A Los Angeles coroner has confirmed film-maker Tony Scott’s death was suicide, caused by blunt force injuries and drowning.
Preliminary autopsy results showed the Top Gun director had “therapeutic levels” of the anti-depressant Mirtazapine and the prescription sleep-aid Lunesta in his system.
It added Tony Scott did not have any serious illnesses, including cancer.
Tony Scott jumped from Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles on 19 August.
The findings shed no light on a motive for why Tony Scott took his own life.
It had been revealed previously that the director left notes behind in his car including messages to friends and loved ones, but did not explain his actions.
Tony Scott jumped from Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles on 19 August
Initial reports after his death suggested Tony Scott had been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, but his widow Donna Wilson dismissed the rumors as “absolutely false”.
A coroner’s spokesman said the final report would be ready in two weeks.
The younger brother of director Ridley Scott, Tony also directed Enemy of the State, Beverly Hilly Cop II and Crimson Tide.
At the time of his death, Tony Scott was reported to be involved in a number of film projects including a sequel to Top Gun, where Tom Cruise was expected to reprise his role as fighter pilot Maverick.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has arrived in the Gaza Strip – the first head of state to visit since the Islamist group Hamas came to power there in 2007.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is expected to launch a $254 million construction project to help rebuild the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Qatar has become one of Hamas’s main benefactors since it fell out with Syria and has had a rift with Iran.
The Palestinian Authority expressed reservations about the emir’s visit.
Sheikh Hamad flew to Egypt and crossed into Gaza by car amid tight security.
The Hamas interior ministry said it had a “well-prepared plan” to protect the emir, deploying thousands of security personnel and blocking roads to Gaza City’s stadium, where he is expected to address a crowd.
Earlier, the Israeli military said a soldier had been wounded by a bomb explosion along Israel’s border fence with Gaza, near Kissufim.
The visit is a sign of the increasing ties between the Gulf state and Hamas.
Qatar, one of the richest countries in the Arab world, has become an important source of revenue for Hamas in the aftermath of its fallout with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In February, Hamas announced that its political leadership had been moved from Syria to Egypt and Qatar, because it could no longer effectively operate because of the unrest in its long-time ally.
The political bureau of Hamas had been based in Damascus since 1999, and relations appeared to be good until anti-government protests erupted throughout Syria in March 2011.
Hamas initially neither publicly endorsed the Syrian government’s handling of the uprising nor repudiated it.
Analysts said the Sunni Islamist movement was torn between risking the financial backing of Syria and its ally, Iran, and supporting Syria’s majority Sunni community, which has borne the brunt of the crackdown by the Alawite-dominated security forces.
But in February, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, declared his support for “the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform”.
Qatar, meanwhile, was the first Arab nation to call publicly for military intervention in Syria to topple the government.
It was the main Arab player in the NATO-led coalition in Libya and has played a major part in trying to resolve regional conflicts.
The country maintains cordial relations with both the US and Iran, and – even more unusually for an Arab state – with both Hamas and Israel.
Most recently, Qatar has been involved in the reconciliation process between Hamas and its long-time rival faction, Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority and is in power in the West Bank.
Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006, ousted forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza during clashes in 2007 and set up a rival government.
In response, Israel tightened its blockade on the coastal territory, which has had a crippling effect on Gaza’s economy.
A spokesperson for Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority welcomed Qatar’s efforts to help the people in Gaza but also stressed “the necessity to preserve the legitimate representation of the Palestinian people”.
Mahmoud Abbas called on Sheikh Hamad to “urge Hamas in Gaza to go for reconciliation and to end this split”.
At 6:00 p.m. Tuesday evening, Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to take to the stage in a San Jose theatre to introduce Apple’s latest blockbuster product – a mini tablet set to fend off competition from Amazon’s Kindle Fire and a raft of relatively cheap smaller tablet computers.
The shrunken iPad is rumored to have a screen that is 7.8 inches across the diagonal – which compares to 9.7 on the original version.
Tech watchers suggest the device – like the latest incarnation of the iPhone – will work on the superfast 4G mobile network.
Apple is said to be planning to charge $350 for the smaller version, which is around half the price of the cheapest iPad 3.
However, it will remain considerably more expensive than Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which costs $200, and the higher specification Kindle Fire HD, which is $250.
Amazon has suggested it is selling its tablets at a loss in order to get it into the hands of families.
The idea is that it can then cash in through sales of a vast library of books, music, films and TV programmes.
Apple’s innovative phones, tablets and computers have always come with a hefty price premium, while its rise to become the world’s most valuable company has been fuelled by sales through its vast iTunes store.
It is thought that Apple will also launch a tweaked version of the iPad 3 that works on the 4G network.
HOW SMALL?
iPad Mini is thought to be 7.85in diagonally, compared to the 9.7in of the full-size iPad.
This would allow it to be used easily on public transport, and fit into a (large) jacket pocket.
TrustedReviews is predicting the mini – which some are dubbing the iPad nano – will use a 1,024 x 768 pixel panel.
Apple’s yet-to-be-announced iPad Mini has apparently been revealed in full for the first time in the best set of pictures yet leaked on the internet.
iPad Mini has apparently been revealed in full for the first time in the best set of pictures yet leaked on the internet
Sonny Dickson, a researcher for fansite 9to5mac.com, published the images on his Twitter feed last week, sparking a wave of excitement among Apple enthusiasts.
The images show a device that is significantly smaller than the regular iPad.
According to rumors it boasts a 7.85 in liquid crystal display, making it a rival to Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The images also show the iPad Mini utilizes the controversial new connector introduced with the iPhone 5, which has made all accessories available to previous Apple gadgets obsolete at a stroke.
It also emerged that Apple had instructed suppliers in China to manufacture 10 million of the new smaller tablet computers, showing faith in their product in the face of stiff competition.
Insiders say the iPad Mini will go on sale November 2.
As yet, however, Apple has not officially confirmed any of the reports, rumors of leaks about a smaller iPad.
Clocks in many countries around the world will be wound back an hour this Sunday (October 28th) as they switch to Daylight Saving Time.
There will be an extra hour in bed; however, UK Government figures suggest that sticking with British Summer Time (BST) all year round could improve road safety.
Darker evenings bring a rise in road casualty rates, according to figures from the Department for Transport.
It is claimed that keeping the clocks in BST could prevent around 80 deaths and at least 200 serious injuries on UK’s roads every year.
The number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured in November is 14% higher than the monthly average. The number of cyclist casualties rise by 5% while motorcycle casualties per vehicle mile are 28% more common.
Simon Best, Chief Executive of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, believes that lighter evenings would save lives.
“While an extra hour of daylight would help to make the commute home much safer for all road users, children, cyclists and motorcyclists would benefit most,” he said.
“We want to see a three-year trial of the new daylight system. If the trial period proves the new daylight hours have a positive effect on road safety, it is clear that it is the system we should keep.
“With convincing evidence of the potential benefits, it is only right that we pilot a new system.”
The Daylight Saving Bill would have delivered a three-year trial of Greenwich Mean Time plus one hour in the winter (GMT +1) and GMT +2 in the summer.
However, the Bill was “talked out” of the House of Commons in January 2012 despite overwhelming support from 120 MPs.
