Top Stories – Brangelina rumour –
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are set to separate according to reports. The unmarried couple are said to have been in talks with lawyers to agree a £205 million split deal. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Pirate’s plunder blunder –
Single-mum Jammie Thomas-Rasset found guilty of sharing 24 songs over the internet has had her fine slashed from $2m (£1.23m) to $54,000 (£33,420) following an appeal. The American was accused of pirating almost 2,000 tracks but the record companies sought damages for only 24 of them.
X-files factor –
Lord Rees, the president of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, says the chance of discovering life on other worlds is greater than ever. He says “Were we to find life, even the simplest life, elsewhere that would clearly be one of the great discoveries of the 21st Century.”
Zoella leaves dressing room for kitchen –
Zoe Sugg the YouTube vblogger with 7 million subscribers is to appear on the celebrity edition of The Great British Bake Off. Zoella as she is known online (@ZozeeBo with 2.6m followers on Twitter) recently featured on Debrett’s list of the 500 most influential people in Britain. Zoe Sugg A.K.A. Zoella
AKB48 proposed to open Olympic ceremony in 2020 –
The big debate in Japan today is whether to allow J-pop group AKB48 to perform at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Their creator, Yasushi Akimoto, proposed choosing the best of the 48 girls (who rotate according to social media popularity) to appear but the idea was ridiculed by Japanese TV celebrity and columnist Matsuko Deluxe, who said the group (named after the Akihabara district of Tokyo) would be “an embarrassment”. The group have sold more than 30m records and had sales exceeding $128m (£85m) in 2013.
Big United beat little United –
Despite the support of 6,000 away fans Cambridge United are finally beaten by Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford in the 4th round of the FA Cup. Man Uniteds starting 11 cost £231m in transfer fees, Cambridge’s cost £0. By forcing a repeat two weeks ago the small club will get around £1 million for their share of the attendance fee which the chairman intends to spend on upgrading the toilets at their ground.
Cut down on your jog life –
A report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that people who jog at a steady pace for less than two and a half hours a week were least likely to die over a 12-year period that was studied. Those who ran more than four hours a week or did no exercise had the highest death rates.
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini ‘to end stormy second marriage after 19 months’ –
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini is lodging divorce papers to end her stormy second marriage, it was reported on Sunday. The X Factor judge will cite her French husband Jean-Bernard’s “unreasonable behaviour” and formally end their marriage after 19 months, it is claimed. The Sun on Sunday reports former Girls Aloud star Cheryl, who was previously married to footballer Ashley Cole, has been unhappy that Jean-Bernard, 35, didn’t like her spending time with other men. [Daily Telegraph] In November 2015 Fernandez-Versini took legal action over ‘white powder’ bathroom picture after the 2015 British Fashion Awards. Cheryl Fernandez-Versini
Anti-Serbian protesters set fire to the government’s headquarters in Kosovo‘s capital, Pristina, over an EU-brokered deal that will give Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority greater local powers. (RT)
Law and crime
Sian Blake‘s partner Arthur Simpson-Kent is arrested in Ghana in connection with the murder of Blake and her two children. (The Guardian)
Italian town welcomes first baby for 28 years –
A small town in northern Italy is celebrating the arrival of its first baby since the 1980s. The mayor of Ostana, which lies in the mountains of the Piedmont region, says the new arrival is a “dream come true” for the tiny community, which has seen its population plummet over the past 100 years. Baby Pablo, who was born in a Turin hospital last week, takes the number of inhabitants to 85, although only about half live there permanently, La Stampa newspaper reports. Mayor Giacomo Lombardo says that while 1,000 people called Ostana home in the early 1900s, a steady drop in the birth rate began after World War Two. “The real decline started in 1975, with 17 babies between 1976 and 1987, when the last boy was born – until little Pablo,” he says. [BBC]
Human rights activists claim that three pro-democracy advocates have been sentenced up to five years imprisonment on charges of attempting to overthrow the Communist Party government inGuangzhou. (AP via Star Tribune)
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
