Is Kate Middleton Pregnant? Duchess of Cambridge In Scotland Hiding ?Baby Bump? With Scarf [PHOTOS]

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Kate Middleton Glows in Primrose: Duchess of Cambridge Watch as William in Honored Knight of the Whistle

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The pregnancy speculation continues on after Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, was seen in photos snapped in Scotland hiding what onlookers called a baby bump with a scarf indicating that she is pregnant.

Middleton and husband Prince William of Britain were attending a Thistle Service in Edinburgh, Scotland on Thursday, since the couple was named Earl and Countess of Strathearn, where she wore a pale yellow coatdress by Emilia Wickstead, according to Grazia. Duchess Catherine paired the dress with black pumps and curled Parisisal trimmed Whiteley hat.

But most noticeable was the small bag and tartan scarf Middleton used to hide her stomach in the flared dress, sparking rumors that the royals are expecting a baby. In photos taken from her right side, she is seen with a protruding stomach hidden underneath the plaid Strathearn scarf.

The rumors come days after In Touch magazine published its latest issue with Middleton on the cover, proclaiming it had exclusive photos of Kate's First Bump. The photos snapped on May 31 in London's Chelsea neighborhood show Middleton wearing a blue-grey belted dress showcasing a swelling in her stomach.

We thought at first it might be just the way her dress fell as she walked, a source told In Touch. But if you looked closely, it was a definite baby bump. It was prominent enough to cast a shadow below.

The source added that Kate's face and bottom are more rounded and has a glow in her cheeks, but that's speculation.

So far, the palace has not confirmed nor denied if Middleton is pregnant. However, back in May, Prince William told Katie Couric of ABC News that he'd like to have children with his wife of one year.

I'm just very keen to have a family and both Catherine and I, you know, are very much looking forward to having a family in the future, Prince William said.

When Couric asked if there was anything he would like to announce, the Prince responded, You won't get anything out of me. Tight lipped.

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | May 26 2011 10:54 AM

A lobster-like animal that was the biggest predator of its kind survived much longer and gota lot bigger than anyone thought.

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Based on a set of fossils found in Morocco, paleontologists from Yale University found that anomalocaridids, survived 30 million years past the date when they were originally thought to have died out.

Anomalocaridids are arthropods, related to crabs, insects and spiders. The creatures appeared between 540 and 488 million years ago, in what is called the Cambrian explosion. The period is so named because at that time there was the sudden appearance of many major animal groups that exist today (and a few that no longer do).

Previously, scientists thought that the anomalocaridids hadn't survived past the end of the Cambrian, though during that 62 million-year span they diversified into many different types. The fossils that were found seemed to show that the biggest they ever got was about two feet long, but the new discovery is a creature that was about 3 feet. The fossil the Yale team found dates to the Ordovican, a period that followed the Cambrian which was also marked by a lot of diversification.

Anomalocaridids had two spiny, tentacle-like front limbs, with the front half of their bodies covered in a shell and the rear half segmented. They also had a series of blade-like filaments on their backs, which might have functioned as gills. They are rather like shrimp or lobsters, though they appear long before either one. Another major difference is modern crustaceans have gills that are on their undersides, rather than on their backs.

Most paleontologists think the two limbs would snag prey which was then drawn into a circular mouth that was lined with plates. It is something like a combination of a parrot's beak and a nutcracker, said Derek Briggs, director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and one of the lead researchers. It was probably one of the single largest predators in the world at the time - there were not yet any fish big enough to tackle it.

Anomalocaridids aren't ancestors to anything living, as they are a branch of the arthropod family that died out, much like the trilobites (who they shared the seas with).

The specimens are just part of a new trove of fossils that includes thousands of examples of soft-bodied marine fauna dating back to the early Ordovician period, 488 to 472 million years ago. Briggs said such finds are rare. Only about 40 percent of species have shells that fossilize, he said. Anomalocaridids - like modern lobsters and horseshoe crabs - had a shell made of chitin, which decays unless it gets buried in silt very quickly. The rest of the animals don't have anything like that. That, Briggs said, means a lot of the time you only get a very incomplete picture of what life was like millions of years ago. The animals found in Morocco inhabited a muddy sea floor, and were trapped by sediment that buried them and preserved their soft bodies.

The paper appears in the May 26 issue of the journal Nature.

By Palash Ghosh | May 26 2011 10:56 AM

The arrest of Serbian war criminal fugitive Ratko Mladic has been hailed by leading political figures in Europe and the U.S.

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The British Foreign Secretary William Hague described the arrest a historic moment for the western Balkans.

