Article:

“ Water for Elephants ,” Sara Gruen’s lightweight page turner about a Depression-era traveling circus, would appear to be a vehicle ready-made for a prestigious family movie on the order of “ Seabiscuit .” With its star attraction, a gentle elephant named Rosie who understands Polish, the novel belongs to the John Irving school of semi-serious whimsy with allegorical overtones.

 But the timid screen adaptation, directed by Francis Lawrence (“I Am Legend”) from a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese, short-circuits the novel’s quirky charms and period atmosphere by its squeamish attitude toward gritty circus life and smothers the drama under James Newton Howard’s insufferable wall-to-wall musical soup.

 In Ms. Gruen’s novel, the beaten and mistreated Rosie is a heroine for all seasons. As you pore through “Water for Elephants,” a book with a special appeal to readers who get teary about animal stories, you develop a deepening sense that she is a noble creature, the elephant in the room who never forgets, who knows all and harbors a primal sense of justice.

 With her caring trainer, Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson), a veterinary student who drops out of Cornell after his parents’ sudden deaths, Rosie shares a quasi-mystical understanding of good and evil. That intuitive rapport — the soul of the novel — is barely felt in this cool, placid film, which so studiously tries to cram all of the book’s incidents and characters into two hours that it forgets it is telling a story. I’m no big fan of animal movies, but “Water for Elephants” could have used some spritzes of “National Velvet” or “Lassie Come Home” sentimentality.

 The monotonous tone is established early on with Jacob’s plodding narration, which takes over after an introduction by a rheumy-eyed Hal Holbrook (wonderful, as always), playing the aged Jacob. Mr. Pattinson’s simplistic narration, unfortunately, affects the gee-whiz language of a grade-school reading book. Each time his voice breaks in to advance the plot, the movie grinds to a halt. Mr. Pattinson is only partly to blame for the fatuity of a character who even in the novel is really a generic male ingénue with no personality. In the film there is nothing about him to suggest a Depression-era youth whose parents’ deaths have thrown him into the world without a safety net. He is more like a “Gossip Girl”-ready 21st-century heartthrob who has exhausted his trust fund.

 Instead of evoking a pungent vision of rough-and-tumble circus life in hard times, “Water for Elephants” concentrates on the explosive romantic triangle of the circus’s volatile owner, August (Christoph Waltz); his sultry, platinum-blond wife, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon); and Jacob. Ms. Witherspoon certainly has the wherewithal to play Marlena, a hard-boiled Jean Harlow type and product of foster homes whom August plucked out of poverty, married and turned into a circus goddess. But despite hints of a lower-class twang in her speech, Ms. Witherspoon (probably at the director’s request) resists creating an authentic period character.

 The romantic chemistry between Ms. Witherspoon and Mr. Pattinson is nil. When they finally make love in a scene that is so dimly lighted you can hardly see them, it has all the heat of a kissy-poo game of spin the bottle played by 11-year-olds.

 It is left for Mr. Waltz to inject “Water for Elephants” with the little sense of danger it is able to muster. As the imperious, sadistic, furiously possessive August, he brings the same intensity that infused his Oscar-winning portrayal of Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds.” Treacherous, ruthless, greedy and cursed with an uncontrollable temper, he vents his pent-up rage by viciously beating Rosie with a bull hook. These are the only moments when the essential savagery of circus life surfaces.

 Mr. Lawrence is so busy awkwardly jamming the novel’s minor events together and introducing (before dropping) colorful minor characters who have so little screen time that they barely register, that the movie fails to develop a sense of wonder. After all, what is a circus but a surreal pageant celebrating the animal side of human nature?

 Brief scenes of the circus arriving in a town and pitching its tent provide momentary jolts of realism, and you almost smell the manure that Jacob has to shovel during his apprenticeship and taste the rotten, fly-covered meat he is instructed to feed “the cats.” But overwhelmingly the movie seems perversely intent on being “nice.” Its musical wallpaper accompanies panoramic cinematography that soothes rather than catches the eye.

 As a piece of storytelling, the film displays its most disastrous choice when it makes the book’s climatic rampage seem perfunctory. This sloppily directed scene, which ends almost as soon as it begins, leaves you feeling cheated out of a necessary cathartic release.

 Where is Cecil B. DeMille when we need him, I wondered, as “Water for Elephants” drew to its dull, tidy conclusion.

 The film is so bland that it made me long for “The Greatest Show on Earth,” the 1952 DeMille extravaganza that used the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. That movie left you feeling as if you’d enjoyed at least one roll in the sawdust.

 “Water for Elephants” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has mild sexual situations, some violence and strong language.

 WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

 Opens on Friday nationwide.

 Directed by Francis Lawrence; written by Richard LaGravenese, based on the novel by Sara Gruen; director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto; edited by Alan Edward Bell; music by James Newton Howard; production design by Jack Fisk; costumes by Jacqueline West; produced by Gil Netter, Erwin Stoff and Andrew R. Tennenbaum; released by 20th Century Fox. Running time: 2 hours.

 WITH: Reese Witherspoon (Marlena), Robert Pattinson (Jacob), Christoph Waltz (August), Paul Schneider (Charlie), Jim Norton (Camel), Hal Holbrook (Old Jacob), Mark Povinelli (Kinko/Walter) and Richard Brake (Grady); and Tai (Rosie), Uggie (Queenie), Ice (Silver Star) and Major (Rex). ||||| Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon star in 20th Century Fox's bigscreen adaptation of 'Water for Elephants.'

 A 20th Century Fox release of a Fox 2000 Pictures presentation of a 3 Arts Entertainment/Gil Netter/Flashpoint Entertainment production in association with Dune Entertainment, Ingenious Media, Big Screen Prods. Produced by Netter, Erwin Stoff, Andrew R. Tennenbaum. Executive producer, Kevin Halloran. Directed by Francis Lawrence. Screenplay, Richard LaGravenese, based on the novel by Sara Gruen.

 Marlena - Reese Witherspoon

 Jacob - Robert Pattinson

 August - Christoph Waltz

 Charlie - Paul Schneider

 Camel - Jim Norton

 Old Jacob - Hal Holbrook

 Kinko/Walter - Mark Povinelli

 A present-day prologue finds nursing-home escapee Jacob Jankowski (played with endearing mock surliness by Hal Holbrook) reminiscing about his tenure under the big top. Taken in by a young circus worker (Paul Schneider) and then encouraged to share his story, Jacob proceeds to explain how a family tragedy on the eve of vet-school exams spared the would-be Cornell grad a predictable life, and led to his hitching a ride with the Benzini Brothers' traveling show instead.

 Transitioning smoothly back to the character's spring awakening, director Francis Lawrence suggests how robust and alive Jacob's memories have remained all these years, faithfully re-creating the initial disorientation and awe the young Polish-American experienced upon first encountering the circus. Looking far more handsome than Holbrook ever did, Pattinson brings the same sullen sensitivity to 23-year-old Jacob that he has to the "Twilight" pics -- perfectly fitting for an overnight orphan so recently derailed from his intended life path.

 A daisy-fresh college boy out of place among Camel (Jim Norton), Kinko (Mark Povinelli) and the other grizzled old drunks he meets aboard the Benzini Brothers boxcar, Jacob must instantly adjust to the show's elaborate caste system. The stakes, made almost instantly clear, are high: One wrong move and Jacob could be "redlighted," or thrown from the speeding train between stops. Such castoffs seldom survive, and the practice becomes an important subplot for the Depression-era story, as the show's ruthless ringleader regularly jettisons employees whose salaries he can no longer afford.

 In the novel, this cruel boss is a separate character from August, the man whose porcelain-fair wife Jacob unwisely covets in the story's central love triangle. Writer Richard LaGravenese simplifies things for the sake of the film, however, eliminating Uncle Al to create a larger and more complex role for Christoph Waltz, custom tailored to the thesp's mix of menace and charm. Elegantly streamlining Jacob's immersion, LaGravenese focuses auds on his protagonist's point of view -- a strategy that comes at the expense of the book's memorable sideshow and supporting cast, while allowing us to learn the ropes and discover luminous star performer Marlena (Witherspoon, the picture of classic glamour) and her jealous husband (Waltz) through his eyes.

 Whereas most contempo cinema seems to have lost the art of the character introduction, "Water for Elephants" takes care to create a certain mystique around its key personalities before revealing them onscreen, a tactic that caries through to August's game-changing acquisition of Rosie, a stubborn 73-year-old pachyderm who imbues the film with a giddy sense of wonder from the instant she appears. So intense is our connection with the creature that August's cruelty toward her becomes almost unwatchable, even though the most taxing scene is merely suggested and not seen.

 Rosie also accounts for most of the pic's emotional highs, as in the story's eureka moment, which LaGravanese cleverly reconfigures to tie in with an otherwise underdeveloped subplot about the paralysis-inducing consequences of drinking contaminated Jamaican ginger extract, or "Jake." Set against the dual backdrops of the Great Depression and Prohibition, "Water for Elephants" plunges us full-bodied into the world of circus troupes, an all-but-lost slice of recent history ripe for such a spectacular reimagining.

 It's an intoxicating place to be, reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's breathless dark-carnival tale "Something Wicked This Way Comes." Considering the unassuming roots of the book on which "Water for Elephants" is based, along with its misfit-focused subject, there's no small irony that the pic should attract such a first-choice roster of collaborators: From dream-cast headliners Pattinson, Witherspoon and Waltz all the way down the line to d.p. Roberto Prieto, composer James Newton Howard (whose rich orchestral score sadly lacks a clear theme) and production designer Jack Fisk, the show is strictly A-list.

 Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Rodrigo Prieto; editor, Alan Edward Bell; music, James Newton Howard; music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas; production designer, Jack Fisk; art director, David Crank; set designer, Kristen Davis; set decorator, Jim Erickson; costume designer, Jacqueline West; sound (SDDS), Jose Antonio Garcia; sound designer, Jeremy Pierson; supervising sound editors, Skip Lievsay, Jeremy Pierson; re-recording mixers, Lievsay, Pierson; stunt coordinator, Chris O'Hara; special effects supervisor, Mark R. Byers; visual effects supervisor, Paul Graff; visual effects, Crazy Horse Effects, Filaments Visual Effects, BOT, Factory, Shade; head animal trainer/animal wrangler, Steve Martin; assistant director, Lars P. Winther; casting, Denise Chamian. Reviewed at Fox studios, April 20, 2011. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 120 MIN.

 With: Richard Brake, Stephen Monroe Taylor, Ken Foree, Scott MacDonald, James Frain, Sam Anderson, John Aylward, Brad Greenquist, Tim Guinee. (English, Polish dialogue)

 The wild card here is Lawrence, who ably rises to the challenge. Despite his flashy musicvideo origins, the helmer takes an assured classical approach to his widescreen canvas, transitioning smoothly from future-looking sci-fiers "Constantine" and "I Am Legend" to this project's more nostalgia-driven demands. ||||| The Reese Witherspoon-Robert Pattinson film will please fans of Sara Gruen’s best seller, but it lacks the vital spark that would have made the drama truly compelling on the screen.

 A decorous, respectable adaptation of Sara Gruen's engaging best-seller, Water for Elephants would have come more excitingly alive with stronger doses of Depression-era grit and sexual spunk. The 1931 circus setting and a love triangle involving three exceedingly attractive people provides a constant wash of scenic pleasure and the film's fidelity to its source will receive nodding approval from the book's many fans, which should result in solid, if unspectacular commercial results for this Fox release. But the vital spark that would have made the drama truly compelling on the screen is missing.

 Films about traveling circuses, and the often daring and dodgy people who worked in them, used to be relatively commonplace in American movies and it could be that the novelty of seeing such a troupe, traveling from one town to another on a train with dozens of performers, workers and lots of animals in tow, might be enough to captivate a fair share of people today, just as Gruen's 2006 novel did.

 Furthermore, the central dilemma—that of a beautiful woman caught between her debt to the circus impresario who plucked her from a dismal existence to make her a circus star as well as his wife and her mounting passion for a handsome young man who escapes a personal tragedy by joining the company—may be well-worn but can always work in the right hands, and Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz are all more than up to the task.

 So it's mostly a question of approach. Had the same story been made at the time it's set, in the early 1930s, one can easily imagine at least two distinct and equally effective potential takes on the tale: One, directed by Frank Borzage at Fox, could have been a exalted love story between two young people fated to be together despite the obstacles, while another, directed by Michael Curtiz at Warner Bros., would have been a punchy, down-and-dirty affair about lowlifes scraping by during the depths of the Depression.

 In fact, had screenwriter Richard LaGravenese, who's done a mostly fine job whittling down the novel to fit comfortably within two hours' running time, settled in to watch a dozen early-1930s Warner Bros. films before writing, some hints of period slang, brassy attitude and regional accents might have profitably made their way into the chatter to provide an idea of the different vernacular in in use then. Even a tiny change—the man informing Pattinson's character of his parents' death at the outset states they were in a “car” accident rather than an “automobile” mishap, as in the book—reveals a trace of fear about the receptivity of a modern audience to antiquated speech. And in those days, indelible character actors would have brought to life a score of insolent, wise-cracking, phrase-making secondary parts with just a few lines apiece.

 Under Francis Lawrence's sleekly studied direction, everything has been smoothed out to the extent that even dire poverty does not seem entirely unappealing. Certainly the three leads never do. Looking 300 per cent better than he did in his last non-”Twilight” outing, “Remember Me,” Pattinson is entirely convincing as Jacob, a Cornell veterinary school student who escapes from the ruin provoked by his parents' untimely death by almost inadvertently joining the circus.

 Due to his imagined expertise with animals, Jacob is taken under wing by the owner and ringmaster of the Benzini Bros. Circus, August (Waltz), a mercurial fellow who's brought the company a long way since he took over and rightly keeps a watchful eye on his beautiful blond wife Marlena (Witherspoon), who rides the circus' top animal attraction, a stunning white horse.

 Embraced and roughly treated by turn, Jacob earns a place with the outfit due to his knowledge of animals (his father had been a vet) and his help in recruiting and training a new star, a jumbo elephant named Rosie. Something of a highbrow himself, August delights in the college boy's company but can't help but notice the growing affection between his wife and the bereaved lad.

 Although there are skirmishes from time to time, it takes nearly the entire film for matters to fully come to a head and the lack of complexity, danger and underlying tension becomes all too noticeable from the mid-point onwards. Once the climax does arrive, the spectacular scene is over and done with far too quickly, giving it a borderline perfunctory feel.

 Waltz, in his first big film since soaring to prominence in Inglourious Basterds, again scores strongly as a powerful middle-aged man who doesn't eliminate the snake in his grass before it's too late. As for Witherspoon, she's as fetching as ever as the platinum blonde any guy would want to catch But when August insults Marlena as being of a “common type,” it's clear Witherspoon needed to inject a bit of Jean Harlow into her characterization to emphasize the lower depths from whence she came that can never be entirely erased. Despite the hard glances and suggestion of a working class accent, Marlena is still a shade too much the lady and not enough of a dame.

 Hal Holbrook does a nice job framing the tale as an elderly Jacob telling the story to a modern circus worker, although by rights he should be narrating the whole thing, not Pattinson; again, modern audience sensibilities likely came into play.

 Craft contributions are excellent, notably Rodrigo Prieto's lustrous cinematography, Jack Fisk's highly realized production design and Jacqueline West's resourceful costumes. ||||| Water for Elephants

 April 21, 2011

 There's something endearingly old-fashioned about a love story involving a beautiful bareback rider and a kid who runs off to join the circus. What makes "Water for Elephants" more intriguing is a third character, reminding us why Christoph Waltz deserved his supporting actor Oscar for "Inglourious Basterds" (2009). He plays the circus owner, who is married to the bareback rider and keeps her and everyone else in his iron grip.

 The story, based on the best-seller by Sara Gruen, is told as a flashback by an old man named Jacob (Hal Holbrook), who lost his parents in 1931, dropped out of Cornell University's veterinary school, hit the road and hopped a train that happened, wouldn't you know, to be a circus train. Played by Robert Pattinson as a youth, he is naive and excited, and his eyes fill with wonder as he sees the beautiful Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) on her white show horse. The owner August (Waltz) is prepared to throw him off the train until he learns young Jacob knows something about veterinary medicine.

 In an age of prefabricated special effects and obviously phony spectacle, it's sort of old-fashioned (and a pleasure) to see a movie made of real people and plausible sets. The production designer, Jack Fisk, has created a believable one-ring circus here, and even the train itself has a personality. (August and Jacob spend an implausible amount of time walking or running on top of it, but never mind.)

 The dynamic in the story depends on August's jealousy of Marlena, and her stubborn loyalty to their marriage contract. This is where Waltz makes his contribution. Shorter than Pattinson, indeed hardly taller than Witherspoon, he rules over everyone as a hard-bitten taskmaster whose easy charm conceals a cold inner core; it's the same dynamic he used as the merciless Nazi in "Inglourious Basterds." He's much given to offering champagne toasts with a knife hidden inside.

 In the early Depression, times are hard and jobs few. The circus is deep in debt, and August produces a new star attraction he believes can save it. This is Rosie, a middle-aged elephant, who he thinks Marlena can ride, and Jacob can train and care for, although neither has worked with an elephant before. Scenes involving the personality and language comprehension of elephants create an intrinsic charm, and the movie surrounds them with a convincing portrait of circus life on the road.

 The film's climax involves a series of dire events I will not describe, except to say it's a little unclear how they are started into motion. It's also unclear why Marlena continues to be such a dutiful wife long after August no longer deserves that privilege — but the fact that she does saves the film from dissolving entirely into melodrama.

 "Water for Elephants" was directed by Francis Lawrence, whose "I Am Legend" and "Constantine" were not predictions of this relatively classic film. The screenplay is by Richard LaGravenese, whose "The Horse Whisperer" also showed a sympathy for the personalities of animals. Rosie is not as charismatic as a horse, and as Jacob observes she suffers from dry skin, but you have to concede that her timing is impeccable. This is good sound family entertainment, a safe PG-13 but not a dumb one, and it's a refreshing interlude before we hurtle into the summer blockbuster season. |||||
What is a summary?

