Brad Pitt has revealed a new short haircut as he arrived on the set of his new film Fury in London.
His formerly grungy long locks were gone, replaced by a short back and sides and a slicked back style.
Brad Pitt complemented the retro hairstyle with a pair of heavy rimmed glasses and a neat goatee beard.
He also wore a preppy, all-grey outfit of an overcoat, simple T-shirt, trousers and boots.
Brad Pitt has revealed a new short haircut as he arrived on the set of his new film Fury in London
Brad Pitt, 49, is playing the role of a soldier who is part of a five-man crew of a tank named Fury during the final weeks of World War II.
Written by director David Ayer, Fury sees the crew take on a desperate German division facing an almost hopeless predicament.
Brad Pitt is starring alongside big name actors including Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, Logan Lerman and Jon Bernthal in the film, which is scheduled for release in November 2014.
To prepare for the role Brad Pitt has driven a tank through the British countryside accompanied by instructors.
Brad Pitt also surprised a wedding party by crashing their reception at the Stoke Park Hotel in Stoke Poges, Bucks, where he was staying the night after filming.
A UN report has confirmed “unequivocally and objectively” that chemical weapons have been used in Syria.
The report says sarin gas was used in a rocket attack in the Syrian capital, Damascus, last month, although it has not attributed blame.
“This is a war crime,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
US allegations that the government was responsible led to threats of military action and then a US-Russia deal for Syria to make safe its chemical arms.
World powers will now try to hammer out a UN Security Council resolution.
Earlier, UN investigators said they were probing 14 alleged chemical attacks in Syria since September 2011.
Meanwhile, Turkey said it had shot down a Syrian helicopter close to its border. Deputy PM Bulent Arinc said the aircraft was engaged by fighter jets after violating Turkish air space.
Ban Ki-moon has been briefing the Security Council on the report, and is then expected to address the media.
He said he was submitting the UN mission’s report “with a heavy heart”.
“The mission has concluded that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in the Ghouta area of Damascus [on 21 August]… The attack resulted in numerous casualties, particularly among civilians.”
Ban Ki-moon spoke of the suffering of the victims.
UN report confirms sarin gas was used in a rocket attack in Damascus last month
“Survivors reported that following an attack with shelling, they quickly experienced a range of symptoms, including shortness of breath, disorientation, eye irritation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and general weakness.
“Many eventually lost consciousness. First responders described seeing a large number of individuals lying on the ground, many of them dead or unconscious.”
The UN investigators examined many samples from the scene.
Ban Ki-moon said: “On the basis of its analysis, the mission concluded that it – and I quote – <<collected clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used in the Ein Tarma, Moadamiyah and Zalmalka in the Ghouta area of Damascus>>.”
Ban Ki-moon added: “I trust all can join me in condemning this despicable crime. The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable.”
He said the mission was unable to verify the number of casualties, but referred to the “terrible loss of life on 21 August”.
He added: “This is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988.”
Assigning blame for the attack in Ghouta was not part of the inspectors’ remit.
However, diplomats have suggested the way the facts are reported may point to the Syrian government as the perpetrators.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied allegations his government was behind the attack, instead blaming the rebels.
Earlier, Paulo Pinheiro, the chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said the commission had been investigating 14 alleged chemical attacks since it began monitoring Syrian human rights abuses in September 2011.
Paulo Pinheiro said investigators had not so far been able to assign blame and were awaiting details from Monday’s UN report.
He said the commission believed both President Assad’s government and the rebels were responsible for war crimes, but that the regime alone had perpetrated crimes against humanity.
War crimes, including mass executions, rape and torture, were continuing, the commission said.
Its investigators said a referral to the International Criminal Court was imperative.
French President Francois Hollande and his Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius earlier met British Foreign Secretary William Hague and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris on Monday to discuss the Syrian crisis.
The UN Security Council is expected to draft a resolution in the coming days.
The Glastonbury Festival 2014 tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. on Sunday, October 6.
The weekend ticket will cost £210 ($325) to attend but festival-goers will only have to pay a deposit of £50 ($75) next month before settling their bill in April.
For the first time, coach packages will be available three days before the main ticket sale on Thursday, October 3.
No acts have been announced but organizer Michael Eavis says the three headliners are in place already.
The Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys and Mumford and Sons headlined the event at Worthy Farm, Somerset, in 2013.
Michael Eavis said next year’s headliners probably wouldn’t surprise people.
Glastonbury Festival 2014 tickets will go on sale on October 6
“There aren’t many left [to play here],” he said.
“It’s the process of elimination isn’t it?
“I think we’ve got three or four really good ones lined up for next year and we’re sorting out 2015 as well.”
Michael Eavis also thinks they won’t beat this year’s festival line-up.
“The Stones were absolutely brilliant, all the other stuff we’re doing in the southeast corner was absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“[It’s] downhill all the way now. I’ve had 44 years of an incredible career and we’re still milking the old cows as well.”
Festival-goers will have to register on the Glastonbury website before buying tickets and will be able to buy up to six each.
Glastonbury Festival 2014 will take place between 25 and 29 June.
Behind the Candelabra has won eight awards at the Creative Arts Emmys, which celebrate artistic and technical achievement.
Among its haul were awards for casting, art direction, hairstyling, sound mixing, cinematography and costumes.
The Liberace biopic made by US cable broadcaster HBO premiered in Cannes earlier this year.
The TV movie stars Michael Douglas as the flamboyant pianist with Matt Damon playing the part of his secret partner.
The Creative Arts Emmys are a precursor to the primetime Emmys which take place next weekend.
Bob Newhart, whose career stretches back more than five decades, cried as he finally captured his first Emmy award.
Behind the Candelabra has won eight awards at the Creative Arts Emmys
He was honored for his guest role on The Big Bang Theory as Professor Proton, a former host of a children’s science show.
