Thfire.com – iNews

People has named Beyonce as World’s Most Beautiful Women 2012! The new mom graces the cover of the magazine, looking as stunning as ever.

The singer, who welcomed her first daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, with husband Jay-Z in January, opened up about motherhood in the special issue:

“I feel more beautiful than I’ve ever felt because I’ve given birth … I have never felt so connected, never felt like I had such a purpose on this earth.”

Since Beyonce announced her pregnancy with great fanfare onstage at the 2011 MTV VMAs, many people were fascinated by her pregnancy and waited for the child, rumored to be a girl, to make her grand entrance into the world.

The couple announced the birth of their darling daughter, writing in a statement:

“We are happy to announce the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, born on Saturday, January 7, 2012. Her birth was emotional and extremely peaceful, we are in heaven … it was the best experience of both our lives.”

About 100 people are feared trapped inside a ferry that sank in rough weather off Papua New Guinea, a rescue official said on Friday, a day after the crowded boat went down with about 350 people on board.

Rescuers plucked 238 people from the sea off PNG’s northeast coast after the MV Rabaul Queen was hit by three large waves and quickly sank, Rony Naigu, a rescue official from Papua New Guinea’s maritime safety authority, said on Friday.

While a definitive passenger list was not available, rescuers believed 352 people were on board the ferry when it sank and about 100 people were thought to have been trapped inside, Naigu told Reuters by telephone.

Naigu, who spent Thursday at the scene, said survivors told how the ferry rolled and sank in deep water after it was hit by the waves in stormy conditions.

Scores of passengers survived by clinging to debris before being picked up by at least six merchant vessels that diverted to the scene after being alerted by Australian maritime safety authorities.

“We found a number of (opened liferaft) capsules with no people in them,” Naigu said.

As rescuers resumed their search on Friday, relatives of those missing vented their anger over a lack of information from authorities, Australian media reported.

Survivors had been taken to Lae on PNG’s north coast early on Friday, said Nurur Rahman, acting chief of Papua New Guinea’s maritime authority.

“As you would expect people who have been in the water for such a long time have a bit of dehydration, and they are very tired,” Rahman told Reuters by telephone.

No bodies had been recovered on Thursday before nightfall halted the search, he added.

Police in West New Britain said relatives angry at the lack of information about their family members on the ship threw stones at the offices of the ferry operators, Rabaul Shipping, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio reported.

“There were a lot of people crying and then they wanted to know the fate of their loved ones, the people actually who were on board the Rabaul ship,” Inspector Samson Siguyaru said.

The symbol of freedom that has been paraded by the Americans for over 200 years is now being burned at their own hands. The protesters in Occupy Oakland lost all respect for their country and burned a American flag that they found inside Oakland City Hall.

Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.

Saturday’s protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

Protesters clashed with police throughout the day, at times throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. And police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds, City Administrator Deanna Santanta said.

Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said about 300 arrests were made.

“These demonstrators stated their intention was to provoke officers and engage in illegal activity and that’s exactly what has occurred today,” Santana said.

The number of demonstrators swelled as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Quan was among the critics, but on Saturday, she seemed to have changed her tune.

“Our officers have been very measured,” Quan said. “Were there some mistakes made? There may be. I would say the Oakland police and our allies, so far a small percentage of mistakes. “But quite frankly, a majority of protesters who were charging the police were clearly not being peaceful.

Quan added, “If the demonstrators think that because we are working more closely with the monitor now that we won’t do what we have to do to uphold the law and try keep people safe in this city, they’re wrong.”

With major websites protesting SOPA and PIPA bills, Wikipedia the 6th most visited website in the US and the World really wants people to protest against these bills. Wikipedia has blacked out itself for 24hrs, so people can only learn about SOPA and PIPA bills and how dangerous they are.

Really appreciable move from a major website to put it’s protest directly on it’s front door.

Lets first learn a little about SOPA(“Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), these are bills that have been drafted by the congress and is to come for a review before it is passed as a law. The bills are intended to protect and stop online piracy, but they are poorly drafted and could end up (simply put) destroying the internet.

Questions that Wikipedia has posted on it’s website, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

What are SOPA and PIPA?

SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and PIPA is an acronym for the “Protect IP Act.” (“IP” stands for “intellectual property.”) In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The EFF has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.

Why is this happening?

Wikipedians have chosen to black out the English Wikipedia for the first time ever, because we are concerned that SOPA and PIPA will severely inhibit people’s access to online information. This is not a problem that will solely affect people in the United States: it will affect everyone around the world.

Why? SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won’t be effective in their main goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. And, SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

Will Wikipedia be able to get enough people against the Bill ? Or will the 1% show the world who’s boss again ?

