Egyptian soldiers have clashed with militants after entering Kerdasa, a town near Cairo.
Security forces went into Kerdasaa at about 05:30 local time to target “criminal and terrorist hotbeds”, officials told Mena news agency.
Militants shot dead General Nabil Farag, a senior policeman, state media said.
Eleven police officers were killed at a police station in Kerdasah last month, weeks after the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July.
In the hours before police and soldiers moved in, the mood in the town was defiant.
Thousands of people attended a pro-Morsi rally on Wednesday night amid shouts of “Down with Sisi”, referring to the head of the army.
The authorities had promised to respond to the deadly attack on the police station in August.
According to state media, Assistant Interior Minister for Central Security Maj. Gen. Ashraf Abdullah met troops shortly before the mission began.
Egyptian soldiers have clashed with militants after entering Kerdasa, a town near Cairo
After performing dawn prayers, the troops began taking their positions in armored vehicles ready for the start of the operation, Mena reported.
State-run Nile News TV later showed live pictures of army vehicles positioned in Kerdasah and other armored vehicles moving in the area.
“I can’t be responsible if you get shot,” an officer was heard telling a local man.
An Egyptian interior ministry spokesman told Nile News: “There are still some armed elements on rooftops in Kerdasah and we are currently dealing with them.”
In a separate incident on Thursday, several metro lines in the capital were disrupted after two unexploded bombs were found on the tracks near Hilmiyat al-Zaytun station in the south of Cairo.
Security officials said bomb experts were dispatched to the scene and defused the “primitive” devices before rail services resumed.
At least 1,000 people – including about 100 police officers – have died in unrest following President Mohamed Morsi’s removal from power.
The deadliest incidents took place when security forces moved in to disperse two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo last month.
Kerdasa, known for producing and selling textiles, is 8.7 miles from Cairo.
Egyptian forces arrested dozens of residents during a raid on Monday on pro-Morsi supporters in the town of Delga, Minya province, about 200 miles south of Cairo.
Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has said he is committed to a plan to destroy his country’s chemical weapons but warned it could take about a year.
Speaking to Fox News,Bashar al-Assad again denied claims that his forces were responsible for a deadly chemical attack near Damascus on August 21.
The Syria disarmament plan was unveiled by the US and Russia last weekend.
The West wants the deal enshrined in a UN resolution backed by the threat of military force, but Russia objects.
Damascus – backed by Moscow – has insisted that rebel forces carried out last month’s attack in the Ghouta area.
In a separate development, fierce fighting has been reported between two rebel groups in the north of Syria.
Activists said the fighting began when jihadists from the al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), and fighters from the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) clashed in the town of Azaz, near the Turkish border.
This is believed to be one of the biggest confrontations so far between the jihadists and the FSA.
Referring to the issue of destroying Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, Bashar al-Assad said it was “a very complicated operation, technically”.
“And it needs a lot of money, some estimates about a billion.
“So it depends, you have to ask the experts what they mean by quickly. It has a certain schedule. It needs a year, or maybe a little bit more.”
Bashar al-Assad has said he is committed to a plan to destroy his country’s chemical weapons but warned it could take about a year
And when asked whether he would be willing to hand over chemical weapons to the US, President Bashar al-Assad said: “It needs about one billion. It is very detrimental to the environment. If the American administration is ready to pay this money and take the responsibility of bringing toxic materials to the United States, why don’t they do it?”
Bashar al-Assad also used the one-hour interview recorded in Damascus to criticize the US stance in the Syrian crisis.
Unlike the Russians, he said, Washington had tried to get involved in Syria’s leadership and governance.
Bashar al-Assad argued that if there was mutual respect, there would not be any problems.
“Listen to your people. Follow the common sense of your people,” he said, in an apparent reference to US President Barack Obama.
Bashar al-Assad’s comments come shortly after a senior Russian diplomat said Damascus would fulfill its commitment to eliminate its chemical weapons by mid-2014.
After talks in Syria on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Bashar al-Assad was “very serious” about the disarmament plan.
Sergei Ryabkov also said that Syrian officials had handed him “material evidence” that showed the rebels were involved in the sarin attack last month, contradicting claims by the US that the regime was responsible.
And the Russian diplomat criticized the United Nations for being “one-sided” in its recent report on the attack – a claim the UN denied.
The report – prepared for UN weapons experts after a visit to Syria – did not apportion blame for the August 21 attack.
Meanwhile Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in an interview on German television that chemicals exported to Syria which were capable of being used to make poison gas were used for civilian purposes.
The German government, responding to a request from a member of parliament, said 137 tonnes of two substances capable of being used to make the poison gas, Sarin, were exported to Syria between 2002 and 2006.
Angela Merkel added that officials were still trying to ascertain what use was made of chemicals exported after 2006 and before May 2011, when Germany imposed strict controls on exports to Syria.
More than 100,000 people have been killed since Syria’s civil war began in early 2011, according to the UN.
Millions of Syrians have fled the country and millions more have been left homeless.
Heavyweight boxing legend Ken Norton, who beat Muhammad Ali, has died at the age of 70, his son announces.
Ken Norton, who had been in poor health following a series of strokes, died at a care facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw in their first bout in San Diego, California, in 1973, which Ken Norton won.
In their last meeting on September 1976 at New York’s Yankee Stadium, Muhammad Ali won a narrow and controversial decision to retain the heavyweight title.
