The move followed clashes over the weekend and on Monday, with tear gas and rubber bullets used.

The mood in the capital Bangkok appeared calmer after the police move, which officials said was aimed at avoiding further confrontation.

The Thai prime minister has rejected protesters' demands that she step down.

Yingluck Shinawatra said she was open to negotiations but that calls for the government to be replaced by an appointed council were illegal and unconstitutional.

The protests, which began on 24 November, had been largely peaceful until Saturday, when they became violent.

Over the weekend and on Monday demonstrators tried to break apart police barricades and storm the prime minister's office, Government House, with police using tear gas and water cannon to repel them.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said on Monday that the protesters would "take over the Metropolitan Police Bureau and make it the people's".

On Tuesday morning - in a surprise and possibly shrewd move - the police took down barriers and razor wire outside their building and it was announced that the protesters were welcome inside, the BBC's Jonah Fisher reports from Bangkok.

Protesters are also being allowed through the barricades outside Government House, the scene of violence on Monday.

The move is seen as an attempt to prevent further clashes.

"In every area where there has been confrontation, we have now ordered all police to withdraw. It is government policy to avoid confrontation," police chief Kamronvit Thoopkrachang told Reuters.

"Today, we won't use tear gas, no confrontation, we will let them in if they want," he said.

With the obstacles removed the demonstrators have so far declined to enter any of the buildings, our correspondent says.

Protesters have described the latest developments as a victory for the people.

Tendulkar and his school friend Vinod Kambli burst onto the scene together but then went separate ways, writes Steve James.
Sachin Tendulkar to the extreme left and Vinod Kambli to the extreme right with their childhood coach in the centre at an event in 2009.

You would, wouldn't you? The best batsmen just want to bat and bat. And schoolboys are hardly known for their obedience. These two schoolboy batsmen were going rather well. So well in fact that they had both passed their double centuries. On the boundary's edge their assistant coach was waving his arms furiously. He was demanding their attention. It was time to declare. The team total had surpassed 500 after all.

But the batsmen were having none of it. This was too much fun. They carried on batting. And batting a bit more. By lunch of what was the second day of this three-day Harris Shield semi-final in Mumbai in 1988, one had 349 not out and his friend 326 not out. But they knew they had disobeyed instructions.

Their coach, Ramakant Achrekar, a man they both respected hugely, was not present, as he had to work that day. Instead it was his assistant, Laxman Chavan, whose instructions had been disregarded. At the interval Chavan told the pair of youngsters that they should phone Achrekar. Their coach asked the score. Over 700 came the reply. "Declare!" screamed Achrekar, according to Vaibhav Purandare, an Indian author.

"Sir, I'm batting on 349," said the one young man by the name of Vinod Kambli, before the phone was passed to the other, the captain. Sachin Tendulkar was his name. You may have heard of him. "Sir, Vinod needs one run to complete his 350, we'll declare as soon as he gets out," he said. "Declare!" shouted Achrekar, and for once Tendulkar was in trouble. But he and Kambli had already put on an unbeaten 664 for the third wicket for Shardashram School against St Xavier's College, and two stars of Indian cricket had been born.

A year later Tendulkar was playing Test cricket for India. "He took the elevator to the top," said Kambli, "whilst I took the stairs". But by 1993 they were on the top floor together in the Indian Test team, with Kambli at three and Tendulkar at four in a series at home to England. In the third Test in Mumbai, Kambli made 224, still the highest Test score by an Indian against England.

In his next Test against Zimbabwe, the left-handed Kambli made 227. Tendulkar was not to score his first Test double-hundred for another six years. In his next two Tests against Sri Lanka Kambli made two centuries. But after another 10 Tests he was dropped. That was in 1995, and he was aged just 23.

Despite averaging 54.2, he never played another Test. How different were the paths then taken by those schoolboy mates. Recently Tendulkar announced his retirement amid an avalanche of paeans; last week Kambli at the age of just 41 was rushed to hospital in Mumbai having suffered a heart attack. He is said to be in a stable condition. Tendulkar was always the model professional; Kambli was always the classic larrikin, with his golden earrings, funky haircuts (although the pate is now bald) and extravagant lifestyle. Maybe Kambli was before his time because he might have fitted in nicely in the indulgent excesses of the Indian Premier League now.

But even though he was still playing international one-day cricket in 2000, and indeed Indian first-class cricket until 2004, it was his lax attitude, not a susceptibility to the short ball, that scuppered his career. So it is little surprise really that his friendship with Tendulkar did not remain strong. "I haven't heard Sachin's sound for a long time and it hurts me," said Kambli recently. "It's been seven long years and we haven't met with each other. In between we just shared a few text messages and that's all. It seems as if we have become enemies now."

