First Bentley SUV Will Be The Most Expensive On Earth

Hold on to your hats: Bentley will start selling a sport utility vehicle in 2016, and it already has 4,000 buyers lined up.

According to Bloomberg's Benjamin Katz and Christoph Rauwald, this won't be just any old SUV, either.

This will be the ... yes, the Bentley of SUVs.

Katz and Rauwald quoted Bentley chief Wolfgang Duerheimer on this impending piece of impeccable Anglo-German automotive engineering (Bentley is based in England but owned by Volkswagen).

“The Bentley SUV will be the most exclusive, most luxurious and most expensive SUV in the world,” Duerheimer said. “The level of luxury will be extraordinary.”

Bentley has been talking about making an SUV for several years. It teased the market with a concept design back in 2012.

But now concept is turning into reality.

In the luxury-auto market, product-side innovation on in the last decade has essentially been a story of innovation in SUVs.

Porsche created the Cayenne, much to the horror of brand purists. Everyone is just waiting for Ferrari to enter the fray — a once-impossible move that may happen now that Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Ferrari parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and new boss of the brand, has expressed a desire to see the marque sell 3,000 more vehicles each year (it moves only 7,000 now).

With Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus, and Cadillac all building lots of SUVs, it only makes sense for Bentley to fill this gap in its portfolio.

Bentley hasn't failed to deliver stupendous luxury in the past, so don't expect the Bentley SUV to disappoint.

Golden Globes presenters announced: Matthew McConaughey, Meryl Streep

Ricky Gervais, Gwyneth P

Here’s to hoping Matthew McConaughey will perform another memorable soliloquy on stage at the Golden Globes this Sunday, since he was just announced as a presenter McConaughey, who is also nominated for his role in True Detective, joins the second round of presenters announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which include Jennifer Aniston, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, Jamie Dornan, Colin Firth, Jane Fonda, Harrison Ford, Bill Hader, Katherine Heigl, Dakota Johnson, Adam Levine, Jennifer Lopez, Seth Meyers, Lupita Nyong’o, Jeremy Renner, Meryl Streep, Vince Vaughn, and Kerry Washington.

The group joins the first round of this year’s presenters announced on Jan 6, which include Ricky Gervais, Adrien Brody, Robert Downey Jr., Anna Faris, Kevin Hart, Salma Hayek, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Channing Tatum, Lily Tomlin, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the ceremony airs this Sunday, Jan. 11, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

The Pentagon Just Pushed Back Its Date For Certifying SpaceX's Rockets To Carry Air Force Cargo

 The US Air Force said on Wednesday it expects to certify Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, to compete for launches no later than mid-2015, pushing back its original target date by six months.

The Air Force said on Tuesday it was "close" to certifying a new company to launch large U.S. military satellites, but did not name SpaceX. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, is at present the only firm certified for such launches.

On Wednesday, the Air Force expanded its statement with details about its review of SpaceX, and said the privately held company founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk "is making substantial progress" toward being allowed to compete for contracts under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

It said SpaceX had met 80 percent of the jointly agreed criteria for certification, and was demonstrating the ability to innovate and resolve outstanding issues.

"We recognize SpaceX for its thorough efforts in moving towards an aggressive certification goal and we will continue to vigorously pursue that certification milestone," said Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, commander of Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.

Top Air Force and Pentagon officials want to reintroduce competition to the multibillion-dollar rocket launch business, given concerns about the high cost of launches now provided solely by ULA and its reliance on Russian-built engines to power one of two launch vehicles. SpaceX has also sued the Air Force for its handling of the EELV program.

The Air Force had originally hoped to certify SpaceX by December so it could compete for a contract to launch a National Reconnaissance Office satellite that was due to be awarded by Dec. 31, but said it missed that deadline.

Air Force Secretary Deborah James said the goal was to complete certification as quickly as possible. "Competition in the space launch industry is critical to our national security."

No announcement has been made about whether that contract award could be delayed, or whether it will be awarded to United Launch Alliance.

