Saturday, February 28, 2015

Elvis Presley Graceland Exhibit Coming to Las Vegas



2015 marks what would have been Elvis Presley‘s 80th birthday, with the singer’s estate announcing they would commemorate the King with classic albums reissues and a new website. Now, the Westgate Resort & Casino in Las Vegas is making plans to open their own Graceland nearly four decades after Presley performed over 600 shows in Sin City.



On April 23, 2015, the hotel will unveil Graceland Presents ELVIS: The Exhibition – The Show – The Experience, a multimedia and memorabilia-based retrospective that will feature hundreds of items from the Graceland Archives. The exhibit’s arrival will coincide with the opening of the newly renamed Elvis Presley International Showroom, where a rotation of Presley-inspired acts – first up, The Elvis Experience — will take the renovated stage.



Presley himself has some history with the Westgate. Back when it was known as the International Hotel, Presley staged a residency at the venue, performing hundreds of shows at the International beginning in 1969. (The announcement of the Elvis exhibit actually came 46 years to the day that Presley inked his International Hotel deal.) The outfit Presley wore at his first International Hotel show will also be on display at the new exhibit.



While Las Vegas is already home to the Graceland Wedding Chapel, where an Elvis impersonator will declare you man and wife, the Westgate will open up Elvis Presley’s Graceland Wedding Chapel, the first Vegas chapel to be officially affiliated with the singer’s estate.



“Elvis is synonymous with Las Vegas and this property, so we are tremendously excited to have this new attraction and live show here to entertain Las Vegas visitors,” Westgate Resorts CEO David Siegel said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have Elvis back in the building.”





Elvis Presley Graceland Exhibit Coming to Las Vegas

Buffett looks to succession, signals future growth problem



By Luciana Lopez, Jonathan Stempel and Jennifer Ablan


NEW YORK (Reuters) – In his 50 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway Inc , Warren Buffett has transformed a failing textile company into a sprawling conglomerate that has vastly outperformed most of the rest of corporate America.


But he now says: Do not expect a repeat of that outperformance in the next 50.


In the 84-year-old’s annual shareholder letter released on Saturday, Buffett said Berkshire has grown so large – 751,000 times its original net worth per share – that the future pace of gains “will not come close” to those of the past.


“The numbers have become too big,” Buffett wrote. “I think Berkshire will outperform the average American company, but our advantage, if any, won’t be great.”


Within 10 to 20 years, Buffett said, Berkshire’s girth could require whoever then runs the Omaha, Nebraska-based company to consider steps he has resisted, such as paying dividends or conducting “massive” share repurchases.


Buffett, also addressing one of the more pressing topics at Berkshire, said he and his board of directors “believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO,” likely for a decade or more, and who in some respects “will do a better job than I am doing.”


While Buffett did not name that person, Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 91, said Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, two top Buffett lieutenants, would be prime candidates.


Abel, 52, runs Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Jain, 63, has been Buffett’s top insurance executive for three decades.


A successor could also be female: Buffett said “gender should never decide who becomes CEO.”


And Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who run some Berkshire investments, “can be of particular help to the CEO in evaluating acquisitions,” he added.


“You’ve got such good candidates,” said Thomas Russo, a principal at Gardner, Russo & Gardner, which invests 12 percent of its $10 billion of assets in Berkshire. “I think they’ll adopt a different capital structure approach, which will include a healthy, healthy large dividend.”


OPERATING RESULTS MISS ESTIMATES


Buffett is preparing in May to celebrate 50 years of running Berkshire, whose market value is now $363 billion (235.23 billion pounds).


On Saturday, Berkshire also reported a 17 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit, to $4.16 billion, or $2,529 per Class A share, from $4.99 billion, or $3,035, a year ago, as investment gains and results from insurance underwriting declined.


Operating profit rose 5 percent to $3.96 billion, or $2,412 per share, from $3.78 billion, or $2,297.


For all of 2014, profit rose 2 percent to $19.87 billion, while operating profit increased 9 percent to $16.55 billion. Revenue rose 7 percent $194.67 billion.


Book value per share, which Buffett considers a good measure of Berkshire’s worth, rose 8.3 percent to $146,186 but lagged gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500 <.SPX> for the fifth time in six years.


Despite the big numbers, Berkshire had some problems.


Buffett lamented the performance of the BNSF railroad, saying it “disappointed many of its customers” with congestion on its rail lines caused by bad weather, amid rising oil shipments and a bumper grain harvest.


He also said he was “embarrassed” by taking too long to exit a $2.3 billion investment in Tesco Plc , a British retailer that became mired in an accounting scandal.


Berkshire lost $444 million on Tesco, but Buffett said that’s just 0.2 percent of its net worth.


MOTHER LODE OF OPPORTUNITIES


Berkshire owns more than 80 companies, such as Geico insurance and Dairy Queen ice cream, and $117.5 billion of equity investments in such companies as Wells Fargo & Co , Coca-Cola Co , American Express Co and IBM Corp .


Buffett remains on the prowl for acquisitions, and with $63.27 billion of cash could make big purchases, which he calls “elephants,” while preserving a $20 billion cash cushion.


Despite spending $7.8 billion on 31 acquisitions in 2014, Berkshire has not bought an elephant since paying $12.25 billion to buy half of ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co in 2013.


And while Buffett has said he may shop more in Germany, after on Feb. 20 agreeing to buy a German motorcycle accessories retailer, Berkshire’s main focus will remain at home.


“Though we will always invest abroad as well, the mother lode of opportunities runs through America,” he wrote.


    Buffett’s letter retained the folksy tone that have helped make him popular among investors.


Talking about his See’s Candies business, which requires little capital investment, Buffett compared the company’s profits to “rabbits breeding.”


And Buffett said that at Berkshire’s annual meeting last year, part of a weekend he calls “Woodstock for Capitalists,” shareholders bought 10,000 bottles of Heinz ketchup with Buffett or Munger on the labels. (Buffett’s cost $2, Munger’s $1.50.)


This year, Buffett said Heinz will also be selling mustard as well as ketchup. “Buy both!” he exhorted.


(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan, Luciana Lopez and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)





Buffett looks to succession, signals future growth problem

Watch This Unlucky Car Thief Get Hit With His Own Weapon (No, Really)



There’s an old adage among car thieves (or at least, there should be) that states: “Never throw a brick at material more resilient than a brick.”


One novice Irish car thief learned this the hard way on Friday (February 27), and the video is a must-see. According to The Irish Independent, the thief was casing cars outside of The Pheasant Pub in Drogheda, Ireland, when he came upon a shiny Mercedes. He picked up a brick and chucked it at the passenger window — only the window fought back, with the brick bouncing off the window and smacking the thief right in the face, knocking him out.



The pub’s owner Gerry Brady uploaded the video, describing the scene succinctly in the caption.


“Idiot gets a smack in the face from his own brick as he attempts to break into car,” he wrote. “Owner arrives seconds later and he is soon arrested with major head injuries. Taken with a phone off the cctv…it looped back to beginning of scene, hence he vanishes. So, sorry about that…it was a simple phone clip to show friends, but happened to go viral.”


“You should have heard the garda laughing when they saw the video,” Brady added, in his interview with the Independent. “They were in stitches. Credit to them, they were straight out when we called and found the guy within minutes.”


Below you can check out a longer version of the same clip, including an extended intro that really ratchets up the tension. Appropriately, it’s titled “The Thick With The Brick.”









Watch This Unlucky Car Thief Get Hit With His Own Weapon (No, Really)

One of Turkey's best-known novelists, Yasar Kemal, dies



ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Yasar Kemal, one of Turkey’s best-known novelists whose focus on social injustices brought him into conflict with authority, died in Istanbul on Saturday. He was 91.


Kemal, best known for his first novel, “Ince Memed” or “Memed, My Hawk,” also turned his pen to promoting Marxism during his early years and defending the rights of minorities in Turkey, including the Kurdish minority of which he was part.


Kemal died at Istanbul’s Capa Hospital where he was admitted on Jan. 14 and being treated in its intensive care unit for multiple organ failure, Dr. Mehmet Akif Karan said.


“Memed,” published in 1955, was based on the troubled feudal relations in Turkey’s southern, agrarian regions where Kemal grew up. Reflecting the author’s leftist views, the book’s young peasant-turned-brigand hero takes a stand against injustices suffered by villagers at the hands of powerful landlords.


The character of Memed was drawn in part from Kemal’s memory of his mother’s brother, an outlaw named Mayro — “the best-known outlaw in the eastern Anatolia, Iran and Caucasus areas.”


