Everybody is loving the new Drake song, and theyres plenty of spoofs and spin-offs of the song out there already. Singer Melanie Fiona has tried her hand at fellow Toronto native Drake’s ”Started From The Bottom.” She rocks her Toronto hat and represents for her city. She even creates her own beats with just her hands and voice.
No surprise here. Rihanna’s tour buses are rolling around the states for her ‘Diamonds World Tour’. Which she reached the border between Canada and Michigan,one of her ten buses was pulled over and mary jane was found. The only surprising thing about this is that only a little was found and Rihanna herself was not on the bus. Boo hoo. TMZ reported:
A total of 10 buses were stopped at the Ambassador Bridge, which separates Windsor, Canada and Detroit. Inspectors smelled marijuana on one of the buses and initiated a secondary, bus-to-bus search.
Inspectors then brought drug-sniffing dogs on board, and one of them made a beeline for a passenger and authorities found he was in possession of pot. We’re told he was cited with a civil penalty. Rihanna was not on any of the buses.
In the meantime, Rihanna dropped the remix to her club banger “Pour It Up” which featured the South’s trillest rappers, T.I., Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and Juicy J himself. Listen to it here:
‘The Beast’ is proving to be far from unbreakable.
Car trouble has struck the most powerful man in the world during a tense trip to the Middle East.
A multi-million dollar Cadillac limousine built for US President Barack Obama took a ride on the back of a tow truck after striking technical problems in Jerusalem.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reports that the car stopped between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv’s international airport.
President Obama was not in the car at the time. The US Consulate arranged a tow-truck for the black limo, known as Cadillac One or “the beast”.
The President’s personal ride has “44” number plates that recognise his place in the chronological order of US leadership. It is built like a tank, with heavily reinforced armour reported to be 20 centimetres thick. The car is also believed to have a military-style V-shaped underside capable of deflecting bomb shrapnel away from occupants.
It has a powerful turbo-diesel V8 engine, bolted to a chassis originally designed by General Motors for use by commercial trucks.
President Obama’s secret service team transports the car overseas ahead of appearances by the President, plotting routes and contingency plans well ahead of each trip.
But the crew is not perfect, and were embarrassed by a mistake in Ireland that saw the car beached on a bump in the road.
Source: brisbanetimes.com.au
Victoria Beckham has bought a supermarket.
The fashion designer has purchased a Spar convenience store in Battersea, which is within walking distance of her offices in south west London, because she needs more space to house the ever expanding workforce of her fashion empire.
A source said: “Victoria’s range is going from strength to strength, and expanding at a phenomenal rate.
“Quite simply, she desperately needs more space.
“She’s been looking at disused warehouses and shops for some time and heard the Spar newsagent around the corner had come on the market.
“Whilst it’s not the most glamorous of operating spaces, it is functional and, once renovated, will provide a perfect base.
“Obviously she hasn’t bought it as her inaugural flagship store but she will be using it primarily as extra work space for her rapidly growing team.”
While the brunette beauty – who has kids Brooklyn, 14, Romeo, 10, Cruz, eight, and 20-month-old Harper with soccer star husband David Beckham – is worth millions, the 38-year-old star is said to have negotiated a “great deal” on the building.
The source added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Victoria is a canny businesswoman and has negotiated a great deal for herself.”
Despite her wealth, it’s not the first time the Spice Girls star has managed to get money off at a supermarket.
In 2011, she asked her bodyguard to get her a 25 per cent discount card from Ralph’s in Los Angeles.
Speaking at the time, a member of staff at the store explained: “We loved having Victoria in the store. All the staff were going crazy when she left.
“She was really nice and very down to earth. We were shocked when she asked for a 25 per cent discount card but it’s nice to see she’s just as normal as everyone else, though.
“We were all falling around with laughter as she could afford to buy everything in this shop in one fell swoop.”
BANG Showbz
FACETIME: With the social network’s advertising system, clicks don’t matter.
This is a story about advertising on the web.
Specifically, it’s about ads on Facebook, a hugely popular free service that’s supported solely through advertising, yet is packed with users who are actively hostile to the idea of being marketed to on their cherished social network.
Considering all of this, the best place to start is with your primary concern about web ads.
This is what I hear from readers every time I write about the online ad economy, especially ads on Facebook: “I don’t know how Facebook will ever make any money – I never click on web ads!”
And that’s not all.
You’ve checked with your friends and relatives. No one you know has ever intentionally clicked on a web ad.
OK, once, years ago, a co-worker told you about a guy who knows a guy who tapped an ad on his phone. True story! But don’t worry.
People close to the situation dismissed it as a one-time deal. The guy wasn’t trying to tap the ad; he just had really fat fingers. He felt really bad about it afterward, too.
So, the question persists: How does Facebook expect to become a huge business if most people you know never click on ads?
The answer is surprisingly obvious.
It’s a fact well-known to advertisers, though it’s not always appreciated by people who use Facebook or even by folks in the web ad business: Clicks don’t matter.
Whether you know it or not – even if you consider yourself skeptical of marketing – the ads you see on Facebook are working. Sponsored messages in your feed are changing your behavior – they’re getting you and your friends to buy certain products instead of others, and that’s happening despite the fact that you’re not clicking, and even if you think you’re ignoring the ads.
This isn’t conjecture. It’s science. It’s based on a remarkable set of in-depth studies that Facebook has conducted to show whether and how its users respond to ads on the site.
The studies demonstrate that Facebook ads influence purchases and that clicks don’t matter.
They also shed light on Facebook’s long-term business strategy.
The tech world is consumed by the war between Facebook and Google – two huge sites that are constantly battling one another for users, engineers and advertising clients.
Yet Facebook’s studies suggest that its advertising fortune won’t necessarily come at the expense of Google. Instead, the findings show that people react to ads on Facebook in the same way they respond to ads on television. If Facebook’s ad business takes off, it might be at the expense of the biggest ad-supported medium in the world.
Last year, Facebook partnered with Datalogix, a firm that records the purchasing patterns of more than 100 million American households. When you stop by the supermarket to buy Tide, Rice-A-Roni and Mountain Dew this evening, there’s a good chance you’ll hand the cashier a loyalty card to get a discount on your items. T
hat card ties your identity to your purchases – it puts a name on your Tide, Rice-A-Roni and Mountain Dew. After you leave the store, your sales data is sent over to a server maintained by Datalogix, which has agreements with hundreds of major retailers to procure such data.
Over the past few months, Facebook and Datalogix figured out a way to match their data sets in a manner that maintains people’s privacy.
In other words, Facebook can now tie its users to the stuff they buy at supermarkets.
Armed with this data, Facebook began running a series of analyses into the effects of advertising campaigns on its site.
If, say, Procter & Gamble ran a Facebook ad for Tide, Facebook could look at Datalogix’s data to see whether people who were exposed to the ad tended to purchase more Tide in the weeks after the campaign.
(Tide is just an example here; Facebook has conducted more than 60 such studies for major advertisers, and while it was willing to give me general insights about its findings, it wouldn’t discuss specific advertisers.)
These general insights make a strong case for Facebook ads.
First, according to the study, Facebook ads work.
“Of the first 60 campaigns we looked at, 70 per cent had a 3X or better return-on-investment – that means that 70 per cent of advertisers got back three times as many dollars in purchases as they spent on ads,” says Sean Bruich, Facebook’s head of measurement platforms and standards.
What’s more, half of the campaigns showed a 5X return – advertisers got back five times what they spent on Facebook ads.
But the most interesting finding was the total lack of correlation between purchases and clicks.
“On average, if you look at people who saw an ad on Facebook and later bought a product, [fewer than] 1 per cent had clicked on the ad,” Bruich says.
In other words, the click doesn’t matter; people who click on ads aren’t necessarily buying, and people who are buying are almost certainly not clicking.
As Facebook’s measurement systems improve, you might even see better ads – one of the eventual goals the system, Bruich says, is to figure out what kinds of ads appeal to what kinds of users, so over time you’ll be presented with ads that are less likely to annoy you.
And if, as you insist, ads really don’t work on you – that you never buy things because of marketing you see on Facebook – it’s theoretically possible that Facebook’s system would be able to figure that out, too, and maybe the site won’t show you any messages.
But that’s unlikely.
You may not love the ads you see – and you’ll still never click on them.
But unbeknownst to you, Facebook ads still work on you. Resistance is futile.
HIGHWAY TRAGEDY: The crash scene on State Highway 16, northwest of Auckland, where a baby, a young boy and a woman were killed.
The “horrific” injuries of a baby, young boy and a woman who died in a car crash have rattled a long-serving fireman who was at the scene.
The boy killed, aged 11-years-old, was in the front seat and the baby was in a car seat in the back when the crash happened on State Highway 16 ,northwest of Auckland, about 3.40pm today.
Police said a 6-year-old girl who was in the same car, and a man driving a van were both seriously injured.
Helensville fire brigade chief Ian Osborne’s crew was one of three that attended the crash where four people needed to be cut from two vehicles.