The 84-year-old has been nominated six times before – his first nomination came in 1961 when his variety series, The Bob Newhart Show, earned a writing bid.
“This is my seventh shot at this… I just love this very much,” he told the audience, who gave him a standing ovation.
His character will return to the series: “Yes. I think we’re doing two more…. in October we’re doing the next one, and they just handed me a great script. I keep saying, <<They kept giving me hanging curve balls and I keep swinging at them>>.”
Other winners for guest actors included Melissa Leo for the sitcom Louie, Dan Bucatinsky for Scandal and Carrie Preston for The Good Wife.
Another HBO show, Boardwalk Empire, picked up four awards, while NBC’s Saturday Night Live also won four.
CBS’s Undercover Boss won top reality programme.
Netflix’s original drama House of Cards picked up two Emmys for casting and cinematography.
Behind the Candelabra will compete for seven more awards at the primetime Emmys on Sunday.
Other winners included South Park: Raising the Bar for best animated programme.
Prince Philip has been finally introduced to his great-grandson, Prince George, for the first time since his birth in July.
The eight-week-old future king flew to Scotland on a private jet with his parents yesterday afternoon.
Prince George was taken to Balmoral, the Queen’s private Highland estate, to meet Prince Philip, 92.
Prince Charles and Camilla are at their nearby home, Birkhall.
Prince Philip was the only senior royal not to have met the third in line to the throne.
Prince Philip has been finally introduced to his great-grandson, Prince George, for the first time since his birth in July
At the time of Prince George’s birth he was recuperating at Sandringham after an abdominal operation.
Now Prince George is at Balmoral, there is a rare opportunity for a unique family photo to be taken.
For the first time in more than a century, three generations of heirs to the throne are alive: Prince Charles, 64, Prince William, 31, and newborn George.
The last time such a picture was taken was in 1894 when Queen Victoria was photographed with her son Edward VII, grandson George V and great grandson Edward VIII.
A royal insider said: “Everyone has been waiting for this photo to be taken, and of course the Duke of Edinburgh has been looking forward to seeing his great-grandson.
“It’s wonderful that the family have finally got together.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton flew to Scotland after the prince attended the wedding of friend James Meade to Lady Laura Marsham in Norfolk on Saturday.
Kate Middleton had surprisingly stayed in London where she was spotted shopping for baby clothes in Sloane Square.
Several people have been shot by a gunman at the Washington Navy Yard, a naval installation in the US capital, the US Navy has said.
The US Navy confirmed police had entered an office building in search of a gunman, after shots were fired at 08:20 local time.
Local news agencies said as many as three people were wounded, including one police officer.
Personnel at the yard have been ordered to “shelter in place”, the Navy said.
Several people have been shot by a gunman at the Washington Navy Yard
The Navy said shots were reported to have been fired at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters at the yard in south-east Washington DC.
Dozens of emergency vehicles have converged on the site, and helicopters have been flying overhead.
Flights in and out of Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport down the Potomac River from the Navy Yard have been suspended to accommodate search helicopters.
As many as 3,000 people work at the command, which engineers, purchases, builds and maintains ships and submarines for the Navy.
The Washington Navy Yard is the US Navy’s oldest shore installation, first opened in the early 19th Century, according to the Navy.
Engineering officials say they have succeeded in lifting the cruise ship Costa Concordia free of rocks, 20 months after it ran aground.
Efforts to right the ship, one of the largest and most daunting salvage operations ever undertaken, are expected to last up to 12 hours.
Costa Concordia has been detached from rocks and moved on to a platform constructed on the sea bed, officials said.
Thirty-two people died when the ship ran aground off the Tuscan coast.
The bodies of two of those killed in the January 2012 disaster, by the island of Giglio, have never been found. There are hopes that they may be located during the operation, although officials said on Monday there was no sign of them so far.
Engineers have never tried to lift such a huge ship so close to land.
The start of this huge operation was potentially the most problematic phase, and the stage that worried the engineers the most.
But now the ship has been broken away from the reef on which she has been lying, the hope is that it will now be possible to rotate the wreck more easily.
The Italian Civil Protection Authority said the sea and weather conditions had mostly been right for the attempt, but the operation had to be delayed by three hours because of an overnight storm.
The storm delayed the positioning of a barge carrying a remote control room close to the shipwreck, from where engineers were using pulleys and counterweights to move the Concordia from the steep underwater incline it is resting on.
Sergio Girotto, an engineer working on the project, told reporters on Monday the operation was going smoothly.
“Everything is going according to plan, we are following the plan to sequence… There is no problem whatsoever.”
Costa Concordia has been freed from rocks, 20 months after it ran aground
The ship could be seen emerging from the water as operators worked to hoist it upright.
Footage from the scene of the salvage operation clearly shows the watermark on the part of the ship that has been submerged for the past 20 months.
Everything about the project is on a colossal scale.
Salvage workers have attached giant metal chains and cables to the ship, which weighs more than 114,000 tonnes and is roughly the length of three football fields.
More than 50 enormous chains and winches are being used to break the ship – twice as heavy as the Titanic – away from the reef on which it has been lying and roll her up onto her keel.
Engineers will try to roll the ship up using the cables and the weight of water contained in huge metal boxes welded to the ship’s sides – a process called parbuckling.
This procedure must be done very slowly to prevent further damage to the hull, which has spent more than 18 months partially submerged in 50ft of water and fully exposed to the elements.
By the end of Monday, it should be sitting on a specially prepared underwater platform of steel and concrete.
Only after the ship is back up on her keel will it be possible to inspect it fully and begin to plan the next stage – the effort to repair and re-float it and eventually tow it away to be destroyed.
The head of the operation, Nick Sloane, told the AFP news agency that it was now or never for the Costa Concordia, because the hull was gradually weakening and might not survive another winter.
If the operation goes wrong, environmentalists warn that toxic substances could leak out into the sea.
