Kim Kardashian stepped out of Mr. C restaurant with Brittney Gastineau as boyfriend Kanye West celebrated his 36th birthday in New York.
While Beyonce and Jay-Z were on hand at the party in New York City, Kanye West’s girlfriend of more than one year was noticeably absent – stuck in Los Angeles because she is no longer able to travel by plane ahead of the birth of their first child next month.
Kanye West celebrated his 36th birthday in New York with Jay-Z, Beyonce and Nas
A source confirmed to Us Weekly: “Kim isn’t allowed to fly.”
Other guests at the low-key bash included Nas, Kourtney Kardashian’s fiancé Scott Disick and Kim Kardashian’s best friend Jonathan Cheban.
Kim Kardashian was stuck in Los Angeles awaiting the birth of their first child due next month and Kanye West was due to appear at the Governor’s Ball on Sunday night.
Whether you’ve recently started working from home or you’re thinking about a home office revamp, there are some areas of efficiency you should be aware of. Piles of papers, tangled cords, and a faulty Internet connection are a few annoyances that could affect your work. Although working in your pajamas is luxurious, there are vital steps to take so your productivity is maintained. Here are several ways you can guarantee an efficient workspace.
There’s no need for filing cabinets anymore. With electronic organization you can scan your documents and upload them systematically so that it’ll take seconds to find a specific file. Make sure to invest in a high-powered shredder too. Once a document is digital, immediately run it through the shredder, to avoid messy paper stacks.
Some additional tips:
Encrypt all precious documents
Use Google Docs for anything you’ll share
Back-up all of your docs to a separate hard-drive every few months
2. Multiple Cord Streamlining
Kicking around tangled cords under your desk is irritating but trying to locate a specific cord is an absolute pain. Save yourself time and purchase some nifty cord devices.
USB hubs instantly wind up cords for orderly keeping.
Cordlets also keep cables in order by directing them exactly where you need them on your desk.
WAshi Tape allows you to label cords for quick identifying.
Quatro devices go into your wall and have four holes specifically designed for USB-charged gadgets. No need for electric adapters because you can now power up all of your USB devices directly to the wall.
Although you want a well-lit room, it’s important to keep blinds or shades closed to prevent distraction. Nothing is worse than neighbors constantly walking by your window or losing your train of thought by something going on outside. Consider purchasing window or roller shades so that you may remain focused on your work.
Outside noise can be disruptive, too. Solve this issue with some soothing music, earplugs, or sound proofing materials.
4. Multi-Tasking Communication
Clients and co-workers need your attention throughout the day. Though e-mail, G-Chat, and Skype are universal ways to communicate, some will want to reach you by phone or text. Here are a few cool products that’ll allow you to multitask with your phone.
Good Call IG1 Bluetooth Wireless Handset/Docking Station allows for all of the functionality of an iPhone while receiving a call through it.
Jawbone Jambox Wireless Bluetooth Speaker is excellent for its convenient size and phenomenal sound/volume.
Omnio WOW Keys let you type on your phone via a more standard keyboard. You can combine it with other apps and you can control your desktop by using it with your phone.
If you work from home you need a high-speed Internet connection. With options of DSL, cable, satellite, and wireless, you’ll want to choose a connection that best suits your needs. Typically, you should look for speeds of at least 384kbps/128kbps. To keep your Internet running quickly, you’ll want to regularly clear your history, perform malware tests, update your browsers, and shut down unnecessary programs.
Staying focused on your work can be far more difficult at home. From organizational systems to multi-tasking devices, it’s important to make sure your office is setting you up for success.
Author Bio:
Carly Wright is an activist for fun! From technology and entertainment to travel and leisure she can write about it all. She encourages you to see her tweets @MostlyImWrite.
The 67th Annual Tony Awards were held on June 9, 2013, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2012–2013 season.
The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and was broadcast live on CBS television. Neil Patrick Harris was the host, for the fourth time (his third consecutive year hosting).
Best Play: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
Best Musical: Kinky Boots.
Best Book of a Musical: Matilda the Musical
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre: Kinky Boots.
Best Revival of a Play: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Best Revival of a Musical: Pippin.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Tracy Letts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role in a Play: Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Billy Porter, Kinky Boots.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Patina Miller, Pippin.
The 67th Annual Tony Awards were held on June 9, 2013, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2012–2013 season
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Courtney B. Vance, Lucky Guy.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Judith Light, The Assembled Parties.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Gabriel Ebert, Matilda the Musical. Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Andrea Martin, Pippin.
Best Direction of a Play: Pam MacKinnon, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Best Direction of a Musical: Diane Paulus, Pippin
Best Choreography: Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots
Best Orchestrations: Stephen Oremus, Kinky Boots
Best Scenic Design of a Play: John Lee Beatty, The Nance
Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Rob Howell, Matilda the Musical
Best Costume Design of a Play: Ann Roth, The Nance
Best Costume Design of a Musical: William Ivey Long, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella
Best Lighting Design of a Play: Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, Lucky Guy Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Hugh Vanstone, Matilda the Musical
Best Sound Design of a Play: Leon Rothenberg, The Nance Best Sound Design of a Musical: John Shivers, Kinky Boots
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Bernard Gersten, Paul Libin, Ming Cho Lee
Regional Theatre Award: Huntington Theatre Company
Kate Middleton recently stepped out in a sale navy blue dress from high street brand ASOS.com.
Kate Middleton, 31, chose the navy knee-length dress as she shopped for curtains and drapes to decorate her unborn child’s nursery in Chelsea last week.
Kate Middleton recently stepped out in a sale navy blue dress from high street brand ASOS.com
The £17.50 ($27.50) dress was originally priced at £25 ($39), and the thrifty royal teamed it with a pair of her favorite £80 Pied a Terre wedges, creating a simple, stylish look that mothers-to-be are sure to rush to copy this summer.
The viscose dress comes in sizes 6-18 and three different colourways. It features an elasticated waist and is designed to grow with an expanding stomach, making it even better value for money as it will last for the duration of a pregnancy.
Kate Middleton wears a £17.50 maternity dress from online fashion site ASOS.com
It’s the first time Kate Middleton has been spotted in a maternity outfit by the retailer. Previously she has worn pretty Topshop dresses or customized designer pieces by pricier labels including Emilia Wickstead, Jenny Packham and Tara Jarmon.
ASOS.com’s maternity line features hundreds of items including on-trend dresses like Kate Middleton’s, tops, skirts, slogan T-shirts, jeans and swimwear.
The collection, created by the in-house design team, is described as allowing mothers-to-be to “stay chic throughout your pregnancy. Flattering your bump with gorgeous maternity dresses, jeans, tops, trousers and more, cleverly designed to accommodate your new curves’. It claims to ‘combine the stylishness of the mainline collection with pregnancy-friendly features such as soft ruching, adjustable fastenings and flexible waistbands, the perfect fusion of fashion, comfort and a flawless fit”.
Celebrity fans of the off-the-peg pregnancy styles include The Saturdays’ Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Hulmes and Fearne Cotton.
