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Rare blue lobster caught in Canada




Bobby Stoddard is a second-generation lobster-boat captain. But the rare blue lobster Stoddard caught off the coast of Nova Scotia was something his father had seen only once before in more than a half century as a professional fisherman.

"This is the only one that I've ever seen," Stoddard told CNN. "And my dad has been a lobsterman of about 55 years, and he caught one about 45 years ago, but hadn't seen one since."

The University of Maine Lobster Institute says that blue lobsters are a 1-in-2-million phenomenon, with their unique hue originating from a genetic variation that triggers a protein in the lobster creating the blue shell coloring. In 2009, a even more rare yellow lobster was caught in Canada. The yellow lobster has an orange and yellow hue, similar to lobsters that have been cooked. Yellow lobsters are a 1-in-30-million occurrence.

Stoddard has unsuccessfully tried to donate the blue wonder to a local ocean institute that "didn't seem too interested," in his find. His girlfriend suggested Stoddard sell the lobster on a classified-ad site. But after several "weird" emails and phone calls, Stoddard pulled the ad.

"I'm kind of a shy guy," he said. "When things get controversial, I kind of go hide. This is what I do for a living; I catch lobsters and sell them. I'm just trying to do the right thing. I thought, 'I just don't need this hassle.' "

In the meantime, the blue lobster is residing safely inside a holding tank at Stoddard's business. If only to uphold the standards of truth in advertising, the crustacean hopefully won't end up on the menu at Red Lobster. However, the Associated Press notes that blue lobsters turn the same color as other lobsters when they are cooked.

"I don't know what the best thing is to do," Stoddard told CNN. "It probably belongs back in the ocean, but I'd like for as many people as possible to see it."


A few other blue lobsters have been found in recent years. In 2011 another blue lobster was caught off the coast of Canada. "Fluffy," as the blue lobster was dubbed, was displayed at a local museum before being returned to the waters off Prince Edward Island.

And in April, a new species of purple-hued crab was discovered in the Philippines.
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Auburn killing suspect surrenders after manhunt




MONTGOMERY, Ala.  — A man accused of killing three people at a party near Auburn University turned himself in Tuesday after a three-day manhunt that included a tense but fruitless search of a Montgomery home by police tactical units.

A Montgomery defense attorney said she arranged for Desmonte Leonard to surrender after getting word that his family wanted her help. Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson said the suspect was taken into custody at 7:57 p.m. by a U.S. Marshal at the federal courthouse in Montgomery.

His surrender was a low-key ending to a search that included the inch-by-inch scouring of the house by police armed with tear gas and spy gear. Hours after police conceded Leonard had evaded them at the house, Dawson said the suspect walked up the courthouse steps and surrendered peacefully to the marshal waiting just inside.

"It's been a trying case for all law enforcement involved," Dawson said at a news conference.

Leonard, 22, is charged with three counts of capital murder in a shooting Saturday night after a fight over a woman. He is accused of wounding three others. The dead included two former Auburn football players, and a current player was among the injured.

Dawson said that Leonard was being booked into a jail in Montgomery and will be moved to Opelika near the university for a first court appearance on Wednesday or Thursday.

After getting word that Leonard wanted help, Montgomery defense attorney Susan James said she contacted U.S. Marshals. Then she and her son, who works for her as an investigator, picked up Leonard. She wouldn't say where except that it was about 50 miles from Montgomery. They drove him to meet investigators at the federal courthouse, where snipers were perched on the roof.

"He was very calm, very tired and very ready to get this over with and very respectful," said James, a well-known attorney whose clients have included disgraced former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

She said they had time to talk while driving to Montgomery and added: "When the full story is told, it may sound different than the perception now."

She said she agreed to help Leonard even though she hasn't been retained. "You don't want a bad end for anybody," she said.

The Auburn police chief said Leonard appeared to be in good health, but he also declined to say where he had been hiding.

"In a case like this there is no relief because those boys aren't coming home tonight," Dawson said.

Auburn University President Jay Gogue commended law enforcement on Leonard's surrender.

