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(Reuters) — Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner on Monday donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to save the famed vista of the Hollywood sign from being spoiled by development.
(CNN) -- Thousands of opposition demonstrators marched in front of the parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, protesting a deal reached earlier this week to extend Russia's military presence in the former Soviet Republic, national news media reported.
She claimed that Yanukovych is "selling out" Ukraine, has "openly embarked on the path of destruction of [Ukraine's] national interests, and has actually begun the process of eliminating the state's sovereignty," according to a transcript of the speech on her website.
After the deal was signed Wednesday by Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Tymoshenko said it violated part of the Ukrainian Constitution, which forbids the country from hosting foreign military bases after 2017.
Saturday, protesters reportedly adopted a resolution calling the agreement an "unprecedented act of national treason and disgrace," and calling on all opposition groups to unite against it.
According to Tymoshenko's website, some 10,000 people gathered at the rally. But Ukrainian national news agency UNIAN estimated the number of protesters at 5,000.
The deal extends Russia's lease of a major naval base in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Ukraine, for an additional 25 years, in exchange for a 30 percent cut in the price of natural gas that Russia sells to Ukraine.
The agreement may bring an end to years of disputes over natural gas prices, which culminated in Russia turning off the pipeline to Ukraine. The dispute affected not only Ukrainians, but many Europeans who depend on Russian gas pumped through Ukraine.
The two countries had been at odds ever since the "Orange Revolution" swept Yanukovych's fiercely anti-Russian predecessor Viktor Yushchenko to power in 2005.
Throughout his time in office, Yushchenko repeatedly threatened to expel Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol. The Russian military lease there was scheduled to expire in 2017.
"The prolongation of the Black Sea Fleet's presence in Sevastopol is essential to Russia," Yanukovych said Wednesday. "We understand that the Black Sea Fleet will be one of the guarantors of security on the Black Sea."
The Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych, who hails from predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, trounced Yushchenko in national elections last January.
The Russian president said the new deal added a "concrete and pragmatic dimension" to centuries of relations between Ukrainians and Russians.
Opposition groups in Ukraine, however, were quick to denounce the agreement. Yuschenko's "Our Ukraine" party said the treaty would lead to the "Russification" of Ukraine.
Opposition activists decided Saturday to stage another protest in front of parliament April 27, when the deal will be put to a ratification vote.
(Bloomberg) -- Roman Polanski lost his appeal of a Californian judge’s ruling that he must come to the U.S. to be sentenced for the 1977 case in which he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Today, Wednesday, April 21, 2010, the US Department of Treasury and Federal Reserve unveiled the design for a new $100 bill.
The design includes several anti-counterfeiting security measures and according to the Associated Press:
“disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a bright blue security ribbon composed of thousands of tiny lenses that magnify objects in mysterious ways.”A 3D security ribbon on the front of the bill contains images of bells and 100s that move and change as the currency is tilted. The bell in the inkwell changes color from copper to green, which makes it seem to appear and disappear.
Read more...
Kim Kardashian has dished out the ultimate revenge to ex Reggie Bush -- by canoodling with the world's top soccer player, notorious playboy Cristiano Ronaldo. Curvy Kardashian jetted to Madrid for a romantic meal with Ronaldo, who's worth about $130 million, to watch him play for the Real Madrid team last week. The pair was spotted "kissing and laughing" as they dined at a restaurant before driving back in separate cars to his gated community. It's believed Kardashian, who has since jetted back to the US, met Ronaldo during one of his regular trips to the Beverly Hills Hotel.
(Reuters) - U.S. television personality Larry King and his seventh wife both filed for divorce on Wednesday to end their 13-year marriage.
A spokesman for King, 76, said the CNN broadcaster filed for divorce from Shawn Southwick, 50, with whom he has two children.
"His major concern is the welfare of his children and beyond that he'll have no further comment about the divorce," King's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, told Reuters.
Celebrity website TMZ.com said that minutes after King's attorneys filed their court papers, lawyers for Southwick, who is a singer, also filed divorce documents in Los Angeles. TMZ said both parties were citing irreconcilable differences.
King has been married to seven different women, but this is his eighth divorce, because he remarried one of his former spouses and then later divorced her.
Pope Benedict XVI has finally understood the situation that is his and what is his only option. In this sense, he copied the strategy of the Queen Elizabeth II: "Never complain, never explain!" The Pope did not mention anything about the sex scandals in his Easter message.
See story The New York Times
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