A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter cargo plane was heading for McConnell air force base in Wichita but instead touched down by mistake at nearby Colonel James Jabara airport in Kansas.
Airport officials believe the plane will be able to depart despite the much shorter runway at Colonel James Jabara airport.
An attempt is scheduled for lunchtime on Thursday.
The plane was heading for McConnell air force base in Wichita but instead touched down by mistake at nearby Colonel James Jabara airport in Kansas
The aircraft normally needs a runway of 9,119 ft to get airborne at maximum weight; Jabara’s runway is only 6,102 ft long.
Brad Christopher of the Wichita Airport Authority told the Associated Press news agency the company that operates the aircraft had “assured us they’ve run all the engineering calculation and performance and the aircraft is very safe for a normal departure at its current weight and conditions here”.
The Dreamlifter, which landed at Jabara on Wednesday evening, is a modified 747-400 passenger aeroplane, which can carry more cargo by volume than any aeroplane in the world, according to Boeing.
The aerospace company uses its fleet of four Dreamlifters to transport large assembled components of its 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to the final assembly location in Washington state.
The City of Wichita tweeted that no-one was injured and no property damage occurred when the plane landed.
French investigators have found two “confused” letters which may explain the motives of suspect gunman Abdelhakim Dekhar behind two recent attacks in Paris.
Prosecutors said in one of the letters Abdelhakim Dekhar had denounced media manipulation and capitalism.
Abdelhakim Dekhar was arrested on Wednesday after a major manhunt.
According to the French authorities, he has been jailed before – in 1998, for his role in a string of previous Paris shootings.
After his release he lived in Britain for several years before returning to France in July, the authorities said.
After a two-day manhunt, Abdelhakim Dekhar was arrested on Wednesday evening in a stationary car in an underground car park following a tip-off from a member of the public.
One of Abdelhakim Dekhar’s letters was found beside him in the car, with details of his wishes for burial, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told a press conference.
Another letter was reportedly given to officials by the man who housed him.
Abdelhakim Dekhar was arrested on Wednesday after a major manhunt
This man, according to Francois Molins, had been away from the building until recently, but on his return saw photos of the suspect in the Liberation shooting and recognized Abdelhakim Dekhar, who on confrontation confessed to being the man behind the attack.
Francois Molins said the second letter spoke of a “fascist plot” and accused the media of participating in the “manipulation of the masses”.
Police said that when Abdelhakim Dekhar was arrested, it appeared he had taken medication and did not seem very lucid.
Some media sources have suggested he may have attempted suicide.
Abdelhakim Dekhar is believed to have been the third man in the so-called Rey-Maupin affair, named after a young couple with links to anarchist groups who bungled an attempt to steal weapons from guards and then hijacked a taxi in 1994.
In the subsequent chase and shootout, three policemen and the taxi driver were killed, as well as Audry Maupin.
Aufry Maupin’s girlfriend, Florence Rey, was released from jail a few years ago.
Their story was compared to the controversial American film Natural Born Killers.
At his trial in 1998, Abdelhakim Dekhar protested his innocence, claiming he had been recruited by the Algerian secret service to infiltrate the French far-left.
Abdelhakim Dekhar was sentenced to four years in jail but released soon after the verdict, having already served his time in pre-trial detention.
In the wake of the two shooting incidents in Paris, hundreds of police were involved in a huge manhunt and security was stepped up at all media outlets.
Ukraine has suspended preparations for a trade deal with the EU after a government statement said the decision had been taken to protect the country’s “national security”.
Hours earlier MPs rejected a bill that would have allowed jailed former PM Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country – which the EU had demanded as a condition for the deal to proceed.
Ukraine had come under intense pressure from Russia not to sign the historic EU deal at a summit next week.
The Ukrainian government said on Thursday that it was instead looking into setting up a joint commission to promote ties between Ukraine, Russia and the EU.
Russia wants Ukraine to join its own customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which it sees as a prototype rival to the EU.
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych was later quoted by AFP as saying Ukraine “will work further on this path, this path to EU integration”, although it is not clear how this tallies with the suspension of preparations for the deal.
On Thursday MPs threw out six drafts of the bill which would have allowed Yulia Tymoshenko to travel abroad for medical treatment.
Ukraine has suspended preparations for a trade deal with the EU
The EU is sending a top envoy to Kiev.
Stefan Fuele, European commissioner for enlargement, is travelling to the Ukrainian capital on Thursday, for the second time this week.
