Norwegian Eiliv Ruud plunged 1,000 feet to his death when his parachute failed to open after he struck a vertical cliff and spiraled out of control.
Eiliv Ruud, 37, was taking part in a BASE jump near the Grand Canyon, but two other jumpers were forced to watch helplessly as the stunt went tragically wrong.
BASE jumping is an activity in which participants leap off tall, static objects and use a parachute to break their fall.
The accident took place at Salt Trail Canyon, in northern Arizona, on Tuesday.
The term “BASE” is an acronym for “buildings, antennas, spans and earth”.
“Mr. Ruud was the first one to jump, and the other two watched. When he had fallen a distance of about 500 feet, it appeared that a gust of wind blew him against the canyon wall,” said sheriff’s spokesman Gerry Blair.
Eiliv Ruud’s parachute failed to deploy fully, and the contact “pretty much caused him to spiral down the rest” of the way, Gerry Blair said.
Eiliv Ruud was pronounced dead at the scene.
Eiliv Ruud plunged 1,000 feet to his death when his parachute failed to open after he struck a vertical cliff and spiraled out of control
Salt Trail Canyon flanks the Little Colorado River, one of the largest tributaries of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon.
Gerry Blair said Eiliv Ruud and the other Norwegian man and woman had previously visited the area, which is popular with BASE jumpers.
Gerry Blair said BASE jump fatalities in Coconino County were infrequent.
Rescue crews were flown in and had to hike into the canyon to reach Eiliv Ruud, who was confirmed dead.
New details from thousands of emails released Wednesday reveal Colorado gunman James Holmes had a girlfriend around the time of the attack.
His girlfriend was in India at the time of the mass shooting and, according to e-mails, was “pretty freaked out”.
The new information also reveals detailed information about the fear and confusion in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado massacre.
Many of the emails are partially or completely blacked out, the university says to avoid violating privacy laws.
The result is minimal information on James Holmes’ struggles at the school or whether the institution recognized the danger he may have represented.
The emails do shed some light on how the university responded to news that one of its students was allegedly responsible for the attack that killed 12 people and wounded 58 on July 22nd.
James Holmes’ name began to circulate in news reports a few hours after the early-morning shooting.
At 6:47 a.m., Angie Ribera, director of the neuroscience program, noted that the shooter could be the 24-year-old of the same name who had just withdrawn from her department.
“Do you think we should meet with students in his class?” she asked colleagues.
“If they had been close to him, this would definitely be something that I think we should do. But as they were not, I do not know.”
An hour later, officials confirmed James Holmes was the former graduate student, and Ribera grew more alarmed. At the time, police were trying to remove booby-traps he allegedly left at his nearby apartment before leaving for the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
Angie Ribera sent an email to another senior faculty member noting that Holmes was in custody.
“However, he was friendly with 1-2 students in another program and I am worried about the safety of all (neuroscience) students and Faculty as well as the safety of all (medical) students.”
At 8:02am, the administrator of the neuroscience program broke the news to students there and urged them not to post anything to Facebook or Twitter.
Campus officials quickly sought to control the flow of information.
As reporters began to bombard James Holmes’ few acquaintance and professors with inquiries, administrators urged faculty and students to refer all media calls to a spokeswoman.
New details from thousands of emails released Wednesday reveal Colorado gunman James Holmes had a girlfriend around the time of the attack
Faculty quickly began emailing with each other and friends about the news. Larry Hunter, who is listed as director of the Center for Computational Bioscience, was asked about the shooting by a friend.
“Yeah, he was a grad student here, and, it turns out, had a brief romantic relationship with one of the grad students in my program last fall,” Larry Hunter wrote.
“She, fortunately, it turns out is in India right now.”
“She knows and is pretty freaked out,” he said.
Larry Hunter said Wednesday he would not comment.
James Holmes allegedly began stockpiling firearms and ammunition while taking classes in the spring.
In June, prosecutors say, he made threats to a professor, and he filed withdrawal papers June 10 after failing a year-end exam.
The next day he saw his school psychiatrist, who tried to report him to a campus security committee, according to Holmes’ lawyers.
KMGH in Denver Wednesday night reported that that psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, reached out to campus police partly because James Holmes talked about killing “a lot of people” but that she opted not to place him under a psychiatric hold because he was withdrawing from the school.
A spokeswoman said she could not comment on the report.
Four days after the attack, campus police chief Doug Abraham said at a news conference that campus police had no information on James Holmes.
The school has since declined to answer detailed questions about James Holmes’ behavior, citing a gag order that remains in effect and federal privacy laws that limit the amount of medical and academic information it can disclose.
Those laws also limited the number of documents released Wednesday.
At the request of defense attorneys, about 100 emails between James Holmes and his family and friends were withheld because they are not covered under Colorado’s Open Records Act.
The remaining documents were released only after a lengthy court battle.
In correspondence from August 7th, an assistant professor told colleagues that he interviewed James Holmes for about 30 minutes during a recruitment visit in February 2011, then noted that his evaluation of Holmes was entered into an internal university system and was still available for examination.
In later correspondence, the campus director of academic support services suggested that the university was looking to get rid of that evaluation from the system.
Jim Finster, the campus director of academic support services, recalled that attorney Annalissa Philbin had “instructed me to purge those data”.
“Admittedly, I have not completed that task yet, but was planning on doing it very shortly,” Jim Finster wrote in an email to Annalissa Philbin.
“Should I change those plans?”
It’s unclear if Annalissa Philbin responded, but the university’s director of media relations forwarded the exchange to another attorney with a blunt message: “What??”
On Wednesday, university officials provided a later email, from August 8th, in which Annalissa Philbin said no information should be purged at that time.
