The season 5 trailer for 'Game of Thrones' has leaked

Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO

Maisie Williams as fan favorite Arya Stark.

Winter is coming.

"Game of Thrones" fans know that means season 5 of HBO's wildly popular series is returning.

An exclusive look at Season 5  premiered after the first IMAX screening of the final two episodes from Season 4, and someone caught the trailer on video — which means that you can watch it below

Kendall Jenner Rumored In Affair With Scott Disick

Kendall Jenner Rumored In Affair With Scott Disick

Damn! Just when we thought Kendall Jenner had escaped the Kardashian stigma…here comes the rumor that the family’s model success has been getting it in with her sister’s boyfriend/babydaddy Scott Disick — while her sister was pregnant!

Guess she wasn’t kidding when she said she grew up too fast…. Via HollywoodLife:

Kendall and Scott have been having a steamy affair behind Kourtney’s back, according to the latest report from Star. The explosive report claims that Kendall and Scott had sex at a party and that a mutual friend told Kourtney the devastating news. Kourtney is reportedly not speaking to Scott or Kendall and said “they’re dead to me” when she discovered the news.

“After their partying episodes, he saw Kendall as an adult,” the insider tells the magazine. “A superhot and fun one at that.”

Their source also says: “This is what their relationship has turned into. What should be a brotherly/sisterly love has become sexualized. Scott clearly finds her attractive, and she likes the attention. It’s just wrong.”

“At first, Kourtney was in complete shock and disbelief. But after she processed the information, she was devastated … She started screaming at [Scott], calling him ‘sick.’ But he kept denying it. He stormed out and the next she heard of him, he was doing what he always does — drinking his problems away. This time it wasn’t in Las Vegas, it was in Aspen.”

Meanwhile, momager Kris Jenner is said to be “at a loss” and “worried” about Mason, Penelope and Reign.

“She confronted Kendall about it. But Kendall denied everything, then accused her mom of being happy about the rumors because they will raise her previous TV ratings.”

Scott seems to get sprung over a different one of Kourtney’s sisters every six months, doesn’t he? But if this is true…Momager Kris really needs to stop focusing so hard on wheeling deals and start concentrating on getting some control over her wild-azz daughters.

Lil Wayne sues Cash Money for $51 Million

It's not news that former best friends and business partners Lil Wayne and Birdman have fallen out over money, record deals, and artists under their label. What's new now is that the rapper is suing Cash Money for $51million with the hopes of ending his contract with the label.

According to TMZ, Lil Wayne filed a lawsuit asking a judge to end his contract with Cash Money. According to the lawsuit, Wayne says Birdman and company violated the deal by withholding tens of millions of dollars Cash Money owes him for his long-delayed album, "Tha Carter V." 

From TMZ

Wayne claims because Cash Money is refusing to pay, he's entitled to walk. But Lil Wayne wants more than just a declaration of freedom. He's suing for $51 MILLION. 

And Wayne wants the judge to declare he's the joint copyright owner of all Young Money recordings ... which includes Drake, Nicki Minaj and several others.

Sources connected to Wayne tell TMZ ... if Birdman antes up then he can release "Tha Carter V," but only if Wayne gets paid. Wayne says he was supposed to get an $8 million advance when he began recording in December, 2013 and another 2M when he completed the album a year later, but so far he's gotten nothing.

Update: Lil Wayne to Birdman - I'm willing to stay if the price is right

Lil Wayne will stay with Cash Money and Birdman IF they ante up the money he's owed ... in fact, we're told if Cash Money antes up, Wayne has no choice but to stay.

Sources involved in the case tell TMZ ... Wayne feels Birdman's decision to avoid paying him is nothing more than a power play. TMZ broke the story that Wayne is suing, and a central claim is that Birdman has consistently stiffed him over the last year.

There are 2 payments that have irked Wayne -- he says he was owed $8 million when he went into the studio to record "Tha Carter V" in December 2013, and another $2 mil when he completed the album last month.

We're told the hope is that Universal -- which distributes Cash Money records -- will step in and earmark the $10 mil for Wayne. And we're told Universal is already putting pressure on Cash Money to settle.