Heavyweight boxing legend Ken Norton has died at the age of 70
“I’m sure he’s in heaven now with all the great fighters,” Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali’s former business manager, told the Associated Press news agency.
“I’d like to hear that conversation.”
Ken Norton began boxing during his time in the US Marines, and turned professional shortly after he left the military in 1967.
He won a heavyweight title in 1977, but lost the following year in a classic 15-round fight with Larry Holmes.
After his boxing career ended, Ken Norton appeared in several movies and became a fight commentator.
Ken Norton had five children, one of whom went on to play professional football and now coaches in the National Football League for the Seattle Seahawks.
Tropical Storm Manuel, which has battered the south-west of Mexico, has gathered strength and is now a category one hurricane, US meteorologists say.
Hurricane Manuel is now approaching north-western Mexico and threatens more destruction, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
The tropical storms Ingrid and Manuel killed 80 people earlier this week.
Now 58 people are reported missing after a landslide buried a village in the south-west of the country.
US experts say Hurricane Manuel is sustaining winds of 75mph and moving towards the coast.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said that 58 people were missing after the landslide in the village of La Pintada in Guerrero state.
“It doesn’t look good, based on the photos we have in our possession,” said Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, saying it was a “very powerful” landslide.
“Up to this point, we do not have any [confirmed] dead in the landslide,” he added.
Tens of thousands of tourists, cut off by landslides caused by Manuel, are still being transported out of the Mexican resort of Acapulco.
Tropical Storm Manuel, which has battered the south-west of Mexico, has gathered strength and is now a category one hurricane
More than 2,000 tourists have been airlifted from the Air Base Seven military facility north of the resort.
Since the weekend, passengers have been stranded in hotels and at Acapulco’s international airport, where water flooded the terminal.
Manuel was almost immediately followed by Hurricane Ingrid, causing widespread devastation in the east of the country. It was the first time since 1958 that two powerful storms hit Mexico within 24 hours.
Main roads out of Acapulco have been blocked by landslips, leaving tourists and local residents stranded in the city and along Mexico’s west coast.
At Air Base Seven, soldiers guarded families who waited for hours outside the base until they were allowed to board one of the few aircraft which would take them to Mexico City.
In Acapulco, passengers were being taken directly from shelters to the runway because the main airport terminal remained closed.
Dozens of other towns in the south-western Guerrero state have also been hit by Manuel since it made landfall on Sunday.
There are fears that remote hillside communities may be particularly affected.
In the east, Hurricane Ingrid was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before it made landfall on Monday near the town of La Pesca.
More than 20,000 people have since been evacuated in the state of Veracruz.
Duck Dynasty‘s Miss Kay Robertson uses eight cubed steaks in her Swiss steak recipe and cuts them into smaller pieces to be served on rice, like everything in Louisiana.
Ingredients:
8 cube steaks, chopped
Salt
Pepper
Flour (enough to cover steaks)
Peanut Oil
2 Bell Peppers (more, if desired)
2 sticks of celery
Miss Kay Robertson uses eight cubed steaks in her Swiss steak recipe and cuts them into smaller pieces to be served on rice
1 large onion
6-7 cloves of garlic
20 oz. of whole or crushed tomatoes
Directions:
– Season steaks with salt, pepper and flour.
– Brown them in a skillet with oil. Pour leftover oil into a container
– Cut up the peppers, celery and onion. Add chopped vegetables, garlic cloves and can of tomatoes to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper.
– Place steaks back in skillet and bake for 2 hours at 325 degrees
UsWeekly claimed Jennifer Aniston is pregnant with her fiancé Justin Theroux with an excited cover line, “Jen’s Big Secret, Pregnant!”.
However, Jennifer Aniston’s rep strongly denies the story.
UsWeekly printed a rep denial, but still proceeded to detail how Jennifer Aniston, 44, has been trying very hard to hide the fact that she is expecting a child with Justin Theroux, 42.
“She’s thrilled!” a source tells the weekly magazine.
The source adds that the couple, that fell in love on the set of Wanderlust, is “extremely happy’ and this ‘is the baby Jen always wanted”, adding the child is due in 2014.
The weekly publication claims Jennifer Aniston has been struggling to hide her “growing bump” as she promotes her two films We’re The Millers and Life Of Crime.
The magazine also reports Jennifer Aniston has had to rethink her wardrobe after wearing a tight-fitting purple satin Burberry dress at the New York We’re The Millers premiere on August 1.
“Her stylist had to redo her whole press tour wardrobe,” a source tells the publication.
UsWeekly claimed Jennifer Aniston is pregnant with her fiancé Justin Theroux
Instead of asking designers to borrow outfits in bigger sizes to accommodate Jennifer Aniston’s expanding waistline (which would alert several people that the beauty was gaining weight), the stylist had to go to clothing stores and buy new dresses by Alexander McQueen and Chanel straight of the rack, the article details.
Though Jennifer Aniston did not look pregnant at the September 15 Toronto Film Festival premiere of her new film Life Of Crime, the article claims she relied on a Vivienne Westwood gown that had a corset inside and layers of fabric over the stomach on the outside to hide her baby bump.
Jennifer Aniston also didn’t look pregnant as she sunbathed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in August, but UsWeekly had an answer for that too: she constantly tried to hide her stomach with a towel or wrap.
There are other arguments that support the claim the actress is pregnant.
Sometime in September Jennifer Aniston canceled a Smartwater photo shoot and said it would be a “while” before she could reschedule.