– Water for Elephants, based on the bestselling book, tells the story of a young man who joins the circus during the Depression, working with an elephant and falling for a married performer. Critics are mixed: The film “provides a constant wash of scenic pleasure,” and is true to the book, writes Todd McCarthy in the Hollywood Reporter. “But the vital spark that would have made the drama truly compelling on the screen is missing.” Roger Ebert welcomes the film. “In an age of prefabricated special effects and obviously phony spectacle, it's sort of old-fashioned (and a pleasure) to see a movie made of real people and plausible sets,” he notes in the Chicago Sun-Times. Writing in Variety, Peter Debruge cheers the movie. It’s “a splendid period swooner that delivers classic romance and an indelible insider's view of 1930s circus life.” But in the New York Times, Stephen Holden strongly disagrees. The “timid screen adaptation,” he writes, “short-circuits the novel’s quirky charms and period atmosphere by its squeamish attitude toward gritty circus life.”


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– A lifeguard on Australia's Gold Coast saved a 10-year-old boy from rough waters Thursday, except it wasn't just any 10-year-old boy: It was Denmark's Prince Christian, on vacation with his family, 7 News Australia reports. The young heir to the throne was caught in a riptide at Queensland's Mermaid Beach, and when Nick Malcolm saw the boy struggling, he dove into the ocean, per the Telegraph. Chief lifeguard Warren Young says that Christian, the son of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, was a "good little swimmer" who was hanging out in the lifeguard-monitored area between beach flags and who didn't freak out as he started getting dragged into deeper waters. Malcolm paddled out on his board, pulled the boy up, and brought him back to shore. "We got [the prince] before it got too serious, but he wouldn't have come back in" without Malcolm, another of the lifeguard's supervisors tells 7 News. Prince Frederik, who had been swimming nearby with Princess Mary and Christian's three siblings, personally thanked Malcolm, a native New Zealander, the Times notes. But Malcolm didn't realize at first who was doing the thanking. "He didn't know who it was until someone said, 'Oh, that was the royal family from Denmark,' and Nick said, 'Oh, OK,'" Young tells the Telegraph. This wasn't Malcolm's first beach save, either: In January 2014, he pulled a 68-year-old tourist from the water and helped with lifesaving efforts until medics arrived, the Brisbane Times reports. (A Florida lifeguard was fired for saving a drowning man.)

A Gold Coast lifeguard has saved the life of the 10-year-old heir to the Danish throne.

 Prince Christian of Denmark, the eldest son of Princess Mary and Prince Frederick, was plucked from the surf by lifeguard Nick Malcolm while swimming with his family, 7 News Queensland has reported.

 The 10-year-old was rescued from the waters of Mermaid Beach on Thursday, after being swept off his feet and out to sea by a strong current.

 His Australian-born mother had clearly heeded the message of her childhood, luckily for her first-born.

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 Link Camera-shy Gold Coast lifeguard Nick Malcolm has declined to comment on his high-profile rescue. Photo: 7 News Queensland

 She, her husband and her four children were all swimming between the flags at the time.

 7 News reported on Sunday that Mr Malcolm paddled his board out to pull the 10-year-old to safety, after spotting him in trouble.

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 The lifeguard's supervisor, Stuart Keay, said he saved the youngster's life.

 "We got him before it got too serious, but he wouldn't have come back in," he said.

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 Link Prince Christian sitting alongside his younger sister, Princess Isabella.

 Mr Keay said Mr Malcolm had no idea who he had saved until a fellow beachgoer came to tell him.

 The boy's father, Prince Frederick, personally thanked him for the rescue.

 Mr Malcolm is originally from Mairangi Bay in New Zealand but is based on the Gold Coast while he trains full-time in surf lifesaving sports and works as a lifeguard.

 In January 2014, Mr Malcolm helped to save the life of another tourist at the same beach. By the time Mr Malcolm got to the 68-year-old man, he had gone under water, but he managed to flip him over and get him back to shore.

 The man went into cardiac arrest and Mr Malcolm, along with Mr Keay, spent 30 minutes working on the patient until paramedics arrived.

 The tourist was taken to hospital but recovered and later met his rescuers to thank them.

 Danny Morrison, Mairangi Bay Surf Lifesaving Club's head of surf sports, said Mr Malcolm was quiet and "pretty laid back", and had carried out a standard rescue when pulling the prince to safety.

 "What you'll find is what he did happens on a daily basis...," Mr Morrison said.

 "People are pulled out of rips all the time and nobody says a word.

 "They just get back on the beach and do it again."

 The Danish Royal Family has been holidaying on the Gold Coast for the past few days, with Princess Mary and Prince Frederick spotted with their brood at theme park Dreamworld.

 Tasmanian-born Princess Mary was also spotted shopping with her two girls, princesses Josephine and Isabella, at the Marina Mirage shopping precinct on Saturday.

 Like this story? Like Brisbane Times on Facebook

 With stuff.co.nz ||||| A lifeguard in Australia has received the gratitude of the Danish royal family after he rescued Denmark’s 10-year-old Prince Christian, who had been dragged into the surf by a dangerous underwater current at a popular holiday beach.

 Unaware that he was saving the heir to the Danish throne, Nick Malcolm rushed into the water on Thursday after spotting the boy was in trouble while swimming just offshore at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

 Mr Malcolm paddled back with the prince and returned him to the care of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, and Australian-born Princess Mary.

 Prince Frederik thanked the lifeguard, who later said “oh, ok” and returned to his patrol.

 Despite being hailed as a hero and pursued by the international media, Mr Malcolm has refused to comment on the incident.

 • Second suspected great white shark attack in Ballina Shire in 24 hours

 Warren Young, the Gold Coast chief lifeguard, said Prince Christian was a “good little swimmer” and did not panic as a strong rip dragged him into deep waters. The boy had been swimming between the flags which ensured he was in a patrolled area.

 "The rip was pretty strong so he [Mr Malcolm] only had to paddle 10 metres [33 feet],” Mr Young said.

 “He said 'do you want a lift in?' and the boy jumped on and away they went… He was fine and his parents thanked the lifeguards as they left the beach. It was all really low key. He didn’t know who it was until someone said ‘Oh that was the royal family from Denmark’ and Nick said ‘Oh ok’.”

 Photo: Alamy Australia’s beaches can have notoriously dangerous currents, or rips, which kill far more people than sharks and have been labelled the nation’s “silent beach killer”. About 20 people die each year due to rips across Australia; in Queensland, 78 people have drowned at beaches in the past decade.

 Experts said the rip that dragged Prince Christian away from the shore was a “flash rip”, which can occur during wave surges, and that the incident highlighted the need to swim in patrolled areas.

 • 'Flow slide' causes beach collapse on island in Australia

 Photo: Rex Features "Prince Christian - he may have been caught in a little pulse, in something called a flash rip," Dr Robert McCarroll, from Sydney University, told ABC News.

 “It just highlights how important it is for younger swimmers and less confident swimmers swimming in a patrolled area… Even if you do get into trouble like the Prince, you'll get rescued very quickly."

 The royal family, including Prince Christian and his three younger siblings, have been holidaying in Queensland and will travel to the island state of Tasmania to visit Princess Mary’s family.

 The 43-year-old Princess, formerly Mary Donaldson, famously became a member of Denmark’s royal family after meeting her husband at a bar during the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

 Mr Malcolm was back patrolling the beach on Monday.

 "Council hasn't gagged Nick at all if he wants to talk,” Mr Young said.

 “I guess he's overwhelmed by I guess the attention and you know, I guess that's just the way he is. All the guys are feeling for him because his phone is going off the hook all the time, so I think it is just a bit daunting for him. He's back at work and he's doing what he's good at." |||||


Here is a news article: Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain.

 Happy Holidays! Santa has completed his journey around the world and is taking a much deserved break. Visit us again next year! ||||| After five years of working with Google, NORAD has switched to Microsoft Bing to track Santa's sleigh ride this Christmas Eve.

 That hasn't stopped Google from continuing to monitor Santa on its own.

 NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, thinks it has the most sophisticated system for watching the Big Guy. It uses "four high-tech systems to track Santa—radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets."

 NORAD has been tracking Santa for 62 years, long before the introduction of Google Maps, Bing Maps, or the Internet, for that matter.

 It's a pretty serious endeavor, too. 25 million people will use NORAD's Santa-tracking site this year, which will run on Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud-computing platform and Bing Maps, reports Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.

 NORAD is also offering Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Android Santa-tracking apps.

 NORAD's Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis says it isn't leaving Google because of any problems.

 "It was a mutually agreed-upon split," Gaudin reports.

 Google isn't hopping off the Santa sleigh ride, according to a blog post by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth.

 "While we’ve been tracking Santa since 2004 with Google Earth, this year a team of dedicated Google Maps engineers built a new route algorithm to chart Santa’s journey around the world on Christmas Eve. On his sleigh, arguably the fastest airborne vehicle in the world, Santa whips from city to city delivering presents to millions of homes."

 NORAD will begin tracking Santa at 2 a.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 24, via the new apps, its website, or email sent to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com. (Outlook.com is another Microsoft product.) People can also call the official Santa tracking phone number, 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) for live updates.

 Google will begin tracking Santa at 2:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Dec. 24, via its Santa Tracker website, a new Chrome extension or an Android app and its Google+, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

 Don't miss: Guess When These 20 Sci-Fi Technologies Are Coming To Your Phone Or PC ||||| It could be the most controversial technological break-up since Apple ditched Google maps for its own inferior version.

 On Wednesday, the North American Aeropsace Defense Command (Norad), announced that it has teamed up with Microsoft Bing to power its annual "Santa tracker" after its previous partner, Google, announced it was launching its own version.

