Oscar Nominees Bring Candour To Annual Lunch

By Hilary Costa, Sky News Online

It is an awards season cliché, Jessica Chastain admitted, but one that for many actors might actually be true: sometimes it is enough just to be nominated.

"I feel like I've already won," the Academy-Award-nominated actress said. "I never want to lose sight of what I feel right now."

Chastain, up for Best Actress for her portrayal of a singularly focused CIA agent in Zero Dark Thirty, was in good company on Monday as she joined more than 160 of her fellow nominees at the 85th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Hers was a feeling echoed by other members of Hollywood's elite as they let loose a few moments of light-hearted candour and seemingly raw appreciation as Oscar night rapidly approaches.

"You just interrupted my flirting with Bradley Cooper and Christoph Waltz," The Master actress Amy Adams said as she bounced up to the podium, already living up to her promise to have fun on her fourth Oscar outing.

Actor-director Ben Affleck, whose failure to garner a Best Director nod appears to have bothered the Hollywood media more than him, quipped that he has had "many, many, many, many, many, many years watching [the Oscars] from home".

"I just feel so incredibly honoured to be nominated as a producer for this movie, to be here for the big party," the Argo director said of his first nomination since his 1997 win with Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting.

Ben Affleck is hoping to pick up Best Producer gong

Argo, up for seven awards on February 24, has become some critics' favourite to win Best Picture after taking home a slew of other awards in recent weeks.

"It's tremendous. I'm elated. Truly, genuinely thrilled," Affleck said.

When the pint-sized actress Quvenzhane Wallis took to the podium - having to stand on her toes to reach the microphone despite the step put in place for her - she did not even blink when asked if she knew she had made history as the youngest woman nominated for best actress.

"Yes," replied the nine-year-old.

"I'm happy and excited but it's something that you never think will happen at your age."

However, the stars kept mum on one topic no matter how many times they were asked: What will they wear down the red carpet?

Anne Hathaway, up for Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables, hinted she is considering "some cool options" but has not decided on anything yet, and Adams said she is "going with idea of having fun and sort of fulfilling a fantasy of going to the Oscars".

Best Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence said she had gone for comfort in the past but said: "This year I'm like, 'No. Suck it up. Wear a corset'."

Lawrence, nominated for her role as a young widow in The Silver Linings Playbook, did concede that she would not eat a large lunch on the day of the Oscars, as she had on her first trip to the awards in 2011 when nominated for Winter's Bone. 

"I had to double up on the Spanx," she said. 

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Syria: Exodus Swells Border Refugee Camps

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent

The numbers of refugees from Syria is growing by the day. The reasons are simple; they can't take the bombing anymore; they can't live with the fear.

So they make the journey north, south, east and west to neighbouring counties that are letting them in; but are themselves increasingly concerned about the exodus.

Some 700,000 are registered as refugees in these countries. But the true number is much higher.

Two million are thought to be on the move in Syria. That number could be much higher as well.

On the border with Turkey, but still inside Syria, near the town of Azaz, the latest camp is taking root.

Seven thousand has turned to 11,000 in the past few days.

The camp is not squalid, but being on a muddy flood plain in snowy and rainy conditions it is miserable and cold.

Facilities in Bab al-Salam are basic and overcrowded

The newest arrivals have to wait, sometimes days at a time, for the aid agencies to find or even build them a tent.

A family of ten is living in two trucks. They have been here two days.

"We couldn't stay in our town anymore," the Matriarch told me.

"The shelling never stops. It is too dangerous so we left. But our men have no jobs and we have no money that is why we are here as well," she said.

The destruction of cities, towns and villages, the use of Scud missiles and air attacks are persuading Syria's battered population to leave.

Two years after the start of this uprising life for the ordinary people is actually getting far worse than they ever expected.

Young Syrian refugees in front of makeshift tents in the camp

The smoke of a thousand fires engulfs clothing lines looped between tents. Children wade through mud, playing games or picking up spaghetti stew in plastic cartons to take home to their tents from a series of distribution points.

A mother-of-six, Um Abdullah Najia, broke all protocols by allowing me, an unrelated male, into their tent, their home for the past five months.

