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US President Barack Obama sought Friday to allay Riyadh’s criticism of his policies on Syria and Iran, telling the Saudi king their two countries remain in lockstep on their strategic interests. He also assured King Abdullah that the U.S. won’t accept a bad deal” with Iran, as global powers negotiate a treaty reining in Tehran’s controversial nuclear program. The president underscored how much he values this strategic relationship,” a senior U.S. official said, after Obama met for some two hours with the king on a royal estate outside Riyadh. In an interview aired on U.S. television later Friday, Obama defended his administration’s decision not to use military force in Syria, saying that the United States has its limits. The U.S. leader’s comments came in an interview taped ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, which was angered by his eleventh-hour decision last year to pull back from strikes against the Syrian regime over its use of chemical weapons in the country’s civil wa...

Can you believe Elle Macpherson is 50? Find out other surprising facts about the model turned businesswoman, from her law ambitions to her strong views on lingerie. 1. Elle wanted to be a lawyer Growing up in a suburb of North Shore in Sydney, Elle wasn't dreaming of becoming a model. After finishing Killara High School, Elle enrolled to study law at the University of Sydney. In fact, Elle revealed to Jonathan Ross that the reason she started modelling was to earn enough cash to pay for her law books. Elle headed over to New York City, signed with Click Model Management, and began modelling in 1982 in a TV ad for Tab Cola. And we all know how that panned out. 2. Elle is a jock  It's not just glamorous fashion shoots, TV presenting and business meetings for Elle (she has her own lingerie range, beauty line and model company); she also loves to find time to take part in sport.  Elle described herself as "like a jock" to Stylist, explaining she's the kind of...

David Cronenberg is to be presented with a top filmmaking award at a festival in the US. The Canadian director - whose recent films include A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis - will be given the Filmmaker On The Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival in June, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The festival's executive director Mitch Levine said: We are thrilled to be honouring David Cronenberg - a compelling and transformative filmmaker who perfectly represents filmmaking on the edge. As well as the award, some of Cronenberg's films will be screened during the event, including Videodrome, The Fly and Naked Lunch. The director follows in the footsteps of filmmakers such as Harmony Korine, Darren Aronofsky and Quentin Tarantino, who have previously been given the award.

Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson has claimed that his side have been prematurely ruled out of the Premier League title race. Bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral are offering hefty odds of 150-1 on the Gunners, who are six points of the pace following last weekend's 6-0 mauling at the hands of leaders Chelsea. However, the North London side host title favourites Manchester City this evening and Jenkinson believes that a home win would put Arsene Wenger's men right back in the mix. I think you've got to be realistic, but you've got to believe, he told Arsenal's official club website. It's going to be incredibly difficult, but there's going to be a lot of twists and turns before the end of the season. If you are a player at the highest level and you play for a club like Arsenal you can never stop believing. You're in the wrong sport and you're playing for the wrong team if you're just going to give up and think it's all over when it's n...

Sparked by a dominant first half display the Blues ran in three unanswered tries to beat the Highlanders 30-12 at Eden Park on Saturday night. Central to the improved start was Bryn Hall who wanted to make an impact in his first start and he achieved that with a snappy display at halfback with his quick penalty kicks gaining valuable ground in a tight first half.  It would be difficult to imagine a more impressive starting display, especially after the emotion surrounding the disclosure of the stroke suffered by incumbent halfback Piri Weepu. Along the way he displayed the great strength New Zealand rugby enjoys in the halfback position.  Hall was all fire from the outset and conceded nothing to his All Blacks rival Aaron Smith who had the misfortune to be behind a pack that didn't give him the comfort that Hall enjoyed.  Hall also produced the play that produced the opening try, albeit fortuitously when his intended kick into the Highlanders 22m area rebounded off...

The unprecedented hunt for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet expanded northwest to Kazakhstan and south into the desolate reaches of the Indian Ocean after Malaysian authorities concluded the plane was deliberately diverted by someone with considerable flying experience. A summary of the latest information on the search for the plane and the investigation into what happened: LAST COMMUNICATIONS The Boeing 777's Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, last transmitted at 1:07 a.m., about 40 minutes after takeoff. ACARS sends information about the jet's engines and other data to the airline. The transponder, which identifies the plane to commercial radar systems, was shut down about 15 minutes later. The final, reassuring words from the cockpit — "All right, good night" — were believed to have been spoken by co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, according to Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. After its communications ceased, the plane...

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo will meet Shanghai government officials, academics and students in his first visit to China . The meeting signals Twitter's interest in cracking the lucrative but thorny market with 600 million Internet users. Twitter, which has been blocked by Chinese censors since 2009, said the trip was a personal tour for Mr Costolo, who is due to land at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Monday. Mr Costolo is scheduled to spend three days in the business capital meeting Shanghai government officials - including representatives of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, established in 2013 to test market liberalization measures, such as looser rules governing currency conversion and foreign direct investment. But officials have denied media reports that Internet restrictions and censorship, including the blocking of Twitter, will be relaxed there. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a frequent visitor to China and has openly spoken of...