David Williams, CEO of GEM Motoring Assist, added: “Changing the clocks only adds further to the dangers for road users.
“The reduced daylight hours not only mean that motorists are driving in the dark during rush hour, but pedestrians and other road users, particularly school children, are also at an increased risk.
“Poor weather, decreased visibility, and bad road conditions are all rife during the winter months and have a serious effect on the rise in number of accidents and hazardous breakdown situations.”
Liberty Ross has revealed that she plans to “learn” from her husband’s recent infidelity with actress Kristen Stewart.
The model mother-of-two made her comeback at Alexander Wang’s runway show – and strutted down the catwalk with a confident pout upon on her lips.
And in her first public statement on her husband Rupert Sanders’ affair with Kristen Stewart, Liberty Ross, 34, said: “I believe that we’re all on journeys and we are all given lessons at certain times in our lives.
“…Sometimes, when things seem really bad, you have to be able to see the good and learn from it, and just move forward as graciously as possible.”
Liberty Ross had maintained a dignified silence ever since her it was revealed that her husband, movie director Rupert Sanders, 41, had been having a seedy affair with Kristen Stewart, 22, after meeting her on the set of Snow White and the Huntsman.
Liberty Ross – who lost even more weight during her marriage crisis – had concentrated on caring for their two children, Skyla, 7, and Tennyson, 5, at their home in the Hollywood Hills.
However, the British model broke her silence on the liaison as she got ready for Alexander Wang’s show during New York fashion week last month.
As she was filmed backstage, Liberty Ross spoke out about the affair – and although she failed to mention any names, it was perfectly clear what she was referring to.
Liberty Ross made her first public statement on her husband Rupert Sanders’ affair with Kristen Stewart
When asked about her life, Liberty Ross replied: “I have a really good balance. I’m very happy with my life, and I’m lucky. I have good people.
“I have two amazing children. I believe that we’re all on journeys and we are all given lessons at certain times in our lives, and sometimes when things seem really bad, you have to be able to see the good and learn from it, and just move forward as graciously as possible.”
Although she had recently been pictured at counseling sessions with her husband, Liberty Ross made it clear that their marriage was by no means saved just yet.
She said: “This year was the end of some things and the beginning of something else. Beginnings and endings are always really exciting.”
Liberty Ross had co-starred in her husband’s feature film debut, playing Queen Eleanor opposite Kristen Stewart.
When the affair broke in July, the couple split and she was pictured looking gaunt and without her wedding ring as the toll had obviously taken its toll on her.
The liaison left Kristen Stewart’s long-term boyfriend and co-star, heartthrob Robert Pattinson, reeling – as she begged him publicly for his forgiveness.
However, the couple, who are now set to go on a worldwide promotional jaunt to premiere the third and last installment in the Twilight trilogy – Breaking Dawn – are now back together and were pictured kissing in Los Angeles last week.
US researchers have discovered that beluga whale vocalizations were remarkably close to human speech.
While dolphins have been taught to mimic the pattern and durations of sounds in human speech, no animal has spontaneously tried such mimicry.
But researchers heard a nine-year-old whale named NOC make sounds octaves below normal, in clipped bursts.
The researchers outline in Current Biology just how NOC did it.
But the first mystery was figuring out where the sound was coming from. The whales are known as “canaries of the sea” for their high-pitched chirps, and while a number of anecdotal reports of whales making human-like speech, none had ever been recorded.
When a diver at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in California surfaced saying: “Who told me to get out?” the researchers there knew they had another example on their hands.
Once they identified NOC as the culprit, they made the first-ever recordings of the behavior.
Researchers have discovered that beluga whale vocalizations were remarkably close to human speech
They found that vocal bursts averaged about three per second, with pauses reminiscent of human speech. Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequencies within them were spread out into “harmonics” in a way very unlike whales’ normal vocalizations and more like those of humans.
They then rewarded NOC for the speech-like sounds to teach him to make them on command and fitted him with a pressure transducer within his nasal cavity, where sounds are produced, to monitor just what was going on.
They found that he was able to rapidly change the pressure within his nasal cavity to produce the sounds.
To amplify the comparatively low-frequency parts of the vocalizations, he over-inflated what is known at the vestibular sac in his blowhole – which normally acts to stop water entering the lungs.
In short, the mimicry was no easy task for NOC.
“Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds,” said Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation and lead author on the paper.
“The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale.”
A team of scientists has created what it believes is the first really accurate reconstruction of Neanderthal man, from a skeleton that was discovered in France over a century ago.
In 1909, excavations at La Ferrassie cave in the Dordogne unearthed the remains of a group of Neanderthals. One of the skeletons in that group was that of an adult male, given the name La Ferrassie 1.
These remains have helped scientists create a detailed reconstruction of our closest prehistoric relative for a new BBC series, Prehistoric Autopsy.
La Ferrassie 1 is one of the most important discoveries made in the field of Neanderthal research.
His skull is the largest and most complete ever found. The discovery of his leg and foot bones was hugely significant, revealing to scientists that Neanderthals walked upright, contradicting previous research.
We now know that Neanderthals were stocky with strong arms and hands, and that they had large skulls – longer and lower than ours – with sloping foreheads and no chin.
But modern scientific research methods can now probe further to help us build a more accurate picture of the Neanderthals’ look and lifestyle. The scientists used these new approaches to reconstruct La Ferrassie 1.
But how do you go about reconstructing an entire lifelike body from a collection of 70,000 year old bones?
Much of La Ferrassie 1’s frame was intact, but the thorax, ribs, pelvis and some spinal pieces were missing.
US-based paleoartist Viktor Deak – who specializes in reconstructions and images of early man – filled in the gaps with copies of Neanderthal bones discovered at Kebara Cave in Israel in 1982. That dig uncovered a near-complete Neanderthal skeleton, missing just the cranium, right leg, and an area of the left leg.
A copy of the newly-complete La Ferrassie 1 was sent to a team of model makers in Buckingham. They pieced the bones together and set the finished skeleton in the correct, upright position.
The next stage was to add the Neanderthal’s muscles. But without a guide to follow, how could they be accurately replicated? Some detective work was required.
The La Ferrassie 1 skeleton was helpful in giving clues to assist the team of model makers, led by Jez Gibson-Harris.
He said that the size and texture of the bones gave an indication of the type of muscles the hominid would have had.
“You [could] see where the tendons would have attached. There were pretty big attachment points. You can see there were big muscles there.”
“[La Ferrassie 1 is] very strong looking, very stocky and well built. But really quite short.”
A team of scientists has created what it believes is the first really accurate reconstruction of Neanderthal man
The bones also provided clues to the Neanderthal’s demanding and injury-prone lifestyle.
La Ferrassie 1’s arm bones are asymmetrical – the right is larger than the left. Bones change shape over a lifetime, so this led the scientists to look into the type of activities he may have carried out.
Dr. Colin Shaw of the University of Cambridge studied La Ferrassie 1’s flattened humerus.
“What you do to the bone through a lifetime causes adaptation, if it’s strenuous and repetitive enough,” says Dr. Colin Shaw.
The team studied the ways Neanderthals hunted their prey and carried out domestic chores, noting the impact those actions had on their bodies.
They concluded that they would have repeatedly stabbed their prey – the woolly mammoth – with spears, but that the really intense work would have been making garments to survive the cold climate.