Neither SpaceX nor ULA had any immediate comment. An Air Force spokesman declined comment on the NRO launch contract, saying it was still "in source selection."

The Air Force plans to release the results of an independent review of the certification process by summer 2015, said Captain Chris Hoyler, a spokesman for the Air Force.

Ghanaian Drug Mule and socialite Nayele Ametefe caught with drugs sentenced to 8yrs by London court

The popular Ghanaian socialite Nayele Ametefe also known as Ruby Adu-Gyamfi, who was arrested on November 10th 2014 at London's Heathrow Airport, with 12kg of cocaine worth about $5 million (readhere), has been sentenced to 8 years in prison by a London court. She was sentenced yesterday January 6th after pleading guilty. Her other accomplices are currently on trial...

The 10 Most Incredible Weapon Systems Used By The Russian Army

At a cost of $70 billion a year, Russia has the world's third-largest defence budget. For that, the state boasts 845,000 troops, 22,550 tanks, and 1,399 combat aircraft.

Though the country is perhaps not considered the superpower it once was, Russia's armed forces have gone through a significant transformation since President Vladimir Putin's re-election in 2012. The army is being split into smaller, more dynamic brigades. The focus is on new technologies rather than brute manpower. (For instance, this Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft system is basically a tank with a load of extra cannons sticking out of it.)

Here's a review of some of Russia's more menacing military machines.

Bora-class guided-missile hovercraft: This ship is actually a catamaran with a skirt that turns it into a hovercraft. Armed with eight Mosquito missiles and 20 anti-aircraft missiles, the ship has a crew of up to 68 sailors and a cruising speed of 100km per hour.

Reddit

The Pantsir-S1: A combined short-to-medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft missile system. The system consists of 12 surface-to-air guided missiles and two 30-mm automatic guns effective against planes, helicopters, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.

Wiki Commons

A virtually invisible submarine: The first of six diesel-electric stealth submarines, the Novorossiysk was launched from a St. Petersburg shipyard last year. Its designers say its stealth technology makes it virtually undetectable when submerged.

OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images

The Mig-35 multirole jet fighter: Effective both in air-to-air combat and precision ground strikes. Capable of reaching speeds of up to 2,400 km per hour despite being 30% larger than its predecessor, the Mig-35 is able both to dogfight and destroy sea and surface targets from long range, as well as conduct air reconnaissance missions.

Wiki Commons

The BUK-2 missile system: This is the battery that allegedly brought down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine in 2014. Its 9M317 missiles can reach 46,000 feet at Mach 3, carrying 154-pound warheads.

Wiki Commons

The RS-24 Yars: A thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missile system that can carry multiple independently targetable nuclear warheads with a range of 10,000 miles. Designed to replace Topol-M ballistic missiles, it has been operationally deployed since 2010. Each missile has the power of 100 "Little Boys" — the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945.

Wiki Commons

"The Russian Concorde": The Tupolev Tu-160 is the world's largest supersonic combat aircraft. It was designed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. It boasts the most powerful engines ever on a combat aircraft and can hold 40,000kg of weaponry. There are 16 in service.

Wiki Commons

The T-90: The most advanced battle tank used by the Russian armed forces. Its main weapon is a 125mm smoothbore gun with anti-tank capabilities, but it also boasts a remote-controlled anti-aircraft heavy machine gun.

Wiki Commons

At 14,700 tonnes, Borei-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines are slightly smaller than their predecessors, the massive Typhoon-class. But with a capacity of 16 Bulava ballistic missiles, each carrying six to 10 warheads with a range of 8,300km, they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Wiki Commons

The Russian Mi-28 Havoc attack helicopter: This is the go-to attack helicopter for the Russian air force and army. Its basic armament is a 30mm Shipunov underslung auto-cannon and wingstubs that can carry up to four anti-tank missiles, rocket pods, or gun pods.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-advanced-weapons-systems-used-by-the-russian-army-2015-1?op=1#ixzz3OCm6PKX8

The World's First 1,000 Mph Supersonic Car

The Bloodhound SuperSonic Car (SSC) has hit the world land speed record at 1,000 mph, it has emerged.
It's said to be made of titanium, carbon fiber and, like superman, is designed to go faster than a speeding bullet. The Bloodhound SSC has been painstakingly put together and tested over the better part of six years. In 2016, the UK-based team plan to take the 42-foot (8.9m) vehicle to Hakskeen Pan, a dry lake bed in South Africa, for a crack at the record breaking attempt.