 Norad, which usually spends its time monitoring the air space above the US and Canada for unexplained or criminal aerospace activity, has "tracked" the worldwide progress of Santa's gift-giving journeys at Christmas since 1955. For the past five years, it used Google Maps to display its "data", which is hugely popular with children.

 Norad said the split from Google Maps, who it had worked with to track Santa since 2007, was a mutual decision.

 Google now has its own virtual Santa space , which features an animated interactive tour of Santa's village, including games and a service to offer personalized telephone calls from Santa to children.

 In response, Norad signed up Bing to be its official mapping tool. Microsoft joins 51 other organizations who work offer their services pro-bono to Norad for the agency's more than 60-year-old tradition.

 Norad's tracking feature will also include information about the elevation and direction of Santa's "journey" and photos, weather and Wikipedia information on the destinations.

 Before working with Norad, Google tracked Santa using its Google Earth tool. The company will still be loosely affiliated with Norad as Google-owned YouTube will continue to host dispatches from the government agency concerning Santa's whereabouts.

 Updates from Norad on the Christmas journey will also be available on Twitter, Facebook and by placing calls to the agency's Santa tracking phone line 877 HI-NORAD.

 Norad, and its predecessor the Continental Air Defense Command (Conad), have been tracking Santa since 1955. It started when a department store ad accidentally listed the agency's phone number as a way to follow Santa. A Norad worker who answered a call from a child wondering about Santa's whereabouts decided to follow the ruse and the agency has been involved with the tradition ever since.

 More than 1,250 Canadian and Americans volunteer on Christmas eve to maintain the tradition.

 There's no word yet on whether the switch from Google to Bing's mapping service will likely help or hinder Santa's progress. |||||
A summary of this is?

– After five years of tracking Saint Nick, Google and NORAD are going their separate ways. The North American Aerospace Defense Command announced this week that it was now working with Microsoft Bing to follow Santa's worldwide progress, the Guardian reports. Google has launched its own "Santa tracker" including games and personalized calls from Saint Nick to children. But NORAD's tracking system will be no slouch, with data on Santa's elevation, photos of his journey, weather, and Wikipedia information on his various stops. And NORAD will offer updates on Santa's trip via Twitter and YouTube. Twenty-five million people will likely use NORAD's tracker this year via Bing Maps and apps for Windows 8, Windows Phones, and Android phones, reports Business Insider. NORAD began tracking Santa when a misprint in a 1955 department store ad led a child to call the agency for information on Santa's latest stop. The NORAD employee who took the call made sure to answer, and the agency has maintained the tradition ever since.


Article:

Taylor Swift might pull it off after all.

 Having previously projected first week sales of about 800,000 copies for her new “1989” album, Billboard magazine has now revised its estimate up and forecasts that the collection will become Swift’s third consecutive set to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week of release.

 If it happens, Swift will be the first act in pop history to pull off that hat trick. Despite continued shrinkage of music sales overall as more music fans opt for subscriptions to streaming services over purchasing digital downloads or physical CDs, “1989” now appears on track to become just the 19th album in the SoundScan era to crack the 1-million first-week mark.

 Further, “1989” would become the fastest-selling album since Swift’s previous release, “Red,” which sold 1,208,000 copies during its first week in 2012.

 “Sources say '1989' is performing extraordinarily well in the iTunes Store and Target, with the latter carrying an exclusive version of the album with bonus tracks,” Billboard reports.

 Photos Country-turned-pop superstar Taylor Swift continues to reign on the charts with catchy hit singles. We rewind on some of the starlet's musical performances. (Christy Khoshaba) (Christy Khoshaba)

 The sales period for “1989” started at midnight on Monday, Oct. 26, the day of the album’s worldwide release, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 2 at midnight. Final sales figures are expected to be released by the Nielsen SoundScan sales monitoring service on Nov. 5.

 Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter for pop music coverage ||||| Swift set to become first act to earn three million-selling weeks.

 Taylor Swift's 1989 just keeps getting bigger.

 Industry sources now forecast the album to sell at least one million copies in its first week. That would make 1989 just the 19th album to sell a million in a single week since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991, and Swift the first act to earn three million-selling weeks.

 Plus: 1989 will be the first album released in 2014 to sell a million copies.

 Taylor Swift's Pop Curveball: '1989' Review

 The new album is Swift's fifth studio effort, released through Big Machine Records on Oct. 27. Its sales forecast is for the tracking week ending Nov. 2. It could mark Swift's third million-selling debut in a row, following 2010's Speak Now (1.05 million) and 2012's Red (1.21 million).

 Two weeks ago, forecasters pegged the new album to sell 750,000 in its debut frame. Then, a week ago, it was upgraded to 800,000. By mid-day Oct. 27, the album's release day, its projection grew to over 900,000.

 Now, after its first day on sale, forecasters are confident 1989 will cross the magic, one-million sales threshold. 1989's official first-week sales, as tabulated by SoundScan, will be announced on Wednesday, Nov. 5. That same day, Swift will most likely also debut atop the new Billboard 200 albums chart with 1989, giving her a fourth chart-topping set.

 If 1989 sells over a million, Swift will notch the biggest sales week for an album since her own Red registered the last million-selling week: when it debuted nearly two years ago (in the week ending Oct. 28).

 Taylor Swift to the Haters: 'If You're Upset That I'm Just Being Myself, Then I'm Going to Be Myself More'

 1989 will also instantly become 2014's second-biggest selling album after just one week on sale. Currently, the top two sellers this year are the Frozen soundtrack (3.2 million) and Beyonce's self-titled album (787,000). They are followed by Lorde's Pure Heroine (767,000) and Coldplay's Ghost Stories (737,000). The latter is 2014's biggest-selling album released this year, as Frozen, Beyonce and Pure Heroine came out in 2013.

 Sources say 1989 is performing extraordinarily well in the iTunes Store and Target, with the latter carrying an exclusive version of the album with bonus tracks.

 Swift has been in full-on promotion mode this week in support of 1989. On Oct. 27, stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show, ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's The Voice, and also participated in iHeartRadio's multi-platform show "Taylor Swift's 1989 Secret Session with iHeartRadio." The next day, she was scheduled to visit The Voice again, along with a stop on CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman. On Oct. 29, she heads to ABC's The View. The following day, she's slated to perform a concert on Good Morning America. |||||
What is a summary?

– Billboard is forecasting that Taylor Swift's 1989 will likely sell at least a million copies in its first week—and if that happens, Swift will become the first pop music act in history to pull off what the Los Angeles Times calls a "hat trick." The album, released at midnight Monday, would be her third consecutive one to sell more than a million copies during its debut week, a feat that's never been achieved before. It would also be just the 19th album to ever hit the million mark in one week since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991; the first million-seller this year and the second-biggest-selling album of the year (topped only by the Frozen soundtrack); and the biggest debut-week seller since Swift's last album, Red, sold 1.21 million copies in 2012.


Lauren Bacall Bequeathed $10,000 for Care of Beloved Dog Sophie

 Now that's a lot of Beggin' Strips!

 Lauren Bacall, who died Aug. 12 at the age of 89, had an estate worth more than $26 million, and the legendary movie star made sure to provide for her beloved dog, Sophie. According to papers filed Friday in Manhattan Surrogate's Court, the actress set aside $10,000 for the care for her Papillon.

 [Related: Celebrities We Lost in 2014]

 The New York Daily News reports that Bacall, who died at her Manhattan home after suffering a stroke, specified in her 2013 will that her son, actor Sam Robards, would care for the pooch. To do so, she gave him five figures to cover the canine costs.

 The majority of Bacall's sizable estate, which includes her apartment in the famed Dakota building (where John Lennon lived and died), is to be split between her three children: Leslie Bogart, Stephen Bogart, and doggie handler Robards. Beyond that, she gave $250,000 to each of her six grandchildren, and two of her employees also received monetary sums (Maria Santos was given $20,000; Ilsa Hernandez was left $15,000).

 Bacall, who had a legendary love affair with her first husband Humphrey Bogart and was also married to Jason Robards, was a lifelong dog lover.

 "I was always a dog yearner," the New York native told Glenn Close in a 2008 interview for FetchDog.com. "I didn't have a dog growing up in the city with a working mother. As an only child, I yearned for someone to talk to. When I was 16, we got a champagne-colored Cocker Spaniel and named him Droopy. From the first moment, [Droopy] was very possessive of me. All my dogs have been possessive of me."

 [Related: Bacall & Bogart: The Story Behind One of Hollywood's Greatest Romances]

 From then on, Bacall always had dogs and Sophie was her special companion later in life. She was photographed walking the dog near her Upper West Side apartment and even brought the pup on the red carpet at the Toronto and Berlin film festivals. And when she was promoting her reissued memoir By Myself and Then Some in 2005, Sophie accompanied the star to book signings.

 Bacall leaving money for the care of her dog isn't that unusual — for celebrities or everyday folks who want to provide for their faithful furry friends. However, hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, who was dubbed "the queen of mean," made major headlines when she left a whopping $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble, in 2007. Three years later, fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide, left $82,000 of his $26 million estate to his trio of dogs: Minter, Juice, and Callum.