A Neanderthal would have needed a new garment every year, which would have been made up of approximately five or six hides. They would have needed to scrape each hide for eight hours to make it wearable.
On the basis of this evidence La Ferrassie 1’s muscles, including those in the strong right arm, were reconstructed accordingly and layered on in clay.
Viktor Deak and Professor Alice Roberts leant their expertise to guide the model makers on other areas of the body.
“With Alice and with Viktor, and other scientists, commenting on the pose – ‘this muscle should be bigger on that side or the buttock should be smaller, or that should be longer’ – we built up the body structure in that way,” says Jez Gibson-Harris.
There were other, more obvious clues to La Ferrassie 1’s appearance contained within his remains. Many of his teeth were still attached and this helped Viktor Deak determine the shape of the face.
Studying teeth with state of the art technology is helping to unlock previously hidden secrets about the Neanderthals’ lifestyle. Powerful x-rays a thousand billion times stronger than a hospital x-ray machine can reveal the daily growth rate of teeth.
Studies comparing the age of teeth with the age shown by the rest of the skeleton suggest that Neanderthal children grew up faster than modern humans, and this may cast light on why our species survived and theirs did not.
The final stage of creating the replica was to add head and body hair. Here the team looked to previous research which revealed that many Neanderthals were redheads. La Ferrassie 1 was given red hair and a pale skin tone, suggestive of life in a northern climate.
Adding the hair was a painstaking process for the model makers, with each strand punched individually into the replica.
After two and a half months of meticulous work, La Ferrassie 1 was complete.
“It’s got a humanizing effect, putting the flesh on,” says Dr. John Hawks, an anthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, who is impressed by the result.
“Focusing on bone doesn’t give us the whole picture.”
The Neanderthal, La Ferrassie 1, is one of three recreations. Over six months the team also built Nariokotome boy, a member of the species Homo erectus, and one of our earliest prehistoric ancestors – an Australopithecus afarensis named Lucy.
Actor Russell Means, who played a leading role in The Last of the Mohicans, has died at the age of 72.
Russell Means played Chingachgook, the adopted father of Daniel Day Lewis’s character Hawkeye, in the 1992 film.
He was also a former American Indian Movement (AIM) activist, who helped lead a 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee.
Russell Means died on Monday at his ranch in Porcupine, South Dakota, a spokeswoman for the Oglala Sioux Tribe said.
Donna Salomon, the tribal spokeswoman, called Russell Means’ death a “great loss” for the tribe.
In August 2011, Russell Means announced he had inoperable throat cancer and told the Associated Press he was eschewing mainstream medicines in favor of traditional Native American treatments.
The Last of the Mohicans was his first film role and he went on to also appear in films such as Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers.
He also voiced Chief Powhatan in Disney’s 1995 animated movie Pocahontas.
Russell Means guest starred in US TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2004.
He also made two albums of protest music with lyrics he wrote – Electric Warrior and The Radical.
Russell Means, who played a leading role in The Last of the Mohicans, has died at the age of 72
The AIM’s armed occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota – the site of an infamous massacre of Native Americans by US soldiers in the late 19th Century – lasted for 71 days.
The protest followed the failure of AIM followers to impeach the elected tribal president, whom they accused of corruption.
Russell Means ran unsuccessfully for president of his tribe and for the Libertarian nomination for US president in 1988.
But he was also a controversial figure, partly because of the AIM’s alleged involvement in the slaying of one of their activists Annie Mae Aquash in 1975.
Authorities believed it was the work of AIM members because they suspected she was an FBI informant.
Paul deMain, a Native American journalist who researched the case, said the AIM’s leaders know who ordered Aquash’s killing but have covered up the truth for decades.
Russell Means blamed one of his fellow AIM leaders, Vernon Bellecourt, for ordering her killing.
Vernon Bellecourt denied the allegations in a 2004 interview. He died in 2008.
Russell Means was married four times and leaves ten children.
President Barack Obama won the third presidential debate against his Republican rival Governor Mitt Romney according to two instant polls released by CNN and CBS News.
CBS News said that its poll of 521 undecided voters said the president had won the night by a 53% to 23% margin over his GOP counterpart, with a further 24% saying they thought it was a tie. CBS said the margin of error in its poll was +/- 4 percentage points.
CNN said Barack Obama won by eight percentage points among the debate watchers it polled, 48% to 40%, with a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points. CNN noted the Obama win was within the margin of error. The network didn’t say how many respondents there were to its poll.
Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney have battled over national security in the third and final presidential debate at Boca Raton, Florida.
The rivals tangled over the Arab Spring, Iran, China’s rise and more in a feisty 90-minute head-to-head.
Barack Obama said his Republican challenger was “all over the map” on foreign policy, while Mitt Romney said the president had failed to uphold American global leadership.
The two candidates are running neck and neck with two weeks until the election.
In the final debate, moderated by veteran CBS News presenter Bob Schieffer, there were no noticeable gaffes or knockout blows.
The forum at Lynn University featured little of the interrupting that marked their second encounter last week in New York, when Barack Obama came out swinging after his lackluster performance in their first head to head in Denver, Colorado.
The rivals found some common ground – each declared unequivocal support for Israel and both voiced opposition to US military involvement in Syria.
Mitt Romney also said he agreed with the president’s policy of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by 2014 – the Republican has suggested otherwise in the past.
In laying out one of his overarching themes on foreign policy, Mitt Romney said the US under President Barack Obama’s leadership had allowed “tumult” to engulf the Middle East.
He cited civilian deaths in Syria, the rise of al-Qaeda affiliates in North Africa and Iran’s nuclear programme.
But the Republican steered clear of his suggestion in the last debate that the Obama administration had mishandled last month’s Libya US consulate attack, which left four Americans dead.
Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney have battled over national security in the third and final presidential debate at Boca Raton
“What’s been happening over the last couple of years is, as we’re watching this tumult in the Middle East, this rising tide of chaos occur, you see al-Qaeda rushing in, you see other jihadist groups rushing in,” Mitt Romney said.
“I congratulate him on taking out Osama Bin Laden and taking on the leadership of al-Qaeda, but we can’t kill our way out of this… We must have a comprehensive strategy.”
Barack Obama hit back that he was glad that Mitt Romney had recognized the threat posed by al-Qaeda, reminding the former Massachusetts governor that he had earlier this year cast Russia as America’s number one geo-political foe.
The president sought to portray Mitt Romney as a foreign policy novice who lacked the consistency needed to be commander-in-chief.
Barack Obama said Mitt Romney had backed a continued troop presence in Iraq, opposed nuclear treaties with Russia, even when they had broad bipartisan backing, and accused the Republican of flip-flopping over whether the US should have a timeline for leaving Afghanistan.
“What we need to do with respect to the Middle East is strong, steady leadership, not wrong and reckless leadership that is all over the map,” Barack Obama said.
The president said that he had ended the war in Iraq and “decimated” al-Qaeda’s leadership, allowing the US to prepare a responsible timeline for withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Mitt Romney, whose book is called No Apology, accused Barack Obama of having gone on “an apology tour” after he took office and of saying at the time he would meet “all the world’s worst actors”, including leaders from North Korea and Iran.
