If you live in Los Angeles, you might make it big… but you’re definitely not making it on time Yeah… it’s definitely going to take longer than you expect. All background images via Thinkstock.

They landed at JFK airport at 5pm for 3-day trip and were raced to $14,000 a night Carlyle Hotel, where Diana stayed Attended a charity dinner with advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell last night William and five-months-pregnant Kate left their son George in the UK. Neither has ever been to New York Aides say Kate has expressed wishes to join William in climbing the Empire State Building today The royal couple will conclude their trip with a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to support St Andrew’s University, where they first met The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were greeted by screaming New Yorkers as they arrived in the city for a whirlwind royal tour last night.

 Kate, 32, who is five months pregnant, was wearing a coat by British maternity label Seraphine, the first time she has been seen wearing a high street pregnancy label during her second pregnancy. The couple were greeted at the luxury Carlyle Hotel, where William's late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales once stayed, by its general manager and around 200 members of the public. The hotel, where a suite can cost $14,000 (£9,000)-a-night, will be the royal couple's base until they fly back to the UK immediately after their last engagement on Tuesday night.

It's good to be here,' William said to staff as he walked through the front doors hand-in-hand with Kate. Neither the Duke nor the Duchess have ever visited New York before and they have been 'immensely looking forward' to exploring the city, aides said. A royal source told the Daily Telegraph: 'The Duchess has told us that if she is feeling up to it she would like to join her husband at the Empire State Building on Tuesday. Her programme has been put together to take into account for the fact that she is five months pregnant and had an illness for the first stage of her pregnancy.' William and Kate travelled with their entourage, which totals seven in all plus security, on a scheduled British Airways flight into JKF airport, which arrived 15 minutes late at 5pm. The costs will be met by British taxpayers. They were raced into Manhattan in an official police motorcade immediately to their hotel and were expected at a private fundraising dinner within the hour. Despite their delay, the crowd at JFK never slowed down with signs, balloons, British flags and tons of excitement. New York’s glitterati were today preparing to open their hearts — and their wallets.

And there was plenty of praise for Kate's purple coat, designed by British maternity firm Seraphine. A spokeswoman for Seraphine said: 'We're delighted to see the Duchess of Cambridge wearing our bespoke Marina coat and wish her an enjoyable stay in New York City.' Prince William and Kate have left their 16-month-old son, Prince George, at home as they launch a charitable charm offensive on the Big Apple. Within hours after touching down on a scheduled flight from London with their seven-strong entourage – including Kate’s hairdresser, Amanda Cook Tucker, who is being paid for by the couple privately – were out schmoozing some of the city’s wealthiest men and women at a private dinner.

Just thirty hedge fund managers and financiers were invited to dine, starting with cocktails at 6.30pm hosted by Sorrell’s high-powered wife, Cristiana, followed by dinner an hour later. Contrary to rumour, no-one has been charged for the privilege, but it is clearly expected that those present will lavish large donations on the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, which supports causes as diverse as youth opportunity, the environment and injured service personnel. The fundraising will continue on Tuesday night with a gala at the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art to support a 600th Anniversary appeal by St Andrew’s University, where the couple first met. The extravagant £85,000-per-table event is being held at the museum’s Temple of Dendur exhibit, which was built in Egypt around 15 BC in dedication of the gods Isis and Osiris. After being saved from submersion during the construction of the Aswan Dam, the sandstone temple was given to the US in its entirety in 1965. All 800 tonnes of it was transported, block by block, across the Atlantic and rebuilt in the Met Museum. On the 450-strong guest list is Tom Hanks (whose daughter studied at the Scottish university), actress Mary-Kate Olsen, the chief executives of Citigroup (whose wife has already excitedly chatted to the local media about the designer dress she has specially commissioned for the occasion), Cartier and Bank of America, and William’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, who is currently working at an auction house in New York. Tomorrow will also see William fly to Washington where he will give a key-note speech the International Corruption Hunters Alliance conference, being held at the World Bank, about one of his biggest passions, halting the illegal trade in wildlife parts such as ivory and rhino horn. The prince will describe the illegal wildlife trade as ‘one of the most insidious forms of corruption and criminality in the world today’. He has also been invited to the White House to meet with President Obama and his Vice-President, Joseph Biden.

Tuesday will see the couple pay their respects at the National September 11 Memorial Museum before attending a star-studded event to mark British creative talent in New York. William will also attend a prize-giving at the Empire State Building, accompanied the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. Mr de Blasio famously played the Lorde’s anti-monarchy song Royals on the night of his election victory and has talked about smashing the ‘status-quo’, but seems happy to accompany the second in line to the throne. British ambassador to the US, Sir Peter Westmacott, said of the visit yesterday: ‘This is a very exciting moment for us, we are all thrilled. ‘There is a long history of very successful and appreciated royal visits to this country going back to the original state visit in 1939, which went so well. ‘When I speak here to people in the United States about the Royal Family they often hark back to the moment during the Second World War when the Queen stayed in London and trained to be an army mechanic….her extraordinary devotion to duty having been on the throne for more than 60 years. ‘This is the embodiment of a very lasting and close relationship between the Royal Family and this country. ‘It’s the first time that the Duke and Duchess have set foot in either New York or Washington.

