Pope Francis, 77 today, should use his popularity to bring down oppressive regimes

Francis has the power the change the world – at the age of 77

Pope Francis turns 77 today – and millions everywhere will wish him many, many happy returns. In less than a year he has restored many Catholics' faith in an institution they had felt had betrayed them. The new Pope's simple manner, warmth and humility have won the heart even of the Catholic Church's toughest critics: the media is falling over themselves to praise him.
Although it is traditional to receive gifts on your birthday, Pope Francis has shown that he's not one for tradition. So may I boldly suggest that he gives the world a gift that only he could give?
strong>More on Pope Francis:
• Time Magazine doesn't understand Francis
• Has Pope Francis decontaminated the Catholic brand?
• Pope Francis doesn't think all atheists go to heaven
Solidarity. The Catholic Church in Poland was instrumental in overthrowing Communism by supporting the trade union led by Lech Walesa in the Eighties. Solidarity, founded in the shipyard of Gdansk, at first united workers frustrated by poor pay and working conditions; soon, though, it proved the rallying force for all Polish citizens weary of their Communist overlords. Lech Walesa knew throughout his struggle that he could rely on the Polish Pope, John Paul II, who twisted the arms of world leaders to assist Poland's freedom fighters. When Solidarity took on the Communist regime of General Jaruzelski and won, Poland's success infected its neighbours: one by one countries that had been part of the Soviet empire gained freedom.
The Soviet Union is no more and Communism is discredited. But the authoritarian crony capitalism of Vladimir Putin in Russia and Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine threatens the countries of the former Soviet Union. In the Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of anti-government protestors are filling the streets of Kiev: they want to join the EU, not get closer to Russia, as Yanukovich threatens. Students at the Ukrainian Catholic University on 11 December wrote an open letter of appeal to the outside world:

In spite of emphatic declarations of their peaceful intentions and desires to hear the voice of the people and participate in dialogue, the Ukrainian authorities started an active offensive not merely against opposition forces and journalists reporting on the events, but against the nation’s students – the initiators of this broad protest movement.
Among the methods of pressure and bullying that our university has encountered in recent days are phone calls and visits from representatives of the police, talks with our deans and vice rectors, attempts to inspect our students’ attendance records, searches for particular student activists, summons to the attorney’s office, and opening of criminal cases against students and professors.

Pope Francis can use his popularity – with Catholics but also (up to a point, anyway) with the Orthodox – to shore up protests against regimes like the Ukraine's. He may even be able to inspire new Solidarity movements across the region. He can play John Paul II 's decisive role in a different geopolitical setting.
Like the Polish pope, Francis has experienced first-hand life under a military dictatorship; he never supported it, but he was forced to make compromises and now wishes he had done more to bring freedom to Argentina. He can see through Putin, who has been trying to woo him. He passionately dislikes corrupt strongmen, and there are plenty in in Russia's orbit: not only Yanukovych but Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus too. Under Francis, a Jesuit who relishes diplomatic challenges,  the Catholic Church may once again become a force for political change

Harvard University returns to normalcy after bomb hoax

Washington: A day after bomb hoax created scare in the Harvard University, normalcy returned to campus on Tuesday where students are appearing for their exams.


The bomb hoax call was made on Monday after which four buildings of the university were evacuated on the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus.

The normal activity was resumed today after no explosives were found despite a thorough search of the campus.

However, authorities will continue investigating to determine who was responsible for the bomb threat that disrupted campus activities and forced some final exams to be suspended.

University authorities ordered four buildings evacuated after the threat was received and alerted the police that they had an "unconfirmed" report regarding the presence of explosives on campus.

Harvard authorities in a Twitter message instructed students to evacuate the Science Centre, Thayer, Sever and Emerson buildings, but all facilities later returned to their normal functions and operations.

PHOTOS: Meet The Most Beautiful Woman In The World 2013

Meet the most beautiful woman in the world 2013, Saudi Arabian queen, Fatima Zohar-Godabari.

Fathima Kulsum Zohar Godabari who was once a royal Princess is now an official Queen in Saudi Arabia.

She was recently photographed without niqab covering her face and the pictures were published on the internet, exposing her beautiful facial features to the world for the first time.

Since the release of the pictures, many have argued her to be the most beautiful woman on earth.

More photos below

PHOTOS: Woman Who Lost Both Arms And Legs While Taking Injection For Bigger Bottom

A mum of two  has narrated how her quest for a bigger bottom left her a quadruple amputee – and 24 hours from death.

It left her in agony and led to her losing her hands and feet, as well as her buttocks.

The 46-year-old former hairdresser blames “vanity” and wants to warn others of the terrible dangers of such illegal treatments.

Apryl said: “I’ve paid a terrible price for vanity and I’ll pay for the rest of my life. But I blame no one but myself.

“I want to share my story to warn others about these so-called ‘quick fix’ surgeries.

“I didn’t realise the dangers. I thought it was a harmless injection that would give me the perfect bottom. But the reality was the silicone used wasn’t suitable for humans. It was, in fact, bathroom sealant only suitable for DIY.

“My body had a massive allergic reaction to it which left me at the brink of death.

