Obama Mistaken for a Waiter (2003), Before He Was President,

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin case, President Obama on Friday made some unprecedented comments about the prejudice faced by black males in the United States.

His speech about his own experiences with racial prejudice reminded one journalist of an exclusive party that she and Barack Obama, before he was President, both attended, at which Obama was mistaken for a waiter.

Katie Rosman, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal, recalled the incident in a blog post for the publication in 2008.

She tweeted a link to the Wall Street Journal story: 

On a warm weekday evening in 2003, a group that can fairly be described as representative of the media elite gathered at one if its favored venues: the garden behind the Manhattan apartment of journalists Tina Brown and Harold Evans.

The occasion was the publication of “The Clinton Wars,” by Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton. Editors from the New Yorker and the New York Times were in attendance along with media figures like Steven Brill and Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner. The guests mingled and sipped wine. Even Clinton showed up, instantly becoming the epicenter of attention.

I had not been invited but attended the event as the “plus one” of political columnist Eric Alterman, who wrote about the party in The Guardian on Thursday. At the time, I was a freelance journalist not yet employed by The Wall Street Journal. Eager for an opportunity to find a good story or meet an editor who might give me work, I accepted Alterman’s invitation to join him at an event littered with literati.

Once there, though, I felt awkward and out of place.

Standing by myself I noticed, on the periphery of the party, a man looking as awkward and out-of-place as I felt. I approached him and introduced myself. He was an Illinois state senator who was running for the U.S. Senate. He was African American, one of a few black people in attendance.

We spoke at length about his campaign. He was charismatic in a quiet, solemn way. I told him I wanted to pitch a profile of him to a national magazine. (The magazine later rejected my proposal.)

The following year I watched as he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, and then won his Senate seat that fall. On Tuesday, Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States.

But what I will always remember is as I was leaving that party in 2003, I was approached by another guest, an established author. He asked about the man I had been talking to. Sheepishly he told me he didn’t know that Obama was a guest at the party, and had asked him to fetch him a drink. In less than six years, Obama has gone from being mistaken for a waiter among the New York media elite, to the president-elect.

What a country.

Culled from Dailymail.

Snoop Dogg On 2Pac’s Advice Regarding His Wife..

What people don’t know is that Tupac really kept me and my wife together. There came a point in time where I just felt like I didn’t need to be in a relationship. It was becoming a headache to me, and all these girls wanted to be with me. I was like, “F—- that, I can have any bitch that I want.” We was flying back from Belize with a gang of the homies from Death Row. [The homies] was like, “Yeah man, f—- that bitch! My baby momma ain’t sh—.” They was tellin’ me about how their relationships were. Then Pac just was like, “Man, f—- that! That’s your son’s mother. You love her. She’s the only one that’s gonna love you.” The sh— he was sayin’, it was real.

It was sounding crazy comin’ from him because he didn’t have no relationship like that. For him to tell me that, the sh— really stuck in my heart. When I got home [me and my son’s mother] pieced it back together. We worked it out and eventually got married. I gave him a lot of credit for that because I didn’t have no direction. I didn’t have nobody to talk to and I was young and I didn’t really know. His advice stood out more than the negative advice did.

Kanye West 'bitterly slams Taylor Swift and Pink in unearthed audio from 2009'

Unearthed audio of another vitriolic Kanye West rant has emerged online.
The 36-year-old was apparently secretly recorded while dining with friends at the Corner Bistro in New York's West Village after the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Gawker reports.
In a leaked recording, a man who sounds like the rapper is heard screaming as he goes on an expletive-ridden rant. (The website was unable to verify it was the star. Mail Online reached out to his spokesperson but is yet to receive a response.)
It appears to have been taped shortly after Kanye stormed the stage during Taylor Swift's Best Female Video acceptance speech, complaining that Beyoncé deserved to win the gong.

It seems he continued to rage about the decision after the show in the company of his friends.
He also took aim at Pink, bitterly complaining that she appeared onstage at the VMA Awards while he wasn’t asked to perform his hit track, Heartless.
He reasons with his pals why Taylor should not have won the gong all while referring to his own 'hard' work.
'When I heard Eminem's verse on the Drake s***, I went back and rewrote my s*** for two days,' he screams.


