The group, which calls itself Guardians of Peace (GOP), released a statement online on Tuesday warning cinemagoers to avoid seeing The Interview, and advising anyone who lives near to a cinema showing the film that they should vacate their homes. “We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places The Interview be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to,” the message read.
Though Sony itself did not pull the plug on the premiere, the studio told exhibitors that they were free to cancel screenings of the slapstick satire, which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as hapless TV journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.
Japan slammed by violent blizzard affecting air traffic
Japanese weather agencies have reported that an approaching storm was already disrupting air traffic. A US-bound flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Tokyo after hitting severe turbulence.
A winter pressure pattern is expected to dump 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) of snow in some parts of the island of Hokkaido and bring strong winds and high waves in the region, the Meteorological Agency said on Wednesday.
Local media reported that about 350 train services and hundreds of flights were cancelled on the island, while around a third of schools were closed. The news agency Reuters reported "typhoon-strength winds," while two major airlines - All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines - were set to cancel at least 296 international and domestic flights, Jiji Press reported.
"We are struggling to remove snow from the street," an official in the city of Obhiro told news agency AFP. "As many as 50 vehicles may be trapped in the snow."
The weather agency also warned of serious snowfall in coastal regions.
Now only five northern white rhinos left in the world
December 17, 2014 - 10:36AM
Amy Hubbard
With the death at San Diego Zoo Safari Park of a northern white rhino, the species is five animals away from extinction. The death on Sunday of Angalifu, a 44-year-old male northern white rhino, leaves one elderly female at the park, three in a Kenyan preserve and one at a Czech Republic zoo.
There were more than 2,000 northern whites in 1960, according to the World Wildlife Fund, but poachers cut intothe population. By 1984, there were about 15 left. That population was doubled by 1993 through aggressive conservation efforts. But heavily-armed poaching gangs have now virtually annihilated the species, the WWF says.
Poachers are known to use helicopters, guns with silencers and night-vision equipment to harvest rhino horns, for which there is huge demand in Asia - particularly in Vietnam and China, where the horn is consumed as aphrodisiac and general pick-me-up. Rhino horn can sell for as much as $US30,00
0 a half-kilogram.
Openly gay US ambassador treads touchy path in Dominican Republic
At the end of James Brewster's first year as ambassador, many in the conservative Catholic country say his appointment shows how out of touch the US is with local values. But he says it's important for him to speak out.
By Ezra Fieser, Correspondent
Mr. Brewster and Mr. Satawake arrived in
Santo Domingo as the first openly gay couple ever to serve at an ambassadorial level in the Americas. But even before their plane touched down, conservative circles in the Dominican Republic were pointing to them as an example of how US foreign policy is out of touch with local norms.
The conservative archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, referred to Brewster using a derogatory slur for homosexuals. The leader of evangelical Christian churches called for protests, and Dominicans filled social media sites with anti-gay comments.
Who loses if Russia implodes?
No one wins if Russia's economy falls apart.
Its trading partners -- countries and businesses -- are watching with concern as Russia scrambles to tackle a deepening economic crisis, sparked by plunging oil prices and punishing international sanctions.
The ruble has been in free fall and is already hurting earnings at global companies with operations in Russia.
Here are some of the biggest victims of Russia's deteriorating economy:
Germany: Europe's largest economy is most exposed to Russia. Last year, Germany's trade relationship with Russia was worth more than €76 billion ($95.4 billion). Tough Western economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis
have already taken a toll on exports and companies have put the brakes on investment.
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