"Matilda" star Mara Wilson's "breakup" with Hollywood was a mutual one.

"It was sort of a slow realization," the 26-year-old told HuffPost Live's Caitlyn Becker Monday (Dec. 2) about her transition away from Hollywood after reaching child stardom. "I think it was the realization that I didn't have to do it anymore. It felt like a constant in my life for a very long time ... but I was never really that crazy about it after 'Matilda,' I would say."

"After that, I wasn't as passionate about it anymore," she continued. "And people grow out of things. That's something people don't really understand."

Wilson got her start in the 1993 family flick "Mrs. Doubtfire" and then moved onto roles in "Melrose Place," "Miracle On 34th Street," "Matilda" and "Batman Beyond." But, by the time she was a teenager, she was done.

"I was 13 and I was awkward, and I was gawky, and I was not a very cute kid anymore," she added. "So, Hollywood didn't really want me at that point, and I was kind of over it, too. So, after a while, it feels like a mutual breakup. That's the way that I'd describe it."

Wilson has previously spoken out about child stars and how the fame game can change people.

Back in May -- in the midst of Lindsay Lohan's legal issues and Amanda Bynes' breakdown -- she penned a blog post on Cracked about why child stars go crazy. She cited reasons like lack of parental guidance, exploitation and the fleeting nature of celebrity.

"It's basically a real-life version of 'Logan's Run.' A child actor who is no longer cute is no longer monetarily viable and is discarded. He or she is then replaced by someone younger and cuter, and fan bases accordingly forget that the previous object of affection ever existed," Wilson wrote.

"Most of you reading this felt pretty disgusting and useless while you were going through puberty. But imagine that people you once relied on and trusted -- as well as millions of people you'd never met, who had previously liked you -- had told you then, 'Yeah, it's true. You are exactly as ugly and worthless as you feel.

This is how she do: Rita Ora has been cast in the upcoming adaptation of "50 Shades of Grey."

The 23-year-old singer has booked the role of Mia, the adopted sister of Christian Grey, this according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ora joins a cast which already includes Jamie Dornan (who will be playing Grey), Dakota Johnson (Grey's love interest, Anastasia Steele), and Eloise Mumford, Luke Grimes, and Max Martini.

Ora is saying "R.I.P." to the singer she used to be and turning her focus to the major film project. She released her last album, "Ora," in 2012, and has since made appearances in an episode of "90210" and in the latest "Fast & Furious" movie, "Fast Six."

Hitting theaters on Feb. 13, 2015, the adaptation of E L James' best-selling novel began filming this week. The upcoming movie tells the story of the kinky relationship that forms between Grey and Steele.

 Police confirm that a Metro-North passenger train has derailed in the Bronx.

A woman at the scene says numerous emergency vehicles have responded.

Police sources told NBC and the New York Daily News that at least four people died after the commuter train headed towards Grand Central derailed around 7:20 AM.

The FDNY confirmed the 4 deaths in a press conference. They also said that at least 67 people were injured, 11 seriously. Of the 4 people killed, 3 were thrown from the train after it derailed.

According to News 12, several passengers were taken away on stretchers. The FDNY said that all of the injured people were in stable condition.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo later arrived on the scene and thanked first responders for their quick action. The NYPD estimated that about 100 people were on the train, which was scheduled to arrive at Grand Central Station at 7:43 AM.

According to the MTA, 5 of the 7 cars on the train derailed early Sunday morning. Though early witnesses to the scene said that some of the cars were submerged in water, police later said that wasn't true.

As the AP reported, the train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx.

WABC7 said that the area where the train accident occurred is known to be a dangerous curve. Another train derailed at the same spot in July.

Authorities said it was unclear what caused the derailment, but a passenger on the train told WABC7 that the train appeared to be going faster than usual.

If the name "Kennedy" harkens back to a bygone era of glamour, then the words "debutantes ball" will probably do the same.

And yet both are still going strong. Kyra Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy Jr. and great-niece to the late President John F. Kennedy, made her formal debut at the Bal Des Débutantes 2013 in Paris this weekend. The ball, held at the Hôtel de Crillon, saw over 20 "debs" introduced to society in the most glamorous couture while their parents watched on.

For 18-year-old Kyra, that meant donning a black and icy blue Christian Dior gown, which she was fitted for at Dior in Paris last Wednesday. Her father and his girlfriend, Cheryl Hines, attended in their own formalwear.

If the whole charade sounds like old-school Americana, note that it was a rather international affair: Lady Amelia Windsor, the granddaughter of one of Queen Elizabeth II's cousins Francesca Packer Barham, also made her debut, as did Rebecca Eu, daughter of Singapore business scion Richard Eu. Romy David, daughter of Larry David, was also reportedly part of the pack.