There are also concerns that filthy water trapped in the rotting, rusting wreck will pour out as the ship rises.
But booms and nets have been put in place to try to combat any pollution threat in what is a marine national park.
Five people have been convicted of manslaughter over the disaster, and the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Giglio mayor Sergio Ortelli said that the removal of the ship would bring an end to “a huge problem that we have in our port and that we want to solve as soon as we can”.
“Islanders can’t wait to see the back of it,” he said.
On Sunday, prayers for the operation were said during Sunday Mass on the island.
The small island’s economy depends hugely on tourism and the presence of the wreck has discouraged visitors.
The salvage project has so far cost more than 600 million euros ($800 million) and is expected to cost much more before the operation is complete.
Nina Davuluri has become the first Indian-American to win Miss America contest in its 92-year history.
Nina Davuluri, 24, was crowned on Sunday evening as Miss America on the nationally televised pageant, which returned home this year to Atlantic City.
The Indian-American beauty overcame accusations that she bad-mouthed others entrant to win the contest. And within minutes of winning, Nina Davuluri then faced racist comments on Twitter, some of which have already been pulled down.
Nina Davuluri has shrugged off the hateful comments. In interview after being crowned Miss America, she said: “I have to rise above that… I always viewed myself as first and foremost American,” Associated Press reported.
While the majority of people online rushed to congratulate the new Miss America, whose $50,000 prize money will help fund her stated ambition of attending medical school, racist comments also began to trickle onto the web.
She succeeds another Miss New York, Mallory Hagan, whose tenure was cut short when the pageant moved back to Atlantic City after a six-year stint in Las Vegas, where winners were chosen in January.
It has been reported that there is bad blood between the pair after Nina Davuluri allegedly called her predecessor “fat as s***”.
However competition authorities say the allegation has been proved false. It is thought one of her entourage made the insulting remark.
After winning the Miss New York competition on July 16, Nina Davuluri invited friends back to her hotel room to celebrate, and that’s when another competitor overheard her slinging insults at Mallory Hagan.
When the conversation turned offensive, a beauty queen in an adjoining room started to record the conversation.
In addition to the fat comment, friends of Nina Davuluri were heard making racist comments, reports the New York Post.
Following the incident, Nina Davuluri apologized for her friends’ comments on Facebook, but said she did nothing wrong.
“I want to apologize for the awful statements made by people in my room… There were people who claimed to be my supporters and said things I never agreed with, nor supported,” Nina Davuluri wrote.
“I was never a part of the words or statements that may have been hurtful… I’m sorry if someone said something that was inappropriate.”
A representative for Mallory Hagan said that the situation was investigated in July and that there is “no validity to the story whatsoever”.
“Miss New York spoke to Mallory Hagan to let her know there was no validity and to apologize if she was offended in any way,” the rep said.
Nina Davuluri has become the first Indian-American to win Miss America contest in its 92-year history
Moments after winning the 2014 Miss America crown, Nina Davuluri described how delighted she is that the nearly century-old pageant sees beauty and talent of all kinds.
“I’m so happy this organization has embraced diversity,” she said in her first press conference after winning the crown in Atlantic City, N.J.’s Boardwalk Hall.
“I’m thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America.”
Her pageant platform was “celebrating diversity through cultural competency” and she had performed a classical Bollywood fusion dance for her talent competition.
Nina Davuluri, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., wants to be a doctor, and is applying to medical school, with the help of a $50,000 scholarship she won as part of the pageant title.
Her victory led to some negative comments on Twitter from users upset that someone of Indian heritage had won the pageant. She brushed those aside.
“I have to rise above that,” she said.
“I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.”
Her first runner-up was Miss California, Crystal Lee. Other top 5 finalists included Miss Minnesota, Rebecca Yeh; Miss Florida, Myrrhanda Jones, and Miss Oklahoma, Kelsey Griswold.
After the traditional frolic in the Atlantic City surf Monday morning, Nina Davuluri will head to the scene of a devastating boardwalk fire in the New Jersey communities of Seaside park and Seaside Heights on Monday afternoon.
The pageant had pitted 53 contestants – one from each state, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands – in swimsuit, evening gown, talent and interview competitions.
“This is where we belong,” said Sam Haskell, CEO of the Miss America Organization.
“This is the home of Miss America, and this is where we’re going to stay.”
Much attention had been given to Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, who is believed to be the first Miss America contestant to openly display tattoos. She has the Serenity Prayer on her rib cage and a military insignia on the back of a shoulder.
While other contestants wore glamorous costumes and elaborately decorated footwear during Saturday night’s “show-us-your-shoes” parade on the Boardwalk, Vail wore camouflage gear and Army boots.
In a Twitter message Sunday, Theresa Vail wrote: “Win or not tonight, I have accomplished what I set out to do. I have empowered women. I have opened eyes.”
Theresa Vail made it to the Top 10 and won a nationwide voters’ choice award propelling her into the semi-finals.
Another noteworthy contestant was Miss Florida, Myrrhanda Jones, who made it into the top 5 while wearing a bejeweled knee brace. She tore ligaments in her knee while rehearsing her baton twirling routine on Thursday. Sunday night, she performed the routine flawlessly.
Mallory Hagan, whose tenure was cut short when the pageant moved back to Atlantic City after a six-year stint in Las Vegas, where winners were chosen in January.
Mallory Hagan, who had only been Miss America since January, was photographed on a beach in Hawaii this past spring having put on a few pounds since being crowned the winner in Las Vegas.
She addressed her weight gain on Anderson Cooper Live saying: “Well you know I think that I am human I like to equate getting ready for the Miss America pageant to getting ready for a boxing match. We get in shape and then afterwards life goes back to normal.”
Mallory Hagan stressed that being healthy is all about balance.
“It’s all about being healthy, we’re all about living a healthy lifestyle. Some days you want to eat potatoes and some days you don’t.”