‘We confidently hope this will be a very happy and enjoyable visit. Things are looking set fair. British Consul General in New York, Danny Lopez, added: ‘Overall it has been incredible to witness the level of excitement the visit has created. People have been falling over wanting to lend their support to the events we are hosting. ‘Frankly I’ve been here for a few years now and the levels of anticipation in their Royal Highnesses arriving here has been absolutely phenomenal.’ One Manhattan banker and socialite, Euan Rellie also described the royal couple as ‘fantastic ambassadors’. ‘They have been the best thing for the Royal Family in years and they’ve yet to put a foot wrong.’ That, of course, could yet happen when the couple pop into an NBA match at the Brooklyn Nets arena on Monday night, where the so-called ‘kiss cam’ is something of a rite of passage for any visiting celebrity. Everyone from the Obamas to Beyoncé have been captured smooching on screen after being picked out from the audience and their image displayed to the cheering (or booing) crowd. With royal protocol in mind, it’s unlikely they will say yes — but if they do, then Cambridges will truly have conquered New York.

PHOTOS GALLERY

Panama and Costa Rica were shaken Saturday by magnitude-5, 4 and 6 earthquakes, while Guatemala had a magnitude-4.7 temblor with its epicenter in Mexico. No victims were reported nor any serious material damage.

In Panama, a magnitude-6.4 quake at 12:21 p.m. local time hit the western part of the country and was felt powerfully in Chiriqui province on the Costa Rican border, the National Geosciences Institute at the University of Panama reported.

The temblor occurred in the Pacific Ocean at 38 kilometers (24 miles) southeast of the city of Puerto Armuelles, located some 550 kilometers (342 miles) from the Panamanian capital, according to the Geosciences Institute.

The Sinaproc emergency management service said that no fatalities nor injured have been reported, and on its Twitter account noted that preliminary reports "indicate that no buildings have collapsed" in Chiriqui, though the situation is still being checked.

Local online media posted a photo showing products on the floor that had fallen from supermarket shelves in Chiriqui province, while local television showed the front of a building in David with minor damage.

Costa Rica at 11:21 a.m. suffered a magnitude-6 quake with its epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Laurel community in Puntarenas province near the Panamanian border, the National Seismological Network, or RSN, said.

The earthquake was felt strongly on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, in the southern part of the country and in the Panamanian towns of Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui, and with less force in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital, the RSN said.

Costa Rican authorities reported no material damage nor people affected as a result of the quake.

Guatemala was shaken Saturday by a magnitude-4.7 quake with its epicenter in southern Mexico, with no victims or material damage reported, the Conred emergency management service reported.

Conred said that the epicenter of the temblor was in southern Mexico, some 68 kilometers (42 miles) west of the border with Guatemala at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), and that no victims or material damage has been reported as a result of it.

More than half a million people flee Typhoon Hagupit as it makes landfall in the Philippines

Typhoon Hagupit hit the Philippines on Saturday, after more than 600,000 people had fled its path in what was one of the world's biggest peacetime evacuations ever.

The storm caused gusts of up to 137mph as it moved west towards the archipelago and threatened widespread destruction, just 13 months after a "super typhoon" devastated the region. Last year's typhoon killed more than 7,000 people and displaced more than four million.

The incoming storm has a front of almost 400 miles and had begun to cause heavy winds, rain and blackouts but appeared to weaken as it moved towards the nation's eastern provinces. However, international weather bureaus gave conflicting assessments of the likely route.

"Ruby's lashing will be severe," Manuel Roxas, the interior secretary told government radio, referring to the local name for the typhoon.

"The wind feels like there's a huge electric fan blowing air from the Pacific – let's be alert. Let's evacuate to prevent any harm to your families."

Authorities said about 616,000 people had fled coastal villages and landslide-prone areas and taken shelter in churches, schools, gyms, town halls and community centres. Other reports stated the number of people evacuated could be closer to one million.

Many of those evacuated were survivors of Haiyan, the devastating typhoon in November last year, which wiped out farming and fishing communities and destroyed more than one million homes.

Scientists said Haiyan was one of the worst storms to ever make landfall; tens of thousands of families still live in tents and makeshift housing.

The latest typhoon, named Hagupit, had already caused a small landslide, heavy rain and strong winds and is set to trigger 15-foot storm surges.

Despite being downgraded to category three, two levels below "super typhoon", it is due to bring torrential rain and potential flooding and could cause widespread destruction over the next three to four days.