Basically, this was 20 or so young women who are already winning at life. Stay put while we go re-watch the debutante ball episode of "Gossip Girl" and wish it was us.

Take a look at the lovely Kyra at her coming out. We predict a long Dior-wearing future ahead of her.

Nina Agdal rocked a teeny bikini while vacationing in Barbados with her boyfriend, The Wanted's Max George, on Friday (Nov. 29). The 21-year-old model and the 25-year-old singer enjoyed some fun in the sun before jetting back home on Saturday.

While in Barbados the couple, who began dating in September,............» Full news story

“History will be made tonight,” so sayeth our friends in the UFC, as Julianna Peña will face Jessica Rakoczy for the honor of becoming the first female to ever win The Ultimate Fighter. At the same time, Chris Holdsworth and David Grant will be fighting for the distinction of being this season’s male winner of TUF 18: Team Rousey vs. Team Tate, but we’re far more interested in seeing the talent in the women’s division expand with one of these great women stepping up and earning a shot at a long, successful career in the UFC.

Meanwhile, the main event features two ranked lightweights facing off for a chance to get back in the title hunt, as fifth-ranked Gray Maynard and eighth-ranked Nate Diaz will fight despite that whole, strange story about Diaz supposedly backing out for his high school reunion. He could still back out of the fight, of course, but I’m assuming that he’s going to fight since he weighed in and all.

The online preliminaries begin at 7:30 PM ET (it’s just one fight this time), but you can join us right here at 8 PM ET for the preliminaries on Fox Sports 1 and then at 10 PM ET for the main card on Fox Sports 1.

The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbit Mars by next September, would carry India into a small club of nations including the United States, Europe, and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars.

India's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit in the early hours of Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the recent efforts of rival Asian giant China.

The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbit Mars by next September, would carry India into a small club of nations including the United States, Europe, and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars.

India's venture, called Mangalyaan, faces further hurdles still on its journey to Mars. Fewer than half of missions to the planet succeed.

"While Mangalyaan takes 1.2 billion dreams to Mars, we wish you sweet dreams!" India's space agency said in a tweet soon after the event, referring to the citizens of the world's second-most populous country.

China's Mars probe rode piggyback on a Russian spacecraft that failed to leave Earth's orbit in November 2011. The spacecraft disintegrated in the atmosphere and its fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean last year.

India's mission showcases the country's cheap technology,  encouraging hopes it could capture more of the $304-billion global space market, which includes launching satellites for other countries, analysts say.

"Given its cost-effective technology, India is attractive," said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, an expert on space security at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in Delhi.

India's low-cost Mars mission has a price tag of 4.5 billion rupees ($73 million), just over a tenth of the cost of NASA's latest mission there, which launched on Nov. 18.

Homegrown companies -- including India's largest infrastructure group Larsen & Toubro, one of its biggest conglomerates, Godrej & Boyce, state-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and Walchand Nagar Industries -- made more than two-thirds of the parts for both the probe and the rocket that launched it on November 5.

India's probe completed six orbits around Earth before Sunday's "slingshot", which took it into a path around the sun to carry it towards Mars. The slingshot requires precise calculations to eliminate the risk of missing the new orbit.

Thailand’s week of antigovernment demonstrations entered a dangerous and volatile phase on Sunday after shootings involving rival political camps left at least four people dead and more than 50 wounded.

 Many areas of Bangkok, the sprawling metropolis that is a major hub of commerce and travel in Southeast Asia, remained unaffected by the demonstrations. But the shootings and the increasingly provocative moves by protesters spread fears that unrest could move beyond the pockets of the capital where protests — and violence — have raged.

As protesters traveled through the city by motorcycle and on foot Sunday, vowing to shut down additional government buildings, Bangkok’s largest shopping malls, which normally teem with visitors on weekends, hastily announced that they were closing their doors for the day.

Nearly 3,000 soldiers began arriving in the capital to shore up key government buildings.

Protesters are pursuing the quixotic goal of ridding the country of the influence of Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon and former prime minister whose political party has captured the allegiance of voters in the countryside, winning every election since 2001. The protesters say they are frustrated with the dominance of Mr. Thaksin and are disillusioned with the current democratic system. They have proposed an alternative to the country’s democracy, an ill-defined people’s council made up of representatives from many professions.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is Mr. Thaksin’s youngest sister, repeatedly said over the weekend that she was open to discussions with protesters but that she would stand firm.

“I will remain here,” she told reporters Saturday, her voice cracking with emotion. “I will not flee anywhere. I may be a woman, but I have the courage to face all possible scenarios.”