The bill failed to pass after MPs from President Viktor Yanukovych’s ruling Regions Party refused to cast their votes on any of the six proposed drafts.
The drafts all fell short of the 226 votes needed.
“It is President Viktor Yanukovych who is personally blocking Ukraine’s movement toward the European Union,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, parliamentary leader of Yulia Tymoshenko’s opposition Fatherland group, told parliament after the vote failed.
Opposition MPs responded by shouting “shame” as the bill was thrown out.
The legislation proposed that convicts be allowed medical treatment abroad.
Yulia Tymoshenko, 52, is serving seven years in jail after a controversial conviction on charges of abuse of power over a gas deal with Russia.
The EU has made clear it believes the judicial campaign against Yulia Tymoshenko has been politically motivated.
Monty Python have announced their reunion will be a live, one-off show in London next July.
At a press conference, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones said they wanted to see if they “were still funny”.
Eric Idle – who will direct – said the audience should expect “comedy, pathos, music and a tiny piece of ancient s**”.
The stage show will be their first new project for three decades.
Monty Python have announced their reunion will be a live, one-off show in London next July
It is more than 30 years since the Pythons last performed together at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in September 1980, and 40 years since they last performed on stage in the UK.
In a press release issued ahead of the conference, the comedy troupe promised to perform “some of Monty Python’s greatest hits, with modern, topical, Pythonesque twists”.
Warwick Davis, who recently starred in the Monty Python-inspired musical Spamalot, introduced the “five legends” at the London’s Playhouse theatre, claiming the venue for the reunion had been decided after a series of bids.
Opening a series of gold envelopes, he claimed the winner was first, Qatar, then Meryl Streep.
Finally, Warwick Davis announced the show would take place in London at the O2 Arena on the 1 July, with tickets going on sale on November 25.
The top price for tickets will be £95 and the lowest will be £26.50 -“only £300 cheaper than the Stones”, quipped Eric Idle.
Paramount Studios have threatened to take legal action over a proposed sequel to the 1946 film It’s A Wonderful Life.
The sequel film, starring Karolyn Grimes – who starred in the original movie – was announced by Hummingbird Productions earlier this week.
However, Paramount Studios said no project could proceed without the “necessary rights”, which are owned by the film studio.
“We will take to take all appropriate steps to protect those rights.”
The original film, directed by Frank Capra, saw James Stewart playing George Bailey, a family man in the depths of despair who is assigned an angel to show him what life would have been like if he never existed.
Paramount Studios have threatened to take legal action over a proposed sequel to the 1946 film It’s A Wonderful Life
Set on Christmas Eve, the film has gone on to become a festive classic, despite being poorly received on its release.
Tennessee-based Hummingbird Productions announced on Monday that it had teamed up with Star Partners for a follow-up film based on George Bailey’s grandson.
It said Karolyn Grimes, who played George Bailey’s daughter Zuzu in the original movie, would star in the sequel as an angel.
Hummingbird’s Bob Farnsworth previously told The Hollywood Reporter that the rights to It’s a Wonderful Life were in the public domain.
“It’s a Wonderful Life is about showing a good guy can win,” Bob Farnsworth told the industry paper.
He said he had written a screenplay with Martha Bolton entitled It’s a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story, and was hoping it would be released in December 2015.
A lapsed copyright saw the film repeatedly broadcast on TV at Christmastime during the 1970s and ’80s.
However, Paramount is understood to have controlled the rights for the past 14 years, after the studio acquired Republic Pictures as part of its acquisition of Spelling Entertainment in 1999.
Frank Capra’s son, Tom, told the Associated Press that if his father was still alive, he would have deemed the sequel “ludicrous”.
“Why would you even attempt to make a sequel to such a classic film?”
Black Beauty, a rock discovered in the Sahara Desert, has been identified as the oldest Martian meteorite ever found, scientists say.
Earlier research had suggested Black Beauty was about 2 billion-year old, but new tests indicate the rock actually dates to 4.4 billion years ago.
The dark and glossy meteorite would have formed when the Red Planet was in its infancy.
The research is published in the journal Nature.
Lead author Prof. Munir Humayan, from Florida State University, US, said: “This [rock] tells us about one of the most important epochs in the history of Mars.”
There are about 100 Martian meteorites, but almost all of them are younger, dating to between 150 million and 600 million years old.
They would have fallen to the Earth after asteroid or comet impacts had dislodged them, setting the rocks free to travel through space before eventually crash landing here.
This particular Martian meteorite, which is formed of five fragments, is much older.
