LOS ANGELES - Latin pop star Ricky Martin on Monday announced he was gay in a blog posting, ending years of speculation.
"I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man," Martin wrote in a blog posting at www.rickymartinmusic.com.
"This is just what I need especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day. To keep living as I did up until today would be to indirectly diminish the glow that my kids were born with," Martin wrote.
Martin, 38, became a father to twin sons via a surrogate in 2008 and at the time no details were given about the birth or the mother.
The Puerto Rican singer of hits such as "Livin' la Vida Loca," has long been the subject of speculation about his sexuality. In 2000, TV journalist Barbara Walters grilled him about whether he was gay, but he refused to disclose it.
In his posting on Monday, Martin said a few months ago he had decided to write a memoir and doing so brought him closer to what he called "an amazing turning point in my life."
"Writing this account of my life, I got very close to my truth. And this is something worth celebrating," he wrote.
The singer began his career with boy band Menudo and broke out as a solo artist and teen idol in the 1990s in Spanish-speaking countries.
He released his first, English-language album in 1999, the self-titled "Ricky Martin," which saw two major hits, "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "She's All I Ever Had." Since then, Martin has been a star in both North America and South America.
Jarrett Barrios, the president of the U.S.-based Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation , welcomed what he called Martin's "openness and honesty."
WASHINGTON (AFP) - – US authorities said Friday they brought charges against nine people over a vast smuggling ring that brought in hundreds of thousands of counterfeit shoes and handbags from China and Malaysia.
The network also extended to Britain, where authorities on Thursday seized another six people in the London area along with 50,000 counterfeit items, US prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury in the eastern US city of Baltimore indicted four Chinese nationals, two Malaysians and three naturalized Americans. Together they face more than 1,000 years in prison and millions of dollars in penalties.
It said the suspects sent 33 shipments of counterfeit goods, mostly made in China or Malaysia, to the Port of Baltimore over a year and a half until December.
The goods included 120,000 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes, 500,000 fake Coach handbags, 10,000 pairs of counterfeit Coach and Gucci shoes and 500 counterfeit Cartier wrist watches, the indictment said.
"Criminal organizations that smuggle and sell counterfeit goods in the United States endanger our economy and rob legitimate industries of their business," said John Morton, assistant secretary of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in announcing the arrests.
The prosecutors alleged that the suspects also laundered 122,943.50 dollars for the illegal operations and said that London authorities confiscated 350,000 pounds (530,000 dollars) in cash.
A suspect also sent a sample of fake Viagra pills to an undercover agent, hoping to branch out into sales of the erectile dysfunction drug, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors charged the suspects with 72 counts of smuggling, trafficking in counterfeit goods, conspiracy and money laundering. If convicted on all counts, they together face 1,095 years in prison and 66 million dollars in penalties.
The defendants were identified as Malaysian nationals Wai Hong Yong and Eng Cheng Kee; Chinese nationals Hexing Yang, Chan Hong Xu, Lidan Zhang and Kai T. Jaing; and US citizens Josephine O. Zhou, Kin Yip Ng and Yenn-Kun Hsieh.
One of them, Chan Hong Xu, is at large. The other eight suspects were arrested across the eastern United States and the Pacific territory of Guam and will be brought to Baltimore, officials said.
The United States and other developed nations have frequently voiced concerns about widespread counterfeiting in China, believing it badly hurts companies in their countries.
In 2007, there was this rumor linking Angelica and Derek to a s-x video leaked online. People looked for it but no video came out.
The tabloid Pinoy Parazzi has exposed a beach photo of the hot couple two days ago which according to the tabloid has been sold to them two years ago.
As seen in the Pinoy Parazzi photo below, Angelica is shown grabbing Derek's private parts. It's not actually a simple "grabbing" because Angel's right hand finds comfort inside Derek's branded underwear.
Angelica is yet to comment on the picture but boyfriend Derek broke his silence at Darla Sauler's blog and he told the blog that he sees nothing wrong with the picture: "I don't see anything wrong with the photo! It's our own private photo with friends! We are having clean fun!!!! What's wrong is whoever exposed the pic!"
Derek, also asked the media to give some respect to his girlfriend Angelica and insisted that there's nothing wrong on the pictures during his interview on abs-cbn tv patrol.
A Filipina tourist detained for allegedly smuggling illegal drugs in Australia has been released from jail after she was found innocent of the crime, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Saturday.
Filipina Maria Cecilia Silva was freed by Australian Police on Thursday—after five days of detention—after packets of iced tea recovered from her at the Melbourne Airport tested negative for drugs, an article on the DFA website reported.
According to the DFA, Silva was arrested and detained last Saturday upon her arrival at the airport on suspicion that iced tea packets she was carrying contained the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
Australian Customs officials and the federal police expressed regret over the incident. The Philippine Embassy in Canberra, who assisted Silva during the incident, urged Australian authorities to implement measures to ensure that similar mistakes do not happen again, the DFA reported.