“I think they looked at that and saw weakness,” Mitt Romney said.
The president hit back, saying: “Nothing Governor Romney has just said is true, starting with the notion of me apologizing,” a claim Barack Obama labeled the “biggest whopper” of the campaign.
The rivals also jostled to act tougher than the other on China, as allegations flew about trade violations and currency manipulation by Beijing.
Although the debate’s focus was meant to be on foreign affairs, the two candidates pivoted repeatedly back to the fragile US economy, the issue uppermost in voters’ minds.
Mitt Romney said he knew what it took to create jobs and boost pay, while Barack Obama was nine million jobs short of his pledge of 5.4% employment.
But Barack Obama accused Mitt Romney of planning $5 trillion of tax cuts and $2 trillion of defence spending the military had not even requested.
“You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916,” Barack Obama said in one of the night’s most memorable lines.
“Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.”
An NBC poll on Sunday put the men in a dead heat, each with 47% support.
A lackluster performance by Barack Obama in the opening debate in Denver, Colorado, on 3 October gave Mitt Romney a campaign boost.
But in their second face-off in New York last week, a more aggressive Barack Obama buried the memory of a poor first showing as he came out swinging on the economy, tax and foreign policy.
After Monday night’s showdown, both candidates will be returning to the campaign trail for a grueling final two weeks of wooing voters in swing states.
The final debate behind them, both men will now launch a final fortnight of campaigning. Already four million ballots have been cast in early voting in more than two dozen states.
These are the 10 most expensive burgers in the world; culinary works of gastronomic excellence with an astronomical price tag to match.
Eight of the patties can be found in upmarket restaurants in the U.S., while a ninth is on offer in London and a tenth in Indonesia. One of them even comes with a diamond-encrusted solid gold toothpick.
However – with the cheapest on sale for $155 and the most expensive being offered for $5,000 – it’s debatable whether your average burger-loving diner will ever be wealthy enough to sample the delights of these dishes.
The most expensive on the list is the FleurBurger 5000, at Fleur de Lys in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, which costs a whopping $5,000.
Containing foie gras and a special truffle sauce, it is served on a brioche truffle bun with black truffles on the side and comes with a bottle of Chateau Petrus 1990, poured in Ichendorf Brunello stemware.
And the $777 Kobe Beef and Maine Lobster Burger from Le Burger Brasserie in Paris Las Vegas, Nevada, consists of Kobe beef and fresh Maine lobster, caramelised onions, imported brie cheese, prosciutto, 100-year aged balsamic vinegar. It is served with a bottle of Rose Dom Perignon champagne.
It’s class all the way for the “666” burger in New York. With a price tag of $666, the foie gras-stuffed Kobe patty is topped with gruyere cheese that has been melted with champagne steam, lobster, truffles, caviar, and a BBQ sauce made with Kopi Luwak coffee beans.
Some might say the $499 Absolutely Ridiculous Burger, from Mallie’s Sports Bar & Grill in Southgate, Michigan, is precisely that.
Not only is it one of the most expensive, the 185.6 lbs burger also holds the Guinness World Record holder for being the world’s largest.
If you’re wary of parting with $295 for the Serendipity Burger from New York’s Serendipity 3 restaurant, fret not – the meal even comes with its very own diamond-encrusted solid gold toothpick.
The patty of Japanese Waygu beef is infused with ten herb white truffle butter, seasoned with Salish Alderwood smoked Pacific sea salt, topped with cheddar cheese hand-formed by James Montgomery in Somerset, England, and 18-month “cave-aged” shaved black truffles.
A fried quail egg, a white truffle-buttered Campagna Roll – itself, topped with blini, creme fraiche, and Paramout Caviar’s exclusive Kaluga caviar – finishes the dish.
Celebrated chef Hubert Keller has created the world’s most expensive burger for his Fleur de Lys restaurant at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
London’s offering to this list is the $200 meal from One Burger King restaurant. Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham slices, Cristal onion straws is joined with Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine and shallot infused mayonnaise in an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun.
The $175 Richard Nouveau Burger, at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe in New York, is topped with real gold flakes, 25 grams of black truffles, a seared slab of foie gras and aged Gruyere.
The $120 DB Royale Double Truffle Burger, on sale at New York’s B Bistro and the Daniel Boulud Brasserie in Las Vegas, is stuffed with red wine-braised short ribs – off the bone – foie gras, a mix of root vegetables and preserved black truffle.
Indonesia’s Million Rupiah Hamburger, served at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jakarta, earns its place in the top ten with the $108 patty topped with foie gras, portobello mushrooms and Korean pears.
At a mere $100, McGuire’s Grand Burger, from McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola, Florida, is the least expensive patty on the list. It boasts a filet mignon and is served with Moet and Chandon white star champagne.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z have lost a battle to trademark the name of their baby daughter Blue Ivy.
The celebrity couple had filed legal papers to protect the name of their first born child soon after her birth in January.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z were said to be planning to launch a range of baby products and clothes called Blue Ivy that would have added to their already substantial fortune of more than $1.1 billion.
But the pair have lost out on trade marking their daughter’s name to a small wedding planner based in Boston who had called her company Blue Ivy in 2009.
The ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office means Beyoncé and Jay-Z have no legal right to keep the name to themselves.
Veronica Alexandra, the owner of Blue Ivy, found herself up against the most powerful couple in show business soon after they revealed the unusual name for their daughter.
Days after the birth of Blue Ivy Carter in January Jay-Z and his wife filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect the baby’s name.
The move followed two unsuccessful applications from New York based fashion designers who tried to trademark the name.
The trademark office denied both filings, saying the name belonged to a “very famous infant” and consumers would falsely assume that the products were approved by the celebrity parents.
But event and wedding planner Veronica Alexandra, 32, said she was forced to file her own application as she feared she could be put out of business if the power celebrity couple were successful.
She said: “My company had been called Blue Ivy since 2009. I came up with the name, and if they had won my business could have been restricted.
“It was important for me to protect the name of my company. We are very successful as wedding planners and wanted to stay that way.
“Of course Blue Ivy is a lovely name, but I had to make sure that I would be able to continue using it for my business.”
Veronica Alexandra, whose office is in Boston, Massachusetts, said she had no hard feelings towards Beyoncé and her husband.
A photograph of the pair on her company’s website says: “Congrats to our soul mate couple with baby Blue Ivy.”
Veronica Alexandra, a former Harvard graduate, chose the name Blue Ivy to make her company stand-out among the crowed market of wedding planners.
She said: “Blue is a very powerful color used by any companies and Ivy conjures up a very romantic image. I was very happy with the name, and of course business spiked after Beyoncé called her baby Blue Ivy. We do between 40 and 60 weddings a year.”
Veronica Alexandra said she would happily relinquish her rights to the Blue Ivy name if the couple were to make her an offer.
“If Beyoncé and Jay-Z want to buy me out I’d welcome that,” she said.
The couple has never revealed their reasons for naming their daughter Blue Ivy.
The color blue is said to be Jay-Z’s favorite having released three albums called Blueprint.
That middle name “Ivy”, reportedly references the Roman numeral IV for 4 – a significant digit for both Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Beyoncé ‘s birthday is September 4, Jay-Z’s is December 4, they were married on April 4, 2008, and the singer’s latest album is entitled 4.
Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake in L’Aquila.
A regional court found them guilty of multiple manslaughter.
Prosecutors said the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake, while the defence maintained there was no way to predict major quakes.
The 6.3 magnitude quake devastated the city and killed 309 people.
Many smaller tremors had rattled the area in the months before the quake that destroyed much of the historic centre.
It took Judge Marco Billi slightly more than four hours to reach the verdict in the trial, which had begun in September 2011.
Lawyers have said that they will appeal against the sentence. As convictions are not definitive until after at least one level of appeal in Italy, it is unlikely any of the defendants will immediately face prison.
The seven – all members of the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks – were accused of having provided “inexact, incomplete and contradictory” information about the danger of the tremors felt ahead of 6 April 2009 quake, Italian media report.
In addition to their sentences, all have been barred from ever holding public office again, La Repubblica reports.
In the closing statement, the prosecution quoted one of its witnesses, whose father died in the earthquake.
It described how Guido Fioravanti had called his mother at about 11pm on the night of the earthquake – straight after the first tremor.
“I remember the fear in her voice. On other occasions they would have fled but that night, with my father, they repeated to themselves what the risk commission had said. And they stayed.”
The judge also ordered the defendants to pay court costs and damages.
Reacting to the verdict against him, Bernardo De Bernardinis said: “I believe myself to be innocent before God and men.”
“My life from tomorrow will change,” the former vice-president of the Civil Protection Agency’s technical department said, according to La Repubblica.
“But, if I am judged by all stages of the judicial process to be guilty, I will accept my responsibility.”
Another, Enzo Boschi, described himself as “dejected” and “desperate” after the verdict was read.
“I thought I would have been acquitted. I still don’t understand what I was convicted of.”
One of the lawyers for the defence, Marcello Petrelli, described the sentences as “hasty” and “incomprehensible”.
The case has alarmed many in the scientific community, who feel science itself has been put on trial.
Some scientists have warned that the case might set a damaging precedent, deterring experts from sharing their knowledge with the public for fear of being targeted in lawsuits.
Among those convicted were some of Italy’s most prominent and internationally respected seismologists and geological experts.
Earlier, more than 5,000 scientists signed an open letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in support of the group in the dock.
• Franco Barberi, head of Serious Risks Commission
• Enzo Boschi, former president of the National Institute of Geophysics
• Giulio Selvaggi, director of National Earthquake Centre
• Gian Michele Calvi, director of European Centre for Earthquake Engineering
• Claudio Eva, physicist
• Mauro Dolce, director of the the Civil Protection Agency’s earthquake risk office
• Bernardo De Bernardinis, former vice-president of Civil Protection Agency’s technical department
Ann Romney cooled off on a Florida beach this weekend as her husband got fired up for the final presidential debate.
As Mitt Romney indulged in a beach football game between his staffers and invited reporters, Ann Romney took advantage of the Florida sunshine in her fetching floral suit, going for a swim with her family at Delray Beach.
Ann Romney, 63, looked glamorous in the brightly-colored, halterneck suit with matching sarong.
She splashed around in the water with her sons, their wives and her grandchildren, before she grabbed a towel and headed for a sun lounger.
Hours before they hit the beach, Mitt Romney and wife Ann were pictured attending church in Boca Raton on Sunday where she grabbed attention in a scarlet dress with full-length zip and chunky jewellery.
The latest poll has Mitt Romney neck-and-neck with Barack Obama as they each have 47% of likely voters ahead of their debate this evening.
Today’s face-off represents one of the last major opportunities for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to capture the attention of millions of voters – especially that small but sought-after group who haven’t yet made up their minds.
And while the former Massachusetts governor was relaxing on the beach, Barack Obama was holed up in Camp David in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains.
The President had arrived on Friday to prep for the debate, a 90-minute encounter focused on international affairs.
British restaurant Smokey’s Joint has unveiled the largest chilli cheese hotdog in Europe with 13,000 calories – that’s six times a woman’s recommended daily intake.
At over one metre-long and filled with 1.5 kgs of beef sausage, a whole pound of homemade chilli and lashings of cheese, the Monster Dog at Smokey’s Joint in Walsall, near Birmingham, contains an estimated 13,000 calories.
It is more than five times the daily recommended allowance of 2,500 calories for a man.
The gastronomic gauntlet is the latest in what the eatery hopes will be a long line of food challenges and follows the creation of the 3 lbs cheeseburger, which has yet to be successfully tackled by any contender.
Dean Key, 30, director of Smokey’s, said he began seeking out a new challenge following his customers failed attempts to complete the Monster Burger.
He said: “I’ve had people asking us for weeks when it’s going to come out and if it’s ready yet.
“We’ve spent ages developing the prototypes and we’ve had a lot of fun trying them out. The most any of the guys here have managed to eat is about half of one.
“The real struggle was in sourcing a really big sausage and eventually we got a local butcher to supply the meat which he uses to fill extra large sausage skins ordered especially from Holland.
“It’s pure beef sausage. We wanted to make sure the ingredients were of a really high quality because if you’re going to eat that much of something it has to taste good.”
Europe’s largest chilli cheese hotdog has 13,000 calories
The Monster Dog boasts a massive 1,000 grams of fat as opposed to the modest 70 grams recommended as part of woman’s recommended daily intake, and 100 grams recommended for a man.
It also contains a whopping 34,274 mgs of salt.
With 80 people so far having attempted – and failed – to overcome the gut-busting burger, it is unlikely anyone will manage to complete a whole Monster Dog in the near future.
Dean Key said: “Both the burger and the hotdog are £29.95 or free if you eat it in an hour.
“When we made the burger I had a load of T-shirts printed that said “I conquered the Monster Burger” and I still have all of them.
“I wish I’d got a bunch that said, <<I was defeated by the Monster Burger>> because I could have sold dozens of them.”
The restaurant launched the challenges after enjoying the hit American show Man vs. Food, in which presenter Adam Richman travels the US seeking out the biggest food challenges.
Dean Key, who runs the restaurant with business partners Jonathan Caddick, 31, Dale Key, 27 and Stefan Hilton, 22, believes the Monster Dog is the biggest in Europe, dwarfing the competition.
However, it has a long way to go to beat the current world’s longest meat hot dog record holder, measured at 203.8 m and manufactured by Ochsi of Paraguay.
As we age, we’re tempted to plaster on more make-up in a bid to hide lines, hollow cheeks and sagging eyes.
Yet as supermodel Cindy Crawford, 46, has revealed, her secret to looking youthful is to do the opposite.
“I wear less make-up,” she tweeted.
“It can make you look older.”
Since then, Sharon Stone, 54, and Carol Vorderman, 51, have been seen looking bare-faced and beautiful.
“Too much make-up shrinks your features and makes skin appear dry,” says make-up artist Kim Jacob.
Here, we reveal how to reduce the signs of ageing:
EYES
Problem: Eyes become lined and appear smaller. Powder eyeshadows accentuate crepiness, while dark make-up closes up the eyes.
Turn back the years: Opt for brown or grey liners, and stick to paler eyeshadow. Use color sparingly on the outer corners of the lid and as a liner. Plum is in fashion and looks good with green and blue eyes.