Jennifer Aniston also has no movie projects lined up, which is odd for her because she usually works nonstop.
The actress and her fiancé has already moved into their new gated $21 million Bel-Air home in LA, which at 8,500 square feet has plenty of space for a nursery.
On September 7, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux were spotted loading up on groceries for their new kitchen (though most likely not eggs as they have their own chicken coop on their property). Jennifer Aniston wore a baby doll dress that completely hid her mid-section.
There are no plans yet for her wedding to Justin Theroux but Jennifer Aniston continues to wear her engagement ring whenever she steps out.
There are no plans yet for a wedding because, “the baby is taking priority”, says the source.
In 2005, after her split from Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston told Vanity Fair: “I’ve never in my life said I didn’t want children. I did and I do and I will.”
In 2011, Jennifer Aniston said that becoming a mother, “resonated with me in my twenties and my thirties and it still does
Kim Kardashian tweeted a series of pictures, including one of her sitting in the family home surrounded by wrapped festive gifts for the Christmas special of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Kim Kardashian, 32, captioned the pictures “SelfiesOnSet” as she posed with sister Kylie Jenner and in a solo shot showing off her plump lips to the camera.
The fact that Kardashian family are shooting their festive special three months before Christmas is the latest indication that their “reality show” is about as far from real life as could be.
Kim Kardashian filming Christmas special of Keeping Up with the Kardashians in September
One person who wasn’t pictured in the special was Kim Kardashian’s BFF Jonathan Cheban, whoRadar has reported Kim has now fallen out with.
According to the site, Jonathan Cheban is said to be annoyed that he has not been asked to be baby North West’s godfather.
Now Jonathan Cheban’s invite for a Kardashian family Christmas seems to be less likely.
No doubt there will be plenty extravagant gifts on the real day for the Kardashian clan to entertain themselves with.
However, hopefully baby North West will not be too spoiled for her first Christmas.
Sister Kourtney Kardashian recently revealed that her son Mason is jealous that he no longer receives the same amount of attention from his aunty Kim.
The discovery of two rusting vintage cars containing six bodies in Oklahoma’s Foss Lake has reignited the mystery of how three teenagers and three other people vanished more than four decades ago.
Highway patrol officers testing their sonar equipment Foss Lake near Elk City, Oklahoma on Friday stumbled upon the rusting 1969 Camaro and a Chevrolet dating back to the 1950s.
Inside the Camaro were three bodies believed to be of local teenagers who vanished after going out for a drive in 1970. Inside the Chevrolet were three more bodies – thought to be a 69-year-old man and his two friends who went missing in the state in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Jimmy Allen Williams, 16, and his friends Thomas Michael Rios, 18, and Leah Gail Johnson, 18, disappeared on November 20, 1970.
Jimmy Allen Williams and his friends disappeared on November 20, 1970
Jimmy Williams, who had a part time job at a grocery store, had bought himself a brand new Camaro muscle car six days earlier.
He told his parents he was going to a football game, but according to reports at the time, he backed up his car to the back door of the home and loaded several shotguns into the trunk with the help of one of his younger brothers.
According to one of his friends called Wayne, the three friends were actually going on a shooting trip.
Wayne said he was had planned to join them but changed his mind at the last minute because there was not enough room for him in the car.
Left-wing musician Pavlos Fyssas has been stabbed to death in Athens and the suspect is a member of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.
Pavlos Fyssas, 34, was killed early on Wednesday. Police arrested the suspect and searched Golden Dawn’s offices. The party denied any involvement.
Social tensions have risen as Greeks deal with years of austerity measures.
Greece’s Public Order Minister, Nikos Dendias, has cancelled a trip to Rome. He said the situation was critical.
The minister expressed his deep regret over the incident, and said the government would soon put forward a new law against political violence and armed groups.
Greece’s Socialist Party, which is the second party in the governing coalition, has said that Golden Dawn should be considered a criminal group.
The killing occurred ahead of further strikes against government plans to cut thousands of public sector jobs.
Left-wing musician Pavlos Fyssas has been stabbed to death in Athens and the suspect is a member of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn
Pavlos Fyssas, an anti-fascist and hip-hop artist, was stabbed outside a cafe shortly after midnight local time in the western Athens district of Keratsini.
Reports say that after a dispute over football, there was an altercation between different groups of people. The victim was attacked by a group of 15 men.
A 45-year-old man, who police say has admitted supporting Golden Dawn, has confessed to the crime.
Before being pronounced dead, the victim had identified his attacker to police.
Anti-fascist demonstrators gathered on Tuesday night and are planning another rally later on Wednesday.
Golden Dawn has frequently been accused of violence towards left-wing activists and immigrants and is blamed for vigilante attacks.
Europe’s top human rights body, the Council of Europe, has said there are grounds for Golden Dawn to be made illegal.
But the party has 18 MPs. Its popularity has grown during Greece’s financial crisis. The government fears banning the party could drive it underground and increase its support.
Doctors, teachers and municipal rubbish collectors were among those taking part in the latest stoppage called by the civil servants’ union, which is due to last two days.
Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson said the secret to his family’s success is keeping priorities in line regarding faith, family and in their case, ducks, Sunday morning at Odessa’s Crossroads Fellowship.
“We don’t measure success by how much money we have,” Willie Robertson said.
“We judge our success really through our family…we measure success by having the platform now of being able to go all over the country and talk about things that are important to us.”