We now look forward to the rapid transfer of Ratko Mladic to The Hague so that the charges against him can be heard in an international court of law, Hague said.

Hague added: Today our thoughts are with the relatives of those killed during the siege of Sarajevo and genocide in Srebrenica. We congratulate the Serbian authorities on this arrest, which is evidence of the Serbian government's commitment to co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Mladic has likely committed the most appalling war crimes.

There is a very good reason why the long arm of the international law has been looking for this man for such a long time, he added.

The UK Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said the arrest reflected that no one can evade justice.

I think it sends an important message that however much you hide and however much you run the long arm of the law will find you,” Alexander said.

There have been many people over many, many years who have been working for this outcome and I think we owe it to the victims of the terrible massacres in Srebrenica and Sarajevo that he now faces the full force of international law. It does, I think, remove one of the significant obstacles, perhaps the most significant obstacle, preventing Serbia being able to move towards a securer European future.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Patty Ashdown, who was High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2002 and 2007, said Mladic’s arrest and trial will offer a chance for the whole Balkan region to put the past behind them.

Conservative MP Bob Stewart, who was a commander of UN troops in Bosnia in 1992, told the BBC: It is very, very important that this man Mladic is brought to The Hague quickly, the trial starts quickly, the trial is expeditious in dealing with the matter and, actually, at the end of it justice prevails.

Other voices across the world echoed such sentiments.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated:[The arrest] is very good news and it is a very courageous decision by the Serbian president. It is one more step towards Serbia's integration one day into the European Union.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called the arrest a “historic day for international justice. It marks an important step in our will to end impunity. I thank the Serbian government and president for their efforts.

Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser in the U.S., declared: The United States is delighted to hear the announcement of the Serbian government that they have captured Ratko Mladic. We look forward to an expeditious transfer to the tribunal in The Hague.

European Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso said he strongly welcomes Mladic’s arrest, noting it was a key demand by for Serbia’s proposed membership into the EU.

This is an important step forward for Serbia and for international justice,” he said.

“I congratulate [Serbian] President [Boris] Tadic and Serbia's government for this courageous action. I expect Ratko Mladic to be transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia without delay. Full co-operation with the ICTY remains essential on Serbia's path towards EU membership.

Mladic, who commanded the Bosnian Serb army in the early 1990, was the last prominent fugitive from the Bosnian war. He has been accused for atrocities, including the mass murder of 8000 men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

He was indicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal in Hague in 1995, but has remained at large all these years.

President Tadic has said Mladic will not be extradited to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague in Netherlands.

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | June 27 2009 3:08 AM

Sony Corp is considering developing a cellphone-game gear hybrid in a bid to better compete with Apple Inc's highly popular iPod and iPhone, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

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The Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate launched its first Walkman three decades ago, dominating the portable music player market, but it has been running far behind the iPod and iPhone in recent years.

Sony plans to set up a project team as early as July to develop a new product that combines functions of its portable game player and Sony Ericsson's mobile phones, the Nikkei said.

Sony Ericsson is a cellphone joint venture between Sony and Sweden's Ericsson.

A growing number of game-makers including Capcom Co Ltd and Square Enix Holdings are now offering software for the iPod and iPhone to take advantage of the Apple products' popularity, posing a threat to Sony's PlayStation Portable and Nintendo Co Ltd's DS.

A Sony spokesman declined to comment on the report.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | June 27 2009 8:15 AM

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Saturday that the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraqi cities at the end of June showed Iraq can handle its own security, despite a wave of bombings this week.

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The U.S. pullback from Iraq's urban centers scheduled to be finished at the end of the month has been seen as a milestone on Iraq's road to sovereignty after years of military occupation.

But a spate of bombings in the capital and in northern Iraq this week, including two of the bloodiest attacks in more than a year, have shaken the confidence of Iraqis in their own forces.

We are on the threshold of a new phase that will bolster Iraq's sovereignty, Maliki said. It is a message to the world that we are now able to safeguard our security and administer our internal affairs.

Two big bombings in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk this week killed more than 150 people between them. On Friday, a bomb killed at least 13 people at a market in Baghdad. A spattering of other bombs has also fueled apprehension.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned they expect the number of attacks to rise as the U.S. troops pull back, and also in the run-up to parliamentary elections next January.

We have high trust in our security forces to administer security and pursue al-Qaeda remnants and criminal gangs, Maliki said.

He added that Iraq had achieved comparatively good levels of security, not just through better policing but efforts at political reconciliation between Iraq's divided factions -- something his critics often accuse him of dragging his feet on.

If they (militants) want to bring down the political process, we say, it won't collapse, unless national unity is shaken, Maliki said.