“I was in so much agony that, by that point, dying would have been a release. The only way doctors could save my life was to amputate my buttocks, my hands and feet.”

Teased as a child about her “pancake” bum, Apryl vowed to buy a shapelier one when she was older.

She said: “I didn’t know if I wanted mine to look like Janet Jackson’s or J-Lo’s.

“I didn’t even know how you could do it. I just wanted a new, bigger bottom.”

The moment that changed her life came in 2004, when two women walked into her successful beauty salon to get their hair done.

One of them ran “pumping parties” — where unqualified practitioners inject illegal silicone into “patients” at their home.

Apryl, from Los Angeles, said: “One of the women told me how she had given bottom injections to the friend who was with her.

“I remember thinking it was a miracle she’d walked into my life. Her friend showed me the work she’d had done and it looked great.

“In a split second I made the decision that I was going to go to this woman and let her inject silicone into my behind.”

That decision nearly killed her. Apryl paid the woman, who had no medical background, around £650 for two lots of injections. Doctors later discovered the substance used was industrial-grade silicone.

Apryl admitted: “I didn’t do any research. A combination of naivety, misplaced trust and insecurity led me to take this disastrous decision.

“I trusted her because she seemed so professional, and I had no reason to think anything awful was going to happen.

“She carried out the procedure in her daughter’s bedroom. She assessed my bottom and said, ‘You’ll need three or four sessions to get the result you want’.

“The first procedure took an hour. I remember asking, ‘Is it meant to be so painful?’ and she said, ‘Yes’. It felt like it was squeezing through my nerves.”

Within weeks Apryl returned for her second treatment.

She said: “After going through it again I had an epiphany. As I left her house I thought, ‘What am I doing? I have no idea what she’s putting in my body’.

“I never returned. But though I didn’t know it then, my life had already changed forever.”

Over the next two years the area where she’d been injected became hard and the skin blackened.

Apryl, mum to daughters Danye, 22 and Courtney, 21, said: “Within a few months of the second injection my buttocks began to harden. I knew something wasn’t right. But shame stopped me seeking medical help. As time went on it got worse as the skin blackened. I developed hard lumps. Then the searing pain started. I had to tell my doctor what I did. I was so ashamed.”

Apryl spent the next four years in constant pain. Two surgeons told her it was too dangerous to remove the silicone.

She said: “I was in so much agony I became a regular at hospital asking for medication to ease what was like a combination of a migraine, childbirth and toothache localised in one area.

In February 2011 a surgeon operated unsuccessfully. Apryl developed a hole in her buttocks — thought to be the trigger for an infection that in June was nearly fatal. She said: “I was 24 hours from dying. I didn’t think of leaving my family. It was a relief I’d finally be free of pain.”

Doctors put her in an induced coma for two months while performing 27 surgeries — starting with amputating her buttocks — and doing extensive skin grafts.

She said: “They saved me but gangrene set into my hands and feet. I was brought out of sedation shortly before I became a quadruple amputee.

“My hands looked like those of a dead person. I knew then I was going to lose them.”

She added: “At first you try to register your new limbs. The real comprehension comes when you start to live this new life.

“I had dark times. I cried a sea of tears. I had to face the fact I’d lost my hands, feet and buttocks because of complications from bottom injections. I was overwhelmed by shame and guilt… all because I wanted a bigger bottom.

“I was six months in hospital. By the time I was discharged I was determined to turn this terrible thing into something positive.

“I decided to do a triathlon. I told myself if I could achieve that I could do anything.

“I took my first steps again by the end of 2011. I built up to training six days a week, learning to walk, cycle then swim again using my residual limbs.

“I’d be crying in pain but I’d push through it. And six weeks ago I did it — completing a three-mile walk, ten-mile cycle and a 150-metre swim.

“When I crossed that finishing line with my family cheering me on, I cried tears of joy.”

She added: “I haven’t sued or sought compensation. I just want to move on. There are things I miss dearly — I’ll never be able to do my girls’ hair or feel sand between my toes.

“But I believe I survived to share my story.

“I want to warn others of the dangers of black-market surgery. We were born whole, perfect and complete.

“My greatest message is we have to learn to love and accept ourselves for who we are.”

Blast Near U.S. Embassy In Kabul Was Accident, Afghan Official Says

An accidental detonation of explosives stored in an Afghan facility beside the U.S. embassy in Kabul sparked a brief panic early on Thursday, triggering concerns of an attack, but no immediate reports of casualties.
The blast happened about 10.30 a.m. (1 a.m. ET), and the U.S. embassy’s alarm was heard blaring across the diplomatic area of the Afghan capital immediately afterwards.
But Farid Shamal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, allayed the worries, saying an electrical fault had accidentally ignited explosives stored in the agency’s main compound in Kabul.
“There was an explosion inside an ammunition and weapons cache we had seized from the insurgency,” he said, adding that no one was injured in the blast.
The explosion came a day after a suicide bomber attacked a German convoy entering an ISAF facility at the city’s international airport