‘‘It would be one of the worst crashes for horrific injuries to people that I have seen,’’ the 40-year fire service veteran said.
‘‘We are always careful with these sorts of crashes and the Helensville crew is pretty seasoned, but there were some young guys from other crews that will need watching and guiding in the next few days.’’
Osborne has grandchildren the same age as the victims.
‘‘When little people are in accidents it’s harder to accept because they play no part,’’ he said.
‘‘They are just a long for the ride and that’s the hard part.’’
Osborne said there was nothing about the road or weather conditions that appeared to contribute to the crash.
‘‘The little car looks to have crossed the centre line and T-boned the other vehicle and they’ve both ended up in the southbound lane pointing north,’’ he said.
‘‘People just need to be aware and attentive on the road.
‘‘Sadly that’s three people from one family that won’t be going home.’’
When emergency services arrived the 6-year-old girl, who is now in Starship Hospital, was out of the car.
‘‘We are unsure whether she was removed by someone or whether she was thrown from the vehicle,’’ Osborne said.
The driver of the van who had a serious leg injury was taken to Auckland Hospital.
St John ambulance relief team manager Leah Grave said a rapid-response vehicle was at the crash site within six minutes of the call.
‘‘We believe the three deceased were already gone on arrival,’’ she said.
There were no other vehicles involved in the crash near the intersection the highway and James Mackie Road.
The highway was closed for more than four hours while Police serious crash unit investigated.
– © Fairfax NZ News
The US space agency has denied a claim made in a scientific study that its Voyager 1 spacecraft had left the solar system, describing the report as “premature.”
Scientists are eagerly awaiting signs that the craft, which was launched in 1977 on a mission to study planets, has become the first man-made object to leave the boundaries of our solar system.
A scientific paper that purported to describe this departure appeared on the American Geophysical Union’s website.
It said Voyager 1 “appears to have traveled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere,” or the magnetic bubble of charged particles that surround the solar system.
Researcher Bill Webber, one of the article’s authors, acknowledged that the actual location of the spacecraft – whether in interstellar space or just an unknown region beyond the solar system – remained a matter of debate.
“It’s outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that,” said Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, according to the AGU’s website.
“We’re in a new region. And everything we’re measuring is different and exciting.”
Shortly after the study appeared, Nasa spokesman Dwayne Brown told AFP the report was “premature and incorrect.”
The Voyager science team reported in December 2012 the craft was in a new region called the “magnetic highway,” but changes in the magnetic field to show a departure from the solar system have not yet been observed, Nasa said.
“The Voyager team is aware of reports today that Nasa’s Voyager 1 has left the solar system,” said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.
“It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space,” he said.
“A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.”
Voyager 1 and its companion Voyager 2 set off in 1977 on a mission to study planets. They have both kept going, and both are on track to leave the solar system, Nasa has said.
For months, experts have been closely watching for hints that Voyager 1 has left the solar system and most have estimated that this will happen in the next year or two.
Nasa has described Voyager 1 – now 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the Sun – and its companion Voyager 2 as “the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore.”
The Voyager craft are both carrying gold-plated phonograph records and cartridges on which to play them.
They contain 115 images of Earth life, sounds made by whales, thunder and surf, spoken greetings in various languages and printed messages from former US president Jimmy Carter and former UN chief Kurt Waldheim.
– AFP
Police at the scene of the Hart St siege. Pic: Richard Gosling
UPPER Coomera residents evacuated during a tense siege have tonight been escorted in by police to collect some clothes and belongings.
They have been told to find alternate accommodation for the evening as fears grow the standoff could enter a second night.
There has been no progress on getting a 31-year-old man to surrender after he allegedly threatened to blow himself and a Hart Street home with gas bottles at 7pm last night, sparking a public emergency.
Earlier today, police appeared confident the man had calmed down and was willing to negotiate but police sources later said his mood was constantly changing and he had refusing to leave.
Frustrated residents, many still in pyjamas who had spent the night sleeping in their cars, became fed up.
At 11.30am, SERT officers started sounding their sirens in an apparent warning they were about to enter the Hart Street house.
It followed the arrival of a lawyer for the man. Paul Hamilton, from Potts Lawyers, arrived around 10am.
A gentleman believed to be the man’s father was also at the scene and told the Bulletin it was his son, Jamie, inside.
Special Emergency Response Team officers and emergency crews remain on the scene.
They said this morning there was no timeframe for when it will end.
“It will take as long as it takes to ensure we get a safe resolution,” acting senior sergeant Ashley Dubbelman said at an 8.30am press conference.
He said police negotiators had made contact with the 31-year-old man this morning but they had not yet reached a solution.
“We are working our hardest, we have been in direct contact with him,” said acting snr sgt Dubbelman.
“It is a personal issue for him, negotiators have spoken to him from outside the house but haven’t been able to gain access.”
He said a phone had been placed near the front of the house for the man to make contact. It is believed he is alone in the house.
Overnight, police are understood to have used robots to smash the windows and door to ventilate the home.
Nearby residents were evacuated from their homes just before 7pm last night when police declared an emergency situation under the Public Safety Preservation Act.
The evacuated residents waited in the rain across the road from the Hart Street property for hours before they were sent further back in to Highland Reserve State School car park, as police enforced a 500m exclusion zone.
The exclusion zone has since been reduced to cover just Hart Street, with some residents still not allowed back in their homes.
Many residents said they had miss work today because they could not get into their homes.
One resident, who lives two houses from the siege and has allowed police to use her home as a base, has been told by police she may need to find somewhere to stay for several days.
Earlier, nearby residents said they heard the man shouting at about 3am but said he had remained quiet since.
Another local said they were terrified after being told the man was threatening to blow himself up with three 9kg gas bottles.
Highland Reserve State School, just 100m from the siege, was declared safe by police and was open today.
Some parents, however, chose to pull their children from class.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 131 114.
Source: goldcoast.com.au
Markos Gammachu (right), his wife Netsanet Fite (left) and their children Beka and Darartu Gashe are among the new Australians who call the Gold Coast home. Pic: Richard Gosling
THE Australian population is set to reach 23 million people in just four weeks time, due primarily to the arrival of one immigrant every two minutes and 20 seconds.
The 23 millionth person is more likely to be a migrant than a new baby, experts estimate.
Federal Government figures show overseas arrivals account for more than half of Australia’s population growth, outstripping natural increase from births since 2005.
Ethiopian Markos Gammachu and his family are among the new Australians to make the Gold Coast their home.
Mr Gammachu arrived in November with his wife and two young children after fleeing Ethiopia and applying for refugee status to Australia while in Sudan.
“In Africa there was a lot of war, fighting and political problems so we fled to Sudan,” he said.
“I came to Australia because I wanted to study and because it was very difficult to get the proper treatment for my two-year-old son Beka, who was born with deformities in both his legs.
“He has now had surgery and is in plaster.
“I like everything about the Gold Coast, it is wonderful.”
The population increase is also due to the birth of one baby nearly every two minutes, with 300,000 babies being born every year.
The fertility rate is now 1.88 babies per woman — up from an all-time low of 1.73 babies per woman in 2001, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
But our fertility rate has been well below population replacement rate since the mid 1970s.
With Australia growing by 2 million people since 2007 alone, the population is forecast to hit nearly 40 million by 2050.
The ABS expects the 23 million-people mark to be reached in late April, after originally forecasting it would be in June. The exact forecast date and time will be released next Thursday.
Social commentator Mark McCrindle from McCrindle Research said the population was growing at 1028 people a day, so the 23-million mark would be on about Anzac Day.
“When looking at who the 23 millionth person might be, it is more likely that it could be a migrant than a baby,” he said.
“If it’s a migrant, it’s most likely to be a male skilled worker from the UK in his 20s or 30s given that people from the UK make up 19 per cent of all skilled visa holders,” he said.
“Or if it is a baby, it is most likely to be a baby boy, from NSW, perhaps Western Sydney, and most likely called Jack,” he said.
Analysis from McCrindle Research shows that more than half of Australians (52 per cent) are concerned about our rapid population growth, and only one third think we are growing at the right rate.
“Growing commute times, crowded public transport, and extended waiting times for public services raise the issue of population size,” Mr McCrindle said.
In less than half a century our population has grown by 50 per cent — from 11.5 million in 1966.
But the pace of growth is accelerating, and Australia is growing faster than the world as a whole.
Bjorn Jarvis, director of demography at the ABS, said he expected “everyone to be watching the population clock” when it is due to tick over to 23 million people.
“Regardless of whether you are for a big Australia or a smaller Australia, there is lots of interest in the figure, and what it might mean for us as a country,” he said.
Source: goldcoast.com
John Drew is retiring after 45 years working for Myer. Pic: Brendan Radke
JOHN Drew’s not sure about a big deal being made of his retirement.
A humble soul, he wonders how many people will be interested in the fact he has walked out of Pacific Fair Myer for the last time.
