6.8 magnitude Earthquake shakes central New Zealand; no casualties reported

A strong earthquake shook central New Zealand on Friday, disrupting traffic and sending office workers scrambling for cover in the capital. Some buildings in Wellington were evacuated, and items were knocked off shelves in places. Police were trying to verify reports that one house near the quake's center was severely damaged. There were no initial reports of injuries.

The magnitude 6.8 quake struck just after 2:30 p.m. near the South Island town of Seddon, followed by a series of smaller aftershocks. Boulders fell onto State Highway 1, the major route for traffic near Seddon, said police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn. She said she was trying to verify reports that one home in Seddon had been severely damaged.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter was 94 kilometers (58 miles) west of Wellington at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).

Local authorities issued no tsunami warnings.

A quake of a similar strength in the same area three weeks ago broke water mains, smashed windows and downed power lines. New Zealand is part of the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire" that has regular seismic activity. A severe earthquake in the city of Christchurch in 2011 killed 185 people and destroyed much of the city's downtown.

Victoria Beckham takes helicopter to son's school

Singer-turned-fashion designer takes helicopter to son Brooklyn's parents' evening at school.

The former Spice Girl was in the middle of a photo shoot for Australian Vogue when she arranged the trip across London, editor Edwina McCann revealed.

Victoria was being photographed and interviewed for the September issue of the magazine, but didn't want to miss the

chance to discuss Brooklyn's progress with his teachers.

"In the end her people decided she could make the trip by chopper directly from the shoot if need be," McCann said. Beckham told the magazine during her interview that she

is much more normal than people think.

Israel army shoots down rocket near Egypt border

The Israeli military shot down a rocket launched toward a Red Sea resort town near the border with Egypt on Tuesday, the army said.

It was the first time Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system successfully intercepted a rocket attack on the resort of Eilat, the military said. The incident came after days of heightened tension along the Egypt-Israel border.

The army said the rocket was intercepted early Tuesday and that there were no injuries. It didn't provide more details and declined to comment on the origins of the projectile.

An al Qaeda-inspired militant group based in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Ansar Jerusalem, claimed responsibility for launching the rocket in an email to The Associated Press. The little known group is hostile to both Israel and Egypt and was behind an attack in August 2011 near Eilat that killed eight people.

In Cairo, Egypt's state MENA news agency quoted an unnamed security official as saying authorities could not confirm that the rocket was launched from Sinai. The report said Egyptian forces were investigating.

zLast Thursday, Israel briefly closed the Eilat airport in response to unspecified security warnings.

The following day, five suspected Islamic militants were killed in Egypt's volatile Sinai Peninsula, and a rocket launcher there was reportedly destroyed, according to Egyptian officials. Ansar Jerusalem said four of its men were killed and blamed the deaths on Israel.

Egyptian security officials attributed Friday's strike to a drone fired from the Israeli side of the border, but Israel has remained silent about the attack, likely out of concerns about exposing Egypt's military to domestic criticism over an Israeli strike on its soil.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, but many in Egypt still view Israel with suspicion.

Bo Xilai case: Murdered Briton's family seeks up to $8.2 mn relief

The family of a British citizen murdered in China, whose death triggered the nation's biggest political scandal in decades, is seeking compensation of up to $8.2 million from his convicted killer, the wife of former top leader Bo Xilai, a lawyer with knowledge of the talks said on Monday.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was jailed for life last year for the poisoning of British businessman Neil Heywood in a case that also led to a corruption probe into Bo, once a candidate for China's top leadership team.

It is customary for a murderer to be ordered to pay court-sanctioned compensation to the victim's family.

A source close to the family said Heywood's Chinese widow, Lulu, had been pushing for compensation for herself and their two young children from Gu. Lulu and the children are believed to be still living in Beijing.

Li Xiaolin, a lawyer who represented Gu's family in the past, said Heywood's family was seeking between 30 million and 50 million yuan ($8.17 million) in compensation.

"The talks started last year, but have not reached any agreement yet that I know of," Li told Reuters. "Gu Kailai has no money herself."