Blast Near U.S. Embassy In Kabul Was Accident, Afghan Official Says

An accidental detonation of explosives stored in an Afghan facility beside the U.S. embassy in Kabul sparked a brief panic early on Thursday, triggering concerns of an attack, but no immediate reports of casualties.
The blast happened about 10.30 a.m. (1 a.m. ET), and the U.S. embassy’s alarm was heard blaring across the diplomatic area of the Afghan capital immediately afterwards.
But Farid Shamal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, allayed the worries, saying an electrical fault had accidentally ignited explosives stored in the agency’s main compound in Kabul.
“There was an explosion inside an ammunition and weapons cache we had seized from the insurgency,” he said, adding that no one was injured in the blast.
The explosion came a day after a suicide bomber attacked a German convoy entering an ISAF facility at the city’s international airport

Millionaire Chelsea star Terry caught stocking up in Poundworld

If you earned £170,000 a week – an annual salary of over eight million – would you still pop into Poundworld for a bargain or two?
Chelsea captain John Terry does, as it turns out. In fact, it would appear he picks up quite a few bits from the discount store.
One can only imagine how other shoppers in the branch at the Peacocks Centre in Woking reacted if they recognised the former England skipper browsing the aisles, but one person who’ll never forget the chance encounter Is 17-year-old Chelsea fan Jack Jeffrey.
Jack himself plays football for Woking FC’s youth set-up and one day aspires to represent the Blues, but when a friend came into a nearby computer games store and told him that one of his team's star players was picking up a few bits at a pound a pop, of course the teenager had to see for himself.
True enough, his pal was not making up some tall tale, as far-fetched as it sounded, a starstruck Jack was stood within feet of his hero in the most unlikely of settings.
"My mate asked him if it was OK to have a picture," Jack told Surrey papers. "He was happy to let us.
"It was weird just walking in there and seeing him. He had a lot of stuff in his basket but I didn't really see what it was.
"When I told my friends they were shocked and wished they had met him as well. He’s probably one of my favourite players."
To really hammer home just how much JT doesn’t need to shop at Poundworld, he recently sold his house in Oxshott for £5.25 million before relocating to a custom-built mansion at the end of his old place’s garden.
His new residency has nine bedrooms, a home cinema, a swimming pool and a fishing lake – even if the toiletries and TV dinners inside it are apparently nowhere near as majestic.
If young Jack does hope to represent Chelsea on the pitch one day, a quick-fix solution may well be to lock Terry's Brazilian team-mate Oscar in a cupboard and play in his place - some of the online reaction to the story has seen Mr. Jeffrey 'confused' with the attacking midfielder:

Premier League - Rooney tops English football 'Rich List' with £45m fortune

Wayne Rooney has topped English football’s ‘Rich List’ with a fortune estimated at £45 million.

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Four Manchester United players were named in the top 10 wealthiest English footballers in the Premier League, with Rooney at the very top of the list.

The 28-year-old, who picks up an impressive £250,000-a-week in wages, is reportedly worth over £8m more than his nearest rival and United team-mate Rio Ferdinand.
Ferdinand, who has a new book out this week, is worth an estimated £37m according to the list, which was compiled by Wealth-X.
Chelsea’s Frank Lampard came in third with £31m to his name - one spot ahead of Blues team-mate John Terry, who shared fourth spot with his successor as England captain, Steven Gerrard. Both are worth an estimated £29m.
Joe Cole was perhaps surprisingly ranked sixth with a worth of £22m - a figure no doubt boosted by the ill-fated four-year, £5m-a-season deal he signed with Liverpool in 2010 - while Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole coming in seventh with £20m.
United had another two players on the list: Michael Carrick was eighth with £16m while Ashley Young sits alongside James Milner – the only Manchester City player, and the youngest on the list – in joint ninth place with £13m.

English football’s ‘Rich List’
1) Wayne Rooney (£45M)
2) Rio Ferdinand (£37m)
3) Frank Lampard (£31m)
4) John Terry, Steven Gerrard (both £29m)
6) Joe Cole (£22m)
7) Ashley Cole (£20m)
8) Michael Carrick (£16m)
9) Ashley Young, James Milner (both £13m)