Mr Drew is kidding himself.
The 63-year-old has had the same job for 45 years. It’s the only one he’s ever had. He’s leaving with 2000 hours of sick leave owing.
In a modern world where some people have more careers than roast dinners, that is something worth talking about.
“People just don’t stay in the same job their whole lives anymore,” colleague Marg Schultz says. “He’s one of a kind. I’ve worked in a lot of Myer stores but I’ve never worked with anyone like John.”
“And you won’t again,” fellow worker Pam Lyons adds.
Mr Drew works in visual merchandising, part of a four-person team responsible for ensuring Myer’s shopfront is appealing to the eye. Every intricate display, every faux dinner setting, every Christmas showcase — someone has to create them and Mr Drew has been doing just that for more than four decades.
He started at a Tweed Heads store in 1968, a fresh-faced teen straight out of a ticket-writing course in his hometown of Murwillumbah. Ticket-writing? That’s the art of creating handwritten prices and signs, a skill now replaced by computers.
That Tweed store was later purchased by Grace Bros, then Myer, and come 1991 Mr Drew was charged with making its slick new Pacific Fair store look even slicker. He’s been there ever since.
“It’s been a stimulating job,” he says. “I’m sure the customers appreciate it … although it has its moments. After doing (festive) displays for 45 years, I hate Christmas.
“There was one period I became tired of the job and wondered what else was out there. I actually went to the CES (job service) at Coolangatta and looked at all these jobs, but there was nothing I could do.
“There was no use moping though. I just carried on. This is what I could do so I just did it.”
That old-school approach is at the core of Mr Drew. Take his response when asked how he has accumulated 2000 hours of sick leave — “I don’t often get sick.”
And despite commuting to Broadbeach from Murwillumbah, Ms Lyons says he’s never, ever late.
Mr Drew has now made that commute for the last time. A holiday looms, a new car eventually, and his garden will be his new sanctuary.
Best of all, he’s walked away with a smile on his face.
“I’ll miss everybody but I’m glad I’m going,” he says. “I’m getting tired. It’s physical work and I’m sore.
“It’s time to go. It’s my time.”
Dumped … Billabong’s share price tumbles. Photo: Ian Waldie
Billabong has gone into a trading halt after shares crashed to a record low, suggesting the company will not get a formal takeover offer from either of its private equity suitors which are due to finish due diligence next week.
It is understood that trading could recommence as early as today once the company has confirmed the status of the two offers.
In a statement to the ASX Billabong requested its shares be placed in a trading halt until Monday March 25 or ‘‘when the company makes an announcement’’ to the market.
The company indicated it had no information that would explain the stock plunge.
‘‘The trading halt is requested pending an investigation by the company into trading levels today,’’ the company said today. Billabong, Australia’s largest sports-wear company, fell to a record low of 63 cents, the lowest level since an August 2000 stock-market listing, and were trading at 69.5 cents when the trading halt was called.
Two groups, consisting of Altamont Capital Partners and VF Corp. on one side and Sycamore Partners Management and Billabong Americas head Paul Naude on the other, have said they may offer $1.10 for the Gold Coast-based company, valuing the business at $527 million.
Analysts had expected the two parties come back with lower offers around the 90 cents mark but the current price reflects a scenario where both parties walk away from Billabong.
Credit Suisse recently reassessed the company’s valuation on the basis that bids fail to emerge and gave the company a weighted valuation of 59 cents per share.
At its half year results Billabong said it expects to conclude the bidding process either way by the end of this month, which effectively gives the suitors until next Thursday to either put a firm offer on the table or walk away.
The company last month posted a record loss on $567 million of charges as it wrote off most of the value of its main brand. Billabong will post 80 per cent of its assets and 85 per cent of its earnings as security to its lenders after brand and goodwill writedowns put it in breach of terms on its debt, it said at the time.
A man accused of riding a jet ski which killed USHER’s stepson has pleaded not guilty to all charges connected to the accident.
Jeffrey Simon Hubbard is accused of losing control of the waterborne craft which collided with 11-year-old Kile Glover on 6 July, 2012 while the youngster was sat on an inflatable raft on Lake Lanier in Georgia.
Glover, the son of Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Raymond, was left brain dead and never regained consciousness. He passed away on 21 July, 2012.
During a hearing at Hall County Court in Georgia on Tuesday (19Mar13), Hubbard’s lawyer entered not guilty pleas to charges of homicide with a vessel, reckless operation of a vessel, unlawful operation of a personal watercraft, boat traffic violation, and serious injury by vessel.
Hubbard is due back in court later this year (13).
Wenn.com
Cannabis on the West Coast has flourished despite the drought-like conditions.
The region’s annual police cannabis bust was due to finish today with about 3000 plants found from Karamea to Franz Josef by this morning.
Operation head Sergeant Russell Glue, of Hokitika, said today he was surprised the illegal crop was in such good condition considering the dry weather that had gripped the region.
”I would say they probably have had to water the plants though.”
About 15 to 20 officers were involved in the six-day aerial eradication operation, along with 12 New Zealand Air Force personnel and an Iroquois helicopter.
Glue said the number of plants found was about 700 fewer than last year.
”Over the last eight or nine years, it has been trending down. We would like to think it’s because of brilliant policing.”
However, he said the West Coast was still one of the country’s key cannabis growing areas.
Most of the plants were found hidden in bush in rural areas.
Two people had been arrested and a third had been summonsed to appear in court. All faced cannabis cultivation and other drug-related charges.
Glue said removing cannabis from society was important because of the illegal drug’s negative impacts.
All the plants had been destroyed.
The haul was worth more than $4 million for its impact on society, including hospital costs, crime and other social effects, he said.
Its street value could be up to $3m, with a mature processed cannabis plant worth about $1000, although the plants varied in size from seedlings up to fully-grown plants.
Source: stuff.co.nz
US police say the fatal shooting of Colorado’s prison boss on his doorstep may have been a targeted slaying linked to his high-profile position.
The shooting punctuated an intense debate on gun control in Colorado, coming just hours before the state’s Democratic governor signed into law new firearms-control measures spurred by a rash of deadly mass shootings in the state and elsewhere.
Police said Tom Clements, 58, appointed two years ago as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was shot as he answered the doorbell at his home in a secluded wooded area near the town of Monument, 72km south of Denver.
The killing did not appear to be linked to any break-in or robbery attempt, and did not appear to be a random act of violence, said El Paso County Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant Jeff Kramer.
“We are sensitive to the high-profile position in which Mr Clements served and the fact there could be people who would target him based on his position,” Kramer .
Clements also spent 31 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, where he became the No 2 official.
Kramer said that according to an emergency call for help received shortly before 9pm local time, Clements was shot after answering the doorbell. He was found dead by sheriff’s deputies arriving on the scene.
His home sits on a street that is “not a major thoroughfare,” Kramer said. “There’s no reason to turn off onto that road unless you had business there.”
Officials have begun a search for Clements’ assailant, but no suspects had been pinpointed, Kramer said.
He said police were investigating the sighting of what was described as an unoccupied, “boxy” two-door sedan idling near the house about 15 minutes before the first 911 call.
The same car was reported seen a short time later travelling from the scene with a lone, unidentified occupant, he said.
Police were also looking for a woman, between ages 35 and 50, who may have been “speed-walking” on Clements’ street about the time of the shooting and was considered a potential witness, Kramer said.
He said some neighbours told police they heard what might have been gunshots in the area at the time.
GOVERNOR SIGNS GUN LAWS
At a news conference, Governor John Hickenlooper, visibly shaken by news of the shooting, praised Clements as a “great friend to me” and a dedicated administrator.
At a previously scheduled event later, Hickenlooper signed legislation to extend background checks on gun buyers to private firearms sales.
The prospective buyers would pay for the checks.
He also signed legislation limiting the size of ammunition magazines that may be sold in the state.
The measures were introduced in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature earlier this year and swiftly passed, moving Colorado to the forefront of a national debate over gun violence, which was reignited by several mass shootings in 2012.
They included massacres of school children in Newtown, Connecticut, and moviegoers in suburban Denver.
A previous loophole in Colorado law that exempted firearms sales at gun shows from background checks was closed after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado where two students fatally shot a teacher and 12 students before committing suicide.
Columbine had stood as the deadliest US public school shooting on record until 20 first-graders and six adults were slain by a gunman last December at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Five months before the Sandy Hook killings, a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises in the Denver suburb of Aurora, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others.
Hickenlooper was joined at the bill-signing by sponsors of the measures and relatives of victims of gun violence.
One of them, Sandy Phillips, whose daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was killed in Aurora, told the governor, “You’ve given us a real gift today, adding, “Thank you so much. You’re leading the entire country.”
A proposed national assault weapons ban backed by President Barack Obama ran into trouble when US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged there was not enough support for it.
– Reuters
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Talk about junk in the trunk.
A police officer in the US checking a suspicious car parked behind a southwestern Michigan motel was more than a little surprised when a deer climbed out of the boot, stumbled onto the road and bolted into nearby woods.