Black Beauty rock has been identified as the oldest Martian meteorite ever found
An earlier analysis of one piece, called NWA 7034, put the age at 2 billion years.
But this latest research has found that another piece, NWA 7533, dates to 4.4 billion years ago, which suggests that NWA 7034 also must be older.
The team said it would have formed when Mars was just 100 million years old.
“It is almost certainly coming from the southern highlands – the cratered terrain that makes up the southern hemisphere of Mars,” said Prof. Munir Humayan.
This would have been a turbulent period of Martian history, when volcanoes were erupting all over the surface.
Prof. Munir Humayan explained: “The crust of Mars must have differentiated really quickly, rather than gradually over time. There was a big volcanic episode all over the surface, which then crusted up, and after that the volcanism dropped dramatically.
“When it did this it also must have out-gassed water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other gases to produce a primordial atmosphere… and also a primordial ocean.”
He added: “This is a very exciting period of time – if there were to be life on Mars, it would have originated at this particular time.”
Prof. Munir Humayan said that team now plans to study the rock to see if there were any signs of past life. But he added that while the rock was lying in the Sahara Desert, living organisms probably would have occupied it, masking potential evidence.
Federal Reserve’s stimulus efforts will be cut in “the coming months”, the central bank’s officials confirmed.
They believe that the US recovery is strengthening, according to minutes from their October meeting.
The Fed is currently engaged in an $8 billion a month bond buying programme to lower interest rates and boost the US economy.
US markets fell on the news of a potential slowing of easy money.
In the meeting minutes, released on Wednesday, policy makers said they “generally expected that the data would prove consistent with the Committee’s outlook for ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months”.
Federal Reserve’s stimulus efforts will be cut in the coming months
However, they also stressed that investors should be assured that short-term interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time – perhaps even after the unemployment rate drops below 6.5% benchmark.
Many meeting participants indicated a desire to better coordinate the Fed’s communication policy regarding the easing back of bond purchases, and of interest rates setting.
Mortgages rates spiked over the summer, after outgoing Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the central bank was considering a slowing of its easy money policy.
They only declined after the Fed, in a surprise move, decided to maintain the programme – known as quantitative easing – after its September meeting.
The last Federal Open Market Committee meeting under Ben Bernanke’s leadership is scheduled to take place from December 17 – 18.
The minutes also note that Fed policymakers had an unscheduled conference call on October 16 – just before the US was set to breach the so-called debt ceiling and potentially default on its debt obligations.
According to the minutes, policymakers agreed that had Congress been unable to come to an agreement, the situation would have been “potentially catastrophic”.
Iconic Star Wars character R2-D2 is to make an appearance in the next outing, Episode VII, LucasFilm have confirmed.
The squat, squeaking android is being created at Pinewood Studios by two British men who are members of a Star Wars robot-building group.
Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples say they feel “very privileged” to be working on the film.
Star Wars: Episode VII is currently in pre-production and filming is due to begin in the spring.
The new outing is being directed by JJ Abrams and is set for release in December 2015.
The two robot builders have previously employed their skills on Star Wars-themed commercials, but it was a visit of LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy to a convention in Germany that got their work noticed – and landed them jobs on the new film.
R2-D2 is to make an appearance in Star Wars Episode VII
“I mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the UK were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by executive producer Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation,” said Oliver Steeples.
“It’s a dream come true,” he added.
“I hope I can live up to the expectations of the thousands of R2-D2 builders around the world, let alone the millions of Star Wars fans.”
The pair, who have been constructing R2-D2 units for some years, will be responsible for maintaining the robots during the making of the film, and will try to improve on its design.
The robot is a mesh of gears, lights and electronics which need to be kept in excellent condition throughout the production of the movie.
British actor Kenny Baker was inside the machine for the first six Star Wars films. It has not been revealed whether he will rejoin the series for Episode VII.
R2-D2, an astromech android, is best known as a companion to the human heroes of the Star Wars franchise, including Luke and Anakin Skywalker, using its resources to rescue them from perilous situations.
He built up an endearing partnership with his fussy fellow android C-3PO, who is able to understand R2-D2’s language and interprets it for humans.
The droid’s name is an abbreviation of “reel 2, dialogue 2” – which Star Wars creator George Lucas overheard in the editing suite for his second film, American Graffiti.
Madonna tops Forbes magazine’s World’s Highest-Paid Musicians List in 2013 with $125 million, beating Lady Gaga.
Madonna, 55, made $125 million from June 2012 to June 2013, according to Forbes magazine.
