Bieber smoked pot, took Xanax before Miami arrest

 

Teen idol Justin Bieber smoked marijuana and took the anti-anxiety drug Xanax before his arrest in Florida last week, police said Thursday, a day after he was charged over a separate case.

Bieber has pleaded not guilty to charges of drunk driving, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license for drag racing in a flashy Italian sports car in Florida.

"He was driving with Xanax and marijuana in his system when he was pulled over last week by Miami Beach police," Sergeant Bobby Hernandez told AFP.

A preliminary toxicology report does not indicate how much THC -- found in pot -- or key Xanax ingredient alprazolam Bieber had in his system. It turned up negative for illicit drugs such as cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine.

The one-time boy wonder was tested just after his January 23 arrest, part of a string of bad behavior from the 19-year-old singer.

He is set to be arraigned on February 14, although he does not need to be present for the proceedings.

Bieber's father Jeremy meanwhile tweeted a photo saying the pop star was home "safe and sound" after Canadian police charged him Wednesday with the December assault of a limousine driver.

The young heartthrob is due in court on March 10.

In a growing list of run-ins with the law, Bieber's Los Angeles home was searched earlier this month because he allegedly hurled eggs at a neighbor's house.

The singer also got in trouble with authorities for spraying graffiti in Australia and Brazil, where he was also allegedly involved in flesh trade.

A petition on the White House website calling for the Canadian-born pop star's deportation had garnered more than 204,000 signatures by 4:30 pm Thursday (2130 GMT).

The number of signatures easily surpasses the 100,000-threshold required for presidential consideration.

Michael Mosley infests himself with tapeworms

He swallowed tapeworm cysts, stuck a leech on his arm, and tried to infest himself with lice, in a new BBC Four documentary programme.

The worms lived in his body for several weeks - and he felt no ill effects.
The stool samples he gave while infected will be used by scientists studying signs of parasitic infection.

Dr Mosley is known for his "gonzo" medical journalism - he has previously taken "truth serum", trialled magic mushrooms, and undergone the fasting 5:2 diet.

'Delightful' discovery In this latest film, he swallows three tapeworm cysts (eggs) which he obtained from infected cattle in Kenya.
Several weeks later, he swallows a "pill camera" which travels into his gut and broadcasts live pictures to his iPad.
He discovers three worms - "triplets" - attached to the lining of his intestine, about a metre in length.
"When I first saw the worms, I was in an Indian restaurant. I shouted out: 'Blimey! There's a tapeworm in me!' The other diners looked very surprised."

The beef tapeworm can grow more than 10m inside the human gut

"I was delighted, but at the same time, it was rather horrible.
"My wife wasn't too keen on the idea, either. But I told her not to worry - this particular tapeworm is relatively innocuous."
The beef tapeworm, Taenia saginata, is transmitted from cows to humans via infected meat.
It can grow more than 10m long in the intestine, and reproduces by passing new eggs out in the faeces.
The worm is usually asymptomatic - and Dr Mosley suffered no obvious effects, although he did put on about 1kg (2.2lbs) in weight.

Swallowing this "pill camera" let Michael Mosley see the worms inside his intestine

"It could be that the parasite increased my appetite. I ate a lot of chocolate," he explained.
"So anyone who is thinking of popping parasites as a weight-loss device should think twice."
While that idea may seem absurd, there is growing evidence that parasites may have health benefits in certain cases.
They are being considered as treatments for allergies and auto-immune diseases, as they appear to dampen the body's inflammatory responses.
Dr Mosley himself has "mild" hay fever, but was disappointed to find that the worms made no difference to his symptoms.
By documenting his experiences, he hopes to help scientists at Salford University, who are searching for early warning signs of worm infections.
"There are other tapeworms that are very nasty in humans - especially the pork tapeworm. It can get into your brain and eyes and causes cysts," he said.
'Blood everywhere' If scientists could spot these infections early, they have a chance of treating patients. But in most cases the first clue that a person is infected comes much later - such as when they pass out larvae in their faeces.