Kate Middleton is known for her eclectic wardrobe, whoch features both haute couture and high fashion, and her ability to mix the two on and off duty has earned her style plaudits from around the world.
Former “golden girl” of British athletics Donna Hartley has died suddenly while sunbathing in her garden.
Donna Hartley, 58, a former 400 metres runner, was found lying on a sun lounger in a bikini, by her husband on Friday afternoon.
Her shoulder-length blonde hair and prowess on the track earned her the “golden girl” tag during a glittering running career in which she won bronze in the 1980 Olympic Games.
Yesterday her devastated husband Bobby Knutt, an actor and comedian, said a post mortem will be carried out today, but she “might have died of a heart attack”.
Golden girl Donna Hartley had a successful career on the British body building circuit after retiring from athletics.
Bobby Knutt, who met his wife at Butlins, said: “We were married 26 years and we had never had a row or cross word.
“She was the great love of my life. Nobody will ever take her place.
“She was the kindest person in the world. Everybody loved her and nobody had a bad word to say about her. She was an absolute princess.
Former “golden girl” of British athletics Donna Hartley has died suddenly while sunbathing in her garden
“I’ve lost my best pal, she hadn’t got a bad thought in her head. I never heard her criticize anybody and she was so good and kind.”
The talented runner originally became well known under her maiden name Donna Murray and her distinctive looks made her an instantly recognizable figure.
Donna Hartley won double gold in the 400m and 4x400m relay at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, and the following year was made an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
But the highlight of her career was her bronze medal in the 400m relay at the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980.
Donna married fellow athlete Bill Hartley in 1977, but the relationship ended in divorce. She met TV actor Bobby Knutt in 1984 and they married three years later.
She took her husband’s real surname Wass and moved to live in his native Sheffield.
After retiring from athletics Donna Hartley became a champion body builder and won the “Miss Britain Physique” title.
She later ran a line dancing school in the city and had been working as a hotel leisure club manager when she died.
A self-confessed sun worshipper, Donna Hartley returned home early from work on Friday to soak up the rays in her garden and make the most of the fine June weather.
Bobby Knutt, 67, said they went outside together at about 3 p.m. and he returned inside to watch television about half-an-hour later. When he went back out some time later to speak to his wife she was dead.
“I went out to see her and she had gone. I don’t know what happened, she might have had a heart attack.”
The couple have no children but Bobby Knutt has a daughter from a previous marriage.
Heavily pregnant Kim Kardashian went for relaxed comfort instead of her usual tight-fitting glamour on a lunch date with a friend.
Kim Kardashian, 32, was seen stepping out of Mr. C restaurant with her friend Brittney Gastineau, wearing a body-skimmimg striped maxi-dress.
Just recently Kim Kardashian has been seen in far tighter outfits, displaying her ample cleavage, while filming for her reality show.
So perhaps it was a day off for the reality star, who could finally put her feet up and relax over lunch.
Kim Kardashian wears body-skimmimg striped maxi-dress as she steps out of Mr. C restaurant with Brittney Gastineau
The restaurant that Kim Kardashian chose specializes in Italian dishes including pizzas and grilled meats.
Kim Kardashian has admitted that apart from eating carrots and celery with ranch dressing, she hasn’t had many strange pregnancy cravings.
She told Extra: “I’m waiting for the moments when someone’s like, <<Let’s go to McDonald’s and Taco Bell!>>.
“That’s not happening for me and I’m kind of sad about it.”
Kim Kardashian added: “It wouldn’t even bother me if I gained all the weight. And I have the biggest sweet tooth and I love junk food. Being pregnant I don’t like any of it.”
She stepped out as boyfriend Kanye West celebrated his 36th birthday in New York.
While Beyonce and Jay-Z were on hand at the party in New York City, Kanye West’s girlfriend of more than one year was noticeably absent – stuck in Los Angeles because she is no longer able to travel by plane ahead of the birth of their first child next month.
A source confirmed to Us Weekly: “Kim isn’t allowed to fly.”
Other guests at the low-key bash included Nas, Kourtney Kardashian’s fiancé Scott Disick and Kim Kardashian’s best friend Jonathan Cheban.
Edward Snowden, the former CIA contractor who has identified himself as the source of leaks about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance programmes, is believed to be holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong.
Edward Snowden, 29, told The Guardian he flew to Hong Kong on May 20, after leaking information about the NSA’s surveillance programme.
He said that he chose Hong Kong because the city has “a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent”.
Edward Snowden’s current whereabouts cannot be confirmed, and the Hong Kong government has not publicly commented on his case, although journalists are staking out various hotels in Hong Kong where they believe Snowden may be hiding.
The US says it has referred the issue to its Department of Justice as a criminal matter. Some analysts and experts believe Edward Snowden faces the strong risk of extradition to the US, if such a move is requested.
Hong Kong signed an extradition treaty with the US shortly before the territory returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
“You get extraditions several times a year from Hong Kong,” said Clive Grossman S.C, a barrister and former vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association.
Under the Fugitive Offenders (United States of America) Order, both Hong Kong and the US have agreed to extradite someone who has committed “an offence which is punishable under the laws of both Parties by imprisonment or other form of detention for more than one year… unless surrender for such offence is prohibited by the laws of the requested Party.”
Regina Ip, a legislator and Hong Kong’s former Secretary for Security, told reporters that the Hong Kong government was “obliged to comply with the terms of agreements” with the US government, including extradition treaties.
Edward Snowden, the former CIA contractor who has identified himself as the source of leaks about the NSA’s surveillance programmes, is believed to be holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong
“It’s actually in his best interest to leave Hong Kong,” she said, referring to Edward Snowden.
However, the extradition process can be a long and complicated one in sensitive cases like this, said Tim Parker, an immigration lawyer based in Hong Kong.
“There are a number of hurdles that could come up for the extraditing authority, to the advantage of Snowden,” he said.
“There is a bar under Hong Kong’s extradition law… to extradition for an offence that is of a political character, [where] the prosecution is thought not just to be the application of the criminal law, but to crush that person or to crush their dissent,” Tim Parker said.
Another potential hurdle would be any intervention from Beijing, which could block an extradition if it raised questions “going to their national security, foreign affairs, or defense,” Tim Parker said.
A handover could also be halted if Edward Snowden was believed to be in danger receiving of inhumane treatment in the US, Tim Parker added.
“If Mr. Snowden is at risk of being detained under the sort of conditions that Bradley Manning has reportedly been detained, which the UN special rapporteurs have said amounted to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment… then Hong Kong would not be allowed under its law, and could not extradite him to the US.”
A further consideration is what visa Edward Snowden used to enter Hong Kong. If his visa is due to expire soon, a formal extradition request may not be needed.
However, it would not be “legally possible” under Hong Kong law for Edward Snowden to be forcibly taken to Beijing, Tim Parker said.
“That would be a serious breach of the autonomy under Hong Kong’s One Country Two Systems arrangement. There aren’t really any known cases of that having been done off the books [either],” he added.
Ruud Lubbers, former prime minister of the Netherlands, revealed that some 22 US nuclear weapons are stored on Dutch territory.