Local TV news stations reported that the driver told Kalamazoo officer David Miller he hit the deer on the road – thought he had killed it – and was taking it home for his family to eat.
Squad car dashboard camera footage shows Miller opening the trunk, then quickly trying to close it as he spots the deer. The animal escapes from the boot, rear first, stumbles and rolls, then dashes off.
Police said the collision probably just stunned the deer.
Source: stuff.co.nz
New Zealand Police are offering up to $50,000 as a reward to any person or people who provide material information or evidence that leads to the identity and conviction of anyone responsible for the 1993 death of Jane Furlong.
Officer in charge of the homicide investigation, Detective Inspector Mark Benefield, says the reward announcement comes 10 months after Jane’s skeletal remains were found in sand dunes at Sunset Beach, Port Waikato, on May 12, 2012.
“The investigation team continues to work tirelessly on this mystery and has done so ever since the remains were confirmed as Jane’s. This announcement is just another phase in the operation.
“We have interviewed and spoken with literally hundreds of people, some of whom have been less helpful than others. Our investigations have taken us far and wide and may continue to do so.
“We know there are people who know what happened to Jane after she was reportedly last seen on May 26, 1993 and those people owe it to themselves, Jane’s memory, her family and friends to tell us what they know.”
Jane Marie Furlong was 17 and the mother of an infant when she went missing, last seen by friends on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd, in May 1993. It’s not clear when she died or when she was buried at Port Waikato, but Police believe it’s possible she may have been alive for at least a few days after she was reportedly last seen.
“Our overriding objectives have always been to establish – as best we can – when, where, how and at whose hands Jane died and how she ended up buried at Port Waikato,” Mr Benefield said.
“We believe more than one person was involved or at least has vital information about her disappearance and death.”
A large billboard advising of the $50,000 reward offer has been rented at the western end of Karangahape Rd and will be installed this afternoon. It will remain there for six weeks and anyone with information is urged to contact the investigation team on 0800 675 263 or e-mail furlong@police.govt.nz
Anonymous informants can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
ENDS
Issued by Noreen Hegarty
Auckland City Police Communications Manager
Ph 09 302 6947 or 0274-951-589
Website: www.police.govt.nz
A helicopter crash at Bulli Tops in north Wollongong near Sydney has left four people dead.
Four people have been killed in a helicopter crash south of Sydney.
Police, paramedics and firefighters are heading to a function centre in Wollongong’s northern suburbs where the Robinson R44 helicopter crashed just after midday (2pm NZT).
The centre, Panorama House, is set on a cliff overlooking the Illawarra, and is popular among wedding parties.
The chopper that crashed is believed to have been carrying a wedding party. One of those killed is believed to be a child.
The helicopter burst into flames when it crashed into a grassed clearing outside Panorama House, police said.
There were no survivors.
A crime scene has been set up at Panorama House and police have launched an investigation into the incident.
Local man Norm Upton was driving home from Sydney when he saw the helicopter engulfed in flames.
He told the Illawarra Mercury he was travelling south along Mount Ousley and saw the helicopter on its side.
”I was about 200 yards away and I saw people running around,” he said.
”It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to see on my way back.”
An Air Services Australia spokesman said the helicopter was operating in uncontrolled air space.
That meant the organisation was not providing any air traffic services in the area, and pilots worked on the principle of “see and avoid” and talking among themselves.
The pilot was not required to submit a flight plan, and therefore it was unclear where the helicopter had taken off from.
Police said a report would be prepared for the coroner.
– Sydney Morning Herald
YouTube says more than 1 billion people are now visiting its online video site each month to watch everything from clips of cute kittens to scenes of social unrest around the world.
The milestone announced Wednesday marks another step in YouTube’s evolution from a quirky start-up launched in 2005 to one of the most influential forces in today’s media landscape.
YouTube crossed the 1 billion threshold five months after Facebook said its online social network had reached that figure.
The vast audience has given YouTube’s owner, Google, another lucrative channel for selling online ads beyond its dominant Internet search engine.
Google bought YouTube for US$1.76 billion in 2006 when the video site had an estimated 50 million users worldwide.
Source: stuff.co.nz
PUBLIC VISIT: Queen Elizabeth makes an official visit to Baker Street station on London’s Tube system, her first public appearance since being hospitalised earlier this month.
Thoughtful workers on London’s subway system today gave the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge a “Baby on Board” badge – in case she ever needs to ask commuters to give up their seats for her.
That’s not likely to happen, but the former Kate Middleton nonetheless received the badge in good humour, holding it against her coat and joking that she would make sure to wear it at home.
Middleton was visiting London’s historic Baker Street station – known for its link to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes – for an event marking the 150th anniversary of the city’s sprawling subway system, known as the Tube.
She was joined by her grandparents-in-law Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II, who was attending her first public engagement in more than a week following her hospitalization for a stomach bug.
The monarch appeared well as she boarded a restored 19th-century train carriage and chatted to subway workers and train drivers about their work. Afterward she unveiled a plaque that named the train after her.
The Queen was hospitalised on March 3 after suffering from the symptoms of gastroenteritis.
She was released the next day, but the 86-year-old monarch appears to have taken it easy recently. Officials said today that two events were cancelled last week as she recovered.
Howard Collins, who presented the baby badge to Middleton, said the duchess recognised it and asked him how it works. The badges are meant to ease the awkwardness often felt by pregnant women when they ask others to give up their train seat.
“She used to travel on the Tube so she probably saw them then,” he told reporters.
Middleton is around five months pregnant. She said on Sunday that she doesn’t yet know the sex of her first child, but hopes it’s a boy.
BRICK BY BRICK: In a Minecraft world created by a teacher at an American school in Kuwait, students explore ancient history.
Do you dream about books of enchantment? Do you know the difference between sandstone and cobblestone? Does the word “creeper” give you, well, the creeps?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you are probably a Minecraft kid. And you’re not alone.
More than 9.6 million people have downloaded the video game in little more than a year.
Would you be shocked if your teacher assigned you to play Minecraft at school? At a few Washington DC-area schools, teachers are doing just that. The Lego-like building game has become a popular tool for classroom lessons as well as life lessons.
Hank Lanphier and Amy Yount, social studies teachers at St Patrick’s Episcopal Day School in Washington, experimented with using Minecraft this year to transport students to an ancient Roman city.
Lanphier built the city’s sandstone block walls and then assigned each sixth-grader a plot of land on which to build a home.
During a recent class, Espeana Green, 12, was using a computer to create an insula, a kind of ancient Roman apartment building. She had drawn a floor plan and had a builder’s check-list.
“Every house needs to have an entrance,” Espeana said, reading over the list.
Check.
“The first floor needs to be made of stone.”
Check.
Then she moved on to placing wood blocks to form the upper floors.
Mac Johnson, 12, was also working intently on an insula. Mac had played Minecraft before and wasn’t surprised that his teachers decided to use it in class.
“Mr Lanphier said the reason that we’re using this is because it’s an accurate way to build things without just having to write down all this stuff,” Mac said. “You still have to make floor plans, but it’s more interactive and more fun.”
The students play in Minecraft’s Creative mode, which means that they don’t have to search for building materials. But that didn’t mean the students didn’t face challenges.
“We need mud brick,” Lanphier said. Minecraft doesn’t offer that building material, which was common in Roman times. “So what are we going to do?” he asked.
Lanphier said the ability to tackle that kind of problem-solving is part of why he likes Minecraft. He plans to use the game again for next year’s sixth-graders, many of whom are already excited about the project.
Piper Phillips, 11, had a warning for her younger schoolmates.
“It’s not all fun and games,” she said while making adjustments to her insula. “There’s actually a lot of work involved.”
When St Patrick’s teachers decided to use the game, school technology co-ordinator Jonathan Fichter contacted TeacherGaming, a company that helps schools set up Minecraft.
Joel Levin, the company’s co-founder, had been using Minecraft with his students at a New York City private school for months before the game’s official release.
The first lesson for his second-graders was about online behaviour, Levin said. They had to work together and show respect while playing the game, just as they did in the classroom.
“They were used to winning at all costs,” he said. “It was the first time they had done something like this with limits . . . setting expectations on their behaviour.”
Levin then started a blog to share ideas with other teachers. He got questions and lesson plans from around the world.
“There’s a science teacher in Australia who makes giant models of cells,” Levin said.
The blog’s popularity prompted Levin to launch TeacherGaming with a partner in Finland and the support of Minecraft’s creator, Mojang, which is located in Sweden. Levin’s company has solved many technical problems that had frustrated teachers. The next step, he said, is to provide teachers with ways of working Minecraft into history, maths, reading or art classes.
“Before Minecraft, I tried to use video games in class, but I always had to change my lesson to fit the game,” Levin said. “Minecraft was the first game that came along where I could change the game to fit my lesson.”