"We appreciate the dedication and commitment of the Auburn City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. This is a difficult time for our campus and community. We're remembering those who lost their lives, and it's important that we pull together to help those who are grieving and recovering," he said.

Two men already have been charged with misleading authorities during their search for Leonard, and Police Chief Kevin Murphy said the man who ferried Leonard to the home could be arrested on similar charges.

Police surrounded a house in Montgomery Monday afternoon thinking Leonard was inside after they received two solid tips. They swarmed the home with tear gas, spy gear and assault rifles, but after a tense, nine-hour search, they discovered Leonard had fled by the time they arrived. At one point, they believed they heard movement and coughing in the attic, but their search that lasted until early Tuesday turned up nothing.

Believing Leonard was hiding in the attic, officers fired tear gas into the rafters and poked through insulation. Investigators said thermal imaging and other technology showed a person was in the attic area.

But after midnight, they acknowledged they hadn't heard coughing noises or movement for several hours. Officials said officers found nothing in the attic — not even an animal that might have fooled detection devices.

After police left, at least two holes were visible in the ceiling and the floor was littered with pieces of drywall and insulation. Scraps of insulation also littered the walkway outside the house. Officials promised to repay the house's owner for the damage.

Leonard had a connection to the house through someone other than the owner, said the city's public safety director, Chris Murphy. He declined to elaborate. The woman is not accused of any wrongdoing.
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Ooh-la-la: first lady of France Valérie Trierweiler tweets, shocks the nation


France's new first lady hasn't been at her post for long, but already, she's causing a stir. Valérie Trierweiler, a journalist with the French magazine Paris Match, ascended to the public role when her companion, Francois Hollande, was elected president earlier this year.

The avid Twitter user posted a statement of support to Olivier Falorni, the candidate running against her husband's ex, Ségolène Royal, in western France. The message caused a frenzy. To break down why, please bear with us: It's a little complicated and a lot French.

Francois Hollande used to live with Ségolène Royal, a socialist politician who is the mother to his four children. The two never married. Trierweiler, a divorced mother of three, has been with Hollande since his relationship to Royal ended. The two also remain unmarried. Trierweiler and Royal aren't exactly buddies. The 58-year-old Royal was devastated when after 30 years, Hollande left her for the 47-year-old Trierweiler in 2007.

Hollande, for the record, has given his support to Royal, his baby mama, for the contest in La Rochelle. The socialist party, in fact, asked Falorni to get out of the race to improve Royal's chances. He refused. Failure for Royal to win the election may keep her out of the national assembly.

Some suggested the tweet was the catty swipe of a jealous lover. A senior presidential aide told the French newspaper Le Monde,"I am completely blown away. I expected a government crisis, not a domestic one. It's amazing."

Trierweiler has reportedly stood by her tweet. But maybe it's not as French as we thought. As a writer at the Guardian described the catfight: "From now  on, it's 'Dallas' at the [presidential palace] Elysée."
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Russia sending attack helicopter shipment to Syria, Hillary Clinton says




Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that Russia is sending a shipment of attack helicopters to Syria, warning that the conflict there could escalate without a regime change.

"We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria," Clinton said, echoing remarks she made last week calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to be removed from power.

The United States and United Nations are attempting to put pressure on Russia and China to help end the 15-month conflict that has left more than 13,000 Syrians dead. Russian has refused to cooperate.

"We are watching this very carefully," Clinton said.

But with diplomacy "at a standstill," the Associated Press noted, "the reported shipment of helicopters suggests a dangerous new turn for Syria after more than a year of harsh government crackdowns on mainly peaceful protests and the emergence of an increasingly organized armed insurgency."


During a meeting with envoys from 16 European, Turkish and Arab countries in Istabul on Thursday, Clinton accused Assad of doubling down on "simply unconscionable" violence after reports that at least 78 people—including women and children—had been killed by pro-government forces near Hama the day before.

"We're disgusted by what we see happening," Clinton said. "The regime-sponsored violence that we witnessed again in Hama yesterday is simply unconscionable. Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syria will not, cannot be peaceful, stable or certainly democratic until Assad goes."