“Mayro was killed when he was only 25,” Kemal said in an interview with French author Alain Bosquet. “I have heard many lullabies and a lot of national poetry that depict the bravery and heroism of Mayro. Mayro’s adventurous life was quite an inspiration to me when I was a child, and his footprints can clearly be seen in most of my novels.” 


“Memed” was first published in installments in Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1953 and 1954 where Kemal was a journalist. The book won Turkey’s Varlik literary prize in 1956 and it was widely translated, as were most of the more than 35 other books he wrote.


On its strength, the struggling first novelist found his name circulated as a possible candidate for the Nobel literature prize.


“It was one of the coldest Istanbul winters ever. I had no money to put wood in the stove,” Kemal said in a speech in 2003 at Bilkent University, recalling the time he wrote the novel.


“Yet, I just pretended that the fire was going strong; I covered myself in a ripped blanket, and typed away on an old typewriter that was missing many keys. That’s how I wrote the ‘Ince Memed,’ and this novel is the best memory I kept from that house I could not pay the rent to.” 


Kemal’s ability to delve into human nature and bring out the universal traits in his characters made his novels accessible to all sections of society. “Memed” and eight other novels were made into films.


“My adventures are aimed at exploring the mystery of the human,” he said at an award ceremony at the presidential palace in 2008.


In an interview with The Associated Press in 1996, Kemal recalled hearing his father sing Kurdish songs on a hilltop overlooking their village in the southern province of Adana. These were sagas of Kurdish heroism — of wars, lost sons and migrations in past centuries; of nostalgia for lands left behind.


However, Kemal didn’t promote his Kurdish background and few people knew he was a Kurd. “I’m a Turkish writer — of Kurdish origin,” he said.


But he did speak out during clashes between autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish troops in mid 1990s. Kemal was tried in 1995 under anti-terror laws but acquitted for an article he wrote for the German magazine Der Spiegel, accusing the Turkish army of destroying Kurdish villages. He saw his acquittal as one step in a longer struggle.


“One person’s acquittal does not mean freedom of expression has arrived. You can’t have spring with only one flower,” Kemal said at the time. “We still have to work very hard to achieve democracy in Turkey. I will continue to write these things until there are no trials against expression.”


In the same year, he received a 20-month suspended sentence for another article for “inciting hatred and promoting racism.”


“I couldn’t sleep at nights for a year,” Kemal said. “I had pangs of conscience. ‘You are a writer. You have to speak up,’ I kept telling myself.”  


Although Kemal wasn’t the first writer to be sentenced for writings about the Kurdish issue, his views attracted wider attention. Nobel laureate and playwright Arthur Miller sent a letter of support to Kemal and called his sentence “a painful absurdity.”


Kemal angrily rejected charges from Turkish ultranationalists that he was a traitor and shouldn’t write in Turkish.


“My life has been dedicated to the Turkish language, Turkish culture,” he said. “I don’t want a separate Kurdish state, nobody does. All that the Kurds want is their universal human rights — the right to preserve their language, culture, identity.”


Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reacted to Kemal’s death by praising the writer’s ability to “maintain his dissident attitude and express the truth without holding back at times when speaking the truth was hard.”


Kemal Sadik Gokceli was born in 1923 — he believed it was sometime in October — in a small village in Adana. He grew up hearing the Kurdish language at home and Turkish outside.


Kemal was blinded in his right eye as a child when a knife slipped out of a butcher’s hand. When he was 5, the boy witnessed his father being murdered by his adopted son, jealous of the father’s love for his natural son. Kemal re-imagined his father in the autobiographical novel “Yagmurcuk Kusu” (“Rain Bird”), granting his father a much longer life.


As a teenager, Kemal dropped out of secondary school and worked as a farm hand, a substitute teacher, a library clerk, a tractor driver and other jobs before moving to Istanbul, where he wrote for Cumhuriyet, taking the pseudonym Yasar Kemal.


He joined the Turkish Labor Party in 1962 and founded the weekly Marxist magazine, Ant, in 1967. His “A Guide to Marxism” published in Ant led to his prosecution on charges of promoting communism but his 18-month prison sentence was later suspended.


Kemal’s poems were first published in local newspapers. His first book, “Agitlar” or “Ballads,” published in 1943, was a compilation of folklore he collected during his travels.


Kemal won numerous international awards including the Legion d’honneur from the French government.


“I don’t write about issues, I don’t write for an audience, I don’t even write for myself. I just write,” Kemal said in an interview with the Guardian in 2008.


“Yes, there is rebellion in my novels, but it’s rebellion against mortality. As long as man goes from one darkness to another, he will create myths for himself. The only difference between me and others is that I write mine down.”


In 1952, Kemal married Thilda Serrero, who translated some of his works into English and died in 2001. Kemal is survived by their son, Rasit Gokceli, and his second wife, Ayse Semiha Baban, a lecturer at Istanbul’s Bilgi University.





One of Turkey's best-known novelists, Yasar Kemal, dies

Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy



(Reuters) – Leonard Nimoy, best known for his portrayal of logic-bound Mr. Spock in the “Star Trek” science fiction television series and movies, died on Friday at age 83 after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


The following are reactions to Nimoy’s death:


“Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the centre of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future. I loved Spock,” President Barack Obama, whose unemotional approach to problems has been likened to the character Nimoy portrayed on “Star Trek.”


“I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humour, his talent and his capacity to love,” William Shatner, who co-starred on “Star Trek” as Captain Kirk, said in a statement.


“Today, the world lost a great man, and I lost a great friend. We return you now to the stars, Leonard. You taught us to ‘Live Long and Prosper,’ and you indeed did, friend. I shall miss you in so many, many ways,” “Star Trek” fellow cast member George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu, wrote on Facebook.


“My heart is broken. I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you everyday. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” actor Zachary Quinto, who portrays Spock in the current “Star Trek” film series, said on website Instagram.


“He was a true force of strength and his character was that of a champion,” “Star Trek” cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, said in a statement. “Leonard’s integrity and passion as an actor and devotion to his craft helped transport ‘Star Trek’ into television history. His vision and heart are bigger than the universe.”


“I was lucky to spend many happy hours with Leonard socially and in front of the camera. The calibre and serious commitment of his work on ‘Star Trek’ was one of the things all of us on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ sought to match and be inspired by. His work will not be forgotten,” Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said in a Facebook post.


“He was a talented actor, director, poet and photographer. But his most enduring quality was his kindness and his desire to make you the most you could be. Like everyone who knew or knew of him, I will miss him,” actor Steve Guttenberg, who starred in the Nimoy-directed blockbuster comedy “Three Men and a Baby,” said in a statement.


“God Bless You, Leonard Nimoy… May Angels guide thee to thy rest! #agoodman #talented #funny #awesome,” actor LeVar Burton, who played Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said on Twitter.


“RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go…” the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wrote on Twitter.


“He lived long, he prospered, and he touched us all. RIP Leonard Nimoy,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter.


“Leonard Nimoy created a positive role model who inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe,” Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham said in a statement. “Many of those people are ardent space supporters and industry leaders today.”


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Patricia Reaney in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker)





Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy

Google's Blogger reverses porn policy after user backlash



NEW YORK (AP) — Apparently Google bloggers like to post porn. A lot.


Just three days after saying sexually explicit material would be banned from public Blogger forum sites, Google is backing down. Faced with “a ton of feedback,” Google said Friday that it instead will “step up enforcement” against commercial and illegal porn.


Google spokeswoman Katie Watson said the company does not disclose how many Blogger users it has nor how many of them would have been affected by the policy change.


On Tuesday, Google warned Bloggers that effective March 23 any site hosting nude pictures would be switched to private mode — only available to the authors and invited viewers. That ban came the same day that social forum and news site Reddit said it would remove explicit photos, videos and links if the person pictured hadn’t consented to the image being posted.


In an online post Friday, Google’s Blogger said longtime users thought it was unfair to suddenly change the policy. The company also was swayed by users who say posting sexually explicit content is part of expressing their identities.


Sexually explicit content on Blogger will still be marked by an “adult content” warning. And Google’s Blogger policy does not allow users to post nudes or sexually explicit images of someone else without that person’s consent.


Mountain View, California-based Google Inc. bought Blogger in 2003. It was created by a company founded by Evan Williams, who would go on to co-found Twitter.


