Kim Kardashian and Kanye West to Welcome a Daughter
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are going to be parents of a baby girl. The expectant mother, who is due to give birth in July, said in season eight premiere episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", "I'm so excited we're having a girl." The TV personality added, "Who doesn't want a girl? They're the best and I know that's really what Kanye has always wanted. He wanted a little girl."
Kim's sisters Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian, and mom Kris Jenner, who tagged along during the doctor appointment, looked excited to know the sex of Kim's baby. Kris asked the doctor when they were in examination room, "Do you see a little peepee?" The doctor said, "I don't see any peepees." He announced that she would be a mother of a baby girl.
On Sunday, June 2, Kim celebrated her baby shower with 100 family and friends, including Kelly Osbourne, Maria Menounos, Kimberly Stewart, NeNe Leakes and Melanie Brown. According to PEOPLE, the father of the unborn baby also attended the event with Scott Disick and Lamar Odom.
"Kanye's whole family - all the women from his mom's side and dad's side - attended the shower. Kanye was so excited to have his family be there to join in the celebration with Kim's friends and family," a source said. Kim's aunt Karen Houghton added, "They're just really blessed. It's such a happy day."
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Cuba's inclusion on U.S. terrorist list viewed as "shameful"
In what has become an annual ritual, the United States on Thursday kept Cuba on its list of "state sponsors of terrorism" and Havana reacted angrily, calling it a "shameful decision" based in politics, not reality.
Cuba said in a statement that the U.S. government was pandering to the Cuban exile community in Miami against its own interests and the wishes of the American people.
"It hopes to please an anti-Cuban group, growing smaller all the time, which tries to maintain a policy that now has no support and doesn't even represent the national interests of the United States," said the statement issued by Cuba's foreign ministry.
Iran, Sudan and Syria also are on the list, which is published annually by the U.S. State Department. Cuba has been on it since 1982. The terrorism designation comes with a number of sanctions, including a prohibition on U.S. economic assistance and financial restrictions that create problems for Cuba in international commerce, already made difficult by a U.S. trade embargo imposed against the island since 1962.
The State Department's explanation for Cuba's inclusion on the list discounted most of the reasons from previous years and said "there was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups."
In the past, the report fingered Cuba for harboring rebels from the Marxist-led FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and members of Basque separatist groups.
This year, it noted that Cuba is sponsoring peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government and has moved to distance itself from the Basques.
Washington's primary accusation was that Cuba harbors and provides aid to fugitives from U.S. justice. Cuba does not deny that it has fugitives from the United States, but said none had been accused of terrorism.
Robert Muse, a Washington attorney who specializes in Cuba issues, said there is no legal basis for designating Cuba as a terrorist sponsor because of the presence of the fugitives.
He said they remain on the island because the Washington has refused to honor a longstanding extradition treaty with Cuba.
Earlier this month, the FBI placed one of the fugitives, Joanne Chesimard, on its most wanted terrorist list 40 years after she was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper. Chesimard, a former member of a black militant group, has been in Cuba since 1984.
Cuba rejected the notion that she or anyone else on the island was involved in terrorist activities.
Geoff Thale, program director at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said President Barack Obama can take Cuba off the terrorist list at any time and should do so because it is "clear that the State Department doesn't really believe that Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism."
Removing Cuba from the list would improve relations with Cuba and all of Latin America, which sees U.S. policy toward Cuba "as a reflection of U.S. attitudes toward the region as a whole," Thale said.
UK considers talks with Ecuador minister
The UK government is considering a request from Ecuador to hold talks on the future of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the Foreign Office has said.
It confirmed Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino, who will visit Mr Assange this month, had offered to meet Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Mr Assange has lived in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for a year, having been granted political asylum there.
He faces extradition to Sweden over sex allegations, which he denies.
Once in Sweden, he fears onward extradition to the US where he could face charges over the release of top secret documents by Wikileaks.
The publication of a mass of leaked diplomatic cables by the website has embarrassed a number of countries.