 [Related: Watch: Yahoo's Canine Reporter Investigates One Pet-Friendly Hotel]

 Celebrities love their cats, too. When Dusty Springfield, the British singer of "Son of a Preacher Man" died from breast cancer in 2009, her last will and testament included several provisions for her 13-year-old feline, Nicholas. The cat was to only be fed baby food imported to England from the United States, live in a 7-foot indoor tree house, and be serenaded to sleep with a stereo system playing Springfield's hits. The most quirky stipulation of all? That the cat be "married" to a female cat of Springfield's friend.

 After hearing that, Bacall leaving $10,000 for the care of her dog is totally normal. ||||| Silver screen legend Lauren Bacall left behind an estimated $26.6 million estate — and made sure her little dog Sophie would have plenty of bones in her golden years.

 Bacall left $10,000 to one of her sons to ensure Sophie enjoyed the lifestyle to which the papillon had become accustomed. With that chunk of change, Sophie won’t be eating store-brand dog food, but the pooch also wouldn’t be Trouble — as in the dog of late real estate magnate Leona Helmsey, who was left $12 million in her 2007 will.

 Bacall’s will, signed last fall, also remembered two of her employees — Ilsa Hernandez was left $15,000 and Maria Santos was given $20,000, according to papers filed Friday in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.

 The actress, who passed away in her Manhattan home last week at age 89, left $250,000 to each of her grandsons. The rest of her sizable estate — including her apartment in the Dakota building on the Upper West Side and its contents — are supposed to be split between her three children, Leslie Bogart, Stephen Humphrey Bogart and Sophie’s keeper, actor Sam Robards.

 She directed that money from a trust left to her by her late husband — legendary “Maltese Falcon” star Humphrey Bogart — be divvied up between the three as well.

 Bacall, who passed away last week, left behind an estate worth $26.6 million. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

 She also passed on the rights to her likeness and her movie and book royalties to her kids, and named them the executors of her estate — but asked for one thing in return.

 “I request that my children respect my wish to keep private certain personal letters, writings, diaries and other papers or memorabilia,” the filing says.

 Born Betty Jane Perske in The Bronx and raised by her divorced mom, the icon of screen and style won two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe and an honorary Oscar over her eight-decade career.

 She got her big break at age 19, when she was cast in Howard Hawks’ classic “To Have and Have Not,” opposite the much older Bogart.

 Bacall was also generous toward two of her employees, leaving one $15,000 and the other $20,000. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

 She married the “Casablanca” star a year later, and they went on to make three other movies together — “The Big Sleep," "Dark Passage" and "Key Largo" — before Bogart’s death in 1957. They had two children together.

 Outspoken and brassy, Bacall continued making movies and performing on Broadway, where she won Tony Awards for her roles in "Applause" in 1970 and "Woman of the Year" in 1981. She didn't score an Oscar nomination until after she'd spent 50 years in the business — she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Barbra Streisand's "The Mirror has Two Faces." She lost to actress Juliette Binoche.

 After Bogart’s death from esophagal cancer, Bacall had a relationship with another legend, crooner Frank Sinatra, but he broke it off. She later married actor Jason Robards, a two-time Oscar winner, in 1961. They had a son together, and divorced after eight stormy years of marriage.

 bross@nydailynews.com ||||| Late screen siren Lauren Bacall left the bulk of her $26.6 million fortune to family, carving out a special $10,000 bequest for her beloved dog, Sophie, and directing her three children to keep her personal papers private, according to her will.

 The estate documents, filed in a rush order at Manhattan Surrogate’s Court on Friday because the family plans to auction off her artwork this fall, evenly split her property among children Sam Prideaux Robards, of Manhattan, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, of Naples, Fla., and Leslie Bogart, of Santa Monica, Calif.

 “I request that my children respect my wish to keep private certain personal letters, writings, diaries and other papers or memorabilia,” Bacall wrote in the 10-page will written last September.

 The honorary-Oscar winner also named all of her children as executors of her estate.

 The first item in her will was the $10,000 for son Sam to care for her papillon pooch, Sophie. Bacall and Sophie were often seen by neighbors walking outside her $9 million apartment at The Dakota on Central Park West.

 After taking care of the pup, Bacall also left gifts of $250,000 to each of her grandsons, Calvin Robards and Sebastian Robards.

 Bacall said she wanted that money to be used for college. They’ll have access to the rest of the cash when they turn 30.

 Household staffer Maria Santos received $20,000 while another employee, Isla Hernandez, got $15,000. Hernandez, a Honduran immigrant who worked as the actress’s maid for the past 14 years, was shocked by the news of her $15,000 bequest.

 “Oh, my God!” Hernandez exclaimed in an interview with The Post. “It’s wonderful. I never thought she would do something for me.” Hernandez admitted with a chuckle that her longtime boss was both “nice” and “demanding.”

 Her estate is comprised of her co-op apartment, royalties, tangibly personal property, cash and the remainder of a trust ex-husband Humphrey Bogart left her.

 Bacall, born Betty Joan Perske in The Bronx, died this month from a stroke at the age of 89.

 She wanted people to remember her not only for her first famous husband, actor Bogart, but also for her second, lesser known spouse, actor Jason Robards Jr., even though the couple’s marriage ended in divorce.

 “My obit is going to be full of Bogart, I’m sure,” she told Vanity Fair in a 2011 interview.

 “I’ll never know if that’s true. If that’s the way, that’s the way it is,” she told the magazine. |||||

Write a summary.

– Papillion Sophie has lived a pampered life, but that doesn't have to end now that her famous owner—Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall—has died. According to estate papers filed last week, Bacall left $10,000 to her son Sam Robards for Sophie's care and upkeep, Page Six reports. This bequeath isn't a surprise, considering Bacall called herself a "dog yearner" in a 2008 interview, Us reports. "I didn't have a dog growing up in the city with a working mother. As an only child, I yearned for someone to talk to," she said. She gave Sophie quite a glitzy life attending book signings and film festivals. Bacall didn't ignore her human family: The New York Daily News reports her $26.6 million estate was mostly split among her three children; her grandkids reportedly got $250,000 each. And two of her employees also received $20,000 and $15,000, respectively. Considering other famous four-legged heirs, Sophie's 10 grand isn't shocking: Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her Maltese and Alexander McQueen left $82,000 to his three dogs. But the oddest may be Dusty Springfield, who gave orders that her cat be serenaded with her own music and "marry" another cat.


Summarize this article:

Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. ||||| The number of Americans who were “totally sedentary” last year rose to its highest level since 2007, according to a new survey.

 Roughly 83 million Americans age 6 and over, or about 28% of the population, reported that they did not once participate in any of 104 specific physical activities in the last calendar year, according to annual survey... |||||

– The Physical Activity Council has a list of 104 physical activities—which do not include lifting 12 ounces of Bud Lite but do include table tennis, golf, and walking—in its annual survey of our activity habits, released yesterday. And the number of Americans who engaged in not a single one of those 104 activities in all of 2014 is more than one in four of us: That's 83 million people, or 28% of the US population over the age of 6, reports the Wall Street Journal. "We feel confident, in a sad way, that this is the largest number we’ve ever seen," says PAC member and Sports and Fitness Industry Association exec Tom Cove, who adds it's the most dismal result he's seen in 24 years. The number of completely sedentary Americans increased by 18% since 2007. That's not to say we don't like the appearance of fitness, just the actuality of it: The Journal notes the rise of "athleisure" apparel; such footwear saw sales jump 8% in the year ending April 11, while performance shoes took an 18% dive. The PAC traces the decline to our schools, which help form our lifelong fitness habits and where kids are spending less time in gym class and recess. Another problem? The increasingly cutthroat nature of sports is forcing more casual athletes to the sidelines. Says Cove: "There are way too many kids who leave sports at age 9, 10, 11, because they simply have to make a decision: Am I going to be a travel soccer kid and devote my life to this, or are there other things that I want to do?" (An editorial argues that it's not lack of exercise causing an obesity epidemic, it's the food industry's unhealthy products.)


Write an article based on this summary:

– Someone flying above the Amazon in a plane would see nothing amiss, but scores of small, slow-moving fires beneath the canopy of trees are destroying more land than deforestation, reports LiveScience. New satellite imaging from NASA has revealed these so-called "understory fires." Flames are only a few feet high, and the fires themselves move only a few feet per minute, but they can last several weeks, reports Nature World News. The culprit? Careless humans, apparently. These fires generally occur near populated areas, and they're often set off by campfires or discarded cigarettes—aided and abetted by low humidity. NASA researchers say the discovery of the fires will affect climate models. "We don't yet have a robust estimate of what the net carbon emissions are from understory fires, but widespread damages suggest that they are important source of emissions that we need to consider," says one.

NASA scientists have determined via an innovative satellite technique that a certain type of wildfire in the Amazon rainforest is responsible for destroying several times more forest than that lost through deforestation in regards to recent years.

 Called “understory fires,” they have long remained hidden because of their location far below the forest treetops; however, using a new method, researchers have developed the first regional estimate of understory fire damage across the southern Amazon.

 "Amazon forests are quite vulnerable to fire, given the frequency of ignitions for deforestation and land management at the forest frontier, but we've never known the regional extent or frequency of these understory fires," Doug Morton of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the study's lead author said in a press release.

 The study, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, demonstrates that, in years with the most understory fire activity, such as 2005, 2007 and 2010, the area of forest affected was several times greater than the area affected by deforestation for expansion of agriculture.

 Moreover, the study goes further, pointing to climate conditions - not deforestation - as the most important factor in determining fire risk in the Amazon at a regional scale.

