Reward offered for €150k homing pigeon

A breeder in Düsseldorf has offered a €10,000 reward after thieves stole a homing pigeon worth €150,000 from his aviary.

The grey pigeon, a six-year-old male known as “AS 969”, was the most valuable bird the breeder kept, police said on Tuesday following a break-in over the weekend.
He first noticed that it was gone at around 7 am on Sunday morning.
Thieves must have known exactly what they were looking for among the hundreds of other pigeons in the cages housing the breeder's collection, they said.
A police spokeswoman added that while the animal looks just like any other grey pigeon, it has “good genes” which would only be obvious to a fellow pigeon fancier.
The breeder said that the bird had won several prizes and that its offspring were being used for racing in South Africa.

Sony Distributes 'The Interview' Online Through YouTube and Google Play

Sony announced today that "The Interview" will be available online today via Google Play, YouTube Movies, Microsoft’s Xbox Video and a site www.seetheinterview.com, for $5.99 rental on all platforms, $14.99 for purchase in HD.

 “It has always been Sony’s intention to have a national platform on which to release this film,” said Sony CEO Michael Lynton in a release to ABC News. “With that in mind, we reached out to Google, Microsoft and other partners last Wednesday, December 17th, when it became clear our initial release plans were not possible. We are pleased we can now join with our partners to offer the film nation-wide today."

Lynton said his company never stopped "pursuing as wide a release as possible" for the film that looked like it was dead as of last week when all the big move chains like AMC and Regal had backed out of showing the film due to hacker threats.

"Especially given the assault upon our business and our employees by those who wanted to stop free speech. We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release,” he continued.

He thanked Google and Microsoft for their commitment to "free speech."

"While we couldn't have predicted the road this movie traveled to get to this moment, I’m proud our fight was not for nothing and that cyber criminals were not able to silence us," he added.

The statement closed by stating that in addition to online, "'The Interview' is also being released in more than 300 United States theaters on Dec. 25.

Google's chief legal officer David Drummond wrote in a blog post, "Last Wednesday Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we’d be able to make their movie, 'The Interview,' available online."

"We'd had a similar thought and were eager to help -- though given everything that’s happened, the security implications were very much at the front of our minds," Drummond wrote. "Of course it was tempting to hope that something else would happen to ensure this movie saw the light of day. But after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be)."

After the news broke, the film's star Seth Rogen tweeted "Thanks Sony for making it happen. Booyah."

Executed at age 14, George Stinney exonerated 70 years later

South Carolina electrocuted George Stinney after he was convicted of killing two white girls in 1944. The trial lasted three hours, and George's lawyer had never before represented a criminal defendant.

At just 95 pounds and barely five feet tall, he was so small that he had to sit on a phone book.

George Stinney was just 14 years old when the state of South Carolina electrocuted him in 1944 – the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century. Jim Crow was the law for African-Americans. The Ku Klux Klan was a menacing presence. Lynchings still happened all too frequently in this pre-civil rights era.

It may never be known if the black boy killed two white girls in Alcolu, S.C., as police, prosecutors, and jurors – all of them white – quickly determined. Any physical evidence has long since disappeared.

But as the great Southern writer William Faulkner said through one of his characters, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." And that's certainly true for George's relatives, as well as the relatives of 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames, the girls killed that day.

George confessed, but there's strong feeling that he was coerced. And the details of how authorities (and the defense attorney) handled the case leave much doubt that justice was done. For decades, the old legal maxim "Justice delayed is justice denied" seemed to apply.

On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen vacated the boy's conviction, effectively clearing his name.

Judge Mullen ruled that George's confession (which he later denied making) was likely coerced and thus inadmissible, "due to the power differential between his position as a 14-year-old black male apprehended and questioned by white, uniformed law enforcement in a small, segregated mill town in South Carolina." 

"This Court finds fundamental, Constitutional violations of due process exist in the 1944 prosecution of George Stinney, Jr. and hereby vacates the judgment," Judge Mullen wrote. "Given the particularized circumstances of Stinney’s case, I find by a preponderance of the evidence standard, that a violation of the Defendant’s procedural due process rights tainted his prosecution."