'I canceled appointments to rewrite! I f***in' care! You know what I'm saying? And that's what I'm saying.
'Because I did that, Taylor Swift cannot win over Beyoncé! Because I wrote my verse in two days, Taylor Swift cannot beat Beyoncé. As long as I'm alive!
'And if I'm alive, kill me then! Kill me then! As long as I'm alive, you gonna have to deal with it," he rants.
The rapper is also heard sounding off about how he didn't get invited to perform at the VMAs, despite having massive success with his song, Heartless.

In the second rant, he takes aim at Pink who had done two stage performances that night.
'What the f*** was Pink performing? Don't nobody know that song. Pink performed twice! Two songs? How the f*** Pink perform two songs and I didn't even get asked to perform 'Heartless'?' he asks to anyone in the crowd.
'Heartless is the biggest song of the year! It had the most spins of the first quarter! I don't know that Pink song!'
Kanye, who had told Jay Leno on his talk show following the ordeal that he was struggling with the loss of his mother Donda who died in 2007 due to cosmetic surgery complications, is also heard blaming the industry for her death.
When asked by one of his pals why he was so angry, Kanye also takes aim at MTV, who had invited him to the VMAs in the first place.

'(I am angry) because my mother got arrested for the f***in' sit-ins. My mother died for this fame s***! I moved to f***in' Hollywood chasing this s***. My mother died because of this s***. F*** MTV,' he yells.
Following his onstage ambush, Kanye apologised to Taylor after President Barack Obama called him a 'jackass' over the incident.


The U.S. President voiced his opinion on the shameful act, which was beamed live to 27 million households in America, and shortly afterward the rapper finally did the decent thing and called the country star.
The President's colourful remark was made during an interview with U.S. network CNBC and was meant to be kept off the record.
But the comment leaked out to news sites after a reporter from rival network ABC posted the comment on micro-blogging site Twitter.
'Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential,' reporter Terry Moran wrote.
Despite saying sorry on his blog and talking about the incident on TV, it took him two days to speak to Taylor and offer a personal apology.
Taylor had appeared on TV show The View where she admitted that she had been 'rattled' by his onstage hijack and said he hadn't apologised to her.
'He has not personally reached out or anything but if he wanted to say hi (I would),' she said.
'I'm not gonna say that I wasn't riled by it. I had to perform live five minutes later so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform.'
He then called Taylor, and she accepted his apology, according to publicists from the show.
Kanye took a massive drubbing following the awards ceremony.
During one his emotional apologies on The Jay Leno show, Kanye said he was sorry for being 'rude'.


He told the talk show host he was planning to take a break from the music industry and to assess his behaviour, which he partly sought to excuse with the death of his mother.
As the host introduced his guest, he said: 'This really wasn't planned but Kanye wanted to talk, so please welcome Kanye West.'

When he sat down, Leno said to him: 'Tell us about your day. Have you had a tough day today?'
His voice cracking, Kanye said: 'It's been extremely difficult, just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away, you know, from a talented artist - or from anyone.
'But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyse how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that's something I have to deal with.
'It was rude, period.
'And, you know, I'd like to be able to apologise to her in person. And I wanted to...'
Kanye appeared on the verge of tears when asked what he thought his late mother would have said about the incident.
When Leno asked when he knew he was doing something wrong, West replied: 'As soon as I gave the mic back to her and she didn't keep going.'
The talk show host then asked if he thought his mother would have been disappointed in his behaviour.
After pausing for several seconds, he said: 'Yeah.
'Obviously, I deal with hurt.
'And you know, so many celebrities, they never take time off.  I've never taken the time off to really - you know, just music after music and tour after tour.
'I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt - and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period.
'I only wanted to help people. My entire life, I've only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right.
'And I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong and it wasn't a spectacle. It was actually someone's emotions that I stepped on.
Despite his public and personal apologies to Taylor, in 2010 Kanye appeared to had taken them back when he alluded that he was 'peer pressured' into saying sorry, and that he still stood by his 'message'.
'I think that I have like, faltered, you know, as a human. My message isn’t perfectly defined,' he told The New York Times.