Money was not being sought from Bo though as he was not mentioned in the verdict for Gu's case, Li said. "Talks are continuing," Li added, saying it was a colleague of his who was involved in the talks.

The British Embassy in Beijing said it had passed on the family's concerns about a lack of progress on the compensation request to the Chinese government.

"We've made the Chinese authorities, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aware of the family's concerns on several occasions since the trial, most recently twice during July," said an embassy spokesman, who did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Heywood's mother, Ann Heywood, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, said there had been no progress on seeking compensation.

Egypt expected to act against pro-Morsi protesters Monday

Egyptian police are expected to start taking action early on Monday against supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi who are gathered in crowded protest camps in Cairo, security and government sources said, a move which could trigger more bloodshed.

The sites are the main flashpoints in the confrontation between the army, which toppled Morsi last month, and supporters who demand his reinstatement.

Western and Arab mediators and some senior Egyptian government officials have been trying to persuade the army to avoid using force against the protesters, who at times can number as much as tens of thousands.

"State security troops will be deployed around the sit-ins by dawn as a start of procedures that will eventually lead to a dispersal," a senior security source said on Sunday, adding that the first step will be to surround the camps.

Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who toppled Morsi, has come under pressure from hardline military officers to move against the protesters, security sources say.

Almost 300 people have been killed in political violence since the overthrow, including dozens of Morsi supporters shot dead by security forces in two incidents.

Any further bloodshed would almost certainly deepen Egypt's political crisis and keep the government from dealing with vital issues such as the fragile economy.

Another security source said the decision to make a move on Monday, just after celebrations following the holy month of Ramadan, came after a meeting between the interior minister and his aides.

"The first step towards ending the sit-ins will start at dawn when protesters will be surrounded," a government official said.

Morsi's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on Sunday criticizing any plans by "coup makers" to interfere with their right to protest and calling on international rights groups to visit their camps to see how peaceful they were.

China trade surplus falls 29.6% as imports gain

China's July trade surplus fell 29.6 percent year-on-year to $17.8 billion, government data showed on Thursday as a bigger-than-expected gain in imports outpaced one in exports.

Exports increased 5.1 percent year-on-year to $186.0 billion, according to figures from Customs, while imports rose 10.9 percent to $168.2 billion.

The results marked a rebound in trade in both directions after exports and imports declined in June, with the gain in imports being the first since April.

Two-way trade rose 7.8 percent year-on-year, slightly lower than the government's eight percent growth target for this year but "showing a stabilising and recovering trend", according to Customs.

The figures surprised economists.

A survey of 14 economists by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast exports to gain a median 2.8 percent and imports to rise 1.3 percent. The median prediction for the trade surplus was $27.2 billion.

Alaistair Chan, an economist at Moody's Analytics, called the results surprisingly good, though cautioned against overoptimism.

"We had expected imports to perform better than exports and hence for the trade surplus to fall, but the jump in imports was higher than expected," he wrote in a report.

But he added: "July seems to reflect a return to a 'normal', relatively uninspiring trend after a weak June, rather than the beginning of an acceleration in growth. While the worst seems to be over, the upturn will be relatively flat."

Yao Wei, a Hong Kong-based economist with Societe Generale said that while the export growth was "reasonable" and reflected a stabilising yet weak foreign demand, the rebound in imports was "confusing".

"Even though the government had announced some supportive measures, they should not show effects so soon — the fundamentals in the economy did not support such a strong rebound," she told AFP.

The trade data come after mixed messages on China's economy last week when private and official surveys of the country's important manufacturing sector showed differing results.

British banking giant HSBC's purchasing managers' index indicated contraction while the government's showed a surprise expansion.

China's economy managed growth of 7.8 percent in 2012, its slowest since 1999.

The economy has since weakened further, with growth in the April-June period dipping to 7.5 percent, from 7.7 percent in the first quarter and 7.9 percent in October-December.

Yao warned that uncertainties would remain in the fourth quarter as authorities turned cautious about credit expansion.