'Regular contact'
An Ecuadorean government spokesman said Mr Patino would be visiting London on 16 June to meet Mr Assange at the embassy on the "eve of the first anniversary of Mr Assange in our diplomatic premises".
The spokesman said the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had informed UK authorities of the visit and had "offered to meet with Foreign Secretary William Hague to discuss the case of Julian Assange".
A Foreign Office spokesman said it was considering the request.
"UK government officials have been in regular contact with representatives of the Ecuadorean government, both in London and Quito, about Mr Assange," he said.
"We hope the visit will contribute to our joint commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to this issue."
Mr Assange entered the embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London on 19 June 2012, after the UK's Supreme Court dismissed his bid to reopen his appeal against extradition.
It had given him a two-week grace period before extradition proceedings could start.
He has been warned he will be arrested when he leaves the embassy for breaking the terms of his bail conditions following the ruling, and officers from the Metropolitan Police continue to mount a round-the-clock guard on the building.
In February, the police said the bill for the 24-hour guard stood at almost £3m.
CAL issues ‘of great concern’
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, has said the relationship between Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) and the carrier it acquired in 2011, Air Jamaica, is a “great cause of concern for the Jamaican people”.
Simpson-Miller made the comment while speaking to reporters yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, St Ann’s, in response to questions on the issue.
Finance Minister Larry Howai said in the Senate last month that CAL’s estimated losses for 2012 were US$70 million, of which US$32 million was identified as losses on Air Jamaica’s routes.
He also said the fuel subsidy for CAL and Air Jamaica for 2012 was US$40 million.
“It is of grave, great, great concern for the Jamaican people, I can say that,” Simpson-Miller said. She said she did not have the opportunity while she was in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday to discuss the matter with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar because Trinidad and Tobago was hosting the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, who left for Costa Rica yesterday after a three-day State visit.
Guyana’s President, Donald Ramotar, told reporters the ongoing issues with CAL are a cause of concern since the airline is “very important” where transportation to and from Guyana is concerned. “So we’re obviously concerned and we’re looking at it very carefully, and we hope everything will turn out okay for them,” he said.
Rowley - Protocol breaches embarrassed us
The Office of the Leader of the Opposition Dr Keith Rowley today issues a statement, claiming that Government had committed a series of embarrassing protocol breaches during the State visit of the President of China Xi Jinping.
President Jinping arrived in Trinidad on Friday and left on Sunday.
At the Piarco International airport, he was welcomed by President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Dr Rowley.
On Saturday, the Chinese president paid a courtesy call on President Carmona and his wife, Reema, at the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain. He then met Persad Bissessar at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
President Jinping also hosted a luncheon at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, and that night attended a State banquet at the Hilton Trinidad, hosted by President Carmona.
According to the Statement from the Opposition Leader's office, "It is with some disappointment that the Opposition People’s National Movement has observed serious and continued breaches of protocol on the part of the Prime Minister and her administration. We have witnessed in the past, the Prime Minister making her arrival at major events after the arrival of our Head of State, the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Also on occasion, the Prime Minister has seen it fit to address major gatherings after His Excellency had spoken. These actions are wholly unacceptable and we feel the Prime Minister needs to be reminded of her role and function as prime minister and that of the president as Head of State".
The release stated "Last weekend, we observed in dismay even more serious breaches in protocol with the visit of the Vice President of the People’s Republic of China to Trinidad and Tobago. Splashed on the front pages of our newspapers were photographs of the Vice President of China and his contingent being welcomed by the President of Trinidad and Tobago along with the Prime Minister and other dignitaries and state officials. It was most appalling to see our Head of State trailing behind, not only the Prime Minister, but also behind lesser dignitaries, almost lost in the crowd. The Opposition is hereby calling on the Prime Minister to acknowledge that she is not the head of state.
Moreover, protocol errors of this nature ought not to occur since they fall within the ambit of the public service and it calls into questions whether the requisite public service functions are being exercised by public servants or are being usurped by persons unknown to the embarrassment of the nation".
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Media barred from luncheon with Chinese president
Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar yesterday apologised to members of the local media after reports that they were debarred by officials from the Chinese delegation.