This leech was a happy camper on Dr Mosley's arm

In the programme, which will air in February, Dr Mosley also attempted to infest himself with head lice.
"I was unsuccessful - they didn't take to me," he said.
However, a blood-sucking leech that he stuck to his forearm made itself perfectly at home.
"They told me it drank eight times its body weight in blood. There was blood everywhere when I took it off," Dr Mosley said.
The main conclusion of his experiments, he said, was that "parasites on the whole, are not crazy about me".
His other conclusion: don't try this at home.
"I wouldn't recommend buying something on the internet and infecting yourself. Heaven knows where it's been," he said.
"Some people get better, some get worse, it appears. And we never seem to hear from the people who get worse."
'Michael Mosley: Infested! Living with parasites' will be broadcast in BBC Four's natural history season, starting in February.

facebook introduces paper, an immersive news reading app

 

Users of Apple’s iPhone are about to get a new way to browse their Facebook feeds and find other interesting articles that have been posted on the service: a visually focused application called Paper.

The social network intends to announce the app on Thursday, although it will not actually be available for download from Apple’s App Store until Monday. Initially it will be available only to users in the United States.

Unlike the regular Facebook mobile app, the new app does away with buttons, menus and other distractions. The focus is on making it easy to consume content. Everything appears full screen and you move around the app by swiping or pinching the screen.

Fire it up, and you see the updates from your news feed, one at a time. Photos of wide scenes like the Grand Canyon expand beyond the screen, with a tilt or twist of the phone allowing you to change your perspective to see other parts of the image. Videos start playing automatically. Longer posts appear in one scrollable chunk.

Beyond your feed, you can drill down into topics like headlines, the planet, creators and cute animals, where you will see stories and visuals selected by Facebook’s algorithms as well as a handful of human editors. Some come from content partners, like CNN, National Geographic and The New York Times, which have optimized the look of their material on the app. Other articles are drawn from posts that have been made publicly on the service, such as artists’ photos of their work or posts by celebrities.

“It’s a new way to browse stories from your friends, find topics you care about and share stories with your friends,” said Michael Reckhow, the Facebook product manager overseeing the project, in an interview. “We hope that this helps to connect people directly to the source of the content.”

As a bonus for users, there are no ads.

Paper, which has been under development for the past year, is the latest addition to Facebook’s family of single-purpose apps, which includes Messenger for instant messaging and Instagram for sharing photos and videos. 

“One of the things we want to do over the next few years is build a handful of these great, new experiences,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said Wednesday while discussing the company’s fourth-quarter financial results.

Visually, Paper resembles the cover screen of Facebook Home, the software overlay introduced last year that could effectively turn an Android phone into a Facebook-everything device. But unlike Home, which made Facebook inescapable, Paper is intended to transcend Facebook’s previous limits.

“This is really focused on content discovery and content browsing,” said Mike Matas, Paper’s product designer. Mr. Matas, a former Apple designer, joined Facebook in 2011 when his start-up, Push Pop Press, was acquired by the social network, and he has been working on the concepts behind the app ever since.

Paper joins a crowded field of content-browsing apps, which include the established leader, Flipboard, as well as newer entrants like Inside.com, Trove, Yahoo’s News Digest and Prismatic.

Mr. Matas suggests that Paper is different from all of those. “There’s nothing out there for displaying really rich stories,” he said. (I’m sure Flipboard, which resembles a well-designed digital magazine, would beg to disagree.) 

But Paper’s combination of social signals from friends and selections by human editors, an approach similar to that used by Trove, could make it an appealing alternative for Facebook users who primarily use the service to discover interesting articles and videos rather than communicate directly with friends.

Egypt: Big explosion hits Cairo police headquarters, killing at least 4

 

A plume of black smoke rose over Cairo early Friday after a powerful explosion hit the city's police headquarters, killing at least four people and wounding more than 50 others, Egyptian authorities said.