Here are some of those particularized circumstances:

The trial lasted just three hours, and no witnesses were called on George's behalf. His white, court-appointed lawyer – a tax commissioner who had never represented a criminal defendant – did not cross-examine witnesses for the prosecution. The jury of 12 white men took just 10 minutes to reach a guilty verdict. When the boy was sentenced to die by electrocution, no appeal was filed.

Ray Brown, who’s producing a film called "83 Days" based on George’s execution timeline, toldTheGrio.com he was overwhelmed by Wednesday’s ruling.

“It’s never too late for justice,” Mr. Brown said. “There’s no statute of limitations on justice. One of the things I can say about South Carolina and I can give them credit for – is that they got it right this time. During a period of time in our nation where we seem to have such a great racial divide, you have a southern state that has decided to admit they made a mistake and correct it.”

The past may not be dead, as Faulkner wrote, but much of South Carolina's past no longer marks the state's present.

In the court proceedings leading up to young George's exoneration, the solicitor for the state who argued that the conviction should stand, was a black man, the son of South Carolina's first African-American state Supreme Court justice since Reconstruction.

Gay men earns less but lesbians earn more, says World Bank study

Gay men in the UK earn less than heterosexual men and lesbians earn more than straight women, a World Bank study claims.

According to the study, lesbian employees in the UK earn eight per cent more than straight women. But gay men earn five per cent less than heterosexual men, the metro.co.uk said citing the study.

The study commissioned by the World Bank and the economic research institute IZA World of Labor shows that the average UK woman working full-time still earns around nine per cent less than her male counterpart.

The differences are starker when compared to other nations, the study reveals.

"Lesbians may realise early in life that they will not marry into a traditional household," 

"Lesbians may be willing to make a series of career-oriented decisions, such as staying in school longer, choosing a degree that is likely to lead to a higher paying job, and working longer hours," the report quoted Dr Nick Drydakis, a senior economics lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and the author of the report as saying.

He added that gay women "tend to self-select into male-dominated occupations that may offer higher salaries".

Vladimir Putin admits he's in love, with a mystery woman

Vladimir Putin, 62, and divorced, is in love.

According to reports published in Mail Online, the Russian President also said he is "getting loved in return".

"I do, I tell you, " Putin replied when asked by a journalist about whether he has time for women. 
But not one knows about the mystery woman Putin loves. However, reports had suggested he has been in a relationship with Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva.

The Mail Online report says Putin reportedly confirmed the news to his friend in Europe when asked whether he loved anyone. He replied saying, "Yes".

However, Putin has been rubbishing rumours about his wedding with Alina. Vladimir Putin announced divorce to his wife Lyudmila on June 7, 2013.

Lyudmila, 55, was rarely seen in public during her husband's long tenure at the top of Russian politics, fueling rumours that she and Putin had separated. 

Divorce is common in Russia, and nearly 7,00,000 couples dissolved their marriages in 2009, according to UNICEF.

But Russian leaders, unlike their American counterparts, generally keep their domestic lives well out of public view and divorce among top officials in Russia is unprecedented.

While break-ups involving prominent politicians are exceptionally rare, some sections of the media often sneer at celebrity splits.

Opposition-leaning Kommersant Radio lauded the couple's announcement for keeping the public informed instead of keeping it secret.

"Perhaps a lot of people feel better now that the president did what he did instead of living a double life for the sake of following some false protocol," prominent columnist Viktor Loshak said on Kommersant FM Friday morning. "The president and his wife acted like real people."

The Putins married on July 28, 1983, and have two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina, who haven't been seen in public for years.

There have been hints that Lyudmila Putina was unhappy. In a 2005 interview with three Russian newspapers, she complained that her husband worked long hours, forgetting that "one needs not only to work, but also to live."

Pope Francis: ‘I will not be in the Vatican in 10 years’

POPE Francis says he will not still be in the Vatican in ten years.