Track didn't make ARTPOP final cut   An unreleased track by Lady Gaga has leaked online. Listen to 'Brooklyn Nights' below. The track is thought to be an outtake from the singer's latest album, ARTPOP, and was reportedly written in 2010. 'Brooklyn Nights' is an upbeat, electro-tinged power ballad, and it's pretty good - it really should have ended up making the final cut                                                      Listen to 'Brooklyn Nights' below   Brooklyn Nights' leaks in the wake of Gaga's controversial appearance at US music and film conference SXSW. The singer performed renditions of ARTPOP tracks, whilst screaming: "Fuck pop music!" and being vomited on by performance artist Millie Brown.

Just because something happens and it isn’t entirely your fault, it doesn’t mean you’re the right man to put it right, and it doesn’t even mean you should be given the chance to do so. David Moyes, for example, might not be entirely responsible for the troubles at Manchester United, but at this point in the season there is absolutely no evidence that he should be allowed more time or money to put it right. First, the reasons it isn’t his fault. In the summer, he was promised more than Marouane Fellaini. It certainly appears that Manchester United had lined up a few signings - Ander Herrera, Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara, Leighton Baines, Fabio Coentrao, Sami Khedira and possibly others - and it was a mixture of incompetence, dithering and misfortune that meant that not a single one of them made their way to Old Trafford. The blame for this can largely be directed at executive vice-chairman Edward Woodward. As well as that, the make-up of the squad presented serious problem...

Officials with the American space agency announced recently that the 2014 Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) concluded successfully on March 14. This mission was part of a multi-year science campaign aimed at better understanding the tropopause, one of the most mysterious layers of Earth's atmosphere.  The research was made using scientific instruments installed aboard a NASA Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS), which carried out several flights from the Andersen Air Force Base on Guam Island, in the western Pacific. All scientific tools on the aircraft are designed to offer a glimpse into the inner workings of the upper atmosphere. The overarching goal of the ATTREX campaign is to figure out how these changes will affect our planet's climate in the long run, especially in combination with greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases. This year's leg of the mission began on February 13 and lasted for a full month. The Global Hawk returned home early on Fri...

WHEN Wes Anderson is good, he's very good – dare I say it, brilliant – and when he's occasionally off-key, the Texan writer-director still puts other filmmakers in the shade. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a tour-de-force of invention and creativity that leaves no narrative stone unturned in its quest for laughs and heartfelt emotion. Anderson is in sparkling form, tracing the history of the titular establishment from 1932 to the present day through the eyes of two lovers who become embroiled in a madcap crime caper involving a stolen painting It's a brilliantly bonkers ensemble comedy from a filmmaker who marries quirky production design with eccentric characters and wry humour, yet still manages to find a nub of humanity in every outlandish situation. Anderson marshals an incredible cast including regular collaborators Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, plus he teases out an uproarious and energetic performance from Ralph Fiennes as the suave protagon...

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke says a complete ban on players and club staff betting on football matches could soon be introduced. Newcastle United's Dan Gosling admitted an FA misconduct charge on Monday. Premier League players Andros Townsend and Cameron Jerome have previously been fined for rule breaches. "No final decision has been made, but it [a complete ban] is one of the things that's being discussed," Dyke told BBC Late Kick Off North West. The FA is looking again at the whole of betting and who should be allowed to bet on football in the football industry. In the next few weeks, we'll come out with a policy." A full ban is in place in Scotland, and while employees of English clubs can gamble on football matches, restrictions are in place. The current regulations can be viewed clearly on the FA's website.  Rule E8b  states that a player "shall not bet, either directly or indirectly" on matches involving themselves or t...

Former X Factor winner Joe McElderry has welcomed the return of the “brilliant” Cheryl Cole to the hit TV talent show. Joe – who won series six of The X Factor under Cole's tutelage – told a celebrity magazine that having Cheryl and Simon Cowell back on the judging panel is just what the show needs. Simon announced that he would be back to head up the show last month, and confirmed Cheryl's return on twitter on Monday – much to McElderry's delight. Hello! quoted Joe as saying: “It’s great to see her back, she’s a brilliant judge. “I think the show needs her and Simon. It needed them to come back.” The 22-year-old – who has also gone on to win Popstar to Operastar and The Jump since his X Factor success – said that it is Cheryl's ability to relate to people which makes her such an asset to Cowell's reality TV show. “Being from a show like that, she’s worked her way up and people can relate and she’s a nice girl,” Joe told the magazine. “And she’s stunn...

Instagram has released a new update to its Android application, which not only improves performance of the image application but also improves overall device compatibility. The new update, known as version 5.1, uses a new design that makes the application look more refined. The new design also offers performance benefits, with profiles loading around twice as fast as before and the overall application size reduced by half. Users of larger phones will notice that buttons are rearranged for ease of use, while users of smaller devices will benefit from an efficient use of  screen space. The latest Instagram for Android update supports devices of all types, with its quicker and sleeker user interface. Users of Instagram can download the latest Android client from Google Play.