Silva received a compensation of 5,000 Australian dollars (around P209,000) for the harrowing incident, according to the DFA.
Visit DFA Website:
http://dfa.gov.ph/main/index.php/news-from-rp-embassies/876-filipino-suspected-of-drug-smuggling-released-australian-authorities-issue-apology
The pound for pound king once again showed the world why he is one of a kind. Manny Pacquiao dominated Joshua Clottey through 12 rounds using his speed and his punch output. Clottey fought a scared fight and took no chances despite his corner begging him to do so. The 11th round was the first time in the entire fight where Clottey opened up a little bit.
The problem? Pacquiao rose to the occassion and took the round back anyway. Pacquiao overwhelmed Clottey with too many punches. Clottey suvived the fight, but that's all he was able to do. Official scores 120/108 119/109 and 119/109-Unanimous Decision Pacquiao
Match Result by Round
Rd 1: was like American Football. 1 team on offense & 1 team on defense. Clottey had hands up 90% of time. Manny kept punching away.
Rd 2: more defense from Clottey. Manny got a good left hook to body, made Clottey wince a bit. Clottey hardly hardly punching at all.
Rd 3: Pacman working body very effectively. Clottey finally punching more. Connecting with some right straights and left jabs.
Rd 4: Pacman (frustrated) warned for a 2 fisted punch to left & right side at same time. MP still. Dominant to body.
Rd 5: same same. Clottey covered tight like a knight in armor. MPnsettlin for working the aides of his body hoping to open up headshots.
Rd 6: another MP round. MP inviting clottey to punch. Looking for counter-punch opportunities
Rd 7: clottey punched more in 1st 2 mins. But covered up in last minute. Clot corner now saying: "let's punch more now ok?"
Rd 8: clottey warned for a low blow. MP combo breaking thru more now. Clottey legs looked wobbly for awhile. Clot Corner:"wer losing every rd!"
Rd 9: Deja Vu? Looked like most other rounds. Clottey defending, barely punching. MP attacking now more body, head, angles etc...
Rd 10: MP clearly up on points. Question is can MP be the 1st ever to break the tough Defense and knock Clotty out?
Rd 11: clottey survives an MP flurry at end of the round. MP not settling for win on points. He wants the KO. Last round here we go!
Rd 12: IT'S ALL OVER! Pacquiao wins by unanimous decision! Scores: 120-108, 119-109, 119-109. There's no KO because all Clottey do is defense. Barely punching.
LONDON (AFP) - – Two British women who were raped and abused by their father for over 25 years, becoming pregnant 18 times, have won an apology from local authorities for failing to prevent the serial incest.
In a case compared with that of Austria's notorious Josef Fritzl, the 56-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is serving a life jail term for raping his daughters, who had seven babies by their father.
Details of the abuse were revealed Wednesday in a case review by local authorities, who accepted that 28 agencies and 100 officials had dealt with the family over 35 years.
"We want to apologise to the family at the heart of this case. It will be clear that we failed this family," said Sue Fiennes, head of the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board.
"This report will not make comfortable reading for any of the organisations concerned with the family. We are all committed to working relentlessly to do all we can to minimise the risk of this happening again."
"Lessons are being learned by the agencies involved," she added.
The ordeal started in 1981 when the daughters were aged eight and 10. At the start they were attacked every day, and later were raped two or three times a week, review documents revealed.
If they refused the advances of their father -- who called himself the "gaffer", or boss -- they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held in the flames of a gas fire.
The case review showed that the family moved home 67 times over a 35-year period so that the father could avoid detection.
The women's brother voiced anger that his sisters had not been protected, saying: "I blame a lot of people."
"I blame people that were meant to be looking after children because we were all meant to be under child protection at five, so I blame the people that should have been doing their jobs looking after us," he added.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls branded the crimes "horrific" and said they should have been prevented.
"Like many people, I find it impossible to understand how a father could treat his own daughters in this way," he said.
"It is absolutely right for people to want to know how such abuse could go on for so long without the authorities and public services discovering it and taking action."
Media compared the case with that of Austria's Fritzl, who was jailed for life last year for holding his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years in a cramped, windowless chamber and murdering one of their seven children.
The Daily Mail newspaper said the case bore "chilling echoes" of Fritzl's crimes.
The British serial rapist had "left a trail of misery and recrimination, and a family of children whose warped parentage will scar them for life," said the paper.
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest person, knocking Microsoft
It is only the second time since 1995 that Gates has lost the crown, the magazine said, estimating Slim's net worth 
The trio regained $41.5 billion of the $68 billion they had lost the previous year, Forbes said.
The number of billionaires around the world has nearly recovered in 2010 after dropping by a third last year during the global financial crisis. There are now 1,011 billionaires, compared with 793 last year and 1,125 in 2008.
The net wealth of those billionaires grew to $3.6 trillion from $2.4 trillion last year, but is still down from 2008's $4.4 trillion, according to the 24th annual Forbes list, which took a snapshot of wealth on Feb. 12 to compile its ranking.