"I'm scared," Jojo Moro, a survivor of Haiyan, told Associated Press. "I'm praying to God not to let another disaster strike us again. We haven't recovered from the first."

Teresina Aban, a 58-year-old housewife at an evacuation centre in eastern Samar province, told Reuters she was afraid she would lose her house.
"I am afraid and scared," she said. "We're prepared but still fearful, we haven't finished repairing our house, it still has tarpaulin patches and here comes another storm."

AccuWeather Global Weather Center said more than 30 million people would feel the impact of the typhoon, almost a third of the nation's 108 million people. Manila, the capital, was unlikely to be seriously affected, though some southern suburbs may be at risk.

"Typhoon Hagupit is triggering one of the largest evacuations we have ever seen in peacetime," said Denis McClean, from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Hagupit approached the coast on Saturday at speeds of about 8mph, compared with Haiyan's speed last year of about 25mph.

However, aid agencies warned that some evacuation centres were unsafe and unlikely to withstand the onslaught of the coming typhoon.

"A damage assessment of designated evacuation centres in typhoon-affected areas indicated that in some places – less than 10 per cent of evacuation centres were likely to withstand future typhoons," said Refugees International in a statement.

Filipino families seek refuge at a school used as an evacuation center as they prepare for Typhoon Hagupit in Legazpi, Albay province, eastern Philippines
"While the hope is that large-scale evacuations will help save lives, there's little doubt that Hagupit will bring a great deal of fear and suffering to thousands of Filipinos who already lost everything to Haiyan."

Hundreds of domestic flights were cancelled across the country, ports were closed and inter-island ferry services were suspended. The military and police were patrolling cities such as Tacloban, where there was widespread looting in the aftermath of last year's disaster.

"The soldiers will help our police counterparts in maintaining peace and order, and prevent looting incidents," said Colonel Restituto Padilla Jr, a military spokesman.

But the two main agencies tracking the typhoon, the United States military's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii and the Philippines weather agency, gave different assessments of the storm's path.

The US agency predicted a northern route that could reach as far as the southern outskirts of Manila, while the national agency predicted a more southern route cutting through the central islands. About 47 of the country's 81 provinces are believed to lie in the path of the storm.

"The threat of flash floods and landslides are likely in hazard-prone areas especially along river banks and mountain slopes of the affected areas," said Weather Philippines, a weather monitoring website.

However, aid agencies said lessons from last year appear to have been learnt and much of the population in high-risk areas had evacuated.
"There has been a tremendous amount of learning from last year," said Greg Matthews, from the International Rescue Committee.

"There have been reports from our field officers and partners that people are evacuating themselves. They are aware of the situation."

Some aid agencies were reporting that small numbers of residents were choosing to remain in villages to try to brave the storm.
"In the end it's their decision," Jacqui Symonds from CARE Australia told ABC News.

"Most people are heading to the evacuation centres and following the advice of the government. But there are some who choose to stay in their homes if they feel that they're strong enough and ... feel protected enough."

The Philippines, an island nation that has warm ocean temperatures and is exposed to the western Pacific Ocean, is particularly prone to typhoons and has about a 20 a year.

Much of the population lives in low-lying poor coast villages, where weak construction and inadequate infrastructure have increased the risk of serious damage to people and properties.

Benigno Aquino, the nation's president, told his disaster agency heads in a televised address this week: "Let's prepare for everything. I will not be very patient with excuses after this event. Failure on the priorities is unforgivable."

You may ask why Roland Iten has named his latest mechanical belt buckle the “Predator.” And the answer you would probably receive is, “Because it eats up every other belt buckle out there.”

You may also ask why I am writing about a belt buckle in the first place when I am a timepiece specialist. The answer to that question is equally easy: because Roland Iten’s “Calibres” are not only made using many of the same components that comprise a complicated timepiece, their level of sophistication broadly resembles a high-quality, Swiss timepiece.

Above and beyond the spectacular price tag and high-carat-weight diamond setting, which I will come back to shortly, the latest in Iten’s line of belt accessories is outfitted with a few other extraordinary elements.

It allows the wearer to quickly and easily change out the actual leather belt.

Its ergonomic, deployant-style design (think wristwatch strap) allows the wearer to very easily close the belt by inserting the end into the buckle so that the double tang effortlessly finds the belt holes.

And, like all Roland Iten belt buckles, it allows the wearer to loosen and tighten the buckle as needed (like after a big meal or when sitting down in a car for a long drive) using only one hand. No need to worry about accidental embarrassment: security pushers prevent inadvertent release.

[readon1 url="http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethdoerr/2014/12/05/roland-iten-introduces-the-worlds-most-expensive-belt-buckle-the-calibre-r822-predator/"]Source:www.forbes.com[/readon1]

Medellín for Christmas vacation? Sí, sí!