Blogging platforms have different approaches to porn and nudity. WordPress permits “mature content,” but excludes it from public areas of the service and does not allow pornographic material such as “explicit sexual acts.” Photo-heavy Tumblr, now a part of Yahoo, says “sexual or adult-oriented content” must be flagged as “Not Suitable for Work” and does not allow for the embedding of sexually explicit video. Medium, also founded by Evan Williams, says flat-out: “No porn.”


___


Online: http://bit.ly/1JUPeEK





Google's Blogger reverses porn policy after user backlash

Jihadi John 'dead man walking' fear



A British man identified in reports as the Islamic State (IS) executioner known as “Jihadi John” feared he was a “dead man walking” after run-ins with security services before fleeing to Syria to begin his reign of terror, email exchanges with a journalist have claimed.


Computer programming graduate Mohammed Emwazi said he considered suicide after coming face to face with what he suspected to be a British spook as he attempted to sell a laptop computer in 2010.


In an email exchange with the Mail on Sunday (MoS) at the time, Emwazi described how he became suspicious of the mystery buyer after they met.


It was also claimed Emwazi was part of a cell orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden to wreak terror on the streets of London, including having a role in the failed July 21 bomb attacks in 2005, three weeks after the 7/7 bombings which killed 52 people and injured more than 700.


He told the MoS’s security editor Richard Verkaik he felt harassed by security services, in a series of emails in 2010, three years before he left to join IS, saying: “Sometimes I feel like a dead man walking, not fearing they (MI5) may kill me.


“Rather, fearing that one day, I’ll take as many pills as I can so that I will sleep for ever! I just want to get away from these people!”


It comes as British security services face pressure over accusations of failing to keep track of potential terror suspects and forcing desperate British Muslims into the clutches of Islamic extremist groups.


Home Secretary Theresa May rallied to the defence of the UK’s security and intelligence services, calling them “true heroes”, following claims on Thursday by campaign group Cage that MI5 drove Emwazi to extremism.


The University of Westminster has also hit back at claims it is a fertile breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism as arguments rage over who is to blame over Jihadi John.


Kuwait-born Londoner Emwazi had been pinpointed as a potential terrorist by the British authorities but was nonetheless able to travel to Syria in 2013 and join a group responsible for the murder of several Western hostages.


Responding to claims tonight from a fellow former student that the university allowed extremism, a spokesman for the institution said: “We condemn the promotion of radicalisation, terrorism and violence or threats against any member of our community.


“We have strict policies to promote tolerance among our 20,000 student community, who come to study from over 150 nations.”


There was also a renewed suggestion – from a former independent reviewer of government anti-terror laws – that Emwazi might have been prevented from joining up with IS had restrictions on suspects not been relaxed.


“Had control orders been in place, in my view there is a realistic prospect that Mohammed Emwazi, and at least two of his associates, would have been the subject of control orders with a compulsory relocation,” Lord Carlile told Sky News.


“If that had been the case, he would not have done what he’s done in recent times,” the Liberal Democrat peer added.


A power to force suspects to move to another part of the country – dropped when control orders were axed in favour of Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) – has now been restored.


The former head of MI6 also hit back at claims that the security services played a role in Emwazi’s radicalisation.


But Sir John Sawers, head of MI6 from 2009 to 2014, said arguments that harassment drove Emwazi to join IS were “very specious”.


Jihadi John rose to notoriety after he first appeared in a video posted online last August, in which he appeared to kill American journalist James Foley.


Dressed in black with a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the ridge of his nose, and a holster under his left arm, he reappeared in videos of the beheadings of US journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and American aid worker Peter Kassig.


Last month, the militant appeared in a video with Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, shortly before they were killed.


Reports tonight suggested Emwazi was part of a terror cell dubbed The London Boys, which included three members – closely linked to Emwazi – who allegedly trained at an Al Qaeda camp. Details of his involvement in the cell were reportedly disclosed during a court hearing in 2011 – two years before Emwazi fled for Syria after complaining to Cage of harassment from the secret services.


Cage director Asim Qureshi was condemned after holding a press conference on Thursday in which he recalled previous meetings with Emwazi and described the man – who reports said would go on to become one of the world’s most wanted terrorists – as “a beautiful young man”, who was “kind and gentle”.




Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mi5-quizzes-jihadi-john-teachers-000816266.html



Jihadi John 'dead man walking' fear

‘Proud’ Sharon Osbourne Revealed The Real Reason Why Kelly Quit ‘Fashion Police’



Last week, Giuliana Rancic‘s red carpet comments about Zendaya’s dreadlocks — she claimed they smelled like “patchouli” and “weed” at the Oscars — caused a real stir, supposedly leading her fellow “Fashion Police” host Kelly Osbourne to quit.


Well, it’s a “supposedly” no more — Kelly’s mom Sharon Osbourne expressed pride in her daughter’s strong stance on the matter, via a tweet that essentially confirms that Kelly quit over Rancic’s comments:


“.@KellyOsbourne, I am so proud of you. You can never be bought. You always wear your heart on your sleeve. #ProudToBeYourMum,” she wrote on Friday.




Fox's Cause For Paws: An All-Star Dog Spectacular - Show


Getty


That same day, E! confirmed that Kelly would be departing the show she helped launch five years ago.


Sharon is no stranger to taking strong stances in times of media controversy. In 2012, she left NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” when the network cut ties with her son Jack Osbourne after becoming aware of his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Kelly seems to have inherited her mother’s moral compass.


Since the media firestorm erupted, Rancic has apologized, and she claimed that someone else wrote the joke in the first place.


Osbourne’s departure comes five months after the death of the show’s founder, Joan Rivers. Melissa Rivers, Joan’s daughter and executive producer of the show, posted a message about Osbourne on Friday night:


“Kelly Osbourne is a friend and has been a wonderful part of the Fashion Police family. I will miss her terribly and wish her the very best in all of her future endeavors. As my mother always said, the show must go on and I plan to continue in the same spirit.” Rivers wrote.








‘Proud’ Sharon Osbourne Revealed The Real Reason Why Kelly Quit ‘Fashion Police’

AP Interview: Greece's repayments to ECB need discussion



ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece will prioritize debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund, some of which come due in March, but repayments to the European Central Bank are “in a different league” and will need discussion with Greece’s creditors, the country’s finance minister said Saturday.


In an interview with The Associated Press, Yanis Varoufakis also said Athens intends to start discussions with its creditors on debt rescheduling in order to make the country’s massive debt sustainable, at the same time as working on reform measures that need to be cemented by April, the finance minister said Saturday.


“The IMF repayments of course we are going to prioritize, we are not going to be the first country not to meet our obligations to the IMF,” the 53-year-old said, speaking in his office in the finance ministry overlooking Athens’ central square and the country’s parliament. “We shall squeeze blood out of stone if we need to do this on our own, and we shall do it.”


However, “the ECB repayments are in a different league and we shall have to determine this in association with our partners and the institutions.”


The ECB has always insisted on full repayment and it’s not clear they would accept a rescheduling.


Greece faces IMF repayments in March of about 1.5 billion euros ($1.69 billion), and about 6.7 billion euros ($7.5 billion) to the ECB in the summer. But it is facing a cash crunch and will struggle with scheduled repayment of its debts.


Athens wouldn’t ask for a delay in repayment in its ECB obligations, the minister noted, but rather something that would make the repayments easier to achieve.


“I do not believe the ECB would accept a delay, but what we can do is we can package a deal that makes these repayments palatable and reasonably doable as part of our overall negotiation regarding the Greek debt, and the next … contract for growth for the Greek economy between us and the partners.”


Last week, Greece won a four-month extension to its 240 billion-euro ($270 billion) international loan agreement earlier this month in a deal with the other members of the 19-nation eurozone. In return, Athens has pledged a series of budget reforms, which for now contain no details but will have to be turned into concrete measures by April.


Those measures, Varoufakis said, were Greece’s priority, but tackling the country’s oversize debt was also necessary.


“The April agreement concerns reforms. And this is our imperative,” he said.


“At the same time, and independently of the April agreement … we intend to begin the conversation with our partners and institutions regarding debt sustainability and debt rescheduling.”


For this, Athens will make proposals with the aim of helping nominal gross domestic product grow and to maximize its repayments in real terms, Varoufakis said.


“We will be proposing a menu of swaps between new instruments, new public financially engineered instruments and segments of our debt.”


Greece’s debt currently stands at 315 billion euros, or 176 percent of GDP — a level many say is unsustainable and can never be paid back in full.