9 million in 3 days: Apple’s iPhone 5s is outselling cheaper iPhone 5c

 Apple on Monday announced that it had sold 9 million new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models, just three days after the launch of the new devices on 20 September. The iPhone 5 had sold over 5 million devices over the launch weekend. Apple’s latest sales number is big, given that analysts had predicted that Apple would sell between 6 million and 8 million models during the first weekend. In addition to that Apple’s new iOS 7 has seen over 200 million downloads, and Apple claims that the rate of upgrades from iOS 6 to iOS 7 is its fastest ever. Apple's iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Apple’s iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said in a press release. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly.” Incidentally Tim Cook has just recently joined Twitter and he tweeted out about the success of the iPhone, though he didn’t mention numbers in the tweet. The news of iPhone 5s and 5c’s stellar success meant that Apple’s shares gained $24.35, or more than 5 percent, to hit $491.76 by afternoon trading. Apple’s shares are currently at 490.64 which is $23.23‎ or 4.97 percent higher. Apple also revised its financial forecast to reflect the higher sales, which is rare for the company. It said revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter would be near the high end of its previous forecast of $34 billion to $37 billion. It said gross profit margin would come in at the top of its previous forecast of 36 percent to 37 percent. As far as the iPhone 5s’ reception is concerned, it is the gold phone that seems to have sparked off the frenzy. This is the first time that Apple has ditched the traditional Black and White iPhone and added gold along with Space Gray and Silver. The gold iPhone was sold out within hours of the launch and according to reports the unlocked gold iPhone is selling for a whopping $10,000 on ebay. The 16 GB version of the gold iPhone costs $649 for the unlocked version. More on the gold madness here. A report by Localytics also confirmed that more than the iPhone 5c, it was the iPhone 5s that was selling so well. The report says that iPhone 5s outsold 5c by nearly 3.4 times in the United States. And the iPhone 5s madness isn’t just over nothing. According to to tech experts, iPhone 5s is blowing away the competition when it comes to speed. AnandTech, which has done a detailed review of the iPhone 5s says the smartphone’s new A7 chip with its 64-bit architecture is easily the fastest. Oh and its not a quad-core chip, Apple has gone for dual-core chip clocked at 1.3 Ghz. According to the post, The dual-core A7 is now the fastest SoC we’ve tested under SunSpider, even outpacing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and ARM’s Cortex A15. Also that is not the only benchmark test where Apple’s iPhone 5s is giving its competitors a run for their money. Almost all the other tests that AnandTech ran, show the iPhone 5s coming out on top. You can view the entire detailed post here. Meanwhile German hackers have already claimed to have cracked Apple iPhone 5s’ fingerprint scanner or what Apple is calling the TouchID. The Chaos Computing Club (CCC) posted a video on their website showing how an iPhone 5s could be accessedwith a fabricated print. More on that here. It seems that with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, Apple has silenced critic for now.

Apple on Monday announced that it had sold 9 million new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models, just three days after the launch of the new devices on 20 September. The iPhone 5 had sold over 5 million devices over the launch weekend. Apple’s latest sales number is big, given that analysts had predicted that Apple would sell between 6 million and 8 million models during the first weekend. In addition to that Apple’s new iOS 7 has seen over 200 million downloads, and Apple claims that the rate of upgrades from iOS 6 to iOS 7 is its fastest ever. Apple's iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Apple’s iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said in a press release. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly.” Incidentally Tim Cook has just recently joined Twitter and he tweeted out about the success of the iPhone, though he didn’t mention numbers in the tweet. The news of iPhone 5s and 5c’s stellar success meant that Apple’s shares gained $24.35, or more than 5 percent, to hit $491.76 by afternoon trading. Apple’s shares are currently at 490.64 which is $23.23‎ or 4.97 percent higher. Apple also revised its financial forecast to reflect the higher sales, which is rare for the company. It said revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter would be near the high end of its previous forecast of $34 billion to $37 billion. It said gross profit margin would come in at the top of its previous forecast of 36 percent to 37 percent. As far as the iPhone 5s’ reception is concerned, it is the gold phone that seems to have sparked off the frenzy. This is the first time that Apple has ditched the traditional Black and White iPhone and added gold along with Space Gray and Silver. The gold iPhone was sold out within hours of the launch and according to reports the unlocked gold iPhone is selling for a whopping $10,000 on ebay. The 16 GB version of the gold iPhone costs $649 for the unlocked version. More on the gold madness here. A report by Localytics also confirmed that more than the iPhone 5c, it was the iPhone 5s that was selling so well. The report says that iPhone 5s outsold 5c by nearly 3.4 times in the United States. And the iPhone 5s madness isn’t just over nothing. According to to tech experts, iPhone 5s is blowing away the competition when it comes to speed. AnandTech, which has done a detailed review of the iPhone 5s says the smartphone’s new A7 chip with its 64-bit architecture is easily the fastest. Oh and its not a quad-core chip, Apple has gone for dual-core chip clocked at 1.3 Ghz. According to the post, The dual-core A7 is now the fastest SoC we’ve tested under SunSpider, even outpacing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and ARM’s Cortex A15. Also that is not the only benchmark test where Apple’s iPhone 5s is giving its competitors a run for their money. Almost all the other tests that AnandTech ran, show the iPhone 5s coming out on top. You can view the entire detailed post here. Meanwhile German hackers have already claimed to have cracked Apple iPhone 5s’ fingerprint scanner or what Apple is calling the TouchID. The Chaos Computing Club (CCC) posted a video on their website showing how an iPhone 5s could be accessedwith a fabricated print. More on that here. It seems that with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, Apple has silenced critic for now.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/9-million-in-3-days-apples-iphone-5s-is-outselling-cheaper-iphone-5c-1129937.html?utm_source=ref_article