The city once wracked by drug violence has undergone a massive social and economic transformation, and it's now known in tourist circles for spectacular Christmas light displays that veil churches, buildings, parks and even the Medellín River with glittering cascades of color.

The spectacle can be seen in neighborhoods around the city every night until Jan. 12 from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. The display draws an estimated four million visitors. The scene feels like a carnival, with crowds of families on foot gazing in awe, street vendors and long lines of cars and tour buses streaming slowly by.

The displays change each year and are created by EPM, a state utility company that derives much of its power from hydroelectric sources. The company, which also produces light displays in the Colombian cities of Cali and Quimbaya, held an open call for ideas for the light shows, resulting this year in more than 1,500 suggestions. The lights can be seen primarily in eight areas of the city: Cerro Nutibara, La Playa Avenue, East Avenue, Carabobo, San Juan, Junin, 70 North Street and Las Palmas. Each area's display has a different theme, for example, animals, symbols of peace, flowers and Christmas trees.

Residents are quick to remind visitors that perceptions of the city as a center of drug violence are outdated. After all, Colombia's most notorious outlaw, drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, was killed more than 20 years ago. While it's possible to find tour guides offering "Escobar tours" that include a stop at the building where he was ambushed by police, tour guide Andres Munera prefers to focus on more positive themes, from the Christmas lights to excursions to nearby coffee farms and nature reserves.

Munera, 43, a native of Medellín, started his business, Land Venture Travel, in 2010, and says about 50 percent of his customers are from the U.S. After all, "it's just a three-hour flight from Miami," he said. He credits Alvaro Uribe, who served both as Medellín mayor and Colombia's president, with helping to change Colombia's reputation and says life in Medellín has been transformed by everything from libraries and parks to assistance for entrepreneurs.

Despite economic and social strides in Medellín and elsewhere, challenges remain. The taxi industry in the capital, Bogotá, is plagued by robberies, and Medellín has recently been in the news over reports of underage prostitution.

But tourism in the country is on the rise. In 2013, about 1.7 million people visited Colombia, more than three times the number that visited in 2002. About 20 percent of 2013 arrivals or 343,891, were from the United States, up slightly from the previous year. Tourism from the U.S. is expected to grow with the recent addition of direct flights on the national airline, Avianca, from New York.

Munera says the improved quality of life, along with social media and word of mouth, is helping persuade tourists to come.

"We don't do Pablo Escobar tours because that evil man was the worst thing that has ever happened to Medellín and the entire country," Munera said. "We prefer to focus on the positive present than on a painful past."

Gallery

[readon1 url="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2014/12/05/medellin-colombia-once-notorious-drug-haven-now-known-for-its-dazzling/"]Source:latino.foxnews.com[/readon1]

The elusive identity of the Mona Lisa, one of art history's most enduring and well-loved mysteries, might have just been solved. Well, sort of. According to art historian Angelo Paratico, the woman portrayed in Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece might be, simultaneously, a Chinese slave and the painter's mother, the South China Morning Post reports.

However, Paratico is not yet exactly positive about the details of his potentially groundbreaking theory. “I'm sure to a point that Leonardo's mother was from the Orient, but to make her an oriental Chinese, we need to use deductive method," he told SCMP.

The Hong-Kong-based historian is giving the final touches to a book entitled Leonardo da Vinci: A Chinese Scholar Lost in Renaissance Italy. “One wealthy client of Leonardo's father had a slave called Caterina," Paratico told SCMP. “After 1452, Leonardo's date of birth, she disappeared from the documents. She was no longer working there."

Apparently, Caterina (da Vinci's mother, too, is widely thought to have been named Caterina) was taken to the town of Vinci, outside Florence, to give birth. Paratico's angle is that she had to be removed from the household due to her improper relationship with her master.

Does the theory sound like a bit of a long shot? Perhaps. But Paratico argues that, already a hundred years ago, the venerable Sigmund Freud claimed that the iconic painting was inspired by da Vinci's mother, in his 1910 essay, “A Childhood Reminiscence of Leonardo da Vinci."

Paratico substantiates his thesis further by insisting some aspects of da Vinci's life suggest an oriental connection. For example, he was left-handed as well as a vegetarian, both of which were uncommon at the time. The art historian also says that Italy was full of oriental slaves during the Renaissance.

He believes that the painting's background depicts a Chinese landscape, and that the Mona Lisa's face looks Chinese.

Does it all still sound a little tenuous? Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro, an architect and assistant professor at the University of St Joseph, thinks so, telling SCMP that Paratico is “jumping quickly to conclusions since there's no concrete evidence."

Meanwhile, according to The Telegraph, users of the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo have launched a Chinese-Mona Lisa meme parade, replacing her features with hilarious alternatives, for example the face of the Chinese comedian Zhao Benshan.