The singer made her money through her MDNA world tour, merchandise sales, a clothing line and a brand of perfume.
Lady Gaga, 27, earned $80 million in the same period with Bon Jovi, Toby Keith and Coldplay in third, fourth and fifth spots.
She made most of her money though her Born This Way Ball tour before she injured her hip and cancelled the remaining dates.
Hip-hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs is 11th on the list because of his vodka business while rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z is in 18th spot.
DJs Calvin Harris and Tiesto are in 13th and 25th.
Madonna tops Forbes magazine’s World’s Highest-Paid Musicians List in 2013 with $125 million
Hip-hop artist Dr Dre topped Forbes‘ highest-paid musicians list last year but is down to 20th place this time.
The top 25 is put together by using data from Pollstar, the RIAA, Nielsen SoundScan, managers, lawyers and artists.
Concert ticket sales, royalties for recorded music and publishing, merchandise sales, endorsement deals and other business ventures are also taken into account.
Estimates reflect pre-tax income before fees for agents, managers and lawyers are deducted and ranges from 1 June 2012 to 1 June 2013.
Only living artists are eligible for the list.
Top 10 highest-paid musicians
Madonna – $125 million
Lady Gaga – $80 million
Bon Jovi – $79 million
Toby Keith – $65 million
Coldplay – $64 million
Justin Bieber – $58 million
Taylor Swift – $55 million
Elton John – $54 million
Beyonce – $53 million 9. Kenny Chesney – $53 million
Chris Brown has been ordered by LA judge to return to rehab for three months to deal with anger management issues.
LA Superior Court Judge James Brandlin also said Chris Brown must do at least 24 hours of community service a week and be tested for drugs.
Chris Brown, 24, agreed to the terms, which were suggested by probation officers overseeing his sentence for beating Rihanna in 2009.
The singer left rehab earlier this month after throwing a rock through a window.
After a joint counseling session with his mother on November 10, where she suggested he needed to remain in treatment, Chris Brown threw the stone through the window of her car.
Chris Brown was kicked out of the rehab centre because he had signed a contract agreeing to refrain from violence while in treatment.
He had gone to the facility voluntarily on October 29 having been arrested in Washington DC days earlier. A man accused Chris Brown of punching him after he tried to get in a photo with the singer.
Chris Brown has been ordered by LA judge to return to rehab for three months to deal with anger management issues
The event could still be considered a probation violation and result in further punishment for the singer. Chris Brown is due to appear in court in Washington DC on Monday.
Judge James Brandlin ordered probation officers to get more information on the arrest in Washington for a hearing on December 16.
He also said Chris Brown’s focus should be on his treatment and community service, where he will have to do tasks like litter picking or cleaning graffiti.
In his probation report it says the singer has said he wants treatment for his anger management issues.
Chris Brown said he was depressed after being ordered to re-do 1,000 hours of community service earlier this year after a hit-and-run incident.
He has performed 20 hours so far, according to the report. An officer said Chris Brown wouldn’t complete his assignment if he was not required to perform at least 25 hours of work per week.
Chris Brown appeared in court on Wednesday with his girlfriend Karrueche Tran and only spoke once to acknowledge he agreed to the terms given by the judge.
His mother, who has been to many of her son’s court hearings, was not there.
Chris Brown’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, said that the musician was also ordered to take any medications his doctor prescribed.
Abdelhakim Dekhar has been identified by the French authorities as the man arrested on suspicion of carrying out recent gun attacks in Paris.
Abdelhakim Dekhar was taken into custody at about 19:00 from a vehicle in a car park in Bois-Colombes, north-west of Paris.
Authorities said the gunman had been jailed in 1998 for his role in a string of fatal shootings in Paris.
Last Friday a gunman threatened a Paris TV station and on Monday attacked Liberation newspaper office and Societe Generale HQ.
Prosecutors said late on Wednesday that samples of Abdelhakim Dekhar’s DNA matched that from the crime scenes.
They said he was not yet in a position to be questioned and the reading of his rights had been postponed.
Abdelhakim Dekhar was arrested in a stationary car in an underground car park following a tip-off from a member of the public.
French authorities have named the man arrested on suspicion of carrying out recent gun attacks in Paris as Abdelhakim Dekhar
Police union official Christophe Crepin said: “My colleagues noticed he was not very lucid. They deduced that he had taken medicines, because of the capsules nearby.”
Some media sources have suggested he may have attempted suicide.
