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The 74-year-old 'Black Widow' killer who murdered her lovers with cyanide

2021-10-25T03:46:00.002-07:00

At 75, Isao Kakehi was in good health and in love. It was 2013, and he had embarked on an exciting new relationship with Chisako Kakehi, a 67-year-old widow he met through a Japanese matchmaking agency. Within two months, the couple married, moved in together, and began a seemingly blissful life in Kyoto's Muko City, making rice cakes for their New Year's celebrations. But Isao Kakehi didn't live to see in the new year. On December 28, he became the fourth and final victim of Japan's "Black Widow" killer. Chisako Kakehi, now 74, is on death row for murdering three romantic partners and the attempted murder of a fourth. The murders started in 2007, when she was 61, but she escaped suspicion until Isao Kakehi's death prompted a police investigation that resulted in her arrest in 2014. At 75, Isao Kakehi was in good health and in love. It was 2013, and he had embarked on an exciting new relationship with Chisako Kakehi, a 67-year-old widow he met through a Japanese matchmaking agency. Within two months, the couple married, moved in together, and began a seemingly blissful life in Kyoto's Muko City, making rice cakes for their New Year's celebrations. But Isao Kakehi didn't live to see in the new year. On December 28, he became the fourth and final victim of Japan's "Black Widow" killer. Chisako Kakehi, now 74, is on death row for murdering three romantic partners and the attempted murder of a fourth. The murders started in 2007, when she was 61, but she escaped suspicion until Isao Kakehi's death prompted a police investigation that resulted in her arrest in 2014. For a woman who has become infamous in Japan, little is known publicly about Chisako Kakehi's personal life. Born in Japan's southwestern Saga prefecture, Kakehi worked at a printing factory, and married her first husband in 1969, when she was 23, according to CNN affiliate Asahi News. Japan's 'Black Widow' serial killer loses death sentence appeal Their marriage lasted 25 years before his death of an illness in 1994. By 2007, she had entered into a relationship with 78-year-old Toshiaki Suehiro. On the afternoon of December 18, 2007, Kakehi had lunch with Suehiro and his children. Suehiro took health supplements -- making it easy for Kakehi to disguise a cyanide capsule as one of his pills and give it to him, said the ruling. Less than 15 minutes after lunch, Suehiro collapsed unconscious on the street. By the time an ambulance arrived, he was gasping and "on the verge of stopping breathing," said the court ruling. Kakehi accompanied Suehiro to the hospital -- but gave herself a pseudonym, "Hiraoka," when talking to the ambulance staff and Suehiro's family. At the hospital, doctors found he was close to death after suffering from internal asphyxiation. Suehiro survived -- the only one of Kakehi's four victims to do so -- but he was left with "incurable higher dysfunction and visual impairment," said the court ruling. He died a year and a half later of an unrelated illness, according to Asahi News. A few years later, Kakehi was eying her next victim. The motorcycle victim Masanori Honda was in good shape for his 71 years. By 2011, his diabetes had subsided to a "mild status" and he often frequented sports clubs, said the ruling. He was also diving headfirst into a relationship with Kakehi. Though it's unclear how they met or how long they dated, the couple told friends later that year they planned to marry. The following spring, Kakehi made her move. On March 9, 2012, she met Honda at a store, then the two went their separate ways. Around 5 p.m. that day, he lost consciousness while riding a motorcycle. Less than two hours later in hospital, doctors confirmed his death. Evidence later showed that Kakehi had no plans to live out her years with Honda. Two months before his death, in January 2012, she had already begun secretly dating other men through a dating agency. The cancer survivor and the final victim Minoru Hioki struggled with loneliness and a relapse of lung cancer in his later years. But by July 2013, life was looking up: his cancer had been almost completely treated by radiation therapy and "he was in great health," said the ruling. To top it off, the 75-year-old had a new romantic interest. By August 2013, Hioki appeared devoted to Kakehi, writing to her in an email that he wanted to "stay together forever." They were close, often eating together and spending the night in each other's homes, said the ruling. Their idyllic romance came to an end on September 20 when the couple went out for dinner. Hioki, like Kakehi's second husband Suehiro, often took health supplements in pill form -- so it was easy for her to give him a cyanide pill "under the guise of health food," said the ruling. They had just finished their meal when Hioki lost consciousness. By the time an ambulance arrived, he was "breathing painfully and gasping," according to the ruling. Despite knowing he had children and had recovered from his cancer, Kakehi lied to the ambulance crew, claiming he had no family and was suffering terminal lung cancer. When they offered the resuscitation procedure, she refused permission to resuscitate him. He died within two hours. Kakehi only seemed to get bolder in accumulating relationships and victims. In November 2013, just two months after Hioki's death, she had already married her next and final target -- Isao Kakehi. And barely a month after their wedding, she began dating another man in secret, according to the ruling. But Isao Kakehi was none the wiser, and seemed renewed with enthusiasm for life. In email exchanges and messages, he told his new wife he wanted to "do their best to enjoy a bright second life and live long." Within weeks of their marriage, the newlywed suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest shortly after eating dinner at home with his new wife. She called the ambulance, which rushed him to the hospital -- but he died just an hour later. His death roused suspicion about Kakehi's string of unlucky lovers, prompting a police investigation that quickly unraveled her web of deceit.

Colombia captures most wanted drug lord, ‘Otoniel,’ in bust compared to Pablo Escobar’s fall

2021-10-24T02:34:00.001-07:00

Colombia’s most wanted drug lord, Dairo Antonio Úsuga, widely known by his alias Otoniel, has been captured by armed forces in his jungle hideout. Úsuga, 50, a former left-wing guerrilla and later a paramilitary fighter, is the alleged leader of the notorious drug trafficking group Clan del Golfo, or Gulf Clan, which dominates major cocaine smuggling routes through thick jungles in the country’s restive north. President Iván Duque likened his arrest Saturday to the capture of Pablo Escobar three decades ago. The billionaire drug baron, known as “the Godfather,” once sat on top of the drug world with tentacles reaching around the globe.