In the days after the shooting, the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s office asked Judge William B. Sylvester to bar the university from releasing records requested by numerous media organizations.
Prosecutors argued that the information could jeopardize James Holmes’ right to a fair trial. Sylvester agreed, but amended his order last month to allow the release after media organizations objected in court.
James Holmes is charged with multiple first-degree murder and attempted murder counts.
He has not entered a plea and won’t do so until after a weeklong preliminary hearing in which prosecutors will present evidence supporting the charges.
That hearing is scheduled to begin January 7th.
James Holmes’ attorneys have said he suffers from a mental illness.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has revised down its eurozone growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013 as “economic weakness extends into 2013”.
ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank expected the bloc’s economy to shrink by about 0.5% this year, before recovering later in 2013.
He said weak consumer and investor sentiment was weighing on growth.
Earlier, the ECB held the benchmark eurozone interest rate at the record low of 0.75%, as had been expected.
Mario Draghi said rates had been left unchanged due to higher energy prices, rising taxes and the fact inflation fell from 2.5% to 2.2% last month.
Interest rates are the main tool used by central banks to influence demand and therefore prices in the economy.
Mario Draghi said the bank expected inflation to fall below 2% next year. The target rate is below but close to 2%.
Interest rates have been at 0.75% for five months, after July’s cut from 1%.
ECB has revised down its eurozone growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013
The ECB revised down is forecast for the eurozone economic growth in 2013 to between minus 0.9% and plus 0.4%.
For 2014, it forecast growth of between 0.2% and 2.2%.
Mario Draghi said “persistent uncertainty” was weighing on economic activity.
He said the bank continued to see “downside risks”, in particular “uncertainties about the resolution of sovereign debt issues in the euro area, geopolitical issues and fiscal policy decisions in the United States”.
He was referring to the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax rises which kick in the new year and which will push the US economy back into recession. US policymakers are trying to agree a way to avoid the cliff.
However, Mario Draghi said a “strengthening global demand and a significant improvement in financial market confidence” would help fuel a recovery later in 2013.
The eurozone is back in recession as austerity measures designed to reduce debt levels continue to undermine demand and confidence.
The economy of the 17-member bloc contracted by 0.1% between July and September, after shrinking 0.2% in the previous three months.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is at a record high of 11.7%.
The eurozone was last in recession in 2009, when the economy contracted for five consecutive quarters.
Pictures leaked online claim to show the case for the forthcoming iPhone 5S, Apple’s next update of its market leading smartphone.
Surfacing on French website Nowhereelse.fr, the images reveal an exterior virtual identical to the current iPhone 5, which was only released in September.
But a closer look at the inside of the part shows the fixing points of some of the internal components – which differ from the latest model – seems to suggest that it could be a new part for an updated phone.
Nowhereelse.fr hedge its bets, admitting that while it could be a case from a new iPhone prototype, it could equally be part of a well-made Chinese iPhone clone.
It says it first found the images published on the website forum iPhone5Parts and makes no attempt to confirm their authenticity.
Nevertheless, the apparent leak comes as the rumors have begun to circulate online that Apple is already about to begin making the successor to its latest smartphone.
Pictures leaked online claim to show the case for the forthcoming iPhone 5S
A Chinese site in November claimed the firm was set to begin trial production of the new model this month, although has no details of what new features it may contain.
The Commercial Times estimated that full commercial production of the rumored iPhone 5S will begin as early as Q1 2013, with the December run only expected to return between 50,000 and 100,000 units.
Facing low yield rates in the production of iPhone 5, Apple has accelerated the certification processes for related parts and components for the iPhone 5S, the paper revealed, according to DigiTimes.
“While the speculated iPhone 5S is expected to enter volume production in the first quarter of 2013, Apple is also likely to release a new version of iPad a quarter later than the iPhone 5S, since the display resolution of its latest version of iPad has come out lower than expected,” the paper said.
However, while the firm may begin trial production, some believe it may not go on sale until later next year.
“The industry was surprised at how quickly the iPad 4 replaced the 3, however that was to make all of its top line products have the same connector,” said Luke Peters, editor of T3 magazine.
“Trial production might see we see snippets on the web, but its usually 6-7 months until we see a launch, and so I would expect to see a new version, be it an iPhone 5S or a 6, late next year.”
It comes as Samsung’s Galaxy S3 has become the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the last quarter, pushing aside Apple’s iPhone.
Apple has dominated the chart for more than two years, research firm Strategy Analytics said.
It claims Samsung sold 18 million S3 models in the third quarter, compared with iPhone 4S sales of 16.2 million.
Strong sales of the flagship Galaxy S3- which comes with a large 4.8 inch touchscreen – helped Samsung post a record $7.3 billion operating profit in the July-September quarter.
Apple customers were also believed to be waiting for the release of the iPhone 5, which is expected to propel Apple back to the top spot.
A spectacular night-time view of Earth, called Black Marble, has been assembled from a series of cloud-free images acquired by one of the most capable satellites in the sky today – the Suomi spacecraft.
The platform was launched by the US last year, principally to deliver critical meteorological data.
The Black Marble dataset shows off one of Suomi’s key innovations: the low-light sensitivity of its VIIRS instrument.
VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) can discern a range of phenomena of interest to weather forecasters – cloud, snow, fog, etc – even when the satellite is on the dark side of the Earth.
Most of the time, all VIIRS needs to do its work is some illumination from the Moon. But if that is not available, the instrument can still detect features down below just from the nocturnal glow of the atmosphere itself.
And, of course, just as this Black Marble rendition demonstrates, VIIRS is also very good at capturing the lights of our cities.
The new imagery was unveiled here at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.
Data from Suomi – a joint NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite – is certain to become a mainstay of future presentations at this conference.
