Carrie Fisher, best known for her portrayal of the plucky Princess Leia in George Lucas’ epic intergalactic movie series, died Tuesday, days after suffering a heart attack on a plane. She was 60 years old.
“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 855 this morning,” Simon Halls, a representative for Fisher’s daughter, said in a statement to NBC News. “She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly.”
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Carrie Fisher on the set of “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi” directed by Welsh Richard Marquand. Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images
In life George Michael’s most private affairs were often played out in the media for the world to see, but in the wake of his death remarkable tales of his generosity have begun to emerge.
The gestures range from random acts of kindness, such as tipping a barmaid £5,000 ($6121), because she was a student nurse struggling with debt, to even personally secretly volunteering at a homeless shelter.
The 53-year-old pop star died on Christmas Day, but it appears his kindness will be remembered by the many people who he quietly helped, as well as his more public philanthropy to causes such as the Terrence Higgins Trust — a HIV charity.
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Tributes left by well-wishers and fans outside the home of the singer on Dec. 27.
Anis Amri, the Tunisian-born suspect in the Berlin truck rampage that killed 12, was shot dead early Friday.
One Italian police officer was wounded in the encounter, although his injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.
A video surfaced of a man who appeared to be Amri pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
ROME — The suspect in the Berlin truck rampage was killed in a early-hour shootout after a chance encounter with police on the outskirts of Milan, according to Italian officials.
Italy’s Interior Interior Minister Marco Minniti described how cops noticed a “man who walked suspiciously” at around 3 a.m. in Milan’s Sesto San Giovanni neighborhood.
“When he was stopped, the man shot the policemen with a gun. The police shot back,” Minniti told reporters at a press conference in Rome. One officer was wounded in the firefight.
A group of Australian scientists sent an underwater robot with a camera under East Antarctica’s sea ice. Here is what the camera captured. Photo: Australian Antarctic Division via Storyful
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Colorful World Revealed Under Antarctica’s Sea Ice
At a moment when the world seems to be spinning out of control, religion might feel irrelevant — or like part of the problem.But Rabbi Sharon Brous believes we can reinvent religion to meet the needs of modern life. In this impassioned talk, Brous shares four principles of a revitalized religious practice and offers faith of all kinds as a hopeful counter-narrative to the numbing realities of violence, extremism and pessimism.
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An explosion blasted Mexico’s best-known fireworks market Tuesday on the northern outskirts of Mexico City, the capital, killing 31 people and injuring 72 others while sending a huge plume of charcoal-gray smoke into the sky, officials said.
The explosion, which wasn’t being linked to terrorism, happened at the open-air San Pablito Market in Tultepec, in the State of Mexico.
Local authorities said Wednesday that the death toll had increased to 31. Earlier, Eruviel Ávila Villegas, governor of the State of Mexico, said at a news conference that 26 people were killed at the scene and that three more died later in the hospital.
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Smoke billows over the San Pablito fireworks market Tuesday on the northern outskirts of Mexico City.Orlando Ruiz / Twitter.
Talal Al-Johani, a high school student in Saudi Arabia, couldn’t imagine going to college anywhere else but the United States. For the last two years, the 17-year-old has been collecting university applications and making connections with admission counselors in an effort to land at a leading American institution.
But after American voters elected Donald Trump as president, Al-Johani is having second thoughts.
Leery of unclear policies and a potentially hostile social environment under a Trump presidency, international students may now be reconsidering higher education in the United States — and that potential “brain drain” could take a hefty financial toll on America’s education economy, international education experts say.
“I am concerned about how I’m going to be treated and how people will see me as a Muslim from Saudi,” said Al-Johani, a student at Dhahran High School in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. “I feel Trump has affected people’s social attitudes, especially towards someone like me.”
Last year, more than one million international students, a record number, came to America to pursue higher education — pumping $32.8 billion into the U.S. economy, according to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA)
A driver who plowed a truck through a Christmas market in Germany’s capital, killing 12, acted deliberately in an incident that authorities said early Tuesday was probably terrorism.
At least 48 other people were injured in the incident Monday night at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, a public square in the center of the city. German police said Tuesday morning that investigators now believe the truck was “intentionally directed” into the crowd.
Police said a man who was found dead in the truck, which bore Polish license plates, was a Polish citizen but was not the driver.
A second person was arrested near the public square, police said. No further details of the arrest were provided.
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Police take a suspect into custody Monday near the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin. Moe Zoyari/Redux / Redux Pictures
The American political landscape has changed a lot over the past 25 years but there is no more dramatic shift than the one that has pushed this state from deep blue to ruby red.
In the 1992 presidential election, Democrat Bill Clinton won West Virginia by a solid 13 percentage points. In November, Republican President-elect Donald Trump captured the state in a walk — winning it by more than 40 percentage points.
The forces behind that turnaround are complex. The decline of the coal industry and the changing demographics of the political parties explain part of it. But underneath that are the peaks and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains that make West Virginia what it is: picturesque, resource-rich and remote.
Coal has dominated much of the state’s story, and the industry’s declines are very real. Coal production in West Virginia has declined by 30 percent since 2010 and, in that time, coal mine employment in West Virginia has fallen by more than 27 percent. Some places have been hit especially hard.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Carrie Fisher on the set of “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi” directed by Welsh Richard Marquand. Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images
He Rescued This Fox 7 Years Ago
Anis Amri German police via AP
Smoke billows over the San Pablito fireworks market Tuesday on the northern outskirts of Mexico City.Orlando Ruiz / Twitter.
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James' World 2 