The new left-wing government was elected on Jan. 25 on promises of cancelling the austerity measures that accompanied Greece’s international bailout and seeking forgiveness for most of the country’s debt.


But to win the agreement for Greece’s four-month loan extension, the country committed to honoring its financial obligations “fully and timely.”


The agreement also stipulates Athens will not receive any of the pending 7.5 billion euros in the last bailout installment it is due until it submits all its reforms and passes a review by its creditors.


This has left the country’s coffers close to running dry.


“It would be excellent if we could agree with our partners to smooth over this cash flow hump that we’re facing over the next few months for the benefits of everyone,” Varoufakis said. “But for us, the prerequisite is that we reboot our economic policy in Greece, in conjunction with the institutions and our partners, so as to make sure that this financing of the cash flow problem is not done at the expense of long-term sustainability.”


One thing Greece must do “very fast indeed” is collect tax funds, the minister stressed, noting that the country currently has 76 billion euros ($85 billion) in tax arrears and the government needed to find a way of helping those who owe money to make at least partial payments.


“Let me be clear. There will be no (tax) amnesty. There will be a series of measures that encourage repayment or partial repayment without an amnesty, certainly no haircut to the capital owed to the Greek state.”


Athens will inform its creditors of what it is doing, “but at the same time I need to state that, for obvious reasons, for reasons that anyone can see, time is of the essence.”


With no details or specific figures laid out in Greece’s extension agreement, Athens has argued it has room for interpretation on certain points — something Varoufakis has dubbed “creative ambiguity.”


“What we all did was to find common ground. And the way you find common ground when you start from quite disparate positions is by using terms that allow for multiple interpretations in order to create room for agreement,” he said.


“It was not an attempt towards subterfuge, it was not an attempt to usurp any process whatsoever. It was an attempt to find common ground, and I think that we all indulged in it collectively in the eurogroup,” he added, referring to the meeting of eurozone finance ministers.


This has led to different approaches to certain subjects in Athens and Berlin, such as on the primary surplus — the budget without debt servicing — Greece must produce.


Its original bailout specified it must produce a 3 percent primary surplus this year, and 4.5 percent next year. Germany, the largest single contributor to the bailout, insists this must be adhered to.


German Finance Ministry spokeswoman Marianne Kothe said Friday that leeway was only given for this year. “That means that the target agreed in the program — the figure of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product is important here — still goes.”


But the Greek minister disputes the interpretation.


“This is not my understanding of what we agreed to,” he said.


Germany ratified the loan extension in its parliament Friday. But in Greece, the government has not yet clarified whether it will do so or whether the deal can be ratified through legislative decree.


Varoufakis said he saw no reason to put the deal before lawmakers at the moment.


“We are certainly going to bring to parliament anything that alters the loan agreement, especially in April,” he said.


“At the moment, all we’ve done was to extend for a few months an existing agreement. That I do not believe needs to go through parliament because nothing changes.”


____


Follow Elena Becatoros on Twitter on https://twitter.com/ElenaBec





AP Interview: Greece's repayments to ECB need discussion

'Callous' Murder Of Boris Nemtsov Condemned



David Cameron has condemned the killing of Russia’s former deputy prime minister Boris Nemstov as “despicable” and “callous”.



The Prime Minister added the Russian people had been deprived of a champion of their rights and that Mr Nemtsov was greatly admired in Britain, not least by Margaret Thatcher.



“I am shocked and sickened by the callous murder of Boris Nemtsov as he walked in the heart Moscow last night,” he said.



“This despicable act must be fully, rapidly and transparently investigated, and those responsible brought to justice.”



The 55-year-old, who was a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, died after being shot four times by an unidentified attacker in a passing car in Moscow during the early hours of Saturday.



According to colleagues, he was working on a report which apparently included concrete evidence that Russia was directly involved in the separatist movement which erupted in Ukraine last year.



At the time of the attack, Mr Nemtsov was walking along a bridge with a Ukrainian woman, who was not injured.



She is now being questioned by police.



Investigators say the killing was the work of one or more gunmen who shot at Mr Nemtsov seven or eight times.



The politician had received death threats on social media, but no steps were taken by the police to offer him protection, according to his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov.



Russia’s investigative committee are pursuing several lines of enquiry, including an Islamist extremist attack and links to the Ukraine crisis.



A senior opposition politician, Mr Nemtsov was an outspoken detractor of Mr Putin’s administration – and had planned to attend an “anti-crisis march” through the capital on Sunday.



The economist had said in an interview with Russian media: “Every time I called (my mother), she laments: ‘When are you going to stop scolding Putin? He will kill you!’”



Mr Putin has condemned the death, which he said looked like a “contract killing” – adding that he will personally oversee the investigation into the shooting.



In a message to Mr Nemtsov’s mother, he said: “Everything will be done so that the organisers and perpetrators of a vile and cynical murder get the punishment they deserve.”



Meanwhile, the White House has demanded that the investigation is “prompt, impartial and transparent”.



President Obama, who met Mr Nemtsov in 2009, described him as a “tireless advocate” for the rights of Russian citizens, and cited his work in fighting corruption.



Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tweeted: “Boris Nemtsov was an outstanding individual and a man of principle. This is how we will remember him.”



Garry Kasparov, chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, tweeted: “Devastated to hear of the brutal murder of my long-time opposition colleague Boris Nemtsov. Shot four times, once for each child he leaves.”



The political activist added: “Politkovskaya was gunned down. MH17 was shot out of the sky. Now Boris is dead.



“As always, Kremlin will blame opposition, or CIA, whatever.”





'Callous' Murder Of Boris Nemtsov Condemned

Dakota Johnson Goes From ‘Fifty Shades’ To Dressing Like A Man In This New ‘Cymbeline’ Trailer



In “Fifty Shades of Grey,” we watched Dakota Johnson navigate her own sexual awakening at the hands of a handsome billionaire, but something tells us her next project, “Cymbeline,” is going to be a whole lot less glamorous. As in, Johnson going undercover as a man less glamorous.


In the brand new trailer for the film, Johnson gets in the middle of a “Sons of Anarchy” style outlaw war — and based on the fact that the movie is a modern retelling of the Shakespeare play of the same name, we can confirm that she’ll go to hell and back again with her lover, Posthumus (Penn Badgley).


In the play, Johnson’s character Imogen is nearly killed by Posthumus when she’s the victim of a poorly advised sexual bet, so she heads to the woods disguised as a man to escape him. And based on the chopped-off hair we briefly see in the trailer, it’s safe to say the “Cymbeline” remake will go the same route:



Cymbeline” hits theaters on March 13.






Dakota Johnson Goes From ‘Fifty Shades’ To Dressing Like A Man In This New ‘Cymbeline’ Trailer

US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties



WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Cuba claimed progress Friday toward ending a half-century diplomatic freeze, suggesting they could clear some of the biggest obstacles to their new relationship within weeks.


After Friday’s talks in Washington, the second round of U.S.-Cuban discussions in the last month, diplomats of both countries spoke positively about fulfilling the promise made by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro in December to restore embassies in each other’s capitals.


The U.S. even held out hope of clinching a deal in time for April’s summit of North and South American leaders, which Obama and Castro are expected to attend, however unlikely that appeared.


“We made meaningful progress,” Roberta Jacobson, the State Department’s senior envoy to Latin America, told reporters, calling the negotiations “open, honest and sometimes challenging, but always respectful.”


Her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal, indicated she received assurances that the U.S. would move on two of the biggest hurdles remaining: Cuba’s inclusion on the U.S. state sponsor of terrorism blacklist and its inability to conduct normal banking operations in the United States. She expressed confidence of progress on both priorities “within the following weeks.”


Cuba’s 33-year status on the terrorism list appeared the biggest hurdle, with Vidal saying the issue needed to be resolved if the Cold War foes were to improve ties. Washington is reviewing the designation, which stems from Havana’s support decades ago for the Basque separatist group ETA and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, Latin America’s oldest and strongest rebel group.


The U.S. has yet to make a decision, but all signs point toward Cuba being taken off the list. American officials say they should make their recommendation ahead of the six-month schedule set out by Obama in December. And the administration has supported Cuba’s hosting of peace efforts between the FARC and Colombia’s government.


At a news conference earlier Friday with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized his government’s position that the discussions on re-establishing embassies were technical and distinct from the U.S. legal examination of Cuba’s record on terrorism.


