Lady Gaga celebrates 28th Birthday with James Franco at His Broadway show

Lady Gaga got a very sweet birthday surprise, courtesy of her longtime boyfriend Taylor Kinney.

The pop superstar, who turned 28 on Friday and performed at the famed Roseland Ballroom in New York City, celebrated the end of her very special day with her beau and hinted that his presence was unexpected.

Another amazing birthday moment. I love surprises!" the G.U.Y. crooner captioned a sweet black and white snapshot of the lovebirds. The Chicago Fire actor is leaning in to give his ladylove a sweet kiss, while the songstress is smiling as she gazes at the camera.

While the singing sensation didn't share a photograph of any presents from Kinney, Gaga posted a glimpse of a very special gift from Donatella Versace. After a bunch of outfit changes throughout the day, Mother Monster donned a space-inspired white long-sleeve leotard, a long platinum blond wig and mile-high pale pink tentacled platforms to the post-show festivities.

Earlier in the evening, Gaga kicked off a seven-night engagement at the famed New York City venue and pal James Franco was in the audience. "HAPPY birthday, GaGA!!!!" the actor enthusiastically captioned a photo of the duo backstage on his Instagram account. The special weekend continued for the A-list couple and they showed their support for Franco at his Broadway show Of Mice and Men on Saturday evening.

Crew makes belated arrival at space station, U.S- Russian

Russian spaceship carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut made a belated arrival at the International Space Station on Thursday, returning the orbital outpost to full staff.

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket two days ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
They had expected to reach the station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles above Earth, six hours later.
But about two hours after launch, the crew's Soyuz capsule failed to fire its maneuvering engines as planned, forcing a delay to the next station docking opportunity on Thursday.
The cause of the skipped rocket firing remains under investigation, said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias. Preliminary analysis shows the spaceship was 1 degree out of alignment from its predicted orientation, triggering the Soyuz computers to automatically abort the engine burn, Navias said during a NASA Television broadcast of the docking. Since Tuesday's mishap, the Soyuz successfully conducted the necessary engine firings to reach the station. "Better late than never," said Navias as the Soyuz made its final approach to the outpost. The crew's prolonged journey ended at 7:53 p.m. EDT as the Soyuz slipped into a berthing port on the station's Poisk module.
The arrival of Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson returns the station to a full six-member crew. The orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations, has been short-staffed since two other cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned to Earth on March 11. The 15-nation space station partnership, overseen by the United States and Russia, so far has been immunized from the political and economic fallout following Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

Since retiring its fleet of space shuttles in 2011, the United States is dependent on Russia to fly its astronauts to the station, a service that costs NASA more than $63 million per person. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, testifying before Congress on Thursday, said it is unlikely Russia will cutoff U.S. access to the station as payback for U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia's takeover of Crimea. "Russia is dependent upon the United States to operate the station when it comes to power, when it comes to everyday operation," Bolden told members of the Space Subcommittee of the House Science.

The biggest Muslim rebel group in Philippines signed a peace deal

The biggest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines signed an historic pact Thursday to end one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts, promising to give up their arms for an autonomous homeland. Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with President Benigno Aquino's government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila.

 The comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our struggle, MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony, using a local term that refers to a Muslim homeland. "With this agreement the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro and the commitment of the government of the Philippines to recognise those aspirations are now sealed." The pact makes the MILF and the government partners in a plan to create a southern autonomous region for the Philippines' Muslim minority with locally elected leaders by mid-2016. "What is being presented before us now is a path that can lead to a permanent change in Muslim Mindanao," Aquino said at the ceremony, attended by more than 1,000 people.

The Bangsamoro region would cover about 10 percent of territory in the mainly Catholic Philippines. The planned region has a majority of Muslims, but there are clusters of Catholic-dominated communities. Muslim rebels have been battling since the 1970s for independence or autonomy in the southern islands of the Philippines, which they regard as their ancestral homeland dating back to when Arabic traders arrived there in the 13th Century.