Try Wild About Beauty’s Eyeshadow Pencil Duo or Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Eye Shadow.
LIPS
Problem: Lips become thinner and wrinkles form. As we mature, lips can lose definition and dark colors accentuate this.
Lipstick can also bleed into fine lines. Older skin can be dry, and matte lipsticks make them look worse.
Turn back the years: Draw outside your natural lip line with a nude, matte lip pencil. Fill in the rest of the lip with a light color and add a dab of gloss. Try Pixi Lip and Line and Bobbi Brown Brightening Lip Gloss in pink.
EYEBROWS
Problem: Brows start to droop, while lashes fade and thin. Many of us overpluck, leaving brows looking sparse.
Daily use of waterproof mascara can dry out lashes, so they become fragile.
Turn back the years: Defined, high arches lift the face. Use a brow shadow to cover any grey hairs and fill out the shape. Tint lashes dark brown to make them appear fuller.
CHEEKS
Problem: Cheeks lose volume and the face gets thinner. Dark bronzers can make the face can look gaunt. Blush worn too high can make eyes looks smaller and accentuate any crepiness.
Turn back the years: Apply a warm blush to the plumpest part of your cheeks to create youthful fullness. Use a rosy pink or peach-toned creamy blush and smooth it out towards the ears for a full, fresh look. Try Clinique Blushwear sticks in Peachy Blush.
SKIN
Problem: Skin gets dull and wrinkled. Powdery make-up sits in lines and large pores, exaggerating them. Thick, matte make-up dulls the complexion.
Turn back the years: Make sure your foundation is exactly right for your skin tone. It’s best to avoid powder as this can be too matte – using a primer under foundation is a better way to reduce shine.
Try Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat foundation and Pore-fessional primer, or Miracle Glo, which makes tired skin look fresh and radiant.
Donald Jr. and Vanessa Trump have welcomed their fourth child.
The baby boy joins older sister Kai, 5, and brothers Donald Jr., 3, and one-year-old Tristan.
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted: “It’s a BOY!!! @MrsVanessaTrump and baby are doing great.”
The businessman, who advises his father on The Apprentice, had earlier teased: “I actually never really got to bed. More on that later.”
And he joked that his son would soon be joining the family business, saying he’d be in the boardroom in “2 maybe 3 weeks;)”.
Donald Jr. and Vanessa Trump had taken their oldest two children to the Disney premiere of Secret Of The Wings in New York on Saturday.
Donald Jr. and Vanessa Trump have welcomed their fourth child
Vanessa Trump huge bump could clearly be seen as she posed in her black maxi dress.
On her return home Vanessa Trump joked she was lucky she hadn’t gone into labor.
“Made it back home! I’m so thankful I didn’t go into labor!,” she wrote.
“He’s very lucky! We are counting the days till we meet the little 1!”
The newborn makes a fifth grandchild and third grandson for business magnate Donald Trump Senior.
His daughter, Ivanka Trump, welcomed a daughter Arabella last year.
Donald Jr. and Vanessa Trump only welcomed their third child in October last year, with Vanessa conceiving again just three months later.
Vanessa Trump had been keeping her Twitter fans updated about the pregnancy’s progress, tweeting this week: “So I would love to hear what people think I’m having a boy or a girl?
“We won’t know till the little one is born but let’s see who’s right!”
Cyclist Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by the International Cycling Union.
UCI has accepted the findings of the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) investigation into Armstrong.
UCI president Pat McQuaid said: “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. He deserves to be forgotten.”
Pat McQuaid added Armstrong had been stripped of all results since 1 August, 1998 and banned for life for doping.
On what he called a “landmark day for cycling”, the Irishman, who became president of UCI in 2005, said he would not be resigning.
“This is a crisis, the biggest crisis cycling has ever faced,” he said.
“I like to look at this crisis as an opportunity for our sport and everyone involved in it to realise it is in danger and to work together to go forward.
“Cycling has a future. This is not the first time cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew.
“When I took over [as president] in 2005 I made the fight against doping my priority. I acknowledged cycling had a culture of doping. Cycling has come a long way. I have no intention of resigning as president of the UCI,” Pat McQuaid said.
“I’m sorry that we couldn’t catch every damn one of them red-handed and throw them out of the sport at the time.”
Lance Armstrong, 41, received a life ban from USADA for what the organisation called “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”.
The American, who overcame cancer to return to professional cycling, won the Tour de France in seven successive years from 1999 to 2005.
He has always denied doping but chose not to fight the charges filed against him.
USADA released a 1,000-page report earlier this month which included sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team and the doping activities of its members.
USADA praised the “courage” shown by the riders in coming forward and breaking the sport’s “code of silence”.
Lance Armstrong, who retired in 2005 but returned in 2009 before retiring for good two years later, has not commented on the details of USADA’s report. His lawyer Tim Herman, however, has described it as a “one-sided hatchet job”.
Pat McQuaid said he was “sickened” by what he read in the USADA report, singling out the testimony of Lance Armstrong’s former team-mate David Zabriskie.
“The story he told of how he was coerced and to some extent forced into doping is just mind-boggling,” he said.
“It is very difficult to accept and understand that that went on.
“But cycling has changed a lot since then. What was available to the UCI then was much more limited compared to what is available now. If we had then what we have now, this sort of thing would not have gone on.”
Pat McQuaid was quizzed over the $100,000 donation made by Armstrong to the UCI in 2002, one year after the American cyclist had had a suspicious test for EPO at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland.
The management committee of the UCI will meet on Friday to discuss whether to reallocate Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France titles and prize money.
US President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney are set to meet in their third and final debate ahead of 6 November’s presidential election – focusing on foreign policy.
Libya and Iran will likely feature, as well as terrorism, a rising China and the wars in Afghanistan and Syria.
The 90-minute televised event in Boca Raton, Florida will be their last head-to-head clash before the election and is expected to draw 60 million viewers.
An NBC poll on Sunday put the men in a dead heat, each with 47% support.
Monday’s debate at Lynn University will begin at 21:00 EDT and see the candidates seated at desks in a contest moderated by CBS News’ veteran anchorman Bob Schieffer.
Barack Obama will be aiming to stress his commander-in-chief credentials as the man who neutralized Osama Bin Laden and ended the Iraq war, analysts say: He will be trying to portray Mitt Romney as lacking the experience to steer the nation through a crisis.
For his part, Mitt Romney is expected to push his campaign’s position that US foreign policy is “unravelling before our very eyes”.
At a confrontational second debate in New York last week, Mitt Romney said the 11 September attack on the US consulate in Benghazi – which killed four Americans including the US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens – and wider anti-American violence in the Middle East were symptomatic of that decline.
The Republican candidate accused Barack Obama of initially downplaying the role of radical Islamists in the Benghazi attack – in order to protect a successful anti-terrorist track record.
Barack Obama countered that he had denounced the killing as “an act of terror”, snapping that Mitt Romney should “check the transcript” rather than trying to score political points from the tragedy.
The former Massachusetts governor has accused the president of not being firm enough in support of America’s principal Middle Eastern ally, Israel.
Barack Obama has a chilly relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has refused to bow to Israeli pressure to issue ultimatums to Iran over its nuclear programme.