"The key issue is that the central bank does not want credit growth to be too fast or continue for too long a time," she said.

"But infrastructure investment cannot carry on without credit support. This is a contradiction that has yet to be dealt with properly."

Security tight as Indonesia celebrates Eid

Tens of millions of Muslims in Indonesia celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday today as fears of fresh attacks at Buddhist sites prompted a security clampdown days after a temple bombing.

The past week has seen an exodus from cities in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, with people taking to cars, boats and planes to head home to their families across the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

Indonesia is one of the first countries in the Islamic world to kick off Eid celebrations, with people ending the fasting month of Ramadan with lavish feasts and by attending services at mosques and taking part in processions.

Muslims in Australia were among the first to celebrate and Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to deliver an address at Eid prayers in Kabul. Malaysians also marked Eid today, with Gulf states expected to follow. Pakistan and North Africa are expected to start festivities from Thursday.

While most Indonesians were celebrating, it is an anxious time for the country's minority Buddhists after an attack on a temple in Jakarta on Sunday. One person was injured when a small bomb exploded at the Ekayana temple as hundreds were praying, an attack motivated by anger at the plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

It sparked fears that radicals could be poised to launch further attacks on one of Islam's holiest days, as they shift from targeting the country's Christian and Muslim minorities to Buddhists. Security was stepped up at Buddhist sites, with the

number of police and guards at the famed Borobudur temple complex in Central Java doubled to 418, according to temple official Purnomo Siswo Prasetyo.

"Buddhist temples are one of the key locations we are securing," national police spokesman Ronny Sompie told AFP. More than 140,000 police had been deployed across the country in the past week to guard against attacks at all sites deemed vulnerable, including Buddhist temples, he added.

Amazon founder buys The Post

The Washington Post, the newspaper whose reporting helped topple a president and inspired a generation of journalists, is being sold for $250 million to the founder of Amazon.com, Jeffrey P Bezos, in a deal that has shocked the industry.

Donald E Graham, chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Company, and the third generation of the Graham family to lead the paper, told the staff about the sale Monday afternoon.

Graham, in a statement, said nobody should be sad — except, "for me". The announcement was greeted by what many staff members described as "shock".

In Bezos, The Post will have a very different owner, a technologist whose fortunes have risen in the last dozen years even as those of The Post and most newspapers have struggled.

In the meeting, Graham stressed that Bezos would purchase The Post in a personal capacity and not on behalf of Amazon the company.

The $250 million deal includes all of the publishing businesses owned by company, including the Express newspaper, The Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers, Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino and Greater Washington Publishing. The company plans to hold on to Slate, The Root.com and Foreign Policy.

Bezos has asked publisher Katharine Weymouth to remain at The Post along with Stephen P Hills, president and general manager; Martin Baron, executive editor; and Fred Hiatt, editor of the editorial page.

Timeline

1877: Washington Post founded by Stilson Hutchins on December 6.

1880: The paper adds a Sunday edition, becoming DC's first newspaper to publish seven days a week.

1933 - Former chairman of Federal Reserve Eugene Meyer buys Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction. His daughter, Katharine Graham, would go on to lead the company.

1946 - Philip L Graham, who married Katharine in 1940, takes over company.

Australian legislator embroiled in sex scandal, steps aside as Chair of Parliamentary Ethics Committee

An Australian state lawmaker accused of sending raunchy pictures of himself to a woman stepped down as the head of an ethics committee on Tuesday, apologizing to his family and dubbing the scandal indefensible.

The allegations against Peter Dowling, a member of Queensland state's ruling conservative Liberal National Party, emerged after The Courier-Mail newspaper reported on Tuesday that a woman claiming to be the politician's mistress sent a letter detailing their two-and-a-half-year affair to state parliament Speaker Fiona Simpson.

The newspaper said it had seen several explicit text messages between Dowling and the woman, including a picture of a penis resting in a glass of wine. The photo was accompanied by the message, "He wanted a Red Wine".