"I now understand why her smile looks so mysterious and concealed," joked a Sina Weibo user. “It's typically Chinese."

[readon1 url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/mona-lisa-slave_n_6262144.html?utm_hp_ref=world;ir=World"]Source:www.huffingtonpost.com[/readon1]

Coca-Cola's distributing a new kind of milk -- one critics say has been promoted with sexist ads.

Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) -- This is what Ferguson looked like Tuesday morning.

Shattered glass from looted stores covered the asphalt. Shell casings from unknown shooters littered the ground. And more than a dozen buildings, including stores owned by local residents, had been set ablaze.

As protesters hurled bottles, batteries and rocks at police, officers in riot gear responded by shooting bean bags and tear gas.

"This ain't Iraq. This is the United States," Demetric Whitlock yelled to a line of police officers on South Florissant Road, in front of the Ferguson Police Department.

When a grand jury decided Monday not to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the news triggered fresh confrontations between protesters and police in the tense Missouri city.

While most of the demonstrators peacefully protested on the streets, some smashed the windows of a police cruiser and set another on fire.

An entire row of businesses on West Florissant Avenue, a major thoroughfare, was engulfed in flames.

There were so many infernos that firefighters couldn't rush to every one.

Amid the looting and arson, some protesters demanded the media stop reporting on the events. CNN's Sara Sidner was struck in the head with a rock.

Many business owners will return to their shops to see their livelihoods in ruins. Looters broke into a beauty supply store and stole hair weaves and wigs, leaving the heads of mannequins strewn in the middle of the street.

And in nearby Dellwood, some people torched a row of cars at a car dealership and set several businesses on fire.

"The fire district does not feel safe coming out to put out fires because of the gunshots and the looting there taking place," Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones said. "So they are refusing, basically, to come out and put these fires out."

29 arrested, no serious injuries

Amid the chaos, police made 29 arrests in Ferguson. No officers suffered any serious injuries, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said, and to his knowledge, police didn't cause any serious injuries, either.

But Belmar said he heard at least 100 gunshots go off through the night. Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said police did not fire any of the bullets.

On Tuesday morning,Gov. Jay Nixon ordered more Missouri National Guard members to Ferguson

"The Guard is providing security at the Ferguson Police Department, which will allow additional law enforcement officers to protect the public," Nixon's office said.

But it's unclear how long standoffs might continue between protesters and police

"People here have a real grudge against the police," Whitlock said. "It's not going away."

Protesters turn out nationwide

It wasn't just that way in Ferguson.

Twelve miles south in St. Louis, Police Chief Sam Dotson said windows of businesses located across the street from a protest gathering spot were smashed and 21 people were arrested on felony accusations, including illicit gun possession. But no one was shot.

"What we saw last night is the criminals were using the cover of the organized protests to do their criminal activity," Dotson said.

News about the grand jury's decision not to indict Wilson also spread quickly nationwide, spurring others to turn out for spontaneous rallies in support of Brown's family against what they characterized as unnecessary force by some police officers against citizens, especially African-Americans.

Some laid down on the street outside the White House in protest. In New York's Union Square, scores held up a huge, lit-up sign that read, "Black lives matter." More protesters took their message to the streets of Seattle, Washington, and Oakland, California.

Others will get their chance to express their views at more than 120 pro-Brown family vigils and gatherings in cities big and small -- from Los Angeles to Bangor, Maine -- organized nationwide, including some scheduled for Tuesday.

There is the chance that, in Ferguson or any of those places, violence could again flare between protesters and police.

Weighing in during a live address Monday night, President Barack Obama called it "understandable" that some Americans will agree and others will be made angry by the decision to not indict Wilson. Whatever their take, he said, lashing out is not an acceptable reaction.

"First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law, so we need to accept this decision was the grand jury's to make," Obama said.

'Exhaustive review'
All of this unrest, all of this tension dates to August 9, when Brown and a friend were walking down the middle of a Ferguson street.

What happened next -- from the shooting, to the failure to immediately charge Wilson in Brown's death, to at-times violent clashes between authorities and Brown family supporters -- turned Ferguson from a largely unknown St.

Louis suburb to the center of a national debate over race, law enforcement and the interaction of the two.

The basic facts have never been disputed. Brown, who was black, was unarmed. Wilson, who is white, shot him.

But how and why that exactly happened is hotly disputed. And grand jury testimony released late Monday offered little resolution, with Wilson's version of events contradicting those offered by some witnesses.

The St. Louis County grand jury of nine white and three black members got a lot of information -- meeting 25 times, during which they heard from 60 witnesses and three medical examiners in 70 hours of testimony.

The grand jurors' mission was never to convict Wilson. Rather, it was to decide whether there was reason enough to charge him with a crime -- either first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. They also could have added a charge of armed criminal action.
 
If at least nine of the 12 grand jurors had voted that there was enough to proceed with charges, Wilson would have stood trial.