“Otoniel was the most feared drug trafficker in the world, killer of police, of soldiers, of social leaders, and recruiter of children,” Duque said during a broadcast video message. “This blow is only comparable to the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.” Úsuga is accused of sending dozens of shipments of cocaine to the United States. He is also accused of killing police officers, recruiting minors and sexually abusing children, among other crimes, Duque said. The U.S. government had put up a reward of $5 million for help locating him. “Otoniel’s capture is truly important,” said Daniel Mejía, a Colombian university professor and expert on narco-trafficking. “He was the head of the most powerful narco-trafficking structure in Colombia, the Gulf Clan, which holds domain of a broad part of the territory.” Analysts are warning of possible violent repercussions and internal power struggles as others jostle to take Úsuga’s place. Still, his arrest is unlikely to change the fundamentals of drug trafficking in Colombia, which experts say is much more fragmented now than in the days when Escobar dominated the trade. Escobar revolutionized cocaine trafficking in the 1970s and 1980s, pioneering large-scale shipments first to the United States, then to Europe. “This is not going to move the needle in terms of the war on drugs. … What happens next is different pieces of the puzzle aligning to fill the vacuum of power left by Otoniel,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of the consulting firm Colombia Risk Analysis. “Soon we’ll have another kingpin and another drug lord who may be much worse.” In its reward notice, the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said Úsuga’s criminal network used violence and intimidation to control narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points and clandestine landing strips. He set up operations in the strategic Gulf of Uraba region in northern Colombia, a major drug corridor surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Caribbean sea on the other. Úsuga evaded capture for years by moving between safe locations in the remote jungle region. Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, director of Colombia’s national police, said Saturday that Úsuga slept in rough conditions, hardly ever spending time in homes, and dined on his favorite jungle animals. Years of intelligence work, with assistance from the United States and United Kingdom, eventually led Colombian special forces soldiers to his jungle hideout, Vargas said. He moved around with eight rings of bodyguards. Úsuga’s arrest is a win for the conservative President Duque, whose law-and-order rhetoric has been no match for soaring production of cocaine. Duque said Saturday that there are extradition orders against Úsuga, and authorities will work to carry out those orders while “learning all of the truth about the rest of his crimes in our country.” Úsuga was indicted in Manhattan federal court in 2009 on narcotics import charges and for allegedly providing assistance to a far-right paramilitary group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Later indictments in Brooklyn and Florida accused him of international cocaine distribution dating back as far as 2002, conspiracy to murder rival drug traffickers and drug-related firearms offenses. Pannett reported from Sydney, Durán reported from Bogotá, Colombia, and Schmidt reported from Meta, Colombia.

Covid-19: How long does the coronavirus last on surfaces?

2020-04-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

We can pick up the Covid-19 by touching surfaces contaminated with the new coronavirus, but it is only just becoming clear how long the virus can survive outside the human body.

As Covid-19 has spread, so has our fear of surfaces. There are now some familiar scenes in public places around the world – people trying to open doors with their elbows, commuters studiously surfing their way through train journeys to avoid grabbing a handle, office workers rubbing down their desks each morning.

In the areas worst hit by the new coronavirus, teams of workers in protective clothing have been dispatched to spray a fog of disinfectant in plazas, parks and public streets. Cleaning regimes in offices, hospitals, shops and restaurants have been increased. In some cities, well-meaning volunteers even venture out at night to scrub the keypads of cash machines.

Like many respiratory viruses, including flu, Covid-19 can be spread in tiny droplets released from the nose and mouth of an infected person as they cough. A single cough can produce up to 3,000 droplets. These particles can land on other people, clothing and surfaces around them, but some of the smaller particles can remain in the air. There is also some evidence that the virus is also shed for longer in faecal matter, so anyone not washing their hands thoroughly after visiting the toilet could contaminate anything they touch.

It is worth noting that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, touching a surface or object with the virus and then touching one's own face "is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads". Even so, the CDC, the World Health Organization and others health authorities, have emphasised that both washing one's hands and cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces daily are key in preventing Covid-19's spread. So although we still don't know exactly how many cases are being caused directly by contaminated surfaces, experts advise exercising caution.

One aspect that has been unclear is exactly how long Sars-CoV-2, the name of the virus that causes the disease Covid-19, can survive outside the human body. Some studies on other coronaviruses, including Sars and Mers, found they can survive on metal, glass and plastic for as long as nine days, unless they are properly disinfected. Some can even hang around for up to 28 days in low temperatures.

Coronaviruses are well known to be particularly resilient in terms of where they can survive. And researchers are now beginning to understand more about how this affects the spread of the new coronavirus. (Read more about the global fight against Covid-19.)

The virus that causes Covid-19 is thought to survive for longer on hard surfaces than on materials such as cardboard

Neeltje van Doremalen, a virologist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and her colleagues at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, have done some of the first tests of how long Sars-CoV-2 can last for on different surfaces. Their study, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that the virus could survive in droplets for up to three hours after being coughed out into the air. Fine droplets between 1-5 micrometres in size – about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair – can remain airborne for several hours in still air.

It means that the virus circulating in unfiltered air conditioning systems will only persist for a couple of hours at the most, especially as aerosol droplets tend to settle on surfaces faster in disturbed air.

But the NIH study found that the Sars-CoV-2 virus survives for longer on cardboard – up to 24 hours – and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless-steel surfaces. (Learn how to clean your mobile phone properly.)

The findings suggest the virus might last this long on door handles, plastic-coated or laminated worktops and other hard surfaces. The researchers did find, however, that copper surfaces tended to kill the virus in about four hours.

But there is a speedier option: research has shown that coronaviruses can be inactivated within a minute by disinfecting surfaces with 62-71% alcohol, or 0.5% hydrogen peroxide bleach or household bleach containing 0.1% sodium hypochlorite. Higher temperatures and humidity also tend to result in other coronaviruses dying quicker, although research has shown that a related coronavirus that causes Sars could be killed by temperatures above 56°C or 132°F (hotter than even a bath scalding enough to cause injury) at a rate of about 10,000 viral particles every 15 minutes.

By Richard Gray.

22 Children Feared Dead

2018-08-15T16:33:00.001-07:00

At least 22 children have drowned in Sudan when their boat sank in the Nile while they were on their way to school, according to official media.

A woman also died when the vessel went down around 750km north of the capital, Khartoum, with more than 40 children on board, the SUNA news agency reported on Wednesday.The accident occurred when the boat's engine broke down as result of heavy rains and winds in Beheir district in the Nile River state.

Civil defense forces were still searching the Nile river for the bodies of the victims.Villagers in the region rely on wooden boats to cross the Nile.

A witness told AFP news agency by telephone that the boat had been crossing the river against the current."All the families [in the area] are in mourning," added the witness, who did not want to be named.

Early on Wednesday, Sudanese authorities ordered the closure of schools across Khartoum amid heavy torrential rains and winds that have destroyed hundreds of homes in some provinces, including North Darfur and North Kordofan.Nearly 40 people have been killed due to heavy rains since last week, including 10 in Khartoum, according to local media. Sources : News agencies.

Police are responding to reports of a shooting at the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville, Tennessee.

2018-05-03T13:28:00.001-07:00

Police are responding to reports of a shooting at the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville, Tennessee

1:05 pm - 3 May 2018

Eugene Cole killed

2018-04-29T15:25:00.001-07:00

Fugitive suspect in killing of deputy captured.
Associated Press•April 29, 2018
NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine (AP) — A man accused of killing a sheriff's deputy was arrested Saturday outside a remote cabin, ending an intense manhunt in its fourth day in the woods of central Maine.
A law enforcement team used the slain deputy's handcuffs to arrest 29-year-old John Williams in a symbolic gesture, Sheriff Dale Lancaster said.