On Tuesday morning, Dowling, who, according to his website, has two children with his wife of 27 years stood before his fellow lawmakers and offered a mea culpa.

"I owe my family an apology. I am sorry for the pain and embarrassment I caused you", Dowling told parliament. "I am not proud of the events plastered all over the paper. I can't and won't defend any part of it".

Dowling is also accused of taking advantage of parliament business trips to meet the woman. Her name was not released and her face was blacked out in published photos of her and Dowling.

Dowling acknowledged he accepted more than 20,000 Australian dollars ($17,800) worth of free flight upgrades. Queensland's parliament exempts travel upgrades from its rules that politicians declare all gifts worth more than AU$500.

Dowling denied he had violated any disclosure rules, but said he was stepping down as ethics committee chairman and from the parliamentary crime and misconduct committee until an investigation by the Clerk of Parliament into his travel is complete. The ethics committee handles complaints about the behavior of the state's politicians, and the crime and misconduct committee monitors the Crime and Misconduct Commission, an anti-corruption agency.

Envoys in Egypt visit jailed Brotherhood leader-reports

International envoys visited a high-ranking member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in jail on Monday, the state news agency reported, to press a bid to defuse the crisis ignited by President Mohamed Mursi's downfall.

The envoys met deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater just after midnight, having received permission from the prosecutor general to visit him at Tora prison, south of Cairo, the state news agency MENA reported.

The report citing "an informed source" contradicted an earlier government denial of a visit by officials from the United States, European Union, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

MENA gave no further details. Earlier, the Doha-based Al Jazeera news channel reported the meeting had taken place. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Shater is deputy leader of the group that propelled Mursi to office last year in Egypt's first democratic presidential election. Seen as the Brotherhood's political strategist, he was arrested after Mursi's downfall on charges of inciting violence.

The international mediation effort is helping to contain the bloody conflict between Mursi's Islamist backers and the interim government installed by the military that overthrew him on July 3, following mass protests against his rule.

The army-backed government said on Sunday it would give mediation a chance but warned that time was limited.

Thousands of Mursi supporters remain camped out in two Cairo sit-ins, which the government has declared a threat to national security and pledged to disperse.

Al Masry Al Youm, a privately owned newspaper, said Shater was visited by a delegation including U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and European Union envoy Bernadino Leon.

Shater told the envoys he would only hold talks with them in the presence of Mursi because he was "the legitimate president", the newspaper reported on its website, citing a senior security source.

The diplomats were accompanied by members of the armed forces during the visit, which the report said was focused on ways to end the sit-ins.

From ‘Composition’ to Collaboration

A Natural Look Inspired by Jackson Pollock

Whether looking at fashion magazines, commercials, or blogs online, inspiration for everyday beauty can come from anywhere, including from a painting. Through my design studio, LKN Studio, I work as a wardrobe, set and prop stylist for photography and film productions. One of the most rewarding aspects about working within these industries is collaborating with the many accomplished creatives local to West Michigan. Today, I partnered with one of Grand Rapids’ top hair and makeup stylists, Rebecca Gohl, to create a natural beauty look inspired by the painting ‘Composition’ (ca.1946) by the American artist Jackson Pollock using eco-friendly cosmetics and hair products. It will give you a view into how we as production styling professionals work together to take inspiration and apply it to real life.

The Collaborator

Rebecca Gohl, a native to Grand Rapids, has been working in the production industry from age 15 where she started with her father, David Winick, building sets for film production. She has worked in various roles in the industry from production assistant, wardrobe and set stylist, but found her true passion as a hair and makeup stylist. “I’ve always loved fashion and people and have been drawn to period hair and makeup,” Gohl explains. “I set my hair in vintage sets regularly and spend most of my extra time researching different period hair and makeup to become an expert.” Even though her main draws are retro and historical fashion, Gohl loves to create styles from past to present. She works regularly on commercial and editorial fashion shoots for clients such as Hush Puppies, Merrell, and Amway to create fresh and contemporary looks that inspire the fashion forward beauty lovers. Her energy and creativity are inspiring to work with.

