A photo of President Barack Obama skeet shooting at Camp David has been released following a claim last week that he engages in the activity regularly.
It is the only known photo of Obama with a gun, and also comes amid a White House-backed push for stronger gun control regulations in the U.S.
The photo shows Obama targeting clay pigeons at the presidential retreat last August, which he said he does "all the time" during stays at the compound.
The comment, in an interview last Sunday, was a response to a question of whether he had ever held a firearm. Obama told the New Republic:
"Not the girls, but oftentimes guests of mine go up there. I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations."
"And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake."
Given the current political atmosphere and polarizing gun control debate, some questioned whether the claim was an embellishment or even true at all.
Politicians who use firearms often advertise that fact to gun owners, but in four years in office and two national campaigns, Obama has never brought it up.
"If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this?" asked Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). "Why has he not referenced it at any point [during this] gun debate?"
"Why have we not seen photos?"
Asked about the president's interview, Press Secretary Jay Carney responded "I would refer you simply to his comments," he said. "I don't know how often."
Carney noted that when Obama travels to "Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs."
Some Obama supporters have already brushed off critics as "skeeters," a play on the "birthers" like Donald Trump who doubted he was a U.S. citizen.
"Attn skeet birthers. Make our day - let the photoshop conspiracies begin!" senior adviser and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe wrote on Twitter.
Conspiracy or not, and no matter how curiously timed the photo's release may be, what can't be refuted is the President's commitment to reform.
At least not according to a new lawsuit accusing her and the network of sexual discrimination. A female exec claims she got the chop after getting pregnant!
Carolyn Hommel claims in her lawsuit, filed Friday, that she was hired in 2010 as senior director of scheduling and acquisitions at Oprah's OWN network.
According to Hommel, her duties were slowly transferred to a temporary employee and she was excluded from meetings when she returned from medical leave.
At that point, Carolyn claims she was fired from OWN one month after giving birth and told to re-apply for the V.P. gig ... only to be turned down.
Moreover, Hommel claims her boss, Michael Garner, fabricated a performance review that "made Hommel's job duties and responsibilities appear less 'senior'."
The allegation is that the network retroactively tried to make her appear like a weaker candidate for the new vice president position than she was.
Bottom line, Hommel alleges the aforementioned conduct and her dismissal were a direct result of her becoming pregnant and thus requiring medical leave.
O has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
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February 2 is Groundhog Day, but it's also notable for another celebrity not named Punxsutawney Phil. Shakira turns 36 today. Yes, 36 ... going on 26?
It's hard to believe, but Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, known globally by her first name alone, first emerged in Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s.
Since then, she's achieved massive success as singer-songwriter, dancer, record producer, choreographer and model ... we leave anything out?
Those hips of hers absolutely do not lie, and they recently helped her achieve her greatest moment of all: Shakira gave birth to a baby boy in January!
She and footballer boyfriend Gerard Pique just became parents for the first time (no, it's not a hoax). Expect that little guy to have some amazing genes.
How amazing? Check out our gallery of Shakira pictures below, and share your birthday greetings for the multi-talented international sensation!
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Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is very sorry - and, apparently, very skilled at sounding like a woman over the phone.
The young, troubled man behind the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax appeared yesterday on Dr. Phil and, after insisting he stand behind a curtain for a sense of privacy, performed for viewers the voice he used as Lenny Kekua in this drawn-out scheme to fool the linebacker.
Experts on the show said the voices were a match. Watch/listen now:
In a surprising and unsettling statement, Burger King admits horse meat may have tainted some of the chain's burgers sold in the U.K. and Ireland recently.
This is just the latest chapter in an ongoing scandal in the two nations involving beef burger patties allegedly tainted with meat from horses and pigs.
It's suspected that a meat distributor in Poland, which works with Burger King and other supermarket chains, used meats other than beef as filler in cheap burgers.
Burger King had originally stressed, in the face of the scandal, that its patties are made with 100 percent beef, a claim that was apparently disproved.
However, BK later dropped Silvercrest, the food processing plant that received meat from the Polish distributor, all but confirming the horse meat scandal.
The Guardian has a statement from Burger King stating: "Our independent DNA test results on product taken from restaurants were negative for any equine DNA.
"However, four samples recently taken from the Silvercrest plant have shown the presence of very small trace levels of equine DNA."
"Within the last 36 hours, we have established that Silvercrest used a small percentage of beef imported from a non-approved supplier in Poland."
"They promised to deliver 100% British and Irish beef patties and have not done so. This is a clear violation of our specifications, and we have terminated our relationship with them."
In other words, there is no evidence proving that Burger King ever served horsemeat, but the company admits that some of its locations may have inadvertently done so.
Additionally, UK officials have stressed that the horsemeat-tainted burgers do not pose a health risk to consumers, but still, not exactly positive PR.
When you go to BK, you're probably not craving a horse burger. Kinda makes you wanna stay home and just make a king ranch chicken recipe instead.
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Minegishi's bizarre mea culpa came after a gossip publication ran photos of her leaving the apartment of her boyfriend, Alan Shirahama, a boy band dancer.
In the video on the official site of her band, AKB48, she said she made the decision to shave her head to show contrition for "thoughtless and immature" actions.
Head shaving is a traditional form of showing contrition in Japan. However, many fans have defended her, saying she is entitled to a normal life.
"I don't believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don't want to quit AKB48," she said.
Crying in shame, she said, "If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band. Everything I did is entirely my fault. I am so sorry."
Minegishi is one of the original members of the popular girl band, AKB48. They portray an image of cuteness known as "kawaii" throughout Japan and Asia.