Brian Eastman hasn’t tried using the game in his maths classes at Lanier Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia, but he thought it would be a welcome addition to the school’s after-school programs.
“I was looking around at the other clubs,” Eastman said. “A lot of them are competitive. This is cooperative. A group of kids could build something together.”
So Eastman started a Minecraft club in January. The first week, about 50 seventh- and eighth-graders – mostly boys – showed up for 30 spots, he said.
Sean Collins and Xavier Taylor, both seventh-graders, were among the first 30 to show up for a recent Monday meeting. Both said they play regularly at home.
“I usually play Survival,” said Sean, referring to the Minecraft mode that includes creatures such as zombies and creepers. In Survival mode – which is used during the club meetings – players aren’t given tools or materials at the beginning of the game. They chop down trees for wood and dig into the ground for minerals.
“It’s so cool to be starting with nothing,” said Sean, who is 12.
“You can shape your own world – literally,” added Xavier, also 12.
Eastman has a few rules (no bad language, no breaking what someone else has built), but he makes no assignments. The students form small groups, and as they build and search for supplies, the buzz of conversation fills the room.
Eastman walks around, offering help and acknowledging students’ creativity. He said he doesn’t expect them to lose interest any-time soon.
“I think the appeal for the kids is a sense of ownership. They attend school, but it’s not theirs. In Minecraft, they can say, ‘This is mine. I had to work for it, and I’ve created it.’ “
Making his first official visit to Israel, US President Barack Obama pledged today enduring support for the Jewish State, where concern over a nuclear-armed Iran has clouded US-Israeli relations.
He also stressed the need for Middle East peace at the start of a three-day trip, which is aimed at resetting strained relations with both the Israelis and Palestinians, but is not expected to provide new initiatives or substantial policy moves.
Descending from Air Force One in bright Spring sunshine, Obama briefly embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he has a notoriously testy relationship, before offering smiles and handshakes to waiting ministers.
“I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations, to restate America’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and to speak directly to the people of Israel and to your neighbours,” Obama said at a red-carpet welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv airport.
“I am confident in declaring that our alliance is eternal, is forever,” he said, adding the Hebrew word for forever – lanetzach – to emphasis the upbeat message.
Obama faces strong doubts among Israelis over his promise to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, as well as anxiety that the civil war in neighbouring Syria might spill over the border, with Western powers reluctant to get involved.
The US president said last week he believed Iran was still more than a year away from developing an atomic weapon and is counselling nervous Israelis to show patience.
Shortly after leaving Air Force One, Obama was told by an official to “follow the red line” marked on the tarmac as he set off to see an Israeli-made Iron Dome anti-missile battery.
Standing alongside Netanyahu, Obama joked: “He’s always talking to me about red lines” – a reference to Israel’s demand that Washington establish a red line for Iran’s nuclear programme. “So this is all a psychological ploy,” he added.
PUSHING FOR PEACE
In his own welcoming remarks, Netanyahu cited an Israeli right to self-defence, which he said Obama supported.
The Israeli leader had some fence-mending of his own to do with Obama after the 2012 US presidential campaign during which Netanyahu appeared to favour Obama’s opponent, Republican Mitt Romney.
“Thank you for unequivocally affirming Israel’s sovereign right to defend itself by itself against any threat,” the right-wing Israeli leader said.
Speaking on the tarmac, Obama voiced his hopes for peace – without directly mentioning Palestinians, whom he will meet with on Thursday in the occupied West Bank.
“We stand together because peace must come to the Holy Land,” Obama said. “Even as we are clear eyed about the difficulties, we will never lose sight of the vision of an Israel at peace with its neighbours.”
US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2010 in a dispute over Israeli settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.
The White House has deliberately minimised hopes of any major breakthroughs, a reversal from Obama’s first four years in office when aides said he would visit the Jewish state only if he had something concrete to accomplish.
With both Obama and Netanyahu just starting new terms and mindful that they will have to work together on volatile issues for years to come, they will be looking to avoid the kind of public confrontation that has marked past encounters.
QUIET STREETS
Shortly after landing in Tel Aviv, Obama’s entourage flew by helicopter to nearby Jerusalem and then drove to his city centre hotel. Hundreds of banners boasting of “an unbreakable alliance” hung from lampposts, but only sparse crowds turned out to watch the president’s motorcade drive through shut-off streets.
Aware that many Israelis have reservations about him, Obama took steps to try to soften his image, smiling and joking with his guests, heaping praise on Israeli President Shimon Peres and appearing delighted as a group of schoolchildren sang for him.
Obama will make a speech to a group of carefully screened Israeli students, where he is expected once more to play up historic ties between the two nations.
Annual US military aid to Israel is put at US$3 billion.
Earlier in the day, he will fly by helicopter the short distance between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, avoiding having to cross the Israeli separation barrier that divides the cities.
Abbas’s allies have expressed bitter disappointment over the lack of fresh US moves, saying the United States should be doing much more to force Israel to halt settlement building in the West Bank on land Palestinians want for their state.
“We say to Obama, visiting occupied Palestine is a terrible idea. If you want peace for two states, seek justice for us,” said Jamal Jafar, an activist who took part in a protest on Wednesday, setting up a camp next to a proposed new settlement.
Netanyahu told Obama at the airport that he was committed to securing peace with the Palestinians, but Western diplomats in Jerusalem remain largely sceptical.
The Israeli leader has just forged a coalition containing strong supporters of settlements on land seized in the 1967 war.
Along the reception line, Obama stopped only briefly to shake hands with pro-settler leader Naftali Bennett, but had a long exchange with new Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who heads a centrist movement and has said peace-making is a priority.
– Reuters
A Kapiti, New Zealand businessman locked up for four years in a Chinese jail has told of the “cruel” conditions he endured, including torture, beatings and forced labour.
Danny Cancian, now 46, was sentenced to five years’ jail for manslaughter after fatally kicking a man during a restaurant fight in 2008.
He served four years of that sentence, most of it in Dongguan prison in the Guangdong province in southern China.
For all that time, he says he was unable to exercise, was kept in a cell with at least 18 other prisoners and subjected to violent discipline and solitary confinement.
He learnt quickly the horrors of isolation after a scuffle with a guard early in his sentence. “All the police came running in. They Tasered me and they beat me. Then I was put in isolation for two weeks.”
Isolation was a three-by-one-metre cell with a hole in the floor for a toilet. From seven in the morning, he would sit there, arms and legs folded, unable to move.
“At nine o’clock they let you sleep, but then they wake you every 20 minutes.”
When not in solitary confinement, he spent his days forced to work in a factory, making earphones for airlines.
“Every morning at 5am they would march us all to the factory and at 7pm we would come back. If you don’t work you’ll get beaten, Tasered and pepper-sprayed and put in isolation. It gives me a lot of nightmares just thinking about what I went through.”
He arrived back in New Zealand on November 29, but said yesterday that he still struggled to adjust to normal life after the strict routine of prison.
He can no longer face eating rice, which was a staple in prison, usually served with boiled cabbage and old meat. “The first thing I did at the airport was have McDonald’s and a beer,” he said.
It was an emotional reunion with his immediate family, who had not seen him inside. His brother, Anthony, visited him in his first year, but Mr Cancian did not want his wife or children to see him in jail.
His children are grown up now – his son is 24, and his daughter 22. He has a granddaughter he met for the first time last year. Until then, he had seen her only in photos.
Staff from the New Zealand embassy visited him, but he said there was nothing they could do.
He has since told his story on YouTube, using handwritten placards that tell a tale of what he calls the real China. The placards include the words forced labour, long hours, beatings, Tasering, hunger, torture, sleep deprivation, pepper spray, no religion, little contact with family, chemical testing on prisoners, no human rights, suicide and death.
Mr Cancian was in China when the manslaughter incident happened because he had a business selling shower chairs he had invented for stroke victims. The chairs were made in China.
The fight happened in a family restaurant in a town outside the provincial capital of Guangzhou, where he was eating with a workmate and his Chinese translator.
He said his workmate was in the toilet when two men grabbed his translator, and another three attacked Mr Cancian.
He recognised them from two days before when one of them had shoulder barged him outside the same restaurant, he said.
“I said, ‘You should say excuse me.’ [He] tried to attack me, and security stopped him.”
He was punched in the face in the second attack, he said.
“I threw one of them to the ground, I thought it was all over . . . Then one of them smashed me in the back of the head with a chair.”
After that, he kicked the man on the ground in the face.
The man suffered a brain bleed and died later in hospital. Mr Cancian was charged with manslaughter, and ordered to pay his victim’s family $90,000.
He hopes viewers of his video will help him petition the New Zealand Government to bring overseas prisoners home.
A spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy in Wellington said: “The issue of basic rights for inmates is an important component of overall human rights in China. China has joined international human rights conventions that require signatory nations to fulfil relevant obligations that include the protection of rights for inmates.”
KIWIS IN FOREIGN JAILS
On March 1, there were 90 New Zealand detainees listed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, held in 26 different countries.