Willie Robertson spoke to more than 5,000 people during three services Sunday, Crossroads Fellowship Lead Pastor Griffin Jones said.
Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson at Odessa’s Crossroads Fellowship
“You might think it’s weird for a church to host one of the stars of a backwoods reality show,” Griffin Jones said.
“But we’re thrilled to do that because you probably know <<Duck Dynasty>> is the most watched show on cable of all time. It’s a cultural phenomenon now.”
Willie Robertson said one of the main reasons the show is so popular is because it appeals to all ages and lacks profanity, making it parent-approved.
“You guys who watch it and support it are so important to the show,” he said.
“It’s not to make us famous or richer than we are, it’s to make a difference in the entertainment we watch and the kind of entertainment our children are watching. Isn’t it nice to be able to sit down and watch a show with the whole family and not have to worry?”
An often-cited statistic says that one out of three women over the age of 35 will not have conceived after a year of trying.
Jean Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University in the US, was 34, recently remarried, and looking to start a family, when she heard it from her doctor.
“That was very frightening to me, as it is too many women who are in their 30s,” she says.
Confronted with those odds, Jean Twenge wanted to find out where the statistic had come from. And she discovered something quite amazing.
“The data on which that statistic is based is from 1700s France. They put together all these church birth records and then came up with these statistics about how likely it was [someone would] get pregnant after certain ages.”
These are women who had no access to modern healthcare, nutrition or even electricity. Why would any researcher think they can tell us something useful about modern-day fertility?
Well, actually, they do have one big advantage. They weren’t using effective methods of birth control.
“I can empathize slightly with the researchers in this area,” says Jean Twenge, who traced the source of the data as she researched her book, An Impatient Woman’s Guide to Getting Pregnant. “It is difficult to draw conclusions about age and fertility from modern populations where birth control is widely used.”
However, there are some studies which have looked at modern couples, and these do paint a rather different picture.
The most widely cited is a paper by David Dunson published in 2004, which found that 82% of women aged between 35 and 39 fell pregnant within a year. That’s significantly better than the two-thirds chance drawn from the 300-year-old birth records.
David James of the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) fertility guideline development group says: “It was a single study undertaken relatively recently of about 780 women, in seven different European centres. The important point about that was that these were women who were trying to conceive.”
An often-cited statistic says that one out of three women over the age of 35 will not have conceived after a year of trying
The main problem with the historic data, in David James’s view, is that the women may not have been trying to conceive.
Indeed, they may have been actively trying to avoid becoming pregnant. They may not even have had intercourse.
“There’s no doubt that intercourse becomes less frequent the older the couple are,” David James says. And in the 1700s, people aged more quickly than today.
Another finding of David Dunson study was that, while fertility declines with age, it does not appear to do so as quickly as we have been led to believe.
Among women aged 27-34, the study showed that 86% will have conceived within a year of trying. So the 82% figure for women aged 35 to 39 is only a little lower.
After that, the picture is a little less clear.
“It would appear from the limited and poor quality data that we have that that rate falls significantly [at 40]. But as we know from some notable celebrity cases, it is not impossible to get pregnant in the early or indeed late 40s,” says David James.
And, he adds, there is evidence that female fertility is improving.
The latest update of the NICE guideline on fertility recognizes that “the chances of women naturally conceiving at the age of 40 are much higher now than they were when the original guideline was written [in 2004],” David James says.
What about the risk of chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down’s syndrome? It’s possible that this has been overstated too, in David James’s view.
The chance of any chromosomal abnormality at the age of 20 is one in 500, he says.
That increases to one in 400 at the age of 30, and one in 60-70 at age 40.
“Turning that on its head, it does mean that 59 out of 60 women aged 40 will have no chromosomal problems in their baby at all.”
So while it’s harder for older women to get pregnant, and the chance of a chromosomally abnormal child increases, these problems do not increase as sharply as we fear – except perhaps for those trying IVF or artificial insemination.
“Those statistics are more discouraging for older women,” explains Jean Twenge.
“The difference in success rates in IVF between your early 30s and your late 30s is a lot bigger than the difference in success in natural conception.”
Similarly with artificial insemination – the data shows that the success rates just are not as high as natural conception rates and can differ by as much as 20 percentage points.
But many fertility problems that women over 30 experience have nothing to do with age. Had they tried to conceive in their 20s, they would have also faced difficulties.
“I think that doctors who give blanket advice to populations… are making all sorts of presumptions,” says leading fertility expert Prof. Lord Winston.
“We eventually find out that so much of this advice is spurious and unnecessary and often wrong.”
So is there any “blanket” fertility advice he can give?
“The fact of the matter is, the best way to have a baby is either in bed or by the fireside on the hearth rug.”
Swiss drugmaker Novartis says it is investigating claims that its eye care unit, Alcon, bribed doctors in over 200 hospitals in China to promote its lens implants.
On Tuesday, a Chinese newspaper alleged that Alcon paid doctors “research fees” through a third-party for fake clinical trials that never took place.
This is the second such allegation to be made against Novartis recently.
Last month, the 21st Century Business Herald claimed Novartis bribed doctors to increase drug sales.
The latest report was also carried by the same paper.
Alcon allegedly bribed doctors in over 200 hospitals in China to promote its lens implants
“Alcon does not tolerate activities that are not in compliance with the laws and regulations in the markets where we operate,” Novartis said in a statement.
“When any inappropriate activities are identified, we take swift remedial action.”
