Celebs : Jennifer Lopez: 'I Love Myself Enough to Walk Away'

Celebs : Jennifer Lopez: 'I Love Myself Enough to Walk Away'

Her 7-year marriage may have crumbled, and she's now facing a new life as a single mother to two young children, but -- in her first interview since announcing that she and Marc Anthony are getting divorced -- Jennifer Lopez tells Vanity Fair that she truly believes in love. "It's still my biggest dream," she says. Lopez says in the magazine's September issue.

Read the Exclusive Vanity Fair Interview

The pop star, actress, and "American Idol" judge insists that she and her estranged husband both tried at their relationship, but in the end they simply didn't succeed. "I really worked hard at it. We both did. Sometimes it doesn't work -- and that's sad," she explains. "But I remain an eternal optimist about love. I am positive -- determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person. I now look forward to new challenges. I feel strong."


Video: Jennifer's VF Cover Shoot

Since the couple called it quits last month, reports have emerged of Anthony -- a fellow musician -- being an envious and controlling husband, going so far as to have the final say over his wife's wardrobe choices. Lopez doesn't confirm those details, but hints at the fact that she, indeed, deserved better. "Sometimes we don't realize that we are compromising ourselves. To understand that a person is not good for you, or that that person is not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself -- if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me," she says. "I love myself enough to walk away from that now."

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News : Japan: NKorea seeks new missile, China navy active

News : Japan: NKorea seeks new missile, China navy active

North Korea is developing a new mid-range ballistic missile that could reach as far as the U.S. territory of Guam, Japan's Defense Ministry said in an annual report released Tuesday.

Japan is also concerned with China's increasing naval activity in the waters surrounding its shores and is taking measures to bolster its coastal defenses, the report said.

The North Korean missile called the Musudan is based on Russian technology acquired in the 1990s and is designed for launch from mobile platforms, the ministry said in its 2011 white paper. Tuesday's report was the first time Japan has officially mentioned the missile by name.

According to the report, the missile would have an estimated range of 1,500-2,500 miles (2,500-4,000 kilometers). Guam is about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from North Korea.

That is less than the multi-stage Taepodong-2 missile, which is believed capable of reaching the U.S. west coast. But it would put the 50,000 U.S. troops based in Japan and thousands more on the island of Guam within its potential reach, the report said.

"Because of the secretive nature of the North Korean regime, it is extremely difficult to confirm its military intentions," the report said, adding that the North's mobile and underground missile facilities are believed to be intended to make early detection more difficult.

The report did not say when Japan expected the missile to be operational, or whether it already is.

Experts have long speculated that North Korea was working on a new intermediate-range missile. A missile believed to be a Musudan was displayed in a North Korean military parade last October.

Regarding China, Tokyo continues to be concerned by exercises held in the Pacific and in waters surrounding Japan, a concern it said has been heightened by what it called China's long-standing failure to provide data that would reassure the world of the peaceful intentions of its rapid military modernization.

Japan, the report said, is especially worried by the Chinese navy.

"China plans to expand its sphere of maritime activities, carrying out operations and training as an ordinary routine practice in waters surrounding Japan, including the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, as well as the South China Sea," it said.

Though it did not specifically link them to China, the report said Japan is boosting its submarine fleet while strengthening its troops and radar capabilities along its southwestern shores, which are closest to Taiwan and the sea lanes the Chinese navy has been more frequently using. Read More >>

News : s will seek oil in South China Sea

News : s will seek oil in South China Sea

The Philippines plans to auction off areas of the South China Sea for oil exploration, despite worsening territorial disputes with China over the area, an official said Tuesday.

Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug said several foreign firms, including China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd., had already expressed interest in drilling in waters off the western Philippine island of Palawan.

The areas set for exploration are far from the disputed Spratly islands and well within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, he said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Manila.

"These are not disputed areas. The area we are offering for bidding is definitely within the territory of the Republic of the Philippines."

However, China is known to claim most of the South China Sea, including areas the Philippines says are clearly Filipino territory.

Aside from CNOOC, two other Chinese firms are among those interested in contracts to drill in the area, Layug said without naming the other two.

The Philippines is to name the winning bidders next year, Layug said.

He expressed confidence the Chinese would not try to harass Philippine-sanctioned oil exploration vessels there.

"These areas are near Palawan which means they (winning bidders) will have to come to the Philippines to do it," he said.

Tensions have risen in recent months, with countries in the region claiming China has been more aggressive in enforcing its claims on parts of the South China Sea.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims to all or parts of the sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.

Last February, two Chinese vessels allegedly harassed a Filipino-commissioned exploration vessel off Reed Bank, an islet north of the Spratlys.

The Philippines has also accused Chinese forces of shooting at Filipino fishermen and placing markers on some of the islets.

The Reed Bank, which Manila calls "Recto Bank" and is also claimed by China, is 273 kilometres (170 miles) from Palawan.

Philippine officials said Manila had authorised drilling in that area before without any Chinese opposition.

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News : Iraq sentences 3 to death in Baghdad church attack

News : Iraq sentences 3 to death in Baghdad church attack

An Iraqi court sentenced three men to death Tuesday for masterminding a church siege last year that killed 68 people in one of the most horrific attacks on the nation's Christian minority.

Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said the three men were found guilty of planning and preparing the Oct. 31 attack, when al-Qaida suicide bombers held worshippers hostage at Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation cathedral for hours before detonating explosives belts. The attack horrified Iraqis and Christians across the world.

Bayrkdar said the three men have a month to appeal. He said a fourth man linked to the attack was sentenced earlier to 20 years in prison. The names of the men were not released.

Baghdad's Christian community welcomed the verdict.