After hearing all of the testimony and deliberating for two days, they decided not to indict the officer on any charge.

Said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch: "The physical and scientific evidence examined by the grand jury, combined with the witness statements, supported and substantiated by that physical evidence, tells the accurate and tragic story of what happened."

Brown family: 'Let's make a difference'
The decision was welcomed by Wilson, who -- in a statement issued by his attorneys -- expressed thanks to those who have "stood by his side."

"Law enforcement personnel must frequently make split-second and difficult decisions," the Wilson camp's statement said. "Officer Wilson followed his training and followed the law."

Contrast the Ferguson police officer's relief with the Brown family's feelings.

The decision not to indict Wilson "devastated" the late teenager's father. His mother ran down the street, tears streaming down her face.

They still want something positive to come from their nightmare. But in a statement, the family stressed that one thing it did not want is violence.

"While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change," the family said. "We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen."

The family made a call for police officers across the country to wear body cameras.

"Let's not just make noise," the family said, "let's make a difference."

Federal investigations

So what happens next?
The U.S. Justice Department is conducting two civil rights investigations in the case: one into whether Wilson violated Brown's civil rights, and another into the police department's overall track record with minorities.

The investigations will likely require lots of time, if similar past cases are any indication.
Back in Ferguson, residents worried about the toll Monday night's violence has taken on the quaint revitalized downtown.

One of the casualties was Ferguson Optical. Earlier in the day, manager Tim Marrah had put out the sign he has been displaying since August: "We are family."

It was no protection against vandals. A storefront window was shattered and left barely standing.
Peaceful protesters were shocked by the violence that has marred the city.

"This is crazy. I mean, this doesn't do anything," one resident told CNN.

She worried about how victims would pick up the pieces.

"They're not going to rebuild. It's just going to be a ghost town pretty soon.

[readon1 url="http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/justice/ferguson-grand-jury-decision/index.html?hpt=hp_t1"]Source:www.cnn.com[/readon1]

Today, Diageo –the global leader in beverage alcohol – and Sean Combs unveil a newly-expanded portfolio from the luxury brand, DELEON® Tequila, that brings the extraordinary product to a broader group of consumers through new Platinum and Reposado variants, starting at $60 MSRP. This launch marks the first release from the Diageo and Combs Wine & Spirits joint venture since the DELEON® Tequila acquisition was announced in January 2014.

"Consumers are embracing ultra-premium and luxury tequilas, and the exceptional new DELEON® line will find an expanded audience of believers," said Larry Schwartz, President, Diageo North America. "With Sean as our joint venture partner, I am confident in DELEON®'s potential to succeed and believe that it will play an increasingly important role in achieving Diageo's tequila ambition."

Leading the DELEON® Tequila line-up is the new Platinum. Un-aged and unrivaled in finish, DELEON® Platinum Tequila ($60 MSRP per 750ml) is a provocative Blanco with a rich, complex agave honey that is slow-fermented and twice-distilled. During the second distillation, the head and tail of the distillate are cut to preserve only the most sought-after liquid. This allows the DELEON® Tequila brand to achieve Platinum's remarkable smoothness and retain its depth of character. As Diageo and Sean Combs embark on their next venture, keeping social responsibility at the core of the brand is key to a successful launch and ensuring only consumers over 21 will enjoy the exceptionally smooth drinking experience.

The complete DELEON® Tequila collection delivers six distinctive variants – three ultra-premium and three luxury– made from the finest, hand-selected 100% Blue Weber agave sourced from the rich earth of the Los Altos region of Jalisco. The DELEON® Tequila Ultra-Premium line achieves a high level of smoothness and exceptional quality with Platinum, Reposado and Anejo (available Summer 2015) expressions ranging from $60-$75 MSRP per 750ml. The DELEON® Tequila Luxury line, priced between $150-$850 MSRP per 750ml, boasts the complex profiles of Diamante, a joven, Extra Anejo –– and the exquisitely bold and refined Leona – selected from the DELEON® private reserves, long-aged and rested in both American Oak and French Sauternes casks.

"True luxury is about pushing boundaries to boldly define a way of life," said Sean Combs, Chairman of Combs Wine & Spirits. "With the creation of DELEON® we accepted nothing but the best because we know DELEON® drinkers desire and expect the best tequila on the market – and that's exactly what we've delivered. I fell in love with DELEON® when I first tasted it and I hope you will too."

DELEON® Platinum and Reposado will be available in November 2014 at participating stores nationwide with Anejo hitting markets in Summer 2015. The DELEON® Tequila Luxury line, including Diamante, Extra Anejo and Leona, will become available in December 2014. For more information on DELEON® Tequila, visit: www.deleontequila.com.

