FIJI LIVE - Russell Brand files for divorce from Katy Perry Dec 31, 2011

"British comic Russell Brand has filed for divorce from US pop star Katy Perry, US media reports said Friday, just over a year after the pair were married in India.
Quoting court documents Brand filed in Los Angeles, TMZ said the British actor and comedian cited "irreconcilable differences" as a reason for divorce.
The couple, married on October 23 last year after a whirlwind romance, have no children but the court documents describe "community property assets," which allude to possible earnings and assets acquired during their marriage, said TMZ.
Brand, 36, confirmed the split in a statement released to media: "Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage. I'll always adore her and I know we'll remain friends."

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FIJI LIVE Sports - RWC winning coach Graham Henry a knight Dec 31, 2011

"Leading the All Blacks to the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in 24 years in October has earned Graham Henry one of New Zealand’s highest honours, being made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Sir Graham said they have been through thick and thin but the “lofty goals” he had set as a young man in 1970 carried him through.
He said the honour - which came four years after bitter defeat at the previous World Cup - had been earned collectively by the All Black players, staff, management and families.
"I will just have to carry that title for this group of people - though my mother is very pleased. She loves the Queen so she's very proud,” he told New Zealand Herald."

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FIJI LIVE- Stars to perform on New Year's Eve Dec 31, 2011

"Pop diva Lady Gaga, tenor Placido Domingo and rock veterans Chuck Berry and Patti Smith will join a star-studded lineup to ring in the new year Saturday in New York.
As with every December 31, the main celebration will be held at Times Square in the heart of Manhattan, where more than a million people are expected to gather to watch the New Year's crystal ball drop at the stroke of midnight.
The party, first held in 1908, is one of the biggest in the world to ring in the new year.
Lady Gaga and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will press the button that drops the giant glittering ball at one minute before midnight."

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CNN News - 2011's most tweetable TV Dec 31, 2011

"This was the year that TV and Twitter truly joined forces.
Hashtags could be seen during shows like "Glee," "Fringe" and "The Voice," and CBS, Fox and USA were among the networks where actors live-tweeted while episodes aired.
One doesn't just watch TV or DVR their favorite shows anymore. They interact about what they're viewing on social media (and encouraging live tweeting certainly doesn't hurt ratings).
Let's take a look at the shows and moments that set Twitter on fire this year:"

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CNN News - 'The Weight of New Orleans': Katrina survivor drops 175 pounds Dec 31, 2011

"(CNN) -- In New Orleans, food is a way of life -- it's as ingrained there as Spanish moss and Bourbon Street. Gumbo flows like the sweet sounds of jazz; po-boys are stuffed with fried shrimp from the bayous where the Acadian settlers chose to place their roots.
So it's understandable that while growing up in The Big Easy, Darrin Cook's childhood revolved around food.
Every meal had an appetizer, an entrée and dessert. The word "salad" wasn't in his family's vocabulary. They celebrated Saints games with barbecues and brownies."

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SEATTLE Times - Chimp said to be Cheetah dies; a jungle myth? Dec 31, 2011

"LOS ANGELES — Cheetah was a scene-stealing sidekick — this much is true.
But news that he died in a Florida sanctuary Christmas Eve at the ripe old age of 80, after a career spent starring in "Tarzan" movies, is raising plenty of questions that would have Cheetah scratching his head and looking quizzically into the camera.
The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary Foundation in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah The Chimp — "star of the Tarzan films" — had died of kidney failure. His reported age was jaw-dropping for a creature that normally lives to be about 40 in the wild, and 60 in captivity."

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CNN News - Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt duet, Dec 31, 2011

"In a post accompanying the clip, Zooey explains that she's actually known Levitt, 30, for years."We first met in the summer of 2000 while doing a tiny movie called 'Manic'...and I have been lucky enough to call him one of my dearest friends ever since," Deschanel says of Levitt, who was also her "(500) Days of Summer" co-star. "I hope to do a thousand more movies with him because he’s simply the best."
But for now, they present to you their New Year's duet. Deschanel's Fox comedy "New Girl" returns on her birthday, January 17."

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BBC News - Venezuela petrol tanker blaze kills 13 in Caracas, Dec 31, 2011

"A petrol tanker has crashed in Venezuela, bursting into flames and engulfing seven cars and a bus in burning fuel.
At least 13 people were killed in the accident on a busy road in the capital Caracas, and another 16 were injured. police said.
Rescue workers pulled charred bodies from the scorched vehicles.
The tanker is reported to have flipped over after the driver lost control, spilling petrol that then caught fire.
Caracas fire department coordinator William Martinez said the crash sent a river of burning fuel down the Pan-American Highway west of Caracas, engulfing other vehicles."

