SPORTS NEWS NETWORK : July 2013

Thursday, 25 July 2013

Roman Polanski Rape Victim Reveals Haunting Book Cover Photo With Hidden Twist

Celebrity News July 24, 2013 AT 6:30PM By Allison Takeda

The photo on the cover of The Girl, Samantha Geimer's memoir about being raped by director Roman Polanski at 13, was taken by Polanski himself

At first glance, the picture on the cover of Samantha Geimer's memoir, The Girl -- about being raped at 13 by filmmaker Roman Polanski -- is just a close-up portrait of Geimer as a child. But as with most things in life, there's more to this photo than meets the eye. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the haunting shot was taken by Polanski himself on Feb. 20, 1977 -- less than three weeks before he drugged and raped her at Jack Nicholson's home on Mulholland Drive in L.A.
PHOTOS: Stars who survived abuse
Per THR, Polanski took the picture during his first shoot with Geimer at her Woodland Hills home -- "a session in which the director coaxed the young girl to pose topless for him." The photos from that shoot surfaced during Geimer's civil suit against Polanski, when her lawyer demanded that the Pianist Oscar winner turn over any film and negatives he had of her.
PHOTOS: Stars at court
Using the photo as her book cover, the Hollywood Reporter notes, is part of Geimer's attempt to "reclaim her story." Last year, in an announcement about the memoir, she said she wanted to show people that she was someone with an identity beyond just "rape victim."
PHOTOS: Celebrity disputes
"I am more than 'Sex Victim Girl,' a tag the media pinned on me," she said in a statement released through Atria. "My friends in junior high, scolded by their parents to stay away from that girl, also labeled me. I offer my story now without rage, but with purpose -- to share a tale that in its detail will reclaim my identity. I have been dogged by tired thinking and easy tags nearly my entire life. I am not a stick figure. I know what it is like to be a woman and a victim in the realest possible way."
Polanski, for his part, fled the U.S. in 1978 to avoid sentencing. He has never returned.

Lauren Hutton Shows There Is No Age Limit For Modeling

Lauren Hutton may be approaching her eighth decade of life, but the actress and model has no intention of slowing.
Working well into her mid- and late-60s, Hutton has become the prime example of the new phase of modeling, one in which previous constraints of age and size have faded away.
The 69-year-old model was recently tapped for an ad campaign for Lucky. She’s also done a number of other projects — including the high-end jewelry line Alexis Bittar and others like J. Crew and Mango — but the Lucky campaign won particular praise.

“Clearly she knows what she’s doing — she’s probably the hottest 69-year-old we’ve ever seen,” wrote Fashionista.
Lauren Hutton came to the set having done her own makeup and bringing a level of energy unusual for someone pushing 70, said Patrick Wade, Lucky executive vice president and creative director.
“We do shoots all the time with models, but Lauren really made the day,” Wade said. “She brought so much energy to the set.”
She joins other older models including Carmen Dell’Orefice, an 81-year-old who made a splash at New York Fashion Week last fall. Hutton’s success has showed that the once restrictive field of modeling is becoming more open.
Lauren Hutton made news in 2005 when, at age 61, she posed nude in an issue of Big magazine. The actress and model said she was enthusiastic about the project, but had to get a green light from her 14 godchildren before she would go through with it.
“They’ve seen me in a bathing suit and they thought I looked OK,” Hutton said. “They said, ‘This is going to be inspirational, are you kidding?’ ”
Hutton first appeared topless in 1974, and Larry Flynt once offered her $1 million to pose nude.
She said her generation’s mindset is the reason for the success of these older models.
“My generation of ’60′s women are not going to stop wanting to be attractive,” Lauren Hutton said. “I said, ‘You’ve got to show us in the magazine.’ So they showed me.”

Tropical storm Dorian forms in eastern Atlantic

By Brian McNoldy, Published: July 24 at 10:52 amE-mail the writer

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Large-scale satellite image of Dorian from 7:30am EDT today. The Lesser Antilles is the island chain on the left side of the image, the Cape Verdes is the island cluster just northeast of the storm, and then the west coast of Africa is on the far right. For scale, this image spans 3300 miles… or the distance between Washington D.C. and Anchorage, Alaska. (NRLMRY)

Dorian, the fourth named storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, has formed in the far eastern Atlantic, about 2,400 miles east of Puerto Rico.
The average formation date of the fourth named storm over the past fifty years is August 23rd, so Dorian was born about a month ahead of average. But in 2012, the ‘D’ storm, Debby, formed two months ahead of average (on June 23).
This storm is also notable for how far east it formed (29.9 W longitude). Since 1851, I could only find one other storm that got named so far east so early in the season: Bertha, in 2008, became a tropical storm at 24 W longitude on July 3.
As I mentioned yesterday when it was still an unnumbered disturbance (see “New Disturbance Exits Africa”), this storm’s time in favorable environmental conditions is limited.
Although the vertical wind shear (turning of the winds with altitude) is forecast to remain low (low shear is favorable for storm development), a hostile combination of mid-level dry air and cooler (sub 79°F) water temperatures will affect the development of the storm beginning later today.
The ocean temperatures should warm up some by Friday, but Dorian is not forecast to escape the choking dry air for several days. This does not mean that it won’t intensify, it just means that if it does, it will do so at a slower rate than it otherwise could.
Early morning satellite images of the storm reveal what appears to be an eye forming. This is most decidedly a signal of organization and intensification. As of the 10:00 am EDT, maximum sustained winds have increased to 50mph. But, before the day is out, I suspect we’ll see a brake on this trend and it intensity should level off for at least a couple of days.

