Duchess of Cambridge shows off baby bump during Hope House visit

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MODEL MURDERED: Pistorius' Girlfriend Was Set To Give Speech on Abuse

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www.dailymail.co.uk

PRETORIA, South Africa –  Reeva Steenkamp, the stunning model allegedly shot to death by her boyfriend Oscar Pistorius on Valentine's day, had planned on drawing on her past abusive relationship for a motivational speech on the day she was murdered.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Steenkamp had written a valentine's day speech and was set to give it before the students of Sandown High School in Johannesburg, South Africa, urging them to "be brave," "always see the positive" and to make their voice heard.

"I was in an abusive relationship at the same time (his mother used to abuse him)," reads a draft of the speech obtained by the UK newspaper. "I lost a lot of self-worth during my last year in PE [Port Elizabeth] before I moved to Jozi [Johannesburg] and it took some serious soul searching to remind myself of my value in this world."

"being loved by others, although an amazing feeling to have the appreciation of others, does not define your place in the world," the draft continues.

News also surfaced on Saturday that a reality show featuring Steenkamp will premiere as scheduled this weekend in her native South Africa.

“Tropika: Island of Treasure,” whose TV spots feature a beaming, bikini-clad Steenkamp, will air as scheduled on South Africa Network SABC1 — and her distraught family will be watching her performance.

“Reeva would’ve liked us to watch it,” her uncle, Mike Steenkamp, told People magazine. “She indicated that before the tragedy.”

Producers for the show said not airing the prerecorded show would be an “injustice” to the model’s memory.

“Every episode that she is in, every frame that she so ably dominates, shines with the light and her light and her laughter echoes in every conversation, and we want to share these special memories with the rest of South Africa,” Tropika producer Samantha Moon said in a statement.

This week’s episode will be dedicated to Steenkamp’s memory and begin with a tribute to the model.

Steenkamp's boyfriend, Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is "numb with shock, as well as grief" after the shooting death of his model girlfriend at his home in South Africa, the runner's uncle said Saturday, as his family "strongly refutes" charges that he planned to kill her.

Arnold Pistorius spoke with The Associated Press and two other South African journalists about his nephew's arrest in the killing of Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot four times on the morning of Valentine's Day. Arnold Pistorius spoke to reporters from his three-story home in the eastern suburbs of South Africa's capital, Pretoria.

The statement, the first on camera and directly made in person by Pistorius' family, also came out strongly against prosecutors seeking to upgrade the charge against Pistorius to one of premeditated murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison.

"After consulting with legal representatives, we deeply regret the allegation of premeditated murder," Arnold Pistorius said. "We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation and that the state's own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder."

The track star's arrest in the killing of 29-year-old Steenkamp shocked South Africa, where Pistorius was a national hero dubbed the Blade Runner for his high-tech prosthetics and revered for overcoming his disability to compete in the London Games. She was discovered in a pool of blood before dawn Thursday by police called to Pistorius' upscale home in a gated community in Pretoria. Authorities said she had been shot four times, and a 9 mm pistol was recovered at the home.

Pistorius remains held at a police station pending a bail hearing Tuesday.

Arnold Pistorius did not discuss the circumstances of the shooting, but said that his nephew and Steenkamp had become very close since they started dating in November.

"They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time," the uncle said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/02/16/slain-model-reeva-steenkamp-planned-to-give-speech-on-abuse-day-was-allegedly/#ixzz2L52jApGe

Alain Robert escalará el Habana Libre

el neocastrismo llamando la atencion.
La altura del Habana Libre (126m) es mínima comparada con la de la torre Burj Khalifa de Dubai (828m) que Robert escaló en 2011.

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El francés Alain Robert, conocido en el mundo como "El hombre araña" por escalar edificios y otros retos en vertical, desafiará el lunes los 27 pisos del hotel Habana Libre, antiguo Habana Hilton.

Mientras reconocía el viernes el edificio de unos 125 metros y 27 pisos Robert dijo a Prensa Asociada que escogió el hotel por su valor simbólico, ya que fue donde Fidel Castro instaló su oficina en los primeros meses del año 59.
         
Dijo que para él es un nuevo tipo de edificio, con una estructura particular, en algunos lugares un poco deteriorada.
         
El hotel, enclavado en la céntrica Rampa habanera, se llamaba Habana Hilton cuando se inauguró en marzo de 1958, pero luego fue expropiado y rebautizado Habana Libre.

El francés, que acostumbra escalar ayudándose solo de sus manos y sin ningún implemento para ayudarse o garantizar su seguridad, subió a la azotea y miró el punto hasta donde deberá llegar el lunes. También escaló un par de metros por el costado como prueba.

