Hollywoods Traumpaar Angelina Jolie und Brad Pitt hat sein Traumhaus in der Provence gefunden. Die beiden wollen nach der Geburt ihrer Zwillinge - Nachwuchs Nummer 5 und 6 in der Großfamilie - mit Kind und Kegel nach Miraval im Département Var ziehen, berichtete “Le Parisien”. Ein Mietvertrag für drei Jahre sei unterzeichnet, die ersten Umzugswagen bereits eingetroffen. Infobox Hier sollen die Jolie-Pitts wohnen Angelina Jolie begeistert in Cannes erneut Die Bilder des Paares aus Cannes Angelina Jolie zeigt ihren Mega-Babybauch. Nach den ersten Bildern handelt es sich um ein ockerfarbenes zweistöckiges altes Landhaus mit blauen Fensterläden und Ziegeldach. Das Weingut Miraval gehört dem amerikanischen Industriellen Tom Bove und ist beliebt bei Superstars. Es gibt dort auch ein Studio, in dem die Gruppe Pink Floyd mehrere Titel ihres Albums “The Wall” aufgenommen hat. Auch The Cure, Sade und Oasis haben schon die idyllische Abgeschiedenheit von Miraval genossen.

Angelina Jolie will die Zwillinge, die sie von ihrem Liebsten Brad Pitt erwartet, in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat zur Welt bringen. Während des Filmfestivals in Cannes hatte sie angekündigt, dass sie sich möglicherweise in Frankreich niederlassen wolle. Französisch sei die zweite Sprache in ihrer Familie. Angelina und Brad haben drei Adoptivkinder - Maddox (6), Pax (4) und Zahara (3) - und die leibliche Tochter Shiloh, die Ende Mai zwei Jahre alt wird….[..]

Quelle: krone.at

Die britische Polizei appelliert nach der jüngsten tödlichen Messerstecherei in London an die Eltern Jugendlicher. Sicherheitskräfte allein könnten die Gewaltwelle nicht eindämmen.

Nach einer neuen Welle blutiger Gewalttaten unter Jugendlichen hat Scotland Yard die Eltern von Teenagern aufgefordert, sie nicht mit Messern oder anderen Waffen auf die Straße zu lassen. Die immer brutaler werdenden Angriffe auf Jugendliche könnten nicht allein von den Sicherheitskräften eingedämmt werden, sagte Scotland-Yard-Chef Ian Blair.

“Die Messer, die wir zu sehen bekommen, stammen oft genug aus dem heimischen Küchenschrank”, sagte Blair. “Eltern haben die Pflicht, ihre Kinder zu fragen, ob etwa auch sie mit Messern in der Tasche herumlaufen.” Derweil wurde am Dienstag vor einem Haftrichter in London ein 21-Jähriger wegen Mordes an einem Schauspieler des neuen “Harry Potter”-Films angeklagt. Dem Arbeitslosen aus Südlondon wird vorgeworfen, den 18-jährigen Darsteller Rob Knox am Samstag bei einem Streit vor einer Bar erstochen und fünf andere junge Leute mit Messerstichen verletzt zu haben. Auf Knox hatte der Täter eingestochen, als dieser seinen ein Jahr jüngeren Bruder Jamie vor ihm schützen wollte….[..]

Quelle: sueddeutsche.de/
 

Michel Fournier’s hope to set a new free-fall record ended in farce today when his ride to the sky left without him. The helium balloon Michel Fournier, a former army paratrooper, was going to use to soar to the stratosphere detached from the capsule he was set to jump 40,000 meters (130,000 feet) from. It happened after the balloon was inflated on the ground at an airport in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, leaving the balloon to drift away into the sky without the capsule.

Fournier appeared disappointed as he left the capsule and walked to the hanger.  The daring ‘jump’ was scheduled yesterday but had to be postponed to today because of wind conditions.