Abdelhakim Dekhar is believed to have been the third man in the so-called Rey-Maupin affair, named after a young couple with links to anarchist groups who bungled an attempt to steal weapons from guards and then hijacked a taxi.
In the subsequent chase and shootout, three policemen and the taxi driver were killed, as well as Audry Maupin.
Audry Maupin’s girlfriend, Florence Rey, was released from jail a few years ago.
Their story was compared to the controversial American film, Natural Born Killers.
At his trial in 1998, Abdelhakim Dekhar protested his innocence, claiming he had been recruited by the Algerian secret service to infiltrate the French far-left. He served four years.
3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
Rich and Creamy Potatoes Au Gratin
1 cup heavy cream, divided
freshly ground black pepper to taste
freshly grated nutmeg to taste
2 cups freshly shredded Gruyere cheese, divided
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
Place potatoes, garlic, and salt into a large pot, fill with enough water to cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer the potatoes until tender but not mushy, 8 to 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer about half the potatoes to a 9×13-inch baking dish.
Pour half of the cream over the potatoes, season with black pepper and nutmeg, and sprinkle half of the Gruyere cheese onto the mixture. Top with the remaining potatoes; sprinkle again with black pepper and nutmeg. Pour on the remaining cream, and sprinkle with remaining Gruyere cheese.
Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese topping is crisp and brown on top, about 1 hour.
Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius was served with new indictment papers Wednesday containing two extra charges believed to allege that he recklessly shot his gun out the open sunroof of a car last year and fired someone else’s handgun at a restaurant weeks before he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Oscar Pistorius has already been indicted on a main charge of murder for the February 14 shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp and another firearm charge for illegal possession of ammunition in his home.
The double-amputee Olympian now faces the two additional charges relating to firing guns in public.
Oscar Pistorius will likely face all four charges at his trial starting in March, although his lawyers can argue against the new gun charges being added to his current indictment as the offenses are alleged to have taken place in Johannesburg, in a different court jurisdiction to the fatal shooting of Reeva Steenkamp at his upscale villa in the South African capital, Pretoria, in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day.
Oscar Pistorius faces two additional charges relating to firing guns in public
His lawyers were served with the new papers, South Africa’s national prosecution spokesman Nathi Mncube told The Associated Press.
“What happened today is: Mr. Pistorius was served with a new indictment,” Nathi Mncube said.
“We have to advise him [of the extra charges] to accord him with enough time to prepare his defense.”
Nathi Mncube declined to give the exact details of the new charges, only saying they “relate to the contravention of the firearms act.”
He also said there had been no indication from Oscar Pistorius’ lawyers if they would challenge the adding of the charges to his indictment for the trial.
Prosecutors sought special permission to include the two gun charges against Oscar Pistorius on the indictment because they did not fall in the same jurisdiction. Permission was granted by South Africa’s director of public prosecutions last month.
It’s reported in South Africa that the new charges relate to two alleged incidents where Oscar Pistorius recklessly shot a gun in public: The first when the Paralympic is alleged to have fired his own licensed 9mm handgun – the gun used to kill Reeva Steenkamp – out the open sunroof of a car in Johannesburg while traveling with friends last year.
President Barack Obama paid tribute to the legacy of the past and the politics of the present by awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor – to 16 people.
Among those receiving Presidential Medal of Freedom in Wednesday ceremony are former President Bill Clinton, iconic talk show host Oprah Winfrey and late astronaut Sally Ride.
Barack also paid tribute to the memory of President John F. Kennedy.
“This is one of my favorite events every year,” said Barack Obama.
“This year it’s just a little more special, because this marks the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy establishing this award.”
Former President Bill Clinton was among those receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Barack Obama noted that members of the Kennedy clan were in attendance: Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, and JFK’s grandson and son of Caroline Kennedy, Jack Schlossberg.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is “presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” says the White House.
Later in the day, presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton – and first ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton – pay another tribute to JFK with a visit to his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The Obamas and Clintons will lay a wreath near the eternal flame that marks JFK’s final resting place.
The 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination is Friday, November 22.
Barack Obama will again speak about JFK’s legacy during a dinner for the Medal of Freedom honorees at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Sean Penn screamed at a fan in a San Francisco hotel bar on Tuesday night.
Sean Penn – who served 33 days in 1987 for assaulting a photographer, and allegedly beat up two shutterbugs in 2009 – was taken by surprise by a fan who apparently tried to take his picture with a cell phone at the St. Regis hotel bar in San Francisco.