​​"La altura me fascina, me encanta la pureza de lo vertical, me atrae este juego entre la vida y la muerte, en esos momentos siento plenitud" comentó Robert, de mediana estatura y unos 50 kilos.
         
Comenzó su carrera de escalador un día cuando, a los ocho años, regresó de la escuela y se dio cuenta de que había olvidado la llave de la casa. Los

padres no estaban, así que decidió subir los siete pisos por la fachada, y entró al apartamento por la ventana.
         
A los 20, sufrió una caída de 15 metros, seis días en coma y múltiples fracturas: cabeza, nariz, muñecas, codo, cadera y talones. Sin embargo,  no se amilanó.

Uno de sus mayores sustos lo pasó en 1999, en Chicago cuando a 350 metros de altura en la famosa Torre de Sears notó que la pared estaba húmeda.  "Me sacó de paso, de concentración, fue una lucha contra la muerte, algo terrible", recuerda.

Pero también tiene múltiples recuerdos gratos, en particular cuando en Dubai, en los Emiratos Arabes, escaló los 828 metros del rascacielos más alto del mundo, la torre Burj Khalifa.

"Comencé a las seis de la tarde y terminé cerca de medianoche, una hora dura, pero de gran felicidad".

Liberty Ross' Nude Revenge

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What really happened the night Natalie Wood died?

Prince Harry: I killed Taliban's fighters [Interview before leaving Afghanistan]

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Oprah 'bummed' with Edmonton hotel

torontosun

Oprah Winfrey landed in Edmonton on Sunday only to find out that her hotel doesn’t carry her network.

The famous 58-year-old American talk-show host tweeted that she was in Canada.

“Hotel doesn’t carry OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). Called ahead they said they did” she tweeted, using the hashtag “bummed.”

Oprah graced the city to host her sold-out show “An Evening with Oprah Winfrey,” which will take place Monday night at Rexall Place.

According to the event’s description, Oprah will “offer insights and stories from throughout her life, illustrating ways attendees can take control of their lives to reach their full potential.”

Last week, the celebrity made headlines when disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to her in a TV interview that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

— Edmonton Sun

The 8 Strangest Things Megan Fox Said In Her Bizarre Esquire Interview

Kirsten Acuna

If you haven't checked out Megan Fox's latest Esquire interview, it's one of the most bizarre things we've ever read.

Beginning with a long, detailed description of an Aztec human sacrifice, the author tries to loosely parallel the act to Megan Fox's Hollywood career, by referring to her as the last American Bombshell.

Vice has referred to it as "the worst thing ever written" while others have taken to Twitter to poke fun at some of the descriptions, (at one point her brow is pegged as a camouflaged butterfly"), and her even stranger quotes.

Throughout the piece, Fox is compared to buffalos, describes her love of the Book of Revelation, and shares about speaking in tongues at a young age.

The entire thing sounds transcendent, like something out of a sci-fi movie.

We've gathered some of the weirdest bits from the interview.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/megan-foxs-strange-esquire-interview-2013-1?op=1#ixzz2IL5WCPYD

The most expensive zip code in America?

New Natalie Wood findings suggest she may have been assaulted, report says

foxnews

Investigators are reportedly expected to reveal new details Monday in the recently reopened case of Natalie Wood’s mysterious death.

The Los Angeles’ Coroner’s Office will release a new report today that questions the findings of Wood’s 1981 autopsy, sources told CBS News. Her death was ruled an accident after the original investigation, but the new report could reveal bruises on Wood’s wrists, knees and ankles indicate she may have been assaulted.

Wood died after she fell off a yacht on Nov. 28, 1981, according to her husband Roger Wagner. Her bruises were originally said to have been from her failed attempt to climb back on the boat.

Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht shared by Wood, Wagner and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died. Authorities have said Wagner is not a suspect in his wife's death.

Investigators re-opened the case last November but have released few details about its progress. They traveled to Hawaii to inspect the Splendour, the yacht the trio was aboard on the night of Wood's disappearance.

The renewed inquiry came after the boat's captain, Dennis Davern, told "48 Hours Mystery" and the "Today" show that he heard Wagner and Wood arguing the night of her disappearance and believed Wagner was to blame for her death.

Wagner wrote in a 2008 memoir that he and Walken argued that night. He wrote that Walken went to bed and he stayed up for a while, but when he went to bed, he noticed that his wife and a dinghy attached to the yacht were missing.

Wood was nominated for three Academy Awards during her lifetime. Her death stunned the world and has remained one of Hollywood's most enduring mysteries.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/01/14/new-natalie-wood-findings-suggest-may-have-been-assaulted-report-says/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2Hxsgdg7Q

Miss america 2013: Mallory Hagan

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Photo of Princess Diana, mystery man to be auctioned

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The FBI’s Secret File On Marilyn Monroe

By Daily Mail Reporter and Associated Press 

A classified file released by the FBI shows how the agency tracked Marilyn Monroe's suspected ties to communism in 1956.

