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A former French government minister is demanding £120,000 in damages over ‘salacious’ claims he had an extra-marital affair with First Lady Valerie Trierweiler. Patrick Devedjian denies being one of Ms Trierweiler’s two lovers she was while still married nine years ago. The allegations emerged in a biography of the First Lady called The Troublemaker, which says she was having affairs with both Devidjian and Francois Hollande while married to Denis Trierweiler in 2004. President Hollande’s 47-year-old girlfriend also denies the claims and she too is suing the book’s authors. Devidjian’s lawyer Dan Hazan said his married 68-year-old client - a minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy - was demanding damages for defaming his character. Mr Hazan added: 'The authors transformed a salacious rumour into fact purely to boost sales. 'There is not a scrap of evidence that this supposed relationship existed.' The book - by TV journalists Christophe Jakubyszyn and Alix Bouilhaguet - c

Budweiser will roll out their new bow-tie shaped cans on May 6, the company announced today. The beer company has been developing the new look 'dented-middle' can mimicking their logo over the past three years. The quirky can shape is intended to attract new younger drinkers and will come in eight rather six packs because the unusual design reduces the amount of beer they can hold. Bow-tie: The new can, right, will be available from May 6 and will be sold in eight rather than six packs like the traditional design, left However, they've told fans of the old-style can not to fear as the cylinder design will continue to be available as well. 'We know there are a large number of consumers out there looking for new things, the trend-seekers,' Anheuser-Busch's vice president of innovation Pat McGauley told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. 'We expect both our core beer drinkers and new customers to try it.' The cans mimic the company's bow-tie symbo

The mother of three young girls killed by their father in what prosecutors say was an act of revenge has recalled the chilling phone call she received from her ex-husband telling her what he had done. 'He said, "You can come now, I killed the kids,"' a weeping Jessica Schaffhausen told the St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson, Wisconsin on Thursday. She told the court her daughters hadn’t seen their father, Aaron Schaffhausen, 35, in two months when he called last July to say he wanted to see them. Scroll down for video A mother's agony: Jessica Schaffhausen, pictured with her youngest daughter Cecilia as a baby, wept in court as she spoke about the horrific call she received from her ex-husband Tragic lives taken too soon: Amara, 11, five-year-old Cecilia and eight-year-old Sophie (left to right) While he had made threats about harming the girls in the past, his mental state seemed to be improving and she believed it was important for her daughters to

American Airlines grounded flights across the country Tuesday because of an outage of its main reservations system. Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports and on airplanes. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said American asked to halt its flights until 5 p.m. EDT. Flights into American's five biggest cities - New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami - are stopped until 5:30 p.m. EDT. On a wing and a prayer: An American Airlines ticket agent talks assists passengers checking in at Hartsfield-Jackson airport today; AA flights across the country are grounded because of computer problems Grounded: A passenger talks to an AA ticket agent in Atlanta after all flights were cancelled 'Any American plane sitting on the ground anywhere in the U.S.' won't be taking off, said FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford. Flight-tracking service FlightAware estimated that about 900 flights would be delayed if American resumed flying at 5 p.m., and the cas

The terrifying bomb attack at yesterday's Boston Marathon took place on Patriots' Day - a New England tradition that has been marred by tragedy. Patriots' Day carries historical significance in the birth of America, marking the day that the 'shot heard 'round the world' was fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War. But in recent years, it presents numerous grim anniversaries. Carnage: The terrifying bomb attack at Monday's Boston Marathon took place on Patriots' Day - a New England tradition that has been marred by tragedy Bloodbath in Waco: The federal siege of the Branch Davidian compound, which left 82 members of the cult dead, ended on Patriots' Day in 1993 Patriots' Day is held in reverence by right-wing domestic groups, those who oppose the federal government and other mass killers who have chosen to strike on or around the third Monday in April. The federal siege of the Branch Davidian

Two Prime Ministerial confidants, two very different specimens. First Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former ‘chief of staff’. Later Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet Office minister who has been David Cameron’s point man on Press regulation. Mr Powell was, in a slightly manic way, terrific. He spoke at a million miles an hour, sentences pinging off the surface hard and low, as will flat pebbles if thrown at a lake with enough wrist action. He was in front of the public administration select committee, discussing the future of the civil service. Mr Powell, still a zipped-up Blairite, thought Whitehall should be politicised and given a ‘cadre’ (a word normally used of the Chinese communist party) of officials with declared political leanings. He also thought civil servants should be put in charge of big spending projects and publicly named. At present officials are supposed to be non-partisan. When projects go awry, as often they do, it is almost impossible to discover who is responsible. Mr

The terrorist or group behind the horrific Boston Marathon carnage detonated two bombs made from kitchen pressure cookers packed with metallic pieces and nails - a method that has been featured in a notorious terror propaganda article. The twin bombing at the finish line of the historic race killed at least three people - including 8-year-old Martin Richard and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell - while injuring 183 others. A bomb designed from a pressure cooker is a preferred weapon of al Qaeda terrorists, and was listed as the 'most effective' weapon of jihad in the English-language terror magazine called Inspire. Instructions on how to build a pressure cooker bomb were featured in the infamous Inspire article 'Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.' Scroll down for video Aftermath: Smoke billows over the finish line after the first bomb was detonated, inflicting tragedy and panic at the race Kitchen bomb: The pressure cooker bomb is known as a 'highly effecti