Night-time view of Earth, called Black Marble, assembled from a series of cloud-free images acquired by Suomi satellite
VIIRS’ trick is its special day-night band. Unlike a camera that captures a whole picture in one exposure, the day-night band produces an image by repeatedly scanning a scene and resolving it as millions of individual pixels.
The system then reviews the amount of light in each pixel. If it is very bright, a low-gain mode prevents the pixel from oversaturating; if the pixel is very dark, the signal is amplified.
US Air Force satellites have pushed the development of low-light sensors for decades but NASA/NOAA representatives at the AGU meeting said VIIRS had taken the capability to a new level.
One of the instrument’s most important observations of late was to watch Hurricane Sandy as it made landfall over the US in October.
Suomi was launched as the NPP (National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project) satellite.
It was subsequently renamed in honor of the pioneering Earth observation scientist Verner E. Suomi. The two-tonne, $1.5 billion spacecraft circles the globe, pole to pole, at an altitude just over 800 km.
Its five instruments are tasked with monitoring a huge range of land, ocean, and atmospheric phenomena – from the temperature and humidity of the air, to the spread of algal blooms in the ocean; and from the amount of sunlight bouncing off clouds to the extent of Arctic ice.
Russian television journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev has been shot dead in the North Caucasus.
Kazbek Gekkiyev, 26, was a newsreader on state-controlled local television in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.
Attacks on journalists have become relatively common in Russia. The North Caucasus is the country’s most volatile region, where security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency.
On Thursday morning, the deputy minister of transport of Kabardino-Balkaria was injured in a bomb attack.
The official, Vladislav Dyadshenko, was taken to hospital after explosives went off near his car in Nalchik, the capital of the republic.
Kazbek Gekkiyev was killed in the same city, as he returned home after an evening programme on Wednesday night.
According to witnesses, the journalist was approached on the street by two men. They reportedly checked his name and profession, and then shot him in the head.
A spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee called it an “outrageous crime that was aimed as a warning to other journalists who report on the fight against bandits”.
Russian television journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev has been shot dead in the North Caucasus
Human rights groups have complained at the beating or murder of journalists who have tried to uncover wrongdoing by Russian authorities.
However, the latest killing did not appear to fit that pattern.
Colleagues at the Vesti Kabarda-Balkaria channel said Kazbek Gekkiyev had never pursued any critical reports and mostly delivered official law-enforcement information.
His brother Alibek Gekkiyev told Ekho Moskvy radio that his brother was very committed to “being a professional in what he does. He has never done anything bad to anyone, on either side. He was an absolutely neutral man”.
The channel said several of its reporters had received death threats from Islamists – but that it had not been part of Kazbek Gekkiyev’s job to cover the Islamist insurgency.
Pregnant Kate Middleton smiled this morning as she left hospital after four days of treatment for severe morning sickness.
The Duchess of Cambridge told reporters outside King Edward VII Hospital in London: “I’m feeling much better, thank you!”
Kate Middleton, 30, was discharged from the King Edward VII Hospital following three nights under observation and will now head to Kensington Palace for a period of rest, St James’s Palace said.
She emerged from the private hospital looking relaxed, carrying a bouquet of yellow flowers and giving a brief smile to the waiting press before being driven away with her husband Prince William.
Kate Middleton, who is less than 12 weeks pregnant, was wrapped up against the cold in a coat and scarf, and the royal couple will now spend time at their London home to allow for the Duchess to recuperate.
She was admitted on Monday after developing the condition known as hyperemesis gravidarum, and was suffering from the effects of dehydration.
For medical staff to allow Kate Middleton to go home, her severe vomiting must be under control and they are likely to have given her anti-sickness medication.
Kate Middleton emerged from the King Edward VII Hospital looking relaxed, carrying a bouquet of yellow flowers and giving a brief smile to the waiting press with Prince William
A St James’s Palace spokesman said: “The Duchess of Cambridge has been discharged from the King Edward VII Hospital and will now head to Kensington Palace for a period of rest.
“Their Royal Highnesses would like to thank the staff at the hospital for the care and treatment the Duchess has received.”
Kate Middleton looked immaculate today, wearing a navy coat and knee high low-heeled black suede boots.
Prince William, 30, had arrived at the hospital a few minutes earlier in a green Land Rover, dressed in a light blue jumper, checked shirt, dark jeans and suede shoes.
Yesterday Kate was also visited by her sister, Pippa Middleton, and brother James, at 3:45 p.m. They were followed by Carole Middleton who arrived at the hospital to see her elder daughter at 7:30 p.m.
The latest pictures of Demi Moore are likely to cause concern among her family and friends, as she was seen exhibiting some very bizarre behavior at a Chanel party with Lenny Kravitz on Wednesday night.
Demi Moore, 50, played up to the photographers present at the Chanel Beachside Barbecue, leaving friends including Lenny Kravitz and George Clooney’s girlfriend Stacy Keibler bemused by her antics.
As she enjoyed a chilled out sit down with Lenny Kravitz, Demi Moore couldn’t resist busting some moves in time with the music.
The mother-of-three, who wore a chic grey playsuit for the occasion, was seen lifting her arms and bumping and grinding while in her seat, as Lenny Kravitz appeared embarrassed and looked away.
While it is not clear whether or not Demi Moore was drinking at the evening, an array of energy drink cans were seen in front of her on the table – perhaps giving some explanation to her behavior.
As well as her dancing, Demi Moore was seen playing around with her hair – pulling her raven locks in front of her face as she posed up with Lenny Kravitz.
Later in the evening, Demi Moore found a new friend to play with as she posed with Stacy Keibler, who did her best to give the waiting photographers a chic shot – despite a slightly manic-looking Demi clinging on her arm.