The average billionaire is now worth $3.5 billion, up $500 million from last year. And the number of women on the list rose to 89 from 72 last year.
"The global economy is recovering and it's reflected in what you see in the list this year," Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes, told a news conference. "Financial markets have also made an even more impressive comeback from the lows of just about a year ago, particularly in emerging markets."
"Asia is leading the comeback," Forbes said.
The number of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region grew by 80 percent to 234 and their net worth almost doubled to $729 billion, which the Forbes ranking attributed to the area's "swelling stock markets and several large public offerings during the past year."
Two Indians round out the top five richest people in the world -- Mukesh Ambani, with a petrochemicals, oil and gas fortune of $29 billion, and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who is valued at $28.7 billion.
The biggest gainer on the list was Brazilian mining
UNITED STATES, EUROPE LAGGING
Of the 97 billionaires making their debut on the Forbes list, 62 are from Asia, while for the first time China is now home to the most billionaires outside of the United States.
"The United States still dominates, but the United States is lagging," Forbes said. "It is not doing as well as the rest of the world in coming back."
"The global boom that we experienced from the early 80s ... which was temporarily derailed in 2007, now looks like it is beginning to get back on track. But Asia and a handful of others are surging, relatively the United States and Western Europe are lagging."
The top homes to billionaires are New York with 60 and Moscow with 50, followed by London with 32.
There are 55 countries represented on the Forbes list with billionaires from Pakistan -- clothing exporter Mian Muhammad Mansha -- and Finland -- manufacturing mogul Antti Herlin -- making an appearance for the first time, while Turkey, Russia and India regained billionaire numbers lost last year.
There were 164 billionaires returning to the list in 2010, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is also the world's youngest with a $4 billion fortune at the age of 25.
The second-youngest self-made billionaire is Japan's Yoshikazu Tanaka, 33, who made $1.4 billion from social networking firm Gree <3632.t>. The oldest is 99-year-old Walter Haefner from Switzerland who has $3.3 billion.
The sixth-richest man is Oracle Corp
"The bling is back," said Forbes Senior Editor Luisa Kroll of Arnault's wealth.
Rounding out the top 10 is Spanish clothing retailer Inditex
While Gates's and Buffett's fortunes far exceed most others in the top 10, Forbes Senior Editor Matthew Miller said their fortunes would be far greater if they hadn't given away a lot of their money.
"They would be far richer today if it wasn't for their tremendous philanthropy," he said. "Buffett would be worth at least $55 billion ... and Gates' net worth would exceed $80 billion had it not been for his philanthropy."
The Forbes ranking of the world's billionaires can be seen at www.forbes.com/billionaires.
(Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Mark Egan and Eric Walsh) (For a list of the top 20 click [ID:nN10142112] (For a newsmaker story on Carlos Slim click [ID:nN10147269] and for a factbox on Slim [ID:nN10139746]
OKCULAR, Turkey (AFP) - – A powerful earthquake in eastern Turkey on Monday buried people as they slept in remote villages, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens, officials said.
Rescuers struggled to dig survivors from the rubble after the tremor, which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale, tore down mud-brick houses in villages around the town of Karakocan in Elazig province.
The power was even more devastating as the epicentre of the quake, which struck at 4:32am (0232 GMT), was only five kilometres (three miles) beneath the Earth's surface, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said on its web site.
An official at the governor's office in Elazig city said that at least four of the 41 dead found so far are children. About 100 people were injured and nine were in critical condition.
Rescuers were trying to save at least four people trapped under debris, Elazig governor Muammer Erol told CNN Turk television.
In the worst-hit village of Okcular, a mountain settlement of some 900 people, military and civil defence teams scoured the debris for survivors as after-shocks jolted the area, an AFP correspondent said.
Villagers wailed at the flattened homes of 17 people killed by the tremor. Seeking to recover any valuables they could from their homes, many villagers left for other towns to take shelter with relatives.
About 30 houses were demolished in Okcular, Yasar Cagribay, head of a rescue team, told CNN Turk.
The quake killed many livestock, the main livelihood for the village, nestled in hills at a height of about 1,800 metres (5,900 feet).
The Turkish Red Crescent rushed tents, blankets, food and other humanitarian supplies to the area.
The nearby villages of Yukari Kanatli, Kayalik, Gocmezler and Yukari Demirci were also seriously hit.
"Villages consisting mainly of mud-brick houses have been damaged, but we have minimal damage such as cracks in buildings made of cement or stone," the provincial governor said.
The local hospital was inundated with the injured, CNN Turk said, adding that medican reinforcements and aid had been sent.
Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek went to the disaster zone with Health Minister Recep Akdag, Housing Minister Mustafa Demir and State Minister Cevdet Yilmaz, Anatolia news agency reported.
The tremor was felt in the neighbouring provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir. Residents rushed out onto the streets in panic and spent the night outside fearing new shocks, CNN-Turk said.
Major earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several active fault-lines.
Two powerful tremors in the heavily populated and industrialized northwest claimed about 20,000 lives in August and November 1999.