Ruud Lubbers, prime minister from 1982-94, said they were stored underground in strong-rooms at the Volkel air base in Brabant, Dutch media report.
Ruud Lubbers, former prime minister of the Netherlands, revealed that some 22 US nuclear weapons are stored on Dutch territory
He made the revelation in a documentary for National Geographic – saying: “I would never have thought those silly things would still be there in 2013.”
The presence of nuclear weapons on Dutch soil has long been rumored.
However, Ruud Lubbers is believed to be the most senior person to confirm their existence.
“I think they are an absolutely pointless part of a tradition in military thinking,” Ruud Lubbers said.
The Telegraaf newspaper quoted experts saying the weapons held at Volkel were B61 bombs – developed in the US in the 1960s.
The Dutch broadcaster NOS quoted a spokesman for the Royal Dutch Air Force saying these issues “are never spoken of”.
“He, as former prime minister, knows that well,” he added.
Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, remains in a serious but stable condition in a Pretoria hospital, the latest update has announced.
The South African presidency said Nelson Mandela’s condition was unchanged and confirmed that he was in intensive care.
Prayers have been said in churches across the country for ex-President Nelson Mandela, who is being treated for a lung infection.
Nelson Mandela, 94, was taken to hospital early on Saturday, the third time this year he has been admitted.
The presidency said he had been ill for some days at his Johannesburg home, with a recurrence of his long-standing lung problems.
Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital after his condition worsened at 01:30 on Saturday.
The government said in a statement: “President Jacob Zuma reiterates his call for South Africa to pray for Madiba and the family during this time.” Madiba is Nelson Mandela’s clan name.
In releasing the latest update, presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj also denied that visitors were being blocked from seeing Nelson Mandela.
Mac Maharaj said: “The reality is that the normal procedures when a patient is under intensive care are applying from the medical side.
“Therefore there are limitations on visitors and, you know, that when a person is in intensive care the doctors only allow some very close people to be there – it is not the way it is being presented in the media.”
Nelson Mandela remains in a serious but stable condition in a Pretoria hospital
There is a quiet hope that the man who led the fight against apartheid may regain his strength once again.
Many took heart from a visit on Sunday by Nelson Mandela’s daughter, Zindzi, who said that her father was “well” and “a fighter”.
Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, cancelled a scheduled appearance in London on Saturday to remain at her husband’s bedside.
He served as president from 1994 to 1999.
Nelson Mandela was previously imprisoned for 27 years, and is believed to have suffered damaged lungs while working in a prison quarry.
He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while being held in jail on the windswept Robben Island.
Nelson Mandela retired from public life in 2004 and has been rarely seen in public since.
Nelson Mandela: Key dates
1918 Born in the Eastern Cape
1943 Joins African National Congress
1956 Charged with high treason, but charges dropped
1962 Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison
Scott Thorson revealed his life as the toyboy lover of flamboyant pianist Liberace, describing it as a whirlwind of extravagance and excess.
Their outrageous lifestyle, captured in new film Behind The Candelabra, makes the latest breed of bling-loving celebrities look tasteful and understated.
But after five dazzling, rhinestone-encrusted years together, Scott Thorson claimed he was dumped like “a piece of trash”.
Scott Thorson lost it all and began a downward spiral into d**gs, crime and the odd spell behind bars.
The tattooed 54-year-old, who is battling colon cancer, was in jail in Reno, Nevada, for burglary when the acclaimed film – based on his book of the same name – was shown on US TV last month.
Director Steven Soderbergh revealed that the movie was rejected as “too gay” by every major American studio, before being snapped up by cable channel HBO – which is why it went straight to TV in the US and did not get a cinema release there.
Of casting Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, Steven Soderbergh joked: “I needed to see Jason Bourne on top of Gordon Gekko.”
Scott Thorson was just 17 when he met 58-year-old Liberace backstage after one of his Las Vegas shows in 1977.
He soon moved in with the musician in his lavish, custom-built Las Vegas palace.
On the bedroom ceiling was a reproduction of the fresco in Rome’s Sistine Chapel – but the cherubs all had Liberace’s face.
At the peak of his powers, Liberace was the world’s best-paid entertainer and owned 39 pianos, 32 cars and 26 dogs.
Scott Thorson says: “He built a 70,000 sq ft palace in Las Vegas for me, filled with the world’s most expensive treasure – $25million worth of antiques.
“A well-known artist spent a year painting the Sistine Chapel fresco on the ceiling.
“Even the Queen and the Queen Mother were big fans of his.
“When he played the London Palladium I went into the Royal Box to use the toilet, just so I could say I had used the Queen’s bathroom. They sent us lots of gifts – including a Welsh Corgi.”
Scott Thorson was even given a minor role in TV’s The Liberace Show, driving the pianist on stage in a jewel-encrusted Rolls-Royce while wearing a white chauffeur’s outfit.
His relationship with Liberace was bizarre to say the least.
Scott Thorson revealed his life as the toyboy lover of flamboyant pianist Liberace
The world-famous showman got a plastic surgeon to make Scott Thorson look more like his son, and put him on a cocktail of diet pills.
Scott Thorson reveals: “He had to throw the Press off, so he <<adopted>> me, changed my face so I looked more like him.
“He didn’t want people to realize I was his lover – he wanted them to think I was his son.
“I was given cheek implants and a new chin so I would resemble him.
“He took me to this plastic surgeon and he wanted me to lose weight. The doctor put me on the Hollywood diet. It contained pharmaceutical c***ine and Demerol to bring me down. Liberace agreed to all this.
“Then, when I became addicted and he was worried I was out of control and would tarnish his image, he threw me out like I was a piece of trash.
“In the movie it says he offered me rehab, but he didn’t.
“I was living in the penthouse in LA and they hired guards to throw all my personal belongings off the balcony and discard me.”
In 1982 Scott Thorson took Liberace to court in a bitter “palimony” suit. Later he settled for $93,000, some jewellery, custody of two dogs and a gold-plated Rolls-Royce he had been given as a 21st birthday gift.
But the split plunged him from the dizzy showbiz heights to the depths of despair.
Scott Thorson, who survived being shot five times during a robbery in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1991, even accuses the team behind the film – including its stars – of neglecting his cries for help during his most recent spell behind bars.
Instead Dennis Hof, who owns the infamous Bunny Ranch br***el, last week posted bail for Scott Thorson.
Scott Thorson says: “Hollywood turned its back on me. Matt Damon or Michael Douglas would not bail me out, even though I offered to talk to them about the film.
“I need to put money back into my pocket. I didn’t make much out of the movie. I own a small percentage of the film but Hollywood is notorious for padding the bill so it shows no profit.”
Biopic Behind the Candelabra was a big hit when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It pulled in 2.4million viewers when it aired in the US on HBO – the largest audience for an original movie on the channel in almost a decade. It opens in cinemas across Europe today.
Scott Thorson says: “It has been a big success, all these European companies have picked it up. So for the filmmakers to say they haven’t made a dime would be a big mistake – especially with my mouth.