Newly crowned Nina Davuluri wasn’t always as svelte as she looked in last Tuesday’s swimsuit competition.
Nina Davuluri told the Syracuse Post-Standard that she was 60 lbs heavier during her final semesters at the University of Michigan and struggled with bulimia.
One day she looked at a picture of herself and finally realized just how much weight she had put on. She thought to herself: “This is not who I want to be, and it is not the way I want to portray myself to the world.”
So upon entering the beauty pageant world, Nina Davuluri got a personal trainer and started eating healthy.
She said she doesn’t give out her weight, fearing that other women would try to make that their goal.
However, Nina Davuluri says her current weight is hardly what she’d define as “skinny”.
Both Mallory Hagan and Nina Davuluri have competed in past Miss New York competitions together.
Nina Davuluri was second runner-up the year that Mallory Hagan was crowned Miss New York and went on to win Miss America.
Miss America pageant contest started in Atlantic City as a way to extend the summer tourism season for an extra weekend.
An attempt to pull the shipwrecked Costa Concordia upright – one of the largest and most daunting salvage operations ever undertaken – is under way.
The operation was delayed for three hours because of an overnight storm, but began at 09:00 local time.
Righting the ship is expected to take up to 12 hours.
Engineers have never tried to lift such a huge ship so close to land. Thirty-two people died when it hit rocks.
The bodies of two of the dead, a passenger and a crew member, have never been recovered and may be found during the operation.
The Italian Civil Protection Authority said the sea and weather conditions had mostly been right for the attempt.
The storm overnight on Sunday delayed the positioning of a barge carrying a remote control room close to the shipwreck.
From that room, engineers will work using pulleys and counterweights to move the Concordia from the steep underwater incline it is resting on.
Sergio Girotto, an engineer working on the project, told reporters on Monday the operation was going ahead as planned: “Everything is going according to plan, we are following the plan to sequence… There is no problem whatsoever.”
He added that after the operation had been going for a couple of hours, “we should be able to see something with the naked eye”.
Costa Concordia raising is one of the largest and most daunting salvage operations ever undertaken
The incident happened off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012.
The vessel has been lying on its side ever since.
Salvage workers are attaching giant metal chains and cables to the ship, which weighs more than 114,000 tonnes and is roughly the length of three football fields.
Five people have already been convicted of manslaughter over the disaster, and the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Officials say that they still need to make preparations for the salvage operation which they were planning to do on Sunday night before the storm.
The salvage operation had been due to begin at 06:00 on Monday.
“Due to heavy storms tonight, the operation has been put back by two hours,” to 08:00 civil protection chief Franco Gabrieli said.
Everything about the project is on a colossal scale.
More than 50 enormous chains and winches will be used to roll the ship – twice as heavy as the Titanic – up onto her keel.
By the end of Monday it should be sitting on a specially prepared underwater platform of steel and concrete.
Only after the ship is back up on her keel will it be possible to inspect it fully and begin to plan the next stage – the effort to repair and re-float it – and eventually tow it away to be destroyed.
The head of the operation, Nick Sloane, told AFP news agency that it was now or never for the Costa Concordia, because the hull was gradually weakening and might not survive another winter.
Engineers will try to roll the ship up using cables and the weight of water contained in huge metal boxes welded to the ship’s sides – a process called parbuckling.
This procedure must be done very slowly to prevent further damage to the hull, which has spent more than 18 months partially submerged in 50ft of water and fully exposed to the elements.
If the operation goes wrong, environmentalists warn that toxic substances could leak out into the sea. But booms and nets are in place to try to catch anything that emerges from the wreck.
For the people of Giglio, the salvage operation will be an important moment – and a special prayer was said during Sunday Mass.
Giglio mayor Sergio Ortelli said that the removal of the ship would bring an end to “a huge problem that we have in our port and that we want to solve as soon as we can”.
“Islanders can’t wait to see the back of it,” he said.
The small island’s economy depends hugely on tourism and the presence of the wreck has discouraged visitors.
Costa Concordia salvage project has so far cost more than 600 million euros ($800 million) and could cost a lot more by the time the operation is complete.
South Korean soldiers have shot dead a man trying to swim across a border river into North Korea, officials say.
Troops opened fire after the man jumped into the Imjin River and ignored repeated warnings to stop.
North Korea and South Korea remain technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
There are thousands of North Korean defectors living in South Korea, but few attempt to make the journey the other way.
Instances of trying to cross the heavily-militarized border in broad daylight are extremely rare.
The incident comes as South Korean workers returned to the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, five months after work was halted amid high political tension.
South Korean soldiers have shot dead a man trying to swim across a border river into North Korea
The man, who has not yet been identified, was spotted by guards near the western border in Paju, north of Seoul, at around 14:23 local time.
Soldiers fired off warning shots and told him to return to the South. When he disobeyed the order and jumped into the river, he was shot dead, military officials told Yonhap news agency.
A military spokesman also told the AFP news agency that the man’s body has been retrieved.
The shooting comes amid a thawing of ties between the North and the South as more than 800 South Koreans poured into the jointly-run Kaesong industrial complex.
The zone, just inside North Korea, is home to 123 South Korean factories that employ more than 50,000 North Koreans.
It is the last functioning inter-Korean joint project and a key source of revenue for Pyongyang.
But the North withdrew all of its workers in April, as ties between the two Koreas deteriorated in the wake of Pyongyang’s February 12 nuclear test.
Reopening Kaesong complex has taken months of negotiation.
Kris Jenner posted a photo of herself in a blue bikini after her model daughter Kendall shared an Instagram post of herself in a stunning two piece from a photoshoot on Sunday.
“Last day of summer. Gonna miss you,” Kris Jenner wrote alongside the snapshot, which featured herself in a swimming pool wearing a bright blue bikini, chunky gold necklace and full make-up.