Apple on Monday announced that it had sold 9 million new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models, just three days after the launch of the new devices on 20 September. The iPhone 5 had sold over 5 million devices over the launch weekend. Apple’s latest sales number is big, given that analysts had predicted that Apple would sell between 6 million and 8 million models during the first weekend. In addition to that Apple’s new iOS 7 has seen over 200 million downloads, and Apple claims that the rate of upgrades from iOS 6 to iOS 7 is its fastest ever. Apple's iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Apple’s iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said in a press release. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly.” Incidentally Tim Cook has just recently joined Twitter and he tweeted out about the success of the iPhone, though he didn’t mention numbers in the tweet. The news of iPhone 5s and 5c’s stellar success meant that Apple’s shares gained $24.35, or more than 5 percent, to hit $491.76 by afternoon trading. Apple’s shares are currently at 490.64 which is $23.23‎ or 4.97 percent higher. Apple also revised its financial forecast to reflect the higher sales, which is rare for the company. It said revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter would be near the high end of its previous forecast of $34 billion to $37 billion. It said gross profit margin would come in at the top of its previous forecast of 36 percent to 37 percent. As far as the iPhone 5s’ reception is concerned, it is the gold phone that seems to have sparked off the frenzy. This is the first time that Apple has ditched the traditional Black and White iPhone and added gold along with Space Gray and Silver. The gold iPhone was sold out within hours of the launch and according to reports the unlocked gold iPhone is selling for a whopping $10,000 on ebay. The 16 GB version of the gold iPhone costs $649 for the unlocked version. More on the gold madness here. A report by Localytics also confirmed that more than the iPhone 5c, it was the iPhone 5s that was selling so well. The report says that iPhone 5s outsold 5c by nearly 3.4 times in the United States. And the iPhone 5s madness isn’t just over nothing. According to to tech experts, iPhone 5s is blowing away the competition when it comes to speed. AnandTech, which has done a detailed review of the iPhone 5s says the smartphone’s new A7 chip with its 64-bit architecture is easily the fastest. Oh and its not a quad-core chip, Apple has gone for dual-core chip clocked at 1.3 Ghz. According to the post, The dual-core A7 is now the fastest SoC we’ve tested under SunSpider, even outpacing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and ARM’s Cortex A15. Also that is not the only benchmark test where Apple’s iPhone 5s is giving its competitors a run for their money. Almost all the other tests that AnandTech ran, show the iPhone 5s coming out on top. You can view the entire detailed post here. Meanwhile German hackers have already claimed to have cracked Apple iPhone 5s’ fingerprint scanner or what Apple is calling the TouchID. The Chaos Computing Club (CCC) posted a video on their website showing how an iPhone 5s could be accessedwith a fabricated print. More on that here. It seems that with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, Apple has silenced critic for now.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/9-million-in-3-days-apples-iphone-5s-is-outselling-cheaper-iphone-5c-1129937.html?utm_source=ref_article

Apple on Monday announced that it had sold 9 million new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models, just three days after the launch of the new devices on 20 September. The iPhone 5 had sold over 5 million devices over the launch weekend. Apple’s latest sales number is big, given that analysts had predicted that Apple would sell between 6 million and 8 million models during the first weekend. In addition to that Apple’s new iOS 7 has seen over 200 million downloads, and Apple claims that the rate of upgrades from iOS 6 to iOS 7 is its fastest ever. Apple's iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Apple’s iPhone 5s is seen in this file photo. Reuters Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said in a press release. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly.” Incidentally Tim Cook has just recently joined Twitter and he tweeted out about the success of the iPhone, though he didn’t mention numbers in the tweet. The news of iPhone 5s and 5c’s stellar success meant that Apple’s shares gained $24.35, or more than 5 percent, to hit $491.76 by afternoon trading. Apple’s shares are currently at 490.64 which is $23.23‎ or 4.97 percent higher. Apple also revised its financial forecast to reflect the higher sales, which is rare for the company. It said revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter would be near the high end of its previous forecast of $34 billion to $37 billion. It said gross profit margin would come in at the top of its previous forecast of 36 percent to 37 percent. As far as the iPhone 5s’ reception is concerned, it is the gold phone that seems to have sparked off the frenzy. This is the first time that Apple has ditched the traditional Black and White iPhone and added gold along with Space Gray and Silver. The gold iPhone was sold out within hours of the launch and according to reports the unlocked gold iPhone is selling for a whopping $10,000 on ebay. The 16 GB version of the gold iPhone costs $649 for the unlocked version. More on the gold madness here. A report by Localytics also confirmed that more than the iPhone 5c, it was the iPhone 5s that was selling so well. The report says that iPhone 5s outsold 5c by nearly 3.4 times in the United States. And the iPhone 5s madness isn’t just over nothing. According to to tech experts, iPhone 5s is blowing away the competition when it comes to speed. AnandTech, which has done a detailed review of the iPhone 5s says the smartphone’s new A7 chip with its 64-bit architecture is easily the fastest. Oh and its not a quad-core chip, Apple has gone for dual-core chip clocked at 1.3 Ghz. According to the post, The dual-core A7 is now the fastest SoC we’ve tested under SunSpider, even outpacing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and ARM’s Cortex A15. Also that is not the only benchmark test where Apple’s iPhone 5s is giving its competitors a run for their money. Almost all the other tests that AnandTech ran, show the iPhone 5s coming out on top. You can view the entire detailed post here. Meanwhile German hackers have already claimed to have cracked Apple iPhone 5s’ fingerprint scanner or what Apple is calling the TouchID. The Chaos Computing Club (CCC) posted a video on their website showing how an iPhone 5s could be accessedwith a fabricated print. More on that here. It seems that with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, Apple has silenced critic for now.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/9-million-in-3-days-apples-iphone-5s-is-outselling-cheaper-iphone-5c-1129937.html?utm_source=ref_article

