In West Africa, the nuts of the karite tree have been collected and processed into shea butter for hundreds of years.

It can be used in cooking and some confectionary firms use it as a cocoa butter substitute, but shea butter's primary use is as a cosmetic.

Gilles Adamon, entrepreneur and founder of Natura soaps and cosmetics, tells Africa Business Report about the industry in Benin.

The three-part report goes behind the scenes with a pro-democracy campaign trying to ensure free elections in Hong Kong.

Filmmakers: James Leong and Lynn Lee

A coalition of pro-democracy reformers want Hong Kong's next chief executive to be directly elected in 2017. The Chinese government insists that the leader must be chosen from a pre-approved list.

Over the summer and autumn of 2014, as this increasingly divisive debate brought thousands of Hong-Kongers onto the street, People & Power  went behind-the-scenes with activists as they embarked on an unprecedented display of civil disobedience and tried to convince Beijing to make concessions.

In the first two of three special reports, filmmakers James Leong and Lynn Lee charted the origins and rise of the Occupy Central protest movement, the increasing role played by student activists, and the dramatic demonstrations and occupations which brought the territory to a standstill.

In the third and final film, they explain how, with Beijing refusing to budge and the Hong Kong police closing in, the movement's optimism began to fade.

Although the current wrangle between Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and the Chinese government is more nuanced and complicated than it is often portrayed, a relatively straightforward issue lies is at its heart. The activists - driven by a coalition of veteran reformers known as Occupy Central and politically engaged students - want their next chief executive to be directly elected in 2017; Beijing insists the leader must be chosen from a list of pre-approved candidates.

Over the late summer of 2014 many tens of thousands of Hong-Kongers – with the Hong Kong Federation of Students and the Scholarism movement increasingly to the fore – took to the streets in an attempt to get Beijing to change its mind.

Over that time, as the protests ebbed and flowed, there were many key moments but possibly the most crucial came on September 26 when students stormed a fenced-off area, known as Civic Square, outside Hong Kong's government headquarters.

The stunt, initiated by Joshua Wong, a leader of the Scholarism movement, came at the end of a week-long classroom strike but marked the start of something completely unexpected - a much larger, spontaneous exercise in civil disobedience. It led to weeks of demonstrations, marches, occupations and attempted occupation of other areas - played out in front of the world's media - and, though the protests have been largely peaceful, increasingly heated tear-gas flavoured clashes with the police.

Police transporting drums of an unidentified substance marked "Corrosive" into the offices of the chief executive on October 2, 2014 [Lee Xian Jie / Al Jazeera]

The origins of the dispute are deeply rooted and go back to 1997 when Britain handed over its former colony to China after 155 years of rule. Up to that point there had been little evidence of democracy, of course, as the island had been ruled by governors directly appointed from London, but Hong-Kongers had come to enjoy the rule of law and freedom to protest and hoped that China's communist leaders would abide by an agreement to give them "a high degree of autonomy" for 50 years, under a set of principles known as "one country, two systems".

For the most part, and to many people's surprise, China has honoured that agreement and indeed it was Beijing which actually first introduced the notion of any form of democratic rule when in 1990 it adopted the Basic Law, which included a commitment that in 2017 the territory's chief executive would be elected by universal suffrage. But there was considerable scepticism about exactly how that would play out in detail. As the Asia Times pointed out in 2008, the proposals were "hedged in with so many ifs and buts that there is no guarantee of Hong Kong getting anything at all... "

There the matter mostly rested until 2012 when a bookish academic, law professor, Benny Tai, wrote an article in the Hong Kong Economic Journal that would eventually spark the movement known as Occupy Central. He explained what prompted him: "The Chinese government had promised that the election of the chief executive would be elected by universal suffrage. But we questioned the kind of universal suffrage we'll be able to get. Would it be the kind of so-called Chinese style of universal suffrage in which all the candidates will be screened by the Chinese government before the HK people can have a chance to choose?"

Fearing what the answer would be, Tai suggested a campaign of civil disobedience to generate political pressure on the Chinese government. Occupy Central with Love and Peace - to give the movement its full name (the 'Central' referring to Hong Kong's financial district) - was born.

Unofficial referendum

In early summer 2014, as Beijing and the Hong Kong government prepared to release their plan for the 2017 elections, Occupy Central called an unofficial referendum on how candidates for the city's top job should be nominated. The activists were counting on a strong turnout to bolster their chances of dialogue with the government and promised to back down if fewer than 100,000 people participated in their referendum. But if that number was met or exceeded, and the authorities then failed to deliver the genuine universal suffrage demanded by Tai and his group, they promised to stage a sit-in in Hong Kong's main business area.

In the meanwhile the Hong Kong authorities published their proposals. As many people feared when the government did finally release its proposals, it became clear that Beijing wanted a pre-approved lists of candidates, put forward by a nominating committee which it would appoint.

A stand-off loomed as campaigners began to galvanise public opinion, seeking to persuade sufficient numbers of people to vote in the referendum and then, if necessary, take action.

The government in Beijing meanwhile was also mobilising - state media castigated the activists and called the referendum an "illegal farce" and "a joke"; Occupy Central's website was hit by cyber-attacks of a scale not seen before in Hong Kong; the island's security services carried out a number of high profile muscle flexing exercises and Hong Kong secretary for security Lai Tung-kwok stated that the government would "take robust action to uphold the rule of law and maintain safety and order".