They are not complaining about the conditions. But it is clear they are finding it tough.

"As you can see seven people are living in this small tent," she said.

"This is our kitchen, our bathroom, our shower, our living room, our dining room. Everything is in this tent - but the situation outside is even worse."

Every part of society in Syria is now being affected by this civil war. Huge numbers believe the end is not even remotely in sight. So the exodus goes on.

As was predicted long ago, one way or another, this whole region is now caught up in this crisis.

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Dreamliner Batteries Get CT Scans Over Meltdown

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Timeline

Updated: 9:31am UK, Tuesday 05 February 2013

The turbulent history of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner:

Feb 5, 2013: Japanese official reveal CT scans of failed batteries does not reveal fire cause.

Feb 4, 2013: Boeing requests US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for test flights of grounded model.

Jan 30, 2013: Amid revenue loss forecasts of $500m to $5bn, Boeing CEO addresses investors and downplays impact.

Jan 28, 2013: Investigators widen battery examination to sub-contractors of lithium ion battery maker GS Yuasa

Jan 21, 2013: Safety officials start probe of lithium ion battery maker GS Yuasa

Jan 19, 2013: Boeing says it is stopping deliveries of the Dreamliner to airlines

Jan 18, 2013: FAA officials arrive in Japan to examine a 787 and its melted battery pack after an All Nippon Air (ANA) emergency landing two days earlier

Jan 17, 2013: The European Aviation Safety Agency,  FAA and Qatar Airways ground Dreamliners under their regulatory control

Jan 16, 2013: Japan Air Lines Co Ltd (JAL) follows suit and suspends Dreamliner flights from Japan over safety concerns

Jan 16, 2013: ANA grounds all 17 of its 787s after four of its aircraft suffer problems

Jan 16, 2013: ANA 787 Dreamliner makes emergency landing in Takamatsu, Japan, after smoke appears in cabin

Jan 11, 2013: The Federal Aviation Authority announces a review of the 787 design and systems

Jan 11, 2013: ANA discovers engine oil leak after a domestic flight lands at Miyazaki

Jan 11, 2013: A separate ANA flight to Matsuyama reported a crack appearing in the pilot's window

Jan 9, 2013: ANA cancels a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight due to a brake problem

Jan 8, 2013: Japan Air Lines (JAL) grounds a jet at Boston Logan International Airport after a 787 leaks 150 litres of fuel

Jan 7, 2013: A fire erupts in a battery pack in another JAL Dreamliner at Boston

Dec 13, 2012: Qatar Airways grounds one of its Dreamliners because of a faulty generator

Dec 5, 2012: The FAA orders inspections of all 787 Dreamliners in service in the US

Dec 4, 2012: A United Airlines 787 is forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans after a generator fails

July 23, 2012: ANA grounds five Dreamliners due to an engine component issue

Feb 22, 2012: Boeing says around 55 Dreamliners may be affected by a flaw in the fuselage

Oct 26, 2011: The Dreamliner makes its maiden flight with paying passengers on board an ANA jet

Sep 26, 2011: Boeing delivers its first 787 Dreamliner to Japan's ANA, three years late

Jun 23, 2010: Boeing postpones the first flight of the Dreamliner because of a structural flaw

Dec 15, 2009: The passenger jet 787 Dreamliner takes off on its maiden test flight

Apr 9, 2008: Boeing says there will be a revised plan for the first 787 flight and initial deliveries

Dec 11, 2008: Boeing announces further delays due to strike action by machinists Sept-Nov

Oct 19, 2007: Boeing says there will be a six-month delay to deliveries due to assembly issues

Jul 8, 2007: The first assembled 787 goes on display to media, employees and customers

Jul 18, 2006: Boeing says it is making "solid progress" on the 787 Dreamliner programme

Jan 28, 2005: Boeing gives its new commercial airplane an official model designation number - 787

Jan 29, 2003: Boeing announces the launch of a new aircraft called the 7E7

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North Korean Ruler Caught With A Smartphone

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has been seen with a smartphone - prompting speculation he could be using a product made by arch enemy South Korea.