“I went after Liberace, so I’m not scared.
“I was whisked out of jail when Dennis Hof paid my bail. He turned up with five Bunny Girls to pick me up in this big limousine.
“The first night we went up to Dennis’s private residence in the ranch and I watched the film for the first time. I was blown away.
“Matt Damon did a great job playing me. And he did a great job in bed with Douglas, too.”
The film ends when the pair are reunited on Liberace’s deathbed just before he passed away from pneumonia caused by AIDS in 1987.
Scott Thorson’s life has had some twists and turns that are not in the film. For starters, he claims he had a romance with Michael Jackson.
He said: “Liberace introduced me and Michael in the late 1970s. It was right around the time Thriller was coming out and Michael and I became lovers.
“Our relationship went on for six or seven years. Michael was very generous too. He treated me well.
“Liberace and I had both undergone plastic surgery around the same time Michael underwent a nose job because he didn’t think he was handsome. We all healed together at the Liberace compound in Palm Springs.”
Also in his eventful life, Scott Thorson was put in witness protection after testifying against his d**g dealer Eddie Nash in 1981, changing his name to Jesse Marlow.
He said: “I’ve survived being shot five times, overdoses, and I’ve tried to commit suicide. But I’ve survived to tell my story.”
Life for Scott Thorson at the moment, at the Bunny Ranch, is the most exotic it has been for years.
He said: “There are 22 acres with stables, a gymnasium, a personal trainer, Jacuzzi, swimming pool and lots of beautiful people.
“They have built a great team around me and I am drug free for the first time in many years. It’s been about 110 days.
“There are so many beautiful women here. I’m having lots of Bunny Ranch therapy.
“These girls are so gorgeous I could end up turning straight.
“I haven’t lived the dream like this since I lived with Liberace.
NASA’s old Opportunity rover on Mars has just made what may be one of its most significant discoveries to date.
Nine-year-old Opportunity rover has identified rock laden with what scientists believe to be clay minerals.
Their presence is an indication that the rock, dubbed Esperance, has been altered at some point in the past through prolonged contact with water.
Opportunity has seen a clay-bearing outcrop before but scientists say this is by far the best example to date.
“It’s very rich,” said Steve Squyres, the rover’s principal investigator.
“We’ve been discovering evidence for water on Mars since we first landed back in 2004. What’s different here?
“If you look at all of the water-related discoveries that have been made by Opportunity, the vast majority of them point to water that was a very low pH – it was acid.
“We run around talking about water on Mars. In fact, what Opportunity has mostly discovered, or found evidence for, was sulphuric acid.
“Clay minerals only tend to form at a more neutral pH. This is water you could drink. This is water that was much more favorable for things like pre-biotic chemistry – the kind of chemistry that could lead to the origin of life.”
Opportunity Mars rover discovers Esperance rock with signs of water
Prof. Steve Squyres, who is affiliated to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, said he was inclined to put Esperance in his personal top five discoveries made on Mars by Opportunity and her twin rover, Spirit, which stopped working in 2011.
The clays are aluminium-rich, possibly of the type montmorillonite. However, because Opportunity’s X-ray spectrometer can only discern the atomic elements in a rock, and not their mineralogical arrangement, no-one can say for sure.
Nonetheless, the mere occurrence of clays is further proof that the Red Planet was much warmer and wetter billions of years ago; a very different place to the cold, desiccated world it has become.
And these results complement nicely those of NASA’s newer rover Curiosity, which has also identified clays at its landing site almost half-way around the planet’s equator.
The old robot made its find at a location called Cape York, which is sited on the rim of a 22 km-wide crater known as Endurance.
Mission managers have now commanded it to start moving along the ridge to a destination dubbed Solander Point.
There is an expectation that Opportunity will find a deeper stack of rocks at the new location to follow up the Esperance water story.
“Maybe [we can] try to reconstruct the actual depositional environment of these materials and whether they were lacustrine – that is, formed by a lake – or fluvial (river) or an alluvial fan (network of streams), or whatever,” said deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson, of Washington University, St Louis.
Opportunity is now operating well beyond its expected lifetime.
When it landed at Eagle Crater in January 2004, NASA hoped to get at least 90 working Martian days (sols) from the machine. Remarkably, it continues to roll beyond 3,300 sols.
It has an “arthritic” robotic arm, its solar panels are losing efficiency, and it drives backwards to save wear on its locomotion system.
Opportunity is also now having to contend with glitchy flash memory. But NASA is determined to keep pushing the vehicle for as long as possible.
“Remember, the rover continues in a very hostile environment on Mars,” said John Callas, NASA’s Opportunity project manager.
“The rover could have a catastrophic failure at any moment. So, each day is a gift.”
Judge Mitchell Beckloff, who is overseeing the guardianship of Michael Jackson’s children, has ordered an inquiry into Paris Jackson’s wellbeing after she attempted to kill herself earlier this week.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff asked an investigator to look into the 15-year-old’s health and welfare.
A lawyer for Katherine Jackson, Paris’s grandmother, said he was “completely supportive” of the court order.
Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff asked an investigator to look into Paris Jackson’s health, education and welfare after her suicide attempt
He declined to comment further on her current health status.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff issued a similar inquiry into the welfare of the Jackson children last year after Katherine Jackson, their guardian at the time, was out of communication with them for several days.
That led to TJ Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew, being appointed co-guardian to Paris, Prince and Blanket.
A lawyer for Michael Jackson’s estate said it would assist the guardians however necessary to help Paris.
“The estate will work with Paris’s guardians to provide whatever is required for her best interests,” Howard Weitzman said in a statement.
“We are totally and completely supportive of Paris as her wellbeing is our foremost concern.”
Judge Mitchell Beckloff’s order requires an investigator to prepare a report that only the judge will be allowed to review.
He did not include instructions on how the review should occur or when the report was due.
Authorities were dispatched to the Jackson family home on Thursday in response to a report of a possible overdose.
Lawyer Perry Sanders said Paris Jackson was “physically fine” and was getting “appropriate medical attention”.
With only five weeks to go until her due date, Kate Middleton wants to be sure her home is ready for the baby’s arrival.
Kate Middleton, 31, has been pictured shopping with a woman thought to be a lady-in-waiting for soft furnishings at the high-end interiors specialist Bernard Thorp in Chelsea, south-west London.
The visit last Tuesday saw the Duchess of Cambridge spend 45 minutes inside the shop to decorate the new nursery at Kensington Palace in central London, less than six weeks before her due date of July 13.
Just hours earlier Kate Middleton had been with her husband Prince William, 30, and around 2,000 other guests at Westminster Abbey for a grand service to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.
Kate Middleton pictured shopping at high-end interiors Bernard Thorp in Chelsea
There Kate Middleton wore a delicate daisy lace dress with silver-grey ribbon detail and a soft peach shantung jacket with nude heels, before changing into a navy blue dress and magenta cardigan for her shop.
The front of the store was decked out in light blue, but there was no indication that she bought the color. It was in fact reported that Kate Middleton picked out beige and brown English handmade fabrics inside.