Fournier wanted to break the record for the fastest and longest free fall, the highest parachute jump and the highest balloon flight. He was also trying to bring back data to help ASTRONAUTS and others survive in the highest altitudes. This is the third failed attempt for Fournier, who has employed an army of technicians, data crunchers, balloon and weather specialists to help him.

The skydivers first two attempts, in 2002 and 2003, ended when wind gusts shredded his balloon before it became airborne.

He had planned to make the jump in France, but the government denied him permission because it believed the project was too dangerous.

Fournier, with more than 8,000 jumps under his belt, would have been three-times higher than a commercial jetliner.

And the equivalent of a mountain climber ascending four Mount Everests stacked one on top of the other.

It was expected to take Fournier 15 minutes to come down, descending at 1,500 kilometers per hour (932 mph) - 1.7 times the speed of sound - smashing through the sound barrier, before finally deploying his chute about 6,000 meters (yards) above the ground.

Source: thesun.co.uk/

American-Jewish businessman Morris Talansky told the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday that he gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert $150,000 out of his own pocket, speculating that some of the money went to fund Olmert’s fondness for fine hotels, first-class flights and luxury goods.

He told the court that most of the money he turned over at meetings in New York and Jerusalem was to cover Olmert’s political activities over a 15-year period. But a tearful Talansky also said Olmert’s assistant, Shula Zaken, would often ask for cash to cover unidentified personal expenses.

He specifically mentioned that he met the prime minister 10 times between 2002 and 2005, while Olmert was industry, trade and labor minister, and on each occasion, gave him envelopes of cash. Talansky stressed, however, that he did not do it for personal gain.

“I had a very close relationship with him for over 16 years. The relationship was one of great admiration. I never expected anything from him and never received anything from him whatsoever,” said Talansky, testifying as a witness for the prosecution in the investigation into allegations that Olmert accepted illegal payments from the US financier.

Source: jpost.com/

In a surprise move, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met late Monday night with a senior Hamas delegation in his office in Ramallah.

The unexpected meeting came amid reports about an impending prisoner exchange between Hizbullah and Israel.

The meeting focused on the reported deal and efforts to achieve a cease-fire between the Palestinians and Israel.

PA and Hamas officials expressed hope that the prisoner exchange would pave the way for a similar deal between Israel and Hamas. However, they refused to say whether the meeting between Abbas and the Hamas delegation was linked to the deal between Israel and Hizbullah.

“We welcome the news about a breakthrough in the talks between Israel and Hizbullah, especially with regards to the release of [Lebanese prisoner] Samir Kuntar,” said a senior PA official in Abbas’s office. “We hope that this would lead to the release of [kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl.] Gilad Schalit and Palestinian prisoners.”

Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip refused to say whether the case of Schalit was part of the deal between Hizbullah and Israel.

But according to a senior Hamas official, “Hamas wants to close the case of Schalit as soon as possible.” He said that Hamas has made “real concessions” regarding the case of Schalit and was now prepared to exchange him for fewer than 400 Palestinian prisoners.

The Hamas official told The Jerusalem Post that a cease-fire with Israel would pave the way for a prisoner exchange between the two parties. “We have told the Egyptians that we will be more flexible on the case of Schalit once Israel accepts the truce proposal and stops its military aggression,” he said.

Both the PA and Hamas officials expressed disappointment over reports that Hizbullah had not demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in the latest talks. The release of Kuntar and other Lebanese prisoners would boost Hizbullah’s standing in Lebanon, particularly after the recent wave of violence in Beirut.

Hizbullah, Arab political analysts said Monday, is desperately in need of improving its image following allegations that its fighters acted like gangsters when they captured large parts of the Lebanese capital.

Similarly, a prisoner exchange with Hamas would bolster the movement’s standing among the Palestinians, the analysts noted. They said that the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners, including some from the rival Fatah faction, would certainly earn Hamas more points on the Palestinian street.