The conflict has condemned millions of people across large parts of the resource-rich Mindanao region to brutal poverty, plagued by Muslim and Christian warlords as well as outbreaks of fighting that has led to mass displacements.

The conflict also created fertile conditions for Islamic extremism, with the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group and other hardline militants making remote regions of Mindanao their strongholds. The MILF, which the military estimates has 10,000 fighters, is easily the biggest Muslim rebel group in Mindanao, and the political settlement was greeted with relief and optimism in the south. "I am really happy. In the face of all the hardship of our parents, we the next generation hope and pray that Christians and Muslims will have peace," Mona Rakman,  a mother of four who lives close to the MILF headquarters, The autonomous region would have its own police force, a regional parliament and power to levy taxes, while revenues from the region's vast deposits of natural resources would be split with the national government. It would have a secular government, rather than being an Islamic state. The national government would retain control over defence, foreign policy, currency and citizenship. There are about 10 million Muslims in the Philippines, roughly 10 percent of the population, according to government statistics. Most live in the south of the country.
However there are no guarantees the peace deal will be implemented by the middle of 2016, a crucial deadline as that is when Aquino is required by the constitution to end his six-year term. Aquino needs to convince Congress to pass a "basic law" to create the Bangsamoro autonomous region, ideally by the end of this year to allow time for other steps such as a local plebiscite. But even though Aquino enjoys record-high popularity ratings, there are concerns politicians could reject or water down the proposed law. Powerful Christian politicians in Mindanao are regarded as potential deal breakers, while others elsewhere may see political advantage in opposing the deal to appeal to some Catholics ahead of the 2016 national elections. The deal is also likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court, which in 2008 struck down a planned peace deal the MILF had negotiated with Aquino's predecessor, Gloria Arroyo. Islamic militants opposed to the peace deal are another threat, and could continue to create enduring violence in Mindanao. Among the potential spoilers is the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), an MILF splinter group of a few hundred militants that has carried out deadly attacks in the south in recent years. "We will continue to fight against the government of the Republic of the Philippines because we are for independence and nothing else,"

However the MILF will not give up its arms or the identities of its fighters until the basic law has been passed, highlighting the fragility of Thursday's peace deal. In his speech, Aquino warned militant and political foes alike that he was prepared to crush any challenge to the peace deal. "I will not let peace be snatched from my people again," Aquino said to applause. "Those who want to test the resolve of the state will be met with a firm response based on righteousness and justice.

Bomb blast hit Nigerias Borno state

Security officials say Boko Haram was behind bombing of a crowded market in Borno state that killed at least 20 people. Suspected Boko Haram fighters have detonated a bomb in a crowded marketplace in northeastern Nigeria killing at least 20 people.

eye witnesses said,
Nigerian security officials said the attack late on Saturday in the town of Bama in Borno state bore the hallmarks of an attack by the al-Qaeda-linked group, which is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of northeast Nigeria. Security sources say Boko Haram has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, this year in a campaign of violence that is growing in intensity, according to the Reuters news agency.

There was a deafening bang at the middle of the market. It was in the late afternoon and commercial activities were at their peak," said Shuaibu Abdulahi, a trader at the market. He estimated the death toll to be as high as 29. Abba Tahir, a bus driver who was offloading passengers at the market, said he counted 20 bodies. "People were helping to evacuate the corpses after the confusion had died down. Some people who were injured were taken to the general hospital," Tahir said. No responsibility There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. The military spokesman for Borno state did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A military crackdown since last May has failed to quell the insurgency, which after four and a half years remains the leading security threat to Africa's top oil producer.

Borno state has ordered all of its schools to shut before the end of term to protect children after Boko Haram killed.

Six Reasons why the Galaxy S5 Beats the iPhone 5s

Comparing Samsung's Galaxy S5 to Apple's iPhone 5s is like pitting the Tesla Model S against the Ford Model T. From its more capable camera to its cutting-edge fitness features, Samsung's new flagship phone has a slew of amenities that Apple, famous for being the last to embrace new technologies, will probably add to the iPhone 7s. I could spill a vat of digital ink, detailing every way in which the Galaxy S5 is the best 2014 has to offer and the iPhone 5s feels like an average Android device from 2012. However, iPhone users would have to scroll a lot to read them on their low-res displays. Here are the six biggest reasons why the Galaxy S5 beats the iPhone 5s.