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Meet Ashton Kutcher’s love interest in the Steve Jobs biopic: Ahna O’Reilly




Ashton Kutcher has a new leading lady — on the big screen.

Yesterday, Ahna O'Reilly was on the San Francisco set of "JOBS," the biopic about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which stars Kutcher as the tech genius. (The film has also been referred to as "Jobs: Get Inspired" as well as "jOBS"). The 26-year-old actress — who got her big break playing Elizabeth Leefolt in the Oscar-award winning film "The Help" — plays Chris-Ann Brennan, a painter who was Jobs' high school girlfriend and gave birth to his daughter, Lisa, in 1978.


In a subject sure to be covered in the film, Jobs famously denied paternity of Lisa for years, going so far as swearing in court papers that he was infertile. Brennan reportedly collected welfare to support the child until Jobs later acknowledged the child as his own. Jobs went on to marry Laurene Powell and they had three children.

On the set, O'Reilly was dressed in faded bell-bottom jeans that were covered in patches, including a peace sign. She also had on a skimpy purple crochet halter top and sandals.





This will be O'Reilly's biggest role to date. In addition to "The Help," the rising star has had small parts in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Nancy Drew" and the upcoming "The Time Being." She also has a very famous movie star ex-boyfriend: James Franco. O'Reilly and Franco went public with their romance in 2006. After dating for years, Franco revealed in an interview with Playboy that they quietly ended things .

"It's over," perennial student Franco told the lad mag in 2011. "We'd been living together in L.A. and then came to New York to go school for two years. Then I signed up for more school at Yale. I think that was it for her."




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Euro - UEFA to investigate racist chanting at Euro 2012


WARSAW  - UEFA is to investigate alleged racist chanting during the Euro 2012 matches between Spain and Italy and Russia v Czech Republic, the governing body said on Tuesday.

 "Following the provision of new independent information today, regarding the two cases of alleged racist chanting in the Spain-Italy and Russia-Czech Republic matches, UEFA is now conducting further investigations," UEFA said in a statement.

 "There are, however, no disciplinary proceedings opened at this moment in time."

 Media reports said Italy striker Mario Balotelli was the victim of racist chanting during the Group C match against Spain in Gdansk on Sunday.

 Czech Republic defender Theodor Gebre Selassie told reporters he had "“noticed" racist chants directed at him in his side's opening Group A game with Russia in Wroclaw.

 No official complaints have been made to UEFA by Italy or Czech Republic.

 UEFA is on high alert for incidents of racism during the June 8-July 1 tournament.

 The governing body wrote on Monday to the mayors of Polish and Ukrainian cities hosting Euro 2012 training sessions to ask for an increased police presence to avoid racist behaviour from fans.

 Some members of the Netherlands squad complained of hearing monkey noises at an open training session at Wisla Krakow's stadium last week when tens of thousands of Poles turned up to watch.

 The issue of racism dominated the build-up to the co-hosted tournament with a BBC documentary suggesting bigotry was widespread among fan groups.

 Both Poland and Ukraine denied the allegations.

 Before the tournament, the hot-headed Balotelli had warned he would "kill" anyone who threw a banana at him in the street during the European Championship.

 In a separate case, UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Croatian Football Association for incidents during their opening Group C match against Ireland in Poznan on Sunday.

 Croatian fans celebrated their second goal by letting off firecrackers and flares and a supporter dressed in his country's national team shirt came out of the stands and gave Croatia coach Slaven Bilic a kiss on the lips in front of the team bench.

 UEFA said the Croatians have been charged with the setting off and throwing of fireworks and missiles, and invasion of the pitch.
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Meadow, cows, cricket for Olympic opening ceremony



LONDON  - London's Olympic Stadium will be transformed into a British meadow complete with fields, cows, ducks, a horse-drawn plough and a game of village cricket for the opening ceremony of this year's summer Games.

 Film maker Danny Boyle, artistic director of the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony which takes place on July 27, said on Tuesday he wanted to recreate a classic rural idyll for the opening scene of the three-hour event.

 At either end of the stadium there will be "mosh pits" filled with standing members of the public.