Protestors don hard hats and improvised arm guards to protect themselves from police batons [Lee Xian Jie / Al Jazeera]

Other demonstrators also began to appear on the streets of Hong Kong. One typical group appeared outside the island's police headquarters bearing a petition with 30,000 signatures. "Occupy Central will destroy our society. We urge the police to do everything they can to deal with these unruly radicals…"

Yet while some of these pro government protests appeared to be curiously un-spontaneous and orchestrated, it is clear that they had support among many ordinary Hong-Kongers too. Not everyone welcomed the disruption to business and daily routine that Occupy Central promised.

And so events unfolded. In June, 792,808 people, equivalent to one-fifth of the registered electorate, took part in the referendum on three questions - all of which called for the public to be allowed to nominate candidates for the 2017 chief executive election, an idea repeatedly dismissed by the Chinese government as inconsistent with the Basic Law. The results were greeted with predictable derision in Beijing and the stage was set for the confrontations that followed.

As the protests intensified in October and November and the activists grew bolder and more organized, clashes with the Hong Kong police forces multiplied. The world became familiar with images of the protestors opening colourful umbrellas in the face of police baton charges (activists quickly adopted the term The Umbrella Movement as an ironic homage to their coalition and the useful protection the objects offered against tear gas canisters).

But the authorities were not budging and though demonstrations continued to be well attended, as the weeks went on some of the momentum and optimism began to seep away. Fearful that the non-violent campaign they had begun could turn ugly, Benny Tai and the other veteran leaders of Occupy Central with Love and Peace turned themselves into the authorities and called for the students to suspend their activities. Some listened, others did not, but by December 10 it was clear that the protests had run their course – for now at least.

Student leaders Joshua Wong, Alex Chow, and Lester Shum take the stage on October 4, 2014 [Lee Xian Jie /eratrue)

That evening, on what would be the last night of the occupation Joshua Wong, climbed onto a makeshift podium in Hong Kong’s Civic Square and addressed the crowd. "Those in power may try to dictate to us but when we grow older, it will be we who control their future," he said.

Whether those were prophetic words remains to be seen, but tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of young Hong-Kongers have been politically energised by the events of 2014 and it seems unlikely that Beijing, China or the rest of the world have seen the last of them.

 

Dreamcatchers hang in the wind in Monument Valley, Arizona.

Photograph by CuboImages srl/Alamy

By George W. Stone

Every travel tale needs a plot twist—a fluke, a folly, a fortunate turn that leads to new worlds. In 1754 Horace Walpole gave name to these happy accidents: He called them “serendipities,” a term derived from the ancient Persian name for Sri Lanka. To Arab traders, Serendip was an isle of enchantment. To modern travelers, serendipity is the one thing every trip needs—but that no one can plan. Maybe you can’t go out and find serendipity, but you can develop a mind-set that embraces daring, openness, and whimsy. Here are ten around-the-world ways to pack awe into your next trip.
1. Acquire a Talisman
Big sky, broad vistas, clean air, and solitude: I needed them all, so I flew to Arizona and set out on a solo road trip to the Four Corners. Giddy with new freedom and blasting Neil Young, I resisted dozens of photo ops before finally pulling over to a red rock-valley vista in the Painted Desert. A lone woman was selling handmade silver and stone jewelry—modest pieces, her own creations. We chatted; she was Navajo and from the region. I chose a small carved-green-stone turtle necklace and bought it, not knowing why. I wore it the entire trip. Nothing but happiness came my way. I kept it on for years, always remembering my road trip, the promise of new beginnings, and the woman who made my talisman.
Lesson: A perfect storm of impulse shopping and magical thinking? Not to me. The power of my talisman comes from positive feelings, personal engagement, and happy memories of a specific time and place.
2. Encounter a Mystic
It was a hot day in Hue, Vietnam. At the end of a dusty walk I bumped into a man in a nón lá (conical hat), a cigarette stuck to his lower lip. He asked me something—for money perhaps?—and I waved him away. I walked a few steps farther and he asked again. Something clicked. I stopped in my tracks. Did this man just ask if I’d like a poem? I turned around. He repeated: “Can I read you my poem?” From memory he recited “Mộng Vàng” (Gold Dream), first in Vietnamese and then in English. I was stunned—his poem was a lamentation on love and loss, an elegy to the river that feeds his town.

The boat of the moon carrying dream,

Sinking in the clear, quiet air.

Oh, the river of lights,

Lets gold dreams drift ...