Of those, 32 were in the United States, including 12 charged with immigration breaches, and two with murder.
Australia has just nine prisoners listed, but there are thought to be hundreds more. Other countries include Vanuatu, Thailand, The Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Cambodia and China. The ministry said the list was only of prisoners who had registered with it. “Some people choose not to seek consular assistance from us.”
The longest sentence is 20 years, pending confirmation, which is believed to be for a drugs trafficker on death row in China, who was petitioning last year to have his death sentence commuted to a life sentence.
– © Fairfax NZ News
Dawn Richards is clearly making major changes in her career but it looks like her lifestyle right behind her too. Since the songstress dropped from Diddy’s puppet strips, she’s been in command; releasing a strong album without another features or promotional help. Recently, a picture of Dawn has been floating around the web which shows the singer with a much slimmer nose. Could it be? Dawn Richard used her coins to trim down her nose? Take a peek at some of her most recent pictures and be the judge:
Earlier this year during a interview Tatyana Ali was asked if she had a reality show, what would she name it, and she responded:
“‘Dirty Laundry,’ or ‘I Love Drake!’ — in which I stalk him on tour and try to make him realize we’re meant to be together. God, I love his voice.”
A few weeks later, she celebrated her birthday in LA, and Drake made her night after he showed up at her party with some bubbly, hugs, and kisses.
Yesterday, Tatyana stopped by The Wendy Williams Show, as she tried to ditched and dodged questions about Drake as Wendy inquired about whether they had hooked up or not.
Wendy: You had a party and Drake came. Have you hooked up with him?
He is absolutely brilliant and I am a huge fan of his. Okay this club in L.A., Supperclub is like this amazing club…when people buy bottles of champagne they like come out of the sky. A woman comes like a gymnast. And so I wasn’t poppin’ bottles like that but he got me a beautiful bottle of champagne and it fell from the sky and I felt really special.Wendy: That was a really nice story, but the question was have you hooked up with him?
(hesitates and smiles) I…I think he’s amazing. I think he’s awesome.
What? I didn’t even say anything!
O YEAH! They Did
Wendy also inquired about Tatyana once saying that her guilty pleasure was one night stands, and she responded:
This is going so bad. Here’s the thing. That was an article for the Huffington Post and it was a question and answer. The one night stands thing, that’s actually not true. I said it, yeah! But I was tongue in cheek with like a lot of the answers. I also said I cried three times a day because they asked when was the last time I cried. I don’t know! Like I cry all the time. But the one night stands it’s not really true, but I was surprised. It’s 2013. I’m a grown woman. If that were the case I mean, what is the problem.
Khloe, 28, and The Game, 33, first drew attention to themselves when she was seen jumping on him on a hike at LA’s Run Canyon on Feb. 28. The Game’s real name, Jayceon Terrell Taylor who’s become a fitness adviser to both Khloe and her little brother, Rob Kardashian.
“They were on a hike and she was flirting up a storm; he’s definitely her type”
“Usually, Khloé is so respectful of Lamar, but she knew exactly what she was doing she wanted to give Lamar a taste of his own medicine by publicly flirting with another man!”
Lamar who has alleged been caught out getting cozy with other women during a couple nightclub apperances.
“Her jumping on The Game seemed like it was natural, She was really happy, and they seemed to be really friendly.”
“He is very forward and would definitely hook up with Khloé if she was up for it.”
“They talk all the time, she even texts him while Lamar sleeps in their bed right next to her. The Game has been a rock for Khloe, listening to her problems, giving her advice and telling her she’s beautiful inside and out. He keeps saying she can do better than Lamar and she needs a man like him, who’d treat her like the queen she is.”
Khloe’s relationship with the rapper is causing Odom to become suspicious of his wife’s new pal.
“Lamar thinks Khloe and The Game are more than friends. She will go hours without answering Lamar’s calls, which has never happened before. And she talks about The Game nonstop.”
“That night in the car, Khloe let it slip that The Game told her she has a nice ass. Lamar flipped. He told her The Game is trying to get with her and that she’s cheating emotionally, which she didn’t deny.”
More details of Khloe and Lamar’s troubled relationship, and her growing friendship with The Game, pick up the latest issue of Star magazine on newsstands Thursday.
Source: Hollywoodlife
VH1 reality star LaLa Anthony spent last night grabbing dinner with her best friend and mom-to-be, E! reality star Kim Kardashian. These two ladies make a great looking couple!, both all dolled up as they headed to dinner. The twosome were spotted all smiles and holding hands while they made their way past the paps to enter Crustacean Restaurant in Beverly Hills. LaLa rocked a sexy tailored white suit with a bra top, while Kim rocked her usual all black with a touch of lace look to cover her growing baby bump.
LaLa’s “Full Court Life” show is currently airing on VH1 in its third season. And Kim’s show “Kourtney & Kim Take Miami” is still in rotation on E!. So we’re sure the gals had a lot to catch up on reality shows, relationships, mommyhood and clothes.
Kim kardashian also took a bathroom shot, showing off her growing belly (amongst other things):
Twitter wars are the best! Two of the worlds most outspoken enthusiastic billionaires are throwing down in 140 characters or less, Donald Trump Vs Mark Cuban. The two have been going at it for months now, all starting in November when Cuban offered Trump $1 million to shave his head, a response to Trump’s $5 million challenge to President Obama to produce his birth certificate.
Fast forward to last Wednesday night’s “Tonight Show” when Cuban produced a letter he received from Trump way back in 2004. Cuban’s reality show “The Benefactor” an obvious spin-off of Trump’s “The Apprentice” had just been cancelled. Trump wrote to Cuban, “When I initially called you to congratulate you on The Benefactor – little did you or I realize how disastrous and embarrassing it would turn out to be for you. If you ever decide to do another show, please call me and I will be happy to lend a helping hand.”
“Can I just say, Donald, how’s that working out for you now?” Cuban told Jay Leno’s audience.
Donald Then took to twitter to respond:
Over the last six days, Trump has consistently mentioned Cuban in his tweets, criticizing his golf game he is “short off the tee,” a “weak man with a big mouth” and has “no clubhead speed” his personality “@mcuban has less TV persona than any other person I can think of. He’s an arrogant, crude, dope who met some very stupid people” and his pride and joy Dallas Mavericks ”why does @mcuban continue to embarrass the 31-35 & 11th place @dallasmavs with childish behavior.”
“Golf?” Cuban responded. “You just see this crazy life I have & you’re in awe.I’m just gonna take over the world while you getting mad”
This is when things really took a turn:
Source: Yahoo
Nicki Minaj did it again. The YMCMB empress took to Twitter to show of her growing mane. This is the second time that Nicki Minaj randomly posted a picture of her hair in between wig changes. Nicki promised she would wear her natural hair once it reached her butt, which looks like now. The rapper vowed she’d be experimenting with a new look this year and so far it has been closer to the natural side- flirting with tons of neutrals, tans and browns in her recent wardrobe choices. Maybe the next time will be home base: real hair red carpet look.
compared to this
“We don’t understand any of it.”: The ‘disappearance’ of Rachel Koechner and her 4-year-old daughter Zoee Sandner has confused her family. Photo: AP
To law enforcement agencies, the disappearance of a Missouri woman and her young daughter for four days had all the markings of an abduction: a cryptic text message asking for help, a phone call that sounded like it was being read from a script, an ex-husband with a history of domestic violence.
Instead, Rachel Koechner told investigators on Monday night that she slipped away with Davon Sandner, the ex-husband who’s the father of her 4-year-old daughter, last week as part of a plan she devised a day before they took off. Koechner, Sandner and their child were found Monday in a home in Linn County about 160 kilometres northeast of Kansas City after someone saw them getting petrol in nearby Brookfield and called police.
“Her family has such a strong hatred for her ex-husband, and his family has a strong hatred for her. They just wanted to be together,” said Chariton County Sheriff Chris Hughes, whose department is leading the case.
Koechner was staying at her mother’s house in Rothville in northern Chariton County when she disappeared.
Hughes said she left on Thursday with Sandner and their daughter. They spent most of the time they were missing at a low-rate suburban Kansas City motel, where Koechner, 28, and Sandner, 37, smoked synthetic marijuana and laid low while law enforcement agencies frantically searched for them. Empty wrappers that had contained the artificial pot were found in Sandner’s vehicle, and it appeared the couple had smoked the substance with their daughter nearby, the sheriff said.
Koechner’s sister, Brandi Koechner, said family members are relieved that the mother and daughter have been found safe, but they’re stunned by Rachel Koechner’s actions — especially after a nasty divorce that was finalised in November.
“The whole family is pretty much confused, hurt, upset, but glad we got the little girl back,” Brandi Koechner said. “We don’t understand any of it.”
She said four-year-old Zoee Sandner is now staying with Koechner’s mother and other relatives in Rothville, and that the family is planning to seek custody of the girl.