 Fires in the Amazon's savanna areas can burn quickly, spreading up to 330 feet per minute, according to the researchers, with grasses and shrubs in these ecosystems typically surviving low-intensity surface fires.

 In contrast, understory fires appear "unremarkable when you see them burning," given that the flames reach on average only a few feet high. Capable of lasting for several weeks, they spread only a few feet per minute.

 Despite this seemingly low-key presence, however, understory fires can damage large areas because Amazon trees are not adapted to fire and the long, slow burn can claim anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of the burn area's trees. Furthermore, the recovery that follows is a long, slow process.

 In all, the study shows that between 1999 and 2010, understory forest fires burned more than 33,000 square miles (85,500 square kilometers), or 2.8 percent of the entire forest.

 Meanwhile, results showed no correlation between understory fires and deforestation; in fact, as the pressure for clearing led to the highest deforestation rates ever seen from 2003 to 2004, adjacent forests had some of the lowest rates of fires.

 "You would think that deforestation activity would significantly increase the risk of fires in the adjacent forested area because deforestation fires are massive, towering infernos," Morton said. "You make a bonfire that is a square kilometer in size, throwing ash and live cinders and preheating the adjacent forest. Why didn't we have more understory fires in 2003 and 2004, when deforestation rates were so high?"

 As an answer, the researchers point to climate as the reason that fire-driven deforestation didn;t burn more surrounding forests in these years as frequent understory fire activity coincided with low nighttime humidity, as measured by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite.

 "You can look within an indigenous reserve where there is no deforestation and see enormous understory fires," Morton said. "The human presence at the deforestation frontier leads to a risk of forest fires when climate conditions are suitable for burning, with or without deforestation activity."

 These human sources could include cooking, camping, cigarettes and cars, among other things.

 Going forward, this new understanding regarding the scope of understory fires could have implications for estimates of carbon emissions from disturbed forests, according to the scientists.

 "We don't yet have a robust estimate of what the net carbon emissions are from understory fires, but widespread damages suggest that they are important source of emissions that we need to consider," Morton said.

 Currently, researchers are looking into the climate mechanisms that, given an ignition source from humans, predispose the southern Amazon to burn.

 Among the leading suspects is soil moisture, report scientists at the University of California, Irvine, who are using new information derived from satellite-based measurements of the region that indicate that the amount of water in the ground may be a leading cause for flammability.

 Heading the search is Yang Chen and his colleagues who, in a recent study, were able to show that water storage estimates from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, satellites allow monitoring of the evolution of dry conditions during the fire season.

 Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, the study shows how low water storage in the soil leads to a drier near-ground atmosphere, resulting in drier, more flammable vegetation alongside increases in plant litter and fuel availability.

 "A severe fire season in the Amazon is often preceded by low water storage in the soil, and this water deficit in the soil can be detected by the satellites several months before the fire season," Chen said. ||||| Small fires in the Amazon rain forest are having a huge impact.

 A new satellite imaging technique has allowed scientists to see Amazonian fires burning beneath the jungle canopy, called "understory fires," which were previously difficult to detect. These fires destroy several times more forest than is taken out by deforestation each year, according to a new study, published recently in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

 Unlike fires in the Amazon's grassy areas, which can spread rapidly and are known to have towering flames, understory fires burn nearly undetected. But between 1999 and 2010, these forest fires burned more than 33,000 square miles (85,500 square kilometers), an area larger than the state of South Carolina, according to a NASA release.

 "Amazon forests are quite vulnerable to fire, given the frequency of ignitions for deforestation and land management at the forest frontier, but we've never known the regional extent or frequency of these understory fires," Doug Morton, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the study's lead author, said in the statement.

 Signs of damage appear in the year after the fires occur, and then gradually disappear as the rain forest recovers, the NASA statement said. NASA scientists are using an instrument on the Terra satellite to detect these signs of damage, which include slight alterations in the amount and condition of foliage present.

 These fires kill between 10 and 50 percent of the trees in the areas they burn and are likely an important source of carbon emissions that hasn’t been adequately accounted for in climate models, according to NASA.

 The fires only happen when climatic conditions are right — for example, during times of low humidity, according to the statement. The fires usually occur near inhabited areas, however, and are likely ignited by cigarettes, campfires and other human sources, NASA said.

 Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebookor Google+. Article originally on LiveScience.com. |||||


Summarize this article:

Newcomers 'Project Almanac' and 'Black or White' have quiet openings over the football-focused weekend.

 Clint Eastwood's American Sniper earned a stellar $30.7 million over Super Bowl weekend, according to Monday's final numbers. While it's a strong gross for the war drama's third weekend out, it means the film just barely missed the record for the biggest Super Bowl weekend gross of all time.

 That title is held by 2008's Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, which earned $31.1 million over big game weekend. However, American Sniper did unseat 2010's Dear John ($30.5 million) for the second biggest Super Bowl weekend tally.

 Last weekend, the Oscar-nominated Sniper became the biggest war-themed film of all time, eclipsing the $216.5 million earned by Saving Private Ryan, not accounting for inflation. The film's new domestic tally is a stunning $247.98 million.

 The Bradley Cooper-starring war drama , easily beat out three new films braving a launch despite the NFL championship game: Project Almanac, Black or White and The Loft.

 Theater attendance takes a big hit on Super Bowl Sunday, so it's no surprise that no high-profile titles opened this weekend. Indeed, both Project Almanac and The Loft open after long delays.

 It looks like all three newcomers will fall below holdover Paddington. The family film, now in its third week, earned an estimated $8.5 million, and while Project Almanac, a found-footage thriller produced by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes, is also estimated to have earned $8.5 million, it's likely that Paddington will come out on top for the No. 2 spot when the dust settles and the final numbers come in Monday.

 Project Almanac, earning a B CinemaScore, follows a brilliant high school student and his friends as they uncover blueprints for a mysterious device that allows them to time travel. Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista and Virginia Gardner star. It was originally set to open a year ago, but Bay wanted to tinker with the movie.

 Black or White, filmmaker Mike Binder's racially charged drama starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer, took the No. 4 spot with a tally of $6.5 million for its domestic debut. The film, which received an A- CinemaScore, hoped to serve as counterprogramming for adults, opening in 1,823 locations this weekend. An estimated 78 percent of its opening weekend audience was over 25 years old.

 Relativity acquired U.S. rights to Black or White after its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival and is releasing the film in association with IM Global and Sunlight Productions.

 When no studio would make the $9 million film, Costner invested some of his own money in Black or White, which chronicles a bitter custody fight that ensues when a child's African-American grandmother (Spencer) insists that the child be raised by her son, the girl's father, and not by Costner's character, her maternal grandfather.

 Universal holdover The Boy Next Door took No. 5 in its second outing with an estimated $6.1 million or more from 2,615 locations.

 The Loft, director Erik Van Looy's English-language remake of his 2008 Dutch film, quickly fell flat this weekend, coming in at No. 10 with a soft $2.9 million. From Dark Castle Entertainment, the thriller was originally supposed to be distributed by Warner Bros. per its deal with Joel Silver's Dark Castle, but it moved to Universal when Silver pacted with that studio.

 However, Open Road films subsequently announced it would release The Loft after Universal pulled the movie from its August 2014 release. The $14 million title, about a group of men who share a loft used for illicit affairs, stars James Marsden and Karl Urban, while Matthias Schoenaerts reprises his role from the original film.

 Note: Updated Monday morning with official box office grosses. ||||| Excellent perspective from one who served. Seldom do I condemn other reviewers in their stance, but this is the rare exception. To all those who thought or think this is American propaganda, then you either did not read the book, your mind was made up before you started or you have not read any other memoirs from any other conflicts in the world.

 This is the insight of a man who was on the ground and answered the call of his country and performed to exemplary levels of honor, bravery and comradeship. You will find the same type of writing in “Last Dead Hero”- Robert Lamon, “Blood Red Snow”- Gunther K. Koschorrek, “The Forgotten Soldier” Guy Sajer “Patton” Ladislas Farago and a host of others. These men fought for their country and sought to defeat and destroy the enemy. Plain and simple, waris about killing people to win. It’s not a walk in the park and handled through diplomacy where everyone holds hands and smiles. War is ugly, destructive and dehumanizing. Ask the Russians how many they lost during World War Two. Ask the British if they had, as Neville Chamberlain proclaimed, “Peace in our time.” You win by killing your enemy!

 Chris gives the reader a frontline look at how the battle in Iraq was fought. Does he come across as inhumane? Perhaps. But as a sniper, his job isn’t to sit back and observe, it’s to protect his fellow soldiers in harms way. And he does this by killing the enemy.

 I have talked, not interviewed, many men who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan. The common thread all of these men and women hold is, they are fighting for the man/woman by their side. Politics and grand strategies are the farthest thing from their minds. Protecting their fellow soldiers is front and foremost.

 His insight to his commanders is a common theme you’ll find in most biographies-incompetent. His description of one of these, “0% casualties, 100% effectiveness.” galled him. How do you go out in the field to ambush or become a target for your foe and not expect to incur casualties? I’m sure those were the words Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery, Patton, Truscott, Roosevelt, King, Schwarzkof and Franks told their men as they were going into the frey. No!