We spoke haltingly and he told me about his life along Hue’s Perfume River. I thanked him, shook his hand, and gave him a bit of money. He smiled and gave me a copy of his poem—he wrote, “Have a good holiday. Many thanks, Hoài Lê Công”—and continued his way down the road. Was it all a dream?
Lesson: Be open—to people, to engagement, to whatever the road delivers. And listen to what’s happening around you. Enlightenment could be just around the corner.
3. Go Far to Find Home
Marriner’s Lookout is a grassy plateau that provides a spectacular view over Apollo Bay, a retro-cool surf town on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, and into the swells of the Bass Strait. In the off-season cold winds scare away most sunset seekers, and I found myself blissfully alone here. Just as I started to walk down the hill, a couple headed up the trail. We all said hello and kept walking, but our accents caused us all to stop. In the haystack of travel we were three needles from Washington. We quickly discovered how much we had in common—we all lived in D.C., worked in media, loved to travel, and chose to end the day gazing at the sea. We headed off to dinner together, where Jack talked me into a kangaroo steak, I talked him into Prickly Moses Spotted Ale, and Mindy kept us in stitches. We would never have met back home—and yet there we were, breaking bread halfway around the world.
Lesson: Travel is full of surprises—one of which is having the chance to reflect on home. You may travel to the ends of the Earth and finally befriend someone from your own town.
4. Stay Home to Go Far
With one of the largest populations of Ghanaian Americans in the nation, Washington, D.C., is a cultural convergence point between. So when my friend Eric Ofori Asamoah invited me to an “outdooring” I thought, Why not? I like the outdoors. Turns out that the event is also known as a naming ceremony—it’s the first day a newborn is taken outdoors, given a name to mark its social identity, and welcomed into its ancestral community. For one night, an empty warehouse off the Beltway in Virginia was transformed into a village party near Kumasi, Ghana. Polyrhythmic music pounded, conversations in the Twi language soared, men in gold-embroidered robes and women in kente fabric and pastel-colored gowns made their rounds. Kids nibbled at mountains of cassava, plantain, and tilapia while old guys sipped Guinness and people of all ages danced. A village chief appeared, visiting from Ghana, and paraded through the masses under the shade of gilded parasols. We all partied until dawn and Eric said to me, “See? I knew you would like Ghana!”
Lesson: You don’t have to go very far to see the world.
5. Embrace the Distance
One day while lunching at the Serra Cafema safari camp in northern Namibia’s remote Kaokoland, I had the chance to observe a camp manager instructing a pair of trainees. The day’s lesson: filling glasses with ice and water. It seemed like a simple task until I saw the trainees fumble ice and spill water as if they were serving martinis on the Titanic—post-iceberg. The manager explained that the young employees were Himba women who had lived pastoral lives before entering a modern workforce. In the nomadic realm of the Himba, handling ice is a foreign practice, just as building a mud-and-mopane hut would prove impossible to me. Since ice has been noticeably absent in West Africa for thousands of years, it’s no surprise that these new hires need a how-to. Turns out the incongruous part of the picture was not the ice-cube training program—it was my own need to drink ice water in the Namib desert.
Lesson: No matter how far you’ve traveled to get somewhere, many of the locals have traveled even farther in their own way to show you hospitality.
6. Follow a Whim
When I visited New Orleans seven years ago, I wanted to check out 632 Elysian Fields, the fictive home of Stella and Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Like Blanche DuBois, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers and could not overcome my desire to knock on the screen door. An old man shuffled from the darkness and said hello. He knew why I was there: I was a pilgrim, like many before me. He’d lived in the faded white shotgun—which is nothing like the tenement in the play—for years and had weathered Hurricane Katrina there. A tide of gentrification was forcing him out, but he was equivocal. He would miss the odd visitors and his home’s mysterious allure. But in art as in life, “the show must go on,” he said.
Lesson: To paraphrase Blanche, sometimes you don’t want realism—you want magic! Follow your travel desires and who knows what memories you’ll make? By the way, the house’s current tenant is A Bicycle Named Desire, a bike rental company.
7. RSVP Yes
A few years ago my friend turned 70. He embraced it as a milestone and an opportunity to revisit a place he loved. His wife planned the party and issued the invitation. She promised that anyone who could get to Altaussee, a serene lakeside village in the Salzkammergut region of Austria, would have a room with a view and a time to remember. Who could say no? Then again, saying yes meant scheduling time away from work, clearing the calendar, buying an expensive ticket, finding a dog sitter, budgeting expenses, and—the hardest part—accepting that my summer vacation was determined by someone else ... And a senior citizen at that! I eventually said yes. The upshot: one of the best trips of my life, loaded with laughter, food, togetherness, and mountain air memories. The birthday was someone else’s but the present was mine.
Lesson: Just say yes. Rise above saying no all the time. Embrace someone else’s travel ideas and you may discover that the thing you needed was something you never would have looked for.
8. Make a Wish
About 15 years ago I made a strange trip to Bali. The local spirits had their way with me, and my vacation was bedeviled by un-paradisical ills, including spooky weather, botched plans, personal squabbles, and food sickness. Everyone has had a trip like that. It ended with a stay at Tugu Bali, a lovely small hotel on Canggu Beach. I remember floating in the pool and thinking to myself, Someday I’ll return here with someone I love and the trip will be perfect. Then I forgot all about it—until a year ago. My partner planned a surprise weekend in Bali and kept the details to himself. We landed at night and drove to the hotel. Bali’s tourism had boomed in the intervening years, with a motley horde of hotels glowing everywhere. We drove for an hour and pulled into a driveway. I got goosebumps before I read the sign: Tugu Bali. I’d never told Chris my story, yet from a thousand hotels, he chose the one where I’d made a wish so long ago.
Lesson: Leave a bit of yourself wherever you go—in the form of a wish, a sight unseen, a stone unturned. And don’t give up on a destination—you may return to love it all another time.
9. Holiday With the Locals
One man’s holiday is another man’s workday. A year ago we decided to sidestep the reindeer and spend Christmas in Sri Lanka. The roads are abysmal, and you need a driver if you hope to travel from coastal Galle to Nuwara Eliya’s tea plantations to the sacred city of Kandy and the cave temple of Dambulla. Our driver, Nuwan Amila, guided us with humor and expertise. In a nation of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims, Nuwan was a Christian, married with kids. When we realized that our holiday would take him away from his family on Christmas Eve, we tried to send him home with cash—but he would have none of it. So we all enjoyed a yuletide feast, Sri Lanka-style, with spicy curry, grated coconut, and beer. Nuwan told us about growing up during the Sri Lankan Civil War, a 26-year conflict that ended in 2009. Massacres and bombings were so common that when Nuwan’s family traveled by bus they took separate lines so that if one bus exploded, the rest of the family would survive. Santa’s gift to me, at the base of Sri Lanka’s Lion Rock, was a reminder of how mercurial life’s lottery can be, how precious our time together is, and how much you can learn by striking up a conversation.
Lesson: A world of experience can separate a traveler and a local, so go with a generous heart and find ways to engage with locals and hear their stories.
10. Remember to Laugh
Hiking the Inca Trail is a traveler’s dream, but it’s also hard work. Part of the meditative magic of mechanical movement is that it has the power to unlock the mind. But at the end of a long day on the trail toward Machu Picchu, such unbridled introspection can lead to unexpected events. This is how I found myself flat on my back in a near-frozen stream, icy rivulets of Andean water racing down my neck and back, my toothbrush sailing into the valley. As far as serendipitous moments go, this one was a cold snap. But before I could gather my wits and drag myself out of the water, I looked straight up to the heavens and noticed, for the first time, the constellations above me. I would never had seen the Southern Cross with such clarity had I not slipped on a stone and slid into a sudden stream of consciousness.
Lesson: Don’t lose yourself in your own thoughts. Travel is a chance to check yourself at the door and dive into the world around you. At the very least, you should watch where you’re walking.