Drunken 'Wall Street banker'got a knock-out punch by black man for N-word rant after claiming he'd just been fired from his and his wife had left him'

An apparent banker, pictured lying on the ground outside a cafe in New York's West Village, is said to have been punched in the face and knocked out by African American Dennis Reddish, 25, after man, who claimed he had just been fired by Goldman Sachs and split from his wife, used allegedly racist language. The victim of the physical attack suffered massive head trauma. Reddish now faces an assault charge.

Malala Yousafzai inspirational speech at the UN yesterday

Malala is the 16 year old Pakistani school girl and education activist who was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus on 9 October 2012. She marked her 16th birthday by addressing the United Nations at its headquarters yesterday Friday July 12th. Read her inspiration speech below and watch the video after the cut..

"Thank you to every person who has prayed for my fast recovery and a new life. I cannot believe how much love people have shown me. I have received thousands of good wish cards and gifts from all over the world. Thank you to all of them. Thank you to the children whose innocent words encouraged me. Thank you to my elders whose prayers strengthened me.
Dear brothers and sisters, do remember one thing. Malala day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights. I speak - not for myself, but for all girls and boys.
Dear friends, on October 9, 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too. They thought that the bullets would silence us. But they failed. And then, out of that silence came, thousands of voices.

The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born. I am the same Malala. My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the same.

Dear sisters and brothers, I am not against anyone. Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorists group. I am here to speak up for the right of education of every child. I want education for the sons and the daughters of all the extremists especially the Taliban.

I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there is a gun in my hand and he stands in front of me. I would not shoot him. This is the compassion that I have learnt from Muhammad-the prophet of mercy, Jesus christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change that I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The wise saying, "The pen is mightier than sword" was true. The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.

That is why they are blasting schools every day. Because they were and they are afraid of change, afraid of the equality that we will bring into our society.

They think that God is a tiny, little conservative being who would send girls to the hell just because of going to school. The terrorists are misusing the name of Islam and Pashtun society for their own personal benefits.

Women and children are suffering in many parts of the world in many ways. In India, innocent and poor children are victims of child labour. Many schools have been destroyed in Nigeria. People in Afghanistan have been affected by the hurdles of extremism for decades.

We call upon the world leaders that all the peace deals must protect women and children's rights. A deal that goes against the dignity of women and their rights is unacceptable.

We call upon all governments to ensure free compulsory education for every child all over the world.
We call upon all governments to fight against terrorism and violence, to protect children from brutality and harm.

So let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism and let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.
One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first."

Rihanna hooking up with Drake?

Now that Rihanna and Chris Brown are done for good, new reports claim she's back with someone she dated briefly in the past... Drake. Below is how MediaTakeOut is reporting it...

MediaTakeOut.com confirmed this morning that Rihanna is back together with Drake. This is not a rumor - it is fact - confirmed by a person on Rihanna's tour. According to a snitch Drake has been spending time with Rihanna - flying around the world to secretly meet her.

Tells the insider, "Rihanna and Drake have history, and they really want to make this into a real relationship - so they're keeping this quiet. I think Rihanna's in love."

Read another report after the cut...

From The Daily Mail 

Away from the stage Rihanna is said to have rekindled her romance with Canadian rapper Drake following her break-up with Chris Brown.

‘When she was dating Chris, he banned her from talking to Drake,’ a source told Look magazine.

‘She really missed him that time – yes, they went out years before but he was also a good friend to her – so calling him was one of the first things she did when she realised she was over Chris.

Baby stabbed 90 times with scissors by his Chinese mother after he bit her as she was breastfeeding him

An eight-month-old boy is lucky to be alive after he was stabbed 90 times by his mother, mostly in the face, for biting her while she was breastfeeding.
Xiao Bao needed more than 100 stitches after the incident in Xuzhou, eastern China's Jiangsu Province.
The infant lives with his mother and two uncles, who make a living recycling rubbish. It was one of the uncles who discovered Xiao Bao lying in a pool of blood in the yard of their home and rushed him to hospital.

The child’s mother later confessed that she stabbed the baby after he bit her during breastfeeding.