"We can now focus on the important task of respectfully laying our fallen brother to rest. Tonight, the citizens of Somerset County can sleep well and knowing that a dangerous man has been taken off the streets," the sheriff said.
Williams was wanted in the fatal shooting of Cpl. Eugene Cole early Wednesday after the two had an encounter on a darkened road in Norridgewock.
Cole, 62, had been involved in the arrest of Williams' girlfriend several days earlier, and Williams was worried about being arrested himself for failing to appear in court in Massachusetts on firearm charges the day of the shooting.
Williams was angry about his girlfriend's arrest and had told a friend that "as of tomorrow, I'll be a fugitive." The friend said Williams was acting paranoid and noticed he had body armor in one of his bags.
Shirtless and shoeless when captured, Williams appeared to be exhausted when he was led out of the woods Saturday. Officers put him into the back seat of an unmarked state police vehicle, and detectives whisked him away.
"I'm just glad it ended peacefully, and no one else got hurt," said Tasha Raymond, whose kids have been forced to play indoors for the past four days.
The arrest brought some closure to the deputy's family and relief to residents who've been "on edge," said Larry Tilton, a friend of Cole's.
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The community of 3,500 had been nervous since scores of police officers poured into the region during the manhunt. Helicopters, cruisers and tactical vehicles prowled the region.
On Saturday, about 150 officers were searching in a wooded area where police believe Williams was cornered when a team including FBI, game wardens and local police located him outside the cabin.
He offered "limited resistance" when being arrested and taken to the Waterville Police Department for questioning, police said. He's expected to make his initial court appearance in the next few days.
It was unclear if Williams has an attorney to speak on his behalf.
Before the arrest, the wife of the slain deputy had implored his killer Saturday to turn himself in, or at least reach out to police.
Sheryl Cole promised to Williams that he'd be treated the way her late husband would've treated him: "with dignity and respect."
Cole became the first law enforcement officer in Maine to be killed in the line of duty in nearly 30 years.
He was a 13-year veteran of the department who was known for being respectful and patient in his dealing with people. Lancaster described him an "outstanding employee, one of the finest deputies."
A funeral for the popular deputy is scheduled for May 7, at a civic center in Bangor.
___
David Sharp contributed to this report from Portland.

Swiss glacier reveals couple lost in 1942

2017-07-18T09:26:00.001-07:00

The spot where the two bodies were found in glacierImage copyright Télévision Suisse Romande Image caption Bernhard Tschannen shows where the bodies were found in the ice
A shrinking glacier in Switzerland has revealed two frozen bodies believed to be of a couple who went missing 75 years ago, Swiss media report.

Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin disappeared after going to tend to their cows in the Alps in 1942.

The couple had seven children.

Their youngest daughter, 79, said the news brought her a "deep sense of calm" and she wanted to give them the funeral they deserved.

"We spent our whole lives looking for them," Marceline Udry-Dumoulin told Lausanne daily Le Matin.

Local police said the bodies were discovered last week on Tsanfleuron glacier, above the Les Diablerets resort, by a worker from ski-lift company, Glacier 3000.

Director Bernhard Tschannen said his employee found some backpacks, tin bowls and a glass bottle, as well as male and female shoes, and part of a body under the ice.

He said that it was likely the couple had fallen into a crevice and the way they were dressed implied that they could have been there for 70 or 80 years.

"The bodies were lying near each other. It was a man and a woman wearing clothing dating from the period of World War Two," he told Le Matin.

Ms Udry-Dumoulin said her mother, a teacher, never usually went on such walks with her husband, a shoemaker, because she spent much of her adult life pregnant and it was difficult terrain.

She said her and her siblings were placed with different families, and lost contact over the years.

She told Le Matin that she wanted to hold a long-awaited funeral, but would not wear black.

"I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost," she said.

Climate change: Trump keeps world waiting on Paris deal

2017-05-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

Donald Trump has said he will decide whether to pull out of a key climate change deal in the next week, having apparently shrugged off pressure from US allies in recent days.

The US president tweeted he would make his "final decision" on the Paris accord after his return to Washington.

Mr Trump left the G7 summit in Sicily on Saturday without reaffirming his commitment to the accord, unlike the other six world leaders in attendance.

He previously threatened to pull out.

Mr Trump, who has called climate change "a hoax" on occasion, has reportedly indicated this is still his position to key members of his inner circle.

The uncertainty over his position on the Paris agreement puts him at odds with other members of the G7.

What is the Paris accord?

The Paris deal is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement, set out in 2015, with the aim of keeping the global average rise in temperatures below 2C.

In order to do that, countries pledged to reduce their carbon emissions.

Image copyrightREUTERS

Image captionBarack Obama, pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Paris summit, signed the agreement in 2016

But it came into force only after being ratified by 55 countries, which between them produce 55% of global carbon emissions.

Barack Obama signed the US up in September 2016, and members of the G7 are keen for the US to continue to back it, not least because the country is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses after China.

Why doesn't Donald Trump like the agreement?

Mr Trump told voters on the campaign trail he wanted to scrap agreements "contrary to the national interest", while repeatedly promising to strengthen the coal industry.

Coal power is a major contributor to carbon emissions. However, Mr Trump wants to boost coal production to create more jobs.

He has also expressed doubt about the causes of climate change, saying it is a "hoax" made up by China.

Paris deal is 'lifeline' for world's poor

Will the US withdraw?

The Axios news site suggests Mr Trump is leaning that way currently, citing three sources who say his mind is made up, and that the wheels are quietly being put in motion behind the scenes.

This is despite US defence secretary James Mattis saying in an interview to air on Sunday that the president is now "wide open" on the issue.

Withdrawal would risk making Mr Trump unpopular not only with his allies abroad, but also with activists at home.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionMr Trump's attitude to climate change made discussions at the G7 "very difficult"

It was noted his attitude to climate change was one of the major hurdles during the summit in Sicily - the first time he has met his fellow G7 leaders as a group.

His stance left him isolated, with Mr Trump's reluctance to reaffirm his commitment clearly annoying German chancellor Angela Merkel, who told reporters: "The entire discussion about climate was very difficult, if not to say very dissatisfying."

World vs Trump on climate deal?

What would be the effect?

There are fears the US pulling out may lead to other, smaller countries following suit.

Even if they do not, as the US has such a large carbon footprint, it will mean the impact of the agreement will likely be lessened significantly.

Whatever the US chooses, the EU, India and China say they will stick to their pledges made in Paris.

And what's more, some of Mr Trump's own country is likely to ignore his scepticism.

New York and California have already pledged to combat climate change without the Trump administration's support.

Beyonce holds big baby bash

2017-05-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

Posted at

Report

It was probably exactly like the baby shower you and your partner held, except ever so slightly more decadent.

The singer celebrated her pregnancy with friends and family with an African-themed shindig on Saturday

E News reports that Beyoncé celebrated with her star friends in a Beverly Hills house once owned by Madonna.

Report

The new mum-to-be had her bulging baby(ies) bump adorned with a big henna tattoo (above) and guests enjoyed a soul-food buffet and a boogie to some traditional music and stomping Afrobeat.

Ex-Destiny's Child bandmates Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland were in attendance at 'The Carter Push Party', as well as tennis star Serena Williams and plenty of other US socialites.

Report

The countries that cane their convicts

2017-05-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

These are external links and will open in a new window

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionFlogging is a common punishment in Aceh state, where authorities have adopted Sharia law

Two men are due to be caned in public after they were caught in bed together in Aceh, Indonesia.

The men will each receive 85 lashes in public, as punishment under the strict Islamic laws used in Aceh.