HTC hasn't always had success upgrading One users to the latest version of Android within its promised 90-day window, and history is unfortunately repeating itself with Android 5.0 Lollipop on the way. The phone maker is now warning that "some carrier versions" of the One M8 and M7 won't get Lollipop by the expected February 1st deadline. Reportedly, Google's rush to fix Lollipop (which emerged, shall we say, less than polished) gave HTC little time to both finish its own update and put it through the usual provider testing routine.

You might not see the update all that soon, either. In the US, it still hasn't reached the certification stage with the big four carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon). At least some UK users report seeing the new software, but there's no handy chart to detail progress. As you might guess, the only surefire way to get Lollipop right now is to own a One M8 developer edition, Google Play Edition or unlocked model -- otherwise, you might have to make-do with last year's software for a while longer.

People holding placards take part in a vigil in front of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's official residence in Tokyo, January 30, 2015. (File photo: Reuters)

Japan’s deputy foreign minister has said negotiations with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group threatening to execute a Jordanian pilot and a Japanese journalist have become “deadlocked,” local media reported Saturday.
Yasuhide Nakayama, who is leading Tokyo’s emergency response team in Amman, told reporters in the Jordanian capital late Friday that there had been no progress in trying to secure the release of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto and airman Maaz al-Kassasbeh.
“It has become deadlocked,” he said, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. “Staying vigilant, we will continue analyzing and examining information as the government is making concerted efforts together.”
In Tokyo, deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko, a key aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said Saturday morning that the government was still waiting for new information on the hostage crisis.
ISIS had vowed to kill Kassasbeh by sunset on Thursday unless Amman hands over an Iraqi female militant in return for Goto.
Jordan has demanded evidence that the pilot, who crashed in Syria on December 24, is still alive before freeing would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, who is on death row.
Jordan has offered to free Rishawi, who was convicted for her part in triple-hotel bombings in Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people, if ISIS releases the pilot.
The Jordanian government has been under heavy pressure at home and from Japan -- a major aid donor -- to save Kassasbeh as well as Goto.
While ISIS threatened Kassasbeh’s life, it was not clear from its latest message if the jihadist group was ready to free him as part of an exchange.
ISIS had set the Thursday sunset deadline for Rishawi to be released at the Turkish border in return for Goto but there was no news of a swap.
Japan, which plays no military part in the fight against ISIS, was thrust onto the front line last week when a video appeared in which Goto and Haruna Yukawa, a self-described contractor, were seen kneeling in the desert.
A masked, knife-wielding militant said Tokyo had 72 hours to pay a $200 million ransom if it wanted to spare their lives.
When that deadline expired, new pictures appeared to show Yukawa had been beheaded, and a voice identifying itself as Goto demanded the release of Rishawi.

For many years now EU citizens have been able to get public health insurance cover in all member states.

Matthew in Manchester contacted us to find out more. He asked: “I plan to go skiing in France. I have heard about a European health insurance card (EHIC). What is it for exactly?”

Euronews’ Toks Salako explains how the system works: “This card facilitates healthcare services during a trip or a temporary stay in one of the countries of the European Union, plus Switzerland, Norway, Island and Lichtenstein.

“The card gives you access to medical treatment from state healthcare providers, under the same conditions as people insured in that country. Be aware that each country’s healthcare system is different. Services that cost you nothing at home might not be free in another country.

“This card is personal and free of charge. It is issued by your national health insurance provider. Be careful to apply for it well in advance. It should also be stressed that it only covers the necessary and “unexpected” care. It does not cover your costs if you are travelling for the express purpose of obtaining medical treatment.

“And it must also be underlined that it is not an alternative to travel insurance. It will not cover any medical private healthcare or costs, such as mountain rescue in ski resorts, or being flown back to your country.

“For more information about what is covered in each country, a specific smartphone app is available”.

If you would also like to ask a question on Utalk, click on the participate button below.

=Testament of Youth' tells the story of Vera Brittain==. who postponed her studies at Oxford University during World War I to serve as a volunteer nurse in London, Malta and France. She later became a writer and a pacifist.