The family doesn’t necessarily hate Sandner, she said, but there was a great deal of animosity because of what Rachel Koechner went through during her relationship with him. She also said the family felt that Sandner had the ability to manipulate his ex-wife.
“They’ve had such an on-and-off again, bad relationship,” Brandi Koechner said. “He knew how to get into her head. All of us were really scared because we’ve seen what he can do.”
Sandner, of Brookfield, was charged in January in Livingston County with third-degree domestic assault after his new girlfriend told police he had struck her in the face at a Chillicothe motel. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to third-degree domestic assault involving a different woman and was given a 60-day suspended sentence.
Hughes said Sandner isn’t expected to be charged in connection with Koechner’s disappearance, but was being held Tuesday in Chariton County Jail on five forgery charges from a Linn County case. Prosecutors allege he wrote five bad checks on the account of another man last August.
Koechner hadn’t been charged by midday Tuesday, but was being held without bond in the Chariton County Jail pending charges. Hughes expected her to at least be charged with making a false report.
Neither Sandner nor Koechner had acquired an attorney, and Hughes declined an Associated Press reporter’s request to interview either of them at the jail.
Media coverage of what was then being described as a possible abduction forced Koechner, Sandner and their daughter to leave the motel in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs early, even though they had paid for another night in advance, the sheriff said.
“He said, ‘I saw my picture on the news yesterday morning and I started freaking out,'” Hughes said of Sandner.
Rachel Koechner called her boyfriend around 9 am on Monday to tell him she was OK and to have the search called off. The boyfriend, whose name has not been released, told Hughes the conversation sounded scripted.
Hughes tracked the phone number to the Blue Springs motel, which he called just as Koechner, Sandner and their daughter were checking out. The motel worker who answered the phone handed it to Koechner.
“She said she couldn’t talk now,” Hughes said. “I asked if she was OK, and she said, ‘No.'”
The sheriff contacted Blue Springs police, but the three were gone by the time officers arrived at the motel.
AP
Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux are reportedly planning two weddings.
Friends of the couple say they plan to celebrate their marriage in both New York and California, with ‘his and hers’ events.
A source told the new UK issue of Grazia magazine: “Justin grew up in New York, most of his family are on the East Coast, so rumour is that after ‘Jen’s wedding’ in California, there will be something in New York.
“There’s certainly going to be a wedding party on the East Coast. It might not even be until the summer, but Justin has taken charge of his side of the organisation and is really getting into it. He’s arranging live music and the theme is going to be very rock ‘n’ roll.”
While Justin, 41, is organising a party, 44-year-old Jennifer’s ceremony is likely to be more romantic and chilled out.
Another source said: “Jen wants it to be really relaxed and quite classic. it will be traditional.”
The pair are also thought to have agreed to divide their time between the East and the West coast once they are married.
A source added: “Jen knows how much Justin misses New York. So she’s conceded that once they’re married they can buy something there.”
Although Jennifer has previously bought a house in New York only to sell it months later claiming she didn’t take to the city, Justin has been spotted looking at properties with his brother, Sebastian.
A friend said: “Justin was house hunting with his brother. He looked around a converted former police station – he wants Jen to feel safe in their New York pad.”
BANG Showbiz
Selena Gomez has joked she made Justin Bieber cry when they split up.
The 20-year-old actress and Justin, 19, went their separate ways in January after two years together and while the ‘Spring Breakers’ star feels “good” about being single, her pop star ex-boyfriend may not share her positive mood.
Appearing on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ last night, the host said: “Last time you were here, you were with a Justin Bieber. That’s not going on now.”
Selena replied: “No, I’m single. I’m so good.”
The presenter went on to claim he had upset Justin to the point of making him cry the last time he had appeared on the show, prompting Selena to reply: “Well then, that makes two of us.”
It was recently claimed Selena is keen to date an older man following her split from 19-year-old Justin.
A source said: “Selena is looking to date an older man this time. She finally sees how toxic it was to date a toddler like Justin.
“Selena is doing really well and feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders now that Justin is out of the picture. She finds Justin to be embarrassing since their breakup. He’s turned into exactly the kind of person she’d never want to be with.”
BANG Showbiz
Rihanna has announced there will be one-hour documentary showcasing her 777 tour coming out in May – the press release says viewers will get an all access pass seeing everything , “from the sound of popping champagne corks on the plane, to the backstage chaos, to the singer’s special worldwide appearances.”
Katy Perry and John Mayer are completely kaput!
Well… maybe not completely. One source reveals of their second insider-confirmed split: “It’s sad. It’s not over until it’s over. You have to see how things play out. She’s leaving the window open. They have both been so focused on work.”
– Showbiz
Hiding in the laundry chute of his luxury riverside apartment, Hohepa Morehu-Barlow fumed as he watched detectives rummage through his trove of designer belongings.
The “royal” was in hiding. His home and its contents – from the collection of Louis Vuitton gear to the HRH-embroidered garments and crown – were about to be seized by the Queensland Government.
The raid capped an almighty fall from grace.
The New Zealander’s life of lies toppled faster than he could comprehend – his existence was funded by A$16.6 million ($20.8 million) stolen from the state Government, not an allowance he received as a Tahitian prince, as he had managed to convince friends, colleagues, bosses and perhaps even himself.
“The idea of [police] going through ‘his’ property, it was the most offensive thing anyone could do, he was offended,” says his former lawyer AdamMagill.
As Morehu-Barlow hid from police who had swarmed through his home, his face and name were printed in papers and broadcast on TV on both sides of the Tasman.
He was outed as a pretentious Kiwi bureaucrat who perpetrated an outrageous fraud to fund his lifestyle as one of Brisbane’s fashionable high-flyers.
His slush fund bought him designer clothes, expensive liquor, and all the “friends” he wanted.
As he was sentenced this week to 14 years in a Queensland jail after pleading guilty to eight fraud and drugs charges, he finally had the notoriety he had perhaps always craved.
The guillotine had fallen, but as he was led to the cells of the Brisbane District Court he grinned widely. Everyone knew who he was.
Hohepa Morehu-Barlow was born in New Zealand on February 13, 1975, the eldest of six children.
According to the lawyer who represented him in court this week, he had a troubled upbringing in Thames.
David Shepherd told the court his client’s father was a drunken and violent man who often beat their mother and she, in turn, would leave the house. Her children had to fend for themselves.
As youngsters, Morehu-Barlow, his four brothers and sister would roam the streets looking for food or family members for help. Morehu-Barlow was always riddled with guilt and shame about the life he and his siblings lived.
His only escape was at school, where he was a diligent student. He graduated from Thames High School in 1993 and went on to study at the Taranaki Polytechnic and then Victoria University of Wellington before dropping out in favour of a move to Australia to join his sister Kelly Barlow in 2001.
Though he lacked a degree, his climb through the ranks of Queensland Health was impressive.
“He got something like five promotions in a two-year period,” Mr Magill says. “He’s very articulate. He’s an intelligent bloke.”
Morehu-Barlow, who started calling himself Joel, was a middle-level finance manager estimated to be earning A$100,000 a year when Brisbane’s social life beckoned.
He had learned how the health department grants system worked and hatched a plot to manipulate it. Increasingly large sums were paid, purportedly to a business which he set up himself, but they actually went to his personal bank account.
The money was spent on designer threads, parties, holidays and a collection of gaudy belongings, including a crown and items with fake royal crests.
He began to tell people he was a Tahitian prince, and worked only because his parents would otherwise stop his large allowance.
The fraud fuelled the lie and the lie hid the fraud.
The motivation perhaps came from the suicide of a brother in 2007, a tragedy that had a “profound effect” on him, his lawyer told the court this week.
The guilt Morehu-Barlow felt as a helpless older brother when they were children returned and he began using more party drugs.
When he was arrested he was found sprawled on the bed in his luxury apartment after an apparently deliberate overdose.
“He revisited all of those feelings of inadequacy and deprivation he felt when he was a child,” Mr Shepherd said.
“Accessing money was perhaps a way of alleviating those feelings of guilt. The spiral began … [and] it became compulsive.
“He became a relatively popular character, [which] provided a buffer for him against the feelings of guilt but also put pressure on him to maintain the facade.
“When it reached its final inevitable conclusion he attempted to kill himself and that’s when he was found by police.”
Morehu-Barlow stole almost A$17 million between 2008 and his arrest in December 2011. Police froze A$12 million of assets, including his A$5.65 million apartment, a Mercedes-Benz and an Audi A4.
During the days he hid in his laundry chute, family in Australia and New Zealand were shocked to hear what he was accused of.
“We were actually preparing for my uncle’s wedding and then next minute he was all over the news,” first cousin Shannon Morehu said.
“It was a big shock. But family stick together. You can pick your friends but your family you’re stuck with.”
If Joel Barlow was a prince then James St was almost certainly his kingdom.
A playground for the affluent and arty, the leafy precinct in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley is filled with hip clubs and restaurants and designer everything.
Here he could splash his stolen millions on everything, including newfound “friends”, although few of them want to talk about him now.