It is the only Indonesian province where Sharia is in force. According to human rights campaign group Amnesty International, 108 people were punished for various offences in 2015.

Their offences ranged from gambling to alcohol, adultery and public displays of intimacy outside of marriage.

Pictures of these public punishments - designed to humiliate as much as to injure - show people being led onto a raised platform, and made to kneel or stand as a hooded man beats them with a long, thin cane while a large crowd watches.

Caning is considered so barbaric that Amnesty says it could be considered akin to torture.

But flogging as a punishment for transgressions in countries where Islamic laws are followed is relatively common.

In Sudan, women can be flogged for dressing "indecently". In Saudi Arabia, a woman driving a car can be enough to warrant the sentence. In Iran, attending a party with both men and women can end with being whipped.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionRaif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia, prompting protests around the world

One woman flogged for doing just that described on the Iranian Facebook page My Stealthy Freedoms how she was led into a room in shackles and beaten by a woman.

"With the impact of the first lash, I jumped out of my [seat] uncontrollably," the woman wrote. "I was so shocked that even my tears would not drop. I wanted to scream, but I could not even control my voice."

What can you be flogged for in Saudi Arabia?

But probably the most famous case in recent years is that of Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for "insulting Islam" online.

So far, authorities have only carried out the first 50 lashes. The public outcry appears to have had some success in halting the sentence, but it still hangs over him.

In the Maldives, where Sharia law is mixed with English common law, flogging is also legal punishment, most commonly used on those convicted of having extramarital sex. The majority of cases are women.

Caning is also used as a punishment in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, a legacy of British colonial rule in the 19th Century.

Unlike the public floggings in Aceh, however, these punishments take place behind closed doors, with the accused tied to specially constructed frames and carried out with a doctor in attendance.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionSwiss software consultant Oliver Fricker (pictured) was caned for spray painting graffiti in Singapore

Its use is relatively widespread: in Singapore 2,203 people were caned in 2012, including 1,070 foreigners, the US State Department said.

Since 2010, at least three Europeans have been sentenced to be caned for vandalism, including Swiss software consultant Oliver Fricker, who spray-painted graffiti on a train.

But the numbers pale in comparison to Malaysia.

In 2010, Amnesty International released a report saying some 10,000 prisoners and 6,000 refugees were being caned each year, punishment for more than 60 crimes - including drug-related and sexual offences, as well as migration violations.

When mum or dad is an alcoholic

2017-05-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

One in five children in the UK are said to be negatively affected by their parents' drinking, and the effects can last well into adulthood. Four women - Karen, Liz, Hilary and Lynne - spoke to Jo Morris about growing up with a parent dependent on alcohol.

"Some people talk about what books they've read, or films they've been to see, but instead we talk about how drunk our parents were," says Karen.

Karen and her friend Liz met at work in their late 20s and quickly bonded when they realised they had a shared history.

"It's not the same talking to somebody who doesn't know what it's like," says Liz.

Gallows humour helps to deal with the horrible memories. Like the time Liz's mum sold her toys to get money for alcohol. Or the time Karen's alcoholic dad went to the pub instead of collecting her from after-school club.

"It's a bit like Top Trumps - alcoholic-parent Top Trumps," Karen laughs.

They both remember dreading the walk home from school.

"It's so disheartening," says Karen. "You think: 'OK, I've had a nice break at school, but here we go again. I'm going to be really polite and be really nice, make sure that I don't say anything out of turn or give you any reason to have a go at me.'"

It was only when Liz was eight or nine that she noticed her friends did not have any such concerns and lived very different lives.

"I thought: 'Oh, you have your dinner cooked for you? I don't even have dinner.'

"That's when you realise it's horrendous and you feel very alone going through it."

Once, her mum spent all her benefit money on alcohol, and all she could afford was a sack of potatoes.

"Potato weekend!" Liz laughs. "We literally had potatoes to live on for the weekend. So we had mashed potato, potato cakes, chips wrapped up in newspaper - she was very resourceful."

Image caption"Potato weekend" - when Liz' mum spent all the money on drink
Food - or the lack of it - is a common theme.

Hilary, 55, grew up in an upper-middle class family in Sunderland, with a respected surgeon as a father. The family kept up appearances - but her mother drank.

"I can remember being at school, and a girl in my form opening up her lunch and saying: 'Oh my sandwiches haven't been buttered to the edge.' It was like Planet Zorg compared to my life," she remembers.

No-one was making sandwiches for Hilary. In fact it was left to her to look after her younger brother - putting him to bed, getting him ready for school, making sure he was fed.

She went from being very present to becoming a ghost

Hilary , on her mother

Her mum's drinking started out with a glass of wine "while cooking" but soon escalated to a bottle of vodka a day.

"She was hiding bottles, they were all over the place - in her shoeboxes, you'd find glasses of neat vodka behind curtains and if you put the oven on you checked there wasn't a bottle hidden in there.

Watching her elegant and educated mother fade away was very painful.

"You couldn't hold a conversation with her because she was drunk," Hilary says. "It was like she wasn't there really - she went from being very present to becoming a ghost."

Liz's mother had been a model, but after she began to drink she never quite knew where to put on her make-up. "She looked like Aunt Sally from Worzel Gummidge," she says.

Liz's own life began to spin out of control, as a result of neglect. By the age of 15, Liz had become involved in an abusive relationship, and was put into foster care. It was thanks to her friends that she survived, she says.

"I've been good at choosing good friends who helped me through it, friends who weren't into drugs and drinking."

Then, when she saw her friends go to university she decided she would, too - the only child in Surrey social services at the time who did. "I definitely deserve a prize for that," she says.

Buhari, Nigerian president life in doubt.

2017-02-07T13:40:00.001-08:00

Two media aides to President Muhammadu Buhari have written on twitter to dispel rumors making
round that he'd died in a London hospital. The president's top media aides using their twitter handles denied rumors that President Buhari who left Nigeria on Thursday on a 10-day medical leave had died. Mr. Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu denied the speculations with Garba Shehu taking it a step further by mocking former President Goodluck Jonathan's purported invitation to Donald Trump's inauguration in the
US.
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ZANU-PF ENDORSE 92yr OLD FOR PRESIDENCY

2016-12-19T00:25:00.001-08:00

Zimbabwe's governing Zanu-PF party has confirmed President Robert Mugabe as its candidate for the 2018 elections.

Mr Mugabe, who is 92, has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

At the party's conference, the Zanu-PF youth wing even proposed that Mr Mugabe should be declared president for life.

However, there have been unprecedented protests this year against Zimbabwe's economic turmoil and Mr Mugabe's leadership.

The Zanu-PF has also suffered serious infighting as factions battle it out to succeed Mr Mugabe once he eventually leaves.

His supporters broke into thunderous applause and chanted "tongai, tongai baba" [rule, rule father] as the Zanu-PF annual conference in the south-eastern town of Masvingo nominated Mr Mugabe on Saturday.

'One family'

In his acceptance speech, Mr Mugabe called for an end to party infighting.

"We agreed that conflicts should end. Infighting should end. The party ideology should be followed," he said.

"Let us be one. We are one family, the family of Zanu-PF bound together by the fact of understanding between its members."