1. Larger, Better Display In an age when most flagship phones have full-HD displays 5 inches or larger, the iPhone 5s' 4-inch, 1136 x 640-pixel display is such a relic that it should come with a cassette adapter. Sure, the iPhone's screen has good color fidelity and a sharp 326 pixels per inch, but it can't hold a candela to Samsung's 5.1-inch, 1920 x 1080p super AMOLED panel. A larger screen means a better movie-viewing experience, more-legible Web pages and books, and larger keys on the virtual keyboard for accurate typing. With a full-HD resolution, the Galaxy S5 shows the best online videos at an eye-popping 431.9 PPI, with no downscaling required. Better still, the Galaxy S5 has a new technology that adjusts not only the brightness, but also the contrast ratio and color gamut, to provide a superior experience in direct sunlight and other challenging conditions.

2. Much More Powerful Camera The iPhone 5s' 8-MP camera takes photos with great color accuracy and sharpness, but it only captures half the detail of the Galaxy S5's 16-MP shooter. But it's not all about megapixels. The Galaxy S5 has real-time HDR (high-dynamic range), which uses different exposure levels for different parts of an image, while the iPhone can only provide this functionality on individual shots, not on videos or in preview mode. The Galaxy S5 allows you to refocus your images after capturing them so you can focus on that face in the background rather than on the person in front. Add in previous Samsung features like Eraser Mode, which removes photobombers, and Best Face, which helps you pick the best smile for each person in a group photo, and you have a photography experience that's generations ahead of Apple's.

3. Longer Battery Life If you want a built-in excuse for not answering that 5 p.m. email from your boss, get an iPhone 5s. With its puny 1,560-mAh battery, Apple's phone lasted a miserable 5 hours and 46 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which consists of continuous Web surfing over 4G LTE. If you don't pick up your phone much or buy a battery case, you can make it through the day with the iPhone 5s. But why worry about it? In contrast, Samsung equips the Galaxy S5 with a 2,800-mAh battery and a new Ultra Power Saving Mode that turns the settings down when you're running low on juice. Samsung also provides a removable back panel that lets you replace its battery, either with a spare of the same size or a third-party extended battery.

4. Water Resistance Drop your iPhone 5s in the toilet, and you might as well flush it, because it's never coming back. However, if your Galaxy S5 should take a potty pitfall, you can hold your nose for 29 minutes before fishing it out and rinsing it off. Samsung's IP67-certified phone can survive up to 30 minutes submerged in 1 meter (about 3 feet) of water. If it's like the Sony Xperia Z, which boasts the same water resistance, the Galaxy S5 will continue streaming music to your Bluetooth speaker while submerged.

5. Better Security, Manageability Apple earned kudos for embedding a fingerprint sensor into the iPhone 5s' home button, but Samsung has taken biometric security to the next level on the Galaxy S5. In addition to using the Galaxy S5's fingerprint reader (which is also built into the home button) to unlock the phone, you can enter a "private mode" that provides added security for your most sensitive documents and emails. The sensor also integrates with PayPal for secure online purchases. Samsung also bundles the Galaxy S5 with its unique KNOX environment, which places business data and apps into a separate environment. Your corporate IT manager can feel secure knowing that your apps, business contacts and emails all live in a secure area of your phone, while you can feel comfortable knowing the IT department is not looking at your personal data.

6. Heart-Rate Monitor and Health Features Whether you're trying to lose weight or just want to know how bad a shape you're in, Samsung has a built-in heart rate monitor that will capture your beats per minute when you stick a finger on the sensor. The Galaxy S5 also comes with a new version of S Health, the company's very detailed fitness software. The app includes a pedometer, diet advice and many ways of tracking your exercise and weight loss goals. With the iPhone 5S, you'll need to buy a fitness band and find your own fitness app.