A hot air balloon carrying 11 people crashed into a farm in New Zealand killing all the people in it. The crash considered as the deadlier to happen in last 50 years of NZ history leaves police and locals in sadness.

The crash happened after the hot air balloon hit the electric wires and caught up fire, as witnessed by locals who report of seeing 32-foot (10-meter) high flames rising from the basket of the dark blue and maroon striped balloon before it plummeted to the farmland below.

Superintendent Mike Rusbatch, a police district commander in Wellington, said it appeared the balloon’s basket struck power lines that set a fire on board.

The pilot and five couples from the Wellington area, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) south of the crash site, were killed. Some of the bodies were badly burned, said Superintendent Rusbatch.

Two of those killed jumped out of the basket in desperation before the fiery balloon plummeted to farmland with a loud bang as it hit the ground.

Bevan Lambeth said the basket was on fire “and the power lines were holding the basket down, but it was still about 50 meters (165 feet) in the air. Then the whole basket started to go up in flames,” as the balloon broke clear of the electric lines.

“I saw … (it) then go straight up in the air and the flames just engulfed the whole balloon and it crashed to the ground. When it came down it came down really quickly,” he told TVOne News.

The burning balloon was just above the trees when David McKinlay saw it as he watered his garden.

“It looked like he (the pilot) tried to raise it a bit higher … all of a sudden there was just 10 meters of flames,” he said.

The balloon rose to 500 feet (150 meters) before dropping quickly, and turned to “just a sheer flame as it hit the ground” with a big bang, McKinlay said.

New Zealand Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee expressed condolences to the bereaved families on behalf of the government.

“We are deeply sorry to learn of this tragic accident and our hearts go out to those who are now mourning the loss of life,” Brownlee said.

New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission manager Peter Northcote said the commission had opened an inquiry into the crash, and investigators were on the scene.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that the United States intends to dominate other countries, adding that the world is sick and tired of taking orders from Washington.

“Sometimes it seems to me that America does not need allies, it needs vassals,” Putin said on Thursday during an annual televised call-in show, Reuters reported.

He added that “people are tired of the dictates of one country.”

Putin said that Russia once wanted to be a US ally, but now he could not see any alliance between the two countries.

As an instance of the US imposing its political will on its allies, he cited its invasion of Iraq in 2003, when Washington attacked the Middle Eastern country and then forced its allies to join the war.

“Is that alliance? Is that mutual decision-making? Alliance means discussion, making a joint decision, outlining an agenda concerning common threats and ways to tackle them,” the premier questioned.

He also attacked former US presidential candidate John McCain for his comments on Russia’s December 4 parliamentary election.

The polls were followed by protests, alleging electoral fraud, and calls for a rerun. McCain used the tense atmosphere to accuse Moscow of holding ‘disputed parliamentary polls’ and said the country was awaiting an ‘Arab Spring.’

Putin stated that the results echoed the will of the people.

The returns “reflects the actual line-up of forces in the country, as well as the fact that the ruling force, the United Russia party, has lost certain positions,” he noted.

The premier rejected the opposition’s calls for a rerun and accused those, who had organized the massive protest rallies, of working to weaken Russia on behalf of certain Western states.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he accused Washington of illegally using its surveillance drones to track down the deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and have him killed by the Libyan opposition without subjecting him to any investigation or trial.

Source

Regis Philbin,aged 80 years, retires from morning television on Friday causing great emotions on the crowds and his fans.

Philbin, who took television as a career 28 years ago, has logged more than 17,000 hours. He gained prime-time fame as host of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” a decade ago. But his enduring impact was as a morning show host, and his way of weaving something from nothing, turning stories about a dinner out on the town into compelling viewing.

“I’ll always remember spending the mornings with all of you,” the veteran show-biz personality said, ending his final appearance as host of “Live! With Regis and Kelly.”

Philbin was dry-eyed, but co-host Kelly Ripa fought tears as she recalled how terrified she was on her first day as Philbin’s partner and how he put her at ease.

“You always want to make me feel like a million bucks, always,” she said.

The show had opened with cameras following Philbin’s walk from his dressing room to the stage, the final step knocking on Ripa’s door and walking out with her. “I love you,” she said quietly as the lights went up.

Philbin has been careful to say he’s not retiring, and his immediate plans include a tour to promote his new book, “How I Got This Way.”

Philbin’s parting gifts were a key and a plaque. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared to thank Philbin for making the city a big part of his show, and offered a symbolic key.

“I wanted this to be a show where people would feel better about themselves, to look at life in a different way, a funnier way,” Philbin said