“Kate was fascinated by all the designs and picked out two,” a source told the Daily Star Sunday.
“She had very definite ideas about what she liked. It was boiling hot outside so the door was open.
“She was feeling the heat so we sat her down with a glass of water. The Duchess was charming and so lovely. She didn’t put on any airs or graces. She said she’d got so many ideas after coming in.”
Kate Middleton has one more scheduled official public engagement before she goes on maternity leave, when she names a ship on Thursday in Southampton, Hampshire.
The duchess will also attend Trooping the Colour next week to mark the Queen’s birthday – and is debating whether to join Prince William at the Order of the Garter ceremony in Windsor a few days later.
Bernard Thorp, which was founded in 1971, says on its website that its “hand screen printed fabrics and wall coverings are of impeccable quality with an ethos of service second to none”.
John Zawahri – the gunman accused of going on a shooting spree in Santa Monica Friday that left four people dead, among them his father and brother – was upset over his parents’ recent divorce and had a history of mental illness, it was revealed today.
Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said Saturday that the alleged shooter, identified as John Zawahri by multiple law enforcement sources, planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds of ammunition.
“Any time someone puts on a vest, of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be neutralized at the hands of the police, I would say that that’s premeditated,” she told reporters at a press conference.
John Zawahri would have turned 24 on Saturday.
Police had an encounter with him seven years ago, but they wouldn’t elaborate because he was a juvenile at the time.
Santa Monica college gunman John Zawahri went on shooting rampage killing four because he was angry at parents divorce
A law enforcement source has revealed to the Los Angeles Times that John Zawahri had suffered from mental problems in his youth.
As they work to untangle the circumstances surrounding the deadly rampage, police are trying to determine why the suspect wanted to be driven to Santa Monica College, where he was ultimately shot dead by police.
Laura Sisk, 41, who was carjacked by John Zawahri, told the Los Angeles Times that the man specifically asked her to be taken to the college and then let out. At this point in the investigation, authorities do not believe that the education institution was the target in the attack.
However, Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said the gunman was enrolled in the college, possibly along with a family member, as recently as 2010.
At a police press conference this afternoon, investigators put on display weapons and ammo recovered from Santa Monica College where the killings ended Friday when police gunned him down in the library, where students were studying for finals.
Among items presented to the press were surveillance photos of a man in black entering the library with an assault-style rifle by his side.
A dam has broken on the flood-swollen River Elbe in eastern Germany, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes around the city of Magdeburg.
Water levels in Magdeburg stood at 7.44 m (24 ft) on Sunday, nearly four times higher than normal (2 m).
In Hungary, water levels on the Danube are expected to peak on Sunday after the worst floods in more than a decade.
At least 15 people have died in the floods in Central Europe, which will cost billions of euros to clean up.
The authorities in Germany are investigating an anonymous letter threatening attacks on several dams.
The motive behind the threats is not known, but the threat is being taken seriously.
In the Hungarian capital Budapest, flood defenses have been strengthened and appear to have held up.
Water levels in Magdeburg stood at 7.44 m on Sunday, nearly four times higher than normal
Along more than 700 km (470 miles) of the River Danube, thousands of people, including many volunteers and even convicts from the prisons, worked to reinforce earth and sandbag barriers,
Late on Friday, residents were moved out of their homes in the village of Gyorujfalu, near the city of Gyor, because a dyke weakened after a landslide.
No flood-related deaths have so far been reported in Hungary.
The river is forecast to peak at around 9 m in Budapest late on Sunday. Flood barriers now stand at 9.50 m.
In Magdeburg, more than 23,000 people left their homes as flooding increased and power was shut off.
Flood defenses on the Elbe and the River Saale have been weakened by days of heavy rain.
Another dam is in danger, reports the regional broadcaster MDR, and more evacuations may have to take place.
German President Joachim Gauck visited the flood-stricken city of Halle, near Magdeburg, and paid tribute to the way its inhabitants had coped.
“It is fantastic to see how different people get together to help others. And you notice that many of them are exhausted, but they are happy and it seems to motivate them,” Joachim Gauck said.
The flood crest is expected to reach northern Germany in the coming days.
Edward Snowden, a former CIA technical worker, has been identified by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes.
Edward Snowden, 29, is described by the Guardian as an ex-CIA technical assistant, currently employed by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Guardian said his identity was being revealed at his own request.
The recent revelations are that US agencies gathered millions of phone records and monitored internet data.
The Guardian quotes Edward Snowden as saying he flew to Hong Kong on May 20, where he holed himself up in a hotel.
He told the paper: “I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.”
Asked what he thought would happen to him, he replied: “Nothing good.”
Edward Snowden said he had gone to Hong Kong because of its “strong tradition of free speech”.
The first of the leaks came out on Wednesday night, when the Guardian reported a US secret court had ordered phone company Verizon to hand over to the National Security Agency (NSA) millions of records on telephone call “metadata”.
Edward Snowden, a former CIA technical worker, has been identified as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes
The metadata include the numbers of both phones on a call, its duration, time, date and location (for mobiles, determined by which mobile signal towers relayed the call or text).
That report was followed by revelations in both the Washington Post and Guardian that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to track online communication in a programme known as PRISM.
All the internet companies deny giving the US government access to their servers.
PRISM is said to give the NSA and FBI access to emails, web chats and other communications directly from the servers of major US internet companies.
The data are used to track foreign nationals suspected of terrorism or spying. The NSA is also collecting the telephone records of American customers, but not recording the content of their calls.
On Saturday, US director of national intelligence James Clapper called the leaks “literally gut-wrenching”.
“I hope we’re able to track down whoever’s doing this, because it is extremely damaging to, and it affects the safety and security of this country,” he told NBC News on Saturday.
PRISM was reportedly established in 2007 in order to provide in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information on foreigners overseas.
The NSA has filed a criminal report with the US Justice Department over the leaks.
The content of phone conversations – what people say to each other when they are on the phone – is protected by the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which forbids unreasonable searches.
However, information shared with a third party, such as phone companies, is not out of bounds.
That means that data about phone calls – such as their timing and duration – can be scooped up by government officials.
James Clapper’s office issued a statement on Saturday, saying all the information gathered under PRISM was obtained with the approval of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court (FISA).
Prism was authorized under changes to US surveillance laws passed under President George Bush and renewed last year under Barack Obama.
On Friday, Barack Obama defended the surveillance programmes as a “modest encroachment” on privacy, necessary to protect the US from terrorist attacks.
“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program is about,” he said, emphasizing that the programmes were authorized by Congress.
Richard Ramirez’s skin color turned “a shocking shade of green” before his death from liver failure on Friday.
Night Stalker Richard Ramirez, 53, spent 24 years on death row after a spree of demonic murders in California.
The serial killer died reportedly after “sitting up in his bed doing stretches” just the day before at Marin County Hospital.
Richard Ramirez had been taken from San Quentin’s death row to a hospital before his death.
A source told the New York Post that Richard Ramirez’s skin turned to the ghastly hue on Thursday and was up and moving around his hospital bed.