The film stars Swedish actress Alicia Vikander as Vera and Kit Harington as her fiancé Roland.

“It was a very emotional shoot,” said Vikander. “It was quite extraordinary. I’ve been looking back and realised that we did about eight, nine scenes a day, which is a lot. And it’s a heavy piece. There were a lot of things that you need to… I wanted to (give) justice to this woman. And it is a lot of motional scenes.”

Although the film deals with the harrowing effects of war, it steers away from showing too many battle scenes – sticking instead with the stories of those left at home.

“I can’t think of many films, if any, where it’s so clearly about not so much the men at the front but the women left behind,” said Kit Harington. “That’s what Vera Brittain’s book helps us see more than anything else, is that side of the war.”

‘Testament of Youth’ is director James Kent’s first feature film. Best known for documentaries, Kent wanted the look of his film to be different to other war dramas.

“The idea is that they had this wonderful Edwardian summer before catastrophe struck,” he explained. “And what you’ll notice when you watch the film is that the lens gets tighter and tighter on Vera. So, by the time she’s deep in the war and what happens after the war we’re right up close to her, psychologically in her head and the challenges that she now faces to move on. “

‘Testament of Youth’ is out now in the UK and Ireland.

Shaun the Sheep’ is the latest full length animated film from Aardman Studios.

The premiere was held in London and attended by celebrities including Ed Sheeran and Rizzle Kicks, who performed the theme song.

Jordan Stephens, one half of Rizzle Kicks, said he was delighted to be involved with the project: “The bottom line is, I’m a huge Aardman animation fan. I grew up watching Wallace and Gromit. ‘A Close Shave’ is my favorite.”

The film follows Shaun as he goes to the big city to find his shepherd, but contains other themes too, explained Richard Starzack, the co-director and writer of the film: “It’s about learning to appreciate what you’ve lost, or what you have. Learning to appreciate what you have.”

In the Aardman tradition, Nick Park, the executive director of the film, delights in the fact that ‘Shaun The Sheep’ contains lots of amusing references to other films: “Since the beginning we’ve always put this kind of reference to other movies in our work. The way the guys have done this with ‘Shaun The Sheep’, it’s carried on that Aardman thing.

“It’s not just modern references to obvious things, it’s quite often movie references that only movie-goers might know. It makes it slightly more esoteric and a bit more rewarding when you recognise it.”

Shaun the Sheep is on screens now.

The singer will not reveal much about her half-time performance but promises to try to avoid any wardrobe malfunctions.

 

Katy Perry has promised to bring "incredible joy" to Super Bowl viewers during the half-time show, along with a "lion and sharks".

The 12-and-a-half minute show has become a must-see event in the middle of the NFL's extravaganza.

Perry told reporters at a news conference that she feels blessed to perform on the stage "at such a young age".

"I look back at past performers I admire, like Beyonce who brings that incredible strength and Madonna who really brought some incredible graphic design and choreography, I think what I bring is just some light-heartedness," the 30-year-old said.

Lenny Kravitz will join the pop star at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona for the final between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.

The Roar singer said her performance will also include an "old school" female singer but would reveal little else.

"I will tell you, I'm probably the only person in Super Bowl half-time history who will bring both a lion and sharks to the show."

Madonna with Nicki Minaj and MIA

Madonna with Nicki Minaj and MIA

Past shows have been marred by infamous nipple-baring "wardrobe malfunctions" or crude gestures that provoked anger from some of the 100 million-strong television audience.

"I am not a self-sabotager by nature," Perry said. "If there is news about my performance, I want it to be all about the music and female empowerment and that everybody just had a great time."

Pedro Hernandez is charged with killing a six-year-old boy - one of the first missing US children to feature on a milk carton.

A poster appeal to find Etan Patz who went missing 35 years ago

A man has gone on trial in New York accused of murdering a child whose disappearance in 1979 helped spark a national missing children's movement.

Pedro Hernandez, 53, is charged with kidnapping and killing Etan Patz, who was one of the first missing US youngsters to feature on the side of a milk carton.

Etan's parents helped push for legislation that created a nationwide framework for such cases.

The new laws established a hotline and made it easier for agencies to share information about youngsters who disappeared.

And the anniversary of his disappearance in 1983 became National Missing Children's Day.

Six-year-old Etan was walking from his house to his Manhattan school bus stop alone for the first time on 25 May, 1979, when he disappeared.

It led to a widespread search but his body has never been found and his family had him legally declared dead in 2001.

At the time Etan went missing, Hernandez was a teenager working in a shop in the child's neighbourhood.

He was not a suspect until 2012 and was arrested following a tip-off.

Pedro Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to the murder

Police announced he had confessed in May of that year - but he has since recanted his confession and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In his reported recorded confessions, Hernandez recounted offering a soft drink to entice the boy into the convenience store basement and choking him.

He said he put the boy, who was still alive, into a plastic bag, boxed up the bag and left it on a street.

Hernandez's defence team maintains his confessions are the false imaginings of a man who has an IQ in the lowest 2% of the population and has problems distinguishing reality from fiction.

Prosecutors call the confessions credible and NY Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley ruled they could be used at trial.

The decision followed a weeks-long hearing on whether Hernandez was properly advised of his rights to stay silent and mentally capable of understanding them.

Hernandez has taken anti-psychotic medication for years and has been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, which includes the characteristics of social isolation and odd beliefs.

The defence also wants jurors to consider long-time suspect Jose Ramos, a convicted Pennsylvania child molester.

