Dinosaur Skull Purchased by Nicolas Cage to Be Returned to Mongolia
Nicolas Cage has handed over an illegally imported dinosaur skull that he had purchased in 2007 to the U.S. government as part of an effort to return stolen fossils to Mongolia, Cage's representative said.
The Tyrannosaurus bataar skull was sold at auction in 2007 in Manhattan for $276,000 by Beverly Hills-based I.M. Chait Gallery, according to the U.S. Attorney’s civil forfeiture complaint.
Cage agreed to transfer possession of the fossil to the Department of Homeland Security, based on a determination that "the fossil was indeed illegally smuggled into the U.S. and rightfully belongs to the Government of Mongolia," Alex Schack, a representative for Cage, said in an email.
The skull is now in the possession of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of DHS that specializes in investigating stolen antiquities and cultural artifacts.
“Cultural artifacts such as this Bataar Skull represent a part of Mongolian national heritage. It belongs to the people of Mongolia," said ICE Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Glenn Sorge.
The civil complaint, which was announced last week, leaves the buyer unnamed. However, Schack confirmed to ABC News that Cage was the buyer and he was identified in 2013 when controversy over the skull arose.
At the time of sale, the skull was described as “an extremely rare tyrannosaurid” from the Late Cretaceous period (67 million years ago). The specimen measured 32 inches in length and was approximately 65-percent complete, with “knife-like serrated teeth,” according to I.M. Chait Gallery.
I.M. Chait did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.
Cage received a certificate of authenticity from the auction company, according to Schack. In 2014, DHS contacted Cage’s representatives to inform him that it believed the fossil he had purchased may have been illegally smuggled into the U.S. from Mongolia.
He cooperated with the investigation and arranged for an inspection of the fossil by government officials, Schack said.
The bataar skull was imported through an intermediary via Japan by self-described commercial paleontologist Eric Prokopi, who then put it up at auction at Chait in 2007, according to Prokopi's attorney, Georges Lederman.
Prokopi pleaded guilty in 2012 to engaging in a scheme to illegally import numerous dinosaur fossils, including one count of conspiracy, one count of false statements on entry of goods and one count of interstate and foreign transportation of goods converted and taken by fraud, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As part of his plea agreement, Prokopi agreed to the forfeiture of a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton (the First bataar), which sold at auction in 2010 for over $1 million, as well as a second nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton, a Saurolophus skeleton, and an Oviraptor skeleton, according to the Justice Department.
In July 2014, Prokopi was sentenced to three months in prison.
“Mongolian law at the time was very inconsistent and confusing at the time. It has since been changed," Lederman told ABC News.
Lederman said that when Prokopi put the fossil up for auction, he believed it to have been legally imported. Prokopi has since moved on and "is leading a law-abiding life," Lederman said.
Source-ABC News
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Earns Critics’ Choice Awards Nomination
After a record-breaking opening weekend at the box office, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned an award nomination.
The film on Tuesday received a nod in the best picture category for the 21st annual Critics’ Choice Awards. The nominees were announced last week, but a special referendum for Star Wars was held Monday because it was not screened for voters in time for the initial nominations balloting.
The Critics’ Choice Awards will air on A&E, Lifetime and LMN on January 17.
The Force Awakens set several records over the weekend, including the best domestic debut ever, with 248 million dollars. It made 40.1 million dollars on Monday, a record for that day of the week.
On Tuesday, The Force Awakens set another new mark, having raised a total of 300 million dollars at the domestic box office faster than any other film in history.
The massive success of The Force Awakens should help its cast members earn bigger paychecks for the follow-up films, though Harrison Ford was already paid handsomely for reprising his role of Han Solo in this movie. He earned as much as 20 million dollars for The Force Awakens -- more than 50 times more than co-stars John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, who made somewhere between 100 thousand and 300 thousand dollars, according to Variety.
The Force Awakens was released by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Teresa Giudice Released from Prison
Teresa Giudice, star of Real Housewives of New Jersey, has been released from prison, her lawyer confirms to ABC News.
Her release comes a few months before the scheduled end of her 15-month sentence. Giudice was sentenced to prison last year after being convicted of fraud along with her husband.
