Key House Republican spoke to white nationalist group in 2002 -report

The No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, gave a speech at a conference of white nationalists when he was a state lawmaker in 2002, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing his spokeswoman.


Spokeswoman Moira Bagley said Scalise, majority whip in the House of Representatives, was not familiar with the ideology of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO, when he attended the event in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, the Washington Post reported.

EURO was founded in 2000 by David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and ran a high-profile race for governor in 1991.

Responding to the report, Scalise told the Times-Picayune newspaper on Monday he had no involvement with the group and does not recall speaking at the event.

"I didn't know who all of these groups were and I detest any kind of hate group. For anyone to suggest that I was involved with a group like that is insulting and ludicrous," Scalise said.

He also said he spoke with many during that period, including the League of Women Voters, a group the Republican described as "liberal."

"I still went and spoke to them. I spoke to any group that called," he said.

Scalise attended the EURO event to build support for his efforts to eliminate political slush funds and to oppose increased taxes on the middle class, Bagley said, according to the Post.

"The hate-fueled ignorance and intolerance that group projects is in stark contradiction to what Mr Scalise believes and practices as a father, a husband, and a devoted Catholic," she said, according to the newspaper.

Bagley did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The revelation comes as Republicans, who control the House, are preparing to cement their grip in Congress as they take charge in the Senate.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights organization, classifies EURO as a hate group.

Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative blogger, expressed skepticism that Scalise was unaware of EURO's agenda at the time of the conference.

"How the hell does somebody show up at a David Duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance?" Erickson wrote on his RedState blog.

Scalise's appearance at the event was first reported on Sunday by Louisiana politics blogger Lamar White Jr.

Indonesia halts search for missing AirAsia plane as night falls

 Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. (2317 GMT on Saturday). No distress signal had been sent, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, an Indonesian transport ministry official.

On board were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, plus a French pilot, the airline said in a statement, correcting earlier information.

Tatang Kurniadi, head of Indonesia's National Committee of Safety Transportation, expressed hope of locating the aircraft quickly and said it was too early to detect any of the so-called electronic pings from its black box recorder.

"We are using our capacity to search on sea and land. Hopefully we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible," he told a news conference.

"What I need to emphasize is until now, we have not found out how the plane fell or what kind of emergency it was."

Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia (AIRA.KL), which has had a clean safety record since it began operating 13 years ago. The AirAsia group also has affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus (AIR.PA).

The pilots of QZ8501 "was requesting deviation due to en-route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said in a statement. Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, South Korea and Australia offered to help in the search and any investigation. Malaysia said it was sending vessels and a C130 aircraft while Singapore had also sent a C130. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a P3 Orion aircraft was on standby if needed.

ANXIOUS RELATIVES

Flight QZ8501 was between Tanjung Pandan on Indonesia's Belitung island and Pontianak, in West Kalimantan province on Borneo - almost halfway between Surabaya and Singapore - when it went missing. There was bad weather over Belitung at the time and the aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet before asking to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.

In both Surabaya and Singapore, anxious relatives of people on the plane awaited news.

Louise Sidharta was at Singapore's Changi Airport waiting for her fiancée to return from a family holiday.

"It was supposed to be their last vacation before we got married," she said.

A man named Purnomo told TVOne in Surabaya of a lucky escape.

"I should have been on the flight," he said. "We, seven people, had planned to go to Singapore for vacation but this morning I had an emergency. I had my passport in hand."

Tony Fernandes, chief of Malaysia's AirAsia, said he was heading to Surabaya.
 AirAsia plane
"My only thoughts are with the passengers and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR (search and rescue) operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he said on Twitter.

AirAsia swapped its distinctive bright red logo for a grey background on its website and social media accounts.

The incident comes during a troubled year for Malaysia-affiliated airlines. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found.

On July 17, Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Indonesia AirAsia has a fleet of 30 Airbus A320s. The missing plane has been in service for just over six years, according to airfleets.net.

All AirAsia-branded airlines operate aircraft made by Airbus, which has orders for several hundred planes from the group. AirAsia is considered one of the European planemaker's most important customers.

Priyanka Chopra lets go of Rs 20 crore offer to spend time with family

Mumbai: Priyanka Chopra has chased big dreams and has managed to do so for many years in movies as well as in endorsements. However there are certain aspects of her life that even money can’t buy and that is spending time with her family.


According to a report in DNA After Hrs, many event organizers have approached her with an idea of getting into a live concert. After three hit singles, ‘In My City’, ‘Exotic’ and ‘I can’t make you love me’, she has opened herself  to new avenue which she is taking very seriously.
 
In the past, Priyanka Chopra at a media event had said that if you are a creative person, you would like to do more than one thing. After going through the offer, the report suggest that she turned it down because she wants to go for a family vacation.
 
Once she is back, she resumes Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s mega project ‘Bajirao Mastani’ where she plays the role of Kashibai.

Salman Khan tops Forbes' richest Indian celebrity list for 2014 with Rs 244.5cr earnings

Karachi, Dec. 14 (ANI): Salman Khan has made it to the top slot with Rs 244.5cr earnings beating Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list of 2014.

The 48-year-old actor grabbed the number one position both in terms of revenues and fame, which was a first, the Dawn reported.

Whereas, Big B was second in overall ranking and third in the money rankings with earnings of Rs 196.75 crore and his fame rank was 4 which was not surprising since he has nearly 12 million Twitter following, the largest for anybody on that platform in India.

While, King Khan's ranking this year dropped to number 2 with earnings of Rs 202.4 crore and his fame rank dropped to seven, leaving his overall ranking at number 3.

Emraan Hashmi, Pritam, Amit Trivedi, Sajid Khan, and Jeev Milkha Singh are amongst celebrities who could not hold on to their spots.

Celebrities are ranked on two counts, money and fame to calculate their overall ranking.

The top 10 from the list are the following:

1. Salman Khan - Rs 244.50 crore
2. Amitabh Bachchan - Rs 196.75 crore
3. Shah Rukh Khan - Rs 202.40 crore
4. MS Dhoni - Rs 141.80 crore
5. Akshay Kumar - Rs 172.00 crore
6. Virat Kohli - Rs 58.43 crore
7. Aamir Khan - Rs 80.47 crore
8. Deepika Padukone - Rs 67.20 crore
9. Hrithik Roshan - Rs 85.00 crore
10. Sachin Tendulkar - Rs 59.54 crore (ANI)