If Cash Money pays Wayne the $10 mil, it would essentially eliminate any breach of contract. That means Wayne would have no legal basis to ask out of the contract. Even though Wayne's suing for $51 million, most of that is predicated on future lost profits which would not be an issue if they settle.

As for the release of "Tha Carter V" ... even if the case settles the power would be in Birdman's claws.

There's A New Air Force One!

REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

The US Air Force has reportedly selected the Boeing 747-8 as the President's next official plane. 

According to Reuters, two sources "close to the decision" said that the Air Force is close to announcing its decision to replace the current 747 with the latest version of Boeing's jumbo jet.

The current fleet of Presidential aircraft entered service in 1990, during the George H.W. Bush administration. The two planes — with tail numbers 28000 and 29000 — are highly modified examples of the Boeing 747-200B airliner.

The US Air Force's decision should come as welcome news for Boeing's struggling 747 program. The company announced last month that it would slow production of the 747-8 due to lagging sales.

Boeing

Boeing has only 39 unfilled orders — 26 passenger versions and 13 cargo planes — for the 747, the Seattle Times reported.

According to Boeing, the 747-8 retails for $367.8 million.

5 family members found dead at home took 'drugs overdose' to escape 'apocalypse''

A couple and three of their children were found dead at home after taking a cocktail of drugs in a tragic 'murder-suicide' - to escape "the evil in the world".

Benjamin and Kristi Strack and three of their children, Benson, 14, Emery, 12, and Zion, 11, were found dead in Springville, Utah on September 27 2014.

On Tuesday police said they often discussed religiously-held notions of the apocalypse &orchestrated a multi-drug suicide using methadone and other medication.


Springville Police Department detective Greg Turnbow, the lead officer on the case, said:

"It was a fairly common theme for the parents to talk about, the apocalypse, the end of days, final judgment. Their surviving son, when he was interviewed, indicated that his mother had made comments that if things got bad enough she would much rather take herself and her family out in a comfortable way, rather than a painful way."

The information was released at a press conference yesterday Tuesday Jan. 27th that covered information from a medical examiner and broader information about the case, Turnbow said.

The parents deaths were ruled suicides. The children ages 11 and 12 were ruled homicides, and the 14-year-old son had a note in which he was aware of his "possible impending doom," Turnbow said.

The father had heroin in his body and the others had methadone and over-the-counter medication, Turnbow said, citing coroner's findings. There was no sign of a struggle.

Speaking on Tuesday, Springville Police Chief J. Scott Finlayson indicated that people who knew the family were worried about "evil in the world".

Relatives told investigators that the family had spoke about "leaving" this world to escape "impending doom" leading up to their deaths.

But they thought it meant they would be moving to a sparsely populated area and living "off the grid", KSL News reported.
The family all died of a lethal cocktail of drugs, which had been prescribed to Kristi, local media claim.

Investigators believe the children all drank from a small bucket that contained the lethal cocktail which first put them asleep before killing them.

Kristi died of a combination of drugs and her husband Benjamin died from toxic levels of heroin, according to a report from the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office.
Chief J. Scott Finlayson conceded: "There are some questions we can't answer and may never be able to answer.

"There is no evidence any of the family members were forced to take lethal doses of any drug combinations, nor was there any evidence they took the drugs willingly."

It is unknown whether the youngest children knew what they were drinking but police said there were no signs of struggle.

FBI: We Busted A Russian Spy Ring In New York City

The FBI announced on Monday that it had busted a Russian spy ring that was allegedly focused on obtaining economic information including details about US markets and sanctions on Russian banks. 

According to a federal complaint filed by FBI special agent Gregory Monaghan in a Manhattan federal court on Friday, an alleged spy, Evgeny Buryakov, posed as a banker in the New York office of an unnamed Russian bank.

Buryakov is reportedly being arraigned in the Southern District of New York.

Monaghan said Buryakov (aka"Zhenya") was on "deep cover" and working for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) to gather intelligence and transmit it back to Moscow. The SVR used multiple forms of cover.

The complaint includes several stunning revelations, including claims that staffers at an unidentified Russian news organization in the US are engaged in spying; and indications that American law enforcement bugged the New York office of the Foreign Intelligence Service. 