The blast struck a key symbol of authority in a country that has been shaken in recent years by political turmoil and violent unrest.

It was followed by two smaller explosions near police stations in other areas of Cairo, one of which wounded several people.

The blasts took place at time of high tension, the day before the third anniversary of the 2011 revolution that eventually brought down the country's former authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

And they come amid the instability ushered in by the military's overthrow last year of the democratically elected former president, Mohamed Morsy, and the ensuing crackdown by security forces on the Islamist movement that supported him, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Suicide bomber suspected

The first blast appeared to have been caused by a suicide attacker who tried to drive a vehicle laden with explosives into the police headquarters, said Maj. Gen. Hany Abdel Latif, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, citing preliminary reports.

Guards stationed in front of the headquarters in the Abdeen district of Cairo opened fire at the vehicle, and the explosion went off in the building's vicinity rather than inside, he told state news agency Egynews.

The force of the blast destroyed the front of the first and second floors of the eight-story building, he said, and caused material damage on the third floor.

Most of the building's windows appeared to have been blown out. Air-conditioning units dangled by cables from the shattered facade.

At least 51 people were wounded in the explosion, state-run broadcaster Masriya TV reported, citing the Health Ministry.

Visiting the ruined building, Egyptian Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim condemned the bombing.

"These are nothing but desperate attacks in an attempt to create chaos, but the citizens here will remain resilient," Ibrahim told Masriya TV.

He said security forces would ensure that Egyptians would be able to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution Saturday "as if nothing happened today."

More explosions follow

CNN's Reza Sayah said the blast appeared to be "the most powerful bomb attack that we've seen here in central Cairo in recent memory."

Speaking from near the scene of the blast, Sayah said the attack will likely intensify the fight between Egypt's military-backed government and the groups that oppose it.

It wasn't immediately clear who was behind that attack.

Friday is a holiday in Egypt, so the police headquarters is unlikely to have been as busy as it would have been on a weekday. The blast happened around 6:30 a.m., according to state media.

Footage aired by local broadcasters showed significant damage to the front of the building. The street in front of the headquarters was cordoned off.

Hundreds of people -- some stunned, some angry -- gathered around the scene, Sayah said. Many of those in the crowd were quick to blame the Muslim Brotherhood, despite no official word on who might be to blame.

The explosion appeared to have shattered windows and damaged other parts of buildings several blocks away, he said.

A second, much smaller explosion Friday went off near police station in Dokki, a residential area of Cairo, wounding several people, authorities said.

And in the Al-Haram district of the city, a homemade bomb exploded in the vicinity of a police station, the semiofficial Ahram Online news outlet reported. There were no immediate reports of casualties from that explosion.

Fears of more turmoil

In a referendum earlier this month, Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution proposed by the military-backed government, according to the country's electoral commission.

But supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood had boycotted the vote in response to a continuing government crackdown.

Rights groups have expressed concern about what they call an increasingly repressive environment in Egypt, where more than 2,200 people have been killed since the ouster of Morsy.

Some anti-government groups have resorted to violence. Bomb attacks and shootings against the security apparatus have taken place across the country in recent months -- a situation described by some as a low-level insurgency.

The government has blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for many of the attacks, even though the movement has condemned them.

The bombing of the Cairo police headquarters suggested the violence is taking on a more serious, high-profile form.

"The fear is there's a very difficult and tumultuous phase ahead for this country," Sayah said.

Captain and Tennille File for Divorce: Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon to End Marriage After Nearly 40 Years

   

Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon, of Captain and Tennille, are divorcing after nearly 40 years of marriage. 

     Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Love isn't keeping them together any longer. Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon, of the Captain & Tennille singing duo, are divorcing after nearly 40 years of marriage.
Tennille, 73, filed for divorce from Dragon, 71, in Arizona on Jan. 16, according to paperwork obtained by ABC News.
PHOTOS: Hollywood's ugliest divorces
Dragon told TMZ on Wednesday, Jan. 22 that he was blindsided by the filing. "I don't know why she filed," he said, adding that they are still living together. "I gotta figure it out for myself first."
Dragon and Tennille toured with the Beach Boys, as keyboardists, in the '70s. They later began touring as a duo, and released their first album, Love Will Keep Us Together, in 1975. Some of their hit tracks include: "Do That To Me One More Time," "Muskrat Love," and "The Way I Want To Touch You."
PHOTOS: 2013's biggest splits
In a September 2010 blog post, Tennille announced that Dragon suffered from a neurological condition similar to Parkinson's that caused tremors and made it difficult for him to play keyboards. "Some days he does pretty well.... other days his playing is severely compromised," she wrote.
PHOTOS: Ageless A-listers
Captain & Tennille's website was recently updated with a message about their split. "Until Thursday, January 16th, 2014, when Toni Tennile met with a DIVORCE ATTORNEY, in Phoenix, AZ, everything relating to THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE appeared to the public as them being the ideal model for a 'rock-solid' married pair," the statement read. "But almost all people naturally evolve over time, & sometimes hidden feelings start to be uncovered when one may read, just a little more into (the popularized, substitute heading appearing just below), stating, for instance: 'MUSIC HAS KEPT THEM TOGETHER.'"

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Might Protect The Aging Brain

Adding to our diets more of the omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish (or fish oil supplements) has been controversial  in recent years, but a new study adds some interesting neurological evidence to their effectiveness. Cognitive decline is a too-common side effect of aging, and Alzheimer’s disease is unnervingly prevalent. So it’s nice to feel like we’re doing something to reduce the odds. Eating fatty fish regularly might be one way to this, and so might taking fish oil supplements – but it depends on the kind.
A team at the University of South Dakota looked at 1,100 postmenopausal women who’d taken part in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study. The levels of the fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in fatty fish, were measured in their red blood cells, and the volume in different areas of their brains, as well as total brain volume, were measured via MRI at the end of the eight-year study.

It turned out that women who had the highest levels of the fatty acids in their red blood cells had greater overall brain volume than women with the lowest. They also had greater volume in the hippocampus – about 2.7% greater – than women with the lowest levels. The hippocampus is the brain area that’s thought to be the seat of learning and memory, and the one most affected by Alzheimer’s disease.
What are these fats doing in the brain? “It’s likely that fish oil doesn’t increase brain volume, but prevents brain shrinkage with age,” study author James Pottala tells me. “This could be due to several mechanisms. The brain metabolizes DHA into several anti-inflammatory compounds that could help prevent cell death. Also, DHA is concentrated in nerve cell membranes, so if a sufficient amount is not available in the blood for replenishment then it makes sense that the amount of brain matter would decline over time.”
He adds that consuming higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids could be the equivalent to two extra years of brain health. For people who don’t consume much fish, supplements might be necessary. This is because the body is very poor at converting the omega-3s found in plant sources (namely ALA) to the heart- and brain-healthy DHA and EPA. Therefore, says Pottala says, “most organizations recommend that all adults should eat non-fried ‘oily’ fish (e.g. salmon, herring, tuna, sardines, etc.) at least twice a week,” or taking high-quality fish oil supplements.
Unfortunately, not all supplements are created equal, as another study has just reported (see below for a nice graphic of the top 10 brands in both quality and value). On average, supplements contained about 14% less DHA than indicated on the label, but there was huge variation across brands. The highest quality supplements were Dr. Tobias, Nordic Naturals, and Axis Labs. The best value supplements were Nature Made, Axis Labs, and NOW Foods.
While there’s no failsafe way to protect the brain against disease, eating a healthy diet full of antioxidants and essential nutrients, is one way to help reduce the risk. Always talk to your doctor about adding supplements to your diet.