Neighbours have pleaded with the local government to take the baby away, but they have said that they will not.
Apparently, they said that there was no confirmation the mother was suffering from a mental illness and said, regardless, the baby still has two guardians in the form of his two uncles.


Mental illness remains a relatively closed topic in modern China, and neither medication nor modern psychiatric treatment is widely used.
An analysis of mental health issues in four Chinese provinces, published in 2009 in the British medical journal The Lancet, estimated that 91 per cent of the 173million Chinese adults that were believed to suffer mental problems never receive professional help.

The Royal baby and Blue Ivy will be cousins! New Prince or Princess of Cambridge revealed to be 23rd cousin twice-removed with Beyonce and Jay-Z's daughter

Culled from Dailymail Uk.

The son or daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will have not only the blood of actual British royalty running through his or her veins, but also the (slightly more diluted) blood of American music royalty. And Hollywood royalty, too.

It has been revealed that the Royal baby, who will be known as HRH Prince or Princess [first name] of Cambridge, will be a distant relative of celebrity couples Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, and all their respective children.

The baby prince or princess, believed to be due on Saturday, 13 July, will be 23rd cousins twice-removed with Beyonce's baby Blue Ivy Carter.

Kate and William's first child will also be related to a host of Hollywood stars, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, according to family-tracing website findmypast.co.uk.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby will also be distant cousins with Celine Dion's three children, as well as the children of Maggie Gyllenhaal, star The Dark Knight, and Kill Bill actress Uma Thurman.

Records show that the future royal's 23rd cousin twice-removed is Blue Ivy Carter, the daughter of musical couple Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z, through Blue Ivy's relation to the Queen through French royal heritage.

Celine Dion's three children will be 26th cousins thrice-removed, while the three children of Jennifer Garner and Oscar-winner Ben Affleck will be the closest relatives - 11th cousins, due to family lines connecting through Affleck and Princess Diana.

And Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's six children will be 27th cousins to the baby, linked through both parents' family ancestry.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Uma Thurman are also on the Royal family tree, as their children will be 20th cousins twice-removed and 22nd cousins, respectively.

There were even Royal-Hollywood links found as far back as the 13th century, with King Edward III being distantly related to Hollywood mother Hilary Duff, making her son Luca 19th cousin to the Royal baby.

Using published research from the leading authorities on royal descents, findmypast.co.uk studied the ancestry of each celebrity through a computer genealogy database programme. 

Researchers looked at the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cambridge and Diana, Princess of Wales, to uncover their relationships to various celebrities.

Using published research from the leading authorities on royal descents, findmypast.co.uk studied the ancestry of each celebrity through a computer genealogy database programme. 

Researchers looked at the ancestry of Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cambridge and Diana, Princess of Wales, to uncover their relationships to various celebrities.

Debra Chatfield, a family historian at findmypast.co.uk said: 'It's long been said that the USA and UK have a special relationship, and that is certainly the case between Hollywood's elite and the Royal Family.  

'The closest relation we found to the Hollywood children was the late Princess Diana.

'Diana's ancestry includes a number of early settlers on the east coast of the USA that can be traced right up to the modern day. 

'There are 1.6 billion records on findmypast.co.uk that people can search through, so they can trace their own family ties. There is always a chance people may find their own Hollywood connection.'

Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina reveals engagement to 'brother' Nick Gordon

The late Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown has announced she is engaged.  

And the lucky man in question, as many suspected, is is Nick Gordon, the man Whitney raised through as her own son, who has been described as a 'brother' to the 20-year-old. 

Which means that rather than celebrating her news, Bobbi has come out of the traps to defend herself.

Their relationship has been the subject of scrutiny and a fair amount of eyebrow raising since their mother passed away in February last year. 

And so Bobbi tackles the scandal in the post on her Facebook page. 

She writes: 'YES, we me nick (sic) are engaged. I’m tired of hearing people say “eww your engaged to your brother or if Whitney was still alive would we be together or would she approve of this.”'

'Let me clear up something, we aren’t even real brother and sister nor is he my adoptive brother. My mom never adopted him. In fact, mommy was the one who even said that she knew that we were going to start dating. My mom knows me better than any of you.'