Mr Mugabe has blamed the country's economic problems on sabotage by Western critics of his policies.

Amid violent protests earlier this year he warned there would be no Zimbabwean uprising similar to the "Arab Spring".

Celine Dion’s Jupiter Island Estate Now $27 Million Cheaper

2016-07-30T04:36:00.002-07:00

Despite this one having its own water park, Celine Dion is having trouble selling another of her opulent mansions.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Canadian singer, who has a residency in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, has lowered the price of one of her properties precipitously—from $72.5 million to $45.5 million. At its original asking price, the Jupiter Island mansion was one of Florida’s costliest homes when it hit the market around two years ago.

The 5.7-acre estate boasts two spacious guesthouses, a tennis pavilion, water park with two connecting swimming pools and a Bahamian-inspired main residence. Still, that’s not been enough to secure a sale.

A Titanic-size pool is just one of the features that’s failing to impress at Celine Dion’s Jupiter Island estate. View the Complete Jupiter Island Listing
Christie’s International Real Estate

The Grammy winner used this estate as her main residence before she relocated to Las Vegas. Other famous residents of Jupiter Island include golfer Tiger Woods and actor Burt Reynolds.

The 47-year-old has also had difficulty selling her Île Gagnon property in Quebec, which went up for sale in 2012. A report emerged that it was sold last month, but Mansion Global was unable to confirm this; the property is still listed as for sale.

The 24,000-square-foot, six-bedroom French Normandy Chateau-style property, built in 2001, is located on a private island not far from downtown Montreal. It features a private bridge, wine cellar with tasting room and a wood panelled library. Asking price? $18.9 million.

Ten films to watch in august

2016-07-30T04:16:00.001-07:00

Suicide Squad

Training Day writer David Ayer directs this feature based on the DC Comics anti-heroes, following a secret government agency that recruits imprisoned supervillains to carry out black ops missions. An all-star cast play the rogues gallery of inmates, with Will Smith as the assassin Deadshot, Jared Leto as The Joker and Margot Robbie as his clown-faced partner Harley Quinn. Taking its cue from Deadpool, Suicide Squad marks a change of pace from the usual comic book blockbuster, as Ayer told The New York Times. “Instead of this Soviet-style series of apartment-block movies that are all built to the same blueprints, there’s room for some Craftsman homes and a little more elegance.” After a critical panning for the most recent DC blockbuster, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ayer is hoping for an adaptation in the spirit of The Magnificent Seven or The Dirty Dozen. “It’s a little morally challenged, but we know we can get away with it.” On general release from 3 August. (Credit: DC Comics)

Southside with You

As Obama nostalgia already sets in, this take on the soon-to-be-former president’s first date with Michelle will warm the cockles of anyone fearing what might lie ahead. Writer-director Richard Tanner’s debut feature has drawn praise for its casting, with Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers going “beyond impression to deliver something real and human-sized” as the First Couple back in 1989.According to Variety, the film “stands as something unique, even audacious in American independent movies: a fact-based presidential ‘prequel’ that seeks to present two iconic world figures as convincing and relatable romantic leads… Whether taken as storytelling, propaganda or an artful hybrid of both, it’s a movie that unabashedly wraps its real-life subjects in a humanising embrace.” Released 26 August in the US and 31 August in France. (Credit: Miramax)

Julieta

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s twentieth film is a more muted affair than melodramas like Talk to Her or Volver: according to Time Out, “the emotions are more buttoned-up, the twists more maudlin”. Nevertheless, it’s “a sombre, ravishing study of grief, guilt and burden… only a master of his art could make it look so easy”. Based on three short stories by Alice Munro, it follows a mother and daughter as they struggle to cope with the death of a loved one. Almodóvar has said that “maternity inspires me more than paternity,” and The Evening Standard praises Julieta as “a harrowing examination of broken maternity and ever-present mortality”. Released 4 August in Germany and Russia and 12 August in Finland. (Credit: Canal+ France)

Anthropoid

Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan co-star in this drama based on a true story, playing two soldiers from the Czechoslovakian army-in-exile sent on a mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. Parachuted into their occupied homeland in December 1941, they seek to eliminate the man behind the Final Solution, the Reich’s third in command behind Hitler and Himmler. The UK-French-Czech historical thriller is directed by Sean Ellis, nominated for an Academy Award for his short film Cashback; according to Variety, “if Ellis’ intention was to remind what these real soldiers actually accomplished, as opposed to selling some revisionist Hollywood fantasy of Nazi opposition… mission accomplished”. Released 12 August in the US and 9 September in Ireland. (Credit: Lucky Man Films)

Kubo and the Two Strings

The latest feature from acclaimed stop-motion animation studio Laika (Coraline, The Boxtrolls) is set in ancient Japan, and appears to channel Studio Ghibli in its mixture of folklore and magic. A spirit from the past causes havoc for a young boy called Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson of Game of Thrones), who fights off gods and monsters to find a suit of armour once owned by his father, a legendary Samurai warrior. Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes and Rooney Mara provide voices for the epic action-adventure – characters include an 18-foot tall stop-motion puppet believed to be the largest ever of its kind. Released 18 August in Australia and Colombia and 19 August in the US. (Credit: Laika Entertainment)

Jason Bourne

Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass reunite for the first time in nearly a decade: and, according to BBC Culture’s Nicholas Barber, still have viewers on the edge of their seats: “Greengrass stages the action with bone-jarring immediacy, using wobbly handheld cameras and rat-a-tat editing to make the viewer feel as if they could be hit by a stray fist or bullet at any moment.” The fifth installment of the spy-thriller weaves in an Edward Snowdon-esque storyline a year after Bond, but avoids looking jaded by virtue of its star. Time magazine praises Damon for lifting Bourne beyond generic action, claiming that “Watching Damon, in motion or in a rare moment of rest, is the movie’s purest pleasure… Damon, his eternal boyishness finally settling into the inevitability of middle age, brings the personal touch this movie needs. Its action is generic, but he’s always special.” Released 4 August in Argentina, 5 August in India and 11 August in Germany. (Credit: Universal Pictures)

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

The latest film from German director Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Into the Abyss) premiered at Sundance to near universal praise, with The Hollywood Reporter calling the documentary “a quizzical, spry, modestly illuminating consideration of where human beings currently stand vis-a-vis the invention that is changing the world in as-yet unimaginable ways”. Herzog – who weaves fiction with reality until the two are indistinguishable – muses on an AI-dominated future and our relationship with machines. “This is an extraordinary moment in the life of human beings,” Herzog says in the film. “The beginning of connectivity we have not dreamed of a few years ago.” [According to Variety], this “alternately playful and unsettling 10-part essay on how the Internet continues to evolve… represents the latest of Herzog’s heady explorations of what it means to be human (and even post-human)”. Released 19 August in the US. (Credit: Saville Productions)