“That’s one set of fairly normal negotiations with respect to movement of diplomats, access, travel, different things,” Kerry told reporters. “The state sponsorship of terrorism designation is a separate process. It is not a negotiation. It is an evaluation that is made under a very strict set of requirements, congressionally mandated, and that has to be pursued separately.”


Cuba cannot get off the list immediately. If the State Department recommends removal and Obama sends such a decision to Congress, the communist country would only come off after a 45-day waiting period. That makes it practically impossible for the embassies to be reconstituted in Havana and Washington in time for the Summit of the Americas in Panama, if Cuba sticks to its position.


The likelihood of prolonged talks on normalizing ties has dampened somewhat the excitement generated when Obama and Castro announced they were exchanging imprisoned spies and would chart a new course for U.S.-Cuban relations.


Although the U.S. has eased some trade and travel restrictions, the economic embargo on Cuba remains in force. Cuba still hasn’t said whether it will meet America’s full demands for unfettered diplomatic access on the island. And the same democracy and human rights concerns that have long hampered the relationship remain.


Both sides are speaking of the embassies as a first step toward bridging the historic divide between countries separated by only 90 miles.


But other efforts are afoot to improve cooperation. Jacobson and Vidal spoke of U.S.-Cuban meetings in the coming weeks on human trafficking, marine conservation, migration, civil aviation, Internet connectivity and the always testy topic of human rights.




US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties
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US, Cuba cite progress on restoring diplomatic ties

Warren Buffett says Berkshire has 'right person' as heir



By Luciana Lopez and Jonathan Stempel


NEW YORK (Reuters) – Warren Buffett, the billionaire chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc , told investors on Saturday that the company had found his successor, and the company’s vice chairman, Charlie Munger, identified two Berkshire executives as candidates.


In Berkshire’s annual report to shareholders, Greg Abel, the head of Berkshire’s energy companies, and Ajit Jain, a top insurance executive, were said by Munger to be “proven performers who would probably be under-described as ‘world-class.’”


“‘World-leading’ would be the description I would choose,” Munger said in a letter to Berkshire shareholders. “In some important ways, each is a better business executive than Buffett.”


Buffett’s son, Howard, would become non-executive chairman after the departure of his father, who is also Berkshire’s chairman.


In his previous letters to shareholders, the 84-year-old Buffett has said Berkshire board had been fully aware of his chosen successor but that he was keeping his options open.


Investors have long speculated about who would, or could, succeed Buffett, particularly after he was diagnosed with, and then beat, prostate cancer in 2012.


Munger, whom Buffett describes as “my partner,” is 91.


“Both the board and I believe we now have the right person to succeed me as CEO – a successor ready to assume the job the day after I die or step down,” Buffett said.


“In certain important respects, this person will do a better job than I am doing,” Buffett added.


Berkshire on Saturday also reported a 17 percent drop in fourth-quarter net income, but a 2 percent increase in full-year profit. Operating profit rose in both periods.


Neither Buffett’s nor Munger’s letter on Saturday referred by name to Matthew Rose, executive chairman of the BNSF railroad unit, who has also been mentioned by investors as a possible successor.


Buffett said BNSF is, by far, Berkshire’s most important non-insurance unit but “was not good in 2014, a year in which the railroad disappointed many of its customers” despite capital outlays far exceeding those of Union Pacific Corp , its main rival.


BUFFETT’S ABCs FOR NEW CEO


Buffett strongly suggested in his letter that his potential successor already works within Berkshire and laid out the challenges facing his successor as Berkshire grows ever larger.


He said Berkshire’s earnings and capital resources will eventually reach a level where management will not be able to intelligently reinvest all of the company’s earnings.


“At that time our directors will need to determine whether the best method to distribute the excess earnings is through dividends, share repurchases or both,” Buffett said.


Buffett said his successor will also need to avoid the “debilitating forces” that decades ago befell companies such as General Motors, IBM, Sears Roebuck and U.S. Steel.


“My successor will need one other particular strength: the ability to fight off the ABCs of business decay, which are arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency,” he said. “When these corporate cancers metastasize, even the strongest of companies can falter.”


Buffett has run Berkshire since 1965, transforming it from a failing textile company into a conglomerate with a $363 billion market value and more than 80 operating businesses in such areas as insurance, railroads, energy, food and apparel.


The Omaha, Nebraska-based company also has more than $117 billion (75.82 billion pounds) of equity investments.


ABEL, JAIN TOP CONTENDERS


Age will also be a factor, and Buffett said Berkshire may be best off if his successor stays on for at least a decade.


“Our directors also believe that an incoming CEO should be relatively young, so that he or she can have a long run in the job,” Buffett wrote. “It’s hard to teach a new dog old tricks. And they are not likely to retire at 65 either – or have you noticed?”


Buffett also said Berkshire’s directors believe future CEOs should be internal candidates they know well.


Abel, 52, leads Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and Jain, 63, has been Buffett’s top insurance deputy for three decades.


In Saturday’s letter, Buffett said: “Ajit’s underwriting skills are unmatched. His mind, moreover, is an idea factory that is always looking for more lines of business he can add to his current assortment.”


In last year’s letter, Buffett called Abel an “extraordinary manager.”


Bill Smead, who oversees $1.3 billion at Smead Capital Management in Seattle and invests $55 million in Berkshire, called Jain a “brilliant” insurance executive but said Abel could be a better fit as CEO.


“I think you want someone who is good at overseeing numerous stand-alone companies,” he said. “That would be advantage Abel.”


Because Berkshire Hathaway Energy is a “mini-conglomerate” itself, “you practice in the miniature and then ultimately that puts you in the position to be the one,” Smead said.


(Editing by David Holmes and Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)





Warren Buffett says Berkshire has 'right person' as heir

Man And Girl, 4, Found Dead In Notting Hill



A woman in her 30s has been arrested in connection with the deaths of a man and four-year-old girl, whose bodies were discovered in a west London flat.



Police said they were called to an address in Colville Square, Notting Hill, on Friday evening after concerns were raised about the welfare of its occupants.



The girl and the man, believed to be in his 40s, were found shortly before 8pm after police forced entry into the building.



Both were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. 



The Metropolitan Police‘s Homicide and Major Crime Command (HMCC) is investigating the deaths, which are being treated as unexplained.



Police said they are in the process of formally identifying the victims and informing their next of kin. 



The nature of their injuries has not been released.



The woman, whose relationship to the pair has not been disclosed, is in custody in central London.



No one else is being sought in connection with the deaths, police said.



Anyone with any information can call 101, visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.




Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/man-girl-4-found-dead-notting-hill-183514579.html



Man And Girl, 4, Found Dead In Notting Hill

Dress that 'greatly resembles' stolen Nyong'o gown recovered



LOS ANGELES (AP) — A white dress that strongly resembles the custom gown taken from Lupita Nyong’o's hotel room earlier this week turned up Friday under a bathroom sink in the same hotel, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s official said.


The dress found at a West Hollywood hotel “greatly resembles” the pearl-adorned Calvin Klein Collection by Francisco Costa dress the actress wore to Sunday’s Academy Awards, sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said.


Detectives were trying to verify whether the recovered dress is the same one Nyong’o wore, she said.


One of the actress’ representatives reported the dress was stolen from her room at the London Hotel late Wednesday.


Authorities placed its value at $150,000, although experts say it could have fetched more on the black market.


In a statement to Women’s Wear Daily, Costa said everyone at Calvin Klein was thrilled to learn that the dress may have been found.


“Once it’s returned to us, we will be able to have the dress restored and archived, as it now represents an important moment for the brand,” Costa said in his statement.


The recovery of the dress was first reported by TMZ.com, which said that a person claiming to have taken the gown gave the celebrity website information about where to find the dress.


Detectives found it in a black garment bag stashed underneath the bathroom counter.


Nyong’o won an Oscar in 2014 for her role in “Twelve Years a Slave” and was a presenter at Sunday’s ceremony.


“I’m happy that it has been potentially recovered,” Nyong’o said in the statement to Women’s Wear Daily. “It’s a timeless and priceless piece of art.”


The 31-year-old actress has become a darling of Hollywood’s red carpets in the past two years, with commenters and fans praising her fashion choices. She accessorized the dress with Chopard diamond earrings and diamond rings.


“There are a lot of collectors out there who are very private and have private collections of stolen merchandise,” said style expert and fashion commentator Mary Alice Stephenson. “Some of these dresses have global fame as big as any Van Gogh.”


___


Tami Abdollah can be reached at https://www.twitter.com/latams.