Indian village elders arrested for 'ordering' gang-rape

Police have arrested 13 men after a 20-year-old woman was allegedly raped as a punishment for having an affair 

Indian police have arrested 13 people after a 20-year-old village woman was allegedly gang-raped on orders from tribal elders who objected to her relationship with a man.

The attack again highlighted India's dismal record on preventing sexual violence, after the fatal gang-rape of a student in New Delhi in December 2012 sparked protests and unleashed seething public anger.

Politicians denounced the latest attack as "outrageous", while women's groups said it showed how little things have changed for women since 2012 in a deeply patriarchal nation.

The incident took place on Tuesday in a remote village in West Bengal state, where the unmarried woman from the Santhal tribal group was suspected of a relationship with a Muslim man from another village.

The elders, who comprise the informal village council, initially fined her family 25,000 rupees (£280) but they were too poor to pay, district police superintendent C Sudhakar told AFP.

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"The girl was gang-raped for having an affair with a youth of another community and failing to pay the fine which was imposed by the village council," he said.
"All 13 men, including the chief of the village council, who were named in the complaint before the police, were arrested," Sudhakar said.
The woman, her head wrapped in a scarf, confirmed the attack when confronted by television crews, saying softly: "They raped me ... all of them were my father's age."
Tribal or caste-based village councils composed of male elders exert enormous influence over rural life, particularly in northern India. They often issuing diktats and punishments for moral and other perceived offences.
The incident echoes a brutal attack on a woman in neighbouring Pakistan in 2002 on the orders of a village council, to avenge her 12-year-old brother's alleged impropriety with a woman from a rival clan.
This week's incident happened in the village of Subalpur, 149 miles west of the state capital Calcutta, after the couple were found together.
"The head of the village council held an urgent meeting in the village square on Tuesday when the girl and her lover were called," Sudhakar said.
"The girl and her lover were tied to two separate trees and fined 25,000 rupees each for having an affair," he said.
"As the parents of the girl, who were also present at the meeting, expressed their inability to pay the fine, the head of the village council ordered that she should be raped by the villagers as punishment."
The man was freed after he agreed to pay the fine within a week, but the woman was taken to a shed where the attack was carried out, he said.
The woman, who was recovering in a local hospital in Birbhum district, identified to police all 13 attackers. They were all denied bail on Thursday after appearing in court in the nearby town of Bolpur.
Politicians from all sides of politics branded the incident "inhuman and completely outrageous," while some called for the men to be swiftly prosecuted and sentenced to death.
"In a democratic country, based upon the rule of law, no vigilantism can be permitted," said Manish Tewari, Information Minister.
But the incident shows the level of control that unelected male councils, known as "panchayats", still have over women in India's deeply patriarchal society, women's groups said.
"This West Bengal case shows the yawning gap between our constitution and our society," said Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association.
"It is not only in remote rural areas, such mentality exists in metros like Delhi. The seeds are embedded deeply in our society and our caste."
In the same district four years ago, a teenage girl from a local tribe was paraded naked through the streets for the same reason, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Last month India marked the first anniversary of the death of the 23-year-old student who was gang-raped in New Delhi on a moving bus, an attack that sent shockwaves across the nation.
Despite tougher laws and efforts to change attitudes to women across India, the number of reported sex crimes continues to rise.
Earlier this month, a Danish woman was allegedly gang-raped and robbed in New Delhi after she became lost on her way back to her hotel. Six men have been arrested over that attack.

Justin Bieber DUI arrest in Florida latest legal woe for pop star

 

Justin Bieber's arrest in Miami Beach for alleged drunk driving and street racing is the latest legal woe to hit the pop star after facing a series of accusations from his neighbors in Calabasas.