The agency documented an anonymous phone call to the New York Daily News that year warning that playwright Arthur Miller was a communist and Monroe had 'drifted into the communist orbit' after her marriage to him earlier that year.

The file is just one piece of the puzzle about what the FBI knew about the actress when she died in August 1962.

The Associated Press waging an ongoing campaign to have more of the FBI documents released by the agency, coinciding with the 50th anniversary Monroe's death.

Being watched: Marilyn Monroe and her husband, playwright Arthur Miller were both suspected of communist activities by the FBI

The redacted document reveals that on July 11, 1956, the agency got a tip that an anonymous male caller phoned the Daily News to report that the actress's company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, was 'filled with communists' and that money from the company was being used to finance communist activities.

The caller said Miller's marriage to Monroe during a Jewish ceremony less than a months earlier was a 'coverup.' 

Miller, the man said, 'was still a member of the CP (communist party) and was their cultural front man.'

The FBI has long made portions of its documents about Monroe public, but most of them are heavily redacted. 

Surveillance: This FBI file documented an anonymous call to the New York Daily News. It's unknown how the agency found out about it

However, the FBI claims it has lost its files on the actress and cannot release them.

Finding out precisely when the records were moved - as the FBI says has happened - required the filing of yet another, still-pending Freedom of Information Act request.

The most recent version of the files is publicly available on the bureau's website, The Vault, which periodically posts FBI records on celebrities, government officials, spies and criminals.

The AP appealed the FBI's continued censorship of its Monroe files, noting the agency has not given 'any legal or factual analysis of the foreseeable harm that might result from the release of the full records.'

Marilyn Monroe is seen here with Jean Pierre Piquet, manager of Continental Hilton Hotel. The FBI has released a new version of files it kept on Monroe that reveal the names of some of her acquaintances who had drawn concern from the FBI

The star's death was ruled likely drug overdose, but questions still remain about the FBI's role in her life

Monroe's star power and fears she might be recruited by the Communist Party during the tenure of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover led to reports being taken on her activities and relationships, including her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller.

Monroe's file begins in 1955 and mostly focuses on her travels and associations, searching for signs of leftist views and possible ties to communism. The file continues up until the months before her death, and also includes several news stories and references to Norman Mailer's biography of the actress, which focused on questions about whether Monroe was killed by the government.

There have been two major government investigations into Monroe's demise - the original inquiry immediately after her death and another effort by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office in 1982. The second inquiry, released in December 1982, reviewed all files available investigative reports, including files compiled by the FBI on her death. The records, the DA's office noted, were 'heavily censored.'

That mention intrigued the man who performed Monroe's autopsy, Dr. Thomas Noguchi. While the DA investigation concluded he conducted a thorough autopsy, Noguchi has conceded that no one will likely ever know all the details of Monroe's death. The FBI files and confidential interviews conducted with the actress' friends that have never been made public might help, he wrote in his 1983 memoir 'Coroner.'

'On the basis of my own involvement in the case, beginning with the autopsy, I would call Monroe's suicide "very probable,"' Noguchi wrote. 'But I also believe that until the complete FBI files are made public and the notes and interviews of the suicide panel released, controversy will continue to swirl around her death.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254054/Marilyn-Monroe-Productions-filled-communists-The-FBI-file-shows-agency-tracked-actress-investigated-communist-ties-1950s.html#ixzz2GPFDMyAS

The best bizarre beauty trends of 2012

 

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Hot Stars Without Makeup

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Cindy Crawford

Amanda Seyfried

Jennifer Garner

Nicole Richie

Gisele Bundchen

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El actor Gerard Depardieu renuncia a la ciudadania francesa y se muda a Bélgica

Juan Abreu

Qué gusto me ha dado el actor Gerard Depardieu. Se muda a Bélgica, Depardieu. Porque una cosa es pagar impuestos y otra que los políticos (rapiñeros, despilfarradores y parásitos por naturaleza) te confisquen el 85% de lo que ganas con tu talento y tu esfuerzo. Cuántos cochazos de políticos, cuántas dietas de políticos, cuántas pensiones vitalicias de políticos, cuántos sueldos de amigotes, primos y querindangas de políticos no habrá pagado Depardieu con sus impuestos.

Pero se cansó Depardieu. Me parece fantástico. Admirable.

Para hacerlo todo más divertido, un ministro francés, un tal Ayrault, ha llamado “despreciable” a Depardieu por negarse a que le sigan robando de una manera tan descarada.