Former fighter jet pilot Royal Air Force (RAF) Wing Commander Andy Green said even designing a car that can hold together at these blistering speeds has been a triumph of the engineer's art.

The Bloodhound team scoured the globe to find a desert run that could accommodate a vehicle which, at 1,000 mph, is likely to run out of road in a matter of seconds. The requirements were a perfectly flat landscape, at least 12 miles long and two miles wide.

They eventually selected Hakskeen Pan, in Northern Cape, South Africa where Bloodhound SSC will cover a mile in 3.6 seconds -- equivalent to 4.5 football pitches laid end to end every second.

View more photos of the supersonic car:

PARIS SHOOTING EXCLUSIVE : Man Linked To Paris Attack Voluntarily Hands Himself In To Police

REUTERS/Jacky NaegelenPolice officers secure access to a residential building during investigations in the eastern French city of Reims January 8, 2015.An 18-year old man sought by police over Wednesday's shooting attack at satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo handed himself voluntarily to police in northeastern France, an official at the Paris prosecutor's office said.

French police are staging a huge manhunt for attackers who escaped by car after shooting dead some of France's top cartoonists as well as two police officers. About 800 soldiers were brought in to shore up security across the capital.

Authorities are searching for three French nationals, including brothers Said Kouachi, born in 1980; Cherif Kouachi, born in 1982; and Hamyd Mourad born in 1996, after suspected Islamist gunmen killed 12 people.

The official, who declined to identify the man, said he had turned himself in at a police station in Charleville-Mézières, in northeastern France at around 2300 GMT.

BFM TV, citing unidentified sources, said the man had decided to go to the police after seeing his name in social media. It said other arrests had taken place in circles linked to the two brothers. 

The Associated Press reports that one of the brothers, Cherif Kouachi, "was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency, and sentenced to 18 months in prison. During his 2008 trial, he told the court he was motivated by his outrage at television images of torture of Iraqi inmates at the U.S. prison at Abu Ghraib."

Charlie Hebdo drew the ire of Islamic militant groups for regularly publishing cartoons and articles that lampooned jihadists including caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, which many Muslims find offensive. The magazine's offices were firebombed in 2011.

The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades.

Screenshot/Twitter/@Charles_ListerA screengrab of a video showing the attack.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the assailants killed a man at the entrance of the building to force entry. They then headed to the second floor and opened fire on an editorial meeting attended by eight journalists, a policeman tasked with protecting the magazine's editorial director and a guest.

"What we saw was a massacre. Many of the victims had been executed, most of them with wounds to the head and chest," Patrick Hertgen, an emergencies services medic called out to treat the injured, told Reuters.

A Reuters reporter saw groups of armed policeman patrolling around department stores in the shopping district and there was an armed gendarme presence outside the Arc de Triomphe.

"There is a possibility of other attacks and other sites are being secured," police union official Rocco Contento said.

French policeHandout photos released by French Police in Paris of Cherif Kouachi (L), 32, and his brother Said Kouachi, 34.

The Kouachi brothers are from the Paris region while 18-year-old Mourad is from the area of the northeastern city of Reims, the government source told Reuters.

A police source told Reuters that one of them had been identified by his identity card which had been left in the getaway car.

REUTERS/Christian HartmannPolice investigators search for evidence as an unidentified man is detained (top, 2nd R) during an operation in the eastern French city of Reims, January 8, 2015