Sean Penn screamed at a fan in a San Francisco hotel bar
“Do we look like f***ing zoo animals?” Sean Penn screamed as he approached the man, whoTMZreports had attended the same conference the actor had been at that day.
According to the gossip website’s video footage of the incident, Sean Penn then grabbed the man’s phone and chucked it on the ground, yelling: “I’ll make you eat the phone … get the f*** out of here!”
Sean Penn later suggested to someone who worked for the hotel: “You should do something about that.”
The Paris gunman has been captured and taken into custody on suspicion of carrying out recent attacks on the Liberation office and Societe Generale HQ, prosecutors say.
French police said the man bore a strong resemblance to the person shown in surveillance camera footage.
He was taken into custody at about 19:00 local time from a vehicle in a car park in Bois-Colombes, west of Paris.
The suspect threatened a TV station last Friday, and attacked the Liberation office and Societe Generale HQ on Monday.
He was apprehended from a stationary car in an underground car park.
The Paris gunman was taken into custody from a vehicle in a car park in Bois-Colombes
Prosecutors said the reading of the man’s rights had been postponed and he was not yet in a position to be questioned. They gave no further explanation and have not yet given the man’s identity nor any motive.
Hundreds of police were involved in an intensive manhunt since Monday and security was stepped up at all media outlets.
An appeal for information generated almost 700 calls.
The first incident – last Friday – was at the offices of the BFMTV television channel.
The intruder emptied the chamber of his gun in the reception area without firing, saying: “Next time, I will not miss you.”
CCTV showed that he spent only a few seconds in reception, before hurrying out.
On Monday, the suspect attacked the offices of the Liberation newspaper, firing twice and critically injuring a 23-year-old photography assistant.
Two hours later, the same man fired shots outside the headquarters of the bank Societe Generale, in the western business district of La Defense. No-one was hurt.
A car was then hijacked and the driver was forced to drop the suspect off near the Avenue des Champs Elysees, where he disappeared.
George W. Bush revealed his painting hobby, talked about his granddaughter and poked fun at his post-White House years on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night.
The former president said that he was inspired to take up painting after reading a Winston Churchill essay.
When he hired an instructor for weekly lessons, the 43rd president said he told her: “There’s a Rembrandt trapped in this body. Your job is to find it.”
George W. Bush, 67, shared paintings of his dog Barney and a stray cat that he adopted and named Bob said painting has changed his life.
George W. Bush presented Jay Leno with a portrait of the comedian
He presented Jay Leno with a portrait of the comedian, prompting him to say: “I can’t make fun of him now.”
When asked what caused a blocked artery that led to his hospitalization in August, George W. Bush joked that it was because he “didn’t behave that well when I was younger and I might have smoked some”.
George W. Bush has kept a mostly low profile since exiting office in early 2009 while the country was in two wars and struggling with an economic crisis.
“It’s hard for some to believe, but I think eight years in the spotlight’s enough,” he said.
Former First Lady Laura Bush also appeared on Jay Leno’s show to discuss the couple’s charitable causes. They also showed the strand of pearls George W. Bush gave her for their 36th wedding anniversary and a video clip of their first grandchild, nicknamed Mila.
IKEA France directors are being investigated by French prosecutors over allegations that they snooped on employees and customers.
Chief executive Stefan Vanoverbeke, his predecessor Jean-Louis Baillo, and chief financial officer Dariusz Rychert were arrested on Monday.
They are accused of trying to obtain information on employees and customers from police files.
Similar legal action has been taken against at least two police officers.
The IKEA bosses face accusations of “complicity to collect personal data” and “complicity to violate professional secrecy”.
The move comes after police searched the company’s premises earlier this month.
The scandal first came to light last year after an IKEA insider leaked emails between the company and a security company to the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaine.
IKEA France directors are being investigated by French prosecutors over allegations that they snooped on employees and customers
The emails suggested that the firm was seeking access to records about its staff and customers from a police database holding millions of names and the personal information of criminals, victims and even witnesses.
Two unions have filed complaints against IKEA, accusing them of spying on hundreds of employees and customers over a period of five years.
Since January, 10 people have been placed under formal investigation including four police officers and the company’s former head of security.
Stefan Vanoverbek’s lawyer, Alexis Gulbin, said his “client totally disputes his involvement in this matter”.
“He’s calmly awaiting the next steps in the process. He was the one who took corrective measures as soon as the problems were discovered,” said Alexis Gulbin.
Last year IKEA France suspended and later fired its head of risk management and three of its senior directors.