Depardieu le ha contestado con una estupenda carta . Depardieu, un hombre que ha pagado 145 millones en impuestos a lo largo de su vida y al que le mangaron el 85% de sus ingresos el año pasado, “despreciable”. La desvergüenza de la socialdemocracia europea es inconmensurable.

Y aún falta lo mejor. Depardieu no se ha limitado a mudarse a Bélgica. No. Renunciará a la ciudadanía francesa. Formidable. Qué maravilla alguien que se da el gusto de decirle a los políticos de su país: métanse el puto país y el puto pasaporte por el culo.

"Play it, Sam": ’Casablanca’ piano sells for $602,500 at auction

By Chris Michaud , Reuters

NEW YORK -- A piano used in the classic film "Casablanca" sold for just over $600,000 on Friday, falling far short of predictions that it could fetch $1 million or more.

The 58-key upright piano on which actor and singer Dooley Wilson performed "As Time Goes By," the signature song of the 1942 film's star-crossed lovers played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, sold at Sotheby's for $602,500 including commission. 

Sotheby's shows the piano used in the movie "Casablanca."

The auction house had assigned the iconic prop a pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million, given some astonishing prices attained by movie memorabilia in recent years. 

In the film, the character Sam (Wilson) plays the signature song "As Time Goes By" during flashback scenes set in Paris, as well as in Bogart's club in Casablanca, where he and Bergman rekindle their romance.

Bergman's memorable lines included the imploring: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.' "
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Bieber Escapes Castration Attmept For $2,500-Per-Testicle Bounty

Pat Dollard

Excerpted from ABC News: Justin Bieber was the target of a grisly murder plot hatched by a convicted killer imprisoned in New Mexico, police told ABC News today.

Dana Martin, 45, an inmate at the Southern New Mexico Corrections Facility, is accused of masterminding the plan, which called for castrating Bieber and his bodyguard in New York, and two unnamed victims in Vermont, before strangling them, according to a New Mexico State Police affidavit.

Martin, who was sentenced to 978 years in jail for rape and murder in 2000, had an image of Bieber tattooed on his leg and plotted to kill him after his attempts to contact the 18-year-old pop star failed, according to the affidavit, which also alleged he orchestrated the plot to achieve notoriety.

Former inmate Mark Staake and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, set off for Vermont on Nov. 14 to carry out the plan, intending to continue on to New York, according to the affidavit. They intended to catch Bieber between his Nov. 28 and 29 Madison Square Garden concerts.

The three now stand accused of two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts each of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, according to Lt. Robert McDonald of the New Mexico State Police. New Mexico is awaiting Staake and Ruane’s extraditions from the East Coast. McDonald did not know whether they had retained legal representation.

Martin wanted Ruane to attack the victims with Fiskars “Durasharp” gardening clippers, and offered to pay Ruane $2,500 for each testicle he got, the affidavit alleged.

It added that Martin wanted the intended victims strangled with a paisley necktie, just as Martin had done in a prior crime.

He referred to the murders as “the whole putting down of the ‘dogs,’” the affidavit said.

Staake, who was released in October after serving time for burglary, and Ruane left Albuquerque for Vermont, where they had plotted to kill the two unidentified victims, according to the affidavit.

However, before committing any killings, the pair missed a highway exit in Vermont near the border crossing into Canada and got stopped by a border patrol agent, according to the affidavit. Staake was arrested in Vermont on outstanding warrants.

Ruane was released, but New York State Police later arrested him after officials eavesdropped on a phone call in which Ruane and Martin allegedly made references to the murder plots, the affidavit said.

The car in which Ruane and Staake had been stopped was found to contain the pruning shears.

When prison authorities confronted him, Martin allegedly detailed the plan and gave them a hand-drawn map of where Ruane and Staake had traveled.

A representative for Bieber released this statement to ABC News: “We take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans.”

WHAT??? Nurse at Duchess Kate’s hospital who was hoaxed by DJs found dead

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By Ian Johnston, NBC News

Updated at 1:18 p.m. ET: A nurse duped by a prank call made to the hospital where Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, was treated for an extreme form of morning sickness was found dead Friday morning, the hospital said in a statement.

Two Australian DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian of Sydney station 2Day FM, called the hospital earlier this week and pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles asking to be put through to the ward. They were then given an update on Kate’s health by a nurse.

It wasn't clear what role the nurse found dead Friday played in the incident.

The woman’s body was found at an address in Weymouth Street, London, which is around the corner from King Edward VII Hospital on Beaumont Street. Police described the circumstance of her death as "unexplained."

“It is with very deep sadness that we confirm the tragic death of a member of our nursing staff, Jacintha Saldanha,” said the statement, which was released by the hospital's public relations firm.

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Radio DJs impersonate royals, get lowdown on Kate

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