Dress that 'greatly resembles' stolen Nyong'o gown recovered

Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy



(Reuters) – Leonard Nimoy, best known for his portrayal of logic-bound Mr. Spock in the “Star Trek” science fiction television series and movies, died on Friday at age 83 after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


The following are reactions to Nimoy’s death:


“Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the centre of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future. I loved Spock,” President Barack Obama, whose unemotional approach to problems has been likened to the character Nimoy portrayed on “Star Trek.”


“I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humour, his talent and his capacity to love,” William Shatner, who co-starred on “Star Trek” as Captain Kirk, said in a statement.


“Today, the world lost a great man, and I lost a great friend. We return you now to the stars, Leonard. You taught us to ‘Live Long and Prosper,’ and you indeed did, friend. I shall miss you in so many, many ways,” “Star Trek” fellow cast member George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu, wrote on Facebook.


“My heart is broken. I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you everyday. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” actor Zachary Quinto, who portrays Spock in the current “Star Trek” film series, said on website Instagram.


“He was a true force of strength and his character was that of a champion,” “Star Trek” cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, said in a statement. “Leonard’s integrity and passion as an actor and devotion to his craft helped transport ‘Star Trek’ into television history. His vision and heart are bigger than the universe.”


“I was lucky to spend many happy hours with Leonard socially and in front of the camera. The calibre and serious commitment of his work on ‘Star Trek’ was one of the things all of us on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ sought to match and be inspired by. His work will not be forgotten,” Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said in a Facebook post.


“He was a talented actor, director, poet and photographer. But his most enduring quality was his kindness and his desire to make you the most you could be. Like everyone who knew or knew of him, I will miss him,” actor Steve Guttenberg, who starred in the Nimoy-directed blockbuster comedy “Three Men and a Baby,” said in a statement.


“God Bless You, Leonard Nimoy… May Angels guide thee to thy rest! #agoodman #talented #funny #awesome,” actor LeVar Burton, who played Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said on Twitter.


“RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go…” the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wrote on Twitter.


“He lived long, he prospered, and he touched us all. RIP Leonard Nimoy,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter.


“Leonard Nimoy created a positive role model who inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe,” Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham said in a statement. “Many of those people are ardent space supporters and industry leaders today.”


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Patricia Reaney in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker)





Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy

Adrian Grenier Tells Us About His ‘Lonely Whale’ Project — And Why Taylor Swift Should Care About It



If you happened to wander through the frigid jungle that is Times Square on Friday night (February 27) and actually looked up for once, you probably noticed something a bit more tranquil than your usual Target ad or frenetically blinking news alert. That’s because Adrian Grenier and the people behind “52: The Search for the Loneliest Whale” pooled their resources together to bring 52, the heartbreaking subject of their upcoming whale documentary, to New York City.


Basically, for 15 whole minutes, Times Square was taken over by whales — but this is not just your usual celebrity pet project. The hunt to find 52, who calls out at a 52 hertz frequency that no other whale can understand, will also help a team of scientists fight the devastating effects of noise pollution, caused by — you guessed it! — humans.


“We humans have been creating a lot of noise that is going to the oceans from commercial shipping, oil explorations… a lot of things that we’re doing in the ocean are creating this cacophony of noise,” Grenier, who is producing the film, told MTV News. “That noise, when it’s at its worst, can be as loud as 100,000 jet engines. Imagine trying to connect with a loved one — trying to chat up a cute girl or guy, and you can’t because you’re being drowned out by 100,000 jet engines. I think you’d go a little insane.”




Screen Shot 2015-02-28 at 11.07.06 AM



This, sadly, is exactly what’s happening to whales like 52 — the noise pollution can either kill them outright if they’re in the path of certain seismic blasts, or make them deaf and drive them crazy, which can lead to mass beachings.


Though of course, the fact that 52 is quite literally the loneliest whale in the world brings a whole lot more interest to the ocean noise story. According to director Josh Zerman, 52 was first heard back in the ’80s off the coast of the Pacific, but the efforts to locate him died with the scientist that was initially tracking him. Which sucks, because whales survive and thrive off of interactions with others.


“Whales are probably more social than we are,” Zerman said. “Whales have spindle cells, specialized cells that allow them — like humans and apes and elephants — to have social bonds and cooperation. They have double the amounts of spindle cells as we do. So they’re very social creatures. They may feel loneliness even more than we could ever feel loneliness.”


“He’s been calling out his whole life, constantly,” Grenier added. “Other whales will sing and then they’ll stop, but he’s relentless. And he’s never once received a response. If you can imagine out there, I’m sure there are a lot of people in this world — and I’m certainly one of them — who knows what it’s like to be misunderstood or feel like an outsider, this is for all of you.”




Screen Shot 2015-02-28 at 11.07.43 AM



And of course, it only takes a small donation from a lot of interested people to get this going. The Kickstarter page for the film features an array of pledge prizes from Grenier, including handwritten notes, a whale-watching expedition, tickets to the premiere, and of course, mermaid lessons. Also, if you’re artistically or musically inclined, Grenier would love to include your Lonely Whale submissions in a community art show he’s planning to present next spring or summer.


Oh, and one more thing — if you happened to read that Taylor Swift interview with Rolling Stone, where she (understandably) questioned if the whale wasn’t just a cool loner having “a great time,” know that Grenier hears your voice, too — and really wants Swift to help out with the project.


“I would invite Taylor Swift to come find out with us,” Grenier said. “Maybe she can sing to him; maybe the lonely whale is Taylor Swift fan. Maybe they could do a duet.”






Adrian Grenier Tells Us About His ‘Lonely Whale’ Project — And Why Taylor Swift Should Care About It

Google's Blogger reverses porn policy after user backlash



NEW YORK (AP) — Apparently Google bloggers like to post porn. A lot.


Just three days after saying sexually explicit material would be banned from public Blogger forum sites, Google is backing down. Faced with “a ton of feedback,” Google said Friday that it instead will “step up enforcement” against commercial and illegal porn.


Google spokeswoman Katie Watson said the company does not disclose how many Blogger users it has nor how many of them would have been affected by the policy change.


On Tuesday, Google warned Bloggers that effective March 23 any site hosting nude pictures would be switched to private mode — only available to the authors and invited viewers. That ban came the same day that social forum and news site Reddit said it would remove explicit photos, videos and links if the person pictured hadn’t consented to the image being posted.


In an online post Friday, Google’s Blogger said longtime users thought it was unfair to suddenly change the policy. The company also was swayed by users who say posting sexually explicit content is part of expressing their identities.


Sexually explicit content on Blogger will still be marked by an “adult content” warning. And Google’s Blogger policy does not allow users to post nudes or sexually explicit images of someone else without that person’s consent.


Mountain View, California-based Google Inc. bought Blogger in 2003. It was created by a company founded by Evan Williams, who would go on to co-found Twitter.


Blogging platforms have different approaches to porn and nudity. WordPress permits “mature content,” but excludes it from public areas of the service and does not allow pornographic material such as “explicit sexual acts.” Photo-heavy Tumblr, now a part of Yahoo, says “sexual or adult-oriented content” must be flagged as “Not Suitable for Work” and does not allow for the embedding of sexually explicit video. Medium, also founded by Evan Williams, says flat-out: “No porn.”


___


Online: http://bit.ly/1JUPeEK





Google's Blogger reverses porn policy after user backlash

Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy



(Reuters) – Leonard Nimoy, best known for his portrayal of logic-bound Mr. Spock in the “Star Trek” science fiction television series and movies, died on Friday at age 83 after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


The following are reactions to Nimoy’s death:


“Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the centre of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future. I loved Spock,” President Barack Obama, whose unemotional approach to problems has been likened to the character Nimoy portrayed on “Star Trek.”


“I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humour, his talent and his capacity to love,” William Shatner, who co-starred on “Star Trek” as Captain Kirk, said in a statement.


“Today, the world lost a great man, and I lost a great friend. We return you now to the stars, Leonard. You taught us to ‘Live Long and Prosper,’ and you indeed did, friend. I shall miss you in so many, many ways,” “Star Trek” fellow cast member George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu, wrote on Facebook.


“My heart is broken. I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you everyday. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” actor Zachary Quinto, who portrays Spock in the current “Star Trek” film series, said on website Instagram.


“He was a true force of strength and his character was that of a champion,” “Star Trek” cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, said in a statement. “Leonard’s integrity and passion as an actor and devotion to his craft helped transport ‘Star Trek’ into television history. His vision and heart are bigger than the universe.”