 One side will evoke the spirit of the Glastonbury music festival, a huge pop extravaganza held on a dairy farm in southwest England, while the other will reflect the Last Night of the Proms, an annual classical music celebration.

 "It's a real meadow with real grass and real animals and it's actually something that we're very proud of," Boyle told reporters huddled around a model of the opening set for the ceremony.

 "You begin with a certain kind of philosophy, which is, you think what were we, where have we come from, what's our heritage ... what are we now and where are we going?"

 Boyle, an Oscar winner for his acclaimed "Slumdog Millionaire", said repeatedly that he was "bound to fail" in any effort to encapsulate the spirit of a nation with a single ceremony, but hoped everyone would take something away from it.

 He also said that the rising urban population, and the problems of life in British cities, would be reflected. But there were few signs of that at a news briefing to unveil the look and feel of the Olympic launch event.

 "It (rural Britain) is real, it brings together all the four nations, it's something that is spread across all our lands, but it's also disappeared as well," he said.

 "But it's also mythical. I think it's in our brains as part of ourselves, this ideal which is kind of like a childhood memory in a way. I think all of us in some degree are attached to it."

 The four countries of the United Kingdom are represented with giant representations of their emblem flowers -- the rose for England, thistle for Scotland, flax for Northern Ireland and daffodil for Wales.

 TIMING AN ISSUE

 The Olympic athletes will walk around the meadow, made up of mini-fields separated by hedges and a river, and electronic group Underworld will provide the soundtrack.

 The ceremony, which costs around 27 million pounds to stage, is titled "Isles of Wonder" inspired by William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", and the opening scene unveiled on Tuesday is called "Green and Pleasant".

 Expected to draw a television audience of more than a billion people, the ceremony will start at 9 p.m. local time and is due to end at around midnight.

 Boyle acknowledged that it would be hard to keep proceedings on schedule, particularly with a procession of some 10,500 athletes keen to savour their place in history.

 "We have got all these devices like the tempo of the music ... which will encourage them to move at a good rapid pace around the stadium so that we can all be in our beds before daylight," he joked.

 Boyle also vowed to make the ceremony a spectacle for the crowd in the stadium as much as for the huge television audience watching at home.

 "We wanted the show to feel a bit warmer than these shows sometimes are. They sometimes are spectacular spectacles and sometimes as a live audience you can feel excluded from that."

 Explaining why he was revealing details of the ceremony, which involves 10,000 adult volunteer performers, 13,000 props and a million-watt PA system, Boyle said:

 "Normally what happens is that you tend to try and keep these things secret. Of course part of the modern world means that you can't really do that.

 "All the volunteers have phones and they all take pictures of things and we've asked them not to tweet them and send them around the world. But with so many thousands of people ... it's impossible to keep secrets."

 The model display featured clouds made of cotton wool, and Boyle promised to provide artificial rain in case the real thing failed to materialise - hard to imagine at a time when wet weather has dominated London's skies for days.

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‘Love Story’ stars reunite for Paramount Pictures’ 100th anniversary




Turning 100 means never having to say you're sorry.

Paramount Pictures, the last Hollywood movie studio to still be located in the actual area called "Hollywood," celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.  To mark the occasion, 116 actors, directors, producers and executives from the studio's history gathered for one photo for Vanity Fair magazine.

The event brought together some of the biggest box-office stars and most honored actors alive, from legends like Kirk Douglas and Mickey Rooney to fresh faces like Shia LaBeouf and Julianne Hough. There were three captains of the Starship Enterprise (William Shatner, Patrick Stewart and Chris Pine). And standing in the middle above them all were Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, the stars of 1970's "Love Story."




It was only the second time in the last decade that O'Neal and MacGraw have reunited (they appeared on "Oprah" in 2010 to mark the film's 40th anniversary).  MacGraw, now 73, left California for New Mexico in 1994 after a wildfire destroyed her home. She devotes most of her time now to animal rights activism, but she told Yahoo! Movies that she was honored to be invited back to take part in the photo alongside her "Love Story" costar.