"Anyone who kills the innocent — Muslims or Christians — should be punished as a lesson to other bad people," said the Rev. Aysar Kesko, a priest at Our Lady of Salvation. "We hope to have justice in the country, and for Iraqi people live in peace and trust the government."

The brutal attack was the peak of a wave of violence against Iraqi Christians, and spurred the Vatican and U.S. lawmakers to demand better protections for the nation's dwindling Christian population. A State Department report says Christian leaders estimate that 400,000 to 600,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from a prewar level of as high as 1.4 million, by some estimates.

Despite the exodus, the small community remains a target for insurgents, and on Tuesday a car bomb blew up outside of a church in the northern city of Kirkuk, wounding 23 people.

City police chief Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir said police discovered two more car bombs parked outside two other Kirkuk churches.

"The terrorists want to make us flee Iraq, but they will fail," said the Rev. Haithem Akram, a priest at one of the churches. "We are staying in our country. The Iraqi Christians are easy targets because they do not have militias to protect them. The terrorists want to terrorize us, but they will fail."

The car outside the Syrian Catholic church blew up early Tuesday morning, severely damaging the church and nearby houses, said police Col. Taha Salaheddin.

The parish's leader, the Rev. Imad Yalda, was the only person inside at the time of the blast and was wounded. The 22 other wounded were people whose nearby homes were damaged by the blast, Tahir said.

The ethnically and religiously mixed city of Kirkuk is located 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Sunni extremists often target Christians who are seen as unbelievers.

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Sains : Crop circle creation theory: physics, not aliens

Sains : Crop circle creation theory: physics, not aliens

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News : 20-million-year-old ape skull unearthed in Uganda

News : 20-million-year-old ape skull unearthed in Uganda

A team of Ugandan and French paleontologists announced Tuesday they had found a 20-million-year-old ape skull in northeastern Uganda, saying it could shed light on the region's evolutionary history.

"This is the first time that the complete skull of an ape of this age has been found ... it is a highly important fossil and it will certainly put Uganda on the map in terms of the scientific world," Martin Pickford, a paleontologist from the College de France in Paris, told journalists in Kampala.

The fossilised skull belonged to a male Ugandapithecus Major, a remote cousin of today's great apes which roamed the region around 20 million years ago.

The team discovered the remains on July 18 while looking for fossils in the remnants of an extinct volcano in Uganda's remote northeastern Karamoja region.

Preliminary studies of the fossil showed that the tree-climbing herbivore, roughly 10 years old when it died, had a head the size of a chimpanzee?s but a brain the size of a baboon?s, Pickford said.

Brigitte Senut, a professor at the Musee National d?Histoire Naturelle, said that the remains would be taken to Paris to be x-rayed and documented before being returned to Uganda.

"It will be cleaned in France, it will be prepared in France... and then in about one year's time it will be returned to the country," Senut said.

Paleontologists from France have been visiting Uganda on expeditions funded by the French government for the past 25 years, Senut said.

The least developed region in Uganda, the arid plains of Karamoja have in recent years been largely pacified following decades of insecurity linked to armed cattle raiding between nomad communities

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Animal : Two bear cubs born in Pyrenees

Animal : Two bear cubs born in Pyrenees

Two bear cubs were born in France's Pyrenees region this winter, the national wildlife office announced Monday, after hikers spotted and photographed the animals.

The group hiking in the Couserans area of the Pyrenees on July 28 saw at least three animals playing in the snow for over an hour.

Wildlife officials will now wait for the results of tests done on droppings and hair samples taken from the area to determine the sex of the cubs and to identity their mother.

At the end of 2010, the bear population in the Courson stood at 19.

Four cubs were born in the region in early 2010.
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Tourism : End Times? Texas Lake Turns Blood-Red

Tourism : End Times? Texas Lake Turns Blood-Red

A Texas lake that turned blood-red this summer may not be a sign of the End Times, but probably is the end of a popular fishing and recreation spot.

A drought has left the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in West Texas almost entirely dry. The water that is left is stagnant, full of dead fish — and a deep, opaque red.

The color has some apocalypse believers suggesting that OC Fisher is an early sign of the end of the world, but Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials say the bloody look is the result of Chromatiaceae bacteria, which thrive in oxygen-deprived water.

"It's just heartbreaking," said Charles Cruz, a fish and wildlife technician with Texas Parks and Wildlife in San Angelo, Tex.

Blood red reservoir

Texas is experiencing major drought this summer, with 75 percent of the state's area in an "exceptional" drought, the highest level, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC). The state had hoped for some relief from Tropical Storm Don last week, but the system fizzled and brought only an inch or two of rain to areas near the coast.

The drought has taken its toll on a number of reservoirs in West Texas, Cruz told LiveScience. OC Fisher has never been completely full, Cruz said, but it was stocked with catfish, bass, sunfish and other popular targets for fishermen.

"We surveyed the lake, I believe it was last year, and we had a pretty good fish population out there," Cruz said. "It was pretty sickening going out there, watching lake levels just drop and drop and drop and seeing these nice trophy-sized bass just floating dead."

End times predictions

As of last week, all that remained of the lake was a small pond a few feet deep, Cruz said. There were thousands of dead fish, he said, but no sign of life.

Pictures of this blood-red pool circulated online in fishing forums and caught the notice of Indiana preacher Paul Begley, who said in a YouTube video that the lake might be evidence of the apocalypse as predicted by the Biblical book of Revelation. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]

"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died," the passage Begley cited reads. "The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood."

Begley may not have any more luck at predicting the end of the world than did Harold Camping, the radio preacher who set the date for May 21, 2011. But for as long as the drought persists, the OC Fisher reservoir is a reservoir no longer.

"I don't know what's left in there now. We haven't been back," Cruz said. "But I would guess it's probably pretty much gone already."

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