The condition for being part of such a successful act is that the girls must not date boys, so as not to shatter their fans' illusions of their innocence.
AKB48's management office said that Minami Minegishi had been demoted to a trainee team as punishment "for causing a nuisance to the fans".
But some call it unfair that the star felt she should resort to a traditional act of contrition when the only rules she had broken were those of her band's.
Despite her apparent sincerity, some fans and commentators say that Minegishi went too far with her public apology, and that it was unnecessary.
"What's the point of this public execution show? It's like something from the war or a totalitarian state," one fan said on Twitter, defending the youngster.
What do you think of the above video and controversy?
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Unknown hackers besieged Twitter this week and may have gained passwords and personal information of up to 250,000 users during the cyber-attack.
Twitter confirmed it was hacked in a blog post, saying that the passwords were encrypted and that it already reset them as a "precautionary measure."
The social network is "in the process" of notifying affected users.
Twitter noted recent revelations of cyber attacks against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but did not elaborate on the origin or methodology of the attacks.
"This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," Twitter said on its website, following the hacking.
"The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe that other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked."
Twitter, which has 200 million active monthly users, said it was working with government and federal law enforcement officials to track down the attackers.
The company did not specifically link the attacks to China in the blog post, in contrast to the Times and Journal, which both said the hackers originated in China.
Twitter, known for its 140-character messages, could not speculate on the origin of the attacks as its investigation was ongoing, said spokesman Jim Prosser.
"There is no evidence now that would indicate passwords were compromised," said Prosser.
Whoever was responsible and why, it's a trend that isn't going away anytime soon.
Last month, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned against the imminent risk of a 9/11-level cyber attack.
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Months after she was first spotted with a new diamond ring on her finger, the star's rep confirms that she is engaged to dolly grip boyfriend James Heerdegen.
"A couple months back," Ricci said Friday, asked when Heerdegen, who worked on Ricci's short-lived ABC series Pan Am, popped the question.
This will be the first trip down the aisle for Ricci, 32, who was briefly engaged a few years ago to Owen Benjamin. How's she feeling about the event?
"I worked so much last year that I just really wanted to have some time off to just kind of live," she said. "You kind of need to take time to be a real person."
Indeed. Congrats to Christina and James!
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The Bethenny Frankel divorce case against Jason Hoppy has grown seriously contentious, with the main obstacle between the former couple also being the cutest:
Two-year old daughter Brynn.
Both sides have filed for primary custody of the little one, with a source telling Us Weekly that Hoppy really did intend to "play nice" at the outset of this break-up.
But "Jason is livid with how cold Bethenny has been with him since the the split," a friend alleges. "He wants to make her pay."
And Hoppy's actions have blindsided the talk show host, who thought she could quickly file for divorce and not deal with any "hassle," the source adds. If only, huh?
Emily VanCamp has reportedly signed on for her first major movie role.
The (gorgeous!) Revenge star will portray the female lead in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Movie Fanatic reports, although the actual identity of her character remains under wraps.
Rumors abound, however, that VanCamp will take on the role of Sharon Carter, the niece of Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter.
The Captain America sequel hits theaters on April 4 of next year. It returns Chris Evans as the Patriotic title character and will also feature Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Toby Jones, and Samuel L. Jackson.
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Tens of thousands braved temperatures in the single digits last night and this morning to be there, in the Weather Capitol of the World, for this annual tradition.
So what happened during that magical moment when Punxsutawney Phil rose from Gobbler's Knob, accompanied by his tuxedo-clad handlers, to predict winter's duration?
Will it be six more weeks of slogging through snow, wind and cold before the respite of spring? Will a reprieve come sooner? Only Phil and his shadow can say for sure.
And he has: NO SHADOW. "Not a shadow to be found. Spring is sprung. RIP Winter! #earlyspring!" That's according to Phil's official Twitter (gotta love modern technology)!
The accuracy of his prediction is secondary, of course.
The real point of Groundhog Day is a silly excuse to get out in the elements and submit to the power, mystery and majesty of nature is what it's all about.
It's basically humans throwing up our hands and declaring we're not in control … and a big excuse to stay up all night drinking outside in frigid conditions.
Storyline Vishwaroopam is a 2013 Indian spy thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Kamal Haasan who also enacts the lead role.The film has been made simultaneously in Tamil and Hind
Storyline The plot revolves around the lives of three different men named David, who are about to take a step which is going to change their lives forever.
According to TMZ, new photos of the singer getting high are being shopped around the Internet. They feature Justin and Lil Za enjoying themselves some Mary Jane while outside a home in Los Angeles.
Za is the same person who was caught driving Bieber's Ferrari early this morning without a license.
A few weeks ago, of course, Bieber was caught smoking up with Lil Twist, clearly holding a lit joint at a party. He later took to Twitter in response and promised to "be better."
TMZ has reached out to Bieber's camp for a comment. So far, nothing.
But do YOU have any, readers?
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Welcome to the 2nd annual Tournament of THG: Couples Edition! With Valentine's Day looming, it's time for you to decide the most popular celebrity couple!
We're down to the final eight in this tournament, but YOUR VOTES decide the winner! How to play: Pick your favorite of the two pairs in each poll. Done.
The second round concludes Monday, so here's your last chance to vote in the quarterfinals. Some battles are closer than others, but anything can happen!
Without further delay, let your voice be heard ...
Rob & Kristen vs. Blake & Miranda: Which couple do you love more? Vote in our Tournament of THG Couples quarterfinal and let your voice be heard! View Poll »
Ian & Nina vs. Blake & Ryan: Which couple do you love more? Vote now in this second-round matchup of the Tournament of THG: Couples Edition! View Poll »
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