An army captain who says she was sexually assaulted by a general sobbed Friday as she testified that they had a three-year affair and that he threatened to kill her and her family — and “do it in a way no one would ever know” — if she ever told anyone. The testimony came on the opening day of the trial of Brig Gen Jeffrey Sinclair, believed to be the highest-ranking US military officer ever court-martialed on sexual assault charges. Asked by a prosecutor to identify her abuser, the woman looked quickly in Sinclair’s direction at the defense table and pointed at the man with whom she admits violating military law by having an adulterous relationship. She was given immunity in exchange for her testimony, which was expected to continue through Friday afternoon. She had yet to be asked about the explosive central allegation — that Sinclair twice ended arguments about their relationship by unbuttoning his pants and forcing her head into his lap to perform oral sex. The trial is u...

Under pressure from events and a passionate appeal from the Ukrainian prime minister, EU leaders have warned of “far-reaching” consequences if Russia fails to ease the crisis in Crimea. An emergency summit of EU leaders agreed a tougher than expected, three-phase package of punitive measures – some immediate and some threatened – to persuade Moscow to enter talks with the new government in Ukraine. The EU move against Russian interests was accompanied by similar moves from the US. Under the terms of the agreement reached in Brussels, negotiations with Moscow on new visa and trade deals with the EU are to be broken off immediately. A travel ban and asset freeze on senior Russian figures will be imposed unless Moscow agrees “contact talks” with Kiev “within a few days”. Finally, the EU warned that – despite grave reservations expressed by some leaders in six hours of heated discussions – there would be “severe and far-reaching” sanctions “in a broad range of economic areas” if Russ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Jewish community leaders on Thursday that he was determined to contain Iran's nuclear program and protect the state of Israel from Iran. The prime minister spoke at the Museum of Tolerance, where exhibits document how 6 million Jews and Europe's lively Jewish culture was destroyed in the Holocaust. He drew a parallel between a 1919 letter on display at the museum in which Adolf Hitler laid out his plans for an "uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether." Similarly, the Iranian regime calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel "openly and unabashedly," only 70 years after the Holocaust, Netanyahu said. "We see who is lying and we shall expose what Iran is really doing — building weapons of mass death and dispatching weapons of immediate death right now to the worst terrorist groups in the world," Netanyahu said. Netanyahu previously called an interim agreement with I...

Julian Casablancas announced a new album today (March 6) with a teaser trailer that, in two minutes of scrappy VHS visuals and fast and furious song snippets, packed more questions than answers. This much we know: it’s to be released on the Strokes man’s own Cult Records imprint, it’s “coming soon” and will feature a pretty broad spread of sounds, if the trailer – which begins with a dark Cramps-style garage dirge before segueing into a furious hardcore punk melee and weirdo arcade noises – is anything to go by. Otherwise, details surrounding Casablancas’ incoming second solo album are thin on the ground. We should learn more in the coming fortnight if rumours emerging this afternoon of a potential appearance at SXSW in Austin are true. Until then, here’s what we want to know. What’s it going to sound like? “Please come over here, you look all confused,” Julian sings on the first track snippet. Confused is about right. There’s so much crammed into this trailer – scuzzy garage b...

Good news for the countless Android users out there looking to get the maximum bang for their buck on the Google Play Store. To commemorate its second birthday, the Google Play Store birthday sale has now kicked off. Discounts are being offered on a wide variety of content so there’s bound to be something for everyone. It has been two whole years since the infamous Android Market was phased out in favor of the new and improved Play Store, which brought all the content that Google offers under one roof. Deals being offered as part of this sale aren’t too spectacular, so it would be best not to go looking for deals with too high expectations. However, there are discounts to be availed on books, movies, apps and music, so its quite possible that you might find something that peaks your interest. The fact that it would possibly be available for less than what it normally is, is the proverbial cherry on top. A lot of apps are offering deals on in-app purchases, even if they’re not re...

Glen Johnson is explaining why Brendan Rodgers is a better manager than Jose Mourinho. ‘It was difficult for me under Jose at Chelsea because there was a moment when he said I deserved to play on merit,’ he recalls. ‘He said if I played well in the next game I would play the week after.  I got man of the match so he couldn’t drop me. ‘Then in the next game he said the same thing and I got man of the match again. Then we had another game and after that Barcelona. I remember speaking to my agent and saying, “He won’t play me in this game because if I play well then he has to play me against Barcelona”, and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. He didn’t play me in that game and from that moment I just lost it and thought, “Well, how am I meant to respect you now? It’s just finished”. ‘Brendan wouldn’t do that. He’s shown that if you’re good enough you’re old enough and you’ll play in the big games if you deserve to. So in terms of man-management, Brendan is definitely better.’...