Pete’s Dragon

While Disney has used CGI to reinvent its classics – such as The Jungle Book or Cinderella – with this remake of a 1977 Disney musical, director David Lowery “has crafted something that feels like it comes from the heart”. The indie film-maker – who had a breakthrough hit at Sundance in 2013 with Ain’t Them Bodies Saints – has woven a rich character drama around a CG dragon and his friend Pete, with Variety claiming that “the film’s true appeal lies in its texture and the timeless human moments at its core”. Indiewire praises Oakes Fegley’s “terrifically muted performance” as Pete, as well as “the gentle rhythms of the script” that Lowery co-wrote with Toby Halbrooks – calling Pete’s Dragon “warm, wistful, and wholly wonderful”. On general release from 11 August. (Credit: 2016 Disney Enterprises Inc)

Mia Madre

Italian film-maker Nanni Moretti won the Palme d’Or in 2001 for his moving portrait of a grieving family, The Son’s Room. His latest feature, although a comedy-drama, is imbued with a sense of grief as a harried director (played by Margherita Buy) attempts to hold her life together. Juggling the demands of her movie – John Turturro plays its star, a bombastic American actor – with a dying mother and a teenage daughter who’s increasingly distant, the character is portrayed by Buy with “nervous reactions and large, distress-filled eyes”. Variety praises her for delivering “a moving performance as a woman heading toward emotional collapse”, while “good, strong, understated filmmaking is enlivened by Moretti’s characteristic wry blend of drama and humour”, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Released 6 August in Argentina, 20 August in South Korea and 29 August in Chile. (Credit: Le Pacte)

Tickled

After journalist David Farrier stumbles on a video of “competitive endurance tickling”, in which young men are paid to be tied up and tickled, his attempts to pursue the story are met with threats and abuse. Undeterred, his following investigation makes for what The Washington Post called “a crafty, unsettling bait-and-switch of a movie” which “sends viewers down a disquieting rabbit hole, into corners of the Internet, economic desperation and the human psyche that grow darker with every turn and twist”. Beyond the bizarre, this is a documentary that is really “about power, shame, and the law”. Released 18 August in Australia, 19 August in the UK and 7 September in Sweden. (Credit: A Ticklish Tale Ltd)

Rihanna tops charts and speaks on Beyoncé 'feud'

2016-03-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Rihanna is putting in "Work, work, work, work, work.The singer's "Anti" album has returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart, and she's speaking out on rumors that she has an ongoing feud with fellow superstar Beyoncé.

Nonsense, Rihanna told Vogue.

"Here's the deal," Rihanna said. "They just get so excited to feast on something that's negative. Something that's competitive. Something that's, you know, a rivalry. And that's just not what I wake up to. Because I can only do me. And nobody else is going to be able to do that."

The singer, who graces the cover of the magazine's April issue, said she is very much bored with music's pop formula. With her new album, "I just gravitated toward the songs that were honest to where I'm at right now," she said.

The strategy appears to be working, as Billboard reports that "Anti" is Rihanna's second No. 1 album and the first to spend more than a week at No. 1.

Rihanna is currently on tour to support the album, and a fan recently shocked her with his vocal skills.

The singer extended her mic to Terah Stewart at her concert in Cincinnati on Saturday and got quite the surprise when he perfectly sang a bit of her song "FourFiveSeconds." She responded, "Oh, s**t."

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Arsenal celebrates new signing, Oshoala.

2016-03-19T02:00:00.001-07:00

Arsenal Ladies is celebrating the signing of Nigeria international Asisat Oshoala from Liverpool, where she scored three goals in 12 league appearances for the Reds. The 21 year-old striker is the first player from Africa to feature in the Women’s Super League.

Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam arrested in Brussels

2016-03-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

18 Mar 2016 23:41 GMT

Salah Abdeslam, 26, has been on the run for months since the attacks in November in Paris which left 130 people dead [EPA]

Salah Abdeslam, the most wanted suspect for the Paris attacks, has been arrested in a shootout with heavily-armed police in the Belgian capital after eluding capture for months.Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and French President Francois Hollande confirmed the arrest on Friday at a press conference in Brussels.It was a success against terrorism," said Michel, as he congratulated the security forces who carried out the raid.
France's Hollande said "police were confronted with armed resistance" from the suspects during the raid, adding that the fight against "terrorism" was far from over.

"Though this arrest was an important step, it is not the final result. There will be further arrests. We know the network is extensive in Belgium, France and other countries," he said.

"What we need to do is arrest all of those who allowed, organised and facilitated these attacks [in Paris]. We have realised, without going into details, they are far more numerous than we thought."

Hollande added that he had "no doubt that the [French] judicial authorities will request an extradition".

The four-month manhunt for 26-year-old Abdeslam came to an end in the Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek with the suspect shot in the leg, according to Ahmed El Khannous, the neighbourhood's deputy mayor.

Four other people, including members of a family who harboured Abdeslam, were also arrested, said Belgian federal prosecutor Eric van der Sypt. He confirmed that Abdeslam was lightly injured during the raid and had been transferred to hospital. Footage showed heavily-armed police dragging a man whose face was covered by a white hood into the street and bundling him into the back of a waiting unmarked car. It was not clear from the pictures if the man was Abdeslam.

Fingerprints found

Earlier, the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said Abdeslam's fingerprints had been found in a separate raid this week.

Who is Salah Abdeslam?

Born in Brussels, Salah Abdeslam is a 26-year-old French national and the brother of 31-year-old Brahim Abdeslam who blew himself up on November 13 in the Comptoir Voltaire restaurant.

He was at one point suspected of having joined his older sibling in targeting restaurants and bars during the Paris attacks, but his exact role in the violence has yet to be determined.

Investigators know that he was in Paris and believe that he at the very least offered logistical support to the attackers. They are considering whether he planned to carry out his own attack, but backed out.

After four months on the run, he was arrested in Belgium on March 18.

His prints were discovered in an apartment in the neighbourhood of Forest, in south Brussels, after that raid on Tuesday.

Local media said the evidence showed it was "more than likely" that Abdeslam was one of two people who escaped had escaped the operation, in which one gunman was shot dead by a police sniper.

The suspect killed was named as 35-year-old Algerian, Mohamed Belkaid.

Investigators said that, when they later entered the flat, they found a book on Salafism and a Kalashnikov rifle next to Belkaid's body.

They also discovered a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in the flat, as well as a large amount of ammunition. No explosives were found, the prosecutor said.

Abdeslam, a French national, was born in Brussels and once lived in the city.

Police believe he was directly involved in the November 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded, as armed men and suicide bombers targeted the Stade de France stadium, the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and bars.

He is suspected of renting the car that delivered attackers to the Bataclan concert hall where more than 80 people were killed.

He fled the city after the attacks, which were claimed by ISIL. Hours later, he was stopped and questioned by police at the French-Belgian border before he was allowed through.

Several of the suspected attackers had links to neighbouring Belgium.

Abdeslam's older brother was among the suicide bombers who killed themselves during the rampage. The younger Abdeslam was driven back to Brussels from Paris hours later.

FlyDubai plane crashes in Russia, killing all on board

2016-03-19T01:12:00.003-07:00

Russian officials say planecarrying 62 passengers and crew crashed on landing in city of Rostov-on-Don. More details in our subsequent update

SOURCE: Aljazeera

Deadly blast rocks Afghanistan capital, Kabul

2015-08-22T07:02:00.001-07:00

An explosion has rocked the diplomatic area of the Afghan capital, Kabul, police have said, with at least three people killed and 18 injured.