Demi Moore was seen exhibiting some very bizarre behavior at a Chanel party with Lenny Kravitz on Wednesday night
While Demi Moore’s new beau American art dealer Vito Schnabel was at the event, the pair didn’t pose up together, but were rumored to have indulged in a passionate PDA inside.
A source told E! News: “They are definitely a couple. She is definitely more down to party than Vito.”
And the source added of Demi Moore’s partygoer attitude: “She was most ready to party than anyone else in the room!”
Other stars to attend the Chanel event included model Karlie Kloss and Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi, as well as Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend Dasha Zhukova.
Demi Moore has been keeping something of a low profile since announcing her marriage to Ashton Kutcher was over in November 2011, and is rarely seen at red carpet events.
As well as dealing with her marriage breakdown, the actress has also been struggling with health issues and checked into rehab last January.
But following her recovery, Demi Moore has thrown herself into her acting career and has landed a part in the highly anticipated drama Very Good Girls, which also stars Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning.
Isla Fisher stole the show from her husband Sacha Baron Cohen in daring plunging white gown by Willow with triangular cut out panels which accentuated her slim figure and red hair at the London premiere of Les Misérables.
But it must have got a little chilly as the pair posed up and ever the gentleman, Sacha Baron Cohen offered his wife a chivalric hand and helped her into her black jacket.
Although all eyes may have been on Isla Fisher, 36, her 6ft 2in husband perhaps had the best view of her daring satin gown as she shone on the red carpet.
Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Monsieur Thénardier alongside Helena Bonham Carter, did his best to look dashing next to his stunning wife.
There was a general theme of innocence as star of the show Anne Hathaway wore a glamorous pearl Givenchy gown that boasted sequin detail and off the shoulder sleeves.
The floor-length gown fell perfectly over her figure, hugging her hips before flowing out around her feet but the real drama of the dress came from the back.
The gown boasted a dipped hemline that scooped to the small of her back, leaving plenty of skin on show.
Isla Fisher stole the show from her husband Sacha Baron Cohen in daring plunging white gown at the London premiere of Les Misérables
Sacha Baron Cohen’s onscreen wife Helena Bonham Carter , who plays Madame Thénardier, looked just as quirky as usual in a black gown.
Isla Fisher recently said being “Mrs. Borat” can be rather embarrassing.
“I cannot tell you how embarrassing he is in social situations,” Isla Fisher said.
“To him, there’s no difference between the awkward gaffes he deliberately makes as a comic, and the terrible faux pas he innocently commits as my husband.”
The Egyptian army has deployed tanks and armored troop carriers outside the presidential palace in Cairo after clashes between supporters and rivals of President Mohammed Morsi.
The streets of the capital are now reported to be calm following the earlier violence that left five people dead and hundreds injured.
Egypt is seeing growing unrest over a controversial draft constitution.
The government insists that a referendum will go ahead this month.
The clashes are possibly the most dangerous development in Egypt’s growing political crisis.
The violence, which opposition leaders accused Mohamed Morsi’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement of organizing, was ominously reminiscent of the tactics used by former President Hosni Mubarak during the revolution.
Supporters of Mohamed Morsi responded to a call to rally outside the presidential palace, in the suburb of Heliopolis, on Wednesday afternoon.
The mainly secular opponents of the president were already staging a sit-in protest there, after tens of thousands of them besieged the palace on Tuesday.
Stones and petrol bombs were thrown and there were reports of gunfire as Morsi supporters dismantled some of the tents set up by their opponents.
The Brotherhood later called on all sides to “withdraw at the same time and pledge not to return there given the symbolism of the palace”.
Disorder was also reported in other cities, with Muslim Brotherhood offices attacked in Ismailia and Suez.
The Egyptian army has deployed tanks and armored troop carriers outside the presidential palace in Cairo after clashes between supporters and rivals of President Mohammed Morsi
In a joint news conference, Mohamed ElBaradei, Amr Moussa and other leading figures of the opposition National Rescue Front said they held Mohamed Morsi fully responsible for the violence.
“Our opinion was, and still is, that we are ready for dialogue if the constitutional decree is cancelled … and the referendum on this constitution is postponed,” said Mohamed ElBaradei.
“The revolution did not happen for this. It happened for freedom, democracy and human dignity.
“Morsi must listen to the people, whose voice is loud and clear. There is no legitimacy in excluding the majority of the people,” he said.
Speaking on Wednesday, Vice-President Mahmoud Mekki said the vote on the draft constitution was still scheduled for 15 December, but that the “door for dialogue” remained open, indicating that changes could be made to the document later.
Critics say the draft was rushed through parliament without proper consultation and that it does not do enough to protect political and religious freedoms and the rights of women.
The draft added to the anger generated by Mohamed Morsi passing a decree in late November which granted him wide-ranging new powers.
Four of Mohamed Morsi’s advisers resigned on Wednesday in an apparent protest. Three others did so last week and Egypt’s Mena news agency reported a further resignation on Thursday.
In his news conference, broadcast earlier on state television, Mahmoud Mekki said there was “real political will to pass the current period and respond to the demands of the public”.
But he said there “must be consensus” on the constitution, and that “the door for dialogue is open for those who object to the draft”.
“I am completely confident that if not in the coming hours, in the next few days we will reach a breakthrough in the crisis and consensus,” he said.
The government has been speaking for some time about the need for dialogue, but has offered few concrete concessions which would end the crisis.
Mohamed Morsi adopted sweeping new powers in a decree on 22 November, and stripped the judiciary of any power to challenge his decisions.
Mohamed Morsi, who narrowly won Egypt’s first free presidential election in June, says he will give up his new powers once the new constitution is ratified.
Rolls-Royce has announced that it is in talks with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over possible bribery and corruption.