"She's looking forward to coming home," Giudice's attorney, James Leonard, told ABC News earlier this week in announcing his client's planned early release. "She's going to go straight home. She's not going to a halfway house. She's going to get to spend Christmas with her family and get back to her life." Leonard said Giudice was being released for good behavior and that "she's not receiving preferential treatment."
Giudice's husband, Joe Giudice, is scheduled to start his own 41-month sentence in March.
Source-ABC News
Tiger Woods expects majors in next decade & 2016 Ryder Cup
Tiger Woods is back in upbeat mood and expecting to win major championships over the next decade.
He had back surgery for the second time in 18 months in September and talked about retirement earlier this month.
Now the former world number one, who is 40 on 30 December, hopes to play competitively again early in 2016.
"Where do I see myself in the next five to 10 years? I am still playing golf at the highest level, winning tournaments and majors," he wrote on his website.
Woods spent a record total of 683 weeks as world number one but has not won a tournament since the Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013.
He is now ranked 414th and won the last of his 14 majors in 2008.
Asked about entering his fifth decade, he said: "Mentally, people who know me know I'm like a five-year-old.
"Physically, sometimes I feel old and sometimes I feel like a teenager. I don't like the polar opposites of the two. I'd like to be somewhere in the middle where I feel 40.
"The thing I'm looking forward to the most about 2016 is getting back out there again. I've missed it, and I would like to do it pain-free.
"I've had it in spurts the last few years and have done some pretty good things, but I'd like to have sustained health."
Woods was named as an assistant by US captain Davis Love III for next year's Ryder Cup in Minnesota but said he is still aiming for a more prominent role against Europe at the Hazeltine National Golf Club.
Source-BBC
India puts brakes on Facebook's Free Basics scheme
Facebook's effort to provide Indians with free access to a limited number of internet services has run into trouble.
The country's telecoms regulator has asked the mobile network that partnered with the US firm to put their Free Basics offer on hold.
Data fees are relatively expensive in India, and the initiative aims to prevent this being a deterrent.
But critics of the Free Basics service say it runs contrary to net neutrality principles.
They suggest data providers should not favor some online services over others by offering cheaper or faster access.
A spokesman for Reliance Communications - the mobile network that had supported the scheme - confirmed it would comply with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's demand.
Source-BBC
Oil prices will reach $70 a barrel by 2020, says Opec
Oil producers' group Opec has said it expects oil prices to recover to $70 a barrel by 2020.
Prices have fallen from more than $110 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to less than $37 a barrel now due to oversupply and slowing demand.
But Opec said oil prices would begin to rise next year and, longer term, would rise due to higher exploration costs.
It expects the market share of Opec producers to shrink by 2020 as rivals prove more resilient than expected.
The group currently accounts for about 30% of the world's oil production, down from 50% in the 1970s.
Part of the reason for this decline is the emergence of vast quantities of shale oil produced in the US. This has also been factor in pushing down the price of oil to 11-year lows.
In its World Oil Outlook report, Opec said it expected supply growth from US shale to slow dramatically next year, as producers struggled to cope with such a low prices.
Opec's strategy this year has been to allow prices to fall by maintaining production in the hope that, eventually, US shale producers will be forced out of business.
Another factor in low prices, Opec said, was weaker economic growth, particularly in developing economies. It highlighted China, where the "economy seems to be maturing and growth is decelerating faster than previously expected".
The report also highlighted the "huge reductions" in spending on exploration and production by the industry as a whole due to low oil prices.
These cutbacks will ultimately see supply fall, it said, putting upward pressure on prices.
Another longer-term factor pushing prices up, Opec said, was higher exploration costs, as companies are forced to look harder for oil as traditional supply sources dwindle. Deep water drilling, for example, is considerably more expensive than drilling onshore.
Finally, Opec said population and economic growth would see demand for energy rise by almost a half by 2040, increasing demand for oil.
Opec was founded in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
These countries have since been joined by Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), the United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), Gabon (1975) and Angola (2007).
Source-BBC
Court orders exiled tycoon's arrest
A Russian court has placed ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on an international wanted list over the 1990s murder of a Siberian mayor.
Mr Khodorkovsky has been living in exile in Europe since he was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in 2013 after 10 years in jail for fraud.
He told the BBC he was considering applying for political asylum in Britain as one of several options.
Russia's once-richest man said the authorities had "gone mad".