She spoke to the media at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, St Ann’s following a luncheon hosted by the President of China Xi Jinping who was on a three-day visit to the country.
Following the luncheon the Prime Minister came out and promptly apologised: “My apologies but this luncheon was hosted by His Excellency it is not our doing in terms of who could attend and who could not attend. We did not mean to keep you outside.”
Persad-Bissessar’s apology came after reports that a local videographer was denied entry to the luncheon despite other regional and international media houses gaining full access. The videographer was reportedly told that no “Third World reporters” were allowed to enter.
Moments later Director of Communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Communications, Gideon Hanoomansingh told members of the media that what was really said was no “Third Party” was allowed.
Later at President Xi’s departure at Piarco International Airport a Chinese videographer had to be physically removed from the red carpet after ignoring directions which barred him from walking along the red carpet.
While the official visit saw heads of state interacting with each other with diplomacy and respect, the media saw an entirely different setting. Chinese and local photographers jostled each other for the best shot with one local photographer saying he had to “elbow one” in order to get his job done.
President Xi and his wife First Lady Madame Peng Liyuan however left the country at 6.35 p.m. without a glitch.
At 6.21 p.m. the front door of the Chinese B-2472 plane was closed. Trinidad and Tobago’s Defence Force marched off to the instrumentals of Bunji Garlin’s “Differentology”.
At 6.35 p.m. President Xi, his wife and entourage said zai jian (goodbye) to Trinidad and Tobago as they set off to Costa Rica then Mexico and finally the US.
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Dehui poultry plant fire: Locked exits 'blocked escape'
A fire at a poultry processing plant in China has killed at least 119 people, officials say.
The fire broke out at a slaughterhouse in Dehui in Jilin province early on Monday.
Accounts speak of explosions prior to the fire, which caused panic and a crush of workers trying to escape. Most exits were said to be locked.
A labour activist told the BBC it was the worst factory fire in living memory.
The fire is now said to have been mostly put out and bodies are being recovered.
President Xi Jinping, who is on a visit to the Americas, ordered every effort to go into the rescue operation and treatment of survivors, adding that the investigation into the cause of the accident would be vigorous.
Sources including the provincial fire department suggest there may have been an ammonia leak which either caused the fire or made fighting the blaze more hazardous.
Other reports speak of an electrical fault.
It is China's deadliest fire since 2000, when 309 people died in a blaze in a dance hall in Luoyang, in Henan province.
About 100 workers had managed to escape from the Baoyuan plant, Xinhua said, adding that the "complicated interior structure" of the building and narrow exits had made rescue work more difficult.
It said the plant's front gate was locked when the blaze began, and other official media reports said there was only one unlocked door in the whole building.
Firefighters have still not completed the job of recovering bodies from the building, meaning the death toll may rise yet further, say correspondents.
Some 60 injured people have been sent to hospital, but the severity of their injuries remains unclear. State media quoted hospital staff as saying that some wounded were being treated for inhalation of toxic gases such as ammonia while others had burns of varying degrees.
Pictures from the scene showed the roof mostly burned away to reveal blackened, twisted girders.
Turkish PM Blames Protests on Extremists
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused anti-government protesters of walking "arm-in-arm with terrorism," as he blamed "extremist elements" for three days of some of the most violent riots in years.
His comments Monday came as the Turkish Doctors' Association said a 20-year-old Turkish man died when a vehicle slammed into a crowd of protesters who were marching late Sunday. It was the first known death related to the demonstrations.
Speaking to reporters before departing on a planned four-day trip to North Africa, Mr. Erdogan dismissed the protests as the work of secularist enemies who never accepted the mandate of his Islamist AKP party, which has won three straight elections.
He rejected comparisons with the Arab Spring uprising, saying in televised comments that the protesters had no support in the general population. He gave no indication he was prepared to compromise.
Police in Istanbul and Ankara used tear gas early Monday to disperse protesters, some of whom had marched on Mr. Erdogan's offices.