 The other side of this tribute is his family life. Was it all rose gardens and happy-go-lucky? Far from it. His wife Taya had her own battles to fight. She was responsible for raising their two children while he was off fighting. Her insights to their fiery, troubled relationship are well timed and placed through this work. She does not hold back how much she despises the military but also understands that her husband is bound and determined to keep the bad guys from coming to the states and making sure he does everything in his ability to make that happen. For her, it is a Catch-22. She loves her husband and is proud of his service, but sooner or later, he’s going to have to make family number two on the list. When Chris realizes that he’s not immortal during his last deployment and reenlistment is coming up, he will have to decide if he wants to continue his service which could result in him losing his family. He chooses the later. This alone is an excellent testament of two people not taking the easy road. They overcame their differences and remembered why they fell in love in the first place.

 I recommend this warrior’s story to anyone who wants a glimpse into the day to day life of a man who is dedicated to his God, Country and Family.

 Five Stars |||||

– Chris Kyle's book calls him the US military's deadliest sniper—but is he the world's? Not according to a British report that credits a Royal Navy sharpshooter with tallying the most kills, the Sun reports via the Telegraph. Unnamed sources say the British corporal is still serving and has 173 confirmed kills, most of them during Britain's deployment in Helmut province in 2006 and 2007. He is said to have killed 90 enemies in a single day. Kyle, whose story is told in the film American Sniper, officially had 160 kills but guessed his true total was about 250. British armed forces refuse to name their guy for fear of revenge attacks. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter says American Sniper banked a stunning $30.7 million this weekend, nearly breaking a Super Bowl-weekend record.


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Chad Johnson Ripped By Judge for Slapping Lawyer's Ass

 Chad Johnson -- Ripped By Judge for Slapping Lawyer's Ass

 EXCLUSIVE

 -- Chad is currently at jail and is being booked.-- We just got video of the love tap. Check it out.-- Chadin the courtroom and has been ordered to serve 30 days in jail.Chad and his attorney are back in front of the judge ... apologizing ... and desperately trying to convince the judge to accept the original terms of the deal.was just kicked out of a Florida courtroom ... after the former NFL star playfully slapped his male lawyer's ass -- a move that ENRAGED the judge, TMZ has learned.Johnson was in court in Broward County, FL to face the judge for his recent probation violation in his domestic violence case.During the hearing, the judge and Chad's lawyer were about to finalize the terms of Chad's punishment -- terms that were pretty favorable to Chad.But the whole thing fell apart at the last minute, when the judge asked Chad if he was satisfied with his attorney -- and the ex-NFL star reached back and playfully slapped his lawyer's ass.Chad smiled ... the court erupted with laughter .... but the judge wasn't amused.In fact, the judge found the move disrespectful -- and lashed out at Johnson ... asking him if the whole proceeding was a "joke" to him.Johnson replied, "I had no intent to make this a joke, because my life is in shambles right now."The judge -- who lost her patience -- suddenly announced that Chad's deal was OFF ... and kicked him out of the courtroom.Story developing ... ||||| Former NFL star Chad Johnson was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail for a probation violation in a domestic violence case by a judge who angrily rejected a no-jail plea deal after Johnson playfully slapped his attorney on the backside in court.

 This May 20, 2013 arrest photo made available by the Broward County Sheriff's Office shows former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson. Johnson will serve 30 days in jail after violating probation in a domestic... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Aug. 12, 2012 file photo, Chad Johnson, center, leaves Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Johnson will serve 30 days in jail after violating probation in a domestic violence... (Associated Press)

 Johnson, known as Chad Ochocinco for his jersey number in Spanish during his playing days, had reached a deal with prosecutors calling for community service and counseling instead of jail. Broward County Circuit Judge Kathleen McHugh said she would tack on an additional three months' probation because Johnson had failed to meet with his probation officer during three previous months.

 It was all set until Johnson, when asked by McHugh if he was satisfied with his lawyer Adam Swickle, gave the attorney a light swat on the rear _ as football players routinely do to each other on the field. The courtroom erupted in laughter and at that McHugh said she wouldn't accept the deal.

 "I don't know that you're taking this whole thing seriously. I just saw you slap your attorney on the backside. Is there something funny about this?" McHugh said, slapping the plea deal document down on her desk. "The whole courtroom was laughing. I'm not going to accept these plea negotiations. This isn't a joke."

 Johnson, 35, tried to apologize and insisted he meant no disrespect. Johnson was on probation after pleading no contest to head-butting his then-wife, TV reality star Evelyn Lozada, during an altercation last August. She quickly filed for divorce after barely a month of marriage and Johnson, a six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, was immediately released by the Miami Dolphins. He didn't play at all last season.

 "This is your courtroom. I have no intent to make this a joke. It's not funny," Johnson told the judge "My life is in a shambles right now and I try my best to laugh and keep a smile on my face."

 But McHugh, who could have given Johnson up to a year in jail, was not moved.

 "It's not the first time he's behaved that way in my courtroom," she said.

 Johnson then was handcuffed and hauled away to jail. Swickle declined comment on whether he would seek a reduced sentence.

 Johnson has been undergoing therapy aimed at helping people involved in domestic violence but has not signed with another NFL team. He said in court Monday he hoped that would change in the upcoming football season, but now faces another setback.

 "He has suffered. He has lost everything," Swickle told the judge.

 Johnson, whose best playing days were with the Cincinnati Bengals, caught 766 passes for more than 11,000 yards and 67 touchdowns during his career. He also played for the New England Patriots.

 Lozada stars on VH-1's"Basketball Wives" TV show. She was previously engaged to ex-NBA star Antoine Walker, who played for the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and other teams, and was a star on the University of Kentucky's 1996 national championship team.

 _____

 Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt |||||

– Former NFL star Chad Johnson was so close to securing a no-jail plea for violating probation on his domestic violence charges he could almost touch it—until he did. Johnson playfully slapped his attorney on the butt in front of the courtroom, prompting the judge to reject the plea and sentence him to 30 days in jail, AP reports. "I don't know that you're taking this whole thing seriously. I just saw you slap your attorney on the backside," said the judge. "The whole courtroom was laughing. I'm not going to accept these plea negotiations. This isn't a joke." Watch video of the whole thing at TMZ.


Article:
BHOPAL: A 26-year-old bride was shot dead at her wedding reception in Bhopal on Thursday night. Jayshree Namdeo's 30-year-old cousin, Anurag Namdeo, killed her for rejecting his offer to marry her.

 Anurag had bought a pistol a day before to kill Jayshree. He had planned the murder 20 days back after he had stumbled upon Jayshree's engagement photograph on Facebook.

 Jayshree, a doctor, was the only child of her parents, who worked at Gandhi Medical College here. Her family disapproved of the relationship. But Anurag had on several occasions warned them against marrying her off.

 Police said Anurag stealthily entered the wedding hall from the rear side. He had masked his face as he quietly climbed onto the dais and went on a shooting spree.

 One bullet hit Jayshree just below her throat. Anurag then tried to shoot the groom, Rohit Namdev. But Rohit's reflexes were quick and he raised Anurag's hand that wielded the gun. The bullet missed the groom by a whisker. Anurag then tried to shoot himself, but by then he was overpowered by the guests.

 Jayshree was rushed to hospital where doctors pronounced her dead. Anurag is battling for his life after he was assaulted. Another guest too was wounded.

 The slain bride's father, Ghanshyam Das, told journalists he never thought the youth, whom he looked after like his son, would kill his daughter. The girl's family was aware about Anurag's feelings towards their daughter.

 Anurag had stayed at the girl's place four years back for his bank exams. He had then begun loving Jayshree. Anurag told police his mother had approved of the relationship. He desperately wanted to marry her. Anurag had been threatening the girl and her family, who snapped ties with him.

 "We had planned to convince Anurag after the marriage. In the past, Anurag would fight with anyone who tried to dissuade him and would threaten relatives. He once sent a threatening SMS to me," said a relative, Shailendra. |||||

 Jayshree (inset); Anurag posing with a rifle in a photo on his Facebook page.

 A wedding celebration came to an abrupt end in Bhopal when a man shot dead the bride, his first cousin, on the stage when the newly married couple was posing for photographs with guests late on Thursday.

 Anurag Singh, 31, shot Jayshree Namdeo, 26, from very close range and appeared to turn the pistol towards himself when relatives overpowered him and thrashed him at Sundervan Marriage Garden in the Lalghati locality around 11.15 pm. One more shot was fired in the melee and a guest was injured.

 Anurag, who was nearly lynched and had to be hospitalised, told the police that he loved Jayshree, a doctor posted in the children’s ward of the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, and could not bear to see her getting married to another man.

 Jayshree got engaged to Rohit Namdeo, a post-graduate student of surgery in the same college, on February 3. Anurag said he had warned Rohit not to marry his love interest after the couple changed their relationship status on their Facebook pages, and decided to kill her when

 he saw the engagement photograph.

 Jayshree and Anurag went to the same coaching institute in Bhopal a few years ago when, he told the police, he fell in love with her. In a Facebook post immediately after her engagement he talked about taking his life. A frequent Facebook user, he also posted photographs posing with a rifle.

 He recently changed the cover photo of his account to the words “JUST WAIT AND WATCH” in red background.

 Jayshree’s father said he had not invited his sister’s family to the wedding when he learnt that his nephew was against it. “We never thought he would go that far,” her father Ghanashyam said on Friday.

 Anurag was not stopped from entering the marriage venue because he was known to be a relative. He had carried a country-made pistol from Gadhakota, Sagar, and waited near the stage for an hour or so before getting close to his target. Jayshree was rushed to a nearby private hospital where she was declared dead on arrival.