The Inspiration

Gohl and I met to discuss our inspiration, the painting ‘Composition’ (ca.1946) by Jackson Pollock. Pollack was a major figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement and is well known for his drip paintings. For the technique, Pollock would play music in the background as he worked, dip his paint brush into paint and start moving it to the music over the canvas without touching the canvas directly; allowing the paint to drip from the brush and create threadlike strokes that seem to shoot across the surface. While examining the painting, the dynamic expression of the motion of the strokes and the layering of neutral colors (black, white, tan and ivory) with accents of bright colors (aquamarine, cobalt blue, goldenrod yellow, blush pink and pure red) stood out to us both. We found our inspiration for the look.

The Collaboration

To create an eco-friendly look that would reflect Pollock’s work, Gohl utilized natural and organic products from the hair product company Onesta and the cosmetic company Ecco Bella. For the hair, she created a spiral texture throughout with a curling iron, which mimics the long strokes of Pollock’s paintbrush. Gohl used Onesta’s products to naturally protect the model’s hair from the heat and hold the style. As Pollock used layers of color in his painting, Gohl created a light neutral base on the face and cheeks and then layered bronze, deep blue and golden yellow tones from Ecco Bella’s product line to accent the eyes. To frame the eyes, she hand dipped the tips of faux eyelashes in mascara to imitate the dripped dot effect of Pollock’s technique and worked them in between the model’s lashes. A beautiful shade of rose was selected to top off the lips and reflect the pink accents seen in the work. Below is a list of the products used:

 Ecco Bella Cosmetics for the Face and Lips

Concealer: FlowerColor Coverup Beige

Base: FlowerColor Face Powder Fair

Cheeks: FlowerColor Bronzing Powders Hibiscus and Sunflower

Eyelids: FlowerColor Powdered Eyeliner Mystic, FlowerColor Powdered Eyeliner La Lune

Eyeliner: Soft Eyeliner Pencils Royal Blue and Bronze, FlowerColor Powdered Eyeliner La Lune

Mascara: Natural Black Mascara

Lips: FlowerColor Lipstick Claret Rose

Onesta Products for the Hair Styling

For Heat and Styling: Create Liquid Setting Mist

For Styling and Hold: Create Finish Spray Firm Hold

For the clothing, I kept the base palette dark and neutral with the black-fringed dress to mimic the darker tones of the painting. Yellow and gold tones were added through jewelry to imitate the bright splatter of goldenrod paint. The background is similar to the shade of aquamarine paint used by Pollack, which I decided to keep simple like an artist’s canvas so that the model’s look becomes the focus of the image.

When in motion, the combination of the free-flowing fringed dress, the hair, and jewelry streaming through the air along with the accents of color seen in the subject’s face creates an awe-inspiring effect that brings the strokes of Pollock’s painting to life.

Stuffed pamphlet

Did you know that the Germans dropped leaflets among the Indian soldiers in WWI to tell them they were fighting on the wrong side? An exhibition in London records this and other attempts at propaganda.

Anti and pro-British publicity used during the Indian Independence movement and the British Raj form part of a new exhibition in London that examines propaganda from across the world. 

Propaganda: Power and Persuasion is the first show to explore international state propaganda from the 20th and 21st centuries. Examples of rallying support for a war, creating a common enemy and fighting disease through different forms like pamphlets, leaflet drops tweets feature in the exhibition at the British Library. 

More than 200 exhibits from virtually every continent of the world are shown, including banknotes, posters, stamps, badges, cartoons, films, music and games.

Playboy, Penthouse, other sex-themed magazines gone from US military stores

Playboy, Penthouse and other sex-themed magazines will no longer be sold at US Army and Air Force shops, a move described by the stores' operators as a business decision based on falling sales, and not a result of recent pressure from anti-pornography activists.

The 48 "adult sophisticate" magazines being dropped are among a total of 891 periodicals that will no longer be offered by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service at its stores on US military bases worldwide. Other titles stopped include English Garden, SpongeBob Comics, the New York Review of Books and the Saturday Evening Post.