Greeting athletes and officials from the Italian National Olympic Committee on Friday, the Pope wished them well with their bid to host the 2024 Games, but said he would not be around to watch them. He recently celebrated his 78th birthday.

“Dear friends, best wishes for Rome’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games,” he said. “I will not be there. May the Lord bless all of you and your families.”

It was not the first time the Pope has hinted he does not think he will last very long at the helm of the Catholic Church.

On his way back from South Korea in August he lightheartedly remarked to reporters that he may have only two or three years left to live.

Responding to a question about how he deals with his astonishing global popularity, he replied: “I try to think of my sins, my mistakes, not to become proud. Because I know this will last a short time, two or three years, and then I’ll be off to the house of the Father”.

The Argentinian pontiff has also stated that he could retire if his health fails, as his predecessor Benedict XVI did last year in what was the first voluntary papal resignation in more than 700 years.

Official: North Korea behind Sony hack

WASHINGTON — Hours after an announcement that U.S. authorities determined North Korea was behind the recent cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, the entertainment company announced it was pulling the film The Interview.

The comedy about journalists who score an interview with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was scheduled for a Dec. 25 release.

"Sony Pictures has no further release plans for the film," according to a statement from the company.

Sony also removed any mention of the movie from its website by Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier Wednesday, a federal law enforcement official offered the news about North Korea.

The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said a formal announcement of attribution by the U.S. government could come as soon as Thursday.

U.S. investigators believe the attacks originated outside North Korea, but they have determined that the actions were sanctioned by North Korean leaders, a second U.S. official said Wednesday.

The U.S. government is not prepared to issue formal charges against North Korea or its leadership, but the official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said a lesser statement of attribution is expected..

U.S. investigators had moved quickly toward a determination in recent days, indicating this week that attribution was imminent.

Addressing the matter last week, FBI Director James Comey said the attack was very "complicated'' and the government wanted to be sure "before we make an attribution that we have high confidence in it.''

Sony was hit by hackers Nov. 24. A glowing red skeleton appeared on screens throughout the Culver City, Calif.-based Sony subsidiary.

The hack apparently was in response to the planned release of The Interview, which featured James Franco and Seth Rogen as tabloid TV journalists. As they prepare to travel to the secretive North Korea, they're recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim.

Tuesday, the hackers, who call themselves the Guardians of Peace, posted a message threatening a 9/11 type attack on theaters that showed the movie.

While making the film, Sony representatives met with Assistant Secretary Daniel Russell of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and other State Department officials to discuss U.S. policy in Asia, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. She did not detail their conversations.

Psaki would not confirm reports that Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, relayed messages to Sony about the movie. King "did not view the movie and did not have any contact directly with Sony," she said.

Psaki said the department had no "credible information to support these threats" against theaters showing the film.

The hacking has had other, massive repercussions for the media giant. Almost 38 million files were stolen and doled out on file-sharing websites.

Files included the screening versions of five Sony films, the script to the most recent James Bond movie, embarrassing e-mails between studio executives, salary data and personal information about Sony staff.

During the three weeks since the attack, an ongoing question has been "Why?"

Historically, hackers have either stolen intellectual property as part of an industrial espionage campaign or grabbed personal data to sell.

An attack that merely posted material, much of which could have been sold for large amounts of money on the black market, is unprecedented.

After entering and copying much of the Sony network, the hackers released malicious software, or malware, that infected Sony's computers and was extremely destructive.

"Its job was not just to erase files but to destroy them," said Tom Kellermann, a computer security expert with Trend Micro.

This sort of behavior hadn't been seen much since the 1990s, when "script kiddies" copied computer programs they didn't actually understand and used them merely to wreak havoc.

"Back then, we saw this a lot, people jumping in, messing up a network and jumping out, but there was no financial gain. It was just 'Ha ha, look what I did!' " Kellermann said.

North Korea has been suspected of employing hacking attacks against groups it disagreed with, including South Korean media outlets and banks.