According to the complaint, Buryakov worked with two other men who were involved in intelligence-gathering activities for the SVR: Victor Podobnyy and Igor Sporyshev. The complaint said Sporyshev served as a trade representative to the Russian Federation in New York. Podobnyy was allegedly an attaché to the permanent mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. 

A statement sent out by the office of the US attorney for the Southern District of New York said Podobnyy and Sporyshev "no longer reside in the United States and have not been arrested." 

The complaint said Buryakov was charged with one count of "conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government" and another count of "acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government." These charges stem from the fact Buryakov was allegedly posing as a private citizen while working for the SVR.

US regulations require people working on behalf of foreign governments in this country to register with the Department of Justice and Buryakov allegedly did not. Due to their government postings, the complaint said Podobnyy and Sporyshev seemed to be exempt from this registration requirement. Additionally, the statement from the US attorney's office said they had diplomatic immunity that prevented them from being arrested. 

According to the complaint, Buryakov, Sporyshev, and Podobnyy all worked for "a particular division of the SVR known as 'Directorate ER,' which focuses on economic issues." In addition to transmitting reports from Buryakov to Moscow Center, the SVR headquarters in Russia, the complaint said Podobnyy and Sporyshev engaged in other intelligence activities including "attempting to recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources for the Russian Federation."

The people they tried to recruit were described in the complaint as "several individuals employed by major companies, and several young women with ties to a major university located in New York" as well as a "number of other Russian-origin individuals associated with" the unnamed university. 

In a statement, Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said Buryakov was attempting to get "economic and other intelligence information."

"The attempt by foreign nations to illegally gather economic and other intelligence information in the United States through covert agents is a direct threat to the national security of the United States, and it exemplifies why counterespionage is a top priority of the National Security Division," Carlin said.

The complaint claims Buryakov had "over four dozen meetings" where he used "clandestine methods and coded messages" to communicate with the other SVR spies. It describes several alleged meetings in some detail and said they typically involved Buryakov "passing a bag, magazine, or slip of paper to Sporyshev."

"These meetings typically took place outdoors, where the risk of effective surveillance was reduced relative to an indoor location," the complaint said. 

In communications monitored by the FBI, the complaint said Sporyshev and Buryakov regularly discussed the "need to meet to transfer 'tickets'" even though they have "never been observed attending, or discussing in any detail, events that would typically require tickets." 

Wikimedia Commons

The complaint described one instance where Sporyshev did not meet with Buryakov in person and they talked on the phone. In that conversation Sporyshev allegedly asked Buryakov for "help in formulating questions to be used for intelligence-gathering purposes by others associated with a leading Russian state-owned news organization."

Though the news outlet was not identified, the complaint referred to it as having been "publicly identified by former SVR agents as an organization that is sometimes used by Russian intelligence to gain access to and gather intelligence under the cover of the news media." The complaint said Sporyshev specifically asked Buryakov for questions about subjects that would be "of interest to the Russian economic intelligence community." 

In transcripts identified in the complaint as coming from this conversation between the two men, Buryakov was quoted encouraging Sporyshev to have the news organization ask about Exchange Traded Funds. These funds are a basket of securities traded like individual stocks.

"You can ask about the ETF," Buryakov was quoted saying. "How they are used, the mechanisms of use for destabilization of the markets."

It seems Buryakov also allegedly recommended having the news organization ask about high-frequency trading and trades involving Russian products.

"Then you can ask them what they think about limiting the use of trading robots," he was quoted saying. "You can also ask about the potential interest of the participants of the exchange to the products tied to the Russian Federation."

The complaint said Buryakov was also monitored by the FBI agents in conversations with a confidential source who "posed as the representative of a wealthy investor." This source allegedly told Buryakov their employer wanted to work with his bank "to develop casinos in Russia."

In these meetings, the complaint said Buryakov made statements indicating "his strong desire to obtain information about subjects far outside the scope of his work as a bank employee, and consistent with his interests as a Russian intelligence agent," and his "willingness to solicit and accept" confidential US government documents.

In one instance, the complaint said the source gave Buryakov what he described as a list of Russian banks the US might impose sanctions on. In the past year, the US and its European allies have imposed sweeping economic sanctions against Russian banks in retaliation for their government's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

The bank where Buryakov allegedly falsely posed as an employee was not named in the complaint. However, the website of Russia's Vnesheconombank identifies a man named Evgeny Buryakov as a "deputy representative" at the bank's office on Manhattan's Madison Avenue. According to the site, that office is the "representative office of Vnesheconombank in the USA."