Jackson: I lost virginity at 11

Samuel L Jackson lost his virginity at an early age

24 September 2013

Samuel L Jackson has revealed how he lost his virginity when he was 11 years old

The Django Unchained star admitted that he got close to a group of older girls as they went skinny dipping while he holidayed at a relative's farm in Georgia.
He told Playboy: "There was a family of girls who lived through the woods from us, and we all used to meet at this creek and swim naked. I was about 10 or 11. I think two of the girls were about 14, 15, so that's when it happened."
The 64-year-old actor added: "Girls were interesting to me, period. They could be fat, skinny, tall, short, ugly, beautiful - as long as they were willing to do that thing."
Despite his early start, Samuel has since settled down and has been married to actress LaTanya Richardson since 1980. The couple met while they were studying in the same city - he studied at the all-male Morehouse College, Atlanta, while she was at Spelman College.
They have one child, daughter Zoe, together

Kenya: Terrorist group says 'gunmen still alive and holding hostages in Nairobi shopping mall'

A onlooker poses for pictures near the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi September 23, 2013. Thick smoke poured from the besieged Nairobi mall where Kenyan officials said their forces were closing in on Islamists holding hostages on Monday, three days after a raid by Somalia's al Shabaab killed at least 62 people.

24 September 2013

The terrorist al-Shabab group says its gunmen are still alive and holding hostages in the Nairobi shopping mall they seized four days ago.

The al-Qaida-linked organisation made the claims after Kenyan government assurances of success in the fourth-day of the stand off.
Al-Shabab said the hostages "are still alive, looking quite disconcerted but, nevertheless, alive."
A security expert with contacts inside said there were at least 30 hostages when the assault began on Saturday and at least 10 were believed to be still inside.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard from the building on Tuesday as government forces pressed on inside.
Americans and a British woman were among the terrorists who have killed more than 60 people, Kenya's foreign minister said. Amina Mohamed said the attackers included "two or three Americans" and "one Brit". She told the PBS NewsHour programme that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived "in Minnesota and one other place" in the US. The Briton was a woman who has "done this many times before", she said.
US officials said they were looking into whether any Americans were involved. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the department had "no definitive evidence of the nationalities or the identities" of the attackers.
The security expert said many hostages had been freed or escaped in the previous 24-36 hours, including some who were in hiding. But there were at least 30 hostages when the assault by al-Shabab militants began on Saturday, he said, and "it's clear" that Kenyan security officials "haven't cleared the building fully".
Kenya's interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said the evacuation of hostages had gone "very, very well" and that Kenyan officials were "very certain" that few if any hostages were left in the building.
But with the mall cordoned off and under heavy security it was not possible to independently verify the assertions. Similar claims of a quick resolution were made by Kenyan officials on Sunday and the siege continued. Authorities have also not provided any details on how many hostages were freed or how many still remain captive.

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Nairobi attack: Obama offers support to Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta

Obama reiterated US support for Kenya's efforts to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. (AP)

US President Barack Obama has offered support to his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta to bring to justice the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that left at least 68 people dead.

"Obama reiterated US support for Kenya's efforts to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice," the White House

on Monday said after a telephone call between the two leaders.

Obama also reaffirmed the strong and historic partnership between the US and Kenya as well as their shared commitment to combating terrorism and promoting peace and prosperity in East Africa and around the world, the White House said.

At least 68 people including two Indians were killed and

175 injured in the attack carried out by al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab group on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi.

In addition to the many Kenyans killed, the Australian, British, Canadian, French, Ghanaian and Somali governments have all acknowledged deaths of their citizens.

"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the despicable massacre of innocent men, women and children at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said.

Harf said the US Embassy in Nairobi is closely monitoring the situation, which is still unfolding, and the US has offered its full support to the Kenyan authorities.

"We commend the courageous response by Kenyan security personnel and first responders, governmental and non-governmental, who have stepped forward to help their fellow Kenyan citizens and citizens of other countries affected by this senseless violence," she said.

Five American citizens were injured in Westgate Shopping Mall, she said.

"While all US Government employees, American and Kenyan, are accounted for, our US Government family has been touched by these tragic events. The spouse of a Foreign Service National working for the US. Agency for International Development was killed in the attack," she added.

... contd.