A civil court declared Ramos responsible for Etan's death after he rebuffed questioning, but he was never criminally charged and has denied involvement.

Ramos has refused to testify at Hernandez's trial, saying he would invoke his rights against self-incrimination, but some evidence about the investigation into Ramos will be allowed.

Mitt Romney not running for president:

Mitt Romney announced Friday he will not run for president in 2016, after briefly flirting with a third White House run -- a decision that only slightly narrows the crowded field of potential Republican candidates. 
"After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I've decided it's best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee," Romney told donors on a conference call Friday morning. 
The announcement comes after the 2012 GOP nominee, who repeatedly denied interest in another campaign, surprised donors earlier this month by telling them he was considering it. 
Since then, the former Massachusetts governor spent three weeks calling donors and strategists and giving a handful of addresses, including to a Republican National Committee summit. But while some from his former campaign team were willing to wait for his decision, others were already gravitating toward the budding campaign of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. 
The two heavyweights were seen as competing for many of the same donors, supporters and strategists. And some doubted whether Romney, who lost to President Obama in 2012 after a campaign in which Democrats cast him as out-of-touch, would be able to connect on a third run -- even as early polls showed him leading the GOP field. 
Romney, in a written statement which he also read from on his conference call, said he believes that he could win the nomination, and that he would have enough funding and support. 
"The reaction of Republican voters across the country was both surprising and heartening," he said in the statement. At the same time, Romney said it would have been a "difficult test and a hard fight," and it's time for a new voice. 
"I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee," Romney said. "In fact, I expect and hope that to be the case." 
He said he will not hire a campaign team, will not take donations and will not organize a political action committee. 
Romney recently spoke with Bush in a private meeting in Utah. It's unclear whether that meeting set the stage for Friday's announcement. 
Bush, in a written statement on Friday, praised Romney as a party leader and a patriot. "There are few people who have worked harder to elect Republicans across the country than he has," he said. "Though I'm sure today's decision was not easy, I know that Mitt Romney will never stop advocating for renewing America's promise through upward mobility, encouraging free enterprise and strengthening our national defense."
A day earlier, it emerged that a key former Romney adviser was joining up with Bush's team. 
Bush recruited Romney's former senior Iowa adviser, David Kochel, as a senior strategist for his newly launched Right to Rise PAC. If Bush formally pursues a White House bid, Kochel could take on a bigger role. 
Former Romney donors also told The Associated Press they were moving toward Bush. The donors, in interviews with The Associated Press, said they see in Bush what they liked about Romney in 2012, the capacity to serve successfully as president, but also something Romney could not muster over two campaigns: the personality and senior staff needed to win the White House. 
Bush was hardly the only impediment to a Romney run. A slew of other high-profile Republicans are considering a campaign including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. 
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Romney just wasn't the "giant" of the field that he was in 2012. "You've got a herd of people running for the Republican nomination for president," he told Fox News. 
For a brief spell, though, Romney was back in his role as chief target of national Democrats, some of whom relished the potential chance to hammer him in 2016. 
Speaking to Democrats in Philadelphia on Thursday, President Obama said, "We've got a former presidential candidate on the other side who suddenly is just deeply concerned about poverty. That's great. Let's go. Come on." 
He added: "Let's do something about it. I am glad that their rhetoric at least has shifted. But let's now make sure that the policies match up with the rhetoric." 
Romney responded on Twitter. "Mr. Obama, wonder why my concern about poverty? The record number of poor in your term, and your record of failure to remedy," he wrote. 
Fox News' Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Look at These Stunning Photos of a Deserted NYC In the "Blizzard"
While you were likely inside, hiding from the "historic" "blizzard" (that wasn't) or hanging out with your "blizzard girlfriend," photographer Anthony Quintano was roaming the streets of Midtown capturing the beauty and tranquility of the snowstorm all night — from Central Park to a nearly deserted Times Square.
"I covered Sandy like I did this storm and it was eerily similar to Sandy," Quintano told Thrillist when reached by phone Tuesday. "There was no cars on the street and no people walking around and empty stations."
Quintano said he watched a group of 10-15 people start a snowball fight in Times Square, and at one point, NYPD officers briefly joined in the playful fight before people started taking pictures. "That was really cool to see," he said.
But one of his favorite moments from photographing the storm came earlier in the day in Central Park, when a squirrel ran up to him and jumped onto his phone. "I have a picture I caught just before he jumped on my phone," he said. "That was one of the funner moments."
"The whole experience of being able to roam the empty streets is just a really cool experience," Quintano said. "It’s something to take advantage of — not to say everyone should go out during the storm — but if you have the opportunity to step onto your sidewalk and take it in, it’s cool to see."

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Courtesy of Anthony Quintano

Researchers claim giving pregnant smokers financial incentives to quit is a cost-effective way of easing pressure on the NHS

Smoking during pregnancy costs the NHS millions of pounds

  regnant women who smoke are more likely to quit the habit if they are paid, according to new research.

Figures suggest 5,000 fetuses and babies die every year as a result of mums smoking during pregnancy.

And it is claimed it can cost the NHS annually up to £64m for problems in mothers and up to £23.5m for infants.

But a new study suggests financial incentives, in the form of shopping vouchers, can motivate pregnant women to quit the habit.

"This study provides substantial evidence of a very promising and potentially cost-effective new intervention to add to present health service support," the authors wrote.

"The findings can serve as the basis for future research to include other UK centres and other health care systems."