The man named Evgeny Buryakov who worked at Vnesheconombank did not immediately respond to messages sent to his email address. Business Insider also called Vnesheconombank's Manhattan office on Monday. A woman who answered the phone would not confirm whether an employee there had been arrested and referred us to the bank's press office in Russia.

"I'm authorized to give you no comment," the woman said. 

Vnesheconombank's office in Russia did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

The US and Russia have experienced a number of spying spats in recent years. In 2013, Russia expelled an American suspected of being a CIA agent trying to recruit intelligence officers in Moscow. In an even more prominent 2010 incident, the US arrested 10 alleged Russian spies who were part of the so-called "Illegals Program." Those arrested included Anna Chapman, the "femme fatale" who was subsequently released as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.

Based on the complaint, it seems the charges against Buryakov may have stemmed from the 2010 incident. It noted the investigation that eventually led to the charges was opened "within a few months" of the guilty pleas entered by the "Illegals." 

The charges also seem to have involved surveillance of an SVR office in New York City. According to the complaint, the SVR's office in the city "is located within an office maintained by the Russian Federation in New York." The complaint included transcripts of conversations between Sporyshev and Podobnyy that allegedly occurred inside this office.

One of these conversations involved the pair allegedly discussing the Illegals Program. In another, Podobnyy was quoted describing Sporyshev as his boss who was under cover at the trade mission. A third conversation detailed in the complaint included the pair complaining about their jobs with Podobnyy lamenting that it wasn't like "movies about James Bond." He was quoted saying he knew he "wouldn't fly helicopters," but thought he would "pretend to be someone else at a minimum."

"I also thought that at least I would go abroad with a different passport," Sporyshev was quoted saying in response. 

Read the full complaint below: 

US v. Evgeny Buryakov, Et Al Complaint

This post was last updated at 4:23 p.m.

Tiger Woods replaces tooth that got knocked out

Golf legend Tiger Woods has replaced the tooth that got knocked out by a cameramen when he was in Italy last week to celebrate his girlfriend's Lindsey Vonn breaking World Cup ski record (pictured right). Tiger showed off his complete teeth while chatting with the media during a practice round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona on yesterday Jan. 27th. (left)

Ghanaian TV star elated nude picture is featured in Romanian newspaper

The Ghanaian star is elated her nude picture is featured in Romanian newspaper. Photo: Filed

Ghanaian singer and TV personality, Deborah Vanessa, has expressed her happiness at a recent feature of her naked picture by a Romanian newspaper, LiberTatea Lumea. In the publication, the pretty actress better known as Sister Deborah, is praised for outshining Kim Kardashian.

You may recall that the Ghanaian star had released a nude photo online like the Hollywood Reality TV star months ago and apparently, her efforts are yielding desired results as the newspaper has recognised her daring move.

Deborah, who is the 1st runner-up of Miss Malaika Beauty Contest in 2004, posted a picture of the newspaper on Instagram today evidently happy with seeing the controversial picture of herself in the newspaper with the caption: ‘I woke up in a Romanian newspaper #LiberTateaLumea in @mummyzboi ‘s locker room in Cluj!!! It says that I’m one of the most loved Ghanaian artistes especially because of my songs and extremely hot pictures and that African media soon forgot about Kim K’s nude pics after I posted mine to the delight of my fans.’

Litvinenko murder 'was like a mini nuclear attack on UK': Radioactive toxin 'found in a number of locations'

• Public inquiry into the death of Litvinenko, 43, opened yesterday in London
• He died of radiation poisoning in 2006 after drinking contaminated tea
• Panel heard that he was poisoned twice in the weeks before his death
• QC told inquiry thousands of Londoners could have been exposed to deadly polonium which was found at locations including Emirates stadium' 
• Thousands of people in Britain were put in grave danger when assassins used a radioactive chemical to launch a ‘miniature nuclear attack’ on Alexander Litvinenko, a court heard yesterday.
  Respected judge Sir Robert Owen said the highly deadly toxin fed to the former KGB spy could have been used to ‘kill large numbers of people or spread general panic and hysteria among the public’.
  On the opening day of the inquiry into his death, the Royal Courts of Justice heard radioactive traces were found in ‘large numbers of places’ after two Russian hitmen laced Mr Litvinenko’s tea with a lethal dose polonium-210 at a London hotel. 
  