Mr Khodorkovsky is accused of ordering several of his employees to kill both the mayor and a businessman, who survived.
Investigators allege Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyugansk, was killed on 26 June 1998 for demanding Mr Khodorkovsky's oil firm, Yukos, pay taxes that the company had been avoiding.
Local businessman Yevgeny Rybin was allegedly targeted because his activities "clashed with Yukos's interests", Russia's powerful Investigative Committee (SK) said in a statement (in Russian) as it announced his arrest in absentia.
Mr Rybin survived a gun attack in November 1998 and a second attack on his car in March 1999, when another man in the vehicle was killed and several people were injured.
Five people have already been tried for the attacks and the arrest warrant is unlikely to make any difference unless Mr Khodorkovsky returns to Russia, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reported from Moscow.
Source-BBC
PUBLIC FORECAST FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT WEDNESDAY 23RD DECEMBER 2015
THIS IS A PUBLIC FORECAST FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT WEDNESDAY 23RD DECEMBER 2015 ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY AT 6AM
GENERAL SITUATION: PERSISTENT HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE WEATHER CONDITIONS ACROSS THE ISLANDS.
SPECIAL WARNINGS: MARINERS AND BEACHGOERS SHOULD CONTINUE TO EXERCISE CAUTION DUE TO ROUGH SURF CONDITIONS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF HAZARDOUS RIP CURRENTS MAINLY AT BEACHES ALONG THE EASTERN SHORELINES.
NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS:
WEATHER: MOSTLY SUNNY AND WINDY WITH THE CHANCE A FEW ISOLATED SHOWERS TODAY. FAIR AND BREEZY TONIGHT.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT.
WINDS:SOUTHEASTERLY AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS.
SEAS: 5 TO 8 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.
TURKS AND CAICOS:
WEATHER: PARTLY TO MOSTLY SUNNY AND WINDY WITH A FEW PASSING SHOWERS TODAY. MOSTLY CLEAR ABD BREEZY TONIGHT.
ADVISORY: SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT.
WINDS: EAST TO SOUTHEAST AT 20 TO 30 KNOTS.
SEAS: 8 TO 12 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.
HIGH TEMPERATURE : 86 °F 30 °C
LOW TEMPERATURE : 75 °F 24 °C
SUNRISE: 6:51AM MOONRISE: 4:10PM LOW TIDE: 12:07PM LOW TIDE: 12:06AM THUR.
SUNSET: 5:26PM MOONSET: 5:48AM THUR. HIGH TIDE : 05:57PM
WEATHER OUTLOOK: HIGH PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MAINTAIN BRISK WINDS ACROSS THE ISLANDS THROUGH THE CHRISTMAS WEEKEND.
FORECAST FOR THURSDAY ( CHRISTMAS EVE)
WEATHER: PARTLY TO MOSTLY SUNNY AND BREEZY WITH THE CHANCE OF A FEW PASSING SHOWERS.
WINDS: SOUTHEASTERLY AT 15 TO 20 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS...EASTERLY AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS IN THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS.
SEAS: 4 TO 7 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS....5 TO 8 FEET IN THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS.
FORECAST FOR FRIDAY (CHRISTMAS DAY)
WEATHER: PARTLY SUNNY AND BREEZY WITH THE CHANCE OF A FEW EVENING SHOWERS MAINLY ACROSS THE NORTHWEST BAHAMAS.
WINDS: EAST TO SOUTHEAST AT 15 TO 25 KNOTS IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS...EASTERLY AT 20 TO 30 KNOTS IN THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS.
SEAS: 5 TO 8 FEET IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS ...8 TO 12 FEET IN THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS.
Grenada taking measures to deal with H1N1 outbreak in Trinidad
Grenada says it will implement “all necessary measures that are legal” as it puts its disease surveillance system on alert in light of confirmed deaths related to the H1N1 virus or Swine Flu in Trinidad and Tobago
“Our choice at this time is the best choice that is to implement all necessary measures that are legal and in keeping with international conventions and protocols such as the International Health Regulations (IHR) to protect our citizens as best as we can,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr George Mitchell.
Health officials in Trinidad and Tobago are awaiting the results of a post mortem on a 28-year-old woman to determine if she had become the latest victim of the HINI virus in Trinidad and Tobago.
