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Friday, November 29, 2013

Jon Bon Jovi's Daughter Shines at Prince William Event One Year After OD


http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/jon-bon-jovi-s-daughter-shines-at-prince-william-event-one-year-after-od-203117476.html

Jon Bon Jovi's Daughter Shines at Prince William Event One Year After OD

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Jon Bon Jovi and his family. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Jon Bon Jovi had many reasons to celebrate at Tuesday's Winter Whites Gala in London — some more obvious than others.
Not only was the ageless rocker honored by Prince William for his humanitarian work, he was surrounded by his family — and they looked healthy and happy, and were having and a good time.
Last year, things weren't as picture perfect for the Bon Jovi clan. The singer's only daughter, Stephanie, suffered an apparent heroin overdose in her Hamilton College dorm room in upstate New York on Nov. 14, 2012. At the time, the 51-year-old star spoke out about the incident and said he had "no idea" the 20-year-old had been experiencing personal troubles, calling her a "great kid. Great GPA. … She was doing great, then a sudden and steep decline."
The blonde, who's the eldest child of Bon Jovi and his high school sweetheart wife Dorothea, looked beautiful in a white and black floor-length gown with side-swept hair as she posed for family photos with her parents and brothers Jacob, 11, and Romeo, 9. (Jesse, 18, was not with the family.)
The group seemed jovial and in good spirits, posing with Prince William, who presented Bon Jovi with the Centrepoint Great Britain Youth Inspiration Award for his charity work, for a few snapshots. Stephanie was also with her dad chatting up Taylor Swift. (Both William — yes, the prince! — and Swift also later sang backup for Bon Jovi during his performance of "Livin' on a Prayer," which has gone viral.)
The fam with Prince William. (David M.Benett/Centrepoint/Getty Images)
Since her hospitalization, Stephanie has been spotted out with her father many times in New York City and the Hamptons, where they have a vacation home. However, this is the first time they've hit the red carpet together since the incident. Earlier this year, after some time had passed, Bon Jovi shared what he learned from the scary experience.
"It was my worst moment as a father," he told The Mirror in May. "She was by no means sticking needles in her arms. But there's a lot of synthetic stuff in the world and a lot of temptation and access and pressures that just a generation ago you and I didn't know about. I feel it was a terrible tragic lesson of life but I thank God every day because she is whole. It happened and it has gone. I know personally people whose sons and daughters, where it was a lot, lot worse. That could have been Stephanie."
With Thanksgiving upon us, we're sure he's counting his blessings — though it's probably more a daily thing then once a year.

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China sends warplanes into air defense zone