Since then the company has also put in place a new code of conduct.
A spokeswoman for IKEA France said the firm was aware of the latest developments and would continue to assist the authorities.
Toyota has announced it is looking to start commercial sales of fuel cell-powered cars by 2015.
The Japanese carmaker set the target as it unveiled a concept fuel cell powered car, called the FCV, at the Tokyo Motor Show.
Its cells can be recharged within minutes and it can cover about 300 miles on a single charge, according to the firm.
Earlier this week, rival Hyundai said it plans to start mass production of such cars as early as next year.
The South Korean company has announced plans to start commercial sales of a fuel cell-powered version of its sports utility vehicle, the Tucson, in the US market.
Toyota is looking to start commercial sales of fuel cell-powered cars by 2015
Honda Motor is also expected to unveil its latest concept version of a fuel cell-powered vehicle later this week.
Many carmakers have been looking to develop the fuel cell technology further and bring it to mass production.
One of the main reasons is that it is emission-free.
The technology uses hydrogen to generate electricity to power the engine and the waste products are heat and harmless water.
At the same time, fuel cells charge much faster and travel a longer distance after being charged, compared with battery-operated electric cars.
However, there are concerns over the demand for such vehicles, not least because there are not enough hydrogen filling stations.
Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng have reached an “amicable” divorce settlement to end their 14-year marriage.
The News Corp boss and his estranged wife told a New York court they would move forward with “mutual respect” and a shared interest in their daughters’ welfare.
The details of the settlement have not been disclosed publicly.
Rupert Murdoch, 82, filed for divorce from Wendi Deng in June saying his marriage had “irretrievably broken down”.
Wendi Deng and Rupert Murdoch have a pre-nuptial agreement and are holding shares in trust for their children.
Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng have reached an “amicable” divorce settlement to end their 14-year marriage
They have two school-age daughters together, Grace and Chloe.
Wendi Deng, 44, is 38 years younger than the Australian-born media mogul, who is said by Forbes to be worth $9.4 billion.
Rupert Murdoch met his Chinese-born wife in 1997 at a cocktail party in Hong Kong. They were married two years later, weeks after his second divorce.
His global media portfolio includes the Wall Street Journal, Times Newspaper Ltd, as well as television channels such as Fox News and Sky, and the 20th Century Fox movie studio.
Rupert Murdoch filed for divorce just days before News Corp was split into two companies, one for its entertainment assets and the other for its publishing business. He is chairman of both firms.
The detained captain of Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and other two British activists have been granted bail by a court in northern Russia.
Peter Willcox previously captained Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship when it was blown up by French agents in harbor in New Zealand in 1985.
Britons Alex Harris and Kieron Bryan were also bailed along with Dutch national Faiza Oulahsen.
Nine other foreign detainees and three Russians were granted bail earlier.
A third Briton, Anthony Perrett, is also hoping for a decision on Wednesday while three other British activists will have their bail hearings later this week.
Of the 13 detainees who appeared in court earlier this week all but one were given bail.
Peter Willcox, the captain the seized Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, has been granted bail by a court in northern Russia
Australian activist Colin Russell, 59, who acted as the ship’s radio operator, was ordered to remain in pre-trial detention until February 24.
Greenpeace said it was “baffled” why he had been kept in custody for another three months while a spokesperson for Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said she was concerned about his case and monitoring it closely, the Canberra Times reports.
The detainees have been held on charges of hooliganism after taking part in a protest at an Arctic offshore oil rig operated by the Russian company Gazprom.
If found guilty they face up to seven years in prison.
Kieron Bryan was on the ship as a freelance journalist and videographer.
Alex Harris, 27, acted as communications officer on the ship.
In a letter from prison to a fellow Greenpeace activist in October, quoted by the Torquay Herald Express, the activist wrote: “I dream of the outside world a lot. When I wake I’m sleeping with steel bars digging into my back, facing the same four green walls I’ve faced for 25 days. That’s the hardest time of the day.
“Despite everything that has happened I don’t hate Russia, I just want to go home.”
The Dutch foreign ministry says the bail ruling for Faiza Oulahsen was a positive development.
Nine people bailed on Tuesday were named as: Miguel Orsi (Argentina), Camila Speziale (Argentina), Ana Paula Maciel (Brazil), Paul Ruzycki (Canada), Sini Saarela (Finland), Francesco Pisanu (France), Cristian D’Alessandro (Italy), David Haussman (New Zealand) and Tomasz Dziemianczuk (Poland).