Rights groups say hundreds of security personnel and protesters have been injured since Friday in the violence, pitting stone-throwing protesters against riot police firing tear gas and water cannons.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday expressed concern about reports of excessive use of force by police and urged the Turkish government to uphold freedom of expression and exercise restraint. He also urged protesters "to avoid any provocation of violence."
Both Mr. Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul urged calm Monday. However, in contrast to the prime minister's comments, Mr. Gul defended the right of citizens to protest.
The demonstrations began as a demand to stop an urban redevelopment plan on park land, but have more broadly included criticism of Mr. Erdogan's government.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said Sunday more than 1,700 people had been detained since last week, but that most have since been released.
The police crackdown on protesters in Istanbul appeared to anger many secular Turks, who accuse Mr. Erdogan's decade-old, Islamist-rooted government of becoming increasingly authoritarian.
International rights groups have strongly criticized the crackdown as excessive.
"The United States supports full freedom of expression and assembly including the right of people to peaceful protest, because that is fundamental to any democracy. And we are concerned by the reports of excessive use of force by police, we obviously hope that there will a full investigation of those incidents and full restraint from the police force with respect to those kinds of incidents. And we urge all people involved those demonstrating and expressing their freedom of expression and those in the government to avoid any provocation of violence."
First UN Arms Trade Treaty Signed
Representatives of more than 60 countries lined up at U.N. headquarters in New York to sign the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade.
Argentina was the first to sign the Arms Trade Treaty the General Assembly approved in April. Iran, Syria and North Korea cast the only votes against the treaty.
But the United States was not among the countries signing on Monday.
A statement from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the world's top arms exporter will sign as soon as the official U.N. translations of the treaty are completed. The statement said the treaty is "an important contribution to efforts to stem the illicit trade in conventional weapons, which fuels conflict, empowers violent extremists, and contributes to violations of human rights."
The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight its ratification by the U.S. Senate when it reaches Washington.
The U.N. Treaty sets standards for cross-border transfers of conventional weapons ranging from small arms to tanks and attack helicopters. It would also create binding requirements for states to review cross-border arms contracts to ensure that weapons will not be used in human-rights abuses, terrorism and violations of humanitarian law or organized crime.
Russia, China, India and 20 other countries abstained from the April 2 vote. Many nations that abstained criticized the treaty as discriminatory. U.N. diplomats say that the treaty's effectiveness could be limited if major arms exporters and importers refused to sign it.
The treaty will enter into force 90 days after 50 nations have ratified it.
US Tax Agency Spent Heavily on Employee Conferences
The U.S. tax collection agency is facing new controversy with a report saying that it spent lavishly on expensive conferences for its employees.
The Internal Revenue Service [IRS], whose policies affect all tax-paying Americans, spent about $50 million between 2010 and 2012 on the conferences. Some of it went to pay for a 2010 video showing IRS employees learning the "Cupid Shuffle" line dance before a meeting in California, and more covered costly hotel suites at the conferences.
The new acting IRS commissioner, Danny Werfel, called the conference spending "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era." The agency says its spending on conferences has been sharply cut since then.
Werfel is set to appear Monday before one of several congressional committees investigating the agency's operations, including its targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status before the 2012 presidential election. The conservative groups oppose many of President Barack Obama's tax and spending policies.
The tax agency has apologized for targeting the conservative groups. Congressional investigators are trying to determine whether the focus on the right-wing groups was confined to a regional office in (the midwestern city of) Cincinnati, Ohio or directed by officials in Washington who had a political interest in Obama's re-election.
The targeting of the conservative groups has drawn the ire of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as Mr. Obama, a Democrat in the first months of his second term. One of his former advisers, David Plouffe, told ABC's "This Week" TV news interview show on Sunday that Americans had a right to be concerned about the tax agency's operations.
"I think people should be concerned about the IRS. It touches everybody in America. And I think that as we move forward here, the key thing the American people want to know is, what is going to happen in terms of accountability? What changes are going to be put in place? And all of these things deserve thorough investigation,'' said Plouffe.