Stuck with dismal approval ratings for his presidential debut, Frances’s François Hollande is now having his private life raked over in a series of books that dissect the alleged jealousy between his current and former companions.
Despite Hollande’s insistence that he wants his home life kept private, public interest has been rife since first lady Valerie Trierweiler (pictured) sent a ‘killer tweet’ in June that exposed the animosity between her and Segolene Royal, the President’s partner up to mid-2007. (Reuters)
Third Hobbit film date announced
Hobbit fans need only wait seven months between the second and third instalments of Peter Jackson’s highly anticipated trilogy.
Warner Bros Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures announced the final film in the series will be called The Hobbit: There and Back Again and released worldwide on July 18, 2014.
The title was taken from the second instalment, which will now be called The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
The launch dates for all three films are: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, December 14; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, December 13, 2013; The Hobbit: There and Back Again, July 18, 2014.
Adapted from JRR Tolkien’s beloved masterpiece, The Hobbit series will be released in High Frame Rate 3-D, other 3-D formats, IMAX and 2-D.
Teenage boy killed in US bus tragedy
A New Jersey teenager died after he put his head out of an emergency hatch on a double-decker bus and his head hit the underside of an overpass.
Port Authority police spokesman Al Della Fave told The Record newspaper the Sayreville boy was among 65 teenagers aboard the bus heading to a Sweet 16 party in New Jersey.
It was crossing the George Washington Bridge from New York when the accident occurred at the Fletcher Avenue overpass on Friday evening.
Police said the teenager was pronounced dead at hospital. (PA)
Fan dies after 35-foot stadium plunge
A 20-year-old man who plunged 35 feet (10.6 metres) from the upper level of a stadium in the US and struck another fan has died.
The man fell on another American football fan seated in the mezzanine area at the Georgia Dome last night, the Georgia World Congress Centre Authority, which operates the stadium, said in a statement.
Investigator Leon Harrison at the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said yesterday that Isaac Grubb, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, was pronounced dead just before midnight in hospital.
He said a post-mortem examination is planned and Mr Grubb apparently suffered blunt force trauma injuries.
The other man was treated in hospital but later released.
The incident occurred during the Tennessee-North Carolina State game. (PA)
Three killed in anti-terror swoop
Two suspected militants and a member of an elite Indonesian anti-terrorism squad died in a shoot-out as police attempted to capture a group responsible for the death of a policeman a day earlier.
Police received a tip that members of a terror group believed to be responsible for the killing of the police officer were planning more attacks on Indonesia’s main island of Java, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.
He said members of the anti-terrorism squad tried to capture the three suspects late yesterday at a food stall in central Java’s Solo town, the hometown of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, but shot them when they resisted arrest, killing two and wounding another, who was then arrested. O
One of the suspects fatally shot a member of the anti-terrorism squad, Mr Amar added. (PA)