“I was lucky to spend many happy hours with Leonard socially and in front of the camera. The calibre and serious commitment of his work on ‘Star Trek’ was one of the things all of us on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ sought to match and be inspired by. His work will not be forgotten,” Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said in a Facebook post.


“He was a talented actor, director, poet and photographer. But his most enduring quality was his kindness and his desire to make you the most you could be. Like everyone who knew or knew of him, I will miss him,” actor Steve Guttenberg, who starred in the Nimoy-directed blockbuster comedy “Three Men and a Baby,” said in a statement.


“God Bless You, Leonard Nimoy… May Angels guide thee to thy rest! #agoodman #talented #funny #awesome,” actor LeVar Burton, who played Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said on Twitter.


“RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go…” the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wrote on Twitter.


“He lived long, he prospered, and he touched us all. RIP Leonard Nimoy,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter.


“Leonard Nimoy created a positive role model who inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe,” Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham said in a statement. “Many of those people are ardent space supporters and industry leaders today.”


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Patricia Reaney in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker)





Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy

Teams battle for Call of Duty title



Teams of expert gamers are battling it out in London to be crowned Call of Duty European champions.


The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, more used to the sound of Mozart or Beethoven echoing through its corridors, is this weekend alive with the clatter of video game gunfire and nervous team chatter.


The 28 teams, including eight from Britain, are not only bidding for European glory but also the chance to be part of the global championships in LA later this month.


Fourteen of the teams competing in London will go through to the LA event, where a 1 million US dollars (£650,000) prize pot is up for grabs.




Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/teams-battle-call-duty-title-164401208.html



Teams battle for Call of Duty title

Why Amber Is And Always Has Been The Greatest Character In ‘Clueless’



I had a small group of movies I’d watch whenever I stayed home from school as a kid. Among those sick day staples was “Clueless,” Amy Heckerling’s modernized adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma released in 1995.


I must have been in fourth or fifth grade the first time I watched the film, so some of its subtleties were completely lost on me until repeat viewings. For example, I had no idea what Tai actually meant by “herbal refreshment,” and I totally thought she was just, like, really into Coke. I didn’t even realize Christian was gay until seventh or eighth grade, despite the fact that Murray literally says “He’s gay!” after his barely veiled “disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy” description of his classmate.


But perhaps what I most glossed over was the fact that Amber Mariens, Bronson Alcott High’s Lady Miss Kier-in-residence played by Elisa Donovan, is the single greatest character in the entire film.





tumblr_moayomrhWd1qe1i48o1_500




That’s definitely not what “Clueless” wants you to think. If you take the movie at face value — that is, from Cher Horowitz’s very Cher-centric perspective — Amber is “Ambular,” the “ensemble-y challenged” “fashion victim” who allegedly wears Cher’s maroon-velvet leftovers. Cher even deems Amber a “full-on Monet,” meaning she looks OK from far away but up close she’s a “big old mess.” Christian is less forgiving in his assessment of Amber: “hagsville.”


But, like, leave Amber alone!


I’m sorry that her fashion sense infuriates Cher and Dionne because it’s not just a “Mortal Kombat”-style palette swap of their own. I’m sorry that Cher and Dionne are threatened by Amber’s sense of self-actualization. I’m sorry Amber won’t submit to being made over on Cher and Dionne’s terms, à la Tai and Miss Geiss. I’m sorry that Amber would rather paint her toenails than watch motherf—king Elton (Elton!) flop his wannabe Baldwin body into the pool. I’m sorry that Amber believes in #selfcare!





amber


Paramount Pictures


Except I’m not sorry at all, because being Amber means never having to say you’re sorry.


Amber is, and always has been, the single greatest character in “Clueless,” and if you disagree I’ve got three syllables for you.





amber









Why Amber Is And Always Has Been The Greatest Character In ‘Clueless’

Pope Francis attacks 'throw-away' economic globalisation



By James Mackenzie


ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis launched a fresh attack on economic injustice on Saturday, condemning the “throw-away culture” of globalisation and calling for new ways of thinking about poverty, welfare, employment and society.


In a speech to the association of Italian cooperative movements, he pointed to the “dizzying rise in unemployment” and the problems that existing welfare systems had in meeting healthcare needs.


For those living “at the existential margins” the current social and political system “seems fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and threats,” he said.


The Argentinian-born pope, who has often criticised orthodox market economics for fostering unfairness and inequality, said people were forced to work long hours, sometimes in the black economy, for a few hundred euros a month because they were seen as easily replaceable.


“‘You don’t like it? Go home then’. What can you do in a world that works like this? Because there’s a queue of people looking for work. If you don’t like it, someone else will,” he said in an unscripted change from the text of his speech.


“It’s hunger, hunger that makes us accept what they give us,” he said.


His remarks have a special resonance in Italy, where unemployment, particularly among young people, is running at record levels after years of economic recession.


The cooperative movement in Italy, whose roots go back to 19th century workers’ associations, have long had close ties to the Catholic Church, with credit services, agricultural and building co-ops forming an important part of the overall economy.


Pope Francis said they could help find new models and methods that could be an alternative model to the “throw-away culture created by the powers that control the economic and financial policies of the globalised world.”


Perhaps mindful of a wide-ranging corruption scandal linked to some cooperatives in Rome last year, he attacked those who “prostitute the cooperative name”.


But his overall message was that economic rationale had to be secondary to the wider needs of human society.


“When money becomes an idol, it commands the choices of man. And thus it ruins man and condemns him. It makes him a slave,” he said.


“Money at the service of life can be managed in the right way by cooperatives, on condition that it is a real cooperative where capital does not have command over men but men over capital,” he said.


(Editing by Hugh Lawson)





Pope Francis attacks 'throw-away' economic globalisation

India's NSE index ends higher after bumpy budget-day trading



MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian shares rode a roller-coaster on Saturday, when the budget for the coming fiscal year was present, and they ended the day higher, on hopes the plan will boost growth and corporate taxes will be cut.


The broader NSE index <.NSEI> ended up 0.65 percent at 8,901.85 points. At one point while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was speaking, the index was up 1.1 percent, and later it was down as much as 1 percent.


The NSE index rose 0.8 percent in a week marked by budget anticipation, while gaining 1.05 percent in February, its second consecutive monthly gain.


The benchmark BSE index <.BSESN> rose 0.48 percent to 29,361.50 on Saturday. It was up 0.44 percent for the week and 0.61 percent for the month.


Saturday’s volatile trading reflected investors’ views on parts of Jaitley’s remarks.


Indexes rose early during the speech, after the minister painted a bright picture of India’s prospects. They fell when he said pace of cutting the country’s fiscal deficit would be slowed. Now, the deficit will shrink to 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2017/18, one year later than expected.


Share-prices climbed again on news he plans to cut the corporate tax to 25 percent from 30 percent, over four years, and that there would be a delay in tax-avoidance rules for foreign investors by two years.


SHORT ON REFORM


The budget was short on structural reforms, with the government leaving major welfare schemes untouched and only cutting fuel subsidies thanks to collapsed international oil prices.


“It is not close to the ‘visionary document’ that people have been talking about,” said Nitin Jain, CEO of retail capital markets and global asset management for Edelweiss in Mumbai.


“Though it is a fairly well balance budget, the market expectations were really sky rocketing before this day.”


The government’s measures on GAAR benefited blue chips, which are heavily owned by foreign institutional investors.


Overseas funds have bought a net $3.87 billion in shares so far this year after $16.11 billion in net purchases last year.


Blue chips lead the gainers. Axis Bank rose 8 percent while Tata Motors gained 3.2 percent.


However, among decliners index heavyweight ITC slumped 8.2 percent after the budget raised excise duty on cigarettes by 15 to 25 percent.


(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Rafael Nam and Richard Borsuk)





India's NSE index ends higher after bumpy budget-day trading

IOC member, once critical of Rio, now sees 'great progress'



RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The IOC vice president who called Rio de Janeiro’s preparations for the 2016 Olympics the “worst” in memory, says almost a year later that much has changed.


John Coates, in Rio for meetings of the International Olympic Committee executive board, said on Thursday he’s feeling content about South America’s first Olympics.


“A lot of great progress has been made,” Coates said. “That’s quite clear. I’m a lot more relaxed.”


The Australian gave some of the credit to Gilbert Felli, the former executive director of the Olympics, who has been in Rio as a troubleshooter, helping to coordinate with local organizing committee officials.