Bieber was arrested in the predawn hours Thursday on suspicion of drunk driving after an alleged street racing incident.
Miami Beach police Sgt. Bobby Hernandez told the Orlando Sentinel that Bieber was pulled over in a yellow Lamborghini about 4 a.m. and administered a field sobriety test, which he failed.
Bieber was scheduled to be taken to Miami-Dade County's Main Jail later in the day to have his mugshot taken, the Sentinel reported.
Meanwhile, Bieber has faced a raft of accusations made by his neighbors in Calabasas.
During the last couple of years, Bieber has been accused by nearby residents of throwing loud parties, speeding in his Ferrari and spitting on a neighbor.
Earlier this month, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies served a felony search warrant at the pop star's  home looking for evidence that he allegedly tossed eggs at a neighbor's home, causing $20,000 in damage.
During the search, a substance suspected to be Ecstasy or the synthetic drug Molly was found "in plain view of the deputies," sheriff's officials said. Bieber's friend, Xavier Dominique Smith, 20 -- also known as Lil' Za -- was arrested in connection with the discovery.

Elton John rebukes Russia's anti-gay law, cites Moscow visit

Pop singer Elton John spoke out on Wednesday against Russia's ban on homosexual propaganda, saying the law legitimized homophobia and provided legal cover to extremists.
John's 500-word statement comes a month after he performed in the country and three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was welcoming to gays, citing the popularity of the openly gay 66-year-old singer as evidence.
The law has come under fire from human rights activists as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympics next month.
During a visit to Moscow in December, John performed a concert at which he condemned the law, and said he was keen to gain a first-hand understanding of its effect on the LGBT community.
"What I heard reinforced all the media stories that have been circling since the propaganda bill became federal law: that vicious homophobia has been legitimized by this legislation and given extremists the cover to abuse people's basic human rights," John said.
"Everyone shared stories of verbal and physical abuse - at work, in bars and restaurants or in the street - since the legislation came into force last June," he said. He added that he would welcome the chance to introduce Putin to gay Russians.
Russia's law bans the dissemination of gay propaganda among minors, and has become a focal point of criticism by the West and human rights activists who say the law is discriminatory and represents a crackdown on rights and freedoms under Putin.
Putin has addressed the controversy around the law with journalists multiple times in the past weeks ahead of next month's Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, a showcase that Russia hopes will burnish is image abroad.
He invoked John as proof that Russians do not discriminate against gays.
"Millions of our people sincerely love him despite his orientation," Putin told foreign journalists on Sunday. Putin also said that he had gay acquaintances and told the BBC that he would "definitely" talk with gay celebrities like John and actor Ian McKellen.
The "Tiny Dancer" singer became a target of the law's supporters last September when a parents' group asked Putin to cancel John's December concerts in Moscow and Kazan. John first performed in the former Soviet Union in 1979.
John, one of the world's most prominent gay celebrities who has two children with his partner, said the law has also promoted misunderstanding and ignorance among the Russian people, and implies that gays are dangerous to children.
"In particular, it is very disappointing that the law explicitly links homosexuality with child sex abuse, which countless studies have shown to be conclusively wrong," said John who has campaigned for gay rights.

I Cheated On My Boyfriend - Popular Nollywood Actress

 Actress and film maker, Dayo Amusa, recently made a very surprising revelation in an interview.

Asked whether she has ever cheated on a partner she replied;
"Yes I have cheated on a boyfriend. I cheated when I  realized he wasn’t real and not what he said he was. In my mind, I moved on even without telling him. I move on in my mind before telling the person I’m dating. If I make up my mind, that’s it.
Has your boyfriend ever cheated on you?
"Which guy does not cheat? Guys are born to cheat.
Responding to whether she felt bad about cheating, she said;
"Yes, most definitely. I won’t leave my man because he cheated. I won’t. That’s the way men are. They can tell you, you are the only sugar in their tea. Don’t mind them. There’s honey they are mixing with it. I don’t want to see it. You know some guys are so irresponsible that they splash it in your face.
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