The device was seen in a photo of the communist leader chairing a meeting, which was taken some days ago. The phone was on a table next to where he was sitting, beside a large bundle of official papers.

Experts in South Korea - which the North has effectively been at war with for more than 60 years - have been drafted in to see whether Kim was using a Samsung.

Analysts believe if the North Korean leader was using a South Korean-made Samsung, it would be seen as an acceptance that his enemy had developed superior technology.

Even the South Korean government has joined in the debate.

"After a close analysis of photos and footage from the North's state media, we found some clues that Kim is using a smartphone," an official at the Ministry of Unification told South Korean newspaper Joong Ang Ilbo.

"Given that Kim has put the phone right next to a document in front of him, we assume that he carries it himself."

Analysts are also thought to be examining whether the device could be an iPhone, made by American technology giant Apple.

If Kim was using an Apple device, this could also be seen an admission of defeat to North Korea's arch-enemy - the United States.

North Korea recently claimed it was testing long-range nuclear missiles which, when operational, would be aimed at the US.

According to Joong Ang Ilbo - which happens to be owned by Samsung - "intelligence authorities" have been drafted in to determine the make of the phone.

The consensus among South Korean experts so far seems to be that Kim has opted for an HTC model. As a Taiwanese manufacturer, it is a safer political choice.

His safest bet though might have been a Chinese-made Huawei smartphone. China is North Korea's only real ally, though tensions are even strained there at the moment after Beijing added its name to the latest round of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

What has not been worked out is what Kim uses it for.

His dictatorial regime is known to have blocked all access to the World Wide Web. North Koreans are instead given access to a closed and limited home-made intranet.

A mobile telephone network was only introduced by the secretive state in 2008, and the joint venture with Egyptian firm Orascom only allows users to call other phones in North Korea.

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Alabama Hostage Boy 'Doing Well' After Rescue

A boy who was held hostage for a week is safe and his captor dead after FBI agents stormed an underground bunker in Alabama.

Officials said the raid went ahead after negotiations with 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes deteriorated and he was seen with a gun.

"Mr Dykes was observed holding a gun," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said.

"At this point, the FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child."

The five-year-old, so far identified only as Ethan, was being treated at a hospital, authorities said.

Officials break the news to the media

"I visited with Ethan. He is doing fine," Agent Richardson told reporters.

"He's laughing, joking, playing, eating - the things that you would expect a normal 5 to 6-year-old young man to do. He's very brave, he's very lucky, and the success story is that he's out safe and doing great."

The boy's great uncle, Berlin Enfinger, told ABC News that he was relieved to be home after his rescue a day earlier.

"He's happy to be home, and he looks good," Mr Enfinger said.

Dykes snatched the boy, who has Asperger's syndrome, from a school bus last week after killing the driver, Charles Poland.

Authorities initially declined to elaborate on how they had observed Dykes or on how he died.

However, an official in Midland City, citing information from law enforcement sources, said a high-tech camera had been inserted into the bunker and that police had shot Dykes. 

Daryle Hendry, who lives about a quarter of a mile from where Dykes was holed up, said he heard a boom followed by a gunshot.

The scene of the hostage drama

"Right now, FBI special agent bomb technicians are in the process of clearing the property for improvised explosive devices," the FBI said in a written statement.

"When it is safe to do so, our evidence response teams, paired with state and local crime scene technicians, will process the scene."

Neighbours described Dykes as a loner who hated the authorities.

They said he once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property, and patrolled his garden at night with a torch and a firearm.

But he was also a decorated Navy veteran, having spent around five years in Vietnam.

He had had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanour was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbours.

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India Rape Trial: Victim's Friend In Court

A man who was with the student who died after being gang-raped in India "will go to any lengths to ensure the guilty are punished", according to his father.

The woman's companion appeared in court on Tuesday as a prosecution witness in the trial of five men accused of fatally assaulting her.

The 23-year-old medical student died in a Singapore hospital on December 29 from massive internal injuries she sustained during the rape a fortnight earlier.

The attack has caused outrage across India and put the country's attitude to women under the spotlight.