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CNN News - Gwyneth Paltrow's tips for your New Year's hangover, Dec 31, 2011

"Gwyneth Paltrow has posted a helpful New Year’s Eve-themed newsletter on her GOOP website.
The Oscar-winning actress and domestic diva has laid out multiple options for those who plan to enjoy adult beverages on Saturday night. Some suggestions are more practical than others. Let’s run through them:
Water, of course, is the first thing mentioned. Alcohol dehydrates, as we know. "It is thus essential to drink a lot of water while drinking and before you go to bed... it can prevent a hangover or at least lessen one,” says Dr. Frank Lipman."

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CinemaBlend - Josh's Top 10 Movies Of 2011, Dec 31, 2011

"50/50 is incredibly accurate in its depiction of the difficulties of dealing with cancer. It captures every nuance, every feeling, every afternoon spent in a chemo room letting evil yet lifesaving chemicals leak into your body. It nails all those little details in a way no other movie has before, without actually being about any of those details. Instead it's about someone living with cancer, taking it on and coping in a way that lets him continue to lead a life. Whether or not his friends and family support him, no matter if he's not actually getting any better, somehow Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character keeps getting stronger. If you bought a ticket and went on this journey with him, you got stronger too. "

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CNN News - Review: "The Iron Lady" is boring and sloppy, Dec 31, 2011

"(CNN) -- Much like Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar" before it, Phyllida Law's "The Iron Lady" (from a script by "Shame" writer Abi Morgan) fails partly due to its attempt at covering the entire life of a controversial figure by taking a rather dull, middle of the road position on their life and partly by whitewashing what that person did.

In this case, the subject is Margaret Thatcher, Great Britain's first (and to date, only) female Prime Minister and the first female head of state of any Western industrialized nation.

Her rise to power from grocer's daughter to the leader of one of the most powerful nations on Earth is almost fairytale-like. It is a story that likely caused any number of young women around the world to re-evaluate their positions in society. Unfortunately, "The Iron Lady" is not the rousing feminist call to action that it may seem."

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CNN News - Thousands of protesters in Syria 'Crawl to Freedom Square', Dec 31, 2011

"Cairo (CNN) -- Large-scale anti-government protests and more violence unfolded across Syria Friday as tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on public squares to protest the al-Assad regime -- nationwide rallies dubbed "The Crawl to Freedom Square."
The protests coincide with reports of increased violence against demonstrators by President Bashar al-Assad's security forces, even as an Arab League fact-finding mission works to determine whether the Syrian government is abiding by a peace agreement to end a brutal crackdown on protesters."

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NJ News - Trenton's homicide rate spikes after recent killings; five dead in one week, Dec 31, 2011

"TRENTON — December has been the deadliest month in Trenton this year with six men felled by gunfire, five of them in the last eight days.
The murders have stoked the outrage of local leaders, who have renewed their commitment to improve public safety in a city that is unable to hire more police in the near future.
With two days left in the year, there have been 24 homicides reported in Trenton in 2011, a 50 percent increase from the year before, when there were 16."

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USATODAY - Singer, actress Kaye Stevens dies in Florida, Dec 31, 2011

. (AP) – Singer and actress Kaye Stevens, who performed with the Rat Pack and was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show," has died at a central Florida hospital. She was 79.

Close friend Gerry Schweitzer confirmed that Stevens died Wednesday at the Villages Hospital north of Orlando following a battle with breast cancer and blood clots.

Stevens, a longtime South Florida resident, performed with Rat Pack members including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop. She also sang solo at venues like Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and the Plaza Hotel's Persian Room in New York City."

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DAWN - Sudan military helicopter crashes, six killed, Dec 31, 2011

"KHARTOUM: The Sudanese army says a military helicopter has crashed, killing all six crew on board, including two army officers.
The official Sudan news agency quoted an army statement as saying the helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff from al Obied, the North Kordofan capital.
The statement said the military helicopter developed a technical problem. The pilot tried to land at a field outside the airport but the helicopter crashed, killing the six on board, according to the Friday statement. Two were officers and the other four were technicians.
It said the helicopter was on an administrative mission."