She continued: 'A lot of ‘yall are saying that y’all are only saying this all out of love. Which is bull because if that was so, all you would want is for me to be happy.  

'People need to seriously stop judging my relationship. Pretty sure it’s my own decision who I want to be with. 

'Yes, my relationship may not be perfect. We will have rough patches, just like every other relationship.

'And we have had our rough patches. You may or may not agree with my relationship. You may or may not respect it. Judge me, go ahead.

'Your opinions are yours and mine are mine. It is my life and not yours. The decisions I make have nothing to do with you. Goodnight.'

Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose officially tie the knot

Rapper Wiz Khalifa and his fiancée Amber Rose have finally become Mr. and Mrs. after deciding to get married in a courthouse Monday, and they are planning to hold a ceremony later this year.

“Me and Amber got married today. Weddings this fall. Thought I’d let yall know,” the new dad tweeted.

Rose gave fans a hint on Instagram last week that their marriage was near when she posted a photo of Wiz with the caption, “My soon to be husband…. I Love his crazy hair @mistercap :-) “

However, many wondered whether or not they held secret nuptials without anyone ever knowing back in January when the then-pregnant Rose used the H-word after a videographer in Los Angeles gave her a Ninja Turtles ice cream bar.

“My husband loves Ninja Turtles! That’s really cute, thank you,” she told him.

Wiz popped the question back in March 2012, and announced the happy news on Twitter. ”She Said Yes!!!” the rapper wrote, and included a pic of his fiancée’s hand flashing a gorgeous and blinding engagement ring.

Beyoncé and Solange snub father Mathew Knowles wedding.

He divorced daughter Beyonce's mother Tina after more than 30 years of marriage

But Mathew Knowles has clearly moved on with his life.

The 61-year-old married former model Gena Charmaine Avery last Sunday in Houston, Texas, but Beyoncé, 31, and her sister Solange, 27, were not in attendance.

'Unfortunately, Beyonce and Solange had previous engagements which made it impossible for them to attend,' Mathew told TMZ.

Beyonce is currently in the midst of her Mrs. Carter tour, and Solange is touring to promote her new EP True. 

She performed at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, the night before her superstar sister also took to the stage at the Super Dome.

Mathew - who was also Beyonce's former manager - married former realtor, Gina, 48, following an 18 month engagement.

He split from from wife Tina in 2009 after it was revealed he had an affair and a baby boy, Nixon, with actress Alexsandra Wright.

Mathew quit his job as a medical equipment salesman to manage Beyonce's early group, Girl's Tyme, which eventually morphed into Destiny's Child in 1990. 

Twenty-one years later, in 2011, she ended their professional relationship, while relaying that their personal relationship remained full 'of love'.

Rumours circulated about more going on behind-the-scenes than Beyonce let on as Mathew and Tina headed for divorce.

Ties were after all not easy to sever with Mathew having producer credits on many of his daughter's projects.

He also served as the founder of Music World Entertainment, a label that, through Columbia Records, has released albums by Beyoncé, sister Solange Knowles, Sunshine Anderson, and former Destiny's Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

'My dad knew that I needed his approval,' Beyonce said in a recent documentary.

'And I think my father wouldn't give it to me. Because he kept pushing me. And kept pushing me. And kept pushing me. Every time my dad pushed me, I got better and stronger.'

'I needed a break, I needed my dad,' she said. 'I had to let go.'

The music manager, who still oversees the careers of several gospel singers, previously admitted he found it 'incredibly painful' to cut professional ties with Beyoncé.

Despite Matthew claiming it was joint decision for him to stop being her manager, Beyoncé - who has 18-month-old daughter Blue Ivy with her rapper husband Jay-Z - later revealed their split has taken a toll on their personal relationship.

Islamic extremists shoot dead 29 students and a teacher at a boarding school in Nigeria

At least 29 students and a teacher have been killed after Islamic extremists attacked on a boarding school in northeast Nigeria.
Survivors, who are being treated for burns and gunshots wounds, say some students were burned alive in the pre-dawn attack today on the Government Secondary School in Mamudo town in Yobe state.
Farmer Malam Abdullahi wept over the bodies of his two sons, aged ten and 12.
'That’s it, I’m taking my other boys out of school,' he told The Associated Press. He said he had three younger children in a nearby school.