Richard Ramirez’s skin color turned “a shocking shade of green” before his death from liver failure
“He was the color green,” said the Post‘s source.
“He looked like a green highlighter pen.”
It appears the killer was showing signs of severe jaundice in the final throes of his illness.
The skin and eye whites of a sufferer can change color when bilirubin – a yellow substance – builds up in the body.
Bilirubin is formed when haemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen round the body, breaks down. It is usually flushed out of the body in urine or faeces, but a build-up of the waste product in the bloodsteam can lead to the change in skin color.
Richard Ramirez had been housed on death row for decades and was awaiting execution, even though it has been years since anyone has been put to death in California.
He was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 s**ual assaults and 14 burglaries, which terrorized Southern California in 1984 and 1985.
Though Richard Ramirez died of liver failure, the exact cause of the ailment has not been released due to federal patient privacy laws.
Johnny Depp, who celebrates his 50th birthday today, was hailed as the world’s sexiest man, but he still has not achieved the stable home life he longed for.
Sources told The Sunday People part of it is that Johnny Depp always acts like a teenager with women, rather than a middle-aged dad of two.
And his psyche must owe a lot to a childhood in which his volatile parents uprooted him 30 times in 15 years.
Johnny Depp has loved and lost some of the world’s most beautiful women, including British supermodel Kate Moss.
He was shattered when his 14-year relationship with French singer Vanessa Paradis, 40, ended last year.
Yet Johnny Depp soon fell into the arms of bombshell actress Amber Heard, 27. He is already calling the beauty his soulmate and talking of marriage.
But friends are saying it is a relationship that won’t last. Old schoolmate Yves Bouhadana said: “Johnny falls in love at first sight. When he falls for a girl he really falls for her.”
Yves Bouhadana, who was in a teenage band with Johnny Depp and is still friends with him, added: “He wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s is a genuinely nice guy.
“He doesn’t act around his friends. What you see is what you get.”
Johnny Depp is worth more than $350 million and his agents can command $20 million for a film role.
But his childhood was far from idyllic. He was the youngest of four and witnessed constant rows between his dad John, an engineer, and waitress mum Betty Sue. When the family moved from Kentucky to Florida all of them lived at first in a single motel room.
They moved on average every six months and young Johnny constantly changed schools. The marriage unraveled slowly and painfully and by the time Johnny Depp was 13 he was smoking d**e, drinking heavily and deliberately cutting his arms to hurt himself.
Talking later about his marks, Johnny Depp said: “My body is a journal, in a way. Every important event is marked there.”
His parents’ marriage ended when he was 15.
Johnny Depp’s first and most lasting love was music. His mother bought him a guitar for his 13th birthday and he spent hours learning to play.
He made friends with a group of like-minded boys, including Yves Bouhadana, and they formed heavy metal bands.
They discovered groupies and Johnny Depp lost his virginity in the back of a van after a concert at a school.
He described it as “forgettable” and it even put him off casual s**.
While band mates picked up all the girls, Johnny Depp concentrated on his music. Then he fell head over heels in love with make-up artist Lori Anne Allison after a 1980 gig in Florida. He was 17 and she was 22. He proposed marriage almost immediately but they did not tie the knot until Christmas Eve 1983, in Miami. Johnny Depp was 20.
Johnny Depp, who celebrates his 50th birthday today, was hailed as the world’s sexiest man, but he still has not achieved the stable home life he longed for
Yves Bouhadana, now a 49-year-old sales executive living in Ohio, recalled: “She was absolutely beautiful. Still is.”
“Lori was his first serious relationship and he couldn’t wait to marry her. She is a very private person and doesn’t like to talk about the marriage. They are still friends.
“That’s the great thing with Johnny. He hasn’t changed since we were at school. We all still get together.”
Johnny Depp wanted to make it as a rock guitarist and Lori Anne Allison supported him as a make-up artist when they moved to Hollywood with his band The Kids.
But musical success and happiness eluded him. The Kids opened for the Ramones, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders and Talking Heads but the band failed to get a record deal and his marriage fell apart within two years. Biographer Cristopher Heard said: “It ended just simply because of the stress of failure.”
Johnny Depp and Lori Anne Allison were evicted from several apartments and were divorced in 1985. But Lori Anne Allison had introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage and the two became mates. Nicolas Cage persuaded him to get an agent.
Success came quickly with a memorable role in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, which became an unexpected hit.
Soon Johnny Depp was engaged to Twin Peaks beauty Sherilyn Fenn but they split after two years, blaming work commitments.
Never on his own for long, Johnny Depp dated Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey and – following a familiar pattern – proposed.
But that relationship also lasted only two years and Johnny Depp quickly hooked up with fiancée No4 Winona Ryder, his co-star in 1990’s Edward Scissorhands.
Work got in the way again and after splitting from Winona Ryder he moved on to Kate Moss.
Kate Moss was 23, a supermodel, and he was a 33-year-old film star. The relationship was volatile. Johnny Depp once caused $10,000 damage to his New York hotel room after a row with Kate Moss.
And he was devastated when they broke up in 1998 after four years together.
Johnny Depp said: “I cried for a week after we split. I didn’t give her the attention I should have done. I was a horrific pain in the butt to live with. I’m a total moron at times. I let my work get in the way.
“I will never let it happen again. I think you could say I have truly discovered the meaning of loneliness.”
But within weeks Johnny Depp was spotted out with Vanessa Paradis. And three months later she was pregnant. Their daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp was born in 1999 and the couple’s son John Christopher “Jack” Depp III came along in 2002.
With homes in France and the Bahamas, they looked settled. But in the later years Johnny Depp started to spend more time working in Hollywood and the split from Vanessa Paradis was announced in June 2012.
True to form he quickly sought solace with Amber Heard. His frends said Johnny Depp was once again acting like a teenager in love. The pair had two bust-ups in the early stages but have since calmed down.
One friend said: “Johnny always goes overboard with women. He has whisked Amber off to his island in the Bahamas and has already introduced her to his children. When they’re apart he sends her poetry. It is very sweet but everyone worries about him getting hurt again.”
This weekend there are several 50th birthday celebrations for Johnny Depp.
Rolling Stone Keith Richards insisted on being there with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard to toast his pal’s landmark.
The friendship began after Johnny Depp revealed he modeled his Pirates of the Caribbean character Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards, 69.
The Bolshoi has announced it will not renew the contract of veteran dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who has been in open conflict with the theatre since the acid attack on its artistic director Sergei Filin.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze, 39, who has been at the Bolshoi since 1992, is one of the theatre top talents.
He sparked conflict when he accused bosses of using the attack on Sergei Filin to conduct a witch hunt against him.
A spokeswoman said Nikolai Tsiskaridze, would leave at the end of the month.
“I can confirm that yesterday Tsiskaridze was given notice that his fixed-term contracts will not be renewed. His contract runs out June 30,” Katerina Novikova told Rossiya 24 on Saturday.
Katerina Novikova refused to give a reason for the decision.
In an NTV television interview on Sunday, Nikolai Tsiskaridze questioned the theatre’s right to let him go.
Dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who has been at the Bolshoi since 1992, is one of the theatre top talents
“To be honest, this is still not clear, because I’m on staff as a ballet artiste,” he said.
“When I was taken on, I joined the staff. I didn’t sign any paper to be released from this. It’s all very confusing.”
Earlier this year, the Bolshoi filed two reprimands against Nikolai Tsiskaridze for giving unauthorized interviews after the attack on Sergei Filin in January.
Under Russian law, multiple reprimands can be grounds for dismissal.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze appealed and a Moscow court annulled one of the reprimands.
In his outspoken interviews, Nikolai Tsiskaridze complained of corruption and called for the theatre’s entire management to be sacked and for himself to be put in charge.
It led to a tit-for-tat response from Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov, who suggested Nikolai Tsiskaridze might have played a role in inciting the attack on Sergei Filin, which left him with severe burns to his face and fighting to save his sight.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze has denied having anything to do with the attack and insists the Bolshoi has been trying to drive him out.
Soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two alleged accomplices have been charged in connection with the attack and are in jail awaiting trial.
In March, Pavel Dmitrichenko admitted to discussing the attack but denied ordering the use of acid.
A masked protester waving a lit flare ran onto the court at the men’s final of the French Open tennis in Paris but was restrained by security before he could interrupt the match.
A few minutes earlier, two bare-chested men stood up in the front rows, holding a banner accusing France of trampling on children’s rights.
Masked protester waving a lit flare ran onto the court at the men’s final of the French Open tennis in Paris
Other protesters called on President Francois Hollande to resign.
The protesters were angered by France’s decision to legalize same-s** marriage.
The first same-s** wedding in France took place last month under tight security.
Campaigners against gay marriage and adoption by same-s** couples, backed by the Catholic Church and conservative opposition, argue the law undermines an essential building block of society.
The protests at the French Open final were quickly snuffed out.
Rafael Nadal won the final in straight sets, defeating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
Rafael Nadal had to cope with an on-court intruder and the Paris rain to beat fellow Spaniard David Ferrer and win a record eighth French Open title.
Rafael Nadal, 27, came through 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 to reaffirm his dominance on clay, and further elevate himself among the greats of the sport.
However, the final was marred by a brief protest high in the stands during the second set that was quickly followed by an intruder leaping onto the court while brandishing a flare.
Security guards managed to bundle the man to the ground as he approached Rafael Nadal, and the player even took care to shake an official’s hand before returning to the action.
Rafael Nadal immediately dropped his serve, but within an hour he had wrapped up the victory that makes him the first man to win a Grand Slam singles tournament eight times.
His 59th match win also takes him past Roger Federer and Guillermo Vilas at Roland Garros, while his 12th major title moves him above Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver on the all-time list.
David Ferrer, playing in his first major final at the age of 31, was a worthy adversary and pushed his compatriot harder than the score might suggest, but he never threatened an upset.
Rafael Nadal won a record eighth French Open title after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer
Both men appeared edgy in the early stages, with breaks of serve exchanged in games three and four, but Rafael Nadal fired a brilliant cross-court backhand winner to move ahead again at 4-3 and took the set with a third break.
David Ferrer was making his illustrious compatriot work for his service games and missed an early chance in the second set, before Rafael Nadal made him pay with a forehand winner for 2-0.
A routine afternoon looked on the cards, but the calm was shattered by chanting from protesters with a banner in the upper tier of the stands during the sixth game of the set.
The players paused while the incident was dealt with only for another, potentially more serious, disturbance to follow before the next game when a shirtless man wearing a mask vaulted the flower bed surrounding the court, waving a burning flare above his head.
When play resumed, two unsurprisingly distracted service games followed, but Rafael Nadal moved two sets clear and looked razor sharp again when a volley put him 2-0 ahead in the third.
The increasingly heavy rain now appeared the biggest threat to his ambitions, but David Ferrer was not done and got back on level terms before blowing an opportunity to move ahead with a backhand error at 3-3.
It was to be David Ferrer’s last chance as a double-fault gave up his serve for the seventh time.
Rafael Nadal moved to match point and cracked a magnificent forehand winner before falling back onto the clay in celebration for an incredible eighth time at Roland Garros.
Scottish writer Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said.
The author revealed in April he was suffering from terminal gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year.
Iain Banks was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity.
In a statement, Iain Banks’ publisher said he was “an irreplaceable part of the literary world”.
Little, Brown Book Group said the author was “one of the country’s best-loved novelists” for both his mainstream and science fiction books.
“Iain Banks’ ability to combine the most fertile of imaginations with his own highly distinctive brand of gothic humor made him unique,” the statement said.
After announcing his illness in April, Iain Banks asked his publishers to bring forward the release date of his latest novel, The Quarry, so he could see it on the shelves.
On Sunday, it was revealed the book – to be released on 20 June – would detail the physical and emotional strain of cancer.
Scottish writer Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer
It describes the final weeks of the life of a man in his 40s who has terminal cancer.
Iain Banks revealed he was some 87,000 words into writing the book when he was diagnosed with his own illness.
“I had no inkling. So it wasn’t as though this is a response to the disease or anything, the book had been kind of ready to go,” he said.
“And then 10,000 words from the end, as it turned out, I suddenly discovered that I had cancer.”
Little, Brown Book Group said the author was presented with finished copies of his last novel three weeks ago.
Iain Banks’ first novel, The Wasp Factory, was published in 1984 and was ranked as one of the best 100 books of the 20th Century in a 1997 poll conducted by book chain Waterstone’s and Channel 4.
The writer also penned sci-fi titles under the name Iain M. Banks. His most recent book, The Hydrogen Sonata, was released last year.
After announcing his illness, Iain Banks had described being “hugely moved” by the public support for him through his website.
“Still knocked out by the love and the depth of feeling coming from so many people; thank you, all of you,”he wrote on Banksophilia last month.
Johnny Depp has dropped out of Black Mass, the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger biopic, after being asked to take a $10 million pay cut.
Johnny Depp, 50, was to have been paid $20 million to star in Black Mass which told the story of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.
But after producers shopped the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival in France and failed to attract a large number of bids they asked Johnny Depp to drop his usual $20 million fee.
The actor refused to agree to the paycut – and has walked away from the production.
Producers of the film to be directed by Hollywood veteran Barry Levinson had wanted to trim their budget down to $60 million.
Johnny Depp has dropped out of Black Mass, the notorious gangster Whitey Bulger biopic, after being asked to take a $10 million pay cut
According to theHollywood Reporter pre-sales of the film at Cannes had been “soft”.
Whitey Bulger was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for over 10 years and wanted for murder.
He was captured in June of 2011 after his girlfriend was spotted visiting a beauty salon.
The FBI had placed adverts in beauty magazines asking people to be on the lookout for Whitey Bulger, 83 and his girlfriend Catherine Greig.
The pair were arrested in California.
Whitey Bulger was wanted for the murder of at least ten people and was said to be the basis for the Jack Nicholson character in the film The Departed.