Novartis is the latest pharmaceutical company to come under scrutiny in China.
Last month, the 21st Century Business Herald carried a report making bribery claims against US drugmaker Eli Lilly.
It cited a former employee of the firm, identified by a pseudonym, as saying the firm paid out 30 million yuan ($4.9 million) as bribes to doctors to prescribe its drugs.
Eli Lilly said it had launched an internal probe last year after a former manager made similar allegations against it. It said that while it had not been able to verify the allegations it was continuing to investigate them.
In July, Chinese authorities accused British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of bribing doctors to boost sales of some of its drugs in the country.
GSK is alleged to have directed up to $500 million through travel agencies to facilitate bribes to doctors and officials.
The company has admitted that some senior executives in its China office appear to have broken the law.
GSK has said that it is co-operating with the authorities.
Nicki Minaj took to Instagram to give her fans a generous peek at her upcoming collection for Kmart, which is set to be released in October/November of this year.
In the series of photos, Nicki Minaj, 29, models multiple colorful and vivacious garments that will soon be available under the star’s name for affordable prices.
Nicki Minaj is her own best marketing tool as she models the garments herself in the series of promotional snaps.
The collection includes a number of mini-dresses – some fitted, some flowing – as well as two-piece spandex suits, bodycon dresses, and a range of elaborate patterning.
A range of yellows, blues and pinks make up the color scheme for Nicki Minaj’s fall collection and there is no doubt she looks flawless in every one of them.
A figure-hugging LBD with a particularly low cut neck is perhaps the most daring and sexy of the bunch, but Nicki Minaj was sure to keep some of the designs casual.
Nicki Minah models a black hooded sweatshirt and matching track pants, preparing shoppers for the upcoming cooler months.
Just last week, the intelligent entertainer gave one of her designs a promotional run at perhaps the best venue possible for widespread fashion marketing.
Nicki Minaj took to Instagram to give her fans a generous peek at her upcoming collection for Kmart
Nicki Minaj showed up to the Jeremy Scott runway show at New York Fashion Week wearing one of her flattering two-piece designs.
The matching high waisted pants and cropped long-sleeved top were made of stretchy black fabric and decorated with gold spots, flattering the rapper beautifully as she strode into the prestigious style event.
Without the relevant intel, Nicki Minaj’s fellow rich and famous fashion week attendees would certainly have no way of knowing the ensemble would soon hit the shelves of discount retailer Kmart.
Nicki Minaj – who started her career as a singer and rapper – is continuing solidify her brand and expand her career.
Aside from music, Nicki Minaj has formed part of the American Idol judging panel and even filmed a role in a film this year called The Other Woman, starring Cameron Diaz.
Nicki Minaj has collaborated with MAC makeup to release a limited edition lipstick and she also has two of her own fragrances distributed by Macy’s and Elizabeth Arden.
The launch of her own clothing line for Kmart sees Nicki Minaj joining the likes of Selena Gomez, Adam Levine and Sofia Vergara, who have also designed for the retail giant.
Tickets to next year’s Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in New York City will cost double compared to last year.
The NFL is about to approve a plan that will see Club-level seats to the New Jersey venue cost $2,600 each.
In 2012, the most sought after tickets to the game went for $1,250.
That’s more than double the price of the most coveted tickets from last year’s game, which went for $1,250.
The price hike will affect roughly 9,000 tickets. However, the aim is for 30% of tickets to cost less than $800.
The second cheapest batch of seats is due to cost around $1,500 – up from $950 in the Big Easy.
The NFL has explained the drastic price hikes by stating the rise simply brings the tickets more into line with their market value.
All Super Bowl tickets usually sell for well above face value on the secondary market.
Tickets to next year’s Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in New York City will cost double compared to last year
“We are looking to close the gap between the face value of the ticket and the true value of a ticket to what has become the premier sports and entertainment event,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
It’s not all about raising costs, however, the NFL has said it is dropping prices for the cheapest seats to $500 next year from $600 in 2013.
Last year’s premium tickets that officially cost $1,250 sold for $6,000 and over according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Super Bowl is an odd occasion in some ways because even the most ardent fans don’t usually get the chance to buy tickets directly for their face value.
The two participating teams get 17.5% of available tickets (about 14,000 each), and the league gets to distribute the remaining 25% to sponsors and partners.
All 32 teams get a set number of tickets that they distribute to season-ticket holders via a lottery.
It means that most spectators at the game will have bought their tickets on the secondary market.
The NFL is arguing that if people are prepared to pay extortionate prices on that secondary ticket, then the organization that hosts the Super Bowl should be entitled to take a bigger share also.
The organization says it has done its own research about how much the tickets are really worth.
Many $600 tickets resold for close to $2,000 whilst premium club seats ended up selling around the $6,000 mark.
And just like everything else in New York, officials are arguing that the 50 million people living near next years northeastern venue can afford to shell out a bit more.
Syria has given Russia new “material evidence” that rebels have used chemical weapons, a Russian minister has said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said a report by UN inspectors on the alleged use of chemical weapons was “politicized, biased and one-sided”.
Syria has given Russia new “material evidence” that rebels have used chemical weapons
Sergei Ryabkov said the inspectors had only looked at evidence of an alleged attack on August 21, not three previous incidents.
The UN team found that the nerve agent Sarin was used in the August 21 attack.
The report, however, did not apportion blame for the attack but Western nations blame the government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Damascus – backed by Russia – says opposition forces are to blame.
