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Hollywood actress Raquel Welch has died at the age of 82.

The US star “passed away peacefully early this morning after a brief illness”, her management company said.

Her career spanned more than 50 years and included 30 films and scores of TV series and appearances.

Welch won a best actress Golden Globe in 1975 for her role in The Three Musketeers.

Raquel Welch at the world premiere of The Flight of the Phoenix, at the Carlton Theatre, Haymarket in London, 20 January 1966. Pic: AP
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Welch at the premiere of The Flight of the Phoenix in London in 1966. Pic: AP

She made her initial breakthrough in 1966 in the sci-fi adventure Fantastic Voyage and prehistoric drama One Million Years BC.

Despite having just a few lines of dialogue, her appearance in the latter was one of her best-known roles, her only costume a deer skin bikini.

A publicity still of her in the two piece became a best-selling poster.

In 2011, Time magazine put it at number six in the “top 10 bikinis in pop culture”.

Alongside her acting career, Welch was seen as a sex symbol, with Playboy magazine calling her the “most desired woman” of the 1970s.

Other screen credits in the late 1960s and early 70s included starring roles in Bedazzled, Bandolero!, 100
Rifles, Myra Breckinridge and Hannie Caulder.

There were also lots of TV appearances, from 1964 to 2017, and in the early 1980s she was on Broadway, starring on the New York stage in Woman of the Year alongside Lauren Bacall.

Reese Witherspoon said she was “so sad to hear about Raquel Welch’s passing”, adding: “I loved working with her on Legally Blonde. She was elegant, professional and glamorous beyond belief. Simply stunning.”

Little House on the Prairie actress Melissa Gilbert said on Instagram: “There are people one aspires to be like and then there are those you know you’ll just never be like because they are just so individually undeniably themselves. This woman (Welch) was one of those people. RIP.”

Actor Robert Wagner said Welch was an “incredibly gifted woman with such a beautiful soul”.

Raquel Welch attends the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Party in Beverly Hills, California, 9 February
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Raquel Welch at a pre-Grammys party in Beverly Hills in 2008

Her management company, Media Four, said in a statement: “Raquel Welch, the legendary bombshell actress of film, television and stage, passed away peacefully early this morning after a brief illness.

“Her career spanned over 50 years, starring in over 30 films and 50 television series and appearances.

“The Golden Globe winner, in more recent years, was involved in a very successful line of wigs.

“Raquel leaves behind her two children, son Damon Welch and her daughter, Tahnee Welch.”

Welch was born in September 1940 in Chicago, her family moving to San Diego in southern California when she was two.

Her father, Armando Tejada, was an aeronautical engineer from Bolivia.

Her cousin, Bolivian politician Lidia Gueiler Tejada, became the country’s first female president.

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world’s best golfer to undergo surgery

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world's best golfer to undergo surgery

The world’s best golfer has suffered a freak injury while cooking Christmas dinner, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Scottie Scheffler sustained a puncture wound after cutting the palm of his right hand on broken glass.

The world number one required surgery as small glass fragments remained in the palm after the accident.

The injury has forced him out of the first tournament of the season, next week’s The Sentry in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

But the 28-year-old has been told he will recover in three to four weeks, and he hopes to be back in action at The American Express tournament in California on 16 January.

Scheffler won an Olympic gold and seven PGA Tour titles in the last year and was recently named PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a third season in a row.

In May, he was arrested by police during the US PGA Championship after he was accused of trying to drive around a traffic jam caused by a fatal accident.

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Spectators wore Free Scottie t-shirts and one wore an orange jumpsuit. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
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Scheffler’s arrest became a major story at the US PGA Championship. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Just hours later, he was released and allowed to return to Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to play his second round of the tournament.

Criminal charges against Scheffler were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and a police officer who arrested him was disciplined for not having his bodycam on at the time of the incident.

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

The man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges.

Sebastian Zapeta is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and then fanning the flames with a shirt, which caused her to be engulfed by the blaze.

He allegedly sat on a platform at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, opposite the stopped train, and watched as she burned to death.

Authorities are still working to identify the victim.

Zapeta, 33, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of arson in the first degree.

After a brief hearing in which the indictment was announced, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system.”

Mr Gonzalez said police and medical examiners are using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques to identify the victim, while also retracing her steps before the murder.

“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” he said. “Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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Officers patrol the platform where the woman died. Pic: AP

Zapeta was initially charged with murder and arson in a criminal complaint earlier this week.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because all felony cases in New York require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial, unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Zapeta was not present at the hearing. The most serious charge he is facing carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole and the indictment will be unsealed on 7 January.

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Zapeta is a Guatemalan who entered the US illegally having already been deported in 2018, officials say.

He was taken into custody last Sunday, after three children called 911 when they recognised him from an image shared by police.

During questioning, prosecutors say he claimed not to know what happened, and noted he consumes alcohol – but did identify himself in photos and videos showing the fire being lit.

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Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer over $2 tip, police say

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Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer over  tip, police say

A pizza delivery woman stabbed a pregnant customer over a $2 tip, authorities in the US say.

Brianna Alvelo, 22, is charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing the woman multiple times at a motel in Kissimmee, Florida.

The victim, her boyfriend and her five-year-old daughter were staying at the Riviera Motel to celebrate a birthday and ordered Marco’s pizza on Sunday, according to a court document reported by Sky News’ US sister outlet NBC News.

Alvelo delivered the pizza which cost around $33 (£26) and was asked to provide change for a $50 bill but did not have the change, the affidavit said.

The woman then searched for smaller bills and in the end gave Alvelo a $2 tip.

Brianna Alvelo
Pic:Osceola County Jail
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Brianna Alvelo Pic: Osceola County Jail

She told police that some time later she heard a loud knocking on the door. A man and a woman wearing masks and all black forced themselves into the room when she opened the door, she said.

The man brandished a silver revolver and demanded that the woman’s boyfriend go into the bathroom and the other person, believed to be Alvelo, pulled out a pocketknife, the document said.

As the woman turned to shield her child she felt a strike on her lower back, she said.

She then “threw her daughter onto the bed and attempted to pick up her phone”, the affidavit said, but Alvelo grabbed it and smashed it.

Alvelo then “began striking her multiple times with the knife”, according to the affidavit. The man who had the gun then yelled it was time to go, stopping the assault, it said.

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The woman received 14 stab wounds and discovered she was pregnant while being treated in hospital.

Alvelo is charged with attempted murder, home invasion with a firearm, kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to court records.

A man alleged to have accompanied Alvelo during the incident has not yet been identified.

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