Police say it was a suicide attack on a foreign military convoy travelling in the area.
There is no word on any foreign casualties.
No group has said it carried out the attack, although in recent months Kabul has been regularly targeted by the Taliban in a series of bombings.
The explosion took place in Macroyan area, which is also not far from Kabul airport and the presidential palace.

Kabul has been regularly targeted by the Taliban in recent months

An interior ministry spokesman quoted by the AP news agency said the blast destroyed more than a dozen civilian vehicles.
The bombing, close to a civilian hospital, is the latest in a series of recent deadly attacks following the announcement of a new Taliban leader.
Earlier this month, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint near the entrance to the international airport in Kabul, killing five people.
Before that, there were three deadly attacks in the city - on a police academy, a Nato base and an Afghan army base that killed at least 50 people.
The Taliban has stepped up its campaign of violence in recent months, taking advantage of the warmer weather of spring and summer. It has made some military gains, especially in northern Afghanistan.

In the gorilla world Koko is a bit of celebrity

2015-08-22T04:21:00.000-07:00

In the gorilla world Koko is a bit of a celebrity. At least, to humans. She's known for her incredible sign language skills, learnt in her 40 years of living with humans.

She's a Western Lowland gorilla and started her training when she was one.

She blows "raspberries" with her tongue and was observed pretending to talk on the phone

If you've read the headlines, you could be forgiven for thinking that Koko was in the process of mastering the ability to talk. "The most famous gorilla is showing signs of earth speech" â€“ wrote one influential website. "She is showing signs that she may be able to learn to talk" a newspaper wrote. You get the idea.

But is this true, is Koko really showing any such ability?

Spoiler alert:

In short no. What Koko can in fact do, is manipulate her vocal chords to create an assortment of sounds. For example, she coughs on cue:

Well, I hear you say, that's not quite as exciting as a gorilla being able to talk. True, but it's still an interesting finding, one which - along with similar studies - is changing our idea of how speech evolved.

To understand why, I spoke with the man behind these new observations of Koko, Marcus Perlman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US.

Their grunts are not only meaningful, but can change over time

He sifted through 71 hours of footage of Koko and started noticing some "amazing vocal repertoires". His intention was to look at her gestures, not her vocal abilities, so he was surprised by what he discovered.

As well as her fake coughes, she also fakes sneezes, blows "raspberries" with her tongue and was observed pretending to talk on the phone.

These behaviours all require her to control her vocalisation and breathing. The observations are

Apes have many vocal repertoires (Credit: ImageBROKER/Alamy)

There has been a longstanding idea that all non-human primates, such as great apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas, were unable to control their vocal sounds at all.

It was thought their grunts were just automatic response to stimuli. It was also not believed possible for apes to learn new vocalisations.

These flexible sounds may have been the framework on which our language capacity was built

Because of that, the idea that "flexible vocal behaviour" was important to human speech was dismissed, says Perlman.

Instead, gestures were deemed more important and we have long known that apes can make distinct, meaningful gestures. The idea was that "maybe their gestures evolved into human language, and maybe the original language of our ancestors were more gesture-like," Perlman explains.

Backwards puzzle

Koko, along with other studies, puts this idea to rest. For example, other research found that chimps changed the type of grunt they use to signal the word 'apple', to make it align with their new companions. This shows that their grunts are not only meaningful, but can change over time.

If apes have these vocal abilities, in addition to gestures, their flexible sounds may have been the framework on which our language capacity was built over the course of millions of years, says Perlman.

It's funny that there is so much excitement over the gorilla that coughs

This all points to one thing: the fact that apes are able to manipulate their vocal sounds suggests our common ancestor did too.

It's like a backwards puzzle, all other early-humans have gone extinct, so we can only look at living apes to infer how our extinct ancestors may have developed language abilities.

Koko, we must remember, grew up in unique circumstances and was immersed in human interaction from birth. Her repertoire of meaningful gestures is therefore unusually large.

What do other researchers think?

Joseph Devlin from University College London's department of experimental psychology, in the UK, also studies the evolution of language.

She exhibits conscious control of her breathing like we do

It's funny that there is so much excitement over the gorilla that coughs, he says. Still, though it sounds banal, "there is something cool here".

"Speech is impossible without cognitive control of breathing. So grunts, chuffs and the noises that other primates make might just be emotional vocalisations that occur automatically without conscious control.

"The fact that Koko can blow her nose or fake a cough when asked to demonstrates that she exhibits conscious control of her breathing like we do."

Language has many aspects to it. Koko's gestures and grunts may seem mundane but they represent crucial manipulations, the ability of which is important in everday speech.

Language in its full form may be unique to humans, but every species has traits which make them unique. As Darwin said, we differ from our closest relatives in degree, not kind.

many traits which we once believed were unique to humans are found in the animal kingdom.

Devlin agrees.

"Perhaps what is unique to humans is that we may be the only species that has *all* of these abilities. But it is increasingly evidence that most, if not all, of the component abilities that make up language are also found in other species, and thatâ€™s pretty exciting."

Unmanned supply rocket for space station explodes on liftoff in U.S.

2014-10-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

Reuters

Unmanned NASA rocket Antares explodes
(Reuters) - An unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from a commercial launch pad in Virginia on Tuesday, marking the first accident since NASA turned to private operators to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
The 14-story rocket, built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp, blasted off its seaside launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility at 6:22 p.m. EDT/2222 GMT, carrying a Cygnus cargo ship bound for the space station. It burst into flames moments later, then plunged to the ground in a huge ball of fire and smoke, but authorities said no one was hurt.
The six crew members in orbit aboard the space station - two NASA astronauts, one from the European Space Agency and three Russian cosmonauts - watched the launch via a NASA TV feed, said Mike Suffredini, the space station program manager.