The Hamas officials who met with Abbas on Monday told him that they were keen on mending fences with his Fatah faction in the same way the warring Lebanese factions solved their differences earlier this week in Qatar. They also told him that Hamas supports Egypt’s efforts to achieve a cease-fire with Israel.

The Hamas delegation was led by former deputy prime minister Nasser Eddin Shaer and Sheikh Hamed Bitawi, a senior religious scholar who was recently released from Israeli prison. The two, along with four other Hamas figures, are also reported to have relayed a message to Abbas from Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and Syria expressing their desire to end the ongoing dispute with Fatah.

Source: jpost.com/

Oil held steady above US$133 a barrel Tuesday in Asia on worries about global petroleum supplies and the outlook for the U.S. dollar.

Reports of an attack by militants on an oil pipeline in Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest oil exporters, also supposed prices.

Midafternoon in Singapore, light, sweet crude for July delivery was up 95 U.S. cents from Friday at $133.14 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Nymex floor trading was closed Monday for Memorial Day in the U.S., and electronic trading levels were little changed from the day before during Asian hours. Monday was also a bank holiday in Britain, and trading volumes were lower than usual.

In London, July Brent crude futures were up 36 U.S. cents at $132.73 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Memorial Day holiday officially kicks off the American summer driving season, and analysts are expecting the seasonal demand for diesel and gasoline to provide additional support for prices.

The dollar, which had been slipping over the last week after a modest recovery, showed some renewed vigor in afternoon currency trade in Tokyo, gaining ground against both the yen and euro.

But investors will be watching economic data out of the United States to be released over the next few days for further clues about the health of the world’s biggest economy.

Reports are expected this week on U.S. consumer confidence, new home sales, gross domestic product and other key economic data. If the reports show the economy’s weak trend is continuing or deepening, that would push the dollar lower, which would in turn boost oil prices.

Oil and other hard commodities are seen as hedges against a weakening greenback and inflation. Also, a weak dollar — the currency of international trade and a key factor in oil’s rally from about $65 a year ago — makes petroleum products less expensive to Asian and European buyers.

Source: thejakartapost.com/

Plane crashes in southeast Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, May 27 (Reuters)

An airplane crashed in the remote province of Kampot in southeast Cambodia Tuesday, a local military commander said. “I can confirm there was a foreign plane that crashed in Cambodia in the province of Kampot this morning. We don’t have any details,” deputy Kampot military commander Kung Mony told Reuters. Villagers in one district told Reuters they had heard a loud explosion. Soldiers and police were searching the area.
 

China quake toll tops 67,000

BEIJING, May 27 (AFP):

The death toll from China’s earthquake rose to 67,183 Tuesday, with another 20,790 missing, a government spokesman said. “As of noon on May 27, the earthquake has caused 67,183 deaths,” cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin told a press conference. He said the confirmed number of injured from the May 12 earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan province stood at 361,822. The new death toll was a rise of just over 2,100 from Monday’s confirmed tally of 65,080.

Somali pirates seize Dutch-owned ship

NAIROBI, May 27 (Reuters):

Somali gunmen hijacked a Dutch-owned ship as it travelled from Kenya’s Mombasa port to Romania in the latest act of piracy off the lawless Horn of Africa nation’s coast, a maritime official said on Tuesday. The MV Amiya Scan, managed by the Dutch Reider Shipping BV, was seized along with some nine Russian and Filipino crew members on Sunday while it passed through the Gulf of Aden, said the director of the Seafarers Assistance Programme. “Unfortunately we don’t know where she is right now … there’s been no ransom demand yet,” he told Reuters

Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack dies

LOS ANGELES, May 27 (AFP):

Sydney Pollack, the critically acclaimed Academy Award-winning director of “Out of Africa” and “Tootsie”, died of cancer Monday, US media reported. He was 73. The director and producer made several Hollywood blockbusters and worked with A-list stars such as Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman. He died in Pacific Palisades surrounded by family, trade magazine Variety reported.