  Killed: Alexander Litvinenko, pictured in hospital in November 2006, died from radiation poisoning
  

  Family: Marina Litvinenko pictured outside the hearing with her son Anatoly on the inquiry's first day
  

  History: Alexander Litvinenko pictured with his wife Marina (left) and son Anatoly in London in 2000
  Biochemical experts found a teapot at the Pine Bar in the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair with readings for polonium-210 which were off the charts.
  A public health alert was quickly issued after traces of the toxin – worth ‘tens of millions of dollars’ – were found in offices, homes, hotels and on planes across the capital and beyond.

A lethal dose of the highly radioactive chemical is 50 nanograms – one billionth of a gram – which means just one gram would be potentially enough to kill 100 million people. Robin Tam QC, counsel to the public inquiry, said: ‘Many thousands of members of the public, including British residents and visitors from overseas, might have been at risk from radioactivity.’

Sir Robert described the killing as ‘a miniature nuclear attack on the streets of London’.

After his death, Mr Litvinenko’s body had to be placed in a lead-lined coffin to prevent radiation from seeping out of his grave in Highgate cemetery in north London. 

Accusation: Ben Emmerson QC, for Marina Litvinenko, called Vladimir Putin's Russia a 'mafia state'

EVIDENCE TO BE HEARD IN SECRET TO PROTECT MI5 

Part of the evidence at the inquiry into Alexander Litvinenko’s assassination will be heard in secret.

Some witnesses will give evidence from behind a screen while others will be given complete secrecy to protect their links to the security services. And part of Judge Sir Robert Owen’s final report at the end of the multimillion-pound public inquiry ‘will have to remain secret’ to protect the sensitive evidence.

Even Mr Litvinenko’s wife Marina will not be allowed to see the secret parts of the judge’s report.

On the first day of the hearing yesterday, the court heard that the spy was being paid by the British security services in return for information on the Russian mafia.

But the Home Office has always said it can ‘neither confirm nor deny’ that Mr Litvinenko was employed by MI5, MI6 or GCHQ. Neil Garnham QC, representing the Home Office, told the court that this policy would continue. He said: ‘There will be allegations that individuals were agents for those organisations or worked for them. The work of those agencies requires secrecy and there is a need to preserve that.’

However Sir Robert said that if evidence emerged which suggested British agents could have prevented his death, he would consider allowing it to be heard during the inquiry.

The fatal attack in November 2006 was the second time that assassins had tried to kill him in the UK using polonium-210, Mr Tam also revealed.

Weeks earlier, the spy recalled feeling unwell around the time of a meeting at a security company in mid-October and told of ‘vomiting on one occasion about two or three weeks before being hospitalised’. ‘Hair samples indicate Mr Litvinenko may well have been poisoned twice and the first occasion being much less severe than the second,’ Mr Tam said.

The court heard how the 43-year-old was poisoned by former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun for his public opposition to Vladimir Putin. After drinking the poisoned tea at the hotel, he went home on a bus in London and soon started to feel unwell.

He spent 23 days in hospital in agonising pain as his strength left him and his organs began to fail. His final few days were spent in isolation in University College Hospital. It was then the haunting photo of him wearing a green hospital gown, his hair having fallen out through radiation poisoning, was taken. 

Meeting: Mr Litvinenko was apparently poisoned at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, pictured

Couple: The spy, left, fled to Britain with his wife Marina, right, after becoming an opponent of Vladimir Putin

Ben Emmerson QC, representing the Litvinenko family, said: ‘The murder was an act of unspeakable barbarism that inflicted on Alexander Litvinenko the most painful and lingering death imaginable.

Chairman: Sir Robert's inquiry comes more than eight years after Litvinenko's death

‘Mr Litvinenko came to realise he was bound to die, and that he had been the victim of a political assassination by the Russian state.’

Mr Emmerson also revealed that Mr Litvinenko’s photo had been used for target practice by Russian Special Forces during firearms training.