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Top Celebrity Couples - Best of 2011, Dec 30, 2011

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BBC News - Turkey admits 35 civilian deaths near Kurdish village, Dec 29, 2011

"A senior Turkish official has acknowledged that 35 civilians were killed in an air strike near a Kurdish village close to the border with Iraq.
Turkey's military said earlier it had targeted suspected Kurdish militants.
But the victims of Wednesday night's attack are believed to have been villagers involved in smuggling cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq.
Governing party vice-president Huseyin Celik said an investigation was looking into possible intelligence failures."

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FIJILIVE- Turkish air strike kills 35 Kurds in blunder, Dec 29, 2011

"Turkish air strike kills 35 Kurds in blunder
Turkish fighter jets killed 35 Kurds in an air strike the country's ruling party admitted Thursday could have been a "blunder" that mistakenly hit civilians instead of Kurdish separatists.
Turkey's military command said it had launched an air raid on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants after a spy drone spotted a group moving toward its sensitive southeastern border under cover of darkness late Wednesday.
"According to initial reports, these people were smugglers and not terrorists," said Huseyin Celik, vice-president of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP)."

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TELEGRAPH Au. - Actress Debra Messing was having an affair with Smash co-star Will Chase before announcing divorce from Daniel Zulman, Dec 29, 2011

"AN ACTRESS, who announced nine days ago she was getting a divorce, is having an affair with co-star.
Debra Messing, 43, best known for starring in TV comedy Will and Grace and 2008 movie The Starter Wife, announced on December 20 that she was divorcing her husband of 10 years, the writer and producer Daniel Zelman."

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Helicopter Crash Kills Medical Team, Dec 29, 2011

"On Monday, a Mayo Clinic medical team in Jacksonville, Florida departed around 5:45am on a helicopter with a pilot, surgeon and technician. The group was on its way to retrieve a heart for a transplant, but all of them were killed when the helicopter crashed. Due to this, the transplant patient has been left waiting for another organ to become available."

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BBC News - Kim Jong-il state funeral held in North Korea, Dec 26, 2011

"North Korea has begun two days of funeral services for late leader Kim Jong-il with a huge procession in the capital, Pyongyang.
Footage showed tens of thousands of soldiers with their heads bowed as a giant portrait of Mr Kim was carried slowly through the streets.
His successor and third son, Kim Jong-un, walked beside the hearse, images from state television showed.
Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on 17 December, aged 69, state media said.
He has been lying in state for the past 10 days."

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INDIA Today - Congress hunts for numbers as Rajya Sabha set to debate Lokpal Bill, Dec 26, 2011

"Ahead of the debate on the Lokpal in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, the Congress expressed confidence of getting the landmark legislation approved in the upper house.
Congress spokesman Raashid Alvi said on Wednesday that though the party did not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha, it was confident that the Bill will be passed.
"We are sure the Lokpal Bill will be passed. It is a Bill in the interest of the country. We and our allies will make all efforts to get the bill passed. I have confidence we will be successful," said Alvi."

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BBC News - Greece jails Abbot Ephraim in Mount Athos fraud case, Dec 26, 2011

"The abbot of the prestigious Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos in Greece has been jailed pending trial for alleged fraud and embezzlement.
Abbot Ephraim, 56, is accused of arranging land swaps between Vatopedi and the state which are thought to have cost the government millions of euros.
The abbot, now being held in Korydallos prison in Athens, denies wrongdoing. His arrest has triggered protests."

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Travel Top 5: World's Best Low-Cost Airlines, Dec 28, 2011

"Travellers are flocking to low-cost airlines like never before, but they still want good service for their money. Those airlines that managed to do that the best were recognized earlier this year at the 2011 World Airline Awards."

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CBC News - Pop artist James Rizzi dies at 61 - Arts & Entertainment, Dec 28, 2011

"James Rizzi applied his playful, cartoon-like art style to unusual projects worldwide, from Volkswagen Beetles and Japanese train ads to cow sculptures in New York and the front page of a German newspaper.
His creations included images for German postage stamps and a tourist guide to New York published this year. He was the official artist for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and soccer World Cup games in France."

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Cheetah, chimp star of Tarzan movies, dies at 80, Dec 28, 2011

: "heetah, the chimpanzee that purportedly appeared in Tarzan movies in the early 1930s, has died of kidney failure at the age of 80, WTSP TV reports.
The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., says the community "has lost a dear friend and family member" with the death of Cheetah on Dec. 24.
Sanctuary outreach director Debbie Cobb tells The Tampa Tribune that the chimp was outgoing, loved finger-painting and liked to see people laugh."

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