 Anurag was bleeding severely and lying on the ground near the stage when the police arrived and took him away. SP Arvind Saxena said Anurag had come well-prepared and did not repent killing his cousin saying that’s all he wanted to do after she refused to marry him.

 Jayshree’s father Ghanashyam retired as a supervisor from Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company. Anurag is the son of his younger sister.

 Anurag lost his father some time ago and earned a modest salary as a supervisor with a private bank he joined in October 2012. Ghanashyam reportedly helped Anurag after his father’s death. Anurag had stayed in Ghanashyam’s house five years ago.

 Besides his gender and date of birth, the only basic information Anurag provided on his Facebook account was: “Interested in.. women.” |||||Summary:

– In hindsight, the words "Just watch and wait" on his Facebook page may have been a warning. Disguised as a photographer, Anurag Singh, 31, walked into his cousin's wedding in India this week and shot her dead as she was saying her vows, the Daily Mail reports. Several reports say he did it because she "cheated him," but the Indian Express and Times of India go into greater detail, portraying Singh as a man lovestruck by Jayshree Namdeo, 26, ever since he lived in her family's house five years ago while doing his bank exams. Namdeo, a pediatrician, refused his hand in marriage, and Singh reacted to her engagement by saying on Facebook that he might kill himself. Her family knew about his opposition to the marriage but "never thought he would go that far," the bride's father said. At the wedding in Bhopal, Singh waited the near the stage for an hour before shooting Namdeo, and tried to shoot the groom and himself but only grazed himself and injured a guest. The crowd savagely beat Singh before police arrived and took him away. Beyond Singh's banking career (described in one report as "modest"), all that's known about him was written on his Facebook account: "Interested in.. women."


News article:

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A group of men in their 20s in Washington state has posted a Craigslist ad seeking a generic dad to grill burgers and hotdogs for a gathering set for the Saturday of Father's Day weekend in mid-June.

 Qualifications include a minimum of 18 years of experience as a dad and 10 years of grilling experience. The successful dad must bring his own grill, but burgers and hotdogs will be provided.

 Dane Anderson tells KHQ-TV (http://bit.ly/2qLjxGt) that the young men in Spokane don't live with their fathers and, the ad says, none are prepared to fill the role of barbecue dad.

 Additional requirements include talking about dad things like lawnmowers, building your own deck and musician Jimmy Buffet. Payment is food and beer.

 Anderson says several potential barbecue dads have responded.

 ___

 Information from: KHQ-TV, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3082888/ ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A group of men in their 20s in Washington state has posted a Craigslist ad seeking a generic dad to grill burgers and hotdogs for a gathering set for the Saturday of Father's Day weekend in mid-June, the AP reports. Qualifications include a minimum of 18 years of experience as a dad and 10 years of grilling experience. The successful dad must bring his own grill, but burgers and hotdogs will be provided. Dane Anderson tells KHQ-TV that the young men in Spokane don't live with their fathers and, the ad says, none are prepared to fill the role of barbecue dad. Additional requirements include talking about dad things like lawnmowers, building your own deck, and musician Jimmy Buffett. Payment is food and beer. Anderson says several potential barbecue dads have responded.


Article:
Fox halted production Dec. 1, saying it was because of the "unexpected unavailability" of the helmer.

 Bryan Singer has been fired from the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, 20th Century Fox has told The Hollywood Reporter.

 “Bryan Singer is no longer the director of Bohemian Rhapsody," the studio said Monday in a statement.

 The decision reflected an escalating clash between Singer and actor Rami Malek and was caused by the helmer being missing from the set, necessitating the Dec. 1 production shutdown of the film in which Malek stars as Freddie Mercury, frontman of the rock group Queen. The pic has been shooting in London.

 In announcing the shutdown last week, producers Fox, New Regency and Graham King initially said filming was being suspended because of Singer's "unexpected unavailability."

 Denying he acted unprofessionally, Singer claimed the studio refused to allow him to tend to "a gravely ill parent" as well as to his own health. “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen," he said in a statement, "but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.”

 Trouble began when Singer went missing during production on several occasions. His no-shows resulted in cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel having to step in to helm some of the days while Singer was absent.

 Tom Hollander, who plays Queen manager Jim Beach, also is said to have briefly quit the film because of Singer's behavior, but was persuaded to return, according to one source.

 Malek complained to the studio, charging Singer with not being present on set, unreliability and unprofessionalism.

 Singer had been warned before production began by both Fox Film chairman and CEO Stacey Snider and Fox Film vice chairman and president of production Emma Watts that they wouldn't tolerate any unprofessional behavior on his part. A representative from the Directors Guild of America also arrived on set to monitor the situation.

 The growing tension led to a confrontation between Singer and Malek, which, while it did not become physical, did involve Singer throwing an object. Subsequently, however, the two are said to have settled their differences and filming was expected to resume.

 But then Singer did not return to the set after the Thanksgiving break and is believed to have been in the U.S. for about the last 10 days, according to one source. In his absence, Sigel stepped in to helm several days of shooting before the production was shut down. Singer's prolonged absence was the final straw, and so the studio decided to terminate him under his pay-or-play contract.

 According to another insider, Singer has claimed he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the tensions on the set.

 In his statement, Singer said, "“Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true. While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving.”

 The studio, which has about two more weeks of principal photography remaining on the film, is expected to name a new director within the next few days.

 Dec. 4, 7:10 p.m. Singer's statements added.

 (Aaron Couch contributed to this report.) ||||| The filmmaker, who was helming 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' was terminated by the studio because of his absence from the set.

 Bryan Singer has struck back against charges he was terminated for being unprofessional on the set of Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic he was directing for Fox and New Regency. Instead, the filmmaker says he was terminated because Fox would not let him deal with the grave illness of one of his parents.

 In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Singer said, “I wanted nothing more than to be able to finish this project and help honor the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, but Fox would not permit me to do so because I needed to temporarily put my health, and the health of my loved ones, first.”

 Fox on Monday terminated Singer after a series of confrontations with Rami Malek, who is playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. The director also was accused of acting unprofessionally in taking prolonged absences from the set. When production has halted Dec. 1, the studio cited the “unexpected unavailability” of the filmmaker.

 Said Singer in the statement: “Bohemian Rhapsody is a passion project of mine. With fewer than three weeks to shoot remaining, I asked Fox for some time off so I could return to the U.S. to deal with pressing health matters concerning one of my parents. This was a very taxing experience, which ultimately took a serious toll on my own health. Unfortunately, the studio was unwilling to accommodate me and terminated my services. This was not my decision and it was beyond my control."

 Singer claims that he and Malek had patched up their differences after clashing.

 “Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true," said the director. "While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving." ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Bryan Singer's past directing credits include The Usual Suspects and Superman Returns

 The director of the new Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, has been fired due to "unreliable behaviour".

 In a statement, Twentieth Century Fox said Bryan Singer was no longer the director of the film.

 A source told the BBC the main reason for the firing was "a pattern of unreliable behaviour on the set".

 But Singer said his firing came while he was ill and that the studio was "unwilling to accommodate" him during his illness.

 The Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday that Singer had clashed with lead actor Rami Malek and failed to show up for filming on multiple occasions.

 The studio had earlier said production had been suspended so Singer could deal with "a personal health matter".

 In a statement issued through his lawyer to the BBC, Singer - the director of The Usual Suspects, four X-Men movies and Superman Returns - said he was disappointed not to be able to finish the film, "a passion project of mine".

 Image copyright PA Image caption Rami Malek has so far made no public comments on the latest developments

 "With fewer than three weeks to shoot remaining, I asked Fox for some time off so I could return to the US to deal with pressing health matters concerning one of my parents," he said.

 "This was a very taxing experience, which ultimately took a serious toll on my own health. Unfortunately, the studio was unwilling to accommodate me and terminated my services. This was not my decision and it was beyond my control."

 He added that rumours of clashes with Malek, the star of the Mr Robot TV series, were not true.

 "While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving," he said.

 Filming has been taking place in the UK, with Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello and Gwilym Lee starring as Queen's other members.

 The movie is still expected to be released in December 2018 as planned.

 As well as directing, Singer is listed as a co-producer, alongside Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor, among others.

 Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. |||||Summary:

– Bryan Singer, the director who faced allegations of sexual assault before the dawn of the #metoo movement, has been fired from Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. In announcing the dismissal Monday, 20th Century Fox blamed the "unexpected unavailability" of Singer, noting production had come to a halt on Dec. 1. Sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that Singer was absent from the London set several times prior to December, leading actor Tom Hollander to temporarily quit. There was also reportedly an altercation between Singer and Rami Malek, who plays Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, in which Singer is said to have thrown an object. But sources say the dispute had been resolved and Hollander had agreed to resume his role as Queen manager Jim Beach when Singer failed to return to set after the Thanksgiving break. Singer says there was a very good reason he didn't return: he was caring for an ailing parent in the US. "I asked Fox for some time off ... to deal with pressing health matters concerning one of my parents ... which ultimately took a serious toll on my own health," Singer said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the studio was unwilling to accommodate me and terminated my services." He also confirms he had "creative differences" with Malek but the pair "put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving." With only two weeks left of filming, 20th Century Fox says it will name a new director to the film, which will keep its December 2018 release date, per the BBC.