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and the University of Stirling used 612 pregnant smokers.

They were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

Half were assigned to a group offered up to £400 of financial incentives if they took part in sessions aimed at helping them quit or actually gave up.

The other half were just offered places on help groups and a face-to-face appointment with a smoking cessation adviser, four follow-up support calls and free nicotine replacement therapy for 10 weeks.

Women who were offered shopping vouchers were significantly more likely to quit smoking (23%) than those in the control group (9%).

Bart's grief-stricken owner had buried him after his lifeless body was found in the middle of the road following a car accident.

 

A cat who was buried after being hit by a car has seemingly come back from the dead - after managing to claw himself out of a grave.

Bart appeared lifeless after being found in the middle of a road by his grief-stricken owner and was laid to rest.

But five days later, the two-year-old cat was spotted in a neighbour's garden alive, despite the animal's serious injuries.

"He had dug himself out of the grave and slowly made his way back home - albeit weak, dehydrated and in need of medical attention," said the Humane Society, which is now caring for Bart as his owner is unable to pay for veterinary treatment.

When Bart was taken to their animal health centre in Florida, doctors discovered he had sustained a broken jaw and open facial wounds during the accident.

The feisty feline has also undergone surgery so one of his eyes could be removed.

Vets expect Bart to make a strong recovery, allowing him to return home in the not-too-distant future.

Hezbollah claims responsibility; number of IDF troops being treated at Sieff Hospital in Safed; mortar strikes Ghajar house directly

Smoke rises from shells fired from Israel over al-Wazzani area in southern Lebanon January 28, 2015. Israel's north under fire: An anti-tank missile struck an Israel Defense Forces vehicle in the Har Dov area near the Lebanon border on Wednesday morning, as mortar shells were fired at nearby areas.   A number of IDF troops were being treated at the Sieff Hospital in Safed.  One of the mortars struck a home in Ghajar, a village which straddles the border, setting the structure alight. The mortar fire continued into the afternoon, aimed at the Hermon region. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for all of the attacks.  The IDF responded to the attacks with fire. Lebanese media quoted security officials as saying that Israel has fired at least 25 artillery shells into Lebanon. The officials said the shelling targeted the border villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba near the Shebaa Farms area, according to Lebanese media. A Spanish UNIFIL soldier was injured in the Israeli strikes, Lebanese media reported. The IDF warned that its response would only escalate if the attacks did. IDF spokesman Moti Almoz said the military views Hezbollah as responsible for the attacks, and said the IDF's shelling of targets in south Lebanon "would not necessarily be the final response to this incident." The attacks took place as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the southern city of Sderot, laying the cornerstone for a new neighborhood. "At these moments, the IDF is responding to the events in the north. Look what happened here. Not far from the city of Sderot, in Gaza, Hamas was hit by the strongest blow it ever received last summer… Security comes before all else. Security is the foundation for everything." Netanyahu cut short his visit to Sderot and was headed to the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv for consultations. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon convened a security briefing in the wake of the attacks. Residents in the nearby city of Metuala and the surrounding kibbutzim were instructed to remain indoors. The airports in Rosh Pina and Haifa suspended operations amid the ongoing fire. The incident occured shortly after it emerged that IDF troops were digging in the same area search for possible Hezbollah tunnels. There was no apparent connection between the two incidents. Hours earlier, the IDF launched a strike on Syrian Army artillery posts in retaliation for the four rockets fired Tuesday at Israeli territory, two of which exploded in the Golan Heights. Ya'alon said that areas targeted by the IDF in Syria were under control of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. Israeli artillery scored direct hits on Syrian targets in the Quneitra province, according to a statement released by the Israel Defense Forces' spokesperson: "The IDF holds the Syrian government accountable for all attacks emanating from its land, and will operate by any means necessary to defend Israeli civilians. Such blatant breaches of Israeli sovereignty will not be tolerated," the army statement read. A rocket alert siren sounded in the Golan Heights before the Israeli strike, though the IDF said no rockets landed in Israeli-controlled territory. Groups in the Syrian opposition said Wednesday morning that the overnight Israeli strikes targeted two bases belonging to the Syrian military in the Quneitra region, and one near the Damascus international airport.

If you regularly use the Maps and YouTube apps on your PlayStation Vita, please raise a hand. If you'd be mightily disappointed if those were to disappear from the portable console, keep your hand up and someone will bring you a tissue. That's because, unfortunately, Sony has announced that both features will be going the way of all things very shortly. Maps is getting erased from history with the March software update, which will, naturally, also kill the geographic elements of the Near social gaming app. YouTube, meanwhile, will stop working on April 20th, although the app itself is being pulled from the PlayStation Store from today. The company does, however, point out that you can still access YouTube via your browser, but let's be honest - it's at that point you probably just pull out your smartphone.

Zimride, the long-distance ride-sharing service in the U.S. which spawned Lyft, is closing down its consumer-facing business to focus on corporate and university partners.

“As of January 30, 2015, Zimride is no longer taking reservations for the general public,” the company said in a note on its website.

Enterprise Holdings, the car rental firm that acquired Zimride’s assets from Lyft in July 2013, said it has made a “strategic decision to focus on its core business.”

Zimride was set up by Lyft founders John Zimmer and Logan Green back in late 2006/early 2007. The duo launched Lyft in May 2012 to provide some direct competition to Uber and the service took off from there, as TechCrunch’s Ryan Lawler described in a long essay written last year.