Medical experts only established the precise nature of the rare poison that was killing him two days before his death. They initially thought he had been given a dose of thallium.

However, he was given such a huge dose of polonium-210 experts believe he could not have been saved even with a prompt diagnosis. 

While alpha radiation emitted by polonium cannot pass through skin, when ingested it will fatally damage internal organs – known as acute radiation syndrome.

Polonium is an exceptionally rare element, with only around 100g produced every year. Mr Emmerson told the court the quantity given to Mr Litvinenko was worth ‘tens of millions of dollars’. He added: ‘It is, we say, unlikely in the extreme any private individual or purely criminal enterprise would choose such a costly method of assassination.

‘For the Russian state, however, which produces polonium-210 itself, the costs of the assassination would not be prohibitive.’ Lugovoi and Kovtun brought the chemical to the UK on flights from Russia to London in October, he said. The multi-million inquiry into Mr Litvinenko’s death will hear from some 70 witnesses and is expected to last ten weeks.

Sir Robert, its chairman, said sensitive evidence had established there is a ‘prima facie case’ as to the culpability of the Russian state’s involvement. The hearing continues.

Suspects: Dmitry Kovtun, left, and Andrei Lugovoi, right, have been accused of killing Litvinenko

Speaking out: Mr Litvinenko, right, at a 1998 press conference in which he and secret service colleagues publicly denounced their boss Vladimir Putin

RUTHLESS PUTIN 'WAS BEHIND THIS REVENGE KILLING' 

Vladimir Putin was accused of being a ‘common criminal dressed up as a head of state’ by the barrister representing Alexander Litvinenko’s family.

Ben Emmerson QC said the dissident became a ‘marked man’ after he attempted to expose a plot by the Russian intelligence service – the FSB – to kill billionaire Boris Berezovsky in 1998.

He further ‘antagonised’ his former FSB boss Putin by writing two books, and was killed on his direct orders, Mr Emmerson claimed.

The first of Mr Litvinenko’s publications alleged the agency bombed apartment blocks which were then blamed on Chechen rebels to trigger a conflict, while a second implicated the FSB in Russian mafia operations.

The dissident became a 'marked man' after antangonising his former boss Putin (pictured), Mr Litvinenko's lawyer claimed

Mr Litvinenko’s claims did ‘considerable damage’ to the FSB’s reputation – after the initial book ‘Blowing Up Russia’ was published.

The dissident also criticised Putin’s regime on TV and elsewhere in public, including blaming the state for the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. And at the time of his death, Mr Litvinenko – who had defected and was working for MI6 – was due to give evidence in a Spanish trial which could have exposed links between Putin and organised crime, Mr Emmerson said.

A day after Mr Litvinenko died in 2006, one politician told a debate in the Russian Duma: ‘The traitor received the punishment he deserved.’ Mr Emmerson said: ‘He had broken the culture of silence about the inner workings of the FSB. Experts on the Russian state have suggested that he was a marked man from that moment onwards.’

Mr Emmerson, representing Mr Litvinenko’s wife Marina and son Anatoly, said a plan was hatched at the highest level to ‘punish him lethally for breaking ranks’. ‘It was really only a question of how long it would take and what means would eventually be devised to deliver the fatal blow,’ Mr Emmerson said, adding: ‘Russian security services could not have carried out the assassination without Mr Putin’s direct approval, given Mr Putin’s known attention to detail in such matters.

‘We say that when all the open and closed evidence is considered together Mr Litvinenko’s dying declaration will be borne out as true – the trail of polonium leads not only from London to Moscow but directly to the door of Mr Putin’s office – and that Vladimir Putin should be unmasked by this inquiry as nothing more or less than a common criminal dressed up as a head of state.’

The inquiry was read transcripts of interviews given by Mr Litvinenko to police on his deathbed, in which he attacked members of the G8 group of industrialised nations, including Tony Blair, for legitimising the Putin regime.

He also blamed Putin for the polonium attack, telling police: ‘The order could only have been given by one person – the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.’

Mr Emmerson said: ‘Putin was a ruthless and deadly enemy.’