Morality in Media, a Washington-based anti-pornography group, called the decision "a great victory" in its campaign against sexual exploitation in the military, and said it would continue to urge operators of US Navy and Marine Corps exchanges to follow suit.

Chris Ward, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, said the cutbacks, which took effect yesterday would reduce the space allotted to magazines by 33 per cent and free up room at the exchanges for more popular products.

He noted that newsstand sales of most consumer magazines were falling steadily as online alternatives proliferated.

Sales of the "adult sophisticate" category of magazines at the exchanges had declined 86 per cent since 1998, he said.

Hundreds of magazines will continue to be sold at the exchanges. The current top-sellers are People, Men's Health and Cosmopolitan.

Though many types of magazines are among the 891 being dropped, the adult magazines posed particular difficulties, Ward said. Under federal regulations, they required special handling and placement in order to ensure they were properly displayed out of reach of children.

Military personnel will still be able to bring explicit magazines onto their bases that they purchased elsewhere, and will have access to online pornography.

Russia grants Snowden ‘temporary asylum’ for 1 year

Brushing aside pleas and warnings from President Obama and other senior American officials, Russia granted Edward J Snowden temporary asylum and allowed him to walk free out of a Moscow airport transit zone on Thursday, ending his legal limbo there after more than five weeks.

Snowden thanked Russia in a statement issued by WikiLeaks. He accused the United States of disregarding the law in its global manhunt to arrest him and said "in the end, the law is winning".

Russia's decision, which infuriated American officials, significantly alters the legal status of Snowden, the former intelligence analyst wanted by the US for leaking details of the NSA's surveillance programmes. Even as those leaks continued, Snowden now has legal permission to live — and conceivably even work — anywhere in Russia for as long as a year, safely out of the reach of American prosecutors.

Snowden, 30, departed Sheremetyevo Airport unexpectedly at 3:30 pm after his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, delivered to him a passport-like document issued by the Federal Migration Service on Wednesday and valid until July 31, 2014.

"We are extremely disappointed that the Russian Federation would take this step," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in Washington.

Carney said President Obama had not decided whether to cancel a planned a trip to Moscow in September but he strongly suggested he would. "We are evaluating the utility of a summit," he said.

American lawmakers have called for harsh retaliation against Russia, even a boycott of the Winter Olympic Games to be held in Sochi.

Putin, who spent the day at his official residence, meeting with the president of Tajikistan, learned of Snowden's release Thursday, Kremlin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.

Meanwhile, founder of Russia's most popular social network VKontakte, known as the Facebook of Russia, Thursday offered a job to Snowden, Agence France-Presse reported.

Israel, Palestinians strive for peace deal within nine months

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Tuesday gave themselves about nine months to try to reach an agreement on ending their conflict of more than six decades in US-brokered peace talks.

The two sides held their first peace negotiations in nearly three years in Washington on Monday and Tuesday, a diplomatic victory for Secretary of State John Kerry, but one that foreign policy analysts believe has low chances of success.

Flanked by the chief negotiators for both sides, Kerry said he was well aware of the doubts but described the initial talks, which focused on process rather than substance, as "constructive and positive."

Speaking after the meetings, which included a closed-door session with President Barack Obama at the White House as well as talks between the two sides without US officials present, Kerry said peace was possible despite the obstacles.

"While I understand the skepticism, I don't share it," Kerry said with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat at his side, adding all so-called final-status issues to end the conflict were on the table.

"We cannot pass along to another generation the responsibility of ending a conflict that is in our power to resolve in our time," he added. "They should not be expected to bear that burden, and we should not leave it to them."

The talks will go to a second round by the middle of August, Kerry said, adding that "our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months."

Kerry said Israel had agreed to take unspecified steps to ease the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, which is ruled by a Palestinian Authority dominated by Abbas' Fatah faction, and the Gaza Strip, where the Islamist Hamas group holds sway.

Speaking to reporters later, a senior US official declined to identify these but said they aimed to improve economic growth and added "it's more than just removing roadblocks."