“It is too early to predict the outcomes, but these could include the prosecution of individuals and of the company,” Rolls-Royce said.
The British aircraft engine manufacturer said it had passed on information about alleged malpractice by intermediaries.
It followed a request from the SFO for information about alleged malpractice in Indonesia and China.
Rolls-Royce said it was cooperating fully with the investigation.
“I want to make it crystal clear that neither I nor the board will tolerate improper business conduct of any sort and will take all necessary action to ensure compliance,” said chief executive John Rishton.
“This is a company with exceptional prospects, and I will not accept any behavior that undermines its future success.”
Rolls-Royce has announced that it is in talks with the Serious Fraud Office over possible bribery and corruption
The company said that it had recently instituted a new ethics code of conduct, and would be hiring an independent consultant to carry out a review of its current procedures.
Rolls-Royce is a major international player in civil aerospace and defence, and employs over 40,000 people in 50 countries.
It is the world’s second largest manufacturer of aircraft engines after General Electric.
China and Indonesia were ranked 80 and 118 respectively out of 174 countries in the corruption perceptions index published by Transparency International on Wednesday, ranking from the least down to the most corrupt.
Shares in the company fell 5% at the start of trading in London on Thursday.
John McAfee, the founder of anti-virus software maker McAfee, has been arrested in Guatemala, accused of entering the country illegally.
John McAfee, 67, crossed the border to seek political asylum, having been on the run in Belize where police are investigating the death of his neighbor.
Belize officials said the software pioneer was a “person of interest” in the murder of Florida businessman Gregory Faull on 11 November.
John McAfee has protested his innocence.
He says on his blog that he has been “harassed” by police, and that this was the reason he fled Belize. There is no international arrest warrant for multi-millionaire fugitive.
Guatemalan Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said John McAfee was arrested at a hotel in an affluent area of the capital, Guatemala City.
Appearing in public for the first time in weeks on Tuesday, John McAfee and his lawyer had said he would petition the Guatemalan government to stay there.
“Belize does not have a good track record of providing safety when they ask to question you. I felt much more secure crossing the border,” said John McAfee.
John McAfee, the founder of anti-virus software maker McAfee, has been arrested in Guatemala, accused of entering the country illegally
He reportedly checked into the five star Villa Real Hotel in Guatemala City earlier on Wednesday having sneaked out of Belize.
John McAfee revealed that in order to go unnoticed, he changed his appearance by dying his hair and beard, sticking chewed bubble gum to his upper gums to fatten his face and staining his teeth.
Gregory Faull was found dead with a single gunshot to the head on 11 November. His Belize home sits next to John McAfee’s compound on a tropical island.
The US software creator is known to have had a long-running row with Gregory Faull about the guard dogs he used to protect his compound.
He denies any involvement in the businessman’s death and says he went into hiding so he could stay close to his Belize home and conduct his own investigation into Gregory Faull’s death, adding that he had little faith that the island’s police would find the murderer.
In an interview with NBC, John McAfee offered a reward of $25,000 for the capture of the “person or persons” behind the killing.
John McAfee has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company that bears his name in the early 1990s.
He moved to Belize about three years ago seeking lower taxes and has lived in semi-seclusion on a heavily guarded compound until recently.
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed some of the 20th Century’s most famous modernist buildings, has died just before his 105th birthday.
Oscar Niemeyer rose to international fame as the architect of the main government buildings in the futuristic Brazilian capital, Brasilia, inaugurated in 1960.
He also worked with Swiss-born modernist architect Le Corbusier on the UN building in New York.
He continued to work on new projects until earlier this year.
Oscar Niemeyer died on Wednesday at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro.
A memorial service will be held in the presidential palace in Brasilia on Thursday.
Oscar Niemeyer’s family was informed of the honor in a phone call from President Dilma Rousseff.
“Brazil has lost today one of its geniuses, It is a day to lament his death. It is a day to acclaim his life.”
Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes has declared three days of mourning in Oscar Niemeyer’s home city.
It is thought he will be buried there on Friday.
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed some of the 20th Century’s most famous modernist buildings, has died just before his 105th birthday
Oscar Niemeyer started his career in the 1930s, when Brazil was still copying neoclassical European architecture and designing ornate palace-like buildings.
His bold futuristic designs in Brasilia made the new capital a dramatic statement of confidence in the future of Brazil, and an icon of modern architecture.
A student of Le Corbusier, he developed a distinctive style defined by stark concrete and sweeping curves.
He famously once said the stylized swoops in his buildings were inspired by the curves of Brazilian women.
“When you have a large space to conquer, the curve is the natural solution,” he said.
“I once wrote a poem about the curve. The curve I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean and on the body of the beloved woman.”
A firm communist – and a personal friend of Cuban leader Fidel Castro – Oscar Niemeyer fled the country during Brazil’s military dictatorship and forged an international career while in exile in France.
In 1988, Oscar Niemeyer was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize.
His style was not to everyone’s taste, and for a communist some people say his work was not very people-friendly – focusing more on the architecture’s form than on its inhabitants or functionality.
Oscar Niemeyer went on to create more than 600 buildings around the world. His legacy endures in museums, monuments, schools and churches in Brazil and beyond.
Many of the designs were initially sketched on a table overlooking his beloved Rio de Janeiro and its famous Copacabana beach, replete with the women, waves and hills from which he drew such inspiration.
An animal welfare group in New Zealand has trained three dogs to get behind the wheel in an attempt to show the public how intelligent they are.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will put them to the test in a live broadcast next Monday.
The dogs have been trained over eight weeks in specially made wooden carts which they have been driving around inside an indoor test lab.
They then graduated to a modified Mini in which they sat on their haunches in the driver’s seat with their paws on the steering wheel.
