Kim Kardashian files for divorce from Kanye West
LOS ANGELES: Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce from rapper Kanye West after almost seven years of marriage, her publicist said.
The mega-celebrity couple’s divorce proceedings come just weeks after US media reported that the pair were living separately and going for counselling to deal with “regular relationship issues”.
Celebrity gossip site TMZ – which broke the news Friday – said the separation was “as amicable as a divorce can be”.
Kardashian, 40, is asking for joint custody of the couple’s four children, it added, with her lawyer Laura Wasser reportedly handing in the divorce papers on Friday.
Kardashian’s publicist confirmed the divorce filing but did not give further details.
The pair, who began dating in 2012 and married in a lavish ceremony in Italy two years later, rapidly became one of the world’s most instantly recognisable couples.
But their union has been dogged for months by reports in the gossip press that their marriage was on the rocks as West has battled with mental health issues and launched an improbable and controversial foray into US politics.
West, 43, has opened up about his struggles with bipolar disorder.
In July last year, the mercurial entertainment mogul launched a bid for the US presidency with a rambling speech during which he revealed that he had wanted to abort his daughter, and broke down in tears. He also posted a series of tweets, later deleted, that accused his wife and mother-in-law of trying to lock him up, and suggested he was seeking a divorce.
Kardashian called on the media and public to show “compassion and empathy” following her husband’s erratic behaviour.
“Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behaviour know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor,” Kardashian said in her lengthy Instagram post in July.
The couple have four children: seven-year-old daughter North, son Saint, five, daughter Chicago, three, and 21-month-old son Psalm.
It would be the first divorce for West and the third for Kardashian. —AFP
Dramatic footage released by Chinese state media purportedly shows deadly clashes between troops at the Indian border last year – a rare insight into violence at the tense, remote frontier.
China’s defence ministry on Friday named four soldiers killed in the brawl, in the first confirmation of deaths by Beijing from an incident that also claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers.
Footage later released by state broadcaster CCTV appeared to show Indian troops wading through a river towards Chinese soldiers in the barren and ice-covered Karakoram Mountains, carrying sticks and shields reading “Police”.
A bilateral accord prevents the use of guns by either side, and brutal clashes between the two sides on the ill-defined border often involve sticks, rocks and fist-fights.
“They have now moved another new tent here,” one soldier says in the video, which claims the Indian side broke the consensus and crossed the line to “provoke” Chinese soldiers.
Footage shows a large melee of troops from both sides and clashes in the dark, before Chinese soldiers are seen treating a man on the floor whose head is covered in blood.
The high-altitude border battle in the Galwan valley in June was one of the deadliest clashes between the two sides in recent decades.
Beijing acknowledged that the clash had resulted in casualties but did not confirm if any Chinese soldiers died until this week.
Battalion commander Chen Hongjun and three other soldiers have been given posthumous awards, the defence ministry said.