Kris Jenner’s post came a few hours after Kendall shared yet another stunning snapshot of herself in a purple and white bikini top by a pool from a recent modeling shoot for Colombian clothing boutique Agua Bendita.
Kris Jenner posted her own bikini photo after daughter Kendall shared stunning swimsuit snapshot
Kendall Jenner, who turns 18 in November, is the face of the brand’s 2014 swimwear line and Agua Bendita have also released a short behind-the-scenes video showing her on location.
On Friday, Kendall Jenner posted another shot of herself posing for the fashion line, sporting a floral bandana and pink halterneck bikini top with mismatching bottoms.
In the video, Kendall Jenner could be seen pulling poses like a pro on a sunny beach and by the pool of a modern mansion.
Signed by the prestigious Wilhelmina modeling agency when she was just 14, Kendall Jenner has already racked up an impressive number of modeling jobs, including assignments for Forever 21 and Teen Vogue.
Australia’s newly elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott has unveiled his new cabinet, calling it a highly experienced line-up.
The appointments broadly followed the line up while in opposition, but included a major promotion for finance.
As expected Julie Bishop became foreign minister – the only woman to be named to Tony Abbott’s frontbench.
Tony Abbott defeated outgoing Labor leader Kevin Rudd in a decisive election on September 7.
The prime minister-elect made the announcement on Monday, in his first news conference since the poll.
Tony Abbott has unveiled his new cabinet, calling it a highly experienced line-up
“It is, I believe, one of the most experienced incoming ministries in our history, and I think it’s important to have experience as you move from opposition to government,” Tony Abbott said.
West Australian Senator Mathias Cormann was named finance minister over Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos, a move seen as a major endorsement from Tony Abbott.
Mathias Cormann, who was born in Belgium and migrated to Australia in 1994, has been the Liberal-National coalition’s spokesman on treasury and financial services.
Asked about the lack of female appointees, Tony Abbott said he envisaged that changing.
“I think you can expect to see as time goes by more women in the cabinet and the ministry,” he said.
Tony Abbott nominated Bronwyn Bishop, another Liberal Party politician, to became speaker of parliament. Several women also received appointments to junior ministries.
Other appointments include Andrew Robb, the coalition’s spokesman for finance in opposition, who was named trade minister, and Joe Hockney, the coalition’s shadow treasurer, as treasurer.
Tony Abbott is expected to be formally sworn in on Wednesday.
South Korean workers have crossed the North Korean border to return to the Kaesong industrial park, five months after work was halted amid high political tension.
Trucks and cars began crossing the border into North Korea at exactly 08:00 a.m. local time.
More than 800 South Koreans were due to cross to the jointly-run centre for what is being called a trial restart.
The zone, just inside North Korea, is home to 123 South Korean factories that employ more than 50,000 North Koreans.
It is the last functioning inter-Korean joint project and a key source of revenue for Pyongyang.
North Korea withdrew all of its workers in April, as ties between the two Koreas deteriorated in the wake of Pyongyang’s February 12 nuclear test.
Reopening the complex has taken months of negotiation.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said a total of 820 managers and workers planned to cross into the complex on Monday, with 400 to stay there overnight.
They will be inspecting production facilities to assess how quickly a full restart can be implemented after five months of inactivity.
South Korean workers have crossed the North Korean border to return to the Kaesong industrial park after five months
The restart is being described as a trial but more than half of the South Korean companies had asked North Korean employees to report for work, the ministry said.
Negotiations on resuming operations at the complex faltered for weeks on South Korea’s insistence that safeguards must be in place to prevent any future unilateral shut-down of the site by North Korea.
But the two sides have now set up a joint management committee to run operations at Kaesong, which last week set a restart date for the complex.
The committee has also reached agreement on smoother access to the site for South Koreans by expanding permitted border crossing times and is negotiating about improving communications there.
The Koreas have also agreed to open the site to foreign investors – a move seen as making it harder for North Korea to unilaterally close the complex again.
South Korean firms will be exempt from taxes for the rest of the year, to offset losses incurred while the complex was closed.
But some local businessmen remain worried about the risks of doing business with Pyongyang.
“Honestly, I still feel a bit nervous, because you never know whether the North will change its mind in the future,” a textile company manager told the French news agency AFP.
“Who knows if a crisis like this won’t happen again?” he said.
The shutdown was the first for the Kaesong complex since it was opened more than a decade ago.
It came during a period of very high tension on the Korean peninsula.
The February 12 nuclear test led to expanded UN sanctions which, along with an annual US-South Korean joint military drill, angered Pyongyang.
It threatened attacks on multiple targets in the region, prompting warnings – and displays of high-tech military hardware – from the US.
Tensions have eased somewhat in recent weeks, however.
North Korea and South Korea have also recently agreed to hold the first reunion of families separated by the division of the peninsula after the 1950-53 Korean War later this month. It will be the first such reunion in 10 years.
Coca-Cola is offering the first ever hot carbonated beverage with warmed-in-the-can Canada Dry ginger ale.
The company hopes to profit from the popularity of spicy autumn beverages with its new hot ginger ale in a can.
Canada Dry Hot Ginger Ale will be dispensed pre-heated from high-tech Japanese vending machines starting October 21.
The ginger, apple, and cinnamon concoction is the product of years of research into finding a way to keep the drink carbonated while it warms. It’s also one of a spattering of warmed-in-the-can food and drinks now hitting the market in the U.S. and abroad.
Coca-Cola is offering the first ever hot carbonated beverage with warmed-in-the-can Canada Dry ginger ale
Like the U.S. with its pumpkin-flavored hot beverages that are offered seasonally at countless coffee and food sellers like Starbuck’s, spicy beverages are a hit in Japan during the colder months.
The orange, red, and yellow design of the can betrays its harvest-themed contents.
The can will be dispensed pre-heated, but somehow still bubbling. The Coca-Cola Company has worked for the last three years to maintain the drink’s carbonation during the heating process and their success has allowed them to introduce this, their first hot and fizzy beverage.
