but had been unsuccessful in placing him in a sanctuary because there was no room.
“If [the Nonhuman Rights Group] were to see where this chimp lived for the first 30 years of his life, they would jump up and down for joy about where he is now,” Patrick Lavery told the New York Times.
The lawsuit invokes the common law writ of habeas corpus, the right to challenge unlawful detention.
The Nonhuman Rights Group says it is dedicated to changing the common law status of species considered autonomous, and could eventually file lawsuits on behalf of gorillas, orangutans, whales, dolphins and elephants.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has said he has proof that Monday’s massive power cut in the capital Caracas and other cities was caused by “right-wing” saboteurs.
Appearing on state TV, Nicolas Maduro showed a picture of what looked like a cut conductor cable.
He said the saboteurs’ aim was to destabilize the country ahead of local elections scheduled for this weekend.
Caracas’ metro ground to a halt and people had to be led out of shops and offices – but power was later restored.
Government opponents say poor maintenance was the likely cause of the blackout.
Power cuts are common in Venezuela, especially in the inland states, but they rarely affect the capital.
Speaking on state TV, Nicolas Maduro said that “we always face these attacks by the right-wing fascists”.
Nicolas Maduro has said he has proof that massive power cut in Caracas and other cities was caused by “right-wing” saboteurs
“They wanted to make me, as president of the republic, decree a state of emergency and suspend the elections.
“Whoever made this criminal attack wanted to leave our Venezuela without electricity for 24 to 48 hours… thinking that would convince people not to continue with the revolution.”
Nicolas Maduro promised to give more details on Wednesday.
He earlier tweeted that the outage had been triggered in the same place as a blackout in September.
The power cut plunged Caracas into darkness after 20:00 on Monday as Nicolas Maduro was addressing the nation on television.
The blackouts did not affect Venezuela’s oil refineries, which are powered by separate generator plants.
Sometimes after the outage, Electricity Minister Jesse Chacon said power had been restored to most of Caracas. He said the blackout had originated in central Venezuela.
The opposition says the governments of President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, have failed to maintain the power grid to meet growing demand, instead resorting to conspiracy theories to divert attention from mismanagement.
Correspondents said that while Caracas was in darkness, people could be heard banging pots – a frequent means of protest.