Zimmer described the sale of Zimride as being “mentally difficult” at the time, but the decision to focus on Lyft has paid off. The company is Uber’s chief rival in the U.S. and has raised over $300 million in capital from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Alibaba.

Zimcar took a different route, and this latest announcement raise question marks over how viable the long-distance ride-sharing business is in the U.S.. That’s a concern we’ve heard from Frédéric Mazzella, the CEO of BlaBlaBla Car, the France-based company that raised $100 million last summer and recently expanded into India, its fourteenth market.

He told the audience at Disrupt Europe in London last November that he feels long-distance ride-sharing “doesn’t really work in U.S.”

“Several companies have tried and failed [due to differences]: gas and tolls are cheaper than other countries, which means there is less incentive for drivers to share rides,” Mazzella said.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of challengers ready to step up for fans of the Zimcar service. San Francisco-based Coride has touted itself as a replacement, while Rocket Internet-backed Tripda expanded to the U.S. market last

Is the 90-year-long 'commercial break' of a 600-year-old empire now over?

A hundred years ago this week, an Ottoman army lieutenant-colonel stationed in Sofia as a military attache received a telegram from the Ministry of War back in Constantinople. In the months prior, as World War I intensified and the lieutenant's requests for a divisional command were refused by Enver Pasha, the Ottoman Empire's military leader, he'd grown weary of his post and impatient to fight. He'd even spoken to friends of enlisting as an ordinary foot soldier. But the telegram, from Enver's deputy, appointed the lieutenant commander of the army's 19th division.

Mustafa Kemal hurried back to Constantinople and then to Tekirdag, along the Marmara Sea in Thrace, to assemble his division. Those efforts were cut short on February 25, when he and his men were ordered to Gallipoli, a mountainous peninsula that divides the Marmara and Aegean Seas and controls the all-important maritime access to Istanbul and the Black Sea via the Dardanelles.

Two months later, the British attempted a naval landing on the peninsula, sparking one of the war's most hard-fought battles. Directing his forces with inspired strategy and legendary stamina, Kemal won the battle of Gallipoli, proved the mettle of the Turkish soldier and made his name as a bold, brilliant and tireless leader.

End of Ataturk's century

This week may not mark the centenary of the birth of modern Turkey, in 1923, nor of the event widely considered the conception of the republic, in May 1919, when Kemal, later known as Ataturk, or Father of the Turks, landed in Samsun and began to organise the Turkish army of resistance.

Yet by January 1915, Kemal had fought in Palestine and Syria, Libya and the Balkans, but never among Turks on home soil. Thus his taking command of the 19th division could be said to mark the moment the seeds of Turkey were first sown, kick-starting the transition from the long crumbling Ottoman Empire to the modern secular republic.

Today, that republic seems to be moving away from much of what its founder built, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) work to resurrect the Ottoman Empire, or at least its most prominent symbols. Turks are facing the end of Ataturk's century. As an AKP parliamentarian recently tweeted, "the 90-year-long commercial break of a 600-year-old empire is now over".

Erdogan seen remoulding Turkish presidency

Ataturk sought to build a modern secular state, and thus a crucial early objective was to cleanse the new republic of religion. Out went the caliphate, the Sharia Council, and Islamic judges. In came European legal codes, headscarf-free public buildings, and Friday workdays. Today, the tide is coming back in.

A rash of news stories have detailed the gradual Islamisation of the Turkish state in recent years. Religious education is on the rise - for four-year-olds, high schoolers, college students and even in military academies. Ankara revoked the ban on headscarves in schools and public buildings. AKP officials often preach a strict moral code and the government seeks financial control of the arts. 

Each day seems to bring another step away from Ataturk's republic, though some receive broad support. The AKP has, over the past decade, converted several Christian churches into mosques, but earlier this month Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced plans to build Turkey's first new church since the founding of the republic. The Ottoman-era tradition of zenne, or male belly dancers, has been returning to Turkish nightclubs after decades out of sight. Ataturk famously shifted Turkish from Arabic script to the Latin alphabet. Observers believe the AKP is looking to undo that change with their recent revival of Ottoman Turkish.

Reintroduction of the caliphate?

Some Ottoman echoes are deeply troubling. In November 1914, the grand mufti of the Ottoman Empire declared jihad, or Islamic holy war, urging all Muslims of the caliphate to take up arms against Britain, France, and their allies. In November 2014, a columnist for the pro-government Turkish daily Yeni Akit proposed the creation of a new caliphate, just as observers accused Ankara of continuing to support the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL) and other jihadists fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Few expect Turkey to turn into Saudi Arabia or reintroduce the caliphate anytime soon. Still there's little telling how far Erdogan might go with his New Turkey. The AKP is an electoral juggernaut, winning nine out of nine votes since its 2001 founding, with a 10th, for parliament, expected in June. The party expects to run the country for decades to come.

In October, Erdogan moved into a new 1,100-room, $615m palace in Ankara. Illegally constructed on a protected green space carved out by Ataturk, Ak Saray ("White Palace") is reminiscent of the vast palaces built by long-reigning sultans.

When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Turkey's president at the new palace a couple of weeks ago, the two leaders shook hands beneath a staircase lined with men in various coats of armour, brandishing spears and topped by shiny headgear. They were meant to represent the 16 empires founded by Turkic men over the ages.

Conspicuously absent was an avatar of one blue-eyed, blond-haired Ottoman army lieutenant-colonel. It seemed a hint, if any more were needed, of how Erdogan intends to commemorate the founding of the republic.