Zac Efron secretly completed a stint in rehab five months ago.
According to TMZ, Zac Efron, 25, quietly checked into a treatment facility to deal with a cocaine problem, and a source adds that he also experimented with MDMA – the active ingredient in Ecstasy tablets, which is known as “Molly” on the street.
Zac Efron is now said to be healthy and happy and is focusing on his movie career as he aims to put his days as a teen heartthrob behind him.
A source told E! News: “He’s healthy, happy and not drinking. He’s taking time to focus on working.”
An insider also told People magazine: “He’s doing great. He’s taking care of himself and it shows.”
While Zac Efron hasn’t commented on the rehab reports, he told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival recently: “I’m good, real good.”
The news of the stint in the treatment facility will come as a shock to Zac Efron’s fans as the actor has mainly stayed away from the party scene, apart from one well publicized visit to a strip club back in 2010, which left him disappointed.
Zac Efron secretly completed a stint in rehab five months ago
While Zac Efron admitted that he went to Flash Dancers Gentlemen’s Club in New York with High School Musical co-star Corbin Bleu, he insisted he had received permission from his then girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens before the boys’ night out.
“The hardest part is calling your girlfriend before,” he said on US late-night chat show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“It’s like, how do you even start that conversation without feeling like an a**hole?”
When Jimmy Kimmel asked how Vanessa Hudgens responded, Zac Efron hesitated for a while before saying: “She was fine with it.”
He went on to say that it wasn’t exactly what he expected.
Zac Efron told Jimmy Kimmel: “I had this image of what it’d be like.
“I’ve heard a lot about these places, mostly from rap music – they’re supposed to be pretty reputable!”
He added: “So I envisioned myself in a nice couch with stunner shades with T-Pain and Usher making it rain money!
“And it just wasn’t like that.”
Otherwise, Zac Efron has maintained a low profile and is not usually spotted out partying like his young Hollywood contemporaries.
Zac Efron will next appear on the big screen in Parkland, about the days surrounding President Kennedy’s death in Dallas in 1963.
Tony Abbott has been sworn in as Australia’s prime minister after his Liberal-National coalition ended six years of Labor government.
Tony Abbott, 55, took the oath at Government House in Canberra in front of Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
His conservative coalition won a comfortable lower house majority in the 7 September polls.
It plans to scrap a tax on carbon emissions introduced by Labor and further toughen asylum policy.
Ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony, Tony Abbott said his government would get to work immediately.
“Today is not just a ceremonial day, it’s an action day,” he said.
“The Australian people expect us to get straight down to business and that’s exactly what this government will do.”
The new ministers were also being sworn in during the day. His 19-member cabinet line-up has caused debate because it contains only one woman, new Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
Tony Abbott, however, says his cabinet is “one of the most experienced incoming ministries in our history”.
The new prime minister said on Tuesday that the carbon tax would be his first task.
“As soon as I return to Parliament House from the swearing-in ceremony, I will instruct the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to prepare the carbon tax repeal legislation,” he said in a statement.
Tony Abbott has been sworn in as Australia’s prime minister
He says the carbon tax – which makes Australia’s biggest polluters pay for emissions over a certain amount – cost jobs and forced energy prices up.
Instead of the tax, he plans to introduce a “direct action” plan under which subsidies will be given to farmers and businesses to reduce their emissions.
The position of science minister and a fund providing loans for green technologies are to be scrapped. Two official bodies related to climate change are also expected to be closed, local reports say.
The moves that has prompted criticism from Australia’s chief scientist, Professor Ian Chubb. “These sorts of issues are not going away just because we ignore them,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The new prime minister also says tough new policies to end the flow of asylum-seekers arriving in Australia via Indonesia will come into effect today.
Under a Labor policy, all asylum-seekers arriving by boat are being sent to Papua New Guinea for processing and resettlement if found to be refugees.
Tony Abbott is maintaining this policy and has promised to “stop the boats” – turning them back to Indonesia where safe to do so, a policy over which Indonesia has voiced concern.
He is expected to place the deputy chief of the army in charge of combating people smugglers, and his government will also restrict refugees already in Australia to temporary protection visas which must be regularly renewed.
Rights groups have criticized both the previous and incoming governments’ policies on asylum.
But – with some votes still to be counted from the September 7 election – it appears that the coalition will not control the Senate, meaning it may struggle to pass key legislation.
It is expected that the new government will have to work with several minor parties to get bills passed in the upper house.
The Labor Party, meanwhile, is in the process of choosing a new leader, with both former deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese and powerbroker Bill Shorten vying to replace Kevin Rudd, who is stepping down.
The discovery of two rusting vintage cars containing six bodies under Foss Lake in Oklahoma has reignited the mystery of how three teenagers and three other people vanished in 1970.
Highway patrol officers testing their sonar equipment Foss Lake near Elk City, Oklahoma on Friday stumbled upon the rusting 1969 Camaro and a Chevrolet dating back to the 1950s.
Inside the Camaro were three bodies believed to be of local teenagers who vanished after going out for a drive in 1970. Inside the Chevrolet were three more bodies – thought to be a 69-year-old man and his two friends who went missing in the state in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Police say the Camaro matches the vehicle associated with the three missing teenagers who disappeared on November 10 1970.
They say they have confirmed the identity of at least one of the victims however details are yet to be released.
Authorities have not formally identified all of the remains belong to but the local paper has made a clear connection between the discovered Camaro and the teens.