Their feet go on extension levers which had been attached to the accelerator and the brake whilst their paw will rest on the gearstick.
Mark Vette, the animal trainer who is schooling the dogs, said in a preview of the show that they treated the training like a “film shoot”, in reference to his work in the movies.
He said: “We train the dogs to do different actions, touch is the first thing and then we teach them to touch the different objects with the right paw and left paw.
“They’ve all come through at this point and they’re all going really well.”
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New Zealand has trained three dogs to drive in an attempt to show the public how intelligent they are
The dogs that were chosen were Porter, a 10-month old Beardie Cross, Monty, an 18-month-old Schnauzer Cross, and Ginny, a one-year-old Beardie Whippet Cross.
All of them had been rescued by the SPCA.
The organization hopes that the public will be so impressed with the animals that they will adopt them and others like them.
SPCA Auckland Chief executive Christine Kalin said: “I think sometimes people think because they’re getting an animal that’s been abandoned that somehow it’s a second-class animal.
“The dogs have achieved amazing things in eight short weeks of training, which really shows with the right environment just how much potential all dogs from the SPCA have as family pets.”
The Canadian operation of Pizza Hut has launched a fragrance after receiving an enthusiastic response to a post asking fans just how much they loved the smell of a box of its pizza being opened.
Named Eau de Pizza Hut, the scent apparently has “top notes of freshly baked, hand-tossed dough”.
Released as a limited-edition, its launch marks the Pizza Hut Canada Facebookpage reaching 100,000 fans.
Beverley D’Cruz, Marketing and Product Development Director for Pizza Hut Canada, explained in a statement: “What better way to celebrate our Facebook fans than by providing them with a way to enjoy the fresh smell of Pizza Hut pizza whenever they want!”
The post that inspired the ill-conceived idea read: “Do you love the smell of a box of Pizza Hut pizza being opened?
“We thought so. If that smell was a perfume, what would it be called?”
Pizza Hut Canada has launched a fragrance after receiving an enthusiastic response to a Facebook post
It sparked 271 comments – both positive and negative, as well as 160 likes and 109 shares.
Among the varied suggestions were “Grease Lightening”, “Eau Ver Weight” and “Heaven Scent”, as well as several nominations for “Pizzaz”.
Though we cannot imagine anyone actually wishing to spend their hard-earned cash on the scent, Pizza Hut says that bottles will be given away to those who initially shared their desire for the pizza-scented fragrance.
And thankfully it will not be making a presence in department stores – or at least, not any time soon.
“For now, we’ve only produced 110 bottles of Eau de Pizza Hut, but who knows what the future has in store,” Beverley D’Cruz said.
“The good news is people can enjoy the great smell of fresh Pizza Hut pizza any day of the week by ordering one of our signature crust pizzas.”
The top ten skyscrapers of the year were named yesterday with a stunning New York residential block taking top spot.
Eight Spruce Street, in Manhattan, picked up the Emporis Skyscraper Award where judges chose the best buildings which were completed in 2011.
The 76-storey tower, designed by Frank Gehry, is the 12th largest tallest residential block stretching 265-metres into the sky.
Its stunning design consist of cladding made up of 10,500 stainless steel panels, almost all of them different shapes.
This means that as you move around, its shape constantly changes – with judges saying the building “stands out even in Manhattan’s already remarkable skyline”.
Spruce Street beat a field of 220 in the annual Oscars of Architecture with the 412-metre high Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait taking second place.
The tower was praised for the way it was engineered to take account of the blistering heat with the south facade, with limestone elements cladding a concrete wall, protects the building from the searing desert sun.
Judges were also impressed with both the building’s architectural and functional points of view.
With lifts operating at the speed of an Olympic sprinter, the Al Hamra was praised for its deep sculpted, angled windows in the south wall which give views across the city and peninsula to the desert.
Third place went to the Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, with the huge complex made up of three residential towers, one office tower and one hotel tower which houses the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers hotel.
And the KK100 in Shenzhen, China took top spot with the 441-metre high tower the tallest building ever realized by a British firm.
KK100, designed by Terry Farrell & Partners, has a curved shape which is intended to “evoke a spring or fountain” and therefore symbolize the area’s wealth and prosperity.
The Chinese skyscraper shared fourth spot with the Victoria Tower in Stockholm and Great American Tower in Cincinnati.
Costing $322 million, the 202-metre Great American Tower was inspired by a photograph of a tiara worn by Diana, Princess of Wales.
Emporis, which is a German database of information on building and construction projects, has been holding the awards since 2000.
Last year the Hotel Porta Fira in Barcelona picked up the prestigious award.
TOP TEN TOWERS COMPLETED IN 2011
8 Spruce Street, New York City, 265.1 metres, 76 stories
Al Hamra Tower, Kuwait City, 412 metres, 80 stories
Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi, 217.5 – 305.3 metres, 56-79 stories
KK100, Shenzhen, 441.8 metres, 100 stories
Victoria Tower, Stockholm is 117.6 metres, 34 stories
Great American Tower, Cincinnati, 202.69-metres, 41 stories
F&F Tower, Panama City, 242.9 metres, 52 stories
Northeast Asia Trade Tower, Incheon, 308 metres, 68 stories
Reflections at Keppel Bay, Singapore, 120 – 178 metres, 21-41 stories
Tianjin Global Financial Centre, Tianjin, 336.9 metres, 72 stories
Brittni Glass is the woman with whom Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher reportedly spent his final few hours before he went home, shot dead his girlfriend and then took his own life.
Brittni Glass, pictured as she walked to work at an Armani Exchange in Kansas City, enjoyed drinks and dinner with the NFL star before witnesses reportedly saw him enter her apartment building.
The images come as frantic 911 calls made by Jovan Belcher’s mother were also released, revealing the chaotic scene as she begged his girlfriend to “stay with me” after he shot her multiple times.