On Monday, Russian national Yekaterina Zaspa, who served as medical crew on the ship, was bailed along with photographer Denis Sinyakov and activist Andrey Allakhverdov.
Bail of 2 million roubles ($61,000) was stipulated for each detainee.
White supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, who targeted black and Jewish people in a nationwide killing spree, has been put to death in Missouri.
Joseph Paul Franklin, 63, was executed for shooting dead a man and wounding two others outside a synagogue in 1977.
He was convicted of seven other racially motivated murders. He claimed to have committed 20 in total.
Joseph Paul Franklin’s execution came after the Supreme Court upheld an appeal court’s decision to lift a stay of execution.
In 1978, Joseph Paul Franklin shot Larry Flynt, leaving him partially paralyzed, after seeing a picture of a mixed-race couple in one of his magazines.
However, Larry Flynt – who opposes the death penalty – had sued to prevent Joseph Paul Franklin’s execution.
In a recent interview with the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Joseph Paul Franklin said he had renounced his racist views.
Joseph Paul Franklin was executed for shooting dead a man and wounding two others outside a synagogue in 1977
He said his motivation had been “illogical” and was partly a consequence of an abusive upbringing.
Joseph Paul Franklin said he had interacted with black people in jail, adding: “I saw they were people just like us.”
His lawyers’ appeal focused on a dispute over the type of lethal injections that Missouri uses in its executions.
US and EU manufacturers have been cutting off the supply of drugs used for lethal injections in recent years in an attempt to distance themselves from executions.
As a result, Missouri, which long used a lethal three-drug cocktail for executions, has changed the drugs it uses three times in as many months.
The single drug used in the execution of Joseph Paul Franklin was pentobarbital, a short-acting barbiturate that can induce death in high doses.
On Tuesday, Joseph Paul Franklin’s lawyers won a stay of execution when they argued in federal court that using this drug would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
However, early on Wednesday, a federal appeals court overturned the stay of execution. Its ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court, sealing Joseph Paul Franklin’s fate.
An anti-capital punishment group, Supporters of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, attended a candlelight vigil for Joseph Paul Franklin outside a church in the city of St Louis.
Roman Polanski’s latest film, Venus in Fur, opened in France this month, with a likely 2014 release coming from Sundance Selects.
Venus in Fur (La Venus a la Fourrure) -a second stage-to-screen adaptation – premiered at the Cannes Film Festival a few months ago.
Venus in Fur premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013
Taking over the roles made famous by Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda (the latter winning a Tony for best actress), Roman Polanski brought on his wife,Emmanuelle Seigner, and her own Diving Bell and the Butterfly co-star, Mathieu Amalric.
Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric play a duo thrown into a game of cat and mouse centered on a young actress determined to book the lead role in a new play.
Venus in Fur’s first French trailer (without subtitles) and the first poster are now available.
Malala Yousafzai has received the EU’s Sakharov human rights prize at a ceremony in Strasbourg.
In a speech, the Pakistani schoolgirl and campaigner, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, dedicated the award to “the unsung heroes of Pakistan” and to human rights campaigners worldwide.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz presented the award.
Malala Yousafzai, 16, was shot a year ago after campaigning for better rights for girls in Pakistan.
The Sakharov Prize for free speech is awarded by the European Parliament annually in memory of Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.
The 50,000 euro ($65,000) prize is considered Europe’s top human rights award.
“I am hopeful the European Parliament will look beyond Europe to the suffering countries where people are still deprived of their basic rights, their freedom of thought is suppressed, freedom of speech is enchained,” Malala Yousafzai said.
Malala Yousafzai has received the EU’s Sakharov human rights prize at a ceremony in Strasbourg
“Many children have no food to eat, no water to drink and children are starving for education. It is alarming that 57 million children are deprived of education… this must shake our conscience.”
Malala Yousafzai began her speech with a famous quote often attributed to the 18th Century French philosopher Voltaire: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
She said children in countries such as Pakistan “do not want an iPhone, a PlayStation or chocolates, they just want a book and a pen”.
MEPs gave her a standing ovation.
More than 20 former laureates attended the ceremony, a parliament spokesman said. Malala Yousafzai is the 25th laureate.
Martin Schulz called her “a global icon” and told her “you have given hope to millions of children”.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that your dream becomes a reality,” he said, referring to her ambition to spread free education to boys and girls everywhere.
Martin Schulz also praised her father for “not locking her away, and giving her freedom”.
Mala Yousafzai joins a distinguished list of winners of the Sakharov Prize that includes Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi.