Mourinho vows to stick with Chelsea plan

  COBHAM (AFP) – Jose Mourinho has insisted he will not abandon his plans to transform Chelsea’s playing style in a bid to produce an immediate end to their alarming early season dip.  The Chelsea manager accepts he must face criticism after four games without a win, including successive defeats by Everton and Basel in the London club’s last two outings.  Portuguese boss Mourinho reacted to those losses by highlighting the inexperience of some members of his squad.
Mourinho
 But, speaking Friday ahead of the visit of Fulham to Stamford Bridge for Saturday’s west London derby, he maintained he’d been charged by club owner Roman Abramovich with  changing the team’s approach.  And Mourinho was adamant he would not alter that agenda in an effort to provide an immediate upturn in results.  “When you want to build something different than the players are adapted to and comfortable with, it’s more difficult,” he told reporters at Chelsea’s training ground.  “The easiest thing is for a manager to arrive in a club and not to change, to go in the same direction. Or to keep something and buy a couple of players better than what he had previously. Everything is going in the same direction.  “But if you want to do something different, there is a period where — I understand that, if the results are not good, people will question the direction you go — but it’s up to me to determine the direction we’re going.  “If people expect us to play against Fulham — because we need to win, we need a victory — and play with a low block, nine behind the ball, waiting for Fulham to make a mistake, score a goal on the counter-attack, then I’m not going in that direction.”  Mourinho, now in his second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge, insisted the time to evaluate his return to Chelsea would be at the end of the campaign when the season’s work can be compared with the efforts of his immediate predecessors.  “I don’t like the way Chelsea were playing in the last couple of years. The club doesn’t like it.  “We want to change. We have the players with the profile to change. We want to play a different style.  “I don’t want to defend as a low block. I don’t want central defenders playing in midfield. I don’t want long balls to a lonely striker. I don’t want to do that.  “I agree, we must have better results. I agree that at this level, some clubs won’t wait three, four, five years to have a team, so we have to accelerate the process.  “But I’m not going to change. We want this team to play a certain way, and that’s what we’re going to do.”  And he added: “The first thing I have to say is that we lost nothing..We didn’t finish third in the Champions League group. We didn’t get relegated to the Europa League. And we didn’t finish third in the Premier League. We lost one match in the Premier League.”  The manager also admitted he is still working to establish his best line-up as he attempts to adapt the club’s players into his preferred system.  “Some players, with their performances, say to me: this is my place. Don’t touch me. This is the way I play.  “Some other players don’t perform in a way where they can take doubts out of me.  “For some positions, I would say no doubts this player in this moment is first-choice. In other positions, I need more information to decide well.

ABUJA (AFP) – Boko Haram Islamists opened fire Friday on security operatives conducting an operation near a legislative building in Abuja, sparking a gunfight that injured several people, the intelligence branch said.

RESCUE OPERATORS EVACUATING REMAINS OF PEOPLE KILLED IN AN UNCOMPLETED BUILDING BY UNKNOWN GUNMEN AT APO ZONE E IN ABUJA ON FRIDAY (20/9/13).

Following a tipoff from arrested Boko Haram fighters, security forces headed to a purported weapons cache behind the building in Abuja’s Apo neighbourhood, said Marilyn Ogar, spokeswoman for the Department of State Services.
Shortly after midnight they started “digging for the arms”, Ogar said in a statement.
They then “came under heavy gunfire attack by… Boko Haram elements within the area, which prompted immediate response from the security team,” she said.
“Some persons were injured and 12 others were arrested in connection with the incident,” Ogar added.
Boko Haram, which claims it wants to set up an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has previously attacked Abuja in the centre of the country, including bombings at a United Nations building, newspaper offices and a shopping mall.
The capital was placed under tight security after the August 2011 UN bombing, with military checkpoints in place around most government buildings.
Attacks in Abuja had however declined dramatically in recent months

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/breaking-news-many-injured-as-forces-boko-haram-exchange-gunfire-in-abuja/#sthash.YiUlRB6x.dpuf

Warlord Kony ‘in a box,’ U.S. war crimes chief says

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Notorious Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony is “solidly on the run,” just one step ahead of his pursuers, thanks to U.S. training for regional militaries hunting him, and an aggressive campaign that offers rewards for information leading to his arrest, a top U.S. official told Yahoo News.
“We’ve got him in a box,” Stephen Rapp, the ambassador-at-large for war crimes and crimes against humanity, said in an exclusive interview.
Kony, who leads the Lord’s Resistance Army, drew renewed global attention in 2012 when a 30-minute video about his activities went viral. He has been accused of kidnapping tens of thousands of children and training them to fight for him or forcing them into sexual slavery.
In 2005, Kony and some of his top deputies became the first people indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Most have eluded capture.
“Kony continues to operate in uncharted areas, where there are no roads, and as one Ugandan commander told me the trees are as thick as broccoli,” Rapp said. And “he’s not someone that goes on BBC interviews and creates a frequency that you can track.”
How has the United States worked to change that? In October 2011, President Barack Obama sent 100 elite U.S. commandos to train regional government forces. And the government has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Kony’s capture.
“Just in recent days” the United States has had clues that the international effort has “gotten very, very close to Kony,” Rapp said Wednesday.
“We’ve got Kony solidly on the run, we’ve substantially diminished his forces, the operation is carried on in a way that protects the civilians,” he told Yahoo News.
The War Crimes Rewards Program has put up posters in English, French and regional languages, dropped flyers from helicopters and broadcast messages via loudspeakers in an effort to convince populations inclined to shelter some of the world’s most wanted fugitives to turn against them.
The program won a significant expansion in January 2013, broadening its mandate to cover more people accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

The reward amount varies, Rapp explained, depending on whether the information concerns a “big fish” or a “little fish,” how much danger the informant faces and other factors.
Over the past four years, the program has paid 14 rewards, averaging $400,000 each, for information about suspects on the run from international courts for the former Yugoslavia or Rwanda, he said.