http://news.yahoo.com/china-sends-warplanes-air-defense-zone-180012990.html

China sends warplanes into air defense zone

Associated Press 
FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2012 file photo, the survey ship Koyo Maru, left, chartered by Tokyo city officials, sails around Minamikojima, foreground, Kitakojima, middle right, and Uotsuri, background, the tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. South Korean and Japanese flights through China’s new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the U.S. have vowed to ignore. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT
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FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2012 file photo, the survey ship Koyo Maru, left, chartered by Tokyo city officials, sails around Minamikojima, foreground, Kitakojima, middle right, and Uotsuri, background, the tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. South Korean and Japanese flights through China’s new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the U.S. have vowed to ignore. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT
BEIJING (AP) — China said it sent warplanes into its newly declared maritime air defense zone Thursday, days after the U.S., South Korea and Japan all sent flights through the airspace in defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in the East China Sea.
China's air force sent several fighter jets and an early warning aircraft on normal air patrols in the zone, the Xinhua agency reported, citing air force spokesman Shen Jinke.
The report did not specify exactly when the flights were sent or whether they had encountered foreign aircraft. The United States, Japan and South Korea have said they have sent flights through the zone without encountering any Chinese response since Beijing announced the creation of the zone last week.
Shen described Thursday's flights as "a defensive measure and in line with international common practices." He said China's air force would remain on high alert and will take measures to protect the country's airspace.
While China's surprise announcement last week to create the zone initially raised some tensions in the region, analysts say Beijing's motive is not to trigger an aerial confrontation but is a more long-term strategy to solidify claims to disputed territory by simply marking the area as its own.
China's lack of efforts to stop the foreign flights — including two U.S. B-52s that flew through the zone on Tuesday — has been an embarrassment for Beijing. Even some Chinese state media outlets suggested Thursday that Beijing may have mishandled the episodes.
"Beijing needs to reform its information release mechanism to win the psychological battles waged by Washington and Tokyo," the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid published by the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily, said in an editorial.
Without prior notice, Beijing began demanding Saturday that passing aircraft identify themselves and accept Chinese instructions or face consequences in an East China Sea zone that overlaps a similar air defense identification zone overseen by Japan since 1969 and initially part of one set up by the U.S. military.
But when tested just days later by U.S. B-52 flights — with Washington saying it made no effort to comply with China's rules, and would not do so in the future — Beijing merely noted, belatedly, that it had seen the flights and taken no further action.
South Korea's military said Thursday its planes flew through the zone this week without informing China and with no apparent interference. Japan also said its planes have been continuing to fly through it after the Chinese announcement, while the Philippines, locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with Beijing over South China Sea islands, said it also was rejecting China's declaration.
Analysts question China's technical ability to enforce the zone due to a shortage of early warning radar aircraft and in-flight refueling capability. However, many believe that China has a long-term plan to win recognition for the zone with a gradual ratcheting-up of warnings and possibly also eventual enforcement action.
"With regard to activity within the zone, nothing will happen — for a while," said June Teufel Dreyer, a China expert at the University of Miami. "Then the zone will become gradually enforced more strictly. The Japanese will continue to protest, but not much more, to challenge it."
That may wear down Japan and effectively change the status quo, she said.
The zone is seen primarily as China's latest bid to bolster its claim over a string of uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea — known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Beijing has been ratcheting up its sovereignty claims since Tokyo's privatization of the islands last year.
But the most immediate spark for the zone likely was Japan's threat last month to shoot down drones that China says it will send to the islands for mapping expeditions, said Dennis Blasko, an Asia analyst at think tank CNA's China Security Affairs Group and a former Army attache in Beijing.
The zone comes an awkward time. Although Beijing's ties with Tokyo are at rock bottom, it was building good will and mutual trust with Washington following a pair of successful meetings between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, the zone feud now threatens to overshadow both the visit by Vice President Joe Biden to Beijing next week and one by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop expected before the end of the year.
China's defense and foreign ministries offered no additional clarification Thursday as to why Beijing failed to respond to the U.S. Air Force flights. Alliance partners the U.S. and Japan together have hundreds of military aircraft in the immediate vicinity.
China on Saturday issued a list of requirements for all foreign aircraft passing through the area, regardless of whether they were headed into Chinese airspace, and said its armed forces would adopt "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that don't comply.
Beijing said the notifications are needed to help maintain air safety in the zone. However, the fact that China said it had identified and monitored the two U.S. bombers during their Tuesday flight seems to discredit that justification for the zone, said Rory Medcalf, director of the international security program at Australia's Lowy Institute
"This suggests the zone is principally a political move," Medcalf said. "It signals a kind of creeping extension of authority."
Along with concerns about confrontations or accidents involving Chinese fighters and foreign aircraft, the zone's establishment fuels fears of further aggressive moves to assert China's territorial claims — especially in the hotly disputed South China Sea, which Beijing says belongs entirely to it.
Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun confirmed those concerns on Saturday by saying China would establish additional air defense identification zones "at an appropriate time."
For now, however, China's regional strategy is focused mostly on Japan and the island dispute, according to government-backed Chinese scholars.
China will continue piling the pressure on Tokyo until it reverses the decision to nationalize the islands, concedes they are in dispute, and opens up negotiations with Beijing, said Shen Dingli, a regional security expert and director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University.
"China has no choice but to take counter measures," Shen said. "If Japan continues to reject admitting the disputes, it's most likely that China will take further measures."
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Thursday, November 28, 2013

Brazil risking reputation on World Cup, Olympics


http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-risking-reputation-world-cup-olympics-141206317--spt.html
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Brazil risking reputation on World Cup, Olympics

