Pop music certainly has its place in the world, offering simple pleasures from catchy tunes that burrow their way into your head where they remain until another, more powerful, ditty comes along. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your preferred genre or not, certain pop songs will still enter into your subconscious and lay dormant until you catch yourself singing the chorus in the shower one morning.
AUSSIE director James Wan says the seventh installment of The Fast & the Furious franchise will go ahead, despite the death of its star, Paul Walker.
When approached by TMZ at LAX, Wan said, that while the cast is still "dealing" with the loss, he expected the movie to go ahead.
Universal Pictures announced in a statement they would be shutting down production on the franchise following Walker’s death.
"Right now, all of us at Universal are dedicated to providing support to Paul's immediate family and our extended Fast & Furious family of cast, crew and filmmakers. At this time we feel it is our responsibility to shut down production onFast & Furious 7 for a period of time so we can assess all options available to move forward with the franchise," the studio said.
"We are committed to keeping Fast & Furious fans informed, and we will provide further information to them when we have it. Until then, we know they join us in mourning the passing of our dear friend Paul Walker."
Walked died at the age of 40 from "combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries" when his friend Roger Rodas lost control of his 2005 Porsch Carrera GT and slammed into a tree and light pole in California, just over a week ago.
SHE'S caused plenty of controversy this year, and now Miley Cyrus' music videos have been named the most-watched of 2013, according to music website Vevo.
The 21-year-old twerker tops Vevo's list of 2013's highest-viewed videos, withWrecking Ball landing 19.3 million on its first day of release in September and a staggering 371 million views worldwide as of December 1.
Last year's winner was Carly Rae Jepsen's hit single, Call Me Maybe, with 357 million views.
The music video website included views from syndication partner websites AOL, Yahoo!, YouTube and others.
The video has been the subject of plenty of controversy, as Cyrus appears nearly naked in parts of the clip, swinging on top of a wrecking ball in between close-ups of her tearfully singing to the camera.
Vevo noted it was "Miley's year'', as the star's promo for We Can't Stop also took the second spot, now having reached more than 310 million views.
Here are the top 10 music videos of 2013:
1) Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
2) Miley Cyrus - We Can't Stop
3) Will.i.am - Scream and Shout, featuring Britney Spears
4) Rihanna - Diamonds
5) Katy Perry - Roar
6) Pink - Just Give Me a Reason, featuring Nate Ruess
7) Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines, featuring T.I. and Pharrell
A WOMAN sentenced by the Taliban to death by public stoning was rescued by police in northern Afghanistan, a police official said.
"Taliban [judicial] commission charged a woman named Halima ... to be stoned to death for having an affair with a man in Dasht-e-Archi district three days ago," said Saeed Tabar Hussaini, a police official in northern Kunduz province.
The woman was due to be executed on Sunday evening, but police received a tip-off and arrived at the scene before the execution took place.
Taliban fled the area, the official said.
Hussaini said the man who was sentenced along with the woman had evaded arrest by the Taliban.
There have been isolated reports of stonings in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
On Sunday, a UN report said that prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators of violence against women in Afghanistan remained low, with most cases settled by mediation.
AT least four people have been killed when a commuter train collided with a fuel truck near the Indonesian capital Jakarta, derailing a women-only carriage which burst into flames, officials said.
An AFP correspondent saw six people being taken to hospital in ambulances.
Both the carriage and tanker were flipped on their sides and on fire, giving off thick plumes of black smoke.
Transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan confirmed four people, including the train driver, had been killed.
"Other than the driver, we have not yet identified the victims," he said.
The train company estimated that around 600 passengers were on the train when it collided with the truck on the southeastern fringe of the capital, Jakarta, but most have been evacuated.
"Injured passengers have been taken to hospital by ambulance and we are coordinating with police and other agencies in the area for the evacuation," Sukendar Mulya, a spokesman for state-owned train company Kereta Api Indonesia, told AFP.
"The first and last carriages on this train were for women only, so it was the first carriage that collided with the truck," he said, adding some passengers were still trapped inside.
Mulya said the tanker was owned by state-owned company Pertamina, and that the firm was on the way to assist with the evacuation.
The truck accelerated and drove onto the tracks as the safety boom gate was coming down to halt traffic and allow the train to pass, Mulya said.
Fatal accidents are common on Indonesia's poorly maintained roads, especially on densely populated Java island.
WELCOME to Fukushima, where the radiation's so bad it can be fatal within 20 minutes. The tsunami may have happened some 33 months ago, but the fallout just keeps getting worse.
Japanese media is reporting that the intensity of radiation levels in the nuclear powerplant devastated by the earthquake - and subsequent tidal waves - of March 2011 is now at its highest levels ever.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the disaster which sent three of its six reactors critical.
The clean-up operation is expected to take decades but in the meantime:
❒ Radiation contamination of the harbour alongside the plant is steadily rising;
❒ Another earthquake could cause a disaster 10 times worse than that experienced in Chernobyl;
❒ Traces of radioactive caesium has been found in tuna migrating across the Pacific.
On Friday, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reportedly detected the deadly radiation in a duct linking one of the damaged reactor buildings to a 120m tall ventilation pipe.
The radioactivity has been measured at 25 Sieverts (Sv) per hour. A total dose of two Sv is regarded as severe radiation poisoning. Six Sv produces a 100 per cent mortality rate after 30 days of suffering.
Japanese broadcaster NHK reported the duct had been used to divert gas buildups after the disaster. TEPCO says it may still contain radioactive substances.
It's just the latest in a long string of radiation "hotspot" revelations that have been leaking out of the information-firewall thrown up around the shattered nuclear plant since the disaster.
The uranium cores of the reactors have been close to "meltdown", with some burning through their concrete containment walls.
