Senior royal sells pictures of baby to mag for six-figure sum
London: Queen Elizabeth II’s grandaughter Zara Tindall has sold exclusive photographs of her new born daughter Mia to a magazine for over 100,000 pounds, a move that may irk Britain’s monarch.
The Queen’s granddaughter is the most senior member of the Royal family to sell the rights to the first portraits of their child, and signed the deal despite previous denials that she intended to make money from the birth, The Telegraph reported.
Pictures of 32-year-old Zara with her husband Mike and their daughter appear on the front cover of this week’s Hello! and across 13 pages inside. In an accompanying interview, Zara talks publicly for the first time about giving birth, disclosing that she had an epidural.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on whether the Queen had been consulted about the coverage or even informed in advance that the deal had been done for pictures of the 16th in line to the throne. But when Zara Phillips, as she was then, married Mike Tindall in 2011, she was reportedly frustrated at being told by Buckingham Palace she could not sell pictures of the wedding to Hello!.
When her brother Peter Phillips sold pictures of his wedding to Autumn Kelly in 2008 to Hello! for a reported 500,000 pounds, palace aides let it be known that the Queen was not happy with the decision, the report said.
US company to beam free wi-fi to entire world from space
Washington: A US company is planning to build an ‘Outernet – a global network of cube satellites broadcasting Internet data to all the people on the planet – for free.
The idea is to offer free Internet access to all people, regardless of location, bypassing filtering or other means of censorship, according to the New York based non-profit organisation, Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF). MDIF proposes that hundreds of cube satellites be built and launched to create a constellation of sorts in the sky, allowing anyone with a phone or computer to access Internet data sent to the satellites by several hundred ground stations.
The organisation claims that 40 per cent of the people in the world today are still not able to connect to the Internet – and it’s not just because of restrictive governments such as North Korea – it’s also due to the high cost of bringing service to remote areas, ‘phys.org’ reported.
An Outernet would allow people from Siberia to parts of the western US to remote islands or villages in Africa to receive the same news as those in New York or Tokyo.
The Outernet would be one-way – data would flow from feeders to the satellites which would broadcast to all below. MDIF plans to add the ability to transmit from anywhere as well as soon as funds become available.
MDIF has acknowledged that building such a network would not be cheap. Such satellites typically run USD 100,000 to USD 300,000 to build and launch. The timeline for the project calls for deploying the initial cubesats as early as next summer. (PTI)
3D-printed heart aids life-saving surgery on US baby
Washington: A newly developed 3D-printed heart has helped doctors perform a life-saving heart surgery on a 14-month old infant in the US. Researchers from the University of Louisville and Kosair Children’s Hospital created a 3D printed model of the organ 1.5 times its actual size that helped the surgeons to prepare for the surgery.
Built in three pieces using a flexible filament, the printing reportedly took around 20 hours and cost USD 600. Roland Lian Cung Bawi of Owensboro, Kentucky, was born with four congenital heart defects and his doctors were looking for greater insights into his condition prior to a February 10 operation.
Philip Dydynski, chief of radiology at Kosair Children’s Hospital wondered if a 3D model of the child’s heart could be constructed using a template created by images from a CT scan to allow doctors to better plan and prepare for his surgery. The result was a model heart 1.5 times the size of the child’s.
Once the model was built, Erle Austin III, cardiothoracic surgeon at Louisville, was able to develop a surgical plan and complete the heart repair with only one operation. “I found the model to be a game changer in planning to do surgery on a complex congenital heart defect,” he said. Roland was released from Kosair Children’s Hospital on February 14. His prognosis is good, doctors said. (PTI)
Rare ‘Mein Kampf’ copies signed by Hitler to be auctioned
Los Angeles: Two rare copies of ‘Mein Kampf’ signed by the young Nazi leader Adolf Hitler are to go under the hammer in Los Angeles, auctioneers have said.
The two-volume set — a first edition and a second edition — of the future German Fuehrer’s political manifesto will be sold online to the highest bidder tomorrow, according to Nate D Sanders Auctions. Both volumes are signed by Hitler and are dedicated to Josef Bauer, an early Nazi party member and a leader of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch bid to overthrow the Bavarian government.
Hitler likely gave them to Bauer as Christmas gifts in 1925 and 1926, expressing best wishes for the holiday season, the auctioneers said. They called the books “an ominously signed set of books that futilely warned the world of Hitler’s intentions,” adding they were more scarce in being signed to a fellow Nazi leader. The young Hitler wrote ‘Mein Kampf’ (“My Struggle”) in prison, setting out his political doctrine and blaming Germany’s woes on an array of groups including Jews and Marxists. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, millions of copies were published. As of 1936, the Nazi state gave a copy to all newlyweds as a gift. (AFP)
Woman gives birth on Manhattan sidewalk
New York: When a New York woman went into labour, she left home to hail a cab for the hospital. But seconds later, she gave birth on a wintry Manhattan sidewalk.
Starting out as a true New Yorker in a hurry, the baby girl was in such a rush to enter the world that she couldn’t wait for her mother Polly McCourt to get to the hospital on Monday afternoon.
Also in New York style, it happened in front of a TV crew from Fox 5, who were en route to another story when they spotted the woman on Third Avenue and East 68th Street. “She was like ‘oh my God the baby’s coming’ and then I could see the baby’s head coming out,” one passer-by told Fox 5.
“As soon as the head came out, by the time we laid her down on the street the baby was out!” she added. “Miracle on third avenue!” another witness told the network.
McCourt, 39, and her daughter Ila were taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where a spokeswoman told AFP they were “doing wonderful.” The pair are expected to remain under observation until today before returning to their Upper East Side home. Ila is the third child for McCourt and her husband, the hospital told AFP. (AFP)
Cuban cigars get shorter to counter anti-smoking laws
Havana: Shorter cigars that can be savored more quickly are Cuba’s strategic response to global anti-tobacco campaigns.
“With restrictions around the world on where one can smoke, the logical answer is to provide the enjoyment of intense flavor in less time,” Luis Sanchez-Harguindey, the co-president of Habanos SA, told.
“Today’s trend is to provide cigars to consumers that have a larger caliber but are shorter precisely so they can be smoked more quickly,” the Spaniard said in an interview on the sidelines of Havana’s annual cigar festival. Habanos SA is a joint venture between Cuban state company Cubatabaco and the Franco-Spanish Altadis that was bought in 2008 by the British Imperial Tobacco Group.
One of the stars of the festival is one such new smoke — the Partagas D6 — that measures just 9 centimeters (3.5 inches) in length. In contrast, the longest Havanas can traditionally be more than twice that long. Puffing on the new product takes about 15 minutes, according to Habanos SA. Younger consumers and women increasingly are being targeted with milder, more refined flavors. (AFP)