Coca-Cola already offers warmed drinks of the non-fizzy variety. Its Georgia Coffee brand vending machines dispense canned hot tea and coffee.
While the 120 Yen ($1.20) ginger ale won’t be available stateside in the foreseeable future. Japan doesn’t have the patent on warmed-in-the-can beverages.
In the US, companies like Hot Can Inc. are selling soups and beverages that are actually warmed by the can.
According to the Hot Can website, the company has created “a revolutionary self-heating smart packaging for the global beverage market”. They offer tea, coffee, hot chocolate and soups that are heated internally via a chemical reaction.
In a landmark legal case, Lady Gaga is set to redraw the rules of employment, after a ferocious spat with best friend Jennifer O’Neill, who became her personal assistant.
In testimony prepared for a forthcoming trial, Lady Gaga tells in her own words how she reigns as “Queen of the Universe every day” – and why no one should be paid overtime.
The court papers, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, show how Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, argues a 9-to-5 job may last 24 hours a day but in return, staff get to sleep between Egyptian cotton sheets, eat caviar, relax on luxury yachts and “party all night”.
Lady Gaga, 27, has submitted the expletive-filled 200-page witness statement that explains in her own words why her entourage get perks instead of cash for extra hours worked.
Lady Gaga is set to redraw the rules of employment, after a ferocious spat with personal assistant Jennifer O’Neill
The singer says: “It’s actually based on a bubbly, good heart. I am quite wonderful to everyone that works for me. I am going to tell you exactly what ******* happened, so that the judge can read on this transcript exactly what’s going on, which is my ex-best friend is a ******* hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn. The job was essentially a favor, and Jennifer was majorly unqualified for it.”
Jennifer O’Neill, 42, is claiming she worked 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime while being employed by the star for 13 months and is demanding $370,000, plus damages. She claims she was at Lady Gaga’s “beck and call”, responsible for her “grunt work” as the singer’s career took off in 2010.
Jennifer O’Neill, who was paid $1,500 a week, said she often had to share a bed with the star who hated sleeping alone, had to rub the corns on her feet and was woken up because the star could not be bothered to get up to change a DVD.
If Lady Gaga loses the case, due in court in New York on November 4, the verdict will have huge ramifications for entertainment-industry employees because, as Gaga herself says, “overtime payments are not usual in my line of work”.
A source close to the case said: “She thinks nothing of splashing out huge chunks of money on selfish things but when it comes to looking after her staff and paying a fair wage for their time, she is neglectful. It’s double standards. Her selfishness can be breathtaking at times.”
Amanda Knox has revealed she will not attend a retrial in Italy because she will forever be seen as “the dark lady who decided Meredith had to die”.
Amanda Knox, 26, claims her presence animates the courtroom, detracting from the evidence.
It follows claims by her co-accused and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito that Italian police tried to bribe him into framing her.
Since overturning a 26-year jail sentence, Amanda Knox has denied any involvement in the 2007 murder of Leeds University student Meredith Kercher, who was found with her throat slashed in their shared flat in Perugia.
Now living in Seattle, she refuses to answer calls to revisit the evidence at a court Florence.
Amanda Knox told the New York Post nobody in the Perugia court cared about what really happened to Meredith Kercher.
Amanda Knox has revealed she will not attend a retrial in Italy because she will forever be seen as the dark lady who decided Meredith had to die
Branding the court room a “circus”, Amanda Knox claims everybody was more concerned about what she was wearing, how she did her hair or whether she smiled at her parents than the legal proceedings.
In an interview with the Sun on Sunday, Amanda Knox said: “The fact is that my presence has always been a distraction in the courtroom.
“Every single movement I made, every gesture, every facial expression, was the focus of scrutiny and distracted from the evidence in the case.”
Amanda Knox told the paper she had been portrayed during the first trial as “the dark lady…who decided Meredith was better than me and had to die”.
“Projecting that image justifies in their minds that I would be capable of committing a crime so heinous as this and therefore validates the guilty verdict in the first trial,” she said.
But, she added, finance was also a problem: “If it were possible to go to the court and not have to deal with the issues of being afraid of being thrown back in prison again for an arbitrary reason, or for being able to financially afford it, absolutely I would want to be there.”
Italy’s highest criminal court, the Court of Cassation, ruled in March that an appeal court in Florence must re-hear the case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher.
Raffaele Sollecito is due to face a retrial on September 30. But Amanda Knox’s lawyer revealed last month that she will not return to Italy for the new trial.
They were found guilty in December 2009 of murdering Meredith Kercher, with Amanda Knox sentenced to 26 years in prison and Raffaele Sollecito 25.
But, after an 11-month appeal in a Perugia court, both convictions were thrown out in October 2011.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have consistently protested their innocence and claim they were not even in the apartment on the night Meredith Kercher died.
LeBron James married his longtime girlfriend Savannah Brinson in a lavish San Diego ceremony on Saturday.
LeBron James, 28, and his new wife held their ceremony at the Grand Del Mar hotel less than three months after he won his second straight NBA title with Miami Heat.
A ceremony was said to have been held in the hotel’s Capella Chapel at 4.30 p.m., with celebrations lasting three days.
The high school sweethearts, who have two children, announced their engagement in January last year.
Guests, including LeBron James’s teammate Dwayne Wade, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, were welcomed to the wedding on Friday, with a barbecue and the festivities are expected to last until a farewell brunch on Sunday.
LeBron James married his longtime girlfriend Savannah Brinson in a lavish San Diego ceremony
Other guests including Dwayne Wade’s girlfriend Gabrielle Union, and NBA players Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, according to People.
Hotel staff and pretty much everyone involved with the wedding were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, but one tell-tale sign about the venue is about to host something out of the ordinary is the large tent that’s been erected outside.