Our past must not become the future for our children: A deeply moving plea from one survivor as victims return to Auschwitz 70 years after they were liberated Around 300 people who survived Auschwitz paid their respects at the former Nazi death camp yesterday

• It came on the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation by the Soviet Army near the end of the Second World War
• Hollywood director Steven Spielberg also joined world leaders at the camp to condemn rise in anti-Semitism
• Survivors and their families gathered to lay wreaths at the camp's 'wall of death' and lit candles
• Heads of state and European royalty attended the service at the camp in Poland for poignant commemorations

They are the dwindling few who know, truly, what it is to go to hell and back. Seventy years on, they were there again yesterday.

On this very spot, they had seen their loved ones for the last time.

Next to this bleakest of buildings, millions of families had been torn apart forever in a hysterical bedlam of beating, whipping, attack dogs and random execution. Has anywhere else endured such misery?

Scroll down for videos

Auschwitz survivors and their families visit the Birkenau Memorial as more than 300 attended the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation

Attending dignitaries and survivors of the Holocaust walk past the train tracks once used to ferry people into the death camp

Those attending the anniversary carry candles which were later placed at a memorial to remember the millions killed in the Holocaust

The ceremony last night was expected to be the last major anniversary of the death camp's liberation for many of the survivors

When the original Auschwitz concentration camp could not cope with the slaughter expected of it, the Nazis created an even larger, industrial death plant and railway yard next door here at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Its pointed, red-brick watch tower, beneath which every cattle wagon hauled its tragic cargo to the end of the line and the ‘selection’ ramps, is now a global symbol of genocide.

Yesterday, it was the dramatic backdrop to the desperately poignant, emotionally-charged international ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

That event is now enshrined as Holocaust Memorial Day in honour not only of the 1.1 million Jews murdered here but of all six million Jews and five million others executed at all those synonyms for cruelty – Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka, Sobibor, Buchenwald…

Neither the passage of time nor the erection of a gigantic marquee over the entire tower and the temporary arena for 2,000 people – including 250 survivors and dozens of world leaders – could diminish the ghastliness of the ‘Death Gate’ of Birkenau. Its brief transformation into theatrical scenery made no difference.

A train carriage once used to carry people into Auschwitz sits dormant as those attending the ceremony wander through the snow

The delegation of international dignitaries and survivors make their way to lay candles at the Birkenau Memorial

A floodlight illuminates the snow-covered area where more than one million people, mostly Jews, were killed during the Second World War

Candles are laid in a row at the Birkenau Memorial by 300 survivors, their families, and visiting heads of state

The camp's huge fences offer a poignant reminder of the harrowing conditions under which those imprisoned in the camp were kept

The Netherlands' King Wilem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte stand before a memorial plaque

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (left) and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway pay their respects to those murdered at the concentration camp

Roses left by mourners lie next to one of the many plaques detailing transports of Jews who were taken to the concentration camps

Given the fresh snow and sub-zero temperatures here in southern Poland, this ceremony had to be staged under cover. Ten years ago, returning survivors were left freezing in the open for hours at the 60th anniversary commemorations (while the politicians had heated seats and a tent). That could not happen again, given the advancing years of yesterday’s most exalted guests. Sitting in the front row were four British survivors, including a sprightly 84-year-old Hampstead grandmother who, until yesterday, had been unable to face coming back. Widowed earlier this month, she is profoundly glad she came.

‘I felt such turmoil, such anger seeing this place again,’ Susan Pollack told me last night.

‘But this ceremony was so uplifting that it will be one of the defining memories of my life.’ 

A man places a candle on the monument to pay tribute to those who were murdered at the camp prior to its 1945 liberation

Guests carrying lit candles walk from the 'Death Gate' to the Auschwitz monument as part of the 70th anniversary commemorations

A guard tower remains standing on the grounds of Auschwitz, which remains the most notorious concentration camp to be run by the Nazis

Events at the camp yesterday included a service inside a tent erected at the front of Auschwitz, as well as the laying of wreaths and candles

American film director Steven Spielberg arrived at Auschwitz to unveil a memorial plaque. In 1993, the directed the film Schindler's List, about a German who saved more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust

Mr Spielberg reflects as he looks on the the memorial plaque in Auschwitz. He met Holocaust survivors in Krakow ahead of yesterday's main event

Mr Spielberg, third from right, listens as Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, left, speaks at the unveiling of a memorial plaque inside Auschwitz