Just hours before she made the call, Jovan Belcher was awoken by police officers at 2:50 a.m. as he slept outside an apartment block in his car. He told them that he was there to visit his “girlfriend”, yet she was not home, police spokesman Darin Snapp said.
Darin Snapp said Jovan Belcher made a phone call and a short time later, a woman let Jovan Belcher into her building.
While Darin Snapp said police did not question the woman and don’t know who she is, the New York Post identified her as Brittni Glass.
Witnesses have since told police that Jovan Belcher stayed at the apartment until 6:30 a.m., Darin Snapp said.
“I was with him that night, that’s it,” Brittni Glass told the Post.
Brittni Glass, pictured as she walked to work at an Armani Exchange in Kansas City, enjoyed drinks and dinner with Jovan Belcher before witnesses reportedly saw him enter her apartment building
Brittni Glass said they had been together that night but were not in a relationship and would not say where he slept. Police confirmed that several people came forward to tell them about Jovan Belcher’s visit.
Darin Snapp added: “When he was sleeping she may have come home, and he didn’t realize. He was very cooperative and thanked the officers.”
He went off their radar until about 7:50 a.m., when police were called to Jovan Belcher’s home after he had shot and killed girlfriend Kasandra Perkins.
Her body was found on the floor of the master bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a police incident report.
In 911 calls released by Kansas City police on Wednesday, Jovan Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, begs Kasandra Perkins to stay alive.
“Stay with me, the ambulance is on the way. Stay with me,” she shouts.
She adds to the dispatcher: “She’s still breathing but please hurry. I don’t know how he… They were arguing, please hurry.”
Cheryl Shepherd told dispatchers that Kasandra Perkins was bleeding, “just barely” awake and that it looked as though she was wounded in the back. She said Kasandra Perkins moved when she spoke to her.
When police arrived at the couple’s home at about 7:50 a.m., they found Kasandra Perkins’ body on the floor of the master bathroom with gunshot wounds to her chest, neck and abdomen.
On Wednesday, Cheryl Shepherd told The Associated Press that the days since the shooting have been very difficult – but that she loves her son and the slain girlfriend.
In a brief phone conversation, Cheryl Shepherd, who had been staying with the couple to help out with the baby, said she had a “beautiful relationship” with Kasandra Perkins.
She added that she has been working on funeral arrangements for Jovan Belcher but has not managed to sleep or eat much since the slayings.
Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan still struggles with is the public displays of affection so commonly seen on the silver screen.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had her first screen kiss with actor Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2 in 2006, but admits she is still less than comfortable with the prospect of such intimate scenes.
In an new interview with Sir David Frost, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan said that the scene caused such a stir in India that she even received legal threats following the movie’s release.
She said: “I did it once prominently in the movie Dhoom and it was so topical, and you’ll be surprised, I mean I actually got a couple of notices, legal notices, from some people in the country turning around and saying <<You are iconic, you’re an example to our girls you have led your life in such an exemplary manner, they’re not comfortable with you doing this on screen so why did you?>>.
“And I was like wow, I’m just an actor, doing my job, and here I am being asked to offer an explanation for a couple of seconds in a two, three hour piece of cinema.”
But Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also said that she had many doubts about signing up to appear in Dhoom 2 simply because of the kissing scene.
She said: “It was around the same time that the interest in the western world from Hollywood, or European cinema, English cinema, from the industry there was a lot interest in me and the possibility of me working overseas, and I had already declined a couple of scripts purely on the basis of not being comfortable with the very physical scenes and the kissing because I’d never done that on screen and I just wasn’t very comfortable with the idea. And I was quite sure even my audience was not very comfortable with me doing it on-screen. I was actually quite convinced about it but I still said okay, if I have to go down this path let me first do it in our cinema, in an Indian piece of cinema, and let me see if all my doubts are true, and they were.”
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had her first screen kiss with actor Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2 in 2006
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan added that while on-screen kisses are becoming more common in Bollywood, it will still be a long time before they become the standard.
She said: “A lot of actors have kissed before that movie, they continue to kiss on screen till this very minute, but public display is not that common in Indian culture. Even our actors, it’s very rare that actors look comfortable in our cinema on screen kissing.
“It almost looks like it’s a planned moment, just to make much ado about a moment or to excite the audience. It’s made into this separate entity from a scene, it’s not very comfortable in our screenplay.”
However, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan explained to David Frost that passion in Bollywood is expressed via different means – through song and dance.
She said: “What the kiss is in the western movies is what our songs do, and that’s where our audience experiences all the emotions that the western audience does when their actors kiss. So that’s a very comfortable space for us but I don’t think the kiss visually has been.
“It’s getting there, I mean now it’s become very, very common so I think, I think, I still think our audience is getting comfortable with it, but I don’t think universally.”
Ignatius IV (Hazim), the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Syria, has died in neighboring Lebanon at the age of 92.
Syria’s state news agency, Sana, reported that Patriarch Ignatius died in Beirut’s St George’s hospital on Wednesday after suffering a stroke.
His remains would be brought from Lebanon to Syria for burial, it added.
Ignatius had led the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All The East, the largest Arab Christian Church in the Middle East, since 1979.
There are believed to be about a million members, the majority of whom are Syrians.
The Church is one of 14 autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox patriarchates, third in honorific rank after the churches of Constantinople and Alexandria.
Since the 14th Century, the patriarch has resided in Damascus.
Ignatius IV Hazim, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Syria, has died in neighboring Lebanon at the age of 92
Patriarch Ignatius was born in 1920 in the village of Murhada, near Hama.
In 1961, he was ordained Bishop of Palmyra, in central Syria. Nine years later, he became Metropolitan of Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast.