Coates said he visited Deodoro, the second largest cluster of venues, in a rundown area of northern Rio.


“The particular concern we had was Deodoro, where work hadn’t started,” he said. “There’s good progress out there now.”


Asked for the most important reason for the progress, Coates replied: “Maybe the money is starting to flow through. I imagine that was always an issue.”


It still might be.


Brazil is teetering on recession; the value of the local currency has cropped 35 percent against the dollar in recent months, and the government of President Dilma Rousseff has raised taxes and cut some services to make up for any budget shortfall.


Rio is spending about $14 billion on the Olympics, after the country spent $12 billion on last year’s World Cup.


However, few question any longer if venues will be ready, although several are behind schedule: The golf course, an equestrian venue, and the velodrome.


There are also concerns over severe water pollution in the sailing venue, a shortage of hotel rooms, and street crime.


It’s also unclear if all 44 test events will be held, or be on time.


___


Stephen Wade on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP





IOC member, once critical of Rio, now sees 'great progress'

Report: Surge in Chinese investment raises fraud risks



WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese investors seeking green cards to live in America run the risk of being defrauded under a loosely regulated visa program, according to a report Thursday from a federal watchdog.


The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission raises questions about America’s EB-5 visa program, which grants green cards to foreigners in return for investments of $1 million — or just $500,000 in high-unemployment or rural areas. Local government officials are supposed to vet the investors and their projects before visa applications are approved.


“The program has been flooded by Chinese applicants,” the report found. “Instances of fraud and lax regulation have cast doubt on the ability of local authorities to screen Chinese EB-5 investors properly.”


The commission cites the case of a real estate developer indicted last year on charges of duping 290 Chinese investors into sinking money into a fraudulent $912 million hotel complex outside Chicago. In South Dakota, a state official committed suicide in 2013 after coming under investigation for mismanaging Chinese and South Korean EB-5 investment funds connected to a failed beef-packing plant.


Started 24 years ago, the EB-5 has only recently begun to attract intense interest in China, where investors and business owners are worried about a cooling economy and a crackdown on corruption. Many are also eager to take advantage of a strengthening U.S. economic recovery.


EB-5 investors are issued conditional green cards valid for two years. To gain permanent residency, they must submit proof before the green card expires that they have established a “commercial enterprise,” invested the required amount of money and created jobs.


Many foreign investors seek help from 617 Immigrant Investor Regional Centers nationwide to identify projects that qualify for the visa program. The investors are often under the mistaken impression that the centers are sponsored by the government. In fact, although they need government approval to get the “regional center” designation, they are private, for-profit operations.


The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have jointly said they have no “view on the quality” of the investments the centers are promoting.


The commission report notes that local governments have “an incentive not to screen Chinese EB-5 investors too rigorously. They can fill an important gap by investing in impoverished areas that domestic investors avoid.”


But the rules governing the visa program are so loose that even prosperous communities can be counted as areas of high unemployment, letting investors get a green card for investing $500,000 instead of $1 million.


“I’ve qualified things that are in the middle of Beverly Hills,” Abigail Browning, who works on the EB-5 program for the California government, told commission researchers. “You’d think that wouldn’t be a high unemployment area.”


The United States issues 10,000 EB-5 visas annually. Each country is entitled to 7 percent, or 700; but the State Department has let China override the limits because other countries weren’t using all their slots. Chinese citizens got 6,985 EB-5 visas in 2013, up from less than 2,500 in 2011. But last August, with China’s share accounting for 85 percent of 2014 EB-5 visas, the State Department announced for the first time that the program would be closed to Chinese applicants until fiscal year 2015, which started in October.


The report was written by commission researchers Iacob Koch-Weser and Garland Ditz. They call for the EB-5 system to be scaled back or for the approval process to be improved.


The commission, created by Congress in 2000 to monitor the national security implications of the U.S.-China economic relationship, is publishing the report “to promote greater public understanding” but does not necessarily endorse its findings.


Chinese direct investment in the United States has risen from virtually nothing before 2010 to more than $10 billion in each of the last two years, according to the Rhodium Group consultancy.




Report: Surge in Chinese investment raises fraud risks
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Report: Surge in Chinese investment raises fraud risks

AP PHOTOS: Germany Young Ensemble



BERLIN (AP) — Hoping to demonstrate their posture, agility and strength, a handful of boys and more than 120 girls between ages 7 and 9 tried out for the Young Ensemble of Berlin’s Friedrichstadt-Palast theatre in February.


Hundreds of children apply every year for only 20-30 spots in the theater’s renowned Young Ensemble.


Overall, some 250 children, ages 7 through 16, attend the school at any one time.


The ensemble provides year-round theatre training for children. All children receive two years of basic training in classic dance, drama and jazz, after which they may — depending on their talents — specialize in solo acting, singing, solo singing, acrobatics, hip hop or street dance.


___


Here is a gallery of images from Germany Young Ensemble.





AP PHOTOS: Germany Young Ensemble

Sky News shows student picture of 'Jihadi John' in baseball cap



LONDON (Reuters) – British television broadcast the first picture of Mohammed Emwazi as a student on Friday, showing the man identified as the Islamic State “Jihadi John” killer with a moustache and goatee beard wearing a large baseball cap.


Sky News broadcast a photograph of the 26-year-old wearing a black cap with a logo that resembled the P from the Pittsburgh Pirates U.S. Major League Baseball team, which it said was stored by the University of Westminster where he studied.


British media had previously only published a picture of Kuwaiti-born Emwazi as a smiling schoolboy.


Two U.S. government sources have told Reuters that Emwazi is Jihadi John, the black-clad militant seen brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent in videos released by Islamic State (IS).


He appeared on the short videos in which hostages including Americans, Britons and Syrians were decapitated.


The document obtained by Sky News also showed that Emwazi had completed a degree in Information Systems with Business Management.


A spokeswoman for the University of Westminster said it was investigating how the information had been obtained and declined further comment.


(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Paul Taylor)




Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sky-news-shows-student-picture-jihadi-john-baseball-171107979–mlb.html



Sky News shows student picture of 'Jihadi John' in baseball cap

Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy



(Reuters) – Leonard Nimoy, best known for his portrayal of logic-bound Mr. Spock in the “Star Trek” science fiction television series and movies, died on Friday at age 83 after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


The following are reactions to Nimoy’s death:


“Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the centre of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future. I loved Spock,” President Barack Obama, whose unemotional approach to problems has been likened to the character Nimoy portrayed on “Star Trek.”


“I loved him like a brother. We will all miss his humour, his talent and his capacity to love,” William Shatner, who co-starred on “Star Trek” as Captain Kirk, said in a statement.


“Today, the world lost a great man, and I lost a great friend. We return you now to the stars, Leonard. You taught us to ‘Live Long and Prosper,’ and you indeed did, friend. I shall miss you in so many, many ways,” “Star Trek” fellow cast member George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu, wrote on Facebook.


“My heart is broken. I love you profoundly my dear friend. And I will miss you everyday. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” actor Zachary Quinto, who portrays Spock in the current “Star Trek” film series, said on website Instagram.


“He was a true force of strength and his character was that of a champion,” “Star Trek” cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, said in a statement. “Leonard’s integrity and passion as an actor and devotion to his craft helped transport ‘Star Trek’ into television history. His vision and heart are bigger than the universe.”


“I was lucky to spend many happy hours with Leonard socially and in front of the camera. The calibre and serious commitment of his work on ‘Star Trek’ was one of the things all of us on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ sought to match and be inspired by. His work will not be forgotten,” Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said in a Facebook post.


“He was a talented actor, director, poet and photographer. But his most enduring quality was his kindness and his desire to make you the most you could be. Like everyone who knew or knew of him, I will miss him,” actor Steve Guttenberg, who starred in the Nimoy-directed blockbuster comedy “Three Men and a Baby,” said in a statement.


“God Bless You, Leonard Nimoy… May Angels guide thee to thy rest! #agoodman #talented #funny #awesome,” actor LeVar Burton, who played Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said on Twitter.


“RIP Leonard Nimoy. So many of us at NASA were inspired by Star Trek. Boldly go…” the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wrote on Twitter.


“He lived long, he prospered, and he touched us all. RIP Leonard Nimoy,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter.


“Leonard Nimoy created a positive role model who inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe,” Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham said in a statement. “Many of those people are ardent space supporters and industry leaders today.”


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Patricia Reaney in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Christian Plumb and Lisa Shumaker)





Reaction to death of 'Star Trek' actor Leonard Nimoy