As he accompanied his 28-year-old son into the courtroom, the father said: "My son will go to any lengths to ensure that the guilty are punished. He will cooperate and is prepared to answer any questions posed by the defence."

Reporters are not allowed in to the court but the father, who, like his son, cannot be named for legal reasons, passed information about the proceedings to those outside.

Reporters were later allowed to watch the son being brought out of the court to identify a bus in which the attack took place. He has been left in a wheelchair as a result of injuries he sustained at the time of the attack.

He was later expected to be cross-examined by lawyers for the five accused, who all deny murder, rape and robbery charges.

A sixth defendant has also pleaded not guilty. He will appear in a juvenile court.

The woman and the student had spent the evening at the cinema and were allegedly lured on to the bus after failing to flag down a motorised rickshaw as they tried to get home.

As well as taking turns to rape the woman and violating her, the group are accused of attacking her companion so badly that he is still unable to walk properly.

Her companion is the main witness in a case that is being held in a special fast-track court in Delhi.

The judge has banned all reporting of proceedings inside the courtroom and ordered lawyers not to speak to journalists. Photographers were told they were forbidden to take pictures of the man as he identified the bus.

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Jodi Arias Admits In Court She Killed Boyfriend

The woman at the centre of a sensational murder trial in Arizona has made a surprise appearance in the witness box.

Jodi Arias is charged with stabbing and shooting dead her on-off boyfriend in June 2008, in what prosecutors describe as a jealous rage.

She took the stand in a Phoenix courtroom for the first time on Monday, and quickly admitted she killed Travis Alexander in self-defence.

But she added that she also planned to take her own life.

"Did you kill Travis Alexander?" defence attorney Kirk Nurmi asked.

"Yes," she replied. "The simple answer is that he attacked me and I defended myself."

The decision to have the 32-year-old testify was unexpected because she faces the death penalty if found guilty.

Jodi Arias Took to the witness stand in a surprise move

Arias described how her idyllic childhood in California turned abusive at the hands of her parents when she was about seven years old.

She went on to describe abusive relationships with previous boyfriends.

She also said she initially denied being at the scene of the crime because she planned to commit suicide and never come to trial.

Prosecutors allege she stabbed and slashed Alexander nearly 30 times, slit his throat and then shot him in the face at his home, after he tried to end their relationship.

Jurors have been shown pictures taken by the couple, on the day of the killing.

The 30-year-old victim is pictured taking a shower.

Other more graphic and sexual images show the couple naked.

Travis Alexander pictured in the shower just before his death

Police said the photos were time-stamped on the day of the murder and that Arias' bloody palm print and hair also were found at the scene.

Her trial, which began in early January, has also featured shocking police photographs from the crime scene in Mesa, including several of Alexander's badly wounded body.

The couple met at a Las Vegas conference in 2006 and dated for five months.

But they continued to see each other for sex up until Alexander's death.

Defence lawyers have depicted the successful motivational speaker as a liar and cheat who told Arias and other girlfriends he was a devout Mormon saving sex for marriage.

In reality, they claimed, he was seeing a lot of women at the same time.

Prosecutors have portrayed Arias as a jealous ex-girlfriend who could not let go of Alexander and stalked him until she finally snapped and killed him.

Every detail of the trial is being devoured on American cable TV, on the internet and via social media, with whole sites devoted to the defence and prosecution case.

Many see parallels with the long-running murder trial of Casey Anthony who was accused but ultimately acquitted of killing her young daughter.

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Tug-Of-War Students Lose Their Fingers

A boy and a girl have had several fingers torn off during a game of tug-of-war at their high school in Southern California.

The two South El Monte High School students were rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where doctors were preparing to reattach the digits.

"They are both stable and the parents were by their bedside," hospital spokeswoman Rosa Sacca told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

"They were getting ready to be taken to the operating room to try to reattach the fingers."

School district official Edward Zuniga declined to identify the students, but the newspaper said the girl was on the school's soccer team and the boy was an American football player.

The teenagers were participating in a lunchtime activity celebrating homecoming with current and former students on Monday.