But while the president routinely says a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable, he also praises the people of Iran.
On such issues, Mitt Romney has not spelt out what he would do differently – except be tougher. He has raised Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons – which Tehran denies – as evidence of President Barack Obama’s lack of leadership.
During the weekend, reports surfaced that the White House was open to one-on-one talks with Iran – but that there were no talks planned.
Mitt Romney will likely use the reports to show Barack Obama as weak.
While Barack Obama sees China as a competitor in the global market, Mitt Romney has been more outspoken on the emerging global superpower, saying Beijing cheats by manipulating the value of its currency against the US dollar – and that he will crack down.
But the millionaire businessman has also stumbled on international issues, managing to upset as many people as he impressed during a tour of Europe and Israel this summer.
Barack Obama spent the weekend preparing for the debate at the presidential retreat in Camp David in Maryland’s Catoctin mountains.
His opponent acclimatized in Florida with the same intensive preparations that have taken up much of his time this month.
A lackluster performance by Barack Obama in the opening debate in Denver, Colorado, on 3 October gave Mitt Romney a campaign boost, with polls perceiving the challenger as having won the debate by a wide margin.
But in their second face-off in New York last week, a more aggressive Barack Obama buried the memory of a poor first showing as he came out swinging on the economy, tax and foreign policy.
After Monday night’s showdown, both candidates will be returning to the campaign trail for a grueling final two weeks of wooing voters in swing states.
While analysts suggest the contests in some 40 states are as good as over, battles in states like Ohio, Florida and Virginia remain in the balance – and the key issues for many would-be voters remain the economy and jobs.
Much as Monday’s debate is about foreign policy, the candidates will use any opportunity to highlight the strengths of their economic policies, analysts say.
A group of leftists in China have written an open letter asking parliament not to expel disgraced leader Bo Xilai.
The letter, signed by more than 300 academics and former officials, was carried on the left-wing Chinese-language website Red China.
It said the move was legally questionable and politically motivated.
China’s leftists are a small but vocal group to whom Bo Xilai’s populist policies appealed.
Expulsion from parliament would remove Bo Xilai’s immunity, meaning he could be prosecuted over the scandal that has seen his wife Gu Kailai jailed.
Gu Kailai was given a suspended death sentence earlier this year over the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
Bo Xilai’s former police chief and right-hand man Wang Lijun has also been jailed in connection with the scandal.
More than 300 academics and former party officials signed the letter in support of the former Chongqing Communist Party leader.
“What is the reason provided for expelling Bo Xilai? Please investigate the facts and the evidence,” the letter said.
“Please announce to the people evidence that Bo Xilai will be able to defend himself in accordance with the law.”
Those who signed include Li Chengrui, former director of the National Bureau of Statistics, a law professor at Peking University, local legislators, members of the now-closed online leftist forum Utopia, as well as a rights activist in Zhejiang.
Many Chinese internet users cannot access the Red China website, which has supported Bo Xilai, and the letter so far does not appear to have been reported in state media.
But the letter exposes the deep divisions that continue to exist within the party over the Bo Xilai affair.
Bo Xilai’s flamboyant populist style – including the promotion of old party songs and his policies for state-led growth – pitted him against reformist colleagues.
He has not been seen in public since mid-March, shortly after the scandal erupted and it was announced he was under investigation.
Bo Xilai was suspended from his party posts in April and expelled from the Communist Party in September. State media says he faces charges related to corruption, abuse of power and bribe-taking.
His wife Gu Kailai was convicted of killing Neil Heywood after a multi-million dollar business deal turned sour.
But supporters maintain that Bo Xilai’s enemies have used this scandal to end his career for political reasons.
Bo Xilai, 63, had been a prime candidate for a top post in the leadership handover set for next month before the scandal broke.
Donald Trump announced today that he has a gigantic bombshell about President Barack Obama that he will reveal on Wednesday.
Donald Trump told Fox & Friends this morning that he had “something very, very big concerning the president of the United States”.
“It’s going to be very big. I know one thing- you will cover it in a very big fashion,” he added.
Donald Trump wasn’t giving away any clues, however, but only went on to say that it could “possibly” play a role in the election.
The billionaire said he is waiting to Tweet the “large, bordering on gigantic <<news>> sometime probably Wednesday”.
Donald Trump has been one of the most outspoken critics of President Barack Obama and has also threatened to run against him.
He has also toured New Hampshire and said very clearly that he was seriously contemplating a presidential run.
Later he became something of a political touchstone for the various Republican candidates and eventually endorsed Mitt Romney.
Donald Trump has been extremely vocal as a so-called birther conspiracy theorist, claiming that Barack Obama was born outside of the United States making him unable to run for President.
He believes that his Hawaiian birth certificate is fake or non-existent.
In April 2011, Donald Trump announced that he paid to have a team of investigators to Hawaii to truly delve into the issue.
In response, Barack Obama released the long form edition of his birth certificate after spending years refusing to do so.
“Normally, I would not comment on something like this…I’ve got other things to do,” Barack Obama said at the time.
This is the second time in as many months that Donald Trump has said that he has a big surprise that would be damaging to the President, though the last time he said so – in the days leading up to the Republican National Convention – nothing came of it.
Donald Trump’s announcement comes the same day as another surprise: a mysterious website called “The October Surprise” says that it will release documents at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Very little is known about the creators of the site, the type of documents that they are referring to, or even their intended target.
The Twitter bio for the site simply reads: “One of your presidential candidates isn’t being honest with you. Stay tuned to find out which one it is.”
The big reveal will take place just hours before the third and final debate which is dedicated to foreign policy. As a result, spectators believe that the documents- which allegedly are muzzed and used as the picture on The October surprise sites- relate to a foreign issue.
“We can’t predict media/campaign reaction, but the content is irrefutable,” the creators wrote to one Twitter inquiry.
Sensing a playful competition between the two reveals, The October Surprise tweeted at Donald Trump, saying that they beat him by making a big announcement. There is no telling if the two announcements are related in any way.
While The October Surprise is keeping both candidates in the dark, Donald Trump was not as impartial.
The billionaire businessman-turned-reality star and Barack Obama have a barbed relationship on both sides. Donald Trump repeatedly called Barack Obama “the worst president ever”, and Obama referred to Trump as a “carnival barker” once he released the long form birth certificate.
Barack Obama also spent a portion of his speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner in April 2011 taking jabs at Donald Trump.
“Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Barack Obama said in the speech.
“And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter – like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”
Over the past year, Donald Trump’s birther rhetoric has died down significantly and he has focused his attention to the Republican primary race, eventually supporting Mitt Romney’s bid.
Though his endorsement came in May, the latest endorsement from the Trump clan came just three days ago. Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka is married to Jared Kushner, the owner of The New York Observer. While there was no mention of the paper’s ties to the real estate mogul, it did surprise some to see the paper reverse it’s 2008 endorsement of Barack Obama and come out in favor of Mitt Romney just three days ago.
The world’s oldest undeciphered writing system, which has so far defied attempts to uncover its 5,000-year-old secrets, could be about to be decoded by Oxford University academics.
This international research project is already casting light on a lost bronze age middle eastern society where enslaved workers lived on rations close to the starvation level.