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"They were disappointed ... of course they are well aware that they have plenty of resources on orbit," Suffredini told reporters during a conference call.
With a Russian cargo ship due to reach the space station on Wednesday, just 14 hours after the explosion in Virginia, the loss of the Cygnus vessel posed no immediate problem for the orbiting team.
"There was no cargo that was absolutely critical" aboard Cygnus, NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier said. Suffredini added that the crew has enough food and other supplies aboard to last four to six months.
Orbital Sciences stock fell 15.5 percent to a two-month low of $25.65 in after-hours trading.
The cause of the mishap was under investigation, said Frank Culbertson, Orbital Sciences executive vice president.
Footage of Tuesday's launch showed the Antares rising slowly into the night sky as flames suddenly engulfed the rocket, from the bottom to the top about 11 seconds after liftoff, before the vehicle sank back downward in a conflagration.
Ronda Miller, manager of the Ocean Deli in Wallops Island, Virginia, told Reuters she felt the force of the blast from the eatery, about 5 miles (8 km) from the launch pad.
'IT SHOOK THE WHOLE BUILDING'
"We were standing outside waiting for it to launch and we saw bright red, and then we saw a big black cloud, and it shook the whole building where we work," Miller said. "And then I came back in to work and seen fire trucks going every which way."
© Rich-Joseph Facun/The Virginian-Pilot/AP Photo Spectators in Chincoteague, Va. watch the fireball from the explosion of the unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island…
NASA said no one was in the vicinity of the explosion, and Orbital Sciences said in a statement: "We've confirmed that all personnel have been accounted for. We have no injuries in the operation today."
The spacecraft was carrying "some classified cryptographic equipment, so we do need to maintain the area around the debris in a secure manner," said Mike Pinkston, the company's Antares program manager.
The National Security Agency had no immediate comment on the classified equipment reported to be aboard the cargo ship.
NASA officials said damage on the ground appeared limited to the Virginia-owned launch facility, but its full extent was not immediately known. The rocket itself and the cargo ship it carried were valued at $200 million, Culbertson said.
"This is the only pad that's certified for launching the Antares rocket, so repairing it will be one of our high priorities," he told reporters in a conference call. "We will not fly until we understand the root cause and the corrective action to make sure this doesn't happen again."
The Antares rocket has been launched successfully on four previous missions. Tuesday's launch had been delayed one day after a boat sailed into a restricted safety zone beneath the rocket's intended flight path.
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences is one of two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the station after the space shuttles were retired. Tuesday's planned flight was to be the third of eight under the company's $1.9 billion contract with NASA.
SPACEX LAUNCH SET FOR DECEMBER
The second U.S. supply line to the station is run by privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which is preparing for its fourth flight under a separate $1.6 billion NASA contract, with launch slated for Dec. 9.
Outfitted with a new, more powerful upper-stage engine, the Antares rocket launched on Tuesday carried a Cygnus spacecraft packed with 5,055 pounds (2,293 kg) of supplies, science experiments and equipment, a 15 percent increase over previous missions.
The Cygnus capsule was the first of two cargo ships scheduled to head to the space station this week. Russia was preparing to launch a Soyuz rocket and Progress freighter from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning.
Cygnus was to loiter in orbit until Nov. 2, then fly to the station so astronauts can use a robotic crane to snare the capsule and attach it to a berthing port. The station, a $100 billion research laboratory owned and operated by 15 nations, flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.
In addition to food, supplies and equipment, the Cygnus spacecraft was loaded with more than 1,600 pounds (725 kg) of science experiments, including an investigation to chemically analyze meteors as they burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Cygnus also carried a prototype satellite owned by Redmond, Washington-based startup Planetary Resources Inc., which is developing technology to mine asteroids. The satellite, designated A3, was to be released into space by a commercially owned small spacecraft launcher aboard the station.
Orbital Sciences is in the midst of merging with Alliant Techsystem Inc's Aerospace and Defense division, a deal that analysts expect to close sometime early next year. The company is competing for a number of NASA missions or projects that will help fuel revenue over coming years.

Zambian President Michael Sata dies in London

2014-10-29T03:57:00.002-07:00

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Zambian President Michael Sata has died at the age of 77 after receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, the government says.

President Sata, who was being treated in the UK, died in London's King Edward VII hospital on Tuesday night.
Media said that he died after "a sudden onset [of] heightened heart rate".
It is not immediately clear who will succeed the president. The issue may be decided by the Zambian cabinet which meets on Wednesday morning.
"It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing on of our beloved president," cabinet secretary Roland Msiska said on national TV.
He said that Mr Sata's wife and son were at his bedside.
"I urge all of you to remain calm, united and peaceful during this very difficult period," Mr Msiska added.

Obituary: Penny Dale, BBC's former Zambia correspondent Gravelly-voiced as a result of years of chain-smoking, Michael Sata rose to political prominence in the 1980s. He quickly earned a reputation as the hardest-working governor while in charge of Lusaka and as a populist man of action. But he was also known for his authoritarian tendencies, an abrasive manner and a sharp tongue - and his critics say his nickname of "King Cobra" was well-deserved.
A devout Catholic, Mr Sata had worked as a police officer, railway man and trade unionist during colonial rule. After independence, he also spent time in London, working as a railway porter, and, back in Zambia, with a taxidermist company.
On the fourth attempt, Mr Sata won presidential elections in 2011. At first he looked as if he would keep promises to tackle corruption and create jobs and prosperity. But his term in office was marred by a crackdown on political opposition and a decline in the economy.

'King Cobra' The president's death comes just days after Zambia celebrated the 50th anniversary of independence from the UK.

Earlier this month reports in Zambia said that President Sata had gone abroad for a medical check-up amid persistent speculation that he was seriously ill.
After he left the country, Defence Minister Edgar Lungu was named as acting president.
Vice-President Guy Scott has regularly stood in for the president at official events. But he is of Scottish descent and his parents were not born in Zambia, so he may fall foul of a constitutional clause on parentage which would nullify his candidacy.
Known as "King Cobra" for his venomous tongue, Mr Sata was elected Zambia's president in 2011, defeating the then incumbent Rupiah Banda whose party had been in power for 20 years.
He has rarely been seen in public since returning from the UN General Assembly last month, where he failed to make a scheduled speech.

Iran delays Reyhaneh Jabbari execution

2014-09-30T14:40:00.001-07:00

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A campaign calling for a halt to the execution of
Reyhaneh Jabbari was launched on Facebook on
Monday
An Iranian woman due to be put to death for
killing a man she said was trying to sexually
abuse her is reported to have had her execution
postponed.
Officials said on Monday that Reyhaneh Jabbari,
26, had been transferred to a prison west of
Tehran to be hanged.
But activists claimed on Tuesday that an online
campaign had persuaded the state to give her a
10-day reprieve.
The human rights group Amnesty International
said she was convicted after a deeply flawed
investigation.
Ms Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the murder of
Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of
Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.
She was placed in solitary confinement for two
months, where she reportedly did not have access
to a lawyer or her family, and was sentenced to
death by a criminal court in Tehran in 2009.
Amnesty said that although Ms Jabbari admitted to
stabbing Mr Abdolali Sarbandi once in the back,
she alleged that there was someone else in the
house who actually killed him.
Her claim is believed to have never been properly
investigated.
Protest
The authorities appeared to be pressing ahead with
the execution on Monday, when they confirmed
that Ms Jabbari had been transferred to Rajaishahr
prison and would be hanged.
A campaign calling for a halt to the execution was
launched on Facebook and Twitter, using the
hashtag #SaveReyhanehJabbari. Photographs of a
protest outside the prison were also posted.
On Tuesday, activists and bloggers reported that
Ms Jabbari's execution appeared to have been
postponed so that Mr Abdolali Sarbandi's family
could be consulted.
They cited a letter reportedly written by Ms
Jabbari's mother, Sholeh Pakravanin, thanking
people for their support and efforts to save her
daughter's life.
The development comes after activists said a
former psychologist had been executed for
"corruption on Earth and heresy in religion" near
the city of Karaj on Wednesday.
Mohsen Amir Aslani, 37, was arrested nine years
ago after giving religious classes in which he
provided his own interpretations of the Koran, they
said. He was subsequently accused by the
authorities of insulting the Prophet Jonah, the
activists added.
Iran's judiciary has denied that Mr Amir Aslani's
execution was linked to his religious beliefs.
Officials instead accused him of having had illicit
sexual relationships with a number of people who
attended his classes, the Guardian said

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