"We'll review the activity with the district administration," Mr Zuniga said.

"We're in the early stages. We just want to make sure we have all the facts straight before we talk about changing activities."

Authorities did not say how many fingers were lost or explain how the tug-of-war caused the injuries.

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Indian Girl Rock Band Quit After Fatwa

An Indian high school all-girl rock band has quit after a senior Muslim cleric issued a fatwa against them and branded them "indecent".

The teenagers became victims of an online hate campaign and were called "sluts" and "prostitutes" on social networking sites.

Separatists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where the band are from, accused them of "Western-style cultural waywardness".

The group's music teacher and manager Adnan Mattoo said the three members of Pragaash, which means First Light in Kashmiri, were so scared by the backlash they had decided to disband.

Mr Mattoo said: "First, the girls had decided to quit live performance due to an online hate campaign and concentrate on making an album. But after an edict by the government's own cleric, these girls are saying goodbye to music."

One of the members has fled to another city.

Her mother, who did not wish to be named, said: "My daughter had been depressed and irritable so we decided to send her away to another city for some time."

Pragaash comprised drummer Farah Deeba, bass guitarist Aneeqa Khalid and singer and guitarist Noma Nazir.

Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah urged the band to continue

They played in public for the first time in December in Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir.

It won them third place in an annual Battle of the Bands rock show organised by an Indian paramilitary force as part of a campaign to win hearts and minds in the region.

Soon after the show Kashmiri pages on social networking sites like Facebook hotly debated the band.

Some questioned whether the performance was appropriate in the Muslim-dominated region.

Many backed the girls but others were abusive and called for them and their families to be expelled from the region.

At the weekend Omar Abdullah, the region's top elected official, promised a police probe into the threats and wrote on Twitter that "the talented teenagers should not let themselves be silenced by a handful of morons."

On Sunday Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir's state-appointed cleric, issued a fatwa ordering the girls to "stop from these activities and not to get influenced by the support of political leadership".

Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, criticised Abdullah for selectively supporting freedom of expression and said the band's concert was "a step toward diverting young girls toward Westernisation".

The alliance distanced itself from the cleric's edict, however, and denied the girls were under threat.

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Magdalene Laundries: Ireland PM Apologises

Ireland's prime minister has apologised to thousands of women sent to Catholic-run workhouses were they were subjected to a regime of hard work and prayer.

The Magdalene laundries started in the late 1700s as places to rehabilitate so-called "fallen" women.

A committee - led by Martin McAleese, the husband of former Irish president Mary McAleese - was set up 18 months ago to investigate exactly what role the Irish state played in the institutions between 1922 and 1996.

It found that more than 2,100 women, more than a quarter of those who were held in the Magdalene laundries for whom records survived, were sent in directly by the state.

The Irish government has always previously denied direct involvement in the system, which was run by four religious congregations: Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, The Good Shepherds, The Sisters of Mercy and the Religious Sisters of Charity.

But as the report was published, Irish PM Enda Kenny said: "To those resident who went into the Magdalene laundries from a variety of ways, 26% from state involvement, I'm sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment."

The report found that many of the women sent to the laundries went there after becoming involved with the courts or police.

Government inspectors routinely carried out checks at the institutions and the state paid welfare and other payments to women in laundries.

Survivors described the atmosphere in the institutions as "cold, with a rigid and uncompromising regime of physically demanding work and prayer, with many instances of verbal censure, scoldings or even humiliating put-downs".

However, it also noted that none of the 118 women that spoke to the committee made any allegations of sexual abuse against those who ran the laundries and compared them favourably to the Industrial School system in which physical punishment and abuse was "prevalent".

"Some of the women of the women the committee met stated clearly that the laundries were their only refuge in times of great personal difficulty," the report said.

More than 10,000 women, aged from nine to 89, were sent to eight of the ten laundries from which records were available between 1992 and 1996.

Dr Katherine O'Donnell, director of the Women's Study Centre at University College Dublin, said: "The state sent girls and women into the Magdalene laundry system through courts and mother-and-baby homes.

"They never checked on those girls and women to see if in fact they ever left."

More follows...

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