The latest reports by local station KFOR states that one of the victims in the car thought to have belonged to the teenager has been identified but they are waiting to notify all of the relatives of the victims involved before releasing any names.
Jimmy Allen Williams 16, Thomas Michael Rios, 18, and Leah Gail Johnson, 18, all went missing after going for a drive in Jimmy’s blue 1969 Camaro on November 20, 1970.
They are still listed as missing persons and were thought to have been headed to a football game in nearby Elk City but also could have detoured to go hunting at Foss Lake.
“It’s just been under water for 40 years. It’s a mucky mess,” Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples told KWEY radio.
The discovery of two rusting vintage cars containing six bodies under Foss Lake in Oklahoma has reignited the mystery of how three teenagers and three other people vanished in 1970
In addition to the Custer County Sheriff’s Department, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation, and the state medical examiner’s office were on scene Tuesday.
Authorities discovered the accidentally as Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, said dive teams were at Foss Lake conducting training with sonar when they came upon the vehicles last week.
“So they went back and did a scheduled dive today and were going to recover the cars. When they pulled the cars out of the water, the first one that came out they found bones in the car,” she said.
When they pulled the second car out, another set of bones was discovered. The divers then went back in the water and searched around and found a skull, she said.
The remains were turned over to the medical examiner’s office who are expected to use DNA from surviving family members to identify the skeletons.
“We thought it was just going to be stolen vehicles and that’s not what it turned out to be, obviously,” Betsy Randolph said.
Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples said he believes the bodies found in the Camaro are those of the three teens who went missing in 1970.
He said: “The decomposed nature of the cars makes it difficult to positively identify here at the scene.”
Local woman Kim Carmichael was a friend of the Camaro’s owner, 16-year-old Jimmy Williams.
“We lived in a little town … Nothing like that ever happened in Sayre.”
At the time of the disappearance, Kim Carmichael’s father was the undersheriff in nearby Beckham County where the teens were last seen. He died in 2003 never knowing what happened.
Kim Carmichael added: “He said there was nothing … There were no leads, no nothing. He said it was just like they vanished into thin air.
“I can’t imagine what [Williams’] family was going through if I could see what my dad was going through.”
Oklahoma Highway Patrol said they are hoping the discovery will offer some relief to families who may have gone decades wondering where a missing loved one was.
Spokesman Betsy Randolph added: “We’re hoping these individuals, that this is going to bring some sort of closure to some families out there who have been waiting to hear about missing people.”
“If that’s the case, then we’re thrilled we were able to bring some sort of closure to those families.”
The medical examiner had called a number of relatives of possible victims to the scene, many of whom said that they never lost hope.
“We never gave up. We always wanted some clue that somebody knew someone,” said Debbie McManaman, a possible victim’s granddaughter.
World’s smallest printed book, no bigger than a grain of rice, is part of a new exhibition of miniature books at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Old King Cole, published in 1985 by the Gleniffer Press in Paisley, measures only 0.9 mm in height.
It held the world record for the smallest printed book, for 20 years.
It is one of about 85 miniature books from the library’s collections which will be displayed to the public for free until November 17.
Exhibition curator James Mitchell said: “Many are works of art or miracles of technology and are highly collectable.”
A miniature book is generally defined as one that is less than 7.5 cm (3in) in height and width.
World’s smallest printed book, no bigger than a grain of rice, is part of a new exhibition of miniature books at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh
The first printed miniature book on record is an Officium Beatae Virginis Maria (5.2 cm x 4.5 cm) that was printed in 1475.
Scotland has been an important centre of miniature book production since the 19th century.
From the 1870s to World War I, Glasgow firm of David Bryce & Son became one of the most successful miniature book publishers in the world.
Early in his career, Bryce produced a full-size edition of the works of Robert Burns that only sold 5,000 copies in three years. He reformatted it into two miniature books and before long sold more than 100,000 copies.
In the latter part of the 20th century, the Gleniffer Press carried on the tradition of producing miniature books in Scotland.
The press was founded in 1967 by Helen and Ian Macdonald as a hobby private press, producing home and business stationery.
By the early 1970s, it became noted throughout the world for making miniature books and was active in this field until 2007, when it closed after 40 years, having produced 57 different titles.
James Mitchell said: “This display celebrates the miniature book and the worldwide contribution that Scotland has made to this highly skilled form of publishing.”
Duck Dynasty published few of Miss Kay Robertson’s famous recipes like banana pudding, quick biscuits, and Swiss steak.
Miss Kay Robertson shared her banana pudding recipe, one of the Robertsons’ favorite desserts.
Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 12-ounce can of evaporated milk
Miss Kay Robertson shared her banana pudding recipe, one of the Robertsons’ favorite desserts
3/4 cup of milk
6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag vanilla wafers
2 bananas, sliced
Directions:
In a large double boiler, melt the butter and then add the sugar, salt, flour, evaporated milk and regular milk. Stir with a whisk. Add the egg yolks to the mixture, constantly stirring until thick. Add the vanilla extract. Place the vanilla wafers and bananas into a 9-inch-by-13-inch dish. Then pour in the mixture. Chill before serving.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has called off a state visit to the US next month in a row over allegations of American espionage.
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has been accused of intercepting emails and messages from Dilma Rousseff, her aides and state oil company, Petrobras.
The allegations were based on documents leaked by fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
President Barack Obama had promised to investigate the incident.