“I think we are finally on the point of making a breakthrough,” says Jacob Dahl, fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and director of the Ancient World Research Cluster.
Dr. Jacob Dahl’s secret weapon is being able to see this writing more clearly than ever before.
In a room high up in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, above the Egyptian mummies and fragments of early civilizations, a big black dome is clicking away and flashing out light.
This device, part sci-fi, part-DIY, is providing the most detailed and high quality images ever taken of these elusive symbols cut into clay tablets. This is Indiana Jones with software.
It’s being used to help decode a writing system called proto-Elamite, used between around 3200 BC and 2900 BC in a region now in the south west of modern Iran.
And the Oxford team think that they could be on the brink of understanding this last great remaining cache of undeciphered texts from the ancient world.
Dr. Jacob Dahl, from the Oriental Studies Faculty, shipped his image-making device on the Eurostar to the Louvre Museum in Paris, which holds the most important collection of this writing.
The clay tablets were put inside this machine, the Reflectance Transformation Imaging System, which uses a combination of 76 separate photographic lights and computer processing to capture every groove and notch on the surface of the clay tablets.
It allows a virtual image to be turned around, as though being held up to the light at every possible angle.
These images will be publicly available online, with the aim of using a kind of academic crowdsourcing.
He says it’s misleading to think that codebreaking is about some lonely genius suddenly understanding the meaning of a word. What works more often is patient teamwork and the sharing of theories. Putting the images online should accelerate this process.
But this is painstaking work. So far Dr. Jacob Dahl has deciphered 1,200 separate signs, but he says that after more than 10 years study much remains unknown, even such basic words as “cow” or “cattle”.
He admits to being “bitten” by this challenge.
“It’s an unknown, uncharted territory of human history,” he says.
But why has this writing proved so difficult to interpret?
Dr. Jacob Dahl suspects he might have part of the answer. He’s discovered that the original texts seem to contain many mistakes – and this makes it extremely tricky for anyone trying to find consistent patterns.
He believes this was not just a case of the scribes having a bad day at the office. There seems to have been an unusual absence of scholarship, with no evidence of any lists of symbols or learning exercises for scribes to preserve the accuracy of the writing.
The world’s oldest undeciphered writing system could be about to be decoded by Oxford University academics
This first case of educational underinvestment proved fatal for the writing system, which was corrupted and then completely disappeared after only a couple of hundred years.
“It’s an early example of a technology being lost,” he says.
“The lack of a scholarly tradition meant that a lot of mistakes were made and the writing system may eventually have become useless.”
Making it even harder to decode is the fact that it’s unlike any other ancient writing style. There are no bi-lingual texts and few helpful overlaps to provide a key to these otherwise arbitrary looking dashes and circles and symbols.
This is a writing system – and not a spoken language – so there’s no way of knowing how words sounded, which might have provided some phonetic clues.
Dr. Jacob Dahl says that one of the really important historical significances of this proto-Elamite writing is that it was the first ever recorded case of one society adopting writing from another neighboring group.
But infuriatingly for the codebreakers, when these proto-Elamites borrowed the concept of writing from the Mesopotamians, they made up an entirely different set of symbols.
Why they should make the intellectual leap to embrace writing and then at the same time re-invent it in a different local form remains a puzzle.
But it provides a fascinating snapshot of how ideas can both spread and change.
In terms of written history, this is the very remote past. But there is also something very direct and almost intimate about it too.
You can see fingernail marks in the clay. These neat little symbols and drawings are clearly the work of an intelligent mind.
These were among the first attempts by our human ancestors to try to make a permanent record of their surroundings. What we’re doing now – my writing and your reading – is a direct continuation.
But there are glimpses of their lives to suggest that these were tough times. It wasn’t so much a land of milk and honey, but porridge and weak beer.
Even without knowing all the symbols, Dr. Jacob Dahl says it’s possible to work out the context of many of the messages on these tablets.
The numbering system is also understood, making it possible to see that much of this information is about accounts of the ownership and yields from land and people. They are about property and status, not poetry.
This was a simple agricultural society, with a ruling household. Below them was a tier of powerful middle-ranking figures and further below were the majority of workers, who were treated like “cattle with names”.
Their rulers have titles or names which reflect this status – the equivalent of being called “Mr. One Hundred”, he says – to show the number of people below him.
It’s possible to work out the rations given to these farm laborers.
Dr. Jacob Dahl says they had a diet of barley, which might have been crushed into a form of porridge, and they drank weak beer.
The amount of food received by these farm workers hovered barely above the starvation level.
However the higher status people might have enjoyed yoghurt, cheese and honey. They also kept goats, sheep and cattle.
For the “upper echelons, life expectancy for some might have been as long as now”, he says. For the poor, he says it might have been as low as in today’s poorest countries.
The tablets also have surprises. Even though there are plenty of pictures of animals and mythical creatures, Dr. Jacob Dahl says there are no representations of the human form of any kind. Not even a hand or an eye.
Was this some kind of cultural or religious taboo?
Dr.Jacob Dahl remains passionate about what this work says about such societies, digging into the deepest roots of civilization. This is about where so much begins. For instance, proto-Elamite was the first writing ever to use syllables.
If Macbeth talked about the “last syllable of recorded time”, the proto-Elamites were there for the first.
And with sufficient support, Dr. Jacob Dahl says that within two years this last great lost writing could be fully understood.
Tablet technology:
• Proto-Elamite is the name given to a writing system developed in an area that is now in south-western Iran
• It was adopted about 3200 BC and was borrowed from neighboring Mesopotamia
• It was written from right to left in wet clay tablets
• There are more than a thousand surviving tablets in this writing
• The biggest group of such texts was collected by 19th Century French archaeologists and brought back to the Louvre
• While other ancient writing, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian and Mesopotamian, have been deciphered – attempts with proto-Elamite have proved unsuccessful
International media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Turkey of waging “one of the world’s biggest anti-press campaigns in recent history”.
The CPJ says it has identified 61 journalists imprisoned because of their work – more than in any other country in the world.
Those detained face charges including terrorism and denigrating Turkishness.
Turkey claims most of the detainees are being held for crimes that have nothing to do with journalism.
It described that CPJ’s claims as exaggerated.
But the organization’s director, Joel Simon, said Turkey’s tendency to equate critical journalism with terrorism was not justified by its security concerns.
About 70% of Turkish journalists being held are Kurdish, an ethnic minority which has been seeking self-rule in areas of the south and east of the country.
“Turkish authorities conflate support for the Kurdish cause with terrorism itself,” the CPJ says.
More than 30,000 people have been killed in a 30-year conflict between the PKK rebels and the Turkish state.
The CPJ also warned that the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan used various forms of pressure to engender a culture of self-censorship in the press.
It said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly deprecated journalists, urged media outlets to discipline or fire critical staff members, and filed numerous high-profile defamation lawsuits.
Among the cases highlighted in the report are those of two prominent investigative reporters, Ahmet Sık and Nedim Sener, who were detained for more than year while on trial, accused of involvement in a plot against the government.
The two journalists told the CPJ they had both published or were writing books about sensitive topics, including the murder of the prominent journalist Hrant Dink.
But they have denied the charges that they were aiding the Ergenekon, a secret organization led by senior Turkish military officers, which has been accused of trying to overthrow the government.