The extravaganza was organized by celebrity wedding planner Preston Bailey, who also oversaw internet entrepreneur Sean Parker’s $10 million ‘Lord of the Rings’-themed wedding to Alexandra Lenas back in June.
LeBron James’ big day was expected be a slightly more muted affair. The guest list was expected to only number in the hundreds, rather than the thousands that have attended some NBA All-Star’s nuptials.
“He cut the list down because he didn’t want to have 1,000 people at the wedding,” a source told the New York Post.
This weekend’s wedding also clashes with Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.
A Syrian minister hails the US-Russia agreement on destroying the country’s chemical weapons as a “victory” that averts war.
The framework document says Syria must provide full details of its stockpile within a week – with the chemical arsenal eliminated by mid-2014.
If Syria fails to comply, the deal could be enforced by a UN resolution with the use of force as a last resort.
The US had threatened to attack Syria which it blames for a chemical attack in August which killed hundreds.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government denies the allegations and has accused the rebels of carrying out the attack.
Syria hails the US-Russia agreement on destroying the country’s chemical weapons as a “victory” that averts war
Syria recently agreed to join the global Chemical Weapons Convention, and the UN said it would come under the treaty from October 14.
The framework deal was announced on Saturday after three days of talks in Geneva by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
“We welcome the agreement,” Syrian Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told Russian news agency Ria Novosti, giving his country’s first reaction.
“On the one hand, it helps Syria come out of the crisis and, on the other, it helps avoid the war against Syria depriving those who wanted to launch it of arguments to do so,” Ali Haidar said.
“It’s a victory for Syria achieved thanks to our Russian friends.”
China, France, the UK, the UN, the Arab League and NATO have all expressed satisfaction at the agreement.
Costa Concordia salvage will go ahead on Monday, Italian officials have confirmed.
The Civil Protection agency said the sea and weather conditions were right for the salvage attempt.
Engineers have never tried to move such a huge ship so close to land.
Thirty-two people died when the cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012. It has been lying on its side ever since.
Five people have already been convicted of manslaughter over the disaster, and the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
The salvage operation is due to begin at 06:00 on Monday, and it is being described as one of the largest and most daunting ever attempted.
Costa Concordia salvage will go ahead on Monday
The head of the operation, Nick Sloane, told AFP news agency that it was now or never for the Costa Concordia, because the hull was gradually weakening and might not survive another winter.
Engineers will try to roll the ship up using cables and the weight of water contained in huge metal boxes welded to the ship’s sides – a process called parbuckling.
This procedure must be done very slowly to prevent further damage to the hull, which has spent more than 18 months partially submerged in 50ft of water and fully exposed to the elements.
More boxes will then be attached to the other side, and the water will be replaced with air to add buoyancy, allowing the vessel to be towed away and broken up for scrap.
If the operation goes wrong, environmentalists warn that toxic substances could leak out into the sea.
For the people of Giglio, the salvage operation will be an important moment – and a special prayer was said during Sunday Mass.
The small island’s economy depends hugely on tourism and the presence of the wreck has discouraged visitors.
The salvage project has so far cost more than 600 million euros ($800 million) and could cost a lot more by the time the operation is complete.
A recent United Nations report reveals that the food the world wastes produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any country except for China and the US.
Every year about a third of all food for human consumption, around 1.3 billion tonnes, is wasted, along with all the energy, water and chemicals needed to produce it and dispose of it.
Almost 30% of the world’s farmland, and a volume of water equivalent to the annual discharge of the River Volga, are in effect being used in vain.
In its report, released this week, entitled The Food Wastage Footprint, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that the carbon footprint of wasted food was equivalent to 3.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
If it were a country, it would be the world’s third biggest emitter after China and the United States, suggesting that more efficient food use could contribute substantially to global efforts to cut greenhouse gases to limit global warming.
The food the world wastes produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any country except for China and the US
In the industrialized world, much of the waste comes from consumers buying too much and throwing away what they do not eat. In developing countries, it is mainly the result of inefficient farming and a lack of proper storage facilities.
“Food wastage reduction would not only avoid pressure on scarce natural resources but also decrease the need to raise food production by 60% in order to meet the 2050 population demand,” the FAO said.
The report suggested improving communication between producers and consumers to manage the supply chain more efficiently, as well as investing more in harvesting, cooling and packaging methods.
It also said consumers in the developed world should be encouraged to serve smaller portions and make more use of leftovers. Businesses should give surplus food to charities and develop alternatives to dumping organic waste in landfill.
The FAO estimated the cost of the wasted food, excluding fish and seafood, at about $750 billion a year, based on producer prices.
The wasted food consumes about 250 cubic km of water and takes up about 1.4 billion hectares – much of it diverse natural habitat that has been cleared to make it arable.
More than 500 people are missing and at least 4 people have died, with another victim believed to be dead, after flash floods hit Colorado.
Many residents are still stranded in their homes as rescue workers try to reach them. Boulder county officials fear rescue attempts will be hampered by the extra 4in of rain due on Sunday.
Authorities who still haven’t reached all the stranded victims of floods in northeastern Colorado are bracing for a new round of storms on Sunday.
Already it is estimated that it will cost $150 million to repair more than 100 miles of road and at least 20 bridges that have been washed away.
County transportation director George Gerstle told CNN the repair bill is likely to be 10 to 15 the annual budget.
A sheriff’s office spokesman said hundreds of people were unaccounted for, but added that some residents may have reached safety but not been able to contact relatives to tell them.
Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said authorities had to be “realistic” about the chances that the death toll will rise.
With the rain never seeming to end and the waters continuing to rise, more than 4,000 people near Boulder, Colorado, have been evacuated as nearby Milliken has been surrounded by water and turned into an island, according to reports.
More than 500 people are missing and at least 4 people have died, with another victim believed to be dead, after flash floods hit Colorado
The reality of what is becoming a long-term disaster is setting in, flooding has affected parts of a 4,500-square-mile area almost the size of Connecticut.