Nestled beside a cafe just off James St is Libertine Parfumerie, the posh designer fragrance store many believed Morehu-Barlow co-owned. Owner Nick Smart was reluctant to discuss him this week.
Mr Smart, a tall man as delicately preened as the fake prince himself, is prickly and defensive when questioned and claims he can’t comment about Morehu-Barlow because “Joel was a client”.
“Everyone knows Joel Barlow,” one woman says as she walks into another James St store and overhears a conversation about the man.
What do you know about him? “He’s a very naughty boy,” she says.
He may have been naughty but no one on James St complained. Some genuinely believed he was royalty, one woman says, and Morehu-Barlow’s arrogance and outlandish sprees only helped convince others.
“I know people who were convinced he was a prince,” she says from behind a desk at an avant-garde furniture store.
“‘Our Tahitian prince’ they used to call him, because he was such a good customer.”
Contemporary jewellery store Stone and Metal was one of the beneficiaries of his spending. He once walked through the store with his phone glued to his ear as he pointed at expensive pieces of jewellery to look at.
Eventually the woman in the store asked which of the items he wanted to buy. “All of them,” he replied.
Nearby, in Brisbane’s nightclub district, Morehu-Barlow threw a A$140,000 birthday bash for the people he liked to impress.
It was capped with a cake designed to look like luggage from Louis Vuitton, the designer store where he spent more than A$600,000 and was reportedly the biggest customer in the Southern Hemisphere.
“He was tied up in that lie. He thought he was invincible,” Mr Magill says.
“From the outside looking in he had everything he could have wanted. He could do anything he wanted.
“He was living the lie and … because he had that much money he had the ability to pull it off, pull off the ultimate fraud.”
But his time was running out, and as quickly as he was arrested and cut off from his A$12 million of assets, those he called friends began distancing themselves from him.
The prince had fallen from his fictitious throne.
In the Arthur Gorrie Correction Centre on Brisbane’s outskirts, Morehu-Barlow’s A$6 million apartment has been replaced by a cell, designer suits by prison-issue tracksuits. The sports cars and luxury luggage are gone. The only mod cons are a Sony PlayStation and satellite TV network Foxtel.
Many of his “friends” stopped contacting him after his arrest, his cousin Shannon Morehu said.
Some still visit but it’s mostly whanau who make regular trips to see how he is.
He is behind bars until at least December 2016, when he can apply for parole. When he’s released he will be deported to New Zealand.
But it may have been his notoriety that meant Morehu-Barlow was “upbeat” when family visited on Sunday; that meant he smiled widely as he waved goodbye to friends and family in the Brisbane District Court this week.
As Adam Magill walked through the prison on his way to meet Morehu-Barlow shortly after his arrest, the lawyer greeted a number of former clients who were behind bars.
Initially Mr Magill thought the “penny had dropped” for Morehu-Barlow, that he had realised his lies had finally caught up with him.
But the fraudster still lusted for glamour. He enjoyed the attention.
“You’re almost as famous as I am,” he told his lawyer, whom he would soon run out of money to pay.
Deception began early
Hohepa Morehu-Barlow was a fraudster long before he moved to Australia and started stealing from Queensland Health.
In New Zealand in 1998, he was still known as Joseph Barlow, the name he grew up with.
It was about this time he was dragged before a court for stealing almost $32,000 from his employer, a charge that brought him a suspended eight-month jail term.
The next year he changed his name to Hohepa, the Maori equivalent of Joseph, and hyphenated his surname to include his father’s family name.
This would be his identity for a new life in Australia.
He moved across the Tasman in the early 2000s but it wasn’t until 2007 that he started work for Queensland Health.
Over four years he managed to fleece the state Government of more than $16 million. But his lies began before he was even employed.
On his CV, Morehu-Barlow claimed to have a high-ranking law degree from Victoria University of Wellington, a qualification that landed him on the path to becoming a senior finance manager.
After his arrest police found the degree never existed. Morehu-Barlow had started a bachelor of commerce but never completed it.
Nevertheless, once ensconced at Queensland Health he set up a fake business and forged documents, including letters under the state health minister’s hand, to legitimise the transfer of state funds to his personal account.
He forged more documents for the largest, and last, of his 62 fraudulent payments, purportedly for a dental building at a Queensland university.
His lies were discovered after a mid-level manager suspicious of the large amount involved searched for information about the business and found Morehu-Barlow was the director.
In court, his lawyer David Shepherd said Morehu-Barlow felt he could have been caught at any time.
“That behaviour can be seen as compulsive and self-destructive rather than the desire to have money.”
But Judge Kerry O’Brien described Morehu-Barlow’s offending as an “audacious scheme … to obtain an opulent and extravagant lifestyle [and] a way for you to ingratiate yourself to other people. Your dishonesty only ceased with police involvement.”
Rich tally
Many of the items seized from Hopeha Morehu-Barlow’s home were auctioned in Brisbane this month. They included dozens of items from his favoured designer, Louis Vuitton.
There were 15 business shirts, 28 ties, 30 pairs of shoes, four suits, five jackets, one fur-like collar, one dinner coat, one vest and one bathrobe.
The list of Louis Vuitton accessories included 26 scarves (one made of fox fur), nine cufflinks and a wallet, embossed with HRH.
From the same designer he had six overnight bags, three sports bags, three satchels, four towels, an umbrella, business card holder, laptop bag and iPad holder.
He bought art, designer alcohol, including vintage champagne, and a signed All Black jersey.
Other belongings up for sale included 22 sets of rosary beads, nine antique robots, three iPhones, a Hermes saddle, a Whitney Houston 2010 tour book and an iPod engraved with HRH Hohepa Morehu-Barlow.
The auction raised more than $1 million for Queensland Health.
Rise and fall
1975 Born, the oldest of six children, grew up in Thames
1993 Graduated from Thames High School
1996-2001 Victoria University of Wellington
2001 Moved to Australia
2005 Started work at Queensland Health
2008 Began defrauding the health department of A$5 millionNov
2011 Forged documents to have A$11 million transferred into his bank account
Dec 2011 Arrested after hiding from police for two days
2013 Pleads guilty to biggest fraud so far on Queensland Government and sentenced to 14 years’ jail Dec
2016 Eligible for parole
– APNZ
The family of a roadworker gunned down on an isolated South Waikato road were last night grieving for a cheeky, lovely and gentle man.
George Charles Taiaroa, 67 – a husband, father and grandfather – was shot dead while holding a stop-go sign on Tram Rd in the Kinleith Forest area about 3.20pm on Tuesday, after allowing a logging truck to cross a bridge.
Police were last night hunting Mr Taiaroa’s killer as his whanau and close friends gathered in Hamilton to wait for the return of his body.
He is survived by his wife, Dr Helen Taiaroa, their four children and four grandchildren.
Family friend Mereana Selby said Mr Taiaroa’s death was “completely ridiculous” and his family were trying to get their heads around the situation and the shock of him being shot in cold blood.
A family statement said: “This is an unexpected and shocking event for everyone concerned. The family would like to acknowledge the overwhelming support they have received,” she said.
“He was a loving father, husband and grandfather.”
Mr Taiaroa, who was living in Hamilton, was from Otaki and owned a house there with his wife. He had links to the Ngati Raukawa people of Otaki.
Mr Taiaroa’s body remained at the scene until late yesterday, when it was taken for a post-mortem. He is expected to be taken to Ngatokowaru Marae in Levin tomorrow for his tangi.
Witnesses reportedly saw Mr Taiaroa falling to the ground immediately after the incident as a blue four-wheel-drive vehicle, believed to be a Jeep Cherokee, rushed away from the scene.
A motorist tried to tend to his wounds but he died at the scene. Last night a staff member of the Otaki RSA said colleagues and relatives held a karakia for him upon hearing the news of his death.
On a Facebook page, one man called Mr Taiaroa’s killer “f***en gutless”.
“… you just killed the nicest gentle man I’ve ever known. RIP George, you didn’t deserve that bro,” he said.
“He was a crane driver at HEBs … sad thing is, he shoulda [sic] been retired, but just loved his job.”
Mr Taiaroa had worked with road construction crews for HEB Construction and had been staying off and on at the Pukeko and Bull Tavern on SH1, a stone’s throw from the $34 million Atiamuru Bridge project.
A local woman said he liked a steak, a beer and a good laugh.
“He was pretty cheeky, a chirpy, lovely man who always had a smile and a word to say,” she said.
“We were supposed to meet up for a beer on Saturday and then this happened, it’s awful, just so tragic.”
Detective Inspector Tim Anderson said it was too early to establish what motive, if any, there was in the attack, which he described as “isolated”.
He said police were following up on a number of vehicles which could have been involved and wanted people who were in the Atiamuri area and its surrounds on Tuesday to report to police any vehicle seen speeding or driving erratically between 2.30pm and 4pm.
Can you help?
Anyone with information about this shooting can contact Taupo Police on (07) 378 6060. Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
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