About DELEON®

DELEON® Tequila was initially created in the Guanajuato region, home to the town of Leon and the town of Purisima del Rincon. DELEON® launched in 2009 to an elite following in Hollywood and the U.S. music industry. Purchased in 2014 by a joint venture between business mogul and international icon Sean Combs and the world's largest spirits company Diageo, DELEON® Tequila defies conventions to establish a new standard of luxury in tequila. The DELEON® portfolio boasts six provocative ultra-premium and luxury expressions made from the finest, hand-selected 100% Blue Weber agave sourced from the highlands of Jalisco. By instilling an innovative blend of traditional yet unique tequila making processes, DELEON® Tequila curates exquisite smoothness and abundant character. For more, information visit: www.deleontequila.com.

About Diageo

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across spirits, beer and wine categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, J&B, Buchanan's, Windsor and Bushmills whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.

Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice.

Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.

About Combs Wine & Spirits

Combs Wine & Spirits is a privately owned, premium spirits and wine business founded and created by Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2013. The company, based in New York, NY, is now a partner with Diageo on DELEON® Tequila. The Blue Flame agency, another of Sean's enterprises, has collaborated with Diageo in marketing Ciroc ultra-premium vodka in the U.S. since 2007.

[readon1 url="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sean-diddy-combs-diageo-and-deleon-tequila-primed-for-luxury-tequila-takeover-283331531.html"]Source:www.prnewswire.com[/readon1]

In reforming the world of IT, the cloud continues to attract corporate customers as we drift into 2015. While the cloud is absorbing a wide range of software and hardware applications across the board, there remain gaps in cloud migrations. These failures are addressed here for the benefit of new customers who are considering a transition to cloud platforms.

Dive Headfirst into the Cloud

A common mistake made by cloud early adopters is overlooking the soft costs associated with cloud computing. This throws ROI/TCO for a loop. Begin with an itemized IT budget that includes specific internal costs, i.e. it costs $10 per mailbox to support internally. Typical IT budgets have a 50/50 division, with 50 percent going to hardware, software and maintenance, and the remaining half covering staff costs. Consider staff support costs needed to manage workloads in the cloud.

Have an Unrealistic Change Process Strategy

An improperly prepared IT staff will not be ready to handle a switch over to the cloud. Businesses tend to overlook the costs associated with training staff to utilize the cloud on an ongoing basis, such as with incident management. Whether workloads are managed in-house or handled by a cloud partner, management is up to you. Therefore, you must:

Don’t Include Security and Legal Teams Early

Your security and legal teams must be aware of your pending move to the cloud. If you move from strategy to design mode without recognizing the need for a PCI or HIPAA compliant environment, your project will be at risk. A recent HIPAA change restricts data from sitting on leased infrastructure. What if your company’s IP is sitting unguarded in a public cloud? These are examples of risks you don’t want to take on without legal or security expertise at your side therefore, including them early in the changeover process is crucial.

Fail to Consider End-User Adoption

Understand that most IT staff are capable of picking up the cloud platforms and processes at a much faster rate than the end users, i.e. line of business managers, customer service, or sales teams. While the IT staff might be gung ho with adopting new cloud computing capabilities giving them more flexibility and automation, others may lag behind in the adoption of new systems or processes.

Do Not Consider Staff Capabilities and Resistance

Many IT departments lack the capabilities to migrate, integrate, and manage workloads in the cloud. Staff may realize their inability to skillfully support cloud services, leading to resistance. Alternatively, if an IT staff is constantly in fire-fight mode and operating under unpredictable outcomes and ill-managed IT costs, moving to an IT “as a service” provider could be attractive to the business leaders. Partnering with certain cloud service providers could outweigh the costs of training and/or hiring the staff with the necessary skills.

Ignoring the Need for Resources to Migrate

According to Paul Schaapman, a seasoned IT leader and datacenter solution architect, “The typical IT staff is not up to par, generally, when it comes to migrating to and managing cloud environments. Take Bob who’s been in IT for the last 20 years and says he can migrate everything. Can he actually provide this service at a professional level? Probably not when compared to partners who built their business around cloud migrations. Furthermore, IT staff is typically not capable of performing dependency mapping at the necessary level. Consider an unexpected cost if you are forced to rely on partners for migration, a common occurrence for customers new to the cloud.”

Move to the Cloud for the Wrong Reasons

Going to the cloud is not always a cost-savings exercise. Cloud infrastructure options are endless, but it’s often cumbersome for businesses to determine the actual costs for buying, renting or building in the cloud. The main reason businesses should be going to the cloud is to standardize the infrastructure and focus on the application layer. This increases a business’s ability to perform value-added activities to the business. The cloud, in that aspect, is an investment rather than a cost-saving maneuver. Most businesses choose the cloud for its flexibility especially during seasonal spikes, i.e. Black Friday for online retailers, where they can burst and spin-down resources quickly with a cost structure that aligns with their usage.