Syria’s minority Christian community has not joined the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Many Christians are fearful for their future if the country’s majority Sunni Muslim community chooses an Islamist leadership to replace decades of secular rule.
Cathay Pacific says a flight attendant who felt tempted to throw coffee on Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has lost her job.
The Thai cabin crew member had reportedly posted on Facebook that Paetongtarn Shinawatra was “the daughter of my enemy”.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra is said to have been on a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong.
A statement by the airline said the attendant was no longer an employee. It did not say if she quit or was sacked.
Cathay Pacific said that it said it regretted the “unfortunate incident” and that it intends to personally apologize to the passenger in question.
The statement also said it had investigated the matter thoroughly and concluded that the incident was “unauthorized”.
Cathay Pacific says a flight attendant who felt tempted to throw coffee on Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has lost her job
Thaksin Shinawatra lives abroad after being ousted in a coup in 2006, but remains a polarizing figure in Thailand. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra is currently prime minister. Paetongtarn Shinawatra is one of his three children.
According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, the flight attendant’s Facebook post said: “I never expected that [Paetongtarn] was on board today. I immediately told my flight manager I could not work knowing the daughter of my enemy was on the plane.
“I called my personal adviser asking if it would be all right to throw coffee at Paetongtarn, but was told that this could breach Hong Kong’s laws,” she is reported to have posted.
The attendant has not made any public comment as yet.
Citigroup announces it is cutting 11,000 jobs worldwide in an efficiency drive, with most of the jobs being lost in its consumer banking division.
The bank said the move, which will see its headcount shrink by 4%, would cost it about $1 billion in pre-tax charges.
Shares in the bank rose 7% following the announcement.
The move comes two months after the bank’s former chief executive, Vikram Pandit, suddenly resigned.
Michael Corbat took over from Vikram Pandit as chief executive.
The bank said the $1 billion charge would be recorded in its fourth-quarter figures for this year.
It said it would also add another $100 million in charges to the first half profits for 2013.
Citigroup announces it is cutting 11,000 jobs worldwide in an efficiency drive, with most of the jobs being lost in its consumer banking division
Citigroup said the changes would leave it $900 million better off in 2013 and a further $1.1 billion the following year.
The company said that about 25% of the charges for the fourth quarter related to its securities and banking division, with another 10% in transaction services.
Another third would come from reductions in its global consumer banking division, where 6,200 positions would be cut.
The banking group said it would be selling or scaling back consumer operations in Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey and Uruguay.
Other countries affected by the changes would be Brazil, Hong Kong, Hungary, South Korea and the US.
It is also closing branches in Greece and Spain, countries hard-hit by the eurozone crisis.
It intends to focus on the 150 cities that have the highest growth potential in consumer banking.
After the changes, Citi said it would have more than 4,000 retail branches around the world.
At the time of Vikram Pandit’s sudden departure, the bank’s chairman, Michael O’Neill, said the departure was not due to any “strategic, regulatory or operating issue”.
Vikram Pandit left the bank with a settlement of more than $15 million.
He resigned a day after Citi reported an 88% drop in quarterly profits to $468 million.
Besse Cooper, the US woman listed as the world’s oldest person, has died aged 116.
Besse Cooper died peacefully on Tuesday at a nursing home near Atlanta, Georgia, said her son, Sidney Cooper.
She had recently been ill with a stomach virus, he added.
The Tennessee-born teacher had had her hair set on Tuesday morning and watched a Christmas video, but then suffered breathing problems, said Sidney Cooper. She was put on oxygen but died a short while later.
“With her hair fixed it looked like she was ready to go,” Sidney Cooper told the Associated Press news agency.
Besse Cooper, the US woman listed as the world’s oldest person, has died aged 116
Besse Cooper was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest person in January 2011.
The following May, Guinness discovered that a Brazilian woman, Maria Gomes Valentin, was 48 days older, but she died the following month.
Born in Tennessee, Besse Cooper moved to Georgia during World War I to look for work as a teacher.
Her funeral was likely to be held later this week, her son said.
Guinness said Besse Cooper is succeeded as the world’s oldest living person by fellow American Dina Manfredini from Iowa, who is 115.
The oldest person ever was French-born Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 before dying in 1997.
Branislav Milinkovic, Serbian ambassador to NATO, has died after jumping from a multi-storey car park in Brussels airport.
The Serbian government confirmed that Branislav Milinkovic, 52, had died on Tuesday, but did not give details. It paid tribute to his work.
Emergency services were called to the scene, but were not able to revive him, sources at Brussels airport said.
Prosecutors in Brussels say they are treating Branislav Milinkovic’s death as a suicide.
He is thought to have been at the airport on Tuesday evening to meet Serbia’s deputy foreign minister and other officials who had arrived in Brussels for diplomatic talks.
The incident happened at around 18:00 local time.
After talking with colleagues, Branislav Milinkovic suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over and flung himself to the ground below, a diplomat told the Associated Press.
Branislav Milinkovic, Serbian ambassador to NATO, has died after jumping from a multi-storey car park in Brussels airport
Earlier on Tuesday, Branislav Milinkovic had seemed “completely normal, talking to journalists in the corridors of NATO”, a Serbian journalist in Brussels told the AFP news agency.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by the news.
“Ambassador Branislav Milinkovic was a highly respected representative of his country and will be missed at NATO headquarters,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
Serbia is not a member of NATO but it does have a mission at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels because it belongs to the Partnership for Peace programme, which helps countries co-ordinate on defence and security issues.
Branislav Milinkovic had been an ambassador since 2009.
He had previously worked as a journalist and was an active opponent of Serbia’s former leader Slobodan Milosevic. Branislav Milinkovic leaves behind a wife and a six-year-old son.