Visible satellite of Tropical Storm Dorian as of 10 a.m. EDT this morning.

Models are in excellent agreement on the track over the next five days, with the primary differences found only in forward speed. On average, and this is what the National Hurricane Center’s official forecast closely follows, Dorian is expected to keep a steady west-northwest trajectory, which will likely bring it just north of the Lesser Antilles on Monday. Beyond that, there is still too much uncertainty to say if it will maintain that track towards the Bahamas and Florida, or if it will begin to turn northward and recurve out to sea.

Plot of model forecast tracks over the next 5-7 days. The green lines, the orange line, and the dashed black line represent very basic models, climatology, and extrapolation and can generally be dismissed. The thin gray lines are different ensemble members (possible realizations) of the “AVNO” (GFS) model, and the mean of those gray lines is the purple “AEMN” line. (SFWMD)

I will be following the progress of this storm very closely, as it has the potential for a U.S. interaction by late next week.

USS Pueblo: Relic Of A War Hardly Remembered

The USS Pueblo is about to be put on display as the star attraction in the refurbished North Korean war museum in Pyongyang. The occasion is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War.
The ship was seized by North Korea in 1968 and the crew taken prisoner. They were eventually released after 11 months in captivity. The USS Pueblo was popularly termed: ‘a spy ship’ and it was indeed engaged in surveillance activities on behalf of the US government.

Although its capture is a reality, it’s a reality that the Pentagon has yet to come to terms with. So it continues to regard the ship as ‘commissioned’ and still in the US Navy.
But captured it was, by a large number of enemy ships with MiG air support. Since the attack was unexpected, the crew was not able to completely destroy all the sensitive material on board, the consequences of which is still not fully known.
Of course the crew were interrogated, sometimes brutally. Earl Phares from Ontario, Calif. said: “The Koreans basically told us, they put stuff in front of us, they said you were here, you were spying, you will be shot as spies. He added: “Everybody got the same amount of beatings in the beginning.”
After a lot of public posturing from both sides, with threats and counter threats, the prisoners were released just before Christmas, after 335 days of captivity.
The Navy briefly considered a court-martial for the captain for not adequately defending the ship, but this was overruled by Secretary of the Navy, John H Chafee, who considered that the captain and crew had: “suffered enough.”
In 2002 there was talk of a deal to return the ship, but the political climate changed and the negotiations ceased. Now, it’s obvious that the ship is never coming back to America.
The USS Pueblo will ignominiously continue its life in a museum in Pyongyang; a relic of a war barely remembered.

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Portugal government beats no-confidence vote, crisis talks go on

By Andrei Khalip and Shrikesh Laxmidas

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's center-right ruling coalition easily defeated a motion of no confidence in parliament on Thursday, demonstrating restored unity after an internal rift earlier this month set off a political crisis.

The crisis is far from over as emergency talks continue between the three main parties in an effort to reach a broad agreement to keep an EU/IMF bailout on track, but the vote at least removes one element of uncertainty.

During a visit to a remote Portuguese island, President Anibal Cavaco Silva - who requested the talks for a "national salvation" pact - said he was confident the parties could reach an agreement, despite complex negotiations.

The main opposition Socialists and the two smaller left-wing parties backed the motion, garnering just 87 votes in a 230-seat parliament. All the deputies present from the main ruling Social Democrats and their rightist partner CDS-PP voted against the motion, which had been tabled by the small Green party.

The Socialists and the two ruling coalition parties have given themselves until Sunday to conclude crisis talks requested by the president, who wants wide cross-party backing for the bailout until mid-2014 and then an early election.

"There is serious will and determined effort to achieve an understanding, although we cannot ignore that it is a complex, difficult negotiation," Cavaco Silva said. "The parties' attitude has been of utmost responsibility."

The center-left Socialists have said their vote on the motion is consistent with a similar stance in April and does not affect the talks. They acknowledged the motion played into the government's hands, with parliamentary leader Carlos Zorrinho calling it "an irrevocable favor to this failed government".

His opposite number from the main ruling Social Democrats, Luis Montenegro, said the rejection means that "the government naturally feels empowered by parliament to continue exercising its functions".
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho defended his government's record by saying that the economy may have finally grown in the second quarter, in a tentative sign of rebound after deep recession caused by bailout austerity.
Analysts say a cross-party deal is possible, but will likely contain concessions to the Socialists on austerity, especially regarding plans to cut spending by 4.7 billion euros until the end of next year. Such concessions would also need to be approved by Lisbon's lenders.
"The 4.7 billion euros in cuts will have to continue, but possibly at a slower pace," said Teresa Gil Pinheiro, an economist at Banco BPI. "A medium-term deal ... could be positive for us and for the lenders. I think there's more flexibility in Europe now to accept some austerity easing."
Portugal's benchmark 10-year bond yield fell to its lowest levels in a week, to 7.03 percent from Wednesday's 7.277 percent, as investors hoped a solution would be found, allowing Portugal to exit the bailout as planned and avoid a new rescue plan.
Some, however, fear that a second bailout could involve losses for debt-holders, as happened in Greece.
(Additional reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Daniel Alvarenga, editing by Michael Roddy)