In an email interview, MacGraw said, "It was more than thrilling... and incredibly nostalgic.. to be a part of that extraordinary gathering of actors who had worked for Paramount, as I had. It seems utterly unbelievable to me that Ryan and I did 'that film' together so many, many years ago (when it feels like yesterday), and that we were privileged to take part in such a significant 'Graduation Picture' with all of those amazing actors."


The photo places MacGraw and O'Neal at the center of the collected group, standing high above the rest of the luminaries.  It's an appropriate placement, because without the success of their movie 42 years ago, there might not be a Paramount Pictures today.

By the mid-1960s, Paramount Pictures was floundering. It had suffered a string of expensive and embarrassing flops like the Lee Marvin/Clint Eastwood musical (yes, musical) "Paint Your Wagon." Paramount's parent company Gulf+Western was on the verge of dumping the entire film studio. But then young head of production Robert Evans convinced the board that they had a hit on their hands with the movie based on a runaway bestselling novel called "Love Story."

Author Erich Segal originally wrote "Love Story" as a screenplay, but after it was rejected by several studios he turned it into a novel. Evans, who was married to MacGraw at the time, greenlit the movie version with his wife in the lead (though, at age 31, she was already six years older than her character lived to be).

"Love Story" was a smash hit, bringing in over $100 million in the U.S. (in 2012 dollars, that's over $550 million, slightly less than "The Avengers" has earned).  It also received eight Academy Award nominations, including nods for MacGraw and O'Neal, and won the Oscar for Best Original Score. More importantly, it established Paramount Pictures as a leading studio again. It went on to make some of the most successful and acclaimed films of the era: "The Godfather," "Chinatown," "Paper Moon," "Harold and Maude," "The Conversation," "Marathon Man," and "Saturday Night Fever."


The years following "Love Story" saw tumultuous times for both MacGraw and O'Neal. Both have had turbulent relationships and other personal struggles that made them the target of public scrutiny. The 71-year-old O'Neal announced earlier this year he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and USA Today reported in May that he successfully underwent treatment for the disease (O'Neal declined our request for comment).

MacGraw concluded that the reunion with her costar for the anniversary picture was more than just another photo shoot for her: "Frankly, I felt very emotional about the whole experience, and it brought back life-changing memories for me."



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Need to take measures, says Pranab on poor IIP data


New Delhi, June 12  India's industrial output grew by a meagre 0.1 percent in April due to a contraction in capital goods and dip in manufacturing and mining sectors, government data showed Tuesday, underlining the need for a monetary stimulus to revive growth.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee voiced disappointment at the numbers and said there is a need to take measures.

"I am disappointed ... we shall have to take some steps which signals positivism," he said while addressing a meeting of chiefs of public sector banks.

The data released by the Central Statistical Organisation showed that growth in factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slowed down to 0.1 percent in April from 5.3 percent a year ago.

The figures showed that capital goods output declined by 16.3 percent as against a growth of 6.6 percent in the same month last year. The mining output contracted by 3.1 percent against a growth of 1.6 percent in the same month a year ago. The manufacturing sector grew only at 0.1 percent.

Industry associations reacted calling for a rates cut by the Reserve Bank of India in its mid-quarter review of monetary policy June 18.

"The government, to rejuvenate business confidence and get industrial growth back on track, must initiate actions to revive industrial growth. RBI should reduce repo and CRR rates by 100 basis points to revive investment sentiment," said Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Director General Chandrajit Banerjee.

FICCI President R.V. Kanoria said: "In the immediate term, the government must push for reforms in areas where Parliament's approval is not required so as to boost business confidence, which would encourage investments."

The meagre growth comes in the backdrop of a fall of 3.5 percent in industrial production in March, the first such contraction since October 2011, when it shrank by 4.7 percent.

Mukherjee, however, said that several measures were being taken and growth would revive. The government will ensure faster project clearances and fix regulatory issues to boost investor confidence, he said.

At the Bombay Stock exchange, the benchmark index rose 1.2 percent to its highest close in over a month after the weak IIP data raised hopes of a cut in interest rates.
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