Stacy Ramkissoon died at the Eric Williams Sciences Complex, east of here, after she had been admitted to the facility suffering from flu-like symptoms.
Her death came less than 24 hours after Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh Friday confirmed that three people had died and there were 29 confirmed laboratory cases of the virus.
Deyalsingh said that the authorities had ordered 20,000 does of the vaccine from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the wake of the epidemic.
Dr Mitchell has briefed Health Minister Nickolas Steele and senior officials of the Ministry of Health on the latest H1N1 Report, adding that the Ministry of Health has no choice, but to keep its response and surveillance systems heightened so as to protect Grenadian citizens.
The Ministry of Health said it is urging all citizens to take all necessary measures including cough etiquette, regular hand-washing, and monitor conditions of relatives and friends should they come display symptoms associated with the H1N1 virus.
HINI symptoms include cough, fever, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue.
Source-CMC
T&T PM warns against going to IMF
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Tuesday said his administration is moving towards reviving the ailing economy of the oil rich twin-island Republic and avoid going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He urged citizens “to acknowledge that we don’t have as much as we would like so there are going to be some restrictions on spending”.
But Rowley, who became head of the Trinidad and Tobago government after he led his People’s National Movement (PNM) into victory in the September 7 general election, said he does not want his administration to be classified as “an austerity government.
“Austerity is not the word, it is common sense. We are not in a restricted programme…in fact we want to ensure that we don’t end up in a situation where we are governing by …austerity, equals IMF.
“If we don’t manage our affairs properly we could end up in a situation where we don’t have options available to us. Right now we have options and the options are to behave properly and acknowledge the circumstances and choose the best of the options that we have,” Rowley told listeners to Citadel radio here.
He reminded them that countries that don’t do so “and postpone the day hoping that the next sunrise will change things on its own end up without options and they will end up with a final option which is decisions being made for you by the lender of last resort.
“We don’t want that at all,” he said, adding that the job cuts, wage freezes and other fiscal measures underscore the financial situation facing the country.
He said the message being sent to the population is simple. “These are our circumstances. For example let’s take the borrowing limit. If we did not borrow, or if we don’t set about to borrow the country would not have been in a position to pay its bills and those payments for those bills are what keeps the economy going…and also we can’t initiate any activity…to keep your economic growth going.
“The fact of the matter is that our ability to borrow was severely circumscribed because the legal limit had been reached. The Parliament authorises the government to borrow up to a certain limit. The last government had that limit, like any government has, but at the time when we came in the borrowing levels were up at the top…so if any borrowing was to take place we had to go to the Parliament and get the ceiling lifted to allow this government to borrow.”
Rowley said the question now is what to do with the money borrowed as a result of the parliamentary approval.
“First to pay bills and those bills relate to previous activities and also pay for some of the activities that we will initiate and the question is what activities will be initiated. A lot of it we will do things like infrastructural development which will bring about employment creation…and minimise the demand for foreign exchange because we have a foreign exchange restriction as well because we are not earning as much foreign exchange that we were in earlier times”.
Earlier this month, Central Bank Governor Jawala Rambarran said that Trinidad and Tobago had “officially” gone into recession and Rowley said he had no difficulty with the statement since during the election campaign his party had always indicated that the economy had become stagnant.
“Right now we are in a downturn of some kind, how far down we don’t know except looking at the prices on the revenue side but we don’t have the actual numbers and that is an unacceptable situation,” he said, noting that it is the responsibility of the government through its agencies to provide the numbers.
During the radio interview Rowley promised that the government would seek to meet its obligation to pay billions of dollars in arrears to public servants as early as possible and again urged companies not to send home workers in light of the “recession”.
He made reference to the situation at the state-owned National Gas Company (NCG) that has refrained from paying a bonus to workers as well as freezing salaries and the decision by a leading iron and steel company to send home more than 500 workers.
“NCG staff probably would have gotten bonuses in good times and they would have gotten significant pay increases…the board understanding the significant decline in NCG’s earnings took the position that we have to respond.
“Any company, if you own a company and you are faced with that kind of reduction in your revenues…and you have to report to your shareholders, you would have to tell them how you are dealing with this situation and the board saw the best way to deal with the situation is to curb the expenditure…and try to ride the ship,” Rowley said.
Source-CMC