What is the Solution?

For businesses considering a leap to the cloud:

Going to the cloud can push your business offerings to the next level. However, it isn’t as simple as flipping a switch or purchasing a prepackaged program. Taking note of these issues will keep your head out of the clouds during this possible transition.

Jason Hart is an ITIL-certified Cloud Client Executive with CDW. With over 14 years of IT sales experience across various market segments, he provides clients with definitional, categorical and strategic expertise around CDW’s cloud computing portfolio. Jason also serves as a “face-in-the-cloud,” conducting in-market speaking events on emerging market trends and cloud adoption use cases.

[readon1 url="http://www.forbes.com/sites/cdw/2014/11/20/going-to-the-cloud-what-not-to-do/"]Source:www.forbes.com[/readon1]

SANTA BARBARA, HONDURAS (AP) – Tears and anger poured out for the dark-haired beauty who was to have flown to London on Wednesday to represent Honduras at the Miss World pageant, only to be found shot to death with her sister on a remote river bank.

After the bodies of the reigning Miss Honduras, 19-year-old Maria Jose Alvarado, and her sister Sofia, 23, were discovered early in the day, police announced that the sister's boyfriend had confessed to killing them last week in a fit of jealousy over his girlfriend dancing with another man.

Dozens of relatives and friends of the beauty queen gathered for a candlelight vigil at the college she attended, remembering a down-to-earth young woman who aspired to be a diplomat, went out without makeup and worked as a model to help support a humble family.

"She was simple, humble, a total innocent smiling and without malice," said Ludin Reyes, a fellow student at the Technical University of Honduras.

The Center for Women's Rights, based in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, issued a statement condemning the sisters' killing and noted 328 women have been slain in this Central American nation so far in 2014.

"The case of Mary Jose and Sofia show clearly the situation of generalized violence against women and the nonexistent response of the Honduran government to prevent, investigate or punish it," the statement said.

The bodies believed to be the sisters were found buried near the spa where they disappeared a week earlier while celebrating the birthday of the sister's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz.

At some point during the night of Nov. 13, a heated argument broke out over the sister dancing with another man and Ruiz pulled a gun, firing first at his girlfriend and then at Alvarado as she tried to flee, said the National Police director, Gen. Ramon Sabillon. Alvarado was hit twice in the back.

Claudio Cecilio Munoz, an uncle of the sisters, said Ruiz came to the family's modest house on a dirt road the day after the young women disappeared to invite them to lunch, and returned several days to help with the search. He described Ruiz not as a boyfriend, but as someone who was courting his niece.

"We didn't file a complaint right away because we were waiting for a telephone call asking for ransom," Munoz said. "On Saturday their mother and I went to put in a complaint and the killer was with us."

Ruiz led investigators to the gravesite where he and an alleged accomplice buried them in Santa Barbara, about 240 miles (400 kilometers) west of Tegucigalpa.

Alvarado's body, wrapped in brown plastic, was loaded into the back of a pickup truck just hours before she was to have boarded a flight to London to compete in the Miss World pageant. A winner will be crowned Dec. 14.

"We had her gown ready and her traditional dress costumes," said television personality Salvador Nasrallah, who employed Alvarado as a model on his TV game show, "X-O Da Dinero."

"This is not a crime of passion; this is machismo," said Nasrallah, a former presidential candidate.

Honduras pageant organizer Eduardo Zablah said the country would not send a substitute to London.

Alvarado's pageant profile describes her as a college student who played volleyball and soccer and loved to perform a traditional Garifuna dance called the Punta Dance.

The sisters' mother, Teresa Munoz, told Televicentro that her daughters were trusting and naive. "They were not very astute about assessing the people around them. They were just friendly," Munoz said. "They were going out with people they hadn't known very long."

The killing of the sisters highlights what experts call an alarming trend of violence against women in Central America, fueled by poverty, male chauvinism, domestic violence, street gangs and drug trafficking.

According to a report by the United Nations, slayings of women and girls in Honduras increased 263 percent between 2005 and 2013. The country has the highest homicide rate in the world for a country not at war, with an estimated 90 to 95 killings per 100,000 people.

In September, the Center for Women's Rights published a report noting that the number of women dying violently rose from 512 in 2011 to 636 last year — even as the number of men killed dropped slightly. The center estimated Honduras' government underreports slayings of women by as much as 17 percent.

"Violence against women is a huge problem in Honduras," said Adriana Beltran, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Those who knew Alvarado, who was crowned in April, said she was not caught up in the celebrity of her position. She would go around town in jeans with her hair up and without makeup.

"When Maria Jose won the pageant, she didn't think it was that important. I just wanted her to be happy," her mother said.

[readon1 url="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/11/20/jealous-rage-over-dance-led-to-killing-miss-honduras-and-her-sister/"]Source:latino.foxnews.com[/readon1]