Associated Press 
A collapsed metal structure sits on the ground at Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. The accident that resulted in the death of at least two workers, occurred when a construction crane crashed into a 500-ton metal structure that in turn cut through the outer walls of the venue, destroying rows of seats and slamming into a massive LED panel that runs across the stadium's facade. The stadium is slated to host the 2014 World Cup opener. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine)
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Preparing for the World Cup and Olympics is putting Brazil's reputation on the line, giving South America's biggest country a chance to boost its profile while also exposing it to mounting pressure and unrelenting scrutiny.
The deaths of two construction workers at a stadium in Sao Paulo that will host the World Cup opener in 6½ months highlight the strain of organizing two mega-events under tight deadlines and high expectations.
Violent street protests that began in June during the Confederations Cup — a warm-up tournament for the World Cup — have raised questions about why a country with a slowing economy and stark social inequality is spending $15 billion on the World Cup, and a like amount for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
China and South Africa tried to improve their images by hosting the 2008 Olympics and 2010 World Cup while Russia will try the same at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi in February.
Ironically, Brazil has a largely positive world image — samba, soccer and sandy beaches — that could be tarnished by trying to do too much.
The accident Wednesday at the Arena Corinthians comes as all the top names in the world game are about to arrive in Brazil for next week's World Cup draw.
By chance, International Olympic Committee officials were in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday holding two-day meetings, including IOC executive director Gilbert Felli and Moroccan IOC member Nawal El Moutawakel, the head of an inspection team that monitors progress on the games.
"These are events that have a lot of rewards associated with them, but there are a lot of risks if they do a poor job," said Mark Jones, a Latin American political expert at Rice University in Texas. "If there is violence or if the infrastructure isn't sufficient, it could lead to a black eye and undermine the larger goal, which is to show Brazil is a global player."
Preparations for both events have been plagued by delays, accidents and constant pressure to move faster. No one doubts they'll both be held, but at what cost, and who pays?
Jerome Valcke, FIFA's top administrator overseeing the World Cup, scolded Brazil's politicians early in 2012 with very direct language: "You have to push yourself, kick your (backside)."
He apologized later, but the message was clear.
Brazil's World Cup organizers have been criticized for using 12 stadiums when FIFA required only eight. Four of the stadiums, in Brasilia, Natal, Cuiaba and Manaus, look like patronage rewards and are almost certain to become "white elephants."
A judge in the state of Amazonas recently suggested the stadium in Manaus be used afterward for prisoner processing.
The bill for 12 new or refurbished stadiums is $3.5 billion. Cost overruns, delays and labor strife have pushed up the price by $430 million in the last year and could hurt President Dilma Rousseff, who is up for election just after the World Cup.
She could also be damaged if protests during the World Cup get out of hand and resemble the Confederations Cup with police and soldiers firing tear gas, rubber bullets and shock grenades at rock-throwing demonstrators. Six died in connection with the Confederations Cup mayhem.
Many fans are worrying about travel in Brazil. The size of the United States or China, Brazil has limited rail service and an underdeveloped and overtaxed road network. Flying will be the only alternative for most.
About 600,000 foreigners and at least 3 million Brazilians will be traveling to matches, many connecting through old airports — the worst probably in Rio and Sao Paulo.
Soaring hotel prices — some are reported to have increased 500 percent — and a fear of street crime in many Brazilian cities is also in the mix.
"Brazil often measures itself against itself," Jones said. "These events force Brazil to compete on an international scale. It pushes Brazil and raises the bar in a way that would not occur absent the global scrutiny it will undergo."
Rio's Olympic organizing committee, which has changed leadership several times, has yet to announce an operating budget with just under 1,000 days to go before the opening on Aug. 5, 2016.
Carlos Nuzman, the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and head of the organizing committee, was lectured publicly by fellow IOC members at meetings two months ago in Buenos Aires. He was told to communicate better, keep the public informed about the spending and coordinate with Brazil's fractured national, state and local governments.
Rio maintains that it's on schedule, although the Olympic Park — the heart of the games west of Rio — is a mud flat where construction has barely begun. A second large Olympic area called Deodoro in the north of Rio is also far behind schedule.
In exclusive reports last week, The Associated Press documented severe pollution in the waters surrounding Rio, where Olympic and Paralympic sailing, canoeing, rowing, triathlon and open-water swimming events will be held.
Nearly 70 percent of Rio's sewage enters the waters untreated, much from hillside favelas, or shantytowns. The average fecal pollution rate around the planned Olympic Park is 78 times the Brazilian government's satisfactory level, and 195 times the level considered safe in the United States.
IOC vice president John Coates was quoted recently in the Sunday Times of London saying Rio "was more of a crisis than Athens," site of the 2004 Olympics and a byword for delays.
Athens managed to deliver, though some link the price tag to the country's current economic crisis. Brazil is much larger with one of the world's biggest economies, although it doesn't have the unlimited spending clout that China's authoritarian government put behind the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"These countries always pull it off," said Greg Michener, a professor in Rio de Janeiro at the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. "Politically, it's probably a blessing in disguise for Brazil. It's trying to portray itself as capable and transparent and all eyes will be watching. Brazil probably needs to turn outward, and these events are forcing it outward."
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Follow Stephen Wade at http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
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