In the most recent developments, people are stranded in Milliken after the main road out of town was washed away by raging floodwaters, according to CBS Denver. As the devastating rapids rise, they wash away more of the road, and flood ever closer to even more homes.
“The fire department said Milliken is an island but I found a way out,” Jorge Garza told the station.
A CBS Denver helicopter flying over the town spotted a family of three and their dog being rescued from menacing waters via a motorized raft.
“[Milliken] has turned into a lake with campers, fields and cars submerged,” the station further reported.
172 people are unaccounted for, Boulder County officials told KDVR.
As rescuers broke through to flood-ravaged Colorado towns, they issued a stern warning Saturday to anyone thinking of staying behind: “Leave now or be prepared to endure weeks without electricity, running water and basic supplies.”
Authorities made clear that residents who chose not to leave might not get another chance for a while.
“We’re not trying to force anyone from their home. We’re not trying to be forceful, but we’re trying to be very factual and definitive about the consequences of their decision, and we hope that they will come down,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said.
Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam, are reportedly in top-secret talks about re-forming Oasis.
Noel and Liam Gallagher have been approached by promoters willing to pay huge sums for them to play two shows to mark 20 years since their debut album.
And their answer could match the album’s title: Definitely Maybe.
Noel and Liam Gallagher could be tempted, despite Noel once saying the band wouldn’t re-form “even if all the starving children in the world depended on it”.
Talks are said to be fragile but the package on the table may prove irresistible to Liam Gallagher.
Liam Gallagher, 40, needs to pay for £500-an-hour lawyer Fiona Shackleton, who is handling his divorce from Nicole Appleton.
Noel and Liam Gallagher have been approached by promoters willing to pay huge sums for them to play two shows to mark 20 years since their debut album
Oasis split in 2009 after fighting between the brothers. Since then Liam Gallagher’s new band, Beady Eye, have had only a fraction of the success of Oasis.
If the concerts do go ahead, they are expected to be staged next August at Knebworth.
When Oasis played there in 1996 they sold 330,000 tickets – the fastest-selling in British rock history.
A source said: “If the gigs happened, they would perform Definitely Maybe from start to finish.”
Liam and Noel Gallagher have not been on stage together since a dramatic showdown at a Paris gig in 2009 when Liam reportedly smashed one of Noel’s guitars.
Noel Gallagher, 46, subsequently quit the band saying: “I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
He has since fronted his band High Flying Birds.
But in June, Liam Gallagher hinted there could be a reunion.
Liam Gallagher said: “I’d do it for now, but if someone’s going to drop a load of f**king money, I’d do it for that too.”
North Jersey Media Group Inc. is suing Sarah Palin and her political action committee for a copyright infringement over the use of an iconic 9/11 photo.
The publisher is suing the former Alaska governer for posting a copy of the image on Sarah Palin’s SarahPAC website and her personal Facebook page without permission.
The photo depicts three New York City firefighters hoisting an American flag among the rubble at the World Trade Center after the 2001 attacks.
The lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan asks a federal court to stop SarahPAC from using the picture. It also seeks unspecified damages.
North Jersey Media Group Inc. is suing Sarah Palin and her political action committee for a copyright infringement over the use of an iconic 9-11 photo
NJMG publishes The Record and Herald News newspapers as well as 40 weekly community papers, a dozen magazines and two websites.
The indelible Ground Zero image depicting soot-covered first responders was taken by The Record photographer Thomas E. Franklin.
According to the lawsuit, the copyright on the photo was registered in October 2001, Newsdayreported.
A year later, the U.S. Postal Service used the image on a stamp called “Heroes”, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
The NJMG federal suit says that by using the picture “to promote Sarah Palin and to raise money for SarahPAC” the 2008 vice-presidential candidate has “irreparably damaged” the newspaper company.
The photo was pulled from Sarah Palin’s Facebook page Friday, according to The Alaska Dispatch.
It had drawn more than 140,000 “likes” and some 1,500 comments.
Vladimir Putin and a group of American politicians had an arm-wrestling match a few years after the fall of the Berlin wall.
In an interview on Southern California Public Radio this week, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California republican, talked about the time he met Vladimir Putin and was matched up against him in an impromptu arm-wrestling competition.
Vladimir Putin was part of a delegation of young Russian political leaders who traveled to California in the early 1990s.
At the time, Vladimir Putin was just the deputy mayor of St Petersburg but Dana Rohrabacher already knew he must be more important since he had his own bodyguard.
They met with Dana Rohrabacher, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, and other politicians including Scooter Libby.
Dana Rohrabacher, invited the delegation to play a game of American football over the weekend and Vladimir Putin and a few others agreed.
Vladimir Putin and a group of American politicians had an arm-wrestling match a few years after the fall of the Berlin wall
The teams were mixed with both Russians and Americans so no one country won.
Afterwards the men went to drink at an Irish pub and that’s when things got interesting.
“We were having a little but too much to drink I guess, but anyway we all started arguing about who won the Cold War,” Dana Rohrabacher said.
“And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had too much to drink in the pub.”
They started setting up arm-wrestling matches and Dana Rohrabacher was matched up against the future president of the Russian Federation.
“He’s a little guy, but boy I’ll tell ya, he put me down in a millisecond,” Dana Rohrabacher said of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer.
“He is tough. It’s just being you know, muscles are just unbelievable.”
But the Americans didn’t completely lose that day.
Dana Rohrabacher says his friend was matched up against Vladimir Putin’s large bodyguard, and the bodyguard surprisingly lost.
That match taught Dana Rohrabacher something about Vladimir Putin that he believes translates to the current Russian intervention in Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.
“He’s a tough guy and he’s supposed to be a tough guy, and that’s what the Russian people want, but there’s no reason that we shouldn’t try to work with him,” Dana Rohrabacher said.