View gallery."

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader Major General Joseph Kony, holds his daughter, Lacot, and son, O …

“Understand: Our reward program only pays for information leading to the arrest, transfer or conviction of the individual,” Rapp said. “It doesn’t pay for a dead Joseph Kony … it’s not a dead-or-alive bounty. It’s to have him face his accusers in court.”
Rapp said his efforts to bolster international support for putting war criminals on trial take him on the road 220 days a year. “Sometimes it’s almost like being a fugitive, someone that’s on the run because of the law,” he joked.
The ambassador at large oversees the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice and coordinates U.S. policy to prevent — or respond to — mass atrocities.
The ambassador works with other countries to build support for courts and “truth and reconciliation commissions” that hold accountable those responsible and work to pave the way for national unity.
Rapp was a prosecutor in Iowa in the 1990s when he watched — from Cedar Rapids — the massacres in the Balkans and the genocide in Rwanda.
He decided he needed to be part of the efforts to bring the Rwandan perpetrators to justice — and ended up winning the conviction of two news outlets that encouraged the massacre of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis.
“If you’re a prosecutor, and you’re out there trying to make the world safer for families and communities, and you see the worst crimes, you want to see a response to them,” he explained. “You want to see the vicious perpetrators — the people that would destroy lives, and particularly to do it in horrendous ways — you want to see those people brought to justice and you want to see those victims repaired.”
The walls of Rapp’s headquarters on the seventh floor of the State Department, down the hall from Secretary of State John Kerry’s lavish workplace suite, have the unmistakable vibe of bureaucracy. One hallway features art prints you might see on the walls of a not-especially-imaginative college student.
But they coexist with eye-catching posters of notorious figures like Bosnian Serb Ratko Mladic, now on trial for the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995.
Some of the fugitives have a red “x” over their picture — captured. A doorway to a classified briefing space carries ominous warnings about safeguarding secrets. There are carved wooden messages of appreciation for Rapp’s work as chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone court set up to punish atrocities during that country’s civil war.
One aide, whom Yahoo News spoke to but agreed not to name or show on camera, is a fugitive hunter whose office features a corkboard with pictures of fugitives, where they are thought to be hiding, and possible contacts.
So how does Rapp relax? Or does he?
“I actually find being on airplanes between visits relatively relaxing,” he said with a laugh. “And watching a movie and reading a book and thinking about other things, and sitting with friends, and joking about all of the sort of humorous things that come with working with people of different societies and different places.”
“I get relaxation out of spending time with the people that share this passion, and some of its successes," he said. “It’s possible, even in the midst of these kinds of things, to relax, and enjoy it, and share the joy of being alive when at the same time you face the horrors of people that have had that right to life, and decent life, and safe life cut short."

Boy, 3, among 13 injured in Chicago park shooting

CHICAGO (AP) — Thirteen people have been shot at a park on Chicago's southwest side, including a 3-year-old boy who was in critical condition, in what authorities say was likely a gang-related shooting.

Officer Amina Greer said the shooting occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday.
A witness, Julian Harris, told the Chicago Sun-Times that dreadlocked men fired at him from a gray sedan before turning toward Cornell Square Park in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood and firing at people. He said his 3-year-old nephew was wounded in the cheek.
"They hit the light pole next to me, but I ducked down and ran into the house," Harris said. "They've been coming round here looking for people to shoot every night, just gang-banging stuff. It's what they do."
Chicago Fire Department officials said the child was in critical condition. Officials at Mt. Sinai hospital said Friday that the boy was a patient there, but could not provide an update on his condition. Two other victims were also in critical condition. The others were reported in serious to fair condition.
Greer told The Associated Press early Friday that police have since identified a 13th victim, a 33-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the back near one shoulder. Other victims included a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old. She added that no arrests have been made and she had no further information to give out at the time.
"It's an ongoing investigation," Greer added.
The shooting comes nearly three weeks after Chicago saw an outburst of violence over the Labor Day weekend that ended with eight dead and 20 others injured. The city's Police Department has responded to shootings that have grabbed national headlines by stepping up its crime-fighting efforts, paying overtime to add patrols to some neighborhoods, including the Back of the Yards, where Thursday's shooting took place.
According to Greer, at least 10 ambulances responded to the scene, transporting victims to several area hospitals. One victim transported himself to a hospital, police said.
Police spokesman Ron Gaines said victims were being interviewed to determine the circumstances of the shooting. He said no one had been taken into custody.
Francis John, 70, said she was in her apartment when the shooting occurred. She said she went down to see what was going on and "a lot of youngsters were running scared." A 30-year resident, she said she was surprised by what had happened.
She told the Sun-Times there hasn't been much gun violence in the neighborhood in recent years, adding the neighborhood went from good to bad 10 years ago, to better recently.