Johnny Depp, one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, will next be seen in The Lone Ranger which opens in July. He plays Tonto, the native American partner of the Lone Ranger.
Surveillance footage shows Santa Monica College shooter John Zawahri, entering the campus library, clearly carrying a large firearm.
He killed four people including his own father and brother.
While John Zawahri fired through the wall, students in the school’s library were able to survive the rampage by stacking items against the door and squatting to the floor.
Carlos Navarro Franco has been identified among the dead. His daughter Marcela, 25, was taken to UCLA Medical Center after her father was fatally wounded and crashed the car he was driving into a wall. She is on life support and in “grim condition”, according to Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline A. Seabrooks who would not confirm the names of any other victims at a 4 p.m. press conference.
John Zawahri, 24, armed with an AR-15, a handgun, and 1,300 rounds of ammunition began the deadly spree by killing his father and brother and setting fire to their Southern California home.
Dressed all in black and carrying a semi-automatic rifle, John Zawahri walked through the Santa Monica College campus – where he was enrolled as a student “as recently as 2010”, according to police – after killing his father, brother and another person, authorities said.
When he entered the library, students were able to run to a “safe room”, where they stacked items against the door and “hunkered down” to avoid the shots that John Zawahri fired at them through a wall.
He would kill a woman outside the library moments later, before dying from police gunfire.
A neighbor described the victim as unemployed, 22, man who lived in the Mar Vista area with his mother.
Sources tell CNN that John Zawahri was hospitalized for mental illness in recent years after allegedly talking about harming others.
It remains unclear if he admitted himself or if he was involuntary placed in the hospital. Also unclear are the exact circumstances of his treatment and the circumstances of his release.
Officials do not believe John Zawahri had any terrorist affiliations, domestic or international.
Jacqueline A. Seabrooks did confirm that John Zawahri had a 2006 run-in with the law but was unable to specify its exact nature, as he was a minor at the time.
Surveillance footage shows Santa Monica College shooter John Zawahri, entering the campus library, clearly carrying a large firearm
Trena Johnson, a longtime administrative assistant working in the dean’s office, looked out the window around noon Friday and saw a man with a “very large gun”.
“We saw a woman get shot in the head,” said Trena Johnson.
“I haven’t been able to stop shaking.”
The violence, which lasted just about 20 minutes, started about mile away when John Zawahri opened fire in front of a house he’d set ablaze.
Two officials said the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman’s father and brother. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
As the house burst into flames, John Zawahri carjacked a woman at gunpoint and directed her to drive to the college campus, having her stop so he could shoot along the way, police said.
He wounded one woman in a car who was in critical condition late Friday. He fired on a city bus where three women were left with minor injuries. One had shrapnel-type injuries and the two others had injuries not related to gunfire. They were treated at a hospital and released.
The gunman also fired on police cars, bystanders and pedestrians, police said.
From there, the chaos shifted to Santa Monica College, a two-year college with about 34,000 students located among homes and strip malls more than a mile inland from the city’s famous pier, promenade and expansive, sandy beaches.
In a faculty parking lot on the edge of campus, he fired on two people in a red Ford Explorer that crashed through a block wall. The driver was killed, police said, and a passenger was in critical condition after undergoing surgery UCLA Medical Center, doctors said.
College employee Joe Orcutt was in the lot and said he saw the gunman, looking calm and composed.
“He’s just standing there, like he’s modeling for some ammo magazine,” Joe Orcutt said, “seeing who he could shoot, one bullet at a time, like target practice.”
The gunman walked on to campus and shot the woman in front of the library, who appeared to be in her 50s and carried a bag of recyclables, police spokesman Richard Lewis said. She died at the hospital about three hours later.
The gunman went inside the library and kept shooting but apparently hit no one, Jacqueline A. Seabrooks said.
Dozens of students, who had been studying for final exams, ran for the exits.
“I was totally scared to death and I can’t believe it happened so fast,” said Vincent Zhang, a 20-year-old economics major.
Officers entered the library and shot the gunman moments later, Jacqueline A. Seabrooks said. He was carried to a sidewalk, where he was declared dead. His body remained there many hours later as coroner’s investigators examined the scene. His name and the names of his victims’ were being withheld while the coroner’s office notified relatives.
Nine crime scenes were under investigation by officers from 11 different law enforcement agencies, said Richard Lewis.
On the gunman they found a canvas bag that included a rifle, a handgun and magazines of ammunition, Richard Lewis said. A small cache of ammunition found in the house that had burned.
Police had said earlier that seven people were killed, including the gunman, but they revised the death toll to five at a news conference late Friday. Richard Lewis said there were conflicting descriptions of some victims and they were counted twice.
At a press conference Friday night, Sgt. Richard Lewis said that the gunman acted alone, and investigators have released a man who had been detained as a “person of interest”.
Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro will plead “not guilty” to 329 charges, including kidnapping and rape.
On Friday, Ariel Castro, 52, was indicted on 329 charges. His lawyer told Reuters Saturday that he plans on pleading “not guilty” to those charges at his arraignment next week.
“The indictment is being reviewed and a <<not guilty>> plea will be entered at the scheduled arraignment,” attorney Jaye M. Schlachet said.
The indictment covers the period from August of 2002, when Michelle Knight, the first of the three women discovered in his Cleveland home last month, disappeared, until February of 2007.
Ariel Castro was indicted for one act of aggravated murder – for purposely and with prior calculation and design causing the unlawful termination of another’s pregnancy.
He was also indicted on 139 counts of rape, 177 counts of kidnapping, seven counts of gross s***al imposition, three counts of felonious assault and one count of possession of criminal tools.
Ariel Castro will be arraigned on those charges next week and a trial judge will then be assigned.
“Today’s indictments represent a first major step in the criminal justice process,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty.
When the indictment process is complete, the County Prosecutor’s Capital Review Committee will consider whether this case is appropriate to attach the death penalty.
Cleveland kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro will plead “not guilty” to 329 charges
Ariel Castro is accused of kidnapping Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight and holding them captive along with 6-year-old Jocelyn, the girl he fathered with Berry.
The suspect has been in the Cuyahoga County Jail since his arrest on May 6. He was charged on May 8 and was jailed on $8 million bond.
Ariel Castro was taken off “suicide prevention” watch on Wednesday after being monitored for the past month.
Jail logs released on Wednesday also show Ariel Castro has been visited multiple times by relatives, but did not list which family members paid a visit to the suspect, News Channel 5 reported.
They also reveal that he watched a lot of television, spent a lot of time running in place and has met with his defense attorneys. He has refused time out of his cell on at least two occasions.
They show his cells being checked for contraband items – and none being found.
Jail logs last month noted that Ariel Castro spends most of his time in his cell resting or asleep, with breaks for pacing, showers and cell cleaning.
Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver, was arrested May 6 after one of the women, Amanda Berry, kicked out part of a locked door of his house and yelled to neighbors to help her and call police.
Police quickly arrived and found Amanda Berry in the street before racing through the house, freeing Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. The women were admitted to a hospital but have been released.
Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus disappeared between 2002 and 2004, when they were in their teens or early 20s, authorities said.