He said there was no protection for students despite the deployment of thousands of troops since the government declared a state of emergency mid-May in three north-eastern states.
'We were sleeping when we heard gunshots. When I woke up, someone was pointing a gun at me,' said 15-year-old Musa Hassan.
He put his arm up in defence, and suffered a gunshot that blew off all four fingers on his right hand, the one he uses to write with.


He said the gunmen came armed with jerry cans of fuel that they used to torch the school’s administrative block and one of the hostels.
Dozens of schools have been torched and unknown scores of students killed among more than 1,600 victims murdered by extremists since 2010.
The attackers set fire to buildings and shot pupils as they tried to flee, according to Reuters. Several of the students were being treated for burns, he added.
It was the deadliest of three attacks on schools since the military launched an offensive in May to try to crush Boko Haram, an Islamist insurgent group whose nickname translates as 'Western education is sinful' in the northern Hausa language.


Potiskum is in Yobe state, one of three covered by a state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan in May, when he ordered extra troops into the region to try to quell a rebellion seen as the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil producer.
Police responded to queries by email as the mobile phone network was cut to much of the northeast as part of the state of emergency.
The hit-and-run strikes have raised fears the seven-week-old military offensive has pushed the militants fighting for a breakaway Islamic state in northeast Nigeria into hiding, but failed to stop them launching devastating attacks.
Suspected Islamist militants opened fire on a school in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri last month, killing nine students, and a similar attack on a school in the city of Damaturu killed seven just days earlier.
Nigerian forces say their offensive has enabled them to wrest back control of the remote northeast from Boko Haram, destroy key bases and arrest scores of suspects.

900 million Android devices are at risk from a bug that allows hackers to hijack phones and steal data

A ‘master key’ that could give hackers complete access to mobile phones and tablets running Google’s Android software has been revealed.

The bug could allow hackers to hijack phones, allowing them to steal data, listen in to calls or send junk email and text messages.

Researchers say the loophole has been present since 2009, and claim around 900 million devices are at risk.

Jeff Forristal of Bluebox, the firm which uncovered the key, said the implications of the discovery were ‘huge’.

‘It can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone and control any function thereof,’ he wrote on the firm’s blog.

Forristal said the firm made Google aware of its finding in February.

However, the firm did not respond to MailOnline’s request for a comment.

The bug takes advantage of the way Android handles cryptographic verification of the apps installed on the phone.

Android uses the cryptographic signature as a way to check that an app or program is legitimate and to ensure it has not been tampered with.

The Bluebox team found a way to bypass these checks, tricking Android so malicious changes to apps go unnoticed.

Any app or program written to exploit the bug would enjoy the same access to a phone that the legitimate version of that application enjoyed.

‘Installation of a Trojan application from the device manufacturer can grant the application full access to Android system and all applications (and their data) currently installed,’ wrote Forristal.

‘The application then not only has the ability to read arbitrary application data on the device (email, SMS messages, documents, etc), retrieve all stored account & service passwords, it can essentially take over the normal functioning of the phone and control any function thereof (make arbitrary phone calls, send arbitrary SMS messages, turn on the camera, and record calls).

‘Finally, and most unsettling, is the potential for a hacker to take advantage of the always-on, always-connected, and always-moving (therefore hard-to-detect) nature of these “zombie” mobile devices to create a botnet.’

Forristal is planning to reveal more information about the problem at the Black Hat hacker conference being held in August this year, and said the bug could have huge implications for firms who allow people to connect their Android phones and tablet to secure company networks.

He confirmed that one third party device, the Samsung Galaxy S4, already has a fix for the flaw, but that Google’s own Nexus handset did not.

However, experts say that there is currently no evidence that the flaw has been exploited.

‘I imagine that Google would move quickly to add some logic to look for such attacks,’ Dan Wallach, a professor specializing in Android security in the computer science department of Rice University, told the Ars Technica website.

‘Without that available to an attacker, this is likely to only be relevant for Android users who use third-party app stores (which have lots of other problems).’