The White House said he had telephoned Dilma Rousseff on Monday to discuss the matter.
The allegations of widespread espionage against Brazilian citizens were first published in July by Rio de Janeiro-based journalist Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the Guardian newspaper.
Glenn Greenwald alleged that the NSA accessed all internet content that Dilma Rousseff had visited online.
The documents, according to the report, were part of an NSA case study showing how data could be intelligently filtered.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has called off a state visit to the US next month in a row over allegations of American espionage
Earlier this month, another report by Glenn Greenwald on Globo Television alleged that the NSA had illegally accessed data from oil company Petrobras.
The company is due next month to carry out an important auction for exploration rights of an oil field off the Rio de Janeiro state coast.
Dilma Rousseff has said that if the accusations are proven it means the NSA was involved in “industrial espionage”.
Her US state visit, starting on October 23, was to be the first by a Brazilian president since 1995.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Brazilian government said that “given the proximity of the scheduled state visit to Washington – and in the absence of a timely investigation of the incident, with corresponding explanations and the commitment to cease the interception activities” it could not go ahead as planned.
The statement said Brazil hoped the visit would take place “as soon as possible”, once the issue had been “resolved properly”.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the postponement had been a joint decision between Dilma Rousseff and Barack Obama, who agreed it “should not be overshadowed by any bilateral issue”.
The White House said in a statement: “The president has said that he understands and regrets the concerns [that] disclosures of alleged US intelligence activities have generated in Brazil and made clear that he is committed to working together with President Rousseff and her government in diplomatic channels to move beyond this issue as a source of tension in our bilateral relationship.”
The NSA has been accused of looking into electronic communications from what the US sees as hostile Latin American governments, such as Venezuela and Ecuador, as well as traditional allies, including Mexico.
At the G20 meeting in Russia earlier this month, Barack Obama promised to investigate the allegations of espionage against Dilma Rousseff and her Mexican counterpart, Henrique Pena Nieto.
Ex-US Navy reservist Aaron Alexis, who killed 12 people and wounded eight at a Washington DC Navy base, had received treatment for mental health issues, US media have reported.
Aaron Alexis, 34, was treated for paranoia, trouble sleeping and hearing voices, the Associated Press reported.
A contractor for the Navy, Aaron Alexis had a valid pass for the secure site at the Washington Navy Yard, authorities said.
Aaron Alexis was shot and killed by police during the attack.
On Tuesday, the US capital remained in a state of shock and mourning.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel laid a wreath at US Navy Memorial Plaza in honor of the Navy Yard victims.
A Washington Nationals baseball game originally scheduled for Monday night was rescheduled to Tuesday afternoon – the baseball stadium is just blocks from the Navy Yard.
The flag flew at half-mast over the White House, where hours after the attack President Barack Obama mourned “yet another mass shooting”.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has ordered a physical security review of all Navy and Marine Corps installations.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama would continue to push for tighter gun control laws in the wake of Monday’s shooting.
The shooting began about 8:20 local time on Monday, when a gunman apparently shot his way into the heavily guarded Building 197, headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command, which builds and maintains ships and submarines for the Navy.
Aaron Alexis was treated for paranoia, trouble sleeping and hearing voices
Witnesses said the gunman sprayed bullets in a hallway and fired from a balcony down on to workers in an atrium at the heavily secured installation in the US capital.
Aaron Alexis was armed with a shotgun legally purchased in Virginia, as well as one handgun authorities say may have been obtained inside the naval installation.
The attack only ended when police stormed the building and shot him dead, police said.
“There is no question he would have kept shooting,” Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier told reporters on Monday.
On Tuesday, authorities said they believed Aaron Alexis had acted alone and that all victims – ranging in age from 46 to 73 – had been identified.
Authorities have revealed no motive for the attack, and have begun combing the US for hints about Aaron Alexis’ past.
As an employee of an IT contractor, Aaron Alexis apparently had a card granting him access to the building – even though he had had several run-ins with the law and had been discharged from the Navy under a cloud, authorities said.
“It really is hard to believe that someone with a record as chequered as this man could conceivably get, you know, clearance to get… credentials to be able to get on the base,” Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray told CNN.
Aaron Alexis left the Navy as a petty officer 3rd class, after serving full-time in the naval reserve from 2007-11.
He received two routine medals for his service in the Navy: the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Aaron Alexis separated from the Navy reserves under what is called a general discharge, a status that suggests misconduct.
He had been cited for misconduct – including insubordination, disorderly conduct and excessive absences from work – at least eight times during his Navy career, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
According to media reports, Aaron Alexis was a Buddhist convert who had had two previous gun-related brushes with the law.
In 2004 he was arrested in Seattle for shooting a construction worker’s car tyres, in what he described as an enraged “black-out”.
Aaron Alexis was questioned by Fort Worth police in 2010 after firing his gun through the floor of an upstairs apartment. He said it was an accidental discharge.
Also, in August 2008, Aaron Alexis was arrested for disorderly conduct in the state of Georgia, according to the Smoking Gun, a website that collects police and court documents. Details on the incident were not available.
On Tuesday, Aaron Alexis’ employer said the military should have made his record known.
“Anything that suggests criminal problems or mental health issues, that would be a flag. We would not have hired him,” Thomas Hoshko, chief executive officer of The Experts, told the Washington Post.
The IT contractor confirmed Aaron Alexis had worked since July at six different military installations and had only been at the Navy Yard for a few days before the shooting.