ANOTHER ANDROID TROJAN COMES IN PIRATED JAY Z APP

McAfee Mobile Security has identified a new Android Trojan embedded in a pirated copy of an exclusive app from rapper Jay Z

On the surface, the malware app functions identically to the legitimate app. However, in the background, the malware sends info about the infected device to an external server every time the phone restarts

The malware then attempts to download and install additional packages

The only visible indication that a user is infected comes via a time-based trigger that is set to activate on 4th July, Independence Day in the US

On that day, the malware will replace the wallpaper on the infected device with an altered image of President Obama that comments on recent events in the US

The security company thinks that there is a hacktivist agenda behind the Trojan but has not ruled out the possibility that additional malware may target financial transactions or other data

'I'm not in jail, I'm in my casino': 50 Cent

 Rapper 50 Cent has denied claims he attacked his ex-girlfriend and trashed her condo - and he certainly isn't letting the allegations get him down.

The Candy Shop hitmaker, 37 – whose real name is Curtis Jackson - has been accused of kicking an unnamed ex-girlfriend, who police say has a child with him, and destroying some of her things during a dispute at her condo in Toluca Lake, California, on June 23 but 50 Cent claims to have no knowledge of the incident.

And he found a rather unusual way to make it clear to his fans that he is not behind bars, but instead living it up at his luxury mansion.

In what could be seen as some cavalier social networking, the rapper posted several pictures of himself at his home on Instagram. 

But it was the accompanying captions that were the most obnoxious, with 50 writing phrases such as 'I'm not In jail I'm in casino', 'I'm not in jail I'm in my kitchen fool#' and I'm not in jail I'm by my waterfall, alongside his snaps.

The images were taken around the hitmaker's sprawling Connecticut estate.

However, City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement: 'Regardless of perceived celebrity or notoriety, domestic violence is a serious crime, and alleged perpetrators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by this office.'

Police officers were called to the property, where the woman claimed she locked herself in her bedroom after she got into an altercation with 50 Cent but alleged he kicked down the door and kicked her, resulting in an injury.

The rapper, who is facing five charges, including one count of domestic violence and four counts of vandalism, reportedly left the house before police arrived.

If convicted, the award-winning star could face up to five years in jail and $46,000 in fines.

He is set to appear in court on July 22.

The New York rapper has starred in several films including the semi-autobiographical Get Rich or Die Tryin', which was also the name off his 2003 album.

Jackson started dealing drugs at age 12 during the 1980s crack epidemic that hit urban America hard and left drug dealing to pursue a rap career.

He has become on of the world's highest selling rappers and founded his own record label G-Unit Records in 2003.

50 Cent formerly dated talk show host Chelsea Handler and singer Ciara.

Gang in India 'chop off eight-year-old girl's arm with sword

A gang in India chopped off an eight-year-old girl's arm with a sword as her family tried to secure the release of her kidnapped younger brother.

Uzma Ara had travelled to Patna, in Bihar, east India, with her family in a bid to free the four-year-old boy who was snatched from a street near their home in Darbhanga district.

Uzma's father Ainul Ansari claims the gang targeted the little girl as she is the main witness to the alleged kidnapping of his son Julfikar.

Indian media report she is seriously ill at a government hospital in Patna after losing part of her right arm.  

The family say she was attacked near the city's train station on Friday as they looked for a hotel to stay in. 

Mr Ansari said the gang had followed them to Patna where they were due to file a complaint with police. 

The Janata Dal government headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has now ordered a new investigation into the attack and their missing son.

Uzma's mother Nasreen Khatoon appealed directly to the chief minister at his weekly forum.

Criminal Investigation Department director general A.K. Upadhyay told Gulf News: 'The investigating agency will probe the case afresh with two angles — chopping off of the girl’s arm and kidnapping of her brother.'

The family say local police have maintained the child lost her arm in a train accident.

Mr Ansari, a tailor, said he has been forced to pay 300,000 rupees (£3,300) to the gang over the past few months, Gulf News reports.

He says that local police refused to investigate and when the family refused to pay any more, the gang kidnapped his son. 

Opposition politicians have now criticised the local government for failing to investigate the allegations straight away. 

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain was quoted by Gulf News as saying that the chief minister has presided over a 'total collapse of law and order' in Bihar.